The Blue Pheasant Flies On

Chapter 7: Scarlet Squire

Fairy Tail, X776

Kuzan walked into the guild with a yawn and scratched at the stubble on his face. Without any Marine regulations to be held accountable for, he had gotten into the habit of not shaving for a few days until Ur told him he looked scruffy. Speaking of Ur, he found her sitting at their usual table in the back of the guild and joined her after grabbing a cup of coffee from the bartender. "Mornin'," he told her through another yawn.

Ur folded the top of her paper back and shot a look at Kuzan over it. "It's two o'clock, you lazy bum. Most of the day's already gone."

"Oh? Then I might as well go back to sleep," he said while beginning to rise from his seat only for Ur to whack his head with her paper. Kuzan sat back down with a roll of his eyes and took a satisfying sip of his coffee. Fairy Tail coffee beat Marine coffee any day of the week. The black nectar was magical. "It's not like anything important happens before noon anyways."

Ur sighed at Kuzan. He wasn't wrong, but he should be. Even with two years to get used to how lazy he was, Kuzan still managed to surprise her. It was like he only had two modes: super competent or super lazy. "You know, most retirees are supposed to find hobbies to fill up all their free time, not sleep for fourteen hours a day."

Kuzan accepted the change in subject as Ur conceding defeat. He finished his coffee before answering. "Napping is my hobby," he pointed out. "And I'm only semiretired."

"That's not my point and you know it," Ur told him. "All you do between jobs is sleep and train. There has to be something else you can find to do. What did you do in your downtime as a marine?"

"Sleep and train."

Ur's glare over the top of her paper informed him that she didn't appreciate him being a smartass. He scratched his chin and debated elaborating on what else he did. He didn't like talking about his past and Ur had pretty much stopped asking him about it these days. It was easier to keep your lies straight if you didn't elaborate too much and avoided questions. If anyone ever actually looked for the island nations he had described in his backstory they would quickly see that he was lying through his teeth. Fortunately, the burn scars over his body made it easy to justify not talking about what he did before Fairy Tail.

"I didn't just train by myself. I used to train some of the younger Marines as well," Kuzan admitted. "But I can't exactly do that here. No one uses a sword and the only Ice Mages—"

"—are my students," Ur finished. He had already pointedly denied Lyon's request to train him and Gray showed no interest in changing teachers. He had really started to improve under Ur. He still couldn't beat Lyon in their spars, but he was getting closer. She didn't think Lyon had noticed yet, but his one-handed constructs were breaking easier under Gray's attacks and her dark-haired student's shield was holding up longer against Lyon's attacks. Soon, Lyon would be in for a surprise when Gray caught up to him and began to surpass him. "So all you do is sleep and train then?"

"Well, I talk to you every day too. Does that count?"

Ur didn't answer immediately as she thought over what he said. It was true. Kuzan didn't really interact with anyone besides herself and her students. He would chat with Makarov sometimes—and Gildarts if he was in the guild—but other than that, he spent most of the day with her. Now that she thought about it, Ur spent a lot of time talking with him too. She spoke to some of the other guild members, like Macao and Wakaba, but not nearly as much as she did with Kuzan. "I guess it does," she finally answered.

The two then settled into their usual small talk; how Gray and Lyon were coming along, complaining about jobs they had done and the Magic Council, the latest gossip in the guild. Normal things.

Nothing interesting happened for another hour or two beyond Gray loudly declaring that Cana's divinations about him having fantastic luck today as bullshit and Ur chastising him for his language. Then a young girl about Lyon's age walked into the guild wearing what seemed to be a dirty and ragged cloth that someone had cut three holes in and thrown over her in some pale facsimile of a dress and a medical eyepatch over her right eye. She had a small sack thrown over one shoulder and stopped just past the guild's entrance to look around the building.

Kuzan felt the girl enter the girl with his Haki (which was also apparently powered by his magic now, and wasn't that fun to find out when he ran out of magic during one of his longer and more intense spars with Ur and got a face full of an ice hammer when he was distracted by its absence), but wouldn't have given her a second glance if he hadn't heard Ur's gasp.

