User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 426: Black Heart, Review and Commentary/@comment-24277053-20150330144117

Well this chapter was more of a introductory to the other Avatar members. We begin with the cover page, it is the guy that can never pick a jobs, I guess we are going to do a cover page series showing the lesser characters.

We begin with Natsu finally getting Lucy and Happy about what Future Rogue told him about Gray sans the Frosch dying thing. If he did mention that, I wish Rogue is following them, and if Natsu revealed that, Rogue would know the truth, Future Rogue told Natsu to warn his past self and Natsu didn't do that. If Frosch dies, it is your fault Natsu. Anyway we get a nice NatLu moment when Natsu patted Lucy on the head.

We go to Avatar headquarters, and their leader is going to do some sacrifice, I don't know what they mean by that, did they capture anyone that they are going to kill? We found the blond guy is named Jerome, and he is worried that the council is on to them, we found the dark skinned big boobed girl is named Briar, and she agrees with Jerome, though Jerome is irritated at being called scruffy, ha ha ha, Arlock is having none of it, has he is busy with his prayers, we find the pink haired girl is named Mary and she calls Arlock gramps and says he is always stubborn, I wonder if she is she is Arlock's granddaughter or that is just an expression like how Natsu always refers to Makarov as gramps, it would explain so much. She hates how Briar gives everyone weird gloomy nicknames, the fact that Mary is anti gloomy does make me wonder why she is in this group to begin with.

We find out the long eye brow guy is named Gorumon, the masked dude is named D-6, and the panda looking guys is named Abel. Gray just shows up out of nowhere and says there is probably a council spy among them, and calls everyone out on accusing him of being a spy, if Gray is a spy it is kind of ballsy to bring it up like that, the others do wonder why Gray is in the group giving his background, Gray says he is just using them to get to E.N.D., so Gray may not be a spy, but he is not really on board to Avatar's goals,interesting relationship, and Gray does confirm Ultear it still alive, I wonder if Hiro wrote that in because Ultear is going to return to the story someday. I hope so.

We see some council soldiers, and we meet their new captain Gajeel Redfox, holy crap Gajeel is in the council, and Pantherlily is with him, though for Pantherlily this is full circle, this position is similar to the position he had in Edolas, so yes he has experience in this type of work. And we got confirmation there is a spy in Avatar and it is not Gray, as the spy has told the council Gray is in the Avatar group.

Anyway pretty good chapter, not much action, but good setup, if Mary is Arlock's granddaughter it would explain so much, because Mary never seemed like someone who would be part of a Zeref's cult, if you look at a couple of chapters ago, when they all said "for Zeref", she was looking away and look disinterested, so maybe she is there because her grandpa dragged her into it. Her personality is not very dark, just seems like a normal kid. Mary does seem like someone who when she fights, it will be a game to her and her opponent would be like a playmate to her. Could be a good Lucy or Wendy opponent. If that is the case, Arlock rivals that ex council member guy as worst grandpa ever. For all we know, he might have kidnapped her.

Now the big question if Gray is not the spy than who is?, it could be Mary, but I doubt that if they are going with the Arlock's granddaughter thing and she will have her own character arc that has nothing to do with the council, so I think it could be either Briar or Jerome. I think it is probably Briar, she had the inner though monologue about Gray turning dark and joining them. Whoever it is, we will find out when they fight Natsu and company, the spy will fight them without trying to kill them.

Am I the only one sensing something romantic going on between Briar and Jerome, if one of them is the spy, they could fight.

Next chapter Fierce Underground Fight, things are starting to get real interesting.