Seeing an actual ghost caused everyone in the school to panic. All of them ran out of there and wanted to get the heck away from the school. The only one that wasn't scared about this whole thing was Precht himself.

"No running! Everyone remain calm!" Precht said as he tried getting everyone to calm down. Precht wasn't believing that was a real ghost and believes he knows what's really going on. Natsu and the others hurried out of there, but he wasn't letting them go. "You four! Stop right there! I see what you did!"

"What?" Lucy said as all five of them came to a stop.

"I see what you did. Trying to pull some sort of prank since you had an axe to grind. Well, I won't hear of this foolishness in my school!" Precht said as he seemed pretty mad.

"You think we did this?! We were in detention!" Gray said.

"Exactly. You were the only ones not at the rally. That gave you timing and motive." Precht said. "I am disappointed in all of you since you are usually well-behaved students. Well, instead of detention, you all are now suspended!" Suspended is one of the worst things for a student to hear.

"Suspended?! Won't that go on our permanent records?" Erza said.

"I'll see that it does." Precht said as he was having zero tolerance for any foolishness. While he tend to make sure all the other students were remaining calm, the four of them couldn't believe that this was actually happening to them.

"Suspended? What am I going to tell my mother?" Erza complained.

"My dad is going to kill me. I might have to runaway." Gray said.

"Maybe not. Maybe our parents will actually believe that a ghost is actually haunting our school." Lucy said as she tried being optimistic, but it was hard to be upbeat about their situation. Happy could see the four of them were upset, but there was something he had to do. First, he had to get free from his leash.

"Come on, Happy. We better head home and face Mom and Dad's punishment." Natsu said as he reached down for him, but Happy nearly scratched him to keep his hands away and ran back into the school. "Happy! Wait!" He called as he went after him.

"Hold up!" Lucy called as the other three chased after him to get his cat back. Happy ran all the way back to the library with Natsu and the others following.

"Happy, what are you doing? This is where the ghost showed up." Natsu said, but Happy jumped around and waved its paws like he wanted to show them something. "Is there something back there?"

"I'll say. Look." Lucy said as she spotted some sort of ooze staining the floor. "What is this stuff?"

"This is right where the ghost appeared in that puff of smoke." Gray said.

"Hey! Look back here!" Erza called as she found something. They moved to the back of the library and saw there fans everywhere.

"What are all these fans doing back here?" Gray questioned.

"There's more. Look at this." Erza said as she pointed to a hole in the wall with wires coming out. "It looks like someone was tampering with the wiring to the lights."

"I guess Happy wanted to find something to prove we were innocent, but what is all this stuff?" Natsu questioned.

"I'm not sure, but we better get out of here. If Principle Precht catches us, he'll be more convinced that we're the ones responsible for all of this." Lucy said. They all certainly agreed with her and hurried out of there.

"Okay, something crazy is going on and we're going to be blamed for all of it unless we clear our names." Erza said.

"You're right. We need to do something or else we're all going to be in trouble for something we didn't do." Gray said. "I say we meet up tomorrow and figure out what we're going to do. For now, we got to try and keep our parents from finding out about our suspension."

"But where can we meet? We can't be seen on schoolgrounds now." Lucy said. "We can't go to my house because the staff will rat us out."

"Staff?" Gray questioned as they all looked at her with confusion and suspicion.

"Nothing." Lucy said as she tried acting innocent.

"You know, you guys can just come to my place." Natsu offered. "Both my parents will be at work until school is over and my older brother is at college."

"Sounds good to me." Erza said with Lucy and Gray agreeing. Natsu was actually glad to hear them.

"How about that, Happy? We actually have company tomorrow." Natsu whispered to his cat with Happy getting happy himself. Maybe some good will come out of this ghost conspiracy.

...

The Next Day

"Feel better, Natsu. There's lots of chicken soup in the fridge." His mother said as Natsu made himself look and act sick so he wouldn't have to go to school.

"Thanks, Mom." Natsu said as he tried to look miserable with his cold. As soon as he heard his mother go out the door and was in the clear, he jumped right up and made himself look more presentable. That was when they heard knocking on the door. Natsu opened up and let all three of them in. "Hey, guys. Come on in."

"Thanks, Natsu." Lucy said as they all came in.

"Help yourselves to anything you like." Natsu said as he tried acting like a good host. The three of them tried making themselves comfortable. Gray took up on Natsu's offer as he spotted a bag of snacks and helped himself to some, but he found the flavor to be rather strange.

"Hey. What is this stuff?" Gray asked.

"Uh... Those are fishy treats. They're Happy's favorite cat snacks." Natsu said. Realizing he just took a bite out of cat food, he spat it all out while Happy helped himself to the food.

"Okay, let's go over what we know." Erza said as they all had a seat. "There's a ghost haunting the school, but something weird is going on."

"There was that strange stuff we found on the floor, all those fans, and the wiring to the lights was tampered with." Lucy said. "If we want to clear our names and prove that we had nothing to do with it, we need to figure out what's really going on."

"But how are we suppose to do that?" Gray asked.

