Heeeey everyone! It's Sakura-tan here! I'm back with another self-project, but of course this time I will be getting Kyoko-tan to edit (in which I am very grateful for)! I came up with this idea out on a whim (as always) and extrapolated on it, so here it is.

Just as a note, the names of the Islands and Regions in this fanfiction were made completely by own ideas with no references. If they seem to have a relation to anything, it is purely coincidental.

Yes I'm going to stop rambling now, and let you readers read. (I have nothing to say anyways…)

Read, review and enjoy. :)

- Sakura-tan

Writer: Sakura-tan
Editor: Kyoko-tan
Disclaimer: Gakuen Alice does not belong to us, but to Higuchi Tachibana. :)

In the vast skies, resides the region of Cordellia. Cordellia consists of three islands: the grand island of Leannia, the elegant Prellia, and the peaceful yet mysterious Syannia. Mikan, a Guardian of Prellia, having heard of the tragic news of the loss of a comrade encounters a crimson-eyed boy with a shroud of mystery just waiting to be unravelled. That is, if only he would let her unravel it.

This is a slice of life, yet plot-driven fanfiction, which is somewhat light-hearted, suspenseful and dark, with a few waves of romance.

~First Feather: Takeoff

"Good morning!" a brunette called to her friend, who just walked through the wooden classroom doors.

"Morning," her stoic friend replied as she passed by her, towards her seat. "Did you do your homework?"

"Eh? We had homework?" The young brunette looked up at her friend as she closed her sketchbook. "Y-you're joking, right?"

"... Why would I joke about this, stupid Mikan," her friend retorted, throwing her books onto the desk for class that was about to start—math class, to be more precise. "I'm assuming you didn't do it?"

"I swear we didn't have any Hotaru!" Mikan completely disregarded her friend's previous remark as she rummaged through her schoolbag before retrieving the doodled-up school planner. She quickly skimmed through the pages, desperate to know if her claim was correct. "Aha! See, I only wrote 'Test on Monday.'! It doesn't say anything about homework over the weekend!" She confidently pointed to where she wrote it to her black-haired friend.

"You told me on Friday that you would write it down during lunch because you were running late for your stupid council meeting, smart one," Hotaru retaliated roughly, "or do you not remember?"

Mikan tapped her planner against her chin, trying to recall the incident. "Oh, right, yeah I remember now." Mikan simply shrugged before sitting back into her seat. "Ah well, not like I can do anything now..."

Hotaru knew that Mikan only seemed calm on the inside, but she was probably frantically thinking of an excuse she hasn't used before for when the teacher does the homework check.

"This'll be interesting..." Hotaru gave a small sneer as the bell rang for school to commence.

All of the students sat down in their seat as the teacher walked in.

Prellia National Academy was the most prestigious school in the whole island of Prellia. Of course, the school admittance standards are not only academic-wise (if it were, Mikan wouldn't be here), but also athletics, etiquette, street smarts... basically, how one handles oneself. Although one would think of it as a "rich" school when the word "prestigious" pops in, monetary status was completely disregarded in terms of getting into the Academy.

The building itself was pretty typical, with its three floors and sturdy brick walls. On the other hand though, the classrooms, cafeterias, gymnasiums—and yes even the washrooms—along with every other room in the school were sparkling clean and sanitized every day. The food was decent, just a little bit above average, people from other less prestigious schools would probably say.

The one advantage of the school was that the fields were quite large. It included 4 baseball diamonds, two swimming pools, and countless tennis, basketball, badminton (and pretty much any other sport you could probably name) courts.

Yes, the school itself was quite above average.

"Students, take your homework out," the teacher demanded as he started walking down the aisle, his thick, yet stylish black boots clacking against the cleanly wiped floors as he did so.

Mikan gazed frantically at her friend sitting beside her, her facial expression screaming, "What should I do?" as the teacher made his way down the classroom.

Hotaru didn't reply, but simply gave her friend a device that seemed like a normal cloth. Mikan has used it too many times though to be fooled. It was a cloth that you could simply rub over the question sheet, and when you wipe it on a blank sheet of paper, it'll write down the answers to the question.

