After a long time of searching, every group finally decided that there was no intruder to be found. They met up into the guildhall, confused, weary, and done with the murders and the murderer. Most did not spare a glance at Elfman and Juvia out of grief for Juvia's death.

"I wish we could go home..." Wendy said as she sat down at a table, sniffling as she did.

Carla flew up on the table and patted her back. She gave her charge a small smile. "There, there, Wendy. We will catch the murderer soon and then we can go back and sleep."

"So what should we do next?" Laxus asked, almost snapping. "I am not going to just run around the guild achieving nothin' and getting more of us killed. I want to pound this killer to a pulp!"

"We could wait here until morning breaks," Lucy yawned. "I'm tired."

"Don't sleep now!" Natsu said, shaking her until she was wide awake and slapped him. "What if the killer gets you?"

Just then, there was a shout from outside - an unfamiliar noise. It couldn't have been one of them, either, because all alive and dead wizards except for Master Makarov were in the main hall. It was a stranger - an intruder.

The intruder?

The one who had killed Master and Juvia?

The end to the madness?

Everyone rushed outside. However, the noise led them to the entrance with the stone gate, where Freed's runes ended. Banging on the rune wall outside was what appeared to be a male traveler, with dark black hair and new yet seemingly dusty or worn clothes that seemed to be a sharp looking suit.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail, sir - who are you?" Mirajane asked as she pushed herself to the front of the group. Her voice was deliberately light hearted and happy in order to convince the stranger that nothing was wrong, but as she spoke her voice still trembled a little. "It's a little late out, you know."

"I'm sorry - I'm on my way to Crocus. It's just, all of the inns and hotels here are closed, and I was told by a local here that you Fairy Tail people might have a room open for me," the man said. "Is there anyway...? I'm sorry it's so late at night, but there seems to be a lot of you folks still here."

Mirajane frowned. "Just wait one teensy second please, sir! I need to know what the rest of my guildmates think. See if they approve." She turned back to the large group behind her, all frozen stiff in shock and terror with wide eyes. Mirajane quickly lowered her voice and gathered everyone around her.

"He seems alright..." Mirjane said. "But maybe he has rune magic and is the murderer? What if he disabled the runes for a moment, left the guild, and turned around to pretend to be a traveler? This may be a trap to get himself in close with us so he can kill us easier."

"That's one way to put it," Levy replied. "However, it's very unlikely that he would do this - he has the element of surprise, you see, striking in the dark right after we believe that there is no intruder."

"I say we put him in an isolated, locked room," Natsu huffed. "Like, the lounge. 'Cause even with this physio running around we still gotta show Fairy Tail hospitality! I say he stays in a room where no one can get to him and no one can kill him, and tomorrow he'll be on his merry way without every knowing that we had a serial killer picking us off."

"The police should come in the morning, and then he'd know" Lucy pointed out. "But... I feel bad for him. Maybe I could take him to my apartment?"

"That wouldn' work. What if you are the killer, and you use this opportunity to run away before we catch ya?" Gajeel questioned. "Na, I agree with Salamander. We put him in some isolated room."

"So... we're taking him in? In a building filled with dead bodies?" Erza said. "I disagree."

Mirajane said, "Fairy Tail hospitality. And really, do we have a choice?"

Yes, we do, some members such as Laxus and Gray thought, but they did not speak up. After all, what if the traveler grew suspicious? What if he was the murderer, doing the strange theory Mirajane had described, and if they left him alone and not locked in an isolated room, he might somehow break into the guild and murder all of them?

"Fine," Bickslow said. "This'll stir things up!" Several other members nodded in agreement, most voicing that they rather go with Natsu's plan than accidentally let the murderer loose.

Turning back, Mirajane beamed at the stranger. "Come in, come in!" She cheered. "We'll get a room set up for you right away."

Levy and Freed set to work on disabling the runes only in the gate and only long enough for the traveler to come in - security measures, they told him. Meanwhile, Jet ran back into the guild as fast as his magic would let him, picking up Juvia and Elfman's bodies as quickly yet carefully as possible. Moving them into the kitchen - the wide open space, he reasoned, would be good, although his mind was scattered in panic and the better choice of the infirmary didn't even occur to him. He set the bodies down onto the ground just in time and raced back into the hall to see the rest walk in.

"Nice place," the traveler whistled. "By the way..."

"Mirajane," the white haired woman supplied.

"Mirajane. Where is-"

"The body?" The statement slipped out of Wendy's mouth before she realized it, and she let out a small eep! upon realizing it. Everyone stared down at her in horror.

"The... the what? Body?"

"It's another word we use for the de - the ale, sir!" Lucy quickly said, adding a nervous chuckle. "Because we have this guild member named Cana, who reallllly likes drinking, and she prefers to call her alcohol her boyfriend rather than just a drink. She's kinda weird like that."

