AN: So Steven Spielberg is allegedly producing a live-action TV show based off of the Halo franchise. To this I say, TAKE MY MONEY! In other new, the Batman VS Superman trailer was pretty bad, the Terminator trailer has ruined what would have been the movie's best twist, the Star Wars trailer looks really cool and I really hope they don't kill Han and Chewie, and Ant-Man looks a lot better than I was expecting. As for Jurassic World, I'll be in the theater in the very near future. Alright, I think that covers everything, on with the story.
Chapter 12: An Island Adventure
"We are MEN!" Elfman bellowed as he burst through the guild doors.
"Hey you two." Macao waved from the bar; "your mission a success?" Behind him Mira glanced up at the pair, a hopeful expression on her face.
"I just told you. We are men."
"Right, how could we forget?" Wakaba rolled his eyes as Mira beamed at her brother.
The rest of the fairies gave a round of cheers as Elfman marched across the room and presented the dragon ball to his sister. Goku entered shortly behind his friend, smiling as he watched the siblings celebrate being one step closer to reuniting their family.
Then he got smacked upside the head with his own Power Pole.
"Goku." Levy's voice was calm, but Goku could tell that she was upset. Her hair was more frazzled then usual, her hairband was nowhere to be seen, and her mouth was scrunched in a pout.
"Yes Levy?"
"Take your stupid stick back!" she yelled, shoving the Power Pole into his face. "Do you have any idea what I had to go through while holding onto a thing like that?"
"This staff." She poked him with the pole for emphasis. "Is a weird magical toy. In this guild, I might as well have been holding a bowl of candy in a kindergarten; everyone wanted a piece. Droy and Loki kept trying to swipe it to see if they could grow it into a giant extendable tree. Then Gray wanted to see if he could figure out how it worked so he could make one out of ice to fight Natsu with. And then Erza got back! She saw me taking the pole away from Gray and she started yelling at me for playing around with one of your most prized possessions."
"But-"
"Do you have any idea how scary it is when Erza's mad and ranting at you and you can't get a word in?"
"I know the feeling..."
"What!"
"Nothing." Goku protested, waving his hands and smiling. "Look Levy, I needed someone to watch it for me. I've been nervous about losing it ever since Erigor. You're one of the only people I can trust to watch it."
"NO! Don't talk like that!"
"What?"
"I'm not done being mad at you yet, but it's really hard to be angry at you when you talk like that!"
"Um, sorry?"
"…Darn. Why do you have to be so nice and yet so infuriating at the same time?" Levi sighed, her face softening as Goku took the pole. "I would have been willing to take care of the staff for you if you just explained that, instead of running off."
"I know, Elfman chewed me out for that too."
"Good." Levy let out a small breath and allowed her normal cheery grin to appear. "So, what are you up to now that you got the fourth dragon ball?"
"That depends. Has Erza come back from the Magic Council yet?"
"Yeah, she got back a few hours before you did, remember how I said she was yelling at me?"
"Oh yeah. Well since I don't have to keep my promise to go break her out of jail and I don't have any more leads on the dragon balls at the moment, I was thinking of going on a job. There ought to be a couple good S class missions on the board by now."
"I was supposed to be on a job right now, we had a good one lined up." Levy sighed, "But then when Gray tested out his ice power pole, Jet tripped over it and managed to twist his ankle. Now he can't run and Team Shadowgear is on standby."
"Gray should be more careful."
"No it's alright. I already took care of him."
Goku grinned. "If you want to go on a job, you should come with me! I was going to invite Erza and the others too. We'll go on the biggest S class mission available, it'll be great!"
"Uh… I don't know Goku. I'm not sure I'm S class material."
"What? Of course you are! Remember that S mission you took with Erza and me a while ago? You were awesome!"
"Goku, we failed that mission."
"No we didn't. We beat all the dark mages."
"Yeah but we destroyed mountain shrine we were supposed to protect in the process."
"Oh come on. It'll be fun." Goku urged her smiling at her. Levy just took in his enthusiastic face. He just looked so excited she couldn't help herself.
She caved.
"Well, I guess I don't really have plans, so okay. You go gather the others. I'll check the board for a good mission. Goku's grin nearly split his face as he nodded and ran off. Levy turned to see master Makarov chatting with Macao.
