Chapter 6:

"Are you complete and utter idiots?!"

I gulped and took multiple steps back, bumping into Natsu behind me. Erza whipped around, her piercing glare now focused on Natsu and I.

"I can't believe you would do this. You're all lucky I decided to come get you before Master knew you were gone," she scolded.

"Look, I know we left without permission," Natsu began, "but we know Master never would have have let us go investigate Lisanna's case. So we took matters into our own hands."

"And why is that?" Erza asked, curious, her previous anger melting away momentarily.

"We're sure that he's hiding something," I explained. "He lied to us about what she was doing here."

Erza was taken aback by this statement, her mouth opening and then closing. "He wouldn't do that," she said finally.

"Trust me, he's done it before," I said faintly.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing," I insisted quickly.

"Either way," Erza continued, "he's working on this case. He doesn't need all of you butting in."

"Well that's too bad," countered Natsu. "Because if he can't tell us what's really going on then we're going to find out for ourselves—whether you like it or not."

I stepped in front of him, as I sensed his anger simmering. "Natsu, calm down. Fighting isn't going to help."

I expected Erza to be angry with him, but she was silent, in contemplation.

"There you all are!" A voice broke into the silence, and I recognized it as Gray's. The raven-haired boy approached us and stood next to Erza.

"If we stay you have to promise that we will at least go to school tomorrow. We can't ignore our job there."

"Speaking of that," Gray added. "That's why Erza and I were asked to stay late today. The principal wanted us to know that she overheard some kids talking about starting a fight with another student who owes them money."

Personally, I thought it was a problem that the principal went to us instead of confronting the kids herself like the principal should.

"Gray-sama," Juvia spoke up shyly. "Did the principal overhear who those kids wanted to fight?"

"No, they never said," Gray answered. "This is bad news for us, as we have no clue who we need to look for. We also don't know when it will happen."

"Juvia thinks she might know. Before the rest of you came to the school, she met one of Tomoya-kun's friends who mentioned owing money to some members of the school soccer team. His name is Sunohara-san. Juvia doesn't know for sure, but it's' a good bet."

"That's a good observation, Juvia," Erza complimented.

I nodded in agreement. "I hope you're right. Still, why couldn't the principal just confront them right there? Isn't that her job? Why leave it to us to solve the problem when she could have just prevented it in the first place?"

"That's the real reason we were sent to the school, though," Natsu reminded. "Master thought there was something shady going on. Of course, now I don't think he's one to talk about people being shady," he added with a scoff.

"What is that hot head talking about?" Gray asked, his eyes meeting mine for an explanation.

I explained how we had been lied to about Lisanna and what she had really been doing on her job.

"We still don't know why he wanted to keep it confidential," Wendy spoke up. "She was looking into the other missing people, and even had the same book."

"But why would he lie about that?" Gray asked.

"That doesn't seem like it needs to be kept a secret unless there was more to it," Juvia finished. "Maybe that's not what Master was keeping from us, but something else."

"Well," Erza said, "we can look into this further tomorrow. It's late and we should all get some sleep. Don't forget about our original job, as that is our first priority."

The sound of my cell phone alarm woke me the next morning. Juvia, who was sharing one of the beds with me, stirred as I sat up. I looked over to the other bed that Erza and Wendy had slept in, and noticed that the former had already left.

Wendy heard the alarm ringing and sat up, rubbing her eyes. I figured that I 'ought to go wake Natsu up, as it was doubtful he would get up this early on his own. I was careful as I crawled over a dozing Juvia then left the room, quiet in closing the behind me. I knocked on the door across the hall, where Natsu and Gray were staying.

"Natsu!" I called, hoping I wasn't waking up others in the building. "You better get up now or we're going to be late."

To my surprise, Natsu was already awake and came to answer the door. "Mornin' Lucy." He yawned as he leant against the doorframe. "Are you almost ready to go?"

"Um… yes," I said unsurely. This was odd behavior of him. I knew that he was anxious about Lisanna—we all were—but this was even stranger than he had already been acting. "Natsu..." I began gently. "Is something wrong?"

