Soooooooo it's been a year (almost)...*Looks aside awkwardly. Hullo to the folks that are still reading this. Or are new to this, welcome. No, I didn't drop this. But I'm thinking about it. And I came to the conclusion that even if I drop it, I might as well update it to where it's currently at on my Drive.

Kurumi: You don't sound sorry at all though... What have you been doing this past almost-year?

Chikage: Well, that's...I mean...

Ariko: Slacking. Mmrow.

Chikage: No, wait, not that! No, wait, exactly that! I mean - that's beside the point - arrrrgh! I don't care!

Kurumi: Okay, now that we're done tormenting the author for her laziness, let's have a recap session for what's happened so far! We've reached roughly around episode 13 in regards to the anime. Natsume-kun was just kidnapped (oh no!), and chasing after him we have Mikan-chan, Sumire-chan, and Kuro. Do you remember who Kuro is? If not...please reread. I do hope you remember the names of the author-san's main OCs: Sengoku Akashi, Kazehara Sonata, Takino Yui, Hasegawa Kuro and Shiro, Kagamine Kazu, Sawakiguchi Ren, Fujitome Yuuta, and of course, Miyano Kurumi (myself) and Kusakabe Ariko. Among others. Well, there's plenty of time to catch up. But the hype is up! Oh, yes, I (Kurumi) have currently taking charge of the rescue mission. Are we clear?

Ariko: Kurumi...too many words...

Kurumi: Oh my, I do apologize. Well, please either reread or keep reading. Whatever is up to you. Now, I must go continue tormenting the author-san.

Chikage: You just said you were done.

Kurumi: I don't know what you're talking about. Also, if you drop this story, I will kill you, understand?

Chikage: Uh...(Runs to hide).

So yeap, sorry for the delay. Here we go! Onwards!

Ah, hell, I screwed up badly…

Kuro gritted his teeth as he moved against the bonds tying his hands and feet together, cursing to himself in his head.

I got careless on that one…

If he wanted to, he could easily use his Alice to get out of the bonds constraining him. But he shouldn't have been able to (in other people's eyes), and he had no choice but to watch as Mikan tried to bit off the ropes restraining Sumire's wrists.

"Hey! Do it right! You're hurting me!" Sumire insisted.

"This isn't working…" Mikan sighed, rolling onto her back again.

"No freaking duh," Kuro deadpanned.

"Then you come up with something!" Sumire hissed.

"If I could, we'd be out of here by now," Kuro replied.

"Hey."

Mikan's eyes widened at the sound of the new voice, pulling on Sumire's sleeve. "Permy, Permy!"

"I told you, my name's not Permy!"

"Natsume's awake," Mikan said without caring about her name.

"Natsume, thank goodness!" Sumire exclaimed.

"'Bout time," Kuro muttered.

"For a while there, I was so worried about you!" Sumire cried.

Mikan saw the confusion in his eyes (or didn't, perhaps), and explained, "We saw you get kidnapped, so we chased after you."

"But this No Star wouldn't listen to me, so we ended up getting captured, too," Sumire added.

"I got careless," Kuro shrugged. "But I'll manage to escape on my own."

"Where are we?" Natsume asked instead.

"A warehouse?"

"I think we're at a harbor. I can smell the ocean. There's three exits, but two of them are blocked off by containers. I tried to find out more, but for some reason my Alice won't work."

"It's probably a Barrier Alice," Kuro explained. "Someone among Reo's men must have it."

"Barrier Alice?" Mikan repeated, but nobody bothered to explain for her.

"A boat is coming at two o'clock and they plan to send us away on it."

"If we can't use our Alices and the teachers can't find this place because of the barrier—"

"Don't worry. Shiro will come."

"How can you say for sure?" Sumire demanded when Kuro said this calmly. "This place is blocked off by an Alice-inhibiting barrier—"

"Because Shiro's Alice is connected to mine," Kuro replied.

"Anyway, we have to find a way to escape before the boat gets here," Mikan interrupted.

And then she returned to biting on Sumire's ropes.

"Hey, stupid."

"Don't call me stupid!" Mikan retorted to Natsume.

"What's that panda thing on your ears?"

"Huh? They're communication earmuffs that Hotaru gave me," Mikan responded angrily. Then she remembered. "Ah."

Kuro sighed. "You really are stupid…"

('^') Time Skip ('^')

"Miya, how's everything going?" Kurumi asked, flipping through her fifth full page of writing and handing it over to Akashi to look over.

