I think I'll be going with a harem for this one, unless it's met with furious disapproval. Which I doubt it will be.
I'm working on this story right now because I feel like like it. Meh.
Oh yeah, for clarification, I am going to be saying Jewel for the monetary system, whether it be singular or plural.
"Tch! That's all my sex appeal gets me? A measly thousand Jewel?" A young blonde woman kicked a metal can into the street, her indignation quickly turning to pain as she hopped around on one foot, clutching her hurt toe.
Two girls passed by her quickly, barely sparing the other girl a second glance. "Did you hear? The 'Phoenix' is in town!" The two giggle uncontrollably as the continue towards the city square, leaving behind a slightly-less-in-pain blonde. 'Phoenix? As in, the Fairy Tail Mage Phoenix? The one who uses fire magic that you can't buy in stores?!' She thought excitedly. 'This could be my chance to get into Fairy Tail!'
The girl quickly followed the other two girls that had passed her to the main square of Hargeon. There was an ever-growing circle around the center of the plaza, and when Lucy broke though the circle, she found herself staring at a young, dark-blue haired man. She could feel her heart beating quickly. 'This feeling... is this love? Is it because he's a famous mage?'
"Hey, Natsu?"
"Yes, Happy?" The pink-haired teen waited for another question about fish.
"Do you think that this 'Phoenix' might actually be Igneel?" This made the teen laugh.
"Nah, I doubt it. Igneel never stayed in one place for too long, and I doubt that he would ever come to a random port-town like Hargeon." He responded. Happy nodded with his answer, but another thought struck him.
"Wait, don't people call you Phoenix, Natsu?" This made Natsu roll his eyes.
"Yes, Happy. That's one of my monikers, which is why we're here."
"But I thought we were here to find Igneel..."
"Igneel isn't going to be here, Happy. More likely, someone is trying to impersonate me."
"Impersonate? What does that mean? Does it have something to do with fish?" The blue Exceed yelled excitedly.
The Dragon Slayer laughed. "Yeah, something like that, buddy."
A few minutes later saw the duo entering the town of Hargeon. Even before they had entered the town, Natsu had been hearing screams and shouts thanks to his enhanced Dragon Slayer senses. As they entered into the main plaza, Natsu let some of his Fire Dragon Slayer Magic ripple across his body, increasing the temperature in the area. As he walked towards the circle, people started to feel the effects, and turned towards him.
As he walked to the circle, the people parted out of his way until he got to the center, where he met face-to-face with a dark-blue haired man who had his hands in his pockets, shifting on his feet nervously. "Who are you?" Natsu asked with a dangerous edge to his voice. The other man chuckled nervously.
"I'm Phoenix, surely you've heard of me! Here, have my picture! Signed!" He tossed a couple signed photos at the pinkette, who just stared at the paper before pink flames burst out of his palms and incinerated the papers. Most of the fangirls just looked at him in shock, but the heat he was giving off was enough to deter them from doing anything stupid.
"I don't care about fakers. C'mon Happy, let's go." And as quickly as he appeared, the man left, his heat with him, and besides the 'Phoenix' sweating a little bit, it was almost like he had never appeared in the first place... except for a single blonde girl. She made to run after the man, but was stopped by the Phoenix's voice.
"And don't forget, there's a party on my yacht, and you all are invited!" He yelled to the crowd, making them swoon at his 'kindness'. "Red Carpet!' He shouted, hopping on a carpet made of fire, and heading out to his large boat sitting in the harbor. Rolling her eyes, the blonde girl continued to run after the mysterious pink-haired man who had saved her mind, possibly.
A few hundred feet later, she finally caught up to him. "Hey!" She yelled after him, making him turn around. "I just wanted to thank you for helping me out back there?" The man raised an eyebrow.
"You mean with that guy? I wasn't doing it for you in particular, but whatever." This put the blonde into a slight pout.
"Well, whatever. The least I could do is treat you to lunch, right?"
The man nodded. "Lunch sounds good, ne, Happy?" The aforementioned Exceed was doing circle around the pink-haired boy's feet, chanting 'Fish! Fish! Fish!', causing Natsu to sweatdrop. "Sorry, he's a little singleminded."
