Daybreak arc

Daybreak arc is the second story arc of Fairy Tail, detailing Natsu, Lucy and Happy first mission together as they go to retrieve a book from a corrupt politician. However there may be more to the mission then the client lets on.

New House and a New Team
The arc begins with Lucy having managed to find her own home within the town of Mangolia. After she enjoys a bath, she come out to find Natsu and Happy milling around the place, having somehow broken in without her noticing. After the usual freak out and scolding, the three sit around and chat with the conversation moving into Celestial Spirits. After showcasing both the Sliver Keys (once which you can buy in stores) and Gold Keys (which are the rarest ones). Lucy remembers she hasn't made a contract with a recently acquired Silver Key and goes to do so. Showing the two boys how Celestial Mage make contracts, in this case with the spirit Nicola which Lucy renames Plue. After doing so Plue give Natsu the idea of forming a team with Lucy. Lucy instantly agrees with the plan and thus Team Natsu is born. Natsu soon pulls out a flyer for a new job in Shirotsume Town which is to simply get a book back. The pay for it being 200,000 Jewels upon completion, Lucy however is a bit weary when she see who they'll have to deal with, Duke Everlue, and even moreso upon hearing that Natsu and Happy already had a plan in store for the mission. Meanwhile at the Fairy Tail Guild, Levi, along with Jet and Droy have notice the flyer for the particular misson is gone which Mirajane reveal Natsu has already accepted it. Markov however state his suspicion when he reveal that the reward got bumped up to 2 Million Jewels much to the shock of the other members. No sooner then he revels this, we're shown that Team Natsu is already on their way to Shirotsime Town

The Mission Begins
The trio soon reach their destination with Natsu and Happy getting something to eat while Lucy checks around too. She soon meets up with the two dress as a maid as part of the plan to infiltrate Duke Everlue mansion (though the two reveal they were just joking at first). Soon the trio go to meet their clients Kaby Melon and his wife. After the formalities (which draws Lucy's suspicions as she find the Melon name familar) Kaby revels the plan is to get a certain book and destroy it as well as the 2 millon Jewel payment should they succeed. Say the least, the trio are shock and Natsu more pumped then ever to get started. Lucy inquires for the pay raise which Kaby simply responds he can't forgive the book's existence. Before he can elaborate further, Natsu grabs Lucy and the trio head for the Everlue's mansion unaware that security has been tighten due to a guild failing the mission a week ago.

The trio soon arrive and Lucy goes to front down, posing as a maid applicant in hope of distracting Everlue. One of the maids, a very burly and ugly looking one, suddenly smashes through the floor to answer her followed by the Everlue himself. However he take one look Lucy and reject her as he consider her "ugly" which judging by his other maids, has a strange taste in beauty. Lucy regroups with the others, her ego damaged to which Natsu decides to change to the plan. However the trio are unaware that Everlue know their mages having manage to catch a glimpse of Lucy's mark on her hand and he, along with two other guards, are prepared for them.

Infiltrating Everlue's Mansion
The trio make their way to the roof via Happy's aira abilities, having to decided to just sneak in and take the book (though Natsu just wanted to bust in, beat people up and take it). Natsu melts a bit of a window then open it to allow the trio access inside and from there they try to sneak around the mansion unnoticed. Almost immediately they're detected by Everlue's maids and are attacked but Natsu manages to take them down quickly. The team then make their way to one of the room which incidentally is the study. They quickly look through them and find it thank to Natsu's dumb luck. Before they burn it though, Lucy notices that it a book written by Zekua Melon, one of her favorite authors, and prevents Natsu from burning it as she wishes to read it. Everlue suddenly finds they as they squabble on what to do, having purposely let them roam free in the mansion to find out what they're after. Natsu scold Lucy for holding them up but Lucy refuses in letting him burn the book and goes to read it then and there.

Natsu vs the Vanish Bros.
Soon Everlue's guards revel themselves, being mercenaries of the Southern Wolves guild named the Vanish Brothers. Both side soon confront each other save for Lucy who continues to read. She the realizes there something more to the book and tells Natsu to buy her some time. Everlue curious about what secret the book could hold, goes after here as Natsu faces down the Vanish Brothers. The two mercenaries gloat that Natus will me a easy target since he a flame mage (having found this out from Everlue crystal ball). Natsu is indifferent however and the three begin their battle, with the Brother claiming Mages are weak to them since they train their magic rather then their bodies thus making them physically weak. Natsu points out they haven't hit him yet, so the the brother proceed to do their ultimate attack. Natsu gets hit by it but survives much to the surprise of the Brothers. Natus then uses his fire breath against the two but the younger brother uses his frying pan to catch to the flames and throw them back at Natsu. However he just eats the flames then hits both brothers with a stronger fire attack knocking them out. Natsu then goes off to look for Lucy, unaware that Everlue's head maid has recovered.

