It was a warm day at Magnolia Primary, the sun shone down in golden rays that gently caressed the freshly mown lawns and the shrill chirps of birds could be heard. The sweet scent of flowers wafted through the air, bringing with it an unhealthy dose of pollen. As the amalgamation of people stumble past the school, lamenting their dreary life, they stop, in what can only be described as awe at the grand stature of the looming building. Above them, the tall stone tower sits in all its radiance, seemingly holding both wisdom and sophistication just beyond their pitiful grasp, mocking them for all they are not. All in all, it was the absolute last place Natsu should have been near, let alone inside.

Though, to say the staff had let Natsu inside would have been a downright lie. Even on the off chance that one of students, or staff, could actually see him, they sure as hell couldn't stop him.

Being dead did that to people.

Natsu often found that it didn't bother him as much as it should of, after all he's had a 400 year adjustment period. So what if people walked through him, claimed he didn't exist and generally ignored his existence, it wasn't like that was any different from when he was alive. Plus, as a ghost (or spirit as Natsu preferred), Natsu quickly found out that a) walking through walls made for a way cooler entrance and, 2) he could manipulate the physical world in ways he never could before. Hair pulling, pushing desk items onto the ground, hiding one (and only one) sock, skirt flippings, random small fires and general fuckery were just a few of Natsu's favourite pastimes. Hell, last year Natsu spent most of his time pushing things ever so slightly out of this dark haired kid reach. Needless to say, that had been one of his better years.

So when he entered Magnolia elementary, Natsu didn't really expect anything to come of it.

Unfortunately life, or in this case afterlife, isn't a huge fan of consistency.

As creepy as it sounds, Natsu both loved and hated watching the children play. It reminded Natsu too much of his childhood, the hours he spent running around with Zeref. As the children scrambled to line up when the bell sounded, Natsu could not help but feel a pang of jealousy at the thought of his brother. Zeref didn't have to suffer like this, no, Natsu's perfect brother somehow just got to bypass the whole spirit thing and move on. He wasn't stuck like Natsu. And why, oh why was Natsu stuck? He had not a single goddamn clue, though at this point he was sure some withered old dude was having the time of his life watching Natsu's suffering. He was stumped, it wasn't like he had any 'unfinished business' or malevolence to share with the world. Natsu was simply stuck, not bound to an item or person or place. Just simply existing in this hell, unsure of why or when he would be free.

It sucked ass.

'Still' he thought, as he pushed some kids pencil off the desk, for what had to be the fifth time, 'it has some perks.'

As the classroom teacher, some weird old lady, pulled out a large and comically oversized history book, Natsu decided to…attempt to restrain himself from messing with the kid. He may be a fan of annoying the shit outta people but Natsu wasn't a complete asshole, the boy still had a life of his own that he needed to focus on. Sitting sullenly on the kid's desk for the rest of the lesson, Natsu could not believe the stuff the teacher was sprouting.

"This is Bullshit!" He cried as the withered old hag (or teacher) at the front of the room continued to butcher history. His history. Every single word out of her mouth seemed to degrade, belittle and generally insult Natsu, who knew for a fact that his people were not savages, thank you very much. In his anger, Natsu failed to notice that he had accidentally flung an eraser at some random red haired kid during his very manly ghostly fit. Or that said red haired kid had now decided to claim revenge for his 'wounded' head…by throwing his pencil at Natsu. Well, more accurately, towards the actual owner of the desk Natsu had parked his ass on. Time seemed to slow down as the improvised projectile neared its mark, without thinking, Natsu caught the projectile in his outstretched, ghostly hand. As shocked as the little kid behind him all Natsu could think to mutter was, "I must have been really angry to do that first go."

"Miss, Miss!" The red head student cried, "Look what Happy's doing!"

Letting out and exasperated sigh, the teacher turned ready to once again berate Lector for disrupting class only to find, what had to be, an impossible sight before her eyes.

