Cana lit up. "Ta-da! Cool, right?"
He stared at the fading pattern. "That was Destructive Interference."
She puffed her cheeks. "Yeah? Took me forever. You look like you saw a ghost."
"You copied it with your Card Magic."
"Obviously."
Kazu frowned. Not angry. Just genuinely thrown off. "Cana… that's one of my most technical spells. You need deep ethernano control, structure intuition, real mastery—"
"Wow. I know you're used to being the prodigy, but you hear yourself?" She poked his chest. "I train. A lot. Just because I drink doesn't mean I'm an idiot."
"You drink a concerning amount."
"And? It's medicinal."
"It's poison. Are you high?"
"Medici-poison." She smirked. "Point is — just because I'm not on missions doesn't mean I'm wasting time. Dad sends enough allowance that I don't need to run around freezing to death like Gray. So I practice."
Kazu folded his arms. "Even if you practice as diligently as Erza, you shouldn't be able to copy a Wanderer-tier spell. Not with your current mastery of Ethernano manipulation."
For Cana's card magic, if she wanted to copy a person's magic, she needed a decent affinity to that magic. Depending on the strength of her affinity and her mastery of that magic, she could copy it.
This is how she could use Ethernano enhancement, magic bullets and barriers, which is Kazu's magic. However, they can't compare to Interference, as the mastery gap is pretty high.
Though Cana's affinity to Ethernano enhancement and manipulation is not bad, her mastery has a long way to go to reach the level she could copy it.
Cana's grin widened. She appeared pretty smug.
"That's because I bypassed the mastery requirement."
He blinked. "You… what?"
"Card Magic is now Expert tier." She wiggled her fingers, letting a fan of cards float between them. "Once I ironed out the structure, copying spells got way easier. As long as I have decent affinity with the magic type, boom — instant copy."
Kazu just gawked at her for a few seconds, processing everything.
"CONGRATS! You just hit your first 'broken ability' milestone." He hugged her.
"Damn right I did." She beamed. "Do you know what this means?"
He already did, but he let her say it anyway.
"Erza? Mira? Beating them might not be a dream anymore… but something real."
Kazu nodded once. "Not unrealistic."
Her eyes gleamed. "Not unrealistic, he says. That's practically an endorsement."
He didn't bother denying it.
'I thought Gray would be the first one to create a 'broken' spell or maybe even Erza. But to think this drunkyard beat both of them to it.' After creating Destructive Interference, Kazu had told his friends that if they wanted to increase their spell by a significant degree, they would need to create spells that go beyond the norm, as he did.
It was risky, but with the right guidance, they could minimise the risk and increase their power while creating such a spell.
He had guided Gray and Cana intensively in that. For Cana, he had told her that she could reach a level of bypassing mastery; however, midway, he had shifted his focus to guiding her with her strongest affinity--Fortune-telling.
So, it was a shocker to him when Cana actually brought her Card magic to this level.
Kazu also wasn't jealous. Not even close. Cana was his friend. One of his first friends in this world. Also, unlike him—who neutralised spells on instinct, manipulating structures on the fly during battles— she still needed preparation to neutralise a spell. If it's an unknown spell, then depending on the difficulty, it could take a long time to neutralise it.
Still, even with such drawbacks, it was impressive. Ridiculous, really, if we consider that Cana did it.
"Alright," Cana said, hands on her hips. "Next question."
Kazu raised a brow. "There's a next?"
"You asked why I can copy your spell. It's because I have an affinity with Ethernano itself. So… Constructive interference. Can I copy that spell?"
"No," she answered herself, crossing her arms. "Because I haven't seen it up close."
He considered it, then nodded. "Fine. Watch carefully."
She perked up instantly.
Kazu summoned another magic bullet — this one denser, humming with more force. He held it in place with one hand. Then, with the other, he formed a second structure: a spiralling reinforcement pattern that wrapped around the bullet, stabilising and amplifying it.
