Hello again, this is Arms of Loneliness, and you are reading, the Black Dragon Slayer, Kurosaki Ichigo, the REWRITE. The original was good in and of itself until it reached the ending where I tried to just write it off. So I tried to do something else about it. And this is the result.
Okay, the introduction aside, welcome to the fourth chapter of the story, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you have your fruit snacks, slim jims, jamba juice, starbucks, or whatever other delicious goods you have at your side as you read this story.
Now, from the reviews I read, I saw that some of you were pointing out the fact that I made the ages different from the original. I did this because I wanted to have a time skip before Lucy joins the guild, and yes, I intentionally made the age gap between Natsu -and by extension few others like Gray, Lisanna, and Lucy- and Erza -also by extension Cana, Mirajane, and Cana.
Chapter 4: Studying for a Way Home
It has bee four months since Ichigo arrived at and joined Fairy Tail. Acnologia followed him around, grumpily most of the time. Ichigo took few A-rank jobs that had to do with demon or monster eradication, and quickly took care of them, earning himself a name as Fairy Tail's "Demon Hunter." When some of the mages in Fairy Tail commented on it, Ichigo just shrugged and walked into the library, where he spent most of his time. He used the money he earned and bought a house where edge of Magnolia intersects with the mountains and the lake.
But he still spent most of his time inside Fairy Tail's library, trying to learn about this world and find a way to get back.
So far he understood the basis of magic and the basic required for a mage to perform a simple magic. He also found out that there was a way for him to get back home; it was a magic called World Traveller. Unfortunately, the energy required to open a single wormhole exceeded even his natural reserves of reiatsu and the new magic that he was collecting subconsciously by three times. Considering that Makarov, the guild master of Fairy Tail, considered Ichigo to be on the level of upper tier of Ten Wizard Saints by reserves alone, the energy required to perform World Traveller was extraordinarily huge.
But the worst part of it was that he needed the coordinates.
The magic tome that he bought about the World Traveller -from the black market at a ridiculously high price- explained the coordinates as a point that either a beacon existed for or our body and mind understood together.
AKA it had to be instinctual. Otherwise, the coordinates would be messed up and the user of World Traveller or other teleport magic would also be highly unstable or just wrong altogether.
The first option about the beacon? Impossible. He would've had to plant a magic beacon from where he came from, but he didn't know. Urahara could probably build one, but with no way of contacting the mad scientist...
Ichigo realized that he was truly stranded.
"Hey brat, it's been almost ten days since you've been stuck in here! Get the fuck out and take a job!"
Ichigo turned away from the book he was reading, and stared at the grumpy dragon-in-human-disguise.
From Acnologia's point of view as well as those of the rest of the guild, Ichigo was becoming a true pain. A scholar pain, but a pain nonetheless. He was stuck inside that library for so long. He just kept on reading and jotting down notes. He was so focused on it that he ignored some of the events, like some of the birthdays and weddings, that were celebrated in the guild.
And it was also a pain to just look at. He had stacks of books surrounding him on all sides while he sat at the floor with a book in his lap and a note on the ground next to him or on his thigh with a pencil or ink feather pen on his hand. His hair was messy from lack of care, and he only came out to shower once every two days. No one knew how he ate.
The pain stared at Acnologia for a while before he turned back to the book at hand, Interaction Between Magic, Magic Flow, and Inorganic by Nagi Thunderstick. It was filled with equations, theories, and some more equations, none of which made sense to Acnologia.
She shook her head and made her way out of the underground library to the guild lounge upstairs.
When she opened the door from the stairs into the lounge, everyone was looking at her, all of their activities having come to a halt.
"What?" she growled.
"Well... did you get him out?" one of the dumber mage, Natsu, asked.
Acnologia glared at the fire dragonslayer. She whirled, picking up a beer mug, whirled back around in one fluid motion, and chucked the mug at Natsu's head. The mug flew across the lounge like a baseball before a loud audible crack resounded throughout the lounge, and then followed by a thud.
Gray, who was sitting across from Natsu, slowly looked at Natsu from Acnologia. Then he slowly made his way around the table.
"He fainted."
Everyone's eyes rolled back to Acnologia, who proceeded to leave the lounge and head back "Home."
