Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 10: The First Serious Job! Fashionable & Strong Motivation For Risa! Shinichi Keikoku, The Tough Master of The Rocky Earth!
Lucy and Risa got their pink plates of pancakes off of the pink kitchen counter while they both smiled nicely at how the day for their job had finally arrived, and both of the girls walked over to the rectangular pink dining table. Lucy proceeded to sit down in a pink chair that was across from Risa, and she started to cut her stack of seven pancakes with the silver fork. Lucy loved seeing the pink strawberry syrup end up on her fork while she used it to pick up several pieces of her pancakes, and she happily ate her delicious breakfast.
Risa had felt like they needed to eat pancakes again, since this new mission seemed like it would be very important, and eating some delicious pancakes on this nice morning would definitely help both of the Sabertooth mages be quite energized to handle their job in the town of Kuchiba. Risa picked up one of her pancakes with the fork, before chewing it in her mouth, and she felt glad that no holidays would be occurring in Kuchiba Town today. That was because of how it would be completely okay to enter the town today, and the girls would get to see all the nice sights.
There was even a nice fashion store in that town, but the newest issue of Sorcerer Magazine unfortunately made Risa start to recall some bad news from yesterday about how there were no exciting fashion sales occurring in Kuchiba right now. Reading about that info after getting back from Lucy's training session in the volcano had been quite disappointing for Risa, especially since it was very horrible news that came after how her green-haired friend displayed some fiery spells that looked very awesome, but Risa swallowed her food to just smile softly about the situation.
Not having a fashion sale occur on the same day as a job was something that she'd have to deal with, and Kuchiba would probably be open to tourists on the day when a sale was occurring. Risa continued to eat her pancakes while trying to view the situation from that perspective, as saving money from this job and getting more jewels from later tasks would give her plenty of cash to purchase several nice outfits in the interesting town of Kuchiba. She continued to smile softly, before frowning a bit as her disappointed feelings couldn't be suppressed, and Lucy looked up from her remaining pieces of pancakes to see that her usually psyched friend now seemed to be feeling down.
"What's wrong, Risa? Didn't your pancakes turn out good like last time?" Lucy calmly asked her, as curiosity entered her orange eyes.
Risa replied with a somewhat depressed facial expression, before sighing in a disappointed manner, "The pancakes are fine, Lucy. It's just a real bummer that Kuchiba Town has no fashion sales going on today. They probably won't even have sales going on during the rest of this week or have any sales occurring next week."
Lucy responded nicely while smiling, having a good thought of realization, "Risa, I'll buy you something in Kuchiba Town. Even if it ends up being an expensive bow for your hair, I'll gladly get it for you."
Risa exclaimed with a facial expression that showed a nice mix of surprise and delight while her cherry red eyes became filled with joy, "Lucy, thank you! It's great that you'll do that for me! You're the greatest friend ever, and you just kept me from being on a withdrawal from shopping!"
As Risa put down her fork and clapped her hands in a joyous manner, Lucy continued to smile at how she made her friend feel some happiness. Lucy didn't want Risa's disappointment at not getting to shop at a sale get in the way of their mission, since this job was a serious one where they wouldn't need to buy any coffees, and Lucy needed her pink-haired friend to handle this mission with her skills being at their very best. If Risa was able to fight very hard and help Lucy take down that guild master, then Lucy thought that her friend would feel even better about the reward.
Lucy would see if she could buy an entire outfit for Risa, and she hoped that all of her fashion choices really complimented each other for Risa to like the new clothes that she'd add to her closet. In addition to that, Lucy felt like it would be very fair for her to buy Risa something nice from the fashion store. After all, Risa did purchase Lucy's clothes for her during their first visit to Cramoisi Town. Therefore, Lucy was simply returning the favor to her fashionable friend. Lucy noticed that Risa wore a sleeveless pink tube top with yellow stripes that ran down the tube top in a checkered pattern, along with a cherry red belt wrapped around her waist while it had a square orange buckle in the center, and the belt being around her waist made the ends of the tube top flare out to where it looked like Risa wore a pink miniskirt over her orange jeans. Risa also wore some light pink sleeves that weren't connected to the tube top, and the sleeves had dark red cuffs. Lucy noticed that Risa wore pink sneakers with soles in the candy apple shade of red, too. She shifted her attention back down to the pancakes that Risa had made, and Lucy ate some of the remaining pieces. Lucy continued to enjoy eating the hot pancakes and the strawberry syrup, but she hoped to enjoy the job even more.