"Thanks!" Mikan mouthed as she quickly took out her math binder and did the routine. She smiled an innocent smile as the teacher came by.

"Finished?" The teacher eyed her suspiciously.

"Yep!" Mikan cheerfully stated, mentally thanking her best friend once more. Now it was all up to her to show that she did do it, not just cheated with a piece of cloth. The only way she could get caught would be if she would get sent up to the boa—

"Okay, then please answer the first question I put on the board." Before Mikan could even retort, the teacher's attention went to her friend beside her. "Did you do your homework Imai?"

Mikan facedesked, realizing the predicament she got herself into.

"I guess this is why we learned not to lie in elementary school..."

~ASF|G.S (S-T)~

"Finally, lunch!" Mikan cried as she burst through the door to the roof with her lunch and friend behind her. "This morning was brutal!"

"You're lucky I helped with your question on the board or you wouldn't be here, stupid," Hotaru stated as bluntly as ever.

"Yeah, thanks Hotaru," Mikan responded gratefully as she walked up to the railings of the rooftop, and took a deep inhale of the fresh air as the wind blew against them. Her hair flew freely with the wind as it did so.

Her best friend didn't bother replying and just sat down on the bench to eat her lunch.

"It's so pretty! I love how we can see so much of Cordellia from here," Mikan commented peacefully as she observed her surroundings. "I think that small dot over there is Leannia, right?" Mikan asked Hotaru behind her as she pointed straight in front of her.

Cordellia, was one of the largest regions in the vast landscape of the celestial blue atmosphere. In this region included Prellia, where Mikan and Hotaru resided. Prellia was well known for its grand festivals and dances. It was the second largest island of the three in this expanse.

Leannia, being the largest, was greatly known for its size. It was well known for its Arts; majority of the best musicians, artists, actors and actresses resided there. Because of that, most of the schools there offered the Arts program to its students.

Mikan was so concentrated on the scenery that she didn't notice that her violet-eyed friend had walked up beside her.

"Yeah, it is."

"We should fly there later," Mikan suggested, receiving a shrug from her friend as a reply to her suggestion. Hotaru was used to Mikan's constant ideas on what to do after school.

Cordellia, and in fact the whole azure sky, can travel freely from island to island for visits. Each citizen has their own 'feather', which is simply what it means. When one was to equip it onto their wrist, a ring forms on their middle finger, which is attached to their feather (which was attached to their wrist like a bracelet) by a thin golden chain. With this, wings are formed on their back and they are given the ability to fly. The colour of the ring was a simple, bright gold. Guardians with an element have their colour based on the it.

"If we have time," Hotaru glared at her, clearly not happy with the incident that occurred that morning, "and I might have to go to Prellia headquarters to check something in the database tonight."

Mikan pouted at her friend. "Fine fine..." Mikan finally sat down onto the floor and took out her lunch. "Is there something wrong?" she asked on a whim. "Your companion Guardian and friend's here to help!" Mikan cheerfully replied.

Guardians are citizens of the islands that have special powers, as it was clearly demonstrated that morning with Hotaru's invention.

There are only two Guardians on each island, and they are people that have been specially chosen by the feathers. Cordellia has the strongest Guardians, because it was the only region that has Guardians who have powers that consist of an element and a weapon that can be willed to appear and disappear based on the feeling of the user. While the 'normal' citizens have feathers of a white with a shade of light yellow in it, Guardians have feathers that were purely white.

Basically, one would think that they were invincible: they can fly and they have a power and weapon in the palm of their hands while majority don't,but there was one trick. While normal citizens can just obtain a new feather when their own breaks, Guardians don't have that privilege. Although their feathers are hard to shatter, in the event that it does, they themselves would disappear, leaving everything behind. This is also the case if one's feather is removed from their wrist while still transformed (again, that was also hard to come by though).

"Although your power is useful Mikan, your power won't help in this instance stupid." Hotaru sighed. "I just need to check up something in the database."

