Before I start talking to you guys or start the chapter, I need to say that I'm sorry. It's been waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long since I last updated, but to make up for it, I have made this chapter especially long. As always, lets hear the fun fact of the week before I get chewed out by those three! Fun fact of the week: School seems to be determined to ruin the social lives of all teenagers.

Nicholai, Sam, and Sayume: WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!?

Me: Oh boy… here we go. As you could guess from the fun fact of the week, school has made me really busy recently.

Nicholai, Sam, and Sayume: THAT'S STILL NO EXCUSE!

Me: But! I did prepare an extra long, special, and overall happy chapter for you guys since I've been gone for so long.

Nicholai, Sam, and Sayume: Fine, we'll only beat you up if the chapter isn't amazing.

Me: Fair enough! ANYWAYS, Here's chapter 16 (Holy crap we're already at 16 chapters!)

I felt someone lightly nudging my shoulder, "Nicholai, Nicholai, wake up." I could tell that the train had stopped, since I was no longer sick. Sam was sitting next to me with her back to the wall of the car with one leg extended and the other bent with her hands meeting at her knee. Sayume was still lightly pushing his paw onto my shoulder. I stirred, "We there?" Sayume nodded, "Yeah, and guess what? I sense two people fighting Raniel at the moment, and they appear to be winning. They should be easy to find, as I gathered that they're both dragon slayers. If you want to make sure you turn him in, you'll need to really hurry up when heading down there." I got up and stopped at the door of the car, "Alright, I'll go fetch Raniel, you two just wait outside the train station." Sayume nodded, "Alright." I turned to look back towards Sam, who gave me a smile and thumbs up. I ran out of the train station, into the streets of Magnolia. Even after almost eight years, the city seemed almost unchanged. It was nice being back home after all this time; after all, I have been gone for a really long time. The streets were covered with a light coat of snow and a few patches of ice, matching what I had always thought winter would look like here. Although, despite being overcome by a sense of nostalgia, I remembered what I needed to do, and I focused once again. I needed to listen and look for a fight that would be on the level of dragon slayers. Just then, not too far from me, I heard two synchronized voices, one high pitched, and one significantly lower scream, "GRASS LIGHTNING EXPLOSION!" Just a few blocks away, I saw a giant sphere of yellow energy, and after a few seconds, it slowly welled down and dispersed. "That must be them." I said under my breath. I ran down several alleyways until I reached where the fight had been going on, where I saw two green haired teens, a guy and a girl, along with two exceeds, celebrating what I assumed was their defeat over Raniel. I was slightly hesitant to go out there, as it seemed they had just fought hard to defeat him. The guy was on his knees, panting, while the girl was fist pumping. It took a second, but after seeing the Fairy Tail insignia on them, I got over my fear and walked out there.

Just as I did so, the boy rose to his feet and limped over to stand in front of the girl, who gently pushed him off to the side. She spoke, "Hey! I can't have my little brother defending me all the time you know!" They see me as a threat? I thought to myself, Although, if I were in their shoes, I wouldn't immediately think a figure that just jumped out of an alleyway wearing a cloak and wielding a scythe was an ally." I walked closer, it's okay Nicholai, I thought, just take Raniel and go, you can explain yourself later. When I reached Raniel, I slung his limp body over my shoulder in silence, and turned to leave. I was stopped by that girl's voice, "Hey! What are you doing? We need to turn this pervert in! Who are you anyway?" A question I did not want to answer at the moment had been thrown at me, and despite not really wanting to answer; my conscience got the best of me. I turned around and uncovered my right arm, showing my guild mark as I spoke, "I guess I should explain. I'm an s-class wizard from Fairy Tail. I took an s-class quest quite a while ago to hunt down and turn this man in. My exceed Sayume sensed his presence here, and found him beaten." She gave me a frustrated look, "That still doesn't explain who you are." I was silent for a moment, "My name is Nicholai Kasai." She shrugged, "I don't really care what your name is, but if you have no other business here you better leave. NOW!" She had some quality that made me slightly afraid of her and frustrated at the same time. I let out a heavy sigh, "Judging by how you acted towards this murderer here," I dropped and lightly kicked Raniel, "as I came, I figured you would be like thi-" I abruptly stopped talking when my eyes met the boy's, which reflected one and only one emotion… pure, unadulterated, terror. The girl stared at me inquiringly. "Well," I picked Raniel back up, "I've got a bone to pick with this bastard. He took my family from me. Either way, I'll be leaving now. Oh, if you see him, please tell Natsu that his brother is back in town."

