CHAPTER 1: Hotaru is leaving!
The turtle carrying the mail ambled towards Mikan. Its feet wobbled and giving up, the mechanical turtle tumbled to the ground. Mikan glanced at it in surprise. Why had Hotaru sent her a mail? It just didn't seem like her. She scratched her head, deciding, then bent down to take the mail. Unrolling the white parchment, it read "I'm going away to another school, Gakuen Alice in Tokyo. "Goodbye" and an untidy scrawl of her signature. Mikan bit her lower lip. When was Hotaru leaving?
She sprinted to Hotaru's house which was a mere 5 minutes walk away, but what seemed a long distance now that she was anxious to get there. Panting heavily, she approached the grand terrace house and saw a black limousine parked right outside the gate and Hotaru walking to it, carrying her bagpack while a man in a smart black suit carried her luggage behind her.
"Hotaru! You idiot! How can you move away without telling me earlier!" Mikan shrieked, clearly upset. Then she started bawling...hard.
Without warning, Mikan aimed a flying kick at Hotaru's head. Hotaru caught Mikan's feet with her palm and Mikan crashed unceremoniously onto the ground.
Hotaru stared at Mikan expressionlessly with her clear, sapphire blue eyes."You are so noisy, Mikan. If I told you earlier, you would have sniveled for ages and you even have snot when you cry. It's gross. Anyway, I'll come back to visit so you don't have to act as though I'm going to die." Hotaru smiled wistfully. Mikan bounded into Hotaru's open arms and they hugged tightly for a moment, then, Hotaru prised Mikan's stiff arms from herself, waved and stepped into the limousine.
Mikan watched the limousine drive away until it was completely beyond her sight. Still rigid, she sat in the middle of the road, tears streaming down her face.
"I didn't want to transfer Hotaru to Gakuen Alice, Mikan." Hotaru's mother, Mdm Imai told Mikan gently. "She has to go to that school. It was only a matter of time that she would be invited there. Because of her technology talents. And I haven't seen my son for a decade since I put him in that school when he was four." This time, Mdm Imai sounded bitter, her voice very coarse, as if she was on the verge of crying.
Sure enough, when Mikan looked up, Mdm Imai's eyes were red and watery, her cheeks flushed. It seemed that Hotaru suggested that she herself should attend Gakuen Alice. But what kind of school was it and why would Hotaru willingly transfer to that school, a school meant for geniuses?
Mikan embraced the now sobbing Mdm Imai. Mikan empathized with her greatly.
Mdm Imai did not want to lose her child again. And Mikan certainly did not want to lose her one and only best friend.
Without Hotaru, Mikan was very miserable and lonely. Hotaru was her first ever best friend in school. She could not stand her classmates around her who were enjoying themselves with their friends. Now, she daydreamed in class daily, for school was no fun at all when she was alone.
What if I leave and go after Hotaru? What if Hotaru is lonely? She shook her head. No, she shouldn't think such thoughts. But Hotaru doesn't know how to socialise with others. She could also be in misery like I am.
Mikan gnashed her teeth, in a dilemma. Should she meet Hotaru or stay here and wait for Hotaru to visit at the end of her school term? She made her decision and smiled gleefully.
At midnight, she packed a bundle of her favourite items like her beloved teddy bear, a few sets of clothing and her toiletries. Stealthily, she creeped into her Grandfather's room and took away his life-savings leaving behind only a letter in the savings' place.
He'll check and find the letter. After all, he counted his accumulating wealth everyday. With a last look at Oji-san's peaceful sleeping face, Mikan escaped into the night.
Mikan had ran to the train station. Trudging to the train station counter, she used Grandpa's money to buy a train ticket to Tokyo. Then she waited anxiously for the train. It was then that Mikan noticed that it was so very dark and she was completely alone. She closed her eyes for a good twenty minutes until she heard the train arrive. The train screeched to a flawless halt with one of the train doors right in front of her.
This is it. She was leaving her home to look for Hotaru. There is no turning back now. Thinking this, she hoisted herself up into the train and the train was off in a churn of smoke.
Choosing a well-lit seat, she glanced nervously around the close-to-empty cabins around her, not daring to close her eyes. She huddled into a corner of the seat. Mikan felt so very afraid as she realised that this was the first time that she had sat in the train by herself. Looking at the peaceful blue-black sky, it was impossible that so many things had happened. But they did. Resting her head on her folded arms on the window pane sil, Mikan fell asleep unknowingly, mentally and physically exhausted as she was.
Mikan awoke in darkness. She tried to move her head to look around. But she couldn't as she felt a tug at her neck and her skin felt hot and raw. She then tried moving her limbs which had just awoken. They were too stiff and she felt the same stinging sensation. Mikan realized that she had been bounded, so tight that she couldn't move an inch.
Why had somebody kidnapped her?