A/N: Hiya! I'm back with another chapter on BH! You guys are totally awesome! I wasn't expecting this much favourites and followers and.. OMG, It pierced the ten reviews standard I set on myself! Thanks a bunch!

So, well, to clear things up, Erza and Axel is still sibling. They're half sibling with their mother being a prostitute and different fathers. Axel will still save Erza and yes, we still get to see the cuteness that was Kid!Erza. Hopefully, I can pull it off. On a side note, I'm glad that my new background for my OC is better than the previous one. Haha.

Anyhow, thank you for the reviews everyone. I'm going to make sure that this remake is better than its predecessor so don't look away just yet. Please leave some comment on what you think about it and don't forget to click that fav and follow button. Enjoy the chappie!


Chapter 2: Quality Time of a Family of Bounty Hunters.

Flying on the back of a giant manta was a novel experience for me, and my currently child-like mindset couldn't help but laugh and squeal with joy at the exhilarating experience, completely ignoring the more mature side of my mind as though it never existed in the first place. Lepanto had probably noticed it, if the mirthful grin was anything to go by.

Normaly, I'd never let anyone see this childish side of me that I've clamped and buried into the deepest recesses of my mind, but right now, I couldn't really care about anything else. There was just me, the awesome manta, the shitty old man, the beautiful night sky, the wind and the comfortable silence around us.

And fuck, It was perfect.

Unconsciously, my eyes started to droop, tired from all the excited cheers that I'd let out since the beginning of our trip. Teetering at the edge of consciousness, I barely noticed a pair of strong limbs pulling me back into a warm, comfortable embrace. A bit hard, sure, but warm and comfy nonetheless. Without much fanfare, I quickly lost myself to sleep.

"Good night, Axel."

"Mhm. G'night, old man."


"What a weird dream." I muttered to myself as I woke up from the best sleep I've ever had in my entire four years of life in Earthland. I rubbed my eyes, purging away the last remnants of sleep before stretching my body as far as I could, feeling the pleasurable pop of my bones all throughout my body, eliciting a sigh of relief from me. "Do you know that you've a very comfy body, Yozora?" I asked, patting the Kassō manta on top of his head, earning me that strange mix of a purr and a growl from the fish.

"What dream?" My old man pitched in, raising an eyebrow at me in a silent inquiry before giving me a confused stare. "And who the hell is Yozora?"

"Well, I have this weird dream where you pulled me into a hug and let me use your body as a hug-pillow." I answered, shrugging my shoulders at the very notion of it ever happening. "Really doesn't suit your character, by the way. Anyhow, Yozora is the name of your Manta and no, I don't care what you think, I'm still naming it." I said, patting the creature softly on the head, this time earning a pleasant cross between a thrill and a whistle from it.

Seriously, this awesome manta has got some pretty weird voice box to produce all this unique noises. All that awesomeness deserve a name to be known with.

Old man gave an annoyed grumble for my comment before pulling out several photographs from his pocket, a cheshire grin suddenly stretching on his face as he waved the thing in my face. "You know, you look so incredibly cute last night that I think it would be horribly selfish of me to keep all this mushiness to myself." My eyes bulged out of their socket, immediately zeroing in on the waving photographs to see that indeed, it was as he claimed it to be.

It was a photograph of me sleeping against him.

ME against HIM.

And he even has the nerve to give a peace sign on each of the photographs. Heck, there's even one where he was pulling my cheeks making me do weird faces in my sleep!

My face immediately flushed with a combination of embarrassment and righteous fury "WWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed, steam rising up from on top of my head in the vague shape of a shroom-cloud before I lunged at him, intent on getting those blackmail materials and ripping them to pieces with my own hands when the photographs suddenly vanished into motes of orange light, disappearing into the morning air. With my target gone, I was left to collide with my old man's hard-as-a-brick-wall body.

And damn, did it hurt.

"Ouch! The heck is wrong with your body!?" I growled, rubbing the slight soreness in my face from colliding right onto him. "And where the hell are those fabricated piece of blackmail!? Give 'em now!" I screamed at him, irritated beyond believe. My reputation is at stake and I will be damned before I let my reputation plummets before it even started.

The Bounty Hunter laughed at me, orange eyes seemingly glowing with mirth. "I was just messing with you, dipshit, calm down." He said, hands set in the standard placating motion that people used to calm others down. "I made them with my magic, so there's no real photograph with me. Heck, I don't even have any camera to snap the picture." He admitted.

I heaved a sigh of relieve, my body slumping back as the adrenaline that flooded my system slowly went down. "Shitty old man." I grumbled with no real bite in my tone, more tired than anything.

