Fairy Tail's Way of Doing Things

"I don't think you want to find out what that 'otherwise' is!"

"Now then, brats, start choosing!"

Makarov looked down from above as though gazing at a swarm of ants, speaking coldly to the mages of Noisy Second Hand.

"A monster! A human turned into a monster!"

"Big Brother Jason, this guy really is one of the Ten Wizard Saints!"

The Noisy Second Hand mages stared at the giant that towered between heaven and earth, immediately threw down their weapons, then uniformly dropped to their knees. They repeatedly kowtowed to Makarov and cried, "We'll tell you everything truthfully! Please spare us!"

Five minutes later...

"So, your guild found a Demon Egg, right?!"

"After seeing how powerful Deliora, the demon created by Zeref, was, you planned to hatch this Demon Egg and tame it into combat power for your guild, so that your guild could become the strongest guild in Ishgar. Is that right?"

With his hands behind his back, Makarov coldly questioned the mages before him. Though they had surrendered, they were still battered and bruised.

"Th-that's right!"

Jason, the Noisy Second Hand officer who had been so imposing five minutes earlier, had completely lost his former arrogance. Kneeling before Makarov with a swollen, bruised face, he cooperatively told Makarov everything he knew.

That was because Makarov had hit him the hardest earlier!

"Idiot! A guild doesn't become stronger just because a demon joins it!"

"A guild is strong because of the Bonds between its members! You ignorant brats!"

"If that demon loses control, do you know how great a disaster it could bring upon this world?! You bastards!"

After hearing Jason's words, Makarov's anger kept rising. As he spoke, he punched Jason, the Noisy Second Hand officer, squarely on the head.

"That hurts..."

Feeling the pain in his head, tears slowly welled from Jason's eyes. A bump visibly swelled on his head.

"Guild Master, now that we know about this, we can't just ignore it!"

Ywen flew to Makarov's side and spoke softly.

"We certainly can't leave this idiotic guild alone!"

"If we let these ignorant brats keep messing around, who knows what kind of disaster they'll bring to this continent!"

Makarov's expression was filled with helplessness.

"Brats, I'm giving you a chance to make up for your mistakes. Take us to your guild immediately! We have to deal with your Demon Egg."

Makarov ordered the mages before him.

"Yes, sir!"

By now, these mages had been thoroughly cowed by Makarov. Not one of them dared say no.

With the Noisy Second Hand mages leading the way, the group soon arrived near the Noisy Second Hand guild...

It was a massive building that looked like an alchemy workshop.

"My lords, our guild is here!"

"That building in front of us is the Noisy Second Hand guild..."

Jason stood before Ywen and the others, bent at the waist with a fawning expression.

"Guild Master, look at other people's guilds. Just based on appearances, theirs looks more impressive than ours~"

Ywen looked at Noisy Second Hand's enormous building and muttered quietly to Makarov.

"What do you know?!"

"Our guild has a vintage style! That building has over a hundred years of history!"

"Don't underestimate our old building!"

Makarov's old face reddened at Ywen's words. He put on a serious expression and began talking nonsense.

"Isn't it just because we don't have enough funds? Do you think I don't want to expand or renovate?!"

"If you lot weren't all so troublesome, I would've saved enough money to renovate the guild ages ago! Damn it..."

As Makarov spoke, he gritted his teeth while tears streamed from his eyes, as though he had remembered something deeply upsetting.

"Anyway, the Demon Egg is inside, right?"

Ignoring Makarov's private sorrow, Ywen stretched his body and narrowed his eyes at the Noisy Second Hand guild in the distance.

At that moment, inside the Noisy Second Hand Mage Guild...

Before a huge black spherical object stood a little girl who appeared to be eight or nine years old. Her eyes were shut and her hands pressed together. Under the girl's efforts, the black sphere constantly wriggled. If one listened carefully, faint sounds of a heartbeat—"thump, thump..." —could be heard from inside it!

Yes, the thing that looked like a black rubber ball was the Demon Egg Noisy Second Hand had found by chance.

"Nano, you have to keep working hard! Think of your father and mother. As long as you can hatch the thing inside, you'll be reunited with your family!"

Behind the girl stood a short mage on stilts, with one black eyeball and one white eyeball, who looked like some strange daruma doll.

He watched the girl with a lecherous grin, constantly encouraging her to use her magic. That was because Nano had awakened a type of magic capable of accelerating the rapid growth of the Demon Egg.

At the same time as he obtained the Demon Egg, he had also found a little girl capable of accelerating a demon's corruption and growth. To this Mage Guild wizard, whose appearance resembled a daruma doll, it was practically an arrangement made by heaven! Somewhere in the unseen, fate was directing everything.

"I..."

The girl was in agony. On one side was her anxious longing to see her father and mother; on the other was her rejection of the Demon Egg. Instinctively, she sensed that the thing before her absolutely could not be hatched. Once she successfully hatched it, it would bring endless danger to the surrounding towns.

Boom!!

Just as the girl's anguish drove her to tears, a tremendous roar rang out, and the entire Noisy Second Hand Mage Guild shook violently.

"Hm? An earthquake?"

The daruma-like wizard frowned and continuously surveyed his surroundings with his mismatched black-and-white eyes.

Boom!

Just as the lecherous-looking wizard was puzzling over what was happening, a mysterious force violently tore open the ceiling of the entire Noisy Second Hand guild!

The girl, the Demon Egg, and the daruma-like wizard were all exposed directly to the sunlight.

"Found you~"

At the same time, a light, airy voice suddenly rang in everyone's ears.

"Who's there?!"

The daruma-like wizard immediately looked up at the sound, only to have the sudden sunlight stab into his eyes until he could not open them...

He narrowed his eyes slightly, and vaguely saw a youth of average build and delicate features standing in the sky!

The one who had spoken just now was this child, who could stand in midair.

"Besides the Demon Egg, we found other targets."

Ywen looked at the Demon Egg inside the building, the petite girl, and the lecherous-looking wizard, then spoke softly to the others behind him.

"Every time I see Brother Ywen make a move, it always feels absurdly over-the-top!"

Gray and Lyon exchanged a glance, cold sweat streaming down their foreheads.

They still remembered how they had been discussing how to find the Demon Egg within the massive building before them. Then, in the very next second, Ywen had offered the solution—

Just tear down the building in front of them!

That was Fairy Tail's style!