There is a podfic (the text as audio) of this fic, recorded by the talented yuurivoice! So far there's only the first chapter but the others will follow. I highly recommend it, his voice is so beautiful! To listen to it, you can either search this fic on AO3 (Archive Of Our Own) under the same name or visit my (chiyalawritesrewind) or yuurivoice's tumblr. If you want, you can write the feedback on the podfic in the reviews here, and I'll pass it on to yuurivoice.

The fact that Mirajane has a note, too, seemed to be confusing to some people, so here's the explanation: When Lucy and nearly all the others read Natsu's diary in Chapter 8, Natsu was outside with Laxus and Gray was lost in thoughts. Mirajane used the opportunity to secretly cut out a page of the diary (one of the last pages) and hid it from everyone. She made the cut clean so that it wouldn't be noticed easily. The paper stays where it is because the pages of the diary are enchanted to keep the state they are put into (or else writing would vanish), while the diary itself will return to its place when the day starts anew.

In short: Everything that's still in the diary will return to Natsu's room, everything that's not attached to it (anymore) won't.

Day 7 Part 2

The Magic Council was a huge and posh building with an expansive foyer. All the marble statues, armors, and adorned pillars attracted attention so that Natsu nearly overlooked the old receptionist who eyed them bewilderedly. No, scratch that; he eyed their joined hands bewilderedly.

Out of spite, Natsu didn't let go of Gray's hand as they walked over to the reception. "Hi there! We want to talk to the Oracle!"

The receptionist scrutinized the pair, and when his gaze landed on Natsu's guild mark, his eyes narrowed. "And which Oracle would that be, young man?"

"Well... The Oracle of the Magic Council."

The receptionist rolled his eyes. "Obviously. Which one of them? We have three."

Did they? "Err... Is it possible to see all of them?"

Gray squeezed his hand tighter as if to warn him, but Natsu didn't care. Yes, the protruding vein was obvious, but was it his fault that this man held a grudge against Fairy Tail?

However, before the man could answer, a woman with long blond hair and a light blue silk dress rounded the corner, asking in a sing-song voice, "Fairy Tail's Salamander, I take it?"

"Yes."

"Come with me."

They followed her, but not without Natsu sticking his tongue out to the old man before.

When they entered the office of the Oracle, Natsu was surprised to find it empty, aside from a blue magic circle on the floor.

"You came here to ask me for help."

Natsu clenched his teeth, but Gray gave his hand a warning squeeze. Natsu's grudge against her was still strong, but for some reason, he wasn't at all in the mood to fight her. Strange.

"Yes."

The woman walked across the magic circle until she stood on the outer line that was farthest away from the door.

"Please step onto the rim opposite of me and close your eyes."

Natsu hesitantly did as he was told. He didn't want to trust this woman, yet there was something about her aura that soothed him and convinced him that she was trustworthy. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't bring himself to be angry.

As soon as his eyes were closed, a strange feeling flooded his body. It was like a mixture of wind and water, running through his veins, tingling his insides. It was so different from the heat of his own magic, yet it didn't feel unpleasant. The feeling intensified, and after about a minute he found it hard to breathe, almost as if his lungs were slowly filling with water. But he wouldn't be subdued so easily. He found that if he breathed very slowly, it was alright.

Another few minutes ticked by, and the increasing feeling of malaise slowly made it more and more difficult for Natsu to stay upright. He felt nauseous, choked, his heart ached, every single muscle in his body felt like he'd exerted them far past the point of exhaustion. His brain told him to take a step back and end this. His gut told him to stay and endure it.

Just when the pain got so bad that Natsu was about to take a step back, it ended abruptly.

Natsu's eyes opened wide and he sank to his knees. The ground was invisible, the room or anything else around him non-existent. It was like drifting in space, everything black. He heard a weak whimper from behind him and turned around.

The Oracle lay on her side on the invisible ground, dozens of scratches and stabbing wounds all over her body, bleeding heavily. Her hair fully covered her face.

Panic rose in his gut, and Natsu stumbled over to her. He'd seen too many deaths already; he didn't want yet another person to die in his presence, let alone die because of him.

When he pushed her hair aside, he shrieked when he found her staring wide-eyed at him. Where her pupils should have been, there was only whiteness.

She inhaled deeply and then talked with many different voices, "Natsu Dragneel, you are not ready yet. Please go your way, and come back when you are ready."

"How should I know when I'm ready?"

"You will know. Go now. Your time has not come yet."

"No... I refuse to give up. Can't I assist you somehow? Can't we try a bit harder?"

With a jolt, Natsu came to, and the first thing he noticed was that he was falling sideways. Just when he expected to hit the ground, he felt something soft beneath him. 'Gray...'

"Natsu!?"

