The Boy Searching for a Dragon
Year X777, an utterly ordinary morning.
When Jiang Bai yawned and pushed open the guild doors, the place was already in an uproar.
Hungover mages snored facedown on tables, while the early risers held great mugs of ale and boasted about their exploits the day before, spittle flying. The air was filled with the peculiar scent of alcohol mixed with toasted bread.
Jiang Bai had barely stepped inside when a figure came sidling up, reeking of booze.
Macao raised his mug and called out in a slurred, exaggerated sing-song, "Well! Look who it is! Isn't this our guild's legendary big shot, 'Infinity' himself, the 'Untouchable Jiang Bai'!
"I thought you'd gone off on a quest to the ends of the earth and weren't planning to come back!"
Over the years, Jiang Bai's nickname, "Untouchable," had become a running joke the guild's older members used exclusively to tease him.
Jiang Bai walked straight past him without so much as raising an eyelid, offering only a quiet remark.
"Uncle Macao, let me give you a solemn warning. Next time you get this drunk, I'll definitely hang you up and throw you into the river outside Magnolia to sober you up."
Macao jolted at that, sobering up halfway.
The surrounding mages immediately burst into laughter.
"Hahahaha! You hear that, Macao? Jiang Bai's given you a warning!"
"Last time, he hung you from the flagpole outside the guild. Haven't you learned your lesson?"
This kind of family-like teasing had long been part of everyday life at Fairy Tail.
Jiang Bai couldn't be bothered with those troublemakers and walked straight to the bar.
Erza sat there in silver armor, meticulously polishing a newly acquired knight's longsword with a piece of velvet.
Jiang Bai took the seat beside her and, with practiced ease, accepted a glass of juice from Xiaomai.
"Erza, where's the old man? How come he's not drinking behind the bar today?"
Hearing his voice, Erza paused in her polishing and silently shifted her chair closer to Jiang Bai, until they were almost touching.
"The master was already gone when I got here." The scarlet-haired girl didn't look up, her voice muffled. "He probably went to a guild masters' meeting. He should be back soon."
The moment she finished speaking.
Bang!
The guild doors were pushed open again.
Makarov's diminutive figure appeared in the doorway, but today, a little kid was following behind him.
He was a boy who looked about eleven, with eye-catching short pink hair and a white checkered scarf around his neck. An untamable wildness radiated from him.
The moment the boy stepped into the guild, his big, obsidian-like eyes darted around, as though searching for something.
Completely ignoring the curious looks directed his way, he hollered, "Hey! Has anyone here seen Igneel?!"
The lively atmosphere throughout the guild faltered.
Wakaba, who had been boasting with a pipe in his mouth, asked blankly, "Igneel? Who's that? A relative of yours?"
Hearing this, the pink-haired boy immediately puffed out his chest, an immensely proud expression on his face, and announced loudly, "That's my dad! He's a super—cool fire dragon!"
Pfft—
Macao sprayed out the mouthful of ale he had just taken, then choked and coughed thunderously.
After a brief silence, laughter ten times louder than before erupted throughout the guild hall.
"A dragon? Hahahaha! Kid, are you still half asleep?"
"You've got to be kidding! How could a legendary creature like a dragon possibly be in this city?"
"Yeah, exactly! Those things only exist in storybooks from hundreds of years ago!"
Faced with the laughter filling the room, the pink-haired boy flushed red with anger and clenched his little fists. "It's true!" he roared at everyone. "My dad is Igneel the fire dragon! He's not some story!"
His protests, however, only brought on more unrestrained mockery.
At the bar.
Erza watched the boy surrounded by the crowd, isolated and helpless yet still stubbornly holding his chest high. Her delicate brows knitted slightly, and a trace of sympathy flashed in her eyes.
She knew all too well what it felt like to be rejected and misunderstood by everyone.
Jiang Bai alone hadn't laughed once.
His gaze rested calmly on the pink-haired boy, but deep within those unruffled eyes glimmered a trace of amusement no one else could understand.
Igneel... fire dragon... Dragon Slayer... Natsu Dragneel.
