The Blue Pheasant Flies On

Chapter 15: The Demon

X780

Gildarts watched Mira slam her fists into a tree in the woods out behind the kids' house with a furrowed brow. There was no form or rhythm to Mira's punches, she was just going to town on the poor oak and was getting nothing out of it other than bloody knuckles. The white-haired teen had been snippy and withdrawn ever since she lost her fight against Erza for S-Class status. Gildarts had hoped that the end-of-year vacation would help, but it didn't seem to have any effect. He had tried to keep an eye on her at the start of the year, but she had thrown herself into taking jobs that guaranteed combat and extended time away from home. Normally that wouldn't be a concern, but she had started insisting that she either go alone or with Natsu as her only partner, and that was concerning. Nothing against the Dragon Slayer, but Natsu wasn't someone you wanted to drag along on a job without Cana or Lisanna to keep him from going overboard unless you wanted it to end with a lot of things destroyed, on fire, or both, along with most of your pay being lost to damage costs.

That wasn't the biggest issue though. Mira's refusal to only go on a job with Natsu was causing friction between her and her siblings. Puberty was hitting Elfman like a truck, he had already grown half a foot and was taller than Mira now, which was making him start to try and step up and be the "man of the house" so to speak. Mira's steadfast refusal to let him come with her and "watch her back" her along with the implication that Natsu was strong enough to protect her while Elfman wasn't was pissing him off almost as much as the implication that she needed protection at all, let alone from her little brother that couldn't even transform more than his right arm, was pissing Mira off. Their fighting was stressing Lisanna out as she tried and failed to play mediator between her older siblings. And after the outburst she had during their latest argument where she shouted at Mira for "hogging all of Natsu's time" it seemed the youngest Strauss sibling was old enough for hormones to start messing with her emotions too. Natsu had tried to diffuse the situation but had only made it worse when Lisanna demanded to know why Mira only let him go with her and the poor boy had been stuck between the glares of two angry, white-haired sisters.

Gildarts knew from experience that that wasn't the best place to be, but at least Natsu hadn't just been caught sleeping with one sister after hooking up with the other sister the night before and sneaking out the morning after before she had woken up and was now being confronted about that stunt along with the sister he was in the middle of sleeping with demanding to know if he had been planning to do that to her as well, and his denial to her got the other sister pissed at why he wouldn't do that to her sister but was perfectly fine with doing it to her, and when he tried to take it back he had jumbled around his words and ended up implying the sister he was literally lying next to in bed was the better looking one—which she wasn't. But trying to correct that misunderstanding led to its own set of arguments and yelling and more putting his foot into his mouth that ultimately cumulated in him jumping through a wall naked and streaking back to his hotel room for the third—but not last—time in his life. Ironically, Natsu had had a similar idea, but had gone through the window and was fully clothed. He was still out on whichever job he had randomly grabbed from the job board during his escape with Happy.

But he was getting distracted. The short of it was that Gildarts now had five hormonal teens (counting Lisanna, who was technically a preteen) living under the same roof and everyone but Cana was pissed at each other, and the only reason Cana wasn't pissed was because she was staying at least half-drunk so that she could find the entire train wreck of a situation amusing. Gildarts would normally reprimand her for that, but he was too tempted to join her, so he let it slide for now. He needed to do something about this, or at least try to solve it himself. If he wanted to be a better role model for his kids then he needed to start working things out himself before giving up and going to Ur, or Kuzan, or Makarov. So far, he had tried subtly gleaning info from Natsu about what the jobs he went on with Mira were like when they had their personal spars, but that hadn't panned out as much as he'd have liked. The pink-haired teen had told him that the jobs were awesome because the odd pair were getting paid to beat up bad guys and destroy stuff. He even said that Mira didn't get angry if he went too far and accidently destroyed things he wasn't supposed to because she would too and then they'd lose most of the money, but she always seemed happy regardless. That just told Gildarts that she was using violent jobs as stress relief, which he had already been able to figure out himself. He had tried asking Natsu if Mira acted any different before the jobs, but the Dragon Slayer hadn't been paying attention enough to notice anything. No one else was currently close enough to Mira to notice anything beyond the obvious increase in irritability and aggression, so that led to him spying on her ruining her knuckles in the woods.

Mira had just come back from a job yesterday and she was still out here throwing a tantrum. Either it hadn't been enough to work out all her aggression or she was getting worse. Regardless, Gildarts needed to step in and nip this problem at the bud before it got any worse. He took a deep breath and let it out in an explosive sigh. Time to play parent.

Mira finally broke through the tree with pure power and swore violently as she pulled her fist out with a hiss of pain. She shook out her hand and splattered blood across the grass and scowled at all the splinters sticking out of it. Before she could start to rip them out, Gildarts revealed his presence.

"Now what did that poor tree ever do to you?" he asked with what was supposed to be a disarming grin.

Mira scowled and turned away from him. "What're you doing out here, Gildarts?"

"Funny, I was about to ask you the same thing," he said, dropping the jovial tone. "What's gotten into you, Mira?"

"Nothing! I'm fine!" she snapped.

"You just got into a fistfight with a tree and lost. It doesn't seem like you're fine to me."

"You don't know anything!" Mira shouted at him with a wave of her splinter-filled hand.

Quick as a snake, Gildarts reached out and grabbed Mira's wrist. He ran a critical eye over the shards of wood and felt his shoulders slump at the sight. The cuts were mostly superficial, but she still shouldn't have them in the first place.

"Let go!" Mira yelled. She tried to pull her hand out of Gildarts's grip, but his hand was like a vice.

Instead of letting go, Gildarts kept his grip on her and walked past. With a single punch he destroyed the trunk of the tree Mira had been hitting, leaving just the stump behind. He looked back and her with a firm gaze. "Sit down."

Defiance flared up in Mira's eyes and she opened her mouth to protest, but the words caught in her throat when she matched Gildarts's eyes and she obeyed. Gildarts knelt in front of her and twisted her hand so that the palm was on his knee as he began to remove the splinters from her hand. Nothing was said beyond the occasional wince from Mira when Gildarts would pull out a particularly large piece.

