Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.
Reading advice:
"Talking"
'Thinking'
Writing
System
Prologue Act
Establishing Ties
Magnolia. Home to the great magical guild Fairy Tail. A city known far and wide to all who have even the slightest interest in magic. Filled to the brim with all kinds of people from all walks of life, all of whom share one small, simple, common thought.
'Those Fairy Tail mages sure are crazy!'
The common consensus amongst all civilians who lived in Magnolia was that the magical guild that, not only held the 1st place for being the most powerful guild in all of Fiore, but also the 1st place for causing the most amount of destruction, also held within it some of the most batshit insane figures of the magical-guild-world.
However, our story does not focus on Fairy Tail, at least not now, but on one of its members, a young man who found himself in a very odd situation.
It was on the second day of the second month of the second year of the seventh century, that one young Edward Wilhelm came across a sight he just couldn't quite fathom.
'What in the name of Arceus is going on here?'
It had been two months since Edward had joined Fairy Tail. The reason for becoming a member was simple, money.
Now, however, as he stood at the door of his guild, on his way to another mission for some 'Moola' as the hip kids would say, he found himself staring at the figure of a rather young girl.
The little brunette was sat down with her back to the right of the door, hugging her own legs and seemingly shivering. He would assume it was due to being cold, had it not been for the fact that Magnolia was one of the hottest places in the country, and even now in February the weather was mild at best.
It wasn't his place to butt in and ask someone about their business, especially considering that he had somewhere to be and had to get moving, but he just couldn't help it.
"Hey. What are you doing?" Smooth.
The little girl looked up to him, and for some reason, something about her stood out, something that made him think she was somehow familiar.
"I uh, I-I'm h-hear to join Fairy Tail." She said, making him even more curious.
"Well," he began, "if you wanna join, then you do it inside."
"I don't know if I should."
"Listen here…" and after taking far too long to pick up on his unasked question, "What's your name?"
"C-Cana."
"Edward. Listen here Cana, if you can do magic, and need some work, then go in, and join. If you can't do magic, then don't join. Either way, the only person it matters to is you, and you look like you need some money. Not really my place to say but I'm guessing you haven't had something to eat or a place to rest for some time now, and trust me, you look it."
His words hit home too much for the girl's liking. "Hey! You can't just go around talking like that to someone you don't know."
"Well how about you go in and join the guild just to get back at me?"
"You know what?" She said as she got up from her seated position and started walking inside. "Maybe I will!"
Now that she was heading towards the bar at the end of the guild's main hall where the guild master was sitting, she couldn't see Edward give her a look like some sleazy car salesman who just duped some rich kid, nor could she see him give the guild master a semi-conspiratory look.
It was five minutes later, when Cana had her guild mark proudly emblazoned on her, that she realized that the bastard who provoked her at the door was gone.
Edward's POV:
'Now, back to the matter at hand. [Stats]' I thought.
Name: Edward Wilhelm
Age: 15
Title: N/A
Current class: Arcane Wizard (Level 5/100)
Level: 5 (1,500/1,600)
HP: 500/500
EP: 500/500
Body: 5
Mind: 5
Magic: 5
Prowess: 9
Luck: 13
Points: 0
It's been nearly two months since I woke up in this place, and I wasn't any closer to understanding what my life had turned into.
Apparently, I died, was pathetic enough for some deity to feel bad for me, got reborn into this magical world, and was given the ability to play a video game for a living.
The system told me that I was 'Reincarnated' into the world of 'Fairy Tail', a nice piece of information that would be helpful if I got the reference, but I didn't and was stuck in a place I was unfamiliar with. It's clear enough that this is some fantasy realm or some such that was famous back home, but being a hard-core Potter head meant I was only familiar with one thing and was left out for the dogs to munch on. Me and my one-track stupid mind.
There was a silver lining, however, and that was the system.
Apparently, after informing me that this world was one of magic and combat, the deity who put me here, who I started referring to as Arceus, saw it fit to equip me with a video game system that would not only help me become strong, but also help me become the strongest. A method of making my new life easier, since I was such a disappointment in my last one. Being a high-school student with good grades was not enough for me to impress the almighty powers that be.
But it didn't matter, the moment I was given the system, I was offered a choice to choose a Class, a specialized role that would provide some early benefits and some powerful perks as it got stronger, and, after some deliberation over the hundred or so choices, I went with Arcane Wizard, a class which had access to very powerful spells and could solo damn near anything. But that wasn't the reason for choosing it, nay nay, I chose it for the beautiful stat boost.
