Life After Near Death

Pretty Girls of a Northern Town

"That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can."― J.D. Salinger

Gray was able to walk, but not easily. He had use of one leg, but the other was still paralyzed. He had to wear a special brace and boot, since he could not feel his foot and had accidentally broken one toe simply because he did not realize he bumped it. The brace went up to his thigh, protecting the knee from flopping and dislocating. Still, although he could not feel most of the left leg, he insisted on walking whenever he possibly could. He got better crutches from his doctor. He learned how to balance on the part of his leg he could feel, swinging the heavy weight of his left leg with the hip and guiding the leg by using the crutches to pull himself along. It was less than ideal, but Gray was glad to get out of the wheelchair as much as possible.

Still, for most things, the chair was simply easier. If he wanted to go to the guild hall, rolling along with the wheelchair was much faster than a slow and awkward hobble on his crutches. Once there, he parked the wheelchair in a corner and tried to pretend he no longer needed it.

Erza vehemently insisted that, to celebrate Gray's recovery, they would go on a trip to a therapeutic spa. Rather than have it as just the team, pretty much anyone who wanted to come was invited.

Juvia began to sob that she had already taken a mission that would take her south, in the opposite direction of the spa. Levy wanted to come with Lucy, Jet and Droy leaped at the chance to go with her, and Gajeel grumbled that he was heading north anyway for a mission so he might as well go along for a day or two. Wendy was not too sure, but Lucy urged her to come, stating that the spa had a large library on magical healing books. Romeo asked Natsu if he could go too, and Natsu realized he kept looking over to Wendy, so of course the Dragon Slayer told him to come along for the trip. That meant Macao needed to go as his father—he insisted upon it, while Romeo shouted that he was old enough to go on his own—and Wakaba was not about to lose his drinking partner.

Makarov heard about it and wanted to come, giving some excuse about arthritis. Worried for the aging guild master, Mira said that perhaps she should come too, and none of the men were about to object. Laxus got angry at Macao for giving Mira a lecherous comment, and he gruffly butted in, saying that if Makarov was going for his health, it should be his duty as the grandson to "watch over the old geezer so he doesn't croak." Since Laxus was going, Evergreen, Freed, and Bickslow followed. Since Evergreen was going, Elfman wanted to come, and since her two siblings were going on the trip, Lisanna pleaded to come along. Then because it looked like it would be a party, and that meant booze, Cana decided to come with them as well.

It was not just Fairy Tail who decided to go on this trip. When Lyon heard about it, he insisted on coming to celebrate his foster brother's recovery. Since he was going, Chelia wanted to follow him on his vacation, although she insisted she was only going because she wanted to meet up with Wendy again. Her cousin Sherry went along with her, since Chelia was underage. Since Sherry was going, her fiancé Ren—reluctantly and blushing fiercely—insisted that he should go to protect his bride-to-be from lechers. When they heard that Ren was going to a resort spa, the rest of the Trimens wanted to come, so Hibiki, Eve, and Ichiya showed up, much to Erza's horror.

It turned into a large party filling much of the train, until the conductor was at his wit's end dealing with so many wild wizards running around and destroying bits of the train cars, while the Dragon Slayers all began to puke in the bathrooms.