Hey there, guys! TriMaplenut here! So, this is a new story idea I'm trying out, mixing a couple of my favorite series together. We'll see how this works out.

Yeah, my friend convinced me to put it up on here, and I agreed only because I feel like putting it on here might make me motivated to write a little more. I'll explain a little more at the end of the chapter about how this story is going to go. Oh, also, normally I type with British English, but considering a few things (like my laptop setting as well as both fandoms) I decided to write in American English. I mention this because there might be a few clashes of spelling and stuff, sooo yeah be forewarned.

Definite spoilers for DR1. Future chapters may or may not make reference to info you find out in SDR2 or AE or any other things, but considering this takes place immediately after the first game, there might not be any spoilers but just in case take warning.

Also, this chapter is dedicated to my big sis, who sacrificed her time to help me edit through this despite it not even being fandoms she's interested in. Thanks, love you sis.

Disclaimer: I don't own Danganronpa or Fairy Tail. However, I own my own characters (you'll know them when you see them)

Also Happy Halloween :D

"Speech"

("Thoughts")

"Magic/Emphasis on speech"

Chapter 1: Fairy Tail

Makoto groaned as he was inexplicably roused from his sleep. He'd had such a long day yesterday—couldn't he just sleep in a little? He rolled over onto his side trying to get comfy again, the crunching and crackling of dead leaves echoing around the empty office floor where he and the others settled down to sleep the previous night. Letting out a deep breath and shuffling on the ground a bit more, he resigned himself to a long wait before his body would eventually fall back—

He paused.

Much to the protest of his lazy inner voice, Makoto forced open his eyes and slowly pulled himself upright, trying to remember the last thing that happened.

After exiting the school building and discovering it was close to sunset, the survivors agreed that they didn't want to spend another moment in the godforsaken prison. Leaving with only a few supplies, they traveled until they came across an abandoned building that seemed safe enough from robot bears and crazy despair-loving psychos to spend the night.

He expected to see the dimly sunlit office room he and his friends had camped out in.

Instead, Makoto woke up to find himself smack dab in the middle of a forest.

"What the…?" Makoto muttered. He rubbed at his eyes and looked around him. Yeah, he was still in a forest. "How did I…?"

Rising to his feet, Makoto scanned the area again, trying to make out the familiar shapes of any of his friends. "Kyoko! Hina! Hiro, Toko, Byakuya! Are you guys there?!"

He waited for a response. Receiving none, he shouted out again, hoping that someone would be nearby. He searched the area for any sign of his friends—or anyone really—but stuck close to where he woke up, just in case someone knew he was there and came back.

After a while with no success, Makoto sighed heavily and plopped himself down onto a toppled tree trunk, burying his face into his hands. He took a deep breath in. As he released it he removed his hands, placed them on the log to steady himself, and leaned back slightly to stare at the canopy of the forest, spying parts of the blue sky through the gaps in the leaves.

"How'd I even get here…?" Makoto questioned, shooting glances into the trees in case he saw anything that might hint at someone being there. "I don't remember there being any forests in the city."

He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his black blazer; in one pocket was his dorm room key—fat lot of good that was now that he was lost in a forest, he thought to himself deadpanned—in the other were a few slips of paper. He left them in there and pulled his hands back out, frustrated.

"Did someone put me here?" Makoto wondered, speaking aloud in an attempt to combat the silence. "How'd they move me without waking me up? How'd they even get into the office without alerting the others?"

Makoto paused for a moment to think about it before he groaned and shook his head. "Ugh, all these questions aren't helping when I don't even have any clues to go off of. The important thing I need to be doing now is finding the others and regrouping!" he declared, shooting up to his feet with renewed vigor.

A wind blew through the forest, disrupting a few leaves on the trees and bringing them along in the breeze.

Makoto let out another sigh as he rubbed his head. "Of course, that's easier said than done. They could all still be at that empty office, for all I know." He glanced towards the patch of grass he'd been sleeping on earlier. He bit his lip as he ran over his possible courses of action. "I should probably go looking around, but what if somebody knows I'm here? If I move, it'll be harder for anyone to find me."

He crossed his arms. "But I can't just wait around here forever… If I find someone, I can just ask where I am and then it'll be easier to decide what to do from there. Okay!" He smiled happily. Finally, a plan of action! Now all he needed to do was pick a direction.

"Hmm…" Makoto looked around him. It wasn't clear which way might lead him somewhere useful just from looking. His gaze landed on one of the trees near him. "Maybe if I climb a little higher, I could see something…"

Aoi was usually the one to undertake athletic ventures, but Makoto felt pretty confident in the tree; the branches looked sturdy and were close enough to each other that he wouldn't struggle in climbing it. Thinking optimistic thoughts, Makoto heaved himself up onto the first branch, then the next, and the next.

Things were going well. He was already quite a ways up the tree, but not yet high enough to see anything useful. Branches were still easy to find and, in the event that he didn't have one to propel him higher, he could just use the trunk of the tree as leverage without much difficulty.

In retrospect, that should've been the first hint that something would go wrong.

Not moments after muttering to himself, "Not too fast, Makoto… Need to watch where I put my feet…" he heard the branch he'd just stepped on crack ominously under his weight. He had a split second to regret his life and all decisions leading up to his action before he heard a second crack beneath him and he plummeted down.

After crashing through and slamming into what felt like at least two dozen tree branches on the way down, Makoto let out a long and loud moan of pain after he landed on his stomach with a painful sounding thud. He rolled over onto his back and looked up at the distance he fell, leaves scattered in the wind from the fall.

Feeling slightly confused, he sat up and checked himself over for any injuries sustained from the fall. Other than feeling slightly winded and achy and covered in a few small scratches, he seemed to be relatively unharmed. He looked back up at the tree for a second time, eyes widening as he estimated the height he fell from. He was pretty sure that it wasn't normal to fall from a height possibly around or over 15 feet and escape with little to no injuries.

"Guess I really am lucky…" Makoto remarked unsurely, stumbling to his feet. "Not gonna try it again, though."

