A cloud of dust plumed from Magnolia's forest. It rose above the treetops as two figures flickered out of it unscathed, so fast that they might as well have teleported—one blond teenager clad in electricity and the other a tan giant in green cloth. The tremors of the attack echoed across the forest as the teenager with blond hair and a nasty grin laughed.

"Hey! You're fast for a big guy!"

Laxus grinned as he built yellow lightning in his body, static crackling through the air as the two landed on the ground. The two met each other's gazes, one blindfolded and one not, before their magic built, and they charged at each other with arms reared back. Lightning crackled Laxus's fist, and silent air bathed Aria's open palm as the stone-faced giant spoke unamusedly.

"You're mildly disappointing."

Laxus scowled as the two blows met, neither budging as the air crackled and popped around them. Laxus frowned even further as he felt his knuckles hover an inch from Aria's palm as if they couldn't touch directly. A ball of air pressure kept his fist from making contact like it was stuck in a jet stream and couldn't reach the end.

He's decent.

Laxus clicked his tongue as he bathed his body in electricity and traded blows with the giant. Laxus's were quick and brutal, while the giants were firm and steady. Neither landed more than glancing strikes before the two spaced apart, and Laxus grinned nastily with a confident laugh.

"You got some balls attacking me straight out the gate! You think you can beat me!? Is that it!"

"I fail to see a single reason why I could not." Aria responded plainly as he lowered his palm by his side, and a 'pop' was heard. His body flickered across the air as he vanished, reappearing before Laxus's shocked face, "You're mind-numbingly slow."

Aria grabbed Laxus's shirt and reared his fist, surrounding it in a bubble of air as he watched Laxus smash his outstretched arm between a knee and an elbow. A loud 'pow' echoed from the impact, and Aria felt the muscles in his forearm bruise before he was zapped by a million volts of yellow electricity.

I guess his arrogance isn't unfounded.

Aria grunted in pain as he shelved the thought for later and planted his feet. He forced the air bubble around his reared back fist to condense until his fist trembled from the power. Light billowed from under his blindfold as he released his grip on the boy.

"Airspace Magic"

Before smashing his trembling fist into Laxus's nose.

"Shingen no Ichigeki"

A resounding 'crunch' was heard through the forest as Laxus was sent flying miles through the woods. He was launched through tree after tree, leaving a trail of shattered wood, until he vaulted back to his feet with a headache, bloody nose, and a furious growl. His eyes trembled with rage as he looked up and saw the man flying after him without pause.

"You wanna go asshole!"

Laxus wasn't even fucking trying. He hadn't even used his dragon slayer lacrimal, yet this fucking dumb bastard had the nerve to break his nose.

"Fine!"

So many idiots just loved pissing Laxus off recently.

"Let's fight for real fuckface!" Laxus roared as his arms began scaling over, and thunderous lightning flashed across his body. Laxus's dragon slayer lacrimal burst with power as his muscles bulged, and he glared at Aria, who was flying over with a hand raised to his blindfold before his body stiffened and tilted his head to the left. A flash of surprise crossed Aria's face before he lowered the hand reaching for his blindfold, stopped, descended to the ground, and turned back to Laxus with a blank expression.

"No."

That single word echoed through the air, and Laxus's temper snapped. His eyes were pure white with rage as he closed the distance in an instant and threw a punch strong enough to level mountains at Aria's face. His eyes widened as he saw a figure in a brown cloak blur in front of his punch and felt something similar to stone catch his fist, stopping it dead in its tracks as the impact echoed through the forest.

Who the-

"That's enough, Laxus," a familiar voice grumbled after the thunderous punch. "You've caused enough trouble for one day."

Laxus stiffened as he watched the figure move his hand down, giving him a clear view of who it was behind the brown cloak and iron grip.

Fuck...

It was Gildarts Clive, the Ace of Fairy Tail.

I thought he was out of town.

The one person in the guild Laxus couldn't beat.

Gildarts took a deep breath as the dust settled around him, having been kicked up from the aftermath of Laxus's punch. He let go of Laxus's fist, ignored the dull sting in his palm, and spoke with a thinly hidden irritation: "Get out of here, Laxus."

Gildarts had read what happened in the paper.

"Now."

He wasn't in the best mood about it.

"Fuck off, old man! This doesn't," Laxus's irritation at being interrupted fell flat as he felt a crushing magic pressure fall on his shoulders. Laxus's teeth gnashed as sweat dripped down his face, blood trickled down his nose, and he glared over Gildarts's shoulder at the stone-faced giant, "I'll remember this asshole."

"I'm sure I will forget about you by tomorrow," Aria replied honestly as he watched Thunder Boy's eyes bulge in fury until another glare from Gildarts quieted his temper. Laxus gave Aria one last scowl before vanishing in a flash of yellow lightning and leaving the two adults alone in the woods.

