First Battle

"Huh?"

Eleven looked at Laxus in confusion. He copied Laxus, holding out a finger and curling it toward himself, then stared at his own finger and burst out laughing. He thought the gesture was amusing.

"Bastard! I'll never forgive you!" Laxus flew into a rage 💢. Thinking Eleven was humiliating him, he charged at him, fists swinging.

"Whoa!" Startled, Eleven scrambled out of the way of a punch. Laxus couldn't stop in time and crashed into a cluster of tables, chairs, and stools, knocking them over.

"What? A fight?"

"Oh, are the monster kid and Laxus going at it already?"

The moment the Fairy Tail members saw a fight, they got excited as if they'd been injected with chicken blood. In an instant, they surrounded Laxus and Eleven several rows deep, leaving no gaps.

"You bastard, don't run!" Laxus clambered furiously out of the pile of furniture and continued chasing Eleven down.

Eleven yelped as he fled, but with people all around him, there was nowhere to run. He could only look to Makarov for help.

"Hehe, Eleven, fighting is a very important part of a wizard's work. As a wizard of Fairy Tail, you must never run away from your own battles!"

Makarov made no move to stop the commotion. Instead, he poured himself another drink and fanned the flames from the sidelines.

"Ahhh, ow, ow!" Eleven failed to dodge in time and took a punch from Laxus to the shoulder. He cried out in pain, his voice trembling with tears.

He was a little confused. He didn't understand why family and companions would hurt one another, but he had no time to think about it. His head was full of Makarov's words: "A wizard must never run away from his own battles."

"Ahhh, I'm going to fight back too!"

Eleven yelled, his eyes glowing faintly as he faced Laxus. He raised a small hand, unleashing a blast of telekinetic force powered by magic.

Laxus's pupils contracted. Though he couldn't see Spiritual Power, a powerful gust of wind struck his face, making him instinctively roll to the side.

The psychic shock wave brushed past Laxus and smashed several sets of tables and chairs behind him with a tremendous crash, but it didn't hurt him in the slightest.

He dodged it?

Eleven froze. He had once used Spiritual Power in an experiment to deflect a bullet flying past his eyes, which showed just how fast his Spiritual Power's impact was. Yet Laxus had dodged it, leaving Eleven at a loss for what to do next.

Eleven was standing there in a daze, but Laxus wasn't. He rolled across the floor and sprang to his feet. Without looking at the wrecked furniture behind him, he lunged straight at Eleven and immediately punched him in the stomach.

"Ugh!"

Clutching his stomach, Eleven dropped to his knees and dry-heaved. How could his small frame withstand such a heavy punch? He couldn't get back up.

"Oh dear, he lost."

"Hehehe, Laxus really is stronger!"

"That's the guild master's grandson for you!"

Seeing that the fight was over, the onlookers stopped watching and scattered, talking loudly and full of praise for Laxus.

Laxus stood before Eleven and gave him a cold look. "You really are an idiot, aren't you? Who warns their opponent before attacking? Tch, boring!" With that, he turned and walked out of the guild.

Eleven managed to sit up and stared after Laxus, rubbing his stomach in a daze. At some point, Makarov had come to stand beside him and spoke softly:

"I'm sorry, Eleven. This was my mistake."

Makarov had originally thought he had a good plan. He had seen at a glance that Eleven had plenty of magic power but no fighting experience, which was why he had refused to let him take a job. While he was considering how to train Eleven, Laxus had appeared. Makarov knew his grandson all too well. Laxus was lonely; his strength far surpassed that of others his age, leaving him with almost no friends and giving rise to his arrogant, conceited personality. Then Eleven had appeared. He, too, possessed magic power and Spiritual Power far beyond others his age, and he and Laxus were close in age. Makarov had dearly hoped they could become friends. Failing that, it would have been good if they could become rivals and spur each other on.

