I disclaim Gakuen Alice.

Primary Chapter

THE PHANTOM PRINCESS

"During the day, I don't believe in ghosts. At night, I'm a little more open-minded."

As he stood there, dumbfounded, he followed the enigmatical shadow with his crimson fiery eyes. He did not blinked, neither did he continued to breath as if there is some obstruction in his lungs and as well as if his heart stopped beating. He keep an eye upon the shadow, scampering through the dark pathway making its way to the mysterious clock tower.

He noted it; observe its features as the planet's satellite illuminated the open space. It had long free golden brown hair that flows elegantly, waving at the twilight's breeze beautifully. Wearing a night gown, almost transparent white silhouette, it ran slowly but surely and entered the structure. He witnessed it, the phantom princess.

Do you know? There was a rumor about a ghost wandering at the pristine clock tower in the Southern Forest.

They said that the ghost wears a bloody and torn white dress! According to them, it kills students who dare to enter its domicile!

I heard that the ghost has scary hypnotizing eyes! If you stare at its eyes, you'll surely get hypnotized and it will make you do something horrible!

That ghost, it's creeping me up. From now on I will never dare to step my feet nor my shadow to the Southern Forest. I heard from some high school students who were conducting a research there saw the ghost with their own eyes! It even talked to them with its frightening voice!

The hair of the ghost is very long and it can tie your whole body up and then it will kill you just by glaring at you!

The phantom princess is back!

"Hey, Ruka. What's with all these people?" Natsume asked his best friend, walking on the hallways of the middle school building towards the cafeteria.

Ruka is ruffling his white bunny's puffy white fur before freeing it from him."They're talking about the ghost."

Natsume's eyebrow twitched. "What ghost?"

"You don't know about it? The whole academy's been so hooked up with the rumor for quite a time now." he said, both of them had arrived at the cafeteria and entered inside.

Natsume lead the way and sat on their usual spot, the one closest to the door. "It's not my kind to listen to rumors." he then pulled the chair and sat onto it.

Ruka did the same with the chair opposite to Natsume's. "I don't know, but I've seen a photograph of it from the academy's newspaper. It was blurred."

"And you bought it?" the raven head asked, waving at the robot chef of the cafeteria. It went to them in just a snap and got their order. "Nikujaga, Ruka?"

Ruka nodded. "That's fine with me. And please add some miso soup. I haven't eaten properly for days. Thanks to those fan girls." Ruka got goose bumps by the time he said fan girls.

"And one miso soup." Natsume said to the robot then headed back to the counter. "I'll swear I'll burn that gay teacher once I laid my hands on him. So, you believed it?" he leaned his elbow to the white table cloth covering the wooden furniture and rested his chin on the palm of his hand.

"No, I didn't." Ruka answered, flipping the napkin cloth and placing it neatly on his lap. "Speaking of that ghost, I heard it was called the phantom princess."

Natsume smirked. "Phantom princess, huh?"

Ruka shrugged. "I don't know, Natsume. That phantom princess is quite popular ever since we came here at the academy. That's why others said she was back."

"What are you saying?" The robot arrived having their order placed on a silver tray. It served the food with its twisters-like metallic hand to their table and nodded before it left. Natsume handed the miso soup to Ruka.

Ruka thanked him. "According to some newspapers I read on the library, the phantom princess started to be seen a year before we enrolled in Gakuen Alice."

"Since when did you read a newspaper?" Natsume asked, biting some from his nikujaga.

"It just fell from the floor when I came there to read a zoology book." he replied.

"Those people behind the papers were absurd. They post things that do really not exist." Natsume stated.

Ruka just moaned and continued to eat his lunch. He noticed Natsume turned silent and seemed to be gathering his senses together. "What's wrong?" he asked him.

Natsume got his nikujaga and stood up. "Let's go, Ruka. Those girls have found us." he whispered and started to walk away.

"No, not again." Ruka muttered, his miso soup wasn't even moved. "I'm starving."

"Come on, Ruka. You can eat some later. But now we have to save ourselves."

