"Aaah, I'm starving!" Ace shouted dramatically as he floated alone on a battered raft.
He had just left his village, full of dreams, with Kara's letter of recommendation safely tucked in his clothes. His goal: to join the bounty hunter guild and become a legend.
But a treacherous storm had caught him mid-journey. All his food ended up sinking to the depths of the sea, floating away like a cruel reminder of what he no longer had. He only had one apple left, his most precious treasure, reserved solely for the moment right before dying. And to be honest… he was almost there.
Now, lying like a glorious corpse, he waited for a miracle.
"Uuuh… I see lights… is that Paradise? Why is there a goat riding a dolphin…?" he whispered deliriously.
Then, as if the universe had heard him, a female voice cut through the silence:
"Hoo, looks like I found a runaway little bird."
Ace's eyes shot open. He lifted his head with effort and blinked several times. Sitting on the raft like she was on a picnic was Kara, his older sister. Her cape waved epically in the wind, and in her hand she held… an apple.
His apple.
"AAAAH, MY APPLE!!" Ace screamed, sitting up like a spring. But the motion was too much for his famished body: he got dizzy and collapsed face-first onto the raft.
"Low blood sugar or what?" Kara asked, still munching on her prize, eyeing her brother with curiosity.
"My… apple…" Ace said in a faint voice, tears in his eyes, staring at the fruit like a castaway stares at a floating burger.
"Ah, I see," Kara replied while examining the apple. "Seems like you really like fruit."
"THEN WHY DID YOU EAT IT!?" Ace burst out with sudden energy before fainting again.
"So dramatic… I just came to make sure you don't die before getting to the guild. Issho and Pale need some help, and well… Koki's useless, not even good for casting a shadow," Kara said, sticking a finger in her ear without a care in the world.
"If I die, it'll be your fault!" Ace yelled, pointing at her in rage… and hunger.
"Yeah, yeah… I think I have some fruit around here," Kara said, as if it were a huge favor. She reached into her spatial storage and pulled out an old, dusty bag covered in cobwebs.
"How long have you had that…?" Ace asked, doubtful.
"Since I went to Skypiea… like twelve years ago. Haven't touched it since then." Without checking the contents, she tossed it to him.
Ace caught the bag and opened it with trembling hands. Inside, there wasn't fruit… just dust. A lot of it. But at the bottom, something could be seen.
Meanwhile, Kara stood up. Before disappearing, she said: "There's an island in that direction, ten minutes away. Don't die," and vanished.
Driven by desperation, he reached in and pulled out a strange blue fruit covered in swirls. Its shape was odd, its smell… questionable.
"What a weird fruit…" he said, unaware he was holding the Rumble Rumble no Mi. Having never been to the Grand Line, he knew nothing about Devil Fruits. He always assumed his sister's powers were magic and never bothered to ask.
Remembering that the nearest island was just ten minutes away"according to Kara"he figured a bite wouldn't hurt. It'd help him recover some energy to row and reach food faster.
"UGHH, GROSS!" he cried, eyes watering. "What kind of fruit tastes like sea monster puke?!" he shouted, making the funniest face he could.
But there was no turning back. He swallowed it whole, like a champion… or someone with no dignity but lots of hunger.
With just enough energy, he began rowing in the direction Kara had pointed. From afar, he could see her leaving, probably off to visit Luffy, completely ignoring the chaos she'd left behind.
"I hate you, Karaaaa!" Ace roared, his voice cracking with rage, hunger, and nausea. Without realizing it, little sparks danced in his hands.
...
"I'm remembering something," Kara said while walking alongside Garp toward her home, where the Fairy Tail members had been sent.
Most of the residential area was more or less intact; only some houses in unsafe zones had been destroyed, now replaced by tents.
Oddly, the part of the island Kara had obliterated seemed to point directly at the admirals' house for some reason. Her own home, meanwhile, was at the opposite end.
"What is it?" Garp asked as he strolled calmly.
"Oh right… the senbei from around the world," Kara said, remembering as she started pulling bags from her magical inventory.
Garp froze when he heard those words, trying to recall where he had heard them before. But his attention quickly shifted to the bags Kara pulled out… only to grow sad upon seeing they were filled with nothing but dust.
"Well, looks like time got away from me… about twenty years, give or take," Kara said with a goofy smile.
"How do you forget something for twenty years?!" Garp cried in pain, wanting to weep over the dusty senbei bags. "Doesn't matter," he said, before opening one and throwing it into his mouth.
"Gross," Kara muttered as she walked away.
...…..
