Hey guys! Well, the chapters are getting longer (how come this always happens?), so if you like longer chapters, then I guess that's good news huh? xD
But anyways, please, please, review. That's the only way I know if you guys like this story. For now, I'm having too much fun to ditch it (since the other one's not working out), but writing this story would be so much more fun if you guys find it fun too. Or enjoyable anyways.
Disclaimer: Don't own Gakuen Alice. What I wouldn't give to though!
Chapter 3: Bye Bye, Emotions
Mikan looked at the white mask she held in her hands with some distaste as she sat at the back of the white limo that stretched away from Gakuen Alice. "You'd think" she said slowly "that an Inventor Alice user could do something with this thing?"
Rouka, sitting at the back with Mikan as a Gakuen advisor and liaison, only shrugged. "It seems pretty cute to me. Better than paper maché." She forced a smile. "By the way, kindly refrain from showing your school friends that mask. We wouldn't want the Alice School of Witchcraft and Freakery on our ass."
Mikan just shrugged, and ignored the woman sitting next to her. She hated putting on the damn thing, hated running through blood and muck and what else with it on, hated it hated it hated-
Dammit.
She didn't like having cold wars with Kaoru-san either. Mikan drew up a small smile, calling on her years of acting experience.
"So, this mission." She peeled her fingers from the self sticking gel, and tossed the cat shaped mask aside. "What is it? Yuka didn't brief me." She ruffled her long blonde hair, done up in its customary pigtails. "All I got from her note was that it was a long term affair we're raiding on such short notice."
Rouka took out a dark greenish stone, and held it in the palm of her hand. "Sensory Alice" she explained. "There's already a barrier up, but just in case..." Satisfied, she snuck the stone back in her pocket, and reached forward to knock on the partition window. It lowered to reveal a man, driver's cap low over his eyes. "Is it secure?"
"Yeah."
"Ok. Just making sure." She sat back down, and took off the Illusion Alice stone from her neck. "No, don't pull it back up. This is fine."
"This mission…is a sting op."
Both Mikan and the driver stared at her, the latter's eyebrows raised on the rear view mirror. "A sting op."
"Sorry" Kaoru smiled weakly. "I always wanted to say that."
It was embarrassing, but at least the ice broke.
"The mission, Kaoru-san."
She sighed. "Driver-san, you're such a wet blanket. Anyways. It's nothing big. Precisely. Just a little B&E."
A blonde brow rose. "We're scheduling a concert, putting to work half of the organization, moving me out, all for a little breaking and entering?"
"Hold your horses Mikan." Kaoru said mildly. "We're breaking into this warehouse in Yokohama."
"That's hours away."
"Thank the Gods for limousines." she returned drily. "Your Teleport Alice is already pretty advanced Mikan. You're able to teleport up to 100km the last time we tried it. Unfortunately" she continued "others can't do the same. Like Driver-san here." She pointed her index finger at him, thumb cocked.
"Best bet for me's only around half that" he said easily.
"Precisely. So while the rest of us sneak in closer to touch base, you'll be waiting at a hotel somewhere, sipping mimosas while the rest of us does the dirty work."
"Kaoru-san, I'm too young to imbibe alcohol."
"Oh. Well, nevertheless." she shrugged. "You'll have to memorize the layout of said warehouse. Oh, and here." She dug up a large yellow sheet, lined in blue, and a cell phone. "Catch. We'll call you. Normally, Yuka would have had you in the front lines with us, but we don't want to take the chance of having one of your classmates recognizing you. They have guards patrolling around, you see."
"That's fine. But Kaoru-san, you haven't explained why I'm needed, or what's inside this warehouse that made it such a priority."
"Well, wanna play a game, Mikan-chan? I call it "Guess who has which kids and what brainwashing going on at which place in which Japanese Prefecture."
"Ah."
"Ah. What a wealth of meaning in one tiny word." A photo of a young man, late twentyish, with red hair and earrings. "You know who that is."
"Reo? Is he one of the brainwashed?"
Kaoru smiled humorlessly. "Only if you replace that 'd' with an 'r'. Guy has a Voice Pheromone Alice, which is why he's such a wanted singer. Little twit" she added contemptuously. "He used to follow Narumi and his buddies all over the place."
"Narumi-sensei?" Mikan had barely gotten over the shock at the knowledge that world famous Reo, a popular idol just like her, was an Alice and a kidnapper before being slapped in the face with Narumi. "He's in on this?"
"He's part of the school after all. Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you that part. Reo's acting under school orders. And the kids they have trapped in there, well. They're half-forms."
"Half formed what?"
"Alices."
"What?"