I walked back to the train station in silence, and I had to admit, I felt guilty about what I just did. Just then, Sayume and Sam came into view. "Good, you're back lil' bro, and I see you got that bastard with you." She pointed to Raniel. I saw tears form in her eyes from the sight of him, "Could you set him down Nicholai?" "Um, sure." I threw him off of my shoulder and onto the ground. Sam immediately started to kick him relentlessly, "You murderer! You took my life from me!" With every kick, I heard the cracking of bones, and each time, his chest looked more and more like it had somehow imploded. I hated him too, but this was getting cruel. I stuck my leg out to prevent her from kicking him anymore, "Sam! I understand how you feel, but you can't be like this!" She stopped trying to kick him and covered her face with her sleeve. I could hear muffled sobbing, "Damnit. How can you be so forgiving? Don't you remember? HE'S THE ONE WHO TOOK OUR PARENTS, NOT TO MENTION YOUR MEMORIES!" "I know that, and I absolutely despise him for it, but we can't stoop to his level. Think of what mom and Dad would say if they saw us doing this." She stopped crying, "Alright, let's just go and turn him in." I picked him back up, "Yeah, come on Sayume."

We walked off to the collection office, wherein; we turned Raniel in for his total bounty of ten million jewel. I split it up a total of four ways, two million for me, two million for Sam, two million for Sayume, and the other four million for those dragon slayers and their exceeds. We walked out of the collection office and just began to wander the streets of Magnolia. Eventually, I spoke up "Well, now that all of that is taken care of, I think I should introduce the two of you to Fairy Tail." Sayume smiled, "Awesome!" Sam on the other hand, seemed a bit nervous, "Are you sure you want me going with you?" I set my hand on her shoulder, "Of course I do, and once you join, you'll see just how truly accepting the guild is. I was just some random person one of their guild members found roaming in the woods, but they didn't care. They accepted me for who I was just as a family does." With that, it seemed that every ounce of doubt she had vanished, "Okay, let's go." We walked down the center of Magnolia, and about halfway towards the guildhall, I saw two figures charging at me from the direction of the guild. One with spiky pink hair, and the other with a coat of blue fur and angelic wings, "NICHOLAIIIIII!" I had never been so happy to see a cat and a pyrotechnic running at me yelling my name, even though that specific instance had never happened to me until now. Tears formed in my eyes at the sight of them after so long, and I began sprinting towards him too. As I got closer, I saw tears in both of their eyes. I swung my arms around the two of them, too overwhelmed with happiness to speak. "Where were you Nicholai? Everyone in the guild thinks you're dead, I did too." I hugged the both of them tighter, "I'm sorry, but it's a really long story. I'm here now though, you don't have to worry about me anymore." "Nicholai," Happy sobbed, "Don't ever do that again. We care about you, and we don't ever want to lose you. You're a part of our family." I tried to comfort the both of them more, but I was too overcome by the joy of seeing them. We all just stood there embracing until Natsu broke the silence.

