By the riverbank, sunlight poured down, turning the water into rippling shards of gold.
Lucy finally came panting back to the shore. The moment she spotted the two idiots—just waking up from their faint, clutching their heads and blinking in confusion—a heavy gust of pressure descended from above.
She looked up on instinct.
In the next second, her expression went blank.
"W-Why…?" Her eyes went wide as she stared at the figure slowly descending through the air. "Why is Erza with Sh—"
Lucy cut herself off mid-sentence and clapped a hand over her mouth, remembering she couldn't just blurt that name out.
Up in the air, the black-haired boy hovered—and on him… future Erza was clinging like a koala.
Because future Erza was taller and far more curvy than the current Shane, she'd had to curl in tightly to keep her balance during flight. Her long legs, in particular, were locked around his waist to steady herself.
They were pressed so close there wasn't even a sliver of space between them.
From Lucy's angle, it looked like a stunning, voluptuous older sister type was abducting an innocent, pure-hearted boy…
And not the "I'm taking you home" kind of vibe—more like "I'm taking you home to eat you."
"…" After they landed, Erza casually released her arms from around Shane's neck, tugged her slightly rumpled collar back into place, and acted like nothing happened.
"Sorry… looks like we've been exposed."
Hearing that completely insincere apology, Lucy's mouth twitched violently as she ranted internally:
You beelined straight east! You literally went back to your own house! If that didn't expose you, physics would be broken!
But faced with Erza's queenly "if I'm not embarrassed, then everyone else can be" aura, Lucy only dared to grumble in her head.
"Whatever…" Lucy sighed and decided to skip this headache of a topic.
Instead, she stared at the younger version of Shane with a complicated, curious look.
"So this is… what Shane-nii used to be like…"
Unlike earlier when she'd been ducking her head, this time she looked straight at him—studying him carefully.
It felt nostalgic, and strangely new.
Shane met her gaze and smiled lightly, not looking uncomfortable at all.
"So you're the future Lu—" He swallowed the name just in time and changed it smoothly. "So… a future companion? You look pretty reliable."
The girl in front of him acted like a normal, lively neighbor-type girl, but Shane could clearly sense the warm, massive magic power inside her.
That wasn't something you had from talent alone—it was power built over countless days and nights, accumulated bit by bit.
"No wonder Erza trusts you enough to hand you something as important as decoding that spellbook." Shane nodded thoughtfully. "Looks like you're not just strong—you're pretty well-read too."
"Heh heh~" Being praised by Shane, Lucy instinctively puffed out her chest, wearing a proud little expression.
"Of course! I kept my promise and helped Shane-bro— I mean, helped you with lots of things!"
She almost called him "Shane-bro" out of habit, but seeing how young his face was, she forced the words back.
"Is that so?" Seeing her smug, even Shane needs me expression, Shane couldn't help laughing.
Then, on a whim, he reached over and grabbed the small Lucy who'd been watching all this with her head tilted up.
With absolutely no mercy, he kneaded the soft, baby-fat cheeks of her little face with both hands.
"Lucy, looks like you'll become really amazing someday."
"Huh…?" Little Lucy tilted her head, her cheeks being squished into strange shapes, completely clueless.
"Hey!" Big Lucy instantly snapped, glaring at him.
"Don't bully kid-me right in front of me! It's weird!"
"So noisy…" At that moment, Gray and Natsu—still sprawled on the ground—finally recovered enough to sit up.
Seeing the oddly harmonious mood, they looked at each other, then belatedly realized something.
"Wait… that bastard Shane already knows we're from the future?!"
"Who are you calling a bastard?" Shane flicked his eyes over, then hopped over without hesitation and bonked each of them on the head.
Thunk! Thunk!
They were exhausted from fighting and couldn't dodge at all, so they took it cleanly—immediately squatting and clutching their skulls in pain.
"Speaking of which…" Shane looked down at the two clowns with pure disgust.
"After all these years, why do you still feel so weak?" He scanned them critically. "Don't tell me… you two still aren't S-class mages?"
"S-Shut up!" Gray's face stiffened. He turned away, bluffing with shaky confidence.
"Like I'd just tell you future stuff!"
But Natsu's fighting spirit flared instead.
"Damn it!" He clenched his fists, eyes burning.
"Just you wait! This year—this year—I'm going to challenge future you, beat you completely, and become the strongest S-class mage!"
"Oh?" It felt like the air itself warmed under Natsu's battle intent.
Shane raised an eyebrow.
At the same time, he felt something else—and his expression changed.
Deep in his "mind-sea," the Lancer vision progress was accelerating visibly just from being near future Natsu.
The level of resonance was already approaching Igneel's influence.
"This feeling…" Shane was quietly shocked.
"Is it because future Natsu is closer to being 'dragon' in nature now? Or did Igneel's influence deepen inside him?"
