Chapter 52: Offending the Wrong Guild
"Who is it?!"
The gruff voice of the lead smuggler cut through the tense air of the ship's cabin. The men, who had been laughing moments before, now spun around, their hands instinctively moving to their weapons.
The man who had just appeared was an unrecognizable figure, standing amidst the terrified, half-conscious girls they had abducted.
"Ren?!"
Lucy Heartfilia, who had been desperately trying to stay upright against the wall, squinted through the dim light. The voice was familiar, but the person was not. The man standing before her had the same frame as Ren, but his entire presence had shifted. His magic power radiated off him in visible, shimmering waves, making him seem taller, more dangerous. His eyes seemed to glow with a faint, fiery light, and his calm, almost lazy posture was completely at odds with the terrifying aura he projected. He looked like a completely different person.
"Yes, it's me," Ren replied, his voice calm, yet carrying a cold edge that sent a shiver down everyone's spine. He cracked his neck, his gaze sweeping over the leering smugglers and the panicked, crying girls.
"It's time to deal with you scumbags," he said, taking a step forward. "You're all trash."
Ren was about to make his move, a flicker of flame already gathering in his palm, when a weak, gurgling hand suddenly shot out from the floor hatch and grabbed his ankle.
"Ren... Ugh~~~!"
Natsu Dragneel, green-faced and barely coherent, was clinging to him.
"Just a moment," Ren sighed, looking down at the Fire Dragon Slayer. "I'll finish these guys in three seconds. And stay away, don't throw up on me!"
"No!" Natsu gasped, his body heaving. "These... bastards... they're impersonating... Fairy Tail... Ugh... I want to beat them up myself! ...Ugh..."
Ren paused, hearing the surprising conviction in Natsu's sickly groan. He considered it. Natsu was right. This wasn't just about human trafficking; it was about pride. These men had used his guild's name to commit their crimes. They would have to return to Fairy Tail eventually, and since the other party was impersonating Natsu, it was only right for the real Natsu to handle it.
"Alright!" Ren agreed, a sharp grin spreading across his face. "But we're not doing it here. This motion sickness is pathetic. Let's get you on solid ground."
"Wh-What are you... ugh... doing?" Natsu moaned.
Ren didn't answer. Whoosh—!
His feet erupted with a massive amount of flames. The fire didn't just push; it detonated. The sheer force burned a perfect, circular hole right through the wooden deck. The flames shot down through the hole, into the cabin below, and continued straight through the hull at the stern of the ship, exploding out the back like a newly installed rocket thruster.
"Hold on tight!" Ren yelled, effortlessly scooping Lucy up with one arm and holding her against his side.
"Wait, what?!?" Lucy shrieked, not understanding what he meant.
She found out a split-second later.
Bang—!
A powerful, jarring thrust slammed the ship forward, accelerating it from a gentle bob to a speedboat's velocity in an instant. The sudden momentum caused almost everyone to lose their balance, and the smugglers were sent tumbling backward like bowling pins.
"Ahhh!"
The ship, now propelled by Ren's magic, tore through the water, leaving a massive, steaming wake.
"Turn! Turn! You'll hit the rocks!" one of the smugglers screamed, regaining his footing.
"Good idea!" Ren shouted back cheerfully.
He shifted his fiery output, and the entire ship did a massive, physics-defying drift, tilting at a near 90-degree angle. The sound of groaning wood and screaming men filled the air as everyone—smugglers, Natsu, and Happy—rolled violently to the other side of the deck.
"Ahhh!!"
"Finally," Ren said, stabilizing the vessel and aiming it directly at Hargeon Port. He applied one final burst of acceleration. The ship sprinted forward, a fiery comet skimming the waves, heading straight for the beach.
The people enjoying the evening air at Hargeon Port looked up in confusion, their conversations dying as they heard the approaching roar. They saw a ship, on fire at the back, moving at an impossible speed, not toward the docks, but toward the main plaza.
CRASH!
