Chapter 19: Winner's Prize
Beta read by Shigiya
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-Fairy Tail Guild-
Fairy Tail was a place of amazing sights for any visitor.
Walking through the large wooden doors, one could spot every possible sort of magic wielded by the different sorts of wizards hanging around in the grand hall. From the simplest ones with the use of magical tools to forgotten magic like Dragon Slaying Magic.
One could not rank wizards in terms of power based on their magic alone. There existed monsters who pushed the limits to simple uses of telekinesis and the usage of tools to such an extent that they counted as a one man army. Coveted enough to be classed as an S-class wizard. These people fought against the more deadly foes in dangerous missions that affect the outcome of an entire kingdom. Their mere presence brought the locals peace of mind as no sane group of thieves and criminals would dare set foot in a town where there lived even a single S-class wizard.
And a guild like Fairy Tail had 5 wizards that held such titles. Some guilds didn't even have a single S-class in their ranks!
The infamous Scarlet Demoness to her enemies, or better known as Titania to the public, who used her frightening telekinetic powers in combination with her Requip to summon a vast array of swords and armors to crush her enemies till their very bones were shattered into fragments. Said to possess strength so inhumanly powerful that led a certain pink haired rival of hers to theorize that she must be a dragon in human form!
The White Demoness, who now worked as a barmaid at the guild, also known as Mirajane Strauss. Unfortunately, once hailed to be Erza Scarlet's equal in both strength, speed and versatility—retired due to some unknown reason. Of course, many were disappointed with this outcome, wondering what could have led such a promising wizard to quit so early on in her career. Though that didn't mean that Mirajane wasn't active in present times as she now took the role of Fiore's most popular model and ranked first in most desired bachelorette by Sorcerer Weekly.
Laxus Dreyar, another S-Class Mage of the Fairy Tail Guild able to use powerful lightning based magic. Being the grandson of Fairy Tail's Guild Master, Makarov Dreyar, many expected him to become the next guild master once Makarov retires.
The locals were quite familiar with the famous Thunder God Tribe, their reputation alone attracting countless tourists and clients to the guild to meet the famous team.
Then there was the illusive forth S-class wizard, Mystogan. Said to constantly take on various quests and was never seen to stay longer than necessary. People didn't even know what he looked like as he was constantly hidden in his cloak! Yet the man somehow made his way inside the top ten most wanted boyfriends by Sorcerer Weekly for his mysterious persona.
And lastly, the most known and feared S-class wizard of them all, Gildarts Clive. Wielding the power of destruction itself, Crush magic, he stood far above the rest of the S-class and cemented Fairy Tail as the dominant guild in all of Fiore.
All of these monsters gathered in a single guild was an unbelievable feat in itself. Not even Blue Pegasus or Phantom Lord possessed such powerful wizards in their ranks—leading many to see Fairy Tail as the gathering of true monsters.
Though after seeing the scene in front of them, both the members of Fairy Tail and the visitors had to reconsider the term 'monsters'.
A sight so impressive yet so sickening to some that it led many to fall sick by just watching for too long.
It made many realize to never judge a book by its cover, even though many had seen Cana finish up dozens of bottles on her own without issue—this was just too much.
A wall of empty barrels stacked one on top of each other all around the bar surrounded the place with both of the bottomless wells in the middle consuming an inhumane amount of beer that should have killed them a long time ago from alcohol poisoning!
Lucy just stood there, watching the scene with a blank stare. She didn't know how to react at the scene in front of her, having never even seen him drink so much in the past.
She caught sight of the annoying cat fly next to her but decided to ignore the meddlesome creature.
"Rob?" called out Happy as he flew next to the blonde, poking her cheeks many times to get a reaction but nothing happened. "Natsu, Lucci died…"
"What!?"
The pink haired dragon slayer cried in shock, going all pale at having lost a new soon to become guild member so quickly. It was a record!
"...inside!"
"Say that before, you dummy!"
"Wahhh, Mira! Natsu is yelling at me!"
"No I'm not! Don't listen to him!"
Happy snickered at Natsu's reaction, he found it funny to mess with people—especially Lucy. Though it seemed that seeing Broly being able to keep up with Cana after hours of drinking must have shocked her a lot.
