A/N
I had been hoping to avoid having to do this in this story, but since there seem to have been some issues raised with the previous chapters…
Eeh
1. Yes. Mages really are that durable, and The Beast was a demon created by Zeref. As such it would have been in the same league as Deliora, which was damned near indestructible.
2. I wouldn't say that Makarov is on par with Yamamoto as it is impossible to compare power levels between a manga that has definitive different levels of power and one that only cared about how stupidly overpowered that it can make a character.
3. For the purposes of this story, after his training in the Dangai Ichigo discarded his reiatsu in order to change it all into the strength required to fight against a transcendental Aizen. In any case, stating that that is synonymous with the Final Getsuga Tensho is just plain wrong.
peddy-kun
Where did he turn 16? As far as I'm aware he was 15 throughout the whole pre-time skip section and 17 afterwards. Even if he was, I just wanted him the same age as Mirajane and Erza.
XXXXXXX
The next day, after Ichigo woke up, shocking the doctors that were looking after him, he was taken to Amelia and they, and her men, set off to Era. It took them about five hours to get there. When they reached the council gates a man came out of a smaller, man-sized, gate to talk to them. Before the official could begin talking, Amelia said, "We are bringing in the orange haired mage in to undergo questioning."
"Alright, hmm…" the official said, "I'm sorry. But my schedule indicates that you should have arrived last night at the latest."
"Yes, and we would have had one of my subordinates done something rather stupid that he has since repented, and been forgiven, for."
"Very well then," the official said, not wanting to have to do any more paperwork than what Amelia's late arrival had already caused him. The official stepped back inside and pressed a button, activating mechanisms that allowed the gate to be opened.
When Amelia and her troops had entered the citadel Amelia led Ichigo to a room and opened the door before stepping aside. She said, "Ichigo. You'll need to wait in here while I deal with some formalities. There are bathing facilities within, which I suggest you make use of…" alluding to the fact that he hadn't had a shower for at least twenty-four hours. "…after which you shall need to put on some of the clothes in…"
She was cut off before she could finish speaking by someone saying, "Amelia!" Amelia cringed. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm…"
"It doesn't matter," a brown haired, bearded, man said. He was wearing ornate, white, plate armour laden with intricate golden designs over a blue coat that had numerous tassels hanging off the bottom. Ichigo could see that he was wearing brown pants under He was holding an equally ornate, jewel-encrusted trident that had, what appeared to be, two short swords for its outer prongs(1).
Ichigo said, "Who the hell are you?"
The man's face scrunched up in anger as he turned to the man next to him and said, "Take care of him." The man then grabbed Amelia's arm and led her away.
When they had left Ichigo asked, "What's that guy's problem?"
The man that he had been left with sighed and said, "General Hikreux has…difficulties…dealing with Amelia."
"General Hi…"
"Her father," the man, said as Ichigo turned to look at him for the first time. He was a tall man with long hair that was white, despite being barely thirty. He was wearing a sky blue short-sleeved business shirt and black tie under an emerald green coat that had the Rune Knight crest emblazoned on the shoulder, the same colour as the pants that were tucked into his knee-high, black metal, boots. He was also wearing black metal gloves that reached halfway up his forearm, though Ichigo couldn't tell as they were under the coat(2). The man then said, "Come," expecting Ichigo to follow him, which, not knowing any better, he did.
XXXXX
Meanwhile, Amelia had been dragged to the courtyard by her father, who had an arming sword with him. It had a blue metal hilt wrapped in blue leather with wings for the crossguard. In the centre of the crossguard a sapphire was embedded that was inscribed with the Rune Knight crest. Inside the scabbard the sword had a metal cover over the ricasso. He flung it at her. He said, "Draw it."
"Why should I?" Amelia demanded.
Not answering her question, her father said, "Requip: Power Crusader," a blue magic circle appearing around his waist before it split into two, one rising above his head, one descending to his feet. When they disappeared his armour had changed to a more lightweight set consisting of white leather pants with a matching white skivvy with a hardened, light grey, leather vest. He also had matching light grey leather gloves and knee-high boots. He had also switched out his ornate trident for a more practical halberd with a golden axe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft with a hook on the reverse side of the axe blade. At the base of the shaft there is a bladed extension adding another foot to the total length. He also had a Katzbalger in a scabbard at his hip.
Amelia thought, 'Oh shit!' and quickly slid the sheathe from her sword, letting it fly to the side before stepping back and bringing her sword around to deflect her father's lunge as it was too close to avoid completely. "Why are you…" Amelia said, knowing that her father wouldn't answer, but hoping for one anyway. Her father lunged at her again and again at increasing speeds until she could no longer simply dodge. So she started to duck as soon as her father started to bring his weapon forward into a lunge and brought her sword up in case she couldn't dodge it completely and spun under the lance, getting within her father's range and swung her sword up as she came out of the spin, standing up, knocking the shaft up before running forward and slashing at her father, hoping that it was enough to end it, this time.
