"Happy?"
"Hmm?" The cat tilted his head.
"Wait, have you two met? I thought you hadn't visited the tavern in the last 2 months." Natsu furrowed his brows.
Kazu blinked. "Hmm, I meant I am happy seeing a flying cat. Are you trying to say that the cat's name is Happy?"
"Oh, yeah. Meet Happy. He hatched from an egg last month!" Natsu pointed at the cat, who raised its paw.
"An egg? Wow. Also, it's just been a month, yet it could already speak." Kazu appeared shocked.
Natsu agreed with him. "I know, right. I initially thought it was a dragon egg or something." He shook his head in disappointment.
Kazu looked at Happy for a few seconds before gulping. "Eto..."
'Time to check off the top thing on my bucket list.'
The cat tilted his head. "Yes?"
"Can you say 'Aye' once?" Kazu expectantly looked at the cat.
Happy looked confused, but shrugged.
"Aye, Sir!"
"...You are so cute!" Kazu held himself back from grabbing the cat. If Natsu was one of his favourite characters in the series, then Happy was his favourite character.
Why?
It was a cat!
A freaking talking cat.
A funny one too.
How can he not be your favourite character?
"What was that? Anyway, we need to focus on important things. We have a mission!" Natsu broke Kazu out of his thoughts.
He turned to the pinkhead. "Yeah? That's my first time hearing it."
"I was just going to the mountain to find you. Lucky that you came."
Kazu nodded. "I will talk to the master. It's just you and me... I mean, you, me and Happy, right?" He corrected himself, as not to offend the cat.
Natsu shook his head. "Mira and Levy, too."
Kazu frowned. 'I have a bad feeling about this.' "Well, tell them to prepare for a mission that would last for a few days. We will leave in an hour or two."
"Okay." With that, Natsu and Happy disappeared. Kazu also entered the tavern and headed upstairs to talk to the master.
"Oh, you are already here? Do you know about the mission?" Makarov raised a brow.
"Nope. Natsu just told me there's a mission with Mira and Levy. Master...we have talked about this before. I don't want to go on a mission in a group." Kazu frowned as he said that.
Makarov shook his head. "You are worrying too much. Just because your previous experience with that was bad, it doesn't mean it will happen again. Also, I am sending you as a supervisor, so that they can safely get some experience."
"But...I don't trust my luck." Kazu bit his lip. With his luck, he won't be surprised if he runs into an S-rank or somebody worse.
Makarov waved his hand. "I thought you were going to say that. So, I chose this mission carefully. It's in the area where Laxus is nearby, doing a mission. If things turn bad, you could call him for backup." He handed Kazu a paper.
Kazu skimmed through it. "Investigating mission children?... I won't be surprised if all of them are used for some cult-like guy. Maybe Zeref's cult." Kazu chuckled.
"Don't jump to conclusions. It could also be some normal kidnapper or some other phenomenon. Anyway, before you go, you are supposed to complete this." Makarov pointed at a huge stack of paper.
Kazu's expression broke slightly. "...Right, it's been a while since I went through the guild's finances."
Makarov nodded. "Good that you know." With that, Makarov exited the room, leaving Kazu and the stack of paper alone.
'I wonder if my speed would have increased with more control over my Instinct magic.' Kazu immediately got to work.
The mission was time-critical, so he needed to quickly finish this so that they could leave quickly.
---
'Still took me 2 hours. Guess the difference is not that much.' Kazu went downstairs and saw all three of them ready.
"You guys have taken the necessities, right?" He said before handing each of them several items.
"Yeah! What's this?" Natsu was pretty cheerful. This was his first mission outside Magnolia.
"Some magic items for your protection. I will tell you the use case later during the trip."
Mira glanced at Happy, who was looking at the bag filled with items in childlike wonder. "Why is the cat getting so many items?"
"Coz, unlike you all, Happy doesn't seem to have that many combat capabilities. So, he needs the most protection." 'Yup, no favouritism or anything.' Kazu internally nodded.