The stranger stared at Mirajane. Then at Wendy. A frown emerged onto his face. "Um, right. Anyway, I was wondering where a communication lacrima I can use is? I need to talk to my boss. Let him know I'm almost to Crocus for my work."

Mirajane nodded, relieved that he'd dropped it. "Sure! We have one in our Master's office!" At this, Jet waved his hands at her in panic, letting her know that he had not moved Makarov's body. "Ah...why don't you go into one of our waiting rooms?"

The traveler looked at Mirajane with a strange look of confusion on his face before agreeing. After being lead to the left wing of the guildhall by Bickslow and and Max - a very neutral and safe pair that probably wouldn't try to murder each other, they reasoned, Mirajane, Jet, and Gray hurried upstairs to Master Makarov's office, Jet and Gray joining her for her own protection as well as to make sure she wouldn't run off as the murderer.

"Should we move Gramps, too?" Gray wondered as they entered.

"We don't need to now. After all, we've already moved Juvia and Elfman, but that's destroying a lot of evidence," Mirajane replied as she grabbed the communication lacrima.

"So what you're saying is that we need to keep the crime scene intact," Gray summarized.

"For now? Yes. Maybe if something comes up later, however..."

They headed back downstairs, Mirajane placing the communication lacrima on the table of the waiting room before closing and locking the man inside. If the traveler knew he was now trapped, he didn't shout or scream anything that made everyone aware that he knew.

Mirajane, Jet, and Gray made their way back to the guildhall.

"So... what now?" Laxus said, echoing his words from earlier.

"We never took shadow and invisibility magic into effect," Erza said. "Or any other magic, for that matter."

"What? You want us to split back up again? And get killed?" Laxus growled.

Levy frowned. "What other choice do we have, Laxus? Sit around until morning comes and let the killer slip away? Or risk our lives like Juvia did to make the guildhall a safer place? What if we never catch the murderer, and they lurk around every night until we have to abandon the guildhall from the murders that have occurred? Think about it, Laxus - if this enemy has magic, they may be able to kill all of us, or at least injure all of us, at once before finishing us off if we all stick closely together."

"If he or she had magic, wouldn't that person kill Juvia with it?" Lucy wondered. "And we still don't know how Master Makarov was killed... have we really searched his body completely yet?"

"True," Laxus admitted. "Maybe staying here will get us killed. But for sure, if we go out into that hallway right now, then we are going to be killed. There's almost no doubt about it!"

"Or, we go out into a hallway and we catch the killer right away," Natsu argued. "You dunno what's going to happen out there! I wanna catch Gramp's and Juvia's murderer, and I rather do it now than before someone else gets hurt! And what if one team didn't search hard enough?"

"We have had plenty of time to look for someone this time," Erza said, "However, we never remembered to look for a magic user - did you even ever use your nose, Wendy, Gajeel, Natsu? Levy, Lucy, you know enough from reading fiction and mystery books of what to look for, and yet you two have acted so frazzled ever since the first death. Cana's finally sober enough to walk straight, and Gray is finally trying to block out Juvia long enough to search seriously. But before now, none of us have been trying to catch the murderer! We all think that he will hiding in a box or underneath a table, waiting to give up.

"But he is not going to give up!" she continued, eyes flashing. "And neither will we! Laxus, we will look around the guild again, and we will catch that killer! My group will go to the kitchen. We will go over the bodies of Elfman and Juvia. We will to try to wake up Eflman. We will also try to find more about Juvia's death. Carla, Wendy, Gajeel, Levy, and Pantherlily will search outside again. The Thunder God Tribe will sweep every single little corner and investigate more into Master's death. Finally, Mirajane, Cana, Max, and Lissana will look in the library and every room but the waiting room - and I mean look. Cana, Mirajane, get your heads into the game! You weren't acting like they were before! We need to shut down this mystery and we need to do it now!" At the end of this loud and rousing speech everyone sat or stood in still silence, shocked by Titania's words.

"I haven't been using my nose much," Natsu agreed.

"I can study one of my mystery novels again!" Levy said, whipping Gale-Force Reading glasses and a book out of seemingly nowhere. Lucy looked on in interest.

"Juvia's dead...and I'll find out who killed her," Gray said.

Erza nodded in approval as even Laxus agreed with her plan, even if it was almost identical to what they did earlier. "Levy, put the book away. You willjust have to remember what you have already read; we don't have time for reading. Although, I do like all of your attitudes. It is time we finally take the advantage on our home playing field!"

Several guild members cheered. They divided up into their groups within half a minute and started towards their respective destinations. Erza's group first looked in a room near the kitchen while Mirajane started towards the library. The Thunder God Tribe moved upstairs while the Dragonslayers, the cats, and Levy walked outside.

With a new spirit, the remaining members of Fairy Tail started to search the rooms in the guildhall again. They walked and looked slowly, afraid of missing an inch of space not yet searched. They explored, now determined to find the killer and unaware that back in the kitchen, lying on the ground, a hand twitched.