Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
March, x785.
While Gildarts was telling the story about when he met Tsunade in the past, Yoruichi and Sui-Feng were exiting the elevator on the top floor of the Fairy Tail guild hall. And as soon as Ur, Kagura, Tsunade, and Ritsu noticed the new arrivals, they all focused their gazes on them. Or more specifically, on Yoruichi.
"Yoruichi, what kind of problems did you cause?" Tsunade asked as she began massaging her temples.
To Kagura, Tsunade, Ritsu, and Sui-Feng's surprise, Yoruichi lowered her head guiltily in response. Meanwhile, Ur's eyes narrowed, thinking that Yoruichi had done something to hurt the most talented member of the younger generation in her guild.
Eventually, after a few moments of tense silence, Yoruichi breathed a resigned sigh. Then, she told the other five women what she and Elicia had done.
While Kagura, Tsunade, and Ritsu looked at Yoruichi with disappointment, Sui-Feng looked at her with a mortified expression. But by far, the biggest reaction came from Ur.
"Are you telling me that you convinced Elicia, Alfonzo's fiancée, to join you in raping him while he was drunk?" Ur asked as her magic power flared and flooded the room, resulting in the temperature in her office dropping significantly.
"How dare you talk to Lady Yoruichi like that!?" Sui-Feng shouted.
"Sui-Feng, be silent." Ritsu ordered sternly. As a result, Sui-Feng fell silent immediately.
"I have no excuse for my behavior." Yoruichi said with her head lowered.
Though Ur often argued with Alfonzo, she actually cared for him deeply. His mother, Bianca, was one of her best friends, after all. In fact, the same could be said about Elicia's father, Orlando, as well. So, even though she was seething with rage when looking at Yoruichi, she was feeling just as much disappointment in Elicia.
"You have no idea how much I want to turn you into an ice sculpture right now." Ur said coldly. "But after your talk with Alfonzo, I'm sure you're feeling worse than anything I could do to you could make you feel."
"Still, she needs to be punished." Tsunade said sternly.
"Well, she's a member of your guild, so I'll leave that to you." Ur said as she stood up from behind her desk. Then, she walked over to her liquor collection and picked up a bottle of the strongest whiskey she had. "But don't blame me if I'm not so welcoming to her from now on."
"Understandable." Ritsu replied with a nod. Then, she turned her attention to Yoruichi as she continued. "Your punishment will be decided once we return to the guild. You should just count yourself lucky that this stunt you pulled did not sour relations between our guilds."
"Oh, if Alfonzo had not forgiven her, it sure as hell would have." Ur grumbled while pouring herself a glass of whiskey.
"*Cough* Anyway, Master Ur, is there a room where we can talk in private for a while?" Tsunade asked with a fake cough.
"Sure." Ur replied after gulping down half the contents of her glass. "Go down one floor and you'll find a meeting room. Actually, it's just a larger training room for spars between S-Class wizards where they don't have to hold back."
"In that case, we'll use that room so that we can have a little chat about what Yoruichi has done." Tsunade replied as she stood from the couch she was sitting on.
Following Tsunade, the rest of the members of Mermaid Heel also stood up and made their way to the elevator. Meanwhile, Ur simply waved them away.
"I'll make sure it's unlocked, since you don't actually have access to any of the training facilities without the guild's mark." Ur said just as the elevator doors slid closed.
*Bang!*
Then, as soon as Ur was alone in her office, she chugged down the rest of her drink before slamming the glass onto her desk.
Meanwhile, on the next floor down, the members of Mermaid Heel exited the elevator and made their way towards a door that had been lit up.
"I guess this is the one." Tsunade murmured as she and the others approached the glowing door.
Then, when she placed her hand on the door, it opened automatically. A moment later, the five wizards of Mermaid Heel were gathered in the room and the door had closed behind them.
"So, you wanna tell us what the hell you were thinking?" Tsunade asked, crossing her arms under her breasts.
"*Sigh* As stupid as it sounds, I wanted to sample the goods before deciding to join his harem." Yoruichi replied in a depressed tone.
