Chapter 1: Diamond Dragon!

In a world very much like our own lies the kingdom of Fiore, and within this kingdom there exists a great many wizard guilds. These guilds are places where wizards can gather together and take on jobs that require their special skills and prowess in magic. Seven years ago, the most powerful and renowned of these guilds was Fairy Tail, a guild known far and wide for both its unrivaled power and for the trouble its destructive but well-meaning wizards caused. Alas, one dark day the guild's most powerful fighters, including its master, Makarov of the Ten Wizard Saints, disappeared without a trace. Fairy Tail has since fallen into decline, and houses only a handful of members, none of whom are capable of bringing the guild back to its former glory.

The fall of Fairy Tail has left a void in this world, but has also created new opportunities. New wizard guilds have risen to power in its absence, and many more are only taking their first steps into this new world. This is the story of one such guild. This is the story of Fox Tail.

It was late at night, not far outside the village of Pumpkin Town, in a small, unassuming shack. Within its walls lay stacks of crates, covered in spider webs and dust, amongst which scampered a colony of rats. That night, it also housed some much larger rats: smugglers. A rail-thin man, looking very much like a rat himself with his buck-teeth, grey hair, and shifty twitch, stood amongst the crooks, nervously wringing his hands.

"And you're sure no one followed you…?" he stammered.

"Oh for the love of…!" one of the smugglers cried, "For the last time! No one followed us, you paranoid fool! Now show us the damn rocks!" The ratty man flinched, clearly more afraid of the smugglers in front of him than of any council wizards that may or may not have been lurking nearby.

Crunch… Crunch…

"Well," the ratty man said, hesitation still hanging in his voice, "I suppose we'd better get this over with then… I'll have you know that I went through a lot of trouble to get this thing." He led them over to a specific crate.

Crunch… Crunch…

"That better be the case," another smuggler threatened. "The boss only collects the rarest gems out there. So if this is some cheap pebble, you can kiss your butt goodbye." The threat made the ratty man stop for a moment, unsure if this was going to be worth it.

"I assure you," he said. "This is one of the biggest, rarest gemstones on the black market. A diamond of extremely high quality! And one that hasn't been peacefully acquired either. It was so well guarded I had to hire some thugs from a dark guild to get it!"

"Well, if this gem is as good as you say it is, you're going to be more than compensated for it," the first smuggler told him.

Crunch… Crunch…

"Hey, wait a minute," yet another smuggler said. "Does anyone else hear that?" The crooks all stood stark still, listening.

Crunch… Crunch…

"Yeah, I hear it too," said a fourth.

"Gyah!" the ratty man cried. "The lid's loose! What the hell…!?" He flung the lid off, and the crooks all stared at its surprising contents. A teenage girl – dressed in a simple shirt, skirt, long socks, and boots, her silver hair tied in pigtails – was kneeling in the box, alongside what appeared to be a yellow, bespectacled cat with a very round head. The girl seemed to be eating something when she turned her red eyes to the smugglers.

"Oh," she said in mild surprise. "Hello there!" She gave the crooks a friendly wave, which some of them, heavily confused by this turn of events, unconsciously returned. The girl smiled and turned back to her snack. The thieves leaned in closer, trying to figure out what was going on.

"YAAAAAAHH!" they all screamed in unison. "The diamond!" The girl was eating the gem! The cat nudged the girl as she sucked the last fragments off her fingers, like a child who had just finished eating a powdered donut.

"Oh!" she gasped. "I'm sorry, I should have offered you guys some. That was a really rude thing to do…" The smugglers just stared at her, jaws dropping practically to the floor.

"Wait a second!" one of them cried. "What are we doing!? Someone get her!" The girl tipped her head quizzically as the men dove for her. But both the girl and the cat quickly flipped out of the box, leaving several smugglers to fall in and flounder for a moment.

"Uh-oh!" the girl exclaimed. "I think I made them mad! We'd better get out of here, Buddy!" she told the cat. The cat nodded and the duo quickly and nimbly leapt atop the boxes and out a window.

