Bloody Rose

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the GA characters except Yuki.

Recap:

After another second, with a click sound, Natsume and I were connected.

I opened my eyes and let my hands fall.

Did you know that Koko can't read your mind now because I can nullify him out of both our

minds? I said to him.

His eyes widened slightly when he heard my voice, but didn't see my mouth moving.

Cool. He said.

I smiled.

Thank you. I said. Now I have more confidence.

The corners of his lips lifted to form a small smile.

You're welcome. He said.

Mikan P.O.V.

Natsume waited until I finished my soda and as we were walking back to the cafeteria, I tripped on my own feet, and he had to grab my arms to steady me.

You're so clumsy, Strawberry Fields. He said in my mind.

Strawberry Fields? What... Natsume you pervert! You're such a nasty fox! I screamed back.

A trickle of another annoyed emotion filled my head and I knew this emotion belonged to Natsume.

How old do you think you are? He said. You're too old to wear those.

Who are you to decide, Slanted Eyes!

You're the one to talk, Droopy Eyed-Ugly Girl. He said as we walked in the cafeteria again.

Thankfully, no one had noticed our absence.

Natsume and I continued to bicker as I went to my table and he went to his.

"Huh? Mikan-chan, what's wrong? You have the expression you always have when you are bickering with Natsume." Inchou said.

"That's because I a-" I stopped myself before I uttered unnecessary information. "I've just been to the bathroom and met Natsume. We were bickering. Again." I laughed nervously, hoping that he didn't find anything weird.

"Ohhh. You guys, it's been years and you still bicker. Sometimes, I think it's really amazing how you keep this bickering up. Well, I finished my lunch, so I'll see you in class, Mikan." He said and walked away.

"See you!" I called back, mentally sighing in relief.

Baka. You almost told them you had other alices. Natsume retorted.

Shut up! You can't do anything better! The moment I said that, I instantly regretted it.

Are you challenging me? He asked.

Unable to throw away my pride, I said: yes! If you laugh right now, then everyone will know that something is going on!

Fine, then. Try to make me laugh. I heard the smirk in his voice.

I looked over at his table where he was sitting.

I glared at his back and as if he sensed something, he looked over his shoulder at me. I continued to glare at him. His eyes showed no emotion as he smirked and stuck his tongue out at me, his hand giving me a thumbs down.

For the rest of the lunch period, I told him joke after joke, trying to make him laugh. He didn't laugh for any of them, and when we were walking out of the cafeteria, I surrendered.

It was hard thinking of random jokes, but I was glad for the company because all through this, I could feel Yuki-kun's eyes on me.

When we got back to the classroom though, I got extremely uncomfortable because:

1. I didn't know Yuki-kun chose to sit beside me.

2. He was extremely close.

3. He was staring at me intensely, not even bothering to hide it.

4. Natsume was glaring at him over me.

What does he want from me? I asked Natsume, my patience running low.

I don't know. He said in a frustrated voice.

I slammed my hands down on the table. I've had enough.

"What do you want from me?" I growled, turning to Yuki.

"I want to talk to you." He said indifferently.

Usually, when we train together and I explode like this, he flinches and backs away, but now, in a classroom full of my friends, he knew I wouldn't dare do anything.

"I don't. Class is about to start." I said.

"But-" he got cut off when Jin-Jin came in.

I glared at him and turned to face the front of the classroom.

For some reason, that guy pisses me off. Natsume said in my head.

Sometimes, he really can be annoying. I agreed.

Jin-Jin called at Yuki to introduce himself.

He sighed and scooted his chair away from mine to stand up and once again arrogantly introduce himself to the teacher.

The day ended peacefully.

After school as I was walking back to my dorm with my friends, Yuki-kun pulled me out of the group and took me to the back of the building; the same place where Natsume took me during lunch break.

I closed my eyes briefly as Yuki-kun leaned on the wall, his arms crossed over his chest .When I opened them, they were hallow and emotionless. It was easier to act around him this way.

