Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 1: Fairy Tail

Word Count: 19794 

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The year is X781.

All at once, a few things happened.

Cana was making a delivery to the orphanage with the two older Strauss siblings, but as they crossed the church gates they found themselves not surrounded by stone walls-- but in a large, carpeted hall. The doorway vanishes behind them.

Levy was with Lisanna and Erza. They had just finished a delightful supper of desserts, and were about to stop by a bookstore on their way. Levy walks backwards, excitedly reciting the synopsis of this new book she just had to get-- then suddenly they weren't walking on the street anymore. 

Laxus was with his Thunder God Tribe, of course. They weren't even in Magnolia. They were ready to ambush a certain dark guild they've been commissioned to take down. When a huge magic circle spread out beneath them, they initially thought they'd been discovered. Imagine their surprise when they emerge to Erza pointing a sword at them, equally shocked on both ends.

Gray was coming back from a late job, and was ready to just conk out in his house. He finds Loke at the doorway of the guild, and they begin talking. Loke's just recently joined, and Gray wanted to know if he was comfortable here. They enter the guild together-- and find themselves nowhere familiar.

Happy and Natsu... were fishing. Then suddenly the lord of the pond scoops them up, they nearly get eaten, and somehow they're here. Yeah, weird.

"What's going on here?!" Laxus is first to spark out with irritation. Dammit! Did they get tricked or found? He was in the middle of a job, dammit.

"I suspect this is some sort of space magic," Freed observes his surroundings, "but I don't see any magic circles of any sort."

"Aren't you supposed to be all the way north, working in the West Forest? Why are you here?" Gray points out, alarmed.

"Huh? What's everyone doing here?" Natsu gets up, very confused, "Laxus? Laxus, fight me!"

"Wait, Natsu!" Lisanna rushes over, "now's not the time!"

"Aye, Natsu, you're just going to lose in a second so let's save the word count and omit that pointless interaction!" Happy agrees.

"Huh? Lisanna? I thought you were going to the cake shop with EeeeeerzAAA?? What're you doing here? Wait, where am I?!"

"God, get a clue, Natsu," Loke sighs. "We're all confused here."

"I don't know what's going on," Evergreen speaks up, "but it's clear that all of us, all over the country, just suddenly got transported here."

"Don't you think it's Phantom again?" Bickslow asks, and his wooden dolls echo in agreement: "Phantom! Phantom!"

"With this many Fairy Tail members here, it's definite that we're the target of this, whatever this is," Mirajane surmises, turning herself into a Satan Soul, "let's bust out."

Laxus spikes into a fury of electric sparks, and Natsu grins, firing up a fistful of Fire Dragon's Iron Fist. They were going to aim for the nearest wall and--

"No, it's hard to say we're even in Fiore," a new voice interrupts.

Everyone swirls around in alarm, "Gildarts?!"

All at once, everyone quietens, the sudden horror of the situation dawning on them. Gildarts was supposed to be out in his job, a hundred-years quest. He was down in a whole other continent-- why would he be here except for a magical phenomenon?

If this was an enemy, they'd have to be formidable if they caught Gildarts of all people in the mess. But why this crowd?

"Let's all calm down," Cana raises her hands between the two-- three hotheads, being Laxus, Erza, and Mirajane who all had a hand on weapons or magic, pointed at each other. "Let's assess the situation calmly."

And the three turned away, obliging.

"Isn't it amazing how Cana has authority over them?" Lisanna whispers.

"Cana joined first, so she has lots of dirt on their baby days," Levy explains, "they listen to her out of respect for that meager seniority, if not for anything else."

They calm down.

The hall isn't very big. It's a comfortable size for their amount of people, and it's full of chairs, from sofas to loveseats to benches. There are soft rugs and plenty of pillows, all lined up spaciously along a huge white wall.

There's a door in the other direction, but when they split up to search, they found a lot of rooms along a labyrinth of hallways, all comparable to suites in a high-class hotel. There's also a kitchen, a dining hall, and a communal bath.

But no windows, no doors out of here.

There's a stairs upward, but it leads to a big, forest-like training room that restores itself once it's damaged. There's an infirmary and medical supplies all around the place as well, in case anyone gets hurt.

A few of them ran around punching walls to no avail. Even Gildarts couldn't shatter a wall, which meant everything was reinforced with Magic Cancellation. That meant they were out of escape options.

They gathered back in the hall, and only Levy found anything useful.

"There was a Lacrima Vision Crystal under the coffee table," Levy shows them the little device first. She picks out a box beside it, filled with little USB-shaped items-- "and there are a lot of used memory drives. They're even numbered."

"There's a few hundred of them," Loke looks at them, slightly appalled. He sifts through each identical one, trying not to mess up the order.

Levy then shows them the one that's numbered X.

"But this is the only odd one out among them," Levy explains, slotting it into the device and setting it up before the wall so it'd project well. "I'm going to play it."

"Hey, is this recording? Hope it is, cause I've always kinda sucked at this videoing business." A man shows up on the screen, dressed in a full-bodied cloak, with his face covered. "My name is Yuri."

And Laxus' eyebrow raised. Gildarts' reaction is similar.

"Yuri is the name of Master's father," Gildarts mentions, and a few others gasp at the information, "and a founder of the guild, as well. It could be that they have the same name, but..."

The man gestures around, the fingerless gloves and leather clothes underneath making it rather evident that he was a mercenary, not just some weirdo in a dark long cloak.

"I'm leaving behind this message, this recording, with very valuable evidence," his tone dulls from his cheerful greeting, sounding stern and serious. "To make it simple-- approximately ten years from now, Fairy Tail will disband."

The silence that permeates is deafening.

"What sort of bullshit--" Laxus snaps first, but Natsu is the first to blow.

"Don't be ridiculous!" he shouts, crushing the table under his enraged fist, "that's impossible! Fairy Tail would never--"

"Calm down, Natsu!" Erza commands sharply.

No one in the room looks anything other than utterly furious at this point, so Levy sits around the Lacrima crystal in case anyone tries to destroy it. This was their only lead out of it, so he can't afford for the hotheads to ruin that.

"I can assure you I'm not lying," Yuri says emptily, "it's why I have gathered you here. I'm here to show you the future, because this story is a long one."

Yuri pulls down his sleeve, and shows the screen his guild mark.

Almost everyone straightens, a few gasping but all eyes were wide with alarm. If a Fairy Tail Wizard is making such a bold claim-- they can't possibly be lying.

That means Fairy Tail will really...?

"I'm one of Fairy Tail's founders, I guess. Yuri Dreyar," he introduces himself,

"Dreyar?" Gray gapes, "then he really is Gramps'..."

"So that's Laxus' great-grandaddy?" Bickslow asks, pointing curiously.

Laxus shrugs. "Never met 'im, so I don't know."

"and I don't know who this message will be sent out to, but there's one thing I ask of you guys-- watch the future, and save Fairy Tail!"

The screen flickers shut.

There's silence.

Levy moves down to retrieve the memory drive-- but she squeaks when the screen abruptly flickers on again, showing a few lines of text.

[You may use any of the facilities in this building, and the exit will open upon completion of the viewing.]

[Time is stopped outside of this building, and you will be returned to your rightful spots once this is over. Take as many hours as you need.]

And this time when it flickers out, it stays off.

It's another minute later when anyone says anything. It's Cana, sighing as she makes herself comfortable with a barrel of booze (that she somehow got from the kitchen?)

"Cana?" Lisanna asks.

"There's no sense in thinking about it," Mirajane explains, angrily settling down, "this Yuri person... we don't know what the heck's going on, but we can't get any answers from him if he's apparently a bloody fossil and we can't go rob his grave or get out."

"But, Nee-san, all this sounds so ridiculous!" Elfman argues, "seeing the future? Is that even possible?"

"It's a Lost Magic," Freed says,and everyone turns to him. "Accurate visions of the future... it's definitely possible. Cana's fortune telling is a watered-down version of that ancient skill, that's been lost in time."

There's silence again, and no one really knows what to say.

"Oh god, look at how many there are," Levy mourns, "if these were books we could get through it quickly with the Wind-Reading glasses... but we'll have to watch all these one by one. It might take days, weeks, or even months."

"No, I don't wanna spend a month in this place!" Evergreen whines.

"Yeah, it'll get so stuffy!" Elfman agrees, "I wanna train, too!"

"Don't worry about that, there's a huge forest upstairs to keep us all fit," Erza looks strangely excited by that, I'm looking forward to training with you guys again."

"No!" Gray whines.

"Yes!" Natsu cheers.

"You idiot, do you want to die?"

"It's a fight with Erza!"

One by one, they gave in to the situation. If Gildarts couldn't destroy a building in here, no one could. Let's say Yuri wasn't lying, then they have no demerits to staying here and watching the future.

In fact, it'd help save Fairy Tail, which is something everyone wants right now.

"So it's decided, we'll watch it," Gildarts says. And everyone nods.

-

Everyone settles down after that, taking off their coats and dressing comfortably as they were in for a long ride. So everyone curled around the seats, and Levy rummaged around for the first recording.

"There's a note here!" she announces, picking out a piece of paper under the stack of boxes. "It reads, to tell you the end, I must tell you of the beginning. And the beginning was a girl called Lucy."

"Lucy?" Natsu repeats, curious, "who's that?"

"Is she the cause of whatever ruins Fairy Tail?" Gray asks, and a few narrows their eyes at the suggestion.

"It's likely," Erza agrees, "we don't have a girl called Lucy here..."

Laxus tenses. Is that the girl that'll ruin his guild?

"In every way, she is a Fairy Tail mage," Levy reads, and everyone's shoulders loosen in relief, "and she will be the reason it rises again."

Everyone lifts.

"That means she's what we need to save Fairy Tail!" Levy realizes, "guys, keep an eye out for this Lucy, okay?"

And the video plays.

-

"The Kingdom of Fiore."

Clouds part from the center of the screen, pulling away from the middle and revealing a map of their land.

"Eh?" Loke says, confused, "is this a documentary? Levy..."

"This is really the right one!" she panics slightly, "this is weird. It should be showing us the future, so what is this?"

"A neutral country of 17 million people. This is a world of magic."

The land is shown in a fortune teller's orb, spiking with a purple spark of energy.

The scene fades out into a rustic series of sketches, like a documentary showcasing the daily commodities provided by magic. The images depict magic-run express trains, stoves lit by lacrima fire, SE-Plug energy cars, and a lesson conducted through the use of a light pen.

"Magic is bought and sold there every day. It is an integral part of people's lives."

"Wait, something's weird," Erza tells them, stopping the chaos of commotion coming from the few, "it's--"

"It's speaking as if Magic isn't commonplace to begin with," Freed says, "it's explaining the concept of magic-- a normal documentary shouldn't need to go into this much detail. And half of those are outdated forms of Holder Magic."

And that causes a wave of realization.

"Isn't it because this was made long ago?" Mirajane asks, "maybe Yuri had some weird hobbies and decided to make an amateur documentary outta our futures, y'know?"

"Yeah he kind looks the type to mess around with weird stuff," Bickslow laughs. His dolls echo with their ominous laughter.

"And there are those who use magic as their occupation. Those people are referred to as mages."

Black silhouettes form in the center of the screen, their outlines wavy as if seen through a water's surface. They begin to take a more solid shape, and soon a crowd of mages, all wearing strange hats or hoods of some kind, could be discerned.

"The wizards belong to various guilds, and perform jobs on commission."

The scene zooms in on the mage at the front, and goes black for a moment. The screen fades in once more to show scenes of wizards in battle, in their travels, and scavenging for treasures.

The map of Fiore overlays once more to show guild buildings in Fiore.

"It's pretty long," Natsu pouts, then complains, "c'mon, c'mon, show us already! It's taking so long!"

"Aye!" Happy agrees.

"Now we know why there's so many," Levy chuckles, "each memory drive can't hold a lot of information, so this must have taken up quite a bit of data."

"There are a large number of guilds within the country. And in a certain city there lies a certain guild."

Happy appears on screen, flying through the mountains until Magnolia came over the horizon, the city overlooking the sea, and Kardia Cathedral standing proudly as its biggest, tallest structure.

"It's Happy!" Natsu beams, "look, Happy! Wait, what're you doing flying across the mountain like that, anyways?"

"How would I know?" Happy wonders, "but aye, it's me! I'm the main character!"

"I highly doubt that," Mirajane giggles with an evil denotation, "I mean, you're just a cat."

"What do you mean, just a cat? Say sorry to Happy!" Natsu bolts up angrily, but shrinks like a crumpled tissue when Mirajane glares at him.

Erza turns to them. "Hey, Mira, pick on someone your own size," she sneers.

"What, like you?" Mira taunts, sneering cheekily as she put her hands on her hips, smirking with devilish joy.

Erza boils with anger, drawing a sword out of her space. She stands up, and the tension boils between them.

"Woah woah, they're gonna fight!" Bickslow quickly runs out of attack range.

"Erza, Mira, stop that!" Gray yells, "this place is too small for you to--"

An explosion.

"A guild from which various legends were once born... or rather, will continue to be born long into the future..."

The camera follows Happy into the town, closing in on his bag-- and parts before the gild building, sliding up to the sign before focusing on its proud guild mark.

"And it's name is: Fairy Tail!"

Natsu emerges from the rubble first, and magic circles pop up around the place, fixing the area to its original form. Judging from the hole in the ceiling, Erza and Mirajane have decided to take a shortcut to the forest ground for their inevitable showdown.

Everyone sighs. "Not again..."

Music begins to play.

Their attention is turned back to the screen, and everyone watches.

"What's this? An opening?"

"Probably Yuri's weird hobbies."

"Dude that sounds kinda wrong."

"Just you mate, just you."

"Aye."

A white fairy's silhouette takes a step in the air, hopping off on its wings. Another follows-- then another, and another, until the frolic of fairies fill the screen glistening like stars in the night sky.

"A fairy!" Cana brightens up, "guys, look!"

"They have tails!" Lisanna gapes, "Natsu, Natsu, look, they have tails! Elf-niichan, are you seeing this? There are so many of them!"

"They look like stars!"

"Wooah!!" the younger ones huddle around the screen in awe, eyes sparkling with excitement. Even the Thunder God Tribe are gathered around to study them closely.

"We need to tell Master about this when we get back! Hey, Laxus! Look!"

Laxus scoffs, but his eyes are open to look.

"Come to think of it, fairies are our guild's namesake, right?" Loke asks.

"You're pretty new, huh?" Gildarts chuckles. He gestures at the kids, "they actually went around looking for fairies for a while when they were younger," he gestures at them. "The whole point of the name is to never find it, but I think they didn't quite understand that part. They just think it's cool."

"An eternal mystery, an eternal adventure," Loke remembers the guild's tagline and vision. He can't help but smile a little at the sight. "It's sort of like Blue Pegasus'."

"Oh, so you know them well?" Gildarts asks him.

"Kinda. It's a long story," Loke chuckles.

They shine over the Kardia Cathedral, their shimmering fairy dust fading in the moonlight. A ship sails the seas, with the fairy's lights guiding its way.

"Fairy, where are you going, we'll gather the light along the way."

Natsu stands in a clearing, the wind blowing against him. The lights swirl around him, and when the camera pans to the moon, the lights wrap around the stars.

"And make it shine upon a brand new day."

"It's Natsu!" Lisanna points excitedly. "Hey, do you think the rest of us will show up?"

"I'm sure we will, it's about our future, after all," Gray says.

The title 'Fairy Tail' sets itself in the center, grand and proud as the scenery behind it changes from night to day.

"...and there's our guild name," Evergreen says, "I guess it means we're the stars."

"Oh yeah."

The camera pans sharply, and settles on a cliff, where a blonde girl stands by a tree, looking down towards the town. A white, vaguely human-shaped thing stood by her feet, standing only a head tall.

Everyone straightens a little. "Who's that?" Natsu asks, trying to sniff the screen before realizing he can't smell pictures, "she doesn't look familiar."

"I've never seen her before," Cana says. She's been around this town longer than many others except Gildarts, so she knows a lot of people. If she didn't know anyone... "She's probably not from Magnolia."

"But if she shows up, surely she's important?" Evergreen says, "do you think she's Lucy?"

Loke's eyes narrow on the little white figure beside the girl. Is that a...?

"Can you hear this voice that's calling you now?"

She's shown closer next, and the little fairy silhouette jumps over her back. As if startled by the fairy, the girl turns around. A heart-shaped earring jostles by her ear.

"She's pretty," Loke's eyes glint with attention, and Gray facepalms.

"Is that all you think about?"

"Hey, it's important, okay?" Loke pouts, "she's a cutie. If you say you don't think so, you're lying to yourself, Gray." And Gray blushes, turning away with a hmph.

"Oh, so she's Gray's type?" Lisanna teases.

Cana jumps on the bullying bandwagon, "so Gray's the shy type? Oooh."

"Shush, Lisanna!" Gray flusters, then panics, "don't you dare tell Mirajane! Don't tell--"

"Don't tell me what?"

Everyone screams.

Mirajane and Erza are back, full of bandages and wounds, but tired from their brawl. They seem to have come to some sort of truce in lieu of coming down to watch the show with the others.

"Mira-nee! Welcome back!" Lisanna greets her. Gray's face grows pale.

The girls settle back down where they were, turning back to the screen.

"So what's this I shouldn't know?" Mirajane chases, a mischievous glint into her eyes.

Gray gulps. If Mirajane gets any dirt on you you're in for a life of a lot of pain. So he points furiously at the screen and says, "look! Fairies!"

There's a fairy beside Lucy on the screen, and that successfully keeps the two girls very interested.

Crisis successfully averted, Gray thinks.

"Oh yeah."

The camera pans again, this time to the ruined rubble of what was probably once a building. To the side, leaning against a piece of debris, Gray stood shirtless, looking out toward the horizon where even more rubble lay.

"Oh, it's me!" Gray sits down quickly, excited.

"And as usual, your shirt does the disappearing act..." Cana mumbles.

Gray realizes, belatedly. "Ack."

"It's raw and hoarse from screaming after you."

The little fairy silhouette soars over Gray too, and he lifts his head, alarmed. The Fairy Tail mark on his chest stands out against the view.

"Wait guys-- have you been listening to the lyrics?" Erza says.

"It's just a song, so I don't think it's important..." Elfman mumbles, "they're interesting, though. Not very manly, but--"

"It's an adventure story!" Levy twinkles, "doesn't it kind of sound like a bright love story? It's kinda romantic."

"Levy and her fiction tropes again..."

"I don't get it," Natsu broods, arms folded.

"Aye," Happy says, "that's because you don't read, Natsu."

"Oh yeah."

This time, the camera pans to a long and scaled magic beast's horn, then narrows in upward to show a red-haired female knight standing by the downed beast, a proud sword brandished in her hand.

"It's Erza!" Lisanna leans into the girl's shoulder, "look, that's still your favourite armor!"

"Wait... how many years into the future is this?" Gildarts asks, "Erza looks a little bit more like a lady there..."

"That's true, you've got a bunch of wrinkles on your brows cause you keep frowning," Mirajane snides at the girl, "old hag."

"You wanna go, Mira?" Erza growls, smashing their foreheads together with fury.

"Cana, couldn't you go stop them?" Levy asks.

Cana downs a barrel of beer. "That's just how they get along, so leave it be."

"But it won't give up until you can answer it."

The fairy silhouette skids past her eyes, and she opens them, glancing in that direction for a deep, meaningful moment.

The wind blows past, and a leaf obscures the screen.

"Oh yeah. Oh yeah."

Natsu and Happy stand by the mountains, looking toward the forest. They turn around and smile, Happy leaping up to fit into the screen, both grinning brightly.

"And there's me again!" Natsu cheered, "it's settled, I'm the star of the show!"

"No, it's me!" Happy argues, pointing, "that's me over there and I've showed up more than you thus far!"

And they began arguing over who has more importance in the show.

"Is that seriously something to make a fuss over?" Gray gives them a side-eye, exasperated.

Lisanna chuckles, "c'mon, Natsu."

"But judging by the flow of things, I think the main character is Lucy," Levy says, "if she's important, we're probably going to follow her side of the future, don't you think?"

"Though all this time has passed I still remember."

The train appears on screen, before it changed into the inside, where the four of them-- Natsu, Gray, Erza, and the girl from before, Lucy, sat together.

Natsu is evidently motion sick, something like his soul or dead air coming out of his mouth as he suffered. Happy flapped a piece of paper as a fan to his face, trying to ease his suffering half-heartedly.

Lucy reads a map, and Gray listens intently. Erza is also listening, but alf of her attention is turned to the cake in her hands.

The previous, slightly human white thing-- was on the ground, making weird dancing movements.

"We're travelling together?" Gray perks up with interest, "what is that unholy combination? I really can't see it happening."

"Yeah, who the hell wants to team with you, ice princess?" Natsu mutters.

"The problem in the combination is you, you burning moron," Gray hisses.

Levy holds herself away from the mess, chuckling nervously as she deposits herself with Lisanna, further away from the strike zone.

"But, I wonder how this teaming happens," Lisanna wonders, "after all, if they're together..."

"Towns burn down, somehow," Elfman says, paling. "Master's gonna be mad."

Mirajane laughs boisterously, "oh, I really have to see this!"

"It'll be a really cool team, don't you think?" Bickslow laughs, "two idiots, Titania, and the blondie for some reason."

"Hey, I'm there too!"

"Oh, my bad, Happy."

Freed considers the image. "If it's this combination..." he hums, "don't you think Lucy's the smart one in this group?"

"She's reading the map," Happy agrees, "I can positively assure you that Gray and Natsu don't have enough braincells to understand maps."

"To be precise, they share one braincell and Happy has it," Lisanna says very bluntly.

"Oohs, they certainly need the brains," Mirajane takes the opportunity, "Erza's just a lump of muscle, after all. She'll need help."

"Alright, Mira, let's take this upstairs."

"The sun and moon and how they shine together."

The scene changed to a mountain view, where Erza manned a carriage led by a purple boar. Natsu was saggin out of the back window, his soul flying from his mouth. Gray and Happy are on the top of the carriage, and Lucy is looking out from the window, worried that Natsu would fall off.

A few of them laugh at that.

"Oh, look at yourself, Natsu!" Gray points, "you look so lame!"

"S-Shut up, Gray!" Natsu blushes, turning to Mira who's laughing her ass off in the corner, "stop laughing at me! You know I'm motion sick!"

Levy wipes a tear out of her eye, clinging to Lisanna as they laugh their energy out. "Why is Gray on the roof, anyways? There's definitely enough space in the carriage."

"So Lucy's the type to worry about Natsu, huh?" Loke says, "that's kind of like Lisanna, isn't it?"

And Lisanna chuckles, "that makes me want to meet her!"

The scene changes again, to a nighttime camping scene, where Natsu and Happy are wolfing down meat and fish by a fire. Gray is reading something off a piece of paper, and Lucy is giving him quite a judgemental side eye. Behind them, Erza is sleeping by her luggage.

"Happy's eating something in like, almost every scene," Bickslow says, "how much fish do you possibly have in your sack?"

"A lot!" Happy says, "I love fish, after all!"

"I wonder what Gray is looking at," Levy brings that side of the image to attention. She snickers in amusement, "Lucy's giving him quite a nasty look."

"Isn't it because he's half-naked?" Cana says.

"Oh, I'm so used to it I didn't even notice," Lisanna blinks in surprise. "When did that happen?"

"Whatever it is, are you guys sure you should be making that much of a ruckus? Erza is sleeping back there, y'know?" Evergreen says.

"Why is she sleeping, anyways?" Natsu wonders, "we haven't even set up sleeping spots yet. She's sleeping in her armor? Yikes."

"She's probably tired from manning the carriage, don't you think?"

"It feels so strange when you are not here with me,"

The human-shaped white doggy shivers in the gray, rainy scenery. Lucy sits by a bridge, her legs shaking over the edge as she looks into the water.

"It's that weird thing again," Natsu says, "what even is that thing anyway? A human? A bug? An alien? Is it edible?"

"It's always beside Lucy, so maybe it's kinda like Happy," Lisanna says.

"Huh? I'm the same as that humanoid weird thing?" Happy gawks, "I think I'm offended! Aye!"

Loke chuckles at Happy's minor distaste.

"It's a Celestial Spirit," Loke offers as an explanation, "gate of the Canis Minor-- it's called Nikora. It's something like a small dog."

"It's a dog?!" Happy blanches, "but it doesn't have ears! Or a tail! Or even fangs! How is that a dog? It's everything a dog isn't! It's an insult to dogs and I hate dogs!"

Happy runs up to Loke, patting his kene at every point, trying to prove something, and Loke only chuckles at how desperately whiny the little cat was.

"You sure know a lot about it, Loke," Levy says with interest, "Celestial Spirit magic... it's that thing where you summon creatures from another dimension, right?"

"I've never heard of it..." Erza mumbles.

"I heard it's pretty rare," Mirajane says, "and there are only twelve of the gold, really strong ones, right?"

"I used to know a Celestial Spirit Mage, you see..." Loke turns away, a sadness taking his eyes, "...well, that's beside the point. I just... learned a lot from her, I guess."

Natsu scrutinizes the screen. "So Rucy's an Extraterrestrial Bullshit mage?"

"Celestial Spirit mage," Lisanna corrects. "How on earth did you hear a more difficult word instead?"

She turns around, and her pained, saddened expression lifts slightly.

A hand raises in the distance, in the clearer skies.

"Huh? That's the flower bracelet I got for Mira-nee that she never wears!" Lisanna perks up quickly, getting closer to the screen, "Mira-nee, I think you're going to show up!"

"Huh?" Mira blanches a little, "isn't it too girly for me?"

"For the last time, it's not! It'll look cute!" Lisanna whines. "You used to wear them all the time."

Mirajane flusters at her little sister being so persistent. She turns away, fiddling with her fingers, "but cute flowers and butterflies aren't very Satan of me..."

"Oh, you and your typical punk girl image!" Lisanna whines. "We all know you'd look amazing if you wore a skirt, you know?"

Mirajane blushes madly, "I am not wearing any fluttery monstrosities! I'm not Erza!"

"And yet, Erza can rock a dress or three and still look badass," Lisanna says, eyeing her sister skeptically.

Erza snorts, "looks like Lisanna's on my side, Mira."

Mira throws a table at Erza.

"It's like I need your smile to keep me going."

And Mirajane, Natsu, Gray, and Erza stand there, calling for Lucy. Lucy smiles in relief, blinking away the tears before brimming into a grin.

Everyone in the room freezes shock still. Even Laxus' jaw drops.

"Oh my god, is that you, Mira?!" Gray points out, screaming in horror.

"This is the first time I've ever thought Mira was genuinely beautiful," Loke mutters.

"Dude no, that can't be her!" Bickslow exclaims, in denial, "maybe it's Lisanna! Just look how ladylike she is and look at that!" he points at the two in comparison, "it's heaven and hell!"

"Ooh, look who grew up to become a hottie," Cana says, giving Mira the suggestive side eye, "puberty hit you hard, sweetie?"

Mirajane gets irked.

Erza glints with honest interest. "That's a very pretty dress," she says, "so even Mira can look this gorgeous, huh..."

"Yesss!!" Lisanna squeals, holding Levy's hands, "look! Didn't I keep telling you guys Mira-nee's a goddess?"

"My sister is the most beautiful girl ever!" Elfman cheers, "oh, of course I'm including you too, Lisanna."

"Are you sure that's Mira, not Lisanna?" Gray asks again.

"That's definitely Mira, look at the forehead," Erza says.

"Yeah, and the hair is all wrong, too," Natsu says. "It's definitely not Lisanna."

"Aye."

Laxus stares at the screen, looking various forms of horrified, but then he looks to the side. Gildarts slings and arm around him, sniggering suggestively. Laxus punches him, and Gildarts dodges.

It's a second later that Mira goes around punching everyone on the head ("I didn't even say anything!" Freed and Levy whine) then she and Erza leave to go and fight.

Along with the mess with Laxus and Gildarts, the building was rumbling with aftershocks of magic. What even is all this? The show hasn't even started yet!

"Snowing, keep going, just honestly smile like your best,"

Natsu bursts out of the cliff, carrying a treasure chest above his head with a green wyvern hot on his heels. Happy screams behind him, rightfully flustered as he clung on for life.

"Natsu, what are you doing?!" Lisanna looks horrified at that.

"I'm gonna die!" Happy freaks out.

Natsu laughs, "in your face, wyvern!"

Erza observes the wanted poster, very calmly noticing that her other friends are wrapped within the vines of the very creature they are after. Natsu holds the probably dangerous flower away from his head, Lucy is screaming, and Gray is vainly clinging on for dear life, somehow only in his boxers.

"Please save us Erza," Gray fake sobs, "we're dying there."

"Erza's just so calm even when her friends are in danger there," Levy chuckles.

"Being calm is the key to victory!" Erza glints scholarly.

Lucy and Natsu run away from a huge hornet's nest, equally large hornets right behind them. Happy is nowhere to be seen.

Natsu and Gray fight, heads butted together angrily. Mirajane watches with a contented smile, Happy eats a fish with a slightly resigned expression, and Lucy laughs.

"Oh god, it's so weird. Look at Mira, she's actually smiling nicely," Natsu says, because he's an idiot and one punch wasn't enough to make him understand shut up.

Everyone turns stiff when Mira goes over to give him another two punches on the head.

"But all things aside, it's weird," Erza admits, "this isn't that far into the future, looking at all of us. It's probably only a handful of years down the road-- I don't even change that much. Mira's transformation is pretty drastic."

"So you think something might've happened?" Freed asks.

"That... or that isn't the Mirajane we know," Laxus mutters to himself, talking for the first time in a while.

"Together, it's warming, as fate is linking your time with mine,"

Erza shows on the screen, and Siegrain's face takes over the large of the screen. They look in different directions, but evidently think of the same thing. Something is shattered in the backdrop, like glass.

"That's Erza..." everyone draws the scene to attention, "who's the blue guy?"

Erza's fist tightens. "That's Siegrain," she tells them, "he's a member of the Magic Council. Like Master, he's a member of the Ten Wizard Saints."

And everyone gapes, shocked.

"You know such an important guy?" Bickslow asks.

"No," Erza says, looking down and narrowing her eyes, "I do not."

And no one chases for an explanation.

Then the scene changes, and the rest of the guild's core members are shown, from Master, to Macao, Wakaba, and Romeo, to Cana, Elfman, Mirajane, Loke, as well as Levy, Jet, and Droy.

"That's us!" Cana says, "Loke's there too, but I guess the Thunder God Tribe aren't around?" she wonders.

Lisanna pouts, "I haven't shown up yet?"

"Don't worry, Lisanna! I'm sure you'll show up soon!" Levy assures her.

"Fairy, where are you going,"

Lucy shows on screen again, sharply swiping something across the screen-- and in a burst of blue, and three figures conjured to life. A blue-haired mermaid, a bipedal cow, and a large grandfather's clock with a human face.

A few more figures cut past very quickly-- a man wearing sunglasses with orange claw-like structures coming from his back, a maid with pink hair, and then the Nikora.

"Woah, what's that!?" Lisanna says, "is that Celestial Spirit magic, Loke?"

Loke's eyes are sharpened on the familiar figures-- Taurus, Aquarius, Cancer, and even Virgo? That's impressive-- but when Lisanna speaks to him, he quickly morphs back into his gentle familiarity, "yep. Pretty cool, right?"

That little action doesn't miss Gildart's eyes.

"We'll gather the light along the way,"

Fire fills the screen, and is sucked into a dark figure.

A shimmer, and the energy bursts forth, causing a large explosion across the mountainous field. It extends to the sky.

"Oh my god Natsu, not again!" Lisanna squawks, holding hands before her as if she'd be burned, but she wasn't.

Natsu and Gray laugh.

"And make it shine upon a brand new day."

The guild members are shown again, this time looking at the destruction with a sort of pride or awe.

A monster takes the screen, and the four main characters stand before it. The scene cuts to Natsu, looking fierce and serious.

"Woah, what the heck is that?" Bickslow says.

"Yuck!" Evergreen shoots away, "It looks utterly repulsive. Why are you fighting such a thing?"

"It looks strong!" Natsu grins, "I can't wait to fight that thing!"

"Don't say goodbye."

A scene of little Natsu clinging to Igneel's snout flashes across the screen.

And a number of people squeak at that.

"Oh my godd," Lisanna fawns, "little Natsu is so cute!"

"He's so tiny and adorable," Mirajane smiles snidely at Natsu, and Natsu blushes madly, screaming in embarrassment. "He's not even wearing a shirt. Mini jungle boy with dragon daddy."

"No, don't look at it!" Natsu yells.

Beside them, Levy turns to Gray. "So apparently no one's surprised about the dragon."

Erza comes in, requipping into Heaven's Wheel armor. Natsu comes through with a Fire Dragon's Iron Fist-- and they cross each other in a duel, grins on their faces.

"Wait!" Gray shouts, "why are you two fighting each other? Are you suicidal, Natsu?!"

"OHhh!" Natsu turns brightly, "look, Erza! I'm finally gonna beat you in a proper duel!"

"No, Natsu, the winner will be me," she says, "we can always test this theory upstairs. Shall we?"

"...uh, maybe next time."

"Now don't be shy, Natsu."

The scene turns white before any other conclusion can be seen in that battle. Happy takes the screen again, and this time he parts to show the four in front of the Fairy Tail building, posing grandly.

That's where the song ends.

"Ah, it's finally starting," Levy says, "buckle in, guys, we're finally going to see it."

At this point, everyone is lounging around the hall. Most are on the floor, laying on the carpets and hogging the pillows. Laxus is sitting at the back with Gildarts, though Mira, Evergreen and Lisanna are lounging comfortably on the couch.

Cana found herself sharing her booze, and a few others had gotten drinks and munchies as well. They were calm, focused, and the room's magic had healed Erza and Mira's wounds.

Assured, Levy let the video continue playing.

-

"The port town, Hargeon."

"Ah, that's the port I just came home from," Gray says, a sigh at his lips. He leans back against the couch, his back against Erza's leg.

"Speaking of which, you'd just returned from a job, right?" Erza remembers, leaning forward, "you must be tired."

Gray yawns, and Lisanna mirrors it.

"Yeah, it was pretty late back there," Cana notices, "there's no sense in hurrying our watching pace, so how about we go to sleep after this?"

"Agreed," Levy raises her hand, "better to watch this when we're more awake, right?"

Mirajane rubs a rubbing hand over her sister's shoulder, and just then, Bickslow and Loke walk over from the kitchen, holding enough mugs of hot chocolate for everyone.

"We only brought enough for the girls," Loke says, masterfully setting a row of drinks for Erza, Mira, Lisanna, and Levy, "the boys can go get their own from the kitchen."

"Don't worry, I brought enough for Laxus and Freed, too," Bickslow says, putting a few down for the two. His little dolls carried a mug over to Evergreen and Cana. He then pointed at Natsu and Gray, "but the rest of you can go get your own."

"Is this discrimination?" Gildarts says.

"How did you guys even have enough hands for that?" Happy asks the important questions.

The very familiar town is shown, and the scene changes into the train station.

"Um, sir?" a man says. From the polite language, one can discern it is a train worker, probably a ticket collector.

"Natsu, we're here! Hargeon!" Happy sticks his face uncomfortably close to the pink-haired boy's, sounding obnoxiously excited. "Get up! Get up!"

The boy in question is seen collapsed, presumably very dead, right by the door of the train. His face is planted in the crooks of the train's walls, like he wanted to fuse there and just die or something.

Gray chokes on his drink. (Yeah, he went to get one.)

Everyone busts a gut laughing, except a few that just snickered fondly. "Oh Natsu, not again!" they say, and Natsu blushes madly.

"Oh, he's blushing," Mira teases him, "he hasn't changed at all, huh?"

The train worker looks very troubled. "Is he okay?"

"Aye!" Happy turns around immediately, unaffected. "It's a normal thing."

Natsu groans, "I can't take it," he sounds like he wants to throw up, face pale, "I'll never take the train again..." then his face bloats from the incoming hurl.

"Look, even Happy is tired of needing to take care of you so often," Elfman tells him.

"Aye, it's honestly a pain!" Happy says, brightly.

"Never again," Natsu mutters darkly, "I'm never taking public transportation again, never again never again never ag--"

"Woah, he has trauma," Levy says in awe.

Behind them, Laxus turns away, pretending not to silently empathize with Natsu's predicament.

"If the info is right, 'salamander' should be in this town. Let's go," Happy trn to him to see he has taken refuge at the side window of the train. Happy looks incredibly used to it, expertly calm.

"Salamander?" Gray asks "That's a fire dragon, right?"

Natsu comes to life, "could it be Igneel?!" he yells, "it has to be, right? Happy, we're looking for Igneel! This is amazing!"

"Wait," Erza stops him before he gets too excited, "dragons are extinct. This doesn't sound right-- why would there be rumours of one in such a populated town?"

"She's right," Freed says, "I'm suspecting it's just a nickname. Like 'Demon' Mirajane or 'Titania' Erza."

"But who would have a nickname like Salamander?" Bickslow says, "like, except Natsu that is."

They turned to the screen.

On the other side of the train, the coal loaders are filling in the heat. One worker pulls on the bells to inform that the train is going to move.

"Save meee!!!" Natsu whines, sobbing like the world's end as the train begins to move with him still on it.

Everyone chokes out laughing, howling madly. Gray even beats the couch, stomach hurting from how hard he's laughing.

Natsu screams in horror, "Nooo!!" he curls up, "never going on a train again, never going on a train again, never going on a train again--"

"Someone's scarred for life," Cana snorts at that, wiping a tear from her eye.

"That's gonna haunt him in his dreams," Lisanna mutters, and Levy agrees.

"This is so unmanly," Elfman says.

Happy watches the train go, without a reaction, but clearly dumbfounded.

It takes a while for Happy to say, in a very exasperated tone: "...it departed."

The real Happy is similarly dumbfounded.

"It's astounding how dumb Natsu is, sometimes," Evergreen says, chuckling, "even Happy doesn't know how to react."

"I'm not dumb!"

"Dude, look at what just happened."

Natsu shuts up, making a whimpering noise.

-

The title screen comes up, the words 'Fairy Tail' written in red.

-

Cheerful town music plays.

"Huh? There's only one magic store in this entire town?" Lucy looks rather disappointed, hands on the counter as she learns the fact from the clerk.

"It's Lucy!" Happy recovers from his stupor.

"Since she's in a magic store, she's probably a Holder-type mage..." Levy observes, then stumbles, "oh right, she's a Celestial Spirit mage, right? I forgot for a second there."

"For a trading town, Hargeon really doesn't have a lot of magic stores," Cana says, "it'd really help if I could get new cards from their trade sometimes."

"I guess it's a problem only Holder-type mages have?" Gray asks, "I've never been in a magic store other than to ask for information."

"I've never been in one at all," Natsu mutters.

Loke chuckles, a hand moving to his ring and twirling it around, "you should go sometimes, you know? They have some useful things."

"Like yummy fire?"

"Nevermind."

"Yes, this town lives off the fishing business rather than magic," the clerk explains. "Not even a tenth of the people in this town use magic, so this store specializes in selling to travelling wizards."

The interior of the shop is shown-- it's a small store with a bunch of gods, some looking rather sketchy and others looking decently cheap. It seems more like a souvenir store than a proper magic store.

Lucy sighs. "I guess this was a total bust then."

"Now, don't say that, have a look. I have a lot of new merchandise, you know." the clerk assures her, leaning down to pick up something from behind the counter.

"Girls just love this ColorS magic. You can switch your clothes to whatever colour you feel like that day," he demonstrated on the gadget, changing his green clothes to a light purple. "Change! Like this!"

"I already have that one," Lucy replies immediately, sounding very uninterested. She was already looking elsewhere in the store. "I'm searching for some powerful gate keys," she says.

"So Lucy's a travelling mage?" Cana wonders, "I wonder if she's in a guild yet."

"She ought to be in one, if only to find work," Freed says. Being previously a rogue mercenary, he knows more than anyone how hard it is to find work without a proper affiliate... "but she's going to join Fairy Tail, right? Or that's what everything thus far has been implying."

Loke shifts in his spot, uncomfortable.

"Gates, huh?" the clerk hums, "those are rare..."

Lucy beams, a heart floating from her as she stumbles upon a great find. She picks up a box with a silver key, "this is the white puppy, White Doggy!"

"That one's not powerful at all," the clerk informs her.

"It's fine, I was looking for it," Lucy looks very satisfied. Excitedly she brings it to the counter, "so, how much?"

"Twenty thousand jewels," the clerk says immediately.

Natsu spits out his drink. "I can buy like," he stops for a second, "five meals for that!"

"You can buy sixteen, Natsu," Gray corrects him. "And that old fart, he definitely raised the price because Lucy said she wanted it."

Levy chuckles nervously, "yeah, it happened to me before, too."

"And me..." Cana mutters, pouting, "they always raise the price when we accidentally get too excited about it. Corrupted salesmen, all of them."

"Really?" Lisanna asks, "why do they do that?"

"Because if we really want something, and it's rare to find, we'd be willing to pay more to get it," Erza explains to her. "Especially if we've been looking for it for a long time, we'd rather buy it overpriced than search around longer."

"It never happens to me and Erza, though!" Mirajane grins, "we'd punch a hole in their wall if they tried."

"Miraa!" Levy cries, "please follow me to next week's book fair! Please! The old lady there is always so mean to my wallet because she knows I want the books!"

"Sure!"

They stare down at each other with a slightly dark look. A salaryman's greedy grin brims on their faces, though evil intentions are clear across the screen.

"How much might it be again?" Lucy asks again, her tone lilting.

"Like I said, twenty thousand jewels," the clerk very firmly reminds her.

There's a moment of silence.

Lucy sets herself on the counter, and straightens her back so her bosom sticks out. "Oh come now-- tell me how much it  really  is, wonderful old mister?" she sang, her voice slightly higher, her posture curved to emphasize her figure.

She even winked for good measure.

Everyone in the room laughs.

"Well that's certainly one way to get around it!" Gildarts snorts out in laughter.

"We should try that next time," Cana's eyes glint with interest. "I wonder how many free meals I could get with it."

"If only I had boobs," Levy mutters softly, putting her hands over her chest, a little sad.

Lisanna chuckles, patting her on the shoulder, "don't mind, Levy. We're still growing."

"I'm certainly going to try that," Erza says with interest, "just as market research."

"For what?!" Gray sputters.

"Want to see who can get more free meals, Erza?" Mirajane challenges.

"I'm sure the men have better tastes than your vulgar fashion, Mira."

"And your stiff and blocky armour can apparently attract more men?"

"We'll see when we get out of here, Mira."

"You're on, Erza."

"He only knocked off a thousand jewels? So my looks are only worth a thousand jewels?" Lucy seethes, marching angrily down the street. "That's worthless! It pisses me off... if that's all I can realistically get, then--"

There's a commotion in the distance. Lucy looks down from the bridge, and down below, by a huge building, a crowd has formed around someone.

"You say a famous wizard's come to town?"

"It's Salamander-sama!"

Two girls run past with rather loud gossip, and Lucy finds herself wondering. "Salamander?" she repeats curiously. Then she realizes, very excitedly, "the one they say can use Fire magic that you can't buy in a store? He's in this town?"

"I told you!" Natsu bolts up, "it's gotta be Igneel!"

"No, idiot, why would a dragon be in the middle of a town, much less have a group of fangirls?" Gray retorts, "it's obviously a guy."

Natsu stops, suddenly realizing that he was right.

"Argh! Dammit!" he yells, holding his head, "this is so far in the future and I still can't find Igneel?! Where can such a huge dragon even go?!"

"That's the thing, Natsu," Gray sighs, "you ought to give up soon. Even if they still exist, they're not going to show up out of nowhere. They're called extinct for a reason."

"They're not extinct!" Natsu snaps back, standing up with fire in his fists, "Igneel raised me!"

"And he went missing! End of story!" Gray yells back. "Get over it!"

"You take that back!" Natsu grabs Gray by the collar.

"No I won't!" Gray pounds his forehead against Natsu's, "how many years do you think it's been, Don't you get that it's pointless? He'll show up when he wants to!"

"Both of you, sit down!" Erza yells.

Natsu and Gray don't stop. And when they don't stop, even if Erza is yelling-- that means it's just that serious. Erza falters, knowing it's not her place to interrupt.

She does, anyway. "Enough, both of you!" She stands between them, throwing them forcefully to opposing sides of the wall.

They spent the rest of the time sitting on different ends of the couch, brooding.

-

The scene changes back to Natsu and Happy, walking through the streets.

"Oh, it's me again!" Natsu says, looking slightly cheered up, "looks like I survived the train ride, after all."

"Aye," Happy tells him, "though you still look kinda dead."

Lisanna giggled at that. "Poor Natsu, huh?"

"Damn, I ended up taking the train again," Natsu complains, moody.

"You're bad with transportation after all," Happy says.

"Not to mention I'm starving..." Natsu groans.

"And we don't have any money," Happy says.

"He certainly sounds dead," Erza says, amused.

"Aye, Natsu tends to ramble when he's trying to recover from motion sickness," Happy tells them, "he doesn't always recover immediately."

"Really?" Elfman says, interested, "I just thought he was weird like that."

"I mean, Natsu is weird like that, just sometimes there are exceptions," Happy says.

"Ow," Natsu tells them.

"Are we not gonna talk about how Happy finishes Natsu's sentences?" Levy mumbles, "no? Just me? Okay then."

"Say, Happy... this 'salamander' they're talking about should be Igneel, right?"

"Yeah! He's called a fire dragon, so only Igneel comes to mind, right?"

This time, Gray doesn't say anything, so no one says anything either.

The two stumble upon a noisy crowd-- probably the same one Lucy was overlooking before this.

"Salamander-sama!"

"You're so wonderful!"

"Burn me!"

Seriously, that crowd of people had problems.

Natsu and Happy turn to each other. Seems like a stroke of luck, because they've stumbled upon what they were looking for so quickly.

"Salamander!" they recognize the name quickly, and make their way over. Natsu grins, excited. "See? Speak of the devil and he appears!"

"Aye!"

In the next frame, a very flamboyant, blue-haired man wearing a cape and an obnoxious amount of rings shows on the screen. The crowd fawns over him, heart in their eyes.

Everyone in the room collectively lets out varying degrees of exasperation. Some sigh, some facepalm, and the others just sat there, mouths agape.

"Awh man, it's a playboy type," Gray mutters, "hate those kinda people."

"Eh? What about me, Gray?" Loke says, faking hurt.

"You're on thin ice," Gray responds easily.

Lisanna chuckles softly as Natsu sits there, inevitably shocked with his jaw on the floor. "Guess it's not Igneel after all, huh?"

"But I wonder why," Evergreen mumbles, "he looks sort of familiar."

"Were you hit on or something?" Bickslow chuckles.

