"Hey Chase! Tell me more about that dragon's appearance!"
Only when Natsu's familiar voice rang out did Lucy snap out of her emo state and slowly stand up.
Looking up, she saw Natsu rushing toward Chase in three quick strides, grabbing him by the collar and shaking him vigorously, spittle flying everywhere.
This reckless personality gave Chase quite a headache.
To get rid of this guy's persistence, he found a table and sat down. Surrounded by the gathered Fairy Tail members, he began describing the scene—carefully avoiding the important parts and emphasizing the less crucial details.
Though he deliberately concealed the name Ignia and stressed the dragon's terrifying nature repeatedly, Natsu's reaction after listening wasn't like the others—standing there shocked and stunned. Instead, he waved at Happy and hurried toward the guild entrance.
"Happy! Let's go! To Guiltina! That fire dragon definitely knows something about Igneel!"
"Aye!"
Without a second thought, Happy spread his wings and followed.
The other partners were all greatly alarmed and rushed forward to persuade him.
Approaching such an extremely dangerous monster without any preparation—that was simply walking to certain death!
But Natsu, desperate to find his father, couldn't care less about that. He refused to listen to anyone.
"Hey, Natsu." Chase spoke calmly.
"Chase, you want to stop me too?" Natsu pushed away Elfman's restraining hand and turned back to look at Chase.
"I wouldn't do that. Where you want to go is your freedom."
Chase shrugged. "But Guiltina's a big place. Don't you want to know the specific location where that dragon fire appeared?"
Hearing this, Natsu, who'd already reached the doorway, immediately turned around.
Just as he was about to ask, Chase did something that left everyone puzzled. From a crack in the floor tiles, he picked up an ant and placed it on the table. "Ask it."
Fairy Tail members: Σ(ﾟдﾟllll)?
Ant with breadcrumbs in its mouth: (´・ω・`)
"What kind of joke is this?! Damn you, Chase, are you mocking me?! This is clearly just an ordinary ant!"
Natsu seemed genuinely angry now. He shouted, swung his hand, and released scorching flames, burning the poor little ant to ashes.
"And that's the answer it gave, Natsu."
Seeing Natsu had taken the bait, Chase straightened up slightly.
He blew the charred ant remains into powder with one breath and calmly looked up to meet Natsu's angry gaze.
"This ant was me back then. And you are that mysterious fire dragon."
"A monster with absolutely overwhelming power simply won't give an ant-like weakening a chance to speak, let alone exchange information."
"I don't know what kind of personality your Igneel has, but that tyrannical monster definitely won't be friendly with anyone."
Listening to Chase's words, Natsu felt like cold water had been thrown in his face. The bulging veins on his forehead gradually subsided, and his mood instantly deflated.
He wanted to persist, wanted to refute, but his own actions just now had blocked all paths forward.
Unless he was crazy, there was no way he could sit down and have a conversation with an ant...
Seeing the desired effect achieved, Chase smiled and stood up, reaching out to pat Natsu's shoulder.
"Instead of rushing around like a headless fly, focus on making yourself stronger."
"When you can defeat me, I'll tell you the specific location where that red dragon appeared."
With that, Chase ignored Natsu, who hung his head in Tangle, and walked toward his residence in Magnolia.
Just as Makarov had observed, after fighting Ignia and then traveling for two days and nights straight, he was indeed quite tired.
But he'd barely gone a few steps when scorching heat surged from behind, raising the surrounding temperature several degrees.
"Hehe, so you're saying that as long as I beat you right now, that's good enough!!"
Natsu had recovered his energy, the signature confident grin on his face as flames erupted from his right fist.
"Mr. Chase said so much, and the only thing you heard was the last sentence..."
Along with Natsu's Dragon Slayer magic, Lucy's soul also burned fiercely.
She sighed deeply, held her forehead, unable to watch.
"Natsu always has such an adorable way of doing things~"
A sweet voice came from beside her. Lucy turned to see Mirajane had somehow arrived at her side.
"Cu...cute?"
Lucy's mouth involuntarily twitched. She really couldn't agree with that.
"Mhm~!" Mirajane smiled and nodded firmly.
Glancing at Natsu, who was waving his flaming fist eagerly, Lucy asked worriedly, "Seriously, shouldn't we stop Natsu? The guild's going to be completely destroyed, right?"
This wasn't like the hello-style exchange when Mr. Chase first returned. She could clearly sense Natsu was getting serious!
The devastation at Hargeon was still fresh in her memory.
"No need. Natsu's strong, yes, but there's still a big gap between him and S-Class. Chase definitely won't let him run wild."
Mirajane's smile remained, her expression was quite confident.
"Speaking of S-Class, Mira-nee, you went upstairs too, didn't you?" Lucy blinked her beautiful big eyes, curious.
According to the chairman, the seco
nd floor was only for S-Class mages. So this seemingly harmless Mira-nee...
"That's right. Don't look at me like this, I'm also an S-Class mage of Fairy Tail." Mirajane tilted her head with a light smile, then added, "Though I'm completely no match for Chase and the others, of course."
"Ehh?!!" Lucy exclaimed.
"But Lucy, you're still a newcomer. It's way too early to aim for an S-Class position. Focus on doing more requests first."
"...Do I really look that ambitious?!"
Lucy pointed at herself, looking utterly confused and embarrassed.
BOOM!
A sudden explosion interrupted their conversation.
Looking up, they saw a massive hole blasted through the guild's side wall, wood chips flying everywhere.
On the street outside the hole, Natsu lay amidst broken tables and chairs, stars spinning in his eyes, questioning him life.
With a single blow, Chase had completely stripped him of the ability to fight!
"So fast! He lost way too fast! And..."
Looking at the guild's devastated interior, Lucy couldn't help complaining, "This is way over the top!"
Natsu didn't get a chance to run wild, but Mr. Chase—he was the real destroyer you needed to watch out for!!
The moment the words left her mouth, Lucy realized something was wrong and quickly covered it.
But it was too late. Sobbing filled with self-blame reached her ears.
"Waaah... Chase hasn't been back for so long, I subconsciously forgot about him... I'm sorry, Lucy, I should have listened to you and stopped them in time..."
Mirajane covered her face with both hands, tears streaming through the gaps between her pale fingers.
"No, it's not your fault, Mira-nee!"
Lucy panicked on the spot, frantically trying to comfort her.