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Wheels of Fire	By : Rhov Category: +. to F > Fairy Tail Views: 22712 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail is the property of Hiro Mashima. I make no money, I just do this for my own pleasure.

Chapter List
- 28
- 29
- 30
A/N: For present day readers, please realize that this chapter was written in 2014. Many things have happened in the manga between then and now.
Cat Goliath gave me the idea that Edo-Igneel might have retired from race car driving to become a glassblower, and since I love watching glassblowers at work, I simply had to use that idea.
If you want to know what Edo-Igneel looks like, years ago I drew a (really ugly and crappy) picture for a DeviantArt contest that could either be old-Natsu or Edo-Igneel (although in my pic he's wearing the scarf, but whatever).

http://fav.me/d5dan9v

Chapter 29

Igneel

Natsu followed a familiar scent. It was not totally the same. There was a smell of grease and sand mixed with it, less char and sulfur. However, the underlying smell was unmistakable. This was definitely Igneel's scent.
He saw a cabin up ahead in the Edolas desert, a strange building that appeared to be made from glass bottles and clay. To the side was a shed, and Natsu heard humming from there, as well as the unmistakable sound of a roaring fire. The air grew hotter as Natsu slowly approached the shed.
"If you take a step closer, you'll die. I'm not joking."
Natsu froze mid-step and slowly put his foot back in place. Igneel also used to set up traps around his cave to stop people from reaching their home, although none of his would have killed a person, just scorched them a little.
Soon, a man rounded the corner, and Natsu's mouth dropped. If ever he had wanted to know how he might look in another thirty years, this man was it. He had the same sharp green eyes and wild pink hair, but there were silver strands at the temples. His stubble was gray, he had creases around his eyes, and a scar ran down one eye and across the upper cheek. Otherwise, to Natsu, it was like looking at himself from the future.
The man's eyes narrowed. "Natsu?" he whispered. When he grinned and roared out a laugh, there was no mistaking that this was Edolas' version of Igneel. He had the same laugh. "Natsu! Dear heavens, you've really grown. Okay, take three steps to the left, walk straight to the cactus, sharp right and walk to the blue rock, then … oh, you should know how I set up my traps!" he chuckled nostalgically.
"Who can remember that far back?" Natsu muttered, but he saw the boot prints in the sand and followed those, weaving through what he assumed were booby traps. Finally, he made it to the shed. "Are you … really … Igneel?"
"What are you saying?" the man laughed, and he grabbed Natsu into a crushing hug. "Don't you recognize your old man?"
"Well, you see…"
"Come here, come here," he urged, pulling Natsu into the shed. "After magic went away, I couldn't drive, and I had to make money somehow. Remember that weirdo glassblower we swindled? Well, I still had his old equipment. Doesn't take any magic, but it's hard work. Anyway, I started making these." He held up a perfectly round glass ball. "Pretty, right? I call them Dragon Pearls."
Natsu jolted. "Dragon?"
"They're filled with a special gas. Set them out in the sun, they charge up, and when night comes, these babies glow as bright as the old lacrima bulbs used to. This is high science, breakthrough technology in the harnessing of chemical compounds, and guaranteed to last a lifetime. They're in high demand. Large corporations have bought them by the hundreds to light up their buildings that went dark after magic vanished."
"Wow!" Natsu cried out, holding up a glass globe. "They really work?"
"Of course not," Edo-Igneel laughed. "Sheesh, even you fell for that lame sales pitch? You should know me better than that. Science!" he laughed. "Like I know the first thing about chemistry. I made a killing selling these Dragon Pearls with that same sales pitch."
"Then … they don't light up?"
"Sure they do, for a while. The gas works fine for one month. Then it runs out. By then, I'm long gone and the customers have nothing more than a pretty glass ball that cost them a month's paycheck. The scam worked for a while. Really made a fortune in Royal City. The king himself bought a thousand of these, wiped out my stock, could've set me for life, but of course I blew the money betting on tanchimo races. Then after the month was up, the city went black. Caused some accidents when the lights went out, and the gas inside is actually poisonous, so when people got mad and smashed their Dragon Pearls … well, lots of people died. I heard King Jellal put a price on my head." He laughed at the idea of being an outlaw. "What money I didn't lose in betting, I had to use for paying off soldiers."
Natsu was shocked. "The gas is poisonous?" he cried out.