"Whatever, dipshit." He dismissed me off with a flippant, very casual wave of his hand. That bastard.. "Anyhow, we're getting close to our next stop, so get ready." Saying something like that, there's really nothing to really prepare seeing as there's really nothing that we could do on top of Yozora, I should know, since I've lost my deck of playing cards to the wind when I tried to rope the Old Man into a game of poker. A shame, it was a pretty good quality too..

Without much to do, I find myself sitting just at the edge of Yozora's side, admiring the view of the forest below me, the small waterfall located a bit furthere west from our destination and the town looming in the distance. "What're we gonna do there?" I asked.

"Hmm?" Old Man turned to me, eyes slightly dimming in boredom and disinterest. "Oh, We're gonna resupply, rest for a while, meet my contact for some new bounties to catch and, well, if there's really nothing to do, I'm going to make do with my promise and train you up." He said.

"Somehow, I felt as if I should go prepare a casket for my funeral." I muttered under my breath, a sweatdrop trailing down my head.


It was a bit later in the morning when we finally reached our destination, a quaint peaceful town of Clavel*, where we stopped to rest for a couple of weeks until the Old Man could find a new bounty or a potential client to hire his services. The town was located at least fifteen miles, north-east to the capital city of Crocus. It was a decent town, with buildings roughly the same design as those in Balsam with the only difference being the town's lack of a river and overabundance of forest.

Instead of traditional japanese though, the town took more to a traditional chinese feel to them. It was a bit jarring, entering a place with an extremely different style and trend, I mean. I almost felt like getting hit with a rather hard case of culture shock with how different everything here is with Rosemary.

However, that was neither here nor there. Right now, there are more important things to pay attention to than the different culture of Clavis, such as my Old Man who was trying and, loathe as I am to admit it, successing in channeling a strict teacher persona as he started our first session of training.

"Right." Old Man began, orange eyes uncharacteristically serious. I gulped, unconsciously straightening my back in anticipation. This is it, the moment I'll begin to learn everything there is to know about fighting; unarmed, armed or magical. I took a deep breath, suppressing the bubbling excitement in me with minimal success before focusing intently on my Old Man. "Today, I'll teach all there is about being a bounty hunter; tricks, techniques, abilities, knowledge and other useful stuff."

"Okay." I responded, slightly dismayed with the amount of excitement still leaking into my voice.

Old Man smirked, orange eyes gleaming like a predator. Must've heard the excitement, I sulked. Anyhow, he chose to spare me the embarrassment in order to move on with his lesson, something I was secretly thankfull about. "First, I'll train you physically. We'll increase your stamina, strength, speed, pain-tolerance, and battle instinct. Then, we'll move on with magic training; activating your magic, meditation, manipulation and control of the flow of your magic, increasing your reserve before training in a specific kind of ability, in this case, Arc of Embodiment. Finally, I'll teach you techniques. Dodging, hand-to-hand, armed combat, tracking, silent movement, infiltrating, and lots of other stuff." He listed.

I gulped. That was a lot of stuff to learn.

"Well, excited?" He asked, not a trace of humor in his voice even though the predatory smile never left his voice.

"Sort of." I replied, not really sure with myself in the face of the, admittedly, terrifying predatory smirk etched onto his face. "Why? Was I not supposed to?" I asked, a bit afraid to hear the response.

"By the time I'm done with you-" He cracked his knuckles, his grin seemingly widening despite the impossibility of it. "You're going to know the meaning of pain at a very intimate level."

"Fuck my life." I groaned.

"Oh, and here." He produced five contraptions that looked like a pair of leg warmer, a pair wristband and a waistband made out of wood. I reached to grab them out of curiosity when the old man dropped them to the ground, cracking the soil as though it was a mere brittle piece of glass. My eyes bulged out of its socket at the sight of the damage they cause. "Starting today, you are to wear those at all times, except for sleeping, eating and bathing."

"Double fuck my life."

Old Man grinned, once more showcasing the sharpened canines he possessed as he picked up the weights as though it weighed nothing. "Well, come here and let me put this on you." I moved forward mechanically, eyeing the weights as though they were the vilest thing ever existed in this world. They probably are, now that I think about it. "Hold still." Quick as lightning, the seasoned Bounty Hunter strapped those torture tools onto me; torso, both of my arms and legs.

I felt like the world just trippled its gravitational force on me.

"Uugh." I grunted, trying in vain to keep myself from hunching from the weight placed onto my body. "So.. Uurgh.. What now?" I asked, eager on doing something to take my mind off the extra weights settled onto me.