The pink-haired boy locked his brown eyes on mine, but didn't say a word. I could see in his expression how worried he was: his furrowed eyebrows, downturned mouth, and dark circles beneath his eyes. He sighed. "Wh-what if... we find her too late?" he finally stammered. "What if we're already too late?" His voice hitched at the end and tears sprung to his eyes. He swallowed hard, attempting to keep his emotions under control.

I reached out and wrapped my arms around him, holding him close to me. "I know it seems hopeless right now," I murmured in his ear. "But if we don't have hope, then we have nothing. We owe it to her to believe that she's still out there—that we'll get her back to us. After all," I said as I pulled away to look into his eyes, "you were the one who made me realize that. You were the one there to comfort me just a few days ago."

He looked away and gave me a final squeeze before he pulled away. "That's true," he agreed, and his eyebrows weren't quite as furrowed now and I could see the start of a smile on his mouth. "I just can't wait for this mess to be over."

"Neither can I." I sighed and took a step back. "Time for school."

Natsu groaned.

As we all split up to go to our separate classrooms, I began telling Juvia about Natsu's worries.

"That crossed Juvia's mind as well," the girl admitted with a sigh. "But we can't let that stop us or any chance we have will be gone."

The bell rang before I could reply. As we sat down at our desks Erza—who was examining papers at her own desk—gave us a knowing nod. To the other students it would look like a casual exchange, but we knew it meant she wanted to talk to us as soon as we had the chance without raising any suspicion.

The morning classes went as usual, with Juvia and I half-paying attention to the class, but mostly we wrote down notes about our observations of the other students. We didn't have to listen to the lecture very much, as we had already gone over these things in our studies at the Academy. It wasn't too hard to keep up with the material.

My eyes drifted over to Juvia's friend, Tomoya, sitting across the classroom. He was looking out the window rather than writing notes on the lesson like the rest of the kids. I was still curious about this guy—he was obviously disinterested in school and socializing with other students, but he did not seem like a typical rebellious kid. He was actually a very nice person, from my observations. I wanted to talk to him more. Perhaps he simply had never felt he had people to rely on, and I knew exactly how that felt. When I was a child, with my mother gone and no one but my no-good father, I thought I was alone in the world. But I'm lucky now to have found my true home.

Or, perhaps, I was projecting. I wouldn't know for sure until I got to know him myself.

When the bell rang for lunch break, Juvia and I looked around for Natsu and Wendy, but they were presumably still in their classes since we had been let out a few minutes early.

As we walked through the main hall on our way out to the courtyard, Juvia stopped suddenly in front of me. "What are you—"

"Shhh," she whispered, then I heard what she was listening to.

"This is your last warning, Sunohara! Pay up or we'll have to take the money by force," a voice said, dripping in malice.

"Look, I'll get it soon enough, I just need more time!" another, higher-pitched voice begged.

"That's Sunohara-san." Juvia pointed to the blond-haired boy who was cornered against the wall, surrounded by four boys who were much larger and muscular than him. I remembered Juvia mentioning the soccer team—could that be them?

"Let's go," I said to Juvia, prepared to jump in and intercept a fight.

She grabbed my arm. "Wait," she said calmly. "Unless they try to hurt him, then we shouldn't go in unprepared. They look like they're backing off for now." She turned her head, indicating for me to look. Sure enough, they weren't cornering Sunohara anymore.

"I guess they really were just bluffing to scare him into getting the money," I whispered. We stood there, silently watching for about another minute before the boys completely backed off of Sunohara. We were relieved to see them leave around the opposite corner, up the stairs to the third floor. Sunohara on the other hand turned and began to head right toward us and it was too late for us to get away before he saw us. Surprised, he jumped back.

"Juvia-chan, what are you doing here? Did you see all of that?"

Juvia was affronted at being called "-chan" by someone who obviously was no older than her. I giggled at the way her nose scrunched.

