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CHAPTER START---
"You look constipated!" Laxus laughs as he floats through the air, just a few feet above the rolling grassy hills they're training on. He spreads his limbs out, enjoying the morning sun and fresh air, listening to all the sounds of birds chirping and animals moving about through the nearby forests. "Just let everything flow through you. Magic is part of you, not a special device you need to turn on and off. Just feel it like a muscle."
Down in the grass, Cana breathes heavily, wiping the sweat from her brow as she catches her breath. "I'm trying. But I have to think to activate them. I can't just sneeze out lightning!"
"You could if you try hard enough."
She glares up at him before reaching into the utility belt hanging on her shorts and draws another deck of Magic Cards. "Jerk," she mutters while sorting through the cards.
She selects the cards for Water, Focus, and Accuracy. Taking a deep breath, she focuses on the small stone pillar a few meters away from her, then flows her Magic Energy into the cards.
First into the Water Card, then Focus, and finally Accuracy. "Release!" she squeezes them together and waves them at the pillar, pointing toward it.
A jet of high-pressure water the size of her head manifests from the pale blue Magic Circle crafted by the cards and punches through the pillar, breaking it in two.
"Yes! I did it!"
"Took you long enough," Laxus says as he lands beside her. "That's all the basic elements. Now lets do something a bit more advanced, offensively."
"Like what?"
Laxus smiles and crouches on the grass, placing a palm on the ground and activating Earth Magic. Five stone pillars rise from the earth in front of them, then he reinforces it, as taught to him and Oberon by Jura.
"There. These are tough enough to take a few hits, keep going until you break them all. You've got well above average Magic Energy for your age, now lets see if you can break things like your dad."
"But which one should I use?"
Laxus thinks about it for a moment, then snaps his fingers. Using Lightning Magic and Lightning Enchantment Magic, he manifests a bolt of golden lightning directly onto one of the pillars and has it leap between all of them.
"Wow…"
"Think you can manage that?"
Cana takes a deep breath, feeling the pressure that comes with the black Fairy Tail Guild Mark on her right shoulder. "Yeah, I'll do it."
She looks down at her cards for a moment, then stops and turns to Laxus. "Uh, what's the combination for that?"
"You're asking me? It's your Magic."
"That Grimoire is huge, I haven't even read the whole thing."
"Then lets ask the resident bookworm," Laxus turns toward a hill overlooking their small training area, where Gildarts and Oberon are sitting under a shady tree. "Hey genius! Chain Lightning!"
Oberon looks up from his Journal to see both of them looking at him. "Lightning, Focus, Tracking, Distance, Accuracy!"
Laxus and Cana get back to work while Gildarts carefully observes, and Oberon returns to his notes. Gildarts leans over to peek into Oberon's notes, and doesn't understand any of the formulas within.
"Is that how Crash Magic looks to you?" he asks.
"It's how all Magics look to me. This is just the base, haven't added in other properties yet. But for the record, your Magic is by far the most obnoxious."
"Thanks?"
"Making a Rune to seal away Crash Magic is hard. Your Magic wants to destabilize everything it touches, so placing one on that is hard. It's like putting wooden boards over flowing lava, well, more like an erupting volcano."
"How do you plan to do that?"
"That's easy. Let the volcano cool off."
"I don't get it."
Oberon sets to book to hover aside and turns to Gildarts. He raises a fist and holds it out to the man. "Hit me with something, just a drop of Crash Magic, on three."
"It doesn't work on you."
"Unless I want it to. When other Magics crash into my Cosmic I get a better understanding for them. It's kind of like a way to fast track learning Magics."
"Oh…that's cheating."
"It doesn't mean I can use them. My affinity still sucks. Now, on my count."
Oberon does a short countdown before releasing his Magic Energy for barely a second, causing Cana to stumble and fall onto the grass, and at the same time Gildarts fires a blast of Crash Magic at him.
