Author's Note: This was pretty fun to write, although I definitely need to work on my fight scenes.
Chapter 2
Rough Welcomes
Makarov's grin widened even more now, his grin akin to one from a child who was excited to share a secret, he was starting to have trouble refraining himself from breaking out into a full out laughing fit.
"If Master places high hope in this "son," then he must be a man among men!" Elfman cheered.
"You are one hundred percent right, Elfman." Makarov paused for a moment before saying, "Especially if you see the things he deals with on a daily basis." Makarov now broke out into a full smile as he jumped off the table he was sitting one and loudly announced, "The man that we are getting help from is the none other than Guild Master of Ala Alba, Negi Springfield!"
"!" everybody dropped their jaws in shock and disbelief. That is, everybody that wasn't behind on the news for seven years.
"Ala Alba?" Levy questions her guild master, "is it that super famous guild that appeared five years ago? Although I read that they vanished not long after that."
At this point, most of the people had recovered from the shock, Macao then stuttered, "A-A-Ala Alba? H-Hey, Levy, don't you know that Ala Alba, and Negi Springfield are a household name?"
"Huh? I mean I knew that they were famous and all, but I didn't know anything about being a household name."
Natsu, Gray, Erza, Laxus, and Gildarts raised an eyebrow at this comment. If they weren't paying attention before, they certainly were now.
"That's right, Levy," Makarov cut in, "Indeed, from what I heard, Ala Alba saved the world, narrowly at that. But I think it would be better if they explained it themselves." Makarov smiled as a cloaked figure dropped down from the ceiling.
"!" Erza, Gildarts, Gray, and the Dragon slayers immediately went on guard.
"Mystogan?!" Wendy exclaimed.
"I'm afraid I'm not this, Mystogan that you speak of, but I am not an enemy, de gozaru." The cloaked figure spoke. Upon a closer inspection, Wendy could tell that this person was indeed not Mystogan. In fact Wendy could see that it was a she as she noticed the feminine body figure underneath her ninja-like appearance.
"AHHH? Who are you then? What do you want with Fairy Tail? If you're looking for trouble, I'll gladly take you on." Natsu leapt across the room, landing a foot in front of this newcomer. However, by the time he raised his head to glare at the newcomer, she had vanished. "!"
Kaede reappeared behind Natsu, and announced," My name is Kaede Nagase, and I'm a representative of Ala Alba, sent here by Negi-bouzu. We came here because your master requested us to train you, de gozaru."
Upon hearing Kaede speak right behind him, Natsu turned around in surprise, along with much of the guild, "Whoa, how'd you get behind me so fast? I didn't even see you move!"
"It's called Shukuchi, it's my original technique that I created, and it allows the user to instantly get from one place to another, although the range is only about one kilometer. I also have a better technique called Shukuchi Mukyo, it lets me travel extremely long distances quickly, seeing as the range is ten kilometers, de gozaru."
"Isn't that a bit broken?" Lucy asked in awe.
"Well, not when you fight at our level, de gozaru." Kaede replied while rubbing the back of her neck as a sweat drop appeared on her head.
"Wait," Natsu butted in, "What do you mean by our?"
Almost as if they were waiting for someone to say this line, four girls dropped out of Kaede's Cloak. The first one was fairly tanned and stood a little taller than Kaede; she wore a leather jacket with a black tight suit and leather pants with the upper inner thigh potion trimmed out and had a riffle strapped to her back. The second one was a violet haired girl with matching eyes wearing a mid-length trench coat over a white dress shirt and black pants underneath. Standing next to her was a smiling girl with indigo colored hair and violet eyes: she was wearing a white dress with sandals. Standing at the edge of the group was a petite blonde whose hair reached to her ankles: she was wearing a black sleeveless school uniform with a cross on the end of her tie. At the first glance, she looked as if she was at the age of 10.
