Round Robin

Chapter 1

Gran Doma, the chairman of the Magic Council made his way through the halls of the royal palace in Crocus. The king had sent for him, and requested a meeting with him in person. But what could be so important that the king of Fiore would want to discuss with him in person. To him, it naturally must be something urgent, perhaps the uprising of a new threat to the safety of the country. This train of thought led the chairman to be rather confused when he entered the throne room and saw king Toma E. Fiore laughing with the servants in the room as if someone had just told some kind of joke. It definitely seemed less likely that anyone was in any danger now, but he still had no idea why his presence had been requested. He stepped forward and bowed politely to the king. "Your majesty. You wished to see me?"

"Ah yes! The chairman of the Magic Council himself! Thank you for coming on such short notice." the king responded with a bright smile.

"Forgive me for being abrupt, but may I ask why you have summoned me?"

"Of course, of course!" the king clapped his hands, and one of his servants approached Gran Doma, handing him a document which the king had written.

"What is this, exactly?" the chairman asked.

"Well you see, for the past seven years the Grand Magic Games have been a tremendous success in multiple different ways. And it's partially because of that success that I'd like to start co-hosting a second annual tournament along with the Magic Council. The details of the tournament are all listed there. I asked to see you so I could make this request to you and hear your response in person. What do you say?"

The council chairman took a brief moment to skim through the document, before approaching the king and shaking his hand. "We would be honored, your majesty. When will this tournament begin?"

"The official announcement will be in a week, and the tournament will begin the next day. I've prepared invitations to nine different guilds which are being sent as we speak.

A week went by, and word had quickly spread across Fiore like a wildfire. The weekly sorcerer had promoted the tournament soon after it was announced, and now virtually everyone knew about it. People came to Crocus from all areas of the country to see it, and the city was just as crowded now as it had been during the week of the Grand Magic Games. And now, everyone was gathered in the arena awaiting the arrival of the guild who would be participating. The crowd spoke amongst itself as the people waited.

"Two annual tournaments now? This should be great!"

"Does anyone know which guilds are participating?"

"I heard there's a few newer guilds that got invited to this"

The talking suddenly turned to applause as Toma E. Fiore and Gran Doma walked out to the center of the arena, each with a microphone in hand. The king was the first to speak. "It's with great honor that I welcome each of you, the citizens of Fiore! We will begin an explanation of the tournament momentarily, but first, lets bring out the nine guilds that will be participating! Black Phoenix, White Eclipse, Fairy Tail, Sabertooth, Mermaid Heel, Quatro Cerberus, Lamia Scale, Radioactive Decay, and Blue Pegasus!"

The crowd turned it's attention to the tunnel, and roared as the members of each guild made their way out, most cheering on their favorite guild.

"It feels like hardly any time's passed at all since we won the Grand Magic Games, and now we're already back again! I'm all fired up!" shouted Natsu Dragneeel. The dragon slayer had a confident grin.

"Calm down a bit, flame brain. I know you're excited, but we don't really even know anything about this tournament yet." Gray Fullbuster replied, causing Natsu's demeanor to quickly change to a more annoyed one as the dragon slayer glared at him.

"What'd you call me, Gray?! You wanna go?!"

"Bring it, Natsu!"

The two were about to start fighting right there, when Erza stepped in between them.

"That's enough, both of you. But Gray's right. There's a good chance this won't be the same as the Grand Magic Games. And we really don't know what to expect." Lucy Heartfilia, who had been standing by the group, then entered the conversation.

"Now that you mention it, the information we got really wasn't very descriptive. And in addition to that, there's a couple guilds here I haven't heard much about."

"Exactly," Erza replied with a nod "so lets be patient about this"

"What's wrong, Erza? Scared of the competition?" Reve Volver, the S-Class mage of White Eclipse called out. Erza's expression remained calm as she turned in his direction.

"Fairy Tail has no reason to fear anyone. Including you."

"Oh really? Well it doesn't matter either way. I'll still take you out and prove White Eclipse is the best guild around."

Hearing this, Bacchus shouted over from where Quatro Cerberus' mages were standing.

"Oi! If anyone's gonna take out Erza, it's me!"

"Sit down, puppy. You guys don't have a shot of winning this thing."

"The hell did you say?!" The mages of Quatro Cerberus and White Eclipse were literally having to hold back the two S-Class mages to keep them from charging at each other then and there. And the arguing very quickly spread to the other guilds as well, and now all nine guilds were shouting over each other to the point were no one could understand any of it. Gran Doma's voice then boomed out through the arena.

"ENOUGH!" The chaotic arguing immediately ceased as the mages turned their attention to him.

