Chapter 5: The Past with Fairies
"So could one of you guys tell me how you met Salamander here, because you all already know how I met him?" stated Lucy as she and the rest of her group sat down at table that could accommodate eight which was one more than their not so little group.
"Actually if you guys could call me by my real name that would be greatly appreciated." said the Salamander, which caused the girls to look at one another checking if anybody actually knew his real name. But one after another they all shook their heads no signifying that none of them knew his name that is until they looked at Master Makarov who was rocking the biggest shit eating grin possible.
"You girls don't know his name do you?" asked Makarov still sporting that same grin.
"Oh my god this is too great, it looks like I know him the best so I will tell you how I met Salamander, after he properly introduces himself." said Makarov way too happy about this slightly awkward situation.
"Thanks Maky." replied the Salamander with a smirk directed at Makarov.
"Hey I thought I told you to never call me that again." Makarov said in a deeper tone than he usually speaks in.
"But I had just asked you to call me by my real name, which you chose to ignore as well Maky." said the Salamander with his smirk still present.
"Yes but if I did that then you wouldn't have been able to introduce yourself to the women of my guild properly." refuted Makarov.
"You and always trying to be proper, you know that I really don't care about that." said the Salamander.
"Oh is that the persona of the big bad Salamander coming out to play." taunted Makarov, causing the girls at the table to be startled at this strange development.
"Don't make me kick your ass again old man." growled the Salamander at the old small man on the other side of the table.
"Look who's call who old, and you never beat me once, we agreed that it was a tie." bellowed Makarov now somewhat making a scene and causing most of the people in the restaurant look their direction.
"You want the Salamander old man, then you are going to get him!" shouted out the Salamander as he stood up from the table and ignited this fists on fire. Which startled Lucy having never seen him do that before, and also scared the rest of the customers there, which soon prompted an organized evacuation of all customers after paying their bills, most of the time by quite a bit more than the bill asked for. All of the girls at the table were just about to step in when the most unexpected thing happened.
"HAHAHAHAHA, oh man Makarov that never gets old does it?" said the Salamander as he then fell back into his seat laughing up a storm.
"AHAHAHAH, no it doesn't my boy, and it works like a charm every time." said Makarov also laughing as much as the Salamander.
"Could someone please explain what just happened?" asked Lisanna, knowing that all of the other girls where thinking the same thing.
"You're going to have to explain this time Makarov I still can't stop laughing." said the Salamander in between bursts of laughter.
"Can do my boy, well if you girls look around you will see why we did that." explained Makarov gesturing to the restaurant with his hands.
"Well everyone seems to have left the restaurant within the last minute." stated Ur seeing that the only other people still there was the staff.
"I don't get it why did you want everyone gone, and actually why did they leave so quickly?" asked a dumbfounded Lucy.
"Very simple my dear, they all left because they heard that I was challenging the legendary Salamander that all of those stories are about. And since most of the customers weren't mages they didn't want to stick around to see if he was the real deal, and for why, now we have this whole place to ourselves so we can now talk in peace. Also it is extremely funny to do that when I am with him, did you see some of those customers literally dump the contents of their wallets on to the table and book it out of here." explained Makarov with a huge grin on his face.
"I did Makarov, and thanks for doing that with me, you are the only one willing to do that, I really can't understand why though." said the Salamander with a happy smile on his face.
"I can think of a few reasons why no one does that with you." Lucy mumbled to herself.
"You know I am always glad to do that with you my boy, it's now become somewhat of a tradition hasn't it?" said Master Makarov.
"Indeed it has Makarov my old friend." replied the Salamander with a fond smile prominently displayed.
"Well you should get back to your introduction now that no one is here." said Makarov urging the Salamander on.
"Okay Makarov, alright ladies, my real name is Natsu, Natsu Dragneel." he introduced himself with a grin.
"Well it is nice to meet you Natsu." replied Erza.
"Nice to know your real name after all of these years." said Ur as she scooted her chair closer to him.
"That's a really nice name Natsu." said Mira smiling at him.
"It's nice to have a proper introduction Natsu." said Lisanna also giving him a small smile.
