Hi everyone! The long anticipated wait is over! This is finally a new chapter after so many years. It's a bit longer than the rest and I hope you enjoy it! Please leave a review letting me know your thoughts as it means a lot to me!
Chapter 24: Kyousaku; Challenge
Mikan swirled the light purple Alice stone in her hand while deep in thought. She had been at the bottom of the ocean for two days and the fact that there was only 4 days left, was not a comforting thought.
Looking at the stone in her hand, she decided to activate it. Concentrating on it, a figure materialised before her eyes.
A young man, around the age of Ruka and Natsume, bowed low and kissed her hand.
"Hime-sama." The young man serenade.
The corners of Mikan's lips twitched upwards, what else could she expect from Tono-senpai's Alice stone.
"How may I address you?" Mikan asked the young man who was now staring at her.
"Anything that suits your fancy, my lovely lovely hime-sama. I can be anything you want… anything except the name 'Tono'." The Alice stone wrinkled his nose at the mention of Tono's name.
"It's funny how much you dislike him, though, you're from him." Mikan tried reasoning with the stone.
"Tch, just because I'm from him, doesn't mean I have to like him. Like they say princess, there cannot be two tigers on the mountain."
Mikan felt much happier in the presence of this Alice stone. His demeanour was similiar Tono's, no matter how much the Alice stone hated it, and that brought some comfort to her in this foreign place.
"In fact I was always telling him that he should change his sense of fashion. Look at that odious long hair that he has!" The Alice stone flicked his long hair around to make his point, "it's always trapping dirt and flying here and there during training. You know how hard it is to-"
The Alice stone was cut off his sentence midway and was now staring off into the distance.
Mikan stood up in concern. Walking over to him, she waved her hands in front of him.
"Erm… Senpai's stone?"
He snapped back, "I told you, don't call me anything that is remotely related to him."
"Aki it is then."
"But that's part of Tono's surname…"
"But your character reminds me of autumn. A little cool and beautiful."
"Hmm… if you say so, I shall gladly-" Again, he was cut off mid-sentence.
"Aki-san? AKI-SAN!" Mikan rushed over and shook him hard as she saw his eyes roll backwards. This was very unusual of an Alice stone.
Snapping back again, he huffed and puffed, as if just running a marathon.
"What happened Aki?" Mikan pressed.
Aki avoided her gaze and tried smiling, "nothing. It's nothing! Don't need to worry about-"
Again his eyes glazed over and he stopped responding to Mikan.
Pushing her hand into her pouch, she grabbed a bright green stone and called upon its dweller.
"What's happening?! Why is Aki behaving like that?!" Mikan urgently asked the elderly lady as she materialised.
"I think… this is just a theory since I'm a stone formed after death…"
"What is it?"
"I think, his owner is suffering some form of physical pain. Usually the Alice stone, if removed intentionally, is able to sense when the real body is in danger. If so, it would conserve energy in his stone form to aid the suffering main body." Aoi explained.
Aki snapped back again and seeing how worried Mikan was looking at him, he knew he was in no position to side step her questions as he tried.
"Oh, I see you have another friend. Hello beautiful lady." Aki gently took the elderly lady's right hand and was about to place a peck on it before Mikan pulled him up by the collar.
"Tell me what is happening to Tono-senpai." Mikan growled.
Aki waved his hand, trying to dismiss her concerns, "I told you, it's nothing. He just wanted a talk with me."
"About?" Mikan narrowed her eyes. Just like Tono, his Alice stone was good at avoiding questions.
"He wants me to aid you in your journey and not cause any problems with my… actions."
"You're not answering the question. What is happening to Tono-senpai?"
Seeing how determined the princess was, the Aki let out a sigh, "I told him it'd be useless to keep it from you…"
"Aki!"
"Yes ma'am. He's being whipped at this moment."
Being hauled out of their cells in the evening, the King's Guard were wary of where they were being taken as it was the first time that they were leaving their cells. Cautiously enjoying the ability to stretch their legs, they were chained in a straight line and warned not to attempt anything. With Tono chained at the head of the line, they were marched into the empty courtyard.
