Chasing Dreams

Chapter Three

Operation Save the Train

Akira dove behind a sliding compartment door and crouched behind the door.

That way! The kid went down the hall!"

She held a breath and cautiously watched as the horde of mages raced past her, out of sight. She peeked down the hall, the coast was clear. Akira slowly stood up from her cramped hiding spot and quickly doubled back the other way.

Somehow she had managed to make it past the first three men that had found her. It had been simple enough to shove their bodies into an empty compartment and lock the door behind her. Akira had made one fatal error, however. She had foolishly assumed that they were the only intruders on the train. She had been mighty surprised when she ran into a whole other group of mages. Apparently this train was infested. Akira swallowed and her nerves returned as the train seemed to rumble beneath her feet. At this point, she had no idea if they were still on route or where in Earthland these hijackers were planning on taking them. Akira still hadn't seen any other passengers and she was beginning to fear the worst.

At worst, Akira wanted to at least be able to get off the train but she couldn't help but worry about the civilians on the train. She held her breath and ducked behind another door as hurried set of footsteps came rumbling past.

Akira glanced down each aisle of the train before walking through to the next car. She was a little happy to see that it was the dining car she had managed to make it to. She was starving. Rubbing her hands together, she set her metal pipe down on a table and dug through the first meal cart. There wasn't much but she had managed to snag a few rolls and a bottle of sparkling cider.

It was a tense, quiet silence as she quickly scarfed down her scant meal. She brushed the crumbs off her shirt and set the half empty bottle back on the cart. Digging through her pockets, Akira managed to rummage up a few jewels. She placed the money underneath the pile of dishes. It would do no good if those goons took the money that she had left for the kitchen staff.

Akira fiddled with the straps on her pack before she was satisfied. She was happy that she had managed to grab her bag before making her escape. It had just about everything she owned in it. Akira grabbed her pipe and stood up on the table. Holding it up, she easily pried open the emergency exit and was satisfied when the emergency alarm didn't go off. She had suspected that they were disabled. The Fiore train system was no stranger to thieves and bandits. They had plenty of ways to detect and counter such things. If they had been working, the Rune Knights would've already been here and taken control of the train.

Shimmying herself up, Akira grabbed the edge and lifted herself up. She carefully leaned her weight away from the two black switches that were inside the hatch door. They would manually turn on the emergency alarm system, but it wasn't like Akira wanted to alarm the Rune Knights either. If she could, she just wanted to find a safe place to jump off, then she'd be home free-

"Don't move." A sharp crackle of electricity caught Akira's ear and she froze. Ever so slowly she turned around and caught sight of the staff that was less than a foot away from her jugular. Swallowing, she held her free hand up and placed the metal pipe down on the top of the train next to her. The wind blew her hair and she was having trouble curving the urge to spit it out of her face.

Leveling the staff down, the man grabbed the communicator at his hip, "Boss, I found the little Fairy. I got her pinned in the dining-"

Akira didn't hesitate, gripping the edge of the pipe, she swung it out and stuck him hard in the legs. The man cried out and stumbled back, falling down against the top of the train in a hard thump. The communicator lacrima cracked and tumbled off the top of the train car. Bearing her teeth, Akira wrenched the staff from his grip and threw it behind her, unaware of the trajectory she was throwing it in.

"What did you do?!"

A loud alarm wailed and both Akira turned in surprise. Her mouth dropped in slight horror as she began to realize what she had done. She could barely contain a groan as the hatch automatically closed, leaving them both trapped on the top. Akira's eyes narrowed and her ire turned on the man who was looking more defenseless than not. "My fault?!" She shook her head and flipped the metal rod in her hands. She swung it experimentally and leveled it at him, "This is your fault! You think I wanted to call the Rune Knights?!"

The two mages went stumbling as the train switched tracks. Akira could hear the rumble off footsteps beneath her feet and knew that she had already wasted enough time. She lunged, striking the man across the temple. Her hit was surprising even to her, the hijacker was out even before he hit the ground.

Flexing her fingers, Akira was delighted to feel magic pulsing through her veins, she pulled down the cloth over the nose and experimentally sniffed at the air. The reach of the magic inhibitors didn't get through to the outside of the train. She took a deep breath and relished in the feeling of magic through her limbs.

The feeling didn't last long. There was a muffled shout and suddenly her feet came out from underneath her. She landed right on top of a dining cart. Dishes shattered upon impact and Akira barely scrambled out of the way from another blast of electricity that was aimed for her. There was a smoking hole where the hatch had been and in hindsight, Akira could surmise that it probably wasn't the best idea to stand exactly where the alarm was going off.

