10 minutes later they heard noises coming from the forest. Enemies ran towards them after stopping seconds to orientate themselves. Alice's threw through the air and hit either side. The teachers who still had small bombs used them, Natsume helped out where he could.
"Natsume!" Narumi voice rang through the field. "We need you here!"
Natsume ran in the direction of Narumi's voice and discovered that Persona had come to the battle and was terrorising the left side of their army.
"Can you hold him off?" Narumi asked Natsume.
"I'll help you." Yoichi ran up to them.
"Okay, Yoichi let's drive him away from the teachers and into the forest."
"But, won't that mean that he has the upper hand? He's better in the forest." Yoichi asked worriedly, shouting over the noise.
"If we don't drive him away from the teachers he'll just hurt them! Besides we're 2 against him! Come on!" Natsume shouted back at him and ran over towards Persona. Persona was using his Alice on a teacher when Natsume attacked him. Natsume kept attacking him, giving no time for Persona to switch from defence to offence. Persona backed away into the forest, being pushed back by Natsume. Yoichi followed closely behind.
When they were long enough away from the others Natsume pulled back panting from exhaustion. Yoichi started using his Alice to drain Persona's negative energy.
"How did you escape?" Persona asked Natsume.
"I had help… Ruka and Hotaru came. Didn't think about that did you?" Natsume smirked at him and charged him again. They exchanged a few blows.
"Why don't you use your Alice Natsume? Afraid of dying?" Persona mocked and activated his Alice.
"It's not that I'm afraid of it I just don't want to die. Did you expect that I would just use my Alice and die, then your job would be finished?"
"Not really but you can always hope."
Persona stormed towards them, this time Yoichi attacked him as well. They managed to wound him and push him back again without getting hurt themselves. Persona glared angrily at them and held his arm. This time Yoichi used his Alice on Persona, the negative energy pushed Persona backwards and into a tree. The force of the blow knocked Persona unconscious so they hurried and tied him to a tree with an Alice prevention rope. Tying it tightly hoping that he wouldn't break loose.
Natsume looked down on his watch and saw that they had already used 20 minutes. "We're using too much time. The fire will spread to here before we can get to the ESP. Do you have an idea?" Natsume asked Yoichi.
"Can I scare some of them away with ghosts?"
"Sure go ahead and try. Just try not to scare any of the teachers away."
Natsume and Yoichi ran back towards the field and saw that they had managed to cut their army in half. The ESP was standing somewhere in the back, not coming forward and letting his men die for him. Yoichi used his Alice and managed to scare about ten people from their forces. Natsume ran over and helped Narumi who was surrounded by five men. He knocked 4 of them unconscious and them ran over to help some others. He soon ran into Mikan who was helping some teachers by nullifying their opponents Alice's'.
"Hey, do you need some help?" Natsume shouted over the noise.
"Yeah. Go help them I'll cover you from Alice attacks!" Mikan pointed at the group she already was protecting, they were outnumbered. Natsume ran in and took care of half of the enemies; he let the others take care of the rest.
Natsume looked over the battlefield. Ruka was commanding some bears fight; Hotaru was shooting people with her idiot-gun. The middle was having some problems with a pain Alice user, they couldn't get near him because of the pain. Natsume jumped up into a tree and took his gun out of his pocket; he had kept it from earlier this day. He took aim at the man and shot him in the shoulder, it was just the break they needed to get close to him.
Once again Natsume checked for the ESP. Luckily he was still standing there in the back of the clearing in a circle of guards. Natsume climbed higher up into the tree wanting to see how far the fire was. It was close; maybe they had about five minutes if they were lucky.
Damn I have to get the ESP now, or else this place will soon be a sea of fire. – Natsume thought.
He jumped down from the tree and ran into the forest. His plan was to capture the ESP from behind. He ran until he could see the ESP's guards from behind some bushes.
