As Natsu guided Hatsune through the corridors he had gone through many times before, he couldn't help but marvel at them as if he was going through them for the first time. They then stopped at a large door, the entrance to the throne room. Two guards stood in front of the door, in which Natsu nodded to them, they nodded in agreement and pushed open the door revealing a huge, grand hall with columns lining the edge of a large red carpet adorned with beautiful gold patterns. At the very end of the hall was an occupied throne, an old man perched on top. As they made their way to the other end of the throne room Hatsune noticed that the guards positioned in the throne room were sweating nervously and shaking a lot. When she looked at Natsu to ask about this she saw the reason. Surrounding Natsu was an aura like no other. Its sheer size alone was jaw-dropping. This mysterious aura was also very potent as it seemed. Even the Demon king was sweating.
When they got about 10 feet away from the throne they stopped, kneeled, and bowed their heads. "Welcome home Natsu," the Demon King said, "What is your report," "There were no survivors in the first four towns, sir," Natsu began, "I've only ever seen this kind of carnage once before, and that was a while ago," he continued, "We were only able to find one survivor, Hatsune," he said, queuing her to stand up. "Ah. Well then, let me be the first to welcome you to the capital. I'm sure we can find a family that will take you in," the Demon King said. "Master, if I may?" Natsu interjected, "With your permission, I'd like to take this child under my care, sir," "I hope you have an explanation for this request, Natsu," "Of course, master," "Then we will discuss it later. But first we must take care of this girls wounds properly. Take her to the infirmary," the Demon King said.
As they walked down the corridor to the infirmary Hatsune was slowly filling up with questions again. Though she was dying to know the answers she restrained herself until they got to the infirmary. There she was immediately thrown onto a bed and was somehow finagled into a fresh gown while being surrounded by a bunch of oldish ladies. Through all the chaos around her, she noticed one of the nurses was harshly scolding Natsu about something that dealt with her, as she kept on pointing at Hatsune. All of a sudden Natsu took off his shirt and the nurse started examining him, touching him, poking him, and rubbing him. He seemed uncomfortable throughout the process but wasn't appalled by it. A nurse suddenly moved in front of her and blocked her view of him. It all felt like one of those dreams where so many things are happening at once and it's really scary and you just want to wake up but you can't.
When the chaos was over she went over to Natsu to finally get some answers. "Fine, you want answers? I'll give you answers," he said, "I wasn't always known as the Grim Reaper, in fact for a while, nobody even knew who I was. It all started when I was a boy, I lived in a small village on the outskirts of Demon territory, where supplies and help were scarce. We didn't have much, but we were able to get by," "We?" she asked. "My family. It was me, my mother, my father, and my little sister. We lived with two other families in the same house, so it was always crowded. I and my sister were inseparable, we did everything together. My sisters' name was Kanna, and we were complete opposites. She could see goodness in anyone, while I could only see darkness. She had a strong affinity for magic while I had a strong affinity for physical strength. I was always getting her out of trouble, taking the blame and the beating for her, but that's what an older brother does.
But it didn't last. Three months after Kannas' birthday a large group of humans came to our village saying that we were trespassers and that we were parasites that needed to be eradicated," he paused, "So they started killing us like animals and burning down our houses. Our house collapsed on us, and everyone but Kanna and me was crushed. I was stabbed, slashed, beaten, and burned trying to protect Kanna. Then they took her from me, and right in front of me, chopped her head clean off her neck," he paused again, "As her body fell to the ground the rage that filled me suddenly burst as I started screaming and lashing out. It all becomes red and blurry after that, but when I come to my senses I'm surrounded by the bodies of the humans that attacked us. I look around to find that the human commanding the purge was still alive," "What did you do to him?" "I ripped him apart limp from limp, listening as he screamed in agony to stop. But I didn't stop, I kept ripping until I was pulling his organs out."