Finally arriving at Kara's house, which now sounded like a full-blown festival with all the noise coming from inside.
It was once an old family home with a small enclosed garden. In the past, all the Vice Admirals used to live around it, though the walls of the neighboring houses had clearly been rebuilt several times, even before the war.
But now everything was empty. The former neighbors"the Vice Admirals"had moved away long ago. None of them wanted to live next to Kara, the Destroyer of All.
None… except Momousagi, the only brave one.
"Hey, family!" Kara said with a grin as she threw open the door, entering her own house triumphantly…
And immediately froze.
Her house… her sanctuary… the only place her powers never destroyed, was now a complete disaster. It literally looked like a typhoon had struck and been followed by a battle between gods.
Gray and Natsu were fighting bare-knuckled across the whole place, breaking furniture and smashing walls like it was a sport.
Gajeel was sitting in the middle of a mountain of empty cans… he had eaten the metal and tossed the contents somewhere else.
Happy was scratching the furniture enthusiastically while explaining to Panther Lily and Carla that "this is elite-level claw training."
Laxus was disassembling her toaster with the focus of a heart surgeon, while the Raijin team helped him… now they were working on the coffee machine.
Mirajane was lecturing poor Makarov in a sweet, angelic voice"he had been caught snooping through Kara's clothes.
Cana was scolding Gildarts for accidentally destroying Kara's bed (though she didn't explain how…).
Elfman lay unconscious on the floor with a giant lump on his forehead, probably a collateral victim of the Gray and Natsu fight.
The only ones who seemed calm were Lucy and Wendy, sitting in front of the video snail, completely absorbed in a new music video by Uta. The girl had released several new tracks, and they were now being traded like hotcakes all across Marineford.
"You bastards…" Kara growled as her fist became covered in Haki and her body vanished in a flash of black lightning, speeding through the house at extreme speed.
Bam! Paf! Thud! Crash!
"Ow!"
"That hurts!"
"Aaah!"
"Wait, I didn't do anything!"
"Mommy!"
"Why does it hurt soooo much?!"
Seconds later, a deathly silence fell over the house. All the members of Fairy Tail were now sitting or kneeling in front of Kara, rubbing their heads like scolded children, not daring to utter another word.
"If you wreck my house again… I'll beat you all to a pulp," Kara said flatly, emotionless, her gaze sweeping across the room.
Everyone shivered slightly and nodded silently like chastised kids.
"Kara's emotionless stare… reminds me of when she was a little girl," Gildarts said with a nostalgic smile, rubbing his head gently… until Kara gave him a chilling look.
He shut his mouth immediately.
"Hahaha! Man, what a fun family!" laughed Garp from the doorway, arms crossed as he watched the scene unfold.
"That's my grandfather, Monkey D. Garp. He raised me since I was a baby," Kara explained without much fuss, as the Fairy Tail members turned their attention to the man.
But some weren't just looking at him… they were feeling him.
Gildarts, Makarov, and Laxus all frowned slightly. Their battle instincts told them what the others couldn't sense"this old man was powerful. Far more than he appeared.
"Wait… did you say since you were a baby?" Gildarts asked, now very serious.
"Yeah. For some reason, when I appeared in this world, I was a baby. The old man's son found me." Kara shrugged like it was a trivial story.
"So that means… it's not just been a few years, but a lot longer since then?" Gildarts insisted, his expression that of someone starting to piece together an unwanted puzzle.
"Twenty-eight… maybe twenty-nine years since I arrived," Kara replied calmly.
The revelation hit like a bomb.
Everyone was left speechless. Even those who knew parts of the story didn't realize she had turned into a baby again.
"HOW COULD THAT HAPPEN!?" Gildarts shouted, anguish written all over his face. "I didn't get to see baby Kara again…!!" He collapsed to his knees, like his soul had shattered.
"Ignore the idiot. Biologically he's my father," Kara muttered emotionlessly. "The rest are: the guild master…" she began introducing each of the Fairy Tail members to Garp, explaining where they came from and how their world worked.
"You're telling me you come from a world where Devil Fruits don't exist, but… magic does?" Garp asked, confused.
"Well, yeah… if you want a horribly simplified summary of everything we've explained like four times already," Kara said, rubbing her temples in frustration while the others nodded, visibly exhausted from the repetition.
"Hahaha! I see… a magical world…" Garp laughed, though it was clear he still didn't fully grasp it.
"So how did you all get here?" he asked again, genuinely curious.
Silence.
They all looked at one another… unsure how to respond.
Then, a soft voice broke the moment.
