Day 71
It's been a week since I met my counterpart,
Natsumi Dragneel. I have a suspicion that
Ceres played a part in having her notice me
and follow me. I'm thankful that she is still
helping me wherever she can in whatever
way she can though it is a little surprising.
It is a little refreshing to know that not all
deities are arseholes who curse people.
Speaking of Natsumi, I wasn't exactly
sure what she would be like. She seems
a little like what I was like a few years ago,
before my family started dying out. She's
bubbly and has a vibrant personality, she
also seems incredibly sexually charged and
almost always has an innuendo on the tip
of her tongue at all times. She's hot and she
knows it, very much like how Lucy and I were.
I don't think it'll be a problem for me, it's
refreshing since my only other company is
Lelyanna, who – in her own words – is
innocent, not naïve.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a little
bit of trouble brewing between those two
women… Lelyanna doesn't like how forward
Natsumi is and I think she might be a little bit
jealous and envious of her with how much
Natsumi has been hanging around me
whenever the opportunity arises and also
with how well-developed Natsumi's body is.
Lelyanna is no slouch, but Natsumi has a body
that screams sex appeal loud enough for the
whole world to hear. I'll need to keep an eye on
it, the situation and not her body, and be ready
to intervene if it blows up…
Natsu sipped his glass of Cognac as he read through what he had written in his journal. It was the same bottle that he had bought in the Ram Ranch Inn in Papaver. Satisfied with what he had put to paper, he closed the book and used Requip to store it. "Henrietta?"
"Yes, Master?" The android looked down at the man sat at his desk in front of her.
"I'm thinking of doing some minor renovations. Do you have any building schematics, wiring diagrams for instance?"
"Yes. Might I ask what your plans are?"
Natsu lifted his gaze to the lights hanging from the ceiling. "Since I'm bringing tech from my world. I need to be certain that this estate can handle the power those things require. So, I plan on rewiring the entire estate with materials from my world provided I can find a source that isn't irradiated. I also plan on disconnecting the estate from the incredibly weak power grid of this world and have this place powered by my own tech." Natsu turned his attention to the ticking body just behind him and looked at her chest. "Hm, I don't actually know how you are powered. I know you are clockwork, like pretty much everything else in this world. But what provides the power to your clockwork mechanisms?"
"Do you wish to inspect this unit?" Henrietta asked in her usual songbird-like voice as she stepped forward and began to fiddle with her maid outfit.
"Might as well. If I find I can upgrade your bodies then I might just do that to kill some time." Natsu rose from his high-backed leather chair and helped the android remove the clothing. Her pale fake skin was surprisingly soft to the touch but felt uncanny as it was right on the edge of realism to the point that it began to creep him out. Once the clothing sat around the android's feet, he got a little more creeped out as the automaton's body was surprisingly detailed. "I have many questions as to why you had to be designed like this… but I'm sure they could be summed up in the phrase 'perverted old men'…"
"I cannot help the fact I was designed to perfectly encapsulate a young woman's beauty. However, I believe you might be correct about ulterior motives." The faint seams in Henrietta's skin started to widen as her chest cavity opened to reveal her mechanical inner workings.
"Hm…" Natsu peered into the android's chest cavity and watched as her mechanical heart ticked along smoothly. "Honestly, it's kind of fascinating that this world managed to create something like you. But going by what I have been told, what I'm seeing makes a little bit of sense."
"You can poke around in there but please mind your fingers, Master."
Natsu quickly Requiped a torch and shined the light into the android's chest. "You seem to function similarly to the mechanical watch I'm wearing but your winding mechanism is powered by the Lacrima in your clockwork heart. How long does it take for you to charge these units and how long does it take to charge? Oh, and how is it done?"
"It takes a single unit four hours to charge from the ten-percent minimum all the way to full charge." Henrietta turned on the spot and tilted her head forward slightly as she lifted her hair out of the way and revealed another seam opened at the back of her neck, opening up to show a circular plug within. "We are jacked into through this port and the charge is sent down to our batteries from a larger power cell down in the maintenance hub in the basement. From full charge to ten-percent varies but is generally about eighty hours."
"Right." Natsu sat against the edge of his desk and returned his attention to the mechanical internals. He drummed his fingers on the desk as he raked his brain. "You can close up and get dressed again, I've seen all I needed to see."
"Yes, Master." Henrietta bowed carefully and closed up her body. As she dressed, she asked the man, "Are you planning on doing something to these units?"
"I'm not sure what I can do to these bodies… Can you give me any diagrams that I can reference instead of pulling one of the units apart unnecessarily?" Natsu asked but the android stayed silent for a little bit before her eyes slowly looked to her side, a rather strange emotive quirk for the automaton. "Is that a no, but?"
Seeking further clarification, the android asked, "What do you plan to do to these units?"
"If I find that it's possible, then I plan on upgrading them with stuff from my world or even to units from my world. The benefits would be that you can go longer without charging, you can charge faster even with the higher capacity batteries, you'll have a higher cognitive capacity, more than those little tweaks that Ceres has done to you. Whether I create new bodies or give you a completely new mechanical system within those bodies, they'll end up vastly superior to your current units."
"Lady Ceres' tinkering has given me some capacity for independent thought and an individual identity that is greater than that of my original construction. What can you give me?"
"I'll have to write it from scratch or near enough, but I can create an artificial intelligence that is far superior to your current system. I'll have to work out how to make it compatible but I'll cross that bridge when I reach it. My aim is to turn my estate into a little piece of my home world, my own little home away from home, so to speak."
"To do that, you will need to access my core, the hub you saw when you first arrived. I would recommend building new units to replace these ones as it may be difficult to pair them to your new systems, even with your upgrades."
"There are two routes I can go in that manner. I could make the new androids link to a central hub like how you currently work, or I can have each unit be a pseudo hivemind set-up where your mind is decentralised."
"Explain."
"Each unit shares a single mind, you, but can operate independently which would give you far greater range than what you currently have. Especially if I network the units together properly. It's like how you are now but you'll be a networked intelligence capable of roaming freely as far as I can transmit your signal, but these individual units can also travel further while thinking exactly like you and when they return to the network, their experiences will get shared to the networked mind."
"So, these units I send outside my range will think and act in accordance to how I would think and act in that situation?"
"Correct. And you'll have far greater cognitive abilities than your current iteration."
Henrietta was silent for a few short seconds as she thought over the man's proposal then shifted her gaze outside the window to the city beyond. When she finally returned her gaze to the man, she stepped forward and nodded. "I wish to undergo your upgrades. But I wish to first see the new body I will be inhabiting before I fully give my consent."
"Hm, I may have to modify one of your units as an independent model so you can come with me into my world and see the bodies for yourself… that'll be difficult if I don't know exactly how your mind functions."
"Master, I believe it would be easier to bring an inactive unit back here instead. It would take less effort and you wouldn't have to risk damaging one of my bodies."
"If I do it that way then you'll have to settle for what I find. But saying that, I know of a place that has cutting edge androids, even for my country who prided themselves on our advancements."
