{LUKA'S POV}
We have two more visitors today. Ai and Patchy are hiding in a tree, trying to disguise their presences.

Ai probably thinks she's in the clear since Natsu is gone, along with his draconic sense of smell. Unfortunately for her, my senses are better than an average human and my brain makes note of every out-of-place detail. This includes loud rustling of certain tree branches, despite low winds.

"You aren't stealthy. Come down before you hurt yourself." I call, glancing up.

"Boo!" Ai sticks her tongue out at me.

Ai leaps from the tree. Patchy—who's still young—isn't quite able to support her full weight yet. I catch her easily, and she hugs me tightly in return.

Of all Sylvie's siblings, Ai is the one I've bonded the most with. It helps that she and I have similar views on magic power, especially after the incident with her ice devil slayer magic awakening.

I set Ai down while Sylvie crosses her arms, frowning at her. "Why are you here? I left Kori in charge."

"Kori-nii isn't as strict as Sylvie-nee. He said we could just do whatever. Well, I wanna help Luka-nii!"

"Kori..." Sylvie facepalms.

"So?" Ai looks expectantly back and forth between us. "What leads do you have?"

"None." I say at the same time as Sylvie says, "One."

Ai blinks. "Huh? Which is it?"

"The murderer is someone who has it out for Luka, probably someone from his past. Given those details, we have one potential suspect. Her codename is Frostburn." Sylvie explains.

"Who's Frostburn?" Ai asks, leaning forward.

"She's a former Scythe who was never caught and, get this, she's also a fire wizard."

"Oooo, it totally makes sense!" Ai grins. "We have to find this Frostburn lady so she can take some of the heat off Luka-nii's back. Best case scenario, she confesses and we get to clear Luka-nii's name!"

"Right?!" Sylvie gushes. "I think Frostburn—"

"Sylvie!" I snap, making Sylvie jump to attention. Her face flushes. I take a deep breath. "Frostburn isn't the one behind this."

"How can you be so sure?" Ai asks, disappointed.

"I watched her die." I shake my head. "Leader disposed of her because she kept failing her missions. I don't know the full story, but Frostburn wasn't a part of the Scythes because she wanted to be. It was a family matter. Frostburn trained me, and I was her replacement. They waited until I was submissive and competent enough with fire magic, then had her taken care of. I verified her remains myself."

I tell Ai and Sylvie the full story of Frostburn's death. I didn't kill her, but I cremated her body. As we chat, a silhouette steps forward in the distance. I swear it wasn't there a second ago.

Remembering the dead knight, I shout, "Get down!"

Ai is slow to react. Sylvie knows to trust my instincts and takes action immediately, tackling her little sister. Ai yelps unceremoniously as they hit the deck and roll off to the side. The silhouette shoots a small missile of silver fire straight at me.

The ground around me bursts into ice-cold flames. The silhouette moves close enough to see her features. Blonde hair, blue eyes, a mischievous smirk. For her last mission, she was partnered with Impaler while I was stuck on the back-burner.

I recall finding her impaled on a spike and bleeding out after what should've been an easy mission.

"No more... no more needless death..."

I cancel out her fire with my own, sweeping it away easily. She lacked talent, which is one of the reasons why I was a perfect replacement.

"Frostburn." I growl.

I shouldn't be as surprised as I am. She isn't the only ghost I've seen recently.

She is the first one to directly attack me with magic. The little girl's goal was to guide me to the first crime scene. The knight seemed like he was telling me a threat from someone else's mouth.

"Another ghost?" Sylvie takes a defensive position, pulling Ai behind her, just like I did to Sylvie in front of the Rune Knight earlier.

"Woah, woah, I thought you said Frostburn was dead! She doesn't look very dead! This is really bad!" Patchy circles overhead anxiously.

Stuck behind Sylvie, who refuses to let her budge, Ai cautiously activates her ice devil slayer mode. She's determined to protect her big sister.