"What do you want?" I asked him coldly.

"Tch. You went back to being emotionless. Come on, Mikan! Why do you act like this around me?"

"Just get to the point." I growled.

"Fine. Fine. Kouchou told me to tell you that you will be sent on a mission tonight."

"Mission?" This was unexpected. Usually, I would be warned of a mission on the night before it actually took place.

"Kouchou got noticed of this troublesome thing today and he needs it taken cared of as fast as possible."

I crouched down and started doodling on the dirt. "Is that all? No other information?"

"Hmmmmm. Not much... oh! He's sending me with you."

I looked up, "you're coming with me?!" I groaned.

"What's with that reaction?" He demanded, frowning.

I sighed.

"Don't you dare bother me during the mission." I said, glaring at him.

"Okay, okay!" He quickly said, raising his hands.

"Speaking of missions." I said, remembering, "how was yours yesterday?"

"It went brilliantly. Got a scratch or two, a punch here and there, but that's all." He laughed, not meeting my eyes.

I smirked. "Liar. You had a hard time completing everything didn't you?"

He looked away. "Fine, it was ridiculously hard."

I laughed at him for a second, then my voice went flat again as I asked, "so why did you enroll in the academy?"

He grinned slowly. "That's a secret."

My eyes narrowed. "What the hell?"

"Sorry, Mikan. But I really can't tell you."

"Did the ESP send you?" I asked, frustration building inside me.

He said nothing and just smiled sadly at me.

I stood up, my voice taking a dangerous turn. "What did he say to you?"

Still no answer.

"Answer me!" I yelled, the confusion and frustration from earlier exploding. My hair started to fly around everywhere, the wind responding to my anger. My bows ripped and my hair went crazy.

Yuki took a step back, biting his lip, but he still didn't answer me.

Anger covered my vision with red. And because I was so mad, I didn't realize that the anger was being sensed by a certain someone in my head.

Whoa, whoa, what's wrong? Natsume asked.

This stupid bastard is not telling me- I couldn't even finish what I wanted to say.

Wow. You must be really mad to cuss like that. Amusement was in his voice.

I stopped. That was actually the first time anyone found my anger funny.

Yuki cocked his head, surprise showing in his face as I suddenly stopped advancing on him.

He took this chance to ask, "you've been getting really close to the Black Cat haven't you?"

"Why do you ask?" I glared at him coldly.

"No reason." He said, looking away. "It's just that I think he's powerle-" he stopped himself. "Uh- I mean, useless."

"Were you about to say 'powerless'?" I asked incredulously. "Just so you know, he's actually the second best in the DA. Which means he's stronger than you. The ESP isn't sending him out on missions often because he usually uses me and the Black Cat doesn't know about me being under the order of the ESP."

Yuki-kun just stared at the ground.

"What were you going to do after school?" He suddenly asked out of the blue.

I frowned at him. "I have a lot of things planned, actually." That was a lie. I had nothing to do after school except for homework and I was just planning to hang out with Hotaru and my other girlfriends. "Why do you ask?" I demanded again.

"Because..." suddenly, he rushed forward at me. He grabbed my chin in one hand and placed his other hand on the back of my head so I had no means of escaping.

He leaned down in a flash and his lips came crashing down on mine.

My eyes widened.

"Mmng!" I protested.

I felt thick, sickly sweet liquid flow into my mouth.

I pushed him off sharply and tried to spit the liquid out, but it was too late. I had swallowed at least some of it. I looked up at him with hate and a little bit of horror, coughing. "What did you do to me?" My vision started to grow hazy.

"Kouchou's orders." He said, smiling silkily. "You need rest before this mission. Don't worry, it's just a syrup that makes you sleep for a couple of hours."

Horror washed over me though I didn't let him see that.

"Y-you bastard." I said to him, swaying.

He just continued to smile. "Kouchou's orders." He repeated. "I'll take you to your dorm room, so don't you worry. Oyasuminasai, ojou-sama."

