"Woah. Aren't you going too fast?" Cana said, wind hitting her face.
Kazu looked around. "I will be fine. I was just pacing with the Gray's maximum speed before, along with Erza."
Cana furrowed her eyebrows. "But isn't Gray's physique better than yours?"
Kazu nodded. "Yup. And Erza's is even better than his. The reason I could compete with them is because of my magic. Enhancement."
Cana hummed. "Makes sense. Though didn't think you would use it this way. What about stamina?"
"Hmm, I will say slightly lower than Gray's. Though the difference is not much."
They soon reached the area where they had last seen her footprint when going to the village.
Cana frowned. "It disappeared."
Kazu shrugged. "It has been hours. Makes sense. Do you remember in which direction the footprint goes?"
"Nope."
Kazu frowned, looking around for any signs that would give him an answer.
"How about I use my cards to predict which direction she's in?"
Kazu tilted his head slightly back. From the corner of his eye, he looked at Cana.
"Heyy! Don't look at me like Gray does. Do you have any better ideas?" Cana pouted.
Kazu stared at her like that for a few seconds before nodding. "Well, I am in your hands."
Cana grinned. "Well, technically your shoulders are, but whatever."
She took out some cards from her waist bag, shuffled them while activating her magic. A few seconds later, she drew a card.
"That direction."
Kazu nodded and kicked off.
They travelled for around 10 minutes in that direction before Kazu found a faint footprint lead.
"No way," Kazu said in shock.
Cana grinned. "Hehe. I want to see your expression, turn around."
Kazu quickly regained his stoic face and just gave her a side-eye.
"You cheated!"
"We have no time to waste. Daylight is already gone." Kazu reminded her, getting serious.
They soon followed the footprints.
"It ends here. I don't know what to say." Kazu frowned.
Psh
A bush shook, startling the duo.
They snapped their gazes in that direction instantly, raising their guard to the maximum.
Two people came out of it.
"See? I told you."
"Right."
They were none other than Erza and Gray.
"What are you guys doing here?" Cana was the first to ask.
"We luckily found the authorities mid-way and they handled the rest for us. Though they did say to visit the mayor later. Erza then said that she sensed you two nearby, so I followed her."
Kazu frowned. "How convenient"
'I don't like this series of events. Though there was a chance to encounter these two when Cana pointed the direction... why are my instincts screaming?'
First, Kazu thought that they were fakes. But he soon verified they weren't.
"HELP!"
Kazu was stopped from his ruminating by this shout.
This time, the shout was of a girl's.
Without saying anything, the four rushed into the area and soon found a girl in a bear's clutches.
The girl was none other than Tracy.
A bear was holding Tracy with its paws, which were moving towards its mouth.
"Please help me!" The green-haired pre-teen shouted.
The world lost its colour as Kazu observed the scene in front of him.
Whoosh—
A sword materialised, floating in the air beside Erza. Time didn't stop, but her mind forced it to.
The bear's massive paw was inches away from Tracy's head, fur matted with drool, claws twitching for the kill.
Erza's sword shot forward, a silent blur of silver slicing through the dull world.
But was it fast enough?
For a split second, Erza could swear she saw Tracy's eyes shut tight, bracing for pain.
The bear's jaws opened wider—its breath reeking of blood.
Erza's clenched her fists. Her jaw tightly shut.
'Faster. Just a little faster.'
A sharp pop cut the air.
Puchi.
The sword embedded itself into the bear's skull, snapping its head backwards with brutal force.
Its body followed, limbs spasming as it toppled, releasing Tracy from its death grip.
She coughed as dust and bear fur filled her lungs.
Erza was already moving. "You okay?"
The rest followed a breath later.
Cana got down on the ground, patting her on the shoulder.
Tracy hesitantly nodded and got up. "Thank you for saving me! I thought I would have a bear meal today." She chuckled, the joke not reaching her face.
She was shaken by the near-death death she just faced.
"Um, we were hired by your father to retrieve you," Kazu said in a neutral tone.
Cana gave him a side-eye. This wasn't the moment to say such things.
The girl's pale face somehow paled even more. "W-What?" She took a step back. Her expression was scared.
She looked more scared than she did moments ago when the bear almost swallowed her.
