The Pursuit of Family
Chapter 6
The New Goal
"Natsu! Natsu, we finally found you!"
"Lisanna? Elfman? What are you guys doing here?"
"We've been looking for you. We couldn't find you when the guild first disbanded and we thought that something was wrong. But in reality, you perfectly fine. Did you find everyone all by yourself?"
"Haha, not really. I had help from everyone else. I didn't even do much in finding these guys." Out of nowhere, Lisanna leapt in Natsu's arms.
"I've missed you so much. Not having the guild together is the worst thing in the world."
"I know," he said as he closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her. "But I made a promise to bring everyone back together. And I'm not going back on it." Lisanna looked up at him and smiled. "Hey Elfman, how have you been?"
"Eh, things could be better. A Man never leaves his family so that's why we're here." At that same instant, Elfman grabbed the two of them and squeezed them into his body.
"Ah, Elfman, you're killing us."
"I'm sorry. Men aren't supposed to cry, but I've missed you too." Finally, everyone crowded around them and it became a huge group hug. Being in the middle of it, Natsu could barely breathe, but he knew that this was what he wanted: Everyone together, enjoying each other's company. This what being a member of Fairy Tail meant.
After a few minutes, the group finally let go of each other and simultaneously, a huge breathe in and a huge breathe out was taken by everyone. It's been so long since they've done something like that, and it felt really good to do it once again.
"Wait, something seems off. Where's Mira?" Lisanna and Elfman looked at each other with sad looks on their faces.
"What's wrong? She's fine, right? I mean, she's Mira."
"No, she's totally fine. It's just that… When the disbandment took place, we didn't really have a place to go. Fairy Tail was our home, but we couldn't stay there. We decided to go along with whatever Mira-nee was planning. After a few days passed, we came to the town where Blue Pegasus was. Immediately, Jenny recruited her to join and she did so without a second thought. We tried to convince her that this wasn't the right thing to do, but when we saw the smile on her face, we couldn't do that to her. Ever since then, we've been searching for everyone else, hoping that they'd be able to talk some sense into her." Natsu and Lucy exchanged looks.
"Is she still at Blue Pegasus?" They nodded their heads. "My original plan was to go straight for Erza, but I think this is the better route. We head for Blue Pegasus." Again, Lisanna jumped at Natsu, but this time, she tackled him to the ground.
"Thank you. Thank you so much. You're the best, Natsu."
"Haha, don't worry. We'll all be together soon."
Once everyone was ready, they made their way out. Before they got too far, Natsu looked back and saw the remains of Raven Tail. He then looked at Gajeel and thanked him for what he did. They fist bumped and continued on their way. Unfortunately, Raven Tail was quite far from where Blue Pegasus was so there was a lot of time to kill. There was no way they were going to arrive at Blue Pegasus in a good amount of time so they decided to take things slow. After a few hours, they arrived at their first town and for some of them, it was the first town they've seen in a long time. Natsu took the lead and guided them through the streets.
As they walked through the streets of town, Natsu called out to the crowds that Fairy Tail was coming back and that nothing was going to stop them. Immediately, everyone grabbed his arm and questioned him about what he was doing. All he did was smile and continue with his obnoxious yelling.
"Oi! Fairy Tail's coming back and there's no one who can stop us. Fiore's number one guild will reclaim their rightful title once again." No one else could say anything. They didn't know what to say. This was a drastic change in Natsu's behavior and everyone was just patiently waiting for something to happen to them. All of a sudden, a strange voice broke through the silence and Natsu's yelling.
"Hey, what's going on here?" The group stopped and turned. They saw a huge group of guys walking up to them. As they stood there motionless, they got a chance to examine these guys and saw that they were apart of some guild that they didn't know existed. "Who are you losers?" Macao happened to be in the back of the group and the one the guy directed his question at. Right as Macao was about to answer, Natsu put his hand on his shoulder which made him relax.
"We're Fairy Tail. What's it to you?"
"Well, Puny Tail, this isn't your turf. This town here belongs to Sunset Black. If you're looking for a fight, I'd advise against that."
"Oh really, are you challenging us?"