I continued to glare at him, but it was growing weak.

Natsume! I shouted into his mind, struggling to focus.

Whoa, what now, Polka? He asked.

Go to my room and wake me up! Do you understand?! Slap me or pour cold water on my face if I don't wake up! Just do whatever you need to do to WAKE ME UP! I used the last bit of my fading power to say that bit.

My knees started to buckle, threatening to drop me. I could barely see now.

W-what? What do you mean? Wait- Mikan?! Natsume sounded a little panicked now.

Please. I managed to whisper before everything went dark, and I fell into a deep and forced sleep.

I woke up to the pain of having my ears pulled.

I groaned and opened my eyes.

The first thing I saw was Natsume's face, inches away from mine.

For a second, both of us didn't move.

Then I screamed.

I flailed my arms around, accidentally punching Natsume in the face, and I scrambled backwards until I was in the corner of my bed, hugging a pillow to my chest with my knees drawn up in front of me.

"W-w-w-w-w-w-what the bloody hell are you doing inside my room?!" I screeched.

Natsume sat up from where I had knocked him to the ground, holding his nose and groaning.

"You asked me to, you idiot." He groaned.

"What? Oh..." I said as everything came flooding back to me.

He glared at me as blood started flowing down his nose.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! Did I do that?" I hurriedly went to him and attempted to peel his hand off his face.

He refused. Shaking my fluttering hands away, he said, "Never mind about me. What about you? What the hell was all this about? Suddenly asking me to come to your room and wake you up; what happened?"

I refused to give up and this time, I gently pulled his hand down. He obeyed. I placed my hand on his face where the injury was and started healing it with my healing alice. My hands glowed a light shade of pink.

"I was talking to Yuki-kun. He suddenly put me to sleep." I explained.

"What! Why?"

I looked away and didn't answer.

"Mikan?" He peered at my face.

I avoided eye contact.

He sighed. "Well, it doesn't matter."

I looked up at him in surprise.

He smiled gently and pulled me into a warm embrace. "I'm just glad you're safe."

I blushed madly, but didn't move away.

He pulled back and when he saw my face, he broke into laughter.

"Your face is really red." He snickered.

"Sh-shut up!"

"Nah. I'd rather not."

I pouted and looked away, crossing my arms. Now I felt bad about hiding the truth.

"Thank you f-for waking me up." I looked even more away from him, blushing bright red.

There was a pause. Then he said, "you're welcome."

I still couldn't look at him.

I took a deep breath and started, "okay, here's the reason. You.. realize that I go on missions right?"

He took in a sharp breath, as if he knew, but didn't want it to be true. "Yeah," he said. "...Are you going on one tonight?"

I nodded.

"Yuki-kun said some nonsense about rest before the mission." I said. I was still avoiding eye contact.

There was another pause. Then he gently turned my face towards him. His warm hands grasped mine and he folded my hand around something small and round.

"Take it just in case." he told me. "Use it as a good luck charm or something."

He looked away while I looked down at the object in my hands.

A beautiful red alice stone, his alice stone, sat peacefully and beautifully in my hands.

I closed my hands gently around it and looked up at Natsume with a bright smile.

"Thanks." I said.

He glanced at me and smiled back a little, "Anytime. Be safe, Mikan."

I nodded.

Then suddenly, the door opened and Hotaru barged in without knocking.

I looked up at her, surprised.

"Hotaru? What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Instinct." she replied curtly.

I got off the bed and walked over to her.

She took a good look at me.

"You...are going on a mission today." she said more to herself.

It was a statement and not a question, but I answered anyway.

"Yes."

She looked down a little, then she looked back up and met my eyes, smiling a little, "you should have some time left. Do you want to go to Central Town?"

My eyes shined and I smiled, "With the others?"

She nodded.

"Of course!" I hugged Hotaru.

She hugged me back for a second then pulled me to the door. "Then we better get going."

"Ah, wait." I looked back at Natsume. "You coming?"

"Why the hell would I even want to?"