The Vermilion Sunset guild didn't seem to have the most intimidating name, but Lucy wanted to be capable of taking down the leader of that dark guild. She wondered about the type of magic that the guild master would use, and Lucy also seemed curious about the town's environment. Based on the little bits of info that Risa gave her two days ago, Lucy seemed intrigued to see the Bell Tower. That may not have been where the guild was located, but Lucy would still want to see an interesting part of the town that was part of a holiday. However, she also hoped that they wouldn't attract too much attention.
"Risa, do you think it would be weird for us to just look at Kuchiba Town's Bell Tower before we try to find Vermilion Sunset's guild master?" Lucy asked her friend with a smile on her face, hoping that the mages there wouldn't be watching their every move.
That question prompted Risa to reply with a sarcastic facial expression, as she sounded snarky, "Yeah, some possible tourists looking at the tower is totally suspicious to where the most paranoid mages will alert the guild master to our presence."
Lucy responded with a slightly annoyed look on her face at Risa's unexpected sarcasm, "Well, I guess that counts as a great answer to my question."
Risa merely giggled at her snarky answer while liking how Lucy didn't expect it, and she began to have a look of cleverness in her eyes from thinking that she could somehow be surprising the enemy on this next mission. Risa really liked how Lucy was quite clever in her fight to get the Crimson Ring, and that had made her start thinking of some little ways for her to be clever. Risa had been training with her spells in private for the past two days while she always gave Lucy the excuse of how some little sales popped up, and she didn't want to be a burden to her friend today.
Furthermore, Risa did not want to be a burden to Sting. The fact that he would be joining them on this mission caused Risa to start looking psyched up, as the reward of Lucy buying her an outfit later gave her even more motivation to fight quite hard against the guild master of Vermilion Sunset, and Risa would gladly try to take down any of the dark mages who tried to attack her or Lucy. If Risa could take down several mages on this mission, then Sting would probably even praise her to where shopping before getting back on the train wouldn't be a major issue.
She continued to think about doing well on this job, until glancing down at the pancakes made Risa widen her eyes from how she needed to finish breakfast. Risa picked up her last three pancakes with the fork, before stuffing them all into her mouth, and she chewed her pancakes several times to where swallowing each piece was quite easy. Since no more pancakes were on her plate, Risa got up from the table with the pink plate to gently put it in the sink. Risa watched Lucy finish eating the pancakes that were on her own plate, too, and Lucy also got up from the table. She hastily went into the kitchen to put her plate on top of Risa's, before turning the faucet for hot water to cleanse the plates of that sticky strawberry syrup, and Lucy smiled nicely at how they were officially finished with breakfast. She walked over to the front door with Risa following her, and Lucy watched Risa take out the pink house key from the left pocket of her jeans. She inserted the key in the keyhole to unlock the door, before turning the doorknob for the door to open towards her, and Risa watched Lucy run out of the house. Risa proceeded to shut the door and lock it with the key, before putting the key back in the proper pocket of her pants, and she ran after Lucy while they headed to the Sabertooth guild.
Ten minutes later, at the Sabertooth guild... (Risa's POV)
We made it to the Sabertooth guild to see that Sting and Rogue were sitting down at a table with their Exceeds and Yukino, all the members of Sabertooth looking quite happy as Sting ate some glazed powdered doughnuts for breakfast, and I smiled nicely from seeing Rogue be back here with Yukino sipping some tea in an average-sized cup as she was sitting across from him. They went out on a mission yesterday, so the fact that they both returned unharmed to the Sabertooth guild was something that made me feel quite happy. I walked towards the table while pulling a chair towards it with one hand, and I sat down next to Yukino.
