Disclaimer: Gakuen Alice does not belong to me.
"Mikan Sakura, please report to the Elementary School Principal's office immediately," said Jinno-sensei.
"But why?" Mikan protested. I haven't done anything wrong, she thought.
"Don't ask questions," Jinno-sensei snapped. Inside, he actually felt a tinge of sorrow for Mikan Sakura. Nothing good would ever come out of meeting with the ESP.
Mikan walked along the hallways with trepidation. The ESP had a terrible reputation throughout the whole of Gakuen Alice. No one openly disagreed with him, but he was generally feared by most of the students. There were rumours of him being much older than he looked, as he looked quite childlike. His childlike appearance only served to make him even more terrifying.
She slowly knocked on the grand, wooden door, which was as imposing as the person whose office it led to.
"Come in," a voice said.
As Mikan walked into the room, she gasped at what she saw. The ESP was just a child, exactly as he was rumoured to be. But what scared her was the cruelty she saw in those chilling dark green eyes. This was a man who would do anything to get what he wanted. Swallowing her fear, she lifted her lips up into a smile. It would not do any good for her to show her fear.
"You're disgusted with my appearance, are you not?" he smirked, cruelly. The expression only contorted his sinister features. "Did you know that it was your own mother that made me like this?"
You deserved it, she wanted to say. However, she kept quiet.
"Still nothing to say? You're just like her mother. She didn't say a word when she died. Not a murmur passed her lips, even though she was in pain."
"I HATE YOU!" Mikan screamed, furiously. This man was a monster.. Her mother was dead, and this man had killed her. A cold claw of fear touched her heart. If he had killed her mother, what would he do to her?
"I'd just like to say that you will be transferred to the Dangerous Ability class in two weeks," Kuonji gloated. "Resistance is not an option. Imai's funding for her inventions will be revoked, Nogi will be banned from visiting the animals, and your two other friends will be banned from the Cooking and Chemistry labs. Shouda will have an Alice restraint put on her. Nothing I do will make Hyuuga's condition any worse than it already is.
Mikan's shock temporarily overcame her fury at her mother's killer. In short, she was being backed into a corner. If she refused to join the Dangerous Ability class, her friends would be punished, all because of her. There was no hope. And what about Natsume? What did Kuonji mean when he said that nothing could made his condition any worse?
"But why? I have no special abilities beside nullification."
"Does it matter?" Kuonji said. "You will be killed within a week of being in that class. You will atone for the actions of your mother against me. It is a death sentence, just to be clear."
Mikan ran for her life, aghast at the revelations. The echoes of his voice followed her as she ran out into the corridor. Kuonji sat at his desk, alone once more. He smirked to himself. Mikan would be a participant in his plan, whether willing or unwilling. It would not matter. He would achieve his goal of total Alice control by any means possible.
He looked at the paperwork on his desk. Total power over the Academy would one day be his, with such a powerful trump card. Not many angels existed inside the Academy walls, and certainly none as powerful as her. Who knew what latent powers she would come to posess...
Mikan was sprinting without any thought of direction. She could feel nothing but the overwhelming urge to run, to escape, to hide from the hidden evil lurking in the Academy's walls. She now knew that this school hid many secrets from the public, and that its welcoming exterior was simply a facade.
Here, nobody was safe. With people like Kuonji in charge of innocent students, who knew what bloodshed could occur?
She stopped to breathe, panting heavily. Mikan realised that she was outside one of the school buildings. It was probably too late to return to class, and she had an excuse. She had been called to the Principal's office. She took shelter under a sakura tree, which was shedding cherry blossoms on the ground.
Sitting under the tree, she felt an odd sense of peace and security.
Things would get better, she hoped.
The sun stretched out a tendril of its long arms, and shone a protective glow over her face as she slept. Unbeknownst to her, Natsume Hyuuga passed by as she slept. Initially, he felt a bolt of irritation at the fact that she was sleeping under his sakura tree, but that feeling soon gave way to something warm, something positive. It was concern.
Why was Mikan skipping classes?
