Straw Hat Among Fairies

Ch. 17 A Rumble in The Fabaceae Forest!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this story. One Piece belongs to Eichiro Oda and Fairy Tail, Monster Hunter: Orage belongs to Hiro Mashima. The only things I own are original characters and this story. Both mangas and their characters belong to their respective owners listed above.

February 9, Year X777, within the Fabaceae Forest...

(One Piece OST: Duel!)

Erza gritted her teeth as she found herself crashing onto her back as she found out that the snow that was currently covering her chest and arms cannot soften one's sudden fall from the air. Nor does it allow her to move her arms at all, leaving the armored girl only able to throw her legs up into the air angrily as she tried to force herself off the ground to no avail. She could hear the roars of that pissed off cat wyvern off into the distance which were quickly followed Luffy's rage filled yells as he continued to fight on valiantly while she struggled to get off of her butt.

The scarlet girl could only breath heavily as she found herself lying down on her back, her arms forced to her chest by a giant snow ball she found herself after getting hit by an aptly named "Snownado" as Luffy put it. As she lied down helplessly, Erza's mind kept racing back to the events that have transpired since she woke up this morning and went outside to learn Haki from Luffy.

She went out into the forest into forest with him, she got separated from him, was attacked by a Giaprey, got even more lost before Luffy found her while bringing a pack of killer snow monkeys down onto them, and watched the leader of said-Snow monkeys die gruesomely before her eyes at the claws of a large leopard thing sporting a Mohawk of all things. And finally they were currently fighting a saber tooth wyvern that was built like a tank and moved across the snow like it didn't weigh a ton or two.

Erza could barely flinch when she heard the air crack near her as she saw something pink soar past her in the air, a trail of steam left in its wake as she heard it crash into some trees behind her.

"Luffy! Are you alright!" Erza called out to the rubber boy that was undoubtedly behind her as began to redouble her efforts to get back on her feet. The sound of an evergreen tree collapsing towards her was serving as a great motivator, seeing the tree actually fall towards her was an even better one.

Before the tree could fall on top of her and crush her small body, Erza quickly found herself being swiftly kicked into the air with the snow keeping her arms restrained breaking apart instantly from the impact. She soon found herself landing back first onto the snowy ground with a thud, her armor taking most of the impact.

"I'M SORRY ERZA!" Luffy shouted towards his slightly dazed friend while an evergreen tree fell onto the ground in front of him, the boy's body was still emitting steam. He was about to go to Erza when he saw her right arm spring up into the air with her fist clenched and her thumb extended upward.

"I'M OK, LUFFY!" Erza shouted back towards the still steaming boy as she sprung herself up into a sitting position albeit a little clumsily. "Thanks for the help!" The scarlet haired girl shouted gratefully, her arms now free from their icy cocoon as the girl quickly went about moving them to make sure they weren't still frozen.

Luffy let out a breath of relief he was holding in and was about to run to go check on his slightly dazed friend when his eyes suddenly flashed red*. The rubber boy quickly jumped back with an incredible burst of speed as his instincts were proven correct when the Barioth quickly swooped down towards him, her clawed feet missing the rubber boy's back by a few inches.

As a result of Luffy's sudden dodge, the Ice Tusk Wyvern could barely stop herself from slamming her feet onto the trunk of the fallen evergreen, smashing it into splinters as the Barioth found herself barely able to stop herself from sliding across the soft snowy ground even as she pivoted on her feet to turn herself towards her opponents.

Even her claws and spiked wings could only provide so much braking power on normal dirt as her appendages left deep grooves cut into the earth before she found herself stopping several feet away from her target. Eyes still glowing a crimson red, the Barioth glared at the strange stretchy human that's been giving her so much trouble for the past two hours as she panted at a controlled pace, the wyvern was clearly feeling fatigued from the extended battle.

For a moment, the steaming rubber boy and the saber toothed wyvern were at a stalemate as they sidestepped each other in unison, both of them were trying to predict what their opponent was going to do next or who would be the first to act next.

Luffy was the first to act as he broke into a sprint towards the tired beast in a burst of speed that made him disappear from sight, the boy moving faster than normal eyes could see. The Barioth's eyes, however, could see the boy quite fine as she prepared her counterattack.

Luffy's eyes quickly flashed red when he saw the Barioth pull her head back and the rubber boy immediately halted his headstrong charge to jump away just as the wyvern threw her head forward to spit out a spinning ice ball. Luffy's instincts payed off once again as the Ice Tusk Wyvern's 'ice ball' hit the ground only to create a powerful, snowy tornado upon impact with the snow covered ground.

Luffy gritted his teeth as he landed on his hands and feet on snowy dirt, having been blown back by the winds fueling the Snownado as he found himself skidding back a few feet. The moment he stopped skidding across the snowy dirt, the rubber pirate threw his head back up to look back at the Barioth only to find that the towering Snownado was blocking his view of the Ice Tusk Wyvern. Said Snownado kept rotating for a few more seconds before it just as suddenly faded away into nothing, revealing that the arctic wyvern was now gone.

The sounds of wings flapping in the air were the only warning Luffy got as he found himself jumping back to dodge an ice ball, another towering Snownado forming on the spot while Luffy found himself skidding as Gear Second wore off, returning his skin color back to normal.

Looking up as he tried to stand up, Luffy could barely react as a second ice ball whizzed past his head and formed a second Snownado to his left behind him. Luffy only had a second to react as the Ice Tusk Wyvern swooped down from the air to slam her face into his chest, sending the rubber man flying into the air while the Barioth flew higher into the air.

"Those kinds of attacks won't hurt me, Saber Dragon-thing!" Luffy shouted confidently at the airborne arctic wyvern, completely unharmed by the wyvern's headbutt. He was quickly cut off from saying anything else as he quickly found himself pulled into the raging Snownado. Luffy soon found himself struggling to escape as he found himself being thrown about within the freezing vortex like a rubber ragdoll.

"Luffy!" Erza shouted with concern in her voice as she watched Luffy be spun around in the Barioth's snowy tornado from several meters away, quickly springing back onto her feet to run towards her trapped friend.

While Erza was quickly running across the snow covered glade to reach him, the rubber boy was swiftly spit out of the towering vortex seconds before it dissipated into nothing.

Luffy soon hit the ground with a thud as the rubber boy found himself lying helplessly on his back in a snow cocoon, his eyes were spinning from being thrown about in a swirling vortex. Remembering how she was freed from her similar predicament earlier, Erza ran faster as she tried to close the distance between her and her trapped friend.

"Don't worry Luffy! I'm coming to help!" Erza shouted towards the cocooned boy as she ran quickly across the snowy terrain, her Ice Climber Armor's boots living up to their name as she found herself unimpeded by the heavy snow around her. She was about to reach her friend when she heard the Barioth's roar as the Ice Tusk Wyvern quickly soared past her overhead.

Erza quickly looked up to see the Barioth soar over a still dazed Luffy before landing and turning on her hind feet to face towards the cocooned rubber boy as Erza's singular eye widened in shock before narrowing just as fast.

"Oh no you don't!" Erza shouted with raw fury when she saw the Barioth take a single step towards the immobile boy, suddenly requipping six long swords around her before telekinetically lifting them into the air above her. The Barioth herself could only widen her eyes in surprise at the sudden display of magical prowess as Erza spread her arms out from her body, the scarlet haired girl's swords quickly shifted in midair to follow her actions with the blades pointed towards the Barioth.

"Jet Sword!" Erza shouted as she swung her right arm forward, one of her floating blades following her actions as it quickly launched itself towards the Barioth at incredible speeds, becoming a silver blur in the process.

Eyes widening in recognition of the girl's attack, the Barioth jumped swiftly to the right to dodge the girl's sword only for the thrown blade to nick the top of her armored tail with incredible force, causing the female Wyvern to roar in pain as she landed upon the snowy dirt. Erza's sword, however, found itself spinning into the air after striking the wyvern's tail before it landed blade first into the dirt, a large crack spreading across the blade upon landing.

Turning her attention towards the scarlet haired girl, the Barioth was about to let loose another roar when it felt a sudden stinging sensation in its tail. Despite knowing that the white scale plated covering her body were durable enough to withstand or even deflect strikes from iron weapons like swords, the Barioth couldn't deny the stinging pain she felt in her tail as she took a quick glance over her shoulder to assess the damage.

The Ice Tusk wyvern could only growl angrily at the sight of a large gash across the back of her tail's midsection, warm crimson blood flowing out of it down the grooves of her scales. To the Barioth, it looked like one of the armor plates lining her tail was completely sliced apart by the power behind the one eyed girl's attack as she could see exposed red muscle tissue where one segment of her armor plates were supposed to be. The sight of her damaged tail only confirmed for the Barioth what she already knew several hours ago.

The scarlet haired girl was a threat to her existence and that this human child needed to dieto ensure she didn't grow stronger in the future.

While the Barioth was distracted with its tail, standing several meters away Erza could only paint heavily as she maintained her telekinetic hold on her blades, trying to keep them up in the air and ready to be launched at a moment's notice. Erza could only grit her teeth at how her strongest attack thus far could barely nick her opponent as the Barioth was still too fast for her to take on by herself.

"Jet Sword is supposed to be my trump card for dealing with monsters like this thing." Erza thought to herself, mentally chastising herself for missing her shot at taking down the Barioth while her friend was incapacitated for the moment. Over the past few months of traveling, she had discovered that by putting in more magical power into her Telekinesis Magic, she could launch her weapons with far greater speed and force than she could muster if she just used her own arms to throw them herself.

