Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
June 2, x788.
"You want to teach someone [Fairy Glitter]?" Ur asked in a tone filled with disbelief.
"Yes." Mavis replied with a stern nod. "That spell is the only way to free me."
"Free you,?" Irene asked in a curious toen. "What do you mean?"
"It would be better to show you than tell you." Mavis replied. Then, she looked at Ur as she continued. "Show them the way, Ur."
"If that's your order." Ur replied with a nod.
Then, Ur stood up from her desk and walked towards the elevator while everyone else in the office followed her. Meanwhile, Mavis, who did not need to use the elevator, watched everyone for a moment. Then, she sank into the floor.
Once everyone was in the elevator, Ur pressed the button that took them down to the lowest point of the guild hall, the library. A few moments later, the elevator doors opened and everyone exited into the library.
However, instead of looking at any of the books, Ur walked to a particular wall without a word. Naturally, the others followed her. Then, while standing in front of the wall, Ur inserted her magic power into it in a certain pattern. A moment later, the wall moved, revealing a staircase that led even further underground.
"Okay, how did I not notice these stairs while we were building the new guild hall?" Alfonzo asked in a dumbfounded tone.
This time, Alfonzo was not just speaking to keep up appearances. Although he knew about the chamber where Mavis' body was kept, he was never able to find it. Not even with his [Magic Power Detection]. And the fact that he never detected this stairway when he was overseeing the construction of the guild hall made him even more thoroughly confused.
"I know what you mean." Ur replied while leading the group down the stairs. "If the old man hadn't shown me this, I would have never known it was here, either."
"Interesting, the magic power I can feel from below us is overwhelming." Irene said with an intrigued smile on her face. "What kind of wards and barriers are set up here to keep it all from leaking outside."
"That's the thing, I can't feel anything like that… At all." Alfonzo replied. "But that should be impossible. I mean, everything has a magic power signature. And barriers are no exception.
While the group continued discussing the incomprehensible magic power and how it was kept from leaking outside, they eventually reached the bottom of the stairs. And when they did, they arrived in an empty chamber. Though, that was a bit… no, quite inaccurate.
The chamber would have been empty, if it was not for the gigantic lacrima placed against the back wall. However, that lacrima was no ordinary lacrima. Because inside of the lacrima, a body identical to the image of Mavis Vermilion was sealed inside.
"What the…?" Gildarts mumbled in disbelief.
"Is that… the first Master?" Brandish asked in a tone similar to Gildarts.
"Yes." Mavis said as she floated down through the ceiling. "That is me. Precht, or rather Hades of Grimoire Heart helped me seal myself in here so that I wouldn't be able to hurt anyone because of my curse."
"Not only that." Ur said in a solemn tone. "But this is the [Fairy Heart] Zeref wants so much. That so called source of unlimited magic power."
With Mavis' and Ur's words, Gildarts remembered that Hades was once the second master of Fairy Tail, Precht Gaebolg. Meanwhile, Irene and Brandish, who knew very little about the Subjugated Dark Guilds on Ishgar had no idea what they were talking about.
So, Elicia took it upon herself to inform them of who Hades and Grimoire Heart were.
"Well, now that everyone is up to speed, why do you need to teach someone Fairy Glitter?" Ur asked.
"Because it is necessary to free me from this lacrima." Mavis replied. "The only way to set me free is to hit my projection with Fairy Glitter while in this room with the lacrima."
"Seriously?" Ur asked in shock. "But what if something goes wrong, wouldn't that injure your spirit, or something?"
"I assure you, everything will be fine." Mavis replied with a smile.
The room fell into silence after that. Most of those present were digesting what Mavis just said. However, the silence was eventually broken.
"Well, if that's what the first master says, then that's' what we gotta do.' Alfonzo said with a shrug. "The only question is, who should we have learn it?"
Once again, the room fell silent while everyone thought of a suitable candidate.
"How about Cana?" Elicia asked, picking the person from the canon to do it.
"That's actually not a bad idea." Ur replied. "With Hoyle, she has the potential to use the spell several times in a row depending on what cards she draws."
Just as Ur said, with Hoyle released, Cana can either amplify the power of her spells or cast them more than once with no additional magic power cost, depending on the hands she can put together with the cards she draws from Hoyle's deck. And if she could somehow manage to draw a [Royal Flush] or a [Four of a Kind], she could really do a lot of damage with [Fairy Glitter].
"I agree." Gildarts said excitedly. "My baby girl will be even stronger."
Alfonzo, Irene, and Brandish also had no issues with Cana being the one to learn [Fairy Glitter]. So, after a bit more discussion, they left the hidden chamber and returned to the guild hall's first floor. And to no one's surprise, there was another brawl going on.
"*Sigh* I really miss being home." Alfonzo said with a wide smile on his face. Then, he looked back at Ur with pleading eyes. "Can we have the conversation with Cana a little later? I really wanna join in."
Chuckling hollowly, Ur shooed Alfonzo away with a hand gesture. Then, she led Elicia, Gildarts, Irene, and Brandish over to the bar to spectate.
Meanwhile, Alfonzo dashed into the fray with a smile on his face. And from the way he started wailing on people, he looked like a wolf that just found a herd of sheep that was left unattended to.
"Wow! Look at him go!" Elicia cheered as she took a seat at the bar next to Ur and Brandish.
"He looks like a bully." Brandish muttered with a grin.
"Yeah, but he looks like he's having fun.' Ur added. "I can only imagine how much his impulses have been bottled up during all that time away from the guild."
"Yeah, even I wanna give fighting him a go at this point." Gildarts said while his eyes tracked Alfonzo through the melee.
