Chapter 212

Ryuzetsu Land Chaos

Our party soon arrived at Ryuzetsu Land, a large dome-shaped building. When we went inside, my eyes couldn't help but widen in wonder and amazement with what I saw.

The entire place was very similar to the theme park at the Akane Resort. Only this place had several different-sized pools and some water-themed rides. There were even a few casual areas with chairs and some restaurants. Many people were also there, clad in swimsuits, either having the time of their lives swimming or relaxing in their chairs.

"Whoa! This place looks incredible!" I couldn't help but gawk as I looked around.

Mavis was also excited. "Oh my! I've never seen anything like this before!" she squeaked with stars in her eyes. "I'm so glad that I left Tenrou Island! I would never have gotten the chance to see something like this! I can't wait to start swimming!"

Makarov, Laxus, and I headed for the men's locker rooms to change. From there, we went our separate ways. I was looking for a locker to put my clothes in when I came across Alzack, who was already wearing his swimsuit.

"Hey, Willy. There you are," he said. "I was wondering if you would show up."

"Hey there, Alzack," I greeted. "I take it you and your family came to swim, too?"

"Yeah. Figured it'd be a good time to unwind after the craziness of the games," said Alzack. "Plus, Asuka and Lapis wanted to come so bad, we couldn't say no. Oh, yeah. That reminds me." He then held out a small bag. "Sieri and Lapis came in a little while ago with Mira and Lisanna, and Sieri told me to give this to you."

I took the bag in puzzlement, and Alzack walked away.

When he was gone, I looked inside the bag and was surprised to see a pair of swimming trunks inside them. They were colored dark blue and had white trims. There was also a tiny note inside that read the following:

Another small gift from me! These should be perfect for you since you're a swimmer, and they'll look great on you! Use them well!

-Sierri.

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I decided to put them on. After I did, I looked at myself in a mirror. Thanks to all the training, I was pretty muscular and fit. I wasn't as skinny as Reedus or Max, but I wasn't overly buff as Elfman. It's pretty safe to say that I was somewhere in the middle. I felt pretty proud of my body, but then my eyes fell upon my scars.

Despite promising I would be more open about them, I still couldn't help but feel shy, believing they made me a bit ugly. Although, I did go parading around in a Speedo in front of a crowd not too long ago, and I remembered what Erza said about overcoming such a weakness.

"Well, time to see if I can grow a bit bolder," I told myself.

I then left the changing room and went to the water park. As I looked around the many pools and rides, trying to see anyone I knew, I noticed a few people staring at me, but they seemed to be staring out of amazement.

Then, I heard a familiar voice call out to me.

"Yo! Willy! About time you showed up!"

That voice came from Cana, whom I saw waving beside the bar. But as soon as I saw her, I nearly fell over in surprise, for unlike everyone else, Cana was wearing nothing but her underwear, which was white with pink roses with leaves.

"C-Cana?! What the heck are you wearing?!" I couldn't help but exclaim. "I get that you usually wear skimpy clothes, but come on!"

"Whatcha talking about? It's a swimsuit. Besides, I don't see any issues with it," shrugged Cana. "Anyway, I need you to come with me for a sec. A certain someone's looking for you."

I followed Cana while trying to ignore her current attire until we approached a medium-sized pool, where I saw a few familiar faces. Mirajane and Lisanna were talking to each other beside it while Macao and Wakaba ogled them, their noses running with blood, and Romeo stood idly beside them.

Mirajane was wearing a two-piece strapless bikini that was dark blue like my trunks and had a skirt tied on both sides. Lisanna's swimsuit was also a two-piece bikini, but it was sky blue and knotted in the front.

"Hey, you guys! Lookie who I found!" called Cana.

Mirajane and Lisanna looked up, and their faces brightened when they saw me, while Macao and Wakaba immediately looked away, pretending not to see me.

"Willy! You finally made it!" said Mira. "Took you long enough."

"Sorry I'm a bit late," I apologized as I looked around. "I'll say this much, this place is pretty big, and there's a lot of people here."

"I know. And it's only nighttime," said Lisanna. "Then again, Levy did say that it was popular. I can't help but feel a little guilty. We should have brought Elfman with us."

"Yeah, I agree," said Mira. "I kinda almost feel sorry for leaving him behind."

"He's still recuperating, so even if we wanted to, we probably couldn't," I said. "Porlyusica probably would get mad at us for even attempting."

Cana then cut in. "Well, now that my duty's done, I was going to hit up some bars," she said. "You coming, Lisanna?"

"Sure am," said Lisanna.

I blinked. "Wait a second. I thought we were going to hang out together?"

