Vera might have created a monster.

That was close...

Vera raised his hand and used his thumb to wipe away the trail of blood dripping down his cheek. His eyes drifted towards the heap of white hair and heavy breaths lying on the ground after their most intense spar.

She nearly got me there.

Mira had improved far quicker than Vera had anticipated. Less than a week, and she had nearly knocked his lights out. From now on, he would have to be more careful in their future spars. He wasn't planning on losing any time soon, but the thought still got a smile out of him even then.

Not bad.

One that was almost as good as the one Mira sported from her place on the ground. Her bloody nose was an afterthought as she lay gasping for breath and covered in sweat after the match. The only sign of consciousness was her flinch as Vera walked over and lightly kicked her in the leg.

"You gonna get up soon, lazy ass?"

So far, Vera's plan to train Mira had been going way better than he expected. She picked up things quickly and was durable, an excellent trait for someone as stubborn as she was.

"Or are you still celebrating that hit from earlier?"

Although there were still a few rookie habits, he had to beat out her before considering her decent.

"Fuck -huff- you -huff- Vera."

"How rude," Vera replied playfully as Mira blew a raspberry. Her chest heaved up and down as Vera went to get their water and food to start the daily ritual after a rigid spar. "You're lucky I'm so generous. Jose would have killed you by now."

"You're -huff- joking."

"Nope, dead serious," Vera said as he tossed Mira her water and watched it bounce off her head. A chuckle escaped his lips as she hissed and looked back at him without moving a muscle. Her glare turned to surprise as she realized he wasn't lying.

"Seriously?"

I thought he was a guild master... Isn't there a law against that or something?

Mira's eyes quirked in response to her plethora of questions. Her head tilted because that was all she had the energy to do now, and she watched as Vera huffed and started waking over with food. "Yeah, seriously. Jose has a thin temper and isn't exactly merciful regarding training."

"Oh, and you are?"

"Are you alive?"

"...point taken," Mira said with a frown as a small container of rations was tossed on her head again. Her voice was monotone, and she let out an 'Ow' in response before she heard Vera sit beside her with food already in his mouth. His voice came out mid-chew as he chided her, "Don't whine."

"You're an ass."

"Yeah, an ass that's hungry," Vera said between munches of rice and some beans, taking his tacky spoon and pointing at the box and water still on the ground next to Mira, "If you don't start eating, I'm gonna take your lunch as recompense."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Watch me."

Vera smirked as Mira growled from her place on the ground. He turned back to his water flask and food as he heard muffled grunts and shifts from Mira's general direction. Then he heard her stop and mutter something under her breath, "Ungry..."

"What did you say?" Vera asked as she turned and saw Mira still in the same position. Her white hair splayed over her face with a hint of red on her face peeking through as she yelled defiantly and, to be clear, unexpectedly: "I'm not hungry!"

There were a few seconds of silence as Mira's words echoed through the forest. Vera's eyes were wide as he dropped his spoon in surprise and murmured in absolute disbelief, "That's impossible, though."

Mira ate like a starving dog most days.

"Are you sick or something?"

"Fuck you! I'm just not hungry!"

"That's such crap," Vera murmured with narrowed eyes and a small huff, setting his food down and walking over to see if he could figure out what was wrong. Vera circling Mira's prone figure as she watched or glared was more accurate, without moving an inch from her resting place.

"Oh?"

Now that Vera had considered her position on the ground, it looked familiar. Spread Eagle, like the ground, was the best bed she could ever ask for. The sweat dripping down her forehead and her breaths, which had become less heavy but just as exhausted, all pointed to the reason for her current behavior.

"Wait a minute..."

Vera had ended so many sparring sessions with Jose like that. He's lost count at this point.

"You can't move, can you?" Vera asked with a shit-eating grin pulling at the corner of his lips as he saw Mira's face turn darker by three shades of red as she growled defensively, "Screw you! I can move!"

"Do it then."

"FINE!"

Mira gritted her teeth as she tried to lift her limbs off the ground, only for gravity to beat her to a pulp and leave her tired limbs stuck to the floor. As if glue had been thrown on to make sure she couldn't move.

"Well, Mira?"

