I sit in my seat in class, wishing my best friend, Hotaru was here. She left nine months ago and transferred to Gakuen Alice- a school for extremely gifted students.
"You know, I heard that you don't have to be really smart to get into Alice Academy. I heard from a friend in another school that this really weird kid who failed all his classes got in. He had some sort of weird power- I think it was telakithesis, or something like that. Anyway he could move stuff with his mind." A friend of mine whispered to a couple other kids behind me, before the three of them began exchanging gossip about the place. It's a prison, you have to have a special ability to get in, you aren't allowed out once you get in.
I slammed my hand down on the table. I'm gonna save Hotaru. But first, I have to get myself an Alice. I turned to my three friends. "Is Hotaru the only one in this school with special powers?" I ask them. One of them, Yuki, held up her hand and gestured me closer.
"No, actually. I've got one." She whispered to me. My eyes widened. I grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the classroom.
"Seriously?" I ask when we're a safe distance from the school. She nods. "What can you do?" I demand, eyes wide and sparkly.
"Actually, I have two. I can see other people's powers, and their history. The second is loosely defined if you need to know something and it somehow has anything to do with you at all, I can show it to you." My eyes widen further.
A/N: At this point, if you don't know the story of Mikan and Natsume's parents generation, go look it up. It may become important later in the story. Thanks!
I grab Yuki's shoulders and shake. "Show me my parents. Who are they? Were they Alices?" She pushes me away gently and sits down, motioning for me to do the same.
"Whole past, or just what you want to know. They seem to have a pretty messed up past."
"Whole. It could be important at the academy." She nods and closes her eyes. Suddenly, I'm standing in a classroom, watching a teacher and a young girl argue.
*TIME SKIP END OF HISTORY LESSON TOO LAZY TO TYPE OUT MIKAN'S PARENTS' ISSUES GO LOOK IT UP IF YOU DON'T ALREADY KNOW* Changes: SIC instead of only Steal, and Persona is her brother. SIC- Steal, Insert, Copy.
So… I could have nullification, SIC, or Teleport? All cool powers, but what kind of crap is going on in that school? Let's review what we know. Kaoru's kids should be there… Aoi and Natsume. Narumi and Jinno will be there, mother took Narumi's feelings for her in an Alice stone, Dad is… Mom is alive, somewhere, working against the academy, I have a half brother from dad and a crazy lady. Nii- San has the Alice of death and was saved by dad only to kill him later in a misunderstanding that probably twisted his mind.
"For the record, you have all three." I'm shaken from my reverie by Yuki's revelation.
"All three of my parents' Alices?" She nods. "Ok…" I pull in a shaky breath. "Well, if I'm gonna get in, I need to learn as much as I can about this Academy and the AAO, as well as my own Alices. Do you know of anyone with offensive type Alices or something like that?" To my great surprise, she nods.
"Actually, Mae and Sakura also have Alices." She tells me and my jaw drops.
"And you hid it from me?!" I exclaim, eyes sparkling slightly, but anger stirring slightly. I push it away, knowing exactly why they didn't tell me. They don't want to go to that school I'm beginning to see as wretched.
"Yes, and you know why. Sakura has wind, and Mae has both water and ice. There's also a girl and her twin brother in another class. One has Voice Manipulation, and the other Pheromone. Animals and people seem to do what they say.
I grin. So many? Lucky me! "Thanks for helping me, Yuki!" I exclaim, grabbing her hands before racing home.
Upon reaching grandpa's home I find a postcard from Hotaru. I smile and put it in a frame next to my bed. I'll see you again soon, my friend. Just you wait and see. I make a bee line for our strawberry garden- my favorite place to think. I walk through it, plucking ripe strawberries and eating them. I find my way to the center of the mazelike garden and carefully- not- plop down, poking myself in the rear with a pointy rock. A frown at it momentarily before settling in to a meditative pose.
I'll need to find my Alices within me in order to freely access them.
#RIP WORD IS AN ASSHOLE AND DELETED THREE FUCKING PAGES OF MY WORK AND I DON'T HAVE A BACK UP FUCK YOU WORD AND NOW IT KEEPS EXITING OUT OF THE PROGRAM AND NOT SAVING WHAT I HAVE TYPED! I'm a little wrathful. Sorry not sorry.
Turns out that's easier said than done.
It'd been a month and I had made a grand total of… ZERO progress.
