HeavenlyDemon99: You know how strong Ichigo is? I mean Ichigo can destroy the earth and if he wants, with his full power of course. I'm saying this because the scaling power of Bleach is on another level compared to the scaling power of Fairy tail. My question is, is Ichigo's power going to be adjusted for the scaling power of Fairy Tale? Yes, I am aware of how strong Ichigo is. I said, in the beginning, I have read the manga and I remember most things. Yes, I will try to scale his powers to fairy tail. But I will still make Ichigo remain stronger than them. Since I'm not going to nerf him that hard. The curse is only there to prevent him from being too powerful. And I have a clear vision of what the curse is actually about. I'll try to make Ichigo balance.
Commander-in-Chief Kyoraku: Очень жаль что Ичиго не будет с Эрзой и Мирой одновременно. Мне нравится этот пейринг. Ну да ладно. У вас получается хорошая история, хотя и попадаются ошибки. Надеюсь, вы закончите её и не будете бросать. Как видите - вас читают даже не англоязычные люди (: I'm glad that you understand and thank you for the support, but I do have to ask. What exactly are those mistakes? Is it the use of Ichigo's powers, or a person's behavior? I hope you could tell me.
I just want to say that I'm not good at writing goodbyes. Just wanted to let you know. This chapter is going to be longer than my previous chapters. But I won't be writing this much for most of the chapters. Only the most important ones. Hope you enjoy it.
Chapter 7: Goodbyes for now
It was early in the morning. There was very little sunlight, and everyone in the village was asleep. It was peaceful. Subtle chirps were heard in the distance with a relaxed breeze roaming in the air. Inside the hut, the trio was sound asleep on their beds. The comfort and warmth the beds provided were surreal.
Ichigo's eyes slowly flickered open. He groaned with the realization he was going to wake up. He slowly tried everything to fall back asleep. He tried moving positions, changing the side of the pillow, and even tried counting the jumping sheep. But all of those attempts had failed. His sleeping schedule has been a mess ever since he came here. He wasn't surprised, however. It was the same during the war. He wasn't able to get a full night's rest during that period. This wasn't going to stop any time soon. He signed quietly and slowly got up. That was the most amount of sleep he had gotten in a very long time.
Despite the shelter they were sleeping in, there wasn't much warmth other than the blankets covering him. He looked around at his surroundings and spotted a clock on the wall. It read 6:00 am. He didn't expect himself to wake up so early in the morning. His eyes laid on his two other friends that were to his right. They were both sleeping quietly. Not wanting to disturb their rest. He quietly walked outside. Shutting the door behind him, he slowly roamed through the village. No one was awake at this time so he didn't mind the quietness around him. He walked aimlessly while looking everywhere around him.
"Are you there Zangetsu?" He talked inside his head. He had nothing else to do.
However, there was no answer to his question. He still wasn't responding. They were probably still fighting inside him. He wanted to help but can't. He hated being powerless. As he continued walking, he saw a small figure sitting on a nearby bench. It was Roubaul, he didn't know why he was up at this hour. The older man laid eyes on Ichigo as he approached him.
"Good morning, Why are you awake, it's quite early in the morning?" Roubaul asked
"Morning, I woke up… you?" he answered calmly.
"The same could be said for me… how are you?" he questioned, trying to come up with a conversation.
"I'm fine, how about you?" he asked back
"I'm alright, just a bit tired…I heard that Jellal was going to leave today,"
"Yeah" he didn't have much to say on the matter, simply acknowledging the fact. The older man felt awkward after their conversation. But it seemed that Ichigo didn't see it that way. Ichigo sat down on the bench and looked off in the distance, while his mind was somewhere else.
"You seem upset about something, have a lot on your mind?" Roubaul asked, noticing Ichigo's face. He looked tired.
"...Yeah" he replied quietly
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"...no thanks, thanks for the offer," he didn't want others to get involved in his problems.
"You can talk to me whenever you feel like it," the old man said with assurance.
"...Thanks"
After the exchange, the two became quiet. Roubaul did not want to disturb him, but he was curious about what was on the boy's mind. He didn't want to pester the boy. Ichigo, however, was the one who broke the silence.