"Hey look, a little kid appeared." Natsu said with a blank face, pointing to Evangeline, ignoring all the panicking faces that the new group had, "She's about as short as Wendy! No, wait, I think Wendy is a little taller."
The group from Ala Alba began shifting around uncomfortably where they stood, all except for one. The petite blonde called Evangeline A.K. McDowell, whom started visible shaking. However, she was not shaking because she was being bullied, but instead she was shaking from pure rage. In her mind, she thought, somebody is going to die tonight, "Lic Lac la lac Lilac. Heed the Contract and Serve Me, Darkness, Ice and Snow…" She began to chant under her breath.
Nodoka and Yue took note of this and quickly interrupted her, "Eva-chan, you can't cast that here! You'll freeze the whole town! Besides, he doesn't know any better! In fact, he doesn't even know you, much less what you dislike!"
Evangeline grinned evilly as a tick mark appeared on her forehead, "I don't care. I'll put this brat to rest, permanently." One could almost make out a faint evil laughter coming from her if they listened hard enough.
Kaede, in an effort to calm Eva down, rushes to Evangeline and plead, "Eva-san, we're here in order to help these people, not kill them!"
Once again, Evangeline's evil grin widened, "Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to kill them." Kaede and the rest of the Ala Alba group sighed in relief, "I'm just going to freeze him for all of eternity, and if the rest of them aren't competent enough to get out of the way, then that's too bad."
"That's even worst!" the trio yelled simultaneously, crying anime tears that appeared in comedic scenes.
Realizing that her friends' attempts in calming down the blonde Loli were in vain, Mana quickly devised a plan and spoke to Evangeline in a toneless voice, "Negi-sensei will be terribly sad if he finds out that the people he trusted to help Fairy Tail, became their messenger of destruction instead."
Evangeline flinched at this and took a step back, holding her right arm in front of her in shock. Deep down inside, Evangeline knew she loved the look that her boya made when he was sad. In fact just thinking about it caused her to visibly blush. But, she had to hide her emotions in front of other people: she had a façade to keep up. Especially, if it was held up in order to hide the one emotion that caused her to grow soft in the first place. So, in an effort to hide her blush, Evangeline coughed and said, "I guess that would cause some unnecessary trouble."
Mana grinned faintly: she felt great satisfaction in what she just did. It wasn't every day that she managed to corner one of the most powerful beings on this world, or the next, with only a few carefully chosen words. However, her satisfaction was cut short as Natsu loudly yelled across the room, while emphasizing a certain word, "Hey, what is this kid talking about-" His remark were cut short, as he was encased in an ice block created by Evangeline when snapped her fingers. Mana sighed. Well at least I kept the damage to a minimum. She mused to herself.
However, the rest of Fairy Tail did not take her actions as well as Mana. As one could easily tell when the whole guild - with the two guild masters, Makarov and Mavis, being the sole exception - took a deep combat stance.
Evangeline, who completely ignored the bloodlust coming from her clients, shouts, "That's what the brat gets for insulting me! He should be feeling lucky that I only froze him temporarily!" then, with a sigh, she mumbled, "I swear, I must be getting soft: I usually freeze them forever or at least for ten years."
Gray twitched when he heard the last part of Evangeline's statement, "Impossible! Only Iced Shell has the power to freeze someone forever. And that spell destroys your body to create the ice!"
Evangeline turned to Gray with a blank look, and then she snapped, somebody flinched, and said, "Ah, you mean that spell. I created that spell hundreds of years ago, back when I was still relatively weak. Hmm, I guess somebody must have picked it up and put it in a book."
Gray growled and demanded, "What do you mean hundreds of years ago? There's no way a human can live that long, much less stay looking like a 10 year old. Also, Iced Shell turns the user into ice, just how did you survive using it?"
Somewhere in the back of the room, Mavis sneezed, Huh? Can I even get colds in this ethereal body?
