One could hear the hasty footsteps made by the boy from another world as he threaded on the wooden floors into Fairy Tail's Guild master office.
Kain sighed as he stopped in front of the door. He silently wished he didn't have to do this- that was some way he could just avoid this all together if he could. Yet that wouldn't solve anything.
It wasn't everyday where opening a door would be considered a very stressful action.
On the place where Makarov used to work, Laxus Dreyar was sitting there with a smile on his face that made it seem like he ruled the world. However, it quickly vanished when he looked towards the door after it was opened and it was soon replaced with a scowl when Kain came in.
"Oh, you're back." The fourth master of Fairy Tail seemed rather uninterested at the reappearance of the boy.
The young boy hesitated for a second, but only for a second as he spoke up. "Master Laxus, are there any leftover paper works from the completion of construction?"
The newly appointed master of Fairy Tail started to fish his drawer and placed a large stack of paper on his desk. "There are some other things as well in here you can get started on."
The brunette impassionately went up and picked up the file of papers.
With that… he politely said thank you and left office.
A scornful frown came up to Laxus' face after he left. "Damn, I can never read that asshole." He turned over to his right where Freed Justine was standing as a pseudo body guard. "I guess that means Fairy Tail's 'strongest' team is back." Even if someone was deaf, they could still notice the sarcastic tone in man's voice as he said that.
The green haired man said mostly nothing before asking, "So what is you intend to do, Master Laxus?"
"… I just think that those guys in Team Valiant should prove themselves."
… I kept skimming over the papers I was handed over. There was a chance that Laxus didn't care, but if he actually feared the Magic Council's bad side like his grandfather did, he would have filled out the necessary papers that report how many guild members entered and left every month.
While I was looking for this, I found myself heading back into the guild main hall itself. Dear God, this place feels so… alien now.
I mean, back when I first entered, it wasn't my cup of tea to live in such a hectic place, but the tension in the air right now is far more suffocating than the old guild ever was.
I mean, the construction team did a fantastic job, making the guild so much bigger and adding all those newer things, including those new specs I asked Makarov of before he left. It's just too bad that none of us can really enjoy any of the new perks of this place.
The reason why no one has been happy to enjoy the new guild additions such as the backyard pool, the second floor, a new game room along with the basement library is all because of the new members.
No, not Juvia. She's actually alright.
When Laxus was saying that we should get new members, no one expected him to recruit new members. He didn't just do one; he recruited over a hundred new Fairy Tail members. And seeing who they were, I am convinced he only wanted them in for their power.
Pieces started to fall into place as I kept reading the papers. I could only start to grind my teeth in frustration for not seeing that ploy as soon as he said! Dammit!
Laxus is far shrewder than I gave him credit for. Before Phantom Lord attacked, the maximum limit the guild could house members was two hundred. Fairy Tail could only officially house two hundred members unless they petitioned to expand, not like Phantom Lord's country wide reach, but at least creating a new branch in a different city.
The fourth guild master asked everyone to try and add more mages to our guild while at the same time he added as many mages of his choice as he could! This now meant that the guild was now filled with two hundred plus applicants.
And that's where the damn problem comes in.
Because Fairy Tail's original member cap was two hundred, even though we have enough space to house that many and maybe more now with our new guild, the Magic Council will only recognize two hundred mages from the guild officially. If we don't match our original cap, the Magic Council will not hand us any jobs for giving false information on our membership numbers. Which means the guild won't get quest jobs if we don't lower our membership back to two hundred.
In other damn words, Laxus is using the rule of surplus membership to legally kick out mages he doesn't see fitting his new mold for Fairy Tail such as Nab, Vijeeter, and Reedus! He's using the legal loophole to properly kick people out without the wrath of the council or any tabloids for kicking out mages out right!
And that's not the bloody worst part! He broke the limit three days before we arrived. That means that already twenty members of the original members were kicked out by him!
I didn't know them well enough, but to think he got to them when I wasn't here… god damn it! I would give almost anything to have Master Makarov back in power.
