Researching Magic Potions

Magnolia, home

"Ah, ow, ow, ow, be gentler." Qian Guang lay in his room, covered head to toe in bandages.

"Hmph, serves you right. Who told you to fight, and then lose?" Mirajane irritably smacked his bandage-wrapped head.

Qian Guang was deeply depressed. He suspected Laxus had been jealous of him; during the fight, he had kept aiming for his face. But Qian Guang had woken up first and beaten him into a pighead too, so the two of them had gone at it again in a bare-knuckle brawl.

It was already the day after their fight. By the time they had finished, dawn had broken.

After their second friendly exchange, Qian Guang still lacked magical power. They gave themselves some simple treatment, reported back to the village, and returned to Fairy Tail together.

When the two appeared at the guild in tattered clothes and covered in wounds, the entire guild fell silent. No one could understand how a wild boar mission had left them in such a state.

The guild master's expression was frighteningly dark, and his magic power had nearly run wild. Little Lisanna even cried when she saw Qian Guang.

But after learning that the two had been injured in a fight, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and the guild became lively again.

"I told you Qian Guang held back when he fought Macao last time. How could someone who beat Laxus that badly possibly lose to Macao?"

"Qian Guang is amazing!"

"You black-haired bastard, I challenge you to a duel!"

Listening to everyone's noisy chatter, Qian Guang smiled. The dead-tsundere blond merely said, "I won," and prepared to leave.

However, both of them were caught by an enraged Makarov. It was obvious the guild master desperately wanted to teach them a lesson, but he simply could not bring himself to do it. He even specifically went to find Porlyusica to examine them.

In the end, after they had medicine applied, they were thrown out.

"What are you thinking about? Hurry up and eat!" Mirajane once again smacked Qian Guang's head irritably as she held out a bowl of porridge.

Feeling the foreign substance being violently stuffed into his throat, Qian Guang suffered terribly. "Mira, is there any chance you could go practice magic and let Lisanna handle this? Look, don't you always want to beat that Erza? You should make the most of your time practicing."

Mirajane was not someone who could sit still either. After becoming familiar with her magic over the past two days, she had challenged Erza, who was the same age as her. Unfortunately, although Demon Hand was powerful enough, Mirajane had studied magic for too short a time and was knocked unconscious by a single heavy slash from Erza.

Mirajane and Erza had officially formed a grudge. One disliked the other's rigidness, while the other disliked her casual nature.

Mirajane smiled as purple energy flared around her again. "No need. This little thing won't delay my training. The time it takes me to go get Lisanna is enough." With that, she tossed away the spoon.

Qian Guang's face filled with terror. Although the bandages hid his expression, his eyes still conveyed everything. "Mira? Sister Mira? Mira-chan? Darling? Baby? I was wrong!"

"Ahhh!!!"

Mirajane happily walked out of Qian Guang's room, leaving him lying on the bed with vacant eyes and some unknown sticky substance still dribbling from his mouth.

Afternoon

Qian Guang felt like he was mostly fine. His magic power was just a little depleted, and the injuries on his face had not healed yet.

He decided to find something to do, mainly because he had already flipped through the girlie magazines under his bed until they were falling apart.

While Mirajane practiced magic in the backyard, Qian Guang went to his magic potion laboratory.

Qian Guang planned to research a mana-restoration potion. Having his magic power constantly run dry was far too uncomfortable. Even someone with as much magic power as him could easily be depleted, so others would have it even worse. He wanted to develop one that everyone in the guild could at least use.

But potion research always came with risks. Just look at how Ichiya's magic potion had turned everyone in an entire city into ugly freaks.

Boom!

A hole was blasted into the room. The people on the street heard the commotion and thought it was some kind of terrorist attack.

"Ow, ow, ow! Why would several restorative herbs explode when mixed together?! And that old man never taught me this before! He obviously has no creative spirit!" Qian Guang cursed from the rubble. His proud long black hair had turned into an afro.

