Earth land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Tenrou Island.
December 16, x784.
Around the same time Org was escorted out of the meeting hall in Era, Alfonzo, who was sleeping in a tent with his girlfriends and fiancées in the base camp, slowly opened his eyes. And when he did, he was surprised to see that he was not the first one to wake up, as he usually was.
Upon opening his eyes, Alfonzo immediately met eyes with a pair of brown eyes with a purple tint.
"Mmm… Good morning, Cana." Alfonzo muttered groggily. "I think this might be the first time you ever woke up before me."
At the same time, Cana smiled brightly. Then, from her position on Alfonzo's chest, she leaned forward and gave her fiancé a kiss.
"Good morning, Fonzie. And yeah, I slept great last night." Cana replied after breaking the kiss. "And because of that, I didn't have any trouble waking up. So, for the first time, I got to see your face while you were sleeping. And I gotta say, you're really cute when you're asleep."
Smiling wryly in response to being called cute, Alfonzo chook his head. Still, he did not refute Cana's opinion, mainly because there was no point. But a moment later, his expression turned quite solemn.
"What's wrong, Fonzie?" Cana asked in a concerned tone after seeing Alfonzo's change in expression.
"Hades is gone…" Alfonzo muttered as his eyebrow furrowed After checking the state of the island with [Magic Power Detection].
Hearing that, Cana, who was lying on top of Alfonzo, immediately sat up, now straddling his lower abdomen.
"We need to tell Gramps." Cana replied.
"I know." Alfonzo replied, freeing his arms from Erza and Mirajane's grasps. "You go tell Gramps while I go over to the prisoner's tent to see if I can figure out how he got a way."
"Got it!" Cana exclaimed as she shot up to her feet and took a step towards the tent's entrance.
"One thing before you go, Cana." Alfonzo said in an exasperated tone.
"Huh?" Cana replied in confusion while coming to a stop before she could pull open the tent flap.
"At least put on some pants before you go." Alfonzo replied while massaging his temples.
In response, Cana looked down and noticed that all she was wearing was a purple bikini top, as she usually wore those instead bras, and a matching Y-back thong.
"That's probably a good idea." Cana replied with a slightly embarrassed smile. "I don't know what that old pervert would do if he saw all this."
As she finished, Cana punctuated her sentence by slapping her own ass, grabbing it, and shaking it around for a moment. Then, she moved to the piled up luggage in the corner of the tent and pulled a pair of pants out of her own luggage.
Meanwhile, Alfonzo after seeing Cana's actions, shook his head with a wry smile on his face before he got up and put on a pair of shorts and a tank top, as well.
Then, after both Alfonzo and Cana were dressed, they ran out of the tent and headed for their own destinations. After about a minute, Alfonzo was standing outside of the tent where the higher ups of Grimoire Heart that had been captured were being held. But instead of going inside immediately, Alfonzo examined the area outside the tent's entrance carefully.
"It looks like someone came to the camp last night while everyone was sleep." Alfonzo said with a frown. "Usually, I'd say whoever came to the tent rescued Hades, but…"
Looking more closely, Alfonzo saw the that the footprints he assumed were from the one who got Hades out of captivity exited the tent once again. However, after exiting the tent, the footprints never led away from the tent. ON top of that, there were no footprints that should have belonged to Hades leaving the tent.
"Maybe they teleported him away?" Alfonzo asked himself after examining the footprints for a little longer. "But why would they step out of the tent if they could just teleport away?"
"Alfonzo, have you found anything?" Makarov asked, pulling Alfonzo out of his contemplation. "As soon as Cana informed me, I scanned the island, but I couldn't find Precht anywhere, either."
Looking up, Alfonzo saw Makarov, Cana, Ur, and most surprisingly, Gildarts approaching.
"Looks like someone finally sobered up." Alfonzo muttered before shaking his head to get rid of the image of Gildarts sleeping through an enemy attack out of his head. "I haven't gone inside yet, but it's weird that even if he somehow managed to escape, he didn't take his subordinates with him. I guess who ever helped him decided they weren't worth the trouble."
As he spoke Alfonzo pointed at the footsteps that approached the tent, entered, and exited, before just stopping.
"Well, I guess the only thing we can do is go inside and question the other four." Ur suggested.
"Ugh… Yeah, let's hurry." Gildarts muttered while rubbing his head. "The sooner we figure this out, the sooner the Kid an make me a hangover remedy."
"Oh my god…" Cana groaned while covering her face with her hands. "You're such an embarrassment, Dad."
Hearing Cana, Gildarts looked like he had been punched in the stomach by a world-class boxer. And because of the expression on his face, Makarov, Cana, and Ur quickly stepped away from him, thinking he might vomit.
Ignoring Gildarts, Alfonzo nodded at Ur's suggestion. Then, he reached for the tent flap and pulled it open. But when he looked inside, Alfonzo came to a complete stop.
"Fonzie, what's wrong?" Cana asked in a concerned tone after seeing Alfonzo freeze.
A moment later, after approaching the opening to the tent, Cana also came to a complete stop, completely surprised by what she saw, as well.
Naturally, what they saw was the five prisoners unmoving in the tent while still restrained with anti-magic cuffs and shackles. The issue was that their [Magic Power Detection] was only picking up four magic power signatures.
"So, he didn't escape…" Alfonzo muttered. "He died."
'Did Zeref come to the camp last night?' Alfonzo wondered to himself. 'That means he would have had to get past Ur's ice walls and the sensors I set up just in case the fleet off shore did something they would end up regretting, without alerting either of us. Then, again, he is over 400 years old. So, I'm sure that's not as hard for him as I think it should be.'