"I…" the ratty man stammered, sweating profusely and shaking like a frightened chihuahua. "I swear I have no idea who that girl was! She must have snuck in the box and…"

"And what are you all waiting for?" The smugglers all turned to the source of the voice, a large, rotund man with a bulbous nose, dressed in a pinstripe suit and carrying a cigar in his mouth. He glared at his men. "Go after her! That chick has the gall to think she can steal from Roqua the Rock. You'd better find her and show her how wrong she is, unless you'd rather see what'll happen to you otherwise."

The smugglers nodded quickly. "Yes, sir!" they called back in unison. With that, they ran out the door as fast as they could.

A young man walked through the streets of Pumpkin Town the next day. He had spiky black hair and wore a brown jacket over a red shirt, brown slacks and simple black shoes. On the back of his right hand was a tattoo of a stylized fox face, surrounded by nine lines that altogether made a shape resembling a flame. His eyes quickly scanned the job-request form he had picked up that morning.

"'Round up Smugglers' huh?" he said to himself. "'Take down Roqua the Rock's gang, suspected to be operating near Pumpkin Town.' Well, that shouldn't be too difficult, and the 50,000 Jewel reward should keep me going for awhile. The only question would be where to start." Some noise to his right caught his attention. He turned to see a crowd of people murmuring and staring upward. He followed their gazes and found a silver-haired girl and a cat standing on the roof of a building, apparently looking for something. "Hm," the boy muttered to himself, "must be the local nutcase. Not really gonna' help me out…"

"HEY YOU!" the girl shouted. Without warning she leapt off the building. Everyone's eyes followed her in shock, the young man's included, as she gracefully arced through the air and landed at his feet. The man had no idea how to react. "Do you know things?" the girl asked.

"Do I…? Wait what?" he stammered, a tad startled.

"Do you know things?" the girl asked again, cocking her head and circling him. The young man kept his eyes focused on her. You never know what the crazy ones will do next. "Buddy says you look like you know things," the girl clarified. "He didn't say what kind of things, but I assumed they had to be important, otherwise he wouldn't tell me that."

It's official, the young man thought. This one's a loon alright. "Uh…" he began to ask, "Who's Buddy?"

"He's Buddy," the girl declared with an enormous smile on her face, pointing at the cat. "Say 'hello,' Buddy!"

"Hello, Buddy," the cat said.

"You know," the young man pointed out, "normally I'd be a bit surprised by a talking cat, but I think that horrible old joke kinda killed the moment for me." The odd duo seemed to be ignoring him.

"How'd you know his name was Buddy, Kohaku?" the cat asked in genuine surprise.

"Oh!" the girl gasped. "I didn't!" she quickly turned to the young man. "Is it, Buddy?"

"No, actually my name's Mikado," he told her, though he immediately regretted it. Crap, why did I just tell the crazy person my name? he wondered. "And, uh, your name's Kohaku, right?"

The girl gasped again in amazement. "How did you know that!?"

"Obviously he's a spy," the cat, Buddy, explained.

"Really?"

"Makes sense, doesn't it?"

That's it! I'm outta here! Mikado thought as he tried to slip away from the two weirdoes.

"Oh! Wait a second," Kohaku said as she grabbed Mikado's sleeve.

Crap, this girl's got a good grip! the young man thought.

"I need some help," Kohaku explained. "I need help finding my Papa, have you seen him?"

Mikado looked at her for a moment and sighed. The poor thing's lost, huh? he thought. Makes sense: she seems to be the type that would need a guardian or something. "What's his name?" he asked as a starter.

"Quartzite," Kohaku told him.

"That's an odd name. Is he a wizard or something?"

"I don't think so…" Kohaku thought that over a little, letting go of Mikado's arm in the process. "Well, he did teach me my magic."

So she's a wizard too, huh? Mikado thought. "Well, when was the last time you saw him?"

