I think I'm gonna start making the chapters shorter and more frequent. It'll make it way easier for me to edit and stuff. What do you guys think?
"FAIRY'S DIVINE PILLARS!"
Beams of pale gold light erupted from the ground at random around the currently levitating first master of Fairy Tail, Mavis Vermilion. The group had been clearing out the wyverns nest for only a few minutes, and yet half of the nest was already destroyed. Broken egg shells and other rubble lay scattered on the limestone floors of the wyvern nest, and the walls were illuminated constantly by the magic being used within the cave. The remaining wyverns huddled together at the back of their den, shooting off streams of fire at small group of Fairy Tail mages.
The rest of Team Seven would've aided Mavis further in clearing out the wyverns, but beforehand she'd told them that she wanted to show them a bit of her magic as well as practice a bit, her logic being that not using any magic for over one hundred years ought to leave a person a little rusty.
So Team Seven just stood back and watched Mavis single handedly take on and defeat a whole nest of wyverns, much to the chagrin of Aki. Even though the budget dragons had thick skin as well as scales to protect themselves, Mavis' magic tore through them like they were no more than glorified geckos.
She had quite the array of spells, and they all seemed to have quite different effects. Just a few minutes earlier, they'd seen a spell called Fairy Beam tear through several wyverns standing in a row, going through the first and out the last like a worm traveling through a series of books.
Just after that, they witnessed one of her defensively oriented spells effortlessly block a wyverns' full fire breath attack, which was nothing to scoff at in the least. Even after all this, Mavis never seemed to slow down. She didn't look any more tired than when she started, save maybe some deeper breaths.
"Wow... she's really goin at it, huh?" muttered Gray, raising an eyebrow in amusement.
"Yep!" exclaimed Aki, looking at Mavis with admiration. "After all, she's the one who founded our guild! She has to be awesome!"
Erza watched the Mavis unleash another devastating spell on the poor wyverns. "Yeah, she definitely is." She said, nodding.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow and looked over at Erza with an eye smile. "Well you're finally starting to loosen up." He stated.
Erza looked over at him with an eyebrow raised and frowning in confusion. "What do you mean by that?" She asked. Natsu snickered in the background, but it went unnoticed.
"I can just tell," Kakashi started. "the way you speak, the posture you hold, it's far different than when I first met you."
Erza blinked at what he just said. She was rather surprised at his declaration to be perfectly honest. Not at what he said about her now, but how he said she acted beforehand. Did they all really see me as so tough and orderly? She wondered, but a second later she pretty much answered her own question. Of course they did! Now that I think about it, all I ever really did was order them around and tell them what NOT to do... How could they not see me as some sort of by-the-book rune knight?
She looked up at Kakashi, who was still eye smiling as he watched Mavis take care of the wyverns. I'm going to have to work on it... but I'll get there eventually. She thought with determination. Still though, did I subconsciously start acting more casual around Kakashi? Have I really come to trust and like him this much?... I've only known him for around a year, not counting his absence, and yet it feels like I've known him for years.
Deciding to think more on the matter later, she put it on the back burner and focused on the matter at hand, which happened to be wrapping up fairly quickly. Mavis somehow managed to kill every single wyvern in the den without getting a single bit of dirt or blood on her pink dress, or even her wavy golden hair.
Mavis giggled as she skipped her way back to where the team was waiting. In her opinion, the mission had gone perfectly. She mentally went through her little to-do checklist in her head. Use my magic? Check! Impress my new team? Hopefully check? Meet Natsu? Check!
But this caused her to be distracted, and with distraction comes carelessness. She was almost back to the group when she heard a faint roaring sound and a small bit of heat on her back. Her eyes went wide as she turned around, only to see a massive fireball heading straight towards her. There was no time. No time for Fairy's Tears, no time for Fairy Sphere, no time for anything. All she could do was stand there and hope it didn't injure her too badly.
However just as the raging inferno was about to reach her, blue sand, sparkling from the light of the fire, formed a protective shield in front of her. The massive stream of fire hit the makeshift shield with a crash, but the heat didn't get through, and the blue sand didn't even crack, move, or anything really. It just stayed in that same formation, protecting the girl from harm.