"Awwww. Come on! Come with us. By others I meant everyone in the gang including you and Ruka-pyon." I pouted again.

It took a second, but in the end, he said, "fine."

"Yay!" I smiled happily.

I spent the rest of my time left before the mission with my friends in Central Town, totally having fun.

But, too soon, it was time for business.

It was 9:20 pm. and I was getting ready for the mission.

I dressed myself with a black sleeveless shirt and gloves that didn't cover my half my fingers and went well past my elbow. I wore short shorts and thigh-high socks.

The shoes that I wore today was an invention that Hotaru made for me. It was black and could do all sorts of things. It could change into high heels with its heels as sharp as a needle, or it could change into simple sneakers with strings that move on your order.

Right now though, I made them turn into simple flats.

All the clothes and accessories that I wear to my trainings or missions were black. I didn't want to stand out too much while training, nor do I want to be found in the act of spying on missions.

I gathered my hair up and put on a black cap.

In minutes, I was out of my room and heading for the DA building.

The ESP was waiting for me in his office.

"Ah, Mikan." he said. "I believe you have heard from Yuki that you will be going on a mission today?"

"Yes." I said emotionlessly.

I watched as he walked towards me.

"Well, that really makes things much easier." he said. He was now behind me, his hot breath on my neck.

I suppressed the urge to shudder.

I suddenly wished I hadn't cut off my connection with Natsume. I told him that we would have it again tomorrow... I really wished I hadn't.

"Assassinate or steal?" I asked as he latched a red choker on my throat. This would inform him of where I am and what I am doing. It also informed my enemies of who I was.

"Both." he whispered in my ear.

I bowed my head even though he wasn't in front of me.

"Yes, sir." I said.

"This is also a test for your skills so I wouldn't have to explain all the small stuff. You understand?" He said while his hands snaked down my front.

I didn't flinch or shudder. "Yes, sir." I said again.

I desperately tried to think of other things. There was a mission every month to test my skills. I wondered why Yuki-kun had his yesterday but was going with me on this mission. Maybe Kouchou was lying; I did not voice my thoughts out loud for I would earn nothing. A punch in the gut perhaps.

"I want him killed." he whispered in my ear again. Then he walked away. "Go. Persona will tell you the location."

I went down to one knee briefly (just because he wants me to) and said, "as you wish."

Yuki-kun and I sped through the forest that was located quite far to the east of the whole Academy. Yes, we were outside of the academy.

But the choker on me would keep me from doing what I wanted.

I mentally sighed as I dodged trees. Another night to stain my hands with blood.

I was running a little bit ahead of Yuki and soon, I could see the building where our target was.

According to Persona, the man we were supposed to kill had brown, spiky hair with bright green eyes. He was a little bit chubby, but he was quite tall. Since he is rich, Persona assumed that he would be wearing expensive clothing. Also, because he was the highest authority in the building, he would be treated with a lot of respect.

The building itself was pretty modern-looking. It had many stories and various places had floor-to-ceiling windows; the rest of the walls were white.

I looked over my shoulder at Yuki-kun and stretched my hand out emotionlessly.

He took a glance at the building and took it gladly; he wouldn't want me leave him here.

I used my invisibility alice to cover us both just before we entered the building's territory.

We went to the back of the building in seconds and without hesitating, I jumped onto the wall.

A useful alice that the ESP put inside my body: wall walking.

I gripped Yuki-kun's hand as I ran on the wall vertically. I narrowed my eyes against the wind and leaned forward to avoid having my head jerked backwards.

When we reached the top, I jumped high and landed on the roof of the building. Unfortunately for Yuki, he was still in the air when I reached the platform and, bringing my hand down, I slammed him hard on the ground.

I muffled the extremely loud crunch sound by casting a bubble of soundproof area around us in an instant.

Yuki made a "GECK-!" sound as he hit the ground on his neck and back of head first.

I let go of his hand and stood up, hissing a "shut up!" to him before undoing the soundproof area bubble.

