Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice.
Claimer: This fan fiction and all errors it might contain are mine.
This an entry to Hilaire'sGAFFC#2: The Casting of an Irrevocable Spell. The prompt is to portray Hotaru Imai as a most original sorceress/witch who has casts spells/creates potions/does whatever is said in the literary/mythological contexts.
The Onyx Chain
Summary: Hotaru has two choices. One is to accept Persona's offer to help her with her new sorcery powers, in which she wants absolutely no part of, her second option though is to protect Ruka with the help of her 'powers' from the danger she put herself into. Well, easy answer. Unfortunately, she wasn't aware of her two choices until it was too late to change her answer.
There is an old cryptic saying, that a sorcerer will emerge from the darkness and once again manipulate the medieval treasures seen only by the great legends: the Horned King of Prydain, King Arthur, and even Tristan and Iseult. Whosoever does inherit this power by several possible variations, will take possession of the Onyx Chain.
Levitation, Recreation, Transformation and much more…
It is only now that a certain girl has discovered her control of it all.
Ever since the first few breaths of her metal machinery scented dorm room, she knew something was afoot. As she blinked her eyes open to the morning sunshine that flashed immediately into her room through the open window neighboring her bedside, she knew of the obvious aura that differentiated that morning with the last time she aroused from bed. She lifted herself to a comfortable sitting height and rubbed her eyes with the back of her palm, scrunching her eyes closed in her usual drowsiness.
With her dry tongue lashing out against her gums though she couldn't think straight. So as she was about to order the dorm's ever-so-loyal robot for some filtered water, she stopped short.
There, floating amidst the air a few feet from our heroine was a transparent glass of milk.
The young girl kicked off the white blanket that had recently occupied her, trotted over to the ghostly object and cupped her small hands around the drink, taking it naturally.
Her face was in a stoical manner even with the mysterious liquid sliding down her throat. One thing she knew, it was definitely not poisonous. She wiped off the white mustache gathering above her lip and stared at the glass dully.
"Interesting…" she had to admit, tilting the cup over and over in a deep observation. Unfortunately, the blank cup did nothing to light her expectations.
Without warning, her grip on the antique had slipped off, sending it falling into a shattered possibility.
"Stop" she whispered calmly, testing her own predictions. At her words, the cup stopped its crash abruptly in mid-air.
"Just as I thought" she concluded, bending down to pick up the frozen empty glass from its place.
With this, her idea was without doubt. SHE had made the glass appear. SHE made it freeze in place. SHE was the one who has the ability for it.
This peculiar discovery has just won her down a dangerous route to life, one of which she was fairly unaware of.
So that's how Hotaru Imai found out, that she had mystic 'powers' that is. Problem was…she didn't have precise authority over it.
Thus, she decided to spend the entire weekend, deep within the forest right next to the Academy, practicing her castings and control over it. It was much easier with a pen-high timbered pole in her hands to help conduct her 'magic'; she also needed to say some direct word commands to assist with direction. Her difficulty though was the gibberish words she had to pronounce to complete some of the castings.
Believe it or not, the new gifted 'powers' were not much to her liking, it took too much of her time and effort to master. She had to miss class on Monday for the same purpose; it was giving her a massive headache. Her powers always required a dominant amount of her energy so after the first few seconds of practice, she drops to the floor to regain her loss.
Magic over lessons? She mused at how she'd get honor student this time.
"Imai?" came a curious voice behind her. It had already reached the middle of the day and she was drop-dead exhausted. She didn't have time for this, especially with that migraine she still had going on. "Not now, I'm busy"
"But you were absent today and… wait, what are you doing with that stick?" Hotaru raised the stick to her eye level and turned to the person.
"Its for…this machine I'm working on, I'm just collecting them for it, I need about…ten or so" she lied of course. Who would believe that someone woke up with 'powers' or 'magic' and that same person is trying to restraint it from going out-of-control? Technically, it sounded a bit retarded.
