Raizel and Wendy had not been attacked.
Instead, the two of them noticed something unusual about Filan City.
There were caves everywhere throughout the city, resembling mine entrances.
After sniffing the air around several of them, Wendy identified the scents of coal and various ores.
"This city seems to have a huge amount of material that can be used for alchemy," Raizel observed.
He meant traditional alchemy—the kind involving furnaces, metals, minerals, and actual physical materials.
Not whatever bizarre nonsense Sai practiced with things like the Bond of Lovers and Bond of the Weak.
"So... what does that mean?" Wendy asked.
Her eyes shone with the pure, innocent light of someone who had not spent much time studying the subject.
Carla explained for her.
"It means our earlier guess was probably right. This city must have very close ties to Gold Owl and alchemy in general."
...
After finishing their shopping, Ultear and Mira gradually made their way toward an empty alley.
From behind the corner of a building, Sai cautiously poked half his head out.
"Good. They finally went somewhere without many people."
He muttered quietly to himself,
"I'd better play it safe this time. I'll use the Bond of Matter and turn both of them into objects."
"Is that so?"
A completely emotionless voice sounded directly behind him.
Sai froze.
More importantly, he recognized that voice.
It belonged to Mira—the woman who had knocked him out instantly the last time they met.
Mira struck the back of his neck with a knife-hand blow.
Sai immediately lost consciousness.
Ultear first secured him with Magic-Sealing Handcuffs, then sealed him inside one of Cana's sealing cards.
She certainly had no intention of throwing him into her own spatial storage and letting him contaminate the place.
...
Lucy and Happy had not been nearly as fortunate.
A strange mist had already begun spreading around them from the moment the old woman approached.
By the time Lucy realized something was wrong, the old woman had put on a gas mask.
But it was already too late.
Lucy and Happy collapsed unconscious.
When they woke no more, the old woman tied them up and stretched her stitched-looking mouth into a disturbing smile.
"Capture complete!"
...
Meanwhile, Raizel and Wendy followed the aftermath of the explosion and soon found Natsu.
Raizel looked over the burned wreckage around him.
Lucy and Happy were nowhere to be seen.
"Where are Lucy and Happy?"
Natsu immediately complained,
"They got lost! I got separated from them!"
That alone was not necessarily a serious problem.
Unless something had happened to Lucy, Raizel could simply contact her through Super Archive Magic and the portable communication Lacrima.
Everyone carried one now.
Happy even had one in his bag, because there was no point giving it to Natsu when he had absolutely no idea how to use it.
Raizel pointed toward the charred Iwasta lying nearby.
"And what happened here?"
Natsu frowned, looking genuinely confused himself.
"These guys kept following me, then suddenly attacked. They started saying all kinds of weird stuff after confirming I was from Fairy Tail, so we fought."
"Oh, and that guy said his weapon was some kind of iron thing made through alchemy."
If they were miners, it was probably an alchemically forged shovel or pickaxe.
At the end of the day, however, an alchemically forged shovel was still a shovel. Raizel did not see much reason to care about that part.
Then something Natsu had said caught his attention.
"Wait. You said they specifically confirmed that you were from Fairy Tail?"
Natsu blinked before nodding.
"Yeah."
Raizel immediately understood.
"Then you probably weren't the only one attacked. The others may have been targeted too."
"I'll contact everyone. We're regrouping at the inn."
He glanced at Iwasta.
"This guy was the leader, right? I'll bring him."
Raizel sealed Iwasta inside a card.
He could not be bothered with the others. One look was enough to tell that they were just hired muscle.
After contacting the group, however, one problem remained.
"Lucy and Happy are the only ones who aren't responding..."
...
Everyone returned to their room at the inn as quickly as possible.
"We captured Sai from Gold Owl."
Ultear placed the card containing Sai on the table.
"Natsu captured the leader of the miners' guild that attacked him."
Raizel placed Iwasta's sealing card beside it.
Kagura looked at the cards before closing her eyes and thinking back to the suspicious man she and Erza had encountered.
"Now that you mention it, Erza and I met someone strange as well. He had a camera and kept insisting on taking our picture."
"I thought something was wrong with him, so I refused."
Natsu suddenly slammed his fist onto the table, startling everyone.
He was not angry.
He had simply remembered something.
"One of those miners said, 'Killing him would be bad. We're supposed to bring him back.'"
Mira rested her chin on one hand and nodded.
"Then Lucy and Happy were probably attacked after they became separated from Natsu."
"There's no time to waste. We need to find out what these people know."
"I'm going to rescue Lucy and Happy right now!"
Natsu immediately turned to run.
Raizel grabbed him.
"Wouldn't it help to find out where they were taken first?"
Raizel released Iwasta from the sealing card.
The moment the huge miner appeared, he dropped to his knees and clasped his hands together.
"Please spare me! Please! I was only following Gold Owl's orders!"
"Why did they want Fairy Tail members captured?"
"How would I know?! We were just paid to do the job!"
"If your companions were taken, they were probably brought to Gold Owl!"
"Where is Gold Owl's guild hall?"
"Leave the city and head north! You won't have to walk far before you see it!"
Raizel leaned slightly closer, enough pressure entering his gaze to make Iwasta visibly tense.
"Anything else you're hiding?"
Iwasta's eyes flickered.
He swallowed.
"No..."
'Even if that's technically true, he's definitely holding something back.'
Raizel turned toward Erza.
"Your turn."
"Leave it to me!"
Golden light appeared around Erza's right hand.
"Requip!"
Her enormous Purgatory sword materialized and slammed into the floor directly between Iwasta's legs.
Erza stared down at him with icy eyes.
"This is your last chance."
"If you lie again, the next place this sword lands will be your head."
Apparently, Erza's sword and expression were far more persuasive than Raizel's questions.
Iwasta nearly wet himself.
"WAIT!!! I'LL TALK!"
"Gold Owl hired three people this time! They told the three of us to help capture Fairy Tail!"
"My guild, Frenzied Rock, operates northeast of the city, but we were the ones who attacked directly, and we already failed!"
"One of the others is staying in a small cabin in the Deltara Forest outside Filan City!"
"The last one is a woman who lives year-round inside a cave in the Deltara Mountains!"
After extracting everything he knew, Raizel knocked Iwasta unconscious again, tied him securely, and sealed him back inside the card.
He looked toward Ultear, Erza, and the others.
"What do you think? Should we check those two locations first, or interrogate Sai from Gold Owl?"
Ultear considered it for a moment.
"We don't have much time."
"How about this? Mira and I stay here and interrogate Sai. You take Natsu, Erza, and the others to search those two locations."