He checked over himself again and stretched a little to try and ease the aching pain. "I didn't get high enough to see anything…" he complained to himself. "I don't even know which way to go to find people… Maybe I should just pick a direction and—"

His train of thought was interrupted when the sound of something smashing through branches echoed through the forest again. He whirled around just in time to see a dark blue shape crash to the floor in front of him.

His first thought was, ("I feel your pain.")

His second thought was where on earth the strangely-colored cat had come from. He hadn't seen a hint of a cat within the branches when he was up in the tree, although he supposed it might have blended in somehow. He wasn't sure how likely that was with the dark blue tabby fur or the bright pink scarf around its neck, tied to look like a big bow.

A cat with a bow. It seemed unlikely, but the appearance of a cat wearing a bow around its neck could mean that it belonged to someone, and that someone could be nearby. He'd have to hope that the cat hadn't wandered far from its owner and could still easily get back to them.

Makoto approached the cat and knelt down in front of it, moving slowly as the cat raised its head to blink at him with curious blue eyes. "Hey there, little guy," he greeted the cat softly with a small smile.

The smile disappeared as he watched the cat climb to its two hind legs, wave one of its front paws and cheerfully meow, "Hi!" as it sent him a smile of its own. Or her own, considering the pitch of the voice coming from the cat.

Makoto froze in shock. He opened his mouth to question the strange little blue creature, but the words refused to come as the cat continued to smile at him, rocking back and forth on her paws as she swung her arms slightly.

"Oh, and, I'm a girl," she corrected. "So I'd like it if you didn't call me a guy again, yup yup."

Makoto finally found his voice again and raised a finger to point at the cat and ask, "D-Did… Did you just talk?"

"Yup yup," she nodded. She stared at his face before letting out a loud gasp of understanding. "Ooh! Sorry~! I keep forgetting that you people have never seen a talking cat before. But I'm not really the important thing here; you are!"

"I-I am?" Makoto repeated, still baffled at the cat's sudden ability to talk.

She nodded in affirmation. "I was really worried, ya know! I was just flying nearby, and then all of a sudden I heard a crash and a thud and the tree was shaking and some birds were flying and I was really worried so—"

"Wait, wait, wait." When the cat had finally stopped talking to listen to him, he sucked up his reluctance and questioned, "Did you just say you were flying?"

Her face lit up brightly in response. "Yup yup!" Without warning, two blobs of light flashed into existence behind her back. The shapes stretched out and the light faded to reveal a set of white, feathery wings. With a few flaps, the cat was airborne, flying a few feet off of the ground.

Makoto unabashedly stared for several long moments, before picking his jaw off of the ground and declaring, "Okay, that's it. I clearly got a concussion from the fall because now I'm hallucinating."

"It's not very nice to call someone a hallucination," the cat pointed out as she landed and the wings disappeared, a slightly grumpy look on her face. It was soon replaced with a bright smile, though. "Well, I'm glad you're okay from your fall, yup yup. What're you doing out here in the forest anyway, mister?"

"Uh, well…" Makoto paused as he thought about his reply. "I don't really know, to be honest. I was with my friends in the city earlier, but then I just woke up here."

"Ooh!" she suddenly cried out. "A city! Are you talking about Hargeon?"

"Hargeon?" he echoed. The name was unfamiliar to him, and he was pretty confident he knew all of the places around Hope's Peak Academy. He had the feeling he was a little more lost than he'd originally thought.

"Well, I suppose it's not technically a city cause it's called Hargeon Town," she conceded. "But it's large enough to be considered a city, I guess. Not sure whether Hargeon or that one to the north would be closer though…"

"Anyway," she continued. "Hargeon is a port town as well, in the south of Fiore, right next to the ocean and all. It's like a ten minute flight from here; it's a lot quicker than walking. If you're heading there, you should stick with me," she told him.

Makoto tried to absorb all the key information and then realized something. "Hargeon… Fiore… I've never heard of those places before. Where exactly are we?"

His conversation partner blinked confusedly. "You don't know where you are? But I just told you, you're close to Hargeon, which is down south in the Kingdom of Fiore."

"Kingdom? But…" he argued. "There aren't really any kingdoms anymore on Earth…" ("At least, I don't think so,") he thought to himself. ("There's a few I know, like Novoselic, but nothing called Fiore. Although, it has been two years and the world did end, so what do I know?")

"Earth? What's that? This is Earthland, silly," she told him. "Are you sure you're okay, mister? You're acting funny."

"E-Earthland…?" Makoto brought both of his hands up to his head and scrunched his eyes shut. Waking up in a random forest, talking to flying cats, places he's never heard of… "I don't know what's going on…" he murmured to himself. He plopped himself down on the ground. "But I think I'm really lost."

"Maybe you traveled here from a different world?" she offered as she moved closer in front of him.

Makoto briefly stared at the tabby cat. "That came out of left field. Where the hell did you come up with that insane idea?"

"Well, it would explain why you're not familiar with Earthland. And why you suddenly woke up in the middle of the forest," she explained. Despite not wanting to admit it, the voice in his head was whispering that it did make some sense and she might be on the right track. "Though, I'm not sure what kind of powerful magic could do something like transport someone between worlds. It might have something to do with your magic."

That part he wasn't agreeing with. "My… My what?"

"Magic, silly." The wings from earlier appeared again and she hovered right in front of his face. "That's how I'm flying. It's called Aera Magic. And I can sense the magic in you as well."

"I think you got something wrong there…" Makoto hesitantly told her. "Because I definitely don't have any magic. And anyway, magic isn't real."

"Then how am I flying?" she questioned. For a talking cat, she definitely had him stumped there for a suitable response. "Though, considering your reaction, your world probably didn't have any magic in it. Geez, that's boring!" she suddenly complained. "How'd you survive?"

"Look, just, can we focus here?" Makoto said in an attempt to get the cat's wandering mind back on track.

"Yup yup," she laughed sheepishly. "But yeah, like I said earlier, I'm pretty good at sensing magic and stuff. It's a neat trick I picked up while traveling. Oh, since you're not a native, I should probably explain how the magic works here."