He was about to complain when I gave him the death glare and shut him up.

He rubbed the back of his head as I calmly walked to the middle of the roof and went down to my knees. I placed a hand on the ground in front of me and used an alice that allowed me to look through anything.

My eyes glowed green as I stared intensely at the ground.

There, on the second floor, a chubby person dressed in black, expensive clothes walked with two bodyguards at his sides. The other employees in the hall all paused to bow respectfully at him.

"Got him." I quietly reported to my partner.

I watched as our target walked into a wide hallway with a proud smile. His smile faltered and disappeared as he realized that no one was in the hall to bow. At the end of the hallway was a double-door, and inside, there was some kind of office. There was nobody in it. The office had the back wall covered with floor-to-ceiling windows.

About halfway down the main hall, another hallway started at the right. That place was especially dark and small. It was probably where restrooms were, but I saw no one in them.

I looked up at Yuki-kun, "There are two bodyguards. Take down a guard. I'll take the other."

He nodded.

I grabbed his hand again and teleported to the dark hallway with the restrooms.

We immediately pressed ourselves flat against the wall.

Our targets' footsteps were loud against the white floor. There would approximately be twenty-five more steps until they would reach the hallway we were in.

I spotted a camera at the corner of the hallway, so I turned myself invisible and went to it without a single sound. I put a red sticker with a rose on the lens so that it could no longer see what was happening in the hall.

I quickly went back to the dark hallway where Yuki was and lifted the shadow that allowed me invisibility.

Yuki-kun didn't flinch, being so used to me doing things on my own with my invisibility alice.

I leaned on the cool wall, closed my eyes and listened.

There were about twelve more steps until they reached our hallway.

I could separate the target's footsteps from the two guards'. His was loud and relaxed while theirs were a little bit more quiet and clipped.

Eight more steps.

I turned to Yuki-kun and gave him a glare that said, you-better-do-good-or-your-dead.

He paled -making him very easy to see in the darkness- but squared his shoulders.

Three more steps.

I lifted my hand up in front of Yuki-kun's face and held up a three. I counted them down in synchronization with the footsteps.

3..

2..

1..

I ran out of my hiding place in a flash and shot my hand out in the direction of the target, palm out.

He suddenly stopped moving, paralyzed by my alice. Utter surprise was on his face.

Note to self: crack up later at his expression.

One of the guards snapped out of his shock and charged at me. I looked at him with an emotionless smile. My message was clear: bring it on.

That put a small hesitance in the guard's running steps, but nevertheless, he came at me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Yuki-kun slam into the other guard before he could reach me.

I ducked a punch flying for my head and kicked him hard on his shin.

He sucked in a painful breath and went down.

I grabbed him by his hair, literally lifted him with one hand, and slammed his face on the wall.

I heard a satisfying crunch and his nose broke.

He twisted out of my grip, faced me and grabbed my shoulders.

I looked at him without showing any emotion on my face, but in the inside, I was surprised. What was he doing? This wasn't an attacking move. He was just grabbing my shoulders.

Then, I suddenly felt as if I was a phone and my battery was decreasing.

'Energy draining alice? No wonder they hired him as a bodyguard!' I thought.

My knees buckled as I struggled to shake him off.

Damn it. Why was he so strong?

I lifted my hand and pulled out a necklace from under my shirt. I desperately clutched at the certain stone dangling from it.

Suddenly, a ring of hot flames surrounded the guard and he immediately let go of my shoulders, yelping.

I clutched the stone, closed my eyes tight and thought, 'Thank you, Natsume. You might just have saved my life.'

I extinguished the flames and in a second, I was in front of the guard again, punching him painfully in the gut.

He staggered back, but charged at me again.

Strangely, the alice stone in my hands was keeping me on my feet, so when he came at me, I easily stepped to the side and cleanly hit his neck with the side of my hand.

I was actually aiming for the back of his neck, but he twisted at the last second. Damn this guy.

He brought out a knife, grunting in pain. He charged again.

