Gakuen Alice? Disclaimed.

A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be. ~Douglas Pagels

Chapter 12: The Great Hotaru-sama

Hotaru frowned when she heard her cellphone rang. She got her purse and got it out to see who sent an idiotic message to her.

From: Mikan, the baka

Hotaru? Are you busy? I need to tell you something.

Both of her eyebrows rose when she saw who the sender was.

Mikan, she thought. She was right. The message was idiotic because the sender was an idiot. She smirked.

"Hotaru?" her brother called her. They were still inside his office, busily talking about Natsume and her plans. "What's the matter?"

She shook her head and excused herself from the two doctors. "I'll just make a call," she said before going out of the room as her brother nodded in agreement to her.

Ignoring the stares of the nurses from the earlier scene, she picked up her phone and dialed Mikan's number.

"Baka," she said, as soon as she heard her best friend's voice from the other line. "I've already read your message."

Hotaru heard Mikan take a deep breath. She held her temple as she thought of the things to tell her best friend.

"You know, I've already know about the situation, Mikan."

'Eh? What do you mean, Hotaru?'

"Tss. I was the one who told Hyuuga about your problem. Apparently, that Koizumi's OB-Gyne is Yuu-senpai. And he is the one who told me about this matter just this morning."

'Oh.'

"I assume you already know about this, huh?"

Hotaru could imagine Mikan nodding her head. She snickered.

Really. What an idiot.

"How did you know about this?"

'Well… Koizumi-san went to school and she told me. Natsume looked like he already knows about that.'

Hotaru snickered. "I'm the one who told him. Didn't I already tell you about that?"

There was a moment of complete silence on the other line and that made Hotaru realize that she had to go back inside his brother's office to continue discussing her plans with Subaru and Yuu.

"Baka?" she called her best friend. Mikan let out a sound, signalling her response to Hotaru. "I have to go. I still have some important things to attend to. Let's talk some other time. Remember what I told you. Jaa."

She then ended her call with Mikan and decided to go inside her brother's office. Her ears twitched when she heard the nurses from before… they were talking about someone. And this someone has something to do with his older brother.

"Did you see the way she asked us a while ago?" nurse number one asked nurse number two as she looked at her fingernails.

"Yeah. Just because she could make Dr. Imai smile doesn't mean she's different from us. Pfft. She just started working here last month, for- Argh! That newbie of a nurse…" nurse number two said as her eyes turned into dangerous slits.

"She's more like that younger Imai. She's so… full of herself. What a bitch," nurse number one said and nurse number nodded as an agreement.

Hotaru's amethyst eyes turned almost black because of annoyance. If her brother wouldn't fire these two, then… she'll put the honors in doing so.

"That half-Japanese freak… Know what? I'll strangle her if ever I see her again today."

Hotaru was planning to go and fire the two immediately when a woman, wearing a nurse's uniform, too, approached the two and snapped at the both of them.

"I may be half-Japanese, but I sure can still kick both of your butts!" nurse number three, aka the nurse who could make her not-so-stoic brother smile, said to the first two nurses. A few people looked at the three nurses, as if they were shooting a movie or something. Hotaru decided to approach them. She coughed loudly to get their attention.

The first two nurses looked at her before bowing her head. Hotaru then put a hand on nurse number three's shoulder before saying, "Hey, that's enough." She looked at the nurse's name plate before continuing. "Ingrid. Go back to your work. I'll handle this."

Ingrid, aka nurse number three and the nurse who could make her not-so-stoic brother smile, nodded before bowing her head and turning her back on her. Hotaru then faced the two trembling nurses behind the counter.

"You two," she said, her voice were venomous as ever, "are fired. After this day, don't ever, ever, ever let me see both of your faces again. Do you understand?"

She evilly smirked when the two nodded in response. She then walked to her brother's office and went inside.

"What took you so long, Hotaru?" her brother asked. She shook her head before taking her previous seat across her brother's office table.

"I just called the baka. Oh, and nii-san?"

Subaru Imai looked at her before carefully lifting his cup of coffee. His brother and senpai might have asked someone to make a cup for the both of them while she was outside. But, yeah. Moving on…

"I like nurse Ingrid. She's pretty… tough."

She and Yuu almost laughed when the older Imai almost spit his coffee out. "What?"

