Late in X773...
"By my count, Gildarts should be coming back soon. You can start preparing for the S-Class Trial," Kurosaki said as he returned to the guild, dusty and travel-worn after finishing a subjugation mission.
This time, he'd taken an S-Class request: subjugating a wyvern.
No one knew what went wrong in the thing's head, but it had suddenly come down from the mountains and started attacking livestock in a nearby village. Its appetite was terrifying, it had eaten far too many animals, and a bounty was posted. The wyvern was thick-skinned, hard to injure, and it could fly. It was not something an ordinary mage could handle easily.
The request had come suddenly, and Kurosaki had volunteered on his own initiative. At first, Makarov refused, because S-Class jobs were genuinely dangerous. Later, Kurosaki exchanged a few moves with him to demonstrate his strength. Makarov even used Three Pillar Gods to defend.
By now, Kurosaki had fully mastered all of Captain Retsu Unohana's sword arts. Recently, he had also unlocked Unohana's Shunpo, an extreme movement technique. Whether in attack power or speed, he was already far beyond any mage of his generation in Fairy Tail. Makarov understood that with Kurosaki's level of combat power, dealing with a wyvern was more than manageable, and only then did he agree.
Strictly speaking, Kurosaki's strength had long since reached the level where he could take the S-Class Trial. But first, he didn't have a strong obsession with the title. In his eyes, real strength mattered more than any label. Second, Gildarts still hadn't returned. The S-Class Trial typically required suitable opposition, and even if Kurosaki wanted to take it, there was no one appropriate to complete the test with him.
At the mention of Gildarts's name, Cana immediately pricked up her ears. Laxus, meanwhile, was still out on a job and hadn't come back yet.
"You're just deciding that for me?" Makarov's voice grumbled from the bar. "Wait. If it's only me, how does this even work?"
Right now, Fairy Tail wasn't like the era after X777, where geniuses appeared one after another. Macao and Wakaba were not weak, but they still didn't meet the standard of S-Class.
Laxus was stronger than those two, but there was still a gap between him and true S-Class. Even so, Kurosaki felt that the current Laxus was already outstanding among his peers. The two of them sparred often, feeding each other moves and building real combat experience. When Kurosaki trained with him using Unohana's swordsmanship, every strike was measured precisely, controlling force and rhythm. He wouldn't injure Laxus, but he could push him hard enough to draw out his potential, raising Laxus's practical combat ability well beyond where he should have been at this point compared to canon.
In the original timeline, Laxus would only pass his S-Class Trial near the end of X778, then in the following year, he'd beat Cana into a complete mess.
"This is easy." Makarov took a big swig of beer and answered with sloppy confidence, his whole body swaying as he drank. "You just fight Gildarts. If he says you pass, then you pass."
He grinned wider, voice rising as he got more excited.
"Sure, our guild's S-Class Trial is usually done in teams, but rules can be adjusted. If you become an S-Class mage this year, I'll finally have something to brag about in front of Bob and Yajima. Hahaha, a thirteen-year-old S-Class mage! And that bastard Jose too, I'll laugh in his face until I'm satisfied."
Kurosaki watched Makarov cackling like he owned the world and couldn't help muttering, "Hey, hey. You're laughing so hard your tongue's about to hang out."
Still, becoming S-Class was not something you could just declare. If the promotion looked too absurd, the Magic Council wouldn't approve it. If the Council thought something was off, they would test the promoted mage's strength themselves.
But Kurosaki had just completed the wyvern subjugation. During the fight, he had instantly killed it using only Unohana's unarmed sword wind, without using Minazuki's Shikai at all. With strength like that, the Council likely wouldn't have any objections.
"And if I pass the S-Class Trial," Kurosaki thought to himself, "I'm going to head north."
It was time to move. He couldn't keep delaying.
He'd been building his strength for a reason. Ultear's situation was complicated. She wasn't just burdened by overwhelming magic power.
There was also a key risk. At the Magic Development Bureau, he might run into Brain, the current director, and the future leader of the Oración Seis. Brain also carried "Zero" inside him. Kurosaki knew that if he wasn't at least S-Class, going to the Magic Development Bureau would be risky. If things went wrong, he could end up throwing his own life away.
But now, he had Unohana's full sword arts, and Minazuki was already at Shikai. His combat power could firmly suppress ordinary S-Class mages. Even if he truly encountered Brain, he was confident he could handle it calmly, and even crush him outright with his own strength.
"The north?" Makarov stopped swaying mid-drink.
The haze in his eyes vanished as if someone had flipped a switch. He looked unexpectedly clear-headed, brows drawing together, worry and confusion surfacing at once.
"You're going there? For what?" His voice dropped. "Is that why you've been so fixated on getting stronger all this time?"