A few months later, in the land of Fiore and the kingdom of Crocus.
Things in the kingdom have been prospering and peaceful as the citizens are just going around doing whatever they had planned for the day.
Everything was calm and peaceful, that was until a horse carriage came rushing through all crazy and nearly hitting people who had jumped away in time.
"wait right there!" a group of knights chased after the horse carriage as it is carrying a bunch of thieves who had taken it and bags filled with priceless jewelries that had been stolen earlier on.
"hahahahaha! Like we listen to you knights!" a masked thief shouted while holding the reins to the running horses which he whipped once. "giddy up!"
Inside the carriage, the first thief's companions are grinning happily by the sights of the dazzling jewelries that they had.
"we'll be living in the good life now!" "hell yes!" they laughed together.
As the thieves are making their getaway from the knights, they didn't realize that they are being chased by a group running and jumping on nearby buildings' rooftops.
"just a bit more!" The first thief grins as he sees the opened castle gate in sights. "freedom~!"
As he was believing that freedom and rich life is directly in his path, two figures came jumping and then rides onto his carriage's horses.
"what the!?" the thief looked at the two who are sitting on his horses as they are Dan and Clay. "who the hell are you two!?"
"Yo~!" "We'll be borrowing your horses." Dan and Clay said respectively before both proceeds to cut off the reins on the horses and pull them away.
"Hey! I need those horses to! Aaah! Ahhhh!" the thieves and their carriage went for a big crash as the vehicle no longer had the horses and therefore goes for a crazy ride before crashing to a street lamp.
"aahhh! Why did it have to be a random street lamp and not an alley!?" Dan exclaimed as he and Clay goes near with their horses, the swordsman scratching his head furiously. "I lost the bet again~!"
"It's your own downfall." Clay said before adjusting his glasses and having a small smirk.
The thieves slowly gets out of their carriage while pulling their goods.
"d-damnnit! You damn kingdom knights!" the thief shouted before he and his gang tried to make another getaway into an alley.
"ahh! Now an alley!? Damnit!" Dan shouted in frustration. "another loss bet!?"
"and another time of your defeat yet again." Clay added in.
Nearby citizens look at the two knights in confusion as they couldn't understand why they are not chasing after the thieves who are running as fast as they could.
"damnit! Damn knights! Damn loyal dogs of the kingdom!" the thieves continued to run before one of them got slammed to the ground by Tim who appeared by a corner alley. The big man using his shield that bashed against them. "What the!?"
"going somewhere?" Tim asks with a smile while the thieves growled and then continues to run. "north, is it?"
Tim watches them run as he stay in his place and sees another thief triggered a small trap that got him pulled off his feet and into the air.
"aaahh! Boss! Help me!" the thief cried for help to his leader who sees him and just runs away. "hey! Help me! Hey! You damn coward!"
"i-I didn't get to get the two at the same time?" Rookie appears from another corner of the alley, he looks a bit disappointed and sad. "I went to the trouble to put three traps too…"
"let us leave the rest to the captain, Rookie-kun." Tim came to his friend as he undid the trap and made the thief fall to the ground on his face. "he knew that this was going to happen after all, right?"
The last thief keeps on running as he looks panicked now.
"shit! Shit! Why does it have to be them who are going after me now!?" he exclaimed as he runs out of the alley and ends up on another roadside where there are people going around, not knowing that he is a thief. "where is the damn exit gate!?"
As he was trying to find a place to escape out of the kingdom or just hide till he could, he felt a finger tapping his right shoulder.
"wha?" The thief turned around and then gets a punched to the face that sends him flying. "bugeh!"
Back to the other road on the other side of the alley, Dan and the others rounded up two of the thieves as they were chatting about how the swordsman lost his best.
"damnit! Not another week of report writing!" Dan shouted in frustration while frustratedly scratching his head.
"do not forget another week of report assorting." Clay said and Dan looks more frustrated and defeated at the same time.
"I suggest that you do not make too much bets on missions nowadays, Dan-kun." Tim chuckles while Rookie smiles a bit awkwardly.
As they conversed, they heard some noise by the alley and soon sees Natsu coming out while pulling the last thief who is out cold.
"if he did, it won't be fun, Tim." Natsu said as he is smoking a cigar while throwing the last thief to his friends. He smirks. "and it'll be a pain if I got to do the job nowadays."
