Disclaimers: I do not own Fairy Tail.
A/N: Happy Holiday, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Kwanzaa, everyone. Let me tell you, I have been busy this holiday season with family matters, personal issues, and just work in general. So much that I was barely able to write anything but luckily I was able to get chapter along with two others done. Now after this, I'm moving to "Last Fire Mage" for a moment before working on the sequels for my other stories.
Also, because of how big the chapter was, I had to split it up, so the fighting comes next chapter.
I would like to thank Tenryu no Hoko for basically being a beta for this chapter as they are someone I exchange ideas with and get good feedback from. Check out their stories if you have the chance.
Please leave a Review, Fav, or Follow if you want and check out my other stories like The Last Fire Mage, A Child of Fire and Brimstone, and Wild Master.
Chapter 4
First Lesson
The Next Morning
"Come on, Kit! Let's go burn some stuff or something! I'm bored!", the kitsune groans as he circles around Romeo while the duo waited at the Magnolia Train Station for the others or more so, they were waiting outside the train station in the small grassy field. Romeo did his best to ignore the stares being sent his way by the other standby passengers, no doubt concerning the large creature pacing around him, as his mind dwelled deep into thought.
"Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap! I'm going on a job with Natsu and the others! What if I mess up? What if Natsu doesn't think I'm strong enough? Wait a minute, I can't cast any magic, I can only summon Kasai! How am I going to fight any monsters? Why didn't I say no to coming?! I mean, she's going to be coming as well!"
"Hey Romeo?", a voice calls out, breaking him out of his self-tirade, "Why are you way over there?"
Romeo and Kasai look toward the train station to see Wendy standing on the platform in her white dress alongside Carla, staring directly at the boy.
Now the former Rainbow Fire Mage's mind went into meltdown as he was now looking straight into the eyes of the very person he has been trying to avoid since the day they came back. He felt his cheeks heat up, temporarily making him think that he got his fire magic back, as he remembers back to the other day when he saw her for the first time in seven years.
Flashback
"Kit, you okay? Kiiiitttttttt?", the fire spirit says as he watches Romeo pace back and forth in his living room, murmuring to himself.
"This can't be real! This has to be some kind of joke! That's what it is! It's a ploy to get me to come back to the guild hall because I haven't been there in two weeks! That must be it!", Romeo ranted, "There's no way Nab could be telling the truth! There's no way Natsu and the others are back! Tenrou Island was completely obliterated! That's what the Magic Council's report said!"
Sensing his summoner's distraught, Kasai move toward him and began pacing alongside the boy, timing his turns with Romeo's.
"Maybe I'm overthinking this, the lack of sleep has been getting to me recently", Romeo says to himself, "Maybe, just maybe, Natsu and the others are alive and well. Maybe they are at Fairy Tail right now. No way Nab and the others would use something like this to get me to the guild hall, that would too low of a blow."
Romeo stops and finally notices Kasai walking alongside him and glares him down, "You know, I wouldn't be this stress out if it wasn't for you."
"Hey, you got a problem with the Emperor, take it up with the Emperor", was Kasai's response.
"Say Natsu is back, how am I suppose to face him with my fire magic gone, huh? How can I say he's my idol ever again if I can't even cast a simple fireball?" Romeo goes on.
But then a thought occurs to him, "Wait a minute, if Natsu and the others that went to Tenrou are alive then that must mean that Lucy is with them", Romeo says before snapping his fingers, "She could probably help me with all of this. She was a Celestial Spirit Mage and she had a bunch of keys if I remember correctly. She would be perfect!"
Kasai shrugs, "I guess. Never really got that whole key thing with the Celestial Spirits. It seemed like too much of a hassle."
"Oh, that's rich coming from you", Romeo grumbles as he looks out the window toward the forest where the guild hall resided, a thousand thoughts running through his head. After an eternity of standing there, he lets out a sigh.
"It wouldn't hurt to go at least see if they are alive and well. But as much as it pains me I may have to hold off seeing Natsu and talk to Lucy first to see if she'll help me", he says as he turns his attention back to a smiling Kasai, "And I don't need you scaring everyone, not until I'm ready to show you to everyone."
