A/N: For a very special occasion, i'm updating both Chapter 13 & Chapter 14 in a row. Enjoy.

13 Small Puzzles

Yuu grinned in satisfaction as his eyes skimmed the screen before him. At last, he finally had one thing figured out. Sadly, only one thing he was able to put things together but no matter, the rest would soon follow after this. He was sure of it. He was glad that he didn't actually loose his touch in his work that he always took pride in. Anyway, he guessed the guys would be most pleased to hear what he had recently found.

But first, he frowned, he had to apologize to Ruka first thing first tomorrow morning.

His way of finding things this time, went a bit intolerable as he kind of crossed a line that he shouldn't. His curiosity was the devil inside him and it's what will get him killed later on. But believe it or not, that devil curiosity of his was also what forced his brain to expand his views in finding other alternatives available to get the answer. Hence, for a brainiac like him, his curiosity is his poison as well as his cure.

His fingers efficiently typed on the keyboard and a scanning sound was heard. He took the papers from the printer and taking the mouse in his hand, he quickly logged out of the computer and shut it down. Grabbing for his other stuff, he looked outside the window. It was almost dark. He hadn't notice he had been inside the room for hours now. He even missed the meet up by the principal's office supposedly after Ruka and Natsume came back from the infirmary. He grabbed for his phone and realized there was seven miscalls, all from his friends.

No matter, he's sure the guys had already gone back home by now. He could always phone Kitsu later on to keep update of what had happened.

Picking up his bag, he headed for the door. Closing the lights out, he went out before closing the door behind him. Tomorrow will be an interesting day.

XXX

Apparently, the news of a new library helper spread like wildfire in AA the next day. The guys were interested mostly because it was rumored that it's a hot babe in a skirt. The girls, on the other hand, were thrilled because the rumored girl turned out to be their previously lovable yet respectable kaichou, Mikan Sakura-sama. And thus, during break, the library was filled with students.

And someone ain't too happy about this whole situation.

Mikan glanced at her brother who sat next to her at the counter, frowning. She shook her head in dismay. If he didn't like it here, he should have gone back to his class instead. Why on earth would he be here during recess anyway?

Mikan handed the book she just stomped to the student in front of her. She glanced at the girl's nametag. "Remember Misa-chan, it's due next week. So don't forget to return it back before that." She smiled and the said girl blushed scarlet red, nodding her head vigorously while taking her book before hurriedly scurried away like a girl had just seen her crush for the longest time.

Seeing all that with his own eyes, Youichi scoffed and Mikan sent him a glare. "If you can't be nice, don't be here. Go back to your class, You-chan."

Youichi rolled his green eyes and turned to look at her. "What kind of weird pheromones are you using?"

Mikan gave him an odd stare. "What?" What's he talking about?

"Even the girls' eyes are following you everywhere." He motioned around them. All the tables were packed with students. Most of them were girls and they were all looking at her with eyes struck in love. All the while, sighing to themselves. Truth be told, Youichi was annoyed to the end. He couldn't understand why they all were there to begin with. They filled the entire space, doing nothing but stare at his sister.

"I don't know you're bisexual," he added.

Mikan glared at him menacingly. "Such foul mouth," she warned and hit his head with a book she was holding. "Just go away already."

Youichi pretended to ignore her and put his head on his arms, wanting to take a nap for a moment. Mikan saw that, so she just sighed and smiled, ruffling his hair in the process. Seemed like her little brother's still worried about her being around AA.

"Why the place is so packed today? I thought our library is a ghost town." Kitsu frowned, his eyes looking around the room. Ruka had managed to drag them all to the library today, for some reason. But it wasn't that surprising. He always suggested the quiet library for a short meet up because he said, for an obvious reason; for sure they would not be bothered by any disturbance. Kitsu rolled his eyes mentally. Of course they wouldn't be disturbed here. It's a freaking ghost town after all.

