Cana looked at the approaching paw in horror. Her body refused to move.
'Move. Just move.' Just as the paw was a few inches away from her, Kazu pulled her and jumped back.
"This is the second time this has happened. Previously with the boar and now with a rat." Kazu said in disapproval.
"I..." No words came to Cana's mouth as she looked at the massive rat staring at her.
"Kids! Stay back. I will take care of it." Macao said before pointing his finger at the rat's eyes.
WHOOSH
The next second, a purple beam was shot from that finger right in the rat's eyes. The rat instinctively moved sideways. However, it failed to assess the danger that the beam possessed.
The beam hit it right in the spot between its eyes, penetrating its flesh and passing through the brain.
THUDD
The rat's body hit the ground. Dead.
The purple flame present at its head quickly engulfed its entire body and turned it to ash.
"Old man. You really are strong." Gray praised.
He didn't think he would be able to beat the rat in one hit.
"It's just a rat, and don't call me old man!" Macao's face twisted in displeasure. Though with Kazu's observation skills, he noticed that a hint of pride was hidden in his facial expression.
"We should check the remaining area to take care of any stragglers," Kazu suggested, and they did that for the next hour.
'I need to help Cana with that fear problem. She could have dealt with that rat herself, and if not, she easily had the means to run away.' Kazu thought as they reached the exit.
After sanitising themselves once more, they went to the surface.
"That was good work. I am going to drink some chilled beer when we reach the guild." Macao said while stretching his body.
"I am also going to drink some chilled orange juice," Cana said, mimicking Macao's position.
Kazu and Gray just deadpanned.
"Let's report to the mayor and the guild master."
After meeting the mayor, the reward had been spiked to 700,000 Yuls. Pretty generous, according to Kazu.
It was split 4 ways, and Kazu found himself with around 175k Yuls.
'It's a shame that such missions are rare to happen inside Magnolia. Otherwise, I would have taken them more often.' Kazu thought with a sigh.
He looked at the tavern, which was fully restored to its former glory. No one will believe that a brawl happened a few hours ago, destroying most of it.
"So, I heard that you challenged Laxus." Kazu looked at Gray.
The latter had an amused smile on his face.
"Well, yeah. I didn't get one-shotted. It took him three shots to defeat him." Kazu smugly looked at Gray, whose lips twitched.
"Tch. I haven't recently fought him. Otherwise, I can take that many hits. Anyway, are you going to work on your External enhancement next?" Gray quickly changed the topic.
Kazu nodded. "Yeah. Hopefully, it won't take as much time as my barrier magic."
"Why can't I try that?" Both of them looked at Cana, who was arguing with Macao.
"You are just a kid. Maybe when you grow a bit older." Wakaba said, shaking his head.
Gray's face fell. "I knew it." He had already predicted that one day, Cana would drink beer.
He didn't think such days were so close.
Kazu observed them interacting with amusement. 'Oh, well. I wonder how long it will take for her to drink beer.'
---
The rest of November passed by quickly. The trio were back to training.
"Why don't you try learning a staff?" Kazu suggested.
In the backyard, various weapons of ice lay on the ground.
Cana had suddenly told them that she was going to learn a weapon.
"Yeah, from all the weapons you tried, you seem the least trashy in this." Gray chimed in.
Cana glared at him. "Hmph. I am going to try some more before deciding."
'Well, I wonder how long she will continue this. This is just a whim.' Kazu shook his head. He didn't think Cana was serious about this.
S-rank exams soon came. Kazu enjoyed watching other guild members fight in this.
January, February and March passed in a blur. Kazu had almost mastered external enhancement.
"This will be pretty useful if I use a weapon in the future," Kazu commented while holding a stick that was covered in light blue Ethernano.
He swung it at a tree and expectedly it got cut in two.
He then looked at the sun. 'Almost Midday.' He made his way towards the tavern to have some food.
Currently, it was the last week of March.
'After this, I will need some ranged attacks. Maybe I can try making bullets with my Ethernano directly, like Macao. Though I will have to ask him for help.' Kazu thought.
