Chapter 394: Kinana
Makarov pondered the situation for a moment, stroking his white mustache before nodding slowly. "Very well. We'll do exactly as you suggested."
"I'll take care of her," Ur stepped forward, looking down at the sleeping girl with eyes brimming with profound maternal sympathy.
Hearing Noah's explanation, Ur's heart ached for the young woman who was the exact same age as her own daughter. Kinana's tragic fate mirrored the horrors Ultear had endured.
When Ultear was roughly the same age, she had been subjected to horrific magical experiments and agonizing torment. But Ultear had been incredibly lucky. She had managed to escape, she had met Noah, and thanks to his relentless efforts, the two of them had been reunited. Furthermore, Noah had completely annihilated the Bureau of Magical Development and had just permanently crippled Brain, the man responsible for the worst of it.
This girl, however, had not been so lucky. Stripped of her humanity and transformed into a monstrous serpent for over a decade, both her body and soul had been brutally scarred.
Thankfully, Noah had brought her back. She didn't have to suffer in the dark anymore. But as Noah had warned, the road to recovery would be long and arduous. Ur was determined to use that time to give the girl the warmth and care she had been violently denied for her entire childhood.
"We'll help you, Aunt Ur. We can't let you shoulder all the work yourself," Mirajane smiled warmly, exchanging glances with Sorano and Erza, who both nodded in immediate agreement.
"Thank you, girls. I appreciate it," Ur smiled kindly.
Ultear didn't say anything, but she silently stepped up right behind her mother. If her mother was going to care for the girl, she would naturally be right there beside her to help.
"It's settled then. I leave her in your capable hands," Makarov nodded.
"I'm going to head to my lab and brew the specialized recovery potions based on her specific vitals," Noah said to the women. "It's going to be a while before she wakes up, so just let her rest for now."
After a brief discussion, the group decided that Ur and Ultear would stay behind to watch over the girl while everyone else left the room to give her peace and quiet.
They also quickly agreed on a cover story for the rest of the guild: they would claim the girl was an amnesiac they had rescued during their mission, and she would be staying at the guild until she recovered. Hiding the horrifying reality that she had been a giant snake was absolutely necessary for her own protection and peace of mind.
With the plan set, everyone except the mother-daughter duo exited the break room.
The moment Noah and the others stepped out, the rest of the guild immediately swarmed them, anxiously asking what was going on. Seeing every single S-Class mage huddle in the back room had naturally put the entire guild on edge.
Sticking to the script, Erza and Makarov smoothly delivered the cover story. Hearing that it was just a rescue mission and nothing world-ending, the guild members collectively let out a sigh of relief.
Laxus returned to the bar to manage the guild's paperwork, while Macao and Wakaba went right back to their drinking contest. Mirajane and the other girls walked over to join Wendy's table, happily chatting with the younger members.
Noah slipped out of the guildhall and headed straight for his private laboratory.
After a few hours of meticulous brewing and magical distillation, Noah perfected the soul-nourishing potions. Right as he finished sealing the vials, he received a telepathic message from Ultear: the girl was finally awake.
Noah grabbed the potions and immediately teleported back to the guild's break room.
Pushing the door open, he found Makarov and several others already gathered inside. Ur was sitting on the edge of the bed, gently holding the girl's hand.
"Ah, you're back," Erza noted from her spot near the door.
"Yeah. How's she doing?" Noah asked.
"She woke up a few minutes ago. We didn't overwhelm her, just asked a few basic questions. Her name is Kinana," Erza replied softly.
"Kinana. Got it. I'll go check on her," Noah nodded, walking over to the bed.
"Kinana, this is Noah. He's the one who broke the curse and saved your life," Ur said gently, introducing him.
Sitting up in the bed, Kinana looked at Noah with wide, innocent eyes before flashing him a bright, incredibly pure smile. "Thank you so much, kina!"
"How is your body feeling? Let me run a quick scan," Noah smiled back gently. He raised a hand, and several small, delicate golden magic circles materialized around Kinana, painlessly scanning her vitals. Simultaneously, he brought up his Archive screens to cross-reference her current magical stability with the data from before.
"Um, it feels like I've been asleep for a really, really long time. I was having a terrifying nightmare, kina. But now that I'm awake, I feel a lot better, kina!" Kinana answered, looking at the glowing magic circles around her with childlike curiosity.
"Your vitals are stabilizing nicely. That's a very good sign," Noah nodded, dismissing the magic circles with a wave of his hand. He pulled a vial of the freshly brewed potion from his coat and un-corked it. "Here, drink this. I just made it. It'll help your body and soul recover much faster."