Once all the pieces were removed, Gildarts finally spoke. "Why are you doing this to yourself, Mira?" he asked. "Taking dangerous jobs just to wreak havoc and break things, fighting with your siblings, taking out your anger on objects until you hurt yourself and then some. This isn't you."

"How would you know? You aren't even here half the time!" Mira snapped at him, fury in her eyes. She began to work herself into a frenzy, getting louder with every word "Maybe this is who I am! Natsu's not the only one who likes to run wild! Maybe I wanted to cut loose for once! Maybe I'm tired of holding back! I'm the demon that runs wild and destroys everything in her path! The demon that betrays your trust in the end! The demon that doesn't care about what other people think about her! The demon that doesn't meet your expectations and lets you down in the end because you didn't know better than to not trust her!"

"The demon that lost to the knight when everyone she cared about expected her to win."

Gildarts's even tone and words might as well have been whispered compared to how Mira was shouting into his face, yet she reeled back as if slapped. Gildarts raised his head and met Mira's eyes—the fury in them quickly giving way to shame—with his own sad eyes. "That's what this is all about," he stated.

Mira couldn't say anything. Her mouth moved, but no sound would come out. She could feel the trembling in her chin and sting in her eyes that herald the crying she refused to let anyone see. "That's not… You're wrong… I'm not…" she stuttered. Her chin was noticeably trembling with the effort of holding back her cries as tears started to flow down her cheeks. It proved too much for her and all her pent-up feelings came gushing out with a cry.

"YES!" she howled out in anguish. "I fucked up! I was supposed to beat Erza! I was supposed to be the youngest S-Class mage in Fairy Tail! That's what everyone expected. You, Elfman, Lisanna, Cana, Natsu! You all helped me prepare and train and I blew it! I let you all down! I failed!"

"You didn't let us down," Gildarts assured her.

"Yes, I did! I could see it in your face when I first woke up and it was all over their faces when we got back from Tenrou. Disappointment and pity! They were all so excited for me, we had that big party before the trial and everything! And what happened when we got back to the guild? Erza was the new S-Class mage and all I had for them was an 'I'm sorry'. And ever since they've been walking on eggshells around me!"

Gildarts wrapped his arms around Mira and pulled her in for a hug. "I was never disappointed in you for how you did on Tenrou. You tied with Erza in the original trial and made her work for every hit in that fight. That was one of the closest fights I've ever seen, and you should be proud of that," Gildarts told Mira.

Mira let out a sniffle into his chest and held back her tears long enough to ask, "Really?"

"Yes," Gildarts emphatically said. "The only reason you didn't make S-Class last year is because only one person is allowed to pass the trial at a time." He put on a cocky smirk. "This year you're going to crush the trials. And while you may not be the youngest S-Class mage in Fairy Tail's history, I'm sure you'll be the fastest person to complete the trial."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

That was enough for Mira to return the hug and begin sobbing again. Gildarts just held her there and ran his hand up and down her back while murmuring reassurances into her ears. Eventually, Mira got all the tears out of her system and relaxed her death grip on Gildarts but didn't break the embrace. "Gildarts?"

"Hmm?"

"If no one is disappointed in me, why have they been avoiding me?"

"At first it was because you were about as approachable as Kuzan before noon," Gildarts said, getting a brief laugh and 'Hey!' out of Mira. "But lately it's because you're never around for them to see and whenever you do see each other all you do is provoke and yell at each other."

"Oh…" Mira said in surprise. She thought back on how she'd been acting for the last several weeks and could see that Gildarts had a point. "I guess I've been a real bitch, huh?"

That made Gildarts laugh. "A little."

"I gotta apologize to everyone then," Mira said.

"Ha! That's my girl," Gildarts declared and ruffled Mira's hair. "Who did you learn how to be so mature from?"

Mira pretended to think for a moment. "Hmm. Probably Ur."

"Ow! You wound me," he laughed with a hand over an imaginary wound.

The two shared a laugh then Mira finally stopped hugging Gildarts. She looked at her hand and flexed it with a wince. "I guess I should go get this cleaned."

"I'd recommend it. The other one too. You really did a number on those knuckles."

Mira grimaced. "I know, I know. I'll go ask Lisanna for some help—after I've apologized."

"Good idea. Ask Cana for help too. She definitely has alcohol you can disinfect that with."

"As long as she hasn't drunk it all since I got out here."

The two shared another laugh at the joke until Mira's was interrupted by a shriek of surprise when she was swept off her feet and held bridal style against a broad chest. "Gildarts, let me go! I can walk ten feet on my own!"

"Now I wouldn't be much of a gentleman if I didn't carry an injured princess back to her castle, would I?"

Mira dug her elbow into his chest and let out a huff of annoyance. "I'm not a princess, that isn't a castle, and from what I've heard you're a womanizer, not a gentleman."

"Lies and slander! Who's spreading such scandalous and untrue rumors about my character?!" Gildarts demanded in an over-the-top posh voice.

"Kuzan."

"I should've known. He's always been jealous of my way with women."

The pair made their way back to the house in silence. And if Mira dug herself a little deeper into Gildarts's arm because the way he was carrying her reminded her of simpler times, when she was a child and a white-haired, blue-eyed man carried her in a similar embrace that made her feel safe and loved then that was her business.

"What I'm going to be teaching you are part of a fighting style known as the Rokushiki," Kuzan explained to an eager and attentive Erza. The pair were practicing in the training grounds behind their house as Levy sat on the back porch and switched between reading her book and watching. "As the name implies, there are six different techniques to this style; I'm only going to teach you three of them." He held up a finger to cut off Erza's protests. "I have two reasons for this, so let me explain: One, while learning the Rokushiki was available to all Marines once they reach a high enough rank, we weren't required to learn it nor were we required to master it. I, myself, am not a master in any stretch of the imagination and never learned how to use all six techniques. Two, the Rokushiki are primarily an unarmed martial art, so some of the techniques are useless to you." Even with the unarmed training he had been giving her, the only time Erza ever used her feet and legs in combat was to swing an extra sword with them and eventually she'd be strong enough to launch a wind blade through them so there was no point in teaching her the Rankyaku. As for the Shigan, it was an assassination move at its core and Erza still had reservations about killing that Kuzan wasn't going to force her to deal with yet. "I learned the Geppo, Tekkai, Shigan, and Soru techniques. As for the Rankyaku and Kami-e, I never cared enough to bother learning them." He shrugged. "My Tekkai was strong enough that the Kami-e was useless to me and I don't use kicks enough for the Rankyaku to be worth the effort." That was always more of Borsalino's style. He stuck with the Shigan, much less movement. Just a little poke and the enemy was dead.

