So I finally got around to writing this chapter, but I don't really like it... unfortunately, I need to get this story done so that I can work on my other fanfics. Since only five people voted, I decided to take matters of which stories to work on into my own hands so I'm going to finish this story. Only about two more chapters! :)
Anyway, as usual, I would appreciate it if you would review, seeing as the whole point of me posting this story is to get feedback... and I'm thinking of saying that if I'm not going to get any reviews, on any of my stories, I'm going to stop posting. It sounds bratty, but I get over eight hundred viewers a month, and maybe two reviews... it's highly annoying.
But other than that, I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's all from Natsume's POV so enjoy :)
~Sunechirei
Oh, and I'm going to start taking requests for one shots, though I may not write them for a while, or post them, but I need to work on certain things in writing, and what better way than taking requests? It can be for pretty much any manga (I will most likely look it up if I don't know what it is) books (same as manga) or Kingdom Hearts. (withnospaces, you can NOT request anything :P )
"Did we get the wrong room?" Hotaru asked, shoving Natsume aside. Nothing about the room made sense, and both Natsume and Hotaru could tell.
"I don't think so." Natsume said slowly. "This is the place I saw her when I left." He examined the room as he entered, not sure why he got a strange feeling while he was there.
The bed was made, neat, almost like it had never been slept upon, and the floor was empty of everything, even the IV that had been hooked up to Mikan while she slept, wasn't there. There was absolutely nothing in the room that would suggest that someone had been there.
Suddenly, Natsume's thoughts turned to the mission he had accompanied Mikan on, what she was supposed to do, what happened, what Mikan said happened, and all of a sudden, the state of the room made sense.
"I don't think this is the real state of the room." He said slowly.
Behind him, Hotaru snorted. "What are you talking about. Obviously this is the-" Natsume lit a flame in his hand, and Hotaru stopped talking instantly, gasping. "Whoa! What the hell are you doing?" Natsume heard her shuffling around, and he assumed that she was searching for a special fire extinguisher that was the only thing that could put out Natsume's flame. Before she could do anything, however, he lit the bed on fire and watched it burn. Hotaru was still yelling at him, but stopped when the room began to shift, like an illusion.
"This, isn't natural." He said to her, watching with some fascination. She was shocked, standing there without saying anything, and Natsume was interested in her reaction, until the room stopped shifting around, and saw something uncanny;
Blood.
Not very much, but still, it seemed like someone had gotten hurt. Badly. Beside him, Natsume felt Hotaru shudder, and he knew that she was probably feeling sick. He was used to this kind of scene, but Hotaru wasn't.
The sheets on the bed were completely shredded and was hanging off all sides of the now crooked bed. The IV lay on the ground, bent, ripped, and was spilling medicine all over the floor, staining the linoleum a light red. The window by the bed had been broken, leaving shards of glass all over the floor underneath it. Natsume guessed that a fight had taken place here, and that someone got shot, though how the hospital staff hadn't heard the commotion was a mystery.
"What in the world?" Hotaru managed said quietly. "What is going on here?" Natsume felt himself lose control of his emotions, and kicked the bed angrily. He wanted to know what was going on as much as Hotaru did, and there was only so much self control he could muster when it came to Mikan. He turned to leave the room, but decided he should probably answer the fuming, confused girl.
"Isn't it obvious, she's gone." he hissed, stopping before he reached the door, and turned around to face Hotaru. "What does it look like to yo-"
Baka! Baka! Baka!
Natsume felt the pressured air crash into his stomach, sending him flying backwards into the wall. Dust from the drywall settle on and around him, and he looked up to glare at Hotaru, but was shocked to see that her arm was shaking. Tears were forming in her eyes, and she yelled, "That's not what I meant and you know that! Why did the room look so neat before? How did you know it wasn't the real state of it? What is going on?" The sound of Natsume crashing into the wall, and Hotaru's screaming seemed to have attracted the attention of the hospital staff, and a nurse came bursting in.
"Children, why are you fighti- Oh my!" Natsume groaned. It was the nurse who was always happy. He really hated that woman. "What ever happened here?" she asked, the dreaded smile still on her face. Neither Natsume nor Hotaru said anything. They only stared at the nurse in utter disbelief, not sure whether or not she was being a jerk, or just had a mental problem. "Well, do you guys know what's going on?" she asked again, looking between them.
