Zrocker119: Very short AN here. Just wanted to apologize for those that were wait for this chapter to come out last Saturday, but I've decided to switch from a weekly to a bi-weekly update schedule. That's all...now onto the chapter.

-Start-

Ryu woke the next morning with a yawn, stretching as he did so. After a few satisfying cracks and pops he rubbed his eyes tiredly and took in his surroundings. He was confused as to where he was at first but then the memories yesterday's events came back and he realized that he was in the Strauss siblings home, the living room to be exact.

Getting off of the rather comfortable couch, Ryu listened for the tell tale signs of people being awake...only to hear nothing. Absolutely nothing. He couldn't even hear anything happening outside.

Ryu headed over towards the window and opened the blinds, "Oh, that's why." He had woken up much earlier than he thought. The sun was just starting to peak over the horizon. He took his time to watch as the blazing ball of fire slowly rose into the sky.

It was simple things like this that Ryu had missed the most while he was wandering the endless sands of Hueco Mundo, where the crescent moon hung eternally. He watched for a few moments longer before turning away and heading for the kitchen.

Since it was so early, it would be safe to assume that the siblings wouldn't be up for at least another hour or so. And since they were kind enough to let him sleep on their couch, Ryu figured that they wouldn't mind if he helped himself to some food.

The sun shone through the window into Mirajane's bedroom, angled so that it would strike the sleeping woman's eyes perfectly. Said sleeping woman was not amused and turned over so that the sun was no longer hitting her eyes and was just on the cusp of returning to sleep when something hit her.

She sat up, regardless of how tired she was, and sniffed the air. Her nose was assaulted by one of the most wonderful smells, which caused her stomach to growl. Mira sleepily got out of bed, tied a dark purple robe around her nightgown clad form and sluggishly made her way towards the kitchen.

"What are you cooking Lisanna?" She was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes when she entered so she failed to see the one cooking raise an amused brow. "Whatever it is, it smells amazing."

"Well good morning to you too," said a clearly male voice.

Mira, done rubbing the sleep out, opened her eyes and was greeted by the sight of Ryu standing in front of the oven dressed in the same clothes as yesterday, bar his vest and coat. His back was to her, but he was glancing over his shoulder, a look of amusement on his face.

"To answer your question though," Ryu turned back to the pan and stirred what he had in it, "I thought that I would make everybody breakfast as thanks for letting me crash here." He glanced back at her and said, "If you want to help out, there some vegetables on the counter that need to be cut up. You can do that right?"

Shaking herself out of her stupor, Mirajane grabbed one of the kitchen knives and twirled it expertly between her fingers, "Can I?"

Ryu put on a sly look, "Can you?"

Mirajane was not amused at all.

Ryu rubbed his cheek absentmindedly as the phantom pain of Mirajane grazing him with a kitchen knife was fresh in his mind. It hadn't hurt him and she knew it, but the message was clear. Do NOT question her cooking skills...ever.

So with that thought thoroughly integrated into his brain, Ryu walked down the road. His temporary roommates were still eating when he walked out the door so he was heading toward the guild by himself, but the streets were starting to fill as the sun rose higher into the sky.

People smiled and waved as he passed by, something that surprised him as he thought his appearance would deter people. Quite glad with this turn of events, Ryu nodded respectfully back to those that greeted him. He was already starting to like this place more than Las Noches.

An enjoyable walk later Ryu reached the guild hall. The doors were wide open and he could see that there were only a handful of people inside. He greeted them like he did with everyone else and headed up the stairs to the second floor. He glanced around, finding it to be almost exactly like the first floor but with a lot less tables. Off to the side was the job board.

He approached it and looked over the dozens of requests. "Slay lizardmen, track down lost family heirloom, escort caravan," the requests just went on and on from there. Ryu wasn't expecting there to be such a variety when it came jobs.

After a moment's decision Ryu grabbed one near the bottom. It had some dust covering it, showing that it had been there for some time. He went back down stairs, stopping only to get the request sanctioned by the barmaid and headed on out. His destination, the port town Cedar.