"Oh, come on, Kit, let me meet your friends!", as the spirit growls as a summoning circle appears underneath him and he disappears from sight.
A while later, Romeo was going up the trail leading to the guild hall, rehearsing his lines as he approaches his destination.
"Hey Lucy, good to see that you're alive. How about you help me out with my new summoning magic which I got because someone seven centuries ago made a deal without thinking about the future consequences?", Romeo says before shaking his head, "No, that won't do. Hey Lucy, you're alive after seven years of being dead! That's great and all but I have a problem that I could really use your help on!"
The former fire magic now turn summoner mage lets out a roar of frustration, "Gods, that will definitely get her to help me! Geez, get your sh-!", he started to say only to stop mid-sentence as he found his words caught in his throat as time stops all around him as he glazes upon the entranceway to the guild hall where a blue-hair angel was currently standing at.
Flashback Ends
"Romeo? Hello?", Wendy says as she waves a hand in front of the boy who seemed lost in thought, "You okay there?"
Romeo was still looking at the spot on the platform where he first saw Wendy and Carla his eyes glue there despite the girl and her exceed now being directly in front of him. Kasai, sensing the uneasiness coming from his summoner, nudges his nose into the back of Romeo's left kneecap. This almost sends him falling to the ground but he catches himself and thus snaps out of his trance, his black eyes now lock with the soft brown eyes of the Sky Dragon-Slayer.
"Hey, Romeo", she smiles, "Long time no see."
"Um-um-um", Romeo stammers out as he struggles to speak while Kasai picks up on his rapid heartbeat.
"Wow, you really have grown up, haven't you? You're no longer that little boy I saw when I first came to Fairy Tail", Wendy says.
"Um-um-um", Romeo keeps saying, unable to form a coherent sentence as sweat started to appear on his brow.
"Use your words when you speak to someone", Carla criticizes only to jump back in surprise as a few flames dance off of Kasai and almost hit the exceed.
"Hey, watch it!", she shouts out as she glares at Kasai who returns it with a mischievous smile. Seeing that Romeo was getting nowhere with Wendy, the fire spirit moves to rub himself up next to Wendy's side, catching the girl's attention.
"Oh, hi Kasai, how are you today?", the girl asks as the spirit continues with its rubbing, "Wow, you're not as hot as I thought you would be."
"Oh please, I'm really a big softly when you get down to it", the embodiment of fire yips as he prances around Wendy in a circle, completely ignoring the glares from Carla and the confusion looks from Romeo.
"What is he up too?", the boy thought, suspicious of the kitsune and his intentions even as he allows Wendy to pet his head, his flames not harming her whatsoever.
"Wow, you're such a pure and innocent little girl and you know what they say about pure and innocent little girls", the spirit said right before he grabbed the hem of Wendy's dress with his mouth and flicks his head up, "They always wear white underneath!", and the entire lower half of Wendy's dress flings upward in full view of Romeo and the boy got an eyeful of the what it was covering up, "Or in your case, stripes."
The girl froze in place, her face now a glowing beacon as her mind tries to register what exactly just happen as steam could be seen coming out of her ears. Romeo was in a no better position as he became a statue whose eyes widened in shock and were glued to Wendy's dress which had since fallen back in place. Carla's mouth was wide open as she struggles to form words that could help her make sense of the situation while Kasai just sat there, smiling as if nothing happens.
"Eh-eh-eh", Wendy finally manages to get out, snapping Romeo out of his trance and he looks up to see the dragon-slayer on the verge of tears though that did nothing to distract him from the vex expression that settles on her face, one that promise pain.
"W-Wendy, this isn't what it looks like! I had nothing to do with that!", Romeo blurts out as he throws his hands up in front of him, "Kasai did that all on his own, I swear!" he pleads but it all fell on deaf ears.
"Per-Per-PERVERT!", Wendy screams out, letting loose a miniature roar that kicks up a dust storm and sends the Elemental Spirit Mage flying through the air.
"Oh, gods, why me?!" could be heard throughout the train station along with the cackling laughter of the trickster fire spirit.