And as she had learned from watching Luffy's fights with Tensei and the Blizzardverns, Speed was Power.

Unfortunately, she had learned the hard way that if she tried to do this spell with more than one weapon at a time, the speed and power behind each launched weapon would be decreased drastically for each added weapon. How Luffy managed to attack at those kinds of speeds she needed to find out as soon as they were out of this mess...

Speaking of Luffy, Erza spared a quick glance with her remaining eye to the left of the Barioth and found herself letting out a breath of relief when she saw the rubber boy struggling to free himself, clearly having recovered from his dizzy spell but having trouble breaking out of his snowy prison.

"I need to buy him more time..." Erza thought as she quickly turned her left eye back on her enemy just as the Barioth turned her eyes onto the scarlet haired girl.

She would get her opportunity sooner than expected as the Barioth quickly leaped forward and started to quickly close the distance between them.

"Jet Swords!" Erza shouted with incredible haste as she quickly swung her left arm towards the charging Barioth, launching three of her remaining swords one after the other with incredible speed at the charging wyvern. The Ice Tusk Wyvern didn't falter in her charge for a second as she swiftly changed direction to rush towards the tree line as Erza's swords crashed into the ground behind the charging beast, each sword creating massive plumes of snow and dirt upon impact with the ground with each blade barely nipping at the Wyvern's tail.

Clicking her tongue in frustration, Erza swiftly snatched her two remaining swords out of the air as she took a few steps back to put some more distance between her and the now hidden Wyvern. Holding her two swords out in front of her with a vice-like grip, Erza kept her eyes peeled towards the direction of the snow plumes in case the Barioth tried to attack from around or through the unintended smokescreen she unwittingly provided it.

Her heart beating a mile a minute in her ears, Erza kept her focus on the enemy she knew was coming for her. The scarlet haired girl's focus would quickly pay off as the sounds of trees creaking were the only warning she got seconds before the Barioth burst through the snow plume right towards her.

Reacting quickly as a sudden surge of adrenaline rushed through her body in that moment, Erza threw the blade in her right hand at the lunging beast with a mighty yell while she instinctively poured more of her magical power into her throw to ensure her blade didn't miss its big terrifying target.

Thankfully for the scarlet haired girl, her Telekinesis Magic quickly activated thanks to her sudden surge of power as her thrown weapon suddenly shot true towards the Ice Tusk Wyvern at speeds greater than Erza had ever attempted before, the sword becoming a silver blur before her single eye as it rocketed towards the incoming Barioth.

The lunging Ice Tusk Wyvern couldn't even react as Erza's blade soared past her head at incredible speeds, the weapon becoming silver blur as it shot into the air.

In that exact moment, the arctic beast couldn't even blink as the accelerated blade nicked her right shoulder, cutting clean through the white hard scales covering her clavicle region. The damage didn't stop there as the skin and even the top of the trapezius muscles underneath these same scales were cleaved apart in one swift, deadly motion.

The sword kept its momentum as it sliced open the Barioth's shoulder like a burning hot knife through butter, moving past the wyvern's shoulder as it shot straight into the cloudy sky like an arrow, disappearing into the horizon only to never be seen again.

The Barioth could not stop herself from roaring in sheer agony as crimson blood burst into the air from the new gaping wound across her right shoulder, showering the area around her in her own vital fluids.

Staring wide eyed in shock and awe at the sudden yet bloody stop to the Barioth's lunge, Erza quickly snapped out of her stupor when she realized the Ice Tusk Wyvern was still coming down at her!

Reacting as fast as she could, Erza quickly leaped out of the way of the crashing wyvern seconds before the one ton beast slammed into the ground where she previously stood. Rolling onto her stomach with her last sword still held tightly in her left hand, Erza quickly pushed herself onto one foot before stabbing her sword into the ground to balance herself as she pushed up on her right leg to put her left foot on the ground.

Panting heavily while she kept her eyes on the screeching and bleeding wyvern in front of her, Erza was too tired to flinch when she saw the Barioth push itself back onto its feet after struggling for a few seconds to get up. Despite her weary state and the primal fear she felt toward the massive beast standing a couple feet away from her, Erza's grip on her blade never faltered when she saw the Barioth take a glance at her with rage filled eyes as its slitted pupils were now nothing but pinpricks in a mixed sea of yellow and red fury.

Despite having a massive gash across her right shoulder with streams of red blood running down from it and staining her right wing red, the Barioth quickly turned her body around so she could glare at the tired red headed girl with ice cold fury in her eyes. Despite the protests her body was giving her due to the intense pain she felt every time she moved her right forelimb, the Barioth was too enraged to give a shit about the pain as she had the thing responsible for her injuries right in front of her. Pulling her head back only to throw it forward let out a massive, deafening roar towards the girl, declaring she was done with this farce of a fight.

Despite the Barioth's deafening roar, Erza managed to steel herself enough to pull her sword out of the ground and hold it in front of her towards the larger beast as it ceased its roar to suddenly lunge at her in a surprising burst of speed. The Scarlet haired girl was quickly forced onto the defensive as she barely managed to leap out of the way of the wyvern's massive claws only to get struck in the side by the beast's wing instead.

Despite wearing thick armor over her chest and stomach, Erza still felt the full force of the Barioth's wing strike across her stomach as she felt the wind get knocked out her lungs again. The small girl was quickly sent spiraling through the air before her body hit the snowy ground only to bounce off of it. The arctic wyvern watched as the armored girl's body was sent skipping uncontrollably across the forest glade like a well tossed pebble across the surface of a pond.

The female wyvern was about to leap after her fumbling opponent until she felt something strike the top of her head with incredible force, instantly sending the Barioth's head crashing face first into the dirt. The Barioth never got a chance to comprehend what just happened as her head was struck again instantly with even greater force, embedding the wyvern's head deeper into the earth to the point it looked like the female wyvern was doing an impersonation of an ostrich.

Meanwhile, after nearly a minute of being thrown several meters across the dirt like a limp ragdoll, Erza managed to power through the pain that was currently wracking her entire body just long enough to thrust her long sword outward in an attempt to stab the ground to create makeshift brake to stop her body's momentum. As her sword stabbed true and embedded itself deep into the frozen dirt, the scarlet haired girl found herself coming to a stop entirely, almost dislocating her left arm in the process.

However, her vise grip on her weapon ensured that she wouldn't continue go flying off across the dirt as she hung loosely off her embedded blade, feeling tired and dizzy from her sudden and unwilling flight. Ignoring the streams of red blood flowing down her face and the pain in her left shoulder, Erza slowly tried to pull herself up onto her knees when she felt her body jerk suddenly.

Holding onto her embedded sword to support herself, Erza found herself having to cover her mouth with her gauntlets as she coughed up a glob of blood into her gauntlets while her eyepatch slowly fell off her face, the strap holding the cloth over her missing eye having snapped from all the abuse it has taken earlier. Spitting onto the ground to get rid of the last of the metallic taste from her mouth, the scarlet haired girl powered through the pain as she forced herself up onto her feet to continue fighting, adrenaline pumping through her veins to help her keep on fighting…

"JET AXE!" Erza's singular eye widened in shock at the sound of Luffy's voice as she turned around just in time to see the rubber boy's elongated leg snap downwards in an instant to slam his blackened foot and leg down on the back of the Barioth's neck, sending the artic wyvern's abdomen crashing down onto the snowy dirt while sending its head deeper into the earth from the sheer force of the rubber boy's swift but brutal strike.

Steam completely enveloped his body as Luffy stood on top of the Barioth's back while the beast struggled to free its head from the ground, a look of pure rage was present on his face as he quickly stretched both of his arms back behind him with his palms open. Without a single word, both of his outstretched hands were instantly coated in a heavy coating of Armament Haki, turning them both completely black just seconds before he threw his arms forward.

"JET BAZOOKA!" Luffy roared as he slammed his Haki coated palms into the Barioth's back at incredible speeds, further slamming the wyvern down into the ground. The scale plates lining the arctic wyvern's back began to crack before shattering, sending glittering, white scale fragments flying into the air around said rubber boy.

While Erza just stared in awe at how much damage he was inflicting onto the wyvern in such a short amount of time, Luffy didn't share the same sentiments as he struggled to hold onto the wyvern as she started thrashing her body in every possible direction to free her head from the hole it was trapped in.

Panting heavily as he looked over his handiwork, Luffy could only tch at how the Barioth continued to thrash underneath him despite him hitting her as hard as he could with his Gear Second moves. Realizing that the side effects of Gear Second were starting to kick in, Luffy quickly started inhaling as much as much air as possible before he reverted back to his natural state.

Off to the side of the scuffle, Erza could only lean on her planted weapon as she watched Luffy suddenly inflate his body into a large balloon like shape, looking more like a rubber ball with arms and legs attached to it than an actual human being not that she would ever care about something as petty as that. She remained quiet as she watched the rubber boy begin to twist his inflated body around very tightly while the rubber boy had stretched out his legs to wrap around the wyvern's abdomen to make sure it didn't buck him off into the air too soon.

Once he had twisted his inflated body enough, Luffy quickly unwrapped his legs from the wyvern's abdomen as he quickly blew the air out behind his back while untwisting his body to launch himself upwards into the air, leaving behind a stream of his steam in his wake. Erza quickly threw her head upwards to follow Luffy's steam trail as the rubber boy continued to soar higher into the sky, the boy was quickly moving farther and farther away from the ground with each passing second.

