Breathe in, breathe out. You can do this. It is simple, get in there and ask to join. Uncomplicated, right?
The show at least made it seem very easy, and I am confident that I can grow strong enough in time. Besides, there is no better place if I intend to make sure that the disasters coming to this place won't actually happen.
Putting my hand over the small staff on my hand I clutch it tightly, ready to use what energy I have to protect myself in case something comes flying my way.
Seriously, how did it come down to this? One moment I was working my ass off due to the tests in college, next I know I am in Fiore Kingdom, on Magnolia no less, and with a flask in my hand with a paper explaining what was inside it.
Honestly, it sounded like a bad dream all around, but after days here and seeing that the paper's explanation of the contents of the flask was real, I could only accept reality and make a plan of action.
Fairy Tail world, the world where the 'power of friendship' is a thing and most likely will make just about anyone be able to become twenty times stronger as well as impossible to kill... I can't believe that.
Sure, it is the 'CANON' I know, but this here is the real world for me, and believing that one cannot die is stupid, and believing that everything will inevitably be alright and that I do not need to worry is equally idiotic. So, what should I do?
What I am doing as I walk toward the guild hall of Fairy Tail? Well, I am hoping to join it.
This is the guild that has basically all the plot and dangers related to it, so the best thing to be done is to join in and hope to make sure that this whole continent is not pulverized later on by who knows what anymore.
It is not exactly what I would consider ideal, but it is as good as it can get I suppose. Of course, I had to make sure I was strong enough before I join, so I spent the last few days preparing myself just in case. As for why it is nighttime when I am going to the guild, well, I just figured that it would be safer to join at night a bit after dinner since most guildmates should be going home so there is less of a chance of me getting into one of their fights or arguments.
Safety is important, after all.
"Iron Dragon's Cub!"
Weird, is Gajeel fighting someone here on the outskirts of Magnolia?
Moving towards the sound I see Gajeel with his hand turned into a steel mace hitting Droy, the dude pucking blood from the impact as Gajeel smirks. On Gajeel's feet, there was the other male member from team Shadow Gear, Jet, who was already defeated with his leg turned into a bad angle and bones peaking out.
Shit, this is the Phantom Lord invasion arc.
"Solid Script, fire!" Levy yells as she finishes writing 'FIRE' on the air, it turns into actual fire and launches at Gajeel who uses his mace for an arm as a defense.
"Weak. You fairies are too weak!" Gajeel said and threw Droy away before jumping at Levy, ready to bash her in.
My hand move fast I take out one of the cards I had on the ready in case of emergencies.
"Summon, Great Shield Gardna!" I say as, from the card in my hand, a man with hair similar to Gajeel and a large shield appears, easily blocking the attack before Levy.
My presence seems to stun all fighters, but not a moment later Gajeel just grins and jumps at me.
"Another Fairy to squash?!"
This guy really has some mental problems, like, seriously what the fuck is wrong with him?
Thankfully, Gardna jumped ahead of me once again.
"Stay behind me, master." Gardna said and I nearly choked at hearing him speak, not realizing I actually gave him that much magic, but I need to focus. Now that I was in this fight I put the Millenium Rod in front of me and use it to blast Gajeel away with its psychic powers.
He is sent flying back, hitting the wall of the building, and breaking it. Gajeel, however, seems unaffected as he just spits to the side and shows a crazy smile.
"Interesting, you seem like a good fight!"
Not wanting to deal with him I use another card, hoping it can work.
"Activate magic, Swords of Revealing Light."
As I say this several light swords fly out of the card in my hand and cover Gajeel on all sides, locking him in place and not letting him escape.
"You think this will stop me?" He sneers as he starts to try and break free. Good thing that, even with my currently meager magic amount it is not so easy to get out of this spell for some time, but it will not last forever.
Turning to Gardna I order.
"Take the wounded, we have to get out of here."
"Understood." Gardna said easily, putting his shield behind him and taking the two beneath his arms.
Levy seems to snap out of it as she was about to speak, so I speak first.
"Where is the safest place around?"
Seeming to understand that I am not an enemy, Levy speaks up.
"I know a place, follow me."
Soon the both of us were running away. I know I might have been able to just finish the fight then and there, but I am not dumb enough to take down Gajeel and get him as a rival or even seriously injure or cripple him. He should be someone that can join the guild in time, the fewer bad feelings between us better, and he can go have his bromance rivalry with Natsu for all I care.
Arriving at a large building that is mostly broken and demolished, I note that Levy is slowing down so I speak.
