The Knight and The Strawberry

chapter 7

In the middle of the plains towards the north of Fiore, the locomotive bearing the members of Fairy Tail who are taking part in this year's S class trial sped along the tracks towards their destination. Aboard this train were Makarov Dreyar and his grandson Laxus, Guildarts Clive, Macao Conbolt and Wakaba Mine, Luca Rausven and Teran Wholtor, Mirajane and Elfman Strauss, and Ichigo Kurosaki and Erza Scarlet.

The ride thus far had been rather quiet. The four sets of partners had all moved to their own sections of the train car and were mostly keeping to themselves. Macao and Wakaba were the only two who were consistently talking, though the topic mostly seemed to be who had seen the more appealing women.

At the front of the car, the master sat in absolute silence and looked to be thinking very hard about something. Guildarts was seated next to him but for all intents and purposes, had decided to take a nap. Laxus sat off to the side looking out the window with an expression that showed that he would rather be doing something else.

Luca and Teran were sitting a couple rows back. Luca had spent most of the trip grinning smugly to himself and attempting to hit on the attendant as she came through the car. At the start of the trip, Teran had gone into one of his usual deep meditative states.

Mira and Elfman had moved to the very back of the car and only occasional mutters cold be heard from them. Mira had been strangely quiet the entire morning. Elfman was the only one who was attempting to make conversation with his elder sister.

Finally, sitting a few rows in front of the Strauss siblings, was team Sunset. Erza for the majority of the trip had been running through every possible piece of equipment she might need once they made it to the forest. 'There's likely to be some dense undergrowth. If that's the case I'll need something that won't weigh me down.' She glanced over to her and Ichigo's weapons leaning against the wall and frowned slightly

'If it gets too cramped in there then having such large weapons could be a real hindrance. I can always switch mine but Ichigo...' The scarlet mage looked up to see her partner sitting with his eyes closed. The Rise and fall of his chest was so slow that it almost looked as if he had stopped breathing entirely. 'He's probably in there talking to the old... Zangetsu.'

Erza was still getting used to knowing the name of Ichigo's inner spirit and sword. After the rather explosive events of this revelation, Zangetsu had essentially taken over as their mentor. Well not in a very direct way. For the most part he simply watched them and felt their energy through Ichigo. He would occasionally stop them and correct when they got sloppy. While it was odd having Ichigo tell her that a voice in his head thought she needed to change some of her footwork, in the end the spirit proved to be incredible when it came to battle experience.

A second effect that it had was the unbelievable increase in Ichigo's own power. During the first few days of their training, it had felt as if she were catching up to, and at some points even surpassing, Ichigo. But after his transformation... Ichigo had hit a whole new level beyond where she currently was. Most of their "spars" ultimately turned into her being pushed to the absolute limit just to keep from being cleaved in half, and she almost never landed a hit on him unless he made a mistake.

Looking at the floor of the booth, Erza began to feel a bit of doubt enter her mind. She was nothing but a tag along compared to her partner. She looked up and around the cart at all of the other teams. For the most part each pair was made of two evenly matched wizards in her opinion. Well she doubted Elfman would be able to keep pace with Mira, but the gap wasn't likely anywhere near the difference between herself and Ichigo.

"Ugh...." Erza sighed exasperatedly. She was just getting herself worked up. And if she wasted energy doubting herself like this then she would be no use to Ichigo during the trial. 'I'm just as strong as any member of the other teams. Comparing myself against Ichigo is like comparing Natsu to Laxus.