The sword and the Storm
Chapter 2:Descent Into Darkness
Here's chapter 2! As i said before this chapter will detail the journey to phantom and the start of phantom. Still working on other stories as well but this is what my brain is giving me ideas for at the moment. Hope y'all enjoy, R&R pls. I do not own fairy tail
Every day is an adventure. -Joseph B. Wirthlin
Katsuro was woken up the next morning by a combination of chirping birds, and a ray of sunlight beaming down directly onto his face through the trees. Stretching widely and groaning when his joints popped loudly, he slowly got up and made himself ready for the day. After a short time to get ready, he made his way over to the lone tent to wake Juvia, only to find the tent empty when he unzipped it. Confused, he shrugged and decided to pack up the campsite before looking for her to make for Phantom Lord.
After getting everything ready for travel, he put on his backpack and decided to start by calling for her to see if she was in the vicinity. "Juvia?" he shouted out while looking around the clearing for a trail to follow.
"Up here!" he heard a shout from above him, and looked up to find Juvia in the same tree they had climbed up yesterday.
Looking up at her, he yelled. "You about ready to go? I've packed up the camp."
"Yes, Juvia is ready, she's just been admiring the view for awhile, it really is nice, you chose a fantastic spot yesterday. Juvia thinks this is the tallest tree in the forest!"
"Sounds like I got pretty lucky, tends to happen often enough. You gonna climb down the normal way or you want some help?"
"Help?"
"Allow me to show you." he finished with a grin, and flourished him arm towards the tree, causing branches to form into a make-shift ladder for Juvia to climb down. Returning his grin, she teased him, "thank you very much kind sir."
"My pleasure." he said, jokingly bowing.
Once she had descended, he motioned with an arm to make the line of branches disappear, then motioned again, this time signalling they should make for the road to begin their trek. They carefully made their way towards the road, avoiding any muddier areas, eventually reaching the dirt path. Thus they began their hike, setting off in the direction of Oak Town.
—-
The duo had comfortable conversation while striding along the path, until noon, when Katsuro suggested they find a spot to eat lunch, which led them to a trio of rocks a short distance into the woods, still within sight of the road. The stones appeared nearly perfect for seats and a table, as all three had flat surfaces. So Katsuro set up a quick and easy lunch consisting of sandwiches, while juvia provided some clean water to drink. Partway through the meal Katsuro tilted his head slightly sideways, causing Juvia to look at him strangely.
"Someone's coming along the road, the way we were walking from."
"How can you tell? Juvia Doesn't hear anything." she questioned.
"I can barely hear them, matter of fact I can't at the moment, but one of them got loud for a second and I heard him, there's at least two."
"Here's hoping they're just travellers and not bandits, Juvia is in too good of a mood to want to fight outlaws…"
"Well you could always let me handle it?" he phrased it as a question.
"Would you be as harsh as you were to the last group?"
"Of course not, they were in my way actively obstructing me, these guys, if they even are bandits, are just here, and we'd just be targets of opportunity for them. I'd knock them out and use a lacrima comm to call the army to pick them up. Maybe tie them to a tree so they can't escape at worst."
"Well then have at it, Juvia wants to have a lazy day!" she commanded in a mock-haughty voice.
"As you command, my lady." he chuckled and rose up to get a look at the passers-by, only to see it was a group of four farmers travelling by wagon, he presumed to sell the crops that filled up the back of it. He sat back down nearly dejectedly, as Katsuro had been looking forward to stretching his legs a bit after his meal, Juvia noticed his mood plummet when he realized who they were, connected the dots, and started giggling. "Tell you what," she began. "If you are nice to Juvia, she will spar with you either later today or tomorrow. Nothing serious, just a quick practice match, but she will train with you."
Katsuro perked up at this and quickly agreed.
They finished up quickly and got back on the road, making good headway towards their destination, only stopping for a break once more, until they found a roadside inn later that evening they decided to stay at so both could actually sleep comfortably. Looking at the left side of the three story building, they saw the same wagon from earlier, now bereft of its burden. Two horses lazed in the nearby stable, munching on hay, neither paying the two mages the smallest bit of attention.