He decided to climb up the sakura tree and wait until she awoke. To keep her safe, he justified to himself. Perhaps the actual reason was that he liked being in her presence. However, no one could know that he was here. She could be used against him. He had many enemies in the Academy, and none of them would be above torturing Mikan for information about him. He could take almost any form of torture without reacting, but the thought of Mikan being tortured because of him, made his heart wrench.
It hurt much more than it should, and it only strengthened his resolve to stay away from her.
She was too bright to be stained by his darkness.
He didn't want her to get hurt.
She didn't know about his secret. As he was half-demon, it meant that he had two forms: a demon form and an angel form. Mikan had only seen part of his demon form, his true demon form was much worse. It looked terrible, it was nightmarish, monstrous. He could hurt her in his true demon form, and he would die before he did that. His angel form was locked, it was hidden. As long as his angel form was locked, he was dying. He wouldn't survive much longer.
He cared for her, and he didn't want her to die at the hands of sadists like Persona and Kuonji.
She deserved so much better, someone like Ruka who shined with a light of his own.
She was the sun, and he was the darkness.
She was an angel, and he was a half-demon, and he was dying.
The next day
Mikan walked to the Dangerous Ability block, aware that she was about to step to her death. The Dangerous Ability class often took perilous missions that endangered their welfare just for Kuonji's personal gain. The sad thing was none of them, powerful as they were, could do anything about it. Kuonji would only kill their friends if any of them tried to rebel. Some tried avoiding people altogether, to cover up their only weakness. Once a person was classified into the Dangerous Ability class, others avoided them like the plague.
Finally, she took a deep breath, and walked in.
The atmosphere was cold and inhospitable. In the Special Abilities class, everyone had introduced themselves to her and tried to make her feel comfortable. Here, no one made a move. She was subjected to the power of about five glares. The only people who were not glaring at her was a girl with ice-blue eyes and chocolate brown hair, and a black-haired boy who looked very familiar.
As her eyes got accustomed to the darkness, she realized who it was.
"Tsubasa-senpai!" she shouted, on impulse. He grabbed her and gave her a hug.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, urgently. "Was it Kuonji?"
Her silence was her answer. Mikan looked around for more familiar faces, eventually landing on someone else she knew. It was Natsume.
"Natsume-kun?" she said, startled. "What are you doing here?"
He let out a bitter laugh. "Do I know you?"
His obvious snub hurt Mikan. She had thought that he was done throwing insults at her. Suddenly, the whole class stiffened.
A mysterious masked man walked in. He was unnaturally pale, and dressed all in black. His appearance sent a chill down Mikan's spine. His fingers were decorated with rings, and he wore an earring. Mikan knew enough to recognise these as Alice control devices. Whoever he was, he was definitely extremely powerful to need so many. Little did Mikan know that the man she saw in front of her was responsible for her father's death.
"I see we have a newcomer," he said in his cold, cruel voice. "Welcome to the Dangerous Abilities class."
His tone was the exact opposite of welcoming. "Everyone, introduce yourself to our newest member, Mikan Sakura."
"I am Hajime Yakumo, Insect Pheromone Alice."
Mikan suppressed a gasp at his appearance. Almost his entire face was covered in bandages.
"Rui Amane, Curse Alice."
Rui had blonde hair, and large blue eyes. He looked rather feminine, but Mikan now knew that appearances could be deceiving. His Alice sounded rather ominous.
"Hi, I'm Hayate Matsudaira, Wind Alice."
Of everyone she had seen, Hayate looked the most ordinary and approachable, other than Tsubasa, of course.
"I'm Tsubasa Andou, and I posess the Shadow Alice."
Tsubasa made no move to show that he knew her. He just glared at Mikan coldly, however his eyes were smiling at her.
"I am Luna Koizumi, and I have the Soul Sucking Alice. I'm quite sure you know me already, don't you?" she said, with a sugary sweet smile.
Mikan was shocked. Luna Koizumi had the Soul Sucking Alice? This was extremely unexpected. Mikan had assumed that Luna Koizumi had another Alice, which was what their teachers had told them. Quickly, she returned her attention back to what was happening. She caught the the last few fragments of the sentence. It was something about Youichi Hijiri, and his Spirit Manipulation Alice. Wait, Spirit Manipulation Alice? That sounded scary...