Just like Natsu has always been, he suddenly went back to that carefree, likeable, and joyous person that I remembered him to be, "So who are these two?" He gestured to Sam and Sayume, who had actually been awkwardly standing there during our reunion. "Well, this," I pointed to Sam, "is my sister, Samantha, but I just call her Sam," Natsu became wide eyed as if to say, "WHAAAAAT?" Ignoring this, I continued, "and this," I moved my finger towards Sayume, "is Sayume. They were both incredible helps in my mission, which ended up taking longer than it should have due to a few 'additions' to the roster of dark wizards I had to track down and beat." "Well," Natsu smiled, "it sounds like you've been on quite the adventure." He turned to Sam and Sayume, "It's great to meet you two. Now," he spoke in a more sarcastic tone, "how about we go show the rest of the guild that you aren't dead?" I laughed, "Won't that be quite the surprise?" We strolled down towards the guildhall, regaling each other with our adventures over the past years. I was walking ahead of the rest of the group with Natsu next to me, while Sam and Sayume lagged behind us, talking to Happy, "Wow, you fought all of those guys too?" I shrugged, "Well, I didn't really fight all of them, Erigor was wearing handcuffs after all. I also developed and or stole a new variant of my dragon slayer magic from Cobra that I like to call poisonous flame dragon mode." Natsu slowed down, "Really? That's cool, both Gajeel, who happens to be the iron dragon slayer, and me have the same sort of thing. He can do iron shadow dragon mode, and I've got lighting flame dragon mode." I raised my fists playfully, "Well, I'll have to fight the two of you sometime. So, I assume that that green haired dragon slayer girl or her brother told you I was coming back." "Yeah. Just so you know, that boy is named George and his yellow exceed is named Ackerly, That girl is named Grace, and her blue-furred exceed is called Amy." Ok, I thought to myself, at least now I know who they are so I can thank them later. My thinking was interrupted by what looked like a much larger version of the guildhall, "WOAH! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GUILDHALL?" "Oh yeah, I guess you were never here for that. To make another long story short, the guild was destroyed, so master remade it to be even larger and in my opinion, a bit too excessive. This happened twice actually, although the second time, it was just sold and taken down." I placed my hand on the door, and with a slight amount of nervous hesitation, pushed the door ajar.

The layout of the guild was more open, and with more members to go along with that. Many of those I knew seemed older, as I had expected. Those who had known me stood there, staring in awe, while those who didn't know me were completely puzzled. Erza was the first to speak, "N-Nicholai. You're alive?" "As much as I'll ever be." Unexpectedly, a crowd of several of the other members including Macao, Freed, Bickslow, Erza, and the entire team Shadow Gear, ran towards me, looking ready to tackle me. Not wanting to hurt them, I let them tackle me against my better judgment. Their combined weight, especially since Droy seemed to have gained hundreds of pounds, crushed me, preventing almost all movement. I could hardly speak under the pile of people, "I'VE HEARD OF TOUGH LOVE BUT SHEESH! YOU ARE ALL INHIBITING MY BREATHING WITH THIS DOGPILE!" I squirmed to the front of the pile to see Makarov chuckling, "How are you enjoying your welcome back?" I heated myself up slightly just to make them want to get off of me, "Absolutely fantastic." "Well what do you expect? We thought you've been dead for these past years." His voice took on a more serious tone, "I've been truly worried about you Nicholai, we all have. You know how I think of all those that have grown up in membership of this guild as my children. I have faith in all of my children, including you, but even for a parent, eight years can be quite the shaker of faith. You can tell me the full story some other time. Right now, we can celebrate your return to your home." I began to sob, "Thank you Master," I soon grinned at the irony of the situation, "You know, this is the second time in the past day I've cried in front of one of the Fairy Tail guild masters. Mavis saved me, and you welcome me back with open arms." Makarov spoke in that comforting voice of his, "You will always be welcome here, and after all, you are a part of our Fairy Tail family." Natsu placed his hand on my shoulder, "Don't be crying, now should be a happy time, you're finally back after all of these years." "Right." Makarov gestured behind me, where I saw Sam and Sayume entering the guildhall along with Happy, "Who might those two be?" "Well," I turned to face them, "Why don't you introduce yourselves?" Sayume flew forwards, "Well, my name is Sayume, and as you may already be able to tell, I'm an exceed, but don't underestimate my power just because I'm small. I'm quite the fighter." Sam jumped over the pile of my friends, still trying to get off of each other, "And I'm Samantha, Nicholai's sister. You can call me Sam if you feel like it." If master wasn't already shocked, he certainly was now. "Very well then," Makarov clapped his hands together, trying to regain his composure, "Now that that's out of the way, let us rejoice in the return of a member of our family, as well as the introduction of two more members!" everyone in the guild cheered, "Yeah!"

