**previously**

"Now that everything is clarified... kabo" Kabo said as he turned his back to them and raising his hands in the air he shouted "FIELD OPEN!-kabo".

Chapter 54:

The buzzing sound like someone made a short circuit started filling the arena as magical particles appeared in the air forming some sort of structures. Kabo already made his way out of the arena as the particles surrounded the center and the eight participates of hidden.

"Remarkable" Natsu murmured under his breath as he watched particles falling into place.

"They are creating a town in the middle of the arena!" Bisca said with wide eyes.

"This is mind-blowing" Makarov yelled as he leaned over the railings to get a better look.

"Who knows how many magic was put into creating this..." Jellal commented as he looked at Natsu who nodded.

Few more seconds and with a loud gong the buzzing stopped and the eight wizards were left standing alone in different alleys.

Gajeel cursed under his breath as he looked around "Arthur?" He called and then cursed again when no one replied.

"Well I guess this is the reason why the game is called hidden but who the hell should we hide from?!" Gajeel yelled to no one in particular.

"ATTENTION" Chapati's voice rang trough the stadium once again. "While the eight participates aren't able to see each other, you, ladies and gentlemen, will be able to see them in the lacrima"

Not even second later eight lacrima-screens lit up in the sky as it shoved eight participates.

"Now the hidden rules are very simple" Chapati spoke "You will be hiding and seeking at the same time"

Gajeel looked toward where he thought the Chapati sat as he yelled sarcastically "Yea! That's really helpful!"

And he wasn't the only one who didn't quite understand the rules.

Chapati then proceeded to explain the rules further. "You need to hide in the town while seeking your opponents and give them an attack. Participate who hits his/her opponent first gets a point while the other loses it"

As he finished the explanation others nodded or voiced that they understand it. Gajeel turned around ready to begin his search when white silhouettes appeared around him. Stopping dead in his tracks he looked around himself surprised.

"What now?" he growled.

"Eh?" Beth, of Mermaid heel looked around herself on the place where she stood.

"Now this is intriguing" Rufus said with confident smirk.

Others participates also looked around themselves not quite believing their eyes when they saw silhouettes transforming into the clones of the eight mages that stood somewhere in the town. The clones filled the streets completely making it difficult to even walk without bumping into someone.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Jäger yelled with wide eyes.

"These are your clones" Chapati spoke again "If you mistake them for the real participate and attack them you will lose one point"

A gong rang trough the stadium as Chapati said "Start! Disappear in silence! Just like a black cat hidden in the black night! HIDDEN HAS STARTED!"

The crowd exploded in cheers for hundred time this day as the eight participates spread over the small town.

Arthur smirked as he melted in the shadows of the building heading at much faster pace over the buildings. His shadow moved over the walls. The holes in the shadow that were his eyes narrowed as the young mage thought 'While I shouldn't worry too much about getting hit this way I'll still have some trouble finding the real thing'

He looked around as his head emerged from the building. Sighing after seeing nothing but clones he retreated back in the shadows this time disappearing completely.

"Uhh... I'm sure that hurt Gajeel more than it hurt Nullpudding. Seems that Raven tail got the first point today" Chapati's voice said "Once you get hit you will reappear on another part of the field ten seconds later"

Arthur frowned. He didn't like this Nullpudding before and the guy just kept falling further down on his list. Just as Arthur was about to move on a familiar black-haired mage materialized few feet away from the wall where he was hiding in the shadows.

Smirking, he moved along the shadows on the floor until he was right under Gajeel who stood up grumpily grumbling something under his breath.

Rolling his neck to get rid of the knots he looked down at his feet and almost jumped two meters in the air when he saw a shadow that was not his own smiling at him. Without having much time to do anything he just put hands in front of his face as a fist made of shadow, almost as big as him rose form the ground sending him flying.

"And that would be another point taken from Fairy tail A and a new one for Fairy tail B" Chapati said somewhat surprised that Arthur actually attacked Gajeel.

"Sayonara, Gajeel!" Arthur yelled as he rose from the shadows up to his hip waving happily with creepy smile at Gajeel who disappeared once again but not before muttering "He's been spending too much time with Souleater"

"Now who is the real one?..." Lyon asked himself quietly looking around himself while trying to blend as much as possible with the clones around him.