Makarov looked at the mages of his guild and shrugged. "Alright, get back to what you were doing. We all know he's gonna be in there until tomorrow night," he said from the rail on the second floor. He jumped down and sat on the bar stool.
"Nee, guild master, what do you think Ichigo is working on downstairs?" Mirjane asked the guild master as she wiped the glass beer mug that she held as she looked at Makarov for answers. Sure, she was there when Ichigo and Acnologia, whom she knew as Ah-chan, joined the guild, but aside from that first meeting and few others where Ichigo registered what job he was going to go on, she didn't have much interaction with him. She also never saw what he was working with because, for strange reasons, the door leading to the library didn't budge for her. Surprisngly, it wasn't because she was losing strength of her former power; Acnologia explained to her that Ichigo was beginning to fume at the other mages for interrupting him so much, so he casted a weight spell on it. Only Makarov and Acnologia were able to move the door when Ichigo was inside. Fortunately, no one else but Levy -who was allowed in by Ichigo as she didn't bother him- used the library.
Makarov just scoffed with what Mirajane was asking. "I'm just as curious as you are, Mirajane. Just as curious as you are."
Next Day...
Everyone was minding their own business in the bar. Cana, despite being a young girl of only 18, was drinking herself to high heavens. Natsu and Gray were at each other's throat. Acnologia was having a small talk session with Mirajane, the former Demon of Fairy Tail and now the bartender and cover girl of Fairy Tail. Several mages were looking at the job request boards. Makarov was on the second floor, just looking over his children, with a beer mug in his right hand and his trusty staff on his left.
Crreeeakkk...
The door to the library/dungeon opened, causing some ominous mist to seep out like a low hanging cloud.
It was Natsu that first noticed that the door had opened. He stopped his punch midway and just stared at the door. Gray followed his rival's eyes, and saw the door. When he did, he stopped and stared at it too.
Because never in the last month did that door open unless it was Ichigo coming out.
Acnologia broke off the eye contact she was holding with Mirajane for the last five minutes and frowned. "Well, he's finally coming out, huh?" she remarked.
Mirajane was confused at first at Acnologia's comment, so she turned around to look where Acnologia was staring at. She noticed the door to the underground dungeon opening, and her eyes widened.
"He's coming out?"
"He probably ran out of food," the black haired beauty replied.
Then the door slowly creaked open wider.
Tap. Tap.
Thud. Tap. Tap. Tap. Thud.
Tap.
Creeeaaakkk...
Everyone stopped and stared.
It was a orange haired man with a pair of foggy glasses. He wore a slim, black leather jacket, a plain black t-shirt underneath the fur jacket, and a pair of black leather pants, complete with black leather boots. All of the mentioned clothes were dirty, however; most likely cause was sleeping inside the library, and not moving much. He held several books in both of his hands, and a giant clever of a sword on his back. The sword was wrapped around by a long strap of cloth that resembled thick roll bandage for field use.
Ichigo stopped underneath doorway with cringing eyes.
"So, you finally out, Ichigo?"
The said man looked around until he saw Acnologia waving her hand. He shrugged, causing dust to fall off his clothes. He walked over to her table. He set his books down and yawned. "Hi," he said quietly.
"Did you run out of food?"
Ichigo nodded. "And books."
"Hmm?"
"I also ran out of books to read."
"Oh." Acnologia then proceeded to trip while sitting, causing her body to fall backward. She climbed back up hastily. "What?!"
"I read everything that library had to offer," he added.
"Oh..." she blinked and then froze. "You read the entire library...?"
"Yup. Those weird magic items that Levy gave me were very useful," he said as he pulled out a pair of glasses with thick frame that had runes etched into it. "It was like time slowed down." He put them away. "Where is Levy anyway?"
"She went on a mission with some of the other mages," Mirajane offered.
"Oh ... is that so?"
Ichigo then yawned. He craned his neck the furthest he could in every direction, making loud popping noises that filled the silent guild lounge.
Silent. 'This guild is never silent,' Ichigo thought as he looked around, and only then did he notice that all eyes were on him. "What?" he scowled, not really liking the attention he was getting.