Upon reaching the courtyard, the King's Guard noted that Kuonji was sitting on an armchair with one hand on his face. Despite the dimming light from the sun, the grin on Kuonji's face was hard to ignore.
"Good evening gentlemen," Kuonji drawled on lazily.
"Never took you to be a person who was a romantic Kuonji." Tono acidly replied.
Kuonji stood up and waved his hands, at that command, the chains that held the King's Guards in a line were unlocked and dropped to the ground.
"Laugh all you want Akira… we'll see who gets the last laugh after this."
Rubbing their wrist where the chains once were, the men looked suspiciously on at Kuonji.
"What's your purpose in bringing us out here?" Tono questioned.
"I like you Akira. You're always asking the right questions despite being an insufferable brat," Kuonji looked on at Tono then a guard proceeded to draw a straight line in chalk on the courtyard. "Those with who are Alice wielders, step forward to the white line."
The men refused to move. "Whatever for do you want to know that information?" One of the King's Guard spoke up but was punched hard in his gut.
"You know I'm not a patient man. I will repeat one more time. Those with an Alice, step forward." Kuonji repeated his command and sat down on his armchair.
When Kuonji saw that no one was making a move, he raised his voice, "seems like you won't follow instructions. Well, how about I show you what happens to those that defy me. Bring him out!"
The men turn their heads to the gates that led out of the courtyard towards the palace and saw 2 guards dragging a battered-up man. Seemingly unable to walk by himself, the head of the man hung low and he was pulled roughly by the two burly guards. Walking to the space in front of Kuonji, the guards threw the prisoner onto the ground and he bounced off the concrete with a thud.
"Lift his head." Kuonji continued and upon seeing the face of the man, everyone in the King's Guard gasped.
Tono's eyes were wide and his whole body was shaking with rage, "Sakurano…?"
The man's face was beaten and swollen. The areas around his left eye were bulging out and turning purple, but the man's piercing grey eyes were hard to forget.
"Hey… Tono…" Sakurano whispered through battered breath.
"What happened to you?! We tried looking for you, but we couldn't find you before nutcase here decided to lock us all up in the dungeon." Tono wanted answers from his lost comrade.
After the palace was overrun, the King's Guards were outnumbered by those loyal to Kuonji and they had no choice but to surrender. However, Tono held out hope that Sakurano made it out safely. Every passing day that Sakurano went missing was taken as a good sign to Tono.
"Whatever happens, do NOT give in to Kuonji." Sakurano choked out before coughing out blood.
"Shhhh… I have my ways of getting what I want." Kuonji's eyes flashed dangerously to the men standing in front of him, "One last chance. If you have an Alice, step forward."
"Don't!" Sakurano managed to shout out before he was gagged and punched twice in the face.
"Enough with this game. Get Akira." Kuonji instructed and the black-haired command was hauled roughly from the group and brought to one of the training posts in the center of the courtyard. Chaining his hands above his heads, one of the guards stood beside him and another proceeded to bring out a long whip from the box beside the training post.
Kuonji nodded and the guard holding the long whip raised his hand and lashed out once at Tono. Not being able to see what was happening behind him, Tono cried out in pain at the whip that licked his skin, leaving a bright red strip cutting horizontally across his back under his shirt. Seeing that still no one moved, Kuonji nodded again and Tono was whipped hard by the guard.
"If I want to keep my commanding officer alive, I'd move to that white line." Kuonji smirked evilly. "Continue whipping him until we have all the men with Alices."
With that command, the other guard took up another whip and both guards whipped Tono mercilessly, ignore the fact that his thin shirt was starting to tear from all the whipping. Tono initially tried to keep himself from shouting out in pain, but with two people lashing deeply into his skin, the pain was too much to bear and his knees buckled.
At this stage, ten men had already stepped forward and more were starting to step forward as they saw the blood drip from the inflicted wounds.
"NOBODY ELSE MOVE!" Tono shouted through gritted teeth.
The men looked guiltily at each other. "We're sorry sir." And more stepped to the line.
Kuonji, enjoying the scene before him, let out a chuckle. "Continue."
The whipping commenced again and Tono's thin shirt offered no more protection as it hung limply on his body. Upon the last man standing on the line, Kuonji raised his hands to signal the men to stop whipping.
