A/N: Happy St. Patrick's Day, people! I am here with a holiday chapter that I sincerely hope you enjoy, because, yes, I am adapting the Phoenix Priestess movie into the main timeline. I considered making it an alternate timeline spin-off story where Gorun and some members of the Time Patrol set out to correct a time breaker's meddling, but I liked the idea of having the events in the film being added to the main story better. Perhaps I'll do that for the Dragon Cry movie...? (Hint hint, wink wink.)

My wife and I have posted our response video to your reviews for the last four chapters on my YouTube channel, and I know that some of you have seen it. However, I'm reasonably confident that some others have not, and so I encourage you to do so, because it gives us a chance to be more personable in our responses to your questions, comments, and concerns (like an explanation for why Gruvia isn't happening in this story). We also give out hints for upcoming chapters and plot devices (and the occasional concept art piece) that I think a lot of you would enjoy.

In any case, enjoy this chapter, in which we finally see Golden Tail in action! If you've seen the film, I hope you like the changes I've made. If you haven't seen it, then get ready for a fresh adventure!

OP Song: Period (cover by Amanda Lee)

Rival Arc: Chapter 1

Éclair

"All right, let's do this!" Romeo shouted with his fist pumped up high in the air. His teammates laughed good-naturedly at his exuberance, at which he gave them all a big grin.

His excitement was only to be expected- it was his first time going on such a high-level job, and with a newly formed team, no less. Son Gorun, the Super Saiyan whose power was quickly becoming legendary throughout the land of Fiore was the leader of their troupe. Yukino, a former elite wizard of the Sabertooth guild, was packing the celestial power of three zodiac spirits. Kinana, a part-time barmaid, and Gorun's girlfriend, was the third member of the Golden Tail team. Lastly was Romeo, the youngest member, but quite talented with his fire magic.

Their task today was to confront a gang that had more or less taken over the port town Negura, and more importantly, capture their leader, a slippery wizard known only as 'Geese'.

"Remember, this is the first time in a while that our guild has been invited to this town for a job, so let's try to keep collateral damage to a minimum," Gorun reminded them. "Stay in your pairs, meet at the mayor's office when the dust has settled if we get separated." Before arriving in town, their leader had insisted that they remain at least in groups of two for safety's sake. The pairs were Romeo with Gorun, and Yukino with Kinana.

The other three had been a little surprised with their leader's decision, as they all had expected him to pair himself with his girlfriend. He had shook his head and replied, "Much as I would like that, I'm going to keep the pairings random for the most part whenever we go on a mission. I want us to be able to work well together, no matter how we're matched up. Fluid teamwork is essential in potential life-and-death situations."

After that, the others had accepted his decision with equanimity. Now, they were ready to kick butt and take names.

"So what's the game plan?" Romeo asked eagerly. The group was standing in front of the docks where the ship that had brought them to town was setting anchor and being tied down by her crew. The town itself was built on an upward slant, running up the side of a small mountain that bordered the ocean.

"We need to draw them out in as many numbers as we can," Gorun replied. "Make enough noise that Geese will have to notice."

"You want to confront him while all of his men are there to back him up?" Yukino asked with a frown. "That seems risky."

"Romeo and I can handle the grunts with little trouble," their leader grinned as he gave his partner a fist bump. "I did my homework on these guys. They rule mostly by sheer numbers, not because of any particular skill or high power levels. And I seriously doubt that Geese will try any fighting himself."

"Why's that?" Kinana inquired.

"His profile labels him as a coward," Gorun shrugged. "His magic lets him flatten his entire body to the thickness of a paper sheet. Makes trapping him difficult for the regular authorities, but it's not a magic that'll let you do any real fighting. More than likely, he'll try to make an escape while we're engaged in a brawl."

"What if we miss him, then?" Yukino asked.

In response, Gorun turned to his girlfriend and asked, "How's your energy-sensing coming along?"

"It's nowhere near your skill, but I think I can find him, especially if he's distancing himself from the others," she answered, seeing where he was going. "I'm guessing that you want me and Yukino to act as support until it's time to grab him?"

"Yep," the Saiyan nodded. "I recommend hitting him with a solar flare to disorient him before you go in for the capture. Contract wants him alive, so I don't want you taking any risks of anything going wrong if you can help it."

"Understood," she nodded grimly.

"Yukino, you and your spirits keep any potential backup off of her," Gorun said to the silver-haired girl. "Got it?"

"Yes sir," she answered.

"And Romeo?" he added, turning to his young comrade.

"Yeah?"

"Try not to pull a Natsu," Gorun said with a large smile, which Romeo returned.

"I'll do my best," he answered.

"All I ask. Now, let's go cook us a goose!" Everyone else groaned as they began jogging up the hill, toward the main part of town.

It had been a couple of minutes when Romeo noticed that everything around them was too quiet. There were no children playing in the streets, no women moving about the marketplace, seeking goods for their homes. There wasn't even any sounds coming from the homes themselves.

"Anyone else think it's too quiet around here?" he asked with a frown.

"Nah," Gorun smirked. "That's just the sound of a bunch of thugs thinking that they've got a good ambush going."

"Eh?!" Romeo and Yukino yelped.

"We've been sensing them hiding inside the houses for the last couple of blocks," Kinana informed them. "We're waiting for them to make a move first."

"Any second now…" Gorun said he held up a hand for the others to stop where they were. No sooner than they had did several dozen criminals burst out of the buildings surrounding them, all of them armed and grinning evilly as they cat-called and taunted the group of wizards.

"I suggest not going above two," Gorun muttered to Kinana, who nodded as she understood his meaning. They both used an amplification spell called the Kaioken, which made their energy more difficult to use with precision the more they pushed it. Since they wanted to avoid damaging the town excessively, they would have to limit its use.

In a louder tone, Gorun said, "Oh no, they caught us… what ever will we do?"

"You got a smart mouth, kid," one of the bigger men said as he stepped forward, wielding a large sword. "Let's see if you're so smart when I cut out your tongue!" Raising his sword high, he brought it back down with great force, aiming to split Gorun down the middle.

However, as soon as the blade made contact with him, the boy willed his energy to flare up sharply so that the blade merely shattered against his forehead. The thief stared at his broken weapon, then at Gorun, dumbstruck.

"I accept your surrender," he said with a cheery smile, right before he slapped his attacker in the gut. The bigger man groaned as the air emptied from his lungs and he collapsed in the cobbled stones of the street. Looking up from him, Gorun noticed that all of the other bandits looked decidedly nervous. Maybe we can get this done without a fight, he thought briefly.

"Attention, sewer rats," he announced loudly, making sure that all of them could hear him. "I am Son Gorun of Fairy Tail. You probably saw me compete in the Grand Magic Games, or at least heard about how I bested Jura Neekos, the Wizard Saint. These here are my teammates, come to collect the bounty on your boss' head. Fight us if you want, but do so at the risk of your own health. Turn him over, and I promise that you'll be well-treated by your jailers."

"Like hell we're goin' to jail!" another man shouted, aiming a magic rifle at the boy.

"Hard way it is," Gorun smirked as he took a fighting stance, his comrades doing the same behind him. "Good. Makes this way more fun. Let 'em have it, guys!"

