If you have an accusation to make - if you think someone is the murderer - then go ahead and state who you think it is! At least one or two reviews have already. While it doesn't influence the murderers, as almost everything except for minor details is already planned out, I do like to hear your opinions.
Feet pounded up the stairs. Tension grew thick. Dread pounded in everyone's stomachs. Most had an awful feeling of what they were about to find, and did not want to be proven right. A very faint light lacrima shone above the stairs connecting the first story to the second. Electricity fizzled in the air, traces still fading away from the roar that had either occurred without saying the full spell's name... or cut off by an attack.
The large group, dwindling in numbers rapidly, rushed upstairs to see exactly what they had feared: Laxus, laying with his back to the floor, his cold, shocked face still appearing to everyone who viewed him. The horrible sword that had already been stained red with Juvia's death laid next to him, a fresh coat of red painted on it. It appeared that the murderer had stabbed Laxus in his front, letting the Dragon Slayer fall before setting the sword right next to him... and somehow managing to mingle with the crowd again.
From the front, Erza turned around and did a quick tally. It was hard with the guild members running around, several over to Laxus' body in grief, but Erza did it. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion upon realizing that everyone was present.
Either the murderer is becoming frighteningly better at his skill, or we have somehow missed the intruder... which I still find to be very unlikely.
Apparently Levy thought the opposite however as she ran straight past Laxus' body and the sword - an action very unusual for not only the Solid Script mage but any one who had just seen one of the strongest members of their guild dead on the ground. However, Erza noticed that Levy wasn't running blindly. As usual, she bookworm had an agenda. A plan.
Levy had run into the nearest room, which happened to be Makarov's office.
Erza as well as Gajeel and Pantherlily, who had also apparently noticed Levy's strange actions, followed her in to see her standing in front of Makarov's desk. Written in ink and on a notepad facing the doors were the words "I did what was right." Next to the notepad laid a pen, the utensil used to write the note.
"I did what was right...?" Levy echoed.
"The others need to see this," Erza decided as she poked her head out of the office. "Everyone! Get inside! We've found something."
Seconds later, everyone was stuffed into Makarov's office with the exception of Mirajane and the Thunder God Tribe who had stayed behind with Laxus' body. Bickslow gave the lame excuse of wanting to see if "he was really dead", but the comment was not needed as the rest gave them space for their grief.
Probably not the best decision, Erza thought, nor the smartest or wisest. But she kept quiet about it - like the others, she wanted to hear Levy's reason for going into Makarov's office and her analysis on the note.
"So? Why'd you bail, shorty?" Gajeel asked.
Levy glared at him when he called her "shorty." With a huff, she explained, "I thought that maybe the murderer had killed Laxus and then bolted for the nearest room to hide, which is this room seeing as it's only a few yards away from... the body. Then, I found the note." At this, she held up the pad of paper for everyone to see the chilling words.
"I did what was right," Lucy said. "That sounds like... well, it's the murderer of Laxus for sure."
"Maybe the murderer felt that Laxus was wrong in some way? Like, he had to die for some strange reason... because he wasn't a true Fairy Tail member since he'd been excommunicated once, or something," Levy suggested.
"Don't say that!" Evergreen snapped as she walked into the room, Bickslow, Freed, and Mirajane following her. "Laxus was a true Fairy Tail member, through and through! We considered Juvia a true member, and she'd not only belonged to our enemies once but also joined very recently! Lucy, even though she's a newer member. Gajeel, and he hurt three of our own!" The self-proclaimed "Fairy Queen" wiped away a tear. "Laxus... he was..."
"Evergreen..." Levy seemed to be at a loss for words, for once. "I... I didn't mean that. Laxus was a true Fairy Tail member, and nothing would have or will ever change that. He saved several lives at Tenrou Island, remember? Even though he didn't have to."
"That's right!" Mirajane agreed, her voice sounding unusually fierce without the need of a demon form.
"Laxus was the strongest member in Fairy Tail," Bickslow said sadly. "And the greatest, too." His babies flew around him, chanting "Strongest! Greatest! Strongest! Greatest!"
Freed was silent.
"Since this was written down, I may be able to analyze the handwriting to figure out whose this is," Levy said as she tucked a strand of blue hair behind her ear, already whipping out glasses. "Then we may have our murderer caught, easily!"
She brought out her own paper, drawing a line down the middle. "Everyone will write their name in one column, and our guild name Fairy Tail in the other. Then, I'll take a look at what you've written - your handwriting - and compare that to the handwriting on the note. After analyzing the sample pieces, I may be able to draw out a list or even narrow it down to the murderer. Even if someone has deliberately changed the slant or style of their writing for the note, it should still be a little easy to figure this out. Everyone has their own unique writing style, like always including a heart at the top of their i's."
"So in other words, no handwritin' is safe," Gajeel said with a small smile.
"Something like that," Levy replied, blinking up at him before sitting down at Makarov's chair. "You can start the list, Gajeel."
