A Humble Beginning

On a day like any other day, with a clear sky and nothing particular going on, a lone soul walks into the town of magnolia. He wasn't a very imposing presence. In fact he blended right into the crowd. Not a soul would notice if her passed by them. He didn't mind, he was used to it. Walking through the crowd is a boy wearing very simple black clothing. The only thing that might set him apart is the small black caplet that he's wearing. he's a bit short and his skin is a pale white. His hairs is in a short black bowl cut. However if anyone paid any attention to the boy, they'd see that his face was completely devoid of emotions. He looked to be bored by what was happening. The boy is looking around the city, trying to find something. However he soon gets a bit lost. He sighs and tries to find a shop or something where he can ask for some directions or something. He winds up finding his way into a small time magic shop and he walks inside. He walks over to the counter and tries to get the attention of the person at the counter. His voice is practically monotone, with only the slightest inflection.

"Um, excuse me? Do you know the way to Fairy Tail?"

The man turns around to look at the boy. He's an older man, with a calm smile.

"Oh, you a fan of their or something?"

As the shop keeper is saying that, a fly flies between the two of them. The boy's hair lifts as an aura appears around the fly and crushes it. When the boy is done, his hair goes back to normal. The man sees this and he gets the general gist of what's going on.

"Ah, I see. You're looking to apply. Down the street, take a left onto the main road and it'll be right in front of you. You can't miss it."

The boy nods and thanks the man before walking out of the shop and continuing on his way. As the boy walks along the road he wonders if he'll actually be able to join the guild. He hopes so, but he's still not sure. Eventually he reaches the main road and he takes the left. At the end of the road the boy sees the guild and he smiles a small bit. He picks up the pace a small bit and soon enough he's standing right in front of the doors of the guild. Shigeo takes a deep breath and walks into the guild. No matter what was happening before her entered, the boy doesn't seem to react to it unless it's especially intense. The boy starts looking around the guild hall, as if he were trying to find someone. He knows that he's trying to find someone who looks like they're in charge, but that's hard to tell just by looking at him.

Nice day today. It felt like just the ideal moment to rest, and Mura did exactly so as we speak; if you would look over to one of the tables near the corner of the main floor’s guild hall, a certain young man would have claimed the bench as a bed and slept in heavily after a whole night’s worth of duty. The papers were written, and he had given consent to having a new, grand hospital built near the guild called Saint Granon Hospital… yet, he also found slight sadness in hearing her name spoken out loud again. She was still out there, somewhere… but people assumed that she had passed away like a sprite. There was little else to assume, really; despite living in a world of magic, who knew what Sorano Granon could get herself into?

He was still going to wait for her grand return… and until then…

“Oh hey, we don’t know that kid over there…” Kyuken spoke to Zirconis. Kyuken, a blue spirit ball with samurai-like characteristics, and Zirconis, a green spirit ball with dragon-like characteristics, eyed the new, bowl-cut lad with a slight lack of direction in his eyes, wondering if he was here to request something or-

Nope, nevermind, he was definitely here to apply. Zirconis could feel his magical energy resonate inside his veins, and what else would a wizard do here?

“… Wake him up,” Zirconis asked Kyuken, having needed Mura to be awake and present right now. Kyuken floated down to Mura’s face and pulled up a trumpet, playing out a loud song that only Mura could hear. Mura rose up immediately, hairs rising behind his neck and with rings under his eyes.

“I-I’m awake! Keep the trumpet down…!” he mumbled out loud, catching his breath once more before spotting the bow-cut kid.

He had quickly risen up from his stool and approached the lad, greeting: “Hey there… are you here to request something from us?” The shaman scratched the back of his head with exhaustion written on his face.

Shigeo is rather confounded. He's been looking over the guild hall for about a minute and none of the wizards look like they actually run the place. He isn't sure if that's a good thing because they all treat each other like equals, at least seemingly. Or if it's a downside because no one can find anyone unless they already know who too look for. either way, Shigeo isn't sure what to do about his distinct lack knowledge on the matter. At least, that's what's going on in his head. In real like it would just look like he's a confused gormless kid standing in the entrance of the guild hall looking around vacantly. He look practically anemic, like he has never worked out a day in his life but doesn't eat enough to gain weight. However when the shaman gets up from his bench with a sudden start Shigeo notices and looks at him like he grew a second head. When he walks over to Shigeo he's still very confused about what's going on with the person but that'd be impossible to tell just by looking at his face. "No. I'm here to try to join the guild. I'm looking for someone who might be able to tell me how I'm supposed to apply to join the guild. Do you know who I might be able to ask about that?"