Wondering what about a little girl could make Ur react like that, Kuzan turned around and gave her a once over. Then he pulled his fingers out of the table and gave her a second look to be sure. Unhealthily thin, yet with muscles formed from hard labor easily seen under and through the scrap of cloth she wore. Dirt that was caked into her skin and hair. A smell that spoke of not bathing in who knew how long. Callouses and dirt on her hands and bare feet that spoke of holding a tool for most of her life and an equally long lack of footwear. But the most telling sign was her eye. He knew that look in her eye. It wasn't the worse that he'd seen, it was actually a lot better than normal, but he could still see the misery and despair inside that eye.

"Slave."

Ur's attention immediately left the girl and focused on Kuzan. He had spoken so quietly that no one was supposed to hear it, but she had. She knew what he said, but she hoped she was wrong. "What did you say?"

Kuzan didn't turn to answer Ur, but she could see that he was both looking at the girl and seeing something else. When he spoke again it was still quiet, but she was supposed to hear him this time.

"That girl was a slave."

The girl had briefly spoken with Makarov before the old guild master invited her back into his office where they could speak in private. Kuzan had refused to elaborate on how he knew that the girl was a slave. Ur had only seen him act this way when something uncomfortable was brought up about his past and wisely decided to let it go. It did raise some concerning questions though. She knew that there were still some countries that had a slave trade and some of them were quite prominent like Bosco's. What had been the stand on slavery where Kuzan was from? Judging from the older man's reaction it wasn't uncommon or illegal, but how much it was accepted was still up in the air.

Several minutes of uncomfortable silence later, Makarov's office door opened and the girl walked out with a blue Fairy Tail symbol on her left arm. Instead of loudly introducing their newest member as usual, Makarov quietly led her over to where Kuzan and Ur were sitting. He beamed broadly at the two S-Class mages. "Yo! This little cutie here is Erza Scarlet. She's our newest member." He turned to the now named Erza, "Take a seat and order whatever you want from the menu. Tell them to put it on my tab." She nodded and hesitantly hopped onto one of the empty seats. Makarov handed her a menu and waited until her face was hidden behind it before mouthing "my office" to Ur and Kuzan.

The pair nodded and Makarov disappeared back into his office. Ur saw Gray begin to head over dressed only in his underwear and with a mischievous smile that could only mean trouble was brewing. She sharply shook her head at him and jerked her head back to his seat. For a second it looked like he was going to argue, but Ur shot him a look and he slunk back to where Cana was giggling at him for getting shut down by his teacher without a word. She turned back to Erza and was surprised to see Kuzan leaning over her shoulder and pointing at the menu.

Erza ordered what he suggested and soon a piece of strawberry cake was brought before her. She suspiciously looked between Kuzan and the cake several times before her hand darted out to rip a piece off and quickly stuffed it into her mouth. Her eyes widened in surprise, "it's delicious," she said in awe. She couldn't remember the last time she had eaten something so good, not even before the Tower of Heaven.

Kuzan merely smiled at her and said, "Eat up." Erza followed his order with gusto and began to devour the cake before her in record time. Kuzan ordered a second piece of cake for the girl and after it arrived, he looked at Ur and then motioned to Makarov's door. Ur nodded and the two of them left Erza alone with her cakes and entered Makarov's office.

Makarov appeared to be lost in thought as he stared at a framed picture in his hand. He didn't react as the two mages entered. Kuzan lightly coughed into his fist, "Master?"

Makarov looked up from his pictured and they were surprised at how old he looked. The man had just celebrated his eightieth birthday that year, but despite his white hair and wrinkles, Makarov always carried himself like a much younger man. Now he seemed to sag into his chair and his eyes had lost some of their usual luster. He placed the picture back on his desk and turned his full attention to them. "You know why I called you in here."

"It's about Erza and that she was a slave," Kuzan stated matter-of-factly.

Makarov's brow raised in surprise and narrowed his eyes slightly, "How do you know?"

"Her eye. I've seen that look before."

