Chapter 10

The Search is On

At the Fairy Tail guildhall…

"So Alu got grounded again because she took a solo mission, huh? Figures that would happen."

"Don' soun so smug, Sis." Ash said, his mouth full of breakfast roll.

"Ash, don't talk with your mouth full." Juvia scolded gently.

Ash glanced over at his mother briefly before swallowing the contents in his mouth.

"Sorry, Mom," he said respectfully. He then turned his attention back to his twin sister. "You shouldn't take pleasure in Alu's frustration, Ur. She was really upset about it."

"Hey, I'm not the one who told her to go take a solo mission." Ur replied impassively. "She just gets into trouble wherever she goes. And she does it of her own volition. But it's because she's an idiot."

Ash glared at his sister.

Ur was a slender girl, and was just slightly shorter than her twin brother, Ash. She had long, wavy, dark ocean-blue hair that was tied in a pony tail that draped over her right shoulder. She also had sapphire eyes and sea-foam white skin.

She was dressed in a simple, pale-blue and white dress with matching knee-high boots and light-grey leggings.

At the moment, she was sitting at one of the large tables in the Fairy Tail guildhall with her family. Beside her was her brother Ash, and across from her was her mother and father, Juvia and Gray. She and her mother got back from their mission earlier that morning, and decided to have a late breakfast at the guild. As they did, Gray and Ash came in shortly after and joined them at their table.

"Speaking of Alu," Gray said, unconcerned, "did you two hear about what happened yesterday?"

"Yes, Cana did mention something about a little incident." Juvia answered. "We didn't get all the details, but whatever happened really got her worked up. She was still having a fit about it."

"From what we were told, Alu took all the beer and wine from behind the bar and hid it downstairs in a closet." Gray explained. "Needless to say, everyone was pretty ticked off about that."

"Like I said," Ur waved her hand dismissively, "Alu gets herself into trouble no matter where you put her. Gee, I'd hate to be her parents."

Ash turned away and looked down at the table. His bangs covered his eyes.

"She's not that bad," he mumbled to himself. "She's just hurting."

Suddenly, the guild doors flew open with a loud slam that echoed throughout the inside of the hall, making nearly everyone jump in alarm. Naturally, all eyes turned to the entrance to see what was going on. A pink and dark blue blur ran in, jumped over the railing and darted toward the bar. It was immediately followed by a little blue Exceed flying just a few yards behind.

"Natsu, slow down!" Happy cried out as he entered the guild.

But Natsu didn't slow down. When he reached the bar, he managed to stick his hands out in time to brace himself against the edged of the countertop. His momentum caused him to lurch forward a bit, and he almost flipped over the counter and onto the other side.

"MIRA!" he shouted, just barely getting his balance back.

The white-haired lady in a black dress gave a startled shriek and turned around quickly to face Natsu. For someone who had just sprinted across town, Natsu actually didn't look too bad. He had sweat running down his face and his hair was windswept wild, but that was about it. He was still panting for air, but that wasn't just because his lungs were out of air from running. It was clear to see the sheer amount of anxiety on his face.

"N-Natsu!" Mirajane stammered, surprised. "What's the matter?!"

"Alu!" Natsu said quickly. "Have you seen Alu?!"

"Alu?!" Mirajane questioned.

"Yes, Alu!" Natsu raised his voice sharply. "Have you seen her at the guild?!"

Mirajane, confused, shook her head.

Natsu let out an aggravated groan and grabbed two a handfuls of his hair, looking as it he was going to pull them out of his head. Then he began to dart around to every single person in the guild like some out-of-control pink tornado, asking them about his daughter's whereabouts in such a loud voice that practically everyone heard the question before he even got to them. He also flustered quite a few people so badly that they couldn't answer his question. Not that he gave them time to either.

Finally, he got to the Fullbuster family's table. By this time, they could see that his angst was about to skyrocket out of control. Simply out of habit, Natsu scowled at Gray and grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt with fierce aggression.