Mavis spun around and saw Natsu, leaning on his scythe with his hand outstretched. But there was something else in the picture. A massive jar looking object was strapped to his back. She noticed that the lid was off, and tiny particles of blue sand leaked out. Why is the sand blue? She wondered. And why does he keep it in that huge jar? Isn't it heavy? She figured that she could ask Natsu soon enough.
The blue sand started moving once again and flowed like a small stream of water towards the half-dead wyvern that shot the fireball at her. It arranged itself into a decently large spike, and hovered above the downed wyvern for a few seconds before plunging downwards and impaling the creature through the chest.
It let out one final roar as it perished, flailing it's neck around before finally coming to a rest, never to move again. Mavis turned back to the group and saw Natsu beckoning her over. She complied and happily skipped over to them, her long hair and dress trailing behind her as she went.
Natsu laughed softly as she came within a few meters of them. Mavis tilted her head in confusion as to why Natsu was laughing. Natsu noticed this and pointed behind her. She turned around to see what he was pointing at, and just now noticed all the destruction she caused, which subsequently happened to be what Natsu was pointing at.
Craters and scorch marks littered the floor, ceiling, and walls. The stalactites and stalagmites that once jutted out from the ceiling and floor now lay either shattered or crumbled on the ground. The corpses of wyverns were scattered on the ground, all of them having numerous injuries. Overall, it looked like the cave was about to collapse.
Mavis looked at the team with a sheepish grin, much to their amusement. Lucy surveyed the once-normal cave with a deadpan stare. She totally went overboard... Lucy thought.
Aki held her fists out in front of her in sheer excitement. "THAT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME MAVIS! YOU GOTTA FIGHT ME WHEN WE GET BACK!" She exclaimed with a twinkle in her dark purple eyes.
Gray went bug-eyed beside her and his jaw dropped to the floor. "ARE YOU CRAZY AKI?! DID YOU SEE WHAT SHE DID TO THOSE WYVERNS?" He yelled while pointing his finger at Mavis.
Aki grinned. "I KNOW! OUR FIGHT IS GOING TO BE TOTALLY AWESOME!" She yelled, pumping her fist in the air.
Gray face palmed. "I think you missed the point..." He muttered.
Mavis giggled at the display and went to go stand beside Natsu as the group began walking again, this time heading back to the train station to catch a ride back to Magnolia.
They walked in double file, all in pairs as they traversed the mountainside. All except for one however, and it was a certain blonde haired girl named Lucy.
As the others spoke with their respective partner, Lucy was thinking hard. Why am I even here? She wondered. There's nothing I can even contribute to this team, any time we're in a fight they can beat the enemy faster than I can even reach for my keys! She looked up for a second, inspecting the surrounding landscape. But while doing this, her eyes happened to wander over her six teammates, not including Happy. And I'm pretty much a seventh wheel, now that I think about it. There's Kakashi and Erza, Gray and Aki, and now Natsu and Mavis. Maybe I should just leave the team?
Now, opposite to what it may seem, Lucy had no hard feelings for the rest of Team Seven. After all, it was only her fault that she couldn't help, and it wasn't her decision on who they would want to be friends with.
But if I leave the team, should I join a different team? Or just go solo? Could I even do a job solo? She wondered. But as she was thinking this, she remembered something Levy had told her on her very first day at the guild.
FLASHBACK
Lucy was just getting to know everyone at the guild hall. It was only her first day, but she still wanted to meet everyone and introduce herself. I mean, you only get one first impression, right?
She scanned the room for who she should go meet next, and decided to introduce herself to the small blue haired girl sitting in the back of the room. She had piles upon piles of books stacked around her, and she seemed to reading something on a piece of ancient-looking paper.
Lucy put on her best smile and approached the girl. She walked right up beside where the girl was sitting and stuck her hand out.
"Hi! I'm Lucy!" She said, hoping for a handshake.
But the girl didn't even seem to hear her, she just kept reading. Lucy sweat dropped and decided to lightly tap her shoulder in hopes of getting her attention. This proved to be effective, as the girl jumped in surprise and promptly turned to face her.
Lucy scratched the back of her head. "Err... sorry about that, I just wanted to introduce myself." She said tentatively, unsure of whether or not the girl she was speaking to had a temper.
Much to her relief, the girl just waved it off. "Ah, don't worry about it. My name's Levy!" She said, reaching her hand out and shaking Lucy's.