"Children who sometimes have Alices that they can't manifest into the physical world" Kaoru explained "are called half-forms. Oh, they have Alice abilities. Just can't use it, for some reason. The school has the high school principal's Alice to pinpoint kids with Alice, but before they're taken in, teachers must see some proof of Alice from them. Those that doesn't use Alice, but are known to have them are then taken to several established points, and tested over and over again. The one we're going to, they're working on drawing their Alice out through brainwashing, hypnosis, and subliminal persuasion. See why Reo's so useful there?"
"I guess" Mikan said slowly. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. But she had to ask. "And what is it that Z wants me to do in this warehouse?"
"Take their Alices."
Yuka stood in position, goggles in place as her gaze encompassed the gigantic warehouse that housed one of Gakuen Alice's many facilities. Paid for and backed by the Japanese government.
"Why Mikan? Why can't it be me?"
"You're in this too Commander. Mikan is merely supplementing you."
"Then just use me! Don't bring Mikan into this!"
"There's no choice. There are too much of them for you to handle alone within the time bracket. I'm sorry, Commander."
She stared down at her gloved hands. Ghastly images filled her mind, herself when she was Mikan's age, standing by the bedsides of the old and elderly.
"Shinigami-sama…please don't. Don't take my Alice. Don't take away my soul…"
"Do it Yuka."
"Please…onegai…"
"They have no use for it anymore. They don't deserve it. Take it away from them."
She clenched her fists, knowing that there was no way she could keep Mikan from the horror. She had dragged her in too deep to stop. They were all in too deep to stop. A tear dropped on the leather of her glove, unnoticed.
"Sensei…"
"Mi-kan-CHAN! Mi-kan-CHAN!"
"Konnichiwa, Yokohama!"
They cheered.
Mikan, wearing a headset and a set of clothing twinkling with tiny stars, waved energetically. "Wow, this is awesome! I don't think I've ever seen a crowd this big and happy!"
"Mi-kan-CHAN! Daaaaaisuke!"
"Aw, you guys!" She blew a kiss and winked. "Wait, what's that? Time to get started? Well, you guys should have said so earlier!"
She twirled in front of the crowds, and started to belt out the happy songs that she was well known and loved for. "Ai ai ai ai, ban-zai, ai! Dai-su-ki-yo, darling!"
She sweated below the bright hot lights as her fans cheered her on, her smiles wide and full, signature twin tails flashing. Inside, her heart curled up and wept.
It was 21:00
She bundled up her dried hair in a black skullcap, dressed in gray wool and black boots. The cell phone was on the vanity table, next to a multitude of flowers she accepted from her eager fans three hours before. She hadn't bothered to put them in water.
21:10
There was a shiny metal locket on a string that came with a bundle of cheerful daisies that stood out among batches of roses. She remembered kissing the blushing giver on the cheek, before beaming him a smile and walking to the next fan, who eagerly offered her a dozen more blood red roses and a marriage proposal.
The card simply said "Please continue your good work, Mikan-chan! We love you!" It made her smile as she pulled the string into a loop through her belt before tucking the memento in a pocket.
21:20
The perfume of the roses were giving her a headache.
21:30
She pressed the gel of the cat mask firmly onto the skin of her face.
21:40
At 21:45, the phone vibrated. She took a deep breath, and fixing an image of the blueprint firmly in her mind, she teleported.
It was dark but clean as her eyes adjusted for the light difference. A dozen beds creaked under sleeping bodies as she sneaked past them to look out of the dingy window. Diversion was present in the form of several agents fighting against what looked like students and a few teachers from the school's special division. Mikan thought she recognized several of them from the high school division.
"Mikan."
She turned around, and Yuka was there, shaded goggles blocking her eyes. "I'll find Reo and steal his Alice first. You go work on the children. Hurry!" She shoved a bag at her before running out of the room.
Mikan took a deep breath, and moved to the nearest bed.
It didn't take long for her to finish with each body. An average Alice user only have on average one or two stones before their Alice is completely gone. More if the Alice is exceptionally strong. But Mikan was a fast worker, and soon, she was done with half of the room.
Her heart pounded as one of them shifted over, and the light from the window illuminated his face. "Mommy…Daddy…" he moaned. Mikan's heart stirred. He couldn't have been older than five.
Despising herself, she stole his Alice as he whimpered. Then, because she couldn't help it, she smoothed his blankets so that it lay beneath his chin before moving on to the next bed.
Kaoru had told her that the academy had not found a way to draw out their Alice potential yet, despite five year's worth of research since the government gave enough funding for it. Mikan had shook her head, confused.
"So why do they keep so many there? Why don't they just let them go?"
"They're waiting for another Steal Alice." She said simply. "Like Yuka's. Like yours. So you must never let them find out about it Mikan-chan. Ever."
