Gajeel's confusion increased even more when he heard a door slam shut and a happy, "Take care of them!" Slowly fade off into the distance as Makarov quickly sped off.
"My oh my. I can't believe I have you lovely boys for an entire day!" Blue Pegasus's guild master exclaimed happily.
Natsu and Gray put their differences aside and hugged each other as they shuddered in fear.
"And what's this?" Bob glided towards Gajeel. "We have a new recruit?" He put on a pleasant smile.
Gajeel backed up and laughed nervously.
He was about to say something when he heard a loud noise coming from his right. He swirled his head to figure out what could be making that obnoxious noise.
"Paaaaarfuuuuuuum!" Ichiya sang at the top of his lungs, kicking up dust behind him as he ran towards the group.
Gajeel's stomach dropped when he saw him.
Ichiya was five feet away from him when he reached into his pocket and pulled out a vile and flung off the cap, releasing a sweet scent.
The smell hit Gajeel almost as badly as when Levy got mad and chucked ten books at him.
He clasped his hands over his nose, his face wrinkling up in disgust. He glanced over at Natsu and did a double take when he realized that Natsu was out cold.
Ichiya stopped short as he realized that Natsu had passed out. "Oh my... Did I overdo it?" His smile kept wavering as he tried not to frown.
"No no, it's okay." Bob reassured him, patting his back. "Your welcome was all in good faith."
Bob had an evil glint in his eye. "In fact... If you still feel bad. How about you carry him back to the guild?"
Ichiya's face brightened up. "Parfuuuum." He responded and grabbed one of his viles, inhaling the potion. He grew three times his size and his shirt ripped to reveal his bulging muscles and well defined body. He turned towards the direction where Natsu was but was confused when he didn't see Gray nor Natsu.
He heard a voice call out behind him. "Don't worry! I got him!" Gray called out into the distance with Natsu swinging over his shoulder. On a normal basis, he would have let Natsu suffer. However... being carried by Itchya in that state was beyond cruel.
Itchya shrugged his shoulders. "How about you Gajeel? You look a little pale."
"No thanks." He quickly declined, stumbling towards the guild. He still kept his smug attitude that he could survive this "punishment".
Bob chuckled at the trio. It was going to be a fun two days.
The doors swung open to Blue Pegasus's guild hall. Before they could even set foot inside the building, Hibiki, Ren, and Eve were already there to welcome them.
"Welcome back... I guess." Ren turned his head to the side, maintaining his tsundere character.
"Helloooo, ladies." Hibiki immediately walked towards the group, grabbing Gajeel's hand. Hibiki smirked at Gajeel as Gajeel snatched his hand back. "Get away from me."
"As you wish, princess." He egged on, doing a small bow.
Gajeel took a large step back, bumping into something hard.
"Meeen." He heard a deep voice sing.
Gajeel's hairs stood on end as he leapt away from Itchya. He stumbled in his haste to get away.
On the other side, Gray and Natsu were being greeted by Eve.
"Ww- welcome back... I'm so happy to see you again." He timidly stuttered, clasping his hands behind his back, avoiding eye contact.
"Alright, boys!" Bob's voice boomed in the main hall. "Your punishment is going to be a little different this time. Since you like fighting and destroying things... How about a fun little obstacle course?"
Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel instantly perked up. This meant competition. This meant that they could one up each other.
"However, there will be A LOT of handicaps specifically made for each of you." Bob could see the excitement on their faces, however, they severely underestimated what they were getting themselves into.
"Whoever completes their course the fastest, wins. Who wants to go first?" A loud rupture of angry voices bickering over who should go first erupted within seconds. Bob giggled as he nodded at Hibiki.
Hibiki placed his hands one over the other in front of him. Aiming at the group, he sent flying a force of screens that exploded, sending the trio crashing in opposite directions.
"Since you can't decide, I'll pick." Bob walked over and helped Gray up. "You're the lucky winner."
Everyone headed towards the vast wilderness behind their guild where the courses were built.
Gray stood in front of his route, switching from one foot to the next as he impatiently waited for the "go" from Bob.
"For this section, you can't use your icemaker magic."
Gray grimaced. It was a slight drawback, but nothing he couldn't handle.
"Alright. Get ready, set, go!" Bob yelled eagerly, waving a small flag.
Gray was gone within a flash, a small drone in suit to live record him to the large screen Hibiki made.