Getting off from his seat, Kuonji walked to where Tono was crouching down and whispered into his ear, "Like I said, I always get what I want." Seeing the fury flash in Tono's purple eyes as he whipped his head to face Kuonji's, Kuonji patted Tono on his head and gave out further instructions, "bring them to the mines. The rest, throw them back into the dungeons."
"What about Akira Sir?" One of the guards asked.
"Take him to the mines as well. SUBARU!" Kuonji yelled and a purple haired young man wearing spectacles ran up to him, "Treat Akira's and Sakurano's wounds and ensure that they're fit to work in the mines in 2 days."
The guards unchained Tono's hands and roughly threw him. Unable to steady himself, Tono fell on his back and screamed out in pain as his skin flattened onto the ground. His men tried to throw off their guards to help their commanding officer, but they were beaten brutally with the back of the swords.
"Breathe." Subaru instructed.
Through his ragged breathing, Tono glared at the young physician, "easy for you to say when your skin isn't burning from the salt from the ground."
"Talking less would help. I'm going to lift you up and it's going to hurt." Subaru looked towards Sakurano and noted that the guards had taken off the chains on his feet but not from his hands. Sighing internally, he made a mental note to come back for the other red-headed prisoner.
"Yeah yeah do what you- HOLY FISH NUGGETS!" Tono yelled as he was peeled off the ground and lifted onto Subaru's back, fireman style.
"I thought I said talking less would help. How are you still conscious from getting all that lashing?" Subaru asked while walking to the infirmary.
Tono laughed weakly, "I gotta put on a good show for Kuonji. For my men. But to tell you the truth, I'm starting to see some black dots in my vision."
Quickening his pace, Subaru threw open the infirmary doors and was greeted by an exhausted Narumi attending to those injured in the army.
"Leave him there with your Alice. Go get Sakurano." Narumi instructed and placing Tono gently onto a chair, Subaru thrust his Alice stone into Tono's hands, just enough to close the wounds on his injured back before leaving to get Sakurano.
However, when he reached the courtyard, there was a hooded figure hovering over Sakurano's body. His first reaction was to charge head on and knock him over, but Subaru was stopped in his tracks when the figure turned around and the upper half of his face was covered with a white mask.
"I'll take him." The masked man spoke.
Subaru noted the silver hair poking out from under the hood and despite the statement, he continued to walk cautiously towards Sakurano's unconscious body.
"Who are you?" Subaru asked.
"A friend. Give me a bit of your Alice and I'll bring him to safety."
"Can I just make sure he's not in any critical danger?" Subaru requested and the young man nodded, allowing his braid to slip from behind his mask as proof to Subaru that he could be trusted.
Checking to ensure that Sakurano was relatively healthy and has not lost too much blood, Subaru healed him a little before conjuring his attention into producing a tear-drop sized Alice stone.
"He needs to rest for 3 days, and a meal with lots of protein." Subaru instructed before handing the silver-haired visitor his stone.
"All right. You best be getting far away from here. I'm going." The man hoisted Sakurano on his shoulders.
"Look out for them please." Subaru looked pleadingly, "especially… my sister."
The man nodded and disappeared with a pop sound. With him gone, it seemed that a barrier had also disappeared, and Subaru realized that he could hear the ambient sounds from the palace. Before when he was checking on Sakurano, the space was devoid of any environmental sound.
Staring at the place where the man teleported from. Subaru wiped his hands on his pants and proceeded back to the infirmary to attend to Tono, thinking of a plausible excuse to tell Kuonji why Izumi's personal bodyguard was missing from the palace.
Natsume thought it was a futile effort if the group were to travel back to the graveyard where they had been attacked the day before just so the princess could 'test out her hunch'. However, Mikan was relentless in her request and with time running out for them, they didn't have much choice but to follow. Not wanting a repeat of the previous incident, Nobara brought along a small group of guards.
Reaching the edge of the darkened waters, Reo raised his hands and the group halted.
"So what is this theory of yours?" Reo turned his body to face hers, keeping his senses peeled for any stray Mononoke.
Mikan wringed her hands; after seeing Tono's Alice stone behave weirdly, she knew she was running out of time. The whole night she tried to accept the fact that she had the nullification Alice and spent some time thinking about how she could return Nobara's Alice to water.