Lucy smiled happily and shook her hand back. "Nice to meet you! I'm Lucy!"
Levy nodded and smiled at her. "Great! If you ever need a team, there's always a spot open for ya on Team Shadow Gear!"
Lucy grinned. "Thanks! I'll definitely consider it! but I gotta go now, Aki says she's got our first mission!"
Levy waved goodbye. "Alright! Good luck Lucy!"
FLASHBACK END
Lucy thought back to her blue haired friend with a smile. Maybe it's time to take her up on that offer...
After half an hour of inner debate, Lucy finally decided she would join Team Shadow Gear. It just didn't feel right to her, being on Team Seven. She was pretty much just their glorified cheerleader at this point, and Lucy wanted to be able to contribute to a team, not just sit on the sidelines and watch as other people did all the work.
She decided to tell the team when they got on board the train. There she would have more time to explain her decision and answer any questions they may have.
WITH NATSU AND MAVIS
Mavis walked beside Natsu with a cheerful smile, surveying the beautiful valley around them with great delight. Natsu on the other hand spent most of his effort on not falling on stray pieces of rock or wet grass. And it was harder than it looked, especially while having to lean on a scythe of all things to stay balanced.
Mavis grew impatient with the silence that'd grew around them, and decided to lighten up the mood a bit. She stopped her inspecting of their surroundings, and turned her focus to Natsu.
"The others told me you could fly, is that true?" she asked, continuing to walk beside him.
Natsu maintained his downward sight line to keep sight of his footing, but he still answered her. "Yes, it's true." He said gruffly.
Mavis tilted her head and brought a lone finger to her chin. "Then why do you have to walk? Couldn't you just float along? Like this!" She exclaimed, jumping up and coming to a hover beside him in her classic sitting position.
Natsu shot her an annoyed glance for a quick moment before turning his eyes back down. "Wish I could, but I'm trying to regenerate my chakra right now, and it wouldn't really help if I started using it." He explained.
"Oh." Was all Mavis responded with. She tried to think of a new question to ask him, or something to say at least. After a few seconds, she came up with something. "How come your sand is blue?"
Natsu shook his head. "It's not sand. The blue looking stuff you saw earlier was finely ground cobalt dust." He said.
Mavis frowned in confusion. "Not sand? But Kakashi said your ability was to control sand?" She questioned.
Natsu laughed softly. "Well he didn't explain it very thoroughly then."
"What do you mean?" She asked.
Natsu turned his head to look at her this time as he spoke. "While I am able to control sand, I can also control any magnetic object that I can flow chakra through." He explained.
Mavis' eyes lit up and she shot her hands up in excitement. "Cool!" She exclaimed, spinning slightly in the air.
Natsu shrugged at her over joyous reaction and kept walking. But after a few minutes of silence, Mavis piped up yet again.
"So how do you like Fairy Tail? What's it like now?" She asked, staring at him with a tilted head.
Natsu grinned and gave her a thumbs up. "It's great! It's like a big family, and everyone there treats each other as such. Being there makes me feel at home and more comfortable than anywhere else in the world, and Makarov even says we're his 'children'. It's sort of creepy to be perfectly honest, but at the same time... comforting?..." He slowly trailed off, rubbing his chin in thought. But Mavis got all the info she needed.
Mavis smiled serenely as she thought about the guild she founded so many years ago. The guild has really turned out the way I wanted. I wouldn't have it any other way. Mavis thought, delighted at Natsu's explanation.
"Natsu..." Mavis began, blushing a little and looking away at what she was about to say.
Natsu raised an eyebrow at her strange behavior. "Yeah?" He responded.
"When we get back, can we go explore Magnolia together? She asked. "I haven't been here for... well, a hundred years, so I want to see how the town has changed."
Natsu smiled at her and nodded. "Of course!"
Any of Mavis' worry that she held before asking him the question instantly went away with his response. "Great!" She exclaimed with a bright smile.
It went silent between the two for a few moments before Natsu had a question. "So what was the guild like back when you were the master?" He asked.
Mavis tilted her head and brought a finger to her chin, considering his question. After a few seconds, she came up with an adequate response. "It was actually quite similar to how it is now. The only difference is that there were a lot less members, so I had to go on jobs as the guild master." She explained.
