A/N: I apologize for yet another late update. I'm wrote half of this chapter during my breaks in school today and the rest late at night |D Basically that's when I have time lately, so please bear with me~
Rikkai and hyotei lover: Huhuhu~ You'll learn who the Yule Spirit is soon enough ^^
And yes. I could not resist putting a certain favorite character of mine into this story |D As if I can write ANYTHING Fairy Tail without including him. That would be BLASPHEMEH!

It felt awesome to finally become involved in something exciting for once, especially in a small town such as Magnolia. A powerful spirit had gone missing and Natsu, along with Gray, was going to find it.

However, there was one thing Natsu had not taken into consideration when he befriended Gray. The guy was quite distrustful towards humans, which could hardly be a surprise since he could sense their intentions.

And yet, certain people just did not seem to care at all when Gray tried to distance himself. Apparently it made him "mysterious". Girls loved mysterious.

Natsu laid sluggishly across his table in the classroom, Gray beside him with a tired face. Dealing with all of Gray's "fans" had turned out to be an extremely exhausting task.

"With all of these chicks around we'll never be able to investigate the school," Gray grumbled, glaring at the small group of girls by the door. The second he made eye contact they began to snicker and whisper away eagerly. "How annoying can they even get?!"

Natsu silently agreed. He and Gray had been chased around by those girls all day, leaving no time for them to search the school grounds for the source of the strangely large amount of magic Gray had sensed.

"We need to get them off our backs somehow." Gray looked at Natsu resignedly. "Got any bright ideas, Pinky?"

"Shut up."

Natsu put his forehead against the desk, ignoring the stupid nickname Gray insisted on using. He was already starting to hate it. Still, he should try to come up with a plan, some way to get rid of Gray's personal fan group, at least temporarily. Who would be able to deal with an entire group of girls on their own with little trouble? A sudden realization struck him.

"I've got it!" he exclaimed, surprising Gray as he slammed his hands on the table. "I know how we'll deal with the problem!"

"Eh? How?"

Natsu simply grinned as he grabbed Gray's arm, tugging at it to tell him to come along. Moving past the girls, he headed straight for a particular room in which he knew the salvation to their troubles would be for sure.

Hopefully, she would be willing to help them.

"Erza? You here?" Natsu called as he opened the door to the student council's usual meeting room. Inside, a red-haired woman with crossed legs sat looking through a pile of documents. She did not appear to have noticed the two people entering.

"Erza!"

"Yes? What do you want?"

As Erza looked up at them, Gray sank a lump in his throat. Natsu could only laugh. It was the usual reaction for someone who did not know the true colors of the lady in front of them. While she was quite the beauty, her personality scared off most people. Most.

"I need your help." Natsu pushed Gray in front of himself. "There's a bunch of girls bothering our new transfer student. They just won't leave him alone. Can't you please take care of them?"

"Bothering?" Erza lifted a brow as she gathered the documents neatly before putting them down. "And why is it that you come here then? I hope you aren't planning on causing trouble." Sighing, she took a look at Gray, who immediately froze in her presence. "You must be Gray Fullbuster, correct?"

"Y-yeah. That's me."

"And these girls are bothering you?"

"U-uhm, yeah." Scratching his chin, Gray turned his gaze away from Erza. "You could say that. It's pretty annoying to have them follow me everywhere."

"Alright." Erza stood up from her chair, walking past the two boys. "Since this sounds like a beginning stalker issue, I suppose I will have to take action. But know this, Natsu…" She gave him a harsh glare which made Natsu cringe. "If you are lying to me, I will punish you. Got that?"

"Sure Erza," he laughed nervously, holding his hands up front. "I get it. Thanks for helping us out. Just like we'd expect our awesome President to do, yeah?"

He elbowed Gray, who realized the meaning and nodded in agreement. Looking one last time at them, Erza swiftly left the room. Once she was out of sight, the two boys only needed to exchange looks for a second before sharing a high-five. They had done it.

Darkness had fallen upon Magnolia as two figures quickly moved down the hallways of the seemingly empty school. However, if one listened closely, only the footsteps of one of these two characters could actually be heard.

Pushing against the wall, Gray took a short look down the hall, scouting for any signs of life. Nothing could be seen. Without a word, he mouthed Natsu to move along. So far, they had already searched through most of the school and only one part was left.

During their afternoon investigation, the two had come up empty-handed. Gray had thought it might be that whatever the source of the magic was, it would only come out at night. Either that or it hid in the basement to which they would have no chance of accessing during daytime.

Which was why they were currently heading for it in only the light of the moon. Natsu grimaced. If Erza were ever to find out that they had broken into the school at night, they would be two dead guys. Very, very dead. But what she did not know would not hurt her… or them for that matter.

The basement was pitch black. They had only brought a weak flashlight and they could not risk turning on any of the light there. Natsu shivered at the thought of whatever might hide in the darkness. He could fight back, sure… but if whatever was hiding on the school was hostile and supernatural he would be in trouble. Hopefully Gray knew how to defend himself.

"Looks like nothing's here," Gray mumbled as they had found yet another empty room. They had still not found anything. "Maybe I was wrong. I thought for sure we would find some kind of clue in this place."

"Hey, we're not done yet!" Natsu said cheerfully, patting his friend on the back. "Let's look a bit longer since we're already here. We might still find something."

No sooner had Natsu uttered those words before the two heard a sound behind them. The sound of something being knocked over and hitting the floor. Turning around, the two of them could only stare in disbelief at what met their eyes.

They had expected to see nothing, but it was quite the opposite. What they saw was a young man with bright blue hair. He was wearing a ripped shirt and the look upon his face was panicked. Natsu could not help but to stare at the strange red tattoo running down across his face. After a few seconds of staring at one another, the man took a step back and raised his hands.

"Get away from me!"

"No, wait!" Gray stepped forward, reaching out a hand towards the man. "We're not your enemies. Just wait a second!"

His persuasion failed as the man turned around on his heel and dashed. Natsu was about to chase after him when he felt a hand on his shoulder. For some reason, Gray was holding him back.

"Why aren't we going after him?" Natsu growled at him, genuinely confused. "Isn't he sort of suspicious?"

"Trust me, you wouldn't want to corner him. Not when he's panicked." Gray frowned as he stared down the hallway where the man had disappeared into the darkness. "He's too powerful for either of us to handle in that state, though I wonder why he didn't realize we weren't going to hurt him."

"You mean you know him?"

"Of course I do." Gray sighed deeply. "Every spirit does. That guy was Jellal. He's the basically the Yule Spirit's right hand man. If something's happened to make him freak out like that… it's pretty bad. We've got to find him and figure out what the hell is going on."

As they made their way down the hall, their mood had hit rock bottom. They had just found what they were looking for and it was obviously that it was a major clue to solve the mystery of the Yule Spirit's disappearance…

…and they had let him get away.

- December 6th – Success and failure