Those eyes—wide almond-shaped, glossy as black pearls—were the kind you could never forget once you'd seen them.
This mysterious woman was exactly the one who'd turned Kabe down back on Galuna Island before parting ways with him: Ultear.
Only a few short months had passed since their separation…
and this time, she was the one coming to find him.
After entering the town, Ultear didn't wander or sightsee at all.
Her goal was razor-sharp: Fairy Tail.
With the coachman's directions and the guild's rather obvious lakeside location, it didn't take long for her to reach her destination.
She'd barely approached the building when a roar of noise from inside crashed straight into her ears.
"Droopy-eyes idiot, I'm definitely settling this today!"
"Shut it, hang-eyes moron! We'll settle it using the magic we're best at!"
Two male voices were yelling back and forth.
Ultear's brows twitched upward on instinct.
They're actually using magic inside their own guild hall?
No one here bothers to restrain them?
Just as that thought formed, a deeper, steadier male voice rang out:
"Knock it off, you two! Fighting inside the guild isn't how a real man does it—if you've got guts, take it outside!"
"Shut up, Elfman!!" ×2
The two earlier voices snapped back in perfect sync.
A heartbeat later, something crashed through a window to Ultear's left, whistled past her, and landed outside with a spectacular roll before finally going limp.
Ultear turned her head, stunned.
On either side of the doorway lay burly men with their cheeks puffed out, whites of their eyes showing, completely unconscious.
She couldn't help but scream internally:
Savage! They hit their own guildmates that hard?!
No wonder the Council can't do anything about this bunch of lunatics…
Muttering in her heart about Fairy Tail's chaos, Ultear drew in a deep breath, stepped up to the wide-open front doors, and—quite easily—walked into the most infamous guild in all of Fiore.
As soon as she entered, her gaze locked onto two figures facing off in the middle of the hall:
one with short sakura-pink hair, the other with short black hair.
If nothing unexpected happened, those two were the owners of the shouting match she'd just heard.
The pink-haired youth, wearing a sleeveless vest and white tapered pants, was dismissed almost instantly.
Her attention was locked instead on the black-haired young man, shirtless, wearing only dark long pants, muscles taut beneath his skin.
Gray Fullbuster.
Ultear silently recited the name in her heart.
Her feelings toward this junior she'd once glimpsed from afar as a child were… complicated.
But that didn't stop her from folding her arms and leaning casually against the doorway, quietly watching how this fight would unfold.
Let me see, as Mother's disciple… exactly how much of her strength you've inherited.
The very next second after that thought flashed through her mind, the two facing off moved at the same time.
Gray brought his right fist down into his left palm—
In the blink of an eye, a hammer of ice as tall as a man formed in his grip.
"Ice-Make: War Hammer!"
He seized the icy handle and charged like a wolf, swinging the massive hammer straight down at Natsu.
On the other side, Natsu's hands blazed with flame, his fingers curved like claws.
He didn't dodge or retreat; instead he sprinted straight into the incoming hammer, clearly intending to clash head-on and decide victory in one blow.
"Fire Dragon's Talon!!"
The guild members had long since retreated to either side of the hall.
Seeing the two idiots actually using magic inside the building, they were shocked by their guts…
but that didn't stop them from egging on whichever side they fancied.
Macao: "Get him, Natsu! Fire can't lose to ice—show him how strong us fire mages are!"
Wakaba: "Gray, smash him! Let that punk know who's the strongest mage under S-Class!"
Warren: "Focus up, Natsu! You're a dragon's child!"
Marcus: "Nice one, Gray! Don't shame Wulian's name!"
Under all the heckling, both of them suddenly felt like their claws and hammer were twice as strong.
They shouted each other's names at the top of their lungs, pouring every last drop of strength into the clash.
"Natsu!!"
"Gray—!!"
BOOM—!!
Claw and hammer collided.
The shockwave from their raw strength made the entire guild building shudder.
Where fire and ice met, steam exploded outward in a dense white cloud, instantly swallowing their figures from view.
On both sides, the watching guildmates craned their necks, trying to peer through the fog and see who was winning.
Very soon, muffled thuds echoed from within the mist—
the sound of fists slamming rapidly into flesh.
Hearing that flurry of impacts only made everyone's hearts itch even more.
They were dying to know:
this time, which of the two was going to come out on top?