Opening Note(s): I decided to edit the last two chapters because I felt it was so... rushed and clichéd. There are a few scenes that I added and changed to make the transition less apparent. It was so crappy that I was ashamed I posted it. I hope with this, I could lessen my shame. Please bear with me.

Chapter 10 that was once two chapters merged into one was now un-merged. One of the reasons for merging these chapters was because I've already anticipated that if I won't, this story will end with 14 chapters. And I don't like the number 14. I'm pretty OC when it comes with that. So I decided to end it with 13 but it was a big mistake. With two chapters merged, I've deleted scenes to make it shorted— the result was it, making sloppy. Sorry. :)

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Rules of Abduction
Written by: Snow Sparkle
Chapter X – Gray

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Rule 10: The line next to you will move more quickly than the one you're in. That's because the line to hell's a lot more crowdy.

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—

He expected him to be on a highchair.

"Hyuuga," Youichi snapped a finger across Natsume's face, trying to get his attention. "Are you listening to this important discussion?"

Natsume looked at him blankly, acting disoriented. His chin was resting on his upturned palm and his posture deliberately poor and definitely rude especially in a strict conference. He aligned his posture as if regarding Youichi for the first time then back to curl as he waved an offhand hand. "Whatever."

Youichi sucked air through his gritted teeth and clenched his already clenched fists further. Half surrendering, he pinched the bridge of his nose, attempting to ebb away the irritation. This was the very reason why he detested making his appearance. And he would never get used to this. He decided to go from general to specific, to try to redeem whatever Natsume's group thought of GPU. "Let me tell you something."

Youichi gestured at the painting of a man with graying hair in an army general's uniform. Natsume stared at the image jadedly. He knew the kid would be telling him the story of his ancestry and how the organization started— the doubts of the people; belittling his ancestor's ability to run a high-cost organization; the hard work; the support from the well-trusted advisers.

All those clichéd mumbo-jumbos.

"That's my great grandfather, the founder of this organization." Youichi captioned the painting with pride whilst Natsume gave an arrogant snort for being able to figure what was going to happen. Seeing as he already knew what was coming, he began whirling on his chair, leaning back his head to clearly express he wasn't listening anymore and was bored to death.

Youichi closed his eyes, only letting his anger seep inside and refusing to see Natsume's blatant disrespect. Others had disrespected him, but no one disrespected him as deliberate and brazen as Natsume.

More of this and hell's gate will open. Narumi thought worryingly. If that happened, he wouldn't be able to do anything. He was a lover, not a fighter. He silently prayed this whole meeting be over soon.

Youichi tried again. He modulated his voice and raised it to a notch higher and more dangerous. He was giving him a subtle warning. "As I was saying, my great grandfather, Tetsuma Hiijiri, was the founder of this organization. There were a lot of skeptics about how this group would continue to run. It needed— needs high maintenance, especially on research and equipment. Fortunately, with the help and support of reliable advisers, people and industries slowly came to invest and sponsor, realizing our mission of doing the world a favor. We reunite the world—"

"Cause wars and kill people. Nice." Natsume cut in, masking his words of defiance and anger with his sarcasm.

A loud wham on the table came and it was from Youichi reaching his limit. He started with too much indiction of words. "We kill people—"

"Yeah, yeah, got it. For the so-called Greater Good." Natsume made a big imaginary banner up in the air to emphasize his derision. He heard the slogan so many times and he hated it a lot. It was a euphemism, a justification of the unacceptable work of the organization. "That's very plausible and reasonable; risking wars, civilians to be exact, to get what you want. The end justifies the means, yeah?"

A sinister smirk came across Youichi's face and Narumi winced painfully knowing that the superior was starting to retaliate. "Oh I'm sorry. I forgot you're pro-life, Mr. I-killed-people-when-I-was-ten." He paused triumphantly, knowing he'd managed to hit a tender spot. "Can't you see how much of a hypocrite you are? Having a different view from yours or from the majority of the world, doesn't make us incorrect. Your standards, aren't the world's nor should anyone confirm with it. It's like choosing a religion—"

"Oh please. What do you know about it?"

"Enough to use it as an example, apparently."

Misaki wanted to cover her ears from the toxic talk but decided to run an exasperated palm across her face instead. "Someone please stop them..." she groaned next to Ruka, hoping he could take a hint.

"Don't look at him. He can't do anything at this point." Koko chirped over Ruka to Misaki.

"I'm very offended." Ruka said with a tight lip, brushing Koko away lightly and ready to step up to prove Koko wrong.