"Yes, we saw it and we can help you," I answered.

"What makes you think you can help me? Who even are you?!" he cried, his hands flying up to yank at his hair in distress.

"Sunohara-san," Juvia coaxed, "Juvia and Lucy-san can help protect Sunohara-san from those guys. But we need to know what kind of trouble Sunohara-san is in."

The boy sighed, hands dropping back down to his sides. Juvia always knew how to calm someone down—it was one of her most-used traits in jobs given to her by the Academy. "Why would I tell you? It's none of your business."

"Actually, it is," Juvia replied, and I gave her a warning look. "But that's a long story. Juvia and Lucy-san promise that they really are here to help," she said carefully.

"Lucy?" Sunohara asked, perplexed. "As in Heartfilia Lucy? The girl people have been rumoring about?"

I didn't dare ask what kind of rumors, I just nodded bashfully instead. "It's nice to meet you."

"So can you really help me?" the boy asked, though hesitantly.

Juvia nodded eagerly. "Yes. But we need to know what's going on first."

Sunohara didn't respond at first. He looked all around to make sure no one was in earshot. "Look, it started in freshman year. Joining the soccer team here was all I ever wanted, but I just didn't cut it for the team. One day after my fourth time trying out, I was just about to give up when a couple of the guys who had made the team on the first try came up to me. They told me that they could personally recommend me for the team. For a price," he paused. I could see where this was going. "I had to pay them a lot—and I mean a lot of money—by the time we graduated. I was obviously a complete idiot by taking that offer; it was so clearly a scam, but I was so desperate to join the team... I let them think they tricked me and I agreed to give them the money. I honestly thought they would just forget about it eventually, but as you can see they haven't." He heaved a deep sigh. "I can't believe I'm even telling you this."

A moment of silence passed as Juvia and I absorbed the information. "Exactly how much money did they want?" I finally asked.

"872, 600 yen." He visibly cringed at the admission.

"And you agreed to pay them that much just to get you on the soccer team?"

"Like I said, I was desperate," he protested. "They clearly thought I was a gullible kid and they were scamming me, but as I told you, I knew exactly what they were doing. I just didn't think they were this serious about it." He let out a breath. "I don't have even near that amount of money, and I can't ask someone else to give it to me because then I'll just owe them instead. I honestly don't know what those guys will do to me when I have to tell them for the third time that I don't have it."

He sounded genuinely scared. I actually felt kind of sorry for him, even though he got himself into this mess.

"Look Sunohara-san, Lucy-san and Juvia can't get the money, but we can help protect Sunohara-san from those guys if they cause him any trouble at all."

"However," I added, "you should go talk to one of the advisors about this. They will probably be able to put an end to this whole mess."

"Don't you think I would have done that if I could?" he countered. "They wouldn't listen to me because those guys just denied the whole thing when they were asked. They even turned the blame on me and said I was trying to get them in trouble."

This news was rather disturbing to me. A student could come to one of the school staff with such a serious problem and they wouldn't even bother to do anything or even consider that he was telling the truth?

"So... you really think you can help me?" he asked, still unconvinced.

"Yes," Juvia replied definitively.

"But why? Why do you even care?"

"Because we can't just sit back and not do anything. That's just not how we work," I replied truthfully.

"Okazaki was right when he said you guys were strange," he muttered. He cleared his throat and looked us in the eyes. "So what are you going to be able to do?"

"For one thing," Juvia told him, "we won't let them hurt Sunohara-san. If he thinks he's in trouble, just let us know and we'll be on Sunohara-san's side."

The bell that signaled the end of lunch break ended our conversation there. I picked up my school bag and placed it over my shoulder.

Sunohara saw this as the perfect opportunity to leave and avoid any more questions. He quickly headed down the other hall without saying another word, as if he was in a hurry to get back to class.

Juvia hummed in thought. "Well, Sunohara-san doesn't seem to think we can really help him. Juvia feels sorry for him."

"Me too," I agreed. "Let's just hope he really does come to us if he needs help."

