Chapter Forty-Four
Star-Slayer
The trip back to Magnolia had been tense, with everyone trying not so subtly to steal glances at the Fire Dragon, all of them having more questions about him than ever before.
Stopping short just shy of the outskirts of the city, Gray had been following in step but Gajeel placed a steady hand on his shoulder, nodding towards the three women all staring at Natsu expectantly.
"What?" The ice mage asked quietly.
"You and I are needed back at the guild, we should tell Makarov what happened, and I don't think you want to get caught up in whatever this is about to be." The Iron Dragon answered honestly. Gray realized what he'd meant, and it seemed that was the exact moment that Natsu had also cottoned on.
"Yes?" He asked with a raised brow, turning to see the faces watching him.
"I think it's pretty clear that we have some questions," Lucy told him, jabbing a finger at his chest, an interaction that he'd actually felt beyond the mere touch. She'd gained a level of power that she didn't even know was there. It had been so perfectly ingrained into her essence that it had completely gone under the radar.
"And we all deserve some answers." Erza tried to glare before it inevitably softened.
"Oh, hell no." Gray whispered, shaking his head, "Come on Happy, we need you to tell Makarov about Loduhn," Gray said loudly, making it clear that Natsu was alone in this.
"What the fuck? Coward," Natsu said, leaning to look past the women so that Gray could clearly see his glare, "No such thing as Dragon Slayer solidarity?" He added, looking at Gajeel.
"In any other situation, maybe, but right now you need to deal with the new one, I can't help you with that, Salamander," Gajeel responded flatly, turning to walk away with Gray and Happy.
"What does he mean by 'new one'?" Lucy's glare had taken on a hue of power that was all too familiar to him.
"Natsu," Mirajane was frowning, and he hated that.
He thought about it for a moment, sparring each of them a glance, respecting them enough to look them in the eyes.
"Lucy died," he said at last. Erza managed to hide her surprise, but she'd been there just after it had happened, she'd found no signs of life whatsoever, she knew that this was coming.
"The torture rig the Stargazer had me hooked up to was an immensely complex extrusion and amplification device, aimed specifically at my Dragon Slayer magic." He told them, looking pained with every word.
"When her vital energy faded, I tried to send raw power to her, I didn't know what else to do, I was desperate." He wanted to turn away from them, he'd already almost lost all control of E.N.D. from seeing Lucy die, the scenes all too similar to when Anna had been taken from him.
"Certain types of magic are somewhat compatible with others, but Dragon Slayer magic is different to everything, so it obviously didn't work, until she died and all of her Celestial magic was gone, after that point, well… She managed to absorb the magic I tried to give her." He explained honestly.
"What are you saying, Natsu?" Erza asked, trying to get him to be as blunt as possible.
"Look," he said with a sigh, grabbing Lucy by the shoulder and turning her so that Erza and Mira could see her face.
He closed the distance between them until his eyes were inches from hers. It took a second but then they watched in amazement as her eyes reacted to his presence and slowly shifted and morphed until they looked identical to his, narrow and draconic.
Lucy gasped, looking around at everything around her, "This is just like when you gave me your power to save Loke." She said in wonderment.
"No," Natsu slowly shook his head, "back then, you borrowed my power, you had the senses of a Dragon because I willed you to, what you're seeing now…" he sighed again, pinching the bridge of his nose, "You'd better get used to it because this is your power now, not mine. You took my power and it revived you, it's a part of you now. You are…" he stopped and thought about it, unsure of how it would sound.
"A Celestial Dragon Slayer," she breathed out in disbelief.
"You're a Dragon Slayer whose core magic is Celestial energy, I doubt there was ever a Celestial Dragon though." He shrugged somewhat.
"Ok, it'll take some time to unpack that particular emotional baggage, but there are more questions." Lucy prompted, taking a slightly softer approach, though that might have been simply because she was now learning and experiencing prolonged exposure to the world around her as a Dragon Slayer.
"You're full of ponderment today, I see, and while I'd love to stand here and engage in this incredibly fun four-way, I just want to rest, I used so much power." He sighed, looking genuinely tired for the first time in a long time.
"That!" Mira said with her trademark devilish smile, "That's what we want to know!"
"Beg pardon?" Natsu asked in confusion, "You've all seen me exhaust my power before." He added, a hand straying to scratch the side of his neck. "You being a direct reason for one of them,"
"The flirting, the jibes, the obvious connection between us, what is this to you?" Mira prodded.
"The…" Natsu stopped short, just simply looking between them in silence while he carefully thought about his next words.
"What exactly are you expecting from me? Dragons… We don't… Ah, this is complicated, I don't know how to explain this to humans." He said, scratching his chin.
"Dragons will convene every so many years for a mating season, most of them won't ever see the mate or the offspring again, generally speaking that's as far as it goes for Dragons." He told them bluntly.
"But you see things differently?" Erza crossed her arms, knowing that this was the case.