"Do we have all the books on summoning?", Lucy asks as she looks over the checklist in her hand while the rest of Team Natsu, Levy, Juvia, and Gajeel trail behind her.
"Yes, Lucy, Natsu's hauling them", Levy answers.
"What about all the notes we took?"
"Gray's carrying them and he's having a hard time seeing because they're blocking his view."
"What about the pie charts and graphs?"
"Erza has all ninety-eight of them."
"What about the books on Eastern Culture?"
"Lucy, is all of this necessary for your first lesson? We're going to be on a three-hour train ride and then do a job right afterward. I don't see you having time to teach Romeo", Gray speaks out as he tries not to collide with the people walking past him.
"And that's where you would be wrong, Gray! For you see I've planned ahead and made a schedule that perfectly accommodates the train ride as well as the job", Lucy rebuttals as she pulls out another sheet of paper from the middle of her cleavage, "See here, ten-fifteen: broad the train. Preferably get an empty car. Ten minutes set aside to get everything set up and we move straight into our first lesson at ten-twenty-five. At eleven-thirty, we take a short restroom break and we move back into-" she stops as she notices a large crowd ahead of her was looking outward toward the field next to the train station.
"What's going on here?", Levy asks as Gajeel moves ahead of her and easily pushes through the crowd, not so much shoving them out of his way but the people themselves getting out of the way upon seeing it was the Iron Dragon-Slayer behind them. Eventually, Gajeel got to the edge of the platform and found a most peculiar sight, one that baffles him as he watches a tearful Wendy crying about how she can never get married now while Romeo was lying unconscious on the ground not too far away. Carla was next to the girl trying to comfort her all while Kasai was rolling on the ground, howling with laughter.
"Oh man", Gajeel grumbles, "Hey, Bunny Girl", he calls out behind him, "You may want to move your schedule up a bit until we make sure Spirit Boy is okay."
A little while later, Romeo was up, Kasai was sent back to the Spirit World, everyone got on the train and both Lucy and Levy was sitting across from the boy in question within an empty cart near the caboose while everyone else was in the car ahead of them and soon they were on their way to Oak Town.
For five agonizing minutes, Romeo avoided eye contact with either girl, choosing instead to stare down at the table while the young ladies couldn't take their eyes off him.
"I….", Lucy started, stopping herself in an attempt to find the right words to say, "I can't say I'm surprised by Kasai's mischievous behavior mostly because how I've seen him act along with seeing how Taurus is the pretty much the same way with me and Loke being Loke so I know it's not uncommon among spirits. It's just…."
"We never figure that he would be so bold as to, you know, do that to Wendy", Levy says before pointing a finger at Romeo, "Are you sure you had nothing to do with that?"
"Of course not! Why would I do that to Wendy?!", Romeo shouts, slamming his hands on the table as he rises out of his seat, "That was all Kasai!"
"Okay, okay, we believe you and we told Wendy as much though Carla needed some convincing, as well as Erza but she promises she won't skin you alive for "Defiling Wendy's purity" as she said", Lucy states, trying to calm the boy's nerves, "We just had to make sure."
Romeo slouches back into the sit and bangs his head on the table, mimicking Lucy's movement from last night while over at the Connells, "She hates me now."
"You don't know that for sure and you shouldn't dwell on such thoughts", Levy assures him before looking over at Lucy, "How about we get started?"
"Excellent idea, Levy!", Lucy says as she reaches into the seat behind them at grabs three notebooks. She hands one to Levy and another to Romeo before placing her own in front of her, "First things first, what can you tell us about Kasai?"
Romeo gives Lucy a look that conveys to her that he didn't understand what was going on, "Come again, Lucy?"
"I said, what can you tell us about Kasai?", Lucy repeats, "The first trick to being a great summoner is knowing your summons inside and out. You must know all of their strengths, all of their weaknesses. What they enjoy doing, what they don't enjoy doing. What makes them happy and what makes them sad. More than just being their summoner you must also be their friend."