"Why?" Irene asked with a smile. "Are you looking to get beat up, or something? If that's the case, I can fight with you if you want."
"*Cough* No, that's okay." Gildarts said while looking away awkwardly.
"Anyway, we did come here for another reason, didn't we?" Elicia asked after calming down a bit. "We were supposed to talk to Cana about learning [Fairy Glitter], right?"
"There's no rush." Mavis, who rose from the floor next to the bar, said with a smile, as she, too, watched Alfonzo rampage through his guild mates. "Just let him blow off a little steam."
Mavis then turned to Elicia.
"Besides, you live with Cana, right?" Mavis asked, although she already knew the answer to the question. "You can just tell her after you go home. And if you need me to give her any further explanation, just tell Alfonzo to let me inside the barrier surrounding your house."
After reaching that point, Mavis pouted in a way that was suitable for her appearance.
"Because even I, in this form, can't penetrate that barrier he set up." Mavis said in a discontent tone.
From that point, the brawl did not last very long. And eventually, Alfonzo, as the final winner, stood alone among the unconscious and groaning members of Fairy Tail.
"Alright, I'm going home." Alfonzo said, looking quite refreshed after the brawl. "I miss Little Man."
Hopping up off her bar stool, Elicia skipped over to Alfonzo and held his arm with a wide smile on her face.
"Okay, I'll come with you." Elicia said happily. Then she looked back to Ur and the others. "Just tell everyone we went home. Oh, and let Cana know we have something important to talk to her about when she wakes up."
Nodding in response, Ur once again shooed them away. However, before they could get too far, she looked as if she just remembered something important.
"Hey, Kid!" Ur shouted just as Alfonzo and Elicia reached the sliding doors. "Where is Wendy? Did she already go home?"
"Oh, that's right!" Alfonzo said as he slapped his right fist down into his left palm. "She stayed in the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Her little boyfriend got hurt during the second part of the Chunin Exam, and she's taking care of him."
In response, Ur fell silent with a dumbfounded expression on her face. And after not receiving a response for a while, Alfonzo shrugged his shoulders. Then, he led Elicia out of the guild hall. And just as the sliding doors closed behind them…
"What~~~~~~~!"
… they could hear Ur's scream of disbelief penetrating the metal walls and heavy sliding doors of the guild hall.
About half an hour later, Alfonzo, Elicia, and Amar'e were all sitting in the bathtub in Alfonzo's bathroom. While Amar'e was playing with the water and Elicia was giving him a bath, she was leaning against Alfonzo's chest, who was smiling happily while he watched his wife and son warmly.
On top of that, Alfonzo had just finished telling Elicia about his experiences pertaining to the Chunin Exam.
"So, you actually caught Orochimaru before he could put the [Cursed seal of heaven] on Sasuke?" Elicia asked with a smile.
"Yeah, since we noticed from the moment he was [Reverse Summoned] into the village, tracking him was easy." Alfonzo replied. "So, I started following him from the moment everyone gathered to enter the Forest of Death."
"Well, I guess messing up canon is better than having Sasuke go full emo." Elicia nodded as she rinsed the soap off Amar'e's body.
"Oh, and I removed Orochimaru's [Curse Seal] from Anko, too." Alfonzo added as he started tickling Amar'e.
"Really?" Elicia asked with her eyes wide open. Then, she stopped to ponder for a moment. "but how does his [Curse Seal] even work in this world? I mean, it drew in Natural Energy in Naruto. But there is no Natural Energy in this world, right? So how does it, or even [Sage Mode] work?"
"If I hadn't gotten all of Danzo's records, I wouldn't be able to answer that question." Alfonzo replied with a shrug. "but since I did, I can. It actually works like this…"
Alfonzo then went on to explain that while chakra in Naruto was a combination of spiritual and physical energy from a shinobi's body, while magic power was its equivalent on Earth Land. Whereas natural Energy's equivalent is pure ethernano.
And like all wizards on Earth Land, shinobi take in ethernano and refine it into magic power in their magic power containers. However, for [Sage Mode] and the [Cursed Seal of Heaven], they use ethernano in its pure state by delicately mixing it together with magic power at a certain ratio.
"And that means that training in [Sage Mode] in this world is a lot less dangerous." Alfonzo said, getting to the end of his explanation. "Because any excess ethernano ends up being converted into magic power. However, if any of the ethernano absorbed starts converting into magic power, the [Sage Mode] process fails, and the shinobi has to start all over again."
"Although it's safer, it sounds like the training is a lot harder, too, right?" Elicia asked as she picked up Amar'e and started climbing out of the bathtub.
"Right." Alfonzo replied as he followed Elicia out of the tub. "But somehow, the same people are the only ones who have trained it so far. But from what I've heard, Jiraiya looks even more like a toad than in the canon thanks to his lacking control."
"Oh, I kinda wanna see that now." Elicia said with a giggle, causing Amar'e to giggle along with her.
Like that, the two continued to chat and laugh as they got themselves and Amar'e dried off and dressed. Then, just as they were all dressed, the door to Alfonzo's bedroom was knocked on.
*Knock!* *Knock!* *Knock!*
"Hey, Fonzie, Lici!" Cana's voice could be heard from the other side of the door. "Dad and Ur said you needed to talk to me about something. So, what's up?"
Hearing that, Alfonzo and Elicia exchanged glances. Meanwhile, Amar'e, after hearing Cana's voice, got excited. She was the most fun to play with out of all his aunties, after all.
Seeing Amar'e's reaction, Alfonzo smiled. Then, he stood up and made his way over to the door.
"Cana, come in." Alfonzo said with a smile. "We do have some stuff to talk about with you. And you can play with Little Man while we talk."