Kai emerged from the tiny forest overlooking Clover Town and sighed with a bit of relief at the humble little place. His quest from the train tracks and meeting with Mystogan—and Grimoire Heart—hadn't taken too long but something started to plague him: doubt. The only thing spurring him forward was the thought of getting this far, accomplishing nothing, and then turning around.

He was ashamed enough to have left Fairy Tail as he did in the first place. But to go back now, not even stronger than when he left? Unbearable.

Kai approached the cliff. Clover Town reminded him a bit of Magnolia in that some of the buildings had similar structures and roofing, but otherwise the streets were a lot more narrow and the town was built in a bit of a valley, unlike Magnolia. It added a bit more intimacy, and, Kai hoped, would allow him to complete his job faster. He rubbed the guild emblem on his body and grimaced.

It didn't take long to clamber down the cliff and arrive in the town proper. Kai adjusted the sword at his side and nobody took notice of him. He stood out quite noticeably in the town, as they wore clothing for warm weather, whereas Kai had no need for such. He brushed his white hair out of his face and glanced down at the paper in his hands.

"Ferdinand's Finest," he muttered, and looked to some of the shops around. It wouldn't be long to find the place; Clover Town didn't have many places to hide a place that was named "Ferdinand's Finest."

Mystogan's final words to him, that the quest would be more than it initially appeared, rang through his mind again. He grimaced and ruffled the paper back into his pocket. All the job called for was a wizard to help with a bit of business. In Kai's past, that meant performing some sort of show or trick to garner a momentary boost in sales.

Not a problem, Kai thought. It was usually only for a day so Kai could be out of Clover Town by the following morning if push came to shove.

Then he'd be off, training for…

For as long as it takes.

Kai nodded at the thought that constantly rolled about in his mind. He wouldn't be able to affirm his strength against anything substantial—Iceberg had some magic cults but not the sort Kai had any intention of getting involved with. He'd be able to notice his progress, but how his progress would stack compared to Natsu or Erza's strength had to wait until his return to Fairy Tail later on.

He searched around the city for a bit, and just as he was ready to give himself a break, he rounded a corner and found a meager little shop on the corner with just the name he was looking for. Kai sighed and stepped through.

Ferdinand's Finest certainly had some fine items. Mostly wooden sculptures with a few paintings and even the spare wand or talisman in the back corner. A small fire purred in the hearth near the middle of the room, and some of the walls had an aesthetic that there were roots growing, as if the entire story were something of a growing tree.

"Good day to you over there," a chipper voice called.

Kai snapped to attention and reached into his pocket for the request. "Hello, I came by because of your request."

The man, probably Ferdinand, walked up to the reception counter as Kai slid the paper atop the counter. He ruffled his fresh beard and nodded.

"So you're a wizard," he said. "What guild?"

Kai waved his hand. "Oh, um…" He shook his head. "Fairy Tail."

"Oh my, Fairy Tail out here? That's one hell of a journey you took out here, I wasn't sure it'd be worth it."

"I'm on my way somewhere," Kai said. "I found the job and figured I would do it while I was in town. Didn't seem too complicated?"

The man shrugged. "Depends on your definition of complicated. It's a matter of theft, really. I've a fellow small businessman in town who has not only stolen my gimmick, but has been swindling funds from the local bank out of my account for months, claiming to be me."

"So you want me to stop him? Just tell him to cut it out?"

"However you need to do so."

"The local authorities can't help you?"

"The local authorities refuse to do so. I need help more than what they can get me. I need a guild's help."

Ferdinand glanced away for a moment but Kai made nothing of it. It was natural to be nervous doing something like this. Kai ignored the bubbling irritation trying to spring out and just nodded, accepting his role and hoping it a minor, momentary one.

The storeowner guided him to where Kai needed to go next. He kept glancing at Kai's sword, implying to Kai that this was a matter Kai could resolve however he deemed necessary. He had no problem doing so; Natsu solved plenty of problems this way and Fairy Tail had many a problems solved with this method.

However, Kai realized, he couldn't just brute force his way through this sort of thing, nor did he want to even use his magic. If word got back to Fairy Tail that one of their Ice wizards took down a malevolent businessman, everyone would know where to start looking for Kai. Even him wielding his sword would give him away. He'd have to get out of town fast if he wanted to avoid Fairy Tail.

The other store had an incredibly similar makeup to Ferdinand's Finest, just as the man had suggested, but seemed to be hiding something. Unlike Ferdinand's, it had a raised set of stairs and a rather obvious basement there.