Katsuro was the first in, holding the door for Juvia as she trailed behind him. The young mage made straight for the Innkeep to pay for their rooms, while Juvia made for the bar to get them something to cool down with.
Juvia approached the bar, and motioned to the man behind it with a smile, beckoning him over. Once he was closer, she said. "Two ice waters please, and Juvia was wondering… when is Dinner served here?"
"Coming right up," he said, "and Supper's served at 7, barring any incidents or overcrowding."
Juvia looked at the clock in the corner of the room, a tiny thing hanging on the wall she had to squint to see, and found the time to be half past 6. 'Fantastic, Juvia is starving!' she thought happily, willing her stomach to not start imitating a whale's mating call in the middle of the inn.
"Ok, thank you." she replied, leaving the money for the waters on the counter once she was given them, and setting off to find her companion. She heard a commotion to her left, and looked to the corner of the room closest to the door and saw one of the farmers from earlier pointing at her with an angry expression on his face, which was quickly mirrored by his three companions after they apparently recognized her, though from where Juvia had no clue.
"I told you it was her! That's the rain woman! You owe us for a whole field of crops that drowned when you passed through our town." he demanded angrily. "It had already rained two other times that week then you come into the picture, causing a fucking torrent to fall on our crops nearly all day, we lost the entire field that was closest to that forest! Pay up now, or else." he stood up from their shared table so quickly he knocked over the chair he was sitting on, and the other man and two women followed suit, marching towards her with obvious ill intent.
Juvia was just standing there gobsmacked at the situation she had found herself in, cursing the rain once again, even when it wasn't around it was causing her trouble. She found herself, and took a defensive stance quickly, but spoke to the farmers calmly. "Juvia is sorry for your crops, she was looking for a bandit group that took up residence in the forest by your farm; she will not pay for your crops, though. She was just in town performing a job, it is not her fault simply for being there when she could not control the rain."
"You clearly can fucking control it, its sunny outside right now!"
"Juvia only recently learned how to control it, that very day, in fact. The rain cleared up fairly quickly once she learned how to stop feeding the cloud magic, so if it rained at your farm all day, then for the most part, it was a natural storm, outside of Juvia's control; another reason she will not pay for your lost crops."
"Listen here rain bitch," the woman began, brandishing a fist in front of Juvia's face, only for Katsuro to slip between them, having returned from the front desk, one hand at the hilt of one of the two swords strapped to his side, the other holding onto the woman's wrist.
"I think that's about enough of that," Katsuro began quietly. "Unless, that is, you want to find out how sharp my blades are. No? Good, now go back to your table, sit down, and forget that this ever happened." the woman looked afraid and tried to jerk back her hand, but Katsuro's grip was like a vice, and refused to release it to her. The men on the other hand, looked downright livid, one was even beginning to turn purple in the face, while the other looked like a blood vessel was about to burst, either that or he was extremely constipated. The taller one of the duo drew a dagger from his belt, and waved it in front of him clumsily.
"You think you scare me, I served in the fucking army, I know blades like the back of my hand, a little brat like you is nothing to me!" he was shouting at this point, drawing the attention of some of the others in the lobby and dining area. Katsuro just sighed, and took his hand off his hilt and waved it lazily in front of him. Juvia was confused at first, until she saw a root sneaking through the floorboards, remaining undetected by the farmers until it lashed out and wrapped around the blade, dragging it out of the man's hand. The root continued to grow, until it got to Katsuro, who took the blade out of the root's tendril with a blank expression on his face.
"You drew a blade on me, that means you wanted to kill me, right?" he said softly, but his face grew hard, cold, and Juvia began to feel magic weighing down on the room, making the air itself feel heavy. Sniffing, she also thought she smelled different types of flora from the forest, though she could not name the individual scents. She noticed his hand was back on the hilt of the longest of his swords, gripping it tightly, ready to draw at a moment's notice. "Since you wanted to kill me, that means you were prepared for me to fight back right? So that means you drew your blade ready to die, ready for me to kill you, right? If not, then turn and run little fool, because unless you're willing to risk dying, you should never fight someone who'll kill you… I said turn and run fool!" Katsuro was shouting, causing the now terrified farmers to turn tail and run out the door, the man who drew the knife tripping over himself on the way out.
