Chapter 5:
In which the mystery continues.
.
.
.
Relief swept over me when I peered out the window in the library, surveying the front lawn, to find Nagisa and Tomoya sitting together on the grass. While we were busy researching I had completely forgotten about our promise to meet with them after school. I sat up straighter in my chair and caught Lucy's eyes. She nodded, already knowing what I was thinking.
"Juvia and Lucy-san have to go," I explained to the others. "They promised a classmate of theirs that they would help them today." I went through a quick explanation of the drama club and how Tomoya and Nagisa wanted us to help them revive it.
"Are you sure you want to commit to that?" Gray asked. "I mean, you can't really promise to be members of the club when we have a job we're supposed to be doing."
"Juvia would feel bad if she didn't at least try to help Tomoya-kun and Nagisa-san get the drama program started again," I said as I stood up, gathering my bag. Lucy got up too, and we started for the door.
"Just make sure you're not making promises you can't keep," Erza called as we were about to leave the library.
"Don't worry, we won't," Lucy reassured, turning back to look at her. She waved at the others as we left the room.
When we made it out to the front lawn Nagisa was the first to notice us. "Juvia, Lucy!" she called, waving her hand to get our attention.
"I'm glad you two are here," she said when we approached them. "I was afraid you might not be able to make it."
"It's no trouble, really," I assured her, smiling.
I dropped my bag onto the grass and sat down next to Nagisa, with Lucy on my other side. I almost jumped when I realized there was a fifth person with us. A small girl with chestnut-brown hair reaching her hips, a red bow tying it together near the tips. I hadn't noticed her from the window—had she arrived since then? She was also using a small carving knife to shape a piece of wood into what looked like a star. The girl did not pay any attention to us, which I found rather strange.
Tomoya spoke for the first time since we arrived. "How did your first day go, Lucy?"
"I think it went well." She beamed.
"So I suppose you two have heard that we're trying to get the drama program restarted?" Nagisa asked, and I remembered that she hadn't been there when Tomoya had asked us to meet them.
"Yes. Tomoya-kun told Juvia and Lucy-san before class today."
She nodded. "The rules say that we'll need at least four members for it to be recognized as an official club again," Nagisa explained wistfully.
"Do you two think you would be interested in joining?" Tomoya asked.
Lucy looked at me, her eyebrows furrowed, wondering what we should do. Then she spoke. "We want to help all we can... but we don't know for sure if we can commit to being in the club," she said carefully.
"Juvia is sure the last thing Nagisa-san and Tomoya-kun need would be someone who might not be able to show up very often," I added. "Of course, Juvia and Lucy-san will still do their best to help get enough members."
Nagisa grinned. "I'm sorry you can't really be in the club, but thank you so much for agreeing to help us!" she exclaimed.
"Sure, it's no problem," Lucy replied.
Tomoya stared at us for a few moments, an eyebrow raised. He had already been suspicious of me even before my friends got involved—now he was probably sure there was something going on that we weren't telling.
"So do you also live over in Magnolia, Lucy?" he asked, and I gulped.
Said girl shot a quick glance at me. Why did you tell him where we live? her eyes asked.
"Yes, I do," she said cautiously.
"So do your other friends, right?" Nagisa asked. "The boy who's in my class and the new first-year." We both nodded. "How did you all end up in a school all the way over here?"
"Well, it's sort of complicated," I repeated what I had told Tomoya a few days earlier.
"Well no matter how you ended up here, I'm glad you did," Nagisa said, giving us a big smile.
I felt relieved that the conversation ended there. However as we all got up and began to head our separate ways, I noticed the way they both kept looking at us curiously. Maybe it wasn't over as simply as I thought.
Lucy and I began to walk back into the building so we could regroup with the others and catch the train back home when Natsu and Wendy pushed open the doors, quickly spotting us.
"Natsu, what's going on?" Lucy asked the sakura-haired boy.
"It looks like we'll have to head home by ourselves—Erza and Gray are stuck here for a little while longer," he explained.
Lucy frowned. "I hope it's nothing serious."
"I don't think so. But they both said that they weren't sure why they were asked to stay," Natsu replied. "Erza said she'll check in with us as soon as she can."
The four of us walked to the train station about ten minutes away from the school. Luckily we made it just in time to catch the train back to Magnolia, so there wasn't any waiting around in the station.
On the train, we all sat silently. I was glad for that because it gave me time to think. I had really messed up the other day when I almost told Tomoya too much about my life for no reason other than my own desire to confide in someone. Now he and Nagisa both would probably ask more questions, and I didn't know what I would tell them. Not to mention that I could get into big trouble if I did tell them anything about the Academy.
I decided I would have to come up with a fake story. The trouble was that it would have to be very convincing, and I would have to get the others to play along.
After what seemed like only a few minutes while I was lost in my thoughts, the train came to a stop. We waited for most of the crowd to exit before we got off.
