Chapter Thirty Five - The 1st Annual Grand Magic Games: DAY FIVE - July 5th, X773

I groaned when I saw the chariots.

I had hoped that it was something else – so Laxus wasn't doing Chariots. That there was a small chance.

Unfortunately, it seemed he was going to have to get on them.

"I need to…what?" he asked, turning pale.

"You need to run a race on those chariots," I said, pointing at them.

"I don't want to," he said, panicking. "Can't Lucy do it?"

"Technically, Lucy is the substitute for Levy – who already participated in her morning game."

Laxus groaned. "What am I going to do?"

"Why doesn't Laxus just use his lightning body?" Cana asked.

Both Laxus and I paused.

"He'd still have to hit the ground," I said, "and the track is moving, remember? I don't know how it'd work."

"I'd still end up behind everyone else," Laxus admitted.

"Maybe not," Cana said, holding up a secret weapon.

"Well then..." I turned to Laxus. "How long can you hold your form?"

He shook his head. "I don't know, I've never really tested it!"

"Well," I said. "No time like the present!"

"How about those months when you were away?" he asked. "It seems like that would've been a pretty good time."

I grasped his shoulders. "Relax, I believe you can make the entire race. In fact, you might even be able to win the race! You just need to move as fast as possible, alright?"

He nodded, and just before he left our platform, I said, "Pay attention to the announcements, they probably won't start the race until you're on the thing."

"Got it," he said, looking sick.

"Good luck," I said, hugging him.

Reluctantly, he started hugging me back.

Damn tsundere.

"Aww, look at the cute moment between Elle and Laxus!" Bob said.

I flipped him off.

I let go of Laxus, and moved back.

Luckily, they didn't even start the race on the chariots. They started standing on the outside of it, and had to jump on it while it was moving.

The gong went off and Laxus threw down a pile of cards, immediately activated his lightning body, jumping onto the chariots and taking off.

When the smoke from the cards cleared, everyone else was unconscious. We weren't really worried about the other Fairy Tail team, because Rex, the Speed Mage, was participating for them. Because of that, they were likely to come in second place.

"Look at Laxus go!" Yajima said. "Very impressive. That was some tactic."

"He's just a stupid brat," Jose mumbled.

"You want to go?" Makarov yelled, and started growing in size. "That's my grandson!"

And then after passing several chariots, Laxus's foot hit the tack and he slowed down, sick. He began trying to activate his lightning and jump ahead again, moving along sluggishly the whole way.

"DAMN YOU, MASHIMA!" Makarov roared, holding Jose in a head-lock.

"DAMN YOU, MASHIMA!" I bellowed along with the rest of the guild.

"Who's Mashima?" Lucy asked curiously.

"Hiro Mashima is the person we blame all of our problems on," I explained.

"What are we blaming him for now?" Lucy asked.

"Laxus's motion sickness," I said.

Laxus managed to start up his lightning body again and surged ahead, the audience watching eagerly. He made it several more chariots before his foot hit the platform again and he slowed.

"You can do it, Laxus!" I shouted, holding my hand up in his sign.

I don't know if he actually heard me, but he pulled himself up, yelled, "For Fairy Tail!" And managed to start up again, shooting through another series of chariots before he flew off it and past the finish line, right as the other contestants were walking up.

As Laxus reached the arena, a full fight had broken out between Makarov and Jose, and Makarov was being held back by Yajima and Bob, while Jose was held back by Goldmine and Ooba, neither of which seemed to want to touch him.

Huh. Maybe that was why the commentators weren't the guild masters.

Now that I think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

"And Laxus wins first place for Fairy Tail Team A, kabo! This means that Fairy Tail A has gotten first place for all morning competitions! Kabo!"

"What happened?" Laxus asked me, gesturing to the commentators' box, his color finally returning.

Cana, Lucy, and Juvia started giggling. "Master and Jose got in a fight," I said. "Because Jose said something about how you were 'just a brat' or something."

"Master said, 'you want to go', too!" Cana said, laughing. "He sounded just like you, Elle-nee-chan!"

Laxus sweatdropped. "Great."

Fairy Tail Team B finished next, and not too long after him, Lamia Scale's mage appeared. She was quickly followed by Phantom Lord, followed by Blue Pegasus and Quatro Cerberus.

Fairy Tail A– 90 points

Fairy Tail B – 60 points

Phantom Lord – 34 points

Lamia Scale – 30 points

Quatro Cerberus – 26 points

Blue Pegasus – 12 points

As Mato rattled off the new scores, I looked at ours. "One fifty," I said.

"What?" asked Laxus. The girls, who had been talking about something else, turned to listen as well.

"Our score total is one fifty. In order to get our trampoline, we need two hundred points. If we win both battles today, we'll only be left with thirty points."

"Can we get that much in the finale?" Laxus asked.

I nodded.

"Awesome!" Cana said. "We can totally do that!"

Juvia nodded. "Juvia will destroy her opponent for Onee-sama! For the tamproline!"

I smiled. "Tram-poh-lean," I said.

"Trampoline?" Juvia asked.

I nodded.

Mato dismissed everyone for the lunch break and we made our way down the hall to meet up with the others. It wasn't hard to find them, as Freed was loudly exclaiming about how brilliant his Ella-sama and Laxus-sama were about orchestrating Laxus's win.

"Actually, it was Cana's idea, Freed," I said as we came up.

Freed stopped gushing, but Gildarts started.

"MY LITTLE GIRL IS A GENIUS! SHE'S SO SMART …"

I honestly stopped listening very quickly, and went back to thinking about my plan for the finale.