"Hmm..." Natsu pondered out loud. "How do the jobs from now compare to the ones from back then? Are they harder or easier? Was there such thing as an S-Class job back then?"
"Ehh... It's kind of hard to compare the two really," Mavis began. "Back then, the jobs mostly entailed things like solving disputes between two groups, or maybe helping some small village with a problem." She explained. "When I look at the request board now, I notice that the jobs are far mor varied. I saw things like helping an old man open a locked chest to what we just completed."
Natsu nodded slowly, but still had another question. "So how old were you when you created Fairy Tail?" He asked.
Mavis giggled and gained a mischievous glint in her eyes. "I was twelve!" She exclaimed brightly.
Natsu raised an eyebrow. "Twelve? How old are you now then?"
"It may not look like it," Mavis said, holding her palms out flat and closing her eyes. "But I'm actually sixteen!"
Natsu's one visible eye opened wide comically, and his jaw dropped to the floor. "EHH!? But... shouldn't you be a little... I don't know, taller?
Mavis suddenly became visibly saddened. She looked away and at the ground, her hair overshadowing her eyes. "I was cursed..." She mumbled.
Natsu saw her sudden change in mood and eyed her wearily. I definitely touched a delicate subject with that question... I shouldn't push it, she'll tell me if she feels comfortable telling me. I'll just remain quiet for now.
But his plans were dashed when Mavis' head suddenly shot up with a bright smile, and she stared right at him. "But you freed me." She said in a soft and quiet voice, tilting her head slightly.
Natsu looked at her, visibly confused. Well that was quicker than expected. "What? How? I wasn't even here when you were originally alive." He said in a questioning tone.
Mavis looked up at the sky, a peaceful, yet sorrowful expression coming over her face. "I was cursed by Ankhseram..." She spoke softly. "It's known as the contradictory curse, and it's one of the most horrible things imaginable... A person who is under the contradictory curse inadvertently kills any life around them the more the person values life itself."
Natsu's eyes widened in shock and he audibly gasped. "Y-you were afflicted by such a thing?"
Mavis nodded slowly. "Mhm... but that's not the worst part of it. The contradictory curse also causes the person to be completely immortal, unable to die from any cause or age any further than they already have."
Natsu just stared at her, contemplating what had just been explained to him. That's terrible... immortality, and yet anything around you dies, rendering you unable to speak with another person without killing them... Mavis' past is so dark, it makes me look like I grew up in Magnolia!...
But then Natsu realized something. Wait a minute. If the curse makes you completely immortal, then how did Mavis die? It doesn't make any sense.
"Mavis..." He said tentatively. "Not to sound insensitive or anything, but... how did you die then?"
Mavis laughed in the same soft tone she was using earlier. "That's a good question, and one I still don't know the answer to." She said. But as she was saying this she was inwardly debating. Should I tell him about Zeria? Would he even believe me?... She wondered. He did seem believe me when I told him about the curse, but this is a whole new level of believable. And part of my answer was true. I don't know exactly how I died, all I remember is hugging Zeria and then it all went black.
Mavis eventually decided to refrain from telling Natsu exactly what happened on that fateful day, but she resolved that she would tell him eventually. Deciding to bring get off their sour mood, she flashed a cheeky grin at him. "So, wanna have a friendly little spar when we get back?" She asked.
Natsu looked confused. "Hmm? I thought you wanted to go explore the town when we got back." He replied. Inwardly though, he almost face faulted. Did she forget I'm injured at the moment?...
Mavis' cheeks flushed red and she crossed her arms in a mock pout. "Of course I do! We'll just have to postpone it." She stated, huffing in embarrassment.
Natsu sweat dropped. "Can't we just fight tomorrow? It'll give me more time to recover chakra." He asked in a whiny tone.
Mavis suddenly gasped and brought her hands to her mouth. "OH! I forgot you were injured!" She exclaimed. Then out of the blue, tears starting forming in her eyes and she faced away from him, sniffling and stuttering. "I-I'm s-s-sorry..." she said shakily, trying to hold back a waterfall of tears.
Natsu just stared at her blankly, confused as hell as to how and why she just started crying all of a sudden. He honestly had no idea what to do in these kinds of situations. Hug her? Tell her not to cry? Completely ignore it?