With a deafening sound of splintering timber and grinding sand, the ship launched itself out of the water and plowed directly onto the port's beach, running aground with a shudder that shook the whole area.
"Wh-What's going on!!"
"The ship crashed into the port!!"
The bystanders at the port rushed out, shouting in alarm, trying to see what had happened.
The violent impact had the secondary effect of jolting the drugged girls on board, knocking them out of their stupor. Seeing their chance, they woke up, screamed, and began scattering in every direction, fleeing the wreckage and their captors.
On the ruined deck, Natsu Dragneel slowly, agonizingly, pushed himself to his hands and knees. He looked like he was aboutto kiss the sand-covered planks.
"Finally... no more... swaying."
"Oh... oh no!" one of the smugglers, dressed in a gaudy suit, whimpered. "Mr. Fire Dragon, we're back at the port, and those girls... they've all escaped!"
"What?!" The man known as 'Salamander' roared.
Lucy, whom Ren had set down, was overjoyed to hear this. "Great! When the army arrives, you're all finished!"
"Kid! Look at the mess you've made!"
The 'Fire Dragon' glared at Ren, his face contorted with rage. His ship was destroyed. His "cargo" was gone. His entire business was ruined, and now he would undoubtedly face pursuit from the Magic Council.
Ren, however, simply smiled, brushing some soot off his shoulder. "Well~! No need to be polite. I just love doing good deeds."
"I wasn't praising you!!" the impostor shrieked.
At that moment, Natsu finally stood up on solid, unmoving ground. The color was returning to his face, replaced by a cold fury. He shrugged off his jacket, letting it fall to the deck. He stared directly at the 'Fire Dragon.'
"Are you a Mage from Fairy Tail?"
The man, 'Salamander', scoffed, trying to regain his composure. "Huh? At this point, you're still asking that? What if I am? What if I'm not?"
"Come here and let me see!" Natsu's voice was a low growl. He balled his fists, and the air around him grew hot. "I'm Natsu of Fairy Tail!! And I've never seen anyone like you in our guild!!"
"What?"
Lucy's jaw dropped. "Fairy Tail?! Natsu is... he's actually a Mage from Fairy Tail?!" Her mind raced, connecting the pieces. "If Natsu is from Fairy Tail, then Ren..."
She suddenly remembered what Ren had said on the street. "I can guarantee he's a fake." No wonder Ren was so certain that this 'Salamander' was an impostor. He and Natsu were from the guild themselves, so they knew for a fact this guy was a fraud.
"Look at that emblem!!" one of the smugglers shouted, pointing at Natsu's shoulder, where the red guild mark was now clearly visible.
"Mr. Bora, this is the real deal!!"
"F-Fool!! Don't call me by my real name!!" The impostor, Bora, became nervous. His charade was over.
"Bora... Bora of the Red Earth!" Happy, who had been flying in circles, suddenly piped up. "The one expelled from the Mage guild 'Titan's Nose' several years ago. Aye!"
"I've heard about this!" Lucy chimed in, her eyes wide with recognition. When she was at home, she had obsessively read the Weekly Sorcerer magazine, which recorded all sorts of events in the magic world. "He was expelled for frequently using his magic for theft. I can't believe he's stooped to human trafficking now!"
Natsu gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead as his anger reached its peak. "I don't care if you're a good guy or a bad guy... I'll never let anyone who impersonates Fairy Tail get away with it!"
Compared to Ren, a newcomer who had only joined half a year ago, Natsu had been with Fairy Tail since childhood. The guild was his family, his home, his entire life. For someone to tarnish that sacred name to commit acts like this... it was unforgivable.
"Hmph!! You brat, shut up!!" Bora snarled, his fear being replaced by a cornered animal's aggression. "Crimson Typhoon!!"
Bora raised his hand and unleashed a violent, swirling ball of purple-red flames. The attack shot forward and struck Natsu head-on, completely engulfing his body in a fiery vortex.