"But why would you give yourself to a man like him?" Sui-Feng asked in a panic. "If anything, he should have left all those---"
"I've told you to stop insulting them, Sui-Feng." Yoruichi said firmly. "And who are you to question my decisions?"
"But… Lady Yoruichi…" Sui-Feng muttered sadly.
"Okay, that's enough." Ritsu said in a gentle tone. "At this point, nothing we can do can change what has already happened. Still, you will be punished heavily for your actions, Yoruichi."
"I understand." Yoruichi said with a nod. "And after realizing just how big of a mistake I made, I deserve it."
"I'm glad you're being so cooperative." Tsunade said. "Because, if Alfonzo had decided he wanted to press charges for what you've done, Mermaid Heel would have supported him."
"Hmph!" Sui-Feng snorted. "What's the big deal? I'm sure he's actually overjoyed at the opportunity to sleep with Lady Yoruichi."
"You're only treating this lightly because Alfonzo is a man, Sui-Feng." Kagura said sternly. "But what if someone had taken advantage of a woman like that? You would more than likely be out for their blood. The fact of the matter is he was raped. And whether the victim is a man or a woman, that's a crime. And as a woman, I'm disappointed that you aren't being more empathetic."
"Kagura is right." Ritsu added. "And it would seem that our guild will have to compensate both Alfonzo as well as Fairy Tail as a whole."
"*Sigh* And we just got out of debt." Tsunade grumbled.
"And whose fault do you think that was?" Ritsu asked with a gentle smile.
Although she was smiling gently, Ritsu's smile put a lot of pressure on Tsunade.
"*Cough* Anyway, what do you think we should do to compensate them?" Tsunade asked, deliberately changing the subject.
"What do we even have that would satisfy both the richest man on the continent and the strongest guild in the kingdom?" Kagura asked with a contemplative expression on her face.
In response, the training room fell into silence.
"We'll just have to ask them." Ritsu said after a few moments.
"I guess you're right." Tsunade replied with a nod. Then, she turned towards the training room's entrance. "Well, there's no time like the present."
"We should probably ask Alfonzo first." Kagura said as she followed Tsunade. "I don't think Master Ur is in the mood to talk to us right now."
"I agree." Ritsu said as the group left the training room.
A few moments later, the five women were exiting the elevator onto the guild's first floor. Then, they looked in the direction of Alfonzo and his friends usual table. Unfortunately, Alfonzo was not sitting there.
Eventually, Tsunade lost her patience, which only took a few seconds of scanning the guild hall.
"Hey, Kid!" Tsunade shouted loudly. "I heard you were back! Come here! We need to talk!"
"So un-lady-like." Ritsu muttered in disappointment. "I can only imagine what your grandmother would think if she could see you now."
In response, Tsunade glared at Ritsu. Yet, she did not say anything to defend herself. Instead, she looked at a table in the corner of the guild hall where Alfonzo had just stood from.
A moment later, Alfonzo was standing in front of the members of Mermaid Heel, smiling awkwardly after making eye contact with Yoruichi for a moment.
"What can I do for you, Master Tsunade?" Alfonzo asked politely. "Have you made your decision about the training room installations?"
"We can talk about that later." Tsunade replied while waving her right hand dismissively. "But I do need to talk about something important with you."
As she spoke, Tsunade glanced at Yoruichi.
Understanding the situation, Alfonzo could only smile wryly.
"So much for not letting our dirty laundry out in the open." Alfonzo muttered.
"We understand that you probably feel as though your privacy had been violated, Alfonzo." Ritsu said gently. "But this is a very big matter for all parties involved, including our two guilds."
"*Sigh* I get it." Alfonzo replied while scratching the back of his head. "Well, let's head up and talk in our makeshift meeting room."
"You mean that big training room, right?" Tsunade asked with a grin. "Yeah, we just left from there."
With that, the group of six returned to the tenth floor of the guild hall and entered the same training room as before. This time, however, Ur did not have to open it for them since Alfonzo was present.
"Alright, I'll just cut to the chase." Tsunade said, once again crossing her arms under her breasts. "Our guild wishes to compensate both you and your guild. But honestly, we have no idea what kind of compensation would be suitable for the richest man on the continent and the strongest guild in the kingdom."
