Before I get on with the story, I would like to thank everyone that responded to my question, so with only one person coming out against it, sorry CelestialTitania but the Thunder dragon will be making an appearance.
Secondly I do not know whether to be pleased or scared, if you have read the 24th review of this story you will understand, I recommend you do, it is quite funny.
Also sorry for the long wait, I had exams and there wasn't much free time.
Now that's out of the way with, ONWARD!
X774, Training Grounds
Wednesday – May 19th
It was a beautiful sunny day during this spring, with a calm serene field full of flowers and life, butterflies fluttering around, bees buzzing from flower to flower, squirrels collecting nuts together, and finally the birds flying above chirping a happy tune. All was peaceful.
"FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST"
Until Igneel decided it was time for Natsu to train, the punch absolutely decimated the floor and caused the animals to flee with terror and the plants, to burn to ashes, helpless against the flames of Natsu's punch. Even though he was surrounded by flames and the devastation he caused with his attack was great, Natsu was frowning because that hadn't been as good as previous ones he had completed. He was disappointed with himself, he had been doing training for just over eight months now and he couldn't say if he was improving or not.
His gravity seals just went to the next level, it's obvious that his strength and speed, not to mention endurance has increased otherwise he wouldn't be able to complete his daily workouts. He had no one to test himself against for a fight, which ruled out his fighting style. All he could tell was that he had learnt some new spells from his father and that he had excellent control on his attacks, and the only reason he knew that as because his father had said so.
"Dad, am I getting stronger? Faster? … Better?" Natsu asked the old dragon who was currently sitting on the side of the field, murmuring to himself about formulas and algorithms as he watched his son.
The question snapped Igneel out of his thoughts and caused him to gaze worryingly at Natsu. "Of course you are Natsu, the fact that nearly every other month you advance to the next level of the gravity seal proves that. Why do you ask?" Igneel was honestly confused, Natsu had been growing leaps and bounds these past few months, and he still had more than three and a bit years left of teaching him. Soon he'd have to actually fight him himself in order to train the boy, at that thought a smirk came upon his face. "I'll tell you what Natsu, how about at the end of every three months, you fight me, to see how far you've come? Does sound like a suitable agreement?" Igneel thought off the smirk that was fighting its way on his face as he sore the excitement sparkle in his eyes.
No seriously, Natsu's eyes were sparkling at the chance of fighting his father, and not just that, but at least four times a year.
"YEAH! I'm all fired up now." With his catchphrase said and done Natsu started training in a new light.
Day in day out, Natsu trained. Every waking moment was spent training, apart from when his father forced him to sit down and have some educational lessons. It continued like that for quite a while, Natsu would spend his time perfecting his combos until they were flawless after completing his regular physical work out, after which he would have a small lesson, then he would try to maximise the force behind his attacks without using up too much if his magic.
It got to the point that when he knew all of his attacks like the back of his hand which caused him to start doing extra physical exercise in order to do some training that would actually help him. He would finish the day off with a nice relaxing bath to help relax the soreness caused from the day's events. During this time Igneel would be spent working on their little project, while secretly watching over Natsu to ensure he didn't work himself into exhaustion. God knows he did that enough times already.
Igneel looked on with fondness in his eyes, some might say that it looked out of place on his huge scaly head, but for these two it was just another day, and watching Natsu try and prepare for the fight they were scheduled to have was just as amusing as he had thought it would be, yet at the same time he felt proud that his son wanted to beat him so badly that he would train this hard for it. Hours later when Natsu finally went to bed Igneel took flight in the northern direction, flying over many towns and villages, even passing a couple of cities, roughly two hours after Natsu had fallen asleep Igneel landed in an abandoned mountain, where thunder storms were normally found.