"No! Why would I remember someone like that?" Evergreen swats him with her fan.

"I've seen him in the news," Laxus says, "something about Titan Nose. Didn't read the rest of the article, so I'm not sure."

"So he's a guild mage?" Levy ponders on the idea, "but for a famous wizard, he doesn't look very... how do you say..."

"He looks weak," Mirajane says, very bluntly.

"Amazing!"

"You're so cool!"

And Lucy stands in the midst of the crowd, her heart palpitating rapidly and her cheeks flushed.  W- Why is my heart beating this fast?  There are small hearts in her eyes, and her jaw hangs agape as she's enchanted by the man before her-- hey, what's gotten into me?

"You're kidding me," Loke says, "that's her type of man?"

Lisanna chortles, "let's not judge her tastes..." then she turns to pat Natsu on the head, because he still looks kinda dejected about it not being Igneel, "...but as this situation goes, Lucy will meet Natsu soon, won't she?"

"This will be one hell of a strange meeting, then," Elfman looks away, feeling the awkward already coming.

The Salamander smiles at a girl lovingly, hand held out. He chuckles, "captivated, aren't you?"

He glances at Lucy.

He looked at me!!  Lucy freaks out internally, squealing in her heart as those eyes pierce lovingly into her very soul--  am I this excited because he's a famous wizard?

The heart swims in her eyes, and she's charmed.

"My, my," Mira muses, "someone's in love."

"She's pretty frivolous, don't you think?" Levy mumbles, "so much, it's kind of unnatural."

The room comes to a silence.

"Are you implying--" Loke looks closer at the screen, "--that's right. The guy had a lot of rings. One of them could be."

"What's this about rings, Loke?" Gray asks, leaning over.

Loke raises his hands, showing the rings on his finger. "Ring Magic is among the most common Holder-type magics. There's lots of varieties, and they're not that pricey on the market. It's common for mages to have a few on hand, because you can use lots of simple spells at once."

"Like Sleep, Bind, Record," Freed says-- then he realizes, "or Charm."

Erza and Evergreen straighten with attention.

"Wasn't Charm outlawed last year?" Evergreen says, baffled.

"Exactly," Levy tells them, "that means this Salamander guy is breaking the law."

"What a despicable man," Erza says, crossing her arms and looking away in disgust, "to take advantage of a maiden's heart like that..."

"Erza, you understand a maiden's heart?" Mira teases.

Erza blushes, "of course I do! I'm a girl!"

Like a spell, she hovers closer, blending in with the crowd of fangirls as they go gaga for the man.  Could it be? Is he the one...

Natsu bursts through the crowd, exclaiming, "Igneel!"

Laughter roars in the room again.

"What a way to meet!" Gray guffaws, "you make the best entrances, Natsu, seriously!"

"What a way to make a first impression on a girl, Natsu," Lisanna pats him on the head, "you're amazing at this!"

All movement pauses, and the hearts in Lucy's eyes shatter unnaturally. She gasps-- and a sudden realization sinks in.

"Ah, look!" Levy snaps out of her laughter first, "the Charm failed to activate fully!"

"That means Natsu essentially accidentally saved her?" Cana turns to the boy, "good going, Natsu!"

"Huh?" Natsu looks, not too sure, "uhm, yeah!"

Natsu deflates immediately. "Who the heck are you?"

Gray snorts. "Figures."

The Salamander squawks, personally offended. But he recovers quickly, raising his hand with the rings, showing them off proudly. "If I said Salamander, would that ring a bell?"

But Natsu is already gone, walking off without a care.

Salamander yelps, flabbergasted. "He's already gone!"

Natsu isn't spared, though. Two particularly nimble fangirls rocket in his direction, kicking him to the ground and subjecting him to various forms of physical torture, from biting to strangling to suppression holds.

"You rude imbecile!"

"Yeah! Salamander-sama is an amazing wizard!"

"Apologize to him!"

The room roars into laughter again. Even Laxus is chuckling this time.

"What's with this? It keeps showing my lame sides!" Natsu points accusingly at the screen.

"You're always lame, Natsu," Gray says.

"What was that, ice princess?!"

Mirajane hlds her stomach, enjoying this a tad too much. "Oh Natsu, this is so cute," she says, "don't you think so too, Lisanna?"

Lisanna nods eagerly.

"Et tu, Lisanna?!" Natsu squawks, offended.

Natsu is thoroughly defeated in the blink of an eye by four rabid fangirls, and Happy just watches with a sigh, cold sweat running down his back in bewilderment.

"What's wrong with you guys??" Natsu asks croakily, confused.

And Salamander in the distance waves them off, now, let's leave it at that. It's not like he meant any harm to it," he says to his fangirl army, who all look like they've lined up to pummel Natsu.

Lucy's eyes narrow on him, a sort of fury in the way her brows furrow.

"Look, her demeanor is completely changed from before," Elfman notices, "guess it really was Charm after all."

"Looks like she shares our sentiments on how awful that man is," Erza huffs, satisfied, "I think I might like this Lucy girl."

"I can't wait until we all meet her properly!" Lisanna beams.

"This is my autograph. Feel free to show it off to your friends," Salamander hands the boy a board of his signature.

"I don't want it," is Natsu's immediate response.

Immediately, he's thrown into the trash, and Happy smiles at the screen, slightly defeated. "I guess we got the wrong person, eh?"

"Those girls are brutal," Natsu whines, "motion sick or not, they literally ravaged me."

"Girls are scary," Loke pats him on the back, "even the non-wizards."

Natsu buries his face in his hands and fake sobs. "Erza and Mira are scary enough! Why is even my future like this?"

"Now then, I have business at the next port, so..." Salamander bids his fans, snapping his fingers. "Red Carpet," he casts a fire spell, and he rides a purple spiral of flames like a transportation tornado.

"Oh, so he does use Fire magic," Cana mentions, "but it's purple, like Macao's. It certainly explains the Salamander nickname to some degree..."

"Why is it called a Red Carpet if it's purple?" Happy asks.

"Let's not question what people call their magic," Lisanna chuckles, "Laki has weird names for her magic too, right?"

"Her naming sense is a whole other world, so I'm not sure if we can compare that."

"I'm having a party on my ship this evening! Everyone is invited, so please do attend!" he declares before soaring off on his flaming ride.

Natsu watches him leave, slightly surprised. "Who the hell was that guy?" he wonders.

"What a scumbag, eh?" Lucy's voice responds to him. Natsu turns to the girl. Lucy smiles, "thanks for just now."

"Huh?"

-

"I'm Lucy. Nice to meet you!"

"Aye!"

They're at a restaurant. Natsu is wolfing down the voluminous food on the table while Lucy and a few other guests stare at his dreadful table manners, laughing nervously.

"Lucy," Natsu tries to pronounce it, "so she's the one that's so important to Fairy Tail's future?"

"She doesn't look like much, frankly," Evergreen says, "and Celestial Spirit magic isn't known to be overwhelmingly powerful or anything, either."

"You shouldn't look down on Celestial Spirit magic," Levy tells him, "like Dragon Slaying magic, it's among some of the oldest magic that's been around. It's not as rare as Natsu's, but it's certainly strong with the right user."

And Loke nods, slightly smug for some reason.

"That aside, Natsu, stop pigging out!" Elfman points at the screen, "greet the girl! Show some manners!"

"When has Natsu ever learned manners?" Gray sighs.

"Natsu and Happy, was it?" she asks.

"You're really nice," Natsu enjoys a moment of a mouthful of food, looking pleased like he'd been blessed by the heavens.

"Uh, I get it, just uh, take your time..." Lucy holds up her hands, evidently tring to slow the rapid eating pace somehow. Food is shown flying around, including sauces, juice, and all sorts of bones. "I'm kinda in the splash zone, here."

A lob of orange sauce sticks to her face, and she solemnly thinks to herself,  and there goes the one thousand jewel I saved with my looks .

"Natsu, you're eating her wallet dry," Mirajane laughs. "Poor Lucy!"

"When you get free food, you enjoy it!" Erza says, encouraging.

"See? Erza gets it!" Natsu says defensively, "she probably didn't say no, either."

"Next time we see her, let's treat her to a proper meal, okay Natsu?" Lisanna settles on a compromise. Natsu huffs, but he hums in approval.

"Aye!"

"See, that Salamander guy was using a type of hypnosis spell, called Charm," Lucy explains, and an image of the rings on Salamander's hand comes up. "That kind of magic makes people attracted to you, but trading this magic was banned years ago. He'd go that far to be popular? What a creepy jerk."

"Oh, so she knew," Loke notes, "so we're right in thinking she's the smart type."

"Finally, some more brains in the guild," Freed mutters mournfully to himself. "No offense to you, Levy, but this guild has way too many nutcases."

"None taken, I agree," Levy says back.

"But thanks to you barging in, the Charm was lifted on me. So this is my way of saying thanks," she says.

"I see," that made sense.

"And I may not look like it, but I'm sort of a mage myself!" she introduced herself cheerfully, "I haven't joined a guild yet, though."

"Look at her, she's the definition of polite," Lisanna gestures at the screen, "she's jobless but she still spent money on your food to say thanks."

Natsu pouts, "I get it, okay? Can people stop scolding me for things I haven't done yet?"

"Nope, we're still gonna scold you," Erza glints with mischief. "So you won't do it.'

"Aye!"

Natsu 'urk's.

"Oh yeah, guilds are places where mages gather to share information and take on jobs," she explains, obviously not realizing that Natsu is a wizard himself. "You can't be said to be a full-fledged mage unless you've joined a guild."

"But, but," she continues excitedly, "there are guilds all over the world, and it's really difficult to get into the popular ones!"

"My, my," Cana sighs fondly, "she's rambling."

"You haven't told her you're a mage yet, Natsu," Gray points out, "she's thinking you're a civilian."

"Huh, speaking of which, I'm wearing a shirt," Natsu notices, "that's weird."

"You haven't worn a sleeved shirt since you were... twelve, or something," Mira mentions, then he looks over and teases him, "once Gildarts got you that vest you've never taken it off. Have you grown at all?"

"I have!" Natsu barks, "I got like a bunch of these in different sizes."

"Why don't you wear a shirt, though?" Cana steals a look at Gray, "you learning from our resident ice mage by wearing less clothes?"

"No!" Natsu snaps.

"Aye, Natsu still wears a shirt sometimes," Happy tells them, "the Fairy Tail mark catches a lot of attention from Phantom and other Dark Guilds, so when we go to tourist spots like Hargeon, Natsu covers it up."

"So you guys actually know how to be stealthy?" Elfman asks, "are we seriously talking about Natsu here?"

"In our defense, it was actually Reedus' idea."

"Ah, that explains a lot."

Her cheer is very endearing to witness, despite everything. Natsu already knows the information, but the way the girl explains it, so enthusiastically, just had Happy and Natsu staring at her rather amused.

"The one I want to get into, see, has like a ton of amazing wizards, and," she squeals, "oh, what am I to do? I want to join up, but I bet it's really tough..."

Natsu and Happy share a defeated look. Then they sigh and look at Lucy with a sort of resignation. Natsu continues slurping on his ramen, and Happy chews on his fish.

"She reminds me of Laki and Levy once you get them going about something," Gray mumbles.

"Freed does it too," Bickslow says, "must be a nerd thing."

"She says there's a guild she really wants to get into," Lisanna points out excitedly, "she must be talking about Fairy Tail! I think this is how she joins, Natsu. You must've brought her in."

"That sounds about right, but I don't see it," Gray hums, "Natsu can't find a time to even tell her he's a mage."

"I have a feeling me and her will get along really well!" Levy cheers, "we both nerd out!"

"Yeah, you definitely will, Levy."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm just blabbering on about the world of mages and all that, this is all gibberish to you, isn't it?" she calms herself down, leaning over the table as she eased out of her momentary fangirl phase.

"But I'm definitely going to join that guild," she says, her voice serious and full of resolve.

"You sure talk a lot," Happy comments, no offense intended, no offense taken.

"Ah, he said it." Bickslow chided.

"He definitely said it." Happy echoed, referring to himself proudly.

"Speaking of which, you guys were searching for someone?" Lucy brings up.

"And she ignored it," Bickslow said, slightly in awe.

"She's got amazing ego," Happy muttered.

"Aye! We were looking for Igneel!" Happy tells her.

"We heard that a salamander's come to this town, so we came all the way here, but it seems like it was someone else after all," Natsu says, still upset. He chews a bite off a pizza, then swallows the rest of it whole.

"Geez Natsu, did you even taste it?" Gray chides him, "if you're going to eat on someone's money at least enjoy the food."

"I eat to live, not live to eat," Natsu retortes.

"Who's teaching Natsu idioms? He's using the dumbest ones and somehow sounding smart," Mirajane asks, turning to Levy.

Levy raises her hands, "not me!"

"It was me, when I was teaching him how to read a while back," Erza admits, and everyone shoots away exaggeratedly. "He tends to remember phrases when he's experienced them."

Everyone gulps.

Natsu looks down, feeling a little traumatized now.

"He didn't look like a salamander," Happy says.

"They're fire dragons, so I thought it would definitely be Igneel this time," Natsu sighs, crossing his arms. Where did his deduction this time go wrong?

Lucy stalls, "what kind of human looks like a fire dragon?" she asks, evidently confused.

The two turn to her.

"He's not human, Igneel's an actual dragon," Natsu tells her.

An image of a fire-breathing dragon shows up, and Lucy looks ragged, very, very confused. A huge 'huh' shows up on the screen with a question mark. The dots just didn't connect there.

"Aye! He's a real dragon."

"Huh?!"

The narrator takes over to explain, "Even in this world of magic, dragons are extremely rare creatures that are hardly ever seen."

Silence.

"Something like that wouldn't be in the middle of town," Lucy says.

And like thunder, the realization strikes the two, because the pink-and-cat combination has literally never thought that factor through.

"You just realized?!"

The room bursts into laughter.

"It's deja vu," Loke tells him, very unhelpfully, "glad to see you don't change in the future, Natsu."

"Why does that feel like an insult? Are you insulting me, Loke?!" Natsu asks, slightly offended, but very confused.

With a sigh, Lucy leaves a small pile of bills on the table. She picks up her bag and starts walking away. "Anyways, I have to get going, so take your time."

"Ah, she's leaving without Natsu ever telling her he's a mage," Gray says.

"You suck at picking up girls, Natsu," Loke says.

"I'm not you!" Natsu snaps back.

She walks toward the door.

But she turns around, and Natsu is prostrating himself, on his knees and head on the ground in the highest form of sincerity. Happy does it too.

"We appreciate your kindness!" he yells, truthfully and dramatically.

"Kindness!" Happy echoes.

Mirajane chokes on her hot chocolate as a bunch of them started laughing again.

"Look at Natsu, guess he did learn some manners after all," Cana says, "you taught your boy well, Lisanna."

Lisanna flushes, "why are you praising me?!"

"I'd say it's more of an Erza-Mira combination that scared him into manners, to be honest," Gray says, "they used to have fights on who could teach him more stuff, remember?"

"Ah, I do," Erza reminisces, "I taught him words and history, and then I--"

"Let's not forget that I ultimately won that battle, Erza," Mirajane challenges her.

There's a stilted pause.

Then Erza gets up, fuming. "Oh, it looks like you're missing some of your memories, Mirajane. Let me help you remember who the real winner is," she cracks her knuckles.

"Both of you, no!"

"Go upstairs!"

"This is the third fight already and we're barely fifteen minutes into this!"

And Lucy screeches, "stop that already! You're embarrassing me!!" she yells. Then in a calmer, more desperate tone, she assures them, "it's fine okay, you saved my life back then so we're even now, okay?"

"But we weren't trying to save you or anything."

"Aye, so it doesn't seem fair."

It's clear the two want to repay her somehow, so Natsu lights up with an idea.

"That's it!" he says, a lightbulb in the background. He lifts the Salamander's signature. "You can have this."

"I don't want it!" Lucy snaps back.

"That's awesome, Natsu! You made her angry enough to tsukkomi at you," Lisanna says, impressed, "and she was so kind to you just now, too."

"Natsu's got a talent at pissing random people off, definitely," Gray snickers, "even someone as patient as this Lucy."

"Let's just hope this doesn't put her off joining us," Erza sighs.

-

Lucy sits on a bench, reading an issue of the Weekly Sorcerer.

"Oh my, Fairy Tail's caused trouble again? The Devon thieves gang wiped out along with seven residences... man, they just go overboard!"

Lucy laughs as she reads it, lying down on the bench as she reads.

"We're in luck," Mirajane throws her hands up in defeat, "she apparently loves the crazy in us."

"It's like she's joining us because she knows we're ridiculous," Loke chuckles.

"Perfect, she'll fit right in!" Cana cheers.

"Ooh, a photo spread of Mirajane!"

Lucy flips through the pages of Mirajane modelling in bikinis, looking none more beautiful than the other.

Everyone in the room gawks, head swirling so fast some neck bones crack.

Jaws drop, including Laxus' and Erza's. Actually, especially Laxus' and Erza's-- they've known the Satan girl the longest, after all. Is that seriously Mirajane, posing sensually in bikinis on all those major photo spreads?

"Holy," Loke looks away when his nose starts bleeding, "heck I want that issue."

Mirajane just scowls at it, "are you kidding me? No way that's me."

"It's totally you, Mira-nee!" Lisanna beams, "look at those curves!" When she says that, Levy looks slightly dejected.

"I miss the days when I could call you flat as a board, Mira," Erza says, then her eyes glint with mischief, "but even I have to admit that you've got some crazy curves there."

Mira grins, "yeah, I've totally got a hotter bod than you, Erza. Just look at me."

Elfman starts screeching, "all of you perverted men get out! I'm talking to you Gildarts! Stop leering at my sister! Out! Out, out, OUT!"

"Hey, Elf, you've gotta admit, little Mira's grown up into one amazing lady right there--"

"Dude, she's in a magazine! I have a right to look!" Loke complains.

"I'm not lookin', I'm blindfolded!" Bickslow pipes up, his dolls echoing 'bikini! Bikini!' like the traitorous little gremlins they were.

"But how exactly does one join Fairy Tail? I wonder if they have an interview or something."

She sits up, closing the magazine. "The mage guild, Fairy Tail... they're just the coolest!"

"So you want to join Fairy Tail?"

"Salamander?!"

The man pops up from the bushes, and Lucy skirts a little away.

Everyone stops messing around and turns their attention to the screen.

"That scumbag is back?" Mirajane mutters. "Is he going to do something to Lucy? If he's as much a mage as he's apparently renowned to be, he probably hasn't missed out how the Charm didn't work on Lucy."

"She's already in trouble?" Lisanna sighs.

"It's fine like this," Laxus says, "if she's wanting to be a Fairy Tail mage, she should show that she's strong enough to deal with a shitshow like this easily."

"Laxus, mind your language," Erza chides.

"But he has a point, doesn't he?" Cana says, "she's a mage. That title ain't for show."

"Still..." Lisanna trails off.

"I was looking for you," Salamander says, brandishing his rings-- "I wanted to personally invite you to the party on my ship."

But Lucy is firm. "Your Charm won't work on me! That magic's weak point is awareness-- it doesn't work on people who knows it's being used."

And Salamander hmphs. "As I thought," he says, "I realized the moment I saw you that you were a wizard."

"And somehow he didn't quite notice Natsu was one, too," Loke says.

"Well, Lucy didn't either," Happy says, "maybe it's because she was resistant against the Charm?"

"With Natsu's little jokeshow just now, I'd be surprised to find he was a mage, myself," Freed sighs. "It's all about the situation, perhaps."

"No matter, as long as you come to the party."

"There's no way I'd go!" Lucy turns away sharply, "not to a party thrown by a scumbag like you!" She emphasizes the words, and they form an imaginary arrow that jabs straight into his pride.

He sounds offended when he says, "I'm a scumbag?"

"Aw, she hurt the poor man's ego," Evergreen sneers behind her fan, "she should give him a good smack across the face for taking advantage of girls like that."

Erza and Lisanna nod in agreement.

"Charm was outlawed because of this, after all," Loke chuckles at their unity, "I'm sure Lucy or Natsu will get it off him soon."

Lucy turns around, glaring. "You'd go as far as to use a Charm to be popular?"

"That's all just a ceremony, you see," he insists, "I just wanted the party to have a celebrity as a host, see..."

Lucy sighs. "I can't believe a famous wizard is such an idiot."

"Oh? You wanted to join Fairy Tail, didn't you?" Salamander taunts and it gets Lucy's attention very quickly. "Haven't you heard of Fairy Tail's Salamander?"

Natsu spits out his drink. "There's a fire dragon in Fairy Tail?!"

"No, you doofus, he's implying he's from Fairy Tail," Loke immediately corrects-- then he pauses. "Wait."

"That nutcase is a Fairy Tail mage? You've got to be kidding," Gray points, "there's no way we'd accept some scumbag like him!"

"There's no way I'd let that happen with Lisanna and Levy around," Mirajane seethes.

"No no, not that part," Loke dismisses them, waving, "a fire dragon in Fairy Tail, that's gotta be..."

"...Natsu!" Lisanna realizes, "I'm pretty sure the Salamander of Fairy Tail is you, Natsu!"

"Huh?!" Natsu reacts, "why would they call me that? I don't look like a dragon!"

"Oh trust me Natsu, you do."

"I have!" Lucy is baffled, "you're a Fairy Tail mage?"

"That's right, if you want to join, I'll put a word in with the Guild Master."

Lucy's composure crumbles, the hearts blooming into her eyes again. "Well," she sinks into enchantment, immediately morphing into a buttering-up mode, "that party sounds like it'll be wonderful, doesn't it?"

"Aaaaand she's back in seducing mode," Mirajane facepalms. "She sure changes modes quickly."

"She's funny!" Lisanna giggles, "I like her!"

"Me too," Evergreen says, "she's not as beautiful as me, of course-- but if you have assets, and you have a goal, you use them!" She pumps a fist. "It's how we women live!"

"No it isn't," Mirajane balls a fist.

"Not everyone is a violent punk like you, Mira," Cana huffs, "we need brains, y'know!"

Even Salamander has to take a step back and say, exasperatedly, "you're very easy to figure out, you know?"

Lucy's eyes sparkled with excitement, "hey, do you really think I can get into Fairy Tail?"

"Of course, but in return, keep quiet about the Charm, okay?"

"Sure thing!"

"Well then, we'll meet at the party!" Salamander turns away, snapping his fingers and riding off in his strangely purple red carpet again.

"Yes sir!" Lucy says, but as soon as the guy leaves, she snaps out of it, "ugh, he used a pseudo-charm."

She switches again, and calms herself from that ordeal. "But, all right! I can join Fairy Tail!" she cheers. Snickering devilishly, "until then, I'll have to play nice with that dumb oaf!"

"Isn't this pretty bad?" Gray says, seriously, "I don't think any of us would use Fairy Tail as a bargaining chip. She's being deceived."

"Where's this party again?" Loke asks.

"A ship, I think," Levy says, "there's plenty of cruise parties in Hargeon-- they're a trend. But why would someone use so much money to boost a fake ego?"

"Something's wrong," Cana says, "I hope Lucy gets out of this well."

Natsu frowns at the screen.

-

The scene changes to nighttime.

"Ah, that was a great meal!" Natsu says, very delighted, patting his stomach in satisfaction.

"Aye!" Happy sits on the ledge beside him.

All the tension escapes the room for a moment.

"You've been eating this whole time?!" Gildarts reprimands him, half laughing half exasperated, "on someone else's money?"

Natsu complains very defensively, "but she was footing the bill! What was I supposed to do, pocket the change?"

Happy spots a galleon out in the sea, and he points at it. "Oh yeah... is that the ship Salamander's party is at?"

Natsu's face turns green at the mention of a ship.

Happy waves dismissively at him, "don't get queasy just thinking about it."

"Hey hey, you're going to throw up all the free food," Loke backs away, slightly disgusted, as if the vomit could come through a screen.

Natsu looks away, "I'm bad with what I'm bad at."

"Hey, look! That's Salamander-sama's ship!"

"I wish I had gone!"

The crowd of fangirls are there, gossiping about the same view.

"Salamander?" one of them asks, not recognizing the name.

"You don't know? He's the famous Fairy Tail wizard that came to town!" her friend explains to her.

The mention of Fairy Tail makes Natsu and Happy turn to them full of attention. His eyes narrow on the conversation.

"Fairy Tail?" He frowns, tone deepening into an angry low.

"Looks like that's where you find out about him," Levy says. "Does that reaction mean he really is faking his status as a Fairy Tail mage?"

"So are you going to go save her?" Lisanna leans over.

"Don't ask me," Natsu's eyes narrow in a pout, "how am I supposed to know what future me is going to do?"

They turn back toward the ship. He crouches down, keeping a sharp, scrutinizing eye on the ship.

"Fairy Tail..." he whispers, nothing but skepticism in his gaze.

-

On the ship, a glamorous ball is held. Girls are dressed up in their best, sipping on wine or juice.

"Lucy-wucy, was it? What a pretty name."

"Thanks..." Lucy's voice is evidently forced out of her, and she sounds clearly uncomfortable with the nickname, among other things.

"She has a lot of self-control," Cana chuckles, "I'd have kicked him in the face already!"

"Woah, I can see her goosebumps!" Levy says, amazed.

In a room on the ship, Salamander courts her, setting down a bottle of wine on the table. "Let's start off with a toast, shall we?"

And he snaps his fingers. Droplets of water bubbles from the glass, rising like orange spheres into the air-- and they drift along the way to Lucy's mouth.

"Now, open wide, and savour the fruit flavoured gems as they enter your mouth..." he whispers, in a low and seductive tone.

Everyone in the room shudders with unimaginable cringe.

"Where does this man get his flirtation courses? He's awful at this," Loke says, "I'd be caught dead before I said something like that!"

"So you consider your own playboy lines not as corny as that?" Gray focuses on that part.

"I have tact!" Loke says, "I know shame, contrary to popular belief! And I'm no poet."

Lucy freaks out internally, utterly disgusted by the cheesy line and cringey tone.  But now, I've got to deal with this, tolerate, tolerate--

Her eyes open, filled with a serious realization.

She stands up, swiping the droplets away with her hand.

Playtime's over. She wipes the smile off her face, facing Salamander with a scowl. "What's the meaning of this?" she demands, voice low and no longer caring about trying to sound cute. "That's the magic to knock people out, Sleep."

The crowd in the room reacts from a range of 'oooh' to 'yess! Go girl!'. Erza humphs with pride, and Mirajane goes 'ooh, burn baby'.

"So she isn't just a bimbo after all," Bickslow says, very amused.

"It's the least you can expect from a Fairy Tail mage," Evergreen says.

And Salamander smiles, very amused.

The camera zooms in on the second ring on his finger, in the markings of a moon. "You're pretty sharp to realize that," he praises her.

"Don't get any ideas," Lucy warns him, "I want to join Fairy Tail, but I have no intentions on being your woman."

Salamander chortles, turning away. "You're such a handful, girly."

The curtains are pulled aside, revealing mobs of big, muscled men, all holding the party guests in their arms. The ladies were all knocked out by Sleep, and the men had obviously planned this all along.

"Ah," Loke buries his face in his hand, "should've guessed."

"What, what's going on?" Natsu jerks up, alert, "what's with all the dangerous-looking guys there? Is Lucy in trouble?"

Laxus frowns, "slave traders, huh."

Gray rolls his eyes, "what era are they in? Human trafficking of all things..."

"It's still fairly common outside of Fiore," Levy informs them, "illegal, of course, but there are less guilds out there, and many more dark guilds that specialize in it."

Gray narrows his eyes. He was from Isvan, two continents over-- and he couldn't count the number of times he's had to face people like these on his way to the West.

They're still at large, huh. He wonders what Pause is doing these days.

"What the heck is this?" Lucy asks in disbelief.

Salamander smiles victoriously, "welcome to my ship. Please be good until we reach Bosco, Missy!"

"Bosco?" Lucy realizes-- that's the next country over! "Wait! What about Fairy Tail?"

"Give it up. You're our merchandise now," Salamander tells her.

"That's--" Lucy gasps, realizing just how deep in trouble she's in, "then the other girls..."

"As expected from Salamander-sama!"

"We got quite a haul this time!"

"If this guy's a Fairy Tail mage..." Gildarts grumbles.

"There's no way he's one of us, he's got to be lying!" Natsu raises his voice.

Slave trading. That's what this is-- and they're clearly veterans in this black market business. How could this happen?

Lucy picks out her keys from under her skirt, "why you--!"

But Salamander is faster. A red magic circle and a spiral of purple flames, and the keys are knocked out of the girl's hands, into Salamander's.

"Ack!" Loke winces.

"There it goes," Cana sighs, "all hopes of victory."

"Impossible! Impossible!" Bickslow's dolls echo mockingly. "Victory! Impossible!"

"What's with them?" Gray asks.

"For Holder-type mages, their weapons are everything," Erza explains, "if they lose their conduit, they can't do a thing. The same, of course, goes to Lucy."

"Hm? Gate keys," Salamander observes, "so you're a Celestial Wizard? This magic can only be used by contract holders. In other words, they are useless to me."

And he tosses them out the window, to Lucy's horror.

"Wait--" Loke freaks out, reaching for the screen, then he sighs.

"Those keys are really precious, aren't they?" Levy bows her head, "poor Lucy..."

They land in the sea-- and Lucy's face scrunches with fury.

What's with this guy?  She thinks, shivering with anger,  what a horrible thing to do... is this... is this what a Fairy Tail wizard does? Using magic for evil, deceiving people...

"You're the worst kind of wizard there is!" she sneers, tears running down her cheeks.

"Look, her admiration for Fairy Tail is all busted," Mirajane sighs, "this Salamander guy needs to be taught a very big lesson."

Erza and Laxus look pointedly furious.

It's not a matter of Lucy's wellbeing in particular-- sure there's that, but the fact that this man is sullying Fairy Tail's name-- that is something neither of them can tolerate.

And from above, a figure dives from the sky onto the ship. Crashing through the roof of the very room Lucy is in-- Natsu scowls.

Lucy's tears break into a smile, "Natsu!"

But the ship is moving, so in a second, Natsu is bloated and wants to hurl. "As I thought, this is impossible--"

Lucy gawks, disappointed and exasperated, "lame!"

Gray facepalms, "couldn't you make like, one actually cool entrance?" he chides at the boy, who looks away blushing.

"Not my fault these assholes keep going on some form of transportation!" he whines, "what's wrong with staying on dry land? Dry land is amazing!"

"But, yay!" Lisanna cheers, "Natsu is here! Now go save her."

"Like a prince on a white horse, just in the nick of time," Cana teases, looking suggestively at Natsu, "kinda romantic, eh?"

Natsu doesn't get it.

Above them, Happy looks in from the hole in the ceiling. "Lucy, what are you doing?" he asks, hovering in the air on his wings.

"Happy!" Lucy is more delighted to find him. Natsu is still dying from motion sickness in the corner, so she ignores him and talks to Happy. "I was tricked. He said he'd helped me join Fairy Tail."

Salamander and his goons stare at them, utterly baffled by the nonsensical situation before them. What are the chances, really? This is all so stupid.

"Wait, since when did you have wings?"

"I'll tell you about that later!" Happy runs down and scoops Lucy up with his tail before soaring off. "We're running away!" he says.

"Huh?!"

"Oh, I think the prince is actually Happy, not Natsu," Lisanna corrects.

"Natsu's pretty useless thus far, huh," Erza agrees.

"Aye!" Happy echoes.

Natsu snaps, "why are all of you teaming up to bully me?? My pride is broken already, okay?!"

Salamander snaps out of his stupor. He clicks his tongue and turns to his grunts, "after her! We'll be in trouble if the council gets wind of this!"

High above the sky, Lucy asks, "hey, what about Natsu?"

To her surprise, Happy just dismissively says, "I can't carry two people, so."

Natsu fake sobs, "Happy, I trusted you!" he whines, "you abandoned me!"

"But if I leave without Lucy it'd defeat the purpose of us going there in the first place," Happy responds.

Natsu stalls. "Gah! You have a point!"

Back on the ship, Salamander fires his magic. "You think you can escape? Prominence Whip!"

A flurry of purple fire pillars burst out, cornering the two in the air very quickly. It narrowly misses, colliding into a firework in the sky.

"That cat's quick!"

"No, your aim just sucks," Happy says, "I'm not even flying at Max Speed."

"His fire's really nothing compared to Natsu's, huh?" Lisanna chuckles, "he looks stronger than Macao-san, but Macao-san has the better control, I think."

"So he's a mediocre mage at best?" Gray asks. "How did he even get a nickname like Salamander?"

"Which further strengthens our theory that he is not the actual Salamander of Fairy Tail," Freed says.

"What on earth?"

"Hey..." Natsu croaks out, crawling out of the room breathing heavily from how queasy he felt. The group turns to him.

Back with Lucy, she reaches for Happy. "Wait, we have to go back to save Natsu and the other girls!"

Happy raises his hand and talks to the screen. "Trust me, Lucy, you can leave him be."

Natsu groans, "I'm glad you trust me, Happy, but you're hurting my feelings."

Happy returns immediately, "that's fine!"

"Lucy, listen up," Happy says.

"What is it now?" Lucy groans, really annoyed now.

Happy's wings vanish.

"My transformation ran out," Happy says, very unhelpfully.

"You damned cat!!" Lucy screams as they plummet into the sea.

A wave of laughter spreads across the room. "Oh Happy, you really have to warn people when you do that!" Lisanna holds her stomach, laughing too hard.

"She actually screamed, 'you damned cat' at you," Elfman wipes a tear out of his eye, "oh this is a riot."

"I would scream too if I was suddenly dropped from the sky like that," Levy tries in vain.

Instead of panicking, Lucy lands cleanly in the sea, and without any hesitation, she begins to swim in a clear direction. Happy lands headfirst onto a rock, a crude difference to Lucy's elegant form.

Another wave of laughter roars.

Lucy sees something glint on a jagged rock-- and it's her keys. There they are!

"But, look," Loke says, "she's calm now. She knows how to adapt to changes and take advantage of it."

"For a Holder-type mage, she's got spunk!" Cana praises, "but unlike mine, she probably can't just replenish her keys when she loses one, right? Her keys must mean a lot to her."

Loke smiles at that. "I'm sure they do."

Natsu is getting beaten up by the grunts on the ship.

"It can't be helped," Salamander says, "we'll hurry on to Bosco, first."

Natsu blocks a kick with his forearm. "Fairy... Tail," he gets up shaily, glaring daggers when Salamander turns to him. Natsu scoffs, "...you?"

"Ooh, Natsu's angry," Elfman says.

"Too bad he's still on a ship, though," Lisanna chuckles. "But since this Salamander guy is beating up Natsu of all people, I think it's pretty clear that he's not a Fairy Tail mage."

"That's a relief," Erza says, her shoulders loosening, "he would have gotten far more than banishment if he was one of us."

"Yeah, I'd probably rip his hair out," Mirajane says.

"Mind if I remind you, flower bracelet, gravure magazine, and long pink dress," Erza chants the list like a practiced line of mockery, "that you don't look like much anymore? I'll do the hair-ripping. You stay out at your tea party."

"Shut up, armor-fashioned hag."

"Meet me upstairs later, Mirajane."

"Of course, Erza."

Lucy surfaces, ascertaining the location of the ship, and Happy floats up, probably dead.

And Lucy grins. "Here I go!"

A key shows up on screen, brimming with the symbol of two waves.

Loke shrinks back, cold sweat dripping from his neck, "no way! That's Aquarius' key!"

He realizes too late that everyone's staring at him curiously, asking for an explanation. He composes himself, clearing his throat.

"Uh," he stumbles, "it's a gold key. One of the strongest, I've heard."

And Levy sparkles, "a gold key?" she looks at the screen again, "woah! That means it's a really strong one, right? Look guys, I told you not to underestimate her!"

Spinning the key, Lucy grabs it out of the air, shifts it around her fingers before swiping it against the air horizontally, then vertically into the sea's surface.

"Gate of the Water Bearer, I open thee!"

A bell rings, and a magic circle spreads out.

"Aquarius!"

A vortex of water bursts out, and a mermaid with long, light blue hair emerges, holding a jug between her hands.

"Oooh! A fish!" Happy says.

"Uhm, no," Loke chides.

"A fish!" Happy drools, alive now.

"Uhm, no," Lucy retorts.

"Woah, deja vu!" Lisanna sparkles with interest, "that was perfect." She lifts a thumb up in awe.

Loke chuckles nervously at that, "uh, thank you, I guess."

"A mermaid!" Erza says, impressed. She turns to Loke, "you say she's one of the strongest keys?"

Loke nods, "well, you'll probably see. The problem is..."

"That's cool," Happy says.

"I'm a celestial spirit wizard, see," Lucy boasts a little, "I use gate keys to call celestial spirits from an alternate dimension."

Happy is evidently still fawning over the fish part of the girl.

Lucy turns in the direction of the ship, switching to her battle-mode voice as she dramatically commands, "Aquarius, use your power to sweep that ship back to shore!"

"Tch." Aquarius clicks her tongue right at Lucy, making sure the girl sees it.

Everyone in the room deflates. "Eh?"

"...she's a little, uh, temperamental," Loke finishes his sentence, "as you can see." He shared the title of strongest with her, (though Leo would always be considered the Leader,) so he knew best. Scorpio had it so good, really.

"She reminds me of Erza," Lisanna says, turning to the scarlet-haired girl, "super pretty, super strong, never smiles, kinda scary."

Erza raises an eyebrow at that, "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Did you, perhaps, just say 'tch' to me?!" Lucy blows.

"What an annoying girl you are," Aquarius says, frankly, "let me just tell you something--" a watery mist blows around her, and her side glance is horrifyingly cold, "--the next time you drop my keys, I'll kill you."

"Scaarrryyy!!!" most of them in the room curl back on instinct.

"I don't ever want to cross her," Levy says, shuddering.

"Same here," Cana says, looking pale.

"Me too," Gray agrees.

"Me neither," Elfman echoes.

"Aye."

"I wanna meet her!" Mira says, brightly, "hey, who do you think would win? My Satan Soul or Aquarius?"

"I don't know and I don't want to know!" Natsu shrieks.

"S-Sorry!" Lucy and Happy whimper in unison, looking down with fearful guilt.

That seems to satisfy the mermaid, so she calls upon a wave of water into her jug, gathers in around in a swirl, and in a very manly roar, she sends the ship on a miniature tsunami all the way back to the town.

Naturally, Natsu, Salamander, and all his mob are swept away as well, screaming on their way.

Lucy spins in the center of the whirlpool, with Happy just a little further out, "don't sweep me away, too!!"

Bickslow laughs, "guess you were in her way, huh?"

"Aquarius is brutal," Gildarts says, impressed, "and efficient. I like her."

Loke wants to warn him that more than his well being is in danger if he even tries-- but he holds back. Yeah, maybe Gildarts can survive it.

The tsunami hits the town (poor people), and it eventually eases, the ship overturned on the shore. Lucy lays exasperated on the sand as Aquarius stays just slightly afloat in the air, glancing back at her owner with no sense of shame.

"What were you thinking? Do you  have  to sweep me up too?"

"Alas, I failed. I accidentally swept the ship up, as well."

"You were aiming for  me ?!"

At this, everyone either looks surprised or just laughs.

"I like her!" Cana says, "she's scary, but she's got a sense of humour!"

"She's cool," Lisanna agrees, smiling.

Aquarius turns away, a smile on her face. "Don't call me for a while. I'll be on vacation for a week with my boyfriend," she tells her. For good measure, she turns around and repeats herself, "with my  boyfriend ."

"You don't need to say it twice!" Lucy snaps as Aquarius fades away, returning to her realm.

Freed looks on, interested, "I've never expected a Celestial Spirit to be so... individualistic," he says. "Are all of them like this?"

"They're like humans, act like humans-- so just because they're summoned doesn't mean they're animals," Gray points out, "I've seen Beast Summoning before, but Celestial Spirits are nothing like it."

"Is this your first time seeing a spirit?" Loke asks, genuinely curious.

"Is it for me," Cana says. And the others echo this. Though not everyone says t, it's clear that none of them have seen a Celestial Spirit before this-- except Gildarts.

"We don't have a Celestial Spirit mage in Magnolia, after all," Erza says, "they're rare."

"I've heard silver spirits are popular as pets or guides, so I thought they were more like talking magic with forms," Mirajane admits, "Aquarius is, how do you say... surprisingly girly. She's got a boyfriend, she's mean, and she teases Lucy. She's so human."

"And is that a bad thing?" Loke wonders.

Mirajane looks at him dumbly, "no, why would it be?"

Loke is taken aback by that answer.

People were beginning to gather around the shore, alerted by the sudden tidal wave.

"What is this?"

"A ship was swept to port!"

Salamander gets up, nursing his aches, "damn it! What on earth--"

Above him, Natsu stands up, face shadowed with rage. He's out of the sea, so he no longer feels queasy.

"Natsu's revived!" Happy cheers.

"Took you long enough," Gray laughs, "now go beat him up, Natsu! Show him your stuff already! We're all tired of your lame act!" he cheers like a lousy supporting act, "let's get this over with!"

"That's right!" Lisanna shouts at the screen too, "look cool, Lucy's looking!"

"Go, Natsu, make fried lizard!" Cana echoed, just for fun.

"Natsu!" Lucy calls out to him in the distance, but she stops when she sees the boy's serious expression. It's uncharacteristic of him.

Natsu stares the man down. "You're a Fairy Tail wizard?" he asks, and his voice is an interrogative low.

"And what's it to you?" Salamander yells back. He commands his grunts, "get'im, boys!"

"Yes!" they respond.

Natsu reaches for his coat, and pulls it off. "Let me see your ugly mug a little closer, then," he says, and his tone was more of a threat than anything.

The group of men run closer toward him, and Salamander grins.

Natsu tosses his coat aside, waiting for them to come to him.

"Don't worry," Happy says, eating a fish and relaxing on Lucy's shoulders, "I should have told you earlier, but Natsu's also a wizard."

"HUH?!"

"Oh, that's how she finds out?" Levy chuckles dryly, "talk about a shock."

Natsu smacks them aside, without even using his magic. His guild marks bares clearly across his left shoulder, and his next lines are filled with fury. His gaze turns dark, and he glares at the fake Salamander as if he was scum.

"I'm Natsu of Fairy Tail!" he says, "I ain't never seen you before!"

"Ah, the dramatic entrance, of course we need it," Loke says.

Lisanna giggles, "best time to show off his guild mark, huh?"

"Go, Natsu!" Happy cheers.

"Haven't seen Natsu that angry in a while," Erza says, smirking.

Fake Salamander and Lucy are both shocked.

"Fairy Tail?" Lucy gawks, "Natsu's a Fairy Tail wizard?"

That's when Salamander notices the red insignia on Natsu's shoulder. "That... That mark..." one of his goons realize, "he's the real thing, Bora-san!"

And Salamander, now known as Bora, panics, "idiot! Don't call me by that name!"

"Bora... Bora the Prominence," Happy says, remembering news from years back-- "he was thrown out of the Titan Nose guild a few years back."

"Ah," Laxus suddenly says, "I remember now. It was a few weeks ago, this guy got caught messing around so Titan Nose booted him to save their own reputation."

"Oh, I remember that too," Levy recalls the newspaper now, "I thought he was sentenced to community service?"

"Probably escaped?"

"When we get out, we should lug him back to the cell he belongs in," Mira folds her arms.

Natsu marches down the deck of the ship. "I don't know if you're a good guy or a bad guy, but I ain't gonna let you get away with wearing Fairy Tail's name like a decoration!"

"And what do you plan to do about it, you brat?" Bora says, not at all thinking he could lose. He summons a vortex of fire, "Prominence Typhoon!"

Natsu seems surprised for a moment before he's engulfed by the flames.

"Natsu!" Lucy yells, but Happy flies up to stop her from approaching. The fire's burning bright and dangerous across the very flammable wood, and Happy's eyes are resolved, trusting.

"Hehh," Mirajane hums, "so once he gets caught, he burns them? That's attempted murder, ain't it?"

"It sure is," Erza says, "the mindset of a wizard that's turned to darkness, indeed."

"Isn't that what Natsu does all the time, though?" Gray asks. He's ignored. "Am I the only one that thinks Natsu's a pyromanic psychopath? Just me? Okay."

The girls that were on the ship have successfully escaped in the mess.

Bora stands in the wreckage. "I take no pleasure in defeating big-mouths like you," he says, then turns away, prepared to leave.

"Gross!" Natsu says from within the flames.

Bora whirls, shocked.

"Are you really a fire wizard? I can't believe how gross this fire tastes!" Natsu says, inhaling mouthfuls of fire before chomping down, and taking another deep slurp until all the flames were consumed.

Everyone squawks, many forms of terrified. Including Lucy.

"Following that logic, does Macao's fire taste better or worse?" Gildarts asks.

Natsu ponders upon that. "It tastes sticky. Kinda like natto but it's mochi."

"What the hell does that mean?" Bickslow retorts.

"Does fire actually taste better when a better mage wields it?" Cana asks, "what about the fire from my cards or lacrima lighters? Or your fire meals, or lamps from matches?"

"Huh? Those taste normal," Natsu says.

Everyone stares at him, slightly appalled.

"Yeah, leave it to Natsu to apparently have a normal standard for how fire tastes," Lisanna says, trailing slightly exasperated, "just normal Natsu things, y'know."

"I don't know why I'm still surprised," Erza says, palm on her face, "we've known him for years. Why am I surprised?"

Natsu huffs. "Thanks for the meal," he smirks.

"I thought you said it tasted awful?" Gray raises an eyebrow.

"Hey, food is food," Natsu clarifies. "It's still energy."

And Bora shrieks. "Wh-W-Wha-What the HELL is he?!"

"Fire isn't going to work on Natsu," Happy says.

"I've never seen magic like that," Lucy says, surprised.

"Now that I've eaten, I'm all revved up," Natsu says, each of his footsteps loaded with the steam of sheer heat. He punches his fists together, calling forth the magic circle. He fills his mouth with the fire of his core, and lets it blow. "Here I go! Roar of the Fire Dragon!"

His roar explodes on the ship, sending all the grunts flying off their feet. Only Bora himself remained, riding on his purple fire trail, high above ground level.

"Awh man, you missed!" Elfman accuses, "be a man and aim straight!"

"Wha--" Natsu squawks, "hey, future me! Aim properly!"

"B-Bora-san," one of his grunts calls out to him, "I've seen that guy before..." Natsu emerges, his eyes gleaming red like a monster. "Pink hair, and a scarf that looks like scales... it's got to be him! He's the real deal!"

And Lucy realizes it too, "he's the real Salamander!"

"Look!" Lisanna cheers, "see what I told you? You're the Salamander of Fairy Tail, Natsu!"

Natsu sits there, flabbergasted, "is that what I look like?"

