minna-san! i'm sorry for not being able to update my story for a long while now!

jen-san

AvrilLavigne25-san

xMikanNatsumex-san

thank you for the support and for taking the time to leave reviews! i will update for all of you!

The room was in chaos.

The guide was stammering apologies while the three idiots were pointing the blame on each other. Meanwhile, Hotaru calmly dragged the unconscious Mikan over to the couch with the help of one of her inventions.

Then, she held out her hand.

Natsume reluctantly gave her the money.

It wasn't as if the money was important to him. His pride was on the line here especially that damned picture of him smirking.

He was going to forever regret this one.

"EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP!" he shouted, already past his patience.

Thankfully, everyone did shut up, with Imai smirking and taking pictures as usual. He glared at her and was about to speak when they heard a moan.

"W-what? Hotaru?" the girl on the couch sat up slowly, rubbing her head.

He held his breath. Maybe she would think that it was all just a dream.

Kitsuneme flew over to her and said, "Look, she's awake!"

Yeah, or maybe not.

He directed a glare at the still-flying Kitsuneme and he heard Koko speak out his mind.

"Would it kill you to use your legs for a while, Kitsuneme? Koko, stop reading my mind or I will personally burn you down." The said guy immediately shut up, his creepy smile still on his face.

This was a lot harder than he thought.

"Oh my god! You can fly! Hotaru, look at him, he can fly!"

"I can see that idiot."

Mikan had already gotten past the shock, it would seem. She bounded out of the couch, excitedly running around like a child.

"How can you do that? Is that magic? Or just a trick? Come on, show me!" she said.

Kitsuneme for once, looked as if he had no reply to give to the brunette. He landed back down and said, "Aren't you even creeped out? Most people would have tried to run away, you know?"

At that, Hotaru snorted and hit Mikan on the back of her head. "When this idiot becomes like most-people is the day that I give up my blackmailing schemes."

Koko and Mochiage quickly came forward and introduced themselves, excitedly telling her what they can do. Mikan nodded and seemed to take it all in stride until Koko asked, "Do you understand now?"

She promptly shook her head.

Everyone stared at her in disbelief, except for Hotaru.

When the guys looked like they wanted to start over again, Hotaru pulled out her Baka gun and shot them all down.

"You idiots might want to sit down and talk about this in a mature way, not like the children you all are." Hotaru said coldly.

They all gathered around the living room and Hotaru began the story.

"A long time ago", Hotaru started. "How long ago?" Mikan interrupted. Hotaru shot her again, but this time, it came with a tape that conveniently shut her mouth.

"A long time ago, there was only one continent. And by a major decision, the continent was called Alice. It was ruled by a gentle queen and a fair king that the people all loved. And for a long time, their time was peaceful and everything was perfect.

Until King Izumi's brother revolted. His name was Kuonji and he hated King Izumi more than he hated anyone else. He believed that because he was older, he deserved to be the king. But the people had voted for King Izumi and he was chosen by their parents, so he could do nothing about it.

He patiently waited for the right opportunity to strike and gathered people who also hated the king. Even so, he knew that they would still be sorely outnumbered from the guards and soldiers that protect the palace. What he needed was something out of this world. Something magical.

He found his answer with Queen Yuka. Everyone knew that Kuonji wanted Yuka to be his bride and had courted her for a long time. When Yuka was finally about to accept him, Izumi entered the picture and swept her off her feet.

What most people didn't know was that Queen Yuka was a descendant of the Goddess of Magick, Alicia. Only Izumi knew that she had received a rainbow-colored stone as a heritage that, if broken, would release magical powers throughout the land.

Kuonji found out about it when he overheard Queen Yuka and King Izumi talking about what to do with it when they passed on. Kuonji stole the stone and broke it right in front of Queen Yuka. As the magic spread throughout the land, Queen Yuka did the only thing she could do to prevent Kuonji from reaching her people: she asked for help from Alicia and the Goddess had split the land into seven.

Not long after, Stones appeared and had told the whole story to the people. In honor of the Goddess Alicia and their once peaceful continent, they decided to call the strange power they acquired as Alice.

Soon, they found out that their power was very varied and in each continent, seven powers grew to be quite powerful and feared: Fire, Ice, Electricity, Pheromones, Transformation, Death and Nullification.

Now, we simply classify them into five groups: Latent Ability, Somatic Ability, Technology Ability, Special Ability and Dangerous Ability." Hotaru finished.

Everyone looked at Mikan in expectation and she blinked a couple of times before she finally removed the tape and said one word, "Wow."

She was still in Dreamland when Natsume went over and knocked on her head.

"Oi. I don't want to waste time waiting for your slow brain to get this. Let's get this over and done with." he said in a very annoyed tone.

Mikan responded to his glare with one of her own. "Then you shouldn't have fired me from my perfectly good job and hired me as your maid." she pointed out.

As they both continued their glaring contest, the three idiots whispered to Hotaru, "I can't believe a girl can actually stand up to THE Natsume Hyuuga. Who is this girl?"

Hotaru merely smirked evilly as she started taking pictures, "She's my money-maker."

By this time, Mikan was standing up and shouting at Natsume, "I don't care if you just hired me! You can just fire me now!"

"Are you out of your mind? I had to give up that picture to Imai just to get her to fire you!"

"Well, you shouldn't have done that in the first place! What do you want with me anyway?"

"I told you I need a maid!"

"And I'm telling you, there are hundreds of women available!"

"I don't need another love-sick female drooling over me!"

"You are way too arrogant and way too rude for women to drool over you!"

"Women don't have brains enough to know that."

"Excuse me? Did you just insult the female race in front of me? You are so egoistical!"

As they continued to bicker, Hotaru stood up and said, "Well, as you guys continue to act like an old married couple, I want to sleep so, good night and don't disturb my sleep."

When Mikan heard that, she broke off from another glaring contest and hurried after Hotaru. "You're going to sleep? It's not even dark yet!"

Hotaru raised an eyebrow at her, "Does it need to be dark for me to sleep? And by the way Mikan, you'd better start acting like a maid or I'll get mad at you."

As Mikan stared at Hotaru's retreating back, the three guys passed her and looked at her sympathetically. They didn't want to be alone with Natsume right now, not when they are the reason why Mikan found out about the secret so easily.

But Natsume, for once, wasn't even thinking about them. He smirked at Mikan when he heard that she was supposed to follow every order of his, or risk the anger of her best friend.

When Mikan turned back to him, he had that arrogant smirk pasted on his face. Mikan glared at him and said, "Don't start."