Disclaimer: Tachibana Higuchi owns Gakuen Alice and all of its characters.
Note: This is during the years Izumi taught at Alice Academy although this plot solely revolves around Rei Serio, infamously known as Persona.
Dedication: This is dedicated to the soldiers who died for Australia's freedom although it is a tad late and the story has very little relevance to the day itself.
There are streams of sunlight creeping between the rusting bars, creating a pattern of black and white stripes on the cold cement.
He opens his black eyes to take a peek through the barricading bars but nothing has changed. There are seldom any students found near the dark, dark place – a title the students had childishly named it despite how true it was. He grimaces because he knows that it is a dark, dark place due to his unearthly presence occupying the area.
There is nothing special about this dark, dark place, but he cannot help but think there is something different about it – different to how everyone who have heard the rumours interpreted it.
He hears the crunching sound of footsteps making contact with the grass and cannot help but wrinkle his nose in disdain. It is the sound of a dragon grinding on the bones of a prince charming attempting to rescue Sleeping Beauty.
He likes to think his imagination takes him far in life beyond the rusting bars of Death.
The sound of footsteps on untamed grass grew closer and closer. His breathing grows irregular and shallow from innocent fear that this naive person is going to lose their life today - just like that prince charming.
"Rei..." the voice is tender and gentle, unlike the woman who had given Death to him.
It was ironic, really. The woman who was given the title of mother had not gifted him with true life - instead, it was the curse of Death. The curse that blackened his sight despite only reaching the age of seven on this very day.
"Rei..." the voice snapped his black eyes open to peer through the rusting bars.
His eyes dilated from the sight before him.
"I'm coming down now, so wait for me!" the man announced boldly as if the boy's hands did not hold a curse that could strike you to the ground. The sound of keys clashing against each other in an attempt to open the barricaded wooden door woke the boy in his state of surprise. It is the sound of prince charming (who had survived the wrath of the dragon) opening the door of the room in the highest tower.
As the door opened to reveal a disheveled teacher, light clothed the dark, dark place but it did not affect the boy because his sight was blackened enough not to squint.
"I thought I told you to get lost." The boy's voice was chilling to the bone but the teacher did not quiver.
"I thought I told you I would save you from the dragon."
And for that hairbreadth of a second, the boy could see light.
I know the description of some sounds are related to Shrek - but I wanted to generalise it into a broader subject matter by putting it under the category of Sleeping Beauty since Fiona is asleep. The description of prince charming and Sleeping Beauty are supposed to reflect Rei's innocence which is ironic because he can literally and has killed people with his Alice, but he is still a seven year-old so I wanted to portray him in a more innocent way. If you couldn't guess, the teacher was Izumi. If you read the manga, I'm sure you would've seen the scene where Rei grabbed onto Imai's ankle in this dungeon, so yeah.
I have four exams during Monday and Tuesday so wish me luck! These will be my last exams for the rest of the year and I am literally about to pee my pants off from the thought, lol.
~I've Perfected Imperfection.