Mira looked at him in confusion. "Is there any problem?"
"N—no. I was just shocked at your name. Won't it mean 'Peace Street' or something? It suits you." Kazu quickly adapted. He then looked at the other two.
"What about you guys?"
"I am Lisanna Strauss."
"Elfman Strauss."
Kazu nodded. "So, you guys are Strauss siblings. Sounds cool."
The other three just stared at Kazu.
"Say, mister. If you are a mage, I think you might be able to help nee-chan."
"Lisanna!" Mira reprimanded her. She was too quick to disclose information to a stranger.
The younger girl rebelliously looked at Mira.
"You mean this?" Before anything could escalate between the two, Kazu interrupted them. He held Mira's glove-clad hand, removing the glove in one sweeping motion.
"No!" Mira instinctively tried to pull her hand back, but to her surprise, it didn't even budge.
"Calm down. It's alright. Just look around." Kazu said with a calm smile.
Mira didn't feel that the smile was calm.
She slowly turned her head and looked around.
People were looking at her. In her hand.
She had expected this much, as her shout must have caught their attention.
However, what she didn't expect was what their gazes held.
Curiosity.
"Huh?" Mira couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"No way." She wasn't the only one. Lisanna and Elfman also couldn't believe what they were seeing.
People didn't hold any disgust towards the hand. Just curiosity.
Not even one person stopped to just look at it. Just gave a passing glance.
"This is Magnolia. The city that houses one of the largest magic guilds in the country. Moreover, I have heard that Fairy Tail members cause a lot of side damage, especially in this city, so people have become desensitised to their presence." Kazu continued with his calm tone.
Though he didn't remember every character's backstory in detail, he still had rich experience in analysing people. After talking to the Strauss siblings for a while, Kazu could deduce their situation.
It wasn't an uncommon situation. Several mages go through such a situation depending on how unnatural their magic seems. Unfortunately, Mira got the wrong end of the straw.
Kazu looked Mira right in the eye. "You are not a monster. I don't know what others have told you before or what you have suffered to reach here, but I want to just tell you that your condition is due to improper control of your magic, not anything else."
Mira, wide-eyed, looked at him.
Her lips trembled, but no words came out.
'Uhh, she might cry at this rate. I need to change the topic.' Kazu felt quite uncomfortable.
"Well, this form is because you can't control your Ethernano—magic particles properly. For that, you need to train your control. Also, with some training, you would be able to utilise your magic properly to like you know, protect yourself and your siblings."
To demonstrate his point, Kazu cast Destructive interference on Mira's right palm. To her shock, it turned back to how her palm used to be.
"See? I just neutralised your spell. So, its effect got cancelled. Though this is a temporary solution, as if I stop using my spell..." Kazu let go of her palm.
A few seconds later, the palm turned back to the grotesque one it used to be.
"It would turn back. So, you need to train. Though it shouldn't take too long as this is kind of basic. You came to Magnolia to find a solution to your problem, right? You can just consult somebody in the guild. They would guide you."
"Thank you," Mira said, with a grateful smile, which looked brighter than the sun.
Kazu paused for a second. 'Wow... Anyway, she won't cry now.'
The other two also thanked him.
"It's alright. You guys would have come to know regardless when you had gone to the guild. Anyway, I need to go now. I have a mission."
"Thank you again."
"It's alright. Also, don't mind the stares. Though most of them are curious, some people will still look at you with similar looks. Just ignore them." Kazu waved his hand as he started walking away.
Mira stiffened slightly, but nodded. She had started getting used to the stares, so it's alright as long as it doesn't affect her and her siblings' livelihood.
He suddenly paused and grinned. "Actually, just think of it like this. People just find it disgusting 'coz it's weird to see such a super cute girl like you having such an uncute hand"
Without waiting for the reply, Kazu disappeared.
Mira just stared at where he stood, filled with just one emotion.
Embarrassment.
"Nee-chan, he called you 'cute' 3 times. It has to mean something, right?"
