Because Chase had been there, Gajeel never got the chance to do any real damage to Levy's team or Lucy. That one difference changed how his arrival landed. The Fairy Tail members weren't exactly throwing a welcome party, but they weren't throwing punches either.
Their attitude was simple enough: as long as he didn't lay hands on their people or cross the line that mattered, wrecking the old guild building wasn't something they were going to hold forever. They trusted Makarov's read on the situation. They were willing to see how it went.
That said, there was a clear difference between how they were treating Juvia and how they were treating Gajeel. Juvia got warmth. Gajeel, who walked around looking like he wanted someone to start something, got a different kind of welcome entirely.
"SHUT UP, YOU IDIOTS!"
Gajeel's face had gone deep red. He spun around and roared at the crowd, his jagged teeth on full display, the newspaper photo being waved above their heads still somehow making everything worse.
Reedus stepped forward from the side with his drawing board and a helpful smile.
"Hey, Iron Dragon. I took the liberty of sketching something for you."
He turned the board around.
On a wide green field, bathed in bright sunlight, Gajeel's large back tattoo was fully visible. The Fairy Tail emblem sat right in the center of it, clearly rendered, impossible to miss. Reedus had added little sparkling effects around the key areas, very considerate. The proportions were accurate enough that several of the women in the guild took one look and quickly turned away, flushing. The men crowded in close, pointing and making comments to each other.
"WHO GAVE YOU PERMISSION TO DRAW SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!"
Gajeel snatched the board at speed and tore the paper into pieces. His mouth was still twitching.
Makarov had talked to him. He understood, at least in concept, what guild comrades meant and why you didn't just smack the weaker ones around for entertainment. That was Phantom Lord thinking and he was past it.
Still. This was a lot.
"So, Gajeel." Mira smiled at him from behind the bar, stamp in hand. "I've never tattooed iron before, so this should be interesting. I'll do my best!"
"Since when did anyone decide anything?! You could at least ask me first!"
"And what do you mean iron, I'm an Iron Dragon Slayer Mage, not a block of metal!!"
Mira's smile disappeared the moment he raised his voice. Her hands came up to her cheeks and her eyes went glassy.
"I'm sorry," she said, in a very small voice. "I just thought everyone's idea sounded fun. I didn't mean anything by it. Woo..."
The laughter stopped across the entire guild. Faces went flat. Eyes went sharp. The whole room turned toward Gajeel with the collective energy of people who had done this before and knew exactly how it ended.
Gajeel had not been warned about this.
He went from furious to flustered in about two seconds, stumbling over his own words trying to say something reassuring, which came out sounding nothing like reassurance, which made things worse, which made him try again.
Standing at the edge of the crowd, Chase watched the whole thing unfold and shook his head with a quiet smile.
Served him right.
"Mr. Chase, you're back?"
A pleasant voice came from just behind him. He turned around.
She was wearing a top hat and had short blue hair. A Fairy Tail emblem pin sat neatly on her chest. Her expression was open and cheerful.
"Juvia." Chase raised a hand in greeting. "Looks like you're officially in."
"Yes! Thank you so much, Mr. Chase, and everyone else for being so welcoming. Please take good care of me going forward!" Juvia's smile was wide and genuine.
It was honestly difficult to connect this person with the gloomy, rain-soaked woman who used to walk around muttering to herself under a personal grey cloud. Joining Fairy Tail seemed to have done something for her complexion as well.
"Didn't you go on vacation with Gray and the others?" Chase asked.
He already had a general idea of how she'd ended up there. Vacation ticket, resort villa, certain tendencies she was known for.
"I did, but I came back early when I heard about Gajeel."
Her expression softened slightly, a trace of reluctance crossing it. She'd genuinely wanted to stay. Being around Gray was important to her. But Gajeel was someone she'd known from Phantom Lord, and the guild master had mentioned a newcomer introduction, and some things took priority even over that.
After the disbanding of Phantom Lord, the Four Elements members had stayed loosely in touch with Gajeel. Juvia had known he was in a bad spot with nowhere solid to land. She'd been planning to bring it up with Makarov herself. She just hadn't expected Makarov to find him first.
"Well, make sure to get along with Gray going forward," Chase said.
"Yes! Juvia intends to have thirty children with Gray-sama!" Juvia said this with complete composure, cheeks pink, tone absolutely certain.
