Fairy Tail Zero Chapter 2 - Game of Truth

Written by Shiggins

It's good to be a Fairy Tail fan. Even on holidays, we get manga.

Our monthly update of the prequel continues, in a chapter that raises a few questions but one of which I found extremely obvious but we'll get to that soon. The year is X686, 7 years after everybody died on the island, and Mavis Vermillion is 13 years old and looks exactly the same as she will when she's a ghost, which suddenly made me realise how disturbing it is that she's in the series. Think about it; The ghost of a laughing dead child stalking you? That's the start of a horror movie!

Clearly, she is the face of pure evil and perfect for a horror!

Anyway, to make things odd we see Zeira appear and the two have a bit of banter where Mavis is the funny ditsy girl and Zeira is the serious one. It's all cute fun but throughout this conversation, you may find yourself asking a major question: Didn't Zeira die in the first chapter? If so, why is she here and how come she is older? My answer is: Zeira is probably a ghost right now and her appearance has aged along with Mavis'. (That's just a rough guess but it makes sense to me).

This wasn't part of the script. Zeira just broke character and said what she felt.

So the two girls return to their home, the library on Tenrou Island. (By the way, wouldn't that just be the best place to live in?) This is when Zeira senses people on the island and she hides since 7 years without anybody but Mavis to talk to has made her shy. And down the stairs comes Yuriy Dreyar, the spiky-haired character from last week who looks far too much like Sting for it to be a coincidence. Mavis is fine but Yuriy is appropriately surprised.

Clearly, this is a man who was born to be around children.

So we engage in fairly predictable but nonetheless enjoyable banter where Yuriy tries to pretend he's a biologist and that he wants to study certain plants, then Mavis uses her keen intellect to outsmart Yuriy and prove he's a liar. So of course, Yuriy admits that he is looking for the Tenrou Jade jewel and that he is a treasure hunter.

That moment when you realise that the villain Hades was once in the same category as these guys...

This is when the "Game of Truth" comes in. To put it simply, if Yuriy wins then Mavis has to tell him where the jewel is and if Mavis wins, Yuriy leaves right away. Mavis isn't that satisfied so Yuriy says she can meet the fairies too, which causes Mavis' little-girl-love for fairies to sparkle. (Literally. She sparkles.) We then get a quick explanation of the rules: You have to guess a "Truth" about each other, and the first person to guess wrong loses. You also can't say things relating to your appearance such as "You have eyes".

"Just look at us sparkle!"

So we have a quick test so we can see how it works, and Yuriy seems to win the test run when Mavis guesses he's in his twenties and he's revealed to only be a teenager. (Wow. Sudden flashback to Leorio from Hunter X Hunter.) Of course, this being a series about magic, the start of the real game is signaled when Yuriy shows a magic item which causes a sphere around them. The sphere acts as a judge for who wins and who loses, and it also makes sure you don't lie, no matter what.

It's always a shock when you find out a person's age.

After Mavis reveals she actually did win the test run earlier because Yuriy made a typical mistake, the game begins. Yuriy is confident he will win because he is in Mavis' home and that allows him to be able to see tons of facts about her such as her hobbies, interests etc. Then Mavis suddenly says Yuriy can go first because no matter what, Mavis will win this game in the first round.

This was when I realised that this game would be perfect for a first date.

Opinion: And that was the chapter. Admittedly, it felt very short which is especially bad if you only have a chapter released once a month. While the game does seem somewhat interesting, I do get the bad feeling that it'll be over quickly (like Mavis claimed) so the build-up is going to feel unnecessary. 

That being said, it was fun to see Mavis be the type of girl we expect. She's fun, light-hearted, kind, loves going barefoot and dreams of fairies. Her interaction with Yuriy was pretty entertaining too, since you can tell they're going to be good friends someday. (Perhaps more than friends? We'll find out.) I did keep wondering where Precht and Warrod were during this, but we'll probably find out next time.

As for Zeira, I'm almost 100% sure that she's a ghost right now. She died. We saw it. And Yuriy never seemed to notice Zeira at all, but that might just be because Zeira is a master-hider. I'm also going to theorise that the Tenrou Jade is the reason Zeira can come back as a ghost, which is the big secret reason for Mavis protecting it.

Manga Rating: 3.5/5

Character of the Month: Mavis Vermillion for outsmarting Yuriy. (I have a feeling she's going to be Character of the Month for a while...)

Predictions: The game will end quickly because of Mavis being super-sneaky and super-smart. Yuriy is going to try to use more lies, but will outsmart Mavis because of her obsession with fairies. Mavis will then meet the other treasure hunters and try to introduce Zeira but they don't see her.

Best Part: Mavis and Yuriy having some banter.

Worst Part: Zeira's dramatic death may have been a fake-out

The truth behind Mavis.

Shiggins:[Admin]
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Shiggins enjoys many strange forms of communication, especially those including cosplayers or presents or videos. However, until that wonderful day comes when people care enough to give him things for being him, you can contact him on his Skype; shigginsishere. He can also respond to you if you contact him through GMails at shigginsishere@gmail.com, and you can find out about him or ask him stuff on ask.fm/shigginsishere.