"Well everyone has said the usual stuff, so I have a question Natsu, do you try to keep your real name a secret?" asked Lucy now getting to the question that has been bugging her as soon as she realized she didn't know his name.
"No not really, what usually happens is that people figure out who I am and then never ask me for my real one. I mean all of you did it, which I don't mind because it is just what happens whenever I meet someone." replied Natsu.
"Well now that, we have that out of the way lets go back to Lucy's original question." said Makarov bringing all of the attention back to him.
"Another reason why I wanted to tell how I met him first is due to the fact that it is extremely boring, when compared to how you ladies met him. So on one of the guild master meetings in walks this salmon haired man and walks straight into the middle of the room and asks if this is the guild master meeting, which no one answers because no one knows who he is. So I finally tell him yes that it is, to which he responds good, I am the representative of the guild The Slayers, I know that we haven't been to one of these in ages, but we have decided to come back and try to form some bonds between our guilds in the future. Needless to say all of the guild Masters myself included were taken aback by this because up till now there had never once been meetings were the Master of the Slayers has joined us. So one of the Masters I can't remember witch one asked who he was and how do we know that he is telling the truth. Natsu's reply was I am Natsu Dragneel but I am guessing that most of you know me by my moniker the Salamander, and as for proof to my claims this should suffice, he said while pointing to his emblem on his right shoulder. Well one of the Master's still didn't believe him so he challenged him to a dual, it the Master of Phantom Lord Master Jose, well to finish this off quick Natsu here made him look like a fool. And ever since then Natsu has gone to those meetings in place of his Master who I still haven't seen yet and pretty much ever since that first meeting Natsu and I go out after the meeting and get something to eat and talk about what we have been up to. So like I said at the beginning not that exciting." finished Makarov.
"You're right Master that was incredibly boring considering who you were meeting." replied Ur.
"And yours is so much better, Ur my dear." said Master Makarov.
"So much better, okay now picture this scene a town about half the size of Magnolia in the snowy country just north of Fiore." said Ur really dramatically until someone asked a question.
"Wait you didn't live in Fiore and you actually meet Natsu out there?" asked Lucy.
"Yes, why is that so shocking?" Ur asked Lucy back.
"Well you said that you were a rogue mage back then, and I just assumed that you could only be a well-known rogue mage in Fiore considering that the other countries still support the Witch Hunt." stated Lucy.
"Well I am just that awesome Lucy, so back to my story; most of the buildings were completely destroyed or caught on fire which actually looked beautiful with the constant snow falling. I'm standing there facing down the demon Deliora, who stood three stories high, and had arms that reached all the way to the ground; and on the top of its head were two menacing horns that were in front of its huge main. I then took one quick look over my shoulder to see my two students Grey and Lyon passed out." continued Ur until once again being interrupted by Lucy.
"You mean Natsu was actually one of the slayers that took down Deliora and saved you and Grey, and who is this Lyon guy?" asked Lucy.
"For the love of god Lucy you better stop interrupting or so help me, but yes this is the same story that I told you before just with more details, and Lyon as I said was another of my students who trained alongside Grey, he chose to go to a different Guild to try and find his own path." replied Ur not a fan of being cut of in her story, then again who is?
"Sorry it won't happen again Ur" whimpered Lucy, clearly afraid of Ur and rightly so.
"So as I was saying I looked at them and just knew I couldn't let them die to Deliora, so I made up my mind right then to cast ICE SHELL on Deliora to seal that demon away for good, but the down side of casting a spell like that were no one can undo it and it would cost me my life. Which at that time was an easy price to pay in order to save my two students, but right as I was about to start casting it a giant ball of fire exploded on Deliora's face knocking it back a few yards. I was so confused on what just happened and looked everywhere trying to figure out where it had come from.
I finally looked up and in the air were two figures floating their conversing about something. Then the one that turned out to be Natsu took off at Deliora and then he fell like a meteorite and hit Derliora in the chest causing it to roar out in pain. The next thing I know is this beautiful blue haired woman landed next to me and asks if I need any healing, I quickly directed her to my students and she then got to work. That was when I noticed that she had a white cat with her that also had wings which I then realized was how they flew around, I tried to ask the cat a few questions but she kept on giving me the response of tch, which is really annoying. The blue haired girl then came back to me and started to heal all of my injuries except for the leg because that was completely gone, and she even apologized to me for not being able to fix that.