"Sorry, but Cana and I have plans," said Lisanna. "Why don't you use the opportunity for you two to hang out together?"

"Yeah. We don't want to interfere with you two or anything," winked Cana. "Have fun, you crazy kids."

And before I could say anything more, Cana and Lisanna had left me and Mirajane alone.

"Why do I get the feeling that these two planned for this to happen?" I sighed.

"Well, I don't have any problems with that," said Mira. "It's been a while since we've had some time together, so why don't we make the most of it?"

"If you say I so," I said.

"By the way, where did you get that swimsuit?" asked Mira. "I don't think I've seen you in that one."

"Oh, this? Sieri gave it to me," I replied as I looked at myself. "She said these would look good on me, but I don't know. I'm still feeling a bit embarrassed showing this much skin."

"Well, I think you look great," smiled Mira. "And it's the same color as mine, so we match."

"Th-Thanks," I said shyly while playing with my bang with a finger. "So do you."

But as we started walking, Mira's bikini top was suddenly ripped away, exposing her breasts in plain view. She let out a cute and surprised kya while quickly covering her cans with her arms while my face felt like it had caught fire as I looked away.

The cause for this was Jenny, who had popped up from behind Mira, sniggering while twirling her stolen top.

"Take that, Mira!" she said triumphantly. "Consider this payback from yesterday!"

"Hey! I know you!" I barked. "You're Jenny from Blue Pegasus! You give that back right now!"

"Ain't gonna happen!" Jenny mocked. "Besides, I was embarrassed quite a bit yesterday thanks to her, and I'm just returning the favor. Plus, you should be grateful. After all, you got a pretty good view, didn't you?"

I could feel my cheeks growing hotter. "That couldn't even be further from the truth!" I snapped flusteredly.

Mira glared playfully at Jenny while still covering her breasts with one arm. "Now, you've gone and done it, Jenny!" she said. "Now it's my turn!"

Before Jenny could react, Mira lunged, using her speed to get behind her, and pulled her pink with black striped bikini bottoms straight down, exposing her bum and her bits, causing the girl to burst into tears as she started crying. I immediately turned around, not wanting to see, but then I saw Macao and Wakaba. The two had blood gushing out of their noses, undoubtedly having to have seen everything.

Almost immediately, and having enough of this nonsense, I sucked in some air and let out a breath attack blasting Macao and Wakaba away. Next, I marched over to the two girls, took back the articles of clothing they stole from each other, and returned them to their owners. Then while making sure not to look, I picked up Jenny and plopped her into the nearest pool.

Jenny soon resurfaced, shaking the water out of her hair. "Hey! What's the big idea?!" she snapped.

"Just hurry up and put your bottoms back on!" I snapped back. "I refuse to have a repeat of Day Three, so would it kill you guys to think of where you are?! Seriously!"

After a few minutes, the two girls had their swimsuits back on, and Jenny was out of the pool.

"Look, if you two are going to get revenge and stuff like that, try not to flash your bodies for the world to see," I told them scoldingly. "So, try and take things like that somewhere else, all right?"

Jenny huffed as she looked away poutily, while Mira couldn't help but giggle while acting innocent.

"All right, Willy. Whatever you say," she said. "I did get a bit carried away."

Then, Risley strolled up to us along with Romeo.

"Well, well. You certainly got a lot of grit, kid," she said. "I've never seen anyone put an end to a scene like that so quickly."

"Well, can you blame me?" I huffed. "Anyway, you're from Mermaid Heel, if I'm not mistaken. Risley, right?"

"That's right," winked Risley. "And you must be Willy Falconer from Fairy Tail. Y'know, I've heard some things about you through the grapevine, but you're not what the rumors said you'd be."

"Yeah, I get that a lot," I said. "And sorry for blasting your dad, Romeo. He kinda had it coming."

"Don't worry about it," sighed Romeo. "To be honest, I would have done the same thing."

"And sorry not stopping Jenny, kid," Risley also apologized. "Didn't expect her to interfere with your date or anything."

"Wait, what do you mean "date"?" I asked.

"Well, I just assumed that you two were on a date or something," said Riley with a puzzled expression. "Or did I get that wrong?"

"Yes, you did," I quickly replied. "We're just hanging out as friends. Nothing more. A-Anyway, what do you say we get going, Mira?"

"Sure thing," agreed Mira.

We were just about to leave when I suddenly remembered something.

"Hey, Jenny. Now that I think about it, I want to ask you something since you're here," I spoke while looking in her direction. "Regarding your match with Mira. Why did you make me the prize of your bet?"

