Escorting Miss Magnolia [D-rank mission/ SOLO]

The air was filled with excitement. Well at least for Kaito it was. The sun was just starting to rise, yet the streets of Magnolia were as busy as always This young boy was not deterred. Today was the day. He had chosen this day for no particular reason, but today he wanted to do a request for the guild. There was still a slight morning chill in the air as he made his way down Magnolia's streets to the guild hall. The chill showed signs of winter approaching, an unpleasant time of year for the fire mage.

Refusing to let this chill deter him, Kaito made it to the guild hall and entered into the normally rowdy main hall. As always the air stuck the nose just ever so slightly with the fragrance of booze. The loud ruckus though had yet to start for the day. Several guild members had drank themselves until they passed out right there on the table still snoozing. Some seemed to have stirred, but were holding their heads in pain. Probably sensitive to sound at the moment, Kaito kindly refrained from the urge to shout out a hearty good morning to everyone. There was very little point in upsetting his fellow guild members. So without much else to do, and eager to start the day, Kaito found himself now in front of the request board. There were quite a few requests he could choose from, and many more that he couldn't do. He was not well known enough, and he was still a pretty new mage. Being at the bottom though did not bother him. He would work his way up and become the best he could for the sake of the guild.

Kaito looked amongst all the requests he could choose from; help find a lost cat, deliver this package to the next town over, entertain the kids so I can sleep. While they all sounded appealing, one in particular stuck out to him. It was an escorting job from what he could tell. Someone apparently fearful of being attacked. Whether anyone did attack or not, Kaito did not really care. Regardless of what everyone thought Kaito was not so eager to start a fight as some others in his guild, whom only go and do a mission if there is a chance for them to fight someone or something. Someone had to do the small jobs, why not it be me for the time being, thought Kaito.

He snatched the flier of the job he had chosen and started to head on out. The few coherent people that recognized the young fellow guild member wished him luck on his way out. Smirking with confidence that this mission would be some easy money.

*Current word count: 460

So Kaito headed off from his guild hall and to the other side of town to meet with the person that had posted this flier. He walked through the ever increasing crowd on the busier streets, wondering what the exact details of his mission would be. He also wondered who exactly it was he was escorting, or a what. You escort things sometimes right?

With these thoughts in his head he finally made it to the gate of a simple mansion. Glancing down at the address on the flier, Kaito doubled checked the address to make sure he was in the right place, which he was, he knew Magnolia Town pretty well, considering he was born here and never left it. The gate was just a simple latch iron bar gate, with its only functional use as keeping in small dogs and for curb appeal. Kaito reached for the latch to the gate, pause briefly. He was getting nervous. After all what if he somehow managed to mess this up? What if they request a more experienced mage to escort them? He couldn't think like that. Shaking his head, he opened the gate. Stepping through and closing the gate behind him, Kaito casually strolled up to the front door. About to knock, Kaito was surprised to find the door opened before he could. Before him stood a slightly older woman, in an orange dress. She stood about six inches taller than Kaito, her blonde hair and green eyes made her seem to Kaito like a rather lovely woman. The look on her face was filled with caution though. Kaito decided he should try and seem confident and proper, seeing as she seemed of a higher slice of life and Kaito normally ain't very full of etiquette.

“Hi. My name is Kaito ma'am and I came here in regards to this request. I was sent by Fairy Tail.” Kaito reached up and pulled down the collar of his purple shirt and his light blue jacket to reveal his guild tattoo. “Are you by chance the one who put up this request?” He hoped she was, I mean she was pleasant to look at, and all she probably wanted was just to aimlessly walk around town, which Kaito had no problems doing. She may want to shop but that wouldn't be too much of a problem either. Either way this was turning out to be a rather simple mission.

At Kaito's words the young woman gave a sigh of relief. She nodded and replied “Yes I am Miss Magnolia. I am the one who posted that. I am glad you finally got here I was getting worried that no one would show up. Please come in. I will explain the rest inside.” She gestured into the home, opening the door wider to let Kaito enter. Kaito entered, and as one would expect from the outside the house was lavishly furnished. Miss Magnolia led Kaito into the sitting room. She then said, “Well your mission may be a little boring, and I do apologize, but I am just too afraid to leave the house alone, and I have a dreadful amount of errands to run. Your job is to simply accompany me and keep an eye out for anything mysterious or suspicious. Once I am back home I will pay you. Does that sound fair?” She asked almost a little too forcefully. Kaito nodded and was about to reply but then was cut off by Miss Magnolia stating, “Good. Well I need to freshen up before we leave, please wait in this room for a moment. I shan't be long.”

With that she walked off. Kaito wasn't bothered by any of this, though his nerves were starting to act up again. He eased his way onto the rather expensive looking velvet chair in the room to sit out his wait. He did not have to wait long. When she came back, she looked no different to Kaito, he shrugged that matter off and stood up. “Welp, let's get this show on the road Miss Magnolia." With that she nodded and they walked out of the house together, Kaito behind Miss Magnolia by two steps, to keep an eye out as she said mysterious or suspicious things. He had seen nothing of the kind on his way over here, which he had to basically walk through the whole town to do so, but this was easy money. A job which he had told himself that he would do for his guild, and he was going to stick to that promise.

