Wow, this is a long chapter. Oh wait never mind, it's just a chapter with mini chapters added to it.
Mini chapters are chapters with information about how the Shields are doing. May include foreshadowing, clues on a mystery of this AU, and how Natsu impacted their lives.
WARNING: THERE IS A LOT OF INFORMATION IN THIS CHAPTER. (Try not to get confused XD)
Chapter Four
Not a Criminal
~Fiore | Prison Chambers~~~
After a few minutes of staring at the ceiling of his empty cell, Natsu did not expect the ground beneath him to suddenly crumble and sink into the ground like quicksand. Natsu, being the lazy ass he was, didn't move from the spot as he thought wherever this sinkhole led to couldn't be any worse than Irene's 'special training'. He couldn't help but wonder what the Shields were doing in Alvarez. They were probably panicking or doing the same as usual or perhaps both.
He sank in the hole out of his own volition and it only took about two minutes for him to catch fresh air again. The ground seemed to disappear for a brief moment as he found himself falling freely for about another minute until he felt his back crash into a rocky ground. After groaning for how he regretted doing nothing when he fell, he noticed the area he fell into was a lot like a cavern. There was a sign that read: "Welcome to the Capital of Death, the Abyss Palace"
Natsu wondered how such a dark name of a place could sound so welcoming. Even the letters were written with blood, how nice.
He suddenly heard a voice. "Who's there?" some voice that sounded like an old man shouted.
Natsu turned his head to find three people approaching him. A pumpkin man, one that looked almost exactly like the pumpkin man he kicked and got arrested for kicking, and a girl around his age.
"Another criminal, apparently," the girl with emerald green hair gasped. "A scary one too, maybe we should keep our distance."
"You know I can hear you," Natsu growled which caused frightened looks from the two. Ignoring their fear, Natsu asked, "What is this place."
The pumpkin man reluctantly answered, "You're in the Capital of Death, the place where the most dangerous criminals get placed to get executed."
"Really? What did you do?" Natsu wondered.
"As if we would tell a criminal like you," the green haired girl hissed.
"Aren't you a criminal too? Since you're down here in a place where all criminals go into?"
"We're not criminals!" the green haired girl shouted in annoyance.
"Then what are you?" Natsu asked, the quickly turned his gaze to where a murderous aura suddenly appeared. There, he saw a man standing, with murderous intent radiating off of him.
The others noticed the presence of this man and started sweating bullets. "Run!" the pumpkin man yelled to his female companion but it was no use as they were all surrounded by the man and four other people.
"I am the Garou Knight, Kama. I suggest you stay still so your death will be painless," the man wore an intimidating mask and his purple shaved hair barely showed underneath his hood.
Natsu looked around and analyzed the type of people around them. "So you're here to kill us?"
"Any criminal who ends up here is sentenced to death. We are executioners who kill all criminals that end up here where there is no hope for them."
"Like I told you, we're not criminals!" the green haired girl yelled.
"Shut up, impersonator," one of the Garou knights cackled.
"No, you should shut your mouth! I am princess Hisui and I order you to stand down!" the now self-proclaimed princess yelled.
"As if we hadn't heard that a hundred times before," one of the female executioners chuckled as she held up a few pieces of paper.
Kama drew his double scythes out and positioned them in a way like he was the dual wielding grim reaper. The other four also readied their weapons and magic to prepare to attack. "Life is short, repent for your sins."
The pumpkin head and Hisui cowered and covered their eyes as they prepared to die.
Natsu was about to give these executioners a taste of his own magic, but then he realized he shouldn't get into more trouble by beating the crap out of officials of a kingdom that is not his. As much as he loved fighting and was itching for a nice fight in this new environment, Natsu restrained himself from engulfing everyone in a simple attack like Fire Dragon's Roar. Instead, Natsu grabbed Hisui and the man in the pumpkin costume and quickly leaped high up into the air as the Garou knights executed their attacks.
The pumpkin man and Hisui both screamed in fear as they didn't expect to be carried by this strange new man they just met into such a great distance into the air. Natsu jumped high enough to reach a stalagmite, then he tried to shush the pumpkin and self-proclaimed princess from screaming any further while group hugging them and a stalagmite.
Natsu looked down below to the ground to see the area the Garou Knights surrounded suddenly explode with green colored slips of papers, purple acid, and venus flytraps. Natsu thought the ground started trembling because of all the combined magic attacks used by the Garou Knights, but he noticed how the heat of the ground was starting to heat up. The ground then cracked to reveal a pool of lava rising up. The fire dragon-slayer wondered what lava would taste like.