Kai tried the door but it was locked and footsteps scuttled away. Kai banged on the door, waited a moment, then tried the locked door once more. He stepped back, resting his hands on his hips and tilting his head. A few citizens walked by, still paying Kai no mind.

"Not good already," he muttered, and when the citizens were far enough away, blasted down the door with his legs.

The wooden door tumbled into the darkness. Kai stepped inside with the dusty sunlight and smelled quite a few people beneath him, and a trap door rested just ahead of him.

Kai stepped over the trap door. "Come out, please, so we can talk! Hiding like this isn't going to get anyone any—"

The floor gave out beneath him and Kai had no chance to grab onto any part of the ground. He plummeted right onto the floor and landed right on his bum. He groaned and rubbed his tailbone.

Flags and banners hung around him in what appeared to be a tiny lobby. Kai rolled over, balling up a pair of fists, and looking around the room to the few people standing around him, faint auras floating around them while one wizard stepped up to him, wearing a guild's mark on his face. He sneered at Kai.

"Ferdinand send you, trying to get his money back? That's not quite how it's going to work. You should just listen up, wizard."

"Look who's talking," Kai said, and pushed himself to his feet. "You're not some businessman. You're a guild."

The people around Kai didn't move, didn't give him a hint at the truth, but their silence was enough for him.

"What are you doing stealing from someone with a small business?" Kai asked. "In this tiny town? Don't you have something better to do?"

"You have no idea what you're talking about," the guild wizard said. He smelled quite pulpable. Kai searched the room and the eight other wizards in there didn't seem all that threatening. If his instincts were right, Kai stood face-to-face with a Guild Master. "You need to hear us out."

"What I'm hearing is that you're a thief guild." Kai raised an eyebrow and the man didn't give a response. "And you've been stealing from someone and ignoring the law for quite a while now. I can't allow that anymore."

Kai grimaced. Eight wizards and a Guild Master. Mystogan having this job made more and more sense the longer Kai stood there, waiting for an attack.

"Don't do anything foolish." The same wizard raised defensive hands up. Kai watched another wizard behind him hesitantly creeping forward.

"You the Guild Master?" Kai asked.

"I am."

"Then you know what you have to do to keep your guild safe. You know what you're doing is wrong. Just turn yourself in and let justice be done, you may not be punished that much."

"I'm not the one who deserves punishment. He does."

"From where I stand, Ferdinand has done nothing wrong."

"He's in his pocket," one of the wizards behind Kai called. "We can't listen to a word he says, for all we know he's got backup in the rest of the shop."

"What if he's just stalling?" another asked.

"He's not, it's just him." The Guild Master kept his hands raised, and a slight glow came to them. "But he may be in his pocket."

"He did request the job."

"You're so out of your line here," the Guild Master said. "Just step aside."

"Stop stealing from him."

Kai lowered his hand to his sword. Had this one been the one to move the floor out? That was Spatial Magic, something Kai had little practice against.

And there were eight other wizards, all of whom Kai couldn't get a register one.

Well, he thought. No time like the present to figure out how strong he was to at least start his training.

"Just hold him down so we can—" The Guild Master started, but didn't start as Kai sliced out with his sword and a blast of magic slammed him in the chest and knocked him back.

Kai spun around and cut through a brick flying right at him as a massive ethereal fist shot through the sky. He side-stepped that as well. A fourth wizard leapt at him like a frog. Kai caught him by the shoulder and kneed him in the gut, using that wizard as a shield for another attack. Kai blasted him away and cut through with magic again to take out some furniture, scattering the guild.

He lunged at the closest wizard, using one of Erza's moves to take them out with just a couple of kicks. Three ethereal fists blasted at Kai, only one of them catching him on the shoulder. Kai gritted his teeth and moved through the pain, dashing forward but getting flung upward in the air. He would've been suspended there if he didn't force his way out with sheer power, using his magic to surge a flurry around him and momentarily blinding the guild.

Kai flipped end over and end landed in front of the Guild Master. Kai sheathed his sword and swatted aside his hands before he could cast a spell. He blasted Kai back, slamming the Dragon Slayer against the wall. Kai snapped his fingers and a pillar of ice exploded from where Kai had just been standing. Kai peeled off the wall and filled his hand with ice.

He flung it at the wizard with the massive fists, both of which got blocked. A pair of wizards clasped their hands together in what appeared to be a Unison Raid. Kai flicked his wrist at them and froze their hands together, stunning them long enough for Kai to blast them with a jet of ice.