"Kaioken!" Kinana shouted, a red aura bursting to life around her almost instantly.

"Open! Gate of the Balance: Libra!" Yukino cried, holding the corresponding key above her head. A portal opened before her, and out came the olive-skinned spirit that held the power to alter gravity.

"Cold Flame, scattered shot!" Romeo yelled, holding a blue fireball above his head that he threw forward, splitting it into four individual bolts that struck several men, freezing them where they stood, much to their surprise.

"Nice work!" Gorun said, impressed by his partner's preemptive strike. "Now let's move it!" So saying, he dove into the fray, smashing his fists into anyone who came too close, and blasting those that tried to run with bursts of etherion.

"Libra, pin them down with a gravity change!" Yukino ordered.

"As you wish, my lady," the spirit replied, immediately going to work at pinning at least a dozen men with enough gravitational force to knock them unconscious.

"Kikoho!" Kinana shouted as three men approached her, intent on grabbing her up and hauling her away for slave trade. The crushing energy burst slammed them into the side of a house, cracking the walls a bit, but doing no major damage to the structure.

"Split up!" Gorun ordered as he noticed a half-dozen men making an escape down one of the many alleyways off the main street. "Yukino, Kinana, go after them! Romeo and I can take these losers!" The two girls nodded and took off after the runaways, Kinana pulling ahead a bit due to her ability to fly.

"You're gonna regret that, you-!"

"Double Sunday!" Twin lasers flew from Gorun's hands, blasting two of the men trying to rush him.

"Here comes a big one!" Romeo grinned as he leaped over to be back-to-back with his leader. "Scorching Masenko!" A concentrated beam of fire leaped out of his hands as he held them above his head, then threw them forward. A small explosion torched yet another group of villains as they tried to attack the younger wizard, leaving them a smoking mess on the street. Fortunately, since the road was mostly made of stone, there was little damage done.

Gorun was mostly using his martial arts to take down the enemies that came at him, all too aware that a stray energy blast could level a house if he wasn't careful. Even still, he moved so fast and struck so hard that it was impossible for any of the thugs to block more than one of his attacks.

"Geez, how many of these guys are there?" Romeo grunted as he used a purple fire whip to grab a man by the face and smack him into his comrade.

"Not too many," Gorun replied. "I just hope the girls are getting close to finding Geese. Drawback to this plan is the more time we spend fighting, the more time he has to get away."

"You could've just hit 'em with a Kamehameha and finished this up way sooner," his young partner muttered as he leaped up high and slammed another bandit with a pyro blast that left him out cold.

"Not without blowing away the entire block," Gorun grunted as he axe-kicked a beefy wizard with a stone gauntlet. "Besides, worse comes to worst, I'll just try and get a lock on his energy signature and nab him with instant transmission."

"Got it," Romeo replied as he torched the last man that had tried to run away. "I think that's all of 'em."

"Goodie," Gorun said cheerfully. "Now…" He grabbed up the nearest conscious grunt and held him up by his collar so that they were eye-to-eye. "Where's your boss?" he demanded, his joking manner gone in an instant. He held up a ki ball to punctuate his words.

"I ain't talking," the man spat.

"Translation- he doesn't know," Gorun sighed as he casually tossed him into the street hard enough to crack some of the stone pavement and render his victim insensate. Moving on to the next man, he asked, "How about you? Are you useful?"

"Go to hell," the bandit grunted as he tried to scramble away.

"I'll send you there first, and with company if you don't tell me what I want to know," Gorun said with narrowed eyes as he took in the thug's appearance. He was better dressed than most of them, and he had a chunky gold ring on one hand- not something one would expect a lowly grunt to have. "You look like one of the higher-ups in this sorry bunch, so don't play dumb. You know something."

"Want me to shove a dragon fart flame up his nose?" Romeo grinned savagely as he approached, conjuring a foul-smelling green fireball as he did.

"You heard him, and judging how strong that smell is from here, I wouldn't want it anywhere near my face," Gorun remarked.

"I ain't got anything to tell you," the bandit snarled.

"Now you're just lying," Gorun sighed in annoyance. "I'm only going to ask you one more time before I get angry. And trust me when I say you don't want to see that."

"You really don't, he's terrifying," Romeo nodded emphatically as he allowed the flame to dissipate while he backed up a few paces. "Quick reminder- he's the guy that wasted Minerva from Sabertooth." They saw the man's gaze flicker with uncertainty, but he shook his head in the negative and clamped his mouth shut.

Gorun shrugged and drew his fist back, activating the Kaioken five times over without a word, a raging red aura enveloping him instantly. Just as he was about to throw the punch, a voice got his attention from a nearby rooftop.

"Gorun, we found him!" Kinana shouted as she flew over the town, her eyes fixed on the alleyways bellow her. "Yukino and Pisces are trying to corner him!"

"Saved by the bell," Romeo grinned at the bandit they had captured, who looked decidedly relieved.

"Not quite," Gorun said as he glanced back at the thug, annoyed. Grabbing him with both hands, he swung him round and around a few times at high speed before letting go, effectively slinging him up, over the town, and then down into the ocean some miles out.

"Did'ja have to do that?" Romeo asked as they began running after the girls, Gorun releasing the Kaioken as they did.

"No, but it was really satisfying," the older boy grinned.

"Geese, just make things easier on all of us and surrender!" Yukino called after the purple-haired, large-nosed man she and her celestial spirits were chasing.

"Sorry miss, I got better things to do than sit in a prison cell!" he laughed back at her. He was about to turn down a narrow alley where the wizard and her monsters wouldn't be able to follow when a laser blast shot down in front of him, causing him to skid to a stop and look upward.

Floating just above the rooftops was an attractive purple-haired girl, her palms aimed at him, a small yellow magic circle hovering in front of her fingertips. "Make another move to escape, and I'll have to blast you," she called down, looking grim. "I don't want to do it, but I will."

"Not to mention that if she doesn't, I certainly will," a boy in a green and blue martial arts uniform added as he leaped into view, followed by a younger boy in a red vest. "What's it going to be, Geese? We've already taken care of all your goons, so there's no backup on the way. And I know you don't have any combat experience, except maybe the odd round of fisticuffs."

Geese weighed his options for a moment. He knew who kid dressed in the gi was from lachryma recordings of the Grand Magic Games, and so knew that he stood no chance of beating him in a direct fight, and his chances of escaping his blinding speed were next to nil. He also recognized Kinana and Yukino from the games, though with less distinction than their leader. He knew there was only one option left where he didn't end up a mass of bruises in a cell.

"All right," he said with a loud sigh. "You win. I'll go quietly." He knew he could always escape a prison cell at a later date, even without his magic. Geese was a crook, but he was a very smart one. He knew his limits and how to work around them when he needed to, just like how he was doing now.

"Excellent choice," Gorun grinned as he leaped down from the rooftop, followed swiftly by Romeo. "Mind tying him up, pal?"

"Sure thing, boss," the fire wizard grinned as he fashioned a rope of purple fire that he used to bind the gang leader's hands with.

"Nice trick, kid," Geese grinned at him. "Doesn't even burn, but I'm guessin' that can change if I try anything funny, right?"

"That's right," the boy answered before turning to his leader. "What now?"

