"This is malarkey."
Marin frowned, glancing at her friend, before questioning, "What's that mean?"
"I dunno," Kai admitted. "I heard Mr. Bickslow say it before. But I'm pretty sure this is that."
Erza, who at the moment was cooking the children breakfast, only shook her head. Given Haven was out of the house for a few days, it was all too easy for Mirajane to pawn her youngest off on Erza. Well, in theory. Erza had actually hoped to do the same, but Mira beat her to the punch, given they were up at the bar that day where the barmaid had ample time to implement the concept. Not that Mirajane would get much out of this, no doubt, as Laxus seemed rather pissed at her still over the whole thing.
Still, a childless house is a childless house.
The swordswoman wished she had been given the chance to experience the same.
"How is it unfair, Kai?" she asked as she came to set plates of breakfast before both children. "Your siblings have become proficient enough in their magic that they are able to take such jobs. You two, however, seem content in mediocrity. If not worse; disappointment. For you to be given the same opportunities while refusing to flourish would not be fair."
Kai, having listened to hardly any of the things that left the woman's mouth, only said, "It's unfair, Erza, 'cause I can't go."
Duh.
Marin only nodded.
"Then," the swordswoman remarked with a heavy look to both, "perhaps you should improve the situation yourselves. If you want to be mages, you must work for it. Nothing in this world is handed to you. At this rate, I will be making you breakfast and having this same conversation with you in a year. Two. Three. Ten. Do you want that?"
"Do we have to have grits each time?"
"Kai-"
"I's just askin'."
Still, she shook her head. "One day, both of you will be sorry that you squandered your abilities. This is the peak time to thrive. To grow. In your magic. Especially you, Marin."
And the little girl frowned some, looking away, just from the thought of the woman addressing her. It was rare, shockingly enough, for Erza to directly speak to her rather than just around her and Marin was very embarrassed.
"How come especially her?" Kai wasn't offended. Just curious. He agreed, anyways. Marin could be way stronger than him. He didn't care none. It just meant she could protect him when Ravan wasn't about (or when Ravan was who he required protection from). "Huh?"
"She is the child of not only two very powerful wizards," Erza continued though, thankfully, once more speaking around the child in question, "as well as possesses a powerful lacrima. One that any one, not just the children at the guild, but anyone would kill for. To be blessed, not once, but twice, and then to give it away, to let the chance slip through your fingers… Magical power is not a burden. Neither is immense power. They are gifts only bestowed on those seen fitting. They-"
"Except," Kai cut her off because, if you didn't, Erza would just talk forever, and he wasn't up for that, "for bad guys."
"I- what, Kai?"
"Bad guys get magic too," he insisted. "Don't they? They get powerful and magic and that's not a good thing? Is it?"
"Well, I suppose not," she agreed, at least somewhat. In the next breath she was shrugging and remarked, "Although, I suppose an argument could be made that there is no good without evil, to begin with, so at it's core, magic has no say in those sorts of things as, considering it is a concept rather than a living, breathing thing, and would have no understanding of such human determinations-"
"Then," Kai kept up, as well as he could anyways, "do you want us to learn magic so badly?"
He'd brought her back to her original point and, with a sharp look to both children, she only claimed her only seat at the table.
"Because I will not always be here to care for you. Nor able to. And there is no skill to fall back on better than magic." Still, she shrugged some. "Unless, of course, you have another dream you wish to share with me-"
"Nope." The little boy even shook his shaggy head. "None."
"Just," the woman sighed in response as Marin too seemed at a loss, "as I feared."
Still, the woman would be happy to find her more studious understudy had made it through the night, at least. In fact, it was he who got up early that morning, before dawn, and headed from the tiny camp the kids had made into town. There was a bakery only just opening and he purchased some biscuits.
He just so happened to get enough for everyone.
Happenstance, honestly.
Ravan was glad, anyways, to find the other still asleep when he got back. It gave him an excuse to go and kick each and everyone of them in the head. He was just about to finish off with Navi when the girl yelled, "I'm awake, I'm awake!" and bounced up, away from him. The gripes of Haven and Locke were enough of a warning, anyways.
The walk the rest of the way was done in mostly silence as all four of the children seemed to grow nervous at the prospects before them. Though they'd gone on plenty jobs together before, they were typically menial work, things that were beneath the more seasoned wizards in the hall. Starter jobs. And though they'd all gone on more serious adventures with both their respective adults as well as one another's. This was different though.
They were the ones in control. Whatever happened, or didn't happen, all weighed upon their shoulders. It was up to them and only them to make sure that this all went fine. And if it didn't, well, there was a good chance they wouldn't be allowed another opportunity at this sort of thing for a good number of months, if not a year.
