A/N: Hello, I just finished one of my finals and am pretty sure I did well, so I'm posting this to celebrate.
Also, heads up: by next week, I'll have finished the rest of my finals and will probably post one, a maximum, two more chapters before I go dark for a few weeks due to winter break. So don't be surprised if, after next week, I don't post till January. But we'll see; I've been pretty wishy-washy on the schedule this run, so who knows? I might post earlier.
Anyway, that's all; happy Christmas and early New Year.
Hope you enjoy: )
Phantom Lord's guild hall was grand from the outside. It felt larger than life, like a giant castle resting atop the sleepy hill town. The looking gates of oaken wood stood like a barrier, and she was pushing them open before she knew it. The rain softly dissipated as she hoped to see her new guild for the first time—her new home.
What she was greeted with wasn't exactly what she expected. A pleasant mood was evident, but the people in the guild ranged from average to rugged and possibly dangerous. The snippets of talking she heard were crass jokes and bored humor.
The large open hall was filled to the brim. Mages of all kinds sat at large wood tavern tables and ate or drank, or, more commonly, a combination of both.
She heard the giant doors creak open and stiffened as a few dozen mages turned her way.
"Really?" a large man with a scar over his eyes raised an eyebrow, "who brought another kid here?"
"I don't know, man," a skinny man groaned as he drowned his sorrows in beer, "I swear we've been getting 'em ever since those two showed up."
"I miss when this was a just bar."
"I'll drink to that."
Juvia tilted her head curiously as the two clinked their cups and drank. Meanwhile, the entirety of the guild hall seemed to return to what they were doing. Ignoring her entrance, she let out a small sigh of relief before scanning the room for Aria.
When she didn't find a giant with tan skin anywhere, she looked for someone who might know where he was and spotted the closest one to her age.
"Excuse me, " she told a shorter boy with owlish gray hair and black glasses. He wore a black sweater, a gray scarf that covered his mouth, brown cargo pants, black snow boots, and a brown glove covering his right hand.
He had a square knapsack around his waist, and when he looked up from the book he was reading, she caught his black pupils.
"Hello." He smiled brightly behind his scarf. "You look new. Do you need anything?"
"Do you know where Aria is?"
"No, sorry. He's been gone for a couple of days." The boy tilted his head. "I think the guild master has him working on something, but there's no way to tell."
"Oh," Juvia said glumly before shaking her head and recalling Aria's instructions in the letter.
"Then can Juvia see the guild master?"
It was like everything went silent. Conversations stopped, and Juvia started as she became the center of attention. She looked around confused, but with a shaky laugh, the boy clued her in: "Sorry, it's just... not a lot of people go asking to see the guild master. He's universally feared here."
"Truly?"
"You'll see what I mean when you meet him." The boy said before directing her attention towards a set of stairs in the back above a bar, leading to a dark hall that seemed to go into the depths of the grand castle's interior. "His office is in there."
Juvia watched curiously as the boy moved his hands seamlessly and took a loose page out of his knapsack. A pale magic circle flickered across his palm as he lightly blew on the page, which folded into itself to make a paper crane. The little creature flapped its wings before flying towards the back hall.
"It'll take you to the guild master." The boy said.
Juvia nodded, bowing her head, "Thank you."
"Don't mention it." The boy smiled, returning to his letter as Juvia followed the paper crane. She left the crowded, rowdy guild hall behind and ventured into the castle's depths.
Pause glanced and watched as the new girl walked into the depths of the guild hall's interior, turning back to the letter in his hand as he skimmed it. He grinned slightly as he read the letter and slid it into his pocket.
He'd take it back out when Doronbo got here so he could read it.
Whenever he freaking got here.
What's he doing now... we were supposed to meet here a few minutes ago.
Pause clicked his tongue as he glanced at the clock, his questions awarded as the front door slammed open and the visage of someone in a green pajama onesie blurred into the room so fast most didn't even notice it.
"What was that?" Some murmured, looking back at the doors that had seemingly opened by themselves. Meanwhile, Pause watched the figure dive under his table. Pause raised an eyebrow and glanced under it.
"Doronbo?"