Koko pulled him back. "My apologies." Koko uttered playfully, putting a hand over his right chest as if solemnly vowing an unbreakable promise and slightly tipped his head. "But leave it to the expert to do the job." He pointed at Hotaru, who was across the table with his mouth, hailing her as the expert.

Ruka merely brushed his eyes over Hotaru, refusing to let it linger a little more than it should. "How come I can't be the expert?" he half sulked and begrudgingly saw Koko's point. Although it was hurting his male ego that a girl does a thing better than him. Especially Hotaru— since she was better than him in everything. A girl like her was scary. Yet, he liked being with her. Heck, he liked her a lot. It was like the thrill someone get when watching a horror movie. You don't want it yet you want it. It was such a complicated emotion.

Confused with his own logic, he turned back his attention at Koko, trying to remember what was the last thing he said.

Koko shrugged helplessly, acting as if he hadn't heard his private musings. "You can't just be an expert just because you've decided you wanted to be. Believe me, if it is, I would have been a sexgod."

Ruka gave him a hesitant and dubious stare, not allowing any disturbing image at the implication of his words.

"What? I'm just joking." Koko grinned affably. "Besides, you're the soft type. You'll just get squashed if you jump into a pit full of lions."

Ruka pouted. "The squash thing hurts, you know. How would you feel if I tell you to go jump into the pit yourself and let's see who gets squashed?"

Koko faked a mother's exaggerated gasp. "Where'd you get that tongue? You're spending too much time with Natsume."

"He's my best friend." Ruka explained simply, a little self-satisfied for being able to retort. It felt good. Someday he'd try it on Hotaru. He sighed, dispelling the idea. "Just because I look docile, I can't have any hostilities..."

"Aw. Cheer up. I'm not saying you can't be hostile, I'm only saying Hotaru's the expert. Look," he gestured at the congregation, discussing something they had only been aware up until now, "All's back to normal."

And it was but it was only temporary for the reason that Youichi couldn't seem to let go of defending the morality level of their group.

"Like I said, our method might not be acceptable for you. Our organization might've seemed immortal but we're humans too. You're all selfish to claim that only you could feel remorse for all of these. We kill, extort and even indirectly working with our enemy to know what he's up to and it's all for the greater good." He paused dramatically, eying Mikan significantly. "Just look at this innocent princess. I doubt she has any idea why she's here, do you princess?"

Mikan shifted uncomfortably at the sudden swing of everyone's attention from Youichi to her. She was about to ask what was it again but her memory began to remind her. It was a rhetorical question but she was afraid her silence would have a negatice effect on Natsume and others. "I— uh. I'm not sure."

When Youichi leered, she wanted to retract her statement. Silence was better.

But it was too late, it was the type of answer he had wanted to hear. Gaining control of the situation and conversation, he felt confidence flowing into his veins again and joined his fingers into a high triangular steeple. "Not sure or you don't know?"

Silence was her answer. She refused to look at him afraid he'd suddenly jump off his sheep skin and reveal a wolf, almost literally. The cute, cuddly child earlier has turned into someone— something scarily daunting. His body was infinitesimal but his shadowy aura was gargantuan.

"Ah." Youichi declared, mock on his tone and nodded arrogantly as if he perfectly understood everything. "But you don't run away, meaning you're already attached. You easily trust, don't you?"

Mikan was slowly shrinking on her seat, feeling foolish for feeling intimidated by a mere child. She had never questioned her actions until now. Heck, she was never the type to philosophically ask things. She was curious but it was superficial, seldomly leaving the skin-deep stage. And people only tend to question when things go wrong, not when things go right.

The idea hit her and caused her buoyancy of self-assurance. She was enjoying their company. With her 'captors' she doesn't feel trapped. That was why escaping never occurred to her. She began to open her mouth, to almost defiantly answer back but then her gaze fell on Natsume and her confidence dropped, ashamed to confess.

What if they don't feel the same?

What if they treat me 'nicely' because they have to?

What if it is one-sided... She took another peek at Natsume. When he was, at usual, being hard to figure, she shied away. She decided to say the safest answer. "They're good people..." she mumbled.

Youichi was studying her closely. "Of course they are," he said slowly, condescendingly. "They kidnapped you but it doesn't mean they wanted to."

"Hey." Natsume cut thickly through Youichi, snapping his fingers across the kid's face. "Don't forget; we're still here."

"Right." Youichi interlaced his fingers, pretending to move back to business. "Sorry. My jaw muscles just move."

"Of course." Natsume mimicked his condescending tone earlier. He was feeling the urge to move Mikan away from the uncomfortable hot seat. He had his fair share of intense interrogation and someone blameless like Mikan doesn't deserve it one bit. "Standard protocol when interrogating. Your man did that to me, that Mouri guy to be exact. He also brainwashed me, convinced you were there to help me only to find myself condemned to work to hell."

