The poor member of Phantom Lord trembled in fear as they stared up at the massive turquiose skeleton that was Kakashi's Susano'o. The blue aura it gave of radiated pure power, and it even scared some of the Fairy Tail mages. Some of the newer mages of the guild had never even seen Kakashi or Natsu prior to the few days they were back, so to see someone who looked no older than a teenager pull out something of that magnitude was quite the shocker.
A few of the Phantom Lord members who didn't have direct vision of Kakashi within the rib cage of the Susano'o were a little skeptical as to if he was really controlling the thing or not, but when he spoke, it became pretty obvious that their skepticism was misplaced.
"Have any of you ever fought the God Of Valor?"
The name of the giant sent shivers through the spines of almost all the Phantom mages, as if the name itself multiplied the intense aura the Susano'o gave off. Even the Fairy Tail mages felt the power in the name of the skeleton, although they were far less nervous due to the fact they knew it was on their side.
Aki was only taken aback for a moment, quickly regaining her senses after witnessing the breath taking technique. She grinned wide and lit her fists aflame once again. "Aw yeah! Kakashi is totally awesome!" She shouted, gaining the attention of the Phantom mages. "We'll never lose as long as he's here!" She continued.
Roars and cheers of agreement from Fairy Tail were heard all throughout the guildhall following Aki's short but motivating encouragement. Erza looked around her, noticing how all the Fairy's seemed to be getting their spirit back at seeing such a powerhouse fighting for them. She smiled, picking her weapons back up after setting Makarov down behind a line of their mages. She looked over at Kakashi standing within the rib cage of the Susano'o with his arms crossed and in a completely lax posture. To her, and many others in the hall, it just seemed as if Kakashi could do everything.
And to be honest, he probably could. After all, the man who had participated in over one hundred rival challenges with Might Guy himself, copied over one thousand jutsu, and mastered the sharingan and four forms of magic all in a time span of thirty some odd years was not the kind of person to scoff at.
Gajeel studied the skeletal figure closely. Much unlike his counterpart dragon slayer in Fairy Tail, he was not so thick headed as to jump into a fight without any forethought. The aura of power the Susano'o gave off didn't really affect him all that much, having being taught by a dragon who gave off a much more impressive radiating power. Well this is certainly a surprise. He thought to himself. This is certainly not a dragon slayer attack, but it's definitely nothing to laugh at. This thing's aura alone feels almost like three quarters of Metalicana's. Gajeel jumped up to the rafters above to get a better look at the battlefield. Some of his fellow Phantom Lord mages were getting off the floor, shakily getting ready to fight once more. Then he looked at the Fairy Tail side. Needless to say, it was much more impressive. They were quickly pushing through the ranks of Phantom Lord, and it was very clear to Gajeel that they were fighting a losing battle. There's no way I can hope to fight that thing along with the rest of their guild. Even with Aria here, we can't defeat their entire guild with only two people. I need to retreat for now. He thought wisely.
Calling Aria over to him from his spot on the rafters, the two mages surveyed the battlefield one last time before vanishing into thin air.
Suddenly the skeleton began to move. Although Kakashi showed no outward signs of effort from within the humanoid creation, it drew it's bony right arm back and to the left as if it was preparing for the bitch slap to end all bitch slaps. Some of the Phantom Lord mages got into some sort of defensive stance, although most just opted to stare in disbelief that such a thing even existed. The veterans of the Fairy Tail guild waited with bated breath to see the attack that had knocked out Gildarts in a single hit go to work on a bunch of pathetic Phantom wizards.
Then, as if a drawstring had been cut, the Susano'o's arm extended in the other direction, scraping it's skeletal finger tips along the ground in front of it leaving a trail of destruction and chaos in it's wake. Phantom mages were sent flying in all directions, and the few who were unfortunate enough to be caught in the blow directly were taken along for the ride, only to be flung off of the bony hand at the end.
