Loke arc
Arc Info
Manga Chapters	Chapters 70 - 74
Episodes	Episodes 30 - 32
Arc Guide
Previous ← Phantom Lord arc	Next Tower of Heaven arc →
List of Story Arcs

The Loke arc is the sixth story arc of Fairy Tail series.

After the battle with Phantom Lord settles, things seem to go back to normal. However, Loke suddenly begins to act strangely which raises the suspicion of Lucy who decides to investigate.

Contents 1 Summary 1.1 The Never Ending Play 1.2 New Mystery, The Vanished Member 1.3 The Past, The Present, The End 1.4 The King's Decision 2 Anime Differences 3 References 4 Arc Navigation

SummaryEdit

The Never Ending PlayEdit

Lucy starts moping since she is now broke down and can't afford her rent again. Just as she starts losing hope due to her teammates' destructive natures, Mirajane gives her a mission she has been saving. Originally, the job required them to advertise a play. However, upon arriving at the site, they find out that the cast ran away and the play was cancelled. Erza instantly volunteers her team to replace the cast, and so their job begins.^[1]

After a week of practice, the play starts, with Erza playing the prince, Lucy a princess, and Gray as the villain. At first Erza is excited, but when she starts her role she gets massive stage fright. During the battle scene between Erza and Gray, their destructive nature settles in and the stage gets burned down. Later, Natsu in a Dragon costume carried by Happy, arrives but Happy accidentally drops him and Natsu starts setting the stage and Lucy on fire. Erza then slashes Lucy's costume and starts battling Natsu and Gray. The result after the play is a destroyed theater and a surprisingly pleased audience.^[2]

After the play becomes a huge hit, the manager makes them perform multiple acts in one day and everyone starts wanting to go home, except for Erza who still enjoys doing the job.^[3]

New Mystery, The Vanished MemberEdit

Team Natsu takes a new job which involves subduing some thieves. They manage to take out the thieves much earlier than expected and start to spend one day of free time. They then happen to meet up with Loke who greets them, but then runs away again from Lucy, as usual. Later that night, Natsu suggests a pillow fight which then turns into a pillow war that destroys the hotel room they were staying in.^[4]

Lucy then takes a walk with Plue since she can't compete with her teammates. Along the way, Happy plays a prank on her and she then gets subdued by two criminals who try to kidnap her, before she is saved by Loke. This time Lucy refuses to let Loke leave without thanking him so they go and have a drink, with Plue and Happy thinking that they are a couple. After having a short conversation, Loke tells Lucy that he doesn't have a long time to live and hugs her.^[5] Suddenly, he laughs it off, saying it is a joke he uses to get girls, and gets a slap on the face.^[6]

Upon returning to the guild, Natsu and Gray are covered in bandages from their fight and start arguing over who won. They try to get Lucy to answer them but she gives them a cold stare, which shuts them up. Shortly after, all of Loke's girlfriends arrive at the guild wondering where he disappeared to as he suddenly broke up with all of them the previous night.^[7]

Lucy then decides to investigate Loke, and manages to learn that he has a relationship with Karen Lilica, who was a famous Celestial Spirit Mage of Blue Pegasus who died a few years ago. Shortly after, Gray arrives telling her that Loke has left Fairy Tail. She joins the search for him, thinking she knows where he went. She manages to find Loke at Karen's grave and tells him that she knows Karen was his former summoner, and that his real identity is Leo the Lion, one of the twelve Zodiac Celestial Spirits. Loke confirms this and reveals that he was exiled from the Celestial Spirit World for the crime of killing Karen Lilica, his former master.^[8]

The Past, The Present, The EndEdit

Loke tells Lucy about his past and his pain for the sin he committed three years ago.