"We haul him and his crew up to the town hall, where they've got cells for guys like him," Gorun answered. "Keep an eye on him while we gather up the rest of his gang. If he tries anything, hit him with a Masenko."

"Yes sir!"

"I have to admit, I'm impressed," the mayor said as he paced back and forth in his office. "You got most of those crooks behind bars, and you brought in their leader."

"That was the terms of the contract, sir," Gorun replied. "We do our best to uphold the agreements we've made." The other members of his team were standing a little bit behind him while the two of them discussed Golden Tail's success.

"Yes, yes…" the older man nodded distractedly. "Honestly, when I sent out a request for Fairy Tail to handle this, I expected a lot more… well…"

"Destruction, mostly of the explosive variety?" Gorun asked with a thin smile. He didn't like it much when people besmirched his guild's name.

"Yeah, something like that," the mayor admitted.

"I think we'll take our payment and go," Gorun said firmly. "One million jewels for bringing in Geese, alive." His tone brooked no further small talk.

"Yeah, I get it," the mayor grumbled as he went to reach for something inside his desk. Something about the way he moved so reluctantly had the Saiyan boy thinking that perhaps this man had wanted them to fail, so he wouldn't have to dish out the reward that was promised. However, the thought became moot as the mayor handed him a small chest, which he opened to show them the contents.

"One million jewels, as promised," he announced. "Thank you for helping protect my town, Fairy Tail."

At least he sounded grateful to that end, Gorun thought as he accepted the reward with a cursory, "Thank you."

The train ride home was a relaxed trip, with Gorun deciding to treat his team to first-class seating. They ate and drank well while enjoying a smooth ride, laughing and talking the whole time.

At one point, Romeo asked, "So, how are splitting up the goods?"

"Already thought of that," Gorun answered with a grin. "I'm thinking twenty percent of what we make on each job is a good number, since ten percent has to go to the guild."

"What about the leftover ten percent?" Yukino asked curiously. "Do you have something in mind for that?"

"Matter of fact, I do," Gorun nodded. "I wasn't going to do this without talking to you all first, but I'm thinking of opening a joint bank account for our team. The leftover ten percent can go into that."

"Why do we need a joint savings?" Romeo inquired, a little perplexed by the thought.

"We don't need one," Gorun admitted. "But I'm thinking it would be nice to have some money set aside for our team's expenses. You know, travel fees, equipment, medical bills, et cetera. Instead of dipping into our own pockets for all that stuff, it'd be nice to have an egg nest all ready to go for that."

"I like the idea," Kinana said. "It makes sense to me."

"I agree," Yukino nodded. "It would be nice to know that the money I get from each job is mine, and not have to worry about travelling expenses and the like."

"I guess it makes sense," Romeo admitted. "But you said something about equipment? What kind of equipment would a group of wizards need?"

"Well, say we came across a silver celestial key," Gorun replied quickly. "Instead of Yukino spending her own money, we could just use the money we've got in the joint account. Or if you wanted to expand on your fire magic studies, we could buy you a book with that money. See what I'm getting at now?"

"Yeah," the younger wizard nodded emphatically. "I can get behind that."

"All right, then it's settled," Gorun said with a smile as he leaned back in his seat. "Soon as we get back to Magnolia, let's stop by the bank to get that done. Then we can catch up with the others at the guild hall."

"Hold on a second," Yukino frowned as a thought occurred to her. "Where is the money for this trip coming from? The joint savings?"

"Nah, this one's my treat," Gorun grinned. "Just don't always expect this kind of treatment. I figured since it was our first job together, you all could do with a reward for doing so well."

"Thanks, man," Romeo said with a big grin. "I'll bet not even Natsu's team travels this well!"

"I would agree, though I think that would have more to do with the Salamander's motion sickness than anything," Yukino giggled.

They arrived back in Magnolia at about noon the following day. They quickly took care of their affairs at the bank, depositing their shares into their own accounts, and then creating the new one for their team, which took a little while. Romeo was snickering as he told Gorun that this one job earned him more money than his dad made in a month on average.

"Make sure you use it wisely," the Saiyan hybrid told his young friend. "Sooner than you think, you'll be a man in your own right, and you'll want your independence. That'll require no small amount of discipline, believe me."

"Got it, I won't waste the cash," Romeo said with a small roll of his eyes. "I'm not a little kid, you know. You've only got five years on me, matter of fact."

"I know," Gorun chuckled. "But it's best to learn from others whenever you can, you know? I was your age, not too long ago as you pointed out, and I know my first impulse would be to go out and buy all the cool stuff I've been looking at in the shops."

"Well, I mean… there is a lachryma-vision I've been wanting for my room," the boy admitted. "It's been outside of dad and my price range the way he'd been getting work before the games, but now I could buy it on my own."

"If that's what you really want, I'm not the one to tell you not to get it," Gorun told him with an understanding smile. "I can only tell you what I think, and let you decide what to do with that."

"Thanks, Gorun," the boy said. "I do appreciate that."

"Anytime, pal."

"Hey, Gorun, Romeo!" Wakaba called as the new team entered the guild hall. "How was the job? Did'ja get the guy?" Macao turned around to wave at his son as he approached their table. Yukino and Kinana made their way over to a table where Levy, Lisanna, and Bisca were talking over a late lunch.

"You bet we did," the team leader nodded cheerfully. "Romeo here has quite the talent with his fire- he was a big help in keeping Geese contained until we handed him off to the authorities."

"Well, I'll be," Macao said as he gave his son a hug. "I'm proud of you, Romeo."

"Thanks, Dad."

"Excuse me, gentlemen, but I need to go see Master," Gorun said apologetically. "Do you know where he's at?"

"Makarov had to go to some big meeting with all the Wizard Saints and the Magic Council," Macao replied. "He left yesterday, didn't really say when he'd be back."

"Oh," Gorun said with a frown. "Who handles the finances when he's out, then?"

"That'd be Mirajane," Wakaba informed him.

"Got it, thanks," Gorun said appreciatively. Clapping Romeo on the back, he said, "Let's take a day off tomorrow, yeah? I'd say we've earned it."

"Thanks, but I might take a smaller job that's here in town," Romeo replied. "I'm still all fired up from our success in Negura."

Gorun chuckled and said, "All right, just don't exhaust yourself. I need my team in top shape for our next group project."

He found Mirajane at the bar and gave her the remaining money from the job to put into the guild's safe. Once that was done, he turned to Elfman, who was sitting on a stool next to his, and asked, "How're the jobs coming along, big guy?"

"Pretty good," the massive takeover wizard grinned. "A real man doesn't stop 'till he drops, so I've been pretty busy. I'd heard you took some time off, so I was gonna get on you about that. Then Kinana mentioned that you'd actually been busy buying a house and fixing it up. That's pretty manly, thinking about your future and making a home with your own two hands!"

"Thanks," Gorun chuckled.

"I heard it's got a great view," Mirajane remarked. "Will we ever get to see it?"

"Inviting yourself is kinda rude, isn't it?" the boy pointed out, though he maintained his smile.

"Can't blame a girl for being curious," the white-haired young woman grinned back. "If you'd like, you can have dinner at our house sometime so we can call it even."

"That's all right, I was kidding," Gorun laughed. "I'd love to have you two and Lisanna over for dinner one of these days. When works for you guys?" He liked the Strauss siblings, and this seemed as good an opportunity as any to get to know them better.

