Chapter 9: Mt. Hakobe
Natsu, being the happy glutton that he is, devoured his food, all the while talking with Happy with food occasionally spilling out of his mouth which he then picks back up and finishes easting. All in all, demonstrating the worst table manners anyone could ever see.
"I thought you said that you taught Natsu table manners?" asked Mirajane as Christopher sighed and shook his head in disbelief.
"I never said I did, I only said that I tried to teach him table manners. Emphasis on tried mind you, sitting that boy down and teaching him something is only able to be done by either Igneel out of love, or Erza out of fear." replied the stoic man shaking his head.
"I see, well at least he likes the food," said Mirajane sweetly.
"If only there was a better way for him to show it," grumbled Christopher quietly out of earshot of everyone but Mirajane. She giggled at this and went back to work behind the bar.
Romeo Conbolt was a six-year-old boy who loved Fairy Tail. He admired all of the mages in it, especially his father, Macao. However, that doesn't stop the boy from worrying about his fool of a father when he goes on jobs. This happens to be one of those times.
"Is father back yet?" asked the boy, Makarov sighed. The boy had asked multiple times already Makarov could understand his worry, he was also worried but his father was a mage and as a mage he had pride. Sending anyone after him would wound it severely.
"Romeo, this asking every day is getting annoying. You are the son of a mage of Fairy Tail, you need to trust your father and wait at home for him." reminded the master to the six-year-old.
"But he said he'd be back in three days...it's been a week already!" cried the young boy. Christopher had to admit that the kid had a point, while he knew that the master didn't want to wound the man's pride, between three days and a week there was a rather large difference in time. The boy was already nervous about his dad leaving one day and never coming home, something like this just scared the boy.
"Macao's job was at Mt. Hakobe to defeat the Vulcans, right?" asked the master as the boy nodded.
"It's not that far either, please send someone to find him! I want him to come home!" exclaimed Romeo.
At this the master began to lost his patience, "No, your father is a mage. There is not a single mage in here that can't take care of themselves! Go home and wait for him there!" shouted the master. Romeo looked up at the elder with tears in his eyes, balling up his fists the boy punched the master in the face and ran out of the guild crying.
"He's rather strict, isn't he?" noted Lucy as she sat next to Christopher at the bar.
"No, master just want to save Macaos pride, but truthfully the master is worried too," replied Christopher as he eyes his little brother knowing what would most likely happen next.
Natsu, who had heard the entire conversation, stood up and slammed his fist into the table breaking it in half. Nab, the board lingerer as he was known, saw this and called out to the master.
"Master, Natsu's going to do something bad!"
The master set his pipe in his mouth as Nab continued, "I bet he's going after Macao!"
"Stupid kid, that'll only hurt Macao's pride if he does that!" exclaimed Wakaba.
Letting out a puff of smoke the master gave the members his answer, "No one can decide what he should do, let him be."
Christopher was all for helping out Romeo by allowing Macau to return home safely, but the idea of letting Natsu go out all on his own was chaos just waiting to happen.
"Why Natsu so upset?" asked Lucy to no one in particular.
"The same thing happened to Natsu," answered Mirajane, Lucy turned around in her seat and faced the barmaid.
"Probably sees himself in Romeo, I know I do," said Christopher, Lucy glanced at the black-haired man as he took a sip of his milkshake.
"The same thing happened to Christopher and Natsu, Natsu's father and Christopher's mother left and haven't come back since," said Mirajane glancing at the dragon slayer sipping his milkshake.
"Stupid time magic," grumbled Christopher, although neither Lucy nor Mirajane could make out what he said. Lucy looked at Christopher sadly, she knew what it was like to lose a mother.
"And by mother and father I mean their foster parents, the two were raised by dragons," said Mirajane with a smile as Lucy's jaw dropped.
"Wait really!?" she exclaimed looking at the man next to her.
"Lucy….Natsu and I aren't related," said Christopher swirling his milkshake, at this Lucy calmed down from shock and looked at him confused.
"When my dragon disappeared, I was fourteen years old. I had left the cave we lived in and had begun wandering the forest to see if I could track her down. As the first night fell I found a large cave, other than the light it was Natsu's sobs that I heard that brought me to it. Natsu was found by his dragon, Igneel when he was very little. Around four I'd say. Igneel taught him how to read and write. About cultures and magic. But one day both of our dragons disappeared, the same day, year and month."