"Susano'o..." Kakashi's voice was once again heard through the hall, booming through the silence that the aforementioned being's attack had left.
Kakashi watched as his Susano'o wreaked havoc upon the poor mages of Phantom Lord. He felt some sort of grim satisfaction watching the faces of the enemy as they tried to even comprehend his ultimate jutsu. It was like he was Madara fighting the Shinobi Alliance, and he had to say, being able to actually use the Susano'o instead of trying to fight against it was proving to be a far more simple task.
"Go, Erza! Get the master to safety! We'll finish things up here!" Kakashi shouted.
"YEAH! THIS'LL ONLY TAKE A COUPLE MORE MINUTES!" Shouted Aki, once again lighting her fists up in the signature red flames of her dragon slaying magic. Gray followed suit, going back to back with Aki and forming spheres of ice around his fists. The other prominent members of the guild readied their signature magics, showing that they too were ready to fight on.
Erza simply nodded. Taking the unconscious third master on her back, she ran out the door of the Phantom Lord guild hall. The members of Fairy Tail turned back to the waiting mass of Phantom wizards. Suddenly, Aki jumped forwards sporting a huge grin.
"LET'S GET THIS STARTED!" She exclaimed.
FAIRY TAIL GUILD HALL
Erza bursted through the doors of her own guild hall with Makarov unconscious on her back. There were only three people currently sitting in the building, but fortunately for her, one of them happened to be just the person she was looking for. She rushed over to the table they were sitting at and put Makarov down on the hard wood surface, greatly startling the trio.
The three in question were in fact Natsu, Mavis, and Lucy. Natsu and Mavis had actually just returned from having saved Lucy from the main guild hall of Phantom Lord. Well, to be more specific, it was actually Lucy who had saved herself, giving Jose an unexpected cheap shot below the belt when he wasn't looking. But as it turned out, her little prison tower was just that. A tower. Betting on her friends to save her at the right moment, she threw herself off the tower. Luckily for her, her bet paid off. Natsu's sand caught her mid flight, and she ended up being perfectly fine.
Erza looked at Natsu frantically, eyes wide and completely out of breath. "Natsu! You have to heal him! QUICK!" She shouted.
Natsu looked at the old man on the table in front of him. Externally, there wasn't anything wrong at all, save a few scratches. The only thing that seemed to be a cause of concern was his skin, which had turned green. Natsu activated his sharingan, which allowed him to see a person's magic container at a very basic level. He did the same basic once over, this time with his sharingan active, and noticed a very concerning internal problem.
Natsu looked up at Erza with a very serious expression. "What happened here? He isn't injured at all actually. The problem is that all his magic had been drained very quickly. Normally, when you run out of magic, there's still a small amount in your magic container, but at the moment there isn't even the smallest drop in his."
Erza looked up at the ceiling as she recalled. "He went to go fight Jose as we fought with the rest of their guild. Next thing we know, he's down in a heap and looks like this!" She explained to him.
Natsu gave one final glance at Makarov then looked back to Erza. "There's nothing I can do for him at the moment. Healing won't do a thing right now because there's technically nothing to even heal. Bring him to Porlyusica, she may be able to do something useful." Natsu told her.
Erza frowned. "That doesn't make any sense to me though. If you can't do anything, how could Porlyusica do anything? Your healing techniques far surpass anything I've seen her accomplish." Erza questioned.
Natsu shook his head. "While it is true that I can heal people more efficiently and to a better success rate than she can, at the end of the day, she's been around for at least eight times as long as me, and has most likely seen a case like this before." Natsu explained.
Then Mavis piped up with a question of her own. "So who's this Porlyusica person?" Lucy leaned forwards, also wanting to know.
Natsu waved Erza off. "Take him there now, I'll stay here." He told her. Erza nodded and gathered up Makarov's limp form, leaving out the front door.