"Sound like a plan?" Gorun asked, having explained the idea to Kinana and Lisanna.

"Yeah, I'd love to," the white-haired sibling of Mira and Elfman nodded with a bright smile. "I can see if Mira and I can bring anything in the way of dessert."

"Of course I'd like to join you and the Strauss'," Kinana replied. "What time should I be there to help you get dinner ready?"

"I was thinking dinner around seven, so maybe five-thirty?" Gorun requested. "I appreciate you helping me out."

"Always," the purple-haired girl smiled at him. "Besides, we can't have people getting food poisoning the first time you have guests over for dinner. No one would want to visit you after that."

"Ouch," Gorun said with mock injury. "I dunno what I did to deserve that one."

"You liked the Spirit World cooking better than mine," she sniffed with a smug grin. "You totally earned it."

"Wha-?! I never said I liked it better!"

"You didn't have to- you were too busy stuffing your face to speak, anyway," she giggled at him.

"I wasn't the only one!"

"That makes it better?" she asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"…No?" he replied carefully.

"Took too long to answer," she grinned. "You lied."

"That's not fair!" he cried.

"What's not fair?" a new voice asked.

"Gray!" Gorun said with a large smile as he got up and turned to shake hands with his friend. "How are you? Haven't seen you since the day after… uh, that thing. You still looked kind of down, then."

"I'm doin' better, thanks for asking," the icy wizard replied as he sat down at the table, across from Gorun. "Anyone seen Juvia since all that?"

"I've been out of town the last couple of days," Gorun shrugged. "I haven't see her, though I know Lucy went to check on her."

"I haven't seen her come in since then," Lisanna said with a concerned expression. "I'm worried about her." Gorun recalled that Juvia had been Lisanna's partner for the Tenrou S-class trials, which would explain her evident concern for the rain woman.

"Well, she did just have her heart broken- no offense, Gray," Kinana pointed out.

"None taken."

"That's not something you shake off in a day or two," the purple-haired girl continued. "I'm sure she'll be back in her own time."

"She hasn't been stalking you, has she?" Gorun asked his friend.

"Nah, I've learned to tell whenever she's doing that, more or less," Gray shrugged. "I haven't noticed anything, and I've been paying attention."

"Well, just as long as she isn't about to murder you so no one else gets you, or something like that," Gorun shrugged.

"I'd be more worried about you, man," the ice-make wizard pointed out. "She made it pretty clear that she thinks you're the one to blame for me pushing her away."

"I mean… I guess that's technically true," the other boy winced. "I did tell you to be more direct with her… So, scale of one to ten, how screwed am I?"

"Thirty-eight," Gray chuckled.

"Why am I the whipping dog today?" his friend groaned.

"Reap what you sow, Gorun," Kinana said as she patted his hand affectionately. "Reap what you sow."

The other members of Team Natsu, minus Lucy, came in shortly after Gray did, looking to take a job with some bigger rewards. Erza greeted Gorun in passing, but was quick to head up to the second floor, where the S-class jobs were posted.

As she left, Gorun called after her, "I saw a job for clearing out a colony of some kind of centipede-type monsters a couple days ago- two million jewel reward. Might be worth checking out if it's still there." As an S-class mage, he was privy to the most dangerous- and lucrative- jobs available, just like Laxus, Mirajane, Gildarts, and Erza.

"I'll do that, thanks," she said with a smile as she headed up the stairs.

"I can't see Lucy or Wendy doing very well with that," Kinana pointed out.

"Well, I would've signed us up for it, but I figured we should start Romeo off with something a little easier," Gorun shrugged. "Plus, they have a few more members than we do, so they need jobs with a little more in the way of rewards."

"Thanks for the thought," Gray said with an appreciative smile. "I'm good on money right now, but I know Lucy worries about her rent all the time, so she could do with that kinda cash."

"Hold on, isn't that her coming in now?" Yukino asked, looking toward the entrance to the guild hall, and causing the others to turn around and do the same.

"Who's that with her?" Gray asked as he noticed that there was someone leaning heavily on the blond girl.

"Can I get a hand here?!" Lucy grunted as she came into the building. "I'm not built for this kind of stuff!"

"Coming!" Gorun called back as he leaped out of his seat and landed next to his comrade. "Here, I got her," he added as he could now see that it was an unconscious young woman that Lucy was carrying. He reached over and slipped the insensate woman's right arm around his shoulders and took the burden from Lucy, who sighed with relief.

"You know her?" he asked as he studied the girl.

"Never seen her before today," Lucy answered. "I was on my way home when she collapsed on the street. I didn't know what was wrong with her, so I decided to bring her here."

The woman was young, as Gorun had noticed before, no older than himself. She was remarkably beautiful, with long brown hair that fell well past her waistline, which she kept tied back. Her face was round with slender eyebrows, a small, pointed chin, and a small mouth that was locked in a grimace. Her clothing looked like something Wendy's people, the Nirvites, would have made in days past, consisting of a long pink skirt and a shawl that left one shoulder bare, also pink, though with a yellow trim. On her arms were a few golden bracelets, and a necklace was worn around her neck, though whatever adornments it might have were hidden underneath her top. For all her beauty and fine garments, though, she seemed unnaturally thin, as if she hadn't eaten properly for some time.

"Can you help her?!" a worried voice asked from behind Lucy, the owner quickly coming into view. Gorun's head snapped up to see a yellow bird-like creature, whose head was way too big for the rest of its body. "Please help Éclair!" it begged him.

"Don't worry, little guy," he said reassuringly, unfazed by the fact that a weird bird was talking to him. "She's in good hands, I promise." Using his senses, he felt for her life energy and immediately encountered something strange.

She seemed exhausted, but her power level was stronger than he expected it to be, given that she seemed rather malnourished. Not only that, the energy he was sensing seemed… off somehow. It was familiar in a way, yet he couldn't recognize how. He knew it was going to drive him crazy until he remembered why the power emanating from her seemed familiar, but right now he had more pressing matters.

"Let's get Wendy to heal her up enough to wake up, then get her some food," he said as he began taking her to the table where he and the others had been talking. "I think she's just exhausted and in need of a good meal." Already, Kinana and the others were moving to help him take care of this new girl.

The young woman- Éclair, as her avian friend had explained- ate the meal she was offered quietly, with hardly a word to anyone, though she did give Mirajane a polite thanks when she was given the stew she was slowly working through. However, she said nothing to Wendy, who was responsible for bringing her back to consciousness, which irked Gorun a little bit.

Rude, he had thought, then decided she could be forgiven a lapse in manners, seeing as she had just come out of a fainting spell. However, he couldn't shake the strange feeling that he got whenever he sensed her energy, like he knew it from somewhere, or at least something very similar to it.

"Gorun, should I be worried?" Kinana's voice startled him a bit, causing him to jerk upright in his seat and look over at his girlfriend in surprise.

"Huh?" he said blankly.

"You've been staring at Éclair for the last ten minutes," she pointed out with a raised eyebrow. "It's honestly starting to bother me a bit." The two of them were sitting in a booth opposite of Éclair's, along with Gray, Erza, and Yukino

"Sorry!" he said swiftly. "I didn't mean to stare at her, I swear. Just… something about her energy seems off to me. Like I've felt something very similar to it before."