Finally, sick of it I went up to my Alice friends and asked them how they used theirs. They all just used them naturally, like, without even thinking. That made me really sad, but then Allen and Chrystahl (We befriended them while I was trying and failing to gain access to my Alice abilities. I could sense them within me, but I couldn't access them. That made it even more frustrating.) told me that even though they could easily use their Alice, they had trouble not using it. When they didn't need or want everyone trampling each other to accommodate their every whim and desire, they had to stop using their Alice. To that end, they would relax themselves as best they could and then search for their Alice. According to the twins, each Alice has a personality and a will of it's own, to a certain extent.
To access the Alice's power, you had to accomplish a task for them- but they often won't tell you what the task is- you have to guess and hope for the best. The others accomplished their tasks without meaning to, according to Allen. But that still counted, apparently.
It still took me three weeks to unlock my Teleportation Alice. One day, I was watching a nature documentary with grandpa and I told him I would travel the world some day and see all those places. That afternoon while I was meditating, I noticed that the feel of my teleportation Alice felt much stronger than it had previously. All Tele wanted was to see the world, so when I declared I'd do that, she was ecstatic and let me have access to her ability. I call her Tele, by the way.
A week after that, I got Null's power. His condition was kind of… odd. I needed to spend an entire day in the company of my lonesome, and only that. I couldn't even think of anyone else. He was nullifying my feelings toward others for a day, essentially. I spent the week after I met Tele studying when I wasn't meditating. I had heard that, while Alice Academy wasn't necessarily exclusively for geniuses if you still had a lot of them thanks to the hell they call teaching at that school. So to prepare myself I began studying obsessively. I hardly slept more than thirty minutes every night. After a week of that I ended up passing out and I slept for nearly a whole day- but I eventually woke up. I woke up around 8 in the evening and went out to the garden, began meditating but immediately proceeded to fall asleep again.
The next morning, I woke up in my bed and found I had gained access to Null's power. I also knew that grandfather had carried me to my room somehow. I scolded him for that, but I was grateful anyways.
It was an entire month before I fully gained the approval of SIC's three personality. Because the Alice had three parts, it had three personalities as well. Jealousy (Copy), Selfishness (Steal), and Selflessness (Insert). One day at school, about a week after I got Null's abilities, Allen told me he wanted a copy of the week's crossword- something very precious to my grandfather. Said he'd been bored lately. I scanned it and printed out a copy then faxed it to the twins' home. I knew they'd be alone because they've said their parents left them when they were children when they realized their children were both Alices. The two have been living off the money left to them in their grandparent's will, which was given to them because even their grandparents disliked the twins' parents. Sad thing, that.
I had gained approval from Copy.
About three weeks after I gained Copy's approval, we got a bad rainstorm around where we live. The twins were visiting me, so I grabbed an umbrella, - grandpa's, because it was bigger and in better shape than mine- stole it, really, and shoved it at the twins and told them they could have it. Of course they knew what I meant. They could use it, but I wanted it back.
I had the approval of Steal and Insert now.
I was done.
I grin. It's been three months. I've got you now, so let's get started.
-8{
I dodge quickly to the left, narrowly escaping the dull blade of wind Sakura unleashed at me. While I was off balance, she sends a flurry of wind blades at me. I quickly throw up my nullifying shield and grin. The blades of wind sent at me dissipate and I twirl in place, arms outstretched as I fling my own blades of wind at my sparring partner. The blades I send out are noticeably sharper than Sakura's, because I don't have nearly as much control over the copied Alice. Luckily, each of my friends was able to tell me how they had gained approval from their Alices. Because of that I was able to control those Alices with reasonable ease within a week.
Sakura dives out of the path of the wind, and I smile happily at her. This is so much fun! I think to myself as Sakura limps away from me. Suddenly, my eyes widen and I strengthen my shield, whirling around to face my attacker. Mae. The numerous blades of water and sharpened shards of ice are dissipated in my shield.
At this moment, I am entirely grateful for Allen advising me to train my body while I spent these past six months training my Alices. I leap forward at Mae and my barrier envelops her, nullifying her Alice before she can even try to use it. I pin my friends arms and legs and kneel above her with my fore arm on her throat. She takes the defeat with a smile, and as Yuki calls the match, I stand and pull Mae to her feet. We grin at each other then high five, congratulating each other on a good match.
From the side of the field Allen walks up to me and carefully hands me my small, half face, white fox mask. It doesn't cover my mouth or chin, but covers the rest of my face. It spreads out in wing like fashion and has shimmery golden lines around my eyes, about the width of my finger and originating from the bridge of my nose before wrapping around the holes for my eyes as if it were eyeliner, then swirling out to the edge of the mask in delicate golden paint.
