Chapter 2: Bring it On

The young fire caster shot up from his sleep with a cold sweat, breathing heavily in hopes that his rapid heartbeat would slow down. He just had a nightmare of that day with the fire outburst and how the roof from that storage was about to collapse on him. Shisane was right beside him, just watching him as he slowly dies either from blood loss or being engulfed from the flames. Then everything turned black, and he woke up.

He looked at his window, and based how dark it was outside, it was either the middle of the night or early morning. Natsume looked at his digital clock next to him to justify his deduction, and it said 6:38 am.

He had about an hour more sleep before preparing to going to school, but having a recollected memory of a life-death incident wouldn't make anyone go back to sleep. Natsume combed his hair back in frustration, and he felt disgusted from it's thin, oily texture. It was understandable, since he didn't shower for almost a week.

"Guess I'll take a shower" he said to himself.

In the elementary school dormitory, a young brunette was sleeping soundly with her little brother in her arms. However, as the sun was setting, Mikan's internal clock turned off and gradually woke up from her slumber.

After a few minutes, she stretched out her arms in delight and commented how the bed was so soft. She then gazed at the little boy lovingly and stroked his silver hair. Mikan silently got off the bed and then teleported to her room.

In a blink of an eye, she was transported back to her four star room in the high school dormitory. As the national treasure, the government would have automatically given her a comfortable place to reside in for the rest of her life, but she honestly could care less what room they gave her. Whether it was a third star room or maybe a no star room, it didn't matter, as long she had a roof over her head and knowing that Youichi was doing fine.

She looked at her antique clock located near her bed, and it said 6:40 am. Class starts at 8:00 am, so Mikan has about an hour to prepare for her first day of school.

"Guess I'll go take a shower" she said to herself.

The heat from the shower made Natsume calm and relax. Ironically, getting a hot shower cools his mind, and lets him think rationally about things that happened to him. For instance, he understands that the girl Persona proclaims to save him is someone that he never met before. During his seven years working underground, he never encountered a girl name Shisane, and she was somebody that could stand out from a crowd. Also, he was trying to assemble what happened on the night of the fire, where he could have sworn that he was dead. To add onto the list, Natsume notices that there weren't any scars in his body. From previous experiences of severe injuries, no matter how good the hospital medicines were or how strong healing alice users were, they would always leave a scar. In this matter, the boy couldn't find a scar anywhere, even his previous missions.

Natsume believes that the girl in question was really powerful. With her strange aura, the level of her healing alice, and Persona strange behavior towards her, he felt that she was a force that he can't reckon with. He even wonders if she was someone from the top, but Natsume can't figure out any reasons why she would work for the academy. Based on all these facts that he gathered, Natsume concluded to one thing, he can't trust her.

Sure she saved his ass, but she almost left him for dead. Natsume felt that she may have disobeyed orders this time, but she wouldn't make that mistake twice. He felt if they told her to kill him, he knows she would, which was why it was so ridiculous Persona pairing each other up. To the fire caster, she was a ticking time bomb ready to explode.

He turned off his shower cap and wrapped his blue towel around his waist. He wiped the fog from the mirror, and saw his reflection. He looked extremely tired, and his eye bags and unhealthy pale complexion could mistaken him as ghost.

"I look like shit." he remarked.

Mikan finished her shower and was extremely refreshed from the hot water mixed with aroma therapeutic soaps Sergio gave her. As she dried her hair with her towel, she noticed her uniform laid across her bed. The brunette believed that Persona entered her room while she was showering and prepared everything from neatly organizing her uniform to sunny-side up and bread in a plate on her table. No matter how many years the man had raised Mikan, she was sometimes curious on how Persona knows she was awake.

Mikan stared intently on her uniform before her. Throughout her 15 years, she never attended a school, not even a pre-school, because the higher ups believed she would be prone as a danger to other young alice users. As her source of education, she was home schooled by a tutor hired by the government.

She was mesmerized how professional her blazer looked with the complementary yellow-checkered skirt. It's adorable she thought, and couldn't wait to try it on.

