Akirina: I'm afraid this chapter is not so up to standard... Mikan will definitely be a little more than Out of Character (OOC)...

Chapter 3

Mikan giggled as she flipped through the photos that she had captured of Narumi's demise. Her nullification had lasted for a good half-hour—enough time for the children to drag Narumi to the Elementary Division and rouse their fellow friends. By the time all of them were done with Narumi, he resembled a jumble of feathers, robot parts, pastries… He was like a representation of the four ability classes.

Suddenly, the photos were plucked out of her hands without any warning. "So this is the new blackmail, huh?" a familiar voice remarked from behind her.

"Hotaru!" Mikan cried, surprised. "I thought you were out negotiating with the government?"

"I only needed half an hour to convince them of their foolishness." Hotaru replied, settling down in the secretary's chair. "The fools actually thought that they could threaten us to sign the negotiations that theyhad done. Well, I taught them a lesson about threatening me." Hotaru chuckled coldly.

"Ha… I see that you have not changed from our childhood. Still so cruel towards the people you dislike, huh…" Mikan chuckled in amusement. "And so? What are you doing here? I thought you said you were going out with Luca to check on your parents?"

Hotaru snorted. "Yes, I was planning on going with him. But Hyuuga suddenly had something on, so they left me here instead."

"What?" Mikan exclaimed. "How can they be so cruel? And I thought that Luca would not deem anything else as more important than you."

Hotaru sighed melodramatically as she picked up a sheaf of papers. "Apparently, it seems that my fiancé is up to something. But I shall not bother about that for the moment. Anyway, Mikan, what's this I hear about an attack? I've just been gone for four days and when I come back, I hear rumors about the ESP appearing…"

"Ah, that," Mikan laughed as she swiveled around in her chair. "Well, Hotaru, it seems that the government was not very truthful. I did tell you they were going to attack us…"

"True, you did say that," Hotaru acknowledged. "But that didn't mean that you had to appear in front of the children. And according to Narumi, in a disguise! Speaking of which, what happened to him? I see that you must have some hand in his current appearance…"

"Remember the rumor that he started about me?" Mikan stood up from her chair and crossed over to the window, looking down on the grounds. "Well, it backfired on him. I have the tape, if you want to watch it…"

"It's an offer too irresistible to let up on." Hotaru declared. "But I'll see it later. I trust that you have been doing your paperwork? I still have some more papers for you to look through from the government negotiation."

"Bring them over." Mikan gestured to her table before turning back to the window. "Hotaru, get ready for your next meeting with the government. It wouldn't be so easy to intimidate them like you did today."

Hotaru narrowed her eyes at Mikan. "Don't tell me you're using the Foresight Alice…"

Mikan yawned, stretching her limbs as a wave of lethargy swept over her. "You know that it would be beneficial for us to know the future every once in a while, Hotaru," she replied. "Besides, that's how I found out about the attack, too."

"I thought you told me that it was from an internal source in the government?" Hotaru asked, her suspicions confirmed. She knew that Mikan should limit the use of her Alices because it would exhaust her body easily and Mikan knew that, too.

"Ah," Mikan yawned again. "My cover's gone." She waved her hand at Hotaru nonchalantly before she turned to return to her paperwork. Hotaru took that as a signal for her to leave the room. As she shut the door behind her quietly, Hotaru leaned on the wall beside the doors, deep in thought.

It had been six years since Mikan decided to take up the position as the Elementary School Principal. However, the Principals from the Middle School and High School both agreed that Mikan would ascend only when she was twenty and graduated from the High School. Mikan had not been pleased by the decision. She had been very eager to take up her duties, full of enthusiasm to prove that her mother's sacrifice had not been in vain. After all, this was the goal that they had worked hard for.

But as the years passed, Mikan gradually changed. She no longer found any delight in relaxing, overworking herself to make sure that the Academy was safe. Hard work was good, but too much of it was not good and Mikan was definitely not in a good state. Natsume was trying to work out something and he had proposed to her, hoping that it would help to alleviate some of her burden. But it didn't seem to be working and Natsume had left, although he did help out Mikan. He loved her, but he couldn't be near her anymore…

The last Hotaru had heard of Natsume was that he was working with Luca at the pet store he had in the Central Town. Mikan probably knew of it, but Hotaru wasn't sure. She hadn't approached the matter since Mikan had shown no interest.

Hotaru really didn't know what to do anymore.

Then, just last year, the problem with the government started up. They had demanded that the Academy to give up its status as an independent sector and come under the government sector. However, knowing the government, they probably wanted to use the students as their secret weapon and wage war against the other countries. After all, students with Alice were veryhard to take down.

When the government grew impatient with the Academy's refusal, they had launched several attacks, but to their surprise, their missiles were nullified. Mikan had taken charge of the situation and threatened them that she would report this to the media if they stopped harassing the Academy and sign an agreement to keep away from the Academy.

The government had reluctantly agreed, but they had schemed, thinking that the representative of Mikan Sakura would be some weak-willed secretary and that they could have an advantage over her. Unfortunately, that was not the case, as Hotaru had proved earlier to them.