She cleared her throat dramatically and explained, "So not a lot of people in Earthland are actually wizards or mages; only about 10% apparently. Those people have a sort of… let's call it a container, of magic power inside them. It's self-replenishing, so if you use it all up then it'll be back to full with time. People can use all kinds of magic, like my Aera Magic or Water Magic or Card Magic, but most wizards tend to specialize in one type. I can sense what type of magic the person last used and it's pretty reliable, but it takes some time, so I can't do it instantly."

"Actually, all wizards have the ability to sense magic," she added. "But it's more that they sense how much magic is left in another wizard rather than the type."

"Someone's magic isn't dependent on who they are?" Makoto clarified.

She hummed in thought. "It's kinda like having a cup of water. The water is the magic, and you can use different kinds of straws to drink from it."

Makoto scratched his head. "Uh, okay. I think I get it." He tried to remember what they'd been talking about before. "You said that I can use magic, right? So does that mean I have to learn how to use a type of magic? Do I get to pick which kind?" he asked. Various scenarios were running through his head, some of which were pretty awesome to imagine.

"Weeeeeell…" she hummed as she crawled onto his lap and placed her paws on his chest. "I don't think so, cause I can sense a type of magic from you."

"How?" he questioned. "I've never even used magic before."

"I dunno," she shrugged. "Wonder what it could be though. Doesn't feel like Aera Magic… It's really confusing! It's got a naturey, planty feel to it, but it doesn't feel like your regular run-of-the-mill Earth Magic or Plant Magic. It's got this funny feel to it though, like that kind of feeling you get when you pick up a book and you can tell it's really really old. Hey, did I ever tell you about the time in the library when—"

"Focus, please," Makoto sighed.

"Yup yup, my bad," she grinned before returning to her task. "What was I saying? Yeah, it's definitely got that old, ancienty feel to it. Maybe it's a kind of Lost Magic…? Ahh!" she shouted. "I got it!"

She hopped off of his lap before turning to face him, a triumphant look on her kitty face and a paw pointed straight at him. "You're an Earth Dragon Slayer!"

"…"

"…"

"I'm a what?"

"An Earth Dragon Slayer!"

"Saying it again isn't going to clarify things for me," Makoto pointed out in a frustrated tone. "So you're saying that, along with magic, this world has dragons in it as well?"

"Well, I think so." Makoto's confused expression prompted the cat to continue. "Well, I've only been alive six years so I can't speak about Fiore's history a lot, but a lot of people think that dragons are just myths and Dragon Slayer Magic is a Lost Magic—that means it's not practiced anymore," she explained. "I think there are a few rumors about some wizards who supposedly still use it, but I don't know a lot more than that. Dragons aren't things you see every day though, to answer your question."

Makoto nodded, taking in the information. "You're only six years old, huh?" he remarked. When she nodded in confirmation, he chuckled lightly. "Somehow, that doesn't surprise me. Speaking of which, though, I don't know your name yet."

"Ahh… Well…" For the first time since he'd met her, the tabby cat looked uncomfortable and somewhat upset as she played with her bow. "A-Actually, I don't really have a name…"

"You don't?" Makoto asked. "Isn't there someone taking care of you?"

She pushed her paws together. "You know how you freaked out cause I could talk and fly and use magic and stuff? Well, other people did that too, and the few people who were okay with that kinda got annoyed at me quickly cause I acted silly and spoke too much… From the people I met, I learned things like speech and basic knowledge and all that stuff, but I haven't stayed with someone for that long, and people are always giving me different nicknames and stuff, so…"

"That's not very fair of them." The words left his mouth before he could realize, and so both of them were surprised to hear them. Makoto swallowed before continuing, "They shouldn't have gotten annoyed just because that's how you are. I mean, I don't know the details, but you were just a young cat; that just doesn't seem very fair to me."

She stared at him for a moment before looking away bashfully, murmuring, "Thanks…" as her ears flattened against her head. Makoto had the feeling that she was probably blushing under all that fur. He thought hard about what he could say to make her feel better before asking, "Do you want me to give you a name?"

"Huh?" The cat's blue gaze returned to him in surprise before she gave him a small smile. "I'd… I'd really like that, yup yup."

"Okay then…" Makoto trailed off in thought. He wanted it to be a good name, one that the energetic tabby would like a lot. Now that he was focusing more on her appearance, the cat actually reminded him a lot of someone he knew, although their personalities were pretty different. The more he stared, the more he could see her in the cat.

"Maya," he decided. "Is it all right if I call you Maya?"

The small smile stretched across her face until it transformed into a huge grin. "I love it!"

Makoto smiled as well. "And you can call me Makoto."

He was slightly taken by surprise when she jumped into the air, spreading her Aera wings again. She did some aerial acrobatics from sheer happiness, shouting something incomprehensible before landing right on his head, flattening that one bit of hair that stubbornly stood up straight otherwise.

"You're my new friend, Makoto!" the newly christened Maya declared. "You're mine and you can't get rid of me, yup yup!"

"I don't think I want to get rid of you," he admitted with a laugh as he picked Maya up from his head and held her in front of him, upside down briefly before he flipped her around the right way.

"So what now, Makoto?" Maya inquired with a twitch of her ears.

He paused. "Well, um…" A lot of info had been dumped onto him during the conversation and he felt like he had a better grasp on his situation, but there were a lot of things to be done. He had to find the others—if they were even in Earthland with him—figure out how he got here to see if he could use the same way to get back…

There was too much, but he had to start with something.

"How about my magic?" he asked as it popped into his head. "How do I use it? I've got to know how to use it if I'm going to stay here for any amount of time, I guess."

"Uhh…" Maya hesitated. "Well, I'm pretty sure Aera Magic and Dragon Slayer Magic are pretty different from each other, so I dunno!"

Makoto's heart sank. "Not even a clue?"

"Maybe…?" she hummed in thought, bringing a slight bit of hope back to him. "Yup yup! I got it!" She clapped excitedly. "I remember hearing a rumor about a Dragon Slayer somewhere in Fiore, and they've got this magic thing called a Fire Dragon's Roar! All he does is say that and then woosh! Fire!"

