So... I was faced with the same shock Alanza was in regards to Fiore's size when writing this up. With Team Natsu they so often end up on a train that I totally missed just how much walking time is involved when missions aren't near the railway lines.
Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima. Alanza and I are just messing with them.
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They had spent a couple hours on the train heading west. To Alanza, who already knew about it, Laxus's motion sickness was obvious. He hid it well enough behind his sound pods and general surliness that Levy didn't seem to notice though. Not that the little blunette seemed all that observant. She reminded Alanza of a scientist. She only saw what she was looking for or at, which at the moment was Alanza.
Seeing as how there wasn't a lot Alanza could actually share about herself or her 'magic' at the moment since Levy wasn't directly involved in the project she encouraged Levy to talk about herself, her team, and the guild. That lasted until Levy realized that Alanza had little to no knowledge in regards to magic theory and practical application therof. After that Levy started sounding like a professor or something.
A lot of the lecture went over her head, but she was able to grasp enough that it wasn't a complete waste of time on Levy's part. There was a lot of math involved, flow rate of magic, latent or inactive magic vs active or applied magic, magic resistance, blah, blah. Turns out there really was a magic measurement refered to as MP or magic power. That was so unshockingly unorigional she hadn't been able to hold back her snort. Once Levy mentioned it Alanza did recall a magic measuring device used during the GMG. Apparently most magical interactions only required power in the single didgits or even fractions of an MP point, such as using a lacrima communicator, though there was more math talk after that about flow rates and stuff.
Levy's explainations may have been accurate, but Alanza doubted she would ever be able to apply it. She just wasn't a math person. Besides which she had serious doubts about whether most wizards used that kind of knowledge. Natsu just seemed to do Everythung by instinct and he was't the only one. Alanza just couldn't see Gajeel, Elfman, or even Erza applying any math to their magic. Maybe it was more applicable to certain magic types. She would have to talk to some of her other new friends about it later, Cana or Mystogan maybe.
Once they got off the train, or more like once they ran out of train track in the direction they wanted to be going, they started walking. Now Alanza had always considered herself to be in pretty good shape. She had spent almost a whole day walking with Mystogan after all. Apparently he had been taking it easy on her because these two were walking her feet off. Laxus she could understand, the guy was huge so no duh he had long legs. Levy though? The little script mage was a bloody blue energizer bunny! She just kept going and going and going. When day three of walking for the entirety of the daylight hours came to a close without either of her companions seeming to be concerned about the length of the journey Alanza began to realize her folley.
"Ok. So I have to ask. How far are we still from our destination?" Laxus shrugged and Levy pulled out a map. Alanza stared at it in horror.
She had seen a map of Fiore before, some vague picture online she wasn't even entirely sure was canon. This one was so much...more. More detail, more towns, more rivers, more roads, even a few more railway lines. The part she was staring at with the most horror though was the little tic marks in the corner that provided distance comparison. Fiore was so much bigger than she had thought it was. Yeah they had walked a lot, but when she watched the anime the sheer amount of time they had spent walking had been... glossed over.
"We've made decent time so far. This is Lily Bend. The mission flyer Mira gave us said the site we are going to was about ten miles upriver from there. I'd say we are almost halfway there. Four or five days if we keep up this pace." Alanza just wanted to quit right there. She had been pushing herself as hard as she could to keep up with the two wizards. Her feet had been bleeding last night when she pulled her boots off. She just couldn't keep on like this. "Speaking of which... I haven't asked before, but why are the three of us taking this mission? It just doesn't seem like something Laxus would be interested in and I can't figure out why you wanted me to come along."
"We aren't Taking this mission Bookworm. The wizards who take the mission Are the mission."
"I don't understand." Laxus stared silently at Alanza until she rolled her eyes and explained.
"So for reasons that are not important right now we made up this mission and sent it to Phantom Lord. There are two wizards who might answer this request. In theory it could be someone else or just one of them, but I'm hoping they both show up. We are recruiting them. I'm here because this whole thing is my idea. Laxus is here in case my idea turns out to be an epic failure. You are here because..." Levy was here primarily because Alanza was playing matchmaker, but she needed to give her some other reason. "I have reason to believe you are the best person to reach one of these people."
"Umm... Ok. So this is because of your Secret magic."
"Basically."
"Who are these wizards?"
"Juvia Lockser, The Rain Woman, and Gajeel Redfox, also known as Black Steel. Juvia is a rather powerful water wizard. She is a bit of an odd duck, but she is extremely loyal and very sweet once you get to know her. Gajeel is the iron dragon slayer. He is rough around the edges, but he's a good guy and will do anything for the people he considers family. Honestly your first impression of both of them is likely to be poor. Master Jose is a cruel, heartless man as are most of the Phantom Lord members. They have both been through some pretty dark times and have had to harden their hearts to survive."
