Filling a Void - (Open/Intro)

Niji walks forward, looking down at his feet as one foot follows the other. As he raises his head his vision is met with a colorless and lifeless expanse of nothingness. It is as if even the path that his feet is set upon does not even exist. Its dark.. He tells himself to keep moving forward. One foot. Then the other. Its cold.. It seems he is doing this for an eternity. Stuck in this abyss of a world. Walking aimlessly. As he lifts his head one more time a blinding light overtakes him, not even giving himself enough time to react. The overwhelming light feels as if it is squeezing him until he is going to burst. And then...

*Gasp* The sound of birds chirping is drowned out by Niji trying to catch his breath. Sunlight weaves its way through the trees. Niji is awake. That dream is really starting to get old. He stands up, cracks his back, and looks around to find himself alone on a forest path. Reality starts to flood back into Niji's brain. Ah yes, Magnolia. I have business with a merchant there. He breaks a piece of bread in half and chews on it as he hastily continues on his journey. The path from the last city has been a bit too quiet for Niji, he is excited to reach civilization. He is especially excited because he knows Magnolia is less than a days journey away now. Niji keeps walking forward on the forest path looking at his feet. One foot forward. Then the other follows.

A couple hours pass and the front gates of the city present themselves. Finally, he has made it. Niji journeys in, hoping to find contact with the merchant in the town square. So he begins to head that way.

Months... years... how long had it been?

Fairy Tail seemed like a distant dream, his friends even more so. It all felt like some sort of vague haze that enveloped a part of his life ages ago with no beginning or end to make sense of. Time was strange. What felt like an eternity might not have been all that long at all. And now it seemed that he was back where it all started. "Magnolia..." he muttered to himself breathlessly. It had come full circle. Finally he had returned.

A frock of blueish-black hair swayed gently in the breeze as the figure walked. It appeared styled upward in a unique fashion, possibly to give its owner a few more inches of height (though he would die before ever admitting this). Next to the wanderer waddled a small black furball on two paws. Its eyes were big and round and it looked to be an animal that should not be walking upright at all. "Y'think everyone's still there? an energetic and eager voice asked the boy. "Heero and Julius and Simon and Ebony?" The odd duo continued to make their way towards the city, eventually entering the town and heading towards that old familiar Guild Hall. The youth shrugged in response. "Maybe." He turned and shot his small companion a quick smirk. As soon as he took his eyes off the road however a broad obstacle slammed into him going the opposite direction and caused him to recoil a bit and take a few steps back.

Didn't even take a second to look before a vein bulged in his forehead. "Watch where you're going you dumba--" but upon seeing a distinct head of rainbow-colored hair he knew immediately who it was and stopped short of unleashing his pint-sized fury. "Niji!" the small voice shouted as the black Exceed ran over to the Mage and began tugging on his pant leg. "Are you coming back to the guild too?!" The black-haired boy couldn't help but smile to see a familliar face. They didn't know Niji well but had gone on a Job with him a long time ago. It was good to see at least one of his old guildmates.

[Topic Entered]

Distant chatter can be heard throughout the city. Niji takes a deep breath and is filled with relief to be around civilization again. Loneliness for extended periods of time is almost crippling to Niji. His attention is taken off of his path as he is drawn to the loaded environment around him.

With his eyes straying from the road they are quickly brought back to it by an unknown force bumping into him. Throwing his balance off and almost causing him to topple over. In a state of confusion Niji hears two voices that are oddly familiar to him, one calling him by name. Regaining his footing he recognizes the pair of old friends.

"Lucky! And Blues! Well what a pleasant surprise this is. Uh.. Sorry for bumping into ya Blues I seem to have been drifting off for a second. I find myself doing that a lot these days."

He turns his attention from Blues to the little cat tugging on his pant leg.

"Back to the guild? Well Lucky, my business in the city actually is with a certain merchant." He ponders for a second. Then addressing the both of them he continues. "But if you two would have me I would love to accompany you and go back to revisit. We can catch up on the way. It has certainly been some time since we've last met and I hope to hear that life has treated you both fairly."

