The Bare-Bottomed Little Boy

The Fairy Tail guild was as lively as ever, with people drinking and chatting in small groups.

Riyao lay over the bar, idly fiddling with a deck of tarot cards. Macao and Wakaba had recommended the cards to Cana as a medium for Card Magic.

Suddenly, the guild fell silent, all because a figure had appeared in the middle of the hall. Riyao covered Cana's eyes. She was still too young to see this. Cana tried to pry his hand away.

The figure spoke. "This is Fairy Tail, right?"

Makarov stepped forward and looked him in the eye. "Yes, child. What can we do for you?"

Gray raised his head. "I'm Gray Fullbuster. I want to join Fairy Tail."

"Every lost child is welcome here. Welcome to Fairy Tail, Gray."

The guild erupted with excitement. Everyone seemed happy to welcome a new member.

Gray's eyes reddened slightly, and he looked ready to cry. What a heartwarming scene.

Riyao ruined the moment. "Um, before that, how about, maybe, putting some clothes on?"

"Huh? When did my clothes fall off?"

Gray hurriedly picked his clothes up from the floor and put them back on, his face flushed red. Everyone in the guild laughed, though there was no mockery in it.

Makarov gestured for Riyao to take care of him, putting on a fine display of guild masterly bearing. Riyao reluctantly took a membership application from beneath the bar and handed it to Gray, then picked up the stamp and adjusted it.

"Gray, what color do you want? And where do you want it?"

"Let me think."

"Huh, are you going to have it stamped on your big butt?"

"As if?!"

"Then why did you take your clothes off again?!"

"Ah! When?"

Riyao covered Cana's eyes again.

After the ridiculous farce, they successfully completed the formalities and stamped an ice-blue Fairy Tail guild emblem on the right side of Gray's chest.

Gray went up to Makarov. "Master! Please tell me how to undo Iced Shell!"

Makarov pondered for a moment. "The only way to undo Iced Shell is for the person who cast it to die."

Gray collapsed to the floor, dejected as a salted fish that had lost its dreams.

"Oh, young young man,"

Riyao crouched down and unceremoniously poked a finger into Gray's cheek, which looked somewhat pale from his utter dejection. His fingertip even carried a little cold water from who knew where.

"The way you look now, you're just like a salted fish fresh from the market that's been left to bake in the sun for three days and nights—even the flies won't touch it. What, you heard the condition for undoing Iced Shell, and that glass heart you molded with ice magic shattered into so many pieces you can't even put it back together?"

Gray stared blankly at the guild's rough wooden floor, as if a flower might bloom on it.

He didn't even have the strength to raise a hand and swat Riyao away in response to his teasing and mockery.

Master Makarov's words were like a rusty, blunt knife cutting at his heart over and over.

"The only way to undo it is for the person who cast the magic to die."

The words replayed endlessly in Gray's mind, echoing with despair.

Iced Shell was the forbidden magic his master Ur had cast at the cost of her own body and life to seal the immortal demon Deliora.

Ur hadn't truly died. She had turned into ice that would never melt, forever trapped on a northern snowy mountain. Gray had long been obsessed with finding a way to undo Iced Shell and turn Ur back into a human.

But now, the cruel truth told him that undoing the ice was the same as killing Ur with his own hands.

"What do you know..."

Gray's voice was frighteningly hoarse, as though his throat were stuffed with dry ice chips.

"That's Ur... Ur, who became like that to save me! If undoing the magic means she has to die for good, then I... what am I supposed to do?!"

Gray jerked his head up, his eyes bloodshot and filled with churning pain, self-blame, and endless confusion.

He stared fixedly at Riyao, as if hoping to find some flaw on the carefree man's face that could refute reality.

Makarov stood to one side and sighed deeply. His small frame seemed especially weighed down at that moment.

He understood the pain the boy was in, but as guild master, he couldn't weave hope out of falsehoods. Some cruel truths were an unavoidable part of growing up.

Riyao said lazily, "What do I know? I know you're acting like a coward!"

Riyao grabbed Gray by the collar and half lifted him off the floor. "I don't know what made Ur go that far, but the way you're acting now is the greatest insult to her sacrifice!"

"Shut up!" The words "coward" and "insult" cut Gray deeply, and the negative emotions he'd been suppressing erupted at once. He clapped his hands together, and a surge of frigid magic power roiled wildly around him.

"Ice Make: Lancer!"

Dozens of razor-sharp ice spears instantly formed in midair and shot mercilessly toward Riyao at point-blank range, trailing a bone-chilling cold.

Riyao didn't dodge. He took the full force of the attack, the ice spears piercing his body. Blood flowed from his wounds, and he fell to the floor and lay still.

Gray looked at Riyao in horror and ran over in a panic. "Why didn't you dodge? You definitely could have dodged, couldn't you?"

Riyao shakily reached out to touch Gray's face.

"Gray, you have to carry on with my dream."

"No, you bastard, don't do this."

The protagonist died. The end, cue the confetti! ヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ

Everyone else's reaction: ㅍ_ㅍ

Makarov couldn't watch anymore. He jumped down from the bar and landed squarely on Riyao.

"Stop playing around, Riyao. You've nearly scared Gray to tears."

Gray couldn't understand why Makarov had jumped onto the badly injured Riyao.

Riyao pulled his tongue back into his mouth, blinked, and got up, patting his butt. Golden patterns covered his body, and his wounds began healing visibly.

"Old man, I wasn't done playing yet."

"Hahaha, that kid Riyao is always scaring the newcomers."

The guild members roared with laughter, and somehow the atmosphere pushed down the sorrow in Gray's heart.

Gray stared blankly, his eyes radiating pure stupidity.

Riyao waved a hand in front of Gray's face and said cheerfully, "All right, get off the floor. Come on, I'll take you to the guild dorms to pick a room."

Gray's brain finally booted up. He jumped to his feet and shouted, "You bastard! Do you have any idea how scary that was?!"

Riyao led the way, the corners of his mouth lifted. Cana followed along to watch the fun.

"Oh, Gray, you don't understand. That's... my special way of saying hello."

"Brother Riyao, it cost you your clothes."

"Bastard, bastard."

"Oh, right, your clothes fell off again."

"Ah, when?"

"Hahahaha! Who on earth did you learn that stripping habit from? It's practically a divine skill! You can strip yourself naked while walking down the street without even noticing. You might as well call yourself 'Exhibitionist Gray' from now on!"

"Shut up! Hurry up and help me find my clothes!"

Gray roared in exasperation, but his body honestly followed Riyao and Cana.

And so, the three little ones walked toward the guild dorms, talking and laughing in the lingering glow of the sunset.

After Riyao's rough but direct "greeting," much of the gloom in Gray's heart had been forcibly dispelled. His taut nerves finally relaxed, and he began to show the energy and noisiness befitting his age.