This was probably best because she would've killed Vera if she could stand up.

"I'm waiting."

Mira clicked her tongue and turned her head so she wouldn't have to see Vera as he burst into laughter; her face beat red as she contemplated how she would get revenge. Her options included kicking his ass, which was still a work in progress, or asking the resident specialist how to mess with Vera.

I'll have to get Sho to help me later.

Mira circled the idea a few times, giving it a mental stamp of approval as she heard Vera's laughs die down. Her eyes traced back to him before she blinked in surprise, her body stiffening as she was lifted and moved to a nearby tree. Her back against the trunk as Vera held out the flask before her face, "Open up. I'm not bird-feeding you."

Mira looked blankly at the flask for a few seconds, internally debating whether death by thirst was better than death by embarrassment before she heard the sloshing of the heaven-sent water and caved almost immediately. Her face beat red as she opened her mouth, and the flask was placed to her lips.

This water is the best part of training.

Mira drank the refreshing beverage greedily as her strength slowly returned to her. Sweat dripped down her face as she extended a shaking hand and took the flask from Vera's hand to drink the rest by herself. The process took ten seconds until the flask was empty, and she was thoroughly refreshed. Afterward, she returned the empty flask to Vera, who tossed it towards their bags before handing her lunch. Then he sat next to her with a slight smirk, "Not hungry my ass."

"You're the worst."

"Possibly," Vera said with a shrug as he started eating, and Mira did the same from next to him. The comfortable silence settled as the two finished their meals in record time and took a second to enjoy the atmosphere. Their backs to the same tree as they caught their breath and looked at the aftermath of their afternoon match.

"What's with everyone I know hating trees."

It's safe to say that they didn't leave it exactly as they found it.

"Shut up, Vera. I was aiming for you."

"Nah. Really? I didn't notice," Vera replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes as Mira tiredly kicked his leg in retaliation. Vera let the attack slide as Mira asked him a more thought-out question than he expected, "Hey, why can't I hit you?"

"Cause I'm better."

"I'm serious, Vera," Mira said with a frown, tilting her head to look at Vera, who was lazily looking at the cloudy skies above. A yawn escaped him as Mira asked a question she was genuinely curious about, "I'm stronger than you, right?"

"Yeah, by a mile."

"I'm faster, too."

"Eh, not really," Vera said with a shrug. He didn't pride himself on speed but was confident in it. He might not be faster than Siegrain, but he was no slouch, "I'm pretty nimble, but it's not like you're a snail compared to me. We're pretty relative."

"So why can't I hit you?"

"Because I'm not letting you," Vera replied instantly and honestly, tilting his head from the cloud that looked like an owl to see Mira's confused expression. A sigh escaped his lips as he reached over, curled his finger under his thumb, and flicked Mira in the forehead before he spoke with a dry tone.

"What the hell was that for."

At that exact moment, Mira growled and yelled the precise words before she could even process what had happened: "What the hell was that for!? You..."

Mira stalled in her words as she processed Vera's, which had fallen the exact moment hers fell. Her eyes were wide with a dawning understanding as Vera shot her a smug grin before getting up and walking over to their supplies, picking up bandages and a cloak.

"Anger that isn't controlled is predictable."

Vera wasn't stronger than Mira, and her magic was objectively better than his, but even then, he had complete confidence that he could beat her, and it wasn't just because she was brand new to fighting. It might become a problem later on when she unlocked her full potential, but it wasn't an issue for now.

"So it doesn't matter how strong you are."

Mira was an emotional fighter; she loved her family too much not to be, so it was easy for Vera to use that to his advantage. A few taunts or tail wags, and he could drag her around by the nose till he won because it was a painfully slippery slope. Once he made her angry, he could make her attack him, and once he made her attack him, he could make her miss, and once he made her miss, he could make sure he didn't miss.

"Your punches don't mean shit if I can see them coming from a mile away."

Rinse and repeat till he won a battle she should have had an advantage in.

"That's why I taunt you so much..."

It was easy for him to do that.

