Inside the headquarters of the various magic knight squads the next morning. Life appeared to be normal. No one had yet learned of the new foreigner, though that news wouldn't stay hidden for too long.
In the Black Bull's base, Yami Sukehiro was giving his squad their paychecks for the month. He was nonchalant as always and said he would go out to the capital. The other Black Bulls knew he was probably gambling. In typical Yami fashion, he ordered his transportation, Finral, to go with him. Vanessa also tagged along to take a trip to the black market. Overall, the Black Bull's day was pretty standard for them.
At the Golden Dawn base, Captain William Vangeance was doing much the same, and a few Golden Dawn members were assigned patrol over the capital. All seemed normal.
Elsewhere, Lucy had just woken up. The sun was rising and people started crowding the beach. Already, she could tell the day would be tough. She heard whispering among the people, lines such as "did you hear there's another foreigner washed up. They're saying it's the second time this happened in recorded memory" or the slightly more common, "Another foreigner, no one wants her here. We need to keep Clover pure."
"Wow, they don't hold back much, at least in Fiore people were more subtle about their foreigner hate. Not that it didn't exist." I thought. Well, aside from that, I still have to find a more permanent home, get some income, then finally set out to find my friends' keys. Well, it's time to get started.
Walking around the Clover capital at daytime was so much different than what I did last night. The upper-level houses were empty, and stalls selling food and magic items lined the streets. It really seemed like a proper, developed city. Not at all a bad place to be, maybe if there were guilds in the city, I could join one and take jobs. Though, that may not exist in a world where everyone has access to magic. It was weird the first time I saw grimoires or magic being used here; the grimoire shined bright in a color corresponding to the element. I can't say I was used to the open use of magic with Fiore's 10% mages in the population. I remember passing by a meat stall where the shopkeeper used fire magic to cook a large rack of meat. That same thing was common at every food stall. I saw a stand where a person used bubble magic to entertain kids too. It was so lively.
I left the square to head to an empty alley. Before going on, there was still one friend I needed to talk to and catch up with, someone who could support me here. I raised the key with my ring, and called out "Open, gate of the lion, Loke." Unlike past summonings, this time the grimoire on my waist flew out and opened to the corresponding page before glowing with a blinding bright light. A bell rung, and Loke appeared in front of me.
"Don't worry princess, your savior has arrived."
"Oh its good to see you here Loke, did the spirit king catch you up."
"Yes. I heard about everything. I'm so sorry princess." Then, he immediately pulled me into a hug. It was warm, and relaxing. That's right, I wasn't completely alone. "You'll be fine, princess, I'll walk with you today, okay." he continued.
"Right, let's go."
Having Loke by my side, was a big relief since I hated being alone. He was also good at turning away creepy old men, which seemed to be more common here than Magnolia. Eventually, we walked back to the city center. This time, there were a few nicely dressed boys running around, seemingly without much interest in anything until they came across a young boy, no more than 10. Rich snobs, I guess. Then he started talking.
"Hey kid, where'd you get that bracelet from," the bigger of the two rich snobs said.
"My ...my dad gave it to me, it was a birthday present," the kid stuttered out.
"Oh yeah, that looks like a magic item from my family's business, no way a peasant could afford something like that. Spill it kid, where'd you steal it from."
"I didn't steal it!" he exclaimed, suddenly in fear, " I ... I'm not lying" he stuttered again.
Suddenly, one of the snob's grimoires glowed, and a blast of water struck the kid.
"OWIE, why'd you do that."
"We told you, you'd better tell us where you stole that from."
This had me livid, I was ready to jump in, but Loke held me back. "Calm down Lucy, we gotta do this smart," he told me. Instead of charging in just yet, I turned to my side and asked a woman next to me, "Hey is this normal around here?"
"Oh dear, you must be that foreigner everyone's talking about. Yeah, those kids are the sons of an important lord who controls the magic item industry here. Since their daddy's in a high position, they're pretty much free to do whatever they want. This may be the capital in the noble realm, but someone's got to do the menial jobs that keeps a city running. It's not like the magic knights help us much either."
"Magic knights?" I asked.
"Right, foreigner. The magic knights protect the kingdom from crime and other countries, or at least they're supposed to. They're like our police force. Problem is most of them are nobles too, so they wouldn't help protect peasants from themselves."
"What! There's no way that can be right. Don't commoners try to enter." I replied in shock.
"They try, sure, but nobles are born with higher magic powers than any of us commoners. Even if many have tried, very few have passed the exam to make it in. And the more elite squads within the magic knights are completely noble or royal."