"I've got it narrowed down to a couple of possibilities, but I can't say for sure. There's too little to go off of."

"I see…Contact me if you find anything else out."

"I understand."

Suddenly a childish song rang out.

"Panda, panda, panda dance. Ah pan—"

Hotaru pulled down the microphone on her earmuffs.

"Yes? This is Hotaru speaking. Ah, Mikan? It's about time you turned on the switch."

"I-Imai, you had a way of contacting her all along as well?!" Narumi-sensei protested.

Meanwhile, sitting on the couch, Kurumi signaled Shiro and Kazu to get ready.

('^') Time Skip ('^')

"Well then…"

"Should we tie them up again?"

"Shindou, weaken the barrier around this spot."

"Reo, but that's…"

"Just do it. I need to teach these brats that they can't resist, even if they're not tied up. We also need to find out what Alices these three have."

The moment Kurumi heard these words on the other side of the Bluetooth, she attacked.

"Kuro, make sure their attention isn't focused on you. Report to me everything you can."

Kuro nodded to himself, whispering, "Right."

Kurumi readied her pen.

Reo faced Sumire and removed his Alice-restraint earring, asking slyly, "Come on, now. Tell me. What is your Alice?"

The moment his attention was focused elsewhere, Kuro turned into the corner and said in a low tone, "Nine. Two guarding the door, two guarding Reo, and three more standing guard around the warehouse. One other is standing outside the doorway. Wait...there's another thirty or so scattered around outside…That's all. There's no other living life forms around the area."

"I see. Can you connect with Shiro?"

"Yeah, I can feel her power. It's far away, but…"

"Shiro, take Kazu with you. The two of you deal with Reo and the other men in the house. Kazu, make sure the others make it out safely."

"Do I need to accompany them all the way through?"

"No, Tsubasa-kun's on his way there, and so is Narumi-sensei."

"What are you doing?"

Kuro was suddenly jerked upwards when Reo grabbed his arm and hefted him into the air forcefully. Reo noticed the Bluetooth in his ear and smirked.

"Ehh, so you had one of these things as well…"

He reached forward to take it, but the moment he made this action, Kuro swung his leg up and kicked him sharply in the side, breaking from his grasp and stumbling backwards.

Reo was sent tumbling to the floor, and his two bodyguards immediately raised their guns.

"Why, you—!"

Reo didn't stop them from shooting this time as they opened fire.

"Kuro!" Mikan cried.

The entire warehouse was suddenly enveloped in black, and then it was sucked right back up into the boy, revealing wisps of black mist-like substance floating through the air. All of the bullets that had been fired had been caught up inside it, jammed inside the shadow.

"You wanted to know my Alice, right?"

Black shadows gathered at his feet as he stepped forward, blue eyes glowering menacingly, and the black mass spread upwards slowly as it flung the bullets onto the ground harmlessly.

"Then I'll tell you. I have the Shadow Control Alice."

Reo smirked, standing. "That's interesting. But you can't stand up to my Voice Pheromone Alice, can you? Release your—"

"Shiro!"

Kuro yelled his sister's name before he could finish, and a white vortex appeared on the wall behind him. A white-haired girl shot out with her feet first, zooming forward and kicking Reo in the face.

"Oh, I'm sorry," She said coldly and sarcastically as she landed on the ground next to Kuro, a mass of white light circling at her feet. "Just botched the landing, that's all."

"You little—!"

"You're late, Shiro!"

"Sorry about that."

By Reo's command this time, a new round of bullets rang out. This time, each one was stopped in midair by a mini vacuum, spreading out all throughout the air in front of them like water ripples.

Kazu emerged from Shiro's light vortex, grinning as usual and floating in the air with his headphones over his ears.

"Sup~"

"Tch, so more brats are coming," Reo muttered. "Shindou, the barrier—"

"Oh, no you don't!"

Kuro swished his hands outwards and then knelt on the ground, slamming his hands down on the floor and straight to the man with the Barrier Alice's shadow. The bodyguard jerked when he felt his shadow freeze. Before anyone could help him, Shiro was there, having passed by Reo without the superstar even noticing, and she leaped into the air, slamming her heel into his head harshly. He passed out on the ground, the barrier dissipating entirely.

"Not bad."

Reo smirked as he activated his Alice to initiate a command, but he had just opened his mouth—

He froze.

My voice isn't coming out?!