She continued to follow his movements as Luffy quickly passed the tree tops and reached a height where he was now nothing but a black dot in the cloudy sky from her vantage point on the ground. The scarlet haired girl couldn't tell how high Luffy had launched himself as his steam trail quickly blew away after a few seconds but she kept her eyes peeled towards the sky just to see what her friend was doing for him to launch himself that high.

She quickly got her answer when she saw the black dot that she thought was Luffy start descending back to the earth at a rapid rate. However, the scarlet haired girl quickly noticed that something was off about how fast he was descending towards the earth. From her vantage point, it almost seemed like he was growing bigger with each passing second…

It didn't take less than half a minute for Luffy to become a distinguishable figure in Erza's left eye but the scarlet haired girl couldn't stop herself from taking a few steps back in shock once she actually got a good look at what he was about to do. Noticing just how fast her friend was falling towards the glade, Erza did the first rational thing that came to her mind and quickly bolted towards the trees as fast as her legs could carry her.

Not even a few seconds later, the Barioth had finally managed to pull her head free from the dirt that had kept her trapped for several minutes, shaking her head rapidly to shake off any dirt that clung to her face. She was about to even lick her paw like forelimbs to rub them against her dirt covered face when out of the corner of her glowing red eyes, she spotted Erza running into the trees lining the glade with her back towards her.

Unwilling to allow the armored child to escape her wrath, the female wyvern was about to give chase after the scarlet haired girl when she suddenly noticed a large shadow being casted over her body. Acting on her basic instincts, the Barioth looked over shoulder to see what could possibly cast a shadow big enough to completely engulf her entire body in it.

She immediately regretted that decision…

"ELEPHANT GUN!" Luffy screamed at the top of his lungs, his words echoing across the area as he launched a massive, Haki coated fist down towards the completely flabbergasted Barioth.

The female wyvern didn't even have a second to react as Luffy's enlarged fist slammed down on top of her with incredible force, smashing her deep into the earth in an instant as everything not rooted deeply into earth from the snow to the bodies of the fallen Blangos and Blangonga were quickly blown away by the resulting shock wave. Even the trees that surrounded the glade were shaking violently from the sudden impact of the rubber boy's massive attack, some of the smaller trees were even uprooted from their posts by the small earthquake he created.

As for the Barioth, her mind was overwhelmed by the sheer agony surging throughout her entire body as laid motionless in the middle of the crater the rubber boy had made. Unable to embrace the sweet, numbing embrace of unconsciousness, she could only let out a pathetic squeal from her throat even as Luffy's fist boy's fist was quickly pulled off of her, leading whatever remaining rational parts of her mind to think that the worse part was over now…

Only for another gigantic black fist to come swiftly down upon her, smashing her further into the ground as the entire area quaked from the impact.

"Gomu Gomu no…" Luffy started to say as he quickly pulled back his massive right fist only to launch his equally massive left fist downwards with the same kind of incredible speed, smashing the stunned Barioth even further into the ground before she could even recover.

"ELEPHANT GATLING!" Luffy shouted aloud with his voice echoing throughout the entire area as he started to unleash an incredibly rapid barrage of gigantic punches down towards the wyvern, his gigantic fists moving back and forth at a rate so fast that it almost looked like the boy had suddenly sprouted multiple gigantic fists.

To anyone watching this scene from a safe distance, it looked like the rubber boy was unleashing the combined might of an army of actual Giants bringing their fists down onto the glade in a fit of unyielding rage.

That was the image that was starting to form in Erza's head as the scarlet haired girl watched her friend unleash his devastating barrage of gigantic punches onto the unfortunate wyvern below him, having moved a good distance away from the edges of the glade lest she get caught up in his destructive wake.

Her fears were not unfounded, however, as for every time Luffy's fists came crashing down onto the unfortunate wyvern, the entire glade quaked violently as the ground began to rend itself apart with every direct hit while trees lining the glade began to find themselves uprooted from their posts only to collapse into the glade and be instantly pulverized. Even the rest of the forest was beginning to be affected the tremors created by the boy's unyielding barrage as the air was soon filled with a massive chorus of panicked squeals and roars as a massive army of wildly different creatures were all rushing en masse out of the forest, trampling everything in their path as they tried to escape from the sudden earthquake.

However, Luffy continued to unleash his rapid barrage of destructive punches without restraint as his eyes glared down at the arctic wyvern's position, completely ignoring the absolute devastation he was creating in order to viciously beat on what most would be considered to be an already beaten foe. It was only after six minutes of nonstop punching did Luffy start to feel the side effects of using Gear Third for too long at his current age.

Back in his world when he was nineteen years old, Luffy had already spent two long years with Rayleigh to drill the basics of Haki into his skull until it had nearly become second nature to him like his Devil Fruit. During that two year interlude away from his crew, Rayleigh's training regimen had forced him to further improve upon Gear Second and Gear Third in order to remove or mitigate the draw backs each Gear had in order to be better able to fight evenly against the massive beasts that called Rusukaina their home and eventually enable him to take on the various monsters that called the New World their personal playground.

Thanks to that two year interlude, he managed to find a way to mitigate Gear Second's energy consumption by just pumping one limb to enter that state for a brief period of time to attack quickly and precisely. He even managed to get rid of his shrinking problem with Gear Third while also removing his speed issue by controlling where the air is stored in his enlarged limbs. At his proper age, his increased strength would ensure he could launch and retract his inflated limbs at far faster rate than he could've managed when he first discovered Gear Third.

Then he somehow ended up becoming a kid again and he found out that his newfound skills didn't matter much when his now younger body couldn't handle the same level of stress for long periods of time like his older body could. Since his arrival at Fairy Tail, the rubber boy had been forced to reserve his Gear Third moves as finishing moves for enemies that were either too big or too strong for his Gear Second attacks to do much damage against since he lacked the strength to reasonably move his inflated limbs anywhere near as fast as he could back in the New World.

As a result of his now more limited strength and stamina, Luffy was forced to stop his Elephant Gatling before his arms snapped in half from having to launch his inflated fists at such rapid rates. Luffy's inflated fists and forearms soon lost their black coloration seconds before they deflated back to their regular size, the rubber boy's arms quickly snapping back into place as gravity took hold of his tired form.

Exhausted from the overuse of his Armament Haki and Gear Third, Luffy found himself falling helplessly towards the massive crater he created in the middle of a snow covered glade. Landing head first into a slope leading further down into the new crater, Luffy bounced off the compacted dirt only to land face first near the bottom of the slope, his rubber physiology ensuring that he wasn't genuinely harmed from the fall even if his body still felt sore from it.

Panting heavily, Luffy lifted his head up to rest on his chin as plain white snow rained down around him. Forcing himself to look up, he quickly spotted something large and white lying in the middle of his crater before his eyes narrowed at the sight.

Lying several meters away from the exhausted rubber boy at the bottom of the crater was the battered and broken form of the Barioth, the mighty Ice Tusk Wyvern now looking more like a shell of her former self.

The white scale plates that ran down the Barioth back were either cracked or had broken off into pieces while several of the beast's wing spikes appeared to have broken off during the assault, the rubber boy could even spot some of these black spikes lying next to the defeated creature's head. Even the Barioth's amber fangs had been broken off of her face as Luffy spotted them lying just a couple feet away from his face, shining brightly in front of him despite the clouds hanging over the area.

Despite the pain he felt in his arms, Luffy forced himself off the ground and onto his feet as he started walking towards the unconscious wyvern. Stretching his arms out to grab the arctic wyvern's fangs, Luffy silently placed them into his pockets as he took one last look at the broken creature in front of him.

Only when he heard the sound of someone coming towards him did Luffy dare to take his eyes off the Ice Tusk Wyvern as he turned his head around to see Erza quickly sliding down the slope on her boots.

"Erza! Over here!" Luffy shouted with surprise and joy in his voice as he ignored his sore arms to wave towards the scarlet haired girl once she reached the bottom of the crater. He was about to run towards her only to be beaten to the punch as Erza leap towards him suddenly, forcing the rubber boy to catch the scarlet haired girl in his sore arms while said armored girl quickly wrapped her arms around his chest.

"You're okay!" Erza almost shouted into the boy's collar, relief filling her voice as she tightened her hold around the rubber boy's chest. Despite almost getting knocked off his feet by his scarlet haired friend's sudden jump, Luffy managed to stay on his feet and chuckled at Erza's response as he returned her hug as much as he could.

"Of course I'm okay! Why wouldn't I be?" Luffy asked with a casual tone of voice. His causal response just caused Erza to pull her face out of his collar to look at him with a bewildered look in her eye.

"Why wouldn't you be... Luffy! One minute I was watching you pummel a dang wyvern several feet into the ground with fists the size of submarines and in the next, I suddenly see you plummeting to the ground with air blowing out of your mouth like a damn balloon!" Erza started with a more even tone of voice only for it to into anger at the rubber boy as she detached herself from their embrace, her left eye was lit aflame with raw anger and worry as she glared at the confused rubber boy.

"Like a balloon..." Luffy stated with some confusion in his voice, only for his eyes to widen in realization. "Oh! You're talking about Gear Third!" Luffy stated simply as he placed his fist in his palms, his words doing nothing to douse the flames in Erza's left eye but they did cause her to lift her right eyebrow in confusion at the term.

