It was about a week later when Takachi once more set out in pursuit of a quality photo. Having heard of a some superguild's guild hall being wrecked, in the much cooler town next door. Takachi was prepared to go on an awesome money making adventure.

She'd noted that keeping bad impressions to a minimum, while in a town filled with legendary wizards and childhood (current) heroes was a must. All she had to do was take some photos, keep interactions to a minimum, and not seem like a creeper. Takachi could do that, probably.

All valid points she considered when she starred in the mirror. Combing her hair so her grey eyes were partially, but not fully, covered. She was ready for adventure, decked out in some sturdy flip flops, black cargo shorts, and a blue christmas sweater.

She exited the bathroom, and headed into the kitchen to grab some toast and say goodbye to her grandparents. The kitchen, like the rest of the house, was made of wood with various offsets and the occasional purple hue, along with knick knack's just about everywhere.

"Morning Takachi." Her grandpa greeted her.

"Morning" She replied, while grabbing a piece of toast. Her grandparents were a lot easier to talk to than most people.

"Going on another adventure?" He asked. Takachi nodded as she munched on her toast. "When I was your age I was already swindling, ya know." He said, his old face wrinkling further when he smiled.

"Stay safe, and make some friends while you're at it." Her grandpa said.

"I'll try," Takachi said. Knowing the latter was a bit unlikely. "Bye grandpa." she said gathering her camera, wallet and wits, she ran out the door. If only talking to anyone was that simple.

XXX

Magnolia wasn't too far away, just a few hours. Which wasn't so bad compared to last week's train rides. She kept her eyes peeled for interesting stuff to photograph. The most interesting thing being a crow, which she did photograph. When she was about halfway there she suddenly heard voices.

Two Booming voices were heard from farther up the path. Takachi, smart as she is, hid behind a tree, waiting for the voices to pass."Lets go beat up some old people!" The wooly mammoth of a leader exclaimed, and Takachi even though she hates interacting with people realised that these guys were up to no good.

'Beating up old people? Maybe they mean corrupt politicians? but they might be old people like my nice grandparents.' She thought. Stepping out from behind the tree, ready for a fight. "You're uh, not going to just beat up some um, nice old people are you?" She said.

"Why would we do that?" That smaller of the two, who was covered in tattoos, said. Takashi vaguely wondered if this was one of those times when someone would say the opposite of what they meant, but having done such a great job communicating. She decided to take it in stride.

"Well um" Focus Takachi "you said you were going to uh, attack old people?" 'Good job' Takachi mentally patted herself on the back. Besides if these guys were ruthless criminals who'd care about some awkward conversation? right?

"Sorry, for the misunderstanding, you see, we're mercenaries and we've been hired to take out the corrupt mayor of a village in this area." The older one with the beard spoke. 'Wow, I was actually right about someone, what are the odds?' This might just be an opportunity to encounter the elusive entities known as friends.

'Now what do I do next?'

"Do you uh, need help?" That seems pretty good.

"Yeah sure, are you good with magic?" The bearded guy says. Takachi, while out of practice, did know how to use magic, and if it made her some friends who's to say it was a bad idea? So she started walking with them.

"Yes, uh yes I am" ' great answer, self'

"Cool we're the Vanish brothers," the younger one said. 'Why is he looking at me? Oh he probably wants to know my name.'

"Taka-" Do I really want to use my real name when teaming up with mercenaries? "-ru, that's uh my name" An epic alias, but maybe I should have used my actual name. Isn't that an important part of friendship?

"Well we're going to head north here to spearhead the village." The beard guy said. The whole village? I guess corruption is pretty serious.

"So do you have um, hobies?" That's an icebreaker right, the things people use when talking. Now I need to try and avoid making the conversation awkward.

"We go fishing." The younger one said. 'How am I supposed to respond to that? I should say something about fishing.'

"A lot of my neighbors are um, fishermen, but I don't-haven't gone myself" 'Okay, I responded now I have to wait for them to respond. So verbal fishing, is that how I should talk to people?'

"It's not really fun, but I still enjoy fishing." The Bearded dude says. 'Okay, if I stay on the fishing topic it might be weird, but if I don't transition the conversation right it'll also fail. Something open ended that has a high probability of being something we have in common.'

"That's um neat," 'Transition Takachi Transition' "I uh, like traveling." 'Boom. Now I just have to see how they respond.'

"We travel a lot as mercenaries." The younger one says.

"Cool" Oh no Takachi, cool isn't a conversation continuer, and it rarely sounds like you actually think so! What can I say to continue the conversation without making it forced or more to much more awkward? "Are you from fiore?"

"No, but we've lived here for awhile." Nice going Takachi.

"I've …" trying not to say um "uh lived here my whole life, in fiore, but I've uh, moved once or twice." 'At least I didn't say umm again'

"So you know the area well?" The Bearded dude asked. 'How do I respond to that?'

"Yeah, but I don't uh, have much of a sense in directions." 'Okay I didn't pause and my sentence was honest. Am I really making a friend?'

"Hah! Neither do I, but my little brother keeps me on track." ' Wow I think I did make a friend.'

"That's right." The younger guy says, and then they both laugh. For some reason Takachi laughs too and it's not that forced.

Once the laughter died down the bearded guy spoke "Ishgar." Takachi looked at him confused. "It's my name."

"Mines Alakitasia but everyone calls me Alaska" The younger one, Alaska said.

"Takaru was more of a um alias" Takachi says, face stretched into a smile."my name's Tak-"

"That's the village!" Alaska yells, quitely. Through the trees up ahead there's shouting and panicking.

"Come on! We have to stop the mayor!" Ishgar says as we run into the clearing. Takachi runs after them, determined to help defeat the mayor.

While Takachi runs through the village she notes none of the burning buildings have people inside, luckily. The Mayor despite his wrinkles, bald head, and arthritis, towered over everyone at an astonishing eight feet tall. His ivory cane deflecting Ishgar's frying pan and Alaska's martial arts.

Takachi realises this situation requires magic, more than she remembers ever trying to use. She takes a deep breath and focuses on the ground, all living things have energy, whether or not they use it.

Some People, for whatever reason, have more of this energy than the vast majority. So it's possible to take some of this energy, and put it in a construct or element. Shaping it into something that might survive by giving it enough energy for a fighting chance.

This is known as living magic, considered one of magic's many dark arts. Young Takachi has zero affinity for any other magic, you could probably blame her parents for that.

Takachi decides to use this latent ability. Focusing a large portion of her magic into a burning block of wood and then shaping it into a small creature, almost a foot tall with a smouldering face before pushing that same magic inside it. The vast majority of her magic focuses on maintaining the link between her and her creation so it doesn't run wild.

Takachi uses her magical connection to the creature to push it into attacking the mayor. However strong he may be, a small rodent esque animal has the advantage speed wise.

After it burned up his cane, Takachi focused her magic on raining it in and drawing the magic out of it, it burned when the magic came back to her. living things, especially things that aren't quite living, aren't meant to be controlled. Takachi knows this, she knows if she were to become a wizard. Join the very group she'd idolized growing up, she'd inevitably end up just like them.

And that was something she would do anything to avoid.

XXX

Several minutes later a guild wizard, none other than the legendary Titania, would show up at the scene. Upon noticing her arrival Takachi and Co would flee to the forest in hopes of avoiding the S-class death sentence. While running in the forest, the three friends, yes, Takachi's first friends, would split up with a mental teary eyed goodbye and actual awkward handshake-almost-hug.