The Domus Flau vibrated with the collective roar of thousands. The sun beat down on the sandy arena floor as the giant pumpkin-headed mascot, Mato, floated excitedly in the center.
"The rules are simple, kabo!" Mato announced, his voice amplified by magic. "It's time for the first event: Hidden! Each team must select one representative!"
The guilds huddled to make their choices.
From Team Mermaid Heel, the bubbly Beth Vanderwood stepped forward.
From Team Blue Pegasus, Eve Tearm, the Snow Mage of the Trimens, adjusted his tie and walked out.
From Team Raven Tail, the imp-like creature known as Nullpudding scurried onto the field, grinning maliciously.
From Team Lamia Scale, Lyon Vastia stepped up, radiating cold confidence.
From Team Sabertooth, the masked mage Rufus Lore adjusted his hat, murmuring, "A game of memory... how fitting."
Then came Team New Dawn.
It was Richard Buchanan (formerly known as Hoteye of the Oración Seis, but in this timeline, a proud mage of New Dawn).
"I shall participate," Richard proclaimed, preaching love. "Brotherhood dictates that I do my best!"
Finally, the Fairy Tail teams.
"I'll go," Gray Fullbuster said from Team A's balcony, stripping off his shirt instinctively. "I need to cool off."
From Team B, Juvia Lockser stood up. Her eyes were locked onto Gray.
"Juvia will go," she declared. "Juvia cannot let Gray-sama fight alone... or against anyone else."
As the eight participants stood in the center of the arena, Mato raised his hands.
"This is not a simple brawl! The name of the game is Hidden!"
"Hidden?" Gray muttered, looking around. "There's nowhere to hide."
"Not yet, kabo!" Mato snapped his fingers.
A massive magical circle enveloped the arena floor. The ground rumbled.
Suddenly, buildings began to sprout from the earth like fast-growing trees. Stone walls, slate roofs, shops, fountains, and alleyways. Within seconds, a sprawling, intricate town had replaced the flat arena.
The participants were scattered instantly by the teleportation magic woven into the spell.
"The rules are hide-and-seek with a twist!" Mato's voice echoed over the cityscape. "Find your opponents and strike them! A hit gains you one point! Being hit loses you one point! But be careful... you are not alone!"
Hundreds of copies of the participants—magical clones—materialized and began wandering the streets. They looked exactly like the real mages.
"Attacking a clone will deduct one point! Find the real ones! The game lasts for 30 minutes! START!"
---
Gray Fullbuster stood in a narrow alleyway. He pressed his back against the cold brick, his breath creating a small mist in the air.
"Hide and seek, huh?" Gray smirked. "Sounds annoying. But I can track body heat."
He moved silently.
In the stands, the Corvus family watched the massive lacrima screens that showed different angles of the city.
"There's Uncle Gray!" Alphonse shouted, pointing at a screen with his foam finger.
"And Auntie Juvia!" Celeste added, waving her flag.
Blake sat back, eyes narrowed. "This game requires sensory abilities, not just power. Let's see how sharp they are."
Down in the city, the chaos had begun.
Eve from Blue Pegasus was using his snow magic to sense disturbances in the air.
Lyon was creating ice eagles to scout from above.
But something was wrong.
Gray turned a corner and saw a flash of purple.
SPLAT.
A hard, condensed ball of slime hit Gray in the shoulder.
"One point for Raven Tail!" the announcer shouted.
Gray spun around. Nullpudding was crouching on a rooftop, grinning.
"Gotcha, Fairy scum," the imp sneered before vanishing into the shadows.
"Why you..." Gray wiped the slime off.
Gray continued to move, trying to discern the clones from the real targets. He spotted Beth from Mermaid Heel. He prepared an Ice-Make lance.
But before he could fire, Nullpudding popped out of a sewer grate.
BAM.
He kicked Gray in the shin and disappeared again.
"Minus one point for Fairy Tail A! One point for Raven Tail!"
"Again?!" Gray growled. "He's targeting me."
