Takara slammed open the door in a single fluid movement; even before the door had finished opening, however, she had already begun 'taking out the trash,' as she preferred to put it. As the dark mages turned to face her, she had already slammed the unforgivingly hard diamond hilt of a sword forming in her hand, wisps of magic swirling around thin air as she essentially built herself a new sword within moments.
The girl didn't bother waiting for them to react to her entrance—she was raised as a Dragon. Unlike samurai and most mages (even dark mages), she didn't have the same sense of honor that demanded her to wait for an opponent to recover (or, as the case could be, monologue them while they pick their jaws off the floor). Instead, she followed up on her attack, launching into a flurry of action.
She made liberal use of the enclosed space and her smaller size, darting between her surprised opponents as they shouted.
"Face me like a man!" one roared, and she mentally snickered.
Idiots. Takara's mind worked in a different way than them; because she wasn't a front-line combat fighter, she preferred to avoid direct confrontations and instead utilized skills that were 'dishonorable' but far more versatile and suited to her style. Tripping, tricking, underhanded tactics…those were what she excelled in. Diversionary tactics and dodging until she found an opening to strike. Her favorite move to combat multiple opponents was to let two or more rush her from opposite directions and jump at the last moment, usually flipping up onto one of their heads and slamming everyone together with even more force.
Within minutes, the five goons were knocked flat; the only one not unconscious was groaning pathetically on the floor, curled up in a ball around the sensitive area Takara had unhesitatingly kicked very strongly after he had tried to sneak-attack her with a knife.
She bowed politely to the terrified civilians, made sure each of the enemies were knocked out, and dragged the limp bodies out into the corridor while diamond crept up the walls, encasing the compartment in a safe shield.
"Please do not worry; we have the situation under control. Once the train begins moving, the shield will drop and you will be free to move around as you please. Until then, please stay put and do not panic. Thank you."
After she dumped the mages on the floor outside, she moved on to the next compartment, nimbly leaping over a slightly charred mage as he came hurtling out into the hallway, followed closely by a flaming Natsu.
The compartment she tackled next was, to her pleasant surprise, actually barricaded unlike the others. Obviously, the mages in this one were intelligent enough to know that they were far outclassed by the unknown assailants taking down their guild-mates and to prepare a defense as a result. An anticipatory smirk tugged at Takara's lips as her eyes began to glow crimson in bloodlust. Human and young though she seemed, she was a Dragon first and foremost, living in the thrill of the moment and thriving in battle.
After testing the defenses, she smirked—not half bad. In fact, the defenses—made of Rune Magic if she guessed correctly—probably would have been strong enough to fend off most Light mages. They were infused with the strongly negative emotions closely associated with Dark magic: hatred, bloodlust, fear, etc. and typically had the most effect on Light-aligned mages.
Her grin stretched wider.
Shame that she wasn't fully Light-aligned.
Inhaling, she focused on pulling up the sole memory of Acnologia she ever had and the overpowering hatred and terror that she had felt at the time. It was a fragment of a memory from her previous life, a memory she no longer fully recalled. All she remembered now was the blurry image of the dark dragon laughing cruelly at her as shadows overwhelmed her vision and her nerves were set on fire.
Behind her closed eyelids danced that torturous experience, and, unseen by anyone, dark red ribbons spiraled down her right arm, wrist, and fingers, extending into the air about two feet and leaving polished obsidian in its wake.
Crimson eyes snapped open to observe the solid spear that had formed in her hand; the child hefted it, as though testing its weight…
And without warning, hurled it at point-blank range at the center of the door.
BOOM.
The resulting shockwave would have knocked her off her feet had a dome with several layers of ruby not formed around her.
When it faded away into magical particles, she blinked a few times at the completely-obliterated door and the no-longer-existing walls of the train.
Rocking back on her heels, she tilted her head, examining the shell-shocked and gaping occupants of the compartment.
"Whoops," the golden-haired child innocently smiled, eyes curving closed into crescents. "Didn't quite mean to make it that powerful."
And then she vanished.
"You're smart. I like you!" Takara declared as she swung her legs in the air, lying on her stomach next to a barely-conscious red-haired mage and poking his cheek as he groaned.
"Get away from me, you demon," he moaned, uselessly flopping his hands around.
Takara only giggled cheerfully and prodded his cheek again.
They had cleared the train of the dark mages and secured it just over half an hour ago. The conductor, unfortunately, had been concussed in the initial skirmish and thus could not safely drive the train, so Erza had taken the wheel, being the most experienced. Meanwhile, the civilians, although slightly traumatized, had suffered few injuries, having been smart enough to do as the ambushers had demanded. The Fairy Tail mages had generously recompensed both them and themselves with the surprisingly many bulging wallets of the dark mages. While they did that, Takara dragged the criminals over to one compartment, knocked most of them out again for good measure, and locked the door. Now, bored out of her mind, she was focusing all of her attentions on the lucky Mage who had been smart enough to set up a defense and the only person who had caught her eye the entire trip.
On the bright(er) side, fighting had taken away most of her pent-up tensions and antsiness, so for now, she had let most of her inhibitions go. Relaxed and no longer reserved as she had been before, she was behaving more like her physical age now than before.
"You're really interesting though!" she laughed.