A fist found its way to Lisanna's head.
"Ouch! That hurts."
"Stop saying weird things. We need to go to the guild." With that, Mira started walking.
Lisanna rubbed her head as she followed her. "Though you say that, what's with your expression?" She muttered.
"Did you say anything?" Mira turned to Lisanna.
"Nothing."
---
Kazu took his seat. He was currently on a 3-day journey on a train.
'It would have been much faster if I had just flown, but I always wanted to try the trains here.' He hummed as he looked out of the window.
He then looked around in the cabin.
'The main reason for taking on this mission was to gain some experience, which would be crucial for my instinct magic. Though...' He stretched his hand.
An icy-blue barrier formed above his hand. 'I don't aim to waste those 3 months. I have learned a lot about my magic during my time teaching Gray. It's about time I start transferring those learnings to other things and experiment. This would also be crucial in how fast I could destroy other spells and how much and quickly I could enhance my spells.' He grinned.
---
Location - Murkwell Village
'Whoa, this village is poorer than I expected.' After showing the entry pass to the guards, he entered the village.
He soon reached his destination.
"You must be Richie, right?" Kazu asked.
The man with the council emblem on his uniform turned towards him. "Uh... How can I help you, kid?"
"..."
Kazu looked at the man for a few seconds with a blank gaze. He then smiled.
"I am Kazu. Kazu Sukehiro. The one who took this mission." Kazu shoved the official document.
Richie's eyes widened in shock. He quickly got up from his chair. "I am sorry. I didn't recognise you, sir."
Kazu waved him off. "It's fine. This was the village where the last person in the village disappeared, right? Can you tell me about him?"
Richie quickly nodded his head.
"Yes. Around this time, this whole village had vanished suddenly. Like, all the bodies and all. Only blood remained. It seemed in accordance with Kalt's trail, so he investigated around this forest. However, on the third day, he never returned to the village. This is a copy of the exact documentation." Richie pulled out a file from a folder and passed it to Kazu.
"So... who are these people?" Kazu pointed his fingers at whoever currently lived in this village. It was quite unusual to still live in a place where everyone had disappeared overnight.
"These are the people from nearby areas who settled here."
Kazu furrowed his brows. "And they don't care about... what happened last year?"
Richie shook his head. "They don't. They are getting free land, which is a big opportunity for many."
"...Makes sense." 'Guess, people everywhere are opportunistic.'
Kazu started reading the documentary of the events surrounding the previous mage's arrival.
'Jules Earth. A mage specialising in Poison magic. 23 years old....This guy was pretty capable, yet he met his end. I need to be careful. Veyren is somebody that I can't take lightly. Also...' Kazu looked around.
It looked like he was trying to find something, but he didn't know what that thing looked like.
'My instincts are blaring like an alarm. There's something wrong with this place, but I don't know what.' Kazu had been on the edge since he entered the village, expecting any random old granny to turn into a powerful mage and sneak attack him.
He looked back at the document. 'I can't stay in the village any longer.'
"Where's the path to the forest? I want to follow Jules's trail." Kazu directly asked Richie, who was caught off guard.
"Yes, so..." He quickly started explaining how to read the map given in the document.
"Sir, just before you go... You do know that this mission is S-rank... right?" Though Richie tried to hide it, it was obvious to Kazu.
He didn't think Kazu was strong enough to take such a mission.
Kazu agreed with him on that part, but didn't say it out loud.
"Yeah, I know." With that, he walked away.
Richie looked at his back with a nervous expression till the latter disappeared from his view.
Next instant, the nervous expression got replaced by a calm expression.
An unnatural calm expression, like a scientist who was looking at their specimen.
"Kazu Sukehiro... He doesn't look that strong... I need more information." He continued looking in the direction in which Kazu had gone.
As if he could still see the latter despite the large distance between them.
He looked like a hunter, ready to pounce on his prey at any moment.
***
A/n- Guys, we got 40 power stones this week. Thank you for your support.
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