BOOK 1 - Fairy Tail (Pirates) AU: The Curse of the Black Fairy

CHAPTER VIII: The High-Sea Chase

Natsu was taken to see Jose back at the treasure room. There, the entire crew gathered around and the captain just couldn't believe his eyes the moment he saw Natsu alive.

    "How the hell did you escape from that island?!" Jose asked Natsu.

    "Well... It's actually very simple, pal" Natsu replied. "You see... When you and these pieces of trash abandoned me to die on that tiny island, you all forgot a very important fact..." The pinkette smirked and proudly extended his arms. "I... am Natsu Dragneel... hehehe..."

    Jose grunted. "Yeah? Well... I'm not committing that same mistake with you again" Then, he turned around and ordered his men to kill the pinkette.

    "By the way, would you like to know why the curse didn't break?"

    Jose startled at that moment and ordered his crew to stop. "How could you possibly know that?"

    "Once again... very simple, buddy. My crew and I hid the last coin after all"

    Jose startled in anger again after hearing that. Then, he ordered his men to return to their ship immediately with Natsu as their new prisoner. It was time to chase after the group of sailors who dared to get in their way.

<<Back with Levy and Gray>>

    Both Levy and Gray reached the shore and waited for Natsu and Lucy to show up. But in the end, only Lucy came out of the cave. The trio then returned to the ship. The moment Lucy stepped into it, Erza and Happy approached.

"Welcome aboard. I assume you are Miss Heartfilia?" Erza said.

"Eh? Ah... Yeah..." Lucy replied.

"Hey, wait a sec!" Happy suddenly intervened. "Wh-where is Natsu?"

Lucy, Gray and Levy faced downwards with a troubled expression. "H-he... He sacrificed himself to save me"

Happy couldn't believe it. His best friend in life had stayed behind even though he promised he wouldn't. In addition, the pirates knew what the pirate code demanded them to do in that sort of situation. Therefore, they all immediately went to their positions and prepared to sail out of there as fast as they could.

"Hey! Wait! Where are you going?! Aren't you gonna save him?! Your friend is in trouble!"

"We are just following the code" Erza replied firmly. Even though she certainly seemed troubled for abandoning her pinkette friend on that hellish island.

Lucy too couldn't understand how a ridiculous rule written on an old book that probably didn't exist anymore was way more important than Natsu's life. However, she didn't have any say in this at all given that she wasn't even a pirate in the first place.

And so, the whole crew finally departed from that horrible place.

<<A few hours later at the Black Phantom>>

The crew of cursed pirates had finally departed as well. They were planning to catch up with the idiots who dared to steal the last piece of the treasure that was needed, and then kill them. Also, Natsu had been imprisoned in one of the Phantom's many cells. However, he startled the moment he met with Gajeel there, who was also imprisoned.

"Gajeel? What are you doing here?" Natsu asked.

"I... I couldn't, Salamander" Gajeel replied with his head down. "I just couldn't continue, knowing she was the enemy"

Natsu understood what Gajeel was talking about. The boy with piercings was imprisoned for betraying Jose and his crew. After all, he refused to kill Levy before, and then attacked his ex-comrades. "So you still have a weakness for her, huh?"