"Kain!" I actually heard a whisper coming over from one side of the guild where most of the old members were huddled together.
I still can't believe that the guild was technically split in two. One side, like I said, had most of the old members I still remember from before the Phantom Lord War. However, on the other side, causing a ruckus like we normally would was the group consisting of most of the new guild mages.
According to Macao and Wakaba, they tried to be friendly, but apparently nearly all the new members besides Juvia are all cocky assholes that seem to think they're better than the old members. Great, just what we needed.
Most of all, the 'leader' of that new group, a rather bulky and giant of a man like Laxus' body build with a handsome face, clean, short black hair, and wore a bulky purple with yellow accents armor with a long white cape. This guy seemed to be especially out to get the old members. His name was Kohl Elpton and he was the same dastard that forced Nab and the other two out. I need to do some digging of him later.
Lucy had called me over, along with most of Team Valiant. Practically our half of the guild seemed to be waiting for me to deliver some good news.
I didn't have any.
"I can't believe Laxus is doing this to the guild!" Gray slammed his fist on the table. For once, even Natsu seemed to be in utter agreement with his ice counterpart. "I had a bad feeling he would do something to the guild, but this much? Doesn't he even care what his grandfather did?"
That reminded me when I was going over historic records for old files and I noticed the name Ivan Dreyar. Considering he has the same name as Laxus and Makarov, and how he's no longer in Fairy Tail with how Makarov says nothing about him, I can already piece together that Ivan is Makarov's son and there's some kind of bad blood between them. And with how Laxus sees his own grandfather in contempt… yeah there's some complicated stuff between them.
We were feeling bad already. However, my eyes noticed Erza move fast, summon a sword, and slash towards me—no. She slashed beside me before a table could hit my head.
This made everyone else in our corner of the guild stand up with obvious contempt. Thrown tables were once nothing new here in the guild, but this time there was so much more hostile intent in that one action.
It seemed like the side of the new guild mages were all looking at us like smug bastards.
One of them, Kohl Elpton was laughing hard with a near empty mug of beer in his hands. "Oh whoops, my hand slipped!"
"What is your problem!?" Natsu was the first to shout out with intent ready to fight, but I repeat once more, this time this brawl would not have any shred of empathy in it like all the others before it.
"Ooh my!" My attention was caught by someone else in the opposite side of the guild. It was a clown that said this, white powdered skin, a bright and colorful afro, pure white jester costume, funny bright yellow shoes, but what was different about this clown was the mask he was wearing that was covering his face. It fully covered his face with a laughter face one would see in a theater that was usually paired with a tragedy face.
What irked me most was that he had a black fairy tail symbol placed upside down on the forehead of his mask.
Despite what he wore, his voice tone sounded sincere and sorroful even though it was somewhat filtered because of the mask.. "Elpton, these are our future Guild mates, be kinder to them."
"Shut it, Clown!" Kohl barked before he went back to his drink. "Besides, Fairy Tail is known for their daily friendly brawls."
"I ain't your friend!" Natsu lit his fist on fire. "And what you did was different! Kain didn't even do anything to you guys!" The young man from another dimension didn't have the heart to tell the flame mage that they truly have started fights for even lesser and pettier things.
"He is a fraud." I turned my head towards the other new voice who said that. When I saw who was speaking, I raised brow considerably. It was someone wearing attire that looked like a nun which surprised me somewhat. I was very, very sure nuns were not supposed to have cuts on the front of their dress that showed of her leg thighs—also why the hell is nearly everyone I meet in this damn world have super model bodies? It's either one is too beautiful or too ugly! Only the civilians look darn plain! "It is sinful to associate with those unworthy!" The blonde, crazy nun with orange colored irises cried out.
Ah wait a second. I'm in an anime. Sense doesn't matter here even if I wish it did.
"Hey!" To my surprise, Macao was the one to speak up this time. "It doesn't matter if he has magic or not, he's an important part of Fairy Tail!"