"You're finally out of the library, you nerd!" Natsu shouted as he jumped up on top of the table that he had been sitting in moments ago, frozen in shock when Ichigo emerged from the library. Now that he had goteen over the shock, he was right back to challenging Ichigo. "Let's fight right now!" He jumped at Ichigo with flaming fists. Ichigo turned to face him as the brat flew across the room. Then ...
He jumped towards Natsuwith his right arm out like a hook. When Natsu swung his fists, Ichigo ducked under them, and the hook came around Natsu's neck. The two forces collided at Natsu's neck and Ichigo's arm, and they dropped to the ground like that.
Crunch...
Gray flinched. "That idiot," he muttered as he watched bubble froth appear in Natsu's mouth after that landing.
Then it all got lively.
"Wow. Even after spending weeks in that stuffy dungeon downstairs, you're as strong as ever, aren't you, Ichigo?" Makarov chuckled as he took a beer that Mirajane offered.
Ichigo shrugged and then shook a bit to the side as two men crashed into both of his sides and swung their arms around Ichigo. The man to Ichigo's left was Wakaba Mine, a man with a pompadour, and the man to his right was Macao Conbolt, a blue haired divorced man dating a younger girl. Ichigo always called the latter of the two as "Mr. Pedo" or "Craddle robber." Macao would always be frustrated when Ichigo called him those nicknames, but got over it when Ichigo offered him few free drinks.
"So, what were you doing down there, boy!" Wakaba asked as he doned his cigarette.
"Studying as usual, of course," Ichigo replied as he gave a nod to Mirajane, who brought three cups for the three men.
All three grabbed their beer mug and drank from them together. "What were you studying about, huh?" Macao asked.
"'How to not be a Mr. Pedo.'"
"Oh, okay," Macao said as he sipped some more beer. "Wait, you just insulted me!"
Ichigo laughed at the man's slow reaction.
Acnologia grumbled, unsatisfied that Ichigo was not going to be leaving for a job immediately. However, something was off with him. He never did laugh like that when he was with her. It made her glare at the two men next to him.
Then the guild doors creaked open, and Erza walked in in her usual armor, the Heart Kruez Armor
"Erza's back!" one of the guild mage sitting in the back of the guild lounge announced the red-haired mage's return.
"Erza! Erza! Ichigo finally got out of the library!" someone else said.
Ichigo turned around with a beer mug in his hand, and blinked when Erza approached him with a sword in hand.
"The spar you promised me is long overdue, Ichigo!" she shouted as she lunged at him, intending on not letting him get away this time, like the last three times.
"Huh, why she doing that?"
Makarov looked up to see Laxus. "You see, whenever Erza came and challeneged Ichigo, he would take a job and run away. And then he would always come back right when Erza left for her job, and he would go into that library of his."
Laxus cackled. "Serves the nerdy loner right. Have fun dodging Erza-" His mouth hung there, just slightly open as he took in the event before him.
When Erza lunged at Ichigo, Ichigo gracefully pulled out the giant clever he was holding and began to parry all of Erza's strikes with only few moves. But with those few movements, Ichigo's Zangetsu would slice back and forth like he was handling a thin and long stick.
Others began to back away from the fighting duo.
Macao and Wakaba were gluedto the chair, scared that if they managed to move at the wrong moment, they can be struck by either blade.
"I knew you were a swordmaster!" Erza grinned as she backed off.
Ichigo grumbled.
"Fine, fine, I'll give that spar that you've been begging for," he said absentmindedly as he stood up from the bar stool and let the beer mug on the counter. However, he had to duck just as he got up to avoid Erza's sword.
"I did not beg for a spar!"
"You were chasing after me like a lost puppy." He sidestepped and then jumped further to the left as Erza swung harder at him.
"I did not!"
Ichigo chuckled.
"Oh, oh, oh!" Cana shouted as she shot up from her chair. "Let's take some bets on who's going win between these two!" she declared enthusiastically, and many of the mages inside the guild lounge agreed with either a roar of approval or laughter.
"Let's take this outside," Ichigo said to Erza as he sheathed his still roll bandage-bound sword unto his back. Erza frowned before she did sheathed her sword as well.
"1000 on Erza!" someone shouted in the background.
