The following morning, Kai and Iggy returned to the guild hall and to quite the sight as Natsu and Max stood opposite one another. The two stopped as they emerged from the forest. Nobody looked outwardly frustrated or angry. This was more of a sparring thing.
"Guess it'll be fun to see how far Max has progressed," Kai said, leaning against a tree. "Eh?"
"See him get destroyed more like," Iggy muttered. "Maybe this is all training for the Grand Magic Games?"
Kai shrugged. It sounded as if Makarov was still just mulling the idea over and it wouldn't come to fruition until he learned more details about it from some of the other guild members. Kai was certainly all for it.
Natsu charged at Max, throwing physical punches his way that Max dodged with ease. Max kicked Natsu away, a significant distance, too. Kai raised an eyebrow.
"Just luck, Natsu's a bit rusty," Iggy muttered.
Natsu charged again, this time with a bit of flame coating his fist, and jabbed at Max, who easily dodged and parried Natsu once more, then blasted him back with a good bit of sand magic. Natsu flipped end over end away before blasting back, but had his attack completely blocked by Max who repelled Natsu once more.
"This is unreal," Iggy muttered. "Natsu isn't even holding back anymore, too, and Max is holding his own?"
The dreaded realization that Kai had been pushing away creeped back into his mind. Indeed, nobody had been sitting around for seven years. The others in the guild were caught up to their strength seven years ago, and that meant those at the top of their game before were just that much farther ahead.
However, Natsu wasn't going to lose this bout. Sparks flew from his aura and he activated Lightning Flame Dragon Mode. Max's confidence dwindled. Kai grimaced.
"Well, at least he still has that," Kai muttered. It was magnificent power, too. When Natsu first activated it against Hades he'd been on death's door. Now he was at full-strength, and it was truly remarkable.
Natsu unleashed an attack that just missed both Max and Kai, but Kai didn't flinch, he simply let the attack soar by. He nodded as he understood that he and Natsu were matched in strength when Natsu activated that and when Kai activated his Takeover form.
However, neither stood much of a chance nowadays, anyway.
Max chuckled and waved Natsu off as Kai approached the others. Gray and Lucy appeared a bit downtrodden at the sight of Natsu struggling against Max.
"It wasn't necessarily that we weren't strong enough to take on Twilight Ogre," Max admitted as Kai approached. "We needed them for money. After you guys all vanished, for a long time…nobody had the heart to take jobs. We trained and got stronger in case some new threat came knocking but…"
"Fairy Tail's spirit just broke," Warren said. "It wasn't until everyone came back that things started to feel normal again."
"Things just don't feel normal," Natsu muttered, and turned to Lucy and Gray.
The others headed inside. Kai joined the three from Tenrou. Natsu balled up a fist.
"We can't compete in this world anymore," Gray muttered. "Gildarts and Master probably can but I imagine even they'd need some help against someone like Iron Rock Jura or even people that survived from Grimoire Heart."
"I spoke with Makarov yesterday, and it sounds like the vacancies we've left behind in the Balam Alliance was really just an opening for new Dark Guilds to rise," Kai said.
"We can't stop them if we stay like this," Natsu muttered. "We probably can't even do some of the jobs we used to do."
"There has to be a way to just catch up, right?" Gray asked. "Maybe some way we can at least get things going faster."
"Who would be able to do that?" Lucy asked.
"It'd have to be someone really good with magic," Natsu said.
Kai pursed his lips. "What about Porlyusica? She's old and probably knows a thing or two about all of this."
"She's scary," Lucy muttered.
"But she may be our best bet," Gray said.
Kai glanced inside and saw Erza chatting away with Levy. He patted Gray's shoulder as they talked amongst themselves about seeing Porlyusica.
He and Iggy wandered inside. Iggy floated over toward the Exceeds that were in their own little discussion while Kai just took a seat at one of the tables, glancing at Makarov, who was sitting rather quietly.
The job board lay before him, and so did Nab, still just staring up at it confused. There were maybe four jobs on there in total and none of which were high-paying. Kai bowed his head. Even if he took all four, he wouldn't get anything from it and it wouldn't even help he and Erza make their first payment. They had enough saved away for a good bit of time to pass before they were in any real danger, but who was to say if the job situation would improve by then?
Kai nodded to himself. They had to go to the Grand Magic Games. Makarov wasn't sure if it was true that there was a cash prize but getting that money would allow them to buy back their guild hall and restore their reputation. Kai balled a fist.
Levy and Erza's conversation was a bit terse, and rather frank for the two of them. Levy seemed concerned for the power gap they'd all experienced as well; for herself in particular, she wondered how much new magic had been discovered they she'd need to catch up on.
It all gave Kai question as the true moral boost that Fairy Tail was thought to have gone through. There wasn't necessarily a morose mood about the place, but not an overtly positive one. Kai pursed his lips.
Please, Master. Bring this up.
