Ever since that first job, Kabe had been pouring almost all his time and energy into missions.
Only, unlike most people who treated requests as work, Kabe treated them as training. On the way to every job, he never used transport. He ran if he could run, swam if he had to cross water, never missing a single chance to push his body.
It was a method he had come up with after thinking about the training Son Goku went through under Master Roshi. Clumsy, maybe, but very effective.
Just like that, another two years flew by.
During that time, plenty of new faces joined the guild, including Natsu, the protagonist of the original story. However, because Kabe spent so much time away on jobs, he was not as close to most of them as he was to Gray and the others.
The only exception was Natsu. Since Natsu kept challenging him and kept getting beaten to a pulp for it, they actually ended up getting along pretty well.
...
That day, an odd scene appeared on the streets of Magnolia.
Pedestrians were stopped on both sides of the road, pointing and whispering about the figure "walking" down the middle of the street.
A young man who had only arrived that morning as a tourist stood among the crowd, watching for a long while before finally blurting out,
"Does that kid... have some kind of mental problem?"
You could not really blame him for wondering. The object of everyone's curiosity was a weirdo walking on his hands, a bundle strapped to his body with ropes.
Other than thinking the guy's head was not screwed on right, the young man really could not come up with a more reasonable explanation.
"Hey, kid, you should not say things like that. Badmouthing people when you do not know the truth is not a good habit."
A rebuking voice sounded behind him. The young man turned around on reflex and bowed his head.
"I-I am really sorry. I am new in town and did not know about... the local, ah, 'sights.'"
The man who had scolded him was a middle aged uncle with a face full of stubble. Seeing how cleanly the youth apologized, and hearing that he was not from Magnolia, the uncle let it slide with a nod.
"Um..."
Sensing that this uncle was not actually that hard to talk to, the young man plucked up his courage and asked,
"Sir, could you tell me about that child? I am actually a traveling writer looking for inspiration. Here is my card."
The uncle accepted the business card and glanced over it. He had never heard of the name before, but he still puffed up a little and said in an enthusiastic tone that screamed "you picked the right guy,"
"That kid was picked up outside town by Master Makarov more than two years ago."
He had just finished the first sentence when the young man suddenly cut in.
"Wait. Master Makarov... do you mean Makarov, one of the Ten Wizard Saints?"
"Of course. Who else named Makarov would there be in all of Magnolia?"
The uncle shot him an annoyed look, displeased at being interrupted.
The young man chuckled awkwardly but his hands were already moving. He pulled out a notebook and pen and started scribbling at high speed.
"See his waist there, that furry thing wrapped around it? That is actually his tail."
"A tail? A human with a tail?"
The young man's eyes widened. He quickly followed the direction of the uncle's finger.
The boy had already "walked" quite a distance by now, but the young man could still clearly see the monkey like tail wrapped around his waist.
His curiosity was instantly hooked.
"Please, tell me more."
The uncle clearly enjoyed having an audience to brag to and continued with relish,
"Maybe it was because he was so different that his parents abandoned him. Luckily, Master Makarov is a kind soul who takes in children with tragic backgrounds and brings them into the guild."
He sighed, then went on.
"In order to repay Makarov and Fairy Tail for taking him in, that kid trains like crazy every day. His goal is to become a powerful mage as soon as possible and pay back the kindness he owes."
"So that kid is... training?" The young man stared at the small figure in the distance that was almost out of sight, feeling a strange tug in his chest.
"That is right. He is incredibly diligent. No matter where the job is, he insists on running there on his own feet. Even so, in two years he has never been late for a single request. He is a true genius who is climbing forward step by step through sweat and hard work."
"This... this is..."
The young man was at a loss for words. The information packed into that short explanation was so shocking he almost could not process it.
"Crossing from town to town on nothing but his own legs and still finishing every job on time... that is incredible."
With his imagination, he could already picture the hardships and grit that had filled the boy's journey. His interest in this child, born under misfortune yet still filled with gratitude, shot through the roof.
He insisted on dragging the uncle to a café so he could hear the story in full detail.
The uncle had nothing better to do anyway, and the young man was very enthusiastic, so he had no reason to refuse.
Before they left, the young man looked back one last time at the figure that was already nowhere to be seen and finally asked the question that had just occurred to him.
"Sir, what is the boy's name?"
"Him? He is Kabe, Fairy Tail's mage and mascot."
"Huh? Did you say... mascot?"
...
Kabe, currently in his "Might Guy the Second" form, continued walking on his hands with effort while mentally ranting nonstop.
He knew very well that his bizarre behavior would attract attention. But he had a single minded obsession with getting stronger and did not care what others said.
What he really could not handle were the heartfelt, melodramatic stories the townsfolk kept making up about him.
Honestly, that uncle's version was one of the closer ones to the truth.
The others, like "He is the child of a human and a Grian," or "He insists on traveling on foot because he gets motion sickness," or "He works this hard because he wants to save the girl he has secretly loved since childhood who was kidnapped by bad guys," were so far off they were orbiting another planet.
He had heard those kinds of ridiculous stories more times than he could count. At first they made him angry, but now he was just used to it.
After walking on his hands the entire day, all he wanted now was to hurry back to that noisy guild, eat a mountain of food, head back to his apartment for a hot bath, then sleep like a log.