S.R: Well, here we are. Chapter 17, hot off the press!
Natsu: Shut up and get to the story already!
S.R: I will in a minute. I've gotta restate my disclaimer since it's been a while. **Ahem**
I DO NOT OWN FAIRY TAIL OR ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS (EXCEPT FOR THE PRECIOUS LITTLE CINNAMON ROLL OF A BABY THAT IS MICHIKO).
S.R: And now, back to you're regularly scheduled program.
Last Time
"No. I can't be the master. Until we can get Mira to snap out of it and listen I'm the only S-class. If anything I'll take Gildarts spot as the guild's ace."
Natsu commented, reminding them that his strength would be better suited doing jobs and bringing in money for the guild rather than dealing with the council.
"Natsu's right. Right now our guild master just needs to be someone that can handle the paperwork."
Cana commented as she finished preparing a bottle for when Michiko woke up. As she said that an idea came to Natsu's mind.
"The guild master still gets a portion of the guilds income right?"
"Yeah why?"
Macao responded. A wide grin came to Natsu's face as he told them about his idea. Somehow knowing it involved her, Cana shuddered when she saw his smile. But she ignored it in favor of getting ready to feed Michiko. Though that didn't stop her from going wide eyed like the rest at Natsu's words.
"Cana could probably handle the paperwork, not to mention she's pretty strong anyway. Why not have her take over as guild master?"
This Time
Everyone that heard Natsu's statement looked at him questioningly. Though it wasn't necessarily because they disagreed with him. They were just curious as to where the idea of Cana being guild master came from.
"Explain please."
The brunette in question asked as she narrowed her eyes at her pink haired boyfriend.
"Well, before you hop down my throat about springing this so suddenly let me explain my thoughts on the matter."
Natsu responded having caught on to the fact she didn't seem happy. Not that he could blame her since it was a surprise. Sighing Cana reigned herself in and gestured for Natsu to continue.
"Fairy Tail will need the money from the jobs to stay alive yes, but the guild master still gets a cut from them according to Macao, which is good. Because we were worried about making sure we'd have enough money to raise Michiko right? Well not so much now, but later on down the road at least. If you're guild master then we don't have that concern any longer.
Plus, it's true that you could probably handle the paperwork. I mean you'll probably want help, especially since we still have to take care of Michiko through all this, but she's almost old enough for us to be able to get a play pin or something for her. Then you wouldn't have to split your focus 50-50 between everything. And like I said, you're pretty strong, so if need be you could keep the guild in line."
No one could argue with Natsu's logic. Though a few of them wondered when he became smart enough to be able to even be logical with his reasoning. Only Cana and Macao being in the know on the fact that Makarov had been teaching Natsu since he and Cana adopted Michiko.
"I'm with Natsu on this one. It would be a better choice in the long run to have Cana as guild master rather than Natsu. Especially since he's right in saying we need him doing jobs to keep Fairy Tail from going under."
Wakaba commented after a moment. Macao nodded his head, as his partner in crime spoke.
"Let's put it to a vote then."
Warren replied, before using his Telepathy to ask everyone in the guild if they'd be okay with Cana as the guild master until everyone from Tenrou island returned. In the end it was a unanimous agreement, and Cana was named the 4th guild master.
"I don't know how well I'll do as guild master, but so long as you guys are there to help me when I need it I promise we won't fail."
She stated before Natsu pushed her towards the stage saying she needed to give a speech and rally everyone together. Cana tried to argue that it was time to feed Michiko her bottle since the little girl was waking up in her arms, but Natsu took his daughter from her with a grin saying 'I've got it'.
Feeling nervous she stepped to the microphone that was in the center of the stage. But after a few steadying breathes she spoke up.
"I… I know things might seem tough right now, and in the future there may be times where it's even rougher than now. But we will endure. I will never give up on any of you, just like I know you would never give up on me. We will stick together and stick up for each other just as we always have. This I promise you, not as guild master, but as another member of Fairy Tail. Our bonds might be tested by the disappearance of our friends, of our family, but so long as we believe in each other we will never fail. Fairy Tail can and will survive this. Because we have to be here to welcome them back one day."
