Chapter 10

Hey guys, how have you been? I know it's been a gazillion years since I last update. I'm not going to make excuse about it and I'll say it truthfully;

I've been lazy like a cat.

I know, I know, I shouldn't have done it but I'll try to no do it anymore. I can't promise you guys anything but trust me, I'll try my best to update weekly and if I don't then I definitely have my own personal reason to do that.

Before I move on to the story, may I present you my. . . . BETA!

Yes ladies and gentleman I have finally got a beta to correct every mistake I have, to support me and to give me ideas. I'm sure you're dying to know who that person is. The girl behind my success is none other than Purple Psycho Fish! She is amazing and super talented and without her, I don't know what I'll do. . . Anna, thank you.

Without further ado, I present you the 10th chapter!

Author: We made it people! We made it! We. Made. It!

Disclaimer : I do not own Gakuen Alice unless I'm Tachibana's protege but sadly that's only a dream.

The sound of his alarm clock woke him up.

He groaned. It's that time of day again. . . .He dragged his hands across his table lamp to find the source of the noisy noise and found nothing yet the sound kept ringing in his ears. Slowly but surely, the sound was making him want to claw his own face off. He grabbed a pillow and stuffed it on the side of his face hoping to dull the sound. At first it worked but then the sound got suspiciously louder almost as if the clock was brought closer. . .

"Master Kaika, please wake up else you'll be late for work," said a voice that sounded very much like a girl.

He dragged the pillow closer to his ear, trying to stay in the bed for just a few minutes. The girl sighed seeing the lumped beneath the sheets. Taking a deep breath before starting, she pulled the sheets away from the hand that clawed the comfy thing. It was a full out tug-o-war between the two. Unfortunately, it was morning and the guy never wins when it comes to fighting in the freaking morning. The girl managed to pull away the sheets from him and swiftly threw them to the floor. With that, the full attack of the sun light hit him in the face, full force. He brought his hands quickly to his eyes to shield it from becoming permanently damage.

"Mey, close the curtain. I'm dying here. . ." he moaned.

"I don't think you'll die from the sun right now, Young Master. In fact I think you'll be very healthy if you just remove you arms from your eyes and your body from the bed."

He scoffed but got up anyway. He leaned against the headboard and remove his hands slowly, letting his eyes adjust to the stupid sun. His eyes traveled around the massive room. The room was simple. There was a wardrobe, a dressing table and two door leading to a bathroom and out of his room. Plus the empty lamp table. Kaika took a look at it and notice that his clock was indeed gone. The girl noticing where her master's eyes were spoke.

"I took the alarm in case you tried to smash it to the wall like yesterday."

He dimly nodded. Drowsiness was still overpowering him. Like a reflex, he rubbed his hand against his eyes. He was about to smack his back onto the bed for just a quickie nap but fortunately, the smell of delicious food snapped him out of it. The smell of fresh bread, butter –yes he can smell it—, strawberries, black pepper and his favorite tea hit him hard in the stomach. His mouth watered consciously. Not a second had passed and suddenly, his stomach made a weird gurgling noise. Nobody, even a near-deft person could have missed the sound.

The girl placed the food trolley beside him. He watched her expert hands as she spread the butter and sprinkled the black pepper on top of the bread. He accepted it graciously when she was done and was back watching her prepare the tea he likes. Earl Grey. By the time she finished pouring the perfectly executed tea into the cup, he was done with his bread and went on to drinking the tea. As he drank the tea which was too good it should be banned, he observed closely her choice of wardrobe for today.

Unlike the traditional maid clothes, she wore a simple white chiffon dress that fall softly on her knees. It hung on her by just two strings on each her shoulders. Two black ribbons were tied around her waist and her neck. The ribbon bow on her neck sat behind her neck and the other behind her back. To finish it all, she wore a white, one inch mules. The mules were tied dutifully around her legs, just above her ankle.