"Hide me!" Doronbo whispered, trembling under the table with a pale expression.
"What, do you-"
"Oi! Where'd you go? I wasn't done talking asshole!" A stranger's voice roared from outside, catching Pause's attention. Pause and a lot of other guild members glanced at the door and saw a lean teen with long, shaggy black hair falling down his back and sharp red eyes. His arms and face were covered in different piercings, and his teeth were bared.
"You!" The teen pointed at Pause, walking forward as Pause swore he saw the boy sniff the air. Pause watched curiously as a renewed look of irritation crossed his face. He lifted the table and stuck his head underneath, looking for someone who wasn't even there.
"Huh?" The boy sounded confused, "Where'd the fuck he go?"
"No idea." Pause shrugged, leaning his elbows on the table as it dipped down and bonked the teen in the head. An irritated hiss escaped the teen as he leaned back and glared before a knowing smile crossed his face, "You little liar. You know where he is, right?"
"Possibly."
"Tell me."
"Why?"
"I want to fight him." The teen clicked his tongue, "I asked him earlier, and the little bitch ran away. Where is he?"
"No clue," Pause lied, ignoring the irritating confidence on the teen's face. The teen didn't buy it, and Pause wasn't trying to sell it, so he cleaned his glasses and started talking, "Besides, you won't want to fight him. He's not your type."
"The fuck does that mean?"
"He's scared of fighting."
"Seriously?" The teen said in disbelief, before his face twisted in a disgusted scowl, "Fucking coward. Nevermind then. What about you?"
"I'm okay. Thanks."
"Tch, what a waste. Both of you." The teen grumbled, ignoring the curious and accepting looks the guild was sending his way before following the girl's footsteps from before. Seemingly purposefully heading towards the guild master's office.
Pause watched him go before returning to his book and casually saying, "He's gone now."
"Are you sure?" a trembling voice came from the rafter above. A glance revealed Doronbo hanging from a wooden beam, cowering in fright.
"He's gone, right?" Doronbo gulped. "If this is a prank, I won't forgive you."
"It's not a prank." Pause rolled his eyes, "Now get down, would you? Gray sent us another letter."
"He did?" Doronbo's panic seemed to melt as he scampered down the rafter instantly, looking over Pause's shoulder as the boy took the letter out of his pocket and offered it.
"Hey, look," Doronbo smiled, scanning the letter. "He's still complaining about that Natsu guy. They said they're having an ice cream eating contest to settle the score."
"Gray's gonna win," Pause said, taking out a large, leather-bound notebook filled with different pages. He pulled out a loose page where he kept a running tally and added one under Gray's name. "He has home-field advantage."
"What would that make the score then?"
"26-27 Gray's favor." Pause said, revising his tally marks beneath a 'G' and 'N' respectively. The tally favored Gray by one, but as Pause titled his head and pondered the letter, he added another tally to Natsu's side to make it even.
"Gray will lose the next one, though," Pause amended, "so it's actually 27-27."
"Why?"
"He said they're doing hot wings next."
"Ah, that sucks." Doronbo sighed, "He finally got ahead too."
"I have a feeling it'll always be like that." Pause shook his head, smiling softly, "It's a little hard to believe that Gray found someone our age he can't beat. Back then, it felt like he was unstoppable."
"He was pretty cool, wasn't he?" Doronbo grinned, remembering how Gray had met them both on the way to Fairy Tail and freed them from their dark guilds. Doronbo chuckled, "His ice magic was so powerful, too. Wonder what this Natsu guy uses."
"The last letter mentioned that he's a fire mage."
"Really?" Doronbo snorted, "No wonder they fight so much."
"I know, right?" Pause laughed, slipping the letter into his knapsack and pulling out a book he had been reading. Skimming the pages with his magic reading glasses.
Meanwhile, Doronbo took out a bag of chips and scarfed them down.
"It's pretty crazy, huh?" Doronbo ate a chip. "That they fight over there. Sounds like it's all the time."
"Yeah, but it's not that odd. We fight a lot here, too." Pause motioned towards the friendly arm wrestling match a few tables down, destined to become a fistfight before long, "And when that guy from earlier joins, I'm sure we'll have even more."
