Fairy Tail: My Magic is a Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck — Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Chase vs. Natsu

“Hey, Chase! Spit it out! What did that dragon look like?!”

Natsu’s booming voice finally shattered Lucy’s lingering gloom. She blinked, shaking off her emo stupor, and slowly pushed herself up from the floor. Across the hall, Natsu had already closed the distance in three massive strides. He grabbed Chase by the collar, shaking the S-Class Mage back and forth like a ragdoll, spittle flying from his lips in his frantic excitement.

Chase sighed, rubbing his temples to ward off the incoming headache. This impulsive, boisterous energy was exactly why dealing with Natsu was a chore. Peeling the Dragon Slayer’s hands off his shirt, Chase retreated to a nearby bar table and dropped onto a stool. Surrounded by the eager faces of the Fairy Tail guild, he began to recount the clash on the Kilteana Continent. He kept his tone measured, deliberately omitting the name ‘Ignia’ while heavily emphasizing the sheer, suffocating terror the colossal beast had radiated.

While the rest of the guild stood rooted to the floorboards, their faces pale with shock at the description, Natsu’s reaction was entirely different. His eyes practically sparkled. He spun around, waving wildly at his blue feline partner.

“Happy! Let’s go! We’re heading to the Kilteana Continent! That Fire Dragon definitely knows something about Igneel!”

“Aye, sir!” Happy didn’t hesitate for a second, unfurling his white wings and taking to the air to follow his partner toward the guild doors.

The rest of the hall erupted into a panic. Members rushed forward, grabbing at Natsu’s scarf and arms, desperately trying to talk him down. Marching off to confront an apocalyptic monster with zero preparation wasn’t brave—it was a death wish. But Natsu, blinded by the desperate hope of finding his develop father, shoved past them, deaf to their warnings.

“Hey, Natsu,” Chase called out, his voice cutting through the clamor with calm precision.

Natsu wrenched his arm out of Elfman’s massive grip and glared back over his shoulder. “What, Chase? You wanna try and stop me too?”

“I wouldn’t waste the energy. Where you go is your business.” Chase offered a lazy shrug. “But the Kilteana Continent is a massive place. Don’t you want to know the exact coordinates where the dragon appeared?”

That stopped Natsu dead in his tracks. He pivoted on his heel, his expression shifting from defensive to eager. But before he could demand the location, Chase leaned over. Under the utterly bewildered gazes of the entire guild, he pinched a tiny ant crawling out of a crack in the floorboards, lifted it up, and set it squarely in the middle of the bar table.

“Ask him.”

The entire guild froze. What?

The tiny ant, completely oblivious to the tension, happily nibbled on a stray breadcrumb.

Natsu stared at the insect, his face flushing with genuine fury. “What kind of sick joke is this?! Are you messing with me, you bastard?! That’s just a normal ant!”

With a furious shout, Natsu swung his arm in a backhand arc. A burst of scorching flames erupted from his knuckles, instantly incinerating the poor insect into a smudge of gray ash.

“And that’s the exact answer it gave you, Natsu,” Chase said, his posture straightening slightly.

He leaned forward and blew the charred remains of the ant off the table, watching the dust scatter before meeting Natsu’s blazing eyes.

“In this scenario, you were the dragon, and I was the ant. A monster possessing absolutely overwhelming power isn’t going to give a weakling the chance to speak, let alone sit down and exchange information. I don’t know what kind of personality this Igneel of yours has, but that tyrannical beast I saw? It definitely doesn’t play nice with humans.”

The words hit Natsu like a bucket of ice water. The pulsing veins on his forehead vanished, the fire in his hands sputtered out, and his shoulders slumped in sudden, crushing dejection. He opened his mouth, desperate to argue, to prove Chase wrong—but he couldn’t. He had just burned the ant without a second thought. Unless he was completely insane, he had to admit he would never sit down to negotiate with a bug.

Seeing the lesson sink in, Chase smiled faintly. He stood up, closing the distance between them, and clapped a hand onto Natsu’s drooping shoulder.