The Garou knights seemed to think they finally done the job and completely annihilated the three people they surrounded and used their combined attacks to finish. They were actually fooled, as Natsu saw them disperse with satisfied looks.
With his enhanced hearing, Natsu dropped down from the Stalagmite when the footsteps of the Garou Knights seemed to be far away, and when the ground beneath them suddenly returned back to normal. However, he forgot to warn the pumpkin man and the princess that he was going to return to the ground, so when he let go of the Stalagmite and fell, the two started screaming like it was going to be the end of their life.
As the screams echoed through the cavern of the Abyss Palace, the five Garou knights immediately appeared at Natsu's location again.
"So you somehow escaped that attack…" Kama said with no expression shown. The Garou Knights smiled with interest and started to prepare their attacks.
Natsu sweat-dropped and let go of Hisui and the pumpkin man. He guessed that maybe he could beat the crap out of these executioners with the excuse of self-defense.
Natsu smirked as he spun around and yelled, "Fire Dragon's Roar!" as a fire blew out of his mouth and engulfed all the Garou knights and negated their magic attacks. It also, unfortunately, caught the short man's pumpkin costume on fire.
"HOT!" the pumpkin man screamed and tried to pat out the flames.
"Dragon-slayer magic?" Hisui gasped in surprise.
The fires from his magic attack immediately died down to reveal four of the Garou knights charred, and fainted the floor.
Natsu sighed in disappointment as this fight appeared to be a bit too underwhelming. Kama, however, was the only one who seemed to be untouched by Natsu's magic.
Kama's eyes were wide with surprise for a brief moment. "Interesting. For a criminal in the Abyss Palace, you seem to be significantly stronger than the rest. I'm surprised the guards were able to catch you."
"So you acknowledge the weakness of your own kingdom's guards. This country really is weird," Natsu laughed as he coughed out a little bit of fire.
Kama narrowed his eyes and charged into Natsu. Natsu engulfed his fist in flame as he waited for the right moment to strike. As soon as Kama's scythes were in range, Natsu threw his flaming punch towards the scythe, but the flames surrounding his fist suddenly disappeared.
"These scythes negate magic, now prepare to d—" Kama stopped in sentence as Natsu punched through the blade of the scythe, cracking apart the scythe as a whole. Natsu then lunged and punched Kama in the chest which blew the executioner hundreds of meters away. His scythes dropped to the ground, all broken into little shards of metal.
Pumpkin head and the two girls had their eyes bulging out and mouths gaping wide as they could hear the echo of Kama's crash throughout the whole cavern.
"Wha—"
Natsu looked at his fist to find a cut similar to a paper cut from him punching the scythe with just his bare fists. "Ouch…"
The pumpkin man —with his pumpkin costume thing slightly burnt— approached Natsu. "Who are you really? There's no way those idiots for guards could capture some one as strong as you."
Natsu sweat-dropped. "Alright, apparently I'm guilty for accidentally kicking a pumpkin that looks a lot like the pumpkin costume you're wearing."
The pumpkin man somehow looked like he understood what Natsu meant by 'kicking a pumpkin'.
"So is that it? Are those the only executioners here?" Natsu asked as he saw nothing but rocks and sand everywhere. "How do I get out?"
"You have to find a gigantic door. It leads outside to the basement of the palace," the pumpkin man told Natsu with uncertainty.
"Oh, really?" Natsu crossed his arms behind his head as he started walking forward. He quickly noticed that the others were following him. He didn't ask them why, he figured that they're staying near him just in case an executioner regains consciousness and attacks them again or something like that.
He glanced behind himself, where pumpkin man and the girl was following him. They were startled when he asked, "So what's the situation here? So are you criminals?" He glanced at the green haired girl. "Are you self-proclaimed royalty of the criminals or something?"
The self-proclaimed princess almost smacked Natsu in the face, "Of course we're not!" she yelled, but the dragonslayer smirked and dodged.
"Then what are you?"
The two were silent.
"No reply then? That's okay."
"The royal family had been framed and impersonated," the pumpkin man spoke, to Hisui's surprise.
"Father! What do you think you're telling this man? You can't trust him" the green haired girl questioned the white haired girl's actions.
"This guy is strong, maybe he can help us," Hisui's father said.
Sweat was visible from the green haired girl as she looked at Natsu and decided whether she should trust him or not. She looked at man in the pumpkin costume and hesitantly nodded.