Hotaru blinked, realizing who she had been conversing with all along, Ruka Nogi. A boy she had been classmates with for years if counted.
Strangely though, his looks were dissimilar from his last appearance to her. Other than the missing rabbit he usually carried along, he had longer boy-cut blond locks brushing against his aquamarine orbs, his skin oddly tanner with a little glow at each side, his height only a few inches taller compared to her and his other features...well, the same…all the same.
It hit Hotaru right away of his altering face elements; one word described it all… Puberty.
"What are you doing out here anyway, Nogi?"
"Mikan asked me to go look for you, since she's worried about you but she cant because of her make-up classes for her failing grades" Hotaru sighed, recalling Mikan's difficulty in understanding concepts well.
"Figures, even magic couldn't help morons"
"What did you say?"
"Nothing…"
Hotaru didn't have much of a choice. Ruka had been very persistent in detecting the real reason to her occupation in the woods, not convinced with her ideal yet fake excuse earlier.
She even went through all the trouble to actually picking up ten sticks in hopes of persuasion but much to her dismay he wasn't fooled, he even assisted in the collection to make sure she really DOES go home to start the built of her machine.
Even her other strategy, one that lead her to being stubborn and cold towards him, this failed quickly for he just kept asking and asking. Annoyingly persistent, just like Mikan.
As the sky reached its midnight darkness and a full moon ascended above, the two still remained. Same place, same companions.
"I'll wait all night until you tell me" he reminded, making his words undeniable facts. Hotaru grunted in defeat, plopping onto the grass all ten of the gathered wooden sticks.
"Fine, I'll tell you, but-"
she was rudely interrupted by a sudden flash of light and odd scribblings carving itself slowly onto a tree neighboring the two. Ruka took notice of it too; it was of a golden color and in a strange medieval language. One line down, two to its right...Four lines diagonal...One line horizontal, three to its bottom...etc.
"wh…wha…what the heck is that?" the animal lover panicked, his head shifting from the tree to Hotaru frequently.
"I'm surprised you don't know, Nogi…it's a tree"
"I know that its tree! It's the writing I'm panicking about!" she shrugged her shoulders at the hyperventilating boy, approaching the tree in such a calm fashion, her dark violet eyes flashing. Forthwith, words came crawling out of her mouth involuntarily.
"De…Loc…Von…Cher…Zen…Mier…" the words were even worse in their level of vocabulary than the gibberish ones practiced recently. Her voice blended in smoothly with the tone and style though as the fauna continued its influence on her. Ruka stared at the commotion, dumbfounded but did not attempt any questions.
Hotaru finished the chanting quickly, confused herself on what just occurred.
What were those words? Were those even considered words? What was with that tree? And the writing on it too? Does it have something to do with Hotaru's new powers? What's going on with her anyway? Was it just new Alice all along? Or was it something more?
The interrogative phrases kept coming unanswered to Hotaru even if she was a typical genius. She did not feel the least bit ashamed about her minimal knowledge on the subject though.
Her deep contemplation was shrewdly delayed by the low rumblings coming from underground. The ground shook maniacally under her feet as cracks started to appear beneath her feet.
An earthquake? No, it was too sudden.
Vines below the surface began warping around the one tree embellished with golden symbols. As briskly as it came up though, the green ropes tightened their hold around the tree and pulled it downward as if it was a famished burrowing rabbit after an over-sized carrot.
In place of the tree, something dark broke through the surface with such amazing ease. The exact same words from the fauna engraved onto its front and two handles cemented to its sides, a large bowl crashing through the ground cracks... A Black Cauldron.
The big mixing bowl tilted slightly to the side, crumbling down the dirt land it interacted with.
All Hotaru could do was narrow her eyes at the scene, dust flying into her eyes but even that didn't change her blank look. This surprised Ruka, who had eventually fallen over and was now half wounded on the ground. The poor boy was scared stiff, his mouth open and his eyes bursting as big as saucers.
"What's going on?" Ruka managed to muster, pulling himself together.
