Disclaimer: I know I haven't mentioned this at all for about 5 chapters or so already, but I DO NOT OWN GAKUEN ALICE AND PROBABLY NEVER WILL, as much as it pains me to say so.

Okay, new character POV added. Hey, even bloody secrets can still be seen from multiple point of views. Say hello to our new insight, Ruka-pyon! Chapters in his POV will be in italicized letters.

Thank you for all your reviews people. Very much appreciated.


Returning Memories

My head throbbed as I went a bit weak at the knees, breaths coming in short gasps.

Sploosh!

The cool sink water felt good against my hot feverish skin. The glare of the restroom lights was beginning to hurt my eyes.

I peered into the large mirror in front of me. Usually, hair as bright as the rays of the sun and sky blue eyes would be looking back. But now my eyes were tinged slightly crimson like Natsume's, and even the skin matched his own pale pallor. I look like some bloody vampire. I laughed inwardly at the irony of it all. I should've been worrying by now. Whenever my eyes began to act like this…

Pain suddenly shot through my skull and I nearly cried out.

It's coming again. I had had a brush with this almost unbearable agony in the room with Natsume, but luckily, it hadn't been so bad then as now.

I reeled and had to grip the sink to steady myself, but my hold slackened for a sudden weakness enveloped my body. No… But my thoughts were in vain and my knees finally gave way. As the ground rushed up to meet me, lights exploded from the back of my head, blinding me from within.

My consciousness left completely after the light faded away and was left amidst darkness.

Oo

Ugh, my head. The pain was gone. I was lying face down on something cold, something delicate and soft. And it definitely wasn't the marbled tiles of the restroom floor. My head felt heavy as if there was a dumbbell strapped to it and it was a struggle to even lift it up.

But I did, and I found myself staring directly into a pair of chestnut-colored eyes that were all too familiar to me.

"Ruka-pyon! I didn't hit you with that snowball too hard did I??" exclaimed Mikan. "You have that weird look."

It was then that I realized something. This is a memory. I gazed at the Mikan in front of me. She's the same as usual. In fact, she didn't look a single bit different except for her clothes, which was nothing more than a white smock with a black vest over it and brown leather pants. She also had leather sandals on her feet. These weren't clothes fit to wear on a winter's day. Even I could see that.

And then I realized that I was wearing the same outfit too.

Oh god I look like a girl.

"Hey, you still there?" she snapped her fingers in my face, while gripping my arm hard and helping me up. "Well…I gotta go soon. Say hi to Natsume-kun for me."

And before I could open my mouth to stop her, she had zipped off into a forest of snowcapped spruces, which I hadn't noticed yet. I was left standing there looking at the spot between the trees where Mikan had been a couple seconds ago.

Why is it that out of all the memories to remember, this one pops up?

There was a sudden disturbance somewhere that tripped an alarm in my head.

My pupils thinned into slits as I allowed Wrath to take over. The thin red rings appeared again, clashing against my turquoise eyes. I darted immediately to a north-north west direction where I finally picked something up, but it wasn't what I expected.

This scent is also familiar, but it's neither Natsume's nor Mikan's.

In a flurry of movements, I was gone, the snowfall covering up what was left of my tracks.

Oo

Damn, Ruka's taking too long.

Natsume paced impatiently back and forth in the meeting room. He had already changed into a new shirt, only this time he was without the tie and had tossed the jacket away somewhere in his wrecked office (hadn't he been saying how he needed a new one?).

"That it," he said, having reached his limit. "I'm doing this myself." And picked up his cell phone, wrote a quick e-mail, and pressed send.

Forget Ruka for now.

Oo

"What do you want?" said Agano irritably. She had been chewing the end of her pencil, a habit that she'd acquired from years of paperwork, rather viciously.

Mikan could barely see the eraser already. Gosh, you could get poisoned from that kind of thing!

"Ano, I'm your assistant for the day in filing papers, Agano-sempai." She couldn't help but sound shy, as it usually was for her in front of seniors.

"I'm not your sempai," she snapped crossly, although some of her demeanor had softened. "You can just call me Agano-san. That's good enough for me."

"Hai, Agano-san." she said respectably, lightening up a bit.

"Well you're supposed to be my assistant aren't you? Then don't just stand there doing nothing, come give me a hand with these papers already!"

"Hai!" she scurried over as quickly as she could, eager for her job to start.

Just you wait and see, Natsume-kun. Mikan thought with a victorious air. I'll become just as good as you.

Oo

A splash of leafy foliage greeted me as I plunged into the depths of the forest, my heart hammering wildly in my chest.

The scent was suddenly gone as if the person had just ceased existing. And I stopped in my tracks.

Then I smelled blood, Mikan's blood.

And it was then that I knew. I knew what awaited me that by the time I got there, it would be too late.

Because that is exactly what happens. Everything fit together perfectly in that one instant and in that instant, there came a cry,

"NO!"

So much desolation and agony in that one word that my own heart was very nearly wrenched in two.

"Natsume!" I recognized his voice immediately and hoped furiously that he would hear mine. I could see a distant form kneeling in…snow dyed red with blood.

Anguish clawed at my heart as I neared that motionless kneeling form in the snow. The seemingly endless blur of white and green came to an end and I found myself standing less than 20 feet away from him.

"Natsume…" I couldn't think of anything else to say. The blood I noticed was mixed with someone else's besides Mikan's, the one whose scent had been so been cut off so suddenly.

Akiri.