"Don't worry, it's kinda cool," Bickslow pats him on the back. "You're famous, dude!"

Natsu gathers up the flames in his hands.

"You better remember it well," he says, "this is what a real Fairy Tail Wizard is!" he charges forward.

Bora panics. "Red shower!" he screams, sending pelts of fire magic downward.

Natsu doesn't even need to dodge them. They're sent so willy, none of them would hit him. He plants a foot on the ground, and a red magic circle spreads, giving him a flaming boost into the sky.

He knocks the fake out of the sky.

"He eats fire, and punches with fire?" Lucy observes his magic with interest. It's certainly different from usual fire magic. "Is that really magic?"

And Happy explains it for her. "A dragon's lungs to breathe flames, a dragon's scales to dissolve flames, a dragon's claws to wrap around flames... it's magic that transforms your body parts to that of a dragon's, an Ancient Spell."

"What's that?"

"It's originally magic used to deal with dragons."

Bora sends a devastating wave of magic in the direction of the town, destroying a row of buildings in the process.

"It's Dragon Slaying magic," Happy tells Lucy, "Igneel taught it to Natsu."

"Hey, isn't it sort of weird how Dragon Slaying magic is taught by dragons?" Loke wonders, "like, dragons teaching humans how to kill dragons."

"Yeah," Gray agrees with him, "wouldn't it make more sense if it was called, I don't know, Dragon Apprentice Magic or something?"

"Magic that turns part of your body to a dragon's..." Erza hums, "Dragon Transformation Magic?"

"Then he'd turn into a literal dragon!" Lisanna retorts, "Natsu can only look impressive, his features are still human... right?" she turns to Natsu at the end.

"Huh?" the boy is confused to suddenly have the room's attention. "It's called Dragon Slaying Magic because in order to become an adult, you have to defeat your dad."

Silence.

"HUH?!" everyone squawks. "Wait! This is the first I've heard of this, Natsu!"

Natsu waves them off, sipping on his hot chocolate, "It's a Smite of Passion or something."

"You mean Rite of Passage!" Freed corrects sharply, hating that such a sacred word was butchered like that. "And wait, seriously?"

GIldarts casts a look at Laxus.

"Hey, I'm Lacrima-infused. Don't look at me," Laxus responds, pushing the big guy away.

Cana gives them a weird look when Gildarts shrugs at Laxus.

"Nah, that thing was kinda outdated," Natsu says, "it's just the r- uh, rendition?"

"Tradition," Lisanna corrects him, "sometimes I don't understand your vocabulary range, Natsu. Are you dictionary-smart or just horrendously dumb?"

"Anyway!" Natsu blushes, "Igneel told me I'd be an adult if I could beat him in a fight. I don't have to kill him like the name says or whatever, that's dumb."

Mirajane hums, impressed. "So even Dragons have morals and changes in traditions?"

Natsu just looks confused, "of course they do. Why wouldn't they?"

A few snicker at this, appalled.

"So after Celestial Spirits, we find that Dragons are actually pretty human too?" Gray leans over the couch, chuckling. "What's next, sentient dolls?"

Bickslow's dolls take offense to that. "Sentient! Sentient!" They chant.

Gray finds himself apologizing to four very angry-sounding ghosts.

Natsu catches Bora's huge orb of flames, and sucks it right up into his stomach.

"I'm getting quite a good meal here!" he says. He punches his hand together again, and this time, he soars. "Listen up, jerk, I'm gonna smoke you into a smoldering crisp!"

Bora screams.

"Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon!"

Natsu punches him in the jaw, and Bora goes soaring through a row of buildings, before finally knocking into the bell, sending its rings through the town.

"Natsu, you don't smoke things directly with fire," Happy says.

"Huh? I don't get it," Natsu says, "you don't smoke things with fire? Then what do you smoke things with?"

Everyone stares at him. They don't even know where to begin with that.

"Ah," Gildarts makes a noise first, "he's only ever eaten fish completely fried."

"Then we should make smoked fish for once!" Lisanna says, slightly excited by the prospect of going fishing with the two again. She's been on jobs recently, so it'll have been awhile since the three of them last hung out. "Don't you want to try that, Happy?"

"Aye!" the cat agrees, "but where can we get fish in this building?"

Natsu protests upon the idea of eating 'smoked fish' (he probably equates smoke to ash, in hindsight), but Lisanna and Happy are absorbed in their conversation.

"Hmm, let's check the forest upstairs, they might have a pond."

"Wow," Lucy says, in awe. "This is amazing... just, wow, but..." she looks at the burning city, "this is way overboard!" she squawks, assessing the damage.

"Aye!"

"Don't just 'aye' me!"

And with a march of footsteps, there comes the knights.

"The military?!" Lucy is surprised.

A few facepalm at that. "Not again, Natsu!" came the exclamations.

Natsu pouts, "not my fault things just break so easily."

"You punched through buildings. That's overkill for one overrated man," Freed chastises him. "I could've finished that guy in two minutes and handed him to the jury."

"Though in his defense, this Bora guy is kinda running really fast everywhere," Levy says.

"Who wouldn't run with Natsu firing at them?" Cana asks rhetorically.

Natsu pouts, turning away. Why does everyone keep blaming him for things? He finally got to look cool, but then he's getting scolded again.

Natsu grabs her by the wrist and they start running. "Crap, let's get outta here!"

"Why are you taking me with you?!"

"Yeah, Natsu, that's no way to drag a lady," Loke chastises, "poor Lucy."

"I mean, you wanted to join our guild, right?" Natsu smiles at her, chuckling in assurance. "Come with me!"

And somehow, the crazy infects her too.

"Sure!" she says.

And they run off, the military hot on their heels.

Levy's sparkling by the end of it. "Look! Lucy's really joining us!" she says, taking Lisanna with her in her excitement. "Natsu's really the one that brought her in, after all!"

"So this is the story of how she joins," Erza surmises, "I suppose the rest of the Lacrima Crystals are the event leading up to whatever causes Fairy Tail to fall."

That causes a realization to pass over the crowd. "Then we can just watch the last one!" Mirajane says, "get straight to the point, and let's not waste our time watching all these hundreds of this nonsense!"

"No!" Levy interrupts, "look at how many there are. If there's so much detail, there has to be a reason. We wouldn't understand a thing if we just skipped over them."

"Levy has a point," Freed tells them, "we're not losing anything if we watch them all. Information is important-- we need as much as we can."

"And as we've seen," Cana takes over, "we're learning what happens in our own, personal futures as well. Though indirectly-- this is important for all of us, personally."

Cana's fists are tight. She casts a firm glance on Gildarts once before she looks back at the floor, pretending like she's always been.

Loke's eyes narrow on the screen. There are at least two years between them and this future on the screen. Lucy's a Celestial Spirit mage-- maybe... He shakes his head. He shouldn't have hope like this. He'll just be disappointed in the end.

-

Cheerful music starts playing.

"Take me out somewhere! Riding on a tin horse, just the two of us."

A cartoon figure of Lucy lays on the grass, dreaming leisurely about something. A little white horse trails past them, a typical white prince leading Lucy out somewhere away.

"Oh, an ending theme," Bickslow speaks first, "look, Ever, it's all so cute and cartoony."

Evergreen flutters her fan, "I will acknowledge it's cuteness, but it's nothing compared to my own," she says, "but I'm personally a fan of the little prince character."

"Go go! let's go! Romance!"

Lucy looks at the screen.

Four figures raise from below, cheering. From the left, it's a bipedal cow; a guy with crab arms behind him, holding scissors; the mermaid from before; and a human-faced clock.

Then a pink-haired maid shows up, quickly replaced by Lucy eating a chunk of meat.

"Are those spirits?" Gray says, "that's a lot."

"That's a lot," Loke echoes, and softer, he says to himself, "an awful lot of gold keys for one mage..."

"The drawings are so cute!" Lisanna says, "and kinda funny. I wonder what that clock is?"

"My doll for my unrequited feelings can't speak to me, so I'm sad."

Lucy looks out into the sunset, sitting on a rock.

"Go go! Let's go! Romance!"

The four figures pop up again, followed by the pink-haired maid.

"I'm a crybaby coward,"

Happy sheds a tear, miserably chewing on his fish on a rock in the middle of a pond.

"Oh, it's Happy!" Natsu says, pointing, Look at you, you're itty bitty!"

"Are you crying over fish?" Gray asks.

"Hey, fish is important!" Happy declares, very defensive.

"I think of you all the time,"

A shooting star falls, and Happy thinks about a fish-- then he thinks about an Octopus.

"If Happy was a normal cat, yeah, that's exactly the kind of worry that keeps a cat awake at night," Cana says, and Happy squawks, offended.

"On the nights, (on the nights) when the moon is out, (when the moon is out) I'm always, (I'm always) Looking for the Rabbit"

The Nikola pops up, making a subtle dance. Aquarius shows up next, giving an excited thumbs up. The rest of the spirits pop up in succession, making a hollering gesture.

"I'm totally at a loss for words (Hey! Hey! Hey!) As if someone cast a spell on me... I'll never wake up from this dream, Love is like talking to yourself."

The screen changes to Lucy, running through an empty field.

"I'm totally at a loss for words, (Hey! Hey! Hey!) Black and blue with how much I'm in love... What spell can I chant To let you know?"

Lucy sits by the riverbank in melancholy. She wanders down the walkway-- and leans out her window, thinking solemnly to herself.

Levy and Lisanna are swaying to the rhythm, entranced.

"It's such a lively song," Levy says, "it's kinda cute, don't you think?"

"I'm perfectly at a loss for words."

Lucy and the Nikola are in her room, looking into a mirror, when three chibi figures of Gray, Natsu, and Erza show up, cheering the last 'hey hey hey'. She turns back at them, shocked to find them there.

"A chibi Erza!" Mirajane says.

"Look, a chibi Natsu!" Lisanna says.

"And Gray is there too," Cana adds on as an afterthought, "look at the three of you, so adorable."

Gray blanches, "no way!"

"I'm at a loss for words, with this and that, I'm totally in love with you! Someday, I want to do the same to you..."

The scene changes back to the open field. This time we see Lucy from the back as she runs through the field.

"Watch you flounder at a loss for words right back to me!

Lucy grins at the screen, turning her fist around in a cheeky thumbs up, showing off the pink guild mark on the back of her palm.

"Ah, the Fairy Tail mark!" Lisanna spots quickly, "she put it on her palm! That's rare."

"It's in a spot you can't hide," Mirajane says, grinning, "she's in the proudly showing off gang! High five, Cana!"

Cana humours her while Natsu and Gray scowls, slightly peeved.

"It's a necessity, okay!" Natsu says, in vain.

Mirajane leans over to give the Thunder God Tribe a high ten. Freed looks sort of smug that they have their marks in the same spot, albeit on different hands.

"Are you really considered the showing off gang anymore, though?" Erza says, you have a one-piece dress in the future, you know?"

And everyone freezes.

Mirajane screeches, "dammit, future self! Why are you wearing a godforsaken floor-length dress!!"

Lisanna chuckles at that.

The song ends as Lucy finishes her daydream, suddenly finding Natsu, Erza and Gray in her room, making themselves right at home. Happy is eating a fish, Natsu is eating meat, Erza is eating cake-- and Gray is shirtless, enjoying a cup of tea.

"I'm completely at a loss for words!!"

Lisanna laughs at that. "Look at you guys! You're raiding her house!" she says.

"It's a nice house," Erza says, a glint in her expressions. "And there's cake."

"You're evidently not welcome there, if her reaction is any say," Mirajane snickers, "and look, Gray, you're half naked in a girl's house."

"Oh, shut up about that!" Gray blushes.

"Shh!" Gildarts suddenly interrupts.

All of them pause, and look toward where he's pointing. Elfman and Loke are curled up near the edge of the couch, asleep. Happy is with Levy near the screen, curled up around her own pillow. Somewhere further, Cana has her arm around Evergreen and Bickslow. They're all out like a light.

"Oh, I wondered why they were so quiet," Natsu says.

Gray yawns, finding a spot next to Loke and getting himself comfortable. "It's probably pretty late, anyways. Let's call it a night."

Erza hums, approving.

"We're not going to use the rooms?" Freed asks.

Lisanna curls around Levy and Happy. "You should go. I'm pretty comfortable here," she says, punctuating with a grin, "it's like a big sleepover! Isn't it fun?"

Laxus sighs. He leans back against the wall, closing his eyes.

Mirajane raises a brow at the scene. "I guess it's our job to get enough blankets for everyone?" she asks rhetorically. She turns around, and Erza is already at the doorway.

"You may not admit it, but you're such a mother, Mira," Erza says.

Mirajane groans, "I need a shower, so I'm not going to take that bait this time," she says, picking up a few mugs to bring to the kitchen. "Freed and Gildarts, a hand?"

They're already standing.

"Looks like the rooms provided were pretty pointless, eh?"

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 2:  Fire Dragon, Monkey, and Bull

Word Count: 12370

-

-

-

Celestial Spirits don't need as much sleep as a human, but Loke's the exception among exceptions.

Just existing takes bucket loads of his willpower.

Sleeping is comforting, but there's the neverending paranoia that he would vanish in his sleep, because he wasn't conserving his energy in enough of a balance. Magic is least controlled in sleep, after all. Loke can't risk wasting a single bit of it.

So it's not even two hours later that Loke jerks awake from something short of a nightmare. He's careful not to wake Gray or Elfman up, and slips away from the hall, a slight teeter in his steps.

He finds himself by a sink-- gripping it tight, breathing, breathing-- and breathing hurts.

He thought he'd gotten used to it, this pain. He clutches his chest, and his face in the mirror is just so disgusting to witness. He looks away.

"Loke?"

He jolts, swirling back.

He slips and lands hard, sitting on the ground in relief, when he realizes it's just Bickslow. He catches his breath when Bickslow crouches over him.

"You alright there, buddy?" Bickslow asks him.

Loke nods. He doesn't trust his voice to give an answer, so he looks down and focuses on breathing, waiting for the ever-present migraine to leave, the pain to ebb away.

He looks at his hand, feeling the edges of his humanoid form crumble away. He closes his eyes, blink away the haziness, and tightens his fist.

"This happen often?" Bickslow asks, and yea, apparently he's still there? Loke kinda forgot somewhere along the line.

Loke gathers his voice. "It..." the words are easier, but still heavy, "...it's not something that goes away."

Bickslow is blindfolded, but Loke can somehow tell the man is staring at him, deeply considering the situation. Bickslow's gathered enough from his sight to know that Loke's not human-- but what exactly is Loke? He has to guess.

Loke notices that BIckslow's four obnoxious dolls aren't around. Small mercy.

"So," Bickslow says, "you ever gonna tell me what exactly is up with you?"

Loke doesn't answer. He just stares at the ground, gaze never faltering from that pained, regretful stare-- it's as if his heart is trapped somewhere even Bickslow's eyes couldn't ever hope to see.

Bickslow sighs.

"Should I stay?" he asks instead.

And Loke chuckles. "No, it's weird. Get out."

-

Bickslow goes back to sleep after that, but the next one to wake up is surprisingly Cana of all people.

Loke is seated at the kitchen island, nursing not his first cup of coffee. He catches sight of Cana in the reflection of his mug and, with the fluidity of an expert playboy, swirls around in his seat.

"Oh, sweet and lovely Cana, what a delight to meet you on this fine and beautiful morning! Not that we can see the daybreak or anything of that sort, nor do we know the time, but--"

"Save it, Loke," Cana dismisses him, grinning, "you look like you're going to throw up. Don't force yourself."

And Loke clamps shut, looking absolutely miserable.

Cana pours out a cup of coffee for herself, drinking it with sugar but no cream. She sits down across from Loke, and smiles with the elegance unbefitting of her usual reputation. "Sometimes we just need to shut down from the flamboyance, you know?"

Loke smiles back wearily, "yeah."

"Well we're in luck," Cana says, "we've got about an hour before Erza wakes up."

-

When everyone else wakes up the next morning, it's to the smell of freshly toasted bread in the kitchen. Erza may not be a stellar housekeeper, but she can make a great meal. Mornings in Fairy Hills are always a delight.

The smell of oil suggests ham, and Natsu is the first one up, enticed. He steps on Gray on the way over, and the ice mage in turn accidentally elbows Elfman, which wakes their lightest sleeper Happy up, and while Levy wonders where her hug-toy went, the chain continues around the hall.

By the time they make it to the kitchen, Loke is trying to court Erza, Cana is caught lacing booze in her coffee, and there's an amazing meal set out before them.

It's not usual for them to all be gathered around, eating like this-- but this, Gildarts thinks, is really a nice thing.

-

They sit around, in much more comfortable clothes than yesterday (some of them went on ahead to take a shower, especially people who were on missions before this) and they gathered in the hall around mid-morning.

Levy plays the second disk.

-

"The Kingdom of Fiore. A neutral country of 17 million people. This is a world of magic. Magic is bought and sold there every day. It is an integral part of people's lives. And in a certain city there lies a certain guild. A guild from which various legends were once born... or rather, will continue to be born long into the future... And it's name is: Fairy Tail!"

The opening song begins.

-

"Since Lucy is coming back to Fairy Tail, we should see more of us now, right?" Elfman asks, "yosh, it's finally our time to shine!"

"We'll finally get to see Mira in all her dressy glory," Erza smirks.

"Erza, you're cooking your own lunch later," Mira returns sharply.

"Ooh, that's bad," Lisanna says, "Mira-nee's cooking is amazing, so you're going to lose out, Erza."

Erza scoffs, "I will be fine."

"The Magic Council, Era."

Inside a white building, the council of members gather.

"Those idiots from Fairy Tail are at it again! This time they've destroyed half a port!" someone says sharply, his tone far too angry-- he'd even emphasized the word  idiot  for good measure.

"Ah, it's the council members!" Natsu 'urk's. "We're seeing them too?"

"They're complaining about you again, Natsu," Lisanna sighs.

"I wouldn't be surprised if one day they snapped and just blasted our guild out of existence," Cana says.

Levy shivers, "please don't insinuate that!"

Siegrain chortles. "I quite like those bunch of fools, personally"

"That guy showed up in the opening, right?" Gray jumps at that, "with Erza."

Erza looks away, face falling, "...yes, he's Siegrain."

Gray wants to say more, but when he sees the look on the girl's face, he doesn't ask.

And Yajima hums, "indeed they are quite the fools, yes... but they've assembled many wizards with very much potential," he says, bargaining on the pros of leaving the guild as it is.

Another man sighs. "I suppose a surmountable degree of good will come with just as many bad apples."

"Just leave them be," Siegrain says, smirking, "this world would be painfully boring if not for fools like those."

"Did he just... help us?" Mirajane asks, "Yajima-san I can understand... he's good friends with the Master... but Siegrain is strangely nice to us too."

"Maybe it's because he's our age," Freed says, "our guild is rare for having as many young people as we do. Siegrain is also odd for being in the council despite being so young."

"There's also the lady, Ultear-- those two are really young," Levy says, "I suppose they just have a soft spot for us for some reason?"

The scene changes to Fairy Tail's front doors, where Lucy stands in awe. Natsu smiles as she leads her forward.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail!" Happy says.

"And we're back!" Natsu cheers, "about time!"

Loke fixes his glasses, "I suppose it's finally time for the rest of us to make an appearance."

"I can't wait to see Mira-nee in a dress!" Lisanna says, and Erza nods with an excited smile. Gray and Elfman nod as well, secretly anticipating.

"I'm absolutely dreading the moment," Mirajane groans.

-

The title screen comes up, the words 'Fire Dragon, Monkey and Bull' written in red.

-

Natsu kicks the door open furiously. "WE'RE BACK!" he yells, full of rage. Happy echoes the words with a more cheerful tone.

"That's a very typical Natsu entrance," Erza considers.

"Are you incapable of opening doors with your hands?" Loke asks, exasperated.

"Why would I use my hands if I can use my feet?" Natsu asks right back, and Loke turns away, facepalming.

There's a wave of greetings welcoming him back.

Lucy steps in, very amazed by the interior.

"There you go making trouble again!" Krov laughs, "you destroyed half of Hargeo--OOMPH!" His speech is interrupted by Natsu, who sends him flying across the hall with a running kick.

"Why?!" Lucy snaps.

"That info about the Salamander was a lie!" Natsu yells at poor Krov, who was sent soaring through tables and chairs, making a mess everywhere.

"My, my Natsu, violent as ever," Mirajane chuckles, "I definitely taught you something right!"

"Mira, if there's one thing he shouldn't have learned from you, that, exactly, is it," Erza waves a finger at the screen, "look at the mess he's making. We'll have to replace the tables, you know?"

"Why are we never worried about the victims?" Gray groans.

"Poor Krov," Lisanna says.

"Aye," Happy mumbles.

Krov bolts up, equally angry, "hell if I'd know that?! I just told you some of the rumours I've heard going around!"

"What'd you say?!" Natsu is obviously not satisfied by that answer.

"You wanna go?!"

And that's where the fight begins. Humans go flying, tables overturn, mugs shatter-- Happy waves at them. "Now, now. Natsu, this isn't something to get worked up over--" and Happy is thrown aside by a large human body.

That's where chaos begis. Everyone punches everyone, fights break over dumb things, and it's utter madness in the hall.

People in the hall were laughing again. This was such Fairy Tail typicality, yet each cause for every fight just got funnier and more ridiculous as the years went by.

"You didn't have to fight him, literally, but you did," Loke sighed, "what crazy did I bring myself into?"

"Get used to it, Loke, you'll be infected soon!" Gildarts assured him.

Instead of feeling put-out, Lucy smiles, feeling fully in awe. Standing amidst the little war, she can only feel impressed. "Wow... I've actually made it into Fairy Tail!"

"Look, Lucy's already infected by the madness," Gildarts made his point.

Loke chuckles at that. "She'll fit right in."

It was strange for a girl to feel so at home in ruckus.

"Huh?" And there's Gray, turning around with a fervor in his voice.

"Me!" Gray straightens.

"And you're picking a fight too, Gray," Happy says.

He was caught up in the fight, but now he hears, "Natsu's back?"

The narrator's voice cuts in. " This man is Gray Fullbuster. He is capable in his work, but he has a small... or rather, an extreme habit of taking off his clothes ."

Loke chokes on his saliva, and Cana burst out in laughter.

Gray flusters, "what's with that narration?!"

"But it's true!" Cana guffaws in a very unladylike manner, but she doesn't particularly care for that, "it's your trademark now, Gray!"

Meanwhile, Natsu and Happy are laughing themselves to death in the corner.

"We're going to finish what we started, Natsu!" he yells, marching into the biggest wrestle pile.

At the bar, Cana sips on her wine from a glass, for once. She stares at the scene for a moment-- then she decides to remind the boy, "Gray... your clothes."

And Gray squawks, suddenly realizing his general state of undress, "oh, dammit!"

"Cana, you've been reminding him that for years, it's time to give up," Elfman sighs.

Gray's still blushing, "I don't do it on purpose!"

"How exactly do you accidentally take off your clothes?" Cana teases him, so Gray just turns away with an angry huff, face still red.

The camera cuts sharply to a full view of Cana, and the narrator speaks again. " This woman is Cana Alberona, the biggest drinker of all Fairy Tail ."

Cana sighs, "this is why all the men here have no class." Lucy gawks at her, eyes popping out in shock as Cana lugs out a huge barrel and downs in it one lift.

"But Cana, you're still underage..." Loke mutters, exasperated.

Cana has the gall to look proud of the fact.

Gildarts laughs loudly, "Macao and Wakaba definitely had something to do with that!" he says, "they really don't know how to take care of a girl, huh?"

Cana's gaze on him turns accusingly exasperated for a moment-- then she sighs.

"You're scaring Lucy, Cana-chan," Levy tells her, "seriously, where does all the drink go into your thin body?"

Gray, seemingly given up on getting his clothes, yells at Natsu. "Natsu, we're fighting!"

Natsu, currently strangling Krov, turns to the guy and says, "how about you put on some clothes first?!"

"Yeah, Gray, how about you get dressed before you fight, what are you, a drunkard?" Natsu scowls, his tone dead but his demeanor playful.

"Oh shut up, you're wearing nothing under your vest," Gray retorts.

"It's fashion."

"What part of that nonsense if fashion?!"

"The clothing part," Natsu says, "I guess you wouldn't understand, since you don't wear clothes."

Gray sputters at first, but composes himself for a comeback. "Hey, we all know I have better fashion sense than you when I do wear clothes!"

"You know, Natsu," Happy speaks up, "Gray's actually right."

"Et tu, Happy?!"

"All this crying and whining and it's not even noon yet, what a bunch of kids!" Elfman steps up, eyes sharp and arms folded.

" This man is Elfman. He'll solve any kind of job with just his fists-- he's a hyper-muscled wizard ."

"And it's my turn!" Elfman cheers, "I'm cool!"

"You haven't changed at all, Elfman," Freed says, "unlike Mira."

"You do look a little older," Lisanna observes, "so I'm thinking this is only about two to three years ahead of us. Oh, I wonder where I am?"

Everyone turns to Lisanna curiously.

"That's true," Cana says, "you would've been the first to greet him."

Elfman shows up again, declaring, "If you're a man, fight with your fists!"

And Lucy looks away, exasperated, "so it all goes back to violence..."

"Oh Lucy," Levy chuckles, "you'll have to get used to it. That's literally what happens every day with us."

"There's not a day without a fight in this guild," Evergreen sighs, "I wonder what manner of insanity possessed us?"

Gray and Natsu swirl around in unison. Fists employed, they sock him across the face, yelling, "you're in the way!" and Elfman goes flying.

"And it's an instant defeat?!" Lucy honestly can't believe what she's seeing.

Elfman's jaw drops, and Mira bursts into laughter.

"Oh, some things about you never change, Elfman!" she laughs, "it's hard to believe you were so meek when we first came in."

Elfman looks dejected.

"Don't mind, Elf-niichan," Lisanna assures him, "I'm pretty sure a lot of us are no match to Natsu and Gray either way."

"My my, they're such utter nuisances," Loke says behind them, a girl at each arm and twinkling with pretty-boy energy.

" This man is Loke. He's high up on the list of 'Mages I most want to be my Boyfriend' ."

Loke smiles at that. So he's still around, after all, looking like he's having fun.

Gray laughs, "you don't change either, huh?" he says, "and you made some dumb ranking."

"Hey, that ranking means I'm in competition with Blue Pegasus boys, you know?" Loke says, "I'm proud of it."

"I'm more surprised Master Bob didn't snatch you off," Erza says, "he always likes the handsome and popular ones... and you fit the bill."

Loke chuckles at that.

Then Loke gets knocked in the face by a bottle. Eyes narrowing with irritation, he deliberates for a moment. Then he gets up, "I'll be right back!" he winks. "I'll get a few shots in, just for you girls!"

"Good luck!"

Bickslow starts laughing, "he's infected!" he declares, "Loke's officially as crazy as a Fairy Tail mage! We gotta celebrate!"

Loke could only chortle awkwardly at that. "I've got the violence bug."

"And you still manage to do it while being an obnoxious playboy," Gray says, "that's kinda amazing."

"Aye."

And Lucy draws a big X over Loke's face in her notebook. "Alright, this guy just went right out of my list," she says.

That caused another round of laughter.

"Lucy's not a fan of the playboy types!" Gray laughs again, "tough luck, Loke!"

Loke flushes slightly, turning away, "well, that's fine too... I'm pretty sure future me is still going to try, though--" his face falls, "...oh wait, she's a Celestial Spirit Mage, so maybe not."

Cana doesn't miss it, "what, something wrong with Celestial Spirit mages?"

"Uh, yeah..." Loke stumbles, shrinking back as all eyes turn to him, "bad experience with them, I guess."

Lisanna inches closer, "even though you seem to know a lot about Celestial Spirits?"

Loke fumbles for the first ever time in front of a girl.

"Now, now you guys," Bickslow interrupts them, "the show's still going on, you know?"

Closing the book, she turns away, patience waning, "but man really, what's with this place? Is there not a single serious wizard in the whole joint?"

"Oh, are you a newcomer?"

Lucy turns around, "Mirajane!" she swoons, "the real deal!"

And a wave of screams, ranging from lovingly enthralled to bloody murder, pass across the room.

The loudest scream was probably from Mira herself.

And Mira smiles sweetly at her in response.

"Oh my god, what is that?!" Natsu shrieks, "Mira's smiling! She's smiling!"

"Her smile doesn't promise death!" Gray shrieks in turn, "this is impossible!"

"No, that's the most terrifying smile I've ever seen, by far!" Natsu says.

"I hate to say this but you're right!" Gray says, panicking beyond belief.

Gildarts whistles, and Freed looks, slightly awed. Laxus and Cana are speechlessly impressed and Erza's eyes glint with the admiration of a rival. Lisanna and Elfman are still chanting the 'my sister is the prettiest thing in the world' song; and Loke's dead.

"Alright, enough!" Mira erupts, morphing right into a Satan Soul right there.

Everyone shoots away.

They continue watching, Mira still in her Satan Soul form.

" This woman is Mirajane. " Pictures of her gravure shots scroll through the screen, " a wizard that does weekly photo spreads in the Weekly Sorcerer. Currently, she is an employee at Fairy Tail. "

No one says anything, but eyes are definitely drawn to the amount of cleavage on the screen. It's so unlike Mira, it's almost incredible.

"Uhm, are you sure it's okay not to stop them?" Lucy asks, pointing vaguely at the mob of wrangling limbs.

Mirajane turns to them and assures her, "they're always like this. Just leave them be, it's fine. And besides.." a bottle shatters on her temple, and Mirajane topples to the ground.

Lucy screams, "KyAAAAH! Mirajane-san!"

Mirajane comes back to life, her temple bleeding heavily, to finish her sentence. She still smiles like an angel, "isn't it fun this way?"

"Scary!" Lucy squeaks.

"Now that the initial shock's come and gone, this is just weird," Erza says, "I mean, you're still strong and unfazed, but your demeanor is entirely changed."

"It really doesn't seem like Mira-nee at all," Lisanna adds on, "what happened in between these years? It's a really weird change."

Gildarts' eyes are narrowed on the screen.

No one else had any big changes like Mira. It's fun to react to-- but it's weird. Too weird.

"Speaking of which-- a lot of us aren't around," Natsu says, "like Erza, or Laxus. And Lisanna."

"Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe are probably on a mission, don't you think?" Happy says, "they're rarely around even now, I doubt that changes in the future."

"Gildarts isn't around either," Gray turns to the man.

Gildarts shrugs, "I reckon I'm still on the Hundred-years quest."

"Then what about Erza and Lisanna?" Natsu asks.

"Maybe Lisanna went on a mission with me?" Erza suggests.

"A mission with Erza? That sounds fun!" Lisanna beams.

"But that's a very strange combination," Cana says.

That's when Gray crashes into Lucy, and Natsu is shown cheekily spinning Gray's boxers in his hands.

"AH, my underwear!"

"Wha-- Natsu, that's underhanded!" Gray accuses him.

"Your own fault for wearing literally nothing but that," Natsu smirks.

"Aye," Happy says.

Lucy screams for a totally different reason this time, covering her eyes even though her fingers are parted.

Levy covers her face in exasperation, "oh, poor Lucy."

Gray notices her and calmly walks up, "Miss, would you be so kind as to lend me your under--"

Lucy, with tearful eyes, smacks him away with a hard paper fan, "as if!"

"Lucy has some amazing comebacks," Erza says.

"Yay, it doesn't have to be me anymore," Happy says.

"Actually, isn't the tsukkomi usually Gray?" Lisanna says. "Or me."

"Is that what we're stuck on?" Loke asks, very stunned, "no one is going to talk about Gray asking for her underwear? No one? Okay??"

Loke scoops her right up next, "those oafs with absolutely no delicacy are troubling you, aren't they?"

Lucy dodges just in time for Elfman to send Loke flying with a punch, yelling "Men talk with their fists!"

And Natsu's foot kicks him out of sight, "I said you're in the way!"

"Aye!"

"Ooh, peak chaos," Levy says, "I'm glad to see we all never change!"

"I wonder where you are in that chaos, Levy," Lisanna says. "Jet and Droy seem to be in the background."

"I'd rather stay out of it," Levy says.

Evergreen huffs in agreement, "no sense in joining and getting yourself dirty, right?"

"And there was a time Natsu made a dent in my book. No way am I letting him do that again," Levy adds.

In the midst of the chaos, Cana sighs with a mug of beer in hand. "Ah, this is all so annoying! I can't drink my booze in peace!" She picks out a card and it glows between her fingers, a magic circle sprouting before her. "I've had enough out of all of you!"

"Since Erza doesn't seem to be around, Mira's very ladylike, and the Thunder God Tribe are out, I guess Cana's the only one that can stop them, right?" Lisanna says.

"Huh? Why Cana?" Loke asks, genuinely curious.

"Cause she's the big sister," Levy shrugs. "By seniority, not age."

"And she punched Gildarts in the jaw once upon a time."

Loke casts a wary glance at Cana, and Cana grins back. Loke gulps.

Gray sets his hands together, and his magic seal spreads out, "now you've done it..."

Elfman does the same, roaring as the magic circle engulfs his arm with a layer of rock.

Loke comes next, activating the Holder-type magic in the ring on his finger. "You guys are such a pain in the neck..."

And of course, Natsu gathers up his flames in his wrists, declaring, "bring it on!"

"They're going to fight with magic??" Lucy holds Happy up before her, the cat wearing a plate that says 'Shield' on it.

"Aye!"

"Don't 'aye' me!"

Gray laughs. "I'm gonna win this time, since Mira and Erza aren't joining!"

"No, I am!" Natsu yells.

"Happy, shouldn't you be stopping them?" Lisanna asks.

"You want me to dive into that hellground? Nah," Happy says, "even Loke's joining in. I'm not gonna send myself into the crossfire."

Loke chuckles. But to think he was wasting magic to join in with the others like that-- the future him must be doing well.

Mirajane chuckles, "my my, this is getting out of hand."

A foot crashes into the flooring, and a majestic figure towers over the hall. "STOP IT, YOU FOOLS!"

Lucy cries, "he's huge!!"

"OOooops, it's the Master," Bickslow says. His dolls echo, "Master, Master!"

A few others chuckle at that.

"It's about time he showed up, really," Gildarts says, "we're making a bad impression on our new lady, you know?"

"Says the guy that makes the world's worst first impression," Cana mumbles.

"I make bad first impressions?" Gildarts asks.

"The first time I met you, I was breaking you out of jail and you were flirting with the wardens," Gray tells him.

"Wait, what?" Loke asks, incredulous.

"Oh Gray, you're still holding that against me?" Gildarts whines.

"I'm interested in the story," Mirajane leans over. When did she release her satan soul? Oh god, she's looking like she's got new blackmail material to stash. Gildarts, run.

Everyone freezes immediately, and silence takes over like a mute button on a TV.

"Oh, you were here, Master?" Mirajane greets him, her voice sweet and calm despite the roaring chaos that occurred moments before.

"Master?!" Lucy swirls on the huge figure, evidently intimidated.

"How do I say this..." Happy raises his hand, "Mira's like a--"

"An adorable airhead," Erza interrupts.

"She said it?!" Happy squawks.

Everyone in the room collectively shoots away from Mira and Erza as the former boils with purple rage. Erza looks gleaming and proud of her own courage.

"If you two are going to fight--"

Mira sighs. Then she says, "I agree."

"She agrees?!" is the general retort of the room.

Natsu laughs fearlessly, "Hahaha! Everyone's scared stiff! Victory is MIN--!!" and then Master steps on him.

Lucy squeaks in horror.

Natsu went 'eep'.

Master notices her, "oh, a newbie?"

Lucy shrinks away, "y-yes! Sir!"

Master makes a dramatic show of shrinking, and Lucy gawks, utterly flabbergasted by how tiny the Master really was. Master raises his hand with a cheerful grin, "glad to have you on board!"

"Now he's tiny!" Lucy says, fascinated. "And by the Master, you mean..."

"Yep. This is Fairy Tail's Guild Master, Makarov-san," Mira introduces them.

"Master's tiny, but he's strong," Erza says, smiling. She looks away with a dry cough, "though I have to admit his appearance took me by surprise the first time as well..."

"Same here," Lisanna admits, "but it was nice when we were younger and kind of the same size, right?"

"I remember Lisanna getting all excited when she was finally taller than Gramps," Elfman teases her, and she blushes.

"Elf-niichan!"

Master turns around and leaps to the second floor ledge-- he knocks his head on the way and spends a moment recovering-- then he clears his throat and faces the guild.

"You've gone and done it again, you rascals! Look at all this paperwork the council sent me, they're all complaints!" he holds up stack. "First, Gray!"

Gray looks up. "Huh?"

"Ack, it's the biweekly announcement of shame," Levy's expressions scrunch up.

"More like honour, knowing our guild," Freed sighs.

"Who bets on Natsu making the most trouble?" Happy says.

"Me."

"And me."

"Me too."

"Good job sweeping out the smuggling organisation, but you walked around in town naked afterwards, and ran away after stealing someone's laundry."

"But wouldn't it be worse if I were naked?"

Loke facepalms, "of course it's that."

Gray blushes, "it's not on purpose, okay?!"

Master sighs. "Elfman! You had a mission to escort a VIP, but then you attacked him!?"

"Uhhh, but he said men were all about education, so..."

"I mean, if Elfman beat him up, he probably deserved it," Gray leans back against the couch.

"Yeah, Elf's got the thickest thread of patience I know," Mira says.

"Unless you and Elf swapped personalities," Cana says.

"Cana!" Master changes his target, "you drank fifteen big barrels of alcohol, and then told them to charge it to the council."

"Oh, they found out..."

"Dude that is an amazing idea," Gildarts says.

"Right?" Cana grins, "the council has money anyways, they're being stingy."

"I think Cana needs a lesson on moral common sense," Erza mutters, staring at the girl with an eye full of judgement.

"Yes, yes she does," Loke nurses a headache. Master is in for so much trouble in the future when they all grow up fully...

At this point, Master sounded just defeated. "And Loke... flirting with council member, Elder Reiji's  granddaughter . A certain talent agency charged us for damages, too."

"Uhh..."

Bickslow bursts out laughing, "really dude?!"

"Even for me that's a bit," Gildarts chokes out in laughter, "you've got balls of steel, Loke!"

"I don't want to hear that from a guy that flirts with prison guards after being captured," Loke retorts, "and seriously, future me? That's amazing."

"Don't praise yourself," Gray retorts right back.

"Finally, Natsu," Master doesn't even need to look at the papers. "You destroyed the Devon Thief Troupe, but also destroyed seven houses. Then you levelled a clock tower in Tully, burned down a church in Freesia, destroyed a wing of Lupinus Castle, collapsed the ravine observatory in Nazuna, and then destroyed half of Hargeon's Port."

It's clear that Natsu has the biggest track record. Everyone's speechless.

"At this point we can fill a whole wall with just newspaper clippings of Natsu's crazy deeds," Lisanna muses, "how do you manage to make a bigger destruction every few weeks?"

"I know, right?" Happy says, "it's like he can't go anywhere without breaking one building."

"Like Gildarts?" Gray asks, suddenly finding a link.

"Exactly like Gildarts," Erza pipes up, "mystery solved, we know where he got it from."

"Wait, it's my fault?"

"All you fools do is make the council angry at me!" Master shivers with rage, and everyone looks away. "However... the council can go screw themselves!" he yells, setting the stack of papers on fire.

He tosses it aside, where Natsu leaps up to catch it in his mouth.

"Listen up!" Makarov declares, "Magic is an unreasonable power, but it is born from reason. It is not some nonsensical miracle. It is the combination of the spirit that flows within us and the spirit that flows in nature, incarnated into physical form!"

"You need a sturdy mind and a steady concentration-- magic is the pouting out of one's entire soul!" he says, "if you keep worrying about the eyes from above, you'll never get any further forward! Don't be afraid of the fools in the council, follow the path you, yourself believe in! That's the way of a Fairy Tail wizard!"

And they raise their hands, index finger and thumb point upward, fist turned in.

Everyone cheers, and somehow, a party begins.

Everyone in the room cheers.

"We can always count on Gramps to have our back!" Natsu grins.

"You're going to drive him mad eventually, though," Erza says, "he's getting older and his blood pressure isn't going to do well for much longer."

"Ominous," Levy says, "but yeah, Natsu, you should definitely start holding back."

"What? Why?!"

Laxus looks at the scene, a fond sigh leaving his shoulders. The Fairy Tail hand sign-- it's just like Master to pass it down as their trademark. It's almost embarrassing to remember where it came from now... did anyone really know what it meant?

"See Gildarts, that's how you make a good first-impression on a new girl," Gray says.

"Why are you guys chiding me again?!"

It's a warm welcome for Lucy, and it's a warm welcome from everyone in the hall too.

-

The stamp pumps out a light pink mark on the back of Lucy's right hand.

"With this, you're a member of Fairy Tail, now."

Lucy cheers around her insignia, excitedly showing it off. Fascinated, she runs up to Natsu at the request board. "Natsu, look, look! I got Fairy Tail's mark!"

"She's adorable," Loke says.

"Gotta admit I was pretty happy when I finally got the mark too," Cana smiles at the sight. "Like, it was so cool, you know?"

"You didn't get it immediately when you joined?" Gray asks. "That's how it was for the rest of us... right?" he looks around and people nod.

"It's like how we're doing with Romeo," Gildarts says, "if possible we won't want kids too young to join us. You guys are an exception for the situation that brought you here in the first place."

Mirajane hums. "If we weren't desperate to be here, we'd probably stay in the orphanage for longer, like what Cana did, right?"

"So that's why Romeo doesn't have his mark yet?" Levy asks, "even though he really, really wants it?"

"He's too young," Natsu says.

"You joined when you were younger than that," Gray sighs at him.

"Oh, but what about Laxus?" Erza turns to him, "you were born here, right? Like Happy."

"Did you just compare him to Happy of all--"

"I got my mark after my old man left," Laxus tells them, expertly ignoring, "so I was born here, but I joined after Cana."

People go silent at the mention of Ivan. He's always been a sore topic around both Dreyars in the guild-- but for Laxus to willingly bring him up first...

Laxus sighs. "It doesn't matter, right?"

They all nod.

"Ah is that so," Natsu says, uninterested, "that's great, Luigi."

"It's LUCY!!"

"Aaaand Natsu's already lost interest in her," Loke says, "poor Lucy."

"He's just teasing," Lisanna assures him, "Natsu's pretty good at remembering names when he wants to, you know?"

"I doubt that," Gray says.

"But he remembered my name without me introducing myself first," Lisanna says.

"That's because you're Lisanna, Lisanna," Mirajane puts a hand at her sister's head.

"What does that mean?"

Natsu scanned his eyes across the request board. "Ooh! 160,000J for subduing some thieves! This is a good one!"

"Isn't my dad back yet?"

Attention is turned to the counter, where a young child speaks to the Master.

"Oh, it's Romeo," Natsu says, "he's gotten big."

"I mean, kids get growth spurts pretty fast," Erza says.

"I'd say he's six or seven," Mira says, "So this is three to four years from now. Man, I wish we could get a proper date so we wouldn't have to keep guessing."

"Wait, he's asking for his dad," Gray turns them back to focus, "did something happen to Macao?"

"No way, right?" Cana says, "that lazy bum and Wakaba never go out anymore. I have to drag their ass off gear just to do something, you know?"

"You've always been the responsible one of the group, huh?" Levy chuckles, "they've been telling you to join a new team, haven't they?"

Cana's always been doing her jobs with Macao and Wakaba. They were her magic coaches from young, and have guided her through missions like two fathers to their youngest.

Now that Cana's grown older, they were less active and Cana was more drunkard. Their magic didn't quite suit each other anymore in team battles when Cana was strong enough to handle things on her own.

Cana sends a glance around the room. "Even if he says to find a new team, good teammates don't just come you know?" she sighs, "maybe I can take Lucy."

"Eh??" Lisanna whines, "no fair!"

"You have your sister and your brother," Cana pouts at her, "give me Lucy."

"But I want her too," Erza says.

"As an entourage like Laxus'? Absolutely not."

"An entourage?" Freed asks, pointing at the Thunder God Tribe. He turns to Bickslow, "we're an entourage?"

"What's an entourage?" Happy asks.

"You're getting annoying, Romeo," the Master reprimands him, "if you're the son of a proud wizard, then believe in him and wait patiently at home."

"But he said he'd be back in three days! It's been a week, and he isn't back yet," Romeo says.

Master puts down his drink. "His job was at Mt Hakobe, if I recall..."

"If it's Hakobe, it'd be Vulcans, right?" Gray points out, "or one of those annoying search missions."

"Most probably the Vulcans."

"Who even takes the search missions? It's freezing up there."

"Fire mages that aren't adrenaline junkies."

"Ah."

"That's not far at all, go and look for him!" Romeo argues.

"Your father is a wizard!" Master raises his voice, "there ain't a wizard in this guild that can't save his own ass! Go home and drink some milk and wait!"

Romeo balls his fst, and leaps up to sink a fist in Master's face.

"You jerk!" Romeo yells, running away tearfully.

Master falls back, bringing his beer mug with him and shattering it somewhere under the bar by accident.

Someone in the room winces, but Natsu laughs.

"Master Makarov is the only Master I know that could ever let a kid punch them," Loke muses fondly.

"Natsu did it a lot when he was younger," Erza tells him. "They even had a prank war."

"Really? That's amazing," Loke says.

"Master's always been soft for the young ones," Gildarts says, "it's how we ended up with so many kids early on. Master just doesn't know how to turn them away."

"Granny Hilda was very nice to us too!"

"I kind of remember her catchphrase being 'quit being a mage' though."

"Must be hard on him," Lucy says sadly.

"He might say that, but Master is actually worried, too," Mirajane tells the girl.

Something shatters in the distance.

"Hey, Natsu! Don't break the board!" Nab chastises the boy, pointing helplessly at the new crack in the wall, caused by Natsu punching the paper back into it, instead of, y'know, using a thumbtack.

"Hey, Natsu!" Mira lunges over the couch, "don't break the board!"

"And there's another few thousand going back into repairs..." Levy sighs, "I'm surprised the guild building is still standing when it's housed all of you guys for so long."

"Ahh, Natsu has anger issues," Happy sighs. "I wonder who he gets it from."

"Mira, right?" Erza immediately says.

"Mira," Cana nods.

"Definitely Mira-nee," Lisanna agrees.

"I'm feeling so loved right now," Mira mutters.

Master sighs.

"You sure about this, Master?" Nab asks, "he's going to save Macao, you know?"

"This is why he's still such a kid."

"Even if he does all that, he's just going to hurt Macao's pride."

"Shut up!" Natsu growls at the screen, "if you were Romeo, you'd want me to go too!"

"You have a point, Natsu, but Master has a point too," Erza chides.

Natsu pouts. He doesn't think he's wrong.

