Narumi looked in the direction of the trees. He wondered when they would attack again, if they would wait enough for Natsume to get a little sleep. Jinno came towards him and sat down.
He looked over at Natsume. "Is Hyuuga okay?"
"He's not doing so well. I hope he can rest a little before the next fight, but I don't know."
"Is he sleeping or unconscious?"
"Sleeping."
"Good, we'll need him in the upcoming battle." Jinno said.
"Isn't there any way that we can just let him sleep through the battle?"
"Sorry, I know he is your student and you feel responsible for what's happened to him. But we need him in the fight. There aren't many teachers here who have much experience with fighting. We need him if we're going to win."
"But, he's only a child." Narumi protested.
"He's sixteen. And considering everything he's been through I wouldn't categorise him as a child."
"Because of everything he's been through I don't think we can ask anymore of him. Besides he's hurt and his Alice…"
"I'm not asking him to fight at the front. We just need him to lead us and step in if necessary, like last time. Is he hurt?"
Narumi crawled over to Natsume and pulled his shirt up gently, trying not to wake him. Halfway through Natsume flinched. Narumi froze but Natsume made no further movements. He quietly pulled his shirt higher revealing Natsume's bloody bandage. It looked worse than before, probably from the kick he made. Jinno flinched as he saw it.
"What are you doing?" Mikan's voice sounded from behind them.
Narumi and Jinno jumped in surprise "Shh! You'll wake him." They said.
Mikan just laughed. "He woke up a long time ago. Natsume stop pretending to be asleep."
"Damn Mikan, you blew my cover." Natsume said smiling and opened his eyes. Jinno and Narumi jumped in surprise.
"Natsume! How long have you been awake?" They shrieked.
"Since Jinno sat down."
"That means through the whole time."
"Pretty much." Natsume said and sat up, flinching a little bit.
"Why didn't you tell us you were awake?" Jinno asked him, still getting over the shock.
"I was having a fun time listening what you to were saying." He said and fished the healing Alice stone out of his pocket. "I think the flinch while you 2 were harassing me was brilliant."
Narumi getting a little embarrassed changed the subject, "you were supposed to sleep Natsume."
"I did sleep for a couple of minutes. You 2 were to loud for me to sleep."
"We weren't that loud." Narumi protested.
"Natsume is a very, very light sleeper. I swear one time I raised my hand and he was awake." Mikan said jokingly. It had been a relatively long time since Natsume had just slept and wasn't unconscious or on pills.
"One of my many reflexes, see that hand that you lifted could have punched me." Natsume joked. Or at least made it sound like a joke, he knew that the sleeping matter had been made after all the times someone had attacked him when he was still in bed sleeping.
Suddenly Sakurano's voice sounded in their heads again.
They are coming. You have 20 minutes.
"Jinno, Narumi, Mikan come with me." Natsume said as he stood up and walked into the trees. They kept walking until they came to a big oak tree.
"This tree belongs to the dangerous ability class, catch the things I throw down." Natsume told them and moved towards the tree.
"Wait, Natsume why don't I do it? Can you climb with your side?" Narumi suggested.
"I have to do it, it's safer that way, and there are traps all way up to stop anyone from stealing." Natsume said and grabbed onto the lowest branch and pulled himself up. He scowled as his side began to protest and hurt. Then he began to chant.
"Up you go, 2 to the left, avoid a third, but take a forth. Dodge." Natsume dodged just as arrows came flying out of the tree.
"Natsume! That's dangerous!" Mikan shrieked worriedly.
"You're breaking my concentration! Where was I? Oh, yeah." Natsume went on chanting. "Hang count to 10, then up. Careful, careful or it's going to be stop." Natsume gripped the next branch and let himself hang there. A second after spikes up from the lower branch and more arrows flew out from the tree trunk just inches over his fingers. After that he carefully pulled himself onto the next branch careful not to touch anything other than the spot he had touched with his fingers.
