Hi! This is illutia mist! And of course, with a new end-of-year project!

This project has been bugging me for a while now, and I didn't even expect I would execute it so soon. It was on a sudden whim, and that's why I was in hurry to post the first chapter to get the published date right on Natsume's birthday (And I think it missed? It's stamped 27 November in my account though).

Okay, so, this story is a continuation of "Secret". It sets one year after "Secret". You can refer to "Secret" for the setting of this story; the time, the situation, and what was actually going on. Yeah, yeah, even though I stated in the "Secret" before that the one-shot was a standalone story, it isn't now. Lol.

And, last but not least, the responses to reviews and emails will be super slow due to the packed schedule, but I will answer all of them, even the ones from months ago. Alice and Trace of a Black Cat will be updated as soon as I have the next chapters ready. I apologize for my frequent absence.

I hope you'll enjoy this story, from the beginning to the end. Thank you for staying with me and supporting me all this time. Now, please enjoy the full first chapter. Thanks in advance for reading!

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice and its characters.

-o-O-o-

Winter Dreams

Chapter 1: His Precious

-o-

Lately, he had been having the same dream.

He was standing in the middle of a clearing, green grass tickling his feet and shades of blue and white painting the sky above him. There was no other presence in the place, only a passing breeze which was whispering faintly in his ears now and then. The ambiance was so peaceful and calming, so perfect that he was almost convinced he was in heaven—or perhaps this was really the heaven he always imagined all this time.

In his dream, he didn't move for a few moments. All he did was just stare at the horizon and gaze at the sky, before his attention finally ended on his naked feet. Then he stayed like that for a while, until another pair of feet stepped into his vision.

When he looked up, he saw an older woman smiling at him. The very familiar red eyes shone with affection as she placed her palm on his right cheek. She said nothing, only continuing to smile. He didn't dare to break the silence either, for he was completely content with the simple gesture.

But it only lasted that long.

Just when he was about to reach out to her, a fire appeared out of nowhere and engulfed her whole being, catching him by surprise. However, despite the fire that was eating away her body, her visage didn't change, her smile never wavering until she was completely burned away and gone from his sight.

He hadn't gotten over his shock when a young girl emerged in the place where the woman was standing a few seconds ago; a smaller version of the woman, only with a brighter and childish aura surrounding her. "Brother!" she greeted, a wide smile on her face. With arms wide open, she lurched toward him for a hug.

He had readied himself for the upcoming impact, a smile threatening to break across his face. Yet, she never reached him, for another fire blazed once again and burned her into ashes, which then got blown away by the wind.

And just like that, she was gone. Her name died on the tip of his tongue.

Before he could even catch up with what was happening, darkness emerged from under his feet and quickly swept away the view of the beautiful clearing and magnificent sky. A familiar brunette appeared out of nowhere in front of him, one of her hands stretched toward him and her countenance filled with fear. She was falling, as if something pulled her into the darkness below her.

"Mikan!" was the first name that he finally spelled after being mute from the beginning of the whole event. He quickly extended his hand as far as he could, trying to reach out to her. It didn't matter if he would fall along with her, as long as he could get a hold of her—as long as he could save her.

But, as if the fate refused to grant his wish, his hand missed hers a bit and she quickly fell down beyond his reach. Then the darkness swallowed her, leaving nothing but her expression of dread imprinted in his mind.

And he screamed.

-o-O-o-

The first thing he was aware of was the pain in his forehead.

"Ouch! That hurts, you stupid cat!"

And a string of curses from the female crouching before him, which only worsened his mood after he woke up from his afternoon nap.

"I'm pretty sure your head is made of rock," Natsume Hyuga mumbled, his fingers rubbing his forehead to soothe the pain. He cast an irritated glare at the girl; the very same brunette that was supposed to be falling in his dream a while ago.

Mikan Sakura returned his glare, her hazel eyes glazing with unshed tears from the same pain inflicted on her forehead. "What did you say?! Yours isn't less sturdy!" she argued. "I was just about to wake you up from your nap since you seemed to be in pain. And look at what you've done! You headbutted me all of a sudden!"

Natsume snorted. "I bet you snuck and intended to scream in my ear. Tough luck."

"Hey! I didn't have any ill intention, you jerk!"

"I'm not so sure."

"Why you!" Mikan gritted her teeth and stood up, still rubbing her forehead. "Anyway! I just want to remind you to come to Luca's room in thirty minutes. We have a meeting, remember?"

"Ah, that." He raised an eyebrow. "Luca did tell me yesterday. What is this meeting about anyway?"

She blinked, and then her lips broke into a fishy smile. "Why don't you just come? You'll find out soon."

The moment he saw her expression, he knew something just wasn't right. There was barely anything good happening every time she showed him that smile; the kind of smile that seemed to be hiding something mischievous. Usually, it was a stupid activity revolving around butting into someone else's business and helping those in trouble, or a discussion for some rather meaningless parties to cheer up someone, or she simply wanted to pay him back for all the teasing he gave her all this time.

