"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Raith along with his new friends he had met were now walking through the park area, before this had been certain events concerning their actions during the Grand Magic Games, while it annoyed Raith, it was still amusing.
They then ended up meeting up with Natsu and Happy's friend, Lucy. She had treated the three to a meal at one of the restaurants as Lucy got introduced to Raith by Natsu and Happy. Thus bringing us to the present time.
"Oi, Natsu. Do you feel like something isn't right about Lucy?" Raith whispered towards Natsu. Lucy was walking ahead of them as the males looked at each other. "She seems kind of... depressed?"
"Aye..." Happy agreed. Natsu nodded in agreement.
"Hey, Lucy..." Natsu's voice called out. This caused the blonde to blink before turning around to face them. "Did something happen?" They then noticed Lucy's face becoming strained as she nervously smiled. "What is it?"
"You can tell us, you do seem pretty down." Raith frowned. He had noticed for a while now, but she did seem to be upset about something.
"Aye! You've been acting pretty weirdly all day, Lucy." Happy added. They were confused as she lowered her head and gave a fake smile towards them.
"You guys don't know, do you? And you wouldn't know, of course, Raith, since you're from another continent." Lucy stated. Raith had told her the half-lie half-truth he told Natsu when he was introduced. To her statement, they blinked in confusion.
"Huh?" Was their collective response.
"Fairy Tail... disbanded." Happy and Natsu had completely white eyes as they stared at her with triangular mouths, Raith's eyes became small black dots as he looked at Lucy, seemingly surprised as well.
"So, Fairy Tail... disbanded?" Natsu asked. He was now seated on a stone block along with Happy as they both looked down with depressed looks. Raith hadn't been in the guild, so he didn't know how to feel about the news, he could only sweatdrop as he looked at them with sympathy.
"Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?" Happy kept repeating.
"It happened the day after you two left," Lucy answered. Natsu then looked up at her, his eyes still white as his body was shaking.
"But, why did it disband?"
"..." Lucy was silent at the question. They all just looked at her waiting for an answer, Raith frowned since he knew this was a sensitive topic for them, so he decided to stay quiet. Lucy then took a seat on the opposite block. "I... honestly have no clue either..."
"What about Gramps? Where is he?" Natsu asked. Natsu's face turned into rage as he clenched his fist while Happy was sweating immensely, Raith could only sweatdrop. "I'm gonna kick his ass! No... I'll rip all his hair off!"
"Leave his beard for me..." Happy muttered.
"... Master's gone missing." Lucy stated.
"Then, what about everyone else? Like Erza! Gray? And..." Natsu was going to continue listing off different members, but was cut off by Lucy.
"Everyone went their separate ways." She said with a sadness clear in her voice. Natsu could only sweat even more as he looked upwards.
"I... I just can't believe this." Natsu said in a disbelieving tone. "The guild is completely gone now, and everyone seems completely fine with that?"
"I don't know..." Lucy stated. Her hair completely shadowing her eyes, Natsu then stood up front his sitting position and shouted.
"That's exactly what it sounds like! Even if Gramps ended up declaring it to be disbanded, you guys should've opposed it!" Natsu had added. "You know? Like making Laxus or someone else becomes the next master!"
"Natsu, I don't know if you're in any position to say that," Lucy stated. "After all, you weren't thinking about the guild. You hadn't consulted anyone, you had just went and gone on your journey."
"Uh..." Natsu groaned. His face releasing even more sweat from before, Raith frowned as he leaned against the wall, this was definitely a sensitive topic he was hearing, he was honestly thinking if he should even be hearing this.
"S-Sorry." Lucy apologized. She looked up with a fake smile clearly on her face. "Yoy both, I'm certain that you had a lot on your minds, right?" It was silent for a bit as she then looked upwards. "It must've been the same for Master and others as well."
"..." Silence had entered as they didn't say anything. Lucy then turned towards Raith and gave him an apologetic look.
"I know that you were looking forward to joining, I'm sorry."
"... It's fine."
"Awesome! So this is the place you live in, Lucy?" Natsu grinned. The group, after the little talk beforehand, had arrived at Lucy's residence. It place looked like a simple hotel room, but it was decent in size.
"You live in Crocus now?" Happy wondered. Lucy nodded her head at this.