Even Mirajane was transfixed at the scene in front of her. Being the barmaid of the guild, she'd seen first hand just how much Cana could drink and not somehow suffer from kidney failure. Both Macao and Wakaba would kneel in defeat whenever confronting the Queen of Drinking in a challenge. It was rumored that Cana used some kind of magic or drank a potion to burn off all of the alcohol inside of her.
But Mirajane knew that the girl was just an extreme alcoholic.
The stranger on the other hand, called Broly from what she learned from Lucy, could actually keep up with her! She admitted that she knew next to nothing of the man with how they just arrived in the guild, he didn't give her the impression of being an alcoholic.
Just like Elfman, he had quite a noticeable physique, standing at a height that towered over most people aside her brother—he looked like he equalled both Laxus and Bickslow in height. Embodying the wild and savage look with a scar over his left cheek. And with Lucy talking about him, he sounded more like a shy teddy bear than anything else.
"If he joins the guild, I wonder if he'll become good friends with Elfman?" she wondered out loud, loving the idea of her brother getting to socialize with new people who he doesn't have to look down on most of the time.
Not to mention how easy Broly was on the eyes.
Not like she would make a comment about it outloud.
"Puah" Cana burped, starting to feel bloated with everything she drank and the gas building up inside of her. Massaging her stomach made her dread the hangover that was going to assault her in the morning.
She threw a half lidded peek at her opponent and groaned.
"Are you for real?"
Broly was chugging his tenth barrel without stopping. His face wasn't even flushed red like hers, his eyes still being as energetic and enthusiastic when looking at them. There wasn't a trace of sluggishness or signs of him being drunk within them at all, which further surprised Cana.
"Come oooooon, you gotta be reaching your limit at this point!" she exclaimed, feeling duped by this innocent looking giant who was actually an expert drinker like her!
"I must admit, I don't really like the taste of beer. Tastes too bitter and weird… like liquid bread." Broly said, scrunching up his face slightly with the after taste he was getting from his mouth.
"Really? You sound just like Natsu and Gray, and the latter smokes cigarettes."
Broly looked at her in confusion.
"Oh, I didn't mean it in a bad way, it's just kinda cute to find a grown up man like you who hates alcohol. Though you do look quite young when I look at your face—how old are you exactly?"
He didn't know, he never checked nor cared about such a thing and neither did his father. All he knew was that he was physically younger than his past self but for a Saiyan, that hardly mattered. Broly could live for half a century and still look the same as his current self, his father told him that it was because it was in their genes or something.
"I'm not sure, but I should be around your age." he lied, wanting to push this conversation aside. "I still don't understand what you like about these things."
"Yeah, these are specially made for me, I don't really care about the taste but rather care about the kick it gives me. Which once again begs the question, how are you still sober!?"
"Sober?"
"Like this! How are you not shit faced drunk and passed out on the floor? I expected you to at least vomit your breakfast by now!"
The Saiyan couldn't really understand what she meant by that. Was the booze supposed to do something to him? He did learn from Paragus that his species possessed strong bodies which could eat tons of food without any issue. Back on Vampa, there was little to no clean water and food bars like the ones he consumed while inside Freiza's ship. The planet he grew up on had very little resources to begin with and a nearly endless amount of creatures who all fought fiercely for a smidgen of fresh water.
Acid rain would fall quite often with violent hurricanes occurring every few days. This made any source of water in open areas undrinkable and poisonous. So, he and his father drank the fluid inside the vamps beetles and ate their flesh. Paragus always complained about how utterly disgusting it was for Broly who grew up there since he was a baby, the food tasted normal. It was only when he was found by Cheelai that he first got the taste of real food and couldn't help but marvel at how easily they could get simple stuff like water.
This fascination carried on in the Tower where even if the food was apparently bland and tasteless to some, turned out to be delicious to him.
This made him curious about what this world had to offer, with the meat of Gorians and diverse assortments of vegetables and fruits he managed to grow back in the mountains made Broly never have a bad meal when he compared it to before meeting his friends.