Makoto thought for a moment. "So, if I'm supposedly an Earth Dragon Slayer, then I've just gotta say 'Earth Dragon' instead of 'Fire Dragon', right?"

"Huh?" The cat blinked as if the thought had never occurred to her. "Oh! That's probably right! He just takes in a deep breath, like this—" She unnecessarily demonstrated by sucking her breath in. "And then breath out and then fire and awesome and burning and—!"

"All right, then," Makoto said to interrupt her before she went off on a tangent. Maya pulled out her wings and hovered in the air as he faced away from his new cat friend and prepared himself mentally. ("A dragon's roar… Can't believe I'm actually about to try something like this. Here's hoping that the 'Earth' part of the 'Earth Dragon Slayer' isn't just a title and I'm not about to burn a forest down.")

"Earth Dragon's…" he started, taking in a breath at the same time. Unbelievably, in that short amount of time, a strange feeling washed over him. It was like he was being filled with power, just from breathing in deeply. His entire being felt full to the brim with energy that was just bursting to get out. ("Is this… my magic?") he thought as he finally finished his breath in.

"Roar!" As soon as he opened his mouth to shout the last word, an intricate, glowing, dark green circle appeared in front of him. A whirlwind of stones and earth within a green glow shot out, disappearing through the forest. Makoto's eyes widened and he inadvertently stopped his attack short, gaping at the destruction left behind from the single attack.

Maya flapped by his head and she let out a whistle at the churned-up ground and plants and toppled-over trees. "Think we can safely assume you're a Dragon Slayer."

Makoto was still in shock. This was what magic could do? This was what he could do now? "D-Did I really just…?"

"Yup yup," Maya affirmed, landing on his head again. "All you."

Makoto's knees suddenly gave in and he would have crumpled to the ground if not for Maya's quick reaction and grabbing onto his hoodie to keep him standing while she flew. Carefully she lowered him to the ground so he could sit, breathing heavy with exhaustion.

"I guess it's to be expected, silly," she shrugged. "An attack that powerful, and since you've never used your magic before… It's no surprise that you've used up most of your magic energy and are now exhausted. Don't worry though, it happens to everyone. In fact, there was this one time where I ran out of energy while I was flying really really high up and I crashed right to the floor—"

"Maya," Makoto said pointedly.

"Oh yeah," she laughed. "That was ten minutes ago. Hey!" she exclaimed, changing the subject pretty quickly. "Speaking of ten minutes, wanna go to Hargeon?"

"Hargeon?" A lightbulb lit in his head as he recognized the name from earlier. "Oh yeah, that port town that's near here, right?"

"Yup yup!" the dark blue tabby nodded. "It's better than staying in this crummy old forest, right? Right?"

Makoto thought about it for a moment before collapsing onto his back, arms spread out. "Just give me five minutes."

Makoto and Maya spent close to an hour walking through the forest, despite Maya's complaints that it would be faster to just fly there. Makoto refused to be flown there, regardless of whether or not Maya was strong enough to carry him. In the meantime, Maya tried to fill him in on common knowledge the best she could, like that there were two types of magic: Holder Magic and Caster Magic; Dragon Slayer Magic and Aera Magic were both examples of Caster Magic; Holder Magic needed magical items in order to work; the currency in Fiore was known as jewel, and anything else the cat could think of.

Eventually, they arrived in the port town of Hargeon. The town itself was laid out in an interesting way: since it was built on a hillside, several areas of the town were raised higher than the rest, giving a great view of the entire town from the highest level, which was where the duo entered from.

Makoto could definitely tell it was a port town as well, since in the distance the open ocean spread out, and he could just make out the faint details of a port near the water's edge, as well as a lighthouse further out at sea.

"Wow…" Makoto stared in awe at the landscape. There were thousands of houses below, people's homes as well as shops and other buildings. "This place is really big… Where should we go first?"

Maya was about to answer him when she was cut off by the loud sound of a belly rumbling. She smirked as Makoto's face turned red from embarrassment. "How about a restaurant, silly?"

"S-Sounds like a good idea," Makoto agreed. Looking up at the sun which hung almost above them, one could most likely tell it was around early afternoon, which meant it was around lunchtime. "But we don't really have any money on us to buy food with…"

"Ooh! Let's go this way!" she cried, already flying off in the direction she'd decided. Makoto quickly caught up and, deciding that she didn't want to fly anymore, Maya landed on his head, directing him on which way to go. With a little help from the locals, the duo was able to make their way around town in a reasonably fast manner.

They paused as they were walking down one of the cobblestone streets when they heard some sort of commotion to the left of them. They stared down the street to where there happened to be a large group of girls crowding around someone. From what little Makoto could see, it looked as though the guy in the middle had short purple hair, but that was really all he could tell from his distance and the crowd.

Maya covered her ears as the squealing of the girls reached a high pitch. "Yup yup, they're definitely too loud." Makoto was about to say something in agreement and move on, but someone else was pushing through the throng of girls yelling, "Igneel!" When the person finally got to the center of the crowd everyone fell silent, allowing Makoto to hear a flat, "Who the heck are you?"

"Who am I?!" the purple-haired guy exclaimed in shock, before resuming his cool attitude and replying, "I am Salamander! Surely you've heard of me before."

It was a moment before the guy noticed that the newcomer had already left the crowd, walking dejectedly in the direction of Makoto and Maya, and the purple-haired guy cried out in shock again. It was then that Makoto was able to get a good look at the guy. He had spiky pink hair and a white scarf with a scale pattern wrapped around his neck. He wore a red jacket over what seemed to be another black jacket—apparently forgoing a shirt entirely—and loose white pants and a pair of sandals. A large backpack with a rolled up sleeping mat was slung over his shoulders. What also interested him was the light blue cat that was walking next to him, with some sort of green sack wrapped around its neck.

Makoto watched as some of the girls broke away from the crowd to attack the pink-haired guy, tackling him to the ground and yelling at him to apologize to the guy called Salamander. "What is it with you girls…?" the guy groaned under the assault.

