I do not own Gakuen Alice or any of its characters. This story and its concept is entirely mine though.
Do leave Reviews please, they are my motivation for writing.
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Author Note: Okay so I was not supposed to write this for a while, but I did good on a mid-term today and chose to not do any more school work. This part completes the other chapter. There is still more to the story. I am still waiting for more votes to tell me if there should be a happy or tragic end.
Happy Reading :)
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Natsume sat in a clearing in the mountain. When he had been trapped in these mountains, he had vowed to never come back here. Now when he was free, he still came here very often. This was the place where he had spent time with her. Even with all the terrible things that had happened here, it was somewhere he could be close to her. It always felt like she would step out of the trees any moment. He wanted to see her so badly that it hurt, but that would never happen again.
He sighed, then suddenly straightened.
"Come out." he called.
To his surprise Hotaru walked out from behind the trees. "Hey" she said softly.
"Hi." he said and patted the spot next to him. Hotaru sat down besides him. He hadn't seen her since that day. It seemed like it was just yesterday and yet at the same time it felt as if it was forever ago. They sat together in silence for a while.
"You should stay away from Ruka." Natsume said suddenly.
Hotaru looked at him in surprise. "Where did that come from?"
"You used to be able to say exactly what you thought. Now here you are, struggling with what you want to say to me. It's been five years Hotaru."
She sighed as she leaned back against a tree trunk. "Ruka warned me that you were very good at reading people now. He was right." she sighed again. "I know it's been five years Natsume. The pain just does not go away. You never meant for it to happen, but me, I helped plan it."
"You planned it because you wanted me to be free. If you really want to play the blame game, then it's all my fault. I was stupid enough to get cursed. I was the one who got her involved. I was the on who fell in love with her. I am the reason she did not dodge that dagger. For my freedom, she chose to die. I am the reason Mikan died." There were no tears in Natsume's eyes, but Hotaru knew that his heart was broken. He believed every word he had said. He blamed himself for the death of his love.
"Natsume, I..."
"Its okay Hotaru. I am not spending the freedom I have finally achieved, in mourning. I am traveling the world, as she wanted me to. I paint my view of the world. I try to live the life she envisioned for me. I want her to be there, but there is nothing I can do about it. You should stop living in the past too. You did what you had to. That's the end of it."
Hotaru could not stop the tears that came then. She had not seen Natsume since she saw him that night, holding onto Mikan's dead form. She had not been able to face him ever since. Yet here he was, helping her get over the death of the person he had loved most in the world.
Natsume wrapped his arm around her. "Never thought you were the crying sort of woman." he said when she stopped crying.
"She was family to me. I was her cousin. Her best friend. I was supposed to protect her." she said in a miserable voice.
"That's enough Hotaru. Stop blaming yourself. Even if you have forever to live, that does not mean that you should not cherish every moment of it. I speak from experience, Live fully every moment that you can, or you will regret it."
She nodded at his words. "I'll try." He gave her a small smile. "You know that you are family to me, I want you and Ruka to be happy, Hotaru."
She was stunned at his words. She had never thought he would be this kind to her. Her guilt had made it impossible to face him, she had no idea how Ruka had been with him. That was when she understood Ruka's words from that night.
5 years ago:
"Ruka don't. Natsume will kill you if you go near him." Hotaru whispered as she stared at Natsume's profile in the distance holding onto Mikan.
"I have to go. I can't leave him alone to deal with this. He needs me to be there."
She had walked with Ruka into the clearing where Natsume sat hugging Mikan. They were both covered in blood. Mikan's blood. When Natsume looked up at them, she could not bear to see the pain there and had looked away. That's when Hotaru knew for sure that Mikan was dead. She was gone forever.
Ruka had walked up to Natsume, knelt besides him and hugged him. she had thought that Natsume would push him away but he hadn't. He hadn't done anything. In his pain he had taken the comfort given to him without any questions. In spite of that she had not been able to stay. She could not bear to look at them. She knew she had failed Mikan, and in doing so, she had failed Natsume as well.
As she had walked away only one scene kept playing in her mind. Natsume and Mikan fighting back to back. She had watched as Mikan had felled the second last angel. Natsume was still fighting the last angel. Then suddenly one of the angels had thrown a knife at Mikan from where he was on the ground. She could have dodged, but then it would have hit Natsume. There wasn'y enough time to warn him, and if she had tried to pull him away then he would have been stabbed by the angel he was fighting. So she had stayed where she was. She had allowed the dagger to embed itself in her heart. She had chosen him over her own life.
Just as Mikan started to fall, Natsume had felled his opponent. He had turned, and had caught her before she could hit the ground. A look of disbelief on his face as he had understood what must have happened.
Natsume had cradled her gently to him. He had been trying to heal her, to do something, anything to make the wound non-fatal. But she had pulled the dagger out. It was almost as if she had known that her death would free Natsume. Even at a distance, Hotaru had heard the words Mikan had whispered to him.
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Hotaru had walked away because she had not known how to face Natsume. Ruka hadn't either, but he had known that Natsume would need his friend.
"Stop thinking too much." Natsume said as he smacked her on the head.
She shook her head. Then gave him a small smile.
He stood up, and then pulled her to her feet. "Come on. I haven't seen you in forever. Let's go, there is a cafe in Paris that I wanna take you to."
She allowed him to take her away. She was glad to have her friend back.
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2 Months Later:
Mrs. Sakura smiled as she opened up Natsume's first art exhibition. She was amazed by how good a job they had done on the ambiance of the place. She spent a long time looking at one of his paintings. It was the one he had been working on the night she had had tea with him. She could tell it was Mikan who was sleeping in the moonlit forest. She missed her terribly, but fate could not be changed. She was just glad that even though she had lost her precious grand daughter, her death had led to the liberation of the person she loved.
5 years ago (contd.) :
Mikan was in Natsume's arms. She could see the tears shining in his eyes. "You idiot. Why didn't you dodge?"
Mikan chuckled. "Didn't wanna."
He turned his pained gaze, onto the dagger protruding from her chest. He knew that if he took it out there would be no way to save her. He needed to make sure that there was no more damage done to her until the demons got there. They would be able to heal her.
Suddenly Mikan was looking at something. Her eyes were focussed on the spot next to him. It was almost as if someone was kneeling in front of them and she was listening to them.
Mikan was looking at Seia who had materialized next to them.
"Mikan the only way to lift the curse is for Natsume to not want to break it anymore. If you die, the curse will be broken, because he would rather be cursed than lose you. If you pull that dagger out, your heart will not be able to take it. You will die and he will be free. The choice is yours to make."
Natsume sensed the change in Mikan, but before he could do anything she grabbed the hilt of the dagger and pulled it out. He looked on in horror as the blood gushed out.
"No, Mikan please... no.."
She raised her hand to cup his face. "You will be free now." she whispered.
"I don't want to be free. I just want you."
"I love you Natsume. I give you an eternity of freedom. You will have to live for both of us." she whispered. Those were the last words Mikan Sakura ever spoke.
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