The Elemental Tide

Just a week prior to Mai's international mission with Luna, Kenna, the guildmaster of her guild, had offered the two to do a job in order to further improve Mai's relationships with people aside from Luna. The job Kenna had selected was, she said, a good use of both of their skillsets, primarily with their ability to eat certain elements. A cliffside at the edge of Fiore had been experiencing an extreme shift in weathers, clashing between wild thunderstorms and even wilder storms of raining fire. A village in the area had made the request to Sabertooth, hearing of their reputation for having Slayers, presumably. Mai mostly let the information given on the job fly over her head, simply waiting in anticipation for an experience in a job as she munched on some chocolate during the mission debriefing. While Luna had been the main mentor in training Mai in the ways of the world, Kenna was there to assist Mai in using her own magic, since Luna was not a Slayer.

While a train got them far, their trip to the location of the job would still take some time walking, given the several miles needed to walk. Mai munched on more candies as she tried to recall the extent of the job further. Apparently, these strange weather phenomena were caused by elemental lords, each of whom held dominion over some element, as they tried to establish territory in this realm. The job said that elemental beings establishing dominion over human realms was problematic, though Mai saw nothing wrong with it. "So these people said that those meanie elementally guys is really destructive or something? But, they're probably really weak compared to Papa, and Papa didn't have any problems with making everything all destroyed and stuff! I mean, it rained a lot, but that's 'cuz rain and lightning is really tasty, but it didn't cause any problems for those weak human guys!" Mai tried to say to Kenna as she finished the last of her sweets, sniffing in despair at the sudden elimination of her treat.

"Sure, sometimes the humans tried to bully Papa, and Papa would beat them up really good if they tried, but no one complained like these guys did." Mai shrugged. "Oh well. Papa told me not to worry about that kind of stuff. He'd always just say 'Mai, thinking about things like that is only gonna hurt your little head. Just don't worry about it and fight all that the bad guys do!' So I won't worry about it! I got you, and Miss Luna, and even Ryo, I really like Sabertooth, so it's almost like I don't have to worry about Papa anymore!" Mai squealed. "Not that I'm not trying to find him, it's just...Papa always said that I shouldn't trust other people and now I got all you fun guys with Sabertooth, and it's really fun!" Mai smiled and nodded as they neared the site of their upcoming job.

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WC: 496

Mai's eyes glimmered at the sight of the bag of candy, quickly taking a hold of the bag as soon as Kenna had finished off taking one of her own. "Amelia had mentioned maybe seeing Papa with an elemental, so I guess all the elemental-y guys were really scared of Papa!" She punched the air as she laughed. "No one messed with Papa! If someone was mean to him, he made sure that they got beat up really good!" She closed her eyes in thought for a moment. "I don't really remember too many times when people would be mean to me, but there was one time that some meanies tried to bully me and Papa made them go boom-crash-pow! Then he found where they lived and made that place go boom-crash-pow!" Mai giggled. "All the stormy stuff was really fun and pretty, and Papa even let me help with it~" She spun in a circle, unaware of the true meaning behind her actions.

As faint as it was, the scent in the air shifted slightly. Mai thought little of it, more focused on her candies and conversation with Kenna than the job at hand. "Miss Luna was saying things about 'restraint,' too." She pressed her knuckles against her head, hard in thought. "I don't really remember what all the details of it were, but I think it was something like that. Papa always told me that holding back was boring and not useful for a fight, but Miss Luna told me that I gotta sometimes not fight..." She squealed suddenly. "Ah! Don't tell Miss Luna that I forgot what she taught me! She or Amelia might get mad at me and yell at me!"

She clapped her hands against her cheeks once more. "Papa said that if there's people that can use lightning or wind or water, I can just gobble it up and it's no problem! Even if these elemental-y guys are just water or wind or lightning, I can just munchy-munchy like a biiiiig snack! Papa always did that, and Papa always said that I was really strong, too! He always told me that I was really good at punching things and beating up baddies, like he was! After he taught me things like 'manners' and 'spelling' and stupid stuff like that, he would always take me out to learn how to fight really good!" She took a piece of candy, accidentally biting her hand as she popped the sweet into her mouth. "First, Papa taught me how to eat rain, then he taught me how to eat wind, then he would challenge me to eat lightning! After I learned that, Papa said that he was really proud of me, and then he tried to get me to do it better. It took a while, but eventually Papa said that I should try to eat his Tempest stuff, and when I did, he got me some munchy-crunchy candies from Seven! Only after that, did he try to teach me how to use magic-y stuff for beating up baddies. He told me that I can use Tempest like he does or I can separate the elements, but he mostly taught me the Tempest stuff. One of the first things he taught me to do was to use the Tempest God's Bellow, like fwoosh!" She giggled, demonstrating her use of the Tempest God's Bellow to destroy an innocent nearby tree. "Papa always wanted to make sure that I'm always ready for a fight with any meanies that I have to go up against! He made sure I can punch up baddies real good, and Miss Luna has been teaching me to be better at fighting!"

Mai laughed once more, skipping ahead of Kenna despite Kenna knowing more of the job than Mai did. Mai had little care for the situation at hand, being more focused on the enjoyment and the prospect of the job that Miss Luna had prepared for the following week. The scent of the air began to get heavier as they neared the site of the job, and the light tingle of a brewing storm began to tickling Mai's tastebuds. She did not know what these elementals would look like, nor how powerful they were in comparison to herself and Kenna. Nonetheless, she continued to march on ahead with the utmost confidence, preparing for a fight.

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WC: 730
TWC: 1226