"Hey, what's the big idea, idiot?!" Gray shouted out of protest.

"You better tell me you've seen Alu, Gray!" Natsu snarled. "Where is she?!"

"How should I know, Hot Head?!" Gray snapped. "I just got here only minutes ago!"

"Sorry, Natsu," Ash quickly said, his voice calm and almost quiet, "but we haven't seen Alu at all."

Natsu shot a glare at Ash briefly, making the boy shrink back and look up at the Dragon Slayer with wide, fearful eyes.

Natsu grunted in frustration before letting go of Gray, pushing him away roughly as he did. He then ran over to the Request Board and began to intensely scan over it. By this time, Mirajane had come out from behind the bar and was walking up towards him.

"If you think she's taken a job, Natsu, she hasn't," the white-haired woman said assuringly. "I double-checked the board this morning, and no jobs were missing."

For a brief second, Natsu relaxed at that piece of news. But then an idea struck him and he jolted like he had been shot by lightning.

"What about the S-Class missions?!" he asked. He was becoming more frantic by the minute. "Are all of those still there?! PLEASE tell me she didn't take an S-Class mission!"

Mirajane started at Natsu with wide eyes, and her face went a little pale.

"I…I haven't checked yet," she admitted softly.

Natsu's whole body tensed up. The blood vessels on his face began to pop out and he shook with violent worry and anger. He was even starting to have a reddish-orange aura appear around him.

"So help me!" he snarled through his teeth. "If she's taken an S-Class mission, I'm gonna…!"

"Simmer down, Natsu."

Natsu looked over to see who had just addressed him. To his surprise, Laxus was leaning up against the edge of the Request Board. His arms were folded across his chest and he looked like he was meditating. He opened one eye so he could look over at Natsu.

"None of the S-Class missions were taken," he simply stated.

"Are you sure, Laxus?!" Natsu demanded.

"Yes," Laxus nodded with certainty, "and I was up on the second floor all night. If Alu had tried to sneak up there, I would've caught her. Even I'm not as lazy as to let the little Pyro Pipsqueak taken an unauthorized S-Class mission. Although, I'm actually surprised that she hasn't tried that yet. After all, she is around the same age as you when you stole an S-Class mission."

"NO, SHE'S NOT!" Natsu rebuked furiously. "I WAS EIGHTEEN AND SHE'S ONLY FOURTEEN! THERE'S AN AGE DIFFERENCE THERE, YOU KNOW!"

Before Natsu could argue anymore, Happy flew over and got within the Dragon Slayer's line of vision.

"Calm down, Natsu!" Happy pleaded, waving his arms wildly. "That doesn't matter now! We gotta find Alu! As far as we know, she was never here!"

Natsu gritted his teeth and scowled. Finally, he took a deep breath and exhaled, releasing the pent-up tension in his muscles and letting his fiery aura disappear. Almost all at once he felt fatigued. He was also beginning to become aware of the soreness in his legs from all the running he did. Not wanting to display any weakness, Natsu just leaned up against the wall to catch his breath.

"You're right Happy, I'm sorry," he mumbled begrudgingly. "I'm just worried about her, that's all. It's not like her to run off like this."

"What do you mean?" Mirajane asked, concerned. "What happened?"

"We woke up this morning and Alu was gone." Happy explained. "We thought she had snuck off to do another solo mission, but I guess that's not the case."

"But her backpack was missing, too." Natsu added. "I don't know when she left, but it must have been late at night because her scent had gone cold. I couldn't track her."

A faint but sharp gasp of alarm reached Natsu's ears. His head snapped immediately in the direction it came from and he saw that Ash had a look of horror on his face. He had also gone very white in the face.

"She wouldn't…" Ash whispered softly. "Would she?"

Despite that what Ash said was practically under his breath, it wasn't soft enough to escape the ears of a Dragon Slayer. Particularly one who had all of his senses sharpen to the point where he could hear a pin drop across the room.