Natsu turned his attention back to the two. "Porlyusica is a long time friend of Makarov. Nobody knows too much about her, except that she is presumably not a human. She's very adept at healing and medicine, so she's essentially our guild's medic."
Mavis cocked her head to the side. "Not a human? How can people tell?" She questioned.
Natsu scratched his face and frowned. "Well, it's just an assumption, since to my knowledge nobody's ever asked her directly. She constantly goes on about how much she hates humans. And when she has a "I hate humans" speech, she speaks of us as if she's not one."
"Why is she the guild's medic though if you can heal people much better?" Lucy asked.
Natsu shrugged. "I don't know really. Although if I had to guess, I'd say that it's simply because nobody knows I can do it. The only time I've ever really healed someone in front of the guild was when I first joined. And even then it was kind of hard to see. That was seven years ago."
He then turned to Lucy. "So. Any reason Phantom Lord would want to kidnap you instead of just beating you up like the rest?" He asked.
Lucy shifted her feet uncomfortably, looking straight down at the floor. I could tell them... but would they still allow me to be a member of Fairy Tail? Is it worth the risk even? But then again, what could I even tell them if I were to lie? Maybe I could sa-
*BOOM*
The trio's heads snapped up as they heard the loud sound seemingly right outside the guild hall. Whatever had made the sound had shook the very ground. They promptly rushed out the doors, only to see the biggest guild hall they had ever laid eyes upon. And it was moving. Out of the bottom of the castle like building came spider like legs that carried the monstrosity over the water.
*BOOM*
After a few more slow steps, the gigantic building finally came to a rest about half a kilometer away from the coastline. It just sat in the water on top of it's mechanical legs for no apparent reason, however it was quite obvious nobody would just roll their guild hall onto someone's back yard just to say hello.
Then, like a true castle, the front wall of the building slid down, revealing what seemed like an empty black room. But that theory was quickly proven false by an enormous cannon barrel slowly inching out of the abyss. The cannon was huge, to put it simply. It stretched out at least as far as the building was tall, and it's diameter was probably over fifty meters.
Really, there was only one thing to say to that kind of visual.
"Damn." Natsu breathed out as he looked up at the huge guild hall. "That thing must've cost a fortune!"
WITH ERZA
"Ugh," Groaned out Porlyusica, who was leaning over Makarov's unconscious form. "The old geezer just had to overdo it. Doesn't he know how old he is?" She asked, mostly just to vent. Walking over to her kitchen counter to prepare some medicine, she continued to mumble to herself. "What an idiot..."
Erza watched the seen with an ever growing sweat drop forming on the back of her neck. It was as if Porlyusica had completely forgotten she was even there. As soon as she brought the old man in, she'd taken one look at him and immediately set him down on the bed, ignoring everything Erza had to say.
And that was how it's been for the past ten minutes. Porlyusica bustling around her small hut while Erza stood near the door awkwardly, not really knowing what to do. But as if her Porlyusica had read her mind, she turned around and looked right at her.
"What are you still doing here?! Get out of my house!" She exclaimed, making a "shoo" motion with her hands. And then she was right back at it, going about her business like Erza was invisible.
Erza just stared in disbelief at the woman's strange behavior, but ultimately decided to just leave like she was told. She promptly exited the building through the front and only door, making her way down the dirt road back to Magnolia.
As she walked towards the town, she began to think. Was it really a good idea to leave everyone back there? I mean, I know they're strong and everything, but could they really take on Gajeel and the Element Four? I know that skeleton of Kakashi's is incredibly strong, but can it take on five S-Class mages at the same time? What if... NO! I have to stop thinking like this. I just have to believe in Kakashi and my friends to win the battle.
Then she had a sudden moment of realization. Just the way she was thinking... she hadn't thought like that since her rebellion in the Tower of Heaven... Why am I separating Kakashi from the rest of my friends when I think about them? Am I truly that attached to him? God, that hasn't happened since... Jellal.