"Now, now, that's enough my lovelies, let him go," Salamander said. "I'm sure the poor boy didn't mean anything malicious by it." The girls instantly returned to swooning over the guy, leaving the pink-haired guy to drag himself to his feet.

Maya poked Makoto's forehead and he looked up at her as she pointed towards the crowd. "There's a blonde girl there who doesn't seem to be going gaga over Salamander." Sure enough, when he scanned the crowd there was one girl who wasn't fawning over the man. On the contrary, she fixed him with a steely glare as he began to scribble something onto a sheet of paper.

"Here's my autograph, kid," he said, holding it out for the guy. "Now you can brag to all your friends."

"No thanks…" the guy replied deadpanned. All of the girls grew angry again and this time they threw the guy down the alleyway. Unfortunately he managed to land on Makoto, causing them both to crash into the trash bags lying on the side of the street.

"Guess it wasn't him after all," the light blue cat said to the guy.

"Definitely not him…" was the strained response as he got off of Makoto.

Maya walked over to Makoto, having jumped off of his head to avoid getting squashed. "Are you okay?"

"Define 'okay'," he replied dryly as he rubbed his sore back. He watched as Salamander disappeared into the sky, riding on what appeared to be purple flames. ("Is that really the kind of use people have for magic here?")

The pink-haired guy blinked up at him too, but probably for a different reason. "Who the heck was that guy?"

"I don't know, but he was a real creep," a female voice responded, and the two guys and two cats glanced over to see the blonde that Maya had pointed out earlier. Part of her long blonde hair was tied up in a side ponytail with a blue ribbon, and she wore a white shirt with a blue cross on it. She also wore a blue skirt and a brown belt, with a ring of keys and a whip attached, as well as black knee-high boots and a black wristband. She smiled at them and said, "Thank you for your help."

The pink-haired guy stared at her before replying, "You're welcome, but I'm not sure what I did…"

"How about I treat you to a meal, hmm?" she offered. She looked over towards Makoto and Maya and smiled. "You two are invited, too."

Makoto's belly growled again and he scratched at it. "Thanks for the offer."

"Food?" the guy seemed to perk up simply at the mention of it. "Hell yeah, I'm starving!"

"I know a place that's not too far from here," the blonde continued, gesturing at them to follow her.

It didn't take long to arrive at the restaurant the blonde suggested. Once they arrived they quickly found a place to sit and ordered some food.

"My name's Lucy. It's nice to meet you!" the blonde greeted just before the guy started devouring everything in sight.

"Aye!" the light blue cat said as he sunk his teeth into his fish.

Makoto thought he'd made a wise decision by sitting next to the blonde as he wasn't sure he'd fare too much better by sitting next to the guy during his attack on the food. The blue cat was on the table munching on a fish beside him while Maya was also sat on the table, on Makoto's side and well out of the blast zone of flying food.

"Uh… Natsu and Happy, was it?" she said, unsure of how to react to the guy's appetite. He nodded briefly before returning to the food, mumbling, "You're so nice."

"Thanks," she replied, obviously nervous about the food flying towards her. "You can slow down; we're not in a hurry. And food is kinda flying everywhere."

Clearly she accepted the fact that they weren't going to stop eating messily, and so she turned to the two others that she had invited out. "And you two are…?"

"I'm Makoto," he introduced, and then placed a hand on Maya's head. "This is Maya. It's nice to meet you, Lucy." He couldn't help but think triumphantly to himself, ("Finally! A normal introduction where I'm not being patted down to check if I can spar or offered alcoholic beverages while underage!")

Maya tilted her head and asked, "Why were all those girls in the streets fawning over that guy?"

Lucy turned to the tabby and replied, "Oh, that Salamander was using a charm spell, from one of the rings that was on his finger, to hypnotize the girls into thinking they were in love with him against their own will. Those spells have been banned for years, so he must have gone through a lot of trouble to get it. I totally fell for it but snapped out of it since Natsu barged in like that. I really can't thank you enough!"

"No problem," the person in question mumbled before stuffing his face with numerous tomatoes.

"So if you offered lunch for Natsu because he broke that spell, why'd you offer me as well?" Makoto couldn't help but ask.

"Ah, well," she looked away briefly. "I felt bad for you because those girls threw Natsu onto you, despite you just being a bystander."

"Oh, well, thanks," he smiled.

Lucy then put on a somewhat prideful smile and said, "I may not look like it, but I'm actually a wizard myself."

"Really?" Makoto said. He tried to imagine Lucy doing something similar to his own magic that he'd tried out in the forest. He immediately shoved away the mental image. He really hoped that other magic wasn't as destructive as his. He'd have to question how Fiore was still standing.

"Is that so?" Natsu asked around his food, not pausing in the slightest.

"Yeah, but I haven't joined a guild yet or anything," she admitted.

Makoto blinked and before he realized what he was saying he asked, "What's a guild?"

Lucy turned to stare at him in surprise and responded, "You don't know what a guild is?"

Realizing his mistake, his brain scrambled for some kind of response and he eventually stammered, "I, um, I'm new around these parts…"

"Makoto doesn't get out much," Maya helpfully blurted out an excuse. Lucy still looked uncertain, but decided to explain what guilds were to him. The entire idea behind them wasn't too complicated. Apparently, guilds were organizations where people of similar occupations could gather together in order to work with each other. For wizards, it was a place to share information and find work, among other things. There were also other kinds of guilds for other occupations like merchants.

"Unfortunately, you aren't considered a full-fledged wizard until you become a member of a guild," she sighed. She recovered quickly though.

"But the guild I want to get into is one of the most popular ones! It's really hard to get into guilds like that. They're always featured in the Sorcerer Weekly magazine! Ah, if I could actually convince them to let me in that guild I think I might just die!" Lucy fangirled as Makoto, Natsu and the two cats exchanged glances. Realizing that she was acting over-the-top, she calmed herself down.

"Sorry, I guess I'm going a bit overboard with the guild stuff," she laughed. She leaned forward as her attitude got a little bit more serious. "But I'm telling you, I'm definitely going to join that guild someday. And then I'm going to take on all sorts of exciting jobs and make tons of money!" Natsu made some sort of noise of acknowledgement.

