Her ≫ Fairy Tail Fanfic

Chapter 40: Ready

After the eavesdropping/blowing up half of Crocus incident, things went quite smoothly. The top spot switched between the Eternalis and the Fateium, always stuck in a tug of war of power, unable to determine who was truly better. Both Eternal Destiny and Winged Fate had displayed great skill, but as always, showed no emotion other than pure hatred (and poorly concealed curiosity) towards each other.

Until the last day.

The pumpkin coughed to get everyone's attention, then started with surprisingly real enthusiasm. "Thank you all for participating in this year's Grand Magic Games-pabo! Say hello to the last day and it's last tournament to determine the champion-pabo!"

The crowd went wild, screaming their hearts out.

"We call it... THE TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS!!!" Chapati yelled, as -- if not more -- enthusiastic than his pumpkin counterpart.

The volume increased -- somehow, and I don't know how because it already was ear piercing -- and the crazed shouted encouragement to their favorite guild. By now, Eternal Destiny had gained a lot of fans -- both male and female, because the guys wanted to date them while the girls wanted to be them. Out of the billions of spectators, half were dedicated to Winged Fate and the other half had deemed Eternal Destiny as their favorite. Rumors sa that fights were even breaking out between extremist fans.

Anyways...

"Like every year, the Tournament of Champions is a group competition-pabo. Your arena is the entirety of Crocus-pabo. You have from," Mato checked his lacrima watch. "now, which is 9 in the morning, until sunset-pabo. You have one hour to spread out, prepare, do whatever-pabo. A ten, the lacrima clock will sound throughout Crocus and that will be when you are allowed to start-pabo."

"You get 1 point for knocking out an opponent, 5 points for knocking out a team leader. Minus 1 point for minor destruction, 5 for medium destruction, 10 for worse, etc."

Silence hung over a crowd like a thick blanket of fog, until one voice interrupted.

"I'm all fired up!!"

As he said this, his signature grin appeared on his face. It didn't help with the silence that the crowd had been shocked into. No one had heard the Salamander say his catchphrase in three years, much less seen him smile.

What had spurred him to suddenly burst and become the Natsu Dragneel they all knew and loved from three years ago?

Obviously, no one else saw, but Aurora's eyes watered. Just a tiny, tiny bit.

'No!' Her subconscious screamed. 'It doesn't mean he changed! It just further proves that he is still that f****** bastard!'

Collecting herself, Aurora molded her expression into one of no emotion once again. Just as she did so, a gong sounded along with the commentator's voice.

"Ready, set, GOOOOO!!!!"