"How long time do I have left?"
"Plenty, just be careful!"
"Here you stand, take a break nothings coming your way, safe. When you're done, watch the gun, 2 steps if you dare, then dodge on a hair." Natsume took a deep breath then he jumped 2 steps forward so that he laid on his belly on the branch. He just made it before a bullet flew through the air.
"Ouch… If you survived, then you've got to try, don't die. Take no step or it will be your last. Now is the time to swing, bet you wish you had wings." Natsume got up onto the branch and used it as a kind of monkey bar to get to the other side.
"Up on the next branch, now it gets tricky. Run like the wind or it will blow you away. Now you are here to stay, we can no longer play." Natsume quickly got up onto the next branch, then he ran as fast as he could to the other end then he made a somersault to get onto the next one. Not a moment to soon, a quick wind made out of Hayate's wind Alice stone soon blew on the lower branch. If Natsume had been there he would have been blown away.
"We only have 15 minutes left Natsume!" Narumi shouted from down below.
"That's fine." Natsume went to the tree trunk and pushed the code to open the safe. The safe opened revealing bombs, guns and other weapons. "Are you good at catching?"
"Yes." Jinno and Narumi said. Mikan just looked sour, Natsume knew well enough that she was clumsy.
"I'm going to through down bombs and stuff like that so be careful!"
"What!"
"Oh, don't worry we threw with these things all the time. Of course we never dropped them." Natsume said and took a couple of them, "are you ready?"
"As ready as we can be."
Natsume threw the bombs at them luckily they caught them. They kept doing it until the safe was empty.
"That's it. How much time do we have?"
"10 minutes. How're you going to come down?"
"The way down is a matter of air. Jump or you will forever stare. I'm jumping!"
"You can't jump, it's to far! Think about your side."
"There isn't any other way and we don't have time to go down the tree backwards!"
"But-"
Natsume ignored him and got ready to jump.
This is going to hurt; this is going to hurt really badly. I have to avoid the branches and land as soft as possible.
Natsume clamped his mouth shut to avoid screaming or biting his tongue. He searched for a place to land. When he found it he took a deep breath and jumped. The ground came toward him quickly as he descended. To break his fall Natsume rolled onto the ground and kept rolling unable to stop, he first stopped when he had gotten about 15 meters away from the tree. Natsume laid on his back in the grass, his eyesight flickered and threatened blacken of pain. His whole side was screaming and he'd sprained something in his left hand, but other than that he was alive. Natsume pushed himself upwards trying to ignore the burning pain in his side. It became to much as he tried to stand, so he fell back again. He looked up to see Narumi, Jinno and Mikan rushing towards him, they'd put the weapons in their jackets that they carried between them
They reached him after a little time he had rolled far.
"Natsume, are you okay?" Narumi asked breathlessly.
"I've been worse. Jinno and Narumi you need to run to camp with those weapons and bombs. Give them to people who've tried to use one before. I'll come in a couple of minutes."
"Are you sure?"
"Go, hurry you don't have much time!" After that they hurried off.
When they had gone Natsume fell down onto his back groaning. Mikan rushed to his side.
"How bad is it?" She asked.
"I can't fight, unless it is absolutely crucial, but I can tell them what to do." He said strained.
Mikan lifted his now bloody shirt and stared at the blood-soaked bandages. "Do you have some new bandage?"
"Yeah it's in my left pocket."
Mikan got the bandage and the healing stone, and began to unwrap the old bandage. Natsume hissed in pain as she came too close to his wound.
"Sorry…" Mikan said concentrated, she began using the stone after she'd unwrapped the rest of the bandages. It was healing slowly.
"This is taking to long." Natsume muttered.
"We have to heal it, you're loosing too much blood."
"Insert it. That way it will heal faster."
"Are you sure? That means you can't use it anymore."
"Yeah, just do it."
