When I was reborn into this world and discovered I had the more common holder type magic I was devastated. Like most people I wanted to be able to throw lightning or create explosions, not use keys, rings, or wands. It took me a while to snap out of my funk, I decided that if the world did not have any truly magical artifacts I would make my own. So I brainstormed for a way to use some of my past knowledge to find some sort of way to get my wish. When I was eight I succeeded and took the first step in making a new kind of magic. Using a lacrima I had gotten from my parents I made my own Pokedex. Though this pokedex was different, instead of just cataloging the different types of pokemon it allowed me to design my own.
When I designed my first pokemon and tried to use the pokedex it only partially worked, it projected the pokemon into the real world but it was only an image with no substance. So I searched for a material that would give them more strength. While I searched I worked on adding different projections, but the pokedex soon ran out of space. So I decided to separate my idea into two parts, the first was the pokedex which would allow me to design and then edit the pokemon. Next I made a pokeball to use for the projections and storing completed pokemon designs. This literally gave me more storage to work with but I still could not make the pokemon anything more than projections.
One day I was pouting at the park when a stranger came up to me and sat down, "What seems to be the matter little man." I looked up from the pokedex in my hand and over to the rather tall man next to me. I hadn't seen him around town before so I was a little wary, "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." He smiled and pulled up his sleeve, on his arm was the guild mark of Fairy Tail, "Don't be afraid I am simply passing through town while on a job. There are a few children at my guild your age, so I could not stand to see you so sad." I gave a nod and decided to talk about my problem, "I am trying to make a new kind of magic item but I can't make it work right." He nodded and started to ask questions about what sort of functions I wanted.
I told him about the projections I made but I left out the pokedex as I still did not trust the man enough to tell him everything. I kept it simple and said I wanted to make something that could affect the world instead of just making a lightshow. The man smiled, "Sometimes it is good to talk with people about your problems, they may have ideas you haven't thought of. Did you know complicated magical artifacts are made of several parts, each having its own purpose?." I just stared in shock, I felt like hitting myself "Why didn't I think of that?" He laughed, "Sometimes when you get lost in your own head you get too fixed on a certain idea and that keeps you from thinking outside the box." He stood and brushed off his pants before walking away, "Wait! What's your name?"
He turned back, "My name is Maco, come visit Fairy Tail once you get that thing working. I would love to see how it turns out." I nodded and jumped off the bench, I had to hurry home to research different material and see which one would work the best. It didn't take me long to find it as Mythril was a rather famous material as most powerful artifacts used at least a little in their designs. The reason was simple and perfect for my needs, magic was an ethereal substance and Mythril allowed magic to materialize without changing its properties. The only problem was that it was very rare, luckily my parents were rather well off and were very supportive of my studies into magic. They promised to do their best to find some but it still took a while to gather enough to be of any use.
More time passed and my 9th birthday passed, my parents gave me the mythril they had managed to find. It wasn't much so I only used a little at a time and after a few tests I discovered that a pokeball needed to be completely coated in order to make the pokemon solid. If I did not add enough it would either only be partially solid or it would fade in and out, unable to stay solid. When I tried to take the next step and store more pokemon into a ball I ran into another problem, if the types of pokemons did not match they would clash. I try not to think of the beasts that came out from those experiments, too many edges and whispers of unknowable knowledge assaulted my senses until I gave up and decided to just stick with one type per ball. The mythril my parents gathered was enough to coat six balls, a fact that made me dissolve into hysterical laughter, making my parents worry I had made some sort of abomination… again.
Once I finished with each ball and loaded pokemon into each one I tried to add more magical power. I hoped that it would strengthen the pokemon, but even after I used every bit of magical power I had, it only grew a little stronger. I knew it would take a long time to strengthen them this way so I added an enchantment to constantly absorb magical power from the environment. That way I would not need to spend every waking moment channeling power into a single pokemon. Once I added that I went back to designing more pokemon, I wanted to have my own legion one day and that would take time. Unfortunately I encountered yet another problem, when I tried to add a forth pokemon to a ball the lacrima burnt out from the influx of magic caused by all four absorbing magic at once. I was disappointed I couldn't make my legion yet, but with six balls I had 18 different pokemon to design and for now that was enough.
I ran into the same problem when I tried to project more than two pokemon from a single ball. When I tired the mythril overheated and burned my hand, I was frustrated that I kept running into problems but I knew walking a new path would be difficult when I first started. Now that I worked everything out I wanted to go to Fairy Tail and show Maco my progress like he asked. My parents were happy to go with me as we had not been to Magnolia before and it would make a good family vacation. So we booked a trip on the train and made our way to Magnolia not knowing the trip would change my life forever.
We were halfway to Magnolia when suddenly the ground shook and the train jumped off the rails. I was unconscious before we even hit the ground. When I woke up I was confused and tried to speak but my voice croaked and I started to cough. A couple of doctors rushed into the room when they heard me, a nurse followed them and came to my bedside. While the doctors ran a few tests the nurse came to my side and gave me a drink to wet my throat. "Do you remember how you got here?" I shook my head at her question before trying to speak, "What happened?" She gave me a sad look and shook her head, "You were in an accident." I nodded as I at least remembered that. "Can I see my parents?"