"The daughter of the royal family made a deal with a certain man and if certain conditions were met, the princess would allow the man to use the Eclipse gate."
Natsu got really interested when she mentioned the Eclipse Gate.
"The man told the princess that he was going to use the Eclipse Gate to go back in time to kill the Black Wizard Zeref back when he was not immortal."
The dragon-slayer flinched. He wondered why anyone would ever want to kill his brother. And what is the nonsense about this nickname 'Black Wizard'? Well… Zeref does always wear black, and he is a wizard...
"But the man lied. The princess soon found out that the man had different intentions with the Eclipse gate and tried to stop him. The man was, however, very strong, so he dumped her into Abyss Palace. The man was also somehow able to throw the king to the Abyss Palace and impersonate the king to manage all the preparations for Eclipse at the above. It's been a month now since the king and princess have been stuck in Abyss Palace, running from their executioner's each day until they can find a way to escape."
"So that's why I arrested for kicking that pumpkin. The guards thought I assaulted their king!" Natsu realized and then his thoughts shifted to wondering what Zeref would look like in a pumpkin costume. "Doesn't explain how the pumpkin and princess survived for a month if they easily got surrounded by the executioners when I arrived."
"Hey!" The green haired girl growled but Natsu ignored her.
Natsu narrowed his eyes. So that's the whole story that's going on… everything's making a little more sense.
He suddenly caught a whiff of some fresh air. He turned his head to face a giant cavern wall to notice that the giant door was camouflaged to meet the same color of the cavern wall.
"Is that the exit?" he asked and pointed to the door that so easily blended with its surroundings.
The pumpkin man noticed and yelled. "Hisui! That door leads to the exit! Get out there and tell everyone what's happening before it's too late!"
The princess nodded and quickly ran to the door and exited.
The pumpkin man looked at Natsu for a second, wondering if he could trust this boy with the information he had. This pink haired man didn't seem all too bad. After a few seconds, he decided to ask Natsu for a favor. "Could you take this helmet off of me please? I can't see well in this helmet in the dark, but it's stuck."
Natsu nodded, and burnt the helmet into ashes into an instant, to the man in the pumpkin costume's surprise. It was revealed that an old man was wearing the pumpkin helmet. He seemed a bit old… a bit too old to have a daughter as young as Hisui, Natsu thought. He also realized that this man looked oddly familiar.
"I am Toma E. Fiore, also known as the king who rules over the kingdom of Fiore," the old man introduced himself as he narrowed his eyes to get a clear look at this pink haired man's face.
The clear image of Natsu immediately clicked in the king's mind.
Then the king's eyes popped out.
His jaw dropped down to the ground.
His heart stopped for five seconds.
His face was absolutely frozen.
He probably realized Natsu was a Prince.
The Prince of Alvarez.
The Kingdom that Could Potentially
Destroy
Fiore.
All of Fiore.
And Probably More.
And this Prince
Was in the Capital of Death.
The Capital of Death of his kingdom.
Why.
"WHAT ON EARTHLAND!? YOU'RE— Y— YOU— OH MY GOD!"
Natsu covered his ears in terror, this old man's screaming was deadly, more deadly than when Irene accidentally walked in on August in the bathroom— and that was literally deadly. The nonstop bloody fighting over locking the door or knocking on the door… To think two of the most oldest and mature of the Spriggans would have a fight over such stuff. Natsu shivered at such a horrifying memory.
The king rapidly took in breaths as he couldn't get this horrible feeling of shock and surprise out of his system. By this time he should've gotten a heart attack.
After ten minutes, the king's breathing was finally somewhat normal. "Y-young man… can I see your right shoulder, please?" he asked, as if he wanted to clarify something.
Natsu complied to the king's request as he remembered why Toma, the king of Fiore looked so familiar. A few years ago, the king had visited Alvarez to discuss some trade issues with some of the Shields while Zeref was away. Natsu remembered that he barged into the conference room with Larcade, demanding for food because the other Shields had apparently destroyed their food storage.
Natsu rolled up his sleeve to reveal a red mark of Alvarez's royal crest on his right shoulder. He cringed, as he predicted a loud scream.