"At home," Kohaku explained.

"Okay…"

"About fourteen years ago."

"Oookay, I can see where this is going," Mikado sighed and looked around. Apparently the crowd the girl had attracted earlier had grown tired of this scene and dissipated. "Did you wander off or something?" he asked Kohaku, trying to find a way to wriggle out of this.

"No," she said, a hint of sadness in her voice as she momentarily averted her eyes, which had previously been locked on to Mikado. "He just disappeared one day. I don't even know why." She almost looked like she wanted to cry a little. Now Mikado couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for her. He sighed again.

"Look, kid," he started, which was an odd thing to call her since she only seemed a year or two younger than him – her childishness must have thrown him off. "I'd hate to be the one to have to say this, but are you sure your Papa's even alive anymore? Fourteen years is a long time for someone to be missing, especially for a wizard."

"Of course he's still alive!" the cat butted in. "If he was going to die, he would have told Kohaku! He wouldn't have left her waiting or looking for him for nothing! That just doesn't make any sense!"

"Yeah, Buddy's right!" Kohaku agreed, her former sadness now replace with a look of insistence.

It'd probably be best if I didn't bother to answer that one, Mikado thought. "Look, I'm really sorry," he said, holding up the job-request, "but I'm kind of in the middle of a job now, and…"

"Oh!" Kohaku exclaimed, grabbing the sheet from his hand. "Okay! We'll help you then!"

"What!?"

"It'd be rude if we asked you to help us without helping you first. What are you doing anyway? This is a job, right? I've seen a lot of people with these before." Her eyes quickly scanned the page. "'Smugglers,' huh? Those are thieves, right? Thieves are bad, just like seagulls! We've definitely got to help you now!"

"Wait, what?" Mikado stammered. "Seagulls?"

"Yeah," Kohaku said with a nod and that same insistent look. "Seagulls are bad 'cause when you're eating popcorn at the beach they just swoop down and take it from you! That's not theirs! Why would they do that!?"

"I have no idea…" Mikado said, trying to figure out how to rein this conversation back in. "I suppose you wouldn't happen to know anything about these smugglers, would you?" It was a long shot. Kohaku shook her head then smiled.

"Nope, but I've gotta a really good sense of smell, so I can find anything!"

Well, Mikado thought, it's not like I have any other leads to go on. Might as well give it a shot. Who knows, maybe she uses some kind of Tracking Magic. "Lead the way," he insisted, waving into the crowd.

"Okay!" Kohaku shouted with glee. She rushed past Mikado, grabbed his jacket collar, and quickly dragged him behind her.

"Whoa, hey! Slow down kid!" he cried. As he said this, Buddy quickly sprouted a pair of feathery wings and flew behind them. No sooner had they left than two of the smugglers showed up.

"Aw, man, how'd that kid slip away!?" one complained. "How could someone avoid us all night in a dinky little town like this!?"

"Who knows," the other responded. "But we'd better find them soon or boss Roqua's not gonna be thrilled." The first smuggler shuddered at that thought.

"C'mon, let's go!"

"So…" Mikado began. "What's with the cat?" They had been going on like this for a while now. Kohaku had slowed to a gentle walk, but hadn't stopped dragging Mikado. Buddy was simply gliding behind them as Mikado watch, frowning in slight annoyance. They had wandered into the forest surrounding Pumpkin Town by this point. It was clear to him that they were lost, but he figured that 1): These two didn't know that, and 2): There wasn't much point in trying to explain it to them.

"Huh?" Kohaku asked, glancing behind her, still walking. "Buddy? He's my friend."

"Yeah, but why is he flying?"

"Because I'm a cat," Buddy interrupted.

"That is no kind of explanation whatsoever!"

"Yes it is," Buddy said, folding his arms and nodding his head. "I'm a cat, so I can use Aera, Flying Magic. Makes sense, right?"

"Yup!" Kohaku chirped. She stopped and looked around. "Huh? Where are we anyway?"

