The door to the bar banged open. Framed against the light filtering inside from the Crocus street stood Harry and Laki, the latter flinching from the noise. Harry's arms were out, making it clear who'd shamelessly thrust the entrance open.
He walked forward, leaving Laki to follow him, strutting into what was a seedy establishment— there was no other way to put it.
When the door closed behind them there was only just enough light to see by. The predominantly male customers were scattered around various tables and sitting on stools next to the bar counter. Some of them were playing card games, most were smoking to go with their drinks. The Lacrima fixed into the ceiling constantly flickered, casting shadows over the patrons. The air stunk of alcohol and something nastier.
Harry led Laki to two open seats right at the middle of the bar counter. He subtly cleaned them both before sitting down, then leaned his elbow on the wood. The bartender was a tall, scarred man with a thick beard, cleaning out mugs with a rag. He watched Harry and Laki the whole time, and he wasn't alone. As soon as they stepped inside, they were marked as strangers. In this kind of joint that painted a target across their backs.
Harry fixed the man with a grin. "Hey there!"
The bartender watched him in silence. That was the most acknowledgement he would get, so Harry followed up his own greeting. "What's your name?"
"...Murphy."
Based on Murphy's size and the scars he bore across his face, he was an ex-something. A mage, perhaps. Maybe a soldier. Or just a fighter. Whatever the details, he looked Harry all over and sized him up.
Similar looks were coming from behind Harry. A group of men in one corner were nudging each other and inclining their heads, particularly focused on Harry and Laki. Apparently, they weren't aware how far Harry's peripheral vision extended.
Harry ignored them.
"Murphy! I've met a few men with that name," Harry said. "It kind of makes me feel at home. I'm Harry, by the way. Nice to meet you. Now, I'm looking to hear a few things, and I'm willing to pay to loosen your lips, if that's what it takes. What do you say, Murph? I can call you that, right? Well, Murph, I was just wondering—"
The men in the corner pushed their chairs back, starting toward Harry. Laki readied her hands, watching them nervously, Wood-Make Magic primed to spring out at a moment's notice.
"—if you've heard the name Hydra Shadow."
The men that had been heading for Harry turned sharply. They went straight past him, all the way to the door, and out onto the street. They didn't look back once.
Murphy stopped cleaning his glass. "Never heard that name."
"Really?" Harry removed bills from his pocket, letting the Jewels float onto the counter one at a time. A thousand, two thousand, three, four…
Murphy watched each bill, then looked back at his glass. He replaced it on a shelf underneath the bar and picked up a new one that had a gold trim, cleaning it the same way.
"Never heard it," he insisted.
Another table, this one close to the door, got up and left. The other people sitting at the bar finished their drink and turned around, walking out. Laki turned her head, watching the exodus with a frown.
Harry groaned. "That's too bad… I was sure a group like that would hang around here. They're a Dark Guild, see, and they operate out of this very city, if you can believe it! Nobody's been able to catch them. Supposedly, they run the whole underworld here. A guy like you, Murph, surely would've run into them once or twice."
"Haven't," Murph grunted.
He was wiping the same spot on the glass. There had been a smudge there when he started. Now it was long gone, but he kept wiping. Another two patrons cleared out. There were less than eight people in the bar now, including Harry, Laki, and Murph. It had been full when they came in.
"They used to work for Oración Seis. When that scary Dark Guild disappeared, Hydra Shadow realized they could do their own thing. They must've been designed to feed info about the Magic Council to their bosses, because once those bosses got arrested, classified info started flooding out to the highest bidder."
Murph stayed silent. He wanted to run. Harry could tell by the twitch of his shoulders. The last five people fled, scrambling out the door. Harry leaned forward, looking at Murph but more specifically the glass in the bartender's hands, and the reflection in its surface.
"From how I hear it, every time the Magic Council tries to move against a Dark Guild, the mages know they're coming before the Rune Knights ever get close. I don't have to explain why that's bad. So they're offering a big juicy reward— two hundred thousand jewels for anyone that destroys Hydra Shadow. Easier said than done. The guild does everything with proxies and a million different grunts. If you catch one, they just use someone else. Bust one base, and another will be up in a few days. That's where they get the name. No matter how many heads you cut off, the body won't die."
"You know a lot!"
The words didn't come from Murph but from the doorway. A man was standing there with his hand extended. The cups around the bar, many of them partially full after the owners left in a hurry, started to rattle. A weapon flew at the back of Harry's head.
