章 283: Back in Earth Land

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

November, x784.

After the Anima was activated, everyone was sent back to Earth Land. While the town and most of its inhabitants were returned to where they were before being turned into a lacrima, everyone whose magic power was over a certain amount was dropped off in the forest east of the town, about halfway between the town and Porlyusica's house.

Naturally, the people whose magic power reached that certain threshold were the wizards in the town. Namely, the members of Fairy Tail. And to no one's surprise, most of them were thoroughly confused to find themselves in the forest.

"*Sigh* We're finally back." Elicia said in atone filled with relief.

After hearing Elicia's words, those who were close to her, and had no idea what was going on, turned in her direction.

"Lici, what are you talking about?" Ur asked curiously. "Do you know why we're suddenly all in the forest?"

"Yeah." Elicia replied with a smile. "But it's a long story. And I'd rather not tell it out here. Why don't we go back to the guild hall to talk? Maybe Fonzie can even cook for us."

By now, every member of the guild was paying attention to the conversation between Elicia and Ur. And although they were impatient to know what happened, considering the tone Elicia spoke in, they also agreed that it would be more comfortable to talk back in their guild hall.

But when they heard the part about Alfonzo cooking, their eyes lit up like torch lights.

'They look like the masters from History's Strongest Disciple: Kenichi.' Alfonzo and Elicia thought simultaneously after seeing all their guild mates.

Even though he shared that thought with Elicia, Alfonzo looked at her in annoyance. There was no way that she did not know how hard he had been working for the past week or so, after all.

Meanwhile, when Elicia saw Alfonzo's annoyed gaze, she smiled at him seductively. Then, she licked her lips suggestively while winking in his direction.

'*Sigh* She's gotten way too good at this over the years.' Alfonzo thought to himself in resignation. 'She always knows how to get me to do what she wants. But I don't hate it.'

"Fine, I'll cook." Alfonzo said in a somewhat tired tone. "But it's gonna cost extra. And when you hear what we've been up to, you'll understand why."

Not minding the fact that Alfonzo's food would be higher in price, the members of Fairy Tail cheered loudly.

"Before we do that, however, we need to deal with our guests." Alfonzo said as he looked in a certain direction.

Following Alfonzo's gaze, everyone in the guild saw a number of bipedal cats gathered together not too far away.

"Woah! There are so many Happys and Carlas." Macao exclaimed in confusion.

From there, Alfonzo and Elicia with some added details from the others who spent time in Edolas explained the origin of the Exceeds. They also mentioned that Mystogan would be gone for a while. But they did not need to worry because he was still a member of Fairy Tail.

After that, things went a lot like the canon, with the Exceeds deciding to form their own village somewhere in Fiore, Shagotte, the former queen of Extalia, having a heart to heart with Carla and apologizing for everything she had to go through, and the Exceeds finally leaving to start their own village.

"I didn't think they would leave so quickly." Wakaba said. "Getting to hear about the place where you all went from the perspective of a native might have been interesting."

"There's no need to fret, Wakaba." Makarov said solemnly. "If fate allows it, we will see them again."

Hearing the wise words of their guild master, most of the wizards present nodded in agreement. However, the somewhat solemn atmosphere was broken by Gajeel's panicked shouting.

"Wait! What happened to Lily?" Gajeel shouted. "He's supposed to be my cat. Don't tell me he left with the rest of them."

By this point, everyone knew that Gajeel had been searching all over Magnolia for a talking cat of his own. Especially since Wendy and Carla joined the guild. And now that they knew about the existence of the Exceeds, they understood why he was never able to find one.

"Stop yelling." A deep, masculine voice said from a nearby bush. "I'm right here. I just got caught in this bush when we all got transported here."

Stepping out from a nearby bush, A black Exceed, around the same height as Happy appeared while brushing some leaves out of his fur.

"Lily?" Gajeel exclaimed in confusion. "Is that you? What happened to you? Why are you so small?"

"Ooh… If Gajeel was female, that last question would have hit a lot different." Alfonzo said with a wry smile.

