Chapter 662 - 662: Rival Bond

"Sai!"

Gennai snapped his fingers.

A cloud of white smoke gathered behind him, and Sai—who had previously been turned into smoke for making too much noise inside Gold Owl—reappeared as though nothing had happened.

"Hey! I'm back!" Sai announced enthusiastically, raising one hand.

"This guy again?" Mira stared at him.

This was already the third time she had run into Sai.

"When I saw him get turned into smoke earlier, I thought he was gone for good."

Kotetsu answered in his usual emotionless tone. "All of us are dolls transmuted by the guild master. As long as the guild master exists, we won't die."

Gennai pointed toward Mira. "Sai, seal that woman's abilities!"

"Got it! Bond Alchemy!" Sai's eyes lit up as he looked between Lucy and Mira. "Now imagine the weakest person you can think of!"

This was Mira's third encounter with Sai, but she still knew virtually nothing about his alchemy.

The first two times they met, she had knocked him out before he ever got the chance to use it.

"The weakest person... Imagine them..."

Mira frowned in thought.

The description immediately reminded her of Wolfen, Aldoron's God Seed that could read a person's mind and manifest whoever they believed to be the strongest.

She quickly warned Lucy, "Lucy, this might work like Wolfen's ability. Think of someone strong!"

Mira wanted to stop Sai outright, but Gennai and Kotetsu were clearly prepared for her to attack.

"Someone strong..." Lucy lowered her head and began thinking carefully.

Sai was completely unfazed by Mira's warning. Instead, he smiled and began subtly guiding Lucy in the direction he wanted.

"Strong works too. They just have to be someone you dislike... Maybe they're so strong that it gets on your nerves."

"Someone strong and annoying...?" Lucy rested a hand beneath her chin, looking as though she were seriously analyzing the problem.

Beside Sai, Gennai grumbled, "Oro, oro. What a troublesome ability. Why not just swap them with a dog or a monkey?"

Sai shook his head. "It doesn't work like that. I can only swap them with people they're actually imagining."

A certain person was already beginning to form in Lucy's mind.

Strictly speaking, she did not truly hate her, but there was definitely a tiny bit of irritation there...

"So that's how it works!"

Mira had previously enhanced all five of her senses with Kyoka's Curse, including her hearing. S

he had caught Sai and Gennai's conversation clearly enough to understand the mechanism.

"Then just imagine Raizel, Ultear, or Erza!"

Lucy blinked at her.

"Eh? But I don't dislike any of them. How am I supposed to imagine them for something like this?"

Sai bared his teeth in a grin. "Exactly. Lying to yourself won't help."

Loke glanced toward Mira and hurriedly reminded her, "Shouldn't we stop him before he actually does something?"

Mira lightly touched her cheek, looking almost intrigued rather than worried.

"What should we do? I'm actually rather curious about this."

Sai's smile immediately became sinister.

"Too late. I already placed it on you too. A bond with someone you can't stand—Rival Bond!"

The moment he finished speaking, mist enveloped Mira's entire body.

Her Satan Soul form disappeared within it, and when the haze cleared, the woman standing in her place was wearing armor and a blue pleated skirt, with a magical sword in her hand.

Mira looked down at herself and inspected the unfamiliar body.

Metal armor covered her torso, and even the gloves on her hands were made of steel.

"Erza?!"

Lucy stared in disbelief.

"Mira turned into Erza?!"

Then the meaning of the word swap finally registered.

"If they were exchanged, then that means..."

...

At the same time, Erza, who had been facing the Signario Sisters alongside Kagura, was suddenly swallowed by the same mist.

When it dispersed, Erza was no longer wearing her armor.

Instead, she had taken on Mira's fully transformed Satan Soul appearance.

Erza stared at the demonic claws covering her hands.

"EH?! Why did I turn into Mira?!"

Luso gave her a playful wink.

"Looks like Sai-kun used his Bond Alchemy to swap the two of you."

Erza grabbed her head in alarm.

"This is terrible! Mira may be incredibly strong, but I have absolutely no idea how to use Take Over Magic! I don't know how to use Curses either!"

Erza and Mira had fought one another countless times, so Erza understood Mira's combat style extremely well.

The problem was that understanding what someone did and knowing how to actually perform Take Over were two completely different things.

She knew almost everything about the theory and absolutely nothing about how to make it work.

Fortunately, Mira had already activated a full-body Satan Soul before the exchange.

At the very least, Erza had not been turned into Mira's ordinary guild-hall form with no transformation available.

Mira, on the other hand, was in a considerably better position.

She had read through a large portion of Fairy Tail's library while helping organize it over the years and had studied the basics of many forms of Magic.

At minimum, she knew that Requip was a branch of Spatial Magic: the user accessed equipment stored within a separate space and exchanged it with whatever they were currently wearing.

That gave her something to work with.

...

Lucy was startled by Mira's transformation, but she forced herself to calm down and think.

"What exactly is this Magic? It doesn't seem like Transformation Magic either..."

Sai glared at her in annoyance.

"I already told you, it's alchemy! And now it's your turn!"

"Someone powerful who has terrible compatibility with me... I don't think there is anyone like that..."

"!!!"

Lucy's pupils suddenly contracted.

Someone had just come to mind.

A person whose compatibility with her was, in fact, absolutely terrible.

"I don't actually hate her, but..."

Sai's face lit up with excitement.

"That's it!"

"Eh?"

Lucy barely had time to react.

"Rival Bond Alchemy!"

A cloud of smoke swallowed her whole.

"Lucy, who did you think of?" Mira called out.

The smoke gradually dispersed.

Standing where Lucy had been was Brandish, one finger awkwardly scratching the side of her cheek.

Lucy did not truly hate Brandish.

They had known each other for quite a while now, but they had also spent almost that entire time bickering whenever they met.

And most of those arguments revolved around Aquarius.

Both women insisted on claiming Aquarius for themselves, only for Aquarius to crush both of them in the end whenever their squabbling went too far.

Kotetsu spoke with complete confidence.

"You won't be able to use the power of someone you dislike."

Mira, now in Erza's body, immediately snapped her fingers with an excited smile.

"We win!"

This was Brandish.

Mira had personally seen what Brandish could do when she enlarged Laxus during the battle against Acnologia.

As far as allies went, Brandish's ability was practically god-tier.

...

Elsewhere, Brandish had been casually shopping with Dimaria when her body suddenly transformed into Lucy's.

The two women spent a short while wondering why Brandish had inexplicably turned into Lucy.

Then they simply continued shopping as though nothing important had happened.

...

Lucy herself remained completely frozen.

"I turned into Brandish..."

"You know how her power works, don't you?" Mira urged her. "Go ahead, Lucy!"

Cold sweat immediately covered Lucy's forehead.

"I can't, Mira! My Magic is Holder Type, but Brandish uses Caster-Type Magic! Our compatibility is awful!"

Gennai stared at the situation with a thoroughly confused expression.

"Hmm... I don't really understand what they're talking about, but does that mean it worked?"

Sai burst into arrogant laughter.

"Looks like neither of them has good compatibility with the person they swapped with! Hahaha!"

Kotetsu nodded calmly.

"Understood. Then all that remains is to dispose of the two of them."

Mira's brows drew together slightly.

"If that's how it is, then I'll just have to handle this myself."

She focused on the principles she knew about Spatial Magic and reached for the equipment stored within Erza's Requip space.

"Requip—Heaven's Wheel Armor!"