Chapter Nine

The walk is silent, at first. The only noise being their footsteps on the concrete path.

"How much did you hear?" This catches everyone's attention, and all eyes turn to the person leading their group.

"We heard from when you first stepped out." Stings reply is straightforward, and Natsu just keeps walking with the nod of his head.

"What'd Marie tell you." They all look at each other behind Natsu, trying to decide who to say it and what they would say with their eyes.

"She told us Aki's story and then some." Erza's reply cuts to the chase, almost as if she wants to get of the topic.

"Natsu, we're sorry. We had no idea-"

"Of course you didn't." He cuts the blonde off, but not in anger. Stopping and turning on his heel he faces the group. Then looks at Lucy with a kind smile, but she can see it isn't quite like his old one. It's missing its fire and warmth, it's missing what made Natsu, Natsu. "You guys were sealed for seven years. A lot happened that you guys don't know."

"Someday will you tell us all of it?" He looks at the smallest dragon slayer, closing his eyes and nodding in response.

"Of course."

At the end of their conversation they reach the large doors, the sun sets behind them, coating Magnolia with a dark hue. Going into the guild they see everyone passed out, and basically everything destroyed. Remains of magic floating through the air.

"They're cleaning it up tomorrow." He lets go a saddened, heavy sigh before turning to the Tenrou group.

"How is she?" Sting speaks up, genuinely worried. He looks into the boys eyes before shaking his head, looking down to the ground.

"Can we check out your scarf?" Mira walks up to him with her smile, trying to change the subject. "Maybe we can find a way to fix it." He takes it off and gives it to her, and once again the large scar is visible for everyone to see. But still hidden from view all the same.

"Why is it black?" Levy points out, seeing the cut edges black by some unknown force.

"And that is how I know a spell was done to it." Natsu explains,"That scarf has the ability to absorb dark magic, saved my ass a few times back in the day. It turns black when it does that."

"T-then let me heal it, Natsu-san!" Wendy jumps, much to everyone's shock. "You might not remember, but since it was only three months ago to me, I do!"

"Oh, right! While I was still on Tenrou you healed my blackened scarf, didn't you!" Natsu beams, bending down and smiling at the younger girl. "Well, if you really want to try, here." He takes the scarf from Mira and lays it on the ground.

"Uhmm!" Wendy gets on her knees and begins to heal the scarf. The magic isn't as sinister as last time. I can do this! I will do this, for Natsu-san! Slowly the black color leaves the scarf, but the girl continues, beads of sweat forming on her brow.

"Wendy, don't push yourself too hard." Carla advises, wiping the girls brow with a towel she had gotten. After the black leaves, the scarf itself begins to mend, and Wendy continues until it's all sealed shut. When she finishes she stops her magic, and begins to fall from exhaustion.

"Wendy!" Natsu jumps over to her and catches her with his left hand, and everyone sees him wince at the contact, but he doesn't let the girl fall. Going to her he scoops the girl up, and sees she's on the brink of passing out. "Thank you, Wendy." His voice is soft and she gives him a weak smile.

"W-will you let me see your hand, too?" He looks at her in shock, then turns to the Tenrou group. How much did Marie tell them?

"Not tonight. You need to rest." He smiles down at her, then walks to bring her to the infirmary. Everyone stands in silence, not knowing what to say. Soon Natsu comes back, the first thing he does is pick up the scarf he had left on the ground. Looking at the scarf, he examines its fixed state. Having not seen it like this in just under six years, the sight makes him truly happy.

"What is this 'devils fire' curse?" Laxus speaks up, catching everyone's attention.

"I have no doubt that you already know." He turns to look the lighting mage in the eye. At the new voices, people start to wake up to see the group in the center of the guild.

"Then why didn't you look like it hurt during our battles?" Gajeel speaks up, crossing his arms, and Natsu doesn't look surprised at this question.

"Back then I didn't let Freed put down the runes because the ones I put cancelled my hands pain. It's a spell that I made just for those kinds of instances."

"Oh, master's back?" At this many people get up, and Natsu does a mental face-palm.

"Master!"

"Take me to your bed, master~." The girls crawl to him and he steps away from their grip.