"THE PRINCE OF ALVAREZ?! — *deep breath*
"WHAT ON EARTHLAND AND GATES OF HELL IS THE PRINCE OF ALVAREZ DOING IN THE CAPITAL OF DEATH IN MY KINGDOM!? — *deep breath*
"WHAT DO THOSE IDIOTIC GUARDS OF MINE THINK THEY'RE DOING?! — *deep breath*
"MY COUNTRY IS DOOMED!" The king finally finished screaming but voice rang and echoed many times throughout the cavern, almost rupturing Natsu's eardrums. Soon after, the king's voice finally died, and the king finally fainted, Natsu assumed from a heart attack.
Natsu sweat-dropped as he muttered to himself, "Congratulations, Fiore, you have beat Mest in the record panicking yourself to death…"
He sighed and picked up the king, in bridle style, and walked to the giant door with a long flight of stairs behind it.
Natsu stopped before he exited the Abyss Palace. He looked down at Fiore and realized that things could get a bit problematic if he accidentally killed the king by giving him a massive heart attack… Oh… this could be bad...
Mini Chapter 1
Mystery of the Once Cruel Ruler
~Pergrande Kingdom~~~
The buildings were tall, decorated with all sorts of stained glass and plants. The streets were buzzing with many people and their magic-fueled vehicles. The grounds were illuminated with light lacrimas that glowed in the night of the city. There were balloons tied to the ground. Many stands were open and selling the public all sorts of goods.
"It seems like many countries in Ishgar are holding celebrations or holidays this week. Some celebrations are either a yearly tradition or some are held in honor of the eclipse," August said, as he took a map from a pile of maps sitting on a table next to an ice cream stand.
"There's so many people smiling like happy idiots. And so many girls. Maybe I should strip them," Dimaria chuckled.
"I wonder what desserts they have," Brandish wondered.
August, Dimaria, and Brandish were standing in the center of Pergrande Kingdom's central plaza. August held up the map of Earthland and pointed to their current location.
"So the plan is: We start here at Pergrande Kingdom and search everywhere. Then we walk to Sin, then sail to Enca, then sail to Midi, then walk to Minstrel, then to Joya, then to Desierto, to Bellum, Iceberg, Stella, Bosco, Seven, Fiore, then finally Caelum. At least, until we find his highness," August said as he pointed to each country and Kingdom.
Brandish's eyes twitched as she realized how much work this really was. She thought that August would just cast a search magic, but apparently the old geezer didn't bother to learn universal search magic. He only learned search magic within an approximate radius of Alvarez and that's how he keeps track of Natsu in Alvarez,
Dimaria's eyes also twitched. "How come Alakitasia isn't on this map?" she asked.
August ignored her as he continued to explain the plan. "Plan A is all three of us will split up and each of us will search a third of this kingdom. This may take a couple of days. Plan B is we speak to the rulers and seek aid in our search"
Brandish scoffed, "Yeah right. These rulers are too arrogant and selfish to lend us help, even if they knew we were the Shields of Alvarez."
"I say we do Plan A," Dimaria nodded.
The other two agreed. August smiled for a second, noticing that the two girls who always fight just agreed to something without glaring daggers at each other. He turned away to hide this smile, and he went his own way to search for Natsu.
Brandish was also about to go her own way to first find if this country had star mango gelato but Dimaria blocked her path.
"Randi," she said. "Let's have a private chat first before we proceed with the plan."
"But my star mango gelato is waiting for me," Brandish complained.
"There are none on this continent," Dimaria snapped and facepalmed.
Brandish stared at her rival with a sulky face. "Fine, I guess I'll talk with you while I look for something good to eat…"
Dimaria sighed. She first looked around her surroundings to see if August was near. Once the coast was clear, Dimaria asked, "Did you know that the Emperor intends to have Natsu kill him and die with him?"
"Yeah, I'm fully aware of that. August told me a long time ago," Brandish said as she put a spoonful of star mango gelatin (that came out of seemingly nowhere) in her mouth and blushed. "Yum."
"How come I'm the only one who didn't know this? Aren't I an old Shield here?"
"Only until you reach the age of August or Irene," Brandish snickered.
Dimaria sighed. She stared at the bowl of star mango gelatin. The country demolisher quickly hid the dessert behind her back. The time mage quickly complained, "Can't you just enlarge the dessert to a bigger size so we can share?"
"No, this is mine, and mine alone!" Brandish hissed as she turned around and ate more of the dessert with her back facing her rival.
Dimaria's stomach growled as she started to get back on topic. "So what do you think about that situation?"
"It's my star mango gelato!" Brandish hissed again.
"Not that part!" Dimaria was tempted to freeze time and eat the dessert in front of Brandish in stopped time.