Mikan held the stone out before Natsume's side, and activated her inserting Alice. The stone absorbed into Natsume, and as it went in his side healed. Natsume ran his hand over his hip, but everything he felt was smooth skin. His mind cleared as pain left his system. He flexed his hand and felt that it had healed his wrist as well. The aftereffects of his Alice also dimmed, which was a relief.
"How do you feel?" Mikan asked curiously.
"Better than I've been for months. Let's go." Natsume stood up and ran towards the clearing they had come from. Mikan followed close behind watching Natsume with a smile on her lips.
"What's taking them so long?" Jinno asked nervously, if they weren't here in time for the battle…
"Natsume got hurt badly. He was in pain when he told us to go." Narumi answered.
"He didn't seem to be in pain."
"That's the thing with Natsume. You have to look very closely to see it. His eyes gave him away this time they were darker than usual. Plus he couldn't even stand up. How do you expect him to come quickly?"
The other teachers were looking around nervously, not sure of what to do. They needed Natsume to come and give them directions.
"Jinno! Narumi!" Natsume's voice sounded behind them. They looked back and saw Mikan and him striding into the clearing. "Have you given the weapons out?"
"Yes, but there aren't many who've tried to use them before." Jinno answered.
"That's fine as long as they don't shoot anyone on our side." Natsume stopped and looked over the teachers, frowning as he saw how they stood. "Are you completely useless?" He asked Jinno and Narumi.
"…"
"Okay form up! Short range up front, long range in the back! Quickly now, if you don't want your enemies to wipe you out before you can lift a finger!" Natsume yelled at them. They found their positions as quickly as possible. "That's more like it! Short range first start attacking when they are relatively close. Long range, just do what you can, but watch out with hitting any on our side! Those with big bombs fire them in the start. Small bombs, fire them when you want but make sure the path is clear of teachers. Anyone remember our purpose with this fight?"
"To catch the ESP." Someone in the back said.
"Exactly! So that means no killing him!" Natsume started to walk back to Mikan.
"Do you think there's a chance that we are going to win?" Someone asked, and everyone else fell quiet to here Natsume's reply.
"Stupid! Of course there's a chance! I've fought battles worse than this one and won. Of course I was with some people who could actually fight!" Natsume mocked. The teachers began exclaiming and shouting at him.
"Shut up!" Everyone stopped as Natsume shouted back at them, "if you can fight then this will be a good chance to prove it."
Natsume walked back to were Jinno, Narumi and Mikan stood.
"They'll be here soon." Natsume said.
"Are we ready to meet them?" Jinno asked him.
"Yeah." Natsume replied. Feeling contented Jinno walked away to stand on his place in the 'army'.
"You seem like you're free of pain. You're still pale though." Narumi said studying Natsume's face.
"Yeah. Mikan inserted the healing stone into me, but I think I lost too much blood before she could do it. I feel a little lightheaded."
"Don't overexert yourself."
They heard footsteps nearing them, and soon The ESP's henchmen came running into the clearing. The teachers began throwing bombs at them after they'd made sure the ESP wasn't among them. Everyone covered their ears as the bombs blew, the ground shock beneath their feet, and fire blew up into the sky. As the smoke cleared they saw that half of them had managed to run into the forest. To afraid to come out before the backup came.
They only had to wait or about 10 minutes, for the henchmen came into the clearing again. This time there were many of them.
"Stop!" One of the henchmen stepped forward. "If you move one inch, then I will kill this student!" The crowd scrambled to make room for a man who came dragging a student with him.
Mikan gasped. "Yoichi?"
Yoichi's hands were bond behind his back and he looked weak, like he was going to faint at any moment. The henchman put his gun on Yoichi's temple.
"Put your weapons on the ground!" He shouted everyone followed his command fearing what would happen to Yoichi if they didn't. "The ESP will give you this fellow if you give him something he wants!"
"And what would that be?" Some teacher asked.
