Sorry about the long break that I've taken, but I needed it. Writing was really slow, then my Ipad, which had contained the next four chapters, glitches and deleted all of them. I had to re-write all of this and I also had to deal with visiting family and holidays. I don't even want to think about midterm exams and what grades I got on those, I haven't gotten my grades back yet so... Yeah. Anyways, enjoy.
The footsteps didn't happen again. Should I wait for them to come find me, or should I try to face the person?
I slowly switched to a crouched position on my bed, thanking every entity imaginable that my bed didn't squeak.
Slowly, I switched my weight to my left foot, and lowered my right wearily to the ground. Right when it touched the ground, the door to our room slammed open, causing me to stupidly fall off of my bed and land on my knees on the carpeted ground.
In walked Natsume through the main door, Ruka trailing behind him.
Natsume walked by me, barely noting my presence before stopping in front of whoever made the sound in the kitchen.
I got up and ran up to see Persona smirking at us, "Well, I'm glad to see that at least one of you followed my orders. Anyways, I have a mission for you."
Natsume's fists clenched noticeably and my eyes widened just a bit. I'm not ready!
Persona rolled his eyes, "A girl with a strong Alice was kidnapped from our twin school when the AAO attacked it."
I glanced at Natsume, who explained dully, "Anti- Alice Organization."
Persona continued, ignoring Natsume's interruption, "So, a car will bring you to the building that we suspect she is being kept in. There will be a file in the car with everything you need to know in it. When you bring her back, put her in one of the cars and get into the other one there."
I glanced at Ruka-Pyon, who awkwardly stood there listening to our mission. The dark man continued, "Be at the front of the school, ready to go in half an hour."
He walked past us and out through the door.
Thirty minutes? I can get ready in ten, what are we supposed to do until then.
Ruka-Pyon looked surprisingly stand-off-ish after receiving the message, "He is sending you out when he knows that you were their target? For all we know, they kidnapped that girl to lure you there!"
Natsume just sat on his bed and picked up his manga. How's he calm?
I smiled, "It's alright, Ruka-Pyon. We'll get that girl back fine!"
He didn't look much assuaged by what I said.
Time passed by quickly and slowly at the same time. It twisted around our conversations and spread longer through silences. Eventually, it was time to leave and Natsume and I were out the door, walking towards the main grounds.
When we got there, instead of seeing Persona, we saw a man in a suit, who escorted us to a black car.
I slipped in, followed by Natsume and I felt something pressed into my side.
Picking up the folder, I opened it and turned on the overhead light:
"Luna Koisumi. Soul manipulation (I don't think that's what they call it in the manga, but oh well). Natsume, look at the picture."
I showed him the blonde girl with characteristically thick, lip stick stained lips. She smirked at the camera like a devil.
All of a sudden, my place hit me and I realized: this is the real thing.
I picked up the folder again and felt something else in it. Two knives. Handing one to Natsume, I slipped the other into my boot, cover protecting my ankles.
The training and our practice run were for this. Persona won't be there to take us back to the academy.
This is real; it's not a test run or a game. This one is bigger than the other mission.
I looked over at Natsume, who, it seemed, could tell that I was uncomfortable. He met my eyes and calmly took my hands.
"Listen, stay behind me and don't let anyone touch you. When we get to the girl, I want you to take her back here. Even if I'm fighting someone, your priority is the girl."
I nodded, content on not making any mistakes. Can he take on the people by himself though? What if he needs help?
I sighed, looking down until I felt a hand on my chin.
"It's okay, I've dealt with these people loads before."
I looked away, "But I haven't. I can't!"
His words chilled me, "We can do this."
And the car stopped, giving me a second to collect myself before opening the door as he dropped my hand.
We looked at a warehouse-like building in an area that looked like a nice mix or urban and rural lifestyles.
He stepped in front of me and grabbed my wrist to lead me forward.
We walked slowly towards the warehouse, staying in the shadows where we hopefully wouldn't be seen.
He topped abruptly, making me stumble noiselessly behind him. I looked at his eyes, then towards his line of vision to see two men with guns in their hands.
I wondered then what we could do. Could we sneak past them? Doubtful. Could we defeat them? Doubtful. Plus, we would attract attention if we tried to fight them.
Natsume's fingers closed around mine and pulled me away from the entrance, tracing the perimeter of the building with our route.
Soon, he stopped at a seemingly random place in proportion to the giant warehouse-like building. At first, I didn't know why we stopped. How are we going to get in from here?