"I can explain."
A small blonde girl appeared in front of them. She wore a light dress and seemed to be resting peacefully, as if the chaos around her didn't exist.
Everyone looked at her instantly.
Makarov froze completely, his eyes wide as saucers.
"F-Fir… First Master!?" he exclaimed in disbelief.
"Who?" Garp asked, unable to see who they were looking at.
"A magical projection only guild members can see," Kara explained casually. "I'll tell you what she says."
As everyone stared at Mavis Vermillion, the founder of the Fairy Tail guild, the entire atmosphere in the room changed.
"The reason Kara ended up here... just like all of you... is because of Acnologia and the Fairy Sphere spell," explained Mavis, her ethereal voice resonating with a solemn calm that forced everyone into silence.
"Fairy Sphere used the magical power of everyone on the island to create a barrier that would protect them. It wasn't just a physical shield, but a bubble that separated them from the normal flow of space and time."
Mavis's image floated before them, her white dress fluttering as if dancing with the invisible air.
"When we activated the spell during the destruction unleashed by the black dragon, I channeled all the magical energy into the protective sphere. But I made a mistake... I miscalculated the magnitude of power from two individuals: Gildarts and Kara. Both possess Crash Magic " a type of magic that not only destroys matter… but also the very laws that govern it. That interference, combined with Acnologia's wild magic, overwhelmed the spell… and the fabric of space-time collapsed."
Everyone's eyes widened in astonishment.
"The result was a fracture. A portal between worlds. Kara fell through an unstable rift, not the main gate created by the spell. That's why her body and soul were thrown across time… sent back to her childhood. Meanwhile, the entire island " and all of you " were transported through the actual dimensional gate. For you, only a week passed… but Kara lived here for twenty-nine years."
Silence fell completely. Even Fairy Tail's most lighthearted members were serious, processing the weight of what had happened.
"So… the whole island was brought to this world?" Kara asked, her voice grave.
"That's right," Mirajane replied with a nod. "We woke up surrounded by an unknown sea… full of sea beasts so massive, they made the island look small. Luckily, Gildarts was with us. A strange magical beam was emanating from the center of the island… something that kept the creatures at bay."
"So we're trapped?" asked Greed, folding his arms.
"Not exactly," Makarov interjected. "The island seems… split. One half is here, the other remains in our world. That part is still protected by the Fairy Sphere. Hopefully, that protection will last for about two more years. That's how long I estimate the barrier will hold."
"So… our island is now a portal between two worlds?" Kara said, serious.
"Exactly. And unless we find a way to close that connection… this world might discover us," Mavis concluded.
"That's very, very problematic," Kara said, clenching her fists.
"Why?" Lucy asked cautiously.
Kara looked up, her expression hardened by experience.
"Because this world is ruled by a global, authoritarian, and ruthless government. If they discover another world full of magic and resources… they won't hesitate to invade, plunder, or start a war. Not out of necessity " but for power."
Makarov frowned.
"Aren't you exaggerating?"
"No. The Navy in this world was created by that government. Even pirates like Kaido have made deals with them. And while we're trying to break the ties between the Navy and the World Government… they still hold far too much power."
The Fairy Tail members tensed. The threat was real. Kara continued:
"In this world, there are pirates with the strength of S-Class mages… and worse. If even one of them steps into our world… they'll leave nothing but destruction behind. And don't forget, not everyone over there can use magic. They'd be easy prey."
Silence fell again like a heavy weight. It was Cana who broke it with a confident smile.
"You've already got plans, don't you? The moment you saw us, I'm sure you started scheming something."
Everyone turned to Kara. Their faces were full of trust, affection… and unshakable faith in her. Kara couldn't help but smile.
"Of course. You didn't come here by accident. With your arrival… we're going to change this world."
A wave of determination surged through them all. They were Fairy Tail. No matter the world, they would always fight for what's right.
"By the way… where is our island?" Kara suddenly asked, suspicious.
"Eh… about that… we don't know," Makarov answered with a nervous laugh. "Compasses don't work here. And by the time we realized it… the island had vanished from the horizon."
"What?! So you only know it's in the Calm Belt?" Kara shouted, eyes wide.
"We don't even know what the Calm Belt is…" everyone replied in unison.
"Damn it…" Kara muttered in frustration. "Well… I guess at least no one will be able to find it there."
"Oh, right… where's Erza?" Kara asked, glancing around again.
"I think she left with your neighbor… that girl with the sword," Mirajane replied with an amused smile.
"...Damn it," Kara repeated, rubbing her forehead.