#because he's started referring to his peers with honorifics becauses hes nervous

[daily-hanamura]

[itshaejinju]

In Her Sister’s Shadow | Fairy Tail | Chapter 7 |

This is where I left off, there are two more special episode chapters after this that I’ll post in one big one as they both are rather small.

@stunninglyignis @neko-otaku13

 “Hey look guys!” Mirajane shouted, running down the stairs carrying a bottle of medicine.

       I looked up from my spot kneeling beside Master Makarov who was on the ground grasping at his chest in pain. I felt a hand on my arm looking up I saw Gajeel staring at me nudging his head out at the window.

       “What is that bastard doing now?” I questioned – what was a Thunder Palace?

       Mirajane brought Master Makarov to the hospital wing. I followed the rest up the stairs, Can and Bisca went on explaining what we were seeing – Lightning Lacrima. Laxus' 'Thunder Palace' was hundreds of Lightning Lacrima orbs floating around the town of Magnolia. Since I freed everyone Laxus lost his Fairy Tail hostages – but he stepped up his foolish game. Now the whole town was his hostages!

       “I'll fix this!” Bisca said, hefting her sniper rifle off her narrow shoulders.

       I was watching Natsu – he was fuming his attitude changed rather quickly at this sight in front of him. At first Natsu genuinely thought Laxus was playing a pure game. Not betrayal – forcing the male members of the guild to fight each other to save the female members. He believed it in his heart to be a contest to see who was the strongest members of the guild – Natsu went as far as chasing Lucy around trying to fight her. Why was this child so naïve? I knew there was something going on with Laxus I could feel it in his malice towards me that it was something more than his normal rudeness towards me. I should have said something. . .but this is the Master's grandson he wouldn't have thought horrid things about that child so easily. Though now. . .Master Makarov in the hospital bed unconscious from the heart attack.

       A scream brought me out of my thoughts, Bisca was surrounded by lightning being violently zapped. She had destroyed one of the many Lightning Lacrima and it retaliated on her – sending her to the ground in a burnt heap. Was there some way I could deactivate that? It was a thing not really a magical skill that I could mimic to stop it so my natural magic wouldn't work though how about music magic? Could I find a song that could do something? I grabbed at the mp3 player and started to thumb through the songs, there was nothing I had that could safely protect me and get rid of them. Looking up at Natsu again I saw the burning rage of anger build up in his eyes, as his mind put together that these items would kill civilians. They did not have the built up strength like us – so it would kill and not just beat the crap out of them. Natsu jumped off the roof of the building attempting to leave – totally forgetting about the barrier Freed made.

       “Idiot. I'm going to help Erza.” I said turning around, speaking to no one in particular it wasn't like anyone really listened to me anyways so I never expect a comment back.

       “We need to evacuate the civilians!” Lucy shouted as it dawned on her that all these people needed to be warned.

       “Round them up and take them out the South end.” I told her as she saw me heading down the steps again.

       “Aye ~ I will help Lucy!” Happy said excitedly, sprouting wings lifting her up into the sky flying off with ease.

       If that Exceed were to do that to me wearing a skirt or even the robe and bikini I was still wearing right now I would have plucked off his wings. But I'm not as cheery friendly as Lucy.

       “Yes let's get moving.” Cana said as she hefted the unconscious Biscane up over her shoulder.

       “I'll work on breaking this barrier so Natsu and Gajeel can join you guys!” Levy said as she went to the library to get a few reference books.

       “And Laxus is mine!” Natsu shouted as he raced down the stairs to join the rest of us.

       “Where are you going?” Gajeel asked as I headed to a side room, he following behind me looking curious small red eyes surveying me still in the robes.

       “I'm changing my clothes I am not going to fight in this robe and so called bikini anymore.” I said picking up my satchel that was on one of the tables it carried a spare set of clothes.

       “I will guard the door no need for creepers staring at you changing.” Gajeel said as he walked in the room with me.

       “Why are you in here?” I shouted at him – why does he always follow me around?

       He is seriously this hulking metal eating mass of a shadow that I don't need.

       “Guarding the door obviously. . .” He wasn't able to finish his sentence I shoved him out of the room locking the door, shaking my head.

       “Perv!”

       I have never dealt with anyone like him before, ever since he's joined this guild he constantly follows me around begging to go on missions with me. Calling me his 'mate' even doll-face when he thinks he's being cute. Really what was about me that was so fascinating to him? No matter how many times I push him away towards anyone else he comes right back. . .like a bad penny. Though kind of a cute penny – bad but kind of cute.

       “Laxus you're getting your reward.” I said as I tugged on black capri pants, a light blue button up blouse that rested right above my belly button, showing off the fairy tail tattoo.