Feeling blindly around her, Akira gripped the cool edge of the metal pipe and swung blindly. With the bit of magic she had coursing through her veins, the swings were much more precise and deadly. But that didn't mean that she wasn't outnumbered

"Get the Fairy!"

'Why do they keep calling me that?' Akira glanced around at the number of goons surrounding her. If she was going to make it out of here, she'd take a few of them out by surprise. Ducking under the first swing she jabbed the electric staff. The charred end swung past her shoulder and fired directly at the group of mages scrambling towards her.

She ignored their cries of anger and raced into the next car. She yanked the door shut and locked in behind her. The car shook from the banging.

"Got her locked on my radar!"

"She's over here!"

Akira groaned and glanced behind, they were coming up on her, she needed a way out and fast! She ran down the hall, hair flying.

'There!'

At the end of the hall there was a small door, it looked like it could of been a service door or even an small chute for trash. Didn't matter really, it was the way out. Skidding to a stop in front of it, Akira tried to turn the door handle but it was locked. Giving it an experimental tug she grit her teeth. Akira repetitively rammed her shoulder against it, "Open up you stupid-"

Without warning the door gave way, she lost her balance and fell into the room. Dust blew everywhere making Akira cough. Holding her metal rod close, she pushed herself back on her feet and hastily shut the door behind her. She could hear muffled voices from down the hall and the stampeding of feet as her pursuers raced past her hiding place. Letting out a short sigh of relief, She tried to makes heads of where she had ended up. The room was cloyingly hot. She tugged at her collar and smacked her lips in a silent proclamation of thirst. Akira squinted through dimly lit room but she had trouble making anything out.

She rubbed her temples and cursed under her breath. The only way to get off the train now would to be if she somehow managed to turn off the alarms manually. Only the conductor knew how to do that. And if Akira had to guess, the conductor was probably either dead, knocked out or being held captive along with everyone else.

She stumbled over a group of heavy boxes and what felt to be like scrapped metal. Akira rubbed her shins, "Stupid box!" She scowled and pushed herself up off the dusty-covered floorboards, mindful of the newly acquired scrapes on her knees. Dusting off her pants, she turned towards the box and kicked it has hard as she could. What she hadn't expected was to box to kick back.

There was a pulse of energy so hard that it caused Akira to go reeling back into another set of boxes. She fell hard on the seat of her pants and hissed in pain. Pushing herself up by her elbows, she was surprised to see a faint light spilling out from the small webbed cracks she had left in the box.

Gripping the edge of her metal pipe, she got to her feet and carefully inspected the box. After a minute of contemplation, Akira carefully pried up the nails and opened the box. Digging through the straw that had been used for packing, she finally shimmied out the glowing thing. Holding it up, she examined it. Now that it was out of the folds of her clothing, it began to glow a little brighter, enough to illuminate the machinery. It was a key, something of the likes that Akira had never seen before. It glowed a bright blue and there were strange symbols around the silver handle. It was pretty big, almost the size of her palm. Akira rose a brow and flicked it a few times. Nothing, no flux, no tremor, the key didn't seem to do anything other than glow. It was magic, obviously, but Akira hadn't a clue on how she had activated it.

Rubbing the bridge of her nose, she examined the key a little closer. It had blue spiral marks around the handle, She had never seen markings like that before. The only thing she couldn't surmise was that it might've been some sort of lacrima enhancer.

A metallic groan sounded out and Akira flicked the light source upward to illuminate the thing that had startled her. Standing in front if her was a giant lacrima engine based coal furnace. It was old, outdated and probably should have been removed thirty years ago. It's size dwarfed the girl, towering a little over twice her height. Thick, hot bands of lacrima snaked around the base and the sides of the blackened metal, shackling it to the ceiling. The cords buried themselves deep into the machinery and out the belly of the mechanical beast. They shot down into the floor like thick roots of a tree. They burned a deep red and hissed periodically, letting off gasps of hot, dry air.

The furnace shuttered, spitting out a great plume of black smoke. She coughed, covering her mouth and nose. "What is with all this smoke?! Isn't that the point of the ventilation..." Akira's eyes widened, she laughed and climbed up on the furnace, carefully avoiding the hot lacrima rods and the streams of burning hot air. If she couldn't get off the train then she could get this train going in the right direction. And the only way to do that would be to get to the conductor.