Evangeline simply laughed at Gray's remark, "Who ever said that I'm human? I am Evangeline A.K. McDowell: The Queen of the Night, The Lord of Darkness, The Apostle of Destruction, The Tidings of Evil, The Puppet Master, The Visitation of Woe, The High Daylight Walker, Dark Evangel. I am, an immortal Shinso Vampire with absolutely no weaknesses. Back then; I only sacrificed an arm or so to use Iced Shell. Why? Because I have instant regeneration" To demonstrate, Evangeline used her nails to slice deeply into her left forearm, causing the members of Fairy Tail to gasp at her actions. But that expression intensified when they saw that the cut mended itself instantly, leaving no trace of it ever being there. "Although over time, that became annoying, so I created a whole new, more powerful spell to replace it… but I still don't know how you know of it. All the people I've used it on never saw the light of day again."
Wait, Lucy thought to herself, Dark Evangel… where have I heard that before... it sounds so familiar… Evangeline A.K. McDowell…! "Wait a moment, you're the Dark Evangel? The one with the impossible six billion jewels bounty?!" Lucy shouted in surprise.
"!" the collective of Fairy Tail gasped
"That's right; I am, got a problem with that?" Evangeline's trade mark evil grin appeared.
The members of Fairy Tail staggered for a moment at this revelation, before somebody repeated to themselves, "S-s-six b-billion j-jewels… That's enough to buy the whole capitol city!"
"Now, hold on," Mana began, "Before you all go into a frenzy, knowing that a six billion Jewel bundle is standing in front of you, unarmed, with only four girls backing her up." She paused as her skin became much darker than before, and then her hair and left eye, which gave off a light trail, started glowing brightly as it turned pure white, "Let me warn you right now, any one of us, can wipe the floor with all of you guys."
Kaede, whom was holding her Fuuma Shuriken, stepped next to Mana, "Besides they removed her bounty five years ago, by request of Negi-bouzu."
"And also," Yue followed, "If anyone of you ever hurt one of our friends, you will have to deal with two of the most powerful guilds ever, in existence, hunting you down to the depts. of hell and back."
"…" Some of the members looked disappointed, while some looked shocked, and some ashamed that they let the tendrils of greed get the better of them.
"Well," Makarov breaks the silence, "I'm sure that you guys can trust them now that you heard the lengths that they will go to protect their friends, just like us."
Break: A Certain 10,000 Square Meter Bath
Negi turns to Konoka, "Konoka-san, I'm worried that Eva-san might have frozen Fairy Tail already, and is heading back as we speak."
Konoka turns to Negi with her usual blank face, "Oh Negi-kun~ you are just worrying too much."
"Ojou-sama!" Setsuna shouts across the room, "Please come back here!"
"Ah, Okay, Se-chan~!" Konoka shouts, then she turned around and said, "Eva-chan has Mana-san, Kaede-san, Yue-san, and Nodoka-san to hold her back," and then she jumped into the water.
Negi sighs, "I just hope you're right."
Break: Fairy Tail Main Building
"Ah, we still haven't properly introduced ourselves yet!" Nodoka announced to Fairy Tail, "My name is Nodoka Miyazaki, and I'm a mind reader!"
"Ah yes, I suppose so," Yue nods to Nodoka, "My name is Yue Ayase, and I'm a mage knight."
"Mana Tatsumiya, sniper"
Evangeline, who was thinking of something, just crossed her arms and gave an "Hmph"
"I'm sure you all remember that my name is Kaede Nagase, a ninja."
"Ninja?" Natsu, who was just freed by Evangeline, pokes his head up as he asked the question, "What can you do? Can you disappear into thin air or something?"
Kaede chuckled before vanishing from sight again, then a voice said, "Well, if counts, then yes, I can." before reappearing again a few seconds later in the same place.
"Alight, introduction time is over," Evangeline began, "It's time to see what you guys can do. Hey, you over there, brat with the pink hair." She pointed at Natsu, "come over here, I want to test your strength."
"You want me to fight you?" replied Natsu slowly, he was now extremely cautious around Evangeline.