"That and it's fun to see you get riled up," Vera teased as he tossed Mira's cloak over her head so he didn't have to look at her stunned expression. Then he ignored her subsequent curses as he started wrapping his bandages by the tree. The process took less than a minute, and afterward, he tilted his head to the mage, putting her cloak on from the ground.

"Still can't move?"

"What do you think," Mira huffed with a frown, tapping her legs that were pretty much numb as shit, "These things aren't listening to me at the moment."

"Lame."

"It's cause of you, prick."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Vera chuckled as he ignored Mira's glare and got their supplies for camp. He wrapped them around his waist before he walked back, kneeled, and picked Mira up off the ground so he could shift her to his back despite her defensive growl: "I can walk by myself, Vera!"

"You absolutely can't so stop complaining," Vera replied to Mira's petty protests with a roll of his eyes as he settled Mira on his back. Then he proceeded to get up and walk back towards camp. He idly walked and listened as he heard Mira give up, yawn, settle her tired head on his shoulder, and mutter vengefully, "If you drop me, I'll be pissed."

"Thought we already established that wouldn't do much."

"Shut up." Mira said as she tiredly hit Vera's shoulder with her head, her eyelids closing against her best efforts as she yawned, tried her best to fight off her incredible drowsiness, and mumbled sleepily, "You know what I meant jerk."

"Yeah, yeah, just sleep, idiot," Vera replied with a roll of his eyes. He stepped over a stray branch as he looked towards where the camp was and said what he was sure was keeping Mira from passing out at that moment: "I'll wake you up in a couple of hours so you can spend time with Lisanna and Elfman."

Mira's snores hit the air ten seconds later.

Lisanna was pretty sure that Sho was her new best friend.

"Crow!"

He was just so much fun.

No. It is a Raven.

Even if he was a bit of a stickler sometimes.

"That's the same thing!" Lisanna yelled in protest as Sho's shadow puppet crow broke apart because it was a crow, and they were brittle. It made sense! Sho didn't seem to think so though. He used his dagger-like finger to carve another message on the tree trunk, which had become his chalkboard since it was easier to read than messages written in the dirt.

No, it is not. They are different.

"How."

Lisanna narrowed her eyes as Sho stiffened. He scratched his head from the shadows before shrugging and writing down another message.

A Raven is bigger

Lisanna crossed her arms, her lips thinning as she tried to break such an astute argument. Her mind worked overtime as she devised a series of questions that would trip Sho up.

"What if there's a huge crow."

The Raven will be more intelligent then.

"What if there's a smart and huge crow."

Then, the raven will be more independent.

"What if there's an independent, big, smart crow?" Lisanna said with a smile as Sho frowned. It was funny how something without a mouth could frown; it just looked like he was frowning from the tree before shaking his head and writing his surrender.

It would be a Raven, then.

"I knew it!"

You are a sore loser.

"I am not! Right, Elfman," Lisanna turned towards her brother, who was shaking behind his sleeping bag, his eyes peering at the shadow that could peer back at him. His face went pale as the shadow did just that, and he hid under his covers with a terrified yelp, "You're a sore loser, Lisanna!"

Elfman didn't want to risk making the scary shadow upset.

"I'm sorry! Please don't eat me!" Elfman yelled as he shivered underneath his covers, peeking over the top and seeing the shadow shake its head like it had a headache. Did shadows get headaches? Meanwhile, Lisanna sighed beside it, "I already told you there's nothing to be scared of, Elfman?"

Lisanna loved her brother, but he was sometimes a scaredy cat. He passed out the first time he saw Sho, which was uncalled for in her opinion since Sho would never eat Elfman. Sho was an absolute sweetheart, plus Elfman probably didn't taste good. He was skinny.

"Sho's too sweet to eat you, right Sho."

Lisanna smiled at Sho, who looked conflicted about whether or not to accept Sweet as a compliment before he turned his head towards the forest—a second passed as the shadow slithered across the trees and stood next to the mage, who walked into camp with a loud laugh.

"Ha! She called you sweet, Sho! That's hilarious!"

It was Vera coming back from training with her sister. He was the mage who had saved them from the village, and he could understand Sho without written words—a feat that Lisanna was kind of jealous of and that he proved as Sho crossed his arms, and Vera's laughs died down.

"Alright, alright, you're not sweet."