The distance between Cedar and Magnolia was quite far and would take almost half a day to reach by train. Instead Ryu opted for the quicker use of sonido, cutting the travel time down to three hours. Upon arrival, he saw that the town was quite large, running along almost the entire cove. The sight was quite beautiful.

Ryu sighed, turned away from the breathtaking view. 'Sightseeing will have to wait till later.' After asking someone for directions he walked to the center of the town, where he saw his destination.

He opened the door to the potions shop, the bell above sounding off with a pleasant chime.

"I'll be just a minute," called a voice from the back of the store.

"I'm a wizard from Fairy Tail," Ryu called back, "I'm here about the request."

There was the sound of something tipping over, followed by a yelp and glass shattering.

"OH FU-!"

BOOM!

Ryu's hand instantly went to the handle of his sword as a loud explosion emanated from the back room. A few seconds passed and the door to the back started to open only for it to fall off of its hinges as who Ryu assumed to be the owner walked in.

He was much older than Ryu, mid fifties at the latest. He was of average height with a lean build and didn't have a lot of muscle. He was dressed like a scientist that came straight out of a syfy movie, lab coat, gloves, goggles and all.

He was bald and covered with soot so Ryu was unable to make out what color his skin was.

"Knew I shouldn't have placed the essence of a fire lizard next to blood-bud extract," the man said as he took his goggles off and moved them to his forehead, revealing dark blue eyes. "You see while it's a liquid, blood-bud flower extract is highly flammable and when mixed with- you have no idea what I'm saying do you?"

"Enough to know that whatever you're talking about makes one hell of an explosion," was Ryu's response.

"Yes, very much so." The man held out a hand, "Thax Strau, alchemist, scientist and self proclaimed ladies man. You said you're here about the job I sent out?"

Ryu shook the offered hand, "Ryu Sato, and yeah that's why I'm here."

"Can I see your mark," Ryu turned and showed him the mark on his neck. Thax grabbed a lacrima from the counter.

"Just checking to see if it's real," he explained when Ryu's sent him a questionable look. "Can't tell you how many times I've had people come in, claiming that they're from a big shot guild with nothing but a fake."

He aimed the lacrima at Ryu and it seemed to do a full body scan of him. After a moment it stopped and flashed green, "Hm, joined just yesterday and already allowed to take S-class missions. You must be pretty powerful."

"More so than most," Ryu replied, more than a bit confused by what had just happened. "What did you do just now?"

"I just did a quick scan of you and your magical signature which was then matched up to what was recorded in the magic council's archives." He held his chin in a thinking pose, "Strange that you were registered before you joined a guild. Normally you aren't in the system till after you join one."

"I have a friend that works for the council," Ryu explained easily.

Thax snapped his fingers, "That explains it. Now onto business, did you bring the request with you?" Ryu reached into his coat and withdrew the paper. Thax took a moment to look it over. Finding most the information to be correct he nodded, "Alright then, the only thing wrong is that this is the older one. I sent out a updated one a few days ago. It must still be getting processed."

Ryu frowned slightly, "What changed?"

"The plants that I need collected are in a dangerous section of the nearby forest and I discovered that it a very dangerous creature moved in not too long ago, so I increased the reward from 3 million jewels to 10 million."

The arrancars mouth was left slightly agape at the new reward amount. "Just what the hell moved into the area?"

"A Chimera," Thax explained, "An SS-class creature that is considered mythical in status due to how rare they are."

"So I basically just have to grab the plants and get the hell out," Ryu summed up.

"Normally that would be the case," Thax's eyes gained a dangerous glint to them, "But the chance to study a specimen such as a Chimera is too good of a chance to pass up." He retreated into the back room for a moment and came back, a lacrima in hand. "Your new job is to kill the Chimera and store its body in this."

Ryu grabbed the lacrima, eying it warily. "I was under the impression that organic tissue couldn't be sealed within a lacrima."

"Only living tissue. The dead stuff's fair game. Now, off you go," Thax said, shooing him out the door.

