It hit them hard.

Lisanna's death had affected them all. She had lost her powers. Elfman had sworn to never use a Full Body Takeover again. But the one that took it the hardest is Reydell.

Despite how much she wants to just continue to wallow in sorrow and guilt and go back to lying on her bed wasting her time away, she mustered enough willpower to drag herself out of the house to find her youngest sibling. He is only ten, still too young to be out there training by himself. She is the eldest among her siblings, it is her responsibility to look out for them.

It was her responsibility to look out for Lisanna and Elfman when they went on that botched up job request. She had failed. Lisanna had paid the price of her own mistake with her life.

They wanted to surprise Reydell when they spotted that job request posted on the board in the guild hall. They wanted to defeat The Beast, help Elfman acquire a new takeover form, and then swiftly head back home to tell Reydell of the news when they return home later that day. They wanted to wow him with what the three of them can do as a team, to show their youngest that his three cool older siblings are capable enough to take on an S Class job. Reydell had asked where they were going but they avoided the question. He is still too young to be going out for any jobs above C Rank, so he sits out when the three of them went out on the more dangerous jobs and opted to train himself in Magnolia instead.

They weren't expecting that to be the last time he ever saw his Lisanna-nee.

It is all her fault. If only she was stronger. If only she wasn't so stubborn. If only…

Her thoughts were cut off when she spotted Reydell training at a clearing not too far from their house. This is where the four of them would come and train their magic in their free time. She walked up to Reydell, purposely making her presence known.

"Rey." She spoke softly, her voice still a bit hoarse from all the crying she did in her own room before she dragged herself out to find their youngest. "It's late, let's go back."

Reydell obliterated a huge boulder with a transformed arm of some unknown beast before turning back to speak to her.

"I will be fine on my own here, Mira-nee. I…" He trailed off before speaking up again, his gaze fell back to the ground and not meeting hers. "I need to do something."

Mirajane's own gaze softened at the words. She can understand having your thoughts running wildly into places you don't want them to be if your mind remains idle.

"Your punch earlier uses too much force." She said bluntly. She knew that Reydell had decided to get stronger as fast as possible the moment the reality of Lisanna's death hit him. It is the same line of thought that Elfman has. "It makes it easier for you to overextend yourself and any experienced fighters can take advantage of that."

Reydell gave a nod of acknowledgement before going back to practice on his magic. Seeing that her stubborn little brother is not going to end his training anytime soon, Mirajane decided to just sit on a smooth rock nearby to watch him practice, giving him some pointers every now and then.

Reydell's magic is different. While the three elder Strauss -two of them now, her mind so helpfully supplied- all uses Takeover magic, Reydell's magic is similar yet different.

His magic is Beast Transformation, the same magic that Wolfheim of the Ten Wizard Saints is known to use.

Beast Transformation allows the user to transform into a certain beast. Unlike Takeover, Beast Transformation doesn't allow the user to freely transform between the different beasts or creatures taken over because Beast Transformation doesn't allow the user to takeover anything. For Reydell, the beast that he can transform into is fixed. Users of Beast Transformation will automatically transform into a beast that best suits their nature without them having any say in the matter. Wolfheim is known to be able to transform between three different beasts, but that is his maximum limit. Most users of this magic only managed to be able to transform into one type of beast. Wolfheim's achievement in Beast Transformation magic is already the best among mages known to use the same brand of magic. To put it simply, Beast Transformation doesn't have the same versatility that Takeover can bring.

However, whatever Beast Transformation lacks in versatility, it made up for it in raw power.