"Master?" The midget wizard looked up from his drink and grinned.
"Levy! What can I do for you?"
"I'm accompanying Goku and Erza and a few others on an S class mission. Can I go check out the S rank board?"
"Hmmm… I don't see why not." Makarov sighed happily. "It's so nice when you brats ask for permission to do these things. It just saves us all so much trouble in the end."
"Thanks master!" she turned to head up to the second floor.
Meanwhile Goku scanned the guild for the telltale flash of red. It took several minutes of searching before he found his friend. She had tucked herself away in the corner of the building, facing the wall. She had a cup of water in her hand and was silently staring down at it. If it wasn't for the soft rise and fall of her chest, it would appear as though she was a statue.
Now that Natsu was gone and her anger had subsided, the only thing on Erza's mind was her encounter with Siegrain. Every time she closed her eyes, all she could see were those dark, manipulative eyes. She saw the tower, guards with whips, and twisted beasts that shrieked and screamed as they flew through the air. She saw all of the prisoners there, dying because they followed her lead, because they made the mistake of trusting her. All of the conflict, all the bloodshed, and the only one to escape was a single girl, damaged and haunted by the friends she had lost.
No. Not lost, left behind. She was the one who had run away. She was the one who refused to go back.
She had thought she had moved past this. Left the little slave girl behind. Become a strong mage and member of the Fairy Tail family. But when her team had found the Power Pole, she had been terrified that Goku had been hurt or killed.
At that moment the little slave girl had come kicking and screaming back into her nightmares, whispering of guilt and mistakes left forgotten. Then meeting Siegrain, the twin of the boy she thought she knew so well, seeing his eyes, hearing his voice… she hadn't slept that night in the prison. The slave girl's chains had been rattling in her ears. She supposed she should be grateful Natsu had been there. Being angry at his idiocy was so much easier then listening to the chains.
She needed that… something to drown out the sound of rattling…
"Erza, there you are! I'm glad that you didn't get put in jail." The red head blinked as she looked up at Goku's brightly grinning face.
Yes. That would suffice.
"Yes well, I did end up in jail for a night after Natsu interfered. Luckily that is all, otherwise I feel that you would have ended up there with us."
"Don't worry. If the council had tried to keep you longer I would've busted you out."
"The fact that neither you nor Natsu can understand why that would only make things worse is exactly why I didn't want either of you there."
Goku shrugged, "Forget the politics stuff. Have you seen Natsu? I want get all of our friends together and go on a big mission."
"Master shipped off Natsu right before you arrived, he has to do … that."
Goku winced.
"Indeed. Happy refused to let him go through that alone, so he went with him.
"So he's gonna be gone for a few days."
"Yes, I doubt he'll be in any condition to do a mission afterwards."
"Alright then, what about Gray or Lucy?"
"Cana heard about a brewery that had a gremlin infestation that was offering all you can drink liquor for six months as a reward. She took the job before Mira even put it on the board. Then she grabbed Lucy and towed her along for the ride. As for Gray, he's right behind you." Goku turned to see the dark haired mage, surprisingly clothed.
"Hey, Levy said something about you taking us along for some sort of big job. I'm in, especially since flame brain isn't going to be around to get us blown up. So is it just the four us?" Gray asked.
"I asked Elfman on the way back, but he said that he wanted to stay here with Mira for a while. Besides, it's just one S class mission and we already have two S class mages. The four of us should do just fine." Gray shrugged. They turned to the stairs, where Levy was waiting for them, waving a piece of paper.
"I found the perfect job for us! A small village on Galuna Island needs help breaking some sort of curse, so it will give a great mystery for me to try and crack. Then, I heard that the island is home to a bunch of demons, so that will give you guys a whole bunch of stuff to fight. There's even a huge reward, the village is offering 7 million and a celestial key to whoever takes the job."
Gray whistled. "That's a pretty nice sum, but how exactly are we dividing that up fairly. I guess Lucy can have the key, none of us can use it. For the money, I nominate the guy who lives in the woods and catches his own meals as the guy who takes the smaller paycheck." Gray said staring pointedly at Goku.
