Attendant

He had thought he might lose, but he had never imagined he would lose so badly.

Whether it was Gale Palm, Great Fireball, Shadow Clone, or Phoenix Flower Fire, all of them were trash before Ultear's Time Magic.

Send them into the past or back to the future, and they were gone.

So Chiba fought her with Taijutsu.

Who would have thought the skinny little girl would be so good at Taijutsu?

Well... he was injured. That had to be the reason.

Chiba felt like crying, but had no tears.

In the end, he had been left lying on the ground, while Ultear openly humiliated him with her foot.

Now Ultear moved her foot away and looked at him with astonishment. "You can use both wind and fire without any magic power. How strange..."

Chiba breathed a sigh of relief. As long as she was interested in him, she would spare his life.

"I'll hand you over to the master for a look..."

Chiba's face suddenly stiffened.

"B-b-big sis, d-d-don't send me away! I think it's great here, really! A girl as pretty, smart, and cute as you must need a lackey to chat with you and do things for you, right?"

Chiba spoke rapidly.

Ultear looked at him coldly, seemingly quite disdainful of him. Then she said, "I don't need any of that... but you seem very afraid of our master?"

Chiba gave an embarrassed smile. "The master of a dark guild... wh-who wouldn't be afraid?"

Of course he was afraid. The Second master of Fairy Tail was the genius who had created Fairy Heart, a source of infinite magic power. If he learned there was a freak who could use energy other than magic power, who knew if he would actually dissect Chiba?

Ultear waved her little hand, and a large crystal ball appeared. She sat down on it.

"You're lucky. The master left just a few days ago, and you won't have a chance to meet him anyway."

Ultear spoke casually.

"Tell me who you really are. Otherwise, I'll kill you on the spot," she threatened.

Chiba swallowed. "To tell you the truth, I'm a ninja."

"..."

"..."

"And?"

"That's it."

"..."

"Hey, wait, wait! I'll keep talking, all right?"

"..."

"I use a kind of energy called Chakra. Chakra has seven attributes: water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, yin, and yang. Right now, I can use fire, wind, and water Ninjutsu. Oh, right, Ninjutsu is what I used to fight you just now."

"That's it?"

"That's it!"

"Fine, you can die now. I'll use your corpse for research."

"..."

"Hahahaha! Coward, are you that afraid of dying?"

Chiba wanted to ask if she wasn't afraid too.

But Ultear seemed to remember something and smiled.

"But who isn't afraid of death? When I killed people... the looks on their faces... were just wonderful..."

Chiba shuddered as he listened. Did she... take pleasure in killing?

Seemingly tired of laughing, Ultear stood up again and walked toward a dark corner. "From today on, you're my attendant. Remember, you don't belong to my guild. You belong to me alone. Understood?"

"Yes! Thank you for sparing my life, big sis!"

Chiba wasn't foolish enough to think Ultear had other intentions toward him. The fact that she hadn't formally recruited him into Grimoire Heart meant she intended to groom him as a trusted subordinate. It also meant she had already begun preparing to rebel against Grimoire Heart.

The original story recorded that she and Meredy, the little girl she would take in someday, defeated the unawakened dark mage Zeref during the battle of Tenrou Island and planned to keep him for themselves.

By then, the two of them had already formally betrayed Hades.

Chiba followed Ultear deeper into the darkness, but suddenly, she vanished from sight ahead of him.

Puzzled, Chiba hurried after her. Then a sudden, blinding light nearly cost him the chance to ever see this beautiful world again.

The familiar world of ice and snow surrounded him. Ahead of him was still the twin-tailed girl in a blue dress, but she had stopped in the snow, seemingly waiting for him to catch up.

Adjusting to the sudden transition from darkness to light, Chiba rubbed his eyes and couldn't help looking behind him. He wanted to see why there was such a difference in light between the worlds ahead of and behind him.

But when he turned around, he was dumbfounded. Behind him was another expanse of ice and snow, with a mountain peak towering into the clouds.

And apart from that, there was nothing but snow.

There wasn't even a trace of the meat mixed with tomato and feathers...

Ahead of him, Ultear's leisurely voice rang out. "There's a spatial illusion here that keeps matter from the outside world out. The world outside can't see the world inside, and the world inside can't see the world outside either."

Chiba was shocked.

Then how had he fallen in?

"Living things are an exception..." she added.

"Sis, where do we live?" Chiba trotted eagerly over to the girl and asked.

He didn't even call her big sis anymore, just sis. He was a typical simp.

"Our base is up ahead," Ultear said, glancing at him.

"Aren't you cold, sis?" He had started fussing over her to get closer to her.

"No..."

"Are you hungry, sis?"

"No..."

"Drink plenty of hot water, sis!"

"Another word and I'll cut out your tongue!"

Only by coming infinitely close to death could one grasp the true meaning of life.

The two walked on, and gradually Chiba could make out something resembling a village ahead. They headed toward it.

"Hey! Ultear, you're finally back after training for half a year?" A kindly-looking middle-aged man in a thick padded coat greeted her with a smile.

"Yes, the master has returned to headquarters, so I came back," Ultear replied with a smile.

Chiba was a little baffled. "Sis, why are you so nice to him but so cruel and vicious to me?"

He was actually a little doubtful about Ultear's characterization. How could she be twisted one moment and normal the next?

Ultear said calmly, "That's Sawen, one of Grimoire Heart's A-Class mages. He was wanted by the Magic Council for slaughtering an entire town by himself, and he eventually joined Grimoire Heart. I've been on a mission with him before. He's fairly strong."

She seemed to be mocking Chiba as she continued, "Why did you think I greeted him for no reason? In Grimoire Heart, strength decides everything."

Chiba fell silent.

"What's wrong? Can't adjust?" Ultear asked with a smile.

"You're right, but I'm hungry..." he admitted honestly.

Ultear was a little taken aback. By rights, shouldn't a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boy like Chiba, who had never experienced anything, be afraid in a situation like this?

Yet his gaze was calm, as though he agreed with what she had said.

But there seemed to be something a little odd about him...

Not a little, but very!

Although he had been acting like a clown, begging for mercy, and fearing death the whole time, there was no panic in his eyes. It was as if he could escape unscathed if she really tried to kill him.

That was one of the reasons she hadn't made a move.

Chiba wasn't weak; she knew that very well. It was just that her Time Magic perfectly countered his Ninjutsu.

But when she had fought him just now, his combat instincts had been downright monstrous!

She simply didn't know that Chiba had the Sharingan, a cheat for fighting.

If she knew about the Sharingan, and knew that those eyes could be gouged out, Chiba probably wouldn't be around anymore.

If he figured out the weakness of her magic...