Kuzan's answer raised more questions, but Makarov chose to ignore them. What the man had done in the past would stay there. There was no need to pry for the sake of curiosity. One shouldn't ask questions if they didn't want to know the answer. "Yes. Erza wouldn't admit where she was held beyond it being a tower where she and the other slaves were forced to work, and she seemed quite frightened of someone in the tower. What she did tell me was that there was an attempted prison break and she's the only one that escaped."

"Why did she come here? There must have been closer towns that she could have stopped at," Ur asked. Magnolia was a large town, too large and populous for any operation that would use slaves as a workforce. They would have been discovered and reported within a month. Erza must have walked far to reach Magnolia and done it all barefoot. She must have had a reason to specifically pick Magnolia Town as her destination.

Makarov let out a heavy sigh and they could tell Erza's reason was the source of his current mood. "While she was held in the tower, she met a retired Fairy Tail member. One of my old teammates named Rob. He had retired to a little fishing village several years ago and must have been taken from there." The thought that his oldest friend had been taken as a slave without his knowledge filled Makarov with equal parts anger and regret. Anger over the people that had attacked him, and regret that he had fallen so out of touch with the man that he never noticed his absence. Fairy Tail's master took a deep breath before continuing, "Rob kept her and several other children's moral up in the tower. During the revolt, he gave his life to protect Erza from an attack. The trauma of his death awoke Erza's latent magic and allowed her to escape. She then came here because of the stories Rob had told her." Rob's magic was a rare type of Reflecting Magic that allowed him to reflect any type of magical attack back at the caster, but it required the user to be strong enough to withstand the magic power attacking them. So, once Rob began to feel his years weighing him down and it became harder to use his magic, he retired. From what Erza had told him, he had used up the last of his life-force to stop that last blast and even that wasn't enough power to reflect it.

The trio of mages were silent for a moment. "How awful," Ur muttered while looking at the door leading back into the main room where Erza was sitting.

Makarov hummed in agreement. "She's been through a lot for one so young and I'm hesitant to leave her on her own after such a traumatic experience, which brings me to my request." The older man bowed his head slightly to the two younger mages, "I'd like for the two of you to watch over Erza and help her with her new life. She needs a positive role model and someone who will take care of her and make sure she is alright. Eleven is too young to be taking care of yourself alone. She still needs time to be young and carefree."

The two mages never got the chance to answer. A young girl's scream was heard just before large spike of unknown magic flared up in the main hall and was quickly followed by the sound of crashing furniture and breaking glass. All three older mages burst out of Makarov's office and were greeted with the not unusual sight of Fairy Tail in disarray. This time, however, it wasn't caused by one of the usual brawls.

Lyon was pinned into the wall by what appeared to be most of the tables and chairs in the guild along with whatever had been on top of them at the time. Shattered ice was scattered around him and he was bleeding from a head wound.

"Lyon!" Ur shouted in concern as she rushed to her student's side.

Kuzan and Makarov looked to the other side of the guild and found what had done that to Lyon.

Erza was shaking in the area that had previously held Ur and Kuzan's usual table. Her arms were wrapped around herself and she was drenched in sweat while breathing heavily. Kuzan could see that she was miles away from the guild at the moment and needed some space. "I'll take care of her," he told Makarov before appearing next to Erza in a burst of Soru. He picked her up and left the guild in another burst. Once they were outside Magnolia, he put Erza down and watched her gasp for breath. The shock of moving at such high speeds breaking her out of her flashback.

"Breath through your nose," he advised. Erza listened and after a minute had regained some of her composure. She didn't say anything and Kuzan was fine with that. He had slept through all the presentations about soldiers suffering from flashbacks due to stress and had no idea how he was supposed to respond to this situation. Ultimately, he decided to wait her out. Eventually, Erza got to her feet and started to walk away from Kuzan and Magnolia. He reached out and grabbed her shoulder before she could go far. "What are you doing?"

"Leaving," Erza said through suppressed sobs. "You probably don't—" her voice hitched, "want me to stay anymore."