"I guess I'll leave it up to your discretion but I am excited to see what you find."
"Alright, I'll make a mental note to head to that lab if I can." Natsu downed the last of the Cognac in his glass and closed his eyes for a moment, double-checking the location with the Knowledge Crystal. "Right. The place is in Magnolia so I'll try and factor that into the trip. I honestly don't know the condition of the place though… I hope the city is safe to head to."
"Master, Natsumi and Lelyanna have just arrived and are coming down the path. Shall I bring them to you?"
"No, I'll head down to greet them myself." Natsu shook his head lightly and glanced at the android, making sure she had gotten her clothing in order before he left the room, the persistent ticking of her mechanical heart following close behind him. He jogged down the stairs, reaching the doors just as they opened to allow the two women inside. "Good morning, you two."
"Oh, hey there, Hot-Stuff." Natsumi purred playfully as she walked into the manor with her hands in her coat pockets. Walking beside her was Lelyanna who had her hands folded gracefully in front of her like usual.
"Good morning, Natsu." Lelyanna smiled warmly at her friend and she quickly scanned his face for tiredness. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah, thankfully. I think running into Natsumi helped to calm my nerves a bit." Natsu returned the woman's smile and led them further into his home. "I'm surprised to see you coming in here together. I've noticed that there has been a little bit of tension between you two since you first properly met." He saw the two women share a quick glance then return their attention to him.
"We just happened to arrive at the same time." Natsumi quickly informed the man. "I came from the guild."
"Yeah, I was coming along the path from your gate when Natsumi swooped down from the skies."
"My, my~." A playful yet gentle giggle came down from above their heads. "One is envious of the other's cuteness, while the other is envious of her sex appeal. You better be careful, Natsu. I didn't bring you here to die the victim of a catfight~."
"I don't exactly plan on dying anyway." Natsu retorted. He looked up at the source of the voice; a pure-white woman of inhuman beauty sat on the railing above them, swinging her legs idly. He felt Natsumi's growing shock and glanced at her, seeing a smugly smiling Lelyanna out of the corner of his eye. "Natsumi, this is Ceres, the goddess who brought me here. And I'm willing to bet, the source of that feeling that woke you up and prompted you to follow me."
Ceres pushed off the railing and slowly glided down to the floor with all the grace of a feather floating to the ground. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Natsumi Dragneel. You have my thanks for accepting Natsu as readily as you did." Her pearly-white heels clacked against the floor and she smiled at her priestess. "Good morning, Lelyanna. How are you holding up?"
"Good morning, Lady Ceres." Lelyanna bowed to the deity and graciously returned the smile. "I've gotten over the shock, I should be fine from now on."
"Natsu, since you're free, would you like to take that trip back to your home world to gather those machines?" Ceres asked curiously, placing her hands on her hips and leaning in. "I've been waiting patiently."
"You're heading back to your world?" Natsumi asked quickly, her eyes snapping from the goddess to Natsu. "Why?"
"I need to bring over some machinery and materials that will allow me to produce ammunition for my firearms, so I don't have to worry about running out. Plus, I have to pick up a few things while I'm there for personal projects." Natsu glanced over his shoulder at his counterpart. "And… I also want to visit the graves of my friends and family."
"On that note, Natsu." Ceres walked over to stand right in front of him, gazing up at his face with a gentle smile. "I didn't tell you because I figured you'd probably argue about it. But I've been moving all the dead to their respective graveyards. Buried the ones I could while giving them all a headstone. Your friends and family were returned to Magnolia."
"Why?" Natsu furled his brows in confusion at the woman's act of kindness that was practically unnecessary since no one was alive in that world anymore.
"Hm, call it a whim. I figured it would do well for your morale if I tended to the dead properly. Even if it meant desecrating those graves you had dug for your squad." Ceres folded her arms under her bust and gave him a small shrug. "I had to release monsters on that world to see how they would react to radiation exposure, but since I didn't have anything else to do with that world, I started to deal with the bodies. I haven't cleaned up all of them, ten-billion dead take a while to clean up when I've got other things to take care of too."
"T-T-Ten-Billion?!" Natsumi shouted as her face blanched. Her head turned in steps, like the second hand of a clock, until she faced Natsu. "You had that many people die?!"
"Yes, but that was at the end of the war. Our actual population would've been even higher at the start." Natsu slowly turned to face the woman, his voice soft and the faint warmth in his eyes flickered out to nothingness. "Out of all those people, I'm the sole survivor. It's a fact that I'm not likely to ever forget."
Lelyanna lowered her hood as she stepped forward, moving between the two pinkettes and lightly wrapping her arms around the man, hoping to reassure him. She didn't know what she could say that could shift the incomprehensibly large weight of all those deaths which sat on his shoulders, so she just stayed silent and tightened the hug.
"I'm alright, but thanks for the hug." Natsu smiled softly as he placed a hand atop the priestess' head and gently ran his fingers through her slivery hair. He turned his attention back to the deity and gave her an appreciative nod. "Thanks for taking care of them when I couldn't. I'm happy that you were able to bring them home."
"My, my, Natsumi, if you turn any greener, I'm afraid we'll lose you in a forest." Ceres hid her giggle behind her fingers as her eyes slid across to the female dragon slayer. Turning her gaze back to Natsu, she quickly informed him of the situation. "Both Magnolia and Malba have a considerably low amount of radioactivity. They likely weren't hit with the same nukes that hit you."
"Could have been a 'clean' nuke but even those leave some radioactive residue or a pure fusion bomb." Natsu pondered out loud. He gently pried the small woman off of him and made his way up to his office. "Could've also been a neutron bomb and the radiation had blown in from surrounding areas. How low are we talking?"
"The lethal dosage would take a considerable number of months to accumulate, but these low dosage areas are very few and far between. A normal human could survive in those locations fairly easily for a short time without adverse effects, especially if they can counteract the physical damage through the use of powerful healing magic."
"What about the monsters you had to send there?" Natsu asked as he sat down behind his desk with Henrietta taking her usual spot behind him, ready to serve. "I'm sure some would've died while others survived?"
"The organic monsters aren't fairing well but not all of them are dying to the radiation, surprisingly, those that are surviving are mutating and deteriorating but not dying. The undead don't seem to be affected much, same with the elementals. Both seem to be attracted to radioactive hotspots so you won't really in the way for this trip."
Natsu sighed and held up his hands as he looked to the priestess. "Well, sounds like she's saying it's safe enough-"
"I'm coming!" Lelyanna interrupted the man, almost shouting from her eagerness as she slammed her hands down onto the desk.
"You didn't need to announce that, Lelyanna." Natsu remarked with a playful smirk which grew into a grin when the young woman's face exploded into a rich blush. "I expected for you to say something like that, if not in that particular way. What about you, Natsumi?"
"Hell yeah, I'm coming along!" The dragon princess gave the man a fiery grin. "You and I are the same so I'd be able to survive there without any issues, right?"
"For the most part, yeah. Radiation shouldn't hurt you."
