Official Disclaimer: A huge whooping thank you goes to Mademoiselle Mirage for creating the basis of this story. The genie concept belongs to her. The story, up to chapter three (discerning the prologue), also contains excerpts of her writing. I would just like to thank you endlessly, Pam, for this golden piece of work, and I apologize for not being able to finish it sooner!

Three Wishes

9: Surrender

One day, there was a huge storm…

"Are you sure I'm allowed to do that?" asked Mikan when Sumire told her to wish to go to the cloud playground in the Snapping Genie World.

"Well obviously," the genie lied straight faced, "otherwise I wouldn't tell you to do so, would I?"

"Um, okay…" The little girl resigned. "I wish to go to the cloud playground in Snapping Genie World!"

Sumire then snapped her fingers, which Mikan always found amusing. In a whirl, Mikan's room disappeared, replaced by this new world that she didn't know what to make of.

Everything was made of clouds! She thought that such a city only existed in imagination, but clearly it was not so. The only things that appeared solid anywhere were the lamps, and there were hundreds upon hundreds of them, all lined up in rows like houses. Some lamps had smoke rising from the sprout, some were lit up, and some were dark as if there were no inhabitants at all.

"Mikan?"

"Yes?" The child's response was absentminded; she was much too caught up in the rapture of amazement that took to her brain.

"Just one little thing. Whatever I tell any of the genies, you have to play along. Some genies don't like the thought of having a human child in their land so we best play it safe for a while." She sealed the deal shut with a wink and she could tell that the child was compliant. "Now off you go to play at your heart's content!"

Only then did Mikan realize the huge park behind her. It wasn't just like the small playhouse with monkey bars at her school. This was a full out amusement park scale of a playground for kids. Immediately, the child ran off screaming towards it, catching the attention of other children that already settled down in the place.

Unlike at school, they welcomed her with open arms, inviting her to try out all sorts of games and rides.

Sumire smiled satisfactorily to herself, feeling thankful for the first time that little genies had yet to develop full magical abilities so it wasn't unusual for a genie the equivalent of Mikan's age not to have any powers. Mikan would blend in just fine with these wee genies that were still too young to memorize all the family surnames.

Mikan was getting along very well with a blue eyed, spiky haired boy. They had gone down the cloud slide several times together and at first Mikan was nervous about stepping on anything made of clouds but she soon found it to be very steady despite its appearance.

"That was really fun!" he exclaimed on their fifth ride. "My name is Tsubasa! What's yours?"

"I'm Mikan!"

Suddenly, a sleek haired teenager whizzed past them on a magic carpet, making the little girl go all starry eyed with wonder. Tsubasa saw this, and he immediately grabbed Mikan's hand and made a run towards the Magic Carpet Rides.

"Where are we going?" queried Mikan curiously.

"On that!" he said, pointing to the contraption Akira Tonouchi had just shot out of. "Unless you're scared."

"I'm not scared!" she protested, taking a step forward. In actuality, Mikan was more than a little nervous at the thought of riding a magic carpet. She was almost terrified. Sumire made it look so easy, but whenever she was on it, the carpet wiggled and wobbled as if it had the sole intention of throwing her off.

"I dare you to ride it," Tsubasa said, smugly crossing his arms.

"Fine!"

She took a brave step forward, and seated herself on a carpet amongst several other, older genies. They seemed to find some kind of amusement with seeing such a young kid like her picking this particular ride.

"And launch!" a voice boomed.

All of a sudden, every single carpet shot forward. Mikan spun, she twisted and she looped. It was as if the carpet had a mind of its own. The little girl was absolutely petrified for the entire ride. The carpet didn't seem to like her very much because it dumped her on the hard cloud floor at the edge of Cloud Park before flying back.

Mikan found a few tears of shock steaming out from her eyes. Quickly, she wiped them away with the back of her hand.

"Are you okay?" a gentle voice asked.

The child looked up and saw a blond man with very pretty purple eyes. She nodded twice to ascertain her well-being and he smiled, passing a red-lined handkerchief to her.