"You mean you don't know!?" Mikado barked, leaping to his feet. "Where have you been going all this time!?"

"So you came right back to us, huh?" someone with a deep voice asked. The trio turned to find none other than Roqua the Rock and his gang of smugglers. "It was a real pain in the ass trying to track you down, but I guess we could've just waited right here for you, huh?"

"Who's this guy?" Mikado wondered.

"Boss!" one of the smugglers cried. "Let us take care of this!"

"What, and let you mess it up again?" Roqua asked as he pushed his way to the front of the gang. "I've already seen what you're capable of, and it ain't much." He glowered at Kohaku. "I'd tell you to hand over the diamond, but I guess that ain't going to happen, huh?"

"Hmph," Mikado grunted and grinned. "So you must be Roqua the Rock. Well I'll be. Guess the intel on the job was pretty dang good. Found you a lot faster than I thought I would."

Roqua simply blew the young man off. "Feh. So what are you, a wizard from some two-bit guild?" he asked. "Scram, kid, I'm busy here." He pointed a rugged finger at Kohaku. "Your friend here ate a diamond that I came here to collect."

"Ate it!?" Mikado shouted giving Kohaku one heck of a surprised look.

"You heard me: ate it. So I guess I'm gonna have to get it out of her, one way or another…"

"Um…" Kohaku stuttered, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "I think it kinda came out already…" Mikado just stared at her, unable to find the words to describe any of this.

"Hmph, I kinda figured that much," Roqua grunted. "In that case, I'll just have to make do with crushing the life outta ya." He raised his right hand, causing a boulder to tear out of the ground.

"Oh yeah!" one of the smugglers murmured in excitement. "There it is. The boss's Boulder Magic."

"Boulder Shot!" Roqua cried as the rock flung itself at the trio. All three of them managed to leap out of the way easily.

"So he's a wizard too, huh?" Mikado grunted. "Guess that's where he got the name from."

"I'm really sorry," Kohaku apologized to Roqua. "I just caught a whiff of that diamond outside, and it smelled so good… And I was really hungry…" She started to drool a bit. "I mean, I'm really sorry about all this. Papa taught me that stealing is wrong, so if there's anything that I can do…"

Is this girl for real? Mikado wondered. Is she actually apologizing to this creep?

"There is one thing you can do," Roqua said, raising dozens of smaller rocks into the air. "Die! Machine-gun Rocks!" The stones instantly flung themselves at the girl, like shots from a cannon.

This is not good, Mikado thought. "Get out of there!" he cried as he began to form a green light in his left hand. But as he did, Buddy fluttered in front of him, the back of his paw extended in front of Mikado's face. The cat turned its head, shook it, and smiled.

"Watch," he told Mikado.

"I'm sorry," Kohaku said calmly, her feet rooted firmly in that spot. "But that's the one thing I can't do." She took a deep breath and puffed up her cheeks. "Suishoryū no…" she murmured, "Hōkō!" With that cry a tornado, filled with sharpened crystal shards, exploded from her mouth, wiping out Roqua's attack. The smugglers, Roqua included, were shocked by this sudden turn of events.

"What the…?" Mikado pondered out loud. "What is she…?"

"Get her!" Roqua screamed. "Kill her!" Despite what they had seen, the thugs charged at Kohaku, requiping all sorts of weapons.

"A dragon's claws are as hard as diamonds…" Buddy explained, watching Kohaku with a knowing smile. The girl dove forward, landing on her hands amidst the smugglers.

"Suishoryū Kama!" she shouted, as her right leg instantly sprouted a massive, crystalline scythe. She quickly spun on her hands, swinging the scythe and flooring all the thugs. Roqua could only stare, slack-jawed in amazement and terror as the scythe vanished and Kohaku leapt to her feet to face the ringleader.

"And a dragon's fangs are even harder…" Buddy continued.