At the end of her speech Cana had tears in her eyes, but she was standing confidently proudly displaying her hand to the guild. Her thumb out, and finger pointed to the sky, the symbol of Fairy Tail's greatness. Everyone was quick to follow her lead, their hands raised as well. Though in Natsu's case he only adjusted his grip on the bottle he was feeding Michiko with, so that anyone looking at that hand could see it. But no one cared, because they all knew he'd be holding his hand up just like them if it weren't for the fact he was making sure his daughter was eating.
"For Fairy Tail!"
She called, everyone echoing her cheer a second later. Michiko even spit out her bottle to raise a cheerful shout, something that made everyone that heard it smile even harder.
"Ga ba!"
They were all surprised to hear clapping from the doorway. Standing in front of the doors was Jura who had a smile on his face and was clapping loudly.
"I heard about what happened, and it brings me great joy to see you all staying strong."
The man spoke, with his tone telling them all he was being truthful.
"Not that we don't appreciate the visit but what brings you over Jura?"
Cana asked, as she realized it was her job as guild master to be the one to welcome their guest.
"Last night the council called the Wizard Saints together to explain what happened. After our meeting was over I decided to come by and see if I could offer any help."
"Actually I could use your help on something, but I'd rather it stay a surprise so we can talk about that after a bit."
Natsu commented, drawing confused looks from everyone in the guild even Cana. Knowing Natsu didn't like to ask for help Jura was shocked as well.
"Alright, we can discuss whatever it is when you're ready."
He nodded after a moment.
"Good, now come over here and meet my daughter!"
Natsu shouted which made several people laugh. He was being a proud and doting father to Michiko and the sight of it distracted them from the seriousness of the situation, which the few who realized it was done on purpose were thankful for.
"Wait you've got a child!?"
Jura was confused as he walked over.
"Oh yeah that's right that news hasn't been made public yet. Come sit down and let me explain."
Natsu said as he gestured with his head towards the open seat next to him. Since Natsu was handling their guest, and feeding Michiko, Cana sighed a bit disappointed she wouldn't have his help with the rest of things. But she pulled herself together and motioned for everyone to ignore them.
Motioning for everyone to come closer so she wouldn't have to use the microphone and disrupt Natsu's talk with Jura she began to speak.
"Now, I don't know if everyone heard this yet or not, but yesterday when Natsu went to talk with the council they declared their stance on our missing members. Until they can stand in front of the council and prove otherwise, the council considers them dead. Because it's a huge deal they also have to make it known to the public, so we have to have some kind of memorial."
Natsu and Jura tuned out the conversation as they talked about Michiko and all that had happened since they last saw each other.
"That's quite the life you've been leading since we teamed up to take on the Oracion Seis. But you seem to be enjoying it."
"Of course I am. After all, it's thanks to this little one here that I realized I'm head over heels in love with Cana."
Jura just smiled as he patted Natsu on the shoulder, glad to see that he was still the same cheerful guy.
"Since they aren't paying attention is now a good time to talk about what it is you want my help with?"
"kinda. Wendy should probably be present too, since I need to explain something to her and it's part of why I need your help."
"Ah."
Cana who while handling the topic of what to do as a memorial for those that were on Tenrou had still been keeping an eye on Natsu and Jura. So when they moved to stand up she figured they were going someplace quiet to talk about whatever it was Natsu wanted his help with. But her pink haired boyfriend made eye contact with her, subtly signaling for her to send Wendy with them.
Knowing she'd find out eventually she did as he wanted and sent the young Dragon Slayer to them. Though she asked Wendy to have Natsu put Michiko down in the infirmary for a nap since it was close to her morning nap time. Carla floated off after her best friend, ignoring the teasing looks that Wendy shot her when she realized the white cat was looking at the blue fuzzball on Natsu's head that was Happy.