"Dammit..." He curses under his breath, seeing many people get up. Rogue walks over to Sting, who laughs at his drunken, beat-up, sorrowful state.

"We're going. See you tomorrow." Sting waves to the pinkette before leaving the building, supporting Rogue, the exceeds following shortly after. Natsu nods to Sting before turning to the now awake mages.

"I'll be doing the same." He turns to walk out, but is stopped by a kid that grabs his left hand. Right when they made contact a shiver runs through Natsu's body as pain explodes from the touch. Quickly he wipes the pain from his mind and turns to the boy, 8 years old at least, with large emerald eyes beaming up at him. "Yes?"

"Are you the Fairy Tail guild master?" The boy yawns and Natsu smiles before nodding. "C-can I join? I'm a mage and I've been looking for a place to go and when I came to Magnolia I heard a mage guild was here and-"

"Of course you can." Natsu bends down and looks at the kid with a smile. "Names Natsu." Using the hand the kids already holding they shake, much to the pinkettes pain. "Can you please let go of my hand?" He tries to hide the pain, keeping it out of his voice, but he still sounds strained. The entire guild notices the kids grip on their masters left hand, and the kid lets go with an embarrassed blush.

"S-sorry..."

"Now, you have no place to go, correct?" The kid nods,"You can sleep in the guild tonight if you'd like. Then we can get everything in order from there. 'kay?" The kid nods again. "Follow me." Twice in the night Natsu makes a trip to the infirmary, everyone making a clear path for their master as he walks.

"Geez, he grabbed the left hand."

"Why do people always do that?"

"Should we go help him?"

"Leave him be, he won't let you help."

"Shush! He's coming!" Sure enough Natsu was back in the guild hall, stepping around the people who are littered all over the floor.

"Makarov, I put you in charge tomorrow." This catches everyone off-guard.

"Huh?"

"Why?"

"Master! Don't leave us~!"

"I'm not leaving you!" He shouts out, annoyed by everyone's intrusion. "There's a meeting I must attend tomorrow morning. That's all."

"Another one? What's going on?" Natsu shakes his head, not knowing the answer to Macao's question.

"World's going crazy. I can't stay in Magnolia for four days straight." He runs a hand through his hair, silently cursing at everything that's going on.

"Then just tell them you can't go." Gray rolls his eyes, but Natsu shakes his head.

"There's a matter I have to address, I've put it off long enough. But they need me now, more than ever."

"What is it?" Makarov looks up at his successor who doesn't even try a fake smile.

"One of Zeref's demons has gotten quite active recently. It's a lightning-type, I believe it was called... Zagonis." Natsu turns around to face the other guild members. "Be good to Makarov tomorrow, I don't wanna hear anything bad about it. Okay?" They all nod in agreement out of a genuine fear of what he'd do to them.

"Do you think they'll make you fight it?" Macao asks, which turns the guild into an uproar.

"That's not cool!"

"They should deal with it themselves!"

"Saying they hate us and then making you do their dirty work!"

"Calm down!" Natsu raises his hands,"I was going to ignore it, but our new member, who I forgot to ask the name of, has had a run-in with it. And the creature is getting more active, it attack two towns just a few days ago. I won't let it rampage any longer." He crosses his arms and stares at the guild members.

"Sorry, master Natsu." They say, ashamed of their outbursts.

"How do you know?" The crowd parts to show the small, raven-haired boy who had spoken. "How do you know Zagnois attacked my hometown?" The boy repeats, walking up to the guild master.

"I can smell it on your clothes." He taps the named part with a smile.

"Smell?"

"I'm a dragon slayer, my sense of smell is better than the normal persons." The kid looks up at him with wide, hopeful eyes.

"So you're going to kill the demon?"

"Maybe."

"W-what if it kills you? The things really strong. I-it got my daddy an-and he was strong, too." Tears come from his eyes at the memory, and Natsu falls to his knees straight away, pulling the boy to him in a hug.

"Then, if it comes to and I have to fight it, I promise to come back." He strokes through the boys hair to comfort him. The boy pulls the guild masters shirt into his small hands, burrowing his head into the older mans chest.

