"Ah... Did I eat too much last night? My face feels a bit swollen."
After finishing her morning routine, Lucy Heartfilia looked in the mirror while rubbing her cheeks worriedly.
Yesterday, with unlimited drinks, snacks, and food available at the post-festival party, Lucy had indulged heartily and accidentally overeaten.
"Open, Gate of the Crab, Cancer!"
A trendy man wearing sunglasses and a blue shirt appeared beside Lucy.
He had six red crab legs on his back, two crab claw-like protrusions in his brown hair, black trousers, and was holding scissors in both hands.
"Cancer, please design a new hairstyle for me."
"No problem, ebi," Cancer replied coolly. He snipped the scissors twice in the air.
Snip... snip...
"Perfect... ebi."
Cancer was very satisfied with his work.
"Really?" Lucy touched the golden hair falling beside her face, cupping her cheeks with both hands to frame them.
"Don't you like it? Ebi."
"I want something more fashionable, how should I put it?" Lucy said while removing the hairband from her head to inspect the cut.
"So you mean you don't like it? Ebi."
"It's not that I don't like it—"
"I'm going wandering, ebiii."
Cancer indicated he was hurt and prepared to travel far away with his backpack.
"That's not what I meant!" Lucy quickly called out to stop Cancer.
'What kind of strange personalities do my Celestial Spirits have...' Lucy complained endlessly in her heart.
"Then let's leave it like this. If I become too beautiful and too many people like me, that would just be troublesome."
Lucy cupped her cheeks again and began to daydream narcissistically.
...
"Erza, oh? You're dressed very beautifully today."
Arriving at the Guild, Lucy saw Erza standing at the entrance wearing a purple dress with red flowers printed on the back.
"The Fairy Queen... as an Office Lady! COOL!!!"
Lucy and Erza turned toward the voice to see Jason, the reporter from Weekly Sorcerer, performing a sliding kneel on the spot.
"Jason, this isn't our first meeting, right? Is there really a need to be so excited?"
Erza placed one hand on her hip while looking at Jason, who was still immersed in his own world.
She couldn't understand why Jason acted like this every time they met, even though they'd seen each other several times before.
"No matter how many times I see the real thing, it's always so COOL!"
"How is this different from your usual appearance?"
Under Jason's strong insistence, Erza changed back into her usual attire—her upper body armor with a blue knee-length skirt.
"And here I was wearing a dress for the occasion..." Erza muttered.
She had been quite looking forward to this interview, as it had been a long time since her last proper photoshoot, and she wanted to look elegant.
"This is the best! This natural look is exactly what I was hoping for! COOL!"
Jason circled around Erza, continuously taking photos, with the flash and shutter sounds never stopping.
'This is a great opportunity to appear in the weekly magazine, I can't miss this chance,' Lucy thought. She clenched her fists to psych herself up.
"Hello, my name is Lucy. I'm Erza's good friend."
Lucy placed her hands clasped in front of her, tilting her head slightly as she began to charm Jason.
Unfortunately, Lucy was purely unleashing her charm into thin air, as Jason's attention was entirely focused on Erza.
"May I ask you a few questions?" Jason asked Erza.
"No problem."
"He's ignoring me..." Lucy was almost getting emo in the corner.
"Jason is Erza's crazy fan, you'll get used to it," Raizel said as he happened to arrive at the Guild and witnessed this scene.
"May I ask, how many sets of armor can you currently change into?"
"At least over a hundred sets."
"COOL!" Jason excitedly waved his arms around.
"What do you like to eat?"
"Strawberry cake and soufflé are essential."
Jason asked several questions in a row, and now the two were sitting at the bar counter, conducting the interview as if no one else was around.
Truly as if no one else was there, because Lucy had sat right next to Erza to attract Jason's attention, but Jason genuinely didn't give her a single glance.
"Is my popularity really only at this level?"
"Aye! Hehe." Happy covered his mouth and snickered nearby.
"Happy, you have no right to laugh at me."
Then Lucy was proven wrong, as Jason suddenly appeared beside Happy.
"Happy, why are you blue?"
"Because I'm a cat," Happy replied with a blank, cute expression.
"I've lost..." Lucy slumped over the table with a look of utter despair.
"Classic answering without really answering, huh? That's so you," Raizel took a sip of tea, too tired to comment on the cat's logic.
"Raizel! I want to know what the name of that giant black sword you used in your last fight against Jose was?"
Hearing Raizel's voice, Jason instantly teleported to his side, scribbling furiously in his notepad.
"King Dragon Sword."
"COOL!!!"
"What about the white-gold one?"
"Omega Sword."
"COOL!!!" Jason seemed to have reached his peak excitement...
"You wouldn't happen to be Juvia, would you?"
Jason then found Juvia, who was trying to enjoy her alone time with Gray.
"Jason, where are you!!!"
Natsu Dragneel was engulfed in flames of revenge, flipping over a table.
"Natsu! Salamander Natsu! Fantastic! You're the one I've most wanted to interview these past two years."
Jason always interviewed the Top Three in the individual competitions over the years, but Natsu had been consistently performing outside the top eight.
"You bastard, why do you always write about me so negatively!"
"YES! YES!"
"Always writing about how I destroyed this! And destroyed that! And destroyed something else!" Natsu angrily complained.
"COOL! COOL!"
As if Natsu wasn't scolding him, Jason nodded frantically, treating the destruction as a selling point.
The commotion between Jason and Natsu ended quickly—Natsu's anger always came and went fast.
"Elfman, what does it mean to be a man to you?"
"A MAN!"
"Guild Master, what are the Guild's aspirations?"
"Of course, it's to improve daily with a heart full of love and justice..."
Makarov stood with his hands behind his back, projecting an image of greatness and righteousness.
"Too fake... old man," Laxus muttered.
Even he couldn't take it, taking a sip of alcohol to hide his embarrassment.
Lucy was almost at her wit's end—Jason had even interviewed Carla and Happy, but still paid no attention to her.
Raizel found Lucy's depressed state somewhat amusing and tapped the table to attract the attention of Jason, who was wandering around aimlessly.
Then he pointed to Lucy beside him and said, "Jason, this is our Guild's Celestial Spirit Mage. She possesses many keys to the Zodiac spirits."
"A Celestial Spirit Mage??? COOL!" Jason's interest was immediately piqued.
Celestial Spirit Mages were even rarer than Dragon Slayer Mages in Fairy Tail...
"Yes, I have keys for Leo, Taurus, Aquarius... and more," Lucy counted them off on her fingers, beaming.
"COOL!"
"Thanks, Raizel!"
After Jason's interview concluded, Lucy raised her drink to toast Raizel.
"You're welcome."