There was Happy, that in itself wasn't an unusual occurrence, but in front of his outstretched hands Lector's pencil hovered in the air. The small class of Kindergarteners broke out in screams of both delight and terror. "Happy! Look!" and "How are you doing that?!" were the most common shouts that filled the once quite room. The teacher watched on in confusion as the class got up from their seats and crowded the blue haired boy, their childish voices rising in their excitement. Happy was shocked to say the least; he had been, up until this point, practically invisible to the rest of his year. The other kids often ignored him, or others like Lector always picked on him because of his name. Flabbergasted, the teacher did to Happy what she did to every student who posed a threat to, as she put it, "the sanctity of higher education".

"YOUNG MAN, MARCH YOURSELF TO THE PRINCIPALS OFFICE THIS INSTANT!" She screeched, her withered eyes trained on the young hooligan who dared to interrupt her class. 'Magic' or not, Magnolia primary was a place of education, not some showground for cheap parlour tricks. After a brief moment of baited breaths and inactivity, she shouted once more, "NOW!"

Spurred on by the shouting, Happy did what any kid that age would do in this situation, he ran off crying, confused beyond belief. "HEY! It wasn't his fault it was that little red headed bastard!" Natsu yelled, completely oblivious to the fact it was actually em his/em fault. Attempting to rein in her overly excited students, the teacher remained oblivious to Natsu's rant and overly dramatic exit. "Stupid old hag." He muttered, walking through people and walls alike in his annoyance. After a colourful rant on teachers, history and little red headed shits, Natsu found himself face to face with what had to be the shortest man he'd ever seen in all of his 487 years of…not living. The elderly man walked right past Natsu, each step of his somehow conveying an overarching sense of power and purpose.

"T-this man…he can't be!" Natsu gasped, feeling his ethereal body almost melt away from the extreme power radiating from the man. Looking up, the elderly man smiled at him. Smiled! At him!

"Y-you can…see me?"

Nodding the elderly man extended a wrinkled hand in Natsu's direction. "You look amazed, have you never met another medium before?" silently shaking his head, Natsu briefly recalled the last two mediums he had ever met. One, Mavis, had been his brother's wife while the other…had been a man who called himself Hades. Natsu never really talked to Hades despite that fact he was, for a long time, the only one Natsu could talk to, not that he'd wanted to in the slightest. Hades had...well honestly, scared the crap out of Natsu. With the constant obsession over the Grand spirit world, the messing around with voodoo hearts and having committed some pretty messed up and majorly evil crimes, Hades had not made the best of company. Mavis, on the other hand, he liked. She was noble, incredibly intelligent and loyal to a fault, fierce yet incredibly kind hearted. The perfect person to care for his brother after Natsu had…passed. He'd missed talking with her and by extension, Zeref. Natsu missed his nephew, August, as well. It broke Natsu's heart to watch that baby grow old and loose so much in such a cruel and unforgiving world. After August's death, Natsu couldn't bear to watch any more friends or family die, and so he locked himself away. For a couple of decades he sat underground before he decided to wander the earth. This was, unfortunately, how he ran into Hades. Thus beginning a long tradition of following the lives of strangers.

Looking at the old man, Natsu could feel the same comforting light radiating off him that had once come off Mavis.

"Generally speaking," he started, "kindergarteners don't have the ability to break the laws of physics, even if they don't understand them. That couldn't have something to do with you, now could it?"

At the stern glance the old man threw his way, Natsu was embarrassed to admit that he, a 487 year old spirit cursed to wonder these mortal planes, began to sweat, metaphorically of course, at the old man's accusations.

"Now, as I see it," the old man started, "you've been interfering with the mortal realm, is that correct Mr…?"

"Dragneel, Etherious Natsu Dragneel."

At this point Natsu was shaking despite the shade being thown in his direction, he had been alone for so long, yet here was this, not really, kind old man willing to actually speak to him. It was like a dream…if the dead could dream, that is.