Once we were sure that no one would see us, we took a path through the trees and up a slightly steep hill to where the Academy was located. Further into the cover of the trees were the dorm buildings.
We soon reached the girls' building and stepped through the front doors. It was then that two small shapes hurled themselves at Natsu and Wendy. I finally recognized the shapes to be Happy and Carla, Natsu and Wendy's kittens. They both purred as they rubbed their faces against us in greeting.
Once we all made it into Lucy and I's room, I sat on my bed and realized then just how tired I was.
"So you have no idea why Erza and Gray were asked to stay at the school?" Lucy asked Natsu.
"No I don't," he replied. "I hope its nothing bad."
"Did they say when they thought they would be back?" I asked.
"No, they didn't, but I doubt it will be too long." He reached into his bag and pulled out the book that we had been studying in the library about Edolas. I knew that he was thinking of Lisanna again. Lucy gazed at him with concern, her lips slightly turned down. I didn't blame her. Lisanna was close with Natsu and he was taking it pretty hard that all of this was happening.
Then suddenly he turned his eyes up from the book, his expression stern. "I think we should investigate these other missing people."
Lucy's eyes widened, almost shocked. "Are you sure?" she asked. "Is it worth it to waste our time if it might not help us find Lisanna?"
"I still think there might be a connection," he replied. "After all, it can't be a coincidence that all these people went missing in the same place. Maybe if we looked into it we'd find a lead on what happened to her."
"Juvia thinks Natsu-kun is right," I agreed. "If all those people went missing in that exact place then all the disappearances must be connected somehow. And if it's possible Lisanna-san is in danger then this lead is all we have to go on if we want to find her quickly."
"Where do you think we should start then?" Lucy asked.
"Well, the first thing would be to go to the place where they all disappeared and ask the people there what they might know," Wendy piped in.
"Yes," Natsu agreed, nodding. "We could talk to the families of the people who disappeared. Maybe we'll find a connection between the people."
Lucy pursed her lips. "But what kind of connection would they have with Lisanna?"
"Yeah," I chimed. "If those people do happen to all be connected somehow, how would Lisanna-san fit in?"
"Thats a good question," Wendy said slowly, "but at the same time how could this all be random?"
"Well," Lucy began, "I hate to say it, but it could just be some lunatic that uses this place to claim their victim—which is why time is important and we need to know what we could be up against," she added.
"But the disappearances have been happening for almost one hundred years," I reminded her. "That makes this all the more scary… Like some kind of criminal organization, rather than just one psychopath."
I saw Lucy shudder at that, and I didn't blame her.
"But what would they possibly want with her?" Natsu said, his voice raising sharply with anger. Lucy put her hand on his back in a calming gesture.
"Juvia thinks the best thing to do is go investigate," I offered. "We shouldn't get into a panic, but time may not be on our side," I added regretfully.
Natsu stood up, fists clenched. "Well, why don't we get going then?! We've been sitting on our asses too long!"
He was right. I felt horrible that we still had done so little to try to find her when it should have been our biggest priority, even over the school job, but for some reason the master seemed to think otherwise.
"I know we might get into trouble if we leave on a job without being assigned, but this is more important than that," Natsu continued, voicing my thoughts.
We were silent for a moment, glancing at each other, wondering what to do. Then we finally reached an agreement. We wouldn't worry about the rules anymore; we would go and search for Lisanna no matter how much hot water we would be in later. Even if it meant ditching the school job. We had been so selfish trying to follow the rules and not get into trouble, but now we were going to do whatever it took.
All four of us packed backpacks with anything we might need if we were gone overnight and left notes for Erza and Gray, informing them that we had left but not where we were going. Then we left the school, being careful that no one saw us, and we trekked the short path back into town to wait for the train.
When we exited the train after the short ride into the next town, I suddenly realized how hungry I was. The day had been so busy that I had barely eaten anything. Then, Natsu suggested we find something to eat, reminding me that the others had not eaten yet either. Luckily for us we saw a tiny little shop down the street. When we were in front of the building, I was surprised to see that the sign above the entrance read Furukawa Bakery.
"Isn't that Nagisa's last name?" Lucy asked me.
"Hello there," a friendly female voice greeted us before I could answer.
I turned my head and saw a woman standing in the doorway. She looked a lot like Nagisa, although her hair was lighter and longer. I wondered if they were related.
"How can I help you?" the woman asked with a friendly smile.
"Well," Lucy began, "we just got into town and were looking for a bite to eat."
"You're in luck then!" the woman exclaimed. "My name is Sanae Furukawa by the way, I'm the owner of this place." She bowed in greeting.
"It's nice to meet you," Lucy said, she and the others bowing in return. I quickly followed suit. "My name is Lucy, and this is Juvia, Natsu, and Wendy." She pointed at each of us as she said our respective names.