Chase processed that for a moment.
She truly was in a class of her own.
"Yo, Chase."
Makarov came over in a casual sports outfit, hands folded behind his back. "How did things go with Ur and Sabertooth?"
"There was a snag in the middle, but everything's back on track. There were already a few mages looking to apply by the time I left."
Chase glanced at him. "By the way, Guild Master. The Ten Wizard Saints assessment form that showed up at Sabertooth. That was you, wasn't it."
"Just something I handled on the side!" Makarov waved his hand.
Then his brow creased slightly.
"Honestly, I did think twice about it. Ur is genuinely strong. Giving her that avenue means Chase has a real competitor going into the assessment, which isn't exactly ideal for Fairy Tail."
He paused, then looked at Chase with a mild expression.
"But you'll give it everything you have for the guild's glory. I'm sure of that."
Chase held the old man's gaze, reached into his card space, and slowly produced the Brainwashing Magic card.
"I think this one suits you better, Guild Master."
"Ahahaha! I don't use Card magic!"
Makarov understood exactly what was being said and had no intention of acknowledging it. He turned smoothly to a new topic.
"Anyway. I'm going to go try out the new pool they built behind the guild."
He glanced left, then right, making sure Mira was still occupied with the Gajeel stamping situation. Satisfied she wasn't watching, he leaned slightly toward Chase and lowered his voice.
"Between you and me, there's a special device installed at the bottom of the pool. Very interesting. Once it's been properly inspected I'll take you down to try it out."
He said it quietly enough that even Juvia standing nearby couldn't make out the words. Then he straightened up, spread his arms wide, and trotted off toward the outdoor pool with the energy of a man half his age.
Chase watched him go.
Old pervert.
The special device didn't require much imagination. The periscope from the original story. He remembered it clearly: Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, roped in by Macao and the others for what was framed as an observation session in the basement viewing room, supposedly to appreciate the swimming form of the female members in their swimsuits. And then Makarov's body filling the entire lens. The kind of image that stuck with you whether you wanted it to or not.
"Welcome back, Chase."
A light fragrance reached him just before the voice. He turned.
Mira had finished with the stamping and came over wearing her usual calm smile.
"Did Dark Magician Girl come back with you?"
Gajeel, in the end, had gone with the same placement as the original story. Left biceps, prominent, clearly visible. His reasoning, stated very firmly, was that the Fire Dragon's emblem was on the right arm, so obviously his had to go on the left.
"She's in the middle of a training block under Black Magician," Chase said. "A few more days, probably."
"That must be tough going." Mira looked mildly disappointed.
"On another note." Chase tilted his head toward the second floor. "S-Class requests are open again, right?"
Up on the railing, Cana was leaning in a way that was objectively very easy on the eyes, a drink already in hand, looking entirely comfortable with herself. The older guild members nearby were somehow paying no attention at all.
"They are," Mira said, following his gaze upward. She pressed one finger lightly to the side of her face. "The guild master also removed the restriction on the second floor entirely, so anyone can come up. Though taking on S-Class requests still requires an S-Class mage on the team."
"Got it."
"There are actually a few interesting new requests sitting up there right now, Chase. Want to take a look?"
Mira knew exactly how restless he'd been lately. Sitting still for this long was practically making him rust.
"Give it a little more time. The new house should be done in the next day or two, and the Harvest Festival isn't far off."
Chase had no real interest in heading out right now. S-Class requests varied wildly in terms of how long they took. A clean, straightforward one could be wrapped up in two or three days. But if the situation on the ground was unclear, if the target needed tracking or the information was thin, it stretched out considerably. The Ten-Year Quest had run close to a full year.
If he happened to pick up something like that now, he'd miss the Harvest Festival entirely. And the Harvest Festival had something very specific on its schedule that he was not going to miss: the chance to properly sort out Laxus.
"That's fair." Mira smiled, something quietly warm in her eyes. "Once the guild business settles down, let's go look at the new house together."
"Works for me."
Mira turned and went back to work, dedicating herself to the remaining details of the guild's completion with the same steady focus she brought to everything.
Chase exchanged a few more words with Juvia, then drifted off to explore the new building at his own pace. There wasn't much on his agenda for the rest of the afternoon.
