Chapter One


(Mai Pov)

Cherry blossoms fell at my feet as I stood outside the ginormous gate of Alice Academy. The small designs on the gate kept me entertained, as I waited for a representative of the school to talk to me and show me around my new home. My gaze shifted to the unbreakable brick walls that shut out the rest of the world. A few tree limbs grazed the top of the brick wall, if a kid was smart enough, they could climb up that tree and escape. Unfortunately by tomorrow the school gardener will trim the tree limbs and nothing as exciting as escaping off school grounds will take place. At least, that's how everything was handled at the Alice Academy I came from. Every escape route possible was deemed impossible within the next 24 hours, because of the clockwork representatives of the school.

Why did I have to be the first person to come to the Tokyo branch of Alice Academy anyways? Ren would be much better equipped at establishing this deal between schools. I'm going to have to act polite and demanding at the same time to get the deal approved, ugh, Ren would be so much better at this. What am I thinking? I need to stay positive; I will be able to make this deal just as smoothly as Ren. Everybody is counting on me back home and as soon as I accomplish my mission, the main objective starts. That's it; I need to stop thinking about such important thoughts at a time like this there is no telling who could be listening.

The ginormous gate opens slowly with a loud creaking noise accompanied by it. I look away from the cherry blossoms floating in the wind and direct my vision towards the gate. A man with medium lengthened blonde hair and bright girlish purple eyes stood before me. He wore a loose white long sleeve shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans matched with designer light brown shoes. My eyes focused on a small mole near his right eye and the small smile that never left his face. I don't know whether to assume he is just visiting the academy or actually works here.

"Welcome to Alice Academy, Mai Hamasaki." The man said in a sweet voice as flowers seemed to form around him.

"You work here?" I ask dumbfounded that such a man that seemed so sweet could work for Alice Academy.

"Yes. I'm very sorry for the wait Mai; I had an issue with one of my students." The man says, while taking the bags that was resting on the ground next to me into his hands.

"The wait was not too bad; I got to enjoy the scenery. Since you already know who I am, may I know your name sir?" I ask politely, while walking behind him into the vast campus of Alice Academy.

"Oh, where are my manors? My name is Narumi Anju. You can call me Naru if you would like." Narumi says with a sweet smile, while guiding me along the stone pathway.

"Where are you taking me Narumi?" I ask, while looking at the various trees and plants lining the stone pathway.

"To my office, we need to talk about a certain deal before you get settled into school." Narumi says in overly sweet voice, but the small frown on his face did not go unnoticed.

I decided not to open my mouth for the deration of the walk. A ringing sound came from the school up ahead; the school day must have just started. Kids walked all around us, all of them were starting at me. I understood the confusion and curiosity in their eyes; it was rare that Alice Academy would get a new student. A group of students caught my eye as we turned down a certain hall. A girl with black short hair and green eyes looked directly at me with a noticeable glare, while the guy next to her with short blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes looked very confused on the situation. Finally a boy with deep fire red eyes was looking straight at me with disgust. His black raven hair covered his hate filled eyes as he looked down at the floor.

This will be an interesting day after the meeting it seems. Finally we reach a door at the end of the hall we were just walking down. Narumi opens the door with his free hand and motions me inside with a sweet small. He places my bags next to a leather chair and walks around an office desk with a computer and some pictures on it. A picture catches my eyes as I sit down in the soft leather seat. The picture was of Narumi and a little girl with light brown hair and big brown eyes. The girl was smiling widely and holding on tightly to Narumi, who was also smiling while looking at the small girl.

"What is the deal you would like to make with this school Mai?" Narumi's voice breaks me out of my thoughts as he starts to type into the computer next to him.

"14 other students will need to be accepted into this branch of Alice Academy. Their Star ranks and Rabbits will be transferred from the other branch so they will not have to start over. We will all need to be in the same class, except for three who are in different grades. No one will be able to use us for our ability's and that includes the dangerous ability program you have here, Understand?" I say in a polite, but commanding voice.

"What makes you think the school will agree to these terms?" Narumi asks with a serious voice, while lifting his hands from his keyboard and starts to rub his temples in stress.

"One of the 14 students ready to transfer to this branch is Mikan Sakura – Yukihira." I state with all seriousness in my voice.

"Impossible! Mikan lost her Alice and was sent back to her village with no memories!" Narumi says standing up from his chair.

"Mikan didn't lose her Alice. She just was power drained from what happened here long ago. We found her as soon as her powers came back and brought her into our branch of Alice Academy." I say, while looking at him straight in the eyes.

"Show me her." Narumi says disbelievingly, while small tears ran down his pale cheeks.