And the Master sighs again. "No one can tell anyone what road they should walk on," he says, "just let him do whatever he wants!"

Lucy looks back at his leaving figure, bewildered. "What's with him, all of a sudden?" she asks, surprised.

"Natsu, you see... he's just like Romeo-kun in a way. Maybe he saw himself in him," Mirajane says.

Natsu looks away. He doesn't want the pity-- what's with Mira and always babying him? He's not that weak...

Seeing that, Lisanna puts her hand on his shoulder as comfort.

"Everyone here in Fairy Tail carries something within them... a scar, a wound, or a suffering..."

Romeo walks along the road, wiping away his tears. Natsu pats him on the head, and walks past him with a silent promise written on his back.

"It's the same for me, as well," Mirajane whispers to herself, her hands trembling in their posture.

Erza's eyes widen. A few others had similar reactions.

"Huh?" Lucy didn't quite catch that part.

Mirajane's smile doesn't falter in the least. "No, it's nothing."

Lucy's eyes narrow.

They were right. Something was terribly, terribly wrong-- and they haven't seen it yet, but whatever it was drove Mirajane to this dramatic change.

Something was very, very different about this Fairy Tail now, and it had to do with Lisanna.

-

The scene changes to a carriage on a long road.

"Why are you here?" Natsu's voice asks, groaning from motion sickness.

"Why not?" Lucy retorts. The scene changes to the interior of the carriage, where Natsu is lying on the seats, nauseated. "You really can't handle transportation, can you? There's so much to pity you for..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Natsu senses danger in the form of some embarrassing blackmail.

"Oh, nothing."

"She followed him," Levy says, chuckling slightly, "reminds me of Lisanna."

"Eh? Me?" Lisanna blushes slightly.

"Yeah, you followed him around all the time even when he didn't ask for it," Erza says, "you had to ask permission to follow him on missions, though."

"Wow, that's a little embarrassing," Lisanna chuckles.

"But I wonder why Lucy is following Natsu?" Gray asks, "she could follow one of the other girls..."

"She just joined so other than Mira, she doesn't seem close to anyone yet," Cana says, "it makes sense for her to cling to the first person she met. Mira doesn't seem to be in active duty anymore, anyways."

"Clinging to the first person they meet... oh, like you and Macao and Wakaba?"

"Hm? Yeah."

The scene changes to a flashback of yesterday, where Lucy was talking with Mirajane.

"Natsu's father left, and he never came back," Mira tells her, and Lucy perks up with interest.

"Hey, why're you guys talking about my past like it's a bedtime story?"

"It is, though."

"What?!"

"Well, not exactly his real father, but it's certainly the closest thing to one. He raised him from young, after all-- I'm talking about a dragon."

Lucy imagines the majestic mythical being and goes "Huh? A dragon?! Natsu was raised by a dragon?"

Mirajane nods.

"It's just as unbelievable every time you hear it," Loke sighs, "it's hard to imagine it's a lie, but it's so hard to imagine it being true, too."

"I'm not lying!"

"We believe you, Natsu," Erza says over her shoulder, "we're just wondering where the dragon went or where it was hiding out the entire time it was raising you."

The scene changes to an image of a very little Natsu, standing by the snout of a large, red-scaled dragon.

"He was found by that dragon in the forest when he was little. And from him, he learned words, cultures, and magic."

There's a picture of him before something that looks like a ragged news article, and the dragon points its large claw at a section of it. In the next picture, Natsu is clinging tenderly at the dragons' snout in what's probably a hug.

Natsu freaks out, "what are those?!"

"Natsu's baby pictures!!!" Lisanna squeals, "Levy, Levy, send me a lacrima screenshot of that! Please! Pleeeease!"

"I want one, too!" Mira says, "half-naked baby Natsu is so cute!"

"Don't call it that."

"But it is cute, though."

"Bickslow, what the hell."

"But, one day... it vanished," Mirajane says.

"I see," Lucy remembers part of this story, "so that's Igneel."

"Natsu's actually looking forward to seeing Igneel again one day," Mirajane leans over the counter, "isn't he cute?"

"Ah," Elfman points out, "Mira-nee's still in the habit of calling Natsu cute."

"Hey, you, watch those perverted hands," Lisanna chides at Mira.

"But he's adorable," Mira grins, "I want to pinch his cheeks and eat them."

"Cannibal."

"Yes, I'm a demon. You called?"

Lucy chuckles.

The carriage stops abruptly. "Are we here?" Lucy wonders.

Natsu revives loudly, "we stopped!!" And he cheers obnoxiously on the seats.

Happy says with exasperation, "he recovers so quickly."

"Sorry, but we can't go any further," the coachman hollers to the two in the carriage.

They open the door to find themselves before a raging blizzard.

"It's cold!" Lucy whines for the nth time that hour, "I know it's a mountain and all, but this is summer! There's something wrong about this weather!"

"It's pretty normal for Mt Hakobe, though," Gray says, "maybe she's not from around here."

"She's definitely underdressed," Lisanna chuckles, "you should've warned her, Natsu."

"But I didn't even want her to come."

"That's what you get for wearing such thin clothes," Natsu tells her bluntly.

"You're wearing thinner layers than me!" Lucy retorts. She tugs at Natsu's bag as the boy watches her struggle. "Lend me that blanket!"

"Man, she's annoying," Natsu mutters.

"Aye," Happy agrees.

"But she's fun!" Levy says. "She's expressive and open. The guild would be boring without people like her, right?"

"Yeah, we've got enough emo types in Erza and Mira."

"What?"

And Lucy perks up with a very bright idea. "That's it!" she takes out a silver key with symbol of a clock on it-- "Gate of the Clock, I open thee!"

"A clock?" Elfman asks, "what's she going to do with a clock in the blizzard?"

She swipes the key across the motions, and the spell circle spreads out.

"Horologium!"

A bell rings. A clock ticks. Gears spindle to life, swirling to the sky-- a grandfather's clock lands on the ground, sprouting arms and feet before its head pops out the top.

"Ooh, a clock!" Natsu says.

"Cool!"

"That's one freaky-looking clock," Cana says.

"It has a face," Happy says.

"So not all the spirits look human... or is it because it's a silver key? Erza asks, "are all golden keys human-looking and silver keys aren't?"

"Ah, not necessarily," Loke interrupts before he thinks it through.

All eyes are on him now.

"I uh," he stumbles, "there's a silver key spirit that's a girl on a harp. The mage I knew had her."

Right, that's a lie.

"So there's all kinds of spirits, huh..." Lisanna hums, "since Lucy's a Celestial Spirit mage, I wonder if we'll get to meet more of them!"

"Would there be a dragon spirit I can fight?" Natsu asks.

Loke chokes out a laugh.

Lucy curls up comfortably inside the trunk of the clock, wrapped in blankets and shivering in the cold. She mutters something, but it's all muffled behind the crystal cut glass.

"I can't hear you," Natsu tells her, very unhelpfully.

"Oh, that's smart," Erza says, "it's soundproof and coldproof. It's a nice warm spot to rest without delaying the journey."

So Horologium speaks, "she says, 'I'll be in here'."

"What on earth did you even come here for?" Natsu retorts.

"Lucy's so funny!" Levy giggles, "even Natsu is exasperated."

"I mean..."

"But dude the clock just spoke," Gray says, "it's talking in third person narrative."

"Cool!"

"That's cool?"

Horologium continues, "she says, 'what job did Macao come here to do'?"

"You didn't know and you tagged along?" Natsu asks, exasperated, "he was subduing a vicious monster, a Vulcan!"

Lucy pales with horror.

"My my, looks like she's scared," Cana muses, "Natsu's such a dramatist."

Natsu pouts. "This is stupid."

Horologium tells Natsu, "she says, 'I want to go home'!"

"And I say, 'yes, go ahead'," Natsu retorts.

"Natsu's imitating the clock now," Lisanna giggles, "it's kinda funny as a speech quirk, right? Says Lisanna."

"Poor Lucy," Loke laughs, "says Loke."

"You guys are annoying," Natsu grumbles.

"Says Natsu," Happy chimes in.

"Stop messing around," Erza chides, but there's a smile on her face when she adds, "says Erza."

"Stop making this a trend!" Natsu yelled.

"Says Natsu," everyone echoes.

He and Happy continue on their trek through the snowstorm, leaving the reluctant little blondie behind.

-

"MACAO!! Are you here?!" Natsu shouts into the blizzard. Happy echoes him, and they search around, vision mostly obscured by all the white.

Up above, something leaps.

Natsu turns before the attack reaches, and barely manages a flip to dodge a strike from the Vulcan's rock-hard fists. The ground shatters beneath them, and the shockwaves blow them aside.

"It's a Vulcan!" Happy realizes.

"A mountain vulcan, huh... Natsu should be able to take one out easily, right?" Gildarts says, "you kick around the forest vulcans all the time."

"Forest and mountain vulcans are different," Erza says, "Mountain ones have a thicker hide, for instance."

"But there's one thing they have in common," Mira remembers, "ah. Lucy's in danger."

There's a pause, and then everyone turns to the screen.

"Oh no, Lucy's in danger."

Their eyes lock in hostility for a long second-- then the Vulcan's attention turns elsewhere. His nose sniffs around-- then he bolts.

And of all things, he goes and grabs Horologium, leering at Lucy who was curled up inside. "A human woman!" he gapes in delight.

Cana facepalms, "of course."

"He can smell her through the clock?" Loke asks, a little surprised himself.

Horologium's internal environment is made to be a whole new state entirely, so it's soundproof, smell-proof, etc. Wow, Vulcans are to be feared...

Natsu punches a flaming fist in delight, "so it can talk?"

He turns to the Vulcan, who's running off carrying Horologium away like a monkey that's found gold.

"She says, 'who cares, please save me'!" Horologium says, imitating a tone in an impressive clarity while his natural voice remained the calm of an ever constant clock.

"My, my," Mirajane sighs fondly, "go and save her, mister Prince."

"Yeah, Natsu, go," Lisanna says.

"But she's the one in the mess!" Natsu whines. "She can save herself! She's a mage, right?"

"C'mon, Natsu, be a gentleman."

"Who're the assholes that said she should know how to take care of herself last episode? Back me up, guys, c'mon."

"Just go save her, Natsu."

"Et tu, Laxus?!"

-

Near the peak of Mt Hakobe, Horologium-with-Lucy sits in the center of an ice rink, circled by a rather enthusiastic, dancing, and very lovestruck Vulcan.

"She says, 'why is this happening to me'?" Horologium says, covering his eyes with his hands as if he, too, was rather scared, "...and she says... 'and what's with this Monkey? He's way too hyper'!"

"That's one freaky situation to be stuck in," Gray says, paling slightly, "man am I ever glad that I'm not a woman that has to face that."

"Reminds me of that time Lisanna got caught by a forest vulcan," Gildarts laughs.

Lisanna sighs, "he was such a pervert!" she folded her arms and turned away, "But that's fine, I told him I was taken."

"You're taken?"

"Wait, you're what?!"

"Lisanna!" Natsu screeches at her, face bright red, "I keep telling you, that's century old news!"

"You're such a shy boy, Natsu," Lisanna teases, "right in front of Happy, too."

"Huh? What about me?"

Natsu makes a dying noise, and Mirajane laughs. "Oh, you two are adorable!" she says.

"Wait, what's this about Lisanna being taken? Why have we never heard of this?" Freed asks, "is it because we've been out of the guild for a while?"

"No, no, she's obviously Natsu's girl," Evergreen sighs, "everyone can see that from a mile away."

"She is what?!"

"Stop spreading that around, we're just friends!" Natsu sounds near tears at this point.

"Natsu do you liiiiiiiiiike her?"

"Happy, shut up!"

The crowd laughs as the girls continue teasing him.

The Vulcan sticks its head on the glass door. "A wooomaaan!!" he leered.

Then like a sick joke, Horologium glows-- and vanishes.

Lucy reappears, sitting on the ice and wrapped in a blanket. "HEY! Horologium, don't disappear on me!!" she cries.

Horologium's ghostly voice sounds from the other end of his gate. "My time is up. Fare thee well!"

Lucy wails desperately, "I want an extension! An extension! Please!"

Levy burst into giggles, "she just got betrayed!"

"That clock has a sense of humour, I like him!" Bickslow laughs.

"He just abandoned her, though, I'm not sure if we can call that noble," Mira raises a brow at the scene.

"He's not a combat-type spirit, so there's not much it can do, anyways," Loke says, "but since it went back, Lucy should be able to summon someone else to help."

"She can't summon two at once?" Natsu turns around curiously.

"I suppose summoning takes up a lot of magic power," Gray says, "the spirits themselves act on borrowed magic power, after all. Must be pretty magic-consuming."

Loke nods.

The Vulcan inches closer, eyes gleaming and hands wriggling suggestively. Lucy shrieks in fear.

"MONKEY!" Natsu's voice comes in, and Lucy turns in hope, "WHERE'S MACAO?!?"

"And here's prince charming!"

Then Natsu slips on ice, falls headfirst, and firsts spinning. He crashes into a wall, to Lucy's exasperation and despair. The Vulcan doesn't even notice him.

"Ow," Natsu winces at himself. Everyone in the room collectively begins to laugh at him again, and he broods in the corner. "In my defence, ice is stupid."

"Which is why you'll never win against Gray?" Happy chides cheekily.

"I didn't say that!"

"Lame..." Lucy mumbles. She facepalms, "is he incapable of making a normal entrance?"

"Well, she's certainly catching on," Bickslow says.

"Hey!"

"Hey, monkey! Where's Macao?!" Natsu isn't fazed by his uncool entrance. He doesn't forget his goal despite everything. Lucy takes the chance to run to him, hiding behind his back. "You can understand me, right? I'm talking about Macao, he's a human man."

"Man?" the Vulcan repeats.

"Yeah! Where are you hiding him?!" Natsu demands, pointing.

Lucy backs away, appalled, "he just assumes the monkey is hiding him...?"

The Vulcan points eagerly in a random direction, beckoning for Natsu to follow him. Natsu looks out the cavern window that the Monkey is pointing toward.

"Oh, I think he understood me. Where?"

And then Natsu gets booted right out with an undignified squawk.

"YOU MONKEY!!"

And down into the abyss he goes.

The room erupts in laughter. Gray even doubles over choking halfway through, and by the end of it they're catching their breaths at the stupidity of the situation.

"Natsuuu!" Lucy calls after him, rushing to the cavern window and looking down, catching no sign of the boy in the darkness. "Oh no, he's not dead, is he?"

"Valid concern," Loke says, "but Natsu can probably survive a fall, right?"

"Where's Happy been for the last few minutes?" Cana asks, "well, Natsu's got a hard enough head, so he should be able to climb back out in a while."

"Yeah, he won't freeze, either, cause he's a fire mage," Freed says, "we can just leave him down there."

"Ah, you guys care for me so much," Natsu groans sarcastically.

The Vulcan dances victoriously, "I don't need men! I like women! Woman, woman, woman, woman, woman! Woman!" he chants.

Lucy turns around, discarding the blanket.

"Hey, you pervy monkey! Get a load of this!" She taunts, reaching for a key at her belt.

She takes out an axe-shaped key with the symbol of a horned cow on it. She slices it across the air. "Gate of the Golden Bull, I open thee!" she calls.

"It's Lucy's turn to shine!" Lisanna says, "it's a golden key this time!"

"She has a lot of golden keys even though there's only twelve of them in the world," Erza observes, "she doesn't seem like much now, but she might actually be quite an incredible mage, in terms of holder-types."

"She's pretty dull if you put her beside Natsu," Levy says, "but if we put her in a match with the rest of the members, she might actually make it pretty far!"

"That depends on whether she can keep summoning spirits in tandem," Loke says, "Celestial Spirit mages tend to run out of magic quickly, so having a lot of keys isn't usually... stop staring at me. What?"

Everyone turns away, sheepishly, except a few that just smile.

"I mean," Gray chuckles, "it's rare for you to speak much to us," he says, "not about girls or those dumb topics. So it's just... new."

Loke fixes his glasses, and turns away. "I'm sorry."

"What are you apologizing for, you dolt?" Cana pats him harshly on the back.

The spell circle forms, and the bell sounds.

"Taurus!"

A bipedal bull with a huge axe strapped to his back emerges from underground, roaring. Flexing its muscles, it stood proudly.

"A cow!" Happy cheers.

"It doesn't look human!" Lisanna says, "or... it does, but not really!"

"Spirits are weird," Gray says.

"A cow?" the Vulcan asks.

"Taurus is the most powerful of all the Celestial Spirits I have contracts with!" Lucy warns him, obviously angered.

"Really?" Levy asks.

Loke hums. It's actually Aquarius, but seeing as Aquarius can only be used near a body of water, Taurus is actually her best all-rounder.

Even so... how did she get so many strong keys despite not being a guild mage?

Meanwhile, the bull leers at his owner, hearts in his eyes. "Oh,  Lucy-san , as always, you have such a  nice body  on you! Could you be any moo -re lovely?"

Lucy nurses a headache in the making. "Oh, right. He's a perv, too..."

Loke nearly falls over in exasperation. Oh that bull never changes...

"So he's a pervert too?" Mira raises an eyebrow, "what's with big brawly beasts and their perverted tendencies? Is this a trend?"

"He's contracted to Lucy, so he won't harm her, right?" Cana says, "I guess a lovestruck perv is nice if he's sworn to loyalty and protects you."

"When you phrase it like that, that actually sounds pretty nice," Erza says.

"You know, Erza could totally tame a wild vulcan to do her bidding," Lisanna says.

"She'd make herself an army," Levy agrees, "she won't even need a day."

This, though, sparks up a different form of rivalry in the Vulcan. "Hey, don't take my woman!"

Taurus glares, irked. " Your  woman? That's a line I can't ignore."

"Taurus!" Lucy commands. And he obeys.

"RAMPAGE!" Swirling his gigantic axe across and behind his back, Taurus brings the force down on the ground, rupturing the earth and causing a fissure.

"Woah, he's strong!" Lisanna says, "he's not her strongest for nothing, huh?"

Loke hums. When it comes to brute strength, Taurus is definitely up there.

The Vulcan side-steps it, leaping right out of harm's way. With a smug grin, he hops, and charges forward.

"He's fast!" Lucy exclaims. The Vulcan raises a fist, punching toward the bull-- and for a moment, Taurus seemed to be in big trouble.

And then Natsu comes in, kicking Taurus right at the chin.

"NATSU!!" Lucy squawks.

The sentiment is echoed in shrieks across the hall. Loke has a hand on Natsu's collar, and a bunch of others are just screeching.

"What are you doing?!"

"Lucyy!!"

"The bull!!!"

"No, Mister Bull!! Natsu how could you?!"

Natsu just stared at the screen, looking appalled at himself. "Oops."

"Don't 'oops' me!"

Taurus is sent flying, landing pathetically on the ice, defeated.

"Hey, aren't there more monsters now?" Natsu asks Lucy, genuinely confused.

"HE'S AN ALLY, YOU DOLT!" Lucy screeches at him.

"The monkey?"

"No, the bull!!"

Erza gave the boy a whack across the head. "Think before you act, Natsu."

"But it's an emergency!" Natsu says, "plus I was still angry at the bull."

"You'd charge into literally anyone that was fighting it," Gray says, "even if it was one of us."

"Well if you were in my way, it's your fault."

"Hey wait, how did you survive that?" Lucy calms down quickly, turning to a more interesting matter at hand.

Natsu snickers at that. "Happy, of course." And suddenly Happy is above them, flying. "Thanks, buddy!"

"Aye!"

Lucy crosses her arms, suddenly realizing something. "You're bad with transportation, but I guess Happy isn't a problem, huh?

Attention was turned to the screen.

"That's a good point," Levy says.

"We never really noticed it cause it took a while for Happy to learn how to fly, but he's really completely fine with Happy," Lisanna says, slightly impressed.

Meanwhile, Natsu stares at them looking slightly baffled and turned off.

"What are you talking about?" Natsu asks, slightly turned off, "Happy isn't transportation," he said, dead serious and slightly appalled, "he's a friend. You're mean, Lucy."

"Right," Lucy says back, blankly, "I'm sorry."

Mira snorts out a laughter, "is that his logic?"

"That probably means he was fine riding on Igneel's back too," Levy sighs. "But if the solution was that easy, we could've solved this really easily."

"Yeah, like if you think of the train as a huge caterpillar..." Elfman starts.

"Why would I have a huge caterpillar that travels at that ungodly speed and makes weird sounds?" Natsu asks.

Everyone stares. Then Levy sighs, "Nevermind. This is hopeless."

The Vulcan, tired of being ignored, bursts out in a roar. "That's MY WOMAN!" he declares, and his fist comes down hard onto Natsu.

Natsu takes the blow with his arm, personally unfazed but the ground beneath him shattering in the impact.

"Listen up! Everyone in the guild are my comrades, my family, and my friends!"

The Vulcan kicks him away, and Natsu braces against it, landing unharmed.

"Gramps, Mira, even the annoying jerks like Gray and Elfman, all of them!" Natsu says, building up a wave of magic power. A magic seal forms under his feet. "Happy and Lucy, you too. Everyone in the guild is family to me. That's why I'll definitely bring Macao back home!"

The people in the hall smile.

"Well, you do say some good things every once in a while," Erza pats him on the shoulders.

Natsu huffs, "this is embarrassing."

"But it's your true feelings, right?" Lisanna beams, "you're adorable, Natsu."

"What's with you and Mira and calling me cute?! Stop that!"

"Even annoying jerks like Gray and Elfman, huh," Gray mutters. He turns to the girl beside him, "hey, Mira, you're officially not considered a jerk in Natsu's book. Congrats."

"That's probably the most surprising thing about that speech," Mira says.

Lucy looks on at Natsu, an impressed admiration crossing her face at the mention of her own name. She blushes slightly-- she'd only joined for a day, and yet...

"That's nostalgic," Lisanna says, "kinda like the time with Erza and Mira-nee."

"Huh? What happened between them?" Natsu leans over. Erza and Mira immediately blush madly.

Lisanna beams, and everyone's attention is on her. "You see, there's a time before Mira-nee and Erza started fighting, and that's when--"

Erza and Mira stuck a pillow in her face. She's forced to stop talking.

A Fire Dragon's Iron Fist to the Vulcan's stomach. Natsu sends him flying to the ceiling. The Vulcan regains his vertigo, but a row of icicles line the road before them.

The Vulcan knocks the glaciers, sending ice shards flying everywhere.

Lucy runs out of the way, but Natsu takes it like a man (idiot). "That won't work against fire!" he yells.

Smoke fills the screen, and when it dissipates, the Vulcan emerges, holding a huge axe with a sneer.

"Uh, oh," Nats gulps.

"Uh oh indeed," Freed says, "even I didn't expect that."

"That Vulcan is surprisingly smart, huh..." Lisanna says, appalled.

"They get smarter the more take-overs they do on humans," Cana explains. "It's how they survive up there."

"Speaking of which, where's Macao? This Vulcan obviously doesn't have him captured somewhere, so Natsu's kinda wasting his time," Gray says.

Cana hums. "That's true."

"That's Taurus' axe!" Lucy pales. Camera pans to Taurus, knocked out in his delirious lovestruck still dizzy state.

Natsu laughs at that. "So that bull doesn't just automatically disappear, huh?"

"Oh-- like how some magic wears off when the user is knocked out?" Mira asks, "or maybe the bull's not entirely knocked out. Or maybe Natsu knocked him out too hard and he forgot to go back on the way."

"Either way, poor bull..." Levy says. "It's kinda ironic, though."

The Vulcan swings the axe around, but Natsu, maintaining his calm, dodges each wide slash with relative ease.

"Oh, those are good reflexes," Gildarts says.

"All that training with Erza, right?" Gray chuckles.

Then Natsu slips on the ice.

"Natsu!"

Natsu regains his balance at the last second, managing to catch the axe upfront, between his hands. It's obvious it's taking effort to keep the axe off from slicing him right in half. He grunts.

Everyone leaps in surprise when that happens, and collectively they all release a sigh of relief when Natsu narrowly saves himself.

"Why are you clumsy at the worst times?" Elfman asks him.

"Well you try fighting on ice!"

"Taurus, go back!" Lucy shakes the idiot cow, trying to wake him up, "if you do, the axe will disappear too!"

Natsu's palms burn up with heat, boiling the metal to a malleable red-- he opens his mouth, and catches the melted iron embers on his tongue.

A few in the room wince.

"I want to say yuck," Gray says, then he adds, "yuck."

"Wait, that's technically still iron, right?" Levy says, "you can't eat that. You can only eat the heat, right?"

"Yeah."

"That's nasty, Natsu, you don't know where that axe has been," Cana says.

"Why are you making it sound disgusting?" Natsu retorts.

"Natsu's right. I'm sure the axe is clean," Erza says, '' I'm more concerned about you melting and permanently deforming what is obviously his favourite axe."

"He's melting the axe with his body heat?" Lucy asks, slightly disgusted. "And he's eating it, too..."

"Aye!" Happy says, obviously unfazed.

His mouth full and stuck in that awkward position (the Vulcan just stares, flabbergasted), "now that I've eaten, I'm all revved up," he mumbles between munches, then spits out hot coals like a peashooter of fire bullets, striking the Vulcan head on.

"Oh, so he is spitting them out," Levy says.

"At least we don't have to deal with another stomachache Natsu," Mira says, "like when he ate Laxus' lightning a couple months ago."

Natsu blushes, "that's different!"

"You're the only moron alive that attempts to eat something other than food," Laxus says. "What on earth are your teeth made of?"

"Do you need the dentist, Natsu?"

"How did this conversation turn into that?!"

After that, he finishes it with a very easy, "Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon!!"

The Vulcan sprawls upside down, trapped between the ridges of the cavern window, fainted.

"We did it!" Happy cheers.

"Oh man," Lucy says, "weren't you going to ask that Monkey where Macao-san was? He's completely knocked out."

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Natsu says, rubbing his head sheepishly.

A few facepalm at that. "Of course he did."

"Is fighting the only thing in your head all the time, Natsu?" Elfman asks him.

"No, Elf-niichan, you're the last person with any right to say that," Lisanna tells him.

"Ack, Lisanna's betrayed me," Elfman buries his face in his palms, fake sobbing.

Then the Vulcan's body is engulfed in a yellow holographic glow-- Lucy squeaks in fright-- and a magic circle spreads out, covering the Vulcan's form... and shrinking.

"What?"

With a burst of smoke-- Macao lay in the Vulcan's place.

"Macao?!" Natsu exclaims. It's certainly him, no mistaking it.

The people in the hall jerk forward in alarm.

"Oh no!" Lisanna's first to exclaim, "he got taken over!"

"Natsu's got some great luck, though," Gray mutters, "the first Vulcan he comes across just happens to be the right one to look for."

"Worry about that later, is he okay?" Loke says, "Natsu didn't exactly hold back on the poor dude, you know?"

Cana bites her bottom lip. Laying her barrel at the side, she leans forward to look closer. "I'm sure he'll be fine," she says, fists clenching, "they just need to bring him down now."

A few turn to her, concerned-- but they shake off the worry and focus on the situation at hand.

"It's fine, I'm sure Macao's stronger than that," Mira assures her, "he nearly made the S-class advancement test in his prime, you know? Though that was a long time ago and he got knocked off by Laxus and everyone else after that."

Cana manages a dry chuckle. "Sure he did."

"EH?! That's him??" Lucy asks, "wasn't he a pervy monkey just a second ago??"

"The Vulcan must've done a Take Over," Happy surmises. When Lucy asks, he explains, "it's magic to occupy someone's body."

Macao groans, injured. Now with a smaller body, his body swayed through the opening of the cavern window-- and fell through.

"Oh crap!" Natsu leaps, lunging out the window after the man before he fell too far out into the verge.

Everyone in the room sighs in relief.

"Hey, I didn't see that worry when it was me," Natsu whines.

"Macao isn't you," Gray hisses at him, "and he's injured."

He grabs Macao's foot, and Happy soars out, catching Natsu's back just in time. "I can't keep holding both of you!" Happy warns loudly. Natsu swears out loud.

Lucy grabs Happy's tail out of the air. "Heavy!"

"Not to worry!" A bigger, stronger arm takes over her grasp on Happy's form.

Lucy turns around, breaking into a grin. "Taurus!"

"Bull!" Natsu sobs, "you're a good guy!"

"Oh man, you've got to thank Lucy for being there," Loke tells him, "where's your sorry?"

"Why do I have to say it to you?!"

"Cause you were being a jerk," Lisanna says with a tone more like a tease, "it'd have been big trouble if she weren't there."

"'Bull, you're a great guy'? What kind of relief is that?" Elfman says, "you knocked him out and melted part of his axe, you know?"

"I'll say sorry, okay?!" Natsu barks. "But yeah, maybe they were nice people."

"Oh, you're so dishonest," Lisanna chuckles, leaning over Erza's lap on the couch to get nearer to Natsu on the floor. "You a Tsundere or something?

"Right, right, back to the main problem," Erza puts her hand on their shoulders and pulls them apart.

-

"Looks like he put up quite a fight before he was taken over," Happy says.

The scene changes, but it's still tense. Macao lays on the blanket, bleeding from multiple wounds. There's a deep cut at the side of his stomach, bleeding onto the mat.

Gasps spread around the room. Levy has a hand at her mouth. "He looks awful!"

Near tears, Lisanna turns to Cana, putting a hand around her shoulders. Cana has her fists clenched tight.

"That reckless moron," Cana grounds out.

Lucy's pressing a cloth over a still-bleeding wound near his chest, but even that isn't the worst of his wounds.

"The wound on his side's too deep," Lucy tells Natsu anxiously, "we can't do anything with only the first aid kit we have."

Happy pulls over a bottle of disinfectant, looking miserably helpless.

He...  Lucy thinks grimly,  he's not going to make it...

A few turn away at that, unable to look at it.

"No..." Natsu grinds out the words, "no, we can't let that happen! Macao's important! There's got to be something we can do!"

"There's a blizzard out there, so you'd better not bring him out," Mira says, "we'll have to wait. Man, if only Lucy had a spirit that could help out--"

"Spirits aren't so convenient," Loke sighs. "Maybe if Gray was there, you could staunch the bleeding with ice."

A pause.

"That's it!" Lisanna says suddenly, and a few turn to Natsu. "Oh, but that sounds painful."

"Wait, what am I missing here?" Evergreen asks.

"Natsu could sear the wound shut," Levy says, "but..." she sends a pitying look at Cana, "that's a lot riskier than ice."

"Yeah, he might just die instea-- ow! I'm sorry! I'll be quiet!" Elfman starts, only to get pelted by toys and plastic cups.

Cana sighs. "He's stronger than that. We just have to count on Natsu to know to do it..."

Natsu kneels before his figure, taking in the severity of the situation. Setting a hand beside the worst wound, Natsu raises a flame-coated fist.

Macao screams.

A few in the room hurriedly reach up to cover their ears when the ear-piercing screeching reverberates through the hall.

Cringing and turning away, Levy tries not to think about what's really happening.

But Cana stares firmly. She stares, never once looking away--biting her lips tight. Beside her, Mira and Gray lean in just a little closer-- and they just pray.

"Wha- wait! Natsu! What're you doing?!" Lucy panics.

Macao's struggling, but Natsu has his and firm on his shoulder, pushing him down to stay still. "This is all we can do now!" Natsu yells over Macao's ever-increasing screams of agony. "Bear with it, Macao! Lucy, help me hold him down!"

Lucy quickly realizes,  he's trying to sear the wound shut?  And she moves, holding the man's arms down before he hits too blindly.

"Don't die!" Natsu yells, desperate, "Romeo's waiting for you!"

An agonizing eternity later, Natsu is done, and Macao's screams die down into harsh, ragged whimpers and very heavy breathing.

"Is it... over?" Natsu says first, sounding exhausted even though they were just watching through it.

"He made it!" Lisanna exclaims, relieved, "Cana, he made it!"

Natsu keeps a hot hand on Macao's side.

Macao chokes out a swear, "almost got them," he grunts out, "I got... nineteen of them, and-- and--" he swears again.

Lucy pales.  Huh?

"UGH! I was-- taken over, by the," Macao grunts, "by the, twentieth--GAH!"

"I get it, I get it!" Natsu chastises him sharply, "calm down and stop talking! Your wound's going to reopen!"

Wait...  Lucy's face goes white with horror,  there was more than one monkey? ...and he came on this job all on his own?!

Cana breaks out into laughter. "It's going to take more than a vulcan or two to take down that oaf!"

Erza smiles. "But nineteen, huh. That's impressive, but he let his guard down. I cannot give him much credit for his efforts."

"Strict as usual, Erza," Lisanna sighs, "but he's fine! That's a relief."

"Man, but that's going to be a hard hit on his condition herein," Bickslow says, "think he's in for an early retirement?"

"You can't get that doofus to retire if you held a knife to his throat, he needs to raise Romeo, you know?" Gray sighs, "but I'm thinking Gramps will put him off active duty too often now."

"Oh man," Natsu says. "No more spars?"

"You can fight with Gray," Elfman says.

"But he's the only other fire caster mage in the guild!" Natsu whines.

"We'll get more in the future," Elfman says.

Macao just keeps swearing at himself, hands to his face in shame. "Damn it! How can I face Romeo? I'm so-- angry at myself... I-"

"I said SHUT UP!" Natsu raises his voice. "If you don't stop talking, Macao, I'm seriously going to punch you!!"

Amazing,  Lucy can only think herself a little ashamed--  I'm no match for them at all.

"Lucy's in for more crazy than just this!" Levy grins, "though I really hope we don't have more of the reckless. This one's enough for me to get all weak in my knees."

"If there's so many and we're watching what we think we are-- I'm thinking we'll get much more than just one near-death experience," Evergreen says, mirthful.

Loke clenches his fist. How is he going to leave the stage? Will he leave through the whole thing? Or will he... he can't imagine any way he'd leave without everyone making a scene. It's Fairy Tail, after all.

"Things are going to be a lot harder from herein," Gildarts says, "you guys are stronger than this. You can handle it."

"He's right," Erza says, "we're watching this to prevent this from happening. Whatever we're seeing-- it can be changed."

A wave of understanding passed through the room.

"So we can make it so none of this ever happens, no matter how hard," Cana says, "start taking notes, guys! We're on a mission!"

And everyone cheers excitedly.

Then Happy says, "but half of us here hates writing."

-

The scene turns back to Romeo. He sits on the stairs, deep in thought.

"Mages are just a bunch of drunk bastards!" the scene turns gray, showing a child his age making mocking faces at him. "What's so great about Fairy Tail mages?"

The scene changes to Romeo confronting his father in the guild. "Hey, dad! Go do a job! I can't stand them making fun of you like this!"

Romeo wipes away tears with his arm, and sniffles.

"What's with those jerks?" Natsu growls at the screen.

"So that's how Macao went off on the job..." Cana says.

Lisanna sighs, "I bet he's feeling terrible about it. It's not his fault..."

"Romeo!" Natsu calls out.

He lifts his head. There's Natsu, with Macao at his shoulder. Lucy and Natsu are by his side, and they wave to him with big grins.

Romeo lets his tears fall. He leaps and tackles his father with a face hug, injury be damned. "DAD!" he exclaims, relief all over him.

Macao falls back from the sudden impact, and Lucy freaks out, "his wounds!!"

Laughter roars through the hall.

"That'd be a dumb way to die, you know, of your son hugging you out of joy for making it home alive," Bickslow says.

Lisanna cuffs him over the head, "ominous!"

"Ow."

"But that's great," Levy says, "Macao's safely home, Romeo's worries are eased, and Lucy learned something nice about the guild."

"And Natsu accepted her as a comrade," Lisanna says. "It's a nice feeling."

"Dad, I'm sorry!!" Romeo sobs, hugging his father desperately.

Macao nurses a new bump on his head, but he hugs back anyways. "Sorry I made you worry."

"It's okay, I'm the son of a wizard, after all," Romeo sobs back.

Natsu turns to leave the father and son to their moment. Lucy and Happy follow.

"Next time those bullies try to pick on you, just ask them this-- can  their  dad can defeat nineteen monsters all on his own, huh?!"

Romeo beams.

He runs back in the direction Natsu went,and yells, "Natsu-niiiiii! Happyyyy!" he drags the lines, "thanks a lot!"

"Sure!"

"Aye!"

"And thanks to you too, Lucy-nee!!" Romeo adds loudly.

Lucy turns around and waves back at them.

"Don't you think those two would make a pretty nice team?" Lisanna asks, "how do I say this... Natsu's always working alone and with Happy, but Lucy kinda fills in a nice gap, doesn't she?"

"Huh?" Natsu says, "I'm fine working alone."

"Sure you are, but it's nice to not travel alone for once," Erza says, "I've gone on missions with Levy, right?"

"Yeah! For my first few!" Levy says, "they were really fun!"

"I'm not alone, I've got Happy, and that's all the members my group needs," Natsu dismisses, "unless some reason comes up I'm just better working with just Happy."

Gray laughs. "He's right, you know. We wouldn't want Lucy to become collateral damage to his mess."

"What was that?!"

-

"July Fourth," Lucy's voice narrates, "Sunny, then a blizzard, and then Sunny once again. Fairy Tail may be one reckless and outrageous guild, but it's also fun, heartwarming, and kind."

Lucy and Natsu return to the guild, bright smiles on their faces.

"I might just be a budding wizard, but I love this guild!"

The ending song plays.

"Lucy's so sweet," Levy fawns. "Lisanna, we can make her join the actually-sane-girls gang."

"Oh, she totally fits in," Lisanna says.

"Wait, what is that?" Mira says, and Erza adds, "why am I not there?"

"You two are totally not sane," Gray mutters under his breath. The next moment he's thrown to the other end of the room and Erza dusts her hands.

"I'm not in there either," Cana says, faking hurt, "I thought we were friends."

"Sorry, Cana, but you're just a little over the line of sanity," Lisanna says.

"What about me?" Evergreen looks over, slightly offended.

Levy laughs when Lisanna fumbles, trying to tell the older girl she was insane without trying to get killed. She reaches for the Lacrima memory drive, and slots it into an empty box with the other two they've already seen.

"You guys need a break or are we watching the next one already?"

Chapter Text

THREE: Infiltrate the Everlue Mansion!

Word Count: 15484

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-

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“The Kingdom of Fiore. A neutral country of 17 million people. This is a world of magic. Magic is bought and sold there every day. It is an integral part of people’s lives. And in a certain city there lies a certain guild. A guild from which various legends were once born… or rather, will continue to be born long into the future… And it’s name is: Fairy Tail!”

Cue the opening song. 

-

Cana leaves the room when the song is playing, throwing some excuse about getting new booze while they’re waiting.

Unbeknownst to everyone except the Thunder God Tribe, Laxus trails after her.

It’s when Cana’s stretching for a wine glass on the top shelf-- Laxus reaches over her and takes it down, handing it to her.

Cana stares, strangely apprehensive.

She takes it, “thank you.”

And Laxus leans back against the counter of the kitchen island.

“What?” Cana says, shuffling uncomfortably. “Something on my face?”

Laxus folds his arms-- “well, you’re obviously not fine.”

“That is your business exactly how?” Cana returns, pouring wine-- wine, not beer-- into her glass. “Never counted you for the caring type, mister delinquent.”

“I might look like this, but I’ve known you the longest,” Laxus says, “you hate wine. You only drink it when you’re trying to pretend you’re not a mental wreck.”

Cana downs half the glass in one take, and swirls the rest of it around comprehensively, like it was a martini. 

Their eyes land on each other’s-- and for a painfully long minute, they say nothing. 

Finally Cana puts the glass down.

“I came to Fairy Tail to look for my father,” she says, “I found him, but he’s not really what I imagined. Then Macao came by, and…”

She trails off, hands reaching for the wine again. She messes up her hair and grunts out in frustration. 

“Man, why am I telling you this? Just forget it.”

Laxus doesn’t move from his spot, doesn’t scoff, doesn’t think of anything antagonizing.

Instead, he stays there… and stares, patiently waiting for Cana to continue.

“Just…” Cana finds the answer forced out of her, very willingly, “y’know, neither of us have any great father figures before Master.” She chuckles, “but I think.. If I had a dad that actually knew who I was… I think he’d be a lot like Macao to me.”

She glances toward the hall, and that movement isn’t lost to Laxus.

“You know the phrase ‘blood’s thicker than water’?” Laxus says, “my dad used to say that against me all the time before Gramps took me back.”

This time, Cana’s the one staring at Laxus with an unreadable look in her eyes.

“When I met Freed, he told me… that it was bullshit, and the phrase was actually meant to say something that meant the literal opposite,” Laxus tells her. “I don’t remember the full phrase, though. But it was great to hear that.”

Cana takes a sip from her wine, and stares into the red liquid. She smiles.

She hops up and retrieves another glass from the shelf, pouring out another quarter glass of wine before handing it to Laxus.

“To shitty dads?” she asks.

Laxus sighs. He knocks his glass against hers.

“Sure, whatever.”

-

“This is the city of Magnolia. It’s a merchant city that has been prosperous with magic commerce since ancient times,” Lucy’s voice narrates through a vague map of Fiore. “Down the road from Kardia Cathedral-- which is at the centre of town-- you’ll come to the only mage guild in town, Fairy Tail.”

“Here guys, I brought cake!”

“Yay!”

The scene changes to a little apartment building near the riverbank. “And this is where I’ve decided to live.” Lucy says, “the rent’s 70,000J!” 

Lucy soaks in a bath, stretching in relaxation. 

“Oh? She’s not staying in Fairy Hills,” Levy says, “but her rent’s much cheaper.”

“I mean, we do give leeways to younger girls who are just starting out in the mage business,” Erza says, “but Lucy’s past that leeway by now, it’ll be hard on her to keep up the rent right away.”

“But that’s certainly a nice deal, it’s close by, and it’s over the waterfront, too,” Lisanna says, “she’ll be living alone, but that’s nice too.”

“The room’s pretty spacious for 70,000J, and it’s got plenty of storage space,” she dries her hair in a mirror, “not to mention it’s got a slightly retro fireplace and a kitchen stove!”

Wrapped in a towel, she returns to the bedroom side of her house-- “and the best part of it is…”

Only to find Natsu and Happy, and a glorious mess all over the floors. 

“Yo!” they greet her.

“...MY ROOM!!” Lucy shrieks.

The room erupts with laughter, loudest from Gildarts.

“You're ruining her dream!” he snorts inelegantly.

“Oh, Natsu, don’t do that!” Lisanna laughs, hitting him on the shoulder in her laughter, “poor Lucy! She has to deal with this?”

“She was having such a nice relaxing bath, too,” Cana sighs.

“Natsu just casually greets the girl that walks out in just a towel,” Loke says, “oh! Instead of peeking into the bath, you wait for the naked girls to come to you!” 

And then he’s smacked in the face by a Mirajane with a Satan arm.

She saunters immediately, delivering one beautiful roundhouse kick right to his face. She even scoops up Happy in the blow, pummelling them both into the wall like the rude intruders they were being.

“WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING HERE?!”

Natsu and Happy winces in unison, holding their cheek as if they’d been hurt, too.

Loke finger guns, “that was splendid.”

Erza glints with admiration, “very beautiful kick. I must ask her to teach me that.”

Natsu nurses his bruised cheek, looking very honestly confused and slightly hurt by the assault. He stares slightly fearfully up at Lucy.

“Cause Mira told me you got a new place…?”

“...Aye.”

“You heard, so you just BARGE IN?” Lucy barks at him, looking positively furious, “don’t you know the phrase ‘a hedge between keeps friendships green’? This is illegal trespassing! That’s a crime, you know?!”

Natsu complains a little, “hey, that hurts my feelings.”

“I’m the one being violated here!!” Lucy snaps.

“Well, we don’t get lots of chances to go to someone’s house,” Natsu says, “the dorms are gendered, after all.”

“Yeah, it’s been a while since any of us got ourselves a house on our own,” Gray adds, “it makes the house worth breaking into.”

“Mira-nee and us have a house,” Lisanna says.

“But your house has Mira,” Gray says, waving her off, “not worth risking death to go over and play.”

“Plus Lucy’s got a nice house,” Erza says, “speaking of which, we raided her house in the ending song. This must be why.”

“Yay, Lucy’s house is the new hangout spot!” Natsu cheers.

Levy sighs, “Poor Lucy.”

Meanwhile, Happy scratches against the very nice wallpaper. “Nice room!”

Lucy swirls. “Don’t sharpen your nails, you feline creature!!” 

“She called you a feline creature,” Lisanna repeats, holding back laughter.

Mira shrugs, “I mean, if he did that in my house the river’s not where he’s going to drown.”

Happy squeaks, running behind Natsu, “Mira’s scary!”

“Hey, Mira!” Natsu chides at her, “don’t freak him out!”

Mira chuckles.

And on the other side, Natsu picks up a stack of papers from the desk. “Oh? What’s this?”

Lucy snaps back like a strike of thunder. “DON’T LOOK!” 

She spins and lands another magnificent kick right at Natsu’s chin, right in time to snatch the papers away and clutch them preciously in her arms.

“See, Natsu, that’s why you don’t invade a girl’s house,” Loke says, “she has embarrassing secrets out in the open that she doesn’t want you to see.”

“Why are you phrasing it like he found her porn mags?” Gray retorts.

“See, Natsu, that’s why you don’t invade a girl’s privacy,” Levy repeats, very necessarily, “Lucy was so nice to you, now she’s knocking you around.”

“Yeah, you’ve been nothing but getting smacked around since the start of this episode,” Elfman tells him.

Now Natsu is covered in bruises, and Lucy is looking positively assaulted. She shivers there, tearful, glaring accusingly at Natsu as if he’d tried to pry open her greatest secrets.

“What, now I’m even more curious,” Natsu stares at her incredulously. “What is that?”

“A diary?” Gray suggests.

“Or a letter?” Erza wonders.

“Isn’t it too thick for a letter, though?” Mira asks, “or maybe it’s a stack of unsent letters.”

“Or a diary,” Loke returns to the first suggestion.

“Or porn,” Levy jokingly suggests.

“Wait, why?”

“What, it’s totally possible.”

“You’ve done enough for today, go home!” Lucy whines, sounding near actual tears.

Natsu beams, “no way! I came to hang out!”

Lucy sobs, “I can’t believe you!”

There’s a round of laughter. “Oh, poor Lucy! This is going to be the trend with Natsu.”

“She’s never going to be left alone now,” Mira sighs, “Natsu is persistent with this, after all.”

“Poor Lucy,” Lisanna says again.

The title screen comes up, “Infiltrate the Everlue Mansion”.

“Everlue?” Erza asks.

“Who’s that?” Gray turns to her.

“Dunno,” Mira shrugs.

Cana hums. “He’s the feudal lord of… where again, ah, right. Shirotsume, I think,” she says, “his face was on some of the mission requests in the last episode. 