I hoped it would work. I had scrapped my original plan because I didn't think it would be entertaining enough for all of the people watching - if we knocked everyone out all at once, it would just seem like we had the upper hand. So that plan was binned, and I worked on finding a way for it to be extremely entertaining, with no doubt on our victory.

And by victory, I mean with the trampoline.

I honestly didn't pay much attention to lunch, continuing to concentrate on my end plan, and I didn't even notice time passing until we hit the field for the battle rounds.

Though I did notice Brandish punching Bickslow in the face, for whatever reason.

You don't see much six year olds punching nine (nearly ten) year olds.

First up during the battle rounds was Fairy Tail B vs Phantom Lord.

Maggie, the Iron-Make Mage who I needed to talk to about her magic, was fighting, and easily won the match, scoring 10 points toward our trampoline goal.

Afterwards was Fairy Tail A vs Lamia Scale, and I froze a bit when I realized Juvia would be fighting Jura.

Who, as I mentioned before, (even as a teenager) had no hair.

"Juvia, remember what we told you about mud?" I whispered in her ear. "He's an Earth Mage, though I'm not quite sure how he will work with mud. I'm also not quite sure what would happen if one of his attacks actually hit your body, though, so be careful. Jura ends up becoming known as 'Iron Rock Jura', the Ace of Lamia Scale for his strength."

Juvia nodded determinedly and walked out onto the field. As they met in the middle, Juvia bowed to Jura, who, surprised, bowed back.

"Juvia is pleased to meet Jura-san," Juvia said. "Onee-sama has regaled Juvia with tales of your strength."

Jura gave her an odd look. "I am sixteen, Juvia-dono. I don't understand that of which you speak."

Juvia bowed again. "Juvia apologizes. Juvia forgets that not everyone knows of Onee-sama's gifts."

I facepalmed.

"Her gifts?" Jura asked curiously.

"Yes," Juvia nodded eagerly. "Onee-sama is extremely wise and powerful. Levy-san says that she is om-ni-shent. Though Juvia does not know what that means."

"Omniscient is generally used to describe someone who is all-knowing," Jura said.

Juvia nodded. "Juvia understands. Onee-sama knows a great many things, including some things which do not exist, which greatly puzzles Juvia. Onee-sama also knows a great many things about a great many of specific people, and you are one such person. Onee-sama has regaled Juvia with tales of your future strength, but Juvia will still beat you. For Onee-sama!"

The stadium was absolutely silent.

Most of them were staring at me.

Jura had a look of pure confusion on his face.

I sighed. "Can I just…go back inside?" I muttered quietly, trying to creep away.

"No," Laxus said, grabbing onto my shoulder.

Someone hit the gong, for the battle to begin.

As Jura sent the first attack towards Juvia, Cana started talking. "I mean, it's not like she's wrong."

"Yeah, I mean, you've full out admitted you know the future, Ellie-nee," Lucy said.

I sighed. "Yeah, but I didn't exactly want the country at large to know."

Laxus snorted.

"How old is Juvia, Makarov?" Bob asked.

"Juvia turned six a little over two months ago. She was born with her powers, however."

I guess it's a good thing that Juvia practiced slicing through IRON with Levy, because they gave Jura his name because of how hard he could make his rock. Her Water Slicers cut through it like butter, and Jura had to duck in order to avoid getting hit. In addition to that, Juvia was merely soaking the ground with as much water as she possibly could, so he couldn't use his element as well.

Juvia pulled out almost all her tricks – even going so far as to make herself sad, so it would rain.

But in the end, it didn't matter. Jura cast a rock made fist at her and won, and Juvia was on the ground defeated as she came back over to us, sluggish from the mud running through her. Next thing I knew, she was sobbing in my arms.

"Onee-sama, I'm so sorry!" she sobbed. "Juvia has failed her Onee-sama! Now Onee-sama will not get her trampoline!"

"Shhh," I said, hugging her and soothing her. "It's fine. It's alright. I didn't expect us to win every battle."

"But…but what about Onee-sama's plan?" Juvia asked, sniffling.

"We can adjust," I said, smiling down at her.

When the games were over, we trekked up to our room.

"Alright, everyone," I said, closing the door. "Today's scores read as thus:

Fairy Tail A– 90 points

Fairy Tail B – 70 points

Lamia Scale – 40 points

Quatro Cerberus – 36 points

Phantom Lord – 34 points

Blue Pegasus – 12 points"

A pause, and I looked at all the kids who were watching me. "We need forty points to get the trampoline."

"This isn't even about winning the games anymore, is it?" Laxus asked.

I snorted. "Please, like we'd lose. Anyway, we need forty points. Tomorrow is our day of rest. We will rest up our magic, and I will discuss the plan with you all. Alright?"

They nodded.

"Alright, everyone," I said, and climbed into bed.

I was suddenly surrounded by a glob of children.

My eyes met Laxus's gaze over the rest of the kids, and I mirrored his smirk with my own.

In two days, we would win the games.

"Goodnight!" I called.

"Goodnight!"

Ahhhhhhh I'm so so so so so so sosososososososososo sorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry!

I'm not used to these weird shifts and the constant standing, and it's messing with my feet and sleep patterns.

Before this, all of my jobs were office jobs.

I'm sorry about the late update, especially since it's kinda small.

I think there's two more chapters in this arc, and we'll be finished with the Grand Magic Games.

According to Fairy Tail Wikia, Jura and Reedus were born in the same year, X757.

Also, I would like to thank TigressinCreamSilk on Ao3 who inspired a bit of a change with Laxus's tactics for Chariots.