But coming back from that, Hotaru was worried about Mikan. She was overtaxing her body and it was clear that the strain was too much for her. She had lost weight and she looked pale. Hotaru had learnt that Mikan had not been eating much and that was another cause of concern. After using so much Alice, it would be normal for Mikan to eat a lot—the equivalent of three people, in fact—as she had spent a lot of energy using her copied Alices. However, that was not the case now.

Mikan… had lost sight of everything important in her life. That was what Hotaru had concluded. Yes, she did have her moments of fun, but that was all that was to her life. Nothing more, nothing less. Mikan wasn't really living, she was living an illusion of her life. And the only reason this was happening was because—

Yuka had died for their goal.

MFMFMFMFMFMF

"Luca!" Hotaru called as she entered the pet shop. The birds thrilled and sang when they saw her, no doubt recognizing her. Hotaru seriously regretted not installing some of her merchandise in here. Luca had forbidden it because he did not want his girlfriend (in the beginning) to get any embarrassing pictures of him. She should have threatened him or told him it was for his safety too, but she did not want to pressurize Luca. She trusted Luca, after all.

"Hey, Robot-Girl." A familiar voice greeted her. Hotaru turned to see Hyuuga Natsume standing in the doorway to the storeroom at the back of the shop. He hadn't changed; his black hair as black as a raven's wing and his crimson eyes staring at her curiously.

"Fire-Boy," Hotaru returned coolly. "Where's Luca? I need to talk to him about something."

"Oh?" Natsume raised an eyebrow. "Is it about heragain?"

Hotaru let out a hard sigh. Natsume had grown a little distant from everyone ever since Mikan had engrossed herself in work. Hotaru really didn't know what to do with the two of them.

Sometimes Hotaru regretted not having the power to help out the couple. But Mikan had never confided in her after Yuka died, subtly distancing herself from everyone. Hotaru knew better than to probe, because she knew that you have to be honest in a relationship in order for it to work out. Mikan was probably at fault there, but Hotaru had made the mistake of not comforting her friend. Mikan had just covered it up too well.

"Maybe."

"Huh," Natsume turned away. "Well, you can find Luca in the store beside this one's. He went to check out the kittens next door."

Typical. Hotaru should have known that Luca would go around looking out for the animals. He had taken on the profession of a vet, but he also had a pet shop to give the animals a new home to stay in. It would not do well for him to have too many animals crowding at his place, after all. And he was going to be married to Hotaru, who liked animals to a certain extent until they did something to provoke her. But she would not stand for their house becoming a refuge area for animals. Besides, there were other people out there who loved animals as much as Luca did and they should be given an opportunity to look after the animals as well.

Well, that had been what she had pointed out to Luca the last time he had gotten angry of her because of her refusal to turn their house into an animal shelter. But he had seen that Hotaru was right and so he set up this pet shop. He had the alternate job, though, of being a teacher. But Luca had decided on being a relief teacher, helping teachers who had come down with the flu to teach their lessons. He liked teaching, Luca had told Hotaru, but he could not bear to separate from the animals.

Hotaru found Luca in the adjourning shop that was selling whistles that could imitate any animals' call. He was chatting amiably with the store owner, the kittens resting on his lap as he stroked their fur gently.

"Luca," Hotaru called softly, not wanting to disturb the kittens. He glanced up at her call and nodded to her before he excused himself. A moment later, he joined her outside the shop where Hotaru was looking at the night sky.

"How was your day?" Luca asked her as they headed back to the Elementary division where they had an apartment.

"I had a great time threatening the government officials not to take us lightly." Hotaru replied happily, reminded of the terrified faces they had made when she pulled out the huge box of blackmail she had gathered.

Luca laughed at her joyous reaction. "Well," he chuckled, sobering slightly. "If it made your day, I suppose I can't scold you for that. And how's… Mikan?"

"Doing well." Hotaru nibbled her lip in worry. "I'm worried, Luca. Mikan is acting normal… she never has, ever since then…"

"Natsume wouldn't talk to me about her," Luca told her, understanding what she meant. "I think he knows, but he's either playing along or he doesn't approve. Mikan and Natsume are both hard to read. I can't tell whether they really mean it or not, sometimes."

"I wish we could go back to those days…" Hotaru sighed. "Mikan didn't have to worry about this, back then. Sometimes it feels as if she's putting up a façade. But I don't understand why she would do so."

"She has her own reasons," Luca hurried to reassure her. Even though Mikan had stopped talking to him, Luca's trust in her never wavered. He believed in her, something that Hotaru doubted she could do. Mikan had always been the one who needed her help, even when she became a principal. But all of the sudden, she started to grow up, to manage her responsibilities on her own. The sudden growth had caught Hotaru off-guard. With Mikan all grown-up, she was at a loss—what could she do to help Mikan now?

"Hotaru?"

Hotaru stared, surprised to meet this particular person…

"It's been five years, hasn't it…"