Since unlike Takeover, Beast Transformation doesn't require the user to search for creatures to takeover its soul, the user doesn't have to "know" the beast slumbering within him to use his powers to his full potential since he is the beast itself. Every user of Beast Transformation has an 'inner beast' within them, something manifested in their soul the moment they learnt or awaken this brand of magic. To use Beast Transformation properly is to be able to conquer your own inner beast without the inner beast taking control of your mind. You don't need to fully understand it to control it, you just need to be strong enough to suppress its will completely. The only similarity and the greatest danger between Beast Transformation and Takeover in using their respective powers is that Rey has to fight his inner beast to be able to gain complete control of its powers. Most of the time that she, Elfman, and Lisanna used for training is in trying to get to "know" the creatures that they had taken over before controlling them. Reydell doesn't need to do that, so he is able to allocate more of his time during training to improve his combat skills instead and strengthen his willpower for the day he finally takes the next step to gain complete control of his inner beast.

It is still unknown just what kind of beast Reydell has within him thanks to his Beast Transformation magic. Reydell is not yet skilful enough in it to manage a full body transformation, but he can manage enough to transform his limbs. From the looks of it, his beast is probably a hybrid of something canine and reptile since he grows scales and stiff fur whenever he transformed his arm.

Mirajane can only watch in sadness as her youngest sibling poured out his sorrow and frustration into his training, using it as fuel to drive him further. If only she had been better, if only she had been stronger and more vigilant, this wouldn't happen. Reydell's Lisanna-nee would have returned home and Lisanna would purposely smother Reydell with open acts of affection just to publicly embarrass him. Reydell wouldn't need to exhaust himself like this if she is more capable.

S Class mage her ass. She couldn't even protect her own siblings, what good is she?

She picked her brother up gently when he finally collapsed in exhaustion. Reydell had always been the more logical and pragmatic among the four of them. He had always known when to stop training after exceeding a certain threshold. To exhaust himself in this manner is not like him.

Every one of them had changed when they lowered the empty casket into Lisanna's grave. She doesn't know what the future will bring, especially when she now lost her powers, but she will be damned if she loses another member of her family. She may be powerless now, but that doesn't mean that she is useless.

Elfman and Reydell obviously wants to get stronger. If that is what they truly want, then she will help them every step of the way just like an older sister should.

They are family, and family help each other when they need it.

Magic should be a stuff of legends and fantasy. It shouldn't be real.

And yet, here it is.

Being reborn as Reydell Strauss, the Fourth Strauss sibling, is a surprise since I knew there wasn't such a person. It was a shocking surprise before it changed into a pleasant one. The new family I was born into is tightly knitted. My new parents practically spoiled me while my older siblings all doted on me.

Until my parents suddenly died without any prior warning. They were killed when they attempted a job request on their own as independent mages.

I know they are mages from what they let slip, although I have no clue how strong they were or what kind of magic they used since I never saw them displaying their powers. I was so grateful and happy that I have such a loving family in my second life, too busy basking in the happiness that I forgot that they will die someday, that their deaths in canon was one of the two catalysts that drove my older siblings out of the village and into Magnolia. I remember crying, mourning and grieving for the two people I had grown to accept as my new parents. I was only physically six when the tragedy struck. Mira was only thirteen, Elfman twelve, and Lisanna eleven. We are all too young to be orphans and we have no idea what to do to continue to survive. Mira had worked herself to the bone to try and ensure that we all don't starve ourselves to death.

I don't remember much about the Fairy Tail series, only reading up till the end of the Oracion Seis arc before adulting comes along and whisked me away from manga reading. I knew the Fairy Tail series came to an end, but I have no idea what happened after the Oracion Seis arc and I know that the series was far from finished after the defeat of Oracion Seis by the Allied Forces. If I had known that I will be reincarnated into the world of Fairy Tail where dragons are freaking real, I should have at least finished reading the series. At least I would know what to expect. I knew canon Lisanna died, I know she died from a job gone wrong in subjugating The Beast. I was keeping an eye out for it, but I failed. I hadn't counted on my older siblings keeping the fact that they are attempting that S Class job away from me because they wanted to surprise me with what they can do. They wanted to show me that they are capable of going on S Class job requests.