“So this time Lucy’s going on a proper mission, right?” Levy asks, “it’ll be her first job!”

“First job, huh… I still remember mine,” Natsu sighs. “It was a disaster.”

Gray blanches, “the beginning of Fairy Tail’s destructive legacy.”

“In his defense,” Happy says, “Erza continued it and it spread to the rest of the members.”

“I remember Bisca’s!” Levy says, “she and Alzack went on one together, right?”

“I went on mine with Elf-niichan and Mira-nee,” Lisanna says, “Levy, you went on yours with Erza, right?”

“Yeah! Cana went on one with Macao and Wakaba, right?” Levy turns to the taller girl, who nods. 

“Enough reminiscing, guys, we’re still watching here.”

Lucy is now fully dressed, her hair bound in pigtails as she broods. She pouts, but there’s a cup of tea in front of her, so she’s certainly entertaining her unwanted guest properly.

“I just moved in, so I have no furniture. I’ve got nothing to entertain you with, so go home after you finish your tea, okay?” she huffs.

“She sure is cold-hearted,” Natsu sighs.

“Aye,” Happy agrees.

“You call me cold-hearted when I’m serving you tea when you’re an uninvited guest in the first place?” Lucy retorts, but goes unheard.

“I’ve been thinking this for a while, but Lucy is pretty nice, huh?” Cana says, “usually you’d kick them out and lock the doors.”

“She might be snappy, but she’s a softie deep inside,” Lisanna chuckles.

“Oh, right!” Natsu seems to remember something, “show me all those key guys you’ve got, Lucy!”

“They’re not ‘key guys’, they’re Celestial Spirits,” Lucy corrects him half-heartedly, “and it’ll consume a lot of magic power, so no.”

“Lucy, how many Celestial Spirits do you have a contract with?” Happy asks.

And Lucy, cheered up now, lifts her keys onto the table to show them off. “Six units! We count Celestial Spirits in units-- I’ve got three silver, and three gold keys.”

“Six? That’s quite a spread,” Cana says, “and three golden ones, too.”

“That’s incredible,” Loke says, “even two golden keys are a lot for an average Celestial Spirit mage.” 

Even Karen only had two golden keys, after all. And quite a few silver, but silver can be easily found in named stores with her connections.

“How do people get golden keys?” Levy turns around, “they’re not something you can get in stores, so would it be like, treasure hunting?”

Loke shrugs, “the keys could be anywhere. They’re worth a lot, so when someone gets their hands on it and they aren’t a mage, they usually sell it.”

“That, or they offer them in exchange for monetary rewards in jobs,” Gildarts says, “I’ve seen some S-class quests that offer keys as an extra compensation.”

“S-class?! Wait, how expensive exactly are these keys?!” Mira jerks forward-- S-class quests pay in near millions at a time. For a key to be able to foot that amount…

“They’re priceless, depending on how much you want it, and depending on how strong the spirit is known to be,” Loke says. He then adds, “Leo’s key once went on auction for two billion jewels, because he’s known as the strongest of them all.”

“Two billion?!” Natsu shrieks, “how many zeroes is that?! Wait, how many hundreds is that? Twenty??”

Gray throws a pillow at him, “go count in a corner!”

“That price in mind, it still raises the question of how Lucy got a hold of so many,” Freed says, “she’s not much of a spender, as we’ve seen thus far. She doesn’t have the budget.”

“Maybe she inherited it?” Cana suggests, taking her cards out of her pocket. “If her parents were Holder-type mages too, maybe she got a few golden keys from there.”

“That makes sense,” Levy hums.

She sets the silver keys down. “The silver keys are the ones you can find in stores,” she leads down to introduce each key. “The Clock, Horologium; The Southern Cross, Crux; and the Harp, Lyra.”

“The harp-- oh, that’s the one you mentioned earlier? The silver key that looks like a human?” Bickslow turns to Loke, and he nods.

Loke looks a little longer at Crux’s key. It’s been a while since he’s seen that old man. 

“Then the gold keys are super rare keys that open the twelve ecliptic gates of the Zodiac,” she gestures at the more fanciful ones, “The Bull, Taurus; The Water Bearer, Aquarius, the Crab, Cancer.”

“Crab?!”

“CRAB?!”

Natsu imagines nice cooked seafood, “crab?!” he asks, and Happy echoes, drooling.

Lucy sighs, “of course he zones in on the most random things.”

There’s a collective facepalm across the older ones in the room when all the absolute children bolt forward, varying levels of interest in the aspect of a crab spirit. 

Loke chortles at the scene, “guys, I can’t see.”

“Now that I remember, I haven’t made a contract with the key I bought in Hargeon yet,” Lucy sets a fist on her palm, ignoring the glittering Happy at the side. “Perfect timing. Since you’re here and all, I’ll show the process of a Celestial Spirit-Summoner contract.”

“Ooh!” 

Erza and Mira reach forward, tugging all of them back into sitting positions. 

Lisanna sits down, then gets up again to pry Happy off the wall.

Then Happy and Natsu whisper among each other, “do you think it involves blood seals or something?” Happy wonders ominously.

“Butt seals?” Natsu asks, hearing wrongly, “sounds painful.”

Lucy sighs at them, then turns away, holding a new silver key. “We don’t need any of that. Just watch.”

She thrusts the key forward, a hand at her chest. “I am one who connects the road to the Celestial Spirit World! Now, O Spirit, answer my call and pass through the gate!”

The magic circle spread out under her. 

She swirls the key. “Gate of the Canis Minor, I open thee!” she swipes it horizontally, then vertically, “Nikora!”

The magic circle opens, and a bell sounds. Swirls of yellow beams out, and gathers above.

It coagulates into a shining blob-- then the little human structure pops into existence, shivering like a puppy and sporting a carrot-looking nose.

Natsu and Happy look shocked.

“Nikora,” Levy repeats, “that white blob thing in the opening song?”

“So this is where we meet it!” Lisanna fawns, “it looked cute from afar, so I wonder how it looks in person.”

“That’s cute?” Gray asks, baffled.

“But look at your face, Natsu,” Evergreen teases, “you look disappointed.”

“I am!” Natsu whines, then in a brood, “all her other spirits were cool.”

Then they say, slightly disappointed, “don’t mind, there’s always next time.”

Lucy snaps, “I didn’t screw up! That’s how it’s supposed to look!”

Cana laughs at that. 

Lucy cradled the little thing close to her chest, “oooh! It’s so cute!” she’s absolutely lovestruck. 

The Nikora goes ‘puuun’, like it’s used to this cuddly treatment. Natsu and Happy look defeated at this point, “is… is it?”

“Nikora’s gate doesn’t use much magic power, so it’s popular for being a cherished Celestial Spirit,” Lucy explains, “sort of like a pet.”

“Natsu, I see it,” Happy deadpans, “a human’s ego.”

Lisanna clutches Happy closer, “it is, right?!”

“It’s a nice Happy-like size,” Gray says, “so you girls like stuff like that?”

“It’s like a teddy bear,” Erza says. “So there are fully animal-like spirits, huh… so not all of them are like humans in either intelligence or appearance.”

“Or mochi,” Mira says. A moment later, “it looks delicious.”

“Don’t eat it!”

“Anyways, let’s move on to the contract,” Lucy diverts from the idiots, holding a notebook in her hand as she sits on her knees before the Nikora. “How’s Monday?” 

The Nikora makes noises of affirmation and shakes his head in appropriate responses, and Lucy jots it down in turn.

Natsu sips on his tea, looking baffled, “kinda basic, huh?”

“Aye,” Happy says, biting his fish.

“That’s another thing that’s strangely underwhelming,” Elfman says, “I thought contracts were more like-- y’know, professional and cool.”

“This is almost casual and friendly,” Cana says, chuckling at the imagery, “like helping your aunt with her work in your free time, that kinda thing.”

“Alright, contract complete!” Lucy says, and Nikora jumps up with a cheer.

Natsu and Happy are back, attention on the scene, “looks pretty simple,” Happy says, and Natsu echoes with a ‘yeah’.

“It may be simple, but it’s important,” Lucy tells them, “Celestial Spirits work on a contracted basis. In other words, promises are everything to us. That’s why I will never break a promise, above anything else.”

“I see.”

“Just a word of promise, huh…” Levy says, “kinda romantic, don’t you think?”

“Romantic, you say…” Gray repeats it, looking at the screen. “Well, it’s impressive, certainly. Does anything particularly happen if you break the promise?”

He doesn’t look at Loke, so Loke doesn’t answer. Instead, they keep speculating amongst themselves. 

“It’s not like anything’s holding them back from breaking those promises,” Erza says. “I guess it’s all on the ethical side of things…”

“Speaking of which, that Aquarius girl said to not summon her for a few weeks, right?” Mira reminds them, “does that count as a promise too? You can just change it around every few times on a whim?”

“I’m sure Lucy could summon her if she wanted,” Levy chuckles, “but Aquarius-san would probably be very angry.”

Lisanna laughs nervously, “Lucy has it tough.”

“Oh yeah, I need to name him!” Lucy realizes, crouching back down to the Nikora.

“Isn’t his name Nikora?” Happy asks.

“That’s the name for its species,” Lucy says. “That’s it!” she beckons the little creature, “come here, Plue!”

“Plue?” someone repeats, “because it’s goes pu-puuun?”

“Plue!” Levy repeats. And Lisanna echoes. “It’s cute!”

“By the way she’s giving it a name, it’s really like it’s a pet,” Mira chuckles.

Natsu and Happy go huh , “Plue?”

“Doesn’t it sound cute?” Lucy hugs the little NIkora to her chest, “right, Plue?”

“Pu-puuun,” the Nikora responds, like the adorable little whatever it was.

“You sure he likes it?”

“Of course he does!”

Happy looks at the Nikora curiously, staring at each other like an acknowledgement between two eccentric human-acting animals. “Plue’s a Canis Minor, being ‘Lesser Dog’, but he doesn’t go woof woof , does he? It’s weird.”

“Puun.”

“Well, you don’t go meow meow, either,” Lucy returns very logically. 

Loke laughs, leaning closer to Happy. “She has a point, you know.”

Happy stares, flabbergasted, “my sense of identity is in jeopardy!”

She lets the little Plue go, and it starts dancing. Natsu stands up, approaching it curiously. Plue dances to the left, waves its arms about. Then it joins its arms together and grins, “puun!”

“Plue!!” Natsu suddenly exclaims, a thumbs-up, “that’s a great idea!”

And Plue thumbs-ups right back, smiling.

“They communicated?!” Lucy squawks.

Everyone burst into laughter at that, “that’s amazing, Natsu!” they beat the ground, holding their stomachs with laughter.

“No, seriously, how?!” Loke asks. I’m a spirit myself, but I can’t do that! They usually just hear the ‘pu-punn’s and gather the rest with whatever suitable information suits the dance and situation.

“We can never know if Natsu’s actually a genius or an idiot,” Lisanna wipes a tear from her eye.

“I guess his intelligence level is on par with Plue,” Mira teases. “They have similar wavelengths, so he can understand it.”

“Hey, could you guys stop insulting me for one episode?!”

Natsu hums, crossing his arms. “Celestial Spirits, huh…” he says, “true, the bull helped me up on the snow mountain.”

“Yes, you should definitely have more respect for Celestial Spirits,” Lucy chides.

“Yeah, Natsu, you should,” Happy repeats, like a chide at the boy’s ego.

“I didn’t think Lucy needed to come with us, but as it turned out, we would’ve been in trouble if Lucy wasn’t around,” Natsu considers, “you’re a weirdo, but you’re a pretty good person, huh.”

He called me a weirdo , Lucy grimly hangs on that point a little longer.

Lisanna giggles at that. “Natsu’s being too blunt!”

“Being called a weirdo by a weirdo is just…” Elfman cringes. “We know you mean no harm, but really, bro?”

“Come to think of it, he called me a weirdo when we first met, too,” Gray says.

“That’s because you were in boxers, Gray.” Cana reminds him. “When exactly did you strip, by the way?”

“Ack.”

He stares at Lucy. And then he keeps staring.

Lucy shrinks away, uncomfortable. “Wh-what is it?”

“Okay, I’ve decided!” Natsu stands up, grinning, “let’s make a team, Lucy!”

Lisanna gleams, “look, Natsu! It’s just like I said!”

Natsu goes ‘whu?!’ and does a double take. “I’m the one that suggests it?!”

“Heh,” Mira says, “so stubborn solo player Natsu finally makes a team after so many years, huh? And to a girl, no less.”

“I’m kinda surprised it’s not Lisanna.”

“Where is she, anyways?”

“Awh man,” Cana whines, “I wanted to make a team with Lucy first! This isn’t fair.” She pouts, complaining half-heartedly. 

“Oh, I see!” Happy jumps, very on board with the idea.

“A team?” Lucy asks, foreign with the concept. 

“Aye!” here comes Happy-sensei, “everyone in the guild are allies, but those that find they work together well make a team with each other, like partners. A request that’s difficult for one person can be handled easier by a team, see?”

An image comes up behind them of all the guild members, separating into teams of two or three each, except Natsu who stayed alone.

“Look, guys!” Levy says, “me and Jet and Droy! We were just discussing making a team yesterday! We went through with it after all!”

“You three, huh?” Erza considers, “an unusual combination, but sounds like it works.”

“Like Levy’s pair of bodyguards, huh?” Lisanna says. “Or are you the guard?”

“Elfman’s with me,” Gray points out, turning to the white-haired girl on the couch, “so Mira’s probably off active duty.”

“Lisanna’s not there, either,” Mirajane says, “Gildarts and the Raijinshuu, too. I’m thinking Lisanna’s off on some mission, or she’s currently away for some reason…”

A stilted pause.

Then Lisanna changes the subject. “Look, Cana! You’re paired up with Loke!” 

“Oh, look at that,” Cana says, mildly impressed, “I wonder how that happened.”

“So you do go join another team after this, huh?” Gray looks at her with a smirk, “maybe it’s cause you’re both Holder-type mages?”

Cana hums, casting Loke a strange look.

Loke smiles back, but he’s not really sure what to think about this either.

And Lucy brightens at that. “That sounds fun! It’s a great idea!”

They bump their fists together and high-five. 

“Yosh, then it’s decided!” Natsu says. “We’re all set then!”

“Signed and sealed,” Lucy promises.

“Aye, sir!”

Mira looks at the scene fondly. “Look at her, she’s fitting in fine.”

“Then, let’s hurry and get a job now!” Natsu glints. “Look, I already picked one out.”

“Oh, c’mon, you’re being way too hasty about this,” Lucy is obviously very happy about this-- he says all sorts of things, but I seem to have gotten his approval at least, huh? She thinks smugly, slightly proud of herself. “Let me take a look.”

“Right, I have a bad feeling about this,” Lisanna says.

Lucy snatches the paper, and Natsu grins devilishly. Beside them, Happy has taken to Plue’s eccentric stiff dances, and is trying to imitate them.

“That’s the look Nee-san has when she’s planning something nasty,” Elfman says, “don’t tell me this is another one of those thing you decided to teach Natsu in your free time--”

Mira’s grinning. Oh, that’s a bad sign.

“Shirotsume Town, huh… it’s not too far away,” she reads through it. “No way! 200,000J for just getting a book out of this Duke Everlue’s Mansion?”

“See? Isn’t it a steal?”

“Oh?” Lucy notices something. The screen closes in on the request, and closer in on the fat man’s obnoxious grin, “caution. He’s a dirty old pervert currently recruiting blond-haired maids.”

Someone snorted, and a round of laughter came from somewhere to the left. 

“Oh, I knew there was a catch there!” 

“Natsu, you’re so mean to her,” Lisanna chuckles. “You’re never going to get a girl to like you if you do that, you know?”

Lucy juttingly turns back toward Natsu and Happy, realization sinking in and a look of jaw-dropped horror on her face.

“Oh, Lucy’s blond, isn’t she?” Natsu says, soundingly obnoxiously innocent. “What a coincidence.”

“Let’s get her to infiltrate the mansion as a maid!” Happy agrees.

“You planned this from the beginning!” Lucy realizes, then she breaks into despaired wails, “NOOO!!”

Natsu looks awfully smug as Lucy despairs in an OTL in the corner. 

“So I hear Celestial Spirit Wizards never break their promises,” Natsu says, continuing to sound like the obnoxious little shit he is, “that’s admirable of them, eh?”

“You tricked me!!” Lucy accuses, scandalised.

“You can’t help but feel kinda sorry for her, huh?” Levy smiles at the scene.

“It’s the taste of the real world,” Erza hums.

“Well, you’ve got to use anything at your disposal if it works, right?” Mira says, “I have a feeling she’s going to have fun either way.”

“Yeah, the mission still sounds like a great deal,” Loke says.

“Alright, practice time!” Natsu cheers, “try calling Happy ‘Master’.”

“No way, not to a cat!!”

The scene turns to the sky outside the apartment as they continue arguing, and the scene fades out.

“Master Happy,” Erza tries.

Lisanna echoes, “Master Happy!” with an obnoxious amount of cheer. 

“Stop that!” Happy chides, “it kinda sounds nice, though.”

They return to the request board, where Levy, Jet, and Droy are looking over the papers.

“It’s finally my turn!” Levy cheers.

“You don’t change at all, huh, Levy?” Loke says. 

Levy droops, “Thanks, but I uh, kinda wish I do change a little…” her hands come up to her chest, but she looks away and doesn’t elaborate.

Lisanna chuckles, “don’t mind, Levy!”

“Ehhh? Did someone already take the 200,000J job that was asking for a book?” Levy asks, slightly disappointed that she’d missed it.

“Yes,” Mirajane tells her as she clears out a few plates, “Natsu said he was going to invite Lucy along with him.”

Levy sighs, “awh, I guess that’s what I get for being indecisive…”

“Awh,” Levy whines a little, “I knew I’d have my eye on that job. It’s about books, after all.”

“It’d suit you,” Cana grins

“It might be better that you didn’t go, Levy,” Master speaks over them. Attention is turned to the bar, where Master is sitting. Gray’s there, too, shirtless as usual. “I just got a call from the client, and let’s just say it got a little more complicated.”

“Oh, is it cancelled?” Mirajane asks.

“What?” Natsu blanches, “dude, we just left!”

“Awh man, that’s unlucky,” Gray says. “Her first mission and just about nothing’s going right thus far.”

“Natsu, you’re such a magnet for bad luck,” Lisanna says.

“Why is it me at fault?!”

“No,” Master says, “the reward is being raised. To two million jewels, or so I was told.”

The hall resounds with shock.

“The reward got raised ?!” is the general yelling across the board. 

“Wait wait, that rewards’s crazy !” Gildarts says, “it’s the price of large-scale monster subjugations! Something’s wrong.”

“Yay, lucky!” Natsu says.

“No, I think it’s more unlucky than anything,” Loke says. “What kind of crazy book is it? Or is it in some crazy location?”

“The sudden raise is rather alarming,” Mirajane says, “it’s like they’re getting desperate or something.”

“Ah man,” Gray sighs, “Lucy’s got terrible luck being stuck with Natsu. It’s been nothing but bad luck since she joined.”

“Ten times?!” Levy exclaims.

“2,000,000J for a single book?!” Droy couldn’t believe his ears.

“That’s the kind of reward you’d get for subjugation missions!” Jet gasps, “what’s going on?”

“Woah,” Mira says, “why all of a sudden, though?”

Beside them, Gray huffs. “Looks like things are getting interesting.”

“Gray,” Mira interrupts his thoughts, “look down.”

And Gray squawks, “where did my clothes go?!”

“Ah man, now I’m worried,” Cana says.

“Don’t worry, Natsu’ll be fine!” Lisanna says, brightly.

“No no, Natsu’s absolutely fine. We don’t care about him,” Gray expertly diverts, ignoring the ‘HEY!’ from Natsu in the corner. “We’re worried about Lucy.”

There’s a short silence.

“I’m uh, sure she’ll be fine,” Levy tries, though she sounds horribly unconvinced herself, “she’s with Natsu after all. I’m sure Natsu will… protect her…”

“Why do you sound so unsure?”

Levy sobs into her hands, “poor Lucy!”

“Why?!”

The scene changes to a boar-drawn carriage on the highway.

“Oh, are you having a nice ride, Master ?” Lucy says, grinning evilly, her voice little in playful sarcasm.

“I- you’re- a-” Natsu stutters, motion sick beyond belief, “maid from hell (meido), you’re a-”

The worry quickly dissolves into laughter around the hall. 

“Lucy’s kinda petty,” Happy whines. 

“It’s revenge for deceiving her, Happy!” Levy chides, “at least she doesn’t hold it against you guys, you know? Imagine if you tried that on Mira or Erza.”

“Mira and Erza wouldn’t fall for that in the first place,” Gray says. 

“But the idea of it is terrifying…”

“Hey! I’m the one playing the Master here!” Happy interrupts, offended.

“Anyways, this is my first job, okay? I’ll do my best!” Lucy ignores the cat very expertly.

“Huh? Didn’t you hate the idea of it?” Happy asks, happily gorging on a fish.

“I’m up against a perverted old fart!” Lucy says, “I’m pretty confident in my sex appeal, if anything.” A frame of Lucy in various sexy clothing, from uniforms to bikinis, takes the screen.

“As a cat, I don’t understand,” Happy deadpans.

“Now that I look at it, Lucy really is pretty, isn’t she?” Lisanna says, “like Cana, but more reserved. She’s elegant and ladylike…”

“Like Laki, but before she started talking?” Cana asked.

“Yes, exactly like that.”

Levy lays her chin on her palms, “she’s got everything-- pretty hair, a nice chest, and a great fashion sense. A great personality, too. I think she’ll be pretty popular with the guild members, don’t you think?”

“She doesn’t exactly have impact, though,” Loke hums, “compared to Erza and Mira and all. But it’s true that she’s very ladylike.”

“Compared to the rest of us mongrels, right?” Cana snickers. 

“I faintly remember Cana being the epitome of ladylike before she started drinking,” Gildarts mutters mirthfully. 

“Please Lucy, stay nice,”Lisanna pleads at the screen, “we need one sane girl in the guild.”

“Wait, what about me?” Erza and Mira say in unison. 

They pause and glare at each other.

“You can’t possibly think you’re actually sane, do you, Mira?” Erza asks her, foreheads already butting and fire rising behind them in the mutual animosity.

“I’m at least much more sane than you are, Erza!” Mira growls back.

“You two!” Lisanna whines, being seated between them, “stop fighting and watch !”

Lucy snaps, offended. “Just so I’m clear, since you’re not involved, this reward is going to be split eight to one to one!”

“Are you sure about getting just the one part, Lucy?”

“I’m taking the eight!!”

“Eight parts, huh… that’s a lot,” Gray muses. “Lucy’s greedy.”

“She needs money after all,” Cana says, “and if she’s the only one needed to infiltrate the house, Natsu and Happy don’t really need to do anything, anyways.”

“Ehhh, but we need food money too!” Natsu whines.

“Then find a job you can do without taking advantage of your teammate,” Erza chastises him.

Natsu pouts.

In Shirotsume Town.

“We’re here!” Lucy exclaims, overjoyed to finally be on land after a few hour’s ride. 

“I’m never taking a carriage again…” Natsu moans.

“You say that all the time,” Happy says.

Lisanna giggles. “You really do!”

Natsu groans, “how do people handle going on carriages at all? They’re the items of hell.”

“People usually uh, don’t feel motion sick, Natsu,” Elfman says.

“People like that are real?” Natsu asks.

“Yes??”

Natsu sighs, then cheers himself up. “Anyways, let’s go for some food! I’m starving!” 

“Can’t you just eat your own fire?” Lucy wonders.

“Hah?” Natsu shrinks away, slightly disgusted, “you’re so cold-hearted. You wouldn’t eat your Plue or the cow guy, right?”

“Of course not!”

“Well, it’s the same as that.”

“How so?” Loke says, exasperated. 

“That was the weirdest comparison you could’ve chosen, Natsu,” Erza says.

“What, it’s true!” Natsu complains, “I made my point, okay?”

“And your point was?”

“That I can’t eat my own magic power!”

“Ah,” Gildarts goes, “that makes sense.”

“Can we, logically speaking, still eat the bull though?”

“Happy, no.”

They walk through the town, going on their way to a restaurant of some sort. “So basically you’re saying you can’t eat your own fire? What a hassle.”

They reach a restaurant. 

“Let’s go in here!” Natsu gestures at the shop, looking fully recovered from his motion sickness already. 

“You two go on ahead,” Lucy tells him, dismissing his invite and walking off in a direction she had been checking out earlier. “I’ll go around the town to have a look around. I’ll join you later.”

“What’s with her?” Natsu wonders, “it’d be more fun to eat together.”

“Aye.”

“Already parting ways?” Lisanna asks.

“It’s more like Natsu is too free-spirited,” Erza says, “when you arrive in an unfamiliar town for a mission, one of the things you should do is prepare.”

“Prepare?” Elfman asks, “like looking for information or something?”

“Since Lucy doesn’t know her way around, she can also spread some roots here,” Freed says, “get to know the locals briefly. As a mage, it’s important to build a base of trust between yourself and the places you’ll be working around.”

“You sure know a lot, Freed,” Evergreen muses.

“I was once a freelancer, after all,” Freed says, “it’s survival of the smartest out there.”

“Lucy may not look like it, but she’s a pretty experienced freelancer, huh?” Levy hums. “I think we can count on her to pick up the slack after Natsu messes things up.”

“More like, she’ll be the one apologizing for him,” Gray sighs. 

And then a really big chunk of meat sits proudly on the plate. Natsu and Happy eat a very hearty meal at the veranda.

“Let’s save all the fatty parts for Lucy!” Natsu says, tearing off a bite of meat with his teeth.

“Yeah, she looks like she likes the oily parts,” Happy says. He’s munching happily on a piece of sushi.

“How nice of you to share, Natsu,” Lisanna says, slightly apprehensive, “but why the oily parts?”

“Cause she looks like she likes the--”

“No she doesn’t,” Gray cuts him off.

“Yes she does.”

“No she doesn’t.”

“Yes she does.”

“God, you two are bickering over the dumbest things possible,” Lisanna says.

“Aye.”

“And since when did you decide I liked fatty foods?” 

“Oh! Lu… cy?”

Lucy shows herself, all dressed up in maid costume. She even had her hair done up in high pigtails, complete with the headpiece.

Levy beams, “uwaAaah!” and this sentiment is echoed in Loke and Lisanna. 

Erza and Mira’s eyes glinted with interest, and Gray leaned ever-so-slightly forward.

“She’s so cute in it!” Lisanna says, “so she went to rent a maid uniform!”

Loke hums, approving. It reminded him of Virgo, really. “The twintails are a plus,” he says, a thumb flicking upward. 

“Teheh,” she poses cutely for good measure, “man, I really do look great in everything, don’t I?” 

Mira snickers, “she could tone down on the pride, though!”

Lightning strikes as Natsu and Happy dramatically reacts, shocked.

Lucy’s having fun. “Are you enjoying your meal, Master?” she teases, her voice lilting exaggeratedly, her smile honest.

“She’s gone past the point of being angry and she’s at the point of acceptance, huh?” Cana says, “she adapts quickly.”

“In fact, she almost looks excited,” Bickslow laughs. His dolls snigger behind him, “Maid! Maid!” they go.

“But why twintails?” Gray asks, “she kinda looked better with her hair down.”

“Oh,” Lisanna leans closer, “is that your type?”

Gray blushes, then he yells hotly, “no!”

A round of teasing snickers pass through the crowd.

There’s silence before Happy and Natsu frantically whisper to each other, shivering in fear of impending rage.

“Oh no! I was just joking about the maid idea, but she took it seriously!” Happy hisses, pale with shock. “I didn’t think she’d actually do it!”

“We uh,” Natsu stutters back, “we can't really tell her it’s a joke anymore, y’know-- let just do it…”

“I CAN HEAR YOU!” Lucy yells.

The hall laughs. 

“Goddammit Natsu,” Elfman chides him, “if you don’t stop teasing her, she’s going to quit out of spite one day.”

“Were you really joking about the maid idea?” Loke asks suspiciously.

“Of course I was,” Natsu denies quickly, “like, maybe half of it.”

“You’re the worst.”

“Why?!”

Mirajane chuckles. “I’m sure if she really didn’t want to do it, Natsu wouldn’t force her, promise or not,” she says, “Natsu’s more of the barge-in-and-steal kinda guy, after all.”

“Ah, that’s true,” Gray considers.

The scene changes to a huge mansion, then it switches into the hall.

“I’m the client. My name is Kaby Melon.” The slightly middle-aged man and his wife greets them with a smile and two cups of tea.

“Melon?” Natsu asks.

“Like the melon melon?” Gray asks.

“Melon!” Happy cheers.

“Melon?”

“You have such a yummy-sounding name!”

“Hey, don’t be rude, you two!”

“As expected, Lucy’s the polite one, huh?” Bickslow says, “hey, Lisanna, you’re getting replaced.”

“At least I know now that I can be assured that Natsu has someone to apologize for him even when I’m not around,” Lisanna responds with mild sarcasm.

“What kind of name is Melon, though?” Gray wonders.

“What kind of name is a colour?” is Natsu’s immediate response.

“Shut up, season! You named your cat Happy!” 

“Gray, I’m offended!” Happy whines.

Kaby laughs good-naturedly. “I get that all the time,” he says, not taking any offense at all.

Lucy’s eyes narrow, expressions sterning-- I’ve heard that name somewhere before …

“Now that she says it…” Levy mentions, “it’s a unique name, but it’s kinda familiar to me too. Like… it’s nostalgic.”

Erza blinked. “If it’s Levy saying this, then would it have something to do with books?”

“The mission’s also for a book, isn’t it?” Mira mentions, “maybe you’ve read it before somewhere? And it has something to do with this?”

Happy’s eyes glint, “the plot thickens.”

“Seriously, two million for a book like that is scary,” Loke says, “i’d be too skeptical to even consider taking the job.”

“Well, for Natsu, greed triumphs suspicions,” Lisanna chuckles. “Or, I bet that’s what he’s going to do.”

“Hey, I have tact okay? I value dignity over money!”

“You do??” everyone simultaneously asks.

Defeated and very offended, Natsu goes into the corner to pout.

“Well then, let me tell you about this job,” Kaby offers, and the trio straighten with attention. “My request is for you to destroy a book that is currently in possession of Duke Everlue. The book’s title is Daybreak. It’s fine if you just incinerate it.”

“Destroy it… so we don’t necessarily have to steal it?” Lucy asks.

“Ah, I’m basically asking you to destroy someone’s possession, so it’s basically the same as stealing,” Kaby affirms.

“Now that I think about it… is it technically legal to ask people to steal things?” Elfman wonders, “we’ve done a few of these jobs, but never a direct thievery attempt like this. It’s always been a retrieval of some sort.”

“It stretches the rules, definitely,” Freed tells him, “but it is not illegal.”

“Those quests go through the council first, of course. They verify the original ownership of the item and they hear the client’s story before approving its rating on the ethical scale,” Levy explains, “if there are only malicious intentions to it, they naturally won’t allow it to be posted. Only approved quests are posted on the board, after all.”

“Levy, could you explain that easier? Natsu’s brain just fried itself,” Happy says.

Levy stares judgmentally at Natsu, whose ears are smoking from trying to understand the technical terms in the sentence. She breathes out, staying patient. Natsu is staring at her, waiting for her to rephrase her explanation.

Levy just says, “yes, it’s legal.”

“Burn it?” Natsu grins, raising a finger with an ember of fire, “okay, what if I just burn down the whole mansion?”

“Piece of cake!” Happy cheers.

“No!” Lucy interrupts the two, “you’ll get the military involved again and you’ll be charged for arson, again , Natsu!”

A few in the room laugh. 

“Lucy gets it!” Lisanna chuckles, “she totally gets you now, Natsu!”

“Seriously, Natsu’s first aim is total destruction?” Loke pales, “does the concept of subtlety not exist in your mind?”

“Supper what?” 

“Oh my god ,” Loke rubs his face in despair, “why do I even try?”

Cana pats him on the shoulder, “we’ve all been there, Loke. We’ve all been there.”

Natsu scrunches up his face, still confused.

“What is that book, anyways?” Lucy asks.

“Who cares? It’s two hundred thousand jewel!” Natsu says.

“No,” Kaby interrupts, “it’s… two million. I’m paying two million jewel.” And that evidently takes the shock out of the three, paling to a horrified degree. “Oh, you weren’t aware?”

“And that’s how you break the news,” Gildarts says, “blind them with even more money.”

“Y’know, if he didn’t tell you, he could save his cash,” Mirajane says. 

“Not everyone is evil like you, Mira-nee,” Lisanna tells her.

“Oh, my sister has turned against me. You’re killing me, Lisanna. You’re killing your poor sister here,” Mira dramatises, sobbing.

“Yeah, yeah,” Lisanna mutters.

Natsu’s flabbergasted.

“Two-- two million divided by three is…?” he gets dizzy, holding up a few confused fingers that aren’t really counting by any known system, “I can’t even do the math!” he explodes.

Still pale as a ghost, Happy interrupts cheerfully, eyes swirling from the sheer sum, “don’t worry, it’s simple! I get one million, you get one million, and the rest is Lucy’s!”

“Woah, you’re smart, Happy!”

“No, there’s nothing left for me!” Lucy knocks them back to their senses.

The room laughs. “You guys sure love to tease Lucy, don’t you?”

“Have you guys really never seen that much money before?” Gildarts asks.

“Not everyone can go on jobs like that,” Evergreen tells him, “I have my savings, but do you believe Natsu has the concept of it?”

“Wait, seriously?” Erza says, “Natsu, you don’t know how to use the bank?”

“Huh? I have a safe in my house,” Natsu says, “hidden somewhere with emergency money.”

“Aye.”

“I guess one more thing in our agenda when we get out, is to teach Natsu how to use the town bank…” Elfman sighs. 

“Why do I need the tank??”

“Just do it, Natsu.”

Kaby is obviously taken aback by their panic, “now, now, please calm down.”

“But… why?” Lucy asks, “the increase is a little… drastic.”

“Yes Lucy,” Levy says, “she’s asking the right questions. Goodness, how has Natsu lived so far without Lucy?”

“He has a Happy, I guess,” Lisanna says, “and me!”

“Lisanna you’re literally his lifeline until Lucy comes, please don’t go anywhere,” Cana says in a joking manner.

Lisanna humours her with an exasperated expression, “I’m considering a toddler leash at this point.”

“You two, we need to consider human rights, okay?” Elfman chides.

Kaby closes his fists tighter into the prayer position, and he looks down. “I’m desperate,” he admits, “I need to destroy that book no matter what. I can't allow that book to exist.”

Lucy takes in the situation-- it’s clear that it’s a matter too private for her to chase for. He can’t forgive the book’s existence? What could that mean?  

“I knew it,” Levy says, “there’s something about that book. Do you think he wrote it or something?”

“Or is it a cursed book?” Loke suggests.

“A cursed book?” Erza asks, “I recall there was dark magic like that…”

“Why would a civilian be after a cursed book like that without telling the mage after it? It’d be an occupational hazard,” Freed says, “I say it’s something else.”

Then Natsu’s head, yes his entire godforsaken head, bursts into flames. All ghost-rider style and everything.

“Oh god Natsu! Just because you can do that doesn’t mean you should !!” 

“That’s hella freaky!”

He roars, “now I’m motivated!” he stands up, takes Lucy by the wrist, and runs out the door. “Let’s go, Lucy!”

“Ah, wait!”

“Poor Lucy!” Levy cries out for not the first time at all, “she’s going to be dragged around by Natsu forever now!”

They laugh at that.

As they run off, the husband and wife look on, worry in their expressions.

“Dear, are you sure we can entrust this job to those kids?” the wife asks, “the other guild failed the same mission last week… from Duke Everlue’s standing point, it was all just a failed robbery attempt. There’s no doubt security has been tightened now.”

“I know,” Kaby says, “but I…” he looks down, looking anguished, “I just… I just need to remove that book from this world.”

“Ah man,” Gray says, “this job’s sounding more like a pain in the ass now.”

“Wait, if they’re tightening security, then Lucy’s in trouble,” Loke says, “her guild mark is right on her hand. If Everlue knows what to look for--”

“Oh man, this is exactly why I say your mark needs to be in a hideable spot,” Natsu says, “it’s going to ruin everything.”

“Now now, Natsu,” Lisanna soothes, “I’m sure it’ll turn out fine.”

At Duke Everlue’s mansion, the front gates are bolted metal.

“Excuse me! I came because I’ve heard you were hiring maids!” Lucy calls out, her voice sickeningly sweet. “Is anybody home?”

Get the attention of some perverted old man, burn some book, and get two million? It’ll be a cinch , she thinks.

“So she says,” Gray tosses his hands forward in a lo-and-behold motion.

“She knows subtlety and humility and she has the looks to go for it,” Levy says. “If it really was an infiltrate and steal mission, Lucy would do it, easy.”

“Yeah, imagine if Erza tried,” Mira says, a grin rising, “she’d be too audacious to seem like a maid and she’ll be the one ordering the master around.”

“Yes, I imagine you would do a much better job,” Erza turns to her, glare setting, “of destroying the mansion with your temper tantrums.”

There’s a moment of silence.

Then Lisanna and Loke leap away in time for the couch to literally explode. 

An enraged, feral roar thunders from the two ladies, and immediately they’re donning their hardest armor and making a literal launch for the forest grounds above.

A few paces away and in a bush, was Natsu and Happy. 

“Break a leg!”

“Do your best!”

They whisper-shouted at her in encouragement.

The couch was back to normal in a few moments, the furniture fixing itself from the damage. Seriously, put those two in a room together and it gets destroyed about three times each hour. This was just miserable.

“When I see those two, I somehow come to think that Natsu and Gray get along relatively better in comparison,” Loke says.

“I know, right?” Lisanna says. “I wonder if they still fight in the future, when Mira-nee is like that now?”

Suddenly the ground behind her inflated, the tiles of the ground rising in the added pressure from below-- then it bursts open.

A gigantic, very obese maid (with a cleavage window in her top for some reason) leaps out from the earth like a mole, landing on the ground heavily. 

Lucy squeaks.

Levy also squeaks. She was the closest to the screen, after all.

Loke’s brows are raised. It’s been a very long while since he’s seen that girl in this form. Actually, he quite well remembers telling her to never be in that form ever again because it’s an absolute waste of her adorable looks and --

“Woah, it’s a gorilla!” Mirajane’s voice comes from the entrance. Looks like they’re done with their fight. 

“She looks like you, Mira,” Erza says.

“Excuse you, you chimpanzee?” Mirajane growls.

“Someone come over to the kitchen, I found a cake in the fridge we can share,” Erza says, and the group leaps up with interest, everyone charging out of the room for their tea.

The rest in the hall sigh.

“What’s with those two? They keep fighting to two seconds and then coming back like nothing happened,” Loke whispers.

“Leave them be,” Laxus mumbles, “you’ll get used to it.”

The lady straightens. “Maid applicant?” The camera zooms in on her very manly, very defined face with lots of sharp wrinkles. She turns to the hole she created, “Master, there’s someone that came for the maid position!”

Yep, that’s Virgo. What is she doing ? Okay, there’s no reason she’s in that form unless her new owner asked her to be in it. Who? 

Loke groans again.

The group comes back in and they’re now wolfing down two impressively sized cakes in small plates. After a round of almost-foodfighting and snatching, Erza slams her foot down on Natsu’s head, and everyone behaves therein. 

And out sprouts another figure from the hole.

This time it’s a short and stout older man, the same face as the one on the request paper-- Duke Everlue. He plays with his moustache, “did you call for me?”

“That’s Everlue,” Erza surmises. 

“He looks exactly like the picture,” Gray says, “impressively so.”

Lucy recognizes the obnoxious face immediately, “there he is!”

“Let’s see here…” the man considers, scrutinizing Lucy. 

Lucy sparkles with the professionalism of a trained sweetheart, “it is very nice to meet you!” 

Duke Everlue stares harder.

“Man, what’s with all these creeps and staring at a girl like that?!” Lisanna whines, “I know he’s evaluating her looks, but this is rude!”

“Lucy has the patience of a saint ,” Evergreen says, slightly amazed. “Even Levy would’ve busted out at that.”

“No, no, Evergreen,” Levy says, “I have nothing worth staring at.”

“Woah, she said it to herself,” Cana gapes.

“I am self-aware, contrary to popular belief!!” Levy whines, tearful now.

“Right, right. Sorry. I’ll buy you a book as an apology, okay?”

Lucy’s smile stiffens. I’m breaking out in goosebumps! Bear with it, Lucy, bear with it!

Duke Everlue scoffs. “Rejected. Go home, ugly.”

Gray sputters at that, and Loke facepalms. Yeah, it’s definitely him. He’s the one.

Wait, Everlue’s a Celestial Spirit mage? What a maddening coincidence.

“Ug-!!” Lucy is very, very offended, defeated by invisible arrows that hurt her right in the ego.

“And there’s that,” the large pink maid tells her, “go on home, ugly.”

Another arrow jabs straight through Lucy’s back.

Cana can’t help but laugh at that. “Lucy’s so worth teasing!” she says, “her reactions are always the best!”

“I know, right?” Natsu grins.

“Ah man, and she was so confident, too,” Lisanna says, “I don’t think her looks are that ugly… like, even if she wasn’t his type.”

“That man is just weird ,” Loke grounds out, nursing a headache now. Oh, poor virgo.

“Understand? For a person as magnificent as I am,” Duke Everlue turns around with a sneer, and a row of maids pop out from underground like a chain of utter clown shows, “only beautiful girls will do!”

And the four impressively ugly girls pose grandly, proudly, each one of them somehow looking uglier than the next. 

Jaws drop around the room.

Then, outrage occurs. “You’ve got to be kidding!” Mira kicks the table into the air and Natsu dives to save the cake.

“What’s with that guy? He’s an utter joke!” Lisanna yells, “poor Lucy!”

“Y’know, I have a feeling Lucy’s got nothing but awful luck thus far in her journey,” Loke sighs, defeated at this point. “Being stuck with Natsu, having Aquarius as a spirit, getting captured by a Vulcan, and now this.”

“Wait, why am I in that list?”

“You’re the worst thing on that list.”

The scene returns to the forest beside the mansion. Lucy, ego completely shattered, sobs. She curls up, completely dejected.

“So much for sex appeal,” Natsu sighs.

“That’s not the problem!” Lucy’s obviously at her limit, tears streaming down her face as she’s very hurt now, “that Everlue guy’s sense of beauty is kind of messed up!”

“Excuses, excuses,” Happy chides.

Lucy sulks again, wailing, “this is so frustrating!”

“Natsu, way to hit a girl when she’s down,” Cana pinches his cheek.

“It’s funny, though,” Gray chuckles, “she’s so upset about it.”

“Now she just needs to use that answer and stab the man right in the eyes,” Erza says, “he’ll have better eyesight after that, probably.”

“Dark,” Gray says. 

“But so much for this being a simple job,” Levy says, “the infiltration plan’s a bust. Now you have to either sneak in, or…”

“Knowing Natsu, he’ll just bust in from the front,” Elfman says.

“Maybe Natsu’s the wrong guy for this job…” Loke says.

Natsu punches his hands together, determined now as he breaks out in a wide grin. “Alright then! Change of plans!”

“Yeah!” Lucy’s furious, “I’ll never forgive that old fart!”

“In that case, we’ll go with Plan C!” Natsu says.

“Plan C?” Lucy asks.

“It’s C for ‘CHARGE’!!” Happy declares.

“How is that even a plan?!” Lucy shrieks. God these guys are hopeless!

“Called it,” Mira sighs. “Simple and dumb, just like Natsu.” She ignores the offended ‘hey!!’ coming from him. “But if it works…”

“...it works!” Happy cheers, finishing the phrase.

“Exactly,” Mira says. “We’ll probably destroy the mansion, though.”

“Oh, I bet he will,” Cana says. “And then half of his reward will go to payments and reimbursement for crashing the mansion of the most important person in Shirotsume.”

“Classic news. I can already see the headlines,” Lisanna says.

“Why do you guys never have faith in me?” Natsu asks.

“We have faith that you will definitely destroy a building before this episode ends,” Freed says.

“Wow I feel so much better,” Natsu groans, rolling his eyes.

A lacrima crystal ball was shown near the edge of a tree, and Duke Everlue chuckles from somewhere inside the mansion, watching their every move.

Three shadowy figures are shown in a canopy room. The one in the center is evidently Duke Everlue himself.

“More mages, even though they failed before?” someone, not Duke Everlue, says. The camera zooms in on the guild mark on Lucy’s hand, “Fairy Tail this time, huh?”

Some of them wince. “Aw man, he was watching.”

“Creep,” Levy cringes.

“But to be fair, Natsu and Lucy are the ones snooping around his house,” Mira says.

Gray hums, “he knows we’re coming, but he’s not particularly surprised,” Gray says, “this is probably either common to him, or…”

“Or he has something to hide?” Levy asks. “I mean, usually you’d file a complaint against the council, right? Then they’d stop permitting these requests if you win the charges.”

“So there’s a reason he can’t let the council file an investigation on himself,” Freed surmises, “and that has definitely something to do with the book as well.”

Duke Everlue sighs. “She was dumb enough to not hide it, but I wish they’d at least send someone more beautiful.”

Someone spits out their drink. “He was serious?! He wasn’t just turning her away because of the mark?!” And it’s Cana. 

“People with such naturally bad taste in women actually exist?” Lisanna goes to have an existential crisis, “really?”

There’s a chuckle, and Duke Everlue smokes on his cigar.

“Now, how shall we kill the mages this time?” he laughs.

Eyes narrow.

“You usually call the council,” Gildarts says, “but this guy goes straight to the extremes.”

“Evil right there, huh?” Evergreen scoffs behind her fan. “Corrupted minister, definitely.”

Dropping in with Happy’s wings, Lucy lands very nicely on the roof of the mansion.

“There you go.”

“Thanks, Happy!”

“Aye!”

“This is definitely Lucy’s plan,” Levy says, “Natsu wouldn’t sneak around like that.”

“It’s a waste of time,” Natsu pouts, “they know we’re coming, so why can’t we just bust through the door?”

“It’s made of steel, didn’t you see?” Elfman tries.

“Well if we can fly over to the mansion we can fly over the dumb gate!” Natsu retorts.

“He has a point,” Gray says amusedly. 

Erza sighs. “The you in that future doesn’ know that Everlue knows,” she says, “so the wise choice is to infiltrate and be subtle if you can. Lucy’s right.”

Natsu clicks his tongue.

Natsu sears through the glass window with his hand. “Sheesh,” he says, “what part of ‘charge’ do you not get? We should just run in from the front and blast through everyone in our way.”

“No!”

“And then we burn the book, if we remember to.”