Mikan went back to the bathroom to brush and blow dry her semi-wet hair to gain that silky amber locks that she was lucky to have. Unfortunately, the government and the academy thought otherwise. She was the spitting image of her mother, Yuka Azumi, the nation's most beloved treasure, as well as the nation's greatest regret. Her betrayal to side with the AAO left a deep scar that could not be easily mended. Even when they killed her off to atone for her sins, they still wanted a way to make Yuka suffer even in the afterlife. Not too long after, they discovered she had daughter, who also possessed the cursed stealing alice. Mikan guessed that as a way for them to laugh at her mom in heaven, they would use her the same way as they did with Yuka. A dog.

When she finally finished priming her hair into a half bun, she went back to her room to finally dress into her uniform. Mikan looked at herself in the full-body mirror placed next to her bed. Her eyes twinkled in astonishment that the uniform had made her looked cute and professional at the same time. The young girl often wondered why some of the weird people she encountered during her missions have a uniform fetish, but she now understand the appeal of it all.

The last finishing touches every girl must do to begin the day would be makeup. Sergio, Persona's twin brother, once told her that women are privileged to have the finest things in life, including a simple lipstick. So on Mikan's fifteenth birthday, Persona and Sergio bought her a white vanity table filled with variety of Maybelline cosmetics and brushes. It was beautiful, and Mikan was so grateful to have these lovely people to be part of her life. If not, she would have become like Natsume Hyuuga.

Mikan first applied BB cream on her face to tone her facial coloration as well as mildly cover her dark circles. Then she applied a layer of foundation on spots that were unappealing, such as her dark circles, and add a bit of pink blush on her cheek bones. She wanted to have a simple style that was appropriate for a school setting, so she only used black liquid eyeliner and mascara to contour her eyes. Finally, she used chapstick to enhance her lips natural pink color to accommodate the simple style.

The girl was proud of what she had done, and Sergio would be utterly proud of her that she was able to accomplish this by herself. Mikan stared at herself in the mirror for a couple of minutes and turned her head in every angle to admire how beautiful she looked. But the more she stares into the mirror, the more anxious she gets. The girl she see's was a normal high school girl who probably has a mother and father that raised her since she was born. Her life consists of going to school with friends and hangout with them after classes to watch a movie. When she gets home, she would be welcomed with open arms and have a family dinner. After that, she would sleep with sweet dreams, and her day would start over again. This girl with a bright life was the exact opposite of Mikan, yet she has to play this role to blend in with the students.

She started to have a bit of a breakdown, because she was anxious that everyone will see through her lies and completely reject her. If Mikan were to fail on this mission, then Youichi, Sergio and Persona would be punished for her incompetence. Her head started to feel heavy from these negative thoughts, so she wobbled back to her bed to rest. She deducted that she was probably still tired, so she'll wake up 30 minutes before class starts.

Natsume checked the time and found that it was 7:25 am. He was already dressed into his uniform: a black blazer with an unbuttoned polo shirt, a loose yellow tie and fitted yellow pleated pants. To his opinion, this uniform was just the ugliest thing he has ever seen. Out of all the colors, he wondered why barfing yellow? The academy could've picked green to contrast both the red uniform and the blue uniform from the Elementary and Middle School department respectively. Hell, if they wanted them to be college/career ready by the time they graduate; we might as well wear business suits instead. Then again, that doesn't apply to Natsume at all.

When his classmates graduate, it will be the happiest time of their lives. They will finally be out of the academy and best of all, they'll return to the people that love them. But for Natusme and the rest of the dangerous ability class, he won't have that luxury to graduate away from the school, nor does he think he'll survive past twenty. In addition of having the most dangerous alice, he also has the type that drains his lifespan the more he uses his abilities. To his surprise, it was amazing that he was still able to reach high school despite all those missions that required much of his flames. He felt at any moment, he will die.

As if ruining this serious mood, the boy's stomach suddenly growled. Natsume remembered he didn't have a proper dinner last night because they called him up so suddenly. So the only thing that he ate was a piece of toast with a smear of butter and some protein pills in the limousine on the way to the location.

