Chapter 42: Delicious food from another world

Erza dragged Scarlet by the hood of her jacket. The mysterious door was just there, no building surrounding it nor was the building invisible. 

"Stop dragging me, I can walk." Scarlet mumbled and yanked her hood from Erza's grip, the Grimm girl scoffed as she looked at Erza and then at the door. "So, what's the deal here? Just some random door?"

Erza grinned a little. "Oh, it's much more than just a door. This is Nekoya."

"Neko....ya?" Scarlet tilted her head, she couldn't understand what Erza was getting at, was she so battle damaged that she was making up words off the top of her head. "You're joking right?"

Erza didn't say anything, she reached for the door handle and pushed it opened. The bell rang from the other side which led to a restaurant, the smell of food filled Scarlet's nose as she could also hear other voices from inside. The Grimm girl looked curious and scanned the door looking inside seeing a whole different world, then she pulled her head out and looked around the door not seeing anything behind it. The classic Doctor Who Tardis trope.

A voice echoed in Scarlet's head as it was someone from inside the restaurant talking to her telepathically. "Welcome, table for two?"

Erza didn't seem unfazed by this, it was almost as if this was a regular for her. Titania nodded her head and walked inside, she looked back at Scarlet for a moment and sighed, she reached out the door and grabbed Scarlet by her jacket once more and pulled her in.

"Greetings Master Tenshu, Kuro and Aletta" Erza said with a warm smile and took a seat near the back, she slid Scarlet into her own seat. "Cat got your tongue? 

Scarlet was silent, she looked at everything that surrounded the two. She saw a humanoid lion just casually eating food like it was nothing, her eyes scanned the room more seeing different people and different races, from the lion to a dragon girl and Elves aside from the humans. 

"Hello Erza, what would you like to order this time?" Kuro asked through telepath. "Same usual order of strawberry cake and a melon soda float?"

Erza nodded her head. "Yes, my usual please. As for my fr...er... well I'll let her take it over from here."

Kuro and Scarlet locked eyes with each other, Scarlet seemed to be thinking long and hard about what she wanted. Then she decided what exactly she'd ask for, she was curious on how well this so-called restaurant could hold up to her taste buds. "I'll have a pint of beer, a Chocolate Parfait, Beef steak, omelet rice and....Pork Loin-Cutlet."

Erza looked at Scarlet with a dumbfounded look on her face, of course Kuro didn't seem to be bothered by this she looked over towards Tenshu. "Did you catch all that?"

Tenshu nodded and began preparing the food order, Aletta soon came over with Scarlet's drink and Erza's melon soda float. The two just sat there waiting, Erza's cake had came as Scarlet's order came one by one, until there wasn't anymore room on the table.

"Are you insane?" Erza asked. "Ordering all this food, you must really be starving.." She rolled her eyes and just decided to enjoy her cake and melon soda float.

Scarlet didn't say much to what Erza said, but played along for now. "A growing girl like myself needs all the food she can get. Even if I have to have a diet of raw meat and blood." She smirked and took a few gulps from her beer mug, the flavor was indescribably good. This beer was unlike any other alcohol she had, was it because it tasted sweeter? Or was it the fact that I was actually cold. She then grabbed a set of chopsticks and picked up one of the Pork Loin-Cutlets, taking a bite out of it. There was the crispy crunch sound that came from it, Scarlet chewed slowly taking in the flavor of each bite.

Erza chuckled under her breath. "It doesn't hurt to change your pallet now does it? The food here is mind blowing. Even if someone were to come close to making something similar, it wouldn't taste as good as it does here." 

Scarlet scoffed, but she felt the gaze of the dragon woman. The Red Queen had just finished her beef stew, of course she would be getting a month's worth in a bigger pot to take home. " Hmm, I've never seen someone of your race before...."

Scarlet swallowed hard, a lump of food went down her throat. She started coughing as she took a few more swallows from her beer, she pounded her chest and sighed. She was a bit taken by surprise that the dragon woman was talking to her. "Well I haven't seen a Faunus that resembled a dragon before, so we're even."

The Red Queen raised an eyebrow up and huffed, a small flame came out of her mouth. It seemed Scarlet annoyed her to the point of being angry, Erza sighed and face palmed. "I'm terribly sorry for my friend's words, what she means is. She's never seen such a beautiful dragon in her entire life."