"Natsume-kuuuuuuuuuun!" the girls were screaming his name. "Ruka-kuuuuuuuuuuun!" they were yelling at him.

"Oh, shit! They're here! Hurry, Ruka!" Natsume grabbed his arm and pulled him, they ran for their lives together.

Natsume Hyuuga and Ruka Nogi. The two most popular guys and chased by fan girls. They hated them all. But as they tell them they are not interested with girls, the more they became aggressive. If at first they only faint by the time they saw them, now they were chasing them and when they got a grip of them, they will experience hell. Uniforms were torn, hair was ruined, necks were full of kiss marks. In short, they were harassed.

It all started when they were forcibly joined in a stage play by Narumi Anju in their elementary days.. Of course he's a sensei, so they were quite shy to disagree. And Narumi can make people do anything he wants, because of his Human Inclination Pheromone Alice. So to save themselves from his Alice, they still joined the play even if they don't like it. That event triggered those girls to establish their own fan club and chase them everywhere they will go. They cannot eat properly, they cannot roam around alone. Their lives lost peace.

"Wait, Natsume. I can't take it." Ruka yelled his name. They stopped running because the blonde lost energy, and his stamina is not as strong as Natsume's. He pants on his knees, sweat pouring on his forehead.

Natsume leaned his back on a tree. "Damn. We don't deserve this. We've been running for hours."

Ruka chuckled at him, still on his knees. "I guess we can't do anything about it, can we?"

Natsume smirked and turned back, his hands on his pocket. "Come, Ruka. We have to hide." he said, started to take a step. When he had few steps from the tree he leaned earlier, he heard Ruka yell.

"Natsume!"

The fire caster looked back, eyes dilated and worried. "Ruka!" he called him. The fan girls caught him! He can see how aggressive they were as they grip on Ruka's uniform and started to play tug of war with Ruka as the rope. He was angry, but Ruka told him he can handle everything and he must run for himself.

"Don't worry about me! Run!" Ruka yelled, he started to activate his alice and then bats started to fly towards him, but before those bats reached his place to scare all those fan girls away he fainted because of hunger and tiredness.

Natsume run until he can't feel his feet. It was already dark, the moon had already appeared and the stars began to fill the sky. He found himself panting in the middle of the forest. He wonders what forest he'd been, Northern? No, he didn't saw Mr. Bear's cottage in there. Western? No, not at all. He didn't pass through the Central Town. How about the Eastern woods? Never, he is still forbidden to enter the high school vicinity and he came from there.

There's one choice left, he's inside the Southern Woods. What? Is he feeling somewhat afraid with the rumors spreading in the Southern Forest? Is the cold breeze adding to the creeps? Of course not, he is Natsume after all.

But there is something wrong with this forest. It's too silent here. Too quiet that it can break you're tympanic. The phantom princess entered the fire caster's mind, he created an image of her with the ideas he gathered with the gossips he heard. He walked more, not out of the forest but deeper. He saw a pebble, and played with it. He continuously kicks it in every direction it goes, just following the direction it will give him.

He kicked it again, it went to the left. He kicked it once more, and it went straight. Again and again. The clouds suddenly covered the moon, darkness ate the whole area. He stopped moving. Natsume gathered all his senses and feel his surroundings.

Swish! He felt something moved there. He turned to it, lit his hand with a fire for a guide. As Natsume's fire began to gloom in the dark, he continued to kick the pebble for one last time. He searched for it, and was about to pick it up when his fire suddenly went gone. Gone with a flash of wind, a wind or not, whatever it is. He felt chills, quickly electrified his spine.

He stood straight, the cloud was almost over the moon, and it made him see a bit rather than before. He saw the clock tower, old and pristine. He looked up to see the whole structure. But his crimson eyes were snatched by a moving shadow.

He was dumbfounded; he followed the enigmatical shadow with his eyes. He did not blinked as his eyes were directed to the shadow alone, his breathing stopped as well as his heart beat. He keep an eye upon the shadow, scampering through the dark pathway making its way to the mysterious clock tower. Is it just himself? Is she panting, she pant so loud. Never did he encounter a ghost that throbs, and wait. Is she running? If she's really a ghost, she would have flown instead.