Do I like Kakashi? As much as I liked Jellal? Wait... liked? Do I still like Jellal? Would I be able to choose between the two should the option arise? I don't think I would... but at the same time I don't think I'd have to... She winced as she remembered her last moments at the Tower and with Jellal... and what he'd become by the end of their rebellion.
Should I tell him about the tower? About my past? It seems like he always knows the right thing to say... But what if he asks if I like Jellal? What scares me is the fact that I don't know the answer... And now that I think about it, I don't know anything about his past, or where he came from. All I know is what he and Natsu told me about chakra and how he somehow became their equivalent to S-Class at the age of ten...
Speaking of which... I don't think I, or anyone at the guild for that matter has ever seen Kakashi go all out... Nobody knows the limit on his power. He beat Gildarts all those years ago... but he didn't even look winded after that fight. I doubt Gildarts was going full power there, but still, neither was he.
And then there's the matter of Natsu. I've known him for seven years now. Well, one I guess if I don't count their not so little trip, but I still don't know for certain where he stands in terms of power. Kakashi mentioned that Natsu was strong enough to beat all of us, but Kakashi is a pretty humble guy, and from what I've seen, the things Kakashi has done far outclass anything I've seen Natsu do.
Could he really fight all of us? Would he win? I doubt he would agree to a fight anyways so I don't think I'll ever find that out... Maybe at the S-Class trials though? Technically those two aren't S-Class yet, and neither is Mavis, so perhaps we'll be able to see Kakashi and Natsu fight seriously there...
HEY! That reminds me. How the hell did those two even get on that decade quest if they aren't S-Class? What the hell was master thinki-
*BOOM*
Erza was harshly snapped out of her thoughts by an extraordinarily loud noise and the ground shaking slightly. She looked up and noticed the noise had come from the guild hall. Immediately she sensing something was wrong, she requipped into her fight armour and shot off like a bullet towards the end of town, hoping to get to the guild hall before it was too late.
But before she could reach the hall, voices from behind her in the town grabbed her attention. She whipped her head around, and noticed a huge group of people running towards her, and at the head of the group was Kakashi, Aki, and Gray.
"Erza!" The three called out to her. "Did you hear that noise?" Gray asked as they caught up to her.
"Yeah, I did. Let's head over there now, I think something's wrong!" She exclaimed. And with that, she led the group off towards the guild hall.
"What happened to Gramps?" Aki shouted at her as they ran.
Erza responded without even looking over her shoulder. "Natsu said he couldn't heal him. I took him to Porlyuisca instead and she said he'll be fine." She yelled back.
But as they turned their attention back to the road in front of them, they noticed one thing that was out of place. A massive silhouette in front of where their guild hall would be, casting an equally large shadow over the entire town. It was shaped like a huge castle, and Erza had no misconceptions as to what it was.
As they finally came within view of the coast, she stared in shock and fear at the gigantic guild hall looming over their own. The sheer size and scale of the building proved Phantom Lord's wealth and influence. And when the cannon emerged from the collapsible wall, it only added on to the feelings of terror and hopelessness. The sight caused the crowd of Fairy Tail mages to rile up quite a bit.
"What the hell is that thing!?" Exclaimed Bisca and Alzack.
"How are we supposed to fight that?" Yelled Vijeeter.
"THEIR GUILD HALL HAS LEGS?!" Questioned Happy.
Erza trembled a little as she watched the guild hall move closer and closer to the coastline of Magnolia. "I never could've expected this... I can't believe they'd go to such extremes to attack us!"
Aki and Gray just stared at the massive guild hall with eyes as wide as lunch platters. "What the hell..." Aki muttered, while Gray just stayed silent.