'Tug'

"You're adorable."

'TUG' TUG'

Vera silently chuckled as his shadow started fuming, crossing its arms and going to sit on the surface of a nearby tree. Vera let his shadow stew for a bit as he controlled his budding laughter and turned to the two younger Strauss siblings, who immediately jumped up at seeing him.

"What happened to Mira!?" / "Is she dead!?"

Or, to be more accurate, the sight of their sleeping sister, who immediately disproved Elfman's question with a loud snore as Vera rolled his eyes and walked over to Mira's sleeping bag: "Yeah, she's fine. She just got tired from training, so I carried her here. She's not dead."

Vera placed Mira in her sleeping bag, turning back to see the two by their sister's side. Elfman and Lisanna sighed in relief, and the two immediately looked over Mira's bruised body with borderline uncomfortable expressions until Vera hurried them to the side and started patching her injuries.

"Scoot over. I have to treat the idiot over here; otherwise, she'll be pissy in training tomorrow."

The younger Strauss siblings complied, and Vera got to work. The next couple minutes were spent in relative quiet as Elfman and Lisanna watched Vera treat Mira's injuries. The silence was unbroken until Lisanna asked an innocent yet morbid question.

"Why do you hit her so much?"

Vera flinched instantly before glancing at Lisanna and seeing her wide, curious eyes stare back. He guessed it was bound to happen eventually. He didn't know what it was like to have a sibling, but he could understand it was probably difficult.

"It's the most efficient way to learn..."

If Vera had a sister and someone hurt them, he would probably hate them enough to kill them.

"I can knock her out quicker, but that would make the training less effective."

So he understood that seeing Mira get beaten up daily was perhaps a hard pill to swallow for the younger Strauss siblings. Fortunately for him, the youngest Strauss was pretty mature for her age, only giving a tiny shake of her head in response.

"No, don't do that. Mira wouldn't like it. She said she wanted to train properly..."

Lisanna didn't like seeing Mira hurt; she never liked seeing her hurt, but she could tell it differed from what the villagers did. Mira looked happier after each training session; she looked more content and confident. Sometimes, she even seemed to forget about her arm, letting it sit under the cloak instead of constantly checking to ensure it was concealed like before.

"So I'm fine with it."

Lisanna thought Mira looked freer these days, so she didn't mind the training Mira had insisted on. She was more grateful than anything for Vera saving them and making that possible, even if she wished he wouldn't go so hard on her.

"Besides..."

Although she could admit, she was excited to see when her big sister would finally win.

"She got you good this time, right?" Lisanna said with a slight giggle as she pointed to the small scratch on Vera's cheek. Vera blinked in surprise before grinning, "Fuck yeah, she," only for Sho to smack him upside the head with a stern look.

"Ow, yeah, ok, no cursing. My bad," Vera muttered as he rubbed the back of his head before turning back to Lisanna and freezing as he spotted the confused but curious look on her face. Vera's heart stopped as he saw her open her mouth as if to ask a question, only to be saved by Elfman's timid intervention, "I don't like it..."

Which came with other implications.

"I don't like that you hurt Mira."

Vera glanced at Elfman, who held his stare briefly before getting scared, trembling, and looking away. Elfman's timid squirms, prickling something in Vera's stomach as he returned to patching Mira up. His hands moved automatically as bland words fell from his lips. An observation spoke as casually as one would talk about the weather.

"Then do something about it."

Vera's words weren't spoken out of a lack of understanding but of too much of one. He could tell Elfman didn't like how he did things, maybe even held the barest hint of contempt for it, but he was too scared to do anything—too frightened, weak, and timid to try anything.

"You can't do it right?"

He probably felt the same way back in the village.

"You can't stop me."

Vera sensed Sho's frown beside him, but he ignored his shadow's disapproving gaze and continued talking. His voice was never harsh, reprimanding, or threatening, just a casual flow directed towards the Strauss siblings. He was teaching them a lesson one might learn from a book in the library, except this one was more important because, in his opinion, they both needed to hear this more than anyone else.

"That's called being helpless."

