Chapter 54 - Natsu's dragon egg

It had been quite a while since the time I started my Arcane Domain magic training. Progress was slow but smooth, Lazarus would join me every other day so it was quite helpful to say the least.

The date today was June 3rd, nearly two months had passed so let's recap a bit on what has transpired.

I've made huge control improvements so far, my overall ability to craft good looking swords improved yet again! If I was still at the level of control as two months ago, I'd only be able to make roughly fifty swords before the quality started dropping.

Right now however I can make a hundred and ten before the quality starts to drop! Looking at it like that, my control had more than doubled within the two months of doing this!

Not only that but the overall amount of swords I could create and control at a time had increased from eight hundred to one thousand, albeit by the one thousandth one it looked more like a stick than a sword…

Either way that's a big improvement for me! Thanks to that I can now keep a True Sun stable for almost twice the amount of time as before without using equilibrium and forcefully balancing the spell.

Luckily when I tested it out the spell didn't go boom boom… Was quite close though not gonna lie! Good thing I forcefully balanced the True Sun and put it back inside of my storage just in time before any damage was done.

And that… Is the entire reason why I needed a safer way of training control!

If I trained using True Suns then I'd have quite a few explosions to deal with, albeit I could fix the damage and block off the noise from it… The magic I'd have to spend would be ridiculous, the other option is to use my stored spells but then it defeats the purpose of stacking them all up for future combat encounters.

Yeah, I'll take the Arcane Domain magic route please.

But enough about me, let me tell you about what's been going on at the guild recently!

Just as Mira and Erza had promised each other, they went on a mission soon after my first training session with Lazarus. Apparently Mira did quite well on her first S rank job for which Erza was quite proud about.

I feel sorry for the dark guild who ended up facing those two…

Anyway, not long after that Mira's… Specific personality that she had at this time in the original timeline started to develop…

I was unsure of why it happened, she just suddenly started acting up and fought with a lot of people from within the guild, for which Erza obviously apprehended her.

That day was remembered by many with nothing but fear and bloodshed…

The reality however was that everyone got beat up while I was laughing together with Gildarts, Ur and Cana during Erza's play fight with Mira.

To put it simply, a lot of people were caught up in the cross fire and an all-out brawl nearly began to commence before being abruptly stopped by Erza who simply knocked on people's head while Mira tried to punch her.

Haaaaaa… The difference in this timeline is showing here, Erza is far stronger during this time and Mira has lots of catching up to do…

Either way, I did find it strange that Erza didn't just knock Mira out… She even took some hits on purpose and seemed to be having fun! Mira was also smiling during the whole thing upon further inspection.

Well at least they're having fun, albeit at the expense of everyone else which is kinda bad.

Although I'm laughing at the others' misery as they quiver in fear of the cat fight… Maybe I'm the worst one here after all?

Meh…

This happened at the end of April, and it continues to happen until now even.

It is amusing, sure. But I'm really starting to feel bad about our guild mates at this point!

Being sent flying by little girls can at times be… Humiliating.

Other times I've been attacked myself, Mira and Erza once tried to knock me out with a double punch to the face but luckily I dodged it.

When that happens it means that they've REALLY got some beef going around, so I usually just push them both through a portal and am done with it.

In other news, Natsu and Lisanna have gotten quite a bit closer since they first met! Seriously they're glued to one another, mostly because Lisanna won't leave the poor kid alone.

Her crush on Natsu has been developed nicely in this timeline as well it would seem…

Another big thing that happened was that Laxus went out on a training journey for the next S rank promotion exam. He's dead set on getting it this year it seems!

Freed could be found drunk and crying for quite a few nights after Laxus' departure, screaming about being left behind and not being good enough in Laxus' eyes to take with.

Because Ur got fed up with his bawling every night at the guildhall, she forcefully took him for training so that he could "Get good" and become a great right hand man for Laxus!

To which he obviously agreed to after being told it was that.

That was the façade at least, truthfully she just tortured him into getting stronger and he took it like a champ!

Freed doesn't have a crush on Laxus does he…?

Better not get the answer to that question…

That's generally the bigger things that happened, other than those… The trio of ice mages, Cana and Elfman were doing a'okay as well!

Cana has been spending time with her dad and they even did a normal job together, Gildarts mostly accompanied her for fun really.

The ice trio spent their time with Ur and eventually Freed as well when his training commenced!

Elfman was usually either with his sisters when they were free or surprisingly with Team Shadow gear. They apparently got to be good friends with the guy!

...

Well, now that we're all caught up and June has started coming around, what's next you ask?

Well why don't we just look towards the guildhall's front doors real quick…

"Heyyyyyyyy! An Egg! I found an Egg!" Natsu came rushing through the front door while yelling.

"What's that?! It's huge!!" Lyon exclaimed, as did quite a few others within the hall.

"It's an egg. The idiot even said so, don't tell me you're deaf?" Gray commented.

"Well obviously it's an egg! I mean what is it from?" Lyon retorted.