With another revelation, more pieces of the confusing puzzle of my memory fell into place.

He killed her. And Natsume killed him. But I would probably never find out how.

There was a stir of movement in Natsume's direction and I looked sadly over to him, wishing I could do something but there wasn't much.

Because this is only a thing of the past. It all happened already. You could look back in time but you couldn't change.

This had been the single most important memory that had been kept hidden from me out of countless others.

"Ruka…"

At the saying of my name, I raised my head, hesitantly, for Natsume's voice sounded lifeless.

I stood there silently, waiting for him to continue.

He stood up slowly as if the whole world weighed down upon him. "She's never coming back is she?"

The question struck me as if he'd actually hit me. I paused temporarily, "…Maybe she will someday. Perhaps there is such thing as life after death." I prayed that those were the right words to say.

And they were.

He looked at me, and I saw something that had never happened before and probably would never happen again.

Tears.

They glistened in his eyes much like the snowflakes that swirled around him in the icy winter wind.

"Then I will wait. For as long as I can." His words were whispered over and over in my head long after the memory had faded away.

Oo

I could feel the floor's marble tiles once more, my cheek pressed flat against the cool, smooth surface. My arms looked as if they had tried to stop my fall and rested on either side of my head on the floor.

"Ugh I got one hell of a headache." Normally, I wouldn't swear or say profanities, but this was a special exception. I heaved myself up off the floor and looked in the mirror again. My eyes had once again returned to their regular turquoise color and my skin was flushed.

At least I don't look dead anymore. I thought with relief. Then a more worrying thought entered my mind. How long have I been out?

"Then I will wait. For as long as I can."

I laughed a little to myself as his words were repeated once more in my mind.

Your waiting is over now, Natsume. Or was it?

I pushed open the door to peer outside and saw Koko walking down the hallway with Iinchou.

"Hey, you guys!" I shouted. "We have a meeting and it's in the meeting room on this floor. "

"Oh," said Koko. "We were just heading there. Natsume's already called for all of us to attend the meeting."

I sighed in expectation. He's impatient as usual. Then I hurried over to join the two businessmen.

Oo

Down in the lobby, Mikan's hand had already begun to cramp from the countless forms and papers that she had to sign and shuffle through. And she also had to read every single one. Now she could totally understand Agano's short temper. She groaned inwardly as she saw the huge pile of papers that Agano placed on her part of the desk after taking away the pile that she had just finished.

Well… she thought with a surge of determination. I'll be able to get money for ojiisan back at home. But once the thought of her ojiisan entered her mind, she started wondering about what he was doing at home right now and whether he was well and if he required any help with whatever he was doing. She was so immersed in her thoughts that she didn't notice Agano giving her annoyed looks after noticing that she had stopped going through the forms.

What is that girl thinking about now? She thought irritably. It had probably been the 3rd or so time she spaced out.

The sound of the revolving doors snapped Mikan out of her thoughts and she brought her full attention to the person entering. Besides doing paperwork, she also had to greet whoever came into the building and ask them to state their business.

Navy blue eyes pierced mine and I was startled enough to drop the papers I had been signing the forms with. I heard Agano's exasperated sigh from beside me. She obviously kept from greeting the guy because she wanted me to have some experience doing it myself.

"Well hello there," he said with a friendly smile. "I'm Tsubasa. You must be that girl that Natsume said to expect."

It took her a couple seconds to break eye contact. When she finally gathered herself back together, the question finally clicked in her brain.

"Expect?" She had come in hopes of getting a job, to try her best at the interview to get it. But being expected was more like getting in scot-free. Had Tsubasa really meant it when he said that?

"Yes, you were expected by Natsume-kun. And I am to welcome you to the company and show you around, as people are assigned to do this to all newcomers. Natsume-kun would do it himself but, as he is the shachou of the company, he's too busy to see you."

"Then is that why you're here?" she asked, since it was her job to know this. She had also flushed a little after Tsubasa mentioned Natsume, unbeknownst to her.

"No, I've been summoned for a very important meeting by Natsume himself," he winked at me. "I'm usually on business trips to America."

"Wha?" her eyes widened at that. He looked no more than 17. "Seriously?! But you're so young!"

"I'm already a young adult." He said, smilingly. "But don't you think you should be telling yourself that? Still a sophomore in high school and already at the front desk of a company as prestigious as Alice Corp."

"Hmmm…you're right." Mikan pondered the revelation asking herself in her head why and how come. She nearly spaced out again until Tsubasa laughed and said,

"Well, I'll be seeing you, Mikan-chan. Probably right after the meeting. I'll give you a proper welcome to our company."

She immediately waved and said happily, "Bye, Tsubasa-sempai!"

Hmm, I wonder what they're going to talk about? What was about this meeting that was so…important? Hehe. I'm sure they won't mind if I listen in. Uh oh. The slumbering eavesdropping Mikan had been awakened from its sleep.

Now all I need to do is an excuse to go up there.


A/N:

Oo

The chapter ends with Mikan when it started with Ruka. Don't worry Ruka fans. There will be more Ruka chapters in the near future. But for now, what will she overhear from the meeting? Will she find out anything about those mysterious dreams she keeps having? And will what she hears from the meeting be enough to break her?

I'll leave you with these questions to ponder while I'm working on the next chap.

Well, I'm happy as long as you guys continue to be my readers and enjoy my writings. No need to worry about reviews as much. Your happiness is my happiness. But please review anyway if it's to your liking.