“Instead of running around like a headless chicken, put that energy into making yourself stronger. When you can actually beat me in a fight, I’ll give you the exact coordinates of that red dragon.”

Leaving the Dragon Slayer to stew in his own inner turmoil, Chase turned and headed for the exit. He was aiming straight for his apartment in Magnolia. Makarov had been right—after clashing with Ignia and traveling for two days straight, the exhaustion was finally catching up to his bones.

But he barely made it five steps before a blistering wave of heat washed over his back, spiking the ambient temperature of the guild hall by several degrees.

“Hehe… so, all I gotta do is kick your ass right now, right?!”

Natsu’s signature, fiercely confident grin had returned. He stood in a combat stance, his right fist engulfed in roaring flames.

From the sidelines, Lucy slapped a hand over her face, dragging her fingers down her cheeks in exasperation. Chase said all of that, and he literally only processed the very last sentence… Her inner straight-man was working overtime. She sighed heavily, unable to watch the impending disaster.

“Natsu always has such a cute way of handling things~” a sweet, airy voice chimed in beside her.

Lucy jumped, turning to find Mirajane standing right next to her, smiling serenely.

“C-cute?” Lucy’s mouth twitched violently. She couldn’t find a single timeline where that word applied to this situation.

“Yup!” Mirajane nodded emphatically, her smile never wavering.

Lucy cast a nervous glance back at Natsu, who was practically vibrating with fiery intent. “Speaking of which, shouldn’t we stop him? If they fight in here, the guild is going to be completely leveled, right?!”

This wasn’t the playful scuffle from when Chase first walked in. The sheer heat radiating from Natsu proved he was dead serious. The cratered ruins of Hargeon Port flashed vividly in Lucy’s mind.

“There’s no need to worry,” Mirajane replied, her tone brimming with absolute confidence. “Natsu is incredibly strong, yes, but there’s still a massive gap between him and an S-Class Mage. Chase definitely won’t let him cause a mess.”

The title caught Lucy’s attention. She blinked her large brown eyes, curiosity temporarily overriding her panic. “Speaking of S-Class… Mira, you came down from the second floor earlier, didn’t you?”

According to the Master, the second floor was strictly off-limits to anyone without the S-Class rank. So, this sweet, harmless-looking barmaid…

“That’s right. Don’t let my appearance fool you. I’m an S-Class Mage of Fairy Tail too.” Mirajane tilted her head, giggling softly. “Though, I can’t hold a candle to Chase and the others.”

“Eeeeh?!” Lucy shrieked, her jaw dropping.

“But Lucy, you’re still a newcomer,” Mirajane added gently. “It’s a bit too early for you to be aiming for the S-Class trials. You should focus on completing more regular requests first.”

“…Do I really look like someone with a death wish?!” Lucy pointed at her own bewildered face, thoroughly offended by the implication that she wanted to fight monsters for a living.

BOOM!

A deafening explosion shattered their conversation. Lucy whipped her head around just in time to see the side wall of the guild hall completely obliterated. Splinters of wood and chunks of plaster rained down over the street outside.

There, sprawled in a smoking crater of pulverized tables and chairs, lay Natsu. His eyes were spinning in dizzy spirals, completely incapacitated by a single, devastating strike.

“So fast! He got wiped out instantly! And…” Lucy stared through the massive, gaping hole in the wall, then looked back at the ruined interior of the guild. Her exasperation boiled over. “This is way too far! Natsu didn’t get a chance to cause a mess, sure, but Chase is the real walking disaster we needed to be worried about!!”

The moment the words left her mouth, Lucy realized her mistake. She slapped both hands over her lips, but the damage was done. A soft, guilt-ridden sob echoed beside her.

“Waaaaah! Chase hasn’t been back in so long, I completely forgot how destructive he gets! I’m so sorry, Lucy! I should have listened to you and stopped them…!”

Mirajane had buried her face in her hands, large tears streaming continuously between her pale fingers.

“N-No! It’s not your fault, Mira! Please don’t cry!” Lucy flailed her arms in an absolute panic, desperately trying to comfort the weeping S-Class Mage.