"Imai, stay away from that thing!"
"She unfortunately can't resist" that voice.
The same voice that was used constant times to torture his best friend, the same voice feared by all the rebelling students who even tried, the voice that Ruka had hated.
"Persona" he glared
"What are you doing here?" Ruka was proven correct.
For sure, there stood a pale man dressed in black and in dozens of accessories; the most fearsome of his get-up though was the sharp white half-mask he used to hide his facial features.
"You have interfered for far too long, it is Hotaru's destiny to fulfill her duties as a sorceress" Ruka assumed Persona did not planned to answer his previous question but he thrust that idea aside momentarily, concentrating on the man's words.
"Sorceress? What are you-"
"you are indeed one of the most annoying students I have ever had a problem with…you have bothered my plans for both Natsume and Hotaru-san, for this you must be punished" Persona pointed a long blunt jet-black nail at Ruka, the boy in turn narrowed his eyes in detestation.
Something in the shade of purple slithered from around Persona's finger sequenced as headless snakes, heading straight for Ruka's vulnerable state. It stabbed his chest like a knife and unnecessarily screwed itself further into his skin. He fell backward at the critical impact, scarlet cells sliming down the hole drilled into his ribcage. He held his abdomen, without the knowledge that his blood would ooze out like squeezing ketchup down the base of his chin.
After a little peek at the scene, Hotaru strolled over to Ruka's front and stretched her arms wide to the sides in protection for the boy. That was all she could do, there was no way she matched up against Persona.
"Get out of the way, Hotaru…he is just a bug in your way to become the greatest sorceress of the century" Hotaru's bangs masked her expression, was it anger or sadness? Nobody knew. The tensing aura colliding between the two people were at its max negativity.
If people knew Hotaru, she would never pass on a chance as great as this, it would give her unlimited power over everything and yet…she just couldn't accept it.
"Stop me if you can…" with that finally said, she disappeared along with Ruka and the Cauldron.
"Wher…Where am I?" Ruka surveyed the area in disbelief.
It was Black. All Black.
There he had been marked in the darkness like a luminous light beside an unconscious Hotaru, who had collapsed after the transport, and the strange Black Cauldron which had almost dissolved in color.
Now, if he had been scared stiff the other time then he was probably dying of a phobia right about now. Fortunately thanks to Hotaru's sacrificial spirit, he felt normal…whole…healed…
Actually literally healed, the hole supposedly above his natural male abdominal muscle paused its bleeding, looking more like a scar than a fatal hit. Taking a large inhale of oxygen, if that was really the considerable gas inside this secret abyss, he was ready for anything.
He had to be a man when it came to situations like these. Ruka decided at least to act like it for once rather than the bashful fearful one he's always been. With that pledge, he was motivated.
First thing he concluded to start with was kneeling down to Hotaru's form on the blank floor, feeling for her pulse and examining her faint condition. He could tell she was very much alive, much to his relief.
Next thing he did was brush through the Black Cauldron. Sure, he couldn't read that kind of a language on its front side but he knew what these bowls were usually for.
So…he decided to test it out.
Hotaru's eyes fluttered open, a hot steamy aroma entering her nasal cavity. She forced herself up and searched for the alluring scent, even as she was aware of the dark room she had taken shelter in. Her headache had gotten into the worst circumstances imaginable. It was peculiar though; the smell drove it away as her usual point of view of things started to wither.
Her eyes immediately reached Ruka from behind the Cauldron, a fire constructed under the magical bowl, a sheepish grin weirdly curled up along her face at the plain view.
"Ah…Luka-pyon… you look so handsome today…" 'Luka-pyon?' Hotaru's real thoughts shook instinctively.
"Luka-pyon? What are you calling me that for, Imai?" her body wobbled up, leaning against the Cauldron for support.
"I'm talking about how nicely you've hit puberty and how that name is just so cute on you" 'I think I'm gonna' puke' Hotaru objected, strangling herself mentally. It actually made notice of the puberty thing she saw earlier, how enchanting.
