Disclaimer: I don't own any part of 'Alice Academy'; so don't sue…besides I'm poor this week…I get very little allowance.
The halls within the main chambers were always crowded with teachers and their variety of gear. Their voices echoing from within and the flying notes and papers were a part of the daily hustle and bustle of the academy. But what wasn't normal was the fact that this entire racket did not come because the teachers were hurrying to their next classes or because there was a new session for them to prepare for or a student to reprimand.
It was because an alarm had gone off. An alarm that was installed in the teachers chambers alone. An alarm that was audible to the faculty alone, one that signalled that there was something terribly wrong. An alarm that they never expected to hear, never wanted to hear. For ease of mention and to prevent drawing unnecessary attention, the alert had been nicknamed the Code Red by the faculty And everyone knew what that meant.
Narumi was sitting peacefully in his private chambers, by the window, sipping tea and once again marvelling at its ability to soothe his aching vocal chords. After all, trying to teach 3 different batches of unruly teenagers, all on the same day, was not a picnic. Neither was another two hours of substituting for their homeroom teacher. He was just grateful that things like breaks existed for he did not know what he would have done otherwise. Just as he was getting up to place his cup on the nearby mantle piece, the small red beeper near his side of the table let a small sound, which grew consistently to sound like the droning of bees. Narumi looked at it first in confusion and then in silent shock. Then, before he could fully comprehend, his legs had started moving of its own violation and soon he was running down the corridor as fast as they would carry him.
The meeting hall where the teachers were gathered was silent. Their faces were stony and expressionless but their eyes held apprehension. It was to be expected. Throughout the life of the academy, it had been prepared to encounter many emergencies including this, but this was one they hoped they never would have to deal with. Slowly, as tension mounted, the teachers started fidgeting in the chairs and began looking towards the main hall doors. No one wanted to be the first to talk. They were all waiting for the person who usually chaired such meetings, the elusive Persona.
Soon the door opened and the object of their thoughts walked right in, silently followed by Narumi. Complete silence engulfed the place as the two took their places.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," Persona began without any preliminaries, "we have an emergency."
Narumi silently fumed at him for stating the obvious. Oblivious to this, Persona continued.
"Before I begin, I would like to thank all of you for being here today and for your continuous support and dedication towards this academy."
Most teachers, including Narumi quirked a brow at the pleasantries he was spewing and perhaps Persona had seen it coming for he immediately smirked. He raised his voice and added, " I say this because your dedication and loyalty will be put to the test in the coming few weeks. As you have undoubtedly realised, a Code Red has been alerted and no, gentlemen, it was not a false alarm. Someone or something has indeed scaled the walls of this academy and attempted a forced entry into the Dark Room, a entry which I'm afraid has been rather successful."
His declarations were met with silence. The teachers knew what was to come. The Dark Room was a secret lair deep within the academy that only teachers knew about and only few among them had access to. It contained a gigantic computer database containing the details of every student who had set foot within the academy. It contained their histories, their family details and their alice descriptions. But, what was more important was that it contained secret files that contained data as to the 'special' students of the academy, the ones that had been earmarked as the 'special ability types', the 'dangerous types' or simply valuable to the academy. It held countless data and graphs that had been compiled after years of observing these students and by browsing through them, even an idiot would be able to pinpoint the student, their alice and their weaknesses. Then, there would be no stopping any of them.
"Has there been any indication of what has actually happened?" Narumi could no longer contain himself.
Persona took a moment to study him clearly, and then instead of replying, reached into his pocket to produce an obscure looking piece of metal twisted in weird fashion. It was about 5 inches long and a dull greyish-black in colour. He held it up for the room to see. Narumi being one of the teachers sitting nearby caught a good look at it. His face remained impassive, but his eyes immediately looked guarded. The seal was a two headed cobra which had itself loosely wound around an archaic looking capital 'C'. Before any of them could question further, Persona stated in a steely voice, " While the break-in caused an alarm to go, there are no signs of a struggle or a difficulty of any sought in the area. This leads me to conclude that the alarm was deliberately set off. Like a sign of what they are actually capable off. And they only left a single thing in the area. This." And he yet again held up the metal piece.
Narumi immediately asked, "How do you know its a sign?"
"Because, Narumi," Persona's voice dripped acid, "the master-computer was branded with the same symbol and if that is not a sign, then I don't know what is! Or perhaps one of you has a better explanation for it all. Is that it?" he then proceeded to glare down poisonously along the entire table, as if expecting them to disagree.