As the party began, Natsu led me around the guildhall, introducing me to some of the new members that joined while I was gone. The first people he introduced me to were a young blonde girl, and an even younger looking girl with dark blue hair with a white-furred exceed held in her arms. The blue-haired girl spoke first, "Hi, I'm Wendy Marvell. I think I heard Erza say your name was Nicholai?" She seemed nice enough, "Yeah, that's me. Who might that exceed be?" The feline took what I would consider a slightly annoyed tone of voice when speaking to me, "My name is Carla, please don't talk to me like that." "Oh… sorry." The blonde talked next, "So, I noticed you and Natsu walk in together. Do you guys know each other?" I was going to answer her faster, but I couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed with her overly peppy tone of voice, "Yeah. In fact, you could consider him my adoptive brother as he did find me and train me as a wizard." When I said that, she looked almost ready to pass out, "B-brother!?" Just to annoy her, I acted even more careless of the fact. "Yeah, what's the big deal?" Carla interrupted, "Please tell me you aren't as much of a pyrotechnic as he is." I slowly lit my hand on fire, making sure that nothing would actually be set ablaze, "Well, I do know dragon slayer magic, but other than that I don't know why you'd really call me a pyro. It's not like I enjoy burning down buildings." When I said that, it seemed like all three of their heads turned to Natsu.

As we continued to talk, another person approached the table. This one was a tall man with a long black mullet and piercings above his eyes, "So, you're the Salamander's brother huh? You don't look that tough to me." Despite just getting back, I was up for a fight, "You wanna go punk?" The man's arm suddenly turned into a long iron rod, "Absolutely." "So, you must be the iron dragon slayer Gajeel. I've heard from Natsu that you may be pretty strong." He swung at me, "You're about to find out firsthand!" I put my hand up to block his attack, and caught it with the attack pushing me back two feet. I quickly slithered my arm around his to make sure he couldn't move, "What the hell?" The hand that I had previously lit was cloaked in fire once again as I held his arm, "My turn." I hit him straight in the face, knocking him down to the ground. The Lucy, Wendy, and Carla were staring at me, jaws hanging open. I smiled, "You know, it seems that people underestimate you a lot when you're younger than them." Gajeel got back to his feet, "This fight isn't over yet." Just as he was about to attack once again, a small, black-haired exceed with distinct round ears stepped in between the two of us, "That's enough Gajeel, you could end up destroying the guild hall again if you actually try to fight him." The exceed turned to face me, "Hey, I'm Pantherlily. Sorry about Gajeel, he's been looking to win a fight recently after this new grass dragon slayer girl joined Fairy Tail and defeated him pretty easily." I felt kinda bad for the cat, "Don't worry about it. I actually kind of wanted a fight." Sayume flew over after he saw Pantherlily, "Hey, who're you?"