"I'm Makarov Dreyar, I would say it's a pleasure but I'm not fond of lying, in fact I have half a mind to seal you away. Surely you understand that these are human lives you are messing with!" Makarov eyed him, as if trying to decide whether to blast his ass out of here or let him be. Usually Natsu would find the mere possibility of been stared down by a midget hilarious, but with the aura of power the old bastard was emitting, he thought it best to at least not be a total jerk.

To begin with, obviously.

Attempting to straighten his usual impish grin, the one which had Mavis swearing up and down that Natsu was up to no good, he looked as seriously as he could as the barely two foot man. Suffice to say, he did poorly. Sighing at Natsu's look of half-constipation and half-grimace that had somewhat crossbred with a pirate, Makarov continued with a wave of his hand.

"However, I'm prepared to overlook it this time if you're willing to do me a couple of…favours."

A raised eyebrow was all he received in response. An unimpressed eyebrow raise at that. Unperturbed, he continued, "I have studied numerous supernatural phenomenon in my years and I dare say I could make it worth your while."

"Really? And what could you possibly give me that would make me even consider helping some old saggy grandpa?"

"Freedom. I could send you to the afterlife Natsu."

"You've seen my dead ass float my way through this school for decades and now, NOW, you offer to help?!"

Makarov only chucked, amused by the ironically lively spirit. "It never seemed important before, although if you're happy like that…"

"You little elf bastard! That's blackmail", Natsu cried. There was no way in hell he'd be swindled by a grandpa. Not again!

Coughing, Makarov stroked his thinning facial hair. "It's not blackmail, just a little incentive to get these old bones moving. Nothing too difficult, mind you, just a few demons scuttling through the air ducts and such, nothing a brat like you can't handle. Although, if you're not interested-"

"Fine! But that better be all!"

"Well, that could be all but as you can see, I'm much too old to move fast but if you were to…befriend that poor, young boy, who's day you've ruined," Makarov added pointedly, "I might find it in my heart to move faster."

Weighing up the pros and cons of the situation, Natsu was left with only one option. "Fine you dirty old pervert! Don't think I don't know about your messed up magazine collection."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Off you go!" With a wave of his hand the old man dismissed Natsu, seemingly done with his presence.

Giving the old man the ghostly bird, Natsu swallowed his pride and began to concentrate, seeking out the presence of the corrupted souls. Demons, as the humans liked to call them. Stretching his out his own consciousness through the area, he locked onto the suffocating aura and entered the spirit realm.

Natsu shuddered as he began his trek through the spirit realm, he had never liked this place one bit. It was almost an exact mirror image of the 'real' world but everything was covered in this sort of…goo? It was like looking at the surface of an opal, an opal that constantly shifted and twisted. And wasn't particularly colourful, or pretty…or nice…in anyway.

So yeah, exactly like an opal.

Opal examples aside, Natsu could never figure out why so many spirits spent their time here, it was hella creepy and the constant whispers of the damned felt…off putting, even for a ghost like himself. Really, the only advantage to staying here was that he could interact with the physical world with ease. Generally speaking, a spirit in the physical plain could move objects but it was, like, 100x harder. Okay, a little exaggeration, but unless a spirit was experiencing a powerful emotion like anger, or anxiety the odds of actually successfully interacting with the world were next to none…unless you had some major tricks up your sleeve. Putting aside his notions of the spirit realm, Natsu began to spread his awareness, searching for the corrupted souls who were causing all the trouble. As the heavy feeling of dread overtook his senses and Natsu knew he was in the right place.

The 'demons' noticed his presence right away, their swirling black silhouettes turning abruptly to face him. I would have been hilarious, in a morbid sense, if there wasn't ten of them.

"HOLY SHIT!" Natsu's eyes widened at the sight before him, three he could take well enough, five was pushing it. Ten?

Doubtful.

"A few demons my ass! What the hell old man!"

I've taken quite a large break but hopefully you'll be seeing more of me and more updates in the near future. I also want to thank everyone across multiple platforms for being generally amazing with your lovely reviews, follows, favorites, bookmarks, kudos and votes! I means a lot! I'd also like to give a special thanks to @animecrazy127 on wattpad and mdelpin and Riley Hovey from .