There's an explosion in the distance.
"Oh, no."
Eir had finally managed to grab the little tyke by the scruff, but the loud noise made him turn his head with a grimace.
"Let go of me!"
Eir lifted the boy by the back of his collar, frowning. He's thin, grubby, definitely an orphan-- he didn't look much older than Gray.
Hm? It looked black, but his hair was actually just really dark brown. That's pretty.
"Kid. How old are you?" Eir said, catching the boy's attention.
The kid tutted, evidently uninterested in small talk. He spun around, a yellow magic circle blooming from his wrist, gleaming like a ball of congested zephyrs before striking the ground hard enough to shatter.
"Aerial Shot!"
And it went for Eir, slicing right through the boy's clothing, shredding through Eir's-- and slicing through skin.
In his surprise, his grip loosened.
The boy landed on all fours, still clutching the pouch of cookies. But this time, he had also gotten Eir's wallet between his teeth.
"Aerial Shot!"
Eir raised his arms up to protect his eyes from the next surge of wind and rubble-- but once it quelled, the boy was long gone.
He swore under his breath. That little brat.
"Hey, you alright? You're bleeding," a shopkeeper to the side called out to him.
Right, they're still in the middle of the road.
Eir grimaced-- his clothes were cut, a few scrapes bleeding. He's not too sure about anywhere else, but he knows his cheek stings a little, too.
He rubs it over with his hand and frowns. Smearing it against his coat-- oh good, he's wearing dark blue today, that shouldn't stand out too much.
"Don't wipe that!" the watermelon vendor yelled.
But anyways. "Did you see where the tiny dark kid went?"
"Could you worry more about your own wounds?!"
"Right, right," Eir dismisses. Somehow, he feels like he's forgotten something...
And right on cue, another explosion sounds in the distance.
He hears the familiar crackle of thunder residue and he doesn't look over. He has a very strange hunch that it came from the library.
But no, no, he's not going to look over there.
He does not see it.
He does not.
-
-
Cana wants wind-reading glasses, because this is a lot to read. The translation is easy enough, it's the sheer amount of it that makes it tedious.
Then there's a familiar, crackle-sound rumble in the distance, and the panicked crowd wailing of what was most probably a...
BOOM!!
...explosion. Yeah.
There's a surprised squeak behind her, and she quickly turned around to something-- probably a book-- clattering against the floor.
(This is the restricted area with only magic books. No one is supposed to be here.)
Cana scrambled down, reaching for the smoking pipe in her purse. She had nabbed it away from Wakaba yesterday in an attempt to make him stop smoking and hadn't returned it yet.
She holds it in one hand, and retrieves three cards to hold in her other.
"Who's there?" she called, hoping no one answered her.
Is it a thief? A mouse?
Another startled squeak-- this time, Cana realized it sounded distinctly like an 'oh no!'-- and something crashes against the wall shelf, and a horde of books topple on them all.
Cana had a second to watch her life flash before her eyes before the books were coming at her. No, at them. She finally sees the second little girl in the room, and it's a little girl with blue hair that's much smaller than Cana herself.
Unlike Cana, that girl might actually die from getting buried under books. Maybe. Probably. Look, those books are heavy and hardcover, okay.
So logically, she panics.
"Uh--!!"
Cana only has two things she can use, and one of them is a useless stick. So of course the only logical thing to do is in her other hand.
"Heaven, Reverse Death, Mountain!" she declares, the cards in her hands glowing, "Summoned Lightning!"
Cue explosion.
-
-
"You fucking BRAT!"
Is the first thing Gray heard upon running toward the first site of explosion. It was the antique store Laxus went to, so he just went to check it out.
And Laxus is livid.
They're covered in smoke and rubble and probably splinters as well, the entire shopfront is in pieces. The shopkeeper is crying.
"Hehehah! You should've seen your own face!"
Gray found Laxus yelling at a teenager he hasn't met before.
Blue hair just a shade brighter than Gray's own-- and a strange, stickman-looking tattoo splayed out on the bridge of his nose.
He looked pretty damn blasted. Like he'd taken the lightning bolt firsthand and survived just to keep laughing at Laxus.
"Look, you!" Laxus finally threw his arms up in defeat. "You're causing trouble for the shopkeeper. Don't got anywhere better to be?"
"I've been living here for a couple months."
"A couple what-- nevermind," Laxus groaned, grabbing him by the elbow and hightailing right out. They pass the shopkeeper (who still has his jaw dropped) on their way out, and Laxus saluted curtly. "Sorry about the noise sir. Send the bill to gramps."
"My- M- my... shop...front..."
Gray winced empathetically. It's a complete wreck-- and for some reason, he can faintly remember that one time Ur got angry at him for turning a guy's car into an icicle. Ur didn't have the money to compensate for that nonsense.
Well, let's hope Eir has enough money to compensate for it.
"EHhh where's we going?" the weird boy whined, "ah wait, can't leave my babies behind."
Gray squeaked when an antique china doll came floating after them, all poltergeist-like. It even turned to look at him and Gray did not whimper at the sight of it.
"Leave it behind! They belong to the shop owner!!" Laxus snapped.
Then Laxus noticed Gray in the corner. His hand still lugging the boy like a sack of flour, he made his way over.
"What're you doing there, Gray?"
The doll followed him with a porcelain smile
Gray shrieked, "Ice Make--!!"
"MY BABY!"
-
-
-
The library was on fire, the antique store was trashed in a charred and frozen mess, and all of the children looked like they just survived a bonfire then went through a shredder machine and got blow-dried.
Including Eir himself.
Thankfully, Eir was the only one with bleeding wounds. The rest of them looked a bit disheveled or slightly burned, but nothing a bit of salve can't fix.
"Stop struggling already," Eir chided the boy he was holding under his arm.
The boy retaliated with a mighty chomp on the offending arm. Eir didn't entertain him with a response. It's kinda like holding an angry dog and you've already resigned yourself to the rabies shots after this.
Well, this one aside, he had to wonder about the other new kids in the group.
Cana was holding hands with a petite, blue-haired girl. She was sniffling, her clothes were dusty and worn out, and she had a book clutched to her chest.
And then there's the teenager that Laxus brought in.
Laxus had yelled something about handing him in to the council for mischief, but he was crying mournfully about a baby, so they've put that issue aside for now.
(How exactly did he manage to come with three children and get three more?)
"How do I say this..." Eir muttered grimly, pointing in the general direction of the smoke and water mages in the distance, "uh. Don't do all this again, okay?"
Almost simultaneously, they started yelling at Eir and each other. And the noise is twice as loud because apparently the children all found themselves a mini.
"What else was I supposed to do? Levy almost got hurt!"
"It's not my fault, that doll was freaky!"
"He deserved it! Look, he's not even that badly hurt!"
"My babies... my poor babies..."
"Uhm... am I... should I return this book?"
"Let go of me!!"
Father lord of all that is holy above, please grant me the patience to not spontaneously commit mass murder right here.
"Look at you guys, I'm so exasperated I started praying," Eir sighed, nursing a newfound headache. "And I'm an atheist."
Anyways.
"Enough!" Eir clapped his hands to catch their attention. "We can't get on a train like this. We need a bath and a change of clothes..."
Someone in the distance screamed.
All of the children stare up at him.
Eir cleared his throat. "...But first, let's run."