"Yeah yeah..." Mikan took a small bite into her onigiri. "I guess I'll go there by myself then."

The two sat there in comfortable silence for a while. Even though Mikan had been in this school for years, she would still marvel at the exotic plants that grew up on the school rooftop. The quiet chirps of birds and other students chattering made Mikan feel happy and calm. It gave her the time to think and just... get away from the stresses of life.

That was, at least, until the bell rang.

Mikan groaned at sound of the tolls that seemed to just want to break the peaceful time she had in the last hour.

Mikan quickly glanced at her friend, who also didn't look too happy that the second half of school was starting once again. She stuffed her empty brown paper bag into her side bag and walked casually with her friend downstairs to the third floor.

Once they were in the school, Mikan could tell that something was slightly off. Way too many people were talking to each other on the side of the hallways, when they would usually be speedily shuffling to class or their lockers.

She turned to the inventor queen beside her. She appeared to have also noticed the strange atmosphere around them too. The two were walking to biology class when a couple of their middle school friends ran up to them. The two had a distraught look.

"Nonoko, Anna!" Mikan greeted, while the two other friends tried to catch their breath from running. "Why is everyone not going to class? Is there an assembly or something?"

"No," Anna, pink-head responded as she caught her breath, "something bad has happened, and it's broadcasted all over the news!"

"... What do you mean?" Hotaru's eyes narrowed, her grip on her shoulder-strap bag subconsciously tightened. She didn't have a good feeling about this, and neither did the brunette standing beside her, who was hoping to calm the two friends in front of them down.

"A Guardian—" Anna started.

"—disappeared!" Nonoko, the blue-haired girl finished off.

At this, Mikan's and Hotaru's eyes widened simultaneously, disturbed by the news. The one and only time a Guardian has ever disappeared was when they read a story in English class, and it was only a made-up legend.

"What...?" Hotaru couldn't even comprehend for a second what their friends announced.

Mikan glanced at her friend beside her, clearly filled with worry while the inventor surveyed the girls that told them the alarming news. This had to be a joke. Who could possibly...?

"If you guys think we're joking," Anna clearly noticed the two friends' disbelieving eyes, "then come here." She ushered them into their Arts and Technology class. She pointed to where the flat screen TV hooked up onto the top corner of the room situated. They were on the news channel.

"Breaking News: Guardian of Syannia Disappeared after Unexpected Attack."

"Wait, what?" Nonoko shouted in shock at the headlines. "Syannia?"

"What do you mean?" Mikan questioned her, confused to why her friend was expressing confusion.

"They didn't mention that before. They only told us that a Guardian in Cordellia disappeared. Since a Guardian from Syannia disappeared, that makes everything a whole lot worse!"

Mikan and Hotaru understood what they meant by that. Syannia, although the smallest island of the three, was well known for having the strongest Guardians for generations and generations. What's more, was that Syannia was the only island in this solar system right now that has both Guardians with elemental powers. In Prellia, only one of the two Guardians have an elemental power, the one being Mikan. Because of the wide gap in power, she is declared as leader, whereas if the two Guardians are elementals or both non-elementals, there wouldn't be one.

All of this is common knowledge amongst the citizens, however citizens who are not Guardians cannot see the pure white feathers; they see it as a normal feather with the small yellow tinge like everyone else.

The two young ladies noticed the atmosphere around them had got even more tense with the new information that they just received. The two disregarded that though, as they were too immersed from the headline.

"What could have possibly happened?" Hotaru and Mikan thought simultaneously. Their thoughts were disrupted when a staff member came into the classroom to call the students to go to their next period classes.

"Students, go to your classes! They're going to commence in five minutes."

"We'll see you guys later," Anna added before the brunette and her friend left to biology. Mikan just gave a small smile before they left the room.

"Mikan," Hotaru started as they sat down in their respective seats, "cancel your plans to Leannia. We're going to the headquarters after school to check out what happened with Narumi and the remaining Syannia Guardian."

"Yeah," Mikan muttered, still distressed by the sudden news. Hotaru noticed her friend's change of mood from her usual overly-bubbly one.