The first course was a simple one, a mud pit crawl. He got on his stomach and started to pull himself under the ropes. A quarter of a way in, he banged his head against something.
"What the heck?" He reached out with his hand and felt nothing. But as soon as he resumed crawling, he hit something again, smashing his face against the hard surface.
"Okay. What the hell." His annoyance level spiked as he reached out again, this time his hand felt something and a flickering of blue rippled in the air.
Gray smirked as he immediately recognized Hibiki's magic. "Nice try, ya techno nerd." He insulted, knowing full well Hibiki could hear him. As if he didn't notice that drone that was following him.
Hibiki's eyes widened and then narrowed into slits at the insult. He was going to go easy on Gray, however, his bad attitude didn't sit so well with him.
Hibiki added more force fields around Gray, barely giving him any wiggle room. He could do it, but his time would suffer.
Gray rolled his eyes as he figured out what Hibiki was doing. He extended his limbs as far as he could so he could know his limitations. He kept touching the force fields around him until he found an opening. Once he did, he started to squirm around.
"Well damn, Hibiki. I'm not as skinny as you think." Gray grit his teeth as he squirmed through the tight tunnel, still trying to touch the walls around him to pinpoint his openings.
"Come ooon, Hibiki." His anger was beginning to spike as he kept going in circles. For a moment he considered using his magic but thought better of it since he didn't know what tricks they would have up their sleeves. Maybe he'd test it out later.
"I think that's enough, Hibiki..." Bob gently reminded him that they still had a lot of the course to finish.
Hibiki decided to give Gray a little push, he hit him with his force blast, sending Gray sliding through the mud, coating him from head to toe.
"WHAT THE HELL YOU COMPUTER GEEK CASANOVA!" Gray yelled, spitting out the mouthful of mud he just swallowed. Gray was livid; he could feel his cheeks and ears heating up.
He took a deep breath, trying to desperately compose himself. Gritting his teeth, he completed the mud crawl.
Gray got up, freezing the mud on him, and shattering it off. "What's next?" He yelled, staring straight at the drone.
"Go up that trail and to your left." He heard Hibiki communicate with him telepathically.
Gray scrunched up his face in disgust at the thought of Hibiki being inside his head.
He did as he was told and as soon as he turned to step on the new trail, he found himself waist deep in... in what?
Gray swirled around in confusion at the blue liquid that surrounded him. He tried to move, but his movements became sluggish as the blue liquid seemed to thicken, releasing a sweet scent.
A screen suddenly appeared in front of him. "This round, Ichiya created a special vile for you. It's called the Blue Beauty. What makes it beautiful, you'll see." The screen quickly disappeared, leaving Gray with a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Gray realized that the more he moved, the thicker the liquid got. But as soon as he stopped moving, it was as liquidy as water.
There wasn't a long ways to the other side of this trail. Gray suddenly had an idea, he lifted his hands and started to hit the water, making the surface thicker with each hit; eventually making it solid. By this point, the liquid released a sickeningly sweet smell that made his head spin.
However, he tried to shake it off as he hoisted himself on to the top of the now solid surface, making sure to keep moving as he started to create a little path towards the land.
"Gray..." A sweet voice rang around him. He quickly whirled his head towards the sound, furrowing his brows together when he saw nothing there.
He shook his head and focused on his path again.
"Gray!" He heard a man's voice call out. He did a double take when he saw a shadow in the corner of his eye.
"Lyon!?" Gray's eyes widened. He felt himself starting to sink and started to scramble to keep up the solid surface which was now like mud, sucking his legs in as he tried to get them out.
"Watch yourself, Gray." Lyon warned.
Gray grit his teeth. "I don't need you to tell me that." He stomped the rest of the way to the ground. He turned towards Lyon to ask him what he was doing here, but was stopped when he heard a familiar voice.
"My love!" Gray's heart thumped as he heard Juvia's voice. He looked up and saw her running towards his direction. "Juvia?" He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
She had her arms wide open, and Gray braced himself for the hug. But Juvia flew right past him.
He swiftly turned around to see where the heck she was going, and his jaw dropped.
Lyon was twirling her in the air. "Juvia, my darling!" He called out warmly to her, bringing her in for a hug.
Gray expected her to push Lyon away like she always did, but his jaw dropped even lower as she returned his hug.
"Juvia???" Gray exclaimed, beyond confused at this point.
"What?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
"What do you mean 'what'?" His voice got deeper with irritation. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards him, only to be pushed away with a water shield.
