October 31, x775
Levy's introduction to Fairy Tail was different than mine.
Where I had joined the guild without much fanfare beyond Cana dragging me around to introduce me to everyone, Levy was passed around the guild with excitement and cheer.
I couldn't blame them, Levy was frigging adorable. She showed off her magic a few times when she was asked, with little spells like wind and bubbles to the applause of the people she showed it to. She asked everyone who spoke to her a lot of questions as well, and when she eventually asked a question the person she was speaking to didn't know the answer to -or was too awkward to tell a little girl-, she was passed to the next person looking to meet our newest member.
It took a while for her to finally be led to the table the three of us were sitting at. Cana was already grinning at her, Gray was smiling arrogantly, and I was beaming. She smiled widely as she ran over after Genkei pointed her in our direction, throwing herself into a seat next to Cana.
"Hi!" She said excitedly, beaming at us. "I'm Levy McGarden! What are your names?" She spoke quickly and excitedly, like she wanted to learn everything as quickly as possible. Her attitude was also incredibly infectious.
"I'm Helio Dart!" I smiled at her, "It's nice to meet you Levy!" Gray's arrogant smile somehow intensified, and I could almost feel the smug oozing from his pores.
"I'm the Great Gray!" He declared, lounging in his chair as though it were a throne. Cana and I both rolled our eyes at him.
"Where did your clothes go?!" Levy squealed, her face turning every shade of red, and I swore I could see steam coming from her ears. Gray's arrogant stance was immediately shattered by Levy's question, as he began stuttering and looking around in a panic.
"Gah when did that happen?!" Cana and I both broke into laughter as he scrambled around the table, looking for his clothes.
"So much for the "Great" Gray, eh?" Cana teased him, smirking evilly. Gray tried glaring holes into the both of us.
"Eh?" Levy sounded incredibly confused, and I recovered from my laughter before Cana finished teasing.
"Don't mind Gray, he always does that." I waved at him hurriedly putting his clothes on and waved my hand around the guild, where nobody was paying it any mind. "You'll get used to it." Levy nodded uncertainly, I guess she wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing. I didn't really blame her.
"Anyways!" I said, masterfully changing the subject. "How'd you meet Cana and Laxus?" Levy blushed slightly before smiling and launching into her tale.
"I was walking around town with this new book I got from the library and I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." She scratched her cheek. "Laxus grabbed me out of the road before I got hit by some bad guys in a magic mobile." She smiled again, "He stopped the bad guys and told me to be more careful, and then he dragged them off to the guards! He's awesome!" I laughed at her description. Cana hopped in before Levy could continue.
"What she's not telling you is that she followed Laxus around until we got to the train station. We had to make her go tell her grandma she was going to join Fairy Tail before she hopped on the train with us." I raised an eyebrow, was her grandmother senile? Letting an eight year old run off to join a guild, who does that?!
"She was okay with that?" I asked incredulously. My parents had made it clear that they didn't want me running off to join a guild until I was at least a teenager, and Levy's Grandma just let her run off with a teen and a kid she just met to join a guild almost two hundred miles away?
Levy shrugged.
She's probably better off here than with her then.
I shook my head, "Well you're here now Levy, and you're a member of Fairy Tail!" I grinned at her. "Welcome to the guild!" She grinned back at me.
"Thanks Helio! I hope we'll all be great friends!" Cana threw an arm around her, dragging Gray into the embrace by his hair.
"You bet we will!" Cana said ecstatically, Gray grumbled as he fixed his hair, but he didn't resist Cana's pull.
This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
It didn't take long for Levy to prove herself even more different from us than we first thought.
When I'd shown her the archives, I knew she'd be excited. I'd almost ditched Laxus's lessons just to dive into the nearest book I could grab, but she looked so excited I thought she would pass out.
As night fell, I'd been forced to drag her out kicking and screaming to get food in her and force her off to Fairy Hills, with many assurances that the archives would be there tomorrow, but if she didn't take care of herself then I'd tell Master.
The puppy dog eyes she shot me at the threat were deadly.
Thankfully, the matron of Fairy Hills had dragged her inside to get her ready for bed before I could cave to those weapons of mass adorableness.
November 5, x775
Somehow the siren calls of the archives weren't enough for our newest member though, as evidenced by the sight Cana and I found when we returned from a job less than a week after she'd joined.
