"I guess, I now understand what dad meant," Cana muttered while grabbing two cards from her bag.
'I do have the power to make a change, but can I really do it?' She clutched the cards tightly.
The faces of those parents appeared in her mind.
'But, what if I fail? Can I face those parents?'
She bit her lip. She can't.
If she chose to choose now, then she would have to face them. If she doesn't, then she can just hide behind Kazu as usual.
The grip on the cards loosened.
'But, if I do nothing, then those kids would probably die.' Remembering those vulnerable kids, Cana hesitated.
She now finally understood what Erza was feeling. She now had the means to make a change, but that change didn't have a definite chance of success, and the consequences of failure are very high.
Cana exhaled through her mouth. She glanced at Kazu, who was with his indifferent expression.
"Kazu, how do you feel about your decision? Decision of abandoning the children to protect the city?" Like usual, she bluntly asked him.
"Do you want me to be honest? Or do you want me to say what you want to hear?"
"Honest."
"I feel nothing."
His words caused her to stiffen. "...Nothing?" If it were a random person, they would have thought that Kazu was emotionless. However, Cana knew that was far from the truth.
Though Kazu had always appeared aloof during missions and took pragmatic decisions, he still appeared normal outside the missions.
Suddenly, all the emotions got replaced by guilt.
"Be honest...5 years ago, during Anne's mission, we saved a group of children from bandits. During that, what did you feel when looking at those children?" Cana looked at him while putting her free hand in the bag.
"Nothing. I felt nothing the same as now." Without batting an eye, Kazu replied.
"Liar." Cana looked at the card, which had now turned red, indicating that Kazu had lied.
'So...Kazu had turned like this over the years...' Cana had accompanied him on multiple missions where Kazu had faced the people who had lost their loved ones.
Knowing this, she now felt guilty. 'Maybe, if I had not let him decide everything and had rather faced the consequences with him, he might not have become like this.'
Her grip on the cards tightened again before loosening.
'I guess, I really need to grow up.' Cana made up her mind.
She suddenly grabbed Erza's arm and threw a card on the ground.
The card dissolved the instant it left her fingers—and the world folded.
They suddenly disappeared.
They reappeared in a pitch-black underground cellar, damp stone walls closing in, the air thick with fear and sweat. Rows of children huddled against iron bars, eyes wide, mouths frozen mid-breath.
"The cellar," Cana muttered.
She didn't waste time. Another card snapped into her hand and was thrown hard into the ground.
Enemy mages reacted instantly.
Spells detonated. Blades of mana flew toward the cages.
Cana's eyes widened.
'I can't transport both of us at this, otherwise all these attacks would also be transported.'
She moved on instinct.
A translucent barrier snapped into existence around her and Erza as Cana shouted, "Erza!"
She didn't need to say more.
WHOOSH
Steel screamed into the air.
Multiple swords manifested around Erza in a tight halo, spinning, colliding with incoming attacks—magic cracking against metal, sparks lighting the darkness in violent flashes.
The transport spell was completed—partially.
All the children vanished suddenly along with the cages.
However, they weren't the only ones. Some of the enemy mages near the cages vanished too.
They landed on the other side with the evacuees.
A lean man with narrow eyes stepped forward.
'Doesn't matter,' he thought calmly. 'Orders are orders. Kill the kids.'
He raised his hand.
Shadow condensed, sharpening into a spear aimed at the nearest child.
He lunged with the spear.
The spear didn't land.
His vision blurred.
''—What?''
The shadow spear slowed mid-air, its edges warping, collapsing inward like it was being squeezed by invisible walls. The mage staggered, pressure slamming into his chest, breath forced out of his lungs.
He tried to move.
Couldn't.
Around him, translucent structures snapped into place—layer upon layer of barriers, sealing every angle of escape.
His bones creaked.
''No—''
The barriers closed.
Compressed.
Flesh, blood, magic—everything crushed inward in a single, silent instant.
When the pressure was released, nothing recognisable remained.
The area was ringed with floating barrier constructs, dozens of them, each enclosing an enemy mage. They collapsed one by one with sickening finality, turning attackers into red stains against invisible walls.
Above them all, suspended in the air like an unmoving anchor—
Kazu.
Cloaked in sunlight, eyes cold, hands slightly raised.
The city behind him trembled under distant impacts, but here—around the children—nothing got through.
"That idiot..."
'She probably didn't say that she had a spatial card because we were being monitored. So, to catch them off-guard, doing this was a necessity.'
Though Cana's gamble had paid off, and kids were now safe, the city necessarily wasn't.
