"I found something, at least."
With the train rattling along in its steady rhythm, Mira lazily stretched.
Sunlight cut across her silhouette through the window. As she lifted her slender arms, the line of her neck and the slight tension in her back formed a graceful curve.
Then she tilted her head and glanced toward the aisle.
Her little brother was still sprawled there flat on his back like a small mountain taking up far too much space.
A train attendant pushing a food cart stood nearby, looking at the "corpse" blocking the way, completely stuck and painfully awkward.
"You know, right? Even though Elfman looks rough as a bear, he's actually unexpectedly delicate inside."
"Maybe it was because, on that 'Moonless Night,' he saw with his own eyes how hard you had to fight against someone like Hades, even as an S-Class wizard."
"And after I passed the S-Class trial too, that idiot completely got stuck in his own head."
Mira's tone carried a trace of helplessness.
"He probably started thinking that someday I'd end up facing enemies just as terrifying. And as the man of the family, no matter what, he had to have the strength to protect us."
"Wait, don't tell me…"
Shane stood up, grabbed Elfman by the back of the collar like he was hauling a sack, and casually dumped him into the empty seat across from them.
The attendant let out a breath of relief, thanked him repeatedly, and hurried away with the cart.
"Yeah. After all, all three of us siblings use Take Over magic."
Mira nodded.
"By the time I realized something was wrong and got there, what I found was… Elfman, after he'd already forcibly taken over the Beast Soul."
"Beast Soul?" Shane frowned.
"It was an urgent extermination job. I had been planning to take it myself. But somehow, that idiot secretly stole the request sheet."
There was regret in Mira's voice.
"And… Lisanna went with him because she was worried and too stubborn to stay behind."
"If I remember right, a monster on the level of 'Beast Soul' already counts as S-Class danger, doesn't it?"
Shane felt his heart sink a little.
The biggest side effect of Take Over magic was that if the target was too powerful and the caster couldn't fully control it, the target's savage nature would consume their mind in return.
Even Mira herself had lost control more than once back when she was trying to get used to Satan Soul.
"Yeah, you remember right. My idiot brother lost control in an impressively clean and efficient way."
Mira sighed and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"After I beat the hell out of him and snapped him back to his senses, he… started crying and told me he'd killed Lisanna while he was out of control."
"You know what?"
Mira turned and looked straight into Shane's eyes.
"At that moment, I was really angry. So angry I was shaking all over. I almost cried."
"But maybe thanks to all that pressure you used to put on me, I barely managed to stay calm."
"I searched through those ruined remains for a long time. I turned over every broken rock I could find, and I still couldn't find Lisanna's body."
"And not just that. I also found… a completely unfamiliar magic trace there. Something that belonged neither to Elfman nor to the Beast Soul."
"So that's what made you decide Lisanna wasn't dead?" Shane asked.
"I'm her sister. If I haven't seen the body, then of course—even if it's just self-deception—I'm going to cling to that possibility, aren't I?"
The heaviness in Mira's eyes eased slightly, and she shot him an annoyed look.
"I collected that leftover magic residue. Later, I followed the trail and found some very interesting clues."
"And those clues only made me more certain that Lisanna may really not be dead, just transferred somewhere else by that unknown power."
Shane was instantly interested. "Transferred where?"
"Before that, I need to take you to meet someone."
Mira blinked and deliberately left him hanging.
"When did you pick up this annoying habit of talking like a damn riddle?"
Shane leaned back against the seat in visible dissatisfaction.
"Because it makes things easier to explain."
Mira ignored the complaint.
Apparently deciding the topic had gotten too heavy, she reached out almost lazily and pulled Shane's hand onto her lap.
His hand was long-fingered and clean-boned, not the sort of hand that looked like it belonged to a fighter.
With her head lowered, Mira started playing with it like a toy to pass the time, bending his fingers one by one and listening with interest to the crisp crack of his knuckles.
"Stop treating me like your stress-relief toy."
Shane sighed and pulled his hand back.
He glanced at Elfman, still unconscious across from them, and asked curiously,
"If you already found clues, why are you still hiding it from him?"
At that, Mira's light expression cooled.