The nurse signed and shook her head again, "I'm sorry but you were the only survivor." I did not remember much after that but later I was told that I broke down crying and passed out. When I awoke I thought it was a dream until a doctor confirmed it was not a dream. I spent the next month in the hospital recovering from my injuries, it would have been longer but my magic helped me heal. It was also the only thing that kept me alive during the crash, my parents were not so lucky as they did not have magic. Once I had recovered enough I tried to find out what happened, and it turned out it was an attack perpetrated by a dark guild trying to blackmail the magic council. They had planned to take multiple key areas hostage and the train was destroyed to show their resolve. I was bent on revenge for all of a minute before the doctor explained that it had already been wiped out by the council in retaliation.
That hit me like a gut punch, without revenge I was adrift, unsure where to go in life from here. While I was staying at the hospital I was informed that since I had no remaining family I would need to go live in an orphanage or request a guild to sponsor me. Because I had magic a guild could take responsibility for my care. When I heard that, I asked if I could choose which guild to go to. "We can send a message for you, but not all guilds will accept taking in a child." I nodded and asked them to contact Fairy Tail. The doctor gave a smile at that and nodded, "Fairy Tail is a good guild, they already have multiple wards and I doubt they will refuse."
My mood lifted for a moment at his response but I was quickly reminded why exactly I needed to go there. The doctor saw my expression and laid a hand on my shoulder, "I know that it may not seem like it but it will get better. Eventually you will be able to remember the good memories, not just your last one." I gave a little smile at that, I was happy that some people were still kind and not all of them were like the ones who took away my parents. It only took an hour to contact the guild through a communication lacrima and finish the paperwork needed for me to become their ward.
The next few days were a rush of activity as I prepared to leave. A week after I had woken up I had called a family friend to get my parents things in order. I asked them to gather some keepsakes and send them to me, everything else was sold or donated. Once the house was empty I sold that as well, as I did not want to have to pay attention to its upkeep and I didn't think I could handle being a landlord right now. Once I was released from the hospital I went to the train station to buy a ticket, but I discovered I couldn't board the train. Every time I tried to step onto the train, I would flash back to my last trip, both the happiness and the horror. I returned the ticket and decided to walk, it would take longer but hopefully a few weeks in the woods would help with my recovery.
I went back to town and bought some supplies; a tent, sleeping bag, compass, map, and various other odds and ends. By the time I was done I realized I would never be able to carry it all so I turned to magic, hopeful that I had designed a creature that could help me. I thought about which type would be able to help and decided to use a fighting type, "Machop, I choose you." I blushed when I yelled that out, glad there was no one I knew here to see my chunibyo moment, but I had to try at least once. I looked at the monster I had summoned and looked him over, he looked good. There were spots here and there that would need some work if I wanted him to fight but he would be able to walk and help me carry my things.
I directed him with my thoughts, noticing that I would have to make some sort of intelligence program in the future. At the moment he needed direction on every little thing and that would be too complicated in the future when I used more than one creature at a time. Once we started to walk I discovered that he had some trouble walking without tripping over roots and rocks. I spent most of the day picking up the things he dropped when he tripped. We still traveled faster than if I was on my own but I resolved to give him some intelligence as soon as possible. So when my magic started to run low I decided to break for lunch. After I ate, my magic had still not completely recovered, so I started to work on Machop, hoping to make him a bit more agile. When my magic had fully recovered I updated the pokeball with the new program from my pokedex.
The program made him walk slower and around obstacles that he would otherwise trip over but at the cost of slower walking speed overall. On the other hand I no longer needed to stop every few minutes to pick up my things, so overall our travel speed almost doubled. My magic ran out again before the sun set so I decided to stop for the night and set up camp. After I had eaten dinner I got to work on the intelligence program. I wanted to model it after magical animals so they would be smarter than regular animals and would grow smarter as their magic grew. The next few days were spent working out different kinks and trying them on Machop, making sure to have a backup in case something went wrong. Over time, Machop's movements became smoother and I was able to work on other things like magic energy efficiency, though most of my time was still spent on my intelligence program.
Thankfully I was able to finish the basic intelligence program before anything bad happened, but two days after I finished it I was ambushed by a forest Vulcan. I was making my way down a hill when an ape with green fur jumped down from a tree and tried to brain Machop. If it had been before he gained intelligence it probably would have worked too, but now Machop was smart enough to drop the gear and dodge. The ape grunted and chased after him, swinging its large fists in a frenzied effort. "Machop use Rock Smash" I yelled out directions to Machop. When he heard the command he stopped running and punched out, a faint glow covering his fist. Machop's fist hit the vulcan with a soft thud and the vulcan was pushed back, when the Vulcan recovered it grinned at the small creature that managed to fight back.