And with that shock came a bad feeling.
Recently he'd been holed up in Magnolia with Erza, and the progress toward Lancer's second vision was already nearly full.
His plan had been to first use the newly gained Assassin permission to test how visions affected reality…
But Assassin's second vision was still far off.
"If this keeps up… my plan's going to be completely wrecked."
Watching Shane drift off again right after bonking them, Erza didn't even know what to say anymore.
She could only comfort herself with: At least he's not spacing out at me.
Then she ignored him entirely, stepped forward, and looked at Lucy.
"You were so desperate to find us—did you discover something?"
Lucy nodded, already understanding what Erza wanted.
With a serious face, she explained the six-hour limit of time rewind and the rule that all travelers had to touch the trigger to return.
"I see." Erza didn't say much—she just tugged lightly on Shane's hand.
Shane had been listening.
"Only six hours… and it requires a vivid memory of the arrival point as an anchor, huh?" He nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah. Time travel was never going to be something you could do for free, without limits."
Which meant—even if he got the book—he'd have to prepare thoroughly if he wanted to reach Ur's time.
Watching Shane and Erza's seamless coordination, Lucy's grin kept trying to break loose.
Erza and Shane-nii are still this close…
She had a stupidly happy "my ship really has been sweet since childhood" feeling.
But then Mirajane's gentle image flashed through her mind.
"Ugh…" Lucy instantly felt guilty for even thinking that, and pinched her own cheeks hard, trying to crush the smile back down.
…
With only ten-something minutes left, they avoided talking too much about the future. They sat by the riverbank and chatted lightly instead—remembering little events from this era, changes in the city.
Then, as the sunlight turned fully orange—
Hummm—
The thick spellbook in Lucy's arms began to radiate a powerful glow.
"Time's up." Lucy stood, reluctant.
This accidental trip—meeting her younger self, seeing a younger, spirited Shane-nii—felt like a dream.
I'm definitely writing this into my novel when we get back, she vowed.
She turned toward Shane, wanting to say, I'll keep the key you gave me forever.
But then she remembered—at this point in time, he hadn't given it to her yet. Saying it now would be weird.
So instead she knelt beside little Lucy and spoke earnestly to her younger self.
"Lucy, do your best, okay?"
"Become really strong, and… help the people you want to help."
"Mm!" Little Lucy didn't really understand, but she genuinely liked this big sister she'd met for less than a day.
She nodded hard, big eyes shining with determination.
Watching the scene, Shane suddenly remembered something.
He snapped his head toward Erza and fired off the question at lightning speed:
"Right—Erza!"
"Did future me ever tell you the true name of the Heroic Spirit who gave me those dragon wings?"
He knew exactly how much he ran his mouth about Heroic Spirits.
Arash's heroic deeds. Muramasa's obsession with forging. Half the guild could probably recite them by heart by now.
If everyone was that familiar, future him should've blabbed the wing Spirit's name too.
But his hope fell flat.
Erza shook her head, looking strangely conflicted.
"About the one who gave you concealment… that one I know. It's 'J—'—"
"Stop! Don't tell me that!" Shane jolted, raising a hand to cut her off, terrified he'd trigger an early True Name release.
"I'm asking about the wings! The wings!"
"N-no…" Erza thought for a moment, looking even more awkward.
"You never mentioned that Spirit's name."
"It's… not like you."
"That can't be right." Shane frowned. "That Spirit's power is insane—its fame should be huge. There's no way I could keep my mouth shut…"
That didn't fit his usual personality at all.
"Insane?" At that word, every "future person" there seemed to recall the same mental image. Their expressions turned… solemn. Almost reverent.
"It really is… insane." Erza chose her words carefully. "But rather than 'insane'… 'a beauty seated high in the heavens' might fit better."
"It was… an extremely beautiful, extremely pure presence."
Then, as if she'd remembered something funny, the corner of her mouth curved in a teasing smile.
"Oh—right. When you first got that power, you kept muttering weird stuff."
"Like, 'I refuse to admit she's a girl,' and 'What kind of nonsense dog history is this,' and 'What the hell does this have to do with dragons'…"
"…" Shane froze.
Mouth open, brain completely stalled. He couldn't process any of it.
Beautiful? Dog history? Dragons?
What… is she even talking about?!
But while he was still stuck, the travel glow had already intensified to its peak. Their bodies were beginning to fade.
"Apologize to… 'me,' for me," Erza's voice carried through the light at the last second. "And—make sure she remembers what I told her!"
"Don't forget!"
Humm—!
The light vanished.
The riverbank returned to peace. Only the quiet flow of water remained.
Shane stood there staring at the now-empty grass, brows knitted tight.
"Remember what she told her…?"
"So that's why she held back, came all the way over, and beat herself up…?"
~~~
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