Chapter 3: Ch3: Welcome to Fairy Tail!

Chapter 3 – Fairy Tail

Two days and some shenanigans with a flying pig later, we arrived in Magnolia. Magnolia was a nice little town, it had a close comfortable feel about it. I don't know why but it made me feel right at home as we strolled along the canal side. I noticed a nice two story building on the right with a sign labeled "vacancy" and made a note to return to check it out.

We strolled past an impressively sized cathedral which I raised an eyebrow at. We proceeded through a market with a lot of open stalls and up a wide flight of stairs on the side of an incline in the street before making our way down the wide street to the massive building at the end of it. I felt my small smile at the scenery grow to a large grin as I saw the words "Fairy Tail" over the entrance.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail!" Happy told us cheerfully as Natsu strolled up to the doubled doors. We vaguely expected Natsu to open the door and let us in. We should have known better.

Natsu kicked the door open, shouted that he was back alive and immediately started a massive barfight that the entire guild was almost immediately in on. I blinked in shock as the whole guild hall went from a cheerful pub scene to an all-out brawl in less than a minute. I smiled weakly, So this is Fairy Tail huh? Figures this is the kind of guild that a guy like Natsu would belong to.

I raised an eyebrow as I noticed the gorgeous brunette at the bar. My other eyebrow went up as she drained the glass of red wine in her hand and then snatched an entire barrel up and drank from it like a can since the glass of wine was apparently not nearly enough. Lucy said something and I turned my attention back to her as she looked at me, "What is wrong with these people? There's not one sane person in the entire place!"

I shrugged, "Sanity's overrated. Besides, if Natsu's the norm here, and apparently he is, then I'd really expect nothing less." Lucy looked at me skeptically and I made a face, "Lucy, he spent six hours trying to catch a flying pig, a flying. PIG. Not because it was a flying pig, but because he wanted to know if it tasted more like chicken or bacon."

The answer was extra delicious bacon.

Then we turned as someone asked, "Hello, are you new here?" My heart and brain stopped. Lucy's beautiful. The brunette at the bar who I later learned was named Cana is a total knockout. This woman, who I learned from Lucy's fangirl squeal was Mirajane, she was drop dead gorgeous. The deepest blue eyes I've ever seen, snow white curls down her back and her bangs pulled up into a curious little ponytail in the front that worked astoundingly well for her, curves that rivaled if not surpassed Lucy's even in the floor length and rather conservative dress, and that smile…if I'd ever doubted that there was a divine power at work in making humans, those doubts vanished and I could only praise said being as the very finest of artists.

It took almost a full minute for my brain to start working again, and if someone hadn't thrown a mountain of a man who I later learned was Mirajane's "little" brother Elfman at her, I probably would've taken a few minutes more. As was, I managed to catch Elfman out of the air with reflexes and strength I was pretty sure I didn't have, before he could slam into Mirajane. I don't know quite what spurred me to lift him over my head and throw him back into the fray as I roared at him to "Get back in there and fight like a man!", but I did.

I glanced over my shoulder, "Nice to meet you Miss…Mirajane was it?" Mirajane was looking at me with an extremely amused expression as Lucy gawked at me. "Yes, it's very nice to meet you too," Mirajane replied before her eyes widened slightly, "heads up!"

I turned my attention back to the front and got a face full of completely naked buttocks. I slammed into the ground, turned my landing into a reverse somersault and planted both feet in the face of the naked bastard that had just slammed ass first into my face. I spun back to my feet and barked, "PUT SOME CLOTHES ON YA PERVERT!"

"Nice shot Jerry!" Natsu called as he twirled a pair of boxers like a trophy. Then the naked pervert punched me in the back of the head. I staggered and then turned and returned the favor with every ounce of strength I had in my left arm. Said naked pervert went flying once again, this time with a nosebleed courtesy of yours truly. I turned back to Natsu, "Did you seriously just punch that dude out of his underwear?!"

Natsu laughed triumphantly and then the brunette at the bar called in a carrying voice that cut through the chaos, "Okay guys, that's enough." A blue glow suddenly lit up her corner of the room as she added with what had to be a magical card held high, "I suggest you knock. It. Off."