Scarlet kicked Erza's leg from under the table as Erza kicked her back, she glared at Scarlet for a moment and whispered. "Don't screw this up, play nice."

~~~

The restaurant was clearing out, only a few patrons stayed as well as Erza and Scarlet. Of course, Scarlet being Scarlet was on her ninth helping of beer. Erza groaned in disgust at how much alcohol Scarlet had put away and didn't appear to be drunk.

"Are we done here? That's your ninth helping of beer." Erza spoke in an annoyed tone. "If you haven't forgotten, we have to stop Dracula and his army."

 Scarlet scoffed under her breath and crossed her arms. "Ya know, if this restaurant can take others back to their homes, why can't it take you back to Magnolia?" The Grimm girl smirked and glared at Erza. "Didn't you think of that? You seem to be well known here."

Erza opened her mouth and was about to say something but didn't, she felt embarrassed at the fact that Scarlet had cornered her. She was right, why didn't she just find that out. Could it be that there were certain areas in different worlds that didn't seem to be a problem for Nekoya to appear in. Her face was steaming from embarrassment, her face was as red as her crimson red hair. "S-Shut up!"

Scarlet snickered and finished her beer. She stood up and stretched, her eyes scanned around the room before walking towards the door. "Well I'm stuffed." She turned her gaze towards Erza who was still flushed in the face from embarrassment. "So what's the plan? You staying to see if this place can take you back to Magnolia?"

Erza quickly tried to gather herself together, she cleared her throat and coughed. "Wait, you seriously don't plan on stopping Dracula all by yourself do you? Even without Belmot, Sypha and Alucard's help, you won't stand much of a chance against him."

Scarlet glared at her for a moment, then an idea popped into her head. Which Kuro could tell wouldn't work. Her voice echoed in Scarlet's head as she spoke to her. "Your idea will not work. Once the door makes its next stop. You will have to wait the second Saturday for the door to reappear."

Scarlet then turned her gaze towards the elf and put her hands on her hips, as if she was talking back to her through telepath. "Oh? And what if I want to lure in someone? Surely there's no crime against that."

This information was shared to Tenshu and Aletta as well as Erza. "You can't be serious.... do you have any idea what she could do?" Clearly Erza hadn't met Salem, but she was scared of what she would or could do."

"Oh please, you haven't met my mother... why are you so scared? Oh wait... I know." Scarlet snickered again. "You're scared of what magic she would unleash upon you." She kept her hands on her hips and laughed. "Please, all we need to do is lure her in. Then when we get out where we were before... I'll take it from there."

"But who's supposed to knock her out cold? Don't you think that's risking things?" Erza asked. "Isn't she all mighty and powerful?"

"Oh don't worry..." Scarlet said with a grin. "Fast is the best key for this scenario."

Erza sighed as Tenshu face palms, everything was silent for a moment, Scarlet moved away from the door as it slowly opened.

~~~

The door reappeared back in Wallachia 1476, The door swung open as Scarlet came falling out. She had herself wrapped around Salem as Erza had her sword pierced through Salem's stomach, the door vanished quickly before Salem could register everything. But this was Salem before the fall of Atlas.

"Now would be a very good time to set your plan into motion." Erza said taking her sword out. "Do whatever it is you're planning!" Erza had failed to notice it was nighttime, which also meant the night creatures would be coming out to play. She backed up and waited to see what Scarlet had planned.

Scarlet hissed and held her grip around her mother's body. "You will no longer be a threat to that timelines Remnant."

Salem struggled and yelled, her eyes glowed. Her arms were pinned to her sides. Just like how Hazel had done before Oscar used Ozpin's magic on Salem, Scarlet bit a dust crystal in her mouth setting both of them on fire. But Salem took the heat more than what Scarlet did, clearly showing that the dust crystal was in a weak state but was strong enough to harm Salem. It seemed that the dust was losing its touch and effects of being useful in fights, Scarlet needed to find a way to get more but without any Schnee Dust companies around or dust mines. Black Rose was only useful in its scythe form. 

Erza soon took notice of the night, she got on her feet and stayed on guard. "Scarlet, any day now." She heard the growling and howling of the creatures, the rattling of skeleton bones could be heard as well. "They're coming!"

"Keep your shirt on Titania." Scarlet spoke with a annoyed tone.

Salem yelled more and struggled, she gritted her teeth in anger. "Unhand me this instant!"

Scarlet looked at Salem, her eyes full of rage. "Oh I will." Her jaw unhinged like a snake's mouth, she stuffed Salem's head into her mouth and quickly slurped her up. 

Erza watched in horror at the sight. She shivered a bit but then Scarlet exploded, sending a shock-wave throughout the area which also caused the night creatures and Erza to be pushed back. The trees were uprooted and fell over and the buildings shook and crumbled, Erza slammed her sword into the ground to stop herself from being blown away from the impact. 

"What the hell?" Erza asked, her gaze looking up at the cloud of smoke. The moon light shined down upon it as it slowly cleared, Erza waited to see what was left or if Scarlet had survived. 

"Finally..." Scarlet spoke, her nevermore wings flapping to clear the smoke around her. "Now, it's an even playing field." Her crimson red hair had changed to a silver color as it flowed in the wind. Her appearance had changed just like it had before, the same appearance Erza had seen her in during their first fight.