"Yeah, makes handling them a pain in the ass," he admitted. "I built up a slight tolerance, but I almost died once when a crate crashed. Mostly I sell to small towns now. They'll buy them, and then I move on before the lights go out."
"You're spreading poison all over Edolas!" Natsu shouted.
Igneel folded his arms and glared down at him coldly. "So?"
"So?" Natsu bellowed.
"You've really changed, Natsu. You were never a loud-mouth like this."
"I'm not your Natsu." He sighed as he realized this would take a while. "Look, your son and I are like twins but from other dimensions. We got switched. I'm trying to find my way back."
"Another dimension?" he asked in shock. "Were you in a car accident and hit your head?"
"No! Look, it's a long story. Anyway, I heard about you from some guys in a town. My Igneel … well … he vanished when I was a kid."
"Yeah, I up and left too. Always regretted leaving that brat. So, you're not Natsu?"
"My name is Natsu Dragneel, son of Igneel, King of the Flame Dragons."
Igneel's mouth dropped. "What … the…? A king? A … a dragon?" He laughed loudly. Natsu had to smile. It was Igneel's laugh, a sound he had missed for so long. "I'm a goddamn dragon in some alternate dimension? Hell, I was born in the wrong place. So, are you a dragon?"
"I'm adopted. Igneel took me in."
"Huh! Sounds familiar."
Natsu's eyes widened. "That delivery boy driver isn't really your son? But you look just like me … him … us … whatever."
"Well," Igneel said awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. "You see, I had a cousin who looked just like me. People said we were twins. We were really close too. We'd pull pranks on our parents. Even they couldn't tell us apart. He died just before the girl he knocked up had his baby. He asked me to raise the brat. Well, I don't care much for kids, but his girlfriend was hot as hell. Of course I took her in. I figured I'd get some wild sex once she got over having that baby. I did for a while, too. She was one fiery mama!" he laughed lewdly. "Then one day, she up and left. I had no clue what to do with the brat. I had planned to dump him somewhere, but the bitch went to the army and ratted me out about some minor yakuza work I was involved in. I was surrounded, they were going to shoot, and I used the boy as a shield. They let me go, said they couldn't risk shooting a child. I realized the brat had some use to him. I took him along on heists, and if things got dicey, he was my ticket out."
"You used Edo-Me as a human shield?" Natsu raged.
"Why not? He made a good lookout too. Then it turned out he had a knack for building car engines. His turbo engine saved my butt more than once, and we made a killing on the racetracks. I wouldn't have minded keeping him around, but I had to flee once, and he was gone by the time I got back to fetch him. I heard he joined some dark guild. Fairy Ass?"
"Fairy Tail," Natsu shouted angrily.
"Yeah, knew it was some gay name," he said with a laugh, and Natsu's fists clenched. "I miss the brat, though. He was fun to have around. He called me Dad, which I thought was cute as hell. After a while, I really did think of him as my own son. He was brilliant, he really was. He deserves to have a much better life than anything I could have given him. But while it lasted … damn me, but I loved that brat. I really miss him at times. It's just not as fun being alone like this. He made my life … meaningful."
Natsu's anger at the man subsided slightly, hearing the loneliness in his voice.
Edo-Igneel picked up one of his glass globes. "I often wonder, if I had made it back to him soon enough, if I had never left him behind, if we had stayed together all these years, what sort of man would he have grown up to become?" He glanced over to Natsu. "It's really freaky, because you look exactly how I remember my cousin. I mean, exactly! Even the white scarf."
"The scarf?" Natsu asked. "The scarf belonged to … to Edo-Me's real dad?" He wondered if that meant this scarf belonged to his own birth father.
"He always wore that white scarf."
Natsu smiled and reached up to his scaly muffler. "It must have been very precious to him. I'm sure he probably wanted his son to have it."
"Are you kidding?" Igneel scoffed. "I burned the damn thing just after his funeral. I always hated that scarf."
"You what?" he screamed. "You burned the scarf?"
"It was seriously annoying," Igneel complained in a whiny voice. "He wore it everywhere, even in the summer. And since everyone knew that he never went anywhere without the stupid scarf, when we'd switch places, that meant that I had to wear the blasted thing. It seriously stank!"
Natsu grabbed his own scarf. "This scarf is precious. Igneel gave it to me. My Igneel. This is my treasure."
Igneel scratched his nose. "You sound as annoying as my cousin did. Sheesh, if you're that hung up over a stupid scarf, I'm glad I burned it. If Natsu had been like you about that damn thing, I would have ditched the kid up in the mountains, where he'd actually need a scarf."
