86 Designs for the New Arm

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

January, x781.

Around noon of the same day, a train pulled into Magnolia's train station from Hargeon. A few minutes later, a man and a young woman disembarked from the train. While the young woman, Marin Kitagawa, walked slightly ahead of the man, her father, she could not but help being nervous.

'Oh man...' Marin thought to herself as she peaked back at her father from over her shoulder every once in a while. 'I can't believe he came here. I thought I'd have the chance to talk to Master Makarov and tell him the best way to convince my dad. But now that plan is out of the window.'

Meanwhile, Marin's father followed behind her without an indication of how he felt about Marin's request to become a wizard… A Fairy Tail wizard. As someone who has traveled the world on business trips, he has heard quite a few rumors about Fairy Tail.

For example, the wizards of Fairy Tail are quite destructive. So destructive, in fact, that with every quest completed, they leave a higher repair cost in each subsequent town they visit. But not all the rumors were bad, though. Since Fairy Tail is considered by many to be the strongest guild in Fiore, he had heard a lot about that as well.

Unfortunately for Marin, her father's expression did not give away how he felt about her joining the guild at all. Instead, he wanted to see the guild that caught his daughter's eye for himself.

The funny thing is that as a fifteen-year-old turning sixteen in a little more than a month, she did not even need her father's permission to join a guild, or do anything really. But as a businessman, Marin's father was prone to making enemies, intentionally and unintentionally. So, he wanted to make sure that his daughter would be safe.

Eventually, after walking for a little more than an hour, stopping part way at the Rabbit's foot restaurant for a late lunch, Marin and her father reached the Fairy Tail guild hall. And just as they did, Marin's eyes lit up when she saw the people who were just leaving through the doors.

"Elicia! Cana! Erza!" Marin shouted as she started running toward her friends. "I'm back!"

Hearing their names called, Elicia, Cana, and Erza, with Sun tagging along, all turned their heads towards the voices direction. When they saw it was Marin, the three that knew her smiled. Meanwhile, Sun, who had never met Marin before, looked on with interest.

"Hey, Marin!" Elicia shouted back as she jogged toward Marin. "here for another visit?"

Before anymore words could be exchanged, Elicia and Marin met in the middle of their previous positions. Then, without hesitation, they wrapped each other in a hug with smiles on their faces.

"Well, sorta…" Marin said as she broke the hug with Elicia.

At that point, Cana, Erza, and Sun arrived behind Elicia.

"Marin, it's good to see you again." Erza said with a friendly smile on her face.

"Erza, it's good to see you, too." Marin said, quickly wrapping Erza in a hug as well. "I've even got some new books for you to take a look at."

With that, Erza's smile widened while she gained a slight dusting of red on her cheeks.

"That sounds wonderful." Erza replied.

"Geez, Marin, you've completely corrupted Erza." Cana said with a playful smile.

"What are you talking about, Cana?" Marin replied in mock anger. "How could you call spreading the culture a form of corruption?"

"Yeah, because getting someone addicted to smutty books isn't a form of corruption." Cana shot back.

"Don't mind her, Marin." Erza said with a solemn expression on her face. "She could never understand the art behind those novels."

"Erza, a girl after my own heart." Marin said, wiping a nonexistent tear from her eyes. "You have become a true connoisseur."

"Ahem!"

Hearing the strong clearing of a throat from nearby, the five girls looked in its direction. When they did, they saw a man with no stand-out features who would easily get lost in a crowd.

"Oh, hey Dad, forgot you were here." Marin said as she looked back at her father.

'That's her father?' Elicia, Cana, Erza, and Sun thought at the same time. 'Well, I guess she got her good looks from her mother. I mean, he's so plain…'

As if he could tell that the girls were thinking something rude about him, Marin's father felt his left eyebrow twitch as he gazed over them.

"Mind introducing me to your friends?" Marin's father asked.

"Of course!" Marin replied. "First, this is Elicia. She's the one that makes the uber-perfect costumes in my closet."

"Hi! It's nice to meet you." Elicia said with a big smile on her face.

"So, you're Elicia Taylor." Marin's father said, examining Elicia from head to toe. Then, he reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out a business card before presenting it to Elicia. "If you're looking to increase the sales of your products around Ishgar, contact me, I'd be happy to work with you."

Accepting the business card, Elicia glanced at it casually. However, just before she could put it away, she realized what it said.

'He works for the Heartfilia Kanzen, huh?' Elicia mused. 'I wonder if Marin knows Lucy… That would be kinda cool. But there's no way I'm gonna work with him. They'll be bankrupt in like four years.'

"We'll see." Elicia said with a smile. "I've been receiving a lot of offers lately. So, I'll have to look over all of them before I decide."

"Dad, we're not here for business talks." Marin said, putting an end to that conversation for now. "Next is Cana."

"Hey." Cana said with a lot less energy than Elicia.

"And that's Erza." Marin continued the introductions. "She's got the same great taste in literature as me."

'Calling that smut literature is a stretch.' Elicia, Cana, and Marin's father thought simultaneously.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet my friend's father." Erza said as she clenched her fist in front of her chest. "Marin has told us a lot about you."

'Has she?' Cana thought. 'All she ever does is complain about how he's never home. Well, she has done a lot of that, so she's not technically wrong.'

"And last but not least is… Wait, where's Alfonzo?" Marin asked after starting an introduction for someone who is not present.

"Fonzie should be back at the house by now." Elicia said with a shrug. "Oh, and let me introduce you to our new friend… And Fonzie's new fiancée, Sun Seto."

"He got another one?" Marin asked, widening her eyes.

