Year x772
The countries of Ishgar were divided, more than most wanted to admit. It wasn't to the point of war; although that statement may have been different a decade earlier, it was still difficult to say things were cohesive. Nestled between the stability of the Peninsular region of Fiore in the West and the economic prosperity of the Pergrande Kingdom in the East, the multitude of smaller areas in between were hard-pressed to make their success.
Some had, the Sevii islands to the south, made a peaceful living off of Fish and Tourism, while Desierto had a horde of spices and monsters to sell to those brave enough to find them. Yet with every success story, a Bosco bathed in crime or Joye wiped out in a single night was on the other side. While some nations thrived in Ishgar, others struggled.
"Drip, drip, drop..."
None more so than Midi, a coastal nation on the southeast corner of Ishgar's peninsula.
"Drip, drip, drop." The five-year-old girl murmured, watching the summer rain battering against the glass. It was always like this in Midi. The monsoons of the southern ocean brought rainstorms that lasted weeks. The people had learned to build houses of wood and willpower to withstand the rain, but it was cold and heavy most days. It was even worse during the spring months, but she hadn't seen it this year.
Her family had been traveling that spring. Working connections and building up the family business in a different country. They had already been one of the wealthier families in Midi, but that wasn't saying much to her parents. Mother was eager to leave and climb to a higher standing in a well-known country. Father wanted to turn the family business into an empire, something that couldn't happen in Midi, so her family looked for a new life that spring.
They found it in Bosco, in the city of Sun. It's ironic, the name, but truthful in some aspects. The little girl didn't understand many of the adult conversations she had been privy to during the stay, preferring to keep to her novels more than anything, but she got the gist. A city that shone on those wealthy enough to take the sun peek out of the clouds.
"Drip, Drip, Drop..."
A city that would smother those that couldn't.
"Drip, drip, drop." The little girl murmured as she heard the rain beating harder on the metal roof. She could count on her hand the number of people in Midi who could afford a metal roof. She liked the tin rattle above her head, soothing her as she counted the rhythmic raindrops outside. She wouldn't be able to count them soon.
"Mom, when are we leaving?" the girl asked as her mother was busy putting the last papers together for the move. She saw her mother glance at her before the little girl returned to the stained glass window. She already had an idea, but it wasn't pleasant.
"Tonight, my love."
The little girl doubted she'd ever see Midi again.
"We're leaving tonight." Her mother whispered, returning to her work as the little girl frowned. Turning back to the window. She saw an enclave outside the pouring rain, where the thick jungle trees sheltered from the pouring rain. Her mind flashed to a distant memory, and she smiled, "Hey, Mom. Can we play with dolls outside? The rain-"
"I'm busy right now, darling," her mother said, waving her off as the little girl stilled. Her eyes are low as she turned towards the corner and picked up a pair of dolls, frilly dresses, and parasols. She didn't need to listen to her mother's departing message, spoken through the pages of checkbooks.
"Play by yourself for a little bit, dear."
She had heard it a lot recently.
"Okay, Mom, " the girl whispered as she grabbed her pink parasol and walked out the door. Splashing in every puddle she came across, she thought back to when they used to play dolls together in the rain without a care in the world. Mother would pick the one with the pink dress and say, "Now, pretty Cindy, where is your mother?"
She would take the one with the blue dress and say.
"She's out here somewhere, Lou; I can't seem to find her. Could you help me?"
No, that wasn't right. The little girl would try and make her words seem fancier. To mimic the princesses and nobles, Dad would tell her about them in her bedtime stories. She'd say.
"She ventured over yonder, Lou. However, I can't seem to locate her. Could I pardon you for some assistance, Madam."
Mother laughed and pointed over the biggest puddle, weathering the rain that had become second nature to Midi's residents.
"Why, of course, my dearest friend, Cindy," Mother would've said. "I think I saw her that way. She seems to be on the other side of this giant lake, the most vicious of Ishgar. If you aren't careful, you might drown. What will you do, Cindy?"
"Then I'll build a boat!"
"How will you build a boat? With what ingredients? Please enlighten Cindy, I pray you."
"Sticks and stones, my dear Lou. Sticks and stones, " the little girl would say happily, finding nearby twigs and grass and hoping to tie them together into a vessel. Her mother would chuckle and join in the process, the two dolls becoming friends as they ventured to find the girl's lost mother.