"A really big bird maybe?" Cana commented.

"Sounds about right." Ultear agreed.

"Either way it'd surely make for a nice lunch right about now." Gray said, having lost all his clothes through means that not even the gods knew of.

That or a similar conversation happened all around, before most lost interest.

Natsu on the other hand didn't really care much as he ran up to Gramps and presented him the egg.

"Where on earth did you get that?" Gramps asked with a questioning gaze.

"I found it in the east forest!" Natsu exclaimed with a smile.

"The east forest?" Gramps questioned.

It was then that Gray spoke up to get Natsu's attention.

"Wow. That's pretty thoughtful, especially for you Natsu. You're gonna let us all eat some?" Gray asked with a grin.

"Oi Gray, your clothes!" Cana finally noticed and reminded him, to which he reacted strongly in surprise.

"Heck no!" Natsu yelled. "This is a dragon egg! I'm gonna hatch it!" He explained.

"A dragon?" Cana asked.

"Check out this weird pattern! It looks just like dragon claws!" Natsu said as he pointed to the egg.

It did indeed have a few weird patterns, dark blue in color and only on one of its sides.

"Hm, that is quite interesting! I'd honestly love to see a dragon!" I said, walking up to where they had gathered.

"I dunno… Is it really?" Gray asked.

"Of course it is! Now then…" Natsu said as he turned to Gramps.

"Gramps! Hatch this dragon for me!" He said with a face full of smiles.

"Nonsense, you fool!" Gramps yelled out, surprising the curious bunch surrounding the egg.

He then continued…

"There exists no magic in this world for defiling life! Life is born from love, no manner of magic can transcend that." After uttering those words, gramps looked on to Natsu quietly.

He seemed as if he was contemplating on the meaning, yet what he replied with was…

"I didn't understand a word you just said." Natsu said with his hands place behind his head.

"Haaa…" Gramps sighed, "I guess you're too young to understand…" He replied.

"In other words," Erza said as she walked up towards Natsu, "if you want to hatch it, you have to work your very hardest to hatch it on your own." She explained before continuing. "All you normally do is destroy things, so this is a good opportunity to learn about bringing something into this world instead."

"Erza!" Natsu exclaimed in surprise.

"I-I didn't hear you come in…" Gray said nervously.

"Oh boy…" I face palmed, knowing why he was nervous

"Erza's back you say?!" Mira exclaimed, glaring towards Erza.

The girl in question quickly turned her gaze towards Mira, eyeing her soon to be opponent.

"Let's pick up where we left off, come on." Mira spoke confidently, gesturing Erza to come at her with her hand.

"Another fight…?" Lisanna questioned.

"Nee-chan… Give it a rest already…" Elfman said while putting a hand over his forehead, no doubt trying to alleviate a growing head ache.

"Now that you mention it, we never finished our last fight, did we?" Erza said with a smile.

"Hahah! You're going down Erza!!" Mira yelled as she jumped towards Erza with a fist raised high.

"Well, come at me then Mira!" Erza exclaimed, also rushing towards Mira.

I was concerned about the egg though, so I stopped it immediately this time.

I appeared in between them right on time to catch their fists before pulling them both towards one another, having their foreheads collide in the process.

"Ouch!" Erza yelped in pain.

"That hurt…" Mira muttered as she rubbed her forehead, "Ughhhhh WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL ARTHUR!" She asked angrily.

"Haaaa…" I sighed, "Take this outside if you must fight, I don't want you breaking Natsu's Dragon egg." Having said that I pointed towards the egg, gaining their understanding.

"I don't care about no stupid egg-" Mira started speaking.

"Go. Outside. Now. {Gate}." I spoke slowly with a smile, before pushing her through a portal, then I turned to Erza.

"Go easy on her okay…?" I said.

"Of course I will, she just needs to learn her lesson is all." Erza said while cracking her knuckles with a smile and walking through the gate.

Soon afterwards I closed the gate, leaving those two somewhere in the forest.

"Haaaa… those two are getting rowdier by the day…" I said with a sigh.

"Erza always tells us not to fight, so this whole thing is weirding me out a lot…" Gray commented.

"Darn! One day I'm gonna kick both Erza and Mira's buŧŧs together!" Natsu exclaimed while cracking his knuckles.

"Sheesh! Keep acting tough all the time and girls will never like you!" Lisanna said to Natsu.

"Shut up, Lisanna." Natsu replied, obviously a little irritated by the comment.

Lisanna on the other hand simply giggled before speaking, "Hey, Natsu! Can I raise that egg too?" she asked with a smile.

"Oh! You're going to help me?!" Natsu nearly yelled in surprise

"Yeah! Raising an egg sounds neat!" Lisanna replied.

"I dunno if 'raising' is the right word…" Gray commented.

"I wonder how we'd get it to hatch…" Natsu asked.

"You'd have to warm it up" I answered.

"Warm?!" Natsu asked in excitement. "That's my specialty!" He said and started breathing fire onto the egg like a madman.

"Nooooo!" Lisanna yelled.

