(I couldn't think of a good picture for this chapter, so have random Jerza. Jerza is good. Jerza is always good.)

-Meredy P. O. V.-

After we all agreed on the shift order, we kept going. We all sort of had smaller conversation among ourselves. We were a lot more talkative than usual for some reason.

I was chatting with Lyon. He was sharing stories about his life at Lamia Scale and I was sharing embarrassing stories about Jellal, Erik, and the rest of the knuckleheads I live with.

After a few hours, something unusual happened.

"Someone help meeeeeeeeeee!"

A voice was calling for help in the bushes. We all stopped for a second. Erza approached the bush.

"Help meeee-" Something flew out of the bushes and hit Erza in her armor, then fell to the ground.

It was a purple exceed.

"Owww........" they groaned.

Erza picked them up. "I'm sorry! Are you hurt? Are you okay?"

The exceed crawled on her shoulder. "Help me!"

A wyvern crashed through the bush where the exceed came from. Lyon took this one out quickly.

The exceed signed with relief and then got off of Erza's shoulder. They stood on the ground, looking up at us. "Thank you, strangers!" They said cheerfully.

Erza smiled. "No thanks is required."

"I was the one that beat the wyvern..." Lyon sweatdropped.

I pat his back. "Anyway, what's your name little guy?"

The exceed put its hands on its hips. "My name is Toishi! I'm a boy exceed!"

I smiled. "Cool."

Toishi grinned. "I'm also not just any exceed, I'm a special kind of exceed!"

"What does special mean?" Kinana asked.

Koishi suddenly turned into a human form, resembling his cat form. "I know Transformation Magic!"

We were amazed, except for Erik who was pretty calm. "Amazing!" I said.

Jellal was also quiet. "Toishi. Where did you get that scar?"

Toishi had a scar on his cheek. It looked bad. "Oh.. this?" He said sadly. "I... I got it from the dragonslayer that I live with..."

We all gasped. "How horrible!" Erza said, getting angry. "Who is this horrible person!?"

Toishi seemed to think for a moment. "Umm... I forget."

Erza, Lyon, Kinana and I all did an anime fall.

"What do you mean you forget?" Richard asked. "A man that not lovely can't be easy to forget."

"Well... I'm that good at the whole 'remembering things' thing. I forget things pretty easily. I don't remember his name, or his face, or his guild. I remember that he's a guy. And I can definitely remember his voice. It's kind of... rough? Like, tough or solid or confident. I don't know."

"Why are you out in the woods all alone?" I asked, after we all stood up.

He thought another moment. "Uh... I think I was supposed to find something... I don't know. My dragonslayer sent me out alone, saying that he had other things to do."

Erza put her hands on her hips. "Well, we won't have that. You're coming with us. Jellal, can we take him with us?"

Jellal thought for a moment. "What will happen to him? Who will he go with?"

"Well, after this is all over, we'll ask him if he wants to go with you guys, or if he wants to join Fairy Tail or Lamia Scale. That'll be after he gets to know us all better. C'mon, he'll be good company!"

Jellal sighed with a smile. "Okay. Toishi, you want to come with us?"

In his human form, Toishi nodded excitedly, then turned back into an exceed. "Yes! I'll come along with all of you! Let's go!"

Toishi flew along with us as we told him our names.

I got a good feeling about this guy.

-Third Person P. O. V.-

Kata threw another dart at the dart board.

"Bullseye!" She shouted in victory.

She was down in the game room, playing darts. She wanted to play pool, but you need two to play that game.

She took a few steps back and threw another dart. "Bullseye!" She walked up to the target and pulled the three darts out of the board, careful not to rip the picture that was hung on there.

"Taking your anger out again, Mrs. Mindfuck?"

Kata looked at the door to see Ishi walking in.

She sighed. "I told you not to call me that! I hate that nickname! If anybody other that you calls me that name, I'll kill them!"

Ishi chuckled. "Why is it fine for me to say it?"

Kata groaned. "You know the reason. I can't beat you in a fight."

Ishi smirked. "Yeah, you can't. Now, why are you playing darts?"

"Cause I can't play pool." She crossed her arms.

The stone dragonslayer glared at her. "That's not what I meant. Why have you not activated the defenses? Another thing, why are Yume and Yasei still locked up in the cells? Our members are not prisoners."

Kata was silent.

"Answer me!" Ishi slammed his hand into the pool table in anger.

"Request Fulfillment!" Kata shouted.

Ishi's eyes suddenly lost their color. His usual red eyes had turned white, almost like a zombie. "Master... how may I fulfill your request?"

Kata smirked. "I command you to go down to the dungeon. There, there will be some people there. The cell on the left of the door contains Yasei, on the right, Yume. Go past them. Then, there will be 8 hostages. Go past them too, and ignore anything then say. Walk into the open cell on the right and close the door." She handed him a key. "Use this key to lock your cell, then toss it into the open cell across from you. When the key hits the floor of the cell, my request will be fulfilled."

Ishi nodded, then repeated her instructions exactly as she said it. "I will fulfill your request exactly as you commanded, Master. Goodbye."

Kata smirked extremely wide. "All according to plan."

She turned and threw a dart at the board. She didn't hit the center, but she hit the forehead of the person on the picture. "Bullseye!" She chuckled. "I can't wait to fuck up your mind, you murderer."

The person on the picture...

...

...

...

...

...

...

Was Erza Scarlet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The plot thickens! Erza is connected to the master of Zenmen Hakai AND Kata, a member of the guild!? What is this connection? And what is Kata planning? Who are Yuma and Yasai? What are these 'defenses'? And who are the hostages? And what's up with Toishi? Who was his abusive owner?

Speaking of the little guy, here's his human form! Toishi, the exceed!

He looks pretty nice, right? No ahoge jokes, please. Save those for the Danganronpa books.