Someone snorted.

“I said we can’t do that!” Lucy says. “We’re doing a robbery and the target this time isn’t a monster or a thieving organisation. Duke Everlue is the town’s most influential man! If we’re not careful, the military’s going to get involved.”

“Finally we have a brain in the guild!” Freed throws up his arms.

“Thank god!” Levy pleads prayerfully, “finally!”

Gray side-eyes them. “I have a feeling we should be offended.”

Bickslow’s dolls then decide to be obnoxious, chanting, “idiots! Idiots!” as it spun around Gray. “The guild! Is full! Of idiots!”

The ice mage catches one and yells at it to shut up.

“Idiot!” it says again. 

Gray chucks it across the room like a baseball.

“No! My babiesss!!!” Bickslow yells.

Natsu sighs in defeat. “So what now? You’re the one that said you weren’t going to forgive the guy.”

“Yeah I’m not,” Lucy says firmly, “I’m not just going to burn the book. I’m going to hide his shoes or something once we’re done!” Her eyes glint with a burning desire for revenge.

“Woah, so petty.”

“Aye.”

“How do I say this…” Levy says, “Lucy’s so nice.”

“Hide his shoes? She’s too nice,” Cana says, “I would like, replace his salt with sugar, steal his booze, and maybe shave him bald.”

“Cana’s so mean,” Lisanna immediately says.

“No, no,” Mira waves her hand, “I’d glue his closets shut and have Happy scratch the walls. If we steal something too obvious, we’ll get in trouble again.”

“Well then we should steal his pants.”

Then began the argument of ‘how petty can we be without getting in trouble’. Even Evergreen gives her input at some points, and Elfman shrinks back.

“The girls in our guild are scary,” Loke says.

Gildarts groans, “oh you have no idea.”

Natsu pops open the window through the hole he’s burned in, and they enter. It seems they’re in a storeroom.

Lucy steps in, and squawks at the sight of Happy inhabiting an empty skull. She nearly has a heart attack, and cowers in the corner catching her sanity.

Levy shoots back. After freezing for a moment, she swirls around and cuffs Happy on the head.

“Ow! But I haven’t done it yet!” Happy whines. 

“Look, look!” Happy proudly shows it off, jumping in joy when Natsu compliments him.

“Oh, it suits you, Happy!” Natsu grins, endeared by his little cat.

“It’s cute,” Lisanna says.

“It’s cute?” Gray repeats.

“And it’s kinda funny how it perfectly fits your head,” Lisanna tells him, mildly impressed.

“You guys are supposed to be sneaking in, so you two should stop fooling around,” Erza placates them gently.

“But it’s a rich man’s store room!” Natsu whines, “he might have cool stuff in there!”

They begin opening room doors. A room. A piano room. A.. golden toilet with Everlue’s face in on it. Yuck, what the hell? 

Natsu laughs, “what the hell is that?!”

“There’s egocentric, and there’s this guy,” Cana says. Then she swears and chugs her sake.

“No one’s around,” Happy reports.

“Take that off already,” Lucy tells him, referring to the skull around his head.

“Wow, you sure like that thing,” Lisanna says.

“Aye!” Happy raises his hand, “I can use it as a joke soon!”

“Why do you live your life planning out jokes on the way?”

“To mess with Lucy!” he says, brightly.

They sneak around the hallways, wary of anything moving.

“Wait, you plan on opening every room like this?” Natsu asks incredulously. Evidently he’s not used to being anything but loud and dynamic. “Isn’t it faster to just grab someone and ask where the book is?”

“Aye!” Happy is still wearing the skull.

“Imagine working in a mansion, and suddenly some intruder just nabs you and yells, ‘where’s the book’?!” Mira mimes, then she bursts out laughing. 

Gray blanches, “y’know that is exactly what Natsu would do.”

“What’s wrong with it?!” Natsu says, offended, “they work there, so they definitely know where the book would be, right?”

“With a mansion as huge as that, we never know…” Lisanna mumbles, “it definitely isn’t sneaking around, though. They might run away screaming.”

“We’re sneaking in and completing our mission without getting noticed, if possible,” Lucy tells him, “it’s all ninja and stuff, isn’t that cool?”

“Ninja?!” Natsu asks. 

“Oh no, I think he’s having a weird image in his head again.”

“Ninja? Sounds cool!” Natsu brightens up, suddenly incredibly interested in the aspect of sneaking around.

“God, why are the solutions always so stupid?” Lisanna makes a strangled noise.

Happy mutters back an exasperated “aye…”

The five maids burst from the ground, closing in on the group out of nowhere. The pink one, probably head maid in hindsight, yells, “intruders detected!” 

They swirl, surprised. “They found us!”

“And of course…” Gray mutters. Behind him, a few facepalms.

To their godforsaken luck, Happy’s dumb skull thing scares off the four small fry, who scream ‘no! It’s a ghost!’ and scurries back.

Against everything, Lisanna starts laughing.

“I told you it’d come in handy,” Happy tells her.

All it takes is Natsu yelling “you’re annoying!” and socking them all across somewhere with Fire Dragon’s Iron Fist.

The pink maid is a little less deterred. She hollers, “Flying Virgo Attack!” and she leaps, letting her whole body weight come down flat on Natsu.

Impressively, Natsu just vanishes under all the chub.

“Natsu!” Lucy exclaims. Then a second later, “Happy, take that off already.”

Gildarts blanches. “Pancake.”

“Oh man Natsu, you’re squished flat,” Elfman starts laughing, “tough luck.”

Natsu grumbles, “as if that can take me out.”

Loke facepalms. He’s kinda embarrassed for his good pal there. She wouldn’t fight like a joke if she was in her slim form-- maybe she's in the mood for jokes too.

“It’s impressive how much Lucy’s still worried,” Levy says.

Natsu isn’t deterred. Standing up, lifting the pink maid off him with the strength of a dragon. He tosses the lady away and roars up with a flaming foot. 

He swirls, hands held in some jutsu pose, scarf wrapped around him like a mask on anywhere but his eyes. “Ninja!” he yells, because that’s apparently his attack now.

Someone chokes on laughter.

“Did you seriously just shout ‘ninja’?” Bickslow wheezes, “why is your muffler like that?”

Meanwhile, Natsu fixes his scarf around his face to imitate the ninja disguise on the screen. “It’s cool, right?”

The lady lands harshly on the ground.

“We can’t let them discover us, de-gozaru!” Natsu says dramatically, his voice lowered into a husky tone. “Nin-nin!”

And Happy echoes, “nin-nin!”

Lucy looks utterly defeated at this point. “You’re being pretty noisy already.”

The amount of exasperated sighing in the room melded in with laughter from the others. 

“De-gozaru,” Gray repeats, “you’d got to be kidding, Natsu.”

“But I think it’s working,” Lisanna says. “Natsu’s willing to try and be quiet now.”

“Really? I still think he’s making a lot of noise,” Elfman says.

“Nin-nin,” Happy says.

“Oh no, someone’s probably coming this way with all the ruckus,” Lucy says, taking Natsu by the scarf because his collar is under all the cloth now, “let’s go into one of the rooms!”

“If they want to come, let them!”

“Whatever, just hide!”

“Oh, how did Natsu live this far without Lucy?” Loke asks, “she’s about 80% of his self-preservation skills.”

“Lisanna and I are the other thirty percent!” Happy adds.

“It’s twenty, Happy.”

“I’m fairly sure he needs 110% either way.”

And they slam a very large and suspicious-looking door shut after they go in. It appears to be a study or a library, lined fully with books on every shelf.

“Woah, it’s full of books de-gozaru!”

“Aye de-gozaru!”

Lucy has deemed retorting a job she’s too tired for, so she stays impressed at the library instead. “Hehh, so that old man’s actually quite a reader, huh?”

“Oh, lucky!” Levy says, “you ran right into the library!”

“Quit it with the zaru gozaru already,” Gray sighs.

“There’s a lot of books,” Erza says, “it reminds me of Levy’s room.”

“Let’s search!” Natsu finally discards the ninja persona, because a joke with no tsukkomi isn’t fun. 

“Aye!”

“If he really does read all of these books, I might have to respect him… just a little bit,” Lucy looks through all the books, sighing. She sifts through the spine, finding they’re not arranged alphabetically, but chronologically. Woah, more work.

“Someone that reads books can’t be bad?” Mira questions.

“It’s more like someone that values books ought to be a little admirable,” Levy says, “and look, all the books are well kept. Someone that likes literature gets my respect. Though people like Everlue can get maybe just a tiny bit.”

“I never knew bookworms were so judgemental,” Cana mutters.

“I’m not!”

“I found a porno!” Natsu exclaims from behind.

“An encyclopedia of fish!” Happy cheers.

Lucy sighs, looking to the shelf to her left. “It’s going to be a hassle to find just one book out of all of these…”

“Well, one of them certainly is doing their job,” Loke says. 

“Woah, what is this? It’s all text and nothing else!”

“Natsu, that’s normal.”

“OOOOooh! I found a golden book!!” Natsu cheers exuberantly.

“Could you guys just TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY?!” Lucy snaps. She turns around, and they stop short. “Wait--”

The book’s cover, magnificently adorned with the picture of a rising sun-- is titled Daybreak.

Jaws drop in the room, “no way!”

“His messing around actually found it!”

“Why is it gold…”

“This is plot convenience, I swear…”

“Daybreak!” 

“Woah!”

“Wait, we seriously found it so easily?”

“2 million, yay! Alright, let’s burn it.”

Lucy catches something before Natsu's burning hand moves to the book. “Wait!” she interrupts, snatching the book off his hand-- “this author… is Kemu Zaleon?!”

Levy gets up with a start, “Kemu Zaleon?!”

“Kemu Zaleon…” Erza thinks, “you have some of those books in your room, I recall.”

“Yes!” Levy says excitedly, “he’s a really good author! But… I’ve never seen that one before…” her eyes sparkle, “a hidden unpublished issue?!”

“Kemu?”

“He was a wizard and also a novelist!” Lucy explains, starstruck, “I’m a huge fan! I thought I’d read all of his titles! Does that mean this one is an unpublished gem?”

“Levy’s found her clan,” Lisanna says.

“I love Lucy!” Levy declares, “I LOVE her!”

“Whatever, let’s just burn it already.”

Immediately Levy makes a whining noise, “what a waste!”

Erza chuckles, “can’t be helped, Levy.”

“No, what are you talking about?!” Lucy holds the book protectively, “this book is as valuable as a cultural heritage, especially after he died so many years back! There is NO way we can burn this!”

“Huh?” Lisanna says, “if that book’s so valuable, why did Mr Kaby want it to be burned?” she wonders-- “if he just wanted to get rid of it, he could auction it off.”

“A hidden issue of an old author’s works...” Evergreen mumbles, “why would Everlue have that? No, why would the client be asking for that just to destroy it?”

“God, all of this makes no sense!” Gray whines.

“You’re abandoning your mission,” Happy reminds her.

“I said I was a huge fan right?!” Lucy squawks.

“Alright, let’s just burn them both,” Happy decides, very darkly.

“Wait wait! Let’s just pretend we burnt it, and I keep it…” Lucy fake sobs, inching away as Natsu and Happy joking starts walking to her, the former with a fistful of flames.

Bickslow laughs. “It’s not like you have to burn it immediately! Let the girl read it, Natsu.”

“Read it! Let her! Read it!” the dolls echo.

Natsu pouts at the screen, “I don’t like lying.”

Mirajane laughs, “look at my Natsu! All grown up and now he knows how to threaten people! I’ve raised you so well.”

“I think Mira’s half the reason Natsu’s got such a problematic character…”

“I don’t like lying,” Natsu tells her, hands still aflame but with no intention to use it.

“Aye,” Happy sounds hilariously cold.

“You heard me, right? This is the only copy of this book in the world! If we burn it, I can’t read it anymore!” Lucy says.

Natsu isn’t convinced in the slightest.

A voice comes from underground, “I see, I see,” it’s Duke Everlue. He barges in from below, shattering the ground as he comes. “So you intruders are after Daybreak, huh?”

“A mole!” Happy squawks.

“No, that’s a person,” Lisanna says.

“A person with mole powers!” Natsu yelps.

“That is NOT the problem!” Lisanna snaps.

Natsu turns to Lucy, “see, this is what you get for hesitating,” he chastises her lightly.

“Sorry,” Lucy says.

“We could just burn it right now,” Gray suggests, “for Natsu, it won’t take more than a second. Then they can just worry about running away.”

“You’re going to burn a book?’ Levy asks, sounding absolutely scandalised, “a book ?”

Gray has to back away from her hurt look. She looks like someone kicked a puppy in front of her.

“Okay, okay, sorry,” Gray says. “I won’t suggest that again.”

Meanwhile Happy just stares at the ground, “why did you do that to your own mansion’s floor?”

“Imagine how much money it’ll take to replace it…” Cana says, “but then again, he looks like he has too much money to spare.”

Lisanna winces. “Isn’t that floor like, really nice tile and wood? What a waste…”

“That kind of dramatic-only entrance is just like Natsu, don’t you think?” Bickslow says, “if I don’t destroy something, it’s not cool enough! Or something like that.”

“But if I don’t destroy something, it’s not cool enough!” Natsu says.

“Case in point,” Lisanna says.

Everlue chortles. “I wondered what all you mages were so frantically searching for-- turns out it’s that worthless book, of all things,” he says.

“Worthless?” Natsu asks.

The client would be willing to pay two whooping millions to get the book, Lucy thinks, but the owner, Everlue, says it’s worthless?

The room is engulfed in silence at the new revelation.

“That’s true,” Erza says, “it doesn’t line up at all.”

“I don’t get it,” Elfman tosses a hand in the air in an exasperated manner.

“And that is exactly why we need more thinking minds in the guild,” Freed says, full of mirth. He massages his temples with a groan.

“Why think when you can just burn the book and get it all over with?” Natsu says.

Lucy doesn’t cling to the confusing thought.

“So it’s okay if I take it?” she asks cheekily, looking hopeful.

“That’s right! If you don’t want it, I do!” Levy says.

“The mission, Levy, the mission .”

“Neither of them want it! I do!” Levy argues, “don’t you know it’s common courtesy? Once you’re done reading something and you don’t want the book anymore, you leave it for the next person to come by and read it!”

“That’s for manga.”

“Novels too!”

“No! What’s mine is mine!” Everlue snaps, getting very comedically angry at her.

“Stingy.”

“Shut up, ugly.”

Natsu looks more exasperated by the minute, and since it’s Natsu being exasperated, this situation is astoundingly stupid. “Can we just burn it already?”

“I said NO! I won’t let you!” Lucy retorts.

“My, my, what a situation,” Mirajane sighs, “is this going to turn into a Natsu versus Lucy for the book?”

“No, seriously, Lucy is going to lose straight away if that happens,” Loke says, “they’d better not.”

“But this is such a pain,” Gray groans, “Everlue doesn’t want the book, but he wants to keep it. Lucy wants the book, but she’s supposed to destroy it.”

“Meanwhile, Natsu just wants to get this all over with,” Happy adds.

And Natsu, reaching the limits of his patients, growls sharply at her. “Lucy, this is our job!” he raises his voice.

Lisanna goes ‘ooh’.

“Natsu’s angry!” Levy goes eep.

“That situation would make anyone lose their patience,” Cana chuckles, “I’m impressed he lasted long enough.”

Far from being fazed, Lucy sits right down where she is. She opens the book, “then let me at least read it first.”

“RIGHT HERE?!” Natsu, Happy, and Everlue snap right back simultaneously.

Laughter roars across the room.

“My kindred!” Levy declares dramatically, tears in her eyes and her hands held in a gratuitous prayer for a saintly miracle, “I’ve finally found you!”

“I swear, if we leave Levy and Lucy in a room together, they would probably stay in there for years without realizing,” Freed sighs.

“Oh? You won’t want to join in, Freed?” Evergreen teases.

Freed flusters, “my interests in books differ!”

“Enough nonsense! Don’t you realize who I am? Get your filthy hands off my book!”  he turns dramatically, and the library bookshelves part. He summons, “Vanish Brothers!”

And two figures emerge from the hidden space behind the bookshelves.

“Good afternoon,” the shorter one with a large frying pan on his back greets them. He’s bald save for a long braid that threads down to his waist. 

“These brats are mages from Fairy Tail? Even Mama would be surprised by this,” the other says. He’s taller, with spiky, voluminous hair, and grand tattoos over his arm.

“That mark!” Happy points out the bands on their arms, “they’re from the Mercenary Guild, Southern Wolves!”

“So they were hired to guard the mansion, huh,” Natsu says.

“Ah, ah, there it comes,” Cana slumps to the side, “of course it’s a battle. There’s no peacefully settling anything with Fairy Tail, huh?”

“Mercenary Guild, huh,” Gray mumbles, remembering something. “Well, they shouldn’t be any trouble for Natsu. I’m more worried about Lucy.”

“Hey, Lucy’s pretty strong too,” Loke says.

The four stare each other down, the air stiff between them. They’re steps away from an all-out brawl, they can feel it-- 

But Lucy is still gleefully absorbed in her book.

“HEY!” they tsukkomi at her simultaneously.

Levy swoons a little, “she’s my spirit animal.” 

“She’s got no sense of urgency, does she?” Gray mutters, “more like, how is she already halfway into that book?” 

Levy whines, dancing left and right in excitement, “ahhh, I wanna read it! I wanna read it I wanna read it I wanna--”

Lisanna flinches to attention. “Guys, Levy is going on a book-craving phase! Evergreen, stop her!” 

Evergreen responds immediately, turning the girl into stone.

“What’s with you girls?” Elfman asks. “Isn’t that going too far?”

“Barely,” Mirajane says mirthfully, “but it’s for the greater good.”

Freed binks at them. “I never thought I’d see the day Mirajane would think of Levy of all people as a terrifying topic.” 

Mirajane shivers, “don’t even get me started . I thought I was going to die .”

Natsu gives Lisanna a curious look.

Lisanna chuckles nervously, “she forgot she lent Erza a book, and then she went on a manhunt for it in the middle of the night because she thought someone stole it.”

Cana strangely hasn’t touched her drink in a while. “Why isn’t Levy in the S-class range yet?” she whispers to herself, pale as a sheet, “metal walls of metal. For miles. Metal walls of metal--”

“That day in the Fairy Hills was such a terrifying day,” Erza says in a deeply reminiscent voice, staring into the distance. “I can still see my life flashing before my eyes…” 

“Stop it!” Gray yells, “you guys are scaring me! What happened?!”

“Aye, NO!” Happy says, “I was there that night and you do NOT want to know what happened there!”

The two are obviously pissed at this point, being blatantly ignored despite their very cool entrance. “What a joke,” they spit.

Lucy reaches a point in the page-- and she stops.

“This…” she closes the book and stands up, “Natsu, buy me some time. I think there’s some secret to this book.”

And she runs out the door, leaving Natsu confused. “Huh?”

“Ooh, here’s the smart girl of the group showing her stuff again!” Gildarts says, “looks like we will get all these mysteries solved, after all!”

“Unfreeze Levy already, she’s gonna be mad she missed this,” Freed says.

“If she goes berserk, it’s on you,” Evergreen warns.

“Alright-- what if I put runes around her--”

“Is no one seriously going to talk about how she just ditched me?!” Natsu snaps.

Mirajane scoffs. “Oh, we all know you can handle yourself, don’t be a drama queen.”

“What is this difference in treatment? You guys are just being mean to me!” 

But he’s not the only one she’s alarmed. Everlue is definitely interested in the aspect of a secret he didn’t know about in the book. 

A secret? Even I didn’t notice it , he seethes, is there a treasure map or something equally as valuable hidden in it? 

“That’s possible,” Gildarts says, “you said he was a mage before he died?”

“Huh? Magic can last after death?” Gray says, surprised.

And immediately, Bickslow’s dolls chant in their ghastly tune, “of course! Of course!” inching closer to the ice mage to be obnoxious.

“It’s the other way around, Gray. Magic casted with spite as the intention tends to strengthen after death,” Mirajane says.

“What’s with that? That’s freaky,” Gray mutters, creeped out. But upon deeper thinking-- it makes sense. 

(Iced Shell was like that too, wasn’t it?)

(No, not exactly.)

(But the cost was similarly high.)

He sinks into the ground. “I’ll go after the girl!” he says, “you two deal with the brat.”

The Southern Wolves sigh. “Selfish clients tire me out,” one says, and the other agrees.

“Ugh, this has become troublesome,” Natsu groans, stretching his limbs out for the exercise, “Happy, can you go after Lucy?”

“What, you’re worried about her?”Mirajane says, more of an endeared statement than a tease.

Natsu receives it as a tease anyways. “No! She can handle herself! Probably,” he rambles. “Ugh, I don’t know what my future self is thinking!”

“Probably that she would get distracted by the book and get caught off guard,” Cana laughs, “it happens to Levy all the time!”

“Cana!” Levy squabs, flustered.

“Your opponent’s two Southern Wolves!” Happy warns him, “I'll back you up!”

Natsu assures him, “Nah, I’m more than enough for these guys.”

Happy smiles.

“Did you doubt me, partner?” Natsu asks.

Happy grins, “not for a second!”

“Huh? You bastard, I’m going to tell Mama on you!” one of the wolves raised their voice.

“Mama-- what is he, a baby?” Elfman says, “if you’re a man, you don’t turn to Mommy!”

“I’m sure that’s just how they address their Guild Master,” Lisanna chuckles, “it’s sort of cute, isn’t it? They’re wolves and all.”

“That’s not manly at all,” Elfman mutters.

The other stops him. Neither of them move to stop Happy from flying over their heads, going after Lucy. “Calm down. Keep your cool.”

“One of them has their head together, at least,” Freed says. 

“Always need the level-headed one as a brake,” Bickslow says, “classic teamup.”

Laxus gives them a side-eye, but keeps the ironic implication to himself.

“Be careful, Natsu!” Happy calls out.

“Yeah, I’ll leave Lucy to you!” Natsu says.

“Come, Fire wizard,” the shorter one taunts.

“Huh? How’d you know?” Natsu asks.

“Maybe because you’re infamous?” Mirajane suggests.

“You mean famous ,” Lisanna corrects.

“Nah, he’s definitely in famous,” Gray corrects.

“Fire was wrapping your legs when you defeated Virgo,” he explains, “you are, without a doubt, a Caster-type fire wizard.”

“We saw everything on the Surveillance Lacrima,” the other explains, “the girl is a Holder-type, and she has keys. A Celestial Spirit mage, most likely. She has seven keys. The cat is a Caster-type, able to create wings.”

“Oh?” Natsu hums, “you’ve observed us pretty well.” He grins, wrapping flames around his fist, “then I supposed you’re prepared to end up charred!”

“Go, Natsu!”

He throws a punch, but it’s easily deflected with the back of the frying pan.

“I’m sorry to say, but we are especially skilled against fire-type wizards,” the shorter one taunts him, swinging in for a kick. Natsu jumps back to dodge.

“Hehh, because of the frying pan?” Mirajane suggests. “That seems pretty heat resistant, after all. I wonder if it’s a shield.”

“Isn’t it a bat?” Elfman suggests.

“I could cook a super huge egg on it!” Lisanna says.

“Wait, Lisanna, what?”

“How would you get an egg as big as that, though?” Erza says, almost seriously considering it. “Desert eagles?”

“Happy’s egg was pretty big,” Natsu offers.

“I came from an egg?”

“You didn’t know?"

The taller one leaps, and when he lands, the ground beneath him shatters. Natsu dives forward to evade again.

He’s smacked forward with the frying pan, and Natsu is sent flying out the door. He lands on the tongue of the obnoxious Everlue statue. 

“You might be from Fairy Tail, but at the core of it all you’re just a wizard.”

“You’re no match for professional fighters like us mercenaries.”

Lisanna puffs up her cheeks in annoyance at that. “Anyone would be at a disadvantage if they were double teamed like that!”

“Go, Natsu!” Levy yells, sprouting from the dead with a ‘guts’ headband around her head, “beat them up so we can find out what the book’s all about!”

“Oh heck she’s awake!”

“When did she wake up?”

“Well, she looks positively motivated so I think it’s fine,” Evergreen sighs. 

“Well anyways,” Cana intervenes, “these two look pretty well built and all, but Natsu can deal with them, no biggie.”

“Yeah, we’re not worried.”

“Not at all.”

“I’m more worried about the mansion.”

“Ah, that mansion was toast from the start.”

Natsu scoffs, “so that’s all you’ve got?”

“Brother,” the taller one says, irritated, “this guy’s looking down on us!”

“Someone’s feelings are huuuurt,” Mirajane sings sarcastically.

“Apologize to him, Natsu,” Lisanna adds, playing along.

“Wu- what?! NO!”

The shorter one is composed as always. “Do you know what a mage’s greatest weakness is?”

Natsu lifts his head, “you mean transportation?”

Gildarts chokes on something in the background.

Now even the shorter mercenary is just exasperated, “I don’t really get it, but I believe that’s a personal issue on your end.” 

“He’s totally talking trash to us!” the taller one’s ready to bust a vein.

Mirajane bursts into laughter.

“Well, that’s certainly one strange way to rile up your opponents,” Loke chuckles. 

“Knowing Natsu, that wasn’t the intention though,” Happy offers. 

The shorter one prepares to leap. “Their weakness is their bodies!” he says. He brings the drying pan down on Natsu’s feet. Natsu dodges, but he breaks the stupid statue tongue clean in half. “To train oneself in magic is to train your intellect and your spirit!”

Natsu swerves aside to dodge a punch from the other brother.

“And as a result, you neglect the training of your own body,” he says. “Which means, compared to us who train our body day and night, you are no match, in terms of both power and speed.”

“Is that true?” Lisanna asks, “it’s true that Elf-niichan and I mainly train our magic capacity and control.”

“For most, maybe,” Loke answers her. “I guess you could say most mages are like that as well-- the most important thing to do is to gather the right amount of magic or have enough magic to keep it going.”

Lisanna nods, “if we don’t get it right, we won’t be able to transform fully.

“But mages like Natsu, who enhances his own body to fight-- or Erza, who needs to have the practical skills to be as good of a swordsman she is,” Loke points at the respective people as he speaks, “they’re the exact opposite. They primarily focus on their strength instead of their magic, causing both to grow at a generally similar rate.”

“It all depends on the type of magic, though,” Gray adds. “Magic like mine or Freed’s don’t really improve much even if you train your body. It just helps you maneuver better in a battlefield, or develop your stamina, those kinda stuff.”

“So basically--” Happy enters the conversation, “their theory’s not wrong, but they’re not entirely right either?”

“It’s more of a stereotype,” Erza figures.

“Yeah, if it was Lucy that was fighting them-- or even Cana perhaps, then they would have trouble against mercenary guild forces,” Loke says. 

“So Natsu was their worst possible opponent in the situation?” 

“Yep.”

“Alright! Go Natsu!”

“Woooah, so scary,” Natsu taunts them, his voice singing as he beckons them, “so, when are you going to get serious?”

Both of the mercenaries are evidently surprised.

“Brother, let’s do the combination attack!” the taller one says. 

“Okay!” the shorter agrees. He throws his pan forward, and the taller stands in the center. “Surefire Skill: Destruction of Heaven and Earth!”

“Yeah, bring it!” Natsu taunts him.

“One hell of an impractical attack name,” Mirajane says. 

“Reminds me of Laki,” Levy says, “except Laki is a long-ranged magician so she can afford to do that.”

“It’s the same level of ‘I just don’t get it’ though,” Evergreen says. “Name should be simple, straight to the point, and cute!”

“Like your Leprechaun?”

“Exactly like my Leprechaun!”

“Right, I get shouting attack names when casting,” Laxus mutters, leaning his chin into his palm, almost annoyed, “but is there really a point to saying the full name to your opponent before preparing to do it?”

With a determined roar, the shorter swings his pan upward, throwing the brother with it. Natsu, taken by surprise, follows the brother that’s way too freaking high--

“Damn, that arm strength reminds me of Erza,” Gray pales a little. “That guys gotta be a couple hundred pounds, dude.”

“Oh, Erza threw me like that before,” Natsu says. “In the guild hall.”

“So did you aim your landing on Gray or something?” Lisanna asks.

“No, I just hit the roof and got stuck.”

“If you look to the Heavens,” the shorter brother says-- he leaps forward in one sharp stride, and swings his pan across, socking Natsu right in the face. “Earth is where we be!” 

Natsu regains his balance, sliding to the side, and then positioning himself so the shorter brother is always in sight.

“Ouch, that’s gotta hurt,” Gray grins a little, almost enjoying the battle. 

“That was dirty!” Natsu whines.

“Good move though, put some distance between you guys--” Mirajane hums-- then pauses. “Ah, I spoke too soon.”

“Face the Earth, and…” the taller brother emerges above head, throwing down an axe kick on Natsu’s back before he could react, “Heaven is where we be!”

The two stand before each other, a hand held before them in an oriental hand prayer. “This is the Vanish brother’s combination attack, Destruction of Heaven and Earth.”

“It’s a good combination attack, all things considered,” Erza figures. “Especially against a single opponent. I’m not sure I would be able to respond quickly if they did that in succession.”

“It’s a good combination attack alright-- but it’s lacking something important,” Gildarts says. “It’s not strong enough on its own.”

“No one has ever survived this atta-- what?!”

Natsu sighs, standing up, “what did you say about survivors?”

“No way!!” both brothers gawk, taken by surprise. 

A few of them chuckle. “Erza and Mira’s knocked him around harder than that!” 

“Well, but if it was a mage, and they did some sort of magic attack in place of normal kicks and punches, then it would be a completely different matter,” Evergreen says. 

Natsu preps up his magic-- and takes a deep breath. “I blow you away with this! Roar of the Fire Dragon!” 

“Here comes the fire magic!” the taller brother exclaims, as if it’s a chance for them.

“It’s over!” 

“Huh, they’re awfully confident for some reason?” Lisanna wonders.

The shorter flips his frying pan-- and catches the roar, “Flame Cooking!” the flames vanish into the metal. He flips, “absorb all the flames, multiply it-- and then!” The pan bursts into an inferno, “send it all right back!”

Caught off guard by the reflector, Natsu is engulfed by flames.

“It’s a Fairy barbeque!”

Facepalms all across the hall, and uncontrollable laughter every elsewhere.

“Seriously, doesn’t Natsu have some nickname or something? They should really have known more about you with how flamboyant everything you do is,” Loke says, full of humour. 

But Natsu eats it. Sucks up all the flames like it’s the most normal course of action. “Now that I’ve eaten, I’m all revved up!”

The two brothers really shriek in fear this time. 

“Wing Slash of the,” Natsu throws his arms forward, a magic circle sprouting behind him and coating his figure in snakes of flames-- “Fire Dragon!!”

The impact is sent through the entire building, and all windows in the mansion shatter from the force. The scene pans out to show townspeople being alerted by the noise, and a dust cloud forms around the Everlue Mansion.

This is met by exasperated silence in the hall. Everyone had some sort of stunned, resigned, or flabbergasted expression on their faces.

Because what .

“Natsu!” Erza yells. At the same time Gray, Elfman, Bickslow and Gildarts yell out his name oto, but with a much more holding-back-tears-of-laughter sort of way. 

“What the hell, man!”

“Just two chumps and you blew the entire mansion’s mirrors out,” Laxus mutters, almost exhausted, “the Gramps sure has it hard, doesn’t he?”

“When we get back, you’re getting a lesson on how not to do that! Think of how much trouble you’re causing for the Master!” Erza began her lecture. “To begin with--”

Natsu whines in fear, “but I haven’t done it yet!!”

Charred and fainted, the two brothers lay in a defeated pile.

“Crap, I think I overdid it,” Natsu says.

“So he thinks,” Happy deadpans. 

“At least he’s self-aware,” Lisanna sighs.

“Man, I’m starting to empathize with Master’s troubles,” Gray grimaces, “maybe I should take care of the landscape next time I go on a mission.”

“Yeah, you do that,” Loke holds back on his laughter. 

The ending song starts playing.

“It’s over, so I’m going to just play the next one--” Levy turns around, only to pause as she realizes the commotion in the hall. “Uhm, everyone…?”

Erza and Mirajane are taking turns yelling at Natsu, though one with more laughter in between than the other (and they sound like they were going to argue soon). 

Loke, Cana, Elfman and Gray are debating their recent damage reports and bills, trying to determine how justified their actions were. 

Gildarts is boasting about the mass destruction he caused in a village to the east, and the Thunder God Tribe are trying (in vain) to establish the fact that it is possible to fight all out without destroying things. 

Lisanna stands somewhere in the middle with Happy, wondering why her life is like this.

Levy turns back to the screen and slots in the next episode.

Chapter Text

FOUR: DEAR KABY.

Word Count: 19329

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-

-

“Hey, you guys, settle down already, it’s starting!”

Levy hollers into the crowd, but it all fell on deaf ears as the cacophony got louder instead.

Lisanna, with Happy in her arms, chuckles dryly at the sight. “Well, I guess sitting around for too long really takes a toll on us.”

Levy purses her lips, “I just want to get the old man over with so we can find out the secret of the book.”

“Now, now,” Lisanna soothes her, “you know what they say, a rushed story’s never fulfilling. How about we make some tea for everyone? There’s nothing much here but there’s a magically equipped kitchen, at least.”

“Tea, huh… ah man, I miss Enno’s hot chocolate.”

“You should whine that to Macao-san when we see him again.”

“The Kingdom of Fiore. A neutral country of 17 million people. This is a world of magic. Magic is bought and sold there every day. It is an integral part of people’s lives. And in a certain city there lies a certain guild. A guild from which various legends were once born… or rather, will continue to be born long into the future… And it’s name is: Fairy Tail!”

The opening song plays.

“Y’know, I just thought of it-- but shouldn’t we be taking notes?” Levy asks, reaching for the tin of tea leaves on the upper shelf.

Lisanna counted the teacups in the cabinet. “Notes? For what?”

“For--” Levy grunts with force as she plucks the lid of the tin right off with a loud squeak, “--the future, of course. We’re supposed to prevent things, so what if we miss out on something important or we forget it once we get out?”

Lisanna hums, “well, you have a point. Hey, don’t you think it’s strange that we’ve got enough teacups for fifteen people? Is this place a restaurant or something?”

Levy crouches down to get a better look. There were fifteen cups on the table, but there were still about a dozen left in the cabinet. 

Speaking of which, the kitchen was huge. The dining area was just big enough for all of them to sit comfortably around the table, but if they sat comfortably in any reasonable spot, they could fit a few more. 

“The coffee mugs too,” Lisanna had found her way to the other cabinets. “Looking at the fully stocked kitchen, you think they intended for us to cook our own meals?”

“Probably,” Levy rests her arm on the counter, her eyes looking to the side in the way she always does when she goes through theories in her mind. “But… it’s weird. Magic or not, this place is too suspicious to be true.”

“Well, I don’t see a reason to doubt Yuri Dreyar, ” Lisanna shrugs, arms lifting slightly. 

“I’m not doubting him, just that-- well, he’s dead ,” Levy says. “So how is the timing so perfect?”

“Perfect? What do you mean by that?”

Levy looks at Lisanna with a gaze more serious than the norm.  “How did he know when exactly, and who exactly to send here?” 

And that made Lisanna freeze.

“Magic that remains after death is strong, but it’s got to have accurate coordinates to work,” Levy says. “This means he has an accomplice. Someone who’s alive sent us here.” 

“What’s with this wizard? Is he really just a wizard?” the shorter brother groans, eyes spinning.

The other is worse off. “Mama,” he stutters, “I see a… a fairy…”

Natsu huffs. “Great. I better go look for Lucy now, then,” he turns around, “who the hell were these guys, anyways?”

“Hey, Levy, Lisanna,” Bickslow enters the kitchen with his little parade of totems, “the show started. You should get back soon… uhm, am I interrupting something?”

At his arrival, the two girls eased a little.

Lisanna turns around with a laugh. “Just a theory,” she says. Turning slightly to Levy, she offers, “you should talk that over with Freed and Erza later on.”

Levy, still deep in thought, hums in response. 

Lisanna chuckles at that. Turning to Bickslow again, she raises the tea kettle.

“Help me with the tea, please?”

The scene changes to the sewers. Lucy sits in a corner, Daybreak in her hands. She’s wearing a pair of red glasses, skimming through the book at record pace.

“I can’t believe this book contains such a secret…”

“Oh, Wind-Reading glasses!” Levy comes back in to brighten up immediately at the screen. She’s holding a tin of sugar in her hands, still lost in thought. “That’s nice, I want to windread the book, too!”

“Welcome back, Levy! Thanks for the tea.” Erza greets her. 

“Oh Levy, my saving grace,” Mirajane dramatises, “please may I have some sugar?”

“There are lemons over here-- Gray, don’t eat the lemons! They’re for the tea!”

“Huh? But they’re nice and cold.”

“You wimp, Tea should be boiling hot!”

“Natsu, if you drink tea that’s on fire, it’ll turn into gasoline in your stomach,” Laxus says.

“Wait what, really?!”

"I didn't know Laxus could make jokes."

"Jokes?"

The wall behind her shatters, the bolt popping out as Everlue cuts through, grabbing her by the arms. Lucy yelps, startled. Her glasses fall, and Everlue curls her arms tightly behind her.

“What did you find? Tell me the secret to my book!” he demands.

A few people make some sort of dying noise.

“I’m more impressed that she’s still holding the book so well,” Freed says, “that takes some kind of determination.”

“Happy, where are you?!”

“Probably looking for her.”

Lucy winces from the strain, “you’re the worst of the worst,” she spits, “you’re an enemy of literature!”

“Yes, say it Lucy!” Levy cheers.

“There’s water there, so she could probably summon Aquarius if she gets out, right?” Mirajane suggests. “Or if she could reach her keys, she could summon Taurus. Does she need to swipe the motions or can she summon with just contact?”

Loke honestly didn’t want to imagine how furious Aquarius would be if she were to be summoned in sewage, so he refrained from thinking.

He wondered if contactless summons were possible on a strong enough spirit user, though. Even Anna couldn’t do that. 

“Me, an enemy of literature? You’re saying that to me, a highly prestigious and educated man?” Everlue is furious at the suggestion. He curves Lucy’s arms tighter in directions it shouldn’t go, and Lucy winces.

“Right, but if someone says himself that he’s highly educated, his credibility goes down twenty percent for lack of humility alone,” Erza huffs.

“Remember that for job interviews everyone,” Cana says, “not that anyone in the guild has ever been legitimately educated, though.”

“Laki is,” Lisanna reminds her. “And Gray, right?”

“Barely,” is Gray’s response, “don’t remember anything, though.”

“Huh? I wonder if Lucy’s the same,” Levy says, settling by the chair of the couch and swaying her feet in thought, “I just noticed-- but she’s got the same fancy-phrasing habit as Laki sometimes.” 

“Really?”

“We could ask when we meet her.”

“Ah yes, a guy whose hobby is collecting awfully eccentric maids, is very highly prestigious and educated,” Lucy snids sarcastically.

“Don’t you dare insult my beautiful blonde maids!” 

“Well, I guess he has a point,” Lisanna looks away when she admits under her breath.

Lucy yelps when Everlue shoves her down, her arms twisting further back painfully. 

Everlue keeps his eyes on the book that Lucy’s clutching tightly. “Tell me, is it a treasure map? A hidden fortune? What secret does the book have?”

“Geez, could this guy calm down?”

Lucy looks down, catching sight of her keys by her feet.

Everlue grips her arms tight, “say it! Say it or I’ll break your arms!”

“Ah, for god’s sake!” Cana groans, “when we see this guy again, minister of not I’m gonna punch him in the face! Who’s with me?”

“Me!” Levy’s the only one that calls out her rally, but a couple other hands, including Freed’s slightly angry one, goes up.

Lucy sticks out her tongue, defiantly.

Everlue snaps. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, brat!” he raises his voice, “that book belongs to me! I had Kemu Zaleon himself write the book for me! Thus, any secret in that book belongs to me as well!”

“Eh-?!”

“Wait, he had the author write the book for him?” Gray asks, “is that how it works?”

“Of course not!” Freed and Levy yell at the same time, and Gray raises both hands in an almost apology.

“Kemu Zaleon is known for being a non-commission writer!” Levy rants dramatically, “he valued passion and heart above all else!”

Freed sighs, “whatever the secret of the writing is, it belongs to whoever figures it out or whoever they addressed it to. That’s common sense.”

“Oh, like that runes mission we did last time where we got a treasure trove of gold?” Bickslow reminisces, “that was cool!”

It’s at that moment when Happy soars in, kicking Everlue right in the face. 

“Oh?”

“OH.”

“Happyy!!” 

“Aye, it’s me!”

In shock, he releases his hold on Lucy. “Happy!” Lucy exclaims, gratified. “Nice one!”

The cat flies in, flutters over the sewer-- then his wings disappear and he drops right into the greywater. And he stays there, so Lucy stares in disbelief. 

“Ah.”

“Agh!” everyone shoots away from the cat in the hall. 

Lisanna lets go of the cat and ducks away to join the dramatics, and Happy gives the most offended expression he can muster. Natsu bursts right out into laughter. 

“Hey c’mon I haven’t done it yet!” 

“It’s still disgusting, though.”

In retaliation, Happy starts chasing Elfman around the room.

“What’s with this cat?!” Everlue exclaims.

Happy’s voice bubbles out, “I’m Happy,” but it sounds more like ‘mm faffy’ from within the water.

“Why don’t you get up here?” Lucy asks.

“The water feels good.”

“Uh, it’s sewage water,” Lucy facepalms.

“I suddenly feel like giving Happy a full scrub in the bath…” Erza grimaces, expression scrunching up in a way that made it seem like she could smell the pungent odor from past the screen.

“I wonder if it’s nice and cold, though.”

“Don’t associate nice and cold with that, please,” Gray clasps his hands over his ears as if that would help his mental image of the scene.

The title screen comes up, “DEAR KABY”.

“Kaby…”

“That’s the name of the requestor, right?”

“I just knew he had something to do with the secret….”

“The tables have turned!” Lucy declares, holding out a golden key she hasn’t used yet thus far, “well, if you give me this book, I might just forgive you. Though I really want to smack you in the face at least once.”

Someone chokes on their drink when they snort.

“She’s still trying to get the book,” Mirajane laughs, “well, she’s stubborn if anything else. I like that about her.”

“For books I would cause mass destruction!” Levy declares cheerfully.

“Oh, Levy, we know you will,” Cana says. 

Everlue snickers, “for a literature lover, you sure misuse phrases! That line is only said when your position has changed from disadvantageous to a definite advantage!” a brown magic circle spreads out from his back, “you won’t be able to surpass my Diver magic with just an extra cat by your side!”

“Lucy’s sure easy to underestimate…”

“I’m sure Lucy can handle this nonsense since she has her hands back on her keys now,” Gray says, “one punch from Taurus and the guy’s out.”

“No, no, you can’t actually beat the guy up,” Mirajane says, “he’s not a bandit or anything, he’s a minister. We have to defeat him without injuring him.”

“Yeah, we could get sued.”

“And won’t Taurus like, knock his head clean off?” Laxus asks. Everyone gives him fearful looks, so he gives them a resigned raised eyebrow in return.

“Tone down the gore for the children, Laxus,” Gildarts teases him.

“Uhm. Right.”

And he vanishes into a hole in the ground, like a mole.

Happy deadpans, “oh, that was magic?” 

“Well, that makes sense,” Cana says, “maybe he makes a habit of destroying his own floors and ceilings because he has the money to fix it every other day?”

“Imagine if a maid just,” Mirajane says, “fell in a hole one day and she just keeps going down.”

“Time to hire a new maid, I guess.”

“Oh, now that sounds like a horror story in the making,” Bickslow says. Switching to a haunting tone, he leans closer to Evergreen and hisses, “ hey hey hey hey hey have you heard the story of the missing maids ?”

“Hey! Hey!” the dolls echoed, “Missing! Maaaaaaids!”

Evergreen, shrivelling as an intense shiver runs down her spine, smacks him away with her paper fan, “Bicks, OUT!” she yells, starting to swat at the dolls too, “you guys too, back off!”

“Oh, she’s flustered!”

“No I’m not!”

Then a second later, Happy continues, “that means Everlue is a wizard too?”

Lucy tells him, “hey, you stink.”

“That’s right, Happy, you stink.”

“Enough about that already!”

“Right, right. Sorry, Happy.”

The ground shatters behind Lucy, but she dodges Everlue’s grasp just in time. She leaps around the next attack and the next.

“One hell of a mole attack there,” Loke says, remembering his old spars with Virgo. She and Scorpio always made a great and frustrating combination… 

(Come to think of it, it’s pretty smart, or even lucky of him to have acquired Virgo of all keys. If he summoned her they would make a great spirit-owner combination attack.)

(That is, if he considered Virgo a partner in battle-- but that’s not something that would ever happen with owners.) 

“And Lucy’s got reflexes,” Gray says, “guess she’s a Cana-type mage.”

“What the hell is a Cana-typed mage , Gray?” Cana asks with a smirk on her face, leaning almost a little too close as Gray sputters to figure out an explanation. 

“Weak physically, but can dodge well… I guess,” Bickslow says, “like Ever, you know.”

“I prefer the term ‘Evergreen-type mage’, please.”

“It’s written in this book!” she says, “it’s an awful adventure novel starring you as the main character, Everlue!”

“What’s with that?” Happy asks. 

Everlue emerges beside him, but the man doesn’t even glance at the cat. “It’s wonderful that I’m the main character. But its contents are utter crap!” he dives down again, and he begins to shatter bits of the ceiling in turn.

“Is it alright to actually, y’know, destroy that much of the ceiling?” 

“Hell if I know, do I look like I calculate how to destroy buildings before they fall?”

“Well, if I were to write a story where the main character is a corrupt, unattractive rich man…” Levy hums, crossing her arms, “I can name a few cliches.”

“Just burn it already.”

“For Kemu Zaleon, of all people, to write such rubbish!”

“You forced him to write it! How could you be so conceited??” Lucy accuses. 

“Conceited? I am a great man!” Everlue’s voice comes from all around now, and Lucy looks around to determine his location-- “it’s an honour for anyone to write a book about me!”

“You threatened him to write it!”

“Eh?”

Levy looks up immediately. “No way! Lucy’s already decoded the whole thing?” she says, “that’s impressive!”

“Well, I’m sure if you had it on hand, you could do it pretty easily too,” Cana says. “Probably a bookworm thing.”

“Still!”

“He’s such a hypocrite,” Mirajane sighs, imitating a squeaky tone, “I’m not conceited! It’s an honour for anyone to write a book about me!” she makes a retching motion, “oh get over yourself please.”

“And what about it?” Everlue pops up at the side, pinching his mustache with a shit-eating grin on his face, “it was his own fault for refusing me in the first place!”

