Coming to Terms

Outside

Mirajane slowly opened her eyes. Seeing the familiar young man before her, she murmured groggily, "Brother..."

Yuri looked at the girl before him, who had released Devil Trigger and returned to having only one demon arm. He raised an eyebrow. "Did you sleep yourself silly?"

Mirajane's eyes flew open, and she looked around.

Suddenly remembering that she was back in the outside world, she hastily tried to cover for herself. "I-I meant to say... your singing is awful!"

"Oh, you heard that?" Yuri said with a smile. He had indeed been humming along with his headphones on because he was bored. After all, a fight at that level hardly put him under any pressure.

"How do you feel?" Yuri asked. "Does Devil Power seem different when you look at it from a bystander's perspective?"

Mirajane fell somewhat silent. "It does..."

She might not have fully accepted the power yet, but at the very least, she would no longer take it upon herself to leave.

Before, Mirajane had always wanted to stay away from Lisanna and Elfman to keep herself from having a bad influence on them, assuming on her own that she was doing it for their sake.

Now that she had been the younger sister in a "nightmare," she finally understood how Lisanna and Elfman felt.

"I told you back in Xiro Village: you're no demon. A demon wouldn't sacrifice himself for his family, and he wouldn't shed tears for them either," Yuri said with a shrug.

"Cry for my family?"

Yuri pointed a finger at Mirajane's chest. "Only a heart that aches can shed tears. Since you can cry for your family, that means your heart is still human... demons don't feel heartache, unless it's physical."

"My old man always says that the power of magic comes from the heart, and the heart also decides how it's used."

"Whether a power is good or bad has never depended on the power itself, but on how you use it. Even Devil Power can be used to protect your family."

"Can't it?"

Yuri said with a smile.

In fact, he had many ways to help Mirajane resolve her problem, but he had chosen the most troublesome one—letting her come to understand it for herself.

Not long ago, someone had told him that even becoming a demon was better than standing by and watching your family die before your eyes.

Yuri acknowledged the resolve behind those words, and that was why he had preserved Mirajane's right to possess this power.

He only hoped that, at some future moment when she needed power, she would not regret her own helplessness.

If she still did not want the power then, Yuri would separate it from her himself.

"Protect my family!"

Mirajane stared at the smile on the face of the person before her, and several figures immediately appeared in her mind.

Lisanna, Elfman... brother.

At that moment, the girl's wavering heart seemed finally to find peace. She looked at the demon arm she had once loathed so deeply, then slowly placed both hands against her chest.

"Thump—thump—"

It was a strong heartbeat, seemingly no different from before.

Yet now she felt an inexplicable sense of peace, as though even the pitch-black world around her was full of color.

The gloomy sky was lit by a pair of azure eyes, and the monotonous blue sky was adorned with hair like soft clouds.

The usually frivolous smile looked so reassuring at this moment.

A feeling unlike any she had known in her thirteen years swept into her chest. Its name was dependence.

Dependence on family.

"So, will you come?" Once again, Yuri held out his hand to her. "Join Fairy Tail."

The evening breeze played in time with her heartbeat, and the moonlight sang with the starlight.

Faced with the young man's formal invitation, Mirajane raised her hand and clasped his tightly.

"Yeah!"

Once everything here had settled down, the two made their way to meet up with Erza and the others.

"So why do I have to carry you back, anyway...?" Yuri complained, carrying Mirajane on his back.

"I'm hurt, so of course you have to carry me," Mirajane said, smiling.

"Huh? You've got to be kidding. I was careful with my attacks, you know." Yuri was unhappy with her excuse.

"I don't care. You're the one who hurt me, so you have to carry me!" Mirajane pouted and acted spoiled.

"Honestly... are you grumpy when you wake up? Why are you acting like a child after a nap?" Yuri shook his head.

Although he had been responsible for sending Mirajane into the "nightmare," he did not actually know exactly what she had experienced.

All he knew was a general outline of the plot, since this was a dream built around Griffon.

As mentioned before, although Griffon looked like a demon, his true nature was a nightmare, and nightmares were drawn from memories someone did not want to recall.

The "nightmare" Mirajane had experienced was a dream Yuri had built by sending Griffon into her heart through resonance, then using the memory Griffon represented as its foundation.

Although he had made some adjustments to the era and setting, from a certain perspective, it could be understood as memories of Yuri's previous life before he separated...

Only the parts involving magic and a loving brother and sister needed to be removed.

After all, in the real memories, the original Yuri before the separation had lived in the modern era.

He also had a father who drank and gambled, a fragile mother, and a younger sister who was still a child...

After his father died and his mother left, the original's hair turned white overnight, and his sister gradually began to distance herself from him as she grew up.

To attach herself to a wealthy family's heir, she even conspired with outsiders to get rid of her older brother, whom she regarded as a stain on her reputation.

Although the original eventually killed them all, he also lost heart and chose to end his own life.

And because Yuri had made a contract with Griffon, in a sense, these recollections could also be considered Yuri's own memories.

Aside from Yuri himself, the one who had made the contract, the "nightmare" was nothing more than an ordinary dream to anyone else, and would have no other effects.

After all, no one's personality changed drastically because of a dream, did it?

You might learn something from it, but a dream could never change your nature, unless that potential was already within you.

Everything experienced in the dream, including its past events and memories, would gradually fade after waking...

Probably only a small portion of the most deeply felt parts would remain.