Suspicion & Concern

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice. If I did, I would have added more chapters.

Natume P.O.V.

The cleaning robot had come in during the day. Polka's window curtains were moved and I could see her room completely. I sat at the edge of my window sill, staring out at the edge of my window where the curtain couldn't completely cover.

Where was she?

It was 2 a.m. in the morning and she wasn't in her room. The lights in her room was off, but with my eyes, I could see clearly even in the dark. Also, she would have closed her curtain if she came in, but they were still wide open,

So where was she?

I was getting restless. This unexplainable worry and panic was slowly taking over me.

I got up, finally unable to take it, thinking I should take a walk outside. I turned my back on the window. Then suddenly, light burst from her room and blasted into my room through the small openings on my window that the curtain failed to cover.

I whirled around and ran back to my window. What I saw was terrifying. I watched as Mikan stumbled into her room. Her wrists were finally bare of the thick wristbands she always wore. Her clothes were tattered, blood still oozing out of various scratches on her arms, legs, face... basically everywhere on her body.

I stood there in stunned silence as she staggered around, limping. Every movement seemed to cause her terrible pain. Her face cringed with every step she took. Her cheeks were crusted with blood. I also noticed the deep, red, thick and painful looking marks on the places where she wore her wristbands. They were the worst injury of all that I could see. They were also on her ankles. Was that why she wore thick wristbands and long socks? To hide the injury? They didn't even look like injuries anymore; they looked like scars.

Just when had this started? Did she come back every day in this state? Where did the injuries come from? Why did she hide them?

After staying with her all through elementary, middle, and the first year of high school, I didn't know anything about her. I realized that with a pang of shame and regret.

Just what the hell was going on with her?

If I remember correctly, she started wearing those wristbands at the ends of elementary school. She wore them all through middle school, and I hadn't bothered to ask her why.

What was wrong with me? I should have noticed the pained and slightly hollow eyes. The times when she was absent because of a flu was slowly increasing. Why didn't I notice that?

I looked back at her as she staggered into a wall because of her unstable state.

How was she still walking? She seemed like she would faint at any moment.

With a wince, she finally realized that her curtains were not closed. I instinctively moved so that she wouldn't see me as she closed her curtains.

Even if the curtains were closed, the light still seeped out of the edges and corners of her window. I stared at the light, running through all the question, trying to figure things out.

I heard the shower turn on with my keen and practiced ears. Heard it turn on and off. After another half hour, the last of the lights winked off.

That night, I could not sleep.

Mikan P.O.V.

There were two buildings for the special star students. One for the girls, the other for the boys. The dorms were in a different place, separated from the regular dorms. Some part of me wanted to stay where my friends were, but the other part of me was glad that I was separated from them because then I wouldn't disturb them when I come back to my room in the night.

The two buildings stand right next to each other. It just happened to be that Natume and I got the rooms on the top floor, and the very corner. Our only windows faced each other. It was a total coincidence. Due to that, we both kept our curtains closed. Always. But, because we couldn't look out, both of us went outside a lot of times.

There were only a few students in both dormitories. Special stars are difficult to get after all.

I didn't win my way up here though. It was all because of my condition with the Elementary School Principle.

I sighed. It was in the morning, 7 a.m. The school starts at 9 o'clock so I had plenty of time.

Right now I was lying on my bed, trying to ignore the stabbing pain from all over my body. I groaned and put my arms over my eyes. I really didn't want to go to school today, but my friends would be asking and Hotaru would be worried.

I sighed again and slowly sat up. My hands were clenched and shaking from the pain and effort. Ugh. Mornings; they made my body so stiff.

I shifted and lowered my legs to the floor. Then I examined the scratches and injuries on my arm and legs - the places where my skin would be exposed - and sighed again. I would have to use the concealer again. It was a product I bought from central town. This powder concealed everything when placed. It was skin colored and only used for special occasions like when the spring dance takes place. But that doesn't count for me. I had to cover up the injuries or everyone will be beyond surprised.

I looked down at my arms. It was full of scars and I had to agree that it looked disgusting and nasty.

After I put the concealer on, I put my wristbands on, got dressed and went outside.

As I walked on, I thought of my nightmare. I always had nightmares. They were so common that I got tired of it. But, even so, that didn't stop me from waking up sweating, gasping for breath. Also, it didn't stop the terror at not being able to remember the dream at all.

