Chapter 1
It's Killed or be Killed!
"O-oh..." This wasn't lucky at all. For a second, I figured a world like this would be different from my own. Yet here I was, somehow impaled through my shoulder because I took a wrong step running away from some damned thugs.
I looked up at the sky. Despite being a beautiful blue color, the smell of burning trees and houses contrasted the horror that lurked just out of sight. "Damn it, where did that little brat go? There weren't many kids there, and if we lose one, the boss will be pissed."
A sudden pang of fear crept through my body and mind. I struggled to get up, but the branch that had made its home in my shoulder refused to give. Blood oozed from the wound, my nails digging into the dirt. My adventures in earthland somehow were going to come to an end, and I hadn't even reached puberty yet.
I winced, gritting my teeth. I attempted to move again, only for the pain to stop me. Maybe if I was a bit older, I could have used my weight to break the branch, but that wasn't possible. Screaming wouldn't do me any good either, probably would have just made things worse.
The bushes and trees began to rustle and shift. If I had to choose between being impaled and subjected to whatever those goons were going to do to me, I'd picked the former without hesitation.
My teeth sunk into my bottom lip while all the bushes surrounding me started to shake and rumble. A knot began to form in my stomach while I prayed that they would overlook this clearing, sadly whatever god that ran earthland had other ideas.
"Eh! Found him!" A cruel smile crept across the man's face as he slinked into view. The top part of his head was completely covered with red cloth as if to remove their humanity. "Ah shit, he's all fucked up, though." His smile turned into an irritated frown before his friend popped out of the woods.
"I'm not sure he's even worth taking back." The other man lifted his staff and pointed at me. "For all the commotion we caused, to bring back only three kids would be a death sentence." The man examined my body while looking over his shoulder every few seconds. "It's no good. It'd be too much trouble to take him back like that." The dark-mage then lifted his staff, preparing to impale my skull.
The callousness of his action didn't send fear through my body, but anger. For a split second, I wanted them to die. I wanted to smash their heads against the wall and smear their brains against the trees. I hated them, wished for them to die a cruel death.
Then almost as if my wish the same god that ignored me before answered my hatred, a small breeze blew through the clearing. A strange yelp of confusion filled his voice. I felt something splash on my face, red fluid. Then with a hollow thud, the staff in the man grip fell to the ground, along with both his hands.
The dark-mage eyes while a stream of blood poured from his newly created stubs. It took him a moment to comprehend before he finally started screaming, which was quickly silenced when his jaw was ripped off and shoved into his brain.
The corpse luckily fell back, prompting the other dark mage eyes to dart around. "W-what the hell was th-" He didn't even finish his statement before the legs he used to stand on were cut from beneath him. This time he fell forward, screaming in pain.
There was no sympathy or even fear in my body. Honestly, the only thing that I felt was annoyance. The dark mage's shrieks got on my nerves. I wanted the god that killed the first to do the same. Once again, they obliged.
A small creature landed on the crying man's back. The tiny monster then wrapped their long animal-like claws around his skull and started to slam it repeatedly into the ground. After the first few slams, it became clear the man died, but the creature didn't stop. Over and over, they slammed the bloody skull into the Earth, brain matter, and bones flying every direction until the beast gave a small hop and hit the man's head one more time.
Like a watermelon, it popped, leaving nothing but a bloody stump behind. Even though I was a few feet away, a fair amount of bone and brains got on me and my clothes. Despite that, despite all the fear I should have been experiencing, a calmness overtook me. Even if the creature killed me, I could die knowing those two bastards had a horrible death.
My stomach tightened while the short monster crept from the shadows, I expected some demented goblin, but I was instead greeted to a girl. "Wow, you're all messed up!"
My eyes widened as I scanned her. She had almond-colored hair with deep blue eyes. She wore a white and purple summer dress, which happened to be stained with blood. Though, her most stand out feature was her physical ones. She had a small snout with a nose that matched a dog than any human, a bit of fur-covered her eyes. Her limbs were slightly disproportionate up to the joints. Being large fur-covered claws with spotted fur that could easily rip an arm off if they could.
