Picnic in the Forest
Green grass.
Birds singing.
Pleasant food.
And a beautiful girl as my companion.
What more could a man ask for?
Only one thing.
For the entire damn crowd to leave!
What crowd?
Natsu.
The moment he’d learned there would be free food, he’d immediately attached himself to our outing.
I couldn’t get rid of him.
Mira agreed to let him come.
Then Elfman joined us with his eternal “real man” routine, although he no longer looked quite so suspiciously at my attempts to talk to Mirajane.
Happy quickly reminded me that I’d promised him fish.
Naturally, he also wouldn’t say no to anything else.
Gray was already waiting in the clearing.
In his underwear.
Fishing in the lake.
So, in the entire picture, only one thing pleased me.
Someone had brought Lucy and Levy.
Unfortunately, Levy was immediately surrounded by the attention of the two men from her team.
Besides, I wasn’t interested in pursuing her anyway.
Despite her attractiveness, I simply wasn’t drawn to her.
So the romantic walk through the forest hadn’t exactly worked out.
Still, the picnic was more than enjoyable.
Things like this were excellent for becoming part of a group.
My guitar also proved useful.
I’d continued carrying it around carefully.
Of course, I had to modify some of the songs.
But overall, everyone enjoyed them.
Especially the ridiculous song about a hobbit searching for his socks.
Loosely adapted from The Hobbit Shire’s “How the Hobbit Looked for His Socks.”
Of course, afterward I had to explain what hobbits were.
A race of halflings living far to the west.
They resembled Makarov in certain respects, except their feet were extremely hairy.
Hmm.
Did I just see someone suspiciously resembling the Master fall out of a nearby tree?
No.
Definitely my imagination.
I also had to replace Gandalf with Zeref.
And, among other things, equate Sauron with Zeref and explain what a Palantir was.
Everyone laughed for quite a while at the idea of the greatest dark mage’s toy wearing a purple coat.
Overall, we returned to the guild very satisfied with the outing.
I’d even made peace with the fact that I hadn’t been able to spend time alone with Mira.
No matter.
Lucy had accepted my invitation to dinner that evening.
Hmm.
It looked like Mirajane hadn’t liked that very much.
Maybe I should forget about being polite and simply date both girls at once?
No.
Better to build a proper relationship with each of them individually first.
Dinner with Lucy was considerably quieter.
We simply talked.
She thanked me for carrying her home.
She even kissed me on the cheek.
We told each other about our adventures.
I wisely left out certain details about the destruction of the Night Shadows.
Lucy told me about her adventures in the mountains.
Hmm.
She didn’t mention the incident with the whip either.
She was embarrassed.
Heh.
Now I knew exactly how I could tease her.
We also talked a little about her past.
She didn’t mention her aristocratic origins or her family’s wealth.
Instead, I “learned” how long she’d been a fan of Fairy Tail and how, long before joining, she’d learned about its members, famous deeds, and location.
She’d even carefully studied the city’s map.
Naturally, I had to tell her something about my own past.
The story was simple.
An orphan.
Interested in magic.
Decided to travel around for a while in search of knowledge and money.
Nothing unusual.
Afterward, I walked her home and we parted ways.
I still had to move into my house.
It had only been completed that very day.
Then I had to move all my belongings from the guild.
That took several hours.
And that was despite the strength and endurance granted by the symbiote.
I was still nowhere near finished furnishing the place.
All I’d really done was spread my belongings around the first floor, with some of them going into the basement.
But that was enough for now.
Settling into a home was important.
But I had something more important to do.
During the picnic, I’d successfully collected the cells I’d previously planted in Natsu.
Naturally, I’d inserted new ones.
And those cells had provided me with a great deal of new information.
The magical component of the Dragon Slayer was still a mystery.
Apparently, acquiring dragon magic required some kind of special initiation that occurred on a spiritual level.
In other words, the dragon teacher itself had to perform some kind of magical process.
Not exactly a revolutionary discovery.
The transformation of the Dragon Slayer’s body and the restructuring of their entire organism were already the result of a magical ritual.
But I’d discovered something much more interesting.
I’d observed the transformation process in real time.
Every time Natsu cast magic, his modified cells became excited and began shifting toward a more draconic form.
The changes were microscopic.
But to Simba’s cells, they were perfectly visible.
Obviously, the activation occurred because the cells reacted to magical energy passing through the organism.
The cells began absorbing that energy and using it to transform.
But…
They couldn’t even properly start the process.
The energy quickly ran out.
And all the changes returned to their original state.
None of this was externally visible.
But it easily could be.
Based on my calculations, if Natsu became sufficiently excited and maintained a strong enough flow of magical energy through his body for a prolonged period, he could potentially develop scales and, at minimum, alter the structure of his eyes, giving himself those stylish narrow pupils.
My memories of the anime supported these assumptions.
But while that part was relatively understandable, I couldn’t figure out how Natsu could eat fire.
That was an entirely different process.
It involved some kind of direct absorption of energy.
And the strangest part was that Natsu actually received roughly five times more energy than was contained in the tiny flame he was eating.
At the cellular level, nothing unusual happened.
There was only a surge in certain amusing chemical compounds, such as adrenaline and endorphins, which could easily be explained by psychological stimulation.
Nothing else.
But the magical sensations Natsu experienced were completely different.
A sudden increase in mana.
A feeling of lightness throughout his body.
The sensation that he could move mountains.
All of it was magical in nature.
In short…
I understood absolutely nothing.
Natsu couldn’t help me either.
He knew even less about magical theory than I did and could only distinguish between things he could and couldn’t do.
Still…
What did I expect?
Natsu and magical theory?
What was I even talking about?
Nevertheless, despite making little progress in understanding the energetic component of the Dragon Slayer’s nature, I could reproduce the purely genetic aspect.
Would it give me his magic?
That was a completely different question.
But I’d definitely become stronger.
Considering that I’d soon be dealing with the Frozen Forest and one of Zeref’s demons, even a few extra scraps of strength could prove extremely useful.
And I couldn’t forget the gleam in Makarov’s eyes when he’d imagined watching me fight Elsa.