It wasn't just a coincidence. Every time Gray tried to make a move, Nullpudding was there. The Raven Tail mage wasn't trying to win; he was trying to humiliate Gray. He was ignoring other targets just to chip away at Fairy Tail's score.
"Is that all you can do?" Gray shouted into the empty street. "Cheap shots?"
"It's effective!" Nullpudding's voice echoed.
Gray rounded a corner near the town square and almost ran into Juvia.
"Gray-sama!" Juvia gasped, her hands clasping her cheeks. "It is fate! We meet in the battlefield of love!"
"Juvia," Gray sighed, relieved it wasn't the imp. "Watch out. Raven Tail is playing dirty."
"Juvia knows," she nodded seriously. "But Juvia cannot focus on them. Juvia made a promise to the First Master."
"A promise?"
Juvia stepped closer, a determined blush on her face. "Master Mavis said that if Team B wins the Games... we can make the members of the losing Fairy Tail team do whatever we want for a whole day!"
Gray froze. "Excuse me?"
"Whatever we want, Gray-sama," Juvia repeated, her eyes swirling with comically intense fantasies (mostly involving wedding cakes and matching outfits). "So... Juvia must defeat you! For love!"
"Hold on!" Gray backed up. "I never agreed to that rule! That sounds dangerous!"
Before they could argue further, a shadow loomed over them.
Nullpudding leaped from a lamppost, aiming a double-fist strike at both of them.
"Two fairies for the price of one!" he screeched.
Something snapped in Gray.
He didn't dodge. He didn't block.
He just stopped moving. The air around him dropped fifty degrees in a microsecond.
In the original timeline, Gray had lost seven years of growth due to the Tenrou stasis. But in this world, Blake had saved them. Gray had been training for those seven years. He had fought in many battles. He had honed his magic to a razor's edge.
Nullpudding was mid-air when Gray looked up. His eyes were cold, filled with the annoyance of a man swatting a fly.
"You're annoying," Gray stated.
He didn't even chant. He just swiped his hand.
Ice-Make: Cold Excalibur.
A massive, jagged greatsword of ice erupted from the ground instantly. It didn't cut Nullpudding; the flat of the blade slammed into him with the force of a freight train.
CRACK.
The sound echoed through the entire arena.
Nullpudding was launched—literally launched—across three city blocks. He smashed through a brick wall, bounced off a clock tower, and landed face-first in a fountain, unconscious.
"One hit," Gray muttered, dismissing the sword.
The crowd went silent for a second, then erupted.
"DID YOU SEE THAT POWER?!" Chapati Lola screamed. "GRAY FULLBUSTER JUST ONE-SHOTTED RAVEN TAIL!"
In the stands, Natsu laughed. "took him long enough!"
---
The game was nearing its end. The scores were fluctuating wildly.
Richard (Team New Dawn) was doing surprisingly well, using his Earth Magic to soften the ground and trap opponents like Lyon, tagging them while they were stuck.
"Love hurts!" Richard shouted as he tagged Eve.
But there was one player who hadn't moved.
Rufus Lore of Sabertooth.
He stood atop the highest tower in the center of the illusory city. He hadn't attacked anyone. He hadn't been found. He had 0 points.
He watched the chaos below with a bored expression, tipping the brim of his hat.
"I have memorized it," Rufus whispered.
"I recall the footsteps of the ice mage. I recall the breath of the water mage. I recall the location of every clone and every real participant."
He spread his arms wide. Magic circles began to form around him—dozens of them, glowing with a golden light.
"Memory-Make..." Rufus chanted.
The sky above the arena began to darken. Golden lights swirled like meteors.
"The game is over. I shall take all the points in a single stroke."
Gray and Juvia, standing in the street below, looked up.
They felt the magic gathering. It was massive.
"He's targeting everyone," Juvia said, her voice tight. "He knows where we are."
"Molding magic," Gray analyzed instantly. "He creates magic from memory. If he launches that, he hits everyone on the map simultaneously."
"Juvia," Gray said, not looking at her. "Can you reach him?"