In the story, the Strauss family's despair didn't end with their parent's death or the villagers' torment; it ended with Lisanna's 'death' during an S-class Mission they had no right to be on. It ended with Mira shattering and Elfman changing his persona to resemble the man he wished he could have been.

"You've felt that before. You both have."

When Lisanna was sent to Edolas, she left much more behind than her dying doppelgänger.

"Though you probably don't understand what it truly means yet—not like Mira does, and knowing her, she probably protected you from the brunt of it."

Lisanna Strauss's death forever changed her family, and unfortunately, Vera wouldn't be in Fairy Tail to stop it. Even if he was, there was no guarantee that they wouldn't pick up another S-class mission and die on that one because, in the end, as harsh as it was, their tragedy wasn't an accident.

"I'm not as nice as she is."

It was the Strauss's fault that Lisanna 'died.'

"So I'll put it in words you can understand."

Mira shouldn't have taken her siblings on an S-class mission when they weren't ready for it; it was arrogant. Elfman shouldn't have tried a spell he wasn't confident in; it made the situation worse. Lisanna shouldn't have stood in front of danger without a plan; it was naive. They all took the hazards of an S-class mission too lightly and paid for it. For that not to happen the solution was pretty straightforward.

"If I decided to kill Mira..."

They all needed to change...

"You two couldn't stop me."

Vera figured this would be the quickest way to do it.

"Make sense," Vera asked with an emotionless expression, his eyes numb as he watched the two stiffen as a shadow shot towards Mira, and she sank into the ground. Her body resurfaced a few seconds later at the edge of the camp so quickly that they didn't even have a chance to gasp. All they could do was watch as their sister was taken right from under them and moved somewhere out of reach.

"You couldn't do anything because I'm the strongest person in this camp."

It was a scary thing for anyone to hear: that their life depended on the goodwill of another, that if that person had been just a little more jaded, a little more vengeful, it could have ended horribly for them.

"If I wanted to, I could kill Mira."

Especially in the casual demeanor that Vera did it in.

"Then I could kill you because she wouldn't be around to protect you anymore."

He wasn't threatening them; he was telling them plain and simple truths. Truths that left them silent as Vera snapped his fingers, and Mira sunk into the ground again before rising near Lisanna and Elfman, who instantly went to her side to see her free of any new injuries and still snoring unbothered. Yet they knew what could have happened; it scared them.

"That's what being helpless means."

That was precisely what Vera was aiming for.

"It means that other people can decide things for you, and you can't stop them."

The biggest thing weighing the Strausses down was that they relied too much on their sister's strength instead of their own. It was why they fell apart the second her strength wasn't enough to solve an issue. It was why they lost, and unless they stopped being so dependent, they would always lose because Mira wasn't invincible—not in the slightest.

"So if you don't like it when I hurt Mira..."

She would eventually hit a wall she couldn't break, and at that moment, Lisanna and Elfman had to be strong enough to carry her over the rest of it.

"Get strong enough to stop me."

Right now, they weren't, and in the story, they weren't either.

"That's all you have to do to never feel helpless again."

In the future, they would have to be different.

"Do you understand?" Vera asked plainly as he watched for the two's reaction. His eyes trailed to Elfman first, who couldn't bring himself to hold his gaze before looking away and whimpering in fear. The shaky nod given more out of trepidation than conviction, but Vera figured that might happen.

He might take a while.

Vera knew that Elfman wasn't a coward—he had chosen to go on an S-class mission, but that bravery was hidden deep. It would take a while to find it without his sister's 'death' ripping it out of his chest, but Vera was willing to be patient.

What do you think, Sho...

Because Lisanna's reaction was vastly different.

She looks a little stronger than before, doesn't she?

Vera caught Sho nodding proudly from the corner of his eye as he turned to the youngest Strauss sibling. She looked at him without hate or fear but more of a wide-eyed resolution and desire—followed by a question that gave Vera a slight grin.

"Can you teach me magic?"

Her voice didn't stutter, and her eyes never wavered. She met his gaze head-on and spoke without a hint of bitterness in her crystal blue eyes. She didn't look shaken from his little performance earlier. It was like she was already looking past that.

"I want my own Sho."

Like she was looking for something just beyond her fingertips.