He handed the vial to Kinana. As she reached out to take it, her hands trembled violently, entirely lacking fine motor control. Ur immediately reached out, gently supporting her hands so she wouldn't drop it.
Kinana offered Ur a sweet, grateful smile before downing the potion in one gulp.
Noah took the empty vial back and tucked it away.
Having watched the interaction quietly, Ur couldn't help but ask, her voice laced with worry, "Noah... her movements are incredibly uncoordinated. Is something wrong?"
"It's completely normal," Noah reassured her. "Her human soul has been forcibly suppressed within an entirely different biological vessel for over a decade. Right now, her soul and her physical body are slightly out of sync. It's like trying to walk after your leg has fallen asleep, but on a spiritual level. With proper rest and recovery, the symptom will naturally fade away."
Hearing the explanation, Ur let out a massive sigh of relief. As long as it wasn't permanent damage, everything would be fine.
"Also, you were entirely right about her memory, Noah," Ultear chimed in from the side. "She has absolutely no recollection of the time she spent as a snake."
"Yeah... I don't remember anything at all. But... I do remember a promise I made with a very dear friend, kina," Kinana said, looking up at Noah.
"A promise?" Sorano asked, tilting her head curiously.
"We are far apart right now, but he promised me! Someday, that friend is going to come pick me up on a shooting star, kina!" Kinana clasped her hands together over her chest, her eyes sparkling with absolute, unshakable faith.
"What kind of wild romantic fantasy is that?" Wakaba muttered from the back of the room, completely bewildered.
"And... I think I also remember a voice," Kinana added, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "While I was trapped in that long nightmare, I remember someone whispering to me in a really gentle voice. He kept saying, 'Let me hear your voice...' kina."
Noah's eyes widened a fraction. It seemed the memory wipe wasn't entirely absolute; fragments of her time as Cubellios still lingered deep in her subconscious.
Noah also instantly connected the dots. The "friend" and the "gentle voice" undoubtedly belonged to Cobra of the Oración Seis. During the battle, it was glaringly obvious that the Poison Dragon Slayer cared for the giant serpent more than anything else in the world.
"Don't force yourself to remember right now. Your absolute top priority is resting and letting your body heal. Once you're fully recovered, you'll have all the time and energy in the world to figure the rest out, alright?" Noah said, his voice incredibly soothing.
"Okay! I'll do my absolute best to recover, kina!" Kinana nodded enthusiastically, brimming with pure energy.
"That's a good girl. Just make sure you rest well, do some light exercise when you're awake, and try not to overthink things," Noah smiled, patting her gently on the head.
Sorano opened her mouth, about to ask a question about the 'friend', when Noah's voice suddenly echoed directly inside her mind.
(Do not mention the Oración Seis, or the fact that she was a snake. We'll decide whether or not to tell her only after she has completely recovered.)
(Based on what she just said, that 'gentle voice' is a fragment of her memory from when she was the serpent. If we mention the Oración Seis now, the shock could force her suppressed memories to violently resurface while her soul is still in a fragile state.)
(And remembering what she did while she was a cursed monster is absolutely not something to be celebrated. It could break her mind completely.)
The telepathic message was broadcasted to everyone in the room except Kinana.
(I see. So in this case, recovering her memories would literally be poison to her soul?) Macao replied telepathically, crossing his arms with a heavy sigh.
(Exactly. So for now, we will all protect her. Not a word about the curse,) Makarov ordered firmly via the mental link.
Since they had taken her in, it was their absolute duty to shield her from harm—even if that harm came from her own memories.
Ur's gaze softened even further, looking at Kinana with overflowing affection and protectiveness.
Stepping forward with a notepad, Mirajane gently began asking Kinana about the memories she did possess.
Because her cognitive memory was locked at the age of a small child, and she had been asleep for so long, the details were incredibly fuzzy. However, she managed to recall her own full name, the names of her parents, and the specific name of the village she grew up in.
Accessing the Council's digitized records through his Archive, Noah quickly ran a background check on the village name.
The results were grim. The village had been entirely eradicated by a dark magic cult over ten years ago. The timeline perfectly aligned with when Kinana had been cursed.
It was horrifyingly obvious what had happened. The dark mages had slaughtered the village, captured a little girl, and used her as a live test subject for a highly experimental transfiguration curse, permanently turning her into a serpent.
When Noah quietly confirmed that there were absolutely no survivors from the village massacre, the rest of the group shared a look of profound sorrow. Her parents were undeniably dead.
When Mirajane gently broke the news that her village had been destroyed a long time ago, Kinana burst into tears.