She kicked the fan in and threw it off the wall that was to the side of the smoke shaft. The girl grimaced, the airduct was covered in greasy black residue from the coal smoke. Tucking her rod close inside her jacket she crouched down and stuck her head inside. What better way to sneak to the other side of the train than the ventilation?

"Find her!" A deep shout, erupted from around the bend, "I don't care if you have to tear down every inch of this place!"

Akira turned back towards the door. She didn't really have a choice now. Pushing herself up, Akira army crawled through the air ducts. She held the key in her mouth so she could have full range of motion along with enough light to see.

"All I have to do is double back through the air ducts, find the conductor and smash the magic inhibitors." She mumbled through her teeth, "And maybe if I'm lucky I'll kick a few sets of teeth in." Akira was looking forward to that. The train ride was supposed to be relaxing. When this was over she was going to demand her money back.

Crack!

Akira shrieked and clung to the sides of the duct as the metal plating under her shook and wobbled. After a moment of silence she hesitantly felt the cool metal plating under her. She slowly began to inch her way forward... nothing. Breathing a sigh of relief she resumed her crawl until all of a sudden she found that there was suddenly nothing underneath her. With a crash, the duct came out from under and Akira fell forward. The metal rod slipped from her grip and disappeared beneath her. She desperately grabbed for the metal grate but it slipped out of her fingers. She barely had time to scream before her body slammed into the floor beneath her. Akira laid there for a moment, the wind completely knocked out of her as everything hurt.

'Not what I had in mind...' Akira winced and slowly her to her feet. She tried brush some of the ashy streaks off her clothes. She muttered darkly under her breath and rubbed a particularly dark stain on her pants. Akira froze when she realized where she was. Guards on the right, on the left, guards everywhere!

She forced a calm mask over her features and overtly stuck the key back into her pocket, 'Go through the air duct Akira! You can't go wrong with a half broken, ash covered air duct!' She internally snarked, surveying the room. She specifically noted all the exits. She brightened just a little when she saw the slew of the hostages in the next compartment. Akira could see the blue conductor uniform from across the room. At least she had managed to find him.

"Get her!"

Akira reflexively ducked at the shout as two bolts just grazed her head. Wide-eyed, she stumbled back from the onslaught of mages pouring through door.

'They're like cockroaches!' She dove out of the way as two more bolts fired at her. Keeping on her toes, she jumped back as more shots were rapidly coming in her direction. Her back slammed against the wall, she was trapped!

One of the men grinned and took a few steps forward, charging his weapon, "We got you now little mage."

She needed a plan. Glancing around the room she caught sight of the red-haired chick in...armour? Akira blinked, 'That's not a sight you see everyday.' Her eyes narrowed when she saw the glowing chains holding armor girl down. Akira could feel the the pull of the inhibitors, smothering her magic. Akira glanced around the room and caught sight sight of the large, pulsing lacrima that were set up on the other side of the room. She was just glad that she had managed to get as much magic as she did. The magic inhibitors were so strong it took Akira's breath away. If she managed to turn them off she might have a fighting chance of escaping.

Akira pursed her lips and ran her fingers through her hair, trying to put together a semblance of a plan of attack. There was no way she could take them all head on. Akira racked her brain for every trick she could think of. Her eyes narrowed every so slightly at the man with the huge cube for a head. How gullible were these hijackers? Her back hit the wall and she cursed her luck. Hopefully they were as stupid as they looked.

Turning her head, she held up her hands in surrender and looked at the group with the saddest look she could muster, "I-I'm s-sorry!" She cried, choking her voice up with as much emotion as she could manage. "I just got lost and then you guys were chasing me! I-I d-didn't mean to! I was j-just so scared!" Akira began to sob, she dramatically flung herself to her knees and buried her face into her hands. She braced herself for the electric shock that was sure to come. She had always been at acting.

Everyone stood there, not sure what to do with the scene. Whispering broke out between the men.

What should we do Sly-sama? I know you said kill her but..."

"She's just a kid, sure I like the money but even I got standards...

Inwardly Akira froze her position and her mouth just about dropped. Were they really falling for it? She was almost miffed at their comments. She wasn't a kid!

"...Nah, she ain't a threat. Just tie her up with the other passengers, I don't see what the big-"

"I say we should get rid of her boss!" One of the men shouted, boasting out loud, "The lesser witnesses the better!"