"And then I started wanting more revenge for the murder of my family. So I started killing, not a whole lot, just a few here, a few there. And when that wasn't enough I started killing, and more. I did this for about 1,000 years before I was saved by the Demon Queen. And ever since that day, I'm indebted to her," he said, "She practically raised me, teaching me how to hone my rage into physical strength. She taught me how to fight, hunt, read, write, and everything. To me, she is my mother, and I would do anything to keep her safe," he said. "Well isn't that nice to hear," a lady said as she walked over. She was none other than the Demon Queen herself. "It's nice to see you opening up to other people Natsu," she said, " ah, and you must be Hatsune, my husband told me all about you," "I also heard that you are being placed underneath the care of Natsu," she said forcibly.
When they left the infirmary a butler came up to them, he was tall, but not nearly as tall as Natsu. He looked fairly old but still in working shape. "Excuse me, Master Natsu, but the king would like to see you now," he said in a refined voice. "Alright, I'm already there. We'll discuss this later," Natsu said with a sigh. He then vanished suddenly, which surprised Hatsune but not the others. "Jeez, I wish he would stop doing that," the Queen said, with obvious distaste. They then started to walk to the king's dorm to see what he wanted from Natsu, which gave the Queen time to answer most of the questions that Hatsune had. "Natsu is a kind man, but even he cannot run from his past, which is why he chooses to embrace it, no matter how dark and bloody it is," she said. "And those scars that he wears are a reminder to him of why he kills," she said.
It was a short walk to the king's dorm but an eventful one. It was long enough to let Natsu and the King talk business because when they got there Natsu was leaving the room. "So, how was it," the Queen asked. "The King has given me permission to take custody of Hatsune, as well as given me an assignment," he said. "Well then, what's your assignment?" the Queen asked, "I have to go to the Dragon King and negotiate his alliance with us…" he paused. There was a mixture of emotions when he said that. "...And he has allowed me to take with me as many men as I see fit. So I am very pleased that you have brought Hatsune here," Natsu said. "What do you mean?" the Queen asked. "I am planning to take Hatsune with me to the Kindom of Dragons, no one else but her," he said with what one could assume to be enthusiasm. "Well, that is certainly a big assignment to carry out, especially right after the one you just went on," the Queen said. "You are right but this is of utmost importance," he responded.
As Natsu and Hatsune walked through the corridor Hatsune's questions were unrelentingly gnawing at her every moment she was with Natsu. There were so many things that were unclear to her, like How old he was? Why was he so big? Why is he so strong? How did he get such a powerful aura? Etc. She was so anxious that she unintentionally blurted out everything that was even remotely close to a question. She kept blabbing on the entire way to the front gate, so when she finally stopped Natsu just sighed and told her that everything would become clear to her in time. "If I wanted you to know everything about me I would have told you by now. But I haven't yet because if I were to you would instantly become a liability to me because you can't fend for yourself, you easily trust people, you have a very naive perspective on reality, and you're a child. You have no idea what kind of people don't like me, and those people will and have done almost everything to see me dead. And you can't even stop a couple of human soldiers. That is why," he said.
"Now climb on, we have to hurry," he said. "What do you mean?" she asked, "we're not going on foot, we're going to fly there," he said as he unfurled his wings, revealing them to be a beautiful light red. The backpack he was carrying had an indent in it that allowed for sitting. She walked over excitedly with a face full of joy. When she climbed up to her designated seat she was in awe of the view. "You get to see this all the time!" she said excitedly. As he squatted down to take off he looked back at Hatsune and for a split second, he thought he saw Kanna. He brushed it off and jumped into the air, flapping his wings causing them to slow their ascent, and as soon as they got to a high enough altitude, he blasted a powerful roar and exploded forward toward the Dragon Kingdom.
As they soared through the air, high above the clouds both of them cried out in joy. Both of them had not felt such excitement in a long time, swooping above and below clouds like dolphins in the ocean, riding tidal waves of clouds crashing into mountain peaks, above all the evil and rottenness of their world. They were free of any worldly burdens that tethered them to the earth. "Look over there!" Natsu said as he pointed toward something on the ground. "What is it?" Hatsune asked, "It's where we're going," he said as he swooped toward the ground. As they got closer Hatsune could start to make out some buildings, but as they got closer she realized that they were massive in size and that they were all floating above the ground. Natsu then leveled out as they approached a massive cave entrance. The closer they got to the cave the cooler it got, as there were giant pillars holding the cave open, and a beautiful red carpet.