After getting into the restaurant, the girl introduced herself. "I'm Lucy! It's nice to meet you!" The pinkette nodded distractedly.
"So what were you saying thank you for, again?"
"You see, that Phoenix guy was using a Charm spell, a type of hypnosis spell. I only noticed because he put his hand in his pocket when you came near him, and he had a charm ring on!"
The man scratched his chin. "That sounds like it'd be illegal, but that might just be me." Lucy nodded her head.
"It is! It's very illegal, it was outlawed by the Magic Council years ago." The guy nodded, thinking it made sense. All of the sudden, the waitress came over, delivering the guy's meal, three steaks, and a glass of whiskey. Lucy's eyes widened. That cost more than the Jewel she had saved by... enticing the shop owner to be kinder on his prices. She silently mourned her purse.
Almost instantly, the food and drink was gone. The guy stood up and threw a wad of Jewel on the table. "That should be more than enough for the meal," he spoke, cutting off Lucy's explanation of Magic and Guilds right as she was getting to the guild she wanted to join. "See you around..." He spoke, before exiting the building. "...not..."
"Well, that was weird..." Lucy spoke, almost to herself. Then, she took a look at the wad of Jewel the guy had thrown on the table. It had to be at least three times the cost of the meal! 'Is it a tip...? Morals, I can feel you wavering... don't fail me!'
Ten minutes later, Lucy sat on a bench outside the restaurant, nursing her fallen morals with the most recent edition of Sorcerer's Weekly; a special edition focused around the S-Class Mages of Fairy Tail! This was a godsend for Lucy, as she was utterly, hopelessly addicted with the guild. Or, more accurately, with one of their most mysterious members - The S-Class Mage, 'Phoenix'. That was why she had been so excited to hear about the man appearing right in the town she was in. However, her hopes had been dashed the moment that mysterious man had come near him, breaking the trance. Somehow, she didn't believe that the so-called loner S-Class Mage would have used attention-seeking magic.
She flipped into the magazine, looking at the best that Fairy Tail had to offer. Of course, on the first page was their Guild Master - Makarov Dreyar. The Fifth Wizard Saint was easily the most powerful mage of the guild, but he had many competitors for it. The next of the list was Gildarts Clive, a mostly-traveling user of Crash Magic, a Magic with the capability to dissemble any nonliving thing with a mere thought.
Further down the list was Lexi Dreyar, the granddaughter of Makarov Dreyar. She was a Lightning Mage with masterful control over her abilities, and travelled with the Raijinnashuu, the Thunder Goddess Trio, aptly named as the followers of the mage with the epithet 'The Thunder Goddess'. There was a picture of this mage - She was a moderately tall blonde girl, with wild hair, and a dark scar over one eye. In the picture, she was also wearing a pair of old headphones, and leaning against an unseen wall.
Next were the duo of the Demon and the Titania. Another beautiful women in her own right, Mirajane Strauss, formerly known as the Demon, was a slightly short, platinum haired girl with a charming smile. As Lucy read on, she found that after the death of her youngest sister, she stopped taking on jobs almost entirely, and turned to modeling. Lucy started to look over at the other S-Class' picture, she found herself interrupted by the creep from earlier.
"So, you're interested in joining Fairy Tail?" Lucy let out a shriek as she quickly turned around and saw the blue-haired creep.
"Yeah, I am." She spoke after regaining her composure. "Why do you care?"
'Well," He started with a charming smile, "if you decided to come to party later tonight, maybe I'd tell you." Lucy just rolled her eyes.
"Don't even try. The weakness of Charm Magic is the knowledge of it, you weirdo. So you can't affect me!" The word 'weirdo' formed an arrow in the air and stabbed the fake 'Phoenix' in the chest, but he recovered quickly.
"Tch. Whatever. It just so happens that I'm a member of Fairy Tail! And as long as you stay quiet about the Charm Magic, I'll put in a good word for you with the Master." Normally, this would seem incredibly shady, but Lucy had stars in her eyes at the thought of joining her dream guild.
"I can join Fairy Tail?" 'Phoenix' nodded.
