"So... weren't you going to help me?" Kazu asked while placing a brick over another brick.
Cana sipped her orange juice. "I am. By cheering you." She winked.
Kazu just deadpanned. "Gray was right...." He muttered.
"Kid! You were brilliant. I knew you were diligent, but to think you are already this strong." A late teen patted Kazu on the back.
"Yeah. You did even better than Gray. True to our name, Fairy Tail is really the strongest guild and will be in the future." Wakaba said from his seat, gulping down another beer.
"Ya ya." A lot of guildmates were impressed by him.
"Uh, yeah. But I still lost so quickly." Kazu awkwardly smiled. He wasn't used to getting praise from other people, let alone from a crowd.
Cana smirked. "I won't be surprised if next year Kazu beats Laxus." She lifted her chin as if she were the one who had fought Laxus.
Some of the guild members agreed with her.
"Even so. You truly became a guild member today after losing your 'Breaking your first wall' virginity. We must celebrate it!" Macao laughed loudly.
Some others also laughed loudly at the statement.
Kazu deadpanned at that. 'What's with that analogy?'
"What's virginity?" Cana innocently asked.
"..."
"..."
"..."
The loud crowd turned silent very quickly. A pin-drop silence encased the tavern.
The next second, Wakaba punched Macao right in the face.
"Idiot! Watch your words." Macao was sent flying like a rag doll and crashed into a nearby table, spilling the beer on other people.
"You FUCKER". Somebody yelled and threw a mug at Wakaba right in the face.
Just like that, a brawl started.
Kazu looked at the scene with a smile.
"How predictable." He rolled his eyes, creating a barrier in front of him that shielded the incomplete wall.
A chair crashed on it, breaking.
Kazu continued rebuilding the wall with the magic cement in hand.
An hour later. He stood with the perfected wall.
"Finally done." He wiped the sweat from his face and looked at the wall with a proud expression. 'It looks better than any other wall here.'
He then took a seat beside Cana, who was still sipping orange juice, her 21st glass.
"Why do you drink so much?" Kazu asked.
Cana shrugged. "Coz it's good, I guess?"
The next second, her eyes lit up. "Right, I forgot to tell you, but Gray and I are going on a mission in 30 minutes. Do you want to tag along?"
Kazu raised a brow. "What's the mission?" He tilted his head, dodging a mug, which hit the bartender lady right in her face.
She also joined the ongoing brawl, intensifying it.
"I don't know. The master will tell us. He did mention inviting you."
'Guess, it's probably in Magnolia itself. So, no need to refuse.' This was not his first time taking a mission within the city.
"Sure." Kazu took a sip of cold water.
BOOM
Cana tilted her head and saw another wall broken.
However, this wasn't just any other wall, but the one Kazu had painstakingly made.
Her face turned curious as she looked at Kazu.
"Dude. The wall you made broke."
Kazu calmly glanced at the debris before returning his gaze to the glass.
"Not my responsibility anymore, so I don't care." He shrugged.
He had broken a wall and rebuilt it. That's it.
Cana clicked her tongue. "Tch. I want to see you angry once. You never get angry, nor do you get hit easily during such brawls."
Kazu rolled his eyes. "Guess I have a pretty high limit. Wonder what will tip it off."
Just then, another person took a seat beside Kazu.
It was none other than Gray.
"So, are you coming with us on the mission?"
Kazu turned to him and choked on his juice.
"The fuck?"
"What?" Gray threw a confused look at him.
Cana's face also showed confusion.
"You...You are wearing clothes?" Kazu asked with a dumbfounded face.
"..."
"..."
Both Cana and Gray became speechless.
"What do you mean by that? I only sometimes move without clothes." Gray defended himself.
Cana nodded twice. "Sometimes he does wear clothes."
"That's not what I said!" Gray glared at her.
Kazu nodded in understanding. "I didn't know. I was just shocked 'coz it was my first time seeing you clothed like this despite training with you for more than six months."
"..."
Gray's face stiffened. He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came to his mind. He promptly closed his mouth.
"Pfft...I guess I am so used to that I never noticed that he didn't meet you without his clothes. Did you think Gray didn't have clothes or something? No way." Cana choked on her juice as she laughed.
Gray just stared at her expressionlessly.
Just as Kazu thought Gray would do something, Makarov entered the scene.
"STOP!" He shouted, and the whole tavern paused along with the brawl.
