Here's chapter 2! I'm sorry that it's pretty boring, but I promise it'll get much better later on!

Chapter 2: Goodbye Gakuen!

Hotaru and Ruka walked into the Special Abilities classroom and weren't surprised at all at the chaos that they saw before them. With so many different Alices, it's hard to have a day where things weren't interesting.

"Kage. Where's Mikan?" Hotaru asked in a monotonous voice, but anyone who knew her could tell that she was concerned.

"She disappeared yesterday during class and we haven't seen her since. We got worried about her and didn't know where she was."

"I was just about to go over to you guys to see if she was there. It's not like her to skip class, even though we barely even do anything…" Tsubasa sounded concerned and worried about his little Kohai, who wasn't so little anymore. "Maybe she's out on a mission?"

"She would have said so."

"Imai-san, maybe Natsume knows where Sakura is?"As soon as Ruka mentioned Natsume's name, he was immediately hit by a blast from her Baka Cannon. "Itai! Imai! What was that for?"

"Do. Not. Speak. That. Name." she clearly knew that Natsume was involved in the missing Mikan situation, and clearly his involvement was not a positive one.

"Wait a minute Hotaru, why did you do that?"

Hotaru was so mad that she couldn't even reply to them. Instead, she showed them a picture of Natsume with his arms around Tsuki and then another picture of Mikan crying her eyes out as she saw them walk away.

"WHAT IS THIS?" Tsubasa said out of anger.

"WHY DO YOU THINK I WANT TO KNOW WHERE MIKAN IS?"

"What are you screaming about?" Misaki walked over to where the commotion was and when she saw the picture her reaction was exactly the same as the Shadow wielder.

"What's going on? And if you had this picture, wouldn't you be able to find Mikan?" Misaki asked her in wonder.

"I tried that but I couldn't find a trace of her anywh—I AM SUCH AN IDIOT! HER ROOM! OF COURSE." Although she may be a genius there were clearly too many times when she would over look the obvious because of her worry.

She ran off towards the dorms without caring very much about what the others were about to do.

Tsubasa crumpled up the picture that he had in his hands and tossed it across the room in anger, "He's going to pay for making Mikan cry." Over the years that the two have known each other the two have grown to develop a brother/sister like relationship that's been proven to be much stronger than the sibling bonds between real siblings.

He started walked out in search of Natsume but Misaki stopped him. "What are you doing? Let me go! Why are you protecting that little bastard?"

"I'm not trying to protect him, because he DOES deserve a punch or two, but do you even know where he is?"

"….No." He said trying to calm himself down.

"Exactly, and I don't know about you, but I want to find out what Ruka thinks of this." She looked towards him.

Ruka was still standing there, trying to collect his thoughts. He had never been one to be very rash, and he was often trying his best to keep calm. He wanted to defend his best friend, but what could he say to defend him with? He had hurt Sakura, and that was not okay, but why would he hurt her? He adores Sakura-san with all his heart and soul, and why Tsuki?

"I think that this is far more complicated than it appears to be. Knowing Natsume, he's doing this because someone forced him to, but he still hurt Mikan and that's not okay."

"I'm still going to punch that guy right in the face!" Tsubasa said, still angry over what happened.

"He's probably at the Sakura tree."

And without another word, Tsubasa was gone.

"Hey, Ruka, why did you tell him? He's just going to punch Natsume."

"If he doesn't find him then he'll never be able to calm down, and at least this way we might be able to find some out what's going on. Besides, I have a feeling that Natsume wants to punish himself just as much as we want to punish him."

"You have a good point there. Now, let's go. We better make sure Tsubasa won't kill him just in case he turns out NOT to be a total douche."

"Mikan! Oy, Mikan! Open up already!" Hotaru said as she knocked on the door to Mikan's room.

She heard a click of the door which revealed a "smiling" Mikan. Hotaru walked into the room, wondering if the girl really was just putting on that happy act of hers for her sake, or if she was just in denial about it. She looked around her room, only to find something very odd.

