Around noon, when Kabe finally dragged himself out of bed at the inn, rushed through a quick wash, and made his way back to the guild, he was greeted by the sight of yet another fresh gaping hole in the guild wall.
Pushing the door open, he walked in with an impatient face and started complaining.
"Hey, hey, hey, which bastard is wrecking the guild this time? Hurry up and figure out how to patch that hole yourselves, or when the old man comes back and starts yelling, every single one of us is going to get it."
As he grumbled, his gaze instinctively drifted around in search of a certain human husky, Natsu, already mentally dumping the blame on him.
But just as his eyes swept past the bar, his line of sight crashed into a very familiar figure.
"Yo, if it isn't Kabe. Been a year and you are still the same shorty, have not grown even a little, have you?"
The one talking was a scruffy middle-aged man with stubble on his chin, short orange hair and a tattered cloak thrown over his shoulders.
Kabe's face had just brightened at the sight of him, but the moment he heard those words, his expression dropped like a stone.
"Damn you, Gildarts, how many times do I have to tell you, I am not like normal people. For Saiyans, our whole race stays this small until we hit adulthood."
"Is that so. I always thought that was just an excuse you made up because you could not grow taller. Looks like I misunderstood you.
Ah, hahaha."
Gildarts scratched the back of his head and laughed foolishly. Just looking at this idiot, no one would ever imagine that he was Fairy Tail's S-class ace, a monster many whispered had strength on par with the Ten Wizard Saints.
Aside from being a terrifying mage, Gildarts also had an identity hardly anyone knew about.
He was the biological father of Kabe's friend, Cana.
It was just that his nerves were as thick as steel cable. All this time he had never realized that Cana was his daughter. And Cana herself had always felt she was not strong enough to stand before him and reveal the truth.
Thinking of Cana, Kabe's gaze slid sideways and immediately found the brown-haired girl sitting a little ways off, sneaking nervous glances in their direction.
This idiot probably rushed over the moment she heard Gildarts was back.
In the end she still does not dare go up and acknowledge him, just hiding there and watching from a distance again.
He sighed in his heart for how stubborn and twisted the girl was, but for the moment he could not think of any good way to help her untie that knot.
Right then, Gildarts crooked a finger at him mysteriously.
"Hey, Kabe, long time no see. I got you a present."
"Heh, you, a broke bum, had money to buy me a present? It is not some junk you picked up off the road, is it?"
Kabe could not imagine this middle-aged disaster magnet, who could not even control his own magic and wrecked whatever he touched, having anything good on him.
But curiosity was still curiosity, so he walked over, eyes full of expectation in spite of himself.
Gildarts glanced around furtively, then grabbed his travel bag.
"Gray and Natsu are not old enough yet, this batch is specially for you.
Here, pick out the ones you like best and take them."
As he spoke, he unzipped the bag and revealed a corner of what was inside.
In an instant, Kabe was staring at a neat stack of snow-white covers, racy magazines whose very titles would never get past a censor.
His pupils widened sharply. His hand actually trembled as he reached into the bag, pulled one out and flipped a page. He gave it a quick glance, then yanked his hand back and barked in righteous fury.
"You bastard, who do you think I am? How could I possibly need this kind of thing!"
With that, he snatched the entire bag out of Gildarts' hands and hugged it to his chest as he turned to march away.
"For the sake of your mental and physical health, I will be confiscating these. From now on just focus on doing your jobs. As for this kind of depraved trash that corrodes the mind, you do not need to touch it ever again."
Gildarts' jaw dropped. Clearly he had not expected Kabe to react like this at all.
He sat there blankly for a few seconds, then suddenly snapped back to himself and hurried after him, grabbing onto his travel bag with both hands.
"You little brat, do not go too far. There are a lot of rare treasures in there I could not bear to throw away. I can lend you a few, but if you want to take them all I am absolutely not agreeing to that."
"What? You think I am trying to rob you because I have my eye on that stuff?"
"Of course. You already grabbed my whole bag. If that is not robbery, what is it?"
"That is crap. I am taking it home to destroy it. I do not have a single impure thought in my head."
...
Watching Kabe bicker noisily with Gildarts, Cana could not help feeling a sour, complicated envy.
He was her father. The one who should be squabbling with him like that, should be her.
Yet every time she could only sit in the shadows, watching Gildarts joke and mess around with Kabe and Natsu from a distance.
Just as she was secretly drowning in envy, Kabe and Gildarts had moved from arguing to actually pulling at the same corner of the travel bag.
As the tug-of-war escalated and the two looked about ready to start throwing punches, Cana pushed down the bitterness in her chest and stood up, preparing to step in.
"Quit arguing, Kabe, Gildarts, you two..."
She had only just reached them when there was a sharp ripping sound.
With a piteous tear, the poor battered cloth bag, which could no longer endure the abuse, split cleanly in two.
In the next instant, a rain of indecent books and magazines spilled everywhere, scattering in a messy heap.
Flat on his back on the floor from losing his balance, Gildarts did not even have time to mourn for his loyal old companion who had accompanied him for so many years.
He could only stare in horror as Cana crouched down, picked up one of the magazines and flipped it open curiously.
His face went chalk-white. He shot out a hand in panic.
"No, Cana, close that book right now. You are not old enough to be looking at that!"
He was, of course, far too late.
Only a quick glance at the contents was enough to make Cana's face turn scarlet from chin to ears.
Expressionless, she snapped the magazine shut. Under Gildarts' horrified gaze and Kabe's heartbroken one, she tore it into confetti with a few sharp jerks.
Then she flicked her wrist, several cards appearing between her fingers, and hurled them at the two idiots with a furious roar.
"You two brainless scumbags, go die!"
"Wait, Cana!"
"Ahhh!"
Two screams rang out as one big and one small figure were blasted clear out of the guild.
They hit the hard ground outside with a pair of very solid thuds.
Ignoring the pain, Gildarts scrambled upright, but all that remained of his beloved treasures were a few drifting curls of ash.
His heart ached so badly it felt like it might bleed. He turned at once, ready to tear a certain someone a new one.
Only to see Kabe, sneaky as anything, pull a single magazine from inside his shirt, the one he had managed to swipe in that last split second, and happily start flipping through it with a very pleased smile.