"Mr. Cain, why did you save me?"
Cain had stopped walking and sat down near a tall tree. He motioned for the little girl to sit next to him in the shade.
"Think of it as my good deed of this lifetime."
"Good deed?"
Cain hummed before he laid down.
"Get some rest, kid. We have a long journey ahead."
"I can't sleep without my blankie."
Cain leaned up and gave a "seriously?" before groaning and laying back down. He slowly took off his cloak, revealing a pair of black pants and a white shirt. He was wearing a cross around his neck, and his arms were all bandaged. He placed the cloak over the girl and laid back down.
"Now get to sleep, kid. Use that as your blanket."
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"You need to learn magic, kid. You gotta protect yourself."
"How do I do magic, Mr. Cain? I've read so many books, but I still can't cast a spell."
Cain walked over to Emi before telling her to turn around. He touched the back of her neck and mumbled something before a small blue light came from her eyes.
"Now," Cain said as he smirked, "which magic would you like to learn?"
"Can I really use magic now? What did you do?!"
Cain put his finger to his lips and made a "shh" sound before replying, "It's a secret."
Emi started to ramble about her new ability when she was stopped by Cain's next question.
"Well? Which magic? You can try Requip magic, time magic, elemental magic--"
"What's elemental magic?"
Cain thought for a moment of how to explain it before answering, "It's basically magic of the earth's natural elements. Dragons teach heightened elemental magic to people called dragon slayers, but regular wizards can use it, too."
Emi still looked confused, so Cain decided to list a couple.
"You know. Water, fire, wind, earth, shadow, light, steel, lightning, ice. Stuff like that."
Emi's eyes sparkled.
"Can I learn dragon slayer magic?"
"You can't learn that without a dragon, kid."
"What other kinds of magic are there?"
"Nullification magic, burst magic, memory magic, creation magic, sealing magic..."
"What's creation magic?"
Cain motioned for Emi to sit down and face him.
"Creation magic is the root of all Make magic like Ice make and Memory make. You're able to create a spell using your mind. Creation magic is more powerful than regular Make magic because you're not limited to your memory or solid plans. You can--"
"I want to learn creation magic!"
Cain looked at her slightly annoyed.
"Hey, kid. You gotta let someone finish before you speak!"
"Creation magic? Levy?"
"He basically touched on all the basics that you need to know. It's known as something more versatile than Memory make magic and more powerful than Ice make, as it's not limited to only one element."
"So in other words," Natsu interrupted, "Emi can totally kick your ass, Gray!"
"What did you just say to me you little punk?!"
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"You ready to test it out?"
"Yes, sir!"
Cain took a seat by the base of the mountain while he waited for Emi to start casting her newest spells. Emi placed both her hands upwards and spread wide as she whispered something.
"Cataracta."
Suddenly, water started to flow from the top of the mountain, forming a small waterfall. The water slowly faded away until only drips fell.
"I did it! Did you see that?" Emi yelled excitedly.
Cain shouted from his place at the bottom of the mountain, "Your form was off and you didn't put enough magic power into it. That's why it disappeared. Try the other one."
Emi grumbled before putting her right hand up and rapidly moving her hand in a whirlpool motion.
"Turbinis!"
The dust on the ground started to twirl in a circular motion before wind started to violently push itself around an epicenter, forming a tornado. After a few minutes of watching the tornado to see if it would disappear, Cain found that she was able to hold the spell. He motioned for her to release the spell, and the wind slowly died down until it was a slight breeze. He smiled at the top of the mountain where she stood proudly.
"Good job, kid. That one was much better."
"Holy crap, Emi!" Lucy stated in astonishment.
Wendy turned to Emi and shared her thoughts as well, "Ms. Emi, that was incredible. That's more powerful than my wind spells."
"Nonsense, child," Charle spoke up, "your sky drill holds just as much power."
"See Em?" Sting quietly spoke to the woman. "You're a very powerful wizard."
Emi looked on, eyes twinkling.
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"Why do I have to eat everything with hot sauce, Mr. Cain?"
The two were sitting in a shack that they had found while exploring.
"If you learn to tolerate things that should incapacitate you, you'll become stronger. So for every meal you eat, you'll be adding hot sauce."
"But why? I don't like hot sauce."
"The more you have it, the more you'll build up a tolerance to it."
Laxus and Sting looked towards Emi with side smirks on their faces. Emi looked to the two of them before blushing and apologizing for making them eat the hot sauce meals she cooked for them over the years.
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"I'll kill you!"
"Now now," Cain silenced the figure standing in front of him and Emi, "that's not anyway to speak to someone like me."
"Mr. Cain?"
"Cain? Cain Sato? That can't be true."
Cain sadistically smirked before unsheathing his sword. Faster than a blink of an eye, Cain's sword had flashed out of its sheath and sliced the figure in half at his abdomen. Cain held the figure's head in his hands.
"Didn't I say not to speak to me? Pathetic."
"Mr. Cain?"
Cain turned to the sleepy child.
"Don't worry, kid. I took care of him. Go back to sleep."
"Okay. Goodnight Mr. Cain."
"Did you...see that?"
Emi looked at the figure on the ground before looking back up to see Cain slowly sitting in front of the girl protectively and falling asleep.
