Faced with the wary, appraising looks from the guild members around him, Kabe didn't have time to explain further and simply turned to Ultear and Erza.
"I'll let Ultear fill you in on the details. I'm heading out to find Natsu and the others first. Wait for me to get back."
With that, he spun around, blasted off with a burst of ki, and vanished from everyone's sight in the blink of an eye.
Mavis stared after him, dazed, quietly running the numbers in her head.
'That's incredibly fast. Several times faster than when he was carrying me here earlier.'
But she didn't have much time to dwell on it, since every set of eyes in the crowd was now fixed squarely on her, everyone eager to know whether she really was the legendary First Master.
Ultear glanced at Erza and Mirajane, who both nodded, then turned to Mavis.
"First Master, let me show you around the guild first. Though I imagine everyone here has quite a few questions for you. If you don't mind, it would mean a lot if you could answer some of them."
Mavis looked out over the sea of curious, searching faces, her wing shaped little ears twitching, and let out a resigned sigh.
"I know exactly what all of you want to ask. Fine, let's talk more once we're inside."
"Quick, quick, right this way!"
"Everyone move, out of the way, don't crowd the First Master!"
Wakaba, Macao, and several others sprang into action, clearing a path through the crowd and ushering Mavis inside with the utmost care.
Trailing at the back of the group, Lucy watched Mavis's retreating figure and rubbed her cheeks hard with both hands.
"Ugh, what kind of insane guild did I even join. They can bring back a First Master who's been dead for decades, apparently."
Beside her, Sorano scratched at her earlobe, looking just as bewildered.
"No idea. This is the first time I've run into something this ridiculous too."
"Why are you two overthinking this so much. Let's just go see what's going on already."
Meredy was the first to shrug it off, tossing out that line before hurrying inside. Lucy and Sorano exchanged a glance, a wordless understanding passing between them, and quickly followed after her. Better to get the story firsthand than stand around speculating out here.
Tracking down Natsu might have been a tall order for anyone else, but Kabe had pinpointed the exact location of all three of their ki signatures almost the instant he took off. Still, he didn't show anywhere near the urgency he'd displayed in front of Erza and the others, and rather than closing the distance immediately, he deliberately slowed down, drifting toward their direction at an unhurried, leisurely pace.
It wasn't that he was being cold or indifferent to their safety. He knew perfectly well that whatever strength Iron Forest's members had, it wasn't remotely close to being an unbeatable threat for Natsu and Gray. The only reason the group had been elevated to an S Class target in the first place was entirely thanks to the reputation surrounding the cursed flute Lullaby and the demon Zeref had created within it.
Thinking about it, Kabe couldn't help feeling a flicker of irritation. If the Council already knew Iron Forest was hunting for the demon, why not just dispatch a proper restraint unit directly instead of dragging their feet and farming the job out to a guild like this? Did they seriously think a dark guild couldn't manage to actually find the thing, and not worry about the chaos that might follow?
Whatever their reasoning, Kabe fully intended to have Hisui issue a formal condemnation in the Kingdom's name once this was all over, just to make those spineless bureaucrats squirm a little. For now, though, he'd decided to let Natsu and the others handle this one themselves.
Part of it was that, in the original story, this particular arc had never involved him to begin with. The other part was that this made for good practice and a real test for the three of them. With his presence changing the world around them, whatever else happened, Natsu and Gray's strength shouldn't be falling behind where it was in the original story, even if it wasn't leaps ahead either.
Having settled on that pleasant enough decision, Kabe's thoughts drifted to something else entirely: the group of local guild masters currently in the middle of their regional council meeting, the very same ones who, in the original story, ended up as targets of an attack.
"Well, I've got nothing else going on. Might as well swing by and wait for trouble to show up on their doorstep."
With that thought, Kabe changed course and accelerated toward the venue hosting the regional guild council meeting.
At that same moment, aboard a train barreling toward Oshibana Town, the last known location of Iron Forest's members, Natsu, Gray, and Happy had no idea yet that their secretly stolen job had already been discovered, or that Kabe was now hot on their trail.
As a Dragon Slayer with zero resistance to motion sickness, Natsu had collapsed onto his seat the instant the train lurched into motion, rendered completely helpless and miserable. Across from him, Gray and Happy had long since grown used to his pitiful antics on any form of transportation.
Gray propped his chin on one hand, elbow resting against the windowsill, and shot a mocking look at Natsu, sprawled out like a dead fish on the seat.
"Tell you what, if you're really this useless, you and Happy should just get off at the next stop and head home. In your current state, you'd be nothing but dead weight if we actually ran into trouble, you'd just drag me down."
"Uugh..."
Natsu let out a queasy groan, nauseous from the motion sickness, his usually booming voice reduced to a pathetic whisper.
"Sh, shut up, jerk. I'm the one who took this job. If anyone's leaving, it should be you, since you're the one who begged to tag along."
"Fire breathing idiot, did your brain rattle loose or something? When did I ever beg you for anything. You're the one who got caught stealing the job by me, and then practically clung to my leg begging me to come along and keep quiet about it. If it weren't for me, you'd already be strung up outside the guild for everyone to see, courtesy of a very angry Erza."
Even feeling as miserable as he did, Natsu still wasn't about to back down from arguing over who exactly had dragged whom into this mess. As the neutral party in all this, Happy figured he had the most credibility to weigh in.
The actual truth of what happened the night before was this: Natsu had slipped in late at night, while the guild was quiet and most of the regular drunks had passed out, and swiped an S Class job flyer for himself. He just hadn't counted on Gray still being around at that hour, who caught him red handed in the act. But upon seeing it was an S Class job specifically, Gray hadn't said a word, just traded a look with Natsu, and the two of them had wordlessly agreed to team up and take the job on together.
Clearly, Gray had been just as restless with the status quo, wanting to try something a little riskier to prove himself faster too. Which meant this whole argument between the two of them was pointless from the start. Happy stepped in right then to put an end to it.
"Natsu, Gray, since neither of you will back down, how about I take over as the temporary team leader for this job."
"Dream on!!!" the two of them shouted in perfect unison.
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