Synopsis:
After a page brief re-cap of how she got into this situation, Lucy is
shown to still be inside of Horologium back in the Balkan's lair, as
it hyperly dances around her. It still seems happy to have a woman,
when suddenly Horologium disappears saying that time was up, and
leaves Lucy alone with the monster.
Before
Balkan can do anything to her, Natsu runs in and demands to know
where Macau is. Lucy wonders if Macau is even still alive. Balkan
convinces Natsu to come look where he's pointing, only to then push
him out a hole in the side of his mountain hideout, sending him
plummeting down to his death, as Balkan says that he likes women, not
a man like Natsu. Lucy freaks out that Natsu must be dead, and turns
on Balkan by summoning the most powerful spirit in her service -
Taurus, a giant minotaur with an even bigger axe. While he's her most
powerful servant however, he's also a pervert who compliments her on
her boobs. Balkan says for Taurus not to take his woman, and the
minotaur turns on him saying he should say 'my boobs' instead of 'my
woman'. He then rushes in to attack Balkan at Lucy's command, when
Natsu re-appears at the hole he was pushed out of, and attacks Taurus
thinking that it's a second monster now.
Lucy
asks Natsu how he even survived the fall, and he says it was thanks
to Happy and his wings. Lucy then points out that Natsu seems to have
no problem flying with happy, saying that that counts as
transportation, but Natsu stubbornly insists that it's not, because
Happy is his friend. As Balkan rushes him from behind, Natsu insists
that everyone in Fairy Tail are friends, and that's why he's taking
Macau home, and attacks Balkan once more. Balkan tries to attack by
throwing icicles at Natsu, but Natsu's fire powers make them ineffective. Balkan finds Taurus' axe however, and begins to attack
him with that as Lucy desperately tries to wake Taurus up and make
him go back so that the axe will disappear too.
Meanwhile,
Natsu has caught the axe as it was swung down towards his head, and
caused his hands to heat up enough on the blade to make a small piece
of the blade melt off into his mouth. He then chews that up and spits
it out at Balkan's face before attacking him with the 'Iron Fist of
the Salamander', which sends the beast flying away in defeat.
Lucy
points out that they were supposed to find out what it did with Macau
first, but now that the beast is unconscious, they appear to be out of
luck - until Balkan begins to change, turning back into a human -
Macau. Happy says that he must have been taken over by some magic
that the Balkan had. The hole in the wall that was caused when the
Balkan crashed into it is large enough for the smaller Macau to fall
through, so Natsu rushes forward to grab Macau's leg while Happy
grabs his own, and then Lucy grabs Happy's tail, to stop them from
falling. The weight is too much for Lucy however, but thankfully
Taurus has awoken and rushes forward to help her pull everyone back
up.
Macau's
body is revealed to be severely wounded from his own fights with the
Balkan earlier, and Happy says that apparently Balkans are monsters
who survive by taking over human bodies. Lucy doesn't have anything
good enough in her medical kit to fix Macau's wounds, so Natsu uses
some of his fire to cauterize the wound while screaming to Macau that
he has to hang on for Romeo's sake.
Once
Macau regains consciousness, he explains that there had been 20
Balkans, and while he took out 19 of them, the 20th got the better of
him and took him over. Lucy is amazed that he took out that many
creatures on his own when it was all she could do to help Natsu take
down even one, and realizes that she's no match for either of them.
Later,
the gang returns to the town with Macau in tow, much to Romeo's
delight. Romeo remembers how this all started with some other kids
teasing him about how lame it was that his dad was a mage, and he'd
begged his father to 'do something great' so that he wouldn't be
teased anymore. He apologizes to his father for what he asked, while
Macau apologizes for making him worry. He then tells him that the
next time those brats tease him, he should ask if their dads can take
out 19 monsters by themselves. Romeo happily waves goodbye to Natsu,
Lucy, and Happy, and thanks them all. Lucy notes to herself that
while Fairy Tail is a crazy guild, it's also a fun and kind one; and
that while she's still a rookie, she's going to enjoy being a member
of Fairy Tail.
Thoughts:
First off, you'll notice that my description of the chapter, though
still long, is much more compact than before. This is partially due
to the chapter having a lot of battle scenes and getting less pages,
but I'm also trying to be as brief as possible now rather than giving
you every single detail.
This
chapter picked up exactly where the last one left off, and unless I
missed something, it's the first mention we've had of Lucy's summons
having a 'time limit'. It'd make sense, but I wonder what that's
regulated by. Is it a token thing that has to do with them all, or is
it dependent on how strong she is? She mentions at the end that she's
still a rookie, so once she gets stronger, would she be able to keep
them summoned longer I wonder?
