The last thing he saw was the screen.
"Natsu... you're still loud as ever," he whispered.
Fire blazed on the monitor, illuminating the small room with flickering reds and oranges. The ceiling shook once, and dust sprinkled down. A siren howled in the distance.
He didn't flinch.
Kyle sat with his arms wrapped around his knees. His family was already gone—vaporised in the first wave. His lungs ached—the air was poisoned. But he had enough time for one last episode. Anime. His comfort. His escape.
A flash engulfed his vision.
Then, nothing.
---
When he opened his eyes again, he was crying.
Not from grief or confusion—but from the air. Clean, fresh, and warm.
His body was small. A baby's body.
He couldn't move much, couldn't speak. But his mind was his own. 'So I got isekai'd... this feels so wrong, yet exactly like the anime cliché.'
Accepting his new situation fully took time. The time he had in heaps.
Like that, time passed in his new life. The language was different, but not hard to pick up. He didn't rush. There was no goal. No dream of being a hero. He was simply... alive.
'I want to watch anime.' Living as a toddler was hard. Living without the internet was harder.
It was only when he turned four that he saw the name "Magnolia" in a newspaper. Then, a passing mention of "the Fairy Tail guild."
'You've got to be kidding me.'
He laughed for nearly 15 minutes.
'Reborn in Fairy Tail? You really went all out, God. Or maybe this is some cosmic joke.'
He didn't miss his past life. Not really. His old parents were kind, but they were adults. The kind that argued about food, fought over money and blamed each other until the end.
'Love is just a pretence. Marriage is a joke.'
He didn't even cry at the end. Just stared as the world burned.
Due to living his second life along with having issues with his old parents, he didn't see his new parents as family... At least, that's how it was supposed to go.
His new parents didn't have power or fame. Just a small home at the edge of a village near the forest.
His father, Tenji, was a carpenter. His mother, Aira, worked in the fields. Hard hands. Tired eyes. But they always smiled when they saw him.
Then came the famine.
The ground cracked beneath their feet.
Rivers thinned.
The well stopped yielding clean water.
The storehouse emptied.
One by one, neighbours packed and left. Some didn't have the strength to leave at all. Others had nowhere to go.
One evening, Kazu sat at the low dining table, legs crossed, and a chipped bowl of rice before him. It was barely half full. His parents' bowls were already empty.
"You guys finished already?" he asked, glancing up.
His mother smiled gently and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Her fingers trembled.
"Of course. We're not hungry."
Tenji chuckled, but his voice was weak. "Your mother's cooking filled us with just the smell."
Kazu stared at their sunken cheeks.
His father's knuckles looked like knots under the skin.
He said nothing.
Just nodded.
Chewed slowly, like time could make it last longer.
Later that night, he lay awake. From the thin walls, he heard it—coughing. Dry, shallow. His mother's voice was whispering something too faint to catch. Then silence.
The next morning, Aira handed him a piece of bread. "Share it with Yui," she said, her voice firm. "She needs the strength."
Kazu nodded, then paused. "You'll eat too, right?"
Her answer didn't come right away.
"Yes," she said eventually, without looking at him.
The lie sat heavier than the bread in his hands.
Days passed. Rain never came. Fields remained dusty. Aira's steps grew slower. Tenji stopped going to the workshop altogether. Kazu started helping him walk back and forth from the outhouse.
One afternoon, he returned from fetching water—muddy and barely drinkable—and found his mother collapsed in the rows behind their home.
He dropped the bucket.
"Mom!"
She smiled up at him.
"Just resting... the sun feels nice today."
She didn't get back up.
That night, Tenji sat beside her, holding her hand. His breath was shallow, more wheeze than air.
"Come here, Kazu."
Kazu stepped closer, swallowing hard.
Tenji reached for his hand and squeezed it.
"Take care of Yui. That's all we ask."
Kazu nodded, eyes blurring.
Tenji didn't say anything else. Only his fingers tightened once around Kazu's. Then loosened.
Kazu stayed sitting there, watching the candlelight flicker in his father's tired eyes—until even that went still.
The morning air was cold. The kind that made you feel like something was already missing before you opened your eyes.
And then, silence.
He was five.
That was when Kazu finally understood what love was.