"I see. So, you're going to teach me all four of the ones you do know though, right?" Erza asked, unable to keep the eagerness from creeping into her voice and conveniently forgetting that he just told her she'd only be learning three.

Kuzan shook his head. "No. I won't be teaching you the Shigan, since you use weapons and it's an unarmed strike. Yes, I have told you that you needed to learn to fight without a weapon, but it is more complex than the basic punches and kicks I've taught you and those are adequate enough for you to hold your own until you can requip a new weapon. I'll be teaching you the Tekkai, a defensive technique, along with Soru, which lets you move faster, and Geppo, which will let you move on air." Kuzan then demonstrated the two moves by using Soru to seemingly teleport to Levy's side and back in a moment and then leaping into the air and kicking off of it several times with Geppo. He lightly landed on his feet and gave an over theatrical bow to the applauding girls. "Thank you, thank you. As for Tekkai… Try to cut me."

Almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth, Erza had a sword drawn and was swinging it at his good leg. Kuzan quickly tensed his muscles to activate Tekkai, a technique he hadn't used since learning Armament Haki. But, like riding a bike, the skill returned easily and Erza's sword bounced off his leg, leaving a nick in the blade where it had struck his kneecap. Erza looked between the sword and Kuzan's leg with awe on her face.

"You're going to teach me all that?" she excitedly asked.

"Yes. But! It takes a lot of training to be able to use these skills. You're already in good shape, so it'll mostly be about training your body to correctly use these techniques," Kuzan explained.

"Yes! My body is ready, Sensei!"

Kuzan nearly swallowed his tongue and Levy fell off her chair while howling with laughter at Erza's words. While his brain rebooted, Kuzan idly noted to review her private reading material to check if the blue-haired preteen was getting into material that was a little… mature for her age. She shouldn't have understood Erza's unfortunate innuendo yet.

The Ice Mage rested his hand on Erza's shoulder. "Then we'll get started as soon as you promise to never say that particular phrase again, ever."

"But why?" Erza asked and Kuzan couldn't tell if the innocence in her eyes was genuine or she had just gotten really good at subtlety fucking with him.

"Just… don't," he finally said in defeat. There was no way he was having that conversation right now. "Ask Ur later."

"Okay!" she happily said and Kuzan swore he saw a self-satisfied grin flash across her face.

Gildarts stood on the back porch and watched his kids and Happy spar and train amongst themselves. After Mira got her head out of her ass and apologized to her siblings the trio had gone on a mission together and quickly made up. Today, he was going to go over some individual training with the five kids now that they weren't going to rip each other's heads off if left alone.

Gildarts let out a sharp whistle that caught everyone's attention and he waved them over to get a drink and cooldown. They all hustled over with smiles on their faces as they chatted among each other. It brought a smile to his own face to see them getting along. The house had been turning into a powder keg and he was glad that he managed to avoid another Lyon situation. That was a problem he never wanted to have to deal with.

After the break, Gildarts clapped his hands together. "Alright, back to work. We're doing one-on-ones today." He waited for the cheers (mostly Natsu's) to die down. "First up is Natsu, then Elfman, Cana, Lisanna, and Mira."

Cana raised her hand. "Actually, I've got a new move I'm working on and need Mira and Lisanna's help with it. Can we go tomorrow?"

"Sure," Gildarts said with a shrug. The three girls went off to help Cana and he turned to Natsu and Elfman. "Elfman, you can do whatever 'til we're done, just don't go to hard," A wicked grin spread across Gildarts's face as he clasped Natsu's shoulder. "I've got to get you two into trial shape by the end of the year."

Elfman quickly agreed and headed over to do some basic exercises while Natsu looked up at Gildarts. Instead of being frightened by the ominous words, his eyes were shining in excitement. "I'm all fired up," he declared while matching Gildarts's grin.

For privacy, the two mages moved deeper into the forest for their practice to a large clearing specifically set aside for Natsu so he could train in private if he wanted to keep a new move close to his chest for his next match against one of his roommates. Enough space had been cleared so that he wouldn't set anything on fire and over the years the clearing had gotten larger and larger to the point that Gildarts was starting to suspect that if they didn't want the forest split in half, Natsu would have to give up the spot and go find a less flammable place to practice.

Gildarts took his usual place in the middle of the clearing and swung his arm around to loosen it up for the spar. He smirked at the Dragon Slayer that was practically vibrating in place at the edge of the clearing. "Alright, Natsu, show me what you've got."

The pink-haired mage exploded into motion and proceeded to unleash an impressive combination of Fire Magic and standard punches and kicks against Gildarts that he blocked with one arm. Even Natsu's Fire Dragon's Roar was knocked away with a quick burst of magic from his fist. Once he had a good feeling for how Natsu had improved, Gildarts brought his fist down on a leaping Natsu and planted him face first into the dirt. "Good job, Natsu. I actually felt a few of those hits."

Natsu groaned into the dirt and pushed himself out of the dirt. That was another Natsu-shaped imprint in the clearing. You could actually keep track of how much he'd grown over the years by measuring he sizes of the imprints. He was so looking forward to the day when he finally made a Gildarts-shaped one. The Dragon Slayer spat dirt to the side and swore, "Dammit. One of these days I'm going to kick your ass, Gildarts!"

"I'm sure you will," he responded with a smile. Gildarts took a seat on a log at the edge of the clearing and Natsu sat down on the ground in front of him. "So, today we're going to deal with one of your biggest flaws: fighting everyone you can, no matter how strong they are."

"What's wrong with that. If I fight strong people, then I'll get stronger!"

"Not if they kill you," Gildarts bluntly said. "You need to learn to pick your battles."

"Well I'm all fired up and I'm picking all of them!"

Gildarts let out a sigh. That was the most Natsu answer he could have gotten out of the boy and he expected it. He'd have to word this so that Natsu would understand. "Think about it this way: if you had to choose between fighting Mira and Cana, who would you fight?"