It seemed like that alone was enough to prompt an actual fight between all the guild members and this time I had the feeling.
"Enough!" A loud voice obviously amplified by magic stopped everyone before it could begin. Everyone followed the voice to see Laxus and the infamous Thunder Legion I've heard about standing on the second floor looking down an all of us.
"There will be no more fighting! It was annoying that it kept happening almost every other day." The fourth Master of Fairy Tail began before I saw him smile in a way that reminded me of when he began telling us we needed more members—and that debacle only became worse over time.
"Now with nearly everyone here, I'd like to make another announcement. I have received word that Fairy Tail is over crowded in membership." Oh no, what's he up to now? "As such, I feel like there needs to be more of a change. Fairy Tail is known to be the strongest Guild in all of Fiore and I am to make sure we stay that way. As such, as guild master, I have a new rule for every mage in this guild. Every month, you must make 1 million Jewels total from all your jobs or else you'll be kicked out!"
My eyes widened as some people from our side started crying out. "That's not fair!" And "You can't do that!"
However, I knew that he could instill that new rule as active guild master. There was something more, while our side was complaining, the batch of newcomers that Laxus recruited bee-lined for the quest jobs. The original side stopped complaining for a second before realizing the entire bulletin board was completely empty for once.
"Well would you look at that? The board is already clear. It seems you all need to hurry it up and at least make a million Jewels." Laxus looked down towards our group with a sneer before he laughed and left the area.
"What!? I can't believe he's doing that!?" Many of the remaining people on our side started to panic. Some even turned to me and desperately asked if Laxus wasn't allowed to do that.
He could. But that didn't mean that I could try to talk him out of this.
"Erza," I began before looking to her. "Technically speaking, none of those other people can access S-Class quests. Those quests alone are at least 3 million Berry which means you can only bring like four people with you for you to exempt them from the rule."
The S-class mage looked worried, even if they could take those quests still, S-class quests were still super dangerous. Yet there was one more horrible thing that still needed to be addressed. "But what about everyone else?"
I looked towards everyone else, as they all looked at me for some levels of hope. "Thankfully, there's a second job request found in the town center. Those are more local than national, but for now those should give some income. You guys should head there before the other get smart."
At my words, most of Fairy Tail in our side left the guild in a hurry, leaving me with Team Valiant and Juvia.
"Juvia, sorry you joined the guild at a bad time. I'm glad I told you to send you paper to the council directly than Laxus." I spoke to the water woman wearing a new get up than before.
"Thank you for telling me that tip in the first place. I didn't realize that the current ownership of Fairy Tail would be so… tumultuous."
"It's a work in progress," I dearly hoped. "You guys should be careful though, despite being an S-Class quest, it is going to take you guys some time. You should head out soon."
"What about you?" Lucy looked at me with concern as with Happy.
"Me? I'm going to try and get Laxus to stop this. But before I can talk to him, there are things I need to prepare. You guys need to go though."
Erza placed a hand on my shoulder with obvious concern. "Be careful, Kain."
"You too, guys." And then they all left towards the second floor, leaving me practically alone in the guild main hall. There was this sense of wrongness now that the guild was emptied and silenced during the day time.
I sighed and went towards my room. There was paper work to do.
It was only two days later when I finally decided to go after doing some more paper work.
Unfortunately for me, my second trip there was more suspenseful than before due to the fact both Evergreen and Bickslow of the Thunder Legion were waiting nearby the master's office door.
The one wearing a full mask started to chuckle. "If it isn't the civilian with our stamp." Soon his 'babies' started mocking me and echoing their 'dad' as well, but I didn't really care for that. I filtered out what Evergreen was about to add in as well as I opened the door.
"Laxus!" I cried out before looking at the blonde man in charge of Fairy Tail. "What are you doing!? You're forcing the guild further apart by making everyone race for the quests!"
It was sometimes easy to forget how giant Laxus was in compared to me and I was just barely taller than Lucy in Team Valiant.
"So this is what finally gets under your skin huh? A bit of a late reaction though." Laxus had this smile on his face that really made my blood boil.