"He is high up," Juvia replied. "But with Gray-sama's help... anywhere."
Gray grinned. "Let's knock that hat off his head."
Rufus unleashed his spell.
"Memory-Make: Night of Falling Stars!"
Beams of lightning-infused magic rained down from the sky, locking onto every participant.
Richard shielded himself with earth. Lyon erected an ice dome. Eve tried to dodge.
But Gray and Juvia didn't defend. They attacked.
Gray slammed his hands onto the cobblestones.
"Ice-Make: Geyser!"
A massive pillar of ice erupted beneath Juvia's feet, launching her into the sky like a rocket.
As she flew upward, straight toward the tower where Rufus stood, she spun her body.
"Water Slicer!"
She fired high-pressure blades of water.
Rufus, shocked that someone was attacking into his barrage, shifted his aim to intercept the water blades. "I recall a shield!"
He blocked the water.
But Juvia was just the distraction.
Gray was riding the side of his own ice geyser, running vertically up the pillar behind her.
As Juvia's water scattered against Rufus's shield, the droplets hung in the air.
Gray leaped through the mist. He grabbed Juvia's hand.
Their magic flared. Blue and dark blue. Cold and fluid.
"Unison Raid!" they shouted together.
Rufus's eyes widened behind his mask. "Impossible! In the middle of a battle game?"
The water droplets from Juvia's attack froze instantly, turning into thousands of razor-sharp ice needles, but they retained the fluidity and momentum of water.
"Shotgun Ice: Torrent!"
The barrage slammed into Rufus before his Night of Falling Stars could fully connect with the targets below.
The sheer force of the combined magic shattered his shield. Rufus was blasted off the tower. He tumbled through the air, his spell dissipating harmlessly into sparks.
He hit the ground hard.
The buzzer sounded.
"TIME'S UP!"
---
The illusory city faded away, leaving the mages standing in the wrecked arena.
Rufus Lore lay on his back, groaning. He had been taken out before he could score a single point.
Nullpudding was still unconscious in a puddle.
The scoreboard lit up.
1. Fairy Tail A (Gray Fullbuster) - 8 Points
2. Fairy Tail B (Juvia Lockser) - 7 Points
3. Lamia Scale (Lyon Vastia) - 6 Points.
4. New Dawn (Richard Buchanan) - 4 Points.
5. Mermaid Heel (Beth) - 3 Points.
6. Blue Pegasus (Eve) - 2 Points.
7. Raven Tail (Nullpudding) - 1 Point
8. Sabertooth (Rufus Lore) - 0 Points.
The silence in the stadium was deafening for a moment.
Sabertooth... the champions... had zero points.
Then, the Fairy Tail section erupted.
"YEAHHHHH!" Natsu screamed, breathing fire into the sky. "THAT'S HOW WE DO IT!"
"Gray-sama was amazing!" Juvia cheered, hugging Gray (who was too tired to push her away).
"Zero points for the kitties!" Gajeel laughed maniacally from the waiting room.
In the stands, the Corvus family was on their feet.
"Did you see that?!" Alphonse yelled, punching the air. "Uncle Gray went WHOOSH and the bad guy went BOOM!"
"Pretty water!" Celeste clapped her hands.
Blake stood up, looking across the arena at the Sabertooth balcony. He saw Sting gripping the railing, his knuckles white. He saw Jiemma, the Sabertooth master, looking furious.
Blake smiled coldly.
"The hierarchy is crumbling," Blake whispered. "And we've only just started."
Cana leaned over, clinking her flask against Blake's arm. "Team A took first. Team B took second. I'd say that's a good start to the day."
"It's a statement," Brandish noted lazily, though she looked pleased. "It says we own this arena."
Down on the field, Gray walked past Rufus, who was being helped up by medics.
Gray stopped. He didn't look back.
"Memory-Make is cool," Gray said casually. "But don't forget this: You can memorize the past, but you can't predict a Fairy Tail riot."
He walked away, high-fiving Juvia.
The Grand Magic Games had officially begun, and the Fairies were flying higher than ever.