A New Life in Fairy Tail

"Take it easy, alright? Don't go overboard and make a massive scene," Makarov groaned, rubbing his temples in distress.

"Don't worry, Master, I'll keep it under control," Noah assured him with a casual wave. Makarov could only sigh, silently praying that Noah wouldn't cause too much collateral damage.

The farewell banquet raged on late into the night, only dying down when the exhausted guild members finally passed out.

Waking up bright and early the next morning, the guild began cleaning up the aftermath of the massive party. After finishing his share of the work, Noah spotted Gajeel lingering in the distance. Realizing that Dragon Slayer Magic would be incredibly vital in the upcoming alternate dimension, and wanting to help the iron-head integrate into the guild, Noah walked over to him.

"Hey, Gajeel. I know a place where you can find a cat just like Happy and Carla. You interested?"

Gajeel's eyes instantly lit up like spotlights. A second later, he realized what he was doing and violently scrambled to cover it up, glaring at Noah in a panic. "What?! I ain't looking for no stupid cat!"

"The fresh scratch marks on your face tell a very different story," Noah deadpanned helplessly.

Hearing that, Gajeel frantically slapped his hands to his cheeks, only to realize there were no scratch marks at all. He immediately glared daggers at the smirking mage.

"I saw you covered in scratches a few days ago," Noah chuckled. "And I literally saw you interrogating stray cats in an alleyway yesterday."

Realizing his cover was completely blown, Gajeel slumped his shoulders in utter defeat. "The Fire-breather and the little sky brat both have flying, talking cats! We're all Dragon Slayers, so why the hell am I the only one without a partner?!"

"It's simple. Happy and Carla are both originally from an alternate dimension. Natsu and Wendy just got incredibly lucky to stumble upon them," Noah explained with a smile.

"An alternate dimension?" Gajeel blinked, staring at Noah in shock.

"Exactly. A parallel world called Edolas." Noah gave him a quick rundown of Edolas, the Anima portals, and the true origins of Happy and Carla. "We're going to be crossing over into that world very soon to deal with the Anima threat. Do you want in? Dragon Slayer Magic is going to be a massive trump card over there. Plus, since you're so desperate for a flying cat partner, you'll be able to find one exactly like Happy in their world."

Gajeel's expression instantly shifted to one of profound interest. Ever since joining the guild and seeing Natsu and Wendy with their Exceed partners, he had been secretly, desperately scouring the alleys for a talking cat of his own. All he had found were normal, violently uncooperative strays. Hearing that Noah was offering him a direct ticket to the cat homeworld, Gajeel found it physically impossible to refuse.

"Hell yeah. Just give me the word when it's time to move," Gajeel agreed firmly.

"Stay close to the guildhall for the next few days. The operation is going to launch at any moment," Noah instructed. Gajeel nodded.

With the Iron Dragon Slayer successfully recruited, Noah turned and headed off to finalize the parting gifts for Mystogan and Edolas Lisanna.

Two days passed. Having finished preparing the gifts, Noah lounged at a table in the guildhall, casually sipping a glass of milk while listening to the chaotic chatter around him. Lisanna was still happily bustling about, serving drinks to the members. In her own words, as long as she was still here, she wanted to keep helping out.

"How long are you gonna sleep, man?!" Elfman boomed, looking down at Natsu, who was snoring loudly across three chairs.

"I'm gonna draw all over your stupid face," Gray snickered. When Natsu didn't even flinch, Gray uncapped a marker with a devilish grin. He proceeded to draw three thick cat whiskers on each of Natsu's cheeks and scribbled a bunch of exaggerated nose hairs under his nostrils.

"Gray, stop it. You're acting like a five-year-old," Lucy sighed helplessly.

"Who're you calling a kid, you jerk?" Gray retorted, completely ignoring her as he continued his masterpiece. He colored in Natsu's eye sockets to make him look like a raccoon, added a massive goatee to his chin, and finished it off by drawing a giant, popping vein symbol on the Dragon Slayer's forehead.

"Honestly, you're worse than a kid," Lucy deadpanned, utterly exasperated.

"Who's fighting?! Count me in!" Natsu suddenly jolted awake, leaping onto the table. He whipped his head left and right, aggressively mimicking the motion of rolling up his sleeves—which was completely pointless since he was wearing a sleeveless vest.

"You're sleep-drunk," Lucy sighed, pulling a small hand mirror from her pocket and tossing it to him.

Natsu caught the mirror and stared at his reflection. Seeing the ridiculous scribbles completely covering his face, he instantly exploded with rage.

"What the... WHO DID THIS?!"

"There's literally only one person in this guild who would do something so stupid to you," Lucy muttered, gesturing subtly.

Natsu locked onto his target in a split second. He launched himself across the room, violently slamming his forehead directly into Gray's.

"It was you, wasn't it, Ice-Princess?!" Natsu roared.

"You wanna go, Ash-Brain?! Your snoring was annoying the hell out of me, so I gave you a punishment!" Gray shot back without missing a beat.

"What did you say, you stripper?!" Natsu bellowed.

In less than a second, the two rivals were locked in an all-out brawl, throwing punches and kicks with absolute, merciless intensity.