"Mira," Natsu answered immediately.

"Why?"

"Because she's stronger."

"So, because Cana's weaker than Mira you don't want to fight her?" Gildarts asked for clarification, intentionally misunderstanding Natsu.

Natsu shook his head. "No. I'd fight Cana again. I'd fight both her and Mira anytime, at the same time. I'd just rather fight Mira cause she's stronger than Cana and I've already beaten her. Even if I lose against Mira, I'll still get stronger. I mean, I'd get stronger if I fought Cana and won again too, but not as much stronger as fighting Mira."

Gildarts understood what Natsu meant. It was the basis of how he'd been teaching all of his kids. If you get your shit kicked around by a stronger opponent, it taught you what worked in a fight and what wouldn't a lot faster than trying to learn things theoretically. It wasn't a necessarily bad approach to fighting, but it only worked if you weren't fighting against someone who would kill you or if there were consequences to losing besides being sore and hurt for the next few days. Gildarts was going to have to try to break him out of that thinking.

"Alright, I see what you're saying. But consider this: if you could make S-Class by beating either Mira or Cana in a fight, who should you fight?"

"Mira."

"Wrong."

"What?! Why?!" Natsu squawked in outrage.

"Because she's stronger."

Gildarts knew that Natsu wouldn't understand, so he didn't wait to start explaining. "You said that you've already beaten Cana in a fight, so in order to make S-Class, you should fight her again—since you know you can beat her—rather than fighting Mira—who you've never defeated."

"But then I still wouldn't have beaten Mira, so how could I deserve to be an S-Class mage if she's stronger than me?" Natsu asked. "I wouldn't have earned it."

"Because you made the smart choice."

Natsu furrowed his brow as he tried to think through what Gildarts said but came up with nothing and tilted his head to look at the older mage funny. "I don't get it."

Gildarts scratched the back of his head in frustration. This was going to be harder than he thought. "The point of the question isn't who you'd rather fight, but rather, whether you would make reaching the objective harder on yourself for personal reasons. Choosing to fight Mira over Cana because you wouldn't feel like you deserved the victory isn't the smart play."

"But you always say not to take the easy way out of a tough problem and fighting Cana instead of Mira would be the easy way to S-Class," Natsu argued.

Gildarts waved his hand between them. "Forget about S-Class, Cana, and Mira. It was a bad example. Try this one: if you had the choice between being paid a thousand jewels for breaking one rock or being paid a thousand jewels for breaking a diamond, which would you pick?"

"Breaking the rock?" Natsu answered. Why were they on breaking things now? He thought this was supposed to be about fighting people.

"Why?"

"Because… it's… easier?" he hesitantly guessed. Natsu really didn't see where Gildarts could be going with this, but there was always the chance this was one of those trick questions that he was supposed to put more thought into.

Gildarts clapped his hands together. "Bingo! You've got it."

"But what does that have to do with picking my battles?"

The Crush Mage hung his head in defeat. They had been so close! He sighed and massaged his forehead. "Don't think too hard about it for now. Just remember, you don't always have to beat the toughest guy in the room to win. Fighting a strong opponent just because they're strong isn't necessarily the smartest choice, and there's more to being an S-Class mage than pure power. Why do you think it took Laxus four tries to make S-Class?"

"'Cuz he's a dick."

Gildarts wanted to say no, but Laxus's attitude was one of the main factors in why he kept failing so Natsu was technically correct. He settled with, "Partially. Now," Gildarts vanished in a blur and appeared behind Natsu to lightly flick the back of his head, "let's see how you handle an opponent that's faster than you."

Natsu swiped at Gildarts with a flaming fist but hit nothing but air as Gildarts quickly backed out of his range. He grinned at Gildarts. "I'm all fired up."

Gildarts dropped an exhausted Natsu back off at the house and shouted, "Alright, Elfman, you're up!" A quick glance around showed that the girls were still practicing together. He watched Cana shout something while twisted a card in her hand before she swapped places with Lisanna—who was using her White Cat Take Over—and allowed the youngest Strauss to land a claw attack against her older sister. Huh, that was a pretty good trick. He'd have to check in with the girls before he got to Mira's training to see what exactly she was doing.

Gildarts was brought out of his musings when Elfman approached him with clenched fists. "I'm ready!" he declared with a pair of fist pumps.

"That's what I like to hear," Gildarts told him with a grin. "But don't get too excited. I've got a couple of questions to ask you before we get into the practical stuff."

Elfman flagged a bit when he heard that they weren't going to jump right into sparring but perked up a bit at the end when Gildarts mentioned that they were going to be hitting each other. A clash of bare fists between teacher and student, facing each other in honorable combat to improve their (really just his, Gildarts didn't need to prove anything) skills. Now that was manly!

Gildarts sat down on the porch and patted the seat next to him for Elfman. The white-haired teen took the seat and waited. Gildarts didn't say anything for a bit, he just watched Natsu go over to join Happy in watching the three girls fight. Seeing nothing else to do, Elfman also watched them fight. Gildarts noticed Elfman's jaw twitch when he watched Lisanna smoothly transition from her White Cat transformation to a Full-Body Rabbit Take Over to land a pair of strong kicks against Mira's guard. "You're jealous of them, aren't you?" he asked. Elfman began to protest, but Gildarts held up his hand to stop him. "It's understandable. You learned your magic at the same time as your younger sister, but she took to it like a fish to water while you've been stuck with just your arm the whole time. It's frustrating; you watch them do so well while no matter how hard you try, you're stuck."

Elfman stubbornly set his jaw and clenched his hands into fists hard enough to turn his knuckles white but didn't respond. Gildarts was right, of course. He was jealous of his sisters. He was becoming a man now but couldn't even use their family's magic—his magic—right. How could he help protect his family, let alone his siblings, like that? It wasn't very manly of him.

Gildarts's hand clasped Elfman's shoulder, pulling him out of his depressing thoughts. "That's what we're going to work on today and for the future. I'm going to help you make that magic your own." He got to his feet and extended his hand to the young mage. "Are you in, Elfman?"

He had already clasped Gildarts's hand before he finished his question. "Of course!" he roared in determination.