(1069 WC reached, 1x D-Rank Freeform + 69 excess)

Huh… fair enough. Mura would have expected the boy to recognize him, but he must’ve been from off of Magnolia… perhaps he was from another country? Just like Mura! That would explain things as Mura didn’t know anyone, not even Wizard Saints, when he first arrived in the hall of Fairy Tail. Then again, he looked a little more lively back then than this kiddo now…

“Well, for now, I’m your guy. My name’s Mura Kensho,” the shaman greeted while reaching a hand to shake, “-and I’m the current Guildmaster of Fairy Tail.” Truly, this was a refreshing moment; since everything that had happened at the end of last year, what brought Mura to ease was the sight of new, curious people wanting to join the guild… those were who Fairy Tail was made of. People from all over the country and beyond with one thing in common; the presence of magic.

“So you want to join Fairy Tail, eh? That’s going to be a huge change in your life and all, just so you know… but I appreciate your interest in us. However, first I’ll have to ask you something. Why exactly do you want to join Fairy Tail? What’s your intention behind your decision?” As the Guildmaster, Mura had to be sharp in his recruitment of new members in order to avoid the same type of weeds that plagued his guild in the past. He wanted to prove that he had learned from those incidents, but… he also put his trust in this new lad.

A juicebox would be handed over to Shigeo right after being asked the question. He was allowed to refresh himself with some orange juice, while Mura downed on some apple juice himself.

Shigeo wonders why the person who's standing in front of him is saying that he's the person that Shigeo needs to talk to about joining since Shigeo thought that the process would be a bit more professional or something like that. However when the person says that they're the guild master Shigeo shows a small hint of an emotion, embarrassment. Shigeo shakes the guild master's outstretched hand nervously and with not a lot of strength behind it. "Oh, you are. I'm sorry for not knowing who you are. I notice you wake up so if now's a bad time then I'll leave." Shigeo seems pretty unsure of himself. He even wilts a little bit mid-sentence, like he has no idea what to do. Shigeo lets go of the guild master's hand and when the guild master asks him the questions he takes a moment to think about it. He's a bit surprised when he's handed an orange juice and he sips on it as he think about the question. "I can here because I need help learning to control my powers, and I was told that Fairy Tail was the best place to teach me how to utilize my powers to do good deeds."

"Oh, no, no, no, it's fine... I need to stretch and wake up properly now, so you arrived at a good time," the shaman explained, not wanting to scare the kid away with his foreign sleeping schedule. He listened to the lad's reason; he possessed magic, no doubt, and he wanted to learn how to control it, so he could use it for good. That sounded like a noble goal, but one that hid many ruins and trials ahead... but Mura was in no position to doubt this guy. Rather, if he wanted to join the guild...

"Well, you've heard right. Everyone who joins Fairy Tail learns much more about their magic and how it works. It comes naturally, trust me," Mura revealed to him, "It's good to hear that you want to use your powers for good. I bet you'll fit in here overtime." Many a meter behind the two, the elevator located in the middle of the back wall of the guild hall opened, revealing a clone of Mura's holding a small, wooden box filled with enchanted ink.

"Our guild... it's been through a lot. Therefore, we also expect you to grow sturdier and stronger as time goes. You won't just be a guildmate, another member under the banner... you'll be our new brother." The wooden box floated over to the real Mura's right hand, hovering above it like a hologram.

"Actually... just what kind of magic do you possess? I'd like to see it with my own eyes."

Shigeo is relieved that the guild master wasn't upset with him arriving when he did. he was a little bit worried that he might have mad Mura annoyed. Either way though, Shigeo seemed to be working his way towards his goals and the was good in his eyes. He was at least a little bit happy with that. And that was good enough for right now. "Thank you. Hopefully I won't be too much of a nuisance or anything like that." Shigeo really hopes that he will be able to fit in with the other wizards in the guild. Otherwise his progress is going to be a lot harder than it might be otherwise. Also, it would be a very lonely journey, and that's never good. Shigeo sees the mechanism working and wonders why they'd have something so elaborate for something really small like that. Shigeo nods when Mura starts talking about brotherhood. He actually manages to smile a small bit. when he asks what Shigeo's magic is Shigeo levitates a small cup over to his hand. "I'm a psychic. That's my magic."

