Act 17: Rescue (part I)

The students were waiting at the class 2-B's room. The tense atmosphere was killing everyone. Sumire paced back and forth. Hotaru pretended to be calm by wiping her guns. Mochiage was playing with a ball he kept on manipulating to go around the room. Tsubasa had his arms across Misaki's shoulder. Ruka and Natsume sat at the back of the room. Natsume stared out the window while Ruka fed his bunny. Yuu sat at the front as he prayed for everyone's safety. Anna and Nonoko held each others' hands while waiting for the door to open.

The door flung open and two adults appeared. Everyone looked at the door alarmingly. Hotaru felt a rush of relief when she saw Yuka walk in the room. She couldn't help herself but hug her friend's mother. She immediately stood up to hug Yuka.

"I didn't even know you guys disappeared," she said with regret.

"It's not your fault," Yuka brushed Hotaru's hair. "Let's go save Mikan, we wouldn't want her to marry some old perverted geezer." She added to lighten the atmosphere.

"I didn't know he was that old," Sumire crossed her arms.

"Enough chit-chat," Natsume shook his head as he walked towards the group.

"Alright, just a run through," Narumi grimaced as he held his sides. Yuka helped him steady himself. "Mikan-chan was transferred at the off-limits building; right now she's being readied for her wedding. Shiki doesn't have the power there, he is not in control of the barrier, but I know for a fact that the building will be heavily guarded, and I'm talking about serious guarding here."

"I don't get it," Mochiage raised a brow. The ball he was playing with, which was in mid-air, fell on the ground.

"Kikennoryoku serious. The Dangerous Ability Students are guarding her—well, some of them since others are on a mission."

"How are we supposed to get past those guys?!" Sumire's eyes widened. Everyone went silent.

"Well, we have other sensei that aid us from the shadows," Yuka smiled warmly, "however, you are right, this is a dangerous mission and I am not forcing children to aid me."

"Well, I'm going, you sissies could just leave," Hotaru taunted. "It's not like you're coming with us inside," she muttered as she let go of Yuka and checked her nails.

"Who the hell are you calling sissies?" Mochiage raised his fist.

"Oh. Are you the sissy? I wasn't referring to anyone in particular." She batted her eyes innocently, but then, there it was. Ruka saw Hotaru's smirk of triumph. Her eyes sparkled as she held Mochiage right under his nose. Ruka shook his head, unable to conceal his smile.

"Let's just go," Natsume held Mochiage on the shoulder.

"That's the spirit," Narumi gave the impatient boy thumbs up. "Just like we planned, technical group will aid us at the nearby rooftop, medic will stand by on the nearest hidden spot—aided by Shiki's barrier, and the offense team stay close to us," he looked at Yuka.

"Let's go," Hotaru held out her baka gun, "lock and load ladies."

…

Hotaru, Ruka, Natsume, Tsubasa, Yuka, and Narumi were the ones to infiltrate the building; Mochiage, Yuu and Misaki were at the rooftop, monitoring the building's front door and making sure no one enters it; Anna and Nonoko were hidden at the nearby trees, prepared with complete medical necessities.

It was eerily quiet when the group penetrated the building. Yuka barely transported everyone to safety when a lookout suddenly went out the double doors.

"That was close," Tsubasa whistled.

"We'd better be more careful next time," Narumi worriedly looked at Yuka. The previous stress and strain were taking their toll on her body. He could see her sweating heavily despite of the cold snow. "Can you move?" He asked. Yuka nodded in response. "Alright, let's go."

The group decided to enter through the window of an empty room. Tsubasa suddenly felt the chills. He studied his surroundings to confirm or dissolve his fear. Even though he didn't see anything, chills still ran down his spine. "Not good," he muttered. "We must hurry—"

Ruka was pulling Hotaru in when someone spoke, intercepting Tsubasa's words and halting Ruka's actions.

"Why would you guys use the window? Isn't the door enough?" But then, the voice's owner's eyes widened in delight. People could practically see the flowers behind him. "Is that…? TSUBASA-KUN, MY LOVE…!" He flung his arms up. "MI AMORE…" Then he began charging at Tsubasa, "AISHITERUUUU!"

"Rui!" Tsubasa barely evaded Rui's deadly hug attempt. His heart began to race like hell and his palms were sweating. "Don't come near me!" Tsubasa hissed.

"You're making a loud ruckus!" Natsume punched Tsubasa on the back of his head.

"Why only me?" Tsumasa whined.

"Oh, don't worry," Rui composed himself after falling on the floor like it was nothing. "Everyone knows you're here. We're just waiting for you guys to fall into our traps." He eyed Tsubasa. "Aren't I lucky? To. Have. You. Here." He winked and licked his lower lip.

The hairs on Tsubasa's neck stood up. "Stop it," he demanded.

"Alright, we'll leave you two love birds alone," Nasume saluted as the others began to exit the room.

"That's not fair!" Tsubasa cried.

"They're so considera—" Hotaru's baka gun intercepted Rui's words.