Brandish turned around to face her, with chubby cheeks and an empty bowl in her hands.
"I think you don't need to worry about the Emperor and Natsu," the size-shifter mage answered. "Before Natsu was introduced to the the palace, August once told me that the Emperor had a brother that he wanted to use to kill himself. August said that the Emperor planned to have Natsu grow up with powerful mages in a separate continent. That was the Emperor's first intention. But then, his plan obviously changed when one day, the Emperor introduced Natsu as his brother to the kingdom."
"So since the Emperor's plan changed, then his intention has probably changed too," Dimaria concluded.
"Precisely. I wasn't exactly a part of the Shields at that time, but apparently the Emperor's personality completely changed when he brought Natsu to the kingdom. Before, he used to to be cruel, and look at all his people with fake kindness with no care for their well-being. He considered everyone as pawns. But after, the Emperor suddenly turned nice and caring of everyone. This drastic change in personality brought instant fear to his current Shields."
"Why?"
Brandish looked at Dimaria with a dull expression. "You are really ill informed… Supposedly, the Emperor has a curse. It makes him immortal but he is not allowed to care for life or else the curse will activate and kill every living thing in his range."
"Why did you say 'supposedly'?"
"I have never seen this curse activate. Although I do suppose he has been taking a lot of 'vacations' away from the kingdom."
"Maybe he's trying to lift his curse or something since he now has two family members he should care about at the kingdom," Dimaria mumbled.
Once the conversation stopped, the two girls stood in silence— with the background noise of a bustling city in the middle of a cheerful celebration event.
"Oh crap, we should start searching for the prince right now!" Dimaria realized as she started running to her side of the kingdom that she was supposed to search.
Brandish agreed as she ran off to her own assigned searching area.
Mini Chapter 2
The Drunk Man
~Pergrande Kingdom~~~
August sighed as he noticed that Dimaria and Brandish were stationary and not moving to search for Natsu. They were probably having a private conversation or something.
He shook his head and continued to walk in the long, busy roads of Pergrande.
Suddenly, he saw the window of a building next to him suddenly shatter and a large man thrown through it. The man would've collided into the August if he hadn't dodged.
The man somehow made a flip in the air even at such low altitude and space, and landed on the ground with his feet. He had slightly long combed, wavy orange hair and was wearing a cloak that covered most of his body. He appeared to be drunk… Very drunk. He collapsed to the floor mumbling a lot of random stuff while a woman walked to him, cursing and spitting before she left in a fit— which caught the attention of a few civilians enjoying their country's celebration.
August was about to ignore the man and keep on walking, but he noticed the man started to talk to him.
"Old man! It's been (hic) a long time! How're you doing?" the man's face was red from drinking so much and he hiccuped a bit.
August turned to the drunk man and replied, "I apologize, but I do not know you."
The drunkard rose an eyebrow, and shakily stood up. "My bad, my bad!" he laughed, "I thought you were ol' Makarov, but there's no way he'd be so tall. Or maybe he was, it's been like what, 14-15 years since I last saw him? Haha!"
The man kept mumbling more about unnecessary information so August just turned away to leave, but the drunk man called him again.
"Wait!" the man reached his hand out to August. He took a deep breath, before saying, "Do you have any cute granddaughters?"
At that, August had enough of this man's nonsense and left, muttering about how vulgar the men of other countries were.
Mini Chapter 3
The Secret Storage of Strawberry Shortcakes
"I— I finally finished! I'm finished with my godly training of the day at last!" God Serena yelled in glee as he was trying to climb up a hole. It was morning and Serena just survived his underground training to the core of Earthland. Once he finally reached the surface, he noticed Irene nor Ageel were no where near the training grounds. "What's the big deal? Where'd my mentors go? Maybe they realized I was too Godly to give mediocre training to and ditched me…" he said to himself.
God Serena then spotted Neinhart who was resting on a lawn chair reading a book and holding what seems to be leftover popcorn. He called out to him, "Hey! Irene's lackey! Do you know where Irene or Sandman went off to?"
"I'm not Lady Irene's lackey!" Neinhart snapped and shook his head as he decided Serena was not worth getting into an argument with. "I do not know where Sir Ageel went off to, but I may have a faint clue as to where Lady Irene is." He closed his book and stood up.
"Follow me," Neinhart said, without giving looking at God Serena.
"A God like me does not follow," God Serena noticed Neinhart ignored him. "But I suppose this God will walk behind you…"
Neinhart led him to the basement of the palace, an area God Serena had not fully explored yet. The two stopped before a stone brick wall.
