Finding that Principle Precht might really be the one behind all of this, the group decided to head to where he lives. Needing a car to get up there, they all decided to meet at Lucy's house that night. When the others arrived, they couldn't believe the size of Lucy's house.

"She lives here?" Natsu said as they weren't looking at a house, it was a mansion.

"No wonder she mentioned her own personal staff. You need one to take care of this place." Erza said. They looked to see a flash coming from the house.

"There's the signal. We're all clear." Gray said as they all hurried up. Thanks to Lucy, they got inside to her garage. Gray looked at three possible options for him to drive and he loved at what he saw.

"A red Ferrari SF90 Spider! A blue Mercedes C63 AMG! A black Pininifarina Battista!" Gray said as he couldn't believe the collection. "Amazing! Which one am I driving?"

"Right behind you." Lucy said. They all had a look and saw it was just a simple red van.

"Why?" Gray asked with him being very disappointed.

"This way, if anything happens to this thing, my dad is less likely to kill me." Lucy said. Gray was so looking forward to driving one of the other cars, but it doesn't matter in the end as long as it gets them where they need to go. They all climbed inside with Gray getting ready to drive.

"You sure you know what you're doing?" Erza asked.

"I much rather drive one of those cars, but I got this." Gray said. He started it up and got ready to go.

"Let's go before my parents wake up." Lucy said. Gray got the van working and started driving before Lucy's parents notice anything. The van was working and that means they can get to Precht's house. The only thing they could do at the moment was wait until they got there. With everything that has gone on, Natsu took a moment to actually appreciate what happened with him so far since he got to be a part of this. He took a moment to actually smile. "What are you smiling about?"

"Huh?" Natsu asked.

"You were smiling just now. What are you smiling about?" Lucy asked.

"It's nothing." Natsu said.

"No, come on and tell us. We could all use something to smile about before we face a criminal." Erza said.

"It's just... I know we don't know each other very well, but I'm actually glad I got to be a part of this." Natsu said as he petted Happy. "I never really had many friends other than Happy here."

"To be fair, a lot of people just think you're some sort of weirdo." Gray said.

"Gray!" Lucy scolded for not approving of that.

"Sorry, but you do seem like a decent guy, Natsu." Gray said.

"I get how you must feel, Natsu. I'm actually having a lot of fun solving this mystery." Lucy said. "You guys saw my house, so there's no reason to hide it. Sometimes I'm afraid if people only want to be my friends because of my family's wealth. That's why I try not to mention it."

"Well, I'm having fun myself." Gray said. "If I'm being honest, I did misjudge you guys. Lucy, I thought you were just a pretty face, but you've got some brain."

"Hey!" Lucy said as she felt offended.

"No worries, Gray. I thought you were just some arrogant, cocky, pigheaded jock." Erza said.

"Hey!" Gray said. "Well, since we're being honest, I've heard a few things about you, Erza. I thought you had some fiery temper to go with your red hair and acted all obnoxious, like you run the place."

"Well, don't get on my bad side and you won't see that temper." Erza said with all of them sharing a laugh. Happy even tried saying something himself with how he moved his body.

"What's Happy saying?" Lucy asked.

"Basically, he thought you were all jerks for not wanting to be my friend." Natsu said. Despite all that was going on, they were all glad they got to connect in some manner.

"By the way, why is Happy blue?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know. He was like that when I met him. There lies another mystery." Natsu claimed.

...

Magnolia Hill

They cut the time it took to get up Magnolia Hill and soon arrived at their principle's house.

"Pull over here, Gray, so he doesn't see us." Lucy said. Gray stopped the van and all of them loaded out with them taking flashlights with them. They saw the house and could see that the answers and culprit of this mystery could be right there. "Wait. What do we do? We can't just break-in. Principle Precht could actually have us arrested."

"We don't have a choice." Erza said. They all agreed and moved closer to the house. They searched around for a way to get inside. That was right when Gray spotted something strange about the door. It was opened slightly. He pushed against the door and it opened without a problem.

"That's weird. The door's unlocked." Gray said.

"Careful, guys. Something doesn't seem right." Erza said. All of them moved inside and were careful not to alert Precht if he was still home.

"So, what are we looking for?" Natsu questioned.

"Anything that proves Principle Precht is the specter or why he's doing this." Erza said.

"I think it might go better if we split-up." Gray said.

"He is right. It will go a lot faster if we search different areas." Lucy said.

"Exactly. Natsu, you and Happy look around down here. The girls and I will look around upstairs." Gray said. None of them really had a problem with it. Gray and the girls headed up the stairs while Natsu and Happy searched around for any clues. "Careful, girls. Dim the lights so he doesn't see us." They shut off their lights and had a look around upstairs and were careful not to alert anything about them.