He knew it wasn't the ideal clothes for a maid. In fact, it looked more like a dress to go to a party and catch a few dozens of guy's eyes but he didn't care. He honestly do not care what she wore as long as she knew the boundaries and does her work. Other than that he didn't care no matter how many people complained. He simply didn't care. A tiny smile crept onto his face.

"Young Master, I have finished preparing for your bath. Please get ready soon or you will be behind schedule as always."

Kaika rolled his eyes but said nothing. After he finish the tea, he handed the cup back to her and got up from the bed. He walked to the door leading to his bathroom and took a fresh towel from her hands. Finally, the cold floor of the bathroom greeted him.

—15 minutes later—

He got out the bathroom with only a bathrobe on him and noticed all of his work attires lay separately on his bed. The usual was black pants, long sleeve t-shirt and a lab coat. He also noticed the alarm clock that Mey took was finally on his table lamp of Mey, she was nowhere to be seen. Probably went to do her other duties. As he put on his clothes back on, he wondered if his alarm clock would be gone again the next morning. He hope not. He had missed tossing the thing to the window and let it flew straight to the ground which was several hundred feet below.

When he was done, he walked to a narrow corridor near his room. When he got there, there was a stair connecting to the basement and was narrow and deep enough for the sun to never reach. At the end of the small, narrow hallway was a single, metal door. It was one of those doors you'll see if you work in a bank vault. Beside the door was a DNA scanner. He pressed his thumb on the thumb scanner and—disgusting as it is—drop a little bit of his saliva onto a disk. The saliva was took away by metal clippers and a few seconds later the door opened; conforming he could enter.

From there on, it was a white hallway. It was similar to the one Kuonji owned in his now-destroyed researched center. Deep in his heart, he felt a bit of a sorrow for the man but disappointment quickly overlaps that. He was disappointed that the research Kuonji conducted only reached the third stage.

All because of her.

When he reached the last door at the end of the hallway, he was granted access only by a thumb scanner.

Unlike the hallway, the room was the exact opposite of white.

The room was pitched black, lighted by a small light on the ceiling. There was a figure on the floor. His hands were tied above his head but at separate direction. The figure's clothes were tattered, literally hanging by a thread as if they were cut by a knife or hit by a whip. The light on the ceiling was too small to show anything more than a bit of his body and legs but the heavy smell of blood covered that flaw. The odor of blood was strong enough even a person with a cold could smell it. And if a person were to look closely to the walls around the room for three, they would see blood splattered everywhere. Kaika wasn't fazed by all this and simply closed the door behind him.

He sat on the empty chair facing the prisoner. The prisoner didn't bother looking up to see him.

Why should I? It's always him.

"Good morning, murderer. How are you today? Feeling good?" Kaika asked with a fake smile plastered on his face. The 'murderer' didn't respond. Kaika pouted. "Aw. . . .I came to see you after a week not seeing you. Didn't you miss me at all?"

Still no answer but Kaika didn't get pissed. He knew that was the 'murderer's intention and he wouldn't be swept away by his plans. "Do you remember," he started conversationally, "I went away for a week? Of course you did. Did I tell you where I went? No of course I didn't." He didn't even wait for the 'murderer's answer. "Well, I've been going out to the place where that fool—Kuonji I mean— did his researches and let me tell you, he found something interesting."

The figure moved a bit. Kaika grin. "Got you interested ey? Well, as it turns out, he managed to kidnap a girl from that assassin group you used to be in. Guild, was it called? Do you remember Guild? Of course you did. I never let you forget." There was a hint of anger but quickly disappear behind the cold smile.

The figure was instantly stiff. "At first it turned out well, we manage to conduct the first stage of the experiment. She put up a fight, that girl. The first time we did it, she resisted so hard she was supposed to be near death but wasn't, thankfully. I'm pretty proud I got to watch it first-hand." Kaika put a finger on his chin and looked as if he was in deep thinking. "I think I'm forgetting something but what is it. . . hm. . . " Suddenly, Kaika clapped his hand and grinned sadistically. "Oh I forgot to tell you. Her name is Mikan Sakura."

