Chapter 10

Armor Mage is the tenth chapter of Hiro Mashima's Fairy Tail.

Quick Summary
Erza arrives back at the guild and tells Natsu and Gray that they are coming on a mission with her. The Dark Guild Eisenwald is introduced this chapter.

Full Summary
The chapter begins with Lucy searching the Request Board for a job. Mirajane tells her that if she finds something that she has interest in to tell her because Master Makarov isn’t there, because he is at a regular meeting and will be out for a while. Lucy then asks what a regular meeting is and Mirajane explains that it is a meeting where guild masters from different provinces come to report about their guilds. Mirajane then asks Reedus if she can borrow his pen, and she begins to draw the organizational chart of the Mage world, and explains it, and the importance of relationships among guild, but she is interrupted by Natsu who sneaks up behind Lucy and says that people from the darkness would come and get her.

Lucy then screams and Natsu mocks her for being so scared. Lucy tells him not to scare her, and Mirajane states that people from the darkness really do exist, and that any guild that isn’t a part of the league is a dark guild. Natsu then states that they are scary because they don’t follow the law, to which Lucy replies that they will come to recruit him one day. Natsu brushes off this statement and tells her to just pick a job already, and Happy says that they picked one without consulting her last time so it was her turn to pick. Lucy replies that they are splitting up, and Natsu and Happy both ask why. She says that it is because they wouldn’t have minded taking in any blonde girl, and Natsu replies that she’s right, but they chose her because she’s a nice person. Gray then jumps in on the conversation and says that she doesn’t have to be in a group with anyone that she doesn’t want to, because he heard she did excellent last time and that she’d get many recruitment offers.

Loke then asks Lucy if she would want to make a team with him alone tonight, Gray asks her if she sees what he means, and she responds no. Gray then starts to compliment Lucy, saying that she was amazing for taking out two Mages from The Mercenary Guild Southern Wolves, and a gorilla woman, but Lucy says that it was Natsu. This sparks another argument between Natsu and Gray, until Mirajane reminds Gray about his lack of clothing. Gray and Natsu’s argument then escalates into a fight, while they are fighting Loke begins flirting more with Lucy until he sees her Celestial Spirit Keys, and runs away from her saying that this was the end of “us”. To which Lucy asks when there was ever an “us”. Lucy then questions what’s up with him, to which Mirajane responds that he isn’t good with dealing with Celestial Spirit Mages. Then all of the sudden he comes rushing back into the room telling Natsu and Gray that Erza is back, which immediately strikes fear into Gray and Natsu. Erza then comes into the room tugging the horn of a demon, much to the dismay of the other guild members. When Erza comes in she asks for Master’s whereabouts, to which Mirajane responded that he was at the Guild Master’s regular meeting. She then began to correct all of the guild members on their sloppy nature, and trouble making tendencies. She then tells Natsu and Gray who are both hugging and claiming they are friends out of fear of Erza, that best friends do fight every once in a while, but she prefers to see them acting like this. Lucy then states that she’s never seen Natsu act like that before, and Mirajane draws a diagram and states that Natsu and Gray are both afraid of Erza, because Natsu picked a fight with Erza, Gray was walking around naked, and Loke hit on Erza and all were nearly killed.

Erza then states that she heard some troubling news and that Natsu and Gray were coming on a job with her, much to the other guild member’s surprise. Natsu and Gray attempt to refuse coming, but Erza simply states that they leave tomorrow and they should prepare themselves. Mirajane then remarks that with Natsu, Gray, and Erza they could very well be the strongest team in Fairy Tail. Gray and Natsu then both remark that it’s impossible for them to work together. So Natsu takes off all his clothes and places them on Lucy stating that she would be the new Natsu. The next page then shows the Dark Guild Eisenwald and a few dark Mages including Erigor sitting around talking about a beautiful Mage, and how long it’s taking Kageyama to unseal Lullaby.

Characters
*Note: Bold+Italicized=First Appearence

Manga & Anime Differences

 * The Anime added a bit more scenes to show the everyday life of Fairy Tail Guild in the beginning.
 * The conversation about Natsu and Happy chose Lucy for a teammate changed a bit.
 * Gray... Smoking... for the last time...
 * The one that reminded Gray's cloth was Mirajane in the manga, while it was Cana in the anime.
 * Lucy didn't comment about Mirajane's artistic style in manga. And the image she drew was different.
 * Natsu-clothed Lucy wasn't present in the Anime
 * Erigor's introduction in the Manga was not included in the anime.