Arcane Wizard: Gain one (1) Mind, Magic, and Prowess per level.
I wasn't the most avid video game fan back home, but I played enough D to know that Stats were the bread and butter of any character, and with this one, I would gain regular increases to the ones that mattered when it came to being a mage.
The stats themselves were simple; Body governed all physical attributes such as strength, speed, and resilience. Mind was mental stuff like intelligence and information processing. Magic affected magical capacity and spell cost. And Luck was, you guessed it, luck.
Prowess, on the other hand, was odd. It was the stat the game gave for everything skill based. Accuracy, Prowess. Agility, Prowess. Leveling and Skill leveling speed, Prowess. The system informed me that having big muscles doesn't translate into knowing how to throw a punch or duck one, a lot of knowledge and information didn't translate into wisdom, and having large magical reserves didn't translate into understanding the minute details of how magic itself worked and/or could be utilized in a different way, and by providing a stat that focused on using my other stats, I would have more fun. Then it went on to say that it wanted to make sure that I wouldn't focus everything on one stat and dump the rest by making it so that every stat would, to a degree, need another or two to really shine, which is fair.
Thankfully, the Class I chose was one that not only provided me with a stat boost to Prowess, meaning that I had a way to increase my most important stat, in my opinion, with every level, and once you add the five stat points I get every level divided into three points to Luck, one to Body, and one to Prowess, and the natural point I got for Mind and Magic, I was on my way to getting really powerful.
Other than the ability to numerically quantify how good or bad I am at things in a general field, I was given an Inventory which allowed me to store things and have quick access to them. A Log to keep track of mission, quests, jobs, tasks, etc. And a Map, which didn't jump and sing and dance like Dora's, but did tell me where things were and pointed me in their direction, even told me which trains to take and when to get off.
There is also the Skills, a menu dedicated to showing me which abilities and spells I had, and it was a nifty little selection of stuff.
Gamer's Body: Passive:
Grants a body that allows you to live as if you were a character in a video game. Pain, unless from an open wound or a terrible scar, is temporary. Gain the ability to sleep when you want, for however long you want. After sleeping in a bed, restore HP, MP and cure alltemporary, negative status effects.
Gamer's Mind: Passive:
Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Ability to enter a peaceful state of mind. Immunity to mental disorders. Immunity to mind reading abilities and mental attacks.
Magic Bullet: Active: (Level 2)
You can fire miniaturized spheres of arcane energy from your hand like bullets. Power depends on level and how much EP is expended upon firing each bullet.
Arcane Ray: Active: (Level 1)
You can fire a continuous ray of arcane energy. Power depends on level and how much magic is expended while firing the ray. Continually drains EP while held.
Blink: Active: (Level 4)
You can teleport to a location you can see and stand in within 30 feet of you. Speed of teleportation depends on Prowess.
Telekinesis: Active: (Level 3)
You can telekinetically move objects that you can see. Weight, distance, and control depends on Mind and Prowess.
On a side note, I can do Magic! Something that would have made me jump with joy way back when, until I realized how weak I was.
After waking up in my house, which I owned, and being told that my basic backstory was [Your family recently moved to and bought a house in Magnolia. Your parents both suffered heart attacks shortly after moving here, and you were left with a measly monetary inheritance and the ownership of your own home.], which was rather lazy writing. 4/10, and not a one because I own a house.
Give me a car, and apparently those exist here, and some money and I am set.
But that is not the point of discussion.
Shortly after arriving I was given a quest to find and join a magical guild, which would reward me with some XP, money, the ability to take magical jobs, and a skill called [Observe].
Observe: Passive/Active:
Passive: You can see the names, levels, and titles of beings or objects you are looking at.
Active: You can gain information about beings or objects you see, such as, but not limited to, their names, levels, titles, and some background information.
#Note#: How much information is available to you depends on both your level as well as the level of the target.
And boy oh boy, let me tell you, I was under-leveled as hell.
I think the lowest level of a guild member in Fairy Tail, the local guild here in Magnolia, was 23, and then there was the guild master, Makarov, whose level was question mark.
Again, not the point of discussion.