"Don't…you…think…so?" at each word, her hand ran up his shirt one finger at a time.
"Ok, what do you want now?" Ruka mistook it as a motive to get what she wanted but Hotaru knew herself, she would never use THOSE kinds of methods. She tried many times to break through the spell, nothing was overcome successfully.
"That…thing you're making…is a love potion and I've just been caught under its spell" her voice managed to crack through a bit but it was the only thing she was able to take authority on rather than bother on overcoming ideas. She prayed Ruka would understand and he did but not the way she wanted precisely, more into the sarcastic mode of her sentence.
"Imai, your…in love with me?" he flushed causing the hot blood to rise to his cheeks at such a fascinating pace. Hotaru blushed in an even redder color in comparison, it wasn't the elixir working its magic though, it was the genuine Hotaru pressing the color shamefully.
"N…y…no…ye…" she stammered in protest, trying her best to abrupt the confession the potion affected her mind with. It was getting messy up there but she couldn't give in, if she even let a finger loose, her demand on everything might be eliminated, leaving her insane self on a terrible rampage. Her powers weren't reacting at all, as it was designed only limited.
Who knew a Love Potion could drive you this helpless? She was about to begin a spontaneous new strategy when Ruka all of a sudden spoke up.
"Its ok" he smiled
"I also feel the same way to" Hotaru barely lent an ear to what was mentioned, when she finally acknowledged the existence of his words, she was struck temporarily with speech impediment.
"Ever since I met you, I knew you were…special, you always tried to humiliate me and make fun of me and yet…you treated me differently unlike the other girls I've met and I think…" as the complements and/or insults rolled in, Hotaru was put on one of those pressuring points in life, deciding on what should be done next was one of the hardest things she had to accomplish yet.
"I think…I like you"
"The potion got to you too?" Ruka gave a questioning glance at the serious girl, her expression altering surprisingly.
"Enough of this, I'm tired of that Love Potion fooling around in here" Hotaru grumbled, her anger allowing order over all of her nerves. She reproduced a lighted stick from beneath the bubbling Cauldron and held it above her.
"Nocre…Don!"
She did it. She stopped the spreading of the Potion's gas. Even if it did turn out to be the smoke conduction from the brew cooking up inside the Cauldron, she was still proud of her success.
After being interrogated about it, Ruka defended that he only wanted to fish out an antidote for the series of bruises on Hotaru's limbs and legs, he claimed to have built the fire using the sticks he helped her collect from before, he hadn't dropped them like she did.
He was quite aware of his idiotic act of dunking random things from the insides of his short pockets, this included chewing gum, pencil excess, acidic cough medicine, etc. The outcome was unknown but he just HAD to do something. Hotaru rolled her eyes in disappointment at his stupidity, although secretly touched by his worry towards her but as the idea eventually registered inside her strategic mind, she discarded it pride fully. "your gonna' pay for that"
"huh? Pay for what?"
"Confessing to me, it's the biggest mistake a boy could ever do to himself, even if you were under the influence of a Love Potion, I won't make an exception" Hotaru warned, explaining Ruka's constant flinching.
"We should get out of here now; Persona should be gone at this hour"
"Wait…this was all to hide from Persona?" receiving no reply, Ruka continued with his own personal interrogation.
"What did he mean about you being a sorceress? How did we get here? How did you know that my medicine was a Love Potion? How did you even-?" Hotaru flicked the flaming torch at Ruka's direction, silencing him for a moment without his consent.
"I'm trying to figure it out myself, but as of now, lets just get out of here" Hotaru muttered, taking out the torch again. She chanted and swished, again they dispersed from the scene, the cauldron following like a magnet.
"...I thought we were going back to the Academy?"
"We were actually" Hotaru stated a bit skeptically. "maybe my gibberish translation was a little off its meaning"
True to her words; she was not at Alice Academy in which she was expected to have gone off to.
