Natsu dealt the final blow against Kojishi. Fire has won in this battle against ice. Natsu smashed against the ice that held the ship up. That caused the ship to shake and the stand it was on became unstable.

"That idiot! Is he trying to bring us down with him?" Gray said.

"Everyone hold on!" Makarov shouted. "I have a feeling Natsu isn't done with him yet." He was right. Natsu became a living fireball as he had a hold of Kojishi and dragged against the ice as they headed up. Natsu busted through the ship and went back inside.

…

Inside

The ship was being torn apart by Natsu from his last attack. The flames even bust through and reached the lacrima that Eclear was in. Natsu busted right through the floor and smashed Kojishi against the wall. Kojishi appeared to be in bad shape.

"Had enough? I've still got a fire in my belly that's just raging to get out." Natsu said.

"No. No more." Kojishi said as he couldn't even move. "This fight is over. You've won this battle."

"Good. That will teach you to never mess with Fairy Tail." Natsu said. As soon as he said that, Kojishi actually laughed. "What's so funny?"

"You beat me, a member of E.R." Kojishi said. "You are under obligation to bring me down. You saw that we had Eclear. However, all you really cared about was making sure your guild was safe. You're certainly an interesting one."

"Do I look like I even give a damn about that?" Natsu said. "My friends come first no matter what. That's how our guild always works."

"I think I'm starting to see why Natalia likes being in this guild." Kojishi said. "You've all been through painful experiences and learned to move past them. You share those feelings to help others. Natalia was scarred for life after she lost her mother and her only home. She felt like the world turned against her, but you changed all that."

"So what's your point?" Natsu questioned.

"I've never faced anything like this before." Kojishi said. "I didn't like to take lives, but there were times I felt like I had to. Your guild is very different. Rather than doing what you're obliged to do, you follow your heart and your feelings. That's why you never turned Natalia in. There's clearly more about your guild than I thought."

"Do I hear you actually regretting all the things that you did?" Natsu said. "I'm not sure what kind of stuff you did in this organization in yours, but in Fairy Tail, he do hold a strong value for life. We live our lives so we don't have any regrets."

"You're certainly an interesting bunch, I'll give you that." Kojishi said. "However, I should warn you about something."

"Warn me? About what?" Natsu questioned.

"About the last unit of E.R. that you will face in the future." Kojishi said. "They are merciless with powerful magic. You must be careful of them. There is also the matter of Eclear. He's sealed away in that lacrima now, but they will find a way to get him out and when Eclear is unleashed, no place will really be safe."

"We can handle anything that comes our way." Natsu claimed. "There is no one that Fairy Tail can't beat, whether they are immortal or not." Kojishi continued to be amused. Natsu certainly is confident, and after fighting him himself, Kojishi can see that Natsu has the power to back it up. They're talk came to an end as the place began to shake. "Now what's going on?"

"Your careless actions is what's going on." Kojishi said. "You slammed us right into that pillar of ice that was holding the ship up and bashed me against it. This whole ship is going to fall into the ocean with everyone on it."

"Oh man! Are you saying this is all my fault?!" Natsu said.

"Yes. Were you really not aware of what you were doing?" Kojishi said. "Given the shape of the ship, there's no way it can fly. It's going to fall in the ocean and we're all going to fall into the ocean. This is it." Kojishi was ready to admit his defeat, but Natsu grabbed a hold of him and placed his arm around him. "What are you doing?"

"Saving your butt. What does it look like I'm doing?" Natsu said.

"But why? I'm your enemy." Kojishi said.

"That doesn't mean I'm going to leave you here to die." Natsu said as he got moving and tried to get out of the ship as fast as they could. "You know, this is also kind of how Natalia joined Fairy Tail."

"Was it?" Kojishi said.

"Yeah. I saved her life when it looked like she was ready to die." Natsu said. "She said she joined because she owed me, but she soon learned that it didn't matter and Fairy Tail was where she wanted to be."

"If you're trying to persuade me into joining your guild, you can forget it." Kojishi said.

"That's not what I'm saying." Natsu said. "All I'm saying is that after Natalia left E.R., things changed for the better for her. It's really something you should consider. I don't know what you might have been looking for, but I don't think you're going to find it with that Eclear."

"Natsu Dragneel…." Kojishi said as he was impressed. Natsu might seem empty headed, but he speaks from the heart and it can be pretty insightful.

…

Outside

"Everyone, hold on! We're going down!" Erza called as the ice structure that held the ship in place broke a part. The ship fell into the ocean since it was in really no condition to fly and no one to pilot it. The airship fell into the water while everyone swam for the surface.