"Well, the circumstances were special this time." Elicia replied. "Anyway, Sun, this is our friend Marin Kitagawa."

"Hi! It's nice to meet ya." Sun said with a smile.

Meanwhile, after hearing the surname, Seto, Marin's father had a guess as to why Elicia was not so interested in accepting his offer.

'If that Seto girl is her friend, she's probably already working with the Seto Group.' Marin's father thought to himself. 'I should probably report this to Mr. Heartfilia.'

"Well, it was nice to meet the four of you." Marin's father said with a small smile. "But Marin and I need to meet your guild master. So, if you'll excuse us."

"Oh, that's right!" Marin exclaimed. "I, like, totes forgot! Come on Dad, let's go!"

"It was nice to meet you, Mr. Kitagawa." Elicia, Cana, Erza, and Sun said in unison as they made space for the Kitagawas to pass.

"Oh, Marin!" Elicia shouted just before the Kitagawas entered the guild hall.

"Yeah?" Marin turned around as she responded.

"Are you staying here or going back after you meet Gramps?" Elicia asked.

Instead of replying immediately, Marin looked to her father who simply nodded in response.

"I guess we'll be staying here tonight." Marin replied.

"No, I'll be going back." Marin's father replied. "But you can stay here if you want."

With that, Marin's father reached into his back pocket and took out his wallet. Then, he gave Marin a stack of Jewels to use on a hotel room."

"Well, I guess I'll be staying here tonight!" Marin shouted to Elicia as she put the money in her purse. "So, I'll come to your house after we finish talking to Master Makarov."

Hearing that, Marin's father's eyebrow twitched once again. He just realized that he had been getting tricked for months. Every time Marin made a trip to Magnolia, he would transfer money to her so that she could stay in a hotel. Yet, she had been staying at her friend's house. However, he knew that once money fell into his daughter's purse, he would never see it again, since it would probably be spent on smutty novels or costumes.

With that, Marin waved to the other girls as she entered the guild hall with her father.

"Well, let's go check on Fonzie." Elicia said after the doors closed behind the Kitagawas.

"Yeah, I wonder if Porlyusica was able to reattach his arm." Cana said as she started walking toward the mansion.

"I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you." Erza said in a solemn tone. "It was in pretty bad shape when we recovered it from the Leviathan's jaws."

"Alfonzo'll be fine, ya see. Sun said with a confident smile. "he said he was gonna build a better one, didn't he?"

To that, Elicia, Cana, and Erza smiled, interested to see what Alfonzo would build to replace his arm. So, the quartet quickly made their way to the mansion in only half the time it would usually take to walk from the guild hall.

Eventually, the four young women entered the house through the front door. Then, they immediately started searching for Alfonzo.

"Fonzie~! We're home~~~!" Elicia shouted as she started walking toward the master bedroom. "Where are you~~~!"

"I'm in the living room!" Alfonzo shouted his reply.

Immediately, Elicia, Cana, Erza, and Sun stopped their search that had just started and made their way toward the living room. When they arrived, they saw Alfonzo sitting on a couch while drawing, with a large number of papers spread out on the coffee table in front of him.

When the girls saw that his left arm was still missing, they all showed expressions of sadness. However, since they were expecting things to be that way, those expressions did not last for too long. Instead, they were curious about what he was working on.

"Whatcha doin'? Elicia asked as she skipped over to Alfonzo's left side before sitting down on the couch.

Following Elicia, the other three surrounded Alfonzo to look at what Alfonzo was doing as well.

"Making designs for my Automail arm." Alfonzo replied without lifting his head.

"Wouldn't it be better for you to be resting, though?" Erza asked. "You aren't yet fully healed, after all."

"I need to get this done before I'm fully healed." Alfonzo replied. "It will be easier to connect the arm that way."

Meanwhile, Cana picked up one of the drawings spread on the table. Then, after looking over the design, she turned to Alfonzo with a curious gaze.

"Why is so much of this one hollow?" Cana asked, pointing at the drawing in her hand.

"Oh, it's not just that one." Alfonzo said, finally looking up with a smile. "They're all like that."

In response to Alfonzo's statement, the girls rifled through all the designs, only to realize that what Alfonzo said was true.

"But why would you make them like that?" Sun asked, tilting her head cutely.

"So I have somewhere to store iron sand… Well, metal sand. I mean, iron sand is good, but I can use better metals for it."

"But there's only so much space in those hollow spots, right?" Elicia asked. However, she had an idea what Alfonzo would say next.

"That's right." Alfonzo replied with a nod. "But I'll use some space expansion sigils. That way, I can store a lot more metal sand."

What Alfonzo said was exactly what she was expecting him to say. So, Elicia simply nodded in response.

"The real question is which of these designs am I gonna use." Alfonzo said, leaning back on the couch.

And just as Alfonzo said, there were many designs to choose from.

"Yeah, it looks like you've been busy." Cana said as she picked up another design.

"*Sigh* But right now I feel kinda stupid." Alfonzo said while smiling wryly.

Hearing that, the four girls looked at him in confusion. Before they could ask why he said that, however, Alfonzo answered their question preemptively.

"We spent so much time on drawing the blueprint for this house…" Alfonzo said, trailing off at the end. Then, he took a deep breath before continuing. "And we forgot to add a damn workshop for me…"

Immediately, silence fell on the room as Cana, Erza, and Sun looked at Alfonzo and Elicia with incredulous expressions. They had never thought about it before, but it did not make sense that Elicia had a work station while Alfonzo had nowhere to do his crafting.

"Oops." Elicia said while tapping her knuckles against the side of her head. "Tee-hee."