"Me, fight you? No silly, that would be far too easy for me; you will be fighting Nodoka."
"Eh?" Natsu thought for a moment as he turned to a nervously smiling Nodoka, and then he remembered how deceiving looks could be, "Yosh! Now I'm getting fired up!"
"Eh, Natsu, are you sure you want to keep going with this? I mean she looks so harm-." Lucy began to whisper to Natsu, only to be interrupted by Makarov, who happily boomed, "Alright then lets head out and watch the fight!"
Makarov lead everyone outside, once outside he started to walk around the guild building. After fifty paces, Gray leaned toward Natsu and whispered, "I can't wait to see you get your ass kicked by a timid looking girl, Heh." However, Natsu wasn't paying attention to Gray at all, as he was all fired up at the chance to test his strength against an unknown opponent.
A few minutes and couple hundred paces later…
"Alright, rules are simple," Evangeline, who was now sitting next to a conjured tea table with her friends, announced with a tea cup in one hand, "both of you start will off fifty meters away from each other. There are no restrictions of whatever magic, technique, or weapon that you want to use, the first one to get knocked out, or gives up loses." There was now a crowd of people organized about forty meters away from the two fighters. Evangeline watched both Natsu and Nodoka stare each other off from fifty meters away. Then Nodoka held out her right hand out and a card appeared out of nowhere. As if waiting for her to materialize that card, Evangeline immediately yelled, "Begin!"
"Adeat! Diarium Ejus, Combat mode! Artes Liberalis, Kinder-und Hausmärchen!" Nodoka shouted as her clothing glowed and changed into a white outfit that looked like the fusion of a dress and a coat with a stuffed animal strapped to her back. Along with the change into battle attire, seven different colored books floated above her; from left to right, violet, purple, pink, brown, pink, orange, yellow, and red. Floating too her left and right side are two yellow books with purple trimmings on it, the left book had the words Artes Liberalis written on it as the title, while the right book had Kinder-und Hausmärchen as the title. Then, strapped to her right waist was another book, the title read Diarium Ejus. On one of Nodoka's ear appeared a device that looked like a transmitter and a dagger-looking ring appeared on her right index finger. Then she silently whispered, "Natsu Dragneel." She needed to say her opponent's name in order for her artifact to work.
As soon as Natsu heard Evangeline signal the start of the match, he charged to Nodoka: He managed to cover the 50 meter distance in two seconds. Natsu wanted to end the match as soon as he could, as his instincts immediately warned him that the girl was dangerous, especially after he witnessed her outfit change. Does she use requip magic like Erza? Damn, I need to watch out for her. Natsu stopped a couple of centimeters away from Nodoka, ducked, and yelled, "Fire Dragon's Flame Elbow!" as he delivered an explosion accelerated uppercut, which Nodoka easily dodged by moving her head a few centimeters back.
Then, to his shock, Nodoka smiled and said to him, "Sorry, but I don't use requip magic."
What? How did she know what I was thinking? This caused Natsu to be infuriated, he did not like having his mind read. He continued to barrage Nodoka relentlessly with flame enhanced strikes and kicks, but to his surprise, she effortlessly maneuvered away from each and every single one of them. After a full minute of not being able to land a single hit, Natsu jumped back 30 meters into the air and yelled, "Fire Dragon's Claw!" as he rapidly descended towards Nodoka with a massive flame trail coming out from one of his feet. Nodoka, still smiling gently at Natsu, dodged his attack by jumping to her left. However, the moment she jumped up into the air, Natsu turned his head towards Nodoka, "Fire Dragon's Roar!" He allowed himself a small grin as he watched the girl bath in flames.
"Did he get her?" Makarov asked Evangeline
"Nope, not even close, in fact, take a look right now." Evangeline pointed back at the battle ground.