"This damn clones"

Lyon stopped walking as he looked to his right only to see Jäger grumbling while walking straight at him. 'My lucky day' Lyon thought with smirk. He continued walking and just when Jäger was about to pass behind him he spun around shouting "Ice-make: Ice eagles!"

Jäger's eyes widened as five eagles made of ice came rushing at him. He barely had enough time to jump back and slam his foot in the ground shouting "Torn's wall"

Big wall made of interlaced rose vines rose from the ground braking trough the concrete floor making three of the eagles crash into it. Lyon smirked as he moved his hands with two remaining eagles fallowing his movements avoiding the wall and hitting surprised Jäger.

Lyon smirked as he turned around and the two eagles flew in the air before dissolving in the air.

"Shadow-make: Shadow cage!" Arthur yelled as his upper body emerged from the shadows while Beth yelled "Carrot missile!"

Arthur dropped to the ground avoiding the carrots that collided with the wall where he was barely second ago while a cage that looked a lot like those expensive cages where you hold your canary rosed from the shadows around Beth trapping her inside.

Beth looked around herself in panic as she looked at where Arthur stood up. Arthur smiled at her apologetically as he said "Shadow make: Phoenix's cry"

Her eyes widened as a large flame-like bird with glowing red eyes made of shadows emerged from the ceiling of the cage. It opened its beak and the next second only thing you could hear in the entire stadium was high-pitched cry that made all the glass practically explode.

With other participates that weren't in the arena everyone had their hands over their ears.

"Damn child" Natsu hissed as he pressed hands on his ears harder "I told him not to use that when I'm around! Is he trying to make me deaf?"

Mira looked at him and yelled "WHAT IS THIS?"

Natsu looked at her giving her 'Are-you-an-idiot' look mouthing "How am I supposed to hear you?"

Mira probably understood what he tried to said since she rolled her eyes. Her eyes widened when she saw Natsu remove his hands from his ears "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"ILLUSION MAKE: SILENCE" Natsu yelled as he slammed his right palm in the outstretched palm of the left hand. Small black ball of energy appeared between his palms and as he make the distance between them bigger the ball grew until it enveloped the four Fairy tail team B members.

"What on earth did you just did?" Jellal asked as he looked at Natsu who was still having his arms in front of him like he was holding some ball even though there was nothing between them. They were surrounded by complete silence.

"I would really appreciate if you stayed quiet. The boundary between that hellish cry outside and this quiet heaven is really thin and any kind of disturbance could puncture it which means that we would have to listen to that thing again" Natsu whispered with blank face.

They shuddered at the thought of that.

Few seconds later Natsu lowered his hands down and the barrier disappeared. And just in time to see the rest of the game.

"What was that?" Jellal asked as he looked around. Many people still had their fingers in their ears trying to regain their hearing. On the lacrima they could see Arthur's shadow as he happily moved trough them. In another part of the arena lay Beth knocked out.

"Well you heard him that's 'Phoenix's cry'. Though it was really unnecessary" Natsu said impassively. "The spell itself isn't dangerous since it has this... frequency that effect only the brain of the person who hears it, meaning that your eardrums can't be damaged... unless you have better hearing like dragon slayers"

Even before he finished snow started falling on the arena.

"Is this... snow?" some spectators asked as they looked around confused.

"It's Eve" Jenny said with smile.

"What is he doing?" Yajima asked.

"Unfortunately some of the wizards won't be affected by the cold" Eve said as he stood up form his kneeling position.

"He'll be able to see their breath in the air" Ichiya said sparkling.

"And clones aren't really alive so they don't breathe" Hibiki said with smirk.

"Smart kid as always" Jellal said with nod. With corner of his eye he could see Natsu nodding in agreement.

"Gotcha!" Eve said as he jumped from around the corner hitting Jäger in the back of his head.

"Potato gun!" A cry from his left announced Beth (who woke up). Eve ducked under the flying potato shouting "Snow blizzard!" The spell hit its target and Eve got another point.