Akira bit back a scathing remark and forced herself to cry a little harder. It was embarrassing to stand here while they talked over something so stupid. Carefully she inched her way forward to where her metal pipe was. Loud mouth over there would be the first to go.

A few of the men dropped their weapons and started to walk up to her, "Well," one of the men sighed, "What do you think boss?"

"Is this the problem all of you have been complaining about?!" Akira heard in response, she frowned at the sound of disgust in his voice as he regarded her. "A ten year old little girl!" His laugh grated at her ears and Akira had the urge to punch him square in the nose. She tensed but made sure not to move a muscle out of place. Akira could hear movement around her. Completely closing her eyes, she concentrated in the sounds of footsteps coming. She circulated the little bit of magic she had left through her limbs.

"I show you how to deal with little runts, it'll only take like two seconds tops-"

'Now!' She whipped her head up and with a sneer, she kicked him as hard as she could.

She pump fisted when he went flying back, disappearing into the crowd of mages. Getting up to her feet, Akira scooped up the metal rod off the floor and wasted no time picking up another staff from the floor.

"You little bitch! How DARE you hurt Sly-sama!" One of the men roared, he leveraged his weapon and began to fire at her. His shots seemed to spurn on the others.

"Get her!"

"Stupid Fairy! Stand still!"

Akira, despite her predicament, grinned at the cursing man and stuck her tongue out. He let out a roar and charged, his staff swung wildly around, knocking down the mages in his vicinity. Green lightning misfired and ricocheted off the surrounding walls, hitting unsuspecting mages.

She slammed the butt end of the staff against the floor as she had seen others do and was happy for once to hear the ominous sound of electricity crackle in her favor.

She jumped into the confusion, ducking underneath swings and jabbing bouts of electricity at random. She threw herself into the mage in front of her, driving headfirst into his stomach. He cried out, swinging his arms wildly around to keep his balance. He stumbled back into the mages behind him, knocking them down with him. With the first staff broken, she picked up another discarded one and swung it around.

"I'll kill you!"

Akira whipped her head around at the sound of the boss' voice. Where was he? She scanned the the horde of mages in annoyance, they all looked the same! The girl side stepped under another slash, letting the one mage take out another. At this rate it would be easier to just take out the boss. If he was gone then maybe the others would leave.

"Watch out!"

Akira dropped at the shout. She choked and went cross-eyed as a whistling blade just skinned the tip of her nose. 'That was way too close!' She turned to the sound of the foreign voice and locked eyes with the woman who had just saved her life. A pair of warm, chocolate eyes met her own. They were filled with an expression Akira couldn't decipher. It baffled her and made her pause for just the briefest of moments. Shaking the look off, the girl flashed a small smile and made a mental note to thank armour girl after she was finished wiping the floors with these weaklings. Vaulting over the another mage, she zipped through the crowd. Looking around, she spotted her target. The magic inhibitors stood on totem pole like statues. The blue light leaking off was sickly and Akira pulled the handkerchief around her face closer. She had not gotten a few feet closer and already she could feel it draining her energy.

"Stop her!" There was a roar of anger and Akira looked back at him.

"You're too late!" Akira called back, holding her weapon out in front. There wasn't anyone close enough to stop her. Running forward, she held the metal pipe high above her head and smashed it against the lacrimas as hard as she could. The base shattered and the blue light came sputtering to a halt. With a victory smile and concentrated on the small drip of magic that was barely circulating. Soon she'd be able to go all out.

"You!" One of the mages yelled, pointing at her. "You ruined everything!" He charged her, brandishing a wicked looking scythe, crackling and sparking with electricity. Akira faced the man up and pushed at her magic flow. Her confidence began to falter as the ebb of her magic didn't increase. In fact, it seemed to be getting worse.

"Kill her!" Alcott cried again, urging the few men he had left into action.

Akira stumbled back away from a few blows and her eyes widened in alarm. Whatever she just smashed wasn't the magic inhibitors. Her limbs began to shake and Akira barely parried another blow. She went on the offense and mages fell away under her lightening quick jabs. Alcott snarled down at her and in a burst of speed smashed his staff across her temple, knocking her to the floor. The metal pipe fumbled from her hands, she made a grab for it.

"Get her while she's down! Don't let her escape again!"

Her arms shook with exhaustion and her hands were numb as she held her pipe above her in a vain attempt to stop the numerous blows. One of the men jumped on top of her and pushed her back down to the floor. In a desperate move she crossed his staff with her's, barley keeping the sharp tip of his lacrima from her neck.