Just don't use Dragon Slayer magic, he thought.

The Guild Master got back to his feet and both hands filled with a golden glow at his side. The room turned sideways. Kai leapt toward the ceiling and landed on his side while the Guild Master remained suspended in the air. Kai, laying down still, couldn't help as the Guild Master returned the room to normal and Kai dropped to the ground on his hand, right on his wrist.

He winced and grunted from the pain. The Guild Master approached, Kai's hands resting on the ground.

"Stop this already it's not—"

He froze. Literally.

A sheet of ice covered the Guild Master. The trail of ice stemming from Kai's hand remained in place as Kai got back to his feet, all the other wizards stunned.

"That'll slow him down," Kai muttered. He turned to the rest of the guild. "Well?"

"Would you just get out of here?" one asked, poorly hiding trembling fear. "We get it already." Their expression said they had something else to say, but Kai was satisfied given the situation. All he had to do, it seemed, was intimidate the thieves.

If he hadn't accomplished that, he wasn't really sure what else he could do.

Kai jumped back through the initial hole that'd been created and caught himself before he could accidentally slip back down into the basement and jogged out into the town and back toward Ferdinand's Finest.

He found Ferdinand still at the counter, anxiously playing with a coin. The shopkeeper slammed the coin down as Kai reentered the building.

"Wow, that was…fast."

"Didn't take much convincing," Kai said. He leaned on the counter. "But it would have been nice to know that this wasn't another businessman. It was a guild."

Ferdinand grimaced. "I knew he was a wizard, but I didn't think…wow. Fairy Tail wizards sure are something, then."

"Why would a guild steal money from you?"

The shopkeeper sighed. He scuttled the coin back into a purse in a cabinet and turned back to Kai, then gestured to them both.

Ferdinand led Kai back out onto the street. "Northern Fiore has a bit of an issue. We're far beyond the reach of the kingdom, we're a bit out on our own here. We have a few official guilds, like Blue Pegasus, but some more rough guilds sit around out here. Dark guilds. When your best protection outside of Blue Pegasus is some no-name guild like Sabertooth, you don't stand much of a chance."

"Dark guilds come around trying to take your coin? So another guild does the same?"

"Yes, to get their own coin. I can make far more money in a town like this than a guild does. Who is hiring a guild outside of a Dark Guild, when they'll just have their money taken from a Dark Guild anyway? We're all in a bad situation, but the wizards are just flaunting their power over all of us, good or bad."

Ah. This was the complication Mystogan hinted at. Good guilds needing protection from the big bad guilds, and innocent normies getting caught up in the middle.

So, they were not quite good guilds.

They walked by a building Kai recognized, the very same that the Guild Masters had been meeting in during the Lullaby near-catastrophe.

"And the Magic Council does nothing about this?"

"This town is a tourist attraction to them," Ferdinand said. "But they're backing off from here significantly recently. The Balam Alliance's influence only grows stronger. They've been making moves throughout northern Fiore, big ones. Tartaros has extended its reach much farther and their brutes come into town all of the time. Grimoire Heart might be around."

"They are."

Ferdinand closed his eyes in pain and just nodded. "Then the situation is worse than I feared."

"Get another guild to rout them out."

"Who? Fairy Tail?"

"Why not?"

Ferdinand pursed his lips and shrugged. "You're a guild wizard but you don't know much about guild politics, do you? They can't just go to war with one another like that."

"Not if they don't accidentally come into conflict over something like thievery. That's a dark guild I just fought off. Use that."

They rounded another corner. Kai swore he smelled something familiar but—no, it was impossible. He ignored the sensation.

"I don't think I would be the one having to push this." Ferdinand's grin creeped Kai out just a bit. There was a hint, just a hint, of malevolence there. He did agree with Kai, but better angels were telling him to say otherwise.

"You need me."

"You've done well here. Took out that entire guild by yourself, and you're just one wizard. Imagine the good you could do—"

The sensation overwhelmed Kai and the winds erupted around him as someone flew by overhead and slid to a halt in front of them.

Nerves completely took over inside Kai. His heart wanted to leap but instead his stomach did and he barred his teeth. His legs froze, his feet stuck to the ground.

"Kai. Just what do you think you're doing?" asked Erza Scarlet.

Sorry for the delay everyone! I was busy participating in NaNoWriMo in November so I had no time to get to this fic. But I'm back now, so expect regular updates just like before!