Nodoka dropped out from the sky, unscathed, "Nice try, Natsu, but you will have to do better than that!" Natsu watched in complete shock as drove her right arm directly into Natsu's stomach, but this wasn't what shocked Natsu. It was the fact that after the punch, an explosion came out from her elbow that pushed her arm with much greater force as she landed the blow. Natsu staggered a little, before recovering from the shock, "I-I-Impossible… You're a Fire Dragon slayer?!"
"Nope, I'm afraid not, it's just that my artifact, Kinder-und Hausmärchen, allows me to read your mind and archive every single technique you have. Then my Artes Liberalis allows me to use whatever technique that I have archived. It might seem a little unfair to you, but I will tell you now, I can't use any technique that I can't handle, so it's pretty useless against somebody stronger than me." Nodoka finished without ever breaking out of her cheerful smile, which caused Natsu to wince in thought. "But I have to admit, you sure do have an interesting technique, I mean, you have immunity to fire, as long as the fire isn't hotter than your maximum output."
Mavis whispered to Makarov, who was currently at a loss for words as he continued to watch Natsu be overpowered by his own techniques, "If what she says is true about her books, then it truly is a terrifying artifact. In fact, as things stand right now, it's even more absurd than that Lost Magic called memory-make."
Back at the fight, Natsu continued to try to hit Nodoka, but she was still dodging all of his attacks. Slowly, but surely, Natsu's frustration built up, until he finally went over the top. Natsu's fists ignited with a bright flame sphere, "Dragon Slayer's Secret Art, Crimson Lotus: Fire Dragon's Fist!" Natsu began to punch Nodoka at blinding speeds, making it look like he had a few extra pair of arms. That was, if you were an average person, but Nodoka was far from an average person, her Pactio granted her the ability to draw upon Negi's near endless magic reserves, giving her; inhuman reaction speeds, strength, agility, stamina and magic reserves. So, as things stood right now, Nodoka dodged every single exploding punch that was aimed towards her upper body. "Tch! Damn, not even that worked? Fine, then I'll give you something that you CAN'T dodge. Lightning Flame Dragon Mode!" Immediately, Natsu's figure became engulfed by flames clad in yellow lightning.
Hmm, it's not the usual white lightning that I see from Negi-sensei. Sure, he got stronger, but it's still not enough. Nodoka thought to herself as he observed Natsu's transformation. I wonder if that technique would work.
"Wait! Natsu can still use that?!" Lucy exclaimed to no one in particular, "Amazing… wait a minute," Lucy paused as she saw Natsu get into a certain stance, "he isn't planning to use that, on her is he?" Lucy received her answer as she watched Natsu inhale his aura. "Natsu, Stop! Are you planning to kill her?!"
However, Natsu did not hear Lucy's words as he yelled at the same moment, "Lightning Flame Dragon's Roar!" He fired an immense beam of flames wrapped in lightning from his mouth towards the cosplaying twenty year old. Is it over? Natsu thought, he hoped it was over, because he poured ever last ounce of his energy into that attack.
However, Natsu's hopes were shot down faster than the speed of sound, as his finishing move swirled around Nodoka, slowly getting smaller and smaller. "!" Natsu gasped, it was incomprehensible: Nodoka was eating his attack and she wasn't even a Dragon Slayer! Eventually, the effects of his attack disappeared, leaving the whole guild to drop their jaws speechless.
"No way…" Gray mumbled out loud, "That attack blew away a portion of Tenrou Island."
Wendy and Gajeel, also in shock, said "She just preformed an act exclusive to Dragon Slayers, without being a Dragon Slayer!"
"Natsu…" Erza whispered.
"Hmph, that's it? That was his full power? Man we have a lot of work to do." Evangeline sighed, breaking the mood.
