I woke up violently, slamming my head into something hard and crashing into a wall.

  “Natsu!” someone yelled.

  Then, softer—almost worried, “Natsu!”

  My chest seized.

  Every heartbeat felt borrowed, as if my body hadn’t yet decided whether it was done with me.

  I groaned and rubbed my head. I wasn’t in the ocean—if I were, I’d be dead. I was in a narrow alleyway, stone walls rising high on either side, the kind that twisted through the lower districts of the capital where sunlight barely reached.

  I vomited blood onto the ground.

  The left side of my body screamed in protest—but underneath that pain, something was wrong.

  I was… intact.

  Bandages wrapped my torso and arm, crude and uneven, already stained through.

  I stared at them.

  I had a hole in my chest.

  Shouldn’t I be dead?

  “Hey!” someone shouted from the wall I’d hit. “Is that how you treat your friends or something?”

  A boy about seventeen pushed himself free from a pile of loose bricks. He had salmon-pink hair and a lean, muscular build, dressed in black-and-gold clothes uncomfortably similar to Salamander’s cloak. Just the sight of it made my fists clench.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Hey dude, are you brain-dead or something?” he yelled. “I’m talking to you!”

  “What the fuck is your problem?” I snapped back, the words coming out sharper than I meant.

  “Me and my good friend Happy here saved your sorry ass,” he shot back. “In the shape you were in, you were gonna die for sure.”

  My mind raced. Hole in the chest. Fire. Fall. Void.

  “How long was I out?” I demanded.

  He blinked. “How the hell would I know?”

  “…You seriously don’t know what is?” I asked incredulously.

  He stared at me like was the idiot.

  “Sorry about my friend,” a lighter, calmer voice said. “He’s not really all there.”

  I turned—

  —and froze.

  “Holy shit,” I said. “Is that a cat with wings?”

  “Now you notice?!” the blue cat shouted. “This is my flying magic! Pretty cool, right?”

  He turned his back proudly, showing off two small wings—definitely not birdlike.

  That was how I met Natsu DragneelHappy

  They didn’t give me answers. Not really.

  Only observations.

  They said my body went wild after the magic was torn out of it. Healing faster than it should. Faster than normal. Like something had flipped a switch and forgotten to turn it off.

  Before I could ask anything else—

  The air prickled.

  Every instinct I had screamed.

  “Get down—!” I shouted.

  A massive beam of light tore through the alley, pulverizing stone where we’d been standing a second earlier.

  I grabbed both of them and rolled us out into the street as the beam , carving a molten scar through the lower capital.

  “Oh shit!” Natsu yelled. “MOVE!”

  We ran.

  No plan. Just instinct.

  Then—

  A girl burst out of a manhole directly in front of us.

  Blonde hair, tied into a side ponytail with a dark blue bow.

  We collided and tumbled into the sewer entrance together.

  I landed on something soft.

  Too soft.

  She was already unconscious by the time Natsu and Happy piled on top of us.

  We scrambled free and ran again.

  The beam chased us relentlessly.

  Happy shoved something familiar into my hands.

  My pipe.

  “I think I have a plan,” I said, breath ragged.

  Natsu grinned. “Good!”

  He charged.

  I swung.

  The magic hit us like a wall.

  My body gave out.

  Darkness retook me.