"From your days in the Time Patrol, or on a job here?" the girl asked, now more curious than annoyed.

"Time Patrol, I think," Gorun replied with a frown. "Does anything about her feel off to you?"

"Not that I can tell," Kinana answered. "Why? What about her energy feels strange?"

"Perhaps it's her magic," Erza suggested. "You've travelled far and wide, Gorun, but I doubt you've encountered every magic that this world has to offer. Perhaps she simply possesses a magic that is similar to a power you were already familiar with."

"If it was, it'd have to be etherion-based," the Saiyan replied with a negative shake of his head. "Funny thing is, I don't think she practices magic. She has the potential, but it's largely untapped. No, the weird part is how constant it is."

"Constant?' Gray inquired. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Normally people's energy levels fluctuate according to how tired or healthy they are," Gorun explained. "Sometimes if emotions are strong enough, that can alter their power levels, too. But hers' has remained at the exact same level this entire time. From when she was unconscious to when she woke up and has been able to eat, there has been absolutely no change to her energy level."

"So is she dangerous?" Yukino inquired warily.

"I don't know, which honestly has me more concerned," he admitted. "I don't sense any malice from her, though, which does help a little."

"And that little bird thing is so sweet, I can hardly see him being a threat to anybody," Erza said with an adoring smile as she looked over at the yellow bird in overalls.

"Looks can be deceiving, but in this case, I'm inclined to agree with you," Gorun said with a small grin of his own. "Either way, we're Fairy Tail. Pretty sure we can handle just about any surprise that comes our way."

"Unless Lord Beerus decides to come back for a visit like you said he might," Kinana pointed out, causing Gorun to seize up and sweat rapidly.

"Please don't remind me of that," he said tightly. "That guy is the stuff of nightmares."

"Who's this?" Gray asked.

"Remember how I mentioned that my grandmother took Lucy to the Time Patrol?" Gorun asked. When Gray nodded an affirmative, his friend continued, "Beerus is a god of destruction- one of the strongest out there, too. Normally he's pretty lazy, but every fifty years or so, he goes on a rampage, destroying any place where the inhabitants annoy him even a little."

"Define 'little annoyance," Erza requested with a raised eyebrow.

"He blew up a planet because the dinosaurs there made too much of a fuss about him turning one of them into steak," Gorun deadpanned. He said it with such a straight face that for a moment the others thought he was joking.

"Surely you're kidding, right?" Yukino laughed, though she did sound a bit nervous. "He wouldn't destroy an entire world just over a bad dinner?"

"He once blew up an entire solar system because somebody looked at him the wrong way," her leader replied, his tone still flat. "Seriously, if he ever comes back, I'm going to have to teleport Natsu over to Stella to keep him from wiping this world off the galactic map."

"I guess if anyone's gonna get us all killed, it'd be that idiot," Gray said with a malicious smirk.

"I dunno, Beerus might take offense to someone stripping in front of him," Gorun pointed out, noting that the ice-make wizard's shirt and pants had gone missing again.

"How does this keep happening?!" the boy fumed, stomping away to look for the missing garments.

Gorun raised his eyebrows as he noticed Yukino blushing heavily at the sight of the half-naked Gray. "Please don't start pulling a Juvia," he begged her. "I can only handle- no, wait, I can't even handle one of her." Silently, he was laughing himself silly. Yukino was not aware of Gray's bizarre habit, and now it was funny to see someone else witness it for the first time.

"W-What?!" the silver-haired girl stammered. "I-I-I wasn't-"

"Yo, I'm Natsu Dragneel!" Whatever Yukino had been about to say was interrupted by Natsu's loud voice cutting across the guild hall as he introduced himself to Éclair with a big, friendly smile. However, all she did was stare at his offered hand, then stand up to leave without a word.

Okay, so she is just rude, Gorun thought with a frown. Fine, good riddance. We don't need ungrateful guests.

"You're going to the Boundary Forest, aren't you?" The unexpected question came from Carla, who took a few steps to follow the young woman, who stopped in her tracks and looked back at the white exceed with some surprise.

"The Boundary Forest…" she murmured, her voice soft and a bit low-pitched. "Yes, that sounds right. Something there… There's something I have to do."

"I wouldn't go if I were you," Carla warned her before she could turn to leave. "Only sadness and danger await you."

"Someone wanna tell me what Carla's going on about?" Gorun muttered in aside to his friends. "Is she just that pessimistic, or what?" He hadn't spent a lot of time with the white cat, admittedly, but she did seem to be the pragmatic type.

"Carla has clairvoyance," Gray replied as he walked back up, fully clothed. "Let's her see into the future, but she can't fully control it. She'll get random visions from time to time." Gorun nodded, a little perturbed at the thought of yet another magic breaking the rules of time, but then remembered that it wasn't his job to be concerned with such things anymore.

I guess I was more Time Patroller than I realized, he thought wryly.

"Where I go is none of your business," Éclair replied a little snappily, then made to walk away, leaving more than a few frowning faces behind her.

"I'm so sorry about her," the bird said apologetically as he hovered in front of the group. "I try to remind her to have good manners, but I promise she's a good person!"

"Coulda fooled me," Gorun muttered.

The little bird turned to speak to him, but just then Éclair called back, "Come, Momon." The yellow creature shrugged- as much as a bird flapping his wings could shrug, anyway- and flew off to follow his friend.

As soon as she was out the door, Lucy stood up and started after her.

"Are you serious?" Gorun asked before she could make it five feet.

"Huh?" the blond girl asked as she turned back to face him.

In response, he stood up and walked over to her, saying, "You just met the same person as the rest of us, right? She clearly didn't want to be here. I get the feeling that she doesn't like Fairy Tail for some reason."

"But she's clearly about to go to that forest, and it'll be really dangerous!" Lucy protested.

"She's right," Erza agreed as she approached with Gray, Natsu, and Happy in tow. "Even S-class wizards hardly go to that forest due to the high concentration of deadly monsters within its boundaries."

"Well then we have to go help her!" Wendy exclaimed as she got up from where had been sitting. "She could get killed out there on her own!"

"I agree," Erza nodded. "Regardless of whether or not she wishes for our company, we should help her nonetheless. If we were to let her run into lethal danger, how can we call ourselves good wizards?"

"You are all just determined to make friends with every enemy you come across, aren't you?" Gorun remarked.

"We don't do that every time!" Natsu shot back. "And she's not an enemy! At least, I don't think…"

"Gajeel, Juvia, Jellal, Laxus, Hoteye, I can keep going," Gorun said dryly.

"Laxus was already part of the guild!" Happy shouted.

"Gorun, just let it go," Kinana said as she lay a hand on his shoulder. "You know you want to go with them."

"…Why?"

"Because you still haven't figured out why her energy bothers you so much," she grinned.

"I can live with that mystery," he shrugged. Then he sagged and muttered, "Dammit, no I can't. Fine, I'll go with them. You coming too?"

"I go where you go," she said with a sweet smile and a kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks," he grinned, feeling a little better about the situation now. Turning to look at his other teammate, he asked, "How about you, Yukino?"

