Ripping off the Band-Aid

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Mermaid Heel Headquarters.

May, x785.

After bringing the groceries in the house and getting them put in their proper places, Marin and Yoruichi sat in the living room of the Fairy Tail wizards' temporary home, each with a cup of tea.

"I don't' think I've ever seen anyone buy that many groceries at one time." Yoruichi said after taking a sip of her tea.

"Well, no matter where he goes, Fonzie needs his ingredients." Marin replied. "And he's very particular about the way he does things."

"I feel that last sentence had a double meaning." Yoruichi said with a wry smile.

"*Sigh* That's because it did." Marin said as she put her teacup down on the coffee table. "Look, Yoruichi. Me and the girls have come to a decision about you."

Hearing that, Yoruichi put her teacup down on the coffee table, as well. Then, she focused all her attention on Marin's next words.

"To make a long story short, we can't accept you." Marin said bluntly with no sympathy for Yoruichi in her gaze. "And if you want to know the reason why, most of us have little to no respect for you. Erza is probably an exception to that, though. Especially after her duel with you."

"Well, I can't say that I didn't see that coming." Yoruichi replied with a wry smile while hanging her head. "But it still hurts."

"Well, can you blame us?" Marin asked sternly. "If the thing between you, Alfonzo, and Lici happened by accident, no one would have said anything." Marin said. "I mean, Alfonzo would have probably been upset because of his principals. But it would have just been an accident. But you planned for it after seeing him drunk. And somehow convinced Lici that it was a good idea, too."

Hearing someone spell it out for her again, Yoruichi could not help but lower her head even further.

"And to be honest, that scares us even more than the fact that you were willing to do that to Fonzie." Marin continued. "I mean, of all of us, we'd expected that Lici would be the least likely to ever hurt Alfonzo in anyway. But you somehow convinced her to do so."

"But I didn't mean…" Yoruichi started to say as she raised her head.

"You didn't mean to hurt anyone?" Marin asked. "Believe it or not, but I actually believe that. But the fact of the matter is you did. Fonzie laid it out for you. He told you exactly what you had to do to get in his bed. And you basically said: 'Yeah, fuck that.'"

With her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, Yoruichi wanted to defend herself. However, she could not find the words to do so.

"But the thing that hurt him the most in this whole incident is the fact that he can't trust Lici the way he used to anymore." Marin continued. "The unconditional trust they had for each other has changed into something where, if only for a moment, Fonzie will scrutinize everything she says and does."

In response, Yoruichi could only stare at Marin blankly, having not expected her little plan to sample the goods to have caused so much trouble.

"And for that…" Marin said, drawing Yoruichi's attention.

*Bang!*

And as she spoke, Marin lunged across the coffee table and punched Yoruichi squarely in the jaw, causing her to flop over sideways onto the couch.

"You should expect at least one of those from Cana, Ultear, Mirajane, Sun, and Lucy when they come to visit." Marin continued while shaking off the soreness in her right hand. "As for Lici, I don't' know what the two of you talked about the last time you were in Magnolia. Nor do I understand how you got her to forgive you. But I can guarantee your manipulations will never work on her again."

"Yeah, I deserved that." Yoruichi said while lying on the couch and staring up at the ceiling of the living room blankly. "I'm just grateful you didn't use any of your magic power in that punch."

"That's only because I hit you in the face." Marin replied. "If it had been anywhere else, I would have used as much as I could. But I know better than to leave a mark on another woman's face. It's not like I wanted to ruin your life, after all."

"*Sigh* Thanks, I guess." Yoruichi said as she pushed herself upright.

"Anyway, most of us aren't against getting to know you, despite all that happened." Marin continued once the throbbing in her fist stopped. "For some reason none of us can understand, Lici still sees you as a friend. So, we'll try to see why. But that doesn't include Cana. She'd be happy if you never showed up in front of her again."

"Yeah, I could tell." Yoruichi replied.

"And that goes for Sui-Feng, too." Marin said as she glanced towards one of the living room's windows. "She has no empathy for what happened back then. And because Fonzie is a man, she can't even see anything wrong with what you did."

"Actually, that's changed by now." Yoruichi replied. "But she still thinks I should be forgiven."

"I guess that's progress." Marin said as she looked away from the window when she felt the presence that had been spying through it disappear.

"*Sigh* I told her not to follow me." Yoruichi said when she also felt Sui-Feng was no longer outside the house.

"Fonzie told me that you were from a noble family back on the continent you came from, is that right?" Marin asked as she picked up her teacup once again.

"Yes. That's right." Yoruichi replied.

"So, judging by the way Sui-Feng acts, she was raised to be a servant and bodyguard for you from early childhood, right?" Marin continued.

"That's right." Yoruichi replied once again.

"Then, why haven't you put her in her place for stepping out of line and acting out of turn so often?" Marin asked curiously. "I mean, I was there when Fonzie hoisted her up by the throat in the guild hall. And we all know that he flooded her with killing intent around the time you and Erza sparred at our house. Yet, you keep letting her get away with saying and doing whatever she wants."

"*Sigh* I used to in the past." Yoruichi replied in a tired tone. "But she just never changes."

"Well, if I were you, I would have let her go a long time ago." Marin replied before taking a sip of her tea.

*Boom~~~~~~~!"

*Spurt!*

The sound of impact was both loud and sudden enough to make Marin to spit out all the tea in her mouth from surprise.

"*Cough* *Cough* What was that?" Marin asked with tea dripping out of her mouth and nose.