"Mikan. What's with the suitcase on your bed?"

"Oh, uhm…I'm leaving the school…"

"What?"

"My uncle told me about a mission. I have to go to this town outside of Tokyo and search for a potential Alice and stop a few crimes that could be caused because of it. I'll be gone for a year."

"He's forcing you to go?"

"Oh, well, no he isn't. He said that I didn't have to go, but I accepted it."

"Does this have anything to do with what happened with Natsume?"

Mikan hollow, nervous laugh "Oh, of course not. What makes you say that?"

"You're a bad liar."

"Hehe… I guess you've always known me best, Hotaru."

"No. You're just a bad liar." She said bluntly. "Now tell me the truth. Are you leaving because of what happened with Natsume?"

"I really don't know, Hotaru. Maybe that's part of the reason, and maybe the other part is because I want to be able to help my Uncle. All I do know, is that I can't stay here. I need to get out of this place."

"Why?"

"I guess that's one of the answers I need to answer."

"Just promise me this, okay?"

"Nani?"

"Be careful." When she said those words Mikan smothered her with her hug.

"OF COURSE HOTARU! DON'T WORRY, I WON'T DIE OR ANYTHING! I'LL COME BACK AND GIVE YOU MORE HUGS!"

"Good. Because it'd be really bad if you don't come back—"

"Oh I really love it when you show your concern for me!"

"—because you owe me a lot of money."

Mikan sweat dropped when she heard the words come out of Hotaru's mouth. I suppose some things never change, she thought to herself. She smiled at her best friend, thinking about their separation, and suddenly she found herself with tears in her eyes.

Hotaru hugged her, "No tears, you'll look ugly. It's only for a year, right? We'll see each other again."

"Arigato."

"OY! HYUUGA! DON'T WALK AWAY FROM ME! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

"Tch. Leave me alone, don't get involved in matters that don't concern you."

Tsubasa caught up to Natsume and was holding him against a tree by the collar of his shirt. "You hurt Mikan, this matter concerns me." He was ready to punch him.

"Protect her for me." Natsume said before any impact could be made towards his handsome face.

Tsubasa stopped his punch, "What? If you want to make sure she's protected then why don't you just go protect her yourself!"

"I am. I can't explain very much this way, but I am protecting her in my own way. I need someone else to protect her from other dangers."

"What's going on?"

"I'm figuring out a way to solve this, trust me."

"…." Tsubasa let go of Natsume. "If I find out you're lying—"

"I'm not. But just in case this can't be solved in the way I want it to be solved, it'd be better if Mikan didn't know anything."

"I still have no idea what's going on, but you've saved my life enough time to gain my trust. But just one more thing"

"Wha—"

Before he could even finish his first word Natsume was given Tsubasa's punch and was sent flying a few feet away. "That's for making her cry. If you hadn't said what you've just said, you would be nearly dead by now."

"Tch." Insert the famous Hyuuga smirk, "I deserved that."

And so the night appeared, and Mikan was ready to leave.

She teleported herself into her Uncle's office. Shiki was also there to say goodbye to her.

"Mikan, do you have everything you need?"

"Hai!" she said cheerfully, "I'm all set!"

"Do you have everything Mikan?"

"Yes, Shiki-san!" she smiled brightly at him.

"Extra alice stones, just in case?"

"Mou~ I have everything! Don't worry about me!" She never liked it when they worry about her too much because that just means they aren't as happy as they could be.

"Alright then. Remember, be careful and don't reveal that you're an alice unless it's an emergency. And don't forget, Z is still a threat to all alices so be sure to look out for any suspicious characters."

"Yes, yes I know. Hotaru-chan already gave me this speech before I left!"

"Okay, but before you leave with Persona, we have a surprise for you." HSP winked at her and smiled. "You can come in now."

As soon as he said that, Tsubasa entered the office. "SENPAI! What are you doing here?"

"And what are YOU doing trying to leave without saying goodbye to me?"

"AH! Gomen! I didn't mean to… I didn't say goodbye to anyone other than Hotaru-chan… sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!"