"Oh yeah?!" the thankfully no longer quite so naked pervert shouted as he climbed back to his feet and readied his own magic, "SAYS WHO?!" I'm still not quite sure when or how he reclaimed his boxers but I'm glad he did. I did not need to see that.

The big guy who I'd caught midair lifted his fist over his head and roared a wordless challenge as his fist and arm turned to stone, some ginger guy in a green parka muttered something and fired up some of his magic, aaand of course Natsu was ready to take all of them and more as flames blazed to life around his fists. I spread my fingers and they started glowing, like hell was I getting caught in a wizard brawl without my own magic in rear kicking gear.

Then the ground shook and a voice like thunder rumbled from overhead as an immense shadow filled the hall, "WILL YOU FOOLS STOP BICKERING LIKE CHILDREN?!"

I looked up and felt my stomach drop as I realized the shadow was from an equally huge man. A GIANT?! I heard Lucy squeak, "HE'S HUGE!"

The entire guild froze. "Oh hello!" Mirajane chirped as if nothing was out of the ordinary, "I didn't realize you were still here Master!"

The giant turned to look at her as Lucy squawked, "Did you say master?!"

Before Mirajane could answer, Natsu cackled something moronic and earned the attention of the giant with an appropriately giant-sized stomping ensuing immediately. Natsu didn't even have time to make a ridiculous squeaky sound as all the fight was literally squashed out of him. Then the giant turned his attention back to Lucy, Mirajane and me because I was still right there close, "Well, seems we've got some new recruits."

Then he drew himself up to his full height and let out an almighty growl that I am not ashamed to admit made me fear for my life for a brief moment, then the giant shrank. He shrank and shrank, and shrank some more. A moment later, where had before stood a giant was a guy so small that as he raised a hand in greeting and declared it nice to meet us, the only logical response was the one Lucy and I chorused, "He's tiny?!"

"Is this guy really in charge here?" Lucy exclaimed. "You just watched him shrink down from a giant capable of literally squashing the scrappy outta Natsu," I replied dryly, "Yeah I'd say he's probably in charge."

"Lucy, Jerry," Mirajane said with a smile, "allow me to introduce the Fairy Tail Guildmaster Makarov."

Makarov turned with a grin, and then with a small grunt, he jumped. I don't mean a little jump either. He went spinning through the air all the way to the banister of the second floor balcony. It would've been a touch more impressive if he hadn't missed the angle ever so slightly and slammed back first into the banister, only narrowly catching himself to avoid falling back to the ground. I was surprised he was able to keep his funny orange and blue hat on.

Master Makarov pulled himself upright like nothing had happened and stood balanced on the banister before hefting a thick stack of papers to show the guild as he exclaimed, "You've gone and done it again, you bunch of clods! Just take a look at how much paperwork the Magic Council sent me this time! This is the biggest pile of complaints yet!" He took a breath and shouted, "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MINDS?!" He lowered his head and started to shake slightly with frustration, "All you kids are good for is getting the higher ups mad at me!"

I frowned, that wasn't a good start to my impression of him. Then Makarov sighed, "However…" He lifted his head and gave us all the cheeky sort of grin that spelled nothing but fun and victory. As the papers in his hand burst into flames he declared, "I say to heck with the Magic Council!"

He tossed the burning papers out over the crowd and Natsu leapt to catch them in his mouth like a dog with a ball. Master Makarov continued, "Now listen up. Any power that surpasses reason still comes from reason right? Magic isn't some miraculous power, it is a talent that only works when the flow of energy inside of us and the flow of energy in the natural world are in perfect synchronization. To perform magic, one must have a strong mind, and the ability to focus. It should take over your being and come pouring out of your soul! If all we do is worry about following rules then our magic will never progress! Don't let those blowhards on the council scare you, follow the path you believe in, because that's what makes the Fairy Tail guild NUMBER ONE!" he proclaimed triumphantly as he thrust his index finger to the sky and earned a cheer from the guild (myself included as I decided that I definitely liked his style and would have no problems at all getting along with him).

