Arcane

Summary: "Known or understood by very few; mysterious; secret; obscure; esoteric"
In Gakuen Alice, everybody thought that the Academy was safe, a sanctuary. In reality, it was far from it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice, never have, never will.

Chapter 1

"Natsume!"

Natsume Hyuuga, Fire Alice, twisted his head towards the source of the voice. His bored crimson eyes immediately narrowed and he felt a low growl building up deep within his throat. He turned back and continued on his way. A Hyuuga never stopped for anyone, as it has always been in his life, his father's life and his father's before that. That was the tradition, and it has never been broken.

"Wait up, man!"

A young blonde ran towards the above mentioned boy as his feet pounded on the concrete floor, disturbing the peace that was established since a few hours ago. "Why didn't you stop? Oh wait, the tradition. Right, stupid, I am. Hey, I just want to talk to you about the-" The blonde broke off mid-sentence when the young Fire Alice turned his head and turned on the glare full throttle. "What did I-Wait, this isn't about yesterday right? 'Cos if it is, I already said I was sorry!"

Natsume let out the growl that he was holding back and spat through his teeth, "Don't talk to me, Nogi."

Ruka Nogi, Animal Pheromone Alice, threw back his head and laughed at his best friend. He was one of the rare few who were not afraid of the notorious Fire Alice, for he had known Natsume since they were in diapers. And that he was his second-in-command.

"Natsume! Ruka!"

Mikan Sakura, Nullifying and Stealing/Insertion Alice, was one of the few. Disregarding the fact that she had given him a black eye the first day she arrived, she was the closest to Natsume, save for Ruka. One could say that she was his second best friend.

Natsume halted in his step.

Natsume Hyuuga never stopped for anyone.

He cast her side-long glance which took in more than it should. He noticed that she was wearing her uniform, freshly pressed and properly worn. She had let her long chocolate hair down, he noticed, and some makeup too. He narrowed his eyes for the nth time that day and questioned bluntly, "What did you do?"

Mikan blushed pink and immediately defended herself, "Narumi forced me! He said that as long as I let Serina-sensei do what she wants to me, he would not put me as Juliet in the Annual Fall Play."

"You look ug-"

"You look good, Mikan." Ruka smiled charmingly then threw a glare at his best friend, which was clearly chastising him.

Mikan thanked the blonde then asked, "What were you guys talking about just now?"

"Oh, nothing. Just talking about yesterday, you know, the incident." Ruka dramatically dropped his tone, as though he was talking about a forbidden topic.

Mikan laughed as she hit her fuming best friend on the back then said, "Come on, you dork! It was just a video game! I lose to you, Ruka, Hotaru and Youichi all the time!"

"Because you suck at the game, that's why."

Mikan laughed harder at his straight-forward reply and felt tears forming as Natsume growled a promise to Ruka.

"Rematch and I will win you this time."

Ruka merely chuckled at the Fire Alice's irritation then shifted his attention to Mikan. "So Mikan, what are you here for?"

The Nullifier seemed to snap back at that and hurried out an instruction. "Oh, I totally forgot, Smith told us to meet in the briefing room at 2. Hotaru will be there first as she needs to inspect all the surveillance cameras."

"O-kay... We may need to hurry because it's 3 minutes to 2 and the briefing room is all the way on the other side of the Academy."

"Shit! Come on, you two. Grab my hand, hurry! Oh, Natsume, you're such a pain!" Mikan hurriedly grabbed onto a scowling Natsume's hand and pulled out a light blue Alice stone from a necklace hung around her neck. She closed her eyes and her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. The Alice stone glowed and in a flash, they were gone. What was left was a lingering blue glow which was slowing fading away.

Abrupt ending and short, I know, sigh. Really tired, 1.55 on the clock now. Lucky it's the weekends. Regarding my other story, Masquerade, I deleted it cus I felt that it was going nowhere. Changed my pen name too. Thought of this while in the shower, have no idea what's gonna happen. Oh well, we'll cross the bridge when we get to it. Btw, they're all in their second-year of HS and Persona won't be in this story cus I don't like him. HAH, kidding but there still won't be Persona. So, review please?