"Don't worry Mikan, we'll solve this problem. After all, haven't we always?" Hotaru gave a small smile as Mikan glanced at her, slightly surprised at Hotaru's sudden signs of affection. Mikan gave a small smile before calming down and taking out her books.

"Yep."

~ASF|G.S (S-T)~

The last set of bells for the day triggered Mikan to almost sprint out of the girls' changeroom, hoping to depart the school as soon as possible to the headquarters. She just couldn't take her mind off of the news of one of her fellow Guardians disappearing. Sure, she hadn't met him/her, but she feels this certain attachment to all of them. A comrade... gone...

Mikan shook her head to remove that thought that made her want to vomit.

When she got to her locker, she already noticed Hotaru was almost done packing. She got the hint that her friend had probably ran as fast as she did, except out of her chemistry classroom.

Mikan stuffed the last book into her shoulder bag before putting on her light dark blue spring jacket and lavender waterproof boots. She put on her black, warm beret to complete her outfit and quickly locked her locker. She turned to her friend who was already standing beside her, ready to depart.

"Let's go," Mikan commanded, before they treaded off to their destination.

~ASF|G.S (S-T)~

"We're here," Mikan said in contentment before slipping her feather out onto her palm. She turned to her friend, and they both nodded to each other when they activated their feathers. From there, Mikan slipped out her ring and put her hand against a normal looking tree in front of her. Her hand glistened for a few moments, and then a large, transparent-seeming structure appeared before them.

Hotaru opened the door, and they anxiously walked into the building.

The hallways lit up as they walked through it, and after a long while, they stopped for a few moments at two large glass doors, which split open with minimal noise when it sensed the two Guardians.

"Hello," a monotonous voice startled the two young ladies. The two automatically brought out their weapons. Mikan had her two daggers in hand, while Hotaru quickly launched her bow.

"Who's there?" Mikan stated confidently as she scanned the room.

"We're over here," another prince-ly sounding voice responded as the two girls walked into the open meeting room. One was sitting on top of the computer desk, on the side of the room, while the other was sitting on the chair in front of the screen. "Sorry for intruding."

Mikan and Hotaru dropped their defences when they saw the pure white feathers on their wrists. The two boys in front of gave a small bow before they approached them. One had blond hair, while the other had hair just a couple shades darker than Mikan's light brown hair.

"We were waiting for a bit outside your headquarters, but we didn't expect you two to take so long," the stoic-looking, brown haired boy spoke as he leaped off the table. "We're from Leannia."

At this, Mikan and Hotaru dropped (well they made them disappear) their weapons. Mikan smiled brightly. "We're the Guardians of Prellia, sorry about that small scene there..." Mikan sweatdropped in embarrassment.

"No, it's fine. We were sort of expecting it since we kind of barged in here without your consents," the blond chuckled. Mikan gave a small laugh as well.

"I'm Sakura Mikan, Air, or nullification if you prefer. This is my partner and subordinate, Imai Hotaru, who has invention. It's nice to meet my fellow Guardians!" Mikan shouted with enthusiasm at the last sentence.

"It's nice to meet you too. I'm Nogi Ruka, animal pheromone. I'm the subordinate of this younger man here—"

"—I'm just several months younger," the boy retorted as he puffed his cheeks, making the Prellia captain and Ruka chuckle slightly.

"Anyways, this is Hijiri Youichi. He has the Dark, or one can say more specifically, spiritual manipulation."

"Why are you guys here today?" Mikan questioned, but mentally slapped herself, wondering why the heck she asked that when the answer was so painfully obvious.

Ruka noticed her facial expression falter slightly, and gave another prince-like smile. "We're here because of the news which you girls have probably heard." Ruka gave a sad, small smile, as did Mikan. "It's so sad that one of our comrades..."

"Mhm," Mikan muttered, not wanting her new friend to complete the sentence. "It's really tragic."

"Well, as expected that it would be breaking news there," another sudden voice was heard amongst them.