The beer in comparison to the vampa beetle's blood tasted far sweeter than bitter, so he could drink it without issue. As to why he couldn't get drunk, maybe it was the Ki inside his body or his Saiyan body working together to stop him from experiencing any of the negative side effects.
"I don't know how to explain it to you." he said, not wanting to give a complicated explanation in the first place. "I guess I have a stronger body."
"Yeah, I kind of realized that with all of that muscle you're packing—hick!"
The alcohol was finally getting to her.
"Are you feeling alright? Your face is getting all red and you look very hot."
"Heh?" Cana wasn't ready for the sudden compliment… was he flirting with her? Kinda hard to tell with how worried he looked. "You called me hot?"
"Well, you're sweating a lot, so aren't you hot?"
She couldn't believe just how innocent one could be. Nevertheless, the girl was too drunk to care at that moment.
Broly noticed how deeply she was breathing along the glistening shine to her skin with all the sweat. Her wavy hair now turned slightly damp and messy, like she had just woken up from bed. Hunched over the counter with unfocused eyes that looked like they were about to close at any moment, she was losing.
"Never thought I would see the day with Cana-chan losing a drinking competition." From the crowd that had gathered, a blue haired girl said as she watched the entire thing for the last hour.
"Humph, I bet I could keep up with them. I can have my plants help me out with the intoxication."
"Don't try to brag, Droy! If you're so confident then why don't you go out there and join those two in a competition?"
"I'm not bragging, Jet! Levy here believes me!"
Levy McGarden, one of the three members of the group 'Shadow Gear', user of Letter Magic Solid Script and unofficial leader couldn't help but sigh at her teammates' childish behavior and joined Mirajane's side to escape their theatrics.
"So, who is the new guy, Mira-chan?" she asked.
"Not a new guy, yet. He came alongside that blonde girl over there."
Mirajane and Levy couldn't help but giggle at the sight of Happy and Natsu messing around with Lucy who looked like she had lost her soul. But suddenly smacking both of the troublemakers with a punch to the face.
Yeah, she would fit right in.
"She's the one who wants to join according to Natsu, Broly is just tagging along apparently." she said before pondering for a moment. "Honestly, I kinda want for both of them to join as they already seem to get along with everyone."
Levy nodded.
"Yeah, though we'll need to have the Master have a word or two with them. Where is he by the way?"
Ever since this morning, she didn't see a trace of the old man since the start of the match, which was weird with how often he would spend his time near the bar chatting with the older guild members or talking with Mirajane all day.
"Oh, he should be back in a bit, apparently the recent batch of complaints from the council arrived this morning, and he didn't seem happy when he left."
The leader of Shadow Gear couldn't help but wince at Mirajane's words. Their guild members were known to be a bit… rowdy during quests. The amount of damages they caused each month eclipsed anything any other guild could ever hope to achieve. She herself along with Jet and Droy may or may not have destroyed a local greenhouse by accident and a few plots of land with Droy's experimental plant seeds that he wanted to test out. Of course, they were just a drop in the ocean of destruction caused by everyone in the guild and the consequences of their actions came back to bite back in the form of bills and complaints sent to the Master.
"Yeah, he won't be in a good mood."
"I don't know about that." Mirajane said with a mischievous smile. "A beautiful girl is joining us, he'll get over his anger in a matter of seconds."
Both girls laughed at the thought of their Guild Master getting a taste of Lucy's fists.
As they both continued to talk, on the side with Broly and Cana—the challenge was finally reaching its end phase. The card wizard was wasted to an extent she had never been in the past. Her stomach was filled with enough booze to put her in a coma for a few days and she could already feel the need to gag and throw up, starting to creep up slowly.
'Another cup will kill me.'
She needed to act fast, the girl barely had enough Jewels to pay up Mirajane for everything she consumed right now—there was no way she would be able to feed this big guy for a month!
"I… give up!" She shouted out loud with a groan, having experienced her first defeat from the hands of a complete stranger she knew very little of.
"Oooohhhhhh!! The Queen has been dethroned!" Wakaba shouted in glee, feeling that the woman who both he and Macao lost thousands of Jewels to in their bet, finally got a taste of her own medicine.
"I want to go next!"
"You don't even drink, Natsu." Happy reminded his partner.
