By now, Lucy was used to seeing her friends going through her stuff without her permission. Mostly, it was Natsu, but really, none of the team had any objections to invading her home. Still, it felt weird for her to be going through Gray's apartment.
"Is this really necessary? Do you really think we'll find any clues here?" she asked the others.
"We will not know until we try" replied Erza as she put Gray's spare key into the lock.
"True, but I think those two might make mischief" said Lucy, pointing at Natsu and Happy.
"Maybe his fridge is full of fish!" shouted Happy.
"I don't know if Gray likes fish…" said Natsu. "He is a weird guy, after all."
"No fish! Nobody could be that mean!"
"Say, why is Lucy here? I thought she wanted to follow that carriage, with that rain girl." said Natsu.
"You just realize that now! I've tried, but Juvia turned into water and just swam away, so I decided to come with you instead. You were there!"
"Really? I can't remember."
"It was ten minutes ago!"
"Please, no arguing." said Erza as she opened the door.
Gray's apartment was as different from Natsu's and Happy's place as it could be. It consisted of one room with a kitchen corner and a bath. All of it was completely clean and surprisingly empty. A few abstract pictures were hanging on the wall. In a corner, Lucy spotted a poster of a motorcycle. Almost all furniture was made out of blank metal, glass or some combination of the two, with some black-painted wood thrown in here and there. One wall was dominated by a music player and a shelf of music lacrimas next to it, all arranged in alphabetical order. It seemed that everything had been placed with great care for maximum effect.
On a closer look, the bed was made and everything in the kitchen was clean, too. It did not seem as if anyone other than Gray and now them had been here. If there was anything here to explain Gray's abduction, it was well hidden. They fanned out to search in detail. Natsu was the first to find something interesting.
"What! He has Gajeel in his music library?" He held up a lacrima case with Gajeel's face and "Shoubidou" written on it. "Oh, this ice guy, when I get him I will…" Flames started to come out of the dragon slayer's hand, but Erza managed to calm him down with just a look.
"I didn't know Gajeel sold them" said Lucy.
"Oh yes, in the gift store" replied Happy. "Max says they are very popular."
"This is nice" said Erza from another corner of the room. She held up a picture of their team together. "Right next to the bed."
"Aww, that's cute" replied Lucy.
"Yes, isn't it? Oh, and here is a picture of you, too. On the beach."
"What! In a swimsuit? Right next to the bed?" screamed Lucy, as Happy started to giggle.
"…and of Juvia too…" continued Erza. Lucy's indignation was replaced by confusion.
"All right… what does that mean?"
"I don't know" replied Erza, "but maybe we shouldn't tell Juvia."
"Good idea" said Lucy. Erza started to investigate the bed corner more closely.
"Did you find anything there?" Lucy asked. Erza inexplicably blushed.
"Well, not directly…"
"Then what are you…" Suddenly, something dawned on Lucy. "Erza, are you upset that there's no swimsuit picture of you there?"
"What! No! No! I just…"
Mercifully, Natsu cut her off.
"Hey, look here! A stuffed white bear!"
"Those are called polar bears!" replied Happy, proud of his vast knowledge of bear names.
"I wouldn't have thought that Gray had stuffed animals" said Lucy.
"It looks really old. And it's got a sign here… 'To my beloved Gray, from Ul'. Ul… that's his teacher, isn't it?"
He took the polar bear and placed it very, very carefully back on the shelf it had come from. He even stroked over it once to straighten the fur. Lucy smiled, but decided against commenting on that.
Then Natsu turned to the wardrobe next to the bed.
"Let's see what this exhibitionist has for..." He was cut off by a flood of plush animals tumbling down on him. It must have been hundreds; Lucy counted at least four giraffes, a giant tiger and a snake longer than she was high. She let out a little squeak.
"Oh, that's adorable!"
"Mmpf mmpff mmmpf!" was Natsu's only reply.
"Are they all from Ul?" asked Happy, critically eyeing a cat that had tumbled in front of his paws.
Erza sat down and investigated a small mammoth. "This one still has a price tag" she said. "And I saw an ad for that one recently, while looking for a gift for Wendy. It must be fairly new. And that… is that a bear wearing armor?"
After one hour of searching, they had not managed to uncover anything relevant. There were magazines about motorcycles, a few bills and some letters from Lyon. The kitchen held nothing of interest, although the oven looked mostly unused. The warm water in the bath wasn't working, just like the heaters, but the landlord had told them that Gray had always refused to pay for either, so he had disconnected them.
Natsu was considering where to best put traps, while Happy was frantically trying to fix a stuffed fish that had looked just a bit too realistic. Erza was looking at the dust layers on different things without finding anything, and Lucy was simply resting on a chair, when Juvia returned.
"…and after that, he was very cooperative." Juvia finished her description of the fight with Nicola while looking out the window. It had begun to rain when she had entered. Lucy did not believe that this was a coincidence.
"According to him, his guild had a list of targets. They were paid to catch them and deliver them to a warehouse. Juvia has checked the list, and there is no obvious connection between the targets. Old, young, male, female, magic users or not, it seems to make no difference.
"Those guys weren't even trying" said Natsu. "It took an hour to track the carriage they used. Everyone had seen it. Why were they so careless?"
"Apparently Gray was the last on the list. Also, they did not know that Mister Happy was watching them" said Juvia.
"Aye Sir!" shouted Happy.
"Why were you with Gray anyway?" wondered Natsu. "Were you fighting him? Did you win?"
"I promised Gray to not tell you." said Happy solemnly.
"What! Now I really want to know!"
Erza rolled her eyes. "Please continue, Juvia. Did you visit the warehouse yet?"
Juvia nodded. "Yes. The workers there were not willing to help Juvia at first, but she convinced them."
For some reason, the statement sent shivers down Lucy's spine, and she could see that Erza was at least wondering what 'convinced' meant here. But Juvia either did not notice or did not care.
"There must have been an exchange, because every time, shortly after a carriage arrived and left again, another came. The people at the warehouse apparently think it is not wise to pay too close attention, but from the times, it seems that Gray was there, and that he was brought somewhere else shortly after. He was not in any of the crates, and the warehouse has no hidden tunnel or exit.
"How do you know?" asked Natsu, then thought for a moment. "Ah, I got it! After you knew Gray wasn't there, you filled it with water, right?"
Juvia gave a short nod, as if filling warehouses with water to check for secret passages was an every day event for her. "The change in water pressure over time was consistent with the door sizes." she said.
"There was no more information to be had at the warehouse, but Juvia did get the name of the owner. It appears he is involved in a lot of illegal activities, but Juvia has never heard of him before."
She handed Erza a neatly folded note. Erza looked at it blankly, shrugged, and passed it to Natsu. He similarly shook his head (as did Happy), and he gave it to Lucy. She looked at the name, written in an exact cursive – and almost fell from her chair.
"Do you know this guy?" asked Natsu. "And is it bad that we don't?"
Lucy shook her head. "Not many people know him, but he's bad. Really, really bad."
Erza looked up in surprise. "I know basically all dark wizards, but his name does not ring a bell. What guild does he belong to?"
"Oh, he is not a wizard. I guess that would make things too easy for us. But… I think I may have a plan…"
Author's note: If you think this chapter is mostly filler, just meant to show what I think Gray's place would look like and explain very briefly what happened before, then you're absolutely right. But I do have some more action planned for the next chapter. I hope I'll see you there!