Gacha Chapter 9: Pranks and Discoveries

The short stature of Makarov could be seen walking through the town of Magnolia, his path leading him to the guild he led as the 3rd Guild Master: Fairy Tail, a place filled with familial love and adventure.

Last night, the elderly man had left the guild in the hands of a drunken group- maybe not the smartest idea he had, now that he thought about it, but he felt confident that nothing would've happened in that short time, 'I really don't want to deal with paperwork...' Makarov silently cried as he arrived in front of Fairy Tail

He opened the doors, the blinding morning light illuminating the guild which gave Makarov a clear view of the sleeping group, "..." He marched forward, a vein popping on his balding head, "YOU IDIOTS!" He shouted, a bit of spit flying out of his mouth as he spoke

"Ughh...!" The guild members groaned weakly, their faces squirming as the sunlight flashed their tired eyes, "Ughmmm..." One by one, they started to slowly open their eyes reluctantly, their head panging painfully from the hangover

Natsu and Gray were the first to open their eyes fully, sheepishly rubbing them as they asked, "What's up... gramps?/What happened...? My head hurts..."

Then it was Elfman and Loke, who were too tired to speak as their sharp gazes looked up at the ceiling, "..."

Then, the girls woke up. Cana's eyes opened for a few seconds before closing them once again, unmoving from her spot just like everyone else who was too slow to respond; Mira and Levy opened their eyes and found themselves drooling a little, the blue-haired girl wiping her mouth onto the closest 'napkin' whilst Mira wiped her mouth with her arm. Erza, on the other hand, looked up at Makarov who stood near her,

Makarov shook his head, looking down at the tired, destructive idiots on the floor with a broken table and fallen benches beside them. He looked at Erza below him, who had her arms wrapped around Solis' legs and her head resting on it like a pillow; Then Levy, who was snuggling into the boy's left side, having wiped her mouth with his shirt; Then Mira, who had her head rested on Solis' other leg; Then Cana, who had a leg resting across his chest; Then Natsu, who's shoeless left foot was planted on the winged boy's cheek, and the other foot on Gray's annoyed face; Then Gray, retaliating against Natsu with a foot of his own whilst also having his arm over Elfman's bare chest; Then Loke, who's leg was locked with Gray's leg; Then Elfman, who blankly looked up at the ceiling with his limbs sprawled outwards

And finally, Solis, the cyan-haired boy who was still restlessly sleeping through everything. Everyone else started to get up after adjusting to both the light and their hangover, Levy blushing a little in embarrassment before silently separating herself; Erza having no shame as she remained around Solis' legs with an annoyed expression on her face; Mira clearing her throat before silencing herself and forcefully pulling Erza off of Solis; Cana casually standing up and walking away, wanting to have her 'morning drink', "YOU DON'T NEED ANYMORE!" Makarov complained,

And then the boys, with Natsu and Gray standing up and instantly trying to fight each other whilst shouting, "YOU ICEY-/YOU DROOPY-" Unfortunately, or fortunately, they both grasped their banging heads and released each other, coming to an agreed truce for now. Elfman and Loke standing up as well with the others, with everyone now stood round Solis' sleeping figure in surprise, 'He's still asleep!?'

"Leave it to me!" Natsu menacingly snickered before crouching down beside the boy's head, looking down at him. He brought his head closer to the boy's face and took in a deep breathe of air before shouting as loud as he could, "WAKE UP!" 

"OW!" Solis yelled in annoyance, his sensitive eardrums almost bursting as he sat up in a flash, his head colliding with Natsu's as he did so, "Ow!" Natsu yelled, falling onto his ass as he massaged his stinging forehead, "The hell's your forehead made of!?" He complained, Happy laughing at him with his paws over his small mouth 

"Fuckin' hell..." Solis mumbled as he rubbed both his face and eyes, shaking his head side-to-side a few times before pushing himself up off of the floor, already in a better state than the other guys due to his enhanced poison resistance and regeneration coming in clutch.