"Killing intent!" Qian Guang suddenly spun around.

Unfortunately, it was already too late. A size-32 shoe kicked him directly in the face, sending him flying down through the hole.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Bang!

"Honestly, what an idiot!" Mirajane panted heavily. She would never admit that, upon hearing the explosion and fearing that idiot had been hurt, she had broken through her limits and summoned Demon Wings in her agitation.

Guild

"Qian Guang, I think your long black hair looked pretty good. Why did you have to go and give yourself an afro?"

The guild master looked at Qian Guang, who was researching potions at the bar counter, utterly puzzled. Lisanna was currently studying just how soft his afro was.

"It's just a side effect of the medicine. It'll be fine in a while." Qian Guang did not even raise his head as he continued his research. He was not wrong; physical side effects were still side effects.

When Gray saw that Qian Guang had suddenly become so much taller than him, an inexplicable look filled his eyes. He turned to look at Natsu, who was staring blankly beside him, and their gazes met.

[Give me one!]

Natsu tilted his head.

[Give me an afro treatment!]

Natsu tilted his head.

[Spray fire on my head!]

Natsu instantly understood and opened his mouth, blasting a ball of fire straight into Gray's face.

The afro did not happen, but his face became much blacker. "Bastard, what the hell did you do?!"

"You told me to do it! You should be thanking me!"

"I thank your—"

The two started fighting again. Erza came over to break it up. Well, the situation was indescribable. There was a girl hugging two boys, a shirtless pervert, and fire.

"Hey, hey, Brother Qian Guang, where's my sister?" Little Lisanna asked curiously.

"Oh, she's fixing the house. Her temper has probably been a little bad lately, since the house got wrecked today."

Little Lisanna tilted her head.

"Not good! Get down!" Qian Guang's expression changed. He grabbed Lisanna and dropped to the ground with her.

Makarov and the others had no idea what was going on.

Boom!!!

Now they understood. Gray no longer had to worry about his hair; he got a free afro. Unfortunately, it did not save the guild master's bald crown. It only turned the hair around the sides into little clumps of yarn.

"Qian Guang!!!"

A pack of hungry wolves set their sights on Qian Guang. Now that they understood what a medicine side effect meant, they all got up and beat him mercilessly.

Qian Guang tearfully endured pressure he did not deserve. He could never understand how perfectly good mana-restoring herbs had turned into an explosion when combined.

"Ow, ow, ow!" ×2

Qian Guang and Lisanna, one big and one small, both had their heads wrapped in bandages. During the explosion, Qian Guang had held Lisanna. When everyone beat him up, Lisanna had tried to escape but had not let go. Poor Lisanna was knocked silly by a wine bottle Natsu had thrown.

Natsu was currently being chased by Lisanna, who was trying to crack his head open.

"Stop, please, I'm begging you. Now I understand why your house exploded." The guild master looked like he wanted to cry. Beside him, red-haired delinquent Erza stared at Qian Guang with inverted-triangle eyes. "Kill him, kill him."

Qian Guang looked at the red-haired delinquent Erza beside him and felt that she was more threatening than the guild master.

After thinking for a moment, he took a set of flashy clothes, a leather jacket, purple lipstick, and black nail polish from the "nonexistent dimensional pocket" behind him and handed them to her.

"Try them on. They were very popular where I used to live, and they really suit that hairstyle of yours."

Erza found them quite novel. She accepted the clothes, thanked him, and returned to her dormitory.

The guild master stared open-mouthed at Qian Guang's back. "Where did those clothes come from?"

"Oh, the clothes? Everyone has a nonexistent dimensional pocket behind them. Guild Master, you can try looking for yours." Qian Guang said with a perfectly serious expression.

Watching the guild master go investigate his dimensional pocket, Qian Guang turned his attention back to the potion. This time, it absolutely could not explode!

As the research progressed, it indeed stopped exploding. The herbal extracts slowly fused together.