"Well, since we are all going. I'll just take us straight there instead of passing through my personal domain. It saves me going through the process of marking the girls and having them pass out on me." Ceres stretched out and sat on the edge of Natsu's desk. She held out her hand and was about to click her fingers when a large warm hand encased it. "Hmm?"
"You don't need to mark them?" Natsu asked curiously as he rose to his feet and grabbed his coat.
"No, that's only for bringing mortals into divine domains like what I did with you so we could get you cleaned up and find somewhere for you to go. Travel between universes is unrestricted if you know how to do it."
"Right. You girls are lucky then; I was unconscious for a few days after Ceres marked me." He strapped his Geiger Counter to the outside of his coat and gave the woman a brief nod to tell her that he was ready. "Send me in first. I want to be certain that it's safe."
"See you there."
The last thing Natsu heard was the click of the goddess' fingers before everything went white and he was faced with a deafening silence. As the wall of white faded to darkness, a howling wind blew across him and caused his coat to flutter around his legs. He was standing in the middle of a road that was covered in a thin layer of snow. The Geiger Counter began to tick and it drew his attention but thankfully the radiation level was within a safe margin where he was standing. To be certain it was safe for Lelyanna, he took a quick jog around the block before he was satisfied. "Alright Ceres, bring them over."
Three flashes of light bloomed in front of him, lighting up the snow. From the light emerged Ceres, Lelyanna, and Natsumi with both mortals looking around with astonishment at the frigid wasteland.
"Welcome to my world." Natsu threw his arms out theatrically. "Don't pay any mind to the dead bodies lying around."
"It's so dark and cold!" Lelyanna cried out shakily as she hugged her shivering body while turning on the spot, looking at the silhouettes of the buildings around her. She was saved from the cold by a coat being placed over her but it wasn't as heavy as she was used to and it made her look over her shoulder at Natsumi. "Thank you."
"Your eyes should adjust to the darkness soon." Natsu glanced at the garage of a nearby house, wondering if the vehicle inside would be working. He spared the women a quick glance before he made his way over to the front door. "Where exactly are we, Ceres?"
"On the edge of Malba. The same side that the Nightshade munitions factory is situated." Ceres hurried after the man, followed by the two other women who were looking around like a pair of owls while trying not to lose sight of the man in the darkness. A pair of shocked gasps drew the attention of the goddess and the shock trooper. "What's wrong?"
Natsu glanced from the two startled women to the dead family of four and their pet dog, still sat on the couch and chairs in the lounge room with a container of mouldy popcorn sat on the coffee table. "Ah. I guess they were having a movie night. Poor bastards would've never seen it coming."
"W-what caused this? A nuclear bomb?" Lelyanna's head slowly turned to the salmon-haired man who leaned against the doorframe to the hall.
"Yeah. I know I said it was a clean nuke. But that doesn't mean it didn't have a form of radioactivity, just that it doesn't leave as much fallout. Seeing this, it was most likely a neutron or gamma emission that killed them." The man ducked into the master bedroom and came back a few moments later with a white hooded jumper and a pair of thick white thigh-high socks. "Here, put these on, they should help with the cold weather. If the flow of time hasn't changed, we should've hit winter about two weeks ago, and it probably doesn't help that we'll be under the effects of a Nuclear Winter event."
The small woman handed the coat back to the pinkette and walked over to the man, unfastening her capelet as she closed the distance. She heard a mildly-shocked and bemused noise come from Natsumi and glanced back at her before realising she wouldn't have known she had the pistol on her until now as most people would have seen the knife strapped to her thigh and stopped looking for other weapons given who and what she was. "Please hold onto this for me, I haven't yet quite got a handle on Requip magic."
"You have one of those guns too?"
"Yes. And Natsu has been training me to use it since I don't have any offensive spells, just the healing magic that Lady Ceres blessed me with and some of the convenient spells like the contraceptive one I use in case of an emergency."
"Oh, I use that too." Natsumi's lips curled into a small smirk. "But it's more of a necessity."
"Hm, let me get a look at you." Ceres murmured as she approached the young woman and placed her hand over Lelyanna's heart. Both Ceres and Lelyanna glowed with a divine radiance and the goddess stepped back with a motherly smile. "I just increased your magic capacity and made it a bit more efficient for you to use your magic. It should be easier to learn more sophisticated magics now. I probably should've done it sooner but you were content with just being a healer."
"Okay, I'm curious; why was that needed?" Natsumi asked as she eyed the priestess who was undoing her boots while resting against Natsu for support.
"I was one of the people who couldn't use magic. After a lot of praying, Ceres blessed me with magic and an affinity to healing magic. So, it probably had something to do with that." Lelyanna replied with a quick glance at Ceres for confirmation who nodded lightly. The priestess handed her socks over to Natsu and began slipping the thigh-highs onto her legs. "I've got one of Natsu's pistols because he wanted to make sure I could be safe when I'm alone inside and outside of jobs. He has also been taking the time to teach me how to fight in a manner suitable for someone as small as I am."
"Wait. Is that why your eyes have that strange glowy-sparkly thing going on?" Natsumi covered the distance between them in a few short strides and leaned down to look into the archbishop's pale-turquoise eyes which contained a faint mystical power that seemed unnatural for a human.
"You haven't seen them when she uses her healing magic." Natsu chuckled at Natsumi's surprise but he looked down as Lelyanna struggled against him, fighting her boots that were being stubborn. "Half your issue is your trying to do this standing up, with tall boots too." He murmured as he got down on a knee and helped her. A pair of hands landed on his back and he heard her heartrate pick up.
"Heh-heh, someone's heart is going ba-dum-ba-dum-ba-dum~." Natsumi giggled teasingly as she grinned at the priestess' red face. "Anyway, why did we come in here. Aside from giving her warmer clothes?"
"They'd have a car inside their garage. In my world, everyone had at least a car." Natsu replied while quickly lacing up the woman's boots. "While I can easily run the distance in these conditions. you can fly, and Ceres can ignore all laws of nature, Lelyanna is only human and will freeze solid before we even get halfway."
"Well, it's a good thing we have two fire dragon slayers, right?" Natsumi cackled. "I think we'd be able to get her nice and toasty between the two of us."
Natsu rose to his feet, sparing a brief glance at the red-faced woman who kept giving him adorable glances through her eyelashes before moving heading into the garage. "Let's see if the pulse fried the car…" A pair of gasps caused him to glance behind him then to the vehicle, it was an angular but aerodynamic sporty sedan that was common but then again it wasn't exactly anything close to what they were used to. "Bit bigger than you were expecting?"
""Yes!""
"It's pretty roomy inside too, by the look of it." Natsu glanced at the section of wall beside the door and held out his hand as he used Macro to order the key to come to him which caused a key-fob flying from a hook and land in his grasp. "Ceres, can you hit that button next to you. It should open the door."
"Alright." The goddess smacked her fist against the button without looking at it, but when the door failed to open, she turned her gaze to the button and hit it again. "I think it's fried."