The real deal had finally made his entrance.
Jiang Bai's gaze finally settled on the ordinary-looking white checkered scarf.
It had been woven from dragon scales and dragon nerve fibers, and could withstand any magical attack.
This was no cheap market-stall trinket.
Jiang Bai raised his juice and took a small sip, the corners of his mouth curving almost imperceptibly.
It looked like this guild was going to get livelier and livelier.
Faced with the unrestrained laughter filling the room, the pink-haired boy named Natsu flushed red with anger and clenched his little fists, yet he had no idea how to prove it to people who simply didn't believe him.
Holding his glass of juice, Jiang Bai took in everyone's reactions, then turned his gaze to Makarov, who stood at the door looking helpless.
"Old man," Jiang Bai said, his voice not loud but carrying clearly through the noisy crowd, "where did you pick up this kid?"
Hearing him, Makarov sighed heavily. He led Natsu over, plopped down on a barstool, and poured himself a full mug of ale.
"Don't ask." The old man rubbed his throbbing temples. "I'd just finished attending a routine guild masters' meeting. On my way back, I sensed a strange fluctuation of magic in a nearby forest. I went to take a look, and that's where I found this kid."
He pointed at Natsu, who was glaring angrily at Macao.
"He said he got separated from his father and was looking for him."
Jiang Bai knew that, of course.
Not only did he know, he was also well aware that Igneel, the Fire Dragon King Natsu was looking for, was currently sleeping inside Natsu's body.
It was a staggering scheme spanning four hundred years, laid by the dragons to fight Acnologia, and also out of a father's love, to prevent Natsu from turning into a dragon.
But Jiang Bai couldn't say a word about any of it.
No one could predict what chain reaction tampering with the timeline would set off.
If he ended up attracting the attention of Ankhseram, a god who seemed to control life and death, and was afflicted with the same Curse of Contradiction as Natsu's older brother Zeref, he would be utterly finished.
With his current strength, he was still nowhere near capable of taking on a god.
It was better to avoid trouble.
Suppressing the tangled thoughts in his mind, Jiang Bai looked at Makarov with an amused smile.
"Old man, wasn't picking up Erza and me enough? Now you've brought back another one."
There was just the right hint of teasing in Jiang Bai's words.
"Just how little faith do you have in Uncle Macao and the others? Are you planning to put the entire burden of revitalizing Fairy Tail on the shoulders of our younger generation?"
Makarov's hand stopped abruptly as he held his mug.
He raised his head and gave Jiang Bai a long look with his cloudy old eyes, his gaze complicated.
The kid was perceptive as a monster.
That was right. He had picked Natsu up mostly because his heart had softened in the moment, without giving much thought to the boy's magical talent.
But Jiang Bai's last remark had struck precisely at the thoughts buried deepest in his heart.
Makarov's gaze swept across the guild hall.
Wakaba, Macao... these core members of the guild were loyal and dependable, but they had long since reached the limits of their potential. They would never reach the threshold of S-Class in their lifetimes.
Among the older generation, aside from Gildarts, who wandered outside all year and was rarely seen, there wasn't a single pillar capable of truly supporting the guild's future.
Fairy Tail seemed lively, but in truth, it had long been caught in the predicament of having no successors to its older generation.
And now...
Makarov's gaze slowly drifted across them.
Jiang Bai, who was almost impossibly composed, whose strength was unfathomable, and who had overturned the common knowledge of magic single-handedly.
His grandson Laxus, exceptionally gifted but also aloof and stubborn, single-mindedly pursuing power.
Erza, a Requip mage with an unshakable will and limitless potential for growth.
And now, there was also Natsu, foolishly searching for a dragon yet brimming with energy.
They were Fairy Tail's true future, the hope that could make the guild great again and even surpass all its past glory.
At the thought, Makarov drained his mug of ale in one gulp. A smile returned to his face, tinged with the satisfaction of a burden lifted.
"That's right!" The old man slammed his mug down on the bar and looked at Jiang Bai, announcing loudly, "You kids are the guild's future! This era belongs to you!"