And after a little while of waiting for Makarov to say anything, Kai gave up waiting and headed back into town by himself, since everyone else, besides Erza, had gone out to see Porlyusica.
He grinned a bit more as others in town waved at him and welcomed him back. He returned to his old apartment and spoke with the landlord there, who'd long since forgiven his payment as Kai was thought dead. Plus, there wasn't even anyone around to take his room, so it's not like it was wasted space.
"Plus, you moving out really would feel like Fairy Tail was gone."
Kai handed the landlord some of his old trinkets to sell while Kai put others in a sack. He headed back into town toward the market. Though he'd once treasured these things, he knew that after seven years, some of them had to be fancy collectible items.
He figured this was like going out on a job without actually doing so. And he didn't expect to accrue too much Jewel out of this but, hey, any bit helped. Maybe it would cover lunch.
It certainly did. He hit up several vendors, who were more than happy to help a member of Fairy Tail after Twilight Ogre had ravaged the town's finances. Most of the coin he kept in his pocket while he did spend some of it on a lunch that was maybe a bit overpriced. He set the rest aside in the home that Erza had placed a magical lock on.
He returned to the guild hall near daybreak. Natsu's crew had already come back. Hopefully they'd learned something from Porlyusica.
But Kai didn't return to the happy scene he would've thought; instead, it was a rather dramatic shouting match between Romeo and Macao.
"If we were to enter we'd just be embarrassed like all the other years!" Macao exclaimed.
This caught Kai's attention, and Makarov's. Everyone else around the room stood rather anxious watching the display.
"You don't know that, dad!" Romeo exclaimed. "We have to get our pride back!"
"Son it's not about getting our pride back it's about getting back on our feet. We've finally got Twilight Ogre out of the picture and now we need to settle down and regroup."
"No way. We have no means of regrouping. Fairy Tail is finally back and we need to show the world that they've been poking the hornet's nest for too long! I'm sick of people thinking of us as a laughing stock around Fiore. We can't even get real jobs!"
"So we'll go on more jobs and build our reputation."
"Or we go on the big stage and show them what's what."
"Wait, wait, wait." Natsu waved his arms. "What are you guys even talking about?"
Kai smiled, noticing the little grin on Makarov's face as the old man also got to his feet.
"It's called the Grand Magic Games, where all the guilds from Fiore get together in this massive competition to see who the number one guild is," Romeo said. "Every time we tried to enter we got spanked, but now that you guys are back we have a legit shot at winning!"
Macao sighed. "And the winner gets thirty million jewel."
Kai bit the inside of his lip, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. Lucy's jaw almost dropped off her mouth.
"With that kind of money we can basically do anything!" Gray said.
"And that's exactly why we must enter." At last, Makarov spoke. Everyone whirled to where he was sitting. "Fairy Tail has been knocked around and tossed aside and forgotten. Well no longer! Starting today, we begin our climb back to the top! We will be Fiore's top guild, and the world will never again forget what it means to stand against Fairy Tail! We'll return to our true home, and our rightful place!"
Everyone roared in excitement, and even Macao had to concede and just nod.
"How much time is there until the games?" Natsu asked.
"Three months!"
"Alright!" Natsu roared, his flaming aura consuming him. "I'm all fired up, let's get some training done!"
Kai grinned almost from ear-to-ear and joined in the chorus of cheers.
Team Natsu, Juvia, and Team Shadow Gear all arrived promptly at Akane Beach the next day. The Thunder Tribe, the Strauss Siblings, and a few others went elsewhere to go train, but everyone figured that the beach would actually be best suited for everyone else given how diverse the environment was. Kai had to agree.
It was still the heights of summer, so the heat bore down especially hard on him. He wore heavy layers, which was rather strange, but he wanted to warm his body up as much to use that as a means of strengthening his ice magic.
He found a hill overlooking the beach and got even closer to the sun, to the direct rays, and surged all of his strength out, shooting several beautiful icicles into the air for the other beachgoers to marvel at. He had to know just how much power he had. His great body heat tried to prevent him from using his power but he pushed past it.
Then, he set about physical training, dedicating himself to absolute harsh cardio workouts through the evening. As the moonlight came he moved to the ocean, alongside Gray, and the two sparred briefly with one another, using all of their power and the element of water to their advantage, trying to convert almost anything they could to ice to use.
Natsu, who'd been underwater most of the day, came an interrupted them once on accident. Kai and Gray were successful at freezing waves in place by the end of the day, but Kai didn't feel all that confident in himself just yet, despite the leaps that everyone thought they'd made.
Wendy went around healing everyone before bed, which was also an effective means of getting herself a bit of training, and when they woke, Kai and Erza did several laps around the beach to get their blood flowing. It quickly turned into a race between the two of them that Erza won.
Kai returned to his spot, layers back on, accruing all the body heat he could garner and went through a scale of his most common spells, trying to pour more magic into them than normal to adjust to new heights of strength.