"Erza, what you saw earlier was just my bones deflating after I nearly reached my current Haki limit." Luffy explained simply, never noticing how Erza's singular eye widened into near pin pricks when he mentioned how his body was 'deflating' after nearly reaching his Haki limit.

"It's nothing to worry about-" Luffy never got to finish his sentence as Erza's right hand struck him across his face, her cold-resistant silver gauntlets ensuring that there was more power behind her slap than there would be if she had done it with her bare hand. Regardless of whether she had been wearing her gauntlets or not, the rubber boy nearly found himself being knocked off his feet from the blow but managed to stop himself from falling on his butt. He quickly turned his head around to stare in shock at Erza, whose right arm was still raised while the top half of her face was shadowed over by her scarlet hair

"Ow! What was that for Erza?!" Luffy shouted in surprise as he rubbed his sore left cheek, his rubber physiology ensuring that a slap from a gauntlet made from silver wouldn't leave lasting damage but leave it to Erza to find a way to make that sting for him. He was about to say something else when Erza suddenly slapped him across his face again, this time with her left hand instead of her right.

"It's not 'nothing' Luffy!" Erza shouted loudly with raw anger in her tone, cutting Luffy off from making any kind of response as her voice echoed across the entire glade. Despite hearing the anger in her voice that would normally stop him from arguing back, Luffy found himself silenced not by her voice but by the way Erza's hands and body were shaking as she spoke.

"Don't you dare play this whole thing off as nothing!" Erza continued as her body continued to shake uncontrollably, her scarlet locks hiding her remaining eye from view while she looked down at the ground in thought. "The last time I saw you falling through the air like that, an entire damn tower followed soon after!" Erza basically snarled through gritted teeth, her shaking hands curling into fists so tight her knuckles would've looked whiter than the snow falling around the duo.

She then looked up straight at the boy's face to show her blood stained face, giving a wide eyed Luffy a real good look at what lies underneath her eye patch in place of her right eye. However, from Luffy's perspective, the gruesome sight paled in comparison to the sight of tears welling up in the girl's left eye, the boy could see all the anger, fear, and pain the girl held in her remaining eye while memories of their escape from the Tower of Heaven flashed through the girl's mind on a loop.

"If Ultear wasn't there, then you would've... you would've..." Erza could only utter as she started to sniffle, causing Luffy to snap out of his shock to immediately place his hands on both of her shoulders.

"Wait a minute Erza! What I just did here is nothing like what I did back at the tower!" Luffy tried to explain hastily as her grasped her spaulders firmly but gently at the same time, trying his best to stop the flow of tears from his friend's eye. "I only ended up like that back then because I used Gear Fourth when I was tired! I used Gear Third to finish the fight!" Luffy explained hastily, missing a few critical details in his explanation but it seemed to work in pulling Erza out of her memories of those events as she wiped her left eye of her tears.

"There's a difference between your gears?" Erza asked, realizing she should've noticed that after hearing him shout Gear Second during their fights.

"Yeah well... it's kind of hard to explain right now..." Luffy muttered while clasping his chin in thought, before suddenly clasping his side in pain as his mind finally caught up to the pain his body was in.

"Luffy?!" Erza nearly shouted as she kneeled down beside the rubber boy, her voice carrying a worried tone to it as she noticed that his coat's blood stains were growing in size, more specifically on his left side and on his back.

"I'm fine Erza." Luffy stated simply as he fell onto his rear, his bare legs stretched out before him despite the freezing cold as he started to rub one of his sore arms. "More importantly, are you alright? That saber tooth dragon thing didn't hurt you too bad did it?" He asked with a slightly pained strain to his voice, but his concern for her was almost palpable as Erza could see his eyes visibly scan her entire body before resting on her face. "You have a pretty big cut on your head." He stated simply, ignoring the scarlet haired girl's missing eye patch to focus on the streams of blood running down her face.

"You're one to talk." Erza thought to herself as she took a seat beside her friend, snow falling quietly onto the glade around them while the scarlet haired girl lifted her hands up until they were level with her chest. A flash of light soon filled them only to fade away just as quickly to reveal a white medical kit, the red cross on the kit's sides gave it away to Luffy almost instantly and caused a nostalgic look to form on his face.

"Okay with this medical kit I got from Kazetaro-san, I should be able to patch us up enough to get us back to Jura so he can finish the job properly." Erza stated as she opened the kit to pull out a roll of medicinal gauze. "Okay Luffy, I need you to apply this directly to the cut on your head..." The scarlet haired girl began as she handed Luffy the roll gauze, the rubber boy just nodded his head dully and started to follow her instructions.

"Okay Chopper." Luffy stated melancholically while he held the gauze directly to the cut on his head while Erza stood up onto her feet and began wrapping it around his forehead, not even realizing what he just said. Erza stopped bandaging her friend's head and raised a confused eyebrow at Luffy's sudden choice of words.

"Chopper?" Erza repeated in confusion at the strange name before noticing the wistful look on the rubber boy's face. "Luffy, who's Chopper?" Erza asked curiously, Luffy's eyes widening in shock at his slip of the tongue.

"Oh Chopper's just a good friend of mine from before I joined Fairy Tail. He's a doctor that patches me up whenever I get into fights." Luffy answered hastily as he turned to look Erza in the eye, giving an incomplete but genuine description of his furry friend and the beloved doctor of his crew.

"Wow! I didn't know you were friends with a doctor, Luffy." Erza stated in genuine surprise at his statement before she continued to bandage Luffy's head.

"Yeah Chopper's just about the best doctor in the world..." Luffy replies fondly, a genuine smile on his face as memories of the talking reindeer surged through his mind.

When he had first joined Fairy Tail, Makarov had made him promise that he wouldn't discuss anything about his previous life with any of his guild mates or anyone outside of the guild aside from the diminutive old man himself or the bubble gum haired witch that lived in the forest near Magnolia. While he didn't understand why Makarov wanted him to keep it a secret from the others let alone why it was a big deal that no one should learn of his otherworldly origins, Luffy decided to just nod his head and agree to the terms so he could just get started on getting stronger for his return to the New World.

So while he couldn't tell Erza everything about his friends back in the New World or his life as a pirate, just talking about his friend's passions was catharsis enough for Luffy after nearly three to maybe four years of keeping them a secret.

On the other hand, Erza continued her work silently without further questions, his answer satisfying her curiosity to Luffy's relief. However, the way her left eye stole a quick glance at her friend's face made it clear she wasn't done here as she tightened the bandages around his forehead, squeezing Luffy's head tight enough to nearly pop out his eyes out of their sockets.

"OW! Erza! What the hell are you doing?!" Luffy shouted in shock at his scarlet haired friend's sudden actions only to get a foot to his chest.

"Quit struggling! I'm just trying to apply the bandages properly." Erza stated calmly as she pulled on the bandages wrapped tightly around Luffy's head. "It appears that tying bandages is much more difficult than I had anticipated..." She muttered to herself as she tightened her pull and pushed down further on Luffy to cut the bandages from their roll.

"OW! You suck at this!"

While Luffy got a sudden kick to the face for his blunt review of Erza's bedside manner, several meters away near the bottom of the crater, one of the Barioth's claws twitched suddenly as her tail began to slide slowly across the dirt.

Back with the duo, Erza planted one of her longswords into the ground while Luffy rubbed his sore but bandaged forehead, grumbling to himself about why the scarlet haired girl didn't just summon the sword in the first place to cut his bandages. He was about to say more when his Observation Haki suddenly flared to life, his eyes glowing red as he swiftly turned his head in the direction of the Barioth.

"Ok, now that your head wound has been bandaged Luffy, I need you to bandage my-" Erza was about to say more until Luffy's right hand suddenly clamped around her mouth, silencing her quickly as she looked down to see that the rubber boy had stretched his hand out to wrap around her while he was looking in the opposite direction. The scarlet haired girl was about to tear his hand away from her mouth until she was suddenly brought down to his level in less than a second, the rubber boy placing a finger before his mouth as he turned his attention back to her only to lean his head into her shoulder.

"That saber tooth dragon thing is still alive." Luffy muttered silently and seriously into her left ear, the armored girl's remaining eye widening significantly at the news while the rubber boy unwrapped his right arm off of her body.

They both turned their heads and watched in silence as the Barioth slowly picked itself of the ground and with undoubtedly great pain, started limping up the crater towards the other end of the glade. The Arctic wyvern couldn't even move that fast as she dragged her broken tail through the snow, her broken left hind leg was not helping as it appeared to be bent in the wrong direction, which resulting in her barely hobbling up the slope.

"How is it still alive? I saw you smash that thing hard enough to make a new hole in the ground!" Erza muttered back just as silently,

"I don't know." Luffy answered simply in reply, but Erza could tell that Luffy was actually surprised by the beast's ability to take a beating. "But I don't intend to find out..." He stated simply as he stood up onto his feet with some effort, Erza quickly springing onto her feet to help him up and make sure he could stand properly.

"Wait, what are you going to do?!" Erza asked with her normal tone of voice as Luffy turned around to look her in the eye.

"I'm going to kill it. What else is there to do?" Luffy replied just as simply as before, stunning Erza with his casual reply.

"But we've already won! That wyvern's already beaten so we don't need to go any further!" Erza argued back as she stepped in front of the rubber boy, shocked at Luffy's surprisingly ruthless decision. Luffy couldn't help but stop in his tracks to nod his head at Erza's assessment of the situation.

