Chapter 11 already! It has taken a little longer to write this chapter, but I managed to figure out what turn I want to give this story!
Thanks a lot CJ for proofreading :)
''Cana?'' Lucy carefully asked as she pushed the door open. She soon realised the living room wasn't completely dark as she could see the faint light of the little table lamp shine from behind the corner.
As she walked into the living room, she saw Cana lay under a blanket on the couch. Lucy was amazed to see she had made a start on the new step in their investigation. Several pictures that they had found in the hidden library were hung up on the wall, connected to post-its with wool strings, like a true detective.
''Cana,'' Lucy said as she shook her friend awake, ''you won't believe what happened!''
''Shit, I fell asleep,'' she groaned, getting up as quickly as her dizzy brain would let her. She was surprised by Lucy's distressed face.
''You see like you've seen a ghost!'' she let out, ''what on earth happened? Did he break your heart? Did he already dump you?''
Lucy laughed sheepishly. ''You were actually closer when guessing the ghost.''
She told her everything. From the perfect date to the things Natsu had told about his brother and Mavis and the eventual encounter with the dark entity. Cana hung on her lips. Whereas she would have snickered and rolled her eyes before, she was now intrigued and curious. After their discovery of being mages, nothing seemed impossible anymore.
''No way...'' Cana sighed in awe, ''Natsu can control fire?''
Lucy nodded. ''What if those creatures only attack mages?'' she asked, her fingers still shaking with adrenaline.
A wide grin crossed Cana's face. ''Then we'll need to be able to fight too.''
Lucy thought of her golden key, which had reacted to the attacker but decided to talk about it later. She looked up to the wall. ''So you started your search for your family name, eh?''
''Mirajane told me that the primary descendants of the original mages all have the weird birthmark and the indirect descendants don't. If I have a birthmark, it means my father's last name has to be somewhere on the pictures.'' She proudly said.
''Wait, did you steal those pictures?!''
''Borrowed,'' Cana corrected her, ''Anyway, I found two last names that haven't shown up in the community home yet; Clive and Gryder.''
''So your father's last name is either one of those two?''
She nodded.
''How do we find out?''
''We just have to wait around for someone to show up at the community home with one of those last names, it's that simple,'' Cana concluded.
''It's not that simple, you have a different last name, what if that is the case with this person as well?''
''Argh, this is breaking my poor brain!'' Cana let out in frustration. ''You take the wheel here, Lucy, you're the smart one.''
Lucy tapped her nose in thought. ''They could technically be present in the community home already, which means we only need to know about people having a birthmark or not.''
A devilish grin crossed Cana's face.
Lucy groaned. ''You're gonna date just everyone to check their bodies for birthmarks?''
Cana twitched her nose in disgust. ''I'm not that cheap, you know that.''
''Then how do we find out?''
''I just happened to find out we have a real detective in our midst,'' Cana proudly said, ''Gray resigned as a police detective not too long ago.''
''That's all I could find,'' Lucy said as she dropped down the pile of books on the coffee table with a loud thud.
It has been a few days since the incident and Natsu had come over every day to help investigate the incident.
''Jeez Luce,'' Natsu said with a pained look on his face, ''you really expect us to read all of those?''
''If you won't, I will,'' she replied, ''Levy let me borrow glasses that she inherited from her mother. They'll let you read twice as fast.''
''Yeah right,'' Natsu waved aside.
Lucy's face puffed up. ''You literally just lit the stove with fire from a finger snap. How are magic glasses impossible?!''
''Tone it down you two,'' Cana complained when she came down the stairs, ''you two sound like a quarreling old couple.''
Before either of them could awkwardly deny her statement, she held up her hand to silence them.
''I'm off to Gray and will call Mira on my way,'' she said as she picked up her coat from the couch and gave Lucy a hard-to-miss wink, ''no fighting when I'm gone.''
''So you're saying what Lucy and Natsu saw was the result of the mages assembling?'' Cana half-whispered into the phone, looking around to make sure no one overheard her. She was walking down a parallel road that was faintly familiar to her. Her destination shouldn't be too far away anymore. The weather wasn't letting her down for a change and she enjoyed the occasional rays of sun that peeked through the buildings she passed.
''Yes,'' Mira said on the other side of the phone, ''it's a sign everyone is present and has begun developing their magic abilities. The darkness we might be up against feels cornered and has started their first attacks.''
''So every current direct and indirect descendant that can use magic is known to us now?''
''I'd say so, yes,'' Mira replied.
''Great, that's all I needed to know,'' Cana said.
''Wait, why did you want to know-?''
''Thanks, Mira, you're the best,'' she cut her off and clicked the call away.
She scrolled through the messages on her phone until she found the chat with Gray and looked up his house number. She looked around to see if she was close yet, but was thrown off by something she spotted on the other side of the road.
A tall figure eyed her from a little distance. He was wearing a long coat and carried around a leather briefcase. She recognised him from the week before.
''Hey, professor Seyir!'' she shamelessly yelled.
He jolted, not expecting a reaction that bold. Frantically he looked around for an escape route, but saw no other option, as several people were staring at the odd scene.
With an awkward grin, he waved as a greeting back, but to his horror, she crossed the street.
''That's such a coincidence,'' she said, ''weren't you just observing our talking group yesterday as part of your research?''
This was not supposed to happen. He thought to himself in a panic.
''Ehrm, yeah, that's right,'' he stumbled over his words, ''I was actually on my way to continue that one on one with... someone.''
She raised a brow. ''No need to hide who it is, we're all pretty close actually.''
''Oh, it's nothing,'' he lied, ''I'm just on my way to Gray to offer him to be in a special program for... police officers who are out of work because of past trauma.''
Her eyes lit up. ''That's great! I was just on my way to him too!''
He clenched his jaw in frustration. Nothing was working out as it was supposed to be. He had to think. Fast.
''You're pretty young for a professor, aren't you?'' Cana rambled as he reluctantly tagged along.
''I was one of the rare few to graduate before the age of thirty, so I guess I'm not that old.''
''I see...'' Cana said pensively.
He could practically feel her stares pierce right through him. She wasn't even subtle about her nosiness. It was him that should be interrogating her, not the other way around.
''Have we met before?''
A single question let him freeze on the spot.
She was confused about why he suddenly stood still.
''Are you not feeling well?'' she asked when she turned around.
His lower jaw started to tremble and his fist was clenched tightly around his briefcase's handle.
''I knew this was doomed to fail...'' he whispered to himself before looking straight up.
Cana looked up as well in a reflex, curious what grabbed his sudden attention. But as soon as she realised there was nothing and looked back to the street...
He was gone. Gone up in literal thin air.
Before she could even process what had just happened, a tap on her shoulder brought her to her senses again.
She spun around, startled by the touch, only to find herself right in front of Gray.
''I saw you wandering around and passing my house, were you lost?''
She grabbed her suddenly aching head. ''I already walked past your house?''
''I think it's time for some caffeine,'' he laughed and gestured her to follow him, ''can I interest you in some iced coffee before you tell what you came for?''