"Well then," Gildarts said as he controlled his magic pressure and turned back to the giant stranger. Gildarts's lips slightly pulled back as he grinned at someone he had read about before but hadn't seen in person. "Hey, you're Aria, right?"

Aria of the Great Sky, The Ace of Phantom Lord.

"You're taller than I thought you'd be."

Gildarts could see how he earned the title.

"I get that a lot," Aria admitted with a shrug as he tilted his head towards where Thunder Boy had run off to. It looked like he was heading back to his guild to lick his wounds. "You're Gildarts, if I had to guess."

Aria had heard of him before, The Ace of Fairy Tail that destroys everything he touches.

"I suppose I shouldn't expect you to let me chase after the boy?" Aria asked as he cracked his neck and saw Gildarts give a helpless shrug, "What can I say?"

Gildarts was pissed at Laxus at the moment. That being said, Gildarts couldn't stand by and watch a member of Fairy Tail get beaten into the ground.

"Laxus has made some mistakes but is a good kid at heart. He's just hurt and angry. I can't really stand by as you pummel him."

Regardless of the strenuous circumstances.

"If you want, I can fight you in his place," Gildarts offered with a charismatic grin as he watched Aria frown before shaking his head. "No. I'll give up on the boy. He isn't the reason I came here anyway."

Aria had flown to this city the second he'd read the article in Sorcerer's Weekly. The fact that he'd run into Laxus was a coincidence, and with the article still fresh in his mind, he had gotten a little angry. That's why he attacked the boy; there was no other reason.

"Fighting the boy was a spur-of-the-moment decision."

Now that Gildarts was a factor, there was no point in pursuing that little vendetta any further.

"I came here to take Vera back home. If I fight you, I won't be able to do that anymore," Aria admitted with a shrug as he watched Gildarts's smirk widen an inch before the Crush Mage asked with growing amusement, "But if you fought Laxus, you would?"

Gildarts loved confident mages.

"Of course."

Especially when they could back it up.

"Why wouldn't I?" Aria asked in confusion as he watched Gildarts break into laughter. His eyes teared up before he collected himself and wiped his eyes with a joyful smile. "Oh, Laxus would be livid if he heard you say that. That's great."

Gildarts liked this guy; he was a blast.

"If you're looking for the boy in the paper, do you want me to guide you to Porlyushica's hut," Gildarts offered as he pointed down the trail of debris and destruction that had been left behind from Laxus's flight through the woods, "That's where he'll be, and I'm heading their right now to drop groceries off."

Gildarts took out a bag of food from his requip space for effect before tossing it back inside the storage space and watching as Aria tilted his head in thought, "I would appreciate it, however..."

Gildarts quirked his eyes in interest as he watched light flicker from beneath Aria's blindfold and looked deep into the forest. His voice was less attentive than before as he disappeared, "It seems I have somewhere else I need to be at the moment."

That was the last thing Aria said before he vanished into thin air, and Gildarts was left alone. The Crush Mage sighed as he returned to his original route and walked towards Porlyushica's.

"Bummer."

Gildarts rarely met the Aces of other Guilds.

"It would have been fun to fight him."

He'd have to start looking around to see if any were as good as the one he'd just met.

"Maybe next time," Gildarts shrugged as he approached Porlyushica's. His mind vaguely circled the air mage that had vanished suddenly until he got to the old lady's hut and figured out why.

"Gildarts."

The second Porlyushica saw him. There was no greeting or anything. She immediately asked him to find a girl as she held back two white-haired children from chasing after her. The girl had escaped out the window of her room.

"We need to talk."

With a surgical knife, she stole from the drawers.

The woods echoed with animals and buzzed with insects as Mira ran blindly through them. Her footsteps carried her as quickly and as far from the cabin as possible until she was lost in a forest of green with nothing but her gown and the scalpel she had stolen.

I'm almost there...

The only witnesses around were bugs and wandering animals. She wouldn't have to worry about anyone finding her or trying to stop her. Or worse, her siblings catching her in the act.

Just a few minutes of pain...

Mira didn't want to see their worried expressions. She wouldn't forgive herself if she traumatized them any more than she already had by being a monster.

Then it'll be gone.

Mira gulped as she looked around the thick forest before glancing down at her demonic arm. Her eyes trembling with anger and disgust as she sat down, her back against a tree in case she passed out and raised the scalpel in an ice pick grip. Her breath was shaky, and her eyes were tearing up as she tried to focus.

Come on...

It was terrifying. Her knuckles were already white from how hard she was holding the blade. The fact that she was still holding it in the air showed how scared she was to bring it down on her skin.