"And what would it matter if I told you?" she huffed. "It's not like it'll affect you in any way since I lost. But if you have to know, I got too cocky and figured I had the match won. Since you both seemed close, I figured I would rub more salt in the wound by taking you as a trophy. After all, you're quite a popular guy with the crowd, and having someone like you would be beneficial."

"Even if you won, there is no way in hell I would go with you," I curtly replied. "Especially considering that creepy Bob guy is a member of your guild."

"Hey! Watch it, buddy! That's my guild master you're talking about!" objected Jenny. "Even though you are right about him regarding the creepy department."

"Don't mind him, Jenny. He just had a bad run-in with Bob a while back," said Mira. "And Willy, I know Master Bob is... eccentric, but he's one of the good guys. He is the guild master of Blue Pegasus and used to be on a team with Makarov back in the day."

"I didn't know that," I said with a raised brow. "But I still think he's kind of creepy."

"Anyway, we'll get out of your hair, kid," winked Risley. "Jenny and I've got stuff to do, and the night's still young!"

"And I got to check on my dad," said Romeo. "Hopefully, after being blasted with your magic, they've cooled down a bit."

Romeo, Jenny, and Risley then left. Mira and I watched them go.

"Sorry about that, Mira," I instinctively apologized. "I shouldn't have jumped in like I did, and I may have sounded rude back there."

"Don't worry. It's fine," smiled Mira. "I didn't expect Jenny to come out of nowhere like that, so she surprised me. By the way... you didn't see anything did you?"

"N-No! I didn't!" I immediately replied. "It happened so fast, and I looked away when it did!"

Mira appeared relieved. "Oh. All right then," she said. "And by the way, thanks for what you did. I appreciate it."

"N-No problem," I said. "A-Anyway, why don't we go ahead and have some fun now? Before anything else happens."

"Sounds good," said Mira.

We then resumed our walk, heading toward the pools and rides, looking to see what piqued our interest. I tried my best not to think about what had happened, but even something like that would be hard to forget. That was until we eventually happened to come by a particular pool.

It appeared decently sized, and only a few people were inside it.

"Hey, Willy. Let's try this one," Mira suggested. "There should be plenty of room for us to swim here."

We walked over to the pool, and I couldn't help but smile at the sight. It had been so long since I'd had a good swim, and seeing the water made me as excited as can be. So much so that I quickly approached the pool's edge and dove right in. Upon plunging into the water, I felt nothing but the water's warm, pleasant temperature. I kicked my feet and swam forward a few paces and did a flip.

I resurfaced from the water and saw Mira touching the water with her hand, trailing with her fingers.

"Wow. The water feels so warm," she commented. "Just the right temperature."

"You got that right," I said as I started floating on my back. "Man, I've missed this! I haven't been in swimming in forever!"

Mira giggled. "So I can see," she said as she leaned over the edge. "Looks like you haven't gotten rusty with all that time you've been away from the water. And here I thought you'd forgotten how to swim."

Then, an idea popped into my head. With all the teasing Mira's been giving me, I thought it was time to get a bit of payback. So I stealthily dove under the water, swam toward the edge, and waited for Mira to come closer. After a few seconds, I saw her leaning in, looking around for me while hearing her muffled voice. At that moment, I jumped out of the water, grabbed her by the hand, and yanked it, dragging her in.

I then resurfaced from the water, as did Mira. I saw that her hair was covering her face due to being wet, and she had a sulky expression. This sight made me laugh, believing that she looked pretty funny.

But while laughing, I was interrupted by a splash of water hitting my face.

"Take that!" she said playfully.

"Hey, no fair!" I laughed while splashing at her back. "What? Can't accept that I finally got you back from your teasing?"

"Well, I can get pretty petty when someone retaliates!" Mira countered. "And competitive!"

"Oh yeah! Well, so can I!"

"Bring it!"

The two of us then got into a splash fight, throwing water at each other back and forth. Mira then dove under the water and swam away, and I chased after her. She managed to get a reasonable distance from me as she swam, but I caught up in a few seconds and was about to grab hold when she suddenly disappeared, dipping below the surface. Puzzled, I looked around, wondering where she had gone.

Then, I felt something slide across my spine, causing me to let out a started yelp as my wings sprung from my back. Mira soon came back up, and she couldn't help but laugh.

"Got ya~," she said to me.

"Hey! I told you to stop making my wings fly out!" I complained.

"You shouldn't have let your guard down!" Mira called back as she stuck out her tongue, swimming away.

"Oh, I'm gonna get you for that!" I shouted out.

"Come and try! But make sure not to yank off my swimsuit like Jenny!"

"Like I'd even do that!"

We continued to have fun chasing each other at the pool, trying to satisfy our childish revenge against each other.