She gave me a kind smile while niceness was in her hazel eyes, and I just smiled back at her. It seemed like the mission that Yukino took with Rogue hadn't even been a very difficult one for them to handle, since they were both being calm while not even choosing to just slightly brag about their success, so that made me view their mission as a fun and easy one where it only took them a long time to get back to Kogane because of how they came back from a far-off town. Since they succeeded at a job in a distant town, that made my smile become calmer as I planned to also do well on this job in the far-off town of Kuchiba with Sting and Lucy.
Lucy brought over a chair from another table for her to simply next to Sting, and seeing them kindly smile at each other was pretty nice. Sting ate another glazed powdered doughnut, before smiling confidently at his choice to eat those fried rings of dough this morning, and I widened my eyes in a surprised manner from seeing him stuff three more doughnuts in his mouth at once. Dragon slayers could definitely eat a lot, especially since their sharp teeth allowed them to easily sweet treats such as doughnuts or brownies, and I was a little stunned to see seven glazed powdered doughnuts remaining on the white plate that was in front of Sting.
He picked up another delicious-looking doughnut that was covered in tasty white powder, but I got to see Sting's widen in a surprised manner from how this particular doughnut began to slip through the space in between his fingers like a piece of sushi slipping through chopsticks that weren't holding it tightly enough. Sting's doughnut started its descent towards the red carpet, only for Lucy to quickly grab it with her left hand, and everyone simply watched Lucy let the doughnut rest in her palm. She smiled down at it for a moment while bringing her hand close to her mouth. I looked just as surprised as Rogue and Yukino to see Lucy quickly eat the powdered doughnut, but Sting looked pretty shocked at what she had just done.
"Lucy, that doughnut was mine!" Sting told her with an astounded look on his face, as he watched her quickly chew it and swallow the tasty treat.
That prompted her to reply in a defensive tone while looking a bit irritated, "Sting, you're the one who let the doughnut fall and I caught it. Instead of quickly eating your breakfast, maybe this was a sign for you to slow down and savor every bite of the doughnuts before someone else finds much more enjoyment from only eating one!"
I told Sting and Lucy with a happy smile on my face, as I gave them a snarky compliment, "I'm certainly finding enjoyment in how both of your hands touched that powdered doughnut, since two people who don't let a particular treat hit the floor must both share a good love for it."
Frosch added while standing on the table and smiling in a carefree way at the situation, "Fro thinks so, too!"
That little statement from Rogue's green cat prompted Lucy and Sting to both turn away from each other while folding their arms and looking slightly annoyed, trying to hide the pink blush that was faintly on their cheeks from probably hearing me mention how they shared a sweet love for powdered doughnuts, so I just lightly chuckled. Lucy and Sting may have been annoyed with each other sometimes, but my eyes were quite relaxed as I thought about how Lucy kept that doughnut from landing on the ground. She probably didn't want Sting to gripe about that little accident, and catching it was just what a good friend would do for someone.
However, I smiled at them while recalling how Sorcerer Magazine informed me last year of how some friendships could further grow towards being relationships from two people holding the same kind of food when they already had a nice bit of chemistry. Sting may have been a little miffed at Lucy for eating his doughnut, but he at least had to admire how she was very fast with catching it. Plus, Sting could probably giggle at Lucy in a playful way for also getting some sweet white powder on her lips. If he wanted to offer up any of the remaining doughnuts to someone, then Sting could gladly give them to Lucy.
As Lucy grabbed a napkin on the table to gently wipe her lips, I watched Sting pull out a small orange guidebook from one of the pockets of his black pants. He opened the guidebook, before turning a few pages, and Sting started to give me a calm smile as he slid the guidebook towards me. I got to see that Sting turned to the page that had info on Kuchiba Town, which made my eyes start to twinkle with feelings of joy, and seeing a small map of this town display how there was an amusement park in Kuchiba caused me to feel like this serious job could definitely be followed by the team having some fun later.
"This job will totally be great! Sting, let's all get to Kuchiba Town fast and complete our task for us to have more time to spend at the amusement park!" I told Sting and Lucy with an excited facial expression, as I waited for Sting to finish the doughnuts.