The ESP really isn't very clever. I guess I can use a little of my Alice for this one. – Natsume thought.
Natsume used his Alice and made a little explosion right beside the ESP. His guards exclaimed and jumped to the side just as Natsume jumped into the circle and grabbed the ESP. The guards tried to fight back but they were overrun, the noise was making the other henchmen turn around and shout. Soon everyone's eyes were on Natsume.
Shit! Maybe this wasn't so smart after all! – Natsume thought.
The other henchmen began running towards him. Natsume grabbed the ESP's arm and led him back into the forest. Before he could take more than a few steps Ruka appeared beside him.
"Ruka!" Natsume exclaimed shocked.
"Natsume, you know that was a really stupid thing you just did right?"
"Of course, let's teleport."
"The thing is I just used the last of the stone to get here." Ruka said.
"Seriously?"
"No. I just wanted to demonstrate how stupid it was to come here by yourself without a way out. Let's teleport." Ruka said and took Natsume's hand. They teleported to the other side if the clearing with the ESP. Not a moment too soon because the fire had already spread to the edge of the clearing. Natsume and Ruka tied the ESP's hands tightly with Alice prevention ropes. And let some teachers guard him. The ESP's henchmen had fled the sight when the ESP had been captured and they saw the fire.
"Ruka how much power is there left in the stone?" Natsume asked him.
"I think there is enough to get a couple of people out of here but not nearly enough for the whole group."
"Take the ESP Hotaru and a teacher out to Sakurano and tell him to come and pick us up. I can't get in touch with him; maybe he used too much power. I'll hold of the fire as long as I can."
"But Natsume-"
"Just go, hurry."
Ruka looked at Natsume and them went over to the ESP with Hotaru and some other teacher.
"Don't die Natsume, I won't forgive you if you do." Ruka said just before he teleported.
Natsume smiled back at him, "If only you remember to get help."
Narumi came over to him. "What are we going to do? The fire."
"Ruka's telling Sakurano to come and pick us up, I'll hold of the fire off until he gets here." Natsume coughed into his sleeve, leaving a bloodstain on the black fabric.
"But Natsume you're not well enough to hold off the flames." Narumi protested.
"Do you want to let everyone here get roasted?" Natsume asked him, "If there is someone here who can hold off the flames then I'll gladly let them do it. But as it so happens there isn't. I'm the only one who can do it, so either you let me or we all die. What's it going to be?"
"…Okay."
"Good now get them to gather into the smallest group they can so I don't have to protect such a large area." Natsume ordered and muffled a few more coughs. Mikan hurried to his side.
When the teachers had gathered Mikan and Natsume sat down beside them. The fire was all around them but stopped at an invisible border Natsume had made with his Alice. He absorbed all the flames that came close to them. He was getting paler by the minute.
After a couple of minutes Sakurano teleported into the circle.
"Sorry it took so long, my powers were completely used. Natsume, can you hold out a little longer? I can only take 10 people with at a time."
"Yeah… Just hurry up and go…" Natsume panted resting his head in his hands.
Sakurano grabbed ten people and teleported them out of the fire. Immediately they moved closer to each other trying to help Natsume as much as possible. The border shifted and became smaller.
Natsume started coughing, not stopping until his hand was spotted with blood. For a second the barrier fell as Natsume almost passed out, but then he restored it.
"Natsume you should take your pills." Mikan said worriedly, staring at Natsume.
Natsume slowly shook his head, "I… don't have anymore…"
Sakurano came back and took 10 more. The only ones who were left were Natsume, Mikan, Narumi, Jinno and Yoichi. They all moved closer to Natsume to help him.
Natsume coughed up a little more blood and the barrier that had failed a couple of times already, failed again.
"Natsume!" They yelled as fire suddenly glazed around them. After they said it the barrier restored itself.
"Sorry…" Natsume muttered out of breath.
