Chapter 5: Humanoid Natural Disaster
"Boom boom boom!"
Iron corner guards had been installed at the corners of almost every household's wall in Magnolia, providing crucial support for structural stability. Many homes had even been reinforced with vibration-dampening enchantments. This type of protective construction had become standard throughout the town.
"Hey! Clean up all the debris on the streets! Leave nothing behind!"
"Oh my god! Who threw this banana peel! Clean it up quickly! Do you want our entire town reduced to rubble?!" A group of townspeople stared at the banana peel on the ground as if it were an explosive lacrima capable of leveling the entire town. The terrified man quickly cleaned it up, leaving the street spotless.
Dino Maxim, who had just gotten off the train, felt utterly speechless watching this scene. He thought to himself: Is this really necessary? I'm not some dark guild terrorist. I'm just coming home. Being treated like this stings a bit.
Three years had passed. Dino was now fifteen years old and no longer looked like a kid. He wore a black coat over his frame, with jet black hair and purple eyes set in a handsome face with fair skin.
"Creak!" The door of the Fairy Tail guildhall swung open.
Everyone in the guild rushed over.
"Dino! Welcome back!"
"Dino! Welcome back!"
"Long time no see, Dino!"
Natsu jumped forward and shouted excitedly at Dino, "Dino! Come and fight me!"
"Get lost, Natsu! You're not going first. I am!" Gray kicked Natsu aside and approached Dino.
But before he could say anything else, Mirajane punched him away. She looked at Dino with an excited, almost bloodthirsty expression. "Dino, you really kept me waiting! I think about you every day."
"What?!" Everyone stared at Mirajane in shock.
"A confession?!"
"Is this actually a confession?"
"It must be, right?"
"Just like Mirajane to make such a bold confession."
Lisanna said shyly to her sister, "Sister, since when? I didn't even know."
"Sister, if it's Dino, I won't object! He's a real man!" Elfman declared with a blessing expression on his face.
Dino touched his nose with a reserved smile. "Mirajane, I didn't expect you to think about me every day. If it's you, I'm totally fine with it!"
"They agreed! Is the guild's strongest couple being born right before our eyes?!"
Mirajane suddenly realized what she'd actually said. Her face turned bright red as she shouted at everyone around her, "I meant I think about defeating him every day! What's wrong with all of you?!"
"And Dino, you jerk! You know that's not what I meant! I… you… jerk! Jerk!" Mirajane ran out with a flushed face while Lisanna and Elfman quickly followed.
Suddenly, Master Makarov's voice rang out. "Dino!"
"Master! Long time no see. I'm back!" Dino came over happily and hugged Makarov, then lifted him up.
"Bonk!" Dino got smacked on the head by Makarov, who jumped back onto the counter. "You brat! I'm the guild master! You're destroying my dignified image!"
"Master, what's this 'Dino Mode' I keep hearing about? I'm not Gildarts. I'm sensing some serious prejudice here!"
Makarov sighed. "It's your own fault. You're more dangerous than Gildarts. Gildarts might destroy a building or two at most, but you level everything in your path. How did the ten-year quest go?"
Dino grinned. "I handled it, so of course it was successful."
After hearing Dino's words, everyone in the guild started chattering excitedly.
"A ten-year quest! He actually completed it!"
"Next up is a hundred-year quest!"
"Amazing! He really is the mage known as the 'Humanoid Natural Disaster'! Nobody else comes close!"
Dino's ears twitched as he glared in the direction of the voices. "Hey! Who gave me that ridiculous title?! I should sue them for defamation. This has seriously damaged my reputation!"
The others ignored Dino's complaints and said cheerfully, "Dino, what reputation? Your current reputation is probably the worst among all mages!"
"Yeah, exactly. And we didn't give you that title."
"Wherever you go, disaster follows. The title's pretty accurate, honestly."
Makarov smiled at Dino's words. A ten-year quest meant a mission that hadn't been completed by anyone in ten years. Jobs of this difficulty level weren't exclusive to Fairy Tail. Other guilds posted them as well.
Completing such a quest reflected a guild's strength and affected its ranking. Now he could boast to the masters of other guilds and even the Magic Council. The thought put him in quite a good mood.
Then Dino complained, "But Master, can you please stop assigning me these missions? The quest rewards don't even cover the damages I have to pay. I'm probably the poorest S-Class mage in history."
One year after Dino arrived in this world, he'd successfully passed the S-Class mage examination, becoming Fairy Tail's second S-Class mage and the youngest ever. The other S-Class mage was Gildarts.
Gildarts had been the proctor for Dino's S-Class assessment. The two had battled on an uninhabited island. The island was destroyed, and neither emerged as a clear victor. The only person fortunate, or perhaps unfortunate, enough to witness the battle was Guild Master Makarov himself. Ever since then, Gildarts had become less diligent about taking jobs, and everything fell onto Dino's shoulders.
However, the missions kept getting harder. Even when he won, the collateral damage caused during the fights with his enemies got blamed on him, leaving him unable to make ends meet.
The most frustrating incident happened when he was traveling to a certain location for a mission. An earthquake struck a town he was passing through, and the Magic Council actually tried to pin the losses on him. If Master Makarov hadn't intervened that time, Dino would have marched straight to the Council and torn the place apart.