"That's the spirit!" he declared while clapping Elfman on the back. "So! First step will be just trying a Full-Body Take Over. I know that you only use the right arm, but you do keep the entire soul of the beasts you've taken over, right?" Elfman nodded. "Alright, so you're going to do your normal Partial Take Over, but then you're going to try to slowly spread it to the rest of your body, okay?" Another nod. "Great. When you're ready take off your shirt and we'll get started."

Elfman wanted to catch his breath some more, but he wanted to use a complete Take Over more. He shucked his practice shirt to the side and began to use his Black Bull. As always, he got the right arm perfect, but when he tried to spread it past that it began to stall. The cubes that represented his magic would break early and were stuck at his shoulder.

"Easy, Elfman. Nice and slow. There's no rush."

Elfman tried to listen to Gildarts's words, and slowing down did lessen the strain, but his body still refused to change. It stubbornly remained human with the exception of his right arm. Frustrated, Elfman let the spell fade and gasped for air. Another failure.

Gildarts tossed him a water bottle. "I know that's rough on your magic levels. Take a breather. Let's go over how that felt. Any different than normal?"

"No," Elfman said with a shake of his head. "It was a little easier after I slowed down, but that's it. I just can't transform more than one arm."

Gildarts hummed in thought. It seemed like Elfman's problem wasn't that he was doing anything wrong mechanically, but rather that there was something that was mentally keeping him from using Take Over. All they needed to do was find the source of the block, but that was definitely easier said than done. Elfman had had the block since he had first learned his Take Over Magic when he and Lisanna had wanted to cheer Mira up because she was upset over not being able to control her magic and had her right arm… stuck… in a Partial Take Over…

Oh, goddammit.

Gildarts looked back at Elfman and ran a hand through his hair while slowly blowing out air. Well he had the source, now all he had to do was find a way to fix it or, at the very least, work around it. Now, he wasn't a psychologist or a therapist—and if only Makarov could find one that could be paid enough to deal with the guild full of fuckups that was Fairy Tail—so fixing the problem was out. Time to work on circumventing it. Step one: get him to not transform his right arm. He'd have to subtly plant the idea in Elfman's head.

Gildarts walked up to Elfman and asked, "Can you get your Take Over to work on anything other than your right arm?"

Nailed it.

Elfman looked at him in confusion. "Uh, no. Isn't that why we're doing this?"

"No, I mean have you tried to get anything to transform while not transforming your right arm?"

"No," Elfman admitted. "I never thought it mattered. I'm right-handed so why would I use my left hand to punch things? And if one of my legs transformed then I'd be lopsided when I run."

"Try it," Gildarts suggested. "Maybe if you can get your Take Over to work on your left arm once then it'll be easier to transform it again."

"Okay!" Elfman shouted, excited at the prospect of being able to transform both arms. What Gildarts said seemed logical. If he did something once, then of course it would be easier to do the second time. He began to use his magic but kept his right arm normal as he focused it all on his left. "Oooohhhhh!" he yelled in excitement and exertion as he felt the magic start to take. Unlike every other time he tried to while having his right arm transformed, now he could feel his left arm start to change. With a final cry of effort, Elfman's magic let off a bright white flash that drew the attention of the other teens and left Gildarts swearing and seeing spots. When it faded away, Elfman opened his eyes and gave out a cry of joy at seeing his normal left arm replaced with the heavily muscled and black-skinned form of his Black Bull. He began to dance around in place while waving his arm around and chanting, "I did it! I did it!"

The other mages quickly rushed over to the porch and started congratulating Elfman on his success. The white-haired boy grinned in pride as he allowed them all to poke and prod at his transformed arm to make sure it was real (he even did a couple of pinches to make sure it had really worked as well).

"That's great, Elf-niichan!"

"Now for the other arm!" Elfman declared as he activated his magic. But, instead of both his arms transforming as expected, Elfman's Black Bull refused to spread beyond his left arm, mirroring all of his previous attempts to go past a single arm transformation.

"Uh, nothing's happening," Natsu unhelpfully pointed out.

"It will! I just need to try harder," Elfman insisted. He concentrated harder on his arm, remembering what the transformation had felt like every other time he had ever used his magic, but it refused to change. "Just a little more…" he grit out.

The others looked on in concern as the veins on Elfman's neck and forehead started to pop from the strain. "Elfman, stop! You're going to hurt yourself," Mira told him while grabbing his shoulder.

Elfman swatted her away. "No! I've almost got it! I can feel it!"

"Listen to your sister, Elfman," Gildarts commanded. "You've taken a huge step forward today, don't waste it by trying to force more progress." He would have forced the teen to stop but was afraid of disrupting his magic and hurting him worse with the backlash. Failed Take Overs always left the caster drained, the bigger the Take Over the worse the magic drain from a failed casting. Elfman was still only trying to transform his arm so it wouldn't be too bad, but if he forced too much he could end up draining his reserves into Magical Deficiency.

Before Gildarts could decide whether his interference would be more harmful than helpful, Elfman's spell failed. His left arm returned to normal and he fell forward unconscious and would have hit his face if his sisters hadn't caught him. Gildarts checked his vitals and breathed a sigh of relief. "It's alright. He just used too much magic and knocked himself out." Everyone let out their own sighs of relief and Gildarts hoisted Elfman over his shoulder. "I'll drop him off in his room to sleep it off then be back out, so everyone take a short break."

When Gildarts laid Elfman down on his bed, the teen stirred and regained consciousness. He squinted at Gildarts and groggily asked, "What happened?"

"You rushed things and knocked yourself out," Gildarts told him. Elfman started to get up, but Gildarts pushed him back down with a finger. "Nope. You're staying here and resting. You drained your magic with that little stunt and are in no shape to be doing anything other than sleep right now."

"But I almost had it!" Elfman argued.

"And you'll keep almost having it if you don't take the time to recover properly," Gildarts pointed out. "You did great today, Elfman. You transformed your left arm for the first time ever. Stop focusing on how you couldn't change both of them at the same time. It was literally your first attempt. You'll get it one day, just don't kill yourself trying to make that day get here faster, okay?"