"How about a mural of some sort. I mean Reedus is an amazing painter, so he could probably do a fantastic job with it."
Max suggested, drawing Cana's attention back to the talk of what kind of memorial to do.
"No offense to Reedus, but it wouldn't feel right just having one person involved with making it. I'd rather it be some kind of statute or something that we all worked on together."
Jet spoke up, though they all knew the real reason he didn't want to leave it to Reedus was so that when they returned, he would be able to tell Levy that he had worked on their memorial.
"If it's something we all are going to work on I'd rather it be something really big, that way we all feel like we contributed enough to it."
Another person commented, getting agreeing nods. Cana just rolled her eyes, knowing that it was going to take a while to decide.
Meanwhile
"I see. No wonder you want my help."
Jura said after hearing about how Natsu came to have a secondary element. Wendy was looking towards the ground feeling uneasy about the story Natsu had just given to her about how to grow even stronger. In fact, she was off in her own little world thinking about what she'd just learned. So Natsu and Jura were able to talk about whatever they wanted. Mostly because Carla was being distracted by Happy who was trying to offer her a fish.
"Really I just need you're help learning to feel Earth type magic since it'll be channeled the same way as my Fire Dragon Slayer magic. But even after that I think I'd like your help anyway since I noticed a long time ago I improve the best while fighting tough battles."
"Hahaha, is that your way of asking for a fight?"
Natsu just grinned in response.
"We may get the opportunity to clash in the near future, should things go the way I expect."
Jura stated, with a small frown on his face. Given the way he worded it Natsu knew exactly what the Earth mage was thinking. But he didn't want to think about it just yet, so Natsu brushed it aside and grinned at Jura.
"Anyway I would love to stay and chat, or even begin helping you with your newfound Earth magic, but I promised master Ooba I'd be back before they day was over."
"It's fine Jura. Feel free to come visit us anytime."
Saying he'd keep that in in mind Jura walked off towards towards the train station. Mostly because Natsu had lead them outside for their talk, though that was because he was planning to train with Wendy again. He always felt better after training, and this way he could see how Wendy was holding up after all the information she'd just absorbed.
Hours Later
"Hey Natsu?"
Wendy mumbled into his back as Natsu carried her back towards the guild. After Jura left, Natsu convinced her to tell him what she felt about it all, and wasn't shocked to hear she didn't like the idea of growing stronger by killing. Since she was still pretty young, he decided that he would do everything in his power to prevent her from having to use that method to grow stronger. After all it would break her heart and destroy her innocence, which was something he wanted to avoid at all costs. Then they started training as usual, mostly because it was the only thing Natsu could think of that might cheer the younger Dragon Slayer up. Which lead to their current situation.
"Yeah Wendy?"
"You probably already know this but… I think you're the coolest big brother I could ask for."
The blue haired girl commented with a yawn. Natsu smiled at her words. None of them had said anything out loud, but since he, Gajeel, and Wendy were all part of the same nest they were a family.
"And you're the best little sister possible. Even Gajeel would agree."
Natsu told her, but the younger Dragon Slayer had already nodded off on his back. But the talk did give Natsu an idea. When he finally entered the guild hall he wasn't surprised to see Cana and Laki waiting for him. It was rather late and most of the guild had already left. Though a couple others were heading upstairs towards the infirmary.
Since she could see the question in his eyes as he walked up Cana spoke up.
"We tried to calm Mira down but she broke down almost instantly. She's asleep again, so they offered to stay and keep an eye on her."
Because it made sense to him Natsu just nodded before turning to Laki who offered to make sure Wendy got back to her dorm. He handed the bluette over to her with a small smile, and said goodnight before linking hands with Cana and locking the guild up for the night.
"So, we've managed to figure out what kind of memorial we're doing for everyone."
Cana commented as they leisurely strolled towards their home. Natsu nodded his head, waiting for her to finish filling him in before he told her about his talk with Jura and the idea he had when walking back with Wendy.