Natsume locked his room and left towards the directions to the elevator. Luckily he did not see anyone coming out of their rooms, or else it would be a bother having prying eyes loom over the boy early in the morning. As he was about to turn a corner, he noticed that there was a white door that was slightly opened. It was rather strange for him because he have always known that that particular room was always uninhibited, so seeing it open felt weird. But if there really was a student occupying there, leaving the door open will cause students to peek into it or steal something from there. Natsume was about to close the door until he heard a name that caught his attention.

"Persona…" said a girl with a soft voice.

He instantly stopped from the sound of that name. As if paralyzed, he just stood in front of the door, feeling nothing but the beating of his heart.

"What's wrong? Do you not feel well?" the masked man asked in a gentle tone.

Natusme slowly leaned forward to peek into the door as swiftly as he could. Despite his heart beating rapidly, he held his breath so he wouldn't be discovered by the girl and importantly his advisor. From his view, he sees Persona sitting on the edge of the bed and his back was facing the door. He also saw that there was a girl that seems to be lying her head on Persona's lap, and he was stroking her hair. Natsume doesn't know what this girl looks like, but she was wearing a high school division uniform, which indicates that she's either from his class or she was older than him. Either way, Natsume believes he was hearing an unbelievable scene that he can't miss.

"I'm just freaking out about school. I mean, what if none of my classmates don't like me? They'll probably talk about trends that I don't even know, or maybe famous celebrities that I probably never heard of. Oh my god, they might even ask me for my phone number, but I don't have a phone!" the girl said in despair.

"You should calm down Mika…"

"Oh, I'm a disgraceful millennial child! I never even heard of YouTube until last week when Sergio showed me videos of Make-up tutorials on his tablet! I'm such a fake. I should die. I would do a favor to the rest of the world if I didn't exist." She bellowed.

The girl felt a strong tug on her hair that made her yelp in pain.

"Hey, that hurts you know." She said as she rubbed the place it was tugged.

"Exactly my point. So please, don't ever say that again." Persona responded with a hint of sadness.

"Persona…"

Just then, she was interrupted by the sound of the door creaking. Surprised by the sudden creak from the door, Natsume utilized his amazing skill to erase his presence. He can't be caught now, not when he discovered Persona's weakness.

"Persona, you should have closed the door when you entered. What if someone was peeking in? Like, it's not hard to find my room since I'm at the corner near the elevator. Practically anyone can find me if they needed to" said the girl.

Natsume heard her getting up from the bed, and pushed the door shut.

The fire caster immediately left his spot to the elevator, and continuously pushed the "Door closed" button as soon as he entered. Part of him was being paranoid that Persona knew that he was listening outside, and he'll definitely kill him if he caught him. The elevator doors finally closed, and the fire caster sighed in relief.

"That was close".

After Mikan shut the door, Persona slammed his hand against it. She looked up at his intense black eyes, and she knew instantly what will happen next.

"P-Persona not now..." Mikan said with nervousness as she tried to push him away.

But the man didn't get her message, and kissed her so passionately on the lips. Mikan could feel his tongue sliding into her mouth, making her moan as he touched her chest. Her legs started to become weak and her face was red as a tomato. As Persona parted from their kiss, Mikan stared at the trail of saliva between them.

He stared at Mikan's brown eyes with passion and called out her name.

"Mikan-sama"

"Y-yes Persona?" She replied with obvious fluster in her face.

"I know you're nervous about the other kids, but I also know that you'll be just fine. I swear, once they get to know you as much as me, Sergio, and Youichi do, they'll love you in no time. So I'll be at the office ahead of you, okay? I need to talk to Narumi about something." He then gave the girl a pat in the shoulder, and left the room so fast that Mikan wasn't able to recover what just happened.

The brunette fell to the floor and reflected on that surprise attack. Well actually, it wasn't a surprise at all because it happened before in more than one occasion. Persona never admitted it yet, but Mikan already knows why he does these things to her.

He's in love with her.

Nevertheless, Persona was right. She was about to be late for her first day of school and she wouldn't want to give her classmates a wrong impression. So she stood up, grabbed her bag and locked the room.