Just do it already!

She couldn't stop, though. She had to get rid of it. She refused to keep living with this thing attached to her. This bloodstained appendage had to go. She had to get rid of it. It had already killed someone.

What if they show up and stop you! What if you hurt Lisanna and Elfman by accident!

She couldn't handle waiting any longer. She had to get rid of it now. All it would take is a few cuts. If she aimed right below her shoulder, right where the pink scales hadn't been able to reach yet, she could do it. All she had to do was fucking stop hesitating!

Do you want to kill them too!

She didn't want to be a monster anymore.

This thing ruined your life!

She didn't want to be a demon anymore.

SO GET RID OF IT!

She didn't want to be a murderer anymore.

NOW!

Mira yelled her lungs out as she brought the knife down to her skin, the blade breaking the skin in a gash before something caught her hand halfway through the action. Her knife stopped only a few inches deep before a large tan wrapped around hers and lifted and moved it away from her shoulder. A deep yet soothing voice followed the action.

"It isn't good to hurt yourself."

Mira looked up with wide, teary eyes as she saw a giant man with tan skin, a blindfold, a green hat, and a green cloak keeping her hand away from her shoulder. His fist was gentle yet firm enough that even with her strength, she couldn't move it, not an inch.

"Who are you! Let go! Let go of me!"

That didn't stop her from trying, though.

"I have to get rid of it! I hate it! So let go!"

Mira struggled to get her hand free from the man's, but he kept it firmly in place. Even with her immense strength, it was like she was in a tug of war with a mountain, and eventually, she realized it wasn't a battle she could win, "Why won't you let go!"

"Because you will hurt yourself again," The man said calmly, his voice like a safe breeze that was meant to comfort her, yet all it had was the opposite effect.

"No! You don't understand!"

Mira needed to get rid of this arm.

"I can't live with this anymore! I'll be better when it's gone! Everything was fine until it showed up!"

Mira hated her arm more than anything.

"So let go! Let me get rid of it!"

Why couldn't anyone see that?

"Please!" Mira cried, no begged, the man as her voice shattered and tears began falling freely. Her growing despair only heightened as the man shook his head and forcefully turned her arm over, "No."

Mira panicked as she saw him slowly pry her fingers back one by one until the bloody scalpel clattered to the ground. The man was kicking aside her only hope as he let go of her and waited for her reaction.

"WHY!"

It wasn't pleasant.

"I HATE YOU!" Mira screamed as she threw a punch that banged against a wall of air. Her fists felt like they were hitting iron but she didn't care, she just kept hitting the invisible curtain and screaming.

"WHY! WHY WHY! WHY! WHY! WHY! WHY!"

All the while, the man watched with a slight frown.

"WHY DID YOU STOP ME? WHY CAN I NOT JUST GET RID OF THIS THING? WHY DID I GET STUCK WITH IT IN THE FIRST PLACE? WHY!"

Mira's human knuckles bloodied, and her human bones turned to jelly, but no matter how hard she punched, her demonic arm never tired. Never dented. Never did anything other than exist.

"WHY DO I HAVE TO HAVE THIS MAGIC!"

It was enough to tilt her teary eyes into one sod utter despair because it felt like no matter what she did, it would always be there. She would never get rid of it.

"I HATE IT! I HATE IT! I HATE IT!"

That thought circled her mind repeatedly as she punched the wall until her breath became raspy, and the yelling made her throat soar. She had hammered the invisible wall before her so long that the tears stained her vision, and her legs gave out. Gravity dragged her to the ground as she slumped over in defeat and brokenhearted despair.

"Why..."

Mira's voice was wet with grief. Her voice cracked as she sobbed into the demonic hand she couldn't seem to get rid of. Even fate wouldn't let her remove it.

"Why do I have to be a murderer?"

It was like it wanted her to remember every second of what she'd done. Every horrible moment.

"I didn't mean to," Mira mumbled brokenly as she curled up in a ball and rested her forehead on the ground. Her cries turned to sobs as she recalled the moment, the blood that flowed everywhere without stopping, and how she had caused it. She didn't...

"What do I do?"

She didn't know what to do anymore.

"I don't know what to do."

It was like every time she closed her eyes, she saw it. She mistook it for his raspy voice whenever she heard a distant sound. Every time she smelled blood, she was back in that iron-scented place. Unable to do anything other than watch a man die.

"I ruin everything."

Because of her.

"Why..."

They were kicked out of the village because of her. Vera was in a coma because of her. A man was dead because of her. Her siblings nearly died because of her. Everything terrible happened because of her.

"I just wanted..."

Mira had wanted her family to be safe.

"I wanted them to stop yelling at us."

Mira had wanted her siblings to be happy.