"H..h..has the f..f..files, Sir, have t..t...they ggone missing, Sir?" Mr. Harris, one of the newly appointed staff members asked. The poor man was a brilliant teacher, but had a nasty habit of stuttering when he neared nervous breakdowns and it seemed that Persona's glare had a similar effect on him.
"No, you fool, the files have been copied. And you know what that means." Everyone did. A select few people managed the database and they alone were the ones who could do any operations on it, the data being protected by countless passwords. Thus, if anyone had to have tampered with it, then they definitely needed an insider to help them.
" I know there has been an insider among us who's helped them and nothing any of you say is going to convince me otherwise. I also know that whoever is the insider, is also present here. I fully intend to find out who it is and when I do, I will personally deal with them." Persona's eyes, which were filled with an unholy light, travelled along the length of the table from one person to another as if assessing them. His mouth was one thin straight line. Narumi did not fail to notice his eyes linger on him a little longer than the rest but he stared right back. The teachers in the academy were so wrought up in the new tale of betrayal that, in the shocked silence that followed, they failed to react as Persona got up and left the meeting, his coat swishing gracefully behind him. They also never noticed that his hand, which had connected with the table, had corroded it like acid, leaving a gaping hole in its wake.
Narumi left the hall the same time the rest of the teachers did, but he did not go back to his classes. Instead he went through a series of doors and maze like corridors, which led to Persona's private chamber. It had been unanimously decided by the faculty, after the meeting, that the alert was to be kept away from the knowledge of the students, at least for the time being. The decision as to what to do would have to be discussed in the next meeting and as of now, all that could be done was to conduct classes like on any other day.
As he thought of how he was going to explain his absence to a certain teenaged class with unusually perceptive students, which also sported a telepath amongst them, he found himself face to face with the door leading to Persona's chamber. However, before he could knock, a cold voice asked him to enter.
Persona stood at the other end of the room, wine glass in hand and looking for the entire world as if he was expecting him. As he raised his glass in mock salutation, he asked Narumi, " And to what may I attribute the delight of your visit?"
Narumi lost no time in getting to his point. " You owe me an explanation."
"Pray, to what?"
"For your comments…and don't play dumb with me, Persona, because I saw the look you gave me! You thought I was that insider! Didn't you?" Narumi's voice held an anger it rarely showed.
Persona smiled grimly. " Aren't you, Narumi?"
"I had nothing to do with it. You know it!"
" I know nothing of that sought, Narumi. But, I do know this" and with that, he had crossed the entire room in three long strides and before Narumi could move out of the way, he had corroded a large part of his right shirt sleeve, to expose a fair shoulder. On that shoulder stood a mark, a tattoo very similar to the metal one that had been on display in the meeting earlier.
Narumi shivered as he looked down upon the mark on his shoulder. He saw it everyday and he would continue to do so, but that did not make things any better. It was a stark, tangible reminder of an ugly past and tainted hands. Some things were better left alone. Oh! He would not begin to count the sheer number of people who would be shocked at the skeletons in his closet.
He defensively pulled himself away from Persona's prying hands as he unsuccessfully tried to cover his bare shoulder.
It made Persona laugh, a cold and soft little laugh. " You know, hiding it isn't going to make it go away…in fact, there's no way it's going"
Narumi bristled, " Stay away from me, Persona…I mean it""I wasn't the one who came here for explanations you know, you were! If you can explain that," he pointed at the tattoo, "then maybe I can explain this."
"I had nothing to do with it. I can prove it!"
After a while Persona spoke, " You don't have to prove anything to me. I know you weren't responsible for this one. I checked the special surveillance cameras. I know exactly what you were doing at the time the theft took place and hours prior to it. I further know that you could not have accessed the data, simply because the new pass codes have not been handed over to all the faculty."
Narumi expelled a painful breath, " You don't trust me…"" I can afford to trust no one, Narumi. You are not the only suspect here, but know that you are being watched."
" I keep telling you, I did nothing here…I… "
"That" Persona pointed at the tattoo peeking between Narumi's fingers, " does not look like nothing to me. In fact, it never did."
On hearing this, Narumi slumped against the wall. His head had not truly registered what Persona was telling, but it's meaning was perfectly clear. Persona did not trust him. He wasn't forgiven. Hell! He hadn't even forgiven himself for it, but he was making up for lost chances. He was trying to make up. Even if it took an entire lifetime, he intended to make up for what he had lost and caused others to loose. But, his past suddenly rearing its ugly help only hindered his path to self-forgiveness.