Kuzan let out a heavy sigh and ran a hand through his hair. Why did he volunteer to do this again? "Sit down, kid." He guided Erza to the ground and turned her around. She looked pretty upset. Tears were welling up in her visible eye and her face was scrunched up in a valiant effort not to cry. He attempted to put her worries to rest. "Look. We you aren't going to get kicked out just because you trashed a bunch of furniture and put someone into a wall. That's pretty normal around here."

Nothing. He was hoping to get at least a giggle out of her with that, but no dice. Humor really wasn't his forte. At least she wasn't getting any worse.

"Why don't you take a deep breath, calm down, and tell me what happened?" Kuzan offered. "Get it off your chest."

Erza nodded in agreement and they spent several minutes with only the sound of her sniffles and hiccups. Eventually, she started to speak, "I was sitting at the table and eating my cake when this boy walked up to me. He introduced himself as Lyon and started talking about how all the new members had to fight to show how strong they were. I told him that I didn't want to fight, but he insisted. There was another boy without a shirt that came up and said the same things he said."

Kuzan could feel a headache appearing. Looks like Ur's students were in for an earful. She must've not heard any of this yet since he couldn't hear her yelling at them. He had only taken them outside of the town after all. What those two were thinking picking a fight with someone who hadn't been in the guild for an hour was beyond him. Probably something stupid, along the lines of 'I'll show her I like her by hitting her' or something. That's how kids did it when they were that age, wasn't it? Hitting girls instead of hitting on them?

Erza was still talking while Kuzan pondered over the mysteries of young boys and their defective thought processes. "I told them that I didn't know how to use my magic and Lyon said that it'd be a short fight. He held out his hand and a bunch of these little birds made of ice appeared. They started pecking me and scratching me and they knocked over my cake. I was scared and didn't know what to do. I yelled and then I felt a big whoosh! and then the birds were gone and there was a lot of loud noises. I saw Lyon in the wall with all the tables and chairs, and everyone was against the walls, and then you and Ur-san and Master-san came out, and, and, and…" Erza trailed off as she started to hyperventilate again.

Kuzan snapped his fingers in front of the girl's face, "Erza!" She jerked at the sound of her name and wildly glanced around before finding his face. "Stay with me, would ya?"

Erza nodded and then looked down at her feet. "So, am I in trouble?"

"Not at all," Kuzan assured her. "If we punished people for every time they fought each other then that's all we would ever do. The only people that are going to be in trouble are Gray and Lyon. We should be hearing the screams any minute now."

"O-okay, Kuzan-san," Erza nervously said.

Another failure of a joke. He should really leave them up to Makarov. Kuzan got to his feet and held a hand out for Erza. "Come on, kid. Let's go."

"Where are we going?" Erza asked before taking his hand.

"We're going to get you some actual clothes to wear instead of that rag." Kuzan gave her a quick onceover, "And some shoes."

Erza's face fell. "But I don't have any money."

Kuzan waved off her concerns, "Don't worry about that. I'll pay." Well, technically, Makarov would be paying, he just didn't know it yet. Kuzan would just drop the bill off on him later.

Erza's face lit up at the news. "Okay!" She grabbed his hand and pulled herself up. Kuzan waited for her to let go so they could get going, but she didn't make any move to release his hand despite it being just a mass of burn scars and just stared up at him with her big brown eye. He relented, and the pair walked into town. It was then that Kuzan realized that he had no idea where a clothing store was. Everything he owned was custom ordered for his normal height and he just shrunk them down.

Not wanting to admit his lack of knowledge after promising to get Erza some clothes, Kuzan ended up just wandering around town with Erza in tow while hoping to get lucky. she didn't say anything about his wandering and seemed content to just walk with him until they passed a certain store.

Erza let go of Kuzan's hand and walked up to the store's display. She pressed her face into the glass and looked at the mannequins inside with awe at what they were wearing. "Shiny."

Kuzan had stopped when he felt Erza let go of his hand and looked over at the store that caught her eye. 'An armory?' he thought in confusion. He glanced between the silver armor on display and where Erza seemed to be trying to meld with the window. He wasn't sure what to say. Weren't little girls supposed to like frilly dresses? He awkwardly coughed into his fist, "So, um… see something you like?"

