Research

Morning sunlight filtered through the gauzy curtains, scattering flecks of gold across the bedroom floor.

The warm light woke Riyao. His eyelashes fluttered, and he wriggled lazily around the bed, still a little sleepy, like a maggot.

He moved too much, lost his balance, and tumbled out of bed, hitting the floor with a thud, still groggy with sleep.

Before the muffled sound of his fall onto the cold floor had died away, Riyao frowned and cursed as he pushed himself up, knocking his lower back hard against the corner of the bed frame. He sucked in a sharp breath.

He staggered a couple of steps, stubbed his toe on the bed leg, and let out a yelp.

He slipped on his slightly dusty slippers and went to the coat rack beside the bed. He pulled on the white lab coat hanging there, marked with traces of reagents, then bent down and stuffed his dog-eared laboratory notebook from the floor into his canvas bag.

Before heading out, he remembered to kick the wobbly bed leg, muttering, "I've got to replace this lousy bed sooner or later."

The last time he had encountered Nildo Longra, his transformation had been a revelation.

As a modified human, he was indistinguishable from an ordinary person when untransformed, with no visible signs of modification.

Once he transformed, a pair of physical wings would unfurl from his body.

The change looked like a bodily mutation produced by Take Over Magic, yet also like a change of form brought about by Transformation Magic. It even seemed as though physical wings originally hidden inside his body were being forcibly spread open again.

But on closer thought, none of those explanations quite fit. It was a chaotic mess with no discernible method. Riyao had no idea how those dark guilds had managed to cook up something so outrageous.

Riyao smacked his lips and suddenly remembered Tartaros. It was a gathering place for demons from the Book of E.N.D., and its members were experts at modifying bodies. They could produce a tough, battle-ready body in no time, and all manner of modifications that defied common sense came easily to them.

I'm screwed, I'm screwed. Could Tartaros have its eye on me? There's no way I can stand up to them now.

If Tartaros came over now, we'd all be wiped out in minutes.

Gildarts could take on one at most, and Makarov, in his current condition, could handle one. Everyone else could be tied together and beaten up.

How's that any different from a scam compound, getting shocked and waterboarded? No, thank you.

No~ I still want a nice, uneventful development phase.

He could only hope that Tartaros still didn't want to reveal itself and was focused on infiltrating the Magic Council and finding the councilors linked to Face.

Riyao sighed and took out the sample he had collected from Nildo Longra. He'd had no time to study it while dealing with the aftermath of the plague, but now he could give it a proper examination.

He put it into the magic detector to see if it could analyze anything.

Before starting his research, there was one more thing to do. Riyao deftly took out three sticks of incense, lit them, and bowed toward the heavens.

"God Ankhseram, I'm not desecrating life. I'm not trying to resurrect anyone or anything. This is purely academic research."

"Praise life!"

How could Riyao not be afraid? A blue-haired guy who used plant magic had once asked him to try resurrecting his beloved. At the time, the hair on Riyao's body had stood on end, and he'd felt as though something were watching him. He'd been so frightened that he'd quickly issued a statement.

"I do not have the ability to resurrect anyone, and I will not research resurrection."

The analyzer finished its work just then. Riyao put on his speed-reading glasses and began examining the report.

He rubbed his chin and muttered, "He's already a different life-form from a human. A demon? No, that's not right. Demons use Curses, but Nildo Longra was using magic."

"Someone must have been trying to imitate a demon. Great, it wasn't Tartaros! Then it must have been the remnants of the Magic Development Bureau."

Riyao chuckled.

"Oración Seis hasn't developed yet, so I can relax for now. But I'll still have to keep a low profile in the future."

"The wings weren't forcibly stuffed into his body. What's the principle, then? Take Over Magic?"

"It does look very similar, but one thing's certain: those wings weren't taken over. They actually grew out of his body."

Riyao scratched his head furiously.

"Take Over Magic takes over other creatures, gaining their abilities and improving the user's physical attributes."

"Transformation Magic can imitate other creatures. Ordinary Transformation Magic isn't much use; it only copies their form."

"Gemini of the zodiac, Gemini, can imitate them perfectly and even obtain other creatures' memories."

"Enchantment Magic reconstructs things. Living beings can be reconstructed too, but apart from Irene, no one should be able to reach that level."

"My Healing Magic was given to me by that damned goddess. It's Life Magic at its core, so it might be worth a try."

Riyao muttered to himself as he wrote and sketched on a sheet of paper. The most prominent words on it were "Healing Magic: Life Mimicry." Beneath them were densely packed magic formulas, along with knowledge of biology from his previous life.

"Knock, knock, knock."

Riyao jumped and shouted in annoyance, "Who is it? I don't want a membership or any insurance. Leave the delivery at the door."

Gray's voice came from outside. "Riyao, the old man wants you to come over. There's a new red-haired member with a problem with her eye."

"Red hair? Is it a girl?"

"How'd you know? Open the door first. Are you doing something in there you don't want anyone to see?"

Riyao had just gotten up and was about to walk over when Gray fashioned a key with Ice-Make, opened the door, and walked straight in. He looked around and even took a sniff.

Riyao gave him a disdainful look and said expressionlessly, "What are you hoping to find? A beautiful, fair-skinned girl in my room?"

Riyao walked out, kicking Gray out along the way, and took a vial from a nearby shelf. Its label read "Eye drops." He had been waiting for Erza to come to the guild for a long time.

He had long wanted to find the Tower of Heaven where Erza was, but all he remembered from the original story was that it was in the waters near some resort. He had searched, but hadn't found any resort.

Besides, Fairy Tail currently had no way to deal with Tartaros, the force behind the Tower of Heaven. It looked as though Ultear and Jellal were in charge, but Tartaros was actually pulling the strings.

After all, Jellal's mind had been corrupted by a demon, so Riyao could only put aside the idea of searching for it.

Gray rubbed his backside and complained, "You never know. You and the old man sit at the entrance all day watching the girls go by."

"You don't know shit. I'm observing the flow of life force. Think about it: if I'm going to observe someone anyway, why not pick someone good-looking?"

"Then why did you sneak off with the old man's magazines? Don't tell me you can observe it through paper too?"

"You don't understand that either. I was observing the structure of life."

Riyao casually picked two apples from his own fruit tree, tossed one to Gray, and bit into the other, sending juice splattering.

Gray didn't stand on ceremony either. He had come over to pick fruit plenty of times; the fruit here was exceptionally delicious.

The two of them bickered as they walked, trading jabs all the way to the guild.