'Okay, so I was supposed to head north towards the forest, then head east once I got about five miles in, then it's a straight shot from there.' Ryu mentally checked off the directions as he strolled through the thick underbrush that covered the forests floor. The directions were simple enough, but there was just one problem...the forest in question WAS FUCKING MASSIVE!

He had already been walking for six hours, SIX, HOURS. Ryu was tempted several times to just saying to hell with it and nuke the forest, but the thought of the reward money held his frustrations at bay. So he settled for lashing out at a defenseless tree with his fist, uprooting it.

Ryu was going to move on, but stopped when he noticed something off about the tree. Lifting it enough to see the underside of it, he found enormous claw marks gouged into its side. The cuts went deep, much deeper than anything a bear could ever hope to dream of doing.

He set the tree down quietly but didn't remove his hand from it. The forest had gone quiet, the gentle chorus of forest critters had suddenly stopped. Ryu's eyes narrowed at the gentle sound of grass and dirt shifting.

Most wouldn't have been able to hear it, but after living in the sand of Hueco Mundo for two years one learned to catch every little detail.

The ground shook as whatever had been sneaking around finally pounced. Unfortunately for it, Ryu was ready.

His fingers dug into bark as he turned around and used the tree as a club, turning it into splinters as it smashed into the airborne target. The beast crashed into the ground, digging up a trench as it did. The monster shook the dirt from its fur and stood back on its feet.

The Chimera was massive, about the size of a train cart. It had the body of a lion, with a goat head attached to its back and a viper for a tail. All three heads faced him, and they didn't look too happy with Ryu's surprise counterattack.

The beast bellowed, charging at Ryu with a surprising amount of speed.

Thankfully the Arrancar wasn't one to be easily caught off guard. Ryu waited until it was within range before lashing out with a kick to the lion's jaw. A loud crack was heard as its lower jaw unhinged, leaving it useless.

Or so Ryu thought.

As he dodged the snake, the goat let out a bellow, causing a green magic circle to appear beneath it. When it faded, the lion's jaw had snapped back into place, the previous damage having been healed.

As the lion charged, the goat bellowed once again, though this time a purple magic circle appeared underneath Ryu.

He leaped to the side as a bolt of lightning came cracking down on his previous position. "So the goat can use magic. Great," was Ryu's dry comment. Not two seconds after he spoke those words, a plume of smoke billowed out of the snakes mouth.

As the smoke approached him Ryu could see how the plant life died wherever it touched. 'And the snake breathes poison...awesome.'

A groan escaped from Mirajane as she climbed the stairs to the guild's second floor. Natsu had gotten back from a job and had decided take another crack at her. As usual she had taken care of the eager pinkette in a single hit, but doing so had caused her sore shoulder to flare up.

She rolled her shoulder to alleviate some of the pain when she caught sight of someone else seated at one of the tables.

"Looks like somebody bit off more than they can chew."

"Not in the mood Laxus," Mirajane spoke through gritted teeth.

Laxus Dreyar, grandson of the guild master, one of the strongest members of the guild and one of the few people that Mirajane could say that she truly loathed. Doing her best to ignore him she approached the request board.

The blonde smirked, "Oh did I strike a nerve? That didn't take much. Did you and the rest of those weaklings really botch up your last request that bad?" Laxus leaned back, barely avoiding the chair that had been sent hurtling his way.

"You know for a damn fact that my siblings and I are anything but weak," Mira growled. "I'm surprised you haven't heard what happened yet. The guilds been talking about it nonstop since yesterday."

"Oh, I heard about it all right." Laxus had gotten up by this point and now stood directly in front of her, glaring down at her. A look that she returned. "In fact I heard that this newbie took out all three of you without breaking a sweat, even going so far to protect your ass from his own attack. Had it been me, I would've let you take the hit so that you could learn a lesson."

"Please," Mira leaned back against the board, arms crossed with a annoyed look, "You're hard pressed to beat me, so excuse me if I take that statement with a grain of salt."