It was fun when it was just the two of them, but the couple of times Dad joined in was even better.
It was less fun alone.
"Hello, Lou." The little girl said as she shook the pink dress-up doll in her right hand, plopping it into the ground at the edge of the large puddle. Her eyes were low as she took the blue doll in her left hand and shook it: "Why hello, Cindy. I fancy seeing you here. I haven't seen you in..."
The little girl felt the rain slip past her parasol, balanced on her shoulder to keep the rain at bay.
"I haven't seen you in forever."
It trailed down her cheeks, and she stopped playing with her dolls. Her eyes closed as she took a deep breath. She looked at the doll with the pink dress before she shook the blue doll, and the blue doll whispered, "We have a lot to catch up on, Lou. Look. I... I want to introduce you to my friend."
The blue doll pointed to the little girl.
"Her name is Juvia."
The pink doll turned towards the little girl.
"Juvia wants to play with us."
When she looked back, Juvia would remember her last day in Midi as the day she learned how to play alone.
April 28, x777
When Juvia recalled her first time in Sun City, she remembered vertigo. The spring her parents took her to the towering industrial city to scope out a new home was a dizzying experience. She remembered getting lost in the buildings that crawled high above the canyon where the city rested.
The highest levels of the town had been off-limits to them, but they visited the middle tiers, where sunlight still hit, but the breeze wasn't present. Where shadows of the taller skyscrapers would still blot out the morning dawn but not the afternoon heat.
The first time she visited Sun City, she thought it was ironic.
She recalled the whispers of the lower levels, where the towering skyscrapers and high canyon walls blotted out sunlight for years on end. She wondered what it would be like to live down there without sunlight for some people's entire life.
When she asked her parents, they assured her it would never happen. They said it was like a bad omen but never answered her question. She never figured out what it would be like to live without the sun until her second visit to Sun City, to Bosco, when her family moved to the middle tiers.
Since that day, rain has constantly hung over Sun City, and dark clouds have hung over even the peaks that used to bathe and gleam with sunlight. Whether it be a sprinkle or a downpour, it was easier to find days in Sun City when the sky was dark than when it wasn't. Juvia should know. She'd tried. Looking around the middle city, hoping this would be one of the sparse days when it wasn't stormy. It was one of the things she did in her free time.
She wandered whenever her parents weren't home or one of their negotiations with the upper levels went long. They said they were close to a breakthrough and might all live topside soon. Juvia didn't mind Middle City, but it would be interesting.
Maybe Juvia will see the sun up there.
Juvia wasn't the luckiest. The few weeks a year when Sun City wasn't raining, she was usually really sick. Bedridden with massive migraines. She tried to silence them so she could see them—the sun, the clear sky that even Midi had rarely offered her. Most of the time, she got better too little too late. Just in time for another downpour, and that would be it.
No sun. No clear sky. Just rain.
Juvia hadn't seen the sun in...
Well, since she moved to Sun City, probably.
"Drip, drip, drop," Juvia mumbled as raindrops fell against her bedroom window. Her family lived in one of the many spires shooting out of the canyon where Sun City's foundations lay. They were halfway up, where the metal streets hanging across the canyon walls could still reach, and her window gave her a view of most of the middle levels.
The view was... strange, to say the least.
She got to see Middle City and what towered above it and sunk beneath it. There were supposedly gardens and man-tended vegetation on the upper levels, but in the middle city, there was more metal than not. Still, it was better than below, supposedly a jungle of concrete and rusted iron pipes everywhere.
"Drip, drip, drop."
Her parents told her it was dangerous down there. Even if they didn't, she would've known. All Middle City residents talked about it and warned their children about what happened below. Juvia didn't hear much, but what she heard from whispers and rumors made it seem like three dark guilds controlled everything down there.
"Drip, drip, drop."
The locals called them the triad, and from how her parents reacted whenever strangers whispered about it, they were the scariest thing in Middle City.
"Drip, drip, drop," Juvia murmured, tapping her finger against the glass as she watched the outside world. Her head tilted slightly as she saw the grey clouds overhead. She hadn't meant to, but she sat by her window sill for a few hours. Until her father came up in a half-buttoned suit, "Hey, sweetie. Your mom and I are going to that dinner we told you about. We'll be back in a few hours, okay."