They couldn't fail.
They wouldn't.
The place felt deserted when they arrived. There were gates surrounding the city, but they were open and baron. It was nowhere near as big as Magnolia, Haiko wasn't, but it was still a pretty lofty town, and they could tell people were home, at least, as they were watched from windows as they strolled through the streets.
"This place," Navi remarked softly as she stayed close to Locke, the atmosphere causing her more than a bit of unease, "is kinda creepy."
Ravan, annoyed, asked Haven, "Where are we supposed to go? Should we just go knock on a door and ask?"
"To the town hall, I guess," she said, but Locke only frowned.
"If the city is taken," he pointed out slowly, "wouldn't you think that's where they'd hole up? The people holding it captive? And wouldn't there be some sort of patrol? On the street? I mean-"
"Hey! You! You kids!"
And they all froze then (Navi even jumped a bit), as they found the source to be coming from a building they'd already passed, an apartment of sorts, from which a man stuck his head out of a window on the second floor.
"Yeah, you," growled the man. "Get in here!"
They were unsure of themselves, the kids were, but the natural authority of an adult addressing them more than lead them to head that way. The second they were close enough, the front door of the place was thrown open and they were drug in. As they tumbled to their feet after being grabbed, each child got into a fighting stance, glancing around at the adults that surrounded them in the entrance of the apartment building. But they didn't look like a gang of thugs. In fact, though it was two men who'd dragged them in there, women and children were down in the entrance way as well, all staring at them with wide, round eyes.
"Who are you?"
And that came from the man that had yelled at them originally, all four of their eyes following him as he rushed down the stairs to address the children.
"And why are you here?" he kept up. A stocky man that had to at least be Laxus' age (which made him ancient, truly), he seemed rather huffy and had an air of importance about him. "Have you not heard the news? This town is under seizure."
"We know." Haven is the one that relaxed first, finding her voice much easier than the others. "We're here to help."
"Help?"
"We filled your job. We're the wizards who've come to-"
"You?" The man's tone then changed, more to one of amusement and, though they all still seemed rather tense, some of the others around did give off something of laughs. "Your children! Surely, you are joking."
"Surely," Ravan growled, "not."
And each child barred their guild marking then. Locke's black one on his left shoulder, Navi's pink on her right, Ravan tugging at the neckline of his shirt, just enough to flash the red marking, and Haven, always the most complex in every situation, had to turn around and lift her shirt, just enough to show off the black ink in the center of her back.
"We're Fairy Tail wizards," Locke insisted and, given his age was just enough over the other children that, finally, he was edging towards puberty and therefore looked more suitable, there was much more belief in the eyes of the others then. "We've answered your job request. Now please, tell us what it is that's going on here."
"Children. Fucking children." He grew kind of agitated then, the man in charge seemed to be then, and only huffed. "Well, you might as well head on back. We don't need the help of the children. I'll write the other guilds again, the capital. Someone. We need serious help. So get out of here! Fucking children."
Locke and Navi looked to Haven, as always, but it was Ravan that spoke then, even snorting.
"Are you stupid?" he asked the man though he was looking around at all of them. "Huh? We just told you we're wizard. It doesn't matter how old we are. If you need help, you need us. I'm Erza Scarlet's student. And you laugh at me? Do you want to save your town or not?"
That got silence once more as the man before them seemed to consider this. The eyes of the other people gathered around fell to him and, with a long sigh, the man turned to head up the stairs.
"Come on then," he told them. "Come upstairs with me. We will speak there."
Haven was glaring at Ravan and as Locke and Navi rushed after the man, she only trailed after the other boy.
"You're Erza's little student now?"
"Shut up, Haven," Ravan growled under his breath at her. "Do you really wanna fight right now?"
No. And she didn't have time to, anyhow, as once they were upstairs, they were led right to a room off the hall.
Once the door was shut, the man addressed them.
"I, as you may have guessed," he began, walking slowly before the children, "am the Mayor of Haiko. Jamock, you can address me as. Formally a general in the King's royal army. I've always run my city the same as you would a ship. And yet, when in our time of need, does the capital come to me? Does it send aid? No. Just a letter informing us that, at best, we can hope for assistance in the coming months, but our best bet was to request it from...wizard guilds." The latter words were said with palpable disgust and the children only exchanged glances. But just as quickly, the man was continuing. "So I do it. I reach out to only the best. And what do they send me? Brats. Children. As if I do not have those in my own city. As if they somehow can save something which I-"
"What are you even talking about?" Haven, after having been one upped by Ravan downstairs, refused to allow him to take command once more. "Why are we here? What did you need assistance with? And how did a dark guild get involved?"