"Sorry for asking you this so early in the morning" he caught Roubaul's attention "But…are you a spirit?"
The old man's eyes widened while his mouth was slightly opened. He was astonished, he wasn't expecting this kind of question. The only reason why Ichigo would ask this may have been that he had a suspicion or that he knew about it. The old man thought this was the case and carefully responded accordingly. If he were to lie, it would only make things more complicated.
"Why would you ask such a question" he had to find the reason why he brought this up.
"...I'm spiritually aware" he started slowly "when I first laid eyes on you, you didn't seem like a person of the living. I had a suspicion that you were a ghost" he explains "you also didn't leave any footprints when you walk"
It was quite surprising to learn that the boy knew his true existence. He hopes that the other two aren't aware of this fact. Not only that, his observation was frighteningly good for someone so young. The man was amazed.
"...I am" he revealed "...Do the others know?" referring to both Jellal and Wendy. The fact that Ichigo knows it's not far-fetched that the others would too. Since he could just tell them.
"No, I didn't tell them. But I don't know if they are aware that you're a ghost." he elaborated
"I see, but why not tell them?" he asked once more
"You're helping us, I wouldn't take you as a bad spirit, not only that, they probably wouldn't believe me. Since everyone here can see you," he said
"...I see" he let out a sigh of relief, he didn't mean anything he had said, he just wanted to hear the reasoning. "You are a lot more mature than I originally thought." he complimented the boy.
"I guess" he took the praise but quickly asked. "Is it normal for people to see ghosts? I said I was spiritually aware, but the people here are also able to see you. Is it common for people here to see ghosts? Are the people here also aware of you?"
"I wouldn't say that it's normal. It's rare for people to see ghosts." he claimed, "I'm just a special case."
"...Why is that, and how exactly are you the head of this village if you are a ghost? Why are the people here able to see and communicate with you, if it's rare for people to see ghosts?"
"...I was the head of this village for a long time. Even before I died… but that's a story for another time." he brushed it off with a sad face. The man didn't want to talk about his past and Ichigo could see that. "Sorry… but I don't think I'll be able to answer any further."
"Right, sorry for asking." he felt bad
"You don't need to apologize, I can tell you more about this at a later time, I just don't feel like telling you at the moment. But you should probably head back. The two might wake up soon"
"...alright," Ichigo respected his decision and walked off.
As the sun began to rise over the village and the inhabitants started to wake up. Ichigo made his way back to the hut. He saw Jellal near the table packing everything that belonged to him, while there was food on the table. Jellal noticed his friend had returned and greeted him. Ichigo did the same.
"When do you plan on leaving?" Ichigo asked
"A little bit after breakfast" he looked over at the clock. "Maybe at 11" it was currently 7: 20 am.
After hearing the answer Ichigo nodded and walked toward Wendy. He shook her shoulder in an attempt to wake her up. She groaned and pulled the blanket over her head in an attempt to stop whoever was trying to disturb her sleep.
"You sure you want to keep sleeping? You might miss the chance to say goodbye to Jellal" Ichigo said to Wendy.
A few seconds later Wendy's eyes shot open, she had finally registered what Ichigo had said to her. She got up as fast as she could, hoping to have not missed that exchange. Her panic quickly dwindled however as she saw the two looking at her.
"Don't worry I won't be leaving yet." he smiled
"Good morning" she signed in relief and greeted both of them with a smile. The two greeted her back. She walked to the table and saw the food that was displayed. "W-when do you plan on leaving?"
"...at 11" Jellal answered.
She looked over at the clock and saw the time. He'll be leaving in less than 4 hours.
"...O-ok, but why?" She asked, she didn't know why he would leave so early in the morning.
"I want to cover more ground," he replied. "If I leave later, it'll get darker"
"O-ok," she accepted the fact with a weighty smile and a nod before approaching the table with Ichigo following.
She looked over at the food on the table. It looked great, and the fact that this will be the last time they'll be eating Jellal's delicious cooking upsets her. Jellal brought out the plates and utensils and passed them to Ichigo and Wendy.