Then there was a loud roar from Deliora which then caused the girl to call out to her cat, and I can't remember its name but it was definitely a girl's name, and they took flight once more and headed into battle against Deliora. You should have seen those guys working together each pair of two were completely on the same brain waves knowing what the other one wanted to do. The girl and her white cat and Natsu and his blue one, working as one unit that is until Deliora got a good hit onto the girl and she and her cat were launched away. The next thing I know there is this huge explosion of magic energy, and Natsu is now standing in front Deliora with a huge pillar of flames the height of Deliora.
Then the real show began, Natsu let out a roar that I could have sworn came from an actual dragon and charged at the demon easily dodging the punches it threw at him, which allowed him to get to Deliora's. With one fist covered in golden flames he smashed into its knee, making this sickening cracking sound which was followed by a pain filled roar from Deliora as it fell to its knees in pain, but Natsu did the exact same thing to its other lag. Making Deliora unable to walk, which wasn't enough for this guy, the just kept on hitting in its back, face, and pretty much anywhere he could find a small opening, he eventually destroyed both elbows as well, meaning Deliora could no longer move without being in excruciating pain.
Natsu then rocketed up into the air, by shooting flames from his feet and, once he was about three hundred feet in the air. He formed two balls of fire on in each hand, and then he bought them together and then launched it at the downed Deliora. It hit Deliora causing it to let one final scream and then everything in a one hundred yard radius was reduced to ash, Natsu then let out his own triumphant roar and then all of a sudden started to plummet back down to the ground. I was so concerned that he was going to die from the impact but at the last second his blue cat caught him and then flew of before I could even say thank you two either Natsu or the blue haired girl.
Then on one of Masters trips to the guild masters meeting he decided to take me along where I actually got to meet the Salamander. The one responsible for saving my life and the lives of my students." finished Ur with her story glad that Lucy didn't but in ever again.
"You remember that way better than I do Ur." replied Natsu with a sheepish smile.
"Wow" was the only response from the rest of the group present, because they just now heard that Natsu took down a demon from the book of Zeref pretty much all by himself.
"Hey Natsu what was the name of that Blue haired girl, I would like to thank her in person sometime?" asked Ur.
"Oh that's Wendy she's like my little sister, I will try and bringer her next time I stop by if Carla will let me." replied Natsu.
"Wait someone can actually stop you?" asked Lucy not believing that someone could stop Natsu from doing anything that he wants.
"Yea Carla she was the white cat from Ur's story and is Wendy's partner they go everywhere together. Oh and Ur don't feel bad at how she treated you back then, that's how she treats most people, it took me forever to get her to start talking me like a normal person, she also is really protective of Wendy." stated Natsu with a smile.
"So where is your blue cat from the story and what is his name." asked Lucy cheerfully, finding it funny that two of the Slayers, who were known for their ferociousness, had flying cats as partners.
"His name was Happy and he unfortunately died about two years ago." stated Natsu instantly losing his smile, and causing both of Strauss sisters to flinch and then have very guilt expressions.
"Sorry to hear that Natsu I wish I could have met him." replied Ur.
"I'm so sorry I asked Natsu, I didn't know." said Lucy really regretting how cheerfully she asked that question it must have just made it worse for Natsu.
"Its fine Lucy you couldn't have known, and hey Happy wouldn't want me dwelling on the past." replied Natsu with a sad smile, still obviously hurt about his little buddy death.
"I'm so sorry Natsu; I wish I could go back and change it I really do. I'm so sorry it's all my fault." cried out Mira as she burst into tears, which shocked everyone except for Lisanna and Natsu.
"No Mira, it's not your fault if it's anyone's fault it's mine, I was so stupid to try and talk to that beast thinking it was still Elfman. I am so sorry, I don't know what I can do to make it up to you but I will somehow." cried out Lisanna while also crying like her big sister, now everyone except for the dragon slayer at the table were really confused.