She took it in her hands, completely dumbfounded at the piece of fabric. Her family had never been rich enough to afford such a pretty hanky. Whenever she cried at home, she was expected to clean her face using hands, paper napkins or water. He was asking the impossible, handing her this treasure to wipe her snot on.

Narumi, puzzled by this hesitance, took the hanky himself and wiped her tears for her, only to have her cry even more as he did. He stood there, helpless, wondering what he had done wrong.

"Where are your parents?" he finally asked, deciding to play safe for a while.

"I'm here with a friend," she sniffled.

"A friend," he repeated. "Hmm, perhaps we can find the said friend. What is your friend's name?"

"S-Sumire Shouda."

"Ah! What a coincidence! Sumire Shouda is a former pupil of mine!"

"W-what's a pupil?"

"Why, a pupil is a student of course!" Narumi was glad that the little girl's mood was improving through their conversation.

"You were her teacher?"

"Yes I was!" he said. "Ah, there she is, coming now."

Sure enough, when Mikan looked up, she saw her genie zipping towards them on her usual carpet. A smile broke out on Mikan's face as soon as Sumire hopped down to joined them, immediately making Narumi wonder what kind of relationship the two have between them. He would be moderately insulted if Sumire Shouda of all people ended up dealing with children better than he could.

"Sumire!" he greeted her jovially.

She was startled. "Oh, Mr. Narumi, I didn't expect to see you here."

"You never expect to see me anywhere," the man chuckled. "I bet you're still in that stage where you think all teachers sleep and spend our nights at Genie Academy instead of our own lamps."

"Har har, you're so funny Mr. Narumi." It was his quirky student all right. "Okay, excuse us. Mikan and I have to go now."

"Mikan, huh?" the genie remarked to himself as he saw the two girls walk hand in hand back to the amusement park. "Let her forever be known as the girl who got Sumire Shouda off her magic carpet. Come to think of it, even I couldn't do that…"

"Hey, hey, when are we going to Cloud Park again?" the energized seven year old bounced all over the room as she said that.

"Hmm?"

Mikan paused and examined her genie closely. It wasn't like Sumire to be so out of it all of a sudden. The genie didn't even notice her master in her daydream. She was much too busy thinking of her beloved other half whom she hadn't even caught sight of for five hundred years.

"Hey, Mikan," she said suddenly. "You still have one more wish. Have you ever thought of what you could wish for?"

The little girl blinked. "Um, not really. I'm really happy now because I can play with you and Hotaru and we can go to Cloud Park together whenever we want!"

Sumire looked uneasily out the window. Luck was clearly on their side. For five hundred years, no one had even noticed that the little girl who dropped by Cloud Park once in a while was seen nowhere else. And even luckier, no one had noticed the very light lamp mark on the back of her hand. Now that it was winter, she could cover the mark with gloves but nonetheless this business was still risky.

And she was afraid of what would happen once she left Mikan. No doubt the little girl would still make trips to the genie world, but the question was will she actually conceal the fact that she was a human while she did so?

Sumire concluded that the only way this could work out was if she stayed at Mikan's side… but that would mean that Sumire couldn't leave the girl. Ever. Which would also mean that she would never see Koko, ever. She would only be able to watch on the sidelines while he aged and became an old genie. It was a cruel fate to have.

She couldn't imagine living her life with anyone but him at her side.

Sighing, the twenty one thousand year old genie mulled over the subject a little more.

"Park patrol?"

Tsubasa nodded very seriously.

Mikan raised a finger in her chin. "What's that?"

"You don't know about Cloud Park Patrol?" Tsubasa's eyes were bulging. "But didn't your parents tell you about it?"

It was right then that he knew he had ventured into dangerous territory. Even though he had known Mikan for a little more than five hundred years, not once had she ever mentioned anything about her parents. Plus, whenever he tried to bring it up, she would change the subject. He was starting to find it a little weird.

"Uhm, no?"

He decided to stop right then and there, fearing that if he went any further she would never speak to him again. "Well, sometimes genie officials would come to the park and hold cloud safety checkups. If the clouds are unstable, they might shut the park down."

Mikan's eyes grew fearful. "Shut it down?"