Sting responded to me in a calm manner, after shoving the last six doughnuts into his mouth and swallowing them, "Sweet treats are nice, Risa, but trying to treat me to an amusement park's moving attractions isn't exactly sweet or fun in any way. You can just focus on feeling awesome as you beat down the guild master or knock out their accomplices with one attack."
Lucy told me with a relaxed look on her face, as she got up from her chair, "Risa, dragon slayers such as Sting and Rogue don't just get sick from train rides. The moving vehicles at amusement parks aren't any fun for them, either."
I replied to Lucy while starting to look psyched up, since Sting could enjoy one nice part of our time in Kuchiba Town, "The only thing that's an attraction for everyone to enjoy is the Vermilion Sunset guild getting to possibly be filled with some explosions that look awesome while we have fun beating down the leader, so let's go take care of this job!"
Feeling very pumped up for this job caused me to quickly get up from the chair while I slightly startled Yukino to where she nearly dropped that white cup of hot tea on to her yellow shirt that matched her dark orange skirt, and I started running towards the front doors of the Sabertooth guild with an optimistic smile on my face. Thanks to Lucy motivating me earlier, I totally felt ready to help her handle this job while Sting would also be assisting me. They wouldn't have to worry about me during the fight, though, and I believed that my abilities would definitely help our team be successful.
Not only did I have a good type of magic that allowed me to use some psychic spells, but I made a pink aura surround my hands as I turned around to face Lucy. I started to look fierce while throwing some punches at the air, glad to show Lucy and my other friends that any enemy who punched me would just get punched in the face much harder as my way of retaliating against them, and I was glad that everyone smiled at my high level of determination. That certainly matched my high level of fashion, which had allowed me to help Lucy out with choosing an outfit today, and I felt glad that she wore a pale pink tank top under a short-sleeved red shirt that had cherry red sleeves running down to her wrists. Lucy also wore a scarlet red belt with a square pink buckle in the middle while hot pink rings were on the belt, along with a plaid miniskirt that was in the colors of crimson red and candy apple red. Lucy also wore some light pink high heels, too, and her hair was styled into two cute pigtails that were tied with pink ribbons.
Sting looked fashionable as always in his usual attire, and seeing him smile at my playful punches made me feel so glad that he probably believed in me as much as Lucy did. I turned to face Rogue, who simply smiled at me with some happiness in his eyes, and Frosch smiled in a cute manner. Lector also smiled at me while Yukino kindly giggled, and I turned around to start walking out of the guild. Sting and Lucy quickly ran towards me, though, and they surprised me by continuing to run all the way to Kogane Town's train station. That caused me to merely run after them and giggle while having a joyful smile on my face, so I was glad to be in Sabertooth with these two interesting mages. Lucy was a great friend who liked pushing me to do well, and Sting was a very supportive guild master who felt that I could truly be a strong wizard.
Meanwhile, in Kuchiba Town... (Narrator POV)
There were definitely some awesome and encouraging guild masters in Fiore, but that little fact didn't apply to the current situation where the leader of Vermilion Sunset literally kicked a fair-skinned girl out of the guild for her to simply roll across the hard ground. The other members of the dark guild merely watched their guild master walk towards this woman while she struggled to stand up, and her mocha brown eyes were filled with fear from seeing the guild master approaching her. As she looked up at the fair-skinned man, she could see his mid-length orange hair that had one big strand hanging over the middle of his face. The guild master also wore a jacket in the normal shade of orange with pumpkin orange sleeves, and his undershirt was in the metallic shade of orange for it to look somewhat glossy. This man wore jeans that were in a vibrant and saturated shade of orange to where his pants seemed like they were the same exact color as carrots, and his shoes were as orange as orange sherbet ice cream. Even though the guild master looked a bit fancy, he definitely didn't look friendly.