Kazu smirked at him, raising his hand and summoning mini ripple-like vacuums to form words.

'You can't speak in a vacuum.'

Reo narrowed his eyes looked at the other bodyguard—

Before anyone could react, the bodyguard teleported and grabbed at the young boy roughly.

Kazu wasn't about to be caught that easily. He turned and whipped his hand up, trapping the man in a vacuum.

Reo moved forward to attack, but Kuro and Shiro grabbed him, swinging their hands, glowing black and white respectively, at their side and punching forward. A burst of power blocked Reo from interfering—

Another man moved suddenly appeared, firing a gun straight at Kazu, who instinctively moved his hand and trapped every bullet in a vacuum.

"Oh shi—"

Kazu almost cussed out loud (though no sound came out) when another man came from his left side, shoving him down. He hit his head on the ground and grimaced, accidentally losing hold on his Alice.

"Kazu!" Kuro and Shiro yelled.

Reo took the chance and issued a command.

"Don't move!"

Aside from Mikan and himself, every person in the warehouse fell to the ground immediately—even the guards.

Reo smirked at them. "The tables have turned now, huh?"

Kuro and Shiro narrowed their identical blue eyes, fingers twitching—

"Kuro! Shiro! Stop!"

Kuro, Shiro, and Kazu all winced when Kurumi's voice came through their ears loud and clear.

"But—"

The twins started to protest, but Kurumi broke them off.

"Our original mission at this school still stands. Don't reveal your true power to low life enemies as them. The two of you retreat temporarily. Kazu, make sure nothing happens to the other kids. I will fine tune plans and report back. Am I clear?"

"Yes, ma'am."

This was murmured quietly so that no one could hear, and then, without moving, both twins summoned a vortex to swallow themselves up and escape.

"So they took off without the rest of you? How nice." Reo said sarcastically.

"Yeah, those two have always been cowards~" Kazu said this nonchalantly, lying spread-eagle on his back.

Reo turned his attention to his men, commanding them to get up and struggling with the command, and the man with the Barrier Alice woke up as well, reaffirming a barrier around the warehouse.

"You…" Natsume managed to get the words out. "Why did you come?"

"Obviously to save you, stupid."

"Does the academy know?"

"No duh. Ojou's the one who gave me orders though."

"Are you okay?" Mikan went around touching all of them gently to make sure they were okay, releasing them of the voice command while she was at it.

Natsume sighed. "Listen. When I give the signal, all of you run for that door."

"But—"

"If any of you manage to get away, figure out a way to tell the academy about this place."

"Wait...you're in no condition to run!" Mikan protested.

"I can manage on my own. It's your own fault for following me here, and as much as I want to ditch you guys, knowing you're going to be sold doesn't sit well with me, okay?"

Mikan, Sumire, and Kazu all looked at him.

Kazu sat up and grinned. "All right~"

Natsume evidently didn't like that frivolous smile on his face, but it was the same as always, so he accepted it. "Let's do this."

The moment the guards turned away from them for a brief moment, Natsume yelled, "Go!" and the two girls took off in a hurry.

"Hey! They're escaping!"

The moment the guards went to chase after the girls, Natsume held his hand out towards the wall and demanded, "Don't move!"

Every person froze.

"Move even one finger and I'll detonate the dynamite that's on the other side of the warehouse," He threatened.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Reo stepped forward. "You don't have the strength to ignite a warehouse that far away. Not while you're inside this barrier."

"But I do…" Natsume raised a hand. "Want to try me?"

A flame sparked.

When Mikan and Sumire stood speechless, watching, as well, he ordered to them, "Hurry up and go!" and they quickly turned and ran out the door.

Then he sighed and looked at Kazu, floating on a vacuum next to him. "And why are you still here?"

"I never said I'd go. I said it's okay that you don't feel well about those two being sold," Kazu replied nonchalantly. "Besides, my orders were to make sure that everyone gets out safe. There's help coming, so I'm not worried about those two."

"Hurry up and get out of here."

"That's my line, you stupid injured person."

So, um, yeah...*Looks aside awkwardly again. I'm really sorrrrrrry~!

Though I don't know if anyone cares.

Kurumi: Whether or not anyone cares...author-san...

Chikage: Gah, I know! I'll finish it, don't kill me! Why am I getting threatened by my own characters?!

With that said, Tomomi Chikage, signing off~! I might return to weekly updates...or not...it depends.