Fairy Tail - Chapter 12: Cursed Song

Synopsis: Erza despairs that she left Natsu on the train in an overly-dramatic manner, and Lucy comments that everyone in Fairy Tail is similar, but Gray claims he's more normal than they are. Erza attempts to get one of the train conductors to stop the train, but he refuses, prompting Erza to send Happy to pull the emergency stop lever. Lucy despairs over what a mess this is, and Gray agrees, but he's adding to the problem as he's somehow managed to lose his clothes again.

On the train, Kageyama continues to talk to the incapacitated Natsu about Fairy Tail, talking about how Fairy Tail has some cute girls like Mirajane - who he says is sadly inactive as of late - and that he's heard there's a new cute girl too. He's noticed that the regular guilds have a lot of cute girls, while his has none, and asks Natsu if he'd share some of them. He retracts the plea however, as he violently kicks Natsu in the face, telling him not to ignore someone from a dark guild. Natsu angrily glares back and tries to speak, but due to his sickness, Kageyama can't understand him. He says that Fairy Tail has gotten a lot of attention lately, and it annoys him, and he proclaims that everyone in his guild refers to Fairy Tail as nothing more than flies. Natsu gets fired up and tries to attack, but he ends up having to suppress his urge to vomit instead.

Kageyama laughs, and says that Natsu has to use his magic better, and gives him an example by forming the shadow of his legs into a fist that punches Natsu from below. The main conductor of the train finally receives the emergency signal, and slams on the breaks, causing Kageyama's bag to slide, and a bizarre wooden flute with a skull motif slides out. Natsu sees it, making Kageyama even angrier, but Natsu sends him flying with one firey punch as payback for earlier. The conductor goes on the intercom saying that the stop was a false alarm, and they'll be departing shortly, prompting Natsu to make a mad dash off of the train. Kageyama yells at him to stand and finish the fight he's picked, but Natsu tells him they'll finish this outside some other time, and jumps out a window.

Natsu flies through the air as the train was already moving again, but luckily the others are right behind him on a 'magical four-wheeled vehicle', a car of sorts that's very fast but runs on the driver's magical power. Natsu slams face first into Gray, who was riding on top, and everyone proclaims how happy they are to see Natsu safe. He bursts their bubble by telling them about his fight, and Erza assaults him for not listening to her story, though Natsu hadn't heard it due to being unconscious at the time. Erza says they have to chase him, and asks Natsu what he looks like, and Natsu replies that he didn't stand out, but he carried a weird flute. Lucy recognizes the description as a flute that's supposed to be just a made-up story, but if it's real, the 'Lullaby' does have a kind of sleep magic - Death! Everyone is shocked, and Lucy described how Lullaby is equipped with a murder curse worse than the norm.

At the Kinubi train station, Eligor and some other Eisenwald mages take over the train, and Kageyama rushes to him to give him the flute, saying he managed to break the seal. The mages talk about how the flute was a normal 'murder curse' item at first, but then the great dark mage Zelef further developed it, and created a terrible weapon - a flute that kills everyone who hears it's melody.

After hearing Lucy's description, Erza rushes forward with the cart, wondering what terrible plan Eligor is up to with such a thing.

Thoughts: The crazy way that Erza reacts to Natsu being left behind, first blaming herself and asking for someone to hit her and then demanding the train stop, is hilarious. She's an overly-serious character to the point of being really amusing, so she's growing on me pretty fast. So is Gray though, especially with the return of his clothing-loss gag.

I included the tidbit about Mirajane being inactive because I've noticed that too, and it seems like that's probably going to lead somewhere eventually. There has to be a reason that she's the way she is, and this is probably another early hint about it.

Whoa, talk about a surprise with Kageyama's turn-around. I had theorized that maybe his smile hid his true nature, but I wasn't expecting it to come out so abrupt. I was completely taken aback.

The Lullaby is a creepy looking flute, but what it can do is even creepier. I'm guessing that you don't really have to play much of a tune with it, and can probably just blow a note and it would work. I doubt it will be used to nearly that same effect, but this thing is probably right up there with the Death Note in terms of fictional weapons of mass destruction.

While the magical four-wheeled vehicle - which we REALLY can't give it a better name than that? - isn't really as cool as they wanted it to be. All it really tells me is that this world, which operates on magic, probably doesn't have much in the way of normal electronics. Essentially though, it's just a car - not nearly as impressive and cool as the wind-reading glasses or the light pen.

Lucy seems to be firmly entrenched in the exposition role, as she once again tells us all about something new in this arc. It works well for her though, so I don't really have a problem with them keeping it that way for a while.

Now that Eligor has the Lullaby, I'm thinking Erza's going to have to hurry to get there if she wants to save everyone's lives. Which leads me to my predictions actually, but first we'll go over what I had last time.

I was dead-on that we'd get to see a little bit of fighting, and I'd definitely call it only a 'little bit'. Sure, there's some great action shots - especially Natsu's punch to Kageyama's face - but it's really only one traded blow back and forth when you really analyze it. This is just a set-up fight for something bigger later. I can't wait for it though, since Kageyama's use of shadows could prove pretty interesting. I was also right that it'd be Natsu and him that would fight, as nobody else was really in a position to yet. And like I said before, I was right about Kageyama but even I couldn't have predicted how fast he'd turn around there.

My predictions for next time...geez, I really don't know what to think. There may be some more fighting, but since nobody has made it back to Eisenwald's headquarters yet, I'm thinking it'll be more preliminary stuff. Erza may get to do a little bit, but since she's really going fast in the cart now, I'm thinking that's going to drain a lot of her magic and stamina. Chances are though, she's going to prove terrifyingly powerful even when tired, leaving us to wonder what she's capable of at her best. Beyond that, I don't have anything yet.