ONE HELLUVA CRUSH

By: Esa MaRie

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 14 The Duel

Weber stood confidently as he faced Natsume. Now, everyone will know that I deserve to be a top star!

He glanced around and saw Mikan among the spectators. Mikan darling, just see how I will crush this arrogant bastard! He began to daydream…

"Feel my power, Natsume Hyuuga!", he shouted and a huge hurricane appeared and swallowed Natsume.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I give up, Weberrrrr!", Natsume screamed while being swept into the hurricane.

"NYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I won!", Weber laughed out loud.

"Weber-kun darling! You're amazing!", Mikan exclaimed as she threw her arms around him. "Honey-pie, you deserve a reward." She then closed her eyes and puckered her lips to his.

"Hehehe!", Weber was drooling at the thought.

"Idiot.", Natsume muttered.

Weber pointed his finger at Natsume. "You're going to lose, Hyuuga. And if that happens, your top star rank and Mikan are all going to be mine!" Then he turned to Mikan, "Just you wait my sweet darling angel…"

He blew her a kiss and hearts began to fly towards Mikan.

"Kyaaaa!" Mikan ducked falling into the ground.

The other girls began diving for the hearts.

"Tsk. Such unfortunate accident. Don't worry, Mikan love. I have more for you after this duel.", Weber said and winked at Mikan.

Idiot, Mikan thought as she cringed.

"Enough talk!", Natsume gritted his teeth. I'll crush you, peacock!

Everyone stood still. Only the leaves and grasses seem to be moving.

"Die Hyuuga!", Weber shouted and a strong gust of wind blew over Natsume knocking him against a tree.

"MWAHAHAHAHA!", Weber laughed out loud as he saw Natsume fell down.

Damn! He caught me off guard! Natsume thought as pushed himself to stand up. He saw Weber making another attack.

"You'll never defeat the great Weber Kenta!", Weber shouted as he let out another attack

A huge ball of fire covered Natsume to protect him from strong wind that was thrown against him.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!", Weber was laughing out loud as he let out attack after attack.

The students were holding out to each other to prevent themselves from being thrown back.

Natsume just stood still, protected by his ball of fire. Something is not right…, he thought. Wind Alice should be stronger than this

He wanted to know how strong the Wind Alice was so he stayed at the defensive side. He just allowed Weber to attack him, trying to assess the strength of what his alice could do. But something is really wrong. It seems that Weber is putting his strength on all his wind attacks but… it's not working against his fire ball. And he's not even using half of the power of his fire alice!

Weber was panting as he stared at the huge fire ball in front of him. Why? Why can't I put the fire out?

Suddenly, the huge fireball divided into smaller fireballs, Natsume stood in the middle of them. One by one, the fireballs started shooting fast at him.

Weber tried to escape each of the attack but they were too many. He tried using his wind attacks but the fireballs seem to pass into each of his attacks.

Desperate, he let out a strong wind that blew over the audience causing a few students to be pushed nearer into the battle field..

Mikan lost her hold and was pushed into the middle of the field. She looked up and saw a fireball fast approaching.

"MIKANNNNNNN!", Natsume and Weber both shouted.

Before Mikan could use her nullification alice, a huge fire surrounded her, protecting her from the attacks, then it died down in an instant.

She glanced up and saw Natsume, his head bent down, his bangs covering his face and his hands gripped into fists. A terrifying and murderous aura coming out from him.

"I'll never forgive you…", he said furiously, then he looked up to Weber, his eyes burning with rage. All of a sudden, a huge fire appeared and encircled Weber.

Weber was in panic. He could almost feel the fire burning into his skin. He used his wind alice to protect him from being totally toasted by the fire but his alice proved to be futile against the power of the fire. No! I don't want to die yet! No!

"NATSUME, PLEASE STOP!", Mikan cried and used her nullification alice to eradicate the fire surrounding Weber.

She rushed to Weber's side to help him.

"Weber-kun?"

Weber was down on his knees, still shaken from what had happened. I lost? Why? Why can't I defeat him?

"Why? WHY!"

"No matter what you do, you'll never be able to defeat Natsume Hyuuga."

They all turned and saw Narumi-sensei walking towards them.