Around the corner, unknown to Eve, stood Gajeel smirking. With quick turn around he yelled "Iron dragon's club!" Eve's eyes widened as the club rushed toward him surely hitting him. Imagine their surprise when Nullpudding fell down from the sky grabbing Gajeel's hand seconds before it hit its mark and spinning him around so he missed.

Nullpudding smirked wickedly as Eve with the rest of the stadium stared at the ugly man dumbfounded while Gajeel and Fairy tail stared at him barely containing their anger.

"You damn midget!" Gajeel hissed as he took a deep breath. Nullpudding glared at him and just when he was about to jump and attack he stooped watching at Gajeel incredulously. "Did I upset you so much?" Nullpudding taunted when he saw Gajeel taking a deep breath.

To them it looked like he was trying to calm himself down but when they realized what he was about to do it was to late.

"IRON DRAGON'S ROAR!"

Nullpudding's and Eve's eyes widened in shock as the roar came rushing at them before it sent them flying back.

Gajeel turned around with satisfied smile only to see smirking Lyon looking at him, his hands already in position. "Ice make: Snow Tiger"

"Shit" Gajeel cursed as he disappeared. Lyon dusted his hands and started walking down the road. As he walked he almost missed the way his shadow moved. Almost.

"Arthur" Lyon said as he turned toward his shadow that stopped fallowing his movements. Before Lyon could say anything else Arthur dropped down to the ground as he traveled toward Lyon's feet. Lyon, seeing this jumped up and get a hold on one of the windows.

"Shit... I can't do anything while he's inside" Lyon muttered as he dodged shadowy fist.

"Seems like Lyon has some trouble" Yajima said.

"That's my boy!" Mira yelled as Lyon barely dodged another fist.

"Shadow make: Red-eyed eagles" Arthur said as he rose from the shadow few meters above Lyon as dozens of eagles made of shadows emerged form the wall around him flying right toward Lyon who yelled.

"Ice make: ape!" Few eagles crashed in it while others circled around it, hitting the ice user.

"Your shadow make is dynamic?" Lyon asked incredulously.

"Actually I can make both static and dynamic" Arthur answered with smile as he sank back in the ground.

Few minutes later you could hear Chapati saying "Only 30 seconds left and there's still no sign of Rufus"

"This game is just so boring" A very familiar voice said from the roof of one of the buildings.

"What?!" Three commentators asked in union.

"Why are they so surprised? He's been there since the beginning" Natsu commented.

"Eh? How do you know that?" Meredy asked surprised. Natsu replied only by tapping his nose.

"I remember everything about you... Your heartbeats, footsteps and magics" Rufus said "I remember everything".

"Memory make:..." Rufus stared.

"A shaping magic?" Erza asked in surprise as Gray looked at Lacrima with Rufus in surprise.

"Into a night of falling stars!"

The sky shone brightly as seven beams of light came rushing down in the down.

"Shit!" Arthur cursed as the shadows disappeared leaving him on the open.

Six beams out of seven struck their target.

"You're sticking out like a sore thumb!" Gajeel said as he jumped up coming right at Rufus. "Iron dragon's Sword!"

Gajeel swung down the blade only for it to pass trough the mage.

"What?!" He yelled as he landed on a roof.

"That was your memory of me standing there" Rufus said from behind him.

"And now..." He extended his arm as another star came rushing down. Gajeel jumped out of the way though he lost his balance so he rolled down the roof falling on the steets. He cringed as he rubbed his back. 'Damn that hurt' He looked up only to see another beam came rushing down.

"Crap!" Gajeel yelled as he put his hands in front of his face reading himself for the pain. Just few seconds before the beam hit him a loud gong sounded.

"Well even though Rufus managed to hit Gajeel it happened when the time was out meaning that this point won't be counted" Chapati said earning a few 'boo's from the crowd.

"And now to announce: HIDDEN IS OVER!" Chapati said as the 'boo's stooped and cheering begin.

"Now to see results combined with the points from preliminaries:..."