Sanae smiled at us. "Why don't you four come on in? I just finished baking something new I'm trying."
The inside of the bakery was a quaint little shop with all kinds of pastries on display inside of glass cases or on stands sitting on top of said cases. A sweet smell of fresh-baked goods greeted us as we entered. Then I remembered on my first day of school when Nagisa had shared a pastry with me for lunch. Sanae might be related to her, I thought—perhaps her older sister—which would make this quite a coincidence.
"Sanae-san, you wouldn't happen to know a Furukawa Nagisa-san would you?" I asked.
She looked at me, first surprised, then amused.
"I should hope that I know my own daughter," she joked. I tried not look as surprised as I was when she said this. The woman looked so young. "I'm guessing that all of you go to school with her—is that how you know her?"
"Yes, but Juvia didn't know that this was where Nagisa-san lived," I replied.
"That makes this quite a coincidence then," Sanae said.
A bell jingled, signaling someone coming into the shop. To my surprise it was Nagisa and Tomoya, both still in their school uniforms.
"Oh, you're back." Sanae smiled welcomingly. "And you're here too, Tomoya! It's nice to see you. The two of you are just in time to try my newest recipe."
Tomoya looked a little nervous, and I wasn't sure why. Then he noticed us for the first time. "What are all of you doing here?" he asked, surprised.
"J-Juvia and her friends were just coming into town to, um, find a book for school at the library," I managed to stammer out. I could see in his eyes that he didn't quite believe me.
"Well before you go you should try this." Sanae held out a small plate with slices of some kind of sweet-smelling bread—reminding me of how hungry I was. She passed a piece out to each of us. I took a large, hungry bite. The taste was not sweet like I was expecting, instead heavily of cinnamon. I didn't say anything, but Sanae may have gone overboard on the cinnamon in her recipe. The others all seemed to silently agree, including Nagisa and Tomoya. Either way, I was hungry enough to finish my piece.
"So what do you think of it?" Sanae inquired hopefully once we had all finished eating.
"Well it was definitely… interesting," Wendy offered kindly.
Luckily that was enough that no one else had to say anything. "I'm so glad you liked them!" Sanae beamed. "We'll have to sell a few and see what other customers think," she said.
"Thank you so much for the food," Lucy said, "but I think we need to be going now."
The job site that Lisanna was at when she disappeared had actually been in one of the town neighborhoods. We still didn't know what she was assigned to do there; all we knew was that she had stayed at the house of someone who lived there. She had pretended she was someone just passing through town and needed somewhere to sleep for a couple of days.
Our plan was to talk to them first. However, we had to avoid being suspicious, so we decided that only two of us would go to the house claiming to be sent by police to ask them questions relating to the case. In the end it was Natsu and Lucy who got the task. Wendy and I took on the job of going to the real police to ask for as much detail on the case as we could, pretending to be reporters. This wasn't a foolproof plan, but it was all we had on such short notice.
At the police station one of the officers working the case agreed to give a small summary of what they knew, but couldn't release any classified information: According to him, they had also made the connection of the other missing persons cases—and upon examining the area there was no proof of any crimes taking place. The only evidence left behind was strange marks in the ground, as if something had burned scorch marks into it. By then the marks would have disappeared, making it pointless for us to check it out ourselves.
"Didn't the book say that these marks were around during the other investigations?" Wendy asked me once we left the police station. She looked again at the photo the police had given us. "This doesn't look like any kind of symbol, so I don't think anyone left these marks there intentionally." She was right—they looked like abstract marks left by something that had touched down on the ground, similar to a lightning strike.
This makes everything all the more complicated. Could it possibly be a person leaving these marks? I was doubtful of this. After all, why would they want to leave any evidence behind?
When we met up with Natsu and Lucy, we told them everything that we had discovered.
"Well if those markings have been showing up after every disappearance then it must mean something," Natsu said, matter-of-factly.
"Maybe the book has some kind of clue?" Lucy suggested. "I mean, they were doing the exact same research in that book as we're trying to do, so maybe they found something that we didn't."
"That could be true," Wendy agreed. "What did you two find at the house Lisanna stayed at?"
"Believe it or not, the couple living there both said they saw her reading a copy of that book on the day she disappeared," Lucy informed.
"Does that mean that Lisanna-san was actually trying to find what happened to all those people over the years?" I asked.
"That would actually explain why Master didn't want to talk to us about what she was doing," Natsu mumbled.
I was going to say something in return, but before I could a booming voice broke into the conversation.
"What were you thinking?!" the voice shouted.
I turned my head, and was almost face-to-face with a seething Erza.
.
.
.
A/N: So, once again I've taken quite a while to finish this. I got pretty busy with school after it started but I'm done now and should have time to get the next chapter finished faster. :)
Oh, and if you're wondering why Fuko is only there for a split second and then not mentioned again, that was intentional. That will come into play later.