"You do realize seven million can be evenly divided four ways?" Erza asked, eyebrow raised.
Goku waved her off. "That's fine, I don't really need the money anyways. All I ever use it for is food when I'm travelling. Besides, who cares about that right now? We have a mission to fight demons, let's go!"
"Indeed, we can not allow innocent villagers to bed plagued by demons"
"Uh guys, I did mention the mission is to break the curse right? The demons just happen to live there."
"Hey Goku, I bet I beat up more demons than you do."
"Heh, you're on Gray."
It was a sinking feeling that Levy watched her teammates exit the guild. Beside her Makarov shook his head sympathy. He stretched out his arm and patted her on the back. "Just make sure those three don't sink the island, alright?"
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The Fairies were well underway, having left the streets of Magnolia behind them. Their destination was a small costal town, from which they would hopefully be able to take them to their destination.
Gray grimaced as he walked, reaching down and scratching his legs as unobtrusively as he could. It felt as though a colony of ants had climbed up his legs and were biting into him, he just wanted to rip his jeans off and start scratching everywhere. Unfortunately, Erza explicitly forbade him from taking off his clothes while they were traveling so that he would not damage Fairy Tail's reputation.
"Are you alright Gray?" Levy asked, with an odd little smile on her face.
"Yeah." he grunted.
"You seem uncomfortable."
"My pants are just itchy."
"Hmmm, imagine that." Levy grinned, dropping the subject.
Gray muttered to himself as he adjusted once more and began looking around for some type of distraction. It was then that he noticed the strange fuzzy belt wrapped around Goku's waist.
"Hey Goku, since when do you wear fur clothes?"
Erza looked over to see what her friend was talking about, and when she saw all of the blood slowly drained from her face.
"Goku…when did your tail grow back?"
"Oh, it came back right in the middle of a fight Elfman and I had against a bunch of bandits. Saved me from a hit to the face too, I got really lucky."
"I'd forgotten you even have a tail." Gray commented watching the appendage twitch around with a bemused look on his face.
"Well, it never sticks around very long. It's grown back six times now, but the next day it somehow gets cut off. The left over stump is always numb, and I can definitely tell that something happens to it, but I still haven't been able to catch whoever is doing it."
"If you would like, I shall assist you in catching the culprit." Erza stated in a low monotone. Goku looked at his friend curiously, noticing her strange tone and seeing her unusual complexion.
"Thanks Erza, I would appreciate that." The red head nodded stiffly and the group continued onwards, somewhat more uncomfortably than before. Levy could tell that something was wrong, but she had no idea what it could be. Gray's eyes were slightly glazed, he was sending tiny blasts of cold down his legs in an attempt to relieve his discomfort, but nothing was helping. Erza had her head down the whole way, keeping quiet and walking somewhat separate from the others. Occasionally her eyes would dart up towards Goku's tail, only for them to immediately turn away again. The awkward silence continued for several miles down the road until a lone man stepped into their path.
"BAD LUCK KIDDIES!" The man yelled as he pulled a wicked looking knife from behind his back. "You little snots should know better than to walk down the road all willy-nillie like this, you never know when some big bad man will come out to rob you. Now, fork over everything you got and I just might let you-
"Dibs." Gray and Goku simultaneously interrupted. The bandit looked taken aback for a moment before continuing.
"Might let you go. Now then, are you ready too…ready too… what the hell are you doing?" Gray and Goku had turned away from the bandit and squared off against one another. Slowly they brought their arms up.
"Ro…" said Gray.
"Sham…" replied Goku.
"Bo!" They both cried, bringing their hands forward. They stared at the results for a moment before shouting "Draw! Again! Ro sham bo!"
"Hey! I asked what you are doing over there!" The two teens pulled another draw and Levy stepped around them to answer the enraged bandit.
"They're just deciding who's going to deal with you. Just give them a minute, they'll be with you as soon as they are done."
"…what?" In the background Gray let out a cry of victory and Goku hung his head in defeat. The ice mage stripped off of his shirt and pushed Goku out of the way as he walked up to the confused bandit.
"Buddy, I really need to thank you for this. I thought I was going to have to wait until we got to the island to get some stress relief, but lucky me, you showed up. Now let's see if I can break my high score."