"You are nothing like my Igneel," Natsu shouted.
"No shit! Your stepdad was a fucking dragon king, whereas I'm a retired race car driver stuck in Butt-Fuck Edolas making glass balls for a living. And it ain't much of a living. I have to keep robbing stupid hicks just to get money for the gas I use in these Dragon Pearls."
"A poisonous gas! I should smash every one of these," Natsu sneered.
"Do that, and we'd both die from the poison. I'm not joking. Break all of them and it'd probably also kill everyone in twenty leagues."
Natsu realized that would include Grimoire Heart and the people in that peaceful town. As much as he did not want this poison spread around, he could not think of a way to get rid of it. Natsu decided he should probably go back to Precht and tell them about Igneel and the poison. As much as he hated the idea of turning in his father's alternate self, he had to tell himself, this man was not Igneel. This was the polar opposite to the dragon who raised him as his son.
Natsu shook his head at just how disappointed he was to find out Edo-Igneel was such a horrible man. "Sheesh, I don't even know why I came here."
"I'm wondering the same," Igneel said, flicking off a booger he picked out of his nose. "I mean, it's nice to know that brat is still alive, although apparently he's in some other universe. Maybe that's for the best. Edolas is one fucked up world. If he can stay there, he probably should."
Suddenly, both of them heard an explosion outside.
"Bluenote!"
Natsu recognized Zancrow's voice. He ran outside and saw Kain, Zoldeo, Rustyrose, Asuma, old Precht, and flirty Zancrow gathered around Bluenote, who had stepped on one of the traps and was holding a bleeding leg.
"You guys!" Natsu gasped.
Precht stepped forward. "Sorry for following you, kid. I know he's your dad…"
"Well, actually…"
"… but a thief is a thief, and we have to protect our town. People like Igneel are just asking for trouble. His sort brings riffraff around, and we don't need that."
Zancrow waved to Natsu. "Hi, cutey."
Natsu cringed back. "Oh God, you again."
Meanwhile, Zoldeo had sneaked around a back way. He just wanted to find the money that had been stolen. He found a familiar looking bag and picked it up.
"Hey!" Natsu yelled. "That's Igneel's!"
He aimed a punch at Zoldeo. The skittish man scampered away with the bag, but Natsu kicked him in the back, leaped on top, cranked one of Zoldeo's arms back, and pinned him.
"Nice moves, kid," Igneel said, twirling a Dragon Pearl in his hands. "You're a pretty good fighter."
Natsu smiled up at him. That praise felt wonderful, being spoked with his father's voice. Even if this man was human, it was still Igneel's voice.
"This money," Zoldeo said, cringing in pain. "It's mine. He stole it."
Natsu's hold loosened. He remembered now, Zoldeo and Kain had been tracking Igneel after he stole some things from Grimoire Heart. "Is it really yours?"
"Yes," he hissed, still in pain from the kick. "He … he stole it. Stole food from Precht too. He's a rotten thief!"
Natsu glanced over to Igneel, who was gazing around the edge of the shed, while outside he heard Precht shouting orders and apparently the group found the footsteps that led them through the obstacles.
"Kid," Igneel said in a deep voice, staying back but glancing at the approaching group. "Are you friends with them?"
"Not really."
"Good." He suddenly leaped out from around the shed wall and hurled the glass ball he had been holding at the members of Grimoire Heart.
"No!" Natsu yelled. He let go of Zoldeo and scrambled forward. "What the hell are you doing, bastard?"
Zancrow watched the ball with fascination. "Pretty!" he whispered.
Natsu stared at the ball in horror. "Watch out, they're filled with poison!"
Kain ran forward, and he caught the glass ball before it could crash into the ground and shatter in front of Zancrow. "Poison, huh?" Carefully, he set the Dragon Pearl down. "I heard stories of small towns being wiped out from a mysterious poisonous gas."
Zancrow's eyes lit up at Natsu. "Darling! You saved me!"
"So, this is the culprit," Kain shouted boisterously. "This now goes far beyond mere theft. You, sir," the pale man said, pointing a dramatic finger at Igneel, "are charged with mass murder."
"Fuck off," Igneel sneered, and he threw another glass ball.
This time, Natsu leaped and caught it before it had time to fly far. "Stop that right now!"