"You're definitely not wrong about that Erza. On any other day, I would agree with you and just leave after a fight like that." Luffy admitted honestly with a nod of his head, his body language relaxed as he verbally agreed with her statement. "But today is not one of those days." He stated as calmly as possible as he tried to walk past the armored girl only for her to step in front of him again to stop him in his tracks.

"But why are you determined to finish this opponent after all the others we've faced, Luffy?! What makes this situation any different than any other fight we've been in?!" Erza nearly shouted aloud, desperation creeping into her voice as ice cold fear seeped into her veins. It was the same kind of fear that she would never dare speak aloud even in private and would sooner take to the grave with her if she could. It was the fear that Luffy was possibly turning into another 'Jellal'.

Despite the emotional parts of her mind arguing otherwise, the rational parts of her could not ignore the similarities between both boys as both of them were extremely kind, generous souls who, in her eyes, fought for what was right against tyranny while offering unending support or kindness towards those they called their friends. And that was what troubled Erza the most about this situation, the idea that her best friend could end up becoming a ruthless killer just like Jellal had become at the tail end of her revolution.

After all, if the person who gave her a last name and the courage to fight against impossible odds ended up becoming a maniacal madman bent on making his plans for the world a reality, then her logic dictated that any of her friends, past or present, were just one bad decision away from becoming like her fallen friend.

However, the emotional center of Erza's mind dictated otherwise, that what happened to Jellal was an unfortunate situation outside of her control and that not everyone would fall like he did. After all, despite their similarities, Luffy and Jellal were two very different people who just expressed their best qualities through different ways, albeit Luffy's ways often left Erza with a headache...

In the end, her emotional side won over her logical side as Erza decided to wait and see how Luffy would reply to her question, willing to see if she was just overreacting to one of Luffy's more selfish moments or if she was right and Luffy may be starting down a dark path. She would sooner damn herself back to working on that tower for several more years then let Luffy fall into that same darkness...

A whole minute passed since Erza asked her question and while Luffy's face remained unreadable, very few could tell he was actually thinking unless his head started to burn at feverish temperatures. Before another quarter of a minute passed, Luffy finally gave his answer.

"That dragon thing hurt you."

Erza could only widen her left eye in surprise at those five simple little words, the honest and genuine way that he said them told her that there was no hidden meaning behind them.

"I don't need any reason other than that to take that saber tooth thing down for good. It's one thing if I did something to piss it off enough for it to attack us like that." He stated simply, intentionally, or unintentionally, admitting his fault for their earlier battle with the Blangonga's troop only for his eyes to harden as he watched the arctic wyvern continue to hobble away.

"But that thing attacked us to kill you for no reason at all! And now it thinks it can walk away after hurting you like that?! That is something I can't forgive!" Luffy stated seriously, his eyes dark like steel as he turned his attention away from Erza towards the other side of the glade.

Erza was stunned by the intensity in Luffy's words and his eyes, but despite him looking more serious than ever she could still see the same concern he always held in his eyes for her, his friend, after every fight.

"I'm glad that I was just overreacting..." Erza thought to herself as Luffy walked past her to finish off the nearly dead wyvern. However, she could not deny her discomfort with the idea of ending the life of an already defeated opponent, memories of the Giaprey's death call and of the light being snuffed from the Blangonga's eyes flashed before her singular eye.

The armored girl unconsciously covered her throat as she remembered how the beast stared into her only eye while drowning in its own blood, her body shuddering as she remembered the look of absolute terror in its eyes before it finally passed on.

"Hey! Get back here you damn bastard!"

Erza was quickly pulled out of her memories by the sound of Luffy yelling at something as she quickly turned around only to find to her surprise that the Barioth was already rising high into the air albeit with some add difficulty...

"You're not getting out of here that easily, you ice spitting bastard!" Luffy shouted brazenly as he clung to the end of the Barioth's tail, hanging on tight despite the Wyvern's rising altitude and its attempts to throw him off.

Luffy's words had the opposite effect as the Ice Tusk Wyvern just increased her attempts nearly tenfold to throw off the monster clinging to her broken tail. Screw her revenge on the scarlet mage, the thing in human skin clinging onto her tail was the real monster she needed to get rid of from the start.

The Barioth didn't have much time to struggle as her keen ears picked up something whistling through the air towards her, the wyvern didn't have a chance to react as a silver blur struck her tail directly and cut clean through it like a burning, hot knife through butter.

Luffy only had a few seconds to react as the tail segment he was holding onto started to plummet towards the earth, the blade having hit the Wyvern's tail a few feet above his head. Quickly letting go of the sliced off tail, Luffy was about to stretch his arms towards a nearby tree to stop his fall when he suddenly felt a sense of weightlessness take hold of him.

While the Barioth screeched in agony as it flew off to parts unknown with a bleeding stump for a tail, Luffy ignored the arctic beast's screeching to look down in awe as Erza slowly pulled him back down to earth, her Telekinesis Magic pushing her magic reserves to their limits as she tried to ensure a safe landing for him. Setting Luffy down gently on the ground while the Barioth's severed tail crashed into the ground behind him, Erza felt light headed with relief as she no longer felt the massive drain on her magic reserves.

She almost found herself about to collapse from exhaustion when Luffy suddenly appeared beside her in an instant, catching her in his arms before her body could even touch the ground.

"Whoa! Erza, are you alright?" Luffy asked quickly as he pulled Erza back onto her feet and plopped her left arm over his shoulders to support her.

"Yeah I'm fine Luffy." Erza replied simply but tiredly, exhaustion showing clearly on her face.

"I'm glad to hear that you're fine Erza-dono." A familiar voice stated aloud, drowning out all other noise in the glade as Luffy and Erza widened their eyes in surprise. Turning their heads simultaneously in the same direction, the duo found themselves looking up to see Jura looking down at them from the edge of the crater, his arms crossed while a firm look was plastered across his face.

"Jura-san." Erza could only mutter in sheer shock at the man's sudden appearance as the ground around her and Luffy suddenly raised itself upwards, lifting the duo and the severed wyvern's tail up until they were at ground level with the older, more powerful man.

"Yo Jura!" Luffy greeted the older man casually, either not noticing or uncaring of the firm look upon Jura's face or the fact a new ledge overlooking the crater was suddenly beneath his feet.

"Jura-san, how long have you been there?" Erza asked with genuine surprise as Luffy helped her walk towards the taller man.

"Not long Erza-dono." Jura stated simply as he took a quick look around the glade, spotting the corpse of a Naco Agul lying at the bottom of a tree lying to the far right of the glade. "I just got here in time to see you cut off that Barioth's tail while it was ascending into the sky." He answered truthfully as he started walking towards the duo, deciding to leave out the part of having to step over the corpses of at least eight Blangos before he reached the border of the glade to witness Erza's stunning display of marksmanship.

"But I have to say I'm impressed with how you handled Luffy-dono's rescue near the end, not many mages your age would be able to handle the strain of telekinetically lifting someone close to their own body weight." Jura stated honestly with a proud smile on his face, genuinely impressed by Erza's growth in magic. While Erza could only blush with embarrassment at the sudden praise, Jura's smile quickly turned into a stern look as he once again gazed out over the glade to survey the damage across it.

"However, I'm going to have to ask what exactly you two were doing this far away from the cottage." The earth mage stated with a much firmer tone of voice, his voice indicated he wanted to know what exactly they were doing in this part of the forest. Almost on cue, several trees' roots gave out as they collapsed into the glade with a thunderous noise, causing Luffy to look back over his shoulders while Erza and Jura maintained eye contact.

"It's kind of a long story…" Erza began, hoping Jura would be understanding of their actions…

Several Hours later, Lamia Scale Cottage, the Living Room…

"So let me know if I am understanding this correctly…" Jura began as he sat across from Luffy and Erza on a large chair built for someone of his size while the duo sat on a large couch with emerald green cushions and pillows. Behind Jura to his left, stood a large red mahogany door that served as the entrance to the cottage with large glass pane windows on either side of the entrance, the dimming lights filtering through them told Erza that the sun was starting to set.

Luffy was no longer wearing his jacket while Erza had requiped off her Ice Climber Armor to wear her more casual clothing inside the cottage, both of them had new bandages wrapped around their heads and around their injuries underneath their clothes. The scarlet haired girl even had a new eyepatch covering her right eye socket, the girl was incredibly flustered to find out that her old one had snapped off earlier.

"You, Erza-dono, wanted Luffy-dono to teach you this 'Haki' and his decision on how to teach this 'power' to you was by going out into the Fabaceae Forest to fight the beasts that call it home as a demonstration. Am I missing something?" Jura summarized succinctly, his voice was calm despite the ridiculousness of the situation he just described.

"Hmm… Yeah that's about it." Luffy answered simply, scratching the back on his head as he leaned back onto the couch, his precious Straw Hat resting on the coffee table between him, Jura and Erza. Jura turned his attention to Erza as the scarlet haired girl nodded in reply, confirming Luffy's statement about their plan for the day.

"I see…" Jura stated calmly as he turned his attention back to Luffy. "Luffy-dono, you don't mind if I ask you something?" He asked calmly, crossing his arms as he stood straight in his seat.

"Sure. Ask away." Luffy replied casually.

"Why did you take Erza-dono deep into the Fabaceae Forest to demonstrate this Haki power instead of near the cottage?" Jura asked politely but firmly if his tone of voice was anything to go by. Erza could only rub her right arm anxiously as she looked off to the side with embarrassment while Luffy remained unperturbed by the question.