Lucy and Happy vs Everlue
Meanwhile Lucy is in the sewers having finished reading the book thanks to some magic glasses she had on her. Surprised at what was inside and vows to deliver the book to Kaby Melon. Before she can leave though, she held down from behind by Everlue using his Diver magic to ambush her, knocking her keys off her belt in the process. Everlue tries to get Lucy to spill what was inside the book but she refuses even under the threat of getting her arms broken. However before the Duke can carry out the threat, Happy hits flies in and save Lucy kicking Everlue in the face. Now freed, Lucy grabs her keys just as Everlue goes on the attack. All the while Lucy reveals that Everlue forced Zekua Melon to write the book for him after he refused to do so the first time with the Duke himself as the main character. However as Everlue was a politician he could easily ruin the Melon family by revoking they're citizenship keeping them from getting jobs as merchants. Zekua gave in and did so, but Everlue, angry at the first rejection, but Kaby in a solitary cell and forced him to stay there till the book was finish. Crushing Zekua's spirit as a writer.

Surprised that Lucy knows all this, Everlue quires on where she got the infomation which Lucy reveal is all in the Daybreak book as Zekua was a mage fires and cast a magic spell to reveal information not seen by the untrained eye. As Everlue is a vain and shallow person, he wouldn't have noticed it the first time. Lucy also reveal that the real message to someone else and the Duke doesn't have the right to possese it. She then calls her Celestial Spirit, Cancer while Everlue begin to panic thinking the book might have information on his corrupt business practices. He then reveal that he too is a Celestial Spirit mage and call the spirit Virgo who turns out be the head maid of the mansion. However she didn't come along as Natsu had grabbed onto her as she was being summoned (which is suppose to be impossible as as no human can survive in the spirit world) much to his confusion. Lucy yell for Natsu to take care of Virgo which he does with one punch. Meanwhile, Lucy wraps her whip around Everlue and send him flying into Cancer who cuts off all his hair, defeating him in the process.

Dear Kaby
With the book aquired, the trio head back to Kaby Melon's mansion and present the book to him. Kaby is shocked that that didn't destroy it but Lucy figured out why he so desperate too; he the son of Zekua Melon and he wanted to protect his father's pride. Kaby explains that 31 years ago, his father had suddenly come home after three week and no sooner then he made it back, had promptly cut his own writing hand off with an axe vowing to never write again. He was soon taken to the hospital and treated, Kaby scolded his father for writing such a trashy story for the Duke. Zekua agrees but his reasoning that the pay was good. This angers Kaby who turns his back on his dad for supposedly throwing away his pride as a writer. Not long after Zekua committed suicide. Kaby however came to regret his actions and wishes to destroy the book to make ammends to his father.

Before he can do so however, the magic in the book activates and the words on the title begin to rearrange themselves into the word "Dear Kaby". Lucy explains that that Zekua, under the pen name Kemu Zelaon, cast a spell on the book that shuffled the words (which begin to do so as the book glows) and quit being a write not because he wrote the worst book of his career but rather the best book he ever made, one specifically for his son, Kaby. Realizing what Zekua's last words ("You were always on my mind") meant, Kaby breaks down in tears and thank the trio for bringing the book to him.

With that Natsu declines the reward much to the shock of his teammates since they didn't technically fulfill his Kaby's request. Kaby and his wife are more then happy to give it to them. But Natsu steadfastly refuses much to Lucy's dismay. It then reveal that Kaby wasn't reach and in fact was just using a house to make himself look as such to attract mages for the job, Natsu however figured it out due to his sense of smell. Still Lucy is happy that everything turned out alright for Kaby. Natsu can't help but tease Lucy for this as he figure out she was a writer herself, which was why she was so insistent on not burning the book. Lucy is shocked that he figured out and makes Natsu promise not to tell anyway as the trio head back to Fairy Tail, mission accomplished.