He fights.

Fuck!

I swung back and forth uncertainly in front of Lucy. Salamander and the majority of his goons were to my front but there were a couple behind her and right next to her. Damn it! Beyond angry and frustrated, with no clear solution I simply lashed out.

I grabbed the small round table in front of the couch with both hands and launched it at the blue haired bastard. It flipped end over end and Salamander stumbled back as it hit him, a bottle crashing to the floor near his feet to explode in a cascade of glass. Turning, I threw myself at one of the bald bastards right next to Lucy and I closed my hand into a fist and slammed it into his face.

FUCK! THAT HURT!

My hand was on fire and I couldn't stop myself from cradling it to my body as I cursed. After a few moments the feeling died down to a dull ache and I hissed as I shook my hand in the air.

Quickly looking around I was a bit confused to see that no one had reacted to my attacks, the man I'd just punched was rubbing his jaw but was otherwise ignoring me and Lucy was shouting at Salamander, her voice trembling with emotion, “-YOU'RE THE WORST MAGE ALIVE!”

Two massively muscular men stepped forward to grab her from behind, her upper arms disappearing beneath their enormous hands. Rage exploded across my brain and I shouted, “Don't touch her!” My hand still smarting, I darted forward to kick the scarred man on her left as hard as I could in the crotch. He let go of Lucy and doubled over, howling in pain and I pushed on him but his bulk didn't budge. He finally did move after a moment but only because another of his beefy companions pushed him aside as he moved forward to take the man's place holding Lucy.

Frustrated, I awkwardly tried to repeat my successful strike but the eye-patch wearing goon was holding his hand over his groin and my foot rebounded ineffectively. Frantic and barely thinking clearly, I grabbed his hand with both of mine and **** it aside enough so that I could slam my knee into his balls. Unfortunately another bastard took his place, his face preemptively flinching as his eyes passed over me.

This wasn't working! I had to do something. Salamander was saying something stupid as he waved his hand at Lucy. I zeroed in on the two rings he was wearing and with a war cry that was probably unnecessary I jumped over to him. I grabbed his hand and he didn't so much as blink as I yanked both rings off.

I slipped them on and immediately felt a weird sensation that felt like a tingling pressure on the inside of my skull. It was like two separate things trying to get out, one like gooey love and the other like a nice nap which made no sense but there it was. I figured out which one was the charm ring and scratched the itch in my mind. Instantly, half the pressure let up and one of the ring's pulsed with warmth on my finger.

When Lucy suddenly gasped and lost interest in struggling against her captors, I got the distinct impression I'd made a mistake. That feeling was confirmed when she looked right at me with glowing eyes and a big smile, declaring, “Najato! You're my hero! I love you so much right now!” She turned her attention to the pirates, her tone utterly confident, “You guys are in for it now! My stud is gonna kick your asses!”

Crap. Of course it only works on the opposite gender. “Damn it!” I shouted in frustration as I realized not only had I not made things any better but now I'd mind controlled Lucy, making me just as bad as this stupid prick! I turned and thrust my ring adorned hand in his face and released the rest of the strange mental pressure. His smarmy smirk faded as he fell asleep on his feet and he quickly fell face first into my shoulder. I grunted and stepped to the side, letting him slide off of me and hit the ground all dead weight.

He didn't get up.

Great. I felt like I was getting somewhere. I picked one of the men holding Lucy and thrust my finger in his direction as I tried to repeat the sleep spell. Nothing happened. Probably because there wasn't any more weird pressure in my head to release. I'd already let it go. What gives?! Were these stupid rings out of magical power? That blue haired dick had used that charm spell on like fifty women! Shit!

“Alright. Alright. Enough drama already. With Bora resting there, I'm the one in charge around here.” I spun around as the one guy in the room who didn't look like he outweighed me by three times strode forward, “Someone knock out the broad and lets start getting the rest of these stowed away for the trip.”

I was starting to hyperventilate. I could walk out of here at anytime. No one would stop me but I was powerless to save Lucy. I could keep trying to kick these guys in the balls but there were too many. While I was giving my foot bruises with half of them, the rest would just go about their business securing their captives.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! I needed a knife or something. I was a bit queasy at the thought even in this situation but... but couldn't I just stab each of them in the throat. Kill them one at a time. Would they stop me? Would they really let me end their lives without fighting back? Could I do it? My stomach rumbled from just thinking about it. I felt like throwing up.

Lucy's voice cursing out the bastards as she struggled with them brought me out of my momentary funk and I rushed forward to stop them from hurting her as best I could with my normality power. There was a horrendous crash from behind me and some debris struck my head, dazing me slightly. I turned and saw a totally bad ass guy crouching atop the crumpled form of Salamander's second in command, thick shattered timbers falling all around him. He had spiky pink hair, which was kind of weird, but an open shirt revealing ripped muscles and a fierce expression declaring his intent to kick some serious ass totally made up for it.

I had a strong feeling all my problems had just evaporated but my main priority was still Lucy and I whipped back to her, fearing she'd be held hostage or something. I saw that the goons had let go of her in surprise at the newcomer's shocking entrance and I didn't hesitate as excitement filled me at the opportunity.

I grabbed her arms and jerked her away from the two men. I don't know if it was the earrings at work or that they were all too distracted by the pink haired bad ass but no one moved to stop me as I dragged Lucy straight for the open window.

Reaching it, I asked her if she could swim.

She smiled at me warmly and toyed with my hair. Yea, still charmed... “Like a dolphin. Aquarius wouldn't have contracted with me otherwise. Why?”

I sighed. “I'm going to throw you into the ocean. To keep you safe. Sorry.”

Thanks to my earrings, Lucy didn't resist as I gave her a shove over the side. Damn. I feel like a dick.

I turned around, honestly expecting that pink haired guy to be totally destroying the pirates. I mean... with an entrance like that, what other possible outcome could there be?

Yea.... maybe Lucy was my good luck charm. And I'd just thrown her away...

The newcomer was getting wailed on by like twenty guys and he wasn't putting up a fight at all. There was a small blue cat with wings darting around clawing at various pirates but he wasn't doing much.

Damn it...

I thought back to all those adventure novels I'd read over the years and couldn't help but mutter, “But...but... normally bad guys like these just totally give up once the head honcho is defeated...”

So... you're never going to guess what happened next...

I was still pretty confused twenty minutes later as a small blue cat named Happy herded the last of the would-be slavers into the windowless room we'd chosen as a make-shift brig. I closed and locked the door and looked down at the eye patch wearing kitty (appropriated from one very subdued one-eyed goon), “Is your friend Natsu going to be alright?”

“Yep! Its just motion sickness! He'll be A.O.K once we get off this boat!”

I rubbed the back of my head, “Um... If he gets it that bad, why'd he jump on to the ship like that? I mean.... before those guys surrendered, he was getting his ass kicked!”

“Oh! Well, we heard that this guy was impersonating a Fairy Tail mage. So we had to come and check it out! For the honor of the guild! Turns out it was Bora the Prominence! He was kicked out of the Titan Nose Guild a couple of years ago for bad behavior.”

I couldn't help but chuckle darkly at that, “Bad behavior, huh? Yea, I'd say abducting and enslaving women to sell in Bosco counts as bad behavior. Oh hey! When your friend feels better, do you think he can help my girlfriend get into Fairy Tail? She's a really powerful Celestial Spirit mage!” I was pretty stoked to come out and actually say Lucy was mine even if it was probably immature give- My mouth dropped open, “LUCY!”

I turned and ran, having completely forgotten about her during the eventful past few minutes.

Fuck. What a terrible boyfriend I was.