Igneel glared hard at him. "Now I know for sure you're not my Natsu. He'd never go against me. You said you're from another dimension or something, right?"
"Yeah, from Earthland."
"Then this ain't your fight. I won't kill you, since you look like my boy, but if anyone gets in my way, even if you were the real Natsu Dragion, I'd kill you."
Natsu stared in horror as that voice, the voice of Igneel which just a moment ago had praised him, now threatened him like that. "No way," Natsu whispered as his eyes began to burn with sadness. "Igneel … would never…"
"I'm obviously not your Igneel. My Natsu knows not to mess with me, and you better learn the same. Now, fuck off, kid. Get out of here. It's gonna get bloody."
Bluenote pulled himself up, still bleeding from the leg wound, but the pain sobered him up. "Kain," he said, and the pale, thin man was instantly at his side.
"Justice must be served," Kain said with a dire gaze at the shed.
"Rustyrose, Asuma: flank him. Zancrow, Precht: try to get that kid out." He pulled out a rifle. "If I get a clean shot, I'm taking it, but I don't want to hit the kid or Zoldeo."
The old man stroked his beard and chuckled. "Bluenote, you haven't sounded this serious in years."
Bluenote took a shot. Igneel threw another glass ball at them. This time, it shattered, and Bluenote began to cough. He backed away as the poison burned his lungs.
"Don't inhale it!" he shouted, grabbing his throat.
Zancrow and Precht sneaked around the back and made it into the shed while Igneel was busy with Bluenote, Kain, Rustyrose, and Asuma.
Zancrow called out softly. "Darling?"
Natsu looked over in disgust. "Seriously, don't call me that."
The blond still held his hand out. "Let's get out of here. Please, darling."
Natsu looked back again as he heard Igneel shout as the bullet grazed his shoulder.
"Kid!" Precht called out. "Whose side are you on: the side of the law, or that criminal who claims to be your father?"
Natsu looked again to Edo-Igneel in anguish. It really was like looking at an older version of himself. The resemblance was unnerving. Then he looked out at the group slowly encircling the shed.
"Listen," Precht said softly. "Even if this man is your father, someone as evil as Igneel cannot be left running around. People will die. We can't let this world fall into such darkness.
Natsu shook his head. It made no sense. Igneel was killing people? He did not understand. Igneel would never be evil.
"Dammit!" Igneel yelled. "Natsu, fight them off. If I can just get to the house…"
"Are you gonna use me as a shield, like you used Edo-Me?" Natsu asked bitterly.
"Look, maybe I'm not your father, but I'm the guy your other self sees as a father. Respect how he would treat me."
Natsu watched as Precht came closer. He could pretend this was the same Hades from Earthland, the same Grimoire Heart who hurt his friends; however, all he saw in this man's single eye was sadness and kindness. Precht offered a hand, begging silently with a hopeful expression. Natsu clenched his teeth and looked aside. He could not bring himself to punch the old man.
"How Edo-Me would treat you?" Natsu whispered, and he glared at Igneel. "If I was him, I'd be ashamed of you. You have no right to the title of Dad."
"Damn brat."
It was Igneel's voice, but the man in front of him was not his father at all.
"What should I do, Precht?" Natsu asked, glaring at the older pink-haired man.
"We need to stop him without any more of these glass balls breaking. Asuma is shooting too wildly. He might hit a wall and shoot one of the balls. If you can…"
Igneel turned at them in anger and threw a dagger at Natsu. In a flash, Zancrow leaped in the way with his arms out protectively. The knife embedded into his shoulder, but he only groaned softly at the pain.
"Zancrow!" Natsu cried out. "You … you saved me?" He was utterly stunned, remembering how violently the Earthland version had fought against him.
Blood dripped thickly down his arm. "Of course I'll protect you … with my body, darling."
Natsu cringed. "Please, just call me Natsu."
His eyes lit up. "Really? Can I?"
"Beats that other word," Natsu grumbled. Then his focus went back to Igneel. "I can't believe he tried to kill me."
"It's sad, where darkness can lead a person," Precht said sagely.
"Precht!" Zoldeo called out. "I got the money. If we can just catch him…"
"You bastard!" Igneel bellowed. "No one takes what's mine!" He grabbed a brass push off the furnace he used for glass blowing and hurled it like a javelin. The hot, brassy tip slammed into Zoldeo's chest and impaled him with glowing metal.
"Zoldeo!" Precht shouted in horror.