"Na-Narumi!" Mikan stuttered as the four friends turned to the screen in front of them. "Since when were you—"

"Just a few moments ago, when Ruka told you that I called them here. You know, you two should learn to actually pick up your receivers when I call you..." Narumi glanced at the two girls.

"I was in gym class," Mikan made an excuse, putting her arms up as if she was just caught for a crime.

"I was in the middle of a test," Hotaru added harshly, not even bothering to make eye contact with the blond hair man. She just continued to munch on her tuna sandwich, which appeared to have popped out of nowhere.

"... Fair enough." Narumi sighed, wondering why he always gave in to these excuses.

Narumi was another Guardian, and he has pheromone like Ruka, but on humans. He doesn't reside in Cordellia, but in Barrania, a close relative of Cordellia. Even though he doesn't have an elemental power, he was the most experienced in terms all of the Guardians. He was like a teacher, one could say. Alongside him, was another—

"Finally Imai and Sakura, you're finally here. Do you have any idea how long you two made us all wait?" A voice boomed through the speakers, making Mikan fall on her butt from surprise.

... Even though she should've been used to it by now.

"Jin-jin!" Mikan shouted, half startled and half happy to see him. "You scared us!"

—Jinno, or who Mikan calls "Jin-jin", has electricity as his power. Pretty straightforward, he also reigned over an island in Barrania, the same island as Narumi.

"Yes he does~!" Narumi commented playfully as he poked his cheek teasingly. "He just misses you guys and gals!"

The four teens in the Prellia headquarters sweatdropped.

"Right..."

"Anyways, can we discuss what's going on with the disappeared Guardian right now? I'm actually busy tonight with homework and I want to sleep." Hotaru glared at the two people in the screen, who were arguing (or Jin-jin ridiculing Narumi to be more exact).

"Yes yes," Narumi calmed down and ushered the teens to sit down. From there, the four teens sat silently while Narumi and Jinno seemed to be getting some facts straight before starting.

"Wait, where's the other Syannia Guardian?" Ruka asked. "I thought he was going to come to the meeting now too...?"

"Hmm, so the remaining one is a guy?" Mikan subconsciously thought to herself from the exchange of words.

"Oh, that's one thing that we were going to talk about. It seems that the signal on him was lost, or he's not transformed," Narumi commented simply. "I'm pretty certain that he'd be transformed though, since his partner disappeared on him. This isn't an everyday thing."

"Which is why you guys are here," Jin-jin added. "You guys will go to Syannia and find him. Ask him what happened and report it to us, or get him to tell us what happened."

"Okay," Ruka and Mikan responded simultaneously.

"Where do you expect us to find him?" Youichi summoned his wand, getting prepared for takeoff. Mikan temporarily dropped the situation at hand to awe at his weapon. It had a nice intricate design, the two ends were sphere-shaped, the rod just over twice the size of her daggers. It had a mix of black, dark purple and grey splotches, giving the vibe of his power: dark.

"I think going to the headquarters would be a good first place to go. Ruka's been there before, so he'll bring you guys there," Narumi replied.

"Yup," Ruka agreed. "Anything else?"

"No, not really. You guys have gone to Syannia before I presume?"

"Yeah," the four teens all muttered, starting to get a little restless as they wanted to leave as soon as possible.

"Okay, then you guys and gals may leave."

With that the four teens all went to the top floor of the building. They glanced at each other, each giving a curt nod to indicate that they're ready to depart.

With a flap of their wings, they soared off into the air, with Mikan leading the way.

"We're coming, Syannia Guardian. Wait for us!"

~ASF|G.S (S-T)~

"I've been here tons of times, but I still get amazed by the beautiful greenery around us," Mikan muttered to herself, as she picked off a small four leaf clover form the ground. "Look look Hotaru!" Mikan cried before she got smacked in the face with a branch.

"Nice Mikan," Youichi rolled his eyes, meaning to tease the Prellia captain.

"That hurt," Mikan grumbled as she rubbed her nose.