Lucy listened to his story feeling worse than she had ever felt before, while she had lost her mother at a young age the man in front of her not only lost his mother but had no idea what happened to her.
"Natsu hopes to see Igneel again one day, isn't he adorable?" said Mirajane cheerfully lightening the mood.
"We the mages of Fairy Tail," began Christopher as Mirajane continued.
"Are all carrying something."
"Wounds, pain, suffering…" said Christopher listing the items with his fingers.
"Even us…" whispered Mirajane only loud enough that Christopher could hear it with his enhanced senses. Lucy looked at her confused. Christopher finished his milkshake and stood up.
"I'm going after Natsu," he said as he began to walk away he mumbled something that made Mirajane laugh.
"Someone's gotta clean up after his messes."
Mirajane looked at Lucy and gave her, her signature smile. However behind this was smile was a little plan. Mirajane loved to put people together and set them up. Somehow she had managed to convince Christopher to help her in her plots so she quickly scribbled her idea down on a note and offered it to Lucy.
"Lucy, I recommend you head with them, it might give you some experience," she suggested lightly.
"Sure that sounds like a great idea." agreed Lucy as Mirajane clapped her hands excitedly.
"By the way could you give this to Chris when you see him, I forgot to tell him something," she said handing Lucy the folded note.
"Sure, don't worry Mirajane, I can do this!" she called out as she ran out of the guild.
In the cart, on their way to Mt. Hakobe Lucy gushed at going on a mission to find someone. Christopher had fallen asleep in the corner of the cart, Natsu was groaning in pain as Happy pat him on the back.
"You really are bad with transportation, aren't you?" Lucy noted as Happy gave her an explanation
"Aye, this happens all of the time, on any moving object. The only time motion sickness doesn't affect him is when he's flying."
"Well Christopher is a dragon slayer too, why doesn't he have it?" asked Lucy pointing to the sleeping man next to her. She remembered that on the train back to Magnolia he was awake for a while and showed no sign of motion sickness.
"Well Chris-nii is asleep so it doesn't currently affect him but the reason it doesn't affect him when he's awake is that he altered his body so that it could never have motion sickness." informed Happy. Lucy found it rather cute that Happy had called him Chris-nii despite him not being his older brother. Although from what she could see he probably was his older brother figure.
"If he altered his body, why didn't he do it to Natsu?" asked Lucy wondering why the older brother didn't help his little brother.
"Chris-nii didn't do it to Natsu because according to him, the change is unbearable." answered Happy not exactly remembering the reason why. Luckily for Lucy, Christopher seemed to conveniently wake up at that moment.
"It's true," he said startling the blonde teen as she looked at him, "Altering the body of a living creature is a painful process. The pain was unbearable, and by the end of it I hadn't slept for two whole weeks."
Lucy was shocked, two weeks! That amount of lack of sleep could kill a person, "It was two whole weeks of pain and agony, I could barely stand to force myself to eat. Both Erza and Mirajane had to hold me down and force feed me to get me to eat even a bite. They had to force water down my throat too. I would also spit it back up half the time too. Those were probably the worst two weeks of my life, and it was all to alter my motion sickness. The pain isn't worth it, had I a choice back then knowing what would happen I would have preferred the motion sickness. Although not having it is quite the blessing, a pricey one, but a blessing nonetheless." finished Christopher.
Lucy could now understand why he would rather Natsu go through the motion sickness instead, it wasn't worth it. Lucy looked at Christopher about to ask another question but was surprised to see that he had fallen asleep once more.
"Hey Lucy, why'd you come?" asked Happy curiously.
"Mirajane said that I should gain experience, and accompanying you guys seemed like a good idea." she said smiling, "I also need to find a house after we help find Macao-san."
"You could live with us!" offered Happy. Lucy thought about it, while it was nice to live with people that she would know there was in fact, a gender problem. A teenage girl living with a teenage boy and a young man was not something she wanted to deal with. Plus she could only imagine how crazy it would be living with Natsu.
"Yeah, as much as I appreciate the offer I think I'll live somewhere else." deadpanned Lucy not feeling like explaining her reasoning.