Slowly he raised his head and spoke, his voice think with painful memories, " I…I understand…I just thought you should know…I wanted to make sure you know" he stopped, old pain clouding his eyes. "…I have a lot of blood on my hands and my conscience and I know nothing will remove it, but I want you to know that…that I'd never let anything endanger this school or its students…they mean a lot to me…they…she…she's all I have."
" So long as you know…" Persona's voice held the authoritative note of dismissal.
Narumi bowed his head in a gesture of farewell and turned and walked out of the room. He went back slowly through the winding doors and corridors. As he walked looking through the windows, he saw gardens and tall cherry blossom trees pass him by. On reaching the last and largest window of the corridor, he stood there, the fading sunlight highlighting the darker shades of gold in his hair. His blue eyes rested on the last tree in the garden from where an old blue swing hung. Two little girls played on it, each taking turns to swing the other. He smiled, in spite of himself. The garden swing and sakura blossoms always made him think of her.
Flashback"Higher Narumi, higher…" her voice had always been music to him.
"Yaaaa…."
They were lying in the garden, hand in hand. "Look, the stars are so bright, Narumi. Daddy always told me that there were angels in the stars and that they sang and danced. Do they, huh, Narumi, do they?" he had merely nodded. The stars may have been bright but she was the brightest of the lot to him. Her bright, big brown eyes and beautiful smile. He could have stayed like that forever. But, forever rarely existed…"Narumi, you slow poke…come on…"
"I'm coming, I'm coming…"
"Look at the camera, idiot, smile…say cheese…" she had held his hand and dragged him into the picture. He had never forgotten how beautiful she had looked in it. It seemed, neither had somebody else.
"Narumi, what do you think of Shido…he asked me out. Is he nice? I mean, he sure looks cute…" that was the first time he'd seen her blush like that, her cheeks were rosy and her eyes had a new sparkle to them. He, for one never had that effect on her.
Six moths later…
"Oh…I'm so sorry Narumi, but I really promised Shido I'd go with him…maybe some other time, ok?" her smile was so blindingly beautiful…
3 years later…
"Dance with me Narumi…?" her voice was soft and her eyes warm. But, it was a different type of warmth, unlike the one Shido got to savour.
" I have something to tell you…", she said. He knew what it was, but he nodded anyway and so he held her tight in his arms as he danced, knowing that it was the last time he would get to hold her in them.
" He asked me, Narumi…I said yes…I'm going to marry him…" He could only nod dumbly.
Her eyes had stopped dancing then and her soft hands had lifted his face. "I know Narumi…" was all that she had said. So, she had known that she was the one who held his heart, the reason he refused to even look at another woman. But, then she had always known things like that. To her, he was an open book. But, she had never meant to hurt him and in her eyes, he could see her question.
So he agreed. After all, he had never been able to deny her anything…his love for her had been like that. It ate him from inside to know that it was the same love that had killed her, as she lay in his arms, drenched in her blood and writhing in pain. But, even in her semi-conscious state, she had muttered one word over and over again…
"Shido…"
But, his last memory of her was always so beautiful…dressed in a yellow sundress, flowers in her hair; she had come running to meet him. That was when he had seen the slight bulge in her tummy.
"Your going to be an uncle, Narumi"…he had smiled when she had said that, when he actually wanted to rip apart something and howl that he wanted to play daddy.
She had placed his hand over the slight swell of her tummy, her face glowing, and she had whispered, " I hope it's a girl, one with lovely brown curls and big brown eyes…"
He never forgot that. But, he did remember something when years later, a little 10 year old girl came searching for her best friend, a little 10 year old girl, with lovely brown curls and big brown eyes, not to mention a tantalisingly familiar smile.
End flashback.
The children finished their play and ran indoors as the silent man watching them moved on, a little faster this time, intent on reaching his destination.
Footsteps echoed in the hall and grew in volume as they neared the big room. Soon, the footsteps stopped and the large oak doors to the hall opened, revealing a tall handsome man with blond hair falling over his face. His face held the cheery smile that people associated with his nature, but his deep blue eyes were another story.
There was just one occupant in the room and she, currently had her back turned to the door. The fading lights of dusk shone through the partially curtained windows to outline the slender figure of a petite brunette, soft curls spilling over her shoulders as the evening lights put an ethereal glow in her kind caramel eyes. On hearing the door open, she turned around, a soft smile lighting up her face at the sight of the man there. She had been waiting for him, these past few hours.
"Father…" she murmured, her happy whisper dying at the sight of the barely concealed pain in those blue eyes.