"..." Gray blinked.
"WHAT THE FUCK?" Gray flinched as he quickly leaned away from Kazu.
His loud voice attracted everyone's attention towards him.
"Ahem." Gray quickly cleared his throat, appearing composed.
"What the fuck do you mean by kissing? I don't think that would be considered a prank!" He whispered, shouted.
Kazu shrugged. "Well, my sister used to always do that."
"Oh..." Gray suddenly felt bad about asking. He still didn't know the full details about Kazu's back story, but he definitely knew that it was anything but pleasant.
Just as Gray was going to apologise, Kazu beat him to it.
"Well, it would have been fine if a girl played a prank like that. But, it would be definitely weird if you kissed me." Kazu shook his head.
All the sad feelings Gray felt towards Kazu vaporised as if they didn't exist.
"You..." He found himself at a loss for words.
"Don't you think so?"
Gray just looked at him for a few seconds. His gaze looked foreign to Kazu.
"On a second thought, it won't be that bad." Gray sagely nodded. Getting kissed by a girl would be more than fine.
"Wait! That's not what I wanted to talk about. Just lend me your ear." Gray motioned his hands towards Kazu's ear.
The latter promptly did that.
"Well, the thing you missed out is that Cana actually has a dad, and that guy is in the guild."
Kazu felt as if a thunderbolt had struck in his head.
"Wait, what? Who?" 'Was this in Canon? Why don't I remember that?'
"It's none other than Gildarts."
Kazu's eyes widened at that.
'That guy is Cana's dad? No way. Why is she so weak then?'
"For real? Are you sure you didn't get pranked?"
Gray deadpanned at him. "I don't think she will prank when she's almost dyin..." Gray paused as he processed his own statement.
In his years of knowing Cana, that statement didn't sound impossible. In fact, it was more believable than Gildarts being Cana's dad.
However, Gray quickly shook his head. "I know her. That was definitely not a prank."
"Then why is this information not known to everybody? Or does only the master know?"
"I don't know why, but Cana seems to be a bit scared to approach him from her words. It probably means that Gildarts himself doesn't know that he has a child."
Kazu's lips tightened into a line. This was getting complicated.
"So... you're telling me this is because you want my help in deciding whether to say this information to everybody or not."
Gray nodded. "Yup. I want your advice on this."
"I think we don't want to say that to everybody." 'Right, I just remembered, but Cana always was hell-bent on becoming S-rank in the Canon. This must be the reason.' Kazu quickly connected the dots.
'If Gildarts knows this information beforehand, then Canon might drastically change, as he might not go on the 100-year quest and lose his arm to Acnologia.' Kazu wanted to preserve the Canon as much as he wanted to.
Though he didn't care much about the butterfly effect due to his own existence, discarding it completely might be letting go of any knowledge advantage he could have gained.
"Why?"
"Well, I think we are not at a place to publicly disclose the information which she clearly wanted to hide." Kazu glanced at Cana, who was sitting at the table with Levy. The former had her cards on the table, likely giving the latter their future.
Gray frowned. "Well, that's what's stopping me. But, with that logic, can't I say it's unfair to Gildarts too?"
Kazu shrugged. "Well, I wonder what that tells about the man who didn't even know he had his child. Anyway, that's beside the point. Between Cana and the old man, we would choose Cana, no?"
Gray slowly nodded. "Yeah, but I thought you would have even a difficult time deciding, 'coz you know, you got saved by that old man."
Kazu blinked.
"Right. But this and that is a different thing."
Kazu then looked at the counter, at the glasses that were present on it.
Some beer glasses were present on the counter.
'Well, I am indeed grateful to Gildarts, but this is a difficult decision.' Kazu internally shrugged.
Suddenly, a thought popped into his mind.
'Wait... If she had died that day... then wouldn't Gildarts have never known about this? And Cana never would have properly interacted with her dad?' Kazu bit his lip.