"Should I heal these two up?"
"You can do that? Then please, heal them." Levy said, her eyes were still a bit wide as she clearly was nervous from the entire past experience.
I nod and take out one of my cards. It is a bit of a shame to use this so soon, but it would be better to gather a bit more goodwill with the guild later.
"Activate magic card, Dian Keto the Cure Master."
As I activate this card, an old woman with brown hair and a light orb in her hands appears and she smiles kindly at me.
"You need healing, master?"
"No, but these two do." I tell her. Since the two were quite bad I invested more heavily in this spell so I am not shocked that she is able to talk like normal even if she is not an actual monster.
"Oh, these poor little ones. Wait just a moment and I will get you both right as rain."
The woman then pointed her light orb at them, the light shining down at them and they visibly healed before our eyes. Even the broken leg of Jet healed then and there without any issues.
"Amazing." Levy says as she watches the healing proceed. After it was over Dian Keto turned to me and says.
"Don't forget to call me if you need healing. Oh, and I and some friends were planning to drink some tea tomorrow, would you like to come as well, Master?"
Keto really is a nice old lady, and the cookies and pastries she and the Aroma girls make are top-notch, truly great stuff, but I doubt I would have time for it tomorrow.
Not with this whole Phantom Lord thing happening.
"Sorry, maybe next time." I say and she smiles kindly.
"That is fine, it seems like you will be getting busy. Until next time then, master."
With that, Keto disappears as she returns to the Spirit World.
Thankfully, the commotion and the magic seems to have warned the ones inside the building as a short old man with a white beard and hair only on the sides of his head showed up.
"What is going on here?" Makarov asks as soon as he gets out, his eyes turning from one side to the other before zeroing in on Levy and the two guys on the floor as well as me and Gardna who moved in front of me before I even said anything.
He really is quite the guardian, neet. Shame that he can't attack with any strength at all.
"Levy, what happened?"
"We were attacked. I and the guys were attacked by Gajeel from Phantom Lord, if not for this man I don't know what would have happened to us." Levy says, her gaze turning to me and I smile at her kindly.
"Well, not as if I could just stand back and do nothing when someone I hope is a future guild mate is in danger." I said honestly and she widens her eyes.
"Wait, you want to join Fairy Tail?"
"Pretty much." I said easily. "I heard interesting things about Fairy Tail and decided to try and join in, who would expect that things would be so lively before I even join."
Makarov looks me up and down and smiles.
"So, you want to join us?"
"Pretty much." I admit it easily.
"Okay then." He said as easily as I expected before saying. "But this is a bit of a bad time, so it might be best if you join after we deal with all this mess and-"
"Pretty sure I will be targeted now regardless." I said. "That Gajeel guy doesn't strike me as someone who would let things go at all. From the moment I intervened, I was pretty much into this mess with Phantom Lord one way or another."
"... Fine. Go in and wait a bit as I will call everyone inside to discuss what we will need to do. And the friend behind you? Is he joining as well?" Makarov asks and I shake my head.
"Nah, Gardna is one of my Monster Spirits. He isn't even a mage, so he won't join unless he asks for it." I said with a shrug before turning my gaze to him.
"I am well enough, I just need to protect master as well as I can... but if you want to introduce me to Amazones Swords Woman I wouldn't say no, master." Gardna said and I sigh, I knew the guy just for a little while but even then I realized how much of a simp for the Amazones he is.
"I will see what can be done, but don't expect much. I have yet to go and meet the Amazones tribes." I said and he nods before disappearing as well.
"Interesting magic, now get inside. I will take these two to the hospital to make sure they are fine. Levy, you will-"
"I will stay here. I can still fight and I won't be left behind from whatever everyone else will do." Levy said full of determination.
Makarov nods, he seems calm but I feel the pressure as he walks away with Droy and Jet in his hands. He is pissed, and I would not like to be a Phantom Lord member right now.
At least my healing ensures those two will be fine soon enough.
Anyway, we walk inside the guild, no one else is around so we just sit down to wait until everyone is called.
Well, since we will take some time now, I might as well get my cigarette out from a pocket of my suit.
"Shit," I said as I feel inside my back pocket.
"What is it?" Levy asks.
"I guess I lost my lighter on the way over." I said with a groan. And it was quite the cool one too, losing it is a shame.
"Here, let me." Levy says as she writes in the air the word 'fire' a small ball of fire appearing before her that I use to light up my cigarette.
Taking a long drag I exhale the smoke.