Instead, it was a vast spread of greenery in an early morning setting. A field lengthened across this greenery area with tuffs of bright turquoise tulips sprouting out from under the soil. The wind was abundant as if lifting silent murmurs to any available hearing organ. Leaves flew a path the air allowed melody into, all in one path they slid past Hotaru and Ruka.
It was peaceful and perhaps tempting but Hotaru wasn't that easily pleased. She motioned for Ruka's preparation for another transportation attempt when all of a sudden she caught sight of an eyeball.
A VERY big one at that, it levitated in the sky in position of the moon. It glared down at both of them irritably; Ruka cringed in fury, recalling the owner of a similar eye. One long look at it though and he recognized it entirely as the one he had suspected.
"That's Persona's eye!"
"Very clever, Nogi…" a voice hallowed, at the sound of it the wind began blowing harshly at the two students, Hotaru held down her mini skirt uniform as it did, Ruka adjusting his bangs.
Leaves swirled around in a twister, turning over and over until the silhouette of a man was made out. Once the little tornado finished its circling, Persona forwarded himself, his mask taped on generally.
"…but not so clever enough, you see you two are both trapped in this void I made which makes it an advantage for me" he cackled out loud, the eyeball blinking at each stated word. Ruka gently pushed Hotaru behind him and growled in clenched teeth.
"Stay away! What do you want with Imai anyway?"
"Get out of the way, Nogi! Your not part of this"
"Stop me if you can" déjà vu alerted Hotaru, although it was the other way around in terms of who was guarding who out of concern for the other.
"If you must know about my plans…well, I only wish what Hotaru wishes after all…she is a powerful sorceress; I can't do anything about that, can I?"
"I'm not a sorceress, it's just my second Alice" Hotaru never wanted to admit her being a sorceress; she predicted it would cost her plenty, in terms of quantity of her problematic.
"You don't believe me? How then were you able to cast all those spells or use sticks as wands? Or even summon the Black Cauldron by just reading something out of a tree?" she hated when people announced facts; it would always be against her if they did.
"Don't worry Hotaru-san, I know of your hatred of these newly found 'powers' so if you'd like I'll help you extract them" there was this light that clicked at the back of her mind at his offer.
It was too good to be true; of course she's not THAT naïve to believe in villains.
"Even if you'd be able to extract it, what would you do with it? If it'll be in your possession, its better I keep it than you"
"Ah, but I wont keep it in my possession, I'll give it to Nogi or Natsume…I can help you Hotaru-san, if you just let me" Hotaru glanced at Ruka with doubtful eyes, same cold face of course.
"I don't trust this guy" he whispered "You shouldn't either"
"I hate these powers. They manipulate things, yes and that is to my liking but if it would lead me to this much of a problem then I'm willing to have them taken away from me" she paused, thinking for the last time.
It was a chance. The only chance she's got to get rid of them.
"I'll do it" she added sharply
"You better not try anything or else I might have to kill you" she took a step towards Persona
"You don't trust me at all, don't you?" she proposed no answer, signaling for the essential instructions instead.
"Just stare into the moon's eye and it'll be taken out slowly" the pupil of the mentioned eye anxiously rolled over to Hotaru's form atop the brushing grass.
In an instant of eye contact, the eyeball lighted bloody red in an anonymous threat, literally trapping Hotaru's gaze. Her mind went from generally neutral to a frightening blank as she started to neglect all thoughts that relieved her of her ongoing misery. Mikan, her brother, Ruka… she couldn't even reject the fact that she added Ruka to the list.
At the final light extraction from her heart's selected desires along with her 'powers', or she presumed, Hotaru was being shoved aside. Toppling to the ground, her sane personality returned along with everything she thought she lost by the assimilation.
Ruka was right, Persona wasn't to be trusted. She stared at her savior, who took EVERYTHING for her. The pain… The thievery… The obstacle she had been through just moments ago…yet she couldn't possibly do anything about it.
