"WHAT!? Since when?" Natsu shouted in full force, causing Kazu to put a barrier on his ear.
"Since the second house we visited. That old man we saw there was the kidnapper."
The trio's eyes widened.
"What?... How do you know that?" Mira found herself at a loss for words.
Kazu shrugged. "I have my ways. I will tell you all later. Follow me." Kazu motioned them with his hand as he started running in one direction.
The others followed.
"Wait!? Where are we going?"
"To the hideout. It should probably be there."
"Wait! If we knew the hideout, why didn't we go there in the first place?" Natsu looked at Kazu in confusion.
"I was just an observer. To make sure things don't go wrong. I was actually planning to intervene if you didn't find him in a few hours due to time urgency." Natsu wanted to ask more questions, but one glare from Mira stopped him.
It didn't take them long to reach the place.
It was outside the village, in a cave in the forest.
"This is it. Check all your equipment before you go in. Don't forget that you have those artefacts." Kazu looked at the trio.
Kazu bit his lip. "This is going to be a tough battle for you all. Please take it as the most serious thing in your life. It would have been better if I were here, but I think you would be fine even without me." 'I hope my instincts aren't wrong about this.'
The trio's face plus the cat nodded with a determined expression. Kazu's serious expression was enough for them to take this seriously.
"Also, Mira would be leading this battle. I need to talk to her privately. You three don't go anywhere." Before Mira could say anything, Kazu dragged her dozens of meters away from the group.
'That was too quick.' Mira found herself disoriented at the rapid movement.
"I will be direct. Those three would be a burden in this fight." Kazu said while glancing at the cave.
"...Do you mean strength gap?"
Kazu shook his head. "If it were only that simple..." He sighed. The decision to leave them alone for this fight started to falter.
"Then?" Mira, as if sensing his uncertainty, looked him right in the eye.
Kazu stared back at her for a few seconds. "...It would have been much better if Erza were here. But, I think you should be able to overcome it too."
Mira got irritated at the comparison with Erza, but she didn't show it. "Overcome what?" The fact that Kazu was not direct didn't help.
"Your emotions. Your values. Your mindset. Everything would be challenged in this fight. I just want you to remember that it doesn't matter what choice you make, I... no, the entire guild won't change how we look at you. Just remember that."
Mira felt her nervousness increase. The seriousness with which Kazu said made her aware that something big was going to happen in the fight.
"I need to go now. Don't forget to run for the train once you are done." With that, Kazu disappeared.
Mira looked at the disappeared spot for a few seconds.
"I forgot to wish him good luck... I hope he doesn't need it." Mira didn't even believe her own words. Kazu needed more luck than they did. He was going to fight an S-rank.
She turned to the trio in the distance and started walking towards them. "Please don't die." She prayed in her heart.
---
BOOM
BOOM
BOOOM
The first thing Kazu saw was Laxus dodging waves of pressurised air hurled at him. Blood dripped from his ears, and his usual headphones were absent.
'Sonic attacks. That man is somehow pressurising the air. Not by physical strength.' Kazu began analysing the man, supposedly an S-rank individual.
He had blonde hair, red eyes, and a figure that made even Kazu pause in his analysis.
'Wow. That information about him on the mission sheet does make sense.' Kazu felt his cheeks heat up.
He hadn't thought he would find himself attracted to a man, yet there was the reality.
It was hard to tell whether the man was actually a male or a female outwardly. The androgenous charm, along with a sinful body, that would make any gender turn twice to look back, made him one of a kind.
BOOM
Kazu was brought out of his thoughts as he saw Eris—the S-rank, starting to get physically close to Laxus by using sonic bursts to speed himself.
'Focus! I am here to get experience in S-rank fights. This battle is out of my league. My speed is nowhere near theirs, and my applicable strength is lower than that man's, making me just a burden.' Kazu bit his lip. He started brainstorming to make himself useful in this battle.
In less than a minute, Eris took note of him, which was followed by Laxus taking note too.
Eris was first to move.
"Oya? What is a kid doing here? You'd better run now, before you get hurt." Kazu raised his guard to maximum.
Eris then pointed his finger at Laxus, who was glaring in their direction. "You see, that man won't mind sneaking and attacking me if he is successful, irrespective of whatever happens to you. So, I suggest you run now."
'Wait, who is the villain? Hold up. This is to my advantage. I could use my image of being a random kid to sneak attack.'
"I se—"
CRACK
Even before Kazu could finish his words, he found himself punched right in the gut. He was thrown like a rag doll, hundreds of meters away.
He was barely able to hold on to his consciousness as he crashed to the ground.
"...I feel like I got hit by a train." He got up as he looked at the fight between the two individuals.
'He broke through my barrier like glass. At least, I know what his magic is now. It's vibration. The ability to control vibration or something around that.' Kazu frowned as he thought about the implications.
'This means that my barriers are useless in this battle. Not only that, but his speed is way faster than mine...'
"You are still conscious!? So, you really were with that guy. Well, how about this?" Kazu stiffened. Suddenly, Eris's fist appeared inches closer to his face.
---
Mira stiffened at the sight in front of her.
"This..." She wanted to throw up, but barely held herself back.
There were creatures in front of her.
Limbs of a gorilla, tail of a snake, a human face—It was a chimaera.
What shocked the group wasn't the chimaera, but the human face.
A child.
All of them had children's faces.
Children who were kidnapped.
"Haha. What were they thinking when sending children to this mission? Do you even have the resolve to possibly kill these children?" The old man—Geld shook his head with a smirk.
As if to elaborate on this point, the chimaeras started speaking.
"Mommy! Where are you? It's so dark!"
"I want to go home!"
"Do you want to play with me?"
Mira grimaced.
She looked back at the duo.
"They were supposed to be alive... We were supposed to save them... The genre wasn't supposed to be dark." Levy looked at the scene in horror.
Natsu's expression was a mixture of anger and hesitancy. The only thing he wanted to do was beat up the old man, but with these chimaeras in front of him, he didn't know what to do.
'So, this is what he meant by those two being a burden. I need to do this on my own.' She sighed. To be honest, she wasn't feeling any different from the other two. The only difference is that she can't afford to continue being like that, as it would mean that everyone would get hurt.
"I was initially planning for all of you to make my experiment material. The only thing that was stopping me was that scary kid. I am glad that he didn't come here." Though Geld showed relief, he was still cautious about the possibility of that kid appearing any second.
'As long as I could take these three hostage, even that danger would be neutralised.'
"You are going to pay for what you have done." Mira gritted her teeth as she stretched her right hand.
An energy ball appeared above her palm, before she hurled it at the nearest chimaera.
A few metres before the energy ball would hit, the child looked at Mira right in the eye.
"Nee-chan, you will save me, right?"
For a second, the child's face overlapped with Lisanna's. Before Mira knew it, her body moved. Just before the energy ball could make contact with the child, she appeared and kicked it in a different direction.
'I knew this was going to happen, yet I still fell for the trap.'
She glanced at the smirk on Geld's face before the chimaera's grotesque leg.
THUD
It's leg made contact with her gut, as she was shot like a rag doll, crashing on the cave's wall.
"Mira!" Levy and Natsu quickly rushed at her.
"...I am fine." Mira got up from the ground, dusting her clothes.
She frowned when she saw the chimaeras closing up on them.
'I don't want to kill them. But, at this rate, we might be the ones to die.' The decision was difficult for Mira.
On one hand, if she killed the chimaeras, there was no chance of the survival of children. But if she didn't kill them, then there was still a chance.
The chimaeras didn't wait for Mira to make a decision. One of them lunged it's ferocious claw, aiming straight for Mira's eyes.
***
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