Note: Wow, been a while since I've touched this :X My bad.
Yesterday
1. on the day last past : on the day preceding today
2. at a time not long past : only a short time ago
Yesterday, there had been everything. Today, only he and Zeref were left. And tomorrow…
Yesterday, everything had been normal.
Happy had been teasing Lucy and Natsu had been starting fights and Erza had been eating strawberry cake. Cana had been drinking up all the guild's booze and Loke had made an appearance to flirt outrageously with Lucy. Mira had been tending to the bar and laughing at Lisanna and Elfman's antics, while Laxus and the Raijinshuu squabbled at the other end of the counter. Gajeel and Levy had been flirting awkwardly while Jet and Droy looked on in despair, Macao and Wakaba had been smoking together, and Nab had once again been considering the job board while Gildarts made an appearance to bother his drunken daughter. Makarov had been lamenting the latest charges owed to the Council after Natsu destroyed another small town, Wendy had been trying to convince Charle to be nicer to Happy, and Bisca and Alzack had been playing happily with Asuka.
Gray had been a little reluctant to leave the fun behind to pay Lyon a visit for his birthday.
If he had known what he knew today, he would have stayed.
Today, everything was gone.
Gray drifted aimlessly through the cracked streets strewn with rubble, gaping in incomprehension at the crumbling, flattened buildings. Blackened bodies peeked out from beneath the debris and his stomach turned.
A heady, nauseating aura of black magic hung over the ruins.
Yesterday, Magnolia had been a thriving city. Today, it was nothing but rubble.
Gray's feet carried him to the guild hall. It was decimated, the epicenter of the destruction. He didn't look too closely at the bodies. He knew—had known—his friends well enough to recognize each one at even the briefest of glances, even when twisted and blackened, and each one made another piece of his heart shatter like glass.
He was trembling. He clenched his hands into fists until the nails dug into his palms, but not even the pain could wake him up from this nightmare. He lurched forward and dry heaved.
Yesterday, he had had a guild and a family. Today, he had no one.
It was Zeref. Gray recognized the stench of death that permeated the black mage's magic, and enough of the residue still lingered in the air to kill off an entire city.
Zeref had finally decided to stop playing games with them. He had always known where their guild was, but had, inexplicably, chosen to ignore them. But yesterday he had clearly meant business.
Gray could imagine it. He could see everyone as he had left them, carousing and having a good time. He could see Zeref striding through the door with hard, merciless eyes. He could see everyone freezing in surprise and hesitating for one fatal second. He could see Zeref unleashing the full power of his black magic on them, destroying the guild and flattening the surrounding city. He could see Zeref turning around and sauntering away without a backwards glance, as if the people he had killed were nothing more than trash.
Why hadn't Gray been here? If he had stayed, would he have been killed by that split second of stunned disbelief? Or would he have been fast enough to trap Zeref in iced shell and save his friends?
Most probably the former, but the latter would haunt him for as long as he lived.
His eyes hardened.
Which wouldn't be for very long.
His eye caught on a shock of dusty pink hair sticking out from beneath a wooden beam. "Sorry, Natsu. Guess you should have stuck around to stop me."
Gray was going to do what he should have done a long time ago. He had nothing left to lose, no one left to live for. He was going to hunt Zeref down to the ends of the earth and trap the bastard for eternity.
He turned on his heel and walked away from his broken guild, every step echoing with finality.
Yesterday, there had been everything. Today, only he and Zeref were left. And tomorrow…
Tomorrow, there would be nothing.
Note: I'm pretty sure Zeref could've waltzed up in a sneak attack and nuked everyone with how powerful they made him out to be, but I guess that wouldn't be any fun lol
emmahoshi: Well, he's talking about using iced shell, which would basically be both lol Homicide and suicide all wrapped up in one XD Ha ha, yeah, there's this thing about making villains basically unbeatable but then never having them really use that power because if they did, there would be no way/barely any way for the protagonists to win. So they always get beaten in weird ways that could've been easily avoided if they'd just nuked everyone in the beginning instead of playing games. It's so prevalent that it's practically the norm lol Good luck with your exams and presentations and whatnot :)