The process was too shockingly fast for even her eyes to handle. She didn't know mainly, but as Ruka's own pupil had begun to sink fatally into a sea known to be his aqua blue iris, leaving him with nothing in it but the colors of blue and white, it on purposely indicated that Persona's assimilation was over.
In the end, he crumpled to the ground with a dead expression emphasized across his face, Hotaru watched with a huge amount of regret stuffed in inside her cardiac organ like a pang against it.
"That wasn't very tasty but I'd gladly take that foolish boy's life" Hotaru's eyes grew large in anger, realizing her mistake at the VERY last minute.
"Hm…lets see, should I use his energy to reactivate the Black Cauldron? Or should I just eat it up for myself?" his tongue whipped at his bottom lip, expressing his plot as either selfish gluttony or thirst for his own power.
Hotaru forced herself up from where she had fallen, her hair's front hiding her visible emotions.
"If it had been your energy, both could have been accomplished…this boy is pathetic, you should have been the sacrifice" Persona announced, stifling a laugh in insult.
"What's there left to do know? You're trapped here until I allow permit out, I control this illusion, this world…" he laughed sadistically, an evil laugh no doubt. Hotaru faced him with determined lavender orbs, raising up a tulip she plucked out earlier and holding it above her.
"Ex…Cal…I…Bur…" a golden sword was shaped at the point of the tulip. It was of an exotic design with a long pommel, and a large jeweled hilt strapped to a blade as silver as the night moon. It had its blunt end headed straight for the moon's eye like a target.
"Wait… what do you think your doing!?!?"
"I'm fixing things to a better ending"
"You little brat! You wouldn't..."
"Frankly, I don't care anymore if I really am a sorceress or if this is just a second Alice that I thought were 'powers', but…even I know... No magic is worth Ruka's life"
She quoted stoically, sending the oversized knife to its dirty work. It sliced its way to the other side like a dart drilling through its main target, the sword's pointed part drained in crimson blood.
"A rain of blood, it's quite a deserving theme for you, Persona" remarked Hotaru, red precipitation pricking the grass and watering its inhabitants, barely missing the areas of the refugees of this little prison.
"Looks like I'll have to get serious now, huh?" his face went smug, earning a disdainful glare from our infamous witch.
He indicated the presence of the black boiler, known as the Cauldron, dashing for it; he channeled cerulean energy into it. Hotaru heard a moan come from it; she presumed it was Ruka's. Excalibur glided down at her avenging tendency against the broad man, she grasped the hilt in provisional defense, deciding Persona make the first move.
Even if it was Excalibur she was wielding, she pondered on how out-of-league it was compared to the indestructible Black Cauldron. Both were ranked first in the weapon rack and contained immense abilities but when on opposite sides, it was uncertain of the result, even if it was a plus with her magic. Several groaning sounds echoed inside the Cauldron, what climbed out, if not for her habitual cool attitude, almost made Hotaru gap in awe.
Skeletons, Non-dead, warrior-dressed, boney, without flesh ones, the kinds that haunt little kids from behind the local graveyards' back tombstones. In actuality, they were quite medieval, some had skin dangling from above their bones, thanks to the sticky dead blood they had in their previous lives, it stuck out immodestly. Ten crawled out, many more still awaiting their chance behind the body traffic.
Hotaru snorted confidentially, ten limping skeletons? Please. She's been shot on the shoulder before, probably even worse than the attacks they could ever do to her, it would be soon regrettable for them. It resumed her goal though--at all costs she had to stop the Black Cauldron, no other option.
Hotaru glances at the spiritless Ruka "you're lucky you get the easy job" she whined, as if Ruka had been playing dead the whole time she began handling Excalibur. She sighs, balancing her grip on the sword with one hand, lifting the tulip she used for a wand in the other.
Her first opponent was a soldier with a long furry white beard attached to his bony chin, ready with an axe aimed for her head, she side stepped the attack, cutting him diagonally in half. No blood, predictable. On the grass, the skeleton reeked of a corpse' scent, which was most unpleasing.