"If you're both going, I don't mind tagging along," she smiled. "Even if this is a charity job, we made enough jewel on our last mission to hold me over for a while."

"Guess I should go get Romeo, then," Gorun sighed. The boy and his father had gone home to celebrate the boy's first big success as a wizard.

"Are you sure he'll come?" Kinana asked.

"Are you kidding?" Gorun chuckled. "He'd kill me if we went without him. I said we were going to take the day off tomorrow, and he said he'd rather take on some small jobs because he was still hyped up from Negura."

"I see why Natsu's team never wastes their money on first class," Romeo said as he eyed the dragon slayer's face, which was currently twisted from nausea.

"Why, cos no trip would be enjoyable with that puke-bucket?" Gray commented dryly. He, Romeo, Gorun, and Kinana were in one compartment of the train they were riding, while Lucy, Éclair, Momon, Happy and Natsu were in the one across from them. Yukino, Erza, Carla, and Wendy were in the seating area ahead of them.

"No way, are you kidding?" Romeo sniggered in response to Gray's question. "How do you ever get bored on trips? He's hilarious!" Glancing over at Natsu, who leaned out the window to expel his breakfast, he started laughing again.

"Trust me, it gets old, real fast," the ice wizard replied with a wry tone.

"Be nice, Romeo," Kinana scolded the boy. "You wouldn't want somebody laughing at you if you were in his shoes."

"But I'm not, so I can," he replied with another cheeky grin.

"I'll drop you in a pit full of Vulcans," Gorun said warningly.

Romeo seized up, paling rapidly. "S-Sorry, guys," he said mildly.

Gray noticed the exchange, and the smug smile that Gorun was directing at his younger comrade, so he felt compelled to ask, "What's this about Vulcans?"

"Everyone has a weakness of some kind," Gorun replied with a shrug. "Natsu has vehicles. Wendy has pickled plums. Erza gets stage fright, apparently. You even have an aversion to clothes."

"Aw, crap!" Gray shouted as he realized that he had just tossed his shirt out the window.

"For Romeo, it's Vulcans," Kinana explained. "He won't go near one, even if they're way weaker than he is."

"Th-They're creepy!" the boy stammered with a red face. "They possess people and try to keep them as slaves until they die!"

"Not so funny now, is it?" Gorun said pointedly.

"All right, I get it!" the boy said sullenly. "It's not fair, you know."

"What's that?" the Saiyan asked curiously.

"You know everyone else's weak spot, but none of us know yours," Romeo pointed out. "If you know our weaknesses, we should know yours."

"Well, I'd say now that it's Lord Beerus," Gorun shrugged. "But I seriously doubt that he's going to remember ever meeting me."

"Why's that?" Gray asked.

"The guy has apparently lived for billions of years," Kinana replied. "He forgets encounters pretty quickly because he's had so many of them, right?" She looked to her boyfriend for confirmation, whereupon he nodded the affirmative.

"The only thing that really worries me about my meeting with him was that he said I reminded him of Goku and Vegeta," the boy admitted. "Those two have held his attention for a lot longer than anyone else ever has before. Then again, he'll probably just assume that he met up with them the next time that he wakes up."

"So then what were you afraid of before him?" Gray inquired. "I gotta admit, I'm curious now, too."

"I don't have a problem telling you, mostly because it doesn't affect me now," Gorun replied flippantly. "There was a time patroller that I knew before I came here. Unlike me, she always took great pride in her Saiyan heritage, and aimed to excel at every course she took, every mission she was sent on. Many people in the organization thought highly of her, but it was never enough."

"Why not?" Kinana asked, this being news to her as well.

"No matter how hard she trained, or how many missions she went on, she was always outshone by another Saiyan time patroller," he replied quietly. "She hated him because even though he never gave as much effort to the job as she did, he was always the one people noticed more, and being the one with the higher power level didn't really help matters."

"You?" Romeo guessed.

"Yup," Gorun nodded. "I was the one. Her name was Azura. Human-Saiyan hybrid just like me. Well, actually, I guess not just like me, since I've got the kai genes, but other than that… Oh, and I have a tail, she doesn't. Anyways, the point is, she was never able to best me."

"So then why were you so afraid of her?" Romeo asked.

"Ever had a Super Saiyan challenge you to a fight?" Gorun replied flatly. "Trust me, angry girls are one thing. Multiply their power by fifty, and throw in over a decade of training with some of the multiverse's strongest fighters, and you're looking at some serious hospital time, even if you win."

"Did you guys ever fight?" Gray interjected. "Who won?"

"I never gave her the chance to properly fight me," his friend snorted. "Are you kidding? We might have ended up destroying the Time Nest, or whatever planet we fought on. We did sparring matches as kids, but after we started getting older and more powerful, I didn't want to have that on either of our heads."

"Would you have won?" Gray persisted. He seemed very interested to know who truly was the mightier of them, the etherion wizard thought.

"Yeah," Gorun nodded swiftly. "She was always training harder than me, and if not for my tail- and divine heritage, I guess- she would've had me dead to rights. However, I'm no slouch when it comes to training, either, and I am naturally stronger than her. Still, like I said before… she'd make me pay for it."

"Oh, great," Gorun said sarcastically, not bothering to keep his voice down. "She doesn't just hate Fairy Tail- she hates wizards in general. Seriously, why are we helping her?"

"I didn't ask you to come with me," Éclair called over her shoulder, annoyed. Apparently she had revealed to Lucy during the trip that she hated magic, and those that used it by association. "Go home, leave me be."

"I want to, but my girlfriend and code of ethics won't let me," Gorun grumbled as the combined teams trekked through the city called Rose Garden. All around them were lively displays of magic, from food vendors, to bubbles that changed color and multiplied whenever they were touched, even magic carpets. The city seemed to have it all.

The whole sight only seemed to make Éclair even more ill-tempered, but most of them just ignored her, save for Lucy, who seemed determined to befriend the unfriendly girl, though even she was starting to look a little bugged with her.

"Thank you for coming with us!" Momon said happily, either ignoring the tense atmosphere, or simply being unaware of it. "It's been a long time since we've had anyone to talk to other than each other!"

"Gee, I wonder why," Lucy muttered. Apparently Éclair's annoyance had been primarily directed at Lucy during the trip, though Natsu spending the entire time being nearly unconscious or nearly sick all over them the whole way might have had something to do with that.

"What's the plan here?" Gorun asked Erza, since she usually took care of booking travel plans for Natsu's team.

"I've made reservations for your team and ours at a place called Hills Hotel," the red-head answered. "We'll be sharing two per room, with the exceptions of Happy, Carla, and Momon, who can stay with whoever they choose."

"Great, I'll be happy to reimburse you for the rooms my team will be taking," Gorun said appreciatively. "Thanks for doing that."

"It's no trouble at all, and I do take payment in the form of cakes!" the S-class girl replied with a bright smile.

"Er… Okay?" Gorun said. "Any kind of cake in particular?"

"Yes… anything vanilla with a strawberry topping!" she all but swooned.

"Is she okay?" the Saiyan asked in a hushed voice to Lucy.

"Just go with it," the blond girl replied. "The alternative is finding out what happens when Erza is deprived of cake."

"Scale of one to Acnologia, how bad are we talking?"

"Master Hades."