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"I still can't believe you guys only gave me an 18." Gray grumbled as the group set up camp for the night.
"It's not our fault you don't have any taste Gray. All you did was smack him around a bit, mess with him, and knock him out. You're lucky we gave you sixes at all, you didn't have any… pizazz." Levy said slyly.
"Gray put your pants back on." Erza commanded. The ice mage had stripped them off and was lounging on a log in his underwear.
"No. These things have been bugging me since we left." Gray replied, shaking his pants out in front of him. "I've been itching nonstop since this morning, it's like…" Gray narrowed his eyes as he spotted a marking on the back of the clothing.
"Levy!"
"Yes Gray?"
"Did you write the word 'Itchy' on my pants?" Gray demanded.
"… Yes."
"Why the hell did you do that?" Gray yelled.
"That was for what you did to Jet. He won't be able to walk properly for a week thanks to your ice pole thing."
"That was an accident." he protested.
"You should know better than to practice magic techniques in the guild hall."
Gray glared at the blue haired teen. "You're kidding right? Who doesn't use magic in the guild hall?"
"Levy is correct, Gray. Your careless actions injured a friend, and you have been punished for it." Erza turned to Levy. "How long did you empower that spell for?"
"Um… it should last until tomorrow."
"Impressive. I did not notice you showing any signs of fatigue considering you worked such a long lasting spell."
"Yeah, the training with Goku is paying off. I can make my spells last so much longer now, especially the low level ones like that."
"It was a well performed punishment, I simply would have beat him up a bit."
"I can't hit as hard as you so I had to think of other methods. I thought about writing the word on him instead of his clothes, but I thought that was a bit too much."
Gray looked back and forth between them in disbelief.
"What the hell am I supposed to do now? I only brought this one pair of pants."
"Why did you only bring one pair?" Erza asked, raising her brow. "That seems like a severe error on your part."
"I don't need more than one. Remember that necklace I got from the Baba lady?" Gray pulled out the piece of Jewelry in question. "It summons my clothes back to me when I lose them. I only need one pair."
"Well then I suppose you are out of luck."
"Oh come on!" Gray yelled. "You're the one who's so adamant about me wearing them in the first place Erza, what happened to ruining Fairy Tail's rep?" Erza tilted her head in consideration before turning towards the word mage.
"Levy, why don't you undo the spell. I think he's had enough." Erza chuckled.
"Alright." Levy's quill flashed and the word on Gray's pants vanished.
"I don't know why I put up with you people sometimes."
"I think us simply being your friend should be enough for that." Erza replied, her lips still quirked into a smile.
"Yeah, I guess that would be the reason wouldn't it. You know, it's not fair when you two gang up on me like this. I can't fight back like with Goku or flame brain. You'd kill me if I tried." he finished glaring at Erza.
"Don't be ridiculous, I wouldn't kill you. I would merely knock you out so that you would be unable to continue." Erza drawled, unaware of Gray slowly edging away from her.
"Yeah, that makes me feel so much better."
"Good, that was my intention." Levy stared at the Equip mage incredulously before joining Gray in sliding a bit further away from their armored companion. They sat silently for several moments, as Erza continued to fail at noticing either mages' sideways looks. The silence was interrupted by the sound of a cracking branch and the three mages turned to see Goku carrying a giant slab of well cooked meat over his shoulder.
"I see you figured out how to cook with your energy blasts then." Erza noted as Goku distributed the food around the group.
"Yep, cooked it medium rare and didn't accidently blow it up." Goku ripped a huge chunk off of the carcass and dug in, leaving a mess of juice all over his face. The rest of the group knew better after years of experience and turned their back to the grisly spectacle as they enjoyed their own meal. The rest of the evening passed by relatively uneventfully and each teen turned into their respective tent. Two quickly fell asleep, the events of the day catching up to them. In one tent the occupant lay wide awake, unsettled as she steeled herself to do what she had come to consider her duty to her friend. Finally, the final guild member had fallen into a different kind of sleep and dreamt of things that could have been.