The moment that name came out of his mouth, the figure instantly charged at the person. Well, more like tried to. He couldn't get near enough because of the chain on his hand connected to the wall but it was enough to put his face under the dim light. The figure was someone who was probably in his late thirties or early forties. He had a jet black hair and possibly deep brow eyes. It was too dark to determined. His face didn't have any wrinkles and if you look pass the thin beard covering his face and the dirt covering him, you could see the handsomeness underneath.

But all that didn't hide the anger in his face.

Kaika didn't move from his spot but stood up from the chair. They both warred a silent glare contest between them.

"Kaika!" the voice sounded coming out of the man sounded sore and dry as if they hadn't been used for a long time. "Don't you dare touch her! She's not one of your experiments! Leave her alone, Kaika! Leave her alone!"

"And what? What will you do if I don't leave her alone?" For that, the man had no answers but he still struggled with the chain. Kaika smirked. "See, you can't do anything about it. Never have, never will." Kaika turned around for the door. The man struggled and struggled though his hands were starting to bleed without a single damage to the chains. Before stepping out through the opened door, Kaika turned his head towards the man.

"I'll bring her here when the time is right and when that time comes, I'll make you regret you ever made that move on that day. . ."

A scream was heard when he closed the door.

When he got out of the room, Mey was waiting. "What is it, Mey?"

"Master, would you like to go out for a while?" Her wrinkle-free face was scrunched up like she was worried for him.

Kaika raised an eyebrow at this sudden burst of. . . mother-worrying-attitude. "Why?"

Mey sighed and took out a compact mirror from goodness knows where. She opened it and gave it to him which reflect his face at that moment. To put it simply, he looked like he was about to kill someone. His forehead was beyond recognizable because it was scrunched up so bad. His eyes did the rest of the telling. The look in it was enough to put a kid one month in the trauma ward. It was full of hatred, despise and sadness. He sighed. He closed the compact mirror and gave it back to Mey. He massaged his forehead to try lighten up the migraine. "I'll be going out for a while, Mey."

She bowed deep and held out her hands. Kaika took off his lab coats and passed it on to her. She folded it neatly on her arm and said, "May you have a safe trip, Young Master."

He gave a distinct nod and walk away.

"I give up!"

"There's no giving up!"

"I don't care! I'm giving up!"

Everyone in the school hallway glanced at a girl whose head was stuffed inside her shoe locker. There were a few other people around her. Some they knew for a long time; Hotaru Imai, Ruka Nogi, and Natsume Hyuuga and some were new; Sumire Shouda, Nobara Ibaragi.

"Mikan, get your gigantic head out of that tiny locker, " A girl with green, permed hissed at her. All she got was silence as an answer. "You idiot, it's only an algebra test. It's not something you need to stick your head inside a stinky, disgusting shoe locker. It's stupid and you know it too."

Mikan still wasn't getting her head out of the shoe locker. "It's not stupid and I don't want to. I always fail my algebra."

Hotaru pushed away the desire to hit her; it wouldn't work anyway what's with her head stuck in a freaking locker. "Okay. You always fail your algebra. So? What's this time going to make any difference?"

A few seconds passed without and answer for her. Unless you count a groan as answer then no she didn't say a word. Everyone was prepared to drag her head out of the locker. In Natsume's case, burn the locker. Sumire and Hotaru for once has similar plans on how to get her head out of the locker. They were all ready to move on with their respective yet evil plot for her head when suddenly, she took her head out of the locker in a speed faster than saying 'Quidditch'. Sumire and Hotaru stumbled backward from the sudden speed. Mikan twisted her whole body around and faced her friends.

"Because this time onii-sama is back."

Hotaru stared at her pale face for a while before nodding with an understanding look on her face.

"Do you remember how hard he was on me when I used to fail my math when I was a kid?"

Natsume was blank but Hotaru remembered. "Yeah. He spanked her a lot. He was worse on her than uncle and auntie was. Once upon a time, I was scared of him."