"Haaa..." Makarov sighed, pinching the bridge of his noise as now he had to purchase another table on top of doing the paperwork in his office, "Just clean up your mess"

And so, after a bit more moaning and whining from their head pains, the group reluctantly cleaned up the mess before the other members of the guild came flooding in

.

.

.

And before Solis knew it, another week and a bit had passed by. In that time, the boy hadn't completed a single D-Rank job but rather focused on his training and getting stronger. His main achievement was increasing the mastery of his Transformation to Basic, which meant he was now able to properly change his outward appearance and hide his wings if he needed to. Once that happened, Solis kind of threw the training for that magic to the side for now as he prioritised his other skills from then on.

Although his Time Magic and Illusion Magic were still at Basic Mastery (and probably would be for quite a while), he managed to get his Sound Magic's Mastery up to Initiate. However, though he couldn't upgrade the mastery of his Time Magic just yet, he felt like he was getting closer and closer to being able to affect his surroundings (At Basic Mastery and Below, MC could only affect people's perception of time. Currently, he is attempting to affect his surroundings by trying to stop time without using Chrono Accel as a start-up)

[A/N: In regards to MC's training speed, the reason for this is because: 1. He has inspirations for his moves which makes his training-focus much easier, 2. His race's Magic Growth and Compatibility Buff + The fact he's focusing quite a lot of time on training, and 3. Increasing skills to the Early Masteries is quite easy, especially for him, but it gets much harder once it reaches Apprentice - It can takes years to upgrade the Mastery above Apprentice-Level] 

In regards to his Hand-To-Hand Combat training with Erza, he was certainly improving... just not yet at the level where could beat Erza who was still holding back quite a bit. But he was definitely getting closer and closer with each spar. Thanks to the almost-daily spars though, his draconic body was certainly much stronger in all categories compared to when he first joined the guild. In terms of pure physical strength, he was probably one of the strongest if not THE strongest in the guild in base form (No Magic/Transformations Involved)

But, Solis' favourite achievement during this time was by far the day he moved out of the Guild's room and began renting an apartment for himself. It was a small place, just like Lucy's apartment in the future, except it was a little bigger and in a different area of Magnolia which was not far from Fairy Tail, which is amazing.

The cost was decently high at 100,000 Jewels a month - which brought his total money down to 350,000 Jewels - but the 2-bedroom apartment (2-Bedroom including the living room which is large enough to be considered a 'bedroom' by Solis) was fully furnished, and both the apartment and furniture were good quality and had very good conditioning which meant he wouldn't expect any mould or something anytime soon as long as he kept the place decently clean. 

Anyway, in present time, Solis and Natsu could be seen standing in a corner of the guild by themselves with mischievous grins on their plotting faces, "You guys ready?" Natsu asked, rubbing his hands excitedly

"Aye!" Happy saluted with a large smile on his face, "As ready as can be" Solis replied with a smile of his own, watching Natsu pull out a bucket of milk from out of nowhere, "Watch this!" Natsu snickered, Happy flying off of his head to sit on Solis' as they watched the pink-haired boy sneak behind Elfman who was happily chatting with Cana and Gray

"Any predictions on how this'll go?" Solis asked as he looked up at Happy, though he was also asking Celeste who replied, [Hilariously...], "Natsu's probably gonna fail" Happy shrugged, knowing how wrong Natsu's pranks tend to go

Suddenly, while Elfman started preaching about manly things, Gray smelt something burning, "*Sniff sniff*..." He sniffed, looking towards the bar to see if Mira might've been cooking something, but she wasn't, "What is it..." He then looked at Elfman, and found the bottom of his shirt aflame, the fire creeping upwards, as well as downwards towards his pants, "HEY! YOU'RE ON FIRE!" He jumped back and yelled

"Huh-" Confusingly, Elfman looked down and found his shirt on fire, as well as the top of his trousers, "SHIT- SOMEONE PUT IT OUT!" He began tapping the fire profusely, which only sped up the spread,

This was when Natsu came running with the bucket, "Here, Elfman! Have some water!" He laughed, throwing the bucket of milk over Elfman's head which succeeded in putting out the fire spreading through his clothes, "You're welcome! HAHAHA!"