"Why are you doing this Laxus? Even if you didn't like the members of this guild, what you're doing is too much! You're practically torturing them!"
I probably would have been afraid to make the grandson of a Wizard Saint angry enough to obliterate me where I stood, I probably should have been afraid when Laxus had this annoyed look on his face that only grew into anger the more I talked. And I could have been down right terrified when he stood up and glared at me as if I was an enemy for talking nothing but the truth.
But I wasn't. I became a lawyer because I wanted to help people. I was aware of the paradox considering some jokes about being a lawyer, but I meant what I said in trying to fight for the underdog. And right now? Those were my friends in this guild.
Looking back at that moment, I think I would be proud at how I still kept my composure even as Laxus was starting to cackle with actual electricity. "So!? This guild was rightfully mine from the get go! It was co-founded by my great grandfather, my grand father led this guild, and now I do! This guild was once the greatest guild in all of Fiore, but we've let weaklings into our ranks because the old man got soft! Phantom Lord wouldn't have even dared challenge us if we were the old Fairy Tail!"
"Big talk from the group that didn't even participate in that battle! Even Mystogan fought for us!"
Okay, pissing off Laxus was one thing, pissing off him and the Thunder Legion while they were right there might have finally scared me enough back into some of my sanity again. Especially how I felt all three of them close in around me almost giving me no chance of escaping.
It was a surprise all three of them didn't cut me down where I stood since I was definitely only battle ready with the armor on. Yet the look on their faces couldn't match that of Laxus. The current guild master had this look that made the word 'livid' look weak.
"Looks like the magic less loser thinks he has the right to talk down to his superiors! That's definitely going to change in this guild!" In another flash of lightning, he stood towering above me. Again, just like before, there was this thought in the back of my head that recognized he could turn me to ash before I could even reach for my morpher. Yet at the same time, there was something in his eyes. I couldn't understand it, but there was just something my gut kept telling me that there was more to this on the surface.
"My grandfather disgraced this guild brining weaklings like you into it!" There was this dark look on Laxus' face as he said these next few words. "You're fired! Get out of this guild!" Before I could even react, I felt a light on the stamp I was given and I saw it vanish from the back of my left palm.
Now that it was gone, my hand felt naked being back to normal. I guess I grew attached to it as time went on. I was somewhat ticked it was removed so easily like the others, but I know that exploding in anger right now would be one of the worst things for everyone involved, not when Makarov asked me one last thing of him before we finished the papers.
I turned, started walking towards the room I was borrowing before I stopped at the door. Ignoring the looks the Thunder Legion was giving, I turned back to Laxus with a defiant look. "Makarov has never given up hope on you, Laxus. You really shouldn't have given up on him."
And before I could even blink, there was a fist coated in electricity a few inches near my face that looked like it was barely stopped from blowing my head off where I stood.
Laxus was practically snarling at me as his own mouth and face was twitching with almost uncontrollable rage that could rival that of Natsu's. Yet Laxus depowered his arm but kept his fist clenched—
Things went black as I felt my jaw go numb. It took me a second to realize I was punched into the wall by Laxus. And boy did that hurt!
It was then that I felt my collar being picked up. I noticed my blurry vision register someone who I thought was Laxus, but then my brain sent my somewhat numb and pained body signals that I was slammed into the same slightly broken wall—did he still hold back even with a normal punch?
"The only reason why I didn't kill you outright was because that would reflect poorly as guild master and that blood would be impossible to remove on wooden floors!" Brain still turning a bit. But I feel like I heard most of what he had said. "Listen here, smartass, this is all my grandfather's fault in the first place! Taking in anyone he thought and not any of the strong mages! People like you shouldn't even be here!"
Despite my consciousness seeming to struggle to stay together from just one held back punch, my subconscious took over my brain. That was not a good thing since one of my default defenses were…
"You do realize that I'm a lawyer!? Not a freaking mage!? Just because I've helped others in their jobs doesn't mean I even get some of the money they earn on quests! I handle paperwork in this fool-damned place!" At this point, I'm actually impressed that even when I'm in horrible pain, I can never stop complaining like a bitch. I wonder if there's some magic that can still get me to be an asshole after I die just to spite all my friends here?