Roqua scowled at Kohaku. "Rock Wall!" he cried, raising both arms into the air. A wall of stalagmites instantly formed between the combating mages. "Let's see you fight me through this you brat!"

Kohaku planted her feet in the ground and pulled back her right fist. "Suishoryū Kon!" she shouted, punching as a pillar of crystal shot from her arm.

"She is Kohaku Diamont…"

The pillar eradicated the rocks, leaving Roqua only a split-second before it decked him, sending him sprawling, knocked out cold.

"The Crystal Dragon Slayer," Buddy finished.

A dragon slayer, Mikado thought as he stared at Kohaku. The girl turned to her two friends, smiled brightly, and skipped on over. Just like Salamander or the Twin Dragons of Sabertooth. This girl is amazing.

"Well, that should do it!" Kohaku said cheerily. "We caught the bad guys for you!" She turned to look at the smugglers' fallen leader. "I guess that guy was pretty round already, so that job's complete. But what about the other guys? How are we supposed to round them up? Maybe if we rolled them into some sort of ball…"

"Uh, that's not what that phrase means…" Mikado interrupted her. He shook his head and smiled. "Well, you took these guys out, just like you said. And with the blast from that roar of yours, it shouldn't be long before some council wizards show up. By the way, how did you learn that magic anyway?"

"My Papa taught it to me," Kohaku replied.

"Your Papa?"

"Yep. Quartzite the Crystal Dragon."

So that would make her an old-generation dragon slayer, huh? Mikado thought. To believe that there are people out there who were actually raised by dragons. It's almost unthinkable. He scratched his head. "Well, I'm sorry, but I have no idea where to even begin looking for a dragon…"

"Oh…" Kohaku said, looking just a smidge disappointed. "That's alright." She smiled a wide grin, revealing pointed incisors alongside her normal-looking teeth. "Buddy and I will just keep looking." She turned to skip away, Buddy following behind her.

"Wait!" Mikado called out. Kohaku stopped and turned to him, a curious look on her face. "Are you part of a guild by any chance?" The girl shook her head. Mikado held up his right hand and showed her his tattoo. "Then how would you like to join one," he asked. "This is the mark of my guild, Fox Tail. We could really use someone like you, and maybe we could give you a place to call home while you look for your dad. What do you say?"

Kohaku turned to Buddy, and he turned to her. They smiled, nodded, and turned to Mikado. "We'd love to!" Kohaku giggled.

"Great," Mikado said with a grin. He wondered for a moment. It's so strange. I don't even know this girl that well. Why do I feel like I have to go this far to help her, to take her under the guild's wings? An image flashed through his mind: A little girl with silver-white hair, clad in a white dress and bare feet, a red ribbon in her hand. Right, he thought, nodding to himself. Because that's what you did for me, Kaguya-san.

"Wow," Buddy sighed. "There sure were a lot of these guys. Who were they, anyway?" he wondered.

"Them?" Mikado asked. "I think they were called the Roqua Gang; a bunch of jewel thieves and smugglers. They're even suspected to have been involved in the theft of a very valuable ruby from the Freesia Museum."

Kohaku turned to Buddy, who again returned her gaze. "Was that a big red jewel in a glass box in a fancy building?" she asked hesitantly.

Why do I not like the sound of this? Mikado thought. "Sounds right… Why…?" Kohaku sheepishly rubbed the back of her head again.

"Oh… Wellll… actually that was me…" Kohaku admitted. Mikado stared again, eyes wide in shock. "I didn't know I was stealing, honest," she pleaded. "It was right out in the open, and no one was using it, right? And there were all these security lacrima and stuff, so Buddy thought it was some kind of obstacle course and the ruby was the prize…"

Crap, Mikado thought. Now I really need to get her to the guild. "Um, we better get going to Fox Tail now," he said, turning to run. Kohaku gave him a warm, grateful smile, as if she had just been given the best present in the world.

"Okay!" she said skipping after him, Buddy in tow.

"And hurry! Before the council wizards get here!"