They no longer needed to fly in a way that drew attention.
Guided by Shane's [Eye of Karma], the two followed the causal line and plunged into the colorful forest of giant mushrooms ahead.
"There are huge mushrooms taller than people everywhere. What a strange forest."
Mira curiously studied the bizarre spore plants around them.
"Mm… there are obvious signs of human activity nearby."
Shane stopped and looked down at a patch of grass that had been trampled into disorder. He could even see half of a broken mushroom stem.
He raised his head and looked in the direction where the causal line extended. "Not only that, the color of the causal line has become very solid here."
"Doesn't that mean… Lisanna is probably nearby?!"
Hearing that, Mira felt a shiver run through her whole body. Her eyes were filled with both hope and nervousness.
"Didn't I already tell you we weren't far away? Don't make such a big deal out of it."
Shane stood up. His tone was calm, but now that the answer was truly about to be revealed, the hand he had tucked into his pocket unconsciously clenched a little tighter.
Just as they were talking quietly, the sound of light footsteps crushed the fallen leaves in the forest.
"Huh? Mira-nee? What are you doing out here all by yourself?"
A clear, pleasant, and terrifyingly familiar voice rang out behind them without warning, hitting both of them like lightning.
"…"
Mira's shoulders trembled violently.
She swallowed with difficulty and looked at Shane, who had also fallen silent.
Only after receiving an encouraging look from him did she take a deep breath and slowly turn around, as if using every bit of strength in her body.
It was a face that had appeared countless times in her dreams.
Rare silver-white hair, cut short just past the ears in a fresh style.
The girl wore a simple floral dress and tilted her head slightly, looking at them with bright, lively eyes full of confusion.
"Mira-nee? Why are you spacing out?" The girl tilted her head. Her gaze passed over Mira and curiously landed on the mysterious person in the black cloak behind her. "And who is this?"
Before Mira could answer, the girl's gaze suddenly fixed on the right arm that had been crudely splinted and bandaged with wood.
"Huh? What happened to your arm? How did you get hurt so badly?!"
The girl cried out in shock. No longer caring that a suspicious stranger was standing nearby, she hurried forward, grabbed Mira's uninjured left hand, and pulled her deeper into the forest without another word.
"Come on! Don't just stand there! Hurry back to the guild with me so we can treat your wound!"
The warmth from her wrist was so real.
Mira had imagined countless times what it would be like for her little sister to appear in front of her again.
But when the moment finally arrived, an indescribable sense of wrongness surged up inside her like a tide.
Why does something feel wrong…?
Mira bit her lip hard. Her eyes gradually reddened, but she couldn't say a word.
"Does it hurt?" The white-haired girl noticed that something was off with Mira and stopped, turning back to look at her with concern.
Mira shook her head hard.
Her lips trembled for a long time before she finally forced a hoarse sentence from her throat.
"Lisanna… after not seeing me for so long, don't you have anything else you want to say to me?"
"Mm… so long?" Lisanna first looked at her strangely, then guiltily shrank her neck. Her voice was full of remorse. "I know the kingdom's people are probably looking for us outside."
"It really was my fault for sneaking out to play this time. Mira-nee can scold me however she wants afterward!"
She thought her sister had gotten so badly injured in the forest because she had come out looking for her.
"…"
Mira said nothing more.
Her usually bright face, one that had not even flinched before the evil dragon, now seemed drained of all color, turning utterly gray.
It was confirmed.
The girl before her had Lisanna's exact face and voice, but their memories and bond were broken.
She did not belong to Earth Land at all.
She was this world's native Lisanna—Edolas's counterpart.
Mira turned stiffly toward Shane, who had remained silent the whole time, and asked unwillingly, "The end of the causal line… is really here?"
"The light here is very strong," Shane said quietly.
Although he did not directly confirm it, his meaning was obvious.
"If the causal line ultimately points to… just this world's counterpart, then…"
Mira no longer dared to keep thinking.
