"speaking"
"thinking"
On with the story
The Elimination round of the Crocus Magic Competition had begun as Natsu and the team were heading to the front cart of the train
Natsu leads forward as he punches some participants that tried to attack them before everyone rush forward
"is it just me or is this looking way too easy!?" Mira exclaimed as they run to the front cart while Natsu took out anyone who tried to attack them
"the number of teams left must be getting low! It's just elimination against each other!" Erza exclaimed before everyone froze as their legs weren't moving from the spot
"what is this!?" Mira exclaimed as they were all sinking in some sort of sand trap
"quicksand!? In a train?!" Lucy exclaimed
"must be someone's magic!" Erza exclaimed trying to get out
Natsu looks at the quicksand as his eyes glowed red
"my my" Minerva said as she snapped her fingers and they all disappeared and reappeared away from the quicksand
"what just happened?" Lucy said bewildered
"be grateful" Minerva said with a smirk
"Territory, huh? Never knew that you cared, Minerva" Erza said looking at Minerva who scoffed
"I'm merely holding the end of my bargain with Dragneel, if I let you pathetic fools lose because of sinking in sand, I won't get my deal with him" Minerva said smirking
"I'm really hating this girl" Mira said gritting her teeth while having several tick marks on her forehead
"keep moving" Natsu said as he slides the door open and walked to the next cart
"you heard him, Strauss." Minerva said as she smirks at her "move"
"oh how I wish I can get to knock this stupid bitch!" Mira huffs before she followed Natsu with the others
Minerva chuckles as she followed behind
Reaching to the very front cart, Natsu and the others walked in and finds several teams with them
"ho? Seems like Belserion High finally decided to join" Lyon said as his team was already in
"why am I not surprised?" Kagura said smiling a bit
"my my my, it seems that we were late in introduction" a voice spoke as three men in suits posed in front of Natsu and the others "it has been a while"
"Hibiki~!" "Ren~!" "Eve~!" the three men posed as sparkles rain down them "Pegasus High, Trimens at your service~!"
"great, it's the three idiots" Mira said facepalming and sigh
"out of all the people" Kagura said looking annoyed "couldn't they send other people? Is that too much to ask?"
"who are they?" Natsu said not knowing the three
"they're from Pegasus High, their school is famous for many Celebrity mage graduates" Lucy explained to him in a whisper
"Meeen~" a husky voice spoke out as Erza's face went pale and she shivered
"oh please no" Erza said as a small man with a distinctively big, somewhat rectangular face, a large flat nose which always seems to be shining, and was wearing a white suit "not him"
"Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki!" the small man exclaimed while spinning with sparkles raining around him "at your service, ladies!"
"Ichiya-sama Banzai!" the three men exclaimed while throwing confetti
"the bigger idiot came with the three idiots" Mira said sighing and looks annoyed "why? Just why?"
"it has been long ladies, faring well~? Meen~" Ichiya said as Erza and the others backed away and hides behind Natsu "and who you might be?"
"Natsu Dragneel, Belserion High" Natsu said as Ichiya's eyes keened on him
"you must be the famous Salamander then" Ichiya said "there's many rumors of you spreading in Magnolia"
"that Salamander, huh? He doesn't seem that strong" Ren said looking at Natsu
"and he looks weird too" Eve added in
"our chance of winning the competition has increased to 45%" Hibiki said "such a man is not best for Mira-san and the others"
"seems like they know you three very well, do you guys hate them or something?" Lucy said as Mira and the others got tick marks
"we really hate these idiots!" Erza and the others exclaimed
"hey hey, quiet down" a voice spoke as everyone looks to the side
By a seat was another school team as the one who spoke was a rather large muscular man with blonde hair and a scar over his right eye
"some of us are trying to sleep here" the blonde man said
"Laxus!? You're joining this year's competition!?" Mira exclaimed in surprise
"who?" Natsu asked
"you fool! You do not know of Laxus!?" a green haired man exclaimed while holding a rapier and pointed it at Natsu "you deserve a thousand deaths!"
"just stop, Freed" Laxus said to the green haired man "can't blame the guy for not knowing other schools"
"but!" Freed retorted as Laxus looks at him
"just sit down" Laxus said as Freed looks at Laxus before sheathing his rapier and sat down
Laxus sighs before looking at Mira "mind giving him the info?"
"he's Laxus Dreyar, the Thunder Dragon of Fairy Tail High. They say that he took down 100 opponents with a single thunder attack" Mira said as Natsu looks at him, amused
"Thunder Dragon, huh?" Natsu said with a small smirk
"you're from the squirt's school, huh?" another man with black hair and iron piercings around his face said while looking annoyed "a guy enter her school, this why i should've gone to her school instead"
"ah! You're Gajeel Redfox!" Lucy exclaimed while pointing a finger at him
"you know him too?" Kagura asked as Lucy nodded
"who doesn't?! Fairy Tail High's Iron Dragon and the leader of the Iron Bolt gang!" Lucy exclaimed "And he's Levy-chan's boyfriend!"
"hey! The squirt is my girlfriend! Get it right!" Gajeel barked at her
"what's the difference?" Kagura said sweatdropping
"hey hey hey! don't forget the introduction from the Wild ones here!" someone shouted as everyone looks behind them and sees a man looking drunk walking in "Wild!"