"Natsu!" Lucy screamed, about to rush forward to help.
"It's okay, Lucy!" Happy stopped her, a confident grin on his face.
"Hmph! I don't believe you can survive after being hit by my flame magic," Bora sneered, though his eyes were wide with apprehension.
A voice, muffled but clear, came from within the inferno.
"Tastes terrible."
Natsu's voice made Bora's expression stiffen in disbelief.
Immediately after, the port bystanders and Bora's own crew witnessed a terrifying, impossible scene. The flames of the "Crimson Typhoon" began to shrink, drawing inward as if being inhaled.
"What is this?"
Natsu emerged from the fire, completely unharmed. He gripped the remaining flames in his hand, shoved them into his mouth, and began to chew and swallow them, bite by bite.
"Are you really a Fire Mage? This is the first time I've eaten such terrible fire," Natsu complained, wiping his mouth. "Compared to Ren's fire, your flames taste far worse."
"What?!"
"Fire... He actually... ate the fire?!"
"Wh-What... Is this guy even human?!"
Bora was almost incoherent with fright. It was one thing for his flame attack to be ineffective against that other guy, Ren. But for someone to casually eat his flames? This was simply too outrageous.
"Fire cannot harm Natsu," Happy said proudly from the air.
Lucy was sweating with fear, though not for Natsu. "I've... I've never seen this kind of magic!!"
"After eating that, power surged through me!" Natsu declared, his strength and spirit returning in full force now that his motion sickness was gone. "So I won't hold back!!"
Natsu took a deep breath, his cheeks puffing out as he gathered a massive amount of magic power in his lungs.
"Fire Dragon's Roar!!"
He spewed a colossal, roaring torrent of flames from his mouth. The fire wasn't purple and weak like Bora's; it was a brilliant, burning-hot, golden-red inferno.
Boom—!
The attack struck the already-wrecked ship, and the entire structure exploded in a secondary, massive detonation.
"Ughhh!!"
"My legs!!"
The remaining human traffickers screamed as they were blown away by the force of the blast, sent flying into the water or crashing into the port's plaza.
At this moment, one of the dazed traffickers, clinging to a piece of driftwood, recognized Natsu and trembled with fear. "This kid... pink hair... the scarf like scales... It can't be... Mr. Bora!! I've seen this kid before!!"
"It's definitely him!! This kid is... the real one..."
"Salamander..."
Lucy also finally understood. Natsu wasn't just a Mage from Fairy Tail. He was the real 'Salamander,' the Fire Dragon she had been searching for all along.
"Remember this!!" Natsu roared, his fists wreathed in flames as he charged directly towards the remaining human traffickers. "This is a Mage from Fairy Tail!!!"
"Ughhh!!"
"Wahhh!!"
The screams of the traffickers filled the air as Natsu, in his element, began to mop them up with righteous, fiery fury.
Bora, seeing the disastrous situation, immediately decided to escape. The guy who couldn't be killed by bullets (Ren) and the guy who could devour flames (Natsu) were both monsters.
He was alone, but they had two. Two fists couldn't contend with four hands; running away was not shameful.
Bora quickly stepped onto a wave of his signature purple flames, which lifted him into the air and began to carry him away from the port.
Lucy, with her keen eyes, immediately noticed him fleeing. "Oh no! That guy is escaping!!"
Ren, who had been calmly watching Natsu have his moment, raised an eyebrow. "Escaping?"
He looked up at the flying figure of Bora, a cold smile touching his lips. "You offend Fairy Tail, tarnish its name, and still expect to escape? There's no such thing as that in this world."
Ren's right arm, which had been hanging loosely at his side, suddenly changed. It burst into a swirling vortex of pure, white-hot fire, the heatwave washing over the beach and causing the nearby water to sizzle and steam. The flames coalesced, solidifying into a limb of pure, unadulterated, burning power. He drew the arm back, his posture mirroring that of a legendary brawler.
"Fire Fist!!!"
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