"I have a theory, but it's not something you're going to like." Mikan looked at the Aqua Shinigami.
Running his hand through his hair, Reo replied, "Let's hear it."
"I could use my nullification Alice. Maybe Nobara-hime's Alice turns to ice because there's too much power going into it. If I could help her to act as an external regulator, the product when she uses her Alice would be water instead of Ice." Mikan explained.
Everyone in the group nodded in agreement. It was plausible explanation, but there was one issue.
Mikan grasped her hands tightly, "But… I don't know how to activate my Alice."
"It's not your fault honey. You lived your whole life not knowing you had an Alice." Misaki swam up beside her and took Mikan's hands in hers.
"I tried to activate it last night, but I'm not sure if I was doing it right, considering that I had nothing to nullify. I even asked some of the Alice stones for help, but all they could tell me was that it's not like activating an Alice stone." Mikan looked down sadly.
Yoichi looked around at the dead floating around. Using his Alice was an innate ability and he never had to think about what it entails. No one had to teach him how to activate it or deactivate it, it was all natural and with years of practice, he could tell when his body was near exhaustion as his Alice usage was taxing him.
"Trust yourself." A soft voice echoed in Mikan's mind and she gripped the katana at her side.
"Let's test it now." Reo suddenly said and he activated his Alice. Reo's red eyes started glowing and Misaki, who was beside Mikan, suddenly had a dazed look on her face.
Letting go of Mikan's hands, Misaki started swimming slowly towards the graveyard where there were a lot of dead merpeople swimming about. From the darkness of the water, screeching could be heard and Yoichi noted two Mononoke rising from the ocean's floor.
"What are you doing?!" Yoichi asked Reo, but was ignored by the man who kept on singing.
Not liking what he was seeing, Tsubasa attempted to knock Reo out, but was stopped by the guards who raised their weapons threateningly at him. Yoichi and Natsume noted how the Mononoke had yet to realise the presence of fresh prey swimming towards them.
"Reo, cut it out." Natsume warned his fellow Shinigami.
However, Reo used his Alice on Natsume and Natsume was soon following behind Misaki like a drugged person. Nodding his head, the other guards swan towards Yoichi and held him down.
"Reo! Enough!" Nobara shook Reo but Reo gently pushed her aside.
"To save your friends, nullify my Alice. If you don't, the Mononoke will have a feast." Reo turned to face the duo who stopped swimming in midair and began singing again. Without any control over their own bodies, Misaki's and Natsume's tails flicked powerfully and they were swimming faster towards the 2 mononoke.
"I can't! I don't know what it feels like to activate my own Alice!" Mikan pleaded.
Yoichi couldn't take his eyes of the hypnotized pair and he could see the Mononoke swimming agitatedly around the graveyard grounds, sensing that their prey were coming closer. Their screeching grew more frequent and the pitches grew higher.
"Trust yourself." Again the soft voice spoke out to Mikan.
Swimming frantically to Reo's side, Mikan grabbed his arm and willed her Alice to stop Reo's singing. But Reo kept singing and he looked sadly at her.
"Please! Stop! Don't do this to them!" Mikan pleaded.
Tsubasa struggled to break free from the guards but they skillfully wrestled him into submission in the waters. "Hey dude, what will you achieve from killing the princess's maid and her supposed guide?"
Stopping to answer the question, Reo stopped singing and once again Misaki and Natsume were suspended mid journey towards the Mononoke.
"She has to activate her Alice. We don't have 16 years for her to learn. We're running out of time and if she fails here, then she wouldn't need a guide anyway. The world would be enveloped in chaos and everything will slowly cease to be." Reo replied the furious Tsubasa.
Turning to look at Mikan, Reo sternly commanded her, "Activate it!"
Reo begun singing again and this time, he was singing faster, causing Misaki and Natsume to swim at a faster rate. Yoichi noted that the Mononoke had sensed the duo's presence and started to swim frantically towards them.
"Mikan-hime, the mononoke! They've sensed Misaki and Natsume and are closing in on them!" Yoichi shouted.
"100 meters!" Yoichi urgently informed Mikan.
