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Prologue: Happy Times
"Hey Shadow! Wait up!" The sweet voice of a little girl piped up between small breaths. The girl looked to be no older than five years old, with her youthful hazel eyes shining with innocence. Brown pigtails swinging in the breeze, the young girl ran towards a young wolf cub, who had decided to grab one of her hair ties while she was not looking and had run off with it.
"Shadow! Come back here!" the youngster said as she continued to run after her pet, but still the wolf playfully stayed ahead of her. Anyone would have been annoyed at the fact that their pet had taken something of theirs, but for this young girl it didn't matter. It was the pure fun and joy of her Shadow and her teasing antics that got her smiling.
But while it was happy times as always for her, little did Mikan Sakura know, that it wouldn't last forever, and things were bound to change soon…
Chapter 1: Sad Death, New Beginning
5 years later
"Wh-why?! Wh-why did she have to go?" Mikan continued to sob as her granddad held her in his arms. He could feel the tears of his granddaughter on his shirt sleeve but he let her use it as a tissue anyway. The two people were standing near a freshly-dug grave bed in silence. On the small gravestone embedded in the ground, a statement was inscribed:
Here lays Shadow, a loving wolf
Grandpa thought his words through carefully as he felt the tears well up in his eyes. How could he tell a ten-year old like Mikan about death?
"Mikan, death is meant to happen, whenever you like it or not. But in this case… you know what Shadow did; and for that I'm eternally grateful to her. But this is unfortunate…"
The two stood in silence again, with Mikan still crying. Before they knew it, it was time to go, and the two started to head back home.
While walking home, a black limo rolled up next to the pair and stopped in front of them, blocking their path. Grandpa did not like the look of the car at all.
As the door opened a tall man with very good looks stepped out of the car. The man was about 27 years old with short blonde hair and deep blue eyes. Within the face was a giant smile that could make even the saddest person happy. Still smiling, he shut the car door and leaned on the car. He gave the pair a friendly wave.
"Hello there! My name is Narumi and I'm here on behalf of Alice Academy."
Once Narumi said those last two words Grandpa's gaze hardened. He then pushed Mikan behind him and told him he has no business here.
"Mikan, I need you to run as fast and as far away from here as you can, ok?" Grandpa said under his breath, his stern glare never faltering. Mikan sniffled the last of her tears away and nodded wordlessly before turning around to run in the opposite direction. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a boy around her age exit the car. He wore a mask that reassembled a black cat, but that was all she could observe of him before he started tailing her as she ran away.
The chase was on.
Mikan continued to run, willing herself not to cry again. She had been through enough tears today; there was no need for more. Forcing herself to stay on track, she ran towards the one place she knew and loved; the lake.
Sometime later, the ten-year old child arrived at the lake. With its sparkling features and simplicity, it was one of the town's pride and joy. But there was no time to think about that; taking deep breaths, Mikan paused near the bank of the lake and swiftly looking behind her. I think I lost him…who was that?
Then suddenly, the black cat boy jumped out in front of her, scaring her.
"Who are you!?" Mikan managed to say, but she got no answer.
He slowly began to walk towards her and she could make out his clothes in the setting sun. He had black shoes, top and shorts on but from how his sleeves on his shirt were you could tell he had worked out.
Mikan turned around, only to see no escape. The boy was in front of her, and Narumi and many more men in black suits were surrounding her on either side. He held his hand out to her, which seemed to be hurt, and asked her to come with him. Mikan however, did not want to go with this man. She didn't even know who he is!
Just then she felt funny, as if she was falling asleep. As Mikan began to feel faint, she heard a girl's voice that was sweet as sugar whisper in her mind, "Don't worry, I'll protect you."
At those words, Mikan let her eyes fall shut, her mind completely blank.
When she awakened, the sun was rising and she was lying on a branch high atop a tree overlooking the lake she had tried to run to earlier. While she seemed to remember that part, everything else after that remained hazy in her memories.