The mayor sighed then, stopping his pacing before the children, as he said, "There was a...sickness that spread, rather harshly, throughout our town. We were quarantined until it passed, but following that, there were many expenses in the city and not much through traffic, obviously. The burial costs alone, along with the orphaned and still too weak from their illness to work… We needed help. Again, the capital gave little aid, and I was fearful over our town's chance at bouncing back. Then a man showed up, at the city limits, and offered the assistance we needed. He had men that would help with the final cremations, burials. Jewels to get our soup kitchen through the next few months. Help us get back on our feet. It sounded too good to be true. All he wanted in return was housing for he and his men. But then..."
"So many of you are sick," Locke answered. "Or you were. And unable to fight back when the man, who I guess was part of a dark guild, brought his men in. They run your town now. Right?"
"Aye." He bowed his head then. "They have locked themselves inside my residential, governing building. There is a magical spell that forbids I and my men entry. I cannot cross a certain boundary, much less face the...thugs that they have residing in there. Please. If you are truly wizards, drive these men out of town and allow us to continue our attempt at survival."
"We'll do you one better." And Haven reached over to shove Locke forwards, towards the man, saying, "He knows some medical magic. He'll do what he can to take care of your sick. The rest of us will go and break through the barrier. Save your city."
He let out a long, slow breath then, the man did, before warning simply, "The man in there...his men… They are tricky. Proceed with caution."
Locke, not too keen on being left out, followed the other kids down the stairs and out the front door, grabbing Haven's arm as he frowned the second she was facing him.
"Are you sure?" he asked. "That I should stay behind? What if you need me."
"We won't."
"Haven-"
"You're the one always saying this is what you wanna do." And she jerked her arm free from his grip. It wasn't difficult. "To heal people. To save them. So you do that. We'll do the rest."
"You can join us, Locke," Navi assured him with a nod. "When you're done here."
But as he glanced around at the buildings that seemed to house many eyes, peeking out at them, he had a bad feeling that he wouldn't be free of his medic duties for a good while.
The mayor was in the doorway then and called out to them that they should find the residence in the center of town before setting a hand on Locke's shoulder, patting it stiffly before leading him back into the apartment building, no doubt to begin healing the wounded.
Haven, Ravan, and Navi felt a bit better then as, with a clear directive, their nerves were settling once more. Though the hard part was only just upon them, they were finally feeling like they belonged. They could do this. Whatever was waiting for them in the mayor's building was no more tough than dealing with the man himself. How could it be?
Laxus still had zero confidence, however, in his daughter and her friends as he mostly spent the day growling in his office as only Mirajane seemed brave enough to even address him. It wasn't like she too wasn't worried though. Or at least conscious of the danger. She'd feel much calmer when her oldest was back in her midst, fine, but she still knew that there was nothing worrying would do for them. Any of them.
The kids would come back, one way or another. She couldn't spend the next few days stressing about it.
"I'll take a juice. And one for Marin too."
Besides, she still had two other kids to fret over.
Kai seemed rather down though, as he slid some of his allowance across the bar to Mirajane, even sighing as his head fell to rest on the cool surface. Marin looked on mournfully.
"What's wrong, kids?" Mira asked, glancing between them. "Do you miss your siblings?"
"No," Kai said bluntly. It was true enough. Ravan and Haven had been butts, honestly, recently. "We don't."
"Then-"
"Kai's sad that they got to go on a cool, fun, job," Marin offered to her mother, "but we're stuck here. And then Erza scolded us for feelin' bad."
"I thought you don't wanna go on jobs?"
"We don't," Kai answered. "But we still can like the idea of it, can't we?"
Mira sighed again, as she glanced between them, before saying, "I'm sure if you stick around here long enough, something will come up to take your mind off it."
The kids weren't so sure, but they did appreciate the lunch she served them over their drinks. Still, as business picked up, the woman shooed them off, ordering them to go find something fun to do. Marin and Kai were just gonna go hang out in the pull where she'd use her magic to manipulate the water for their amusement (it wasn't hard to do, anyways, amuse the pair), but as they passed the table her aunt and uncle were seated out, the children of course had to stop and say high.
"I dunno, Elf," Lisanna was sighing. "It's just so weird, isn't it?"
"What is?" Kai asked, never one to learn boundaries of any sort. Adults, children, who cared? If they were talking around him, he had no problem butting right in. "Ms. Lissy?"
She frowned some at the two children, but still, Lisanna only shifted over some so they could both slide in beside her at the table.
"I was just telling your uncle," she remarked to the two kids, "that some things around the bar have gone missing recently. I've been pulling shifts for Mira in the mornings, but every time I open up, it feels like something else is missing."
"Like what?" Marin asked with a frown.
