Back in action

21. Graduation

For the final exam, Gajeel, Elfman, Juvia and gray decided to use hand-to-hand combat. Natsu decided to use bombs, Erza and Jellal decided to use swords, Levy, Kinana and Lucy decided to use bows and arrows, and Evergreen and Cana decided to use guns.

"To start, we're going to go through the in alphabetical order. First is Cana Alberano, Jellal Fernandes, Gray Fullbuster, Lucy Heartfilia, Juvia Lockser, Levy McGarden, Gajeel Redfox, Erza Scarlet, Elfman Strauss, Evergreen and Kinana. Since Evergreen and Kinana don't have last names, they will be going last and since almost half of you have two people with the same last names, we're using you maiden names."

Cana laughed a bit before taking another swing of her barrel and walked up in front of the judges.

She hiccuped a bit while bringing it a gun and turning towards the forty-or-so targets lined up in different positions. Some of them wee normal people and the others were dangerous people. She watched them walk robotically and aimed at each of the dangerous people.

If she got at least thirty-one of the dangerous peopl, he would pass, although ut was difficult as they used the normal people as shields. If she hit any of them, she would immediately fail. Carefully aiming, she took out thirty-two, just enough to pass.

Jellal was next. Since he was using swords, he needed a parter, so he and Erza took their exam at the same time. For theirs, she just had to fight with the swords and they would be judged on that.

Jellal took the first swing, Erza block it with the edge of her blade and slid hers across the edge of his, forcing it away. She countered by swinging her sword front of her, vertically and finishing with it in front of her face. Jellal, just barley, dodged and countered with a low swing, aimed at her feet.

The two continued exchanging blows with each other at a pace that was almost impossible for everyone else to keep up with. Makarov's, "enough," boomed throughout the area and made them stop immediately. "You pass." This was also a rarity, not one, but three people had already passed.

Gray, who was next, also needed a partner, so, he an Juvia partnered up and fought. Gray started with a punch aimed to her face which she blocked by side-stepping before it hit her and aiming a low kick at his claves. It hit him and he staggered for a second before countering with a series of jabs aimed differently each time.

Only able to dodge a few, Juvia got hit and it gray back equally as hard.

-

By the end of their match, both of them were bruised, but they passed. They already beat the record the girls set of having four people pass at once, to five, with still seven more to go.

Next was Lucy's turn. She was using a bow and arrows, so her exam was set around that. There were many targets set around the area and she had to hit all of them, in a bullseye. There were twelve targets and ten arrows, she had to hit everything.

Using eight of the ten arrows, she shot them in different directions, all of them landing in the circle of the bullseye, but only one of them landing in the center. With the last two arrows, she aimed at the targets that had one right behind the first one. She aimed it, and with all her might, she fired it.

It went through the first trees bullseye and to the second trees.

In the end, she got all the shots.

Since Juvia went already, it was levy's turn. Since she also was using a bow and arrow, she got out in the same field as Lucy, only with the targets at different places from each other. Just like Lucy she got all of them in the bullseye but not in the center of the bullseye — except she did it with her eyes closed at one point.

Gajeel and Elfman has to spar together since they were the only two left who were doing hand-to-hand combat. Elfman kept screaming things about being a "real man", and Gajeel kept taunting him about it.

Their match, like Juvia and grays was finished with the two of them passing and being bruised, and yet, they both were smiling after it ended.

Evergreen and Kinana took their exams together, back-to-back. There were some targets that Evergreen took and some that Kinana did. In any case, they both didn't miss a single shot — except for one time when Evergreens bullet cut threw one of the arrows. Still, a part of the arrow still hit the target, which they accepted.

In th end, everyone passed. It was the most surprising thing that happed in a long time. And Makarov was sure to remember to put these names on another plaque abov the one that shows the girls graduating.

-

A little while later, it was tie for the actual graduation ceremony. To them, it felt like their high school graduation all over again. They woe navy blue robes and had to sit though a such that Makarov had prepared.

Once that finished, the twelve talked and the eight were even more excited than before. "We can finally save them, after four long months." Jellal breaths out. At the thought of seeing their children again, the other seve couldn't help but smile.

"Um, guys," Kinana said. They looked at her and se continued talking, "the four of us have been talking, and we decided that we want to help you get your kids back."

The eight blinked before processing all that information. "Huh?" Natsu screamed. "You do realize that you would be facing off against the master of Sabertooth — the entire agency even, from strongest to weakest, just for a couple of kids you don't even know?"

"We do, but it wouldn't be manly to leave our fiends to face them like that." Elfman said, smiling. "Yup, we want to help." Evrgreen answered. "And we won't take no for an answer, if you say no, we're going to follow you." Cana laughed.

The eight looked at each other, speaking to each other through their eyes again. "Well, if you word it like that, there's no way we can say no." Juvia smirked. The other four beamed at her response and for the rest of the evening, they talked with each other.

No more waiting, after four months, we're finally ready — we'll defeat Jemmina and the Sabertooth five and get you back.