There, sitting across from a very confused and almost naked Gray, was Levy in what looked a lot like a school uniform.
She was looking at a worksheet with a look of concentration that threatened to set the paper on fire as she tapped her pencil against the table in thought. Cana and I both looked at her in shock.
School wasn't mandatory for kids in wizard's guilds,one of the perks of being in one at such a young age, I suppose. Cana, Gray and I had been told we could attend one of the schools in Magnolia when we had joined, but each of us had shot the idea down immediately. We were kids being told we didn't need to go to school anymore, of course we'd been glad to be free of it!
Levy looked in her element though, she tapped the paper a few more times before she started filling it out at a blistering pace.
"What's with the uniform?" Cana asked as we sat down on either side of Gray. He huffed and crossed his arms as he answered.
"Levy wanted to go to school, obviously." Cana shuddered, and I felt the same instinctive urge as well. I had enough memories of going to school to know I didn't want to go ever again, thank you very much.
"I knew she liked learning, but school?" Cana looked absolutely disgusted. Gray nodded.
"I told her she was crazy." Levy looked up at Gray with a scowl, pulling a pen from her backpack.
"Solid Script: Clothes!" The word shaped clothes formed above Gray's head and showered him. "Wanting to learn isn't weird!" She shouted at him. Gray glared through the sock stuck to his face.
"No but wanting to go to school is just crazy!" I rolled my eyes while Cana giggled.
"What made you want to go anyways?" I asked, "I thought I was going to have to get Cana to help me pull you from the archives again." Levy pouted at the reminder, but her smile made a quick return.
"Magic is great, but I want to learn about more than just that!" She beamed at me. "I want to learn about everything!" I grinned at her, leaning over the table to ruffle her hair. "Hey!" She puffed out her cheeks. I laughed as she tried to look indignant but only managed to be adorable.
At this rate it's not dark guilds, dragons or Zeref that will kill me, it's diabetes.
November 12, x775
"Alright Laxus, let's see if I did this properly!" I shouted out, Laxus leaned against the back of the Guild Hall and nodded. I was facing out towards Lake Scilliora in case something went wrong so I wouldn't break anything. There were a couple of dummies planted near the cliff edge as well, to let us better see the effects it might have.
"I ain't gonna stand here all day, let's get this over with." He grumbled, but I could tell that his heart wasn't in it.
"Alright." I took a deep breath to prepare myself, before shooting my hand out towards the first dummy. "First spell! Fusion!" The spell formed much like a Flare, but it was brighter, and more unstable. It shot out of my hand at a blistering speed and slammed into my target, not so much burning as melting through it.
Then, with a mental command, the reaction destabilized, and exploded inside of it.
Laxus and I both had to dodge some flaming shrapnel, but the grin on my face betrayed my true feelings with the results.
"Hmph, not bad, runt." Laxus said as he patted out a flame on his shirt. "Watch the debris next time." I looked around at the small puffs of flame spread out across the back lawn.
Definitely need to be a bit more careful next time.
After a few minutes of stomping out the small fires, I can't wait for Natsu to show up if this is how my attack tests go! I moved on to spell number two, a variation of my first one, but a second spell nonetheless.
"Fusion Punch!"I launched from my starting point and leapt at the dummy target. The attack connected, and with the same mental command as before, the attack exploded and sent it flying.
This time though, the explosion happened before I had penetrated the target, and acted more like a shaped charge, sending the debris flying in a cone behind it as it shot off the cliff and into the lake.
The added boost that fusion -or at least the magic bullshit version of it- gave my attacks was immense. Flare could burn through those dummies like butter, but it wasn't as fast or as explosive, nor did it or Flare Punch send them flying even half as far as my enhanced versions.
"At least you didn't try to burn the guild down this time." Laxus commented. I felt the heat on my face before I turned around.
"But I didn't!" I said, perhaps a bit petulantly. My smile made a return as I prepared my third and final new attack spell. "Alright, this is my last one, let's see how good it is!" I said excitedly. Theoretically it was stronger than Solar Beam, but not as strong as Solar Flare. It was a step up without getting into "seriously overkill" territory. A niche of power I desperately needed.
I aimed at the clustered together training dummies and took a deep breath, feeling my magic begin to respond to my needs. I closed my eyes and felt it form between my hands as I cried out the spell and opened my eyes, "PHOTON BEAM!"