Yet despite all those complaints, something else popped up. "What is it with you anyway?! Why do you hate weakling so much?! As a kid you were—"
My brain had healed enough only to recognize my entire body being thrown back on the floor like a Christmas present that a child abhorred.
"Don't." That one word was spoken with such anger that even the Thunder Legion seemed to be panicking at the air around their master. "… finish that sentence."
I probably would have been more afraid if I didn't cough a few times away from him and gasp for some air. Was I hit again without notice? My lungs feel like they're contracting.
However, being the glutton of punishment I so clearly was, I ended up struggling back to stand back up then looked back at Laxus not with fear, but with just pity. It must have irked him to no end that someone so powerless couldn't be broken or intimidated by someone like him.
I turned around and started walking back to my room. Even though I was beaten up, I didn't feel like I just lost a fight. I only felt like this was only the beginning.
{What the young Kain Reynolds did not know, what the Thunder Legion, and Laxus did not know, was that there was someone watching this entire conversation, hidden and undetected despite the group of powerful mages. No one could see an elated smile forming slowly on this person's face as it ended.}
"Laxus shouldn't be doing this!" Mirajane cried out as I brought what little things I had out of the room. It was a good thing I was starting to plan to get another apartment like Lucy. I didn't really keep any personal stuff within the guild guest room, but it was still a bit sad to leave against my wishes.
"Mira, I appreciate it. But Laxus is the guild master."
"I don't recognize him as one! He's acting like a tyrant!" Mirajane looked like she was going to start to cry as she clenched her fists.
"I still believe in him." I blurted out to the surprise of her, Momon, and Éclair. All the other mages were scrambling to find jobs of some kind and Team Valiant was currently taking an S-Class quest, so it was just as four.
"Kain, he seems like the bad kind of mage." Éclair warned me. "How could you say something like that?"
"Simple. Makarov still believes in him, and he asked me to do the same, so I will." And even though he's doing al these bad things, I can't help but feel something is off about all of this, but I can't put my finger on it.
Mirajane sighed. "Master was too kind sometimes. It's going to take more than faith to change things as is, maybe even a miracle."
"It won't be all bad." I began speaking. "Even though I'm fired, I still will be in Magnolia. I'll be staying over at the inn for a few days and get to work on another legal job. If anyone needs me, just tell them where I am alright?"
"You shouldn't be leaving in the first place." The beautiful silver haired girl said that with bitterness.
I took that as a cue to give a friendly hug towards the girl. "I'll see you all soon."
...
Even though I did say goodbye, my mind was constantly at Fairy Tail. The more I think about it, I might have gotten out easy. I could only imagine how the others would fair now that even I was gone.
It didn't bode well for me honestly.
"Kain Reynolds."
I stopped walking the path and looked around. Everyone was walking around me and seemingly minding their own business. Who was it that just called out to me?
"Kain!"
I heard another voice as I looked to my right. My brows rose as I noticed Nab with some of the old guildmates hiding behind an alleyway. I did my best to seem not suspicious as possible as I went into the alley way with them inside.
Nab smiled at me and I admit it was a sight for sore eyes for a bad morning. "What are you doing here? And you guys? You're still in Magnolia?"
"I asked them to stay. I asked them all to stay."
That wasn't Nab. I noticed the small group of Fairy Tail mages made way for the one who spoke up. My eyes widened.
"Kain, in order to save Fairy Tail, we need your help."
Mystogan, the usually silent and mysterious S-Class mage of Fairy Tail was collecting all the kicked out members.
Laxus was looking over some of the paperwork left behind by the lawyer he recently fired. "Damn, mages were one thing, but it's different altogether when I fire a civilian."
At this moment, Freed walked in with a pace that spoke that something as amiss. "Laxus, someone from the Magic Council is here."
