In any case, I was just alerted to the newspaper blowing by him. It said the year was X773, four years before the Dragons disappeared, meaning it's eleven years before Lucy met Natsu. Now, who could possibly have been that young and a member of Fairy Tail at that time?
I know this may sound way out there, but what if it was a young Doranbolt staring at the sea? Maybe we get some background on him, like he was once a member of Fairy Tail who somehow got disillusioned with his guild. Eh, but the clothes make me think of Zeref, so my guess is, he met Natsu on a job for Fairy Tail, which would explain how they knew each other, but something went wrong enough to send him back 400+ years into the past to become the most powerful dark mage the world has ever known.
Either way, we're in for some sort of time travel arc.
Please stop complaining about Pikachu losing to "weak" Pokemon at the start of each new region. Its power is drained at the start of each new region, and anyway, it's equally bad storytelling for Pikachu to plow through all of its opponents.