He noted it, observed its features as the planet's satellite illuminated the open space, the cloud finally left the moon making him see the supposed to be ghost a bit clearly. It had long free golden brown hair that flows elegantly, waving at the twilight's breeze beautifully. Wearing a night gown, almost transparent white silhouette, it ran slowly but surely and entered the structure. He witnessed it, the phantom princess.

The phantom princess opened the clock tower's door with ease, as if she owns the structure and had her own key for it. He's not sure if she saw him, but he's definitely sure he saw her. Natsume didn't waste a second; he made his way towards the tower. He didn't care if she really kills and harms people. But one thing was for sure with what he witnessed. That phantom princess is not a ghost.

He touched the carvings on the large wooden door. It really is old base on the dull color of the wood itself and the rust on the metal knockers. He grabbed the knocker, but it moved open. The phantom princess must've left it open.

"What am I doing." he muttered softly to himself, letting the metal thing from his hand.

THUD. He heard something inside. It triggered him to unawarely open the door and peeked inside. The door cracked open, sounds were created and he waited for something to happen. To his fortune, nothing occurred.

He made a small fireball and makes it fly before him. Natsume searched for a light switch, but he found nothing. A gust of wind startled him, and the fire went null and disappeared once again.

"Who's there?" Natsume asked in the middle of the pitch dark tower. No one replied. He then made another ball of fire before anything will make him trip on his feet. He waited for his fire to disappear again but nothing like that happened until he found book racks. Lots of book racks, big and wide wooden book racks.

The fire caster walked closer to the racks, seeing they're all filled with different categories and colors of books, various sizes and topics. He got one, a dusty red big book. He brought his fire to him, letting him see the title. But it was a surprise, there's no title carved on the cover of the book. He opened it, the first, second and the succeeding pages were all blank. No ink can be seen there, no letters and images printed inside.

He continued to flip some pages, and to his surprise something glowing flew from one of its pages. He groaned, pocketed his hands and followed the glowing thing. It flew like it has its own mind making him go after it and dragged him to the stairs. He hesitated to take the step at first, but he heard a sniff from up. It made him feel so curious that he almost ran to reach the peak.

"These stairs seems endless." he talked to himself again. He's been climbing for five minutes but he was still far from the peak.

Suddenly, when he's halfway there the glowing light vanished and was liquefied. It ended up falling like speck of glitters and fully disappeared in the air.

What does it want to tell to him? To continue climbing or to back out? But he is Natsume, and Natsume never backed out from anything. He snickered and climbed faster until he was a step farther from his destination.

"Is this some kind of a joke?" he said, quite frustrated. He scanned the area, it looked like an attic. An empty attic with large windows that lights up half of the territory. He searched for any suspicious object, but it was real empty. Only rugged linoleum and spider webs on the corner of the roof. He wonders where does the sound he was hearing came from, and where does the phantom princess went.

He muttered a "Hn." and turned around to the stairs, but his crimson eyes went wide as a face booed in front of him. He almost screamed, but a Hyuuga never screams. He jumped back and aimed the figure a fire, but by the time it landed on the unknown image his fire Alice was distinguished.

"Huh? How did it…" he said. The figure began to move near him, walking slowly out from the dark shadows, nearer to him. "Hey, don't come near me." Natsume warned, taking a step back for her every step forward. But she didn't stop.

He saw feet, real small but dirty and muddy feet. As the figure went closer, the moon's shine illuminated it's features from toes to head. He cannot believe his eyes, it's the phantom princess. The white night gown and her long golden brown hair.

"Ta..su..ke t..te.." she hardly muttered and lost consciousness.

Natsume caught her before she fell from the ground, swiftly carried her head on his lap. The light of the moon gleamed at them, dramatically creating a spotlight like radiance coming from the broken windows of the attic. He observed her features as he parted strands of stray hair on her face to free. He looked at her with amazement in his eyes.