"come on, Captain! You're the captain of the team, right!?" Dan cried out. "my brain went dead after a month of report writing!" he then points at Clay. "Please get Clay to do it!"
"you want a fight?" Clay said while raising an eyebrow.
"he already did his turn last month, so suck it up and just do it." Natsu replied before he turns and faces some knights coming by and then saluted to him. "they're all yours."
"Yes! Thank you for the assistance, Salamanders!" the leader of the knight exclaimed before having his subordinates get the thieves and the stolen jewels to be returned.
"now then, I guess I'll go and meet up the old man for another mission talk." Natsu said as he sucks in more smoke and swallowed it. He looks at his team. "you guys have the day off for today, do whatever you want."
"you say that even though you know that I still got to do last week's mission report, Captain.." Dan said while crying anime tears.
"it's your own fault for not finishing them in time." Clay said as he adjusted his glasses while Tim chuckles and Rookie awkwardly smiles.
After everything that has happened with Bash's passing, Natsu took on the mantle to be a great captain of Fiore's knights. The young man had made great achievements in just a few weeks as he finished every mission given to him without fail.
At the moment, Natsu is walking within Mercurius as he is making his way to Arcadios' office for another mission report that needs to be compiled.
As Natsu was walking, he passes by a corner and sees his friend/rival Kama coming by. The Captain of the Garou Knights wears his grim reaper uniform on and is carrying a stack of papers.
"going to the old man to submit your mission report?" Natsu said to Kama who nodded. "what does it make now? A hundred?"
"a hundred and one." Kama stated while waving the written report paper to his fellow captain. "and I assume yours haven't been finished by your subordinate."
"Kind of." Natsu replied while shrugging his shoulders before folding his hands behind his head. "Dan ain't what you call a role model on writing reports and stuff."
"that's obvious." Kama said.
Natsu and Kama converses about certain topics as they keep on walking straight for Arcadios' office which they arrived in just a few minutes.
"Old man, we're coming in." Natsu called out as he entered the office without knocking which made Kama sigh tiredly.
Natsu and Kama walks in to find Arcadios in the middle of doing paper work which he soon looks away to smile at the two coming in.
"ah, I was expecting either of you to come by now." Arcadios said. "good work in apprehending the day robbery at the downtown area, Natsu."
"me and my team were coming back from the last mission and had time." Natsu said while shrugging his shoulders. "no biggie."
"say that after how you and your team wrecked some public property." Kama stated as he went and submitted the report of his team's completed mission to Arcadios who took it.
"It was just a street lamp post." Natsu raise his hands in defense. "there's hundreds of them in Crocus, so what's the big deal?"
Kama sighs while facepalming and Arcadios merely chuckles.
After a few more pleasant chatting, Arcadios coughs into a raised fist and faces the two Captains.
"with all that set aside, I have a few missions that needed to be sorted by both of your teams." Arcadios spoke as he gets off his seat and went to a table that has stacks of papers. He started to file through them one by one. "Kama, you and your team have a few execution orders on several criminals that have been sent to the Abyss Palace." He takes a few papers and handed them to Kama who takes them. "know that a few are highly ranked Dark Wizards who have been causing some terrible trouble to the kingdom for a few years."
"understood." Kama nods as he looks through the papers which has information of the criminals that needed to be executed.
"and as for Natsu." Arcadios goes through the papers again. "there are a few missions available for you and your team, but there is an important mission that the king requested me to give to you."
"what is it?" Natsu asks as Arcadios gave him one paper that he took and had the contents read. "Eisenwald?"
"a Dark guild." Arcadios explained. "the members in that guild all specialized in assassination and there's been reports of trouble from them." He takes another paper and handed it to Natsu. "but the one who has been giving the most trouble is a strong wind wizard by the name of Erigor; the so called Grim Reaper."
"sounds like your alias was a rip off from this guy, Kama." Natsu said with a grin to Kama.
"like hell I call myself the Grim Reaper!" Kama exclaimed. "I just use scythes and that's it! I ain't no grim reaper!"
"moving on." Arcadios stated after coughing once. "The King assigned Team Salamanders to go and apprehend Eisenwald as quickly as possible."