Suddenly the cart stopped. Natsu sprung up and dashed out of the cart as fast as his legs could carry him. Lucy stepped outside and hugged herself. If was not only freezing but it looked like they were in the middle of a blizzard.
"Sorry, we can't go any further than this with the cart." said the driver apologetically.
"It's fine sir, we can walk. Thank you for taking us this far, I suggest you head on back. We can get home just fine." thanked Christopher as Lucy jumped at the sight of the man. She didn't realize that he had woke up.
Lucy hugged herself as Natsu looked around the area. Christopher seemed to be bored as he fiddled with his ring, "Even though it's summertime how is it snowing this much in the mountains!" cried Lucy shivering like crazy, "I can't even believe there's a blizzard here either!"
Christopher bent down and began to scoop up snow, he was mumbling something that Lucy couldn't make out.
"It's cold!" she complained.
"That's because you're wearing so little," said Natsu as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"So are you! I'm wearing more clothes than you!" exclaimed, Lucy. Natsu was indeed wearing less than the busty blonde. He had his vest on and a pair of pants on. His shoulders and arms were exposed, as was his torso. Lucy felt a blanket fall onto her shoulders. She turned her head to see Christopher, who now had a white cloak on.
"Where did you get these?" asked Lucy surprised as she had not seen him bring anything with him.
"I altered the snow," he answered as he began walking towards Natsu.
"You should wear something so you don't catch a cold." said the older brother.
"Humph, I'm a fire wizard, why should I?" he said crossing his arms.
"Because being a fire wizard will not protect you from illness." stated the stoic man. Lucy pulled out one of her keys, holding it in the air she summoned her spirit.
"Open, Gate of the clock, Horologium!" she cried as a large grandfather clock appeared.
"Woah! It's a clock!" shouted Natsu and Happy dumbly. After getting inside she seemed to be much warmer.
"I'll stay here," she says," said Lucy through Horologium.
"Geez, what a wimp," said Natsu as he began walking away.
"I want to go home," she says" complained Lucy through Horologium.
"Yes, go ahead, says I." replied Natsu both annoyed and mocking Horologium.
"Aye." agrees happy as Christopher bonks the two on the head.
"Be nice." he reprimands as the group continues walking.
"MACAO! ARE YOU HERE?! WERE YOU DONE IN ALREADY!?" called Natsu through the blizzard. A rumbling comes from above, rocks fall as Natsu and Christopher jumps back and get into a fighting stance.
The Vulcan rushes past the brothers and heads straight for Lucy, "A human woman~" says the Vulcan dumbly as he heaves Horologium with Lucy inside over his shoulder and runs away happily.
"I might've forgotten to mention that Vulcans were rather pervy creatures, didn't I?" asked Christopher as he and Natsu starred in the direction the Vulcan took of with Lucy.
"Aye." answered both Natsu and Happy.
"So he can speak?" said Natsu pounding his fist in his hand, "Sounds like a party." Christopher shook his head at his brother's antics as the two rushed after Lucy and the Vulcan.
Meanwhile, in some random cave, the Vulcan was running in a circle around Lucy and Horologium.
"Why is he so damn hyper!?" cried Lucy as the Vulcan seemed to have hearts in his eyes.
"Woman, woman woman, Woman!" chanted the Vulcan excitedly. Lucy was terrified at his chanting, she didn't want to know what would happen if she wasn't inside of Horologium. At her thought, Horologium faded.
"Times up, farewell," said Horologium as he was sent back to the spirit world.
"Wait Horologium! Damn it, I jinxed it!" she cried as the Vulcan towered over her. At that moment the brothers ran into the cave, the younger continued to run while the older slowed down.
"Where is Macao, monkey?!" shouted Natsu as he slipped on the ice and smacked into the wall. Christopher facepalmed at his brother's entrance.
"Could you at least have a normal entrance?!" exclaimed Lucy as Natsu stared at the Vulcan all the while upside down.
"Hey, monkey! Where is Macao!" he said angrily.
"Uho?" asked the Vulcan confused about who he was talking about
"Don't play dumb monkey, you know who I am talking about! A human man named Macao!" yelled Natsu, the Vulcan pointed to an opening in the cave, as Natsu was kicked down the mountain.
"Me no like man, me no like man!" chanted the hyper monkey.