*Current word count: 1227

So began Kaito's first mission. He had thought it to be simple. Which it was, there was just one small thing he did not account for. This lady, Miss Magnolia seemingly had a never ending supply of money. This led to instead of idle window shopping, actual shopping, and with each stop came another purchase with which Kaito found himself carrying for her.

The first stops weren't that bad though. She had to get her hair done, and her nails, and whatever else that girls do to themselves. Kaito was pretty sure their was something called a waxing at one point, but he had no clue what that was and really had no desire to know. He just thought that women were crazy for doing all these minute things to try and make themselves more appealing. When he knew he didn't notice much things like that. After all of this, it was about close to noon, half of Kaito's day gone from just following a woman making herself seemingly look better. Nothing mysterious was going on, and the most suspicious thing Kaito saw was a young boy trying to sneak up and snatch an apple from a street vendor. He had kept this to himself though, seeing as it held absolutely no connection to Miss Magnolia. Miss Magnolia had been talking about this and that as they went from shop to shop, but Kaito really wasn't listening, as it was all about her life and such. When asked for input he would say something and she would nod and agree with what he said, he never remembered what exactly he said though.

Noon finally arrived and Miss Magnolia said “Hey Kaito, let's stop for lunch before we continue.” With the mention of food, Kaito snapped out of his half listening trance. “Yes, yes lunch. That sounds great.” As if agreeing, Kaito's stomach let out a low rumble. Miss Magnolia let out a cute little 'tee-hee' and said, “Well come on then there is this great place just down the street.” Kaito nodded and briskly followed behind. The place that Miss Magnolia mentioned was a small bakery. Kaito got himself a loaf of spiced bread, which he consumed quite quickly. Miss Magnolia had a little more fancy meal, befitting of what Kaito had so far seen of this high class girl, a quiche with a small sweet potato salad.

*Current word count: 1625

After their lunch, the errands continued. Now was the time where they went from shop to shop. She had said she wanted to do a little shopping before she when home. Kaito nodded, what was a little shopping anyways? Boy was he in for a surprise.

The path they took was one that led back to Miss Magnolia's home, the problem was that they stopped at every single shop. And at every shop another purchase was made. Shoe shops, dress shops, purse shops, clothes shops, nic naks... nothing escaped Miss Magnolia. If she wanted it, Kaito soon found it in a bag in his arms. It seemed as though the way back got further and further with every step, the weight he carried also increased with every step. He lost count after a while, but before he did he knew he was carrying fifteen pairs of shoes, three dresses, five necklaces, seven rings, and twenty two bottles of hair care supplies and beauty products. It was getting quite heavy, yet Kaito refused to let the weight get the better of him.

Before he knew it, Kaito found himself struggling back down the street, with the street crowd clearing away from the clearly over encumbered boy. Were they staring out of awe, doubtful, out of humor, possibly. Regardless of why they were staring, Kaito felt eyes on him as he struggled to follow Miss Magnolia store to store. He was annoyed that not one single person even came over and offered to help, yet he was also glad that no one had. After all this was to be his first mission with the guild. If he couldn't do this without help, what good would he be later. Yeah sure there were groups that often did missions together, but a mission like this? If someone in the guild found he needed help with something as simple as this what chance would they want to take doing a more difficult mission with him. They had taken him in, and cared for him more than his sister or Pops ever did, but what is to say they wouldn't also turn a blind eye to him for being useless. It was one of his biggest fears to not be needed. Mustering up strength from his resolve to not ask for help or receive help, he took another two shopping bags from Miss Magnolia.

To his relief he heard her say the words “Well I suppose that is all the time we have today. The sun seems to be setting soon, let's head home.” Kaito glanced up at the sky, struggling to maintain his upright position from the movement of his head. It was true, he had virtually spent the whole day taking this mission and trying to complete it. That didn't bother him too much though, for this heavy burden would soon be lifted. "Well let's get you home then Miss."    

Without incident Kaito managed to somehow get Miss Magnolia back to her home, open the gate, get through the door, and carry all of the shopping bags and boxes up the stairs and placed them upon the soft fluffy carpet of Miss Magnolia's room. His arms were tired, actually his whole body was tired, and he didn't remember much of what happened after he set down the bags. Pure exhaustion started to kick in. Miss Magnolia escorted Kaito to the front door of her house and with a sweet and cheery thanks, she handed him his reward. Kaito realized he should make it back to his room, or at least to the guild hall. So he set off into the sunset heading back home. A quick smirk crossed his face as he exited the gate of Miss Magnolia's home. Somehow he had pulled through his first mission, that at first had appeared so comically easy, but turned into a rather strenuous task. He was proud of himself and not afraid to show how proud he was.

On his way back he stopped on a bench that lined the street near Cardia Cathedral to take a rest. He blinked, sighed and blinked again. However this time as his eyelids closed he slumped backwards into the bench even more. Fast asleep Kaito slept the night away. Blissfully unaware that soon his whole world would turn upside down.

END SCENE

*Total Word Count: 2347