The next thing Ash knew, there was a dashing of feet, and a very angry Natsu was suddenly up in his face. He was so close that the boy could see all the details in his eyes, and his sharpened canine teeth. The young Ice Maker Wizard let out an involuntary yelp and leaned back, shivering in fear. Natsu just moved in closer. He was like a lion closing in on his prey.

Indeed, at the moment, Ash WAS feeling like Natsu's prey.

Natsu's action caused Ur to leap out of her seat and back away. The whole time, she just looked at her poor brother with a concerned expression.

"Ash!" Natsu snarled loudly, his tone bordering on threatening. "If you know something about Alu's whereabouts you better tell me right now!"

A fist suddenly came out of nowhere and punched Natsu hard in the face. He stumbled backwards and brought a hand up to the bruise on his cheek. He looked back and scowled viciously at Gray, who was now standing protectively in front of his son.

"Cool it, Pyro Punk!" Gray warned. "And for goodness sake, will you stop making a scene?!"

Natsu shot Gray such a furious look that it was like he wanted to burn the Ice Wizard up with just his eyes. Every single fiber in his body wanted to slug Gray back with all his strength, but his primary objective of finding out where his daughter had run off to held him back. He would have to get Gray back for that punch later.

He certainly planned on doing that, just at a later time.

Sensing that Natsu wasn't going to start a fight, Gray turned back to his son.

"Ash," he said with calm authority, "do you have any idea where Alu might be?"

Ash opened his mouth to speak, but then immediately closed it with discomfort. He swallowed hard and looked down at the table, feeling almost every eye in the guild on him. He was searching for the right words to say. Whatever he had to tell to everyone, he didn't want them to panic from it. However, he wasn't really seeing any other option.

This wasn't going to be easy.

"Uh, well," Ash said with nervousness in his voice, "I was talking with Alu the other day. She was frustrated about being grounded for two weeks and she…well…she may or may not have hinted at…the thing is…"

"OH, FOR MAVIS'S SAKE, ASH!" Natsu bellowed. "JUST SPIT IT OUT! WHAT DID SHE SAY?!"

Ash flinched at that sudden outburst like he had just been hit.

He then cast his gaze downward, causing his bangs to hide his eyes in shadow.

He hesitated for a moment before mumbling miserably, "She said she was thinking about running away."

At the sound of that, the whole guild fell silent. All eyes were wide with disbelief.

Natsu froze. His face turned white and went from anger to utterly shocked in less than it took a heart to beat. It was like Ash had turned him into an ice sculpture just by saying those horrible words. As a father, that was one of the worst things Natsu could possibly hear. But all the evidence seemed to point to that.

He couldn't bring himself to fully believe that Alu would just run away. Then again, she had become very distant and angry with everyone. She had also made it blatantly obvious that she had inherited her father's impulsive nature. That, combined with her feelings, would probably cause her to make irrational decisions like this one.

Was it possible? Did Alu really run away?

"She ran away?" a soft, whimpering voice came from behind.

Natsu slowly turned around and saw that Lucy was standing just a few feet away from him and the others. At first he was surprise that he didn't hear her arrive before, but that was immediately discarded the moment he saw her face. Her chocolate brown eyes began to water up with tears and her hands were cupped over her mouth.

Natsu frowned. He had only seen her like this one other time, many years ago.

It was when the now-disbanded Phantom Lord guild attacked Fairy Tail and demanded that they handed Lucy over to them.

But now, Lucy was frightened and confused for another reason. It was the idea of her daughter running away from home. Just the mere thought of it was enough to make Lucy cover her face shed tears.

"Why?" she sobbed quietly. "Why would she ever want to run away? I don't understand. Just why?"

"Lucy." Natsu whispered softly.

Ash lowered his head even more in shame and clenched his fists, regretting that he had said anything. He hated seeing Alu's family hurt like this. What made it worse was that he felt responsible for it.

Ur narrowed her eyes and turned away, saying nothing. She didn't want anyone to see her face.