"You talk a lot," Happy stated.

"Yup yup," Maya mumbled around one of the fish that she'd snatched from Happy's plate.

"What about you, Makoto?" Lucy asked, changing the subject of the conversation. "What brings you to Hargeon?"

"Ah, well…" he stalled, struggling to think of an answer. Eventually he just decided to tell parts of the truth and replied, "Just traveling around with Maya, I guess. I don't really have anywhere to go, so traveling to look for a place sounded like a good idea."

"How long have you two known each other?" she asked.

Maya pulled the fish out of her mouth long enough to raise a paw and answer, "Since this morning."

"T-This morning?!" Lucy gaped. Happy looked surprised as well while Natsu momentarily stopped shoveling food to look over at them. "But you guys act like you've known each other your whole lives!"

"I've been told I get on really well with lots of people," Makoto smiled embarrassedly, scratching at his cheek.

Lucy collected herself and asked, "What kind of places have you traveled to, then?"

"Hmm, a bit of here and there," he answered evasively. He turned his attention to Natsu before she could inquire further. "And you, Natsu? You guys came here trying to find someone, didn't you?"

"We're looking for Igneel!" Happy exclaimed cheerfully.

Natsu finally paused in his eating to join in on the conversation. "We heard a rumor that a salamander was coming through this town, so we came here to see him. Turns out it was somebody else," he grumbled as he stuffed a whole pizza in his mouth.

"Yeah, that guy didn't look like a salamander at all," Happy noted.

"No kidding," Natsu said, folding his arms. "I bet that poser can't even breathe fire like a real dragon."

"I… don't get it," Lucy admitted, struggling to keep up with the conversation. "Your friend Igneel looks like a dragon?"

Natsu and Happy turned to look at her. "No, you've got it all wrong," Natsu corrected. "He doesn't look like a dragon, he is one."

"W-What?!" Lucy shouted.

"Aye!" Happy backed him up. "Igneel is a real-life fire dragon!"

"Wha—Really?!" Makoto questioned. He bent over to Maya and whispered, "Is this that guy you mentioned to me earlier?"

Maya looked up from the fish she'd just shoved in her mouth and looked over to Natsu. After a few moments of deliberating, she looked back to Makoto and shrugged. "I dunno," she mumbled.

"Why would a fire dragon show up in the middle of town?!" Lucy questioned, not hearing his conversation with his cat. Natsu and Happy opened their mouths as if to argue with her, but paused as if they realized that they couldn't refute it. "It's totally ridiculous!" she continued.

Supposedly having had enough of the two, Lucy placed down a few bills and stood up, saying, "Well, I should get going. Enjoy the rest of your lunch and maybe I'll see you around." She was just at the door when the waitress suddenly paused in surprise. Lucy turned around to see Natsu and Happy bowing to her on the floor with all the other restaurant-goers staring at them, Makoto and Maya included.

"Thank you for the food!" Natsu yelled.

"Thank you!" Happy added.

"Cut it out! You're embarrassing me!" Lucy shouted at the two of them to get them to stop. "Look, it's cool. You guys helped me out earlier, so let's just call it even!"

Natsu turned to Happy and muttered, "I feel bad though, cause we weren't even trying to help her."

"Aye," he responded. "We owe her something." Lucy facepalmed at the two.

"I know!" Natsu suddenly exclaimed as he pulled out Salamander's autograph that he'd been forced to hold onto earlier. "Here, this is for you!"

"No way!" she rejected as she took the opportunity to get out of there immediately. Makoto sighed and sweatdropped at their antics as he finally got a chance to have at some of the food that Natsu had missed out on.

"The three of them were nice, weren't they, Maya?" Makoto commented as the two wandered the streets at night. Time passed pretty quickly from lunch and he'd bid farewell to Natsu and Happy after they'd finished their meal. The duo then took the time to check out some of the attractions and stores around Hargeon, but quickly realized that such an activity was pointless as neither of them had any money on them, and the money that Lucy placed on the table earlier had been used up to pay for the meal. Such was the reason why they were heading either towards the park for a place to nap or back to the forest where Makoto had woken up to begin with.

"Yup yup," the cat agreed from her comfy spot in Makoto's hood.

"A guild, huh?" Makoto said thoughtfully. "Maybe I should think about joining one, just to get some cash. Though, I probably need to get more used to using my magic, don't you think?" Makoto smiled and internally winced at the memory of the damage he'd unwittingly caused in the forest.

"Aye!" Maya yelled.

"Don't turn into Happy," Makoto laughed, and then paused as he saw something pass overhead in the sky. Maya noticed as well and flew up to Makoto's head to get a better look. "Speak of the devil… Was that Happy and Natsu?"

Maya pointed out towards the ocean, the direction the flying duo were heading in. "I think they're going to the boat."

Makoto squinted his eyes and spotted the large boat she was talking about. "You think that's Salamander's boat? I think he mentioned something about a party on his boat."

"Why would he be heading there, though?" Maya asked.

A thought suddenly occurred to Makoto and he frowned, "You don't think Lucy's on that boat, do you?"

Maya let out an overly dramatic gasp. "You mean the really nice blonde from lunch time who bought us lunch and put up with Natsu's bad table manners and weird behavior? We've gotta help them!" Maya extended her wings and, grasping onto the fabric of Makoto's blazer, heaved him up into the air.

Makoto didn't quite like the impulsive decision. "Whoa, wait, hey! Put me down, Maya!"

"Stop struggling, silly! You'll make me drop you!" she retorted. "Besides, this is the only way we'll catch up to them in time!"

Makoto conceded to the fact and tried his best to not squirm as Maya picked up speed, following behind Natsu and Happy as quickly as they could as they headed out to sea. With the head start they had, Natsu and Happy reached the boat first and headed up higher into the sky, but Makoto instructed Maya to fly closer to the sea as he spotted something being tossed from the boat. He managed to grab them before they plunged into the sea and recognized what he'd caught.

"These belong to Lucy!" he recalled as he clutched her keys in his hands. There were six keys attached to the keyring, with three of them being golden and three being silver. They all had designs of some sort at both ends of the key, and Makoto didn't think they were ordinary keys in the way he was thinking.