He took his seat beside Cana, who was looking intensely at her cards. 'She seems to be thinking very hard. I wonder what she is doing.'
He didn't disturb her and ordered fried rice.
"Oh! You are here!" Cana suddenly said after looking at him.
Kazu gave her an unimpressed look. "I am always here. Just in the backyard."
Cana shook her head. "I forgot to mention, but a new member joined our guild yesterday."
Kazu took a spoonful into his mouth. "Is that so?"
Cana nodded. "Yeah. Though I tried to talk to her, she ignored me. She's our age."
Kazu stiffened. 'Hold up. If she's her age, then it's highly likely that she is part of the main cast.'
He quickly turned towards Cana. "Oh. Any notable features?"
"Uhh... She had a white eyepatch over her right eye. I think she doesn't have that eye."
"Huh?" 'Wait, I don't think any of the main cast lacked an eye. Is she a side-character or something?' Kazu cursed himself for skipping a lot of episodes of anime.
He skipped a lot of Canon episodes, let alone Fillers, which weren't even considered.
"Not only that, Gray even challenged her to make her talk. He lost."
"WHAT?" Kazu's eyes widened. Though he could now defeat Gray, it still took quite an effort to put the guy down.
'She can't be a side character if she could defeat Gray. The only person who could do that at this point is—'
DING
The bell connected to the tavern's door rang.
Kazu subconsciously looked at the door.
Klang.
He dropped his spoon when he looked at the person.
A red-headed girl was standing while wearing armour. Her face was stoic, and her left eye was covered with an eyepatch.
It was none other than Erza Scarlet.
"My bad." Kazu picked his spoon up. 'It's Erza indeed. No wonder. But what's with her eye?'
His eyes met Erza's.
Time paused for a few seconds.
The world lost its colour as Kazu involuntarily activated his magic.
'This is kind of sad.' He thought before looking away.
The world regained its colours.
When Kazu used Active Instincts, making conclusions about a person was automatic due to his instincts.
'Signs of torture are present, and they are relatively new. She must have recently left that Tower. I didn't remember her condition was this bad.'
He looked up at Master, who was sitting on the railing of the first floor.
Their eyes met briefly. Then the master shook his head.
'So, she didn't tell him about her circumstances. Probably, coz she was threatened by some people—likely Jellal with her friends as hostages or something.' He looked at his plate and frowned.
'Though I don't remember much about her plot, Zeref was involved. Just thinking about how countless people were harmed even indirectly makes me sick.'
He felt his gut twisting.
'Zeref wants to die, right? I will grant him his wish and get rid of him for good.' Kazu lifted the plate and instantly gulped all the fried rice.
"Huh?" Cana looked at him with a dumbfounded expression.
"I need to train. I am almost done with External Enhancement." He said before leaving.
'After completing the final touches, I will approach Macao. I also need to make Erza open up somehow.' He sighed before getting back to training.
He will do all that after his External Enhancement is done.
---
Three days passed similarly.
He made sure that each aspect—the activation, switching and mana concentration was up to par for combat.
'Finally satisfied with this. Now need to find Macao. First, I have to ask Cana about Erza. She underwent something tragic. So, we need to make her open up a bit or just make her feel safe.' Kazu started strategising various ways to help her while walking towards the door of the tavern.
He walked towards his usual seat beside Cana while looking around the tavern.
'Huh?' His steps stiffened as he looked at Gray conversing with Erza.
'Wait, didn't she lose her eye? I was pretty sure that it wasn't there.' He had previously observed its absence, so it shocked him.
He poked at Cana. "What happened?" He said while discreetly pointing in Erza's direction.
"Oh... Somehow, Gray made her open up. Also, that scary granny got her an artificial eye. She's a bit more friendly, I guess."
'It's just been 3 days. No wonder he was absent from training. He must have done something.' Kazu took his seat. "Didn't know Gray had it in him."
"Me neither." Cana shook her head.
Kazu then looked around in the tavern, trying to find Macao.
'Where is that drunken old man? Why does he have to be only absent when I need his help?' Kazu internally cursed at him.
***
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