He sternly glared down at the brown-haired girl who had a cocoa brown flyer in her right hand, and she slowly got up while slowly stepping back to get some distance from the guild master. The man who started to look at her with an intimidating smirk was Shinichi Keikoku, a powerful dark mage who caused a high amount of trouble in Fiore during one of the earliest years when several of Fairy Tail's members disappeared after Acnologia supposedly destroyed Tenroujima Island, and he walked towards this woman who had actually been one of the mages that would be handling a job right now.
However, this woman had made him get quite angry from how she refused to have the job be stamped with the insignia of Vermilion Sunset. She didn't want the job to be official, since that meant he would be going along with her to complete this mission of looking for some lost treasure that the client failed to find on their own, and Shinichi's policy was that his mages had to hand over most of their hard-earned money from jobs to him. He had already taken three jobs with clients today, even helping one of them defeat an S-Class criminal, and having the appearance of a guild was actually one way for Shinichi to keep getting high amounts of money for himself. Any mage who wouldn't give him any cash for a job was simply someone who needed a beating to remind them of how they were lower than the man that allowed them to be in Vermilion Sunset.
He fired some brown stone projectiles from his hands for them to quickly hit the female mage, which sent her sliding across the ground, and Shinichi walked towards her while making an orange aura engulf his hands. She slowly got up to wipe the dust off of her orange kimono, only to see Shinichi slam his hands down on the ground, and the female mage struggled to maintain her balance as the earth shook around her. Some cracks occurred in the ground, before an orange blast of energy occurred around this woman, and she screamed in immense pain while being sent high into the air. This woman was hit by some explosive chunks of the earth that were small, and she quickly fell down to the damaged ground to hit it quite hard.
"Aren't I the person who you're supposed to obey without question, Nozomi? You want to get stronger and make your mom be proud of you as she watches over you from heaven, right?" Shinichi asked her in a stern tone, before smirking as he took some steps towards her.
Nozomi said in a regretful tone of her voice, her eyes showing sadness as she got on her hands and knees, "That's right... I'll keep making my mama proud with these destructive spells, and she won't have to worry about anything that I do. I'm sorry for being disobedient, Shinichi."
Shinichi asked her with a displeased look on his face while aggressively pulling her up by her ponytail, "What are you supposed to call me, Nozomi?!"
Nozomi replied in a timid manner, as she sounded submissive, "I'm sorry,... Master. Please don't hurt me anymore. Your abilities are fearsome, and I'll serve you without asking any stupid questions ever again. In fact, I won't question your policies for jobs or why the amusement park was built."
Upon hearing Nozomi's answer, Shinichi simply released his grip on her hair fall her to just stay on her hands and knees. He really appreciated that answer, since Nozomi was making the right choice by praising his skills, and the fact that she wouldn't question his rules for jobs ever again made him even happier that she wouldn't attempt to think for herself anymore. Shinichi smirked a bit from how this woman who was in Vermilion Sunset for almost five months also wouldn't question him again on why the amusement park weirdly wasn't during the evening hours when sunsets would be occurring, and that little secret was for him to only share with the mages who ran the amusement park.
Shinichi did open the amusement park at nighttime, however, and opening many fun attractions during the nightly hours of darkness would thankfully keep people in the dark about his shady businesses. He turned around to look at the amusement park that was in the distance, seeing townspeople and tourists having fun like they were morons who had no issue with spending money that was mediocre in comparison to what was occurring in that area during the evenings, but Shinichi simply folded his arms and smiled in an arrogant manner at how he was practically maximizing his money.
The greedy man turned around to face the mages who were watching the situation from inside the guildhall of Vermilion Sunset, and he saw some of the males with money in their hands choose to avert their eyes away from him as they were ready to give him most of their cash. The women who wore kimonos simply smiled at him, however, and Shinichi smiled back at them in a confident manner. He put his hands close together, before moving them apart from each other as a way to signal for those women to open the top parts of their kimonos for him to see a good amount of cleavage from each of them, and Shinichi actually had all of Vermilion Sunset's women on their hands and knees for him during their first few months as his mages. He wanted them to not only obey him and view him as their guild master, but Shinichi's perverted grin with lust in his brown eyes from looking at those women made him feel pretty glad that he could have sex with any of them when he felt like doing that. He turned around to face, Nozomi, who still remained on her hands and knees like a submissive dog, and the harsh guild master gave her a pleased grin from how he could manipulate his women.