Shortly after signing up with Fairy Tail, I was able to take jobs, magical tasks and quests that the system would reward me with XP and other stuff for completing, and my guild would reward me with money for doing, a currency called jewels, which was mighty confusing since actual jewels existed in this world, but people called them gems or precious stones, so it works, I guess.
Armed with the power to become almighty in my own right, I was given a few commands. Gain a lot of power. Prepare for the powerful foes coming your way in the future. Have fun.
Currently, I was doing a job helping some magic shop here in Magnolia to identify some magical items, which would be an easy task with [Observe], and would net me some more money and, if I can finagle my way into it, a magic item.
It wasn't mentioned in the job description, but I've played enough video games back home to know that there must be some hidden objectives that would grant me something extra.
"Alright Ms. Barker. That was the last thing in the box, do you need help with anything else?"
Ms. Barker, or Jean Barker as the system supplied, gave me an awed look as I handed her the final item that I appraised, a magic ring that allows someone a modicum of control over water.
"Well! I must say young man that was fast!"
"You pay me to appraise, not to stand around here doing nothing, Ma'am." I replied, eyeing some items in the shop that I wouldn't mind coming back for.
"And a fine job you've done! Tell you what, you go around looking for something that catches your eye, and if I don't have an issue with it, I'll give you a discount." She said with a look in her eye that wasn't entirely charitable.
'Damn! Lady trying to finesse me into buying something. Okay cutthroat saleswoman, I see you.'
Walking around the shop for a bit as Ms. Barker started putting the items away, I tried to find something that would be useful but wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg to buy, and wouldn't you know it, I found something nice.
Alethiometer:
A Golden ring that vibrates whenever its wearer hears a lie.
The item looked nice and did something fantastic, however, it was the description card under the ring that made me stop and stare at it.
Golden ring of vibration: A magical ring that vibrates at random times. 1000JL
The fact that it was advertised incorrectly meant that the shop owner likely didn't know what it did and would probably price it lower than she should.
"Hey Ms. Barker!" I called for her while she was still putting things away at the back of the store. "How much for this Golden ring of vibration?"
"Really? You want that little thing?" She asked, seemingly weirded out by my choice, or maybe unhappy I chose something cheap. Or both.
"Yeah. Don't think I have enough for any of the flashier things, even with the discount. This seems like something that would be fun to just carry around." I said, trying to sound casual.
"If that's really the only thing you want, you can just have it for free. Don't see a point in haggling for something that cheap and you've been helpful enough to warrant a gift."
'Score!' "That is very generous of you Ma'am. Thank you."
"Don't mention it, just make sure your friends back at the guild know where to go when they want quality items and cheap prices."
Sharing some final goodbyes, I was on my way to the guild to report my new and exciting mission success.
[Common Appraisal Job Complete! 250XP!]
[250*0.009= 2XP Prowess Bonus!]
Yeah, the bonus from Prowess was very miniscule, offering the stat as a thousandth multiplier. That being said, I gained one point in Prowess every level and added one from my extra five per level up. Considering it started at 1 and was now 9 on level five, I knew I was going to end up with something like 100 points in Prowess by the time I'm level 50.
The game had made it very clear that, while difficult, reaching level 100 was not only viable, but a rather small milestone, and that I had the ability to choose and level a new Class once I was done with my old one.
Before I even begin a new Class, I would have a ridiculous XP bonus of almost 20%, and every class after would become even easier to level up, so long as the XP requirement for leveling up didn't reach too ridiculous of an amount, but considering it doubled every level for the past five levels, I very much doubt it would ever end up being an easy task.
[System Notice: You have Leveled Up!]
[Bonus!]
'That's new.' I thought with a hint of excitement.
Usually whenever I level up, the system informs me of the level I gained, the effect of the stat boost, and that I had five new points to increase my Stats. Usually.
[Congratulations!]
[For clearing level 5 and reaching a notable milestone in your journey, you now have access to perks.]
[Perks are powerful abilities, most of which grant some passive power, with some granting an active ability.]
[You now gain a perk point every level!]
[You can check it all out in the new Perks Menu!]
Not wasting any time, I quickly opened the new menu to check out the new goodies. And found nothing.
[Please notice the plus sign (+) in the top right corner!]
'Yeah, that's on me. My bad.'
Clicking on the plus sign reveals a long list of perks of varying degrees of power, and extremely varying prices.
Quickly passing over everything that cost more than one Perk Point, I came across nothing that really interested me and decided to simply hold off on this until I either found something that caught my fancy or had enough points to get one of the good perks.