"Do you accept?" Natsu inched closer to the guy when he noticed Gray and Gajeel step up next to him. Natsu smiled.
"We do." In the blink of an eye, Natsu upper cut him in the chin and sent him flying into the air. The guys from the other guild watched their friend launch into the sky before finally acting upon Natsu's attack.
"Get them!" the rest of their group started to charge. Before they started to fight, Natsu looked back at everyone else and told them to go on ahead. They agreed without question and left. He then looked at Gray and Gajeel with that same smile on his face.
"You ready to do this?"
"Gehe!"
"Slowest one's the loser." They lunged at the incoming group and began to attack.
Immediately, there was no competition. The three of them eliminated everyone in a matter seconds. Unfortunately, those guys were too stupid to realize that they didn't stand a chance, even with sheer numbers. They cleaned them up one after another until no one was left standing. They looked around and saw their enemy defeated. Natsu walked to the middle of the pile and made one more announcement.
"This is a message to your guild and anyone who thinks they're superior to us. Fairy Tail is not afraid. We'll take on everyone and everyone. Warn your friends. Fairy Tail is coming back." Without saying anymore, the three of them left town and caught up with the rest of the group.
"So what happened?" He looked at Lucy and just smiled. There was no need to answer her and she pretty much knew the outcome of that fight.
After that, Natsu made it a goal to visit every town and rely his message from before. At first, no one really knew why he was doing it, but after a while, they started to catch on and follow in his footsteps. They spread the word of Fairy Tail's reunion which caused everyone to talk. Most of the time, it was bad, but hearing the name Fairy Tail spread like wild fire. There wasn't a place left on the continent where Fairy Tail wasn't known.
A few more days passed and the group found themselves in the city of Sabertooth. It wasn't according to plan, but they invited Fairy Tail and they decided to stay a little bit. Of course, Sting went at it with Natsu, talking about what happened and what his plan was for the future. However, Natsu decided to stay quiet about it. He trusted Sting, but for some reason, he didn't want to talk a lot about it there. The members of Sabertooth showed them to a large enough room for everyone to stay for the night. Instead of mingling with everyone at the guild, they decided to shelter in the room and lock the door. There wasn't much communication with Sabertooth after that. Natsu walked around the room and made sure everyone was there and accounted for. Once everything was in check, he saw Gray and decided to sit next to him.
"You know, I've never seen you like this."
"What are you talking about?"
"What you're doing for everyone. It's so… unlike you."
"Well, after what I did to Lucy, I feel that it's only appropriate to bring everyone back."
"Wait, Lucy? What are you talking about?"
"I left before I even found about the disbandment. I decided I had to train if I wanted to protect the guild, but when I came back, the building was still in runes and no one was around. That's when I had the idea of finding people. Lucy was the first to come up in my head. How did you handle the disbandment?"
"I don't know. A part of me had a feeling that it was going to happen while another part wished we were all still together." All of a sudden, Gray gripped his upper arm as if he was in pain. Natsu turned his head and saw Gray grit his teeth.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. We should probably get some rest. We still have a long way to go."
"Good idea." Natsu stood up and walked around the room once more. By now, everyone was starting to settle in and fall asleep. The only one left awake was Lucy so he decided to sit next to her. Across the room, he saw Juvia take her place next to Gray as the two of them fell asleep as well.
"I'm proud of you." He turned his head.
"Huh?"
"The things you're doing for this guild. I don't think anyone could do what you're doing. Thank you. I wouldn't want this any other way. Good night." Lucy closed her eyes and fell on Natsu's shoulder as she quickly fell asleep. Right as he was about to fall asleep, the door cracked open and Sting stuck his head through.
"Hey Natsu-san, can I talk to you?" Natsu looked around the room and saw that everyone was finally sleeping.
"Alright." He gently placed Lucy's head on a pillow and left to meet up with Sting. "So what do you wanna talk about?"
"What's your plan?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Some of them told me about the disbandment. Why are you doing so much to bring everyone back?" Natsu simply closed his eyes and looked away. "Is there something else that's going on?"
"I have to bring everyone back together because…"
"Because what?"
"Zeref is going on the offensive."
End of Chapter 6