"I'm guessing the new doll is the reason why this ghost town got so many visitors today," Koko said boredly. His eyes gazed upon the brunette who was at the counter, paying full attention to another girl who was now handing her a book with trembling hands. "I see the girls are enjoying the view of Mikan Sakura," he finally added in an as a matter-of-fact tone.

"Hmm," Kitsu joined the view as well. "It makes one wonder even more why they are so fond of her," he commented.

Koko let out a heavy sigh. "My curiosity is killing me." He buried his face in his arms. "Where is Yuu anyway? I haven't seen him at all today." His muffling voiced had Kitsu strained his neck at him for better hearing. "Our brains all combined are nothing compared to his." He said tiredly, like his hope to live today had died out.

Ruka, who was sitting at the same table with them with an open book in front of him, shrugged in response. "I hardly see him as well. I doubt he came to school today."

Kitsu furrowed his brows. "That's rather odd. Yuu doesn't skip class unless.." he paused for awhile to ponder. Unless what exactly? He had never heard his friend skipped any classes before. He always got full attendance every year. "Well, unless he died.." he trailed off. "..I think," he added confusedly at last.

"It seems my absence is thoroughly missed by the lot of you," a voice came from the door.

And Koko was nothing but happy. When his head snapped to the figure coming through the door, it appeared his lack of enthusiasm had finally revived. He had this merry look on his face like a kid who was thrilled to see his mother came to pick him up from daycare. "Yuuuuu! I missed you!" he cried out with his arm wide open, wanting to jump and embrace his good friend.

Yuu reached out his hand to push Koko, who was trying to hug him, away. The baka was persistent. "Forgive me, but I preferably do not choose to enjoy your current affection, Koko." He emphasized and shoved him away. "So do you mind? I'm slightly tired today." He yawned widely.

Koko faked a wounded look and forced himself to take a seat again. Yuu followed in and took next to him. "It sounded more harsh when you put it in that nice tone, Yuu," he said sulkily.

Yuu could barely care about his friend's feelings right now. He was dead tired. "I didn't realized what time it was when I finally dozed off but safe to say, I overslept this morning," he explained before letting out a big yawn again. "I got caught by Jinno and so he gave me detention after school for that." He placed his chin on his arm, which was on the table.

Ruka clicked his tongue. "That's a first red mark you got in your record there, Yuu." He knew how well Yuu kept his record clean. He was the good student kind of type.

Yuu sighed. "I supposed you couldn't do anything about it." He looked up at his friend hopefully.

The blonde kaichou shook his head apologetically. "I fear not."

He gave out a heavy sigh again. "No matter," he mumbled, "I think this is a more important matter." He sat up, straightened up his back and went to rummage something from his slip bag. He took a few crumpled papers out. "Uh, sorry for the mess. I was in a rush this morning. Had to grab them quickly."

He laid them out on the desk for the rest of the guys to see. They had their heads surrounded the paper, each one of them clearly had the curiousness sparked on each of their faces. "What is this?"

Yuu yawned again for the thousand time today. He tried to open his eyes wide but failed miserably. Ruka gave him a worried look. "I think you need sleep far more than anything right now." The rest of the group nodded their heads in agreement.

"Yeah, I'll take one later at the infirmary." He held his one hand dismissively. "But for now, read this." He motioned for the paper again.

The guys stared at the paper. Their eyes scanned the line one by one and creases began to form on each of their foreheads. Kitsu was the first one to speak. "I don't get it."

He shuffled the papers again. They contained some students report from AA.

Yuu held up one paper. And at the top right of the paper, it had a passport picture of a brunette, which he knew; everyone would be most definitely interested to know. "It appears that Mikan Sakura is a former student of AA." He waved the paper in front of their eyes. See here?" With his other hand, his finger pointed to the name and photo. "Mikan Sakura."

Kitsu's eyes bulged out so big, Yuu thought he had never seen his friend's eyes that big. Kitsu's soul might had flown somewhere due to the shock because he suddenly looked rigid. He felt sorry for his friend. Koko, on the other hand, was so dumbstruck, he snatched the paper from Yuu's hands to take a closer look. His eyes stared at the name and slowly creases formed on his smooth forehead.