These were the kinds of things he ran through his head before finally settling on her telling her not to cry. "It's fine Mavis, don't cry..." He said gently, rubbing her back slowly.
Mavis sniffled a few more times. "I'm n-not crying! I'm not c-crying at all!" she proclaimed, still facing away from him with her arms crossed.
Natsu sweat dropped and sighed at the same time. This is going to be a loooong trip...
MAGNOLIA TOWN, SEVERAL HOURS LATER
True enough, the train ride back to Magnolia had lasted over three hours, but luckily for Team Seven, it seemed as if Mavis had run out of questions, as she remained quiet for the majority of the trip.
And true to her word, Lucy had told her group of her decision to leave Team Seven while they were on the train. Surprisingly enough, they actually took the news pretty well. Of course, they wanted to know why, and Lucy told them, but her reasoning was actually pretty reasonable to them, and they told her that they agreed with her reasoning the best they could without sounding arrogant.
On their trip back to the guild, they discussed the various teams that Lucy could join up with that were around her skill level. Even though her now ex-teammates tried to give her a multitude of options for her new team, she had her mind set on joining Team Shadow Gear. That is, if Levy would still let her, but she didn't doubt it.
But while they were talking, they began to notice some strange behavior from the citizens of Magnolia. They seemed to be... less joyous than normal. Instead of the usual chatter and laughter than usually rang through the bright streets of the bustling city, all they heard were faint whispers, usually followed by the scurrying of footsteps. It was as if they were all... scared of something.
The two first generation dragon slayers of the group could actually hear what they were whispering, and they didn't like the sound of it.
"Poor guys..."
"Do you think they've heard the news?"
"I don't know man, maybe..."
Aki narrowed her eyes and the surrounding townsfolk, wondering just what the hell they were talking about. Natsu eyed them all wearily before turning to the group and whispered to them.
"Something's wrong..." He said, whispering slowly.
Kakashi turned around and looked him dead in the eye, completely serious. "That much is obvious. Can you hear what they're saying?" He asked, then signaled the group to come to a full stop.
Natsu shook his head. "No, but Aki might. Her dragon slayer senses are better than mine." He admitted.
They all turned their heads to look at Aki, who looked back at them with a confused look on her face. "It's... weird. It's as if they're pitying us for something, but they didn't say what exactly." She explained.
Mavis narrowed her eyes. "I think we should get back to the guild as fast as possible. Something may have happened." She said, earning a nod from the rest of the group.
With that said they began running towards their guild hall, trying to find out what the town's people were talking about, and when they arrived, what they saw wasn't very appealing to say the least.
Giant rods of iron stuck out of the wooden building at every angle, making the once magnificent building look like nothing more than a glorified pincushion. Debris and rubble was scattered all around their guild hall, covering the ground in dust and making the land look like a construction site.
They all stared at the building in shock. Erza completely dropped the handle of her wagon, arms coming to rest beside her. Natsu, Kakashi, and Mavis narrowed their eyes at the iron rods, already trying to figure out what exactly happened. Gray just looked at the hall blankly, not believing that someone would actually attack them head on like this. Aki stepped forwards, shaking in anger. A vein pulsed in her forehead, her eyes went wide, and she gritted her teeth.
"Our guild..." Aki muttered. "SOMEONE DID THIS TO OUR GUILD!" She then yelled, staring at the metal rods as if she could make them disappear by looking at them.
Lucy gaped at the large-scale attack. "But who would do such a thing?" She asked, holding her hands over her mouth.
"It was Phantom Lord..."
The group of eight turned around at the new voice to see a sad looking Mirajane, who was the person who just spoke. She stood there looking down, holding both her hands together in front of her.
Gray narrowed his eyes. "Are you serious?" he asked, not quite believing that Phantom would actually attack them. He knew that they were somewhat rival guilds, but he never thought that they would actually come at their guild like this.
Aki's head whipped around, still looking as furious as ever. "PHANTOM DID THIS?!" She roared.
Mirajane slowly nodded. "We couldn't do a thing about it... they got us."
FAIRY TAIL'S BASEMENT
The returning team followed Mirajane down the low ceiling steps to the basement of their guild hall. It was usually used for storage, but since their main hall was destroyed, they were using the basement as a temporary place to hang out. As they walked across the shoddy room, faint conversations were heard.