"STOP! PLEASE!" Mikan was screaming and gripping Reo's arm. In her mind, the kept screaming for it all to end but nothing seemed to happen.
"50 meters!"
"STOP IT! MY FRIENDS! I CAN'T DO IT! I CAN'T DO IT!"
"20 meters!"
"You can do it."
"10 meters!"
Suddenly Mikan felt warmth surge through her as she screamed out loud. Reo's singing was suddenly silenced and the hypnotized duo stopped swimming towards the charging Mononoke. Once they regained consciousness, Natsume noted the clawing hands tearing through the water towards him and Misaki. Grabbing Misaki's hands, Natsume gave his tail a powerful flick and propelled the both of them to safety.
"Grab them when I tell you to!" Yoichi shouted at Tsubasa, who was released by the guards.
Once the Mononoke swan out of the darkened waters, their shadows were faintly cast on the ocean floor and upon command, Tsubasa darted down towards the ground and plunged two daggers into the positions instructed by Yoichi. While he couldn't see anything, Tsubasa trusted Yoichi and looked up immediately to see Yoichi breathe out a huge sigh of relief.
Swimming hard towards Mikan and Reo, Natsume was furious. Firstly, because he was just used as a prop to get Mikan's Alice to work. Secondly, because he hated Reo threatening the princess like that. As he was about the throttle Reo, Nobara gave Reo a very hard punch in the face, throwing his body away from Mikan's deathly grip on his arm.
Mikan opened her eyes and was jolted back to reality when she saw Reo flying away from her. Suddenly Natsume swam protectively in front of her, putting himself between Reo and herself.
"Are you ok?" Natsume grunted at her while keeping his gaze on Reo.
"Yeah I am… but huh?" Feeling a foreign object in her hand, Mikan slowly opened it to reveal a coin sized pink Alice stone.
"YOU OVERSTEPPED YOUR BOUNDARIES REO!" Nobara shrilled at Reo.
Reo rubbed the spot where he was just punched and calmly stated, "but I got her to use her Alice. And looks like we discovered something new about her as well. She's got a bit of my Alice in her hand."
Nobara whipped her head around to see Mikan admiring the pink stone against the light.
"Wha- Did she…?" Nobara began.
"Steal my Alice? Yes." Reo affirmed Nobara's suspicion.
"Impossible." Mikan gasped out loud.
Misaki and Tsubasa joined Mikan, examining the stone that was being passed around. In Misaki's hands, she activated the Alice stone and an exact doppleganger of Reo appear, bowed, then disappeared.
"You did. Somehow." Nastume was equally as confused as Mikan.
"Just like your mother!" Misaki excitedly exclaimed.
"But how?" Mikan struggled to comprehend the situation. She didn't have an Alice for 16 years and suddenly yesterday she found out she had the nullification Alice. Today she discovered that she had the stealing Allice?
Nobara started to take a guess, "perhaps your nullification Alice was suppressing your stealing Alice. For all you know, you could have more Alices. But one thing is for sure, your nullification Alice looks to be your main Alice."
"Let's recap what we know, shall we?" Reo interrupted the serenity the group was feeling. "I apologise Mikan-hime for putting you in such a position, but it occurred to me that your Alice was activated yesterday when you felt there was an impending danger on Natsume's life. So…"
"You figured that if you were to replicate the same sense if impending doom I'd activate my nullification Alice." Mikan completed the sentence flatly.
"Correct. But little did I know that you would steal my Alice from me as well. That was out of my calculations." Reo bowed.
"You're unlikable." Mikan replied disgustingly.
Reo shrugged off the comment, "You're not the first one to tell me that."
"Maybe…" Nobara started, "maybe we can test out Mikan's theory. Either way if she nullifies part of my Alice or steals some of it, the same outcome can be achieved."
The group nodded and Nobara took Mikan's hand. Swimming to their original position at the start of the darkened water, Nobara lightly squeezed Mikan's hand.
"Is it fine to aim here?" Nobara asked and Yoichi confirmed that there were no souls swimming in that general direction.
"Here we go. I'm going to activate my Alice and once I squeeze your hand tightly, it is the moment where I am about to release it." Nobara explained to Mikan.