"Well, I know what I'm shopping for, then," Gorun sighed heavily.

The tavern was dark, and none too clean, but that didn't bother Dyst. He and his Carbuncle guild were currently enjoying some pre-celebratory drinks in the taproom of some rundown pub in the city-state of Veronica.

"Four hundred million jewel for the capture of some peasant and her necklace?" Coordinator, a blond requip wizard, scoffed. "This job is too good to be true." She was referring to Duke Cream, the young, arrogant ruler of the province, who had hired their assassin's guild for the seemingly trivial task of tracking down a young woman and wresting a prized necklace from her.

"If you ask me, that Duke's got more money than brains, but I'll be happy to take some of it off his hands," Cannon, a beefy gun's mage, chortled as he knocked back another shot of whisky.

"Hmm, common sense or not, we have a job to do," Dyst, a man with long pale blue hair, murmured. "Chase, go find the girl. Bring her back if possible. If not, rendezvous with us at the border."

The final member of their quartet, a masked man wearing a black cloak that revealed none of his features, stood up with a nod toward his leader, then left the room without a word. As he did, his comrades raised their glasses together in a toast to their imminent success.

He had just left the building when he was suddenly grabbed by the scruff of the neck and slammed into a brick wall hard enough to crack the point of impact in the likeness of a spider's web. As a shadow mage used to doing the surprise attacks, and not being on the receiving end of such tactics, Chase could only groan as the air emptied from his lungs and stars swam in front of his eyes.

As he tried to focus his eyes on the person that was gripping him by the collar, he could only make out a blurry image of someone dressed in blue and white. "Who…?" he mumbled thickly.

"Pull yourself together," a low-pitched woman's voice snapped. "I didn't hit you hard enough for you to be this out of it. From what I could gather, you're supposed to be some kind of assassin mage, yeah? Sheesh, learn how to take a hit."

"Whoever you are, you will regret laying hands on a member of Carbuncle," Chase growled, finally having regained enough control over his senses to see clearly through the eyes of his mask.

The person holding him was a girl no older than eighteen, if even that. Her clothing consisted of a blue-and-white gi, her shoulder-length hair and narrow eyes were an azure blue. She was on the shorter side, pretty enough, and most noticeably, radiating massive amounts of magic power.

"No, I don't think I will," the girl replied with a cold smile as she yanked him to be face-to-mask. "And if you try any of that shadow magic crap, I'll blow you into so many pieces, they'll be cleaning you off the streets for months."

So she knew what kind of magic he used, and presumably the kinds that his comrades practiced as well. The girl had done her homework, and with the dangerous look in her eyes, coupled with the amount of energy he was sensing, he didn't doubt for a second that she could make good on her threat.

Still, he wasn't a part of a renowned assassin's guild for nothing. Assassins had to be primarily good at two things, the first of course being the ability to commit a murder and escape without being noticed. The second skill to master was knowing how to get out of a sticky situation, should it look as though capture was imminent.

"What do you want?" he finally demanded. "Will money be enough for you to release your grip, or are you one of those with a different sort of price?"

"Not everyone can be bought, scum," the girl replied, holding up her free hand next to his neck. From her fingertips, a pale blue magic circle flashed into existence for a split second, then out shot a blue energy blade, translucent, and razor-sharp. "But those that are quick to offer a price can often be outbid with relative ease."

"You have a counteroffer?" Chase asked, intrigued, though still angry at himself and her for being caught. "If you wanted to hire my guild, capturing me is not the best way to begin negotiations."

The blade moved with a twitch of her fingers so that it just nicked his neck through the cloak hard enough to draw a slow trickle of blood.

"There will be no negotiating," she said slowly. "You and your little band will do exactly as I say, or I will cut you all down so fast you won't even have time to wonder why you are suddenly looking up at your headless body from a pool of your own blood. Am I clear?"

Chase was not a man to cave into an outsider's demands so easily, but the cutting energy at his neck and the icy glare from the young woman were difficult to ignore. Finally he said, "If you will suffer the question once more, then… What do you want?"

"I need your group to track somebody down, and bring me to him," the girl replied with a satisfied nod as she removed the energy projection from its current position, though she only moved the blade just enough for it to stop cutting into his flesh.

"Why not simply have us bring him to you?" Chase replied, his eyes never leaving hers'.

The blue-eyed girl laughed harshly before saying, "If you were brought down this easily by me, not even an army of people like you and your friends could bring him down. No, you'll find him, report back to me, then take me to him, whereupon I'll deal with him myself."

"I need a name," the assassin said flatly.

"He'll be travelling under a false identity," she responded swiftly. "More than likely, the alias he will use is 'Son Gorun."

The Fairy Tail wizards spent the afternoon wandering the city, mostly in groups of two or three. Natsu, Romeo, and Happy were headed for some fine dining when Gorun last saw them, while Wendy and Carla were headed for a series of carnival-looking stalls. Gray seemed content to wander off on his own, and Erza declared that she was going dress shopping with Yukino, who tried to protest, and failed. Éclair tried to get away from Lucy, but the blond wizard insisted that she be accompanied by at least one of their guild members, so they wound up being a trio with Momon.

All of which left Gorun and Kinana to mill around the city, looking at the sights and waving to people that passed them in the air on magic carpets. There was one bad moment when a little boy tried to fly without the magic vehicle after seeing them hovering in the air, but Gorun's swift reflexes saved him.

"Sorry, kiddo, but you gotta do a lot of training before you can take off the training wheels," he said with an encouraging grin as he deposited the frightened child back into the arms of his grateful father.

"Thank you, sir!" the man said, bowing as far as he could from his seated position. "I'm so glad you were here. If you hadn't-"

"If I weren't here, he probably wouldn't have tried to fly on his own," Gorun laughed ruefully. "I'm sorry to have interrupted your afternoon, sir."

"No, no, don't apologize!" the man insisted. "Please, accept the apologies and thanks of an absent-minded father."

"We're glad to have helped, sir," Kinana said with her brightest smile. Waving goodbye to the pair, the couple flew away, landing in the middle of a shopping district a few minutes later.

"Anything look good here?" he asked her, more than content to let her pick out their next destination.

"I dunno… that looks pretty interesting," she said, pointing at a bridal shop. Gorun nearly had a heart attack before he realized that she was pointing at one window in particular. …A window through which Erza could be seen, purchasing a white bridal gown while Yukino looked on in a mixture of shock and bewilderment.

"What's the story there, I wonder?" Kinana was saying, before she noticed that Gorun was leaning over a rail, looking like Natsu did whenever he got on a train. "Uh… Gorun? Are you okay?"

I swear Grand Zeno just likes to toy with me! He shouted in his head. However, outwardly, all he could manage to wheeze out was, "Too soon… Not ready… Don't even have the ring…"

"Gorun?" Kinana asked as she poked his shoulder, unable to hear his mutterings clearly. However, she startled him so badly in his keyed-up state that he let out a sharp yelp, and shot about fifty meters in the air, where he stayed put, muttering nonsensically to himself.

"Is Mister Gorun okay?" Kinana was surprised to see Wendy and Carla approaching, the little girl looking concerned for the young man.