Katsuro turned to Juvia, expression softening, and was about to speak, but he was interrupted by a throat clearing to their right.
"I'm afraid I shall have to ask you two to leave as well. Whilst they were the initiators in the confrontation, you escalated the confrontation even further. I shall of course refund you for your stay, but please leave." the innkeep said. Katsuro's shoulders slumped, but he took the jewels back from the man and stuck them in his money pouch, before turning back to Juvia with an apologetic expression on his face.
"You alright Juvia? Sorry about this, by the way. I'm sure you were looking forward to an actual bed as much as I was."
Juvia sighed, then smiled wearily at him. "Yes, Juvia's fine. And she was looking forward to it, but it's alright, none of this was your fault. You only defended me, and then yourself. Those stupid people are to blame, and if not them, then Juvia's rain is to blame for them even being angry at her."
"Nah, you're right, they're just idiots. Like you said to them, we stopped any rain you might've been causing, anything else that happened wasn't your fault." just after he had finished, he was interrupted by Juvia's stomach making itself known to the duo, Katsuro's own stomach responding to the hunger call, causing him to start laughing, and making Juvia giggle slightly through her own embarrassment.
"Damn it, we didn't even get to eat there." he grumbled after he had calmed down.
"Don't say anything about the 'e' word to Juvia, she's already starving…" she mumbled.
"Guess I'll have to do something about that, I'm sure there's something around here to hunt, big or small game, anything will do really. I'll go hunt, cause it's my own fault for forgetting to get us restocked on rations before we left town." they meandered down the road for a bit, eventually settling on a spot just before a bend in the road as the sun began the light the sky with an orange hue. Katsuro left the tent set up to Juvia, and went off to find some food before the sun set.
Just as Juvia was finishing setting up the tent, having already dug a small fire pit and surrounded it with random stones, Katsuro returned to their campsite with a rabbit in one hand, and a few birds in another. He sat calmly in the dirt and began skinning the rabbit first, causing Juvia to quickly turn her head away, face green. Half an hour of skinning and plucking later, he had the rabbit cooking over the small fire on one spit, and the bird meat speared into kabobs cooking on a second spit.
"Juvia must admit, while she hasn't had the chance to camp often, it almost seems like cheating the way you do it."
"Oh, how's that?"
"Instead of going around looking for firewood, you can just make a few branches grow and break them off for firewood."
"I can do a good bit more than that…"he said, downcast. "but yea, it does simplify things a lot, especially when i keep a lighter on me." he chuckled.
"Juvia's been wondering, what exactly is your magic, Juvia would guess nature magic, but she's only seen you manipulate wood so far, so is it a more focused branch of nature magic or something else?"
"No, it's just nature manipulation, you've only seen me manipulate wood because that's what I use most of the time, but I can manipulate the entire environment around us, though it's more energy consuming. I also know a few obscure types of magic, such as the mage sight I used to help you, and I also know a few basic spells from other branches to make life simpler, but my affinity lies with nature magic, just the same as yours does with water magic. Being solo means you kind've have to branch out a little bit, because you can't rely on a teammate to help you out in a tough situation, so you need to be able to get yourself out." he reached for the rabbit, pulling it off the spit and setting it on a second spit he set up away from the fire to stop it from burning, and did the same with the bird kabob. He tore off a chunk of bird and began eating, while Juvia just watched warily.
"Try it Juvia, tastes just like chicken." he said.
"Really?"
"Really." she moved closer to the food, and tore off a chunk of bird for herself, face scrunching up as she chewed it.
"That tasted nothing like chicken." she said blankly after she had managed to swallow the tough bird.
"Nope," he agreed. "Tastes more like liver, it's kind of disgusting honestly, but when you're hungry you gotta eat." at that she shrugged and reluctantly tore off a piece of rabbit, which she found more to her liking, thought still kind of bland. "This actually does taste a bit like chicken." she said after a bite.
"Good, then I can use it to get whatever god awful tasting bird this is off of my taste buds afterwards, save me a piece or two please." she just hmm'd around another bite of the small mammal. Eventually they finished their less than spectacular meal and turned in for the night, Katsuro once again choosing to give Juvia the use of his tent, which she was very grateful for.