Levy couldn't help but admire the way Lucy was approaching the first lesson, even if it causes them more than a couple of hours of sleep last night setting it up, "She is really getting into this."
"So I'm supposed to try and be friends with Kasai?", Romeo asks, receiving a nod from Lucy in exchange, "Even though he tries to burn down my house multiple times and got me blown away by Wendy all so he could get a laugh out of it?"
Lucy holds up a finger, "There's nothing wrong with putting your foot down and reminding your summons that you are in charge if they step out of line. It's important that Kasai and any other of the Elemental Spirits, whenever and however you may get them, know that you are the boss."
"Okay, I guess that makes sense", Romeo says before writing some notes down, completely missing the smile on Lucy's lips.
"This is going great!", the Celestial Spirit mage tells herself before continuing on, "Now, what can you tell me about Kasai?"
"He loves to turn up the heat in a room in an effort to get people's attention", Romeo tells her while still taking down notes, "The first fire started because I ignore him for so long that one of our kitchen chairs burst into flames."
"Oh", Lucy said, caught off-guard by the boy's bluntness, "O-Okay, but what else can you tell me?"
"He leaves claw marks on the furniture and it's going to cost quite a bit to replace them all."
"I think we're discussing the wrong things", Levy interjects.
"He also likes to snatch food off my plate, not because he's hungry but because he just wants to mess with me sometimes", Romeo kept on going.
"Okay, okay", Lucy claps, "Enough of that, let's move on to combat", as she takes up her notebook and pen, "What are Kasai's attacks and abilities?"
"Attacks and what now?", Romeo questions.
"Attacks and abilities", Levy repeats, "What can Kasai do in a fight?"
"Ooooooh", Romeo says while drumming his fingers on the table, "Yeah, funny thing about that."
"Romeo", says Lucy as she puts down her writing utensils, "You have been training with Kasai in magic combat, right?"
"Well, you see…a lot has happened in a very short amount of time and-", Romeo starts before stopping upon Lucy holding up a hand.
"Okay", she simply said as she began to rub her temples, "I see that there are a lot more things we need to work then I expected but nothing we can't overcome."
Meanwhile, in the train car ahead of where the summoning lessons were going on, Natsu was trying his best to keep himself from hurling due to the fact that Wendy wasn't in the right mental state to cast Troia seeing how she was looking out the window with tears in her eyes as Carla kept telling her over and over again that she wasn't at fault for what happened so he had no choice but to endure with only Happy to comfort him.
"Hey, you said that you believe what Bunny Girl and Shrimp told you about Spirit Boy, so why are you still sharpening your sword like that?", Gajeel asks Erza from across the aisle, "It scared the other folks in the car away."
"No reason, I just felt like making sure my swords are up to par", the Requip Mage answers while running the whetstone over her sword with a determined look in her eye, "But while we're on the subject, why were you so calm about the whole incident? I thought you and Natsu saw Wendy as a little sister figure. I was half-expecting at least you to try something against Romeo."
"I do see the brat as a little sister", Gajeel smiles, "But I also figure that Spirit Boy wasn't stupid enough to try something like that with her without knowing the consequences, so I figure he had nothing to do with it."
"Hmm, never peg you to be a smart one", Erza admits, "Perhaps Levy is rubbing off on you."
The dragon-slayer's smile quickly turns into a scowl as he merely scoffs at the S-class mage before turning his head away, grumbling all the while as Pantherlily gives him a small smile.
"So what is Oak Town like? We bypass it last time while on our way to attack Phantom Lord's headquarters", Gray asks Juvia as the two of them sat across from one another.
"Oak Town has a long and rich history as it has been the sites of many battles, some of them even decided the fate of Fiore as a country", Juvia began, "This is shown in a large number of battlements, castles, and turrets located throughout the town."
"And that castle at the top use to be one of your guild buildings?", asks the Ice-Make mage.
"It was a branch headquarters where Master Jose sent the weaker mages of the guild to do jobs inside of Oak Town", Juvia answers, "Now and then he would send one of the Elemental Four or Gajeel to take charge of it to show face to the citizens."
"Hated whenever he sent me", the two hear Gajeel grumbles from the down the aisle.
