Possession - a Gakuen Alice Fanfic for Natsume x Mikan. Written by Crystallised.
Hey, everyone! I'm called Dee (if you haven't read my profile) and this is my first fanfic. Enjoy!
Chapter One - Influence, Power and Wealth
"Mikan, go to your room, NOW."
The sound of her father's booming voice made her cringe. She ran to her room, almost slipping in the process, tears welling up in her eyes, straight into the arms of her best friend; Hotaru Imai. Hotaru stayed calm and stroked Mikan on her back whilst she cried into her friend's arms.
She felt so... Insecure. She couldn't do anything right. Hotaru sighed and let go of Mikan once she had calmed down. "So, what happened this time?" Hotaru would have asked flatly, but a hint of concern in her voice betrayed her. Mikan trembled violently, but took a deep breath as she explained the previous argument she'd had with her father.
"Miss, your father is calling. He'd like you to meet him in the study down as soon as possible, once you're done changing out of..." The maid eyed Mikan with distaste. She was wearing normal, casual clothes - something that was basically taboo within the rich Sakura family - a loose, flowing yellow camisole with a pair of denim shorts. "That." Mikan sighed knowingly and nodded to her maid, signalling for the maid to rummage through her closet filled with frilly and suffocatingly-tight-and-long dresses. The maid smiled triumphantly and pulled out a bright pink, AMAZINGLY frilly dress that reached down, past the floor. This time, it was Mikan's turn to eye the dress with distaste.
There were DIAMONDS strewn into it, for God's sakes! What in the world did her father take her for?! Was she not allowed to have any freedom? Mikan sent out a low growl, catching the maid's attention, but quickly recomposed herself and stepped into the dress. One suffocating hour later, Mikan was fit into the layers and layers of the complicated gown. The maid excused herself after twisting Mikan's hair into an elegant curl instead of her usual happy-go-lucky twintails and Mikan could finally breathe again. That maid was really invading her personal space, which Mikan really did NOT like.
"Miss, your father is waiting!" The maid called, her voice muffled from the door. Mikan bit her lip before slapping herself gently on the cheeks, faking a smile. She didn't like it, not one single bit. Unwillingly, she elegantly stepped out of her room and carefully walked downstairs; straight into her frowning father. He growled in annoyance, causing Mikan to shiver.
'Not this again...' She thought, looking away from her father's icy stare. She shuddered and trembled violently before glancing up. Her father looked furious. Mikan, being the simpleton she was, had absolutely no idea what this was about... Until her father said one line.
"I heard from the servants that you went outside to frolic with the commoners, again."
Mikan immediately cringed. So THAT was it. The fact that she went outside, without her father's permission, AGAIN, to have fun with people her own age (not including Hotaru), AGAIN. Wasn't she permitted to have freedom?!
'...No.' Mikan thought bitterly, her face twisting into a sour expression that really wasn't "Mikan-like". Her father scowled at her expression before he started leering at Mikan. His lips upturned into a smirk as he said, "Since you keep on escaping the guards... I'm going to offer- no, on second thought, you don't have a choice- you a very interesting proposition that just came to my mind."
Mikan stared at her father, partially in shock, uneasiness and curiosity. 'I'll get out of it so easily, like all the other times.'
That was what she had thought... But boy, she was absolutely wrong. "You're going to go down to the slave market." Mikan's father announced. Mikan's jaw opened. That was the one place that she NEVER wanted to go to ever again; not after the time she passed by there ten years ago, when she was still six years old. There were hundreds and hundreds of people, if not thousands, being sold and treated like objects. Mikan hated that; but right now, she felt just as caged and trapped as they did. Hopeless. Useless. Under the control of their "owners".
"No... I don't want to go there again." Mikan whispered to herself feebly. She knew it was pointless to try to convince her father otherwise, but, OF COURSE, being the naïve girl she was, she had to try.
"No, dad! I don't want to-" she began, but not before he cut her off almost immediately with a loud, commanding voice. "You WILL go, whether you like it or not!" He shouted, towering over Mikan. She shrank back and tears welled up in her eyes; she hated getting yelled at. She tried to convince herself otherwise... This was much better than her mother's death. Thinking like that only proved to make things worse as a single, stray tear streamed down her pale cheeks. Her father glared at her. If looks could kill, she'd certainly be burned to ashes right now, but Mikan couldn't help but bite her lip in frustration. She didn't want to go to the slave market, not where all those innocent people got abused...
But then a thought lit up her mind. The corner of her lips was tugged upwards as she smiled, shocking her father. He was curious as to what came across her, but furious all the same. He refused to let her "frolic with the COMMONERS", so he had thought the slave market was the best choice - he knew very well how much going to that place disgusted and intimidated his own daughter. But this? Smiling at the thought of going to a slave market? Maybe his plan wasn't as successful as he had thought it once would be.
Mikan's father looked at her, completely enraged by her change of moods. Obviously, he had wanted her to scream and cry in frustration. Mikan knew very well how much of a sadistic figure her father was, being the most influential and wealthy person in the whole of Japan... Maybe even third best in the world. Who knew? It could be true; after all, money and business was the only thing that her father understood. He was even worse than her best friend, whom loved money enough to marry it (if such marriages were permitted in life), for God's sakes! Anyone that could beat Hotaru with her love for money was either really ADMIRABLE or really disgustingly obsessed. Mikan knew it was the latter.
"Wipe that smirk off your face, young lady. I expect you to find a fitting slave that can fit all your needs and even BLOCK off all those idiotic commoners." Her father commanded. This was the last straw for Mikan. He was insulting her friends!