"Hey, Takara!" Natsu's voice shouted.
She glanced up immediately to see the Dragon Slayer standing in the doorway, arms against either frame.
"Hey," she echoed, a relaxed smile on her lips.
He blinked, almost startled, before his fanged grin widened.
"We're almost past the mountain ridges, so we'll be at the nearest town in five minutes tops. Probably gonna drop some of these guys off and let the Council take care of them," he jerked his head at the captured wannabe-burglars. "But since there are so many of them, Erza said we should leave the weakest ones in their prisons 'cause the Council takes forever sometimes and since it's a village and all, their security won't be top-notch like the cities we'll pass by maybe later."
Takara nodded in serious contemplation, "I see. So just abandon a few who won't be able to escape pathetic civilian precautions and keep the ones who are debatably stronger for slightly less pathetic defenses. It's a well-thought-out strategic move."
Natsu sweat-dropped discreetly, You didn't have to say it so bluntly…
"But I'm keeping this one to personally guard!" she announced, an almost eerily large smile taking up her face, "He's so interesting~ I really like him! And I'm sure in time I can train him to love me too!"
I'm almost afraid to ask… Natsu thought, uncharacteristically wary in the face of the palpable excitement of a girl he had only seen mature and serious, but…
"Why is he so interesting?" the Dragon Slayer ventured.
"Hm?" Takara blinked. "Well…I think…I guess…it's probably because…"
She made a humming noise, eyes closed, and tapped her chin.
"Ah! I got it!"
Natsu leaned forward in curiosity.
"It's because," she took a deep breath and leaned forward as if imparting a very important secret, eyes twinkling orange in mischief.
"He actually has a sense of self-preservation unlike the rest of you morons!" she finished.
Natsu face-faulted even as Takara lay her head on the red-haired dark mage's back.
"EH?! Whaddaya mean we don't have any self-preservation?!" he protested indignantly.
The golden-haired girl half-opened bored gray eyes.
"If ya don't know what that means," she yawned, "ya don't really deserve ta. Now shoo," she added, eyes closing lazily as Natsu fumed, "I'm tryin' ta sleep here."
Natsu gave a few very impolite sounds in response, only for Erza to walk in.
"He was taking too long," the requip mage explained to no one in particular as she tossed Natsu down the hall.
It was very fortunate that the civilians were not in the vicinity as Erza proceeded to give Natsu a thorough and reportedly long-overdue beating for such 'unwarranted' actions.
An hour later, they were on their way once more, about ten criminals lighter with Gray at the head of the train.
As she continued to rest, eyes closed and appearing asleep, Takara pondered over the fighting styles of her companions, all of which seemed strangely familiar and continued pressing at her mind even when she tried to push it away in order to sleep.
Natsu, she knew, was obviously a student of Igneel. There was no way he could be anything but—every move he used was one variant or another of Igneel's techniques. Beyond that, however, she disliked the notion that she obviously knew him prior to her new life; after she had finished up with the last compartment of invaders, she had wandered back over to watch Natsu fight. He had faced a water mage who very skillfully put out most of his fire and, very strangely for her, Takara had instinctively moved to intercept the mage when it looked like Natsu was in danger. It had been an unconscious action, and she had, afterwards, blinked at the hands which had just punched the man in the temple and left him sprawled on the floor, knocked out.
"Hey, what was that for? I had him," Natsu had pouted.
She frowns in remembrance as to how she had for some strange reason expected something different: like Natsu should have said not a 'I had him' but a 'thanks for the save, L-!"
Beyond that, she had also been able to predict most of Erza's attacks, although she had never seen them before in her new life and the fact that the other girl, like a true swordsmaster, was primarily instinctive and unpredictable in her movements. Grey's movements and attacks had been familiar to her as well, and she...
She furrows her brow as she loses that train of thought.
What had she been thinking about again?
I would like it said, firstly, that this chapter has been written for a full year, but that I just completely lost all motivation to write and never came back to this story. I still have a lot of miscellaneous scenes floating around and planned that I will get to writing/posting eventually, but for now this is going to be more of a drabble series than a fic. They're chronological drabbles for now, but that could change as time goes on. Thank you for your patience, everyone, and thank you to everyone (Guest 2/5, Kagura-nee-san, Katherine, Flamexofxchaos, jailyne, AlexScarletHeartfiliaDragneel, AnimeLoverNK, Kitsune-chan, Guest 5/4, Ellianna, briskpillow642, RiftDragneelFairyTailOC, CrazyFanGirl, and Jasmine) for reviewing and encouraging me!
Quick reviewer response:
-briskpillow642: I'm not really planning on giving either Lucy or Takara a love interest right now. Even after she regains her memories, she's also been de-aged, so it would probably be a little awkward for her. I might write some spinoffs where she gets involved in a purely romantic and non-sexual relationship until she ages up properly :)
-Flamexofxchaos: I like both cats and bunnies; can I pick both :)
-RiftDragneelFairyTailOC: to make an OC memorable, make them important in your story. Include them in a lot of scenes, have people talk/gossip about them, have characters interact a lot. It's usually ideal to have them as the main character of the story. Also try to keep the number of OCs in a story low if you want the one to stand out. But most importantly you should also know your OC very well. Their appearances and habits and personalities are always very important. Good luck! :)