"Th-that's what my dad said, too." Natsu's face softens and he pulls the boy closer, feeling his shirt become moist as the boys body shakes, his sniffles filling the silent air.

"What's your name." Natsu speaks, his voice soft as to not startle the boy.

"Rokem. Rokem O'Connor. My mom named me..."

"Rokem, hmm?" The pinkette rubs the now-named boy's back. "What is your magic?"

"Fog." At this Natsu gives a small smile.

"Well then, I've never heard of a fog mage! But we do have a water and a wind mage, maybe they can help you out with it." He slowly pulls the boy off of him, and gives a small smile. "We'll take care of you, Rokem. Because here at Fairy Tail we're a family." He pats the kids head,"And if Zagnois is your demon I'll cut it down for you." He pulls the kid into a hug again, except this time he scoops him into his arms and stands.

"Uwahh! W-what're you doing!?" Rokem squeals, a small blush blanketing his face.

"You need to sleep, and when you wake up eat as much as you want, it's on me." He smiles down at the kid, walking back to the infirmary. "Get a good nights rest. And if you need anything just call for me and I'll be there."

"Just say 'Natsu'?"

"Yep. And I'll come." Everyone smiles at the heartwarming scene, and they begin small talk as he exits the room. Mostly about the announcement of Zeref's demon and their masters possible fight with it.

"Natsu, if you fight it you have to be careful." Macao advises as Natsu comes back.

"No dip." The pinkette rolls his eyes, finding his seat beside the man at a table.

"If your body can hold anymore curses I'd be surprised." Natsu nods, and the table is soon filled with people; Makarov-he sits on the table, Erza, Happy-he sits on Natsu's head, Lucy and Gray.

"What's do you mean by 'if his body can hold anymore curses'?" Makarov speaks up.

"Well, since the first incident where the demon attacked our town, Zeref's demons had been showing up at an overwhelming rate." Natsu pauses as Happy hops from his head and onto the table next to Panterlilly as Gajeel comes over. "So, what do you think the council decides is the best thing to do?"

"Get you to fight them?" Gray answers the question.

"Call upon the only person that was alive, that had ever killed one of these demons!" Natsu raises his hands "Well, of course I'm still healing, but they don't give a damn." He crosses his arms and shakes his head. Anger slowly edging into his mind."Lahar comes to convince me to help them with a certain demon. Well this certain demon was an iron demon! It looked like a huge, badass knight! Why did it decide to come out then, huh? Couldn't it wait for you-" he points at Gajeel,"or you-" he points at Erza,"to come back? Well at first I decline, because I wouldn't be able to do shit against it at that moment. But after a while I agreed to do it because the smell of that thing was so thick in the air, it was either close or doing a lot in a lot of places."

Everyone stares at him in shock as steam begins to come off of him, the area heating up.

"Natsu." Macao elbows him, at first getting a glare from the man, but then he looks around to see everyone staring at him. Semi-confused he sniffs the air and can tell there was smoke coming from himself.

"Oh, thanks." The other man shrugs before he continues as if nothing had happened.

"Well, this thing was strong. I will admit, not as strong as the one that attacked Magnolia, but this guy was strong." He nods, and then turns to Erza. "As I had said, it was an iron, knight-based demon. It used many weapons such as swords. Well, that damn thing could make little demon-things much like itself. I got a few of their weapons if you'd like them."

"I would like to see them later." Natsu nods, taking it as a yes.

"Well, I fight this demon, whose curse is apparently... what was it again?" They all fall over at this-not Macao, dumbfounded at his memory loss on such a grand moment.

"It was a mental thing." Natsu nods, but this gets Makarovs attention.

"Well, it used illusions and such. Messed with your mind. He wasn't as large as he looked, but he could summon the little demon-guys. It was a demon-turned human." They all get interested in this as he continues. "Well, of course I don't get out of that battle unscathed. In the end I resorted to my sense of smell to fight him cause he was using some crazy illusions. Well, he got me with a serious attack that was curse-induced, which left a permanent curse on my body. But you could've guess I still won that battle."

"Alone?" Natsu shakes his head at Lucy's question.

"No, this time Rogue lent me his power. He went with me without my knowledge and ended up saving my life."