I pull out my pink IPhone for emergency use out of my jean pocket. After unlocking the small phone in my hands I quickly scan through varies of apps to find my gallery. The first picture that pops up is one of Mikan. She was smiling brightly and had her long light brown hair down, so it cascaded down her back and shoulders. Mikan had a crown of flowers around her head and was wearing a plain white blouse with a black ruffled skirt that matched with a Black bow belt. She looked more grown up than in the picture with Narumi, but you could still see that it was her. I hand my IPhone to Narumi with satisfaction of winning the deal. Narumi's eyes grow wide, and the tears keep falling down his cheeks as a small smile forms on his lips and hope rises in his purple eyes.

"It's Mikan, she's all grown up! Oh, I Miss Her So Much!" Narumi starts to yell with excitement.

"So, do we have a deal?" I ask politely, already knowing the answer.

"Of Course! Just grab the stack of papers off the left side of the desk and the bag of clothing. " Narumi says while jumping with joy.

Walking towards the left side of the desk I see what Narumi is talking about. There is a clear bag with the high school uniform stuffed inside of it, beside the bag sits a stack of papers that consist of a map and a schedule. Great, the school day is finally starting. I'm not being sarcastic, I would much rather enjoy a day of school than talking with Narumi for the rest for the day on this subject. Picking up the bag of clothes I walk to the room labeled 'restroom' towards the side of the room. Looking over the uniform, it wasn't really girly. The uniform consisted of a blazer, beige tartan plaid skirt, white blouse, and a tie. I would much rather just wear my huge pink sweater with black skinny jeans and matching black wedges for the rest of the day. I pull my long green hair out of the way and start to change clothes.

After I am fully dressed in the high school uniform, I look at myself in the mirror above the marble sink. Instead of the normal way to wear a tie, I wrapped it in a bow to add some additional cuteness, so I would stand out. My long green hair started to curl at the ends because of the humidity in the room. I always hated when my hair would curl on its own and try my best to keep it straight. However, it seems today I will have to let my hair curl, since I don't have my strengthener with me at the moment. I step out of the restroom in my new uniform and shyly look at the ground while Narumi's bright eyes scan me up and down.

"Beautiful! You look so cute Mai-Chan!" Narumi exclaims while hearts form in his eyes and his Pheromone Alice leaks through his voice.

"Don't use your pheromone Alice on me you weirdo!" I almost yell, while having a deep blush on my face due to Narumi's Alice.

"Aw! You are no fun like this Mai-Chan. Come on then, let me be your personal escort to class." Narumi says, while using is rather strong Alice and pulling me by my wrist.

Narumi leads me through the mixture of halls we passed through just 30 minutes ago, with his grip shifting from my wrist to my hand. Anybody looking at us this moment would either think one of two thoughts. One, that he was holding my hand because we were romantically interested in each other. Two that I was being taken to the senior principal's office for bad behavior. I wonder if Narumi is always like this, I mean he's emotionally exhausting and hard to keep up with. Mikan is like that to sometimes, I wonder if that's why they get along so well. These thoughts are making my head hurt more than Narumi's radiating Pheromone Alice, I would have kept Mikan's arrival a secret if I knew he would just over flow his Alice like that.

The outside air blew in my face as we exited the main building, my face was flushed and I was starting to gain a fever from forcing myself not to fall under Narumi's Pheromones. Looking up from the ground I saw a small bus in front of us with two students standing outside staring calmly at us. A girl with amethystine eyes and black raven hair that reached just below her ears started directly at me with a calm gaze. The boy standing next to her looked rather nervous while taking a few glances at me, how cute, he already has a crush. The boy's large brown eyes stared at me nervously and long eyelashes made him appear younger than a high school student. His short dirty blond hair lays flat on his head with the bangs swaying to the right. The boy's glasses gleamed in the bright sunlight that shined on us.

The girl with calm amethystine eyes walked towards me, the soft blowing wind slightly moving her perfectly straight hair and uniform skirt as she walked. The girl stopped right in front of me, our eyes meet and we gazed at each other without saying any words of greetings.

"My name is Hotaru Imai, I'm a class representative." Hotaru states emotionlessly, before turning around and climbing up the steps to the bus.

"Hello Mai Hamasaki! My name is Yuu Tobita! I'm the class representative and class president, which means you, can come to me if you need anything." Yuu says happily, while taking one of my bags from Narumi's hand.

"Yuu stop your pointless flirting. The less time left in class is the less time I have to invent ways on getting more money." Hotaru states coldly from the open bus window from where she was sitting peacefully.

"I-I was not! I was not flirting!" Yuu exclaims, while stuttering nervously.

"Yuu, lying will get you on my blackmail list." Hotaru says coldly, while a small smirk forms on her lips.

