Chapter Twelve: Discoveries
"Natsume's been kidnapped?" Ruka asked Persona suspiciously. They were assembled around a table: he, Mikan and Hijiri Yoichi were sitting listening to Persona. Mikan still flinched away from Persona, although Ruka had managed to swallow down his disgust and listen. "But that's impossible!"
"No, it isn't," Persona said. "I know that Natsume was furious with me for giving Mikan those pills, because he knows that they have… quite painful side effects. But she was very sick. Natsume's still a child. He didn't understand."
Ruka had to admit, Mikan looked much better now; the red splotches of color on her cheeks had faded, and her temperature had gone down. "But how could they have kidnapped him?"
"It's partly my fault," Persona said. "I should have gone straight down to headquarters instead of checking on Hatori. Natsume was desperately injured by the rebound of the barrier, and he was weak without his pills anyway. In that state, an Alice much weaker than Nagasaki Shizuka could have overpowered him. And Nagasaki Shizuka's talents are refined to a point where she could be quite a match for Natsume even when he's at full power."
"What can we do?" Mikan asked immediately.
"Nagasaki is no joke," he warned them. "She's very powerful. She might be controlling Natsume, manipulating him so that he doesn't know what he's doing. He might, for example, say that he left of his free will. But he would never have done that—he knows the consequences of joining the Anti-Alice organization. He would have to sell his own friends to the Alice traders."
She was silent for a minute. "No, he'd never do that," she agreed. "He cares too much about you and Yoichi, Ruka. And besides," she said, dropping her voice to a whisper that Persona couldn't hear, "he knows that Persona would hurt you if he did."
"I have a theory that if the three of you are the ones sent to rescue him, Natsume's will can overpower whatever hold Shizuka has on him," Persona explained. "I'm sending the three of you—it's the best chance that we have. Will you go?"
"Do we have a choice?" Yoichi asked. Dark shadows were permanently under his eyes. It was whispered that, a Dangerous Ability type like Natsume, he'd joined Persona's ranks at the age of eleven, just one year after his idol. His lips were stained white and bloodless. He had had his own fair share of fights as an undercover agent and knew the ins and outs better than Mikan did. The look on his face when he looked at Persona plainly showed cold mistrust.
"Yes, you do," Persona said unexpectedly. "I'm letting the three of you decide whether you will go or not. If you don't, I'm going to send in some of the high school students instead. I hope that collectively, they can take Natsume down. But that's assuming that the rest of the Anti-Alice organization won't step in during the fight."
"I'll go," Mikan said at once. Ruka and Yoichi nodded too.
"Good," Persona said with a smile. "You leave tonight."
Natsume was aware of someone tip-toeing around his room, or at least the one Saiko had led him to. He had been lying on the bed staring at the ceiling for quite a while now. He was tired, but he was thinking too much to even consider the possibility of getting any sleep.
"Who's there?" he said, sitting up.
Saiko looked up at him with a nervous laugh. "Sorry, I thought you were asleep," she said, putting down a pile of clothes on the table beside the bed. "Your clothes are all burnt, you know, so I borrowed some of Kazuo's things for you. You and he are about the same size."
"You mean the obnoxious guy with the white hair?"
She bit back a smile. "It's more of a silvery-yellow, really," she said. "But yeah, he can be a bit much sometimes, especially if you don't know him well. I should leave; you probably want to change…"
"He must be joking," Natsume said, lifting up a silk shirt with a fancy collar and black pants with silver running along the pockets. "He wears this stuff? Exactly how girly can he get?"
"Well… yes, he wears them. I don't know if anyone else's things will fit you, though. It's temporary. I can mend your clothes, if you like. I learned how to sew ages ago, when Shizuka taught me."
He nodded. "Thanks." They looked at each other in awkward silence before he shifted his attention back to the clothes that she had brought.
"Hey… do you mind if I call you Natsume?"
"Fine," he said grumpily, regarding the shirt with disgust. He regarded his own clothing with mild interest; the material was torn and covered with blood stains—not just his, he realized dizzily. With a disgusted groan, he pulled the shirt off over his head and tossed it away.
