July X784.

Magnolia Town, Outskirts.

Scene: Thunder God Tribe.

"You're here again, Natsu?"

Laxus walks up to the little straw-made hut. Natsu sits before a gravestone, legs crossed with a smile on his face. He'd planted a little flower in the soil before the stone, and it was growing beautifully.

"Yeah." Natsu hums. Turning up to the guy. "Just wanted to see her before we went. It'll be a while before we're back, right?"

"You say that every time," Laxus sighs. "We'll be back before you know it."

"You say that every time too, then we walk the long way around and it takes us ages to get anywhere," Natsu pouts. "Back and forth."

Laxus fumbles, "well you don't want to ride a train either, right?!"

Natsu bursts out laughing, "you're just using me as an excuse to avoid transportation!"

"Shut up or I'm leaving you behind!"

Natsu laughs as Laxus swirls around and marches right away.

Dusting himself off, Natsu stands up.

"Bye Lisanna, I'll be back soon!" he says, giving the gravestone a big grin before turning around to follow after the lightning mage.

"So, what's the job this time?" Natsu asks.

His eyes follow Happy as the cat lands on his shoulder. Beside them, Evergreen lands daintily on the ground before opening her fan before her face and walking along.

And in front of them, Freed and Bickslow are waiting.

"It's an S Class. We're supposed to deal with some big slave ring in Bosco or something," Laxus says. "Freed and Ever are handling the talking, so you stay out of it until the punching starts, alright?"

"Yeah yeah."

"Of course you're not listening. What did I expect?"

Laxus groans longsufferingly.

Bickslow laughs along with Natsu, both of them running ahead to avoid Laxus' annoyed yells and reprimands. The little soul dolls echoed obnoxiously, being infuriating little shits for no reason.

Ever turned away with a show of disgust, but there was a smile hidden behind her fan. Freed sighed with fondness.

"With this many of us, it'll be easy, won't it?" Natsu says, "Laxus and I could do this ourselves!"

"I can do it myself, alone ," Laxus emphasizes. "I'm only bringing you along because I don't want you to throw a tantrum when I get back."

"STOP TREATING ME LIKE A KID!"

"Now, Natsu," Freed chides, "a part of this mission is doing it as quickly as we can, and you can't simply punch your way through it, which is why the rest of us have our jobs delegated for us to ensure maximum efficiency in achieving the goals of this mission without endangering the lives of any--"

"AHhhhh! Stop talking! You're making book worms breed in my brain!" Natsu whined.

"...Natsu, you know bookworms aren't actually worms, right?"

July X784.

Hargeon Town, Portside.

Scene: Lucy Heartfilia.

Lucy sighs in disappointment.

Tucking her keys back by her waist, she turns and walks away from the wreckage, where the magic knights were already seizing Bora the Prominence and his gangly crew of slave traders.

Lucy groans at the dress sticking to her figure.

The sea water was icky against her skin-- ugh, she's going to have a nice long bath after this at her inn. It's a relief Aquarius could help her through the ordeal, but the mermaid could really do without washing Lucy away too.

"So he's not even from Fairy Tail? What a waste of time," she mutters. "I should've asked him to show me his mark before I believed him."

Guess it really isn't all that easy to join the guild, huh. Opportunities don't just offer themselves on a platter, after all.

"Alright, enough dallying. I'll go to the guild myself and ask to join!"

Lucy has to work for it if she really wants to try for it. She ran away from home, after all-- no use sticking around in her comfort zone.

She has to step out and actually be bold!

"Ouch! I'm sorry."

Lucy bumps into a smaller child as she turns out of an alley. Quickly, she reaches over to catch the girl before she falls.

"That was close," Lucy says, helping the girl to her feet. "Are you okay?"

The blue-haired girl smiles. "I'm okay! Thanks for catching me," she says.

Their hands let go, and Lucy notices something-- this girl is absolutely adorable . Long blue hair, vibrant as the night sky-- and a green one-piece dress that was simple and a tad old-fashioned, but suited her well.

Most importantly.

"Is that a guild mark?" Lucy speaks before she realizes.

She'd gone around people-watching for guild marks after yesterday's ordeal, just to remind herself to keep an eye out for something like that again. Perhaps it's a bit rude to point it out, out of nowhere.

The little girl takes no offense at all. "Yes!" she says, "I'm from Caitshelter. We're a wizard's guild by the West Forest."

Caitshelter? Lucy's never heard of it before… it's definitely not popular in this area. Maybe it's a recent guild, then?

And the West Forest? That's far.

"That's impressive! You're so young, but you're already in a guild," Lucy says. "Ah-- right. I'm Lucy. I'm actually a mage, too! I'm not in a guild yet, though."

"Really?" the girl asks, "That's rare. How do you take jobs and everything?"

"I've just been asking around for anyone that needs help," Lucy laughs sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head, "I have to admit, though-- I run out of money really often."

The little girl laughs dryly in empathy. "I'm young, I can't use any offensive money, plus, my guild is in the far West Forest, so there aren't a lot of jobs I can take either."

They're bonding over penniless plights, for some reason.

"Ah-- I forgot," the girl perks up, "I'm--"

"Wendy!"

Both girls flinch at the sharp call in the distance. They turn around to find a blond boy with spiky hair, dressed in similarly old-fashioned clothes as Wendy. His Caitshelter insignia is on his left shoulder, an opposite side to Wendy's.