Erza's head made a squeaking sound as she nodded into the glass. She remembered taking one of the guard's breastplates during the revolt in the Tower of Heaven. It hadn't been very good, but it had done its job. If she had armor like the one in the store then she would have been better protected. She wouldn't have to have been protected. If she was wearing armor, then she'd be safe.

Kuzan ran a hand through his hair. He really didn't know anything about kids. "Alright then. If that's what you want." He opened the door to the armory. "Okay, kid. Let's go see if they have anything in your size."

Erza looked up at Kuzan with a sparkle in her eye. "Really, Kuzan-san?"

"I said that we were going to get you clothes," he reminded her before muttering under his breath, "just expected it to be dresses and shoes instead of breastplates and boots." Once they got inside, Kuzan headed to the front desk to talk to the shopkeeper while Erza wandered off. After confirming that yes, they had armor in stock that would fit a child and where it was, Kuzan turned around to see Erza holding a sword that seemed too big for her, yet she was spinning it around with one hand as if it weighed nothing. He decided to wait and watch for a moment. After a few seconds, he confirmed that Erza wasn't just swinging at random, she was fighting an imaginary opponent. He looked a little closer and saw that she was starting to swing faster and was unconsciously moving her free hand around as if she was holding a shield. He glanced up at her face and immediately moved to grab her sword. Her eyes had gone distant again. She wasn't fighting an imaginary opponent, she was having another flashback.

Kuzan stopped her mid-swing and gave an approving whistle. "Arara. That's some fancy swordsmanship there, Erza-chan. Where'd you learn that?"

The fog lifted from Erza's mind and she shook her head to focus herself. She wasn't fighting the cruel guards in the Tower of Heaven. She was out shopping with Kuzan-san, her new friend. She saw that he was waiting for an answer and hurried to stammer one out. "I, uh… I didn't. I mean, uh, I don't know?" It was a question not an answer. She flinched and tried again. "I mean, I, uh, didn't. It just came to me."

Kuzan hummed in response. A natural with a blade, was it? That was interesting. He had trained a few of those before. They were normally arrogant little pricks that thought that just because they were pretty good with a sword that being a Marine was going to be easy. It wasn't. It just meant that sword combat classes were easier. There was more to combat than just swinging around a sword. Most naturals weren't even good enough to block a bullet when they joined the Marines, even if they were from the New World.

Kuzan looked down at Erza and saw that she seemed sad about something. "What's wrong, kid?" He didn't really want to know, but it seemed like something he should ask.

Erza seemed to debate answering truthfully before saying, "I just. I just wish my magic was about swords." Seeing Kuzan's raised brow, she elaborated. "I don't like my magic. It's too big, and strong, and too much." She seemed to shrink in on herself. "All it does is hurt people."

"Isn't that all swords do as well?" Kuzan asked, honestly curious about her answer.

Erza shook her head. "No. Swords let me protect my friends. They let me protect myself. All my magic does is throw things around and break them."

From what Kuzan had seen, Erza seemed to be a natural user of Telekinetic Magic or something along those lines. That was quite a powerful magic, and if she trained with it she could become one of the strongest members of the guild in no time. But if she was afraid of her magic she wouldn't get anywhere with it. A little girl that preferred armor and swords over dresses and magic. How strange.

Kuzan made a decision. He took the blade off Erza, but instead of putting it back on the rack like she expected, he tucked it under his arm and headed deeper into the store. He looked back at her. "Come on. The armor is back this way."

Erza stared for a moment, then sharply nodded her head. "Right!"

It took several minutes to find the right sizes, but in the end, Erza was the proud owner of a simple breastplate, armored boots, and a set of detached pauldrons. She was wearing them over her original rag-dress and carried a sheathed sword in her hands. She practically skipped out of the armory while Kuzan followed behind her at a more sedated pace and with a lighter wallet. Who knew that armor was so damn expensive? No wonder barely anyone wore it back home. Why drop all that money on a piece of metal that was just going to break the first time it got hit with a punch?

