Return of the Tailed Fox

… Oh, at last, she was back.

Following the events of Elysium’s attack on Magnolia Town, Mura had sent Kumi back to Midi – he was under the assumption that she was going to meet her family again. Hopefully, she was able to find her Dad there, too… but given the strangeness of that guy’s whereabouts and signs, that was unlikely to have been the case. Safe to say, it had been quiet in the guild hall – old and new – without those warm, yellow tails swaying along a broom and a melodic but childish tone from her fanged mouth.

Seeing her return was a pleasure… but it kind of took a turn for the worse. Mura had already approached her, looking a little different from last time; other than a little extra height and musculature added, his left arm was completely mechanic. He was also wearing an orange scarf in response to the colder weather that sheltered them.

“…”
“…”
“…”

W-Why was Kumi munching on their quest papers? Uhm, K-Kumi-

“K-Kumi… helloooooo, Kumiiii! Earth calling Kumiiiii! Wakey, wakey! Are you still half-sleeping or something?” Mura tried to snap her back to reality by waving his hand in front of her amber eyes, “Helloooooo? Kumiiii, you shouldn’t eat those, they aren’t good for your health-“

“KUMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!” Kyuken’s bellowing roar filled the room, auric tears flailing down his cheeks, “NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! THOSE ARE OUR PAPERS, THEY GIVE YOU BELLY ACHES!!! WHAT’S HAPPENED TO YOU!?!? WE WERE SO WORRIED FOR OUR LITTLE FOXLING, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHAAHAAAAAAAAA…!!!”

Mura decided to put a stop to her self-destruction by picking her up by her armpits, then swinging her around. “Are you awaaaaaaaaaaake!?”

WC: 273
TWC: 526

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Huh… she’d been so sleepy that she mistook papers for food? It must’ve been a troublesome journey, and it only made him more worried for her wellbeing. “Don’t tell me you got into so much trouble that you couldn’t sleep well… I should’ve tagged along,” he sighed in disappointment of himself and his lack of responsibility, “Anyway, the sun’s arisen long ago. Wakey!”

Once Kumiko snapped out of her daze, she looked just the same as always, and her warm hug was wholesomely recompensated by him. Kyuken burst into rivers of tears and smushed himself into the hug as well, while Zirconis dryly watched the scene and cracked his ghostly neck. “Glad to see you’re not injured or anything… but really, you ought to control your bedtime routines, Kumi. Otherwise, you walk around half-asleep all the time, just like I used to do.” It was meant to be a light-hearted joke, but Mura got flashbacks of walking into people half-asleep back when he was only a few years older than she was now. Sometimes, it was ‘bash’ and ‘slam’, and other times, it was more ‘boing’ and ‘booouush’, but alas – a lot of headbutting.

While Kyuken sniffed snot back up his nostril, Zirconis replied to her: “… D-Depends. Not much for you to clean up right now, but you did miss out on a lot…”

“Thank the heavens that you were gone at that time! T-The guild, it was… it was…”

“I’ll explain later. A lot happened, but case and point; it’s good to have you back in the guild hall again-“

Mura simply wanted to ease her nerves and make her feel home in the new hall before dropping the bomb about the guild having been attacked by Elysium in her absence, but she quickly noticed that his left arm was technically missing and exchanged with a prosthetic. Sighing softly, he decided to answer: “My arm… I cast a very, very special spell to help someone, but I had to cut off my arm to complete it. The result was worth it, though, so please… don’t worry about it. It’s just an arm, and it’s not even my dominant one, so I’ll manage with a prosthetic.” He really didn’t want to make her feel sad now, especially since he didn’t know if she had achieved the objective of her journey. Therefore, to really convince her that everything was alright, and everything was going to be alright, he softly patted her amber-orange fur dome of a head and smiled… with a little exhaustion shown as bags under his eyes.

“Also… y-you might want to wash your mouth. You ate some of my papers,” he quickly warned her before spawning wood out of his fingers, which began to form a wooden mug filled with pure water, “As you can see, the guild hall’s actually gotten a huge renovation. Feast your eyes on your new, bigger, warmer home…!”