"Probably knocked out by an EMP from the nukes, just like almost everything else that isn't properly shielded." Natsu grunted and bared his fangs in annoyance. He walked to the garage door and pulled the manual release then rolled up the door. "This car better work." He hit the unlock button and thankfully, the car beeped and flashed the lights. "Alright, everybody in. I don't care where you sit as long as it's not the driver's seat."
As the man got into the front right, the women ordered themselves without any fighting with Ceres beside the man, Lelyanna behind him, and Natsumi beside her. Natsu tossed the fob into the storage shelf below the centre of the dash and hit the start button, causing all the lights to light up on the dash and the headlights to turn on and illuminate the garage. The car whirled faintly as he reversed out of the garage and onto the road and headed for the city limits.
"It's very spacious in here." Lelyanna mentioned as she poked and prodded the plush leather upholstery. She glanced to the front as Natsu adjusted his mirrors and put his seat belt. So, she looked at her shoulder and found her own belt, fastening it around her.
"You could fit another person between us, probably not a guy, but still." Natsumi clicked her belt into place and a click from the front signalled that even Ceres bucked up. "It's so comfy too! I bet I could lie down and sleep very easily back here. Probably good for having some fun back here too."
"And it's so warm~." Lelyanna cooed and unzipped her new jumper as the car's heater blew warm air through the vents in the centre console.
"I wonder if I can get my music working…" Natsu murmured and he brought out his phone for the first time since before he was dropped into the Pergrande capital. Once it was synced, he brought up his Library of music and grinned as a thumping melody played through the car's speakers, shocking the women in the back. "HA-HA! Fuck Yes!"
"Woah, I've only heard music this clear when it is live!" Natsumi grabbed the seat in front of her and leaned across between the front seats. "This is amazing!"
"Just don't start asking 'are we there yet?' over and over." Natsu chuckled softly.
As the munitions factory loomed over the horizon, he turned off onto the road that headed right to it. The gatehouse out the front had the barrier gate lowered so he stopped in front of it and got out of the car. "Wait here, I'll try and get it up. Hopefully the back-up power is on."
"So," Ceres turned in her seat to look at the women in the backseats. "What do you think of his world so far?"
"It's painfully quiet." Natsumi admitted. "Both in the sense of hearing and that I can't feel anyone at all besides us… And he had to go through a full month of this on top of feeling people die off? How is he still sane?"
"He did his best to keep himself busy. That's what he is still doing, even in your world. Stagnation is poison for him." Ceres replied quietly. She unbuckled her seatbelt and turned to sit on her knees so she could face the women. "Sanity isn't the issue, it's what all of the pain and suffering has done to his mental health. That's why I need you two women to be at his side and look after him, help patch him back together and help him reunite with Fairy Tail, especially Lucy as I'm sure she would have the biggest positive influence on his recovery."
"I've already decided to stick with him, even now when he has fully settled in." Lelyanna smiled brightly as she watched the man disappear into the gatehouse. "I don't want him to feel alone."
"Well, now that there are two people looking out for him in your world, I'm sure he won't be lonely."
The three women glanced up as Natsu stepped out of the booth, the small happy smile he had just moments ago had been replaced by a vicious snarl. He grabbed the metal beam in his right hand and ripped the mechanism clean from the concrete and tossed it aside like it was made from cardboard. A huff of fog raced from his mouth and his snarl slipped away to a passive hollow expression as he gazed up at the sky. He got into the car and sighed as he slipped it into drive. "I don't know about inside, but there isn't any power out here. I'm hoping that the factory itself was EMP shielded due to being a vital asset to the war effort. Because if not, well, I'll have to search elsewhere."
"Natsu." Natsumi leaned between the seats once more as the car slowly moved beyond the gate. "What exactly is an EMP?"
"EMP is short for electromagnetic pulse. It's a pulse of electromagnetic energy that can overload electronics unless they're properly shielded. It can be created in multiple ways, but this one was most likely from the nuclear bombs being detonated. But it could have been an actual non-nuclear EMP bomb too. I'm not certain." Natsu parked in an empty space between two cars and rested his chin on his hands at the top of the steering wheel. "For the first week and a half, maybe two, all kinds of bombs were getting dropped everywhere; nukes, napalm, bunker busters, fuel-air airburst, thermobaric… Once the button was hit, all hell broke loose. Some of the places I came across were nothing but radioactive craters, others were pock-marked cities that had been blown apart by conventional bombs. It wouldn't surprise me if this place got hit with more than a few EMP waves." The man sighed and turned off the car, glancing back as he pushed open the door. "Come, we've got work to do."
Lelyanna glanced up at the back of the man's head as she stepped out of the car. She could somewhat make out his outline on the moonless night. "Natsu?" She murmured softly, locking onto his eyes when he turned to look at her. A small smile graced her face and she held out her arms, silently offering the man a hug. Her smile grew when she swore his expression softened and he stepped forward, only to pull her hood up over her eyes with a quiet chuckle. But Lelyanna was quickly wrapped up in his warm powerful arms and she slid her thin arms around his body, underneath his coat. "It's ok, Natsu. We're here with you."
"Thanks." Natsu murmured lightly as he breathed in the scent that had quickly become a source of comfort to him and gave the woman a careful squeeze. He quickly released her but spared her one more glance before leading the way over to the building's front office. He could sense a little bit of giddy excitement from the priestess due to being able to help him and he shook his head lightly, a kind smile tugging at his lips but it quickly fell away as he checked the reinforced door. "Locked. Fucking Wonderful."
"Can you pick-" Natsumi asked but she was cut short when Natsu kicked the centre of the double doors and sent the doors careening into the building beyond. "-it… Or you know, just kick the damn thing open why don't you."
Natsu sent a few clusters of embers into the room as he entered the reception, which illuminated the dark room with a warm light. "It's quiet… I don't know if that means the machines are fried or that there is no external power and the generators didn't trigger."
"Would you be able to fix the machines?" Natsumi asked as she walked through the room, marvelling at some of the strange artefacts dotted around. She prodded a strange sculpture which she couldn't even begin to understand how it was made.
"If I had the right parts, yeah. A place like this would keep spare parts to do any needed maintenance." Natsu walked right past the pinkette and pushed a set of doors off the hinges, passing through to the cluster of offices and into the factory proper. He glanced back at the rapid clacking of boots and Ceres' heels before walking to the storage racks. Thankfully, his Geiger Counter hadn't risen beyond where it had been outside. "Hm. Hey Ceres, if I grab some crates of ammo, could you send it to somewhere in my basement. Preferably one of the larger rooms."
"Since the radiation isn't bad here, yeah, I can."
"Thanks. It means I won't have to worry about running out while I'm in the process of setting up these machines and rewiring my manor to run things seamlessly."
"Do you want a hand with that?"
"Ceres, you're a goddess of fertility and agriculture, not the goddess of home renovations." Natsu smirked back at the pure-white woman. "Though, I will have you help find materials that aren't radioactive if I can't find enough on this trip."
"Yes, but at least I can't die from electrocution. I'll just reappear in my realm and come right back."
