Erza

Eleven looked in the direction Cana was pointing, and sure enough, a scarlet-haired girl was sitting in a corner of the guild, taking small bites of the bread in her hand.

What stood out was that the girl was wearing a heavy suit of armor over her upper body. Her small frame was encased in a rather cumbersome little suit of plate armor, which could hardly have been comfortable. A short sword hung at her waist, and she wore a patch over her right eye. No matter how he looked at her, she didn't look like a mage.

According to Cana, Gray had gone over to pick a fight with her and gotten sent flying. As for his underpants, they seemed to have been cut off during the fight.

"What a strange girl. What's her story?" Eleven studied the red-haired girl with interest.

"The master said her name was Erza, but I don't know anything else. She always stays by herself." Cana had stopped laughing now. She propped her face in her hands and stared at Erza alongside Eleven, looking a little down.

"Haven't you talked to her?" Eleven looked at Cana in surprise.

"I have, but she barely pays any attention to me." Cana rested her chin on the table, looking thoroughly dejected.

"Hehe, so she's a shy kid!" Eleven grinned and patted Cana's little head as it rested on the table. "Looks like it's up to the great Eleven to step in. None of you are any good at socializing!" Eleven radiated a mysterious confidence.

Cana shook her head without saying anything and quietly watched Eleven begin his performance. She remembered that Gray, who had been beaten black and blue, seemed to have said something similar before.

Eleven strode over to Erza with a spring in his step, a gentle smile on his face. "Hello, my name's Eleven. Welcome to Fairy Tail."

But Eleven's friendly greeting received no response. The girl in front of him continued quietly nibbling her bread, as if she hadn't heard him.

Eleven frowned and waved a hand in front of Erza's eyes. His hand came so close to her face that it nearly hit the bread in her mouth.

"Sigh..."

Erza sighed softly and turned to look at Eleven. She gently set her bread on the table and stood up. She took two steps toward Eleven, then drew the short sword at her waist and pointed it at him.

"Come on!"

"Huh? What for?" Eleven stared at Erza in bewilderment. He hadn't expected her to point a sword at him right off the bat. He hurriedly raised both hands in surrender. He didn't have the nasty habit of fighting people for no reason.

Seeing Eleven's reaction, Erza's expression softened slightly. "Aren't you here to get revenge for that pervert over there?"

"Pervert?" On hearing the word, Eleven instinctively looked over at Gray, who had somehow ended up in nothing but his underpants again. Then he hurriedly shook his head. "Why would I get revenge for a pervert? I just came to say hello and welcome you to the guild."

"Oh, thank you."

Erza sheathed her sword, thanked him expressionlessly, then sat back down and resumed nibbling her bread.

Eleven frowned deeply at Erza, then plopped down across from her and put on another grin. "Your name's Erza, right? Why are you sitting alone in the corner? Wouldn't it be better to go talk to everyone?"

Erza looked up at Eleven, then quickly finished the bread in her hand and stood up. "Leave me alone. I like being by myself." With that, she paid Eleven no further attention, turned around, and headed out of the guild.

Eleven sat there stunned for a moment. He hadn't expected the girl to be so cold. Even Laxus hadn't been like that back then! Still, he kept watching Erza's back until she disappeared beyond the guild doors. Eleven frowned deeply.

As he pondered, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his back. He turned around to find Cana poking him in the lower back with her little hand, her cheeks puffed up in anger.

"Stop looking! She's long gone!"

At that moment, Macao and Wakaba, the guild's two biggest layabouts, came over as well.

Macao grinned. "Oh, even Eleven couldn't handle her? What a scary little girl!"

Wakaba wore a lecherous expression. "Hey, Eleven, you kept staring at her. Did she charm you? I've got high hopes for how that little girl will develop too!"

For some reason, Cana was fuming. "Honestly, never mind Gray, but Eleven was nice enough to say hello, and that's how she treated him? That's too much!"

Eleven hurriedly soothed the puff-cheeked Cana while rolling his eyes at the two shameless men.

"Don't talk nonsense. It's nothing like that. I just thought she was a little strange."

At that moment, Gray popped out from who knew where and loudly declared, "Even if I die, I'll never accept that girl as my partner!"

Gray's loud voice startled both men. They turned and made him the target of their teasing instead, taking turns until Gray was hopping mad.

Eleven looked thoughtfully at the furious Gray. No matter how angry Gray got, he usually wouldn't say he refused to accept a companion. It seemed Gray might have sensed something subconsciously too. The kid wasn't as oblivious as he looked.

Eleven tried everything he could and finally managed to extricate himself from the little group and their pointless chatter. Then he went straight to find Makarov. He suddenly wanted to learn more about Erza, the girl with the beautiful scarlet hair.

"I don't know either..."

Makarov had been chatting and joking with a group of older men. Only when he heard Eleven's voice did he turn to him, a mournful expression on his face, and say he didn't know anything!

"Huh? Old man, don't you find out anything about people before you recruit them?" Eleven stared at him in disbelief and began to have serious doubts about the guild's safety.

"She wasn't willing to talk, so of course I couldn't press her!" Makarov seemed a little defensive, but he immediately calmed down again and even grew a little sad. "But you don't need to worry about where she came from. She was recommended by an old friend of mine."

Sensing Makarov's despondency, Eleven didn't ask anything else. Instead, he forced a smile. "Is that so? Then I'm relieved."

The night passed without incident...

When Eleven arrived at the guild early the next morning, he ran into Erza again. She seemed to be registering for a job with Makarov. Eleven didn't go over to greet her; the memory of being rebuffed the day before still stung.

Only after Erza left did Eleven approach Makarov. "Old man, you're letting her take a job? She only looks about Cana's age, doesn't she? Isn't it a bit early?"

Makarov chuckled and stroked his little mustache. "She may be just a little girl, but she's very capable. She might even be better than you were back then. The guild's future really is something to look forward to! Oh ho ho!"

Eleven pondered Makarov's words for a moment, then turned and headed out of the guild as well.

"Eleven, where are you going?" Makarov's slightly stern voice rang out behind him. He wanted every mage in the guild to be able to stand on their own and disliked mages interfering in one another's jobs when they hadn't formed a team.

Eleven stopped at his words and turned back with a slight smile. "Don't worry, old man. I know the rules. I'm just going to follow her and take a look. There are a few things that concern me."