"Okay." Juvia said, "Can I go too?"
"Sorry, sweetie, not today." Her father said, finishing up his tie as he explained, "Today we're meeting a representative for a very important company. If all goes well, we might be able to meet the President tomorrow, and after that, it's smooth sailing."
"That's good," Juvia said lifelessly, her back to the window as she fiddled with her clothes. It wasn't like she wanted to go to the fancy dinners. They were too stuffy for her tastes. Whenever her parents allowed her to go, she wasn't allowed to do much. She usually just ate food and settled somewhere out of sight.
She didn't enjoy them, honestly.
It had just been... well it had been a while since she'd spent time with her parents. Dinner was a good excuse, but apparently it was too important.
"Juvia," Juvia flinched, forcing the strange words out of her mouth, "I will wait for your return."
"Thanks, sweetie." Her father said, a flicker of relief flashing across his face as he finished his tie. He smiled as he turned to leave. Juvia watched silently, asking before she could help herself, "When you get back," she said, watching her father turn. She gulped before asking, "Can we read together?"
Juvia didn't know why she asked sometimes.
"Sorry, sweetie, I'll probably be back late."
It had been years since they moved to Bosco.
"Maybe next time."
The answer never changed.
Juvia spent an hour or so looking out the window of her room before wandering around Middle City until her parents returned. She walked in the faint drizzle with a parasol and a painted and damaged pink doll in one hand. She made it about an hour from her house before she heard the heckles. She listened to the faint pitter-patter of April showers, nearly masking the taunting laughter of children her age.
"Everyone watch out. It's the gloomy girl!"
She wished it had rained louder so she hadn't.
"Run, she's going to curse us with her freaky doll," a group of 11-year-old boys, Juvia's age, taunted as she walked the streets of the middle city. They laughed and scampered to the local jungle gym, the closest thing the middle town had to a park. Surrounded by a small outcropping of grass that was always freshly watered and a few trees that had started to die without sunlight.
"Look, the rain-haired girl is leaving! Watch her, go!"
Juvia heard them laugh from atop the metal bars of the jungle gym.
"Rain woman, rain woman, run, run away!"
She hurriedly passed the chants, refusing to look up from the rain pitter-pattering on the ground. She wasn't gloomy; she wasn't. There just wasn't a lot to be happy about. She had been labeled as strange since she got here. Blue hair wasn't typical in Bosco like it was in Midi. Add that to the rain somehow always falling the hardest around her, and her chances to make friends were pretty much zero. Everyone called her gloomy because of it. She wasn't.
Juvia can be happy... she can play with others.
Juvia had played with her parents just fine before... well before they got busy. But! Juvia played with her dolls just fine! Even if she couldn't carry Cindy or Lou around simultaneously, she played equally with them. Today was Lou's turn. Juvia clutched the tattered doll closer to her chest as she whispered, "Juvia isn't gloomy."
Lou was nice. The children were mean. She didn't need friends if they were mean.
Juvia doesn't need anyone but Mom and Dad... they don't think Juvia's gloomy.
Juvia idly felt rain trickle down her cheek, ignoring it as she walked through the empty streets. She must've walked a while without paying attention to where she was going because she didn't notice when the faint musk of the middle city turned rancid.
She didn't see the curious looks turning to suspicious glares. She didn't notice it. She didn't notice she was getting closer to the lower parts of the middle city, closer to the drop that took those unfortunate souls down to the lower levels—the underbelly of Sun City, where it was always dark and always dangerous.
She didn't notice anything until the edge of her parasol hit a wall. She looked up, surprised to see a large, bald, muscular, scarred man with a black fuzzy beard. His back was to her, but she could see a flash of lightning in the stormy backdrop. The rain was getting louder, and lightning looking back, she wondered if it was a warning. She saw a tattoo on his neck that looked like a dog's jaw or a shark's, maybe since there were bubbles around it.
"Well, looky here? You lost little girlie?"
It looked strange.
"Why don't I help you find your way home."
Like it was hungry.