"Get on your knees, Nozomi. Just know that my strength is going to help you become stronger, and your mom will see that you are truly no longer that weak girl who couldn't stand up for herself. After all, you've used your spells alongside mine to show hurtful people who oppose us that they need to die. Killing them every single time has probably made your mom be very happy." Shinichi explained to her with his smile seeming calmer, as he gently rubbed her head.
Nozomi replied nicely while getting on her knees to look up at him, before smiling a bit and seeing him gently rub her bruised face with one of his firm hands, "Yes, Master. I'll keep following your orders."
Shinichi responded with a small smile of satisfaction on his face, "Good. Let's go handle that job now, Nozomi."
Nozomi told Shinichi in a calm and obedient way while she stood up to walk alongside him, recalling his order to one of the other girls, "After we get back from the job, Master, I'll be happy to serve you some booze or provide other pleasurable services such as sex again."
Hearing those words made Shinichi's lips form a perverted smile, and he made one of his hands gently grope one of Nozomi's breasts. She fought the urge to let out a moan, even though he only groped her for a moment, and this girl would gladly obey Shinichi's rule about how moans had to be suppressed in public. Even if Nozomi wanted to do it for two seconds, she would have to follow Shinichi's orders or get beaten down by his magic. She didn't want that to occur, especially when she perceived herself to really be inferior to him, and Nozomi handed the flyer to her guild master.
Shinichi took the flyer from her hand to see that Nozomi wanted to handle a job that would give her 500,000 jewels, and she simply had to search for a treasure that was in a cave called the Relic Ruins. Shinichi liked the idea of only leaving her with fifty-thousand jewels while he took the rest of the money, and Nozomi Maruishi was just another one of his beautiful women in the guild. Nozomi's brown hair was tied back in the style of an upwards ponytail with her bangs parted for a small portion of her hair to hang down to the right side while a larger portion of her hair hung down to the left side, and her orange kimono had a pattern of purple flowers on it. Nozomi also wore some chocolate brown sandals that were wooden, too.
Beautiful women were just one aspect that Shinichi loved about being the strongest mage of Kuchiba Town, along with his illegal business practices and greed, but turning a corner to see the Bell Tower that pertained to traditional and old times only made Shinichi start smiling in an overconfident manner as his eyes shifted back to the flyer for a few seconds. If this job possibly had an awesome treasure that could make Shinichi be as strong as the standing tower that remained intact ever since Kuchiba was built, then having immense power alongside his women and money would only make the dark mage be strong enough to take down any mages on any job. He would gladly manipulate Nozomi into handing that treasure over to him, any complaints would just result in him harshly attacking her or manipulating her emotions about her mother's wishes to where the crime boss could get what he wanted. Shinichi walked beside Nozomi as they entered the Bell Tower to simply go to the trail that led to the ruins, and he smirked very arrogantly at how this would just be another easy day of getting riches without anyone being capable of interfering with such a wealthy wizard who could punch quite hard or viciously wreck the ground to really shake up his opponents.
How was Chapter 10? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. There will be more StiCy moments in the next chapter, since this chapter only had a little bit of that. Risa's snarky comment that was unexpected for Lucy will actually pertain to one of her spells being unexpected during this arc, along with more character development or a glimpse into her past. Furthermore, Kuchiba Town will also get much more detail in the next few chapters. Kuchiba (Koo-chee-buh) is Japanese for "Vermilion", by the way. Also, Lucy and her friends shall have some fun as they explore Kuchiba Town to check out everything that seems appealing. As for my two new OCs, Shinichi and Nozomi are a pair of mages who will be part of serious situations. Their different motivations will be seen later on, too. In fact, Shinichi's motivation for wanting so much wealth and power will make the amusement park's shady surprises start to make sense. However, no motivation excuses the fact that he is a very abusive, controlling, rude, cocky, and greedy character. Finally, guess what? This chapter is the start of the Sherbet Earth Arc! However, there's no ice cream. Lol. I'll update soon. :)
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