“It’s the cute little furball from earlier!” This time it was Lucy’s turn to be smitten, and she threw her arms open wide toward Kuriboh.
The little chestnut ball seemed to like her well enough.
It turned first to check with Chase, and once it got a nod of approval, floated straight into the soft, welcoming circle of her arms.
After a good while of petting, the two blonde girls finally set their respective new favorites down.
Kuriboh and Plue stood on the coffee table, staring at each other in total silence for two and a half seconds.
Then, after some kind of secret exchange only the two of them understood, they joined hands and started playing together like they’d been friends for years.
The world of small, adorable creatures really was a wonderful place.
Natsu, for his part, had zero interest in any of it.
His eyes skated right past Plue and Kuriboh both without stopping.
He propped his chin on one hand, thought it over for a second, and looked at Chase with open suspicion.
“Chase, when I came in just now, I felt something.
Some kind of massive surge of magic.
That you?” “I think I felt it too,” Lucy said, agreeing.
“New card monster.
I was just about to summon it when you two came crashing in,” Chase said, shrugging, no attempt to hide it.
“A new card monster?!
What is it?!” Natsu perked right up.
“Don’t get too excited, Natsu.
This one’s a legend.
A monster on the level of an actual god…” “Slifer the Sky Dragon.” Chase smiled, mysterious about it, and set the card down on the coffee table.
Natsu and Lucy leaned in and froze at the sight of it: crimson bone wings, twin fanged mouths, a body built entirely out of claws and menace.
One glance was enough.
The ferocity radiating off that card hit straight through to the chest and rattled something loose in the back of the mind.
This was what power looked like, wearing the shape of a god.
“A dragon?!” Natsu’s whole expression shifted.
Whether it was the Dragon Slayer Magic in him reacting or just plain nerves, his entire body had started shaking, and not subtly.
Lucy’s reaction, by contrast, came out as a shriek.
“Mr.
Chase, are you seriously planning to summon that thing right here, in your own house, in the middle of Magnolia?!” The words hit Chase like a bolt out of a clear sky.
Realization arrived a beat late, his pupils going wide, his mouth dropping open in pure, undiluted shock.
There it is.
That’s the face of someone who clearly hadn’t thought this through at all.
Lucy watched his expression cycle through several stages of dawning horror and let out a long sigh, rubbing her temples.
Chase wants to summon a dragon in the middle of the city, and Natsu wants to go find one in the middle of the city.
No wonder those two get along.
Cut from the exact same cloth.
Whatever reliable, sensible image Lucy had been holding onto for S-Class mages took a serious hit right then.
“Huh.
That’s actually pretty impressive, Lucy.
Didn’t expect you to think that far ahead.” Chase snapped out of his daze, coughed once to cover the embarrassment, and nodded like he was genuinely surprised.
He hadn’t seriously expected to pull off the summon in the first place, which meant it honestly hadn’t crossed his mind that succeeding might level a chunk of the town along with it.
The townspeople are understanding people.
They will absolutely not hold this against me, not over something this small.
…Probably.
The potential panic was still a real problem, though, and the paperwork he’d have to file with the Council afterward would be its own special nightmare.
“No.
Do you really think something any normal person could figure out on their own is supposed to impress you this much?!” Lucy jabbed a finger at her own chest, freshly washed hair practically bristling with indignation.
Mr.
Chase is the real idiot here, the one who never thinks about consequences!
Chase didn’t answer.
Instead, he leaned in close to Dark Magician Girl’s ear and murmured, “Lucy gives off this whole silly, clumsy, incredibly gullible vibe, doesn’t she?” “…I heard every word of that.” “Well, anyway.
Thanks for the heads-up, Daisy.” Chase chuckled and scratched the back of his head.
Whatever composure Lucy had left gave out completely.
“I don’t even have the energy to keep pretending anymore!
I’m Lucy!
Not Daisy!” Right on cue, a wave of heat rolled in from the side, and Natsu’s voice cut through, impatient as ever.
“Chase, what are you waiting for?
Summon the dragon already!” “It looks unbelievably strong!
I really want to go a round with it, Dragon Slayer Magic and everything!
I can’t wait!” Are there really more people like this out there?
Lucy looked over at Natsu, who hadn’t absorbed a single word of the last two minutes and was now blazing with excitement all over again, and felt something in her deflate completely.
In a better world, I’d be home in bed right now, hugging a soft, cute pillow.
How did fate saddle me with two geniuses like this in one night?
“Oh, that’s not happening any time soon.” Chase picked Slifer back up off the table, glanced over at Happy, Plue, and Kuriboh, currently locked arm in arm in some kind of uncoordinated little dance, and admitted, “Unfortunately, what I’ve got right now isn’t nearly enough magic to pull off that summon.” He’d figured that much out mid-incantation.
The ritual itself got cut short by Natsu and Lucy’s grand entrance, but for one brief moment before that, he’d felt it: Slifer’s massive shadow, flickering somewhere in the depths of his own mind, gone again almost as fast as it had appeared, like a shooting star.
Even with Book of Secret Arts propping up his reserves, the attempt alone had drained him dry.
Forcing it through regardless of cost might get Slifer to manifest for all of one second.
Maybe.
Not remotely worth it.
Chase didn’t look particularly bothered by any of this, though.
It wasn’t far off from what he’d expected going in.
If anything, the harder Slifer was to summon, the more that confirmed exactly how strong a card it really was, one of the best in the whole deck.
Which was, honestly, a good thing.
Because sooner or later, he’d be up against things on the level of Zeref, Acnologia the Black Dragon himself, and the rest of the Five Divine Dragons.
Natsu’s head drooped in disappointment at the news, and the flames wreathing his body guttered out all at once.
“Lucy, Happy, let’s head back.” He waved and turned to go.
The whole “night raid” had really just been about revenge for what happened earlier that day, and with Chase’s magic tapped dry and Slifer nowhere in sight, there wasn’t much reason left to stick around.
Lucy shot to her feet the second she heard that and nodded along hard enough to strain something.
She still had plenty she wanted to ask the impossibly cute Dark Magician Girl, but she wasn’t spending one more second in Chase’s house tonight.
Not dressed like this, and not at this hour.
Chase called out, stopping the two of them, plus the cat, right as they were climbing out through where the front door used to be.
“Lucy can head out first.
But Natsu, who smashed my door, and Happy, who’s been clawing up my coffee table, don’t rush off just yet.” Chase rolled his shoulders, knuckles cracking.
“Come here a second.
Let’s have a little chat.
Man to man.” Dark Magician Girl caught on immediately, a sly little smile spreading as she lifted her wand.
Natsu and Happy traded a look, both sensing exactly how bad this was about to get.
Best friends could read each other’s minds without a single word passing between them, and they bolted for the same exit at the exact same instant.
But just as they moved, Chase raised his hand.
Three shimmering golden blades dropped from the ceiling and locked Natsu and Happy in place, pinned where they stood.
Swords of Revealing Light: a binding spell card, its restraining power on par with S-Class sealing magic.