"Is everyone okay?" Makarov said.

"It looks like it." Mirajane said. The water splashing against him was also a good chance for Hitomo to wake up.

"What happened?" Hitomo asked.

"Hitomo, you're awake!" Wendy said.

"Yes and it took ocean water for that to happen." Carla said. "Wendy, were you able to get every bit of poison out of him?"

"Yeah. He should have none left in him." Wendy said.

"What's going on?" Hitomo asked.

"We'll tell you later. What's important is that it looks like all the members of E.R.4. has been defeated." Erza said.

"What about Natsu and the others?" Wendy asked. There wasn't a sign of them and it wasn't looking good. That was when Natsu holding Kojishi emerged from the water "Natsu!"

"Hey! Everyone's okay!" Natsu said as he was glad to see everyone again, but that quickly turned to rage when Gray hit him right in the face. "What was that for, you jerk?!"

"Because of you, we're now stranded in the ocean!" Gray said. "Couldn't you have finished the guy away from the ship?!"

"What's the big deal? We've got Nagare's ship to help us out and we can just swim back to land!" Natsu said.

"We can't swim that far! Not to mention that Nagare's ship can't hold everyone in there." Gray said. "We're in this mess because of you, as usual."

"Stop your arguing right now!" Erza said as she glared at the two of them and that got the two of them to quit their fighting.

"What about Lucy and the others? I don't see them." Gajeel said. That was when Lucy, Natalia, Happy, and Laxus emerge from the water.

"There you are! Are you okay?" Wendy asked.

"We're fine." Laxus said.

"What happened? The whole ship just plummeted into the ocean." Natalia said.

"Let me guess and make a long story short. It was Natsu's doing, wasn't it?" Lucy said.

"Yep." All of them said practically at the same time and damaged Natsu's self-esteem.

"That figures. So now what do we do? Are we just going to swim back to land?" Happy asked. All of them were trying to figure out how they're going to get out of this one. As for Nagare, since there wasn't any room for all of them, all he could do was fly there.

"Oh brother. I should fly back and get some help. Reckless fools." Nagare said, but he stopped himself from doing anything when he spotted something. As all of Fairy Tail figured out what to do, a rope was tossed in their direction.

"Hey. Where did this come from?" Lisanna questioned. All of them followed the rope to some boats and Natsu spotted Annalia on it.

"Need a lift?" Annalia said.

"Annalia!" Natsu said.

"Who?" Lucy questioned.

"What are you doing all the way out here?" Natsu asked.

"I didn't really like how we parted ways, Natsu. So I tried to follow you and we ended up here." Annalia said with Laura stepping out.

"It looks like she made the right decision. All of you climb on and we'll give you a ride back to shore." Laura said. Seeing those ladies, some of the guys were going crazy with what they saw.

"Natsu, do you know those ladies?" Happy asked.

"Yeah. I ended up on their island." Natsu said. "Only women live on that island, but they were able to help me out."

"You went on an island with only hot babes? Do you know how many men would kill for something like that?" Laxus said. "Come clean. You didn't just make friends there, did you?"

"What?!" Lucy said as she didn't like the sound of that.

"Don't worry. They tried to kill me just for being there." Natsu said, but some of them were confused by that because….it's Natsu. If he did something he shouldn't have, people would have wanted to kill him. Thanks to some help from the amazons, the whole guild boarded the ships and were safe and sound. They found the members of E.R.4. and had them tied up so they couldn't do anything.

"Unbelievable." Annalia said as she saw all the dragon slayers motion sick, with the Thunder Legion tending to Laxus. "We're barely moving and all of them are already sick."

"Those are dragon slayers for you." Happy said. As everyone was on board, Hitomo and NAgare were getting ready to leave.

"We need to get going. There's just enough fuel to get us home." Nagare said.

"It was great seeing you, Fairy Tail. I just wish we could have provided more help." Hitomo said. "We'll inform Princess Rose of this. Until we meet again." The two of them took off in their ship with everyone seeing them off. That left Lucy to talk to Annalia.

"Thanks so much for saving us back there." Lucy said.

"Of course." Annalia said as she looked to Natsu. "That Natsu really is something. I never would have considered this in the past."

"He really is." Lucy said and that's one of the reasons she loves him. She looked over to the side and spotted Natalia. Natalia stared where the ship went down as Lucy came over. "You okay?"

"Yeah. It's just that Eclear was right there." Natalia said. "Hopefully, no one will ever find him." Natalia really believed that. However, deep under the water where the ship sank, something else was damaged in there. A shattered lacrima. Three of the four units might be gone, but this adventure is far from over.

Book 3…End