—
"You know, we never did get to have our sparring match yesterday." Katsuro said hopefully, sitting at one side of the table they were occupying in the restaurant they had chosen to eat at.
"Juvia knows, she did say yesterday OR today, you know. She didn't expect all the drama that happened yesterday, but she gave herself some wiggle room for if she felt tired or something else." she replied candidly, sipping from the beverage she had ordered while they relaxed after their meal, which was much better than unseasoned rabbit and unknown bird.
"Yeah, just...still kind of looking forward to that, you know." he said, wiggling his eyebrows and nudging her foot with his own under the table.
She sighed half heartedly. "Juvia understands… we can spar after our food settles, but not before!" she finished.
"Fair enough, we should probably wait until we're out in the wilderness again anyways, so we don't risk property damage. Another thing, we are SERIOUSLY buying you a tent while we're here. This town might be small as hell, but I did see a general store on the way here, and it should have at least a small one person tent somewhere in it. I'd like to not have to deal with bugs for a night, thank you very much!"
They continued chatting for a few more minutes, before dropping some jewels on the table and heading for the general store. It was back the way they came from, near the large wooden gate they had entered through that passed as the main gate. Once inside the bland looking building, they were pleasantly surprised to find relief from the sweltering heat of the outdoors. Katsuro saw it was the work of ice lacrima in the corners of the room emitting a slight chill.
"Come in, come in. How can I help you today? Interested in anything in particular or just browsing?" an old man wearing an apron greeted as they walked to the counter.
"You could, actually. Do you have tents in stock?" Katsuro asked, while Juvia was browsing an aisle behind him.
"That we do, check aisle 3, bottom shelf for the larger ones, they get smaller as you go to the higher shelves."
"Juvia found them." she said as she lifted a large duffel bag onto the counter.
"Juvia?! That tent's gigantic! Downsize, Downsize! You're just one person, at most you would only need a 3 person tent, that one's meant for like eight people."
"B-but Juvia wanted the extra space?" she stuttered, not thinking that more space would be a bad thing, and while it was rather expensive, she did have the funds for it with plenty to spare. She wanted to buy high quality because she felt like she would be camping much more now that the possibility was open to her.
"Think about this for a second Juvia. You aren't used to camping in the woods, so you never carry supplies on you, but they do weigh a decent amount. Add in a tent, along with a sleeping bag, and maybe a few other odd items, You'll be carrying quite a burden on your back. With a giant tent like that you'll exhaust yourself. That monster would exhaust me, and I'm used to carrying a full pack with a tent! My tent's only a two person, but if you want the extra space a three would be plenty, I assure you." she sheepishly nodded after he finished his explanation, and went back to exchange for the green three person she saw, while Katsuro wandered off to the goods aisle to restock on supplies.
One canned goods related incident later, they were back at the counter, Katsuro's cheeks were slightly red while Juvia was giggling slightly, the old store owner watching them exasperatedly.
"I'll buy all the damaged cans alright, any I can't fit in my pack you can just give away. Sorry again about that, I had no clue that shelf was broken when I put the can on it."
"There was a sign on it! And it was covered in tape and glue!" the man argued, though they could both tell he thought this was funny himself.
"I was reading the other can I had! Don't judge me." he grumbled petulantly, making Juvia laugh outright. "Though why you wouldn't take the broken shelf down, I don't know."
"It looked odd, having just one shelf missing in the whole store, plus it just recently happened so I hadn't gotten around to replacing it yet." the aged man said without missing a beat.
They paid for everything and left the store, hitting the road once again. They made good headway towards Oak Town, and decided to stop slightly early that evening so they could get in a sparring match. They chose to have the spar itself a good distance away from their camp, just in case things got heated. The training area they chose was no clearing, it was little more than a patch of flowers surrounded by pine trees, but that worked out well for Katsuro's magic. They were also lucky enough to have a stream nearby, so while Juvia didn't have quite the advantage Katsuro had, she was not without resources.