At last when Natsume was on the verge of collapsing, Sakurano came and teleported them out of the fire. The air shimmered around them as they teleported towards safety.
Most of the teachers had run out to help the other kids, but there were a few who stayed to see if the rest were okay. The ESP was there too, some of the teachers held him down. They had removed the rope around his wrists because they didn't think it was necessary. It was already night, they'd used most of the day fighting the ESP. The only light that shone was from the forest fire. The students had managed to get the upper hand in the fight and they had driven the ESP's followers to the rear end of the academy. News of the ESP's capture soon spread through the academy and both students and staff started to cheer. The henchmen realised that the battle was lost and they gave up. Some tried to escape but they were easily subdued.
Natsume laid on his back gazing tiredly with half-closed eyes up into the dark sky. Even though he was exhausted Natsume fought sleep knowing that if he fell asleep he wouldn't wake up again. He breathed heavily as if the air helped him minimize the pain that formed in his chest.
"Yes hello, I would like an ambulance to come quickly to the west edge of the Northern forest." Narumi said, speaking into his cell phone. "Thank you."
"Are they coming?" Mikan asked worriedly.
Narumi looked troubled, "They'll come as quickly as they can but there are many wounded people and maybe it isn't so easy to come here because of the wreckage."
Mikan caressed Natsume's cheek. The touch made him look up into those chocolaty brown eyes of hers. Tears were running down her cheek without her noticing it.
"…Hey." Natsume whispered to her and reached up with a shaking hand to wipe the tears off of her face.
Mikan grabbed his hand and held it towards her cheek. "Hey."
Everything happened so fast. The ESP stared angrily at Natsume the one at fault for his capture seemed to live. The anger giving him strength he tore himself from the 2 teachers grip and ran over towards Natsume and Mikan gun in hand.
"This is your fault you bastard!" The ESP screamed as he neared Natsume.
Narumi woke from his daze and tried to stop the ESP. He wasn't quick enough. A shot was heard just a second before Narumi ran into the ESP, knocking them both down. "Natsume!"
Narumi held the ESP down until the other teachers could come and secure him, then Narumi ran over to Natsume and Mikan.
Narumi was hoping with every ounce of himself that Natsume wasn't hit. A hope that was destroyed as Narumi kneeled beside them. Natsume was if possible even paler than before. He had been shot in the shoulder, and he was already loosing blood.
"Shit!" Narumi cursed and took his shirt off; he pressed it against the wound trying to stop the bleeding. Natsume groaned weakly as the pressure was placed on his shoulder.
"N-Natsume…" Mikan stuttered scared as she stared at Natsume, cold sweat was running down the side of his face and he shook feverishly. "No… Natsume don't give up… You're going to be fine… You hear me? You're going to be fine…"
Natsume grimaced in pain as another coughing fit tore through his body. Natsume tried desperately to hold onto his life, but as much as he fought he couldn't keep it away. Realising this he felt tears run slowly down his cheeks, he cried… For the first time since he came to the academy. He cried because he knew that he and Mikan couldn't be together. Tears streamed down his face as he felt his strength leave him. At least he wanted to tell her for the last time, he gathered his remaining strength.
"…I love you." He whispered faintly.
"I love you too." Mikan sobbed.
Natsume slowly closed his eyes surrendering to darkness.
"N-Natsume?" Mikan stuttered, "Open your eyes… Open your eyes… Look at me! Please… Natsume! Look at me!" She shook his body trying to wake him up.
"No. No. No. Natsume!" Narumi said desperately and started doing CPR, "I won't let you!"
The ambulance came, and the doctors rushed out and shoved Narumi aside.
"Clear!" The doctor said and gave Natsume an electric shock. His body jerked but there was still no pulse. A few more times after the doctor had to give up, he shook his head at them. There was nothing he could do…
"No! You have to do something! Please!" Mikan shouted hysterically and cried. Narumi took her in his arms. Rain poured down from the sky.
"NATSUME!"