Chapter 51: Lucy and the fake Salamander

Warning, this is going to be mostly a re-telling of the first chapter of the manga and the first episode of the anime, thank you and I am sorry, but this is necessary.

The town of Hargeon, a large port town that was located south of Magnolia.

It was one of the oldest cities of the kingdom, it was also one of the biggest towns in terms of trade and fishing.

On one of the main streets of the city, a young boy and a blue cat could be seen walking toward the center of the city.

Those two were of course Natsu and Happy.

They had come to the city, because Zeldaris told them that someone called Salamander was in the city, or that was what Natsu believed.

Zeldaris said that someone in the city was pretending to be Salamander, Natsu´s nickname, and to be a member of the guild and that he and Aversia would go and take care of him.

But Natsu wasn´t really listening and understood only Salamander and Hargeon, after which he grabbed Happy and made his way toward Hargeon.

Sadly, for Natsu, he had to take the train, since it was the fastest way to the city.

Natsu wanted to take Lisanna with him, but she and Elfman were trying to increase their range of Take Over options.

So, it was only him and Happy.

"Man, I am hungry.", said Natsu.

"We don´t have any money Natsu. And we still need to pay our debts back to Zeldaris and Aversia.", said Happy.

"Hey, Happy, he probably meant Igneel when he said Salamander, right?"

"Aye, I can only think of Igneel when I hear fire dragon."

"That´s what I thought too. I still can´t believe it, I have finally found him. He will now where the others are and what really happened back then."

"Aye"

The two noticed that a large group of girls were surrounding someone, while some were yelling excitedly 'Salamander'.

Natsu and Happy looked at each other before looking at the crowd again.

"Well, speak of the devil! We found him!!"

"Aye!!!"

The two ran toward the group and tried to ban themselves a way through the group.

The girls didn´t even notice Natsu and Happy and just kept staring at the man that was standing in the middle, with eyes filled with worship and love.

The man that they were worshipping was a tall and slim man, with mildly short, spiky, dark blue hair jutting outward, with a long fringe left hanging over the upper left part of his face.

His face was mildly rectangular and had sharp features, but the most notable feature was without a doubt the dark tattoo covering the right part of his forehead, just above his right eyebrow, which for some reason looked like thin stylized pair of tongs.

His clothes were quite stylish, especially the purple cloak.

His face radiated arrogance and pride, as he waved at the girls.

But his attention was focused on a certain blond young girl.

Natsu finally managed to arrive in the middle and just stared at the man, who in turn was quite surprised and looked back at Natsu.

The girl on the other hand looked like she woke up from a dream and started to walk away.

"You are not Igneel, who the heck are you?"

"Maybe you know me as Salamander."

But the second he finished, Natsu and Happy were already past the group of women and were walking away dejectedly.

"Sorry man, we mistook you for someone else.", said Natsu.

The girls became enraged as they saw that and started to beat Natsu up, while calling him rude and other things.

"Ladies, Ladies, please be patient with him, I am sure that he didn´t meant to be rude."

The girls stopped what they were doing and continued to look at him.

The man then gave Natsu his autograph, which Natsu didn´t wanted and was then beaten up by the army of girls again.

Salamander looked at the scene with a smug smile, before using his magic to conjure a purple flame under his feet and flew away.

But not before inviting every girl to a party on his ship.

Natsu just stared at the group while thinking what the heck just happened.

"Thank you for earlier, you really saved me there.", said the blond girl from earlier.

Her blond hair was tied into a small ponytail to the right side of her hair with a blue ribbon.

She wore a white armless shirt with blue strips at the edges of the shirt and formed a cross at the chest.

She also wore a blue skirt and dark boots, but the most notable things were the whip and the bundle of keys at her waist.

Her name was Lucy and she wanted to repay them with some food.

The three walked to a nearby restaurant and Natsu ordered a giant amount of food that he was devouring in no time whatsoever.

Happy was happily eating some fish and Lucy was explaining why she was grateful to Natsu.

It turned out that one of the rings that the so-called Salamander had was able to use charm magic, a magic that was banned long ago by the Magic Council, and that one of the few things that could use it was stolen not too long ago.

Charm magic would make people of the opposite sex instantly fall in love with the user and would follow their every command.

The only way to break free with out help was almost extremely difficult, but with Natsu´s interruption was she able to snap out of the charm and realized what he was doing.

She then said that she herself was a mage as well and that she wanted to join a certain famous guild and proceeded to explain the basics about mages and guilds, since she thought that the two weren´t mages as well.

Remembering that the two were looking for someone, she asked Natsu who he was looking for and became completely shocked when she heard that he was looking for a dragon called Igneel.

She retorted that there is no way that such a thing would be in this town, which surprised the two as they realized that which made Lucy retort that they didn´t seriously just noticed that.

Lucy paid for the food and left some more for Natsu and Happy.

Natsu then kneeled on the ground and thanked Lucy for the food, embarrassing Lucy quite a bit.

After Lucy left, Natsu continued to eat his fill and in the end spend all the money that Lucy left.