"Oh, Gray-sama! Even when you're violently brawling, you look absolutely dashing!" Juvia swooned from the sidelines, her face completely flushed as she watched the fistfight.

"If you want to call yourselves men, you have to get stronger! You'll never be able to protect Levy acting pathetic like this!" Elfman boomed, lecturing Jet and Droy a few tables over.

"Y-Yeah..."

"We know..." Jet and Droy mumbled, hanging their heads in utter shame.

"Sis, you should scold them too! They totally blew their last job request! They got knocked out in the first five seconds, and Levy had to finish the entire mission all by herself!" Elfman complained to Mirajane.

"Ugh, that stings..."

"I'm so embarrassed..." Jet and Droy groaned, their heads sinking even lower toward the floor.

"Now, now, I think Jet and Droy are trying their absolute best," Mirajane said with a gentle, angelic smile.

"Mira-chan!" Jet and Droy looked up at her, tears of pure, touching gratitude welling in their eyes.

"Even if their absolute best is only slightly useful," Mirajane added sweetly.

"That's so cruel!" Jet and Droy's souls practically left their bodies, withering away on the spot. Mirajane's sweet insult dealt far more emotional damage than Elfman's yelling.

"Hahaha!" Noah couldn't help but burst out laughing from his table. Jet and Droy shot him incredibly resentful glares, silently begging for a shred of sympathy.

Over on the other side of the hall, Gray and Natsu finally broke apart, both of them completely exhausted.

"Seriously, how much boundless energy does that idiot have?" Gray groaned, clutching a fresh bruise on his ribs.

A loud, rhythmic snoring sound immediately answered his question. Gray whipped his head around, only to see Natsu slumped over a chair, already fast asleep again.

Deciding it wasn't worth waking him up for round two, Gray walked over to an empty table and slumped into a chair, ordering a chili dog to refuel.

Juvia immediately slid into the seat right next to him, excitedly ordering the exact same chili dog. When the food arrived, Gray practically unhinged his jaw and started scarfing it down aggressively. Juvia, however, took tiny, delicate, hesitant bites.

"Come on, you're eating way too slow!" Gray mumbled around a mouthful of food.

Juvia instantly panicked, terrified that she was somehow disappointing him.

"Can't you just eat it normally?" Gray asked.

"Juvia... Juvia has never eaten food like this before..." Juvia blushed crimson, relieved that he was just criticizing her eating speed and not rejecting her presence.

Sitting a few tables away, Bisca and Alzack watched the interaction with burning envy. They desperately wished they could converse casually and intimately like Gray and Juvia did.

"Look, you're supposed to eat a chili dog like this! Open your mouth wide!" Gray demonstrated, opening his mouth ridiculously wide and taking a massive, messy bite out of his food.

"L-Lwike dwis?" Juvia copied his ridiculous expression, opening her mouth wide and taking a gargantuan bite out of her own chili dog.

"Exactly! It's not the kind of food you eat elegantly!" Gray praised, giving her a big thumbs up.

"Still... Juvia thinks it might be better if you didn't take your clothes off to eat it," Juvia murmured, completely flustered as she cupped her bright red cheeks. At some point during his meal, Gray had subconsciously completely stripped off his shirt, leaving him half-naked at the table.

"When the hell did that happen?!" Gray yelled, frantically scrambling under the table to find his missing clothes.

Watching them, Alzack and Bisca sighed in unison, absolutely drowning in envy. They slowly turned to look at each other.

"The... the weather... the weather is really nice outside today," Alzack stammered awkwardly.

"Y-Yeah! It sure is!" Bisca panicked. Both of them instantly whipped their heads away, violently blushing as they desperately clung to the terrible small talk.

"You two always get along so wonderfully," Erza noted, walking past their table.

"Oh yeah, they have an incredibly cute dynamic going on," Sorano giggled from beside her.

"N-No! It's not like that at all!"

"Erza! Sorano! Please don't say things like that!" Alzack and Bisca frantically denied it, their faces steaming like kettles.

"Cherish what you have right now. If you hesitate too long, you'll end up regretting it in the future," Erza advised them gently. Sorano nodded vigorously in absolute agreement.

Hearing Erza's surprisingly profound words, Alzack and Bisca both froze, staring blankly ahead.

"Seriously, when do you think those two are actually going to confess to each other?" Noah asked Ultear, watching the painfully shy sniper duo from across the room.

"I'm not sure, but it shouldn't be much longer. They obviously carry each other in their hearts. It's just a matter of which one finally builds up the courage to make the first move," Ultear smiled fondly.

"Noah, come here for a moment," Makarov called out from his spot on the bar counter.

"What's up, Master?" Noah asked, walking over.

"It's about the One-Hundred-Year Quest. Now that Gildarts has officially returned, I need to hand the request back to the Magic Council so someone else can attempt it," Makarov explained quietly.

"Yeah, that aligns perfectly with what we discussed. We simply don't possess the combat capability to complete that quest right now. Hand it back to the Guild Federation and let's see if anyone else on the continent is crazy enough to take it," Noah nodded.