"Yeah. It's much closer to the work I do, makes it easier for me." Lucy answered. She then turned towards the three. "You guys don't have a place to stay, right?"
"Goddess!" Raith could only sweatdrop along with Lucy as they began to repeatedly bow down to Lucy. "But don't any of you dare to break anything, or even think about going into my bedroom."
"Right!" They both replied. Lucy then turned her head towards Raith who was just standing next to them with his arms crossed below his chest.
"What about you, Raith?"
"Are you sure? I don't mind sleeping outside..." Raith answered. It was true, back in his time, he liked to travel around the world discovering new things. Well, that was until a certain battle took place.
"Of course! I would feel horrible if I let a child sleep outside if I could do something about it." Was Lucy's response. Raith gave a nod of appreciation at this, that was when they heard the sound of claws and turned to see Happy scratching at the walls. "What did I just say, cat?!"
"Uh~..." Raith muttered. He was now watching Happy and Natsu creating a massive mess ion her room, Natsu was eating chips while Happy was ripping a bunch of tissues out of the tissue box. He then saw then run over to a certain place. "Guys, I don't think that's such a good idea!"
"It's fine! I wonder if anything in here is interesting at all." Natsu smirked. Natsu and Happy were now looking into a certain draw with the middle of their faces shadowed as they had grinning faces on them.
"Aye..."
"Just knock it off!" Lucy whailed. She was flailing her arms around as she did this, her face showing embarrassment.
After a little messing around at Lucy's place, playing games, Natsu and Happy sharing their stories of their journey, the group decided to go to sleep since it was getting really late outside.
Raith was currently sleeping on one of the couches while Natsu took the other, Happy was also sleeping on a small makeshift bed beside Natsu. His eyes were closed but he wasn't really sleeping.
'Sleeping, huh? I don't think I'll be able to do that for a while...' Raith thought. He had been in a slumber for who knows how long, that was when his eye twitched as he could feel a presence in front of him. 'Huh?'
Raith opened both his eyes and looked to see that it was Natsu and Happy, the former having a marker in his hands. Raith just blinked owlishly at them before narrowing his eyes at the marker they had.
"Uh~... hey, Raith." Natsu greeted. They both began to sweat though when Raith sat up from the couch in a similar fashion a zombie would, they both flinched at the terrifying glare that he gave them.
"Natsu... Happy..." Raith's voice seemingly emotionless as he said their names, this just made them feel more frightened. "Do you need some kind of punishment? Because I can arrange it for you."
"N-No, sir!" Natsu and Happy said simultaneously. Raith leaned in and gave a hardened glare that made them shake immensely. "Ah! Erza number two!"
"I have no idea who this Erza person is, but you better not think of drawing on me. "Raith sighed. He stopped glaring at them and softened his eyes, this brought major relief over the fire dragon slayer and the exceed.
"Alright! Now, let's go draw on Lucy!" Natsu declared. Happy gave a cheerful 'Aye!' in response. Raith could only sweatdrop at their 180 turn in their expressions, it was fear before, but now it was mischievousness.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Of course! Let's go!" Natsu stated. Natsu grabbed Raith's arm as he ran over to Lucy's room, Raith could only deadpan as his body was waving in the air from the pull that Natsu was performing.
They were now looking down at the face of Lucy, she was sleeping soundly, Happy and Natsu had their markers in their hands while Raith was just standing next to them with a deadpanned look on his face.
"Try not to wake her up now, Natsu." Happy warned. "So, what exactly are you going to draw onto her?"
"First a mustache, of course... Then thick eyebrows... And nose hairs..." Natsu began to list off the things he was going to draw.
"Natsu..." Raith's voice called. Natsu and Happy stopped as they looked at him, he pointed behind them as they both turned to look at what the Sky Dragon Slayer was pointing at. "What is this?"
Raith's eyes scanned over the pictures of multiple people, all of them having extremely detailed notes beside each of them, it looked almost like a map. Raith saw Happy and Natsu staring silently at the board.
"Guys, it's everyone's locations..." Happy voiced. "Along with really detailed notes."
"You mean your guildmates?" Raith asked.
"Aye..." Was Happy's response. "There are even eyewitness sighting, dates..."