Back then, he was a Celestial Spirit of Karen Lilica, a very well-known member of the Blue Pegasus Guild. However, her fame had left her very conceited and arrogant, especially towards her Spirits whom she treated more like tools than living things. One day, she was walking around with an entourage of men following her and trying to woo her. Not wanting to deal with them all, she summoned Aries and had her entertain them in Karen's place. This was a task Aries was very uncomfortable with but Karen gave her no choice in the matter. The guild master, Bob, warned Karen for abusing her spirits and told her that if she continued to do this, she would be the next to suffer.^[9]

However, Karen thought Aries had told on her. When they were alone in her abode, she summoned Aries to punish her by making her stay in the human world for seven days, an act that would kill a Spirit since they presumably can't stay out for that long. Before Karen could do so, Loke suddenly changed places with Aries, much to Karen's surprise. He demanded that Karen terminate the contracts she had with them explaining that no Celestial Spirit will work with her anymore. Karen tried to force his gate closed but to no avail and since he was summoned out, she couldn't summon any of her other spirits. Loke then went to wait in some nearby ruins, telling Karen to come and find him once she met his demands.^[10]

However, Karen stubbornly rejected his demands. After thirty days, she visited him once again, begging Loke and promising not to mistreat Aries anymore. However, Loke saw through her lies and refused her offer. This angered Karen who stomped on him and proclaimed that once he died, she would summon Aries and treat her ten times as worse before leaving him.

After three months, Loke found that he could stay in the human world much more easily, though he couldn't stop his vitality from draining. He then decided to forgive Karen, feeling she had learned her lesson and that he could just defend Aries again if she mistreats her again. However, once he got back into town, he found out Karen had gone on a mission, despite being unable to summons spirits, and had gotten herself killed as a result. Hearing this, Loke felt guilty and cried, blaming himself for her death.^[11]

After finishing his story, Loke collapses and starts fading since his life force is starting to run out, but Lucy refuses to let him die and tries to think of a way to open his gate.^[12]

The King's DecisionEdit

Lucy tries everything she can to save Loke despite him giving up. She attempts to open his gate forcefully and nearly merges with his life force which would make her disappear as well. Loke pleads her to stop, saying he doesn't need to be saved, but Lucy refuses and officially declares her wish to change the rules of the Celestial Spirit World for his sake.^[13]

The terrain then starts to change and the Celestial Spirit King appears, greatly shocking them. The King tells Lucy that despite Leo not breaking the rules directly, he still caused Karen's death and is not allowed to return to the Spirit World. Lucy argues with him saying that he has suffered enough and it's unfair that how the King can just let his friend die, which troubles the King since he wants to save him but then he can't change the rule. Lucy still argues that he shouldn't focus on the past and that he should focus on now.^[14]

With her will and determination, Lucy summons her all of her six ecliptic spirits and Plue who all stand by her decision. This surprises Loke and the King since most of the Celestial Spirit Mages cannot summon more than one at a time. The spirits disappear shortly after and Lucy collapses from her overuse of Magic which nearly took her life. The King decides to call this case an exception and allows Leo to return to the Spirit World since Lucy has gone this far to save Loke and that the rule is what causes both of them to suffer.^[15]

Loke at first didn't want to due to his sin, but the king ordered him to continue living for the sake of his friends and Lucy in order to atone for his "sin". Shortly after, Loke's gate opens. He sheds his tears and thanks Lucy for all that she has done for him. He tells her that despite the fact his sin hasn't been erased, at least he can now look up and move on. He then gives Lucy his key saying that he will be there for her whenever she needs him, which she also agrees to.^[16] The next day, Lucy summons Loke and lets him explain to the others about everything. Afterwards, Loke flashes tickets for a vacation resort as thanks to all of them. Erza shows up with a Hawaiian getup and her large luggage as usual. They leave as soon as possible to the resort.^[17]

Anime DifferencesEdit

• During the play, numerous filler characters appeared in the anime.
• After completing the job and staying at the hotel, it showed that Juvia had followed Team Natsu and even supplied Gray with numerous pillows for the pillow fight.
• There is a public bath scene added in Episode 31, which showed Lucy and Loke enjoying a drink together, and he secretly telling her about who he really is, by telling her what happens to a star that can't return.
• When Lucy's spirits were summoned, she summoned all the spirits she had which was a total of nine at the time. In the Manga, she only summoned six spirits, including her gold keys with the addition of Plue.
• When Loke told Lucy that he can finally move on, he said this to her after returning to the spirit world. In the manga, he said this as he was returning to the Spirit World.

ReferencesEdit

Arc NavigationEdit

Phantom Lord arc

Loke arc

Tower of Heaven arc

←	Chapters	→
70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74

←	Episodes	→
30 | 31 | 32