'Abuse?' Gray thought, not liking the possibility. If that were the case, then things would get more complicated.
"What happened? We mean no harm." Cana decided to placate the girl while lifting her hands in a surrender position.
"Yes. We are from the Fairy Tail Guild. If you tell us your side of the story of why you ran away, then we will help you." Erza nodded with Cana.
Tracy's expression became slightly hopeful, but there was still a hint of caution in her eyes.
She opened her mouth, before pausing, considering whether to say her next words or not.
"My parents...specifically my father, are a demon cult-follower. Follower of... Zeref."
"..."
Everyone was rendered speechless by her words.
The reactions of all 4 were different.
Erza's fist tightened, memories of the Tower of Heaven popped into her mind.
Gray frowned. He was reminded of Ur's death. How she sealed that demon at the cost of her life. His jaws clenched, hatred burning in his eyes.
Cana blinked. 'What?...' She was shocked that those two were followers.
Kazu, meanwhile, had no change in expression. His face remained stoic, just listlessly looking at Tracy.
The silence was long, only broken by Gray, who took a step forward.
"...Are you sure about this?"
Tracy nodded. "Yes. I am sure about this. Moreover..." Her face turned grim. She looked up.
"What's the time?"
"19:33", Kazu replied almost instantly.
"W— don't have much time left." Her body started trembling. "Tonight... they are planning to sacrifice the whole village."
Kazu flinched.
Memories surged in his mind, reminding him of the village he resided in.
The world regained its colour.
"What do you mean?" Cana's eyes were wide in alarm. Things were escalating too quickly. Too quickly for her to process.
Tears welled up in the girl's eyes as she sobbed. "I—I left to find help. Told some people in the village. N—nobody believed me... So, I decided to go to the town through the forest. When I was so close, the bear caught me."
By this point, the girl was a sobbing mess.
"Please help me." She leaned towards Kazu, who was nearest to her, to hug him, but the latter instinctively jumped back.
The girl looked at him with part confusion and part hurt expression.
Cana shot him a glare and hugged the girl to comfort her.
"It's fine. We will help you."
She said to her while hugging the girl.
"Village...cult...Zeref..." Erza muttered.
This awfully reminded her of the attack on Rosemary village.
"Please save me. I don't want to die."
"WHY ME?"
"I thought I was strong..."
Memories of the incident continued coming into her mind.
Before her mind could fully process it, her body moved.
She ran towards the village at full speed.
"HEY!" Gray shouted, but got no response.
"I will go after her," Kazu said, before pausing, looking at Gray, his eyes contemplative.
Before he could say anything, Gray came closer and whispered.
"I will keep an eye on that girl. This situation is too suspicious and a lot of weird things happen along with some inconsistencies in her story."
Kazu gave him a surprised look but nodded. "Cool. I am counting on you. If the situation becomes too dire, just flee with Cana. This mission has already become invalid."
'This saves me the time of telling her that she wasn't scared when the bear was going to eat her, nor was she genuine when saying those things.' Kazu had been carefully observing the girl since he saw her.
Apart from her eye-catching green hair, there was something else that caught Kazu's eye.
Generally, when people feel intense emotions, especially when they are on the cusp of death, they can rarely vocalise their thoughts properly.
And, more importantly, their heartbeat is quite high in these situations. Sweat gets generated like crazy. Their eyes become dilated along with many more physiological signs when faced with such a situation.
Kazu saw none when he saw the girl almost dying from the bear. The others were more focused on the situation and her expressions, so they missed this fact.
Luckily, Gray had figured out by looking at the absurdity of the situation itself and some inconsistencies in the story, which was the cherry on top of Kazu's observations.
Gray nodded. With that, Kazu bolted in the direction Erza ran off.
After calming the girl down, the trio rushed to the town to bring some reinforcements and hopefully get a faster means of transport.
---
"She really is fast. Is this adrenaline?" Kazu was going at his top speed for a few minutes now, but he still hadn't seen Erza yet. Only the traces she had left along.
He could maintain his top speed for some more time and hopefully catch her, but this will lead to him tiring out, which will be pretty bad if he gets ambushed.
'Why is she so reckless?' He cursed. The first mission outside Magnolia had to get complicated!
He had a bad feeling about going to the village
***
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