For the third time he had made it to the final round of the World Martial Arts Tournament, and for the third time he squared off against an enemy who he knew was stronger than himself. Just like Jackie Chun and Tienshinhan before, this new Piccolo felt stronger, his Ki signature was greater than his own. This time though, the stakes were far higher than at either of the previous tournaments. If he lost, then there wouldn't be anybody around who could stop the demon from laying waste to the world and ruling it as he saw fit. As powerful as the other fighters were around the world, none of them had the level of power needed defeat Piccolo, not even Tien or Master Roshi.
The blonde announcer was talking with the same enthusiasm that he had for every single match every year of the tournament, but his words barely reached the fighter's ears. Despite the atmosphere of the crowd, he had never been more worried for a fight in his life. The two strongest fighters on the planet were squaring off in what would be the greatest challenge and the greatest fight that he had ever been in. His grim gaze was met by a smug smile from his adversary. Finally the announcer stopped talking and as one both of the fighters moved. They clashed in the middle of the arena with elbows thrown, struggling to outmuscle one another when-
Shhhhink!
Goku leapt out of sleeping bag at the sound of a blade leaving its sheath. He leapt out of his tent and came face to face with a startled Erza. Goku saw the sword in her hand and has immediately on guard, searching his surroundings for any sign of danger.
"What's going on? What happened?"
"I-I thought you- I heard a noise," Erza stammered. "I- I was just checking around… I didn't mean to wake you."
"Its fine, you didn't mean to. Now, what did you hear?"
"I- it- I'm not sure. I just heard something and it woke me up so I can out to check. I thought I heard it from somewhere around your tent."
"Alright" Goku nodded, focusing his Ki to try and detect any intruders. "I've slept enough now, so why don't you go back to bed while I stand watch."
"You… you don't really need to do that, I can stand guard."
"Erza, you're talking funny, you're really pale, and you're all sweaty. You look like you need to get to sleep a lot more than I do. I'll call Nimbus and fly around the area to see if I can find what woke you and then I'll stay in the air and watch out for any sign of danger."
"But… I…" Goku gently turned his friend around and pushed her back towards her tent.
"Goodnight Erza, see you in the morning!"
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"Galuna Island? No way will I risk my crew going to that cursed place! If you want to get there, you find your own way because no sane Captain here will risk those waters." The grizzled old man before the group turned in a huff and stalked away, leaving the teens standing in the middle of the road.
"Well, that's the fifth Captain we've talked to now. I think we need a new approach." Gray noted as they began looking around the harbor once more.
"It's too bad we can't just fly over on Nimbus like when we were kids." Levy said. "But even if we could all ride it, we wouldn't be able to fit anymore." Goku looked around. They couldn't find a boat and they couldn't ride Nimbus but maybe…
"Hey Levy, can you make a chain about twenty feet long?"
"Yeah, but why?"
"And Gray, and you make a big ice sled large enough to carry three people?"
"With my eyes closed."
"Great! Then I'll ride Nimbus across the ocean, and we'll connect the chain between me and the sled so that Nimbus can drag you across!"
"That's… actually a surprisingly good plan." Levy flicked the side of Gray's head for the remark but Goku was barely paying attention. Nimbus was already on its way down and the spikey haired teen turned to look pointedly at his two friends.
ICE MAKE: ICEBERG!
SOLID SCRIPT: CHAINS!
A massive floating ice block formed and was then lassoed by the word 'chain', dozens of metallic words burst out of the air and moved to Levy's will. The other end wrapped itself around Goku's torso as the boy jumped up and took his position atop of his cloud. Levy and Gray hopped onto the ice and the three turned towards Erza. The girl had barely spoken all day, and her eyes were unfocused. She had docilely followed the rest of the group around for the entire day with barely a sound, and it was beginning to get to them.
"Erza? Are you alright?" Goku asked. The red heads eyes snapped towards him, took in their makeshift boat, and then cleared.
"Yes, I'm quite fine. I merely had difficulty sleeping last night. Don't worry, I shall not let it be a problem for the rest of the mission." Erza made her way over towards the iceberg, sidestepping a large man as she walked. The man turned, placing a hand on her shoulder and giving the teens a friendly smile.
"Hello there! I heard that you were looking for passage to Galuna Island and I thought I might offer my assistance."