"Holy shit." It was the first word he muttered after he pushed the paper away. His shoulders sagged against the chair he's sitting. He ran a hand through his hair in disbelief. "That is really her. Crap, this is happening huh."

Ruka, well, he was shocked. That is to be expected, of course. He looked at the paper on the desk which had now looked almost as dead as Kitsu's face right now. He picked the paper up and scanned the entire details. His brows rose as he slowly sunk everything in. Well, now some pieces of the puzzle finally made sense.

"So it turns out Mikan Sakura is Principal Kazumi's niece." He nodded at the info. "That explains the entire scene in his office last few days." His brows mashed together when he noticed something on the paper. "Wait—what? She's.." He turned to Yuu for an explanation. He scowled when he saw his friend was smiling knowingly at him like he finally had figured everything out. "So that's why the girls are so fond of her?" He asked Yuu but it was more of a statement than a question.

Kistu blinked, his soul finally descending from outer space back to the real world. "She's what?" His voice was low and chocked, like the air pressure from outer space had not left him yet. He looked at Yuu and Ruka back and forth. "Did I miss something?" His gaze finally settled on Yuu—since he's the one who brought the papers in.

"You know that AA was previously an elite all-girls academy?" Yuu asked and Kitsu nodded. Heck, everyone knows that. That's why a large number of them were so excited to transfer here. A harem, they'd said. Yuu gave him a languid grin. "Mikan Sakura was AA's previous kaichou."

Apparently, again, it was too much to take in for a poor heart Kitsu. Ruka and Yuu thought they had lost Kitsu's soul again when they realized his eyes went big before his body went stiff again.

Yuu suddenly felt bad for his friend. "Maybe I should have told him differently." He looked guiltily at Ruka. "Maybe in a softer way so that his soul won't flew away again." Ruka chuckled and set the paper down. He waved a hand infront of Kitsu's face but no response came. His friend was totally lost for the time being. "Don't bother. He's still gonna get shock regardless in what way you told him." He shrugged. "Kitsu is vulnerable to anything that gave him a shock, man."

"Even I feel like jumping off a cliff right now," Koko cutting in. Everything had sunk in Koko's mind. One thing after another began clicking and gradually the small puzzles started to resolve by itself. But Koko was hyperventilating at the whole thing. "Fucking hell, guys! This is too much to take in! Who would have thought that she..and even as AA's kaichou!" He gripped his hair and gave the current kaichou a frantic look. "Aren't you surprise?" Koko eyed him. "You looked horribly calm and collected."

"I am surprised." Ruka shook his head at his next words. "But it's just you who only freaked out like a girl, Koko."

He frowned. "No I'm not."

Yuu joining in, nodding his head. "Panicky is for girls. It doesn't suit you, man." Ruka smirked.

His frown deepened. "Shut up. That's not cool, man." He breathed out evenly, slowly calming himself down.

"Now that everything kind of make sense—"Koko's words got cut off by Ruka. Ruka motioned for the said brunette who was currently bickering something with Hijiri at the counter. By the look of it, he assumed she was shooing Hijiri away to class and it seemed the kid was refusing. "Not everything made sense. We still haven't figure out her relationship with Hijiri."

"Ah."

The three friends turned to look at their friend who appeared to regain himself back. And it's like Hijiri's and Sakura's relationship is the key to snap him out from his reverie. Kitsu blinked his eyes rapidly and cleared his throat, acting like he wasn't just regaining his mental consciousness. "Before that, let me get this out first." He looked at Yuu. "Where did you get all this info?" He gave a glance at the paper.

Ruka looked oddly at Yuu as well.

Mikan Sakura was a part of AA once back. It's clearly stated in the paper—the words were even bold—that it was due to expulsion that she no longer an AA student now. What happened that made it like that, no one of them could guess.

But.

