Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and its characters belong to Hiro Mashima.

"It's sweet.

"It's SALTY."

"No, I said it's SWEET!"

"SALTY!"

"YA WANNA FIGHT, SALAMANDER!?" Gajeel grabbed the Fire Dragon Slayer by his scarf, tugging him up off of the ground, "THE SMELL IS SWEET!"

"SALTY!" Natsu bellowed, thrusting the ball of his foot up into Gajeel's chin.

Before a fight could break out, each of them were grabbed by a massive, firm hand, pulled away from one another. "Stop it you BRATS!" Makarov shouted, sounding irritated.

The two slayers fell limp, still muttering under their breath that they thought it was salty or sweet, respectively.

"Let us agree that it smells both salty and sweet, yes?" Erza offered, crossing her legs and inspecting the dragon slayers who had been fighting for hours about what the particular scent was like.

"And," Gajeel added, "Also smells like the ocean."

"No, it smells like a POND!"

"OCEAN!"

"POND!"

"It smells sweet and salty, like an ocean and a pond," Erza concluded, shaking her head. "But because we all have our own individual scents, we shouldn't ignore the possibility that one or both of them are wrong."

"You know what I smell?" Happy fluttered over Natsu, landing on his head and taking a big sniff, "I smell fish!"

"Now's not the time for that!" Gajeel growled. Couldn't he ever stop thinking about fish!?

"HEY!" Natsu kicked around in Makarov's hand, trying to defend his friend, "If Happy says he smells fish, THEN HE SMELLS FISH!"

"That's right! And it's all over everyone!" Happy started licking the side of Natsu's face, trying to get the flavor off. "Mmm! I've never had this kind of fish before!"

"Then it's settled!" Natsu's demeanor turned dark, "The enemy that we're looking for, the one that has been injuring and cursing our nakama... IS A FISH!"

"YEAH!" Happy pumped his fist into the air, "I'LL DEFINITELY TAKE CARE OF IT!"

"WE'RE BOTH FIRED UP!"

Each of them took a mild blow to the head by one Erza, wielding a chair leg as a club, "The enemy is not a fish, but they are probably around an aquatic area where fish are common."

"Excuse me!"

Everyone turned to look at Shrimp who had just woken up from her nap. No one touched her as she slept, not wanting to awaken her; although if she could sleep through a proper brawl, she could probably sleep through anything.

"SHRIMP!" Gajeel squealed, squirming around until Makarov released his grip on the dragon slayer. He rushed over to Shrimp and lifted her up into his arms, huggling her tightly and nuzzling the side of her head.

"Awww, that's so cute," Natsu grinned, "Ohhh! Ohhh!" he and Happy started nuzzling one another, making kissy faces and bumping heads, "Happy you're my sweet little cuddle pie!"

"I like pie!" Happy purred back, hugging Natsu.

The two of them were struck by a projectile side table as Gajeel growled at them both, then sat down with Shrimp on his lap. "Now what was that, Shrimp!?"

"Well," she tried to gather her thoughts for a moment, "When you guys say salty, and ocean, it obviously means the ocean, right? But since Natsu says it smells like a pond, then it might be a place where an ocean meets fresh water. Beside Magnolia is the forest and on the other side is Akane Beach. Along the shore is a place where the pond in the forest meets the ocean, which might account for the water being both pond-like and ocean-like, AND salty!"

"But what about the sweetness that Natsu smells?" Lucy asked, rubbing her chin.

"It might not mean anything," Shrimp shook her head, "Because humans all have a natural sweetness and it might be just that... or, maybe we don't have any information yet. But either way, Gajeel and I are going to go to Akane Beach and look around!"

"You won't go alone," the Titania stood up, brandishing her sword, "We are all Fairy Tail members here, and you are still wounded. I will go with you."

"Luce and I will go, too!"

"DON'T GO VOLUNTEERING FOR THINGS WITHOUT PEOPLES' PERMISSION!"

"Well don't you wanna go, Luce?"

"...Yeah," Lucy consented with a smile, "We'll definitely go!"

"Thank you, guys!" Shrimp started tearing up, "Thank you so much!" her friends were all here for them!

"You don't need to thank us, Levy-chan," Lucy smiled, "We're all your friends!" Even though Gajeel and Shrimp were from the future, they weren't any less friends!

"We'll have to make a trek through the forest, but in the interest of speed we should take carriages," Erza noted, standing, "I'll go rent them now."

"Urk..."

"No... NATSU, NO!" Lucy shrieked, watching his face turn green at the thought of transportation.

Shrimp started to giggle at poor Natsu, but then she noticed that her own dragon slayer was moving uncomfortable beneath her. "... No."

"..."

"No... no, no, no, NO, NO, NO NONONONO! GAJEEEEEL!"

"This is definitely the smell!" Natsu and Gajeel both remarked, taking the scent into their noses. This is definitely what they smelled on the members!

"And Happy?" Erza asked the cat, watching him flutter around the air, "I smell lots of fish here!" he smiled, licking his lips. "I'll go find them, definitely!" and once he found them, snack time!

Shrimp hobbled along behind Gajeel, supported by his strong arm. He insisted that she let him hold her, but she didn't want to seem TOO dependent.

"We should check everywhere," Lucy started pulling off her clothing.

"Hey Lucy, what are those?"

"STOP LOOKING, NATSU!" she shrieked, turning her back to him so she could get down to her bathing suit. "If they smelled the ocean then we should check over there, too!"

"SWIMMING!"

"Beach vacation!" Happy made little nose dives into the water, splashing himself all about.

"I guess I'll stay up here..." Shrimp smiled, rubbing her wrists hesitantly. She couldn't go swimming in this kind of state, as much as she thought it might be fun to go wading around in the cool, dark water!

"Then I'll stay here, too!" Gajeel smirked proudly, throwing his chest out.

"That's right, you don't want to ruuuuust!" Natsu teased, lifting Lucy into the air and throwing her several feet away into the ocean.

"WHAT WAS THAT!?"

Shrimp just smiled, resting the side of her head against Gajeel's arm. "Gajeel... I hope we find what we're looking for..."

"Don't worry, Shrimp!" he looked down at her with a wide, confident smile, "Fairy Tail can't lose!"