The attack left my hands as a beam of light. I could just make out the shadow of the wooden dummies as they were vaporized, the beam flying out across the lake before it finally cut out a few hundred feet from where I stood.
Holy shit.
It was definitely stronger than Solar Beam.
I fell to my knees breathing heavily.
It had the cost to match too.
Laxus whistled. "Damn, runt, that actually wasn't bad." He eyed me critically for a moment. "Might wanna work on your magical stamina though. Spell that strong is worthless if it puts you on your ass." I gave him a thumbs up as I laid back on the grass. "We done here? I got stuff to do, you know." I nodded tiredy, Laxus grunted "Remember, you got a lesson with me tomorrow. You better be there." With that, he went back inside.
I laid there taking mental notes on how to refine the spell, I had felt a lot of wasted magic in that spell. It was useful as a beam, but most of it hadn't hit anything after it carved out a trench and vaporized the targets. I'd have to work on making it narrower so that all that damage wouldn't go to waste.
I could cast Solar Beam and Sunny Day about six or seven times each before I was completely drained, but just one of those plus the Fusion spells had me on my back.
Photon Beam was powerful, but not that powerful.
I'd have to refine it, at the very least figure out how to narrow it if I wanted to use it in a combat environment without being useless afterwards.
When I could finally move my arms again, I put the mental notes to paper before deciding an afternoon nap was just what the doctor ordered.
November 15, x775
While I was proud of the progress I had made, there was no way I would use any of those spells against Gray or Cana. I knew they were strong, but the thought of punching my best friends in the face with a magical nuclear reaction rubbed me the wrong way, so I did the next best thing.
"You want to do what?!"
I smiled at him with my most innocent grin. "I want to fight you, Wakaba! It'll be nice to get some practice against a more experienced opponent! Especially one as good as you!" Enno giggled from her spot beside Macao.
Okay, so maybe I was laying it on a bit thick, but Cana had told me the best way to get Macao and Wakaba to do what you wanted was to either blackmail or flatter them into it. Considering I hadn't spent as much time with them as Cana had to gain the former -and I wasn't going to buy it off her, not at the prices she was asking- I decided the latter was the best course to take.
Wakaba smiled arrogantly around his cigarette and looked at me with what I assume was meant to be gravitas. "Well, it is the duty of the older generation to teach their juniors." He paused for a moment and nodded. "Alright Helio, let's take this out back." He stood up and stretched before waving me onwards with him.
Cana was giggling madly by the door, and Gray was grinning excitedly, giving me a thumbs up. I flashed them a grin and headed after Wakaba.
He stood in the middle of the backyard, his hands stuffed in his pockets as he glanced at me over his sunglasses. "You sure about this, kid? You might learn some neat tricks by fighting me, but I don't want ya to get hurt." I grinned at him as I got into a ready position.
"No pain, no gain, right?" Wakaba grinned, Cana ran between us.
"This fight will end when one side is either unable to fight, or forfeits, do you both understand?" The both of us nodded, she leapt out of the way and sprinted back to her spot beside Gray. "Then begin!"
"Lesson one, kid, always take initiative! Smoke Crush!" Fist shaped smoke came shooting from Wakaba's cigarette, and I was forced to roll to the left to dodge. He cast another three and I was forced to keep moving to avoid the attacks. He was putting on pressure, but it wasn't the best he could do, I could tell. He looked far too relaxed to be trying too hard.
My observation had me trip over a tendril of smoke, and I was put on my ass by another fist.
Alright. That's enough of that.
I leapt up from my position, dodging around a smoky foot before jumping over one last fist, my hands held together, and went on the offensive. "Flare!" Wakaba leaned to the side, the attack almost hitting him. "Fusion!" He sidestepped to avoid it this time, and I grinned as I triggered the explosion, sending him flying. I cast Flare twice more, keeping him on his toes as I closed the distance.
"Nuh-uh kid!" Wakaba jumped away from me with a smirk. "You're better than I thought you'd be, but- urk!" His sentence was cut off by a Flare Punch in his gut. He groaned as he doubled over, but he recovered quickly.
"What the hell was that, Helio?!" He said angrily.
His anger wasn't helped by the fact I was forcing him to dodge again and again as he tried to speak.
"This is a fight, not a conversation."I stated plainly, "Fusion Punch!" Wakaba dodged it again, but he seemed to have learned from the first attack that Fusion meant explosive, as he leapt instead of leaning or blocking.
