Protect My Big Brother!

Beauty. That was the first word to come to mind as Aila looked around at Magnolia's scenery. The people all seemed happy and wore their smiles with their heads held high. No fear was present in their eyes, unlike those that lived in the slums or Hargeon. Unknown to the young mage was the fact that much of their fear came from her usual shrouded appearance. Today, however, she was dressed in her casual clothes which consisted of one of her brother's hooded sweatshirts with jeans and a pair of white tennis shoes. Her hair was pulled back into a long ponytail. Over all the clothes didn't quite seem to fit her. Most of it was too big, but the girl was comfortable in it. It reminded her of her brothers back home.

Aila's eye caught a frightened looking girl, that appeared to be around her age. She quickly posted a message on a bulletin board before scurrying off into a nearby crowd. The young requip mage glanced around and saw a rather shady looking guy glaring in the direction the girl had run. He simply scoffed and scurried off into an ally. Aila chewed on her lip gently and decided to take a look. After all she could have been in danger, and as a reaper it was her duty to decide who gets to kill who...right?

As she approached the paper on the board she felt the stare of the man on the back of her neck. She turned and met his glare. The request definitely seemed to be of some kind of importance to him. A stalker maybe? Aila took the paper off of the board without breaking eye contact. The man scurried off once more, giving Aila time to look at the request.

That girl's brother was apparently in some kind of trouble. According to the request he had fallen in with bad company. Aila felt a pain in her heart, as an older sister this had always been one of her fears towards her own brothers. Especially the oldest since he always did whatever was necessary to make sure everyone was fed. Aila had done her best to insure that illegal activities had never become one of those necessary actions.

"Ah!" Aila broke away from her brooding, realizing that the man from earlier may have followed the girl home. Her clothing let off a light glow and shifted to her familiar white cloak. People around her didn't behave in nearly as shocked a manner as she had come to expect, but then again this was the home town of Fairy Tail. She dashed down the ally that the man had come out of earlier.

Magnolia had a LOT of buildings. The alley system was like that of a spiders web to the young mage and felt like it went on forever. Eventually she heard the sounds of a fight accompanied by the sound of glass breaking and a woman's scream. Aila picked up the pace and turned the next corner towards the noise to find a distraught older woman lying on the ground. There were obvious signs that a struggle had taken place. There was damage to the house and small spatters of blood. Was she too late?

The woman apparently saw the paper in her hand because she began frantically pointing in a single direction. "Please you have to help, they took my daughter" Aila nodded towards the woman and took off towards the forest.

How often was this going to happen? Here she was, once again lost in a forest. This time it was a bit more exotic since this one was in Magnolia. But this also came with the immediate realization that this forest was completely new to her. She hastily ran her hands through her hair to clear away some leaves, and focused on any noise. Unfortunately there was only the usual sound of wildlife and the gentle sway of the trees in the wind.

Aila bit her lip and leaned against a moss covered tree. Her eyes slowly closed. Still she couldn’t hear anything. Her clothing let off a faint glow as she kicked off of the ground and landed in a tree. Oh yes, this armor was completely worth it. In a single leap she was able to grasp a branch and pull herself to a higher vantage point. Her body felt so light. Her eyes scanned the area from her new vantage point.

Her eyes caught faint signs of smoke a short distance ahead. She remembered that there were burn marks on the the street back where the mother had been standing… But if it was a fight how had she not heard any sound of a struggle? Leaving her questions for later she gracefully leapt from her tree branch and landed on the dirt. The first thing that she noticed was that there was almost no impact. This new armor was great! She stealthily began to approach the area with the spoke. When she arrived she paused and hid behind a nearby tree. One man was crouched down, taking kick after kick from various other men. In the back was a slightly larger man with a club standing next to the girl from earlier.

‘A hostage huh…’ she clenched a fist at their cowardly actions.

“Man if you could see the cruddy look on your face!” one of them said while chuckling. The brother spit out a bit of blood and looked towards his sister. This earned him another kick. “Pay attention when people are talking to you!” The man grabbed Kaito (The brother) by the hair and looked him in the eye. “The mighty flame fist reduced to this, you should’ve just done the job the boss gave ‘ya” He kicked him in the gut and released his hair. “Hey why don’t we have a little fun with this girlie here” The large man guarding Mana shouted while lifting her up by her bound wrists. Mana’s tear filled eyes went wide as she began to struggle against the bonds.

The man next to Kaito smirked and said “Go ahead”. The other man smiled as he looked down at his captive he began to reach his hand out only to feel a sharp pain on his head. As the world went dark he caught a glimpse of a tattered black cloak.

Aila’s eyes were full of rage. It had taken everything she had to not kill the guy. Instead she had simply hit him with the blunt end of the scythe. The man next to Kaito then burst into flames. “I don’t know who you are stranger” Kaito said with a smirk as the man began to roll around “but I owe you one”. The third man swung a club at him from behind but with a casual side step he avoided it. At the same time Aila leapt forward bringing the staff end of the scythe down on the man’s head. He fell back, barely managing to avoid the hit. Aila pulled the end further down, twirling the scythe in her hands in the process and leaving a gash of red in the man’s stomach. The man went out like a light after that.

Using the rope that had once bound Mana they tied the hands of the men and led them to the nearest police station and dropped them off. Throughout the rest of their walk the two were silent with Mana’s eyes focused on the ground beneath her feet, and Kaito’s focused on the clouds above. As they approached their home Mana dashed off and into her mother’s arms. Aila gently grabbed Kaito’s arm and showed him the request paper. He laughed “Of course I’ll go get your money” Aila shook her head.

“That’s not what I mean” Kaito stopped and looked back at her as she spoke“Your sister risked her life to get help for you” His eyes traveled to his sister.

“That idiot… I told her I would handle it.” His eyes scanned the mission details and went wide before softening once more. “So she knew all along…” Aila nodded at him.

“Us sisters are pretty attentive you know” Aila said with a small smile “Even if you tell us not to, we’ll help as best as we can”.

He wiped a stray tear from his eye “Well don’t worry, I was quitting anyways, nothing like this will happen again” Aila nodded and began to walk away however Mana blocked her path and hugged her.

After saying her thanks she handed Aila her pay, and wished her luck in her travels

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