Everyone turned their heads towards her. It was pretty hard to believe with the blank look she wore. "Anyway, you have to get your butt inside class soon because the bell will ring a few minutes from now. I will not have you make my day late."

Mikan didn't reply and moved on to looking her left and right side. Around her were her friends and her back was her locker. Percentage of running away is next to zero. And with Natsume and Hotaru as your friend, it was damn near impossible to run away unless your ready to leave with more than a several bruise. "Fine. I'll go but if I fail, dig a grave for me and kill me before he can because he will."

Everyone rolled their eyes except for Nobara. She had a pity look on her face and a bit of doubt. She wasn't sure that Rei-san would do anything to hurt his little sister. Oh welll, what did she know about Rei-san? That thought put a 'pang' in her heart. She was about to put her hand on her chest when she suddenly shook her head and immediately threw the thought far, far away from her mind.

A few minutes later, after everyone had put on their shoes, they walked to the same class they now share together. In her heart, she knew she had done the right thing in taking the ex-Shadows in. Slowly, her memory drifted back to the day she spoke to the ex-Shadows minus the masks.

(Mikan's POV)

"Yo! I'm Mikan Sakura and current leader of Guild."

Tensed face was obvious. I sweat dropped. I looked at Natsume from the corner of my eyes but her was looking away. I wanted to ask him if it was that too much…

"Hey, don't fret. I'm not going to kill you all."

Somehow, that made it worse.

"You idiot…" Natsume muttered. I shot him a glare but he didn't see it. He was still looking the other way.

"Okay, before we could talk, right now, just think of me of a girl-no that's not right…" I struggled to fine the right words. And then, an imaginary bulb appeared on top of my halo filled head. "Think of me as Santa Claus!"

No reaction. At least, there are if you count the still-there tensed face. This was getting pretty annoying. "You guys really have to learn how to laugh, smile or even giggle… " I muttered. Then, I raised my voice a bit and said in a serious-but-playful tone. "The reason why I'm calling you all is because I wanted to give you your freedom."

They looked at me like I'm some kind of nut, crazed person.

"Um…Mikan, I don't think that's how you usually break a news to people that your giving them their freedom." Said Ruka.

I gave him an exasperated look. "Ruka, in case you haven't notice, I don't usually do this." In a low tone I added "How was I supposed to know…"

A giggle breaks through my mood. It was one of the girls in the meeting room. She had a short, curly hair and it looked wet. Had she just finished taking a bath? Funnily, the girl quickly slammed her hand at her mouth when she finally noticed I noticed her giggle. And the weird look everyone was giving her. I chuckled.

"You can do anything you want now. It's your life and it's yours to lead. Do whatever you want. You're free but…"

The ex-Shadows held their breath.

"For those of you under 18, I really want you to go to school. You need education to survive, seriously. This sounds weird from someone who hates school with a passion but without education, you're kinda screwed. And to all of those who are above 18 and want to further their study, just tell me and arrangement can be made. Of course, allowances will be given each month to support your needs so there's no need to worry about that part. Starving won't be your main issue."

Some of the laughed but the rest of the reaction was somewhat expected.

"Um…can I ask something…" a boy with a blue hair raised up his arm like a student asking to go to the toilet. His voice trailed when everyone was giving him the shut-up look. It made me smiled fondly at him.

"I was wondering, could I go back to my own country, in Germany?" his voice was timid but clear. I took a moment to think.

A few seconds passed by and the boy seemed to think I was going to say no. Before he could speak up, I interrupted him. "What's your name, boy?"

He didn't look like he was expecting that. "H-Hayate, miss. Just Hayate."

"I see and by the way, drop the miss. Call me by my name."

The boy looked shocked.

"Stupid girl…"I heard Natsume muttered. I gave him another brief glare before returning back to the camera.

I dropped my head low. "I'm sorry Hayate but for now, I can't do that. For the next five years, none of you are allowed to get out of Japan. I'm sorry." I said again. Nobody said anything so I plucked some courage and look at all of their faces.

