"Erza and Ultear really are close…" Seeing the girl's expression finally relax, Shane couldn't help thinking it.
Just a second ago she'd been clearly unhappy with him—yet the moment Ultear came up, that little sulk vanished like it had never existed.
"Heh…" He felt genuinely glad Erza cared so much about friendship… but at the same time, an inexplicable sting of jealousy bubbled up in him.
So, naturally—
He reached out, mean-spirited as ever, and grabbed her slender wrist when she wasn't looking.
"Ah!" Erza never expected Shane to ambush her in the middle of a serious conversation.
Her balance broke. Before her yelp even finished—
Splash.
She toppled into the wide hot spring pool.
Water exploded upward, and the warm water swallowed them both in an instant.
After a few seconds of chaotic thrashing—
Whoosh.
A drenched head burst back above the surface.
Erza gasped for air, instinctively wrapping her arms around Shane's neck to steady herself.
Under the rising steam, water droplets clung to her flushed, pink face. She glared at the culprit, cheeks puffed out:
"Childish!"
"Hahahaha!" Shane laughed shamelessly, hands on her smooth, rounded shoulders as he spun her in a slow circle through the water.
Before she could regain her footing and explode, he turned her around in one smooth motion, giving her no chance to vent.
Her wet hair lay plastered against her back.
Shane reached out, ran his hands through that scarlet-satin hair, and—clumsily—gathered it up and twisted it into a bun at the back of her head, exposing the long, elegant line of her neck.
"Consider that an apology," Shane murmured with a low laugh.
Erza grumbled under her breath, but she didn't struggle. She just sat there with her cheeks puffed out, letting him fuss with her hair.
The stubborn, trying-to-be-mad-but-failing look on her face was so cute that if anyone in the guild saw it, they'd probably drop their jaws clean off.
…
The next morning.
Because he'd been thinking about the girls' duel all night, Shane woke up unusually early.
But when he rubbed his eyes and got out of bed, he found Erza's room completely empty.
"Huh?" He glanced at the clock. The hour hand had only just reached 7:30.
"It's still early… the meeting time is 8:30," he muttered, puzzled. "Did she go ahead?"
Then he remembered Mira's impatient personality.
If both of them showed up early, they might already be halfway through—or even finished!
That thought jolted him fully awake. He hastily splashed his face and rushed out.
When he finally reached the agreed forest clearing, he sucked in a sharp breath.
The place looked like a typhoon had swept through.
Seven or eight trees thick enough to wrap arms around had been cut clean in half—smooth as a mirror. The ground was worse: deep craters and scorch marks crisscrossed everywhere, soil churned up, the whole area reduced to ruins.
And in the middle of all that devastation—
Erza sat quietly on a broken tree trunk.
Her armor was gone. Her clothes were neat, as if she hadn't fought at all.
Only one thing stood out—a bright smear of red blood on her pale cheek in the morning light, painfully obvious.
"You… already finished?" Shane swallowed without meaning to.
"Mm." Hearing his footsteps, Erza looked up and offered him a gentle, almost tender smile.
"According to our agreement, I seriously won."
The way she smiled—blood on her cheek—sent a chill down Shane's spine.
And she bit down hard on the word seriously.
Shane immediately pictured the white-haired girl getting beaten to her knees and hurriedly asked:
"Where's Mira?"
"Back home." "Oh… good."
Shane exhaled in relief.
If she hadn't been sent to a doctor for emergency treatment, then it probably wasn't fatal.
At worst, a few broken bones or being unable to walk for a bit…
And Mira had demon-factor healing anyway. As long as no limbs were missing, she'd bounce back after a few days.
Once he confirmed she wasn't dead, Shane's gossip instincts came roaring back.
"Why didn't you call me to watch?" He walked over, wiping the blood from Erza's cheek for her.
"I'm Mira's half-teacher. I was planning to… you know… patch her weaknesses."
"You just wanted to watch the show." Erza let him swipe his fingers over her face and immediately exposed him, no mercy.
"That's not allowed." She pressed her lips together, suddenly looking a little awkward as she fussed with the stray hair she'd only just fixed after the fight.
"This was a serious duel between me and Mira. If someone else was there… it wouldn't be good."
"Serious? No spectators?" Shane scratched his head, totally failing to see how those connected.
What he didn't know was that Erza didn't call him because the fight had been… too violent.
Mira had gotten much stronger. Erza truly hadn't held back.
And the image of pinning a guildmate down and beating her until she passed out…
In Erza's heart, it felt ugly—like it betrayed her own belief in "protecting comrades."
For some reason, she didn't want Shane to see that side of her.
Erza had never cared about her image before.
