FIguring nothing else would help to take her mind off of her depression, Tori decided to throw herself into a job. Maybe, she thought, that would ease the pain of what had transpired over the last few weeks. She had heard through the grapevine that Luciel, apprentice to the royal aid Merlin, had a science experiment go a bit wrong recently. She learned that Luciel made a small blunder in her lab, and by small, Tori assumed huge. It appeared that she accidentally spilled some of a strange potion that she was working on onto a lab rat. This sparked a violent reaction that made the rodent increase in both size and aggression. Unfortunately, in a follow up blunder, Luciel failed to trap the mutant creature before it escaped into the night. It was later spotted in the middle of the streets of Crocus, but the citizens were too scared to approach it, rightfully so as it was far too strong to be challenged by an average joe of a person. At any rate, Tori surmised that interviewing the citizens of Crocus would be the best bet to find where the creature had been hiding out. It would only make sense that it would choose to shelter itself somewhere far from any large crowds. While it was probably not scared of a single person, any living creature would be wary of attacking a large group, each of which being a couple times bigger than itself.

Tori knew exactly how the rat felt if she was being honest with herself. Knowing everyone hated you was brutal. But unfortunately, the die was cast, and the rodent's time had to be cut short on this world. She approached a man who was sweeping the sidewalk in front of his front door. "Excuse me sir. I'm looking for the large rat that was spotted around here not too long ago. Would you be able to point me in the right direction, by chance?" she queried, hoping for a head start on the creature. "Well, it has been about 3 or 4 days, but I did see it in that dumpster over there before it wandered north." he said while pointing to an alley across the street. She figured that was as good a place as any to start, so she headed towards the alley to see what she could find.

It appeared that the garbage had been collected recently, within the last day or two, so she wouldn't be able to tell if the rat was looking for scraps as the man had told her it had been double the time since he had seen the creature. But looking closer, she noticed scratches on the side of the trash receptacles, large ones at that. That meant that something was looking for food in the dumpster, and the claw marks were much too big to be from an ordinary rat or any other rodent for that matter. She searched the ground in the immediate area and found a few similar marks in the stone that made up the ground, but none that formed a pattern of any sort, much less a direction which she could follow. Going around the building, Tori discovered that this alley was next to a restaurant that looked to be having its lunch rush. Speaking to the manager would confirm that this was their busiest time of day, as well as the story she was told by the other man about the rat rummaging through the dumpster. According to him, the rat shows up every day around the same time, after the lunch rush but after everyone has finished their breaks. This allows the creature to find food while avoiding any contact with humans at the same time. Going off of what the manager said and the current time, she figured she had about another hour or so to wait before finding the time to strike. "If you'd like, I can whip you something up to eat while you wait. Consider it my own personal thank you for getting rid of this nuisance for us. To be completely honest, we've tried to keep it quiet but word gets around fast. And just by coming by every now and then, our business has suffered. Would you want to eat at a restaurant that had a rat problem?" he said chuckling, but then realizing that's precisely what he just offered her. He shuddered to think of how she would respond but, in the end, would be pleasantly surprised when she would take him up on his offer.

"Well, considering the creature only shows up after lunch, I think I better take you up on that while I have the chance. Get while the getting is good, right?" she answered chuckling. Tori took a seat while waiting for her food to be brought to her table. She ended up ordering something light, considering this monster would probably put up a bit of a fight and the ice mage knew better than to go into a fight with a full stomach. In no time at all, a plate was set down in front of her holding a grilled cheese sandwich. The food was accompanied with a simple glass of water, as she didn't want to impose too terribly on the restaurant who was already doing too much by giving her a free meal. But at the same time, she was not about to be rude to someone who was going out of his way by being so kind. She finished eating long before the lunch rush was over, and probably sat at the table for around two hours before the manager came up to her once more. "My last employee is taking his post lunch break now. Just thought I'd let you know that the vermin will be here soon." he said in a hushed tone so as not to alarm the other patrons. "Good luck."