"and I'm guessing this flute that they stole from the magic council is the reason?" Natsu said as the second paper he got from Arcadios is a report about an item stolen from the Magic council which is a strange looking wooden flute with a skeleton head. "Lullaby, the Flute of Death?"
"a very powerful and ancient magic item made by the Black Wizard, Zeref himself." Arcadios added in while nodding. "legend has it that the flute was once just a tool for "murder by curse" at first, which means that it curses the target and causes them to die. After getting into Dark Mage Zeref's hands, he further developed it into a magical flute, called Mass Murder Curse Magic" he keened his eyes. "a type of magic that is capable of putting a death curse on everyone who hears its melody except for the Caster."
"sounds like one bad instrument." Natsu said as he rolled up the papers and put them away to his back. "but got a question for ya, old man."
"what is it?" Arcadios replied.
"why bother giving us a request that Mage Guilds are supposed to be doing?" Natsu asks while crossing his arms on his chest. "it's usually their jobs to get rid of dark guilds, right?"
"I agree with that statement." Kama stated. "Isn't it the mage guilds who are tasked with eliminating the dark guilds nowadays?" He raise a hand and waves it to the side. "why bother giving this type of mission to Natsu?"
"I know, but there's been some dissatisfaction from the people of Fiore on the Kingdom's knights' duty." Arcadios replied after nodding before he folds his hands on the table while leaning forward. "therefore, Minister Darton suggests that our knights especially the Salamanders to take action in improving the reliability of the people to the kingdom."
"so basically we got to make sure that people have some trust on us than the mage guilds, huh?" Natsu said while tilting his head to the side before sighing with his eyes closed. "that geezer Darton sure got some ideas, doesn't he?"
"hey, he's the minister." Kama scolded Natsu while Arcadios sighed.
"he is just ensuring that the people have trust to the kingdom and to the King." Arcadios said before he turns to the side and checks some nearby papers. "right now we got a few leads on where Eisenwald are at, but there's not been any new reports so far." He then takes out a paper and handed it to Natsu. "However, we got a lead from an informant spying on Eisenwald and had currently reported that the dark guild is currently active around Onibas."
"Onibas, huh?" Natsu looks at the paper as it had information on some members of Eisenwald especially Erigor. He checks the info for a minute before he looks at Arcadios and nodded. "got it. I'll go myself."
"without your team?" Arcadios asks.
"The guys worked hard on our last mission, they need a time off." Natsu said as he grins while placing the paper aside, he then takes out a new cigar, put it in his mouth, and light the tip before inhaling some smoke. "besides, I've been wanting to go on some solo missions for some time."
Arcadios and Kama looks at Natsu before to each other as they sigh.
"just make sure that you don't do too much damage." Arcadios said as Natsu snickers while grinning even more and then left the room.
After getting his mission information from Arcadios, Natsu left the castle and went to his home.
Natsu walks up to the door at the candy store as he pushes it open and is welcome with the sound of a bell ringing and the candy stored in the jars and on display.
"Puruuu~!" Puru's cry is heard as Natsu grins with a snicker while walking pass the pink furball captured in a net.
"serves you right for trying to sneak a bite, little fuzzball." Natsu said as he picks up the net and gets Puru out. "if you want to eat candy, get them from Cosmos."
"Puru~!" Puru cries out while looking a bit frustrated before the furball starts to bounce away.
Natsu smirks before he goes and went upstairs to his room that is a bit messy with clothes, sheets, and small candy wraps on the floor.
"for goodness sake, do you have to do this every time I get home from a long mission?" Natsu said with a sigh as he went to his bed which had someone sleeping on it. "hey? Cosmos?" he leans down and slowly pulls down the blanket to reveal a patch of pink hair. "it's almost afternoon and you haven't waken up?"
"ughhh…." The pink hair moved and turned as it is revealed to be Cosmos who is wearing a nearly loose pink night gown while her hair is messy. "I'm tired….let me sleep…"
The two pink haired couple had their relationship keep on growing after Bash' funeral. Natsu cared for Cosmos as much as she cared for him when the man was recovering from the loss of his teacher/adoptive father. Currently, the two are now living together in the candy store as they become that close.
"come on, what time do you think this is?" Natsu said as he slowly pulls the blanket off his girlfriend and then starts to clean up the mess.
"I'm tired~! I worked until midnight yesterday~!" Cosmos whined while trying to sleep again. "I'm too tired~!"
