Joining Fairy Tail

"Brother Hughes didn't destroy your guild! He only broke a few floorboards. They destroyed the rest!"

Lisanna jumped out from behind the giant Makarov and pointed at Natsu and the others, shouting with a serious expression.

Mira and Elfman stood behind her, their expressions just as serious.

In the ruins, Erza, Natsu, and the others looked at one another. Put that way, she was right. It did seem they had destroyed the guild themselves.

Although Natsu had gotten a beating, he seemed to have been the one who attacked first. Hughes had been defending himself the whole time, while they were the ones who had gone on the offensive.

Makarov's enormous eyes swept over the guild members. His oppressive, terrifying magic power sent the guilty Wakaba and the others stumbling back.

"Hi! Master, there you are!" Natsu raised a hand and greeted him in a sweet voice, his eyes narrowed.

From their reactions, Makarov knew the little girl before him wasn't lying.

His giant hand came down on Natsu and the others like a flyswatter, his voice thundering with anger. "You bastards! Even your horseplay has to have limits! Do you know how many jobs it'll take to rebuild a guild hall?"

"Stop giving this old man so much to worry about!"

The little old man was like a merciless rage machine. Having finished roaring at the people on his left, he turned to curse those on his right, making Mira and the others standing in front of him a little uncomfortable.

"One of these days, you're going to make my heart condition flare up again!"

With that, Makarov put Hughes down and began to shrink, returning to the little old man who was shorter than even Lisanna.

"Hurry up and earn the money to build a new guild hall! I'm not handing over my pension!"

As Natsu and the others scrambled in every direction under his roar, Makarov sighed helplessly. Knowing how unreliable they were, he could already picture his pension being emptied.

I want to retire so badly!!

After Makarov put Hughes down, his episode subsided. The pain in his head was worse than ever, making his eyes roll back. He lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground with a thud.

"Huh??"

The sudden turn of events left everyone rooted to the spot, bewildered and at a loss.

"Master, did you kill him?" Natsu stretched out his arm and pointed a finger at Makarov in disbelief.

"You idiot, Natsu! How could I possibly be that kind of person?" Makarov's arm suddenly stretched out, sending Natsu flying with a punch.

A brainless idiot like that would only get in the way here.

Mira hurried to Hughes's side to check on him. Although his expression was pained, he was still breathing steadily in his coma, which put her mind at ease.

As long as he's not dead...

Hughes had told them before that if the aftereffects of an episode were too severe, he would fall straight into a coma. It was his body's way of protecting him.

Usually, he would wake up on his own after a while.

Erza slid her sharp sword back into its sheath and stepped forward. "So, what brings you to our guild?"

"We're here to join your guild!"

"Ah!"

Lisanna answered with perfect seriousness, making everyone scream. They looked around at the guild hall, now reduced to ruins. At that moment, they all wished Hughes and the others had come looking for trouble instead.

Otherwise, the master would definitely make them pay for rebuilding the guild hall!

Macao and the others exchanged glances. Without needing Telepathy Magic, they all understood one another as the same thought arose in their minds, and they stared at the unconscious Hughes on the ground.

At a time like this, we need one more person to share the costs if we can get one. We can't let them get away!

"Macao, where did the master put the guild stamp?"

Macao shook his head and pointed at the ruins behind him, where a guild hall had once stood.

"The guild hall's been reduced to rubble. Where am I supposed to find the guild stamp...?"

The plan died before it could even be put into action, and the unconscious Hughes escaped disaster for the time being.

No one noticed that Makarov was staring intently at Hughes, his brow furrowing more and more deeply.

He could sense that Hughes possessed immense spiritual power, which was leaking out of his body.

But he was also puzzled. Despite Hughes's powerful spiritual aptitude, there was no magic source in his body.

Without a magic source, he had no magic power in his body. So how had he used fire magic just now?

He didn't have any magic items on him, either!

Putting aside his thoughts, Makarov came back to his senses and saw Mira and the other two standing there awkwardly. He reached inside his clothes and took out a spare guild stamp.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail, children." Makarov raised the guild stamp in his hand and walked up to Mira and the others with a smile.

On the way there, Hughes had already told them what sort of guild Fairy Tail was.

None of the three refused, and they stepped forward one by one.

"Grandpa Master, I want a white guild mark on my thigh!" Lisanna lifted her skirt for Makarov to stamp it on.

Elfman put down the bundle on his back and exposed his neck. He wanted a black guild mark.

When it was Mira's turn, she found herself in a dilemma. She had originally agreed with Lisanna to get it on her thigh too, and that would have been fine with the little vest and hot pants she used to wear.

But now she was wearing a pink dress... She would rather have Hughes suffer another episode than lift her skirt.

Mira glanced at Hughes lying unconscious on the ground and held out her right arm. Hughes had once said that if he joined a guild, he would definitely have the guild mark stamped on his right forearm.

"Master, put a blue one on my forearm!"

With a smack, a blue fairy mark was stamped onto Mira's arm.

"Mira, what's going on with you? You have a demonic aura about you," Makarov asked, puzzled.

He was simply asking, not exactly curious. After all, there were already so many oddballs and problem children in the guild that one more made little difference. He was used to it.

Mira lowered her head, and her right hand openly transformed before everyone's eyes into a demonic arm like dead wood.

"Wow, that's amazing!"

"So cool!"

Natsu and the others cried out, and Makarov's eyes lit up. He had noticed that Mira had never studied magic.

Anyone who had studied magic would inevitably bear traces of it in their body, and they couldn't hide them from his senses.

She's a promising talent who awakened magic on her own!

In Earth-land, the ratio of mages to ordinary people was one to nine. In other words, only one in ten people could become a mage.

To become a mage, having a magic source in one's body was the basic requirement. The size of the magic source determined the strength of one's magic power, while magic had to be mastered through meditation, comprehension, and study.

But that only applied to ordinary people. Geniuses were always exceptional; they could obtain the final result without going through a series of arduous steps.

That was the self-awakening of magic, and the magic these geniuses awakened on their own was often among the more powerful kinds in the same category.

After seeing Mira's demonic arm, Makarov felt he had struck it rich. He suddenly felt that the destruction of the guild hall wasn't such a big deal after all.