This chapter took a little longer to write. This chapter will wrap up year X776 and the next will move on to the infamous X777.

Training and Festivities

August, X776

I dodged the aqueous sphere that was being thrown at me at high speeds. As soon as I dodged the ball of water, another one was right in my face. I manage to quickly bend backwards, and it sails over my face. I rebound up, and immediately cartwheel to the right to dodge several more watery projectiles.

You might be wondering why I'm dodging random balls of water. Well, I was doing dodge training with Celia. Ever since my reflexes started being affected by my magic, Celia has been hammering me with dodge training. Every few days for the past couple of months, we would come out to the lake front, and she would shoot high velocity water projectiles at me.

All in all, that was a perfectly fine thing to do with an eight year child. Throwing baseball sized water balls at high speeds, and expecting them to not get hit. Yep, totally normal.

They hurt like a bitch, by the way.

Another thing that I was enjoying about this body, was how flexible it was. Over the two years that Kagura and I have been here, we were taught acrobatics as part of our exercise regime. Flexibility was extremely important, so we did a lot of stretching each day, and it payed dividends. I could do all these maneuvers that I never dreamed of doing in my past life. The first thing I did when I figured out how flexible I had become, was the splits. I always wanted to do it.

I had the biggest grin on my face when I first did it. If I tried that in my old life, I would have definitely pulled a lot of muscles that I can't name. I'd imagine it hurt like hell in the groin as well, and I get an imaginary pain just thinking about it.

Anyway, superhuman reflexes and awesome acrobatic skills were not enough to dodge Celia's balls of terror. As she started launching them faster and faster, my body could not keep up with my reflexes. It got to the point where I would see the water projectile coming at me in almost slow motion, but I couldn't get my body to move out of the way fast enough. It was only after me getting hit a dozen times, and several bruises forming, that Celia informed that I needed to start enhancing my body with magic power to move faster. I gave her the biggest death glare I could muster, but me being eight years old, completely ruins the effect, and she snickered.

Ethernano not only gave humans a passive shield, it can also be used to increase a mage's natural body speed. If you are a lightning mage, like me, you can take it one step further. I remember Laxus being able to turn his body into a lightning form, and gaining the ability to move at insane speeds. Besides the mages that use some type of speed magic, lightning mages were the fastest around. I can't wait to try the lightning form, but it's almost an expert level spell, and I have a long way to go before I try that.

Using ethernano to augment your body felt absolutely amazing. If I could put it into words, I would say it feels like drinking a shot of one-hundred percent caffeine. But instead of just making me feel energized, it also made my body move just as fast as I could react. There was also the strength difference as well. I could make some pretty good dents in a log with some good punches. Imagine what I could do when I am older.

Of course, with this great power, came some problems. I was so used to how my body normally moved, so whenever I commanded my arm to move, it moved too fast and would throw me off balance. Same thing with the strength. So it took a while to figure out how use this ability properly. I also couldn't continuously augment myself for more than ten minutes at a time, so I had use it sparingly.

Anyway, I cartwheeled to dodge the ball of watery death, and Celia launched another one at the spot where I was going end my cartwheel. I saw where it was going, and I knew that I was doomed.

The baseball size sphere of water hits me in the stomach, knocking the air out of me. I fall to my knees, wheezing.

"Great job, Kid! I think that was a new record." I hear Celia say in a slightly amused voice. I really hate her sometimes.

"*wheeze* T-Thanks Ma*wheeze*Master." I struggle to get out. My eyes were watering a bit. I then collapse, and roll onto my back. I look up to the clear afternoon sky, still breathing hard from the impact. That's going to leave a mark.

Celia enters my vision, "Well, I think I overdid it a little on that last one…" She sighed. "I think we're done for the day, see ya tomorrow." She says with smirk. God, sometimes I want to hit that smirk off her face.

She then starts walking away, and I turn my head to see her walking towards the guild hall. I weakly raise my hand, and give her the middle finger.

Celia, I really like you, but sometimes you really get on my nerves.

I got my revenge the next day by showing Lana the bruise on my stomach, and I watched as Celia get chewed out. Revenge was glorious, until Lana left and Celia looked at me with an evil glint in her eyes. It reminded me of how Ultear looked at Meredy when she asked how to stop Jellel.

But instead of eating a hot chili pepper, I had to run laps around lake while dodging her liquid balls of death.

Never, ever, snitch on Celia.