Elfman hesitated for a moment, and Gildarts could see his thoughts at war with themselves on his face, but he eventually relented and fell back onto his bed. "You're right," he admitted in the most reluctant way possible.

"Of course I am," Gildarts said with joking confidence. "So, what will you be doing in the future?"

"Taking it easy."

"Attaboy," he said while reaching over to ruffle his hair, making it stand up on ends and spike out everywhere. Gildarts paused at his door and looked back at Elfman, who was staring at the ceiling in obvious disappointment. "And Elfman," he waited for the mage to look at him. "For what it's worth, I'm proud of you."

He didn't bother staying to see the effect of his words on the boy, so he missed out on the smile that replaced the frown he had been wearing.

Gildarts returned to the porch where the rest of the kids were still gathered and clapped his hands to get their attention. "Alright, back to training. Cana, do you still need Lisanna and Mira for that new move of yours?"

"I want to practice it some more without the threat of getting my block knocked off, so I'll be keeping Lisanna. I don't need Mira, though, so you can have her."

Mira stuck out her tongue. "Glad to see where I rank on your scale of importance," she snarked.

"Love you too."

"You heard her, Mira! You're up." Despite her earlier words, the eldest Strauss sibling leapt to her feet in excitement and was already heading into the forest. Gildarts followed at a more sedated pace, she couldn't start until he got there after all. He stopped briefly in front of Cana and Lisanna when he remembered something he had wanted to ask the brunette.

"Cana, what were you doing to swap place with Lisanna during your fight?"

The Card Mage grinned broadly as she held up on of her cards, a stylized white tiger. "It's my new Reversed Draw. It lets me switch places with someone as long as they're holding the linked card." Lisanna helpfully held up her own card, which had the same image as the one that Cana was holding, but upside-down. "I figured that since I mainly focus on ranged attacks, it'd be a good way to get out of danger and have someone who's good up close get up close at the same time." She pulled out four more pairs of inverted cards. "I've got enough for everyone just in case." Cana hesitated for a moment before offering a card to Gildarts. It depicted a tower being destroyed by an earthquake upside-down. "You can have this one, if you want."

Gildarts smiled warmly and took the card without hesitation. "Thank you, Cana. I'll make sure to always carry it," he said while tucking it securely into one of his pockets. On impulse, Gildarts gave her a quick hug and then hurried off to meet up with Mira before she got too pissy.

In the forest, Mira was pacing in a circle when Gildarts found her. She threw up her hands in exasperation while yelling, "Finally! Let's get going, old man. You said that you were going to train me to be strong enough to defeat Erza." She started shadowboxing in place. "So, what's the plan? Your old training regimen? Fighting giant monsters in the mountains again? A secret technique to destroy her weapons and armor? What?"

Gildarts ruffled around in his job bag and pulled out a flyer with a clearly marked 'S' at the top. He held it out to Mira. "Read this."

Mira snatched it out of his hand and read it faster than Levy with a pair of Gale-Force Reading Glasses. When she was done, she looked at Gildarts and asked, "Are you sure?"

"You and Erza tied in the actual S-Class Trial last year, the showdown was just to determine a winner. As far as I'm concerned, you're already an S-Class Mage." He tapped the flyer, "If you want to, I'll accept the job and have you join me. You can do all the fighting and Take Over the demon after you win; I'll just be on standby in case something unexpected happens. This 'Sitri' demon needs to be stopped and it couldn't hurt to have a new trick or two up your sleeve when you face Erza again, could it?" He turned to head back to the house. "Think about it. I'll be waiting for your answer."

"Wait."

Gildarts turned around to find Mira staring at the ground with her shoulders shaking, the flyer crumpled in her hand. "Do you…? Do you really consider me an S-Class mage, even though I lost to Erza?" Mira asked, desperation making it hard for her to speak. She needed to know. She needed to hear Gildarts say it again.

"Yes."

The tension left Mira's shoulders and she looked up at Gildarts. "I'll do it."

Gildarts surveyed the damage created by the clash between Mira's Satan Soul and the Sitri demon. Large paths of destruction had been carved into the landscape, craters had formed where the two had crossed fists and sent each other flying into the ground, several dozen small fires still burned, consuming what few flammable materials had managed to withstand their fight.

Kneeling the middle of all the destruction was Mira. Her hair had grown long and shaggy, a dark blue overcoat with a large collar was worn over the white bodysuit that now covered her from neck to the ends of her legs, which now had large blue markings on them, she was wearing a black cape, and there was now armored plating covering her from chin to hairline that had two large horns at the sides and left her face exposed. When Mira rose to her "feet" Gildarts could see that instead of actual feet, there was nothing but fire from her ankles down

"How ya feeling kid?" Gildarts asked.

"Like I could kick Erza's ass from here to Alakitasia," Mira responded with a grin that was the right mix of cocky and predatory to let Gildarts know it was her and relax. The fight had been pretty touch-and-go for a while. He had almost interfered several times, but Mira managed to turn it around and defeat the demon in the end; Taking Over its soul and gaining its impressive firepower for her own.

"That's what I like to hear." Gildarts reached out and ruffled her crazy hair, noting that she seemed to be taller in this form. "I told you that you could do it. You've completed an S-Class job all by yourself. Now all that's left is to get a handle on your new form and you'll be ready to kick Erza's butt all over Tenrou. Though, we probably can't practice back at the forest," he joked while glancing at all the fires.

Mira smiled at his joke and was then covered in a flash of light as she dropped her transformation. Back to normal, it was easy to see all the bruises, cuts, and burns she had gathered during the fight. Her clothes were pretty torn up too, covering even less skin than normal. Gildarts handed her his cloak. "Put this on. You may like wearing revealing clothes, but I think we can both agree that this is a little much."

Mira gratefully took the cloak and threw it around her shoulders. It dragged at her feet and she'd get it covered in dirt but Gildarts didn't seem to mind. Before he could turn away, Mira dragged Gildarts down into a hug and said, "Thank you," into his chest.

"Hey now, it's just a cloak," he joked. Mira shook her head and started to say something, but Gildarts just pulled her in closer. "You don't have to say anything. I know what you mean," he told her. "Just remember, I'll always be proud of you, Mirajane."

Gildarts would find himself repeating this sentiment months later when Mira defeated Erza on Tenrou Island and officially became an S-Class mage, earning the epithet 'The Demon'.