Tori finished off her glass of water and sat it back down onto the table next to the bare plate. A busboy immediately came by and collected them and was on her way, nodding his head to her as he crossed her path. She started to make her way to the front door when a thought occurred to her. She turned around on the spot and asked to speak to the manager in private. He then led her into the kitchen and asked what else he could do for her. "It just dawned on me. In order to see where the creature goes after he leaves the alley, I'll have to be peering around a corner." she explained, to which the manager nodded in agreement. "Yes, I suppose that would be the most effective method of surveillance." he retorted. "But if I were to lean in from the front, anyone passing by on the street could see and wonder what's going on. They would assume the worst and that could hurt your business even further. Not to mention the possibility that, heaven forbid, someone comes to see what's going on and startles it and gets attacked for their trouble." she continued. The manager scratched his chin before agreeing. "Well, you're probably right. So in that case, why not use the back door? It's secluded from the populace, as I don't want customers seeing their cooks outside smoking cigarettes or anything. Bad for the appeal and all that. Not to mention, it will give you a far better view point and we can block off the front entrance to the alley just in case it tries to go that way or anyone from the street tries to come in." Tori nodded, accepting the suggestion as the manager instructed one of his kitchen staff to lead her out of the back door and into the break area. Meanwhile, he had another employee run out of the building and get in his vehicle to move in in front of the alley. Since the rat was so big, it wouldn't be able to squeeze underneath the car so the way would effectively be blocked.

Finding no other glitches in the plan, Tori waited for her little visitor to come for lunch. She crouched behind the fence, waiting for the rat to show up and as luck would have it, she wouldn't have to wait long. Within minutes, she heard scratching from the stone of the road and metal of the dumpster. Peering ever so slightly around the corner, she finally saw the size of it and she was not mentally prepared for the surprise. She knew it was supposed to be big, but she didn't think THIS big. She would have to come up with a more thorough plan to rid Crocus on this creature once and for all. After eating its fill, the rat began to clear the area and the chase was on. Tori grabbed a piece of food from beside the dumpster in case she needed to trap the beast and silently followed the rodent all the way to its hideout. Turns out this rat had found a house on the west side of town, just outside the city limits. From the looks of it, the house had been abandoned for some time, which makes sense considering any normal person would be pretty hysterical of a huge mutant rat showed up and just decided to stay in their house.

She looked around the area and found a tree that she could climb and a branch that extended onto the roof of the home. Upon reaching the rooftop, she found a rather large hole in the ceiling. She thought to herself if the house was abandoned because of the giant hole or the giant hole was there because the house was abandoned and therefore was not maintained. In any case, she waited to see if the rat would pass by underneath. If it did, she could easily ambush it and get the jump on it that way. Waiting for a few minutes, she saw a shadow start to make its way across the floor and sure enough, the creature wasn't far behind. The problem was that the rat moved too quickly for Tori to jump on it, so she had to get it when it was still, even for a moment. She grasped the piece of trash that she had retrieved, knowing that it would come in handy for a situation such as this. After a minute, she dropped it onto the floor below. It made a soft thud as it landed, but it was loud enough to get the mutant's attention. It turned around and approached the scraps to inspect it, while Tori crossed her arms, ready to fire off her Diamond Storm spell. As it stood motionless, Tori jumped from the rooftop, releasing her arms to fire off the shards of ice that quickly and silently flew towards the creature. The shards of ice stuck to its front feet, pinning him to the ground. Immediately after throwing them, she extended her arm and produced a sword of ice from it, lengthening her arm as a whole. As she descended, she aimed the sword towards the rat and delivered a powerful stab into the creature's head, killing it instantly. Normally, the rat may have been able to survive a would from the sword, but the momentum with which the attack was delivered as well as the head would would prove fatal, no matter how hardy it had become.

She exited through what little of a front door was there, and suddenly a thought occurred to her. If anything were to come by and eat the rat, the same problem would repeat itself so it needed burying. However, she had nothing to shovel with. As she pondered the situation, she noticed a sign on the front door that read "CONDEMNED FOR DESTRUCTION" in bold letters. She figured the house could bury the rat since it was scheduled for demolition anyway. She would even be doing the city of Crocus a favor, and making her feel a little better at the same time. She faced the building and inhaled deeply before releasing a powerful gust of icy wind from her lungs in the form of her Frost Dragon Roar spell. The icy cyclone ripped through the weakened building, destroying the base of the house along with part of the foundation. At that point, gravity took over and brought the rest of the house down on top of the creature. So with that; the mutant was buried, the city didn't have to waste any money coming to bulldoze an abandoned house, and Tori was able to get a load off her chest, literally. She sighed in relief, thinking back to what she had been told by the Rune Knight in the city square and by the woman in the bar. It was decided. After collecting her reward, she would head back to Magnolia, back to Fairy Tail, and hopefully..back home.

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