afterglow | natsu x reader

Chapter 16: Second Origin

We're all lying on the sand and thinking. "Our precious time... What do we do now?" Natsu says.

"3 months went by in a flash..." says Happy.

"I have a proposal—!" Virgo tells us, "—How about more punishment?"

"How about you go home?" Lucy responds.

-

"We'll train like hell these last five days!" Erza yells. Everyone steps back from her, not wanting her to hurt them. "There will be no sleep, so everyone be prepared!"

"Sounds good to be! I'm fired up about training like hell!" Natsu yells after.

"Let's start with something running—!" Just then a white bird lands on Erza's head.

"A pigeon?" I ask and get a closer look.

"And there's something on its leg." Gray adds.

"A note!" Natsu says and removes the small piece of paper off the pigeon's leg.

"A love letter from Gray-sama?" Juvia squeals.

"Nope." Gray shuts her down. Happy takes the note and reads it out loud.

Fairy Tail, come to the broken suspension bridge on the hill.

"That's a weird note." I comment and take the note from Happy to re-read it again. "I don't like them giving us orders." I add.

"Sounds fishy." says Carla.

"And it could be a trap." Lucy adds.

"We have to check it out." Erza orders and people keep commenting on how it could be a trap. Then Erza answers with, "We'll know what it is if we go."

"This should be interesting!" Natsu says excitedly and punches his fist into the palm of his hand.

-

We all stand in front of a broken bridge. "How are we supposed to cross?" Lucy asks the obvious question.

"Maybe I can make a bridge out of ice or something." I suggest. Before I could start, Erza stops me.

"This is a prank." Gray mumbles irritated.

"I knew we shouldn't have come here." One of the girls says. Just then the ground starts shaking and the bridge starts building itself.

"This may be a trap after all." Levy says. And all were hesitant to cross it.

"I don't know what's going on, but let's cross it!" Natsu says. And Lucy yells for him to go first.

"Alright! Go!" Both Gray and I push Natsu onto the bridge. Gray and I high five as he's yelling at us for pushing him. As he yells, he suddenly stops and gets motion sickness.

I sigh in disappointment, "He gets motion sickness even on a bridge?" Natsu lets out a yell of determination and runs to the other side, despite how sick he feels. Natsu shoots us a thumbs up after he made it.

"I really thought the bridge would break apart if someone crossed it." Lucy commented.

"I guess it's safe to cross." Wendy adds.

"What am I? A guinea pig?!" Natsu yells from the other side.

"Thanks to Natsu we know it's safe. Everyone let's go." Erza orders and we all start crossing the bridge over.

We continue our walk into the woods. "Come out, come out, wherever you are~." Gray calls out.

"Especially if it's a strong opponent. Better for our training." Erza says. As we're walking, Erza, stops and causes all us to stop as well. In the distance we see three people. We all get in a fighting stance, ready to attack.

As they step closer, Natsu realises who they are. Thanks to their scent. And they remove their hoods.

"Thank you for coming...

Fairy Tail." says Jellal.

Two girls and one male. "You haven't changed, Erza." Jellal adds.

They introduced themselves to us and inform us that they've created an independent guild known ad Crime Sorciere. And they state what they're after. Drive away all darkness from the world.

"We hear you're participating in the Grand Magic Games?" Ultear asks and Natsu confirms. She continues, "We can't get near the arena. So we have one favor to ask of Fairy Tail."

Jellal continues for Ultear, "Each year the games are held we sense strange magic from the games and we want you guys to get to the bottom of it."

"What do you mean? Guild from all over Fiore gather for the game, you'd expect one or two weird kinds of magic." Carla tells them.

"We thought that at first, too. The magic though is strong and reminds me Zeref." Jellal answers. And he continues, "Maybe we're able to sense it because we've gotten too close to Zeref in the past."

Ultear goes on, "We want to find where that magic is coming from." And it goes back to Jellal, "It could give us a clue to Zeref's location."

Medly clarifies to us, "This has nothing to do with the outcome of the games. We'll be rooting for you guys from the sidelines. While you're at the games, we would also want you to search for that mysterious magic"

"I'm in to help." I say.

"Are you sure about this, Y/N?" Gray ask me. I look at Erza, who also is thinking of helping them. She gives me a nod.

"There's a strange magic at the Grand Magic Games where all guilds of Fiore are assembled, we're at risk too." Erza continues for me.

"We'll pay you too." Ultear tells us.

"Money?!" Lucy and Natsu squeals and she shakes her head.

"My evolved Time Ark will raise the level of your abilities." She says. "A power up, but that's not really what it is." Ultear continues to explain, "Wizards have something like a container that determines the limit of their magic power. Even if that container becomes empty for example, the body will automatically absorb Ethernanos from the air, and the container will be full again,"

"But recent research shows there's a part of the container wizards possess that normal don't get used. It's something that everyone has. Latent ability, Second Origin." She finishes. Ultear sees we're still confused. "With my time ark magic, I'll make your second origin develop. You'll be able to use magic for a longer time. And make you even more powerful."

And so we agree to the deal. They help us, we help them. And before we get too excited, she adds that we will be in a lot of pain. Natsu runs up to Ultear and hugs her. Thanking her over and over again.

-

We stand by and watch as Natsu is the first to start the second origin process. "I'm scared." I say quietly and hide behind Gray. It's hard to ignore Natsu's loud screams. Ultear tells Natsu to hold on.

"We're going to do that, too?" Levy asks as she holds a crying Wendy. 

"Ready?" Ultear asks all of us. The girls are told to strip to bra and panties or put on a swimsuit while Gray was already naked. And it starts.

We're all yelling out in pain, although it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be.

This will help us take down Sabertooth. So the pain is worth it. To bring Fairy Tail back to the number one.