A Tainted Heart

Gakuen Alice

An: I'm Back~ I've decided to rewrite the story as I was not satisfied with the previous chapters, and plot overall. So here you have it a new and improved chapter. Please read and send me feedback I really appreciate it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice

Sarahmounik: Is this soon enough XD

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Chapter 1 - Findings

ScarletMidinght19

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It was dismissal time at Gakuen Alice, and the hallways were empty, void of any life. A certain brunette walked the hallways, she was in a mission to find a certain someone, her name is Mikan Sakura, a thirteen year old girl with mid waist-length hair and beautiful, mesmerizing hazel eyes, as a pre-teen she was still on the verge of puberty, but that didn't change the fact that she was pretty and will be a beauty when she grew into her looks.

Currently, she was heading toward the sakura tree, a very special place for her. The sakura tree contained so many happy memories for her and her boyfriend. She first met him underneath the sakura tree, he was just laying on the grass relishing on the shade the tree provided, a manga covering his face as he (she assumed) slept. Underneath the sakura tree they became friends. Underneath the sakura tree they would hang out after classes. Underneath the sakura tree they had countless fights. Underneath the sakura tree he asked her to be his girlfriend. Underneath the sakura tree they had their first kiss. Underneath the sakura tree they had their first date. And underneath the sakura tree was where she was going to meet with her boyfriend, Natsume Hyuuga. A lad with raven colored hair and beautiful crimson eyes who was also thirteen years old.

Natsume had skipped class once again, and Mikan was tired of it. If he kept going at this pace she was sure he was not going to pass. Sure he was smart, a genius even, but what was the use of that brain of his if he wasn't even going to go to class? She was worried that one of these days the headmaster would expel him.

Shaking that thought from her head she turned right reaching the hallway that led to the exit, but before she was able to flee the building and reach her destination, she saw something completely insane and horrifying that absolutely shattered her. Immediately clasping both of her hands over her mouth to keep the sobs that threatened to come out. There in front of the door that led to the exit she saw her boyfriend kissing another girl. Mikan was stunned, a surge of emotions were rising up within her, shock, sadness, betrayal, but most of all an unbridled rage. Before she could call out to them, Mikan took a tentative step back. She was just tired, she didn't want to hear anything, and if she watched this anymore she didn't know if she could keep her emotions in check, so she ran, her vision getting blurry every passing second with tears in her eyes.

She knew who the girl was. Strawberry blond hair and icy blue eyes, a curvy figure, anyone would know who it was. Mikan never hated anyone, but Luna was an exception.

Mikan wondered, did he always meet luna whenever he skipped class? How long had this been going on? Am I not good enough? What is wrong with me, that he went with her? Why didn't he just break up with me? Why cheat? Why? Did Natsume ever love me?

Finally she stopped running, raising up her head she realised she was in front of Hotaru's lab, sniffling she knocked.

She heard shuffling from the other side, scrambling from one side to the other. If she wasn't an emotional mess right now she would've found that suspicious but given her state she didn't care. The door swung open and there stood her best friend, Hotaru in all her indifference glory. Gone was their uniform instead she sported a penguin onesie. If she was her normal self she would've found it cute and try to match with her but as it is she needed her best friend. Hotaru noticed Mikan's bloodshot eyes and puffy under eyes. She panicked.

"Mikan, what's wrong?"

And with those words Mikan's dam broke. She crashed into Hotaru sending the girl stumbling back at the force. Mikan wailed burying her face deep into the onesie as she sobbed.

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Mikan woke up the next morning to the smell of pancakes. Drowsily she sat up and rubbed her eyes. Looking around she noticed this wasn't her room or her bed. Trying to recall the events of the day before only brought her a headache.

"Mikan." The door slammed open and in came Hotaru, one of her inventions trailing behind with a plate full of food.

"Hotaru?" Mikan asked dumbly. "What happened yesterday?"

Hotaru only looked at her confused. That's what she wanted to know as well.

"You tell me. You were crying when you got here."

"Umm...I can't remember," Mikan said while massaging her forehead.

"Well eat up, we don't want to be late" Hotaru ordered, as she walked out the room her robot invention following behind.

After doing her morning routine, Mikan and Hotaru made their way to class. The whole way to class was silent, a change from their usual walks as Mikan is always happy and talking about everything and anything while Hotaru chirps in here and there with the occasional insult thrown towards her, today Mikan was quiet pondering about what exactly happened yesterday that led her to Hotaru's.

Entering the class Mikan realized she left her homework back at the dorm, given that they got to class early it gave her time to go to her dorm and back. Explaining to Hotaru she left.

Entering her dorm she scrambled to look for her work, finding it laying idly on top of her desk she grabbed it and headed out. Turning left to head down the stairs she stopped in her tracks when she heard a very familiar voice. Tilting her head up, she knew the voices were coming from a level up. Tentatively she made her way up trying to be as silent as possible. She sat down in one of the steps as she concluded she was out of sight.

"Here. She said to give this to you" a honey like voice spoke

"Hn."

'Natsume, I knew it'

"Nuh-uh, kiss me if you want it"

Mikan's eyes went wide. 'Kiss you? No way' Her headache became worse as she started remembering what happened yesterday, her head pounded so hard she thought her skull would break. 'Please don't let it be true. Please!' she begged

"Tch." She heard, and then it was silent, until a giggle broke the silence.

"Now, was that so hard"

Mikan let out a strangled sob

"Let's play hooky more often, it's fun"

'What? More often?' She stopped listening as she put two and two together. The frequent skipping class, the side glances, the inexplicable disappearing. She didn't want to see it, she didn't want to admit it, but it was clear as day, he was cheating on her. Standing up she climbed down the stairs not caring if they heard her or saw her, she was done.

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She forgot her homework again. Of course she did. What's new? Hotaru's gaze followed Mikan's back as she exited the classroom. Mikan had been extremely quiet on their way to class, which was understandable seeing as she cried her eyes out yesterday, but why? She did not know. She didn't tell her anything. Just appeared in front of her lab and proceeded to cry, Hotaru wanted to know why her happy go-lucky best friend was crying, but before she got to ask any questions Mikan had fallen asleep.

The last time Hotaru had seen her like this was when her parents had decided to go back to America. Other than that Mikan had always been cheerful, and insistently clingy, sure she might've gotten mad, sometimes sad but she had never looked how she did last night. Never so broken.

What happened yesterday?

"Imai-san" looking up, and breaking from her train of thoughts, she saw Nogi looking down at her as he stood in front of her desk. Noticing his worried expression, she lifted an eyebrow at him egging him to speak up.

"I can't keep doing this, this, this secret, it's going to break all of us. Please Imai-san, stop this." His blue eyes clouded with worry as he spoke to the stoic girl

"You speak, and these will be all over the school" she held a picture of Ruka hugging a giant chick looking intimately close to the giant creature, Ruka gritted his teeth his jaw clenching at those pictures.

"You know they're photo shopped, it's as clear as day"

"maybe it's as clear as day to you and I but to others it'll surely look real"

"Have you ever thought what would happen to yours and Mikan's friendship if she ever found out?" he asked incredulously

"She won't find out"

"You sound so sure"

"That's because I am."

He scoffed at her, "Do you even know why she came to your lab yesterday? Maybe she already found out. Did you ever think of that?"

Hotaru froze at the insinuation, no. She hadn't thought about that. She hadn't thought about what she would say or do to Mikan if she ever finds out. She only prayed that her idiot of a best friend never found out.

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Walking out of the classroom Ruka clenched and unclenched his fists, anger and worry surged through him, but mainly anger. He was done with their little game. D-O-N-E. Done. The so-called best friends. He snorted at the word best friends. Yeah right. A best friend wouldn't do what they did. Never in his life had Ruka been so angry at Natsume. Never.

He needed to tell Mikan, he needed her to know. He didn't care if Imai ended up posting the pictures for the whole school campus to see, he only cared for his friend's happiness. Mikan needed to know the truth.

"psst"

what the?

"Hey!"

looking around the deserted hallway he tried to find the source of the voice

"Ruka-kun over here!"

where?

"Over here!" the voice said a little louder, a piece of balled up paper hitting his face, looking towards the direction the paper came from he came face to face with the self-proclaimed president of his and Natsume's fan club, she stepped out of the shadows the lockers provided as she faced the blond prince of the school. Sighing and rolling his eyes he decided to turn and leave, he wasn't in the mood for Shouda's antics today.

"Ruka-kun!" Sumire hissed as she saw him trying to leave, she glared at his back "I know about Mikan" she revealed calmly. He froze.

He slowly turned with wide eyes. "what are you talking about?" he asked innocently

Sumire snorted. "Don't play innocent with me. I know everything"

"everything?" he gulped

"everything"

He sighed, "fine, what do you want?"

She chuckled bitterly. What did she want? nothing. Sure Mikan and her didn't get along in the beginning but the girl had a way to get through to you and win you over. At the end Mikan won her over, and though she doesn't like admitting it, she considers the brunette as one of her closest friends, so when she found out about Imai's dirty little secret, she couldn't help but feel rage.

She wants her friend to be happy but not like this, she needs to know the truth, sure she'll be sad and probably feel betrayed, but what she has now isn't real and she should know, before everything gets out of hands.

"I want nothing. I'm just here to warn you that I'm going to tell Mikan everything I know, she deserves to know the truth." She gritted out

And all to her amazement and shock, he sighed out in relief, his blue eyes becoming softer as he gazed intently at the green haired girl. "Yes she does" he smiled, Sumire blushed, well she wasn't expecting that from him.

"I thought you didn't want her to know?" she questioned, she truly thought he didn't want her to know

"Trust me I never agreed to this, I didn't even know about it. Natsume was the one who told me. Imai found out I knew. And well of course you know Imai she blackmailed me to stay quiet."

"But you had a role in this."

"Yeah, after i found out, trust me I never wanted to do it."

Sumire sighed, "Well, whatever I'm going to go look for Mikan"

"let me come with you"

"Why?"

"because, Imai already knows that I've been wanting to tell Mikan for a while now, so she'll suspect me first. And also I want to make it clear to her that I never supported this, never wanted to do it, and i always wanted to tell her."

"Fine, I'll look for her though, you go to the abandoned greenhouse and we'll meet you there. Nobody ever passes through there anyways and it's far from here so they won't catch us"

Ruka nodded, relief flooding him as he could finally tell his cherished friend the truth. Sumire waved and ran the opposite direction looking for the brunette.

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Splashing her face with water she looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were still bloodshot, her under eyes still puffy. Her hair was a tangled mess from all the times her fingers ran through it. She sighed.

Her reflection stared back at her. Mocking her. She could hear her talking, her voice was cold "You're so stupid Mikan." a pause "of course he would cheat on you. There's no way he actually loved you. That was just you seeking for love on someone who could never loved you" her gaze dropped to the basin her eyes stung and she tried to hold back the tears, a laugh, "he never loved you" she choked "he never loved me" as much as she tried her tears fell unable to hold them back. Her hands flew to her face rubbing harshly against her eyes as she tried to stop the flow. "Natsume, why?"

"You're nothing special, he must've seen that"

"No, no that's a lie" she whispered

"Compared to Luna you're still a child"

Mikan whimpered

"Face it we both know you're not good enough"

"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up" Mikan held her head as she rocked back and forth, trying oh so desperately to block out the voices.

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It was lunch and Mikan had still yet to appear in class. Had something happened to her? But what could happen to her, everyone on campus loved her. Hotaru worried. A feeling of dread settled in the pit of her stomach. She had to find her, and fast.

"Imai-san" two blond heads ran towards her.

Hotaru ignored them, she had no time for them, she had to find Mikan.

"Imai-san" Koko grinned catching up to her

"whatcha up to?" Kitsu asked a grin identical to that of his twin

She stopped, an idea popping into her head "You two are going to help me" She ordered

The duo gulped.

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The voices were still there, she could still hear them. Why wouldn't they just leave? All she wants is peace and quiet. Just peace. And quiet.

"But do you really want that?"

"The rooftop is perfect for that"

"We won't bother you then"

"Do it"

"Peace. And Quiet."

As if she was in a trance she climbed the stairs, wanting so desperately to reach the rooftop.

"Mikan?" A voice brought her back. Blinking she looked up at the stairs. Where was she going? Why was she going to go to the rooftop again? "Mikan?"

Turning around she sees Sumire looking at her weirdly. "Ah. Permy"

Instead of correcting her and bickering over her nickname, she scrutinized the brunette. Puffy under eyes, red bloodshot eyes, dry tear streaks, hair disheveled, she looked like a mess. "Are you okay?"

Is she okay? She doesn't think so but Permy doesn't need to know that.

"Ah. yeah" Mikan replies. Permy looks at her unconvinced before shrugging. Mikan thought she would've left by now but she stays there, she opens her mouth as if to speak but then closes it right away. She looks troubled, her brows furrowed in confusion, and she looks everywhere but her. And suddenly as if making her mind she nods, her eyes becoming her usual fiery emerald.

"Can I talk to you Mikan?"

"You already are?"

"No. I mean…..just follow me" Shrugging Mikan follows Permy.

Permy leads her outside the girls dorm, and head towards the Northern woods, an abandoned greenhouse sat idly in the middle of the woods.

"I didn't know there was an abandoned greenhouse here" Mikan said as she looked around at her surroundings

"Not many do" opening the door to the greenhouse both of them walked in

"Okay so what did you want to talk about?" Mikan asked seating herself a top of a crate, before Sumire could respond the door to the greenhouse opened revealing a heavily panting blond

"Ruka! Why are you just getting here?" Sumire shouted glaring daggers at Ruka

"I-" pant. "I-" pant. "Hold...u-up" Ruka bent down his palms laying on his knees, as he panted. Sumire rolled her eyes, while Mikan stared blankly at the blond.

"okay, sorry about that, but I almost got caught by the twins who were helping Imai look for Mikan-chan."

"What do you mean?" Mikan asked confused

"Mikan there's something you should know about Imai-san"

Mikan looked at Sumire, her brows furrowed in confusion "What about Hotaru?"

Sumire and Ruka glanced at each other before the latter sighed "You need to know the truth Mikan, and if after this you decide to hate me then so be it, just know that I'll always care for you deeply." he let out a shaky breath, Sumire grabbed his shoulder encouraging him to go on.

"Imai-san bribed and blackmailed Natsume into asking you out."

Mikan's breath hitched.

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Hotaru was stressed. Where could of Mikan gone? She was nowhere to be found. 'Please let that idiot be safe'

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"Lisa-san please make sure to clear my schedule for tomorrow morning"

"Hai Kocho-sensei" pause "Ah! Your niece is waiting for you!"

"Mikan? But it's dinner time, shouldn't she be with her friends?"

Lisa stayed quiet, remembering how broken she looked. She knew Mikan quite well, always cheerful, always full of life, always bouncing with energy, something had happened for her to be like that, and she couldn't deny anything to the young girl. So she let her in hoping she could at least regain some of her contagious energy while waiting for her uncle.

"You should see her for yourself, maybe you can cheer her up"

'Cheer her up?' he tilted his head in confusion, what happened to his dear niece? Heading towards his office he walked at a fast pace hoping his niece would tell him why she needed cheering up.

Opening the door to his office he saw her, sitting on the couch on the right side of the room hugging a pillow as she stared blankly at the coffee table in front of her. His heart clenched at the sight of her there, she looked so…..so…..broken. He almost cried at the sight. Closing the door, he made his way towards her. She was in her own world that she didn't notice when he sat down next to her, or when he let loose her hair from her two pigtails combing it with his fingers.

"Kazumi Ojisan" Kazumi hummed "I want to see my parents, i miss them"

Kazumi -now braiding Mikan's hair- chuckled "Well aren't you lucky. Your parents called"

"What did they say?"

"Well they said they miss you, so much, that I suggested you should move back in with them."

"But-"

"Don't worry it's your decision, if you want to continue your studies here or in the U.S they'll support you wholeheartedly"

"No, I was going to ask when would I be leaving?"

"I was thinking tomorrow, as a surprise to your parents, in reality if you did decide to leave they would be expecting you next week."

"Tomorrow, huh?"

"What do you say Mikan?"

"Tomorrow it is then"

"I'm sure they'll be happy"

"But what about you Kazumi oji, are you going to stay here?"

"Of course this is my job you know." Mikan pouted "Don't worry I'll visit you during holidays"

"Promise?" Mikan stuck out her pinky finger "promise" Kazumi said as he linked pinkies with his niece. Mikan smiled, a small smile, albeit a smile nonetheless, and Kazumi felt relieved. Whatever it was that had Mikan looking so broken a change of scenery will surely be helpful.