Laxus growled but said nothing for there was truth to her words. Ever since they started training again, Mirajane and her siblings magic power had exploded. Elfman could now go toe-to-toe with Natsu and Grey, Lisanna was now one of the fastest members of the guild and Mirajane wasn't too far behind Laxus when it came to raw power.

Before they could continue to trade insult upon insult, a commotion downstairs caught their attention. They approached the railing but were forced to dodge as someone flew between them, only stopping once they hit the back wall. The dust cleared to reveal an unconscious Natsu.

"I warned the kid," Ryu spoke from the center of the hall, lowering his outstretched leg. One hand was in his coat pocket while the other held the briefcase that contained his reward money over his shoulder.

His fight with the Chimera wasn't overly difficult once he had silenced the goat head, but he had to hold himself back so that there would be a corpse left to take back to Thax. Once he got it back, Thax had decided to give him a 20% bonus pay for finishing the job so quickly.

So with 12 million jewels in hand, Ryu had hauled ass back to the guild for a much needed drink, only to get challenged to a fight by a pink-haired kid as soon as he had entered the building. He gave the kid a fair warning that he wasn't feeling it at the moment, but the guy took that as an invitation to attack.

In response, Ryu planted his foot in the kids face and gave him the short lived ability to fly.

"Was that really necessary?" Lisanna asked with a pout as her boyfriend disappeared up onto the second floor. She wasn't worried about Natsu, just annoyed at Ryu for knocking him out.

"He'll be fine sis," Mirajane called from her spot above them.

"Yo Mira is there a job up there involving a chimera," Ryu asked. She rose a brow but went to go check. A moment later she was back and gave him a nod of confirmation, "Go ahead and toss it, that was the updated version of the one I just did."

"Wait, you took an S-class request!" Laxus shouted. "No better question, who the hell are you!?"

"Oh," Mira smiled coyly, "Laxus meet Ryu. He's the newbie that defeated me and my siblings. Afterward the master decided to make him S-class."

A tingling sensation could be felt in the air as Laxus exerted a bit of his magic power. "Has the old man gone senile? Must be if he just hands out special treatment to anyone that joins with a marginal amount of power."

Not one to stand by and listen to others talk down to him, Ryu spoke up, "If you got a problem with me then come down hear and say it to my face."

Laxus disappeared and reappeared before Ryu in a bolt of lightning. The Arrancar didn't even so much as twitch for he had seen much faster. He did have to look up slightly to meet the taller man's eyes though.

"Just because you beat the one of the contenders for weakest S-class and two weaklings doesn't mean you're cut out to be on the same level as me."

Ryu closed his eyes and nodded, "Yeah, you're right." He then glared at him and said, "Then I guess it's a good thing that I'm on a much higher one than you."

A pin drop could be heard as the guild fell into complete and utter silence. Laxus flared his power even more, causing a electricity to envelop him. Do to the close proximity between them, Ryu felt some of it dance across his skin.

His lip twitched upward into a mocking grin. "Tingly."

That must have been the final straw cause one that came out of his mouth, Laxus's glare turned down right murderous. "You and me, outside, right, now." His tone left to room for refusal.

Normally Ryu would just tell the prick to shove it where the sun didn't shine and go get a drink, but he knew the type of guy that stood before him. Regardless of the answer he was given, he would attack.

"Fine," Ryu tossed his briefcase to Lisanna, who fumbled to catch it. "Let's go." Without another word the duo turned and headed outside, followed very closely by everyone else.

"Shouldn't we stop this?" Lisanna asked her elder sister. "This is Laxus we're talking about. He's a lot more ruthless than any of us are."

"Hm, I don't think we'll need to worry too much," Mirajane said uncaringly as they followed the others outside where they formed a circle around the two fighters. As they joined the group she noticed that the Thunder God Tribe, Laxus's "bodyguards", were present as well. All three members were trying to burn holes through Ryu's skull.

The redhead either didn't notice or just couldn't bring himself to give a damn.

"Are they getting in on this," Ryu gestured to the three he had yet to meet. When Laxus shook his head, the Arrancar rolled his shoulder. "Then tell your posse to step aside so that we can get this over with."

