VERiTY (Fairy Tail Fanfic)

53. Fired Up.

Natsu screamed and bit him. No one stopped him.

The kids have become used to Natsu's speech patterns, though the words often flew right over their heads. It's usually Levy or Cana that helped get the trickier words through, but alas, today in the stands they're not around.

Which is why Jura is in charge of the kids today, and he's doing a marvellous job of doing absolutely nothing but laugh at their antics.

"Yuka and Toby went to get drinks for everyone..." Jura counted off the children in his care and nodded approvingly. They were given a special section this year just so they could all be contained, and it was working well. "Alright, all here otherwise."

"Hey, Jura, aren't there a lot more participants this year compared to the last?" Gray asked. "I mean, we have more candidates this year, but I don't recognize some of the ones that just came out."

Jura chuckled, "that's because we've allowed freelancers to join this year too. They deserve to have some sort of national certification of strength too, after all."

"I heard they were planning on adapting this tournament next year to be free-for-all," Erza brought up, "so any of us can join and fight, and if we do well, we can make an appeal to become S-class!"

"For real?! Then next year even we can join?!" Natsu and Gray went all up in her face now, absolutely enthused.

"Oh, forget it, kids," Bickslow laughed, "you sure you want to fight for the position when Cana and Laxus are out for blood?"

-

"Where did they go this time... they're supposed to be here..."

Mest groaned into his hands in utter misery. He knew he should have fought harder for Levy and Sherry to be stationed near a screen they could watch the preliminaries in, but still, they didn't even wait for the event to start before they ran off.

"Oh, Mest-kun!" someone hollered, "if you're looking for your little tykes, they're with Eve at the resting hall down this way."

"I knew it!" Mest groaned, "I'm so sorry about them!"

The man laughed.

Mest faced the man with a groan. "Mister Ran, if you saw them, why didn't you tell them to get back to their stations? Anyone could slip in..."

Ran laughed, heartily. "It's fine, isn't it? That's what we adults are here for. Let the kids enjoy themselves." He rested his glaive on a shoulder and grinned. "It's their first big-scale guard assignment outside of campus. It's supposed to go disastrously."

Mest grimaced. "I don't like that insinuation."

"When do you ever?" he waved him off, dismissively. "Did you not come knowing we would have to do most of the work?"

Mest grimaced, his face scrunching up further until he couldn't see.

"Why did I sign up for this job..." he sighed deeply, before letting his shoulders sink in with resignation. "Alright. See you around, Sir Ran."

He turned around, but Sir Ran strode his way down the hall without looking back.

The were similarly new to the force, so they were slotted together as roommates from the beginning. They were both remarkable soldiers— honestly, Mest would say Ran is superior, especially with the way Ran used his spear perfectly, his height and physique never affecting just how powerful and quick he could be. Sometimes, Mest wondered if Ran could go toe to toe with Eir, if even in just spear usage alone.