"Lady Irene sometimes likes to hide here to regain her sanity," Neinhart said as he touched one of the stone bricks. The stone brick reacted by making the whole wall shake, and like an illusion, the stone bricks disappeared to reveal a wooden door.
"Regain her sanity..?" God Serena questioned, now curious and a bit concerned about what Neinhart meant by regaining her sanity. Does that mean she's normally insane? More insane than she usually is?
The Historia Mage opened the door to reveal a room. The room had the normal royal style of Alvarez, but everything inside the room looked all old. The floor was covered in plates. In each corner of the rectangular base room were dragon statues.
Neinhart and God Serena entered the room— careful to not step on any of the plates on the floor, to find Irene sitting at a fancy table, a cake on a plate sitting in front of her on the table. Irene seemed to be deep in thought as she didn't notice the presence of the two until Neinhart spoke.
"Lady Irene, I am sorry for intruding, but God Serena has finished the first part of the training you assigned him."
"Really? That was faster than expected," Irene said without turning around to face the two men. "Then… Ageel should have your next assignment."
Neinhart faced God Serena. "Well… you heard her. If you want to continue training, you should go see Ageel… Wherever he is."
God Serena 'hmmmed' in curiosity. "What's with all the plates on the floor," he asked Irene.
"It's nothing, just leave it alone," Irene said, before forking a piece of strawberry cake in her mouth. She snapped her fingers once and then all the plates on the floor suddenly disappeared.
Neinhart was giving Serena the 'you should go leave' look. The multi-element dragon-slayer smirked. "I was told that you go here to regain your sanity. What's up with that?"
Irene placed her fork down, and still didn't turn to meet God Serena's eyes. "I don't believe you have the place to ask me questions, newcomer."
"You do have a point," God Serena nodded. Without another word, he turned around and left the room.
The Historia mage had a puzzled look.
"Neinhart, you look like you have something you want to say. You should say it," Irene said, while still staring at the cake.
Nainhart slightly tilted his head sideways. "Well… You never did tell me where your sudden obsession with strawberry shortcakes came from. It's been a few years since you started binging on such a delicate delight, but I thought your sense of taste was gone."
Irene nodded, "I guess we really haven't had a private conversation in a while, what with all the work going around. I suppose I'll tell you a little story."
Neinhart, thinking this story was going to be long, sat down in a chair across from Irene.
"It began when Natsu first came and I started to train him…"
~Flashback~~~
"Fire… Dragon… Yawn…" Natsu yelled in an exhausted voice as he suddenly collapsed to the ground before Irene. The two were training in Alvarez's finest, private training field. "I'm dying…"
"You're only dead when I tell you to be," Irene said, without really any emotion behind her voice. "I suggest you to not use your dragon slayer magic too much or you'll probably actually die… as a human."
"I think it'd be so cool to die and get reincarnated into a dragon," Natsu smiled, sweat all soaking his clothes and skin.
"Let me tell you a little secret. If you use too much dragon slaying magic, you'll eventually turn into a dragon."
"Cool!"
"No, it's not cool. If you turn into a dragon, you lose all your humanity," Irene snapped.
"What's wrong with losing your humanity?" Natsu asked.
Irene hesitated. "Well… You lose your sense of taste, you can't sleep… You get hated by humans… And other stuff too…"
Natsu stared into Irene's eyes. "How do you know all this stuff? Wait, were you a dragon before?"
Irene hit the ground hard with her staff, which made the ground tremble. "No! I was not a dragon before, I never was!" she yelled. "Training's over, go back to your room or whatever!"
The fire dragon-slayer quickly got up to his feet and ran to the palace, headed to his room.
Irene sighed. "Why did the Emperor want me to give lessons to such a boy…"
~The Next Day of Training…
"FIRE—! Bleh!" Natsu screamed as he tried charging toward the Scarlet Despair, but suddenly vomited and fell to the ground.
Irene didn't even bat an eye. "What's wrong?" she asked, but wasn't willing to do anything.
Natsu groaned. "Happy and I accidentally spilt a gigantic pile of raw fish in my room. At first we had fun and tried to swim in my fish filled room, but I think the smell that's on me is starting to get to me. It smells so horrible! But I can't help but get hungry when I think of cooking the fish...!"
Irene shook her head in disapproval. "Go take a shower. I can't have you throw up everywhere when the cause of your throw up is not a punch to the stomach."