"Well, you got me there." The man chuckled softly and lifted a pallet full of ammunition over to the woman. "I reckon that I'll take two pallets each ammo type. That should be more than enough."
Ceres vaulted the shipment and sat on the edge right in front of the man, placing her chin in her palms and her elbows on her knees. "I'm being serious. I get bored sitting in my home and keeping watch over all these worlds of mine. I enjoy these little forays you've sent me on."
"Well, if you don't mind getting those pristine white clothes of yours dirty, then yeah, you can help me."
"Maybe I'll find something with a splash of colour to wear to stop you complaining about my dress sense."
"Yeah, I doubt that." Natsu gave the deity a small teasing grin before turning his back on her and bringing over more pallets of ammunition.
Natsumi came to a stop beside the goddess and looked between her and the man. "Why does his mood bounce around so much?"
"He simply doesn't hide how he feels around those he trusts. I've watched him interact with others and he gets this impassive look going, like he thinks you're insignificant. Which, to be fair, most people are when compared to him. You included."
"I can do that easily though." Natsumi pointed to Natsu as he effortlessly lifted another pallet.
"I don't doubt that. But you haven't seen him actually do anything beyond ripping a barricade out of thick concrete, mind you that barricade was bolted down with thick long bolts." Ceres sighed softly at the competitive flicker in the woman's eyes and pushed herself off the stack of boxes, landing on the concrete floor with a clack of her heels. "You're going to join him on jobs from now on, right? You'll see what I mean soon enough. But, don't stop being competitive with him, I think it would be good for him to have someone like that around. Like Gray was to him, and Grace is to you."
"I don't have any intention of hanging him out to dry, not after I met him and heard what happened, and even less so now that I've seen it for my own eyes." Natsumi sighed and smirked at the man as he placed the pallet next to them. "You know, you could at least make it seem like you're having a tough time with those."
"That'd be harder than you think. On the other hand, I can make it look like I'm putting no effort in at all if I use Macro. Move." Natsu rolled his eyes and brought over the last three pallets he needed, one in his hands and flanked by two more floating along behind him.
"Show off." Natsumi snickered playfully and moved out of the way so he had room to put them down near Ceres.
"That's the last of it. I've got subs for the pistols, eight-six for the rifle and machine gun, ten-mil for the sniper, fourteen for the big girl, forties for the grenade launcher, and ten-gauge bucks, slugs, and dragon's breath for the shotgun." He dusted his hands off and gave the goddess a quick nod before turning his back on the women and walking over to the machines. He brought out a bag of tools and started to remove the access panels to get a look at the machine's electronics. "Hm, not as bad as I was expecting." He glanced up at the walls and ceiling then to the two mortal women who were approaching him. "I think I was right about the EMP shielding. I'm surprised the generators didn't kick in… probably were damaged or something, maybe they just ran out because the power never came back online…"
"Is there anything I can help with?" Lelyanna asked quietly as she sat down on her knees beside the man. She gazed between the faintly illuminated man and the machine in front of him.
Natsu opened his mouth to tell her that there was nothing to do, but his senses picked up on something that gave him pause; she was feeling dejected, probably because she was surrounded by powerful individuals and she was just a small and weak young woman. "Hold this for me and point it at the electronics." He replied softly, giving her a small smile as he handed her a little flashlight.
Since she was somewhat familiar with his equipment, Lelyanna managed to turn the torch on after a few seconds and shined it around the room. "Oh, it's like that laser-light module attached to my pistol."
"Yup." Natsu gentle guided the beam back to the electronics. Now that the insides of the machine weren't muted shades of grey, he could properly differentiate the different parts. Once he had determined that the machine was still functional, he placed the cover back on it and moved onto the next.
"How does it look?" Ceres asked as Natsu finished up with the last machine.
"No damage to the electronics. You'd know if something was fried by and EMP as it causes an abnormal spike that short circuits shit. I won't know for certain until I get these things powered. But I think the generators themselves are dead."
"I'll pull the entire building into my dimension and see what I can do. Do you want the generators?"
"If you can take them too, yeah." Natsu rose to his feet and dusted off his hands as he turned to the pure-white woman. "I'm going to need to adapt them to a high-output magic pulse engine from their world to make it work properly. Maybe run it through a transmission to make the armature spin faster inside the stator. Might be able to use them as full-time power generators for the estate."
"Okay, collect up your tools and I'll send you over to Magnolia while I deal with this building."
"Alright." The man sent the tools away and glanced around at the two other women as they gathered at his side. A click drew his attention back to the goddess but his sight was filled with white. When it faded, he was met with a familiar street and while the street was bone dry, there was snow on the grass leading up to a house he hadn't seen in so many months. He let out a shaky breath and slowly trod up the driveway and over to the front door.
"Natsu, where are we?" Natsumi asked as she hurried to him but her eyes snapped down to his hands when a set of keys appeared and he unlocked the door. "I-is this…?"
"This is my home. Where I lived with Lucy." He murmured while turning the knob, but he paused and took a slow deep breath. As he entered the house, he automatically reached over to the wall beside him and flicked a light switch. Light filled the short entrance hall and he stared up at the top of the stairs, seeing a flicker of a blonde woman running down them with a bright smile.
Welcome home, Darling!
The ghost threw its arms around him but all he felt was the phantom sensation of the memory. He let out a small puff of air and looked into the lounge room where he could see the ghost of a blue-haired teen on the couch with a controller as he played a game on their television.
"Wow. She's really beautiful." Lelyanna gushed over a photo that was hung nearby. She glanced at Natsu then to the picture again. "Where was this taken?"
Natsu didn't even have to look at the picture to know which one it was. "The Royal Gardens in Crocus. Before they were blown up."
Hey Darling! Come look at this flower! There's a tiny bee in it!
"Damn, she looks great in that dress." Natsumi grinned widely as she walked over to the priestess for a better look. "Kinda makes me envy her figure. She's more athletic that my Lucy."
"Considering we had been pushed into service for the war, that doesn't surprise me. Both of us had to be in peak physical condition." Natsu glanced up at the picture as he walked past them and the sound of an air raid siren filled his mind. He felt a prang in his heart as his eyes drifted across the blonde's lovely smile. "Since we're here, I want to grab a few things. Then I think we should head out as soon as possible."
Lelyanna and Natsumi shared a brief glance at each other as the man hurried up the stairs and disappeared to the right. They raced after him and found him standing silently in the house's master bedroom, his head slowly turning as he followed something they couldn't see, his ears twitch from a sound they couldn't hear. Moving at the same time, the two women slipped under his arms and hugged him tightly.
Natsumi rested her head against his shoulder and tried her best to put on a comforting voice. "It's ok Natsu. We're not in a rush to get around so you can take all the time you need to let everything out."