"Is that all you got little fairy?" He sneered, leaning his weight down. The tip pushed into her jugular and Akira choked before shoving back.

"I'm getting real sick of you all calling me a fairy!" Akira's yell was lost under the the multitude of shouts. In one fluid motion the mage knocked the pipe from her hands. Akira threw her hands up. Blows rained down from above, she curled into herself and any attempt to strike out was severely punished by a number of strike to the offending limb.

Akira laid there in a daze, pain raked through her body. It hurt to breathe, much less do anything else. Two mages dragged her up to her feet. Each one twisting an arm too far behind her back. She cried out in pain as a large crack sounded out from her right shoulder, causing a burning feeling to rip through the muscles.

Alcott stood in front of her, his pearly white teeth fell into a practiced smugness that just begged to be punched. He jutted out his chin and slowly slicked down the sides of his ridiculous hair. "You actually thought you could defeat me?!" He began to laugh, "I am Alcott Sly, The most powerful lacrima user on this side of Fiore! As if you could ever defeat me, the most powerful lacrima user in Fiore!"

Akira hissed in pain, "You said that twice, moron." Rage filled his features. He grabbed her her hair and pulled her up to eye level. A large hand closed around her throat

"You just don't know when to quit, do you?" He snarled, his warm breath washing over her. She stifled a scream, clawing against the hand choking her. "I'm going to enjoy this. Men! On my mark!"

Her eyesight was starting to get blurry and her head pounded. Akira's eyes wandered and met the the scarlet haired woman's across the room for the second time that day. She had an intense look on her face almost upset. It was the same look as before... Was she concerned? For her? No, that couldn't be, she had to be imagining things. But it was strange, the last time someone looked at her like that...

"Fire!"

"Requip!"

Akira was jolted by the yell, energized. Magic gushed through her, she kicked him as hard as she could in the groin, her attacker groaned and dropped her to the floor.

"You're too late!" The mage above her roared. Lighting cracked and Akira screamed, covering her ears. Light blinded her and the air oozed with ozone.

"Heaven's Wheel!"

Suddenly a shadow covered her, she heard the clash of metal and the cries of the men but couldn't see what was happening.

In a flash it was over. Hesitantly, Akira opened her eyes. Above her stood an imposing figure of silver. A pair of dual swords gleaned, bright and deadly. She looked around, all the hijackers were down. Swords covering the room from floor to ceiling. Shocked, she scooted away from the cut up men. Akira shook her head in disbelief, how had that woman taken down all the mages in an instance?! It just wasn't possible.

Akira's eyes settled on the fallen form of Alcott Sly and she felt herself burn in embarrassment. Sora-sensei would probably be pounding her head into the floor right now. She had gotten cocky, she had broken was one of her sensei's biggest rules. Akira clutched her head and gently massaged the tender part of her esophagus, She could already feel the bruises forming. She tried to rotate her shoulder but a spike of pain stopped her. Akira grimaced, that was gonna hurt for a while...

"Are you alright?"

Akira jumped upon hearing the voice and looked up. She eyed the armor clad mage for a moment and bit her lip.

Ezra leaned down and held her hand out, "You're not hurt anywhere are you?"

Akira still didn't answer, her gaze locked on the woman's kind features. She was thrown off by the look of warmth in the strangers eyes, it froze her in her place. It was the same look she had been given a few moments ago. Why was she looking at her like that, it didn't make any sense.

Snapping out of her trance, She ignored there hand offered and pushed herself up to her feet. She didn't need to appear even more weak than she already did at the moment. "No, I'm all right miss uh.."

Light covered the woman and the armor changed back into the simpler one she had on before, the swords dissipated. "Ezra Scarlet, mage of Fairy Tail."

Akira back straightened and a lips thinned, mage of Fairy Tail... Her hands trembled with anger and humiliation, it all began to make sense. No wonder they were calling her a 'fairy'. They assumed that the only two mages on the train were together. It was an understandable misconception but one that Akira deeply resented. Guild mages… Akira held back the urge to spit at her feet. They were the worst, "Well geez! Thanks 'Erza Scarlet of Fairy Tail'. What would I have done without you!" Akira drawled her cheery voice dripping with sarcasm. Turning on her heel, she made her way into the next compartment. Akira wasn't sure what what hurt worse, her shoulder or the fact that she really wasn't bad sure what she would've happened if Erza's wasn't there. There was a slight twinge of guilt but Akira's shooed it away. She didn't have to justify herself at all.