Time passed easily, and by mid-afternoon the first sign of the returning vacation group came through the main entrance as noise.
"Wow! I can't believe they got the whole renovation done in just two days!"
Lucy stood at the entrance looking around the guild with wide eyes, genuinely impressed by how much had changed.
"Aye! That's really fast!" Happy added.
"It is a bit more than I expected," Erza said, propping her chin in one hand, studying the layout with the seriousness she applied to most things.
"There's even a whole little commercial strip out front now," Gray said, turning a small figure over in his hands. It was a Lucy figurine. Marcus had given it to him as a bonus after making a very comfortable profit off Chase earlier.
Gray looked at it for a moment, then pressed the button on the back.
A small sound effect played. The figure's clothes split open cleanly.
"WHY DO YOU HAVE THAT THING?!"
Lucy snatched it out of his hands.
"It feels strange being back," Natsu said, frowning at the new walls and new furniture and new everything. "Like, I know everyone, but something's off. It doesn't feel like the old place."
"You brats." Makarov walked over with Juvia at his side. "Good vacation?"
The strongest team's expressions went rigid in unison.
Setting aside the destruction charges from Natsu and Gray's fighting, the trip had been technically pleasant. Comfortable, even. Mentioning that right now seemed unwise.
"Ha ha ha." Makarov read their faces perfectly. "Sounds like it was eventful. Come on, I'll introduce you to the new members."
Natsu came back to life immediately. "Hey, old man! Who's the other person besides Juvia?!"
He was already moving. Erza, Gray, Lucy, and Happy followed.
"You'll recognize them. Have a look."
They followed Makarov's gaze to a corner of the guild where someone was sitting alone, methodically chewing on a piece of iron.
Gajeel looked up.
"WHAT, IT'S THAT GUY?!" Natsu stared in genuine disbelief.
Lucy, Happy, and Gray all stopped moving at the same time. Even Erza's brow drew in.
Juvia had been easy to accept, even before it was official. What she'd done and what Gajeel had done were in completely different categories. Destroying the guild, going after Shadow Gear, that left a mark. This was a ticking issue, the kind that could blow up at any moment.
Still, because the worst of it hadn't actually landed on their people this time, they weren't at the point of flat refusal like in the original story. It was tense, not hostile.
"You got a problem, Fire Dragon?"
Gajeel set down the iron and looked at Natsu with his arms crossed and his expression doing the thing it always did.
"If I wasn't looking for steady work, you think I'd be in the same guild as you by choice?"
"THAT'S IT, LET'S GO RIGHT NOW!" Natsu's sleeves were already rolled up.
Gajeel had only just joined. He knew exactly how that calculation worked. He pressed his lips together, looked away, and sat back down. Letting it escalate further would not end well for him.
Natsu was still wound up, still looking for somewhere to put it, when the whole guild went dark.
Not gradually. All at once.
A single beam of light cut through the darkness onto the center stage. The curtain drew open. Mira was sitting there with a guitar in her lap, the strings catching the light. A small winged chick floated in front of her, shaped into a microphone.
"To welcome back the strongest team and celebrate the completion of our new home," Mira said, her smile reaching all the way to her eyes, "let me sing something for everyone."
She adjusted the guitar, tested the mic, and looked out at the room.
"MIRA'S SINGING?!"
"That outfit, Mira-chan!"
The old guard practically fell over themselves cheering. The Gajeel situation, the Natsu situation, all of it evaporated instantly. Even Natsu forgot what he'd been fired up about and dropped into his seat.
The whole guild went quiet. Not the uncomfortable kind of quiet. The waiting kind.
Mira's fingers found the strings.
"Gently touching the table where I can't find your face..."
"Shadows fall low, and today I'm alone again..."
The melody moved through the new guild hall slowly, filling the space. People who had been ready to fight thirty seconds ago sat with their drinks and said nothing, just listening.
Chase, however, was not among them.
The moment Mira had floated the idea of a performance, something had come to him. He had a thought about the Harvest Festival's Magical Parade program, about a particular kind of surprise, and he wanted to start working on it now while the idea was fresh.
Backstage, in the space behind the stage, Chase had Dark Magician Girl and a handful of other summoned card monsters gathered around him. They were tuning instruments together, quietly, while Mira's voice carried through the thin curtain from the other side.
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