Beep. Beep.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that Natsume was not next to me, and it was a strange feeling, really. No sarcastic voice to wake up to just felt out of place. Did he leave without me?

I reached over and placed my hand on my roommate's side of the bed. The sheets were cold to the touch, signifying that he had gotten out of bed quite a while ago. Where the heck did he go? Deciding not to mull over it too much, I quickly fixed my appearance in the mirror and threw on my school uniform. I looked slightly better than I the day before; my blue eyes were no longer shadowed by a light hue of purple. A good sleep had taken its effect.

Just as I finished my morning routine, a figure came bursting into the room, startling me and causing high speed orbs of icy water to be launched at the trespasser. Wait. I glanced at the clock beside the bed, the flashing digits telling me I was running exceedingly late. I had just attacked a teacher.

"Sorry for startling you, Kai." A familiar voice spoke hurriedly, making me curious. Narumi was usually an extremely laid-back character. To see him speak with such uncharacteristic urgency was a rare case.

"Just get straight to the point."

"Well…have you seen either Natsume or Ruka?"

"Are they missing?" I probed, hoping to find out some information as well.

"I thought you might have some knowledge on what happened."

"Unfortunately, I don't. Natsume was already gone by the time I woke up." It would be better to cut to the chase rather than to play mind games with the pheromone Alice user.

"Damn." To hear the blonde teacher curse was rarer still. "I'm going to have to leave now. Just head to class while I try to find those two troublemakers." With that, he was out the door. I sighed then left the room, being sure to lock it. Did he try to escape?

"Hah…so hectic."

The classroom was in its usual state of disarray with our homeroom teacher, Narumi, out of the room. I heard a whizzing sound and instinctively ducked, a hard object narrowly missing my head and smashing into the blackboard with a loud clank. I eyed the hole in the blackboard apprehensively. Had that been my head… I tried to clear the foreboding thoughts. These students had no concept of safety at all.

Moving out of the danger zone, I headed to my desk where no stray objects hurtled about. The only downside was that Perm-Head and her clique stood close by. When the president of the Natsume and Ruka fan club saw me head over, she glared. "What do you think you're doing here?"

"Getting to my seat."

"Don't think you're all that just because you're Natsume's partner!"

"You think being with him is a good thing?"

"You don't understand the privilege of being his partner. He's the—"

I could tell she was going to bore me. "I'm not going to stick around to hear you boast about him." My lack of interest was blatantly obvious from my tone.

Sumire huffed. "Fine. Have it your way."

"Oh? Here I thought you'd never shut up. I'm glad I was proven wrong." I taunted,

"You—" Perm-Head was tempted to say something but thought better of it at the last second. "Hey you, where are you going?" She called out after me when she saw me starting to leave. Narumi wouldn't be back any time soon, so I had decided to get some Alice practice in.

"Heh. Starting to care about me?" I teased.

"No! Ugh…" She was rendered speechless.

"Okay, thanks." Taking advantage of her loss of words, I left the room.

The exhilarating sensation of raw power coursed throughout my body as I levitated all the water in the pool. Thankfully, no one was around at this time, allowing me to practice without the fear of being caught or harming a passerby.

As soon as I was satisfied with the height at which it was raised, I attempted to freeze it.

Snap.

Over half of the total amount of water immediately became solid, however, the remainder stayed in its liquid state—much to my dismay. I guess I lacked the practice. There was no use fretting over it, though; I still had plenty of time to train. I released the control I exercised over the water and ice, letting it fall back into the pool, not forgetting to first melt the ice first to ensure the pool wasn't left with a huge dent.

Sitting down, I dipped my hand into the water and started to twirl it around, entertaining myself with the whirls and ripples the water made. It's so cold… The temperature of the water was almost numbing. I resisted the urge to jerk my hand out of the water, needing to build resistance toward the cold just in case I needed to fight with an ice dagger or the like. Come to think of it, I needed to improve my precision when freezing water to form detailed objects.

The hissing sound of steam made me look around for the source. The water in the pool was evaporating; I had absentmindedly brought the water to a boil as when I was too absorbed in my thoughts. I recalled that I had, only minutes ago, thought the water was too cold. My Alice must've picked up on that and made some adjustments by itself. It was good that that I could subconsciously use my Alice, but at times like this, it was just problematic.

After I cooled down the water, I noted that the swimming pool was now only filled to half. Begrudgingly, I set off to fetch the hose, even though I could have just filled it using my Alice. Slacking off in situations like this by taking the easy way out would probably have adverse effects in the future. It always did.

By the time I had finished returning the area to its original state, it was already time for the next lesson to start. I considered just skipping the day's classes, but decided against it in the end. Besides, it wouldn't hurt just to check on the class' state of affairs, with the teacher gone and all.

A large winged figure against the blue of the sky caught my attention. Smirking slightly, I prepared to set off to class.