"He's joining?" Doronbo paled. "That's not good. Pause. If he joins, he might try to fight me again; if he tries to fight me again, I might faint. Did you see his piercings? And he looks super strong, too. He's the scariest-looking person I've ever seen."
"I thought the guild master was the scariest-looking person you've ever seen?"
"No, the guild master is the scariest person I've ever seen, not the scariest looking." Doronbo shook his head, finishing his chips and borrowing a page from Pause. He started writing down a bracket of sorts, "In terms of scary looks it goes, the scary guy from earlier, Guild Master, you when you're angry-"
"Hey!"
"Mira when she uses her power, and Vera." Doronbo listed, tilting his head as he shuffled a few names, "If it's just scariness in general, it's the guild master, you, Vera, Mira, and the new guy. See, there's a difference."
"You don't say." Pause said sarcastically, before he shook his head in disbelief, "I can't believe you have a list. Why is this the only time I see you organized?"
"Because it's important." Doronbo said gravely, taking the paper with the bracket and sliding it into his pajama pocket, "I have to keep track of these people and know whether or not they're in a bad mood. It's my solemn obligation as a mage."
"Why?"
"So I can avoid them."
"You're the worst." Pause said flatly as Doronbo slumped against the table and cried, panicked, "It's not my fault, Pause. It's scary."
"How?"
"What if they're annoyed and fight me? Or if they get too excited and want to fight me! What if they make me fight them? I don't want to fight them! I'll die!"
"You won't die," Pause sighed, skimming through his book as he stopped on a page. His magic glasses stopped speed-reading the information to his brain as he cleaned them just to keep his hands moving. "But I can understand not wanting to fight."
Doronbo blinked, surprised. Understanding dawned on him as Pause shrugged. "Even if you're a little overdramatic, I can understand why you don't want to fight them. Especially someone like the guy from before. He seems like he loves fighting."
Doronbo watched despondently as Pause put his glasses back on and read the pages of his book. His eyes were deep pools of black ink. Sucking in all light as if he weren't paying attention to the words.
"You don't have to agree with him," Pause said quietly. His eyes were lost in their own dark world for a second before brightness returned.
Then, he continued reading his book, humming to himself quietly yet happily.
Pause got a few pages in before Doronbo mumbled, "Sorry."
Pause glanced up from his book curiously, surprised to see Dorobo glancing away quietly and taking a comic book out of his packet. Unable to meet Puse's gaze, he muttered softly, "I forgot you... I'm sorry. My whining probably brought up some bad memories. I didn't mean to."
"It's fine," Pause shrugged, returning to his book as he continued reading. "And don't apologize for what you said. Trust me, I get it."
It was a fantasy book from the library, and he was pretty invested in it so far.
"I don't like fighting either."
He wanted to finish it before tomorrow.
Gajeel wasn't in the best mood, stomping through the empty halls as he looked for the guild master's office. He'd been bummed that he hadn't got to fight Vera earlier, so when he met two other mages that didn't look like total shit, he figured he might get a chance for a decent brawl.
"What a waste," Gajeel sighed, following the scent lingering in the halls towards the room, which smelled most like the prick from a year ago. Getting to a lonely door before he opened it and was greeted by someone he wasn't expecting to see again.
"The fuck are you doing here?" Gajeel asked, his eyebrow raised at the girl from the train. She was placing a letter on the desk. She glanced back, and her grip on her parasol tightened somewhat.
"Juvia was invited." She glared.
"Really?"
"Juvia is not lying." The girl frowned, and Gajeel decided he'd rather throw himself out the window than deal with this. It was grating on his already frayed nerves. He wanted to see the guild master in person to see if he still felt it.
Where the fuck is that prick?
If he still felt afraid at just the sight of him.
Come on... hurry the fuck up.
Gajeel tapped his foot incessantly, gritting his teeth as he heard the door click open, and he whipped his head towards it. His fingers dug into his crossed arms as he saw the man from a year ago walk in, his blue military uniform decorated with some broach on his chest. He lazily looked their way and smirked, "Well, well, cutting it a little close, aren't we?"