"We should get on the bus right now Ms. Hamasaki!" Yuu exclaims nervously with a small beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

The bus was unexpected, at the other branch of Alice Academy everyone walked or took other means of transportation; however, there was never a bus system. Inside the bus was rather cozy with its small size, the seats were soft leather and the windows were a bit dimmed to keep from too much light entering the bus. The bus reminded me of the comfortable limo that took me to the academy from the airport. I sat down in the seat behind Hotaru and Yuu, hoping to have a peaceful and non-eventful drive to the High school division.

However, Narumi sat next to me with a joyful and idiotic smile playing on his lips. I turned to see Hotaru was staring at Narumi in wonder with a confusing glint in her amethystine eyes. She turned her head to me, her eyes returning to the cold stare she had used towards me before. Her hand reached out to me with her fingers holding on to a small plastic package. Taking the package from her, it reads 'Anti-Pheromone Pill'. Oh, Hotaru was giving me a pill so I wouldn't be put under Narumi's Alice any more. I honestly owe her yen or anything she wants later on.

"Mai, don't think that Anti pheromone pill was for free. I will need 2,000 yen by the end of the week." Hotaru says coldly without looking at me.

"Hotaru, Isn't that a bit cold to a new comer?" Narumi says with a nervous smile, while patting her black raven short hair.

"Do not touch me with your dirty hands pedophile." Hotaru says in a monotone voice, before pulling out a weird looking gun from under her seat.

"Calm down Hotaru! He is a teacher!" Yuu pleads in a high pitch voice while, easing slowly away from Hotaru.

"Touch me again Naru and I will hit you with my new and improved Baka gun, understand?" Hotaru warns in a cool and calm voice, before turning back around in her seat.

"Oh, look! We are at the high school division already!" Narumi exclaims, while grabbing my wrist once more and waiting for the bus to come to a complete stop.

The bus came to a slow stop, but once it did, Narumi jumped out of his seat and pulled me up along with him. Narumi rushed me down the steps of the bus and picked me up in his arms. What did this man think he was doing? Was he replacing me as Mikan in his mind right now or was he just plain stupid to be doing this to a high school girl? Narumi puts me down soon after with a pleasant smile on his face. Hotaru and Yuu were watching him with confused looks in their eyes and a nervous sweat drop from their foreheads. I guess this was normal for Narumi and I just haven't seen all of the weird sides of Narumi yet.

Hotaru starts to walk fast ahead of us and gives a cold dead pan look to Narumi, who plays off her cold attitude with a warm and cheerful smile. Yuu walks slowly behind us, while caring my bags all on his own. I felt quiet bad for him since he didn't look very strong and I knew for sure I had many clothes and heavy personal items from the other Academy branch in my bags. Narumi pulled my hand in his with the same idiotic smile playing on his lips with his purple eyes closed in peace. Soon Hotaru stopped at a door with a medium sized black sign hanging on the wall next to the door. The sign read "Class B High School Division".

At the other branch of Alice Academy, I was in B class also. I wonder if they just transferred me into this class because of my other school or if this was a random pick. Either way, I know for sure this will bring back memories for me and for Mikan when she comes back here. Narumi lets go of my hand suddenly ad walks into the room alone, I could hear many peoples screams, laughter and unexplainable noise from the hall where I stood. Hotaru stood next to Yuu waiting patiently for Narumi's introduction of me, so that way she could walk into the room and sit down.

"We have a new student joining our class today students!" Narumi said excitedly, while grabbing a piece of chalk from the black board behind him.

"A NEW STUDENT!" a girl in the class room screeched so loud you could probably hear it from Central town.

"Yes Sumire, we have a new student. The new student is from the Yokohama branch of Alice Academy." Narumi said more calmly than before when announcing my arrival.

"I thought there was no such thing as transferring between branches of Alice Academy!" Sumire's voice exclaimed echoing through the hall.

"There was a special reason Sumire. Anyways, without further questions, you may come in new student!" Narumi announced cheerfully while opening the door wider for me.

Walking into the room, I was greeted by a large classroom of students staring at me wide-eyed. Towards the back of the room it seemed the students didn't care less about my sudden arrival, which satisfied me. I don't want people to make a lot of fuss about me today; I just want to hang around a few calm people until my groups of friends arrive in the next few days. I walked in front of the middle of the black chalkboard, before picking up the piece of small white chalk in my hand. I calmly wrote my name on the board, before turning around to look at the nameless faces in front of me. I saw that Hotaru was sitting in the front of the class next to Yuu with an expressionless face. Narumi now had my bags in his hands and was watching the students with a cheerful face next to the door.

"Your name is Mai, as in dance?" a girl with medium length wavy pink hair and dazzling blue eyes asked from the middle of the room.

"Yes, my parents named me Mai after they saw how much I moved around in my crib as a baby." I answered back with a tender smile on face, remembering how my father told me that story years ago.