…

And then…

…

A few minutes later, Mirajane pressed a magic stamper onto my shoulder and it produced a perfect crimson imprint of the Fairy Tail emblem on my left shoulder. "I'll consider it a badge of honor," I declared with a grin as I craned my head to look at it with a smile. Mirajane smiled, "Good, it's important to be proud of your guild!"

I turned my smile on her as I lifted my jacket and slung it over my shoulder, "I have no doubt that I'll be extremely proud to call this place home. Where I'm from, you couldn't have anywhere near this much fun without the law showing up to shut it down and arrest everyone involved." Then I tilted my head and smiled with slight embarrassment, "Ah, one more thing Miss Mirajane, how does this guild business work? I've never been in or interacted with one."

Mirajane looked at me in surprise, "Really? They don't have any guilds in your town?"

I smiled, "Ah yeah…see I'm from waaay far away. We don't have any guilds at all in my world." Then my trap snapped shut as I realized what had just escaped my mouth. I made a face and decided to accept it and move on as Mirajane realized what I'd said. "Parallel world," I explained, "Not a fun one. No magic at all. Just got here a few days ago. Not sure how."

Mirajane smiled at me in an "oh you poor sweet nitwit" sorta way and I glowered slightly, "If I were going to lie, why would I tell a lie that nobody would believe?"

Mirajane's smile faded as she thought about that and then she stiffened slightly as she realized that it was probably too absurd to be a lie. Master Makarov, who had just finished having an argument with a young boy who had run out of the guild crying, looked over at me as Natsu stormed out, "Ah, so you're from Edolas eh?"

I looked at him in surprise, "I might be. I'm not sure where Edolas is."

"It's a world parallel to this one which has a significant magic shortage," Makarov explained, "The people there are almost religious about conserving their magic."

I nodded, "Ah. Yeah, I must be from the dimension on the other side of that one. In my world we haven't got any magic at all, so my world is pretty radically different. I only got here a few days ago. I woke up on a street in Hargeon the day Natsu got there. Nothing on me except my clothes, a deck of magical cards, a good knife and a little piece of paper telling me to find Natsu and come join Fairy Tail. Oh, and something about not pissing off someone named Erza…do you know who that is? You're all laughing so I guess you do."

"Erza's one of our strongest wizards," Mirajane explained, "She's out on a job right now, but when she's here most everyone walks on eggshells around her because she's prone to playing disciplinarian with her fists."

"Tougher than Natsu I'm guessing," I mused. Elfman chuckled, "Natsu? Erza's stronger than just about everybody."

I looked at him, "Well, I guess if she's the group disciplinarian that makes sense. Wouldn't be able to do much to you guys if she wasn't a powerhouse. Back to the matter at hand though, how's a guild work? Like I said, never been around one, so this is all new to me."

Makarov smiled, "Well for starters, every year you pay a membership fee to help with upkeep of the guild hall and go towards our damage fund, and the guild gets five percent of whatever reward you rake in, plus the cost of whatever damages you cause in the course of the job to make sure that they're paid and the guild's reputation is able to stay intact. Over there is the request board," he gestured with his staff to a bulletin board that Natsu had been looking at earlier, "We take all kinds of jobs, basically anything except assassinations and other things deemed illegal abuse of magic by the Magic Council. We've got everything up there right now from hunting down proof of a mythical lake monster to stealing a book from some perverted duke."

I nodded and eyed the board as Master Makarov continued, "Once you pick a job, you let me or Mirajane know that you're taking it and then you head out to meet the client. The client will give you any further details on the job and then you take care of whatever problem they're having. Once you're done, you report back to the client and they give you your reward money. Then you come on back and let us know how it went. After that you can take another job whenever you want. There's no limit on how many jobs you can take except for what you're capable of. Once you take a job, you should at the very least attempt it as a matter of your honor as a Fairy Tail mage. Taking a job and failing is fine, but taking one and then not even attempting it is like stealing an opportunity from your brothers and sisters among the guild. Needless to say, it's pretty highly frowned upon."