Mura watched closely as young boy demonstrated his magic; a kind of psychokinesis, capable of moving objects around without unleashing any visible signs of magic usage. Visually, that was. One with a great magical sense could clearly feel Shigeo's magic power being active at this moment, and yet it was nonetheless fascinating. "Psychic magic... psychokinesis, if I'm right? That's a pretty cool magic that you got there," he complimented him, "Well, all things considered, I'll bet that you'll do just great as a member of Fairy Tail... uhhhh, what's your name again?"

After having gotten the name of this lad, Mura would grab the handle on the wooden Guild Box filled with the Crest Ink and ask where Shigeo wanted his Guild Mark to be.

"Hey, ask him if he wants it on his face like a chump!"
"S-Shut up, Kyuken! Oh, sorry, Shigeo, I'm just talking to Kyuken behind me. You'll be able to see him when you get your Guild Crest on wherever you want. Afterwards... do you want to do a little spar at our training quarter? Just you and me; I'll be fine no matter what you throw at me, and frankly, showing and doing things teach you much better than telling."

1133 WC reached, 1x D-Rank Freeform + 202 excess

Once Shigeo's levitated the cup over to himself he sets it back down because he has no idea who's cup this might be so he doesn't want to have accidentally stolen someone's cup. Once the cup has been set back down Shigeo turns back to face Mura so that he can keep talking to him. "Thank you. I don't really think it's that impressive though. Some of the people here can do things much cooler than I can." Shigeo is slightly annoyed when Mura forgets his name but he just shrugs at it "My name is Shigeo Kageyama."

When Mura asks him where he wants his guild marking, Shigeo holds up his right hand and points and the top of his hand, just below the knuckles. "I'd like it right here please. As for Sparing, I'm not sure. I don't really like fighting people too much. However, if it will help you teach me then I suppose that we could do a spar."

Mura feared not in putting the Guild Crest on Shigeo’s right hand’s upper side right under the knuckles as per requested. The mark was placed, and it soon began clearing its contour and lit up brightly, basically settling its role as the guild mark of this new Fairy Tail Wizard and Bronze Member Shigeo Kageyama. His name was very Midian, which made the shaman smile a tad more, since he basically talked to a fellow of his from the same homeland.

Now that Shigeo had the Guild Crest on, he was able to see a bluish spirit ball with a face named Kyuken as well as a green one as well, this one having the face of a lizard-like dragon named Zirconis.

“It’s just to get a good idea of what kind of wizard you are and want to aspire to be. As for me, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of my guildmates will help me help them push themselves further than they would ever be able to alone,” he explained to the young boy, leading him towards the upper floor up the stairs with a simple nod.

They soon stood before the training room, and since this was anything but a real, intense battle session, Mura decided not to change into the training gear that they had in store. “How about we start with the basics?” he asked before spawning iron balls from his hands, shooting out and not aiming for Shigeo; instead, they just landed in a circle between them, “Here. Use your magic to launch those orbs at me as fast as possible.”

Once the guild mark is on Shigeo's hand he raises it up to his face so that he can get a good look at it. He smiles a small bit when he realizes that he's finally made it into the guild that he wanted to get into he's was afraid at first that he wouldn't be able to do it. But now he's actually hear and a member of the guild. It's a very exciting time for Shigeo. Shigeo puts his hands down and looks back to Mura. When the spirits become apparent to Shigeo he looks at them with curiosity. He's never seen them before so he's very interested in them. "Okay, I guess that makes sense. I hope I won't accidentally hurt you though." Shigeo follows Mura to the training room, his face going back to its expressionless self as he wonders what kind of training Mura will have them doing. Once they reach the training room Shigeo stands wherever Mura tells him to stand and waits for further instructions. When Mura asks about starting with the basics Shigeo shrugs. "Okay." Shigeo flinches a little bit when Mura shoots out the iron balls but he pulls himself together and tries his best to regain his composure. When Mura tells Shigeo to launch the balls at him Shigeo sweats a little bit. "Alright, if you're sure." Shigeo's hair blows a little bit and a magical aura surrounds the balls as he picks them up into the air. Shigeo isn't sure specifically how Mura wants him to shoot the balls at him, so Shigeo decides to shoot them in a shotgun spread. No indication of how Shigeo plans to attack is communicated as the balls immediately go from just hovering in the air to flying towards Mura in a seemingly random spread at a speed of 90, causing the air to whistle as they cut through it like a hot knife through butter.