Omake: Put on some Pants

Mira confidently strutted into the Fairy Tail guild wearing the skin-revealing outfit she normally reserved for missions where Ur wouldn't see it, but not today! Today she was going to march right up to the old prude and let her know once and for all that she would be wearing what she wanted from now on. She was an S-Class mage, dammit!

Mira made a beeline for the adult S-Class (minus Laxus)'s table. Kuzan wasn't there since it was before noon, so it was only Gildarts and Ur, but that was perfect! She jumped up on the table and smirked down at Ur behind her paper with both arms crossed under her (still growing!) breasts to make sure Ur noticed what she was wearing.

The Ice Mage folded back the top of her paper and raised an eyebrow at Mira's outfit. "And what do you think you're wearing?" she asked in a deceptively calm voice. Mira knew better though; she was definitely furious on the inside and just didn't want to show it.

"Well, since I'm an S-Class mage now, I figured that, as an S-Class, it was high time that I started picking out my own outfit," she declared with a spin so that Ur got an eyeful of just how short her shorts were. And there was nothing she could do about it!

"So, you decided on a swimsuit? Cute," Ur said without looking up from her paper. "Now go put on some actual clothes and stop prancing around in your underwear for the guild to see. You're going to get Macao and Wakaba thrown in jail, jailbait."

How dare she dismiss her so casually like that! Mira wasn't going to stand for this. Time to call in the big guns. "I'm an S-Class mage. I don't have to listen to you—right Gildarts?"

The 'big guns' choked on his coffee at being drawn into the conversation. He had been hoping that the two stubborn mages would start shouting at each other so that he could slip away unnoticed while they were distracted, but instead he was now the target of Ur's gaze from over her paper. He coughed into his fist to clear his throat and buy some time. This situation needed a delicate touch, something that was far outside of his comfort zone. And he couldn't even jump through a wall and skip town this time.

"Well, Mira is fifteen now—and an S-Class mage to boot. I think that she's more than capable of making certain adult decisions." Yes! Go Gildarts! That was the perfect balance of supporting Mira without giving his explicit approval of some of her more risqué decisions. You've got this diplomacy thing down!

"Yeah!" Mira immediately agreed, looking to capitalize on the (little) support Gildarts had given her. "You heard him: I'm an adult!" Now that was a bit of a stretch, but he didn't feel like getting dragged any deeper in this conversation than he already was, so Gildarts kept quiet and hoped Ur would ignore that little exaggeration.

"Adults wear sensible clothes. Go put on some pants. I don't see a swimming pool in this guild. Besides," she said while flipping to the next page of her newspaper, "aren't you cold in that outfit?

Sensible clothes?! Who did Ur think she was?! She walked around with her belly button showing all year! At least Mira wore pants and a jacket when it was cold out. And cold?! "It's over eighty degrees out! How could I be cold?!"

Mira immediately regretted her question when the temperature plummeted sixty degrees. She clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering and had to fight the urge to rub her arms to try and keep them warm.

"What was that?" Ur asked, looking up from her paper for only the second time. "I think your teeth were chattering."

"I'm f-fine!" Mira vehemently denied.

The temperature dropped another ten degrees.

"I think you're turning a little blue."

"T-t-t-h-i-s-s. I-s-s. N-n-oth-i-ing."

Another ten degrees colder.

Ur raised a brow again, but Mira refused to budge. She'd freeze before she let Ur have this.

As the temperature dropped another ten degrees, Gildarts finally spoke up. "Ur, just let her wear the damn clothes. She likes them and is too stubborn to admit defeat and you're going to turn us all into popsicles at this rate. She's old enough to drink a beer and strong enough to punt a Vulcan over Mt. Hakobe. I think she can handle anyone that gets the wrong idea from her outfit."

Ur scowled at Gildarts but let up on the cold air. The entire guild let out a sigh of relief that the sweat on their brows was coming from the heat and not nerves over two of their S-Class mages possibly coming to blows over one of theirs clothing choices. It was Fairy Tail, brawls had been started over less.

"You don't know that," Ur argued.

"Yes, I do," Gildarts insisted. He had seen it happen before. Mira had behaved herself quite admirably when that one creep had tried grabbing her ass last year. She had only put him through a table. It was far more restrained than the three buildings and two bridges Gildarts had punched him through after the sick fuck had dragged his piece-of-shit ass off of the floor. Unknowingly, Gildarts had just put himself into the doghouse.

"Oh~?" Ur said, her tone disturbingly reminding Gildarts of a cat cornering a mouse as he realized that he had played into her hand. "And how do you know that, Gildarts?"

"Uh… I don't really think that's important," he weakly replied.

"Oh no, I think that it's very important. Do tell me more," Ur said while standing on her chair and leaning across the table to grip both sides of Gildarts's chair. Their faces were so close that their noses were touching. "I insist."

Mira slipped away while Gildarts provided a noble sacrif—defense! He was defending her choices, not serving as a sacrifice by letting Ur yell at him for his poor parenting decisions. She believed that her point had been made and that discretion would be better than valor at the moment.

In the end, Mira was allowed to keep wearing her clothes, but Gildarts was banned from getting any alcohol from the guild bar for two months and had to out-bribe Ur to get Cana to smuggle some to his house.

Omake: Questionable Reading Material

Kuzan thumbed through one of Levy's books while wearing a pair of Gale-Force Reading Glasses. He had finally gotten around to looking through the preteen's reading material to make sure that she wasn't reading anything… inappropriate. He had made it through most of the shelf and so far so good, but Kuzan wasn't convinced. He had dealt with enough Marines smuggling contraband to know that finding it wouldn't be that easy. To be thorough, he went around knocking on all the walls and furniture in search of a hollow spot but came up with nothing. Satisfied that Levy apparently wasn't hiding anything, Kuzan reached for the next book. But instead of coming off the shelf, pulling the book caused the bottom shelf to rotate and reveal a whole new section of books. With names like Game of Bones, Fifty Shades of Black and Blue, and Shinobi of Love. He didn't need to read them to know they would be too mature for Levy, but he picked up one anyways. Kuzan ended up slamming it shut before he got through the first fifty pages. That was definitely too mature for someone Levy's age. Where did she even get these books? Scanning the shelves, Kuzan found several books that were accompanied with "helpful"—and graphic—diagrams. Good god, what was Levy into? He'd have to have a talk with her.