Feeling a smidge more confident, Mikan nodded and steadied her breathing. She recalled that when she was nullifying the ice on Natsume's body she was able to block out all surrounding sounds and could hear Natsume's heartbeat. Similarly, when she stole Reo's Alice, though she was screaming, his pounding heartbeat echoed loudly in her head and she felt her body heat up to siphon off some of his Alice.
Not wanting to cancel out Nobara's Alice, Mikan told herself that she was only to nullify the effects. Reminding her body to only nullify around 20%, she closed her eyes and Nobara's heartbeat sounded in her mind. Then she felt a tight squeeze.
"20%... 20%... only 20%..."
Mikan relaxed her body and opened her eyes to see an ice block shoot out from Nobara's hands.
"It… it didn't work." Mikan commented as the block of ice dropped onto the ocean floor with a soft thud.
"No… it did. The ice… it was smaller." Natsume commented.
Tsubasa scratched his head, "what did you do?"
Flexing her hands, Mikan replied, "I just told myself around 20% of my nullification powers, otherwise I might end up nullifying Nobara-hime's Alice completely."
"Try 50%." Reo dictated.
Not liking the tone Reo was giving her, Mikan narrowed her eyes to look at the Shinigami. Wanting him to incinerate in front of her, Nobara gave Mikan's hand a comforting squeeze.
"Let's try again." The ice princess smiled at Mikan.
"Aim around 2 o'clock. There's an opening there." Yoichi chipped in and kept an eye out on the wandering souls.
Stretching out her hand, Nobara took in a deep breath and concentrated on activating her Alice. Again, Mikan steadied her breathing and felt herself entering a trance with the sound of Nobara's heartbeat hammering in her ears.
"50%. Come on. Let it work this time round! 50%!"
Before she could open her eyes, Mikan no longer heard Nobara's heartbeat but instead the sound changed to a light tinkling, as if it was raining glass shards as they bounced off each other. Then she felt the slightly cool waters rush past her body.
Opening her eyes, she saw how the water was finally moving. The darkened waters were being swept away by the new water current produced by Nobara's outstretched hands. Sunlight from above them started to slowly illuminate the once dark graveyard.
"Nobara-hime…" Mikan squeezed her hand gently. "Open your eyes."
"Is it… is it working? The water feels different." Nobara hesitantly replied back, reluctant to open her eyes.
"Hime. Open your eyes. It worked." Reo gently touched Nobara's shoulder and she dared to open her eyes.
She was met with glistening clean water which sparkled with the light from the sun. Nobara noted how the water felt lighter and the darkness which was being carried to the surface slowly evaporated and disappeared. Her heart was calm, then environment held less tension and pain. Once she saw all the darkened water clear from the graveyard, Nobara lowered her left hand and watched the waters clear up. Slowly coming into her vision, she could see translucent figures smiling at her as they swam to the surface.
"Are those…" Nobara began.
"The souls. Yes. They're the ones who were trapped here. They're thanking you." Yoichi explained.
"Thanking me for?"
"They're saying that they're glad to move on to the afterlife, glad that they're not going to turn into mononoke."
Nobara clasped her hands together with happiness and said a little prayer for them.
"It worked. IT WORKED!" Realising that she had managed to purify the waters, Nobara grasped both of Mikan's hands and twirled her round and round.
"Thank you Mikan! Thank you! The souls can finally rest in peace!" Nobara had tears of happiness in her eyes.
Mikan, in shock that her plan had worked, giggled happily along with Nobara. However, the group's happiness was cut short by Misaki's question.
"What about the Mononoke?" Misaki inquired, "What about those frozen at the bottom?"
The group looked down and noted that the previously frozen blocks are still present.
"Some of the souls are still trapped. The Mononoke are also inside those blocks of ice. They're trying to break free." Yoichi explained.
Reo and Natsume looked down at the fallen souls. They could see the innocent ones looking longingly at the others who were being carried to the surface by the water's current.
"Which ones have souls that can move on?" Mikan asked.
Yoichi pointed to a block of ice that was just ahead of her. Swimming up to it, she placed her hand on the block of ice.
"It's a long shot, but I'll try." Mikan commented before attempting to activate her stealing Alice.
