Rustle—rustle—
A young girl with purple hair raced through the forest, her shoes skimming over the grass as she fled from the creature behind her.
Crash—crash—
An adult black-maned boar was rapidly closing the distance.
Its coarse bristles scraped through the undergrowth, and harsh snorts blasted from its nostrils.
The beast was larger than the girl herself.
It thundered after her on furious hooves, its eyes fixed on her back.
“Someone help me!”
Tears blurred her vision, and exhaustion had reduced her terrified cries to a hoarse rasp.
She kept screaming for help, but no one appeared and no voice answered.
When she glanced over her shoulder and saw that the boar was still chasing her, her eyes widened in terror.
The beast kicked off with its hind legs and launched its entire body toward her.
The girl had no time to wipe the tears and mucus from her face.
In sheer panic, she screamed the first thing that came to mind.
“Mommy!”
Whoosh!
A mysterious figure suddenly burst into view from behind the boar!
Ron twisted in midair with the momentum of his leap and drove his heel into the beast’s side.
“Leaf Whirlwind!”
Boom!
The boar let out a shrill squeal as the kick slammed into its flank.
Knocked off balance in midair, it rolled sideways and crashed to the ground.
Its four legs twitched several times before the pain finally overwhelmed it and it fell unconscious.
“It’s all right now.
Are you hurt?”
Ron landed cleanly, confirmed that the boar was no longer getting up, then turned to check on the girl.
Her legs had already given out.
She sat on the ground with her knees folded awkwardly to either side, gasping for breath.
Her entire body trembled as she stared blankly at the unconscious boar, its eyes rolled back.
Only when Ron spoke did she finally come to her senses.
She looked up at him and nodded shakily.
“I-I’m okay.
Thank you, big brother.”
She sniffled hard and took several deep breaths.
Once the frantic rise and fall of her chest began to settle, a faint smile finally appeared on her face.
Ron relaxed.
She had clearly been terrified, but she did not seem injured.
Her legs had simply gone weak from exhaustion.
Judging by her height, she was a few years younger than him, so he softened his voice.
“Where’s your family?
Are they nearby?”
The girl instinctively shrank in on herself.
Like a child who had been caught doing something wrong, she lowered her head and avoided his eyes.
“No.
I snuck out by myself.”
Then she remembered the parents waiting at home.
Her trembling worsened, and tears gathered in her eyes again.
“Could you…
please not tell them?”
Ron closed his eyes and pinched his brows together at the unreasonable request.
The two thick paper eyebrows folded above his real ones, making it look as though he had four eyebrows at once.
‘You ran away from home.
I can’t exactly promise that.’
To be safe, he should take her to Fairy Tail.
Ron relaxed his expression and opened his eyes again.
“I’ll think about it.
This place isn’t safe, so we need to leave first.”
They were already well beyond the outskirts of Magnolia.
The purple-haired girl did not argue and merely nodded.
Once her trembling subsided, she placed one hand against the grass and pushed herself upright.
She wiped her tears and thanked him again.
“Thank you, big brother.”
He might have been dressed strangely and appeared to have four eyebrows, but she could tell he was a good person.
“You can stop thanking me.
What’s your name?”
“Laki.
Laki Olietta!”
…
At the same time, inside Fairy Tail’s first-floor guild hall—Bang!
The front doors suddenly swung open, revealing a tall figure.
The man had orange hair swept back from his forehead and a thin layer of stubble across his face.
He wore a battered dark-green cloak with small pieces of armor over the shoulders.
“Everyone, I’m back!”
Gildarts announced his return the moment he stepped into the guild.
Contrary to what he expected, only a scattered handful of people greeted him.
“Gildarts.
Finally back, huh?”
Wakaba, seated near the entrance, was the first to recognize him.
Gildarts waved in response, then frowned.
Something about the guild’s atmosphere felt strangely subdued.
Everyone was sitting quietly at their own tables.
No one was brawling over some meaningless argument, and the usual roar of the guild hall was noticeably softer.
Gildarts found the peace deeply unsettling.
“Gildarts?”
Makarov’s voice came from the second floor.
He leaned over the stairway railing with both hands and poked his head out.
Instead of his usual kindly smile, his face was clouded with worry.
“Master, I finished my job and came back.”
“Good.
Welcome home.
You’ve worked hard.”
Makarov gave him a blank nod, then withdrew his head again.
Gildarts stared after him in confusion.
The Master usually came downstairs to welcome him.
He picked up a wooden mug from the bar and sat beside Wakaba.
With his pipe held between his lips, Wakaba lightly tapped his own mug against Gildarts’s.
“What’s wrong with the Master?
Did something happen to the guild?”
Wakaba’s expression turned strange.
He took a deep pull from his pipe and slowly blew out several smoke rings.
“Nothing happened to the guild itself, but…
it’s a long story.”
Gildarts leaned closer, unwilling to miss a word.
“A new member named Ron joined a few days ago.
The Master’s worrying about him right now.”
Gildarts looked puzzled.
“What happened to the kid?”
Wakaba tapped a finger against his temple.
“People all over town have been talking about his bizarre behavior today.
Apparently, the shock of everything he went through has affected his mind.”
“The Master had just returned from the Magic Council when he heard the rumors.
He went upstairs and hasn’t come down since.”
Wakaba shook his head.
“He’s only ten years old.
None of us expected it to end like this.”
Gildarts frowned and leaned back, his expression softening with sympathy.
“I see.
Going through so much at that age could break anyone.”
“What a shame.
I was hoping to meet him myself.”
He sighed, lifted his wooden mug, and brought it to his lips.
Bang!
Fairy Tail’s front doors were suddenly kicked open.
Ron lowered his leg, extended one hand forward with the palm facing up, and tucked the other behind his back in a dramatic pose.
“Master Makarov!
Konoha’s Green Beast has arrived!”
“Pfft!”
The water Gildarts had just taken into his mouth sprayed directly across Wakaba’s face.
Wakaba’s face scrunched together beneath the ‘shower.’
He sat there in exhausted silence, still clutching his pipe.
Then he slowly turned it upside down.
Water dripped from the bowl one drop at a time.