Natsu's gaze slowly dropped to a pair of worried faces and his strained expression slowly softened. He let out a gentle sigh and glanced around, his eyes moving across the bed where a sleeping Lucy flickered in and out of his mind. "I can still hear her voice… Sometimes I can see snippets of her moving about. I need to visit her grave once I'm done here. I need to clear my head…" Natsu allowed himself to be sandwiched between the two soft bodies for a short while before he gently extracted himself from their embrace. He murmured a quick word of thanks before beginning to move through the room and collect up his personal effects; a black leather motorcycle jacket, his own toiletries from the ensuite bathroom, and a small collection of cologne from the walk-in wardrobe. His eyes drifted down to a chest containing a collection of adult toys that he and Lucy had used to spice up nights when the itch for something special hit one of them but he left it where it sat and left the wardrobe. "Thanks for waiting."
With a warm smile, both Lelyanna and Natsumi followed the man back down the stairs and through a door to the right. Both women were shocked at the two vehicles inside; one was a car larger than the one they had just been in and the other was a strange-looking bike. Natsumi wandered around the larger of the two vehicles while Lelyanna slowly walked up behind Natsu as he opened a cabinet on the wall. Hearing her approach, Natsu glanced back at the two women and smiled at the shorter of the two who was seemingly curious about his motorcycle.
"Seems alien, doesn't it?"
"I'm finding that's normal with things here." Lelyanna murmured with a glance at the blacked-out motorcycle. It was sleek, angular, and aggressive and it suited the man to a T. "Is it… Electric?"
"Fiore was big on technological growth and Hisui had subsidies in place to promote the development of both synthetic fuels and electric vehicles, as well hydrogen-fuelled ones too. Both Lucy's SUV – Sports Utility Vehicle- and my motorcycle here are Electric but the bike I had before this was a Synfuel bike running a normal internal combustion engine that's similar to the engine in my Leopard SC but using liquid fuel. I loved how it purred but this baby rips up the road like nothing else." Natsu placed one of the helmets he was holding down on the bench and walked over to the priestess with a warm smile. "She's classed as a Superbike, wickedly fast and insanely nimble. In my hands, it was just as much of a monster as I am."
"Does she have a name?" Lelyanna asked curiously but a beep drew both of their attention to the car. Natsumi had unlocked it and was crawling around inside it.
"I call her Nightingale but she's a Helion made by the Montez Motor Company. Normally, Helion bikes only come as single seaters but I had some custom work done to mine." Natsu place his hand on the leather seat and slid it along the length which was enough for a passenger to sit behind him, usually Lucy but sometimes Happy. "The shop I took it to redesigned the rear storage pod into a seat which, thankfully, looked like it could've been an option from factory. Hop on."
"Is it alright?" Lelyanna asked timidly but after some ushering from Natsu, she cautiously swung her leg over the bike and sat down atop it. She gently stroked the beastly machine nestled between her legs before leaning forward and grasping the handlebars. "It's a bit of a reach for me but it's comfortable."
"Yes, but you're tiny." Natsu remarked playfully and he glanced up at the nearby car once again, spotting Natsumi still climbing around inside it with a giddy smile. "She seems to be enjoying herself."
"I think she might want to keep it…"
"I'm not taking that back with me. Too big for the roads, and way to unusual for that world." Natsu helped the priestess off of his bike and he ran his hand along it. "I wish I could take the bike with me… but the same reason stands, it's too unusual and too advanced."
"I think you might be able to get away with it. You're a Jaeger, unusual things and eccentric tastes are generally a given. And it's not like you aren't good with your hands, you could always just say that you made it yourself. A completely custom vehicle of your own design."
"You think so?"
"I mean… Yeah, it's a very unique looking bike and looks nothing like the comparatively rudimentary motorcycles we have in our world but like I said, just say that you made it yourself."
A tiny smirk tugged at the Natsu's lips. "You've fallen in love with my bike, haven't you?"
"Maybe." The priestess giggled lightly and looked the man up and down with a cute smile. "I think this definitely suits you more than that car."
"Well, I chose the bike, unlike that car Ceres got me." Natsu glanced down at the helmet in his hand then back to the bench where he had left Lucy's helmet. "I wonder if it'll fit on you… No, I think it'll be best if we stop by a dealer and grab one each for you and Natsumi so we can have you properly sized." Glancing over at the SUV once more, he called out to the pinkette inside, "Hey Natsumi, hit the button near the mirror above the windshield. We're heading out."
"Ok!" The pinkette called out with a glance out of the SUV. She hit the button and then joined them by the bike. "Where to?"
"We're heading to a nearby motorcycle dealership to find both Lelyanna and yourself a helmet each as well as some protective gear that you can wear if you come for a ride on my bike." Natsu replied as he put on his black full-face helmet, motorcycle jacket, and gloves and sat on the bike. "There's only room for one behind me so you'll have to fly, Natsumi."
"No issues here."
"What do I do?" Lelyanna hesitated a little as she sat behind the man on the pillion seat. She glanced down and saw the second set of pegs, so she hesitantly rested her boots on them.
"You can either hold me or stay close to me, but make sure you move with me. Oh, and rest your head against my back so you're out of the wind. Your ears will thank you."
"Lucky you." Natsumi chuckled as fire burst from her back and formed into her fiery wings. She floated up into the air then flew backwards out of the garage, quickly followed by Natsu and Lelyanna on the bike. "Hey Natsu, why has the road not snowed over like in Malba?"
"Our power grid seems to still be online, so it's likely that the road maintenance drones are buzzing around and clearing the snow." Natsu twisted the throttle and took off down the road. He spared a quick glance at the pinkette as she drew level with them and a thought crossed his mind. "You know, with a rack like yours, you're not exactly what I'd call aerodynamic. Don't your tits slow you down?"
Natsumi burst out laughing and slowly drifted over the top of his head and came to his other side. "Would it surprise you if I said I had to work out a way to make it less tiring? Have you noticed how my coat, skirt and shirt aren't flapping in the wind?"
"Now that you mentioned it, yes."
"I encase myself in a shell of weak magic and it causes the wind to slide over it instead of over my body. Otherwise, I'm sure my clothes might tear apart if I go too fast."
"Usually Lucy was the one who got the wardrobe failures."
"That hasn't changed in my world, she still gets them."
"Somehow that doesn't surprise me." Natsu ducked down and crossed under the woman so he could turn down the next street. After a few more turns, he came to a stop in front of a dealership. "Alright, hop off, Lelyanna."
"I never realised how loud the wind could be…" The priestess murmured and rubbed her ears gently.
"I'll grab a bunch of filtered earplugs to help with that. They'll be useful for using guns unsuppressed too since I'd rather not damage everyone's hearing with something like my machinegun." Natsu felt the woman's weight lift off the bike and she stepped around to the front. After he got off his bike, he hung his helmet from the handlebars and led the women into the dealership. "Where was the women's gear again?"
"Woah, some of these bikes are insane." Natsumi exclaimed as he floated around the ceiling for a better look at the large store.
Natsu glanced up at the woman then down to the shorter one in front of him who was looking at a white hooded jumper on the rack. "If you like them, we can go through them and find one that fits right?"
"Ok." Lelyanna slipped out of the jumper and tossed it onto the top of the racks. She ran through the sizes, humming softly as she picked out a few sizes that seemed to be about right and began trying them on. With Natsu's help, she was able to find a size that fit her petite body and she followed the man over to the helmet section. "Can I have a white one? One that isn't overly fancy, please."