It wasn't a pretence but a curse.
He didn't know it yet, but he was about to lose the only thing that ever made that curse feel worth it.
---
Rain soon came. Time passed.
She was small. Barely able to walk.
But she clung to his hand like it was her lifeline.
Her name was Yui. She had large eyes that sparkled at the smallest things. Like dandelions. Or frogs.
Kazu built her a swing between two trees. He carved little wooden dolls for her. He read her bedtime stories from a book with half its pages missing.
He watched her laugh.
Before he knew it, he realised something.
This was happiness.
"Kazu-ni! Look! Look!" Yui pointed at the sky.
A rainbow stretched over the trees, faint but wide.
He smiled and ruffled her hair.
"Good eye. That's a double rainbow."
"Does that mean double wishes?"
"Sure, but only if you keep it a secret."
"Okay!" She shut her eyes tightly. Then whispered her wish into her hands and flung it toward the sky.
He watched her do it, and just for a moment, forgot everything else.
Taking care of somebody like this was a first for Kazu. He didn't have siblings in his previous life.
'Guess, there are things to live for other than just waiting for the Canon or an event to start.'
Years passed, but not gently. He sharpened. Taking care of Yui gave him purpose, but not peace. He didn't trust people. He trusted his skills. Skills that will feed him and Yui.
---
It happened when he was 7.
He was shopping in one of the stores at the village's edge. He had left Yui outside.
As a kid, he earned money by hunting animals in the woods. Initially, it was quite difficult, but somehow, he instinctively knew how to make traps, which hiding spots would be perfect and how to skin them.
From a kid who knew nothing, in just a month, he became a pro at hunting. It wasn't comparable to actual hunters present in the town, but it was certainly enough for him to comfortably live with Yui.
He exited the store and witnessed that on the other side of the road, a tall man was pointing a knife at an old lady, saying something.
What caught Kazu's attention was a little girl standing beside the old lady, looking at the knife with childlike wonder.
It was Yui.
Kazu's blood ran cold at one possible future. So, he didn't hesitate. He gently lowered the bags he was carrying and dashed at the criminal from behind.
His steps were light, making a minimal sound. He took out a pocket-sized knife and slashed at the man's legs—specifically at the tendons.
Puchi.
Blood poured out from the man's legs as he dropped to the ground like a puppet with broken strings.
"What the fuck?" The man cursed, using one of his hands as support to turn his body while stabbing the knife instinctively backwards.
"Huh?" He found the knife hitting the air, finding nobody behind him.
That's when he felt another pain in his right arm.
Clang
The knife dropped from his hands. He found a kid taking out a knife from his flesh.
The man looked at the child, who was looking at him with a blank face.
The boy had attacked him, both on the leg and the hands, at parts where moving them effectively proved to be difficult. He didn't know that was possible.
"You little brat, I'll gut you—" Though he said that, he used his remaining functional hand to move away the boy.
The boy calmly took a step towards him. For the first time, his eyes met the thug's.
'He is abnormal.' An instinctive fear rose in the thug's heart. He somehow knew that he wouldn't be able to escape.
So, instead of using his hand to support his body, he suddenly used all his force to grab the nearby kid.
The girl's eyes widened momentarily, the suddenness and the speed of the motion catching her off guard.
"Come here, girl—!"
THUMP
Kazu stomped on the remaining hand.
Before the thug knew it, Kazu made another stab at his only other arm, effectively making the man's entire body lie on the ground.
Kazu then stomped on the man's head a few times to knock him out.
Then he turned around to find the granny looking at him with a mixture of emotions, ranging from horror to gratitude.
"Thank you, young man." She said, unnerved.
"It's fine." He put the knife away and dropped down to check on Yui.
'I forgot that the old lady was here.' After making sure that Yui was safe, Kazu left the area along with her, forgetting the old lady.
'That bastard should die within 10 minutes if he doesn't get immediate treatment.' Kazu looked around at the isolated area. The only hospital was at the centre.
'No chance.'
"Brother, you were so fast and cool. Like a ninja in those stories."
"Yeah? Maybe when you grow up a bit, I can teach you how to do that. Do you want to?"
"YES", Yui had stars in her eyes.
Kazu just chuckled, wondering what to buy for dinner tonight. "What do you want to eat tonight?" He asked.