Ichigo just grumbled. He knew that it was going to be troublesome getting to the spar itself with Erza, but he didn't think it would be this troublesome...
Forest of Magnolia
Edge of Magnolia City
A large crowd composed of both civilians and mages around the town had gathered on the hillside of the open clearing where Erza and Ichigo were going to have their spar. Despite it being called a spar officially, everyone took it as more a challenge that Erza threw at Ichigo.
Erza was currently the Strongest Female Fairy Tail Mage, and Ichigo was known as the Scowling Prince of Fairy Tail. They were both incredibly strong and experienced, despite their ... lack of age - 17 and 21.
"So, how should we do this?" Ichigo asked as he looked around.
This open clearing was apparently owned by Fairy Tail guild as well under the name of Makarov Dreyar. It was a American football field sized land that just had packed dirt ground for most of the central clearing. On the sides of the clearing were racks filled with all sorts of weapon and some benches on the side, which is where the large crowd was sitting at.
"I want to go all out with you," Erza declared forcibly, getting large gasps from the crowd gathered.
"T-That's insane! You're going to kill Ichigo if you do that!" Mirajane objected hotly.
Ichigo just frowned. How strong was Erza that Mirajane declared her full-power as overpowered? 'On the other hand, I never really fought a S-rank mage all out. I'm classified as a A-rank mage because I didn't take that S-rank Examination Test or whatever.' He cracked his neck. 'So I get to see the true potential of a S-rank, huh?' "Alright, bring it, Scarlet," Ichigo replied seriously as he pulled out Zangetsu from his back. The roll bandage unwrapped as he did so, and the black beauty showed itself to the world.
Erza tensed when the bandages came off the sword. 'So he is taking me on seriously.'
"Requip: Heaven's Wheel Armor!" she shouted her magic, causing it to activate. Her Heart Kruez Heart disintegrated and the four-winged, silver armor formed in its stead.
Ichigo raised an eyebrow. Requip magic? Wasn't it meant to be just used to change clothes? "Interesting, you turned a normal magic into a battle magic with how you're doing it," Ichigo commented. "Shall we begin?"
Erza nodded firmly.
Makarov stood up from his seat and walked over to the edge of the packed dirt ground. "Hajime!"
Erza shot forward, intending on pushing Ichigo with her power. She summoned twelve swords in-flight, and speared them telekinetically against Ichigo. Ichigo took a defensive stance with his right foot back and Zangetsu facing the sky and horizontally from the ground right by his eyes.
Then he shunpo'ed, causing Erza's eyes to widen and for her to summon six more swords to defend herself. The swords finished forming a ring around her when Ichigo appeared in a different stance. He was now crouching low with his feet having shifted positons.
He struck horizontally, and sliced though two of the six new blades that Erza summoned. Erza whirled around, seeing as Ichigo was behind her, who gave her a look of approval. Erza whirled her waist and delivered a kick to Ichigo's head, only for him to duck and strike at Erza's stomach with the butt of the hilt. Erza grinned despite the pain and brought the remaining swords she had summoned down on Ichigo. "I win-!"
The swords struck Ichigo, only to be shattered into pieces.
Her eyes widened in shock. Swords shattered unto skin contact? How?!
Ichigo scoffed and threw her a palm strike right hwere he had struck previously with the butt of Zangetsu's hilt. Erza flew back and skidded on the ground as she tried to remain standing.
'That felt like getting a direct hit from sledgehammer!' her mind screamed at the pain shaking her core. She looked up, not wanting to lose track of Ichigo this time. 'Despite carrying a claymore-sized clever, he doesn't lack agility nor speed. I can't fight him with such a thin armor!' "Requip: Adamantine Armor!" Her thin Heaven's Wheel Armor disintegrated, replaced by a thick Adamantine Armor with shields on her forearms.
Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "That armor looks stronger than your other one," he said as he hefted Zangetsu on his shoulder. He stood up straighter, almost as if knowing that Erza won't be attacking.
"This armor has the strongest defensive properties among all my armors. You won't be able to cut through this armor with your sword," Erza declared even as she cringed from Ichigo's last strike.
"Really?"
Erza's eyes widened as she whirled around again, where the voice came from. However, Ichigo wasn't there.
"It wasn't that hard."