"Don't grab Juvia like that! Juvia is a faithful woman." She rested her head against Lyon's chest.
"Heh?" Was all that Gray could say.
"That's right Gray, Juvia is mine now." He said with a smile meant to taunt Gray, his hand slung casually around Juvia's shoulders.
Gray grit his teeth as he got into his fighting stance.
"Ah uh." The drone came beside him. "No using magic." It warned.
Gray was too focused on the situation to bother listening to the drone. "Get away from Juvia within three seconds or I won't hold back." Gray's face was scrunched up with rage, his jealousy coming through.
"One." He counted down, forming his attack.
"Two." Gray's eyes turned into slits as he narrowed his eyes at Lyon who was not budging an inch.
"Three!" He yelled, releasing his lance attack at full force.
Lyon didn't even bother to move which confused Gray until he saw Juvia running towards his attack in order to protect Lyon. His heart immediately dropped. "Juvia! No!" He screamed, trying to freeze the ground underneath her to make her slip out of the way. But it was too late.
Juvia went flying a good couple of feet before she hit the ground, crying out in pain. She curled up into a ball as tears began to fall down her face.
"Juvia!" Gray scrambled to get to her as fast as he could but a force field popped up in front of him, knocking him to the ground.
"Argh! Now is not the time Hibiki!" He got up and started pounding on the force field. He got into his fighting stance and swung his ice hammer at the force field as if he was trying to hit a baseball. The force field opened a little to let the hammer through, gaining speed towards Juvia.
Gray's face paled as his hammer was only a few feet away from her. But just before it hit her, Lyon used his magic to stop his, sending a flurry of ice scattering in the air.
"Stop hurting Juvia!" Lyon angrily shouted at Gray.
Gray kept his mouth shut, unable to form a coherent sentence to defend himself.
The little drone came beside him again. "I told you not to use your magic."
It struck a nerve and Gray grabbed it in one hand, smashing it into pieces. "You can do anything to me. But don't you DARE bring Juvia into this." His voice was rough as his throat felt like it was swelling shut.
He clenched his jaw as he brought back his fist, forming ice around it. He brought it forward as hard as he could, freezing the shield and shattering it. He ran to Juvia who was being craddled by Lyon.
Gray grabbed Lyon by the back of his shirt and sent him flying into the bushes. He gently scooped up Juvia and held her against his chest.
"I'm so sorry." He repeatedly apologized, his voice cracking. His heart throbed as she cringed away from him.
He loosened his grip for a moment but then held her tight promising her that he would never hurt her again.
"Men." He heard her whisper.
"What?" Gray was taken aback, making sure he heard her right.
"Meeen." He heard again, still with Juvia's voice.
He pulled Juvia back to look at her. When he did, he screamed and dropped her, scrambling to get away.
There lay Itchiya, slowly transforming back into his normal form.
"Meeeeeeeen." He proudly stood up. "You were able to beat off my spell quicker than most people. Good job," Ichiya praised him.
"What the hell is going on?" Gray was both confused and angry.
"Ah yes." Ichiya straightened himself up. "That potion is specifically made to cause people to hallucinate. But they hallucinate about one of their worst fears." He picked his nose and continued. "Yours happened to be worse because you used your magic when you weren't supposed to."
Gray was dumbfounded. He shook his head and he bunched up his hands into tight fists that shook with rage. He swung to his feet, an ice hammer floating directly behind him.
"You put me through all of that for something stupid like using my magic." He was beyond seething. He swung the hammer down which Ichiya barely dodged.
"You made me think I hurt her!" Another ice hammer was formed behind him.
"I was worried sick to my stomach because of you!" He bellowed, bringing the second hammer which clipped Ichiya's foot. Ichiya fell to the floor, clutching his foot.
"That was beyond cruel!" Gray was shaking from anger. He had another hammer formed but Lyon ran to Itchiya's aid and restrained Gray.
"That's enough, Gray." He said firmly, struggling to hold Gray.
"Let go of me." Gray demanded.
"Not until you're calm. It's over now."
Gray stopped fighting Lyon and took in a deep breath. "I'm done." Gray was not in the mood to deal with anything anymore. He pushed Lyon aside and just turned around and started walking back towards the Guild hall.
"What do we do, Bob?" Hibiki asked, unsure of what to do.
Bob thought about it for a moment. "Let him go. He's learned his lesson. Let's move onto the next one." He turned around to face Gajeel and Natsu.
"Natsu. You're up."