Freed, Evergreen and Bickslow all looked like they wanted to say something but one pointed look from Laxus was enough for them to hold their tongues.

Laxus exerted his magic and he was once again cloaked in lightning. With a blinding flash he appeared before Ryu, fist pulled back for a devastating punch only for him to seemingly phase through his opponent. He turned back around to attack once again, only for his chest to suddenly erupt in blood.

Only then did people notice that Ryu's sword was drawn and hung loosely at his side. If one were to look closer, they would see that the ground beneath his feet was burned from the friction of him dodging Laxus's first and last attack.

Ryu sheathed his sword as his opponent fell unconscious to the ground, the blood pooling around him.

"Laxus!" Freed cried as he and his teammates rushed to the side of their fallen leader.

"He'll be fine," Ryu said as he took his case back from Lisanna, "The cut is shallow enough that he won't bleed out anytime soon. But he'll spend the rest of his life knowing that I could've killed him." He glanced back so that they could see the masked part of his face, "Let this be a lesson in humility."

Their glares didn't lessen even as they carried Laxus to the guild's infirmary.

"What is going on here!?" Yelled a voice that caused everyone but Ryu and Mira to flinch in fear. The circle around him parted to get out of the way of the one who spoke.

Ryu let out a low growl. He was tired and just wanted a drink. He turned around to give the one that yelled a stern talking to, but the words died as he saw who it was.

It was a young woman with long, scarlet hair and brown eyes. Like most of the women Ryu had met since arriving in this world, she had a slender, voluptuous figure. Strangely enough though, she kept it covered by an armored chest piece, along with gauntlets, a blue skirt and black boots.

Her stunning beauty wasn't what caused Ryu to pause though. No, he paused because of the startling amount of resemblance between this woman and his deceased sister. Change her hair and eyes to match his own, and she would look exactly like an older version of Ryu's younger sister, Rin.

"I asked a question." The Rin lookalike repeated, snapping Ryu out of his trance.

Shaking those thoughts away, Ryu gave the other redhead a scowl. "The blonde guy was being a prick and wanted to fight. I gave him one and he lost."

"And you are?"

Before another fight could breakout, Mirajane stepped between them. "Calm down Erza, Laxus had it coming. To answer your question though, this is Ryu, our guild's latest addition."

Erza's eyes widened in recognition, "As in the same Ryu that saved you a year back. That Ryu?"

Mira was really getting tired of being reminded of that moment in her life. "Yes, this is the same Ryu."

"My apologies," Erza said with a bow much to Ryu's confusion. "I didn't know that you were the one that saved three members of our guild. You may strike me for being rude if you should wish."

"No, no that's okay." Ryu was more than a little unnerved by the notion of hitting her for a simple misunderstanding. "How about we just start over. I'm Ryu Sato." He held out his hand.

"Very well," Erza straightened up and shook the offered hand, "Erza Scarlet, a pleasure to meet you Ryu."

When it became clear that there would be no more fighting for the day, the watching guild members retreated back into the hall and returned to whatever it was that they were doing beforehand.

"Well then, now that all of the hostility is out of the air," Ryu started as he too went inside and made his way to the bar. "I'm getting a drink." Hopefully there would be no interruptions this time.

"Hey!" A familiar voice called out, "I said fight me!" Ryu sighed and uppercutted the same pink-haired kid from before, this time sending him crashing through the roof and into darkening sky. Why was the universe making it so damn hard for him to get a single drink.

"So...he seems interesting." Mirajane glanced over at her friend/rival to see her looking right back with an amused expression.

Not liking that look Mira asked, "What's with that look?" Erza just smirked and went inside with the others, leaving Mirajane all alone. She glared at her friend's retreating form, "Tch, all redheads are weird."

-END-

Zrocker119: One last note. Less than 2,000 view and this story has almost 50 Fav/Followers and seeing how the first version of this story had over 60K view and less than 100 Fav/Follower, I'm very happy with how this version is being received.