The guild looked at the silent, shirtless Elfman who also had some of his pants burnt off, "Natsu..." He spoke ominously, slowly turning around to face Natsu who began to sweat, "Hey~ Elfman~ We're friends, right~?"

Elfman raised his hand and swung it down, patting Natsu's shoulder as he cocked his head back and began to laugh, "Nice one, Natsu!" His pats started to get harder with each one, "Have fun cleaning up though, it's your mess after all, not-" As he raised his hand, his arm transformed into that of a monster's before slapping the pink-haired boy onto the milk-covered floor, "MINE! After all" His arm then reverted back, and Elfman went back to chatting to Gray and Cana who laughed at the defeated Natsu

"Told you" Happy sighed with a disappointed shake of his head, his small arms crossed in front of him, [Hilarious, right?] Celeste commented, opposing Happy's vibe as she chuckled in amusement

After reluctantly cleaning up his prank, Natsu walked back to Solis and Happy with his head and arms dropped in defeat, "Might've gone wrong, but at least it was entertaining, ay?" Solis mocked, patting the same shoulder of Natsu that Elfman had done, "I'd like to see you do better!" The pink-haired boy huffed, swatting Solis' arm away with a childish pout

"Aww~ Natsu's throwing a temper tantrum~" Happy ridiculed teasingly, triggering Natsu as the pink-haired boy spent the next few minutes trying to catch the flying cat, "Stop!- Flying!- Already!-" Eventually, he gave up and sat down on the ground, suffering another defeat today, "I give up...!"

Solis chuckled, "I'll show you how it's done... but I'm gonna need you to help me with this one, Natsu"

"Eh?"

- PoV: Erza -

"Heheh..." A giggle of joy couldn't help but escape my lips as I looked down at the plate in front of me on the table that I sat alone on, a beautiful, scrumptious-looking slice of strawberry cake eyeing me up, just asking to be eaten

*BANG!* However, as I went to take a bite of the cake, the table and chair I sat on suddenly shook. I figured it was my mind playing with me, but the other guild members suddenly gasped in shock, "What the hell was that!?" I heard Gray shout in annoyance,

"You guys felt that too?" I heard the voice of Mira ask with slight worry in her tone, *BANG!* The guild shook once more, a little heavier and for a short while longer this time. I stood up, requipping one of my regular swords - Master's in a meeting with the council currently, so it's my responsibility to deal with what was comin-

*BANG!* The guild rattled once more, everyone now on guard with the main fighters of the guild such as Gray and Elfman joining my side as we stood in front of the closed doors of the guild, *BANG!*... *BANG!* The steps became more clear, "It's coming..." I uttered, stepping forward with an outstretched arm

*BANG!* With one final tremble, I pushed the doors to the guild open and saw, "Nothing...?" Which was confusing. But what was more baffling was seeing Gray and Elfman beside me yell, "ICE-MAKE: LANCE" and "BEAST ARM: SCALE BULL" respectively

"PROTECT THE GUILD!" A few of the other guild members roared, running past me and Gray as they and Elfman started running towards nothing but air. Gray, who's spell was aimed towards the sky, turned his head and called out to me, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, ERZA!? STOP DAY-DREAMING, THIS ISN'T AN ILLUSION!"

That's when it came to me, "Illusion..." I mumbled, squinting my eyes in thought before they snapped open in realisation, "Solis!"

- Author's PoV -

Erza, who had figured out what was happening, marched over to Solis, Natsu, and Happy who were giggling to themselves in a corner of the guild whilst the other guild members were bewildered by their attacks phasing through the titan of a monster in front of their guild.

She arrived in front of them, the three silent as they stared at Erza innocently with sweat dripping down their faces guiltily, "So" She crossed her arms, a pissed expression on her face, "Are you boys having fun with your little prank, Solis? Natsu? Happy?"

"Yes, actually" Solis replied bluntly, chuckling a little as Natsu and Happy looked at him fearfully. Natsu, who had flashbacks to Christmas Day, looked up at Happy as Happy looked down at him at the same time, the two nodding at each other as they telepathically came to the agreement to flee whilst Erza's gaze was focused on the winged boy beside them,

'Sorry, Solis! You're gonna have to take one for the team!' Natsu thought to himself as he dashed out of the building through the back of the guild, running aimlessly with no destination in mind, just as long as Erza wasn't anywhere nearby.

