{Foreign Rituals}: The Sword Instructer Arrives!

What normally looked like a garden made for royalty now looked more like a scrapyard made for hobos. The reason? The group had spent the past few hours sparring and helping the sisters getting accustomed to their new magic. Sorana and Micah had in a joint effort handled the spirit business and her spirits now belonged to the other guild mage called Lucy. She cried tears of happiness as Sorana explained the situation to her. While she had been content with the change after a good night sleep, Telekinesis was different than she imagined. She assumed she would be able to lift houses and throw dragons across continents, but that wasn't as easy to do as it was to imagine it. Telekinesis worked much as physical labour did. The heavier the object or the more force you required of the magic, the more magic it would consume. To do some of the crazier things she envisioned, she would need the magic supply of ten-thousand mages.

While she was getting accustomed to that magic, Yukino was starting from scratch with everything magical. Sorana had previous knowledge in the field of magic which made the switch in quite comfortable, and it also helped that she had a natural aptitude for Telekinesis that even she didn't know of. This led them all doing a little research into their own aptitudes, and a very mind-boggling discovery was made. Micah, to no one's surprise, had an aptitude for every kind of magic, but that also appeared to be the case for Sorana and Richard as well. And, how did they check this, you wonder? Blue, of course. Her answers were vague, but she explained it as nigh-omnipotence. She could look at someone and tell you every tiny little detail about them, a talent she had chosen to withhold from Micah, much to his annoyance. But back to Yukino, they tested her, and the magic she had best results in was expansion magic. As soon as this came to light, Richard handed her a sword and told her 'Get to swinging.'

Now, a week later, Sorana could create a force to push things and people away from her. She could grab an object about the size of a table and fling them around for a bit. This included people. Yukino was revealed to have god-given talent in magic, so, together with her ever-increasing skill with the sword, she combined the two and became one of their greatest fighters. Of course, she still hadn't won a single spar against any of them, but in the future, she would be absolutely lethal. The way she would fight wasn't to change objects or people around her, even though she could. She opted instead to constantly change her sword's size and mass in the middle of combat as this could deliver some truly devastating attacks.

---

Currently, Micah stood in awe at Yukino's fantastic sword-play. It was very different from fighting. What she was doing now was more dancing with the sword as if she was performing for a crowd. She did this to increase her familiarity with the different sizes she could create using her magic. During the spars that they had, Richard took up the role as her sword instructor. Also one of the reasons he waited so impatiently for Gajeel to come. He had experience in weaponry and could probably teach Yukino in a more efficient manner of how to wield weapons. As she skipped across the lawn, Micah felt a heavy presence approaching the front gate. Not heavy as in powerful, but heavy like the depressing feeling you would get looking up at the grey sky during a rainy day.

"Finally arrived, huh, Gajeel. Took you long enough." He whispered to himself as he stood up. His muscles released small popping sounds as he performed some light stretches. He had been sitting watching her for hours.

"Yukino, we have a guest so I'm gonna go greet them. You can keep practising." He said as her sword extended abnormally far and pierced a tree several meters away from her. With a wipe of her forehead, she nodded and continued swinging it around, not letting herself lose concentration.

Micah disappeared in a flash and appeared ontop one of the pillars holding the front gate in place. "Gajeel, how nice of you to drop by." He said looking down at the man standing hesitantly by his gate. A black cloak and an attached hood hid the figure well enough, but Micah noticed the slight anxiety in the man rising as his name was spoken. He most also have not expected it as his arm transformed into a saw-blade and he turned towards the voice.

"Oh, it's you." His arm turned back as he spotted Micah sitting there. "I'm not accepting, just here to see whether what you said is true. I still don't trust you." He took down his hood to reveal the apprehension rooted deeply in his gaze.

"What exactly would you be referring to? I say a lot of things."

"That you're different than Fairy Tail, different than my guild. I know you're strong, but that doesn't mean anything if you can't back it up with action. I want this shitty world to be taken in a different direction, I'm just not sure that you are the one to do it."

"Did I say that? maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Sure sounds like me though." With a graceful leap down from the pillar he landed close to Gajeel, getting right up in his face. "I am not different. We are! I can't promise we will change the world, the only thing anyone can do is try. Try to be better, try to be more. If you're not okay with that, you are free to leave. But if you step inside this gate, that means you are ready to take a chance on what we are trying to build here." Hoping to have reeled him in, he opened the gate and walked inside. He left Gajeel to his own devices, he didn't wanna come across as pushy nor threatening. He did not want people quitting on him halfway through. He needed people committed to the cause, and only by joining voluntarily will he make sure of that. But, at the end of the day, nothing works in absolutes, so he needed to have some faith in the people he recruited. Hoping they saw and believed in the things he did.

It took of few minutes of silent contemplation, but Gajeel finally took his first step inside. He closed the gate after him and approached the proximity of the house. The closer he got the more nervous he felt. Like someone was watching him more closely the closer he got to the front door. Still, no matter how he looked around, he couldn't see anybody watching him. But, he wasn't wrong. Micah stood on the roof, carefully reflecting the light off him so he blended in becoming mostly invisible. As of now, he could only do this partial invisibility while standing still. It was only partial as certain people with excellent eyesight or brilliant observational skills could still make out his figure if looking closely enough. He also couldn't entirely erase his presence against opponents much more powerful than him. Gajeel not being stronger made it easy to hide from it, but the dragon slayer still felt his presence, he just couldn't see him.

