Yuki: Hey ya'll! Chapter 11 is up! We're keeping this short as I don't think anybody read this…
Mikan: Yep. Enjoy! Love can't be forced chapter 11! We're thinking of changing the title, though.
recap:
"Tch. Polka. You'll wake others up."
"DON'T CALL ME BY THAT NAME! SINCE WHEN DID YOU PEEK ANYWAY?"
"I didn't. It was a guess. Never thought it was true." He smirked a little, causing Mikan to turn even redder. He shrugged, and replied, "Who knows?"
Before Mikan could scream any further, Natsume grabbed her hand and tugged hard on it, causing Mikan to fall on his lap. Mikan's breath hitched (A/N is this correct?). "N-natsume? What are y-you doing?" Natsume was wrapping his arms around Mikan's waist. "Shut up," he grunted. Seeing Natsume closing his eyes and looking so peaceful, Mikan couldn't say no. Instead, she relaxed and snuggled comfortably in his chest, inhaling his minty scent.
End of recap
Mikan smiled happily as she walked to the field. "Good morning, everyone!" She greeted cheerfully. Today was a practical lesson, and they were going to create alice stones today. Mikan was especially excited. After creating an alice stone, all of them are going to exchange it with someone else. She couldn't wait to see what alice she would receive.
"Good morning, Mikan Chan!" The class smiled. You might want to call Mikan's cheerfulness very contagious.
Mikan skipped over to Hotaru, but had enough sense not to bear hug her. Instead, she went for a pat on her back. "Heya, Hotaru!"
Hotaru glanced in Mikan's way, nodding slightly. "Mikan. You're awfully cheerful today. What happened?"
Mikan blinked, as her thoughts wandered to a certain crimson-eyed lad. She shook her head vigorously as her cheeks began to heat up. "Eh? I was just acting normal!"
Hotaru stared silently before continuing, "Anyway. Mikan, see that guy at the back of the field there?"
Mikan turned around curiously and frowned. He was dressed in black leather and wore a mask. His appearance was strangely familiar to Mikan. "Yea, I do. Who is that?"
"No idea. He said he wanted to 'monitor our progresses. Be careful, Mikan. I'm getting a bad vibe," Hotaru warned, eyes narrowing. Mikan gulped. Hotaru's prediction or instincts were never to be doubted.
Before Mikan was able to say anything else, Misaki Sensei walked into the field together with Serina Sensei and Narumi Sensei.
"Greetings, students!" Serina Sensei called loudly. "Today, both Misaki and I shall join you in your practical lesson today. The person at the back of the field is here to monitor our progress, so please behave properly."
"Monitor our progress, huh…rather, it would be 'Monitor HER progress'." Daisuke commented telepathy to Jeanne. Though Mikan was able to read guardians, humans, and mystical beings' minds, the two guardians were able to, with some effort, talk to each other without Mikan knowing.
Jeanne rolled her eyes. "Well, it's not like we can do anything anyway. At least, not without telling Mikan. And we can't do that. We'll just have to wait…and see."
Daisuke sighed, giving in. "Your 'we'll just have to wait and see,' translates into, 'everything is going all wrong and we can't do a thing about it. As much as I hate to say it, you're dead on."
Jeanne stayed silent.
"Jeanne?"
"Daisuke, you know… When I first saw Mikan, I thought, 'That girl is so familiar!'. And I thought it was just me and shrugged it off." Jeanne started softly as Daisuke listened, his eyes softening. "And then, we both remembered about that one particular girl."
"Rose." Daisuke finished.
"Both of them, Mikan and Rose. So different, yet so similar. So powerful, yet so weak. Our memories of Rose were erased, Daisuke. Erased. And we got them back now. Fate's really a bitch." Jeanne said bitterly.
"We were once her guardians and now once again. I can't say that I rather another master, but Jeanne, think. Don't you think, this is all too messed up to be a coincidence? It's them, Jeanne. It's them again."
Jeanne nodded. "Rose, an assassin. Mikan, a cheerful, happy teenaged girl. Free of burdens and worries. Well, I guess it's fate. That bitch. Making this all so complicated."
"Chill, Jeanne. You're starting to go into chick mode." Daisuke grinned a little. "Well, everything will work out, Jeanne. We have to trust her."
Jeanne nodded, and smiled back at Daisuke. "Yea. I guess worrying is not going to help."
Daisuke snorted. "And since when it did?"
"Why do you have to change my impression of you right after I thought better of you?" Jeanne said, annoyed.
"Well, that's the me you know. Bear that in mind."
BACK TO MIKAN
"Close your eyes and concentrate on your alice, dears," Narumi sweetly told the class.
"No slacking off either, guardians! Focus on bringing your alice out and them compressing it into a container!" Misaki said loudly.
"Try not to loose your concentration or your alice stone can not grow any bigger." Serina advised, peering into her crystal ball.