When they finally landed at the entrance of the cave they were greeted by a guard, "What is your business here?" he asked demandingly. "We were sent by the Demon King to reestablish the alliance we have," Natsu said in retaliation. "Very well, they will be with you shortly," the guard said. Natsu nodded his head and walked over to Hatsune who was too busy looking at the cave entrance to notice Natsu sitting down right next to her. As they waited for the Dragon King to arrive all Natsu did was stare at a mountain peak, there was nothing special about this particular peak, it was the same as any other peak around it, but he was fixated on that peak. The only thing that broke his concentration was the blaring trumpets announcing the Dragon Kings' arrival. He stood up to greet him only to realize that it wasn't just the Dragon King who was coming, it was the entire royal family that was coming to negotiate.
Natsu was surprised to see this, but Hatsune was dumbfounded. Though the Dragon King was as tall as Natsu, they were vastly different in size. Natsu was very lean, only having about 3% body fat, but he still had very large muscles, the King, however, looked like a juiced-up powerlifter, and talked like one too. The Queen however was small and frail, was about half as tall as Natsu, would teeter in the wind, and looked like she could use a nap. Their daughter, and one of Natsu's very few friends, was the perfect balance between the two, she was right in between them in height, she wasn't too lean, but she wasn't too big except for her 25 cm chest and 14 cm 'assets'. She had fairly short golden-white hair and a heart-soothing aura. She was the complete opposite of Natsu, whose aura struck fear into anyone around him. whenever they are close to each other their auras collide and fight each other, as they are complete opposites. Natsu the Grim Reaper, a being of pure darkness, and Elma the Dragon Heir, a being of pure light.
Out of nowhere, Natsu appears right in front of Elma, arms outstretched toward the mountain he had been staring at. He caught something, an arrow, then spun around to throw the arrow back at the mountain peak. About 2 seconds later the entire mountain range and forest below was annihilated. Hatsune stood next to them with horror in her eyes. Natsu turned back around to face them as if nothing had happened and said, "Shall we continue our business?" "I believe that some refreshments are in order, I'm sure that you've had a long journey getting here," the King said, "And it has been many millennia since you two last spoke to each other," the Queen added. It was then that Natsu realized that had indeed not seen Elma for a very long time and that he had many things to talk about. So he agreed to the proposal and went off with Elma, leaving Hatsune with the King and Queen.
As Natsu and Elma walked through the garden that was right next to the cave, they both rediscovered their passion for each other. The last time they met each other was when they were still very little, it was when the kings of the five races met together to discuss territories. It was also the meeting that caused the Great War between humans and demons. The Human King at the time was a devoted churchgoer, which caused him to be unkind toward demons. He had an undying belief that humans were chosen by The 7 Gods of Heaven to rule over everything and that the other races were spawns of The 7 Gods of Hell. He took these ideals so far that he caused a global war over them. It was basically a religiously influenced political war. All those things aside, Natsu and Elma have been very close friends ever since. Elma is one of the few people to see him not for what he is, but for who he is.
Natsu is usually not a very emotional guy, but when he is around Elma his cold, isolated demeanor sheds away. The more they talked to each other, the more they realized that they were more than friends, they had a connection that they didn't understand at the time they first met, but with time they grew to know that they were indeed, in love with each other. They tried their best to keep this fact a secret, but of all the secrets they hold, this one was the most obvious. Both their parents found out about it pretty quickly, but they still let them have fun. Even though Natsu is 200,000 years old, and Elma is 210,000 years old, they have never been promiscuous with each other or other people. Simply put, they're both still virgins. They made a promise to each other that they wouldn't do the deed unless they both accomplished their life goals. Natsu's is to avenge his sister and others like her, and Elma's is to end the Great War.