Wendy ate slowly, she tried to savor as many flavors from the food as possible, while the two boys ate at normal speed. She was going to miss his cooking and both Ichigo and Jellal could see how slow the girl was eating.
"Thanks for the food" Ichigo expressed as he finished his plate. He ate faster than normal. He walked to the kitchen and opened the sink.
Wendy looked over at Ichigo, he was calm which surprised her. How could he be so calm? He won't be able to eat his cooking anytime soon—one of the many qualities that Jellal has, and one of the many she will miss.
"How's the food?" Jellal asked both of them.
"It's great!" Wendy exclaimed first, while Ichigo agreed.
"That's good to hear" he smiled as he got up and cleaned his plate and fork.
"You should finish eating, you don't want to waste the entire day just eating do you?" Ichigo said to Wendy. He had a point, she shouldn't be wasting time just eating. She quickly finished her breakfast.
After they ate, Jellal put away the plates and utensils back into the bag before they made their way outside. As they opened the door and walked out, the three were presented with a bright light and cool breeze. They were able to see some people leaving their homes while others were getting ready for work. The three didn't know what they were going to do for the remaining time. But they didn't need to think of anything when an old man walked up to them.
"Good morning, how are you three doing on this fine day?" Roubaul greeted them.
"Good morning" Both Jellal and Wendy greeted first, while Ichigo soon followed after.
"We're doing fine, we're hoping to spend time before my departure," he answered for the three of them.
"I see, if you don't have anything in mind why don't you shop around?" He suggested.
"That is a good idea," Jellal said to himself. Ichigo didn't mind and could see Wendy's face glowed which meant that she didn't oppose the idea. Ichigo finally realized the opportunity it provided. This was also the perfect opportunity to see what the currency in this world uses.
"You can look around, there's a ton of things you can buy. However, might I suggest buying some clothing?" He looked at Ichigo and Wendy. "You don't want to keep wearing the same clothing, and you never know when you'll need an extra shirt or not." The last bit he was referring to was Jellal.
"At least I'm wearing clothing, you don't even have a shirt on'' he thought to himself. Referring to what Roubaul had implied to both himself and Wendy.
"That sounds like a good idea," Jellal said before looking at the other two if they thought the same and would like to go shopping. Both Ichigo and Wendy thought going shopping was a good idea and agreed to go.
The man guided the three to the clothing store. It looked smaller than some of the other buildings. Walking inside, Ichigo immediately noticed some key differences from what he was used to. Unlike in his world, there were no clothes hangers or any mannequins decorated to show and promote clothing. Instead, all he saw around him were tons of baskets on the shelf that had clothing. While some were neatly folded on the tables.
Wendy was the first to approach one of the clothing and saw a light blue t-shirt with pink flowers. She unfolded the shirt and realized that it was not the right size.
"Not the right size?" a woman off in the distance said towards the girl. She looked to be in her mid-70s, with some gray hair. She was slightly taller than Wendy but was barely shorter than Roubaul.
"Good morning Karen-chan, I see you're doing fine" Roubaul greeted the woman.
"Who are you calling Karen!" The woman yelled back at Roubaul. Before politely introducing herself to the girl. "Sorry about that, my name is Anisa, it's nice to meet you. I believe your name was Wendy correct? I've heard of you from this old fool."
"Who are you calling old? You're almost the same age as me!" Roubaul talked back
"Hah!" The elderly woman turned her head with a scary face.
"N-nevermind"
"U-um y-yes, I'm Wendy Marvell, nice to meet you." she bowed "u-um why does Roubaul-san call you Karen"
"I don't know" she sighed
"I-it's because she's quite mean and rude sometimes" Roubaul whispered to the other two boys explaining his reasoning. Jellal didn't understand why he would address her with a different name. But Ichigo understood and chuckled. It was surprising that Roubaul knew what that meant.
"What was that!" Karen said at Roubaul overhearing his input.
"N-nothing ma'am" he replied quickly.
"And you two must be Jellal and Ichigo correct?" she turned in their direction.