"Oi, Polka," the cold voice stopped my flow of thoughts.

I froze. I could recognize that voice from anywhere. No one called me polka except him.

I should have known - I was walking next to the sakura trees.

He was leaning casually on our sakura tree, blood red eyes calmly staring into my eyes.

Crap. My wounds on my cheeks were still stinging. Still, I tried to put on a cheerful smile.

"Natsume! Good morning!" I said.

"Hn."

My smile wavered. Crap. My cheeks blazed with the fire of pain. I could feel the scratches on my cheeks opening. If I continued like this, then blood will ooze out again and the concealer won't be able to hide that. And what was with him today? Why was he staring at me so intensely?

"I-I'll see you at school." I said hastily, trying to look casual as I walked past him.

He didn't answer, but I felt his burning gaze on my back until I went around the corner.

Once I was around, I stopped walking. "Ouch, ow, ow, shoot, damn, ow, ouch." I muttered as my smile disappeared completely and a grimace took place. I would have gone up the tall and leaf-filled tree to hide myself and have a private time, but my body was not fit for it. He went too far yesterday night. The level was very difficult.

I leaned on the wall of the building and slid down to sit on the cold ground. I leaned my head forward and grabbed the top of my head.

"Damn."

Natume P.O.V.

Polka did not know that I followed her. I followed her to the corner and heard her stop, so I stopped too.

"Ouch, ow, ow, shoot, damn, ow, ouch." I heard her mutter.

I felt my eyes cloud with... with what?

So it wasn't just my imagination last night. I thought.

"Damn." She whispered.

And since when did she start saying damn?

I leaned on the wall.

"What is going on with you?" I whispered. My eyes widened as I realized that I had said that out loud. But... I said it really low so there was no way she would have heard that. I mentally sighed in relief as I assured myself.

Mikan P.O.V.

"What is going on with you?" That small whisper was very hard to catch in the wind, but I was able to hear it. A few years ago, I wouldn't have been able to. But... was that Natsume? I thought as I walked to class. No, that was impossible. He wouldn't slip something as emotional as that.

The bell that signaled the 30 minutes before class rang and a mob of people in the hallway started to walk faster.

A student from the middle school division bumped into me and I gritted my teeth in an effort to stop a whimper of pain. Suddenly, a hand appeared from behind me and pushed the kid away. Then a chest appeared at my side, shielding me from any physical contact.

I looked up, startled. Brown eyes met red, piercing eyes.

Speak-no, think of the devil, I thought, staring up into Natsume's blood red eyes.

"Natsume? What are you doing?" I asked.

"Hn," he said, dropping his arms.

He fell into step next to me and people parted to let us through, whispering. Everyone was afraid of the Black Cat after all.

"How unusual of you to walk me to my class." I said.

"We are walking to the same classroom." He answered.

"Huh, I guess that's true."

No one, not even us, clearly knew what our relationship was. We were friends, but now that we were in high school, our relationship was rapidly leaning towards a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship.

But, I won't be able to really get into a relationship with him, I thought sadly. It would only be in the way.

I felt my eyes cloud with sadness and anger.

"Mikan?" Natsume leaned forward to look at my face, "are you okay?"

My eyes widened. Natsume was never the type to worry about how anyone was doing.

"W-what?" I said.

He stared hard and long at me, then said, "nothing," and straightened up.

I looked up at him, "are you okay?"

"Haa? Why would you ask about me, Polka?"

I cocked my head, "you're acting a bit strange today."

"I'm fine," he said and his hand suddenly brushed my right cheek.

My eyes widened and I took a step away, instinctively hitting his hand away. His eyes hardened.

I realized what I had done and tried to cover it up.

"No touching a lady like that, boy." I remarked. It was a poor job to cover up what had happened, but if I hadn't done that, he would have felt the scratches.

He snorted, "you're not a lady, Polka. You're a child."

I mock-gasped, placing my hand on my chest, pretending to be hurt, "that's insulting, Natsume!"

"Hn." His eyes snaked down my body, from my chest to my slim waist and slowly down my legs, "Maybe.. I'm wrong," he said.

I blushed.

I was grateful when we came to our destination.

When Natsume opened the door for me though, things went bad. Two of our classmates were chasing one another and, seeing the door opening, the one being chased ran for outside, crashing straight into me.

