Promise

Sirius' back was right behind the hole while he was facing at the guards who were coming to him.

He clenched his teeth and fists nervously as he thought of some kind of plan to escape his predicament, "What should I do? I think this hole leads to Purgatory, but I heard that the wind is so strong and it's very dangerous that if you accidentally head towards the exit, it will rip you to shreds."

Sirius was so occupied with the hole that was behind him that the guards grabbed a hold of him, and he tried to struggle right away.

All of the guards murmured different things as they prevented the young lad to escape from their grasp, "Gotcha! Stop struggling! It's useless to resist when you're this frail! Just be obedient and surrender to us!"

"Let go of me! I'll never surrender to the likes of—", Sirius pulled his hand and he finally broke free from their grasp, but he lost his balance and fell down into the huge hole.

A guard said as he stopped his comrade from trying to chase Sirius, "Don't chase him. Only the military is strong enough and allowed to go down there. Considering how weak his body was, he will never survive down there."

In the Bermuda Triangle Trash Site of Gehenna, Sirius, who had really injured wings and body, fell from the dark blue with a shade of red sky. Sirius's wings had finally deactivated as he crash landed and fell unconscious on the ground. He stared blankly at the sky. In his perspective, his eyes started to slightly open and could only see a blurry scenery.

Sirius, who was barely conscious, tried to speak but nothing came out of his mouth so he could only weakly thought to himself, "Wha--What happened? Where am I? I... I can't move my body at all. I feel so cold. I don't know anything or what happened, but I do know one thing: I'm going to die. I'm going to die at this smelly, unfamiliar place and somehow, I think I deserved it. I'll die and rot alone he—" Before he could finish what he had thought, he saw a blurry a face of a black colored hair hybrid human with cat ears. "Who is that?", his eyes closed before he could see clearly who that mysterious figure was.

Sirius finally regained his consciousness, but he was in a completely unfamiliar place. He was lying on a bed with five menacing people standing around him. The black colored hair hybrid, who was actually Natsu, had his smiling face so close to Sirius.

Sirius remembered another memory of him and a transformed Natsu laughing uncontrollably in the sidelines as Eryl and Raaz were fighting as usual. Another memory flashed before his eyes where in a town, Sirius was being pulled by two kids with Natsu transformed, Raaz, and Eryl walked happily ahead of him.

Memories continued to resurface.

Sirius was standing in front of a bed of someone who had completely wrapped themselves in blanket while sleeping. He pulled the blanket off without hesitation and saw a sleeping Natsu who had red hair instead of black.

Natsu and Sirius, who was holding a mask, walked on the beach right beside the red-colored sea with both of their feet covered in sand.

Him, who was wearing a mask, was partying happily with all the members of the Resistance inside their base.

Sirius, who smiled with only his mouth was shown, whispered to himself, "...but don't worry. It won't be long now until... my life ends."

Sirius's smile was only shown as he said to himself, "I wouldn't be surprised that many would take advantage of your weakness. That's why..." He wore a frown expression as his tears started to flow and rolled down to his cheeks, "You should learn how to take care of yourself more. It's because of your kindness that I was saved from my miserable life, so I want you to be happy as well even after I'm gone."

In the present, Natsu was sitting on the right side of Sirius as Raaz and Eryl stood silently across them with their bodies still full of injuries from the recent battle.

Natsu broke the silence and spoke up, "Sirius didn't disappeared yet unlike how the Gotts would usually do. Is it because a Gott was the one who inflicted damage on him?"

Eryl replied, "That's probably it since when a Daemon was fatally wounded by another Daemon, they wouldn't disappear immediately unless it's an instant-kill wound."

"Wait, both of your ancestors were created by Gotts before they died and reborn, right? That's why you two are immune to Gotts' Reinheit (German for Purity) and Pur Nesentliche (German for Pure Essence). Can't you heal his wounds?"

"Sorry to break it to you, but we're still Daemons. Unlike Gotts, we'll only make Sirius's wounds worse if we tried to heal him", Raaz apologized.

Natsu clenched both of his fists in sorrow and despair, "Damn it! Is there really nothing we could do for him?"

Sirius weakly mumbled, "Natsu... I have one last wish before I disappear..."

Natsu's eyes were covered by his bangs, and his body trembled as he bit his lip to restrain himself and blood dripped from it. A few seconds later, he finally asked, "What is it?"

Slowly but surely, Sirius raised his right index finger and placed it on Natsu's forehead that was right between his eyebrows and thought to himself, "Recordor (Latin for Reminisce) ..." The part where he touched with his right index finger glowed faintly white. He requested in a faint voice as he smiled, "Please don't forget about me." Natsu’s eyes widen. "Thank you everyone, for everything. And thank you for being my friend", Sirius said his final words and turned into white particles and ash in the end. The two different particles rose up into the clear dark blue with a shade of red sky and disappeared into nothingness.