It was already evening when he finally finished eating and the two decided to take a little walk through the city and ended at one of the highest points in the city, from which most of the city and the harbor could be seen.

"Man, I ate a lot."

"Aye. Hm?", Happy noticed a big ship, that only recently set sails.

"Oh yeah. Salamander said he would have a party on a ship. I wonder if that´s the one."

Natsu also noticed the ship and became almost immediately motion sick.

"Don´t get motion sickness just by imagining it…"

Two girls also came to the viewpoint and started to talk about the ship and that Salamander guy.

One of them mentioned that he was supposed to be a member of the famous Fairy Tail guild and the second Natsu and Happy heard that, they became stunned.

"Fairy Tail?", said Natsu in confusion.

This would mean one thing and only one thing, that that guy was pretending to be a member of the guild and was tarnishing the name of the guild, a thing that no member would let lying down, especially Zeldaris, Aversia, Erza and Natsu.

"HAPPY!", yelled Natsu and jumped over the railing.

"AYE SIR!", immediately responding, Happy used his magic and a pair of white wings appeared on his back.

He then grabbed onto Natsu´s back and the two started to fly toward the ship at high speed.

Meanwhile at the ship, Lucy found herself in a dire situation.

After leaving the restaurant, meet she the Salamander guy again and he invited her to his party.

Which she of course refused until he said that he would let her join Fairy Tail if she would come to the party, to which she accepted without any hesitation.

On the ship, she was alone with the guy in a private room and the guy was trying to be a good host, but only made Lucy feel awkward.

But the situation became worse when Lucy realized that the drinks had sleeping drugs inside them, at which point the whole facade came down and the guy revealed his true, cruel self and the fact that he and his gang were going to sell Lucy and all the other girls on the ship as slaves at the country of Bosco.

Lucy, who was a Celestial Spirit mage, tried to use her keys, but noticed that they had been stolen by Salamander.

Salamander looked at the keys with a bit of interest but threw them out of the window shortly after and said that they were useless for him since only the mage that had a contract with them could use them.

He then took out a pole that was glowing red from heat at the end.

"Let me brand you a slave first. It will be a little hot, but please bear with it.", he said and began to walk toward Lucy.

Tears started to flow down Lucy´s face, as she thought about how he abused magic, cheated people and branded them and sold them as slaves.

"You are the worst mage ever.", that was the only thing that she could think about him.

Just as ha had arrived before Lucy, Natsu crashed through the ceiling and landed right between the two.

"Natsu!"

But two seconds after landing, kicked the motion sickness in and Natsu was unable to stand.

"Lucy!? What are you doing here?", said Happy, who was hovering above the hole in the ceiling.

"Happy!? I was fooled!! He told me he would let me join Fairy Tail… and I…", said Lucy, who was so surprised by the situation that she didn´t noticed the fact that Happy suddenly had wings.

"Wait… did you have wings before?"

"We will talk about that later, but now let´s get out of here.", said Happy as he swopped down, wrapped his tail around Lucy´s waist and lifted her up.

"Wait, we can´t just leave Natsu behind!"

"I can´t carry two people."

"I WON`T LET YOU GET AWAY!", yelled Salamander as he finally snapped out of his confusion and threw a wave of purple flames after them, but Happy was able to dodge it without any problems.

"DON´T LET THAT WOMAN GET AWAY!! IT WILL BE A PROBLEM IF SHE REPORTS BACK TO THE COUNCIL!!", yelled Salamander to his goons.

Most of them run outside, pulled out pistols and guns and started to shoot at Happy and Lucy.

The rest of the goons started to beat up Natsu.

Happy had a hard time to evade the incoming hail of bullets, but still managed to evade every single one of them but there was another problem.

"Lucy, listen."

"What is it at a time like this?"

"My transformation is about to run off.", and the second Happy said that disappeared his wings and the two started to fall into the ocean.

"Shitty cat!", screamed Lucy while falling.

As the goons and Salamander sighed in relief as they saw the two falling into the ocean.

Natsu on the other hand, grabbed one of the guys and threw him toward the other goons, who were not able to react in time and were send flying halfway through the room.

Natsu then slowly walked outside the room where the imposter and the rest of the goons were, only to witness how a giant tsunami like wave appeared out of nowhere, which felt for Natsu to much like the disasters that happened every time a certain spirit created when she was summoned.

The giant wave quickly arrived at the ship, picked it up and slammed into the harbor of the city shortly after.

The ship landed sideways on the beach, Lucy and Happy, who were also hit by the wave, had landed right next to the ship.

All the girls had been woken up by the impact and started to flee from the ship.

The imposter and his goons were still shaken by the wave and the impact, so they were not able to stop the girls.

Natsu was also slowly standing up, the fact that the ship stopped moving meant that he could finally have a little 'talk' with that asshole.

"Natsu!", yelled Lucy and begun to run toward the ship, only to be stopped by Happy.

"So, you claim to be member of the Fairy Tail guild?"

"Of course. Have you never heart of Fairy Tails Salamander? But what is it to you? Guys get him!"