"Eager much?" Grrr, that bastard. "Well, let's start with a simple workout to warm you up. 100 push-ups." He ordered.

"Come again?" I paused, gaping at the old man with what I was sure to be a horrified expression. Really? Did he just say that a hundred push up with these medieval torture device is a simple warm up? There must be a lot of screw loose in his head.

"100 push-ups. Now."

With some bitching about sadistic slave drivers, I dropped down to the ground on all fours and started to do my warm up. It was so warm, in fact, that I couldn't even feel my arms after the first twenty pushes and I was pretty sure that both of them has turned into jello by the time I reached fifty. My arms ached and burned, feeling as though someone was shoving burning needles down my skin and into each nand every strand of pain receptors in my arm.

But I kept on pushing.

I simply can't stop.

For if I did, I was sure the burning coals right below and around my body would scorch my skin black.

"See? An added incentive is always good to push you to your limit." Old Man chirped from his spot on the ground, doing his fair share of workout, wearing the same weights on his body, only probably a lot heavier than mine. No wonder his body was as hard as a brick wall if this is the kind of training he did in his childhood.

"Fuck you." I growled to him, grunting as the tip of the burning coals grazed my thigh. That's gonna leave a mark.

"I wanna see you try." He replied amusedly before quickly continuing his workout, now using only one hand to push himself up. He shot me a challenging grin, silently daring me to try and copy his stunt. With a competitive streak a mile wide like mine, there's no way I'm gonna let that challenge unanswered. With a gritted teeth, I suppressed all the pain in my arms and quickly resumed my workout.


A while later...

"Hahahaha! Well, it sure is nice to see that my son has a fighting spirit in him!" My Old Man laughed, not even breaking a sweat from what I counted was at least, 150 push ups, 100 one armed puch ups and another 100 hand stand push-ups. Just how much of a stamina freak is he!? "And the competitive streak of a lion to boot!"

"Shut.. huff.. it!" I growled at him, though I think the fact that an exhausted four year old was growling at him was more amusing for Old Man than it is scary. I think he views me as most common lion cubs or wolf pups, more fluff than fang. "There, I've done it! Exactly 100 push ups! Now what?"

I tried to stand up, but my hands was determined to rebel and betray me by being as weak and unsteady as a jello and without the strength behind it, I immediately fell back down onto the ground, flopping uselessly like a fish out of a water. "Damn it! You traitor, push me up!" I glared at both of my arm, imagining them with a mouth and shooting me the raspberries.

Old Man once again snickered at me, completely enjoying the sight of me glowering at my own traitorous hand. "Well, at first I planned on pushing through with your physical lesson until later in the evening, but I guess I could spare you the tor- I mean, training and move on with the magical side of things. Think of it as a gift for doing so well on your first try." He said.

I knew he was about to say torture just now. That bastard.

"Alright."

Just like the first time we met, Old Man proceeded to unceremoniously deposit me over his shoulder like a sack of potato as he carried me to who-knows-where. However, Unlike the first time we met, I was too tired to do anything to show my displeasure of the way he manhandled me and so, settled myself with growling and hissing at him.

"We're here." He said, finally letting me down, still in the way most commonly used to a sack of potatoes; instant drop.

"Gah!" I shouted, clutching me throbbing head which had just impacted with the hard ground. I glared at him with annoyed molten gold eyes, tears pricking from the corner of my eyes from the pain. "What the hell did you do that for?!"

"I slipped." I performed the fabled face-plant at his answer. Really? You slipped? I have heard a person more than half your age make better excuses than you! "Anyway, strip." He ordered.

"Eh?" I was broke off my internal screaming by the abrupt order. "What for?"

He jabbed his thumb towards his back where a large waterfall was located, water streaming down into the river like a broken faucet, strong and hard. "We're going to meditate." He answered before quickly stripping off his clothes as well. "C'mon, dipshit. What are you waiting for? An invitation?"

"Fine. No need to get snarky, geez." I rolled my eyes at him. Seems to me that he wants to soak up on the cold water more than the meditation itself. I quickly stripped off my clothes, leaving myself in nothing but my boxers before following the Old Man to one of the many stones jutting our from below the waterfall.

"Must we do the cliche waterfall meditation thing?" I asked.

"Either this or meditating on a piece of bamboo with only one leg." He asnwered.

"Let's do this."

"That's what I thought." He nodded smugly at me.


Several hours into the meditation exercise and I'm already growing sick of it.

No, seriously, the boredom itself is already enough to kill me, add the stream of cold water continuously pouring itself on top of my head and the hunger that was clawing at my stomach, and you've got a top-class torture.