When Juvia woke up, it was dark. She blinked pitch black vision, the vibrations under her making it seem like she was in the back of a wooden cart. She heard the man from the middle city with the weird tattoo somewhere outside, "Oi, don't miss the turn, dumbass. The boss will kill us if we lose this one. I can smell the topsider money on her."
"Good on you, rookie. You wanna try drivin' this shit. With rain and now fuckin' light."
"Figure it the fuck out, freelancer! Cuz I guarantee Mako's gonna rip us apart if we're late!" The man yelled over the roar of rain somewhere outside, and Juvia realized she was being taken somewhere. She was stashed in the back of a cart after being knocked out back in the middle of the city. It was weird. She didn't even remember it. She had tried leaving before something, cloth-like, was put over her mouth. Everything went dark afterward.
Mom and Dad are going to be worried.
That wasn't good. Juvia wasn't supposed to worry them. It made them distracted, and if they were distracted, they couldn't work. She needed to get out of wherever she was. The road felt rocky, so she must've been on the city's lower levels. Or she wasn't even in Sun City anymore. That would be worse.
Mom and Dad can't leave the city. They said they were meeting someone important soon.
Juvia couldn't bother them. She couldn't mess anything up.
I have to get out before-
"We're here!" the man in the front yelled over the downpour, and Juvia gulped as she heard metal creaking. She felt the cart jolt beneath her as she grabbed her parasol and doll and waited tepidly. She had to squint as the light leaked through the wooden enclosure, and the man who took her shouted, "Get her out of there! The boss is waiting!"
"Aye, aye, rookie." the other one grumbled owrh a strange accent, and Juvia had to squint as the back doors to the cart were pried open. She tried jumping out, parasol and doll still in her grip, only for the man to catch her and laugh, "Aye there, lass. Not so fast. You're about to make my protege some money."
"Let Juvia go!' Juvia yelled as she struggled in the man's grip. "Juvia doesn't have any money!"
"Aye, but I bet 'er parents do." The man chuckled, pinning her under his arm and carrying her like a bag. He was leaner than the other but just as muscular, with a thin, faded klingon orange beard and a freshly lit cigar. Surprisingly he was older than her initial captor, maybe in his 50s, late fourties if she was generous, and wore a suit. His greying orange hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she smelled his smoky breath whenever he spoke.
"An' what the fuck is the third person shit?" He said, "You slow or somethin'?"
"Juvia isn't slow."
"Dregg doubts it." The older man said, hints of age showing on the wrinkles in his piercing yellow eyes. "An' shut it, lass. We're here."
"Where?" Juvia whispered as she glimpsed large metal gates slowly opening. It looked like they were walking into an old factory.
"Shark's Bane." The man chuckled, "The Dark Guild."
Juvia gulped as the doors opened, and the man carried her inside. The inside was filled to the brim with dozens of shady individuals. She saw a woman with spiky hair and a man with an anchor attached to a chain. Juvia was carried inside, and the gates closed behind her until she was dumped at the foot of a rusted throne in front of the crowd.
A young man, muscular, lean, and shorter than a few others, was sitting on it. Narrow blue eyes and jet-black slicked-back hair matched his caramel skin. He wore junkyard clothes, and a shark-tooth necklace hung on his neck. The man spoke commandingly, "She topside?"
"Fuck am I s'possed to know, Mako? I'm just doing this as a favor." the orange-haired man puffed on his cigar. "If it helps, the parasol is clean, and the doll looks exotic."
"The doll looks old."
"Old and exotic." The orange-haired man shrugged. "Now, you gonna give me a gift of gratitude or not? I know you got a lot of goods you pilfered back there."
"Don't push your luck, Dregg," The man scowled, snapping his fingers as a pair of guild members walked out of the backrooms. Handing Dregg a book that he slipped into his coat pocket.
Dregg smirked and headed out, stalling as the man on the throne asked, "You decide yet?"
"Wha? 'Bout your little war?" Dregg scoffed, "Nah, I'll pass. Good luck."
"Don't make a mistake, Dregg." The man on the throne growled, "You're going to regret watching us all squabble like we can't ever reach you. I won't lose to Vince or Osha. And with their forces under my control, even you won't be able to stay neutral."
"You're the only one who considers my retirement as neutrality."The man waved dismissively, turning and walking out of the room without a glance backward. The man's departing chuckle echoed through the crowd, "Can't say I hate that about you. Down 'ere it pays to be 'hungry. Don't forget it, Mako."
