Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is purely a fanfic for enjoyment.

Cross-over from various games, books, anime, manga, and movies.

The familiar characters you see here belong to their respected authors and owners.

"Speech"

Time*

Arc 1 - Now or Never: Chapter 15

20 minutes later*

So besides the surprising part of hearing Juvia speaking in 1st person. As well as learning Juvia knows Healing Magic, which she used together with her own Water Magic to make the water generated have a healing effect. Therefore, Juvia alone could heal all the injured townfolks alone by covering everyone in a large amount of water.

Pretty much just me resting right now and Erza preparing for the ghost to arrive. On another lighter note, I have an idea of what to do with the ghost if Erza's magical gears don't kill the ghost straight away before causing any more harm.

"How are you doing, Juvia? Do you need to rest? I'm sure everyone is out of the danger zone." I said to Juvia, as I can see her forehead covered in cold sweats.

"Juvia is fine. Just a few more minutes and Juvia should be done." Juvia replied, returning back to speaking in 3rd person again.

Dang, I kind of wanted to hear Juvia speak in 1st person a bit more. No matter, I'm more used to her speaking like this.

"Alright." I nod at Juvia, then look at Erza and take out a couple of Evil Cleaning Cards and Binding Cards. "Erza. Can you place these Magic Cards around the area, mainly in a circle formation with everyone inside it? Also, warn the townfolks not to move outside the circle."

"Got it." Erza takes the Magic Cards out of my hands before running to place them down and warning everyone nearby not to move around too much whenever she got the chance to.

Now, Erza with doing that. I can begin focusing more on recovering Magic Power and preparing for the incoming ghost that, for some odd reasons is taking its time coming here. Something I thought the ghost would be here by now when it has been nearly half an hour now.

I didn't even use my cheat to slow the ghost down. Which makes this whole thing more troublesome than it already is.

Nonetheless, it's best to take advantage of this and recover as soon as possible.

30 minutes later*

Magic Cards are all placed in a circle formation and all the townfolks are no longer in danger of dying thanks to Juvia's Water Healing Magic. I'm pretty much back to peak condition in Magic Power.

And yet, the ghost is still taking its damn time getting here and I know, because I've already checked a couple of minutes ago via space field. The ghost's destination is still in our direction, but come on now. Why is this ghost taking so long to get here?

"Is the ghost coming?" Erza asks me, as she continues to glance around the place. Not putting her guards down for the past hour.

"Yeah, it's... really taking its time getting here." I said in disbelief while watching over Juvia, who is recovering her own Magic Power still, and the area via space field of tracking the ghost's movement. "Actually, do you girls have any idea why this ghost is taking so long? I haven't dealt with ghosts in general enough to understand their patterns and what they would do."

"This is my first time dealing with a ghost." Erza replied, causing me to look at her in absolute disbelief.

"Same here, Renato-sama. Juvia never got the chance to see a ghost, let alone face. As most of the time, these ghosts would be taken care of within a few days or less by others." Juvia looks at her feet nervously.

"Well, that's fine. My Magic Cards should do the trick to deal with the ghost." I give Juvia and Erza a smile. "Thanks to the books I've been reading for the past few days on the train has something on ghosts to allow me to roughly create a Magic Card that specifically deals with ghosts. Again, thanks for the book, Juvia."

Of course, I use my cheat on the ghost similar to how I used it on Machio and Gajeel, as in my Magic Cards would easily affect the ghost and it won't be able to escape nor break free.

"It's no problem at all, Renato-sama!" Juvia said in happiness, giving me the biggest smile she could give me for thanking her.

"So, we have no idea why the ghost is taking its sweet time getting here. Are the townfolks alright, no one about to begin to panic or anything?" I ask the girls while giving a side glance to the townfolks nearby. I can easily overhear some of their whisper-level conversations about how long it's been since they've been rescued and soon the ghost's problem will be longer a thing by the end of today.

"Not that I could think of." Erza shook her head in dejection.

"Sorry, Juvia didn't read the book after giving it to Renato-sama." Juvia looks sad now, and I'm guessing she is disappointed she couldn't help me find the answer to the problem we have with the ghost.

"It's fine, Juvia." I wave off at Juvia's apology, then look in the direction of where the ghost is. "At the rate, the ghost is taking. It would arrive here around midnight."

I want to say the ghost wants to be at its strongest peak during midnight, but from what the book I've read. There are ghosts that do that but not all ghosts would be weakened during the daytime while stronger during the nighttime. I have no idea if this ghost we're about to face is under this category or not, since it could be tricking us with a false hope that it's weak right now, then attack us with its full might unexpectedly.