It wasn't. As soon as he felt his arms being forced up he dropped the lance, letting the weight of it jar his daughter's arms, giving him enough time to draw his sword in order to deflect the blow that he knew would be coming. As he had planned, his halberd delayed Amelia enough to draw his sword in time with enough power to not only defend against his daughter's strike, but also knock her arms up. Unlike him however, she was still holding the sword when it hit and had her arms forced up, leaving her unprotected mid-section wide open. He spun on his left foot, bringing his right knee into his daughter's stomach, knocking the wind out of her. She fell to the ground, holding her chest as she gasped for breath. Her father turned and started to walk away. Amelia managed to plead, "Why?"
Her father said, "Why do you think?" and continued to walk away.
Amelia, still on the ground thought, 'The hell I'd know.'
Her mother had entered the courtyard just as Amelia had been defeated by a knee to her stomach and rushed to her side to find out if she was alright. She asked, "I know this may be a stupid question considering the circumstances, but are you alright?"
Amelia looked at her mother and, with tears in her eyes, asked, "Why does dad…"
Her mother sighed and said, "You know he does love you."
"But why can't he just accept that I have no desire to ever take up fighting with melee weapons?" Her mother sighed again. "As a matter of fact that," Amelia said, referring to the duel that she had just participated in, "has a large part in making me dislike them so much."
Amelia's mother saw the sword at Amelia's side and said, "This sword…"
"That?" Amelia asked. "That's the sword that dad had me fight him with. What about it?"
"It's the first sword that he had made for him. When he was about your age I think."
"It…then why would he…?"
"I've got no idea, which says a lot all things considered."
"What does it do?"
"To tell the truth, even I don't really know. In all the time that we were teamed together I can only remember him taking it on one mission."
Amelia grabbed the sword and got up. She then went to where the scabbard had fallen and picked it up before returning the sword to the scabbard and went back to her mother. She then held the sword out to her, holding it where the centre of the blade would be and said, "Here, can you please return it to dad for me?"
Amelia's mother looked at it and said, "Hmm…no."
"What?! Why not?" Amelia exclaimed.
"If he wanted it back your father would have taken it with him."
"Well, if you say so," Amelia said, generating two magical circles around it, sending it to her pocket dimension, having no desire to carry it around the place when she didn't need to. "All that aside, could you do something for me?"
"Such as?"
"Can you check out Ichigo Kurosaki?"
"Sure, I'll look into him. Who is he?"
"He's the guy that I just brought in."
"Okay, while I do that you go and get ready to talk to the Magic Council."
"Alright. Thank you," Amelia said, leaving to have a shower and get dressed in her hated regalia.
XXXXX
Soon enough Ichigo and the man that he was following reached a door leading into a room in the middle of a circular hallway with very high ceilings. The man pushed Ichigo into the room before locking the door behind him. Inside the room there was a table at which there was only one chair. Ichigo said to himself, "Well, this is one fine mess I've gotten myself into." Not having anything better to do, he sat down in the chair and placed his arms on the armrests provided. Two bands appeared out of each of the arms and locked into place, pinning Ichigo to the chair along with matching bands on the legs of the chair. Ichigo exclaimed, "What's the big idea?" pulling against the bands.
Soon enough a woman entered the room holding a clipboard in her right hand. She was wearing tight-fit white pants and a black tailcoat with a purple cravat. She had shoulder length ochre coloured hair tied into a short ponytail. She was wearing a set of armour that covered her decently sized breasts and her ribs. It had the crest of the rune knights in the centre of the chestplate and wing-shaped pauldrons. Her left bicep had an armoured plate in the shape of multiple arrowheads held firm by a metal representation of a ribbon. Her right forearm was protected by a metal plate that had a similar design to the bicep guard, as did the plate design on the back of the gloves that she was wearing. Her right arm had a similar bicep guard although she was lacking the forearm and hand protection offered to her left hand, only having a hardened leather forearm guard that Ichigo had no doubt had some kind of magic behind it, causing Ichigo to think, 'She must be left handed.' She was wearing close-fit metal greaves and metal shoes with a high heel. Ichigo took note of the fact that the woman had a sword, a highly stylised Colichemarde(3).
The woman said, "Hello…Ichigo was it?" the woman said, sitting down on a chair that had risen up, out of the ground when she entered the room.
"Yeah. Mind telling me why I'm locked in this chair?"
"No, not at all. My husband takes issue with just about everything my daughter does. So he would have done this anyway."
"He…"
"But never mind that. The reason that you are locked in that chair is that you are clearly a mage of some power according to the reports that I was given yesterday."
"The…but Amelia led me away from her troops."
The woman smiled and said, "I would imagine she did. But all troops are required to have at least one person in them that can sense magic. Most of the time it's the commander, but others tend to get a feel for the art after a while."
"Okay…so…"
"Why am I telling you this?"
"Well, that's one question."