"Well I needed to demonstrate the three Colors to her and fighting is the only way I know how. I'm not good with long explanations about mystery things like this." Luffy answered back casually, shrugging his shoulders as he laid back on the couch cushions. "I was taught Haki that way so I thought Erza would be able to learn that way too." He stated simply, not noticing the pointed glare Erza was giving him.

Jura said nothing as Erza whacked Luffy upside the head, his mind more focused on what Luffy had said than the ensuing argument between the two children. Taking a moment to contemplate his thoughts and decide his next course of action, Jura cleared his throat to get the duo's attention.

"Luffy-dono," Jura began calm and collected, unfazed by the sight of a beaten Luffy with multiple bumps atop his head while Erza held him up by the front of his shirt. Erza quickly put Luffy down onto his seat and returned to her seat to pay attention to what the Earth Mage was about to say.

"While I cannot agree with your decisions on how to teach your friend this 'power' you speak of, I cannot condemn them either." He started off smoothly and calmly, surprising Erza with his words while Luffy's face was unreadable but his eyes showed he was paying close attention to the Earth mage as he spoke. "To be honest, I have never heard of this power you called 'Haki' before in my life. No one at Lamia Scale has ever mentioned it before even in rumors and neither have I heard about it from either my family or the master I studied under when I started my training in magic." He explained, his voice showing complete honesty about his lack of knowledge on the subject which further surprised Erza enough for her to sit up straight in her seat on, from her perspective, the right sight of the emerald colored couch.

"Wait a minute, Jura! You're not mad about what we did today?" Erza asked, surprised at how calm Jura was being about Luffy and her journey into the woods for her first "lesson" in Haki.

"I never said that, Erza-dono." Jura replied swiftly, maintaining his calm tone of voice but he soon closed his eyes as he just let out a sigh at the events of this day. "In most circumstances, I would punish you both like I would punish any of my younger guildmates back at Lamia Scale for attempting anything nearly as reckless or as foolish as what you two did today." His voice still remained calm but Erza could tell that there was a hardened edge to it that made it clear to her that he was mad about their actions.

While Luffy just remained steadfast and kept looking at Jura with an unreadable look in his eyes, Erza at least had the dignity to look away towards the opposite side of the room.

"…but I won't." Jura stated calmly as he opened his eyes to see Erza looking at him with surprise clear on her face while Luffy remained the same.

"I can't punish either of you because neither of you are explicitly in my care nor my juniors in Lamia Scale. I can scold you both for your reckless actions but ultimately I'm not in charge of either one of you or your actions and I've only offered to both of you this cottage to stay in until you're fit enough to continue traveling to your destination." The older man explained simply, listing out why he wasn't currently lecturing either of them for hours on end about dangers of the Fabaceae Forest. "And I believe you've both suffered enough from your ordeal today, that any further punishment would just be unjust at this point since I know neither of you meant to bring each other into harm's way like that. So I will let your past actions just be that, 'in the past' so to speak." He explained in a calm manner, his words causing Erza to relax enough to lie back down into coach as she felt a weight be taken off her shoulders.

"And to be honest, I don't know enough about this "Haki" to understand if Luffy-dono's method was the best way to demonstrate such a power to you, Erza-dono. So I will withhold my judgement on whether he had taken the best course of action in your lessons with him until I get a better understanding of this power through my own eyes." Jura stated as he looked towards the rubber boy in question for a moment before turning his gaze back upon both of them before hardening his eyes slightly.

"But if you are to going to continue these lessons during your stay with me, I must humbly ask you Luffy-dono that you teach Erza-dono near the cottage so I can watch over your lessons to ensure that neither of you are attacked during your training." Jura asked calmly but his tone of voice indicated he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Sure! I don't mind." Luffy answered back immediately, a grin on his face as he laid back into the couch. "I only took Erza out into the woods earlier because I needed an opponent to show off the rest of the colors to her. Oh and to not break your anything near your house while I showed her how to use Haki." He explained casually, not seeing a problem with Jura's conditions for Erza's Haki training.

"I see then…" Jura said calmly, his eyes softening considerably as he turned his attention onto the scarlet haired girl who had been silently listening for the past few minutes. "Erza-dono, are these conditions fine with you?" The earth mage asked calmly, his question causing Erza to quickly snap back to reality as she noticed his attention towards her.

"I'm fine with your conditions Jura-san." She answered humbly, prompting a smile from the older man's face.

"I see then. Now that this business has been settled, how about I start preparing dinner for all of us? I believe you both could use a hearty meal after the events of today, don't you think?" Jura asked as he rose to his feet from his chair, his calm and rigid tone being replaced with a softer and lighter hearted tone.

Erza sat silently as Luffy promptly asked for meat in his meal, which just prompted Jura to laugh at the boy's quick answer. Erza could smile softly at the scene as she laid back further into the couch and pulled her sock-covered feet onto so she could lie down while Luffy followed after Jura into the kitchen and dining area.

The scarlet haired girl let loose a sigh she didn't know she had been holding in, her injuries barely acting up as she laid down lazily across the couch waiting for Jura to call her for dinner.

Later that night, the guest room…

"Man, dinner was great! Wasn't it Erza?" Luffy asked casually as he jumped onto his side of the bed, bouncing off it slightly while wearing winter pajamas loaned to him by Jura. He peered up at the roof's skylight and frowned slightly at how cloudy the night sky was becoming lately, he could barely even see the moon or any stars at this rate!

Noticing a lack of a reply from the scarlet haired girl, Luffy turned his towards the bathroom to see that its door was shut with the lights still on, indicating that Erza was still getting dressed for bed.

"Erza?" Luffy asked curiously, leaping off the bed and the moment his bare feet touched the intricate lamia-inspired carpet covering most of the floor, he suddenly appeared by the bathroom door in a burst of Soru.

"Hey Erza! Are you done in there? You've been in there for a while…" Luffy stated curiously as he casually banged his fists against the door, trying to get a reaction from his friend.

"What is it Luffy?" Erza's voice echoed through the space between the door, the sound of water going down the drain indicating she was still using the sink.

"Oh I wanted to know why you were taking so long in the bathroom Erza. You've been in there for like over an hour now." Luffy answered back casually, stretching his arms back to loosen them up. When he got no reply for the next couple minutes, the rubber boy stopped his stretching routine to look up curiously at the door.

"…Erza?"

"…it's nothing Luffy. I'll be out in a few minutes…" Erza replied back after brief period of silence, the rubber boy wasn't sure about what caused her to be quiet for a while but he decided to trust her about it as he went back to stargazing on the bed.

A few minutes later, the bathroom door opened to unveil a flash of light that briefly filled the doorway. The light faded away as quickly as it appeared to reveal Erza standing in the door way wearing a green version of her Heart Kreuz styled pajamas, her head was covered by a wet towel as she went about wiping her scarlet hair dry.

Stepping out of the door way as she hung the wet towel on a nearby towel rack, Erza quickly spotted Luffy looking up at the roof's sky light. Wordlessly, she walked towards the bed in her bare feet and silently climbed past Luffy to get into her side of the bed.

"Hey Luffy, can you get the lights?" Erza asked the rubber boy as she laid on her back under the blankets, having forgotten to do that before she climbed into the bed. She would've gone and done it herself but she felt too sore from the day's events to get up.

"Uh yeah, sure." Luffy replied casually, noticing something off with Erza's behavior for the first time that night before he got off the bed to turn off the lacrima lamps stationed near the bed. Erza just kept her left eye focused on the skylight above her as the lights quickly went out, leaving the room in near total darkness with the only light coming from the moon shining down through the skylight.

"Hey Erza, scoot over a bit. I need to get in." Luffy's voice quickly pulled her attention away from the celestial body as she felt the blanket being lifted away from her.

"Oh. Sorry Luffy…" Erza muttered back in reply, her mind focused on other things as she scooted further in to the left side of the bed. The sudden shift in weight to her right told her that Luffy had gotten in without any problem as she felt the blanket be pulled up. "Hey, Luffy?" The scarlet girl asked quietly but the sudden shifting in pillows told her that Luffy was facing towards her.

"What is it Erza?" Luffy almost yawned out, almost ready to hit the hay but something told him that something was troubling the scarlet haired swordswoman to be.

"…are you mad that the Barioth got away?" Erza asked quietly as she turned her head to her right, letting her see Luffy's face through the darkness that permeated through the room. Quickly recognizing the name of the creature that attacked them from asking Jura about it, Luffy didn't think twice before he gave her his answer.

"No." He said simply, not even sure why Erza would ask such a thing. He turned his head around to his left only to find Erza facing towards him, and despite the darkness concealing her face from view, the rubber boy could feel her left eye staring at him intensely. "Erza, is something wrong?" Luffy asked calmly, but concern was clear in his voice.

As if realizing that she was caught staring at him, Erza quickly turned her head away to look up at the skylight above them before taking in a deep breath through her nose and exhaling out of it.

"…its probably nothing." Erza replied silently as she let out another sigh from her mouth. Luffy could only raise an eyebrow in confusion at her cryptic words as he turned around to face the ceiling as well. He was about to close his eyes when he suddenly felt arms snake around his chest while his left arm was pinned under something.

Quickly turning his head to look to his left only to see Erza's head resting over his left bicep, her body facing towards him while her arms were wrapped around his chest.