The more he thought about that, the more it sank deeper in his mind.
He was almost the reason that Cana wasn't able to meet him. Kazu started feeling guilt in his heart.
He took a deep breath and looked at the beer glass, which was still on the counter.
He then glanced at Cana, who had a confused look on her face as she looked at the cards.
Kazu made a decision.
'Fuck it. I hope I won't regret this.'
Kazu lifted the beer glass and gulped it.
"???" Gray, who was the only one watching him, felt puzzled.
Kazu's face turned slightly red as a lost look appeared on his face.
"WAIT, I just REMEMBER NOW. Didn't CANA say she was Gildart's DAUGTHER?" Kazu practically shouted.
The entirely lively tavern paused. The silence that followed stretched slowly.
Cana looked at Kazu with a baffled expression.
"Is he drunk?" Levy muttered. However, it was heard by Cana.
The latter's mind almost short-circuited. "No... He drank beer before me!? And he said that?... This must be a dream. A nightmare." Cana felt as if somebody had pulled the ground beneath her feet.
This sequence of events was too shocking.
She pinched her arm, and surprisingly, she didn't feel pain. "See! I don't feel pain. This must be a dream." She turned towards Levy, who—
pinched her.
"OUCH!"
"You didn't pinch yourself harder."
Meanwhile, Kazu had already been slowly making his way towards the door with Gray in tow.
The latter's expression had turned even more confused as he helped Kazu, who didn't even seem to be able to walk properly.
They exited the tavern and walked for a few seconds.
"That was weird," Kazu said before walking to a dustbin and vomiting.
All the red flush disappeared from his face.
"Hold up. You got sober this quickly?" Gray asked with an astonished face.
"Bruh. Did you actually think I would get drunk with just one glass? More importantly, this quick?"
Gray opened his mouth to protest, but found himself unable to form a proper reply.
"...Right. It was really weird. So, did you not drink it?"
"Nope. I just made a barrier in my food passage to not let it go any lower."
"Wow." Gray was impressed by such use.
Kazu just smirked.
"Anyway, didn't you say that it's going against Cana's wishes? Why did you do that?"
"Well, I just thought about what would have happened if she had died."
Gray blinked. "...Right. That thought never came to my mind." 'More like, I didn't want to consider.' He sighed.
"Say Gray, what exactly is the revenge you speak of as your goal?"
Kazu's words brought Gray out from his rumination. "Why the sudden interest?"
"I always had the interest. Today, it just feels like the day to ask. Though obviously, you can refuse to answer if it's uncomfortable."
Gray shook his head. "Nah, it's fine. We have gotten close over the last one? Or was it 1.5ish years? Anyway, how much do you know about my background?"
"Nothing."
Kazu's blunt answer caught him off guard.
"What do you mean, nothing?"
"I just know something bad happened, and now you want revenge. Cana had told me that your situation was similar to mine. That's it."
'I don't even remember much info from the Canon. What I remember is that he and that guy from Lamia scale were under the same master, whose daughter was in Grimoire's Heart.' Kazu didn't know whether his blurry memories were due to how much time had passed or due to the fact that he had skipped a lot of episodes.
"Why didn't you ask her then? Weren't you curious?" Gray raised a brow.
Kazu shrugged. "I thought it would be better to hear it from you directly. Moreover, I highly doubt that Cana would have given a straight answer."
Gray's lips curled up. "Well, though she is an idiot, she sometimes shows that she does have a brain." He shook his head at the joke.
"I wonder how she's feeling now that I told everyone about her dad." A half-guilty expression appeared on Kazu's face.
Gray patted his shoulder. "Cheer up. Knowing her, she's probably worried more about you drinking beer before her or some other dumb shit."
"No way. That's impossible." Kazu recognised Gray's attempt to reassure him, but he found his words to be too unreal.
"Anyway, let's get back to my story." A serious expression appeared on Gray's face.
***
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