"No thanks." Goku replied from atop his cloud. "We don't need a ride anymore, and after everything we heard about the island we shouldn't risk anyone else anyways. Thanks anyways, bye-bye!" With that the gang was off, blasting across the water at such a high speed that Gray had to freeze their feet to the ice to keep from flying off. The man tried to call out to the teens but in a matter of seconds they were out of hearing range and the words were lost to the waves.
The weight of the load it was carrying slowed Nimbus down to a fraction of its normal speed, but even factoring that in the little cloud was still able to move the tiny iceberg faster than any boat that had ever seen the waters around Fiore. Gray was forced to work constantly the entire trip, maintaining the sled to keep it from breaking down. Levy had partially wrapped herself into the chains connecting the two groups to keep her balance while Erza stood stoically at the back of the platform, calmly surveying the horizon. Dark clouds were gathering off in the distance, obscuring their view of the island which should have already been in sight. The waves were beginning to increase in size and the ice platform was being swung around in every direction. Nimbus was growing unsteady, trying to simultaneously deal with the wind and its towing load was causing difficulties and Goku had to make a conscious effort just to stay on.
"Goku! I think we need to ease up, I don't know how much more of this we can take! Slow down!" The wind stole the words right of Levy's throat, whipping them away before they could reach the flying teen. Gray fired off a large bolt of ice magic to stop a large wave from swallowing them and then he too tried to yell to Goku.
"Hey man, we're in trouble here! I can't keep the boat from sinking and stop the waves at the same time! We need to get off the water!" Once again the spikey haired fighter couldn't hear his friend over the storm and he continued flying forwards, pulling his allies towards the island with all his might. Erza didn't bother yelling, instead she requiped into her Heaven Wheel armor.
"He cannot hear us! Quickly, grab on and I will attempt to fly us out!" Gray quickly grabbed onto Erza's arm and froze himself to the metal while Levy began to unwrap herself from the makeshift boat. Suddenly her concentration was ruined when she heard a cry of surprise behind her. She turned just in time to see Goku disappear beneath the waves, knocked loose by a massive water sprout. Then the chain connecting them went taut and the blue haired girl was pulled beneath the waves as well.
"SHIT!" Gray yelled, he had seen the danger but he had been too slow to save Levy from going under. "Damn it! Erza we need to find them right now! Quick, get in the sky so we can-" Gray's orders were cut out as a massive waved crashed over the pair, pulling them apart and sending them spiraling away from one another beneath the waves.
With the storm raging all around them, the mages of Fairy Tail had all vanished.
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Hello everyone, I am Sturm And Drang, Heroman's Beta.
Welcome back to another Omake.
Buckle up, it's gonna get a little heavy.
Tails of Trouble
S&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&D
About sixth months after Goku and Erza joined Fairy Tail
If a traveler bothered to look around the town of Magnolia, one could find many spots that mages used to train their skills. Shattered rocks, distorted trees, and other forms of magical collateral damage often marked these places.
An experienced Magnolite would know that these were distinct signs that Fairies had been in the vicinity.
These areas are popular among the mages, young and old, as a place to practice their magic without blowing up half the guild. And on this day, the young knight of Fairy Tail could be found in one such place.
Erza stood still, balanced atop a training post. Surrounding the young mage hovered an array of weapons; swords, battle-axes, maces, and even a couple spears swam through the air around her.
Erza steadied herself and concentrated. Slowly the weapons began to align around her; she needed to be able to control them with perfect precision. If she could, there would be no limit to how many opponents she could fight at once. The weapons began to spin like a satellite around a planet. The clearing filled with a droning buzz as the blades cut through the air. The armaments began wobbling in their path, but Erza grit her teeth and forced them back into place. As long as she kept focus she could stay in control. In a real fight she could not allow her focus to be broken. Nothing could be allowed to-
"HEY ERZA!"
"Eep!" The knight's eyes flew open and, her focus broken, toppled from her perch. The weapons, no longer bound by her will went zipping off in all directions. They crashed into the ground, cracked stones, and buried themselves into the surrounding trees. A lone battle-axe went spinning off into the sky, vanishing into the clouds.
She sighed, knowing who had interrupted her, and consequently, how futile berating him would be.