"What a cute story!" The girl exclaimed, while hearts seemed to form in her ocean blue eyes.

"Shut up Anna! What is your Alice and what star rank are you?" the girl with short black hair and dark green eyes I saw earlier said , with a scowl on her lips and an irritated glare in her eyes.

"Oh, I have Rain Alice and I am a double star. For all your other questions, I'm a latent type, my Alice shape is Diffuse and the strength of my Alice is at medium potential." I said calmly, before turning my head to look at Narumi.

"Okay Ms. Hamasaki, you can take a seat next to Sumire. She is the girl who just asked you a question a minute ago, also Hotaru will take you to your dorm room after school hours have finished" Narumi said with a delightful smile, before leaving the class room.

I nod my head at Narumi, while walking towards the girl with short black hair who looks more irritated than before. Everyone around me started to go into their own conversations with their friends, completely forgetting about having a new student. Sumire however, was fuming with rage somehow directed at me. Her forest green eyes looked at me in disgust before she slammed her hands on her desk as I sat down next to her.

"Listen Hamasaki, I know you are some kind of freak! Transferring between schools has never happened before! That completely goes against the rules of Alice Academy!" Sumire states firmly, before giving me one last cold glare and walking off to the back of the class room, while flipping her short hair in frustration.

"Don't get upset about Sumire, She doesn't like any new person entering her circle of friends." A girl with long straight bluish-black hair and dark blue eyes said kindly, while turning around from her seat in front of me.

"Oh, so she is always like that?" I ask, sort of hoping the answer would be no for my well-being.

"More or less, by the way I'm Nonoko Ogasawara." Nonoko said with a bright smile, while holding out her hand to shake mine.

"Nice to meet you Ogasawara-san, what exactly is your alice?" I ask interested as I saw notebooks on her desk filled with math problems and beakers filled with pink liquid.

"You don't have to use the honorifics or be so formal Mai! We are friends now! As for my Alice, its chemistry, while I was in middle school I was able to level up my Star Ranking to a double so I'm pleased." Nonoko exclaimed, while squeezing one of her chemistry filled notebooks to her chest.

"Nonoko, don't leave me out of you getting to know Hamasaki-Chan!" Anna said sitting in the seat next to Nonoko with a shy smile on her pink lips.

"I would never Anna! Mai, this is Anna Umenomiya, she is one of my best friends!" Nonoko exclaims happily as she high fives Anna.

"Nice to meet you Anna!" I say cheerfully since Nonoko brought up my tired mood.

Nonoko sort of reminds me of Mikan, her smile is so cheerful and bright just like hers. I can't wait until all of my friends are here soon and everything gets started. Being here alone without the people I grew up with is dreadful. Suddenly I hear a loud gasp from the back of the room; I turn around to see a boy with dirty blonde hair and grey-blue eyes sitting next to Sumire. The boy had his arm around Sumire and his eyes were locked on me with a shocked look etched on his face. Oh, don't tell me he is a mind reader. The boy slowly nods his head at my thoughts and I can feel my face shift into an angry glare when really I'm just scared inside. No one is supposed to know about Mikan's arrival until the day of. The boy remains silent, even with Sumire pulling on his collar with a concerned look in her eyes; I guess that means he will keep my secret for now.

(Kokoroyomi Pov)

I can't believe what I just heard from the new girls mind. Mikan, as in our Mikan, Mai Hamasaki knows Mikan and she is going to be here in a few days? Mikan will finally be reunited with everybody. Sumire will finally stop feeling guilty and Natsume will stop being gloomy as ever! I should really shout out the news, but Sumire and I's anniversary is in a couple of days and I think Mikan's arrival will be a good enough present for her.

"Koko!" I hear Sumire's faint voice in my thoughts.

"KOKO!" Sumire's voice starts to get louder in my head.

"KOKOROYOMI!" Sumire screamed next to my ear, frustration easily heard in her voice from me not answering her earlier.

"Permy, it isn't nice to scream in your loving boyfriend's ear you know." I say teasingly as I look into her forest green eyes.

"Well you weren't answering me and I started to get worried you heard something in that freak of a new students mind." Sumire said worryingly as she looked away with a deep blush forming on her cheeks.

"Nope, no need to worry Permy. All you have to worry about is what you are getting me for our Anniversary in a couple of days." I say satisfied with my idea in my head and lay back into my chair, while placing my feet on my desk.

"Where did that come from so suddenly?" Sumire asked suspiciously while her blush never faded from her cheeks and started to walk towards Hotaru.

This week was going to be hectic, that's for sure. Hopefully everything turns out all right, I mean Mikan is coming back, what could possibly mess that up?


Disclamer-

i do not own Gakuen Alice , or Gakuen Alice Characters.