With that done I went over to my Stats Menu, looked over my stats, and added the usual three to Luck, one to Body, and one to Prowess.
Name: Edward Wilhelm
Age: 15
Title: N/A
Current class: Arcane Wizard (Level 5/100)
Level: 6 (152/3,200)
HP: 600/600
EP: 600/600
Body: 6
Mind: 6
Magic: 6
Prowess: 10
Luck: 16
Stat Points: 0
Perk Points: 1
Probably the best I can hope for in terms of stats considering my level, maybe it would be better to not dump so many points in Luck, but I better keep doing it until I can legally gamble and start hitting casinos for some big bucks.
As I finally reached the guild and started heading to the master to inform him of the job, I came across a sight I knew wasn't good for mental health.
It was the master, standing there, smiling, holding hands with a little girl, and giving me the 'be nice to your little brother' look parents are known for far and wide across the realms.
"Edward my boy! I see that you've returned from your mission. I hope everything went well?"
"As good as it could, Dreyar." My use of his last visibly irked him and the few guild members who could hear me.
"You know, I know you've been a guild member for about two months now, and although there's no rule stating that you should, you can call me master like everyone else does." That was another thing that I didn't like about this new world of mine.
Apparently, it was customary for people to refer to the masters of magical guilds by their title, which would be considered a show of respect. Even if you were from another guild, it would still be expected of you to use the title before the name.
"And I told you, I ain't doing that, sir." It was one of the things he nagged me about, saying that he was afraid that if I skirted the lines of respect and discipline in the guild, it would make everyone else less respectful of his position and authority. I was perfectly fine using terms like Mr. or sir. Master, on the other hand, was a bit too much for me and my old-world upbringing.
"Tell you what, I can call you guild master in front of other people, and that's the best I can do."
After a few seconds worth of consideration, he conceded, no doubt because he had something to ask of me.
"That would work I suppose. Now, I have a small favor to ask you. This is Cana, our newest member."
"We've met."
"Yes. Yes. She told me of your little encounter. Say, since you have a couple months' worth of experience being a mage, how would you feel about helping her out on her first mission."
It took me a while to reply, mostly because I wasn't entirely sure what to say. Sure, everyone else in the guild was either much older, so it would make sense for him to want someone closer to her age to give, or too young to be able to teach her anything properly. A teenager with a small amount of experience was evidently the best choice to show her the ropes.
"Alright."
My words, or word really, must have caught him by surprise.
"You will?" he asked, incredulous at my answer. "That's wonderful to hear! I'm so happy you're showing initiative to help out your guildmates. Alright Cana, you can trust Edward to show you around."
The little girl didn't seem too happy to go along with me, but she couldn't really turn down help, and, reluctantly, came along with me as we ambled over to the job board, a board holding all the jobs sent out to the Fairy Tail guild in particular.
"So, Cana." I began, getting the girl to pay some attention to me. "Since this is your first job and all, how about you pick. Some of these are going to be too hard for you, heck some of 'em are too hard for me, but I'm pretty sure you can find something that would work for you."
Cana, excited about the prospect of going on a job, turned her eyes to the board… and quite literally took all of two seconds to point at the first mission in front of her.
"How about this one?" She said, pointing to what looked like a job to handle a nest of Clippers that has been bothering a village.
"Uhh… I think that one might be too much for y- actually, I wouldn't know, I don't know what you can do, and you don't know what I can do. How about we first sit down and talk about what we can do, and pick a job that works for us?"
"But I wanna go on a job noooooow!" The kid, being a kid, replied to my question like a kid. Go figure.
I was about to reply before we both heard a grumbling sound, and Cana turned red in the face to the point I got concerned.
"That settles it. We're gonna get something to eat, and we'll take over some food."
Before I could begin walking to one of the tables, I felt something tugging at my shirt around the waist, and I found myself staring down at a little girl whose eyes wouldn't leave the floor alone.
It didn't take me much to guess the issue, what with me having been through the same situation once or twice in my life.
"Where are you staying?" My question caught her off guard, and with the silence extending for a longer period than I was entirely comfortable with, I told her to follow me.
Walking through Magnolia, I couldn't help but look around the place. Even after two months of being here, the atmosphere, the people smiling and talking and laughing in the streets, the greenery, the cute mom-and-pop shops, never really stopped being amazing to me, how seemingly all these people were in this beautiful town, happy and healthy without a care in the world. I know some of them, if not most of them, probably have something going on, but all of them just look so happy and it never stops being infectious. Even the little girl walking next to me was looking around in awe.
