Operation: Find out Sensei's Alice

I had only been Yukihira-sensei for a little while, and yet, somehow, the kids treated me like I had been here forever. For some reason that I can't fathom, most of the kids liked me straight away, despite all the warnings that I got from other teachers that the students usually took a long time to warm up to adults, if they ever did at all.

It must have been all the stupid mistakes I was making all the time. I didn't know my way around the school like the other teachers did. They had all been at the school from childhood, I was the only newcomer. It meant that I often made silly mistakes as I was startled by the results of one Alice or another. There was also the incident with the microphone… and the introduction to the class where I asked everyone to skip the Sensei and go right to calling me Yukky. Needless to say, the kids find me funny, Jinno finds me annoying.

One thing that annoyed a lot of people in class B, however, was my Alice. I personally found it funny that all the kids found it so important to know what my Alice was. They just wanted to satisfy their own curiosity. Because of this, I decided to turn it into a game.

"Why don't you just try to guess what my Alice is?" I suggested to the group of kids who were asking me for the fifth time that week.

They stared at me like I was nuts. "Forget it." One boy scoffed. "I'm just going to ask one of the other teachers, they'll know." The group grumbled at me, and they started to drift away.

"So you don't think that you're smart enough to figure it out?" I smirked. "Fine by me, chibis."

The kids turned back to look at me, scowls and looks of determination on their faces.

"Challenge accepted." The boy at the front said quietly.

I smiled sweetly at the group. "Good luck!"

"Hey! Hey!" One girl was suddenly dangling off my arm. "Yukky, is there a prize for the person who figures it out first?"

I cocked my head to the side, giving her a thoughtful look. "I suppose I could find some sort of prize." I hinted. "But only if you find out what my Alice is without cheating… you can't ask any of the teachers."

Hook, line and sinker. Every kid in the class was geared up, bouncing with enthusiasm at the new game that I had proposed to them.

"We promise!" They all chorused, grinning amongst themselves like mad men. I grinned back at them.

This is going to be good. I thought to myself. They'll never guess, not in a million years.

"Yuuuukky!" A couple of girls popped their heads around the door to the staffroom.

I looked up from my work; marking a couple of history tests. "What is it?" I smiled at the girls, thankful for the excuse to stop my work. I was far too lazy for my own good sometimes.

The girls skipped into the room to look up at me with doe like eyes. They pouted. "We were just thinking about how unfair it was that you didn't give us any clues as to what your Alice was." They complained. "How are we supposed to guess if we don't even know where to start?"

I grinned. "I dunno, maybe you could do process of elimination. You're allowed to guess as many times as you like."

"Yukky!"

I sighed. "Fine." I said. "But you have to tell the others about the clues that I gave you. Don't just keep the information to yourselves."

The girls exchanged slightly crestfallen looks. Ha. I thought so. They came here today looking for an edge over their opponents.

"Okay." They agreed finally.

"What kind of clue do you want?" I asked, sticking my lollipop in my mouth and leaning back in my chair.

The girls began to whisper furiously between themselves, obviously trying to decide on the best clue to ask for. I rolled my eyes, but waited patiently for them to finish. Hurrying them along would only mean that I would have to get back to the history tests that much sooner.

"Tell us what your Alice type is." One of the girls finally told me. "Do you have the Latent, Somatic or Technology type?" She wanted to know.

I sat back, looking at them. "Hmmm…" I drew the pause out, increasing the tension of the girls. They were leaning forward with anticipation, excited at the clue that I was about to offer them. I knew whatever type of Alice I told them I had, it would instantly turn into bragging rights in the class room. Everyone that shared an Alice type with me would be smug for days. That's what happened the time that I told the kids that I preferred liquorice over chocolate. The liquorice faction was intolerable for a week. The chocolate faction (ninety percent of the class) sulked.

"Well, I'm not in any of those Alice types." I said lightly. "I'm a special."

The girls looked at me in surprise.

"You're one of the leftovers sensei?" One blurted out.

I nodded. "That's me. I'm one of those strange Alice misfits who don't fit in anywhere." I knew of the special class in the academy very well. I kept meaning to go and see if the home room teacher of the special class room wanted any help, but I never seemed to get around to it. I hadn't had a chance to go and meet the kids who had the same Alice type as me yet, but I did know the couple of kids that were in the elementary school. There weren't that many of them.