Shane, of course, didn't pick up on any of that. He simply led Erza toward the guild—
because the quest report for the mountain ogre hunt with Mira still hadn't been submitted.
…
On the way, the whole city was full of construction.
"Gildarts Mode" was even bigger than Shane had imagined.
To make room for the "walking-in-a-straight-line destruction king," City Hall had practically redesigned the entire main road.
"It's been two months and it's still not finished… probably won't be done until next year."
Chatting like that, they arrived at the guild doors.
Shane pushed the door open like usual.
But the moment he stepped in—
or rather… the moment Erza stepped in beside him—
the atmosphere in the guild changed instantly.
In the corner, Cana moved at lightning speed, sweeping the bottles off the table and shoving them under it, then sat up straight and pretended to read.
Behind the bar, Makarov—who'd been joking loudly with a bunch of drunkards—dropped his voice by about eight octaves into "serious workplace conversation."
Most dramatic of all were Natsu and Gray.
A second ago they'd been headbutting like angry bulls. The instant they saw the scarlet-haired figure in the doorway, they froze like they'd been hit by a paralysis spell.
Then—smack—they slung arms around each other with absurd speed, plastering on the stiffest smiles known to man.
"Yo, Gray! Your underwear looks so cool today!" "Haha! Natsu, you too! Your fire is so warm!"
"…" Shane's mouth twitched. He glanced back at Erza, who seemed to have absolutely no idea what she'd just done.
"Only two months… and they're already this remodeled?!" he thought, stunned.
That intimidation factor was honestly more terrifying than the guild master's.
Shaking his head, Shane went to the bar to submit the request.
The moment he got close, Wakaba—smoking as usual—leaned in with a miserable expression and whispered:
"Hey, Shane! You've gotta rein Erza in!" "At this rate nobody even dares drink in the guild. We can't live like this!"
"That serious?" Shane raised an eyebrow.
Rules weren't bad, sure, but this suffocating atmosphere really was depressing.
He tested the waters, glancing at Erza. "Um… Erza, aren't you being a bit too strict?"
"Hm? Strict?" Erza blinked. Because it was Shane asking, she actually paused to think.
She looked around at the trembling guild members and finally realized the problem.
Erza wasn't unreasonable—if anything, she was too responsible.
So she walked over to Wakaba, and also called Makarov over, who had no idea whether to back her up or stop her.
"I'm sorry." Her voice was clear and sincere.
"I overlooked everyone's feelings and made the atmosphere too stiff."
"I will reflect deeply and correct my mistake! From now on… I'll hold myself to a higher standard, and I'll use a more appropriate way to maintain guild discipline!"
"Wha—no, no, no!" Makarov choked on the intensity and waved his hands frantically.
"Uh… don't be so hard on yourself! Really!"
"A guild should be relaxed! You have to trust your comrades' self-control!"
"Yeah, yeah!" Wakaba agreed in a panic, terrified she'd "double down" for real.
"But—" Erza hesitated, her sense of duty insisting her apology might not be enough.
"Everyone being able to relax in the guild is important too," Shane added at exactly the right moment.
"…That's true." Only then did Erza finally soften.
But immediately after, she turned and her eyes sharpened like blades toward the corner.
"However! People like Natsu and Gray who fight and wreck the guild constantly—those I absolutely cannot ignore! They must be strictly controlled!"
"Absolutely!" Wakaba instantly gave a thumbs up and sold his teammates with zero hesitation.
"As long as you don't control me—ahem, I mean, for the sake of guild peace! Those two troublemakers must be disciplined!"
Across the hall, the "best buddies" suddenly felt a cold shiver crawl up their spines.
They looked at each other and saw pure terror in each other's eyes.
That familiar sense of doom…
Two months ago, when Erza randomly started "focusing" on them, it felt exactly like this.
Now… it was back.
"Run!" They reached the same conclusion without a word.
Still arm-in-arm, they crab-walked sideways toward the door, planning to grab a job and flee.
But—
Just as they reached the doorway, the front doors were kicked open from outside with brutal force.
BOOM!
The shockwave launched both idiots flying.
Before anyone could react, a wheelchair came screaming in like a battering ram.
Sitting in it was something wrapped head-to-toe in bandages—like a mummy.
"S-sorry! Didn't see anyone there!" Elfman, pushing the chair, looked mortified and apologized to the two human projectiles.
And that "mummy" had already rolled forward through sheer willpower, straight toward Erza.
"ERZA, YOU BASTARD!!" Mira—wrapped like a rice dumpling—struggled to lift her bandaged arm and pointed at her own ridiculous condition, fury blazing in her eyes.
"You beat me, fine! But then you wrapped me up like this and sent me home?!"
"You did it on purpose, didn't you?! You totally did!!"
~~~
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