Pantherlily introduced himself once again, "Interesting, as you probably heard me say back there, I'm Sayume." Sayume took notice of the mini-sword sheathed on Lily's back, "Oh, you carry a weapon too. Can you go into battle mode shift too?" Lily looked legitimately surprised, "Wait, how old are you?" Sayume started to do math with his fingers, "Well, not counting the seven year time skip, by the way, don't ask about that, I'm almost seven years old." "Incredible, I was more than twice that age before I could achieve battle mode shift." Pantherlily's personality seemed like it had undergone a big change since he interrupted me and Gajeel's 'fight' not a few seconds ago, "How about I test your strength? You feeling up for some sparring?" Sayume wasn't acting as timid as I remembered him to, "Sure." They both unsheathed their weapons, as they grew larger and more muscular, "Hm, you use a staff? Good choice, but I prefer a sword." Sayume shrugged, "Well, we all have our preferences, but do you know what the advantage of having an expanding staff indoors is?" Lily got into a fighting stance, "What might that be?" Sayume did the same, "Let me show you." They charged at each other, swinging and parrying and swinging again. Sayume pulled a move that I recognized as the one he used in training that I could never evade. Sayume faked a falter in his movements, allowing Pantherlily to try and go for a finishing hit. Lily had raised both of his arms up to deliver the final blow and Sayume stopped faking to swing for Lily's feet. It worked. Lily was knocked off his feet and Sayume quickly dashed in-between him and the floor. Sayume flipped his staff to make it vertical, then extending it, sending Lily flying into the ceiling, "That's what my advantage was. I could expand my weapon to the point where you will hit the ceiling, and unlike your sword, I didn't have to worry about tearing a hole in your stomach" Just as Sayume was about to de-extend his staff, a giant red blade came down inches from his face. Sayume grinned and looked up to see Lily still holding his sword and extending it all the way down to the floor. Sayume shrunk himself and his staff, causing Lily to fall to the floor and do the same. Lily seemed thoroughly impressed, "You're quite the fighter for your age, I have to admit." Sayume crossed his arms, "You're not too bad either." Sayume strolled back over to me as Lily and Gajeel stomped away, "I came over here to tell you that me and Sam have officially joined the guild." He lifted up the drawstring bag on his back to reveal a black fairy tail mark to contrast with his silver fur. "Awesome little buddy."

Natsu came back over to us, bringing with him a dark blue haired woman, who I couldn't help but notice that her hair reminded me of water flow. "So, who are you Ms…" "Juvia. Juvia Lockser." "Juvia. Ok. It's nice to meet you. I'm-" She interrupted, "Nicholai. I heard master call you that." Even though I didn't exactly enjoy talking to new people like this, it would've been even worse if I remained silent, "So, how's life going?" She blushed and turned to face Gray, who was on the completely opposite end of the guildhall, "It's always amazing so long as my darling Gray is here!" As she continued to blush and stare at Gray, I tiptoed over to Natsu, "We should probably walk away now before I start catching her insanity. Believe me, it's amusing, but I don't think it's very healthy." Natsu had no quarrel with the thought. "Natsu, are there any more new members?" He thought out loud while adding up new members with his fingers, "Well, there was Lucy, Juvia, Gajeel, Wendy, Carla, and Lisanna isn't exactly new, but she was gone for two years, so you haven't met her yet. There's also Pantherlily, Luke, Grace, and George." He seemed to see something and he looked over my shoulder, "Speak of the devil. How's it going George?" Dread overcame me as I turned around to see George. I had to make it up to him. "George. I'm really sorry for earlier, but I've got two things for you as reprimand." I walked up to him, removing my cloak and dropping my scythe. I shoved my hand into one of my pockets; fishing for the roll of money I had decided to give him. Presenting the jewel, I spoke slowly, "Here you go. Two-million jewel," I put my other hand behind my back and lowered my head, "And any physical payback you may feel like exacting." I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for impact. Nothing. I opened my eyes and looked up to see his face redder than a hot pepper, and him staring straight at me in complete embarrassment. He choked out, "No… It's fine… Really." Now I felt bad for embarrassing him. I scratched the back of my head in slight embarrassment as well, "You know, I just wanted to make it up to you. Please don't get embarrassed, or I'll feel even guiltier." After a few more seconds of being utterly flustered, I spoke again, "Well, if you aren't going to hit me, at least take the money. You earned it by beating Raniel." He still stood there, nearly motionless, as I kept my arm extended. I was determined to make sure he was repaid for helping me. I walked up to him, slapping the bundle of cash into his palm, "If you won't accept it as payment, accept it as a gift for helping me. I won't let you walk away without some compensation, so please go ahead and take it." I felt his fingers slowly contract around the roll as he nodded, "Alright." After he had taken the money, he walked over to Natsu, who raised his hand for a high-five, "Hey, what's going on?" George, ignoring this, whispered something into Natsu's ear. His face immediately shifted from joyful to deadly serious, "Get Luke. We're heading over there, now." I walked over to them, "Why? What's going on?" Natsu faced me, "It's nothing you need to worry about, just stay here and enjoy the party." I reluctantly remained where I was as they went to fetch this Luke guy.