The girls' eyes were sparkling. "That's so cool Sensei!" They jumped up and down. "You must have a super rare Alice, right?"

I grinned. "You could say that!"

The girls began to exchange looks as they made their way out of the staffroom. I heard snippets of their conversation:

"I knew Sensei would have an original Alice!"

"Shut up, you were saying yesterday that he had to have some sort of Somatic Alice!"

"Sensei's a special? That's so cool!"

I grinned as I went back to my marking. My students were so dang cute sometimes.

It went on for weeks. Eventually it stopped being so much of a competition between the students as to who could guess my Alice the fastest and it became a competition between the students and I. Every time I dropped a hint, no matter how small, the whole class would drop whatever they were doing and discuss it amongst themselves. Even the kids that pretended that they didn't like me started taking part. The game became the biggest in-class joke in the entire academy. I warned the other teachers not to tell anyone what my Alice was. They respected my request. They were all really impressed that I had united the class so quickly under a common goal; something that had never happened before.

Soon the fever spread to the other class of the elementary school; Class A. Most of the kids there were too little to guess properly, and there was one little man, about three years old, who asked me if I had a telepathy Alice every time that he saw me. It broke my heart to tell him no every single time.

The middle school kids and the high school kids didn't know me well enough to join in the game. The only ones that I saw were the older brothers and sisters of my elementary school kids, and they always kept their distance. The older kids had heard about the crazy new teacher in the elementary division, and I'm still not sure whether they approved of me. Older kids are a lot tougher to please than elementary school kids. You can't bribe high school kids with lollipops.

Surprisingly, the kids still hadn't gotten bored of the game even after a month. By that point, they were trying to trick the answer out of me; pulling all sorts of pranks in an effort to get me to use my Alice. To my extreme amusement, I used my Alice nearly every single time, but not one of the kids picked up on the subtle details which showed my Alice was at work. Soon we had arrived at the annual Alice Academy sports festival, and they were still playing the Alice guessing game.

The sports festival was like a flare going up, telling every elementary school child in the academy that war was declared on Yukky. I only meant to compete in a few events, but I found myself dragged to nearly everything, forced to compete in a whole bunch of races as the kids observed carefully, trying to figure out what my Alice was. They figured that I had to use it eventually in the highly competitive, and dangerous, sports festival.

At lunch time, a group of children crowded around me, all of them having their own theories as to what my Alice was. None of them were right.

After I told them so, one girl piped up. "Yukky! Are you sure you have an Alice?" she complained.

The kids muttered among themselves.

"Don't be stupid." The boy with the current top academic scores in the class said. "Do you really think that they would have let him into the Academy if he didn't have an Alice?"

All of the kids were sheepishly quiet for a moment. There was nothing like the smartest kid in class to make everyone feel stupid.

"I'm sorry Yukky." The girl mumbled, abashed. "I didn't mean it."

I grinned and leaned forward to ruffle her hair. "I know." I said brightly. "I don't mind.

The kids smiled at me, relieved, then ran off to find their lunches, hunger getting the better of their curiosity at last. I sighed and settled down to eat my own lunch.

"How long are you going to drag out this game?" Jinno asked from my right, where he had been sitting and observing the children hanging off my every word. "They're going to get fed up eventually."

I shrugged. "I figured that I'd tell them if they didn't guess right by the end of the sports festival." I said seriously. "Today is their best shot at finding out what it is, there's not much point continuing beyond today."

Jinno cocked his head at me. "What is your Alice?" He asked curiously.

I blinked at him, almost dropping my bento. "You don't know?" I asked, incredulous. "I thought…"

Jinno shook his head. "Despite what you think, the High school Principal never actually told anyone in the staff what your Alice was." He sounded a little miffed.

I laughed out loud at that. "Well, I guess you can join in the game for the rest of the day if you want!"

Jinno scowled. "Forget it." He said shortly. "Like I would participate in something as petty as a guessing game."

"Okay. That's cool." I said smoothly, turning back to my food.

There was quiet for a long while as the two of us ate.

"You're a special, right?" Jinno said suddenly.

I almost choked on my food. "Uh… yeah…"

"Hmph." He snorted, saying nothing more. I had to hold in a laugh. Of all the many skills that Jinno had mastered over the years, being subtle was not one of them. He was obviously racking his brains as hard as he could, trying desperately to figure me out. I chose not to say anything. It was more fun that way.