       Sliding the mp3 player into my pocket I placed a ear bud into my left ear, it clacked against the industrial piercing. The piercing was still new and tender I rubbed the ear gently, I got the piercing a few days before I left Helios it was a gift from Kyoga.

      ~~Few months ago~~

       “Dez-Chan!” Kyoga shouted rushing down the steps of the village hall, large bushy black tail bouncing behind him.

       He dropped calling me Dez-Sama to the 'chan' honorific – well when the head of clans were around he would use sama still. I stopped, midway down the steps only to be bowled over by the tall youth – well he was only a year younger than I am but he seriously acted like he was a good five years younger than me when we are alone. We toppled down the steps landing at the bottom on in a heap, limbs all tangled up in each other.

       “Kyoga-Sama what is going on?” I asked as I looked into his blushing face as he removed himself from my chest.

       “I have a present for you!” He said happily removing himself from me, quickly hiding his red face as he got to his feet he helped me up.

       “Another present? Why are you always showering me with gifts?” I asked confused I had recently received a necklace from him, a special Okami cooked dinner, a dress and now another thing?

       “Because - - you are so nice! And you say that your friends and such never get you proper gifts. . .I want to make up for it. Plus you are leaving me soon I want to give you something so you won't forget me.” He said ending it with a small pout, a pout on a Okami is adorable with small amount of fang sticking out pinching his lower lip some.

       I noticed he was fidgeting with his tail some, I found that was a common trait of the Okami when they were feeling nervous. I haven't found a nervous trait of the Kitsune – they are smug for sure, fun to tease though. He always became a nervous ball of fur around me as of late ever since the last month of me being here he's all nerves.

       “Thanks Kyoga-Sama, you are really sweet.” I said happily, taking the small box from his hands.

       “I'm hardly sweet. . .I'm a wolf we are vicious.” He said shyly blushing a little he was use to people telling him that humans are deathly afraid of his kind, so him being called sweet by a human felt strange to him, though I was his first human.

       I opened the box to see a silver bar with a music note hooked around the center of it, a industrial earring. Peering up at his large yellow eyes I smiled noticing there was two of them as the second moved slightly as my hands shook a little, I wasn't good with presents specially if they are nice ones.

       “It's so pretty Kyoga-Sama – thanks but I don't have this piercing.” I said touching my ears all I had was the traditional lobes done.

       “There is two one for me and one for you – it's a sort of bonding thing with friends matching rings and such is a good thing amongst the Okami.” He said pointing at his ears noticing he didn't have industrial piercing either just the lobes done in gauges.

       “Oh – I am honored!” I said happily, it was the first time someone actually wanted to do something friends do as a bonding experience, strange that I had to go all the way to the other side of the world to do it.

       “Let's go, I know of a cool place we can go – I promise it won't hurt much.” He said taking my hand in his, the thick nails of his hands slightly scraping on my skin some.

       We ended up getting our left ears done, it was only painful for the second hole but Kyoga held my hand the whole time and stared at my ear watching the needle go through. He let out a little yip as it went through his ear, which he tells me is a normal sound as he looked a bit embarrassed by it.

       ~~Present Time~~

       “Make sure to leave Laxus for me!” Natsu shouted at me as I walked out the front door leaving, Levy to read through the books to solve that dilemma.

  'The others are taking care of the civilians and rounding up the remaining members. . .but where is Erza? I need to be with her.' I thought as I thumbed through the play list of the mp3 player, I could find her through the music magic.

       “Music Magic Find Erza - ~ Don't be scared if I'm gone from view ~ I'll always find you. ~ Never doubt I will always find you.” I sung aloud to the song, small musical notes left the mp3 player as it guided me to Erza.

       A few minutes later I found myself outside the local bath house – what was Erza doing here? It was no time for a bath! Special at the public bath house we have private ones at Fairy Tail. . .generally she ends up in my bath tub anyways. I heard nervous shouting, then sound of feet slamming on the ground, my twin emerged from the front of the bath house looking upset beyond belief.

       “EVERGREEN!” She shouted at the top of her lungs looking terrifying, most people would wince and hide at that expression that was on her face right now, one of pure anger but it never really bothered me, her look of sadness was more pain to me then again her true sadness was because of me anyways.

       “Sister. . .” I called out as she turned to me looking wild, two swords at her side.

       “She led me through a false trail I can't believe I fell for that.” She said pouting then walking over to me, looking determined. “You free the others I see? How are they?”

