{Foreign Rituals}: A Visit To The Guild

While the barbaric sword instructor was teaching young Yukino about footwork in the backyard, Richard and Micah prepared for a little journey over to the guild. Micah made the executive decision for the group to take on a mission together. Mostly as a team-building exercise. They badly needed it with the sisters new magic, and Gajeel just recently joining.

"Okay! We're going! Be back in a bit! Do NOT burn down the house, OR let Yukino eat all the ice-cream." Micah yelled to Sorana who sat in the comically-sized living-room and drinking tea. The sofa was white and silver, beautiful and expensive looking. She almost blended in too well, very likely that someone would miss her sitting there with just a quick glance. She did nothing more than slightly raising her cup and spare a simple glance at the door to the hall.

"She heard me, let's go." Micah rushed out the door. He was very eager to get back to the guild, to see what they had been up to. But even then, he promised himself not to get too involved in that guild, since he would be leaving eventually.

"Right behind you."

----

The brilliant uplifting city-atmosphere around Magnolia made their trip more pleasant than anticipated. What Micah noted about this city he had started falling for was that a city-wide party wasn't that strange of a sight. On their way to the guild, they even got stopped by a young sibling duo who handed them a pamphlet containing information of a new cafe opening downtown. The spirit of the city was alive and untamed and he found great joy in witnessing their endurance for tragedy. This is was what he dreamt his village would be, what the future of this world would look like.

After a while, they saw the magnificent building housing Fiore's number one guild. Whether that was true or not was another question entirely. It was debatable whether they stood on top or not. Opening the doors to the guild made every head in the place turn towards them. After the recognition set in and someone yelled a loud "Welcome!" the ever-present party was back on.

"Loud as always." He gave acknowledging nods to every member they passed by. He wanted to check out the mission board right away, but not greeting the master of the guild would be rude. So, He walked over to the bar where Makarov sat smiling with a cup in hand.

"Welcome back, you brat. Where the hell have you been all this time? It's like you forgot about us." Despite sounding like a scolding, Makarov wasn't angry, just curious what had kept them away for so long.

"To set a plan in motion, I, unfortunately, can not sit in my room staring at the wall all day. I've been out making things happen for myself." There was a slight boost of confidence to his stance and speech since last time he visited. This made Makarov wildly interested in what brought that on.

"Fair enough. Please tell me you are here for a mission this time. These brats are ruining our reputation with their endless destruction." His glare landed on Natsu out of the entire crowd. "We need someone to boost us up the latter of popularity again. All so the council will let me rest."

"Inspiring as always, Master," Richard said with a smirk. Micah just chuckled together with Mira who stood behind the bar looking beautiful as always.

"In fact, yes we are. I was hoping to find a mission to test my team's teamwork. You don't happen to have any suggestions?"

"There is one quest that would be decent for that, but unfortunately that's on the second floor. But, there is bound to be something down here as well. Keep your hope alive!" Makarov said confidently as he raised his mug and downed the content with much fervour.

"Yeah, okay, we'll just go and have a look. Don't drink too much, master. It's still early." Micah didn't have high hopes for that. If mages didn't have a higher resistance to alcohol he was sure this entire guild would drink itself to death. Cana and Makarov especially, they should have died years ago from alcohol poisoning.

"MICAH!!" A flaming fist pierced straight through his head, luckily he dematerialized quick enough to not get hit. With an agile kick backwards Micah's feet met Natsu's abdomen and sent him tumbling over a table spilling all the food and drinks on it.

"HEY!! MICAH! YOU BETTER PAY FOR THAT!" Lucy and Cana stood up simultaneously and yelled to the blond light-human. Their meal was no longer present on the table but instead, it covered them from head to toe.

"Natsu did it." He nonchalantly replied as he walked off without paying much attention. But, still, he stopped half-way and made his way to their table and placed a sack on the table. "This should cover the meal and some new clothes, sorry for the disturbance." He gave a slight bow. He had wanted to ignore it, but his consciousness screamed for him to apologize. The struggles of having a good heart among a bunch of drunks.

"Aaaaah, Mr White Knight! Thank youuuu..." With a very drunk stare, Cana blew a kiss at him and swiped the sack of money and rushed out of the building.

"AAH! MY RENT!" Lucy could only raise her arms in defeat as Cana had already left the building. Even while at that level of drunk she perfectly manoeuvred the tables and ran out of the building. She was the most impressive drunk Micah had ever seen, including his old man, Rufus. And, that man had performed some amazing feats while drunk. Including beating up four adult males refusing to pay for their goods, all while hammered enough to see doubles.

"Well, that was unfortunate." He couldn't do anything about that, but he looked at Lucy with a little empathy. "Lucy, do you perhaps have a money problem? As a fellow blonde, I can't ignore one of my own people in trouble." He said with a smile trying to lighten the mood.