Though many students were huffing and puffing, putting in their best efforts to make their alice stones and shutting their eyes tight, Mikan was doing fairly well. Scratch that, it came naturally to her, and she was able to do it while talking to a friend. That ability of hers freaked out the teachers, and her close friends.
"How do you do it, Mikan?" Anna whined. "You make it seem so easy!"
"Yet it's not," Nonoko added grimly, nodding.
"Hell, that's even bigger than mine, Hotaru's, Ruka's, and Natsume's." Retsu commented dryly.
Mikan laughed and said, "Seriously, I don't know! It just came naturally to me, as if— as if I've done it before, many times!" Being her bright, twinkling eyes, worry and confusion clouded her eyes. "I don't understand. Since I've came here, nothing was hard for me, even though I'm new and it's very hard! For instance, like Jeanne said, I was supposed to need practice for flying but I could already fly professionally in just a try! And now, this! Casting spells, too! My spells are higher than average, I know that! Just by comparing my spells with other's, the differences sticks out like a sore thumb! What's going on with me?"
Natsume raised his eyebrow. "Polka, sometimes, it is just beyond me how you are able to get an almost impossible task done in the first try. Like how you had defeated me, and created 7 alice stones within five minutes."
Mikan laughed awkwardly. "I guess that the goddess of luck likes me, eh?"
Natsume bored his crimson eyes into Mikan's with a hint of disbelief. "Like real. It's more than that, Polka. It's not just luck."
Mikan stayed silent, her smile slowly fading as she casted her head down, pondering over Natsume's words.
"I guess." She said silently, before brightening up quickly. "YOSH! I'M GOING TO MAKE AN ALICE STONE OF EACH OF THE ALICES I'VE COPIED!" Energetically, with the aid of Daisuke, Mikan huddled in a corner, and silently created her alice stones.
"Man, what's with her?" Retsu muttered. "She was acting sad and depressed one moment, and the next, BOOMZ, and she'll be as high as the sky. I can never get what's inside her head."
Nonoko and Anna sweatdropped, while the other two had blank stares on their faces. How true that was…
"Alright class! I believe you have created at least one alice stone. Now, we would have an activity. Gather around, students!" Serina Sensei bellowed.
"Now, we will have an activity that I believe that you would like. When we switch off the lights, you are going to walk around randomly, and before the lights come on, grab somebody's arm. The person and you will then exchange alice stones." Misaki Sensei continued.
"For example, if you catch me, I will have to give you my alice stone, and you will give me mine. It equals to you being able to use my human pheromone alice to a limit. It's a great advantage." Narumi continued gaily.
Seas of whispers rose among the students.
"Does that mean that we can get your alice stones too?" Anna asked, her eyes gleaming.
Misaki Sensei nodded. "You can exchange your alice stones with us provided if you grab us first. In 3 seconds, the light would go off. And then all of you start roaming around. Get it?" Not waiting for a reply, Misaki Sensei continued. "3…2….1….GO!"
The lights flicked off and there was a mad scramble of students hunting the teachers down.
"Maybe I should change it with Hotaru..." Mikan pondered, but after seeing her best friend chasing after Misaki Sensei –in her own way and style, of course—, Mikan decided against it. "Guess she has already chosen her target, huh…"
"Alright class, time's up! If you haven't grabbed someone yet, just grab the person next to you!"
Mikan blinked. "Wai— I haven't—"
Out of the blue, two hands came reaching out to her, blindly grabbing her arms. And she grinned. "Guess I'm exchanging my alice stone with somebody after all."
The light flickered on instantly, and well, you could say that curiosity killed the cat. Except that Mikan was no cat in this instance.
To her utmost surprise, both Natsume and Ruka had a firm grip on her arms, both pair of eyes boring through her head. She winced, already beginning to feel the bruise forming on her arm, the side that Natsume was holding.
"Hey, um. Could you two let go of me? Ow," Mikan announced her discomfort, shifting around uncomfortably.
Ruka blinked, and gasped audibly. "O-Oh! I'm sorry, Sakura San! Did it hurt? I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to!" He immediately freed Mikan's arm of his grip, almost as if he had just touched a burning flame.
Natsume followed suit, silently dropping his arms to his side, his crimson eyes never leaving the already visible bruise he caused on Mikan's thin and fragile arm.
"No, it's fine, Ruka Pyon!" Mikan reassured. "Well, I guess I've gotten my hands on some good alices, eh?"
"You sure did, sakura San!" Ruka laughed, quickly getting over Mikan's injury, while Natsume stayed silent.
"Hey! I know! I got an idea! Both of you have made more than one alice stone right? I'm sure of it! Here's what we do. We give each of our alice stone to each of us! Then both of you'll have my nullification alice, and I can have both of your alices! And Natsume will have Ruka Pyon's alice, and Ruka Pyon will have Natsume's alice! How's that! Pretty smart, aren't I?" Mikan boasted, feeling proud.