The stars in her eyes instantly disappeared, replaced by dread. "Brother... you are not going to cook, right?"
"I was talking about takeout. Moreover, I don't cook that badly. To me, my food tastes ok. I think it's just you who is being picky."
"I think something is wrong with your tastebirds." The young girl folded her arms.
"It's tastebuds, not tastebirds. We are not tasting birds." Kazu chuckled.
"Pfft..." Yui found her unintentional joke quite funny.
Yui's laugh made him forget what he'd lost. Maybe, he thought, he didn't need to chase Canon. Just protect what he had.
He almost believed it could stay like this.
---
Kazu, now 8, tightened the cloth around his fists. He liked training on the mountain—it was quiet. Peaceful. And if he screamed, no one would hear.
He was gone for two hours. Just some early morning physical training.
Morning mist blanketed the village when he left.
But when he came back—
Smoke.
The sky was orange. Not from sunrise, but from fire.
Bodies lined the streets. Some were slumped. Others... torn.
The smell hit first. Then the buzzing of flies.
He ran.
He ran past the shopkeeper's house. Past the elder's hut. Toward his own home.
His legs stopped on their own.
The door was off its hinges. Part of the wall was burned black.
Inside—
Yui lay on the ground. Still.
Kazu dropped to his knees.
"No... no... no..."
His hands trembled as he reached out.
Yui's cheek was cold.
He pulled his arms back.
Sat there.
The world moved, but he didn't.
THUMP THUMP THUMP
The only thing he heard was his loudly beating heart.
A shadow fell across him.
Boots crushed the grass.
A figure stood nearby—twisted and cloaked in something, not of this world.
Long black robes. Skin like ash. Horns.
The air around him shimmered as if the world rejected his presence.
"I thought that I sensed a life nearby. Guess you weren't present earlier. Don't be sad about her death. It's an honour. I needed the power to change this corrupted world."
Kazu didn't respond.
The figure tilted his head.
"It seems you are in pain. Let me release you from your suffering."
He raised a hand.
Kazu didn't move.
His eyes didn't move away from Yui.
Not at the demon-like human.
At Yui.
The last bit of light faded from his gaze.
And then—
The world cracked.
A blur of motion.
The demon's hand stopped inches from Kazu's face.
A figure stood between them now—tall, broad-shouldered, and familiar.
"Didn't your mama teach you not to pick on kids?"
'Gildarts'
Just by hearing the man's voice, Kazu immediately recognised him.
However, he didn't feel any elation on finding a Canon character.
Kazu clutched his chest. He felt pain in his heart as if something was trying to squeeze it. 'Why?'
Gildarts's fist connected with the demon's chest.
A shockwave tore through the earth, blowing trees into the sky.
The demon flew back, crashing through three houses before slamming into the ground.
Stone and smoke billowed out from the crater. Before the dust could settle, the demon leapt forward with an inhuman screech, tendrils of cursed magic whipping toward Gildarts.
Gildarts didn't dodge.
He clenched his fist.
"Crush."
The tendrils disintegrated mid-air. The ground beneath him cracked like glass.
The demon tried to chant something—but Gildarts was already there, his hand on the creature's face.
"I hate cult types."
With a twist of his wrist, the air pulsed. Reality buckled around the demon. Flesh, bone, and magic collapsed inward with a sickening crunch.
The figure exploded into nothing.
Silence followed.
Kazu didn't move his gaze away from Yui's face.
Gildarts turned and walked towards him. His face softened.
"Kid... It's okay now. You're safe."
But Kazu didn't move.
Didn't speak.
Didn't cry.
He already lost it.
He stared at his sister's lifeless body.
He somehow found himself unable to continue in the world without her.
'Love is a curse... I shouldn't have learned it.' Kazu tried to convince himself. To live forward to learn magic—a luxury only available in this world.
He really tried hard. His hand trembled as he reached out for the knife. His thoughts were messed up.
"I really can't imagine a world without her," Kazu muttered, picking up a knife from the ground.
The last 3 years of his life felt longer than the past 20 years of his whole existence.
So, he didn't hesitate—his hand moved towards his head.
The last thing he saw was the stupid wooden doll he carved last summer, lying beside her.
***
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