'The other two are probably stuck. They would have returned by now if Cana had more teleport cards, which means I need to defend the city on my own.'
Kazu looked down at the city with a frown.
Multiple barriers formed around him, followed by small finger-sized barriers surrounding him and the skies of the entire city.
Suddenly, light started refracting through all those barriers until images formed around the barrier. They showed the attackers present at the outskirts.
'Guess, all that teaching others was useful after all. My barrier magic had become pretty versatile.' Kazu had developed this spell after seeing the light spell Makarov uses for projecting S-rank trials.
Though Kazu couldn't make a strong barrier at a large distance from him, making weak barriers, such that covering the range of an entire city was still plausible.
***
They cleared the underground faster than Cana expected.
Too fast.
Ritual circles shattered. Sigils burned out. Whatever ugly contingency the dark guilds had prepared below ground died choking in its own magic. By the time Cana and Erza emerged back into the open air, the silence felt wrong.
Six figures stood ahead of them, arranged loosely, confidently—like predators that didn't bother hiding anymore. Around them lingered dozens of lesser mages, disciplined, alert, ready.
Cana's breath hitched.
''Six… S-ranks.''
Her mind snapped into cataloguing mode, almost desperately.
'From Baskerville, there's Jack with Speed-based magic, Lambda with Destruction magic and Reaper with Darkness magic.
From Black Rook, there's Martin with Strength magic and Carl with Magnetism.
Finally, Tupper with Curse magic from Gravehowl.'
Her fingers trembled.
''Retreat…?'' The thought died instantly. Even turning their backs felt impossible.
One of the S-ranks—Lambda, judging by the steady gaze—tilted his head slightly.
"Three of us are enough," he said calmly. "Martin. Jack. Carl."
The others didn't argue.
"Tupper, Reaper," Lambda continued, already turning away. "Time to attack the city."
Cana's stomach dropped. 'Fuck, Kazu would be at too much disadvantage against three S-ranks while he defends the city.' The worst-case scenario had finally happened with Kazu not having a guarantee to safely defend the city.
They moved.
Three figures stayed behind.
Jack cracked his neck, grinning wide as his eyes locked onto Cana. "Well, well. Guess I got lucky."
Martin and Carl stepped toward Erza, pressure rolling off them like a physical weight.
Erza didn't flinch.
Cana did.
Jack vanished.
She barely threw a card in time.
Air detonated where her head had been a split second earlier. Cana stumbled, boots skidding across broken stone as another blur tore past her ribs.
''Too fast.''
She didn't try to attack or to win.
She ran.
Cards flew from her hands—smoke, illusion, explosive decoys—anything to clutter the field.
Jack's laughter echoed from everywhere.
"Oh, come on! That's it?" A kick slammed into her side before she even saw him.
Pain flared white-hot. Cana crashed through a half-ruined wall, coughing, vision swimming.
''Stay alive.''
''That's it.''
''Just stay alive.''
She rolled as something sliced the air where her spine had been. Another card shattered mid-air, creating a mirage of her sprinting left.
Jack blitzed through it without slowing.
"Bad trick," he mocked.
She felt the wind shift—too late.
Something clipped her shoulder. Blood sprayed. Cana bit down on a scream and forced herself upright, legs shaking.
'I can't match him. At least not without Destructive Interference. Analysing his spells in so small time is almost impossible, so I need to stall.' Though Cana's physical power had increased due to Constructive Interference, in front of Jack, who was moving at high speed, it wasn't enough.
She used a barrier card, which cracked almost instantly, to reposition. Another illusion. Another misdirection. Her magic burned, reserves bleeding dry faster than she liked.
Jack slowed—just a fraction.
Not tired.
Interested.
"That look," he said, appearing inches from her face. "Trying to stall, are we?"
She threw a card point-blank.
Flash. Smoke. Noise.
Cana staggered back, gasping, every muscle screaming.
'Time. I just need some time.'
From the corner of her vision, she saw Erza locked between Martin's overwhelming blows and Carl's magnetic distortions.
Cana clenched her teeth.
Jack reappeared behind her.
She felt it before she saw it.
Another hit would end her.
She threw her last defensive card—not to block, but to disrupt.
The spell fizzled halfway.
Jack's blade came down.
Cana raised her arm on instinct.
'Not yet. Please—'
The strike missed by inches as Jack suddenly twisted mid-motion, feet skidding as if something unseen had interfered.
His grin widened.
"Oh?" he said, eyes gleaming. "You're still standing."
Cana swayed, blood dripping from her fingers, lungs burning.
She didn't answer.
She just stayed on her feet.
Because right now—
That was all she could do.
***
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