If expulsion were involved, these cases were supposed to be a top notch information. Not only that, Mikan Sakura is our principal's niece. More of a reason to seal the cases away.

Ruka stared at his friend. "Looking at the infos, I don't think you can easily search them in student directory, Yuu. All of these are top notch information. So how did you managed to get all these?"

Yuu pushed his glasses up his nose. "Well, about that," he started with an embarrassed smile. "I have to apologized, kaichou."

Ruka furrowed his face at him. He didn't feel good about what Yuu's about to tell.

"I checked thoroughly every crook of AA directory. They had secretly kept a base where every info in there is sealed. I had to crash the school system to get it. Since you're a kaichou, your student id can get into any one of those so yeah," he scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "I kinda use your student id to get those."

Ruka gaped at him. Apparently, he was at loss for words. But for Yuu to go that far, he bet even Yuu himself couldn't stand his own high level of curiosity. So smart kids tend to have insanely high curiously huh. Guess he should just let it slide since using his student id isn't gonna get him in trouble or anything. Even he doesn't know that his student id can get special passes through the system—let alone, he didn't even know those systems exist in first place!

"Wait wait wait," Kitsu's voice came. He was holding a bunch of papers. "What's with the rest?" He waved the papers to them. "Are all of these used to be AA students as well?"

Yuu shifted his attention to Kitsu and nodded. "Hotaru Imai as well."

Koko's eyes bulged out again. His palms hit the surface of the desk hard. "You mean that North Pole ice sculpture used to be an AA student as well?" When he sensed other people's gazes on him, he lowered his voice down and hissed, "What, if Mikan Sakura was the kaichou, was she AA vice-president?"

"No, she didn't have any special position," Ruka answered. His blue eyes scanned the words, line by line of the paper he's holding. While they were talking just now, he had managed to found the paper of Hotaru Imai. And gotta admit, he was impressed with the SA current kaichou. "But her IQ is definitely something to be amazed about." A small smile crept at the corner of his lips.

Kitsu peered from his side. "Shit, that's insane!" He mumbled when he saw the number next to the word IQ and shook his head in disbelief. "That's absolutely abnormal. She's not human, man. I'm telling you, she's not." Kitsu sat back on his seat and scowled.

Ruka laughed and patted Kitsu's back. "Don't get mad at her just because she's smarter than all of us combined, even with Yuu's."

"But still, I haven't got anything on Youichi Hijiri though," Yuu said grimly. "His files are clean and there's nothing suspicious about him either. He transferred here from overseas and his records are astounding. Good in academics and excellent in sport. Though he had a few red marks due to skipping classes but since his grades were good, his former school decided to let it slide."

Ruka nodded. "So basically, he's the model student." He furrowed his brows. "He certainly doesn't look like one," but then he sighed and slumped himself on the desk. "Though I doubted we could use that to figure out his relationship with Mikan Sakura."

Kitsu looked at his kaichou and sighed. "Kaichou, don't sprawled yourself like that. You look utterly hopeless right now. That's not an image you might want to portray."

"They look awfully close," Koko commented, digressing the topic. He tilted his head, which was on his palm, supported by his elbow on the desk, to one side. "Since we got the faintest idea, the only conclusion I have right now, they could possibly be dating."

Ruka sat up and straightened his back. But then his body slumped against the back of his chair when he tilted his head up. "Probably." His eyes didn't stray from the ceiling above. Obviously Natsume's not gonna be too happy about it.

Kitsu, who sat next to him, shook his head at his kaichou's behavior. No point in telling him to sit properly because his mind right now wasn't so himself. He turned to look at Mikan Sakura as well. "She's around our age, isn't she?"

Ruka mumbled, "Probably."

Seeing the same halfhearted reply came from his blonde friend, Kitsu grabbed for a paper before crumpling it to a small ball. He then threw it to Ruka's face. With that close distance, his aim was perfect. The paper ball hit his nose. Ruka groaned. "If you're trying to get my attention, call my name. Don't throw thrash in the library, idiot."