"Alright." Natsu grabbed down a few plain white full-face helmets and began helping the woman find one that fit right. "Oi, Natsumi, get your arse down here and put on some of these helmets."
"Which ones should I look at?" Natsumi asked as she floated over from above a collection of motorcycles. Without waiting for an answer, she immediately went to the most expensive ones and picked out a loud helmet with a flaming skull design. "Hell fucking yeah! I want this one."
"Make sure it fits first before you get ahead of yourself." Natsu reminded the boisterous woman, grinning at her enthusiasm.
"Ah, Natsu?" Lelyanna drew the man's attention back to herself as she turned her head and rocked it from side to side and front to back. "This one feels the best. It's comfortable but doesn't move around."
"Alright, hand it here." Natsu took the helmet from the woman and installed a communications module as well as a HUD projector which he did for Natsumi's helmet too once she found one that fit. He grabbed a few sizes of earplugs and handed them to both women. "Go through these and work out what fits right. It's for the safety of your ears, you don't want to blow out your eardrums like I did in the last job."
"How?" Natsumi asked curiously.
"Used the Bomb Curse to breach a stone wall of a fort occupied by goblins. Detonated it right beside us and ended up bleeding from my ears but Lelyanna took care of it before I healed from it."
"That'll do it."
While the women were trying on the earplugs, Natsu ducked into the back of the dealership and collected up the tools he needed to maintain his bike as well as all the related spare parts and tyres. He also appropriated the wheel balancer and the tyre fitting machine to install them in his garage at the manor. If he was going to take the bike back, then he'd like to have everything he'd need to keep it running for the rest of his life. On his way back to the ladies, he took a few unopened boxes of filtered earplugs to have them on hand in the future.
"We found ones that fit." Natsumi called out to the man as he came through the doorway and she waved him over with an excited grin.
"Grab a few of them and pocket them. I've just grabbed a tonne of them for if I need them in the future which I likely will." Having gotten what they had come for, Natsu left the dealership and waiting atop his Nightingale with his helmet in his hands. Once Lelyanna and Natsumi had come out, he took their helmets and linked the communication system. "Alright, we'll be able to hear each other now even if we're on completely other sides of this city. I'll give you the information booklets once we're done in my world so you girls can read over them in your own time."
"Where are we heading?" Lelyanna asked as she sat down behind the man and put on her helmet.
"A graveyard owned by Fairy Tail that is on this side of the city." Natsu replied as he put his own helmet on and reached out to turn the communications modules on both Lelyanna's and Natsumi's helmets. "Can you two hear me?"
"Yes." Lelyanna's dulcet voice came through the speakers in Natsu's helmet. She was quickly followed up by Natsumi who had also given the man a thumbs up.
"Yep, loud and clear. These things are very useful."
"You can hold onto that helmet. But until you can learn Requip, just store it in my garage when we get back to my place. I'll give you the same write-up that I gave Lelyanna during our job once we get back, if you are struggling then you can either come to me or talk with Erza."
"Alright, sounds good to me. I'll see how I go."
"Knowing how stubborn I am; if you're struggling with it, actually come see one of us and not beat your head against the wall."
"Yeah, yeah."
Natsu glanced over his shoulder and checked that Lelyanna was ready to go and he cranked the throttle while he held down the front brake. The rear tyre spun up on the asphalt, squealing loudly as it smoked profusely. The man cackled wildly and he suddenly released the brake, lifting the front wheel off as he launched forward and raced down the road on just the rear tyre.
"DAMN IT, NATSUUUU!"
Lelyanna's scream and Natsumi's raucous laughter filled the man's ears as he blew through intersection after intersection before he finally let the front tyre touch asphalt. With his heart racing and a surge of adrenaline coursing through his body, he laughed loudly and placed his left hand over the priestess' hands which were clinging to his jacket for dear life. "I'm sorry, it's just been so long since I've ridden my bike. I wanted to cut loose."
The small woman slackened her grip and shifted forward slightly so her thighs squeezed the man for better stability. She let out a soft breath and adjusted her arms around him. "It's fine. It was shocking but exhilarating."
Natsu zig-zagged his way through the streets until he reached the cemetery. He slowed down and cruised through the ornate brick alley that ran though the field until he reached an archway with the Fairy Tail emblem emblazoned at the top. The pinkette let out a shaky sigh as he shut off his bike and waited for Lelyanna to hop off. The ebb and flow of the woman's magic drew his attention and he glanced at her, finding her standing nearby with her helmet in her hands and her eyes closed.
After near a minute of attempts and with her frustration becoming more visible by the second, the weight in the woman's hands suddenly vanished and her eyes shot open in disbelief but her expression rapidly shifted to shock, to astonishment and finally to vibrant glee but a kernel of doubt was still stuck in her mind and she lifted her gaze to Natsu. "Did you…?"
"Nope. That was all you." Natsu replied, grinning softly as he hopped of the motorcycle and walked over.
Lelyanna slowly looked back down at her hands and envisioned taking the helmet out of the box and to her great delight, it reappeared in her hands. Her eyes lit up with happiness to the point that tears leaked from her eyes. She sent the helmet away and brought it back out a few times before leaping onto the man and hugging him tightly. "I did it! I actually did it! Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you-thank-you!"
"Well done." Natsu praised the woman, smiling at her adorable excitement as he gently rubbed her back. "The next thing you need to do is to think of yourself standing within that box and try moving things off and onto your body. Don't worry, the worst thing that could happen is the spell just doesn't work and you end up standing there with or without clothing on. Trust me, it's hilarious when it happens to others, less so when it's you. So, you should practice that in your private time. Either in your room in the cathedral or the room you've commandeered in my manor."
"Ok." Lelyanna slowly unhooked her arms from around his neck and slid down his body. She took a step back and held out her hands with a bright smile. "Can I have my capelet and socks back, since I can store them now?"
"Here." Natsu took them from his own requip dimension and placed them onto her hands where they vanished a moment later to the tone of thrilled giggles. When Natsumi landed next to them, she glanced between them then immediately grabbed the man by the jacket, an excited fanged grin splitting her face as her eyes lit up.
"Teach me your secrets! If a woman who had only done basic spells all female mages know and her own specialty healing magic was able to learn Requip magic that soon when I've been trying for a few years now, then you obviously explained it unbelievably well or she's an absolute genius. And I don't mean to be rude, Lelyanna," The pinkette quickly glanced at the happy priestess. "But she doesn't strike me as magically inclined, she even said she couldn't use magic before that Goddess blessed her."
"Alright, alright. Give me a quick second." Natsu gently brushed the dragon princess' hands from his jacket and summoned his journal with Requip. He opened it to the very last page and began to write out the exact same instructions and explanations that he had for Lelyanna before he tore the page from the book and held it out to his counterpart. "There, put that somewhere safe and read through it when you have the time. It's the same information that I've given Lelyanna so if you follow it and practice then you should be able to do it, eventually. As I said before, if you run into any trouble then come to either me or Erza."