Traversing through the tunnels in the mountain Igneel started to feel the presence he hadn't felt in months and one he had not felt in years, centuries even. Tonitrua, the Thunder Dragon, and Primitus the Time Dragon, were sat there conversing on small topics, Primitus with her usual monotone drawl and Tonitrua with his gravelly voice (AN: think Christian Bale – Batman). Making his appearance known, Igneel swiftly covered the small distance between him and the other two titanic beasts in large strides. Sitting next to Primitus, Igneel scanned Tonitrua as he did the same to Igneel.
Tonitrua was smaller than most other dragons due to his need for more precise attacks and because his attacks in general were smaller than other dragons. For example his roar only expanded to roughly a foot and a half in diameter. His scales were a light grey that were tinted with yellow due to his element. His head had three points protruding from the back, the middle one only a couple of inches longer than the outside two. His tail was the same size as his body and ended with arrow point that due to its sharpness, could commit the same amount of damage as another dragons claw could, meaning it could penetrate a dragons scales. Lastly his body was much more streamlined, allowing for quicker movement, and complimenting his precise attacks.
"Tonitrua, Primitus, nice to see you again." Igneel greeted formally, maintain his respect for the first one and hoping to win over Tonitrua's trust in order for the night to be successful.
"Igneel, come join, Tonitrua and I were just discussing the days before Zeref. Lovely times those were, shame it ended, however that's not tonight is about." Igneel followed Primitus' suggestion and sat beside her, where they both proceeded to look at Tonitrua, who in turn shifted uncomfortably at the feeling of being stared at by the strongest dragon of them all and the King of the Fire Dragons. Uncomfortable was an understatement.
"Is there a reason you two are staring at me? Cause I feel very uncomfortable right now." Tonitrua's comment snapped them out of the two dragon's thoughts and caused Igneel to cough nervously.
"Right, well, you see, just under a year ago an incident occurred, one that I don't believe has happened ever, as my slayer, my son, he went to sleep one night, and during that night his magical power pretty much doubled." The lightning dragon's face shifted from amusement to confusion during the explanation, how could someone's power double over night. "This in turn caused Primitus here to fly down to my location," Here Tonitrua's face took on astonishment as he finally realised why the Time Dragon had appeared for this meeting. "my son's attack combined with the attack of Acnologia's caused a rift in time to open, while his grown up body was sucked in, only his soul was sent back, this included all his memories, knowledge and his power. The reason we asked for you is because one of Natsu's comrades, Laxus I believe he was called, gave all of his remaining power to Natsu during a fight. His magic is the … the lightning dragon slayer."
Understandably Tonitrua was shocked, his element had a dragon slayer, but he hadn't taken one on, so how …?
"He's a second generation dragon slayer." Primitus told Tonitrua seeing the confusion on his face grow, she clarified for him. "Dragon Lacrima."
Tonitrua didn't know whether to be offended or curious, the fact that there was a method to gain Dragon Slayer Magic quickly without going through all the hardships to control it, curious as to what the differences between the two generations, would first be stronger, more effective? Or would second have more potential? Either way it was a cheap way to gain the lost magic.
"The reason we called for this meeting is to ask whether you would … tutor Natsu in his lightning magic. We would, I would understand if you didn't but there's another reason for this. We believe that …"
As Igneel continued to explain the reason for the needed help, Tonitrua's eyes widened until they were covering nearly half of his face, now understanding the worry and fear that was laced in both Igneel's and Primitus' tone.
"Of course, it would be dishonourable of me to not help you out in this situation. Also I can consider this a … study, to see what happens when a dragon slayer is properly trained in the magics of two elements. It could be beautiful, watching as fire and lightning work together in perfect harmony. Or," here Tonitrua's voice seemed to darken, an underlying tone of warning as he spoke. "… It would be disastrous, catastrophic even. I would watch as the two elements contradict each other, battle dominance before the worse occurred." His voice once again returned to normal, with a slightly chipper tone that seemed to make anyone believe he hadn't just spoken darkly.
Primitus and Igneel gazed at each other for a few seconds, wordlessly having a conversation, debating over whether this was as good idea as they first thought. Deciding it would be worth the risk if it helped Natsu survived.