"If I hand him that uncertain hope right now, all he'll do is become dependent on it. He'll never truly get over that wall."
Her gaze swept across her sleeping brother's face, and a trace of severity passed through her eyes.
"I know it's cruel. But people have to take responsibility for what they've done. Our parents are gone. As his older sister, that's something I have to teach him."
"…"
Shane quietly watched her profile, so steady and resolute.
The light and shadow from the train window passed across her face. At some point, the girl who used to bare her fangs at everything had lost that youthful edge.
After a long silence, he let out a quiet sigh and held out the hand he had just pulled back.
"What?" Mira turned to him, puzzled.
"An apology."
Shane looked at her directly, his tone sincere.
"I take it back. Right now… you really do look like a proper big sister."
Mira froze for a second.
Then, without the slightest mercy, she seized one of Shane's fingers and bent it hard backward.
Crack—
"Seriously, you've got some nerve saying that. Since when is doing the obvious duty of protecting your younger siblings something worth praising?"
It didn't hurt, but the crisp sound still made Shane's eye twitch.
"And besides, Elfman's a single-celled organism. If I tell him now, it won't help at all. He'll just make things worse."
Mira gave a dismissive snort.
"So I praise you a little and you immediately get carried away. That part of you really hasn't changed at all…"
Shane gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to yank his hand back.
Before long, amid the two of them bickering over absolutely nothing of value, the train began to slow.
The whistle screamed as it gradually pulled into Magnolia station.
…
The pressure door hissed as it opened.
The two of them stepped off the train, and the cold wind on the platform hit them head-on, instantly clearing away the stuffy air from inside the carriage.
"Are you sure it's fine to just leave Elfman on the train like that?"
Shane looked back at the door, which had already shut again.
"It's fine. He's tough. When he wakes up, he'll know how to get home on his own."
Walking ahead with both hands behind her back, Mira didn't even turn around. Her high ponytail swayed lightly in the cold wind.
"So we're going straight to see this person? We're not stopping by the guild first? Everyone would probably be pretty shocked to see me come back alive and kicking."
Shane followed behind her with both hands in his pockets, looking around curiously at the city he hadn't seen in four years.
Magnolia had changed in ways that were obvious at a glance.
The magic shops lining the streets had all redone their over-the-top signs. The main road looked much wider than before. And over the rooftops he could even see several newly built clock towers in the distance.
People bustled back and forth with a kind of lively prosperity that hadn't been there four years ago.
"Don't be fooled by how relaxed I look right now. I'm actually really anxious."
Mira's steps were quick, weaving effortlessly through the crowd.
"Well, fine. As your master, I guess letting my student rely on me once in a while isn't such a big deal."
Shane rubbed the fingers she had bent back, still a little stiff, and followed after her without complaint.
"Anyway, I'll have to go back and face that bunch of troublesome idiots at the guild sooner or later. Waiting a little longer doesn't really matter."
The two of them passed through the busy part of town and followed an uphill road, the noise of the city gradually fading behind them.
"Still, where exactly are we going?"
As the houses around them thinned out more and more, Shane finally couldn't help asking again.
"And you pulled me into this so decisively. Can I take that to mean… you trust what I can do now?"
"I won't deny that."
Mira stepped over the gravel road and, for once, didn't argue back.
"Your personality has always been awful, but when real trouble comes… you're at least a reliable bastard."
As they spoke, the two of them followed a winding path up along the edge of Magnolia until they reached higher ground.
"We're here."
Mira stopped.
A breeze passed through, rustling the leaves.
From this spot, the view opened up all at once. More than half of Magnolia's rooftops spread out below them.
But Shane had no mood to appreciate the scenery.
The truth was, ever since they reached halfway up the slope, the surroundings had already started feeling strangely familiar.
And the moment he clearly saw the luxurious European-style building ahead of them, surrounded by neatly kept greenery—
he finally remembered exactly where this was.
"Hey…"
The corner of Shane's eye twitched hard twice. Pointing at the sign by the gate that read FAIRY HILLS, he said:
"This is… Fairy Tail's women's dorm, isn't it?"
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 70 Chapters Ahead of Others!