Katsuro decided to get her riled up with some banter and taunts so she would actually fight him, so he began with, "I'll be sure to take it easy on you Juvia, gotta make sure you can get your beauty sleep comfortably in YOUR tent tonight, right?" while it wasn't that great of a taunt, he wasn't trying to actually piss her off, just make her put forth some effort in their spar.
"Juvia thinks that you need the beauty sleep more than her, Judging by what she can see. Juvia understands if you want her to give up so you don't wear yourself out."
"Oh ho oh, she can smack talk! Let's get down to business blue." he came up with the nickname on the spot, but it seemingly did the job of working her up, as her eyes narrowed playfully and she took up an offensive stance.
"As you wish, do you want to signal the start of the spar or should?"
"I'll count down."
"Alright."
"3...2...1…"
"FIGHT!" he yelled out, immediately darting to the right, which proved to be a good call, as Juvia shouted out "Water Cane!" sending a small circle of water gushing towards him. Upon smashing into a tree behind him, he heard bark splinter off the tree, showing the force behind the attack.
He returned the favor immediately, "Branch Whip." his voice sounded across the forest, as the tree nearest Juvia seemed to gain a mind of its own, the lowest branches growing longer and lashing out at Juvia, smacking and slashing at her, pushing her back hard enough to leave tracks in the dirt. She ended the barrage with "Water Slash." and a line of water flew at the tree, cutting straight through it at the base and toppling it, simply turning back to her opponent as it crashed against the ground with a mighty *thud*.
Katsuro just nodded, and smirked, which gave Juvia cause to worry. The worry proved to be well justified moments later, as the same tree that had been toppled continued to attack her, a smack to the back sending her reeling into the dirt. To her credit, she quickly rolled and practically bounced back to her feet, deciding if she couldn't take away his weapons she would keep moving and make a difficult target to hit. She first zigged, then zagged, and everything else under the sun dodging the wooden lash, all the while returning attacks to Katsuro, who was doing much the same because of the sheer rate of fire she was producing.
After 20 minutes of this, both were breathing heavily, Juvia was on her hands and knees having just ducked underneath another branch, while Katsuro was hiding behind the same tree Juvia knocked over, which had nearly had all the bark rent off one side from the ferocity of her blows.
"Hey Juvia!" he called across the destroyed battlefield.
"Yea." she wheezed out, using the lull to try and catch her breath.
"We're both pretty exhausted, and can agree we're too damn competitive right?"
"Yes…"
"And we can agree this has gone on for way too long, right?"
"Definitely, Juvia's ready to drop and she knows you're nearly there too."
"Yea, so I'm gonna do us both a favor and call this one your win. You've had me pinned behind this overgrown log for the past 5 minutes, and I don't see that changing until you drop from either physical exhaustion or magical, though I'd bet it would be physical."
"Woohoo, now Juvia has a question." she called out as she rolled over and laid down on the dirt.
"What's that?"
"Can you carry Juvia back, She'll just fall asleep here if you won't, she refuses to move anymore until she's had a rest."
"...I guess… but you owe me!"
"Then Juvia will just have to owe you."
Katsuro walked slowly over towards her, reached down, grabbed her arms and started dragging her towards their camp.
"HEY! Juvia said carry, not drag like a heavy sack of potatoes! Juvia's coat is already messed up enough without the added stains."
"You're so needy…" he groaned out, but Juvia caught a smile that let her know he'd been messing with her. He put an arm around her back and knees, and picked her up princess style to carry her back, which made Juvia blush slightly though she hid it well.
By the time they arrived, Katsuro just managed to set her down by the firepit before collapsing unceremoniously beside her, moaning about how sore he was going to be tomorrow.
"You know, Juvia doesn't know if she should agree to these anymore if you're gonna whine about it afterwards. Honestly, you were the one that asked to spar." she teased.
"Yea, but I didn't expect us both to go so hard like that. I expected a practice, not a full on fight. That's what I get for wanting to spar with an S-class mage though I guess."
"Juvia admits, she didn't expect you to do so well against her, so she might've let loose a little more than she should have." she sheepishly said. "It isn't often Juvia can fight without much restraint, if she does it on most missions she risks damaging the town and taking a pay cut."