"Man, I knew we weren't on the best terms with those jerks, but did they really have to go out of their way to attack us?"
"Yeah, makes me wanna go get some revenge."
"Just relax! Be thankful nobody was hurt."
Erza looked down in anger, gritting her teeth. If only I were here... I could've stopped those bastards and-
Suddenly Kakashi tapped her shoulder, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Stop. I know exactly what you're thinking right now. You can't handle everything by yourself. We couldn't have possibly known that we would be attacked out of the blue, it's not your fault."
Erza let out a long sigh before looking up and becoming visibly more relaxed. "I know... it's just..."
Kakashi cut her off. "Just relax. Deal with what's ahead of us." He advised her.
Erza nodded. "Right."
They kept walking until they found themselves in front of a very... drunk... looking Makarov. He greeted them with a cheery wave and a drunk smile adorning his blushing face. He lowered his beer mug and looked them over.
"Hey kids! Welcome back, how was the job?" He asked in a drunken voice.
Lucy stared at the little man in utter confusion. "G-good I guess?" She said tentatively.
Makarov grinned and held up his mug as if to say cheers. "Great!" he exclaimed.
Erza decided enough was enough. She could focus on her rigidness later, for now there were more pressing matters. "Master! Do you understand the gravity of the situation!?" She exclaimed, staring at him.
"The guild's been completely destroyed!" Shouted Aki, supporting Erza's case.
Makarov waved them off, taking another sip of his beer. "Oh, don't you get worked up, it's not the end of the world y'know!"
Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the drunk old man, crossing his arms. "Master, I agree with Aki and Erza on this one. They did not just do this to play a little prank on us. It's clearly meant to spark a war between us, which means since we aren't going to take the bait they're most likely going to be back."
Makarov suddenly burst out laughing, his beer sloshing around madly in his cup. "THEN WE'LL DEAL WITH EM THEN! Just relax!" He said, dismissing them all with a wave.
The group walked away towards a nearby table and sat down except for Lucy. As they were all sitting down Lucy waved them goodbye. "I'm gonna go see if I can join Team Shadow Gear. Thanks for letting me be on your team, and good luck!" She said, happily walking over to Levy's table.
Aki sighed as she hit her chair. "Damn it... I can't believe gramps doesn't care about our guild getting trashed like this!" She exclaimed, slamming her fist on the table.
Mavis giggled at Aki's behavior. "On the contrary Aki, Macky actually cares a lot about what happened to the hall." She said.
Aki stared at her quizically. "Then why doesn't he do something about it?! We could take Phantom Lord easily!"
Erza shook her head. "It's not that we couldn't beat Phantom Lord in a fight, we undoubtedly could. It's because wars between guilds are banned by the Magic Council. If we went to war with Phantom, there's a good chance that Fairy Tail could be disbanded." She explained.
Aki grit her teeth, clearly extremely frustrated. "Damn it..." she growled.
"Also," Erza continued. "All Fairy Tail members should stick together from here on out. We can only assume that there are Phantom Lord mages lurking around Magnolia, so going in pairs or groups would be ideal."
Suddenly Aki's angered mood changed to a rather excited one. She grinned wide. "Sweet! Gray! Wanna sleep over at my place?" She asked.
Gray grinned back at her and nodded. "Sure."
Kakashi then turned to look at Erza with a straight face. "You can stay at my place tonight if you want."
Erza blushed but nodded none the less, looking back at him. "Alright, I will." But then she seemed to realize something. She turned to look at Mavis. "Where are you gonna stay Mavis? Do you have a home in Magnolia?".
Mavis gasped, bringing her hands over her mouth. "Oh my gosh you're right! My old house is probably long gone..." She exclaimed.
"You can just stay with Natsu!" Aki suddenly said, grinning happily.
Mavis burst out into a smile. She pumped her fist in the air and exclaimed. "Right!"
But her sudden joy was cut to ribbons when Natsu began speaking. He frowned and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Actually I don't even have a house..." He said, shocking the team.
"WHAT!?" Aki yelled. "WHERE DO YOU SLEEP?" She asked, pointing at him.
Natsu looked up, as if it were too complicated to explain, which it was. "Ehh... It's too complicated..."