Their trip back to the guild was uneventful and filled with the sound of clinking metal and Erza's happy humming. When they go inside, she was surprised to see that the guild looked the same as when she first walked in not even three hours ago. All the broken furniture had been removed and replaced and everyone was acting as if nothing had happened. Kuzan led her over to where Ur was sitting next to two blocks of ice.

When they got closer, Erza saw that the two blocks of ice contained a frozen Lyon and the black-haired kid from earlier. Ur didn't seem to notice the two frozen mages and raised her hand in a greeting. "Hey. Where have you two been? Kuzan didn't fall asleep while he was with you, did he?"

Said mage rolled his eyes at her and sat down across from Ur while pulling a chair out for Erza. "Ha ha. For your information, we were out clothes shopping." He signaled to a barmaid for a beer. "I see you've been working on you sculpting."

"What? These?" Ur asked with false innocence. "They're my two newest pieces. I call them: The Consequences of Acting like an Idiot and Next Training Session will make you Cry. What do you think?"

Erza thought that the two blocks of ice were shaking in fear but didn't voice her thoughts. Ur-san was a very scary woman.

Ur took a calm sip of her tea and enjoyed the feeling of fear emitting from her frozen students. Served them right for attacking a new member within five minutes of her induction. "So, Kuzan out clothes shopping. I would have bet a decent chunk of Jewel that you didn't even know where the clothes stores were. So, what'd you get?"

Kuzan's beer arrived and he took a swig before answering. "It was for the kid."

Ur's eyes turned to Erza and she gave her a once over. She closed her eyes and began to rub at the headache she could feel forming behind them. "Kuzan," she began slowly, "why is Erza-chan wearing armor over her rag?" What she was wearing couldn't be considered clothing.

She could feel the man shrugging. "She wanted armor."

"The point! is that she's still wearing her rag. Why is she still wearing her rag?"

"I ran out of money after buying her armor and sword."

"That's another question. Why did you buy an eleven-year-old child a sword?!" She tried to keep the incredulity out of her voice, she really did, but a little still managed to slip through.

"She wants to use swords instead of her magic."

Ur let out a long breath like a steaming teapot before laying her head on the table. Men. She glanced at her tea and sighed. So much for calming properties. Move over, tea. This was a job for alcohol. "You just walked around Magnolia and found an armory before you found a clothing store, didn't you?"

Kuzan took a long drink of his beer instead of answering, but that was okay since Erza did it for him. "How did you know that, Ur-san? Does your magic let you see the past?"

Ur lifted her head enough to look at Erza and just couldn't stay frustrated after seeing that face. "No, Erza-chan. I just know men very well." Ur smiled at Erza. "After you eat, we'll go and get you some actual clothes."

Erza looked down at her armor in confusion. "But I like what I'm wearing."

"You don't have to change out of your… armor, but you can't go around wearing nothing but armor every day. Also, I'm going to burn that rag you're wearing."

Erza didn't know what to say to that. Plus, the smile on Ur's face was starting to worry her. It seemed that surrender was her best option here. "…Okay?"

"Wonderful," Ur said as she patted Erza's head. She then swung her gaze to Kuzan. "As for you. You'll be hosting Erza-chan until we find her a more permanent residence."

"Why can't you do it? You're used to taking care of kids and I've only got one bed." Kuzan argued.

"You've got a couch, don't you?" Ur replied.

"I'm not making a kid sleep on my couch."

"Perfect! Did you hear that, Erza-chan? Kuzan's letting you sleep in his bed while he sleeps on the couch." Ur declared.

Alarm bells were going off in Kuzan's head. He paid good money for that bed. It was the most expensive and comfortable thing he owned. He wasn't going to let a kid ruin his mattress. He had put a lot of hours into getting it into the perfect condition. "Wait a minute, Ur—" he began only to stop when the woman in question narrowed her eyes at him.

"It shouldn't be a problem for you, Kuzan-kun~, After all, you already bought the little girl a suit of armor and a sword! You would never dream of leaving her alone with them, would you."