I stumbled, an electric shock of pain starting from the core of my body to the tips of my fingertips. I fell to my knees just inside the classroom as the kid raced by, yelling a hasty, "sorry!"

The other kid that was chasing him went out the door to follow him.

My eyes shut from the pain as my hands grabbed my arms, hugging myself tightly. My whole body shook. My breath came out in short hisses.

"Mikan? Mikan!" Natsume's voice faintly reached my ears, panic-filled and frantic.

"Ahhhhhhhhh..." my voice, shaking, came out hoarsely. "damn you..."

I just used the word damn right in front of Natsume but I didn't care; the pain was blinding, clouding my thoughts.

"Mikan!" Natsume's voice finally came through and my eyes fluttered open to see his anxious face, "I'm taking you to the nurse."

Some of his words managed to make sense and I yelped, "no!" throwing my arms out. "No! Don't do that!"

"Mikan!" Natsume's eyes pleaded with me.

"I-I," my face dropped and I let my bangs cover my eyes. "J-just leave me alone."

I hugged myself and closed my eyes again.

After thirty seconds of this, the pain faded and I could think again. My first thought, not surprisingly, was: Crap.

I could feel Natsume's intense gaze on me, waiting, watching.

I slowly opened my eyes and peeked at him from under my eyelashes.

We stared at each other, both waiting to see what will happen next.

"Mi-," Natsume started to say.

The door opened and Mochu came in with Yuu, "Ah! The lovebirds are getting to it again!"

I jumped up, "N-no we weren't! W-we were-,"

Natsume's hands, from where he was still crouching down on the floor, burst into flames.

"Heeeeee!" Mochu squawked in terror as Yuu calmly went to his seat, sighing.

"Just say sorry and be over with it." Yuu said.

"I'm sorry!" Mochu yelped and quickly went to his desk.

I hastily went to my usual seat as the other students filled into the room, and the bell signaling the 5 minutes before class rang.

Natsume took his usual seat next to me, "you will explain to me." He growled, the anger from before lingering and making his words seem harsh.

I gulped.

"Good morning, Sakura, Natsume." a gentle voice called out.

I looked up as Hotaru and Ruka came closer to us.

"Good morning Ruka-pyon, Hotaru!" I said cheerfully.

Ruka smiled at me as he took a seat beside Natsume.

Hotaru wordlessly sat on my other side but shot a half-smile my way. I tried to smile my normal smile back to her, but nothing could fool her.

"Mikan?" she said and she stood up again, suspicion clouding her voice. She placed her hands on my cheeks and pulled my face to hers.

"Y-yes?" I shook my head as undetectably as possible, trying to tell her to not do it where everyone could see. Hotaru was the only one that knew about my condition. She couldn't stand that I was being treated like that every night and tried countless times to help me, but the ESP and the people that worked for him was too strong. Instead, she was an everyday reassurance. Someone who I could completely rely on and talk to without using my fake smile.

She ignored my attempts to warn her and said, staring intensely into my eyes, "what happened?" in a low voice.

"N-nothing!"

"Don't 'nothing' me," she growled.

"B-but, it really is nothing!" I said. All the while, I could feel Natsume's gaze on our little scene.

Hotaru tensed. Her eyes slowly lifted to meet Natsume's eyes. A look of realization crossed her face.

"So it was you." she said in a intimidating voice.

"Hotaru!" I pleaded.

"What. Happened?" she demanded, staring at Natsume and ignoring me. Her hands were still on my cheeks and the pressure suddenly increased.

I winced, "ouch! Hotaru!"

She blinked and immediately let go of my face.

I grabbed one of her hands before she could pull back, "not now, Hotaru. I'll explain later in full detail, okay?"

She sat down, took my hand, and opened it to examine my palm. She brushed her other hand lightly across the surface of my hand and I winced slightly.

At my reaction, she bit her lip and her eyes flashed with anger, but I knew the anger was not directed at me. It was never directed at me. It was directed at the ESP.

"Fine." she said.

The bell rang and Narumi sensei came in. "Alright everyone! Let's get started!"

Natsume took out his manga, Hotaru took out her current project. They both started doing anything but paying attention to the teacher.

I sighed. I just hoped that the rest of the day would be as normal as this.

Natsume P.O.V.

When class ended, Mikan bolted out of her seat and ran off, leaving all her stuff behind. Hotaru also stood up, gathered hers and Mikan's stuff in a flash, and took off after her.