After she would accept the water, he’d lead her through the way between the local Task Board with all the fancy requests and pleads from citizens of Fiore and the bar, until they reached the main lounge – a large, dark-brown room with couches, games, the fancy jukebox, Thea-chan’s juice machine and with the front wall being composed of windows revealing the grassy plains leading up to the pleasant Fairy Hills. Just the perfect place to hang out, celebrate or relax.

WC: 566
TWC: 1612

… It looked like she wasn’t able to find her father. Mura had, ultimately, sent her on a futile errand – shame on him. And yet, little Kumi – poor Kumi-chan, cute and adorable Kumikumi – had brought information that one of the priests that she met in Midi knew of her father’s last doings – something concerning a book on souls; what they were made of and the likes. Was her father into bending souls, too? Was he a shaman too? Or perhaps another Onmyōji? The ability to, at least, combat auric entities and the ghosts of the dead – interpretations often connected with souls – was a huge plus in Midi… but why her father decided to dwell in this art, exactly, was still beyond them both.

Still, Kumi hadn’t lost hope yet, and neither would Mura. If the book was still missing, then somewhere in this world, her father was likely becoming a shaman… and she would have to become strong too. Worst case scenario, he had left her for the sole purpose of training, and then she could become strong enough to slap him half-dead for acting so irresponsibly. That was… actually not so bad a scenario, for it would include their reunion. Hopefully, she would find him one day.

“You sure do, Kumi. If your father’s in danger, then he needs his powerful daughter to save his butt, doesn’t he?” Mura half-heartedly joked, not exactly wanting that scenario to ever take place for poor Kumi’s sake. She was still a sprout, growing ever steadily.

And… concerning his arm… it was less him caring about the citizens of Shirotsume – which didn’t mean that he would gladly leave them dead anyway – and more-so him correcting his own mistake which they got caught into… in a way, he wanted to help them, but it came biting him in the ass rather quickly thanks to the works of a psychopathic… something. A woman with angel wings and God Slayer Magic, but more than anything a woman who was too fucking crazy to be left doing whatever the hell she wanted. Someone like her, who razed an entire city’s human life to the ground over a ‘ruined’ vacation…

Hmpf. He corrected his own mistake by sacrificing his arm in return for the city to still stand today. In the end, he wasn’t able to conclude his struggle. He wasn’t able to kill the witch. And despite being back to life now, the citizens of Shirotsume had still… died, earlier. It was depressing, that whole ordeal.

But what was a little uplifting was Kumi’s reaction to the new guild hall’s design. Despite that, though, she was also curious about the reasoning behind the renovation, which… well, Mura couldn’t just hide it from her, could he? Damn it. “Well, it wasn’t all because of our old design… here, take a seat,” he asked her, leading over to one of the new, deep-red couches that would probably make Kumi fall asleep the moment she touched their pillows. Life felt more pleasant when relaxing on nice couches like these, y’know…

“… A-Are you really going to tell her everything?” Kyuken sobbed. He didn’t know how Kumi would react, but he wasn’t mentally ready to see her tear up. Mura reconsidered his decision, but he couldn’t treat Kumi like a secret kid or anything. Despite her shockingly young age, she was also a member of Fairy Tail – overtime, he hoped that his disclosure of the event would benefit her spirit.

“You do know that our guild, Fairy Tail… we don’t exactly get along with everybody,” Mura started by informing her of the illusion that some might’ve had with the guild prior to learning more about them, “We’ve fought a lot to become who we are today… and we do fight against mages who threaten us or our town, too. Problem is, there are Dark Guilds out there who threaten our safety too – the reason why we renovated is because… we got attacked by one of them.”

He continued to disclose the event to her. About Elysium, the most ironically-named guild, in his opinion, ever. How their Master, a half-dragon bastard named Janet, had mauled Magnolia Town with a group of summoned Dragons. How it almost led to the destruction of the entire town, and how Fairy Tail had made them sworn enemies. If Fairy Tail were their enemy, then they would also see Kumi as their enemy… if there ever was another reason for her to get stronger, then this was it.

“… Kumi, you’re a young girl. Even as a Kitsune, there’s so much that you haven’t experienced yet,” he spoke to her with slight sorrow in his voice, “But it’s a must for you to become stronger… I can’t stand imagining what could happen to you…”

… When it came to little Kumi, then Mura did see her as his daughter. Not just as a member of Fairy Tail, but as a fellow countryman from Midi. She was very close to him, and he didn’t want anything terrible to happen to her. The path of magic promised pain for power, and that was what Kumi would have to go through in order to obtain the power she needed to bring her father back. She would have to put effort and sacrifice… so please, God…

Let him be there, beside her to ease the pain she would have to go through.