"I see how it is! Smokescreen!" The landscape was immediately covered in a thick layer of smoke and I had to force back a curse as I started to turn warily, trying my best to sense Wakaba through it all. "Smoke Fake." The spell was spoken quietly, but I heard it all the same.
I had to be careful here, smoke reflected light, if I used the wrong attack, or missed, then I would be good as blind and this fight would be over in a second. Í could see multiple silhouettes through the smoke, but my senses weren't sharp enough to pick out which Wakaba was the real one.
"Smoke Crush!" I was forced to dodge an attack from all sides, groaning in surprise and pain as I punched in the gut before being slammed into the ground. I had to get out of this somehow, if this smokescreen lasted much longer, then I'd be toast! I pulled myself together, just barely managing to dodge his next attack.
"Feel free to forfeit, I know how tough it can be to find your way in there." Wakaba taunted me. I grit my teeth.
"We're both Fairy Tail wizards, old man! We don't know the meaning of defeat!" I called out into the smoke, Wakaba's response was joyful laughter.
"That's the spirit, Helio! Let's see how you get out of this!" The smoke thickened further, and even the silhouettes of Wakaba's fakes became indistinct. I didn't have much time before the next attack. I had to think fast.
I had a spell that could work, but it hadn't been tested out yet. It was now or never if I didn't want to lose. "Solar Wind." Sunlight streamed off of me, the heat skyrocketed as wind began to kick up around me, I waved an arm to direct it, and the winds blew to my left, which should put it over the lake…
"Damnit Helio! Watch where you're aiming!"
Or directly into Cana and Gray's face.
Guess I'd gotten turned around.
"Sorry!" I shouted before I jumped back to dodge Wakaba's next attack. A barrage of fists landed in the general area of where I'd just been standing. "Fusion!" I triggered the explosion just as it passed by Wakaba, buffeting him, but not doing much damage as he dodged. He grinned around his cigarette, and I felt one cross my face as well.
Wakaba seemed to be done playing around, because he wasn't even trying to speak now, simply sending attacks after me relentlessly, barely giving me any time to breathe. It was a good tactic, he was an adult, by definition he had more magic power than me. In theory, he could just keep up the barrage until I tired out.
Luckily for me, my newest spell had given me a hell of an advantage.
I just had to get enough space to cast it.
I stepped more than dodged around the attacks, conserving energy as I dipped around fists, feet and bats made of smoke, looking for my opportunity. I kept my eyes locked on Wakaba, waiting for just the right moment, for him to just breathe- there! He was tapping the ash off his cigarette!
"Solar Wind!" The winds whipped up once more, and I directed them towards Wakaba. He looked surprised for a moment before he was buffeted by the strong winds and heat, his Smoke Crush blown away.
I took advantage of the opening, I wasn't naive enough to think that was it. I rushed into attack, my fist glowing with solar energy as I leapt at Wakaba. "Fusion Punch!" He bent over my fist as I uppercut him in the gut and triggered the reaction, sending him into a front flip over my head.
CRASH
Directly into one of the windows.
"WHICH ONE OF YOU BRATS IS TRYING TO DESTROY MY GUILD?!" My eyes widened at the shout, and with fear beginning to bubble in my gut, I turned and came face to face with a very upset looking Master Makarov standing in the doorway.
I grinned sheepishly at him and waved nervously. "Hi Master! I didn't know you were back from your conference!" I could almost see the vein on his forehead twitch.
That wasn't good.
"Helio Dart! Inside! Now!" Cana and Gray were looking at us both with wide eyes.
"Oh man, he got the full name treatment." I heard Cana say quietly. Gray nodded.
"Gramps ain't happy." I felt my heart in my throat as I shuffled inside, my thoughts going into overdrive on worst case scenarios.
I only made it a few steps inside before Master placed a hand on my shoulder, his face now completely unreadable as he looked me in the eye. I held his gaze, trying not to look away, this was almost worse than if he just yelled at me-
"Good job son! That was a heck of a punch!" He said, his face breaking out in a grin. I could almost hear Cana and Gray's jaws hit the floor. "I've not seen a kid beat a member of the guild that much older than them since Laxus was your age!" He laughed heartily. "Did you think you were in trouble?" He asked with a mischievous look, I nodded dumbly. His expression turned stern again, "Good! Don't go breaking my guild in your spars! It doesn't matter how impressive it was!" Then he was all smiles again as he tottered off. I turned towards Gray and Cana with wide eyes.