The last notion seemed to be the most possible, if only the meeting was held in her room. But since it was held in Luca's room, he scratched the thought away and settled on the first two options. There was no way the brunette would prepare anything strange in his best friend's room, unless she forced Luca into it.

Nope. He doubted she would do that.

After four years of growing up together, he did notice that Mikan Sakura had changed from the image of a stupidly innocent little girl. She started to be able to retaliate his teasing, though only at occasions. She was also better at keeping a few secrets to herself. Nevertheless, she was still as kindhearted as she used to be, which was why he doubted she would get his best friend involved in any mischievous plan of hers, if there was any. It was another story if Imai was involved though.

Now, as for the remaining options…

From his experience—since he often got caught and dragged by the brunette into the not-so-productive gathering, the most prominent activity was to gather and deplete whatever food served in the meeting. Not that he would mind the stupid meeting, as long as he got to be by her side. He could just walk away after he had heard what it was all about and decided it wasn't worth it. That was what he had done in the previous meetings.

He didn't even understand since when it became such a routine to hold a meeting once in a while. He didn't comprehend the objective. He knew the brunette was desperate enough to gather everybody and spend time together though, and he assumed it was the reason for the mean time.

"Is it another surprise party for someone else's or what?" Natsume asked, not interested after deducing his theory.

The suspicious smile was still on her face, annoying him more and more. "Ah, ah, you've got to find it out by yourself," Mikan said as she turned to her back. "And don't sleep out here! It's already the end of November! You'll catch a cold!" she added and started to skip away.

Natsume leaned his back to the tree he was sleeping under a few minutes ago and sighed, his eyes watching the brunette walk to the direction of the high school dormitory for a little longer. After her figure was gone from his sight, he shifted his attention to the blue sky, feeling tired all of a sudden.

His dream flashed before him when he closed his eyes. The familiar fear enveloped him. And when he placed his palm above his chest, he could feel how fast his heart was beating.

Natsume was appalled by how he was affected by a mere dream. He had never felt this afraid when he was cornered and ready to sacrifice himself, not even when he was sentenced to death due to his alice consuming his life span.

Yet, more than all that, he was afraid of losing.

He had lost his mother when he was small. He almost lost his sister in the fire which devoured the village where he and Luca lived a few years ago. He lost Mikan when the girl let herself become a guarantee to keep him and her friends safe from Kuonji's clutch four years ago. They did manage to save her even though Kuonji fled away, but Natsume couldn't bear having to let go of the brunette anymore—not now, not in the future.

He would do anything in his power to protect her. At all cost.

Something in his shirt pocket vibrated, snapping Natsume out of his thoughts. Indolently, the raven haired teen reached into his pocket and took out the source of the vibration. He then stared at the black pen held between his thumb and forefinger; the communication device the younger Imai had created especially for the secret force formed by the academy.

When it was first introduced in the very first meeting of the secret force, people had been staring at the device strangely, since most of Imai's creations they had seen all this time always came in unique and unusual shapes. The raven haired girl didn't need Koko's ability to know what the people in the meeting were thinking at that time. The prolonged silence and stares upon seeing the device voiced their thoughts clearly. And with her usual poker-faced, Imai said that her usual creations would attract too much attention and get found out easily; hence the ordinary shape of a pen.

Then again, it was Imai's product. There was no way it would function as a mere communication and tracking device. The thing had proved exactly that to him many times since he first received it four years ago. As much as he hated to say it, he admitted it had helped him in a few occasions.

Pressing the button at the rear of the pen, Natsume brought the device near his lips and mumbled, "Black Cat here."

There was sound of pants from the other end of the line before the caller responded, "This is Shadow Master."

Hearing the code name turned him off almost immediately. "What?"

"Not 'what?', Black Cat. This is emergency."

The tension in his senior's tone told Natsume that something was going on. Usually, it would mean another patrol outside of the academy to search for any information regarding Kuonji. However, compared to the first three years, Natsume did notice that the number of groups and frequency of the patrol had been increased in the past year.

He knew why, more or less.

For some reason, it was getting harder and harder to track down Kuonji and figured out his movement. Because of this, the academy formed another five small groups in the secret force. Same as the previous squad, each team consisted of five people; some of them were chosen, while the rest was volunteers. And, instead of sending all the ten teams out, the academy decided to have eight teams on patrol while the remaining two teams stayed back to protect the academy. The eight teams were merged into four groups; each group would have two teams. The first group departed first, and after one or two days, the second group set off. The same thing applied to the rest two groups. When the first group returned, the backup teams in the academy would go, leaving the first group to protect the academy in their place. And when the second group returned, the first group would set off again, and so forth. It was an endless circle.

"Is it another patrol?" Natsume asked as he stood up and dusted his pants. "I was informed that I got two weeks off."

"No. Not that." There was a pause before the caller inhaled loudly and continued, "Mr. Masachika informed me that the barrier on the east side has been penetrated just now."