"Yes Ma'am!" Natsu saluted. Before running to his private bathroom in the palace, he asked, "Aren't you bothered by the smell?"
"No. Now just go before I think of washing you in the shower."
Natsu took one last glance at Irene and then skedaddled to the bathroom.
~A few minutes later~
Natsu walked back to the training grounds with a curious expression. "Irene," he started to ask. "Can you tell me more about what happens to dragon-slayers when they turn into dragons?"
"How would I know? I was never a dragon," she lied.
"Zeref told me you were once a dragon."
Irene rolled her eyes. She thought she just had to train the boy, not give him her backstory. "Fine, I'll tell you my story. But I won't give the details."
Natsu nodded.
"I created dragon-slayer magic. I used so much that I started to turn into a dragon. The people started to fear me and so they started to beat me and torture me, and other stuff little kids your age shouldn't know about." Irene said everything in simple sentences in hopes to get through a simple mind. "I finally reached my breaking point and raged and fully transformed into a dragon. I destroyed everything. Then fled to an area in hopes that no one would find me because I hated being seen as a dragon. But then the Emperor found me and turned be back into a human but said I was still a dragon in the inside. I figured out that I couldn't do stuff that humans couldn't normally do like taste or sleep. After transforming back into a human, I was cursed with being stuck in a 'Dragon's soul'. And here I am, here in this Kingdom as a Shield of Alvarez."
"Woah… I don't think you'd make a good story teller," Natsu chuckled.
"You little—! Forget this, I'm too tired today. We'll resume training tomorrow," Irene stomped her feet and walked towards her own quarters.
Natsu smiled, "See you tomorrow!"
~Next Day~
Irene and Natsu met again, on the same slightly burnt training field as the day before and the day before. But this time, Natsu brought a box.
Natsu initiated the conversation. "I have a solution for your inability to taste."
His words actually got Irene's hopes up.
"First, you can accept that you are a dragon." This proposal resulted in Natsu getting crashed to the ground by an explosion that Irene created just above his head.
After groaning about how many bones he possibly broke, Natsu said, "My other solution is… You can accept you are human, and that you always have been. You can think, you can feel, you have ten fingers…. You look human and you can do about anything— if not more— than any other human can do. You just can't taste or sleep.
"But I have a solution for that!" Natsu held the box out to Irene.
Irene reluctantly took it and opened the box.
"...A cake?"
"A Strawberry short cake to be specific. Larcade and I baked it especially for you," Natsu seemed proud in his baking skills.
"What's the point? I can't even—"
"Just try it."
Irene shook her head. Either this was going to do nothing or this cake was poisoned. Either way, nothing would happen. She took a fork that was placed in the box and took off a piece of the cake. The moment her tongue touched the cake, her eyes started to water. "This tastes… horrible!"
"Aw…" Natsu lowered his head in disappointment.
"I can taste that it's horrible? This must be some sort of miracle! What did you do?"
Natsu put his thumbs up. "I made Larcade use his magic on this food. According to him, it's supposed to activate your pleasure senses so that it leads you into thinking that what you taste is good. I never thought that his pervert magic would be useful! Haha!" he laughed. "But you're not supposed to think that you tasted something bad… Maybe my baking skills really do suck, or perhaps Larcade's magic is faulty."
"This is good enough!" Irene cheered in excitement. She was so stunned. She never thought she was ever going to taste anything— or anything bad tasting— in forever.
"There's more good news!" Natsu smiled. "I figured out that your inability to taste or sleep isn't because you're a dragon!"
"What?"
"Remember the other day when I was covered in fish stench? I noticed how you didn't react to the putrid stench at all. Dragon slayers are supposed to have enhanced smell, so the stench should have affected you even more, like at least make a green face when I vomited. Assuming that you didn't have a sense of smell, I did some research and I learned that most of what we think of taste is actually smell. So basically if you can't smell, you can't really taste much either."
Irene nodded. She didn't really think that she lost her sense of smell since everything 400 years ago didn't exactly smell great. She didn't even think about the odor of flowers, flowers that everyone said to smell good.
"The cause of your loss of smell is probably from the beating you received when those humans, since some cases of loss of smell is from damage to certain nerves in the brain."
Irene was actually shocked. This kid that Zeref had brought in a couple days ago is actually pretty smart.
"As for your inability to sleep, my guess is that it's most likely caused by stress from believing you're a dragon, something you always told yourself you weren't, and probably from post traumatic stress disorder— remembering the bad times of your past and staying in constant worry."