Kakashi had far less of a reaction, instead opting to figure out how to counter the immediate threat of the Jupiter cannon. Dozens of possible strategies ran through his head as he thought, although most were discarded as soon as they came up. Assuming that cannon is going to shoot some sort of projectile... I don't think we could counter it with a straight on attack. The blast radius would encompass our guild hall anyways. Could I use Kamui on it? No, not against something of that caliber. I suppose I could crash it... but I would have to time it perfectly, and judging by how big that thing is, whatever it shoots is going to be going fast... Think, Kakashi... what can you do here? Think of every possible jutsu, every possible option, there has to be a way... But a shout from the crowd behind him reminded him of one key fact that he'd forgotten.
"Hey, Look! Natsu is down there!"
"What can he hope to do against that thing!?"
Kakashi let out huge sigh of relief and sat down, completely relaxed. Erza looked at him with bug eyes. "Kakashi!? What are you doing? We need to help Natsu!" She shouted. Murmurs of approval could be heard by the surrounding crowd of Fairy Tail mages.
Kakashi waved her off. "Relax, Erza. He'll be fine." He replied in a lax tone.
This time Aki piped up. "HOW CAN YOU EVEN SAY THAT?! EVEN AS AWESOME AS NATSU IS, HE CAN'T STOP THAT THING!" She yelled.
Kakashi shook his head. "Trust me... Natsu will be fine. So will the guild hall. Just watch." He told them in a dead serious tone.
The wizards of Fairy Tail remained silent, but listened to him none the less.
WITH NATSU, MAVIS, AND LUCY, SAME TIME
Mavis and Lucy sweat dropped at Natsu's stupid statement. A cannon barrel pointed at them shows up on their doorstep and he comments on the price of the thing!?
"NATSU! THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR THAT KIND OF COMMENT!" Lucy screeched at him.
Natsu rubbed the back of his head. "Ah... sorry... it just kinda slipped out..."
Lucy was already in panic mode. "Mavis! Can't you cast fairy sphere or whatever that spell was called?! The one that can block anything?!" She yelled at Mavis.
Mavis grit her teeth in frustration. "I would, but there aren't enough Fairy Tail mages around here for me to cast it! It works of the bonds of our members remember? Not magic!"
Lucy fell to her knees in hopelessness. "B-but... what can we even do then?..." She stuttered out, shaking with fear.
Mavis huddled into a ball, facing away from the castle that faced them. Natsu saw her shoulders start shaking and heard the gentle sounds of her crying. And despite only knowing her for a day or two, for some reason the sight of her so distressed just... tore him apart. He felt almost as if someone as cheerful and happy as her shouldn't be crying, or sad for that matter.
She shut her eyes tight as she remembered all the times she spent with the old Fairy Tail of her time and the new Fairy Tail of now, both at the same building, which she had helped construct with her own two hands. She didn't want it to be destroyed. Not now, not ever. And especially not by some low-life wizard only fueled by jealousy. The building almost represented her dream of having a fun, family-like guild. She spent too much time on it to simply let it be annihilated. But what can I do? She thought in hopelessness. None of my spells would even be remotely strong enough to block the power of a Jupiter cannon... and there aren't enough people here to be able to cast Fairy Sphere. To think... all the powerful spells I've learned... and I still can't protec-
"Wow... you're not even going to give me a chance?" Natsu spoke in a mock dejected voice.
Mavis turned her head around, sniffling all the while. She slowly stopped crying, gently wiping the tears from the corners of her own eyes. "No *sniffle* offense Natsu, *sniffle*, but even you can't stop a *sniffle* Jupiter cannon." She told him in a depressed voice.
Suddenly they heard an ominous and nasty voice ring out from the castle in front of them. "Prepare the magic focusing cannon Jupiter..." It said in a voice that just sounded slimy.
Natsu waved his finger back in forth at Mavis as if he were scolding a child. "Tsk tsk... I brought someone back from the dead and you think I can't handle something as simple as this?..." He said with a voice and expression to match his motions.