"He seems to." Hotaru finally said, pointing to Natsume. He tried to back away from the nurse, but she turned to face him, her eyes wide.
"Well, Mr. Hyuuga?"
Natsume scowled. "I don't know what happened here. You might want inform a doctor about this before another patient goes missing." he hissed. The nurse looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully.
"Okay!" she chirped, before dashing out of the room.
"Hyuuga..." Hotaru started, her voice tainted with venom.
"That nurse doesn't need to know anything." Natsume interrupted. Hotaru scowled, but Natsume ignored her and tried to leave again, but this time, Subaru Imai was standing in the doorway, and on his face was a look that could match Hotaru's voice in venom.
"What's going on?" his eyes flashed dangerously between Natsume and Hotaru. "What have you two done with my patient?" Subaru crossed his arms, waiting for the stunned teenagers to speak. Finally Hotaru did.
"What have we done? Are you an idiot? We are the ones who found the room like this. If anything, we should be asking you what you've done. Mikan is my best friend. I would never hurt her."
She pushed past Subaru and stormed out of the room, leaving a shocked doctor with Natsume.
"Is there something you're not telling us, Mr. Hyuuga?"
Natsume looked away from the elementary headmaster, not wanting to tell him anything that he knew about the alice that Mikan had stolen. He knew that it was somehow related to what had happened to Mikan, and he had a feeling that if the Headmaster knew this, bad things would start to happen.
"Mr. Hyuuga?" the small boy in front of Natsume called out, bringing Natsume back to reality. "If you know something about Ms. Sakura's disappearance and you aren't telling me, you won't be very happy later." Natsume looked back at the boy behind the desk.
"I don't know anything about what happened in that room, or where Mikan is. Can I go now?" The irritation in his voice was unmistakable. The headmaster smiled and nodded. "Thank you." Natsume said sarcastically. Persona, who was standing behind him, let out a low growl of warning, but Natsume ignored it and walked out of the room without paying any respect to the Headmaster.
"But that's not all there is to this, and you know that."
Natsume stopped in his tracks when the headmaster said this and turned around. He said nothing, not sure where the headmaster was going with this.
"I heard from Persona that you went with Ms. Sakura on her last mission, but the mission ended up being a failure. Now, do you know what Ms. Sakura was there to get?" Natsume shook his head and the headmaster continued, "She was there to get a special alice, one that can distort space, make people believe that the scene before them is different than what is really there. I think she didn't fail, that she has the alice, and she escaped. Now, let me ask you again. Is there something you aren't telling us, Mr. Hyuuga?"
Natsume stood there, shocked. He had guessed that Mikan had used that alice to mask the room, to keep people from realizing that she was gone, which meant that she had left on purpose. However, he didn't want the headmaster to know that this was what he thought.
"I know nothing about that, or where Mikan could be." Natsume lied, turning around again and leaving this time. He closed the door behind him, hoping that no one could tell that he really did know something.
Looking around, Natsume made sure that no one was in the hallway before he dashed out of the building, heading towards Bear's cabin in the woods. He figured that Tsubasa was going to be there and he needed to talk to him. As he neared the clearing where the cabin was, he could hear chattering, and when he finally got there, he saw Tsubasa, Ruka, and Hotaru sitting at the small table talking.
The three looked over at him. "There you are, Natsume." Ruka said, standing up. "We were wondering when you would arrive."
Natsume took a step back, confused. "What do yo mean? Why are you guys here?" He asked. Hotaru rolled her eyes.
"You're extremely predictable, Hyuuga. All of us figured that you would come here to find Badly-"
"Tsubasa!"
"-and so we came here to make sure you didn't do anything stupid." she finished, throwing a glare at Tsubasa.
Natsume gave them a disbelieving look. "Are you serious."
"Yes. We also want to help you find Sakura." Ruka said. "That is what you're planning to do, right?" Natsume nodded and sat down. "Well then, I guess we should figure out what to do."
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Ruka whined, as he helped Natsume gather items from the storage the school gave to Hotaru when she brought in over thirty million yen from one of her experiments. It was filled with creations that she had been working on for the past four years, most covered in dust from being untouched, and others beaten and worn from all of the use that they had been put through.
