Cherry Blossom

Chapter 1

Seven years later I was strolling through the streets of Hargeon or at least what was left of it. The air was thick with smoke and the ground was littered in rubble. I chuckled lightly as I walked casually through the ruins with my cloak billowing behind me. I sniffed the night air and smirked. "Fairy Tail wizards, eh," I muttered sniffing the air again. "And, it seems like you have a new recruit." I looked over my shoulder at the little gray ball of cuteness that was my exceed. "Hurry up, Hato!" I called to her with laughter in my tone. "We don't need to rush, Aki-chan!" She called back with exasperation. I merely burst out laughing at her tone. "This is not a laughing matter, Aki-chan!" She yelled angrily, once she finally caught up with me. "You're so cute, Hato-chan!" I exclaimed randomly and lunged forward to pull her into a tight embrace. Her face immediately turned a deep red with embarrassment as I snuggled my head in her soft fur. "Let go of me," she muttered evilly. "You know you like it," I said smiling sweetly as she struggled weakly in my grasp. "You should get some sleep. You must be tired," I spoke soothingly. "Fine! Just remember to get some rest too," she whispered tiredly as she fell asleep. 'She hasn't slept for days, and now that I think about it, neither have I,' I thought as I looked down at her sleeping figure. 'Well, I can always sleep some other time,' I thought with a small smile. I began walking again with Hato in my arms. "Don't worry, we'll get there soon," I whispered down at the sleeping exceed, "I promise." I smiled with determination as I burst into run. 'Watch out Fairy Tail, 'cause here we come'.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I stumbled into Magnolia the next morning, exhausted. "Turn off the sun, I'm trying to sleep," a small voice said from beneath my cloak. "Hato, we're here," I mumbled tiredly. Hato immediately jumped out of my arms and into the air to scold me. "I told you to sleep Aki-chan. You haven't slept for a week, if not more," she began and I took this as a signal to tune her out. I began walking toward the far end of the city, where my destination was. "Wait for me," Hato called before flying after me.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"I'll have an extra-large Red Bull please," I asked the cashier of the small shop we had stopped at. "That will be 200 jewel, Miss," the perky young lady replied cheerfully. "Thank you," I replied as I gave her the money. "No problem. Here you go," she said handing me my drink. I brought my hand up in a two fingered salute as I walked away, sipping my energy drink. "Hato, I got you a cookie," I sung as I skipped toward my exceed. Her eyes instantly lit up at the mention of her favorite food. "Give it to me!" She begged with big eyes. "Don't give me that look. I was already going to give it to you," I whined at the adorable face she was making. I handed her the cookie and she instantly began nibbling on it. "Come on. Keep walking," I said with a giggle. I slurped down the rest of my drink and threw it into the nearest trash bin with perfect accuracy. I brought the hood of my cloak up and over my eyes as I changed my appearance to that of a young boy. "It's time to put the plan into action," I said in a squeakier voice than my own. "This is going to be interesting," Hato said as I changed her appearance to that of a five year old girl. "I'm going to give you temporary power in your right leg. I want you to kick me to the guild hall and then come in after two minutes. Understand?" I explained to Hato. "Got it," she replied with more excitement than necessary. "Ok, now kick me!" I yelped as her foot came in contact with the small of my back. I was immediately airborne. I flew through the air with surprising speed as I got closer and closer to my target. The doors opened just as I was about to hit them. I went flying into a pile of barrels headfirst. "Are you alright?" A soft voice called out as a hand reached down to help me up. I gladly took the outstretched hand and hauled myself up to my feet. I studied the person in front of me carefully. "Hello, I'm Mirajane! What's your name?" She asked me cheerfully like this happened all the time. "Nice to meet you. My name is Inu," I lied easily. Suddenly there was a loud commotion coming from near the front of the guild hall. Mirajane sighed softly, where as I sweatdropped. "Natsu must be back," Mira stated happily. The room shook as the entire guild started fighting. I looked around and noticed a blonde daydreaming in the middle of the brawl. 