My question was answered by his finger pointing up towards a window that I could tell was broken from the way the faint light was hitting it. He out his fingers in the lines between the messily-done brick infrastructure. I watched him pull himself off the ground with his feet pointed towards the wall like a cat.
After a few seconds of watching him, I sunk my own fingers into the crevices and tried to pull myself up. The first attempt, my foot slipped on contact with the wall and my knee scraped the wall, leaving the shadow of blood on it. Again, I put my hands on the wall and dug them in as well as I could. This time, my feet landed properly, but I only stayed up for half a minute before falling again.
I looked up and saw Natsume sitting on the windowsill, seemingly waiting for me. Sighing, I dug my fingers into the wall again and pushed my sip eight into it. As if I was pushing more upwards. Jumping, I managed to get a couple feet up the wall and I slowly raised a trembling leg another foot. One hand. The other leg followed. And finally the other hand.
This continued twice more and my hand was a couple inches from the side of the window. Shaking, I raised my hand, until my foot slipped and I felt gravity pull me. Then I felt my arm defy gravity. Actually, scratch that, Natsume caught my arm.
He grabbed my other raised hand and hoisted me up to his level. I stood to the side after a nod of gratitude and watched him climb in. I followed, making sure not to cut myself on the broken glass.
My feet landed nearly noiselessly on the floor, and I immediately started to survey my surroundings. The darkness wasn't fond of the idea though, because most of my surroundings didn't show through its black cloak.
I followed behind Natsume, blindly led by his warm hand on mine. We walked and I saw shadows of light moving up the walls, down the open parts of the floor, and through crevasses that, until then, had been unseen.
We slowed, faltering at a voice, filling the air with, "Well, I don't get it. Alice's aren't commonly kept in villages and she wasn't at the school."
As we got closer, light filled the room enough for us to see. We were standing on a platform-like upper level, held by ropes in a system.
Natsume led me to the side and we both slid quietly down the ropes, ignoring our rope burns.
"Well, we got that one," pause, "once she wakes up we'll call Reo to interrogate her."
Natsume looked at me and I understood that he was going to give me a signal. There was silence for a minute.
Crackling arose from the other direction, obviously the work of the boy beside me. I ran forward quietly while the guards went towards the fire.
With the silver knife in my boot, I slashed the rope and I pulled the girl, Luna, onto my back.
Natsume suddenly coughed painfully and his fire extinguished immediately. "There are agents, block the doors." We heard along with walky- talky feedback.
I ran to Natsume and we clasped hands and started running to the exit. "Stop!" And he collapsed next to me.
"Natsume!" I shook his arm. It looked like something affected him. An alice?
I turned around quickly to find myself face to face with a red headed man with piercing purple eyes.
He looked at me calculatingly, "Little girl, what is your Alice?"
He can't be serious! He's expecting me to just tell him.
He looked down at Natsume, "Black Cat, what is this kitten's Alice?"
Natsume groaned and turned away before grumbling into his elbow. "Say it so I can hear, dammit!" The man grabbed my elbow with a hard grip.
"Nullification and..." He was fighting it, "SEC Alice."
The cats out of the bag.
He looked at me, "troublesome, my Alice doesn't affect you."
I looked down at Natsume, who was sitting up and I mouthed, 'Can you run?"
He nodded and, without further question, I swung my leg forward between the mans legs.
Lifting the girl, who seemed to be stirring, I ran with Natsume to the doors.
We reached the two guards and I summoned my previously practiced fire.
Both of them caught immediately, one by my hand and the other by Natsume's.
We kept running and I first slipped the girl into the open door of her car.
"Stop them!" Shoot the tires!"
I opened my side door and felt pain engulf my side. Falling a step short of the door, I writhed from the puncture in my side.
"Mikan!" Hands pulled me into the car and the door slammed shut. He pulled me into his chest as the window shattered from a second shot. Horrible aim, these guys have.
Before anything else could happen, the car was gone, far out of range for our attackers. Adrenaline was leaving me and I felt light headed. The pressure applied to my would made me cringe, but Natsume wouldn't let up from my squirming. "It's okay Mikan, you're going to be okay."
I sunk, losing consciousness, into his chest and I heard him cuss under his breath before going under.
That was a fun chapter! I wonder what's going to happen. Because seriously, I used to know, but my chapters got deleted, so anything can happen! Review. Remember, it takes effort to write.
wow, I can't believe that my story is already so long... It's not even near done AND I've got a sequel planned. Wow.
reviews would be nice, but I won't push. Sorry for the lateness.