Unfortunately, Yoruichi was sitting directly opposite her on the other side of the coffee table. As a result, she ended up covered in Marin's used tea.

"Oops! Sorry about that." Marin said sheepishly as she got up to get a towel for Yoruichi.

Meanwhile, Yoruichi could only stare at Marin blankly as she ran into the kitchen.

'Something tells me that was on purpose.' Yoruichi thought to herself. 'But after seeing the tea dripping from her nose, I'm not completely sure.'

At the same time, Marin was rifling through the kitchen cabinets, looking for towels that both she and Yoruichi could use to wipe their faces with a slightly malicious grin on her face.

'I've wanted to spit in her face ever since I found out what happened that day.' Marin thought to herself. 'And I finally got the chance to do it. Even though I really am curious what that sound was. I hope Fonzie, Wendy, and Carla are okay.'

Meanwhile, at the training field in the Mermaid Heel courtyard, Tsunade was pulling her right leg out of a patch of crumbled ground.

"Were you trying to kill her?" Carla shouted angrily.

"It's just like you said before, Carla." Tsunade said with a sharp gaze trained on Wendy. "This isn't going to be easy. On top of that, this is one of the most important parts of training to be a capable healer under me."

"How is trying to kill Wendy part of becoming a capable healer?" Carla continued to shout angrily.

"The most important thing for a healer on any battle field is to be able to heal their comrades and allies." Tsunade replied. "But to do so, they have to be in the proper shape to heal them. Which means, they can't be injured themselves. And I'm gonna make sure that Wendy can avoid taking damage with the best of them."

"This is ridicu---" Carla began to shout.

"Carla! That's enough." Wendy said, drawing Carla's attention onto herself.

"But Wendy…" Carla said, clearly unwilling to allow this to happen.

"If this is what it takes to support the rest of the guild, then I'll do it." Wendy said with determination burning in her eyes.

Although Carla was still against Wendy being in such danger, she could not say anything else when she saw the emotions in her eyes. Meanwhile, Tsunade once again nodded her head at Wendy's determination.

'*Sigh* I wouldn't mind taking her on as another disciple.' Tsunade said. 'That look in her eyes reminds me of Shizune when she was young. I wonder how she's doing. She's been away on that quest for almost half a year. Then again, training a capable doctor isn't something that can be rushed.'

"Anyway, let's continue." Tsunade said as she dashed forward with her right hand reeled back.

'Alfonzo was right.' Wendy thought to herself as she dodged Tsunade's punch with [Magic Power Detection] active. 'Master Tsunade really does empower all her punches and kicks with her magic power. And the way she does it is crazy. How does anyone focus and compress that much magic power on their fist, then explode it all outward in the split-second it connects with its target.'

Like that, Tsunade continued chasing Wendy around the training field. And although Wendy was able to dodge the first two strikes from Tsunade with little issue, she was not as fortunate for the rest of the training session, with more of Tsunade's attacks hitting rather than missing.

Luckily, the natural defense every wizard erected using their magic power was enough to keep Wendy from being seriously injured. Though she had no doubt that Tsunade could have made her injuries much worse, should she have wanted to.

About an hour later, Wendy's physical training ended with her lying at the bottom of a crater one of Tsunade's punches created.

"We'll definitely have to work on the way you block, dodge, and parry." Tsunade said while standing at the top of the crater. "But your instincts are incredible. I guess that's one of the perks of being a Dragon Slayer, huh?"

In response, Wendy could only smile up at Tsunade weakly.

"Anyway, go get cleaned up." Tsunade said as she turned away from the crater. "After that, I'll treat you to lunch. Then, it's back to studying."

"Okay…" Wendy said in a shaky voice as she tried to pick herself up from the ground.

"Wendy, are you okay?" Carla asked as she flew down into the crater.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Wendy said as she stumbled to her feet.

"That woman is crazy." Carla said as she latched on to Wendy's back. Then, she continued as she flew Wendy towards the Mermaid Heel guild hall. "She could have really killed you."

"I don't think so." Wendy replied while shaking her head. "I saw the way she used her magic power. And she had all of it under nearly perfect control. She might even have better control than Master Ur."

"Really?" Carla asked, exclaiming in surprise as she did so.

"Yeah." Wendy replied while nodding her head. "And if you combine that with her medical knowledge and her knowledge about the human body, she will only inflict as much damage as she wants to when she hit me."

Hearing that, Carla was visibly amazed. However, she still spoke in a huff.

"It wouldn't have killed her to tell us about that." Carla replied.

"Carla…" Wendy said in an exasperated tone at her best friend's overprotectiveness.

While Wendy and Carla were leaving the training field, Alfonzo and Ritsu, who were drawn over when the first explosion occurred, watched them leave.

"That girls determination is impressive." Ritsu said with a gentle smile. "It's a pity that she does not wield a sword. I would love to train her. Perhaps I should assist Tsuna in teaching her healing magic."

"You're a healer too, Master Unohana?" Alfonzo asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Yes, I learned the art of healing in the past for… personal reasons." Ritsu replied with a smile that screamed: "Don't ask." "But over the years, I became rather skilled in the art. Though, Tsuna is much more capable in that regard than I am. Then, again, we use different systems of magic. So, I wouldn't want to overload the girl with too many concepts."

'Luckily, I don't need to ask.' Alfonzo thought in response to Ritsu's gaze. 'She's a battle junkie, through and through. She's just gotten rather good at hiding it over the years. But if someone were to flip her switch, there would be no stopping her.'

"Anyway, now that I know Wendy is alright, I should get back to work." Alfonzo said as he turned back to his work site.