At this moment, while Natsu was still in shock, for who knows how many times today, Nodoka took the initiative. She gathered all the magical power that she absorbed and concentrated it in her mouth, "Lightning Flame Dragon's Roar! Revised Edition!" she shot the same beam that she ate, back at Natsu, except this time, the beam was much narrower, it flew past Natsu head at several times the speed of sound. It missed by a calculated one centimeter, and hit a conveniently placed, uninhabited mountain some tens of kilometers away. KABOOM, the ground shook as the entire mountain was vaporized by an explosion that rivaled Chachamaru's Satellite cannon's. What was left was a crater that was just as deep as it was high.
Natsu, on the other hand, was doing much better than the mountain, as he only fainted from the combination of the show of power and exhaustion of magic. "Incredible…" Makarov and the rest of the Tenrou group let out as the shockwave of the blast rushed past them, remembering the still fresh memory of Acnologia vaporizing Tenrou Island. "I knew they were strong, but to this extent? That attack just now… rivaled that of a dragon…"
"Abeat, Oh, wow," Nodoka exhaled after releasing her Artifact, "Yelling out the name of an attack felt so cool!" then she noticed Natsu, "Oh no," Nodoka ran to Natsu and kneeled down to examine him, "Are you alright?" She started to panic, "Oh no… what should I do? Konoka-san isn't here…"
Seeing her friend in a panic, Yue went over to her and pulled out a fairly large flask of some unknown, bluish, substance. She kneeled down and poured the liquid into Natsu's gawking mouth, and then applied some pressure onto his throat, causing him to swallow. Yue repeated this action a few more times until the flask ran dry and disappeared with a Poof.
"Is Natsu okay?" Erza ran up to the trio, with the rest of the guild following close behind.
"Yea," Yue replied, "he just passed out from using too much magic, but he should be fine now that I gave him a potion infused with various mid-level spells."
Then, as if to prove what Yue was said, Natsu opened his eyes and sat up quickly, smacking hard against Nodoka's forehead. "Eh, what happened? Where did she go?" Natsu looked around, and then he noticed the crowd surrounding him, "What, did somebody pass out or something?"
"You got your ass handed to you, Natsu." Gray sneered
"What?! You wanna go, pervert snowman?"
"It's true Natsu," Erza began.
"You lost by a landslide." Surprising, Gildarts was the one that finished the statement.
"Ehhh?! I want a rematch!" Natsu shouted, "Where did she go?"
"Over there," Yue pointed out to a kneeling and sniffling Nodoka, who had both hands clutching a red bump on her forehead. "You made a girl cry, you're disgusting." She finished with a toneless monotone.
"Disgusting" Mana emphasized emotionlessly.
"Yep, disgusting, you should just go die." Evangeline nodded in agreement.
"I'm disappointed in you Natsu, de gozaru."
Natsu, at this point was being glared down by everyone in the guild, especially Mavis, who had the look of a five year old who had her favorite stuffed animal taken away. In other words, they were not happy.
Omake:
Magic Council:
Tick marks continued to grow on Sage Org's head as he read his newest report, "THOSE IDIOTS AT FAIRY TAIL DID IT AGAIN! WHAT KIND OF AN IDIOT BLOWS UP A MOUNTAIN?!"
"Sage Org! Please calm down, Lahar exclaimed, "If you are stressed out any more, it will be detrimental to your health!"
"GAH! AREN'T THOSE GUYS FROM ALA ALBA SUPPOSED TO BE STOPPING THINGS LIKE THIS FROM HAPPENING? THEY SHOULD BE OVER TO FAIRY TAIL ALREADY AND RESTRAINING THEM!" Sage Org yelled at the top of his lung.
Meanwhile, at his desk, Negi felt a chill.
"Hmmm, that's weird, when did I add a window to this place? I could have sworn I felt a chill."
"Oh relax Negi," Asuna replied, hitting Negi's back in a comedic fashion, "It's just your imagination: you're just working too hard!"
Hmm, maybe I am just working too much. Negi sighed.
"Hey, stop sighing so much, or you'll become an old man!" Asuna pouted
"Asuna-san! It doesn't work that way!" Negi said, while crying anime tears.