Fairy Tail: The Dark Swordsman

80 - Team Shade

— Start of Penultimate Arc —

...

[X784, Three weeks later, Fairy Tail]

— Lucy Heartfilia —

A lot had changed in Fairy Tail.

Lucy paused near the entrance of the newly rebuilt guild, letting her gaze sweep across the familiar-yet-different sight before her. Sunlight streamed in through stained glass windows on the upper floors, casting soft kaleidoscope colors across the stone-tiled floor. It was busy, noisy, chaotic—but it was home.

Fairy Tail had always felt alive, but now... it breathed with renewed purpose.

"It's really something else," she murmured to herself, stepping inside.

The guild building had been completely redone after the chaos of the last few months—the whole lullaby mission, the Phantom war, and the Tower of Heaven. And yet, despite everything, they came out stronger.

Now the guild had four floors, each serving its own purpose. The first was still the heart and soul of everything: the bar, the job board, the clatter of mugs and boots and laughter. The second floor, once restricted to S-Class mages, was now open to everyone—filled with private booths, small reading nooks, and a balcony that overlooked the training yard. The third floor held the Master's office and a newly added planning hall. The topmost level, Lucy heard, was still under construction—a secret project Makarov hadn't even shared with Erza yet.

The basement had been converted into a reinforced indoor training space. The library, now located on the second floor, was three times its original size thanks to Levy's constant campaigning for new books. Max now manned the gift shop near the entrance, hawking branded Fairy Tail trinkets and "official" merchandise to tourists who passed by Magnolia.

Oh, and there was a pool.

That part still felt like a dream to Lucy. A proper, sparkling pool right by the lake. It was open to all guild members, and on hotter days it became a second base of operations, complete with floating drink trays and inflatable animals shaped like Happy. Somehow Cana had turned it into her new favorite drinking spot.

Lucy wandered further in, waving to Alzack and Bisca as they engaged in a pretty private small talk behind the bar, sidestepping Warren who was deep in some magical radio broadcast, and ducking as Nab stumbled by juggling two overflowing job request scrolls.

It was loud. It was chaotic. It was Fairy Tail.

She smiled.

It had been a busy three weeks after the whole debacle in the Tower of Heaven, but everything had turned out okay. Bickslow had recovered from his injuries, even if he had to go through two weeks worth of physical therapy. The Thunder God Tribe was now also a familiar face to see socializing in the halls of the guild, no longer do they disappear for months on end.

Lucy didn't understand it back then, but apparently Dannis was also a member of that team and had a major falling out with the other founder, Laxus.

It surprised her when she found out he was the master's grandson.

The moment they arrived back in Magnolia, Dannis and Laxus had walked away to a nearby clearing north of the lake. The master had said that Laxus and Dannis needed to straighten out their differences and settle old wounds, and there was no better way of doing so than fighting.

Natsu and a bunch of others wanted nothing more than to watch the fight. But all the S-Class mages had stood as a unit as they barred anyone from interfering.