"Scary" The three of us mumbled. The spell was broken by Macao's guffaws.
"You got beat by a kid!" He managed to get through his laughter. "Oh that was priceless! You should have seen the look on your face, man!" Wakaba rubbed a bump on his head.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll get him next time." He said, I grinned at him as I walked over to their table.
"You do know how weird that sounds considering you're talking about a kid right?" I said. Macao started laughing again, Wakaba gave me the stink eye.
"I'll be ready next time, ya caught me off guard, that's all."
"Excuses, excuses." Macao jabbed, Wakaba groaned.
"I'm never gonna live this one down, am I?"
"Not in a million years."
When Levy returned from school that day, I was still keyed up from my win, and was more than happy to fill her in on it when she asked.
"Wow Helio, that's amazing! You actually beat a grown up member of the guild?!" I grinned, probably more than a little arrogantly as I nodded.
"It was just Wakaba, I can probably beat him too." Gray cut in, popping my bubble of happiness.
"Good luck getting him to fight any of us now, I don't think his pride can take another loss like that." Cana said with a smirk. "Still, it was impressive, just not that impressive."
"My poor ego, gone before its time." I mumbled. Levy, the little traitor, giggled at my perfectly justified reaction.
"If you wanna be really impressive, try beating Laxus or something." Gray smirked.
"Do you want me to die?" I shot back. "How about I just beat you instead?" I smirked, lighting my fist. Gray gave me a challenging grin.
"Just cause your spells explode now doesn't mean you'll beat me!" Cana rolled her eyes at both of us.
"Ugh, boys." I looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Like you're not gonna join in." She stopped for a moment, then shrugged.
"Yeah, that's fair." She looked over at Levy. "You want in on this? We've not had a chance to see what you can really do yet." Levy looked absolutely terrified at the thought.
"Nononononono!" She said, waving her hands frantically. "You'll kill me!" The three of us looked at her, very alarmed.
"No we won't! We wouldn't go that hard on you!" I said quickly, throwing an arm around her in comfort. "How about this, instead of the three of us all fighting each other, we go out back and you can show us how your magic's coming along? We can give you tips and stuff." Cana nodded quickly, Gray looked stuck.
"I kinda wanted to fight though." I rolled my eyes, trying to grab him by the shirt, only to find it gone.
"Gray, your clothes." He looked down and grabbed his shirt from the floor. "I'll kick your ass later, if you still wanna go. I want to see what Levy can do though, we haven't seen her use much of her magic yet." Gray grumbled, but he didn't say anything else.
"C'mon then, let's go!"
Solid Script was a very versatile magic, but it had its limits, which Levy had been more than happy to explain to us after she finished showing off the spells she knew.
"My magic depends on how much I understand the thing I'm making." She'd explained like a teacher giving a lecture. "It also costs more the more specific I am. Sunlight would cost more than just light, oxygen more than air, that kind of thing." She shrugged at us, "It's got a lot of possibilities, but I have to learn a lot more to get strong like you guys!"
It wasn't hard to understand. If Levy could just walk into a room and cast Solid Script: Black Hole, she would be incredibly overpowered. It made sense that she was limited to more basic concepts and attacks. We'd have to help her understand things better when we got the chance. It would only help her in the long run, and Levy had a lot of potential. Still, that didn't mean she couldn't gain a bit more utility earlier on.
"I found a book on Rune Magic if you're interested." Levy nodded excitedly.
"That would be awesome!" She squealed. "Runes are so cool! I've read about them, but I hadn't thought about learning how to use them yet!" I smiled and motioned for her to follow me. Giving her more utility would be useful, and the idea of Levy teaching Freed how to use his own magic is funny to me.
"Alright, it's in the Archives, if you actually follow me, and don't get lost in the stacks, I can show you where it is." She pouted at my teasing, but followed along eagerly nonetheless.
To her credit, Levy did manage to follow me without getting distracted.
She just waited until I handed her the book before she disappeared into the stacks.
You know, in hindsight? I really should have seen that coming.
A/N: Hello again! I hope this chapter was as fun to read as it was to write! I cranked this out in like two days.
Thanks again to FFN user obliviousss for brainstorming and letting me bounce ideas off of him!
See y'all next time!