First Gakuen Alice FanFic so I have no idea how good this is.

And of course, I do not own any of the characters.

Chapter 1: Changes

Mikan's POV:

"Gakuen Alice is now a safe haven for those lucky enough to have an Alice."

I read the title of the news article on our school newspaper – which by the way is ran by the famous Hotaru Imai. They always write up an article similar to this one every single year since I was about 11 years old.

You see, Gakuen Alice hasn't always been like this. It use to be more like a prison than an actual school. Students were forced to go on dangerous missions even when their health was in jeopardy, no one was allowed in or out of the school, and there were cruel dictator-like people who would be plotting in their office for them to achieve their own selfish goals.

But now, things are different.

The teachers are kinder to the students, we're allowed to go on vacations to visit our families (although there are still a few safety precautions because there are still organizations that like to steal people with alices and then sell them), that cruel dictator has been stripped of his authority – but no one really knows specifically what happened to him – and even though there are still students who go off on missions, they do it of their own freewill and they're treated with much more respect now.

Some people say that this is all thanks to me, but I don't exactly understand what I did to be honest. The change in the academy happened when I was 10 years old, but all I did was let others protect me. That's probably one of my biggest regret in my life, allowing so many people to be hurt because I wasn't strong enough to protect them.

So if anything, I want to be able to protect the people around me from now on.

I want to see their smiles, lift their troubles and burdens off of their shoulders and hear their laughter fill the air. I want to be strong enough to protect everyone. That's why I begged my uncle to allow me to be trained by Persona despite the fact that everyone around me were against it. Natsume and I even had a really bad argument about it a few months ago…

Flashback:

"Ne, Natsume? Don't you think it'd be cool if I Persona trained me?" I asked while the two of us were sitting beneath our Sakura tree.

"Baka. Like you could last one day with him as your teacher."

"I could SO last it out!"

"Yeah right. What even gave you that stupid idea in the first place?"

"It's not a stupid idea! I want to help you and Tsubasa-senpai on those missions you two always go on! I hate seeing you two with all those scratches and bruises whenever you come back!"

"Stupid. We'd get even more beat up having to protect you the whole time!"

"THAT'S WHY I WANT TO TRAIN!"

"Stop being so stupid already. You don't need to step any further into the darkness than you already have. Someone like you should just stay in the light where you belong. Got it?"

And then he just walked away from me, aggravated.

End flashback:

Jeez. That guy is just so frustrating! If anyone should have been aggravated with him, it should have been me! I mean, it's not like I haven't stepped into the darkness before. Does he even realize just how much worse it was when we were younger? I could handle it, I'm not as weak as I use to be.

After that argument, I went off to my uncle and got him to agree with me, on the condition that no matter what I face I'd still come back smiling. This isn't much of a problem for me, when you're around people like Natsume and Hotaru all the time you need to laugh and smile even more for their sake.

I go on missions every now and then, usually on small ones. Natsume always gets mad at me when I'm off doing something, but he's getting use to the idea of it, especially since he knows that whatever he says to me won't make much of a difference in the way things are now. He's had enough time to realize just how stubborn I can get.

"AHHHH!"

I looked at the clock and realized that I was going to be late for class again if I don't hurry. Jeez, Hotaru was right, I shouldn't think so much.

I quickly rushed out the door and ran all the way to class. Thanks to all my training with Persona, I'd managed to get faster with my running.

"Ohayou, minna!" I yelled when I got into class.

"Ohayou!"

My class hasn't changed very much since I was 10 years old. Most of the students were still the same faces I've known, although now we've all grown up a lot since we've reached the ages of 14 and 15.

"HOTARUU!" I said running up to my best friend. I gave her a really big hug – or at least I tried to give her one – and like always she hit me with her famous Baka gun.

Baka! Baka! Baka!

I avoided the first two, but the last one ended up hitting me square in the face.

"Damn it. You're getting better at that."

"Of course! I've been working really hard lately!"

"Idiot." She really loves me a lot!

She went back to tinkering with her latest gadget, so I walked over to my seat, still next to Natsume. "Ohayou, Natsume. Ruka-pyon" I said with a smile.

"Ohayou, Sakura-san."

Of course, no reply from Natsume, he's probably asleep underneath his manga. It's hard to believe he's actually been my boyfriend for the past three years.

I lifted the manga off his face. "Oy! Polka. I was sleeping."

"Mou. Class hasn't even started yet, and you're already asleep."

"Just be happy that I'm even here in the first place."

Why is he being extra grouchy today? Oh, right. It's probably because I was off on a mission over the weekend. He always gets grumpy when I've been gone. I started smiling knowing that he's grumpy because he's worried about me.