While most of the members of the guild rolled their eyes at Alfonzo's joke, Cana, the female hooligan of the guild laughed uproariously.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure." Panther Lily, who also rolled his eyes at Alfonzo's joke said unsurely. "But as soon as I came to this world, it felt like this form would be more accepted by the world. So, here I am."

Hearing that, Gajeel's shoulders dropped in disappointment. But his mood perked back up once again when he heard Panther Lily's next words.

"Luckily, I can revert back to my old form whenever I need to fight." Panther Lily continued. "Though, I don't think I can maintain it for long. So, it would be more like a battle form than a true form."

After Panther Lily finished, Gajeel rushed forward and picked him up happily.

"Don't worry, Lily." Gajeel said with a big smile on his face. "Our guild hall has some of the best training facilities in Ishgar. We'll get you battle ready in no time."

"Hmph!" Alfonzo snorted. "Some of the best? It looks like Gajeel doesn't want to eat tonight."

"Huh? What?" Gajeel exclaimed in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not trying to brag, but you won't find better training facilities anywhere on Earth Land." Alfonzo replied

Although bragging is exactly what it sounded like Alfonzo was doing, thanks to his knowledge of many anime video games, and movies, the facilities in the Fairy Tail guild hall were definitely leagues above any other organization's training facilities.

"Anyway, let's get going to the guild hall.' Alfonzo said, turning towards Magnolia as he spoke. "I'm really fucking tired, and I don't wanna spend all night cooking."

With that, everyone followed suit and began following Alfonzo back to Magnolia. Even Panther Lily, who was being carried by Gajeel, forcefully jumped out of Gajeel's arms to follow the rest of the crowd.

Although Panther Lily still did not like Alfonzo all that much, especially after his repeated insults about his old sword, Bustermarm, he had tasted Alfonzo's cooking in Edolas. And no matter how hard he tried, he could not call it anything other than delicious. So, defending his new partner could wait until he had a full belly.

Meanwhile, Gajeel stood still in shock. But after Panther Lily jumped out of his arms, he finally snapped back to his senses.

"Hey, guys, wait for me.!" Gajeel shouted as he started running to catch up with the rest of the guild. "Alfonzo, you weren't serious, right? You know I wasn't serious about that. It was just a figure of speech. Right? Alfonzo… Hey, Alfonzo, you can hear me, right?"

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the town, the survey team from the Magic Council was still in shock after seeing the reappearance of the town of Magnolia.

"The town has returned." Lahar, the captain of the Fourth Custody Enforcement Unit, shouted after spending quite some time in shock. "Quickly, someone inform the Magic Council!"

"Aye, Aye, Sir!" One of the Rune Knights under his command shouted before running towards the communication lacrima in their camp.

"Did anyone get a reading on the phenomenon that led to the town's return?" Doranbolt, a young man with a lean build, short black hair, and scars on the left side of his face, asked.

In truth, this man, Doranbolt, was a member of Fairy Tail, Mest Gryder, though he did not know that at present. Nor would anyone from the guild know it, either. Makarov, Alfonzo, and Elicia being the exceptions.

And that would be thanks to his own magic, [Memory Control Magic]. With the use of this magic, Mest rewrote his own memories and the memories of almost everyone in the guild so that Mest Gryder would be forgotten. The only exceptions being Makarov and Gildarts. And the only reason Gildarts was free from this fate was because he was out on the 100 Years Quest.

But neither Makarov nor Mest were worried about Gildarts remembering Mest. And there were a couple of reasons for that. First, Gildarts and Mest almost never interacted. In fact, the number of words they had spoken to each other could be counted on one hand. And second, Gildarts never paid much attention to males in general, Alfonzo, Natsu, and Orlando, in the past, being the exceptions.

Then, there was Alfonzo and Elicia. Although they were also subjected to Mest's [Memory Control Magic], their meta knowledge about the world of Fairy Tail kept them from forgetting about him completely. Though, all their memories of interacting with him in this world were stripped. For example, Elicia would not be able to remember her fight with him in her first S-Class Promotion Exam.