Mikan had to laugh at the irony of it. Here they were, harvesting half-forms, waiting for someone to extract their Alices. And she, a student of the school, doing it! She wondered if they'd find it funny as well. Probably not.
Soon her bag was filled with smooth egg shaped stones, each identical to precious stones. Blood red rubies, delicate pink quartz, sapphire eggs, deep emerald, jade, lapis lazuli-
She couldn't bear to think of them.
As she reached the last bed, another boy of six sat up. He stared at her. "Kitty."
Saying nothing, Mikan took his arm, and started to siphon his Alice into her other hand. It was a deep blue, the same shade as his eyes.
He had the Teleportation Alice.
"Kitty." He had a thin, clear voice. "Kitty, Kei wants to go home."
She kept quiet.
"Please. Kei doesn't want to stay here. Kei wants to go home and stop okaa-san from crying."
His stone rounded and stopped growing. She tried to remove her hand, but the kid had grasped onto it.
"Please take me home, Kitty. Kei promises not to be bad. Honest. Kei will be good. Just let me go home to see if okaa-san's stopped crying."
She laid a hand over his wet eyes. "Sleep." He fell backwards without a murmur.
Tucking his stone and another she'd snuck out of her own pouch away, she closed the bag and turned to find Yuka…
Only to find that she wasn't the only one awake and wearing a mask in the room.
"Omae…"
Mikan had to smile. Natsume-kun was so predictable.
"We need to stop meeting like this, kuroneko-chan. People's gonna start noticing."
He said nothing as his eyes narrowed behind the slits of his own mask. A ring of fire suddenly surrounded her. She merely raised an eyebrow. "Your temper's the same. Always so filthy."
"It can get a lot worst if you don't return their Alice stones, Azuma-san."
Mikan blinked. "I really do look that old?" She grinned slyly. "That's no way to please a girl. And besides…"
She teleported and reappeared behind him. "I can always do this." She poked a finger at his back. "Tag. You're it, darling." Grin in place, she stepped back as he whirled around, furious.
Yuka stepped into view. "That's enough." She flashed cold eyes at Natsume, mouth curled in a sneer. "We don't have time to play with little kitty-cats. It's time to leave." With that said, she disappeared.
Mikan stayed behind, smirking. "Well, boss man calls. We'll continue this game next time."
He snarled, but before he could summon another ring of fire around her, she was gone.
"46 stones."
They were once again circled around the table.
"Don't forget these two." Yuka threw down stones in a shade reminiscent of pea soup. "Reo's. Unfortunately he woke up before I could completely drain his Alice away."
"It's a shame." Shiki rubbed a finger against his chin, his afternoon shadow scraping against his hand. "But this should mean that his Alice is considerably weaker than before."
"Yeah." As other agents shifted the stones around into their proper categories, Kaoru nodded. "It shouldn't be a problem for us anymore." She picked up one of the stones Mikan had taken from the half-forms. "Well, I guess their name is more spot on than they thought it'd be."
The stone was half as small as one of Reo's.
"They really were half-formed Alices."
"Which is why they can't call it out. Without the high school principal, they might have had a normal lifestyle." said one.
Yuka shrugged. "He couldn't have known. His Alice doesn't run to Alice strength, or else those kids would all be sorted before they stepped foot into the academy." She turned to see Mikan enter the room, her somber clothing replaced with her school issued sweater and skirt. She was paler than the wallpaper. "Mikan."
"Commander."
"If you're tired, you should rest. We need our agents sharp and focused."
"No, I suppose not." Mikan shrugged while everyone else exchanged glances. "But I don't feel sleepy yet. I request permission to stay."
"No. Go to sleep." Yuka said, dismissing her. She didn't have to see Mikan's face to feel the censure.
"As you wish. Good night Commander. Good night, guys."
"Night, Mikan-chan."
Shiki spoke up as the door closed. "Yuka, there's no need to be so hard with her. She's your daughter."
"That's no reason to require special treatment from me."
Kaoru jabbed an elbow at Shiki, and shook her head.
As the limo passed the gates of Gakuen Alice, Mikan could see throngs of kids cheering. She looked out in puzzlement. "Why are they all here?"
Kaoru, once again Rouka, grasped a silver stone in her hand. "They probably heard that you were coming back today."
"So? It's not like I'd be leaving anytime soon."
Driver-san opened the door, and Rouka stepped out. "Ok, ok, that's enough!"
"Mikan-chan!"
"I'm serious!" Silver pebbles appeared above them. A few of the elementary kids shrieked. "Go back to whatever you're doing before I lose my temper!"
The kids who have her classes were the first ones to run off as others dawdled. Mikan stepped out. "And I thought kuroneko's temper was bad. Yours is worst, sensei."
"I am his mother."
She smiled and walked off, followed by throngs of kids as they ran after her, asking for a replay of her concert. She laughed and obliged them.