1. Sabertooth- 14 pt

2. Fairy tail B- 13 pt

3. Raven tail- 11 pt

4. Fairy tail A- 10 pt

5. Lamia scale- 10 pt

6. Blue Pegasus- 9 pt

7. Mermeid heel- 8 pt

8. Quarto Cerberus- 6 pt

"Seems like Sabertooth decided to wake up" Jenny said not sounding really happy about the fact.

"Well it's only first day and we didn't even get to the battles so there's still plenty of time for surprises" Yajima added.

As they talked participates of the game walked to their teams. Gajeel walked past them as he sat down on the floor grumpily "Damn Raven tail"

Others stayed quiet. After all what could they say?

Arthur walked back to his team with bowed head. Jellal petted his back with smile saying "Why sad look?"

"You were awesome"

Arthur looked at Jellal saying "No I didn't... Sabertooth has more points then we. I'm sorry guys"

"Arthur! Don't be ridiculous!" Mira said sternly with her hands on her hips. "Why on Earth are you bothered by this? We're gonna kick their asses this year! And beside it's only one point"

"No! Look, you don't understand!" Arthur yelled as he walked pass them out of the stadium.

"You could've said something" Jellal said turning to the pinkhead who was watching this with straight face. Natsu looked at him before he sighed "He did well"

Jellal face-palmed himself while Mira and Meredy bristled.

"Do you hear yourself?" Meredy huffed.

"I can't believe Ultear loves you! She's so much better than you!" Meredy shouted as she glared at pinkhead. She quickly covered her mouth when she realized what she said. Natsu's face didn't indicated that he cared about what she said but Mira and Jellal could see the hurt that flashed in his eyes before he pushed it back behind the mask.

"I'm s-sorry Natsu... I didn't mean it that way" Meredy said as she bowed her head.

"Of course you did" Natsu said before he turned around and walked out of the stadium the same way Arthur did.

"Mr. Yajima is right and as he said it's time for battles" Chapati said earning cheers from stadium.

"For first battle this day we have... Lucy Heartfilia from Fairy tail vs... Flare Corona from Raven tail"

Lucy stepped out with determined look as she remembered everything they did "I'll win"

Other Fairy tail mages smiled as they cheered for her "You can do it Lucy!"

"From here on out the entire arena is battlefield so other participates have to go to the waiting room" Chapati said

Kabo stepped out of nowhere again on the arena before saying "You two please step forward"

Flare walked to the arena. She looked at Lucy and titled her head to the side saying creepily "Blondie..."

"What on earth is the purpose of Raven tail?" Mavis asked from her spot on railings.

"To humiliate us! What else?!" Makarov shouted angrily.

"Time limit is 30 minutes"

"Blondie... Blondie... He he he" Flare said laughing creepily.

'I won't lose to you' Lucy though as she put her hands on her keys.

"BEGIN!"

Lucy jumped back as Flare continued looking at her with the same expression.

"Open! Gate of the golden bull!" Lucy said as she pulled out Taurus' key "Taurus!"

There was the sound of a bell and golden light on the arena as a hybrid between a bull and a man appeared.

"Here we go" Lucy mumbled to her self as she watched Taurus running toward Flare with his ax ready to deliver a blow. Flare's eyes widened slightly as she jumped back while Taurus brought his ax down with a spin.

"You'll have to do better than that... Blondie" Flare said before she yelled "Hair Shower: Wolf Fang!"

Her hair untied itself from its braids before it extended and took the shape of a wolf.

"Her hair got longer!" Elfman said shocked. Lucy's eyes widened in shock as she ducked under the hair-wolf before she shook out of her surprise saying "Open! The gate of the cancer!"

Cancer appeared moment later right in front of the 'wolf' when it turned around.

"Let me give you a small haircut- ebi!" Cancer said as he brought his scissors forward cutting the wolf in pieces.

"Two spirits at the same time? Way to go Lucy!" Bisca and Alzak yelled from the stands.

What neither of the three down on the stadium expected was to Flare to freak out after Cancer cut of her hair. "You cut off my hair?!" She screamed at Cancer who stood in front of Lucy right next to Taurus.

"You cut off my hair!" she screamed again before her hair extended toward them suddenly at alarming rate.