The afternoon flashed by, and again I was pulled along to various different races by my students. After each race they all had brand new theories to try out on me. After each race I would have to tell them that they were wrong, once again. The last race of the day finished, and they still had no clue as to what my Alice was.

"Okay…" I had a little crowd of them around me, they had all just finished quizzing me with their last theories. "It looks like I win the game!"

They all groaned and protested. "Give us a little more time!" Someone begged. "We can figure it out!"

"Are you going to tell us now?" someone else asked eagerly.

I held up a hand for their silence. "Yes, I'll tell you all now." I said. "We can't drag the game on too long, or we'll start annoying other people."

More groans and protests. I waved them down. "Okay Chibis, listen up, I'm only telling you all once… my Alice is…" The end of my sentence was cut off, rather rudely, by a huge explosion.

"What was that?" a girl asked fearfully.

"Is someone fighting?" Another boy wanted to know.

"I don't know." I bit my lip. "You guys need to get somewhere safe…"

"I'll go and see what's happening." A girl with a teleportation Alice said quickly.

"No!" I grabbed her arm, seeing that she was about to teleport. "No! It might be dangerous." I ushered the group of kids into the foyer of the nearest building; the gym. The girl whose arm I still clutched frowned at me, but I didn't let go until all of the kids were safe inside the building.

"I'm going to go and see what's going on." I said. "Stay here until I come back or another teacher tells you to move." The kids nodded, and I felt slightly reassured.

So they do respect authority when they have to… I thought as I raced away towards the source of the explosion.

Children were running in all directions, but I could see that a lot of the teachers and a few of the senior high school kids were gathered in the stadium in a loose circle around a blackened crater. I ran down to where Jinno was standing.

"What's going on?" I demanded of him.

Jinno blinked at me. "One of the Class A kids lost control." He said shortly. "His Alice has gone wild, and no one can get close enough to stop him. Someone has just sent for the Elementary School Principals enforcers."

I shuddered. I knew of the Elemetary school principal's private police force that was in charge of keeping order in the Academy. If a kid rebelled too much against the system, or they were deemed uncontrollable by the teachers, the Enforcers would come to put the kid back in line, often by force. No kid had actually been killed by them before, but, more often than not, they were in the hospital for quite a while.

"He's only Class A!" I protested. "He doesn't know what he's doing!"

Jinno turned around to fix me with a dark, bitter look. "We know." He said harshly. "But there's nothing we can do. We can't fight against his Alice when it's like this without causing even more pain for him."

My mind was racing. "What is his Alice?" I couldn't see the kid through the dust that the explosion had kicked up, but there were some hints of blurriness in the air: the kind you see during a mirage.

Jinno looked at me scornfully. "Energy Manipulation." He said shortly. "He can release short bursts of energy with explosive force. Even a barrier from a barrier Alice would be ripped to shreds. The kid is dangerous, too much for one person. Don't do anything as stupid as you normally do."

Energy Manipulation. I hadn't gone up against something like that before; but it shouldn't be too different from facing an explosion Alice or a fire Alice. Energy is a funny thing; I knew the theory behind the barriers that the Barrier Alices could make. The barriers are basically solid energy, projected outwards by the Alice to protect themselves. With a little effort, I could walk through barriers like they weren't even there. This kid's energy waves should be the same, in theory.

I gulped. Theory is a lot different to practice.

Jinno grabbed me by the shoulder. "The enforcers should be here in a few minutes." He said. "Go and help the other children back to the Elementary school section. There's nothing that you can do here. We're only here to stop the other kids from coming too close."

I looked around and saw that a lot of the other teachers had taken their leave, gone to deal with their respective students. I toyed with the idea of going back to the group of frightened kids that I had left behind a few minutes prior.

I shook my head. "I have to try. No kid deserves to be handed over to the Enforcers." I clapped Jinno on the shoulder, and before he could stop me, I plunged into the dust bowl. Coughing as I jogged forward through the grit.

When I got closer to the child, I could see less dust and more blurry mirage patches. I realised that these patches had to be the kid's energy, blasting off in different directions.

"Hey, kid!" I called. "Where are you?" I couldn't see him for all the dust and energy floating around.

"Stay 'way from me!" a trembling voice came from my right side. I turned around, making my way towards the voice.