"Not again with these two..." Misaki beefed, slapping a palm against her forehead.

—

"Persona-san's objective for uh... kidnapping Princess Mikan is..." Narumi's eyes went in every direction, obviously unsettled and when he thought nobody noticed, peeped down for the nth time at his files. If he had known he'd play a role in the discussion he should have made some practices on how to elaborate the information, done reviews and organized his folder more.

Usually, he liked to take the limelight and enjoy all the attention. But that was because he knew he was well prepared. But the information came in only moments after Natsume and the crew's arrival that he had no time to cram unorganized and parcels of data into a decent, presentation-perfect thesis.

His eyes traveled over Youichi, trying to ask for help but he knew the superior at the moment was incapable of saying anything seeing that his and his adversary's mouths have adhesive tapes over it.

"It's okay if you read it. We won't mind." Ruka urged gently, smiling pleasantly.

Narumi's eyes sparkled with instant tears of joy as he nodded gratefully and looked down at his files to make sense out of it. "Persona-san's objective for kidnapping the princess is the... alice stone."

A flash of perplexed silence came and Natsume did the honor of breaking it—

"Mm?! Mmph hnr rr hhng mbrph!"

—In a not so honorable way.

Koko grinned at Natsume, as Tsubasa, Misaki and even Ruka caged their laughs with their hands. With Natsume's vile mouth sealed, Tsubasa envied Koko for being the 'Chosen One', the one who shall enjoy the joy of being his interpreter. "What Natsume means to say is how come? Haven't Persona got already a handful of those since our reward is one?"

Close enough, Natsume thought with dark relief. His interpreter liked to paraphrase a lot that he was worried Koko would say something he didn't say.

Youichi picked up his notepad and wrote, his stokes livid and hard, with his fountain pen saying: 'This is an insult!'

A side of Hotaru's lips tugged upward, the perfect mediator. "Amazing isn't it? Only the one who attached that to you, could take it off." She gestured at Narumi to continue. "Proceed."

Narumi smiled awkwardly at Hotaru to regard her. He knew she was not the girl to mess up with. Getting his momentum, he spoke again, "If you're familiar with world history, you know that once, there was a war in Princess Mikan's home, Frayland. The reason was a mystery to others but it is our doing that the public knows little about it. We want to bury the cause so we can protect and prevent people of Frayland from greedy hands. The cause of war was this awfully rare stone." Narumi paused for air and starting to gain a story-teller's aura. He knew this part real well that he didn't have to check on his files. "In this once small village, was an ancient clan. An all-female clan."

"Probably extinct. I mean how do they reproduce?" Tsubasa commented with a sneer in his voice. The all-female thing didn't appeal well to him soon after he heard it. If it was harem, well, he could consider.

"Are you daft?" Sumire's trademark sharp tongue snapped who was all the while twirling her hair until now. "They're females. As long as there are men to copulate with them, they'll survive."

Narumi smiled blandly. "Exactly what Shouda-chan said. This tribe was said to give birth to females only and shun males. They thought they were vile and evil and so could not be trusted. They view the male population only as means of reproduction. But it was said that most of the members of the tribe were extremely beautiful and exotic that men, even at their time, were easily manipulated by lust."

A scoff from the female listeners came as if they, in chorus, exclaimed in their minds Men!

"More like a cult." Tsubasa wasn't backing up the fight. It was annoying him that some females viewed men were as shallow as that. Although deep inside, he knew it was partially true. Who said the women were the ones who always got manipulated? Men were suckers for women. It was just that most women were playing nice and fragile that they didn't know how to use their wiles.

"This was the old times, you know? Their way is different from us. Just like what Youichi-kun was trying to point out, just because they had a different point of view from us, it doesn't make them wrong..." Narumi trailed off slowly when he noticed Hotaru was sending him a drop-it warning. He cleared his throat, trying to ignore the niggling feeling of fear of Hotaru. "Anyway, this family clan were said to use practice dark arts— or in our modern term, alice."

"You don't mean our alices came from the devil, do you?" Misaki asked, suddenly disturbed and at the same time concerned. She wasn't the religious type but she didn't like the idea of being a devil's advocate.

"No. What I mean is that is how our ancestors viewed it. Unlike back then, they thought alice was learned but now we knew it is not so. They didn't know a thing about Genetics nor did they know something like that existed. As it is known now, thanks to science, alice can't be learned, only passed through the genes." He paused momentarily to let them reprocess the information. "This clan, is one of the few clans who could use alice. That was the clan's secret. They kept together to protect the ability and themselves from being killed."