Two tried to tackle her from behind and in front, she summoned a force field of purple around her, nullifying their swords. A third came after her, grinding a long dagger atop her magic shield, it broke through and the dagger carved against her shoulder skin.
She cursed, biting her bottom lip from screaming. The tulip she transferred to a space between her fingers, using her palm to clutch the dripping injury. "You see, you can't win with those amateur powers of yours, its pathetic" cried Persona, he stood behind a million skeleton soldiers, more approaching at each passing moment. She calculated a formation and theorized a strategy.
"What the-?" Excalibur came hurtling past Persona barely a second before he dodged it in time. Hotaru huffed at the lost stamina; she had just thrown away a precious sword at the enemy, a last minute plan.
"You almost got me, unfortunate though that you lost your only item of survival" he laughed haughtily, requesting for it with a snap of his fingers. Excalibur was handed over to him by one of his skeletal minions; he swished it skillfully, cutting the cool air like a knife to an onion. With this, he knew his win was approved as one.
But Hotaru wasn't done. With no direction from their leader, the soldiers watched at their pleased master as he played with Excalibur. They also watched as Excalibur went gravitational from Persona's grasp and hastily flew into the Cauldron, the recent owner staring into space where the sword used to be at.
The energy of the sword overlapped the one Ruka had sacrificed, brewing together inside. The second energy deactivated the effects of the skeletal army, leaving them to evaporate from the field.
Hotaru had to hold her breath to keep the stench of corpses' from reaching her lungs; it was even more disgusting than before. Persona kept mumbling 'no's in negative loss, rejecting his defeat, not caring if the horrid smell was breathed in him.
When she knew the air was clear and clean, Hotaru dropped the guided flower-wand from its point of the black bowl to Persona's middle.
"This battle is over, leave now or I will really have to kill you"
Soon, the wounded eyeball vanished and so did the clone of Persona, his face crossed with hatred. All along, it just turned out to be just a harmless, realistic and rather intriguing clone.
Hotaru could tell straight away that Persona would never send out his real self to a battle field especially with the many deadly possibilities. Persona was not an opponent to be taken lightly, if she seriously had to take his life than she would have but…well, she didn't want to be sued for murder when she got back to the Academy, so she refrained from something so rash even if it wouldn't affect him at all.
After replenishing a bit of her energy and warming her shoulder cut a bit, she checked on Ruka, his body still remaining as it is. She refused to suggest his death as a consequence so she thought of using a healing potion on him. She attempted location of the stalking Black Cauldron and found it, fortunately right beside Ruka.
Remembering NOT to use energy as an ingredient, she propped herself in the middle of the two and in place of an herb, she decided on the tulip she used as the necessary wand from before.
With that being done, she flung her 'wand' into the liquid saucer and from within it peculiarly started to glow. The light almost blinded Hotaru but she shielded her eyes with both limbs until the glow was assimilated.
All at once, the Cauldron took the form of a dark chain which pounced itself atop Hotaru's lap. Bewildered, she eyed the necklace in a curious observation, wondering what it was. It was a design of tiny onyx stones cradled into a single chain, mysterious and yet somewhat appealing for her.
If it was the product of the 'herb' she dropped in, she assumed a thought of how it would help Ruka. So she tied it around his right wrist, patient for any improvement.
Nothing happened. Not even a twitch.
She was about to throw away her perseverance when gibberish words echoed over and over inside her head. It was the instinct of spells that popped in her mind every time she occasionally needed to use her 'second' Alice. So she clasped the chain with both her palms and repeated in tenor. "Del...Core…Ell"
It took several more tries until she saw movement jerk from Ruka's leg. Ruka was alive.
He blinked and his eyesight was back to normal, he moved and his nerves were reacting exactly, he stared at her and he remembered…
"Hotaru?"
"For you, it's 'Imai'"
"Oh right, s…sorry" Ruka stammered, elbowing the ground for assistance up.
"Where's Persona?"
