Obviously something doesn’t add up here. I’m going to spare you the long paragraphs because the possibilities are endless and the wise choice would be to simply wait instead of going crazy thinking up theories. I will say though that it must go beyond simply “missing Gray/did not travel with Gray” or “missing Fairy Tail”. Juvia had an entire year to get herself back together, and we don’t even know if she and Gray WERE together for part of the year either. I do think Gray has something to do with it, naturally, but we’ve already gone through a “rejection” which did not do anything. Therefore, something very serious must have happened for Juvia’s character to regress so much, if this is the real deal and not some sort of fake out.
I find it important that Gray’s whereabouts were stated as unknown in this chapter. Natsu and co. seem to be headed towards the Rainfall village, so once they collect Juvia, this is how they will get a lead on GRAY. It’s also interesting that Mashima dedicated the entire last page to Juvia, really emphasizing her state.
The fact that we saw Juvia already (before Gray, before Erza, before everyone else besides Lucy/Natsu/Wendy) means she will most definitely play a key and very important role in the remaining story, especially in regards to Gray.
This is just Mashima dragging Gruvia out again, the typical routine of “close to canon - wait, too close. Gotta knock it back a bit!”. I say bring on the angst! Lots of Juvia panel time incoming! We have a long way to go before Fairy Tail is recollected. ;)