"Not that, I meant that I want to fight him again!"
The cat sighed, used to his partner's one track mind.
Cana gathered her remaining energy to try and diminish the damage done. "Heurg, got a quick question… just how much do you usually eat?"
Broly didn't notice the slight quiver in her voice.
"Hm? I don't know. I can eat an entire Gorian a day if you're curious." Broly said, not noticing that his words were heard by everyone else around them, as he was stacking another barrel.
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The entire guild erupted in many shouts of shock and disbelief.
"The heck did he just say!?"
"He's a real man!"
"That man is a madman! I never heard about anyone eating those monsters in my life!"
"Don't be insensitive, I heard they are a delicacy in some parts of the world."
"What!?" Gray shouted in surprise, his eyes bulging from his head. "He eats those things!?" His face turned green from just imagining eating those hairy monsters.
"Eh, what's a Gorian?" Natsu asked, clueless about such a monster as he never fought one before.
"How stupid can you be flame for brains? I guess it would be normal for you to be so clueless with that empty head of yours." Gray didn't hesitate to throw jabs at his rival. "A Gorian is a sub-species of monster related to Vulcans, they are found in the jungles, forests and humid places. They basically look the same but with green fur and purple skin."
Instead of getting angry at Gray and starting another fight, Natsu's eyes widened as a fleeting memory from the past emerged once again.
"So that was a Gorian huh…"
The time when he first found Happy's egg, along with a certain white haired girl and Erza.
He couldn't remember much aside from all three of them going on a search and rescue mission for the egg and coming across the Gorian. He tried to fight it in order to keep his friends safe and to make sure that they could escape. But before he could even react, a silver flash blinded his eyes and Erza appeared in front of the monster while sheathing her sword back. It happened so fast, in less then a second and he couldn't even track her movement with his eyes.
Before his eyes, the Gorian was cut in two pieces, the latter didn't even have time to comprehend his death as his face continued to smile.
It was one of those rare times when he felt Erza act differently than her usual self, he felt genuinely scared back then, yet also incredibly determined to reach her level.
It was one of his most defining memories of the red hair wizard of Fairy Tail.
"Natsu?" Gray called the boy, breaking him from his past memories. "What's up with you acting all quiet all of a sudden?"
"Nothing, just remembered that I faced something like that in the past." he said absentmindedly. "Though I wonder if they taste good, I should probably try it at one point. I can bring Broly along and we can even catch a Gorian or two as well! Oh, and we'll also get some fish for you, Happy!"
"Aye!"
"Of course you would think about tasting a Gorian of all things! You two have no sense of reason!"
"Gray, you lost your freaking underwear again!" Loki shouted from the background.
"What!? I just had them a few seconds ago!"
Back with Cana and Broly, the former gulped her saliva in distress as she thought that her hearing might have failed her with all the alcohol in her system.
"E-Eh?, I-I'm sorry, I think I misheard you about saying something about eating a giant monster."
Cana really hoped that it wasn't so, she could feel her savings crying in fear and her pouch growing lighter by the second with how she might end up broke from paying this man's meals for a month!
"Ah, I used to eat Gorians daily, there are plenty of them in the forest and they tend to cause a lot of trouble for the locals. So, after hunting down one, I wanted to see if they tasted good and they did!" he said with an innocent smile, with each of his sentences further bringing a large amount of dread inside Cana's gut.
And why was he living in a forest!?
"I-I see, hehehehehehe! You really are quite the hungry fella aren't ya… Wait!" An idea came to her mind. "You must be new to Magnolia, right?"
He nodded his head.
Great! She could use this to her advantage!
"I got a proposition for you. What if instead of me paying for your meals, I invite you to stay in my house for a bit? You can crash inside the guest room for a bit, until you find yourself a home that is." Cana suggested, hoping that he would accept.
The house she bought wasn't that big and was made to accommodate a single person's needs. That guest room she talked about was just her storage room which she never used. Cana preferred spending a few Jewels on a new bed than this guy's meal for an entire month.
'And knowing Mira, she might even suggest to him the more expensive stuff intentionally!'
"..."