Gray was right there, arms wrapped around Natsu's torso, asking whether he was alright, if he could stand, and what happened.

All the pain was gone. Natsu could breathe freely again. He looked up, nodded reassuringly, and then turned his attention to the Oracle.

She was on her knees, breathing heavily, clutching her chest. Relief washed through Natsu when he saw that she wasn't wounded. She locked eyes with Natsu, an earnest look on her face.

"It is impossible. You cannot pluck an apple from a sapling, no matter how hard you try."

Natsu wanted to voice a complaint, but Gray beat him to it.

"What do you mean?"

She shook her head. "I cannot help you. Please leave and only come back when you are ready."

Natsu sat up, indignant to accept the failure. "Tell me how I can help you. Let's try again."

"Plants need time to grow. You cannot force them to grow in a matter of seconds. It is impossible. Please leave."

"But I need to save Gray! What should I do?"

"Carry on. Live. Love. Enjoy. Do not rely on me. Now leave."

"Wh-what?"

"Leave."

An invisible power pushed Natsu and Gray out of the room, and the door slammed the second they were outside. Natsu scrambled to his feet, only to find that the door was gone. There was only a solid wall, far and wide no door in sight.

Anger suddenly rose in his gut. "Damn it!" he shouted, slamming his fist into the wall, partly hoping to break through to the office that was supposedly behind it, but also wanting to make room for his frustration.

The wall crumbled, but all it revealed was solid stone. Where had she gone? How dare she tell them that they should enjoy their time when Gray was about to die! Did she know what they were going through? Did she even care? Or was she the one behind it after all? Was she secretly laughing about them, satisfied that her plan had worked out?

Natsu bared his teeth, flames encompassing his body. "That bitch. Who do you think you are?! Come back here and fight me! You coward!"

His mind blanked out completely as rage took over.

Nothing could withstand his flames and the sheer power of his fists, and soon he was surrounded by rubble. He hadn't found the room of the Oracle yet, so he kept going, completely ignoring Gray's shouts and poor attempts to stop him with ice magic.

"FOR GOD'S SAKE, NATSU!"

A fist hit him so hard it sent him flying into the wall at the other end of the corridor. He looked up, noticed Gray's figure coming closer rapidly, and spew flames into his direction. Gray wanting to hold him back made him even angrier.

"I'm trying to save you here, bastard!"

Gray broke through his flames and hit him hard in the gut, pressing all air out of his lungs.

"How is this helping me in any way? You're in a blind rage! Stop it!"

Stop? And let Gray die again? No way. If Gray didn't want to help, then Natsu would have to do it alone. Gray was in his way.

A fight ensued in the middle of the Magic Council. Gray shouted at Natsu to stop like a mantra, and Natsu could tell he didn't use his whole power, but even so, Gray managed to land quite a few hits.

Natsu was inattentive for a split second and suddenly found himself pinned down to the floor with Gray sitting astride his hips, pinning his wrists to the floor. He was about to kick Gray in the back, fight him off, but then he noticed Gray's forlorn expression and paused.

"You imbecile! Did you think I appreciate you running berserk to fight a woman who tried to help us?!"

"Help?"

"Yes, help! What happened in there? What made you so angry? Tell me!"

A tear dripped onto the torn fabric on Natsu's abdomen, and it was like a bucket of icy water hitting his face, making him realize what he'd done.

He gulped and turned his head sideways, closing his eyes. "I... I believe that she is the reason for your death."

He heard Gray gasp. "Wh-what? Oh god... What did she say? What did she do to you? What happened during those few minutes?"

"I was in extreme pain..."

Gray snarled, then punched his fist into the floor next to Natsu's body. "Something else?"

"I was pulled into a... dream? Something like that. She lay on the floor, hurt, bleeding, no pupils in her eyes. She told me that I'm not ready yet with a weird voice. She said I should come back when I'm ready."

"Well... She looked like she was in pain, too. Did she threaten you?"

"No... all she did was tell me that I'm not ready. And of course, she told me to enjoy my life, did you hear that?"

Natsu looked up defiantly at Gray, just in time to see a shadow passing over his face.

"I did. I wanted to be angry at her... but somehow, I couldn't. But still, running berserk and destroying half the Magic Council didn't help, now, did it? You could try asking for something for once!"

"She made it pretty clear that she doesn't want to see us again. Do you really think they'd let us if we asked nicely?"

Gray opened his mouth, but a male voice beat him to it. "Damn right, we wouldn't."

And in the next moment, they were under attack from various directions. They fought side by side, defeating their attackers in no time at all—the soldiers protecting the Magic Council were incredibly weak.

"We surrender!"