"Yeah, as long as you keep quiet about the Charm Magic." Instantly, Lucy latched onto the man's arm and spoke in the most charming voice she could muster,
"I'd love to go to your party tonight, Phoenix-sama!" The man grinned a dark grin, and thought to himself, 'Well, that was easier than I thought it would be...'
He slipped away from the girl, activating his Red Carpet again, and calling back. "I'll see you there! Remember, not a word about the charm!" Enthusiastically, Lucy nodded, then blinked once he got far away.
"What was that... some pseudo-charm? Whatever, it doesn't matter, I'm joining Fairy Tail!" The blonde cheered to herself, not noticing her forgotten magazine drift over to the last page thanks to the wind, showing the current active bounties from the Magic Council.
"Hey, Natsu?"
"Yes, Happy?"
"If that guy was using Charm Magic, and pretending to be you, wouldn't that give you a bad reputation?" Natsu shrugged to his blue-furred companion.
"I don't really care about my reputation, Happy."
"Well, wouldn't that also give Fairy Tail a bad reputation?" Natsu was about to shrug again, but then he processed the words. He stopped walking, and turned around slowly with a dark smile on his face, contrasting deeply with his pink eyes.
"Hey, Happy...?"
"Yes, Natsu?"
"I have a feeling we'll be eating well tonight."
"Now, open wide and savor the fruit flavored gems as they enter your mouth." Lucy closed her eyes and internally growled. 'Just have to deal with this for a little longer...' All of the sudden, her eyes snapped open, and she bat the droplets of wine away.
"What is the meaning of this? That's magic to knock people out, Sleep Magic!" 'Phoenix' sighed.
"You're pretty sharp." He noted.
"Don't get any ideas. I want to join Fairy Tail, but I have no intention of becoming your girlfriend." Lucy spoke sharply. The man laughed in response.
"Welcome to my ship, girlie!" He swept his arms out, and from the walls, corridors opened, revealing multiple buff men with the other girls unconscious, and slung over their backs.
"What is this?" Lucy questioned, looking around frantically.
"Welcome to my-" All the sudden, a large explosion rocked the ship, cutting the 'Phoenix' off. He looked around frantically, then motioned to the bodyguards.
"What are you doing just standing around? Go find-"
"Too late." The man broke out into a cold sweat as he noticed all of the bodyguards slumping over, the girls in their arms now resting against the walls.
'Phoenix' turned around quickly, in an attempt to defend himself. He was too late, however, as a fist rocketed into his side, launching him across the room.
"Urgh..." The blue-haired mage unsteadily got to his feet. "What do you want, you monster...? Booze? Money? Women? Whatever it is, I can give it to you!" He tried to save his own hide, instantly backing down at the first hint of a fight. The other man growled at this. Looking towards him, Lucy belatedly realized that he was the same pink-haired man that had saved her earlier.
"Why do you fools always assume that offering me women helps your chances?" He wondered aloud as he slowly walked towards the unstable man.
"G-get back! I'm warning you!" The words had no effect on the steadily approaching man. "Prominence Typhoon!" The mage conjured a purple swirl of fire, which blasted the other man in the face. Lucy closed her eyes, seeing her chances of escaping rapidly fall, at least, until she heard a slurping sound coming from the center of the vortex. She watched, awestruck, as the fire disappeared into the pink-haired man's body at a lightning fast rate.
"Hey, blondie!" Lucy was snapped back into reality by the call of the small blue feline from earlier's voice.
"Talking cat!" She shouted, ignoring the Exceed's dejected mutter of 'I'm an Exceed...'
"Grab my hands! You don't want to be near Natsu when he gets angry!" The Exceed sprouted wings, and grabbed Lucy's confused palm, and quickly whisked her off the ship just as the temperature started to rise. A hundred feet or so from the shore, Happy suddenly stopped.
"Eh? What's wrong?" Lucy asked.
"I'm out of magic..." The Exceed replied as they both started to plummet towards the water.
"You damned cat!" Lucy yelled as she hit the water, quickly resurfacing.
Meanwhile, back on the ship, the fake Phoenix was currently laying face-down on the floor of the boat. "What... are you...?" He croaked out.
"I believe that you all call me the Phoenix, Bora the Prominence." The revealed Bora started shaking.
"P-please... don't kill me!" Phoenix snorted.