"Fuck you." The man on the throne said as the orange-haired man walked out of what Juvia assumed was a guild hall. Everyone had a mark similar to the bald man that took her, someone she noticed standing in the back corner with a pale expression. She heard a few whispers pointed his way, and people started shifting away. No one wanted to stand near him.
"Poor newbie. Heard him yelling at Dregg." One of the many whispers hit her ears.
"He'll be dead by morning." She heard another answer, and before she could hear the rest of the conversations, her attention was drawn to the man on the throne. If she remembered, Mako sat on his chair and scowled in her direction, "Tadpole. What level do you live on? Top floor?"
"I'm from the middle levels," Juvia answered, watching the man's eyes twitch in anger. He growled, and some people near her instinctively backed up. She watched his fingers dig into the metal throne and chip it, "Middle? You're from the middle levels?"
"Yes."
"Who caught her!" The man on the throne scowled, and Juvia saw the crowd instantly distance itself from the bald man who took her. He tried to stammer out, "Wait! I didn't know! About her or Dregg! I promised I wouldn't-"
The man's apology lasted a few sentences before a blue magic circle appeared in front of the guild master's chest, and a geyser of steaming hot water rocketed forward, punching a hole through the bald man and leaving the scent of iron and silence through the air. Juvia had to look away from the corpse that fell, her breath quivering slightly as the rest of the guild continued like it was normal.
"Seriously." The man on the throne scoffed, "Fucking idiots working under me. Take tadpole somewhere else. We'll use her to get as much money as her pissant parents have to offer. The rest can wait till after tonight. I don't want anything getting in the way when we flip the underworld on its head."
"Got it, sir!" One of the guild members called, and Juvia turned to see a brown-haired man reach for her. She tried to escape, dropping her doll in panic before everyone in the dark guild was distracted by a woman running in from the back rooms. Her frantic, disheveled appearance drew the attention of the man on the throne, who she figured was the guild master.
"What's going on? " the guildmaster yelled, his eyes bulging in fury as a few others scampered around frantically. Juvia watched tepidly as a woman got off a call with someone on the other end of a lacrimal orb and turned to the leader. Her face was pale, and her eyes were shaking. There was a quiver in her voice: "Uh... the Red Serpents... they were... destroyed."
"What!" The guild master barked, his face twisting in fury as he stood up from his rusted thrown and ordered, "Explain! Now!"
"They were dismantled an hour ago, guild master!" The woman said quickly. Biting her lips as she fidgeted, "Th- they were taken out instantly. Rune Knights are already rounding them up!"
"How?" the guild master scowled, and Juvia saw the woman gasp for an answer. Shaking her head helplessly, the guild master scowled and raged, whipping his hand back as water trailed from his hand and scarred the rusted throne. Juvia watched the man turn back to the woman and snarl. "You don't know?"
"No one saw it," the woman spoke frantically, her eyes lingering nervously on the water whipping in the man's hand. She gulped before another man rushed in from the backrooms and yelled, "Guild Master! I just got word from our scouts at Lion's Breath!"
Juvia and the rest of the tense guild looked to the messenger. The skinny man with white skin and brown hair gulped under the guild master's glare before sputtering out, "They w- were destroyed. Scouts said it happened 20 minutes ago."
"What!" The guild master growled, and Juvia believed he would explode this time. His face was brimming with fury, and he seemed to struggle to get his words out, "How. Tell me fucking how! How did two of Sun City's triad get annihilated? In a single fucking day! On the day we were supposed to declare war! Tell me how, dammit!"
"I- I don't know, sir," the messenger scrambled for an answer. His face was ghastly pale as he stammered, "They were just all gone, sir! I- I didn't-"
"You didn't fucking think to find out?" The guild master scoffed, barely flicking his wrist as Juvia watched the water whip snap into the messenger's chest. He sent the poor man into the back wall in a crumbled heap. It sounded like thunder and looked even worse.
He isn't... moving.
Juvia turned away.
Juvia... wants to go home.
She clutched her parasol tighter, stiffening as she heard the guild master roar to his remaining minions, "What are you idiots waiting for? Get me what I'm looking for!" He cracked his whip, "Find out who did this! I want their head on a fucking plate!"