I chanced a peek to my side, curious as to how my Old Man was doing when I was greeted with the sight of him enveloped in a thick orange wisp of power. The water around him parted, pouring around him instead of on top of him. He was as still as a rock, eyes closed, breath regulated and calm as anyone could ever be.

He looked like a sage, as impossible as it is.

A very fit, lean-muscled and not-so-religious looking sage.

"Close your eyes and focus yourself, dipshit." He suddenly spoke, eyes still closed shut and tight. "I know you're watching me. Get back to meditating." He ordered sternly.

"Easy for you to say." I responded. "All this meditating shit is making my ass sting! This rock isn't exactly the most comfortable spot in the world, y'know?" I grouched, gingerly rubbing my ass to soothe the pain and discomfort from hours of sitting on top of a rock. Oh, how I wished for a couch to sit on.

"Fine." Old Man sighed exasperatedly at me, opening his eyes and letting it twinkle with those mischievous gleam that made me think that I've just dug my own grave. He smiled a smile so sweet it was sickening and I quickly found myself regretting opening my stupid mouth. "Let's take on a more hands on approach, shall we?" He hopped off his rock and resummoned his signature Kasso Manta into existence in a flash of orange light.

"Ride up." He ordered.

I moved myself from my seat on top of the rock, shivering at the sudden lost of cold comfort and the chilling wind blowing through the forest. I wondered what he was planning, considering that this was the same man who thought that a hundred push up with a hundred kilogram weight weighing you down was a simple warm up.

Probably something equally outrageous.

"Up." And suddenly, in no time at all, we're both on top of the waterfall itself. Wait, I've got a bad feeling about this. The place and situation rung so many alarm in my heads it wasn't even funny.

"Old Man.. you're not going to do something crazy right?" I asked, trepidation colouring my voice at the sight of the fanged grin he wore whenever a particularly devilish idea was concocted inside his equally evil mind.

"One word." He said. He moved closer to me and laid a hand on my shoulders, face set into a grim expression that got me gulping. "Geronimo."

"Huh?" And then, the bastard pushed me off. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! YYYYOOOUUU SSSSHHHHIIITTTYYYY OOOLLLLLDDD MMAAANN!" I screamed.

"Have a safe trip down!" The bastard produced a white handkerchief from thin air and waved it at me.

I flipped several times in mid-air, unable to even position myself correctly to protect my more vulnerable body parts. For a moment, everything seemed to slow down, and I could see everything in perfect clarity. Huh, Is this what it meant when they say that we were given a chance to reflect on our past wrongs and sins before our death? If it is, then I guess it was entirely correct and true.

I swear, I just saw my whole life flash in front of my eyes.

...

...

Like hell I'm gonna die here! All those one hundred push ups and then I'm dying? Ha! Fuck that!

Gritting my teeth, I closed my eyes and tried to do what the Old Man seem to believe as the flawless, sure-fire way to activate my magic; reach to the depth of your soul, to the very root of my being. I did, and it was painful. I didn't know if it was just the adrenaline or it was something else, but every inch in my body burned, as though someone was injecting me with molten iron.

Everything stopped.

Everything calmed.

Silence.

Nothing.

I opened my eyes and saw that I was floating mere milimetres from the surface of the river, a green glow envelopping my body and held me floating in place in utter defiance to the laws of gravity.

"Oh my god." I said to myself, the reflection in the water's surface mimicking my movement. "Fuck yeah! I did it! I did it Old Man!" I shouted in ecstasy before, with a push of my newly acquaired magic, pushed myself up into the top of the cliff and envelopping my Old Man in a full-body hug, still high on the excitement over the fact that, hot fuck, I'm using magic!

"Well, I see you're a pro at this." My Old Man noted. "When I was a kid, it took me around two weeks to activate it. Granted, I used the softer method of meditating instead of a fourty feet free fall but still, you're one impressive dipshit." He grinned, ruffling my hair.

"Hmph! Course I am, shitty Old Man." And then, I coated my legs with magic and kicked him in the shin, pleasantly surprised when he yelped and rubbed the assaulted limb and hopping around in pain. "And that's for pushing me off the cliff, you bastard!" All things considered though..

He wasn't such a bad Old Man.


A/N: And cut! There you have it for the second chapter! What do you think? Is it good? Bad? I hope you enjoy it and don't forget to tell me what you think in reviews. Also, don't hesitate to click that like and follow button, guys!

See ya next chapter!

Coming up next:

"Can you really cook?"

"You're going up against an entire dark guild? Are you insane!?"