Hotaru snickered. She then faced Yuu and said, "I need some people to get some information on that Koizumi. Can you help me with that, senpai?"

A smile was still evident on Yuu's face when she asked that question. "No. I don't know some people who can help you with that. Sorry, Imai-san."

"I'll go find someone myself then."

"Wait," the OB-Gyne said, "do you mind whether they are young or old?"

The younger Imai shook her head. It didn't matter if those people were already centuries old! She just needs their help to find some information on Koizumi's… activities.

"Good. I think I know some people that could help us."

Chan cha chan~! Presenting… Hotaru's partners in crime :)

"Oi, Fie, wake up!" Jana felt a vein pop on her forehead when her younger sister just mumbled something in her sleep before shifting to a more comfortable position.

"Fie!" she shouted once again, this time near her younger sister's ear.

The younger Tobita put her pinky finger inside her ear and opened her eyes. She then glared at her older sister. "What's your problem? It's so early in the morning, nee-san."

Jana snickered and told her to look at the wall clock. "It's almost noon. Now, get up! Uncle Yuu wants to talk to us about something important."

Fie lazily scratched her head, crowned with raven hair (although her hair color was a bit lighter than her sister) and gently rubbed her golden orbs. She sluggishly stretched both her arms when she got up from her bed. She turned on her laptop before going inside her bathroom to brush her teeth.

Once done, she sat in front of her laptop and logged on her Facebook account.

Her eyes almost popped when she saw the number of her notifications. Her eyebrows twitched when she saw a familiar name on almost all of her notifications.

"Fiiiiiiiiie! I told you Uncle Yuu is waiting for us! Shut down your laptop computer, get dressed and get down already!" she heard her sister shouted, again, downstairs.

How did she even know that I'm using my laptop? Pfft, she thought as she logged out from Facebook.

"Okay, nee-san! And please, do shut up. My ears are almost bleeding, you know?" she shouted back. She heard her sister said something but she didn't quite understand it, that's why she just went inside the bathroom and took a bath.

"Where are we going anyway?" Fie asked her sister as she got inside her car. "And why am I not allowed to drive? I already got my license last year."

Jana looked at her pouting sister and smirked. "Why aren't you allowed to drive? Simple. I still want to live a full and happy life. I don't even know how you got your freakin' license anyway… And yeah. We're going to Uncle Yuu's place today. He said something about letting us meet a few people."

"Hey! I got my license square and fair. People? People like who?"

The older Tobita shrugged her shoulders as she looked at the traffic light. She stepped on the brake when the lights turned red. Jana then turned to her little sister before she gently touched her hair while looking at the rearview mirror.

"I don't know," she said at last before looking at the traffic lights once again. She stepped on the gas when she notice that the lights already turned green. No wonder she heard someone cursing behind their car. But… whatever.

Their parents were working out of the country because of their family business. And because Jana was already at an age where she could handle both her and her stupid, *cough* as for her *cough*, sister, their parents let them live with each other without a guardian. But occasionally, their uncle, Dr. Yuu Tobita would check up on them and would ask them how they were doing.

Jana noticed a few cars outside their uncle's home when they arrived, and the younger Tobita couldn't help but gawk at the sight.

A Jaguar, a BMW, a Volkswagen convertible and a Mercedes.

Well, technically, the Mercedes was owned by their uncle but… yeah, Fie couldn't help but still… you know?

"Who are these people exactly?" she heard her older sister asked. She nodded at her question and asked the same thing to herself.

After her seventeen years of existence, Fie realized, they finally had something to agree upon.

"Senpai, are you sure these two can help?" Hotaru asked as she looked at the two youngest persons in that living room.

They met each other a while ago.

Hotaru Imai: works under the Hyuuga Corp., Hyuuga heir's cousin, and apparently, Ruka Nogi's current girlfriend

Subaru Imai: a renowned doctor, Hyuuga heir's older cousin, Hotaru Imai's older brother

Ruka Nogi (who was fidgeting at that moment): Hyuuga heir's best friend, Hotaru Imai's current boyfriend

Natsume Hyuuga: Hyuuga Corp.'s executive president and the root of this problem, as Hotaru had said a while ago.

Fie and Jana looked at each other before smirking.