WC: 901
TWC: 3298

He… he didn’t like that look on her face. When she began sobbing by his story, he outright despised what he had brought out of her. She felt… loss. Someone at her age was breaking down, and… he knew exactly how it felt. That was why he couldn’t bear to watch her like this any longer. He kept saying to himself ‘she is just a child’ and yet look at what she had to associate with? Look at what she had to prepare herself for in the far future… and she even began blaming herself.

“Please… don’t blame yourself. You know it doesn’t hold water, and it won’t help to scold yourself like that,” was all he could say, as un-motivating as his words might’ve sounded due to the nature of his voice – a soft and empathetic ring to it that wasn’t ready to raise itself right now, “Besides… I didn’t lose my arm during the attack on Fairy Tail. The loss of my arm was… another matter, irrelevant from this one.” He hoped that she’d understand the meaning behind the lack of details and not ask more questions, making him dig into fresh, deep wounds of his encounter with Medeia.

That was… he didn’t know how he hadn’t noticed earlier, but Kumiko was lacking something deep inside of her. He could no longer sense the breath of the dragon from her mouth… and he was quickly backed up by the other dragon in the room, Zirconis. “… Before you go work your butt off to grow stronger, I’d like to note that you have more than one issue in our hands, little girl,” the dragon’s ghost commented out before floating up in front of Kumiko’s face to eye her deeply, “What happened to your Lacrima? Didn’t you possess Dragon Slayer Magic last time, huh? What happened to that? I can’t sense it inside of you anymore… how were you able to lose that?”

Mura’s face looked like it was drowning in shock – how was she able to lose her Lacrima? No, really, how was that possible? Wasn’t it supposed to have been assimilated deep inside her body at this point? What was Zirconis talking about – such a thing couldn’t happen! Mura was of the opinion that it was nigh impossible to just take someone’s Lacrima directly, especially if it had gotten enough time to assimilate and merge with the host’s body. Was Kumiko’s too fresh? And if so, who had the nerve to-

It actually riled him up. He came to the quick conclusion that something must’ve happened in Midi, where she had gone to in order to track down her father… some event, phenomenon or person had rid her of her Dragon Slayer Magic, that much was clear to him. And yet… Kumiko never even brought it up. This was so strange – had it happened without her knowing?!

“K-Kumi, what happened with your Dragon Slayer Magic? Y’know, the Light-type Magic that you used against me back when we trained? If Zirconis can’t sense it in you…” he asked worryingly, placing his hands on her face and hair as if trying to check for injuries. His demeanor, worry and body language really did make him look like a father in the eyes of others around them. “Just… just what happened to you in Midi?! Your Dragon Slayer Magic was valuable! You can’t afford losing such a powerful Magic!” His words did sound a little strong and harsh at this point, but man, it must’ve been shitty to be Kumi right now… who had robbed her of such a potentially powerful asset? More than an asset to Fairy Tail, it was a reassurance that Kumi would become powerful enough to take care of herself and achieve her goal.

Of course, Mura was mad. And he was more than ready to raze the earth of Midi to find her Lacrima again…

WC: 650
Thread TWC: 4701

...

Someone had stolen her Lacrima. No, it didn’t fucking matter about whether they were the ‘original owner’ of it or anything like that. What they did to Kumiko’s stomach… what they did to hear… it was monolithically maddening. Mura’s hue, aura and air was denser than gold right now, and his eyes were hidden in the shadows of his frowning brows. Kumiko had been wronged, far away from his helping hand, and look at her now… h-his hands were shaking. He was slowly losing it.

But her words snapped him back, just a little. She still blamed herself, as many kids would do in her shoes. Hell, Mura knew that if he went through a similar event in his younger days, then he would despise his weakness like the plague. That was why…

“Don’t.”