Her mind went blank. She didn't even know what expression she was wearing or how she was walking.
In a daze, she only felt herself being pulled by the "Lisanna" ahead of her all the way through the dense mushroom forest.
Finally, they stopped in front of a wooden building hidden among the giant mushrooms.
Above the building's front door hung an extremely familiar Fairy Tail guild emblem.
"Someone, hurry! Everyone, bring the medical kit! Mira-nee is hurt!"
The moment she pushed open the guild doors, "Lisanna" shouted anxiously inside.
"Mira's hurt? What kind of joke is that?"
A rather lazy voice came from the hall. "Lisanna, did you go out today and get your head muddled by mushroom poison?"
Mira felt like there must be something wrong with her mind.
Because she actually saw Gray sitting in a corner, wrapped in over a dozen thick padded coats, looking like a bloated ball.
"Who has time to joke with you? Look for yourself!"
Seeing that her companions didn't believe her, "Lisanna" angrily pointed at Mira's splinted right arm and shouted.
"But… Lisanna, I've been inside the guild wiping cups all day. I haven't even stepped out the door."
Just then—
an extremely gentle, soft voice came from the direction of the bar.
A girl wearing a long dress and an apron, identical to Mira except for her hairstyle and temperament, walked out holding a tray, her face full of confusion.
"Huh?"
This time, not only the people in the hall, but even "Lisanna," who was holding Mira's hand, was completely dumbfounded.
Her eyes widened. She looked at the injured "Mira-nee" beside her, then at the perfectly fine "Mira-nee" by the bar. She was so shocked she started stammering.
"T-two Mira-nees?!"
The other members in the hall finally reacted too.
"Ehhhh—"
Cries of surprise rose one after another.
Everyone turned their heads back and forth between the two Miras as if they had seen a ghost.
"F-first, don't worry about all that! No matter which Mira-nee she is, we should… we should treat her wound first!"
From the crowd, an unusually burly man with a timid expression on his face shakily handed over a medical kit.
That was… Elfman with a mushroom haircut, and he looked like he was about to cry?
Mira stared at that familiar yet unfamiliar face and felt her worldview take a severe hit. Her whole body went numb.
I must be dreaming…
"Wait! We can't be so careless!"
At that moment, a man with a scar near his eye stepped forward and interrupted the people who were about to approach, his expression extremely serious.
"Our guild is currently wanted by the kingdom army nationwide! Someone who looks exactly like her suddenly appearing here is far too suspicious!"
"Exactly! We can't trust people of unknown origin so easily!" another man wearing sunglasses chimed in.
"Jet and Droy? The two who are always hanging around Levy? Why do they sound like guild big brothers right now?"
Mira's expression grew even more confused.
At those words, the people in the hall instantly became wary.
"Putting aside that suspicious Mira for now…"
Droy pointed behind Mira.
"That guy who hasn't said a word! You're hiding under that black cloak like some shady creep. What exactly are you trying to do?"
Seeing the spearhead suddenly point at him, Shane, who had remained silent ever since the forest, knew he couldn't keep watching from the sidelines.
"I'm hiding my face simply to avoid unnecessary trouble in this world."
Shane sighed and answered calmly from beneath the cloak.
"Hmph! With how suspicious you're acting right now, you've already caused a huge problem!"
The one speaking was a petite girl with short blue hair.
She had one foot planted on a table and was holding a huge wrench from who knew where. Her tone was extremely fierce.
"Enough nonsense! Take that cloak off!"
"…"
Looking at that face, the corner of Shane's eye twitched violently.
He couldn't understand how Earth-land's Levy, who was always holding books and had such an obedient, quiet personality, had turned into a full-blown little delinquent in this world.
Don't tell me Mira's delinquent genes somehow infected Edolas too.
"Alright, don't get excited. To make the explanation easier, I'll remove the cloak."
Shane spread his hands, still speaking unhurriedly.