Raith quickly understood why she had this board displayed, she had missed her guildmates an incredible amount and she had wanted to know where they were. The three of them then turned to look at Lucy.
"Lucy..." Natsu had muttered.
"Eh?! What in the world is this?!" Lucy wondered. She was staring wide-eyed outside her window as multiple soldiers were seen surrounding the place. "Why are these soldiers in front of my house first thing in the morning?!"
Raith was deadpanning as he looked at Natsu who was rubbing the back of his head, he had a bored look his face as he was doing so. Happy was standing beside him as he looked up towards Natsu.
"You can blame Natsu and Happy for that one, they did a little something not too long ago, which probably angered a couple of people..." Raith stated.
"It seems like they sniffed us out already."
"Aye..."
"So the two of you are behind this?!" Lucy shouted. Her face showing shock and disbelief along with her eyes bulging out from her head.
"Nevermind that! Let's go, Lucy! Raith!" Raith kept deadpanning as he was grabbed by the arm again and began to get pulled somewhere, but this time, with Lucy in tow.
"What did you even do?!" Lucy demanded. Raith got free from Natsu's grip as they all then jumped out of the window, smashing it to pieces at the same time.
"Run for it, we're bringing Fairy Tail back together! But, this time, we have our new friend joining us as well!" Raith grinned as Natsu grinned back. Lucy looked shocked at this but then smiled at them.
"Right!"
The group were now in a town that was stationed over the mountains that they ended up venturing over, they did have to stop and sleep the night since it had gotten really late when they left Crocus.
"So, where exactly is this?" Raith asked. He looked around at the town that they had found themselves in, it seemed quite peaceful.
"Tuly Village!" Lucy answered. She was holding some kind of paper in her hands as she did so, Happy and Raith looked at her while Natsu seemed to be staring off at something. "We should stay here for the night."
"Aye!"
"Sure." Happy and Raith replied. Happy and Raith then noticed Natsu's strange behavior as Raith raised his eyebrows at the fire dragon slayer. "Is something wrong, Natsu?"
"..." Natsu was silent as he kept staring at something. They all turned their heads to see that he was looking at a clock tower, a strangely shaped on. Happy widened his eyes at the sight of the tower as a look of realization hit him.
"Oh! That's the clock tower that you ended up wrecking a long time ago." Happy stated. Raith sweatdropped once again at the statement, he could tell that Natsu was the very destructive type...
"Yeah. I'm glad that it got fixed." Natsu voiced. Happy then narrowed his eyes and leaned in slightly before saying. "But, there's that big part on it that really doesn't seem to match any of the rest.
"Yeah," Natsu said in another monotone voice. "So... should I wreck the thing again?"
"Natsu..." Raith sweatdropped.
"No, you should definitely not do that!" Lucy scolded. She rolled the paper she was holding and smacked Natsu across the head. "We'll be in a lot of trouble if you did!"
"Geh... but, I need something to break!" Natsu stated. His face showing discomfort and dissatisfaction, making Raith sweatdrop again. "I had done all of that training to get as strong as I am now, but for what reason have I done that?!"
"Calm down, Natsu," Raith said. But Natsu completely ignored it as his face showed even more dissatisfaction.
"I fought the tournament's winning team, but they were a complete joke!" Natsu roared. He then proceeded to punch the air. "I had even planned on kicking Gray's butt! As well as take on Erza and Laxus as soon as I got back!"
"Gray may be one thing, but fighting Erza adn Laxus would be completely crazy." Happy stated nonchalantly.
"I know! Raith, I want that rematch!" Natsu declared. Appearing suddenly in front of the Sky Dragon Slayer, surprising him a bit.
"Sorry, Natsu. Some other time." Raith chuckled at Natsu's depressed face. Though his face quickly changed to determination as he shouted. "No! Let's have a fight right now!" Natsu began running at Raith who just deadpanned before swiftly giving a kick that shot Natsu into the air and crashing onto the ground.
"That was fast!" Lucy gawked.
"Even if you were to challenge Raith again, he would totally wipe the floor with you!" Happy said cheerfully. Natsu stood up and turned to Happy with anger in his eyes as he gave off a scream that said 'What?!'. Natsu then clicked his tongue before turning to Lucy.
"You'll do just fine, Lucy! Fight me!"