"Dad, you don't even know them! How could you just judge them like that?! When mum was here, you NEVER said anything like that!" Mikan shouted. This was apparently the wrong thing to do; after all, reminding her own father of his own DECEASED wife, the most important person in his life was the worst mistake she could've possibly made out of the thousands of other words that she could've carefully chosen.
Mikan, having her thinking clouded by indignance, didn't notice her father's abrupt change of mood from furiously enraged into DOWNRIGHT disgusted, shocked and filled with hatred and ire. Mikan quickly saw her father's expression and mentally took a note to never say anything about her mother in his presence ever again; after all, it did upset herself too.
That was the final straw for him as he burned holes in her by glaring at her. Mikan didn't have to be a genius to put two and two together - this conversation was long done.
"Mikan, go to your room, NOW." Her father boomed, prompting Mikan to shrink back in fear, tears welling in her eyes, darting away from her father quickly to get away from the man that she was forced to call "father". How could this have happened? Her father, when he was still with her mother, was such a loving and caring man; but once her mother passed away, Mikan's whole life was turned upside-down. She was absolutely drowned in fear of the man. Was this really the same father that she had?
"So... That's what happened." Mikan finished, trembling. Her tears were now dried as her best friend sighed, knowing that Mikan would've done something stupid to upset her own father. "You're an idiot." Hotaru replied bluntly. Mikan pouted, "That's the only thing you have to say after I tell you the whole big argument I had with my father?!"
...To which Hotaru answered with a simple nod. Mikan sighed. Her best friend was so hard to crack; but even so, they were as close as best friends could possibly be. They had been together ever since their childhood. Nothing could ever tear them apart - and nothing will ever tear them apart. The two were inseparable since they first met. Mikan smiled fondly as she remembered their first meeting made by their mothers, prompting Hotaru to glare at her.
"What are you smiling about, you idiot?" Hotaru asked bluntly, though it was more of a statement than a question. Mikan just laughed it off, making Hotaru raise an eyebrow.
"You know, we should make a bet on what you were thinking of during your argument with your father. You know, that part where you said you started smiling about the thought of going to the slave market? I bet you 10,000 yen that I can guess accurately what you were thinking at the time." Hotaru smiled, a dangerous glint in her eyes. Mikan's eyes, on the contrary, widened. Not because of the cost - no, 10,000 yen was nothing to them, and they knew it - but because she knew that Hotaru would win.
"No way, you've known me for like, eleven years!" Mikan cried. Hotaru couldn't help herself but smirk lightly.
"And I presume that you realised some certain things during those eleven years, Miss Sakura?" Mikan rolled her eyes and laughed at Hotaru's antics.
"Yeah, I realised that you were some freakily smart, technology-loving, super-wealthy, definitely-not-normal girl!" Mikan shot back; this time, it was Hotaru's turn to roll her eyes.
"Please. You call me 'super-wealthy' when you're the princess of this whole place, possibly the whole of Japan." Hotaru said, making Mikan cease her laughing slightly, turning to her with a raised eyebrow.
"Your family is basically on the same level as ours, since our fathers are like, best friends. I mean, without your family, my father's company would collapse, and the same vice-versa! Anyway, I'm still pretty interested in knowing what you'd predict, even though you'll probably get it absolutely 100% scarily accurate, like the perfectionist you are." Mikan squealed, bouncing up and down happily. She definitely wasn't your average, elegant princess. She knew very well how to enjoy herself underneath the suffocating, "you-must-be-extremely-elegant-and-well-mannered" circumstances that she was in.
Hotaru smirked; she saw this coming; and so, she began her deduction.
"I'm guessing that when you were oh-so-stupidly moping over having to go to the slave market-" Hotaru said, unfazed by Mikan's indignant denials, "-once again for the second time in your life; I remember the first time you went there, you were acting like such a chicken, scared out of your mind; when you realised that, 'Oh, if I get a slave, maybe I can save one of them out of their abusive lives!' Or something like that, being the super naïve person you are - always so bubbly and freakishly optimistic." Hotaru finished. Mikan paused, muttering something under her breath that suspiciously sounded like, "I knew she'd get it completely accurate, that freaky lady. And the has the nerve to call ME freaky! She's the alien compared to me!"
Hotaru smirked, knowing her deduction was right on bullseye. Mikan, instead of moping and sighing in frustration, hugged her best friend, ignoring her threats. She smiled and praised her instead, even though she knew Hotaru would never fall for sweet talking. Hotaru had about enough of her best friend's closeness and was about to push her away when Mikan shot upright, letting go of her with a horror-stricken expression plastered onto her face.
"Oh my God, I have to go to the slave market now!" She cried, and with that, she bolted out of the door (not before almost slipping in her gown) and out of the house, making Hotaru sigh both out of frustration and fondness. Mikan hadn't changed at all, since the day that they met eleven years ago.
With a deep breath, Mikan composed herself. Of course, she was excited to free someone from their misery - wait, that didn't sound right, it made her sound like a killer - but she was nervous all the same. This slave market, the place she was about to walk into, was the same one she saw years ago. 'The one that frightened you out of your mind,' Mikan reminded herself bitterly. This kind of thinking wasn't like her at all, but she couldn't help it - who wouldn't be scared after seeing innocent people, some even around her age, being whipped and lashed at?
With a deep breath, Mikan hesitantly took a tentative, small step through the broad, ebony gates.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. -Crystallised/Dee
