Natsu lay on the ground at the roller coaster exit with lifeless eyes, his limbs splayed out like a big "X", looking like a fish slapped onto the shore.
He hadn't recovered from the roller coaster sickness yet; his chest was still heaving slightly, and he occasionally let out an unintelligible mumble.
Happy, Gray, and Gajeel stood nearby, and the three of them were in no better shape.
Happy's fur was plastered to his body, looking like a wet rag that had been soaked in water.
Gray's pants were stained with vomit residue; he glanced down, his mouth twitching as he decided not to investigate exactly what it was.
Gajeel had strands of vomit residue hanging from his hair; he stood there expressionless, radiating a low-pressure aura that screamed "Keep away".
The odor emanating from the three of them formed an invisible barrier, causing surrounding tourists to cover their noses and take a detour, and even the seagulls wisely avoided this airspace.
Gray lifted his heavy eyelids and caught a familiar figure in his blurred vision.
His eyes lit up instantly, like a drowning person seeing a lifebuoy.
"Juvia! Quickly, help me rinse off with water!"
Gray reached out, his voice filled with unprecedented urgency.
Juvia was walking over with Lucy and Levy. Hearing her beloved Gray call for her?
A brilliant smile instantly bloomed on her face, and she didn't hesitate to start running over.
However, just as she reached a spot three steps away from Gray, an indescribable odor drilled into her nostrils.
Her footsteps halted abruptly as if she had slammed on the brakes, and she retreated several steps even faster than she had run over.
Juvia pinched her nose with one hand and fanned the air with the other, her voice becoming muffled because she was pinching her nose.
"What happened to Gray-sama?"
Enduring the smell, she flicked her fingers in the air, and a stream of clear water surged from her fingertips, gently enveloping Gray's entire body and beginning to wash him thoroughly.
After rinsing Gray, she casually flicked the water stream to the side, also splashing Happy and Gajeel in the process.
Finally, she condensed a water ball the size of a basin in her palm, aimed it at Natsu, and smashed it down without mercy.
"Splat!"
The water ball exploded on Natsu's face, sending cool water splashing everywhere.
Natsu jolted up from the ground, looking around blankly, his face filled with the confusion of "Who am I and where am I?"
"Ah! What happened? Where is this?"
It seemed Natsu had completely blacked out; the memories of that rainbow feast just now had been automatically formatted by his brain.
Happy was silent for two seconds, then silently picked up a fish from behind.
Gray and Gajeel exchanged a glance and rolled up their sleeves at the same time.
The two of them and the cat circled Natsu, then began a brutal beating.
Happy slapped Natsu in the face with the fish, fish scales flying everywhere.
"Natsu, you went too far!"
Gray's ice fist smashed onto Natsu's head, his tone full of resentment.
"Why do you get to forget the pain?!"
Gajeel's iron fist landed on Natsu's shoulder.
"Stupid fire dragon!"
Natsu hugged his head and squatted on the ground, completely unable to understand why he was being beaten, and could only let out a series of aggrieved wails.
Lucy and Levy stood far away upwind, covering their noses and mouths with handkerchiefs, waving at Juvia and shouting.
"Juvia, let's go play the water rafting!"
Lucy took two steps forward, then suddenly smelled an odor drifting over, and her brows instantly furrowed into a "river" shape.
"Huh? Why are they beating Natsu? What is this smell? It's so stinky."
Hearing this, Gray and the others quickened their movements in unison, hitting even harder.
Natsu's wailing rose another octave.
Lucy and Levy grabbed Juvia's arms from left and right, dragging her away from the scene like they were escorting a prisoner.
As Juvia was being dragged away, she looked back at Gray, her eyes filled with reluctance.
The three of them arrived at the entrance of the water rafting ride and happened to bump into Riyao's group.
Mirajane saw them first and waved with a smile.
"Ara, you guys came for rafting too."
Levy proudly lifted her chin, hands on her hips, her little face full of confidence.
"Since we have Juvia, we definitely have to play in the water."
Riyao leaned against the rafting boat, a cheeky curve at the corner of his mouth, and said in a meaningful tone: "So, you guys are very brave, huh?"
Lucy immediately and vigilantly crossed her hands in front of her chest, her expression as serious as if she were reciting legal statutes.
"We are going to play civilly, no underhanded tricks!"
Riyao sat on the rafting boat and let out a string of sinister laughter, the laugh sharp and long, just like a villain planning a conspiracy.
Mirajane expressionlessly reached out, two fingers precisely pinching Riyao's mouth, cutting off his laughter right in his throat.
"Don't laugh so ugly."
On the rafting boat, Elfman just wanted to step on, but was stopped by three people reaching out at the same time.
Riyao, Mirajane, and Lisanna looked at his overly bulky physique in unison, then looked at the rafting boat's weight limit, and then tacitly shook their heads.
Elfman opened his mouth, and was finally dejectedly driven off, standing on the shore waving his fists and shouting aggrievedly.
"A man… A man will definitely ride the rafting boat next time!"
The rules for the rafting activity were simple: score based on time, with a total length of five kilometers.
Lucy and the others' rafting boat happened to set off at the same time as Riyao and his group.
Two boats were parked side-by-side at the starting line, with ripples on the water surface.
Both rafting boats rushed into the water simultaneously.
As soon as Juvia entered the water, she started exerting force, her hands reaching under the water surface, and magic power surged into the current through her fingertips. The entire rafting boat was like it had been given a fierce push from behind by an invisible giant hand, and it zoomed out.