The voice from the castle spoke yet again. "KILL THEM!" It screamed in that same nasty tone. The cannon began to build up a ball of dark energy that inverted the colour of any space it occupied. Mavis could feel the sheer power of magic emanating from the dark cannonball.
But Natsu wasn't even looking. Instead, he leaned in close to Mavis' ear. "Watch me." He whispered. And with that simple statement said, he stood up, turned around, and walked to the edge of the water.
Mavis watched his retreating form with wide eyes. She didn't want to believe it. She didn't want to believe that Natsu would risk so much to save her and the guild. But he was, and it scared her. Could he do it? Do the impossible? She didn't even want to think about him getting gravely injured, or worse dying, but at the end of the day it was a possibility. But it really made her think about their strange relationship. Over the two days we've known each other, have we really become so close that he would go so far to protect me and the guild I love so much? And have I grown so attached that him even getting injured would so greatly effect me?
But there was no more time for thoughts. The cannonball the Jupiter cannon had been building up was looking more and more unstable. Just when it looked like it was about to burst, it shot forth a beam of the same dark energy that it was made of. The laser shot towards the guild at breakneck speeds, and therefor right at Natsu, who was standing directly in it's way.
Mavis watched Natsu. She really hoped that he had some sort of secret jutsu or magic that would be able to block the attack with ease. And from what he did next, it seemed like he did.
Mavis stared at Natsu who reached his hand up towards his face. At first, she wondered what the hell he was doing reaching for his face at a time like this, and then it hit her. The headband... whatever he's hiding under there... he's about to reveal it!
Time seemed to move at half speed as Natsu slowly pulled the handband higher and higher on his face. The hair that normally hung freely over his covered left eye got pushed up and back. And then just like that, the eye was revealed. Even though Mavis couldn't yet see it due to Natsu facing away from her, she felt an incredible pressure placed upon her, as if she were being oppressed by an invisible force.
A red aura erupted to life around Natsu's still figure. It swirled around him like a raging inferno, and the feeling of incredible power only got worse. Suddenly a spine began to emerge out of thin air directly behind him. It continued to grow and grow until it eventually materialized into the full upper body of a skeleton. The pale red bones shone magnificently and combined with the deeper red aura around it gave off quite the effect.
But it wasn't done. Almost as soon as the bones finished growing, strings of muscle and flesh began to grow out of the joints of the massive skeleton, coming together to make the being that was once only a skeleton into a make-shift human. The monster's glowing yellow eyes were incredibly unnerving, and it's fiendish grin didn't help in the slightest.
The humanoid Susano'o leaned forwards towards the incoming beam and placed its left arm out in front, perpendicular to the laser. A red shield shaped like a flame began to grow on the being's arm. It was blood red with swirl patterns littered across the surface, and as if it were a live flame, the edges curled and moved in a random order.
Mavis braced herself for a large explosion of some sort for when the beam would eventually meet with the red shield, but the shock wave never came. When the laser hit the shield, nothing happened. It simply dissipated into nothingness as soon as it made contact with the shield's surface. It was as if the attack were never there in the first place.
Jose stared at the red humanoid in silent fury. Somehow these pesky little fairies had blocked a direct attack from his Jupiter cannon! Nothing like that had ever been done before, and it infuriated him to no end. He slammed his fist down on the arm of his swivel chair with an anguished cry of "Damn you!". Turning on his loudspeakers, he began to speak. "I don't know how you managed to block one attack from the Jupiter cannon, but it won't happen again! Either give me Lucy Heartfilia or relish your last fifteen minutes of life while the Jupiter cannon recharges!" He screamed.
He then looked to his screen that showed an zoomed version of the coastline and Fairy Tail's guild hall. What he saw there didn't please him in the slightest, and honestly unnerved him a little.
What he saw was Natsu just standing there with his arms crossed, looking completely relaxed. The red humanoid from before had faded, leaving him standing there alone with his rinnegan revealed. And he was staring right at where Jose was sitting. He spoke two words.
"Try me."