Irene looked at Natsu in awe. A light shined down on her like when Zeref turned her back to her human form.
"While this is all theoretical, my guess is that if you were actually a dragon, you would actually be able to taste and sleep. My brother probably told you that you were still a dragon in the inside because you probably have a longer life-span and you don't need to sleep in order to stay alive. So if I were you, I'd actually wish I was a dragon," Natsu chuckled.
Irene smiled, for the first time in front of Natsu. And then she suddenly paused to think on a certain two words. 'My brother…' Her eyes suddenly widened.
"The Emperor is your brother?!" Irene recalled the day Zeref introduced Natsu to the kingdom. He said nothing about there being a blood relationship between the two of them. She just thought that Zeref brought Natsu to the kingdom as a potential Shield.
"Oh right… I was supposed to keep that a secret a while longer… hehe…"
Irene shook her head in disbelief. Wait, then Natsu is also around 400 years old… These Dragneel brothers are weird… and geniuses.
Natsu decided to change the subject back to the original subject. "Even more good news, I think I know of a way to cure your inability to smell and taste. If my theory is correct, then if we just heal the damaged nerves that cause you to not be able to smell, then you should be able to regain your lost senses. While I highly doubt there are any doctors who can heal nerves, I do know of a magic that might be able to help you. There's another dragon slayer out there who has sky dragon slayer magic. That magic could be able to heal you."
At first she got worried. There are still dragon-slayers that could be able to turn into dragons, but she put that thought away for a short while. Then a light glinted in her eyes. "There are more dragon slayers? One that could be able to help me? Tell me the name of this dragon slayer."
Natsu scratched his head, embarrassed. "About that… I forgot the person who wielded that magic. I remember I used to play with four other dragon slayers… but I forgot who they were… and what magic they wield, with the exception of me remembering the sky dragon-slayer magic."
Irene's light didn't dim away. "I have a long life to live, maybe one day I might cross paths with this dragon-slayer. But for now, I'll be patient. Now, I will train you, with more seriousness and mercilessness than ever before."
"Wait, Wha—"
Then the real training for Natsu began, where every day for the little dragon-slayer was hell.
Irene smiled… 'Thank you'
~Flashback end~
"When I regain my taste, the first thing I'm going to taste is a strawberry shortcake."
"So that's why the prince and you seem so close. You're basically like mother and son."
Irene smiled, feeling grateful. "It's weird, huh. After murdering my husband and abandoning my child, I am blessed with Zeref, a man who won't ever betray me, and Natsu, a child I won't ever abandon. It's just weird… does a horrible person like me deserve this?"
"I believe everyone deserves some sort of forgiveness, no matter what they do," Neinhart nodded. "But speaking of your real child, do you think she's dead?" Neinhart asked.
"Regretfully, my daughter may have died a long time ago. In the afterlife she may never forgive such a woman as myself. I really wish I hadn't abandoned her all those couple of decades ago. But if there's a chance that she lived and grew up to be a strong, beautiful woman, that's all I need to be happy for her, even if she hates me."
"Lady Irene, it brings me joy that you have finally found peace."
Irene nodded, then placed a plate in front of Neinhart. "Could you get me another slice of cake, please?"
Neinhart sweatdropped. "Sure…" he nodded and left the room.
After a few minutes, Irene wondered to herself, "Perhaps if Erza lived then she would really like the taste of strawberry shortcakes."
If there's any way to better organize this, tell me. Please. Like would you prefer to have the mini chapters before the actual chapter? Or am I just overreacting and this format is not as messy as I think it is.
The stuff I wrote about Irene. I hope it wasn't too cheesy. It was either come up with a random spell or be a bit scientific about it. Well, it's just my theory and if it turns out to be wrong (Which it probably will be, there's not much science in Fairy Tail) then I really won't mind. I enjoyed writing it, and this is a fanfiction, so... Same for the Garou knights. It used to be have Natsu one-hit kill them, but I just added a bit more battle to it.
And the long awaited reaction. Well, you only got the reaction of the King. Was it a lackluster or just right?
Well... Thanks for Reading, hope you enjoyed.
Hope you didn't dislike my tiny twist with the royal family and Eclipse Arc... XD (You're going to see more twists, sorry for ruining your expectations everyone.) Got any problems with this story, tell me. I can improvise :P
Happy New Year!
To Be Continued.
(Woo! For once I didn't take three months to update this story!)