"That's not right, I won't stand for this, Loke," I called out. He nodded in understanding.
In front of me, the noble was preparing yet another water attack, and I knew that would hurt if it landed. I had to do something. I wouldn't to see such injustice in any world. With that, my grimoire came out and turned to a new page. This one was filled in and had the constellation Leo drawn on it. I prepared my magic and incanted "Star dress, Leo form." With that, my clothes glowed and shifted until I stood with the star dress ready, my hands glowing in light. Loke was right by me doing the same. Right as the noble prepared his attack, a flash of golden light broke his vision, and Loke appeared in front of him, delivering a swift punch to the gut. I ran towards the other noble and screamed "REGULUS LUCY KICK," with that, pushing him back and clearly hurting him.
"Leave the kid alone," I threatened.
"Who do you think you are. Wait what's with that grimoire, it got a star on it. So, you're that foreigner everyone's been talking about. How about you get out of our country. We don't need foreign filth like you here. Go back to your own country why don't you!" he yelled.
"All I see here is a bully preying on a kid younger than you. You think someone like you can command me. I'm here now, so it might as well be my new home, and I wouldn't want to live in it with you."
"I'll make you regret that" he said, his grimoire flashing. A bigger blast of water was headed towards Loke, and the other one shot fire towards me.
I wasn't fazed in the slightest. I'd faced so many tough opponents in fairy tail, a few kids came nothing close to the toughest I'd faced, even if it was one on two. I was a proud member of team Natsu, who always protected the weak and didn't back down from fights. I wouldn't back down to some schoolyard bullies. I had my whip in hand suddenly and chanted "Shine, oh river of stars." My whip extended to full length and glowed blue and gold. I easily sidestepped the fire blast and had my whip wrapped around the first noble guy. With him trapped, I attacked with a point-blank regulus impact and he was knocked out.
To my side, Loke was also faring well. The zodiac leader had also faced tough enemies. He used a regulus blast to blow through the water attack, then advanced with glowing fists. His enemy dodged backwards and set off another water attack, this time it was a ball that tried to drown Loke. Little did he know spirits didn't need to breathe. Loke quickly let off a regulus impact, which cut straight through the water and hit the noble, knocking him to his knees.
"You need a little lesson in humility. Don't try to attack innocents again, I may not hold back next time," Loke threatened.
I turned to the boy next to me and kneeled down, asking him, "are you okay kid?"
"Yeah, thanks so much pretty lady, I got to keep father's gift!" the kid exclaimed with a smile on his face.
"That's great that you're feeling so well after that event, go on home to your daddy, and make sure to tell him you love him," she chided.
"Right" the kid exclaimed while pumping out his chest, "I'll do for the pretty lady that saved me, thanks so much!"
Lucy could only smile as the adorable 10-year-old boy ran off. He deserved to live somewhere with peace, not where nobles so regularly tormented the poor.
"You did so well there princess, I'll be heading back now, call me out anytime like always," she heard Loke say to her before disappearing into gold smoke. I released all my magic and my dress turned back to normal in a glow. I then put away my grimoire and Loke's key. Well, that was excitement I didn't expect to run into already, its just day one, can't I get a little bit of peace. No, what am I saying, I'm part of fairy tail, of course not. We never get normal.
I was surprised by the sheer inequality I found here. Growing up in the Heartfilia Konzern, I grew up around the nobility of Fiore, and there was a fair share of prejudice there. My family had treated the servants fairly, especially mom. Even in the nobility we had nothing as extreme as this, and this was somehow my first day here. The problem was much worse, I realized. It's probably so deeply ingrained here no one remembers a time before it. If I had to live here, I would at least try to protect the innocent. Well, I guess I would be joining the magic knights then, might as well start change from the inside.
At that moment, as if by coincidence that Lucy had started to think of them, three people walked forward from two directions. From the north came a single man who seemed to be watching the entire time. He wore expensive clothes with red and gold trim, and had a cloak of gold with a sun on it. His hair was light blue, and his eyes were covered by glasses he readjusted. This man was Klaus of the Golden Dawn. From the other direction ran two more people, both in black robes with the image of a bull in yellow on them. One was a woman with pink hair and a pointy hat, the other was a handsome looking brunette man. these two were Vanessa and Finral of the Black Bulls.
Vanessa stepped forward and spoke out, "Well, you don't see that every day. A foreigner with a strange grimoire actually stands up to and stops a noble abusing his power. I'm Vanessa of the magic knights squad the Black bulls, with me is Finral."