"Oh, bloody hell Natsu!" I yelled as I kicked him away and grabbed the egg.

He flew a good two meters and fell on his buŧŧ.

"Hey! What the hell!?" He asked, feeling wronged most likely.

Well, sorry but I don't want fried eggs! I want a kitty cat!

"Are you an idiot?!" Gray exclaimed.

"Urgh! Don't do that! It'll burn if we warm it that much!" Lisanna scolded Natsu.

"I-It will?" He asked, a tad worried.

"Yes, so don't breathe frigging FIRE on it!" I said as I face palmed.

"I'm sorry…" Natsu apologized, looking down to the ground in shame.

"Leave this to me and my magic!" Lisanna replied, "{Take Over: Animal Soul}!" She said and transformed herself into a bird as big as an ostrich.

"Oooh! You're a bird!" Natsu exclaimed.

"Good thinking!" Gray said exclaimed.

"How about warming it like this?" Lisanna asked.

"You're really smart Lisanna!" Natsu said

The conversation continued from there, but honestly I started losing interest and looked back to where the others were seating at.

"Tsk." Elfman clicked his tongue.

"What's the matter? Elfman?" Cana asked.

"Yeah? Something happen?" I asked, walking up to them.

"Well… Lisanna can do a full body take over, but I can't… Even though we're on the same team and I'm her elder brother…" He explained, looking all pitiful.

"Oh, right! You guys use the same magic, huh?" Cana said.

"If only I could use it, I could turn into a bird and look for my parakeet." He said gloomily.

"Your parakeet? What happened?" I asked.

"Yeah, I took such great care of it, but then it vanished…" He said in an even sadder tone.

"Oh… I see." Cana said, "Why didn't you just tell Arthur-nii?" She asked.

"Yeah, why didn't you? I'll go find it now." I replied.

Huh… I didn't even notice he had lost his birdy… Poor Elfman!

I'll just search for it with clairvoyance real quick…

"Huh? You really don't have to… I'll find it myself, it's my proble-" I cut him off.

"Found it. {Teleport}" I said and teleported, grabbed the parakeet and teleported back with a gate. "Here you go dude, the guy is completely safe." I said as I handed him the birdy.

"Wh-! How?! Never mind, thank you so much Arthur!" Elfman exclaimed in surprise, his gloomy mood disappearing as he hugged the little bird.

"It's no problem really, just make sure not to lose him again okay?" I replied.

"As always you work fast…" Lyon commented, "I wish I could be that fast at doing jobs." He said.

"Well, you'd have to work a lot harder than you do now for starters." Ultear replied.

"Ugh… I already work really hard though…" Lyon said with a tired tone.

"Well, keep up the good work then Lyon!" Ultear said in encouragement.

"Of course I will!" Lyon suddenly stood up, hand raise and looking up above to the ceiling.

"You'd better, don't want Ultear cleaning up after you on the next job again do you?" I teased him a bit.

"Ah… That's…" He had no retort.

"Hahaha!" We shared a collective laugh over it.

After that, I decided to look back to where the others were but I noticed that Natsu and Lisanna were gone while Gray was walking towards us.

"They left?" I asked.

"Yup, seems like they're gonna go warm the egg in the park or something." He explained.

"Ah, well hopefully they have fun with that." I said and we left it at that.

After talking for a while with them, I went to do some training and to see how Mira and Erza were doing.

It was looking pretty bad…

Quite a few trees were uprooted or just broken in twine, it would seem that they were having quite a bit of fun.

Luckily for Mira, Erza doesn't use her future sight for brawling so her only advantage is superior combat experience and training. Although that's already more than enough to put Mira down, the girl simply keeps getting back up for whatever reason and this is the result.

"Fight me you wench!" Mira cursed.

"Get a rest already before I make you cry!" Erza yelled.

The both of them hit each other square in the face and stepped back a few steps.

"You two done?" I asked, cutting in on their fight.

"Huh? Arthur? What are you doing here?" Mira asked.

"Came to do some training, as well as check on you two. You're still at it?" I asked.

"Yeah, she just doesn't know when to quit." Erza said, crossing her arms.

"I'll quit when I beat you down! Hahaha!" Mira laughed.

"Haaa…" Erza simply sighed, but a smile crept up on her face afterwards.

Seems like they're having fun… Guess I'll leave em be.

"Well, you lot can keep fighting I guess, I'll just move to another place." I said and started walking towards another clearing.

…

Even when I was done with my daily training hours later on, Mira had still been persistently fighting with Erza.

They were having fun so I simply left a gate at their location and went home to rest.

Keeping the gate open at such a high distance was not a problem for me at all, so I kept it open until night fell and they finally walked through.

The days passed after that with Natsu and Lisanna trying to hatch the egg that Happy was in, hopefully I'll get to meet that little fur ball soon!

I do quite like cats, and Happy is no exception!

Hmm… Wonder if I should find myself an exceed buddy at some point?

Guess I'll have to see about it when I get to it…

…