"It can't be just discipline. What is driving you?"
Kazu shifted his attention from the blue barrier to Gray.
"Hmm." Kazu hummed, inspecting Gray.
For the first time since he had met Gray, Kazu intentionally met the latter's eye.
Gray stared back, right in the eye.
"I don't know." Kazu broke out in a small grin.
"Huh?" Gray blinked.
"Jeez. It's not one reason. Human beings are not that simple." Kazu's expression turned contemplative.
"The main reason that comes to my mind is to distract myself. The second will be, I guess, this is the only way I could get revenge. Another reason is 'coz I like seeing myself growing in skills. Hmm... Magic's fun... Also..." He turned his gaze towards his barrier.
"Also?"
"Also, it's hard to stop when you already have the momentum."
"Momentum?" Gray tilted his head.
Kazu paused. "I mean... like, let's say you have done 100 days of continuous training. Then, it's hard to stop at 101st day as that will mean breaking the streak."
He looked at Gray, who still looked a bit confused.
"Let's take your example. Like I have seen you for a few weeks, training for at least 5 hours. You could aim for like 8 to 9 hours at best case, usually. But on days when your energy is low, you will feel like 5 hours is fine. So, that 5 hours are kind of a momentum you are making as even on your worst days, you will do that. With that time, the lower limit also increases. Does that make sense?"
Gray thought for a few seconds and then slowly nodded. He didn't understand it fully, but he got an idea.
"What did you mean by distracting yourself as the main reason?" Gray changed the topic.
"Well, I meant distracting myself from my thoughts, I guess? Training is a good way to distract myself from thoughts, so a coping mechanism for me. Moreover, it's one of the stimulating activities I have encountered so far, I guess?"
'What else am I supposed to do in a world without the internet? Magic is the only thing that's stopping me from dying from boredom.' Kazu bitterly thought.
He then shifted his attention to Gray, who was having a thoughtful expression, likely processing his answers so far.
"What about you? Why do you train?" Kazu asked him.
"For revenge for my deceased mentor," Gray replied without hesitation.
"Is that the only reason?"
Gray paused. "I think... I don't know." 'Why else? I want to become a powerful mage. But then why?... Why not?' With Kazu's answer, he got more confused.
'Right, he should be barely 9 years old. I almost forgot.' Kazu thought. "Maybe you should try searching answer to that question. It might give you a new perspective."
Having had his fill of chit-chat, Kazu got back to training on creating barriers at a distance from him.
Gray stood at the same spot, pondering on Kazu's words while looking at him training.
"You know, if you keep staring at him like that, people'll think you've got a crush."
"SHUT UP—I was just watching his form. It's weird!"
Gray turned his head back and looked at Cana in annoyance.
Cana was grinning, clearly enjoying his reaction.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were giving people their fortunes or something." Gray asked, changing the subject before Cana accuses him of something even absurd.
Cana's grin got replaced by annoyance. "Laxus came around."
Gray's face scrunched up. He had mixed feelings about Laxus. Despite that, he didn't like him.
"I am going to fight him." Gray started moving towards the tavern.
"Oii" Cana grabbed him by his shoulder to stop him. However, instead of Gray stopping, she was the one who got dragged.
"What is it? Also, are you skipping physical conditioning or something?" Gray gave her a suspicious look.
Cana got up and pouted. "Hmph. I am not doing that dumb training. I would rather spend my time mastering Card magic."
Gray just gave her a deadpan expression. They had argued about this several times.
"Never mind. Why did you stop me?"
Cana folded her arms. "First of all, Laxus already left after taking a mission. Secondly, you will get one shot again like last time."
"I have grown stronger since the last time. I am not going out with just one shot." Gray wasn't the least bit embarrassed about getting one-shot. He is definitely going to beat Laxus one day.
Cana gave him an unimpressed look. "Anyway, I am going to study a bit here. Seeing you guys train is not a bad visual." With that, she sat down at the base of the tree and started reading her book.
Gray looked at her for a few seconds before looking again at Kazu, who was now focusing on something else.
'Well, time to grind.' Gray sighed.
---
Time passed. Weeks turned into Months. Kazu and Gray training in the backyard daily, had become as regular as guild mates breaking walls.
Cana had also started training with them. Her presence had turned the silent ground more lively.
Currently, Gray and Kazu were standing a few feet apart.
BOOOM
Kazu punched at the wall Gray had erected.
"Not enough," Kazu muttered.
"Indeed, not enough. Why don't you try one of your more concentrated moves? I will also try to make it more dense." Gray suggested, already increasing density.
Kazu nodded. He cocked his fist back and concentrated a lot of Ethernano in all muscles of his right hand.
BOOOOOOOOOM
Cracks appeared on Gray's walls, becoming bigger by the second. However, the wall didn't crumble.
"Not bad. Your defence has improved considerably." Kazu complimented.
Gray smirked. "Well, obviously it had. You weren't half bad either. I could still feel the tremors from that shockwave.
"Still. I have a long way to go. If you had made a sharp arrowhead or just a pointed blade in the wall, then I would get hurt easily." Kazu shook his head.
Gray frowned. "Right. That's why you are focusing on making barriers. But, why not focus on just... External enhancement? It shouldn't take too long, as you already have good control over internal enhancements?"
Kazu nodded. "That's the next thing I am going to focus on after I am done with barriers. Making barriers is for the long term. I won't be investing much time in them for a long time after I am done with the basics.
Also, there are a lot of areas of improvement for my internal enhancement— like how fast I could enhance my muscles, how fast I can switch, the number of active enhancements and the amount of Ethernano.
These will be transferable when I learn External enhancement, so I want to focus on these as much as I can, side-by-side with barrier magic before shifting to that."
Gray thought for a few seconds before nodding. "It seems you have already thought this through."
---
Date- 25th August x775, Time- 00:19
Kazu walked on the streets of Magnolia with his hands in his pockets.
'I need to focus on making my barriers more sturdy. According to the book, the next step will be to influence the structure at the microscopic level, which will be possible to sense with Ethernano.
Luckily, my Instinct magic already helps to do that. Learning it without it would have been a pain otherwise.'
Kazu had been using 'Passive Instincts' in almost all tasks of his life. This not only helped him do things efficiently, but also trained his Instinct magic. So, he had bothered to spend extra time training it as it was too complex.
His house came into view. He had been living on rent, which guild had been paying. Around 70,000 Jewels per month.
'Maybe I should tag along with Cana or Gray to do some tasks in Magna involving hunting or something. It should at least be enough to pay for my rent along with some hands-on application for what I am learning.' He parked that thought before opening the room.
POP
POP
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"
Kazu blinked.
Gray and Cana were standing inside with birthday hats and confetti.
His gaze shifted to the cake, which was kept at the table.
THUMP THUMP THUMP.
His chest tightened—something sharp pressed behind his ribs.
A memory tried to rise. He shoved it down.
"Thanks!" he yelled—then ran. Fast. Too fast.
"..."
"..."
"Why did he run off? Isn't this his house?" Cana muttered.
Gray had a guilty expression. "I don't know... He looked like he saw a ghost."
In the morning, Cana had told him that today is Kazu's birthday. His first instinct was to tell the whole guild so that everyone could celebrate his birthday, but Cana stopped him.
She had told him that he would be clearly uncomfortable as he intentionally kept a distance from other guild members.
Gray had given a confused look but didn't argue. He hadn't noticed that explicitly, but Cana's words did hold some truth.
So, they decided to celebrate his birthday with just them.
"I will go after him," Cana said before running off in that direction.
***
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