Hayate was a bit crestfallen—that made me feel guilty a bit because I said I was going to give them their freedom—but other than that, all of them looked pretty…normal. It made the guilt a bit better.

"Well, I think that's it for now. You have a week to decided because that's probably the amount of time I'm going to be staying here." They all nodded their head and with a final goodbye, I turned off the connection and went back to sleep because the nurse came in and sedate me. Stupid sedater.

All in all, life is good.

She took all those words back seeing her brother holding her failed algebra mark in his hand.

"Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"

She fidgeted under his stare.

"Well?"

She took a deep breath and let it all out in one go. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry please don't spank me. I'll try not to do it all again! Please, spare me!"

Rei stared at her. No words were exchanged between them. His room was silent. With them knowing, everyone was watching outside the door through the crack of the door. As usual, Natsume, Ruka and Hotaru were the nearest to the door. The rest of them were lined behind the three friends. "Who do you think's gonna win this fight of will and glare?" Ruka whispered to all of them.

Being the assassin they were, they all heard it. Tsubasa who's behind him answered. "I'm betting Rei. He looks like he's about to eat her alive whereas she looks like a rabbit just waiting to be killed."

Koko who's behind him nodded solemnly. "Yeah. I don't see a future of her coming out of this alive."

Misaki who was behind Koko smacked him in the head. "What are you, a fortune teller?"

Out of nowhere, three bullets hit Koko, Misaki and Tsubasa in the face. They all looked at Hotaru who didn't even bother looking back. "Shut up, it's the climax." All three heads swiftly looked back through the crack.

Rei raised from the chair he was sitting on. Mikan went back to looking at the floor. Her legs were killing her from sitting with her legs underneath her. He sighed and move on to Mikan. She felt his hand nearing her head and braced herself for a knuckle or worse a slap. Everyone outside the door held their breath as they all wait for something horrible to happen. Nobara closed her eyes and Sumire had a sickening look on her face. Seconds felt like hours. The hand got closer and closer and the tension grew higher and higher. But the opposite thing happenned.

He patted her head.

Everyone outside except Natsume and Hotaru 'Eh?' though Natsume and Hotaru's eyes were a fraction wider than they usually are.

Mikan heard the 'Eh?' from outside her room plus the soft hand caressing her hair. She look up to her brother and met him in the eyes. All tension in her ended when she saw the soft smile he wore. "Don't worry. I know you had a hard time this month so I'll forgive you." Everyone including Mikan let a sigh of relief but tension grew again when he continued his words. "But that doesn't mean you're totally off the hook. For a week, you're in charge of dishes. No one can help you. Is that clear everyone?" he added with a louder voice. As if rehearsed, the door stumbled open under everyone's pressure.

"Should I be apologizing or should I be laughing?" Tsubasa suddenly said.

A laugh bubble suddenly burst between them all and the room was filled with laughter. Rei stood up and take Mikan's hand with him so that she would stand up too. "This is a one time thing only. From now on, fail any subject and it'll dishes un-help for a month. Got it?"

She passed a huge grin to him. He gave a small grin in return. "Got it."

"Good." Rei walked to the door filled with people with Mikan's hand in his. Youichi popped up from the sea of people and hugged Rei's leg.

"Onii-chan, can I sleep with you tonight?"

Rei stared at his little brother's puppy-dog eyes and patted his head with his empty hand. "Sure, Youichi." He raised his head and stared at everyone in front of him. "If you all would excuse me, I want to go sleep so if you please get out right now that'll be helpful."

Nobody argued with him. Slowly, the room began emptying. When there was nobody but Mikan and Youichi, he kissed both of them on their forehead and let go of Mikan's hand. "Goodnight Mikan."

She kissed his cheek and Youichi's. "Goodnight, brother."

So there you are guys. Remember, read and review! If you think my story is a bit cuckoo and don't make any whatsoever sense then tell me! I'll be happy to know that you care enough to review. =