Arcadia finished her signature with a flourish! It felt like she had finished a mountain of paperwork. To be fair she had finished quite a lot of the paper work she had let pile up. Truthfully, the slayer as only halfway finished. The other half, another whole mountain of paperwork, was still waiting on the other end of her desk.

She figured ti was partly taking so long because she kept letting herself get distracted. Like by the sound of footsteps going by toward the the training room. Arcadia decided it was time another break, a short one. The slayer set her pen down and pushed her chair back. She poked her head out in the hall just in time to witness Mura and someone new head into the training room.

Rather than follow them, she closed her door and simply peeped in through a portal from her office to the training room. It was to her horror that she realized she had opened her portal straight in the path of one of the many iron projectiles. Arcadia willed the portal to snap shut just in time, and opened a new one centered on one of the training room walls. With an mildly embarrassed smile, Arcadia offered a quick greeting, ”Hey.. Sorry about that. Looks like a welcome is in order so... Welcome to Fairy Tail! And for now just don't me! Carry on."

After that she settled back to watch through her portal. The rest of her paperwork could wait.

Shigeo is very surprised when he sees a portal open up in the middle of the training room, right in front of his attack. Shigeo uses his telekinesis to swerve he iron balls out of the way of the portal so that they wouldn't go through and hurt the person on the other side that he didn't know. The iron balls impact into the ground with several loud thuds as they bury themselves due to the force that Shigeo was putting into them. When he sees the portal close and then reopen Shigeo is relieved to see that the lady on the other side is alright. Shigeo pulls the iron balls out of the ground and levitates the back over to himself, letting them hover in the air around him as he looks at the lady in the portal. "No, I should be the one apologizing. You almost got hurt because of me. I'm really sorry." Shigeo does a respectful bow to the lady in the portal before standing up straight and looking at Mura. "So what do we do now? Do you want me to fire the iron balls at you again?"

“No worries, Shigeo,” he reassured the young and new Fairy Tail Bronze member about the orbs. Now, watching Shigeo’s telekinesis at work, the lifting of the orbs seemed to be a bit like lifting them up by his own strength. Then, in a shocking turn of events, Shigeo showed the capability of shooting the orbs towards him at a crazy speed akin to bullets shot from a gun. So it wasn’t totally akin to lifting them up with his own, physical strength… there was more to it than that. He was likely able to lift even heavier objects with his telekinetic magic too.

But another shocking turn of events unfolded; poor Arcadia popped out of her dimension-cutting scissor cut and almost found herself hit on the face by the iron orbs. Luckily, Shigeo was quick enough to redirect the orbs to avoid harming her, and all Arcadia got was quite a scare… thank god.

Mura looked mortified at first, but once Shigeo spoke to him, he quickly recovered his composure. “O-Oh, yeah… actually, allow me to change something,” the shaman spoke as he pointed his palm towards the iron orbs and made them… 2 to 3 times bigger than before.

“Let’s see if you can launch those at the same speed towards me. And remember, I’m asking you to ‘hit’ me with them, so whatever tactic or plan or cheat or idea that you got in mind, go ahead.” It was true that Mura saw lots of potential in this boy and the future of a great wizard - maybe even Wizard Saint - in his capabilities with telekinetic magic, but one thing was always good to possess; the power of wit and strategy.

"I'll stand my ground."