Ruka sweatdropped and laughed. "Y-yea!"
Natsume snorted and looked away, muttering, "This is stupid. Anyone can think of that. Besides, that was what we were supposed to do, idiot."
Mikan pouted. "Natsume, that was mean! Why did you even grab me in the first place if you're so unhappy about it?"
Natsume stayed silent as Mikan lamented, staring off into space, perhaps not even knowing that Mikan was talking to him.
"A-ano, Sakura San...We really should be exchanging the alice stones now…" Ruka fidgeted, breaking Mikan out from her 'motherly lecture', as she calls it. Though he would never admit it, Ruka found Mikan nagging personality a pain as once she starts, she never stops. And try repeating that everyday and see what you get.
Mikan blinked, snapping out of it. "Oh. Alright. Here you go, Ruka pyon!" She held out her hand, clutching the alice stone tightly, and paused.
After a moment or two, with Ruka getting concerned, Mikan eyes twinkled brightly. "I know," She echoed. "I've got another idea. A good one."
Mikan softly chanted a spell as Natsume, although he didn't show it, and Ruka curiously wondered what this amazing not-so-newbie was going to do.
The minute Mikan finished her spell, they felt a warm tingle in their hands where they held their alice stones. They opened up their fists, and Ruka stared in amazement. Natsume however showed no emotions on his face, although he did not take his eyes off the alice stone for a millisecond.
"This is amazing, Sakura San!" Ruka awed. His milky white alice stone miraculously turned into a braclet framed with animal shapes. In the middle of it, lay the alice stone, shining brightly, complementing the colour of the bracelet strap.
Natsume's hands revealed a bracelet with silver chains, held together by small red rubies. In the middle of it lay his red alice stone, seemingly having a majestic, and dangerous aura.
Mikan's alice stone had become a bracelet with translucent-orange straps made of glass, and in the middle, her mandarin orange alice stone lay hooked to a bundle of heart shaped chains dangling down.
Mikan grinned widely. "Cool, right?"
Ruka nodded dumbly, and wailed. "Now I don't feel like giving this up."
Mikan nodded in agreement. "Me too. This is just too awesome. Well, but we're supposed to exchange it, so that's what we'll do. Here, Ruka, Natsume," She offered, a little grimly, and passed her two identical bracelets to them.
Ruka and Natsume did the same and fastened it onto their wrists. Okay, not really. Let's just say that Natsume was creative and his 'wrists' became his biceps.
Mikan laughed heartily at Natsume's actions. "Natsume! Who in the world are you trying to imitate?" She joked, fastening hers on her arm at the same time.
And that's when miracle number 2 happened. The alice stones seeped into her skin, and it was replaced by a crystal, large, beautiful and delicate, each according to it's own colours.
Ruka's eyes bulged out. "What happened to the alice stones?"
Natsume sighed. "You're a freak, polka. Weird things happen around you."
Mikan glared harshly at Natsume, deeply crossed and offended. "Hey!"
"oops. Sorry Mikan! I forgot to tell you that you had the insertion alice too!" Daisuke yelled out, from apparently nowhere, startling the trio.
"daisuke!" Mikan blurted, surprised. When Daisuke's words finally registered to her, she increasingly grew mad and furious. "You mean you forgot to tell me that I have another alice?" She nearly shrieked.
Natsume winced. "Only god knows why my ears are so sensitive."
"Like I said, I'm sorry1" Daisuke apologized, scratching his head sheepishly. "That alice is the insertion alice, to go with your SEC alice and nullification alice. You know what it does. It inserts an alice stone in your body and make it permanent."
Mikan eyes widened and she slapped her forhead with her palm. "Why does all these things only happen to me?" She asked herself.
Suddenly, Natsume mood changed drastically. The temperature in the room was increasing, no doubt about that. Mikan followed his eyes, and spotted that guy in black walking over to them.
"What does he want with Natsume?"
"Persona." Natsume growled, daring the guy in clad leather to continue walking nearer to them.
However, persona ignored Natsume. With his head held high, he walked over to Mikan, terrifying her greatly. But she wasn't one to back down.
"What do you want?" She hissed, using the same tone Natsume had used earlier.
Persona chuckled, impressed. "You've just made things worse. Come to the D.A class after school. You shall immediately proceed with your mission."
Natsume'e eyes darkened visibly as his rage grew out of control.
XxxXXxxxXx
Yuki: Done! You guys better review! Or I'll send make Persona injure Natsume greatly.
Mikan: …
Yuki: Okay, that was an idle threat. A joke guys, A JOKE. But please review nonetheless. Come on, I mean, less than 5 minutes of you time for a whole day of hard work on mine? A very good deal, I'll say.