The entire group instantly face faulted, completely flabbergasted at Natsu's attitude towards not having owned a home for upwards of seven years. Kakashi had an inkling of where Natsu slept, but he would have to ask him.
Mavis suddenly became comically depressed, slumping with her arms hanging limp. "But where am I going to sleep..." she muttered.
This time, Natsu was the one to bring her out of her short depression. "Well if it matters that much, I guess I can go get a house for you..." He said. "Follow me." He told Mavis, gesturing for her to follow him as he walked out of the damp basement.
TEN MINUTES LATER, THE FOREST SURROUNDING MAGNOLIA
Mavis had been following Natsu for around ten minutes now, wondering where the hell he was taking her. He'd said beforehand that he was going to get a house for her, so why was he getting her to follow him so far out of the city?
Suddenly, Natsu stopped abruptly and turned around to face her. The moon shone down on the pair brightly and the evening crickets chirped in the otherwise profound silence. There was a gentle breeze swirling around them, but not enough for it to be cold. They couldn't see anything beyond the darkness of the thick trees besides the small glowing fireflies.
Natsu then took out a notepad and a pen, taking the cap off with his mouth and putting the pen to paper. He looked at her expectantly. "So what do you want your home to be like?"
Mavis stared at him quizzically. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.
Natsu sighed. "I'm about to build your house, so I need to know what you want it to look like. Y'know, how many rooms, what kind of rooms, decorations, that kind of thing." He explained to her, tapping his foot waiting for her to answer.
Mavis was still incredibly confused. He was just going to build her a house? Just like that? Wouldn't it take time? Like, way more time than just tonight? But she decided to go along with it anyways. After all, he'd brought someone back from the dead, maybe he could build a house in one night?
She grinned and her eyes became starry. "I want it to be like a big tree house!" She exclaimed.
Natsu sweat dropped, but wrote it down on his paper anyways. "Right. Got it, what else?" He said, looking back up at her from his paper.
Mavis suddenly started gesturing around while explaining her ideal house, it was quite comical really, but she provided detailed descriptions none the less. Natsu's notepad ended up looking something like this.
Mavis' House:
- tree house
- big rainbow tree?
- several rooms circling around the trunk, master bedroom on canopy with glass roof
- lacrima lights hanging down from canopy 'like stars' (sounds cool actually)
- rooms made of dark wood
- slide from the top to the bottom... (may require further testing)
- open platform for barbecue
- wooden fences surrounding the base of the tree, with a fairy tail logo on the front gate (to be expected)
- surrounded by a mysterious fog? (what?...)
Natsu looked down at the compiled list and sighed. The things she comes up with... a pet room? Seriously? What kind of pets does she keep? It honestly confused him. But a few of the things looked pretty cool in his opinion, so it wasn't all bad.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by Mavis speaking yet again. "Oh!" She exclaimed. "How could I forget? Make sure there's enough room in the master bedroom for two beds."
Natsu raised an eyebrow at her strange request. "Two beds? Why?" He asked.
Mavis smirked. "Well, unless you wanna sleep in my bed with me?..." She teased.
Natsu sighed. Of course she would say something like that... "I'm living here too? And sleeping in your room?" He asked her with a skeptical eyebrow raised.
Mavis put her hands on her hips and looked at him as if he were completely stupid. "Of course you are! You've got no house, and you think you're gonna build one for only me? No way mister. And you're sleeping in the master bedroom with me because there's no way I'm going to make you sleep in one the guest bedrooms."
Natsu smiled as she told him. After her entire explanation he bowed his head to her in gratitude. "Thank you." He said.
Mavis smiled gently. "It's me who should be thanking you, Natsu." she said in a soft voice.
Natsu looked over his list one more time, this time with his sharingan to memorize it. He then put the notepad and pen back into a seal on his arm. Rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck, he got into a ready stance.
Mavis lay down on the forest floor belly down, hands supporting her face as she watched him. This oughta be amazing. What kind of jutsu is this gonna be? She wondered just what kind of jutsu could create a house exactly to her specifications.
Natsu took a deep breath, in and out. He visualized exactly what he wanted the home to look like, down to every last detail. Even the pet room. He formulated exactly which handseals he would need to get the colours, rooms, and designs to a perfect standard. In total, he would need over ten thousand, but it would cost him little chakra, which was good since he'd only recovered around ten percent of his chakra since using the rinne rebirth.