What happened?! Where's Grandpa? And why am I up-
Mikan looked down and her eyes widned.
…here?!
Startled, she fell off the branch and down the tree. After getting up and dusting the dirt off her clothes, she then realized that she had left her grandpa back with those people.
She ran as fast as her legs could take her and found herself right back where she started.
She looked around shouting "Grandpa! Grandpa! if you can hear me please answer!"
Just then, she saw some boys from her school running towards her. They informed her that her Grandpa was in hospital and to come with them. Shocked, Mikan followed them, wondering what was wrong with her grandpa.
As she approached a hospital bed, she could see a bruised and battered old man lying on the bed. Tears formed in Mikan's hazel eyes as she could see that her grandpa did not look very well, as if he had been in a fight.
When she picked up his hand, he began to stir.
"Grandpa, are you alright?" Mikan asked with a worried face, the tears still standing in her eyes. He opened his eyes right up and saw the tears start to spill down her small pale cheeks. He raised his hand and wiped them away with a smile on his face.
"Mikan… I need to tell you something very important, so listen well," Grandpa managed to crock out in a tired voice as his eyes showed sadness. "You have a special power called an Alice and those men last night were here to take you to a special school for Alice people."
Mikan just nodded as Grandpa went on. He told her how her mother had an Alice and how if you go to that school you can never return.
As he was speaking this, his heart beat went down. Weakly, he told her that he loves her and that she needs to pick her own life path and not what others say it is.
When his eyes were closed for good, only then did Mikan fully release her sorrow. Saddened by this latest event, she let the tears of grief give way.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
The day Grandpa died was a sad day for all, as the village was small and everyone knew him. Everyone came to the funeral the next day. The only thing on most of the people's minds was where Mikan was going to live. As for Mikan, she had to wonder why so many sad things were happening to her. Everyone was dying for her it seemed, which made her feel even worse.
Everyone she loved was gone. Her parents left when she was a child and now her Grandpa was dead. As she headed back home, she remembered her best friend Hotaru. All she could remember about her now was that she went to some school.
She rushed in to her room and disappeared under her bed. She then came out with a small shoebox that had the words 'Precious Things' written on the top.
She opened it and pulled out an envelope with 'To Mikan' on it. Inside was a letter. In the letter it said:
To Mikan,
I'm doing fine. I've been getting your letters. Sorry that I've only been able to write this back but I have been busy with school.
Here's a picture of my school.
From Hotaru
Looking at that photo, Mikan then knew where she could go and live.
Meanwhile at Alice academy
"Good morning class!" said the same blonde haired guy, Narumi.
"Good morning Mr. Narumi!" chorused the class which looked about Mikan's age. They were doing many weird tricks like one guy was flying while a girl was making cookies that talked.
As they sat down the door slammed open and in walk the famous Natsume. Everyone turned and looked at him then at Narumi. They both had bandages all over their bodies.
One girl raised her hand. She asked, "Mr. Narumi why are you and my love, Natsume, all bandaged up?" As you might have guessed it's none other then the cat-dog Alice user Sumire.
Narumi looked at the class then at Natsume. Natsume just gave him an "Hn" then put his manga over his face.
"Well class, you know how it took this academy about four years to catch Natsume, well it's taken us your whole life to get this one girl."
Everyone looked surprised at those words, even Natsume looked up from his manga. "You see, we finally found her last night and when we went to get her I brought Natsume along. But her grandpa protected her and she ran off. But I sent Natsume after her. Soon when I caught up she attacked us then ran off."
The whole class was shocked that a girl could beat Natsume. After that it was the only thing they talked about as Mr. Narumi left saying it was a free class.
So that's the end of the (edited) first chapter.
What do you guys think?
Please review.
Oh yeah Ha Ha Narumi and Natsume you got bet by a girl.
Authors Note: Thanks to my awesome beta Mysterious Angel Girl, this chapter has been redone with detail.