"How'd you do it?" Erza interrogated, tapping her armour rhythmically with her index finger as a way to calm down, "The shaking and stomping, of course- I'm not a fool, I figured you used your Illusion Magic to create the 'monster' everyone else sees"

"I'll tell you if you tell me why the illusion isn't working on you" Solis huffed, quite annoyed and disappointed that his illusion wasn't working on Erza for some reason. 

Erza raised her hand and brushed aside the hair covering her right eye, "It should be a result of my artificial eye... maybe once you're illusions are better, you'll be able to get me" She huffed mockingly

"Your eye, huh...?" Solis muttered as he looked at her artificial eye which was almost fully covered once Erza put her hair back over it. He blinked a few times, 'I really shouldn't, I've already got 3 types of magic I need to train...' He thought hesitantly, 'I really shouldn't...

But Eye Magic sounds so cool!!' He held back his excitement and shook his head of the thought temporarily, explaining to Erza how he pulled off the prank (By this time, he had undone the illusion and everyone went back to what they were doing after mildly complaining in anger at Solis), "I had Natsu punch the floor hard enough to shake the guild each time I stomped the floor" Erza then asked how he managed to produce the loud noise from a simple stomp, "Magic-" Seeing Erza's face twist impatiently, Solis corrected himself, "Sound Magic"

"I see..." Erza closed her eyes and nodded, "I hadn't expected you to be the type to pull pranks like Natsu... but I must say," She showed a soft smile, "Your combination of your different magic is impressive" She flashed a thumbs-up, an unconscious mini-trait that she and a few others of the guild seemed to catch from Solis like a contagious cold

"I do my best" Solis smirked, giving a thumbs-up of his own before feeling his wrist get grabbed, "But, I'd like to start our hand-to-hand training a little earlier, so let's go" Erza revealed a devilish smile as she dragged Solis round the back of the guild, their usual sparring area, "HELP-" She covered his mouth before anyone could hear him

Hours passed, with Solis on the floor beaten up harder than any previous sparring day. Erza had already gone, leaving Solis to slowly recover before he was able to at least walk back inside the guild where he limped over to the library, having to reassure anybody he walked by who asked if he was okay by saying, "I'm fine, really"

Arriving inside the spacious and quiet library, Solis walked by each shelf looking for "E... E... E..." Eventually, he found it, the shelf containing books related to stuff starting with the letter 'E', "Hey, CC, are you able to use your A.I.-powers or something to calculate where a book on Eye Magic would be?" He asked aloud, unbothered by the possibility of anyone hearing him as the only people who came in here were Levy, who was chatting with her teammates, and the cleaner, who came by every other Sunday since there's never a big need to clean this room anyway

[...The second-to-last row, the 46th book] After a few seconds of calculation, she gave him his answer which allowed him to find the book exactly where she said it was in only a few seconds, "Thanks" He thanked as he walked over to the closest table and sat down, equipping his GFRG Levy had gotten him on Christmas, [No problem, darling!]

He looked at the cover of the rather small book compared to the Transformation Book from before, which he found quite surprising since Eye Magic seemed more complicated than Transformation Magic, "The Foundations of Eye Magic"

'Maybe Eye Magic isn't seen as a 'useful magic' in this world? Just from potential alone I'd imagine that a lot more people would have Eye Magic' Solis contemplated as he read through the book at an extremely fast speed, which is when Celeste said, [The reason for the low population of Eye Magic Users is a result of the books and knowledge of it basically going extinct over the years... This library is one of the rare few places which holds knowledge of it, which is why quite a few people who know the magic are in/from Fairy Tail]

"Oh?" Solis couldn't help but release a low and fast gasp in remark of the information Celeste had provided him, "That's interesting... and very useful to know" He mumbled with an enthusiastic grin, 'I'm gonna make the strongest Eye Magic this world will ever see!' He vowed passionately

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