Before the Magic Energy could overwhelm Cana, the clash is concluded, and the area returns to normal. Laxus quickly helps her up, unbothered by the show of power. "Don't mind them," he says to her.
"That was…a lot."
"Yeah. But Gildarts says you've got as much as he did at your age. You'll probably be stronger than him since you've got more help than he did."
"Yeah, I'll try to remember that," she says, refocusing on the new combination of cards.
"Sometimes it can be a lot to live up to. But our family is pretty awesome, all you have to do is be your greatest self…"
While Cana and Laxus are getting ready to test the new move, Gildarts carefully observes from the hilltop and Oberon continues preparing the seal. Without looking away from his daughter, Gildarts speaks to Oberon.
"So what's been eating at you lately?"
"Learning Crash Magic to help you two out. Wearing for my client to get back to the guild for my next S-Class Job, the usual," Oberon continues his notes. "How is it being a dad?"
"Great, surprisingly. Getting over the fact that my ex-wife thought she had to keep Cana a secret…no great."
"She must have had a good reason."
"She left me a letter. Said she didn't want me living with the guilt of either being an absent dad to my kid because people need me to fight monsters for them, or the guilt of letting those people die to be at home more."
"So she removed your ability to choose."
"She made quite the choice. Not sure what part of it I'm even upset about. But what about you? Is this next Job making you anxious, you were in a hurry to get out of Magnolia."
"Ugh, it's Alana."
A cheshire grin splits Gildarts's face as he turns to the boy. "Ohhh, puberty finally hit."
"I think she likes me. Well, I know she likes me, but I feel like it if I ignore it any more it'll get worse."
"Well, you're twelve so you don't need to be thinking about that stuff right now. She probably doesn't even know what she feels or why she feels it. Besides, you've got a lot on your plate as is. But take my advice, ignore the girls for as long as you can."
"Girls are weird."
"Normally I'd drink to that, but I'm trying to cut back on that now."
"I still have that other bottle of the monks brew."
"Oh gods no," Gildarts scrunches his face at the memory of that hangover. "Any good news at all? How's your training going?"
"Light and Gravity are maxed out, just learning more about Cosmic now."
"Are you saying you have the Black Hole Spell?"
"I've had that for a while," Oberon shrugs. "But its super illegal since almost every Gravity Magic user strong enough to learn it dies on the first attempt."
"Yeah, I've seen some of the craters where those towns used to be. Nasty stuff. You scared of losing control?"
"Nah, but it's not something I can use around friends. And I prefer to bring in people alive."
"Could come in useful depending on who you're fighting."
"Yeah, but Gravity Magic and Light Magic lack permanence. The effects aren't real, just Magic Energy imitation like other Magics. But with Cosmic they are."
"So you'd rather learn to throw a real black hole at someone?"
"I'm not throwing either at anyone."
Gildarts chuckles. "You're way too soft. But I suppose you can afford to be, until you can't."
"I just rather lean on Cosmic for the big stuff like that. It's a bit weird but I feel a lot more comfortable with that Magic."
"Splitting it into Light and Gravity Magics was your body trying to handle the strain, so that's no surprise. But maybe—"
The crackling sound of lightning rumbles through the field as blue bolts arc from Cana's cards to one of the pillars. It dances between them, hitting three of the five targets before leaping off toward Gildarts.
The bolt strikes him, barely tickling him before leaping to Laxus, who casually catches it in his hand and compresses it into a marble. He crushes it in his hand, dispelling it.
"Sorry, dad!" Cana yells, almost teary eyed while looking up at her father.
Beside him, Oberon is laughing, and Gildarts just gives her a gentle wave. "You're doing great! It'll take more than that to hurt me! Try it again."
Cana wipes away her tears and turns back to Laxus, ready to correct her mistake.
"Did you hear that?" Gildart mutters as Oberon finally stops laughing. "She called me 'dad'..."
CHAPTER END---
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pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
You.tube: @KeanuEugene [Giving away all my writing knowledge]