"I don't kill people." Bora sighed in relief. "But I can't guarantee that prison will be much better. Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Phoenix's right fist swung towards the opposing mage, connecting, and sending him impacting through the opposite wall, sending him all the way to the shoreline, where he laid.
Lucy and Happy were on the other side of the ship, and didn't see this. "I should help him!" Lucy exclaimed. "Gate of the Water-Bearer, Aquarius!" She turned to Happy. "I'm a Celestial Mage, see. I use gate keys to call spirits from alternate dimensions!" From her outstretched hand, light shone, and took the form of a mermaid looking creature.
The mermaid took a single look at Lucy, and went, "Tch."
"Did you just 'tch' me?" Lucy glared at her spirit. "You really shouldn't complain like that."
"Whatever. The only reason I actually came is because of the power well nearby."
"Power well?" Lucy questioned.
"Aye!" Happy chirped. "She must be talking about Natsu! He's a mage, too!"
"Ah..." Lucy replied, obviously lost. "Well, Aquarius, use your power and sweep that ship onto shore!" She pointed at the yacht. Aquarius gave another 'tch' before gathering power in her urn. Quickly, waves swept around the body of water.
Back on the ship, Natsu looked outside to see the tidal wave gathering and cursed. Quickly, he gathered up all of the girls on the ship and jumped off the edge, focusing his magic into his feet before shooting off to the shore in a streak of light. He 'accidentally' dropped the girls in the water a few feet from the shore, effectively ruining their makeup and clothes despite landing perfectly himself.
He gathered Bora, and started whistling for Happy to find him.
However, the poor Exceed was caught between a shouting match between mage and spirit. "I'm going off on a vacation... next time you call me better be to introduce me to this power well... he's gotta be a hunk..." Aquarius whispered dreamily with a blush on her face as she popped back into the Celestial Realm. Suddenly, a sharp whistle cut through the air. Happy grabbed onto Lucy and zoomed towards the source of the sound, ignoring Lucy's indignant shout of 'Wait!'
They quickly got to shore, where Lucy was subsequently dropped. She looked up and nearly did a spit take as she looked upon Natsu looking as in good of condition as before with a certain blue-haired mage over his shoulders. "Let's get going!" He yelled over the sound of the wave hitting the shoreline, crashing into the docks.
"Where are we going?" Lucy shouted back as she followed the pink-haired mage.
"Well, you were there because you wanted to join Fairy Tail, right?" He gave her a toothy grin and showed her his right shoulder, revealing a white Fairy Tail symbol with a red outline. "You might've heard of me as Phoenix, but just Natsu is fine."
"Are you sure your master will be fine with me joining?" Lucy asked for the umpteenth time.
"Yeah! Based on what you did to Hargeon, I think you'll fit in perfectly!" Natsu responded whilst cashing in the bounty on Bora the Prominence, counting through the Jewel.
Lucy seemed to shrink in on herself at the mention of Hargeon.
They came to a stop in front of the guild doors. Natsu made a hand motion to be quiet as he put his ear up to the door. Lucy did the same, and in doing so, heard frantic running and shouting. "Natsu's back!" Lucy looked over to Natsu, who was snickering.
Pulling back his leg, Natsu kicked open the twin doors in a display of physical prowess. "Hey, what's up guys?" Natsu waved. The guild froze at the sight of him, but the silence was broken by a platinum-haired girl launching herself at the Dragon Slayer with a squeal of "Natsu-kun!"
"Hello, Mira! How has the guild been while I've been gone?" With this, the guild launched back into their normal activities, seeing that Natsu was in a good mood.
"It's been pretty good, Natsu-kun." Mira replied as she held the boy in a deep hug.
"You know you don't have to call me kun, right, Mira? We've known each other far too long for that."
'Wow... Mirajane Strauss... in the flesh!' Lucy was preoccupied by looking around the guild. However, one by one, her idols began to be unveiled, and her hopes fell until she was utterly depressed. All around the guild, people were getting ready to fight each other, as one extremely buff man yelled, "Man!" As he rushed forward to punch a black-haired teen who... wasn't wearing a shirt, revealing a silver cross necklace around his neck.