The
stuff with the Balkan being somewhat pervertedly interested in Lucy
amused me, but I wonder where that's really coming from here. Is it
part of the Balkan's nature for some reason, or...is it coming from
Macau? We didn't really get to see much of what he's like, so maybe
he's somewhat perverted and that bled through in his Balkan form?
I'll be interested to see more of him, if we do, to figure this out.
And if it's not because of Macau himself, I wonder if it's a
reference to the old myth that apes would go after women? I'm unsure
if Japanese would be aware of this old myth or not though.
I'm
still really not sure where to place Natsu on a scale of
intelligence. He's able to keep track of what he needs to be doing so
long as he doesn't get so into a fight that he forgets
everything...but he essentially falls for the 'look over there'
trick, and that's the oldest one in the book.
I
describe Taurus as a minotaur since that's really what he is, but
just for reference's sake, he seems to have humanoid feet (he's
wearing boots) rather than hooves, as well as having human hands. His
coloring seems to suggest a more traditional black and white cow too,
especially with the nose ring and the bell around his neck. And I
love that he turns out to be a huge pervert. These spirits having
distinct personalities rather than just being things that Lucy
summons and they fight her battles for her and do nothing else, is a
great decision on Mashima's part.
And
yes, I got a big laugh out of the 'my boobs' debacle. It may be
sexist, but it's also funny as hell.
Lucy
also describes Taurus as her strongest spirit, but he's easily taken
out by one kick from Natsu, causing Lucy to call him weak. Just
looking at him though, I'm guessing that he actually is pretty tough,
and Natsu is just that much tougher - and he does get a pretty cheap
shot in.
The
Balkan picking up and using Taurus' axe is a great use of what he's
got going on in this chapter by Mashima, and was a fun way to mix up
what is technically our third go-around with Natsu fighting the
thing. As far as Natsu eating part of the axe and then attacking with
the chewed up part goes - I loved it. I do have to wonder about his
'Iron Fist of Salamander' attack though. Is that a regular move that
he would be able to do anyway, or is it somehow tied to his eating of
metal?
The
chapter makes it a point to raise the question of whether Macau is
even alive or dead, but I had a hunch he was alive all along. We're
only three chapters into this thing so far, and the death of a father
character (which we know is juxtaposed with Natsu's own back-story),
would have been a little morbid for such a goofy story. That said
though, I didn't see the fact that he WAS Balkan coming for some
reason. Looking back, it seems like the obvious choice, because if
this creature only likes human women, why would he be keeping Macau
around anywhere at all?
I
hope this doesn't come across as me being too cynical or hating the
character, but I really liked Lucy's ineffectiveness as a whole in
this chapter, along with her realizing that she's nowhere near as
good as either Natsu or Macau. I'm still a little irked by how easily
she was let into the guild, but now that she clearly knows she's got
a long way to go, I'm a little more at ease about where she'll be
going as a character. She'll have to become stronger to be a helpful
member of the guild.
I
didn't guess about the reason Macau had gone into the mountains
either. I'd just assumed he took a mission (which I'm assuming he
still did) routinely like how Natsu had been about to do before. That
makes me wonder what Macau usually does if it's not stuff like this.
The kids tease Romeo about mages being a bunch of cowardly drunks -
the latter of which I could see as being arguable - but given the
jobs they usually take...I dunno. This whole part seems like a cheap
way to tag a little more emotion to the ending of this storyline.
I'll forgive it simply because of how awesome Macau's line about
telling those kids to stuff it is.
Moving
forward, most of my predictions now are for things that probably
won't be answered for some time, but let's see...I think there's more
to Makarov than meets the eye. There's some deeper back-story for
Mirajane, perhaps providing an explanation for why she is the way she
is. Igneel is either dead or captured. And...someone at Fairy Tail
will turn out to be a traitor, either to another guild, or to the
Council. As for stuff coming in the next chapter, I'm not predicting
anything more than Natsu getting to fight Balkan, and finding out
what happened to Macau one way or another.
My
long-term predictions aside, I was dead right about Natsu fighting
the Balkan (how could I not be?) and finding out what happened to
Macau. I didn't really think too hard on those predictions or I would
have come up with some deeper theories on both and been proven wrong
no doubt.
I
really don't know what I can predict for the next chapter since we're
about to move into another storyline probably, so I'll only make one
- we'll see another new summon from Lucy. I don't know how many of
these keys she has so far, but so far we've gotten one summon a
chapter, and I don't see that trend stopping just yet.
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