"Four!" the four men behind him howled out as the man in front grins
"Bacchus, figures you'd joined too" Erza said keening her eyes at him
"yo, Erza! Looking like a beauty like last year!" Bacchus exclaimed with a grin before drinking a bottle of beer
"who's he?" Natsu asked as Kagura answered him
"Bacchus Groh, a mage from Cerberus High, aliased as the Drunken Hawk. Like the name suggest he loves to drink" Kagura told Natsu as Bacchus laughs drunk
"he's like Cana" Lucy whispered as Natsu nodded
"but never underestimate him, last year Erza got into a stalemate of power against him" Kagura added in as her eyes keened at Bacchus
"Erza?!" Lucy said looking to Erza who nodded
"he's not someone to ever underestimate" Erza added in
"now that we all know each other. Better settle down with the others, we're going need to sleep after all" Laxus said leaning against his seat "better raise up some stamina"
"fill me in on the rest of them" Natsu whispered to Erza who nodded before they went off to their seats
The whole ride was nearly quiet as each team sat at their seat row together
"Fairy Tail High, Lamia High, Pegasus High, and Cerberus High" Natsu muttered out as he got info on the other teams with them "are these the team that got through?"
"not all of them, there's still a few more" Mira said as she points to the far end of the cart where there was a team, who had a negative black atmosphere with them "Raven High"
"if there's a team that we got to be careful, is them" Kagura added in
"why?" Lucy asked as she looks to the said team before looking away when one of Raven Team member stared at her creepily "c-creepy!"
"that school is rivals with Fairy High, but they are the enemy to other schools" Mira stated in "don't ever get in contact with them in anyway"
"that's not the gist of it" Erza stated in "they are last year's top 3 and not to be underestimated at all"
"they must be really strong" Lucy stated before the cart back door open and two more teams comes in
"Nyaaa! We made it!" a girl with cat ears exclaimed tiredly before walking in with the other team following
As the cat girl walk to their seat, she spotted Erza and Kagura which made her eyes sparkle in delight
"Nyaaa! Kagura-chan and Er-chan!" she squealed while lunging at the two and hugs them
"Milliana!" Erza exclaimed with a smile before hugging the cat girl "it's been so long!"
"Nyaaa! It's been long long long!" Milliana exclaimed while hugging Erza and rubs their cheeks together before to Kagura "Kagura-chan!"
"long time no see, Milliana" Kagura said with a smile as she hugs Milliana while smiling
"friends?" Natsu asked as Erza and Kagura asked
"since kindergarden, we hang out sometimes but that was a year ago" Kagura said as Millianna rubs her cheeks with hers "she's a very good and best friend"
"how's Simon!? Is he doing fine?" Milliana asked as Kagura nodded "Nyaa! I miss you guys!"
Milliana soon looks at Natsu and Lucy while confused
"who are you?" Milliana asked with a question mark appearing above her head
"let me" Erza said "he's Natsu Dragneel and she's Lucy Heartifillia"
"nice to meet you!" Lucy said with a smile while reaching a hand out to Milliana who shakes it really fast while Natsu nods
"nyaaa! Nice to meet you, Nyaa!" Milliana exclaimed with a smile before she looks at Milliana and her face went fierce "Nyaaa! It's you!"
"oya?" Minerva said looking at the cat girl amused "if it's not the little kitten, come for another playtime?"
"Hissss! Nyaaau!" Milliana hissed like a cat as she did an angry cat stand
"What's with that?" Lucy asked while sweatdropping
"she and Minerva….has a bad history with each other" Kagura said with an awkward smile
"is she in the competition too?" Natsu asked as Erza nodded
"they're from Mermaid high, an all girls school like ours before, and we are really good friends with each other school" Erza said before introducing Milliana's team
"name's Risley! You can call me Ris!" "Arana Web, pleasure to meet you" "B-Beth Caw! Nice to meet you!" "Rana and Lana!" the group introduced themselves as Natsu and Lucy shakes their hands
"it feels nice having a good school team friends" Mira said with a grin
"and who are they?" Natsu asked pointing at the other team
"they're Saber High, last year's number one winner" Mira said looking at the school team and as she said Saber High, Minerva's eyes looks to the team "Minerva used to be from their school"
"really?" Lucy asked before looking to Minerva who glared at her "s-sorry!"
"keep quiet" Minerva said laying her chin on her hand "I'm going to sleep"
"cranky as always" Erza said "but she's right, we need to sleep and rest our body"
"way ahead of you" Mira said taking out a neck pillow from her bag before putting it on "night"
"yeah" Kagura said leaning against the window
Erza was about to close her eyes, but stopped to look at Natsu who looks at the competition rule book
"aren't you going to sleep?" Erza asked while Lucy and the others slowly fall asleep
"in a moment" Natsu said while reading the rule book as he flipped the page "I need to read the rules first"
"alright then" Erza said before closing her eyes and leans against the chair to sleep
Natsu flips the page around before he closed the book and glance at the side when he sensed something near him
His eyes see a shadow looming around as he could tell that it was Sayla
"you followed me, huh?" Natsu thought as his eyes glowed red and the shadow disappeared
Natsu went back to reading as the train rushes on the rails, heading for Crocus
That's a wrap!
Bye bye