"No, no, don't bother with that. After what you guys did for me, I can't bother you any more." She said while taking out and stroking Scorpio's golden key. She was basically worshipping Sorana as her saviour and goddess for gifting them.

"Nonsense. Take this." He signalled Richard and the man handed Lucy another sack of money. This one was significantly bigger than the last. When she looked inside her jaw hit the floor and she started feeling dizzy. The sheer amount of money in that bag was crazy to a broke mage like her. This was despite her coming from a very wealthy family herself.

"M-Micah, are you secretly very rich?!" She whispered it, fearing Cana still being nearby.

"I am rich, but it's nothing secret about it. I don't like having excessive amounts of money. If I can use some to help a fellow mage, why shouldn't I?" She tried giving it back, but neither of them allowed her to do so.

"Just take it. I know you just recently became a member and I know it's tough getting started. Take this as me just helping you get started, nothing more nothing less. Anyway, I should get going. Take care, Lucy." He smiled, making her heart skip a beat. Not because he was inhumanly handsome, no, because of his powers. They had a variety of effects on people, all depending on themselves and their intent towards Micah. This was just the passive effects of all hosts. It's why it is so easy for all four hosts to gather followers. You are naturally drawn towards them, and their way of thinking and their belief.

He didn't stay around for long as he could see Natsu slowly coming to after having been knocked out. The pink-haired boy never stayed down for long and Micah hadn't exactly held back, so before he was forced into another confrontation he ran over to the quest board. His eyes scanned the board rapidly as to get away from the guild ASAP. While scanning the various quests he felt his danger-sense tingle and side-stepped and saw Levy crashing right into the board toppling it over.

"Woah, now that's a ten out of ten if I've ever seen one. Nice dive!" He grinned as Levy shook her head trying to rid herself of the dizziness. Feeling a little guilty he raised the quest board back up and it was lucky the papers were all stuck to it or they would've scattered all over the place.

"Jerk! Why would you do that?" She grabbed his hand when he offered it. With one quick and powerful pull, she was back up on her feet.

"Says the stealthy ninja-assassin trying to attack me from behind. That's kinda rude, you know." He smiled brightly and flashed his most annoying grin. it wasn't often where he was offered a golden opportunity to torment someone, so, of course, he took it.

"I didn't see Droy or Jett so I assumed you guys were out on a mission. And, you aren't usually out here in the hall, what's up?"

"I heard Natsu yelling your name and unlike last time I was not gonna let you sneak away without saying hello to me." She flicked him on the nose cutely, but in reality, she put as much strength as she could into it, demonstrating her frustration. "I thought we were close and stuff. Why would you not even say hi to me?" She looked a little sad. But, for someone living with the devil-duo, mainly Yukino he knew emotional manipulation when he saw it.

"No, no, no, stop that now! You are not gonna guilt-trip me into doing you any favours, I have important things to do. I said we could have our dinner when I'm more settled in. It's not happening anytime soon!" As soon as he said it he regretted it as her lower lip started to quiver.

"AH! Just... I mean, not today. Next week?!" With panic setting in from seeing her watering eyes, he proposed what he thought would stop the tears from coming. And, just like with Yukino, he had been duped again. As if the frown and watery eyes never happened, her frown turned upside down.

"Great! Dinner, next week. I pick the place. And you're paying." She turned around with the happiest smile possible. "Good luck on your quest." And with a slightly more serious tone, she said. "Be careful! I kinda Like you." She ran off back into the library with great haste.

"DAMN IT!!" He slammed the board in frustration causing it to fall a second time. And, now the quest-papers weren't saved from the violent force. They flew and scattered all over the ground. "How do I let myself fall in their traps every time. I see it coming, but yet, they turn it on me every time. Maybe I should learn to fake cry too. Then I could turn it on them when they try it next time."

"Boss, are you okay?" Richard asked as he raised the board from the ground. His frown was evident, he didn't like seeing his boss suffer like this. Maybe he should hold a class to teach his boss how to talk to and handle women.

"I'm fine." He looked down, and seeing the first quest coming into his line of sight, he picked it up and skimmed through it quickly. "We'll take this one. It's quite far, but I like a mystery and this one seems quite mysterious." He showed it to Richard and he nodded in acknowledgement as he picked up the quests and placed them back on the board.

"Master, We'll take this one." He made his way over to Makarov that was now drunker than ten minutes ago. A lot drunker. "I'll see you later." He was about to walk out when he spotted Natsu. Their eyes met, and the fire lit ones again in the dragon slayers heart. He jumped at his now second eternal rival.

"Nope, never, bye!" Micah grabbed Richard's shoulder and closed his eyes to focus. A moment later they disappeared in a flash of light. The sight was mildly common around here as not many were surprised about his powers anymore. Although, except for Makarov, Erza and Mirajane, everyone else still thought he used magic.

---------

End