I teleported and reappeared behind him. "Your bravery is very admirable." I whispered in his ear.

He whirled around with anger in his face and charged. I side stepped again, but he was not fooled this time. He twisted at the last moment and swung his knife.

I quickly avoided getting my arm cut off, but couldn't avoid a light scratch. I winced. The wound didn't seem so deep, but beads of blood oozed out of the scratch.

I turned to look at the man. Everyone in the room sensed my very obvious, silent anger.

I slowly lifted my hand up.

The guard tensed, bracing himself for whatever move I will make.

When I brought my hand down, the wind obeyed and pushed the guard from behind sharply towards me.

The guard's eye, as he came flying towards me, was terrified.

I took out my own knife from the belt on my thigh with the smooth sound of the blade sliding out of its place.

I didn't even twitch an eye as he came to me against his will, shouting out his struggle. I pulled my knife hand back and thrust it forward, embedding the knife deep in his chest, exactly where his heart was.

A visible shudder of shock went through his body. Then his body went completely limp.

I sharply pulled the knife out and jumped back as the man's corpse face-planted on the floor.

I slashed the air with the knife, and blood splattered in a line on the wall and floor.

Then I looked up to the terrified eyes of my main target. I slowly walked to him.

I lifted my hand and placed it on his neck.

His alice stone started to form in my hand; it was the size of a large pebble.

The man let out a whimper.

"You're pathetic." I whispered in his ear.

I brought my knife down again and silenced the whimpering man.

I looked at Yuki-kun and his guard as I slid the knife back in its place.

He quickly finished up.

"Took you long enough." I said to him as the guard fell from his hands; this one was a woman.

I wondered with terrible guilt and sorrow if she had children that waited for her return at home.

Suddenly, it was as if my energy drained by the guard was too much.

I sighed.

"Move her over here." I said tiredly to Yuki.

We piled the corpses in the center with our main target on the top. I placed a single red rose, dripping with the blood of the corpses, on top of him.

I grabbed Yuki-kun's hand and used my invisibility alice as the sensors finally noticed that there was an attack.

I quickly went to the camera and peeled my trademark sticker off as alarms started to ring.

"Yuki-kun, through that door." I said.

He nodded and we ran straight at it.

One of Yuki-kun's main alice: an alice that allows its user to pass through anything.

We passed through the door and kept running. As I had seen, there were nobody in this room.

We swiftly went through the window and jumped to a freefall. I uses the winds to slow our fall and we hit the ground running.

We ran into the forest without a sound coming from our running steps; Yuki was now running behind me.

The siren rang through the night as the criminals escaped.

General P.O.V.

[Main office]

"Sir, I've got urgent news." the woman said.

The CEO turned to look at his second-in-command. His third-in-command was standing behind the woman.

"What is it?" the head asked.

"Tadashi Jun was assassinated along with his two bodyguards." she informed.

"What!?" the man said in shock. He slammed his hands down on his table. "When did this happen?"

"I believe it was tonight at midnight, sir."

"Who did this? I assigned the best guard out of the whole team of professional guards!"

The third-in-command stepped forward and held up a bloody red rose in a plastic bag. "We believe it was the Bloody Rose again, sir." he said.

The CEO fell back in his chair. "Bloody Rose..." he banged his fist on the table so hard his coffee mug fell over. Thankfully, it was empty. "Curse her!" he shouted out.

Both his in-commands bowed their heads.

"It seems she got us again." the second-in-command said.

The man cursed again.

.

Bloody Rose, also known as Sakura Mikan, the school's secret assassinator.

A/N: Thank you for reading this chapter! Sorry for the wait.

I chose Mikan's code name as the Bloody Rose and changed the cover image to a red rose. I thought it would be cool if she left a red rose wherever and whenever she completed a mission. :D

The alice to pass through anything is not the only alice Yuki possesses.

Ummm, I think that's it for extra information. Special thanks to all my readers who have reviewed; you made my day. :D

Please review and thank you again for reading!