"YES GUILD MASTER." The others roared and quickly moved to the backrooms, none willing to risk opening the giant front gates that assured their current safety. Juvia shrunk away from the rushing crowd, trying to grab the doll she'd dropped before a random person's shoe crushed it. Shattering it, the mad scramble to escape the guild master's fury. Suddenly, Juvia saw her doll burst apart into a million pieces. She couldn't even breathe.
"And what's she still doing here? Someone get her out! I need her ready for negotiations!" The guild master screamed as Juvia stared at her doll. She barely felt the pain as someone's rough hand grabbed her wrist, trying to pull her away.
Juvia refused. She kept her eyes on her shattered doll. The rain was pounding outside, and it thundered in her ears. She wanted to go home.
"Oi, kid! Fucking move, would ya!"
Juvia didn't like these people.
"You retarded or something?" Juvia felt a sharp hand slap against her head, only to connect with a splash for some reason. Juvia felt weird. She looked back at the man, her eyes dead as she saw the goon freeze and retract his hand. The sensation was weird. Her body felt numb. The back of her head felt cold. She felt weird.
"Juvia wants to go home."
She didn't like this place or anyone in it.
"Let Juvia go," Juvia murmured, her hand suddenly feeling cold and wet. She didn't blink as her finger twitched, and a water whip smacked the man away. She figured it was the guild masters. The man flew into the slowly opening front gate, and everyone trying to escape stopped. Everyone in the hall froze, and they all turned to her. She ignored them, her dead eyes settling on the guild master.
"Juvia doesn't like this place."
He looked shocked for some reason.
"Juvia wants to go home," Juvia repeated, her eyes dull. Her voice was quiet. She hated this. She waited as the guild master gnashed his teeth. He reared his water whip. She supposed that was it. She didn't want to dodge. She just wanted to go home. She watched the water snap her way, and her finger twitched once again. She thought she'd die.
Instead, a water whip smashed into the guild master's. Destroying it with a loud bang. Juvia's eyes widened slightly as she trailed the second water whip downward, looking at the source. The water coated her hand and trailed past her fingers. She blinked.
What is... Juvia doing?
The guild master had the same question. He roared, "The hell did you do, girl!" And Juvia's revelry was broken. The water on her hand faltered and fell flat. Her eyes were shaky as she tried to back up, only for the guild master's whip to crack near her feet. She stumbled back and fell on her butt.
"Grab her!" The guild master ordered as Juvia began to panic, "She's a damn mage! Whoever got the others must've planted her! Don't let her go!"
Juvia shook her head quickly as she saw the tense gazes turn her way. She pleaded, "But I'm not a," before someone grabbed her hair. Juvia winced, crying out as her eyes watered. She looked back and saw the woman who had given the initial report.
"I got her boss." The woman's nails dug into Juvia's hair, dragging her off the ground. Juvia cried and struggled as the woman said, "What should I-"
Then Juvia heard a 'pop' next to her, and gravity seemed to return. She started falling, and during the slight drop, she heard chaos erupt from the guild. It all happened so fast that it was hard to describe.
First, the woman holding her was cut off mid-sentence, and though Juvia didn't realize it at the time, a weird bubble popped nearby, and the woman was flung into the wall so fast it looked like she had teleported. Juvia didn't know that, though. She only heard the shouts of 'intruder' and the blast that tore apart the large metal doors to the guild hall. Juvia only felt the woman's hand disappear as she started to fall.
"Careful now." A man's deep yet tranquil voice echoed through the guild, coming somewhere towards the entrance. Juvia blinked as she was grabbed by... well, by the air. It was like a gentle breeze had caught her, gently and carefully spinning around her before settling her on the ground.
"This isn't a safe place for children."
Juvia blinked, her eyes wide, as she looked to the giant chasm left in the front wall of Shark's Bane. The rubble fell in a cloud, and the massive metal doors had been blasted clean off their hinges. The smoky dust of the destruction and the midnight sky smothered the gaping entrance as the figure of a giant man slowly walked inside. Clouded in the dust and debris, she and everyone else could only see his imposing silhouette.
"Even for a mage as promising as yourself."
And the light shining through dust where his eyes were supposed to be.