She twisted back again, but felt something off with her forearms.
She looked down and gawked.
Her two part shields...
They were both sliced into like cheese!
And Ichigo was standing right where he had been a mere second ago.
"But you were right about one thing: that armor was slightly harder to cut into," Ichigo said as he lifted his left index finger and pointed at her. "I'll award you with my original 'magic,'" he stated. "Way of Binding #61: Six Rod Prison of Light (Rikujokoro)." The tip of his finger glowed yellow, and before Erza could dodge, Requip, or react in any other way, six thin rectangular lights appeared in a circle around her. Then all of them came like light and struck her in the abdomen, forming a crystal-like formation.
And she couldn't move. She struggled, you could see it in her face, before she looked up at Ichigo with confusion and awe in her eyes. "How?!"
"A spell created from where I came from. My friend there, Kuchiki Rukia, helped me learn the Kido spells, which are essentailly different form of magic the ones that mages in Fiore use. I used a spell from Bakudo, a category of spells that consists of binding opponents." He grinned at her. "And that's a win," Ichigo said as he walked over to her and placed Zangetsu on her shoulder, blade contacting the armor. "You lose, Scarlet."
Mages of Fairy Tail, including Makarov, gawked at the speed at which the spar had been moving before abruptly ending with one spell.
Erza had been defeated so soundly.
Ichigo displayed speed that none of the mages in the guild, perhaps save Laxus, was capable of.
"W-Winner: Ichigo Kruosaki!" Makarov stuttered loudly.
Ichigo dropped the grin and undid Rikujokoro. "S-rank, huh. Not that hard to fight against."
Laxus scowled. "Ha! You beat that weakling of S-rank! So what?! I can probably beat you up!" he shouted, only for Ichigo appear behind him with him losing track of Ichigo. Laxus, in his seat, growled. He twisted around and made to strike at Ichigo, who only disappeared once more.
"I see no difference between you and Erza, Dreyar," Ichigo remarked as he appeared next to Makarov, causing some chuckles and giggles to erupt from the crowd.
"Don't mock me, Kurosaki!" Laxus shouted and chased after Ichigo, who began to make his way back to the guild lounge using shunpo with Laxus on his tail.
Makarov sighed. Goodness gracious. It was official, aside from Gildarts, all of the current S-rank mages of Fairy Tail were after Ichigo's ass.
That's the end of this chapter. tell me what you thought in either pm or review. Read the top of the chapter, since it answers some of the question that you may have about the contents of this chapter, but if you didn't find it up there, I'll be explaining some things down here.
1. The reason why I made Ichigo speak out the english full name of Bakudo in english yet have in its Japanese name be used in conversation was because I felt that the english name would fit more in with the Western names that most characters of Fairy Tail possess, but wouldn't do so when Ichigo would talk about it. It's like Natsu and his fire dragonslayer magic. It's better to just use "Fire Dragon's Roar" than "Karyū no Hōkō" because it's easier to understand. But I wanted to emphasize the fact that Ichigo learned Kido in Japan with Rukia using JAPANESE, so in conversation, I had him name the kido spell and the cateogry using Japanese.
2. Laxus and Ichigo. I thinking about having Laxus view Ichigo as his POWERFUL role model, who Laxus wants to emulate because Ichigo has so much power. Laxus always wanted what was good of the guild-as evident in his Fairy Law affecting no one in Magnolia- but that kind of twisted when his father left the guild and he began to search for power. Of course, Ivan leaving the guild has happened already in this story, so Laxus is starting to become twisted. I don't intend to remove the Fairy Tail festival arc, just Laxus's attitude about it. So instead of despising the weak, he'll come to be focused with becoming stronger to care about calling others weak. This will be a steady progress, hopefully, so there!
3. Ichigo's personality. Personally, I don't like it. Why? Because it is the personally of every main character of shounen manga out there. If someone gets hurt, he goes after them nad beats them up. He can't win, then he stays up until he could. He is also romantically clueless and a prude. Boys don't remain prude for long. So I intend to change this very, very, very slowly. I won't have a idiotic Ichigo like I did in the older version of this story, but Ichigo won't definitely a prude by the end of this story.
So far, that's what I had in mind.
Cheers, and have a good day.
:3