"Are you all right?" she asked him, moving towards him. She quietly picked it up, then recoiled slightly when she saw all the scars on his back. There were old marks there, but the fresh stripes of blood that blossomed against his white skin like haphazard swipes of paint made her sick to her stomach.
"Yeah," he said, brushing her off. "Just peachy keen."
Saiko came near him, concealing the trembling in her hands. "Wait, you have something in your hair," she said, picking out strands of blue thread. He recognized it as the remnants of the scarf Mikan had knitted for him, and he looked away. So it had been caught in the explosion too. But I stayed up all night last week just to make it for you!
"Thanks," he said when she stepped back. The proximity had made her shiver; he smelled of blood. She could taste the coppery tang of it on her lips, even though she'd already moved away.
"You should take a bath and change up," she said. "If you need to see any of us, just go to the common room. If you get lost, you can knock on my door—it's the one to the left of your room."
He nodded.
She paused before leaving. "Hey Natsume… don't be lonely, okay?"
"Huh?"
Her cheeks flushed. "Nothing," she said quickly, closing the door behind her.
The flush heating up Saiko's cheeks had barely cooled when she had gone back to the common room where the rest of them were entertaining themselves. Kazuo was playing darts with Reo and Yamazaki while Shizuka was sipping a cup of tea with Ayumi, the last of their circle.
"Don't get too close to him, Saiko," Shizuka said warningly the moment the younger girl sat down and reached for a cream cake. "That one could be a bit of a problem. Although I daresay that you'd be able to handle him in the end."
Ayumi smiled brilliantly through the curtain of pink hair that half-hid her eyes. "He's cute, I guess. Definitely the type that would attract someone like you, Saiko—you know, needy and dangerous at the same time. But I thought Reo said that he had a girl he cared a lot about. I believe her name was Sakura Mikan?"
"She could be put out of the picture quite easily," Shizuka said. "Hyuuga Natsume continuously convinces himself he doesn't love her. And anyway, Saiko, she's got nothing over you."
"I wish you guys wouldn't talk like that," Saiko complained. "It's embarrassing."
"But why not?" Ayumi asked. "I think it would be the perfect hold on him to stay within the organization. And besides, I think it would be great if all the Four Elements were bound together."
Saiko rolled her eyes. "That's just you and Kazuo, Ayumi. Leave me out of it."
With an indulgent smile, Shizuka handed her another pastry and refilled her cup, the steam rising above the cup in fragrant spirals. "But Kazuo pursued you before he and Ayumi became official, didn't he?"
Ayumi's lips pursed. "Yeah, that's right. You could have dated Kazuo if you'd liked. I never figured out quite the reason why you refused him, Saiko."
"We were better off as friends," Saiko said, shrugging. "And anyway, I knew that you liked him, Ayumi."
The other girl smiled. "Thanks," she said. "And—oh, heavens. Your guy looks amazing."
Natsume strolled into the common room, looking quite at ease in his new clothes although he had balked so much at them earlier. "Hi," he said, joining the girls and ignoring the guys, who hadn't taken any notice at his arrival.
Saiko's eyes widened when she caught sight of him. The clothes suited him, whatever he might have said about them. For once she thought that it was worth it—Kazuo spending so much money on his clothes—if people could look half as good as Natsume did at that moment.
Honestly, Saiko, you're completely moonstruck, Shizuka thought to her with an impish grin that made Saiko wince with embarrassment.
"Tea?" Ayumi offered. "And try the chocolate-chip scones, they're delicious. Saiko made them herself."
Saiko kicked her friend under the table. She had most certainly not made the scones (although she was proud of her skill at cooking), but Ayumi just smiled sweetly back at her.
"Thanks," he said, helping himself to one. "But let's skip the pleasantries. I need to talk to Ruka and Yoichi." He hesitated. "And Sakura Mikan too, I suppose."
Shizuka nodded, glancing sideways at Saiko, who kept a perfectly blank face. "Of course. Give me your hand, it's quite simple—"