"Yes, my name is Jellal Fernandes and the one standing beside me is Kurosaki Ichigo."
"It is nice to meet both of you," she smiled at both of them. "My, you have quite a unique sense of clothing" referring to Ichigo. "And it suits you quite well, however, I don't have that kind of clothes here, I hope you don't mind"
"It's fine, you don't have to worry about me"
The woman looked back at the girl, Wendy was still looking at the shirt. She asked if she likes it, to which Wendy reply with a yes.
"I'll go see if there's a smaller size, you guys can go look around," she informed them before walking to the back of the store.
The four of them explored, there was so much to see. Despite the small exterior shape of the building, the inside seemed much bigger. There were hats, dresses, pants, and much more. Both Roubaul and Wendy were the ones who made their exploration entertaining. Roubaul grabbed and wore silly clothing. While Wendy wandered around expressing her curiosity and love for the bright colors the clothes had. After some time, the four decided to split up and make it a competition on who had the best fashion sense. Wendy went with Jellal, while Roubaul went with Ichigo. They would meet up within an hour.
Both Wendy and Jellal gather a good amount of new clothes, but Wendy's favorite was the white box cloche hat and light blue dress. While a navy t-shirt hoodie and gray shorts were Jellal's liking.
On the other side, Roubaul's choices of clothing were mostly for laughing purposes, but he did find a red and white t-shirt with beige shorts.
"How are you going to wear the clothing?" Ichigo asked
Roubaul knew what he was referring to. "I can use illusion magic to make it seem like I'm wearing these clothing" he answered
"...I see"
Ichigo was the last person to pick out any clothes. They weren't much that interested him. Until he saw a black zip-up shirt. It was quite basic, but he didn't mind. He quickly picked out a white t-shirt and black Jeans with it.
After the hour was over the 4 met up near the entrance of the shop. Anisa caught up to them shortly after to give Wendy a smaller-size t-shirt from before.
"Is it alright if I join your competition?" Anisa asked, Roubaul said no and was treated with a smack in the head. Wendy thought differently and welcomes her into the event.
The four already made their choice of what to wear. Wendy volunteered to be the first contestant and went into the changing room. While she was changing, Roubaul brought out 4 small whiteboards and markers and passed them down to Ichigo, Jellal, and Anisa. They didn't know where he got it from. It took Wendy quite a bit of time to change. As she walked out of the room. Her bright red face was visible. Despite her excitement about trying out the clothing. It was kind of embarrassing to show off what she was wearing.
"H-how does it look?"
The four immediately answered the question by writing a 10 on their whiteboard. Her embarrassment subsided as she saw the score that was in front of her. With a total of 40 points, she had gotten the most amount of points possible. She was happy to see everyone think positively about how she looked.
The next contestant was Roubaul. He was going to wear his clown wig but was stopped by Anisa. He instead wore his striped t-shirt and beige shorts. As he presented himself to the others, the scores were not what he had expected. Wendy, Ichigo, and Jellal wrote a seven, while Anisa wrote a 3. In total, he got 24 points.
"How is this a 3!?" he asked while yelling at Anisa. "Cause it looks bad you idiot" she replied back
While the two older individuals were bantering, Wendy was panicking and trying to stop the two from fighting any further. As they continued, Jellal went into the change room, it was his turn to change.
"Does it look ok?" he asked as he presented himself with the new clothing. The other four made their assessment. Everyone wrote an 8 as their score. With a total of 32 points, Jellal was in 2nd place.
The next competitor was Anisa, she changed her red clothing with a white dress and pink scarf. She wore a silver diamond-shaped necklace. She wasn't expecting a big score. She just wanted to have an excuse to wear these clothes. She looked over at the four and saw the numbers. Ichigo, Jellal wrote a 7, while Wendy wrote a 10. But she got angry when her eyes laid upon a 0 on one of the whiteboards. The man responsible wrote 0 out of spite.
"You dare write a 0!" she yelled at Roubaul. They got into a fight quickly after, with Wendy and Jellal trying to stop their banter. With 25 points, Anisa was placed in 3rd place.