After hearing what Tsunade had to say, Alfonzo only stared at her with a thoroughly flabbergasted expression on his face. In fact, during the short trip to the training room, he had imagined several things Tsunade would want to say. But he never imagined something like this.
In fact, what he expected the most was Tsunade telling him that Yoruichi would have to take responsibility for her actions and marry him as a concubine or something.
"I think you broke him." Yoruichi said with a small smile, despite herself. But she could not help herself, she thought Alfonzo's thoroughly confused expression was really cute.
Yoruichi's comment was enough to bring Alfonzo back to his senses. But instead of responding immediately, he stopped to think about the question. He was not the type to turn down compensation, after all.
Unfortunately, Alfonzo could not think of anything Mermaid Heel could provide him that would serve as adequate compensation for this case. So, he started thinking in a different direction. Something that would help him indirectly.
A few moments later, Alfonzo raised his head with a serious expression on his face.
"Master Tsunade, I heard from Gildarts that you were quite the accomplished magic doctor." Alfonzo said.
"Gildarts, huh?" Tsunade said as she raised a hand to stroke her chin. "I never thought that man would ever mention my name again. Especially after I broke most of his ribs, healed him up, and did it again to make the point stick after he touched me without my permission."
'Oh, he left that part out.' Alfonzo mused. 'I'm definitely gonna have to ask him about that later.'
"But yeah, I guess you could say that I'm the best magic doctor on the continent if you want to be ostentatious about it." Tsunade continued. "Why? I hope you're not going to ask me to be your personal healer as compensation for this mess. Because I can tell you right now, that's not gonna happen."
"No, no, no." Alfonzo said waving off Tsunade's assumption. "I'm not that delusional."
"Then why did you ask?" Tsunade asked curiously.
"It's because there is a girl in our guild, Wendy." Alfonzo said. "Thanks to her brand of magic, she has the ability to heal. Unfortunately, she has no knowledge about medicine and treatment."
"So, you want me to train this girl to be a capable medic?" Tsunade asked.
"That's right." Alfonzo replied with a nod. "And if possible, I'd like you to teach her your method of healing. If she's able to combine the two, I think she would become quite the prolific healer."
This time, it was the women from Mermaid Heel who were surprised. They never expected Alfonzo to use the compensation they promised him to help someone else improve. Then again, there really was not much they could give Alfonzo that he could not get for himself.
"Honestly, I'm surprised." Tsunade said. "I was expecting you to ask to have Yoruichi as a servant or something. And we would have probably agreed."
"Don't joke around like that, Master!" Sui-Feng shouted while glaring at Tsunade.
"Oh, I wasn't joking." Tsunade said while briefly glancing at Sui-Feng. "Anyway, teaching the girl in question how to use my [Healing Magic] isn't an issue. The issue is the amount of magic power control it takes to even use it at an elementary level. Not to mention the control necessary to master it."
"Oh, I don't think you need to worry about that." Alfonzo replied with a smile. "She's one of Ur's students. And Ur has very high standards for her students."
"I see." Tsunade replied with a nod. "Well, if that is your request, then I see no issue with it. But I can only give her the opportunity. Ultimately, it's up to her how much she can learn."
"An opportunity is all I can ask for." Alfonzo replied with a smile.
"If I may." Ritsu said in a gentle tone as she cut into the conversation. "Though your request is quite noble, it sounds more like compensation for the guild rather than a personal compensation."
Hearing that, Alfonzo's smile widened.
"Yeah, I can see why you would think that." Alfonzo said. "But the members of Fairy Tail are more than just my guild mates. They're my friends… my family. And something that can make the dangerous work of being a wizard a little safer for them is more than enough compensation for me."
In response to Alfonzo's declaration, Yoruichi, Tsunade, and Ritsu smiled at him gently. Even Kagura, who usually wore a stoic expression, smiled slightly. Meanwhile, Sui-Feng slightly raised her opinion of Alfonzo. Though, she was still far from accepting him as a match for her Lady Yoruichi.