Finally, he launched into the chain of hand seals. Snake, Monkey, Bird, Ram, Snake, Bird, Dragon, Tiger, Ram... it went on and on, with him standing in the same position, nothing moving except for his hands. Small beads of sweat ran down his forehead as he focused his chakra. When Hagoromo had taught him wood style, he showed him the hand seals for the four pillar house technique. But Natsu took it further. He realized that as long as you started and ended with the snake seal, you would still end up with a wooden house. It was actually the seals in between the two that affected what the house would look like. It took a full week before he mastered it, but it turned out to be incredibly useful.
Mavis watched in fascination as his hands moved through the various signs. I wonder what those signs actually do... help them focus? Or are the techniques just impossible without them? Do all jutsu require this many hand signs?
Never before had Natsu's hands actually started to hurt during a jutsu, but there were just so many to complete this time that he couldn't help but get sore in his fingers and wrists. But there were only about a thousand seals left, so he just had to push through. Monkey, Horse, Dog, Bird, Dragon, Rat, Ox, Horse, Monkey... he could almost imagine the very creatures the hand seals portrayed as he blazed through them.
Finally, he arrived on the last few hand signs. Monkey, Rat, Horse, Ox, Snake. Kneeling down, he slammed his hands into the ground and roared in a ritual like voice.
"WOOD STYLE: HOUSE OF TEN THOUSAND SEALS"
As soon as the words were said, the ground started rumbling. It felt like a small scale earthquake was occurring just where they were, and it amazed Mavis to no end.
A second later, the ground in front of them split open, revealing a small oak sapling. It sprouted out of the crack in the ground, traveling a few meters upwards before coming to a halt. It stayed like this for a moment, before suddenly shooting up at insane speeds, growing at a rapid pace. It pushed aside all the trees beside it, creating it's own small clearing around itself. The trunk of the tree was at least ten times bigger than a normal oak tree, and even the roots were bigger than the regular oak trees themselves. Once it was done with it's rapid growing, it was at the very least twenty meters tall, reaching above the other trees like a skyscraper against mundane houses.
But the most amazing part about it was the leaves. At the very top of the tree, the canopy, sprouted the most amazing foliage Mavis had ever seen in her life. Their rainbow colouring shimmered glamorously in the moonlight like polished gold, and the colours seemed to be constantly in motion with the breeze swaying the leaves around coupled with the moonlight shining down upon them. It was truly a grandeous sight, and one Mavis would never forget.
However the tree didn't remain still for long. Seconds after the main trunk had finished growing, thick branches began to grow from the side of the tree, slowly growing into cylinder like rooms with small circular windows. Then, true to her wishes, a long, wooden half pipe grew from the bottom, in front of where the front door would be, all the way up into the canopy, disappearing into the magnificent leaves.
With the main house done, farm-style wooden fences began to grow around the whole structure, coming out of the ground much like the original tree. In the middle of the long fence was a small gap, allowing for people to walk through easily. Directly ahead of that was a large, door shaped whole in the trunk of the tree.
Mavis took in the whole scene with a delighted smile on her face. She never imagined that someone could just take all her fun ideas and turn them into reality in a few minutes! It's even better than I imagined! She thought with glee.
But Natsu wasn't done yet. Mavis looked at him and noticed him frowning in thought, rubbing his chin. She was confused. Was something else supposed to happen?
"What's wrong Natsu?" She asked with concern. "It looks great!" She exclaimed.
Natsu absentmindedly nodded, looking very lost in thought. "Hmm.. yeah... but, there's one more thing..." He slowly trailed off. Hmm... I think I can do something with the hidden mist jutsu... didn't Nagato do something like this in Amegakure? Except with rain?
He decided it couldn't hurt to at least try to do it. He got into the pose for the hidden mist jutsu, both hands in a half tiger seal, one above his head and one just in front of his chin. He concentrated on the surrounding moisture in the air as he used the jutsu.
"Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu" He called out.
As he said the words, a thick fog began to collect around the fence, but not going within the boundaries, leaving the house clear. Natsu let his arms down and walked inside the gate. He then stopped, turning around to face Mavis, who was still standing in the same spot taking in the visuals.
"Well, come on then, wanna go see the house?"