"Mikan Sakura is our age, isn't she?" Kitsu asked again dissatisfied. "Didn't you take a look at her info just now?"

Ruka pretended to think deep while staring at the high ceiling and then gave a short answer of "Probably."

Koko's vein twitched. "Another probably come out from your mouth, I'll smack down your head like Batista and break your neck from that chair, I swear."

Smack down? Hearing that, as if it was the funniest thing ever right now, Ruka laughed out loud while holding his stomach. His eyes tearing up. Kitsu looked around embarrassedly. "You're embarrassing us, man. Stop laughing so loud. It's not even funny."

People's gazes upon them started to increase. Kitsu already felt like inching himself down the desk. Yuu, on the other hand had settled behind a book he managed to grab on the desk—whoever it belonged to. Koko, his vein twitched angrily. "Shut up, man." But Ruka didn't stop. He continued laughing. What the effing hell is he laughing about?

Now people in the library were wondering what had gotten to their kaichou. Ruka Nogi had always put on a cool demeanor. But everyone knows, he's still a guy after all. When he's with his mates, his true persona came out. Cool persona came down, regular boy persona came out. He laughed, he made jokes, stuff regular boys do. But what in the world happened for him to laugh this loud? And on top of that, in the library?

Koko gritted his teeth. He now could sensed Mikan Sakura and Youichi Hijiri looking oddly at them. In addition to everybody else in the room. Now he felt irritated.

Koko leaned across the desk, swung his hand back and landed a smack on Ruka's head. Immediately, the laugh stopped and Ruka had his head on the desk, groaning in pain. Yuu looked apologetically at his friend who was now rubbing his head effortlessly. Kitsu was chuckling on the side, biting himself down from laughing too much. Man, Ruka had been knocked down by a single smack.

"Ruka, you're okay, man?" Yuu asked worriedly. He sent a look at Koko who was looking less apologetic for hitting his friend's head. Koko just shrugged and smirked.

"Bloody hell, Koko! That fucking hurts!" Ruka whined with a muffled voice, holding his head down.

Koko smiled a cunning smile. "Serve you right, baka. I told you to shut up. But you kept laughing like I made the greatest joke ever." He stifled a laugh. "I see an opportunity so I took it."

With teary eyes and throbbing pain, Ruka looked up and glared at his corn-haired friend. He hissed before jumping off the table and grabbed for Koko's collar. He shook it hard.

"It hurts, you crazy freak!" He bellowed and shook the collar again. He neared his face to Koko's before slamming his forehead with his own. "You could've just flicked my head instead of hitting it!"

Koko on the other hand, was trying his best pulling Ruka's face away from him. Shoving his face behind, his other hand was pulling his blonde hair from the back with all his might. "You're too close, baka! Get off!"

"Don't pull my hair, you spitz!"

"Then don't come too close, baka kaichou! And who are you calling a spitz, you cheese!"

At the other side of the room, Mikan stared at the lot oddly. They had cause quite a stir. He gave Youichi a worried look. "Are they always like that?" God, they're not gonna fight for real, are they?

Youichi shrugged. "I just transferred here, remember?"

"Don't you think someone should stop them?" She asked again.

Youichi let out a tired sigh before standing up to stretch up after looking at his watch. "Who's to stop when it's the kaichou himself was in the scene?" He then looked at the lot as well. "Plus, they still have the other two over there. I heard Yuu Tobita is the most sensible one among them so let's just let him handle things over there."

Mikan looked around. The other students were watching as well but oddly enough, they didn't seem worried so much. So is this a normal sight for them? The lot bickering and pulling collars and stuff?

Youichi suddenly scoffed. "On second thought, maybe Hyuuga would do the work faster than Tobita." His tone turned daring and mocking.

Hyuuga? Mikan snapped her head back to the lot, and already, Natsume Hyuuga was there. Standing by the desk, with both his hands holding each of the two's heads further apart from each other. He looked down at them in displeased.

"What the effing hell are you two doing?" he growled while glaring down at the two.

TBC.