The six friends are walking along, enjoying each others company. Light, easy banter fills the air, with the occasional insult and resulting scuffle. Before long, they make it to a corner café lit up brightly with cheerful lights.
Seeing this, two members of the group shout in unison, "FOOD!" before picking up their pace to enter the eatery before the others. This causes the rest of the friends to laugh at their antics. Entering the café, they see that the brunette and pinkette already seated at a large round table. Krysti waves them over while she and Natsu are almost bouncing in their seats in excitement.
As everyone is seating themselves, a young-looking silver-haired waiter walks over with the menus. Eyes shining in delight, the hungry duo eagerly scan over the menu options.
"YES! They serve Fire Chicken!" exclaims Natsu in joy. While at the same time Krysti's earlier enthusiasm deflates and she slumps in her seat.
"Hmm? What's the matter Krysti?" asks Gray when he notices her change in demeanor.
She looks down and blushes.
Looking sheepish, she explains, "I, uh, well…" She takes a deep breath and continues, "I can't read the menu."
"Huh?" says Lucy with a questioning look on her face. "What do you mean you can't read it?"
"Maybe it's because Krysti is just dumb." says Happy matter-of-factly as he is reading over his own menu. Krysti sinks in her seat more and stares at the table.
"Yea, you're probably right." she says softly.
The blue cat looks shocked at not getting the expected angry reaction as he would with the blonde and drops his menu in surprise.
"Krysti. It's not your fault that you can't read the menus. Since you have a different spoken language than us, its not hard to figure out that you have a different written language as well." says Erza reassuringly before continuing in a more normal tone, "Natsu, switch with Gray and help her with the menu."
"Eh? Why do I have to? Gray is right there, he or Lucy can help." Protests the named individual.
Erza glares at him before saying coldly, "I believe I told you that until otherwise decided, you are charged with the responsibility of taking care of her. That includes helping her read the menu."
Shivering in his seat Natsu replies weakly, "Y-yes ma'am." At hearing this, the brunette lifts her head up quickly.
"Wait a minute, he's in charge of me?" she looks over at the fire user before looking back at Erza and hooks a thumb in his direction.
"Are you sure it isn't the other way around?" she questions. By this time, the two boys are almost done switching seats and Natsu looks offended at the question.
"Hey! What is that suppose to mean?" he protests.
"I think you know exactly what I mean, Pinky." she retorts.
"Who are you calling Pinky? And I don't need looking after!" he continues. The other four members share amused looks as the two loudmouths start to bicker.
Happy gives his best friend and new friend an intense look before saying, "They llllllike each other." which goes unnoticed by the two. A couple more moments of the squabble goes by before Erza smacks her hand on the table, catching everyone's attention.
"Let's figure out what we are going to order so we can get right to business. I'm sure we all have a lot of questions to ask." she says evenly. Everyone nods in agreement before going back to the menus. Natsu, already knowing what he wants, turns his attention to the brunette beside him and starts explaining the menu to her. About 5 minutes later, the waiter returns for their orders. He writes everything down, looking a little overwhelmed when he gets to the orders of the hungry duo.
He leaves with a promise of returning soon with the drinks. While everyone is calm, Erza again takes charge of the situation. "Ok Krysti, I know that we have a lot of questions for you, and you have a lot for us. So why don't we take turns asking what we want to know?"
"That sounds good to me, who wants to go first?" Krysti asks.
"I do!" Says Happy as he suddenly starts flying around on top of the table in an excited manner. "What kind of fish do you have where you are from?" Krysti laughs softly in response while everyone else drops their heads at his question.
"Well we have many, many kinds of fish. I can't say how much they are the same or different from yours since I don't know what the fish are like over here. But I can say that the oceans are full of more fish than you can ever imagine." she tells him. He gets a happy look on his face and starts drooling as he daydreams about the kinds of fish in her world.
"So I guess that counts as the first question for you guys." she says with a chuckle. Looking down at the cat's blissful expression, she smiles widely. "For mine, hmmm. Well my first question then is, exactly who are you guys?"
With a grin, Natsu lifts a fist up towards his face with his guild mark clearly on display and proudly states, "We're Fairy Tail!"
Krysti tilts her head a bit while looking at him.
"Eh? Fairy Tail?" she asks, confused by the answer.
"Fairy Tail is a wizards guild. All of us are members." Says Lucy while pointing to her guild mark. "How about you Krysti? Who are you?"
"Well I'm no one near as awesome as a member of a wizard's guild." she starts off at first. "As for who I am, I'm really nothing more than an average farm girl working on getting a college education and trying to help her family." she ends looking a bit sheepish.
"What's a college?" asks Gray. Krysti looks towards him with a startled look.
"Does this place have any schools?" she asks back.