The cheeks of the mask have a dusting of pink shimmer, so that the mask seems to be blushing lightly. I still can't believe we found such a beautiful thing in our costume department at school!
I take the mask gratefully, sliding it into place and hiding the string in my hair. The string was painted the exact same color as my hair, so it bends in quite well when I keep my hair down. I smile at my friends then teleport myself to the billboard on the postcard Hotaru sent me. I quickly hide in an alley, thanking whatever god is up there that no one is around on the street to see my sudden appearance.
After I catch my breath and steady myself slightly, I step out from the alley and see the sign. I turn towards what looks to be a forest and decide that Hotaru is in there somewhere. I attempt to go to the class my mother was in, but I'm blocked by some kind of barrier. I teleport instead to right beside the barrier. I hold out a shaking hand and lay it on the barrier. Upon finding it, I activate my nullifying shield and walk through the barrier, letting it close behind me. I then teleport up to the class, where my eyes immediately lock on Hotaru. I grin and hold myself back from jumping her then and there, as I swiftly copy all of the Alices around me and I catch Hotaru's eye and wink before shushing her with a finger to my mouth.
"Hello, students. Nice to meet you, and thanks for the power ups!" I grin excitedly, closing my eyes and nullifying the electric attack from Jinno. I teleport in front of him quickly. "Ah ah ah, Jinno- San. Don't you know it's rude to try to hit a girl- and a child at that? Rude. Well, I'll be seeing you again soon. Bye!" I wave, and right before I teleport away I see a boy in the back row watching me with dull curiosity like Hotaru does, his piercing crimson eyes telling me who he is.
"Ah, Natsume- you have such pretty eyes…" I tell him before disappearing off to my training clearing where my friends await me. Upon arriving, I giggle happily, then collapse onto Mae's arms. Can't wait to see you again, Hotaru. Natsume.
-8{
Meanwhile, at Gakuen Alice:
Natsume sat, eyes wide as he mulled over the strange girl from earlier. She knows me. How? Does she possibly know about- No, she couldn't. It's worthless to even hope. And with that thought, Natsume closed himself off from the world even further. He noticed Imai was watching him and he glared at her.
Imai turned away from him, wondering why her Mikan had been here, how she had been here, and how she knew Hyuuga and Jinno. Neither of them recognized her- or even really seemed to know her at all.
Hotaru smirked smugly, and those around her about fell out of their seats as the ice queen showed emotion for what seemed like the first time. Hotaru solidified her resolve to go home.
-8{
I trained for six more months both physically and with my Alices. I thought I was strong enough to leave, but I quickly found that my friends did not agree. They wouldn't let me leave for another nine months after that. I had to be able to defeat them using only one Alice each time. Once I had become proficient enough to do so, they told me I could go to the academy. I had gotten another postcard from Hotaru telling me she knew I was the one who had come and telling me she'd be home shortly to throttle me. She didn't come back.
"When you get there, please, don't tell them we're here." Yuki beg me and I gasp.
"I would never, Yuki! I swear it. If you don't want to go, I won't let them take you away." I vow. My friends smile at me and I grin, leaving to tell grandfather the news.
-8{
"Grandfather, I'm going after Hotaru." Grandpa looks up at me, shocked.
"What?" He asks me softly.
I smile sadly at him. "I've been studying hard these last few years. I'm twelve now- I'm going after Hotaru! I'm going to go to that school too! Don't worry, I'll keep in touch better than Hotaru has been doing." I smile at my grandfather, not caring at all that we weren't technically related.
"O- Okay, Mikan. But what if something like that happens again? And, before you go, I need to tell you about your moth-" He begins.
"I'll be fine. And about my mother? Gramps, it's okay. I know the story. But you're my beloved grandfather. So I don't care!" I tell grandfather, and he looks confused about how I know the story, but tears fill his eyes and he hugs my tightly.
"Thank you, Mikan. I love you too, now go find Hotaru!" Grandfather tells me, pulling back from our hug and holding me at arms length then kissing my forehead. I grin and nod, kissing Grandfather's cheek before fading away and disappearing the same way Mother did when she fled this home to escape the academy.
"Bye, Gramps! I'll see you again soon, so take good care of yourself until then, okay?" I exclaim, and Grandfather's eyes widen at the familiar action. I grin at his expression, and appear in my bedroom to grab my suitcase and backpack as well as a duffel bag. I had a lot of stuff to bring if I was going to be at the school for six or more years. My smile fades as I appear before the Academy gates.