"Now that I have your attention, we'll begin. Before we explain the structure and rules of the tournament, we'll first reveal the main participants. In the letter sent to each guild, we asked that you list one S-Class." He looked down at a piece of paper and began to read off the names. "Erza Scarlet, Kagura Mikazuchi, Ichiya Kotobuki, Reve Volver, Mathias Cronqvist, Bacchus, Lyon Vastia, Minoru Kanemoto, and Rogue Cheney, please step forward."

The mages each did as instructed, and many of the crowd cheered for their favorite among the more known guilds, while others talked about Mathias form Black Phoenix and Minoru from Radioactive Decay.

"Who are those guys? I've never heard of them."

"Me neither, but they're supposedly S-Class, right?"

As the crowd died down, Gran Doma spoke again.

"Next, we are going to select one non S-Class member at random from each guild."

A large screen appeared behind him, and quickly began cycling through pictures of all the mages of the guilds, then stopped when nine were lined up side by side, and once again, Gran Doma listed off the names.

"Chelia Blendy, Orga Nanagear, Eve Tearm, Tsuki Mizuki, Emerita Megido, Blues, Aira Aeoulus, Gajeel Redfox, and Milliana, step forward."

As they complied, the crows again discussed the selected mages.

"Tsuki and Emerita are from Radioactive Decay and Black Phoenix, right?"

"Yeah, but I don't really know much about them. And who's that Blues guy?

"He's Quatro Cerberus' Water Dragon Slayer."

"Really? There's a few unknowns in there, but it still looks like an interesting group."

Gran Doma then spoke into his microphone again.

"These will be the main participants from each guild, though as I will explain later, others will also have a chance to be involved. Now, the 18 participants selected will be separated into two different blocks."

The screen behind him went to work again shuffling the names and pictures around until they were divided into two groups: Block A and Block B. In Block A, was Ichiya, Minoru, Erza, Chelia, Reve, Bacchus, Orga, Milliana, and Emerita. The mages listed under Block B were Gajeel, Lyon, Eve, Kagura, Aira, Rogue, Tsuki, Mathias, and Blues.

"This tournament will be in a round robin format. Each mage will fight against everyone within their respective block, for a total of 8 fights each. There will be a 30 minute time limit in each fight, just like the Grand Magic Games. However, the scoring system will be a bit different. A win will give you 2 points, a draw will give each mage 1 point, and of course no points will be awarded for a loss, meaning the maximum number of points you can get is 16. The tournament will take place over 9 days, with each mage getting 1 bye. At the end of the ninth day, the two highest scoring mages from each block will move on to the semifinals. If two mages are tied for the first or second place spot in their block at that point, the tiebreaker will go to whichever mage defeated the other during the round robin."

The people in the crowd started talking to each other again, everyone talking about the matchups that would be seen throughout the tournament. But their voices were overridden by an irritated Natsu Dragneel.

"Oi! What gives?! You said other members get to fight too! I don't wanna just sit around watching Erza and Gajeel have all the fun!"

"I was just getting to that." Gran Doma responded, before addressing the mages again.

"Each mage will be allowed to choose to turn one of their fights into a tag battle if they want, and can select any mage from their guild as a partner as long as they are not SS-Class, the guild master, or a mage already in the tournament. However, you can only elect to do this once, meaning after you've done so, you can only fight with a partner if your opponent elects to change the fight to a tag battle. Also, you can only call on a particular guild member to be a teammate once. For example, if Rogue wants to fight with a partner when he fights Gajeel, he can choose anyone than Sting, who is Sabertooth's current master. If he chooses, lets say Yukino, she and Rogue will fight Gajeel and a partner of his choice. After the fight, Yukino and whoever Gajeel selected will be ineligible for the remainder of the tournament."

After hearing the explanation, Natsu pointed at Erza and Gajeel.

"I don't really get it, but one of you better pick me as your partner!"

"You'd only get in the way, Natsu. Giheh." Gajeel responded with a grin. Natsu began to lunge at him, but Erza Grabbed him by his scarf before he could get to the Iron Dragon Slayer.

"Calm down, Natsu. I'm sure one of us will end up picking you as a partner before this thing's over."

Gran Doma sighed and shook his head as he looked over at Natsu, then continued.

"A few words of caution to all mages competing. Remember, you will be in 8 fights in the round robin. If you have any last resort tactics, I suggest you don't overuse them, or your opponents will start finding ways to counter them. Also keep in mind that any partner you use cannot be used again by you, or the other member of your guild, so be smart about who you choose, and when you choose them."

He was about to nod to the king to signal he was finished, when he remembered something.

"Oh, and I almost forgot. The winner of the tournament will receive 20 million jewel, and his or her guild will be guaranteed a team in next year's Grand Magic Games without having to compete in a preliminary round. Remember, the team that won the games only barely made it through the preliminary round last time, so this is quite a valuable prize. I'll turn things back over to his majesty now."