"I'm sorry, Luffy… I just needed to hold onto something right now…" Erza started to apologize, shifting her arms to make sure she wasn't touching the cuts on his back. "I can let go if I'm bothering you-"

"No, its fine." Luffy interjected, cutting off whatever Erza was going to say next. "I was a little surprised but I'm fine with this if it helps you." He said sincerely as he could sense her calming down as she held onto him, her aura shifting to a more relaxed color after spending several minutes shifting between multiple colors. After a few minutes of silence, Erza shifted a bit closer to Luffy as her arms tightened their hug around his chest.

"Okay then." Erza stated drearily as she started to close her eye, a small smile on her face as she felt her body start to relax.

"Good night, Erza." Luffy said calmly as he looked towards his friend.

"Good night, Luffy…" Erza replied back slowly, barely managing to get that last word before she finally fell asleep. Luffy kept his eyes on her for just a few more minutes to make sure Erza was sleeping alright, a peaceful smile on her face.

Luffy soon turned his head upwards as he too began to feel his eye lids become heavier with each passing second before finally closing his eyes as dreams of sailing the Grand Line with his beloved crew again played out before him…

To be continued…

Hello everyone, it's The Fifth Emperor here with a new chapter of Straw Hat Among Fairies for your reading pleasure. This chapter may be shorter than the previous chapter but that's to ensure that each chapter isn't bloated with information or the fights feel too dragged on.

It also makes it easier to get the story rolling and ensure I do the scenes that I want to write since a lot of people felt the story was moving too slowly with the last chapter. I personally feel we're moving at a good pace according to my new schedule but everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

(*Eyes flashing red here serves to be a visual cue about the usage of Observation Haki to detect incoming attacks or hidden threats. You see in the anime special, Heart of Gold, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and even Usopp's eyes were shown to flash red when their Observation Haki alerted them to Mad Treasure's incoming ship. Since then, the anime starting with the Whole Cake Island Arc has started to have the character's eyes flash red in order to indicate when Observation Haki is being used as shown with Katakuri during that Filler fight against a gang of Organ Thieves.)

The Barioth seems like a strange choice for a serious threat for Luffy and Erza to encounter during their stay with Jura but I loved fighting these ice tornado shooting bastards in Monster Hunter Tri Ultimate and I've recently started playing Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate so I was inspired to write a shout out to the opening movie for that game even though I haven't played much of it yet.

I've also completely read through the entirety of Monster Hunter: Orage so I'm quite up to date on that series and I've got some serious plans to incorporate some ideas from it into this story as smoothly and fluidly as possible. You all will need to wait and see just what may come from this…

Also sorry for the lack of OSTs in this chapter. Things have been sort of hectic in my life so far and I didn't want to postpone this chapter any longer than I should.

Now for the Pirate Mage Encyclopedia:

Pirate Mage Encyclopedia, Bestiary Section:

Barioth: A rare but equally dangerous species of Flying Wyverns, they are known as the Ice Tusk Wyvern due to their famous amber colored Saber tooth-like tusks in their jaws. When this wyvern reaches an enraged state, the Barioth's blue eyes will become a crimson red to signify the change as it will become faster and far more brutal with its attacks.

The spikes running down their wings allow the Barioth to control their momentum on icy terrain while its prey/enemies stumble and fall over themselves while running. This species of Wyvern is capable of firing an icy blast that's capable of creating a miniature, snow tornado capable of covering its victims in highly compacted snow that restrains body movements.

Has been known to compete with other apex predators for territory and meals such as the dreaded and fearsome Tigrex…

Danger Rank: A to S, SS in special circumstances…

Now let's get onto what you all are waiting for, the Review responses:

Pirate Mage SBS Corner:

Gamelover41592: Thank you for your kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and this is the only way I believe Luffy would try to show off what you can do with Haki.

CRUDEN: We're going to see Laxus again real soon but it won't be in the way you or any other reader may expect. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

RWBYpiece: Wow! I never thought I would find another person playing Monster Hunter Tri Ultimate right now since it's a pretty old game right now with MH4U, MHGU and Monster Hunter World more available as of this writing. Damn, you've gotten more done in that game than I have. I've only gotten to High Rank in offline and just beat the Plesioth before the last chapter. I've been playing through MH 4 Ultimate and only started playing Generations Ultimate recently but I do agree that those monsters would make great additions since they would lead to great moments. I recently have beaten a few Zinogre in MH 4 Ultimate so I know how much fun it'll be to introduce theses monsters later on. The Lagiacrus would definitely be a serious threat due to its ability to fight on both land and in the water wherever it might appear. The strength of its subspecies are nothing to laugh at either so I can't wait to integrate them further down the line.

I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and noticed what I was doing with the Monster's perspective. Since this story is a One Piece crossover, I felt that it would be pretty boring to show the monsters as nothing but mindless beasts since One Piece has a lot of animal characters that have been shown to have tons of personality and possess rational minds on the same level as Humans in the form of Carue, Chopper, Pierre, Pappug and Surume. Even gigantic, ancient beasts like the Sea Kings and Zunisha have been to be capable of rational thought and understand the Human language even if others can't understand them outside of some very unique individuals.

As for Erza, I have to agree with your statement. She's lived a possibly sheltered life in Rosemary Village and outside of her experiences at the Tower of Heaven, she would be pretty naïve about how the world actually works outside of the Tower in the same way her friends were after Jellal was defeated. I felt she needed a bit of a wake up call through witnessing 'survival of the fittest' happen. Doesn't mean it's not traumatizing for the young girl to see such brutal actions happen outside of the Tower but I feel she needed this lesson after her fight with the Blizzardverns in chapter 15.

I hope you enjoy this chapter just as much as the last one!

MakubeDaKiddX: I'm happy to see that you enjoyed the chapter and that you're loving Luffy and Erza's dynamic. It's definitely one of the best parts of writing this arc thus far since most people wouldn't expect these two characters to interact let alone get along so well considering their vastly different personalities. However, I do feel its worth it since brings something new and exciting to the table compared to other stories and I cannot wait to further develop their relationship and see where it goes.

I figured that Luffy's teaching style would just consist of him and his would-be students going out into the woods and making them or himself fight giant, dangerous animals to teach complicated things like Haki. It's how he's been taught for most of his life and it works so why change what hasn't killed him yet?

You're not wrong about how Nami and Erza are very similar in how they interact with Luffy but I feel their differences in personalities and their approach to people makes their own relationships with the rubber goofball remain distinct from one another. In Luffy's own strange logic, Nami is Nami and Erza is Erza. He wouldn't-no, couldn't compare the two since they're both equally important to him in their own way.

I'm ecstatic to see I had you blown back with the reveal of Orage's presence in this story. I believed you might've figured it out based on the preview you asked for but I'm just glad I managed to surprise you. I feel that Orage would serve to better expand the world of Fairy Tail in a way that wouldn't cause too many questions regarding the logic on time travel, temporal or spacial anomalies that Rave Master or Eden's Zero might cause at this point in time. For right now, I want to focus on Luffy's adventures in Earthland as well as the bond's and relationships he forms with his new guildmates and people outside of Fairy Tail.

Yeah, I figured it was time to see what Kazetaro has been up to since we last saw him chapter 13 but don't think this means that Tensei and Jellal aren't doing something in the background.

Thank you for your support and I hope every chapter from here on out is completely worth your devotion.

Mugiwara NO Luffy: I'm ecstatic you enjoyed it my friend! It might've gone on a little too long but I had a blast writing it when I didn't need to be forced to take breaks.

Yeah I know, I'm surprised too by how long its taking me to get to-Oops almost spoiled it! But I agree that it just gives these two more time to interact and bond with each other. Their friendship and their various interactions from debating what breakfast is going to be to fighting side by side just makes me happy with the strong bond they've formed with each other. In canon, Erza was alone after she left the tower and didn't find true companions again until she reached Fairy Tail. As a result, Luffy and Erza give each other what they both unconsciously need and it makes me glad to have accepted DejDem's suggestion from his review on Chapter 6 all those years ago since their interactions throughout the Traveler's Arc has made me fervently loyal this pairing.

I'm glad you enjoyed Luffy's lesson for Erza. When I was writing how Luffy would teach Haki to Erza, I could only picture in my head Luffy picking a fight with a pack of violent animals or just one big, violent animal to show off the different colors of Haki. Anything else would've felt disingenuous to Luffy's character.

I'm glad you enjoyed all the different beasts that Luffy and Erza encountered in the last chapter! I felt that I needed to show how big and dangerous Earthland is in terms of wild life since only having wyverns like Kakigori be threats would be boring so I kind of went all out on what kind of beasts to expect Luffy to run into a snowy forest or snowy mountain. From the fast but fragile packs of Giaprey to the solitary but sturdy Barioths, what Luffy and Erza have faced thus far is only a small dip into the veritable ocean of powerful beasts that Luffy will encounter on his adventures across Earthland.

It's kind of like Rusukaina. Even though we didn't see all of them, Rayleigh did state that were many powerful animals on that Island that Luffy couldn't hope to beat with his then-current strength before the Time skip. On Earthland, a wyvern like the Barioth is one of many, many powerful animals roaming the planet that Luffy cannot beat alone with his current strength at this moment. But he's never been one to back down from a challenge and I can assure you that he'll only grow even stronger from the challenge. Right now, however, is not that time since he has Erza with him to help him out and he's more than grateful for it.

Yep! You all have a lot more from this story to look forward to and I can only hope to meet your expectations every step of the way!