I nodded, "Right, better take one that I can handle." I tilted my hand palm up and let it start glowing, "Got anything good for light and explosions?"

Makarov went pale, "How big of an explosion?"

"About fifty times the size of my projectile if the few times I've used it is anything to go on," I replied, "I've never tried to make anything other than about a fist sized, so I don't know if that ratio is constant or if it fluctuates."

I allowed a fist sized gloop of light to appear in my hand to demonstrate. I started morphing it into shapes, "I don't know how to change the color yet, and I don't know how big I can make these. They're totally harmless until I fire them. Then they turn into a laser beam that makes things explode. If I were to fire this, it would make a fireball about five meters in diameter with a pretty loud bang. I don't really know what else I can do with it."

Master Makarov studied my little light shapes, "Have you tried making illusions?" I thought about it and then my brow furrowed as I turned my hand and willed my little blob of light to turn into a mirror image of Master Makarov. My palm glowed like a searchlight and then a caricature of the Master appeared on the table. I flinched and then frowned, my pride as an artist would not let rubbish like that stand. A moment of glowing later, Makarov was looking at a pretty good imitation of himself. Makarov nodded, "That's pretty good, especially for your first attempt. How about invisibility? Can you do that?"

I tilted my head, thought about how invisibility was supposed to work and then closed my eyes as I tried to will the light to bend around me. I felt a wave of cold wash over me and shuddered. The feeling disappeared quickly as I opened my eyes, "That was weird." Then I noticed everybody was staring, "Did I do it?"

"For just a moment you were starting to fade out of sight," Makarov replied, "Whatever you just did, it seems like you were on the right track. Now would you mind telling me how you did that?"

"Master," Mirajane suddenly said in a warning tone. I glanced at her in surprise and learned that she had a surprisingly good death glare.

Makarov turned a slightly ruffled look on her, "What? It's a very interesting ability!"

"That you and every other pervert here would use to try to sneak into the girls' bath," Mirajane said flatly, "Jerry, don't tell him how that works and don't get any ideas about sneaking into the girls' bath. I will find out, and I will make you regret it."

I thought about it, "Did I hear Lucy say you're a pin up model?"

Mirajane's eyes narrowed, "You might have. Why?"

"In the event I never work up the nerve to ask you out I would like to at least see you in a bikini at some point," I replied bluntly, "You are absolutely gorgeous, and I'd have to seriously question my own manhood if there wasn't a large part of me screaming to hunt down some of those pictures. Sorry," I added with a smile and shrug, "simple truth. Any man who doesn't want to see more of you has something very, very wrong with him."

There was a lethal silence and I noticed that everyone was leaning away from me. I kept my smile plastered on, "Am I about to get blasted into a smear on the ground?"

"That depends," Mirajane said quietly, "How much did you mean that?"

"One hundred percent?" I replied curiously, "Why wouldn't I mean it?"

Mirajane laughed slightly and smiled a secret little smile that made my heart skip a beat, "I'm a frequent Sorcerer Weekly Centerfold. You can buy it at most newspaper stands." She turned to arrange some bottles on the shelf behind her, "Don't ever lose that honesty of yours," she looked over her shoulder and shot me a wink and smile as she added, "it's kind of cute."

I'm not sure exactly when I wound up looking at the ceiling, or when I fell off my stool, but the next thing I knew I was on my back in the floor with everyone laughing. I looked around, thought for a moment and sat up, "The heck just happened?"

The laughter started fresh and I noticed Mirajane was blushing just as pink as her dress (very pink and it looked extremely cute on her). I thought for a moment, no pain or throbbing in the face from a smack, so it probably wasn't Elfman decking me which means… "I just got hearts in my eyes and fainted didn't I?"

The laughter intensified and I picked myself up. I dusted myself off, set my hat back on my head, caught my jacket off the back of my barstool, "That's never happened before. Well, I guess it's a good thing I enjoy making people laugh eh? Time to go pick out a job I think. What was that I heard about one to steal a book from a perverted duke? I think I just found me an excuse to practice my invisibility!"