"It's going to be costly, but we're going to have a large Fairy Tail symbol cast from solid gold, with all of their portraits carved into it. It'll be surrounded by a beautiful flowerbed full of exotic plants. There's going to be a small plaque with a dedicated poem and a list of all their names."
"That sounds nice. Where did you guys decided to put it?"
"We decided to talk to the mayor and ask if we could put it in place of that large water fountain out front of the guild hall."
Natsu smiled as he agreed that was a great place for it. But Cana narrowed her eyes at him.
"What about your talk with Jura?"
She questioned, her tone telling him he wasn't going to get away without answering. So with a sigh Natsu explained how Dragon Slayers can get stronger by killing other draconic beings. But Cana cut him off and told him about how Makarov had already mentioned it to her.
"While Gajeel and I were out on that job to handle the group of Wyverns I learned another useful tidbit. Because we're not fully human, but not fully dragon either Dragon Slayers are flexible with what kind of magic we use. Apparently if we eat enough of another element we can gain the ability to use it as a secondary type of magic."
"So say you and Laxus fought, and you ate enough of his Lighting, you'd be able to use Lightning Dragon Slayer magic?"
Cana asked using Laxus as an example since she didn't want to risk making Natsu's mood worse by making him think of Gajeel.
"Yeah. Anyway, the last Wyvern I fought used Earth magic, and I ate a ton of his roar. Like enough that it sent me into Dragon Force which is the strongest form of Dragon Slaying magic."
Putting two and two together, Cana realized that Natsu asked Jura for help in learning to use his newfound Earth magic. Though she had a smile on her face, the brunette couldn't help but shake her head.
"You're just going to keep growing stronger in ridiculous ways aren't you."
Since he couldn't deny it, Natsu just chuckled at her words.
"By the way, I had a thought earlier. But I wanted to get your opinion first."
"Okay?"
"I was thinking about getting all the paperwork set up so that Wendy would legally be my little sister."
Cana turned to Natsu with wide eyes.
"I know you two are pretty close but I didn't think you were that close."
"She was half asleep when she told me earlier, but Wendy thinks I'm best 'big brother' she could have asked for."
"I don't doubt that. But why did you want my opinion?"
Cana commented with a smile. She didn't have any issues with it, though the Card mage was extremely curious as to why.
"Remember back when we explained how the three of us are what dragons would call a nest?"
Nodding, Cana used her head to motion for him to continue since she was the one carrying Michiko. Even though their little girl was being carried in a baby sling, she was still using one hand to support her, while the other was intertwined with Natsu's.
"In dragon culture, a nest is made in one of two ways. 1. it's a group of siblings that have grown old enough to leave their parents nest. Or 2. a pair of nestles dragons run into each other and fight for the role of alpha. After that every time the alpha defeats another dragon that doesn't have it's own nest, it's considered part of the nest.
Anyway, our nest is a hybrid of the two methods. Gajeel and I fought and I came out on top. But Wendy has looked up to me from the moment we met, and willingly joined the nest with the intent of being part of our family. Though I'd put money on the fact Gajeel wouldn't admit that despite how our nest stared we really are more like a family than the second option."
"So, in your eyes you two are already family, you just want to make it official?"
Cana asked, wanting to make sure she understood what Natsu was trying to say.
"Yup."
"Even before you explained I was okay with it. But now I want you to do it. Besides Wendy would be a great sister in-law."
Cana commented before making a small 'Eep' like sound as she realized what she said. Her whole face went red and Natsu had to resist the urge to laugh, though in his head he did say to himself that she was extremely cute when she blushed. Even though he wanted to do otherwise, Natsu chose to ignore the fact that she said Wendy would be a great sister in-law. That didn't stop him from having a stupid grin on his face. Though his girlfriend didn't even notice as she was still to embarrassed by her slip up to say or do anything.
"That settles it then. Tomorrow morning I'll stop by the city hall and get started on the paperwork. Hopefully it doesn't take too long and I can surprise Wendy with it before we start our afternoon training."