"Whoa," said Ruka, "what's up with them?" He squinted up at me, "and what's up with you?"

I was getting out of my seat, also hurriedly gathering my stuff (which was just the manga that I was into these days).

"I'll catch you in the cafeteria!" I said.

"What-wait, it's not lunch time yet! Natsume!" Ruka called as I left the room.

I ran down a random hallway and tried to pick up some sound of pursue.

"Mikan! Stop! You owe me an explanation!" Hotaru's voice yelled.

"Don't follow me, Hotaru!" came Mikan's voice from far up ahead.

Yes! I picked the right hallway! This is where they went!

I ran as fast as I could and soon, I saw Mikan running way up ahead and Hotaru rapidly catching up with tremendous speed. I ducked my head and used everything in my power to run. Soon I went past Hotaru.

"Hyuuga!" Hotaru yelled, "don't lay a single finger on her or I'll humiliate you for the rest of your life!"

It was indeed a very scary threat, but I ignored her and ran.

"Mikan! Don't stop!" Hotaru yelled.

She was telling her to stop just a second ago and now she's telling her to not stop.

"You guys are forcing me to use this!" Mikan yelled. Then she suddenly disappeared.

She just blurred out of my sight and disappeared.

"What the hell?"

The sound of running footsteps from behind me stopped. I also stopped and turned to Hotaru. She was taking out a weird looking pair of glasses from her pocket and putting in on.

"What the heck is that, Imai?" I hissed.

"I have no intention of explaining it to you." she hissed back. "Now, where are you, Mikan?"

She looked around with the glasses. Then she started to run down the opposite side - the side we came from.

I hesitated. Mikan just disappeared from sight and Hotaru used something that she never showed to her classmates - usually, when she had made something new, she would show it to them and brag. There was definitely something wrong here.

So I followed Hotaru.

I followed her until we reached a big sakura tree with many leaves outside.

Hotaru was right under the tree, looking up at it, "get down here, Mikan." she said.

I peered into the tree too, but didn't see anything. Just as I was about to mention this to Hotaru, Mikan's voice came down from among the leaves.

"As expected of you Hotaru-chan."

My eyes betrayed me and widened as Mikan appeared on the tree, standing on a branch and holding the bark.

She jumped.

"Mikan! No!" Hotaru shouted.

Mikan landed on the grass in a graceful crouch and straightened. She walked backwards until her back was touching the bark of the tree and slid heavily down to sit on the ground with her knees drawn up.

She looked at Hotaru, "I'll explain right now: it seems that I would have to tell Natsume also." she said, "he already saw too much."

"And whose fault is that?" Hotaru said, she took off the glasses and got down to her knees in front of Mikan, pulling out a handkerchief.

Mikan smiled apologetically as Hotaru started to wipe at the sweat on her forehead.

She was pale and her breathing was jagged.

She looked at me, "will you sit, Natsume? This will take a while."

"You will explain right?" I said as I sat down next to her.

"Yes." she replied, "what made you think I would lie right now?"

"I just didn't expect you to give up this easily. And you were running away just now."

"I was just giving my last shot to turn a blind eye on this. Also, I was considering this before. It was a matter of time before you figured something was off. "

"I was surprised though," Hotaru cut in. "I didn't know you would be that dumb and not notice it all through middle school."

"Hotaru! That's mean." Mikan exclaimed.

"He deserves it." she replied coolly.

Mikan sighed and looked at me again. "You saw me last night, didn't you?"

"Yeah, and I need an explanation." I said.

"I'm getting there Mr. Impatient. But during this talk, you have to promise me something."

"That depends." I said even though I knew that anything she asked of me, I would definitely carry out.

"Do NOT interrupt me." she said.

"Hn. Maybe."

She sighed again. She was probably too tired to say anything back.

"Whatever. Let's get right to the point: I have a twin sister." she said and gave me a look as I made a sound to interrupt. "Do NOT interrupt. Yes, I have a twin sister. When mother gave birth to me at Kaoru-san's place, the first one to be born was her. Apparently, one of the AAO member was disguised as your father, Natsume. He took my sister away and both Kaoru-san and my mother did not notice. My mother because she was in so much pain, and Kaoru-san in too much worry and panic. Also, because they erased her memory later. Then because of her alice," she said, giving me a knowing look, "she found out that there was another child. That my mother was carrying twins. She went to the AAO headquarters and attempted to take my sister back. That's when your mom died." Her voice went small and she paused for a minute.