"Thank you, you don't know how much this means to me." Igneel managed to keep the tears at bay long enough for him to say his goodbyes before he took off back in the direction of their cave, leaving Primitus to direct Tonitrua there. Once he had reached five miles from Tonitrua's mountain, only then he let the tears fall, hope bursting through him. The possibility the Natsu would survive another battle, and live another day causing him to fly slightly faster in order to see Natsu once again.
Arriving back at the cave seemed to have calmed Igneel don enough not to burst into tears at the sight of a Natsu, sleeping on his bed, head hanging over the side with drool dripping down his face and his salmon coloured hair defying the effects of gravity. Normally this sight would be met with chuckles and teasing, but when you just had a discussion as serious as the one Igneel, Primitus and Tonitrua just had, then humour would be the last thing on anyone's mind.
Morning came and with it Natsu had finally realised something. Something so blaringly obvious that he'd would actually beg Erza to knock some sense into him. Igneel watched as Natsu walked into their makeshift kitchen with a curios expression and eyes that showed determination in them, he grew slightly worried.
'Did he know I was out last night? Did he reach the same conclusion we had?' all these thoughts crossed his mind until Natsu spoke and asked a question that would have Igneel both amused, relieved and angered at the same time.
"Igneel, who was that grey dragon with you when I told you my past … err … future?"
Shock filled Igneel's body for only a few seconds, then anger took over.
"You mean to tell me, you only just realised that there was a second dragon that day? I've been patiently waiting all this time for you to ask it, naturally now it's been almost a year I assumed you hadn't cared. But you come here this morning and realise after 9, almost 10 months, that there was a second dragon that day only just occurred to you?" while his voice did raise with each remark he did not yet broach the point of shouting.
"Well, yeah. I mean, I finally had you back and then training took over …" silence thick enough you could cut hung in the air. Igneel stared at Natsu with emotionless eyes, while on the inside he debated whether to laugh or punish him. He decided in both. Natsu on the other hand happily made his way to the table to eat his breakfast, only to come short at Igneel's next course of action.
Deep belly laughs boomed out of Igneel's large maw as he lost it. One tear managed to escape from him due to the sensation of laughter flowing through his body. That did not stop him from punishing Natsu though.
"Oh, Natsu, while you may have made me laugh, due to your utter idiocy, for the next week, you shall be banned from combat training – except your daily exercises – and be forced into educational tutoring, such as maths and your reading/writing skills. I shall not let you embarrass yourself, or me, through your unbelievable stupidity." As Igneel walked back to the entrance of the cave to set up the 'classroom' he ignored the outraged 'WHAT!' that echoed throughout the cave, as well as the curses that followed, for this had to be done.
Tonitrua wouldn't accept a student to teach lightning dragon slayer magic if they were as thick as Natsu was.
I hope you like Igneel's little emotional moment, and I would also like to apologise once again for the time it took for this to be updated. I was distracted by my exams, the return of Fairy Tail and other minuscule stuff.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, now for those of you worried that Natsu will become smart and his personality will change – It Will Not! I like reading a smarter Natsu as much as the next person but truly Natsu has to be somewhat stupid to even be considered as Natsu Dragneel.
Now once again I ask you to vote for the Natsu Pairing, it currently stands at:
Small Harem – 12
Lucy – 5
Lisanna – 4
Kagura – 3
Mirajane – 2
Erza – 2
Cana – 1
Levy – 1
Juvia – 0
Minerva - 0
For those of you voting the small harem, I mean it, max will be 3 girls, but most likely to be 2. Due to this if it is still a small harem by Christmas I shall remove it and include the top 2 girls as Natsu's partners, if there is a tie within the top 3 then it shall be those 3, so please cast your vote.
Once again leave you thoughts in a review and any ideas fell free to try them out.
Love you all,
TheMaddogMerc