Reunited with Mirajane!

"Achill, are you really not going to join the guild?" At the edge of the forest, Mystogan finally could not help asking as he watched Achill lean against the branch of a towering tree, his eyes closed in thought. "Erza is in our guild too!"

Five days had passed since their unexpected battle. During those five days, the two had come to know quite a bit about each other. Perhaps because Mystogan looked exactly like Gerard, Achill could not help treating Mystogan as he would a younger brother. As such, he had told him many things, including about his life and experiences with Gerard and the others at the Tower of Paradise.

Naturally, that did not include the secret of his true identity. He would never reveal that he was a transmigrator to anyone. He would let that secret rot in his heart forever.

When recounting his experiences at the Tower of Paradise, Achill had focused on Gerard and Erza. When he mentioned Erza's name and his worries about her later life, Mystogan immediately said that if the Erza Achill spoke of was the same Erza he knew, then there was no need to worry at all. Like Mystogan, she was now in the Fairy Tail guild!

After hearing Mystogan's words, Achill finally felt truly relieved. Then he recalled the figure he had encountered in Kaisa City two years ago, when he had still suffered from amnesia—a figure that had given him an intensely familiar feeling. That had clearly been Erza! He simply had not remembered her at the time because of his amnesia. Thinking of the crimson emblem on her armor, then looking at the guild insignia on Mystogan, he suddenly understood. That must have been Fairy Tail's guild mark!

Thinking of the red guild mark on Rob's back, Achill roughly understood why Erza had joined Fairy Tail.

Hmm? That wild girl named Mira seemed to be from Fairy Tail too, didn't she? For some reason, Mira's pretty, wild-looking face suddenly flashed through Achill's mind. He gave a self-mocking smile. Why did I suddenly think of her? Heh, don't tell me I'm interested in her...

Shaking his head and tossing those messy thoughts out of his mind, Achill answered Mystogan's question without hesitation. "Forget it. The way I am now, I'm still not qualified to see her..." A trace of helpless bitterness lingered in his voice, but that was indeed the truth. He had always believed that, because of him, Gerard had not been properly guided, which had led to everything that followed...

"Before everything is perfectly resolved, I don't plan to see her. And you absolutely must not tell Erza about me! Oh, right—" Achill paused, then asked with a puzzled look, "Logically speaking, you look exactly like Gerard. Erza should have shown some sort of reaction, shouldn't she? At the very least, she should feel a little hostility toward you. But from the looks of it, that doesn't seem to be the case..."

"Hehe, that's true. Whenever I appear in the guild, I usually cover my face." Mystogan smiled and continued, "Of course, to avoid unnecessary trouble as much as possible, I also use hypnosis magic to put unrelated people to sleep beforehand."

"I see. Then this is farewell. I hope you'll be careful while traveling and closing Anima in the future..." With that, Achill flipped down from the tree branch, dusted himself off, and smiled as he waved to Mystogan. Then he turned and strolled into the distance without looking back, leaving only the distant, crisp chimes of wind bells drifting far away on the breeze...

"Jingle—" His moon-white robe fluttered in the wind. Two silver, hollow, elongated wind bells tied to the tip of the magnificent moon-white sword hanging at his left waist clinked freely together, occasionally producing clear, pleasant chimes.

Listening to the wind bells ringing by his ear and watching that blurry figure gradually vanish into the distance, Mystogan sank into deep thought. He murmured, "We'll meet again someday, won't we, Achill... big brother..."

Time flowed like water, and the years passed like a shuttle. In the blink of an eye, another two years had gone by. It was now the year 781!

In the central-southern region of the Fiore Kingdom stood a prosperous city—Oscu Town!

On the railway outside town, a long train rumbled slowly toward the city. An ordinary train would not have been anything surprising, since such transportation could be found everywhere. What was truly surprising was the roof of that train!

A remarkably lazy figure sat atop the slowly moving train, holding what looked like a wine flask and taking sip after sip from it.

"The time should be about right..." Looking up at the azure sky, the glaring sunlight made his eyes narrow unconsciously as he muttered softly, "Forget it. Better finish this commission quickly..." Without further hesitation, he flipped off the roof of the train! Then, midway through the fall, he twisted sharply and instantly smashed through a window on the side!

Crash— One train window was ruined.

"Cough, cough. Sorry about that. I'm only here to arrest a few criminals, so don't mind me. Everyone, don't mind me, okay?" Standing steadily atop a table by the window inside the train, he waved apologetically at the panicked passengers. Then he smiled teasingly at the two middle-aged men sitting beside him, pretending to remain calm. "Seeing as I'm being so sincere, could I ask you two to—voluntarily surrender?"

This person was none other than their protagonist—Achill!