We eventually sat down at a small restaurant just outside the main commercial area, one that served food I recognized.
'Fuck outta here with your French bullshit weird animal food cuisine.'
After ordering a pizza for myself, and then another pizza for Cana since she refused to order anything other than glass of water, the only thing they served for free, I finally got around to actually talking to the girl.
"Stop me when I'm wrong," I started, "You're alone, got no place to stay, no money to buy food, and have no idea what you're doin'. I miss anything?"
The poor little thing looked like she was about ready to start crying right then and there, and it took me very little time to guess that no, I didn't miss anything.
"Tell you what," I began again, "I know it seems scary, going into this whole magic thing. I know you're thinking that you shouldn't be here, that you should go back home or something, but it gets better and easier. Trust me on that."
"For now," I continued, "how about we have some food, talk some magic, then go back to the guild and ask Makarov to help with getting you settled somewhere, and then, maybe, go on a job. That sound good?"
It looked like it took a lot for her to keep herself composed, but after a couple of seconds, she wiped her eyes a bit and gave me a nod.
"Good. I'll go first. My name is Edward Wilhelm, I got to magnolia and have been a member of Fairy Tail for about two months now. I can use something called Magical Bullets, which lets me, you guessed it, shoot magic. I can also identify things, like for example if you had a magic ring that and you didn't know what it could do, I can find out its properties, and finally, I can use telekinesis which let's me move things with my mind, like so." As I finished my little information dump, I lifted some of the breadsticks on the table and, to the best of my ability, made a stickman figure do the Michael Jackson Billie Jean dance.
Cana was giggling like a little girl, which I mean, she was, when the waiter came along with our food.
After a couple of minutes of us eating, Cana was ready to share.
"My name is C-Cana. Alberona!" My god, this little munchkin was adorable! "I'm eight years old," what, "and I can use card magic."
"How old did you say you were?" I asked, hoping to God I didn't hear her correctly.
"Eight!" I shit you not this girl had the au-da-ci-ty to hold up eight fingers.
"Oh, okay. How's the food?"
"Good." And back to the silence we go.
Holy shit. Holy Shit! This girl was eight years old! How in the hell did Makarov allow her to join, did he not know that mages went on jobs and suffered the risk of injury, or worse, death?
No way her parents would let her join a- oh.
I mean, it makes sense, but I couldn't really ask her, but I had just the thing for the occasion.
[Observe]
Name: Cana Alberona
Age: 8
Title: N/A
Class: Card Mage
Level: 1
Status: Tired
Born to Cornelia Alberona, Cana was raised in an orphanage as her mother passed away when Cana was two years old, and her father wasn't around. After turning eight, she was given a letter from the orphanage's matron that was written by her mother. The matron thought that Cana should have it, even though Cana's mother had instructed her to wait until she was at least twelve years old before being given the letter. The letter detailed information about Cana's father, a man by the name of Guildarts Clive who was a powerful mage and member of the Fairy Tail guild. With nothing but the clothes on her back, and enough money from the matron to buy some food and train tickets, Cana set out to meet her father, who she, upon realizing he had no idea who she was, couldn't even speak to out of fear and insecurity when she finally met him.
Current thoughts: Afraid. Tired. Hungry. Happy.
Oh. Wow.
I mean, what am I supposed to do.
'Sure, she can use magic, and I am not her father, no, that honor went to some deadbeat I was going to have a stern talking to once I got to the guild, but I had to do something. I can't just let this little girl flounder and fumble about until she gets herself hurt, but what can I do? Makarov didn't seem to have an issue with her age and let her into the guild, but that doesn't mean I should just let her do whatever she wants. She's eight for crying out loud, when I was her age I didn't have a concern beyond staying up late and she has to actually work, as an eight-year-old, to earn a living. I could probably talk to Makarov about sending her somewhere, don't know about this world's fostering or adoption systems, but they sure must beat being out on the street. Maybe I shou- '
"Thank you." I wasn't ready for how quiet she sounded.
Looking over at her, I was struck by how…small… she looked, like a strong wind was going to blow her away.
"You were right, I don't know what I'm doing, and I'm really scared, but I just thought if I showed up and talke- "
"Okay, listen up!" My tone made her flinch, better work on that.