This phantom princess is not as scary as what he heard from the rumors and gossips. Her face is just dirty because of some mud on her cheeks and on her forehead. He scanned her closed eyelids that he suspects covers a big pair of eyeballs. (A/N: Eyeballs really don't vary because they are same in the aspect of size. Eyes just look big or small because of the eyelids.) His sight then went to her cracked and pale thin lips. Neither her clothes were torn nor bloody, but just like her face, was full of dirt and mud. Before anything else will happen, Natsume held her shoulders and shook her gently to bring her consciousness back. The infamous phantom princess slowly opened her eyes, showing her big hazel orbs and blinking it for several times. All she can see is blurry red.

The fire caster felt something wrong with these hazel colored eyes, they were like drowning him to the unconscious world hypnotizing him by gazing at them. But as soon as he got his senses back, he quickly moved away from her and gave her a don't-come-near-me expression.

She moaned, putting her hand on her temporal while the other helped her rise to sit. "Who are you?" she asked the young lad posing a defense in front about some inches away.

Natsume didn't answer and instead asked her the same question too. He used a colder and deeper voice to hide his uncomfortable feeling.

She moaned for the last time, still blinking her eyes to clear her sight. And then she narrowed her eyes, trying to know him but she didn't. "How did you find this place? Did you follow me?" she asked while crawling closer to him with her knees and palms.

Natsume can't speak, instead he moved back every time she takes an inch closer to him. He can't stand up without a reason of knowing why, Natsume remained on his butt moving away until his back is bumped on the wall.

"People like you should not be here. " she muttered, climbing up to him and sniffing him like a dog.

"Go away!" Natsume shouted, pushing her towards the location she came from. He activated his Alice, making another fireball in his palm. He warned her not to move, but the phantom princess didn't mind and still she crawl back to him and stopped by the time she was just an inch closer to him. She sat in front of him with her butt on her feet, a proper sitting manner like every girl does.

She positioned her hand beside the fireball and cut the fire into half before it disappeared. "Please, don't burn this place. This is my home." she said and then scratched her face with the same hand because she felt itchy with the mud. Her face became reddish in an instant, letting Natsume know she had sensitive skin.

"Hey stop it. You're hurting yourself." Natsume said to her, reaching for her hand and stopping her from scratching her face.

He touched me. The phantom princess blushed as her cheeks reddened. She stared at him with her sparkling orbs.

"What are you looking at, phantom princess?" Natsume asked, noticing the sticky gaze she is giving him. Her eyes were beautiful; it's so big that it's like eating me up.

The phantom princess gave him a confused expression, putting her finger under her lip and said, "Huh? Who's phantom princess?"

Natsume sighed. So she didn't know she was called phantom princess by the students in the academy. Probably she doesn't know that she's on the headline of the school paper these past few days. Maybe, she didn't know too that she had a bad image. She's known to be a killer, a phantom, a ghost. I knew it, all those rumors were all fake. And I am right, this girl isn't a ghost. How come she could be ghost if she almost bleeds when she scratched her face? And if she's a ghost, I should've can't touch her because she is supposed to be a spirit.

"Nevermind. Who are you by the way?" he asked, he became a lot easy after knowing the truth.

She was star strucked by the question.

Hime, promise me you will not leave the clock tower. Don't let anyone know who you are and you exists. I have swore to your parents I will protect their child. I know you deserve to live like a normal person. But your life is so special. You are special. So please don't ever let us worry. There will come a time that you will be free to explore the world and it's people. But this is not the right time.

"Uhm, my..." she was stuttering and fidgeting. Her eyes scanned all through the area and she saw a polka dot printed linoleum of the floor. "Polka dots." she said, and smiled uneasily at him.

Natsume lift a brow. "I don't ask for the print of the floor. I'm asking your name." he said.

The phantom princess began to sweat and kept pinning her stray golden brown hair off her face. Her hair is too long, she haven't got any hair cut since birth. "Uhm..."