"No!" Zancrow screamed.
The bug-eyed man gasped as he slowly fell to his knees, then collapsed over.
"Zoldeo!" Zancrow yelled. He raced over to his fallen teammate.
Precht grabbed Natsu's arm. "We need to regroup. Fight with us, kid."
Edo-Igneel began to laugh. "Wow, I haven't had this much fun in ages."
"You … you killed him," Natsu said in shock as blood puddled over the ground around Zoldeo's stabbed body. "You killed him. Igneel … he would never … he … he loved humans." Natsu glared at the man with his father's voice. "Why?" he screamed in outrage.
"Che! Why?" Igneel asked back. "Why the hell not? You know how much I despise people. Or, I guess you don't know, huh? My Natsu knows." He grinned fiendishly. "I fuckin' hate people."
Zancrow hugged the limp body against him. "Zoldeo! No! This can't … it can't be…"
"Annoying," Igneel sneered.
Natsu saw him marching up to where Zancrow was knelt over Zoldeo's dead body. Although Precht was trying to pull Natsu out of the shed through a back door, Natsu saw the pink-haired man with a knife in his hand.
"Zancrow!" he screamed.
The blond looked up in confusion. "Natsu darling?"
"No!" he screamed.
Before Natsu could run forward, Igneel swung the blade down and stabbed Zancrow in the back. His red eyes went wide in shock. Again and again, Igneel stabbed him, laughing manically. Blood began to drip out of Zancrow's mouth.
"Na- … -tsu…" he whispered.
"You bastard," Natsu shrieked.
Zancrow smiled as blood gurgled past his lips. "You … really care … darling."
Igneel picked up a glass ball, testing it out in his hand. "You're a hard one to kill."
"Stop!" Natsu cried, struggling against Precht.
The old man had tears of grief streaming down his weathered face. "It's too late, kid."
"No!"
Igneel smashed the Dragon Pearl at Zancrow's feet and quickly moved away. A cloud of gas billowed up. Natsu covered his nose at the foul smell. He heard Zancrow scream and gargle. When the smoked cleared, he was collapsed with blood and foam coming out of his mouth from the poison.
Precht looked away in sickness. "Why? Zanny!" He shook his head. "You can get out, kid. Leave this to us. This man … this bastard … we can't let him get away alive, not after this. He's your father, so … so just go. Get on that tanchimo and don't stop riding until you reach the next town. Don't look back. Forget this man who was once your father. Promise me…"
Natsu heard shattering glass. Suddenly, billows of gas rose around him and Precht. As Natsu looked toward the entrance of the work shed, Edo-Igneel was glaring at him in disgust. The old man immediately began to cough. Natsu felt burning in his throat, but his Dragon Slayer lungs were different from a normal human. He grabbed Precht and leaped away, running out the back door and out into the desert sun.
The old man was coughing, and blood was already bubbling out of his mouth. Natsu raced away from the shed. His lungs burned, but he was less susceptible to the poisonous air, merely coughing with a searing pain in the back of his throat. He laid Precht outside against a large rock.
"Rest here, old man." He raised and faced the shed again. "This has gone too far." He marched back through the poisonous fog, holding his breath. Edo-Igneel was on the far side of the shed, still battling with the sharpshooters outside. "You disgrace my father, carrying his name, and Edo-Me's feelings. Dragneel, Dragion: it doesn't even matter anymore. You're human, and you … you're a disgrace to humans."
"Whatcha gonna do about it, brat?" Igneel chuckled. He bounced a Dragon Pearl in his hand. "Maybe one of these didn't kill you, but I've got a whole shed full of them."
"You'd kill yourself before you'd kill me. It seems like, as a Dragon Slayer, I'm not as affected by that poison, whereas you're just a normal human." He saw the members of Grimoire Heart nearing the shed cautiously. "Someone watch over the old man. Don't get near Igneel." His eyes narrowed. "I'll deal with him."
Kain nodded. "A son breaking from the sins of the father and doling out justice. How poetic! I should write a haiku about this."
"How's this one for you?" Natsu smirked.
"You are not my dad.
Disgrace to the name Igneel.
I'll kick your damn ass."
Kain hummed. "Not exactly traditional, but in this case … I like it."
Natsu glared at the older man. "You complimented me on my fighting. Let's see how good you are, fake-Dad."