"Have you ever defeated a demon by yourself?" Gray rolls his eyes at his friend, hiding his new found respect for him.

"...once." Natsu loses all his happiness at the question, and Macao shakes his head. Knowing what the pinkette is thinking about. "I have fought three major demons in my lifetime-if you don't include Deliora. Which, since facing the others, definitely doesn't count."

"What were they? We already know one's Gratendo, so what else?" Gajeel speaks up, everyone jumping, having forgotten he was there.

"Yes, they were; Gratendo the demonic dragon, Vespire the knight, and Lumonie the snow phoenix."

"Well, no surprise there that a fire mage defeated the snow phoenix by himself." Natsu's bangs cast a shadow over his eyes at the statement. He then looks up at them, fighting the emotions building up in him.

"Lumonie was by far the hardest one I had every faced."

"Well you were alone-" Lucy speaks up.

"That's not it. I was only helped in the end both times. Lumonie was different." he looks down at his hands for a moment before looking back up. "The demonic dragon of flame and destruction. The Knight of weapons and illusion. The snow phoenix of memories and terror."

By their faces he knows they don't understand what he means. They ask him through their eyes what he's telling them. But the words get lodged in his throat. Even if its been two years he still can't take the memories of the day. The day he faced the snow phoenix.

"So what are all of the curses?" Makarov voices, and Natsu can't decide whether it helped him or hurt him, so he gives up on that thought and continues.

"I think that's enough questions for today. I want some rest before the meeting tomorrow. If you didn't notice, it is nighttime. So, we'll continue this later." Before anyone can protest a light flashes and a snap resounds, showing no pinkette in the chair. Everyone turns to Macao for answers, which shocks the purple flare mage.

"Well?" Impatient Erza stares him down. He shakes his head, unfazed by her death-stare.

"He should be the one to tell you... especially since he hasn't even told me. Now if you'll excuse me," he stands, the chair screeching on the wood below,"Please lock-up the guild when you're done." And with that the table has two chairs empty. They all look at each other for a moment, contemplating on what Natsu had said.

They're taken from their thoughts as lightning flashes in front of them, revealing the guild master, who has a small grin.

"I forgot to ask, do you guys know for sure that you either still own your house or that it even exists?" They stare at him dumbfounded, and Lucy smacks her head against the table. "Don't worry, until you get things settled I'll let you sleep in the guild, no problem."

"THANK YOU!" The blonde leaps, launching at Natsu with tears streaming down her face, knocking the surprised mage to the ground. When she launched at him he put his left hand to block her as a reflex, as the two lay on the ground all of her pressure weighs down on it. "Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU~!" He bites his lip to stop himself from crying out in pain. Brow creased in concentration as he looks up at her.

"W-well, you're welcome." He begins, his body covered in a cold sweat. Pain shooting through him. "But can you please get off of me?" That's when she sees the hand between her body and his, and quickly jumps off. Apparently that was the wrong thing to do as he can't help but gasp in pain, she just looks down at him guiltily.

In a flash he leaves, not waiting to see everyone panic over him and try to help. Because he knows they can't do anything for him.

Getting to the Guild Masters room he collapses onto the ground beside his chair. Pain shoots through him at the smallest movement, overriding all his senses in its fury. Sweating at the smallest movement, he shakily crawls up the chair with his right hand. Reaching up he swipes his hand across the top of his desk until he finds the light pen. With a shaky hand he rolls it to the desks edge and drops it to the floor next to him. The sound-cancelling rune he draws is disfigured, but still activates upon command.

Upon knowing it's activated and done, he lets loose a blood-curdling scream of pain. Letting the feeling take over his body and lungs. Screaming until he can't scream anymore, making his throat sore and his eyes teary. The pain too overwhelming even after 6 years.

Authors Note: So the ending is to help show the pain his hand still brings him. So, yeah. Sorry if it breaks your heart in a;"I don't know what the fuck just happened, this is not what I expected" way. Except... I'm not sorry. Thank you so much for reviewing! And KEEP REVIEWING! I don't have school again until Tuesday, so enough reviews=more chaps! Til next time, see ya.