Back at her dorm room, Mikan shut the door and staggered to the bed. She fell hard on the comforter.
She tried to pretend, even now, that what Z does was for good. Tried to pretend that they were helping those poor boys, ripped from their parents and subjected to brainwashing. Tried to pretend that they weren't doing anything wrong.
But it was a lie, and she knew it. What Z has to do was just as bad as Gakuen Alice. They fought fire with fire, and in such cases, there was no such thing as a good side or a bad side.
Hyuga Natsume would understand, she thought. He's also forced to do someone else's dirty work, sacrificing his innocence and more. He was exactly like her. That's the only reason why she feels anything remotely like pity for him.
"Aw geeze." She buried her face in her pillow. This was getting to her in a bad way.
Hotaru.
No, can't drag her into it. Must not drag her into it.
But-
"I said no." Mikan muttered to herself. She'll do the job Yuka wanted from her. And that's that. No breaking apart at this crucial stage.
But god, this is killing her. She sat up and opened the box that Yuka had given her, 5 months ago, before rooting around for a pinkish-purple stone. Grasping it in her hand, she waited until the moon rose high in the sky. A cloud passed over, shadowing the room in complete darkness, before moonlight shone down again to illuminate an empty room.
Natsume looked around, confused. Either Persona had either drugged him, or had him killed in his sleep.
There was no way in hell he was simply dreaming.
Instead of the usual grotesque faces that surrounded him in his sleep, burned to cinders and gushing up blood as empty sockets stared at him in sightless accusation, Natsume found himself atop a hill covered with grass, next to a grand oak. A river ran past them, full of sweet, clear water and silver scaled fish.
He turned around, waiting for the fish to jump up and turn into piranhas, or for the river of water to turn into blood. Maybe if he was lucky, the oak would just split in two and start gushing out fire, and after that he'll be allowed to wake up.
Sigh. He was a sick, sick person.
There was a trail of bright blue forget-me-nots, winding their way from the base of the oak towards the top of the hill, waving as if they were beckoning him. What the hell, Natsume thought. Might as well.
He hiked up, following the trail. His body was fit and strong, and oddly flexible. He looked down at his hand. It was smaller than he was accustomed to.
Bending over the river, he stared at his own reflection. His eyes were bigger, and there was a slight pudge to his cheeks.
He was looking at his ten year old self. Huh.
The trail led him higher and higher until he reached the crown of the hill. The sun shined down from cloudless skies, and there were more trees.
He found a lake that was the source of the river. Feeling thirsty, he bent down to drink.
And saw her.
Sitting on a fallen branch over the lake, she was weaving a wreath of tiny daisies onto a circle of twigs, bare feet swinging. She had on a dress that matched the color of the lake, and deep brown hair that caught the wind. He must have made some noise, for she looked up suddenly and stared right at him.
She smiled. "Hello, Natsume-kun."
"How the hell do you know my name?" He asked, confused. But not wary. She didn't feel like an enemy.
She shrugged, the white butterfly mask flashing at him. "Wanna come? The water's great."
He approached her, and she held up a hand for him. He took it and swung himself up.
"Thanks."
"Sure." She smiled again, and went back to her weaving."You might as well relax, Natsume-kun. There's nothing to hurt you here."
"Huh." He looked around, unsure of himself. This was seriously weird. "How do you know that?"
"Well, it's your dream."
"My dream?"
"Mmhmm." She hummed a bit, and a brightly colored dragonfly came out to circle around her head. "It's your dream. You can do anything in your dream."
"If this is my dream, then why the hell are you here? Who are you?"
She turned to look at him directly, and he was struck by the brilliance of her stare. She had familiar brown eyes…
"I was feeling lonely, so I invited myself here. I hope you don't mind, Natsume-kun."
"I..I don't-"
"Great!" She started to hum again, and more dragonflies came out. Her fingers flashed as she twined more daisies around the circle of twigs she held in her hands. "Finished!"
She placed the wreath of daisies on top of his head. "Here, Natsume-kun. For you. As a thank you gift."
He fingered the wreath on top of his head, bemused."Thank you...I guess." Whoever you are.
"You're welcome." She stood up, and held out a hand again. "Well, as an introduction, this went quite well. But the sun will rise soon." He took it, and she pulled him up. She had strength for a little girl. "May I come back here again, sometimes soon?"
"Yeah. Sure." he said. "Whatever. Just don't be surprised if you see a lot of blood next time."
She laughed. "That's won't happen when I visit. Promise."
He woke up, his ears full of her laughter as he groped his way up, disoriented and confused. That was one weird dream.
His head swiveled as he scented something. And saw a wreath of daisies lying on his desk.
Read and review please, I will be your virtual slave forever (or till next week) if you do xD
