Rather than making my excuses at the end of this chapter, I thought it might be better to do this at the start. First of all: Sorry! Things are crazy busy for me at the moment, and 'How I Became God' became a task that was always pushed to the back of my head, on the lowest possible level of priority. I was just reading back through the last chapter I last posted, and now I see that that chapter was full of apologies too! I am such a bad person, I set myself all these deadlines, then completely ignore them!

On the bright side, I have a new chapter for today! YAY! Hopefully more will come! (Don't hold your breath; we've already established what I'm like with deadlines here!) I also want to say that I definitely have not given up on this Fanfic, I have a clear ending in my head, and I will get to it or die trying. Thank you for everyone that hasn't given up on this story yet, I really appreciate anyone and everyone who takes the time to read my writing. If they enjoy it, that's an even bigger plus!

-Bookaholic346

What am I doing here? I wondered, staring at the dark hallway ahead of me. I was walking down this foreign hall at breakneck speed, following Mika as closely as I could manage. She was focused and fast, weaving around corners at a sprint.

So this is what Mika's missions are like. I realised. It was funny how she was so used to this dangerous situation, like it was perfectly natural for her to be in an office building at midnight, searching the premises for Anti-Academy personal.

This was my first time on one of these missions. Mika had protested loudly, screaming at the Principal that I would be more of a hindrance than a help on this mission, but he didn't back down. He told us both that I was needed in order to locate a specific Anti-Academy member with a blood red alice stone, the only clue to the person's identity. Apparently, after months of interrogation of lower members of the organisation, one of them had confessed that he had once received an Alice stone from the leader of the organisation to help him on his mission. Another person had informed us that the headquarters of this leader was in this unassuming building, where we were currently running through corridors.

It was Mika's job to put people to sleep when we came across them; it was my job to identify the leader. Surveillance of the building had revealed that over three hundred people had stayed in the building past office hours tonight. It would be impossible to capture and transport all three hundred to a secure facility without attracting attention. I had to go in myself and find the specific people we needed. Mika may not have liked it, but it really was unavoidable.

Now we were running through the corridors, peering into every room and searching the people inside at lightning speed. Mika would burst in first, command the whole room into sleep using her pheromones, then I would enter and scan the room for the blood red colour that we were looking for. It was difficult. Almost every person we found was an Alice, and red was one of the common colours for Alices. Just to make sure, I marked each person with a red Alice I encountered. One of the black ops teams accompanying us would find them later and transport them to the secure Alice prison. I didn't want to make a mistake and miss the blood red Alice. It was better to be safe than sorry.

Mika was a nervous wreck, and I could tell that she was focussing far too much on protecting me. She never let me go through doors first. She insisted on being my shield. I envied her strength. If she was attacked, she could fight back; I couldn't.

We must have been halfway through the building when it happened. Suddenly there was a loud noise, and a person stepped out in front of our path. It was a woman with long curly black hair and a tight outfit to match. She looked at us with hard grey eyes down the barrel of her gun.

"I wouldn't move if I were you, kids." She warned. "I know who you are, and I'm not afraid to hurt kiddies."

My heart leapt to my throat. Surrounding this woman was a blood red aura. There was no doubt about it. She was the Alice we were supposed to capture.

"The Principal is getting careless." She went on. "To think he would send a single kid with pheromones after us." Her eyes focussed on me. "And you… I don't know who you are… but if your Alice was deadly, you wouldn't be hiding behind the girl." The woman laughed. "I suppose I'll have to send him a message, let him know that he'll have to do better than this to beat me." She flipped the safety off the gun with one smooth movement and pointed the pistol squarely into Mika's chest.

"You want to put that gun down right now…" Mika said enticingly. "Just put it on the floor and…"

The woman's laugh cut her off. "Save your breath girl," She said. "Your Alice won't work on me at all."

Mika scowled at her and opened her mouth to try again, her purple Alice pulsing the strongest I have ever seen it. I looked past my friend to the woman, who smiled deeper. Her own Alice pulsed too, like a heat beat. I had a bad feeling about this.

Mika began to speak, but I couldn't hear the words, I just saw the purple and red Alices burst into bright existence, illuminating the dark room like it was day. Mika, the woman and her gun were all thrown into sharp relief.

The Woman laughed crazily.

"Mika!" I yanked her out of the way, throwing her across the room and out of the way. I didn't have time to move myself. A split second after Mika was safe; I fell to the ground, stomach on fire.

The bullet meant for Mika had hit me instead.

I heard a scream. Time jumped around for a little bit and then Mika was at my side, looking down at me. Something was pressing my stomach, pressuring down on the numb spot that was slowly spreading throughout my entire body.

"Kazumi!" Mika was crying, the water falling onto my face. "Don't die, got it?" She ordered me. "Don't die." She kept repeating that command like it was some sort of lucky charm.

I looked up at her with a weak grin. "Can't die." I told her hoarsely. "Have to leave… together with you…" The ceiling above me was spinning, and I wondered what had happened to the blood red woman. I lost control, and purple was creeping into my vision as well. Mika's Alice dominated my sight, drowning out the dank surroundings, but that couldn't help me for long. The room was getting darker and even her Alice was dimming in my vision.

"Don't die." Mika sobbed. "They'll come soon. So don't die Kazumi…"

I locked onto her clear blue eyes, then my sight clouded and everything went black. I was gone.

Oooh, I've left you on a cliffhanger, haven't I? Guess I've got no choice but to force myself to write the next chapter ASAP, or I might start getting angry messages from people who want to know what happens next XD fingers crossed that the next chapter is done in a week or so!