“What the hell?” Lucy stares him down, disgusted.

“What the hell?!” echoes through the hall.

“I told him to write a book where I was the main character, and he refused!” Everlue explains, swimming through the concrete like it’s a normal thing to do. 

He dives into the ground. Then his hand emerges behind Lucy and Happy.

“That’s why I told him-- write the book, or I’ll revoke the citizenship for your entire family!” he says, like it’s a proud thing he’s bragging about.

“You have got to be kidding,” Levy says, “I am going to lose my mind.”

“I don’t care for books, but that’s a next level of just fucking extreme,” Gray grimaces, “do you know the hell I had to go through to get citizenship in Fiore?”

“Same here,” Freed mumbled, “all the immigration and paperwork was torture .”

“Well thank goodness the orphanage did mine then,” Cana whispers, finding a bottle of sake already. “Would be in trouble without it.”

“Master helped me with ours,” Mirajane offers weakly.

“Mine too,” Natsu says. “Didn’t even know it happened. Happy’s was pretty annoying, though.”

“Especially because he’s a cat,” Lisanna mourns, “I get nightmares about it.”

“Porlyusica-san did mine, I think,” Erza recalls, “when she got my eye registered.”

“Your what?”

“Porlyusica-san helped you? I thought she hated humans.”

“Well, it was kind of a one-time thing.”

“Wait, what do you mean, get your eye registered?” 

“I mean, I’m legally classified as half blind,” Erza says, pointing vaguely at her magic eye as if it was supposed to be common knowledge, “so I have a disability pass in case anything goes wrong. I don’t use it, though.” 

It evidently isn’t common knowledge to more than half of the occupants in the room.

“You’re what ?!”

Happy gasps. “If you do that, they won’t be able to join any merchant or craftsman guilds!” he says, “do you, a duke, really have that much authority?”

“That’s why I said, I’m a great man!” 

“Excuse me, a great man does not use blackmail!” Elfman snaps at the screen.

“That’s right, you bring shame to the word ‘man’!” Bickslow eggs him on, his dolls echoing in just the right tune.

“Oh man, Bickslow’s been infected by the energy,” Evergreen sighs.

“Well, Bickslow has always fit in with the chaos of the guild a little better than the rest of the Thunder God Tribe,” Freed observes, keeping a side eye on them as Bickslow’s doll went about trying to balance cups on their heads, helping Lisanna and Happy transport them back toward the kitchen. 

“Isn’t that fine,” Laxus sighs, “he can make his own friends.”

The ground begins to shatter under them. Lucy runs, and Happy takes off flying to evade the inevitable breakthrough. 

Everlue emerges, “and he finally wrote it!” he cheered. Lucy glared. “But I was annoyed at his prior refusal, so I made him write it in prison!”

“Oh, that’s it,” Evergreen says, "when we get out, we’re putting this despicable man in the courtroom to teach him a lesson.”

“The timeline fits,” Mirajane says, “if we get out soon, we can catch him right in the act and that’s all the proof we need.”

“Agreed,” Levy says.

“Think we could snag all his cash and put it to the orphanages around?” Cana asks.

“Oh, right!” Levy says, standing up, remembering something important. “There's a notebook in the guest rooms! I’m going to go grab it!”

Everlue casts another assault, so Lucy and Happy start running again. 

“How could you do that to someone just for your own selfish desires?!” Lucy shouts, angered. “You put him in solitary confinement for three years! Do you have any idea how he must’ve felt?!”

“Three years?!” Happy exclaims, shocked.

“A notebook?” Erza asks, but she’s already run off.

“She said it’d help us remember the details better,” Lisanna explains. 

“Got it! What should I write down first?”

“Everlue!”

“Everlue, definitely. Are you guys paying attention? He’s the first guy I’m charging toward once we’re out.”

“Are we already forgetting Macao?”

“If he didn’t write the book, his family would be in trouble-- so he discarded his pride and wrote it!” she says, “but writing a book about a big idiot like you… as an author, that was something he couldn’t allow to happen!”

Everlue stops.

“You… how do you know these things, you pest?” he realizes, something’s off. Lucy knows too much-- she shouldn’t know so much.

Lucy raises Daybreak in her hands. “It’s all written in this book!”

“So the proof of the crime is in the text itself,” Freed says, “it’s hard to use that as evidence in a court, though.”

“Perhaps that wasn’t the intention,” Loke theorizes. 

“Huh? I’ve read that book. Kemu Zaleon himself never makes an appearance,” Everlue says.

“Of course, if you read it normally, it’s awfully disappointing. It’d make any fan cry,” Lucy says, “but you should know. Kemu Zaleon was originally a wizard!”

“Ohhh!” Levy says, eyes lighting up with recognition, “I get it now!”

“A magic book, huh…” Erza considers. “This is getting interesting.”

The scene cuts into a sad picture of a man writing in a brick cell, with only a lamp accompanying his venture.

“It can’t be--”

“He used the last of his magic to cast a great spell on this book!” Lucy says.

Everlue grips his fists, “so that was his scheme!” he scowls, “he made it so the book would defame me, once the spell ran out?! Unforgivable!”

“That… honestly sounds like a plan,” Gray says. “Hand it in to the Magic Investigations Bureau and they’d know it was genuine.”

“It’d be a nice justice served moment,” Mirajane says. “But would a man that risked his life for his family leave behind such a spiteful legacy?”

“There has to be something more to it than just Everlue’s deeds,” Erza says.

“Guys, you’re losing me here,” Natsu says, vainly, because he knows he’s getting ignored when the intellectuals start talking.

“Your mind is so shallow. Sure, the process of completing the book is written in it,” Lucy says, “but that’s not what Kemu Zaleon wanted to leave behind! The real truth is something else!”

“You’ve got to be kidding!” Everlue exclaims. 

“That’s why I won’t give this book to you! Actually, you never had a right to it in the first place!” Lucy declares, pointing her key forward. She spun the crustacean key, and swiped it.

“Gate of the Giant Crab, I open thee! Cancer!”

“She’s finally going for it,” Laxus says, scooting sideways toward the wall so he’d have something to lean on. 

“We haven’t seen the crab yet, have we?” Cana says.

The first to show up is a pair of red-framed scissors. A hand grabs it, and Cancer emerges, wearing his lousy suit, donning his strange, claw-shaped hair and on his back, six crusty appendages curled.

Everyone in the room stills.

“Dude, he looks kinda freaky.”

“Gray, don’t be rude.”

“Not exactly what I expected…”

I was expecting something more Taurus-ey, y’know. Huge red claw, that kinda thing.”

Loke resists a chuckle. Cancer would probably be sad to hear these opinions-- he had always been neutral about his strength, which was only around the lower edge amongst the golden keys; but his appearance was something he was quite obsessed about.

“It’s a crab!” Happy is exhilarated. “Please end all your sentences with ‘-kani’! You’ve gotta do it! You’re a crab after all! Just trust me, say you promise!”

“Please concentrate,” Lucy says sharply, “if you don’t keep quiet, I’ll pinch your paws, got it?”

“Lucy…” the man approaches the girl, his scissors snipping with anticipation, “how would you like your hair done today… -ebi?”

“EBI?!?” Happy squawks, horrified.

Meanwhile, the Happy in the hall is also having an equal mental breakdown. “He’s a crab, but he ends his sentences with ‘shrimp’?! This is wrong! This is sacrilegious!”

“Where on earth did you learn that word?”

“Happy, Lucy’s trying to fight, so maybe you should really shush before she loses her temper--” 

Lucy sighs, “could you please take a look at the situation, please? We’re in a battle!” she points at Everlue, “beat up that man with the awful mustache!”

“Okay-ebi.”

Happy, utterly disappointed, sets a hand on the wall of the sewer. “I thought it was a straight jab, but go figure, it turned out to be a hook,” he says, “oh, you can go home now, we’re done here.”

“How about you go home?” Lucy retorts.

“I just know that Lucy’s going to pinch your cheeks one day, Happy,” Lisanna says, “and when she does that, you’ll be on your own, okay?”

“Eh?!”

Secret? There’s still something else? Everlue thinks, horror passing through his face. Could he have written about the illegal underbelly of my business?  

He shivers, cold sweat dripping down his chin, I can’t have that. If she hands it over to the Council’s inspection wizards… that’d be the end of me!

“It’s the usual schtick,” Loke seems almost tired at this point, “corrupt government officials, corrupt government officials.”

“And they wonder why we keep destroying stuff,” Natsu mutters. “Not our fault if the person was an asshole.”

“Not my point, but I think I now know why Master's going to have a hard time in the future with us,” Loke sighs. 

“But if his weapons are small scissors, I’m not so sure if he was the right choice against Everlue,” Erza says. “Someone that could break walls and lessen his escape routes would have been a better option, perhaps.” 

“So Taurus?”

“Among the spirits we’ve seen of Lucy’s arsenal thus far, yes.”

Another gold key passes through the screen. This time, the symbol on the key is not one of Lucy’s. The shape of the key vaguely resembles a heart. 

“Gate of the Maiden, I open thee!” Everlue swipes the key straight down, “Virgo!”

Lucy swirls around, eyes widening in shock. 

Jaws dropped in the room.

“Wait, what?” Levy lifts her head from her notebook. “Everlue’s a Celestial Spirit Wizard?!”

Loke sighs, of course . And Cancer’s a bad match for Virgo, so Lucy’s now at a complete disadvantage-- things just got troublesome again.

“I guess anyone can be a Celestial Spirit mage if you make a contract, huh,” Evergreen surmises. “I heard it takes a lot of magic for even one gate, so it’s not very practical as a secondary magic, though.” 

“The same magic as Lucy?!” Happy exclaims, “oh no!”

Up from the ground, the pink-haired maid from before emerges grandly. “You rang, Master?” she asks.

“You’re kidding.”

“No way she’s a spirit. No way.”

Loke chuckles nervously.

“She does look like a gorilla so I guess it makes sense,” Natsu says.

Lisanna sighs. “Natsu, that’s not how it works.”

“Isn’t the Maiden supposed to be, y’know, a maiden?” Mirajane asks. “Well I guess it is a maiden, in a way, but I wouldn’t exactly peg her as the first thing I would think of…”

“Wait, Lucy’s at a disadvantage now!”

“Virgo, get that book!” Everlue commands.

“No way, she was a spirit?!” Lucy exclaims.

“Ebi,” Cancer says, as if an affirmation.

“Huh? Don’t the spirits all live in the same dimension?” Gray asks, “wouldn’t this be like one of us fighting a member of our own guild?”

“Now that you mention it,” Erza hums, seeming contemplative.

“What if they were friends?” Lisanna says, “that seems kind of mean to do.”

Loke looks over them, a sort of surprise passing over his eyes. “Well, they have different masters, so it’s just what they have to do.”

“Still,” Levy says.

Loke shrugs. “Natsu and Gray fight all the time, right? Mira and Erza too.” 

“This is different!” Lisanna insists.

Loke concedes to that.

Then Happy notices something. Lucy notices it too, and Everlue makes a gawking noise when he notices it in turn.

Above them, grabbing onto Virgo’s collar-- is none other than Natsu himself.

“Natsu?!” Lucy calls, surprised.

Loke immediately does a spit take as a couple others in the room are caught in the middle of deciding if they should laugh or gawk.

“Wait, did he… come with the--”

“Why is he with Virgo?!” Everlue is just as surprised, obviously-- there’s not a soul that isn’t confused in the area. 

“How did you--?!” Lucy is at a loss for words.

“How, uh,” Natsu settles on Virgo’s shoulder-- Virgo herself is confused as well, confusion clear above her head with the question marks. “She just started moving, so I followed her, and… I don’t get it either!!”

“You followed her-- so you grabbed her?” Lucy asks. 

Gray looks at the scene, almost resigned, “you don’t make sense, Natsu.”

“What did you do?” Lisanna asks, “I don’t really get it.”

“Don’t look at me, I don’t know,” Natsu says.

“They were in the hall just now, so…” Erza theorizes, “so it’s possible to summon a spirit to you even if it isn’t currently in the Spirit World?”

“Which means… Natsu went through the gate?” Loke mumbles. 

He resists the urge to groan. Virgo should have known better than to be so careless-- but then again, people don’t exactly grab onto Spirits as they leave and stay on through the zip and pull of the gate. It’s apparently very jarring for humans. 

“Is that something great?” 

“No, I’m pretty sure that’s against the rules.”

“Oops.” 

An illustration is shown-- The figure of Natsu and Virgo moves from the ‘lobby’, to the ‘spirit world’, and ends up in the ‘sewer’. 

“Don’t tell me you passed through the spirit world with her?” Lucy exclaims, “you, a human?! No way! Impossible!”

“Well, Natsu has always defied logic,” Gildarts chuckles at the sight. “I’m sure it was a pretty sight.”

“I wonder how pretty the Celestial Spirit world is,” Levy says, swooning a little at the thought, “I think I’ve heard rumours of an art piece a long time ago.” 

“Ooh, I’ve heard of that one,” Bickslow leans over, “it was a painting of the Celestial Spirit world, right? It’s like, seven hundred years old or more.”

“You think the sky there's a galaxy?”

“Or the roads are a milky way!”

“Wait, if humans aren’t allowed in the Spirit World, how’d you get a look at the scenery?” Gray asks, skeptical. 

“It was drawn by a spirit,” Loke informs him. 

“Really?”

Loke flinches a little, realizing that it probably isn’t common knowledge at this point. “Well, that's what I uh, think, at least.”

They stare at him skeptically for a long moment. 

“AHhh, I kinda wanna see the Spirit World now!” Cana says, “it’d be a great view to drink to, right?”

Natsu is on Virgo’s head now, balancing precariously there-- and Virgo is blindly reaching around for the monkey on her head. 

Just a little, Loke misses the Spirit world too. 

Every time he brings a girl out for a fling, he thinks of Scorpio and Aquarius and their favourite spots to hang out. And Loke knows it all because those two are always trying to drag him and Aries with them.

He wishes, just a little, that one day he’ll be able to bring everyone here for a view of that sky too. 

Not that it’s possible. Just wishful thinking, is all.

“Lucy, what should I do?!” Natsu asks. 

At that, Lucy snaps out of it, composing herself. She reaches behind herself with her free arm, pointing at Virgo, “you deal with her!” 

“Virgo, get rid of the nuisance!” Everlue commands.

“Oh, quick thinking,” Mirajane says, “she knows she can’t fight the maid, so she siccs Natsu on it instead.”

“What am I, a dog?”

“Guess she’s lucky you came by,” Gray says.

“Understood,” Virgo says.

And at the same time, Natsu shouts, “alright!” He punches the spirit with a hard Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon, sending her flying and Duke Everlue squeaking in disbelief.

Lucy takes the distracted moment to bind Everlue around her whip. “Now you can’t escape underground anymore!” 

Loke looks up at that. It’s probably the first time they’ve seen Lucy in proper, one-on-one action. And he’s a little taken aback.

Surely, if she’d let Cancer handle this, he would handle all of this easily.

And yet-- she has a whip in her hand, and she’s using it to help . It’s unprompted, yet, they work together as if it’s natural.

(Loke is a little envious.)

She braces her grip, and with a strength unfound, she lugs him into the air. “You don’t deserve…”

Cancer leaps to receive-- and with an expert swipe of his scissors, they clash.

“...more prestige than being an itty side character no one remembers,” Lucy finishes.

Everlue’s hair sniped clean off, Cancer’s brandishing his scissors. “What do you think of your new look, sir? Ebi,” Cancer says.

The hall cheers at that.

“What, so Lucy can be cool,” Gray says, grinning. 

“Excuse you, she is cool,” Cana slings her arm around him. “What, Gray, were you underestimating our newbie thus far?”

“Well, she’s not like Natsu or Gray, who were explosive the moment they got here,” Levy says, “she’s more like me, we don’t have much of a presence, y’know.”

“I’m sure that’ll change soon, Levy,” Lisanna assures her, “you’re getting more well known these few years, y’know.”

Levy blushes, “really?”

Natsu laughs, “not bad, Crab!” he says, “wait, did you say Ebi?”

“Of course he mentions the ebi,” Happy says, “it’s bothering more than just me!”

“Petition to make him change it to -kani,” Mirajane raises her hand. A few more hands go up, including Erza’s and Freed’s.

“It just doesn’t suit the aesthetics.”

Wow, Loke thinks, Cancer’s going to cry if he ever hears all this.

Lucy holds the book close to her chest, a smile on her face.

“Great job, Lucy! Nice and flashy,” Natsu says, an honest compliment at his tongue. “You’re truly a Fairy Tail mage.”

“Aye.”

“That’s a nice feeling,” Lisanna says, “I remember my first job too, and at that time, finishing it was the best feeling in the world.”

“I went with Erza,” Levy says, “it was scary, but it was like a whole dream come true!”

Erza hums, crossing her arms with a smile. “I remember that as well. You did a great job despite all the bumps we had to cross.”

“All I remember about my first job is the fact that I never want to see green pancakes ever again,” Gray says, looking pale and on the verge of hurling.

“What happened there?” Elfman asks.

“Don’t remind me.”

“You reminded yourself.”

Natsu, seemingly knowing exactly what Gray is talking about, turns away with a blue face. 

“The green pancake incident,” Erza shudders, “never again.”

“Even Erza’s freaked out?!”

“Well, not even Master knows the details of this,” Bickslow tells Loke, “I think half of us are too afraid to ask.”

The joy is short-lived, because in the next moment, the mansion starts collapsing. 

Standing among the rubble, Natsu laughs harder. “Amazing, Lucy!” he says, in a totally different tone from before, “you’re definitely a Fairy Tail mage!” 

“Aye! I can’t believe we ended up destroying things again.”

Lucy stares at the debris incredulously, “this is my fault?”

And now, laughter spills across the hall. 

“Classic,” Loke laughs, “Lucy’s already infected with the destruction bug, huh?”

“No, that was Natsu’s fault,” Lisanna says, her words choked between laughter, “no, seriously.”

“Isn’t it Everlue’s?”

“Well, either way, that’s one hell of a Fairy Tail welcome!” Gildarts grins, “really makes her feel like one of us, eh?”

Amongst the rubble, Virgo carries Duke Everlue to safety.

“Ah!” Natsu jerks right back to attention, “they escape?!”

“Well, that’s fine, isn’t it?” Gray tells him, your job wasn’t to beat him up, anyways.”

“Yeah, but what if he comes back for revenge?”

“Nah, that wimp’s gonna be dodging the council left and right for now.”

“Or trying to rebuild his house, first.”

Mirajane stretches, yawning. “Hey, is anyone else getting hungry or is it just me?”

Right on cue, Natsu’s stomach growls, along with Cana’s. When eyes turn to them, they chuckle sheepishly. 

Gray shuffles a little in his spot. “I’m still fine for fine, but I’m getting a little restless,” he admits, standing up to stretch. “How long have we been sitting down like this, anyway?”

“Quite a while,” Erza says, “we’ve spent the whole morning watching. We may as well take a break and go to the training grounds after this.”

“Agreed,” Natsu stretched, popping his shoulder. “Oh! Gildarts, fight me later!”

“Huh? Sure.”

“That wouldn’t be much of a fight, Natsu.”

The scene changes to Lucy and Natsu as they walk their way back to the client’s mansion. 

“The composition and development of this book is just awful,” Lucy says, “there’s no way I would believe Kemu Zaleon wrote this.”

“Yay! Everlue’s gone, so we’re finally going into the mystery of the book!” Levy cheers. “About time, baby!”

“I’m sorta excited too,” Lisanna says, “but the mystery’s in the text, right?”

“Like, maybe a code?” Freed theorizes, “are we going to have to decode it?”

“I’m sure it’s something easier,” Cana says, “Lucy could read all-- or maybe most of it? Just with Wind-Reading glasses, after all.”

“Ah-- wait,” Erza interrupts, “the request was to destroy the book. I don’t think it’s a good idea to bring the book back to the client.”

That makes everyone stop to think.

“Well, don’t you think it’s related to the reason the client wanted the book destroyed?” Gildarts offers his input, crossing his arms contemplatively.

“Or maybe the client wants to keep whatever message in there hidden, too,” is Gray’s guess. “Uh, what was his name again?”

“Mister Kaby Melon,” Loke says, exasperated. “Unless you’re asking for the author’s name, which is Kemu Zaleon.”

“Kemy Zulon?”

“Zaleon.”

“Hmm, Melon, Malon, whatever,” Natsu mutters, “what’s with people with weird names?”

“No, Natsu, they’re two different names, don’t mix them up,” Elfman sighs. “Huh? Don't they kinda sound similar?”

“No they don’t, they just rhyme,” Gray clarifies. 

“Well, I guess it sounds that way,” Levy says, “but Kemu Zaleon’s real name is Zekua Melon, so that doesn’t sound so much like Kaby--”

And she freezes right in tandem with the rest of the hall. 

“So?” Natsu asks.

“So that’s why I thought there was a secret to this book!” Lucy says, showing Daybreak to Natsu again.

Natsu’s still confused.

“Wait, what was that?” Mirajane spins around from her spot on the floor to Levy on the couch. “What was that?!”

Levy’s pale.

“His real name is… Zekua Melon,” she stutters out. “Kemu Zaleon. Zekua Melon.” 

“Melon?” Natsu asks.

“Melon,” Levy nods in confirmation, horrified at herself.

“Ah,” Natsu says, eyes still fixed on the screen.

Then, “AHHHH!!!” the entire hall swirls on Levy.

Levy has her hands over her ears, near tears. “How did I not see that coming?!”

“How could you forget something so obvious?!”

“I knew Melon sounded familiar!” Levy wails, “so that was it!”

They return the book to Kaby Melon, to the man’s utter surprise. 

“What is the meaning of this?” the man receives it, very confusedly, “I believe I requested for you to destroy it.”

“Destroying it is simple, Mister Kaby. You should be able to do it yourself.”

Kaby’s hands tremble with rage as he looks at the book, “then I’ll incinerate it. I can’t even stand looking at it!”

“Wait, Levy, explain that!” 

“No, I don’t understand either!” Levy says, scribbling this down immediately.

“Wait, that means-- dad? Brother? Which?!”

“How old are they anyways?”

“No, Kemu Zaleon is old, but probably much older than Mr Kaby?! Huh? I’m not sure.”

Laxus watched the chaos with a sort of resigned look on his face. “Seriously, they’re so exhausting to be around,” he says.

“Right?” Gildarts says, “lively, aren’t they?”

Laxus stares at them as Levy wails and everyone goes apeshit.

“Lively isn’t the word I would use to describe this.”

“Yeah, they need to calm down.”

“I understand why you cannot allow this book to exist--” Lucy says, and Kaby looks at her, surprised. “It’s to protect your father’s pride… you are Kemu Zaleon’s son, aren’t you?”

Natsu and Happy perk up, surprised by the new revelation.

“All of you, settle down already,” Erza pulls Gray and Natsu apart, because they suddenly started fighting out of nowhere. “We need to listen.”

“Yeah, it’s easier to hear the answers from the screen than to pester it out of Levy,” Lisanna says,  pulling Cana out of the crowd. 

“Why do you know that?” Kaby asks.

“Have you read the book?” Lucy asks instead.

“No,” Kaby says, “I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It’s trash. My father said so himself.”

“Wait, if it’s his father’s work, why is he destroying it?!” Natsu snaps. 

A few in the hall flinch back at his sudden outburst. 

“Well, we don’t know the situation,” Gray reasons. “He must have a reason.”

“You don’t just destroy stuff like that!”

“Holy shit, is Natsu the one saying this?”

“I’m being serious here!”

Natsu interrupts, “that’s why you wanted to destroy it?”

“That’s right,” Kaby says.

Natsu snaps, reaching forward to confront the man, “you’re going to burn it just because it’s bad? That’s going too far! Your dad wrote that book!”

“Wait, Natsu!” Lucy holds him back, “I told you, he did it to protect his pride!”

Natsu seethes, but he lets the flames cool.

“Natsu, don’t manhandle an older man,” Levy says, training a skeptical eye on the boy.

“Thank goodness we have Lucy.” 

“That’s not the point!” Natsu yells. “His dad wrote that before he died, didn’t he? Well, he should take it!” 

“Yes, but it’s not a nice memory,” Gray says, “his dad wrote that dumb shit in prison, why would you want to keep it?”

“Because it’s from his dad ?!” Natsu repeats, not quite understanding what else in the point needed to be elaborated upon. 

And that, in itself, was a full explanation for Natsu.

If there was something, even anything that they had left of their parents, it made sense to want to keep it. Natsu has his scarf, Cana has her cards-- they are important, simply because they are , no questions asked.

But most of the hall wouldn’t understand those sort of attachments. Most of them were orphans in some way or the other, after all. 

Kaby admits a moment later-- “yes,” he says, “my father was ashamed to have written Daybreak. Thirty-one years ago…”

The scene changes to a flashback.

“We’re learning it! Attention please!”

“Thirty one years would be…” Loke counts off his fingers, “how old would you be, Gildarts?”

Gildarts squints at that, “uh. Eleven?”

There’s a pause.

“HUH?!”

“Hey! Contrary to popular belief, I was once a kid!”

“Hey hey, that aside, this is the past, right?” Levy sits up, “how’d we get footage of something so far into the past? This is suspicious?”

That makes everyone stop to think.

“You have a point, Levy,” Freed tells her, “write that down.”

And Levy does. “This is officially the investigations notebook!”

“Father!”

Young Kaby finds his father at the door. His father walks in-- and the first thing he says is “I’m sorry I’m late”, no greeting-- no explanations. Just that.

His father walks straight in, shaking in his steps-- and he goes to the tools chest, first of all.

“Hey hey,” Elfman speaks up, “what kind of returning greeting is I’m sorry I’m late ?”

“That’s right, he was probably worried sick,” Lisanna says, “a little acknowledgement to your son would be nice.”

“You didn’t contact us for three years! Where in the world were you writing?” Kaby demands from him, but he goes unheard.

Levy shudders at that, “he didn’t contact his son at all in those three years?”

“Maybe he couldn’t?” Freed suggests, looking equally as put off. 

“Dude that’s worse than prison!” Natsu snaps, “that’s illegal! It’s gotta be, right?”

“I guess Everlue goes all out with being a corrupted minister.”

He ties a rope around his arm, away from his elbow, just a little over his shoulder.

“I’m done for,” he says, “I quit being a writer.”

“Wait, what are you--”

“Wait, what is he--” Cana freezes mid chug.

Mira almost jumps forward. “He can’t be--”

Natsu and Lisanna stare at the scene, not quite registering the scene yet. A few jaws drop, and others narrow their eyes in a grimace, looking away.

His father lifts an axe over his head, and roars with determination, “I’m never writing a book again!” he declares. 

Hearing this horrific story, Natsu and Lucy shriek in horror.

Almost entirely in unison, shrieks of horror reverberate through the hall. Levy even drops her pen to cling to Lisanna, who clings harder to Happy. 

In slightly unamused respect, Freed and Erza look away from the screen. Evergrene covers her face with her fan, accidentally meeting Loke in the eyes when they synchronously look around at the dramatic reactions.

“Did he really have to cut off his arm though?” is Laxus’ almost deadpanned response.

“He’s a man…” is Elfman’s weak commentary on the matter.

“I guess he’s just proving that he’s serious about quitting,” Mirajane says, still looking a little pale, “that’s determination, alright.”

Later, in the hospital, Kaby confronts his father.

“You’re an idiot,” he says, “didn’t I tell you three years ago? I told you you’d regret taking a commission for such a worthless book!”

“Well,” his father says, recovering on the bed, “the pay was good.”

“You’re the worst!” Kaby says.

“Huh?” Gray says, “does Mr Kaby not know the situation?”

“He probably wasn’t allowed to tell,” Cana surmises, “so Freed was probably right?”

“Thank you.”

“But he could tell him now ,” Lisanna argues, “what does he mean, the pay was good , that’s just mean at this point.”

“Well, he’s probably being forced to not say anything even after it’s over.”

“Well, I sort of understand,” Evergreen, surprising the hall, speaks up. “If he’d told his son what really happened, what do you think would happen?”

“Justice!” Levy declares, raising her hand.

Natsu raises his hand next, “beat him up!”

“Break, enter, steal the wine, cut holes in his pants,” Cana offers her input. 

“Smash his face in.”

“I think I know now why we get arrested so often,” Laxus says, mirthfully. “What is wrong with our guild’s kids?”

“I’m not a kid anymore!”

“Yes you are, Natsu.”

“Case in point,” Evergreen folds her arms before her, “he spent so long trying to get them out of a sticky situation. If his son goes in and ruins everything…”

“Then all he suffered in those three years would have been for nothing,” Erza realizes. Her face darkens, “that’s a horrible thing to do.”

“But he’s a great father,” Evergreen finishes. “I’ll give him that, at least.”

His father just smiles. “I finished that incredible piece of trash.”

Kaby snaps, “what are you laughing about? You abandoned your family for three years to write that garbage!”

“Kaby,” his father says, “I was always thinking of you.”

Kaby trembles with rage, “then why didn’t you just write something decent and come home earlier?!” he raises his voice. “You abandoned your pride as a writer, you’ve abandoned your family!”

“He’s smiling,” Cana says. She puts down her drink to look at the screen, something flashing in her eyes-- recognition, perhaps.

“It’s a bad book, and it was written in the darkest moments of his life,” Levy says, “but it’s a work he’s proud of.”

And they weren’t sure what to think of that.

“Lucy said that he was fighting, wasn’t he?” Lisanna says, “fighting a war of pride.”

Happy looks up from her arms, “I don’t really get that part.”

“If you were to call one of them a loser, who would it be?” Erza asks, humouring the cat.

Happy turns around and thinks. “Everlue?”

“Yes. And why is that?” she challenges.

Happy blinks for a bit. Then he whines, “I don’t know, someone explain it to me!”

With a laugh, Lisanna pats him on the head. “You’ll understand one day, Happy.”

“But was it worth it?” Gray asks. “He got back at Everlue, but he lost his son’s trust in the process. Doesn’t seem like a fair trade-in to me.”

“You were right to quit. Someone like you isn’t fit to be a writer,” Kaby spits-- then he adds, full of spite-- “or even a father.”

His father smiles as he marches off.

“This is… just,” Levy looks away, “kinda sad.”

“Yeah, it’s not as if he wanted to hide that much from him,” Mirajane agrees solemnly. 

“I’m impressed he can smile so confidently through it.”

The scene changes to the graveyard, where Kaby stands before his father’s tombstone.

“And my father died soon after. He committed suicide. I’ve hated him since then, I’ve always hated him,” Kaby tells them, “but as the months and years went by, the hatred I felt turned into remorse. And yet, my father is no longer in this world for me to apologise for what I’ve done.”

Hisses and grimaces pass across the hall.

“That’s horrible,” Cana says, “Everlue literally ruined their lives.”

“This is miserable,” Erza sighs. “I just hope they’ll get their closure from whatever the book has.”

“Everlue’s irredeemable!” Levy declares angrily, writing that down in big letters in her book. “I’m starting a crusade against him once we’re out!”

“At least Mr Kaby’s feeling remorse for what he said,” Happy says.

“Well, anger can make people lose control,” Loke says, knowing full well the irony of his sentence. “When they start regretting it, it’s usually too late to make up for it.”

Happy sniffles, “but that’s so sad! Even if we go back now, it won’t change...”

He looks at the book again.

“So the very least I thought I could do for him, was to destroy this last, worst, work of his,” he says, “I wanted to rid the world of it, and with it, restore his good name. I think… I believe my father would agree with my choice.”

“No, he wouldn’t,” Lucy interrupts, and all eyes in the room turn to her.

The book glows, and an indigo magic circle spreads out from the book. 

Levy glows. “It’s starting!”

“What is starting?”

“I don’t know, but something is!” Levy cheers. “The secret of the book!”

“What is this?!”

The words on the title float.

“Kemu Zaleon-- his real name was Zekua Melon,” Lucy says, “he cast a spell on this book.”

Just then, the words DAYBREAK rearranged themselves to spell DEAR KABY.

Jaws dropped in the room as the message of the book became clear from that line alone-- and theories bloomed in their heads-- theories they could barely believe.

“It was an anagram,” Erza says, in awe, “so his name, the book’s title, and probably everything else too?”

“He’s dedicated to the theme, I’ll give him that.”

“Wait, you mean--the entire book? I didn’t think that was possible. Like, imagine writing that!”

“Well… that’s certainly a way to hide a secret.”

“Dear Kaby?” he reads.

“That’s right--” Lucy says, “it’s addressed to his beloved son, Kaby. He cast a spell to rearrange the letters… on the entire thing!”

The book opens, and letters spill out of the pages, flying out and swirling around in a spiralled turbulence across the hall.

“Woah, the words are dancing!”

“Pretty!”

Levy’s in bliss. “Oh, what I would do to be in the center of that…”

“Pretty…” Lisanna says, admiring wistfully, “it reminds me of Levy and Laki’s study sessions when they were in school.”

“Ohh, I remember those,” Erza says, leaning over with a smile, “they would write everything in the air with multicoloured light pens, and they wouldn’t fade until a few days later, so it was really pretty when the lights went out.”

Freed blinks, “school?” he asks. 

“Oh, it’s after you guys joined, so you wouldn’t know,” Gray says, turning to the Thunder Legion, “the Magic Council set up a school a few years ago-- it’s mostly for the council’s knights now, but they extended the offer to wizard guild kids a while back, and Master sent in Levy and Laki for it.”

“There was a school ?” Gildarts asks, definitely not remembering this. Well, evidently he’s never in Fiore, so he wouldn’t know either way.

“Just for a bit,” Levy says, chuckling, “the exams were hard! I’m sure Eve-kun passed and went on to join the Knights, though. Me and Laki graduated and left it at that.”

“Eve-kun?” Mirajane catches gossip potential, and Levy blushes.

“He was our teammate!” she quickly insists, “he’s in Blue Pegasus, I think.”

“A Blue Pegasus hottie, huh?” Cana mutters suggestively.

“I never said he was--” Levy eats her words, “don’t change the topic! We’re talking about the book right now!”

“Oh, someone’s shy!”

“C ana !”

Freed hums, “does that mean you guys still have textbooks? And all that stuff?”

“Yep!” Levy says, “they’re probably outdated, though. Laki still has her alumni pass, so we can go to the Royal Library.” 

“Seriously?!”

“Wait, where’s yours, Levy?”

“Oh I uh, misplaced it somewhere.”

“You’re kidding me, Levy, you lost something as important as that?”

Fascinated, Natsu poked at the letters in the sky, watching them bob in and out of place, only to swirl back in unaffected. Happy enjoyed being at the center of the spirals, bathing in the magical glow.

“The reason he quit being an author was not because he wrote the most terrible book in the world,” Lucy says, “but because he wrote the most incredible book in existence!”

Kaby and his wife have their mouths agape at the breathtaking sight.

Levy decides to pointedly ignore Freed’s accusing eyes and return to the screen with a frustrated whine. 

“I really wanna read that book!” she cheers, “it’s the first of its existence. It’s legendary ! And it’s gold!”

“What does it being gold have to do with anything?” Elfman asks.

“Y’know what they say, don’t get between a girl and her gold,” Loke says, half-jokingly.

Natsu decides to jut defensively, “golden books are great! It’s gold, after all.”

“That makes no sense.”

“That makes perfect sense!”

“ Dear Kaby , huh…” Evergreen ignores the bickering fire and ice mage, “that means it’s a letter, isn’t it?”

“A letter that’s as long as a book,” Laxus sighs. “He certainly had plenty of time to write that.”

“More so than having time, he had a lot to say,” Cana says, correcting him. “It’s pretty sweet. He really put a lot of thought into that text.”

Lisanna smiles sadly, “I guess it’s a father’s love, isn’t it?”

It’s sad, really, to think how little of the members of Fairy Tail actually had parents anymore. Natsu’s dad disappeared on him, Lisanna never knew them, and Erza’s were gone, with the rest of everything in her village-- just like Gray’s.

Maybe Master was really the only dad they needed, but they all knew nothing could quite replace something like that. 

It’s different. Not worse, just different. 

“This amazing book is a letter to you, Mister Kaby!” Lucy tells him, “this is the true secret-- the thing Kemu Zaleon truly wanted to leave behind.”

Tears are in Kaby’s eyes as he remembers his father’s last words to him. 

(“I was always thinking of you.”)

Natsu’s eyes narrowed at that. 

Zekua Melon was a father who loved his child unconditionally. Even when he was hated, even when he was trapped-- everything he did was for Kaby.

(He was always thinking of him.)

His fists clenched against his ankle, an upsetting sourness building up in his chest. 

The moment was sweet, but it transferred into his heart bitterly. All he could think of was his own dad and made unfair, unsolicited comparisons.

He was happy for Kaby Melon-- and he knew the future him on the screen felt the same relief for the man as he did now-- but something was just hard to swallow.

(Did Igneel love him like this, too? He’d never questioned it, and he never had a reason to believe otherwise. It’s a stupid thing to wonder about, but it hurt to think of.)

(“Because why else did Igneel just disappear, without even a word?”)

(He swallowed it back down, knowing he had to smile and pretend he didn’t think of it. He can’t cry, after all-- that’s just dumb. It’s been so long, why now?)

“Dad…” Kaby receives the completed book in his hands, and he breaks out into emotional sobs. “I never really,” he smiles, “understood him, huh?”

Lucy smiles. “Of course! If you understood how the writer’s mind worked, you’d lose all pleasure in reading a book!” she says.

“Heh, that’s nice,” Loke says, “if you understood how everything worked, there would be no fun in life.” 

“I’m keeping that quote,” Levy grins, writing it down on their notes. She looks up at Gray’s skeptical look and clarifies, “just because it’s nice.”

“Still, this is a nice ending to the mysterious quest,” Erza says, nodding. 

“Imagine if anyone else took it and the mystery never got found out! That would be the saddest thing in the world,” Lisanna says, “once we get back, we really need to get it done quickly.”

“Huh? But that would steal Lucy’s thunder, wouldn’t it?”

“Ohh… wait,” Gray says, “how do we decide what to change and what we shouldn’t?”

Silence.

“Oh man, here comes another complicated conversation,” Natsu mutters grimly.

Kaby looks at her, only gratitude in his expressions. “Thank you,” he says, “this book-- I can’t burn it.”

“Then I guess we don’t need the reward!” Natsu says.

Someone choked on air.

“Aye!”

Kaby and his wife, as well as Lucy, swirl in shock.

“Wait, what?” Elfman says, “you’re just gonna--”

“How much was it again? Two million,” Bickslow recalls, “you’re just gonna say no?”

“Oh, what a shame!”

“It’s the noble thing to do,” is Erza’s input.

“The request was to destroy the book,” Natsu says, “we didn’t manage to do that, did we?”

“Huh-- but, that…”

“Yeah! It’s such a generous offer,” Lucy argues, flustered, “so why don’t we take him up on it?”

“You’re such a man, Natsu!” Mira laughs.

Natsu’s jaw was dropped, “but why would I-- two million?!” he didn’t know why his future self was refusing it either, “you know how many meals I can buy with that?!”

“Who knows, Natsu, maybe you don’t have money struggles in the future,” Loke chuckles, “like, maybe you learned how to save or something.”

“You think this neanderthal knows how to use the bank?”

“Nah, I was thinking more like, a box buried in the ground or something.”

“Ah, that sounds likely.”

“My food money,” Happy whines, “how are you gonna feed me, Natsu, you’re cruel.” 

“Don’t worry, Happy, you can come to my place,” Lisanna says.

“Really?!”

“But not Natsu, though. Papa has to work his own feed.”

“Favouritism! This is sexist, Lisanna! I’m starting a protest for this!”

“You dare suggest sexism in the presence of Erza the Great?”

Through the hilarious argument, Gildarts laughs, Mira and Cana snicker at the side, and even the Thunder God tribe can’t help but watch them fondly. 

“Aah,” Happy made a disgruntled sound, “you said some pretty nice things, but you just let it all go to waste with your greed.”

“That’s different!” Lucy whines defensively.

Natsu laughs, “well, I said we don’t want it. So, we don’t want it.” And he lifts up his bag, leaving with a hop in his steps.

Lucy begrudgingly follows him out, tears in her eyes, “but Natsu, I want it!”

“Oh, poor Lucy,” Levy says, but her voice is laced with laughter this time. “She probably still has money troubles. This is a big loss for her.”

“But it can’t be helped, right?” Cana chuckles. 

Mirajane shrugs, “she’ll be fine, the guild will feed you even if you don’t have money-- we have tabs for a reason, after all.”

Natsu grimaced, “the tab is hell too.”

“That’s because you eat too much, Natsu,” Lisanna teases. “Especially since Happy’s meals got added into your tab too.”

“Dammit!”

“Aye, thanks Natsu!”

“Dammit!”

“Natsu has a tab ?” Loke gawks, “no wonder he eats without reservation all the time.”

“He’s been doing it for ages,” Gray says, “we all did, because when we were younger the jobs just didn’t pay enough for our skill level, y’know. Master was lenient on us back then, so we were allowed a very big tab.”

“I paid my tab back within a year, though,” Erza says.

Cana chuckled, “yours is crazy, Erza. Even mine took two years, but that’s because I had Macao and Wakaba helping me.” 

“I finished paying mine a couple months ago,” Gray huffs, proud.

“Mine is still there!” Levy whines. “I have like, a year left on it!”

“Same here,” Mirajane sighs.

“Mira’s is fine, it’s the shared tab between LIsanna and Elfman too, after all,” Gildarts assures them, “man, you guys really grew up, eh? Paying off your childhood tabs already!” 

“We’re old enough to be accountable for our debts, that’s what.”

“Aye.”

“Let’s go home,” Natsu says. He turns around and adds, “you too, Melon. You should go back-- to your own home, I mean.”

Kaby and his wife stare back in surprise. Lucy lights up with a sudden realization.

“Eh?” goes across the room.

“Wait, what does that mean?” Elfman asks, “to your own home?”

“Ahh, I see,” Loke says, causing some heads to turn. “I thought it was strange that his wife was serving tea when they came in.”

“She did?”

“Yea, now that you mention it,” Cana says, “they have a mansion as big as Everlue’s and yet, unlike Everlue, they didn’t even have maids at the door to greet guests.”

“Didn’t they go around the back door?” Levy asks, “I thought they were trying to be discreet to… well, prevent eavesdroppers or something.”

“Why would a rich man need to do that? They’d have security,” Evergreen says, before realizing. “Oh, so that’s what it means.”

“Huh? What does it mean?” Happy asks, “hey, I don’t get ittt.”

“Ohh,” Mirajane understands now. She turns to the cat with a smile, “I’m sure you’d understand if you could smell through the screen.”

“That makes even less sense!” 

It’s nighttime, and they begin their trek home by foot.

Lucy looks rightfully depressed. “I can’t believe this,” she sighs, “is it normal to just let two million jewels slide like that?”

“Well if we accepted the reward even without completing the mission, it’d damage Fairy Tail’s reputation,” Natsu explains, as if he had a right to talk about protecting Fairy Tail’s good name with all the destruction he does on a daily basis.

“Aye,” Happy agrees.

“But we did such a great job, too,” Lucy complains, half-hearted by now, “and why are we walking home?”

“Didn’t know you were such a loyal, upstanding member of society that you were worried for our reputation…” Gray mutters.

“Excuse you? Did you not see me in the first damn episode when I was destroying that fake Salamander?!” Natsu snaps, “oh. Right. Because unlike me, you weren’t there .”

“What was that, flame-brain?!”

“Oh nothing, Ice princess, nothing .”

“Geez, where did he learn all that sass?” Erza mutters with a sigh, “Mira, is it you again?”

Mira just smiles.

“But really, you guys could’ve at least taken enough for a train ride,” Bickslow says. “They had the two million to spare, they can get your tickets.”

“Natsu would do anything to get out of riding a train,” Lisanna shrugs, “I reckon he just didn’t suggest it and Lucy forgot.” 

“I think that’s exactly what happened.”

“Natsu would .”

“And they weren’t even rich? Isn’t he the son of a famous writer?” Lucy sighs for not the first time at all.

The scene swipes to the side to show Kaby and his wife, wearing significantly more tattered clothes, sheepishly chuckling as they stood before a run-down house made of wood. 

“They said they rented that house for appearances, but I would have accepted the job even if they didn’t do that,” Lucy puffs up her cheeks.

“Really?”

“Yes I would have!” Lucy retorts, then adds, “probably.”

“Speaking of that, they were in a pretty run-down house in the flashback, huh,” Levy observes, “Kemu Zaleon was already a good writer before that, so if they had a big house, they’d be living in one back then, too.”

“Unless his three-year absence lost all that money?” Loke suggests.

Levy hums contemplatively, face scrunched up in thought. “Nah, I’m thinking they’re just very thrifty people.” 

“Now that I think of it, that suit is pretty plain for a businessman,” Loke hums, “his wife dress too. They’re good enough for a shoddy job interview, but not for anything else.” 

“And you would know,” Gray gives him the side eye.

Loke looks away, not so sure how to explain that he used to wear suits daily despite looking like a punk now “I uh, might have been scouted by Sorcerer a couple times, of course I do.”

“Loke’s apparently contending with the Pegasi on the mage boyfriend list, remember?” Lisanna reminds them, “he’s gotta know these things to get the girls!”

“But then where did they get the money for the job request?” Mirajane wonders, “you can’t fraud those things, right? It’s a pay-half-upfront system, if I remember.”

“Probably from an inheritance, I guess,” Cana says, speaking from her own experience with insurance. “They saved all the cash instead of buying a nice house. I guess that paid off in the long term.”

“See the importance of saving up now, Natsu?”

“Oh shut up.”

They sit around a campfire, roasted fish away from the blaze. Natsu and Happy chew on their portions while Lucy sits there, still looking curious.

“How did you notice the house wasn’t theirs?” Lucy asks.

“Smell?”

“Smell.”

“Huh?” Natsu looks up, “they smelled totally different from the rest of the house. How could anyone possibly not notice that?”

“I’m not an animal!” Lucy snaps back.

There’s laughter in the room. “I guess she has a point,” Gildarts says.

“But you can also pick up on stuff like body language,” Gray says, “she ‘s smart, but not when it counts, huh?”

“Don’t fault her for that, there was quite a bit going on,” Cana chides, though the resigned smile is on her face. 

Levy hums, “come to think of it, she did think something was wrong-- she just didn’t connect the dots well. I wouldn’t have known either.”

“Same here.”

“I would’ve known immediately.”

“Maybe if we were there in person, but we aren’t.”

“That’s beside the point.”

The scene changes to Kaby’s house, where he and his wife were reading the book, laughing joyously as he did.

“But he really was a great mage, wasn’t he?” Lucy says, slightly in awe.

“Aye,” Happy says, “I can’t believe the magic cast thirty years ago still remains on the book.”

Lucy chuckles. “It seems he was in a mage guild when he was younger, and he wrote stories in there about the adventures he went through back then.”