"Believe it or not, I was once human, and in my many years of life, I have… Well, I don't have any offspring but I'm well versed in the ways," he flashed that animalistic grin, greatly appreciating the blushes that fell over each of them.
"But I'm assuming that you were asking something more specific, so I'll cut to the chase. Dragons don't understand monogamy, and while I know the human concept, I don't subscribe to the ideals." He told them at last, crossing his arms in an almost defensive stance.
Now that Lucy had received a somewhat monumental power shift, he didn't like his chances of fighting these three at once and coming out unscathed, not being this drained.
"Ah, I get it now," Lucy mused, folding her arms that looked almost aggressively challenging as she stood there with a newfound confidence. She had the senses of a Dragon, she could see and feel certain things that Erza and Mira just simply couldn't, nor would they be able to comprehend.
Natsu held an almost tangible aura of power around him, it was like witnessing the sheer authority of simply being a Dragon King.
"You're a player," her eyes narrowed into a glare by the smallest degree.
"No," Natsu almost laughed, "that's a label for Leo." He shook his head in amusement, "I am a King," his voice was full of that same authority and power that Lucy could feel just from his presence, but this time, they could all feel it.
"Are you seriously going to stand there and say that the only way this works is if we commit ourselves to some kind of… Harem?" Mira blinked in disbelief.
"The fuck's a harem?" The Fire Dragon raised a brow, all traces of sarcasm or humour missing from his face.
"Um," Mira put a hand to her head, her blush deepening. Natsu enjoyed everything that had this kind of effect on the she-devil. "Lucy, help me out here, you're good with words," Mira said, throwing her guildmate under the bus.
"I can guess that it's something kinky from the way that Titania's face is brighter than her hair," Natsu mused.
"Well, it's, ugh…" Lucy too had taken a moment to try to hide her features, "It's like… if the three of us were pretty exclusively only seeing you, intimately, but you wouldn't be expected to be exclusive." She explained.
"A foursome with extra maths," Natsu shrugged, "I could take any number of mates if I so wished, but I haven't. I have other things that take precedence." He said, surprising them.
"You're…" Erza began with an almost detected quiver, "You're not interested in that at all?" She asked.
"You are?" He countered.
"Wha-! No, I didn't, I mean… What I meant was…" Erza too had relented to burying her face in her hands.
"Seeing each of you fumble over the conversation is great and all, but beyond initial bemusement, I don't intend to string you along and get you mixed up with words," he said, sighing as he sat down on a large rock and gently loosened the laces of the brown leather boot, shaking it free from his calf.
"I haven't gone out of my way to find anyone, in my entire life, and yet somehow in the space of the short time I've been here, you three have become incredibly important to me, despite my efforts otherwise. Does that answer your question?" he asked, knocking some stones out of the boot, looking defeated after everything they'd been through in Loduhn.
"So your final word is that you wouldn't accept one of us over another, but that your solution to this problem is to just… Ignore it?" Mirajane tilted her head, her eyes scanning every minute detail and action of the Fire Dragon.
"That had been my plan, yes, however, it's becoming irritatingly clear whenever I speak to one of you that I just simply have no negotiative power here, so by this point, I'm not going to fight fate for once." he gave her a tired look, putting the boot back on and taking a moment to look at the sky.
Clear and bright, vast blues that beautifully mirrored the seas.
"Why don't I make this easier on you?" He asked, turning around to look at Magnolia.
To someone like him, and by all rights the three women at his back, this city was like a playground with its far-reaching rooftops.
"I'm pretty drained now, barely any magic left, but if you can catch me, I'll answer all of your questions, no matter what they are," he said, turning his head enough so that they could see the mischievous grin on his lips.
The sounds of magic reached his ears immediately. Takeover magic, requipped armour, and a swirling mass of Celestial energy that flowed around Lucy like an ethereal cloud, he saw all of it within an instant.
"Just like that, huh?" he asked with a raised brow. They all watched with steeled determination.
"I get it, not wanting to lose one over the other, so, surely the only way this works is if we're in it together," Lucy told him, looking at him with a tilted gaze, watching through the eyes of a Dragon.
"This is easily one of the most insane conversations I've ever been a part of," Natsu mused, not convinced that he was even hearing it right.
"We haven't come this far just to be turned away now. If this whole… Situationship is what it takes, then that's what it takes," she explained.
"All hail the King," he mused before their magic flared and his time to talk had run dry.
"Oh shit!" He immediately ducked and fell into a run, bolting forward before carefully planning and timing a jump that took him high into the sky, gliding gracefully with a weak trail of fire left in his wake.
He rotated midair to see none of them still standing where they'd been only a second prior.
"Mira can fly, Heaven's Wheel can fly, and that…" he stopped short, throwing his arms into a guard that exploded with a barrier of fire as the newly discovered Celestial Dragon reached him almost immediately.
She was copying what she was seeing him do, using her capacity of extraordinary power to match his moves.
She'd reached out but missed, falling and landing roughly on a rooftop.