"Well, I've read a bunch of mystery books. A good place to start is to find some clues and figure out how they all fit together." Lucy said. "If we can get a chance to examine what we find, we might be able to figure this out."

"Okay, but how do we find any of that?" Natsu questioned.

"Well, we might have to head back to the school, return to the scene of the crime. There's got to be more stuff we can find there." Erza said.

"Say what?! We can't be seen on schoolgrounds. We'll get in even bigger trouble." Gray said.

"We don't have a choice. We've got to clear our names somehow." Lucy said.

"But how can we investigate? If Precht sees us there, he is going to have a cow." Natsu said.

"We'll have to go at night when no one is around." Lucy said. Thinking this is the only way they can clear their names, they agreed that they have to sneak back into school. "Let's get a few things we might need."

"Happy, you stay here. Be a good cat." Natsu said as the rest of them were leaving, but Happy wasn't going to sit out of this.

...

The School

The four of them waited until it got dark before they decided to go back to the school. Once it got dark enough and they got all that they needed, they went straight to the school and made sure no one spotted them. As they all took a look through some bushes, it looked like there was no one around.

"I think the coast is clear." Erza said. Thinking it's safe, the four of them went for the school and headed for the front.

"Hang on. I'm going to try and pick the lock." Gray said as he pulled out a couple tools and tried to get the door to unlock. The others kept their eyes open for anyone with Natsu spotting Happy showing up.

"Happy? What are you doing here? Do you want to help?" Natsu asked with Happy nodding his head.

"You need to get him trained." Erza said.

"We're in!" Gray said as he managed to get the lock.

"Well, since you're here, Happy..." Natsu said as he lifted Happy and placed him on his shoulders. They all walked inside the dark and creepy halls and kept their guard up for anything. "So... Where do we even start?"

"I think a good place to start is the gym since that's the last place the specter appeared." Lucy suggested. All of them agreed to head there and were on their way. What none of them knew was that the ghost made his way inside the school himself and followed after them. All of them made their way to the gym and took a couple flashlights to look around for anything that might seem strange or suspicious.

"See anything?" Erza questioned.

"It would help if we knew what to look for exactly." Gray said.

"Over here!" Lucy called as she found something. They gathered around and saw another stain on the floor. "This is the same stuff from the library. It's right where the Specter appeared and disappeared."

"What is it?" Natsu questioned.

"You think it's that stuff ghosts are made of?" Erza questioned.

"Ectoplasm? I'm not sure." Lucy said as she took a tissue and tried picking some of that stuff up with her putting it in a plastic bag. "I might be able to use the microscope's in the lab and figure that out." While they were talking about it, the ghost made his way over to them. He gave Happy a tap. When Happy turned to him, Happy gave off a kind of scream that practically caused his eyes and tongue to fly out.

"It's him!" Natsu said as they all became alerted and backed away from him.

"I thought brats didn't like school. What are you all doing here?!" The Specter questioned.

"Uh... Leaving." Natsu said as they all made a run for it with the ghost chasing after them. They all ran out of the gym with him still on their tail.

"Split up! He can't get all of us!" Gray said. They all went along with it as they tried going to separate directions. The Specter tried chasing after them and he started with Gray.

"You can't escape from me!" The Specter called as he chased after Gray. Gray looked around for anything he can use until he spotted a round trashcan. He placed the can against the ground and gave it a good kick. The trashcan made it's way to the ghost and hit his legs with it causing him to fall to the floor.

"Strike!" Gray cheered and ran out of there. Just as the Specter was getting up, the girls came around.

"Wrong way!" Erza said as she and Lucy turned back around with him chasing after both of the girls. The girls ran around until they hit the door that leads to the backstage of the auditorium. They went inside and tried to hide among the costumes. The girls ran around the costumes until they thought he cut them off. "Oh no you don't!" She actually hit him in the face and he fell, but he didn't do a thing.

"It's just a costume?" Lucy questioned. No time to think about it, they heard him open the door. "We need to hide!"

"I've got an idea!" Erza said as they moved quickly. The ghost searched around for them as he pushed costumes around, but he didn't see them anywhere.

"Come on, Happy!" He heard Natsu call. Deciding to forget the girls, he went after Natsu and his cat. As for Lucy and Erza, they just put on a couple costumes and acted like mannequins until he was gone.

"Let's run for it." Lucy said.

"Right behind you." Erza said as the two of them tore off the costumes and hurried out of there. As for Natsu and Happy, they decided to hide in the cafeteria.

"Over here, little buddy." Natsu said as he and Happy ran for the kitchen to find a place to hide. Natsu wasn't paying much attention to where he was going and just opened a large door for him and Happy to hide in. That ended up being a bad idea because the ghost already found them and locked the door.

"Fools." The Specter said and left them there.

"Where's a dang light?" Natsu questioned as he couldn't see a thing and it felt so cold. When he finally found something, he turned it on and saw he was in the freezer. "Okay... Maybe not the hottest idea."

...

Outside

While Natsu and Happy were trapped inside, the girls and Gray took separate doors and ran out of there. As for the ghost, he ran up to the roof and saw the three of them ran off.

"Never come back!" The Specter shouted. This mystery is just beginning to unravel, but he's not done with them yet.