She couldn't imagine a world without Cloud Park. She would have to be confined to human life, have to return to living her sordid life, pretending that mommy and daddy were all right when in fact their fights had only gotten worse.

Tsubasa, seeing this, quickly added, "but they never find anything wrong! Everything's just for safety!"

"Oh." Well when he put it that way…

"Anyways, we should stay out of their way. My mom tells me that a really, really mean guy just became the head security guard, and he got rid of all the good guards and made them into really mean ones. There's this guy who had a head wrapped in these white stripey thingies and he looks like a mummy!"

Mikan found herself biting her nails anxiously.

"What are you scared?" Tsubasa had a cheeky grin on his face.

"N-no!" She would never let him get the best of her. "I just… I never saw a mummy before, that's all!"

Suddenly, Tsubasa took her by the hand and pulled her behind a pillar. Slowly, he peered over slightly before scurrying behind the pillar once more. Mikan suddenly wished more than ever that Sumire was at her side.

"What is it?" she inquired fearfully.

"Shh! It's him?"

By the sound of Tsubasa's voice, him wasn't good news at all.

"Don't make a sound," he heeded quietly.

"Who's him?" Mikan whispered back.

"He is the meanest of the meanest of the meanest guards!" the little boy told her with a finger up. "He's only has his job because he's best friend of the head security guard. He's the one wrapped in bandages and he's really, really bad. My mommy told me that he has this huge blade that he uses to chop off genies' heads!"

Mikan whimpered.

"But don't worry. He only chops off bad genies' heads," Tsubasa said brightly. "You're never supposed to look him in the eye when you pass him. He hates children."

"Why?"

He shrugged. "Because some of us don't have magic, I guess. I've got magic so I'm okay but I don't know about you."

Mikan was scared out of her wits and trembling in her skin by this point. If only she hadn't made the mistake of thinking that she would be okay without Sumire. She wondered if her genie would come to her rescue if she ran for it. Sumire told Mikan that she would be with her boyfriend, a cheerful blond genie but which one of the lamps was her boyfriend's lamp?

Tsubasa was tugging at her hand again.

"C'mon, let's go!"

Her heart leapt very audibly. "What?"

"We're going to pass him when he's not working." There was a mischievous grin on his face.

"What?" Mikan repeated numbly. There was no way she was going to pass such a scary man.

"If we're fast enough, he won't notice us," assured Tsubasa.

"But—"

They were off. Tsubasa, despite his pointed, floppy genie shoes, ran as if he floated on water. Mikan's feet, on the other hand, suddenly felt like they dragged along two iron balls. Even though they were connected by their hands, at times Mikan felt the difference of speed almost tearing her arms apart.

"Slow down!" she cried, panting.

She made the mistake of looking up, up right into the bulging eyes of the man whose head was wrapped around in bandages. His raggedy huge cloak whipped around him, as if yearning for his presence. For that second, his stare was so deep and so penetrating that Mikan froze right on the spot.

"Don't look, just run!" Tsubasa's remote voice was somewhere in the background.

In a swift swoop, he grabbed Mikan's arm with the hand that was not holding a scythe and disconnected her from Tsubasa. A small yelp escaped Mikan's lips as she was lifted into the air as effortlessly as a rag doll.

"You are not of this world." The voice was scary, empowering.

She did not even have two seconds to dwell on it before the curving blade scratched at her neck.

"Why are you here?"

Mikan screamed. She cried. She did everything a panicked seven year old would in self defense against a heartless killer. Amidst her struggle, the eight year old saw neither reason nor situation. She didn't notice until she calmed down that the scythe had left her neck and that Hajime's grip was all that tied her to him.

She aimed two kicks at his chest. She slapped his hand. She tried to bring her mouth to his arm to bite him.

In the end, like an insect, she was flung by those muscular arms straight into a very solid cloud wall. Her head hit first, and Mikan saw black long before she landed.

When Sumire heard the news, her first instinct was to slap the crying boy across the face and screech "you're lying!" Tsubasa was known as a very naughty trickster and Mrs. Andou always complained about his antics. On second thought, Koko would surely reprimand her for being childish and even she doubted he would go as far as cry for a mere prank.