"There are schools for people to learn magic." Lucy answers.
Krysti shakes her head, "No, I mean like basic knowledge school. A place to learn how to read, write, learn history, math, etc, etc. That kind of school."
"Not really. Some towns provide it, but those are more for the wealthy children. And the majority of those just use tutors instead. Most of that kind of learning is taught by the children's families." Says Erza. Krysti looks a little downhearted by hearing that before she continues.
"Well, a college is an advanced type of school. Whereas normal school, you grow up learning the basic knowledge needed to live and work. In college, you would gain the specific knowledge and skills toward a given career that you want in life. Like an artist would learn more about all types of art to become a better artist. Or if someone wants to be doctor, then they would learn a lot of advanced medical stuff. And so on. It costs a lot of money to go to college, but as long as you study, you can't beat the knowledge you gain and can really succeed in life." her voice grows more passionate the longer she talked about the subject.
Looking excited, Lucy then asks, "Can you learn everything in college?"
Krysti chuckles, "Just about anything you can think of, there is a college or class somewhere being taught about it. About the only thing you can't learn is on the job experience." By this time the drinks arrive and the conversation lulls as they are being handed out. A quick thanks to the waiter and everyone goes back to the subject at hand, or rather Lucy does.
"Are there any classes about how to be a writer?" she asks eagerly before taking a sip of her drink.
"Or how about being a better mage?" asks Natsu before the brunette can answer which earns him a glare from the blonde. Krysti raises her hands and motions them to calm down.
"Oh yes, there are more courses on how to be a writer than you can shake a stick at, Lucy. And sorry Natsu, there aren't any courses on being a mage." she explains.
He pouts at this, "How come? Aren't wizards not good enough for college?" She gently shakes her head and looks him full in the eyes.
"Its not that wizards aren't good enough, Natsu. It's the fact that there is no magic in my world." Silence descends on the group as they process what was said.
"What!? What do you mean no magic? Of course there is magic!" Gray exclaims as he quickly recovers from the shock. Krysti shakes her head again.
"What do you mean by 'your world'?" Lucy asks with wide eyes.
Krysti nods her head at the blonde and answers, "Exactly what I said. My world. I'm from a completely different place where we have no magic. People aren't able to light themselves on fire like Natsu is able to do. And we don't have magic translators so people can understand each other perfectly. We also don't anything like Happy over there as well. That's how I know for certain that this is not my world."
"How did you get here then?" Erza asks.
The brunette shakes her head and shrugs a shoulder while replying, "I honestly don't know. I went to sleep at my house and when I woke up, my stomach hurts and Natsu was staring at me." This comment sets off a round of stifled giggles from the blue cat and a blush from Lucy as she remember why Krysti's stomach was hurting.
"No magic at all. That's really sad." says Lucy softly and in hopes to direct Krysti away from thinking about why she was in pain.
"Now it's not all that bad." says Krysti in a more cheerful mood. "I'm not sure if this place has done it, but my world has done some incredible things with science."
"What's science?" asks Gray. Taken aback, Krysti eyes the group in wonder.
"You guys don't know what science is?" she asks incredulously and they all shake their heads no in answer.
"Huh. Well don't that beat all." she mutters before perking up. "Ok, well I guess the simplest way to explain it is that science is the study of everything."
"Everything? Even fish?" asks Happy.
Looking down at the cat and laughing, she replies, "Including fish." She looks back up and continues. "Science is the general term to include all of the studies, but it branches out into many different things. With science we study how and why things are made, and how they work the way they do. And I mean everything down from the tiniest grain of sand, all the way up to the stars and beyond. We use science to study the world, and once we understand how something works, we can figure out ways to use it for ourselves. With science we have made amazing achievements." As she was explaining, her whole face lights up in delight about one of her life's passions.
"What kind of achievements?" Asks Gray feeling intrigued. At this Krysti gets a smug look on her face.
"Well I'm not trying to brag since I'm not sure how it compares to your world's accomplishments, but one of the big ones is that we were able to send men to the moon." she brags
Confused, Natsu asks, "What do you mean 'send men to the moon'?"
She looks over to him before replying, still looking smug, "What I mean is that we had people go up into space and walk on the moon itself." At this, chaos broke out with the rest of the group, stating how it wasn't possible for anyone to actually be on the moon and that it had to of been magic after all. Krysti waggles her index finger back and forth in the air after they calm down a bit and clicks her tongue.
"Tsk tsk tsk. No, I told you. Its science. Not magic."
"Without magic, it can't be possible." states Lucy.
Krysti gets a gleam to her eye before answering, "Ah, but it is possible my dear Lucy. Very possible indeed. You just need the right amount of fuel, an airtight aerodynamic ship, enough necessities, and some advance math, and voila! You too can land on the moon." she says with an infomercial flourish.