"Hahahahaha. It's okay. I'll forgive you on one condition, okay?"

"Nani?" she asked as her guilt ebbed away.

"The condition is, you let me go with you."

"YES! YES!" she looked at her uncle and at Shiki. "Is this the surprise?"

"Yes." He smiled, "Tsubasa requested for this and we thought it'd be good if you had a friend near you."

"Requested?"

"I made a promise to someone that I'd protect you to the best of my ability."

"Arigato!" she said thinking that the person who asked him was Hotaru.

"Mikan-chan, you, Tsubasa and Persona are to appear as a regular family who have just moved into the town. You and Tsubasa are to search for alice users in the area, and Persona will scope out any suspicions."

"That old man's gonna stand out a lot if it's a small town. Even if it's in Tokyo he'd stand out."

"Who's an old man, Tsubasa-san?"

Tsubasa was frozen with fear when he heard Persona's voice, "Mikan! How many times have I told you not to call Persona an old man!"

"SENPAI!"

"Don't worry, Mikan-chan, I know you didn't say it."

Tsubasa turned around so he could apologize but when he say him, he stood there in shock. "You…you're not Persona!"

Persona had abandoned his mask and black trench coat, as well as changed the style of his hair and if it wasn't for his voice not many people would have recognized him. (A/N he looks like the way he looked when he appeared in Natsume and Mikan's class as a sub)

"Do you want to be grounded, son?"

Tsubasa had shivers going down his spine. Over the years of getting to know Mikan, Persona had loosened up. Persona himself had said 'it was as if Yukihara-sensei had come back in the form of his child' and thus, a much more relaxed and softer Persona had come to be. It was still hard for some people to get use to the change.

They left the academy after the sun rose. The drive would take approximately 4 hours to get to the new town.

"Since we're going to be stuck in this car we need to come up with a good solid back story," Persona said calmly as he stopped at a red light. "It looks like there's going to be a lot of traffic…"

"So what's our back story, Persona?"

"You should get use to calling me Oto-san."

"Pers—Oto-san, what's the town name?"

"Kibo town." (A/N according to google translate kibo means hope)

"Town of Hope, huh?" Tsubasa said amusingly. "With that kind of name, it's too bad it's getting into a lot of trouble…"

"Ni-chan, what about our back story?"

"We move around a lot, that way we don't have to explain where we've come from too much."

"That also explains why Mikan-chan uses a Kansai dialect, and we use a Tokyo dialect." Persona agreed with his idea.

"What's our last names?" Tsubasa asked.

"Hmm…"

"Tanaka."

"Why that Mikan?"

"Because I like rice!" She smiled cheerfully. (A/N Tanaka means middle of the rice field)

During the rest of the car ride, they talked about their fake story, and Mikan started feeling guilty about all of the lies that she would have to tell.

They arrived at their new house at around 3 in the afternoon. It's a two story, light blue house. It was a very beautiful house, and all the furniture was western style. Mikan ran around the house searching every room, trying to familiarize herself with the surroundings. Finally she got upstairs and looked around.

"Ne, ne! Were the room assignments already decided?"

"Yes, but I think you'll like the room your uncle chose for you. First one on the left." Persona guided her.

She walked in, only to discover a beautiful room decorated in pinks and oranges. On one side of the room there was a drawing of a Sakura tree during the spring. On the side of the wall where her bed's headboard was against, was a picture frame with a collage of pictures of her and all of her friends and teachers in the academy. Of course, none of the pictures had anything that would lead to others thinking she was from Gakuen alice. She looked around some more, and realized that her closet was already filled with a lot of cute clothes that she instantly fell in love with, and then when she looked at her dresser (complete with a mirror) she found a lot of other cute jewelry. She then looked at the book shelves that were filled with a lot of great books. The top shelf also had a lot of cute stuffed animals that use to have a place in her room.

She loved her new room so much.

She walked over towards pink, orange and yellow polka dotted curtains and when she moved them aside, she discovered that she had a balcony that over looked the street in front of her house. The view that she saw was a very nice change compared to the view from outside her dorms window.