"Because people viewed it as dark arts..." Ruka mused and construed loudly. He remembered in history books that people who were said to practice dark arts were burned at steak, lynched or tortured.

"Exactly." Narumi's face was suddenly dim as if he lived in those dark times but hadn't done a thing to stop the genocide. "Historians believed that the fourth and fifth generation started this exclusion because they thought that the alice-bearers appear in a random order. So to keep track with the bloodline, they were bound to a rule of one child. After research, we found out that the gene's choice of the next alice-bearer wasn't random but rather in a neat progressive order. The sum of the last two generations determines when will a bearer be born."

"Fibonacci." Hotaru provided a term quite helpfully.

"Yes. And Princess Mikan of Frayland according to research happened to be the eleventh generation, the one hundred forty fourth descendant."

Mikan choked and everyone in the room gawped at her tentatively. Misaki had more of a concerned look and even Natsume who was all the time, barely listening, went rigid and ogled at the petite and innocent girl.

Mikan was utterly whipped, her face blanched and stark white, her mouth agape. She suddenly looked around frantically, like she needed someone to suddenly burst laughing and say it was all a joke.

Natsume came rattling on his tape, struggling to strip it. When it didn't work, he began pointing livid fingers at Youichi.

"He says: This is impossible! This girl can't be special!" Koko translated then as an assumed to be Natsume's addendum, he added, "Well she's special to me but that's not the point."

An angry spark suddenly came from Natsume's fingers and everyone instantly knew Koko was only joking and attempting to kill the zipped atmosphere.

Narumi leaned over the table, staring intently at Mikan. His eyes and voice were earnest and kind, wanting to break it as gently as possible. "You know why alice stones are extremely rare— on the brink of extinction?" He watched her shook her head slowly and her vulnerability made him walk to her and smoothed her cold, stiff hands. "It's because the ones making it are rare and in this time you're not even part of one in a million, you're one of your kind. You die and alice stones are gone." Then he momentarily glanced at Natsume and giggled giddily, making her smile a little. "Of course if you copulate with someone and have a baby then the bloodline lives but we all have to wait for another hundred-odd years, and it'll be rarer than before. Persona isn't quite immortal to wait that long. Neither does he have the patience to wait." He cupped her face and lifted it up to meet his eyes. "My child, you are special."

"B-But." Mikan managed to get her voice to float up, breaking away the eye-contact. It was really surreal. In a way she once thought she was special. But in a way of being an heir to a throne, not being an heir to an alice she never thought she had. She'd like to admit though, it was something cool, if she had discovered it in a different circumstance. In a circumstance where there is all-play, not as life and death as what the situation was. She thought Persona only wanted her for some trifling ransom. "My mother never told me this before... she should know... I couldn't..."

"She knows. I've researched about you." Luna's chilly voice chimed in, giving Mikan a cold stare. "She's been protecting you and never planned on telling you the secret, wanting to bury the facts of the alice stone and let everyone think of it as an interesting myth." She let out her trademark smile of cruelty. "But you were ungrateful. Ranting about how she'd been hard on you then ran away with a complete stranger. You, my dear," she sneered, "have once revolting attitude of facing problems. Teenagers these days..."

Narumi winced painfully at Luna and poorly attempted to mental telepathy, pleaded her not to say anymore.

Mikan was crying already, seeing Luna's point, no matter how cruelly she'd put it. Misaki was shushing her, cradling her in her arms. Hotaru was glaring daggers at Luna and Narumi. The meeting was slowly slipping out of her control.

Feeling it was all his fault, he looked contritely at Hotaru and decidedly turned the topic back to where it was subjective and not objective. He decided to talk to everyone rather than to talk to Mikan only. "This alice can condense life-force and solidify it. If it's used on an ordinary person, it could probably make a compound made of carbon, potassium and other components of a human body. But if it's an alice-yielder, this alice could make this intangible power, into something tangible. Persona wants it. For that purpose, we still don't know but most probably," he gave a vague shrug, "World domination?" He offered a tensed smiled.

"Is this dangerous? Can it... kill?" the break on her voice was hard to miss and she was shaking as she subconsciously wrung her wrist restlessly.

"Oh sweet child..." Narumi sighed then smiled reassuringly. "You're just sapping a part of a person's energy. It's not like they'll literally turn to ash. They'll be as fit as a fiddle after eating a few as if they only donated blood."

"Stop sugarcoating." Luna censured Narumi. "Yes you can kill. Any alice that is used improperly can kill. If you can't control it, you'll possibly drain all of a person's life-force."