With a bright smile on his face, the king stepped forward and spoke into his microphone.

"There you have it! The rules and participants in the inaugural Round Robin have been announced! At this time, the mages will now receive a schedule of their fights."

While he spoke, a man walked by each of the mages who had stepped forward earlier, giving them a piece of paper with their specific schedule. Each mage read through the schedule as they got it, each giving different reactions as they read.

Reve and Aira from White Eclipse each looked confident as they read through theirs.

"This shouldn't be any problem at all. Aira, lets make sure it's you and me in the finals. That way White Eclipse shows its superiority over the others regardless of who wins. It's White Eclipse..."

"Or second place!" she responded with a bright smile, finishing the guild's signature phrase.

Neither of Radioactive Decay's mages offered any kind of reaction while looking at their shcedules. Their guild master, Avani Moton, approached them and glanced down at the paperes.

"Tsuki, Minoru, any concerns about your matches?"

"None, master" responded Tsuki.

"Same" Minoru answered shortly. However, though he didn't do anything to show it, there was one fight in particular on his schedule that was bothering him.

Over with the Quatro Cerberus mages, Blues was grinning and bursting with excitement.

"I can already tell this tournament's gonna be wild!"

"FOUR!" came the response from the others. Bacchus, however grimaced as he looked at his. Master Goldmine came over and slapped a hand on the drunken falcon's shoulder.

"Oi, what's with ya? Thought you'd be more- oh..." Looking at Bacchus' schedule, he noticed what was annoying him. "Just have some patience, Bacchus. Good things come to those who wait."

Bacchus chuckled as his lips curled into a grin. "Yeah, you're right." He then turned to face the others and threw his fist into the air. "WILD!"

"FOUR!"

Kagura noticed a worried expression on Milliana's face, then glanced at her schedule.

"It seems you have the first day off. Depending on how you use that, that can be a big advantage."

Milliana, glanced up at Kagura, clearly not fully understanding.

"You'll have an advantage in your first few fights over people who have had to fight more than you. But it also means you won't have any breaks once you get started, so you'll have to be careful. But I have confidence in you, Milliana."

Hearing her words, Milliana's frown turned into a big smile as she tightly hugged Kagura.

"Nya! Thanks, Kagura-chan! I know you'll do great too!"

An annoyed expression came over Kagura's face, but she just stood still. "Milliana..."

Natsu was arguing with Gajeel, trying to ensure that Gajeel would pick him as a tag partner in the tournament, while Erza on the other hand, had turned pale and was shaking in her armor as she stared at her schedule with a horrified expression.

"Wh-why...why me?"

Lucy noticed her unusual fear and tried to talk to her.

"Erza...? What's wrong?"

But the scarlet-haired mage didn't respond, leaving Lucy to wonder what could have scared her of all people so bad.

While the mages discussed the tournament, Toma E. Fiore again lifted his microphone and spoke.

"One more thing! Before you go, we'd like to give you all a quick look at what you'll be seeing. And so, here are the fights scheduled for Day 1 tomorrow!"

As he turned and motioned toward the screen, the fights scheduled for Day 1 appeared:

Blues vs Rogue Cheney

Mathias Cronqvist vs Eve Tearm

Reve Volver vs Chelia Blendy

Orga Nanagear vs Bacchus

Emerita Megido vs Minoru Kanemoto

Tsuki Mizuki vs Gajeel Redfox

Erza Scarlet vs Ichiya Kotobuki

and Kagura Mikazuchi vs Lyon Vastia

(Bye: Milliana and Aira Aeolus)

Lucy looked through the fights, almost gasping when she saw Erza's opponent.

"So that's why..."

Erza was now sitting on the ground, hugging her knees to her chest, and burying her face in her knees.

"I-Ichiya...Why..."

"Men, men, men~" the voice of Blue Pegasus' S-Class mage rang through Erza's ears, causing her to freeze in fear as Ichiya frolicked toward her, and stopped right in front of her.

"Erza-chan. It seems cruel fate has pitted us against one another on the battlefield! Still, as always, your exquisite perfume-"

"STAY BACK!" Erza practically screamed at him, drawing a sword and holding the point mere inches from his large nose.

"M-Men..." A large sweat drop rolled down his head before he slowly backed away.

The king's voice rang out once more through the arena.

"That's all for today, ladies and gentlemen! We look forward to seeing you all here tomorrow as we kick off the inaugural Round Robin!"

The crowd filed out of the arena, talking about all the fights they were looking forward to seeing, while the guilds each returned to the hotels they would be staying at during the remainder of the tournament, and discussed tournament amongst themselves, doing the best they could to make a strategy that would ensure they would all be ready.