The Stamp

The warmth of the embrace and the familiar voice were like the most powerful sedative, finally calming Erza's pounding heart.

She pulled away from Jiang Bai's embrace and hastily wiped the tearstains from her face with her sleeve. Her eyes were still red, but her gaze had grown clear again.

Jiang Bai gently ruffled her hair before turning his attention to the other two people in the room.

There was an old woman with an impatient expression, though a trace of concern was hidden deep in her eyes.

And a short old man with a distinctive handlebar mustache, smiling as he watched them.

That appearance...

Something stirred in Jiang Bai's mind. Drawing on his many years of watching shows,

if he wasn't mistaken, this should be Makarov Dreyar, the third master of the Fairy Tail guild and one of the Ten Wizard Saints.

He struggled to get out of bed. The injury to his chest made him grit his teeth, but he persisted until he was standing.

First, he bowed deeply to Makarov.

"Master Makarov, thank you for saving us."

Then he turned to the fierce-looking old woman and bowed again, speaking just as sincerely.

"And thank you for treating me, ma'am. I already feel much better."

Porlyusica folded her arms, snorted, and turned her head away, muttering, "Hmph, smooth-talking brat. This is why I hate humans..."

Makarov, meanwhile, smiled until his eyes narrowed to slits and waved his hands. "There's no need for that, child. I'm just glad you're all right."

Inside, though, he was delighted.

Just look at him!

Not only was this child exceptionally gifted, he was also so polite. He'd really found a treasure!

"All right, all right!"

Porlyusica seemed unable to stand the warm scene. She picked up the broom from the corner again and began chasing them out.

"Now that the brat's awake, get out of here! Stop cluttering up the place. I still have cleaning to do!"

As she spoke, she shoved Makarov's backside with the broom without a hint of restraint.

"Especially you, Makarov! Bring me trouble like this again, and I'll burn your mustache off!"

"Ow! Stop pushing, stop pushing! I can walk on my own!"

Makarov stumbled under her shoves and cried out in dismay, but he didn't look angry in the slightest. Instead, his face was full of helpless amusement.

Jiang Bai and Erza couldn't help smiling at the sight.

This old woman really did have a sharp tongue but a soft heart.

Soon, Porlyusica had mercilessly "swept" all three of them out of the cottage, and the wooden door slammed shut behind them.

Makarov straightened his clothes and cleared his throat, resuming the air of an enlightened master.

"All right, children. Now that you're both awake, let's get going."

A kindly smile returned to his face as he led the two of them toward the town beyond the forest.

"Come on, I'll take you home!"

It was only when they actually stepped onto the streets of Magnolia that Jiang Bai and Erza truly understood what it meant to "come home."

It was exactly as he remembered it.

People came and went along the wide streets, each wearing a carefree smile.

A dazzling variety of shops lined both sides of the road. Some displayed peculiar wares in their windows, things that glowed or moved on their own.

The scent of baking bread and a faint trace of magic filled the air. Every now and then, a few mages in guild uniforms passed them, laughing with their arms around one another's shoulders.

There was no destruction here, no dark magic, no despair.

Only sunshine, laughter, and freedom.

Erza looked at it all curiously, gripping Jiang Bai's hand tightly. The bustle of the town was reflected in her scarlet eyes, along with a trace of anticipation and unease about the future.

Jiang Bai was much calmer. He was like a true wanderer who had finally returned to his long-lost hometown after drifting for so long.

After they passed through several bustling streets, a rather ostentatious building appeared at the far end of their view. It could even be called a little "oddly shaped."

Hanging at the top of the building was a fairy emblem with a little tail, one they knew very well.

Fairy Tail.

They had arrived.

Before they even got close, a deafening clamor came through the huge wooden doors.

"Hey! Macao, you bastard! You drank my booze again!"

"Huh? Wakaba! Fight me if you've got the guts!"

"Bang! Crash!"

The sounds of tables and chairs being smashed, girls trying to break up the fight, and all kinds of incomprehensible shouts mingled together, making the whole guild seem like a boiling marketplace.

A little vein bulged at Makarov's temple. He took a deep breath and shoved the guild doors open.

"I'm back!"

At his vigorous shout, the guild, which had been noisy enough to raise the roof, fell into an eerie silence in just one second.

Everyone froze.

A burly man of about thirty, with a short black crew cut and light stubble along his jaw, was fighting a man with a pompadour and a cigarette in his mouth.

A girl in a long burgundy dress, her face full of exasperation, was about to step in and break them up.

Everyone's gaze turned toward the entrance.

Toward the diminutive but commanding guild master and the two rather uneasy little ones beside him.

The silence lasted only two seconds.

Two seconds later, cheers ten times louder than before erupted!

"Ohhh!!! The master's back!!"

"Who are those two kids with the master? They're so cute!"

"Could they be... new members?!"

Makarov jumped onto the bar, planted his hands on his hips, and looked proudly down at his bunch of overenergetic children. He cleared his throat and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"That's right, boys! Come and welcome our guild's new members!"

"Oh!!! That's great!!"

"Let's have a party! A party!"

The whole guild erupted. Macao and Wakaba, who had just been fighting fiercely, forgot their quarrel and crowded over to look curiously at Jiang Bai and Erza.

"Master, why did you bring back two little kids?"

"Hmph! If I don't place my hopes for revitalizing the guild on Jiang Bai and his companion, should I place them on you two instead?"

Amid the joyful chaos, a young woman with long brown hair and a smile as sweet as an angel's came over carrying a wooden tray.

She crouched down and presented the tray to the two children. On it were a peculiar stamp and several colors of ink paste.

"Hello, I'm the guild's poster girl. You can call me Sister Xiaomai."

Her voice was so gentle it could have melted. "Welcome to Fairy Tail. What color emblems would you like, and where would you like them stamped?"

Jiang Bai looked at the poster girl who had never appeared in the show and felt a faint stir of emotion. The anime really hadn't shown everything.

He held out his right wrist and said without hesitation, "I'll take silver-white, right here. Thank you, Sister Xiaomai."

"Okay."

Xiaomai smiled, picked up the stamp, dipped it in the silver-white ink paste, and gently pressed it onto Jiang Bai's wrist.

A warm sensation spread across his skin, and a silver-white emblem of a fairy with a tail appeared clearly on it.

From this moment on, he too was a member of Fairy Tail.

Xiaomai smiled at Erza. "And what about you, little sister?"

Erza looked at the beautiful silver-white emblem on Jiang Bai's wrist, then at Xiaomai, and said almost instinctively, "I... I want the same as him."

She held out her right wrist, wanting exactly the same color in the same place.

Jiang Bai, however, reached out and gently held her wrist.

"Erza."

His voice was quiet and gentle, yet it carried an unquestionable strength.

"You don't have to choose the same as me."

Erza froze and looked at him in confusion.

Jiang Bai looked straight into her eyes. Her small, somewhat bewildered figure was reflected in his dark pupils.

"There's a color you like, isn't there?"

He knew that after experiencing such a tragedy, Erza was in a state of extreme emotional stress.

She would instinctively depend on him and imitate everything he did in search of a sense of security.

If he wanted, he could even allow that dependence to continue, letting Erza cling to him like a little tail and never leave his side from then on.

But loving someone had never been about tying them down.

Still less was it about turning them into an appendage of oneself.

The Erza Scarlet he liked was the one who would grow into Titania, strong, independent, and dazzling.

Not a copy living in his shadow.

What he needed to do was guide her and help her emerge from that shadow, to become her strong, shining self again.

And all of it had to begin with this smallest of things.

"Erza," Jiang Bai said, his voice growing even gentler, "choose a color that belongs to you alone."