"Sir!", said two of his goons and run toward Natsu, while the imposter started to smile.

"Let me get a closer look at your face.", said Natsu while taking of his jacket.

"Shouldn´t we help him?", asked Lucy.

"You don´t have to worry about him. I should have brought this up sooner, but Natsu is a mage too.", said Happy, shocking Lucy.

Natsu didn´t even look at the two guys that were rushing toward him and with a single slap of his right hand he sent both flying and revealed the Fairy Tail emblem on his right shoulder.

"I AM NATSU OF FAIRY TAIL AND I HAVE NEVER SEEN YOU BEFORE!", yelled Natsu, who had now become completely enraged. (AN: One of my personal favorite moments of the show and manga, including the battle/ one sided beating)

Everyone became shocked as they heard that, never would they had thought that Natsu would be a member of the Fairy Tail guild.

"Fairy Tail? Natsu is a member of Fairy Tail?", said Lucy.

"Th… That mark… He is the real deal, Bora!", said one of the goons as he recognized the emblem on Natsu´s shoulder.

"Idiot! Don´t call me by that name!", said the fake Salamander, Bora.

"Bora, Bora of Prominence. He was banished from a guild called Titan Nose several years ago", said Happy.

"I have heard about him... He committed several thefts and over crimes using magic and got banished.", said Lucy, remembering an article that she had read in the past. (AN: He was also the asshole that dumped Juvia without a second thought, that alone deserves death by MCs.)

"I DON´T CARE IF YOU ARE A BASTARD OR A GOOD PERSON. BUT I WILL NOT FORGIVE YOU FOR USING THE NAME OF THE FAIRY TAIL GUILD AND TARNISH IT´S NAME.", yelled Natsu.

"And what are you going to do about it!? You are just a noisy brat! [Prominence Typhoon]", said Bora and shot a giant wave of flames toward Natsu and completely engulfing him in the purple flames to the point that not even his silhouette could be seen.

"NATSU!", yelled Lucy, who wanted to help Natsu but was stopped again by Happy.

Slowly a strange sound could be heard coming from inside the flames and the silhouette of Natsu could be seen again and shocked everyone senseless.

Because Natsu was eating the flames as if they were nothing, something that none of them had ever seen.

"Awful. Are you really a fire mage? I have never tasted such an awful fire. Thank you for the food.", said Natsu as he finished eating all of the fire.

"What… What… What the hell is that guy?"

"Fire won´t work on Natsu.", said Happy.

"I have never seen such magic!!", exclaimed Lucy.

"Now that I have eaten, I am all fired up!" (AN: I prefer using the original 'fired up', instead of the Eng. dub 'there is a fire in my belly')

One of the goons suddenly had a look of realization and started to shake in fear and sweat previously.

"B-Bora. I… I have seen him before with two people with golden eyes. Rosy hair and that scaly scarf, there is no doubt about it. He is the real deal! He is the real…", he said, becoming more and more frantic as he continued, but he was never meant to finish.

[Fire Dragon´s Roar]

Because Natsu used his Fire Dragon´s Roar and caused a huge explosion that destroyed half of the ship.

"Salamander!", exclaimed Lucy, as she realized that Natsu was the real Salamander.

"Remember this well. This is what a real Fairy Tail mage is like. [Fire Dragon´s Iron Fist]", said Natsu, who was far from finished and engulfed his fists in flames and rushed toward the imposter that had tarnished the name of the guild.

"Wait! Stop, please!", yelled Bora, pleading for mercy, but to no avail.

Natsu punched him right in the face and destroyed the rest of the ship, some parts of the ship and the goons were sent flying in all directions.

Some landing in the ocean, others landing and or crashing into the surrounding buildings causing no small amount of damage.

As for Bora, he was lying in a small crater where once the ship was lying, it was easier to count the parts that were still looked somewhat ok then the other way around and it was unclear if he was even alive.

"Eating fire and punching with fire… Is that really magic!?"

"A dragon´s lungs to spew fire, a dragon´s scales to melt flames, and dragon´s claws to wield them. This is an ancient spell that converts the body to that of a dragon."

"What´s that!?"

"It´s original purpose was to fight and kill dragons and is called Dragon Slayer Magic. Igneel taught this magic Natsu.", said Happy proudly.

"Amazing, but he really overdid it!", said Lucy as she looked at all the damage to the buildings.

"Aye."

"Don´t give me 'Aye'!", retorted Lucy back.

But sadly, she, Natsu and Happy had to act fast because the local soldiers were running toward the port and Lucy could already see them.

"Crap! Let´s get out of here!", said Natsu as grabbed Lucy and started to run.

"WHY ME!!?", yelled Lucy.

"You wanted to the guild, right? Then come with me.", said Natsu as he smiled at her.

"Okay!", said Lucy without any hesitation and started to smile.

In the end they were somehow able to evade the guards, grab Lucy´s things from the inn and leave the city without any major problems.

The way to Magnolia, which was thankfully not far away from Hargeon, they would need to walk on foot and decided that they would camp in the wilderness and would arrive at Magnolia at the next day.