Cana commented, "And I thought Erza had quick movements. Damn."
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"Mr. Cain, why do we have to keep running? I don't want to run anymore."
Cain looked over at the little girl before sighing and leading them to an abandoned village.
"We'll stay here, okay? We can continue your training and hide at the same time."
"I want to go to a place where I can play with the other kids. I want friends."
"Friends only weigh you down. Once you have someone you feel you need to protect, it's all over."
Everyone looked on in confusion at the man's words.
"What is he talking about?" Nastu yelled annoyed. "Friends make you stronger because they're people you want to protect!"
"But Mr. Cain--"
"You don't ever want to get attached to someone, kid. It'll only hurt more when they die."
"But if I get strong enough then they won't die."
"I wish that were true."
Emi seemed to sadden at these words. She looked at Cain before the memory faded away. She turned towards her friends and smiled at them.
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"Ad deum!"
A blinding light engulfed the abandoned town, turning the dark of the night into pure brightness.
"Hey," Rogue spoke, "that's kind of like your Holy Nova, right Sting?"
Sting nodded as he watched the child version of Emi produce the same light he is capable of.
"Kid, I thought I told you to get to sleep!"
"I just wanted to try out the new spell. I'll go to sleep after."
----------------------------------------------------
Cain breathed heavily as he stood in front of Emi. He let out a low growl.
"I dare you to try to do that again."
"Don't worry Sato, I'll take nice care of her once you're out of the picture."
The figure laughed maniacally before running at the two. Cain was able to grab both arms of the attacker to hold him in place.
"Now kid!"
"Dagger Strike!"
Multiple knives had appeared and pierced the attacker all over. He screamed as his skin was punctured and eventually grew quiet when both his eyes were cut out. He fell to the ground once a dagger pierced his forehead, killing him on impact. Emi looked over at the figure before back to a bleeding Cain.
"You idiot, you got me too."
Emi rushed over to Cain's side and gently pulled out a dagger that had stuck into his arm. Emi gave the man a lopsided grin for acknowledgement of a successful attack.
"Yeah yeah. You did good. Now hurry up and heal me."
Emi placed her hands over the wound and whispered an incantation. A soft blue glow hovered over the wound before disappearing. The wound had completely disappeared.
"Emi, how did you do that? I didn't know you could heal people!" Happy exclaimed.
Emi looked back to her younger self and shrugged her shoulders.
"I didn't even know myself until right now."
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"I'm going to drop you off at the next village and then we'll go our separate ways, 'kay?"
"But Mr. Cain, why would you want to do that?"
"You're in danger the more time you spend with me."
Emi ran up to the man and stood in front of him before sternly speaking.
"I don't care. I want to stay with you."
"Kid, you gotta listen to me on this."
"No! You can't make me! And even if you do leave me, I'll make sure to find you!'
Cain sighed before messing up her hair.
"I don't really think you understand the whole 'traveling with a war criminal' type of thing, do you?"
"War criminal?"
Emi looked at the cloaked man before having a sinking feeling in her stomach. Could he...?
--------------------------------------------
"It's him! Cain Sato, the B--"
"Sayin' something, boy?"
"You monster! Look what you've done to this village!"
Cain looked around at the burning village and turned back to the man before him.
"I didn't do this," Cain explained calmly. "Someone else did this. We're just passing through."
"Even if you didn't do it, your friends did!"
Cain let out a sarcastic laugh before looking the man dead in the eyes.
"They aren't my friends. People like me don't have friends. Now do you want our help or not?"
"Help? We could never accept help from someone like you!"
"Mr. Cain!" Emi yelled as she ran to him. "I was able to evacuate the townspeople to the mountain."
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"Mr. Cain! We have to help them!"
"Dammit."
The two sprinted towards the burning village to see that a large monster was on the path of destroying it.
"Is that Delorca?"
"No," Cain stated, "that's Deliora. Delorca's kin."
Emi looked towards the village before her eyes hardened.
"Let's hurry."
Once Cain and Emi had arrived at the village, she had to look as Deliora killed several innocent people.
Gray looked around at the memory and his eyes went wide.
"Gray, what's wrong?" Mira asked.
"This is..."
"Mr. Cain! There's a boy over here!"
Emi looked over to Cain to see that he was faced with a woman with black hair.
"Mr. Cain?"
Cain didn't move his eyes from the woman as he spoke.
"Get the boy and bring him to this woman. Quickly."
The woman spoke, "Why are you helping? Shouldn't you be destroying the village as well?"
"Sorry lady, I don't do that shit anymore. If you were looking for a show then I'm sorry to disappoint you."
Emi quickly took the boy's hand and brought him closer to Cain and the woman.
"Don't worry. You'll be just fine. Don't be afraid."
Emi handed the boy over to the woman and smiled at her.
"My name is Emi. What's your name, miss?"
The woman looked between Cain and the girl before responding, "My name is Ur. Thank you, child, for saving this boy."
Gray stood eerily still as he looked at the memory. Everyone was in shock. Emi smiled softly before turning to the ice wizard.
"So I guess this means we already met? I'm glad I could meet you again."
"...Yeah. Thanks, Emi. A lot."
The two smiled at each other as the memory changed again.