"Much better. Thanks, sexy." I said and Levy freezes as I say this. Fuck, I actually let out my thoughts there.
Keep calm, keep calm, I totally intended to call her that. Yeah, totally.
"Uhm, you are welcome." Levy says with her face flushing quite a bit.
Seeing that the mood was awkward, I just continue to smoke for a bit before asking.
"So, you are a user of Word Magic huh. And the type that produces what you write, your magic is quite amazing. So versatile."
Levy winces a bit before she explains.
"Not really, it did nothing when Gajeel showed up."
I just shrug.
"Bad compatibility, I would say, and you were probably too nervous. If you were smart about it you wouldn't even have had needed my help at all."
"Huh? Didn't you see that my attacks did not do anything to him?" Levy said incredulously. "I am just a normal mage, he is a famous S-class dragon slayer, when I tried fighting it did not do any good."
I just look at her with my one open eye and raise an eyebrow.
"Who said anything about fighting him? You should have made a smoke screen to blind him, then probably something to produce a huge sound to disorient him and cause a scene. Considering that the other mages live here in this town, someone would have shown up soon."Removing the cigarette from my mouth I point it at her. "Being versatile means that you shouldn't think you must fight head-on at all times, it means you have a bunch of possibilities on how to tackle a problem."
Levy looks pensive at that.
"You know, I never thought it like that. Everyone around just has so many amazing offensive powers, I may have just copied them."
I put the cigarette back in my mouth and smirk.
"Well, thinking and planning on what to do in such situations is not easy, but I guess you can manage it. You seem like the smart type, after all."
Levy smiles at that.
"Thanks. Oh, and your magic was also quite incredible, I never saw something quite like that before."
"It is called Duel Monster magic. It is a holder-type magic that uses my cards to summon out Duel monsters to fight for me." I explain. "Well, there are more things it can do, but it is mostly some complicated stuff."
"Wow, can you summon someone else for me to see?"
"Fine by me." I said as I open my Aromage deck.
I only had three full decks ready as I had to go and meet the archetype as a group to get these decks out and figure out what they can do exactly. That is what I spent most of my time in this world doing, getting these three decks ready as well as a few cards I specifically prepared for me to deal with emergencies.
"I normal summon, Aroma Jar."
As I say this a chalice with a few candles beneath it appears at the table before us.
"Wait, didn't you say you would summon a monster? Why did you summon this?"
"If it works." I said easily with a shrug before sitting close to it. It was a monster for sure, but looking at it hardly anyone would see it as such. "Besides, it smells good and does wonders for those around it.
As I say this Levy slowly relaxes and smells the aroma emanating as well.
"Wow, this is amazing. And is it just me or are my body and magic reserves recovering faster?"
"As I said, it works." I said smugly.
Sure, the aromages are not all that particularly strong in combat, but they have their own uses just as well.
Levy soon is chilling beside me, her body reclining close to mine but I guess she doesn't even realize that anymore.
After a while like that, I think that Master Makarov and some of the guild members must be coming soon, so I strike up another conversation.
"So... what do you guys do around here when you are not, you know, being attacked and whatnot?"
"We in Fairy Tail mostly go on quests or stay in the guild. It is very fun and everyone is like a family, you will love it, it is very fun."
"That sounds like fun, but I heard there are a lot of brawls in here by the aunts in town. That is even why I decided to come at night," I said and she looks a bit sheepish.
"Well, the guys in the guild are a bit rowdy, especially Natsu. But they are good people so don't worry, you will be friends in no time." Levy said and I just kept smocking for a bit before I ask.
"And what of you? I don't feel like you are the type to get into fights all that much, so what someone as good-looking as you do for fun?" I question, making Levy's ears get a bit red before she answers.
"Well, I like to read. We have a huge library upstairs and I am always on the watch for some new books."
"Really? Then please recommend one or two books for me later." I said. If I am lucky she knows some good books for me to read, it sure would be better than not having anything to read.
It is so boring to not have any book or story to see.
"Wait, you are joking right?"
I frown at her.
"Why do you think I am joking?"
"I mean, you are a man. No man in the guild would read anything, ever. Hells, some I only even know they know how to read because they need to read to take tasks."
"Well, I guess I am different from them then." I said with a chuckle and she looks at me before muttering.
"I guess so."
Well, after that the talk was cut short as Master arrived back with a red-haired bombshell beside him, and not two moments later more and more people arrived. Some were in their PJs even, but not one did not seem pissed as they entered the guild hall.
Now, to meet the Fairy Tail guild, shall we?