Then, he moved to what he really wanted to focus on over the next three months: new spells. He had some ideas in mind and on the train ride over had Levy help him with understanding how to do them.
He swung his hands out, feeling the outer limits of his magic stress as he prepared the new spell.
"Ice Dragon Tundra!"
Power flared. Unfamiliar spells always did this to him. He had to get it under control.
The entire area around him flashed along with the magic circle beneath his feet, then, a sheet of ice covered the hill he was on completely in ice.
Kai changed his stance to more of a defensive one, then swung his hands out. Two magic circles rotated in front of his hands. He grit his teeth and sighed.
"Ice Dragon Scattering Strike!"
He crossed his arms and the two magic circles became one that shot a beam of magic which, when Kai separated his arms, burst at the range he wanted.
Kai grimaced and called for Iggy to help him. She tossed up various objects for him to aim at. On occasion he would hit the opponent with his strike but he just shook his head each time he did. That wasn't what he wanted.
The goal of the spell was to break and burst in front of the opponent, hitting them with a greater area of effect so they could not break out of the spell or run away. A single beam had a direction; sending the power scattering meant there wouldn't be anywhere to hide.
He focused mostly on that spell for the morning, eventually calling Natsu to clash with him so Natsu could build up his fire magic and Kai could try to penetrate it. Steam coated the entire shoreline by the time they were done.
After lunch, Kai returned to his spot, mesmerized at the great progress that Erza had been making throughout the day. She blazed through different armors and spells against several different targets and opponents she'd set up over the last couple of days. She trained without hesitancy, pushing herself to new heights.
In fact, everyone had made remarkable progress over the day. It made sense. Kai and the others didn't do extensive or heavy training anymore, they left that mostly for their jobs. They gained power as they did little remedial jobs here and there. If they concentrated their training over the next three months, they may not catchup to everyone, but they'd have a solid benchmark of where they needed to get and how far they'd progressed.
Kai moved onto the next two spells he wanted to master that he had Levy help him think up: another spell relying on Dragon Slayer Magic as well as a spell relying more on Ice magic. He wanted to tap into the more elemental side of magic, since that usually cost less energy and it would throw off opponents who thought he specialized in only the Dragon Slayer side of things.
The first spell, which he called Searing Ice Scales, he stole from Cobra. It was essentially a similar spell, only instead of casting dragon scales, it was sharper scales of ice. Kai practiced it on the several trees near his hill, trying to make sure he could both concentrate his arc and expand it if need be. He sighed, not feeling that tug of magic power like normal. He grinned and moved onto the next spell, which he knew would be a bit more complicated:
"Ice Dragon Glacier!"
He swung his arms up and slowly clenched his fist as a powerful glacier shot into the air, marred by a scaly exterior. The idea behind this one was two-fold: indeed, the glacier captured anyone it had, but it was weak at the start. Kai had to work on having a powerful glacier form right away, and instead he had to slowly freeze it.
Kai unclenched his fist and the magic dissipated. He practiced a few more times before using it to combo into other spells he had, like the previously practiced scales, where the glacier would burst out in a massive area of power.
He tried, next, to concentrate it with his most dangerous spell, which would create a massive volcanic effect of ice magic. Kai sighed. Casting the spell in general was a bit on the dangerous side. Kai cast the glacier and concentrated, pushing all of his focus onto the glacier before exclaiming:
"Ice Dragon Rage!"
Power swelled in Kai but he held his stance and a surge of ethereal magic shot from his hands into the glacier. It glowed a bright blue before burst into a straight beam of power into the sky, a perfect finishing—
Darkness claimed Kai, and he stumbled back, tumbling off the hill.
When he woke he was at the base of the hill and his magic was all but drained. He managed to get back up to his knees and brushed away the sand. A good bit of time had passed; sunset was on its way. He grimaced. If he didn't hurry back, he'd miss dinner. Well, he wouldn't miss dinner, but Natsu would chow down on all the food.
Kai jogged back to the shoreline but was the only one left. He pursed his lips, looking down the shore and then back toward their little rest spot. Kai held his hand out and summoned his sword to him, prepared to brandish it.
Either all his friends were playing a nasty prank and just ditched him…or they'd been taken somehow. Kai approached their rest area, refusing to remove his hand from the handle of the blade, and then spotted the note waiting for him, the one written in Erza's handwriting.
Kai,
Lucy's spirit Virgo came to us with great urgency and asked us to hurry to the Celestial Spirit Realm. We didn't have time to find you, but she assured us that we'll be right back.
Keep up with great work!
Erza
Kai pursed his lips again and nodded at the letter. Must be some emergency for them to have just grabbed everyone. He did feel a little left out, and wondered if he would somehow miss out on some advantage to the training in the Celestial Spirit World.
Regardless, though, he had to maintain his focus. He sighed and headed toward the restaurant a little ways' away. He'd eat, recoup some energy, and keep moving forward. In less than three months, he had to help show the world why Fairy Tail remained the best.