Juvia got up from her seat and walked over to Gray. He turned his head to look at her. He saw a pleading glint in her eyes, as if she was hoping that he could say something to help the situation. However, he just turned away solemnly. Even he couldn't see how he could help. Juvia cast her gaze down sadly.

No one in the guild spoke a word. The most that they did was exchange bewildered glances to one another. Although Alu had caused them a lot of trouble before, and she had always found ways to tick everyone off, none of them ever wanted her to actually leave the guild. She was still part of their Fairy Tail family, no matter how annoying and mischievous she was.

Finally, Natsu moved from his spot. His eyes were covered in the shadow of his bangs. He walked over to a weeping Lucy and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a strong embrace, and causing her to tense up. His eyes were closed, like he was in deep thought, and his breathing was steady. As much as it hurt him to think that his daughter had run away, he was the father of the family, and he knew he had to be strong for Lucy's sake.

"Natsu?" Lucy whimpered.

Natsu tightened his grip around his wife and opened his eyes. He stared straight ahead.

"Don't cry, Lucy." Natsu said in a low, strong voice. "We'll find Alu. We'll find her and we'll bring her home."

Lucy caught her breath and swallowed the lump in her throat. She didn't just hear the conviction in Natsu's voice; she felt it, too. She didn't have to look at his face to know that he had a determined expression. She rested her head against Natsu's shoulder for comfort. She soaked up the strength that was resonating from him, feeling her own willpower returning. Just knowing that he wasn't going to give up was enough to give her hope again.

She let out a deep exhale and nodded. She slowly pulled away from her husband and wiped her eyes with her hand.

"Right," she breathed.

With that, Natsu and Lucy left the guild with Happy following close behind them. Although they didn't know where Alu was, they knew they had to start their search somewhere. And the best place to begin was by looking somewhere that Alu would most likely go to first.

An hour and a half later…

After getting some provisions from their house, Natsu, Lucy and Happy made their way to the train station. Neither one of them spoke to each other as they walked to the station and sat down on a bench to wait their train. The whole time, they all had a kind of distant thoughtfulness in their eyes.

It was only when the announcer said that the train to Onibas was arriving that they snapped out of their somber trances. Natsu and Lucy both stood up while Happy used his Aera magic to hover beside them.

"You got your Troia pills, Natsu?" Lucy asked.

"Right here," the Dragon Slayer replied, holding up a small bottle full of little blue pills.

Natsu popped the lid opened with his thumb and let a pill fall out into his left hand. He then tossed the medicine into his mouth and swallowed it.

"Okay," Lucy nodded, "let's go."

The three were about to head out when someone yelled, "Natsu! Lucy! Happy! Wait up!"

The two Dragneels and Exceed stopped and turned to see who called out to them. To their open-mouth surprise, they saw a group of their fellow Fairy Tail members coming towards them.

The group consisted of Gray, his son Ash, Erza, Wendy, Carla, Romeo, and Gajeel with his daughter, Carol.

"What the…what are you guys doing here?" Natsu asked, befuddled.

"We came to help you look for Alu." Wendy explained. "After all, she's part of our Fairy Tail family, too."

Natsu, Lucy and Happy all blinked at the same time.

"You mean you really came to help us?" Lucy asked, her eyes full of hope.

"Of course." Erza nodded reassuringly. "Even the Master said that we should help. As Wendy said, Alu is part of our family, too. And while I may not approve of her actions, as long as she is part of this guild, I will always aid you in your search to find her."

"Alu's our friend, too." Ash added. "And we never leave a friend behind."

"Right." Carol said with a grin. "We'll help you find her."

Seeing their comrades all here to help them was enough to make Natsu, Lucy and Happy give thankful smiles. There was a sense of comfort in knowing that their guild had their backs, especially their teammates.

"Last call to Onibas!" the announcer said. "I repeat, last call to Onibas!"

"That's our ride." Natsu stated. "C'mon."

With that, the group of Fairy Tail Wizards all boarded onto the train.