"I know the feeling, that's why strong people like us have to get so damn creative with our Magics, the baddies don't have the same obligation to hold back that we do. But yea, it was nice cutting loose for a bit."
They remained silent for a moment, then Katsuro broke it. "Two more days on the road, huh. We should be at Oak town within two days so you won't be getting much more use out of the tent you bought."
"Juvia will make the purchase worth it. She intends to camp on a lot of future missions, if only because she can."
"Fair enough, so how do things work in Phantom Lord? I'm curious about how it might be different from solo work."
"Well, Juvia is part of a team called the Element Four. as you might have guessed, her team is based off of the four basic elements: water, wind, earth, and fire. Juvia is of course the water mage, Aria uses Airspace magic, he's a powerful opponent to face, because he can drain magical power through touch. Totomaru uses Rainbow Fire magic, and combines it with Pyrokinesis for an incredibly fine control on his flames. Some people in the guild say he could defeat Salamander were they to fight."
"Who?"
"Have you not heard of Fairy Tail, they're Phantom's main rivals at the moment, supposedly an incredibly strong guild themselves."
"Afraid not, like I said Juvia, as a solo mage I never had much cause to pay attention to guild news."
"Ah, well Salamander, also known as Natsu Dragneel, is a fire mage from Fairy tail, who uses Dragon Slayer magic, like Gajeel from Phantom."
"You'll have to point him out to me, I've fought a Dragon Slayer before, they're pains to deal with."
"Who did you fight? If you don't mind Juvia asking."
"Some prick who flew around on a purple snake with wings. Claimed his hearing was so good he could hear my thoughts and saw all my attacks before I ever did them. Our fight ended in a draw cause he left when the rest of his team showed up saying they had completed their contract, so he ditched me mid fight to leave with them."
"Why were you fighting him to begin with?"
Katsuro looked sheepish, but answered, rubbing his neck as he spoke. "I was in the area they were in and saw him toying with some civilians in front of a manor, and I wasn't about to let that continue. I honestly don't know which of us would've won, he dodged everything I sent out, but because I was sending out so much he never could counterattack. One of us would've faltered eventually, but I just… don't know. I'd hate to fight him again, the guy's a real menace. Anyways back to what we were talking about… about your team?"
She took a moment to get back on track, then continued. "Right, Totomaru uses Rainbow Fire magic and Pyrokinesis, he's a fearsome foe to face. Then there's Sol, our Earth Mage, though he also uses Sand magic. He also uses a spell to force someone's memories to the surface and let him view them, specifically bad ones. The worse the better for him as it will have a greater effect on his opponent. If he's feeling especially cruel he may create copies of someone that torments his opponent's psyche. Juvia...dislikes his methods, but she cannot deny they are effective. The team only usually get together for particularly difficult missions, though. Most of the time we stick to solo missions, unless the master assigns us a particularly difficult mission."
"Your master assigns you missions? Don't you get to choose them for yourself?"
"Yes, but occasionally master might request help with a specific contract, so he calls on a mage or team to handle that for him."
"Ah…"
"It's not too bad, and it doesn't happen often. Trust Juvia, You'll like being in a guild, it must get lonely always being alone out here."
Katsuro sighed and replied. "It is. It was one of the reasons you found me in the state you did, I think. I just kept spiralling down and down and I didn't have anyone around to pull me out, only myself and my misery until you showed up. Tell me, will we be able to do missions together even though you're in a team?"
Juvia smiled at him. "Of course we will. Like Juvia said, her team functions a little different from most, as we aren't very close. We stay separate unless the master requests it usually, but we do work well together. Juvia does occasionally work with Totomaru, as he's not too difficult to be around. Sol is...sol."she spoke flatly, letting her feelings for the man be known. "Aria, well Juvia thinks that Aria may be slightly insane, but Master Porla keeps him reigned in well, so she doesn't say anything. for the most part, Juvia doesn't work with them, so she wouldn't mind working with you, whenever you want." she finished sincerely.
"Thanks Juvia, it's...nice to feel wanted."
"That it is." she spoke softly.
Conversation tapered off once again, so Katsuro dug some food out of his pack and handed it to her, and after they ate, they turned in for the night.