Because of my failure, one of the three people left that I genuinely consider as my family died. It could have been prevented, but I failed. This is all my fault.

What would Mira and Elfman say if they ever found out about my secret? Will they hate me? They probably will. I could have stopped the tragedy from happening and looked what happened.

My memories of canon are now a foggy mess although the two events that struck out to me the most are the Phantom Lord arc and the Battle of Fairy Tail. Pretty sure that the Tower of Heaven arc is somewhere in between the two and that the Oracion Seis arc is the last arc to happen before my foreknowledge becomes useless. I don't remember the details, but I remember the gist of it. Hopefully, I remembered these events correctly even if I am unsure what I can do to change things. Do they even need to be changed? What if I made it worse?

When Mira accidentally activated her magic for the first time and we were thrown out of our village because of it, I immediately suggested to head to Fairy Tail without delay, citing the fact that it is currently the strongest mage guild and hence someone will definitely know what to do with Mira's demon arm. Master Makarov had explained to us what exactly is Takeover magic and reassured Mira that no, she isn't a demon, and yes, the power she wields can be controlled.

The rest of us went on to try and unlock our magic after that. Since Takeover is a branch of Transformation magic, that was what Elfman, Lisanna, and I focused on. We were sure that we had the same affinity for that branch of magic like Mira did.

God, talking about Lisanna-nee even now still hurts. I don't think the regret will ever truly go away.

The four of us trained and grew stronger as mages. Mira did end up as an S Class mage eventually and we are all happy for her. Despite her brash and punkish attitude, she has a heart of gold. She loves us with every fibre of her being just as we love her back. We all love each other.

I am the irregular among us since my innate magic turns out to be Beast Transformation magic instead, but it is still pretty close to my siblings' Takeover. There are upsides and downsides to Beast Transformation magic as compared to Takeover. Elfman's Beast Soul is the closest comparison to my magic. While he can utilise and interchange the abilities of numerous beasts without problems with Takeover, I don't have such a luxury. As of now, I can only use the powers of a single beast, a beast that is the manifestation of my nature and no one knows what it truly is until I managed a complete transformation in time, provided I don't lose my mind in the process. The best I can do now is to transform my limbs. The upside is that my raw power is stronger than my siblings when they were my age thanks to Beast Transformation. I also have enhanced healing factors along with enhanced senses, but that's it for now. Hopefully some other perks will pop out when I manage to master my magic in the future.

After we dealt with our own inner demons and help each other move on from Lisanna's death, things changed. Lisanna's room is still kept the same as she had left it before she passed away. It is our own way of remembering her. Mira had the most drastic change, be it in personality and appearance. Her punkish attitude is gone, she now wears dresses, and she is now a motherly figure. She had also decided to work as a barmaid in the guild and part-time as a model for the Weekly Sorcerer, something which I don't really approve since I don't want horny males from all over Fiore to ogle at my older sister. However, it is her life, not mine. If she really enjoys working as a model, then so be it.

Elfman decided to be grow stronger and be the man of the house. He trains relentlessly but he had sworn to never use a Full Body Takeover again. One reason for it is the lingering fear of losing control and letting history repeat itself, the other is because he does not want Mira to relieve those horrid moments if she ever caught sight of The Beast again.

For me, my approach is similar to Elfman's. I want to grow stronger as fast as possible. A full body transformation is harder to achieve for Beast Transformation as compared to Takeover but that also means that the reward will be just as great. For now, I will simply focus on strengthening my willpower and increase my proficiency in harnessing magic, so that it will be easier trying to achieve a full body transformation in the future. Like what Mira always say, one small step at a time.

I don't know what the future entails. For all I know, the limited knowledge of canon that I have might have already been screwed just by having me around. The only thing I can do now is to get stronger so that I can protect my family and my guild when the inevitable happens. Lisanna would approve of my thinking from where she is watching me from above, I know it.

I won't let my family down. Not anymore.