Kuzan sat in his chair with the smut spread out in front of him and waited for Levy to get home. When the blue-haired girl walked into the living room, she was surprised to see Kuzan waiting for her with a severe look on his face. The surprise turned into horror when she saw the books lying on the coffee table. "I can explain!" she immediately cried out.

"Please do," Kuzan said without letting any emotion slip into his voice.

"You see… those… aren't mine."

Kuzan raised an eyebrow at her weak defense. "Of course not. You're just holding them for a friend, I assume." He knew how to play this game.

"Yes!" Levy practically cheered. He understood.

"Which friend?"

Levy wilted at his question. She tapped her fingers together and quietly said, "…Erza."

"Erza?" he repeated incredulously.

"Erza."

Okay. He'd humor her. "Let's call her in and have her explain then, shall we?" Before Levy had a chance to respond, Kuzan had already called for the redhead. The pair waited in awkward silence as they listened to Erza's footsteps as she made her way through the house.

When she finally arrived, Kuzan said, "Erza, Levy claims that you're familiar with these," while gesturing to the books on the table.

"My books!" Erza shouted in surprise, throwing Kuzan for a loop and wrecking his thought process. "Levy! I thought you said that you had a hiding spot that Sensei wouldn't be able to find."

"I did, Er-chan!" Levy insisted. "I don't know how he found them."

Kuzan interrupted the two before they could start arguing. "Wait. Erza, these books are actually yours?"

"Yes," the teen admitted with a blush as she found the floor very interesting to study at the moment. "I didn't know what you'd say when I bought them, so I asked Levy to hid them for me. But I enjoyed them so much that I couldn't help buying more and more until… well, this," she said while gesturing to the stack on the table.

Kuzan didn't know how to respond to that. "I understand—"

"Really?!" Erza happily shouted, cutting Kuzan off before he could finish his sentence. "That's great, Sensei! I was so worried you'd be upset!"

"Actually, I—"

"I have so many questions!" Kuzan felt the blood drain out of his face as Erza started leafing through books and pulling up marked pages and began asking many, many horribly inappropriate questions that Kuzan was in no way prepared or equipped to answer.

He knew that his face was contorted in horror, yet Erza's questions didn't stop. He turned to Levy for help, only to find the blue-haired girl's face redder than Erza's hair. "I also have s-s-some que-ques-questions!" she managed to stammer out. "I read some of Erza's books—on accident, I swear. They just fell open and I caught some of the words and pictures and got curious and—" she continued talking, but Kuzan had already checked out. This was too much for him. He needed a scapego—expert.

Fortunately, he knew just the person.

Ur opened her door and was surprised to see Kuzan, and Erza and Levy holding a pile of books each. "Kuzan? It's seven o'clock. Shouldn't you be in bed by now?" she teased.

"Hilarious," Kuzan dryly said, suddenly a lot less guilty about his solution than he was a ten seconds okay. "You remember how we said that I'd talk to your boys about puberty and you'd talk to my girls about it?"

"…Yes?" Ur hesitantly answered. Her eyes narrowed at Kuzan suspiciously. That would explain why Levy was here, but Erza too? Something was fishy. "…Why?"

"Because this is your problem then," he claimed while pushing the two girls forward. As soon as they passed her doorway, Kuzan immediately used Soru to retreat back to his house. If he packed fast enough he could make it to the guild, grab a quick job that would take him far away for a while, and be gone before Ur managed to distract the girls long enough to kill him.

'Well that was fucking ominous,' Ur thought. But whatever, it couldn't be too bad. She had already given The Talk once, one more time wouldn't kill her.

Erza held up a book and pointed to a picture on one of the pages. "Is this physically possible, and if so, why would they have sex like that? It seems physically straining and impractical.

Ur took one look at the picture and blanched. Where the fuck did Erza get a picture of that? Who the fuck sold her this book?! She took a glance at the pile of books both girls were carrying and decided that Kuzan needed to die.

Then Levy spoke up. "Why would someone put another person's genitals in their mouth?"

Kuzan needed to die slowly.

Then Gray, Droy, and Jet walked out to see what the commotion was and Erza started showing them her books and Ur felt a migraine form.

Kuzan needed to suffer before dying slowly.

A/N: This chapter may be over 10k words, but with how many times I ended up rewriting sections it should really be 20k. I just could not get it to flow right. In other news, Mira is now an S-Class mage and there's only three more chapters until we get to the start of canon. I know that I made the claim that there were only four chapters to go three chapters ago, but this time I'm serious. I have it all planned out. Next chapter is Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe, then The Beast and Mystogan, and finally a transition chapter that will cover several important points before we get into the canon timeline.

In other news, this fic got over 1K+ Favorites and Follows! That's crazy to me. I mean, I couldn't get a fucking Naruto crossover over 1K for Favorites or Follows (I tried. Twice!) and yet, this story managed to do it. I'm not going to lie, when the idea was first pitched to me, I thought it was cool, but wouldn't end up really getting any traction. Kuzan seemed like a niche character to me and I'd have to come up with most of the plot between Ice Trail and canon's start myself (something that I didn't exactly have a great track record with in other fics—or much confidence in my ability to do well—at the time), combined with my other OPxFT crossover having only a minor following at the time, I figured that this would be a nice story to dork around with whenever I was bored or had writer's block. But instead, you all made it the third most popular fic in the category (based on Favorites)! It even got a recommendation on TV Tropes! I can't tell you how excited I was when both those things happened. I just want to thank you all for your support. It really means a lot to me to know that over a thousand people find something that I write for fun and started on a whim enjoyable. I've got three goals for this fic now.

1. Become the most favorited fic in the category.

2. Complete the fic, no matter how long it takes me. And not in a cop-out time skip to the end.

3. Write it well enough that it gets a TV Tropes page.

Those are always my top goals when I write a fic, but I really feel like I can pull it off with this one. So, thanks again for all the support and sorry for the long Author's Note. As always, PM me if you have any questions that you want answered. Until next time, later.