Faculty Room

For years, Mikan have encountered many dangerous situations from her missions. Such as sneak-attacking the mafia family that caused trouble for the Academy some years back. Or that time on her first mission where she barely made it out alive after some psycho alice-user got out of prison. But for some strange reason, she was sensing the same danger behind the doors of the Faculty Room. In a worst case scenario, everyone of the staff members were probably killed of an SSO agent. However, it was different.

She felt chins down her spine, and her instincts were acting up. But as Persona had told her before, 'Go trust your instincts'. She took a deep breath, and opened the sliding doors to witness a rare scene.

Before her was a beautiful blonde that wrapped around their arms around her man-servant, Persona. What was funny was that for the very first time, she had witnessed him in an uncomfortable situation, flustered in front of this persons hold.

Persona, a man with the image of calmness and mystery. A person with rational thought and dominance. To Mikan, she is witnessing someone dominating him besides herself. One would think she would react to be shocked and jealous, but she unexpectedly felt it was surprising, and extremely amusing.

Anyway, it looked like that this person was about to kiss him, which was extra funny because of what happened a few minutes ago in her room.

"M-Mikan-sama, this isn't..."

"Oh, so you're the Mikan-sama that I've been hearing about" the blonde man interrupted. "My name is Narumi, and I'll be your homeroom teacher. I use to belong to the elementary division, but I recently been assigned to become a high school teacher now. It's a pleasure to meet you." He said with excitement and pulled out his hand.

Mikan stared at the man's hand for a while, then looked up at the man's face, who was smiling and waiting patiently for her to shake his hand.

"Nice to meet you too." The brunette said, as well as taking out her hand for a friendly shake.

Classroom B

The room was bustled with laughing young high schoolers as they gather around into their respectable group of friends. Most of these students have already known each other from elementary school, but as they gradually get to know themselves, they started to learn that the best way to survive everyday life would to interact people that are similar to them. Such as the smart students would only stay and interact with their fellow intelligent friends. Another example would be that the popular girls only hang with other popular girls, who held a high star status or belonged to a famous family. Lastly, we have the delinquents that think twice about the school and often skip their classes to hang out somewhere else. But today was especially loud.

"Hey, have you heard that there's gonna be a new student coming in?" Said a girl towards a young woman with curly black hair and green eyes.

"I doubt that. There's rarely any incidents that the academy found an Alice who is late in their time. At most, she would probably be a middle schooler and she was mistakenly placed here" replied a girl named Shouda Sumire. She's a beautiful girl that is associated with the popular crowd, as well as being the President of the Natsume Hyuuga Fan Club 7 years in a row.

"But I talked to Iinchou about it, and he already clarified that we'll have a new kid" retorted the girl.

Sumire stood up from her seat, and approached a cheerful young man with blonde hair and round glasses. His name was Tobita Yuu, a boy that received respect from his peers since elementary. With his intelligence, positive attitude and great sense of responsibility, he was given the role as class president throughout these years.

"Iinchou" Sumire said.

"Yes, Shouda-san?" He asked with a puzzled look.

She crossed her arms and asked, "Is it true that we're getting a new student today?"

"That is correct. Narumi-sensei told me about it yesterday afternoon."

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Sumire asked with a sound of contempt when she said girl.

"I believe he told me it was a girl" Iinchou replied.

Sumire furrowed her eyebrows and turned her back on him as she walked away to her group. She was obviously not happy about this news at all. A few years back, there was also a new girl who transferred into the same class as Sumire and Natsume named Koizumi Luna. With her delicate features, Sumire wanted to befriend her to be part of her minions. However, Luna ended up partnering with Natsume for that year. Rumors said that they were going out secretly, and Luna was able to gain popularity from the hearsay. Thankfully she's not part of their class anymore, but it was the most traumatic time for Sumire.

The back door opened, and Natsume finally came in. He quietly sat down at his seat located at the back of the room, which was also where Sumire's group also resided.

"Good morning, Natsume-kun" the girl greeted cheerfully as soon she saw the fire-caster stepped into the room. He ignored her greeting, and pulled out his manga. Sumire believed that this was a normal conversation with the fire boy, little does she know that he was pondering over Persona's strange behavior earlier.

Narumi, one of the teachers that Natsume doesn't trust, finally entered the room with the usual smile he always used every morning.

