Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
November, x784.
"Hey, everyone!" Gildarts, after Ur, Gozaburo, and, mostly, Masa explained the identity of the new guild hall, shouted upon entering the main hall. "I'm back!"
"Hell yeah!" Natsu shouted, lunging at Gildarts as soon as he was inside. "Now that you're back, fight me!"
With is flames acting as boosters, Natsu quickly closed the distance between himself and Gildarts. Before he could throw a punch, however, Gildarts flicked his right arm upward, the back of his hand smacking against Natsu's chin, launching him straight upward into the air.
*Bang!*
In fact, the force behind Gildarts seemingly simple deflection was so great that Natsu slammed into the ceiling so hard that he was imbedded into it.
"Haha…" Natsu chuckled weakly with a happy smile on his face. "Gildarts is back!"
Before the celebration could continue, or even get started for that matter, Gildarts started to shiver. Looking around for the source of this uneasy feeling, his eyes eventually landed on a brown skinned young woman with dark brown eyes and shoulder-length, straight, black hair who was glaring at him with her hands resting on her hips.
Before long, however, Gildarts recognized the young woman in front of him. And when he did, his eyes opened wide in disbelief.
"L-Lici…?" Gildarts questioned while subconsciously taking a step back and covering his crotch in fear. "No, you've got the wrong idea. I didn't mean to damage the guild hall… It… It was an accident."
"Lici, stop scaring my dad." Cana said with a chuckle. "This time it wasn't completely his fault. If Natsu hadn't charged at him, he wouldn't' have done that."
Immediately after Cana's statement, Elicia's glare switched over to Natsu, who was just pulling himself out of the indent in the ceiling.
Unlike Gildarts, however, Natsu wore an excited expression after noticing Elicia's glare.
"Oh, are you gonna have a fight with me, Lici?" Natsu asked excitedly as he landed on the floor. "Oh yeah! I'm all fired up, now!"
Before Natsu could charge forward, like he was planning to, a few threads wrapped themselves around his ankle. At the same time, a few more pressed the button on the elevator, causing the doors to open.
"If you wanna fight, use the training rooms." Elicia said in a menacing tone.
In the next instant, Natsu was lifted from the floor, suspended upside down with a confused expression on his face, before being thrown into the elevator.
*Bang!*
The sound of Natsu's collision with the backwall of the elevator was loud enough to make quite a few wizards flinch. Yet, controlled enough that the elevator was not damaged in the slightest. Then, using the same bundle of threads she used to open the elevator, Elicia pressed the button for the tenth floor before retracting her threads.
"Lici, wait!" Natsu shouted in panic. "I'm sorry! I won't do it again!"
At that moment, while Natsu was reaching out to stop Elicia, the doors of the elevator closed before it started ascending towards the tenth floor. Meanwhile, Elicia had not looked in Natsu's direction the entire time.
"Hmph!" Elicia snorted after punishing Natsu. "I've made it clear that no one is to damage the guild hall, haven't I?"
In response, everyone, even the more hard-headed members of the guild nodded their heads frantically.
"Good." Elicia replied with a nod. "Then, I hope everyone will keep that in mind for the future."
"Geez, Lici." Ur said, walking up to Elicia as she spoke. "You're so protective of anything Alfonzo makes."
As soon as she was close enough, Ur reached up and patted Elicia on her head, a rather awkward sight, considering that Elicia was a couple inches taller than Ur.
"He worked really hard to make a nice place for the guild." Elicia said, smiling wryly at Ur's actions. "But can you stop, Aunt Ur? I'm not a…"
"Don't call me Aunt!" Ur said, changing her patting hand into a fist before bringing it down on the top of Elicia's head.
Reacting quickly, Elicia spun out of the path of Ur's fist, hiding behind Alfonzo in the process.
"Get back here, you little brat!" Ur shouted angrily as she chased Elicia around Alfonzo, who could only smile wryly at the two.
Meanwhile, Gildarts, after hearing Cana stopping Elicia from punishing him, had his sight locked on Cana, completely ignoring everything else in the guild.
"Cana…" Gildarts muttered, finally finding his voice. "Daddy's home!"
In the next instant, with a burst of speed, Gildarts appeared in front of Cana and wrapped her in a tight hug.
"It's been more than three years." Gildarts said, lifting Cana off the floor and spinning the two of them in place. "Oh, Daddy's missed you. And look how much you've grown. You're almost as tall as Daddy!"
"Dad, stop. I'm not a little kid anymore." Cana muttered helplessly with a wry smile on her face as she patted Gildarts on the shoulder. A moment later, however, she noticed that something was wrong with her father's left arm. Then, with a frown, she asked. "Dad, what happened to your arm?"
Hearing Cana's question, Gildarts stopped spinning. Then, with a heavy sigh, he put her back on the floor.
"I ran into some trouble on the quest." Gildarts said in a solemn tone. "I ran into something that even I couldn't handle… A black dragon."
With that, Gildarts swept his tattered cloak to the side, revealing the rudimentary, wooden prosthetic in place of his left arm.
"That big son of a bitch got my left arm, my left leg, and left my inner organs hanging out of my stomach before it got bored with me and flew away." Gildarts said, pointing at the scar that stretched across his lower abdomen.
Hearing that, not only Cana, but the rest of the guild wore shocked expressions while Cana's eyes were welling up with tears. Then, she flung herself into her father's arms and began to cry silently.
"You don't have to worry, Cana." Gildarts said with a small smile. "I made it home safe and sound. Besides, you know how strong your daddy is, right? Just losing an arm and a leg won't slow me down at all."