Having essentially just woken up from a ten-year nightmare with the mind of a child, the concept that her parents were gone didn't fully feel real to her yet. But the instinctual, overwhelming grief of losing her family was impossible to hold back.
Ur immediately pulled the crying girl into a tight, warm embrace, gently rubbing her back and whispering soothing words into her ear.
After crying into Ur's chest for several minutes, Kinana slowly wiped her red eyes. Forcing a brave, watery smile onto her face, she looked up at the group. She didn't want the kind people who had saved her to worry about her anymore.
Seeing her try so incredibly hard to be brave, the Fairy Tail mages instantly felt their hearts melt. They all completely adored her.
Ultear, Erza, and Sorano quickly gathered around the bed, warmly assuring her that she never had to worry about being alone again. Fairy Tail was her family now.
"You know, Kinana, once you're feeling better, how would you like to work as a waitress here at the guild? You could even learn a bit of magic in your free time," Noah suggested gently.
He had already scanned her magical pathways and confirmed that she possessed the latent aptitude for magic, even if she currently didn't know a single spell.
"The guild...?" Kinana asked, tilting her head.
"Yeah. Fairy Tail. The building we're in right now is our guildhall. Everyone in this room is a member of the Fairy Tail family," Noah smiled warmly.
"Okay! I want to be a waitress, kina!" Kinana agreed instantly, her eyes lighting up.
Noah and the others had saved her life and shown her nothing but absolute kindness. Hearing that they all belonged to the same guild, Kinana wanted nothing more than to join them so she could work hard and repay their kindness.
"Excellent. It's settled then," Makarov nodded happily.
It was the perfect solution. Keeping her employed at the guild meant she would always be under their direct protection, and learning basic magic would give her a sense of independence and self-defense. Considering she still had a massive, potentially traumatic memory block waiting to be resolved, keeping her close was the safest option for everyone.
As they finalized the arrangements, Noah noticed Kinana let out a wide, involuntary yawn. Her eyelids were visibly drooping.
She had been awake for quite a while, processing an overwhelming amount of information and emotional shock. Her weakened body was forcibly demanding sleep to continue the healing process.
"Looks like Kinana is getting sleepy. She needs a long, uninterrupted rest to properly recover. We can figure out the rest of the details later," Noah said softly.
He pulled six more vials of potion from his coat and handed them to Ur.
"Aunt Ur, this is a three-day supply. Give her two vials a day, one in the morning and one at night. Once she finishes these, I'll run another full diagnostic and adjust the formula for the next batch."
Knowing that Ur was firmly stepping into the maternal caretaker role, Noah entrusted the medical regimen directly to her. Ur accepted the vials with a serious nod, carefully storing them away in a protective pouch.
By this point, Kinana was fighting a losing battle against sleep. She repeatedly tried to force her eyes open, desperate not to sleep just in case the nightmare returned, but her eyelids were simply too heavy.
"Shh... it's okay. Don't force yourself. Just close your eyes and sleep," Ur whispered, gently stroking the girl's dark purple hair.
Hearing Ur's soothing, maternal voice, the last of Kinana's resistance crumbled. Her body went completely limp, and she slumped sideways against the pillows, falling into a deep, peaceful slumber.
Ur carefully tucked the girl in, pulling the thick blanket snugly up to her chin, before silently stepping away from the bed.
Gathering near the door, Ur, Ultear, and the other girls quickly whispered among themselves, establishing a solid rotation schedule so someone would always be by Kinana's side when she woke up.
After running one final, silent diagnostic scan to ensure her vitals were steadily rising, Noah gave the group a thumbs-up.
Everyone quietly filed out of the break room, leaving only Ultear behind for the first shift.
Though Ur had desperately wanted the first shift, she had literally just finished caring for the girl, and Ultear, completely doting on her mother, insisted Ur get some rest first. Unable to say no to her daughter's sweet insistence, Ur had happily yielded.
When Noah and the others re-entered the bustling guildhall, the members immediately flocked to them, eagerly asking about the 'amnesiac' girl's condition.
Noah smiled and announced that she was awake, fully stabilized, and steadily recovering under their care.
The guildhall erupted in cheers, everyone genuinely thrilled that the girl they had saved was going to be alright.
Lucy, Levy, and several of the other girls were particularly excited. They immediately began planning a massive shopping trip for the moment Kinana was cleared by Noah. Since the poor girl currently owned absolutely nothing, they were determined to drag her across Magnolia, buying her an entirely new wardrobe, cute accessories, and all the daily necessities she could ever need.
Seeing the sheer warmth and chaotic love of his guild, Noah couldn't help but smile. Kinana was in the best possible hands.