"He's gone; he won't be a bother anymore"
"Thank goodness" Ruka exhaled in relief. At that, Hotaru was reminded.
"Why did you sacrifice yourself back then?" Hotaru questioned, pushing his chest down, to hear his reason. She made it a point that she wouldn't remove it until she gets an honest answer. There was a vibrating sting of pain at the contact, oblivious that his long forgotten scar had not been healed completely.
"I just didn't want you to get hurt…you're my…friend, remember?"
"…right" Hotaru removed her hand from his ribcage and walked to his front.
She held out a hand to help him up, he was hesitant but took it. Hotaru then pulled him up and gently took his first kiss. It a mild feminine peck, her lips were in a small smile as she saw Ruka blush at the unthinkable action. The touch was delicate and moment able but it seemed like an eternity until separation.
"I told you I'd make you pay" she whispered casually, withdrawing and leaving a poor embarrassed Ruka in the middle of the field. He came running after her since she was the only way out of the illusion.
He was dead wrong, only Persona could bring them in and pull them out; finding a loop hole out of here was without doubt out of the question, Hotaru's idea.
There was a subdued ripping noise and unannounced hot flames lined up in a horizontal line behind Hotaru and Ruka. They expected the worst; neither of them was ready for what really came out.
"HOTARU!!!" bounced the all-familiar pig-tailed happy-go-lucky girl they both recognized.
She embraced her best friend as tears streamed down her scrunched up eyes, Mikan hiccupped Hotaru's name over and over, taking our sorceress by surprise.
Natsume climbed over his fire-engulfed zipper, the item he used to rip into Persona's dimensional illusion. He glanced at Ruka, his way of a reunion salutation. Ruka grinned, cool and calm just like Hotaru.
"I…I missed you so much" the boys overheard Mikan choke between sobs, clutching Hotaru possessively. She felt an electric shock run through her nerves, resulting to her jerk away. Hotaru may not have her triggering Bakagun but she still had her secret spells, in which she decided to keep quiet about.
"I told you not to cry, you look ugly when you do"
"Hotaru…" Mikan mumbled, happy that she was still the same, ignoring the shock.
"Did I miss something?"
"Don't worry, Natsume you didn't" Natsume took his word for it, suspecting something really DID happen but it wasn't much to be talked about.
"By the way, how did you find us here?" Natsume made a brief explanation, stating that the teachers set out a search party for the double missing students, himself included in the group, Mikan trailing behind in worry. Natsume then spied some of the local gossip of Persona, commenting on his behavior, since Natsume had connections with the man, he pretty much began there.
Ruka responded with a sensible nod. He again noted the Ice Queen and the Nullifying Brunette as they, or at most Mikan, continued to talk.
"Hey, wait…is that blood on your shoulder?"
"No, its ketchup, you moron" Hotaru made up an excuse, Mikan would obviously cry if the truth leaked.
"I'm not a moron!"
Ruka fumbled around with a tulip he snatched up on his own, bashful at the sight of Imai, a flashback of their first kiss being shared made him blush like a strawberry. Natsume peered over at him, smirking at the concept.
Together, the four transported directly back to the Academy through Natsume's fiery exit. On their way back to the dorms, Mikan chatted with Natsume rather talkatively as Ruka did with Hotaru. He agreed to her favor regarding the secret of her powers in case of any more trouble that might occur again, Ruka in turn wishing not for the extra attention.
"U…um…by the way, Hotaru?" he whispered in a low tone.
"Hm?"
"What should I do with the Hate Potion I accidentally made back at the Abyss?"
The two walk away in conversation, Ruka unwarily still wearing the Onyx Chain.
Here dawns a new era for Magic and Sorcery. This imperceptible tale is nothing but a little fantasy coursing through the sands of time. What happened after that? It wasn't mentioned. It was rumored though that a second sorcerer was brought forth...a descendant of the two characters noted above. And the Onyx Chain? It lives on as a source of healing and protection for that same descendant whom inherited Hotaru's magic.
END.
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