After about five minutes of pacing, I spotted Makarov sitting on the bar, and as bored as I was, I decided to go talk to him. He waved to me, "Hey Nicholai. You enjoyin' the party?" "Yeah. Despite not really having introduced myself to a couple of people, I like the new people I've met." Looked around to see yet another brawl breaking out, "It's just wonderful to be here after so long, to be back with my family, it's absolutely wonderful." He smiled, "Well that's great to hear. So, I assume you'll be taking part in the s-class advancement trials?" I sat on the barstool next to him, "If you'll allow me to, I would love to be one of the examiners." "Great! Just so you know, the roster for this year's trials is Juvia, Gray, Natsu, Cana, Wendy, Elfman, Gajeel, and Grace." I grinned, "You made quite the interesting picks, but then again, I haven't seen anyone's progress over the past years." Gildarts, who had just walked up and sat down, spoke up, "So, you're Nicholai right?" "Yeah? Gildarts?" "Yep. So, what's this I've been hearing about you and Natsu being brothers?" I sighed, "We aren't blood related. It's just a term of endearment." He seemed somewhat disappointed with my answer, "Oh, ok." The three of us sat there in silence, watching the rest of the party go on. I noticed Sam talking to and having a drinking contest with Cana, which she was losing horribly. Sayume was having fun with the other exceeds, eating with Happy, competing with Lily, and attempting to get Carla to stop calling him 'tomcat'. After a while, Makarov spoke, "Nicholai, are you really going to just sit here throughout the whole party?" I leaned back from my stool and slightly onto the counter, "I've never really been one to enjoy the whole 'party' idea." Makarov groaned, but before he could say anything else, Gildarts placed his hand on my shoulder, making me nearly yelp, "Oh come on Nicholai, even if you aren't a party-person, don't you want to at least hang out with the other members of the guild, not to mention your partner and sister?" He actually made quite the compelling case since I am not often one to like this kind of thing, "Alright, I'll go."