"But in exchange, since I'm satisfying your curiosity, you'll have to tell me some things I'm curious about too."
"Oh? About what?" Gray asked warily from the corner.
"I'm quite interested in why Fairy Tail is wanted by this country's kingdom army."
"Huh? You don't even know that?"
A middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses, looking refined and scholarly, pushed his glasses up and frowned.
"Did you two crawl out of some deep mountain forest? How bizarre… Fine. If you want to know, hurry up and take off the cloak."
"That's… Macao? Why does he look like some refined scumbag…"
Shane went wild with internal commentary, though outwardly he remained calm.
"Got it. But before I take it off, I'll ask everyone to mentally prepare yourselves first."
Shane pinched the cloak's tie and, still not reassured, emphasized it again.
"Please remember one thing: I am absolutely not the same person as the one you know with this face."
"Stop talking! Take it off already!" The crowd had long since lost patience and roared in unison.
"Fine…"
Helpless, Shane undid the hidden clasp and pulled off the wide black cloak, revealing his signature black hair and black eyes.
"…"
The guild hall fell into a brief and bizarre dead silence.
The moment everyone saw that face, every expression froze.
Their eyes bulged, and their mouths hung open wide enough to fit a goose egg.
Then—
"BOOOOM—!!!"
Like a volcano that had been building pressure for ages, an enormous wave of sound nearly blew the roof off and tore through the entire guild.
"Sh-Shane?"
"It's that bastard Shane!!!"
"Didn't I tell you all to prepare yourselves?"
Shane rubbed his buzzing ears, just about to complain about how easily startled they were.
Then, suddenly, he realized something was wrong.
Unlike Mystogan and Charle, when these people saw his face, the words that came out of their mouths were not "evil dragon."
They called him "Shane."
"Don't tell me…"
A very bad guess rose in his mind.
Before he could organize his thoughts, the already wary crowd completely exploded.
"You damn bastard! You actually have the nerve to come back!"
Gray, wrapped up like a dumpling, jumped up and pointed at Shane, cursing loudly.
"Do you know that because of you, our entire Fairy Tail became the kingdom's most wanted criminals?!"
"Exactly! Do you know how much trouble you caused us?!" Refined Macao was so angry his glasses went crooked.
"Do you know how many of our guildmates were dragged into this because of you and brutally hunted down by the kingdom army as your accomplices? And you still dare swagger back in front of us!"
The more they spoke, the more emotional they became. Their eyes all turned red.
One after another, they drew weapons and rushed forward, surrounding Shane tightly.
"Tch…"
Facing people with the faces of his companions, Shane naturally couldn't just suppress them with force.
Seeing the situation about to spin out of control, he hurriedly raised both hands in a surrender gesture and shouted quickly and loudly,
"Stop! Everyone, calm down!"
"Didn't I just say it? Mira and I aren't from your world! We're counterparts from another parallel world! We're members of Fairy Tail from another world!"
Perhaps because the amount of information in that statement was too enormous, or perhaps because they had just seen another living Mira in front of their eyes and already had some mental groundwork—
after hearing Shane's outrageous but somehow reasonable explanation, the furious crowd barely stopped their attack.
They still maintained the encirclement, but their eyes began carefully scanning and examining Shane up and down.
"Parallel world? Counterpart?"
Levy circled Shane once with her wrench, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.
"Now that I'm looking closely…" Refined Macao pushed up his glasses, his gaze stopping on Shane's chest for a moment. "This guy is actually completely flat?"
"What's so strange about that?"
Gray, wrapped in his thick coats, leaned closer with a cold snort.
"That guy was already a lunatic! We can't rule out the possibility that she thought the extra flesh on her chest got in the way of movement, so when modifying her body, she cut that off too!"
"But look at his neck!" Refined Macao pushed his glasses again and pointed out the blind spot. "He has an Adam's apple!"
"Could she have modified her sex too?"