"Everyone get to your seats now" he chimed.

Everyone quickly sat in their designated seats, while Natusme glared at the blonde man with disgust. His chippy attitude always irritates him, because under that smile was a heartless cold-blooded killer like him. Narumi once explained to him he was different from his past, but he didn't believed it one bit.

"I have two announcements. First of all, I won't be able to teach English today because of the headmaster called me in for god knows what. So you'll have a substitute later. On our second matter, and I think you guys probably know about it, we have a new student today!"

The class started to get noisy with the announcement being true.

"She's really cute, and I hope that y'all get along with her. It took us a long time to find her because she has the type of alice that was hard to detect." There was ore muttering in the class, wondering what type of alice the new girl has.

"Without further ado, I'd like to you meet your new classmate. You could come in now" commanded Narumi.

"Good morning everyone. My name is Mikan Sakura, and I have the Nullification alice. Please take care of me." Mikan bowed, and lifted back up with cute smile that would swoon any boy. The boys started to blush after her introduction and muttered between one another. Even the Yuu Tobita, the class president, blushed at the sight of the brunette. Most of the girls in the class were also commenting how pretty she was and added more thoughts that she seemed the approachable type.

Mikan analyzed her classroom and stood there with nervousness. Seeing her classmates with flustered and exciting faces made her uncomfortable, as well as thinking theywere probably laughing at her.

'Narumi-sensei told me I should smile when I introduce myself. He guaranteed that it would make me have friends. But I'm starting to think it backlashed' the brunette thought.

"Mikan-chan you'll have a totally great time here in Alice Academy. If you work hard and do well on your assignments, then you'll be fine. Now then, I already assigned you a partner and a seatmate. They'll be the ones taking care of you and showing you the way how the school works" Narumi said. Mikan nodded, anticipating who will be her partner.

She hoped it was a girl, that way she can potentially have her first normal gal pal. Someone who talks about boys, goes shopping whatever they want to, or maybe even...

"Your partner will be Natsume Hyuuga for the rest of the year."

...get killed by the black cat himself.

It wasn't just Mikan who was shocked about this arrangement, but so was the whole class.

"Narumi-sensei, this is outrageous! It's been 3 years since Natsume had a partner, and I don't see how this girl qualifies for it." Shot up a girl with green curly hair. Mikan looked back at Narumi-sensei with begging eyes to reconsider the position. Whoever this girl was, the Nullifier agreed with her 100%. It's bad enough she has Natsume for missions, but in her school life as well? Mikan instantly thought that the government is really ought to get her miserable ass.

"Now, now don't complain about my choice in partners. As a person with a pheromone alice, I'm known to be a great matchmaker." Narumi explained. Mikan mentally slapped her forehead.

"Listen kids, what's done is done and I can't change that. As your knowledgeable sensei, I expect you all to respect my decisions. Or else" The room went instantly silent. Mikan felt a bit of tension between her classmates and Narumi, which add up to her anxiety building up.

"Well then Mikan-chan, your seat is right next to Natsume-kun at the back. Try not to trip while you're at it." Narumi tapped on her shoulder for reassurance and quickly left the room to avoid further glares from his students.

The girl walked towards her assigned seat at the back, where Natsume Hyuuga stares at her intently on her way there. Mikan stared back at him with the same intensity, for she knows the boy will not be kind to her at all. But she needed to act like a normal high-schooler until her mission was over.

The brunette was too focused in her thoughts that she didn't notice a foot out, and she tripped. Luckily she was able to catch herself, so she saved the utter embarrassment to fall on her face.

"New girl, watch your step"chuckled a girl with black hair. She was sitting right next to the girl that objected Mikan to partner with Natsume earlier.

"L-likewise" she responded in the midst of confusion. Mikan continued to walk towards her seat. When she finally sat next to Natsume, he stared at her and smirked. This made Mikan extra anxious, wondering if he knows about her identity as Shisane. But whatever gets in her way, whatever hell he puts her through, she can handle it.

His face came closer to her ear and whispered, "I'm gonna eat you out alive, new girl".

Mikan was certainly surprised from his comment, but she smirked at him as well.

"Bring it on"

End of Chapter 2