Normality Fiore - An average guy finds them.

“Sorry… can you say that again?”

“3,543 Jewels, please” don’t smile in such a carefree way you old fart!

“It was under two thousand the last time I was here!”

“Prices rise and fall all the time young man”

“I was here browsing YESTERDAY!”

“They were in very high demand”

I felt a vein in my head throb with aggravation at the at the total bullshit this man was spewing, how the heck could something gain over a thousand Jewels of difference in under twenty four hours?

I can tell you have, this stinking grandpa was committing daylight robbery!

And I didn’t have enough to pay for this!

I then resorted in tactics change; this will get the old guy to crack.

“Okay then, I guess I’ll go to the jewellery store down the road, I’m sure I’ll find one more to my tastes there” the basic principle of this was win small, or not at all for him, he wouldn’t turn down a paying customer and let him get taken in by another competitor.

“I’m sure you’re mistaken, they only have knick-knacks there”

… Damn it! I didn’t know the guy was outgoing.

“Well… t-they actually opened a jewellery section not too long ago!” I just blurted out quickly; the shop keeper just gave me a look that disturbingly looked like pity before smiling again.

“Okay then, I’ll have these ready for when you change your mind”

When? Not If?

I realised a lot of tension filled air from my gut as I walked down the street away from the pricey shop which held my only salvation, sorry, you were probably wondering who I am.

My name is Najato, and I am a slacker, I work to pay of the bills but do it half-assed, I mooch off people to get some luxury’s, but only rarely. It was at a certain point of my life, right now in fact, that I was missing out on something big.

I was twenty years old… and a virgin.

Sure, there are people who end up even older with their V card, but the thing is, I knew that when people thought like this that they would end up not having sex for the rest of their life’s through not worrying about it, or end up having to rent a whore from some brothel to escape the title, but that’s even sadder in my opinion. So what else could I do but pick myself off my feet and get out there in the world to get myself a girlfriend.

However, what I didn’t know was how difficult it was.

The women around my age were somehow already taken by others, I’m not joking, somehow every girl had already a boyfriend, a fiancé, or was already married, and I found myself stunned over the very fact that this had all happened while I was inactive in the dating scene, they were already shackled up with each other since they were teenagers.

Due to this knowledge, I moved away from my town to a larger one that had single females around, that being the port town I was in, Hargeon.

But you know what; my life didn’t go the way I wanted, because all the single females were single for a sole reason.

Money, lots and lots of it, they want you to have heaps of it to spend on them every chance they get, presents that can suck the soul out of your wallet, a mansion that could house them indefinitely.

Basically, I, a person who had just come into town, worked his ass off in labour jobs, having barely enough to keep up with rent, didn’t have a chance in catching their eye. It got to the point several months since I have arrived that I didn’t care about getting a girlfriend. I wanted coitus, intercourse, a one night stand, SEX that I didn’t have to pay for.

And so we’ve come full circle, I put in several shifts, and eventually saved enough money over my rent and food to buy a necklace I had my eye on, if I could present that to one of the snobby women in this city, that would impress them enough so I could get a chance at bedding them, but that fell to pieces after a sudden old man stomped on my carefully laid idea.

The kick to the teeth, I just remember it’s my birthday today, twenty one years without a girlfriend, I feel ill, and that number would then become twenty two, then twenty five, thirty. HAH, one good thing from that, I become a wizard if I’m a virgin at thirty, maybe I can join a guild.

That depressive thought made me hang my head again, magic, if I had magic, I wouldn’t be some regular loser on the street, I would be a power wielding badass, chucking fireballs and lightning, any girl would swoon over me.

Why did I have to be one of the ninety percent? Why did I have to be so poor that I have to run several jobs to keep running?

Why don’t I ever catch a break?

I looked over the assortment of strangers on the street; I bet none of them had to work so hard to keep their house.

I then slowed down from walking and stopped, looking to the left of me, I found myself at the knick-knack store that I was talking to with the jewellery guy, looking through the windows, and any small hope of the place that I had of the place having built a jewellery section in the last hour evaporated.

Despite that, I decided to go in anyway, no idea why, maybe I was so depressed that I decided to just finish my mission by coming into the shop.

Looking over the small wooden statues and figurines, the tacky and trashy were the only things on display. It was kind of neat a few things, like paintings of famous mages, a few books on theories of the guilds in their past years, I did chuckle when it had a small wooden blade that claimed it was the first sword of Erza Scarlet, who in the world would believe that?

I glanced at the shopkeeper, who was a tired look woman who barely glanced in my direction; she was pretty, not like I would have a chance with her.

