Chapter 2 Edited
Following the man that Lucy now new as Axal-Sensei, around as he showed her where everything was and the spare room that she would be staying in. Axal-Sensei said that she could live with him as payment for the apprenticeship. Telling her of the schedule and her workload for each morning as he walked on, trying to memorise where everything was and what he was saying, Lucy couldn't help but think that the workload was a lot for a six-year-old but she didn't think it would be easy.
"You will wake up before dawn every morning and fill up the scrap metal crate ready for it to be melted down and reshaped. You will preheat the forge, clean the tools and set them up before I wake up. You will also be organising and putting away the weapons. Lastly, you will be cleaning anything in the store that needs to be cleaned until your lunch break." Axal-Sensei never stopped talking as he walked and Lucy made a mental note of everything he said before silently giving the information to Crux in case she forgot, she asked Horologium to set up an alarm and asked him to estimate how much time each task should take in her current condition.
Axal-Sensei stopped walking when they reached the shop and turned to her, "how much do you know about weapons?" He asked her,
"You just saw it," Lucy said cheekily, Axal-Sensei sighed and started mumbling under his breath.
"Okay looks like I'm going to have to spend time teaching you about them before you can start making them. I'll give you rundown on each weapon in the shop and I want you to memorise everything before the end of the month." Lucy made a mental note about it to Crux and swallowed loudly because Horologium just told her that the end of the month is two and a half weeks away.
The old man smirked at her nervous form, "You can always quit kid," he pointed out, "you'll be back on the streets if you can't memorise everything anyway." He added just to see her start sweating, never having known anything about weapons except for what Sagittarius taught her. 'I really should have asked Erza to teach me when I had the chance'. Lucy thought to herself.
"You will have two hours after dinner for free time but then you'll have to clean and pack everything away." Axal-Sensei finished explaining before walking towards where the dining room was. There was no lounge room but there really was no need for one with all of the work that needed to be done.
Walking her towards her room he looked at her again before continuing, "If you can remember everything about the weapons by the end of the month you can decorate this room however you like, you can even paint it." He stated although he looked doubtful, Lucy nodded anyway and ignored the look, she knew she could do it but she was going to have to cheat a little and use some magic.
After making the bed in her new room Lucy started dusting and cleaning the room top to bottom. It was full of dust and looked like no one had ever used it before. Deciding against asking Virgo for help no matter how tempting Lucy could only communicate with her spirits until she trained more so that they could help her without being seen. Touching Horologium key and realised that she still had an hour until Axal-Sensei said to meet him in the workshop Lucy asked Crux to gather as much information about weapon making as he could and to be ready to take in as much information as possible for when Axal-Sensei explains. Lucy also contacted Gemini and asked if they could copy Axal-Sensei when he goes to sleep so that the information can be repeated if necessary.
Smiling at the thought of her best information gathering spirits and how willingly they were to help her get back to fairytail. Walking down to the shop once again and started looking around at all of the weapons admiring all of the designs and the variation in them. A triangularly shaped knife, similar to the one that Axal-Sensei was sharpening yesterday stood out to her.
This knife's handle was pure silver but had the constellation of Aquarius engraved on it. Feeling her throat close up Lucy tried to hold back tears, now that she was in this world it would be even more unlikely to find Aquarius.
"That kunai was a part of a set once." Axal-Sensei's rough voice came from behind her. "It was the first complete set that I made, one day the place got ransacked and the rest were stolen. That was the knife I was working on that day so it wasn't on display yet." He explained.
Lucy turned to look at him after taking a deep breath to hide her emotional state. "It's beautiful," she whispered to him trying not to think about the past.
"It's the constellation of Aqua..."
"Aquarius, I know," Lucy interrupted him and turned away from the knife, still trying to forget. "So what weapon will I learn about first?" She asked and started walking towards him, he looked at her confused for a moment before shrugging it off and walked over to the swords and started talking. Crux capturing every word while Lucy was trying to remember as much as she could with her mind elsewhere.
That night Lucy got Crux to record all of the information that was gathered into a book for Lucy to read and she studied until Axal-Sensei said it was lights out. 'Apparently, I have a curfew now'. Lucy thought to herself as she settled in for the night.