The reunion brings Niji great joy. As he awaits a response he feels a little more of the dread that the lonely journey had brought him dissipate. The comfort of a stranger's presence has no comparison to that of a familiar face's.

In the late time of winter, the sun began to grow courageous enough to rise a bit higher and gild the land with its rays. Three months of cold, short hours of light, and the fireball traversing the sky every day would start going serious and warm up all of Earthland, including the party freak of a town that was Magnolia. Oh, sweet Magnolia, how much you’ve been through during these years…

All but a couple remained from the predating era of Fairy Tail before the scandal with Lucie. One of them leaned back against a wall up at the top of one of the scaffolding towers surrounding Kardia Cathedral. The cathedral was simply being rebuilt after its injuries from Elysium, and a handful of Fairy Tail Wizards oversaw the reparations of it.

“… Zzz…”

‘Oversaw’ was a stretch; nothing serious had happened, the reparation was going smooth, so Mura took a nap. That was, until he felt a signal of mana resonate with his Guild Mark… two, actually. Upon focusing on it, Mura realized that he didn’t recognize these two signals… was this a trap? As Guildmaster, he should have been aware of all of his members and their manas, but these two came off as alien to him…

What a strange event.

Taking a deep breath, he adjusted his sand-colored, elbow-long cloak and tried to pinpoint the manas’ location. Two orbs of ghostly life, Kyuken and Zirconis, floated up next to him in mild intrigue and curiosity. “S-Sensing anything wrong?” Kyuken worryingly asked, seeing the stern and uncommonly sharp look on Mura’s face as his eyes were closed for better sensory, “… Can’t really sense much magic myself. Danger ahead? Any leftover Elysium shits here for another beatdown?”

It took Mura a solid moment to open his eyes and gaze at his two ghost pals. “No, not anyone I’ve met… or recognize. But my Guild Mark-“ he explained while resting a hand on the mark painted on his forehead – the Mark of the Fairy that the Fifth Guildmaster, Heero, stamped on the left side of his forehead when he was like 12, “-It’s recognizing someone else. I thought it was Althea… no, it feels a little more like… Arcadia?!”

His eyes widened in shock, before he leapt off of the scaffolding and flew across the skies above Magnolia, ignoring gravity with his Yin-Yang manipulation as he charged towards the clear signature of ice and dragons. After knowing both Hana and Arcadia throughout his Fairy Tail life, Mura always reacted so bewilderedly to that specific stigmata, but when he could make up the face of the bearer of such mana, he found himself dumbfounded…

It was a dude with dark hair and skin whom he didn’t know. Said person was accompanied by a more draconian look, one with a tall, red horn sticking out of his head along with scaly features on his face. Who were these two?

Mura decided to confront them, for Fairy Tail’s magic resonated with them both despite their status as absolute strangers to the present Guildmaster. He slowly descended from the air and planted his feet on the grinded kerbstones that made up the long and old Dragonbane Avenue, catching the attention of a handful of passers-by; among them, a few words of gratitude were given to Mura and to Fairy Tail for their efforts in defending the town from destructive forces once more, to which Mura smiled softly. He was even offered some new sales on foods and accessories, but he kindly stated: “I’ll check them out soon. First…”

That was when his full attention pointed towards the two, outstanding men in front of him. He approached them sternly, for as of right now, he knew next to nothing about these two mages… so why? Why was Fairy Tail’s magic acting as if they were familiar?

Could they be veteran guildmates? I’ve never met them before… but the dark-haired, he’s a Dragon Slayer – I know my Dragon Slayers. Especially those who control ice… and here I thought that Arcadia showed up out of nowhere. Maybe she met… maybe she met her end, after all.