"Just little things," Lisanna said with a shrug. "I first noticed that some cleaning bottles were missing, when I opened up one morning, but when I went to ask Mirajane about them, they were back. But a little more used, I thought. It happened again the next night too. But not just cleaning supplies. I've noticed towels going missing and toilet paper. Never food or alcohol though, like you'd think. Sis has been so busy with other things that she doesn't pay much attention, I don't think, to stock on stuff that isn't food or whatever, but I can't help, but shake the feeling that-"
"We'll take it!"
"Take what?" Elfman, who'd seem to be hardly listening, frowned at the little boy. "What are you talking about?"
Kai only beamed up at Lisanna proudly. "Your request. To find out where the stuff is going. You don't even gotta pay us or nothin'. We'll do it for the experience."
"I didn't hear myself offering a job to begin with," Lisanna mused, but it was with a giggle. Kai liked her a lot. She was a lot like Mrs. Master. Kind and silly. He liked that. "Although, for you to do it for free-"
"Don't sound much like a job anyways," Elfman added. "So someone's stealing stuff around the place. Hire a security guard. Not these two."
"Hey!" Slamming a hand dramatically down on the table, Kai told Elfman, "From one man to a half man, you should be glad I'm trying to work. I wouldn't insult a job you were on."
"He makes a good point, Elf," Lisanna added with a nod of her head causing her older brother to only sigh and agree. "Everyone has to start somewhere."
But she couldn't stay around for ever, the youngest Strauss sibling couldn't, but before she left, she told the kids to speak to Marin's mother and Kinana, if they wanted to hear more about the missing stuff. After bidding her and Elf goodbye, the kids set out to do just that, Marin still a bit weary, but Kai with his head held high.
He, of course, was going to make sure to bring this up to Erza over dinner that night. He wasn't useless. He could pull his own weight.
Back in Haiko, the other children were attempting to do the same. They found the mayor's place easily enough. It stuck out a bit, even, given that there was some sort of force field dumb around it, transparent, yet tented a light purplish color, a magic circle adorning the top.
"How," Navi sighed in defeat, "are we supposed to get through this?"
No one was too sure. Haven had kind of hoped that it was some sort of rune magic that was keeping them out. Maybe then she could at least figure it out, given all the times she'd been banished by her father over to Freed's as punishment. He'd always insisted to her that it was an important, useful skill to have, but clearly, it was more important to know whatever kinda stupid magic they were confronted with at the moment.
Ravan, growing agitated, only growled some as he produced a weapon from his equip space before attacking the part of the dome in front of them, striking it with his sword with swift ferocity.
"Knock it off!" And Haven shot a ball of electricity at him then, just strong enough to knock him off balance and down on his butt. As he glared over, she didn't even spare him a glance. "You can't just waste your magic like that. We have no idea how many guys are in there. You can't just use it all up."
"You have a better idea?" he asked with a glare, but she still refused to look at him. Instead, she began to walk away, around the perimeter of the dome.
"Maybe," she said, more to Navi than the boy, "there's something around back."
It couldn't hurt, anyways.
Following the perimeter, of course, led them around the gate of the property and though the barrier still stood before them, they could now see the back entrance to the building. Navi only leaned against the barrier, pressing her face into it as she stared in.
"Hey!" she called to what seemed to be no one before them. "Is anyone in there? We're from Fairy Tail! If you're in there, you might as well let us in! You can't starve us out!"
None of the children expected much from this and, for a minute, they got nothing. In fact, they were about to head around back front when, suddenly, there appeared a man, coming out of the back of the building. They all froze, the three children did, as once more, they were tensing for a fight.
"You're from," he called out to them, "Fairy Tail? You said?"
"Yeah," Haven called back, yelling, really, as if fearful her voice wouldn't carry through the barrier. "We're Fairy Tail wizards. And we've come to take back this town."
He was rushing then, the thin, frail man was, across the wide yard and through the back gate, all the way to the barrier. A few feet from it, the kids could see him much better and, honestly, they were a bit confused.
He looked nothing like the bandit they'd imagined.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you," he practically sang as he held out his hands, a magic circle appearing, just for a moment, before the dome around them began to fade. "We got word yesterday of your imminent arrival, but we could have never dreamed you would arrive so quickly. Come, hurry."
"Wait a minute," Haven asked as the man only beckoned them, almost in a beg, to join him then, no doubt so he could put the barrier right back up. "What do you mean you summoned us?"
The man deflated some, confused, as he questioned, "Are you not the wizards who filled our request?"
"Your request?" Ravan refused to take steps forwards until he had his own question answered. "Who are me?"
He cocked their head at them in confusion, studying the children in puzzled silence. Then, with a frown, he informed them, "I am the Mayor of Haiko. Mayor Dulwit."