"I've heard stories about Phantom Lord. That they are just this side of being a dark guild. So...their guildmaster... forced them to..." Levy was obviously upset about the whole thing . Alanza could tell Laxus was thinking behind his scowl. She doubted he would say anything, but he knew. He knew what it was like to force yourself to be something you weren't in an attempt to please someone you respected, and to have that person abuse your trust. "That's so aweful!"
"It is, but they don't need or want your pity, just your understanding and friendship. Also... Juvia can't help the rain. She just never learned to control it." Should she warn Levy about Gajeel's tendency to intentionally scare the crap out of people? Nah. Levy was spunky and this needed to be as natural as possible. She had already done enough.
That night, just like every other night bleeding feet or no bleeding feet, she wrapped her blanket around her shoulders and began meditating. At least she would have begun meditating if she hadn't had this odd Chicken Little and his acorn moment. Not that she got hit on the head, but she felt like she had. Maybe the reason she wasn't seeing any results with her magic was because she wasn't trying to do anything with it. She kept expecting something to just Happen like it had seemed to for the Founding Fairies in Fairy Tail Zero. Maybe she should be trying something a little different.
After some thought and consideration she came to a simple yet astounding realization. She was in a Pradeshverse Fairy Tail. All of Bosco's Immaculate Knights had at least a limited mastery of requip magic and access to requip space. That implied that pretty much anyone could learn to requip at least a bit with enough practice. If she learned that she wouldn't have to lug around this huge camping backpack and bedroll all the time.
She could, in theory, ask Erza to teach her when she got back... No. Hell no. She remembered watching Erza teaching Natsu to read abd damn near killing half the guild dancing. That wasn't happening. Who else... Alzak and Bisca. They used requip magic along with their gun magic, right? If she couldn't figure this out by the time she got back to the guild she wiuld ask them. Maybe she should mention the idea in Lucy's hearing. If Lucy could learn to requip her keys it would save the girl a lot of trouble.
"Levy, are you still awake?" Silence. "Balls." She had hoped Levy would have a few hints for her.
"Why the fuck do you keep pushing yourself so hard?" She hadn't ment to draw Laxus's attention that's for sure. "You've got a fair amount of magic built up, but your body hasn't acclimated yet. Seriously. Give yourself a break before you fuck yourself up. Isn't the blood in your shoes enough if a hint?"
"I'm not used to walking this much."
"No shit." She snorted at his sarcasm.
"I probably need to get better shoes. Combat boots maybe, or whatever you guys have here that is similar."
"I'm not just talking about your fucking feet. I'm guessing from all that talk between you and Bookworm that you don't know shit like this, but you can damage the magical pathways in your body by pushing them to much to fast. It's just like strengthening your body. The muscles need breaks to heal in order to grow stronger. It's pretty fucking obvious you don't want help, but I'm offering advice anyway. If all you are doing is meditating do two days on one day off. At least at this point. Just don't go fucking yourself up on my watch." He fell silent and she thought over what he was telling her.
"I'm... I'm thinking about trying to learn some requip magic. Not like Erza or anything like that. Basically just enough for my bag and my bedroll, maybe a little more in time." He grunted.
"Requip space is a pocket dimension. Don't go fucking with that shit without understanding it. You can blow shit up or rip us or yourself or peices of us into hell's fucking basement." She winced. That sounded... Terrible. Maybe she would just wait on this project till she talked to Bisca. "Go to fucking sleep. We don't have to walk the rest of the way anyway. I can get all three of us to Lily Bend tomorrow, or at least most of the way."
"Oh thank Mavis. I don't even care that you didn't bother mentioning that earlier." He chuckled at her, or scoffed, something between those two sounds. "You know... Levy can make about anything with her script magic... Even lightning." He arched a brow and studied the sleeping blunette in a predatorial way. Alanza almost regretted poiting that out. 'Don't you dare wake her up just for a sparkly midnight snack." Laxus growled.
"You have some serious balls telling me what to fucking do."
"I'm not afraid to die. Takes the edge of most threats."
"You're crazy." She grinned and tapped the place just under her collarbone where her sky blue guildmark sat.
"I'm a Fairy Tail wizard." She collapsed onto her bedroll and quit fighting to keep her brain alive. She was so tired her meditation wouldn't have lasted long tonight anyway. How did these people walk so fucking much?
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To be continued.