Showing off
After their emotion filled night, Erza and Inari went their separate ways for the night. Erza lived in the Fairy Tail female dorm, Fairy Hills, while Inari was renting a little apartment close to the guild.
The next morning, Inari walked in to see Erza already browsing the mission board. Quietly walking up to her, he stopped next to her and held her hand. With her capabilities, she had already noticed his approach, so her only reaction was to hold his hand as well, and gain a faint blush. The small action between the 2 of them did not go unnoticed, and the rest of the guild started cat-calling and whistling at the 2 of them.
Both blushing, they picked a combat mission and hurriedly left after receiving confirmation. After packing their own necessities, they met and left Magnolia via the South gate.
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After a while of travelling via train and carriage, they were now on the last leg of their journey. Erza, after the glow of finding love subsided a bit, felt curious about Inari's magic. What happened after he went berserk?
"Inari, after you went through that, you mentioned that your magic was more complete now. Can I see, so we can work out new combinations?" Erza
Inari nodded, and they picked a clearing slightly off the beaten path in order to practice. Inari starts stretching and preparing himself, while Erza does the same.
"Alright, I'm ready. I'll start using my magic then!" Inari
Erza nods and summons a sword with her Heart Kreuz armor.
Inari breaths in deep, then suddenly lifts his hand above his head. Within his hand a sphere of red fire the size of a melon forms. Suddenly, with a bang, a purple lightning bolt hits the sphere, suspending above it without disheartening. Inari tightens his hand, as if grabbing something. With a low yell, he pulls downwards. As he does so, the lightning bolt also gets 'eaten' by the fire. Whereas in Inari's hand appears the hilt, then blade of a katana. The katana blade is almost 1 meter (~3 feet) and purple-silver, covered in red flames, with purple sparks shooting off it. The hilt of the katana is 25 cm (~10 inches) with a red tsukamaki, studded with purple diamonds flickering with an inner light.
"Wow, it's beautiful! I can also feel the power radiating from it." Erza
Erza commented on the exquisite blade with her eyes shining. Inari coughed, seemingly embarrassed about her comments.
"Thank you. It seems that this blade is my conduit for my power. It helps me focus it, allowing me to do things like... this!!!" Inari
Inari slashed towards Erza, shooting a dazzling bolt of purple lightning. Erza managed to deflect it, but she knew that if Inari used his full power, her weapons might turn into ash. Not done, Inari slashed again. This time, an arc of red fire rushed towards Erza. She was puzzled though, since she couldn't feel any power in them. They wouldn't burn her, so she attempted to scatter them with her bare hand. Immediately she regretted her action, since she felt immense pain radiating from her hand. It was as if she had thrust her hands into the depths of hell with no protection whatsoever.
Inari immediately dissipated the magic attacking Erza, causing the pain to disappear as if it wasn't there in the first place. Erza collapsed, feeling fear from just the memory of the pain.
"Ahh, sorry about that. Didn't expect you to try to take it with your body. I would have explained after, but the flames are an illusory technique, directly affecting the pain center. No matter how used to pain you are, it would be agonizing." Inari
Inari explained as he went down on one knee next to her. Suddenly, with a grin, he took her affected hand, took her gauntlet off and kissed her hand. Erza blushed while he did so, looking at him in question.
"Hmm, the say that when your partner gets injured, you should kiss it better." Inari
Inari laughed as he ran away from Erza's attempts to poke him. Finally, after resting for a while and playing around, they carried on with their mission.
"You said your magic is more complete now. Does that mean it still has room to change?" Erza
"You could say so. Before, it was as if I was building a tower, but using the blueprints of a house. Now, I'm on the right track, and I've basically completed both the foundation and the outline. Now all I need is to complete the floors." Inari
Erza giggled, finding his choice of analogy hilarious. Together they completed their mission, and returned home, back to Fairy Tail.
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Within the blaze that was Inari's minds-cape, the fox once again surfaced. This time, however, another drastic change started happening. Slowly all the fire and lightning started to revolve around the fox, seemingly absorbed by it. Within this whirlpool of magic, the fox slowly alternated between it's giant fox form, and a more humanoid form. Both were still unclear, with only flames being visible, but somehow, the humanoid form seemed much more terrifying than the fox.