"Your fault!" Frostburn shouts in the same whiny voice as the knight. Now I'm convinced—whoever summoned these spirits can talk through them.

I'm guessing I did something to this person and now they want me to pay.

"Who are you?" I ask, stepping forward.

"You know me!" The person complains. "Hey lady, what are you just standing here for?! Get him!"

The light fades from Frostburn's eyes and she slumps forward. Then she straightens up and nods mechanically, obliging the wishes of her... summoner? She raises her fists and I raise mine.

We spar like we used to train. I have several years more experience and skill now. I can easily wipe the floor with her physically; it's made difficult by the burning cold sensation every time I make contact.

Her flames are too weak to break through my defenses, but my arms feel a little number for each time we exchange blows. My fists make contact for only a second before phasing into Frostburn's spectral body. I'm better at close combat and magic, but she's winning the battle of attrition.

"You should've died with the rest of the damn assassins! Why did you have to be the only one who got spared? Why?!" Someone is yelling through Frostburn's mouth, but it still stings to hear her say.

I'm vaguely aware of other ghosts from my past pouring out of the woods. Most of them had little to no combat ability in life, so Sylvie and Ai are able to keep them away from me and Frostburn with ease.

"It's a zombie apocalypse!" Patchy cries, flying above erratically and being thoroughly unhelpful.

"Patchy, they aren't zombies! They're spirits who have been given temporary form by some magical art!" Sylvie deduces. She's been watching my battle closely, assessing the situation to find a weak point.

"I'll send them back to hell! Okay, Nee-san?" Ai pounds her fists together, smirking devilishly.

"Language!" Sylvie slaps her wrist. "That alone doesn't give us reason to hurt them. These are real people and they may still feel sensation. They deserve our respect in death at least."

"Fine." Ai grits her teeth, toning down the devilish aspect of her magic power.

The ghosts swarm at me, reaching with icy hot hands. They ignore the girls, which ends up being their biggest mistake. Both Fullbusters manage to hold them back and push them away without attacking.

"Down!" I yell, inferno magic condensing. Sylvie jumps and snatches Patchy out of the air. She and Ai drop to the ground like rocks. "Heatwave!"

A singular wave of fire pulses from my body. Natsu's house is remarkably unscathed (makes sense that a fire wizard would fireproof his house), but all of the ghosts are blasted back.

Their spectral forms take too much damage and fade. Their eyes are sad. Frostburn bows her head.

I stumble. That spell took a lot out of my magic reserves. I fall to one knee, breathing heavily. These were my victims. I just destroyed them all again.

I look up at Sylvie and Ai. I did the right thing to prevent anymore needless loss.

"Hey, Luka..." Sylvie approaches me, her face slightly flushed. "About what you said earlier—"

"I know, I'm sorry I snapped." I look away guiltily. "Frostburn is kinda a touchy subject—"

"N-No!" Sylvie waves her hands wildly in front of her face, her face redder by the second. "If anything, I'd rather you speak like that more often! Ow!"

She bit her tongue.

Sylvie is unable to meet my eyes as I stare up at her, stunned into silence. It's not like I forgot about her masochistic tendencies. I don't think I'll ever be able to forget the first time I visited the Fairy Tail guild hall, a whole year ago.

Sylvie was my target at the time. I was eavesdropping when she admitted—to the guild master of all people—that she actually liked it when I threatened her (Cremator's intimidation technique had the opposite effect than intended).

It's just, Sylvie acts so damn normal that I often overlook her... peculiar eccentricities.

Ai looks back and forth between the two of us like she's watching an intense game of table tennis. Her eyes are wide. "Did I miss something huge? Oh Mavis, wait...you've been here... alone... together... just you two... Sylvie-nee, I'm telling Papa!"

"Don't you dare!" A blizzard blasts from Sylvie's form. "You're misunderstanding!"

A chunk of ice the size of a small human conks me on the head. My vision spins, and I fall back into the mission where Frostburn died.