Everyday Life at the Guild

And so, a year passed.

Time was the best catalyst, enough to ripen a green fruit and completely transform a frail young girl.

At some point, Mirajane, the silver-haired girl who had always hidden behind Jiang Bai and watched everyone timidly when she first joined the guild, disappeared.

In her place was a "delinquent girl" wearing smoky eye makeup and a black gothic leather outfit, with an air that warned strangers to keep their distance.

She was no longer the girl who shrank from other people's gazes. Now she spoke sharply and acted brazenly, with the faintest hint of a sneer always at the corner of her mouth.

The only things that remained unchanged were how much she cherished her younger brother and sister, and... the uniquely complicated feelings hidden beneath her defiant exterior when she looked at Jiang Bai.

Erza, meanwhile, was still Erza.

The guild's iron-fisted disciplinarian and devoted supporter of strawberry cake, Titania grew more imposing by the day.

Whether it was Natsu taking on Gray or Cana drinking someone under the table, all it took was a command from Erza to make everyone involved in the guild's everyday scuffles obediently settle down.

(Cana joined sometime during that year.)

But there was one exception to this rule.

When Erza faced Mirajane, all discipline and authority went out the window.

Thanks to the Satan Soul within her, Mirajane's mastery of Take Over Magic advanced by leaps and bounds.

In just one year, her strength had grown tremendously, and she was already beginning to hold her own against Erza, the guild's strongest female mage.

And so, besides Natsu and Gray's "fire-and-ice double act," the guild's daily life gained another colorful... no, explosive spectacle.

"Boom!"

A table exploded into pieces under a blast of raging flame, sending wood chips flying.

"Natsu! You bastard!" Gray's upper body was bare, and cold air swirled around his hands.

"You wanna fight, droopy eyes?" Natsu's fists blazed with fire.

Just as another bout of everyday demolition was about to begin, a scarlet figure descended with a chill in the air.

"Both of you, stop!"

Erza kicked away a barrel that had tried to ambush her, planted her hands on her hips, and swept a fierce gaze over the two grappling boys. "There's no—"

Before she could finish, a lazy voice tinged with mockery drifted over from the bar.

"Tch, how boring. Is that the only line you ever use, Madam Head Disciplinarian?"

Mirajane sat on a barstool with her chin propped on one hand, toying with a sharp dagger in the other. Her black-painted fingernails stood in stark contrast to its gleaming silver blade.

Erza's brows knitted together at once, and her sharp gaze shot toward Mirajane.

"Mirajane! I'm maintaining order in the guild. Are you trying to cause trouble again?"

"Order?" Mirajane scoffed, hopped off the stool, and sauntered up to Erza. She looked her familiar armor up and down, a defiant smile curling her lips.

"I think you just like bossing people around. What's wrong? With Jiang Bai gone, can you only make yourself feel important by disciplining other people?"

"You!" Erza's expression darkened instantly.

Jiang Bai's name was the one and only fuse that could ignite a war between them.

"At least I'm better than someone who follows him around like a clingy little tail. Did you think changing your clothes would get his attention?" Erza shot back without backing down.

"Hehe." Mirajane's smile grew brighter. She leaned closer to Erza and lowered her voice so only the two of them could hear. "That's still much better than a coward who doesn't even dare confess and can only ask him out with a childish excuse like 'come eat cake with me,' isn't it?"

"What nonsense are you spouting?!" A suspicious blush appeared on Erza's cheeks, only to be replaced by even greater anger.

"Hum—"

Powerful waves of magic erupted from both of them at once.

"Requip!"

"Satan Soul!"

Golden light and purple-black magic clashed fiercely in midair, making the air throughout the guild hall tremble as violent winds whipped up.

The surrounding guild members were long used to this. They covered their heads and scattered, skillfully searching for cover.

"Here we go again!"

"Run! The Queen and the Demon are about to go at it again!"

But just as the two were about to strike,

Two invisible yet irresistible forces of Telekinesis appeared out of nowhere like a pair of giant hands and seized them by the backs of their necks.

The magic around Erza and Mirajane dispersed instantly. Like cats seized by the neck, they were hoisted into the air, unable to move.

On a sofa in the farthest corner of the guild, a figure stood up and yawned.

"Hey..."

Jiang Bai rubbed his eyes, looking languid and not quite awake.

"You two woke me up."

Jiang Bai's voice wasn't loud, but it was like a bucket of ice water dumped over the heads of the two furious girls.

Held by the backs of their necks by invisible Telekinesis, Erza and Mirajane were like two cats seized by the scruffs of their necks. All their bluster vanished instantly, and they could only struggle helplessly in midair.

They could feel that the force holding them was despairingly powerful. No matter how they channeled their magic, it was like a clay ox sinking into the sea; there was no response at all.

The entire guild hall fell into an eerie silence once more.

Everyone who had just been scattering with their heads covered stopped in their tracks, mouths hanging open as they stared in shock at the surreal scene before them.

The two strongest female mages in the guild, Titania Erza and Mirajane the Demon, had just... been picked up like a pair of chicks?

"J-Jiang Bai! Put me down, now!"

Erza's cheeks flushed bright red, whether from anger or embarrassment, no one could tell.

She kicked her arms and legs wildly in the air, trying to preserve the last shred of her dignity as head disciplinarian, but it only made her look more like a red-haired cat with its fur standing on end.

"You bastard! Do you have a death wish?!"

Mirajane's reaction was far more violent. She glared viciously at Jiang Bai in the corner and hurled threats at him, but her wildly kicking legs likewise betrayed her helplessness.

Jiang Bai completely ignored their protests. He got up from the sofa, stretched, and strolled over, his face full of annoyance at having his sleep disturbed.

He walked up to the two of them, looked up, and spoke in the tone of someone lecturing misbehaving children:

"If you've got that much energy, go do a job."

"I..." For once, Erza had no idea how to retort.

"None of your business!" Mirajane remained defiant to the end.

"Fine, I'll stay out of it."

Jiang Bai curled his lip, then gave a thought.

The two forces of Telekinesis holding them vanished instantly.

"Ah!"

With two brief cries of surprise, Erza and Mirajane dropped straight out of the air like a pair of overripe fruits and landed on their backsides on the hard floor.

"Thud!" "Thud!"

The two dull impacts made everyone around them feel a pain in their own backsides.

"That hurt..."

Erza rubbed her backside, tears welling in the corners of her eyes, all of Titania's dignity gone.

Mirajane grimaced in even greater pain. She braced herself against the floor and looked up, just about to curse Jiang Bai out.

But she found that the culprit had already yawned, turned, and walked back to his sofa. He picked up a magic book as if nothing had happened.

His "it's settled, you can carry on, but don't wake me again" attitude was more intimidating than any stern warning.

Erza and Mirajane exchanged a glance. Each could see the anger in the other's eyes, but there was even more helplessness.

Almost simultaneously, they both snorted, got to their feet, and brushed the dust off themselves before walking away in opposite directions without looking back.

An S-Class Mage civil war that could have demolished half the guild had been defused by a man who wanted to sleep, in the simplest, crudest, and most ridiculous way possible.

Watching the anticlimactic ending, Macao and Wakaba exchanged a glance and both let out a long sigh, their voices full of the weariness of men who had been through it all.

"The one who can keep those two tigresses in line..."

"Looks like it's only that kid Jiang Bai..."