Mira's departure naturally went smoothly. No one in the guild dared to get on the "She-Devil's" bad side.
But when it came to Shane, the situation was completely different.
The moment he poked half his body back into the hall, he instantly felt countless pairs of eyes lock onto him like searchlights.
It was early morning, and the guild hall should have been quiet, but thanks to the old members who had run off to spread the news, the place was now unusually packed.
"Yo, so you're the legendary guy who's got that thing going on with Erza?"
From the crowd, a handsome orange-haired man Shane didn't recognize gave a whistle and teased loudly,
"First thing in the morning, hiding in a little room alone with Mira to whisper secrets… Aren't you scared Erza will find out and chop you to pieces with a sword?"
"Why would I be?"
Shane looked at him strangely and answered as if it were obvious.
"Erza has such a gentle and considerate personality. There's no way she'd do something violent like that."
"…"
The teasing smile on the orange-haired man's face instantly froze.
Gentle? Considerate?
Why was the only image in his head that of a brutal red-haired swordswoman coldly suppressing guild brawls in a bloody scene?
"Hahaha, got shut down, didn't you, Loke?"
Just as the orange-haired man began questioning reality, a black-haired young man wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts popped up from somewhere and mercilessly laughed at him.
"Yo, Gray!"
Shane recognized the familiar exhibitionist at a glance and waved at him with a smile.
"You haven't changed at all. Still running around in nothing but your underwear even in this cold."
"Shut up! The changes in me are definitely going to shock you!"
Gray clenched his fist in defiance.
As magic flowed, beautiful, crystal-clear ice flowers bloomed in his palm, so vivid they seemed real.
He looked at Shane with complete confidence.
"You spent four full years sleeping comfortably underground. By now, I might've already left you far behind!"
"Oh?" Shane rubbed his chin. "So can the current you beat Erza now? I heard she's one of the Ten Wizard Saints too."
"…"
Gray's smug smile instantly froze. Of course he knew better than anyone about Shane's record of defeating Jose.
He silently turned his head aside and coughed twice to hide his embarrassment.
"Ahem… that violent monster woman doesn't count…"
"Hahaha, got shut down, didn't you, Gray!"
Loke immediately seized the chance and threw Gray's own words right back at him.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!"
"Stop paying attention to those two idiots! Look at me! I'm the one challenging you to a duel!"
While Gray and Loke bickered, the troublemaker who had kicked the doors in and had been deliberately ignored by Shane finally couldn't take it anymore.
Shane pretended not to hear him, his gaze slowly sweeping over the crowd.
Cana, Ur, Levy—even Elfman, whose face had been gloomy the whole time, had come.
Nearly all the familiar faces from his memories had gathered here because he had awakened.
Smiling, Shane waved one by one to the companions he hadn't seen in four years.
"Damn it, Shane! Why do you keep ignoring me?!"
Finally, the guy who had been treated like air exploded.
Boom!
Two streams of scorching breath blasted from his nostrils, instantly setting several innocent wooden chairs nearby on fire. If Shane still refused to look at him, he looked ready to tear the guild's roof off.
"…"
Faced with the increasingly dramatic commotion, Shane knew he couldn't keep pretending to be deaf.
He rubbed his brow helplessly, turned toward the boy surrounded by flames, and sighed.
"Because I felt that the moment I responded to you, something troublesome was definitely going to happen."
At that point, Shane paused.
But when he looked at the other boy's face—still reckless, yet clearly much less childish than before—his tone lightened unconsciously.
"But… after four years, you really have gotten a lot taller, Natsu."
"Tch!"
Natsu rubbed his nose hard with the back of his hand.
"What the hell? I thought you'd slept so long you'd forgotten about me."
But in the next second, he suddenly lifted his head, and the fighting spirit in his eyes blazed like a torch drenched in oil.
"But I didn't just get taller! I'm way stronger than I was four years ago! Enough talk. Duel me!"
"Oooh! There it is!"
"The Fire Dragon is challenging the legendary senpai who slept for four years?!"
The moment Natsu issued his challenge, the guild members watching from all around erupted.