His word was short but the message was clear. “Don’t ever say that. Don’t ever think I’ll kick you out because of this, you got that?” She was being too silly, and he had to plant some sense onto her skull one way or another, “I… we can only help you. We can’t bend fate or destiny. Finding your father is your mission, and we’ll aid you with our all, but as far as I see things right now, someone is preventing you from fulfilling that goal… and I refuse to let that go… Adam!” The bartender going by that name stiffened in a mild surprise at his call, then turned his face towards the Guildmaster with a small pearl of sweat running down his face. “Y-Yes, Master?”

“Inform Vandrad of my absence-“

“He’s still out on a quest from a few days ago, Master… may I suggest I inform Akemi instead?”

“Then do so… me and Kumiko are going to Midi for a bit.”

With that said, Mura grabbed Kumiko’s hand and hastily lead her out of the guild hall, while explaining his next move: “A Midijin with a scar on the right side of his face and a goatee, eh? If you help me out by identifying him, then I’ll face him, make him pay, and then you’ll have your precious Lacrima back. That’s a promise…!”

Suddenly letting go of Kumiko’s hand, he clapped both hands together and caused clouds to gather above them. The clouds got heavier with darker tones of grey forming, and all of a sudden, roars could be heard. “Azure-chan, give me and Kumiko a ride! We’re going back to Midi for a manhunt…!” he exclaimed, looking straight up in the air as the figure came to view – a long, serpentine dragon with whiskers, jewels and azure-blue scales flew down from the clouds as soft droplets of rain poured down on them. As Azure-chan was flying down, Mura looked back at Kumi, feeling that she was possibly a bit too far behind in his actions and reasoning – she thought that he was going to ground her earlier, the poor girl.

“Kumi… you’re a very obedient kid. Try and understand why my head is boiling when I hear that an adorable girl like you got her belly ripped open by a stranger…”

WC: 522
Thread TWC: 5963

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It was no doubt that Kumiko would once become a mage on par with himself, and given her heritage, she would likely reach even higher powers if she were to play her dedication cards right. And once you possessed Dragon Slayer Magic, you were often… just destined for greatness. Look at all the other Dragon Slayers in the world and guess for yourself…

Speaking of Dragons, Kumi sounded like she took a liking to Azure-chan. The large, serpentine Dragon paid no mind to them both and simply carried Mura’s command and awaited them mounting its neck. Yet, despite Mura’s previous words, Kumiko sounded yet self-loathing for a mistake that was beyond her control. That angered him, too. “Kumi, I won’t have any of that from you. That kind of talking worsens your sense of yourself, and it’s sooooooooo unhealthy! If you ever mock yourself like that again, you be damn sure I’ll spank you until you cry rivers! Got it?!”

Yeah, right, he was livid, but the fatherly anger was- ohohohohoh, it was nothing, NOTHING compared to the deep hell pit of pure rage and spite that was boiling in him for whoever sent Kumiko home with a scar on her belly. Hell, he never got this angry when shit happened to himself – this anger was rivaling his struggle against the witch and her unreasonable knight maid back in Shirotsume.

Picking up Kumi under his arm, Mura mounted Azure-chan in one leap and put the young Kitsune down next to him, so she had someone to hang on to. She was finally prepping herself up in the good way, deciding that she wanted to become one of the strongest wizards in all of Ishgar and enter the ranks of the Wizard Saints. It would take time, but it was definitely possible… there were even a handful of mages among the guilds in Fiore who qualified for that position right now.

Mura grabbed some auric reins and was about to take off. “Mhm, they do. You must be aware of the difference in mage population between Upper and Lower Midi… but the less mages, the less competition from arcane monsters and the like. Seems like the safest place to be, if we go by that…” Obviously, there were many other factors that came into play; Lower Midi was, by all means, treated as a sort of ‘Wild West’ of Midi despite several esteemed families living there. It was definitely a prejudice, some kind of discriminating image, developed by pro-mages or something… urggghhh…

While Upper Midi had more mages, and thus more magical dangers, they also build bigger buildings, had stronger defenses, and overall… actually, y’know what; it had been a while since he visited Midi last time. Things might’ve changed.

“Azure! We’re ready to take off,” he commanded the dragon, and with those words, off they be gone. Into the skies above, where they headed south-east towards the far lands in the southern regions of Ishgar.

WC: 495
TWC: 7196

[OOC: Figured we can end this thread here and make a new one in Midi :D]