"Do you think we should send the townfolks away while we still have the chance to?" Erza asks me, making me wonder if she sees me as the leader of this job.

Then again, she did follow my order in spreading out those Magic Cards I handed to her not that long ago.

"I would gladly send these people off, but I rather not take the risk of the ghost deciding to appear straight away the moment it detects the people leaving." I couldn't rule out the chance of the ghost is just toying with us right now. Hell, my basic knowledge of ghosts in general of this world isn't that much, even with the book Juvia brought for me to research while we head to the job site. It didn't have deep information on ghosts but barely enough to identify some of them and to know when there are ghosts involved.

"It's better if you rather not use Teleportation Magic on a large scale anytime soon. You nearly died back then." Erza frowned with her arms folded underneath her chest plate. "Even if you've recovered enough Magic Power, that doesn't mean your mind is recovered completely from that whole thing. It's best if you keep on recovering along with Juvia over here until then. I'll keep on watching over the people here."

"Juvia agrees with Erza. Renato-sama needs his rest." Juvia said to me, but I can easily tell that she is annoyed by having to agree with Erza. Well, that's what I'm guessing with the way she gave Erza a brief glance before looking back at me.

"No, I'm fine now." I stand up, then stretch my stiff muscles while thinking about using Magic Card I have yet to be used it outside of experimenting the first time. In case something else would happen once the ghost is hit by the Evil Cleaning Cards and Binding Cards. "Anyway, we just have to make sure the people don't get hurt by the ghost. Therefore, we should just go to the ghost ourselves. The Magic Cards will activate themselves if the ghost ends up appearing near the crowd. So there is no need for us to guard the people while we try hunting down the ghost."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Erza didn't seem to like this option. "The ghost might be able to teleport here while we're far away. Who knows if this is the ghost's plan by having us leave these people behind without having any protections other than the Magic Cards. I'm not saying that your Magic Cards are useless, but they should have a limit of how long until the Magic Power stored inside would run out. By the time we finally return, the people could be killed by the ghost."

"That's true." I nod my head.

Not. I can easily make those Magic Cards last forever with my cheat. But, there's Erza and Juvia here, not to mention the townfolks too. No way am I going to reveal my cheat anytime soon. It's better to stick around then.

"Alright, we can just wait here until midnight. Also, we can have the people go back to their homes to bring back whatever they need to sleep outside while being inside the circle formation of the Magic Cards, where they should be safe." I said to Erza, then look at Juvia. "Juvia, mind asking around if someone got any spare sleeping bags for us to use? I'm going to prepare more Magic Cards to deal with the ghosts."

"No need, Renato-sama!" Juvia reaches into her coat and pulls out two sleeping bags. "Juvia came prepare in case we need to stay overnight and if needed, outside too! Sorry, but there's only two, just for Renato-sama and Juvia." Juvia smirked at Erza.

"I see you've come prepare, Juvia." Erza smile then grins and brings out a sleeping bag of her own via Requip Magic. "I'm glad we think alike and there's no need to worry about me. I have my own. In fact, this sleeping bag is a lot large and can fit two people inside." Erza glanced in my direction. "How about you join me, Renato? I'm sure you would feel cold sleeping alone. It would be better if we sleep together to stay warm."

Wow, she is still trying, and didn't she already have a love interest, Jellal? Or due to her not knowing Jellal is alive that made it possible for Erza to fall for me? I am so damn confused and at the same time, my lower brain wants her.

"If Renato-sama going to sleep with anyone. It will be with Juvia...!" Juvia snarl at Erza, who glares right back in return.

"How about you let Renato decide? After all, he is his own person. He has the freedom to pick who to sleep with." Erza didn't need to shout but spoke with a firm tone that she mean business.

Well now. I did not expect to have two girls fighting over me. Especially two hot ones that many men back in my previous world would give up their left nut to be with, or at least be in my current position.

Seriously, watching both Juvia AND Erza arguing with each other on who gets to have me sleep with them in the same sleeping bag. Although, I wonder if Juvia forgot in her jealous rage that the sleeping bags she has isn't big enough to fit us together. While Erza's sleeping bag does, no doubt the reason is Erza slept with her armor on and she needs more space because of that.

Kind of making me rethink about having a harem at this point, and I have my cheat to fall back on without having to worry about dying from too much sex.