A smile crawls up Gray’s face.

Closure was something he didn’t yet have when it came to his family. He didn’t get it with his dad, he didn’t get it with Ur…

...and maybe, if he stalled too long, he wouldn’t get it with Lyon, either.

He hasn’t thought about it in ages-- but somehow, the thought of never reconciling was tough to swallow, too.

Maybe… maybe once they get out… he’ll try to look for Lyon again. It’s been years, after all. Maybe they can all move on and be friends again. 

(It’s wishful thinking, he knows. But somehow, he just wants to try.)

Lucy smiles fondly at the memory. “I really admire writers like that…”

“Me tooooo!” Levy fawns, “ahh, reading a masterpiece like that… it’s like a dream come true!”

“A former mage’s adventures, huh,” Gildarts hums, “so, an adventure log? Those things are rare nowadays.”

“Chronicling is a tedious job, after all,” Freed nods. 

“But they’re necessary for historical preservation or something, so it’s a job that pays a lot!” Lisanna says, “I saw Laki working on one a few days ago. It was a small one, but she was ready to never do a job like that again.”

Levy chuckles, “she was desperate. We have the qualifications to write one because we did them in school, but that’s why I really never want to write a book ever again .” 

“Ah, I knew it,” Natsu stares at her with a devilish knowing in his eyes, and an evil grin. 

“Natsu’s got a mean look again!” Mirajane declares happily, to which everyone swirls their head around to see it on the screen.

“Oh dude, stop bullying Lucy already,” Gray gives him a side eye.

Natsu rolls his eyes, “tell that to future me. And it’s not bullying .”

“Yeah, it’s just loving teasing,” Lisanna smirks, “oh, Natsu, I’m hurt. Are you cheating on me?”

The hot blush that boils in his cheeks as he sputters and struggles to construct a sentence is worth everything . 

The room bursts into laughter as Lisanna feigns hurt, and Natsu vainly squeaks about him and Lisanna not being a thing, no seriously, wait I don’t mean-- stop it!

“That thing you were trying to hide last time,” he recalled the time Lucy clutched a stack of papers protectively as if she was being invaded personally. “It’s a story you’re writing, right?” Natsu smirks.

“That’s why you’re so knowledgeable about books,” Happy adds.

“Oh?”

“Ohhh??”

“Come to think of it, something like that did happen today,” Gildarts hums. “Nice observation, Natsu.”

“I’m not listening to anything from any of you two-faced bastards,” Natsu grumbles, pouting into a wall in defiance. “Ever again.”

Lisanna is sitting by him, trying to apologize for too much teasing.

“Well, him aside,” Cana turns back to the screen, “mystery solved for that too, eh? The stack of papers were a novel.”

Levy stares expectantly at the screen, “oh my god our newbie is a writer.”

“Yes, Levy.”

“Oh my god .”

“Levy, calm down.”

“Oh my godddd!” Levy squeals, getting closer to the screen, touching Lucy’s face on the screen like that would actually be felt, “I love her! Please, can I have her? Please?!”

“No, Levy, you may not,” is Erza’s response, to which Levy makes a despaired wail.

“But she’s a writer ,” Levy clarifies, like that’s a very convincing reason.

Lucy squeaks, blushing bright red at suddenly being found out. “D- Don’t tell anyone, okay?!” she freaks out, face heating up from the embarrassment.

“Why?” Happy asks, as Natsu just stares at her show.

Lucy hides her face, shaking her head vigorously, “because I’m still awful at it! I’ll die of embarrassment if someone reads it!” 

“Don’t worry, no one will.”

“That makes me kinda sad, too!”

“Well oops, because we all know now,” Mirajane chuckles at that. “Poor Lucy, she won’t know what’s coming.” 

“They do say showing off your own writing is like showing off your butt to the world,” Lisanna nods, “I guess her bashfulness toward it makes sense.”

“No, who the hell came up with that phrase?” Elfman says, exasperated.

“I think I get it…” Evergreen says, “sometimes, you’re really proud of something you worked on, but it’s hard to be confident about it.”

“But then again, keeping it to yourself is such a waste. You worked so hard on it, after all,” Cana chuckles, “reminds me of Laki when we were younger.”

“Laki?”

“She used to hide her wooden statues all the time, remember?”

“Ah, I definitely remember that.”

“Are you talking about the great wooden fortress reveal?” Lisanna asks from her spot beside Natsu. “I don’t think I could ever forget that.”

“What on earth is that?” Loke asks, not so sure if he wants the answer. 

“Reedus has a drawing on it,” Gray says. 

Levy’s jumping in her spot at this point. “I wanna read it, I wanna read iiiiiit!” she whines. An idea comes to her head, and she turns around to meet Erza’s eyes, “hey, do you think she’ll let me be the first to read it if I ask?” 

Erza’s eyes soften at that. “I’m sure she will.”

“Yay!” Levy cheers, “I'm gonna write that down. Hey, anyone has anything else they want me to write down?” 

“Ask Reedus if he still has that drawing of Laki’s wooden fortress.”

“I’ve got something to write too. Is it fine if it’s private?” 

Levy sits up after writing her bit, raising a different pen from the one before in Gray’s direction. “Sure, I’ve got a code-pen. You do it like this, then use a bit of magic--”

She writes down Gray’s name, and slides over the letters like a highlighter. The words vanish from the page, like invisible ink. She tests the tip of the pen at the edge of the page, and the letters light up again. 

There are oohs across the hall.

Levy smiles, “it was expensive!” she says, “and it only reacts to specific magic, so don’t worry about writing over or accidentally reading anyone else’s notes.” 

“That’s useful…”

“I’ll leave it by the note, so anyone can use it whenever. Just don’t lose it, of course.”

“Right, right.”

-

“She says, ‘wait, are you sure we’re going the right way’?”

Loke chokes as Horologium’s voice comes back on screen. 

“And I say, ‘Happy said to go this way, so we go this way’.”

They’re walking through the forest, Happy on Natsu’s head and Lucy in Horologium. It’s midday by now, and they’re trekking through a waist-high swamp.

“You guys are still walking home?” Loke says, incredulously watching the scene. This is really the first time he’s seeing someone use Horologium this way-- the old grandfather clock really has to learn to say no sometimes. 

Natsu, finally deciding that tolerating humans is worth the effort today, sits down beside him with a groan. “It’s a shortcut.”

“Ah, I think I recognize that path,” Gray says, “there’s a proper mountain trail right overhead, though. You didn’t have to go through the swamp.”

Cana stifles a laugh. 

Natsu grumbles, arms crossed, “same thing. There’s a hike and a stupid forest crossing up there, so isn’t it faster to just cut through the swamp?”

“There are leeches in there, though,” Lisanna says, shuddering at the thought. 

“Nothing some fire and salt can’t fix,” Happy assures, “not that I need to worry, because I just fly over them!”

“Well, isn’t that nice,” Loke sighs.

“How rude,” Happy says in a fake offended voice, “I’m a cat. I obviously have a great sense of smell.”

“She says, ‘isn’t that dogs? And what does smell have to do with directions’?” Horologium speaks in time with Lucy in his bottom drawer.

“It’s homing instinct,” Happy says, “all cats have that, that’s common sense.”

“Homing instinct has little to do with smells, though,” Gildarts informs him. “It’s more like a uh, gut feeling.”

“Same thing.”

“Uh. Yeah, I guess it is.”

They finally get out of the swamp.

“Anyways, how about walking on your own, you lazy bum?” Natsu asks her.

“She says, ‘I’m tired’,” is Horologium’s immediate response.

“Sheesh.”

“You guys have probably been walking for ages,” Lisanna says, “cut her some slack, won’t you?”

“I mean, she is using her own magic to its best potential,” Cana chuckles, “gotta give her that for smarts.” 

Natsu clicks his tongue, looking away.

“It’ll probably be faster, too,” Elfman says.

Mirajane sighs, “she really needs to train up her body if she wants to get around more,” she says, “stamina training and all that.”

“I think all Holder-type mages should do that,” Erza says, ‘too little of them value physical condition in battle.”

“We can’t help it,” Cana whines, “it’s hard to find the motivation.”

“You barely find motivation for anything , Cana,” Erza says, sharply. Cana jumps back, ready for a lecture. Erza crosses her arms, “that’s it. Let’s take this opportunity to train up our bodies.”

“Huh?”

“Ah, I get it,” Freed says, remembering the first video clip they’ve seen that explained their situation, “time is stopped outside.”

Erza nods. “Which means this time we have now is a perfect opportunity to train up as much as we can. And when we get back out, it’ll be like no time has passed, but we’ll be ten times stronger.”

“Ooh!” Natsu lights up, “that sounds awesome! Once I get out, I’ll be able to crush Gray like nothing!”

“You won’t, idiot! I happen to be here too ,” Gray snaps at him. He groans, “seriously, if anything, I’m gonna crush you. ”

“No, I am!”

“Yeah, right!”

“But it really is a great idea,” Gildarts says, “if we want to make a better future than whatever Yuri Dreyar wanted us to prevent, then we really ought to get stronger.”

“Aiming to be the strongest isn’t really something we’re suited for, though…” Levy says, chuckling nervously, “it’ll be a weird direction to go on, since we don’t really have anything except Gildarts to compare to now.”

“...And Gildarts is already a whole other league,” Bickslow admits. 

“It’s peace, after all, it’s really hard to imagine why we need to get stronger for,” Freed nods. “Especially when people usually think Gildarts is too strong.”

“Huh? Does Gildarts need to train, too?”

“No way, right?”

There’s a moment as everyone realizes what the hesitation implied. 

Gildarts may be the strongest in Fairy tail by leaps and bounds now, but the Fairy Tail of the future was destroyed, even when Gildarts was there.

Did that mean Gildarts’ strength wasn’t enough?

“...Let’s just keep watching,” Gildarts speaks up somberly. “I’m sure we’ll see who we’re fighting eventually.”

A pair of eyes glint from behind the bushes, and the two immediately straighten with alert, not missing it.

“An enemy?!”

“Here?”

Quite a few of them leap off their seats to get closer to the screen, practically less than a meter away at that point. 

Levy, Happy and Elfman were the closest, with Natsu and Lisanna not far behind. Gray was standing up behind them because he could see otherwise. Cana sat down at a tactically perfect slump, so she could see perfectly through a gap.

Erza and Mira stood up, grabbed Natsu and Elfman respectively on the head, and swiped their too-tall heads to the side so they could see. Even Evergreen and Bickslow had moved from behind the couch to the front of it, looking excitedly for new heat.

“Who’s there?!” Natsu immediately discards his bag, and Happy jumps from his head. He leaps into the bushes to confront the hidden figure, and a dust cloud rises as they engage in a rather heated brawl.

Horologium stands there, an arm on Natsu’s bag and Happy standing on his other palm, as if he were a clothes rack.

“She says, ‘is he looking for a fight’?” he says.

“Go for it, Natsu!” Happy cheers. 

“Now now, all of you, calm down,” Loke calls out, sitting next to Gildarts, Laxus, and Freed. “C’mon guys, you’re overreacting.”

“I did say we’ll see eventually, but I didn’t mean this soon,” Gildarts clarifies. 

“Can’t see the screen,” is Laxus’ mumbled input. “Sit down, all of you.”

There’s a protest from the first few, especially Natsu and Elfman who were getting their eyeballs clawed out by she-demons with careless fingernails. 

Evergreen and Bickslow did settle down a little, looking back compliantly, but they didn’t make any move to get back to their old spots. 

To their surprise, Natsu and Gray emerge from the bushes, glaring at each other with the might of mortal enemies.

Everyone simultaneously deflates.

“It’s Gray!” Happy says. 

“Seriously?!” Mira snaps, “you got us all worked up for nothing!”

“Geez,” Levy’s shoulders fall in disappointment, “I thought we’d get another clue!”

“Yeah…” Gray looks back, “no, why the hell am I there? That makes no sense.”

“It’s a shortcut, remember?” Happy says. 

“Ah. Coincidence, then.”

“I didn’t get you guys worked up, you guys worked yourself up!” Natsu protests, “and let go of me already, Mira! My EYES!” 

Erza sighs, letting go of Elfman. “I guess I should’ve expected this from you two idiots,” he groans, pinching the bridge of her nose, “even in the future, I swear…”

Mira transfers her hand from Natsu’s face to his scarf, “man, I thought we’d get to see a scrap,” she pouts. Her eyes fall on Natsu.

“Violence is not the answer!” Natsu pleads.

“Ahh, Mira-nee,” Lisanna reaches out to stop her sister, “man, everyone’s getting antsy now. What’s with the moodiness, everyone?”

Happy blinks, “maybe they’re just hungry.”

“Come to think of it…”

“And they wanna scrap,” Cana says, “you can’t keep Fairy Tail in one place for too long and expect us to stay still! Give us land to destroy!” she protests to the air, hoping Yuri Dreyar in heaven could hear her.

“I’ve come to realize that Cana’s attitude when drunk and when hungry is the same,” Levy mutters, “well, we have ingredients, so it’s lunch after this.”

“After Natsu and Gray’s stupid fight on screen, we get to eat!”

“We still have to cook it, so wait a bit.”

“Ehhhhhhh?!”

“Don’t be spoiled.”

“She says, ‘why is he in his underwear’?!” Horologium says.

Someone snorts. Gray’s face heats up.

“I was looking for a bathroom!” Gray responds quickly, as if in response to the nonsense.

“Then why did you strip before you found one, you jerk?!” Natsu yells right back. 

A loud laugh came from Bickslow, Natsu and Levy. Though less obviously, Mira and Cana were looking away, dying of laughter. 

Gray was ready to maul them. 

Lucy now stands without Horologium-- the spirit probably went home.

“What are they, in third grade?” she sighs at them.

“She says,” Happy echoes in place of Horologium.

In the distance, the two had their heads on each other, yelling “Exhibitionist!”, “Talking matchstick!” and so on and so forth.

"The speech tick is really fun to imitate, huh," Levy chuckles, "and Horologium-san really just goes whenever he wants, doesn't he?"

"Third grade… huh?" Freed notices something off, "she's using a schooling term."

"Huh? But isn't school for rich people?" Bickslow asks. 

"And the council," Gray corrects. 

"And the council," Bickslow adds on. 

"And not all rich people, there are church schools and stuff that are free," Cana corrects again. 

"Yeah, those too. But they're not very common in our side of Fiore, right?" Bickslow says, making his point. 

"Maybe Lucy's from the capital side?" Levy suggests, "she's educated, after all."

"Well, the comparison is also just a phrase sometimes," Lisanna chuckles, "so I think we shouldn't read too much into it."

The scene changes to the cliffside, where Happy is fishing across the edge.

“Happy, that is one long fishing line.”

“I see, so you’re on your way home from a mission, too?” Lucy asks, evidently having managed to make a proper, non-argument conversation with Gray, unlike Natsu.

“Yeah,” Gray says, now dressed fully, “cutting through this forest is a shortcut back to Magnolia, you see.”

“See, see?! I told you!” Happy chimes irritatingly.

“Ah, isn’t this the first proper conversation between Lucy and Gray?” Lisanna says, very interested. 

“Now that you mention it…”

“I mean, we probably have talked,” Gray guesses, “I always talk to newbies for a bit, after all. I’m thinking it just isn’t shown.”

“Yeah, you’ve done it all the way since Erza,” Cana teases, to which Gray blanches, scrambling to make her shut up before she let something embarrassing slip out, “something about needing to greet the Great Gray, or something.”

“Shush it, Cana!”

“I remember that very well,” Erza says, and when Levy gives her a curious look, she smiles. “We got off on the wrong foot, but we get along fine now.”

“It’s Gray’s newbie initiation at this point,” Cana snickers.

“Come to think of it, you did talk to me when I first joined,” Loke says, reminiscing, “is that what it was?”

Gray blushes, “no--! I mean, yes. Yes, but not the Great Gray part! Forget that part, Cana’s just spouting some nonsense--!”

“Oh, someone’s embarrassed.”

“Dammit, Cana!”

The four of them were gathered around a circle, Lucy sitting on a jutted rock while Natsu and Gray still glared at each other like they were trying to pick their third fight of the hour.

“You were bragging about your nose, but you didn’t even notice Gray was there?” Lucy asks him.

“There are some things you don’t want to smell,” is Happy’s immediate response.

Gray swirls around, offended, “what was that?!”

Someone stifles a loud laugh. 

Gray groans, “geez, I finally get some screen time and it’s been nothing but sessions of teasing me over and over again. This is like the first episode with Natsu all over again.”

“Never would I have thought that I’d empathize with you,” Natsu grumbles. “This is a nightmare.”

“What was that, you punk?”

“Oh, you wanna fight? I’m really in the mood for some fucking ice cream.”

“Language!”

“Who even says ‘language’ in this day and age?!”

Lisanna sighs, “and there they go again,” she shrugs, scooting over to Levy’s side of the room. 

“Aye,” Happy mutters, making his way there before they got caught up in the crossfire. Everyone had settled back into semi-comfortable positions again, ready to ride out the rest of the episode in stride.

Lisanna pauses and looks overhead, at the ceilings that didn’t have anything but colour on them-- and realized something.

“Huh? Speaking of ice cream… this room isn’t hot or cold at all,” she mentions. “That’s really weird.”

Loke looks up after her, looking around for any signs of a fan or cooler. “Now that you mention it… maybe there’s a magically-operated temperature regulator somewhere.”

Natsu smirks, happy that Happy was taking his side, “enough, enough. Go home by yourself already.”

“Awh, but you guys are going the same way anyways, what’s the rush?”

“I just don’t like his face.”

“Of course,” Gray says, “it’ll be trouble if I don’t return soon.”

The strange statement made curious eyes turn to the screen. What was so urgent that Gray was willing to drop an argument with Natsu to make it home?

“What’s troubling?” Lucy asks.

Gray turns away and looks afar with a serious expression. “Erza’ll be back soon.”

And Natsu immediately pales. 

Erza’s face lights up at that. “Looks like it’s my turn to shine, huh?”

“I was wondering where you’ve been,” Gildarts hums, “looks like our hunch on you being on a job was right after all.”

“Seems like it took at least a couple days to a week, so I wonder where you went,” Cana says, “you’re probably going to bring something crazy home again, aren’tcha?”

“Maybe it’s an S-class?”

“Huh? I wonder what he meant when he said it would be trouble, then?” Erza wonders. She looks around to see a few people averting their eyes. 

Huh, that was weird. Surely, her return wouldn’t be a troubling thing to them, right?

“Erza, you mean--?!” Lucy recognizes the name.

Happy pops up on screen eating a fish, “the woman known as the most powerful wizard of Fairy Tail!”

Mira does a double take, “come again?”

Erza huffs, having the gall to look smug, “looks like the masses agree I’m superior, Mira.”

“No?! This is a lie,” Mira grabs Happy from LIsanna’s lap, “explain yourself, cat!” she demands, to which the cat shrivels up in a panic, “what do you mean, Erza is the strongest female wizard in Fairy Tail? HUh?!”

“Spare meeee! I don’t know what the me of the future is thinking!” Happy wails.

Lisanna is quick to snatch her cat back, “oh c’mon, Mira-nee, don’t be such a brute. There’s definitely a reason for it, don’t release it on Happy!”

“Like maybe people think that because Erza’s S-class and you aren’t?” Laxus mumbles to himself, though a little too audibly so everyone turns to him.

Gildarts hums, “I don’t think that’s it. Erza might be S-class, but Master was going to nominate Mira this year, so I’m quite sure you would’ve caught up.” 

“Wait, really?” Mira’s jaw drops, “I would’ve been nominated?!”

“Eah, along with Cana and Mystogan-- wait, I’m not supposed to say this,” Gildarts stops himself, “pretend you didn’t hear it.”

Nope. All was chaos.

“The list is finalized? When?! It’s not even the week before yet!” 

“No no it’s not finalized, we were making a shortlist and…” 

“Wha-- dude! Am I on the list?!” Natsu jumps on him, “hey, Gildarts, you’re not telling me I’m not on the list!”

“Oh uh uhm,” Gildarts looks away, pretending there isn’t a hulk of a teenager on him, “I’m not sure, Natsu. Maybe try harder next year.”

“Wait, me! What about me?!”

“Or me?!”

“You’re saying the Thunder God Tribe didn’t make it either this year?”

“Wait, who’s Mystogan again?”

All the chaos of the situation aside, Gildarts is fairly sure Master is going to hate him for all that he just let slip. He just ruined the surprise for everyone, oh man. But is he going to own up to it? Nah, he’s gonna run off immediately. Can’t get scolded when he’s not there, after all.

“Well, S-class or not, I believe it has to do with your new dress and occupation,” Evergreen offers in neutrality. “It’s been a dissonance for too long now, I believe we need answers soon.”

MIrajane frowns at the screen. “Is a dress enough to completely erase my entire she-demon image?”

“Maybe,” Evergreen says, covering her face behind her face. “Or maybe there’s something more…” her voice is at a whisper as her eyes land on Lisanna, trying to break up the brawl between Elfman and Natsu. “...I don’t think you’ll like to hear my theory.”

And she steps away, but it’s enough to make Mirajane think miserably about exactly what Evergreen was trying to say.

(What else can crush the she-demon?)

She didn’t want to think about it. 

Mirajane meets eyes with Erza, and she huffs irritably. “The future means nothing if we’re going to change it, Erza. Mark my words.”

Erza smiles, not sinisterly-- just truthfully happy. 

“Of course, Mira. I don’t expect any less from you,” she said. “Meet me upstairs after lunch and let’s see where we stand shall we?”

“You’re on, Erza.”

Somehow, a part of Mira realized that she really, really didn’t want to be weaker than Erza-- not because she didn’t want to lose to Erza specifically. Sure, that was part of it-- but there was something about this rivalry that she never wanted to give up on. 

It’s an irreplaceable friendship, undeniably camaraderie-- a bond only formed through countless spars together. She’d never exchange this for anything else. 

“Amazing! I wanna meet her~!” Lucy fangirls over the situation.

Natsu and Gray look entirely spiritless and crestfallen at the news.

“Wait,” Erza interrupts, pointing at their deathly pale faces on the screen. She’s bewildered, “what’s with the morbid reaction?”

Everyone looks away, going silent.

Erza looks on, confused. “Is my return apparently bad news?”

“No, no, of course not--” Levy tries to salvage the situation without hurting her feelings and telling her she’s scary, “oh! But Lucy seems excited to meet you! That’s nice.”

“But I’ve never seen a picture of her in a magazine, so what kind of person is she?” Lucy asks them, honestly. 

“That makes you the exact opposite of Mira-nee,” Lisanna says. “The modest knight that’s never seen in public information, and the scandalous she-demon with notorious photo spreads!”

“You make me sound like a slut!” Mira protests.

“Ehhh, I’m sorry! I was trying to phrase it nicely!”

“Phrase it nicer!”

“Uh, incredibly prominent stage presence?”

“...Yeah, that’s better.” 

Immediately, the two of them say in perfect agreement, “she’s scary.”

Lucy pauses, “huh?’

Everyone that was looking away looked away further.

Because oh no. Oh no, they said it. They said it in front of the devil herself-- not exactly in front of, but she was watching them say it.

“Wild animal?” Gray stage-whispers.

“Beast?” Natsu stage-whispers back.

“More like an evil demon!” Happy adds in an absolutely-not-whisper.

And her face was downcast, unreadable.

Gray and Natsu inched a little closer to each other, looking warily in Erza’s direction. Everyone scooted away as they watched them dig their own grave deeper.

At some point, Gray and Natsu looked faraway, giving up on life itself. 

Levy guesses that they deserve it, despite everything. She’ll offer them a prayer after this, she decides. May they rest in peace. 

The horrors came through when Gray and Natsu felt a hand grab at each of their skulls.

They squealed in horror. Everyone averts their eyes from them, including Laxus. No one needed any prompting or reminding, simply because none of them needed  any nightmares tonight, thank you.

“You two,” Erza’s voice is deep and hollow. “We are going to have a conversation.”

Cue screams of blood murder.

An exaggerated drawn image of a giant-sized black figure with long hair and horns, crashing buildings with her foot and breathing fire, with the words ‘ERZA’ across her chest, is shown.

Lucy is very confused.

Loke laughs at that, “Lucy’s imagination is always rather fascinating, isn’t it?”

Trying to ignore the murder behind them, Cana chuckles. “But don’t you think that resembles Natsu a bit more?”

“It does,” Lisanna says, cheerful.

“She’s not that big,” Happy corrects her dully.

“No, no,” Natsu says, a little chortle in his voice, “but she’s bigger than you think.”

“But if we’re talking about how scary she is, that’s pretty accurate,” Gray says. “Actually, it’s probably worse.”

An image of black figure giant ERZA kicking off a mountain like it was a tree branch is shown.

“Like, this bad,” Natsu says.

“No, she could probably kick it into three pieces with one blow!” Gray says, looking paler than before.

“Three is exaggerating,” Happy says his input, “it’s more like two.”

Someone chokes on laughter. “It got worse!”

“A whole mountain?” even Elfman is exasperated, “that’s one crazy image you guys are making there.”

“I’m starting to think they’re just exaggerating things to tease Lucy at this point,” Loke chuckles, “it’s so over the top, it’s actually quite endearing.”

“It’s even funnier that they're actually in sync for once,” Bickslow says. His dolls echo his sentiments. 

“Well what can I say,” Cana hums, “teasing Lucy always seems like so much more fun than teasing Natsu or Gray.” 

“Really?”

“Yeah, her tsukkomi acts are on point.”

The scene returns to the cliffside and Lucy is looking awfully spiritless now, “a woman who can blow a mountain into two with one kick?” she repeats, “that’s pretty scary.”

Sad laughter rings through the hall.

“They’re totally ruining Erza’s reputation for Lucy!” Lisanna says. “Lucy’s terrified now. She was so full of admiration first, too.”

“What a bunch of dunderheads,” Evergreen mutters.

“Dunderheads?” someone asks, to which they receive no reply.

“I'm sure that impression will change once they actually meet her and find out what a cutie she actually is,” Levy teases, knowing she can now say whatever she wants because Erza had kidnapped the two stooges and left the room. 

“Anyways,” Gray says, “we gotta hurry home before she comes back.”

“Crap, let’s go!” Natsu stands up quickly this time.

Suddenly, a cloaked figure with a green face and a red tattoo over the crown of his head grins. He holds his hands before him, and a golden magic circle spreads out.

An explosion happens where the foursome sat.

Everyone immediately whirls back to attention, going from easygoing laughter to serious panic in a second. 

Because they had just been attacked, unprompted, in the middle of nowhere. That usually didn’t happen to just anyone. 

The situation came so suddenly, everyone was stunned into a sudden silence. 

Sure, under any normal circumstance-- a simple bandit attack wouldn’t do much to them at all. It was something a swat of an arm could handle, and if they couldn’t hold their own like this, they wouldn’t be members of Fairy Tail.

But this was one of the many, many clips present in this series of videos.

And if there was something they knew-- it was the fact that everything was significant, in some way or the other.

The smoke clears, and they’re half-buried under the soil. Lucy coughs, the most unburied of the lot. Gray only has half his head above, and Natsu has his entire top half under there somewhere.

“What did we miss?” Erza comes in, alarmed by the shift in mood.

Natsu and Gray come in right after her, heads covered in bumps, scratches, and bruises over their cheek and eye respectively, “what happened?!”

“Looks like you guys got attacked--” Lisanna turns around and her jaw straight up drops at them, ‘oh god, you guys are a mess!”

“Ah, yeah.”

“Kinda.”

“Ah yeah kinda nothing!” Lisanna stands up with a sigh, hurriedly rushing to the kitchen, “geez, we’re in such a harried moment of the show and-- sit down!” she snaps at them when they try to follow her, “I’m getting the first aid kit, you guys watch.” 

“It’s really fine-- she’s gone.”

Natsu mutters something about making a big deal out of nothing while Gildarts swoons at young love. Gray tries to pretend he isn’t the third wheel, and Erza ignores Cana as she teases her about bullying the boys and making Lisanna mad.

Natsu uproots himself, “Happy?!”

The blue cat is captured over a fire, limbs strung up like freshly-caught meat. A group of mages are gathered around him, looking as if they intend to roast him alive.

Happy’s and Natsu’s jaws drop.

Too many voices into the room straight up burst into laughter. 

“H- oh god, Happy!” Gray had tears at the edge of his eyes from all the laughter, “Happy, you’re gonna get eaten!”

“Getting strung up is not manly, Happy,” Elfman says, sympathetic, though it did nothing to ease Happy’s hurt feelings.

“Is cat meat even delicious?” Evergreen mildly wonders, “doesn’t seem like a delicacy at all.”

Even Freed couldn’t stifle a smile at the scene. “I mean, if you’re desperate…” 

A pair of twins drool. 

“We’re going to get some protein for once!” one says. 

“I’m so sick of fruits and nuts!” the other says.

A chicken-looking mage also drools. He crows, “Meat!”

A mage holding a crystal ball adds, “looks delicious.”

The twins chuckle at the sight of Happy. “Man, this guy’s shaking.”

The troll-looking mage that ambushed the group laughs. “Sorry about this, dude. Guess you’re scared because you’re gonna end up in our bellies!”

“What’s with this freak-show?” Natsu asks, offended on his partner’s behalf. “They just barge in to steal Happy because they’re hungry ?!”

“I mean, that’s understandable.”

“NO IT ISN’T.”

“Anyone gonna mention the chicken? NO? Just me?” Bickslow asks. He receives no response, so he just blanches, “just me I guess.”

Lisanna sighs, coming in with the first aid kit. “I was gonna ask what happened, but I don’t think I need to ask.”

“Looks like it was just something stupid again, Lis,” Mira assures, “sorry to trouble ya.”

Lisanna opens the first aid kit, and Natsu reaches in to grab the empty ice pack bags for headaches, tossing them blindly in Gray’s general direction. They were going to need something for the bruise if his fading vision is any statement. 

“Seriously, you guys never know how to hold back,” Lisanna crouches down beside Natsu, lifting his arm to look over this one deep gash on the side. “What did you guys do, soar across the dirt?”

“Unwillingly, yes,” Gray says, tossing a filled ice pack right back to Natsu, nailing him right in the bruised eye and earning a retaliating squawk.

“Goodness, Erza! Hold back on them!”

“They deserved it!” is her protest, which honestly, is fair. 

“No, I’m not shaking because I’m scared,” Happy says. At the man’s confusion, he adds, “I need to go to the bathroom.”

A pause.

“Seriously, Happy?” The cat earns a few side eyes at this brilliant yet astoundingly dumb turn of events. 

Happy responds defensively to the accusatory looks. “It’s a legitimate strategy! I’m using my brain! I”m all the brain Natsu has, I use it, okay?”

“Excuse you, Happy?!” came Natsu’s offended voice.

“Huh?”

Then Happy adds, looking terrified for himself, “I might not be able to hold it in. If I do that, I’m pretty sure I’m going to taste weird.”

The troll-looking mage scowls, “shut up. Hurry up and do it,” he directs that last part at his chicken-looking companion.

“Awh, I actually thought that might work,” Happy deflates.

“I’m sure it’ll work next time,” Lisanna assures him with a chuckle. “It does buy some time though-- which is what matters.”

“Seriously, where are we?” Gray asks. “They shouldn’t have gotten that far from our initial spot, so Natsu’s nose should find them by now, right?” 

Loke chortles at that. He gets a curious look, so he finds himself teasing, “man, you two don’t get along, but when it counts, you guys immediately know how to use each others’ abilities, huh?”

Gray and Natsu make a noise that was a cross between confusion and pure insulted disgust. Loke only laughs harder at it.

“Well, we’ve known each other since forever, so it’s normal for us,” Lisanna says. 

From the ice packs to naturally knowing Natsu was a dog nose radar, these guys weren’t even thinking about anything as they did it-- it just came naturally to them, and that was just such a nice thing to have as rivals. 

(No, not rivals.)

(As family , perhaps.)

Loke’s a little jealous.

The chicken-looking mage has a staff. It lights up with fire magic, and he poises to light the bonfire.

“Medium, please,” someone requests.

“I can’t hold back anymore! Are you sure about this?! I’m definitely gonna taste icky!!” Happy says in a panic.

“Stop right there!”

“Ah, there we are.”

“About time, you slowpokes!”

Everyone grinds to a halt, alarmed. Standing above the adjacent high cliff was Gray, Natsu, and Lucy, all three of them looking rightfully pissed for their captured comrade.

“Thank god, I’m not going to taste weirrdd!!” Happy cries out with relief.

“Jesus, you’re still going on about that?” the troll-looking mage groans.

Someone snorts. 

“I mean, annoying the crap out of your kidnapper is also a tactic, I guess,” Gildarts says, begrudgingly admitting the positives of that plan. “Who are you getting this from?”

“Natsu,” is Happy’s immediate answer.

“Huh?” Natsu has no idea why his name is there. 

“Ah, definitely Natsu,” Lisanna says, “would you believe if I told you he once called a Forest Vulcan a dickape to its face?”

“Lisanna, c’mon!” Natsu protests, “who’s the one that rejected its marriage proposal? it literally had you between its hands!”

“Oh, that was because I knew that our oh-so-sweet--”

Natsu screams to cover up her next words, face flushing madly red, “we are never talking about it again!” he declares, “NEVER!”

Lisanna huffs in victory, moving on from Natsu’s wounds to fix Gray’s scrapes.

Natsu cracks his knuckles. “You’ve got our buddy over there, bud. You might be hungry, but we’re not going to let you eat him.”

“You’re also wizards, right?” Gray asks, “from what guild?”

The mages snicker. “None of your business!” And the troll-face, evidently the leader, commands his goons. “Get ‘em!”

A few people frown.

“They admit their guild wizards, but they’re not mentioning it?” Laxus mentions, “sounds sketchy to me.”

“Yeah,” Erza agrees, “and none of their marks are in a prominent spot, either. Though that’s not unusual, it sure is for such a large group.”

Marks were always put somewhere obvious and easy to show off, because it’s a show of affiliation-- it would mean nothing if no one could see it. It’s only ever placed in conspicuous spots because there are situations where hiding them would be preferable as well. 

For a whole group of mages to not have an obvious mark anywhere… that was suspicious.

“Think they’re doing things outside of their guild’s jurisdiction?” Cana suggests. Rebels or outcasts of legal guilds were common, after all-- the ones that are problematic…

“No, I think otherwise. They’re too organized to be vagabonds,” Erza says, “I think they’re acting exactly as their guild is ordering them… just, they’re probably from a Dark Guild.”

There’s a stilted silence.

“One of those annoying guys again, huh,” Freed sighs. “Come to think of it, we were on our way to deal with one of them before this, weren’t we?”

Natsu keeps his eye on them. “We’re doing this, Gray,” he says.

Gray responds, “don’t order me around.”

And they strike.

Gray scoffs, and Natsu sighs.

“For a duo that hate each other, you two sure end up in situations where you have to work together really often,” Elfman says, “it’s manly that you two can at least work together without fighting.”

“Unlike Mira-nee and Erza, right?” Lisanna chuckles. 

“Hey, contrary to popular belief, we can work together when we need to!” Mira protests.

“Once in a blue moon, yeah,” Levy sighs, “every other time, you cause a nationwide hurricane over the coast.”

“That was one time!”

Loke looks away, muttering disbelievingly, “oh, it actually happened?”

“Take this! Sand Bomb!” the troll-face punches the ground, and a swirl of wind akin to the previous explosion occurs. 

Caught off guard, Natsu dives right into the sandscreen, swirled into an orb of sand floating above the air.

“Natsu!” Lucy calls out with worry.

“Leave him!” Gray says unhesitantly, “I’ll leave Happy to you!”

“Leave him, huh?” Bickslow leans over the couch, “you sure trust in him, Gray.”

“Hah?” Gray looks up, offended by the implications, “if Natsu would lose to something like that, he’d be dead years ago! He’s as stubborn as a cockroach, I’ll give him that.” 

“Don’t compare me to a roach!”

“But you are !”

Lucy, seemingly understanding to some degree that Natsu would be fine, sets her priorities straight and turns back to the battle. “Got it!”

The twins attack, but Gray deflects them easily, without even using his magic.

“Ooh, I see Gray’s CQC is getting better,” Mira admires.

“Of course it is!” Gray says, proudly, “these chumps are nothing against me!”

“Using humans as footholds,” Lisanna sighs, “now where have I seen that before…” she looks at Mirajane, “don’t answer that.”

“Yours truly!”

“I said don’t answer.”

Lucy quickly works around to get Happy out of his bindings.

“Oh no, I’m gonna be eaten by Lucy,” Happy deadpans.

“Oh shut up, cat!” Lucy bites back.

“Imagine if Lucy just got tired of your nonsense and just left you there,” Cana says, deadpanned. “I mean, I would do it, with how much you’re testing her now.”

“No, she won’t do that!” Happy whines, “you’re cruel, Cana! Take a joke!”

They’re approached by chicken-face, wielding a staff of fire. Lucy freaks out, but Gray is quickly there, sending one hard kick to the chicken’s face.

“Who’s next?!” Gray says.

“How do I say this,” Loke says, “you’re dispatching them so easily, they’re like menaces more than actual opponents.” 

“That they are indeed!”

The one with the purple crystal ball makes a half-battle cry.

Then he says, “an unexpected visitor will drop by,” like anyone asked for their fortune to be told. “The stars point to trouble with water and women.”

There’s a choke in the crowd, drowned out by snorts and stifled laughter. 

Gray looks half-appalled, half wanting to punch this guy to Tuesday. “Fortune telling?” he says, the words grinding out of him in a tsukkomi.

He elbows him in the chin and hopes he doesn’t get up.

“Okay, ‘Trouble with water and women’…” 

“Don’t write that down! Levy!”

Cana’s near death with laughter at this point, patting the ice mage on the back, “it’s okay, Gray, I’ll tell your fortune later and make sure you’re alright.”

“I’m not worried-- none of your busine-- oh, fuck off, all of you!”

Lucy huffs after getting to a safe spot. Making a sound of awe, she says, “he’s not even using magic, and he’s overpowering them…” Then a moment later, “uhm, your clothes.”

Gray swirls around, realizing it himself, “whoa!”

“Awh, you almost looked cool there,” Levy says, “what a shame. You got some points and lost them immediately.”

“Like his clothes, yeah,” Bickslow adds very necessarily. “Same goes here.”

Gray looks down. “I had my jacket when I came in!” he squawks, “where did it--”

Troll-face frowns. “What is that guy?”

Then the sand orb that held Natsu explodes. “Look here, you,” Natsu lands beside them as the man yelps, “now my mouth’s full of sand, yuck.”

And with a Fire Dragon’s Iron Fist that caused an explosion many times bigger than the first, the fight was over.

“Late to the party, but the flashiest,” Happy says, “that’s Natsu alright, ending the fight in perfect Natsu fashion.”

“It’s fine if we cause destruction outside of a town, right?” Natsu asks, “no paperwork for gramps or anything.”

“Well, that was quicker than I thought,” Loke says, “so is this actually significant to the long story or not? It wasn’t all that hard, so I’m not so sure anymore.”

“Maybe it’s significant because they’re going to be late home and Erza will be there,” Cana teases, to which Erza bristles.

“What’s wrong with me being home?”

“No no, no problems at all,” Cana clarifies in an easygoing manner, “our boys will just be terrified, that’s all.”

They tie them up and leave them by a tree.

“You don’t have to get serious with these small-fry,” Gray taunts him.

“Ah, here we go again. How many times is this now?” Lisanna sighs. She makes sure to sit between them as she closes the first-aid kit, knowing that they were going to brood with those ice packs on their faces, and if they did start grumbling, she could be a deterrent to the noise.

“How about I fry up that snarky mouth of yours?”

“With what, your lukewarm flames?”

“Oh yeah?”

“Baggy pants!” 

“Ill-tempered!”

“Sourpuss!”

“Hothead!”

Lucy ignores the two morons in the back and crouches down beside the group that ambushed them.

Troll-face croaks out, “Lu- Lulla--”

“Huh?” Lucy can’t hear well because of the fight behind her. “What was that?”

“The… the lulla-- by…” he chokes out.

Levy’s quick to write it down. All attention was focused on the scene once the focal point of the scene suddenly came clear-- and she wrote it down.

L-U-L-L-A-B-Y

“Like, you know, the song?” Cana asks, looking over. “But pronounced like it is in Castor?”

“It could just be fancy speak,” Gray suggests.

“Or it might be a magic spell,” Freed suggests. 

“Huh?” the two that are fighting quickly turn their attention over. “Lullaby?” Gray repeats the word.

An ominous shadow pulls forth.

Eyes widen. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“That cannot be normal,” Mira says, “shadow magic, right?”

“But why here?” Levy says.

“There’s someone watching us,” Natsu says, “and he’s going to attack!”

Sensing it first, Happy charges into everyone with his wings at high speed. “Watch out!”

The shadow forms a large hand over the goons tied up around the tree. They shriek in horror-- and the fist closes around them. The tree is drawn down, sinking sharply into the earth and bringing all of them with.

Then the shadow recedes.

Horrified silence fills the room.

They were consumed by the earth, dragged down-- did that mean they continued down in an invisible route? Or were they… dead?

Probably the former, but the lack of a way to sense their magical signatures left much to confusion that couldn’t be solved through a screen. 

“A dark guild, definitely,” is Erza’s mirthful observation.

“No doubt about it,” is Mira’s whispered response. “They couldn’t even scream. Only Dark Guilds could ever be that cruel.”

“What was that?” Lucy exclaims.

“Who is it?” Natsu asks, slightly bewildered. “Where’d they go?”

“I can’t sense them anymore…” Gray says. A figure was shown leaping away through the trees. “Whoever it is, he’s crazy fast.”

“The attacker is just one,” Gildarts says, “probably a higher ranking officer of the guild, dragging their goons back before they let too much slip.”

“Damn it! I don’t get this at all!” Natsu groans, looking in the direction they last sensed the magic.

Lucy repeats to herself, “Lullaby?”

Groans across the hall. “I don’t get it either!”

Freed is lost in his thoughts and Levy looks at the spelling of the word Lullaby once more. Something-- her eyes met Freed’s, finding the same confusion in his eyes-- something just sounded familiar here.

Something like a bell, a phrase at the tip of their tongues… what’s the Lullaby?

Levy taps incessantly at the word, groaning as she tries to think of it-- but the information just doesn’t come. 

“There’s no need to be frustrated. We’ll understand it all soon,” Erza says. A few turn to look at her, and her voice is confident, “that’s why we’re watching, after all.”

(It’s fine to not know.)

(Because we’re going to know now.)

So Levy shoves down the horrific feeling in her chest, and tells herself the information will reveal itself to her soon. 

She doesn’t have to rush. 

They have plenty of time.

-

The scene returns to Magnolia, where a woman walks in, easily hefting a giant horn many times her size on her head, balanced with just one arm.

Heads lift with interest, and Lisanna makes a pleased squeal, “oh, it’s Erza!” she says, full-on adoration in her voice, “look at her go !”

“Is that a--” Gray’s eye twitches, “ horn ?”

“What thing has a horn that big?!” Natsu gawks, pointing, “Erza, you monster!” he exclaims, in the nicest meaning possible.

Erza understands, so she crosses her arms and huffs proudly. “I don't know, so I suppose we’ll just have to hear it from myself in the future.”

Mira bites her fingernails, “damn it! Just watch, Erza, I’ll hunt something twice as big as that next time!”

“I’m looking forward to it, Mira,” Erza smiles back.

“Do you have to walk the horn around town, though?” Loke asks, “and on your shoulder, with one arm, no less.”

“Well, how else would she carry it?”

“I don’t know, maybe with the huge luggage cart she always rolls around?”

“Ah.”

The people in the city watch her in awe, chattering.

Erza walks toward Fairy Tail.

The ending song begins to play.

A whistle from the crowd. “Way to make an entrance, Erza!” Gildart says, “that's cool.”

“Says the man with an entire town transformation each time he comes in,” Cana chuckles, “that’s ironic.”

“But man, that’s the end of that,” Levy sighs, closing her book and stretching out her legs. She sets the memory chip into the box, and sighs in relief. 

“Alright, time for food!” Natsu says, standing up.

“Guess it’s my time to shine,” Mirajane says, standing up, “whoever isn’t going ot burn the kitchen down can come help me.”

She makes her way out, with Elfman, Bickslow, Evergreen and Levy following after her. 

“Are we seriously switching gears so quickly?” Gray sighs, “my mind’s still reeling from everything that’s happened so far.”

“Meanwhile, I think I need to take a walk,” Loke says, “my head hurts from all the watching.”

“Same,” Cana says, stretching, “need some blue skies and sun! Let’s go to the training ground, though the sky there is fake.”

“Oh, training ground!” Natsu remembers, “Happy, let’s go! Race you up there!”

“Ehhh, but I’m hungryyy.”

“Food tastes better after working up a sweat! Come on buddy!” 

“Okay… Lisanna, are you coming?”

“I’ll catch up. Go on ahead!”

GIldarts sighs as everyone files out, seemingly exhausted from the watch. There’s a lot everyone needs to think about-- even Laxus had stayed in his spot, seemingly thinking-- and Freed hadn’t even looked up since the last part. 

Well, guess there’s no point in brooding about it.

He’ll go take a walk too, until Lunch is ready.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 5: The Armored Mage.

Word Count: 19515

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-

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Loke’s head hurts, but it’s only partially because of all the watching in the confined room.

People always said to watch TV in a lit room far from the screen, and everyone has done exactly none of that thus far because they’re either brats or idiots, him included. Adding that on to the chronic migraine? No wonder his head hurts.

“Oh Loke, you’re finally taking a walk with a beautiful girl, but you’re not even looking at her?” Cana says teasingly, keeping in step beside him. She’d left her purse behind in the room, walking around in just her bikini top and jeans, admiring the fake sun.

Loke chuckle, swiping his hair aside flamboyantly, “oh, pardon me, milady. Would you prefer I hold your hand? Would you like a hot towel? Or shall I carry you like a princess? Your prince is here to listen to your every demand.”

Cana cackles.

“You know, when you laugh so honestly like that, I’m actually hurt,” Loke admits.

“But it’s so funny to watch you immediately switch gears,” Cana says, wiping a tear from her laughter. “How do you do it? Seriously.”

“It’s called talent,” Loke insists, smug. Then he cringes at a spike of pain through his head and groans, shooting aside. He reaches up to it, but the pulse of muscle weakness interrupts his movement and makes him stagger.

“What’s wrong?” Cana’s quick to change as well, her voice softening in the way it always did when she knew things were serious.

Loke straightens quickly, hand reaching up to massage his temples. “Nothing, the sun’s hurting my eyes,” he says, adjusting his sunglasses. “I think I’m heading back first.”

“Oh… alright.”

Cana watched him as he left.

She was not convinced.