"So the mayor of Oak Town is our contact for this job and he'll fill us in on the details concerning the monsters", Erza tells the others, "I suggest we split into groups and-"
The master swordswoman was cut off as the train came to a sudden halt, lunging everyone forward. While every one of them was tough enough to write this off as nothing more than a minor inconvenience, this was the last straw for Natsu as he threw up the breakfast he had this morning all over his seat, almost splashing Happy in the process.
"Is everyone okay?", Erza asks upon recovering herself.
"We're fine", Wendy calls out as Carla gives a nod.
"Yeah, I'm okay", Gajeel says.
"I too am unharmed", Pantherlily adds.
"I'll be fine….as soon as Juvia lets go of me!", Gray shouts out while trying to pry the Water Mage off of him, the girl crushing his rib cage in a bearhug.
"But Gray-sama, Juvia wants to make sure that you're alright!"
Erza moves up the aisle to where Natsu and Happy were and became a little queasy upon seeing the mess the Fire Dragon-Slayer made but was relieved upon seeing that both of them were okay.
The rear door opens up and Levy, Lucy, and Romeo come through. The boy's eyes instantly land on Wendy who ducks back down in her chair in embarrassment while Carla throws a glare back at him.
"Are you three alright?", Erza asks.
"We're fine; how is everyone else?", Lucy asks.
"Everyone appears to be fine but I wonder why the train stop", Erza says right before the front door opens and the conductor pokes his head in.
"Is everyone alright in here? Any injuries to report?", he asks.
"Do you have a mop and bucket?", Gajeel asks while pointing a finger at Natsu and his puke.
The conductor takes one good look at the mess and shakes his head, "I suppose I could rustle one up. But other than him is everyone okay?"
"We're all fine but what made the train stop?", Lucy asks.
"Well, you see, we just got word that one of the smaller stations on our route has a locomotive that has broken down on it and it's going to take a while to get it moved off the track. Until then, all trains on this route are stopped until they get the issue resolved", the conductor explains, "Sorry folks, looks like it might be a while."
Erza shakes her head in annoyance, "Do you have a lacrima onboard? I need to call our contact in Oak Town and let them know about our situation."
"Follow me, ma'am. We got one in the front car.", the conductor ushers her toward him and she goes through the door behind him.
"Should we go back and continued the lessons since we have more time now?", Romeo asks Lucy but the Celestial Spirit Mage was too busy looking at the area where the train had stopped, taking in the forest clearing that was just beyond the walls of the locomotive.
"I think it's best we jump straight to combat lessons for now", she states after a moment, catching both Romeo and Levy by surprise.
"You're sure about that, Lucy? Romeo hasn't had any combat training with Kasai whatsoever", Levy says.
Lucy merely smiles, "I think it will be fine for now; besides I have the perfect sparring partner for him", she says right before seeing Natsu throw up in the aisle again, "Okay, scratch that sparring partner. Luckily, I have a backup one."
A few minutes later Lucy, Levy, and Romeo were all standing outside the train in the vast clearing that separated them from the forest. Large rocks were scattered throughout the area and a small pond laid off to the right along the center of the field.
Lucy gives a nod, "Now's a better time than any seeing how we're not going anywhere and we're far enough away from any towns to raise a concern. Plus, I want to test a theory."
Romeo shrugs, "Alright, if you say so", as he holds a hand out and focuses his magic. He feels a warmth run through his body that painfully reminded him of all the times he would call forth his fire magic before that faithful night when his whole life change. He hated this feeling with a passion that surpasses a thousand suns but if he wanted to stay in Fairy Tail he had no choice but to summon and use Kasai to aid him out on jobs.
Within moments a fiery magic circle appeared in front of the group, spewing a pillar of fire upward towards the heavens. When it ceases and disappear, Kasai was standing there with a smile.
"Did you miss me, Kit?"
A/N: You're starting to see a mischievous side to Kasai that might not be all that nice.
Please leave a Review, Fav, or Follow if you want and check out my other stories like The Last Fire Mage, A Child of Fire and Brimstone, and Wild Master.