She cleared her head and contemplated the situation. Even if Mikan was in Hajime and soon Persona's hands, they could not convict her without knowing the situation. Her master would be safe but not for long.

"Where did he taking her?"

"I don't know," she could barely make out the boy's sniffles. "He just took her under his arm and rode away on his carpet."

"Well you did the right thing by coming to us," Koko assured him with his grimmer, serious smile.

That was just the tip of the iceberg. Anything and everything was only going to get worse from now on. It didn't help either that Koko was the only one who knew about the illegitimate wish that Sumire had granted to the girl.

"Sumire, go see Narumi."

She shot him a glare. "What? Have you suddenly been possessed by aliens?"

"Baby," he reasoned and she crossed her arms because nothing good ever came after that word, "I know you really don't like our teacher."

"Former teacher," she corrected.

"Yes," he dismissed absentmindedly, "but Mr. Narumi has experience with these things. He's the best person to have on our side at the moment. Think about it. He's the only compassionate person as influential as Persona. Do you think Reo Mouri or anyone else will take your side once the cat is out of the bag?"

She didn't need Reo. She didn't need anyone else either. It wasn't as if she had even broken a serious law in the first place.

"If worse comes to worse," said Sumire, "I'll make a run for it."

"You can't!" Tsubasa cried immediately, causing both of them to look down at the little boy. "You can't because the scary man will come and he'll cut you up!"

There was fear in his eyes. They could both see it. From an exchange of looks, Koko and Sumire came to the mutual agreement that Tsubasa was to stay out of this entire affair.

She relinquished, "all right, I'll go see Narumi. Koko's going to take you home, Tsubasa, and you have to stay there from now on."

"But—"

"Or I won't go."

The little boy sniffled a little more, and Sumire could sense his worry for his friend. He could have been a valuable ally if only he were a little bit older. In their current situation, Sumire could not risk holding responsibility for the well-being of a noble's child. Mrs. Andou was not a force to be reckoned with.

"It'll be over before you know it." Koko winked at the boy.

He nodded obediently as if realizing his uselessness in the situation.

"Hurry Sumire," urged her boyfriend. "Get to Narumi before they discover the truth."

She snapped her fingers. In an instant, all the dust in the room amassed and solidified into her trusty magic carpet. Expertly mounting it with a single jump, she was about to charge out the door before being stopped by Koko.

"I love you," he said, kissing her on the lips.

Except for Tsubasa's distinguished "ewh!"s in the background, that was arguably the sweetest kiss they had ever shared.

Like hell she was going to see Narumi. As if she even knew where that eccentric extrovert was in this vast land! He had a habit of wondering about the city when he was supposed to be doing paperwork. Just like his grandfather, that one.

She steered her carpet above all the traffic, right into the express lane exclusive for Genie Officials. It was a good thing she worked her sweet lady parts off for the position, if only just to save the frustration of commuting during rush hour (which was any hour of daylight, really).

Sumire charged on her one way course towards the highest tower in the city, a tower completely shrouded by a protective layer of clouds but was actually only building in the two genie worlds made of solid concrete.

The foreign substance was impermeable, but that was no big obstacle for Sumire.

"Halt! Who goes?"

"Wow, Mochu. I can't believe how bigheaded you've gotten ever since they gave you this job. I'm a Genie Official. Let me in. I have business here."

"No can do," he said with a ridiculously formal guise. "We are all equals in regards to law. Being a genie official doesn't make you above it. Unless you have a valid reason, you cannot answer." He banged his guard stick as if making a point.

This is ridiculous… Sumire rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. You want a reason? I'll give you a reason. I'm here to make an arrest on Persona and Hajime's most recent case."

He whistled. "Talk about bigheaded. I can see that your mouth hasn't gotten any smaller. Say, how's loverboy doing with all this extra luggage?"

"Don't even bring Koko into this."

The poker face was back. "Okay. Present the culprit. I'll take him."

"Hah. I can't believe you'd think for a second that I'd let you have all the glory. Besides, only I can take the culprit."

"Why?" grumbled her longtime friend.

"Because I'm the culprit."