XXX

I'm striking at Kagura with my bokken with great speed. Unfortunately, she is blocking every strike.

I slow down for a fraction of a second, and Kagura capitalizes on it, and goes on the offensive. It was my turn to block and deflect her strikes. She hits my bokken with a particularly powerful strike, and I stagger a little bit when I block it. She capitalizes on this, and goes for the kill.

Fortunately, I recover and roll to right, dodging her strike. As soon as I get out of my roll, I strike at her again. She brings her sword up, and it meets mine. The blunt sound of wood hitting wood fills the air.

Kagura and I jump back from each over, and take a moment to catch our breaths. Since we were both using magic to enhance our bodies, we end up jumping back at least 6 feet from where were standing easily.

I get back into a proper stance, and hold the bokken with two hands in front of me. Kagura mirrors my stance, and we both get ready to go again.

A moment of silence passes. The only thing that could be heard was the wind blowing.

We then sprint towards each other, crossing the distance between us in what feels like almost an instant. As soon as we get into striking distance, she swings her bokken and I jump over her and I twist in midair landing behind her, facing her back. She has no time to recover from her previous swing, and I immediately strike. The blunt edge of my bokken hits her lower back with a loud thwack, and she yelps in pain.

"Rubina wins." Comes Maribelle's voice.

I was breathing heavily at this point, but I manage to smile in satisfaction at my victory. Kagura and I were having a friendly competition on who can win the most spars. I was still losing 52 to 48 as of today, but that was okay. I was making a comeback.

Kagura starts rubbing her back furiously, and turns around with an angry glare. It was slightly ruined by her watery eyes. "That really hurt, Rubi! I'm not going to be able to sit for a week!" She shouted.

Oops, in my attempt to look like a jedi, I might have hit her too hard, and in the wrong spot. Ouch.

I wince a little, "I'm sorry, Kagura, I didn't intend to hit ya there." I say sheepishly. I then extend my hand and she reluctantly shakes it.

Learning how to use a katana is actually taking longer than a rapier. This was due to the sheer variety of styles that used the sword. When we were learning the rapier, we spent most of our time focusing on a few styles, as the rapier was only good for stabbing and leaving shallow cuts. The katana, and its family of bladed weapons, were more versatile, and could be used for many more styles. We were currently on our third style, which focused on speed and acrobatics to overwhelm the enemy.

It was a natural fit for me, as I've been getting faster and faster. But we still had a lot more styles to go through before we were done with this type of sword. That was a good thing, because I'm pretty sure Maribelle is waiting for us to get a little older, before we start on the bigger, heavier swords.

"You two are done for the day. Please take some time to recuperate. Dismissed." Maribelle says simply.

"Yes, Shishou!" We say at the same time, and we start walking towards the dorm.

Kagura looks to me, still rubbing her back, with annoyance in her eyes. "I'm serious, Rubi, I'm not going to be able sit normally for week. Couldn't of you aimed somewhere else?" She whined.

I look to her and sigh. "I already said I was sorry." I say exasperated voice. I then feel a small smile make its way on my face. "Consider this revenge for hitting my tailbone a couple months ago."

Nothing is worse than hurting your tailbone. The pain just lingers there for weeks before going away.

It was her turn to sigh in exasperation.

I then slap her in the spot where I hit her, and started running at full speed. "I call using the shower first!" I yell over my shoulder, ignoring the yelp of pain from my friend.

"Rubi!" She yelled angrily, and started chasing me.

Even though I got a head start, Kagura won the race when she used her magic to pin me to the floor of our room as she rushed into the bathroom. Somehow, she was able to keep me pinned to floor as she took her sweet time taking a bath.

"Kagura! Let me go!" I yelled while pinned to floor.

"What's that!? I can't hear you!" She said in a singsong.

"Kagura!" I yell again, and I hear obnoxious whistling coming from inside.

After twenty minutes, I just accepted my fate and laid on the floor, pinned by gravity. I guess karma caught up to me.

In another twenty minutes, Kagura came out wrapped in a towel, and with the biggest, smuggest smile on her face. "You may use the bathroom now." She said simply and she released me from her gravitational prison.

I glared at her as I got up, but by this point, I was too tired to retaliate, and I decided to just walk into the bathroom.

I filled the tub with hot water, slowly sat in the water, and let out a relaxing sigh.