The guild started rushing towards each other. Meanwhile, Mira and Natsu were now sitting at the bar, acting like there wasn't a large fight going on around them. Well, more accurately, Natsu was sitting at the bar, and Mira was sitting on his lap. Lucy walked over to them, questioning,
"What's going on? Shouldn't we stop this?" Mira just giggled.
"Oh, no, this is normal for Fairy Tail!" As she was saying this, the muscular man that started the fight slid to a stop right at their feet. "Oh, Elfman-nii..." Lucy looked at this, shocked. That ripped monster was related to the petite Mirajane? Suddenly, the man jumped up with a roar of,
"It's not manly to hit a man near his sister!" As he charged back into the rumble. At the other end of the bar, an orange-haired mage spoke up.
"Well, it looks like the fight is heating up. I'll fight, just to protect you two." He said to the two girls currently on either of his arms. After letting go of the two, he started walking towards the fight, his arm starting to glow. Seeing this, a brunette sitting next to a barrel wiped her mouth, and out of nowhere, three cards appeared in her hands.
"Looks like things are heating up." She smirked. As different members started to charge up their different magics, Lucy became progressively more and more worried. However, her fear was for naught, as before any magic could be thrown, the front of the guild was ripped off, and a giant man walked into the guild, stopping all of the members.
"Stop this, you fools!" He spoke.
"A Giant?" Lucy squeaked
"Oh, you were here, Master?"
"Yes. Ah, Natsu, I heard about Hargeon!" The Giant spoke. Natsu just looked at him and smirked.
"Wasn't me. That was all this new girl's doing over here." He pointed at Lucy, who suddenly became aware of everyone's eyes on her.
"Ah, it was you?" Makarov spoke to Lucy, who squeaked out an affirmative. All of the sudden, the Giant started to shrink with a sound like a balloon deflating.
"Nice job!" The now-small Guild Master spoke. 'He's so small...' Lucy thought, looking at the man. "So you're the new recruit?" He asked, walking around her, before suddenly groping her butt. She shrieked and smacked his hand out of instinct as the man laughed. "Good eye you have here, Natsu!" Mira growled slightly at this. "Welcome to the guild!"
"Yeah, welcome to the guild, Lucy." Natsu said, smiling at her. Mira also smiled, although it was slightly more forced this time.
"Mira, will you go fetch the stamp for Lucy here, please?" Mira glared at him.
"Natsu just got back, Master." The old man paled at the girl's glare.
"On second thought, maybe I'll go get it! Need to stretch these old joints out once in a while!" He chuckled nervously. Almost instantly, the girl's face relaxed and she smiled.
"That sounds like a great idea, Master!"
A few minutes later, the old man came back with a stamp, forcing a bit of magic into it, grumbling around 'silver-haired demons...' under his breath. As he got to Lucy, he asked her where she wanted the stamp.
"Pink, on my hand please!" A moment later, she was officially a member of the guild she had idolized for so long. "I finally did it, mom...! I'm a part of Fairy Tail now!"
I am well aware that this chapter seems to focus highly on Lucy. However, this was actually just an introduction to the new Natsu all these years later. Lucy will not be part of the harem, and honestly, not really much of a main character at all.
She wasn't exceptionally strong. In fact, her strongest attribute was a loose cannon, and at any given time might decide to not help her at all. Even with Aquarius, she wasn't that much stronger. I also honestly hate her character, as well as the pairing of NaLu. It was just... so, so forced, and there are so many better choices.
For the harem, I will not be going with crazy, crazy outlandish choices, such as people from Alvarez, or really even Levy. Levy and Gajeel fit so perfectly, it would almost be a crime to separate them. Another one who definitely won't be in there is Wendy. She's literally like twelve, people. That's just messed up.
I may, in the future, create a poll for the harem, but as of right now, I am mostly undecided.
If you didn't notice, Lisanna is still 'dead' in this fanfic.
I do not plan on doing minor arcs, or stupid arcs revolving around Lucy, which are the Macao Arc, Loke Arc, and Key of the Starry Sky Arc.
I currently have plans up to the Battle of Fairy Tail Arc.
Sorry to all you NaLu shippers out there!
Remember, I'm a review-whore, so you better slap that button!