"What Goku?" she asked, not bothering to sit up. She just continued to lay prone on her back as a mop of spiky black hair filled her vision.
"Erza? You sound upset. Are you upset?"
"Goku, what do you want? Couldn't you see I was a little busy?" The martial artist smiled at her excitedly.
"Well, I woke up this morning and everything was normal. I didn't feel like eating at the guild so I decided to go hunting for some lizard or something. I was walking through the forest trying to find something tasty when I realized something AMAZING!" He turned around and bent over. "Check it out."
Erza glared up for a second, uncomprehending. Then it clicked. Oh.
OH.
His tail had grown back.
"Isn't it cool!" Goku exclaimed, beaming at her while the chocolate brown monkey tail wove innocently through the air above her face.
"Yeah. Really cool." She replied, she brought her hand up and grabbed the tail, shoving it away from her face. Goku stiffened and staggered away from her.
He moaned, gently rubbing his tail. "Ouch, that really hurt."
"My apologies." Erza said, getting back to her feet. "I didn't think I grabbed it that hard."
"You didn't. Man… forgot how much it hurts when someone else squeezes it."
"What are you going to do now?" she asked, thankful that Goku didn't catch the apprehension in her voice.
"Ummm…" Goku screwed up his face in thought. He brightened. "I know, I'm gonna go show Levy! I bet she would think it's awesome!"
"Yeah, I bet she would."
Goku nodded, grinning with glee as he ran off. When he disappeared from sight the brittle smile disappeared from the Knight's face. She began moving around the clearing, gathering what weapons she could.
She didn't like that tail. Something about it was…unnatural. Spotting a lance buried halfway up a tree, she began to climb. As she lost herself in thought, the image of Gohan flashed across her mind.
"…His tail is dangerous, to himself and those around him. You must promise me, for the safety of my grandson, please make sure that you always get rid of his tail as soon as you see it return."
Reaching the lance she began to tug on it bit it was buried deep in the wood that it wasn't yielding to her easily. Could she really do it? Cut off Goku's tail? It would hurt him both physically and emotionally… but she had promised his grandfather that she would do it…
Until now, she hadn't been sure that it would grow back. She hoped it wouldn't, and there hadn't been any sign of it. She wasn't sure what to do now that it had.
Finally she ripped the lance out of the tree and sent it to her reequip space as she set off for the guild. She stopped for only a moment to raise her hand to catch her battle-axe as it came falling out of the sky before continuing on her way.
The usual laughter and yelling heralded her arrival. She opened the doors to see Goku, showing off his tail to anyone who would look.
She needed advice.
She scanned the guildhall, her eyes passing over Mirajane, who would laugh off her concerns, and landing on Makarov, drinking from on top of the bar counter and laughing as Goku poked Levy with his tail.
Perfect.
She approached him, quietly, not wanting to draw attention to herself. But she didn't need to worry, Fairies were like cats, anything unusual captivated their attention completely, and with Goku prancing around imitating a monkey she was just one step short of invisible.
"Master."
"Oh Erza! There you are. How is the training going?" The midget of a master asked, a smile splitting his face in two.
"Fine." Her tone caused the smile to fade somewhat from the master's face.
"What's the matter?"
"Master. May I speak with you? In private? I believe it is important." Smile gone, Makarov considered her carefully and nodded. He hopped down and gestured for her to follow. He guided her through the roiling crowd of fairies to a tiny side room. When he shut the door behind her, all the noise of their guild mates shut off completely.
"Now what's this about?"
Erza quickly explained the situation: Goku's tail, Gohan's warning, his request, her promise, and her misgivings. The wizard saint listened intently, nodding to show he understood.
"Tell me," the master began, once she had finished. "Do you believe that this Gohan fellow's words are worth following? Worth inflicting injury on a friend?"
Erza flinched. It sounded terrible when he put it like that… But… "That's why I'm asking you. I could tell that Gohan truly loved Goku, it was obvious just by looking in his eyes. He looked at Goku like you look at us. But he still asked me to do it. I can't help but think that he must know something that we don't."