"Thanks!" Natsumi cheered loudly as she pocketed the paper. She snuffed out her wings and hung her helmet from the handlebars of the motorcycle then turned her attention to the arch in front of them. "So, this is the place? It's so eerily quiet…"
"Welcome to the land of the dead." Natsu remarked softly before leading the way into the sectioned of stretch of cemetery devoted to Fairy Tail members. Slow puffs of fog slipped from the man's nose as he gazed across row after row of headstones, feeling like a knife had been stabbed into his heart and twisted. He softly murmured, "I'm home, guys."
"Natsu?" Natsumi's ears twitched as the wind brought the man's words to them. But instead of getting a response from him, both her and Lelyanna were left in the dust as the man took off at a full sprint, leaping over headstones as he made a beeline towards something that only he could make out. "Hey! Natsu! Wait Up!"
It was difficult to track the man down in the darkness but they found him knelt down in front of a tombstone bearing the name Lucy Dragneel. To the left and right were Wendy Marvell, Erza Scarlet, Gray Fullbuster, Juvia Fullbuster, Levy Redfox, and Gajeel Redfox.
"These are…" Natsumi murmured softly, her eyes wide as they skimmed across the stone surfaces.
"This is my Fairy Tail, Natsumi. Every single member of my family lies right here, in this hallowed ground." Natsu glanced back at the two women before turning his attention back to Lucy's grave and closing his eyes. "This is where Ceres brought everyone after they died in that fucking hellhole of a city. After I buried my closest friends in that fucking hellhole. I don't know if I should be happy or fucking miserable right now."
Natsumi opened and closed her mouth a few times as she looked at the names of her friends, the losses that Natsu had sustained and must live with finally sinking in. Her gaze flicked up to the rows beyond them, each one containing a name she was closely familiar with. It caused her tanned skin to pale rapidly and she began to shake with shock, her eyes drifting back down to the kneeling man. The smiling faces belonging to the names on the headstones flashed before her eyes one after another, or for the ones who weren't quite the same like Gray and Juvia, they were Grace and Kai. She clutched at her heart as tears seeped from the corners of her eyes. "I-I think I'm going to wait by the bike… take, um, take all the time you need."
"Right." Natsu didn't lift his head, not even when he felt a pulse of magic and the rush of wind from the woman taking to the skies. Snow crunched around him, slowly moving away then after a few minutes, it slowly came back and a lone red rose was placed down in front of the headstone belonging to Lucy. The action drew his eyes up the pale up and to the solemn-faced priestess who was carrying around an armful of roses and was dutifully placing one in front of each tombstone, carrying out her role even though it wasn't necessary. "Thanks."
"Like Natsumi said," Lelyanna turned her pale-turquoise eyes to the man, not a tear to be seen in either one, and gave him a gentle smile. It wasn't one that a friend would give, but that of a member of the church who came across a grieving person while conducting their duties. "Take all the time you need. Talk to them, share what you've been up to. Stop by the others too, say a few words if you wish. And then, once you are feeling a bit better, you can find us by Nightingale."
"I will." Natsu nodded lightly and watched as she placed a rose in front of Gray's headstone, followed by Erza and Wendy, and she continued to move down the line and placing roses down, only to go and gather more when she ran out and continue to offer a flower and a silent prayer for the departed.
He dropped his gaze back to the grave in front of him and ran his fingers against the name carved in the stone. "Hiya, Luce… I'm sorry it took so long to come and visit you. That Goddess I mentioned last time… she's helped me a lot, even indirectly, like this. I can't tell you how happy it makes me that you all were brought back home. Seems like our family is all back together again, back in Magnolia. I…" He took a deep breath and let out a shaky sigh. "I admit, I'm a little bit envious, but that's outweighed by the happiness in seeing you all together again. The goddess, Ceres, she brought me to her personal world and allowed me to recover, she found me a new place to live. It's very different to our own world, I wish you could have seen it, you would have found it fascinating. I… found out that back in that city, just before it all ended… that feeling we all had was from Ceres, she tried to warn us. I should have acted; I should have fucking done something. Maybe if I did, you four would still be alive… but, I can't change the past. No matter how much I want to go back and kill those motherfucking cunts before they blew the world to bits. I found my counterpart in the new world that I live in, she's nice, fairly boisterous, flirty and overtly sexual. She reminds me of what I used to be like, you would've loved her. She's a few years younger than me, twenty-three or twenty-four I think she said. And then there's Lelyanna…"
Natsu glanced up at the woman then down at the rose in front of him. "She's kind-hearted, innocent… She's the Archbishop who oversees the Magnolia region in her world. And well, she seems to be taking her role seriously, even in this dead world. She's giving everyone a flower each. Ceres had her help me settle in, but we've since formed a freelance team working as monster hunters, Jaegers. Well, technically I'm the Jaeger and she is a healer who is supporting me. Natsumi's is going to be helping us but it's only when she's free though as she has her own version of our squad that she works alongside in her Fairy Tail."
Natsu's eyes drifted across to the grave nearby Lucy's and a small smirk danced across his melancholic face. "Speaking of, do you remember how one of the names that we were talking about for our kid was Grace, in honour of Gray? Well, it turns out that's the name of Gray's counterpart in their world. I think Erza hit the nail on the head for that frosty bastard." The man let out a quiet, sad chuckle and closed his eyes.
"I borrowed the name you offered too; I have clockwork automatons that serve as guards and servants for my manor. I called the servants Henrietta. I think I've gotten used to the constant ticking of that world, it's too quiet out here, Natsumi also complained about it too." He opened his eyes and slowly ran his gloved fingers across the etched name.
"I miss you Luce. I should probably talk to the others, see the rest of our family while I have the chance. And then… I need to move on, both from this cemetery, and with my life. But I'm afraid I won't be able to protect those around me, so please… if you and the others could lend me your strength, just one more time, help me move on and continue my life while protecting those around me from the same fate… Steer my hand and guide my judgement so I won't make the same mistake. I don't think I could handle going through this a second time." Natsu slowly rose to his feet and wiped the tears from his eyes. He took a deep breath then saluted the gravestone. "It's been an honour, Lucy, my love. Rest well."
This chapter rewrite was a bit more in-depth and came to an increase of about 700 words but about 70-80% of the chapter has been changed to some degree.
A little bit of housekeeping:
Natsu's motorcycle was a cruiser based on the Kawasaki Vulcan. This has been changed to be more in line with Fiore's state of technological advancement and is now a modified Yaiba Kusanagi CT-3X from Cyberpunk 2077 – called a Montez (MMC) Helion – with the rear pod changed to be a lengthened seat in a similar style.
Another change was swapping the vehicles from solely electric to a mix of electric and synthetic fuel ICE vehicles. This made more sense in general, especially for military vehicles such as traditional jets and helicopters which were fuel-based in some capacity, Synfuel/Hydrogen.
That's all. I hope you have enjoyed this rewritten chapter. I'll see you all in the next one.