Lucy woke to the alarm clock that Horologium set up for her the next morning and jumped up when she realised that she had work to do. Quickly getting dressed and putting up her hair she ran down the stairs and grabbed an apple from the kitchen table. Running into the workshop to preheat the forge like Axal-Sensei showed her and then going over to the pile of scrap metal in the corner. Wondering how she was going to lift it in her body, Lucy grabbed as much as she could (which wasn't a lot) and heaved it over to the crate. Taking note to ask Capricorn to help her with muscle building after the day is over.
After filling the crate Lucy was already exhausted but went and got out Axal-Sensei's tools and started cleaning them with the supplies that he instructed her to use. After setting them up the way she saw them yesterday Lucy heard the roof creek, meaning someone was walking around upstairs.
Racing into the shop she grabbed a duster and broom and started cleaning, hoping to be done before Axal-Sensei opened up. Putting away any stray weapons she saw lying around as she goes. Lucy didn't look up as she heard the door open but she did when she didn't hear any more footsteps.
Lucy saw Axal-Sensei staring at her and she was started to get a little creeped out. Sweat-dropping a little Lucy went back to sweeping the shop, but she stopped after five minutes when she realised he was still there. "Good morning," Lucy called out to him cautiously, not really knowing what to say.
"I thought you would still be asleep," he replied, not returning her greeting.
"You said you wanted things done before you woke up," Lucy stated like it was obvious, momentarily forgetting that she was meant to be six, not eighteen.
Without replying he went into the workshop, probably looking around to see if anything was incorrect or not done. Lucy went back to work while stating everything she knew about the weapons that she went passed and Crux telling her if she was right or wrong.
Time skip a few hours
Wiping the sweat off of her forehead from lifting a sword that was twice her size onto the mount on the wall Lucy heard her stomach grumble. Noticing that it was lunch already Lucy went to the kitchen and made herself a sandwich before she heard the door open. Looking towards it she saw Axal-Sensei walking to the table and plopping himself onto a chair. "Would you like one Axal-Sensei?" Lucy asked showing him her sandwich to which he nodded, handing him her already made one she started to make another for herself.
Finishing her lunch Lucy looked towards Axal-Sensei and asked him for something else to do because she was finished cleaning the shop. Looking slightly surprised he said that she could have some free time, excited Lucy ran out towards the training field and mentally asked Capricorn to teach her something without summoning him. Little did Lucy know that Axal-Sensei was watching her do the exercises that Capricorn was talking her through.
Over the course of the next week, Lucy kept exceeding Axal-Sensei's expectations, although he never admitted it and most probably never would but by this time Lucy had almost memorised all of the weapons in the shop, the parts and attachments on the weapons and what they were made out of. Lucy didn't know if she was going to be asked all of this or not but it was better to be on the safe side, she wanted to take notes on how Axal-Sensei made them as well but hadn't had the chance as of yet.
Lucy had also started wearing training weights on her arms and legs but they were only 5kg each. Capricorn had suggested them to get her use to heavy lifting and said that he would make them heavier each week but he wouldn't tell her how heavy he was going to make them. Every time Lucy trained in basic martial arts Axal-Sensei would watch her but never make himself known.
Lucy had yet to do any more research on Ninjas but she did end up finding a scroll on chakra on a shelf in the workshop. Lucy hasn't made any progress in that either but she has been meditating every night, Capricorn has a theory that since magic is so similar to chakra that it would be hard to distinguish the difference between the two. Today while Lucy was training in the small field Axal-Sensei finally made himself known, he walked out onto the field and stood in front of her just as she was about to punch the tree log. Looking confused at him she stopped,
"Is there something you needed?" Lucy asked wondering if she forgot to do something before her break.
"Hit me," was all he said, blinking up at him Lucy was startled.
"Excuse me?"
"Hit me," he said again, shrugging Lucy got into her stance and lunged at him punching him in the stomach before getting back into position. "I don't know why I expected more," Axal-Sensei said after she relaxed her stance. Frowning at him Lucy looked at him slightly annoyed.
"Thank you for that, like I didn't already know that I suck," was all she said but on the inside, she was screaming mad.
Shaking his head, Axal-Sensei looked amused, "You know I was a taijutsu and weapons specialist back in the day," he said to her looking smug,
"Okay, good for you," Lucy said and turned towards a different log, not noticing Axal-Sensei frown and slightly sweat drop.
"I can train you if you want," he said suddenly before Lucy could throw a punch. Turning she looked back at him,
"Really?" After seeing him nod Lucy smiled and turned towards him fully, "Okay great, one question though, what's taijutsu?" Axal-Sensei anime dropped to the ground at her question and should have thought this decision through more.