"There was a major problem with my sister though. When we were inside mother's body, I took all her alice from her. She was an alice just like my father, mother, and me myself. But I took it away from her. I don't know how I did that, but it was probably my stealing alice.

"The AAO tried different experiments on her. After all, she came from a powerful family. They managed to activate some magic in her, but she never became an alice. Instead, she became a witch. She is capable of many magical things. I don't even know her full power. Being a witch basically means the same thing as being an Alice, but her powers cannot become a stone.

"The AAO fed her false information. They told her about me, but in such a bad way that she grew to hate me. She was raised by the AAO and they raised her to be a perfect material to fight against Gakuen Alice.

"I met her at the last year of elementary school." she said and I mentally remembered that that was the year she started to wear the wristbands. "She had named herself Kuro. I didn't know what was going on at that time. I was kidnapped in the middle of the night, and she was there, suddenly telling me that she was my twin sister. She had requested that she meet me then and not when we were older because she couldn't wait. She was driven mad by hatred and her ultimate goal was to kill me. She knew that she needed to wait a few more years to be strong enough to do that, but she couldn't wait. So she used an excuse, saying that she would warn me to make me fear her even more. The AAO didn't care about that. They only cared about obtaining power. So I was taken to Kuro-chan.

"I managed to get away without a fight, but during that, the ESP realized that I had more power in me then any of them had realized. The two alice power in me fused together and created a bunch of other different alices. The next night, I was taken to the ESP and he explained that I might have more power. I refused to allow him to awaken them. The stealing alice was enough. I didn't want another alice that would hurt and terrify my friends. But my will was ignored. I was tortured for days and months, but I never allowed them to awaken the sleeping alices. They put me in chains and used all sorts of things to cause me pain. That's why I wore the wristbands: to cover the marks the chains made. I didn't want to worry my friends or attract more attention.

"Finally, one night, the ESP couldn't wait anymore. He knocked me out and went through the experiments. Water, temperature, air, earth, wind and nature manipulation alice," Mikan's face was down so her bangs were covering her eyes and she was shaking along with her voice. She clutched her head with her shaking hands as if she could somehow get rid of the horror that was flashing by in her head. "dream, invisibility, teleportation, shape-shifting, copy and manifesting alice. I even have alices that I don't know the name of. That's not all, the alice hunters kidnapped alices that were just little children and made me steal their alice. Then they made me use my insertion alice and implanted all the stolen alice stones in me. The terrifying alices going inside my body with my unwillingness all added up. The number of alices inside me increasing."

Hotaru's arm went around Mikan's shaking shoulders. A tear fell from Mikan's cheek to my hand on the ground.

"Then," Mikan continued staring down at her shaking hands, "every night, I learn to tame the alices. 'Training' they called it. Then they trained me on stuff other then the alices. Things like martial arts, how to use guns, knives, bows and arrows, long-sword. Increasing my strength, jump length and height, hearing, and stamina. But, why?" The word 'why' caught on a sob. "I understand that the alice powers need training, but why the other stuff?"

"Anyway, I became a special star student because that was the easiest excuse to explain my special attention and other stuff."

She looked up at me after taking a deep breath, "any questions?"

I stared at her in stunned silence for awhile then said, "what happened to your sister?"

"I don't know. We were experimented by the same person anyway, so I'm pretty sure she knows about me and the alices. But I haven't heard anything about her during all these years."

"How do they train you?" I asked.

She hesitated, "I-I'll show you." she said, and she lifted her hand to lightly touch my forehead and my vision fogged. Then a pathway came into view. I immediately recognized it as the pathway to the Dangerous Ability Class building. The building came into view and curved so that I was looking at the back of the building. I noticed a barred half-window on the very bottom of the building wall. Suddenly, my vision cleared and I blinked as Mikan pulled back.

"Go there tonight right around 11 o'clock, I guess. And you'll see me." She said.

Hotaru was giving her a warning look.

"Have you been there already?" I asked her.

"Yes." Hotaru answered. "And you won't like what you see."

A/N: Thank you for reading to the end. This is my first fanfiction. I hope you liked it! If there are any mistakes that I should fix, then please don't hesitate to tell me.

Please review and thank you again for reading!