Obviously, the disappearance of the last Ice Dragon Slayer that he knew hit him hard, but he couldn’t let it distract him from the situation in front of him. He breathed sharply and spoke to the two: “Hey, you two!” He rose a hand and pointed at the dark-haired Dragon Slayer, then at the dragon-looking gentleman, “Dragon Slayer, Dragon Man… what’s your deal? My guild’s magic resonates with you, but I’ve never met you before…” The mere voice of his indicated how suspicious he was of them.

WC: 778

[Topic Entered]

Blue's smirk remained as their old guildmate spoke. "You said it, long time no see for sure." It was an understatement if there ever was one. Every time the Slayer/Exceed duo went away for work or to hunt down clues as to Glacieyth's whereabouts, it seemed like by the time they returned to the Guild everything had changed again. Last time they came back they'd been informed that Heero was encased in some crystal-- a kind of super powerful magic or something of that sort. Unfortunately they weren't able to gather many details that time either before they re-embarked on another journey. But here they were yet again. "Wonder what's changed this time..." his eyes drifted towards the direction of the Guild Hall as he thought to himself.

It was only a matter of time before they found out now.

As Koto began explaining his business about town the youth's cat partner-in-crime perked up a bit. "Merchant, huh? Think he's got any fish?" At the mere mention of food a loud growl emanated from Blue's stomach, breaking any sense of mystique he had by staring off thoughtfully towards the horizon. "Honestly... I could go for a bite myself." An astonishing revelation to anyone who knew the pair, surely. Just as the boy began to turn around and start walking with Lucky and Koto something totally out of the ordinary caught his eye. Something heading towards the group. A boy. In the sky.

Instantly Blue took a step back and centered his stance, standing up as straight as his short stature would allow. Flight wasn't all that odd in a world full of Mages, hell Ebony used to levitate around the Hall like it was as natural as breathing to her. But whoever this was, he was no Ebony. He landed before the group and the youth's eyes instantly narrowed on this newcomer. An odd sensation crept into his pectoral area, which would normally be cause for surprise but oddly enough recent circumstances meant that he'd be dealing with chest pains for a while yet. The stranger raised a hand to point a finger at him and instantly his instincts kicked in. Blue removed both of his hands from the pockets of the purple hoodie he was wearing and-- "..." Crickets. He could do nothing but blink in confusion as the flying mystery boy pointed directly at him and asked him outright who he was. Huh... so this was how it felt to be on the other end of the no social tact that Blue himself always displayed.

Of course that didn't change how he responded at all. "What's our deal?" he repeated, eyes wide and one eyebrow twitching. "What the hell's your deal?!" He returned the pointed finger with one of his own, a slight scowl on his face where that smirk used to be. "Here we go..." Lucky mumbled, shaking his furry head as his Slayer counterpart started in. Still, this was pretty mild all things considered. "Good thing the 's' word hasn't got tossed around yet." Something else the stranger said had bothered him, and it caused the youth's eyes to hone in even more sharply on him as he spoke. "... how'd you know I was a Slayer?" Sure pointy canines were common among Dragon Slayers but Blue wasn't baring his fangs at anybody. Sniff, sniff... the guy sure didn't smell like any Dragon Slayer he'd ever met before, he didn't look much like one either. "You're no Dragon." His nose had never let him down before. Maybe he knew some other Slayers?

A look of slight surprise flashed across his face at the mention of the stranger's "guild's magic", but faded quickly as Blue stood up even straighter and shifted his frame sideways, as if to make himself a smaller target in case things went south. Blue and Lucky had been away for a long time... who knew what sort of antics the Guild were up to while they were away? What kind of enemies they might have made? He tried to never assume anything... so until he was positive the young Slayer would treat this newcomer as he would any other mystery Mage. A potential threat. Especially if what he was sensing from the boy was anywhere near his actual power. He kept his scowl locked on the boy with brown hair and turned his chin up slightly. "You Fairy Tail?" Suspicious? Yes. Standoffish? Absolutely. But it was better safe than sorry. Friend or foe the youth was about to find out. Wouldn't be too much longer now until they knew if this was going to be a pleasant introduction or if things were about to get a lot more colorful.

[OOC: Glad to have ya Mura!]