The words alone wouldn't have been enough warning. Luckily, the reflection in Murphy's glass gave Harry all the warning he needed even before the newcomer spoke. By the time the attack came at him, Harry had spun around on his seat, creating a shield.
The projectile was a small metal ball a bit larger than a sling bullet. The noise as it struck Harry's shield was resounding. Murphy ducked behind the bar, while Laki jumped into the action.
"Wood-Make:Root's Revenge!"
A tentacle covered in rigid bark lashed out at the enemy, who jumped to the side while reaching into his pocket. He hurled a collection of those heavy metal balls into the air. The first shot at Laki with impressive speed, followed right after by the second, which was followed in turn by the third.
Laki leaned back, hastily creating a green magic circle. "Wood-Make: Shield of Oak!"
Her spell made a thick wall of wood multiple inches deep. The first metal ball struck it and dug inside. Each of them embedded halfway through the shield. The man smirked.
He made a fist with his hand. Items all around the room had been rattling since he arrived, everything from tables to galsses, but now a different noise began: an ominous buzzing. Harry held his hand out, summoning Laki's shirt.
She flew to him, her collar nestling in his fist, pulled out of the way just in time to avoid one of the blocked balls.
While inside the wood, the projectile had been forced into a new shape with a serrated point. The weapon was spinning quickly, explaining how it bored through Laki's protection. Without Harry's intervention, the weapon would've struck her.
"You're pretty good!" the attacker said, looking at Harry. "Where are you from, Lamia Scale? Is Blue Pegasus coming after us again? I hope so. It was so much fun, watching them stumble around the city finding nothing."
He had blue hair that was almost gray, cut long and shaggy. There was a mean look on his face that came paired with a confident smirk. Young, Harry decided, and full of himself. Not without reason, given how quickly he overpowered Laki, but cocky nonetheless. Harry smiled at him. He had the feeling they could share a fruitful conversation before the time to sling their spells came.
"None of the above!" Harry said. "We're from Fairy Tail, actually."
The boy looked bemused. "I've never heard of you."
"We used to be more well known," Harry said. "Are you new to Fiore?"
"You could say so. It's the only reason I'm not famous yet."
"You're brimming with confidence!"
"The name's Dyst!" the boy said, pointing his thumb at his chest. "I came to Fiore from Veronica to spread the word of my name! I've already beaten mages from Sabertooth, Mermaid Heel, and Blue Pegasus, but that's only the beginning. I'll master magic, then I'll master death, too! Be proud! When I'm an eternal unaging king, you'll be immortalized as one of my steps to victory!"
"What a kook!" Laki said. "Nobody can live forever!"
"You've never seen someone like me try," Dyst boasted.
He was wearing a black collared cape that shrouded part of his torso, which he flipped up now, opening twin pouches strapped to his belt. A dozen more metal balls flew into the air. The objects in the room started to rattle again as the first ball shot at Harry, then the second, and the third—
Harry was in no mood to play around anymore.
"You can only control one object at a time."
Harry activated the enchantment on his glasses, revealing all trajectories to him. He banished the first ball, doing so at the right angle to strike the second one, then hit it into the third, and the fourth.
When he'd deflected every moving ball, he sent one of them straight back at Dyst, whose eyes grew wide. Dyst still had eight balls he hadn't gotten the chance to fire, but he had to let them fall to the ground in order to block the counter attack.
It was a simple pattern. He'd throw ammunition in the air, fire the first one at his opponent, then let it go. The sphere would continue on its trajectory, freeing his magic to shoot the next one. It gave the illusion that he could control multiple objects. A petty trick in Harry's opinion, all things considered.
Before Dyst could control anything else, Harry had appeared directly in front of him, catching him off-guard with a sudden Apparition.
Harry grabbed Dyst's shoulder, exercising a significant grip. Dyst managed to hit Harry with a panicked counter, throwing Harry's body away with the same method he used to control his weapons. For a moment, Harry was impressed. Dyst was better than he gave him credit for. He hadn't expected the boy to be able to react.
It didn't work, though.
Harry glued his hand to Dyst's shoulder with a Sticking Charm. When Harry was thrown back, Dyst was pulled with him. Harry turned in the air and made sure Dyst ate their impact. The mage's back was slammed into the bar hard enough for the wood to creak. He groaned, stunned by the pain.
"You want to live forever?" Harry said. "You're not even close to achieving something like that. I've seen men who were close. They were nasty things. When I look at you, I see a kid. How old are you? Nineteen? Twenty? You don't want to be like those men, no matter how much you think you do. Immortality is the ugliest thing you can chase."