In my past life, I preferred showers over baths, but that changed once I entered this world. This was due to my time at the orphanage, which only had bath tubs. The orphanage had several bathrooms, since it was owned by a rich guy before becoming an orphanage, but there were still a lot more kids than bathrooms. So kids usually had a partner to take baths with so that they could be used in a timely manner and not waste so much water.

I was fortunate to have my sister as my partner. It was really awkward for me the first month after my awakening. But I got over it only because it was just my sister. I don't think I could trust anyone seeing me like that.

This world was more open on communal bathing than my previous home, which isn't surprising, considering there are plenty of bathing scenes in the anime. I don't like being naked in front of others like that, but I guess it's probably inevitable that I will have to take baths like that eventually.

I step out the tub, and pull its drain plug. I dry myself with a towel, before looking at the sink that had a fogged mirror over it. I use my towel to wipe the condensation off, and I look straight into the mirror.

A girl with wet, crimson red hair that flowed past her shoulders, and slightly rounded eyes looked back at me. Her eyes were like brilliant red rubies. I was told that my mother in this life named me after my eyes. I asked Erza once what our mother was like.

"Nee-chan?" I say to girl laying next me in our bed. It was night time, and there was no moon out.

"Hmmm?" She responded.

"What was momma like?" I ask curiously.

She made some contemplative noises. "Well, I can't really remember much about her, but I do remember that she had red hair like we did, but it was much longer, and that she was really kind." She said wistfully.

"How… How did she die?" I ask reluctantly.

Erza stayed silent for a moment, "I don't know." She said with a sad tone.

"Don't know?" I inquire.

"All I remember is the matron coming to our house one day and telling me that she passed, and took us here. She didn't really tell me the details, or I think I forgot them… You were a year old then." She said lowly.

I hear a small sob escape her, and turn towards her, and give her the best hug a four year old could. "Don't cry, Nee-chan. It doesn't suit you well. Besides, you got me, right?" I try to comfort my sister.

"Right… Thanks Rubi." She sniffles out

Sometimes when I look at my reflection, I don't recognize the person looking back at me, before realizing the person in the mirror is what I am now. I bring a hand up to my face and feel the smooth skin on it. I then examine my body.

Even though I was eight years old at the moment, I was definitely in the best shape of both my two lives. I didn't have much muscle definition now, but I knew that would change as I got older.

Speaking of getting older, I wonder what I will look like when I finally stop being a chibi.

XXX

September 3rd, X776

Today was the Mermaid festival.

It was named in honor of the mermaid from the story, and was held annually. Every year, Mermaid Heel would throw a parade during the festival, and would end the festival with a magic show on the lake.

The magic show wasn't a simple showing of various magic spells. No, ever since Mermaid Heel was founded, the guild would do a reenactment of the battle between the mermaid and the demon for free. It was quite the sight. Celia would conjure a giant mermaid made of water and it would fight a demon constructed of fire. Surprisingly, Mermaid Heel did not have a fire mage, so the guild would hire one from another guild. When I asked Celia why this was, she shrugged and said that fire mages misinterpret our name and think that we prefer water mages. She also said that most fire mages tend to be male. I took that last statement with a grain of salt.

Anyway, I was sitting in the guild hall with Kagura. We were the only ones in the guild hall, besides Ceila, who was in her office. This was due to everyone being out and helping set up stuff around Salice.

I was wearing a blue T-shirt and black shorts, while Kagura was wearing the usual dress. We were discussing what we were going to do during the festival when heard the guild door open.

"Hey! I'm here to see the master!" Came a young man's voice.

I turn my head to see a man, who looks to be in his late twenties, with blue hair that spiked upwards and had some stubble on his chin and some above his lips. He was wearing a long blue sleeve shirt and white pants. For some reason he looked familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

I decided to get up and great the man, since someone had to. I hear Kagura follow me. "Um, Master is upstairs, in her office, right now. What do ya need, Mister?" I ask the man as I get close to him.

He stares at Kagura and me, and then grins. "Well, little lady, I'm a wizard and I want to discuss some things with the master." He says in a cheerful tone.

I furrow my brow, "You do realize that this is a female only guild, Stranger-san… Unless you really are a woman, and you are deciding look like a man." I say.

He made a choking sound before recovering quickly. "No, no, I'm here for a job request." He said while pulling out a flyer from his pocket, and pointing to it. "See. It says 'Fire Mage required for festival. Must be able to manipulate fire into large shapes. 200,000 jewels' and I definitely fit the bill." He said before holding out his hand and conjuring purple flames to his palms. That got an ooo from Kagura.