Lucy grabbed the rafting boat's handle tightly, her whole body pressed against the side of the boat by inertia.
"Ahhh… too fast!"
Levy's voice was broken by the wind, her eyes tightly closed, not daring to open them.
"Slow down!"
Juvia stood at the stern, steadily controlling the water flow, a calm smile hanging at the corner of her mouth.
"Don't worry, Juvia won't let you fall off."
Their rafting boat was like a plane flying low over the water, the hull almost leaving the water surface, relying only on the water flow controlled by Juvia to propel them forward at high speed.
Water splashed on both sides of the hull, forming two white water wings.
Riyao's side was not to be outdone.
[Life Mimicry: Azure Dragon]
Riyao in the Azure Dragon form could also control water, pushing the rafting boat to speed out like an arrow off a bowstring, stirring up monstrous waves.
Both sides were moving at high speed, but the sounds coming from them were completely different.
From Juvia's side came a series of screams and exclamations, while the sound from Riyao's side was like this:
"Charge! GOGOGO!" Lisanna raised her hands over her head, excited like a child riding a roller coaster for the first time.
"Hahaha…" Mirajane's laughter was crisp and hearty, drifting far away in the sea breeze.
In the water ahead, the trio of Makarov, Macao, and Wakaba were floating leisurely on the water.
Makarov lay in the center of the boat, crossing his legs and humming a tune.
Macao and Wakaba each held an oar, rowing casually, the whole scene as peaceful as retired cadres fishing on the weekend.
Then, two rafting boats, one on the left and one on the right, whizzed past them with thunderous momentum.
Makarov's trio's rafting boat was sandwiched between the two huge waves, spinning wildly like a sock in a washing machine.
Water splashed down on their heads, and the three were instantly soaked like drowned rats.
Makarov poked his head out from the spinning boat, waving his fists and roaring.
"You brats!"
Macao had swallowed a few mouthfuls of water, lying on the edge of the boat coughing violently.
"Cough, cough…"
Makarov snatched the oar, his eyes burning with fighting spirit.
"Let's rush up and teach them a lesson!"
"Old Ma, Junior Wakaba! Row quickly!"
Both sides continued to speed, getting faster and faster.
Lucy and Levy had given up struggling, the two of them clinging to Juvia's waist like koalas, refusing to let go no matter what.
Lucy's lips trembled crazily in the wind, emitting a string of unintelligible tremolo.
"Juvia is going to accelerate!"
"Wait…"
Juvia didn't wait for them to finish, her hands suddenly increasing her control, pushing the rafting boat out at an even faster speed.
Lucy and Levy's screams were instantly left behind.
Riyao glimpsed Juvia accelerating, a curve of excitement at the corner of his mouth.
He flipped his palm, the water flow carrying the rafting boat to speed up again, the dragon tail behind him flexibly wrapping around Mirajane and Lisanna's waists, fixing them firmly on the boat.
Ahead, the tense and exciting eighteen bends arrived.
The waterway narrowed sharply here, the steep rock walls on both banks pinching out a winding and twisting passage.
One sharp turn after another was tightly connected, the water hitting the rock walls at the curves, stirring up white spray.
Taking curves fast is true speed.
Riyao's pupils contracted slightly with excitement, his gaze locked tightly on the curve ahead.
Decelerate? Decelerating is impossible.
He raised the corner of his mouth, his palm slapped hard on the water surface, and the rafting boat cut into the first curve at an almost impossible angle.
Eurobeat ♫
The water churned and roared around the hull, like a real Azure Dragon twisting and turning in the water.
The rafting boat grazed the inner stone wall of the curve, so close that Lisanna could touch the moss on the rock wall if she reached out.
The staff on the shore held binoculars, shouting excitedly into the walkie-talkie.
"There is a rafting boat on the mountain… uh, entered the eighteen bends! No, it's two! Both have entered!"
Mirajane opened her arms, letting the strong wind pass through her fingertips, shouting happily.
"Faster!"
Lisanna looked back, her pupils slightly dilated.
"Brother-in-law, they are catching up!"
Juvia's rafting boat was chasing closely from behind, the whole boat supported by a huge water column, drawing sharp arcs in the curves.
She seized the opportunity of the last curve, controlling the water flow to perform an Armstrong Cyclone Jet Sprint, the rafting boat drawing a beautiful arc in the air, and landing steadily next to Riyao's team.
Both sides moved side-by-side, the bows of the two rafting boats touching the finish line almost simultaneously.
Finish line!
The rafting boat stopped slowly.
Levy and Lucy rolled off the boat, lying on the ground shaking like two Canis Minor soaked in the rain, on all fours, their whole bodies still trembling slightly.
Lucy raised her head, her lips pale, and said a sentence in a trembling voice.
"I… I never want to… play this again…"
While Riyao's side formed a strong contrast.
Lisanna jumped off the boat, bounced twice on the spot, her face full of unfulfilled excitement.
Mirajane stepped off the rafting boat gracefully, reached out to tidy up her clothes blown messy by the wind, a satisfied smile still hanging at the corner of her mouth.
Riyao stood with his hands in his pockets, looked back at the winding eighteen-bend waterway, his eyes flashing with eagerness.
ꉂ(ˊᗜˋ*)
"Should we go again?"
Hearing this, Levy and Lucy sprang up from the ground at the same time, fleeing the scene at the fastest speed of their lives.