"I don't really know why you decided to join Fairy Tail, and I don't know why you thought it was a good idea to do it when you were eight. I don't know your life, and I'm not gonna ask, because it's not my place. For now, you finish your food. We're gonna go buy you some things and then get you settled, and that's that. Good?"
My tone brook no argument, and after a very hesitant nod from her, I smiled and went back to my food.
Okay, I got this.
I don't got this.
After our meal, I took her shopping for some stuff and got her settled in my old room back at my house, with me moving myself to the master bedroom. She was hesitant at first, but after telling her that this was a temporary situation, and that I expected her to be on her own feet and out of the house as soon as was possible, she relented and finally settled down. This wasn't the problem.
No, the problem was later, when we went to the guild, picked up a job to put down two Vulcans, magical apes that could possess people, who were harassing a small town an hour's train from Magnolia, that the problem arose.
The problem being me losing my mind over the fact that this girl didn't know how to use magic.
Sure, she knew how to use magic but not how to use magic; she had no idea how to actually fight using her magic.
Thankfully, while the Vulcans were level 7, a level higher than me, they couldn't do much beyond jump around and try to hit us, and with me using Blink, and Cana standing a safe distance from being physically involved in the fight, we were able to put down the creatures, with killing them netting me 750 XP. Each.
1500 XP for putting the damn things down, and another 1500XP for completing the job, and a 30 from Prowess, I was but a few crumbs from my sweet, sweet level up.
I considered taking a small job inside of Magnolia to get me to level up, but I immediately put that to the side once we got home, choosing instead to start Cana on a training regiment to get her ready to actually start taking missions.
She wasn't happy, what child would be when told, right after their first taste of adrenaline, that they had to strap in and hit the metaphorical books, or in this case, weights. Telling her that we would go on another mission, a much less dangerous one, every week as long as she stuck to the training got her to actually start working on her magic.
Her magic was decent, that is to say, it was useful but not to such a degree that she had the ability to deal with anything thrown her way. She could use magical cards that looked like tarot cards to create effects, such as throwing a fire card to throw, well, fire at something.
Most of the training came down to me asking her what she would do in a hypothetical situation, and then having her try and go through it.
"Let's say you're surrounded by a bunch of small creatures. You wanna knock 'em all out, but you're… inside of a cave, and if you use something like fire you'll burn all the oxygen in the air, and it'll be very difficult for you to breathe. What do you do?"
"Uhh…" Which is how most of her answers went, until I suggested something, then she thought it was a good idea, and then I used my telekinesis to create a simulation of the little hypothetical situation.
Sometimes I'd jump in myself to give her an idea of working with someone, or would have a bunch of rocks to fly above her as if she was being attacked by bats or something, or anything I could come up with.
And on it went, we would train for a week, do a mission. Train for a week, take a mission. Over and over again, until…
"I think I should move out."
Thankfully, it was a quiet day at the guild, most of the members were off on jobs, and the rest were home, what with it being a Saturday, most, if not all, members who had a family or someone waiting for them back home wouldn't waste the weekend taking a job.
It had been three months since Cana moved in, and boy was she different.
She had gone all the way up to level 5, I myself was at level 9, and we had been doing jobs and raking in the green, the dough, the sweet, sweet cash money.
I'll be honest, I was expecting it. We have been doing a lot of missions, and even though we split all the money we made, we were both still making a lot. Between the money she was making, how much stronger she had gotten, and how comfortable she was doing jobs, I knew she was ready to move out. Mind you, I wasn't exactly happy to leave an eight-year-old unsupervised to take care of themselves, but I guess her time in the orphanage, and the time she spent doing chores with me, made her more mature for her age.
'A mature eight-year-old is still an eight-year-old and should be taken care of until at least fifteen, because that's my age and I wasn't ready for someone to call me a hypocrite.'
I wanted to say no, to not let her be on her own, but I was just so damn proud of the little shit that I couldn't bring myself to say anything. So, I went for the jugular.
"And where will you be staying?" I asked.
"Fairy hills. It's a boarding house for the female members of the guild." She answered.
"Can you afford to rent there?"
"I make enough money from jobs, I have enough saved up for a few months rent, and master is signing up to be my guarantor in case I miss a payment."
"What about food?"
"I know how to cook somethings, and I can always eat at a restaurant."
"I… I guess you're ready to leave then."
