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While Noah was making both Erza and Mirajane's heads spin with his explanation, two small figures crept stealthily through the window. They did not, however, escape Noah's notice.
He reached out with both hands, scooped up Shirayuki in his left and Cheese in his right, and fixed the pair with a pointed look. "Cheese. Shirayuki. What have you two been getting up to lately? There was a massive battle a few days ago and I didn't see either of you anywhere. Where were you?"
"What are you talking about, Noah? Cheese doesn't know what you mean."
Shirayuki tilted his little head and put on an innocent expression. It was genuinely adorable, but Noah was not moved. He was quite certain both of them were hiding something.
Sure enough, when Noah threatened to withhold snacks, Shirayuki the hamster cracked first, launching into a rapid series of squeaks.
Noah applied his Magnetic Field Power to parse "hamster" at high speed. His expression gradually shifted into something hard to read. "You made a new friend while you were out playing? A talking, big-headed little bird that looks like a stuffed toy?"
"No, that's not quite right."
Cheese raised one small paw. "Momon's body is all cotton and fabric. He told us he's a doll, and that he was made to protect Éclair forever."
Éclair? Noah filed the name away and let the rest of the story come out.
From what Shirayuki confessed, three days before Grimoire Heart launched its attack on Magnolia, the two of them had been playing in the mountain forest outside the city when they encountered a talking stuffed-bird doll named Momon. Momon had asked for their help rescuing his companion, a young girl named Éclair, who had been captured by a mage.
It was unusual enough to meet a talking creature outside of the Exceed race, and even if Momon was not quite alive in the way flesh-and-blood creatures were, Cheese and Shirayuki had agreed to help without hesitation.
Using Cheese's flight, they tracked down a mage in the mountain forest who was carrying an unconscious girl and making a fast retreat. Cheese immediately put Shirayuki to work.
The strength of an S-Class magical beast was not something to take lightly. The mage would never have imagined that a small, harmless-looking hamster who could sit in one palm would, with a single casual impact, nearly knock all the air from his lungs.
Shirayuki was, however, a vegetarian hamster who disliked killing. After teaching the mage a firm lesson, he let him go. Noah had mixed feelings about that. Letting someone like that walk away had a way of creating future problems. But there was nothing to be done about it now.
And so, for the past several days, Cheese and Shirayuki had been out in the forest watching over Éclair. They had only come home today because Cheese had run out of pocket money and needed a refill. Without that particular inconvenience, Noah might have had to wait several more days to see them at all.
"Noah, Noah, can you help Momon and Éclair? She's had such a hard time." Cheese wrapped both arms around Noah's hand, looking up at him with wide, hopeful eyes.
Before Noah could respond, Mirajane had already plucked both Shirayuki and Cheese out of his hands. She rubbed their fur happily and said, "We can certainly help. But first you two need to tell us what happened to this girl Éclair."
The guileless Cheese immediately spilled everything.
As it turned out, Éclair had amnesia. For the past several years, she had been relentlessly pursued by mysterious mages who always found her again no matter where she went. Because of her amnesia, she had no idea what she had done or who she had offended to be hunted so persistently.
The constant wandering had left her with no steady income and, often, barely enough to eat. The reason she had been caught a few days ago was simply that she had collapsed from hunger, and the mage pursuing her had taken advantage of the moment.
Noah's mouth twitched.
An amnesiac girl. A strange animal companion. Mysterious pursuers. A dramatic rescue by unlikely saviors. The elements were almost comically familiar, like something pulled directly from a certain kind of adventure story. And wherever those kinds of stories went, more trouble was sure to follow.
"All right, we'll take care of it."
Regardless of what Noah thought, Erza and Mirajane had already decided.
With both of them in agreement, how could Noah reasonably object? Trouble was trouble, but at his current level of strength, what could honestly be called a real threat?
"Cheese, take us to her."
"Actually," Shirayuki said, looking pleased with himself, "Shirayuki and Cheese were worried someone else might come for Éclair after we left, so we already brought her and Momon to the guild."
Noah stared at him.
If they had already brought the girl to Fairy Tail, what exactly had they needed his help for? Fairy Tail mages were well-known throughout Fiore for throwing themselves into other people's problems at the slightest opportunity. If Cheese had asked anyone at the guild for help, there would have been plenty of willing volunteers.
"Well. Let's finish breakfast first, then."
Fairy Tail Guild.
Early morning, and the building was already alive with the usual noise: guild members chatting, looking over job requests, and working their way up toward the day's first brawl. The energetic atmosphere that never quite settled was very much in effect.
Ever since Mirajane had moved in with Noah and Erza, the role of the guild's barmaid had quietly migrated to Cana. A job where she could pour drinks at any hour of the day suited her perfectly.
This particular morning, however, Cana was uncharacteristically not drinking. She leaned against the bar with her arms crossed, watching the table closest to her with open curiosity.
The girl named Éclair and her small, yellow stuffed-bird companion, Momon, were hard to ignore.
Lucy, Natsu, Gray, and others nearby had also taken notice.
Éclair sat quietly eating the breakfast Cheese had ordered for her before leaving. She wore a fire-red miko outfit patterned with unusual markings, the kind of ceremonial garb that belonged to an old tribal tradition rather than anything from modern Fiore.
She's not from around here, Cana and Lucy both thought, in near-perfect agreement.
Natsu and the others, meanwhile, had directed all of their attention toward Momon.
"Hey, Happy," Natsu said, voice low. "That little bird can talk. Is it an Exceed like you?"
Faced with Natsu's theory, Happy actually gave it genuine thought. After all, with Panther Lily around, the existence of a large, battle-hardened cat among the Exceed was already established. Who was to say an Exceed that came out looking like a small bird was impossible?
Gray glanced sideways at the two of them. "That's ridiculous. No matter how much variation there is in a species, a cat doesn't turn into a bird."
Natsu's eyes lit up. "What about owls, though?"
Gray opened his mouth. Then closed it.
He looked at Momon again. The yellow stuffed-bird sitting beside Éclair did, he had to admit, have a certain round-faced quality that was not entirely unlike—
No. He was not going down that path.
Just as Gray was fighting off the creeping influence of Natsu and Happy's questionable logic, a figure descended lightly from the second floor, stopped at the bottom of the stairs, and looked toward Éclair and Momon with an uncertain expression.
"Ancestor Anna!"
Lucy recognized her immediately. Anna Heartfilia, who had been guiding her in Celestial Spirit Magic recently, was the last person she had expected to see looking startled. Lucy hurried over. "Ancestor, do you know them?"
Anna did not seem to hear her. Her gaze had gone directly to the necklace around Éclair's neck — a cord holding half a piece of ancient, unremarkable-looking stone.
Her expression grew quietly serious.
"Is this... a Phoenix Stone?"