The purple fire was bringing some more feelings of déjà vu, but I ignored it. "Oh. You're here for the Mermaid festival." I say simply. "Master will most likely be down in a few minutes."

He then smiles, "Well, I guess I can wait for a little bit. I did have long walk here."

I turn around, "Please have a seat, there are plenty." I say, and I gesture him to follow me. The three of us then sit at the table that Kagura and I were sitting at.

The man looks at us with a cheerful expression on his face. "So… little ladies, what are your names."

"I'm Kagura Mikazuchi"

"And I'm Rubina Crimson"

"Well, those are very nice names…Tell me, what are the two of you doing in here on such a lovely day? Shouldn't you be out and about with the other kids?"

"We have nothing to do, and Master said that she has something for us." Kagura responded and I nod in agreement with her.

"Hmm, are you two mages?" He asks curiously.

I shake my head, "No, we are only eight, but we will be." I say cheerfully.

"Yeah, we are going to be the strongest around." Kagura added.

He let out a chuckle, "Well, I wish you two the best then."

Before the two of us could respond, we were interrupted. "I heard someone calling me?" Came Celia's voice.

I look behind me to see her walking down the stairs in a mermaid costume. She had a clam shell bra covering her breasts, and the bottom part ended in a fish tail. Her hair was wavy, and had an aquatic theme going on.

The man got up and started walking over to her. "Ah, yes. I came here for the job request." He then extended his hand as he got to her. "I'm Macao Conbolt, wizard of Fairy Tail."

It takes all my willpower to keep myself from freaking out right now. Thankfully, I keep a straight face.

Of course I would run into some from the very guild I was trying to avoid. I can hear some divine being laughing at me once again.

Celia face then becomes flat as she shakes his hand. "Ah yes, Fairy Tail… Good guild, nothing bad about it. Except for your master though. I'm not particularly fond of him" She said in a neutral tone.

The man, Macao, started rubbing the back of his head, "Oh yeah… I apologize for his behavior at last the guild master meeting. He didn't mean for that fight to get out of hand." He said sheepishly.

Celia then got annoyed and angry, "It isn't just his stupid his stupid feud with that phantom idiot that pisses me off! That old perverted imp keeps trying to cop a feel, and if he tries to do it one more time, he'll feel my wrath, wizard saint or not." She seethed out, and she was breathing heavy.

Macao was cowering a little from Celia's venting. I feel bad for him. Celia was very scary when she was angry.

She then took a deep breath, "Sorry about that… I had that building up for a while, and it was wrong of me to take it out on you." She apologized with a sigh.

Macao recovers, but is still sweating bullets from Celia's outburst. "Hey, no problem. Master can be eccentric at times, but he is a good man at heart."

Celia rolled her eyes, "Yeah, whatever… You said you were here for the job?"

Macao nodded, and conjured purple flames to his hands.

Celia raised a brow, "Well, that's definitely fire, but would it be possible for you to use normal colored fire for this? It's okay if you can't, but the color purple is not what most people associate with fire."

Macao nodded once more, "Of course. I would be a pretty pathetic fire mage if I couldn't at least change the color of my fire." He said simply.

Celia then smirked, "Well then, you're hired." She then pointed to the back door to the side of the stage. "Go see Lana out back. She is the one with the bright green hair, and spider themed clothing. Can't miss her."

Macao then started walking towards the door Celia pointed to, opened it, and walked out. I followed him with my eyes the entire time.

"I thought he was pretty cool." Kagura staged whispered.

"…Yeah, sure." I respond.

"Kagura! Rubi! Come over here, I have a surprise for ya." Came Celia's voice. I looked back at her and see that she is holding two white boxes.

Kagura and I look at each other, before we walk over to her.

Celia had a huge smirk on her face as she handed us each a box. "Congratulations, Brats, you get to be in the parade this year!" She cheered. "Go put those on and meet me back here"

I had a bad feeling about this.

"Awesome!" Kagura exclaimed excitedly.

There was a mischievous glint in Celia's eye.

XXX

This is perhaps the most humiliating moment in my entire life. Of all time.

I was riding on a parade float that was shaped like a giant rock. The float had three flat areas on different elevations for people sit on. Normally, I wouldn't have minded riding on a parade float, but because of what was in the box Celia gave me, it made it very embarrassing.

Inside the boxes that she gave us were child sized versions of what she was wearing. Kagura was a little more enthusiastic about it than I was. But I think that was because she was a legitimate child, and wasn't a man in a previous life.