When Noah had first learned that Gildarts was nearly killed by the Black Dragon, he and Makarov had agreed that the One-Hundred-Year Quest needed to be abandoned immediately. Since Gildarts was in hiding at the time, Makarov hadn't been able to formally process the failure paperwork. Now that he was officially back, the Master was preparing to strike the legendary request off their books.

"It's a damn shame about the strict non-disclosure agreement on that job. We don't even know what the actual objective was. I really wonder what kind of insane task has gone uncompleted for an entire century," Laxus muttered from his stool, arms crossed.

"If you're that curious, just wait until you're strong enough and take the quest yourself," Noah teased with a smirk.

"That's going to take a long, long time," Laxus admitted, shaking his head. He knew exactly where he stood. The massive chasm in power between him and Gildarts meant he had years of brutal training ahead of him before he could even consider taking a job of that magnitude.

Suddenly, the guildhall's underground detection arrays triggered a blaring magical alarm. Laxus glanced at the holographic readout near the bar. He looked up, his expression hardening. "Anima is here."

Noah immediately looked toward the open guild doors. The bright afternoon sky was rapidly darkening as unnatural, heavy black clouds violently churned and clustered in the atmosphere.

"It's starting," Noah confirmed. He immediately sent a telepathic signal, rallying the Edolas strike force to the front of the guild.

In seconds, the elite team assembled: the S-Class mages (Ultear, Sorano, Erza, Mirajane, Laxus, and Cana); the dimensional anomalies (Happy, Carla, and Edolas Lisanna); and the core combat squad (Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Wendy, Meredy, and Yukino).

"What the hell is this guy doing here?" Natsu grumbled, still slightly groggy from his nap as he pointed an accusing finger at Gajeel.

"You think I wanna hang out with you, Flame-Brain?" Gajeel scoffed, crossing his arms.

"What did you say?!" Natsu instantly bridged the gap, slamming his forehead violently against Gajeel's. The Iron Dragon Slayer didn't back down an inch, glaring right back into Natsu's eyes.

"I'm talking about you, idiot."

Just as the two Dragon Slayers were about to ignite a massive brawl, Noah stepped between them, effortlessly palming both of their faces and shoving them apart. "Enough. The portal is dropping right now. Let's move outside and get into formation."

Natsu and Gajeel begrudgingly quieted down. The entire strike force followed Noah out the front doors. Seeing the heavy hitters of the guild mobilize, the rest of the Fairy Tail members crowded onto the porch to see what the commotion was about.

The sky grew aggressively darker, the oppressive, pitch-black clouds pressing down toward the earth with a terrifying, suffocating weight. Suddenly, a deafening crack of thunder shattered the silence, and a torrential downpour began.

The rain fell in sheets, instantly escalating into a devastating monsoon. The sheer volume of water cascading from the sky formed thick, gray curtains that completely blurred the city of Magnolia in the distance.

The rhythmic pounding of water slamming against the cobblestones and the violent rustling of trees filled the air. Seeing his guildmates getting soaked, Noah raised a hand and snapped his fingers. Instantly, an invisible magical barrier expanded outward, forming a massive dome over the guildhall courtyard that completely deflected the torrential rain.

"J-Juvia wants to clarify that this rain is absolutely not her fault!" Juvia panicked, waving her hands defensively as she stared at the unnatural storm.

"Literally nobody is blaming you for this!" Gray sighed, rolling his eyes.

At that moment, the air beside Noah rippled, and Mystogan materialized out of stealth.

"You made it," Noah noted.

"Yes," Mystogan nodded heavily. He tilted his head up, his eyes locked onto the black sky. The churning clouds were beginning to aggressively swirl around a central epicenter, forming a massive, terrifying spiral directly over the city.

"Is... is that Anima? The magic being cast on us from the alternate dimension?" Lucy gasped, her eyes wide with shock.

Beside her, Natsu, Wendy, and the other Dragon Slayers stared up at the swirling vortex with intense curiosity. Their heightened senses could literally feel the immense, suffocating gravity of the magical particles gathering in the sky.

"That's Anima. We've secretly tracked and dispersed it several times in the past," Ultear explained to the younger members. Erza and the S-Class mages nodded in confirmation.

"To think a spell like this actually exists..." Makarov muttered, his eyes narrowed as he meticulously analyzed the spatial distortion tearing through the clouds.

"An Anima portal of this magnitude... I completely lack the power to suppress or disperse it anymore. It's all up to you now," Mystogan confessed grimly, glancing at Noah.

"Yeah. And this particular Anima is absolutely massive," Noah observed, his eyes tracking the violently expanding vortex. "Based on the raw gravitational pull of the magic, they aren't just targeting the guild. They've designated the entirety of Magnolia and all its citizens as a target."

Noah's calculations were dead-on. The dimensional rift was expanding rapidly enough to swallow the entire city limits, intending to crystallize every single human being in Magnolia into raw magical Lacrima before ripping them across dimensions.

"Yes," Mystogan grit his teeth, his eyes burning with absolute, unwavering resolve. "And that is exactly why I will put an end to this madness once and for all!"

~~~

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