'I wonder if she'll get hit,' I pondered. I let my eyes wander again and I noticed a half-naked guy yelling something about a guy named Natsu. Suddenly a voice similar to that of a narrator, begin talking about the black haired weirdo. "What the-!" I cut myself off as I realized nobody else had heard the voice. The dude began walking toward the scuffle in an angry way, still shouting. "Gray, your clothes," A lady said as she causally sipped from a wine glass. "I don't have time for that!" Gray yelled before jumping into the fray. The narrator voice began speaking again but this time about the lady, that apparently was named Cana. "Where is that voice coming from!" My yell was drowned out by the sound of a table breaking. "You see, I don't date the men here because they have no class," She said to herself before chugging down an entire barrel of alcohol. My jaw dropped along with the blonde's. The men all began challenging each other to fight. A guy walked in and attempted to scold Gray and a pink haired dude. The narrator began speaking about the guy named Elfman. I sat in the corner and sulked. "I'm going crazy. It starts with the voices and next thing you know, I'll be married to a unicorn," I muttered as a purple aura consumed me. In the background I heard the blonde fan-girl over Mira. The voice introduced her too. I began banging my head on the wall. "Get out of my head," I whispered creepily. I watched as Mira's soul flew out of her mouth and started waving around as the blonde panicked. A naked Gray came flying out of nowhere and hit the girl making them both crash to the floor. The pink haired guy giggled (Yes, giggled) as he twirled Gray's underwear around on his finger. "Give me back my underwear, Jerk!" Gray yelled while the blonde panicked behind him. Gray finally noticed the girl and turned around to face her, which made her panic even more for obvious reasons. "Excuse me, Miss, could I please borrow your underwear?" Gray asked with a straight face as the blonde swung a paper fan at him immediately. "As if!" She shouted as he went flying. A guy wearing glasses appeared behind her and picked the poor girl up bridle style. "These guys are all insensitive. A woman has needs," his sentence was cut short as an uppercut hit him square in the jaw and sent him flying. "Real men speak with their fists, Loke!" Elfman yelled and then was kicked in the face by the pink haired guy. "I told you to butt out!" He shouted as a blue cat appeared out of nowhere. "Aye~," the cat said nervously. "Ah, it's so loud, so much for having a drink to relax. That's enough, you guys. I suggest that you knock it off," she said pulling out a magic card. All the guys that remained standing started to summon their magic in retaliation. "Are they always like this?" The blonde asked as she held up the cat as a shield. "Aye~," the cat responded. "You don't seem worried," she responded with fear. Suddenly a giant shadow guy appeared and scared the wits out of everyone including me. "Would you fools stop bickering like children?" The shadow giant shouted almost evilly. I wavered slightly where I stood. I saw Hato out of the corner of my vision walking around the outskirts of the guild hall, trying not to be noticed. She stepped on a broken chair limb and everybody's eyes snapped towards her. She noticed the stares and slowly turned her head to look at the crowd. "Aki-chan, help me!" She panicked and ran toward me. 'Well there goes the plan,' I thought as the magic finally wore off with a poof of smoke. I became myself again along with Hato. She jumped into my arms with surprising strength. I finally looked at the guild awkwardly as I held Hato. "Umm hi," I greeted with a little wave. "Well, it seems like we have a new recruit," The shadow guy said with a raspy voice. "She's new too," I yelled pointing to the blonde, trying to draw the attention away from myself. He turned around and started to shrink. "Nice to meet you," the apparently short man said raising his hand in greeting to the blonde. She immediately began questioning his height as Mira answered her cheerfully. Makarov jumped up doing a few backflips in the process and hit his head on the railing. I sweatdropped as he laid there for a second and then stood up like nothing had happened. He cleared his throat and began lecturing the guild about destroying something. The narrator voice began talking again and an irk mark appeared on my forehead. "Would you just stop talking?" I yelled and everybody looked at me. I began to sweat nervously as I rubbed the tips of my fingers together trying to look innocent. (Like Honey from OHSHC) "I'm sorry," I muttered an apology. "I was talking to the voice that, for some reason, nobody else can hear," I said trying to look as sane as possible. 'Well, this was a good first impression,' I thought sarcastically. "Hi, I'm Akita," I said smiling.