From the other side, Klaus used his magic to create steel bindings on the two nobles. "It's not every day I see a noble lose a fight. You girl, you're lucky I got here in time to see the full story. Had I not done that, you may have been brought in for questioning. However, any case of a foreigner ending up in the clover kingdom has to be reported to the higher ups. Can I get your name and magic type."
"Uh, ok fine. I'm Lucy Heartfilia, and I use celestial magic."
"Celestial magic, never heard of that one before," Finral whispered to his partner.
"Well, that's something, it looked powerful. I'm sure we'll meet again soon. I'll let mister stick up his ass there take care of the boring stuff, see ya, Lucy." Vanessa replied, before Finral opened up a portal and left.
What kind of magic was that, he can use portals, and this Klaus guy uses metal. Well, it's not so much different from Earthland, even if they've never heard of celestial before.
"Those fools think they can insult me," Klaus growled. "I'll be taking these two into custody and see what happens. I'll also report that a new foreigner washed up today. I'd recommend you to stay out of trouble like this."
"Klaus, may I ask you a question? I'm still new here and trying to figure everything out. Can you tell me what the magic knights squads are and how you can join?"
"I might as well tell you. The magic knights are under control of the wizard king, the strongest mage in the kingdom. Under his command, the 9 squads, led by a captain. Its members are selected by the captains at the entrance exams, which will be held here in one month. Only the strongest get invited to join, so I wouldn't count on it. Now, I really must be off." With that, Klaus left, dragging the two nobles with his steel magic.
"Can't say I see that everyday either, you're really brave you know." I heard from the woman next to me that I asked questions to earlier.
"Oh it was nothing, I just can stand seeing the innocent suffer like that miss, ... Oh wait I never got your name did I?"
"That's alright, I'm Rebecca Scarlet, and since you helped out here, I might as well help you a bit."
"Oh no I insist please don't"
"Well, since you just arrived here, you must not have a place to stay, you can crash with me if you like. I'll tell you more about clover."
"Oh you're a lifesaver, thanks so much Rebecca."
"Come on, I've had enough of this square for today." And with that, I headed with Rebecca to a hopefully more comfortable night.
In her inn room, I found out a bit more about my newest friend. Apparently, she was the oldest of a large group of siblings who lived in a city called Nean. She also filled me in on the other basics of where I was. This was the capital in what was called the noble realm, where only nobles and their direct servants lived. The capital was a bit freer, but otherwise, commoners could not enter freely. There was the surrounding common realm where most average people lived, then there was the forsaken realm, where the most magicless and poor peasants lived. The divisions were even geographical. She also shared the story of the first wizard king, and how he defeated a great demon to ensure prosperity. The current royal family were that man's descendants, or so it was believed.
"Well, what about yourself, come on there's got to be more to you, anything from your hometown?"
"I guess, its part of why I was affected so much by what those nobles did. I actually grew up in a wealthy noble house. I had everything money could but, well almost everything. After my mother died when I was 9, my father started to care for me less. I had everything except a parent's love. Eventually, it got so bad I had to run away and leave it all behind. I actually joined a mage's guild after that, completely hiding my name, but it took years before I wasn't Lucy Heartfilia the heiress anymore. My guild was my real family, and now I'm all alone here."
"Oh wow I didn't expect that at all. You were born a noble! That's why your magic was so awesome!"
"Don't say that, its cause I worked hard to get here, not cause of who my parents were."
"If only more nobles here could believe that, we may have a fairer world. You shouldn't think too much about your real family, I'm sure they'll be alright. You should get some rest, we'll chat more in the morning."
"Alright then, thanks again for the room."
"No problem, you may have given us commoners a bit of hope. You should go join the magic knights; you definitely have what it takes."
"You think I should do that; well, it's come to mind. I still need a job and my own place first, then I need to find more of these keys," she said holding up her keyring. "The more of these I have, the more powerful my magic is. I've got a month until the exam happens, it's gonna be busy until then.
"i can try to help with some of that, now get to sleep, I said we'll talk more tomorrow."
"Alright alright," I huffed out, not really angry since she'd done so much for me without need. A truly kind soul. I fell on the couch of the inn room, pulled over a blanket, and fell into a relaxing sleep.
AN
A few things, Lucy has only one key to start. This was done to reintroduce the spirits one at a time for better character development, it keeps Lucy balanced since this is post-Alvarez lucy. Also, to keep balance later on, each spirit will be much more powerful than in canon. Power scaling across different shows is hard to get so this helps me scale correctly.