"Me like woman!~ Woman woman, woman!" he said pounding on his chest. Christopher wondered is Vulcan was really the right term for the creature in front of him, monkey certainly suited it better.
"Oh Damn!" shouted Lucy, 'I used Horologium until his limit earlier, I might not have enough magic power but...I have to fight this thing!' thought Lucy determined to find Macao as she hoped that he wasn't already dead.
Christopher sighed, once again he was being forgotten. Although his rather quiet nature seemed to make him fade into the background. He watched as Lucy summoned another one of her spirits.
"Open, Gate of the bull, Taurus!" Christopher watched as she summoned a large cow patterned walking two-legged bull. Christopher sweatdropped as he wondered why was the bull in that form but also why he was almost as perverted as the Vulcan.
Natsu and Happy chose the moment as Taurus was beating on the Vulcan for referring to Lucy as "His Woman" to reenter the fight. Natsu foolishly assumed that Taurus was another monster and defeated him. Lucy while not happy with the outcome dealt with it as she asked how Natsu had survived.
"Oh yeah, Happy saved me," said Natsu nonchalantly.
"Oh yeah I forgot he could fly," said Lucy as she gazed up at the flying cat.
"Aye, I use Aera magic!" said Happy happily.
"How is it that your fine with Happy but you can't deal with transportation?" asked Lucy rhetorically.
"Happy isn't for transportation, he's Nakama. You're weird," said Natsu bluntly.
"Don't call me weird!" yelled Lucy annoyed that he would say such a thing. Natsu chose that moment as the Vulcan was getting ready to charge behind him to give, what Christopher deemed, The Nakama Speech.
"Listen, All of Fairy Tail's members are Nakama. From Gramps, Mira, then the annoying grat and Elfman. To Happy, Chris-nii, and Lucy. We are all Nakama," he said as he turned his head towards the Vulcan, "That's why….I'M TAKING MACAO HOME!" he finished delivering a Fire Dragon's: Iron Fist, sending the Vulcan into the wall.
The Vulcan began to glow, as the magic faded away Lucy, Happy and Natsu all backed up. Christopher picked up the man before he could fall off of the cliff.
"It's Macao!" cried Natsu shocked to see the perverted monkey turn into his friend.
"It seems that the Vulcan tried to Take Over Macao," said Christopher as he set the man down on a cloth that Happy prepared.
"Aye, he looks like he fought hard though," noted Happy observing the man's wounds.
Christopher began using his healing magic, he was losing a lot of blood. Christopher bit his lip. He could only heal minor wounds, wounds such as these were most suited for the skilled magic healers of the past, the sky dragons or sky dragon slayers.
"Damn it," he cursed pausing his healing spell, "Natsu at this rate, I can't close up the wound," admitted Christopher. At this everyone became alarmed. Lucy didn't realize that Christopher was using a lost magic, she only cared that Macao survived. Natsu was seething with anger.
"You've healed wounds before! How could you not do it now!?" she yelled angrily.
"It's true, but I takes a while, at the rate he's losing blood he won't survive," said the man calmly, "Which is why I need you to cauterize it, if he stops losing blood I can close the wound and heal the burns so that It will only leave a small scar."
Lucy had to admit that it was good reasoning. Christopher moved and held Macao down as Natsu's hand came ablaze.
"Come on Macao! You need to get home to Romeo man! He's counting on you!" shouted Natsu as he cauterized the wound.
"Ah man...I was taken over by the 20th…." said Macao suddenly, "Romeo is going to be so disappointed…." he murmured as Christopher began to heal his wound again.
"No, he won't, he's going to be happy that your home. You've been gone a week now, the kid is worried sick." Christopher informed him. After they arrived back in Magnolia they found Romeo sitting on the wall near his and Macao's house.
As the pair hugged, Romeo apologized for asking Macao to go on that job. Macao looked at his son and smiled, "Next time those brats decide to tease you, you ask them if their old man can beat nineteen monsters by himself, okay?"
As Christopher and the others were leaving Romeo called out to them, "Chris-nii, Natsu-nii, Happy, Thank you!" he said with a large smile, "and thanks to you too Lucy-ne!"
Lucy smiled and waved at the boy, her first day at Fairy Tail was a good one. She looked forward to the many more that were to come.