She couldn't have been older than me, hell she might have been a year younger, but I couldn't tell due to the physical discrepancies. She inched her way closer to me, her large sharp fangs flashing if only for a second. "Did those guys drop you here?"
The beast girl asked a simple question, but my throat clogged up. I wanted to say something, but the girl's nose stuck up in the air and sniffed her surroundings. "Ah, man, the bunny is going to be here soon. She always ruins the mood!" The small pout she gave contrasted the bone shards and brains still stuck to her dress.
Just like she said, another person came onto the scene. This time a white-haired girl around the same age, contrasting the more wild features of the first she was far more bunny-like, even having matching bunny ears at the top of her head. "H-Hyena, Miss Lora said we shouldn't go to f-" The moment the girl saw me, her statement stopped. She jumped to my direction, paying no mind to the bloody and mutilated corpses her friend left behind. "Another kid! Gosh, he looks hurt."
The bunny girl tapped my impaled shoulder, causing a jolt of pain to ring through my body. I let out a pathetic cry, which prompted the bunny girl to yelp and jumped back. "We should get Miss Lora. She'd probably be able to rip up the stump or get him off."
The girl next to her just let out a cackle. "Nah, that'd take too long, let's just rip him out!" For the first time since those men found me fear crawled through me. Not of death, but the fear of the pain I would experience soon.
The Hyena girl placed one hand on the stump to brace herself and the other on my shoulder. "One~ two~ Three!" In a single motion, she ripped me right off of the branch. A sharp pain nearly made me wet myself while I started to scream, holding my hole-ridden shoulder.
"O-oh no, he's screaming, he's so loud too..." The bunny girl covered her ears. "W-we should have waited for Miss Lora first."
"Stop being a baby! Here I'll fix it." The Hyena girl then punched me in my stomach, causing my vision to fade. My body relaxed, so did most of my functions as I heard one final comment from the two. "Huh? Did he pee himself?"
Darkness took me. I hoped that I'd wake up and I'll be in bed. Or at least in my Earthland bed with my parents. Time was relative in dreams; after all, what could feel like years in your head could easily have been a couple of minutes in the waking world.
After a few hours in the realm of dreams, my vision returned to me. A bright light blinded me as I looked around. A bed happened to be under me, but it certainly didn't belong to me. I sat up, my eyes darting around, it looked like some hospital or facility.
I attempted to move my arms, only for a sharp pain to stop me. My gaze shifted to my bandaged shoulder. If anything else, this confirmed that those events weren't a dream.
"Ah, so you're finally awake." My head turned to the door to see a brown-haired woman with deep yellow eyes wander in. "You gave us a bit of a scare before." The woman brushed her hair to the side and gave me an almost mother-like smile. Her warm expression and words contrasted the fact that she must have been near 6'5ft.
"S-sorry." I stuttered. Despite mentally being older, I still gave a childlike response. No, it would've been the same response I gave regardless.
The woman laughed, waving both of her hands. "No need to apologize. You've been through a lot. It's only natural that you are scared." The woman then pressed her thin fingers against my wound, prompting me to wince. "Seems like you are still in pain..." A moment of silence overtook her, the woman's expression turning dire. "Sorry, but you are going to have to endure a bit more pain, just a bit more..." She whispered those last words and helped me to my feet.
My clothes had changed. Instead of wearing the dull brown and black garments, earthland parents had gifted me. I had a hospital gown on. I sucked in a deep breath and placed my feet on the stone floor, my hand still on my shoulder. "Thank you."
The woman laughed. "No need for any of that, do you want me to carry you?" The woman tilted her head, causing a rush of embarrassment to fill my soul and stomach.
"N-no, I'm fine!" I wanted to avoid people treating me like a toddler. It'd set a terrible precedent if I accepted someone carrying me everywhere. "W-where are we going?"
