"Hey."
A gloomy voice drifted up from a short distance behind Natsu.
Gajeel stomped over with a bundle of unused steel bars on his shoulder, veins throbbing on his forehead and dark circles under his eyes even deeper than Blanc's.
He had been glaring at this "vacation crew" from the very first second they stepped through the doors.
Nearly every steel bar, every brick and tile in the rebuilt guild hall was soaked with his sweat. When it came to contributions to the new guild hall, he, Gajeel, was absolutely number one in the entire guild!
Yet this damned Fire Dragon scratched his head at every spot he looked at and grumbled at every glance. To Gajeel, that was nothing short of blatant provocation!
"Fire Dragon, you'd better explain yourself." Gajeel slammed the steel bars onto the floor. "Exactly which part of my work are you unhappy with? Huh?!"
"Huh?" Natsu raised an eyebrow.
"Every corner of this place has my sweat in it!!"
Natsu gave it some serious thought, then answered without a shred of shame:
"I don't know."
"Then what the hell are you going 'hmm' for?!"
Gajeel's anger instantly boiled over. His fist turned into an iron club, and he swung it straight at Natsu's face.
"You wanna fight, huh? Just what I wanted!" Natsu grinned as fierce flames blazed around his fist. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!!"
"Iron Dragon's Club!!"
The two forces collided head-on with a deafening bang, and the shock wave overturned two nearby long tables.
One of the tables spun through the air and landed squarely on the table in front of Erza-
More precisely, it crushed the little box she had just opened.
The temperature in the hall plummeted.
Erza froze in place, her fork still raised.
She slowly lowered her head and