Shigeo is relieved that he was able to stop the iron balls from hurting this new lady. He really didn't want the make a bad impression on the first day, but even more importantly he didn't want anyone to actually get hurt. He was barely okay with firing the balls at Mura and that was just because he assumed that Mura had some way to make the damage caused by the balls negligible or non existent. Shigeo takes a deep breath and tries to calm himself down after the excitement of almost hurting someone who got in the way of his attack. Once he's calmed himself down he hears that Mura wants to change something and he wonders what he's talking about. When he finally sees What Mura is referring to, Shigeo is very surprised. He isn't sure he's okay with trying to hurt a guild mate with balls that big. But if Mura says that it's okay then Shigeo has to trust him. He just hopes that Mura knows what he's doing. "Alright, if you're sure it's alright to use balls this big."

Shigeo telekinetically picks up all of the balls and holds them in the air at about chest height above where they embedded themselves into the floorboards. Shigeo focuses and the balls start flying towards Mura at the exact same speed as before, as if they were the same weight as before. However this time they fire in quick succession instead of all at once. At the same time that the balls starts flying towards Mura again, Mura would suddenly feels all of his clothing freeze in place, held there with Shigeo's telekinesis. Mura would also feel his clothing start moving on its own in places. His clothing would start trying to tickle him in order to throw off his reactions to Shigeo's attacks. And if Shigeo's Telekinetic hold on Mura's clothes isn't strong enough to keep him still, then Shigeo switches tactics. Whenever Mura tries to make a movement, Shigeo moves Mura's clothes with the movement. He does so trying to over-accentuate Mura's movements to throw him off even more. On top of all of that Shigeo uses his sense of how Mura is trying to move his body (due to feeling how his body resists against his hold on Mura's clothes) to adjust the balls' flight in midair in order to increase their accuracy. And even still, Shigeo fired the balls in sequence so that if the first one misses, the second one, can adjust based on how Mura dodged, with the third one changing based on the second, and so on down the line. And should half of the balls somehow miss, Shigeo will suddenly switch those balls' velocity so that they'll come at Mura from behind while the other half of the balls will come at him from the front. And if all of the balls should still miss, Shigeo will start firing the balls from random directions around Mura in a barrage of metal and magic.

And thus, the balls were shot towards him once more. Mura had the intention to try and dodge these, since cutting them down would’ve been too easy with their sizes. And thus, with just a little leaning to the left and swifting angles about 10 degrees, he attempted to leap to the side - but lo and behold, his clothes kept him in place! Somehow, they were stuck in their individual spaces, not allowing Mura to move to the side.

“O-Oh shit!”

Mura could move, but that would result in nudity. Arcadia was present, so that was a no. Trying to dodge by bare minimum movement, his clothes began to rip, which made him return to his previous position. It seemed that he really needed to slap this iron ball away, which was his very next move put down successfully.

However, when the next ball was launched at him, Mura suddenly found himself moving out of the trajectory with success, only to see the iron ball follow his changed direction. Not only that, but once the shaman braked in his tracks, his clothes suddenly forced themselves further ahead his previous trajectory and began ripping off itself piece by piece, which the shaman had to prevent by moving himself. But as long as the shaman could see Shigeo’s actions in front of him, he was sure to be able to just slap the balls away with his rather short and thin katana. It would be a strange phenomenon to witness from Shigeo’s perspective if one wasn’t familiar with his katana’s capabilities and compliment to Mura’s magic.

It repeated a couple times, Mura slapping the balls away, and him utilizing the clothes’ movements to catch up and surpass their trajectories so he could actually dodge the next orbs. But the last two orbs - one from the front, another from behind - managed to sandwich the shaman in what looked like an execution.

And from the hole between the balls where Mura was spotted, he chuckled: “Fair, fair… you got me there. You were pretty careful at first, but I can see that you’re more than capable of kicking up your telekinesis when under pressure. And I… I didn’t expect what you did to my clothes.” His clothes were injured, making him look like a fresh-out-of-war samurai as he walked towards Shigeo.

“Hmh… I hope this wasn’t too much for you. Also, that’s Arcadia Fairchilde; she’s an Ace of Fairy Tail, and a very close friend of mine. If you have any problems or questions concerning the guild, you can always go seek counsel from her.” Mura’s face was brightening like an innocent child, proud and happy to make his new recruit acquainted with the rest of the guild’s customs and members. He sheathed his katana back into its scabbard and washed his face by spawning water from his palm to splash onto it.

