Chapter Seven

Cold.

Her teeth chattered relentlessly, she could have sworn they were bound to break. Her gloveless hands were pale, the pinkish color gone. She rubbed her upper arms in hopes to warm her body. Even her mucus had frozen in her nose as she tried to take in deep breaths. Her throat burned when she had no other option but to breath from her mouth.

"I'm so stupid."She chattered out, she rode on a horse behind the rest. They were on their way into the village, where rumor had been going around of a Phantom living amongst them. A silent killer, the latest report had been today in the morning. Of a human body that had been found in the depths of the snow, mauled to the bone. The face utterly unrecognizable. The people living in Village Of No Magic were beautiful, it was hard often times to tell them apart from a Phantom.

Nobu has recurred to explaining things to her, Phantom's came to be from a couple back hundreds of years ago, when Zeref recently came to be. A demon from the book of Zeref and a lovely woman had crossed paths, giving birth to the first Phantom baby, which back then still had rational thoughts. A man became obsessed with Zeref and his creations, taking blood from the Phantom and making putrid mimics of the child. He bought slaves from this Village and made them his test subjects. At last, a few decades later, Phantoms came to be. A new demon species, one a normal mage could not destroy without proper training. He was found by the magic council a few years after, supposedly 'wiping' out the entire army of Phantoms he conjugated. But here they were again, battling them without knowing where they kept coming from.

"We need to behave like regular villagers, we will separate. I want you to take these in case one of you encounters the Phantom first. Avoid battle at all costs. Wait.."He called out to Lucy as they began to jump down from their horses. "You are coming with me."Nobu told her, he handed everyone else flares. "You still need lots of training before you can handle a Phantom on your own. Especially one as smart as this one. If he hasn't been caught it's because he must look like your average No Magic villager. Alright, I trust in you guys!"Nobu nodded confidently. Jace, Satoshi, Riley and Alex nodded back. They weren't afraid for themselves, but each gave Lucy a concerned look. Minus Satoshi, who glared at her with such intensity if might have just set her on fire in the middle of the snow. Lucy clenched her fists to her sides, not caring that her long nails were digging into her already stinging flesh. She hated repeating this feeling all over, feeling useless. They didn't trust in her, and with reason. She had not to long ago been tricked by one of them. Who would trust someone with their lives with someone who was easily overpowered..? Certainly not her, and she was determined to work hard for their trust. And for her family back in Fairy Tail. This was yet another refreshing obstacle, no magic? She had never done that before, and she just had to admit she missed talking to Loke or Aries.

They stood in front of a tall steel gate, they couldn't announce their arrival or it'd warn the Phantom. So they had to jump up and over the tall gate, she wasn't physically prepared for that, but she'd do it. She wouldn't allow to be left behind like a coward. She fixed her small duffel bag to her side, it was already dawn. They'd wait for it to completely darken before they set out on a Phantom Chase.

The price for the Phantom was hefty, around 800,000 just for its disposal. The leader of the village had set that bounty so high due to his granddaughter's death.

"You don't make a sound, got it? We want this to be as quick as possible. We can't leave our base unguarded for too long, we only left Oli on his own back there."Nobu told them all as he prepped to jump over the gate.

Oli was the base's doctor, he specialized in treating Phantom wounds or trances. He'd been the one to care for Lucy when she went 'psycho' for a few hours after waking up from the sedative. She could still remember the false pain she felt at the death of the Phantom. She could feel the loose ends and thoughts the Phantom had wired into her, such as love and worry and then completely heartbreak after his death. She had never felt such pain after her mother's death. But now she knew all too well those feeling had been implanted in her by that demon.

"Alright let's go!"Nobu said after a few long minutes of waiting. Lucy took in a shaky breath, Nobu grasped her hand, his hand was warm and soft. She was surprised they weren't calloused after weaving the sword around for hours on end when training them. She almost jumped out of her skin when another freezing hand grasped hers, she looked to the side to find the beautifulest eyes she had ever seen staring down at her. She blinked rapidly, she was spacing out again. Satoshi frowned at her and gripped her hand tighter.

"Hold on blondie, don't want you getting hurt now do we..?"He muttered with a slight deepening to his frown. His green hair was coated with snowflakes as even more snow continued to pour. Lucy was shaking like a leaf as at the count of Nobu they jumped up, she felt like she had put no effort on her part due to Satoshi and Nobu dragging her up in the air and over the fence.

"You're freezing.."Nobu breathed out, his breath coming out in a large cloud of vapor. He shook his jacket off and placed it over her shoulders.

"Wait! I already have my own jacket.."Lucy tossed it back at him. In truth, she wanted to wear that warm jacket really bad. But she wanted her body to get used to weather even more. She shook her body slightly, encouraging it to produce more heat.

"I can hug you if you like?"Jace grinned a boyish grin. Lucy blushed slightly, she was used to Loke flirting with her all the time. But she wasn't used to getting any attention from...strangers. If she could still call them that. Lucy looked away from the blonde male and forward, this wasn't the time for such thoughts. Jace's bright face fell, he cleared his throat and too looked away from the blonde woman.

"If you both are done flirting we can get back to the mission."Satoshi glared at Jace.

"We weren't flirting."Lucy said flatly. "We should hurry, let's split up. Do we have a rendezvous in case anything goes wrong? I'm thinking we could meet at the post right there."Lucy pointed at a post guard section in the distance. "What do you think?"She turned to Nobu, who looked at her a bit surprised. "What?"She asked almost shyly. Now that she realized it, she had gotten way too nervous this time. She usually turned bossy when she was nervous, and well, handing out orders to the "elite" team...she groaned internally.

"Huh? Um nothing.."Nobu muttered, a slight pink tint coating his cheeks. "I-I think it's the closest,"He nodded and looked away. "It's best this way, we can regroup immediately once one of us shoots the flare to work a plan up."He grabbed Lucy's freezing hand and began pulling her away. "Let's separate, we don't want that filthy Phantom to feed tonight!"

"Good luck!"Lucy waved as they ran off. Satoshi stared after them, he sucked on his teeth in distaste before turning to Alex, Riley and Jace.

"Congrats. We've got a new blondie leader now."He muttered coldly, shoving past them and running in a different direction. He rubbed at his chest, his usual numb or stoic heart was burning. He wasn't used to this feeling, what he had read in books was feeling all too real. This emotion like..jealousy.