"Hey! In here!" Lucy said as she found his home office. The three of them stepped inside and had a look around. An office like this one seems like the best place to find something.

"Check out these books." Erza said as she searched around the bookcase. "Benefits of Being Principle. Me the Principle. Disciplining Students. Dos and Don'ts on Schooling. Every one of these books are about being a principle. Oh! Wait. He has a small interest in Harry Potter."

"Sounds like he took pride in being a principle. That makes this even weirder." Gray said as he couldn't understand why someone like this would want to ruin a school. As Lucy searched around, she turned to his desk and spotted a bunch of paperwork that did not look like his job.

"I think I found something!" Lucy said as she searched around. "Look at these maps and research papers."

"Anything in there as to why he might be doing all of this?" Gray questioned.

"I think so..." Lucy said as she actually might have found something. "I think he's looking for something."

"What's he looking for?" Erza questioned.

"I don't know. It looks like whatever it is belonged to the founder of the town, Fiona Magnolia." Lucy said. "According to this, it's buried right underneath the school!" Knowing what the ghost is after now, all the pieces were starting to fit together.

"That's it! He's scaring everyone away so he can find whatever it is!" Erza said. All three of them were amazed at what they uncovered and actually solved a mystery. As for Natsu, he and Happy kept searching around downstairs. He wasn't having any luck compared to the others.

"Find anything, Happy?" Natsu asked, but he didn't see Happy anywhere. "Happy?" He didn't see Happy anywhere and didn't know where he was until he heard something moved around in the closet. "Happy, now isn't the time for games." He went over to the closet to get his cat out of there.

"Meow." Natsu turned around and saw Happy was right there behind him.

"Happy? If you're there, what's in..." Curious as to what was in the closet, he reached for it carefully.

"Surprise!" The Specter shouted as he stepped outside of the closet and gave Natsu and Happy a good scare. "I knew I find you brats here!"

"Hold this for me." Natsu said as he handed his flashlight. With him a little confused, Natsu grabbed a book and smashed it against the ghost's head and tried making a run for it with Happy. "Guys!" He called as the three of them hurried down.

"Natsu, what is it?!" Erza said.

"He's here!" Natsu said.

"You mean me?" The Specter said as he stepped forward. He took a small canister and threw it at them like a grenade. It unleashed a small cloud that all of them breathed in and were having trouble staying awake. "Sleep tight." They might have solved the mystery, but it seems they fell right into his trap.

...

The School

All four of them were sound asleep because of that trap. They were suddenly awake by some sort of explosion.

"Aw... What happened?" Natsu said as they all started to wake up and saw they were back at the school, but there was a giant hole in the gym's floor. "How did we get at the school?"

"I'm not sure. Look at this." Gray said. They all had a look at the hole and saw it went right through the floor and any concrete that was in the way.

"This has to be the work of that fake ghost." Lucy said.

"Bravo, young detectives! Bravo!" They all looked and saw a spotlight on the Specter on the bleachers. He gave them around of applause for solving the case. "You actually figured it out! I'm most impressed that you were able to pull it off. You're quite sharp, maybe not sharp enough for you to easily walk into a trap. Now get to digging!"

"Give us one good reason why we should help you!" Gray said.

"Oh? You mean you don't care what happens to the little kitty?" The Specter said as he showed he had Happy tied and gagged with him being threatened.

"Happy?" Natsu said as he didn't like this at all. "Principle Precht, this is insane!"

"Precht? That's the one piece that didn't fit." The Specter said as had another light shine on the bleachers and showed Precht was tied and gagged as well with the gang being surprised to see him like that. "I wonder if this kitty still has nine lives." The lights shut off and they disappeared in the dark. Just when it seemed like they had it all figured out, the bad guy is still pulling the strings. Gray hurried to the door, but they were chained shut.

"Now what do we do?" Gray said.

"I don't know. I thought we had him." Erza said.

"If it's not Precht, who is it?" Lucy said.

"There's got to be some way we can get out of this." Gray said. None of them knew what to do about this, but Natsu wasn't going to just sit around. That's why he grabbed a shovel and was getting ready to go.

"Natsu, what are you doing?" Gray questioned.

"Happy's my cat, and was the only friend I had for a while. I'm not abandoning a friend." Natsu said. When he said that, it made it clear to all of them.

"He's right." Gray said. "Happy got mixed in this with all of us. We all got in this together, we get out together." Gray walked over and stood with Natsu.

"Heck, protecting that little guy was how I got in this." Erza said as she sided with the boys.

"Oh... He might be a freaky blue cat, crazy, and I might be more of a dog person, but he's still the cutest little thing." Lucy said with all four of them siding together.

"No matter, all FIVE of us get out of this together?" Gray said as he held out his hand. The other three joined their hands over his with them all agreeing that all five of them are a team and stay together as one.