—
"You know, I think I was onto something yesterday…" Katsuro stated as they strolled along the shore of the large pond they had found along the road.
"Oh, what's that?"
"I'm totally gonna keep calling you blue, not all the time, but some of the time for sure. I think it's one of the better nicknames I could've come up with off the top of my head like I did."
"Juvia would prefer if you didn't."
"It's either that or I shorten your name to Juv, that's all I got for nicknames at the moment."
"...Blue will do. But Juvia is going to start calling you Kat as retribution!"
"I'd rather you not."
"Juvia could call you tora for your last name… Juvia thinks that tiger kind of fits with you. Your fighting style makes you out as a predator, the name kind of works."
"Kat it is! But only when no one else is around. To sweeten the pot I'll do the same for you, blue. This way we don't embarrass each other in front of others." he stuck out his hand at her, wanting her to shake on it.
Juvia pretended to mull it over, even putting a hand under her chin and stroking, as though she had a beard. "Juvia guesses she can agree with this, though she thinks that embarrassing you would almost be worth her own mortification." she slapped his hand with her own and gripped it, shaking firmly, before giggling slightly and dropping it.
Katsuro was struggling to keep a straight face himself, though managed to limit his amusement to a slight twitch in his lip. Their moment was intruded upon when a dog nearly bowled over Katsuro running towards a lake, and a brown Haired man ran after him, pleading for the dog to come back, though the man did stop briefly to apologize. They watched the scene unfold before them, the dog Jumping into the pond and making straight for the center, forcing the man to have to wade in after the mutt. When he got back out, both were soaked from head to two, and after a small amount of muttering at his dog, he made to walk back towards the road. Juvia, though, stopped him. "Sir, would you like Juvia to dry you off?"
"W-what? How would you do that?" Katsuro was curious about the answer to this as well.
"Juvia can control the moisture in your shirt, and summon it to her. It might feel strange while your clothes are practically plastered to you, it will be better afterwards."
"Please do, I was on my way to town to buy groceries, when this mutt decided he wanted to go swimming… I'll never understand what dogs are thinking sometimes."
"I'd recommend buying a leash while you're there." Katsuro put in helpfully, causing the man to glare at him. Juvia seemed to be fighting off a chuckle, but waved her hand at the duo. Soon a sphere of water formed in front of her, floating on top of her hand, and both the man and the dog were bone dry. After profuse thanks, the twosome of mages managed to get back on the road and moving towards the ever encroaching Oak Town.
—-
Finally, after what seemed like it took both forever and no time at all, they arrived at Oak Town about an hour after sunset, dead on their feet. Katsuro noticed that Juvia seemed to be getting more withdrawn the closer they got to the small town, but did not deign to comment. He did, though, nudge her with his shoulder to get her attention, and smiled at her when she looked at him. She still looked troubled, but a small, genuine smile appeared on her face.
He noticed that many of the townspeople were staring at Juvia, switching between shocked and wary stares, some even glaring at her but making no move to go over to them.
"Well isn't this a warm welcome…" Katsuro drawled.
"Juvia is sorry," she whispered. "This is her fault, the townsfolk all dislike her because it always rained when she was here or at the guildhall. She's sure many of them are shocked she's here, because there was no rain to signal her approach." she hugged her arms around herself nervously.
"Eh, if they don't like you, fuck them. I know you happen to be a fantastic person. C'mon let's get to Phantom, I'm sure we're already too late to induct me to the guild for today, but we can still get some sleep without bitches glaring at our general direction."
Phantom Lord's main guild hall wasn't actually inside of Oak Town, as many guild's headquarters are, but a castle nearly 20 minutes outside of town. They walked at a leisurely pace as the hills and forest gave way to rocky mountainous terrain, Katsuro dozing on his feet and Juvia lost in her thoughts. Juvia grew more at ease the further along the trail they got, continuously glancing at Katsuro excitedly. Eventually she blurted out. "Just around this bend, you'll get your first glimpse of phantom! Juvia is so excited for you, the first time she saw it she was awestruck by how large and magnificent it looked. She would've been stuck staring at it all day had master Jose not gotten her attention by telling her to pick her jaw up before a fly got curious."