"Hey, hey, you two calm down and listen to me here." said Natsu as he went over to the two sisters and brought them into a big group hug,
"Shhh, Shhh, I am going to say it to you two like I said it back then you are not at fault here, no one is at fault." he said while still hugging them.
"How can you honestly say that to us, after we caused your best friend to die." whispered Mira while still slightly sobbing.
"Simple Mira, Happy died doing what he thought was right, it is what me and him did and I still do. If there is any chance that we can save someone than we take it, that is what he did back then it's just who he was, if he had done nothing and you or Lisanna had died when he knew that he could have helped. He probably would have been so distraught that he would have starved himself to death like he almost did that one time, even though we all knew that he couldn't have done anything to save that little girl. But Happy didn't care and wouldn't listen to us for a long time, that was until I got through to him and made a promise that as long as either of us were still breathing we would do anything to save someone in need, which is what he did back then. So please stop blaming yourselves you two, it isn't what Happy would have wanted." said Natsu as a few tears escaped while talking to them.
"So from now on I don't ever want to hear an I'm sorry from either of you two or that it is your fault, what I want to see is you two being like what he was named after and what he always made me feel, and still makes me feel about life even though it can suck really bad sometimes. You just got to get back up and be happy." said Natsu now smiling at them.
"Okay we'll try." they both replied with small smiles.
"Good, now all three of us have a story to tell so that the rest of the group can understand what's going on."
Flash Back to two years ago:
"Mira I evacuated all of the villagers what do you… Oh my god what happened to you?" asked Lisanna as she ran to her sister seeing that she was severely injured.
"It was too strong, this job was too far out of our league." replied Mira clearly in a lot of pain with one of her bones actually sticking out of her forearm.
"Here let me wrap that to stop the bleeding, where is Elfman?" asked Lisanna as she started to wrap Mira's arm which hurt more while getting wrapped up.
"Not here anymore, you have to go now Lisanna it's coming for me." said Mira while she tried to push Lisanna away.
"But where is Elfman and we are both not leaving without you." stated a determined Lisanna.
"You don't understand Lisanna, the beast took over Elfman he's gone you need to run right now!" shouted Mira finally getting up on her knees still trying to push Lisanna away with one arm.
"RRRAAAAWWW" came a roar as the Beast emerged from the trees and looked at the two sisters.
"GO Lisanna, run while you still can!" shouted Mira, but Lisanna didn't listen.
"Hey Elfman, I know that you are still in there, don't you recognize your sisters, it's me little Lisanna and right there is Mirajane. Let's just all forget about this and head home together." Lisanna said with a huge smile on her face and her arms spread wide for a hug.
The Beast stood there for a while looking at the girl in front of him, and then decided that it no longer was interested and swung its arm down to smash the girl to nothing.
"Lisanna!" screamed Mira in horror as she saw the arm come down on her sister, but it was stopped by something or more like someone. Standing there holding up the arm was Natsu in all his glory, holding back the fist that would have flattened her a second later.
"This is the part where you run for your life little girl." said Natsu with his grin on his face even in a situation like this.
"I can't that's my brother in there, I need to get him back so we can still be a family." replied Lisanna sad that she might lose a brother if she doesn't do something.
"Oh, okay now things are starting to mak…" said Natsu but was cut off by being swatted away with the Beast's other hand.
"Big brother Elfman, I know you can her me, st.." but she too was stopped mid-sentence, but she wasn't as thrown as far or as hard. When she looked back at where she used to be standing, there now was the Beast's fists making a little crater, when he lifted his fist up Lisanna noticed a patch of blue that didn't used to be there.
"Oh you are so fucked now Beast!" bellowed Natsu as he charged in and started land a ton of his FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST on the Beast.
"First you take their brother from them, and then you hurt one of them and were about to kill the other one twice!" shouted Natsu as he started to throw in some elbows and kicks into the mix.
"But no that is not enough for you asshole is it, you then had to go and smash my best friend into the ground! FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!" shouted Natsu unleashing it point blank on the Beast, making it revert back to Elfman. Natsu, then slung him over his shoulder and headed back to the sisters. They were both startled to see him carrying Elfman back with him.
"Oh my god sir, thank you so much I don't know how I will ever repay you." said Lisanna to Natsu.