She could see that the town was pretty small, smaller than Gakuen Alice. She saw a bunch of people that were around her age walking out of what she thought was the school and she suddenly felt very nervous. How long had it been since she'd made any new friends? Gakuen Alice had just a little over 400 students, and there would probably half that many people in just her grade. She knew that she was a friendly person, so making friends is easy for her, but this is the first time that she'd ever been in a bigger surrounding. Small village, small schools, the town before her suddenly seemed much more intimidating than she thought before.

"No big deal, Mikan! You'll just have to get use to it! No worried!" She said out loud.

"Talking to yourself again?"

"Sen—Nii-chan!"

"Don't worry about the bigger school. I'll be right there if you need me."

"You'll be in high school, and I'm still going to be in middle school."

"But the schools are right next to each other, only separated by a fence. If you need me, then don't be afraid to call," Mikan smiled up at her senpai. "And that reminds me, Persona told me to give you this."

He handed her a simple light pink cell phone. "Arigato!"

"He said that it's in case either of us get into any trouble. All of our numbers are already programmed into it."

"Ne, Persona, we haven't had lunch yet." Tsubasa said as his stomach grumbled.

"…"

"You don't know how to cook do you?"

"I've never had to before. Have you ever cooked before?"

"Does pouring cake batter into pans for the cake at the Christmas Ball count?"

"No."

"Then no."

"….."

While Persona and Tsubasa were busy trying to figure out what they were going to do, Mikan already started making some fried rice and seasoning the chicken she was going to bake to a golden brown.

"Is fried rice and baked chicken okay for lunch?" She called out from the kitchen.

Tsubasa and Persona walked in to see what their favorite brunet was making. "Waahh! Mikan-chan, you can cook!"

"I use to help Ji-chan all the time with the chores, and cooking was one of them, and at the school I use to cook food with Anna-chan all the time."

"Itadakimasu!"

"You two will be starting school tomorrow, is that okay?" Persona said as he ate his chicken.

"Oh! Oto-san, since it's September that means we're going to be entering school during the second term right?"

"Second? Wouldn't it be the third one?"

"Gakuen Alice has school year round, but regular schools have summer break between the first and second term." Explained Persona.

"Ehh? So I waste like what? Two months learning when everyone else is out partying?"

"Basically, yes."

Persona chucked at Tsubasa's overreaction, "I forgot that Tsubasa grew up in the academy this means he's more clueless than Mikan-chan."

"BANZAI!" Mikan was excited because for once, she was the smart one. "Oh! We don't have very much food in the kitchen. We need to go shopping."

"Do you want to go down to the shopping center then?" Tsubasa offered.

"You two can find your way by yourself, right? I wanted to go to the next town over and investigate some matters concerning the crime incidents."

"Incidents?...OH YEAH! That's why we're here!" Mikan had completely forgot about her original reason for coming here.

"Oy! You forgot already?"

"Hehehehehehe…."

Persona sighed to himself, "Yukihara-san figured this would happen… Anyways, here's some money for your shopping trip."

"Arigato!"

"Mouu~ Tsu—Nii-chan! Are you sure we're going the right way?"

"Hai, hai. Don't worry, I'll find the store eventually."

Mikan was busy looking at her confused "brother" and accidently bumped into someone else.

"Itai!" she said as she hit the pavement.

"Ah! Gomen!" said the boy she had bumped into. The boy, who looked to be about her age, just a few inches taller than her and with sandy blonde/brown hair that resembled the style of hair that Ruka has, helped our heroine up from the ground. "I didn't mean to bump into you! I wasn't watching where I was going."

"It's alright! I wasn't watching where I was going either." After dusting herself off she finally looked up at the boy, and realized that he had the most beautiful green eyes she had ever seen in her life.

"Mikan! Daijoubu desu ka?" Tsubasa said running up to her.

"Gomen! I accidently bumped into her!"

"AH! NO! it was my fault!"

The two of them then proceeded to apologize to each other repeatedly.