       “They are fine. . .Gajeel and Natsu are still unable to leave but Levy is figuring that out so we can be sure of some property destroying here soon. Bisca is out of commission she went to destroy one of the Lacrima but it back fired and attacked her. I'm here to help you out – Laxus needs to be put back in spot, I can't stand for betrayers.”

       “I know – I just can't believe he would do something as dangerous as this.”

       “His mind is warped, Erza. So Evergreen lied to you – no sense going back after her. Let's use a little bit of music magic, let me find the right song.” I said as I pawed through the playlist.

       “That thing is really handy – who gave it to you?” Erza questioned looking over my shoulder at the play list.

       “The Head of the Okami clan gave it to me as a thank you gift for being so kind to his son.”

       “Oh? A love interest?”

       “No. . .that couldn't happen our cultures are so different – their beliefs on romantic relationships with other species is very strict. Plus I have so much I have to do here before I could go back. . .and there is no way he actually would like me that way. I'm not that great – I'm not you.”

       “You are great – I wish you would see that. A lot of people in the guild see it, clearly Gajeel does.”

       “Don't speak of that weirdo. Here is the song geez I just listened to it wouldn't think it would have gotten lost here.” I said blushing a little turning my head away from Erza and her stares.

       “Oh that's how it is.” She said with a broad smile.

       “Music Magic find Laxus ~ When stars are gone. ~ Pages fade in the tale we knew, Hope is born ~ don't be scared if you can't find truth. ~ We belong never doubt I will always find you. ~ Love is truth darkness falls but our hearts stay true. ~ I'm with you don't be scared if. ~ I'm gone from view ~ I'll always find you. ~ Never doubt I will always find you. ~”

   “That is so beautiful. . .and fascinating.” Erza admired watching the musical notes flutter forward.

       “I know it's so much better than my actual magic. . .I wish I had this instead of this lame mockery.” I said bitterly wishing with all my might that this had been my true magic and not something I needed to use a tool for.

       “But your magic is really good.” Erza said, starting a argument.

       “Whatever, let's move.” I said turning away from her and heading towards the musical notes leading us closer to Laxus.

[deniscollins]

‘Corporate America Has Failed Black America’

There are just four black chief executives among the 500 largest companies in the country. The nation’s largest health care company, CVS, has no black people on its senior leadership team. In finance, there are no black people on the senior leadership teams of Bank of America, JPMorgan (where managers in Phoenix branches were recorded making racist remarks) or Wells Fargo (which recently faced a federal lawsuit for discriminating against minority home buyers). In technology, there are zero black members of the senior leadership teams of Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Amazon. Should companies be required to disclose diversity figures, so that progress — or backsliding — can be measured: (1) Yes, (2) No? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

In the past week, it has seemed like every major company has publicly condemned racism. All-black squares cover corporate Instagram. Executives have made multimillion-dollar pledges to anti-discrimination efforts and programs to support black businesses.

Yet many of the same companies expressing solidarity have contributed to systemic inequality, targeted the black community with unhealthy products and services, and failed to hire, promote and fairly compensate black men and women.

“Corporate America has failed black America,” said Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation and a member of the board of Pepsi, and who is black. “Even after a generation of Ivy League educations and extraordinary talented African-Americans going into corporate America, we seem to have hit a wall.”

With dozens of cities protesting the violent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and others, a national conversation about racism is underway. For black executives, who have spent their lives excelling at business while overcoming structural discrimination, the killings and ensuing protests have unleashed an outpouring of emotion. Many are speaking candidly about their private fears, as well as their disappointment with the corporate apparatus that made them stars.

Wes Moore, the chief executive of Robin Hood, a New York charity combating poverty, said he chooses his workout clothes to minimize the chances anyone will consider him, as a black man, dangerous. “I pick the outfit that I wear when I run strategically,” he said. “I wear shirts with my alma mater on it, Johns Hopkins, so people know I’m not a threat.” Mr. Arbery was shot to death by apparent vigilantes while out for a jog; three white men have been charged.

Mr. Moore said he was fed up with being one of just a relatively small number of black executives in the top tier of American business. “The list starts getting very thin very quickly,” he said. “There aren’t enough good examples. We’ve been satisfied with exceptions and exceptionalism.”

“We’ve been satisfied by putting John Rogers on every board,” he added, referring to the black investor who has been a director at Exelon, McDonald’s, Nike and The New York Times Company. “But we haven’t been deliberate about building bench and pipeline.”

Robert F. Smith, a private equity billionaire and the richest black man in America, said he has been overwhelmed by conflicting feelings. “I am saddened, I am angry, I am upset and I am determined,” he said. “I run through that wave of emotions every minute.”