Cana was still out of it, but upon hearing the word training she remembered something that was mentioned by the others shortly after they decided what the memorial would be.
"Speaking of training, the others were wanting to know if they could joint the two of you. We were thinking of taking the first month or so of the New Year to do some heavy training, before letting you guys go crazy with the jobs."
"Sounds good to me… But I want you to know this now. I refuse to not be there for Michiko. Even though I'm the only one capable of taking S-class jobs I can't stand the thought of not being around to help out and take care of my daughter."
"Natsu, we really need you to lead the charge on this."
Cana commented, happy that he wasn't going to throw himself into it in order to keep Fairy Tail afloat, but they really did need him to do the S-class jobs. Macao had mentioned to her that Makarov used to complain that those were the jobs that kept them from going under.
"I know. I'll be keeping an eye on the others, and the moment I feel they're ready I'll take someone with me on a job to see if they can handle it. I know it's not the best idea but I'm fairly certain the council will look the other way on this. At least until we have another capable S-class to help pick up the slack."
A Few Days Later
Natsu hadn't been able to complete all the paperwork within a day, but he had gotten it set up so that legally he and Wendy were siblings. When he told her the news the Sky Dragon Slayer was ecstatic. The majority of the guild was also happy for them, since a lot of them were concerned that Wendy was starting to feel depressed with everything that had happened.
While the towns people were surprised by the sudden change from all of Fairy Tail, and the lack of some of the more well known members, they ignored the citizens and focused on doing what they needed to do to make sure Fairy Tail would still be around when everyone returned. A lot of them were really curious about the surprisingly vast improvement they could see in everyone that trained with Natsu after only a couple days. Even Cana had joined in when she had the time. Though as guild master, and Michiko's main care taker she didn't stick around, only joining them for an hour or so each day while her baby girl was taking a nap.
But because there were still a lot of things to do, she wasn't the only one that didn't make it an all day thing to train. Wakaba and Macao had helped Makarov at times, so they acted as her advisors and guided her through everything she needed help with as she started to learn the ropes.
Each day, however Cana also took some time to see Mira. Yet the white haired woman reacted the same every time the conversation made her remember the recording they'd seen. But Cana wasn't ready to give in, as the reactions were getting less severe by the day. It would take some time, but she was confident that they'd get through to Mira and she'd be back to normal and helping out.
Because Natsu told her that Makarov had made him create the seals on some of the things inside the office, Cana had him help rearrange everything to make room for a small play space for Michiko. In the process they had found several things that the two decided to keep secret, and moved to Natsu's home in order to look at them in detail later. To make things easier they also installed an intercom system, so that Cana wouldn't have to yell to get someone to come up to the office if she needed them. Luckily everyone present chipped in for the memorial, because when Cana and Macao took a look at the guilds finances, they were appalled. The guild wouldn't have been able to pay for anything, as they were only just above being completely broke.
The duo were reading over several reports and trying to figure out how to save money when Natsu entered the newly decorated office.
"The council sent a representative, asking for us."
"Wait, they want to see us right now?"
Cana asked, as she felt a headache coming on. Natsu didn't say anything as he picked up Michiko from her little play pin. The onyx eyed girl just giggled as she happily babbled at him.
"They probably want to know what we've decided. I mean we didn't exactly include them in our decision to keep Fairy Tail going strong."
Macao commented as Natsu started playing peekaboo with Michiko. Pinching the bridge of her nose to stave off the incoming headache Cana looked towards her boyfriend.
"Well we're kinda busy. Why didn't you just tell the representative what's going on Natsu?"
"Because even if I did, the Magic Council is going to want to see the new guild master."
Natsu quickly retorted why he didn't say anything to the councils representative. Rolling her eyes at his response, Cana stood up with the intention of having Natsu go along as her escort for the meeting before taking the rest of the day off so they could relax and enjoy some time together as a family before Natsu became busy.
"True. Anyway, Natsu you're my escort for this meeting."
S.R: Well that was fun. Anyway I'll see you guys with the next chapter!