"Anyway, you guys know the location of the village, right? Actually, just take this and go to the station and book a train. I need to go to my house to gather some stuff." Kazu handed the mission paper to Levy.
Kazu turned around, but then paused. "Also, don't wait for me if I am late. Just take the train. I will catch up later." With that, he disappeared from the tavern.
---
"Why do we have to take a traaain..." Natsu put his hands on his mouth, feeling motion sickness.
Levy patted him on the shoulder. "It's the fastest way. You need to just hold on for 4 hours."
'Missing children. This is so cliché, I could already guess the plot. Some creep is kidnapping children, for maybe some ritual or something. He won't kill them till he reaches a certain number. We just need to find him before that happens.' Though it was his first time going on such a mission, Levy was pretty calm.
"I made it." Kazu finally arrived and took a seat opposite Natsu, beside Mira.
"What's the plan?" Mira turned to him and asked.
Kazu shrugged. "I am just a supervisor. You guys decide. Maybe start with deciding who will be leading the team."
"...Oh." Mira then turned to the other two and the cat.
She then smiled. "So, who would be the leader?"
All three of them shivered. Mira's smile didn't look like a smile to them, but rather a threat.
The question wasn't actually a question.
"How about you lead? You are the strongest here after Kazu." Levy immediately suggested.
The last thing she wanted was to attract Mira's unwanted attention.
Natsu seemingly wanted to protest, but the motion sickness was getting to him. "Whatever."
Mira clapped her hands cheerfully. "Awesome. So, I will lead the team. Now, we need to decide on a plan."
Kazu saw the scene with astonishment. 'Wow, that's one way to do this. She's so similar yet different from Erza. If it were Erza, she wouldn't have threatened anybody... well, given that Gray or Natsu aren't present.' He gave a side-eye to the pink-head.
'Maybe, I could try somehow creating a scenario where Laxus feel motion sickness in our next fight.' Kazu seriously considered this choice.
Unlike the anime, where this was used as a gag relief mostly, this was a real weakness to dragon slayers. Kazu didn't mind using that to his advantage.
"I think we would start with meeting the client, to get more information about the situation. It would probably involve some tracking based on the information we receive. This is a time-critical mission, so maybe we should rest now, as we would definitely be moving through the night." Levy suggested.
Mira nodded. "Indeed. I guess we will make a more concrete plan when we reach." She looked at Kazu for confirmation, who just shrugged.
"How can I sleep like this?" Natsu groaned.
Kazu glanced at him and then grinned. "Actually, I have a way to make you sleep instantly. You will directly wake up when we reach there. Do you want me to do it?"
"Yes!" The reply was almost instant.
Kazu's grin widened. He lifted his hand and—
chopped at Natsu's neck.
"...Did you just knock him out?" Levy looked at the passed-out Natsu in a mixture of astonishment and horror.
"Yup. He should wake up by the time we reach. Otherwise, we could always knock him out again."
"..."
---
"You never said anything about knocking me out! It still hurts."
"You never asked. I tried to be gentle." Kazu shrugged.
The group reached the station.
"It should take around an hour to reach that village by carriage," Levy said while looking at the map.
"I am not going to go on a carriage anymore!" Natsu turned to her.
"Kazu could always knock you out~" Happy giggled.
"NOT THAT EITHER!"
"Too loud." Happy covered his ears with his paw.
"How about we run directly?" Mira suggested.
Levy deadpanned. "I don't have any magic to support that."
"Anything but the carriage", Natsu instantly agreed.
Mira clapped her hands. "Perfect. So, everyone will take a carriage other than Natsu, who will run." With that, she started walking away to find a carriage.
"...Huh?" Natsu had a baffled look on his face.
"Good luck." Levy showed him a thumbs-up before following Mira.
"It would be pretty good training." Kazu patted him on the shoulder before following Levy.
"I would be cheering you on." Happy said, before leaving.
Natsu looked at them walking away for a few seconds with his still baffled face.
"Guys, wait! How long was the distance again?" He ran after them.
***
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