"Him!" The man pointed his finger at Natsume. "There's no mistake, the one with the red eyes."
Everyone turned their heads towards Natsume, he didn't look shocked or anything. Then he took a step forward. Mikan grabbed his hand.
"Mikan I have to do this." Natsume whispered back at her.
Mikan hugged him and whispered back, "I know, be careful." Then she let go and he went on. He kept going until he stood before the man and Yoichi. They were removing the rope around his hands. When it was gone Yoichi fell forward, he would have hit the ground if Natsume hadn't caught him.
"Natsume nii-chan…" Yoichi's weak voice muttered.
"Let someone come and pick him up." Natsume demanded.
"No way you walked, that means he walks."
"That's why it's called an exchange. I come over to this side, and he comes over to that side. If he can't walk then how do you expect him to do that? You got what you wanted, now help him back!" Natsume said furiously.
"Look here folks we've caught a wild cat!" All the henchmen laughed at that. "He can crawl back!"
"I wonder how the ESP feels about his henchmen dirtying his name? After all this is done in his name." Natsume said.
"Shut up!" The man hit Natsume over the head, "you to over there. Bring that other boy over to the other side!"
The to men took Yoichi out of Natsume's arms and dragged him over to the first row of teachers who took him from them quickly.
"You satisfied?" The man asked as Natsume stood up again.
"Pretty much." Natsume said emotionlessly.
He looked back at the other henchmen. "Tie him up fellows!"
They forced Natsume down on his knees as they wrapped the rope tightly around his wrists. As well as checking if he had some hidden weapons on him. Then they tugged the rope hardly, which made Natsume fall a little forward.
"Come on get up!" The man kicked his stomach making him fall down again. "Get up!"
This time Natsume sprang up before he could kick him again. As they dragged him onwards, he looked back at Mikan and gave her a rare smile before they pulled him further into the forest.
With Mikan
"Yoichi!" Mikan ran forward after the henchmen had disappeared from sight into the forest. Yoichi was lying in the middle of a group of teachers. "Are you okay?"
"Mikan… Sorry because of me, Natsume…"
"Shh… It's not your fault. Are you hurt?" Mikan looked at him. He had bruises everywhere, but other than that he didn't look hurt.
"Not really. I just overused my Alice."
"You don't have the forth type do you?"
"No… My Alice just takes too much energy." He closed his eyes.
Mikan sighed in relief. "Thank God, it's just that. You can sleep now."
"But, Natsume."
"I'm sure he'll be fine, besides you can't help him with your condition. Sleep Yoichi."
"Why did he do it?" Yoichi asked Mikan tiredly.
"Because you're like a little brother to him. Plus he is in better condition to escape from them than you right now."
"No he isn't, Mikan his Alice it's-"
"It's fine. Sleep."
Yoichi exhausted as he was finally succumbed to sleep.
With Natsume
"Walk quicker!" The man pulled Natsume's rope, making it cut into his wrists.
"I can't wait to show the ESP the cat we've caught! I bet he'll give us prize for catching him. Without this guy those teachers will probably be weak and ready to strike down."
You wish. Yoichi knows about as many tactics as I do, after he has slept he'll take my place. But still I have to get back as soon as possible; it would be bad if I came face to face with the ESP. – Natsume thought.
Natsume tried to make a small flame in his hands to burn the ropes off. He felt the energy leave his body but the flame didn't come. Suddenly something beeped in the crowd.
"He's using his Alice. Get him on the ground!"
Natsume fought against them but even he couldn't beat ten people with ropes binding his hands. They forced him down on the ground, and 4 of them held his arms and legs in place, making it impossible to move.
"Well well well trying to escape are we? Too bad that the rope on your hands prevents you from using your Alice. They also tell me when you're trying." He kicked Natsume hard in the stomach. "I don't think the ESP will mind if we hurt him a little. Who's next?"
The made a circle around Natsume.
