Ghosts and Ice

"Hello!"

Eleven was overjoyed to find that other people had survived and hurried forward to greet them. He paid no attention to the little matter of their floating in the air. Wasn't he floating too?

Eleven flew toward the person floating closest to him, calling out a greeting as he went. He was desperate to find out what was happening and what had become of the monster.

Yet the person gave no response, simply hanging there in midair with a vacant expression, showing no reaction to Eleven at all.

"What's wrong with you? Why won't you answer me?" Eleven flew closer and waved a hand in front of the person's eyes.

Only up close did Eleven notice that the person's body seemed somewhat transparent and hazy. He couldn't resist reaching out to touch it. To his surprise, the person was like smoke, twisting and scattering in the currents stirred up by his passing hand. Once he withdrew it, the figure gathered back together, returning to its vacant, lifeless state.

"Is this magic someone used to distract the monster? How interesting!" Eleven passed his hand back and forth through the figure several times, finding this unfamiliar magic fascinating. "It would look more real if the expression were a little livelier. Right now, it looks like a dead person."

He was still a boy at heart, and with how carefree he was, he temporarily forgot the matter at hand and began flying around, teasing the different figures. He stopped only when he reached the figure of a young girl.

It wasn't because Eleven was shy or had any bad ideas. He had seen a corpse beneath the girl's figure, its belly pierced by metal that pinned it to the ground. Though the corpse's face was twisted in pain, it was still recognizable. It was identical to the girl's figure floating above it.

Eleven stopped what he was doing, and his expression turned serious. He finally realized that the figures floating before him might not be magic.

"Are these the souls of the dead?"

Eleven looked around. Sure enough, most of the figures had a corresponding corpse beneath them, and each of the figures he had passed earlier had a charred body below it. Only a few figures had nothing beneath their feet, floating alone in the air. Perhaps their bodies had been blown away by the shock after death, while their souls had remained where they died.

Eleven was silent for a long time. Enduring the sharp pain, he bowed to the figures he had offended. He didn't understand the need to fear ghosts; he was simply showing respect for the dead.

Eleven could now be certain that these figures weren't magic, because he could sense faint Spiritual Power in them. Though that Spiritual Power had no fluctuations, it really was like air, drifting on the wind.

Eleven didn't know why he could see souls. He had seen dead people in his work before, but he had never seen their souls float up. Perhaps it was because this experience had brought about a qualitative change in his Spiritual Power. Eleven didn't dwell on the question.

Looking at the silent, lifeless figures around him, Eleven felt an indescribable emotion. It was more than sadness, yet it wasn't fear either. It was simply an inexpressible feeling of distress that clogged his chest.

"Isn't anyone alive?" Eleven suddenly began searching wildly, forgetting even to use spiritual detection in his panic. Perhaps unable to bear the empty, vacant gazes of the figures around him, Eleven flew impatiently into the air. From there, he saw a sight he would never forget.

At the edge of the city stood an enormous garden of crystal roses. Every translucent petal gave off a misty chill. It wasn't crystal, but a garden sculpted from ice. At its center stood an even larger ice crystal, with yesterday's monster sealed inside. The light of dawn spilled over the frozen garden. Though it radiated an icy chill, it shone with warm sunlight. Even with a hideous monster inside it, the scene was still as beautiful as a fairyland.

Eleven stared blankly at the sight before him. The unease in his heart vanished in an instant, as if he had broken through a thick layer of clouds and felt the warmth of the sun once more.

"Was that monster defeated?" Eleven's face flushed as he flew excitedly toward the ice garden. He wanted to touch it, but the piercing cold kept him from approaching, so he released his Spiritual Power, hoping to get a proper feel for this miracle.

"Huh?" Just as Eleven was immersed in this sudden surge of emotion, a small figure appeared in his spiritual perception. Its pulsing spiritual fluctuations told him that he had finally found someone alive.

Gray was hugging his knees and sobbing alone. His senior fellow disciple had just woken up, flown into a rage at him, and accused Gray of bearing full responsibility for their master's death. The hatred in his senior's eyes had plunged Gray into endless self-reproach.

"Hey, are you all right?"

As Gray wept with his head down, he heard a weak voice in front of him and looked up. Somehow, a "person" had appeared before him, floating in the air. Blood covered his body, and even the left half of it was slightly twisted and deformed. This "person" was reaching his right hand toward Gray, a strange smile on his face...

"Ah!! A ghost!!" Gray sprang to his feet and turned to run, howling as he went. He was sad, but that didn't mean he wouldn't run from a ghost. He was still young, and he still had to listen to Ur and keep living!!

"Wait, I'm not a ghost..." Eleven tried to shout an explanation, but his throat was so dry that he couldn't raise his voice at all. Instead, it came out unusually hoarse and terrifying.

"Wah! Help!" Hearing the voice behind him, as though it had come to claim his life, Gray ran even faster! Hmph! Who are you trying to fool? Would a ghost admit it was a ghost?

With no other choice, Eleven flew after him, and Gray sped up again. The two little fellows ran for their lives beneath the morning sun, wasting their idiotic childhoods.

"Huff... huff... you really aren't a ghost?" Gray braced his hands on his knees and looked at Eleven, panting for breath.

"I really am not. See? You can touch me." Eleven smiled wryly and reached out to touch Gray's shoulder. "You can't touch real ghosts, and they won't chase you either, like the one beside you... ah, never mind."

Gray shivered at Eleven's words. He didn't dare ask, instead shifting away from where he had just been standing without thinking.

Eleven's mouth twitched as he watched the black-haired boy overlap with a ghost, but he decided not to dwell on it anymore. Otherwise, it might never end.

"My name is Eleven. What's yours?"

"Gray."

"Do you know what happened here? Who defeated this monster?"

At the question, a deep sadness emanated from Gray's spiritual fluctuations. The cool expression he had worn in front of Eleven softened, leaving him looking so helpless.

"It was my... my master, Ur. She..."

Eleven sensed Gray's emotions and didn't press him further. He had also guessed what had happened to Ur. He reached out a dirty hand, intending to pat Gray on the head.

To his surprise, Gray slapped his hand away, growing a little agitated. "Ur isn't dead! She just turned into ice. She isn't dead..."

Gray kept pounding his knees, perhaps hoping the pain would keep him from crying.

Eleven was at a loss for a moment and hurriedly changed the subject. "Do you have any other family?"

Gray shook his head. "Deliora killed them all."

Eleven really wanted to slap himself. He was normally pretty smart, and Laxus and Cana were always praising him. Why did he have to be so clumsy with his words when it mattered?

But thinking of Laxus and Cana made Eleven smile. He raised his right arm and showed Gray his guild mark. "Then do you want to come with me? Come back to Fairy Tail with me. It's far to the west of here, but it's a really happy place!!"

"Fairy Tail?" Gray lifted his head and looked at the guild mark on Eleven's forearm.

"Yeah, it's the number one mage guild in the Kingdom of Fiore!"

"A mage guild? Then I want to go! Ur said there are lots of even stronger mages in the west. I want to see them."

"Hehe, then it's settled! Welcome, partner..."

Before Eleven could finish, the world seemed to spin around him, and he fell from the air to the ground.

"Huh? What's going on?" Eleven's vision suddenly went dark, and he passed out.

Although Eleven still had a fairly abundant supply of Spiritual Power and magic power, his body had truly reached its limit. His frail body had always been his weakness, and his serious injuries, combined with the constant blood loss, caused it to shut down to protect itself.