Now the guild hall turned quiet once again, before erupting into another louder commotion. Lucy's jaw dropped at Cana's proposal and she even noticed how she wasn't included in the invitation at all!
"I only took my eyes off of him for less than a minute and next thing I know, he is drinking with another girl and she is inviting him back to her house!?" Lucy whispered in disbelief.
The other men looked at the Saiyan with both anger and fear, sending him deadly glare which went unnoticed or rather the latter just didn't care about them.
Fortunately for her, Broly wasn't so keen on her offer.
"I-it's okay," he brought his hands up. "I don't think it's a good idea for you to have someone dangerous like me live inside your house. You don't even have to pay for the meal—I did this out of fun and nothing else." Broly said, being honest with his words.
Before meeting Erza and Lucy, never had he expected to just have a normal conversation with someone or a challenge like this with a random stranger. This simple challenge between him and Cana was extremely fun for the Saiyan and he hoped to experience just things more often in the future.
Cana frowned.
"Hey, I may have met you for the first time today but I can say that you don't seem like a bad or dangerous guy to me. And, Cana Alberona always keeps her words." Even though she just tried to change the bet they agreed upon a few minutes ago. "And we can't have one of the sides go empty handed after they won, so just tell me what you want! As long as it is within reason."
"Really?" Broly exclaimed.
The Saiyan already knew what he wanted, something which he felt fortunate to have experienced briefly in the Tower and once again with Lucy, Aquarius and everyone who were kind enough to see past his intimidating exterior.
"Sure! Shout it out, do it quick cause I'm reaching my limit." Already she was starting to see two figures and swayed a bit on her feet. She was waging an intense war against her stomach and the beer that was threatening to come out of her mouth at any second. "I really am about to throw up…"
Well, Mira could clean it up if she did.
She gave the man who just bested her attention, waiting for him to spit out his words.
What he did next surprised both her and nearly made Lucy faint right on the spot.
Broly smiled widely before extending his hands at her.
"Will you become my girlfriend?"
Bam!
Cana fainted.
"Ah, she passed out." Broly said, going next to her making sure she was alright. He picked her up from the ground and turned to the smiling Mirajane, "Uh, where can I drop her off?"
"You're really bold." she said, not even answering his question. "To ask that of a girl you've just met… I have to say that I'm impressed."
"Eh? Is it really that impressive?"
He just asked for a simple friendship, nothing bold about that in his opinion. "I asked both Lucy and Aquarius the same thing and they accepted."
"Two more as well!?"
"Mira-san, I can explain!" Lucy quickly came by Mirajane's side and whispered something inside her ear with a blushing face.
The barmaid's face quickly turned from confusion to realization and she erupted into a fit of laughter.
"Pft-hahahahaha! I-I never expected such a thing to exist in the first place!" she said in between her laughs. A smile appeared on her face as she looked at the unconscious Cana on Broly's arm. "I wonder how she will react without this piece of knowledge~?"
To think Broly was not only naive, but also so innocent that he caused such a big misunderstanding with his words astounded her. But for Lucy to not correct the man also revealed quite a lot of the girl's intentions.
"Ummm, can you tell me where I can bring Cana? She doesn't look so well." Broly said, worrying about the card user's health. He should have gone easy on her and let her win the challenge, he had enough money as it was.
Mira waved his worries away.
"Don't worry about Cana, she gets like this every week, so this isn't anything new for her. You can bring her at the back, we have a few beds over the—" she was interrupted in the middle of her speech with the sudden roar coming at them from the crowd.
"Broly, I challenge you in a duel again! Fight me!"
It was Natsu, coming at them with a fist engulfed in bright orange fire. With clear intentions of starting another fight in the middle of the hall, Broly was prepared to send a kick to his face before someone beat him to it.
Crash!
Or rather someone far bigger squashed Natsu to the floor like a bug.
"Kyaaaaa! He died!!!!" Now it was Lucy's turn to shout in fear as both she and Broly gazed upon the shadow of a true giant roaming over them.
With a height so big that the head reached the ceiling, it really looked like a monster had made its way inside of the guild.
"WHAT IS ALL OF THIS FUSS GOING ON HERE!?"
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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword and To love a sword having 3 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.