Slowly the ice melted away and once it was completely melted, Mikan opened her eyes and in her palm was a tiny pale-blue stone.
"It worked. That soul is free." Yoichi smiled at Mikan. Then he swam over to the next ice block and indicated that there was another innocent soul trapped within. One by one, Mikan moved to each ice block indicated by Yoichi and the pale-blue stone in her palm grew larger and larger. When they were all finished, 20 ice blocks remained.
Handing Nobara the pale-blue stone, Nobara reabsorbed her Alice and she glowed slightly before looking back at Mikan.
"What about those?" Mikan indicated to the 20 ice blocks.
Nobara raised her hands and concentrated hard, but instead of ice coming out from her hands, a portal opened before them.
Out stepped a man completely clad in black, except the white mask that covered the top half of his face. Instead of having a tail like everyone else, the man had both his legs and was floating easily in the water. The portal behind him revealed a dimly lit corridor, with dark blue and red flames dancing eerily on their torches.
"I see you have guest, Nobara." The man grinned at the large group.
Feeling an ominous sensation in his gut, Natsume moved in front of Mikan while Reo moved in front of Nobara.
"Ahhh… the shinigamis… doing their best to protect their mistresses. Brings such warmth to my heart, despite your little antics Nobara-hime." The man drawled.
"What do you want?" Reo hissed.
The man stretched his arms and pointed lazily to the 20 ice blocks. "You going to keep those for decoration?"
Reo shook his head jerkily.
"That's why I was… summoned or so you can say. I always had a soft spot for Nobara-chan. Anyone else doing this would have their heads sliced cleanly off their necks." The man chuckled evily. "Now let me do some housekeeping for you."
With a snap of his fingers, the portal opened again, and the man looked eagerly at Nobara.
"I'd need some help Nobara-chan. Be a dear and use your Alice to move those into my place will you?"
Nobara raised her left hand again and started to activate her Alice.
"Oh… do be careful not to repeat the little boo boo that happened the last time. Also, let go of her hand Sakura-chan."
Instinctively, Mikan let go of Nobara's hands and looked at the mysterious man. She knew that Sakura was the name of the little girl, but that was not her name. Why did her refer to her as such?
Lost in her thought, she snapped out of it when she saw Nobara manipulating the water such that the 20 frozen mononoke drifted effortlessly into the portal that the man had opened.
"Wait… I'm not holding her hand. So who is nullifying the freezing effects of Nobara-hime's ice Alice?"
"Surprise surprise." The man remarked after the 20 ice blocks disappeared from sight in the portal. He was expecting a bigger response but felt annoyed that no one understood what he was trying to get at.
"When you were holding her hand to nullify the effects, you not only nullified the effects of the ice, but you inserted part of your Alice into her. That's why Nobara-chan no longer produces ice from her hands when she activates her Alice."
The group turned to look at Mikan.
"I inserted my nullification Alice into Nobara-hime?" Mikan repeated dumbly.
Rolling his eyes, the man just nodded.
"I have 3 Alices?!" Mikan exclaimed.
"The more to help you in this quest I guess." The man shrugged and walked towards the portal.
"Thank you." Nobara meekly called out to the man.
"Anything for you." He bowed low and his cloak swept backwards. Straightening his body, he looked at Mikan then Natsume. "I'll see you both soon."
Stepping into the portal, it closed shut behind him and the group couldn't believe what just happened. Everyone started chattering and trying to determine who the mysterious man was, bombarding Nobara with many questions. But she raised her right hand and they all fell silent.
"It is not my part to say. However," Nobara stretched out her left hand, "you have earned this." In her hand, a turquoise stone shone brightly.
The katana by Mikan's side hummed slightly and Mikan drew the sword from its scabbard. Taking the stone from Nobara's outstretched hand, Mikan brought the stone closer to the top groove. The sword hummed even louder, and the stone flew out from Mikan's hand, attaching itself and sitting nicely in its predetermined position. The humming stopped and the stone glowed a soft blue hue.
Smiling at the sword, Mikan looked at her companions, "1 down. 3 more to go!"
Hope you like this new chapter! Please remember to leave a review! The next chapter will take a while to be uploaded but I'll do my best to write it ASAP.