"Thank you, thank you, thanks." said Mira not being able to come up with anything else.
"It's no problem I do need to go and check on my friend though." Natsu said as he put Elfman down and headed towards the crater. Once he got there his heart jumped to his throat because of what he saw, down in the middle of the crater was Happy, lying in a pool of his own blood making his once perfect blue coat of fur no longer that.
"Happy can you hear me little buddy?" asked Natsu panicking at how much blood there was considering how small he was.
"Nat su?" Happy coughed out.
"I here Happy, please don't talk you need to conserve your energy." Natsu said looking around trying to figure out what he could do to save his friend.
"But Natsu" he coughed out in between gasps for air.
"Happy please listen to me for once dammit." replied Natsu extremely mad at the situation that he is in.
"Is she safe?" asked Happy wheezing in between breaths.
"Who are you talking about Happy?" asked Natsu obviously not thinking clearly.
"The girl with the white hair." stated Happy struggling more and more as time went on.
"Oh them, don't worry little buddy thanks to you they are both safe and sound and can return home as one big happy family." said Natsu while crying, knowing now what was going to be happening very soon.
"Good I am so glad that I could help this time." replied Happy now smiling up at Natsu.
"Happy you idiot, you have always helped me and many others more times than I can count." said Natsu while tears kept coming.
"Our promise?" asked Happy really quietly just enough for Natsu.
"Of course I remember our promise to each other, as long as one of us is still breathing right?" asked Natsu looking down at his best friend.
"Aye Sir." whispered Happy and then closed his eyes while still having that smile on his face that just made everyone happy when seeing it.
"Come on little buddy you just got to stay with me a little longer, you can't leave me right now we haven't tried every type of fish there is yet." said Natsu as he was now openly crying for the friend that he just lost, while picking him up in his arms for one final hug. Natsu stayed this way for the next five minutes, with the two sisters having watched the whole thing and now both of the feeling completely at fault for what just happened.
Natsu then got up and wrapped Happy in his cape and then headed back to the two sisters.
"Where are you two headed?" asked Natsu as he handed the little bundle over two Lisanna and went to pick up Elfman.
"What are you doing?" asked Mira shocked that this man looked like he was going to still help them after what just happened.
"Carrying this guy because neither of you two will be able to, so let's go." stated Natsu with almost no emotion.
"It's all my fault, I am so sorry sir." Lisanna cried out as she hugged the bundle that sacrificed his life for hers.
"You two are not at fault here, no one is at fault, now let's get going." stated Natsu as he started to lead the way just so that the two sisters would start walking.
The rest of the time no words were spoken between the three of them. They boarded the train heading for Magnolia which surprising to the two sisters that Natsu came along with them; they didn't say anything not knowing what they really could say at a time like this. Once at Magnolia Natsu carried Elfman all the way to the front doors of the guild, which is where someone spoke the first words between the three of them in a long time.
"Here's your brother, may I have my friend back?" Natsu asked as Lisanna quickly handed over the bundle that contained his dead best friend. And with that he continued on past the guild and headed for the forest, and wasn't seen by the two sisters again, they learned about a month later that it was the Salamander and his cat that saved their lives that day.
End of Flash back:
"So after I left you two I went to the area that I found his egg, and made a grave for him looking over the whole valley and Magnolia, Happy really did like that few from up there." said Natsu finishing the whole story, causing all of them to cry towards the end when he told them of his last words with happy.
This caused all of them to also come to the realization that the person Natsu had to visit before he went to check up on Lucy was Happy. This once again caused almost all of them to start crying again. After they all calmed down they went back to eating and struck up some normal conversation with each other, talking about this and that.
"I think you really would have liked these people from Fairy Tail, Happy." Natsu whispered to himself, quietly enough for no one else to hear with a sad smile on his lips.
End of Chapter
Author's Notes:
So thanks for reading. My only question is did I do Happy death okay, because if I didn't I am so sorry, I got really sad while writing it. It really make me wonder how some of those writers out there can keep writing sad stories. Well that's it for now and by the way Natsu and Erza's fight will be in the next chapter. So as always feel free to leave a review.
Until the next chapter
Digem Out!