Although the sudden appearance of someone who seemed to be Future Lucy caught Blanc's attention, he stuck to his principle of "torment Natsu first" and, in unspoken agreement with Laxus, finished their timeless masterpiece, Gray's Weaknesses.
Only after taking care of that important business did Blanc casually make his way toward the bunny girl.
At that moment, the blonde bunny girl was looking around the guild, completely oblivious to the lecherous stares of its old hands.
She looked this way, then that, nostalgia flickering across her face. Every so often, she let out a creepy little giggle, accompanied by a string of barely audible mutters:
"Wow... it's Cana and Levy when they were little! They're so cute! I really want to pinch their cheeks!"
"Is that Reedus? He's so much thinner!"
"Macao and Wakaba look so young!"
"Whoa, Mira looks so different..."
"Huh? What's Laxus doing hiding in the corner with a booklet? That smile looks awfully sneaky..."
So absorbed was she in the wonder of this "history museum" that she never noticed Blanc quietly walking up beside her.
"Hello, Miss Bunny Girl. Could I have a moment?"
A gentle voice suddenly sounded beside her ear.
"Wah!" The bunny girl gave a startled squeak, patted her chest, and turned toward the voice. Her eyes instantly lit up, and her thoughts started flooding in again. Ah! It's little Blanc! He looks pretty much the same as he does later.
"Miss Bunny Girl?" Seeing her staring at him with her mind miles away, Blanc raised an eyebrow and prompted her again.
"Ah, sure! Of course!" The bunny girl snapped out of it and nodded repeatedly.
Looking at her future guildmate, who had yet to grow up, Lucy suddenly felt an urge to play a prank.
She bent down slightly, bringing their faces closer, and put on a rather punchable expression. With an affected smile, she said, "Little boy, you should be polite when you talk to a big girl like me. Now, is there something you'd like to ask your big sister?" She snickered inwardly. Making that Blanc call me his big sister would be so much fun.
Blanc ignored the first half of her speech and went straight for the kill. "Miss Bunny Girl, that's the Fairy Tail Guild Mark on the back of your hand, isn't it? Are you a member of our guild? Why haven't I seen you before?"
The smile instantly froze on Lucy's face.
She stiffly lowered her head, following Blanc's gaze to the completely exposed back of her hand. It was as though lightning had struck her.
O-oh no! I got carried away and forgot to cover the Guild Mark on my hand!
What do I do? What do I do? Am I going to change history? Is this going to trigger a temporal paradox? I don't want to disappear!
Cold sweat instantly soaked her clothes. Lucy's thoughts accelerated to their limit, her brain working frantically until she forced out an incredibly flimsy excuse:
"A-actually, I'm a super-obsessed Fairy Tail fan! I painted this Guild Mark on myself! That's right! It's just a painted imitation! Haha, pretty realistic, huh?"
Watching her look as though she might laugh and cry at the same time, Blanc had reached a firm conclusion after observing her up close-this was definitely Lucy from the future.
Thinking it over, he vaguely remembered something like this happening.
Lucy, Erza, Gray, Natsu, and Happy had traveled seven years into the past because of a Magic Book, then returned soon afterward.
Still, Blanc couldn't help wondering what kind of absurdly powerful Magic Book this was. He hadn't thought much of it when watching the show, but now that it was reality, that book was downright outrageous.
Traveling through time wasn't impossible, but according to the normal understanding of magic, it was an extraordinarily demanding act that defied the natural order.
Time travel using Eclipse in the original story, for instance, required not only an unimaginably vast amount of magic power, but also all the Zodiac Keys and the Eclipse Gate. It had even saddled the royal family and the Heartfilia Family with a heavy, four-hundred-year destiny.
Yet now, a single, seemingly unremarkable Magic Book could let people wander freely through the river of time?
The author's mastery of space-time magic... was probably even more terrifying than Zeref's, wasn't it?
Unfortunately, the book completed a time loop during this trip and was destined to be used by Natsu and the others. He didn't know whether breaking that loop would affect those who had traveled with it. Otherwise, he would have gotten his hands on it for research, no matter what.