The crowd moved back in perfect tacit agreement, clearing a wide dueling space in the middle of the hall.
Everyone rubbed their hands together excitedly, waiting for the show.
"Fire Dragon?"
Shane froze for a moment, pointed at Natsu, and almost couldn't keep his expression under control.
"Pfft—hahaha! They're talking about you?"
"What? Is there a problem?!" Natsu's face flushed bright red as he protested loudly.
"Pfft… sorry, sorry."
Shane struggled to hold down the corners of his mouth.
"I just didn't expect the blockhead from back then to end up with such a flashy, cool title."
He gave Natsu a thumbs-up.
"It suits you."
"You bastard, you're definitely still making fun of me!"
Natsu wasn't buying it. He decided to stop wasting words on this infuriating guy.
Boom!
His right hand clenched into a fist, and an intensely hot flame instantly wrapped around it, the high temperature warping even the air around him.
"Fire Dragon's—Iron Fist!"
With a roar, Natsu kicked off the ground. His whole body shot forward like a cannonball, dragging a long tail of flame straight toward Shane's face.
"Ohhh! Natsu's going all out right from the start!" someone in the crowd shouted.
"Shane slept underground for four years. His magic probably didn't grow at all during that time. Meanwhile, Natsu's been constantly getting stronger. This fight might actually be close!"
The raging firelight nearly dyed the guild ceiling crimson.
Whether they were new members or old veterans familiar with Shane's strength, everyone held their breath.
"Not bad momentum. Looks like you weren't lying when you said you'd gotten stronger, Natsu."
Facing the blazing heat rushing toward him, Shane stood where he was without moving even half a step.
"But there's one thing I should remind you of."
Shane lifted a finger and said seriously,
"Even while I was asleep, I was still working hard to improve myself over these four years."
As he spoke evenly, a pure white cloak fell from his shoulders.
Shane slowly raised his right hand.
The invisible "forge" within his heart roared to life.
There was no earth-shaking sound.
Only a scorching heart-flame, denser and deeper than Natsu's fire, flowed out like a crimson current and met Natsu's heavy fist head-on without dodging.
"Is he crazy? He's trying to use fire against Natsu?!"
In the crowd, Loke couldn't help shouting in shock.
"Doesn't he know Natsu is a Fire Dragon Slayer? How could playing with fire in front of him possibly work?"
"Just watch quietly."
Beside him, Wakaba blew out a smoke ring, his eyes fixed on the center of the collision.
"Shane's flames aren't exactly ordinary fire magic."
"But… Natsu now really isn't the same brat who only knew how to burn things randomly," Macao said, offering a different view.
Boom—!!!
Two completely different flames slammed into each other in midair.
A scorching shockwave swept through the whole hall in a ring, forcing the people in the front row to squeeze their eyes shut and stumble back.
Just as Macao had expected, Shane's unbelievable heart-flame scattered Natsu's raging fire fist the instant they made contact, crushing through it with brute force.
Sparks exploded everywhere.
"Inhale—!"
But just as those scattered sparks were about to fall onto Natsu—
Natsu suddenly opened his mouth wide and sucked hard toward the air, like a whale swallowing water.
"Oh? You can already do that now?"
Seeing this, Shane did not press the attack. Instead, he withdrew his hand and looked at Natsu with encouragement.
The scattered crimson heart-flames were swept into a vortex and all disappeared into Natsu's mouth.
After swallowing that vast, unfamiliar magic, Natsu's belly instantly swelled up like an overinflated balloon.
He clutched his stomach with both hands, his face flushing red as he frantically inhaled and exhaled, clearly struggling to digest that power.
Finally, after several rounds of intense breathing, his ridiculously swollen stomach slowly shrank back down.
"Burp…"
With a loud belch, Natsu straightened up and proudly wiped a couple of sparks from the corner of his mouth with his thumb.
"These past few years, so I could beat you, I've been training like crazy to eat that black fire the blond guy left behind."
He grinned, showing his signature sharp canine teeth.
"Now it's not just his black fire. Even your weird flames—I can eat every last bit of them!"
~~~