"You say that every time." Natsu said as he sighs after finished cleaning up the mess and then goes near Cosmos. "come on." He gently combs her messy hair to the side and then leans down to give a kiss on her cheek. "it's time to wake up and get yourself clean."
Cosmos just grumbles in response as she begins whining that she didn't want to leave the comfy bed which got Natsu to sigh before he goes and picks her up in his arms.
"For crying out loud.." Natsu sighs as he carried Cosmos straight for the bathroom.
A few minutes later, the two came out as Natsu still carries Cosmos in his arms but the pink haired executioner is wearing a large loose white shirt, blue shorts, and looking very refreshed, awake, and happy.
"This is becoming too much of a habit for you." Natsu said before getting a kiss on the cheek by Cosmos which made him smile. "But it's a habit I like doing for you."
"Puru~!" Puru came jumping in as the pink furball jumped right into Cosmos' arms and get some affectionate scratches and pats. "Puru~!"
The group went down into the kitchen at the back of the candy store as Natsu sat Cosmos and Puru down at one chair before he went and quickly prepared a mug of warm and refreshing sour lemon tea for her.
"Did you finish submitting your mission report to Captain Arcadios?" Cosmos asks while holding up her mug near her mouth and taking a sip that made her lips pucker. "Sour~!"
"just did, or rather…" Natsu said as he was by the kitchen counter, opening a jar filled with jawbreaker candy, he picks one out and then threw it into the air for Puru to come jumping in and gobbled it up. "I had Dan do it."
"I see.." Cosmos said with a nod before she giggles with a smile to Puru when the furball came and nudges her arm as if asking for affection. She looks back at Natsu. "so you're free for the entire month, right?"
"That was the plan." Natsu said as he brewed himself a cup of hot coffee. He turns and looks at Cosmos while taking a sip of his drink that made him sigh. "the old man had an emergency request for me." He takes out the papers holding the information of his mission that he went and placed on the table to let his girlfriend see. "a subjugation of a dark guild called Eisenwald."
"I've heard of this dark guild before." Cosmos said as she picks up a paper and reads the information written regarding Erigor. "they have someone nicknamed the Grim Reaper cause he only takes assassination requests." She place the paper away and turns towards Puru who gets several scratches under the chin and several head pats. "a very bad evildoer."
"yeah, I guess so." Natsu said before he finished his cup of coffee then went to a nearby cupboard to take out a sack bag filled with provisions. "I'll be back by midnight." He goes behind Cosmos, gives her a big kiss on the lips, patted Puru's head a few times, and then went out. "I'll also get some sour snacks for ya!"
"take care!" Cosmos waves him goodbye, the girl knowing that their jobs as knights of the kingdom would leave them little time together, but Natsu always made sure that she would always felt loved by him.
"Puru~!" Puru cried out to Cosmos who giggled before scratching the furball's head a few times. "Puruuu~!"
A few hours later, Natsu is riding a horse and is currently on his way to the town Onibas where the reports have that the Eisenwald guild are located.
Pulling on the reins, Natsu got the horse to stop by a cliff as the Dragon Slayer looks down to see the Town Onibas in sight.
"got here in time." Natsu said while patting his horse for a job well done in getting the man to the location. He was about to go and get some info from local officers in the town, but he caught sight of a train going away while being chased by a magic transport vehicle. "what's that?"
Natsu takes out a pair of binoculars and checks the enhanced view on what was going on.
"The heck are those guys doing?" Natsu asks himself as he sees the driver of the magic transport vehicle who is an armor wearing red haired girl. He sees how the car is increasing its speed to catch up with the train that got a bit of action from two people fighting inside with ice and shadow magic. "a fight between mages?"
As Natsu keeps on watching the scene, he made a tense noise when he saw how a black haired guy gets blasted out of train and then landed on the top of the magic vehicle that swayed and curved from the additional weight that crashed on it.
The train went off and the magic transport vehicle went for an emergency stop that got it to let out steam from the engine.
"looks like I got more trouble to see and solve." Natsu said as he pulled away his binoculars and stashed them away. He held the horse's reins before looking at the train that was going away. "but that can wait until I find out what is going on with that train."
Natsu whips the horse's reins once before the steed runs off in the direction of the train.
That's a wrap!
Bye bye