'Constructive Interference'. The counterpart to the spell she just used. Instead of collapsing spells, it enhanced them. Clean, tight, surgical.
Cana stepped closer, eyes tracking every line, every shift in the structure. He could almost feel her focus — sharp, sober, the version of Cana most people didn't know existed.
Kazu released the bullet upward. It vanished into the air with a crack like distant thunder.
Cana didn't blink. Her mind was racing while she looked at a card floating in front of her.
Ten minutes passed. Then Thirty.
Finally, she exhaled slowly, a card rising between her fingers. The edges glowed, shifting into the same spiralling reinforcement pattern he'd shown her.
"Got it," she said softly.
The glow faded, but the structure lingered — embedded, memorised.
Kazu stared at it. "You learned it faster than expected." 'Well, even if this spell is similar to Destructive Interference, taking this much time is valid.'
Cana grinned again. "Told you. Expert tier."
He shook his head, half amused. "You're impossible."
"And you love me that way." She slung an arm around his shoulders without hesitation.
Kazu didn't push her off. "If you keep this up, I might have to train you properly."
Cana froze for half a second — then lit up like someone offered her infinite alcohol. "Wait. Are you serious?"
"Your foundation's solid. Card Magic is versatile. If you want more flexibility, I can teach you my structure analysis methods. If you work on your general magic foundations, then maybe one day, you could neutralise spells on the fly just like me."
"I absolutely want more flexibility. Teach me everything."
"Not everything."
"Most things?"
"We'll negotiate."
She laughed, leaning her forehead against his shoulder. "Deal."
Kazu let her stay there a moment, then nudged her off. "Come on. Show me you can use Constructive Interference without wasting half of your reserves."
"Rude. But fair."
She stepped back, lifted a card, and shaped the pattern again. Smoother this time. More precise. Kazu watched with the faintest upward twitch of his mouth.
'I need to speed up on creating Internal Destruction. Otherwise, Cana might surpass me. Though reaching my level of mastery with neutralising would take a long time as I do most things with Instincts... Even so, with this, she had become formidable.'
Kazu flicked his fingers, and the next second, a barrier surrounded them.
Before Cana could ask, Kazu answered her. "It's a sound and light sealing barrier. I think it's time I tell you a big secret of mine."
"A secret?"
"My main affinity isn't Ethernano Manipulation." Kazu decided that it's time he finally tells us this secret of his.
"Yeah, I know."
He stared at her. "You know?" Gray and Makarov had given the same reaction.
She shrugged. "It's obvious. How could an extraordinary person have such an ordinary and unflashy kind of magic like Ethernano manipulation?"
Kazu's lips twitched. "You do know that more than half of your main arsenal contains the copied spells of this ordinary magic."
Cana smirked. "Ordinary spells shine brightly in the hands of brilliant people."
He ignored that. "Alright then. Since you seem so sure, what do you think my magic is?"
Cana hopped off the barrel and dug inside her vest pocket. Out came a card—using her Fortune-telling to determine his magic.
Kazu raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you use that earlier? You've had that thing the entire time I've known you."
Her expression shifted—less smug, more straightforward. "Because we're friends." She tapped the card on her knuckle. "Reading someone's affinity without asking is basically invading their privacy. It would've been a crap thing to do. You trusted me, so I didn't check."
That shouldn't have hit as hard as it did. A simple statement. Honest. Too honest.
He looked away immediately. "Whatever. Just get on with it." 'Damn, did she always have such a glib tongue?' Her actions touched Kazu at a deeper level.
Cana smirked. "God, you're so obvious."
"I'm not."
"You absolutely are. Your ears are already red."
He glared. She laughed, then pressed the card gently to her forehead, then to his chest. The surface brightened in a quick, sharp pulse. Her brows drew together.
"…Instincts," she murmured. "Something tied to instinctive response. Reflex, prediction—something in that territory."
***
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