Once the man's violet eyes landed on him, Gajeel instantly did an internal check, taking stock of whether his body would panic like it had before. He checked, and instead of finding his heart beating out of his chest and his breath leaving him, he found himself calmer—no longer terrified.
Wary was the better word. Cautious for a reason. Fearful but no longer scared, if that made sense.
It was minor, his heart skipping a beat and the subtle flinch that made its way across his shoulders, but there wasn't anything debilitating. Only the faint remembrance of how close he'd come to death and the one who nearly caused it.
Standing before Jose Porla was no longer nauseating but mildly uncomfortable.
"I must say," Jose smirked knowingly, "I was expecting both of you well before August 13th, not a single day before. What happened?"
"Took a detour." Gajeel shrugged, confidence regained as he tossed himself on the couch. His eyes closed as he laid down, taking up the entirety of the sofa, "I beat the hag months ago but would've had to take a shit ton of trains to get here, so I walked till the last one."
Gajeel stole a glance at the guild master, checking his reaction. He saw a hint of amusement and vague intrigue, but nothing else. Gajeel snorted and continued, "No clue why she's late, though."
"Juvia is not late." The girl frowned, walking over to the couch and nudging Gajeel's boots out of the way, before sitting down politely and explaining.
"Juvia simply got lost."
"Seriously?" Gajeel grumbled lazily, shifting so he was sitting. He relaxed back on the couch cushions and scowled, "How the fuck did you get lost on a train? It goes in one direction."
"Juvia didn't know when to get off, so she missed the stop the first time." She said, before she brightened slightly and reached into her requip space, pulling out a beach bag with a beach towel hanging off the side. Filled to the brim with souvenir shit.
Then she did something Gajeel hadn't considered she could do.
She smiled, "But when Juvia got to the coast, they pointed her in the right direction and sold her cookies." Her eyes sparkled, "Here."
She took a box of sugar cookies from her bag, handing one to Gajeel and the other to Jose. Gajeel saw Jose quirk an eyebrow out of the corner of his eyes before taking the box and setting it on the counter, leaving Gajeel to accept the gift.
"Juvia bought multiple boxes for multiple people." She nodded assuredly, "Juvia read that friends need to give each other gifts, so she bought many."
"I didn't ask," Gajeel muttered, begrudgingly grabbing the box of cookies as he started snacking on them and ignoring the happy expression on the girl's face. He finished the box as she hopefully turned to the guild master, "Also, guild master, sir. If it's not too much trouble, can you tell Juvia where Aria is? She bought him gifts too. Can she see him?"
"He's busy setting up things for tomorrow," Jose said practically, easily ignoring the girl's pout and the light rain outside the window. "He'll most likely be busy for the next few days, but you can see him afterward if you want. In a week at the latest."
Gajeel felt it was more challenging for the guild master to ignore the heavy downpour that followed.
"Oh," the girl mumbled, her expression as downcast as the bipolar weather this town seemed to sport. She put her gift bag back in the requip space and spoke quietly, almost lifelessly, "Is the event Juvia has to participate in tomorrow? To get in."
"It is, " the guild master said, reaching into the desk and revealing a stamp. "You're younger than the age limit, so if I make an exception for you, I must see the results. You have to impress me."
Jose tossed the stamp to the girl, who tilted her head in surprise as the guild master started digging into his desk of papers, "I'm giving you your stamp now as good faith to Aria's recommendation, so try not to disappoint. You won't survive the outcome."
"Yes, guild master." The girl nodded quietly, turned the stamp blue, and put it on her left thigh. She then handed it to Gajeel, who took it, turned it black, and stamped it on his left shoulder.
He then tossed it back to the guild master, watching as the man caught it without looking up from his desk, and took out a long list of names.
"You will be added to Phantom Lord's guild roster, and sometime after tomorrow, we'll discuss partners," Jose said idly, jotting down their names. "If you haven't already heard, I'm making an announcement at headquarters. I'll have either Totomaru or Sol guide you there. That is also where I'll administer your entry examinations, so to speak."
"Examinations?"
"Yes," the guild master said, cocking an eyebrow at Gajeel, "You will be taking it too, mutt."