Natsume rolled his eyes and pulled out the list that Hotaru had made for him and Ruka. "No. I don't think this is a good idea. But Imai does and she's usually right about things like this." He glanced over the list quickly and grabbed something off of one of the shelves. "We're just going to have to trust her."
Ruka laughed at this, receiving a glare from Natsume. "What," he said with a smile, "I think it's funny that you're actually admitting Hotaru can be right."
"Yeah well this involves- wait, Hotaru?" He gave his friend a incredulous look and Ruka rolled his eyes.
"It's not important right now. I'll explain later. Have you found everything." the two boys looked at the pile of weapons and communication devices that reached Natsume's waist.
Natsume nodded. "Yeah. But seriously-"
"Drop it, Natsume." Ruka picked up the bag they had brought and began to shovel what they had gathered into it, despite the protests from Natsume telling him to be careful. "Let's go." The two boys grabbed the bag once it was full and lugged it outside, nearly running into Hotaru.
She looked at the bag with one eyebrow raised. "You obviously don't realize how dangerous some of these things are, but that doesn't matter right now. Did you get everything I asked for?" Ruka nodded and Hotaru reached out to grab the bag from him. "Good, let's go."
Turning swiftly, she threw the bag over her shoulder and stalked off towards Bear's cabin. Ruka and Natsume exchanged glances, shrugged, and followed her, not sure how she was able to carry the heavy bag.
They walked in silence, watching around nervously for anyone who could be hiding in the dark, ominous shadows that were cast by the moonlight. Natsume felt like there was someone watching him, that every sound was a spy sent by Persona or the headmaster, but they met no one on their way.
Finally, they reached the clearing where Bear's cabin was located and saw Tsubasa sitting at the table, holding a flashlight. He smiled when he saw them and waved, letting out a 'yo' as a greeting.
"I take it you guys got what we need?"
"More or less." Hotaru glared at the boys, though Natsume had no idea why. "Are you ready.
"Yep. Let's do this."
Hotaru opened the bag and began distributing communication devices, explaining what they were going to do. "Hopefully, this won't be too hard. Hyuuga thinks he knows where Mikan might be, so you two," she pointed at Ruka and Tsubasa, "need to make sure he gets there okay. Use your alices if you need to, and don't get caught. We don't want a repeat of four years ago, do we?" she eyed the three boys, and Natsume nodded.
"No. No we don't." He said. Hotaru's eyes softened when she heard this, and she reached down and grabbed something out of the bag.
"Let's go." she said.
Natsume crept through the forest alone, trying as hard as he could not to make much noise in case someone was watching for him. In his ear was a communication devise that was currently blaring with Hotaru's voice.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing? Mikan could be anywhere and you wanted to go off, alone, into the forest, at night, only agreeing to wear an earpiece. I ask again, are you mental?" Hotaru ranted. Natsume imagined her sitting on the roof of the dorm room, watching him, Ruka, and Tsubasa with an invention of hers.
"Shut up." Natsume muttered to himself.
"Did you just tell me to shut up."
Natsume stopped in is tracks, his heading swiveling around, confused. "Um... no." he said slowly, moving forwards again.
"I heard you. This thing can pick up even the slightest sound you make, and let me warn you now, Hyuuga; if you tell me to shut up again, I'm not going to be very happy."
Natsume breathed in. "I don't really care."
"Ha! Yeah right. You're afraid of me. Admit it."
"And if I refuse?"
"Do you want my he- whoa!"
"Imai? Hey, Imai? What's going on?"
"It's Ruka. I just saw him being dragged off by some teacher I didn't recognize. It must have been an ele-"
"He what!" Natsume yelled.
"Quiet! They might hear you!"
Just as Hotaru said this, a bullet rang through the forest, flying just past Natsume's ear. His head spun around and a bright light temporarily blinded him.
"Don't let him get away!" Natsume heard this and he turned quickly, stumbling forward. Behind him he could hear the men yelling and he kept on running, not quite sure where he was going or why. He knew that he had to find the dungeon where he had found Mikan four years ago, but he didn't quite know where that was, and with the men chasing him, it would be harder to find it, especially in the dark.
After a while of running, the voices began to get quieter, and Natsume guessed that he was no longer being chased. Slowing down, he glanced around him, not sure where he was, and tried to speak to Hotaru again.