"I'm not sure," Kinana said with a worried frown as she looked up at her boyfriend. "The whole afternoon, he's been himself, but as soon as I pointed out Erza in that bridal… shop… Oh dear." Her face turned redder than Natsu's guild tattoo in less than a second as she realized what had startled him so much.

"He's scared of Erza getting a wedding dress?" Wendy asked, confused. "I thought it was weird, but it doesn't scare me."

"No, child," Carla sighed, having already put the pieces together. "He's afraid that Kinana wants to go in there. It would seem that he's not ready for the next step in their relationship just yet."

"Oh!" Wendy said with a slight blush. "Wait, does Mister Gorun not want to get married to you, Miss Kinana?"

"I, uh…" the poor girl stammered. "I don't know! I mean, we only started dating a few months ago, but we wound kind of skipping three of those months, so to us it's only been a few weeks, really, and I don't even know if I'd be ready to…"

As she kept rambling on, Carla gave Wendy a stern look. "It's rude to ask about such personal matters, Wendy," she scolded her dragon slayer. "Look at what you've done to the poor girl!"

"Sorry!" Wendy said, flushing an even deeper shade of red that nearly matched Kinana's face. "I didn't mean to get into your private business!"

"I-It's fine," Kinana managed to respond, having regained a little composure. Up above, Gorun was apparently still muttering to himself, thoroughly rattled by the whole matter. "I'm m-more worried about him at th-this point. I d-don't think even the Eclipse Gate threw him off so badly."

"Are you alright, Kinana?" Carla asked the young woman.

"I'll be okay," she said with a shaky grin. "The funny thing is, when I saw Erza in there, I couldn't help but think that some of those dresses do look very nice… Maybe someday…" He voice trailed off as her smile grew a little, imagining a sunny day, where the stain-glass windows of Magnolia's Cathedral would admit a cacophony of colors into the building, and the entire guild turned out to celebrate what would be the happiest day of her and Gorun's life. A priest would perform the ceremony, Yukino would likely be her Maid of Honor, and she could just see Natsu and Gray fighting over who would get to be Gorun's best friend on his wedding day-

"Ack!" she squealed as she realized that she had nearly pulled a Juvia.

"Kinana, are you alright?" She recognized Yukino's voice as she approached behind Erza, who was smiling contentedly.

"You look like you could use some good tea and cake," the redhead said as they came to stand in front of her, Wendy, and Carla. "The hotel isn't far from here, and I'm sure our rooms will be ready soon if you feel the need to retire."

"I think that sounds like a good idea," Kinana admitted gratefully. "Sorry, Yukino, I just had a… weird moment."

"Weird?" the silver-haired girl inquired politely. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Once we've settled into the hotel, yes," Kinana nodded emphatically.

"Hold on, wasn't Gorun with you?" Erza asked with a frown as she glanced around, failing to see the blue-and-green clad Saiyan.

In response, Carla pointed upward, where Gorun was now pacing back and forth in midair, still muttering something to himself. "Er…" Yukino wondered, bewildered yet again by her new guild's strange members.

"Is he all right?" Erza asked worriedly.

"I'll get him down," Carla sighed as she flew up to meet the boy in midair.

She met the young man about thirty feet above the ground, ready to give him a scolding for worrying his teammates and girlfriend, but before she could, he muttered in an undertone, "I heard the whole thing." He tapped his right ear unobtrusively. "One of the perks of my Saiyan heritage is the sensitive ears."

"Then why-?"

"I don't want her knowing that I heard about her eyeballing the dresses," Gorun cut her off with a faint grin. "I'm up here because if I was down there, I'd be getting down on one knee right now, and I'd rather have a ring and time to plan something special before I do that."

"You-!"

"Shh!" he said fiercely, finally straightening himself up and looking directly at the white cat. "Like I said, I don't want her knowing that I heard all of that! Look, I was kind of unsure about how she would feel if I popped the question this early in our dating relationship, so I wanted more time to feel the situation out. Now, thanks to this little debacle, I have an answer. But I still want to surprise her, so please, don't let her know that I know."

"I… don't even know what's going on anymore," Carla admitted with a shake of her head. "All I can say is that humans seem to excel at complicating what should be simple matters."

"Yeah, this is one area where I wish I could be more Saiyan-like," Gorun admitted. "I'm not very good at putting my heart on the line- definitely my human side."

"So if I am understanding you correctly, you do wish to marry the girl?" Carla asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yep."

"And you don't wish for me to reveal your plan?"

"That, and the fact that I now know she wants to get married to me someday," Gorun said with a bright smile. "I'd really appreciate it."

"Very well, but you'd better have a good excuse ready for when we go down there," Carla warned him.

"That's easy- you've just been telling me that it was Erza being weird that caused this whole thing," the boy said cheerfully.

"I am not saying that about Erza!"

Mataras: So here you go- an extra chapter for (more or less) the middle of the month.

Saiki: Is there a particular reason that you chose to adapt this movie into the timeline, but do not plan to do so for the second film?

Mataras: This film was really quite easy to adjust, because honestly, I could have seen it easily being a filler arc for the anime after the Games. the only continuity error I noticed was that Elfman was not as muscular as he should have been if the movie occurred post-Dragon King Festival. Also, I felt as though the phoenix had potential to become a great threat, and was killed off too easily.

Saiki: Anything else?

Mataras: ...I found this to be a prime opportunity to introduce a comparable rival to Gorun. I'm certain that many of you can guess who the girl in blue is, but we'll come to find some very interesting things about her in the coming chapters, specifically about her relationship to our resident Saiyan.

Gorun: You're lucky you've got the plot armor of being the author. I'm still not happy about this.

Mataras: Noted. On the whole, this chapter was more or less a set up for the next arc, in addition to getting some more character development between Gorun and Romeo in particular.

Saiki: It seems that the new team dynamic works well enough, and the two of them get on famously.

Mataras: Remember, they were both members of the guild during the time that the Tenrou Team was out, so they do know one another fairly well from that period.

Gorun: True. Now when can we expect my torment to continue?

Mataras: Quit being a baby, you'll be fine. Coming early April, 2019- Dark Blades in the Heart.

Next time on Saiyan Tail...

"Where'd he go?!" Gray demanded, looking over at Gorun, whose face was hardened with concentration.

"I don't know," the young man muttered after a few seconds. "Whoever that was, he's more skilled than I gave him credit for. The instant that his shadow magic came into effect, he drastically lowered his power level. I can't find him amidst all the civilians down there now."

"Couldn't you tell where Rogue was whenever he did that?" Gray pressed, surprised to see his friend come up short like this. He was used to Gorun achieving success after success, not admitting defeat so readily.

"Rogue wasn't as skilled at concealing his presence," Gorun explained. "And even my powers have their limits."

"So we can't follow him?" the ice mage asked disappointedly.

"I can't even pick up a scent," Natsu added as he turned to face them. "Weird. Wonder why he was after two birds?" Before anyone could stop him, he yelled, "Oh crap! He must've been after that weird bird guy Elaine had with her! We gotta go find them!" With that, he leaped off the rooftop and began running back the way they had come.

"Stupid as he is, he brings up a good question," Gray said with a frown as he placed a hand on Gorun's shoulder to prepare for instant transmission. "What was that guy after? And what 'two birds' was he talking about?"

"Knowing our luck, I wager we'll be finding out real soon," Gorun said grimly.