The silence between us dragged on for more than either of us felt comfortable.
"I just wanted to say thank you." She began, "You helped me out when I needed it, and you helped me become stronger. I never had any siblings, but I'm…uh…I um, thanks. For, you know, everything."
"Anytime, Cana. When are you moving?"
"Today. On a completely unrelated note, can you help me pack some things?"
"I'm not your personal pack mule."
"But you can telekinate stuff for meee."
"Telekinate is not a word, you can say magically carry, or levitate things." My words of admonition at her terrible vocabulary had no effect on her, but damn did her puppy-eyes have one on me.
"Fine. Fine. I'll help you out."
It took us all of two minutes to get her stuff packed, and a maybe ten till we got to the fairy hills building.
'Damn! I really should think about starting a moving company.'
It wasn't a tearful goodbye, she was still in Magnolia, maybe a ten-minute walk from my place, and she was still a member of Fairy Tail.
I told her to mind her manners and behave herself, we said our see-you-laters, and off I went back to the guild hall.
I considered taking a job, mostly because I was close to reaching level 10 and was guessing there was going to be some new bonus from the system, but I just wasn't feeling it, choosing to sit at the bar and sip on some rum and coke. I have no idea who thought it was okay to set the drinking age for mages at twelve, but damn if I'm not happy they did.
[Gained skill! Poison Resistance.]
"Drownin' yer sorrows, I see?"
"Hey Makarov."
"What happened to calling me guild master in front of others."
"Whose listening?"
The guild master still wasn't happy with me and my odd choice of words when addressing him, but he didn't mind it as much as when I first joined the guild.
"You know something, lad? I'm damn proud of you."
His words gave me pause, and I decided to voice my wonder at them. "What do you mean?"
"That girl, Cana. I'm proud of you for what you did for her. Most people wouldn't give the thought of helping her out a second's consideration, but you, no, you decided that someone needed your help, and so you helped 'em, asked for nothing in return and made sure, even when she was ready to go off on her own, that she actually was ready, and not just getting too big for her britches."
"I did what anyone else in the guild would do if they were in my place." I replied.
"Ah! But that's the thing, lad, they were in your position; I asked some of 'em to help her out, and most just said they had work to do and were too busy, the rest outright refused. However, I knew you wouldn't, it's the reason I didn't ask you first, I wanted some of the other members to get a feel for what it's like to be in Fairy Tail, that we're a family, and when one of us needs help, we jump in headfirst to help them."
"Weren't you surprised when I told you I'd help her out?"
"I was just so used to hearing people saying no that I was caught off guard".
"Most people wouldn't do something for a stranger, regardless of them being colleagues, and even more people wouldn't be comfortable being handed the responsibility of taking care of a kid."
"Never asked you to take care of her, lad. Just wanted you to show her the ropes, the rest was all you."
"I know who her father is." That got the guild master real quiet.
"Who." The word was said as a command, not a question, with such authority that I thought I should tell him.
"Not my place to tell." His silence at my words was provocation enough to get me to keep talking.
"Plus, she didn't exactly tell me. I just know what the guy looks like, and she shared enough feature for me to guess. I never asked her, and I won't tell you if she hasn't."
I could tell he wasn't happy with my words; he wasn't exactly frowning but his eyes were slightly narrowed, and his lips were in a thin line.
"I suppose it isn't your place to know and so it really isn't your place to tell. Just a question, is he one of us?"
"Yeah, but I don't think he knows she's his."
"Well ain't that just swell." I didn't need my magical lie-detecting ring to tell me he wasn't entirely actually happy. "But I guess we can only hope that, when she trusts us enough to share, she will."
"You said it."
"So, what, now that you are yet again a young man free from the tyranny of responsibility, will you be doing?" he asked, doing a surprisingly good job of changing the subject.
"Do more jobs, make more money, and maybe get laid."
"Oh my! Well, I suppose it is high time we had that talk; you and I."
I couldn't get to the job board faster if tried.
Author's note: Hello everyone. This is meant as a writing exercise more than anything, so don't do what I do whenever I find a story with five chapters published three years ago and think 'oh they'll definitely continue this'. That being said, please read and review and tell me what you think, as I'd like to know how much work I need to put into learning how to write all over again. Please keep your expectations for quality writing low, and any expectations more chapters even lower; I did this on a whim, and have no idea if I'll actually keep doing it.
That being said, I wish all of you a good day.