"No way... is what I would like to say, but I've done my own secret training!" Lucy stated. Her face had a smirk as she did so, this prompted Natsu to looked interested. "I'll never beat you in a serious fight, but maybe we can spar sometimes?"
"Hold on!" Natsu yelled. Lucy looked confused as Raith also heard and sensed what Natsu had just did, Raith decided to leave it to Natsu. That was when Natsu shot fire from his mouth right under Lucy's legs that got fired into the distance.
"What in the world was that about?!" Lucy demanded. Her face pouting at Natsu, Raith just followed along with Natsu as they continued walking, with Lucy still a bit behind them. "You could have burned me!"
"Oh, it was nothing!" Natsu assured.
"I'll have you know that I've gotten stronger!"
"Nah. I'm not really feelin' fired up."
"You can't be serious?!"
After trying to pinpoint where the members of the Fairy Tail guild were, the group had decided to just head over to the next town over, the town was called Margaret Town. This was decided since they had no way of knowing the exact locations of the members.
When they arrived at the town, Raith had decided to leave the group for a bit as he wanted to explore. They didn't mind as he quickly ran off on his own, he had explored quite a bit of the town and was interested in seeing everything the world had gained since his time.
"Wow, the world sure has advanced since then." Raith smiled. He rather liked the new things, a few things were weird to him, but he didn't mind. Raith then leaned against one of the walls as he then frowned. "I wonder if the others have woken yet..."
He thought on the matter for a while, if he had woken up, then there was a high chance that the other five had also woken up. He then frowned further before looking around, making sure no one was watching.
He grabbed his right sleeved and moved it upwards, when he did, it revealed a strange circular symbol with numbers, it was golden in colour and seemed to move. "It's almost time... for the countdown to begin."
Raith shook his head as he quickly pulled the sleeve back down, he then proceeded to walk off into the crowd to find and meet back up with Natsu and Lucy.
When Raith had met back up with Natsu and Lucy, he was surprised when he was suddenly pulled and brought along with them, apparently, they had found one of their old members. He ended up meeting someone called Carla as well, also one of their old members.
"You know, I could have just walked on my own." Raith deadpanned. Natsu just laughed it off as he was the one that had pulled Raith. "You can be such a pain sometimes..."
"Oh, lighten up! We're going to see an old friend of ours!" Natsu grinned. Raith just shrugged his shoulders at this, they were currently being lead by a member of the guild known as Lamia Scale.
Raith met him not too long after the group dragged him along with them, the male had pale blue hair that was spiky, the person was none other than Lyon Vastia. They continued walking through the halls before stopping at one of the rooms.
"Wendy. You have some visitors." Lyon's voice called. Raith stayed next to Natsu as they waited behind Lyon. Raith had no idea who this Wendy person was, but he had figured that they most likely were the member Natsu and Lucy were looking for.
"Huh?" The voice of a young girl was heard. The person revealed to be a girl who had long blue hair that was tied into pigtails, she wore a red outfit along with long socks and a black skirt, there was also an orange bow tied onto the chest area.
There was also a girl that was leaning against the pillar beside her, this person had pinkish hair tied with orange ribbons, she wore a blue skirt and a white shirt that also had an orange bow near the chest area.
"Yo!" Natsu called out.
"Long time, no see!" Lucy had also called out while waving at the girl. Happy then appeared while waving both his arms, Raith was just standing by, he really had nothing to say since he had never met the person before. Happy then shouted.
"How's it going, Wendy?!"
"Natsu! Lucy! And Happy!" The girl known as Wendy shouted. Her eyes having tears swelling at the corners, she looked incredibly happy to see her friends. Natsu grinned as he walked over and began patting her on the head.
"Have you gotten taller?"
"No... Not even a little."
"Oh..." Raith then deadpanned as Natsu picked Wendy up and carried her on his shoulder. "Well, it's time to go home!"
They all settled down on a small makeshift table with cups of tea given to each one of them, Raith had introduced himself to them all as they all got well acquainted. Natsu and Lucy decided to explain everything they had planned.
"You're getting everyone back together to rebuild Fairy Tail?" Wendy asked. She seemed surprised after they had explained everything to her.