Natsu stepped towards the man who'd spoken, asking him where they could find the Oracle. Instead of giving an answer, the soldier begged Natsu not to kill him, and after being asked a second time, he said that he didn't know a thing, that he was just hired to protect the Magic Council.

"What's the meaning of this commotion?" a loud, dark voice echoed.

Natsu shouted, "We want to see the Oracle!"

A tall, fat man with a huge, white beard emerged from the smoke. He stopped close to Natsu, eyeing him curiously.

"Oh, Fairy Tail. Well, I think Makarov has a separate fund to pay the costs for this repair." He smiled. "Which one of the Oracles do you want to see?"

"The one with pale skin and long blond hair."

In a creepy voice, the fat man said, "Ohhh, you mean Lydia. She's my favorite. Good choice." Natsu's jaw dropped, and the man cleared his throat, blush on his cheeks. "I mean, she's the best at fortune telling. Her prophecies are always so helpful."

Gray and Natsu exchanged a meaningful look before Gray spoke.

"Well, we don't understand one of her prophecies, that's why we'd like to ask her some questions."

"Oh, alright. But, may I ask why you didn't just... you know, ask for it?"

Gray regarded Natsu with a death glare while Natsu looked around awkwardly, taking in the destruction.

"Ah, well, you're Fairy Tail mages after all. Can't be helped, I guess. Give me a moment. I'll call Lydia."

And with that, he retreated, stumbling over rubble a few times.

"Who was that?" Natsu asked.

"The chairman. Geez, you should know that at least."

Gray let out a heavy sigh, closing the distance between them with a few quick steps. Warm arms wrapped around Natsu's torso, making contact with his skin where his clothes were torn. Natsu sighed, reciprocating the hug. It calmed his nerves and dissipated a huge part of his anger.

"I'm sorry..."

"It's okay. Your nerves must be strained from all that happened so far. And she wasn't exactly nice to us at the end, too. I should've gotten mad at her, too, and I was a bit mad, but... There was something that prevented me from getting too upset."

Gray had felt it, too?

Natsu pushed them apart, shooting Gray a suspicious look.

"Me too! I felt something, and I had to trust her, had to believe her, couldn't attack her. Did she manipulate us somehow?"

"U-uh... Maybe...?"

"Shit, that nasty witch! I'm going to fucking roast—"

Gray slapped his flat hand against Natsu's face and kept it there, covering his mouth.

"Would you please wait with that until we know what's actually going on?"

As much as Natsu wanted to complain, he knew that Gray had a point. He recalled the situation that had happened the day before when they'd been talking about Zeref, where Gray had been the stubborn one. He recalled the feeling of helplessness when Gray refused to listen to any reason. That had to be what Gray felt right then.

He reached for Gray's wrist and removed his hand. "I'm sorry. You're right."

Gray nodded, and then pulled Natsu back into his arms.

The chairman arrived with some healers a minute later. He beckoned the two of them so that they wouldn't hinder the healers, and led them into a corridor that was still intact. The look in his eyes was reproachful, to say the least.

"Lydia is being treated right now. She over-exerted herself, used too much of her magic power. She won't be able to cast magic for the rest of the day."

His expression turned cold, his eyes narrowing. "Tell your master that I've repaid the favor and that he now owes me one."

Natsu let Gray do the talking this time, knowing full well that Gray didn't trust him not to fuck this up otherwise.

"We will. Thanks. Err, actually, we still have a question..."

The chairman raised his brow in a silent invitation to go on.

"We've been wondering... There's this strange... aura around Lydia..."

"Ah, it was your first time meeting an Oracle?"

"Yes."

"They're very special mages. They're born with the magic ability to receive prophecies. However, they can't learn new magic like a normal mage can. The Oracle magic can't be used for fighting, so to protect them, they have another inherent magic that makes everyone around them peaceful. It also prevents them from lying, which is... mostly a good thing for the people around her, but as for how she feels about it... Well, don't ask her about it."

They couldn't lie? What kind of stupid magic was that?

"What happens if they try to lie?"

"They just can't. Lydia once tried to lie to me... Her words were cut off, and nothing came out of her mouth anymore until she decided to tell the truth."

"And is there a reason why they're born with this kind of magic? It seems suspicious."

Good that Gray asked. Natsu would've voiced his concern otherwise.

"We're not entirely sure... The records are sparse, but there seemed to be a time when all the Oracles formed an alliance, delivered wrong prophecies, and thus caused a civil war beyond comparison. That supposedly happened millenniums ago."

Gray nodded, but Natsu wasn't convinced.

"Well, I have other business to tend to, if you may excuse me. Please wait here. I think Lydia still needs a bit time to recover. She'll come here once she's ready."

He bowed his head, and then left them alone. Natsu let out a heavy sigh, unclenching the fists he hadn't noticed he'd clenched in the first place.

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