In all actuality, Alfonzo did not even think of setting up something more powerful to stop intruders from entering the camp. Even though he knew Zeref was on the island at the time of the Promotion Exam, since he killed Hades on the Grimoire Heart airship in the canon, Alfonzo thought the Black Wizard would just let things be since Hades had been captured.
At the same time, after hearing Alfonzo's muttering, Makarov rushed over to the tent flap to see the death of his old mentor for himself.
"*Sigh* I guess… You can finally rest, Second Master." Makarov said in a melancholic tone after a few moments of silence.
"But how did this happen?" Ur asked with a frown. "Or rather... Why? It's obvious that whoever broke into our camp killed him. But why just him? I mean, the rest of these guys have done some seriously evil things too, right?"
"No idea…" Alfonzo replied with a shrug. "But you should probably put the guy on ice. We need to hand his body over to the guys from the Magic Council. There's no way I'm not getting my bounty for beating this guy, after all."
"Is money really the only thing you think about, Alfonzo?" Makarov asked in a disapproving tone. "Can't you should some sympathy for a former guild master?"
"I know you're upset that someone you've known for a long time died, Gramps." Alfonzo said in a solemn tone while turning towards Makarov. "But you forgot a couple things. Most important of which is the fact that…"
Reaching his point, Alfonzo pointed at Hades corpse.
"… this old mother fucker attacked us with the intention of killing all of us." Alfonzo continued. "And two, he was the master of one of Ishgar's most infamous Dark Guilds. So, even if he was the second master of Fairy Tail, after he started doing all that fucked up shit, he lost the right to gain any sympathy. And then, there's the fact that I deserve to be rewarded for defeating an S-Class dark wizard with a bounty on his head."
Surprisingly, Makarov's discontent expression melted away completely. Instead of trying to defend Hades, he simply hung his head with a sad expression on his face.
"I know you're right." Makarov muttered. "But… it's just hard to see someone I respected so much fall to what he did."
With that, Makarov shook his head before turning around.
"I'll leave the rest to you, Ur." Makarov said as he walked away. Then, in a volume barely audible to those present, Makarov continued. "I guess I really am getting too old. First, I was unable to protect my children without their help, then I showed sympathy for someone who betrayed Fairy Tail…"
In response, the rest of the group watch Makarov walk away in silence.
"I think you might have gone a little too far, Fonzie." Cana said as she grabbed Alfonzo's hand with both concern and slight reproach in her gaze.
Before Alfonzo could defend himself, someone else spoke up for him. And to Cana's surprise, it was not Ur.
"No, the Kid was right." Gildarts, who was still clearly suffering from the effects of his hangover, replied to Cana. "I won't say the Old Man was wrong for feeling sympathy for the second master of the guild, but what Alfonzo said is absolutely true. That guy led a Dark Guild to kill us. Not really sure why, though. Either way, as members of Fairy Tail, we don't forgive that."
"I agree with Alfonzo, too." Ur replied. "Hell, until the Old Man called him Second Master, I didn't even know he was related to our guild. And since no one in the guild right now has a connection to anyone that far back, it only makes sense that we don't' have any sympathy for someone who betrayed the guild like he did."
"I know, but Gramps…" Cana muttered while looking in the direction Makarov left.
"Don't worry, Sweetheart." Gildarts replied in a reassuring tone. "Although he's sad now, the Old Man will bounce back soon enough. Just wait."
With that, the four fell into a short silence that was eventually broken by a groaning Gildarts.
"Anyway, Kid, make me something for this hangover, will ya?" Gildarts groaned painfully.
"Nah, I'm good." Alfonzo replied with a shrug. "You can deal with that on your own."
"Seriously?" Gildarts asked in a tone of disbelief. "How can you be so heartless?"
"He probably would have done something for you if you hadn't gotten so hammered that you slept through the attack." Cana said in an annoyed tone.
"But I only got drunk because you made Daddy so proud, Princess." Gildarts said with puppy dog eyes.
"Oh my god!" Cana said, rolling her eyes and turning away. "Please stop, that's so gross."
Once again, Gildarts looked as if he had just been punched.
"Seriously…" Alfonzo said while creating a metal coffin with his [Metal Magic]. "Now, I definitely ain't cooking shit for you until that image has been purged from my memories."
On top of feeling as if he had been punched for a third time, Gildarts felt like his world was spinning after hearing that Alfonzo would not cook for him for an indefinite amount of time.
Meanwhile, as Ur lined the inside of the coffin Alfonzo created with ice, she looked at Gildarts with pity. Although she wanted to defend him and ask Alfonzo to help him with his hangover, thanks to her crush. She could not bring herself to do so. On top of him sleeping through the battle, she agreed that men making puppy dog eyes was a nauseating sight to behold.
A few moments later, Alfonzo had placed Hades' corpse into the coffin. Then, once the lid was closed, he levitated it behind him as he spoke to the other three.
"Anyway, I'm gonna go put this in the ship's cargo hold." Alfonzo said while gesturing at the floating coffin. "I'm sure no one wants a coffin around while they relax before we head back home."
"That's probably a good idea.' Ur replied with a nod.
"Yeah, I'm sure no one wants to be close to a dead body." Gildarts added. "Even if it is in a coffin."
"Ooh, I'll come with you." Cana said with a smile as she wrapped her arms and breasts around Alfonzo's right arm.
"Sure." Alfonzo replied with a shrug.
'Besides, you'll give me the perfect opportunity to punish you for that stupid plan while we're on the ship.' Alfonzo thought to himself with a smile that Cana completely misunderstood.
With that, Alfonzo and Cana made their way towards Sixth Sense to store hades' corpse. While Cana was looking forward to having Alfonzo all to herself for the next hour, or so, Alfonzo was thinking whether he should use a paddle or not when he spanked Cana for her stupid idea.