We eventually left the water and went to see the other attractions. First, we went down some slides together which were a bit intimidating but were also fun. There was also a special kind of pool that generated waves, and people were surfing in them. I especially had fun with this one and couldn't help but show off to Mira as she cheered for me until I lost control and fell. Next, we went to the food courts and enjoyed some food, which was very delicious.

All the while, I was having a great time, and I could see that Mira was, too.

After that, we rested on beach chairs, taking a break from all the fun.

Mira stretched her limbs while letting out a satisfying grunt. "Whew! We sure played around a lot tonight, didn't we?"

"We sure did," I agreed. "Coming here was such a great idea. I can't remember the last time I've been able to unwind like this."

"Sure you do. We went to the Akane Resort by the ocean," chuckled Mira. "Or did you forget already?"

"Hey, yeah. That's true," I chuckled. "Guess with everything that's happened, I almost did. That shows how badly I needed this."

The two of us then fell silent, enjoying the serenity and relaxing. Then, I heard Mira speak up.

"Say, Willy? Can I tell you something?" she asked me.

I glanced over at her. "Sure. What's up?"

Mira sat up as her face started showing remorse. "Do you remember that night we were at Porlyusica's?" she asked. "Back when I visited you after everything that happened with the Infinity Clock?"

"Yeah. I do," I replied. "What about it?"

"There... was something that I forgot to say back there," said Mira. "Something that I should have said when we talked. And that's I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" I repeated puzzledly. "What for?"

"For... what I said a while back," said Mira. "Remember? When we had that big fight?"

"Oh, yeah. That," I said upon remembering. "Well, it'd be hard not to remember that. But why bring it up now? "

"Well, I know it's been a while since the Infinity Clock incident, but I sometimes can't help but think about it," said Mira. "I'll admit that wasn't my proudest moment. I was worried, stressed, and angry, but that doesn't change the fact that I said something hurtful to you." She stood up, walked over to me, and leaned forward in a bow. "And I wanted to take the chance to say I'm sorry for what I said. Please forgive me."

I stared at Mira, not expecting such a formal apology from her.

Then, I smiled. "Hey. I think I speak for both of us when I say we both said some things we regret," I told her. "I mean, I was a bit of a jerk for not telling you the truth. So, therefore, there's nothing to forgive, so please raise your head, Mira."

Mira looked up with a blank look. "You sure?"

"Well, yeah. You've forgiven me and moved past what happened, so there's no reason I can't. So you don't have to worry."

At that moment, Mira came over and embraced me in a tight hug catching me by surprise.

"Um, Mira, is there any reason you're hugging me?" I asked tentatively.

"No reason," was her reply. "I just felt like hugging you, and I am. Do you have a problem with it?"

"N-No! I... didn't expect it, is all," I mumbled, feeling my face heat up.

Then, suddenly, I heard a familiar scream coming from above, and I couldn't help but look up. On the water slides above us, I saw a few of our guild members riding the slides in pairs, holding each other for dear life. In addition, a giant purple heart slid along another with a motion-sick Natsu on top of it.

"What in the hopping clams?!" I couldn't help but exclaim.

"What's going on here?" gasped Mira.

But there was more to come. A bright blue light shone brightly on one of the slides, and before either of us could react, Ryuzetsu Land was coated with ice that had a familiar magic power, and I recognized whose it was.

"This has to be Gray's magic!" I thought. "But why the heck is he using it now?! Don't tell me he and Natsu are having another fight!"

Then, right on cue, Natsu, who had miraculously managed to stay unfrozen, made his body explode with his magic fire as he jumped into the air clenching a fist, and divebombed towards the ground.

Quickly realizing what was coming, I clapped my hands and threw them apart.

"WATER DRAGON: TORTOISE SHELL BALL!"

At my command, a sphere of water encased itself around myself and Mira as the entire water park was engulfed in a powerful and fiery explosion. When the smoke and dust cleared, and I dispersed my spell, my eyes were met with a disastrous sight. Rubble, metal, and wood lay everywhere as everyone caught up in the destruction lay amongst it, either battered, bruised, charred, or even their swimsuits destroyed. Natsu was the only one who remained untouched, who stood proud and tall, pleased with himself.

"Ha, ha, you see that?! I won!" he crowed while cackling.

All I could do was sigh with exasperation while pinching my nose.

"He's gone and done again. Going overboard and destroying an entire building."

"Well, that's Natsu for you," said Mira. "Although, I get the feeling that the Masters aren't going to like this."

And she was right.

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As always, thank you for reading, and I'll see you next chapter!

Dragomaster, signing off!