Episode 284

Memoirs is the 284th episode of the Fairy Tail anime, and the 7th episode of the 2018 series.
Zeref shares the story of his childhood and how he came to be afflicted with his deadly Curse of Contradiction. Meanwhile, Lucy worries that the old Fairy Tail members have moved on and won't want to help restart the Fairy Tail guild, only to receive the exact opposite response from her comrades.
==Summary==
In the Mildian Magic Academy, a young Zeref stands before his three teachers as they read through his dissertation. Despite being amazed by his research, they warn Zeref that the subject is not for children, given as the manipulation of life and death through Magic is forbidden and would anger Ankhseram, the God of Life and Death, before forcing him to agree not to pursue the research much further. After thst, Zeref holds his paper close, stating that he only wanted to know why people live or die. Suddenly, Zeref wakes up in a field of grass, wondering if this recollection of his past has all had been a dream. Zeref sits by the water and thinks about his younger brother who died several years after he was born, and how he understand, thus prompting him to study life and death.
Back at the Magic Academy, Zeref continue his studies of life and death, and even goes further on to present his hypothesis to the public, who are all amazed by his magical framework which could, in function,bring the dead back to life. However, Zeref is once again scolded and reminded that reviving the dead is forbidden by his professor and also reproached for implementing human sacrificial carelessly. Moreover, he tells Zeref that life and death are a part of nature, and that therefore they must not be meddle with. Paying no much care for the warnings, Zeref continues on his research in his room, when the professor once again visits him when Zeref is working on his Eclipse project even after he was told to stop. As Zeref claims that it is almost perfected, the professor states that Zeref is creating all of this in order to go back in time and save his younger brother, before revealing that the board has decided to expel him. Devastated by the news, Zeref suddenly begins to glow, much to the horror of the professor. Just as the glow suddenly stops, the instructor collapses onto the floor. It is then shortly revealed that every student and teacher within the academy were dead.
Passing by, Zeref notices that every bird or fish he passed died, meaning the he received the Curse of Contradiction, where the more he cares about life, the more everything around him perishes, making the single method to suppress it is to not care about life. In addition to losing the ability to age or die, he was plagued by the deaths that he caused, even though he was secretly happy that he could now study for the rest of eternity. Many years after, Zeref finally decided that he wanted to die. As such, he began experimenting with Living Magic, creating demons that were able to kill him, who would be known as Etherious. Unfortunately, none of his demons was able to kill him, causing him to create E.N.D., Etherious Natsu Dragneel, using his brother's dead body, who would become the ultimate Etherious and also resurrect his brother back from the dead. Zeref then ends his story there, as there was a person he needed to see. Entering a cave, Zeref finds a man waiting for him, revealed to be none other than Acnologia. The Black Dragon asks Zeref what he wants, and Zeref replies that Acnologia has been waiting for a serious challenge for so long and that he was going to make that happen, stating that the time has come for the final battle between a dragon, an immortal, and a human.
Lucy, Wendy, Carla, Happy, and Natsu arrive in Magnolia Town. As they agreed after the battle with Avatar to go on their own ways again, but promised to meet in Magnolia. When Wendy asks Lucy if somethings wrong, the latter brushes it off as just reminiscing about the past. Lucy recalls when the Master disbanded Fairy Tail and comes to a halt. She tells her friends that she doesn't believe she can go any further, prompting Natsu to note that if it was because the building isn't there, it doesn't actually matter. However Lucy states that she's worried about how everyone else might feel. Despite sending out letters for everyone to meet here, they have all gone on their separate ways and she wonders if they all feel the same anymore. Suddenly, Cana appears and wraps her arm around Lucy, responding that they could never forget after just one year. Cana reveals that none of them knew how to reach out after the disbanding, and it was Lucy who broke that wall for them once she sent the letters. Cana tells her to hurry up because everyone is silent. Dragging Lucy along, Cana and the others arrive to find a huge crowd of their old guildmates waiting for them: Warren, Nab, Reedus, Max, Alzack, Bisca, Asuka, Jet, Droy, Macao, Wakaba, Romeo, Laki, Vijeeter, Kinana, Lisanna, Elfman and Mirajane. The heartful reunion prompts Lucy to cry and call out that she's home. Natsu then digs through the rubble and retrieves the Fairy Tail flag, before waving it in the air, declaring the official return of Fairy Tail.
==Characters in Order of Appearance==
==Battles & Events==
*None
==Magic, Spells, and Abilities used==
===Magic used===
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===Spells used===
*None
===Abilities used===
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==Manga & Anime Differences==
*The following parts occur only in the anime:
**Scenes of a young to teenage Zeref studying and writing.
**A teenage Zeref seeing a group of people carrying a casket in the rain and then later passing by a graveyard.
**Scene of Zeref's realization towards creating life.
**Zeref passing by a waterfall on his way to meet with Acnologia.
**Gajeel chasing Happy for mocking him. 
*Image of a hypothetical maze referring to Zeref's mindset wasn't shown in the anime.
*Some Etherious weren't included within the flashback of Zeref opposed to all in the manga.
*Levy and Gajeel's clothes are different from the manga.
==Navigation==
Category:Episodes