Enlightened Shadow | Rogue Cheney X OC

Ch 21 | Fiore's strongest

P.o.v. Yanida Clover

Trying to walk to the station in Crocus proved to be more difficult than I thought. We needed to get through a busy market, with merchants trying to sell their products. Laxus had to pull me away from sellers every 5 minutes, my problem with these types of situations is very simple; I don't want to be rude to them, after all, they're just doing their jobs. But once we passed those busy streets, it was smooth sailing from then on.

We even arrived at the station with 6 minutes to spare, which caused me to have a cocky grin gracing my face the entire time we waited. "Wipe that grin off your face, it's not thanks to you we arrived on time", Gajeel informed me, getting irritated by my attitude, I just smiled innocently at him.

When I looked around, I noticed that there are more guilds trying to catch the train back to their guild headquarters. I also noticed Rogue, Sting and their exceeds walking past the station with Yukino following close behind. I looked sideways at Laxus, he seemed to be having a private conversation with Mirajane, the coast is clear, and I sneaked of towards the Sabertooth mages.

"Rogue, Yukino, everyone!" I called, waving my arms trying to catch their attention. It didn't take me long to make them stop in their tracks, and when I was in earshot, they greeted me cheerfully. "How are you Yanida?" Yukino asked me kindly. "I'm great!", I said trying to catch my breath, leaning on my upper legs, "How are you?"

"We're awesome! Are you coming with us to Sabertooth? Now that I'm the Master we will have parties every other night." Sting beamed. When I felt my heartbeat settling down, I stood straight up again laughing at him; "No thanks, I would rather be in Fiore's strongest guild", Sting's excitement died down a little, "Joking... sort of", I mumbled the last part.

"Are you going to walk to your guild too?" Rogue asked with a hoarse voice, and I looked up to him raising my eyebrows and smiling wide. "You guys are walking back? Isn't that super far?" I asked surprised by the new information. "Of course! Rogue and I get sick on vehicles, remember." Sting told me, recovered from my comment. "OK, but that doesn't mean you have to walk, and you're walking too; Yukino, Frosch and Lector?" I asked feeling sorry for them.

"Why not, it's a nice day", she replied, but her face said something else, together with the faces of the exceeds. "If you want, you can join us with the train", I proposed to her, but she shook her head. "Then I wish all of you good luck that it-" I tried saying, but a loud whistle interrupted me, which confused me for several seconds. "Isn't that your train?" Rogue proposed pulling me back, after a moment I processed the words and bid them farewell, sprinting back to the station.

Even though Laxus gave me his deadly stare, when I arrived on the platform, he made sure the conductor was busy for a while. Apparently, he was a big fan of Mirajane and wanted her to sign his weekly sorcerer magazine. Which meant that I owed her something in return.

One quiet train ride later we finally arrived in Magnolia. When we got off the train, everything seemed as normal as ever but when we came closer and closer to the main road, people began cheering for us at the side of the street. Crossing a corner, I noticed Erza and the others who managed to arrange a carriage, taking in all the love of the residents of Magnolia.

"What the hell is this?" Gajeel mumbled, slowing down in his tracks. "It seems that the people of Magnolia saw the Grand Magic Games", Juvia responded smiling at all the kind faces. "I certainly did not expect this," I said under my breath trying to take it all in. I wasn't looking forward to walking through all those people watching us, the image of me tripping over my own feet kept replaying in my mind. And when a random person called my name, trying to catch my attention I couldn't help turning in a tomato with a weird smile on its face.