"That's right. Our master's been missing this whole past year." Lucy voiced. "I'm pretty certain that it has something to do with the guild's sudden disbanding."
"It seems that the Council is also apparently concerned about Mr. Makarov as well," Lyon added. Natsu then gave a look of disgust towards him after hearing the word 'Council' being stated in the sentence.
"The Council? Man, I hate that name so much..."
"I had thought there was no Council anymore." Happy stated. The cat then turned towards Raith and asked. "What about you? There wasn't a Council anymore, right?"
"I have no idea. Remember, I'm not even from Fiore." Raith responded. Happy widened his eyes in remembrance as he rubbed the back of his head embarrassed.
"Oh yeah, I completely forgot."
"It makes sense for you three not to know, Raith for obvious reasons, and you two since you were in the mountains the entire time." Lucy chimed in. That was when Yuka added. "The wizard guilds need a council in place to operate properly, so the Ten Wizard Saints got together a year ago and formed a new Council."
"That's right!" The person known as Toby began to shed tears as he added. "Jura had left us for the Council!"
"Stop crying." Yuka deadpanned.
"The Ten Wizard Saints, huh...?" Natsu dragged on. His face then shifted into that of glee as he grinned. "That sure sounds like a strong Council!"
"So, does that mean that our master is a member of the council now?" Happy asked. His face showing curiosity as he asked this.
"Actually. He had disappeared, but he was supposed to be one of them." Lucy was the one that answered this question. "We don't know where he is."
"Well, it does sound like an annoying job to have. Maybe he just ran away?" Natsu suggested. Raith chuckled and shook his head.
"I highly doubt so, Natsu. Your master must have had a perfectly good reason for his sudden disappearance." Raith stated. Raith then turned and looked at Natsu, that was when he rose an eyebrow at a lump under Natsu's chin. "What's wrong with your chin?"
"Did you forget, Raith?" Happy and Lucy asked. They were both sweatdropping as Raith just looked confused, he then saw Natsu waving his arms at him.
"You did this to me! Remember that kick you gave me back in Tuly Village!" Natsu shouted with comical anger. Raith blinked a couple of times before remembering as he sweatdropped as the scene played back in his head.
"Oh, I remember now! Sorry about that..." Raith apologized. Natsu just grumbled at him, causing the boy to sigh as the others sweatdropped at the scene. "Hold still."
"Eh?" Natsu muttered. He then saw Raith hold his hand towards Natsu's face, that was when a dense green light engulfed the boy's hand, they watched in shock as the bump disappeared in the matter of a single second. "Oh, thanks!"
"No problem." Lucy was slightly surprised, but she had already been told the magic that Raith used, it surprised her at first immensely. Happy just grinned as he watched Raith using his magic.
"Healing magic?!" Wendy and Sherria gasped. They had just witnessed someone using magic that was similar to theirs. Both being Sky Slayers, they were shocked to an incredible degree after witnessing the feat.
"I guess you could say that..." Raith stated. They then watched as Natsu wrapped his arm around Raith's shoulders while giving a grin.
"He's no ordinary healing mage, he's like you guys!" Natsu stated. The girls blinked in confusion by what he meant, Natsu explained further and they were surprised. "He's a slayer mage, just like us!"
"Aye! Not any slayer mage either!" Happy added. They turned to Happy and listened curiously. "You'll be surprised, Wendy! He's a Sky Dragon Slayer!"
"What?!" Wendy gawked. She turned to the boy who just gave a soft smile, this resulted in her cheeks slightly turning red.
"Yeah! A powerful one too!" Natsu grinned. Lyon looked on in interest, he was looking curiously at Raith.
'This child, I'm sensing incredible magic power...' Lyon thought. 'He hides it incredibly well, but I'm still sensing something incredible. He might be stronger than Jura!'
"I guess so..." Raith feeling slightly embarrassed, he wasn't one to brag about anything, especially his power. "Anyway, shouldn't we get to more important matters?"
"Oh, right!" Natsu replied. He then grinned as they all looked at Wendy, who was still looking at Raith in shock. "Come with us, Wendy!"
"..." Wendy seemed to shake out of her surprise before looking down, Raith looked confused at her action. She then looked up at them and smiled sadly. "I'm a Lamia Scale Wizard now, I can't go with you."
"Eh?!"