"It's simple really." Ichigo looked at her blankly. "There's no reason for me not to." Ichigo raised his eyebrows, a silent display of his surprise. "Anyway. Back to the reason you're here. I told you that you're here because you are a mage of some power, yes?" she didn't let Ichigo say anything, having answered her own question. "As I'm sure Amelia told you it is against the law to practice magic without registering yourself as a mage with the council. Even if you have just submitted an application for a license, to get to the level that you are at would require you to have been practicing for quite some time, although you must have had a young start to be able to take on Amelia on equal footing."
"Well, I wouldn't say that exactly," Ichigo commented.
The woman thought, 'Does that mean that he's stronger than Amelia?' "Now, the punishment for…"
"Hold up a second."
The woman raised her left eyebrow and said, "and why should I do that?"
"The whole premise of this is that I have been practicing magic for years, right?"
"Yes."
"Then I'm sorry, but if that's the case then you have no right to hold me here."
"And why is that?"
"Because, like I tried to explain to Amelia I only got here about two weeks ago."
The woman frowned and demanded, "Explain," not wanting to waste her time, especially when she was needed to mediate between her husband and her daughter.
"I really don't like going through this story again and again. But alright, if I must. I'm not actually from this world." The woman looked at him flatly, clearly not believing a word of it. "I know, I know. If it weren't happening to me I'd have problems believing it myself."
'Well, at least he's got that bit right.'
"I was fighting against this guy in my world and we fired our strongest attacks at each other, creating, what I must assume is some kind of space-time rip that sucked me in, causing me to end up here. That's how I ended up here. Now, for the whole mage thing, when I was ejected from the void I was separated from this…thing…inside me. You can decide if it was lucky or not, because I was ejected into some forest where Mirajane Strauss and her siblings were fighting against some demonic beast-thing that her brother had tried to save them from by attempting a Full Take Over. Unfortunately it ended up backfiring, causing him to go out of control. Long story short, Mirajane copied all of her Take Over knowledge into my head, which let me regain control of the thing that had escaped from my body. So, now you know everything," Ichigo said. 'Well, not actually everything, but enough of it to get me out of this jam…I hope.'
"Well," the woman said, "to tell the truth, that seems rather fantastical to me. But it does explain away some of the other questions that I had planned for you."
"Such as?"
"Oh, just things like, how is it that you gained so much power without getting on our radar sooner and how did you learn a relatively rare magic like Take Over."
"Oh," Ichigo said.
"But I will of course need to confirm the details that you have just informed me of."
"Of course," Ichigo agreed, understanding the need for accuracy.
"But for a quick test, what is the name of the Black Mage"
"The who?" Ichigo exclaimed.
The woman wrote something on a piece of paper on her clipboard. "What is the name of the kingdom to the north?"
Ichigo thought back to the globe that he saw in Makarov's office and said, "Hmm…I think that globe in Makarov's office said that it was the Pelgrade Kingdom."
The woman wrote something else down as she thought, 'Okay, that was pretty close, but that's acceptable if he saw a globe in Makarov's office. That means that it's zero for two. If my information is correct, Mirajane should know just about everything about Take Over Magic, so if she's passed on all of her knowledge, then this Ichigo should know all about it too. If so then…' "What type of magic is Take Over?"
"There are some theories flying around that Take Over is a form of Seith Magic, but it isn't. Take Over is actually an advanced form of Transformation Magic that lets the user literally Take Over a creatures powers and then use them for themself. Generally the forms grant the user increases in their physical capabilities in addition to the powers originally used by the creature. Most users use a living creature as the basis for their transformation, but there is a rarer form that uses non-living material as a base."
'Okay, he's got that one right. Then one more should do it.' "Name one of the types of magic that have been forbidden by the Magic Council."
"There's forbidden magic?"
"Yes," the woman said. "I'll give you a book on the different types of magic and their restrictions for use before you leave."
"Then…you believe me?" Ichigo asked, surprised that someone believed his story, as he had issue believing it himself.
"While it is fantastical, that chair you're in actually registers your heartbeat and perspiration and, if it determines that you are lying, it will give you a shock. Of course, that's just for backup if I, or another interrogator misses something. I'm glad to say that so far I haven't needed it."
"So what now?"
"Now, thanks to my husband you'll need to wait here until the council is ready to hear you; Due to our little session though you should have little problem with that. I, and no doubt Amelia, will speak on your behalf. Plus, despite their differences, Makarov's word still carries a lot of weight amongst the council."
"Thank you," Ichigo said.
"Don't worry about it," the woman said, getting up from her seat, which lowered back into the ground when she took two steps away from it.
Before she left Ichigo grabbed her attention, saying, "Uhh…"
She looked over she shoulder and said, "Yes?"
"Can you take these off now?" pulling against the cuffs to signify what he was talking about.
"Oh. No. Sorry, they will come off only when there are two people other than you in the room."
"I see," Ichigo said, understanding the need for security.
Ten minutes after Amelia's mother left the room a black mist started to flow up from the area around where the second chair had arisen.
XXXXXXX
A/N
(1) anima_fierce_and_just_by_wen_m-d5n5vc9
(2) anima_Clover_by_Wen_M
(3) Anima_Lynn_Steiner_by_Wen_M