"We're going to meet with Dr. Mamba." The woman gripped my hand and led me out of the room and through the hallway. Like my room, the halls themselves had a very sterile look to them. Multiple adults and children were being moved and sorted. For a second, I figured I ended up in any old hospital until I noticed a few of the workers and kids had the same features as the two girls that saved me.
This place wasn't normal. I never remembered any facility like this in the pages of the Fairy Tail Manga. Of course, the manga only showed us tiny portions of the world, the fact that I ended up being reincarnated in Fiore must have been a miracle in itself. The fact that I even ended up as a human must have been an act of fate.
My heart started to throb the deeper we went into the building. Less and less people began to appear, the clean halls replaced with test-tubes filled with animals and other creatures. An odd feeling crawled into my throat and mind. This was a lab.
"Okay, please try to be patient with Dr. Mamba, she can be a bit...harsh." The woman smiled before she gripped the doorknob to one of the many labs. "By the way, my name is Lora."
I weakly nodded, prompting Lora to open the door. Inside a woman sat in a chair, multiple screens flickered in front of her. Did Earthland always have this kind of technology? Sure, people like Daphne were able to create amazing things, but this still shocked me.
"Lora, this better be good." The woman twisted in her chair, revealing her emerald green hair and dark skin. She wore a modified lab-coat that showed off a great deal of her cleavage.
"We found a new child, was wondering if you'd want to see if he has a magical core or not." Lora's motherly tone vanished while Dr. Mamba brushed her hair to the side and crossed her legs.
"Where are you from?" A quick question to start. My mind searched my memory for the town that I've lived in for nearly eight years.
"S-Shirotsume Town." I stuttered the name out, prompting the Mamba to roll her eyes. Her reaction didn't exactly fill me with joy or excitement.
"That down that was attacked yesterday? Many deaths, I suppose your parents were a part of the casualties?" The woman took out a notebook and flipped through it. A strange feeling filled my gut, the moment she mentioned the deaths.
Were my parents dead? I had no idea what happened since I happened to be out playing when the dark mages attacked the town. I promised myself I wouldn't get too attached to my Earthland parents, yet a strange sadness poked at my heart at the mere idea that they may be dead.
"Bah, enough about that! What's your name?" The woman took out another clipboard and a pen. I weighed if it was smarter to use my Earthland name or just my name from Earth. I decided to use the former if only to make sure I had a chance to reunite with the people that raised me for the past eight years.
"Leiro," I spoke up, causing Mamba to scan me again, taking note of my hair and eyes.
"Black hair, black eyes, traditional build. Nothing all that special about you, huh?" The woman casually insulted an eight-year-old before she pulled out a strange looking dagger with an odd gem on the front. Without warning, Mamba tossed the blade to Lora, who caught it with ease.
Lora lifted the blade. My self-preservation sensors went off, prompting me to take a step back. "Oh, don't worry, this blade won't hurt you!" Lora laughed before she stabbed herself with the weapon. The moment the blade touched her stomach, it went incorporeal. "See, we only use this to check if you have a magic container or not."
I recalled those from the series. Every mage had one, and a second hidden one that they can use either through emotion or unlocking their second origin. A strange sense of excitement clawed at my soul. Every time I went to any magic class in town, I showed no aptitude in the field. I hoped I just happened to be a late bloomer. "O-okay..." I put my arms down.
Lora then slid the blade between my chest, just like she said I felt no pain. The gem on the dagger remained dead. After a few more seconds of no reaction, Lora removed the blade and let out a sigh. "Nope, no magical ability whatsoever."
Any amount of joy I found in the situation shattered. "W-what?" I stuttered, her simple statement made it feel like the past eight years I had experienced was for nothing. I wanted to beg her to recheck the dagger, but deep down, a part of me knew it made the correct call.