Igneel threw a glass ball, but Natsu leaped through the gas, his fist raised and a roar of anger screaming out. He threw a punch, and Igneel dodged, stepping back and out into the sunlight. Natsu kept at him, while Igneel retreated, only barely escaping the enraged blows as he scurried back over the sand, ducking and twirling, barely keeping out of the way but unable to match Natsu's speed to counter his attacks.
Outside, Asuma raised his gun, but Bluenote put his hand over the barrel.
"You might hit the kid," he warned. "We don't want more innocent deaths."
Finally, Natsu's fist collided with Igneel's jaw. Then he got in a hit to his stomach, knocking the air out. Igneel stumbled back, trying to raise his hands.
"Natsu, son, come on."
"I'm not your son!" Natsu screamed, and he punched Igneel hard across the face. A tooth flew out with a spit of blood, and the pink-haired man collapsed unconscious to the ground. "Be glad I can't use my flames right now, you bastard. Then again, a sad excuse of a father like you doesn't deserve the honor of seeing a dragon's flame."
"Kain, cuff him," Bluenote shouted, still coughing from the tiny bit of poison he had inhaled.
Natsu ran back over to where Precht laid on the ground, propped against a rock. Although Rustyrose tried to get him to drink water, the old man was bleeding out of his mouth too heavily.
"Hades," Natsu whispered. He knelt down and held the old man's frail body. "Oy, are you okay?"
"Kid … Natsu," Precht said, smiling but looking ahead with eyes blinded from the poison. "I know already, you must be Natsu Dragion."
Natsu opened his mouth to protest, but he did not have a chance to tell him no.
"I'm glad," Precht went on with a faint smile, "to have seen for myself that you're still alive, and that you've left behind the dark guild. You … should live an honorable life." He smiled to himself. "Promise me that, Natsu. Don't fall back into the darkness. Live in the light. Promise … me."
Natsu rested his head against the bony shoulder. "I promise."
Precht smiled, but then his face went slack and his eyes closed. Natsu felt his body slump and sensed the chill of death. A tear dripped out for the man who had been kind to him.
Wiping his face, Natsu stood up and faced the rest of Grimoire Heart. Asuma was pulling out Zancrow's body, and Kain stood guard over Igneel, who was now in handcuffs.
"Well?" Natsu asked sternly, glaring at them. "Are you gonna try arresting me too?"
Bluenote walked up to him. "You're innocent in this. You tried to rescue Precht, and you warned us about the poison. Maybe you're this man's son," he said, nodding back to Igneel, "but you did no crime. You helped take down a very dangerous criminal."
"I'm also a member of Fairy Tail."
"You ran away from them, right?" Bluenote reasoned.
Rustyrose nodded in agreement. "You should go. Precht wanted you to live in the light, to have a second chance and find redemption. You can't do that if you're sitting in a jail cell."
"We'll be calling the royal guards to come get Igneel," Bluenote said. "If you really are a former member of Fairy Tail, you should not be here when they arrive. We promise not to say anything about you."
Then Asuma walked up and handed Natsu the bag of money Zoldeo was trying to get back. "You normally would get a reward for taking down a wanted criminal like Igneel Dragion. This isn't as much as you deserve, but take it."
"What? N-No!" Natsu cried out. "That guy, he … he died trying to get this back. I can't take it."
Kain chuckled softly. "Zoldeo won that money from me in a poker game, and he had been cheating, so it's fine. Cheaters never prosper. In Zoldeo's case, karma was just too harsh. The money won't do him good now anyway, and it would be too hard for me to take it back. Please, accept it in lieu of reward money, and as our thanks for bringing this man to justice."
"Precht would want you to have it," Bluenote said solemnly.
Natsu looked down at the bearded man, then over to Zancrow. "I'm really sorry."
"It's not your sin," Asuma said quietly. "If not for you, we might all have died. For that, thank you."
Still, Natsu felt bad. He accepted the bag of money, but he walked over to Zancrow. "You saved me. Thanks." He squeezed the cold, limp hand. "This version of you wasn't all that bad." The knife was still embedded in Zancrow's shoulder. Natsu pulled it out and wiped off the blood. "I'll keep this and remember you."
In sadness, he turned and went back to Yusō. He leaped up onto the tanchimo and rode off across the desert, away from Igneel's house and the reek of poison and death. He wiped a tear from his eyes and gnashed his teeth in anguish. He felt more homesick now than he had been since he first arrived in Edolas.
All Natsu wanted was to get home before anyone else around him died.
End of Chapter 29
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