"Why couldn't I do that right?"

So far, she'd done nothing but make things worse.

"Why can't I be normal," Mira asked with a broken sob, her eyes shut as she heard her tears fall. The damn she built to keep every stressful thought at bay crashing down until she couldn't even keep back the darkest thought that roamed her mind constantly. Every day without a way out because she didn't know how to get rid of it.

"I hate myself..."

She didn't even know where to start.

"More than anything."

Mira didn't know how to fix it. She didn't know how to get rid of the hatred she felt at the time she saw her demonic arm. She didn't know how to eliminate the lingering fear whenever she thought about her siblings learning what she'd done. She didn't know how to remove the utter self-loathing she felt whenever she looked at anyone important to her, Lisa, Elfman, Vera, and remembered it was because of her. She was the one who ruined their lives.

"I wish..."

Things would have been better if she was never around.

"I wish that demon killed-"

"Don't finish that sentence," The man interrupted her for the first time in her entire meltdown before feeling cloth being wrapped around the small gash now on her shoulder. Mira tilted her head up slowly as she saw the man without his blindfold on, her eyes widening as she realized that's what he had wrapped around her shoulder. A simple bandage was now stained with the thin trail of her blood as she watched the man open his eyes slowly and reveal a set of pink irises. His voice was deeply empathetic.

"When I was young..."

He looked tired, and his pink irises had white sclera distorting it from the natural circular shape. It was like a white X had been drawn in each of them.

"I thought my eyes were a curse."

Drawn or...

"I hated the world they showed me. I hated how no one else could see what I constantly saw. I hated my eyes, and I tried to get rid of them one day."

Carved.

"But I didn't cut deep enough, and my friend found out before I could try again. He kicked my ass for it," The man said with a dry chuckle as he closed his pink eyes and opened his palm. A flicker of soft air created an illusion of a series of villages surrounded by mountains. With people in simple wooden houses and wearing simple fur clothing, carrying sacks of cotton and silk.

"Eventually, they healed."

The villages looked beautiful, and in the center, there was a crystal blue lake—where the villagers would all gather to dance and sing—songs of old days when magic was new and dragons soared above. They danced and danced till night turned to day.

"Yet a part of me wished they were gone. I wished I'd blinded myself that day. I felt everything would have been easier if I did. My life would have been easier."

They danced until a grand shadow fell over them, and the illusion faded out of existence. Mira was only able to infer what had happened based on the man's stony words, which carried a certain grief to them that only meant one thing.

"Then, one day, my eyes saw something no one else saw, and when I tried to warn them, no one other than my friend believed me. We hid, and when we came out, everything we knew. Everyone who saw the world I had wished so desperately to see."

Whatever had happened that day was a tragedy.

"Was gone."

One that only he had seen coming.

"The eyes I hated more than anything saved me that day," The man whispered as Mira watched in loud silence. Mira's eyes were wide with tears as she saw the man gently lean down and put a comforting hand on her head, "I understand the feeling of hating a part of yourself so much you wish it was gone."

Mira leaned into it like a tired girl leaning against a giant cuddly teddy bear. That's what this man reminded her of a huge teddy bear.

"Yet my eyes saved me. They make me strong.

Mira felt safe just by him being nearby.

"Your arm, your magic, make you strong too."

That's why she didn't notice when the adrenaline keeping her awake faded and the weight on her eyelids grew. All she could hear was the soothing voice above her, and she remembered that if it weren't for her arm or her magic, she wouldn't be here right now. Her family wouldn't be here right now. They would all be dead, marked off as another complete bounty on Eisenwhalde's record.

"I don't know much about you, but I feel you have people you care about. People who care about you. People who would weep if they knew what you just told me because they love you—more than you love yourself."

Lisanna, Elfman, Vera.

"Where would they be if you weren't so strong?"

Mira's arm had helped them, even if it was just a little or temporary. Even if she still hated it with every fiber of her being.

"Your magic is a part of you, for better or worse."

Mira's magic had saved her siblings.

"Even if you hate it, at the very least, know it's strong. That part of you is strong."

She could find a little solace in that.

"No one can take that away from you," The man finished his speech as she felt a set of large arms gently pick her up off the ground. Mira's head lulled quietly to the side as she trickled into a desperately sought-after sleep after her emotional breakdown.

"We can talk more after your shoulder is checked, so rest. You've had a long day."

Mira was tired.

"And for what it's worth..."

Yet, strangely, she wasn't scared of the nightmares she was about to face. They felt lighter than before because even with the haunting darkness behind her eyelids, she knew it wasn't the scariest thing she could face—not by a long shot.

"I think you are a wonderful person."

The thought of her siblings dying without her magic to save them was so much worse.