His face looked resigned, as if he had aged by a few years after looking at the scene. "I don't know why you lot do this, but start fixing things."
The guildmates scattered, their expression like cats soaked in water.
Makarov then moved towards the trio.
"You all are here. Kazu, are you also going on the mission?"
Kazu nodded.
"Perfect. I will give you kids a briefing. Yesterday, the Mayor told me that rats had become more active in the town and several of them were spotted in the morning. A lot of food and other essentials had either vanished or been damaged. I want you three to investigate that.
This will give you good experience, and if things do escalate, don't forget to run. You will be in the city, so getting backup will be quite fast."
"Rats? This will be easy." Gray shook his head in disappointment. 'I thought it's finally time for some real wizard stuff.'
Cana's face fell in disgust. "Eww. Won't we need to go to the sewers to investigate that?"
After hearing her, the other two's faces fell, their expression turning into disgust.
Kazu was quick to recover. "What's the time limit, master?"
Makarov glanced at the wall clock, which had somehow miraculously not broken from the earlier brawl.
"Well, there is no official time limit, but do let me know your progress by the evening." He said before giving them the paper with the details written.
'200,000 Yuls+ Now, that's a lot given we are just finding rats. I wonder why?'
"Master, why is there a + sign? Also, isn't the amount quite a lot for just investigating some rats?" Cana vocalised Kazu's worries.
"Well, I might have toned it down a bit, but the damage has been widespread in the town. This is quite unusual, so the Mayor had no choice but to do this. We suspect that some magic involvement might be there, so the mission reward will increase depending on what you encounter." Makarov patiently explained.
Gray's eyes lit up. 'Guess, this might not be as boring as I thought it would be.'
"Master, we could take anything from the treasury for the mission, right?" Kazu asked while looking in the direction of the storage.
Makarov nodded. "Yes. Though that has to be sanctioned by me. Also, you will have to pay if you use that object. So, it's generally for hard times when something unexpected occurs."
Kazu nodded. "Just to be cautious, I will take some protective arrays. For the worst case."
Makarov approvingly nodded. "If only everyone here had a tenth of your caution..." He muttered while glaring at the members who were fixing the damage caused.
After talking a bit, the trio left.
"So, where are we going first?" Cana asked, skipping.
"Let's go and take some information from the Mayor about the sewer locations," Gray suggested.
The other two agreed, and they made their way towards the Mayor's office.
"Oh, if it isn't young Gray and Cana." The short man in a fancy outfit said while looking at the duo with a smile.
He then shifted his attention to Kazu, who kept a professional expression.
"And who is this young man?"
Before Kazu could answer, Cana replied in his stead. "It's Kazu. Kazu Sukehiro. He's a bit shy, but he is pretty reliable." She said while patting Kazu's right shoulder.
Kazu shot her a dumbfounded look. 'Who's shy?' He wanted to say, but ultimately decided not to argue in front of their employer.
After taking information from the mayor, they headed towards the nearest sewer entrance.
"We might be in there for hours, shouldn't we first have lunch before going in?" Gray suggested.
Cana's face turned into a grimace. "And what? Vomit there? No thanks."
"You are overreacting. How bad could it be?" Gray shook his head, muttering something about 'girls...'
---
"What were you saying then, Mr Ice-princess?" Cana shot a smirk, who had a grimace as he held his nose.
"I take back whatever I said." Gray surrendered.
Meanwhile, Kazu looked around. His face had a frown. 'I thought having experience with gutting and skinning would make this more bearable.'
He glanced at the other two. 'Well, I guess, it does. Just not what I wanted it to be.'
SCUR
Kazu looked in the direction from which the sound came.
He then saw it.
From the darkness came a rat.
A huge rat with red eyes.
The rat, nearly half Kazu's size, stared him in the eye.
"Guys..." He said, trying to gather the others' attention.
"What—" Gray stiffened. He instinctively made a magic circle in front of him.
"Hmm—AAHHH", Cana screamed, jumping onto Gray.
Gray hadn't expected this and, due to being tense, fired an ice lance—straight at Kazu's back.
"The Fuck?" Fortunately, Kazu's main magic was Instinct magic, so he immediately turned around and formed a barrier.
KLANG
The ice collided with the barrier and broke into pieces.
Kazu sighed in relief before the hair on his entire body stood.
Even without looking back, he could already feel something above his shoulder.
The rat had pounced on him, and it was going to bite him.
***
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