I slid off of the barstool and walked over to the table where my sister looked like she was about to pass out from alcohol poisoning. Looking at her and Cana in the same vicinity; I realized just how much they looked alike. Cana waved to me, mug in hand, "I've got to say Nicholai, your sister is quite the party animal! She's had at least four mugs of this stuff!" She said pointing to the extra-strong alcohol that she preferred. Since I knew my sister probably wasn't Cana-level at not getting drunk, I nudged her shoulder, hoping she wasn't too intoxicated. She slowly looked up with her eyelids barely open, "Heeeeeyyyy *hiccup* Nicholai." Sam poured herself another mug full of mead as she looked at me, somberly, "You know, the day Mom and Dad died, you were the only thing keeping me alive. I remember it all, every excruciating detail. I woke up to the sounds, smells, and heat of a burning house. I started to scream, which caused you to wake up, and as soon as you saw what was going on, you grabbed me by the wrist and dashed out of the door, straight to Mom and Dad's room. Just as we got there though, we were greeted with the sight of four men in our parent's room, laughing, setting the house alight, and throwing our parent's limp bodies over their shoulders. I was just about to scream again, but before I could, you immediately covered my mouth, and we both ran to the emergency exit that Mom and Dad had added just for this type of occasion. Just our luck, because when we got there, a huge fire blocked our only exit. I started to freak out while you were trying to think of a way out, and the wizards ended up noticing us." She seemed to chuckle as she thought about it, "I had completely lost it, while my eight year old brother was saving my ass. Hell, you had good reason to do so, aside from me not keeping a level head." She took another swig from her mug, "Mom and Dad always taught us magic, since they were big targets in the dark guild community and wanted us to be able to protect ourselves. I never really got it back then, and my magic was quite evident of that. You however, you were the big protégé. You were always impressing, always surpassing expectations. You knew only one of us was going to get out alive, and since you were the only one who could probably stall for long enough, you forced me to leave. Just before the dark wizards got there, you used your fire manipulation magic to part the fire, threw me through the exit, and turned back to face those murderers." "You know, that actually explains a lot." She finished off her mug, and smiled at me, "You know, I nearly passed out when I found you alive. After I had gotten out of the house on that night, I saw them walking out, carrying Mom, and Dad, and… you. I saw you three, just dangling there over their shoulders, and I couldn't bear to watch. After that, I just tried to forget about it, but no matter what, I couldn't stop remembering how life had been before. You know the rest of the story from there. I found you a couple years later, but was too scared to even help you. A few years later, I meet you once again, and you left to go save your guild. I heard that Tenrou Island had been destroyed, and I was really depressed for a long time, but eventually, I decided to fully move on. I just knew that if you, Mom, and Dad were watching me from above, you wouldn't want me doing nothing with my life. Although, I guess despite my decision to move foreword, I still clung to the hope that you were alive, and I would visit that place we agreed to meet every day. Then one day, as you know, you came back. I guess I'm just trying to say… I- I'm just glad you're alive." I wrapped my arm around her shoulder, "I'm glad that I've got such an amazing sister." While I was holding her, I felt her go limp, indicating that she passed out. "Geez, you really were drunk." I picked her up with my left arm under her shoulders and my right arm under her knees. It was weird, her skin felt especially warm even with my heat resistance, although if she really did have that high of a temperature, she'd most likely be dead if her magic wasn't based around it. Either way, since parties here tend to end with everyone just passing out, I kicked a few chairs into place and set her down to sleep. I then decided to walk over to a table where the exceeds were hanging out.

"Hey you guys! How's it going?" I said, waving. "It's all good." Happy and Sayume both muffled with mackerels stuffed in their mouths. Lily laughed, "Your behavior from being a seven year old despite you being such a strong warrior is pretty comical, I must admit." Carla sighed, "You two could at least finish chewing first." Erza then approached the table, holding a piece of strawberry cake, "Hey Nicholai." "Oh, Erza. I actually needed to ask you something." "Yeah? What is it?" I ushered her to another table before I talked to her "Well, I know the s-class exams are coming up, and Makarov said I could be an examiner. Just how much stronger has everyone gotten?" She smiled, setting down her cake, "I'll admit, you won't be that much of an examiner if you don't train like hell for this week. I wouldn't mind training you if that's all right." "Hell yeah! Thanks!" I threw my fist down against the table in my excitement, and I felt my knuckles get covered with frosting, crumbs, and strawberry filling, "Oh no…" Erza clenched her fists as a sinister look appeared on her face, "Even though we are in the guild hall…" She requipped her most powerful weapon, Demon Blade Crimson Sakura, "I won't hold anything back from those who dare to ruin my cake!" She chased me about the guildhall for quite a while before calming down. She took so long in fact, that several other quarrels broke out as a result of her swinging mindlessly, aiming for my neck, but missing every time. She could only finally calm down when Mirajane saved my life with a spare piece of strawberry cake that she found. Erza quickly gobbled the cake up and passed out, since each second with that sword of hers took a lot of magic energy out of her, so she must have been understandably tired. By this time, almost everyone else excluding me and Mira had either gone home or fallen asleep on the floor.