It wasn't a question and Kuzan was getting a strong feeling that anything he could say would only dig him in a deeper hole. Ur had already added an honorific to his name and the look in her eyes told him that she hadn't gotten rid of all her anger at Gray and Lyon yet. He decided to move the conversation to a safer subject, like literally anything else.

Kuzan unlocked his door and led Erza inside his humble abode. "Well, here it is," he dully said.

Erza looked around Kuzan's house and was surprised by how plain it was. It was a very large house, yet it seemed so small. She could see the living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom. She couldn't figure out why everything seemed so small when she knew that it should have been big.

Erza must have been distracted for a while, because the next thing she knew, Kuzan was telling her to get ready for bed. "Okay," Erza said before she got a good look at Kuzan and screamed in surprise.

Kuzan sighed. He was wearing only his boxers so Erza finally got a good look at all his scars. He was used to this happening. Everyone had the same reaction when they learned just how much of his body was scarred.

"Kuzan-san, you're so tall!"

That was new. Kuzan turned to regard Erza. "You were surprised by… my height?"

Erza nodded at him. "Yeah! You're so much taller than before."

It took Kuzan a few seconds to process what Erza was saying before he could respond. "Oh. Right." He coughed nervously, "This is my true height. I use Shrinking Magic to avoid startling people."

"Is that why everything's so big? Because it's Kuzan-san size? That's so cool! How did you get that tall?"

"Uh… Milk?" Kuzan hesitantly said.

Erza nodded with the determination that could only be found in children. "Then I'm going to drink a bunch of milk and grow up to be even taller than Kuzan-san!" she declared.

Kuzan was so far out of his element that it wasn't even funny. Time to resort to his default solution. "That's… great, kid? You can start on that tomorrow. It's time for bed. We've got a big day tomorrow."

"What do you mean?"

"Go to sleep and you'll find out," Kuzan told her before falling forward onto his couch.

"Okay! Goodnight, Kuzan-san!"

He responded with a muffled "G'night."

Kuzan and Erza stood outside and watched as the morning sun began to peek out over the horizon. Erza let out a jaw-cracking yawn and rubbed her eyes. "Why are we out here so early, Kuzan-san?" Kuzan responded by tossing the sword he bought for Erza yesterday at her. She caught it and curiously looked between it and him.

"You said that you wanted to use swords, didn't you?" Kuzan rhetorically asked. "Well, I'm going to teach you how to fight with one. Normally, I'd have you go over a sword stance and practice it a bunch of times to ingrain the muscle memories into you, but from what I saw yesterday that won't work. Instead I'm going to let you learn through experience." With a flick of his wrist, Kuzan formed a sword out of ice and held it in his right hand. He began to shrink, but his eyes never left Erza's. "You and I will fight every day until you've learned how to master a sword. Then we'll do it again with a spear, then an axe, then a knife, and so on until you have become so adept at fighting that you could beat a swordsman with a broken bottle. Do you understand?"

There was a fire in Erza's eyes as she grabbed the sword's hilt and pulled it out of the sheath in one fluid motion. With both hands on her sword, she stared down Kuzan from across the hill they were on. "Yes, Kuzan-sensei."

Kuzan smiled at her. Though he would never admit it out loud, he missed teaching. It had been an enjoyable experience even if he never did get very close to any of his students. He had tried living and fighting with honor here, but it just felt weird. He wasn't one for honor. And after having several years to look back on his time as a soldier neither were most of the Marines. But here he believed that he had found his redemption. By helping this little orphaned slave girl fulfill her desire of becoming a swordswoman in a world of mages maybe he could remove some of the guilt he felt from all the other slaves he turned away from.

"Begin."

A/N: So now Erza's here, and she's being trained by Kuzan! I don't think they ever actually specified how Erza learned how to fight with all her weapons so I came up with this. Fairy Tail ended this week, which is kinda sad, but I'm happy with how it ended. It was fun to follow the story till its end. The beta position is still open for this fic, PM me if you're interested. Later.