She then calms down and says dismissively, "Of course, there are a lot more complicated things going on, but I don't want to bore you with the details."
"That is so awesome! I don't understand it, but have you been to the moon as well? What is it like up there?" asks a very excited Natsu.
Krysti shakes her head again, this time with a sad smile.
"No, I haven't been. Although I would love a chance to go. You need special college courses and special physical training and you need to learn a lot of complicated stuff just to even have a chance. And not many people who go through the training are picked to go. Its very tough, demanding, stressful, and there are not a lot of people who can handle the job." she explains with a proud, yet sad, smile.
At this Natsu looks very crestfallen at the news. Seeing this, she tries to cheer him up.
"Hey, how about this? If somehow I'm able to get back to my world, and you're with me, I'll do what I can to help you get to the moon."
Looking excited again Natsu's shouts, "It's a deal! Now, I'm all fired up!" as flames coat his body. Seeing this and feeling the heat, Krysti jumps back in surprise with a rather loud squeak. The others laugh amongst themselves and quietly watch her reactions. Recovering quickly, she studies Natsu as he is still on fire. She reaches out slowly to feel the heat of the flames with her hand.
A few inches from his arm, her hand hovers in place as she appears thoughtful. To the horror of the group, she quickly catches his arm as it still has the flames over it. Horror turns into disbelief as she doesn't seem harmed by his flames. Caught off guard by the hand on his arm, Natsu's flames quickly die down as he looks at Krysti's hand in puzzlement.
"What are you doing, Crispy?" he asks in curiosity.
She replies absentmindedly, "I was studying your flames. I wanted to know if they burn." He laughs and sets both fists on fire as he lifts them to his eye level.
"Of course they burn! They're dragon flames!" he says with confidence. Krysti lets go of his arm and watches his hands.
"Then why is my hand not burned?" she asks quietly.
"Huh?" he says while looking back at her.
Instead of answering, she grabs one of his flaming hand with her own. His eyes widen in shock to see that her hands were in fact not being burned at all. They both stare at their hands wonderingly.
"Why doesn't my fire hurt you?" he asks while still feeling stunned.
"I don't know, they're your flames. Not mine. I mean your hand does feel really hot, like when you touch something metal during a summer day. But it isn't anything unbearable." she says.
"Let me try!" says a quickly recovered Happy. He walks over full of confidence and slaps a paw on Natsu's fist. One second later he is running around the table with a paw on fire while crying his eyes out before coming to a stop in front of Lucy. He dunks his paw into her drink with a large sigh of relief.
"My drink…" whimpers a now sad Lucy.
"Erza, are you sure that she is non-magical? That looks pretty mage-like to me." says Gray. The red-headed woman frowns with her eyes closed in thought. Krysti slowly releases her grip on Natsu and his flames die out again. They look at their hands, then each other before turning to watch Erza.
"I'm still not sensing any magic power coming from her, but that does not mean she doesn't have any. Perhaps she has some inherent fire abilities which causes her flame resistance." Erza says in a normal tone after a couple of moments thinking.
Frowning slightly in thought, Krysti answers hesitantly, "Well, back home I have always loved the heat. I love taking really hot baths, working outside during hot days. And especially when I was younger, I was a bit of a pyromaniac." She ducks her head out of embarrassment and blushes.
"Heh, I'm surprised that I didn't get burnt more or destroy more things at my house with my antics. But even then, I would get burnt if I actually got too close to a real fire." she continued.
"I wonder…" started off a thoughtful Lucy. "Is it just Natsu's flames that wouldn't hurt you, or if its all fire?"
"That's an interesting question to find the answer to. We can try it if Krysti is willing when Natsu's fire chicken comes out."
"Why do we have to wait until his food comes out?" asks Krysti in confusion.
"Because it comes out actually on fire." explains Gray. Krysti blinks at that.
"Oh, so he likes it flambéed then. I guess that makes sense." she says.
"Flam-baed?" asks Happy still nursing his burnt paw.
Krysti nods her head before answering, "That's right. Flambé is a cooking term back on my world. It means you put some alcohol, usually wine, on the food and set it on fire so the alcohol gets burned off and leaving the wine flavor in the food." The others nod their heads in understanding. Natsu then lifts his head and starts sniffing.
"I smell our food! It will be out soon! Finally! I'm so hungry!" he cheers in happiness.
"You can smell the food, all the way from here?" asks Krysti in disbelief.
Lucy, who is shaking her head in exasperation at Natsu, says, "Yea, that guy there has a really keen sense of smell. Its uncanny." And just as the fire-user said, the food started to arrived with their waiter and two other helpers. As soon as the plate was set before him, Natsu starts to dive in when Erza told him to wait sternly. He pouts at her, but stops making a move to eat despite his belly's protests.