"It's okay!" I called back, trying out my soothing voice. "I'm not going to hurt you. It's Yukky! Do you remember me?" Most kids in the elementary school knew my name, I just hoped that he wasn't too little or too new to the Academy to remember who I was.

"Don't want Yukky! I want Mommy!" Something shuddered around me, and I winced as a wave of energy blasted towards me. This wasn't the fragmented stuff that I had been hopping around so far, this was a solid wall of crackling who-knows-what. I flinched as it bore down on me, but it scattered from view as it entered my five meter radius of nullification that I was projecting around my body. The remaining wisps of energy passed through me, ticking slightly.

I took a step forward. "It's okay… It's okay…" I didn't know what else to say to the child. I took another step forward as another wave of energy rolled towards me.

The boy was crying noisily now. "Mommy gave Hiro that bear! She said bear would keep Hiro safe when Mommy couldn't!"

I winced as the boy's crying brought forward an onslaught of even more energy walls. I negated all of them with ease, but they were still rather intimidating, bearing down on me over and over again.

"Hiro want Mommy! Hiro want bear!"

"If you calm down, Yukky can help you find your bear… how about that Hiro?"

Hiro sniffed. "Mean big kid broke bear." He told me, in a heartbroken voice. "Now no one can protect Hiro."

"That's not true!" I said, pushing my way forward, meeting more and more intense energy attacks as I got closer. "I'll protect Hiro, just like bear!"

Finally I had pushed my way through the dust enough. Sitting on the ground in the eye of this storm was a small boy, his arms wrapped tightly around his knees. He looked up at me.

"Yukky… will protect Hiro?" He sniffed. "Really?" Tear tracks were clearly visible down his grubby cheeks. His P.E uniform was torn and dirty beyond the help of the Academy washers.

I smiled down at the upset four year old. "I'll always be around." I told him gently, crouching down in front of him to pat him on the head softly. "Your Mommy, or bear, might not be here anymore, but I'm going to protect you too. I'll make sure that no one hurts you." I smiled. "Okay?"

Hiro started to cry harder as he launched himself into my arms, sobbing. "Yukky! I'm sorry!"

I rubbed his back slowly. "It's okay. Everyone feels sad now and then."

Hiro looked up at me with big brown eyes. "I didn't mean to make it go Boom!" He said sheepishly. "I was sad." His lip wobbled. "Am I in trouble?"

"Nope!" I said. "Like I said, I'll protect you. You'll only be in trouble when you do something bad on purpose." As I was saying the words, I was letting my Nullification bleed into the boy slowly, gradually bringing his Alice under control. Every moment that passed, the dust was settling a little bit more, and the patches of hazy energy were dissipating, disappearing into thin air.

Hiro clung to me, sobs growing quieter and quieter as his Alice became stable. Finally he had stopped crying, and his Alice was gone, back under the control of the child once again.

Hiro was still clinging to me, so I had no choice but to pick him up and carry him on my hip back to where I knew the other teachers were waiting. The dust still obstructed our view, but I could see their silhouettes.

"Hey, Hiro?"

"Yukky-Sensei?" He sounded sleepy. Not surprising; he had used up a great deal of energy in his little temper tantrum.

"Next time you feel like you're so sad or angry that your Alice might get out of control, come and see me. We'll sort out the problem together… promise me?"

Hiro nodded into my shirt. "I promise…" He mumbled. "When I feel sad, I go see Yukky…"

"Good Boy." I said softly.

We emerged out of the dust to see a stunned crowd of teachers staring at us. I nodded towards Misa-sensei, the kind young teacher who was in charge of class A. She stumbled towards me, tears at the corners of her eyes.

"Thank-you." She murmured to me as she gently took the sleeping boy from my arms.

Misa cared for those little kids like they were her own babies. She was like the mothers that they had all left behind. I knew that Hiro was in good hands, and I also knew that Misa would have been devastated had Hiro been taken care of by the enforcers. Misa was a gentle soul; she didn't need to see the pain of a little one in the hospital.

"He's upset because one of the big kids broke his bear." I whispered to Misa. "Do you know anything?"

She shook her head. "It must have happened when I was dealing with a fight between a couple of the six year olds." She replied. "I can't keep an eye on all of them at once. I know the bear that you're talking about though, he hasn't let go of it since he arrived, not even in the bath." She shook her head. "If I find the person that did this, I'll…"

I waved a hand at her. "I'll try and see what happened to the bear. Don't worry. Just look after Hiro."