"Miss Lucy!" Cancer yelled as he jumped in front of the stand cutting few strands away while one pierced him making him disappear.

"Cancer!" Lucy yelled as she jumped out of the way of few strands.

"Open! Gate of the Scorpion! Scorpio!"

**With Natsu**

When he turned around the corner to enter the hall that lead to the exit he was slightly surprised to see Arthur sitting there on the floor. His knees were drawn to his chests and his forehead was resting on his knees. He stood there awkwardly few meters from his 'son' not sure if he should say anything or continue walking. He sighed as he walked next to Arthur and sat down in Indian style. Arthur looked at his step-father from the corner of his eye before he lifted his head and put his chin on his knees.

"Need something?" Arthur asked.

Natsu looked at him before he put his knees to his chest and put his chin on his knees going into the same position Arthur was. Arthur looked at his incredulously.

"What are you doing?" shadow-user asked.

"I thought it might be comfortable since you sit this way... It's not" Natsu answered but didn't move from his position. Arthur continued staring at him for few seconds before shaking his head.

"You're weird sometimes" Arthur said after few seconds of silence.

"Why?" Natsu asked.

Cheers from stadium stopped Arthur from answering. When they died down sometimes Arthur answered "I don't know... Just things you sometimes do or say..."

Natsu smiled but didn't say anything as the two listened the different sounds coming from the stadium.

"Why did you get so worked up after the game?" Natsu asked quite effectively hiding his awkwardness. He wasn't really a type to comfort. I know... Who would've guessed?

"I... It's not really important" Arthur said after few seconds of silence.

Natsu looked at him. Arthur averted his look so he wouldn't have to look at those eyes. He was sure that while his father didn't show his emotions he was able to read them without a problem. And he could read both him and Annie like an open book.

Natsu sighed as he lifted his head and let one of his legs slide down.

"If you don't want to tell me then you don't have to but you should. It's easier to bear something when you don't have to bear it alone." Natsu said and almost laughed at himself 'I'm such a hypocrite from time to time'

Arthur stayed silent for few minutes after that and Natsu was already sure that his son won't say anything when Arthur opened his mouth "I didn't won't to disappoint you and Mothers and that's exactly what I did"

Natsu stared at Arthur. He didn't expect that. He didn't expect that at all. That was ridiculous. He smiled as he rested his head on the wall. Then he chuckled.

Arthur watched in horrified fascination as his ever stoic father continued chuckling before it turned into laughter. 'Seems like he finally went crazy'

The laughter died down as soon as it started. "That's ridiculous, Arthur"

Arthur huffed as he said "You don't have to laugh at me! I'm serious"

Natsu turned serious then and moved in front of Arthur crouching down before the boy.

"Arthur. You didn't disappoint me nor your mothers. I'm even proud of you" Natsu said with warm smile before it disappeared as the Dragon prince stood up walking back toward stadium.

Arthur watched his retreating back with his jaw hanging. 'Am I imagining things?... No... He actually said that...'

Arthur jumped up from his spot as he run to walk beside Natsu. Big grin almost splitting his face.

Natsu looked at his adoptive son when he ran to him from the corner of his eye. He put his hands in his pockets and smirked.

"Hey Arthur..." Natsu started.

"Yea, dad? What's up?" Arthur asked.

"Don't say anyone I laughed" Natsu said almost whispering. Arthur smirked evilly in return "We'll see about that"

Natsu stopped walking as he turned to look at Arthur "Are trying to blackmail me?"

Arthur smiled innocently as he blinked few times "Me?! Never!"

Natsu chuckled as the two continued to walk.

What they saw when they reached the arena was not what they expected...

End of chapter 54.

Cliffhanger! I'm so mean! Bwahahaha!

Anyway... Sorry for the wait guys. I'll update my other story next so those who read it know that it should be out in a few days. Hope you all like this chapter and for those who wanted to see fight between Flare and Lucy I'm sorry to say I won't show the whole fight simply because it's hard to write it.

I would like to hear what you think of the conversation between Natsu and Arthur.

Recommendation for the week: Dreams of an Absolution by AppleCiderr

Please review and thanks for reading :)