"Why," Gajeel growled, "I'm already in, ain't I?"
"You are, " the guild master dismissed. "But the last time I saw you, the only impressive thing about you was your magic and talent."
Gajeel felt a vein bulge in his head. He gnashed his teeth, glaring at the guild master as the asshole smirked cockily, "Consider tomorrow my insurance that you aren't the type of loser that doesn't improve even after a year chasing your tail."
"Fucking bastard," Gajeel growled, standing up before his skin crawled with danger and the guild master's eyes burned violet.
Gajeel shivered as the guild master smiled and said, "Well, if that is everything you have to say, I believe you should be taking your leave."
The guild master was only sitting there, flooding the room with a thick, creepy magic pressure that paralyzed Gajeel. Gajeel noticed the girl on the couch start to sweat slightly, trembling quietly as the guild master pointed at the door easily.
"You both have an important day tomorrow, and I would hate for you to perform poorly because you were busy wasting my time."
Gajeel was pretty sure he heard his teeth crack as he ground them. Clenching his fist, he turned around and walked to the door, muttering loud enough that he was confident the guild master could hear him.
"Whatever test you're giving me tomorrow," Gajeel twisted the doorknob, turning back with a furious snarl and forcing himself to meet the guild master's violet gaze, hauntingly observant with a hint of amusement. Gajeel scoffed.
"Better make it fucking good," Gajeel said, a growl building up in his throat. "I didn't come here to coast around aimlessly like half the other mages I've seen. You told me this was a place where I would struggle. A lake, not a pond."
The prick wanted to test Gajeel. See that he wasn't wasting the last year. Fucking fine. He'd show he'd grown the last year and then some.
"If you were lying, I'll leave my fucking self."
Gajeel would do so well he'd wipe that shit-eating grin off the 'great' Jose Porla's fucking face.
Jose Porla snorted as he watched the mutt leave. A few moments later, the girl followed after asking about lodging and food. Jose gave her a key to the apartment building where the runts were staying and dismissed her, returning to his work.
The mutt didn't ask so he either had a hotel or was camping out in the woods, Jose would bet on the woods, in which case he'd have to ensure Totamaru knew where to look.
"Don't dally," Jose said, releasing two ghosts that chuckled as they flew out the window. They headed to track the mutt to wherever his camp was so he could pass the information on to whichever S class he sent after him in the morning.
I'll send Totamaru. Jose decided, because Sol might not exactly gel with the prickly mutt.
Jose made a note to tell Totamaru he had a new chore later, smirking and tilting his head upwards. He watched expectantly as a giant man appeared out of thin air.
"Did it go well?" Jose asked his ace humorously.
"Yes, Guild Master. I finished setting everything up." Aria recounted, "The local doctors are stationed at headquarters and have agreed to stay for the rest of the week to assist us."
"Wonderful," Jose said, finishing his papers as he shoved them into a drawer. "I've already received word that Torch will work with our mechanics to ensure everything runs smoothly. With those two bases covered, everything should be ready."
"That is reassuring." Aria nodded, glancing around the room, his head angled to the box on his desk, before smiling, "I see Juvia has arrived."
"She has," Jose hummed. "If you wish to see her, you should do it now. You won't have time until everything's settled."
Jose watched, and Aria frowned slightly, pondering for a long while before shaking his head sadly.
No." Aria sighed, "I do not wish to distract her from the coming challenge. She should stay focused."
"Smart decision," Jose hummed, "I concur."
"Thank you, guild master." Aria nodded, and then a tiny smirk fell upon his lips. "She has incredible potential as a mage, don't you agree?"
"Incredible?" Jose scoffed, glancing at the clouds over Oak Town and how depressing they were. More so than they were not even ten minutes ago.
"That's an understatement."
In a single day, Jose gained a water mage unlike any he'd ever seen and an iron dragon slayer straight out of the history books. They were his best catches since the runts knocked on his door and knocked down his tower. Jose had nothing but praise.
"You found a monster, Aria." Jose grinned, already looking forward to seeing how they'd perform tomorrow.
"Good job."
He had a feeling they'd do well.