Maya caught sight of them and confirmed it. "Those are gate keys!"

"Gate keys?" Makoto parroted.

"Yup yup, that must be Lucy's magic!" she continued as they hovered above the waves. "Celestial Spirit Magic!"

Abruptly their conversation stopped as a loud crashing noise was heard from the boat and they watched as Happy came to hover around a newly formed hole in the roof of the ship. A few moments went by before Happy swooped down into the hole and then emerged, this time with his tail wrapped around Lucy's waist, who had changed into a long red dress since the last time he saw her.

Maya was about to move up to join them, but Makoto shouted, "Wait!" as he watched streams of purple fire chase after the duo. Happy expertly dodged all of the fire bursts, managing to keep his grip on Lucy who kept screaming the entire way. Maya and Makoto flew over to join them, but quickly moved out of the way as the two came plummeting down in front of them, Happy's wings having disappeared and Lucy yelling, "Stupid cat!"

When the two emerged from the water, Maya and Makoto came to hover near them. "Lucy! Happy!" Makoto called.

"Makoto!" Happy cheered.

"What are you two doing here?" Lucy questioned.

"We were passing through town when Natsu and Happy flew past us overhead, yup yup," Maya responded.

"I think these are yours, Lucy," Makoto said as he dug through his pockets to pull out the keyring that he'd caught earlier and tossed it to her.

"My gate keys!" she exclaimed happily as she recognized the object. Grasping one of the golden keys in her hand, she plunged it into the water as she yelled, "Here we go! Open, Gate of the Water Bearer! Aquarius!"

A blue circle appeared, accompanied by the sound of a doorbell, as a lady with long blue hair and a blue mermaid's tail appeared, holding some kind of urn in her hands.

"A mermaid?" Makoto questioned, taken completely by surprise by the kind of magic Lucy seemed to possess.

"A fish?" Happy cried hopefully as his stomach rumbled.

"Not for you!" Lucy yelled, splashing the cat with some water.

"That was awesome!" Maya cheered.

Lucy looked proud of herself. "That's the power of a Celestial Wizard. Listen Aquarius," she said, turning to the mermaid. "I want you to use your powers to push that ship back into the port."

The only response she got was a disgruntled, "Tch!" as Aquarius turned her head away from the blonde.

"Wha—You're supposed to come from the Spirit World to help, not give me attitude!" Lucy scolded.

"I wouldn't make her any angrier, Lucy!" Happy warned.

"Yup yup…" Maya agreed worriedly.

"Let's get something straight. The next time you so much as think about dropping my key, you're dead," Aquarius threatened with a deadly calm voice.

"It won't happen again!" Lucy, Happy and Maya all promised together in fear. Makoto sweatdropped about how easily they all gave in. Not that he was thinking about questioning the supposed spirit. He quite liked living.

Aquarius seemed to have the magic to control water, as when she swung her pot around, a giant wave formed behind the boat, pushing it towards the shore. Unfortunately, there were four little somethings between the wave and the port.

"HEY! Don't wash me away with it!" Lucy complained as the tidal wave caught not only her and Happy, but Makoto and Maya as well. After plummeting into the sea and attempting to find which way lead to air, Makoto finally felt something solid beneath him and coughed as the wave receded, dumping the four of them and the boat back onto the beach.

"Wait, that means you were aiming for me?!" When Makoto located Lucy and his head stopped spinning, she looked as though she were in some sort of argument with Aquarius, with Happy flailing around half buried in the sand nearby.

"Don't call me for a while," Aquarius told her as she turned away. "I'm going on a week-long vacation with my boyfriend. And he's hot." Aquarius shimmered out of existence in a light with what appeared to be tiny stars.

"You don't have to rub it in!" Lucy shouted as she disappeared.

"I got an idea!" Happy declared as he pulled himself from the sand. "If the fish lady gives you any more trouble, you can call me to take care of her!"

Lucy facepalmed. "I don't think I can handle much more of this stupid cat!"

Makoto hurried over with Maya following on her stubby legs. "Lucy, are you all right? What happened on that ship anyway?"

She looked up. "Oh, Makoto! That Salamander creep and his goons were trying to kidnap all the girls on the ship and take us to Bosco! Which is the region to the east," she explained the last bit somewhat hesitantly at Makoto's confused look.

Lucy caught sight of something behind Makoto and got to her feet, rushing over to the ship and yelling, "Natsu!" The guy in question had just gotten up from the wreckage of the ship, standing on a higher platform overlooking the group of Salamander's thugs. She and Makoto paused as they caught a glimpse of Natsu's expression. It was serious; nothing like the guy they'd seen at lunch.

"So you claim to be a member of the Fairy Tail guild…" he said to Salamander.

"So what's it to you?" Salamander questioned before commanding, "Go get him, men!"

Natsu calmly grasped for his red jacket as he said, "Let me get a closer look at your face."

"Watch out!" Lucy called as a warning as two of the goons rushed towards him and the jacket fluttered in the breeze.

"Don't worry about him," Happy said unconcernedly. "I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but he's a wizard, too." Lucy looked absolutely shocked, while Makoto already had an inkling of it beforehand.

Natsu easily took out the both of the guys, sending a glare towards Salamander. "My name is Natsu! I'm a Fairy Tail wizard! And I've never seen you before!"

If it was possible, Lucy looked even more surprised than before. "You've gotta be kidding me! Natsu is a Fairy Tail wizard?!"

"Is there something surprising about him being a member of Fairy Tail?" Makoto questioned at her reaction.

She turned to him and explained, "Fairy Tail is the guild I've been wanting to join for a long time! Salamander said he was a part of Fairy Tail and he could get me in, and that's why I went on the boat."

"That mark on his arm!" one of the goons cried. Indeed, Makoto could see the faint shape of a tattoo or something on Natsu's arm just below his shoulder, but the darkness and the distance made it difficult to discern what it looked like. "He's the real deal, Bora!"

Salamander, or Bora, turned to him and shouted, "Don't call me that, idiot!"

