Only Human? ♦ job

Humans were such entertaining, confusing, and curious beings. She should have known this by now, but they never ceased to amaze her. Roughly seventeen years of constant observance, and she still could not solve whatever puzzle or riddle their existence was. Nevertheless, they were the most dominant of beings, subduing and ruling all in their path on the world, and standing up against even the strongest of life-forms only to emerge victoriously. One could not help but feel a jab of envy for the ever-growing race of seemingly weak creations once their power was recognized. Their emotions, ideals, and spirits were unlike anything else in the world, and she could barely even get a real touch or understanding of their essence in general, despite being able to imitate that unknown quintessence and nature.

So why?

Why did they stoop to the level of war, fighting, murder, fear, and hate? It never made much sense to the raccoon dog… most of the tension between humans was for petty reasons that simply did not seem to act as valid reason to many. Regardless, here she was in human society, indulged yet again in their trifling matters and disputes. A kid, having seen her take on a weak monster, had requested her help to take on a bully at the school who had been giving him problems. Not wanting to say no to the child’s innocent plea and promise of a measly amount of jewels, Izayuki agreed to help.

”Miss, the school is this way… Shuuya will still be there. I have to go to a club meeting, but it’s hard to get through without him seeing me…” the boy explained, holding the young mage’s hand and leading her along. The two finally reached the schoolyard of the middle school where her new client would introduce her to her new target. ”You can’t hurt him too bad… or else I will probably get in trouble.”

”Right then… sounds easy enough~” Izayuki replied in her usual chipper manner, hoping to calm the obviously-nervous boy some. As they walked through the yard, the duo were abruptly stopped by a taller and older kid with blonde medium-length hair and brown eyes. He was with a few other boys roughly his age, but obviously seemed to be the ringleader. Was this ‘Shuuya’?

”So Takato, did you bring your mommy with you? How cute,” he said, first gazing at her ‘client’ before looking back at the pink-haired Black Rose mage with a cruel smile.
”You go ahead and run to your club meeting, Takato… I’ll take care of this,” she said with a small grin and a sigh, gazing down reassuringly at the little boy who already seemed to be shaking at the sight of the older kids.
”Run away, baby… we know where you’ll be…” Shuuya said, eyeing Takato before he averted his gaze back to Izayuki. ”So, who’re you then? We don’t take kindly to outsiders at this school….” he continued, cracking his knuckles as the surrounding boys chuckled.

”Is that right?” Izayuki asked, half-closing her eyes and smiling tauntingly at the middle-schoolers. ”First threatening a little boy, and now a girl who is a little older than you children… how cute.”
The last two words were there to repeat what Shuuya had said earlier- another jab at the group.

”Well, ‘miss’... you seem to be all alone,” he said, obviously having not taken the comment too kindly. The other boys moved closer, cruel grins plastered on their own faces. Giving a sigh and exaggerated shrug, Izayuki smiled, closing her eyes as she continued, unfazed. ”Ahh darn, I thought I would be able to speak civilly with you children… but I s’pose ya’ll really only listen to actions, not words.”

Concluding her statement, the Glacier God Slayer placed both hands forward, fingers apart loosely, and palms turned roughly towards the group of bullies. With that done, she gave a sly smile as a cold layer of ice was generated, slowly freezing the boys in place with all but their heads frozen. ”Now, I could continue freezing… the idea is extremely tempting. You kids need to convince me otherwise. Money? Don’t want it. Bribes or favors? Nah…. oh wait! I remember this one kid… I think Takato was his name? He’s about this tall, a year or two younger than ya’ll~” Izayuki began, still grinning and holding her hand in a blade fashion aimed down to gesture and symbolize how tall her client was. ”If ya’ll could leave him alone… that would be much appreciated. Bully him again, and well….”

The ice began climbing up the frozen students again, almost reaching their neck in a threatening manner. Instantly the boys began to nod, shouting out that they would behave and hold off on harassing their favorite victim. Fear in his brown eyes, Shuuya was the last to speak. ”Fine, okay! We’ll leave him alone… we promise! Just…. please don’t hurt us…”

D’awww… he looked like he was about to cry! Should she have held back…. nah! This was adorable. Still, she had done her job, and these boys looked like they were not about to break their promise in a hurry. ”All right, fine. Since ya’ll promised...” Izayuki said, making a swiping motion from left to right with her right arm to break the ice. They would be unharmed, but just a little wet and cold. ”And I expect you to keep it. If not, well, I’ll be checking back in soon.”

Quick nods in understanding followed her words as the boys quickly began running away, one by one. Izayuki was in the city of Magnolia a lot, normally performing jobs. It was a common place for mages of all sort, as well as the home of the Fairy Tail guild if she remembered correctly. But aside from that fact, her work here was done. She collected the small amount of money from the boy before leaving, glad to see him smiling and happy, able to go to school without fear of being bullied.
Humans certainly were strange… but that had been fun. Perhaps their pettiness was not all bad… it did make for good entertainment. What was next? Only tomorrow could tell.