"No, sir." Another Rune Knight replied. "For an unknown reason, none of our instruments were able to pick up anything."

"*Sigh* Of course they couldn't." Doranbolt replied in a melancholic tone. "I guess that means we'll have to infiltrate Fairy Tail to get the information, doesn't it?"

"Why is your first thought infiltration?" Lahar asked while adjusting his glasses. "We should ask them first before doing anything drastic."

"Do you really think they'll tell us, officers from the Magic Council, anything?" Doranbolt asked disdainfully.

"*Sigh* Don't tell me you're one of those people who are stuck in their ways, too, Doranbolt." Lahar replied in an exasperated tone. "It's obvious to see how much the wizards from Fairy Tail have changed in the last few years."

"I don't know." Doranbolt replied while gazing at Magnolia. "It's not so simple for a leopard to change its spots."

What neither Lahar nor Doranbolt noticed, however, was the longing in Doranbolt's gaze as he gazed at Magnolia.

"Either way, it won't hurt to ask them first." Lahar said. "And if we don't get the answers to our questions, it won't be too late to do things your way."

"If you say so." Doranbolt replied while turning away from the town. "Either way, we can visit them tomorrow."

Watching Doranbolt walk away, Lahar could only shake his head.

Several hours later, the Fairy Tail guild hall was as lively as ever. Especially when everyone's bellies were filled with Alfonzo's cooking. On top of that, the group who returned from Edolas finished telling the story of what happened after Magnolia disappeared.

"So, Mystogan was a prince, huh?" Alzack asked while patting his slightly bulging belly. "Would have never guessed it."

"I know, right." Bisca added. "I mean, what kind of prince always wears a mask to hide their face?"

"A prince whose face is identical to the Magic Council's biggest traitor, maybe?" Levy replied with a smile. "When you think about it like that, it makes perfect sense, doesn't it?"

"*Sigh* I'm so glad you're not like the Edolas Levy." Lucy said, pulling her best friend into a hug. "She was really scary."

"Really?" Levy asked in surprise. "What was she like?"

"Aggressive and vulgar in her speech." Elicia replied.

"Seriously?" Levy asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, she and my counterpart fought like cats and dogs." Lucy replied. "Kinda like Gray and Natsu. But with much fouler language."

"Speaking of your counterpart, Lu, what was she like?" Levy asked curiously.

"My counterpart, huh?" Lucy replied while searching for the words to describe Lucy Ashely.

"She was almost exactly the same." Happy interjected.

"Yeah, but the other Lucy was cuter." Natsu added. "Our Lucy never blushes like a girl, after all."

"What did you say?" Lucy asked with a tick mark on her forehead. "Just because you've never seen me blushing doesn't mean I don't!"

With that said, Lucy glanced towards the kitchen while wondering where Alfonzo would take her on their date.

Like that, everyone asked about their counterparts from the Edolas Fairy Tail. Though there were some they never met, like Lisanna, Marin, and Sun, most people were able to hear about their own counterpart. Even Lisanna was more than a little shocked when she heard that her counterpart was engaged to Alfonzo's counterpart before Elicia's counterpart ended up killing them both and herself in jealousy.

"I'm really glad our Lici isn't some kind of possessive psycho-bitch." Cana said before taking a swig from a mug of ale.

"And what was Cana's counterpart like?" Ultear asked with a smile.

"A perfect lady." Elicia replied with a smile of her own. "No drinking, conservative clothing, perfect grammar, the whole nine. She even called Fonzie and I shameless once because I pecked him on the cheek."

*Spirt!*

"Cana~~~~~…" Erza hissed angrily.

Because of what Elicia said about her Edolas counterpart, Cana ended up spitting her mouthful of ale out in surprise. Unfortunately, Erza, who had just received the strawberry shortcake she ordered was sitting right in front of her. As a result, both Erza and her strawberry shortcake were drenched in ale and Cana's saliva.

Naturally, that little accident led to one of Fairy Tail's usual guild-wide brawls that lasted until everyone was tired and ready to go home for the night.