It brushed off its stomach and bellowed before launching itself at Machop, eager to get revenge. I paled at the lack of effect the move had on the Vulcan, that move is called rock smash for a reason and it just brushed it off like it was nothing. "Machop dodge, keep using rock smash, but aim for the joints." The Machop gave a battle cry and an intense exchange ensued, the two of them trading punches. Machop was not hit very often due to its small size, but every successful hit it landed on the vulcan made it angrier. The angrier it got the more wild its swings seemed to get, even knocking over a few trees. After they fought for a few minutes I was beginning to worry my magic would run out before the vulcan was defeated.
Luckily one of the vulcan knees finally gave out and it collapsed on the ground. Machop took advantage of the opening and started to land repeated punches on its head. The vulcan tried to guard its head but Machop was able to work around that by using its agility to jump around the vulcan while landing punches. When it finally passed out I had Machop punch it one last time to make sure it wasn't faking, after there was no reaction I collapsed on my ass panting and called Machop back into the Pokeball. Once I stopped panting I gathered the supplies Machop dropped and got out of there before the vulcan could wake up. Once I had gotten far enough away I stopped and started to meditate, eager to regain my magic as soon as possible. This was my first fight and it showed me how vulnerable I really am.
I started to think about what I could do to fix that and came up with a few ideas I would work on. After about an hour my magic was full again and I summoned Machop and started moving again. While we walked I started to work on some of my other Pokemon, as the only way I could get stronger for now was being able to summon more than one pokemon at a time. I made intelligence programs for the other pokemon first, if I had more Pokemon fighting for me it would use up my magic faster but it would also increase my opinions. It took a week to make all of my pokemon intelligent as I could use the basics of Machop's program as the basis for all the others. The next step was to work out some of the kinks like I did with Machop.
The only problem was I didn't have enough magic to sustain more than one pokemon for a prolonged period. So I had to summon them for short bursts, testing each change before absorbing them back into the pokeball before it used too much magic. This way I was able to keep moving without running out of magic too quickly. A side effect of draining my magic so often was that my reserves were growing at an astounding rate. I have doubled my capacity since I started my journey. Another week passed and eventually I was able to keep two pokemon summoned at the same time while I walked. I made sure to keep them summoned as much as possible, not only would it help me, but it also helped them. The more time they spent outside the more they learned and the more lifelike they became.
We ran into a few more fights along the way as well, two more vulcans and another monster that looked like a cross between a wolf and porcupine. That one was the most difficult as every time my pokemon successfully hit the monster they would be injured as well. About three months after I started I had finally arrived in Magnolia, it was a beautiful city and much larger than the town I had grown up in. The past few months of isolation had not helped either, I was nervous entering a place with so many people around me. I made sure to avoid the main streets as I made my way to the guild. I had to ask for directions repeatedly but when I was a block away I was able to hear the chaos coming from inside the guild. When I opened the doors I saw a fight centered around two girls, one with red hair and armor and the other had white hair and was wearing a punk rocker outfit.
I stared for a moment before shaking my head and looking for the guild master. I saw him sitting on the bar drinking and he waved me over when he saw me. I made my way around the edges of the room dodging the occasional bottle or chair that spawned from the chaos. When I finally made it to the bar I hopped up on a stool, "Hey I'm Alex. The hospital should have told you I was coming." He nodded and picked up the stamp sitting beside him, "I was expecting you to be here a couple of months ago, when I called the hospital they told me you decided to walk here. I'm glad you made it here alright." I blushed at his comment, embarrassed that I was unable to take the train. Somehow he understood and moved on clearing his throat and putting on a serious face, "Now then I have only two questions for you to be able to join our guild."
I gulped, wondering what questions he may ask, "What color would you like your guild mark to be? And where would you like it placed?" My jaw dropped and he gave an uproarious laugh, "My child here at Fairy Tail we are family and always welcome those in need." He gave me a look at that and I looked away, the loss of my parents bringing tears to my eyes. After I whipped my eyes and looked back he was still waiting for my answer. "Light blue and on my forearm please." He placed the stamp on my arm and it glowed briefly, when he lifted the stamp a light blue guild mark appeared on my arm. I just stared at it while he stood on the bar, "ALRIGHT YOU BRATS, WE HAVE A NEW FAMILY MEMBER. LET'S PARTY!"
A resounding cheer answered him and the party started, and I met a few new people and I quickly became overwhelmed. I found refuge behind the bar, still able to hear everything but no longer forced to endure Natsu's challenges or Mira's teasing. I also found a new friend to spend time with. A blue haired girl seemed to have made her own little area back here. I startled her when I first came back but she recovered well, "Hi, my name is Levy, you're Alex right? The new member?" I nodded and noticed the book she was reading, it was almost as big as she was, "What are you reading?" She blushed at my surprised look and tilted the book up, An Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. "Cool, can you tell me about it?" She smiled at that and we started talking and continued to do so for the rest of the party.