Though Gildarts reassurance did not stop the tears falling from Cana's eyes, it did calm her down enough that she could look up at her father. Then, she turned her teary eyes in Alfonzo's direction.
"Fonzie, can you help him?" Cana asked. "Like you did with your arm and Ur's leg?"
"Huh?" Gildarts exclaimed in confusion as he followed Cana's gaze. "Your arm and Ur's leg? What does--- Wait, Kid, is that you?"
Finally noticing Alfonzo after his entrance, Gildarts was surprised to see how much he had grown in only three years.
"Wow! You've grown a lot, too." Gildarts said as he made his way over to Alfonzo. Then, once he was right in front of him, he raised a hand to measure their relative heights. "Damn, you're even taller than me, now. But just because you're taller than me, don't think that will stop me from kicking your ass if you make my baby girl cry."
"Dad~~~!" Cana squealed in both embarrassment and annoyance.
"Yeah, I'm happy to see you, too, Old Man." Alfonzo replied with an eye roll. "But yeah, I found a way to reconnect my arm and Ur's leg. So, if you still have your severed limbs, I can reattach them with no problem. It'll hurt like a mother fucker, though."
Hearing that, Cana looked at Gildarts with anticipation. Unfortunately, she was destined to be disappointed.
"*Sigh* If I had known that, I would have kept them." Gildarts replied. "Finding a way to preserve them would have been a pain, but I would have managed. But I had no way of knowing you could do that. Besides, they were pretty mangled. So, the thought of having them attached didn't even cross my mind."
Once again, Cana's expression darkened.
"Well, even though I can't reattach your missing limbs, I can at least get you fitted with a decent set of prosthetics." Alfonzo said while scrutinizing Gildarts left arm and leg. "You can't even use your full power with those things. They don't conduct magic power at all."
"Yeah, but they were the best I could get on such short notice." Gildarts replied with a shrug.
"I get it." Alfonzo said with a nod. "Well, come with me tomorrow. We'll go see Porlyusica and find out what would be the best prosthetic for your situation."
"Sure." Gildarts said with a smile and a nod. "But for now, I gotta go see the old man. Need to give the report of my first failed quest. *Sigh* This sucks. My perfect record has been broken."
"Fonzie~~~~!" Elicia shouted from the other side of the guild hall. "Help me! Ur is gonna beat me up!"
Looking in the direction of the shout, everyone in the guild saw Ur chasing Elicia down the stairs.
"Damn, have they already been upstairs?" Alfonzo asked in amazement. "I knew Lici was fast, but to think Ur could keep up with her for so long."
"Stop being impressed and help me!" Elicia shouted as she dodged an ice rose that tried to bind her in place.
"Stay out of this, Kid." Ur shouted as she ran with her hands in her casting gesture. "Or I'll freeze you, too."
"*Sigh* You're lucky I love you, Lici." Alfonzo said quietly. "I don't even call Ur 'Aunt' anymore. What the hell were you even thinking?"
Although he did not speak very loud, Elicia and Ur were able to hear Alfonzo clearly. While Elicia smiled happily, Ur frowned and got ready to cast a spell to stop Alfonzo from interfering.
"I wasn't!" Elicia replied with a smile.
Shaking his head at Elicia's admittance, Alfonzo could only shake his head in exasperation before he shifted his attention towards Ur.
"Ur, if you let her go, I'll cook a full meal for you and let you have a bottle of wine from my private stash back at the house." Alfonzo said.
Immediately, the magic power Ur was gathering to cast her spell scattered and she came to a halt. Then, she turned in Alfonzo's direction with a smile on her face.
"Well, I guess it can't' be helped that Lici called me Aunt." Ur said as she walked towards Alfonzo with a little extra pep in her step. "I mean, Orlando was like a brother to me, after all."
IN response, the entire guild could not help but roll their eyes when they heard Ur's shamelessness. The only exception being Gildarts, whose eyes lit up in excitement.
"That's right, Kid." Gildarts said, placing a hand on Alfonzo's shoulder. "How about whipping up a little something for me to eat, too?"
"*Sigh* Fine." Alfonzo said with a shake of his head. "But you'd better go find out about the new guild rules from Gramps after you eat. Since this will probably be the last time I cook for you in the guild hall."
"Huh? What do mean?" Gildarts asked in a confused tone. "Why would this be the last time?"
"Like I said, go find out from Gramps." Alfonzo said as he made his way towards the kitchen. "I don't want you taking your anger out on me. Oh, and if you destroy the guild hall in anger or because you lost control, I'm gonna be pissed and we will fight."
Gildarts only smiled in response at Alfonzo's threat.
"Maybe I should, I'm looking forward to how much you've grown since I left." Gildarts said.
In response, Alfonzo did not even turn back. He only rolled his eyes as he continued towards the kitchen.
"Anyway, what do you want to eat, Old Man?" Alfonzo asked, still not turning around. "Oh, and Ur, I'll cook for you at my house later. I'm sure you'll want to have that wine with dinner, right?"
"Sure." Ur replied with a smile. "That's fine with me."
With that, because he had already stepped into the kitchen, Alfonzo ended up cooking for the entire guild, for a price, and the night passed like any other night in Fairy Tail would. With several fights taking place over the next few hours Alfonzo making a little pocket money, and Gildarts eventually going back to his house to rest after his three year absence. And to no one's surprise, Cana went with Gildarts to spend the night at her old home after not seeing her father for almost four years.