When the whole thing is over, Shigeo looks very uncomfortable. He never really expected to be asked to attack a fellow guild member so having to do so was a bit stressful for him. He really hopes that he's not hurting Mura with his display. He really doesn't want to make him angry. once the final part has been done, Shigeo sets the balls down lightly and runs over to Mura. "Oh my goodness, are you alright? Do you need medical attention? I hope that I didn't hurt you." Shigeo is very worried about whether or not he's accidentally hurt Mura. when he hears Mura talk about what Shigeo did to his clothes Shigeo is a little bit embarrassed. "Sorry about that. I was just trying to do what you told me to, but I didn't actually expect it to work." When Mura points out Arcadia, Shigeo turn to look at her and he gives a small wave before turning back to Mura. "I just hope that you aren't hurt badly."

Arcadia watched, her sparkling faerie green eyes wide and glued to the action.  She would have guesed  Mura  would have  deflected  all the balls with ease. The barefoot slayer was colored extra impressed when Shigeo got two past the guildmaster's defenses. ”Wooooash.. That was pretty sweet!”

She closed her portal, momentarily disappearing from view, until she opened another one big enough to walk through, leaving her office and paper work for later.  She smiled brightly, laughing, ”That was sweet! Uh Think I said that already...but it was. And you're alright, Muwa? Uh of course you are.  And  some hella cutty moves. I always like to think what you can do with your magic is certainly always important, but always as important as HOW you use what you can do.  With moves like that, that will only get more boss as you learn. You'll do good here.”

She smiled sheepishly after Mura introduced her, and coughed to regain some composure, ”Uh yeah right. Forgot the introductions. Sorry about that. But yep. That's me! I'm Arcadia!”

Shigeo doesn't pay any mind to Arcadia while he's trying to get past the guild master's defenses. He's just trying to do his best to try and show that he will be a good wizard. He hopes that what he's doing will be good enough for the guild master and that he won't be displeased with his showing with his magic. Once he's down however he notices the portal closing and wonders where Arcadia is and what she's doing right now. When she makes a larger portal so that she can walk through it Shigeo is confused as to why she didn't just make the first portal larger instead of closing it and then just making a new one. Shigeo smiles when Arcadia compliments his abilities and he quietly listens to what she's saying. He hopes that she's right about him being able to do well around the guild despite the fact that he doesn't have much experience with his powers. "Um, thank you. It's nice to meet you in person-ish. So, what's next?"

It was nice to see Arcadia having avoided any injuries. It was a little entertaining to see Shigeo’s worry over him; there was nothing to worry about, really. “I’m alright, Shigeo. It takes more than iron boulders to hurt me…” the shaman assured the young recruit, “But nice laying a hit on me like that. With such strategies, you might turn the tables on a future enemy someday; and Arcadia’s right, you’ll only get better overtime.”

The shaman stretched his arms and legs a little before hearing Shigeo’s next words ‘what’s next?’. “Well… I got some documents to read through. Why don’t you get used to the guild hall and its rooms and locations?” Mura advised the young boy, “Also, by the way, further across the fields behind the guild is an apartment building owned by us called Fairy Hills. If you want to, you can talk with the staff over there and get yourself a room now that you’re officially a wizard in our guild.”

With that said, the shaman cracked his fingers and walked out, causing the iron boulders to melt and dissolve into the air with a single flick of his fingers.

-exit-

3184 WC reached, 1x C-Rank Freeform + 386 excess

Shigeo is glad that Mura seems to bee alright despite Shigeo having hit him with the iron balls. Shigeo is curious as to why Mura would want him to do that kind of test in the first place since he could have gotten hurt, but since he didn't Shigeo is at least grateful that it ended up being alright in the end. Though Arcadia's sudden entrance was a bit jarring for Shigeo. "Alright. Thank you for the encouragement. As for looking the guild around, I may have to get a job before I do anything else. I'm very short on money so I can't really do much else until I can guarantee that I will have enough money to eat tomorrow. It was nice being able to meet with you." Shigeo then turns to Arcadia "And it was nice to meet you as well." Shigeo then turns away from the two of them and starts heading back downstairs. He hopes that there will be a job there that he will be able to do and that he'll be able to do it without a team since he doesn't have time to join one. That and he's a bit unsure if anyone would actually want him. These thoughts continue to run through Shigeo as he walks.

-EXIT-

(TWC: 5601)