---

Opening the doors to the house with some mild hesitation in his slow awkward movements, he was greeted with an incredible force that pushed him out on the yard again. He was a trained fighter so he recovered in the air and landed on all four, his expression gone from soft to anger instantly. "Come out!" He watched the now-destroyed beautiful doors blown off the frame.

"Nice recovery, excellent reflexes." Yukino walked out displaying the pride her sister was known for. She held her sword in one hand and her sheath in the other. She stopped a few meters away from Gajeel. "The boss said you're my new sword instructed and you are to judge my progress in the way of the sword." She took a formal stance against him and waited.

"What. The. Hell!? I didn't agree to anything like that!" He refused this fight and relaxed his body. 'I'm not gonna fight a little girl. How damn weak does that bastard think I am, she barely has half of my magic power.' Internally he scoffed at her magic but simultaneously praising her sword stance. It was confidence in every breath she took.

"Then don't cry like a little girl when I cut off your hair and make you bald." She dashed at him and prepared a swing. Gajeel couldn't help but sigh at her.

'She is so far away, she is giving me plenty of time to react.' He raised his hand and his arm transformed to a thick blade. But, unexpectedly, she changed her approach and switched to a piercing stance. Not enough to throw him off, he was still confident in stopping her. But, what happened directly after was what got him. Gajeel saw the blade extend with incredible speed and draw blood from his cheek as it passed him.

"That's one point for me. Best of five. Next time, I will be aiming for the heart." She withdrew her blade and it reverted to its normal length. She took a stance again after jumping back a bit. She ones again gave him the chance to prepare.

"Okay, little girl. You asked for this." He threw his cloak aside and revealed his very heavy-metal inspired style. He dashed at her and he was considerably faster, he came and delivered a savage strike. She blocked it but didn't expect the strength behind it. She was knocked back slightly and without the time to recover he was upon her and kicked her in the stomach sending her flying.

"Best of five, you say. Get up!" He transformed his hands into blunt fist weapons and dashed forward again. She barely had enough time to raise her sword to defend. With so little prep time before the strike hit, Gajeel easily got passed her defence and she was sent flying across the yard from a hit to the chest.

"That's two for me." He smiled savagely. Accidentally he let his predatory nature take over and a little bloodlust escaped him. "In a real fight, you don't get the time to recover, unless your opponent is an idiot. Don't be an idiot! GET UP!" And so the "spar" continued and by the time that it was over, Yukino hadn't gotten another hit in. Gajeel didn't let her get up from the ground. Every time she tried to recover, he would show her the meaning of uselessness and how meaningless it was to taunt an enemy if you didn't even have the power to back that up. He also made sure to explain why exposing your magic just to show off was a dumb idea.

"Don't expect everyone to fall for your taunts as your sister does." Micah appeared beside her on the grass. He started to heal her wounds. She had been thrown around quite a bit and she was sure at least one of her ribs were broken. "Gajeel knew he was stronger by how you so carelessly let you magic power run wild. You waste energy doing flashy moves instead of finishing fights quickly and efficiently."

Gajeel dropped his guard when Micah appeared. He simply scoffed and put his cloak back on. "You revealed your magic to me only to brag about it. You could have made this fight a lot less painful had you only used your magic in a way that I couldn't figure it out from seeing it ones. Well, as you are still a kid, I'll say this, you're better than most your age, probably."

"Bastard." She hissed under her breath. She grimaced when Micah started healing her broken ribs. "Couldn't you have taken it a little easy? What if I had died?"

"How will you fare against a real nasty killer if you only ever fight with people you know won't really hurt you. Believe me, you won't improve with me being nice to you. And also, I suck at holding back."

"Anyway, from now on, you two will spar ones a day. And, after that, you will spar with me, Gajeel. I don't allow slackers in my ranks." Micah said sternly.

"Oh really, boss. Who was it that slept till noon today?" Sorana said as she stood in the doorframe with a teasing smug expression.

"I was meditating! Very different things, Sorana." He accidentally pressed a little harder on Yukino's broken rib causing her to yelp in pain.

"Sure was a lot of snoring from someone meditating, and is drooling part of meditating as well?" She pushed the final button and saw his body tremble in anger. "Hm, well, you are the mysterious boss after all. Who am I to question your great and mysterious ways of living."

She looked at Gajeel then at her sister. "I take it you are Gajeel? Welcome. Also, I am surprised to see you with all your limbs still attached."

"Sorry? Your sister isn't that strong, don't know about you though." He mistook her meaning as she pointed at Micah and corrected him.

"Levy is the boss's girl. That's why I'm surprised you are still whole." Gajeel knew they belonged to the same guild, but he didn't know about this. He unconsciously took a step away, fearing for his limbs.

"Don't worry, Gajeel. I am not the kind to hold a grudge if it is meaningless to do so. Becoming your enemy gains me nothing, but becoming your alley will garner positive results. I hope at least that to be the case."

"I guess that remains to be seen."

"Indeed. There is a room prepared for you on the second floor. Name on the door, I hope you enjoy your stay."

Gajeel nodded and walked in, but not before sighing and saying. "It looks too comfortable."

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End