Misa clutched the boy tighter and bobbed her head at me. With a shifty look at the other teachers, like she was afraid that they were going to stop her, she pushed her way out of the crowd quickly and started heading for the elementary school dormitory.

"That kid was blasting energy everywhere." I whirled around to see Jinno standing at my elbow, eyes narrowed accusingly. "How are you not dead?"

I blinked at him. "How do you think?" I retorted. "I used my Alice."

Jinno gave me a scathing look. "You are such a pain." He said bluntly.

I grinned back at him. "What would you do without me though?" I wanted to know.

The other teachers exchanged looks, some of them puzzled, but most of them relieved. The crowd began to disperse. A second runner was dispatched in order to tell the enforcers that their services were no longer required. I could see that plenty of people wanted to question me, but, as teachers, they had more pressing duties to take care of. Soon we were all busy with the task of getting our respective schools' students back to the dorms. The incident was forgotten using the distraction of work.

"Sensei."

I turned around in my seat, wondering who had managed to sneak up on me so well. She stared me down with her solemn brown eyes.

"Yuka." I grinned. "What do I owe the pleasure?" No wonder she had managed to sneak up on me. The little whatsit had probably teleported right next to my desk. That was just rude.

She smiled slowly. "Prize." She said wickedly. "Is it true that you have a prize for the person who guesses your Alice first?"

"The game ended yesterday." I said apologetically. "Sorry, no prizes. I won."

She frowned at me. "I thought the game was over when either someone guessed correctly or you told us yourself what your Alice is."

"I did." I said quickly. "I told you what it was yesterday…"

Yuka raised her eyebrows at me.

"… No, I didn't…" I amended my statement quietly, remembering how the explosion had interrupted.

"So, technically, the game is still going on, and I still have time to guess." Yuka reasoned. I looked over her shoulder to see that most of Class B was standing around the door to the staffroom, listening in on our conversation eagerly.

I deflated. "Yes. You can guess if you want to." Beaten by a little girl… if my old gang could see me now…

Yuka's eyes twinkled. "Your Alice, it's special, right?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, for the hundredth time, it's special type."

Yuka couldn't stop a huge grin spreading from ear to ear as she opened her mouth. "Other Alices don't work on you, do they?" She said quickly. "You can negate Alices."

For once I was left speechless, my mouth hanging open in shock.

But Yuka wasn't done yet. "I bet that if you really tried, things like mind reading wouldn't work on you. Maybe pheromones don't either…" She was off in her own little world, speculating on all the things she thought my Alice could do.

I had to concede defeat. "How did you figure it out?" I asked curiously.

Her eyes twinkled. "Remember yesterday?" She asked.

I frowned. "What about it?" She wasn't there at the scene with Hiro. She couldn't have possibly figured it out from that.

"You grabbed me just as I was about to teleport." She prompted me. "Normally, when a person does that, they get taken along for the ride too. It's really annoying." She gave me a smug look. "But the moment that you grabbed me, I suddenly couldn't go anywhere. It was like trying to jump off a cliff, but every time that I jumped over, I found myself still standing on solid ground. Your Alice must have stopped me from teleporting." She was breathless with excitement. "I'm right, right? About your Alice?"

I shook my head at her, but I couldn't help grinning. "You're spot on." I said in wonder. "It's called the Nullification Alice, in case you were wondering."

Yuka grinned, perhaps for the first time since we'd met, at me. "Cool." She said.

The other kids had heard from the doorway, and they were all chattering excitedly amongst themselves. The kids had won. I had lost. Devious little chibis they were.

Yuka turned back to me, an expectant look upon her face.

"What?" I asked her.

Yuka stuck her hand out. "You promised." She said cheekily. "Hand over my prize now, creepy teacher."

I only stuck my tongue out at her in reply, then turned to my desk, wondering what I had done with my stash of lollipops.

This one shot came about while I was writing my other Gakuen Alice Fanfiction. I just started thinking about how Izumi Yukihira's Alice was dealt with when he arrived at the school. Did everyone know about it when he arrived? I thought it would be cool to see how his students discovered his strange Alice, and I came up with all sort of funny scenarios. This was the best one that I thought up. I think it would be just like Yukky-sensei to make it into a game; the big kid that he was.

I hope you guys liked reading it as much as I liked writing it!