I then came across a table and something caught my eye, I was looking at a bunch of carved wooden necklaces and pendants, it was homemade so it didn’t count as the jewellery I wanted, but what caught my attention was the glint of gold in there, slightly excited, I grabbed on to it and brought it into view, where disappointment hit me again.

They were a gaudy set of earrings, shaped like the letter ‘N’, the two of them clinked against it other as they swung in front of my eyes, the ‘glint of gold’ was just the paint they had on, on closer inspection it was clear that it was simply plastic.

Just another disappointment… as always.

I was about to drop them back where I found them, but then I stopped, and looked at them more closely.

I wasn’t the kind of guy to wear earrings… but they weren’t exactly that bad looking. In fact, the earrings are two N’s, like the first letter of my name, Najato.

Looking down, I saw the price on the tray said ’50 Jewels a pair’, so it wasn’t that bad of a deal, and why not? I feel like I have to get something so that the day isn’t an absolute loss.

I dug into my pocket as I walked to the cashier and bought them both, the lady gave me the change and I walked out the store with the two cheap earrings in hand, and on a brief impulse, snapped the two of them to my ears. Shaking my head a little, I confirmed that they weren’t impeding anything important, and then made my way home.

A few minutes later, I became a little self-conscious, they weren’t bad so to speak, but it was kind of weird for a guy to wear such flashy ones, I looked at the passers-by and they didn’t give me a second glance, maybe it was just me.

“SALAMANDER!”

“OH GOD, IS THAT HIM!?”

“PLEASE MARRY ME!”

I blinked a little as I heard numerous cries like this and looked towards the commotion, several women were running around and crowding the middle of the street, almost like a mob was forming, they were crying out and pushing each other to get a clear view.

Salamander? As in that guy from Fairy Tail? That was new.

Curiosity kind of nudged at me, but I didn’t feel like pushing through a crowd of women that hungry looking, in fact, even for a celebrity, wasn’t this kind of pushing it?

But my need for making the day slightly interesting won out, and I walked around the barrage of women, looking for an opening. I finally found a part that was more thinned out than the rest and made my way through, carefully swerving around the people there.

When I had passed the vast majority of them, I could look over the heads of the last few to see a blue haired man strutting around and to be honest; he looked like a complete ass.

I was seriously amazed, this much attention from the female population and THIS is what he does to get it? After all I’ve done, flirting, jokes, gifts, all of the work that I do to get a girl, and this guy struts on the street to get every eye here!

I was seriously angry, it was building up for a time, the lack of sex in my life, the building tension from hard job shifts, nearly being scammed for jewellery, and THIS pompous ass showing that he is better than me simply because has some fame and a bunch of freaking parlour tricks!

I cupped my hands together and shouted “HEY SALAMANDER! GO FUCK YOURSELF!”

I then froze when I realized what I had done, oh shit! What was I thinking, the guy was a Mage! The guy could rip me apart with only a swing of his hands and a few words! My feeling was only made worse when the screaming of the girls ceased and a few looked my way, along with the Salamander guy.

Oh fuck!

“Well then, thank you for making your opinion known”

… Say what?

I opened my eyes, which were closed for fear of getting burned alive, and looked at the guy giving a blank face, completely devoid of any anger, indignation, or shock; he just stood there without much anything.

I blinked… again.

“So… you’re not angry?” I tentatively asked, Salamanders face then looked slightly befuddled.

“No… why would I be?”

I looked at his face, for any sign that he was joking, before I looked at everyone else, all the girls were giving me a blank look, insulted and anger were to be expected here. Instead, it made me feel awkward that I was the only one who thought I did anything wrong.

“S-so you think it’s normal for guys to shout ‘go fuck yourself’ at you?” He then gained a look of understanding, was I actually getting through to him?

“Of course it is, I after all am Salamander! Men usually are jealous of my position of the ladies” That cocky grin came back to his face; I gaped at him, was that how he took this? He was insulted so much that he had grown used to this?

“Hey Salamander!” I looked to the side to see a random man walking by, “Go fuck yourself!”

“See?” Salamander said to me, proving the point that indeed, he was insulted regularly.

“Oh… okay then” I felt stupid as I tried to figure what had happened, was I really this lucky?

“Hey you!” I now looked up at a old man who was leaning out his window, that was Jeremy, the man who ran the bakery nearby, “Go fuck yourself!”

I felt my eyes bulge in my sockets, the hell! That guy never swore before! In fact, he took care of his grandchildren so he would actively avoid saying something that obscene around them.

“Yeah! Go fuck yourself mister!” I felt my jaw drop as I saw the said grandchild poking from the side of his grandpa, okay, something was seriously wrong here.