Natsu looked at the particles fading away into the horizons while his tears rolled down to his cheeks. Eryl cried while rubbing his right eye and Raaz cried while covering both of his eyes with his right arm, still slowly turning into ash.

From a distance, the Boss stood still while his body was filled with wounds.

He mumbled to himself, "It looks like I was too late."

After the battle ended with numerous casualties and regrets, Psalm arrived while leading a group of Togae (Latin for Civilian) healers and tend to every injured Daemons at the site. A few weeks later had passed since the painful battle of the Resistance against the Gott army, everyone had finally recovered from their injuries. Even if they did recover physically, the pain of losing many of their comrades will never heal. Still, they had no choice but to move forward and live their lives to the fullest, for the sake of the ones who died for them. Outside the base, all of them except the boss were standing in one place. Natsu brought his bag with him while the other Daemons except the captains cried their hearts out.

Eryl asked, "Dude, are you sure you're leaving the Resistance?"

Raaz added, "Do you have to go? Everyone will hate to see you go."

Psalm commented, "It'll never be the same here without you. After all, you're the only one who can naturally stop Raaz's and Eryl's daily fights without breaking a sweat."

Natsu, who hasn't transformed at all, awkwardly replied, and scratched the back side of his head, "I'm basically the referee if they were playing sports." He cleared his throat and announced, "I have to go back to Japan District and get some break. Don't worry about me leaving a position in the Resistance since while I travel, I'll recruit so many members that you'll have to build a second base for the South Pole Branch. I don't want to lose against the North Pole Branch, after all."

Natsu flew away while waving goodbye to his comrades. All the Daemons waved goodbye in return.

Raaz waved his hand while smiling, "Be careful on your journey!"

Eryl placed both of his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Good luck out there! You'll need it!"

Psalm saluted, "Have a safe trip!"

Daemon 1 cried, "Goodbye, Sir Natsu!"

Daemon 2 yelled, "Thank you for everything!"

Daemon 3 pleaded as he repeatedly jumped up and down, "Please take me with you!"

All the other Daemons murmured all at once, "Hey! That's unfair! You've got to be kidding!" And all of them were fighting against each other.

Natsu thought to himself as he stared down and chuckled, "There they go again. I really need to go back to Japan District after all what happened. I still need to fulfill my promise with Sirius, after all. I wonder what my bro's been doing. I'm itching to mess with him again to see his crying face."

Natsu then flew to the distance at the sea towards the horizon.

A few days later had passed since Natsu officially stepped down from his position as one of the captains of the Resistance in South Pole Branch. Somewhere in the busy streets of Bangladesh District, Natsu was walking on the street as he admired the scenery while eating a fire ice cream.

Natsu cheerfully thought to himself, "I'm finally permanently on land! Even though I planned to take the ocean route yet only stopped halfway at Madagascar and India District to take a break, so I'll arrive at my destination faster, but still my back really aches like a stampede just ran over me."

A right hand suddenly approached and tried to reach towards Natsu's right shoulder, but Natsu's pupils sharpen like a feline, jumped back, and faced behind him in bloodlust.

"Who are you and what are—?", Natsu asked while in a fighting stance, but his pupils suddenly turned back to normal, "What the heck?" Eryl and Raaz stood happily right in front of him. "What are you two doing here?"

Raaz said as he crossed both of his arms and placed them in front of his chest, "I see that you stopped changing your hair color. Red suits you more."

Eryl explained in a smug expression, "We wouldn't want you to cause trouble to your neighbors so we decided to follow you here and look after you, my pace bastard."

Natsu asked, "But what about back at our place? They'll lose two more of their captains."

Eryl replied, "We already trusted and gave our position to those two." He visualized two Daemons with their eyes hidden by the darkness.

Raaz chuckled, "You really worked hard, huh? More than 20 recruits already went to the base within the week since you left."

Natsu sweat and awkwardly explained, "Yeah. I just get into fights whenever I enter a district for some reason and won all of them in an instant, though. When they asked me to become their master, I gave them our base's address and told them that there were stronger fighters there. Shall we go back to the inn where I'm currently staying? We've got a lot of traveling ahead of us." All three of them walked forward together.

"Sure!", Eryl and Raaz agreed in unison.

Eryl suggested, "How about a bet and the loser has to pay for all the travel expenses?"

"Bring it on!", Natsu declared in confidence.

Raaz teased, "Don't go losing on us, Eryl."

"Wh--What? I--I never lose!", Eryl stammered in panic.