Back at the guild
People were running around everywhere even though they looked like they hadn't slept in years. They were shouting and looked to be holding in tears, suddenly a giant hand smacked into the ground and everyone went silent and looked towards their guild master who was in his wheelchair.
"My children it has been over a week since our Lucy went missing and have yet to find a trace. I have sent a word out to other guilds for them to keep an eye out but I feel as if it is time to call back the search parties and take a break." Master Makarov said gravely, hesitation could be heard in his voice as if he never wanted to say this.
"What are you talking about gramps? We have to find Lucy!" Natsu yelled furious from the first floor.
"And we will, but everyone here is tired, stressed and worried. We can think and search better after a good rest, but I make this vow. We will find our Nakama or we will die trying!" Makarov said sternly knowing that it wouldn't calm the boy but it would at least make him determined to find his teammate even if he has to rest.
Back with Lucy
"Achoo!" Lucy sneezed and hoped that she wasn't coming down with a cold on her first day of taijutsu training after Axal-Sensei explained what taijutsu was Lucy was more determined to train and exercise, to be able to surpass a master would probably take her years the way she was going.
Axal-Sensei changed her stance and told her to focus more on her legs then her arms and taught her how to kick the tree stump. When Lucy asked when they were going to move onto different techniques and adding arms into training, Lucy got the shock of her life.
"Once you have destroyed the tree stump we'll move on." He simply stated before going back down to the workshop and told Lucy not to come inside for dinner.
After multiple failed attempts to even land a scratch on it with her kicks Lucy sat down to think. When Axal-Sensei explained how taijutsu worked he mentioned that chakra wasn't allowed to be used (not that she could anyway,) but without it, she probably will never be able to destroy the stump. The only other way was to strengthen her legs but that could take months, according to Capricorn and using her Taurus star dress would probably be obvious. With leg strengthening being her only option Lucy asked Capricorn to increase her weights and to start giving her leg exercises until she could find another way to do it.
Struggling to lift her feet off if the ground due to the adding weight Lucy started to try doing laps around the field only to keep falling over. By the end of the day, Lucy had worked herself up to speed walking around the field before she had to go back inside for dinner.
For the next few days Lucy worked in the morning and trained with her legs after lunch then cleaned up and meditated after dinner before going to bed, by the time the fifth day of her new training with Axal-Sensei came around Lucy had managed to break off a layer of bark to the tree stump and run five full laps around the field. Feeling more determined than ever Lucy asked Capricorn to increase her weights yet again, and do her training all over again.
"Axal-Sensei how do you use chakra?" Lucy asked that day at dinner, "I mean, I understand in theory but I haven't been able to use any externally."
"I don't sense a lot of chakra coming from you so either you have too little and have to increase the amount or you need to have it unlocked. There are people who can't use chakra at all and rely solely on taijutsu," he explained and Lucy frowned wondering if she would be able to use it considering she isn't even from this world.
"After you've destroyed that stump I'll see if I can unblock it or give you ways to increase it though, so if you want to use it that badly I suggest you hurry up." Axal-Sensei said sternly, "and don't forget that you have to tell me what all of the weapons are in the shop in two days." After saying that he got up and washed his plate before going to the bathroom most likely to take a shower.
Smirking slightly when he left the room Lucy almost laughed because she knew that he was trying to scare her. When she probably could have recited everything to him a few days ago but wanted the extra days just in case, feeling confident about the test Lucy washed her plate and went down to the workshop to start cleaning up.
Two days later Lucy was standing in front of Axal-Sensei as he stood leaning against the wall smirking down at her looking confident that she wouldn't be able to remember all of the information he told her just over two weeks ago. Lucy started leading him around the store reciting what he told her about each weapon, while also adding what materials were used for each one only stumbling a few times when Axal-Sensei asked her a question about some of the weapons and was suddenly glad that she had gone the extra mile in her studying. By the end, Lucy was standing confidently in front of him even though she was internally screaming with nerves.
"So do I pass?" Lucy asked him after standing there for a few minutes. Axal-Sensei sighed with a defeated look suddenly appearing on his face, as if finally accepting that she was probably going to be one of the best apprentices to take on, despite how annoying he found her.
Patting her on the head he said, "You pass ankle biter," before turning around and going back into the workshop. Lucy touched her head where his hand use to be and smiled before going back to work.