I can almost bet Natsume has been caught already.

Oh, I'd find out once I got back.

The mousy teacher—which I hadn't bothered to learn the name of-was once again put in charge of the class, although really, 'in charge' was the direct opposite of what was happening; he had the class under everything but control. More like he was at the mercy of the class. I almost felt sympathy for the teacher. Narumi had a tendency to abandon him when something took precedence over teaching the class—in this case, Natsume's (and Ruka's?) supposed escape.

Temporary order to the chaos was restored to the class when Natsume strode into the room with Ruka at his side. When they got to their seats, my partner swung his legs onto the desk, taking a good area of my working space in the process, with a sour look on his face.

"I'm guessing I didn't go well, huh? You can sulk all you want, but get your feet of my side of the table." When he didn't shift his feet over, I decided to take a more underhanded approach. "Ruka even had to come and save you. You're really useless, aren't you?"

As calculated, Natsume took the bait.

"I'll burn you." Crimson eyes flared as he abruptly stood up, flame in hand.

"Water beats fire," I mocked, preparing my own water orb.

But then again, our Alices hardly stuck to the concept of logic. Hell, even the respective elements we produced didn't stick to the norm. Normal water didn't put out his flames, and my water doused oil fires. Although we could choose to use normal elements, we simply preferred not to.

"How did you know I came to get Natsume?" The question Ruka posed halted the impending conflict.

"I wonder." My cryptic answer seemed to throw him, evident from the confusion on his face.

"What?"

"Ruka, don't bother. You won't get any answers from him." With a word of friendly advice to his friend, Natsume kicked his feet back onto the table, making sure to keep them of my side this time, so I decided not to hassle him. With a manga magazine placed over his face, I assumed he was resting.

Ruka, being slightly mellower than his raven haired counterpart, interacted with his rabbit. With their completely different personalities, I wondered how they got so close. It was a mystery, one that I'd probably ask Ruka about later. Or not. I didn't want to dig too deeply.

"Hi, I'm Sakura Mikan! Nice to meet you…" I was impervious to the clamor emitted by class until a girl at the front of the room started introducing herself. Looks like we have a new addition to the class.

"W-w-well, take one of the seats in the back…" The teacher stuttered directions at the new student, which she complied with. She started to walk down the aisle to find a seat, taking the classes judgmental stares (glares) along with her.

Walking past our table she stopped and gave us a greeting; "Nice to meet you."

"Oh, it's you. That polka dot panties girl." My eye twitched in disbelief. Did he rob her of her underwear?

Scrutinizing her moves, a thought started to form. Now, only if she decides NOT to mess with Natsume, she'll be fine.

I spoke too soon. "YOU PERVERTED MOLESTER!" Mikan screamed at the languid figure on the bench.

"What are you talking about? A molester is someone with a sleazy ulterior motive." His face contemptuous, he continued. "As if I'd have a sleazy ulterior motive on you." With such scorn, his comeback was gold.

Stifling a chuckle, I extended my arm, proffering a small lump of ice. "Need some ice for that burn?"

She just stood there, bewildered and looking completely nonplussed. With a small laugh, Ruka reached over his friend and snatched the piece of ice out of my outstretched hand and started to hydrate the rabbit in his arms.

I narrowed my eyes, feeling playful. Oh, payback would feel so good.

Not wanting to startle the small animal, I waited until he was done to take my revenge. Ignoring 'Polka-dot panty's' outraged cries at my partner, I materialized water just above the opening of the back of Ruka's open collar. Silently, I froze it.

"You're a woman's enemy! A barbarian!" Okay, she was getting annoying now. Judging from Natsume's expression, he was, too. I debated on where to shut her up or not, but chose not to. She'd probably get enough hostility from Natsume's numerous admirers, not to mention abundant amounts of cruel practical jokes.

Seeing that the rabbit moved to the special star, and was now comfortably nestled in Natsume's lap—probably because of his unusually warm body temperature—I let the chunk of the ice free from my control, allowing it to drop cleanly into Ruka's shirt, eliciting a yelp from him. "Kai!"

"Haha!" A small laugh managed to escape my lips when I saw his shocked facial expression.

The blonde squirmed around, desperate to get the coldness out of his shirt. Natsume, who was beside him, made no attempt to help at all. Leaving Ruka struggling, I turned my attention back to the girl in pigtails.

"Apologize, you morons!" Mikan's order was the last straw for Natsume's admirers; they couldn't stand hearing her badmouthing their precious 'idol' anymore. She was elevated high into the air by one student, while the rest of them encircled her.

"Himukai, let her down!" Our class rep yelled at them to stop from across the room while Hotaru Imai sat at her desk, glancing up distractedly every so often to check on the situation. Despite her seeming indifference toward her friend, one could tell that she really cared.