Mr. Smith added that for the first time in a long time, he had reason for optimism. Over the past week, he said, he has been inundated with calls from other business leaders wanting to know what they can do. “This is the first time in my life I’ve seen not just empathy, but engagement,” he said. “This is unacceptable, and other C.E.O.s are asking how they can get involved.”

Mr. Walker, too, said the severity of this moment seemed to be shocking some companies into action. “Corporate America can no longer get away with token responses to systemic problems,” said Mr. Walker, who has been protesting in New York. “It is going to take a systemic response to sufficiently address this crisis that has been decades in the making.”

‘It’s complete B.S. It’s performative’

As brands rushed to align themselves with protesters over the past week, their words often rang hollow, undermined by their own actions.

Amazon called for an end to the “inequitable” treatment of black people. Yet the company has faced sustained criticism for poor working conditions and low pay. In March, it fired Christian Smalls, a black employee at a Staten Island warehouse who was demanding safer conditions while working in a pandemic, and the company’s general counsel disparaged him as “not smart or articulate.” Amazon has said Mr. Smalls violated its social distancing policy, and that the executive did not know he was black.

The commissioner of the National Football League, Roger Goodell, issued a statement saying the protests express “the pain, anger and frustration that so many of us feel.” But his organization has banned players — most of whom are black — from kneeling to protest police brutality, and the quarterback most identified with the gesture, Colin Kaepernick, has been effectively blacklisted. (On Friday night, Mr. Goodell appeared to reverse himself, saying, “We, the National Football League admit we were wrong” and adding, “I personally protest with you.”)

L’Oréal shared a post that read “Speaking out is worth it.” But three years ago, the makeup company dropped its first transgender model, Munroe Bergdorf, when she spoke out about racism after the white nationalist violence in Charlottesville, Va.

“Most of these corporate statements were put together by the marketing team that was trying not to offend white customers and white employees,” said Dorothy A. Brown, a law professor who studies economic injustice at Emory University in Atlanta. “It’s complete B.S. It’s performative.”

Companies have for the most part addressed racism only in the face of overwhelming public pressure. In the 1980s, for example, a global protest movement forced corporations including General Motors and Pepsi to stop doing business in apartheid South Africa. More often, however, companies have studiously avoided confronting the legacy of racism.

Members of “corporate America have generally not distinguished themselves as moral leaders,” said Ursula Burns, the former chief executive of Xerox and a board member at Exxon. “They generally have gone along with the flow, and for a long time that’s all we expected them to do. They were responsible to their shareholders.”

Ms. Burns herself, despite leading a gilded life as a successful black C.E.O., said that law enforcement still makes her nervous. “I dress like the one percent. I drive like the one percent. I wear watches and jewelry like the one percent,” she said, adding: “I worry every day if a policeman is near me. They look at me as first and foremost a threat to their place in society.”

She added that with police cracking down violently on protesters, “It is the scariest moment I have been in, in my entire life.”

Even after the violence in Charlottesville, which led to an abrupt disbanding of President Trump’s business advisory councils, few companies made lasting policy changes.

Instead, generations of well-intentioned pledges by businesses have resulted in only marginal advancement for the black community. The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated grim employment trends, and today fewer than half of black adults in America have a job. Black workers make less money than white workers. That is due in part to the fact that they are more likely to have poorly paying service jobs, but research also shows that highly educated black employees are paid less than their white peers.

“We don’t get paid the same amount for the same work,” said Mellody Hobson, the co-chief executive of Ariel Investments and a board member at JPMorgan and Starbucks. “We’ve been disproportionally affected in layoffs and unemployment.”

‘My blood boiled a long time ago’

At many of America’s major employers, black men and women are absent from meaningful leadership roles.

The nation’s largest health care company, CVS, has no black people on its senior leadership team.

In finance, there are no black people on the senior leadership teams of Bank of America, JPMorgan (where managers in Phoenix branches were recorded making racist remarks) or Wells Fargo (which recently faced a federal lawsuit for discriminating against minority home buyers).

In technology, there are zero black members of the senior leadership teams of Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Amazon.

In total, there are just four black chief executives among the 500 largest companies in the country.

Many big companies have added black directors to their boards in recent years. But while board seats can be levers to effect change, they do little to shift the power centers within companies. Exxon, the largest U.S. energy company, has two black board members, including Ms. Burns — but the management committee is composed entirely of white men.

“We are put into these positions that are honorific, because they want our presence,” Mr. Walker said. “But we are not given authority and resources.”

With black individuals deeply underrepresented in Silicon Valley and largely absent at the highest levels of major corporations, little of the wealth created in the stock market or the technology boom has gone to black families. Today, typical black households have just one-tenth the wealth of typical white households, according to Federal Reserve data.