"…Then perhaps we should get rid of it." Erza's head snapped up, shocked. The guild master sighed. "I see all of you little brats as my family, the thought of purposely hurting one of you hurts me…but we must lay out the facts. Goku isn't human." He held up a hand to halt her protests. "Think about it. His physical strength and durability are nothing short of superhuman, and now he just grows a monkey tail. I'm not sure what his power comes from, because it sure isn't magic. I've checked. We have no idea what will happen with him next, but it could be very dangerous to himself or those around him."
"Goku would never hurt Fairy Tail."
"I agree… but, Erza… being the master, it means more than just being the strongest, or bossing you brats around… to be a leader means sometimes I have to make tough choices. While I believe Goku would never hurt us on purpose, I know he could easily hurt someone by accident. I would rather have to hurt him a little now, then be too late to stop him in the future."
Erza remained silent, trying to take in all he had said… then, "You've… had to do something like this before. Haven't you?"
To his credit, Makarov didn't flinch. He just closed his eyes and nodded. "Yes. I'm not going to give you details. But I have."
Erza nodded once more, she had no right to pry about things that were obviously painful for him.
The matter settled, Makarov patted Erza's shoulder. "I'll come find you after the party winds down. We will deal with it then."
The party had been a tame one, by the guild's standards anyway. All of the tables and chairs were still in one piece.
Goku had spent most of the time climbing anything he could get his hands on, screeching like a monkey as the rest of the Guild laughed at his antics.
For Erza, it had been a misery.
She couldn't bring herself to take her eyes off Goku. She made herself watch every moment he spent playing with his tail. He clearly loved having it.
And she was going to take it away from him.
All the food became tasteless; none of her friends' joy was able to penetrate her feelings of guilt. She kept herself out of sight as much as possible. She couldn't bear to talk to Goku right now.
"Erza." She jumped, turning she saw the master looking at her. She could tell what he wanted by the look in his eye.
It was time.
Makarov clasped her hand in his and brought raised his other upwards and she felt a rush of magic surge around her, spreading throughout the guild.
One by one, all of the guild members still able to stand upright were falling, snoring before they even hit the ground. In the end the only one still standing was Goku, looking blearily at the state of his guild mates until he too collapsed.
"There." Said Makarov. "That will keep them all asleep until morning, with luck, when they come too, they mostly won't question why Goku's tail is missing. Just put it to their drunk imaginations." He gestured for the younger mage to follow as he moved towards the slumbering fighter.
They stood over Goku, watching as his tail twitched in his sleep. Erza raised her hands and Requiped a pair of giant scissors into them. They were Surgery Scissors, their enchantment would automatically numb the pain of any injury they inflicted. Even with the sheer sensitivity of his tail, he wouldn't feel a thing.
"You don't have to be the one to do it, you know." Makarov said quietly.
"Thank you for the offer Master… but, I do. This was my idea, it is my responsibility."
She brought the scissors to the base of Goku's tail. She looked down at Goku's face, taking in his contented smile for a moment.
"I'm sorry."
And she slammed the scissors shut.
S&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&DS&D
Beta's Note
Okay… That got a little heavy… this is my first attempt at such a serious toned story. I'm more about comedy really. Originally that's what this story was gonna be like: multiple shenanigans ensuing as Erza cut his tail off over the years trying not to get caught. But as I wrote it, it became more serious.
Erza didn't do this lightly; she is literally mutilating her friend, even if she believes it's for his own good, and that hurts her. Makarov understands, he had to banish both his son, and then his grandson, (Even if he kinda came back later and everything was suddenly okay).
Heavy the head that bears the crown. I know I would never want to be a king or anyone with that kind of power. I'd probably abdicate within the hour. Two tops.
I'd love it if you let me know how I did.
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DRAGON BALL Z EPIC ANNOUNCER MAN VOICE MAN: NEXT TIME ON ESCALATION! FAIRY TAIL IS SCATTERED, AND HAS LANDED ON GALUNA ISLAND AN ENTIRE DAY LATER THAN PLANNED. WITH THEIR ENEMIES PLAN ALREADY NEARING COMPLETION, WILL THE TEAM BE ABLE TO COME TOGETHER TO TAKE ON THE POWER OF ZEREF'S DEMON? FIND OUT IN THE NEXT CHAPTER: A COLD REUNION!
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Anyone else pumped for Dragon Ball Super, or is it just me?