"Buildings are buildings Juvia, while it may look impressive I don't want you to get your hopes up about how awed I'll look by it. I doubt I'll be that...surprised…" he trailed off as they rounded the corner, and an absolutely behemoth structure came into view. It was a truly magnificent castle that stood tall between two stone towers, the lone tower on the castle itself over twice as thick as the side towers, and half as tall as them, all three towers slicing through the lower clouds. The main building stood as a bastion, a fortress in the valley it was situated in, mountains that surrounded the building serving as unbreachable walls, giving any possible enemies only one method of attack, the front. The main gate was made of metal, Katsuro deducted, as no wood would have the sheen it did against the magical braziers holding orbs of pure light attached to the front wall. It truly was an incredible sight, and while Katsuro didn't drop his jaw, Juvia saw that his eyes were as wide as saucers and his hands were slack against his sides.
"I stand corrected, blue… this place is fucking awesome! It's a castle, you never told me your guildhall was a freaking castle! I just assumed you all had a guild hall and lived in like a compound nearby. I thought maybe a manor at most. T-this is ridiculous!" he kept moving his head back and forth between the castle and Juvia, like he was watching a tennis match, causing her to laugh.
"Juvia told you that you would be impressed, maybe next time you'll listen to her. Haven't you figured out that Juvia's always right yet."
"Apparently…" he said blankly, then grabbed Juvia's hand, causing her to blush slightly.
"Well what are we waiting for, I want to explore this place! There's bound to be a ton of places here that most of you haven't explored in forever, that's the appeal of castles… antiquity factor as it were. There's gotta be a few rooms in that place lost to time that can be found again."
"Juvia never realized you were such an explorer…"
"I love exploring old places, especially ones no ones been in forever. It's like walking through history."
He proceeded to half drag Juvia towards the gate until she caught up on the conversation, smiled, and started running alongside him, not bothering to let go of his hand. They ran all the way up to the front gate, Katsuro slowing down as they got near the gate and staring at the building with a hard gaze.
Juvia, wondering what was going on, voiced her inner question. "What is it Kat?"
"You know how I told you I can sense magic, right?"
"Yes, what do you sense? Is something wrong?"
"I can sense everyone in that building, over a hundred magical signatures… but over all of them, covering like a blanket, is a layer of magic that is vile and dark, definitely a dark wizards signature."
"It's probably Master Jose you sense, he uses shade magic, and it is a darker magic…"
"Juvia a type of magic isn't likely to make me get a feeling as vile as this is, what I feel indicates the person behind it is a blight, the magical energy is giving off a serious feeling of malevolence, someone that isn't outright evil wouldn't give off a feeling like this…"
She never even questioned the idea that he might be lying, she knew he wouldn't do that to her. "Well then Juvia doesn't know who it is, the only guesses that she could give you are Aria and Sol, mainly because of their personalities, but she doesn't think they're evil, insane and cruel respectively, sure, but not evil…"
"I don't know either, there's so much of it I won't be able to pinpoint who the hell it is. We're gonna have to watch each other's backs in here until I can figure out who it is."
"Will your mage sight spell help?"
"No, too much magic, I had to deactivate it otherwise when we walked in it would look like a kaleidoscope of colors to me, might even send me into a seizure. The more colors there are, the harder that magic is to use, when it was Just us two, even though we have huge cores, I don't have to try to focus on too much at once."
"This won't be easy…"
"I know but we'll manage, I wouldn't want anything to happen to my friend after all." he said, wrapping an arm around her and squeezing her in a light hug, which she returned happily.
"Juvia really is going to become a hugger at this rate."
'Can't say I'd be too against her becoming one either, this feels amazing.' Katsuro thought to himself, but stayed silent.
"Well, we'll figure this out together. Time to go introduce me to your-our guild." she beamed when he corrected himself, grabbed his hand and proceeded to drag him in, in a similar manner to his dragging her towards the castle.
AN: next chapter introductions and first quest, hope you enjoyed, chapter will be out when its out, no set schedule it just depends on what i want to write about at the time.
See y'all next time.