"Oy! What are you smiling about?"

"It's a secret!" I started giggling as he glared at me slightly, but I just walked off towards my other friends.

"Ne, Mikan-chan, are you really still going out with Natsume?" Nonoko said to me innocently

"Hai!" I said with my usual enthusiasm. My friends were silent for a while, "Huh? What is it?"

"It's just that… he doesn't really act like it, you know?" Anna shyly replied.

I gave them a small smile, "That's just how he is… Natsume… he's really very shy actually. He doesn't show his emotions to others very well, and he comes off as a cold, distant, mean person, but he's really very sweet!" I said making my smile bigger, and my cheeks turned redder.

"You're right, that does seem like the kind of person Natsume is."

"Yes! Yes! You wouldn't believe it, but the times when he doesn't put on his tough guy act makes him so cute! When he's smiling, or even when he's showing his concer—"

"Oy! Polka, what are you saying." Natsume came up from behind me and started pulling me back to our seat by the head. He looks a little irritated, like the way he always is when you make him sound like a big softy, but his face just makes me want to smile even more.

I started laughing at his reaction after he overheard the things that I said about him.

"Why are you always laughing for no reason?"

"Hehe…nothing." I said giving him a big smile. Even though most people couldn't see it, the corners of his lips rose slightly which means he's happy that I'm happy, and that just ended up making me smile even more.

The rest of the morning went by with the same teachers we've had since we were in the elementary division. Nothing out of the ordinary happened today, if you could count people trying to burn their English teacher and a teacher who punishes students by hitting them with a little lightening normal.

During our fourth class, I started dozing off and getting tired of our lessons. Misaki –sensei was trying to teach our class something about photosynthesis but not many people were paying very much attention.

Suddenly, Persona entered the classroom, "Excuse me, can I get Mikan? The High School Principal wanted a word with her."

"Hai. Mikan, please hurry back as soon as you can, and please get the notes that you miss in class from someone afterwards."

"Hai, Sensei." I could feel Natsume's glares as I walked out of the room.

"Oji-san! It's good to see you today!" I said as I ran up to give him a hug.

"Hai, hai! It's good to see you too Mikan-chan. But, I'm afraid I have a favor to ask of you, although you don't have to agree to it."

"What is it, Oji-san?"

"You see. Recently, we've been hearing reports of crimes going on in a small town just outside of Tokyo. We believe that these incidents have been the work of an Alice user. The police haven't gotten involved in these matters as of yet, and we don't want them to. So, I am asking you to go there and investigate things there."

"Hai! You can count on me!"

"Demo. This could be very dangerous, and you will have to stay in that town for over a year."

"Even if I resolve things?"

"This mission isn't just about stopping the crimes. Although that is a big part of the problem, what we really want you to focus on is finding the ones who possesses an Alice."

"But why a year? A mission like this could be taken care of within a month, couldn't it?"

"It takes a while for them to completely accept the fact that they are an Alice, and convincing them as well as their parents that they should go to Gakuen Alice could take a bit of persuading. Not only that, but we need that area surveyed because we want to make sure that any problems within that town has stopped." Uncle paused slightly after saying that, "Like I've said, you are allowed to deny this request if you so wish. However, if you are to accept this mission, then you are not allowed to have any contact with this school other than myself to give reports every few weeks so we won't draw too much attention to ourselves."

"Um…" I had to think about this. I wanted to help, I really did, but leaving this school for a year? In the past five years, I've only left for at most two weeks. I wouldn't be able to see any of my friends in such a long time, not even Hotaru or Natsume… "I'll—"

"Would you like more time to think about it, Mikan-chan?" Uncle said to me with a small smile.

"Yes, Ojisan."

"Then why don't you let me know within twenty four hours, alright?"

"Hai…"

After that, he sent me back to my classes. We had spent the rest of the school day discussing the mission. I really don't know what to do about this mission; I don't want to let my uncle down especially after all the trouble I had caused them before, but how could I leave this school. It's become my home in the last few years. I know, I'll ask Natsume about it. Hotaru is busy working on her invention that she's going to be selling to some foreign company so she needs to focus on that.

Third Person POV

During the time that Natsume was waiting for his beloved Mikan to return to the classroom, he ended up coming across a very interesting person. A girl with strawberry blonde hair and devilish green eyes entered the class room.

"Tsuki Rabu." Natsume said coldly.

After Sumire gave up being the leader of the Natsume Huuyga fan club, she decided to leave the title of leader to Tsuki. Since she was the new leader, she ended up becoming Mikan Sakura's worst enemy, despite the fact that Mikan is too much of an airhead to realize this.