Hotaru loaded her baka gun again. "I guess it can't be helped. You guys go ahead; I'll help baldy over here." She sighed.

"Thank you Hotaru-chan…" He hid behind the girl's back.

"Catch up with us as soon as you guys can." Ruka said in a firm voice.

"I won't lose," she snorted. The door closed from behind them.

"What was that for?!" Rui demanded as he rubbed his sore face.

"Sorry." She pretended to wipe an imaginary dirt off of the baka gun. "This automatically hits ugly and stupid people," Hotaru looked at Rui with challenging eyes, "make that stupid ugly people,"

"Why you little!" Rui shivered in rage. "I'm going to show you how my Alice works, you little brat." He took a step forward, releasing a dark smoke.

Tsubasa fell on his knees after feeling pain due to his curse mark.

"Don't hold me back baldie," Hotaru helped him up.

"I won't," he smirked as he readied himself, "and my name's Tsubasa."

…

Upon arriving at the second floor, Yuka felt Narumi's weight become heavier than usual. "Narumi-kun…" She tried her best to keep her balance.

"I can't move," he replied with a hint of fear.

"I also…" Ruka stopped on his tracks.

"It's that guy," Natsume clicked his tongue. He also couldn't move.

"You mean Hajime-kun?" Narumi felt dizzy. Actually, everyone felt dizzy.

After a few seconds, everything went black.

…

Natsume woke up with a headache. He held his head as if it was about to break any minute. He looked around and saw nothing but pitch black. The boy looked above him. It was like he was under a spot light. "What…" He stood up and began to walk the possible limitless abyss.

"Where the hell am I?" His pace began to go faster.

Natsume remembered Mikan. "I need to find her," he ran as fast as he could even though he didn't know where to go. He felt desperate. He stopped, rested his palms on his knees, and panted furiously. As if by magic, a door opened behind him with an eerie creak. He left the place without hesitation.

"Illusions?" he muttered. "No, it can't be." He looked around the new room. He was now in a residential place. However, whenever he tried to open a door, it wouldn't budge, even if he tried to destroy them with his Alice or his force.

"Damn it," he cursed as he began to run in all sort of directions again.

"You can't run away," a familiar voice said.

"I am not running away!" Natsume growled as he stopped running and faced the person behind him.

Persona smirked as he took a step forward. "Everything ends here."

"That's not your decision," Natsume lit up a fire.

"You're powerless here," Persona laughed menacingly as Natsume's fire extinguished.

"I'll take you on," the boy still had his composure despite of his Alice being rendered useless.

Persona lifted an eyebrow and smirked. "Alright," slowly, one by one, the plants around him turned black and died. It followed the path towards Natsume. "What are you going to do now little boy?"

"I'm going to kill you," Natsume responded as he dodged the incoming black cloud. He jumped on the nearby fence and balanced himself, "you're going to wish you didn't mess with me." He started to run towards Persona, and as soon as he was coming near, he jumped and attempted to land a punch on Persona's face.

"Hand-to-hand combat eh?" The masked man jumped away from Natsume's fist. "Fine, I'll play along just a little bit." The clouds which he had emanated disappeared.

Natsume tried to land three consecutive punches his opponent, but Persona swiftly dodged him by leaping away. When Nastume stopped, it was Persona's turn to throw punches which Natsume evaded by using his arms as his shield.

Suddenly, the ground began to tremble and Natsume had to back off. The concrete floor began to break and separate from each other. The whole scenery crashed like broken mirrors, falling into the deep black hole. However, he never let Persona out of his sight. He kept his balance and jumped from one plate to another. For a brief second, he saw Persona's astonished look. Natsume took his chance and punched the masked off of Persona, but instead of a hurting look, Persona smiled deviously.

"Big mistake," he said as he looked down.

Natsume followed persona's look. A sharp knife was buried deep in his stomach. A current of pain ran through his body like he was electrocuted with a thousand volts. Natsume fell on his knees as the gray floating stone turned to blood red. His mouth fell open as he held his stomach.

Persona knelt in front of Natsume and pressed the knife on the bleeding boy's face. "It's game over," he chuckled as if death was nothing more than a game.

Natsume breathed heavily, searching for air. His face began to grow pale as the blood began to drip down the black hole. "No." Natsume whispered.

"What is it? You pathetic little creature," Persona traced Natsume's cheek with the edge of a knife as he lessen the gap between them.

"It's." Natsume's fist bursted into flames.

"Not." He punched Persona on the chest as hard as he could despite of his condition.

"Over." His fist burned through Persona's chest and blood spurted out

Persona coughed out blood as he immediately fell lifeless on Natsume's and his pool of blood which flowed down into nothingness. The place began to tremble again. The floating remains of the place which was once a residential area began to fall. Persona's body slipped on the edge and fell. Everything was getting sucked up by the swirling black hole.

Natsume held on to the edge of what remained to be the ground as everything shook. He shook his head and bit his lower lip. His energy was drained, and he didn't have any energy left. He couldn't even lift his head to find an escape route. He felt so useless.

He punched the concrete floor.

"I'm sorry Mikan."

…