"Uh, thanks for saving me with that spare piece of cake." She smiled while letting out a light yawn, "No problem, but I'm getting pretty tired, how about you?" I shoved my hands into my pockets, "I think I'm going to wait for Natsu to get back… oh. By the way, what day is today?" "Um, it's already past midnight, so I think it's the tenth." "Okay, wonder what I should do for it…" Why am I even worrying about it? It really isn't that important right now. While I had been thinking, Mira walked over to where Elfman and Lissana were sleeping and had lain down right beside them. I still was planning on waiting for Natsu to get back, but seeing everyone in the guild hall sleeping, and the fact that it was now past midnight really made me want to fall into a deep sleep. For the next few hours, I just roamed about the guildhall, trying to find something to do until Natsu got back. I found some leftover meat, along with some oil and matches, which were the ingredients to mine and Natsu's favorite drink, liquid fire. After huffing down the meat, I tried to make myself some liquid fire, and I took about five attempts to finally get it to stay in the cup and not light the floors on fire. At least I didn't try to make this with my fire. The guild would've been up in smoke if I couldn't have eaten those failures of mine. I thought as I slowly sipped on my fifth and successful attempt at a drink. I took a look at the clock on the wall to see that it was already one-thirty, "Ugh, when are you going to get here Natsu?" I finished my drink and began to stare at the ceiling while lying across the length of three barstools, occasionally checking the time. I eventually dozed off, somewhere around three in the morning.

Before waking up, I found myself in a dream, which, as they usually were, was a lucid one. The area I was in was a flat, featureless, white plain. Even though I always had complete control over my dreams, I just felt like walking around in silence, since peaceful moments like that weren't easy to come by in the guild. In times when there was pure silence, I would often find myself thinking, shifting from one idea to another, and almost never finishing a single thought. After what seemed like about a few minutes, a sound came from somewhere, "Nicholai…" I heard a voice trailing off. It sounded feminine, with a touch of motherly caring and love. Another one came a few short moments afterwards, saying my name once again, "Nicholai…" This one had a much deeper, sterner tone, as if belonging to a middle-aged man. Both voices kept repeating my name, over and over, until eventually, the both of them uttered another phrase, "We're proud of you, both you and your sister. Be sure to take care of her." Two silhouettes appeared in front of me, a man and a woman. I could see no details, but I knew who they were. As soon as I fully processed what was happening, I ran after them, but for every step I took, they moved even farther away. "Son… you can't obsess over us. You need to let go." Tears welled up in my eyes as I tripped, falling down to my knees. "But… I-I need you two here with me! I've lived for so long with absolutely no one, and even though I found a new family in Natsu, Sayume, Sam, and the rest of Fairy tail… all I've ever truly wanted is to be with you!" I didn't care if they were real or just figments of my imagination, I was pouring out my heart to them. After a few seconds of me lying on my knees crying, a felt a warm hand brush up against my cheek. I looked up to see my mother, Katria Kasai, not just as a silhouette, but everything was filled in. She looked just like Sam, save for her looking like she was in her forties and her hair being in a ponytail rather than nothing at all, "Nicholai, look at all you've done since we passed on. You grew up to be a good man, even without our help, or even knowledge that we existed." She smiled with pride as I felt a hand come down onto my shoulder. This time, it was my father, Alexander Kasai. He seemed to be the same age as Mom, and he had a neatly trimmed brown beard along with brown hair that seemed to have a slight red tint, "Nicholai, you've gotten so strong. You've joined a guild, made friends, and followed in your parent's footsteps of tracking down dark wizards, even if in your case it was for avenging us. I can't express how proud I am, both as your father, and the one who first taught you magic. I can say with confidence, you've done just fine without us, and the same goes for your sister." I had stopped crying, and I pulled both of them into an embrace, "Thanks you two. Now I can finally feel closure, and hopefully I can help Sam with that too. I know you said to let go, and even though this is the first time we've met, I'm really going to miss you two." They both chuckled a bit before responding, "We'll miss you too, but be sure to not visit us for at least fifty or so years." I laughed a bit too.

"Okay, I promise."

Nicholai: Okay… I'm satisfied!

Sam: *Is passed out from alcohol poisoning*

Me: I'll take that as a "satisfied"! … and Sayume?

Sayume: *snores*

Me: …and yet another satisfied customer! Well, since I am no longer at risk of being beaten up, I think I should end the dialog here, but before I do, I may not update for a while again just because of school (just putting that out there!). Anyways, thanks for reading chapter 16 of Rising Fire, don't forget to favorite, follow, and leave a review down below. Thanks again for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter!