oo1.

Meow.

Fluttering eyelids opened to reveal sleepy brown eyes. Mikan sighed as she woke up from her nap because of a sound. Rubbing her eyes, as she walked toward the water edge, Mikan scooped up some water to wash her face from the sleep. Wiping her hands and face, using her shirt as a makeshift towel Mikan glanced around and guessed that it was only an hour after lunch. After Mikan checked her watch to see if she was right she saw that it was only a bit over an hour since she slept, Mikan then stood up.

Snap.

Rustle.

Mikan froze. She slowly turned to the direction of where the sound was coming from, and found she was staring into ruby red eyes, peering at her through a hole in a bush near the willow tree to her right. The bush was only a few metres away but it was a bit too dark in the shade of the tree to see anything near the back and the bush covered any evidence of the identity of the creature. Assuming it was a creature that is. Mikan continued to watch this mysterious thing, for a lack of better words, as she didn't know if it was a creature or some wayward invention that had gotten lost or abandoned by some other student at Alice Academy. Assuming it wasn't dangerous Mikan tentatively took a step forward towards the direction of the thing.

Ruby red eyes stared at her seeming to be assessing her, as she got closer. It watched her take steps after steps until she was only a few feet away. Mikan got on all fours and slowly crawled towards the thing but abruptly stopped as the thing took a step out of the bush and towards her. Mikan could clearly see what it was now and to Mikan's surprise it was only a black kitten with ruby red eyes that stared at her as if she wasn't even good enough to be in its presence. It strangely reminded her of Hyuuga Natsume.

"Kawaii!" Mikan exclaimed after a moment after she finished blinking in surprise at the kitten. She then made a gesture that would have been translated as 'come here' in words towards it.

The kitten however stared back at her as if she was an idiot and promptly turned his head in another direction. Mikan gaped at the cat, before shaking her own head and determinedly got back up on two legs and took a step towards the black kitten. Who was watching her out of the corner of its eye, took a step backwards away from Mikan.

Step forward.

Step back.

Step forward.

Step back.

This continued for quite sometime around the pool area before Mikan stopped and just sat down, apparently giving up. The black kitten watched her curiously and cautiously while swishing its tail back and forth. After a few minutes of silence, the black kitten had gotten bored of watching her and instead started to lick its paw, but soon stopped as it heard some shuffling. Turning its ruby eyes back toward the direction of where the noise was, but was a bit too late as hands wrapped around its body. A little while earlier Mikan had actually stood up while the kitten was licking its paw, and started to tiptoe towards it, but before she could get even closer, it had stopped licking its paw, obvious that it had heard her. She then dove towards it and scooped the little kitten up. Triumphantly she beamed at her accomplishment, only to be met by glaring little rubies. Mikan ignored that and carried the kitten to where she had previously taken a nap at and sat down placing the kitten in her lap as she got settled.

"You know, you remind me of this guy, do you know him? His name is Hyuuga Natsume." Mikan spoke while she pets the fur of the black kitten. The kitten relaxed and closed its eyes as Mikan's gentle hand pets it.

"Although Natsume is mean most of the time to me, he's a nice guy. He helps me out sometimes, and is a good person to talk to when I have problems."

Ruby eyes peered up and blinked at her.

"It's true! Like that time when I got into an argument with the S.A class, he listened, helped me with my problem and gave me some advice, if you could call it that, I guess, he more or less just instructed me about what to do, but it's the same thing, right?" Mikan smiled down at the kitten.

"He may be mean sometimes and call me names but he's just a guy who hides behind a mask. No pun intended though."

Blink.

"Oh! Right, you don't know about it do you? Well Natsume has a black cat mask that he wears to limit his Alice you see or when he did something bad and the teachers force him to wear it as punishment." Mikan shortly explained.

The black kitten yawned.

"Oh, tired are you? Well-" Mikan stopped as she just realized something and turned her gaze towards the creature in her lap and asked.

"Don't you have an owner? Isn't that person going to be worried about you?"

The kitten made a sound that sounded like a scoff. Mikan then checked around the kitty's neck for a collar.

"No? Well, since you don't have an owner, do you want to live with me?" Mikan asked, bubbling with excitement at the prospect of having a familiar. The kitten regarded her for a moment before giving a meow as an affirmative and bumping her hand.

"Yay!" Mikan cried out and started to cuddle the poor little black kitten to death if it were not for the fact that she just remembered a little piece of information.

"You need a name." Mikan stated as she held the black kitten at arms length and looked it over.

"Are you a boy or girl? Meow if you're a boy, okay?"

Meow.

"A boy, huh?" Mikan pondered for a bit, "Hmm let's see."

"How about," Mikan said after a few minutes of thinking, " Mr. Whiskers?"

Hiss.

"No? Okay, ano, how about, Kuro?"

Scoff.

"Ruby?"

Hiss.

"Blackie?"

The little black kitten turned his back to her. After a lot of names Mikan thought up in the past twenty minutes, Mikan had apparently ran out of suitable names, so she just sat there thinking. She observed the black kitten and his behaviour, after a while, Mikan snapped her fingers.

"I know the perfect name for you!" Mikan said loudly and leaned forwards on her hands, startling the black kitten at her loud exclamation as he turned his ruby eyes back towards her, curious of what she would come up with this time.

"Akagi." Mikan beamed at the little kitten that just stared at her.

"It means, royal red, and superior, I personally think it suits you! " Mikan finished her short explanation as she waits for the kittens approval. The black kitten seemed to think this over with its tail swishing back and forth. After a few minutes had passed, Mikan was still in her previous position waiting for the kittens answer. Ten minutes passed and Mikan was still waiting with the kitten staring back at her.

"Oh! Ano, give a meow if it's yes." Mikan smiled expectantly.

Meow.

"Really? Yay! Great now-" Mikan was interrupted by another voice in the pool area besides Akagi and her. She froze, surprised that there was somebody else there.

"Shit! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late for the meeting!"

 Mikan In Wonderland 

"Otonashi Yura, what did you see, that was so urgent that you had to request to see us?"

"Your Majesties, I have seen a strange young girl, about your age from another dimension, come to Wonderland and I believe she is who will re-establish and bring prosperity back to the Heart kingdom." Otonashi Yura finished as she opened her eyes to gaze at the Queen of Diamonds and the king of Clover, after a description of her vision.

"Is that true?" Another voice inquired on the other end of the room.

"Yes it is," Otonashi Yura bowed, "Your Majesty, King of Spades."

The King of spades walked by the seer as if he didn't see her and towards where the others were reclining in their chairs bearing their own symbol of their kingdom and simply sat down in his chair, which was marked by a spade.

"Where is Ruka?" he asks the others, giving the pretence of being bored, and ignoring the seer in the process.

"I sent him on an errand, and he didn't come back yet." The queen of Diamonds dully said before turning back to the seer.

"What else did you see?"

"What else did I see? Hold on." Otonashi Yura closed her eyes and concentrated, and looked like she was rummaging through her brain, before a light bulb went on.

"She has a familiar with her." She simply said.

"Is there anything else? Like how this girl looks like? What she's wearing? Anything?" The king of Clover questioned the seer, while leaning slightly forward, with a curious expression on his face.

"Nothing else," Otonashi Yura, hesitated before continuing, "I am sorry you majesty but, that is all I can see any further, as my vision soon got more and more blurry as I try more harder to see into the future of the Heart Kingdom." She bowed.

"Well, Hotaru, what do you think of this? Is it true? That the Heart kingdom will rise again?" The king of Clover addressed the Queen as he pushed his glassed up and turned to where her chair is, but discovered she wasn't in her chair.

"We will have to see for ourselves Yuu." Hotaru simply answered.

"How will we do that?" Yuu the King of Clover asked as he rose from his chair at the conference table and moved towards the Queen of diamonds.

"Invention #008: Angler Fish projector. It projects images from the mind of the person wearing it. Furthermore it has been made to withstand high pressure, so it can be used deep below the sea." Hotaru explained as she placed the invention on top of Otonashi-san's head.

"That way we can see what Otonashi-san is seeing projected on to the screen and then we can determine if this is true." Immediately after Hotaru's explanations, sounds and blurry images can be seen on the screen. Yuu watched in awe before a sound of a chair scrapping backwards distracted him. He turned towards where the sound was coming from and saw that the King of Spades had gotten up and was currently striding towards the door.

"Natsume? Don't you want to come see this?" Yuu asked as Natsume the King of Spades paused at the door.

"Hn, I have better things to do." Natsume then left.

"Eh?"

"Leave him, he's probably gone to look for Nogi." Hotaru said from where she was standing facing the screen as she watched blurry images appear or disappear because of static fuzz. Until one particular image appeared on the screen causing Yuu to gasp out loud.

"Isn't that-impossible! But! It's been missing for years!"

 Mikan In Wonderland 

"Ruka-Pyon?"

Mikan couldn't really comprehend the fact that Ruka was here, mainly because he was supposed to be at Central Town, with the others, and what's this about a meeting? Not to mention that he's wearing the costume that he worn at the festival including the bunny ears perched on top of his head. Just what is going on? Mikan snapped out of her musing when Ruka-pyon started jumping on the stepping-stones in the pool, and heading towards the waterfall.

"Ruka-Pyon! Wait! What are you doing here? HEY! Are listening?" Mikan shouted across to him, but it seems that either Ruka was ignoring her or the waterfall was too loud and he was unable to hear her. Mikan chose the latter as that was the most logical instead of Ruka ignoring her. She picked Akagi up and started chasing and hopping after Ruka clearly intending to ask him about why he wasn't in Central Town, why he was wearing that outfit, and what meeting was he talking about.

Just then Ruka suddenly jumped through the waterfall and disappeared. Mikan stopped and stared for a few moments before deciding. Clutching Akagi close to her, closed her eyes, she took a deep breath and jumped through the waterfall after Ruka. Landing on the other side a bit painfully.

Thump.

Hiss.

"Ouch," Mikan winced as she slowly stood up. Looking down in her arms she met a pair of glaring eyes at her from a semi-drenched kitten, Mikan smiled apologetically, "Sorry Akagi, but it was the fastest way through the waterfall, besides we have to catch up with Ruka-pyon." Mikan then turned her focus towards navigating through the darkness.

Thump.

Mikan unexpectedly heard a noise further down in the cave, and quickened her pace as right after the noise there was someone who was swearing very loudly followed it. Then she heard some shuffling as Ruka tried to get up, she figured. Mikan started to jog a bit, still clutching Akagi in her arms trying to catch up with Ruka, and was just in time to see Ruka jump down a hole. A huge hole, mind you. Mikan surveyed the circular room that had a giant hole as a floor; there was a small ledge that goes around the hole connecting with the walls on the side, but other than that it was a dead end.

She stood contemplating about what to do next, while Akagi jumped down from her arms and stared at her while swishing his tail back and forth. Should I? It looks deep though. Mikan picked up a rock and threw it into the gigantic hole. After some moments Mikan waited but she heard no sound.

Meow.

Mikan looked down at Akagi, and seemed to come to a realization. What, what if RUKA-PYON's is in danger! What if he broken a leg falling into that hole? What if he's, he's DEAD! When she thought of that she slowly started to panic.

Swipe.

"OW, what was that for?" Mikan rubbed her leg where Akagi had swiped her. Luckily it wasn't bleeding. The little black kitten looked at her as if she was inferior and the most idiotic person it had ever metandsaunteredto the edge of the hole and sat down, looking at her expectantly. Mikan stared at the kitten and slowly understood, slowly.

I can't believe I'm standing here wasting time when, for all we know, Ruka-Pyon could be hurt, I have to see if he's all right, after all he is my friend. Mikan squared her shoulders, took a deep breath to calm herself, gathered Akagi in her arms, she squeezed her eyes shut and jumped down into the hole, where Ruka had previously jumped.

After a while, Mikan opened her eyes, and discovered she was still falling but very slowly. Akagi was just licking his paw and paid no heed that they were still falling, like it was a day-to-day occurrence to him. Mikan huffed.

"Akagi! Aren't you worried? We might die! Are you list-" Mikan stopped trying to lecture the black kitten. She smiled softly; apparently Akagi had fallen asleep, leaving Mikan to entertain herself.

Mikan looked down and tried to see the bottom of the hole, but it was too dark and she couldn't see the sides of the hole very well, so they must be quite a distance away. Her stomach rumbled. Mikan tried as hard as she could to suppress her hunger so she decided to hum. Mikan began to hum to herself as she slowly fell, or was it float? All the while still clutching a sleeping Akagi to her. She hummed as she took in her surroundings, hoping to see a change somewhere.

Dark.

Dark.

Dark.

Jar.

Dark.

Jar?

JAR!

Mikan's eyes popped out as a jar floated past her in mid-air. Or was it she who past it? Mikan snapped out of her shock and snatched the jar. It was labelled Orange Marmalade, Mikan tried to open it as best as she can with one arm, while still cradling Akagi in the other arm, and succeeded, but the jar was empty. She stared teary-eyed at it before screwing the lid back on and tossing over her shoulder.

As Mikan fell/float more she passed several more objects, such as, a dining table, a television, a kotatsu, a turtle that walked backwards, a broken umbrella, and several empty bags, jars, plates or bowls, of different kinds of food, each time that happened it just left Mikan with tears streaming down her face and her stomach rumbling. Mikan snapped out of her blubbering state when she felt Akagi stirring from his nap.

"Morning sleepy-head!" Mikan greeted the black kitten, who in turn, turned its sleepy eyes towards her and just yawned. Mikan laughed lightly before her eye caught something.

"Akagi! We're near the bottom!"

True enough they were near the bottom. Mikan can see that there was a set of spiralling stairs in dark blue, probably a place to land, Mikan thought. Just as they were a few metres away from the landing point, Mikan, along with Akagi still clutched in her arms fell straight down, and tumbled down the stairs towards the floor.

"Ouch," Mikan winced as she checked herself over, "I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of bruises from that." Mikan then turned to her familiar, "Are you okay Akagi?"

Meow.

"Great to hear."

Mikan stood up and began straightening her shirt and skirt, before glancing around the 'room'. It was dark for the most part, with purple checker floor, and several odd and ends floating about in the air a few metres away from the floor. Just then she heard.

"Imai's going to have my head! Just look at the time! Damn, I have to hurry!"

Mikan turned her head towards where she heard the voice from and was just in time to see Ruka hurrying down a hallway. A hallway that she didn't see before when she looked around the room. Rushing to catch up with Ruka she started to jog down the hallway, with Akagi right behind her. Footsteps echoing down the hall as she jogged. She watched as Ruka turned a corner, and she forced herself to speed up. As Mikan turned the corner, she stopped. Akagi crashing into her leg as he tried to stop but with no avail. After shaking himself out of his stupor, he glared at Mikan and turned to see what made her stop so abruptly.

It was a hallway full of doors and no sights of Ruka being in the hall at all.

"He's, He's GONE!" Mikan Exclaimed as she started search all over the place. She started to try and open one of the doors but it wouldn't open. She started down the hallway trying to open the other doors lining the hallway, but they all seem to be locked. Mikan got into her thinking pose.

Where could Ruka have gone? All the doors are locked.

Meow.

Well, at least he isn't dead.

Meow.

Maybe there are secret passages? That could work.

MEOW!

Mikan thoughts were interrupted and she turned her head towards Akagi.

"What is it Akagi? I'm trying to think of where Ruka could have gone!" Mikan said irritated.

Meow.

Mikan then noticed that Akagi was sitting in front of a very small door, that was no more than fifteen inches high.

"Oh"

Mikan walked towards where Akagi sat and crouched down. She extended her hand towards the tiny door and tried to turn the doorknob, but it wouldn't open. So she added a little more force than necessary. "Ow! Watch it you rude little girl!" Mikan gasped in surprised and fell back on her behind and scurried backwards, all the while staring at the door knob which had suddenly grew a face all of the sudden.

"Honestly! People these days! They absolutely have no proper MANNERS! Ugh! I am so disgusted!" The Doorknob finally noticed Mikan staring from a few metres away.

"What are you looking at, Hm? Honestly didn't anyone tell you that staring is RUDE?" the doorknob spat the last few words out while glaring at Mikan.

"Y-yes! I mean no! Er, yes! Ano, I'm sorry Doorknob-san!" Mikan stuttered out as she bowed at the end of her sentence.

"Hmph, if that is all, I am going back to sleep, after you rudely interrupted my beauty sleep, it would be a wonder if I could go back to that pleasant dream I had at all!" The doorknob finished talking and was closing its eyes.

"Wait!" Mikan cried and the doorknobs eyes went wide open and then turned to glare at the impudent girl that had dare to interrupt its sleep again.

"What!" The Doorknob started, "May I ask do you want?" The Doorknob demanded, rather shrilly.

"Ano," Mikan started, "Did you happen to see a boy with rabbit ears on his head?"

"Pfft! As if I would tell you!" The Doorknob snorted, as if it were the funniest thing ever. Mikan's eye twitched.

"Why not? Hm?" Mikan now stood towering over the talking Doorknob, looking slightly crazy, that even Akagi took a few steps back away from her. The Doorknob, oblivious, continued on anyway, despite the fact that Mikan looked a bit too murderous right then.

"Why? Because evidently either you didn't notice or are just too stupid to see but-" the Doorknob was interrupted as Mikan apparently gotten pretty ticked already and started to kick the door hard.

"Tell me-"

Kick.

"Where-"

KICK.

"He IS!"

KICK. KICK.

The Doorknob was scared, to say at least, and replied after Mikan had calmed down enough.

"I was going to say that I hadn't seen him, because I was asleep, before you started kicking me like a barbarian!" The Doorknob apparently still had guts to insult Mikan. Mikan on the other hand didn't notice the insult at the very least.

"You didn't?" Mikan's face turned sad, as she slightly hung her head. The Doorknob suddenly took a bit pity on her.

"Well, he could have gone through me." Mikan looked a bit shocked.

"But, you're locked!" Mikan exclaimed, "Not to mention Small too!" She added in an afterthought.

" Well! Excuse me! But not unless you have the key you can't get through a locked door, duh, not the brightest crayon in the box, are you?" The doorknob took a jab at her.

"There's no key though!"

"Look behind you dearie." Mikan looked behind her and a few feet away on a small table was a small key, that could definitely fit through the small door.

"Well, pick it up!" The Doorknob snapped impatiently after Mikan stared at it for a few minutes.

Mikan scurried to the table and picked the key up. Examining it, t was only a small old style, simple silver key, with a heart engraved on it. Mikan trekked back to the small door and inserted it in the keyhole, and turned it.

Click.

Mikan opened the little door and peeked through the doorway. There she saw a beautiful forest, with animals frolicking about, butterflies fluttering in and out, and flowers in bloom. It looks like a place Ruka-Pyon would be in Mikan thought. Mikan then tried to squeeze through the door, but found that she could not. So she backed up and sat on her hind legs and dismally looked at the tiny door, racking her brain on how she could get through the tiny door.

Meow.

Mikan looked back towards Akagi and saw that he was sitting on top of the table next to a bottle that was labelled 'DRINK ME'. Mikan walked back towards the table and picked the bottle up and looked at it curiously. Looking at Akagi.

"Is it alright to drink this?"

Meow.

Mikan took a few sips, and shrank, to a size that she would be able to go through the door. Akagi suddenly jumped down from the table with a bag of cookies in it's mouth and began to walk towards the opened door, looking back expectantly at Mikan when it noticed that she wasn't following, before resuming its walk. Mikan finally snapped out of her shock and ran after Akagi.

"WAIT FOR ME!"

As Mikan passed through the doorway and into the forest, the door had promptly disappeared with pop after she passed through it. Mikan jogged towards where Akagi was sitting with a bag of cookies. At the sight of the cookies, Mikan began to jog a little faster at the prospect of food, because she delayed her hunger for a bit too long already. As Mikan approached, the ground suddenly stated shaking, with loud booming footsteps coming towards them. The ground was shaking so hard that Mikan had lost her footing and was bouncing against the hard ground, but soon it stopped.

Eh? Why is it suddenly so dark? Is it night time already?

Mikan slowly looked up. It wasn't because it was night time, no; it was because the entire area was covered by someone's shadow.

Piyo.


A/N: Thanks to alf05, Chin-92, Vresta, at certain times, and dbzgtfan2004 who reviewed, and thanks to the silent readers who read this fic XD I don't think i'll have time to start on chapter 2 since inspiration level is low this week sorry so it'll be long before i'll update :( oh, and i need help since i forgot how Alcie in Wonderland went... i got the events mixed up...if you can help, it would be appreciated :) Thanks.