On the other side of town, Jose returned to the nearest Phantom Lord branch in a disheveled state, fortunate that the late hour meant the hall was completely empty, sparing him the humiliation of being seen in such a sorry condition.
"Dammit!" Jose fumed, frustrated that even his personal intervention had ended in abject failure.
He wondered how that Salamander kid had noticed him despite his teleportation, questioning if the boy's ability to sense Magic Power was truly that terrifying.
After venting his anger, he finally managed to calm down to formulate a more careful plan.
...
Magnolia—
Early the next morning, Lucy was woken up by loud knocking at her door.
Still half-asleep, she opened it, only to be bombarded by neighbors complaining about Happy flying around with Natsu in the middle of the night, shouting and causing a ruckus.
Bewildered, Lucy kept apologizing repeatedly until they finally left.
"Wait a minute! Why am I the one apologizing when you're the one who was shouting?" Lucy realized the absurdity of the situation only after closing the door, her frustration boiling over as she saw Natsu still fast asleep and snoring.
A fiery little demon seemed to roar inside her heart, so she decided she'd had enough and grabbed Natsu by the collar, shaking him awake.
"Natsu! Happy! What exactly did you do last night?!"
Her frustration was understandable, for being woken up early by a crowd of people banging on her door and chattering incessantly—apologizing nonstop without even knowing what had happened—had left her fuming.
"Lucy..." Natsu let out a long yawn before finally getting up, for he hadn't slept at all after Raizel brought them back the previous night, having stayed on guard until daybreak to prevent Jose from returning.
"We were saving you last night, ya know," Happy blurted out the truth while still half-asleep.
"Saving me?"
Hearing that it was for her sake, Lucy immediately released Natsu's collar, but then she shook her head in disbelief.
"No way, I slept really well last night! If the neighbors hadn't come knocking, I could've slept for another five hundred years!"
Seeing her skepticism, Natsu decided not to hide anything, explaining that he would tell her the truth if she let him sleep afterward.
He recounted how a man suspected to be Jose Porla, the Guild Master of Phantom Lord, had broken into her house, knocked her out, and taken her away, prompting him and Happy to give chase before Raizel and Mirajane joined in to stop him.
"I'm sorry, Natsu, Happy," Lucy apologized quickly, realizing Natsu wouldn't make up such a lie.
Natsu waved it off indifferently before instantly lying down on the floor and falling asleep in seconds.
Happy, who wasn't very tired after napping earlier, went out with Lucy, planning to have breakfast at the guild.
...
"Why would he want to kidnap me? For money? But I don't look rich... The keys?" Lucy muttered to herself.
"That's it! It must be the keys! I have so many Golden Keys of the Zodiac—he must have been after them!"
"Lucy, if he wanted the keys, why not just steal them?" Happy asked logically.
"Silly cat! You can't use them without breaking the contract with their original owner first."
"Then why not just kill you on the spot? Why take you away?"
"Right! Why did they even capture me?!" Lucy was nearly frantic, tugging at her hair without caring about her appearance.
"I know why!" Happy exclaimed.
"Stupid cat, why are you acting all smart?!" Lucy felt the urge to complain seeing Happy's pretentious wise expression.
"And if you know, just say it already!"
Before they knew it, Lucy and Happy had reached the guild, where the main door was wide open and the smell of food wafted from the entrance.
They found Raizel eating heartily while Mirajane cleaned up at the counter.
"Mira, Raizel, why are you both here so early?" Lucy asked.
"Haven't I always been early?" Mirajane replied, looking puzzled. "But you're the strange one today—why are you here so early?"
Lucy and Natsu shared similar body clocks, usually sleeping until the sun was high in the sky, so Lucy found herself speechless, realizing that when she didn't have work, she did indeed wake up late.
"Where's Natsu?" Raizel asked, noting that if Natsu were awake, he would have rushed in immediately upon smelling the food.
"Still sleeping, and he said I was almost kidnapped last night," Lucy explained.
Raizel paused mid-slurp of his noodles before nodding, genuinely surprised that Lucy was so calm about the incident.
"Well, yes, Natsu chased them all the way to the city gates and kept shouting my name, so Mira and I heard it and came out to help stop them, though we didn't catch the perpetrator."
"But don't worry, we'll resolve this quickly since we're taking action today," Raizel assured her.
"Raizel, I want some too," Happy said, staring at Raizel's noodles and drooling.
"Didn't you earn so much money?" Raizel asked, knowing Happy had just made over 2 million Jewels.
"I'm saving my money for Carla," Happy replied innocently.
Raizel nearly choked, but he took a bill from his wallet and handed it to Happy and said.
"Go buy your own."
"Thanks Raizel!" Happy excitedly jumped down from the table, and Raizel figured the cat deserved it after flying so fast with Natsu in the middle of the night.
"I can't understand why they wanted to capture me," Lucy said as she ordered a bowl of noodles and sat across from Raizel.
"Probably for money, since you're a Heartfilia, They probably know that," Raizel answered casually.
Lucy bit her chopsticks, looking confused. "So all this trouble is because of that? Then why didn't they capture me during my travels before?"
Raizel couldn't figure this out either and shook his head, suggesting maybe they didn't know back then.
"We'll take action tonight," Mirajane said as she brought a bowl of noodles and sat down.
Before Lucy could ask, Mirajane continued, "Today we'll contact the guild's S-Class Mages who are out, to attack Phantom Lord's branches across the region together."
She explained that Raizel and she had already identified all of Phantom Lord's registered branch locations and would assign teams based on proximity that afternoon.
"As for you, Lucy, you'll need to stay with at least one of them to ensure your safety."
"Isn't it too dangerous to attack so suddenly? Phantom Lord has many branches and lots of members, so won't everyone be in danger if we fight?" Lucy asked, knowing Phantom Lord specialized in overwhelming numbers tactics.
She didn't want everyone to take risks for her sake and thought she might as well return home to seek help from her parents.
"Don't worry, everyone is very strong, and this isn't just your matter," Raizel reassured her firmly.
"Phantom Lord's actions are a declaration of war against Fairy Tail, so whether it's destroying the Guild, attempting to attack Guild members, or secretly taking you away, none of these actions can be tolerated."
Just then, Happy rushed in through the main door, holding up a fish and shouted.
"That's right, Aye!"