Reining in his wandering thoughts, Blanc looked at Lucy, who was still desperately rubbing her hand in an attempt to prove it was a "fake Guild Mark." An irresistible urge to prank her welled up inside him.
It's not every day I meet someone from the future. Should I give her a scare? His mischief-loving side immediately stirred. That sounds promising.
So Blanc narrowed his eyes slightly, the corners of his mouth curling into a meaningful smile, and slowly drew out his words. "I see... I thought you might be a guildmate who'd accidentally traveled here from some point in the future."
Boom.
Lucy felt as though a thunderbolt had struck inside her head. Her knees nearly buckled, and she was so flustered that she started stammering:
"H-how could that be possible? Haha... you've got such a wild imagination, little boy! Something that defies science like that only happens in novels. You really know how to joke! Haha..."
Blanc said nothing more. He simply gave an inscrutable smile, let out a meaningful "Oh," then turned and slowly walked away.
However, after taking a few steps, Blanc suddenly stopped without warning. Turning his face slightly, he fixed Lucy with an eerie, deeply sinister smile, as though he had seen through everything, and let a low chuckle escape his throat:
"Heh heh..."
Only then did he look away for good, casually wave a hand, and leave.
Lucy stood rooted to the spot, petrified, every hair on her body standing on end.
W-what the heck? What was that look and laugh supposed to mean? He definitely, definitely, definitely figured it out, didn't he? Lucy panicked, then complained inwardly, Honestly! Blanc wasn't cute at all when he was little! His personality was awful! He's nothing like the others! Boohoo!
Blanc looked away and, upon turning his head, spotted young Erza sitting nearby with a dejected expression. Remembering that the misunderstanding over the cake had yet to be cleared up, he walked over.
"What's wrong, Erza? Are you still angry about the cake?"
Erza lowered her head, looking guilty.
"No, I was too immature. I actually hit Natsu and Gray so hard over a single piece of cake..."
"Actually, that cake-" Blanc was just about to reveal the truth when Erza suddenly stood up.
"No, I need to go find them. See you, Blanc." Before her words had even faded, she rushed off like a whirlwind, too fast for Blanc to react.
Uh, looks like things will be fine even without clearing up the misunderstanding. But after thinking it over, Blanc chased after her anyway. Leaving something half-said really bothered him.
As soon as he stepped onto the street outside the guild, Blanc saw Erza standing in front of a temporary tent across the road, questioning a curvaceous woman wearing a white cat-eared waitress outfit.
Young Erza eyed her suspiciously.
"What a strange outfit. Is that in fashion these days?"
"S-sort of." The woman tugged at her cat ears in a slight panic, her gaze wandering.
"Whatever. Have you seen a pink-haired guy wearing a scarf and a shirtless black-haired guy around here?"
"Natsu and Gray?" The cat girl blurted out almost instinctively.
"Huh? Why do you know their names?" Erza asked in confusion.
"Oh no!"
The cat girl's expression changed drastically as alarm bells rang in her head. In desperation, she scrambled out along the edge of the tent in a decidedly undignified fashion and hastily pointed in one direction.
"Um, those two should be that way." The cat girl waved her arm frantically to point the way, hurriedly coming up with an explanation.
"They kept calling each other's names! That's how I remembered them!"
"Is that so? Thanks." Erza didn't suspect anything and headed in the direction she had indicated. As she walked, she muttered in frustration, "Honestly, getting angry over a little cake... how disgraceful of me..."
Watching Erza's awkward retreating figure, the cat girl slowly straightened up. Her panic gradually faded, replaced by an incredibly gentle, nostalgic smile.
She softly called after little Erza, "Go apologize."
"What did you say? Me, apologize?" Erza stopped in her tracks farther down the street and whipped around furiously, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"I know you will," the cat girl said with certainty.
Erza's expression changed. She puffed out her cheeks, her spirited little face turning faintly red, as though some secret feeling had been exposed. To hide her embarrassment, she hurried away with long strides.
"I'm not apologizing! They're the ones who stole the cake!"
"What an idiot. Didn't I even have the courage to admit how I felt?" Watching her stubbornly defensive younger self, the cat girl-Erza from the future-wore a nostalgic expression as she mused in self-mockery.
"I really was hopeless, wasn't I?"
Before you continue