"Wow. Those two are a lot alike…" Tsubasa then noticed another boy standing near them chuckling. he looked to be around his age. Tsubasa looked closely and the first thought that he had was that he looked a lot like Kaname except he had the same color hair as the boy that bumped into Mikan. "Ah, sorry. I'm the squirts older brother, Haruto Mori."

"Tsubasa Tanaka. Elder brother of that little brat over there."

"AH! You're bleeding!" Said the younger brother.

"Hahaha. Akihiro, why don't we clean up her wound at our house then?" he turned to Tsubasa. "We live nearby."

"Ah yes! Can you walk?"

"Hai, it's not a big deal!" she smiled.

"It may get infected though, better safe than sorry, right?" He smiled at her.

She smiled back at him, "Hai!"

"My name is Mikan Tanaka by the way, what's yours?

"Akihiro Mori."

"Then can I call you Hiro-Kun?"

"Only if I can call you Mi-Chan."

"Hai!" Mikan thought that Hiro-Kun was a very nice person become friends with.

"And this is our house."

They arrived at a small, but cute, house that was actually just around the block from their house.

"You two are home already? Did you get me my candy?" said a girl that was around Mikan's age. "OH! WHAT A CUTE GIRL! HI-CHAN! WHY ARE YOU KEEPING THIS CUTE GIRL ALL TO YOURSELF?"

"I was not!" Hiro was blushing. "Sorry, this is my twin sister, Akira."

She had the same hair color as her brothers. However, her hair was much longer than theirs and she wore it in a half up, half down style with her bangs and a few stray strands of hair loose in front of her face. Her eyes were the same color as Haruto's crystal blue.

DO YOU WANT TO BECOME MY FRIEND?"

"YES! YOU'RE VERY CUTE TOO!" Mikan said with equal enthusiasm. "My name is Mikan! It's nice to meet you!"

"Ah! Mi-chi! You're bleeding!" she then slapped her twin brother playfully. "What did you do?"

"It was an accident!"

The two of them started arguing about other nonsense like a typical brother and sister.

"Just ignore them for now," Haruto said walking Mikan to their couch in the living room. He was holding a first aid kit and was taking some things out. "They're always like that. Lots of energy and very bright people just like their names."

He fixed up Mikan's bleeding knee very quickly. "Wow! You're good at that!"

"I have to be good at fixing up wounds. Those two are always falling and hurting themselves."

"Are you okay now, Mikan?" Tsubasa chimed in.

"Hai!" she smiled. "Oh! Nii-chan! We still need to go shopping!"

"Oh, right. Ne, Haru, can you point us in the direction of the shopping center?"

"We can go together then. Akihiro and I were on our way there when we bumped into each other."

"Can I go with you guys then?" Akira said completely ignoring her arguments with Akihiro.

"Did you finish your homework?"

"I'll be in my room then…" she started walking up to her room.

Mikan ran up behind her and hugged her, "We can play when you're finished then, kay?" she smiled.

Akira then tackled her, "YOU'RE SO CUTE MI-CHI! I'll be done with all my work when you guys get back then!"

"HAIII!" Mikan was very happy to have made new friends on her first day. But no matter how hard she tried, she still missed Natsume and couldn't help but feel like something was wrong.

In the Academy

Natsume's POV

"Natsume-kunn~~" Ugh, it's her again. I swear when I solve this problem I'm going to remove her vocal cords in a very violent way.

"What?"

"Let's go on a date!"

No. "Sure," I hate you; I don't want to spend time with you. "Sounds fun."

"Oh! Did you hear? Mikan left the academy!"

After her vocal cords, I'll claw her eyes out too.

"I hear it was because of you."

"Tch. Annoying."

"I'm not annoying at all, only an annoying person would send that picture out all over the academy, right?"

"Hnng."

She gave a sly smile, "Now, do you love me?"

No. My heart only belongs to Mikan. "Yes."

I'm sorry, Mikan. I'll fix this somehow, I promise.

Review please! I'd love to know what you all think!