His course had been altered, his fall taking him crashing into the side of an old brickwork building that had been derelict since the incident with Laxus and the thunder palace.
He had no time to think about it, he pushed himself away from the falling stonework and fell into another run, this time staying on the lower levels of the streets.
"Might have bitten off more than I can chew here, how powerful have they gotten!?" He swore, looking frantically around the new routes available to him with each stride.
With how drained his magic was, he wouldn't have total control over it and he couldn't risk hurting them, not like that.
That didn't mean he couldn't rely on his physical strength.
His main concern right now was stopping Lucy from hurting herself.
She wasn't anywhere nearly adept with the throes of a Dragon, nor would she be without any training, but that instinct of hers was one hell of a problem right now.
He'd been too lost in thought that he hadn't noticed Mira sweeping low from the sky, cutting off his advance. It was too late now to adjust and try to outmanoeuvre her, there was only one thing he could do.
She raised two fingers, and a buzzing ball of pink and black energy swirled as it gathered at her command.
He ran head-on into it, jumping and spinning with a furious back heel that slapped the Satan Soul's hand away, dispelling the magic as it did. He continued to spin on one foot where he landed, sweeping the other across her leg, grabbing her by the hips and slamming her into the ground.
The sheer force sent chunks of stone breaking away, leaving a Mirajane-shaped dent in the road.
He had her pinned into the ground, holding her down by the shoulders, their faces only inches apart. She could feel his hot breath bearing down on her.
She tried to lean in, to taste his lips that teased, moving out of her reach. "Looks like that ship is sailing back," he told her, blowing a kiss that if it had been an inch lower, would have connected with her perfectly.
He laughed, winking as he deftly removed himself and instantly had to return to evasion as Erza and Lucy both closed in.
"Relentless," he cursed, backstepping several times to give himself some distance.
He slapped away the dozens of blades that had come flying at him.
Lucy, for the most part, hadn't tried to use any kind of attack, physical or magical, she was simply keeping up and trying to catch him.
The sounds of magical conflict echoed throughout the streets, far away from the relative comfort of the Fairy Tail guildhall which had received a rather unusual visitor.
Master Makarov sat at the bar, happily drinking his beer alongside one of the few who could be considered his peer.
Jura Nekis of the Lamia Scale magical guild, and one of Master Makarov's fellow Wizard Saints, happily drank from his beer.
"Why have you really come?" Makarov asked at last after a long moment. Jura stopped, simply watching him from the corner of his eye.
"As you know, a request for an alliance was made, and while me coming here wouldn't normally be necessary, I was asked directly by the magic council to come and make an assessment of a particular mage," Jura explained.
"Oh?" Makarov hummed slowly, "An assessment of what, and who?"
Jura sighed, looking up and trying to find the best way to explain. "It takes the magic council a long time to achieve anything. It was a while before the reports of Phantom Lord's attack on Magnolia were confirmed, but all reports involved confirmations that the former dark mage, Salamander, had accepted the decree and become a Fairy Tail mage."
"Oh, oh no. Jura, let's not be hasty, he hasn't broken any part of that decree, at least not that I'm aware of!" The colour had drained from Makarov's face when he realized that Jura was deciding whether or not the magic council could shut Fairy Tail down for good.
"Don't be concerned, that's not what I've been asked to assess." He held a hand up, instantly calming the sweating Master.
"Ah," Makarov breathed a sigh of relief, "Then what are you trying to ascertain from our not-so-young mister Dragneel?"
"After the events that caused Jose Porla's removal from the Ten Wizard Saints, an incident that cited one Natsu Dragneel to have been heavily involved in, and after the reports we received from the Tower of Heaven, a similar-ish incident that also ended with another Wizard Saint being taken down, this time seemingly solely at his hands, there has been a void in the rankings," Jura explained slowly, seeing the realization dawn in Makarov's face.
"You… You want to…" he stopped short, fully aware that just about everyone in the guild hall would be listening to a conversation between two Wizard Saints.
Gray and Gajeel for one had shared an uneasy look. They hadn't been able to debrief Makarov about the mission to Loduhn since he'd already been speaking with Jura.
"The magic council have tasked me with deciding whether or not Natsu Dragneel is to become the next Wizard Saint." Jura purposely didn't bother to hush himself. His strong voice echoed throughout the guildhall, shushing them entirely. Everyone simply stared at the two mages by the bar.
Without another word being said, the doors to the guildhall had been blown clean off their hinges, with Natsu thudding hard against the ground, Mirajane's Satan Soul straddling him across the waist. They slid across the guildhall until they came to a stop only a few feet away from Makarov and Jura.
Erza and Lucy filed in after them, both pretending, badly, that they had nothing to do with the scene before them.
"Yo!" Natsu grinned, looking at them from where he lay.
A/N: I realize that it took over 100k words before they were on the same page. If you were still reading this far in and didn't realize it's a pretty slow burn, then that's on you.
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