"Krysti, do you mind putting your hand in the flame to see if it also won't burn you?" asks Erza politely.
She nods her head, "If Natsu doesn't mind me putting my hand in it that is." she says while looking over at him to gauge his reaction. He waves it off, still pouting at not being allowed to eat with his food right there in front of him. So Krysti takes the same hand and reaches out cautiously toward the flames. A few inches away she lets her hand hover for a few seconds before she moves it into the flame.
Looking surprised she says in awe, "It doesn't hurt! The fire isn't burning me at all." She takes out her hand and stares at it in wonder. "It isn't as hot as Natsu's fire either. Feels almost like a summer breeze."
"Well this is an interesting state of events. We should inform the Master of this when we return." quietly says Erza.
Looking over at the red-head, Krysti asks, "Who is the Master?"
Lucy says, "He is the Master of our guild. A strong and wise wizard. Although somewhat perverted." she says the last part quietly to herself.
"Maybe he will know how I can get home." Krysti says excitedly.
"It's a possibility." Gray agrees cautiously.
Erza grabs a fork and starts to eat her food which everyone takes as a signal to start. They all dig in eagerly and for a few seconds everything is quiet before a loud gasp catches their attention.
"You're eating the fire!?" a shocked Krysti gasps out. Natsu looks over to her like it's no big deal and answers between bites.
"Yea, I can eat fire. Its one of the things I can do as a dragon slayer." he replies nonchalauntly.
"Dragon slayer? DRAGON slayer?! As in those gigantic winged-reptiles with fire breath and are immensely strong and everything like that?" asks the excitable brunette. Natsu's nods his head in answer as he is still chewing his food. Without warning an excited Krysti squeals out loudly, which sends Natsu's hands to cover his sensitive ears. Food forgotten, she starts firing questions rapidly at the poor guy next to her.
"What kind of dragons are there? What do they look like? Are there any nice ones? Do they all live in caves with treasure hoards? Can they talk? Are they all able to breath fire? Can they fly? How many have you seen? Are there lots of dragons? What do they eat? Can they use…" she stops as a hand covers her mouth. Wide-eyed, she meets the amused look of Natsu.
He takes his hand off of her mouth and says, "Breathe." She nods and takes in a breath looking sheepish.
She scratches her reddening cheek in embarrassment before saying much slower, "Sorry. I just love dragons and learning about them. I get really fired up about the subject and I get a bit ahead of myself in the excitement in learning about them."
Natsu just chuckles and pats her on the head.
"Its ok. Dragons get me fired up too." he says with a closed eyed grin.
"Great, now we got two dragon obsessed freaks." mutters Gray.
"What was that ice-prick?!? Shouts out a now irritated Natsu as he whips his head around to glare at his rival.
"You heard me flame-brain." Gray retorts before popping a piece of food in his mouth.
"You just shut your trap snow cone!" is the reply from the easily irritated fire mage.
"Boys!" says Erza forcefully. Fearful of her wrath, they immediately shut up and start eating their food. Also going back to her food, Krysti becomes lost in thought as she eats. The table is silent as everyone finishes up their meals although Lucy does flag down the waiter to get a new drink. Erza, being the first one done, signals for the bill and patiently waits for the others to finish.
Soon enough, the only ones still eating are Krysti and Natsu who both seem to have large appetites. The bill shows up soon after and Erza pays for it with a quiet compliment on the service and apology for the noise.
"So Krysti…" she opens, catching the brunette's attention. "We learned a lot of your world and yourself, do you have any more questions for us?" Still chewing, Krysti nods and looks thoughtful as she finishes up her current mouthful.
"Yea, I was wondering, what all kinds of magic is there? I know that fire is one of them." she says pointing towards Natsu.
Smiling softly, Erza answers, "There is in essence, many types of magic in the world. The true amount remains unknown. It is almost basically if you can imagine it, there can be magic of it." Krysti's eyes shine in delight.
"If I can imagine it…" she says softly to herself. Coming out of her reverie, she then asks, "Can anyone learn magic?"
Erza nods her head, "If you have the power to believe in your heart that you can learn magic, then you can learn." The grin on the brunette's face was a sight to behold.
"Oh, I would love to learn how to do magic! Can I start now? What do I need to do first?" she asks as her eyes twinkle in excitement.
Letting out a small chuckle, Erza holds up one hand to signal the brunette to calm down.
"If you want to learn magic, it would be best if we get back to the guild. And before that, we should get some sleep." Erza says warmly.
Pouting, Krysti crosses her arms over her chest with a huff causing the others to laugh at her reaction.