Natsume waited for an answer. And he waited until he can no longer take it. "Hey, what now?" he asked her with a quite tone.

She was startled; her heart beat went fast because of the sudden noise. "You're the first person to step here, here in the clock tower. You're also the first one who came this near to me. You didn't scream at my face like everybody did, and I am glad you didn't. Because when someone like you sees me, they were screaming and then scurrying away. I don't know why they act to me like that. I don't even done anything wrong to them, anything at all. And you're the first person who touched me."

His eyebrows met. "So?"

She looked at him with soulful eyes. It was like pleading him not to hurt her, to feed her because she's starving. "Can you promise me you won't tell anybody, I mean everybody, every single person you know, your friends your sisters your brothers if had one, sensei or even to a non living thing, that you saw me? That you met me? That you talked to me? That you touched me? Promise me you will never speak about me, about my existence."

Natsume just nodded. He was surprised how talkative this ghost was.

She gave her a nice smile. "Well then, I suppose you should take an oath to Luna."

He twitched his brows. Is this girl normal? "Who's Luna?"

She pointed something behind him that he quickly turned at to. He saw the moon, and then realized that the Earth's satellite, the moon is also Luna. He slapped his head mentally. How could he be that idiot?

"Follow me, okay?" she said cheerfully. Then whispered something at him. "I made this oath myself, I don't really know why did I because I don't know where will I use it. But now I do."

Natsume rolled his eyes. Baka girl. "Fine."

"Now raise your left pinky."

"What?"

"I said raise your left pinky." she even demonstrated it to him. "Like this."

Natsume rolled his eyes again, sighing. "I know, I know." he then followed her.

"Say after me." she cleared her throat. "Luna san, I am here in front of you…with my pinky." he almost cracked a laugh at this, but maintained his composure. He followed everything she said. "I do solemnly swear that I will not say to anybody or anything, that I witnessed…uhm…" I cannot say my name until we finished the oath. "That I witnessed the girl with long brown hair and uhm, white dress today. I will never speak to anybody about her and will keep everything a secret forever." she said.

"I swear by Luna the moon, the comets and the constellations present this time, that I will always keep this oath in mind never taking it for granted. With my life I owe you now, I am finishing this oath with a kiss." she giggled.

Natsume was surprised after saying the last word. "What? A kiss?" he asked to her in disbelief.

"Yup."

"Do you know what a kiss was?"

She giggled again, what a cute. "Of course I do. Someone told me a kiss is a promise of everything. Enveloped with it is your trust, faith and your words." she said it plainly.

The phantom princess defined it very well. But a kiss is not executed with two people who just met within an hour. It is not made with two people who were merely, still a stranger to each other. A kiss was done to someone you love. And, yes a kiss envelopes trust, faith and words but not exactly an oath. Those were all pertaining to someone you love a promise of everything you have been through but not a promise of a pinky to Luna.

She had misunderstood it all.

Natsume sighed once again. "I don't think we can kiss."

"Huh? Why not? The oath can't be done without it. And you have said it already." she whined.

"Ugh, how did I let myself be in this kind of situation." he fondled his temples but was startled when the phantom princess already got her lips on his cheek. He feels his blood rise to his cheeks and found them blushing already. She moved away quickly, she just gave him a smack.

"There! We're done!" she said, giggling. She looked like a kid but cute while giggling sweetly. A dense and innocent girl.

Natsume almost stopped breathing but regained his composure. He wiped the kiss with his hand harshly to erase the kiss totally. "Did I permit you to do that?" he glared at her.

"Yes, you did. When you finished the oath."

Natsume smirked. "Silly girl." he muttered. "Natsume. Natsume Hyuuga."

She offered her hand to him. "I'm Mikan." she stopped. "Mikan…S-Sakura." she said.


Dear Readers;

mannequin GF is a slow updater so please do forgive. hehe

mannequin GF has a disorder. I never finished any stories before.

Haha. But i promise i'll do everything to finish this one. My first fanfic.

Enjoy. Stay Tune. Review.

:):):)

let me know if the first chapter passed. XD