Natsume froze at the news. "Eastern woods?"

"Around there." The caller's voice lowered all of a sudden. "I've informed the others about this, and now I'm heading to the Eastern Woods. What's your current position?"

Natsume swallowed, his red eyes glancing at the direction of a certain building not too far from him. "I'm near the high school dormitory."

"Head there and help Hayate and the dormitory staffs secure the students. We'll have the rest of the dorms and schools secured soon."

He didn't need to be told twice.

As soon as the sentence was out, Natsume ended the call and immediately dashed to the high school dormitory. An uncomfortable feeling crept in his heart, eating away his calm composure. Mikan's annoyed expression from a while ago and Luca's smiling face filled his head, and the news Ando delivered to him just now only made him feel worse.

He felt like he was about to lose something.

A loud sound of explosion infiltrated his ears, immediately dragging his attention to the source of the noise which was on the last floor of the building he was heading to. Thick smoke came from a certain balcony, slowly painting the sky above the edifice with its dark color.

A smoke. From the balcony on the second floor. The third room from the right.

Luca's room.

'I just want to remind you to come to Luca's room in thirty minutes. We have a meeting, remember?'

Natsume's blood ran cold.

"Damn!"

Gritting his teeth, he hastily ran to the entrance. He faintly recalled hearing the loud bang from the front door being shoved open roughly that it almost got dislodged from the hinges. He seethed with clear annoyance as he swam through the sea of students running in the opposite direction before he finally reached the stairs. Even at the stairs, he had a hard time going against the panicked students rushing down like waterfall. And when he finally reached the second floor, he felt extremely frustrated seeing another long corridor and broke into a run to reach his best friend's room as soon as possible.

Mikan. Luca. Mikan. Luca. Mikan. Luca.

Those two names swirled inside his head like a mantra, pushing him to keep going.

And so he ran, until the sight of one of his teammate kneeling before his friend's doorless room came into his view; the tattered and dirty clothes clung to his teammate's body was enough to warn Natsume on how rough the battlefield was. Behind his teammate, near the corridor wall, Luca was laying unconscious on the floor with Anna, Nonoko, and Yuu. However, compared to his teammate's battered form, it looked like that they didn't suffer any serious injuries.

"Matsudaira!"

When the mentioned lad looked up, Natsume noticed there was a bruise marring his left cheek. "You're late, Black Cat."

"What the hell happened?" Natsume asked as he walked approaching Luca's unconscious form.

"A sudden infiltration," his teammate mumbled, wiping the small amount of blood oozing out from the corner of the mouth. "This is bad news, Hyuga."

"What is?" Natsume checked on Luca's condition. A sigh escaped his lips when he saw the blonde haired boy only got a little scratch on his cheek and nothing more. It seemed that the previous explosion didn't inflict any more wounds on them but light scratches. Perhaps it was also thanks to whatever Matsudaira did, since he was the only one who was in the worst state among them.

After making sure that Luca was fine, Natsume turned his attention back to his teammate. "What is bad news, Hayate?" he repeated when he didn't get any response after a while. "And did you see Sakura?" he added, his gaze wandering to his best friend's room.

The dreadful sight rendered him speechless for a moment.

A huge hole had made its claim on the place which used to be the balcony, and the room itself was a picture of disaster. Black patches of smokes dirtied the once clean walls. The furniture was thrown over and broken, including the bed which lay vertically against the wall and the cabinet which had lost one of his doors. There was also a banner which hung near the wall on the right side—his front name was printed on the undamaged part. Under the banner, various confectionaries, pastries, and drinks spilled over the floor, mingling with small debris of woods and bricks and also dust. Sprawling in the middle of the mess of food was a half damaged cake, the strawberries which decorating the cake no longer in their previous arrangement.

Then it struck him.

A banner with his name on it. The food and beverage. A large cake with strawberries.

It didn't take Natsume long to piece them all together and figure out what the meeting Mikan Sakura was talking about earlier. Of course, it was his birthday. He tended to forget it every year due to the patrol and vigilance toward the possibility of sudden encounter with the enemy outside the academy, and it was the brunette who kept reminding him of the particular day and made a fuss over it.

Natsume let out a silent curse upon the dawning realization. The worst possibility entered his mind all of a sudden, devouring the last piece of calmness he currently possessed. His quiet teammate also didn't help lessen his anxiety—not when his latest question was left unanswered, whether it was on purpose or not.

"Matsudaira," he called again, voice shaking a bit and hand forming a fist. "Did you see Sakura?"

His teammate didn't answer the raven haired lad's question and chose to lower his head instead.

Natsume clenched his fist tightly. "Matsudaira!" he pressed, no longer being able to stay level-headed when the uncomfortable feeling kept nudging him from inside. He swore he would hit his teammate if he couldn't get his answer in five seconds.

And yet, when the answer was finally out, Natsume never expected he was actually unprepared for it.

"She was taken."

His breath hitched.

"That's the bad news."

-o- To be continued -o-