Robert Reffkin, the black co-founder and chief executive of the real estate brokerage Compass, said that at one of his first jobs, he asked his employer why they didn’t do more to attract and promote black employees. “They said, ‘We tried so hard, but we didn’t get the return on investment,’” he recalled.

It was a clarifying moment for Mr. Reffkin, who grew determined to start his own company and went on to found Compass, which is valued at $6.4 billion.

“My blood boiled a long time ago,” he said, “when I formed the impression that most companies don’t care.”

‘That’s an indictment’

When companies are forced to confront racism, the responses are often predictable.

“The playbook is: Issue a statement, get a group of African-American leaders on a conference call, apologize and have your corporate foundation make a contribution to the N.A.A.C.P. and the Urban League,” Mr. Walker said. “That’s not going to work in this crisis.”

While most companies have so far stuck to the script, some have gone further. SoftBank said it would allocate $100 million to invest in minority entrepreneurs, though details were scant. Visa created a $10 million fund for college-bound black students and said it would guarantee jobs to those who meet certain requirements. PWC said it would begin publicly sharing its diversity strategy and results.

Yet many black executives say these efforts, while welcome, will be insufficient to effect lasting change.

Ryan Williams, the black founder and chief executive of Cadre, a commercial real estate investing platform, could not name a company he believed was doing enough to support the black community.

“There is no one that comes to mind that is taking the steps to truly level the playing field,” Mr. Williams said. “That’s an indictment of where we are today.”

Mr. Williams has joined the protests in New York, and said he believed that little more than luck separated him from the men whose faces are now found on murals and placards. “I could have been George Floyd or Ahmaud Arbery,” he said.

Mr. Williams is among those black executives agitating for a series of specific changes to the way companies hire and promote. He called on companies to first take the basic step of disclosing diversity figures, so that progress — or backsliding — can be measured.

Mr. Smith, the private equity investor, got his first break when Bell Labs accepted him for an internship. “An internship changed my life,” he said. “Let’s change thousands of lives each year.” He called on companies to quadruple the size of their internship classes and commit to giving many of those spots to African-Americans, and then support them with mentors and sponsors.

“Boards should hold themselves and management accountable for specific objectives around recruitment, retention and promotion of African-Americans and other minorities,” said Mr. Walker. “Only when companies and management are accountable in ways that are quantifiable will we see real systemic transformation of corporate America.”

Few companies are forthcoming about the racial composition of their work forces. Only 40 percent of companies are transparent about the gender and racial makeup of their employees, according to Just Capital, a nonprofit that tracks corporations’ social impact. And just one company, Intel, has disclosed wage data by gender, ethnic and racial breakdowns.

“In business we set targets on everything,” Ms. Hobson said. “Only in the area of diversity have I seen C.E.O.s chronically say, ‘We’re working on it.’”

When pressed on why their companies lack diversity, many managers fall back on the argument that there is a pipeline problem; that there simply aren’t enough talented black men and women to fill the roles.

Mr. Moore dismissed that notion outright, arguing that companies simply aren’t looking hard enough, aren’t recruiting at historically black colleges and universities, and have a monoculture that overlooks black talent.

“It’s not about a lowering of standards,” Mr. Moore said. “Think about how I hear that as a black man.”

Mr. Reffkin called on companies to demand that the teams of outside lawyers, accountants and bankers they use include at least one black member. Compass has made that commitment, he said, and has also developed lists of black contractors for other services, such as photography.

Companies can use their clout to promote diversity in other creative ways, as well. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs said it wouldn’t take a company public if it didn’t have at least one woman or minority on its board.

Ms. Hobson was among those who called for companies to tie executive pay to diversity metrics. A few companies, including Microsoft, Intel and Johnson & Johnson have gone that route, but they remain the rare exceptions.

While board seats are no replacement for executive roles, black executives said change starts at the top. “If you do not have blacks on your board, you’re not going to see blacks in the c-suite of that company,” Mr. Walker said.

When Vernon Jordan, the civil rights leader, investment banker, lawyer and political power broker, joined the boards of Xerox and American Express, both of those companies named black chief executives.

After months of the coronavirus pandemic and weeks of protests, Mr. Moore said, many Americans have a longing to turn a page, to go back to a moment before the protests. It is an impulse he cautioned against.

“There seems to be a quest to get back to a level of normalcy. But that’s not good enough, because normalcy meant exclusion, it meant looking at disparity and shrugging,” he said. “The thing we should be aiming for is a new normal that’s grounded in justice — not just criminal justice, but economic justice.

“If you’re not thinking about how you can use your company to promote justice,” he added, “then you’re not doing your job as an executive.”