But Makarov hadn't expected Eleven's body to be so weak. By rights, a wizard with that much magic power couldn't have awakened his magic source only recently. His body should have been nourished by magic power and grown very strong. At the very least, one punch from Laxus shouldn't have left him unable to get up. Could his magic source be outside his body? How strange.

Makarov didn't know that Eleven's magic source really was outside his body, in his mind. It had also opened with the arrival of Number 11's soul, so it really could be said to have only just awakened.

"I'm fine, Grandpa Guild Master." Sensing Makarov's self-reproach, Eleven managed a smile for him.

"But there's something I don't understand. We say we're companions and family, so why do we hurt each other? Everyone even seemed happy about it." Looking at Makarov, who stood with his hands behind his back, Eleven voiced the question he had been holding inside.

Makarov gave Eleven a long look and smiled:

"There's nothing wrong with the occasional scuffle. Everyone lives as they please, so it's unavoidable. But it's a way of showing respect to an opponent worthy of a clash of souls, not a way to hurt each other. And you must never resort to violence out of hatred or resentment. That's what a guild is."

Eleven stared at Makarov's face, sensing his pride, and fell into thought.

After that, three months passed in the blink of an eye.

"Hey, Cana, you're cute as ever today!" Eleven sat down beside Cana with a frivolous look on his face.

"Eleven, don't talk like those old guys. You sound like an idiot," Cana said without even looking at him.

"Oh, is that so?" Eleven immediately slumped over the table like a deflated ball. He'd thought he had learned a cool way to talk.

Over those three months, Eleven came to the guild every day, soaking up all kinds of information like a sponge. He either asked Makarov to teach him how to use magic power, shot the breeze with the older men in the guild, or pestered Cana to play tarot card divination with him. The one activity he never missed a day of was exercising with Laxus.

Eleven enjoyed the feeling of moving his body. In his previous life, his muscles had atrophied, and even moving a finger had been difficult. Now he could run, jump, and exercise his muscles. How could he not be excited?

Though doing so was dangerous, because Laxus had a terrible temper and could start beating someone up at any moment. As a result, Eleven returned to the orphanage battered and bruised almost every day, prompting Makarov to kneel and apologize to Maria several times. Seeing Eleven's miserable state, the other children at the orphanage unanimously refused to let him teach them how to meditate.

Perhaps because of his vast magic power, Eleven recovered from his injuries exceptionally quickly. He would go to bed battered and bruised, then come to the guild full of energy the next day. So Eleven never tired of pestering Laxus and especially liked to follow right behind him.

"Laxus!"

"Get lost."

"Ahhh!"

"Laxus, wait for me!"

Lightning flashed and thunder roared.

"Ahhh!"

Scenes and conversations like these had been playing out in the guild from time to time lately, to the point that Laxus hardly came by anymore, though he refused to admit he was avoiding anyone.

"Cana, did you find out when your dad's coming back? You seem happy." Eleven lay sprawled over the table, bored out of his mind. Sensing a ripple of joy from Cana beside him, he chatted with her idly.

"Hmph, what's it to you?" Cana snorted, though a faint smile still showed on her face.

"Cana, who is your dad, anyway? Come on, tell me." Eleven rolled over where he lay.

"I'm not telling you! We agreed to keep that a secret, so why are you still asking?" Cana frowned and glared at the lazy Eleven.

"Then, Cana, can you tell me when Laxus will come to the guild?" Eleven smiled apologetically and changed the subject.

"There you go again. Hasn't Laxus beaten you up badly enough? How did you get addicted to it? Wait, you don't have that kind of fetish, do you?" Cana seemed to have suddenly realized something. She scooted away from Eleven and looked at him with the hint of a smile.

Eleven didn't understand what Cana was talking about, but she often used unfamiliar words he didn't know. He didn't ask, so she wouldn't call him an idiot again.

"This time's different. I've developed new ultimate moves, and there are two of them! I definitely have a chance to beat Laxus!" Eleven suddenly perked up and leaned mysteriously toward Cana's ear. The two children began whispering to each other.