Then—

A foul stench spread through the air. It was comparable to ten times the stench of a rural public toilet.

At the very least, the nearby guild master foamed at the mouth and passed out on the spot. Qian Guang did not feel much better either, reaching behind himself again to pull out a gas mask.

The people in the guild also caught the smell.

"Black-haired bas... Σ_(꒪ཀ꒪"∠) Bleurgh."

"Qian... Σ_(꒪ཀ꒪"∠) Bleurgh."

"Σ_(꒪ཀ꒪"∠) Bleurgh."

No one could say a complete sentence. Natsu could not take it anymore and directly blasted it with fire.

"Natsu, don't—"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three explosions in a row!

When Mirajane hummed a tune and opened the guild's front door, this was the scene she saw.

The guild's tables, chairs, and members had all collapsed against the walls. An unknown yellow gas filled the air. A bandage-covered weirdo in a white lab coat and gas mask was dripping an unknown green liquid into a bottle. (Suspected explosive!)

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Porlyusica's house

"Your hairstyles are quite distinctive," Porlyusica said without smiling as she looked at the trendy pair.

"Medicine side effects!" ×2

After Qian Guang had been dealt with once more, the guild master no longer dared let him research magic potions at the guild. Otherwise, they might as well build a new one directly.

Seeing the bright look in Qian Guang's eyes, Makarov still decided to bring him here and risk his old dignity.

"Porlyusica!!! Please take this boy in! He uses Healing Magic just like you! And he has such a spirit of exploration!" Makarov looked tearfully at the old woman before him.

Qian Guang secretly studied her as well. According to his memories, she should be Grandeeney from Edolas, but the only thing related to dragons was her red Dragon Fang Cloak.

"Makarov, you know I don't like humans."

Porlyusica looked at Makarov and spoke ruthlessly. She had no desire for her peaceful life to be disrupted.

"Guild Master! I can do it myself. I already have some leads. I don't need this old lady to teach me; she might not even know more than I do." Qian Guang wore an arrogant expression.

"Boy, provocation will not work on me." Porlyusica saw through his intentions at a glance.

"Porlyusica, he's Lei En's grandson." Makarov put away his tears and spoke to Porlyusica seriously.

At the mention of Lei En's name, Porlyusica finally gave Qian Guang a proper look, though she could not see anything through all the bandages.

"Use Healing Magic for me to see." Porlyusica held out her hand to Qian Guang.

Qian Guang understood that she was also an old acquaintance of his grandfather's. He obediently used Healing Magic on her hand.

"Hm? There's another trait mixed in, but it matches Healing Magic well. Your application of magic power is simply far too crude." Porlyusica closed her eyes and felt it out.

"Fine. I'll take this boy in. Go back, and don't keep sending people to me for treatment whenever something happens." Once Porlyusica made her decision, she began driving Makarov away.

"Come with me." Porlyusica turned and walked into the house, preparing to begin teaching him.

"Sure thing, Grandma Porlyusica." Qian Guang behaved obediently, with no trace of his previous self.

"Actually, I preferred that arrogant look you had before."

"What are you talking about, Grandma? I just lost my memory."

Watching the two walk away, Makarov finally relaxed. At least the guild had been saved. He skipped all the way home. ✧٩(ˊωˋ*)و✧

But—

The moment Makarov pulled open the guild's front door, he could no longer smile.

The guild had become utterly dilapidated. Everyone huddled trembling in the corner with afros, the word "help" plainly visible in their eyes.

The red-haired delinquent, dressed in a leather jacket and purple lipstick, had red light blazing in her eyes as she frantically searched for something. "Kill him, kill him, I have to kill him!!!"

The normal white-haired demon flapped her wings in the air as she took photos wildly, laughing loudly. "Beautiful! You're so beautiful, Erza! Hahahahahaha!"

Makarov wanted to cry. (*꒦ິ⌓꒦ີ)