"Actually, what you're asking us to do is too easy for us," Jana said as she looked back to Hotaru. Hotaru Imai-sama… her great Hotaru-sama…

Jana was a fan of her inventions and was planning to be an inventor, too, someday. That's why she almost hyperventilated when she saw her idol seated in front of her and… errr, holding hands with that Ruka Nogi.

Hotaru raised her eyebrow. "Really?" she asked, emotionlessly as ever.

Fie stood up and went beside her and Ruka. She then put both her hands on Ruka's cheek and smiled at him before pinching his cheeks… hard. She let go of his reddening cheeks as she looked at Hotaru, who was still emotionless as before.

"Yeah. Seriously," she answered. "We may not look like it but…"

"They are both professional hackers," their uncle finished for them, pride was evident in his voice.

Hotaru couldn't help but grin at both of the young Tobita in front of her.

"Excellent," was all she could say before smirking evilly.

"Tone down that smirk, Hotaru," her older brother told her. "You're scaring me already."

Hotaru turned to her older brother and smirked a little more.

"Hey," Ruka interjected, "you could've pinched that guy, too." He then pointed to his best friend who looked like he was lost in his thoughts, with his chin resting against his knuckles.

Fie shook her head. "He looks pretty respectable to me. I can't do that to him."

Ruka flushed. "And I don't look respectable? Dr. Tobita… you're nieces are getting into my nerves," he mumbled under his breath.

"Shut up, Ruka. They were quite right anyway," Hotaru said which earned laughter from almost everyone in the room. "So… let's talk business."

The laughter died out as the younger Imai told the two what they were going to do.

After almost three days after that meeting…

Mikan was fidgeting on her seat. During these past few days, she tried her very best to ignore her husband. It was not that she believed on what that Koizumi said but it's just that… she trusts Natsume so much. So much that she didn't know how to face him after she ran off the other day.

"Talk about being an idiot," she told herself as she shifted to a more comfortable position. She was now looking outside the window, ignoring the fact that Natsume Hyuuga, also known as her husband, was sitting beside her, driving busily.

Oh yeah.

Natsume ended up on driving her to school today. And of course… it was his mother's fault. Not that he didn't want to take her to school today. It was just that, he noticed that the brunette was somehow trying to ignore him.

"You were saying?" he asked her, without even taking his eyes away from the road.

Those were the first words she heard him say after three days.

And somehow, her heart ached for more.

"Na-Natsume…"

"You won't believe this, nee-san," Fie said as she closed another window on her laptop.

"What?"

The older Tobita sat beside her younger sister.

"Koizumi's old Twitter account is too easy to hack. Her Facebook, too. Extracting public information about her is soooooo freakin' easy. Where's the challenge that I'm looking foooooor?"

Jana smirked at Fie.

"I know right? I've got some of her company's documents too. Although I don't think they would be some help to us."

Fie nodded her head in agreement. "But, nee-san… both her Twitter and Facebook account are associated with one person."

Jana knotted her forehead before asking her sister. "Person? What person?"

The younger Tobita looked at her sister like she'd grown an extra head. "The question is who, idiot, not what. So anyways…"

Fie didn't get the chance to continue what she was about to say. She roared with laughter as her sister looked at her like she'd gone crazy. Ugh… that was redundant. But… yeah.

Fie gently wiped away the tears on her eyes before saying, "Sorry, nee-san, but this post in Facebook is too damn random and too damn funny to ignore."

"Fie, focus. We can't disappoint Hotaru-sama here," Jana told her sister as she roared with laughter once again. "So you were saying?"

The younger raven-haired female breathed in and out calming herself.

"That Koizumi woman was involved with someone before… two or three months ago, I guess."

"Who's this someone?"

"Reo Mouri."

"Ha?"

"You know… Reo Mouri. Hot-shot engineer turned pop star?"

Jana shook her head. "Ah… who again?"

Fie sighed. "Reo Mouri. Seriously. You don't know him?"

Once again, Jana shook her head. Fie stood up and poorly imitated the pop star while singing some lyrics from a song the pop star sang when he was still starting on the industry.

"Ah! That Reo Mouri. Ohh."

Fie sighed and sat in front of her laptop once again.

"Finally. You got it. Pfft."

End of chapter.

A/N: EDITED… well, I did my best, but I guess my best wasn't good enough. Err. Yeah. Thanks for the favorites, alerts and the reviews. XD