"I've heard of him!" Maya chirped from Makoto's hood. "Bora the Prominence. I heard he was kicked out of the Titan Nose guild for bad behavior, yup yup."

"Aye, that sounds about right," Happy agreed with his arms folded.

"I don't know what you're trying to do here, buddy, and I don't care if you're a good guy, bad guy, or what," Natsu said as he slowly walked towards the group. "I'm not going to let you dirty the Fairy Tail guild's name!"

Bora smirked. "Then what are you going to do about it? Stop me? Prominence Typhoon!" A magic circle appeared in front of him and several streams of purple flame headed straight for Natsu. There was almost no time for him to possibly dodge before he was engulfed in flames, the fire turning a normal orange as it continued to burn.

"Natsu!" Lucy and Makoto both cried out, but Happy flew up in front of them, preventing them from moving forward. They both stared at the cat's back in confusion before looking back up at the fire.

Eventually they heard Natsu's voice, and of all the things he was doing, he was complaining. "Eugh, this is so gross! Are you sure that you're really a Fire Wizard? Because these are the nastiest flames I've ever tasted."

Makoto, Lucy and Maya watched in shock as the large amount of flames began disappearing. Towards the end it was clear to see that Natsu was actually eating the flames and sucking them in. Bora and his group screamed in fright at the bizarre ability.

Natsu smirked and said, "Thanks for the grub, poser."

"What's going on?!"

"Who is this kid?!"

Happy had landed back on the floor and smiled. "Fire Magic doesn't work on Natsu."

"I've never seen anything like that…" Lucy breathed.

"Now I've got a fire in my belly that's just raging to get out," Natsu boasted as he punched his fists together enthusiastically. He sucked in a deep breath and then yelled, "Fire Dragon's Roar!" as a massive flamethrower emerged from his mouth to barbeque all of the thugs except Bora, who'd evaded it with his own magic.

Makoto's eyes widened as his suspicions about the guy were confirmed. "It's him…" he realized.

"It's him! He's him! Yup yup! It's him!" Maya cried ecstatically as she clambered all over Makoto. "It's him! With the breath and the flames and the woosh! and the ahhh!" She started acting out all the sound effects, waving her paws for the woosh and falling onto her back for the ahhh.

"Bora! I've seen this guy before!" one of the downed thugs called. "With the pink hair and the scaly scarf… He's gotta be the real one!"

Lucy gaped as she realized who Natsu was. "Salamander?!"

"Hope you guys are paying attention!" Natsu yelled as his fists were engulfed in flames. "Cause this is what a Fairy Tail wizard can do!" He proceeded to run towards Bora, who tried to fend him off, but Natsu easily avoided his attacked and slammed him towards the ground.

"So Natsu eats fire and then attacks with it?" Lucy tried to understand the concept as she watched the two duel. "H-How does he do it? Is it some kind of spell?"

"His brand of Fire Magic is one that allows his body to take on all the qualities of a dragon!" Happy explained, and Makoto listened in closely to see what he could possibly learn about his own magic. "It's an ancient spell that's rarely used anymore."

"Really?" Makoto asked, completely interested in the explanation.

"This particular magic was originally used to deal with dragons," the blue cat continued. "So it's called Dragon Slayer Magic. Igneel was the one who taught it to him."

Bora launched another fire attack towards Natsu, but he easily caught it and then ate it up as well. "Now that was a hefty meal! You're not doing too bad," Natsu admitted as he smirked. "But I'm about to cook you like a smoked fish!"

"You're going to do WHAT to me?!" Bora screamed. Natsu got a running start, his fist becoming enveloped in flames once more, and he jumped up and nailed him with it, yelling, "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" The attack sent Bora flying straight through the town, only stopping when he collided with the bell in a tower, letting out a resounding gong.

"Don't be silly, Natsu!" Happy pointed out as if reprimanding him. "Everyone knows you smoke food with smoke, not fire!"

"That… was awesome," Makoto admitted, amazed from having witnessed the extent of a Dragon Slayer's magical capability in combat.

"But he overdid it!" Lucy added as she looked at the burning ruins of the ship.

"Aye!"

"Oh, shut it, cat!"

The approaching sound of marching against the cobblestone was enough to draw Makoto and Lucy's attention as they saw a massive amount of men in uniform heading over towards them. Lucy's eyes widened as she recognized who they were and gasped, "The army?!" She screamed out in surprise as Natsu unexpectedly grabbed onto her wrist and pulled her with him, causing her to latch onto Makoto, bringing him along as well.

"Holy crap, we've gotta get out of here!" Natsu shouted as they ran.

"Where the heck are you taking me?!" Lucy yelled.

"And why am I coming along?!" Makoto added.

"Just come on!" Natsu insisted. "You said you wanted to join the Fairy Tail guild, didn't cha? And you don't have anywhere to go, right Makoto?" Makoto blinked at Natsu's remembrance of the detail he'd only mentioned offhandedly.

Natsu grinned at the both of them as Happy and Maya flew in the air behind them. "So let's go!"

A smile slowly spread across Lucy's face and she yelled, "All right!"

"You can count me in!" Makoto agreed with a smile. Joining a guild would provide income, a chance to practice his magic, and he could search for the others while sticking with his new friends. They let go of each other's wrists at the agreement and ran to flee from the army forces chasing them down.

Was it good? Oooooh, I don't know if it was okay…

Anyway, self-confidence issues aside, I've already written a few chapters ahead with this story (but they still need editing grr I'll get on that I promise), so hopefully uploading with some sort of vague schedule will be doable. However, I'm gonna leave this story for a while to see whether or not people like this first chapter and want to see more (I'll still write the story regardless, but this is just to see whether I should post it here now or maybe wait until I've written some more). I think I might wait for about 2 or 4 weeks cause this story is kinda tucked away in the corner of crossovers, see what happens and then move on from there.

So yeah, leave some reviews for if you like it and want to see more, or if you have any criticisms about my writing or anything. This chapter is here to get reactions out of you, so if you just keep your praise to yourself, I won't know about it. (come on you know that review button likes being pushed)

But yeah, thanks for reading! Hopefully there's gonna be more from me!