"Even if he doesn't, Juvia can keep an eye out and let the others know if anything happens."

"We had better let Erza and Gray know right away. They're technically staff so they may be able to help," I added as Juvia and I walked in the direction of our classroom.

When I opened the door, I blushed as I realized we were the last ones to come in. Everyone's eyes were on us. I caught Erza's eye as I sat at my desk. I could tell she had even more questions to ask us now.

As Juvia and I sat on the front steps looking over the lawn of the school, we compared our notes on the students.

"Perhaps Juvia and Lucy-san, as well their other team members, ought to profile any students that are of particular interest," Juvia suggested. "That way Master will know which kids might be in trouble—or who might be causing trouble for that matter."

"You're right," I agreed. "Then if we need to take any more action he'll know who to send and what they should do about it."

We conveyed this idea to the others when they came out from the school and sat next to us.

"I think that's a great idea," Erza said. "Speaking of Master, I got in contact with him this morning to let him know we wouldn't be home for a couple more days."

"Really?" I asked, surprised. "How did he take it?"

"I didn't say much else, but I suppose he didn't question it coming from me."

That was a relief to me; at least we might not get into as much trouble when we got back if we had Erza backing us up.

"Well," Natsu put in, "I guess that means we need to investigate all we can in the next few days before we go home."

"Yeah." I nodded. "There's a good chance we could be restricted from this case when we get back, which means this may be our only chance to save Lisanna."

The implications of what that meant sank in as we walked to the hotel five blocks away. All six of us remained silently somber the whole way as we wondered if we really would be able to save her in time. If we weren't allowed to continue the case, Master would possibly pass it on to someone else, but they wouldn't know what we did. I thought how odd it was that we were essentially having to work against him. I knew that he thought of all the members of the Academy as if we were his own children. There must be a reason for him to be so secretive about all this, but what was it?

Back at the hotel, I sat alone in the lobby, writing down everything about Sunohara's situation and creating a profile. Besides being a more detailed way to turn information into the Academy, this also gave us a better way of examining the situation ourselves. Even so, I still had no way to know if the soccer players would really follow through on their threats. The only thing we could do at the moment is keep an eye on them as well as Sunohara.

"Hi there Lucy." I was a little startled and dropped my pen. It was Wendy who had spoken. She sat down across from me at the small table. "What are working on?" the girl asked, glancing at my paper.

"Earlier, Juvia and I stumbled into a pretty big problem, so I'm trying to get all my details straight and figure out what to do." I also explained the situation with the soccer players to her.

"Poor guy, I hope they don't try to hurt him or anything," Wendy said sympathetically.

"So do I. Will you help me keep an eye on those guys?" I asked. "You're good at being inconspicuous."

"Of course," she replied. "First years take our lunch break at a different time, so I'll be able to watch while you're in class." She sounded distant as she said it, like something else was on her mind at the same time.

"Wendy, is something the matter?" I asked her, gently.

"I'm just... worried about Natsu," she admitted. "You can tell how hard he's taking all of this; he's not acting at all like his usual self." She turned to look at me more directly. "I know we're all having a hard time with this, but he seems to have just given up all hope now."

"I know... I had a talk with him this morning because I noticed how odd he was acting all of a sudden. Except he wouldn't really tell me why he was acting like he did." I frowned. "I comforted him the best I could."

"Maybe you should have another talk with him," Wendy suggested. "He listens to you, and he'd probably be more willing to talk to you about what's on his mind more than any of the rest of us."

I opened my mouth to reply, but instead Wendy and I nearly jumped out of our seats at the bang of a gunshot sounding from outside, eerily close to the hotel. My ears rang as a commotion of terrified people naturally began gathering in the lobby, trying to figure out what was happening.

I had a hard time getting a good look out the lobby window over all the people. When I finally managed to make my way to the front of the crowd and see out the window, I saw police cars gathered a short way down the block. However the police themselves were running, chasing someone. When I finally saw the figure they were chasing, it was already on it's way up the hotel's front steps.

.

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