Lun3th: I think the PM's I sent you should've explained the absence of Conqueror's Haki from the Pirate Mage Encyclopedia earlier. I only put in what has been shown thus far in the story in that section, in order to keep it from getting overcrowded. I hope that answers your questions!

James123456lu: You're welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed what I did with the last chapter since I know it was very different compared to the previous chapters. Don't worry, we are going to get more interactions between characters in the next few chapters this one included.

Dp11: Glad to see you again and I can understand why it feels slow right now. The next few chapters should speed up the pacing but Luffy won't return to Fairy Tail until a certain event has happened in story. I think you and every reader that's been following this story should know what's coming.

Viewing Civilian: I'm glad you enjoy the story and I'm sorry if the story feels like its dragging its feet. I'm trying to make sure that things happen at an even pace in order to not rush things like Luffy teaching Erza Haki. Can't have her learn it without showing how she comes to understand it afterall! It would feel like an asspull otherwise when Luffy took two years to master the basics of the three colors. I'll try to make sure things speed up so it feels like we're actually getting closer to Fairy Tail. I'm already having to cut out some of my original plans for this arc to make sure it moves at an even pace.

FlamingSkyDragon: I'm glad to see that the last chapter got you so excited! I was worried with the length that people would have trouble reading it but I'm just glad to hear that you're enjoying it. Thank you for the compliment! I had to google and research a lot into armor to make sure that I got everything correct when I describe Erza's outfits/armors since the Fairy Tail wiki didn't give me a detailed enough description of her regular outfit when she was a kid.

I'm glad you enjoyed the sneak peek into the future there. I can't say for certain that Levy is in the harem but I do think you can come to your own conclusions on which one it is since I've already determined the remaining three members. But I do like to think it's a testament to how Luffy can befriend anyone with enough time.

I'm glad to see that you along with so many others are enjoying what I'm doing with Erza right now. Her relationship with Luffy has become one of my favorite things to write so far so I'm glad to hear that I've been doing a good job so far.

Can't say much about Natsu and Luffy so I'll seal my lips and surprise you!

Xaxiel1572: Thank you for your concern and I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter! I understand your concerns that Erza's keeping up too well in the fights in previous chapter but the only things she fought and defeated were a Giaprey and several Blango. Her Heat Blades exude enough heat to cut through thick chunks of ice like a hot knife through butter and all the monsters she fought held a crippling weakness to fire and heat. She's also strong enough to send small groups of grown flying with nothing but a shovel in her hands back at the tower in Canon and she's only gotten stronger since then. Combine that abnormal strength with her super-heated dual swords against creatures with said crippling weaknesses, and Erza has a far greater chance of victory.

Luffy was also there throughout the entire fight with the Blangonga's Troop, the Naco Agul, and the Barioth. He had complete control of the fight with the Blangonga and his troop so it may seem like she's fighting far too well out of her weight class at the moment but having Luffy there to watch her back completely tipped the odds in her favor. If he wasn't there, she wouldn't be able to fight the Naco Agul, the Barioth or even the Blangonga at all since all three beasts are completely stronger and faster than her at this point in time. Her magic and weaponry are what allows her to shorten the gap in combat ability between her and Luffy and whatever opponent they're up against. But she still has a long way to go in my eyes before she can fight such strong opponents on her own.

I hope that explanation helped and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Dreadlord 76: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and I'm sorry the fight scenes took up so much of the chapter. It got out of hand since I wanted to tie in Monster Hunter Orage through this chapter in the form of the Naco Agul but I feel like the fight may have been gone on too long. I'll try to keep it from happening again but this story is still focused on the adventure and story. The fight scenes just come with the adventure aspect since Luffy is fighting fantastical beasts alongside his new friends..

DJ Rodriguez: I'm glad the chapter was worth it my friend. Yeah Luffy's lesson for Erza has gotten kind of out of hand at the moments since Nature tends to be completely unpredictable. And yet I feel that Kazetaro is going to have it rougher considering what he's about to deal with.

I'll keep it and I hope to hear from you again!

Rubber Dragon: I'm glad I got you so excited for what's to come!

Now for your review, I can see where you're coming from when it comes to the worldbuilding I put into the last chapter. Looking back on it I may have put in too much for one chapter and should've probably spread it out more to allow for more breathing room to let it all sink in.

But I'm glad you enjoyed Kazetaro's scene at the end, I didn't want it to be too long with how long the author's notes were in the last chapter and I think I stopped at a good place because of it.

I'm happy to see you're enjoying Luffy and Erza's relationship and how I've utilized Haki thus far. I wanted to make sure their relationship progresses at a smooth pace so it doesn't feel rushed like how a lot of stories tend to rush their relationships. As for the Haki, I try to keep it for when the opponent's strong enough to tank Luffy's normal attacks without issue or for when an enemy is using an attack that's too dangerous to block normally. Have to keep it feeling consistent without being an instant win card. I'll try to keep the fighting from dragging out in the future!

Flamarow: Glad you enjoyed the chapter. I wouldn't say I added the monsters in to write cool fight scenes. I added them into flesh out the world more and make it feel more like a fantastical place to live like the One Piece world but I'm glad you enjoyed them either way.

Thank you for your kind words! It's good to be home again.

Necrois: You're welcome man. I'm glad you enjoyed the Monster Hunter inclusion, I figured that they would reasonably fit within the world of Fairy Tail since Mashima left it open and vague enough that spinoff could be written for it. Also seeing how he handled them in Orage, I figured they would fit nicely.

Glad you enjoyed the development Erza has been receiving, this journey has been about her growth and her beginning to understand the outside world just as much as it's about Luffy returning to the guild with her in tow now. Thank you for your kind words and I hope to hear from you again!

Soulbow109: I'm glad you enjoyed the opening scene! It was the right amount of cute to start off the chapter after the ending of the last one. I can't really say what Erza will do when they arrive at Fairy Tail but I can say that Cana wouldn't be happy with the idea of her sleeping with Luffy like that since she was raised with proper social norms before her mom died. Along with other reasons as you should know…

Yeah a lot of the bigger monsters Luffy and Erza fought in the last chapter would range from mini-boss to boss level in strength in my eyes, so they were really unlucky to face them one after the other. I would say that this particular Blangonga would count as a Miniboss while the Naco Agul and the Barioth would each be a Boss level enemy with the Barioth being the stronger of the two. I honestly don't blame you, I hate it when I have to fight two different bosses at the same time. But these creatures do open up a ton of possibilities for the future that I cannot wait to explore so you're right to feel excited for the future.

I'm glad you enjoyed Kazetaro's scene near the end. I figured that with how word heavy the last chapter was I needed to make it swift but my just went with my first thought and I just rolled with it to the end to get that segment. And it's hilarious!

Thank you for your kind words and I agree! There really is no place like home! I hope you enjoy this chapter just as much as the last one!

MatNert: I never made an announcement I believe but I did state that canon pairing such as Alzack x Bisca or Sherry x Ren would still happen. So unless I announce anything different, you can expect pairings like Gruvia or Gajevy to still happen unless I change my mind on how the relationships go down depending on certain developments in the story. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Kerrowe: I'm glad you like it. If my story is getting you interested in trying Fairy Tail again that means I must be doing something right. I do hope my readers have some understanding of what happens in Canon or who certain Characters are while reading this so I don't have to explain people like Jura or the Trimen.

Thank you and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

BuddhaBuddha: …Okay. You don't like what I've been doing with my story. I get it. I can accept that not everyone will like what I'm what I'm doing with this story or like how I write it. That's fine since everyone is entitled to their own opinions and I can accept that not everyone will like what I'm writing. Accepting Constructive criticism is apart of writing and learning from these critiques helps people improve. I'm not sure why you feel this way but honestly with the way you wrote your reviews, I don't think I should care to find out so good day to you.

ZephyrStrike: …Okay, I'm sorry the story is moving so slow for you. I'm glad you enjoyed the earlier chapters since, honestly speaking, they weren't my best work at the time and I thought I may have glided through some things too fast when I look back upon it. I'm trying to fix the pacing as best as I can but sometimes I get an idea that expands upon my original plans and I can't resist writing it in to allow for better progress while setting up different plot points ahead of schedule. Nothing shown in this story is done for nothing, everything I've written has a purpose further down the line so please have patience. Thank you for the advice even if it did come out as far too harsh for my taste…

Now that we have that out of the way, thank you all again for your support and I hope I continue to keep your attention for a few more minutes of your time.

You all remember how I promised several months ago in Chapter 13 that there would be special chapters featuring other characters that aren't focused on Luffy but on other characters he's interacted with in the story. Well guess what?

Those chapters are still happening with the first of many already being written with several readers having already guessed correctly who is the star of the first of possibly many special chapters.

You'll all find out who it is when the chapter comes out so I hope you guys will stick around to see it!

Also I wanted to apologize for the lack of follow up to Kazetaro's segment with Layla in this chapter. I've been having trouble finding sites where I can read Fairy Tail without being bombarded by ads on my IPhone or IPad… I wanted to brush up on Fairy Tail history from the later arcs before I write something that contradicts what is stated in Canon. After all, I can't exactly write something if I don't have a proper understanding of it beforehand. That's just plain common sense for any writers out there…

So expect the follow up to his story in the next chapter and you may find yourself surprised on what it leads to in the chapters to come…

Be sure to favorite and follow the story and leave a review to continue supporting the story! I'll be sure to answer them in the following chapter or with a PM when I get the chance!

See all of you later! :D