The last remaining person was Ichigo. He went inside the room and saw a mirror in front of him. He removed the Shihakusho he was wearing, and quickly wore the clothing he picked out early. He finished changing and walked outside. The rest of the people outside the changing room were surprised to see how good he looked. They saw the boy standing there quietly while waiting for their assessment.
They quickly made their conclusion and showed their evaluation. Wendy and Jellal wrote 9, while Anisa and Roubaul wrote 8. Ichigo was kinda surprised to see him get to second place, but he didn't say anything since the scoring wasn't rigged. Wendy in First, Ichigo in second, Jellal in third, Anisa in fourth, and Roubaul in fifth.
After the competition, they made their way to the cashier, and Jellal paid for all of the clothing. Ichigo found out that the currency in this world was Jewels. A hundred Jewel was a dollar in his world. Or at least from what he could see. Ichigo and Wendy didn't have any money so Roubaul paid for both of them. They bid farewell to Anisa quickly after and walked off. They still had an hour and a half before Jellal had to go. But before they could think up anything, Roubaul once again thought up another idea to spend the remaining time. As they spent the next hour and a half. The four enjoyed themselves to the fullest. Ichigo was splashed with water by Roubaul, Wendy was running away from pickled plum when the man provided a snack. And Jellal was eating food that was too spicy for him to handle and breathed out fire. Memories formed during that time, it was precious and full of life.
But the fun always has to end. The 4 hours they had together quickly passed. Jellal went back to the hut with all of the things they have bought during that time. He packed and gathered his belongings. While Ichigo, Wendy, and Roubaul waited patiently at the entrance. It was time to say their goodbyes. It will be the last time any of them will see each other. An undetermined amount of time. As Jellal slowly made his way to the entrance, the rest prepared themselves to say their goodbyes.
"Guess this is it," Jellal said, with a mild smile
"Yeah" Ichigo was the first to speak.
"Did you get everything?" Roubaul asked
"Yeah, I got everything" Jellal responded before slowly passing them. He looked back behind him. They weren't that far from him. "It was fun, spending time together"
"Yeah," Ichigo said quietly. Before he could say anymore. Wendy raced towards Jellal and embraced him with a hug.
"D-don't" Wendy stuttered,
"Wendy-chan" Roubaul spoke, he didn't want to see her like this.
She wanted to say something but wasn't able to finish the sentence. The two boys were able to see the girl struggling to say what was on her mind. "D-don't do anything that will put you in harm's way" she started slowly, tears soon started pouring down her eyes, and she wasn't able to hold the tears back. "Be careful, make sure you eat a lot…" she started stifling and her nose started running. She wiped the tears from her face and spoke once more. "And… don't forget… that we'll always be friends! We'll always be there for you!"
She yelled out loud, hoping to send the most important message across. She didn't want him to forget about their time together.
Jellal was speechless, he felt the tears coming out of his eyes. He was happy to hear those words from her. He was glad that he met her and Ichigo, but was upset that he had to leave the two of them here. He was going to miss these interactions.
"Yeah, we're always friends," Jellal said sadly.
"This is only going to be a temporary farewell" he heard the voice come from Ichigo. "We will meet each other one day. So the two of you shouldn't be upset… Instead, you should live on waiting for the day we meet once more." Wendy and Jellal looked at the boy, this was the biggest smile they have ever seen from the boy. The older man smiled at the boy's words.
Wendy wiped her tears and walked back to Ichigo. She wasn't crying anymore. Ichigo was right, this wasn't going to be their last interaction. She shouldn't be crying. She should be sending Jellal off with a bright smile.
"You're right. This isn't going to be the last time we see each other." Jellal said with hope. "Goodbye, my friends…till we meet again" Jellal lastly declared before walking away.
All three bid their farewells. They weren't sad, no tears had been shed, only their bright smiles were shown.
Goodbye can be easy. Goodbyes can shatter someone's soul. Yet, there exists proof of a loving bond. Maybe one day they will meet again. It is never goodbye, only farewell.
I just wanted to say that when I used the name Karen and wrote about rude and mean relating to Karen. I don't mean that everyone whose name is Karen is like that. I hope you understand.