"Oi, Imai. What's going on now?" He asked, trying hard to stay quiet. Static greeted him. "Imai!" He hissed, louder this time. "This isn't funny, where are you?" Still no answer, only static.
A sharp pain in his chest kept Natsume from trying to talk to Hotaru again. He was breathing heavily, too heavily, and a bloody taste was lingering in the back of his throat, causing Natsume to feel sick. He had been running too much without any kind of medicine, something he knew he shouldn't be doing. He slumped against the nearest tree, his vision going blurry, and his hand shot up to his neck, searching for the alice stone that his mother had given him all those years ago.
It wasn't there.
Bark cut through his uniform shirt, scratching his arms into a bloody mess as he slid down the side of the tree, feeling his conscience slipping away from him. He had to find Mikan. He knew where she was, he had to find her, he had to save her from all the bad things that could happen to her.
But none of that would happen if he passed out. Yet he couldn't control his body, and he felt himself falling into state of unconsciousness.
Suddenly, a warm hand touched his face, and he began to feel better. He no longer needed to gasp for air, and the bloody taste in his throat was gone. When he finally realized that someone was near him, he jumped away, feeling as though he were completely healthy again. A fire lit in his hand and he was prepared to attack the person, when they called out;
"Wait! I know where Sakura is!"
Natsume froze, his vision clearing up completely. In front of him was a young woman with silver hair that hung down to her waist, and green eyes that peered eerily at Natsume.
"What did you just say?" He asked.
"Sakura... um... Mikan. I know where she is. You're Natsume Hyuuga, right?" Natsume nodded. "I should have guessed. You look just like your mother, you know." As surprised as he was by that last sentence, he ignored it and asked where Mikan was. "Calm down. They're still searching for you. And put that flame away. I just healed you. I don't want to have to hurt you."
"Where is Mikan?"
The woman rolled her eyes. "Jeez you're impatient. Come with me and I'll show you where she is. Though you probably already know. You're the one who found her all those years ago, right?" Natsume nodded slowly, not sure whether or not to trust the woman. She seemed to be alright, but then again, so did most of the people who worked for the academy.
"Take me to where Mikan is, and don't even think about using your alice. I have a feeling you were the one who made the hospital room into a mess, so I'm not going to put my fire out until I see Mikan, safe."
The two watched each other for a time, waiting for someone to say something. Finally, the woman sighed. "Just like your mother... I'm Mei-li, by the way."
"I don't care. Show me where Mikan is."
"Kids these days. She's this way."
Natsume followed Mei-li cautiously through the forest, towards a part that all of the students at the school avoided. This was because a crazy high school boy decided to go there, despite the warnings, but went missing for two weeks, and when he finally stumbled out of the forest, he was crazy, muttering about torture and dangerous people. But Natsume still followed her, hoping that she really wasn't going to hurt him.
Neither of them spoke the entire time, spreading an eerie silence amongst them, but finally, Mei-li stopped. Leaning over, she brushed away some dirt, revealing a metallic trap door with markings that Natsume didn't understand.
"She's down here."
Natsume grunted, allowed the flame to disappear, and leaned down to open the door. It creaked as he opened it, telling Natsume that the door hadn't been used in years, and he prepared himself to jump down it when Mei-li grabbed his arm.
"I'm warning you now, what's down there, the story behind what happened to that girl, it's not something you really want to hear. Are you sure you want to do this?" She asked, a serious look in her eye. Natsume yanked his arm away.
"I don't know who you are, what connection you have with me and Mikan, but this has nothing to do with you, so bug off." Without waiting for a reply, he slipped down the hatch into a flooding darkness. He lit another flame, feeling somewhat weak again, and headed down the corridors, a nostalgic feeling running through his body. It was just like four years ago, just like the time when he discovered just what the academy was capable of when they wanted some.
His footsteps echoed off of the walls, sending shivers down his spine as he walked down a hallway. It wasn't long before he came to a door, just like four years ago, and he reached forward to open it.
It moved silently, and a gush of wind greeted him, blowing out his flame, though it didn't matter. The room was lit, and in the center was Mikan, standing with her back to the door, in her hospital attire.
She turned slowly, her long brown hair swishing slightly with the movement, and Natsume saw that her eyes were stained red.
"Natsume," she whispered. "I'm so sorry.