That automatically caught the Guildmaster's attention as he stood up and one of those frog messengers had calmly walked into the room. This one seemed older as his eyes were squinted and had grown a beard.
"Ribbit!" The old frog's cheeks expanded for a second before he spoke. "Hello Guildmaster, I do hope I did not catch you at a bad time."
Laxus gave his best charade of being polite. He did not want to mess with the Magic Council like his granfather. He may have disagreed with a lot of his methods, but they could both agree that the Magic Council breathing down your neck was a horrible experience. "We're always welcoming to a Magic Council messenger. what do we owe this visit?"
"Ribbit! I am here because your guild signed up for the survey of total gross income of all legal guilds in Fiore." The old frog explained.
Laxus raised his brow. "We signed up for a survey?"
"Ribbit! Indeed, your name was on the list. Now I'm just here to give the formal rules and all that, there's nothing to really worry. Our statistic experts are just going to watch how much income a large amount of guilds make and compare it all together for future economic studies. You need to do nothing else but follow a few simple rules for a month."
Laxus was confused, but it seemed like there was nothing more than just that.
"For a month, we will be observing your Guild's income. Your measuring period starts today and ends the day before your Fantasia Parade at the end of the Harvest Festival. Is this alright? Ribbit!"
Laxus saw nothing really wrong with this. In fact this was great! Because of how he made a rule that his members would have to make a million jewels in one month, it would prove that his would be high class guild as it should be!
"Sure, though it's not our fault that we're going to be one of the higher percentiles." And with that Laxus sat back down on his desk, feeling good about himself.
"Very well. Ribbit! I will go then," The old frog started to walk out and Freed stepped out of his way. However, the amphibian seemed to recall something and turned around. "Ah wait! Silly me. Ribbit! I forgot to tell you some of the rules. It's all very commonsense really. Just make sure that your mages record how much they earned, including bonuses they may receive, and during this period of study you may not add or fire new guild members, and you can ask for more requests from the council or even third party groups as long as it meets with the parameters of legal code."
At this point, one could hear the sound of a record scratching in Laxus' mind. "I'm sorry, sir, please repeat that?"
"Ribbit! Oh, it's a new rule since a few years back there were some guilds that didn't receive their jobs by a technicality, and we decided..."
"No, No, No," Laxus stood up and gave the old frog a questioning look. "The one rule before that?"
"Oh? Isn't that obvious? Being a part of the Economic Survey freezes the ability of guild masters firing or adding new members temporarily. If the mages themselves quit, they may, but as to not tamper with the numbers too much, guild masters momentarily lose their ability to choose who they want to kick out or add, even if they violate some of the guild's rules."
"WHAT!?" You have no idea how much restraint it took for the powerful S-Class mage to slam/crush his desk with all the power from the surprise of such a rule. But he did stand up as if he had just heard something unbelievably horrifying.
"It's not a very good rule is it? Though no one has ever had a problem with it before now, so we never really needed to change it. Ribbit. Unfortunately, it would take money to remove it as well, so we simply ignored it." The old frog stroke his beard. "I'm sure you can go at least one month without kicking out members, can you? Otherwise, there's this whole nasty business if a guild does firing or add new members during the period that involves freezing the assets of said guild and such."
Laxus didn't know about that rule! If he didn't he wouldn't have signed Fairy Tail for that…
… Wait a damn second.
He didn't sign them up for this.
And the only one in the guild who knows about legal loopholes like this is...
…
The blonde S-Class mage eyes widened to the point where it was trembling uncontrollably and veins were starting to bulge. With even more restrained anger, he gasped out three words.
"That fucking brat!"
Kain had bought Fairy Tail one month. Unfortunately for him, that time proved to also be dangerous for reasons he couldn't even begin to predict.
{Author Notes}
I don't really have much to say for today other than this Arc might be different from the usual ones and it's going to be a weird experience for me and maybe you, so I do hope you enjoy yourselves and this story finds you well. Have a good day.