Soon enough, everyone had written their name and Fairy Tail down onto Levy's paper. Just about everyone except for Gajeel, Lucy, Jet, and Droy - Levy's biggest supporters - went back out to Laxus' body, where the Thunder God Tribe and Mirajane had gone back to sobbing over with the newer additions of Lissana and Wendy.
"I-I feel so bad!" Wendy cried. "If only he'd stayed alive long enough, I might have been able to try something!"
"Everyone's just so sad," Lissana sniffed, "That it's making me feel even worse now..."
"Are you sureee he's dead?" Cana slurred. "Justin' case, you know, he's still alive."
"He is," Mirajane replied softly. "I checked his pulse already..."
Freed kneeled next to Laxus, an expression of pain evident on his face. Mirajane took the same position as him to his right, placing a hand on the Rune Mage's shoulders. "I know how hard this for you..." she began.
Freed shook his head. "Did you love Laxus?"
Cana's eyes widened and her face revealed a large cat-grin before remembering the somber mood, the smile suddenly becoming strained. She glanced down at the ground. "Ah...er, everyone who betted against 'Fraxus' or when Freed was going to come out owes me 5,000 jewels," the card mage mumbled. "Not that it matters anymore..."
Once everyone had done what Levy had commanded them to do, she started to look from the notepad and to the list, scanning for any similarities. Even the slightest slant of a vowel or the way they crossed their t's would help her out in this new mission of hers.
However, after quite a few minutes, Levy realized it was harder than she'd been expecting. On a third sheet of paper, she wrote down several names whose handwriting slightly matched the note's. Then she went over the note again and realized that Natsu's chicken scrawl had nothing to do with the way the constants were positioned in the strange note. After crossing out Natsu's name, Levy stared dejectedly at the list that remained.
There were seven names.
Levy went over the list again - she'd been honest to include her own name on the list - and decided she was being ridiculous. She hadn't written the note, had she? So she crossed out Levy McGarden on the list of seven, feeling sorry for the six remaining.
Evauntully, the boring process was over and Levy stood up with her list.
"I'm done," she announced. "This is too hard."
"Wait, so you're giving up?" Lucy asked.
Levy shook her head. "Not exactly..."
"Hold on. Everyone will want to here this, won't they?" Droy wondered.
"Yeah, tell everyone what you've found, Levy," Jet agreed.
This time, Levy answered with a nod of her head, and all of those present in the office of the late Makarov exited in single file. Several looked up from Laxus' body to see what Levy would have to say.
"After a bit of going over everyone's handwritings, I realized that someone could have just used a completely different style to write," Levy admitted. "It was a bit confusing going over the names."
"I knew it," Gray said. "This won't get us any closer to finding out who killed Gramps, or Juvia, or the stranger, or Laxus, will it?"
"Hush!" Erza snapped, giving a glare that would usually scare Gray.
However, Gray was done with being pushed around. He was a new Gray, one that wanted to find out who had murdered his Juvia and his Guild Master and now his Guild Master's grandson.
"I'm not going to hush, Erza," Gray replied. "I'm going to give my own opinion. And that is that this idea sucks - not you, Levy. But like you said, someone could've just written the note a bit differently. This is pointless! She can accuse anyone right now, and we'd all believe her!"
"No, Gray, I wouldn't!" Levy retorted. "I'm an honest, good member of Fairy Tail!"
Gray argued, "That's what all of us could have said a few hours ago! But now there's four dead people and anyone could have murdered them! What have we done about it? Nothing! We should have called the Rune Knights hours ago, when there was a chance they'd still respond. Instead we locked ourselves in here with a murderer! A serial killer! What if it's Levy who's been killing these people? What if she is playing us all like a fool?"
"And what if it's you, Gray?" Levy wondered. "That'd be a strange plot twist, wouldn't it? Gray, the one who's precious love has been killed. Gray, who wants revenge for his girlfriend's murderer. Gray, who never accepted Juvia's feelings, is suddenly also in love with Juvia - except, wait, he stabbed her."
"I didn't stab her and you know that!" Gray shouted. "Erza, Natsu, Lucy - they can all tell you that I couldn't have killed her. I would never hurt Juvia...I never would have! Before everything she was my friend, my nakama!"
"That's what all of us could have said a few hours ago... except now there's four dead people and anyone could have murdered them, remember?" Levy replied bitterly, echoing Gray's words from moments earlier.
There was silence and suddenly Changed Gray as back to Grieving Gray. Sensing that she would be given no more resistance from Gray, Levy turned back to the group. "As I was saying... there is no exact match to the note."
"Is there anyone who's handwriting is slightly similar to the note?" Lissana asked.
For a brief second, Levy looked over the two different papers before nodding. "Four people: Evergreen, Bickslow, Freed, and Cana."
Everyone mulled over it - would the Thunder God Tribe want to kill Laxus? Probably not. However, that only left one suspect: Cana, the drunkard who had "stumbled" and "accidentally" found the dead body of the stranger.