—

It had gotten almost out of control after that. Luna was unstoppable, pointing out how each alice, given a circumstance could kill. Even as Koko's thought to be harmless alice could. Finally, when Hotaru couldn't take it, she called the meeting off and let Youichi give instructions on how to take on Persona.

It was clear: Take her to Persona but don't let him take her.

When it was over, everyone was relieved and rushed back to the port to prepare for departure. Only Hotaru chose to stay for an epigrammatic leader to leader talk.

Hotaru folded her arms, her lips pressed together and her aura was screaming I am so pissed. She had obviously intimidated Youichi and Narumi. Luna was next on her list and she was going to kill her now. "Your girl's a total blab."

Youichi begrudgingly wrote on his paper for a reply: 'Do you mind?!' he gestured at his tape.

Hotaru composedly and purposively yanked off the tape.

Youichi bit off the yelp of sting. "Luna said what she had to say."

"So you can recruit her?" she retorted knowingly.

Youichi leered dodgingly. "Our goal for now is to bring down Persona. Termination of our contract is two more years from now but your group can lie-low after the Persona issue."

"Hands off my crew." Hotaru asserted, not allowing him to change the topic. "Mikan Sakura's stay may only be provisional but as long as she is on my ship, she is part of the crew. Until then, I cannot allow squalid conscription. By the way," Hotaru dug her hand into her pocket and came out with videotape at hand. She tossed it to Youichi. "The evidence that I've won the bet."

Youichi looked at the videotape as if it was Persona and chucked it to Narumi. He had enough bad experience of tapes already. "I've told you not to initiate romantic bets." he reprimanded him lightly.

Narumi twirled around, dancing around with the tape. "Can't help it, it's in my blood!"

"It was good. Want to watch it?"

"Me? No. But I'm sure Narumi does..." Youichi sighed, massaging his temples. He needed a break. Hotaru's presence and schemes always brought the worst in him.

"Poor darling." Luna purred to his side and gently kneaded his temples. "I'm sorry I failed you for this simple job... If only I tried harder."

Youichi put a hand over Luna's, rubbing it affectionately. "It's okay."

"Urgh." Hotaru averted her eyes, not intending to hide her disgust. "You two are so sick and disturbing."

"You know my condition." Youichi immediately leaped to their defense, staring at her dourly. "This is the price I paid for being so naïve. That Persona deceived me."

"So this is all-about revenge? What happened about the greater good?"

"This is about the greater good and rectifying past mistakes. Look at me, I'm a hundred years of age yet I look like a child. People used to account me for my wisdom but now, they don't take me seriously. I look vulnerable and they think I'm just fooling around. That's why I can't show myself anymore." he sighed, as he cradled his head, pain shooting up again.

"Don't hold back the tears now." Hotaru mocked. "I pity you really, you have a seemingly young wife who's as old as you yet your body deceives you. On the outside, you're skin's like a baby's, inside, your organs are old and malfunctioning already. I doubt you even get an erection."

Youichi's grandpa instincts kicked in and eyed her, reproaching.

"What? Want censorship? It's not like there's a child—" Hotaru paused mockingly, "Apologies. I forgot you are."

"I'm warning you—"

"What are you going to do? Throw your pacifier at me? Times have changed Hiijiri. What you've deceived eight years ago aren't kids anymore. Your ghost you can summon with your alice is summoning you back to join them."

"We're not the bad guys Imai, you know that!" Luna's furious voice said. Taking a step towards her, trying to intimidate her.

Hotaru was undaunted, equally taking a step and another. If it was a battle of intimidation she was secure she would win. "Perhaps. But I'm done taking orders and empty threats. And who are you anyway to butt into this? You may be the GPU's superior's wife but in this organization, you're merely a pawn."

Luna almost gaped, slowly losing her composure. "And you think you're not?"

"No." Hotaru answered simply. "This organization is nothing to me. You need us more than we need you. In fact, we don't need you at all." She didn't wait for Luna to make her comeback, labeling her now as insignificant, she turned at Youichi. "This time I call the shots. Now off that stupid added tax of yours and minimize our tax to five percent."

"The deal of winning the bet was only to lift the added tax. You're greedy."

"I am but so are you. Your misery is a proof."

Youichi ogled at Hotaru, regarding her severely with his eyes. Then as Hotaru went to left, he said, "If that's the case, you'll be miserable too."

—

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Ending Note(s): If you're familiar with the Murphy Laws this and the other rule shouldn't sound alien. :D

YouichiLuna is a kind of a weird but at the same time plausible pair since they both could shift ages. Don't worry, I haven't lost it. I'm not a fan of it... I'm not even sure if there exits a fan of the two. X3