The mermaid costume had a green lower half and a clamshell bra, which I didn't understand why a child costume would have, but whatever. It took Kagura almost an hour to convince me to put it on. I undid the braid that I had my hair in, and let it flow straight. With this costume and my distinctively red hair, I looked like the freaking little mermaid. All I needed was a talking crab and a yellow fish with blue fins.

Anyway, I was sitting on the lowest platform while Kagura was on the one above me. On top was Celia playing with her water magic. It was night time and the float was driving down the main street of Salice, towards the guild. A crowd of people were on both sides of the street, and Kagura and I were waving to them with fake cheer, or at least I was. The streets were filled with various festive lights, and the sounds of people having a good time could be heard from all directions. I think I heard various kids, more specifically little girls yell out "Mermaid! Mermaid! I wanna be a mermaid!"

I was doing everything in my power to not blush furiously. I did not like being in this type of outfit, no matter how cute it made me look.

We eventually reach the guild building and the float turns and starts driving around the guild. It then starts heading towards the lake.

'What?'

I look up to Celia, who doesn't look worried at all.

"Um… Master? Why are we heading towards the lake?" Kagura asked for me.

A smirk appeared on her face, "It's time for the festival finale, and we can't have the finale without the battle between the demon and the mermaid, can we?"

"Master, this a parade float, not a boat! We're gonna sink!" I shout as we got closer to the water.

She then waved her hand dismissively, "Meh, we'll be fine."

The float then crashes into the water and I close my eyes, and get ready to sink into the water. After a few seconds, I notice that I'm not drenched in water yet, and I open my eyes to notice that we weren't sinking. We were floating towards the middle of the lake.

I then hear Celia chuckle, "As you can see, it's not just a parade float."

I glare at her and stick my tongue out. She ignores it and looks forward at a barge that was in the middle. "Ok, brats, are you ready for a front row seat to the show?" She asks, before her hands glowed blue.

A giant mass of water suddenly starts rising from the lake, and forms itself into a shape of a mermaid. A fifty foot tall mermaid, give or take.

Something on the barge then glowed red-orange, and fire erupted from the barge. That must be Macao. The large plume of fire grew enormous and shaped itself into a demonic shape. It was a similar size to the gigantic mermaid in front of me.

I look up to see Celia standing up and with a serious expression on her face, her hands glowing a bright, brilliant blue. I look back at the fiery demon to see it shoot a giant blast of fire at us.

I hear Kagura let out an audible "Eeep!"And I put my arms up to try to defend myself. Suddenly, a giant wall of water is raised and the fire crashes into it, producing a crap ton of steam.

I look to Celia, who had both hands out in front of her, and then to the mermaid, which was mimicking her movements. Celia then moved her arms in a way that reminded me of waterbending. The mermaid copied the arm movements and a massive wave came out of the water and rapidly made its way towards the fiery giant.

The demon split the wave with whip of fire, and launched multiple fire balls at the mermaid. The balls of fiery death was meet with large tendrils of water. The mermaid then lifted a massive amount water out of the lake, and put both hands out in front of it. Suddenly, hundreds of water spheres started shooting out the massive water blob.

They were meet with the demon's own wall of fire.

These back and forth attacks continued for another ten minutes before the mermaid summoned a massive tidal wave and finally overwhelmed the fiery beast. Cheers could be heard around the lake, the mermaid bowed, and the magic construct collapsed back into the lake.

That was the coolest thing I have ever seen. Of all time. Seeing it up close was definitely better than seeing it from the beach, like last year.

Kagura and I were speechless, but then we both start clapping. I look up to see Celia panting a little, but with a pleased expression on her face.

Despite me wearing this embarrassing outfit, this day didn't turn out that bad.

I didn't see Macao after that, but I presume he rented out a room at an inn and went back to his guild the next morning.

I bet you weren't expecting Macao to make a short appearance. He is 28 in this chapter by the way. If you are wondering why he didn't make any connections between Rubina and Erza, it's because Erza was very reclusive for her first months in fairy tail. Also, she probably won't mention that she has relatives if she is trying to protect her sister. Also, she is still missing an eye.

I wrote this chapter to expand more on what magic can do. I also wanted to do some more world building. I hope my action scenes were better than my last attempt.

Anyone who can spot the Red vs Blue references gets brownie points.

I'm gonna take a break for a few days.