"Looked like it did," Ruka chuckled. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, thanks," Mikan smiled her typical overly-bubbly smile. "Are you sure you know where you're going, Ruka-kun?"

"Yeah, no worries. Strangely enough, I can still remember exactly how to get there even though I last visited the headquarters a couple years ago. I haven't stepped foot here since."

"Ooh," Mikan responded. "I just hope he's okay. I haven't even met the other Guardian, and I'm sad that we lost him... or her."

"It's a 'her'," Ruka glanced back at Mikan, who was just barely managing to keep up with the animal pheromone boy because of the narrow tracks. "Hyuuga Aoi, was her name."

"How did you know her name?" Mikan asked obliviously as she jumped over a fallen tree.

"I did a little research with your computers while we were waiting, sorry," Ruka admitted. "She had the element of water. She was really pretty."

"She must've been!" Mikan cried with astonishment. She visualized an elegant water maiden, her long hair flowing in the wind as she played the harp, sitting on a rock in the ocean. Hotaru's eye twitched, being able to tell that Mikan was conjuring up another one of her fantasies.

"Mhm, she was," Ruka responded quietly and sadly. Mikan and her fellow Prellia Guardian noticed the gloomy atmosphere around him.

"A-are you okay?" Mikan hesitated slightly, not knowing what to say to someone she pretty much just met.

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry, it's just that... the two Guardians of Syannia... they were siblings."

Mikan felt her heart freeze momentarily.

"Wait... so then that means that..." Mikan slowed down in her steps, and they eventually came to a complete stop when the others saw her lagging behind. Her eyes were covered by her bangs, forbidding her best friend from surveying her facial expression.

"M-Mikan?" Hotaru went up to her, concerned.

"Wait, are you saying that the Syannia Guardian just lost a companion and a family member?" Mikan whispered.

"I-I guess," Ruka responded, now understanding why the brunette was so upset. "M-Mikan, h-he—"

"That's terrible!" Mikan looked up at them with a determined face, her hands clenched into tight fists. "We're going to go find him, now."

Before any of the other Guardians could muster out a word, Mikan was already scrambling in front of them. Ruka sweatdropped, wondering if she knew where she was going. His internal question was answered when she came back, blushing from embarrassment.

"Lead the way, Ruka."

~ASF|G.S (S-T)~

"Okay, we're here," Ruka answered, "... I think..."

The four friends stood in horror as they saw shattered glass cover the green grass. Rubble and toppled down trees surrounded them.

"What... happened?" Youichi sputtered quietly as he crouched down, retrieving a piece of glass and trying to survey the surroundings for the signs of the missing Syannia Guardian.

"Well, it seems that the headquarters suffered a little bit of damage, but not too much in which a few hours of fixing can't do."

"Yeah." Mikan looked around, assessing the damage as well. The luscious greenery that they saw before approaching to the scene seemed so distant to them now.

"It's pretty obvious that someone deliberately stole Aoi's feather," Hotaru commented a little too directly. Mikan flinched slightly as she said that.

"Yeah. It seems that a fight happened around here," Ruka agreed as he stood up and sighed.

Their thoughts were interrupted when the four Guardians sensed someone coming at them. Mikan saw a shadow quickly descending on her and she quickly took out her weapon, and jumped to the side. It was just in time, because a large blast of the earth exploded in front of her, causing her to cough from the thick, musty air.

"What was that?" Mikan cried as she drew her daggers out, and noticed Hotaru's arrow at ready as well. She couldn't tell what the guys were doing as they were on the other side of the foggy air.

"Leave," a voice commanded thickly, putting Mikan at a defensive stance.

"Who are you?" Mikan called.

"Someone who will cut your life short if you don't leave." A boy that looked around their age emerged into the clearing with a large grey and red gleaming weapon.

"What the...?"

~First Feather: Takeoff, End

So how was it? :) Interesting? Confusing? Boring? (Well it was the first chapter after all...) Please, review and tell me what you think of this. I won't release the next chapter until I get at least two reviews! That's not that bad, right?

- Sakura-tan, goldenstarlight at wordpress. (url on profile).