"Hello, Natsume-kun. How are you today?" Tsuki said in a sickeningly sweet tone.

"Ne, Natsume. Do you wanna go out and do something tonight?" she gave her best fake smile.

"No."

"Demo, demo! It'll be a lot of fun!"

"I love Mikan, so you should just give it up already."

"Why would you choose that pathetic little girl over me?"

"Because unlike you, she isn't fake."

"I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me with no choice. I just so happen to have a very, very erotic picture here of Sakura, it'd be a shame of if this fell into the wrong hands."

"Tch. Stupid, she would never take a picture like that."

"Perhaps, but you must admit, this picture is rather convincing. You'd be amazed with all of the disturbing things some techies can do with photoshop."

"Who made it?"

"Well, I'm afraid that's a secret, however this picture won't stay secret for very long if you don't do as I say. Unless you're willing to let this picture get into the hands of someone else, someone who will do much more scandalous things with it rather than just force you to do a few little things for me."

Natsume burned the picture despite the fact that he had promised Mikan that he wouldn't use his Alice unless it was an emergency. However, to Natsume, this was an emergency.

"You naughty, naughty little boy… I do hope you realize that a picture like this is first saved on the computer, meaning it can't be erased by such a small little fire."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Simple. Crush Mikan's heart, and go out with me."

"I hope you realize that I will find a way to get out of this."

"Not unless you want your precious Mikan to be hurt by the shame and humiliation that she'll receive once this picture goes viral." She said with an evil smirk on her face. "Now, according to my sources, Mikan-chan will be entering the classroom within ten minutes, so I'm going to be near by watching as you break that poor little girl's heart. Okay."

The one thing that Natsume had in his mind were a series of murder scenes involving a 15 year old girl with blonde hair and green eyes getting killed repeatedly by our very own fire caster.

The minutes ticked as Natsume waited anxiously for Mikan to enter the classroom. He was dreading the words he would have to say to the girl he loves with all his heart. How badly does he have to crush her heart?

The room was silent as he kept hearing the clock tick.

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

Natsume had never heard silence so loud. He looked at the clock, she'll be here any second he thought to himself. Suddenly, he heard footsteps outside. Somehow, Natsume was able to tell that those were the footsteps of the girl he loves. Would he be able to bear it when he hears those footsteps walking away from him?

"Okay, calm yourself. You have to do this. You'll find a way out. It's just like what happened with Luna. Mikan never lost faith in you. Stoic expression." Natsume had to remind himself that a problem like this will be resolved somehow.

And the door started to open up, and Mikan came into view. For once in his life, Natsume hated seeing the smile on the girls face, because he knew that he'd be the one to break that smile.

"NATSUME!" she yelled as she ran up to hug her boyfriend, oblivious to what was about to happen to her.

Natsume had to fight with his own body to keep from hugging her back.

"Oh! Natsume-kun! You'll never believe what the high scho-"

"Get off." He said loudly but devoid of any feeling.

"What?" she let go of him slightly, revealing her confused and slightly pained expression. She put her hand on his face to make sure he knew that she was there for him if he needed.

"I said, 'Get off'"

"But why? What did I do wrong Natsume?"

"You're annoying, and clingy. I'm done with you." He could see tears in Mikan's eyes and it took everything within him not to hug her and kiss her and make all the pain go away for the both of them.

"You're not acting like yourself, Natsume! What's wrong? Why are you being like this?" Her voice was getting quieter, and quieter. She was fighting back tears and trying to keep her voice steady.

"….There's someone else that I love now." The words were like acid to his mouth. No, it was even worse than that.

Just then, Tsuki entered the classroom. "Yeah, Sakura. Just give him up already. He's chosen me."

"No…no…NO! Natsume! I refuse to believe this is true! If this is supposed to be a joke, then it's not funny! Not even a little!" she started crying as she went to grab Natsume's hand.

"Look, honey. Getting dumped is humiliating enough at least try and keep whatever dignity you have left to yourself. Nat-kun picked me over you, get over it already, right?

Natsume squeezed Mikan's hand for the last time, as if saying 'I'm sorry, I'll fix this somehow' to her. He slapped her hand away, and when over to Tsuki. He put his arm around her shoulder, he felt as if he were touching an alien body, and walked away.

Mikan stood there with her mouth opened in shock at the scene that had just unfolded before her. She had tears streaming down her face, and she knew that the last thing she wanted was to see anyone. Mikan teleported herself to her bed room, and she spent the rest of the day crying her eyes out.

Review please!