"Why should we? She's been nothing but trash talking Natsume and Ruka ever since she came in." Sumire cut in, head held haughtily high and a contemptuous sneer playing on her lips. "This is almost too kind, isn't that right Natsume?"

"Let her down." His tone was commanding, and Himukai immediately followed his bidding. The airbone girl was lowered down, falling to her knees in shock once her feet touched the sturdy ground.

"I think Natsume's generosity adds to his charm!" Even though my partner ordered for Mikan to be let down to deliberately mess with Perm-Head, she was even more smitten with him, not realising the main reason he had let down the twin tailed girl. Amazing how admiration glosses over an individual's more negative traits.

"Yo, Polka-dot , what kind Alice do you have?" The whole class fell silent at his question, which in truth, was more like a demand.

"Why should I tell you?" Mikan stuck her tongue out at the class' idol, only to be lifted back up into the air for her blatant show of disrespect to Natsume.

"Come to think of it," The class mind reader started, no doubt reading the girl's mind, "I wonder what my Alice is. The teacher told me I was an Alice, but I haven't seen any signs of being one. Am I…am I really an Alice?" He finished, answering Natsume's question, much to astonishment of the new student.

"That's unbelievable! She doesn't know what her Alice is?" Does she even have—" Sumire was cut off by Mikan's protests.

"I-I have one! Even though I don't know what it is, Narumi-sensei said that I have one, so I have one!"

"Then prove it to us."

"Polka-dots, I hear that if you can't get along with the people in the class within a week, you can't enroll."

"How do you know that?"

"I guess at this rate you won't be enrolling."

At this point, she was visibly close to tears.

"Although I could give you a chance. If you truly are what you say you are." His words bring hope back into her paling face. "You see those woods over there? Those are called the 'Northern Woods'." He nods toward the window which gave the view of an expansive forest. "If you can get through those woods to the high school division, and leave a footprint, I'll accept you as an Alice and accept your presence as a member of this class."

"Northern woods?"

"That's impossible!"

"It's even off-limits to Alice students!"

Various voice of other students joined Natsume's own. "I didn't say she had to. She can just leave if she doesn't want to." His voice was calm in response, his crimson eyes closed in tranquility which only he could have possessed in situations like this.

Sakura Mikan's mouth was agape as she took the conditions of his ultimatum in. Hear head snapped back to attention as he continued. Startling crimson eyes were opened again. "Are you game?" She nodded in response.

"Yes," was her determined response.

Satisfied by her answer, he proceeded to talk. "Since you're new here, I'll let you take a friend along."

She turned to her so called 'best friend'.

"I see… You're going into those woods, huh? Well, take these." The black haired girl placed friend some items into the other girl's arms. "I hope that nothing happens…" Having accomplished what she need to do, Hotaru darted away from Mikan and fled the room, unwilling to accompany her friend into the woods.

"Hotaruuu! Wait!" The pig-tailed girl gave chase.

"I'll go too!" The class president spoke up, feeling obligated to join her, seeing it as his duty to not let a girl go into such a dangerous place alone.

When the trio had left the room, I quickly left my desk, intending to follow them. I just managed to get out of my seat when Natsume, who was seated next to me, grabbed my wrist, preventing me from moving any further. "Don't you dare help them."

"Sheesh, I don't plan to. I only want to find out something."

"What?" His eyes were narrowed in suspicion.

"Nothing concerning you," I shot back.

"It has everything to do with me."

"Natsume, just let him. I don't think he's going to help her." Ruka voiced his side of the dispute.

"Tch. Fine." He let go of my wrist.

"Thanks, Ruka." I ran out of the room, although not before hearing a bit of Ruka and Natsume's conversation.

"Do you know something about that Polka-dots girl?" The blonde questioned his friend.

"No…" Was Natsume's dubious answer. It was something I had to confirm for myself.

I found the three standing before the entrance of the forest. "Mikan." I called to get her attention, and when she turned to me, I issued a warning. "I'm going to attack you."

"W-w-what?"

I launched a slow-moving ball of cold water at the girl, who was frozen in a mixture of shock and confusion. Just as I thought it was about to hit her, she raised her arms in defense, emitting a harsh light, forcing me to look away. When I turned back, she stood in the same condition, not a single drop of water on her body or on the floor. She had completely nullified my attack.

"If you were going to attach her why warn her? Your water attack was moving extremely slowly as well." Hotaru stated her observation.

"It wasn't my objective to hurt her. I just needed to find out some information. Now that I've got it, I'll leave. Good luck, Mikan." I backtracked to the class room at a jogging pace.

"What did you do?" It was the first thing Ruka asked when I arrived back.

"Find out her Alice."

"So what did you find out?" By the looks of it, his raven haired friend was interested as well.

"I wonder." I grinned. I didn't like to give out my information so easily.

Nullification Alice, huh? How interesting.


A.N Reviews make my day, so don't hesitate to leave one.