Turning Point

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[x772, Fairy Tail guild building] 

— Dannis Martell —

"M-My name's Cana… Nice to meet you…"

"H-Hi there! M-My name is Laxus!"

I resisted the urge to laugh as I watched Laxus introduce himself to the newest addition of our guild. Cana had just arrived at the guild a few minutes ago, and the Master agreed to her joining symbolized by the guild mark now on her waist.

Why she wanted the mark to be there in the first place, I have no idea.

One thing I just found out though, was that Laxus was terribly awkward with the opposite gender. He wasn't socially awkward, considering the way he approached me the first day I arrived here.

But apparently, when it concerns girls, he just freezes up and stutters. Which is funny.

"So…uh…nice weather, huh? Haha…"

I burst out laughing. Way to go, Laxus.

"Cana, right?" I asked, to her confirmed nod. "I'm Dannis. It's nice to meet you."

She smiled at me, something that I returned before I looked back to Laxus.

"Come on Laxus. We have a mission to do."

I saved Laxus from further embarrassment by physically dragging him out of the guild. He tried to resist, but it was obviously half-assed as I just pulled him with ease.

"What the hell you damn emo? I was trying to be nice and leave a-"

"Good impression?" I finished with a deadpan look.

"Uhh…maybe it wasn't that good of an impression."

I just rolled my eyes as the edge of my lips visibly twitched to a near smile. Laxus laughed awkwardly at himself before we walked together to the train station.

The two of us went on many missions together as a duo. Despite our young age, we were already starting to make a name for ourselves. Many of our guild members are already starting to run bets on whether we could become S Class mages in the future.

Laxus and I then sat on the train towards our destination. He was listening to music from his recently bought headphones.

As for me, I was sitting by the window side, a freshly burnt cigarette sitting in my mouth as I quietly took puffs and blew the smoke out the window.

Usually, most parental figures would disapprove of a 10 year old smoking. But Wakaba, my official guardian, just encouraged it. He's a cool old man like that.

"Oi Dan, let me handle the vulcans later. I got a new idea I've been waiting to test out."

I looked at Laxus with an eyebrow raised as I leaned an arm on the windowsill. "Sure thing, if that's what you want. What are you planning to do?" I said with a curious tone.

Laxus just smirked. "You'll see."

Laxus had been a little different ever since our training session where we combined our magics. He started to be more creative with his moves and even started to think outside the box on his fights with me.

To counter my Clairvoyance ability, he simply augmented his body with lightning to move faster than I can react. For my absorption ability, he implemented a homing-based attack so his lightning would zig-zag and dodge the Black Hole when it forms.

I've been winning most of our fights ever since I got a power boost from my eye, but the gap is definitely slowly shortening.

Looks like I'll just have to work harder to make sure I don't fall behind.

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It didn't take us long to reach the location where the vulcans were supposed to be resting. From the mission details, there shouldn't be more than four of them. Something that Laxus can handle just fine.

We traversed the forest for quite a while to look for the magical beasts, and luckily for us, vulcans are not known for their subtlety.

A bestial roar got our attention as we immediately ran towards it. In the center of the clearing was four vulcans battling it out with a pack of lizardmen.

"Huh, would you look at that?" I commented, quite surprised at the turn of events.

Laxus however, just grinned. "Perfect! More test subjects for my new move!"

"Nuh uh, no way. Those lizardmen are mine. You called dibs on the vulcans. I'll take the lizardmen."

"Heh, fine then." Laxus said as his form started to sparkle in electricity. "Don't make me come save you, emo."

"I was just about to say the same thing, sparky."

We said nothing more as we charged ahead. Laxus immediately dashed in the middle of the four vulcans as he aimed towards the ground between. "Take this! Raging Bolt!"

I watched as Laxus unleashed his new move. A large bolt of lightning was ejected from his fist that descended towards the vulcans. The attack crashed towards them as a large explosion covered their form.

I simply smirked at my friend's attack as I stood in front of 6 lizardmen. Their scaly faces in open shock as they saw Laxus's attack.

'Wait till they see this.'

I didn't even bother to ask them to surrender, knowing from my Clairvoyance that it was futile. I took out my blade and slashed the air in front of me, a large crescent slash of pure dark energy being launched from its tip towards my enemies.

"Darkness Magic: Avidya Slash!"

The attack was wide enough that it hit all six lizardmen right in their chests. Purple blood was spilled from the point of contact as they were launched through the air. The attack itself even cutting through and obliterating an entire section of the forest.

I had assumed these were just fledgling lizardmen and my attack proved it. No way could I take them out in one move if they were fully grown.

So I just nodded at my work and a job well done, before looking back to see how Laxus was doing.

And there he was, torturing the poor monkeys by experimenting more and more of his abilities on the vulcans. I did nothing to stop him of course.

After all, if he didn't satisfy his need for experiments here, those lightning blasts would be aimed at me instead.

I leaned against a tree as I waited, one thing I noted was that the vulcans must be pretty durable if they're holding out this long. It was only 5 minutes later that Laxus finished and the only thing left of the vulcans were their charred remains.

I honestly sometimes wonder if things like this were normal. Where 10 year olds are free to torture other magical beasts for our own personal purposes. Is this okay? Hmm, I sure hope so.

Oh well, not like I care. This is my life after all.

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[A week later]

There have been plenty of turning points in my life ever since I was born. It could be when my village was attacked by bandits, when Master Makarov invited me to join Fairy Tail, and even when I chose the specific ability to go with my left eye.

But if I had to choose another, it definitely had to be this one.

I had just gotten back to the guild from another solo mission. Laxus was supposed to join in, but Ivan wanted something from him.

Whatever it was, it seemed pretty urgent and Ivan even told me to not tell Makarov anything. It raised some pretty big red flags in my head and I honestly wanted to do something about it, but he was still Laxus's dad so I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

This one action is something that I would later come to regret, but till that day comes I just assumed the best of it.

Laxus's father had implanted a lacrima in him. One that made him healthy. He is no longer the 'sickly child' that Ivan always assumes him to be.

Apparently, the idea came to him when he saw the immense power boost I had received when I got my prosthetic eye. The lacrima implanted in it enhanced my efficiency in combat and Ivan wanted to do something similar to his own child.

But obviously, Ivan was nowhere close to Polryusica's abilities as a surgeon, and the process of it had consequences.

I was both horrified and worried when I got to the guild and saw the new scar on Laxus's face in the shape of a lightning bolt. It nearly mirrored my own scar, one that I was deeply ashamed of and a mark to the greatest tragedy that happened in my life.

Master Makarov had been furious at his own son when he first learned of it. But of course, no one could argue with the results. It is a fact now that Laxus became much stronger and healthier ever since.

The boy himself was ecstatic for receiving such a power boost. Because of it, we now stood as equals in every word. My own rise in strength from my Future Sight counteracted by Laxus increased physical strength and magic power.

Back then it didn't seem like that big of a deal. Although Ivan was given a tongue lashing by the master, it ended up being just that. Laxus was still one of my best friends and we kept on doing missions and working our way to becoming an unstoppable duo.

But much later, when Ivan was excommunicated from the guild for unknown reasons, that was when everything started to change. When both our lives got turned around, for the better and for worse.

But that's another story for another day.

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AN: What's your favorite guild aside from Fairy Tail?