"Don't get so cocky, brat!!!" At those words, the two middle-aged men's expressions abruptly changed, turning incredibly ugly! One of them, a scar-faced man, immediately pounced at Achill with a savage expression!

"Die!!!" The other man was no less fierce. He pulled an iron pipe from inside his clothes and viciously swung it at Achill's head!

"Heh..." Achill chuckled. Just as the scar-faced man was about to reach him, Achill instantly threw a powerful split kick, whipping it heavily across the man's ugly face!

Boom— The immense force sent him flying, slamming him hard into the inner wall of the carriage on the other side!

As for the iron pipe swung by the other man, Achill caught it directly in one hand. Then, in much the same way, he delivered a powerful flying kick. Just like that, the battle ended in a brief instant! There was no wasted movement at all. It was effortless, as simple as eating a meal!

What a joke! If he could not easily deal with two guys who were not even wizards, then Achill's past two years would have been wasted!

After two years of uninterrupted training, his strength had improved tremendously! Whether in fighting techniques or raw magic power, he had advanced considerably compared to two years ago!!

Of course, aside from those positive changes, there were also things that annoyed him. First was his Extreme Way magic. For some reason, aside from the time he had created it, he had never successfully used Extreme Way Reincarnation again! Still, he could not be bothered to dwell on something he could not figure out. His Bleach magic alone was enough for now! Besides his Extreme Way magic, the other annoyance was his Requip Magic! Over these two years, his Death God Requip Magic had not summoned another Zanpakutō weapon?!!

That was not a good sign. Though he had accidentally summoned many Zanpakutō during his amnesiac period, enough to deal with all sorts of situations, the key was—no one would complain about having too many abilities or being too strong!!

Setting aside the increase in strength, Achill certainly would not complain about having too few Zanpakutō simply because of his personal preferences! Ever since his previous life on Earth, he had coveted these Zanpakutō for a very long time...

Especially those ridiculously powerful Zanpakutō, like Aizen's Kyoka Suigetsu and Old Man Yamamoto's Ryujin Jakka. Those were all Zanpakutō he had dreamed of obtaining!!

He found a rope and tightly bound the two unconscious middle-aged men, both foaming at the mouth. A few minutes later, the train arrived at the station, and Achill casually dragged the two unfortunate fellows away.

After asking around for the location of the town's guard station, he dragged the pair over, handed them in, and collected the reward for capturing the wanted criminals. This wanted-criminal commission was successfully completed!

Why did he specifically go to the kingdom's institutions for jobs instead of taking local commissions from wizard guilds like before? In truth, that had originally been his plan. But reality proved that wizard guilds as accommodating as Forest Pathfinder were relatively rare. Whenever Achill tried to slip into other guilds to take jobs, they either threw him out outright or demanded that he join the guild first!

Left with no choice, in order to avoid starving to death without money, Achill had settled for regularly taking wanted-criminal commissions issued by kingdom institutions.

Of course, during these past two years, Achill had not merely wandered around completing jobs. The most important reason he did so was—he wanted to find the location of the Tower of Paradise!!!

As mentioned before, he had to stop Gerard! Not because of some lofty moral ideal about saving the entire world. Even for his own sake alone, he had to do it! The R System was something that had nearly cost him his life. No matter what, Achill had to destroy it completely!!

What was more, Erza had lost her right eye because of that thing's existence, while Gerard had likewise fallen into the abyss of evil and completely lost his nature because of it!

Therefore, the R System and the Tower of Paradise—Achill would destroy them!!!

Though he had stayed in that place before, regrettably, he did not know the Tower of Paradise's precise location. So, while taking wanted-criminal jobs, he could only gather information everywhere and search for clues about its whereabouts!

"Hey! You perverted brat!!"

As he was thinking, a slightly familiar, clear voice suddenly rang beside his ear. At the same time, a fair, slender arm heavily slapped his right shoulder!

"Who?!" With his shoulder suddenly struck like that, Achill reacted instinctively and grabbed fiercely behind him!

At once, an indescribably soft and full sensation came through his palm, leaving a lingering impression. Achill instinctively turned to look, and immediately... well, he froze.

Mirajane, dressed in a black bodysuit, stood behind him with a stunned expression. Following her astonished gaze downward, Achill's eyes slowly moved down as well. Then he completely froze, because his right hand—was gripping a soft, towering part of her chest!!!

His hand unconsciously squeezed twice more, and Achill inexplicably blurted out, "Mm, nice feel!"

Nice feel?! Hearing that, Mirajane snapped out of her stunned state, and her face instantly darkened completely!

"I'm going to kill you! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!"

At once, an enraged roar rivaling that of a prehistoric tyrannosaurus rang throughout all of Oscu Town...