They're both so young…

"Ah, Sting," the girl, that Lucy now knows is Wendy, responds in slight panic. "I'm sorry! I got a little caught up. Did you find Lector and Carla?"

"They're waiting for us on the platform."

"That's a relief! I'll be right there, then."

Lucy turns to the boy-- Sting, was it? The little boy stares skeptically at Lucy before marching forward and putting Wendy behind him.

"I'm sorry for her, she's very clumsy," Sting says, in all the tone of absolute wariness with an underlying threat, "we need to catch a train, so if you'll excuse us."

"S-Sting!" Wendy chastises him for his tone, "Lucy's a nice person, you don't have to be so rude."

"I'm not being--"

"--sorry, Lucy. It's been nice talking to you, I hope we meet again," Wendy says, bowing politely. "We really need to catch a train, so we'll have to go now."

"Ah, don't mind me. Sorry to hold you up." Lucy manages to say, still taken aback by the scary twelve-year old at the side.

Sting was now growling like an angry cat, though he only does it behind Wendy's back so the girl doesn't see it.

"Have a safe trip, both of you," Lucy tells them in lieu of a goodbye.

"Good luck on finding a guild, Lucy!"

And just as quickly as they bumped into each other, Wendy and Sting scurries away.

Lucy smiles and waves. Then without thinking much about it again, she turns around and continues on her way.

"Oh, a new recruit?"

Lucy flinches.

Master Makarov, a surprisingly little old man, grins up at her.

"Well, welcome aboard!"

Words could not express the sheer happiness that bloomed inside her chest at that moment. She could cry or squeal in excitement, but she settled with a beaming smile.

It took her quite a while, but she's finally made it all the way to Fairy Tail's guild hall. It's a mess in there, with drunkards filling the tavern hall and chaos going on in some corner, tables and chairs being shattered.

And oh, Mirajane . Mirajane Strauss, world-class beauty.

Lucy has only been in this guild hall for two minutes, but she's ready to spontaneously combust out of sheer happiness.

"Yes!" She bows and smiles. "I'm Lucy!"

To this day, she still can't believe how easy it was to just walk up and ask for a stamp.

She was all worried for nothing, because opportunities came as easily as just needing to pick up the courage to walk in that door.

July X784.

Shirotsume Town, Everlue Mansion.

Scene: Team Shadow Gear.

"Wait, you three," the Magic Knight stops the mage team.

Levy turns around. "Is there anything else?" she asks, holding Daybreak to her chest.

After a hasty mission of breaking and entering-- and inevitably, fighting, destroying, exposing dirty secrets and getting the army called on them for all the destruction-- Team Shadow Gear was finally able to leave the town, a job well done.

"Uh," the knight pauses at Jet and Droy synchronous glares. Levy beams, unaware of the mad dog legion flanking her sides.

The knight clears his throat, holding up an item in his hands.

"Our policy with gate keys is that it would belong to the criminal's family, or to whoever defeated the previous owner," he explains, "I'm not sure if you would have a use for it, but it's either that or the council will discard it back to trade."

Levy prods at the golden gate key curiously. It was definitely a beautiful magical item, but Levy didn't know how to use Celestial Spirit magic-- nor did anyone else in the guild.

"This was that gorilla maid, wasn't it?" Jet reminds them, and Levy's desire to keep the key falls a little further into the drain.

Oh well.

"I heard there's only twelve of these golden gate keys in the entire world," Levy says, deciding to be positive. After all, Celestial Magic is one of the oldest forms of magic in the world! "Even if I can't use the magic, I'm interested in reading up about it. I'm sure having one key will be useful when I study."

And it's free, too.

"I guess we could ask the Master what we can do with it after that," Droy suggests.

"Alright then. Let's go look for Mister Kaby and give him the book!"

After the job was done and over, Team Shadow Gear made their way toward the train station, ready to go home and look for a new job, since this reward was a bust.

"Hm? Levy, the card's glowing."

In the girl's pocket, her Call Card was glinting with an alarming blink.

Surprised, she retrieves it and holds it out before her, observing the picture of a terrified Cana blinking in and out of light, signifying a distress message.

Quickly, she sends a pulse of magic through the card.

"Levy?" Cana's voice comes through, "This is Cana. Are you guys still at Shirotsume?"

"Yeah!" Levy says, at the same time Jet and Droy lean in to give their greetings. "Is something wrong?"

"Well, not exactly, I might just be overthinking it," Cana says, "Macao's been gone for a week on that Vulcan mission. Romeo's been getting worried, and I was thinking… "

"Vulcans?" Jet asks, "that old geezer took on that Mt Hakobe one? Seriously?"

"Without Wakaba?" Droy adds, incredulous.

"You two are looking down on him too much," Levy chastises them, "Macao might be middle-aged now, but he was one of Fairy tail's leading guards in his prime, y'know."

"Anyway," Cana interrupted sharply, "if you guys are free, could you drop by Mt Hakobe? Just to check up on him."

Levy shares a glance with her boys.

Then they all grinned at once.

"Of course that's fine, Cana!"

Jet has a look of pure determination on his face, pumping his fist in excitement. "Just wait, we'll drag that guy down the mountain for ya!"

"Don't worry Cana, we'll find him!" Droy says.

Cana sounds flustered even through the card. "I'm not worried!"