My Name Is Erza

His consciousness slowly rose, as if surfacing from the depths of the sea.

His sense of touch returned first. Beneath him were no longer cold, damp fallen leaves, but something soft and dry, seemingly a coarse linen fabric of some kind.

The earthy, musty smell was gone from his nose, replaced by the faint fragrance of wood and the scent of herbs.

Jiang Bai struggled to open his heavy eyelids. Instead of the gloomy forest, he saw an unfamiliar wooden ceiling.

I'm still alive?

The moment the thought surfaced, he instinctively tried to sit up.

But the instant he pushed himself up with his arms, a terrible pain struck, as if it would tear his brain apart.

Along with the pain, the last scene before he lost consciousness exploded in his mind like an ultra-high-definition slow-motion replay—

The giant wolf, as big as a small hill, had been held in midair by an invisible force. Then its enormous head had burst like a tomato crushed by an unseen giant hand, exploding into a spray of blood and flesh with a wet pop in the silence...

The silent gore and violence, the unnatural way it had died—the shock of it all hit him far harder now than it had when he was in danger.

"Fuck!"

Jiang Bai shot upright in bed, all color draining from his face, his eyes full of horror and disbelief.

That wasn't a dream!

I... really used my brain... to crush a wolf's head?

His shout startled a figure approaching the door with a cup of water.

The door creaked open, and a little girl ran in, still holding a simple wooden cup. Her exceptionally rare scarlet hair was tied in a ponytail.

Seeing that Jiang Bai was sitting up, the little girl froze for a moment. Then a happy smile spread across her face, and she hurried over.

"You're finally awake!"

Her voice was clear and pleasant, like a lark in the mountains.

Jiang Bai looked at the doll-like little girl before him, then at his surroundings, and finally confirmed that he had left the dangerous forest.

If that terrifying memory wasn't a delusion, he really had killed the blood wolf in an unbelievable way.

At the thought, Jiang Bai breathed a little easier. At least he had survived.

And, oh! He could actually understand what she was saying. Now he had to see if she could understand him.

He took a moment to clear his head, still dazed from sitting up so abruptly, then looked at the concerned little girl and asked as gently as he could, "Little sister, where am I? Did you save me?"

"This is Rosemary Village."

The little girl handed him the cup of water and said in her childish voice, "The uncles from the village found you unconscious on the ground in the forest when they went hunting, so they brought you back."

It looked like he really was highly compatible with this world. She had understood him.

Great, the biggest problem with transmigrating is solved.

She paused, without a trace of fear in her big eyes.

"They said there was a dead blood wolf lying next to you, too. A really, really big one."

Blood wolf? Jiang Bai picked up on the key term.

He looked at the calm little girl, who seemed even younger than him. A thought suddenly occurred to him, and he asked tentatively, "Then... aren't you afraid of me? I'm the one who killed that blood wolf."

A six- or seven-year-old child killing a giant beast with his bare hands (?) should be pretty frightening anywhere, shouldn't it?

But the little girl's reaction surprised him.

She tilted her head and said as if it were obvious, "Why would I be afraid? Uncle Rob and the others said that blood wolf had been in the forest for a long time, and it scared away all the prey nearby. Everyone's had a hard time hunting anything lately."

"Even if you hadn't done anything, the uncles were getting ready to gather people to kill it so we could make a living. If they had, someone might have gotten hurt."

The little girl looked at Jiang Bai earnestly, her gaze clear and resolute.

"You killed it and did our village a huge favor. Everyone's too busy thanking you to be afraid."

Jiang Bai froze.

He looked at the little girl before him, whose values were almost unbelievably sound, and found himself at a loss for words.

No suspicion, no fear, only the simplest sense of good and evil and the simplest logic.

You helped us, so you're a good person.

It was that simple.

Jiang Bai immediately took an interest in the intriguing little girl, and his expression softened.

"What's your name?"

He hadn't expected such a simple question to make the little girl's smile falter, or the light in her bright eyes to dim in an instant.

It was a deeply buried sadness, entirely out of keeping with her age.

It lasted only a moment, but Jiang Bai noticed it nonetheless.

She lowered her head, and her voice grew quieter.

"My name is Erza."

"But I don't have a last name."

Erza?

Scarlet hair?

The instant Jiang Bai heard the name and saw her distinctive hair color, his brain went blank with a buzz, as if struck by a thunderbolt.

Fairy Tail?

He stared blankly at the little girl, whose eyes held a trace of loneliness, his heart racing in spite of himself.

If this really was the world of Fairy Tail, then the "special and powerful supernatural aptitude" the system had mentioned meant he had awakened magic!

And the ability he had used to kill the giant wolf was his magic!

To confirm this guess that could overturn everything he knew, Jiang Bai forcibly suppressed the wild joy and shock in his heart and put on a gentle expression full of wisdom, the kind only an adult could wear.

He reached out with his little hand and gently patted Erza on the shoulder. In a soothing tone, he said, "It doesn't matter if you don't have a last name. You're so kind and cute, Erza. You must have lots of friends who like you, right?"

It was a cunning thought only an adult would have.

He had comforted the dejected little girl with a compliment while discreetly asking the question he most wanted answered.

Sure enough, Erza's dimmed eyes immediately lit up again when she heard him, and her smile returned.

"Mm!" She nodded vigorously and said happily, "I have two friends, Simon and Kagura! We're the best of friends!"

Simon! Kagura!

When Erza spoke those two names, Jiang Bai's last trace of doubt vanished.

Confirmed!

This was the world of Fairy Tail! And the little girl before him was the future, awe-inspiring Titania—Erza Scarlet!

So what he had awakened before losing consciousness was the foundation of this world—magic!

A magic directly connected to the brain, similar to telekinesis but even more overbearing!

The thought that he had become a distinguished mage filled Jiang Bai with excitement. He couldn't wait to experience that feeling of having everything under his control again.

He closed his eyes and tried to recall the cool sensation that had welled up from deep in his brain when he fought the blood wolf, attempting to draw on that power again.

He concentrated and silently chanted in his heart.

Move! Make this cup float!

But the cool sensation of having everything under his control did not appear as he had expected.

Instead, a violent headache erupted from deep in his brain, as if it would rip the top of his skull off.

"Fuck, again?"

"Argh..."

Jiang Bai couldn't help drawing a sharp breath. He clutched his head and let out a pained groan.

It felt as if he had stayed awake for seven days and nights straight, only to have someone smash him in the temple with a hammer.

The intense pain made him realize something.

His earlier actions had probably severely overdrawn his newly awakened magic power, leaving his brain depleted.

He had no idea when he would recover from this state.

(Erza was born in X765 and joined Fairy Tail in X776, so the author assumes here that Erza spent five years in the Tower of Heaven. Erza hasn't been captured and taken there yet, so she is six now. The current year is X771.)