"Ah, average looks, dead parents, and can't even use magic." Dr. Mamba looked at her nails. "If you had some magic ability, we would have sent you back to the Magic Council to sort you out, but since not... we have one last offer for you."
My eyes and ears twitched. At least this confirmed they weren't some underground dark-guild. Which probably explained why the living conditions weren't completely terrible. "W-what is the deal?" I swallowed harshly, my mind still reeling in shock.
Dr. Mamba smiled. For a split second, I thought I saw a fork-like tongue slither out of her mouth. "I'll keep it simple. We are currently doing some experiments for the Magic council, creating non-magic based weapons. Since you lack a magic core, that means you are viable for the experiment."
"I... don't understand." I managed to keep up with the conversation to this point, but now the Doctor started to lose me. Luckily Lora filled in the missing details.
"We are asking you if you'd like to be part of our project. You don't have to, of course, but I should say that if you accept, you won't ever be human anymore." Lora's words made me feel sick to my stomach. I knew the magic council was into some shady shit, but the implications of turning kids into what I assumed to be weapons never crossed my mind. Weren't they the good guys, at least by the broad definition. Yet here I was, an eight-year-old, asking if I wanted to be transformed into some monster.
Dr. Mamba pressed her fingers against her cheek. "I don't have all day. You have thirty seconds to give me an answer before we just toss you out of the facility. People spend millions of jewels for this opportunity, and I don't have time to waste it on a no-talent piece of trash like you."
Her harsh words made me wince, but they were true. Without magic, what am I in this world? Somehow I managed to sink even lower on the totem pole even compared to Earth. If I said no, I'll be trash forever, no way to recover from it. I didn't want that. I didn't want what should be days filled with adventure and joy to end in mundanity and pain.
"I'll do it!" I blurted it out. I didn't even know the full details, but I agreed to the terms. I didn't want to be a trash loser that could survive on his own.
"Good, let's move on to the next subject." The woman wrote down what I hoped was my information before pulling out another clipboard. "Tell me, what is your favorite animal?"
I froze, zoology was one of my favorite subjects. While I didn't have much interest in becoming a vet or zoo-keeper, how different animals played off one another fascinated me. This resulted in me learning a lot of useless animal facts. Of course, I wanted to go with the most cliche answer a boy could have.
"A wolf, of course..." Wolves were cool, and the sort of default animal everyone would pick.
"No wolves!" Dr. Mamba shot down the idea the instant I uttered the animal's name. "Do you know how many boys picked that? And just so you don't get any bright ideas, no lions, tigers or bears either."
I held back a grumble. I figured Dr. Mamba just wanted more information about me, but apparently, this question meant something. Which means it would be in my best interest to pick something powerful. But I also wanted to pick something slender and fast.
"H-how about a wolverine?" Once I said that Dr. Mamba's eyes widened. "W-what? Did I say something wrong?"
"No, it's just that most kids don't even know that creature exists." Dr. Mamba rubbed her chin and smiled. "Looks at the big brain on you, okay you'll be a wolverine." Dr. Mamba then twisted her chair around, her green hair swaying with her. "I'll inform the surgical team, make sure you prep the boy." The doctor waved us away, prompting Lora to grab my arm and drag me away.
"That went well!" Lora gave me another motherly smile before she dragged me back to the hospital portion of the facility. The large woman took me to a side room. Inside was a room filled with different beakers and syringes. She then motioned me onto a single seat and chuckled. "You are pretty lucky, up until a few months ago, we didn't have an anesthetic strong enough to last the entire thing."
She pulled a syringe and filled it with a deep red fluid. My body stiffened as she placed the needle to my neck. She then stuck it into my carotid artery, causing my body to freeze, and once again, my vision started to fade. "When you wake up, you won't be human anymore..."
Author Note
I wanted to do something a bit different for once. The reason why I didn't go through the usual song and dance with the reincarnation opening that most people do for their OC/SI stories. I also wanted to play with the idea of non-magic weapons. I also maybe wanted to flex some of my animal knowledge a little.