"Let's leave it at that for now. This is gramps decision."
"Damn it!" Natsu punched a wooden crate again in frustration, splintering the wood.
"Trust me, Natsu. There'll be a fight soon enough. You won't have to wait long," Raizel assured him, patting Natsu's shoulder to comfort him.
"Raizel, don't be reckless," Mirajane said, pressing her lips together and shaking her head gently at him.
Mirajane was actually quite angry herself, she had almost thrown aside her barmaid duties and stormed over to confront Phantom Lord, but Makarov had managed to dissuade her too.
She knew Raizel must be furious as well, even though he had never shown any impulsive or angry behavior in front of the other Guild members.
"Don't worry. Phantom Lord will make the next move, and we're just waiting to retaliate."
Raizel was no pushover and he wouldn't just stand by while others came knocking at their door destroying things.
However, he didn't want to make things difficult for Makarov.
Storming their Guild would be easy and Fairy Tail would undoubtedly win, but the aftermath would just leave Makarov with a huge political mess to clean up with the Council.
A fight was inevitable, but they couldn't strike first, as doing so would give the Council leverage, and someone might even end up in jail.
...
Magnolia Streets.
"In the end, Natsu held back after all. Only Raizel and Erza can really keep him in check."
Lucy pulled her suitcase along as she walked back to her rented apartment, recalling the tense scene in the basement.
Natsu had wanted to press Makarov for answers earlier, but Raizel had restrained him and though Natsu was furious, he had managed to hold back.
"Judging by the situation, things have gotten pretty complicated. Mentioning Phantom Lord… I remember they're famously at odds with Fairy Tail. Seems like Phantom Lord is just as reckless as we are."
"Phantom Lord is strong too, but Fairy Tail is…"
"The best!"
Lucy shouted the slogan to cheer herself up as she unlocked her door.
However, as soon as she opened it, she froze.
Natsu, Raizel, and Happy were casually eating her food and drinking tea at her table as if nothing had happened.
WHAM!
Lucy flung her heavy suitcase at Natsu's head.
"WHY IS EVERYONE IN MY HOUSE?!"
"About Phantom Lord," Raizel began calmly, dodging the luggage. "Since they've already come to Magnolia, they've probably investigated all our addresses thoroughly."
"That's why it's safer for everyone to stick together for now. It was Mira's suggestion."
Raizel explained the logic behind the invasion of her privacy.
"Is that so?" Lucy nodded softly, accepting the explanation, though she still felt imposed upon. "So... today, everyone is staying over at someone else's place?"
"Yes."
Lucy's voice suddenly shot up an octave. "So you're ALL staying at MY place?!!"
Even for safety's sake, there were limits!
Raizel chuckled and shook his head. "Not exactly. I'm not planning to stay here, so I'll be leaving soon. As for Natsu and Happy, just let them sleep in the living room."
Thankfully, it was only Natsu and the snarky cat.
Lucy could handle that, as it wasn't like she'd never shared a room with Natsu while on missions before—she just wished he wouldn't snore so loudly when he slept.
Natsu grumbled, "I just came to kill time! Not to sleep!"
"Then why my place?"
"There are clean clothes here!" Happy announced, rummaging through Lucy's laundry basket.
"Stop that, you stupid cat! Plue, don't you start copying him!"
"Oh! Plue, what are you eating? I want some too!" Natsu shouted, trying to steal the spirit's snack.
After finally stopping the troublemakers, Lucy sat down, looked at Raizel and asked seriously.
"Phantom Lord is pretty strong too, right?"
Natsu made a dismissive tch sound. "What's so strong about them? They're just a bunch of losers."
Raizel gave a fair, unbiased evaluation. "Well, they're reasonably strong. Their guild master, Jose Porla, is one of the Ten Wizard Saints—not quite as good as Gramps, but he's younger and has room for improvement."
"Then they have the Element 4—masters of wind, water, earth, and fire who are equivalent to S-Class Mages—plus the notoriously difficult Iron Dragon, Gajeel Redfox."
"Wait," Lucy blinked. "Gajeel Redfox... The Iron Dragon Slayer? A Dragon Slayer Mage? So Phantom Lord has one too?"
"Dragon Slayer Mages are indeed rare, but they do exist," Raizel nodded. "Our Guild actually has two others besides Natsu."
"One is the Lightning Dragon Laxus, I know about him," Lucy said, still vividly remembering the scene of Laxus knocking out Natsu with one punch.
"Who's the other?"
"It's Wendy, the girl you met today. The sky dragon slayer."
"What?! That little girl???"
Lucy was shocked.
Wendy gave the impression of being cute, polite, and easily embarrassed—never would Lucy have imagined she was also a Dragon Slayer Mage.
Lucy started imagining that behind Wendy's cute face hid someone as violent and destructive as Natsu!
"She's very easy to get along with, you'll find out later," Raizel quickly interrupted Lucy's fantasy, seeing her eyes darting upward and cold sweat breaking out on her forehead.
He really wanted to tell her that her imagination was running a bit too wild.
"For now, just stick with Natsu since he can keep you safe. You guys have fun, I'm heading out."
Raizel stood up to leave and spoke confidently, "If Natsu were to fight Gajeel now, it might not be a complete crushing, but Gajeel would definitely be no match for our Natsu."
With that, Raizel made a quick exit into the night.
After enjoying a comfortable bath to wash away the stress of the day, Lucy sat on her bed and asked Natsu and Happy.
"Why would Phantom Lord attack Fairy Tail now?"
Happy answered while munching on a fish, "Don't know. Although we've had frequent minor conflicts before, this is the first time they've attacked so directly."
"I remember the Master had a conflict with Phantom Lord's master during a routine meeting, not long after I was born," Happy added.
Lucy rested her chin on her hand, nodding thoughtfully. "I see. I often see news about the discord between Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail in the papers too."
"Gramps doesn't need to be afraid at all. He should just go teach them a proper lesson," Natsu said gloomily, his forehead pressed against the table.
Lucy waved her hand dismissively. "Well, well, the Master must have his reasons. Even Raizel told you to wait."
"Speaking of which... Where did Raizel run off to?!! And he didn't take me with him!!!"
...
Jet, Droy, and Levy (Team Shadow Gear) were walking through the quiet streets of Magnolia.
"Is this really okay, Levy?"
"Wouldn't it be better for you to stay at the girls' dorm with Wendy and Carla?"
Jet and Droy were trying to persuade Levy that she'd be safer with the other girls, especially since there was an S-Class Mage like Cana there too.
Though they didn't want to admit it, the two of them combined far from enough to take on Cana.
They recalled their training sessions.
Even the black panther could toy with them with ease.
Droy's plant magic had no effect on the Panther at all, as the beast could burn everything to ashes with a single flame, and while Jet's High-Speed Magic made him incredibly fast, his attacks couldn't deal much damage to the creature's hide.
Levy replied with a reassuring smile, "It's fine, we're a team after all. The three of us feel more at ease when we're together."
They continued walking into the park, unaware of the shadow watching them from the trees.