Mikan was rather creeped out when he started playing with the spirits swirling around him with an expressionless face.
"I'm Nobara Ibaragi, and I have the Ice Alice," the girl said. Her voice was very quiet, she must have been shy.
Finally, it was the last member.
"Natsume Hyuuga, Fire Alice." Mikan thought he seemed rather bored, and it annoyed her how he didn't look at her at all.
"Mikan Sakura, you will receive your first mission next week. I will leave it to the rest of the members to train you," stated the man coldly, before he walked off.
After he left, it was as if a dark cloud had lifted.
"Who's he?" Mikan asked, nervously.
"He's Persona. You're lucky you don't know him," Natsume answered.
"Anyway, newest member, I guess it is time to train you," Rui Amane said with a dangerous smirk. She didn't like the dangerous aura he was emitting at all. Suddenly, he turned the full force of his Curse Alice on her. Mikan nearly collapsed from trying to nullify it all. Surprisingly, she succeeded.
"Hmm, not bad," Rui remarked. "Yakumo, your turn."
Mikan screamed when she saw a horde of insects flying in her direction. She concentrated on nullifying it, even when it felt like a stone had lodged in her chest.
"Enough," Rui said. He was clearly the leader. "Tsubasa, you're next." He smiled at Tsubasa, who only grimaced at him. Sorry, he mouthed towards Mikan. He immediately used his Shadow Alice on her to make her do a thousand squats.
Mikan was about to explode with anger and frustration. She tried to make one last effort to use her Alice. Strangely, she found that she still had the power to do so. Immediately, she had free will again. She looked at her hands in shock. She could not usually use so much of her Alice in one go. It was often temperamental, and depended on her emotions. She guessed she had more control.
While Mikan was distracted, Nobara was regretfully encircling her with a huge pillar of ice. Mikan only realised at the last minute. It was now too late, and the ice was now spreading over her body, soon about to encircle her heart.
Mikan wondered if it was her time to die.
"Grandfather, Mother, Father, Hotaru, Ruka, Sumire, Anna, Nonoko, I love you all..." she thought. She closed her eyes, perhaps for the last time. However, it was not to be.
She was filled with strength at the thought of them. Nobara's ice was dispelled by the warmth in her heart, that she released. There was a great blinding flash of light, and Mikan was at the centre of it. Almost everyone looked away, or closed their eyes, except Natsume. He looked defiantly into the centre of the light, meeting Mikan's eyes for a split second.
The light subsided, and Mikan had changed. The danger she had been had finally awoken her capabilities. Mikan's eyes were more golden than they ever were, and seemed to almost glow. Her hair was now below her waist. But the most startling change was the huge white wings that now grew from her back.
"I have wings!" she remarked, shocked.
"Of course you do, you're an angel," Natsume snarkily replied. Honestly, Mikan was quite stupid sometimes. He didn't get why he cared for her at all.
"Took you long enough," Rui announced.
"What do you mean? Was it just a test?"
Rui snorted. "Of course it was. We wouldn't hurt a member of our own without reason."
"Why didn't you use Luna or Natsume against me?"
Rui smirked. "Would you really want to go up against their Alices? The objective was to awaken your other self, not to kill you."
Hayate and Tsubasa started laughing, while Youichi let out a small giggle which he quickly turned into a cough.
Mikan felt at ease when she heard their laughter. Perhaps the DA wasn't so bad at all.
Natsume, however, was fuming. How could the ESP put her in here? She didn't deserve to be tainted by this class's darkness.
What could he do if the only person that was his sun descended into the same darkness as him?
He could only hope that even Kuonji and Persona could not extinguish her light.
Author's Note
Hope you enjoyed this chapter ;) I didn't take such a long time uploading this time! What did you think of Natsume's secret? He thinks of himself as a monster because of his ghastly demon form. Luna's back! Wonder what she'll do next?
I promise the next chapter will be exciting! Review if you enjoyed it...If I get loads of reviews, I'll upload much faster.