"You're a mage right?" The red haired mage questioned, matching her in stride.

The girl didn't bother to answer, she's hated the questions. Questions led to more questions which usually ended up with multiple persons trying to drag her to an orphanage or a guild or even a jail cell- that sadly, had happened on numerous occasions.

Erza frowned, "Are you here by yourself? Where are your teammates?"

Akira stopped in a huff and turned on Erza, giving her a glare, She needed to stop this before it began. "Listen, thanks for saving my life and all that. I really do appreciate it but I'm kind of busy and not in a particularly chatty mood. So if you could kindly piss off, I would really appreciate it." With that she stomped away. Akira ignored the second feeling guilt at her rudeness. This 'Erza' was a guild mage and of there was anything that she had learned over the years it was to stay as far away from guild mages as possible.

Ezra raised her brow, did she offend her? Sighing, she followed the grumpy girl through the door just a few steps behind."At least tell me your name."

The younger girl crushed a staff under her heel, destroying the lacrima runes around a group of passengers. She sighed, "Fine, name's Akira. Happy?"

Ezra gave a nod of her head and gently laid the unconscious passenger on the floor. "What guild are you part of? You are part of a guild right?"

Akira didn't respond and moved on to the next passenger. Maybe if she didn't acknowledge the older mage she would go away, that usually worked for her other problems. And that was what this lady was, a problem. A problem that would go away if she ignored it long enough.

The two mages worked efficiently in silence, Erza kept glancing at the mysterious girl. Something didn't add up and she wanted to get to the bottom of it. "So Akira," Erza muttered, breaking the quiet, "What were you doing on the-"

The train jolted, the wheels hit hard before changing tracks again. Akira fell back in surprise and landed on her back. She let out an involuntary cry as an intense pain ripped through her shoulder blades, she tried to move it but a series of pops stopped in her tracks. Akira grit her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, something was definitely wrong with it.

"Here, let me see it." A soothing voice interjected from above. Akira hissed in pain and glared defensively at Erza.

"I'm fine," She grounded out through clenched teeth, moving to a sitting position, "there is nothing to see."

The scarlet haired beauty frowned and crouched down in front of the girl, "That didn't sound like nothing."

"Well obviously you heard wrong," Akira rebutted, her voice straining ever so slightly. She inched away from the mage that had suddenly invaded her space, "I am perfectly-"

She let out another cry of pain as the older girl firmly gripped her shoulder and gently felt along the muscles, "The tendons are strained and the rotator cuff is pulled. It might even be torn." The guild mage murmured, pulling her hand away. She eyed the black and blue bruises forming a ring around the young girl's neck. In fact her whole body was covered in nasty looking bruises. 'Alcott really did a number on her.' Erza glared at the man in question who was slumped down against the floor. She was tempted to beat him again and string him up from the back of the train. Entertaining the thought, Erza turned back towards the girl and moved closer to see if she could get a better look. She really didn't like look of the cut on her forehead. It was oozing pretty badly. "My guildmate Wendy is especially good at healing injuries like this. I could take you-"

"No!" Akira snapped jerking herself away, her eyes widened in alarm. There was no way in the entirety of Earthland that she was going to let some random guild mage take a crack at her.

Erza let out a sound of disapproval and frowned, "I really think that you should at least see a healer-"

"I am perfectly fine on my own!" Akira spat, scrambling to her feet. She didn't want or need anyone else to help her! She hurried over to the next set of hostages and put as much distance as she could between her and the other mage. The girl glared down at her aching shoulder and her cheeks burned with anger, 'Stupid guild mages! They think they're all that! I don't need anyone's help! Especially not from some snotty guild!'

Akira had never been so happy to see Rune Knights in her entire life. It had been laughably easy to slip through the crowd of people without being questioned once. Everyone just assumed that she had been another hostage, which was perfectly fine with her. The last thing she needed was an interrogation from the Rune Knights.

Akira snickered, the nosy red-haired mage had been mobbed by the press and the government dogs as soon as she had stepped off the train. Man, she was persistent... Akira shivered at the thought. The red head had spent the remainder of the ride trying to convince her to come to the guild with her, threatening to drag her there if she didn't at least get medical treatment. The girl shook her head, 'She probably would have too.' Shouldering her bag, she escaped into the city of Magnolia. The farther away she got from the train, the faster she could forget this fiasco ever happened. After all, what were the chances that she would ever see that armoured lady again? Magnolia was a pretty big city.

Authors Note:

Updated: 5/24/28