Harry looked into Dyst's eyes and flooded his mind with images of Voldemort. Dyst would only grasp what he was seeing in the simplest terms, but he'd see enough. The montage showed the way Tom Riddle grew warped and inhuman, reduced to an imitation of the man he once was. And in the end, he died, just like anyone else. He did it all for nothing.
Dyst gasped as Harry's mental flood came to a close. Harry let go of him, allowing him to fall to the floor. Murphy was peeking out from behind the bar. Laki approached Harry, looking down at Dyst.
"Is he from Hydra Shadow?" she asked.
"In a way," Harry said. "He's a talented kid from the country who ended up on a bad path. They're using him to do their dirty work because he's strong. He hasn't realized yet that in all this time, they haven't told him anything important. He gets sent out to deal with people like us who ask questions. Now that he's met someone he can't beat, they'll probably cut him off now and look for someone to take his place."
Laki gaped. "How could you possibly know all that?"
"He had honest eyes," Harry said.
He just didn't mention that any eyes were honest eyes if you used Legilimency while looking into them. Learning Dyst's backstory had been easy enough while Harry was already in his head.
Dyst had been telling the truth about coming from a small country off the beaten track. Veronica was much smaller and more rural than Fiore. Dyst was convinced that if he became a strong enough mage, he'd find a way to live forever. His first step was to come to Crocus, the capital of Fiore, to master his magic. Hydra Shadow found him after he got in a fight trying to steal food. They took him in, fed and paid him well, and somewhere along the way Dyst never realized that he was working with nothing but their grunts. The orders always came from a different person. They hadn't even bothered to give him a Guild Mark.
The door flew open, not too unlike the way Harry opened it earlier. Men in priest-like hats and blue robes stood there holding staves tipped with Lacrimas.
"Surrender to the authority of the Magic Council!"
Harry held up his hands, showing he was no threat. A man appeared from between the others dressed in a jacket and cape, worn over a shirt that bore the cross symbol of the council. He had green hair a few shades brighter than moss. Unlike the men behind him, he was smiling.
"What have we here?" he asked.
He was looking down at Dyst, rather than up at Harry.
Harry recognized the uniforms of Rune Knights from when he and Laki entered the city. The Magic Council's military arm wasn't as powerful as the strongest guilds, but their political supremacy couldn't be underestimated.
Harry didn't have the greatest track record dealing with authority figures, although he'd turned it around a bit later in life with his Auror career. In this case, turning the Rune Knights against him would be the most counterproductive thing possible.
"We're mages, sir," he said. "We came to Crocus in order to investigate Hydra Shadow."
Finally, the man's eyes drifted up to Harry. "Is that so?"
"Yes. But as soon as we started asking questions, we were attacked."
Fortunately, the Rune Knight leader nodded.
"It isn't the first time this happened," he said. "I'm Gust, Captain of the Crocus Garrison. We've worked closely with the major guilds who targeted Hydra Shadow. What you described lines up with their experiences. You've done well to survive the attack."
"Are you familiar with this mage?" Harry asked.
Gust glanced briefly at Dyst. "Hydra Shadow seems to have no end to the amount of mages working for them. I can't say that I recognize this one in particular. Men, cuff him!"
Rune Knights came forward and grabbed Dyst. When their hands jostled him, the young mage came out of his stupor, acting as if he'd just woken up. He looked at Gust and opened his mouth, preparing to shout. Gust stopped him before he could, creating a magic circle beneath Dyst that electrocuted him. The Rune Knights finished snapping him into cuffs.
"Shocking him seemed like overkill," Harry said.
"It's always best to be cautious. He was going for a weapon," Gust said.
Sure enough, Dyst's fingers had been jammed in the pouches that held his metal balls. Gust stepped forward, joining his men as they hauled a now-unconscious Dyst to his feet.
"Your brave contributions are appreciated," he said. "If I can make any part of your investigation easier, don't hesitate to reach out. And if you'd prefer to back out now, I won't hold it against you. More acclaimed mages have made the same decision."
"I think we'll stick it out," Harry said. "In fact, I think we just made a big break in the case."
"Truly? That's wonderful news!" Gust said. "Although I don't know how that could be possible. Investigate to your heart's content. Just don't be disappointed if the leads turn out to be dead ends."
Harry smiled at him in a friendly way, and Gust smiled back. He was a handsome man, probably in his late thirties with blue eyes as electric as the magic he wielded. Harry extended his hand, allowing them to shake.
"I wish you all the luck I can," Gust said.
Harry looked into his eyes and smiled.
"Thanks," Harry said. "But I have a feeling luck won't have anything to do with it."