"What do you mean by that!", Weber asked furiously. "Wind can stop fire. So why can't I defeat him!"

"Not all wind can stop the fire, Weber-kun.", Narumi said. "Wind can either stop or can cause the fire to even spread out. Your power must be greater than Natsume in order for you to stop his fire alice."

"But why can't my alice stop his?", Weber cried.

"Well…" Narumi scratched his head. "Wind alice actually has different types. The strongest type of wind alice can cause hurricanes and is the one that can match against the Fire Alice. But yours is…"

Everyone leaned closer.

"It's… well, it's actually… breeze alice.", Narumi explained sheepishly.

"BREEZE!", everyone echoed.

"What the hell do you mean by breeze!", Weber exclaimed.

"Breeze… you know… soft and refreshing wind. The strongest you can make can actually throw a person a few meters away but it could not really destroy properties. Just like in the story of the Three Little Pigs. If you are the big bad wolf, the only house you could blow away is the first house, the one made of cardboard.", Narumi-sensei explained stupidly.

"Of course, breeze alice is also very useful. If the air conditioner here in the academy gets broken, you could always help out and provide cool, nice, and refreshing breeze in the classrooms.", Narumi-sensei happily added. A mild breeze passed through his hair blowing at it softly as if agreeing with what he said. "Ahhhh! Such a nice feeling, don't you think?", he glanced at his students.

Everyone sweatdropped at Narumi's idiotic explanation.

But no one said a word. No one laughed. Weber might have been too arrogant but it's not right to make fun of him just because it was discovered that his alice wasn't as powerful as they originally thought.

Mikan walked towards Weber and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay, Weber-kun. Wind or Breeze Alice, you're still an alice.", she tried to comfort him.

Weber looked at her sadly. "Thanks." Then he stood up and walked away without a backward glance at the other students. It was shameful. It was insulting. To be declared to the entire school that his alice was actually not as powerful as he thought it was. But then his face lightened up. Mikan was concerned about me! Maybe, she really likes me! At least, through her I could win against that Natsume Hyuuga. Hehehe!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mikan turned and saw Natsume looking at her. She let her gaze pass him, without acknowledging his presence. She turned her back to hide her blush and walked away. She doesn't know what she should be feeling right now. She was quite relieved that Weber did not win. But shouldn't she also be scared that Natsume won?

Natsume's gaze followed Mikan as she walked away.

"You're really cool Natsume!"

"That was an awesome duel!"

"You're great!"

"Thanks.", Natsume said with a blank expression. He felt that he was the one who lost when Mikan rushed to Weber rather than him, and obviously avoided eye contact with him. She was clearly unhappy with the results of the duel.

"I think you should follow her.", Ruka whispered as he pulled him away from his admirers.

"But… she hates me.", Natsume sighed.

"No, she doesn't. I have observed you both long enough to make that conclusion."

"Ruka…"

"Ruka is right."

They both turned and saw Kokoryomi and Hotaru behind them.

"That idiot was just confused but she doesn't hate you.", Hotaru said. "I know her well and I know she feels something for you."

"And it's called hate.", Natsume answered.

"I don't think so.", Kokoryomi said. "It's true that I find it difficult to read Mikan's mind because of her nullifying alice. She's such a challenge that from time to time I try to read her mind when she's off guard. And I often hear your name in her mind."

Natsume was filled with hope.

"It's time Natsume. Be true to yourself. Don't wait until another guy comes along and succeeds in capturing her heart.", Ruka said.

Natsume stared at Mikan's retreating form and turned to his friends, giving them a small smile.

"Thanks, everyone."

Ruka, Hotaru, and Kokoryomi stared at Natsume's back as he walked away.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

"Thanks, guys.", Ruka said, blushing a little when his eyes met Hotaru's.

"Kokoryomi here was reading your minds. So, we knew what you were talking about.", Hotaru said. "We decided to help."

Ruka turned to Kokoryomi. "Is it true? Mikan really thinks often about Natsume?"

"Well…", Kokoryomi scratched his head. "I'm not really sure. I only heard it only once. It's really difficult because of her alice." He looked at Ruka and Hotaru, then said sheepishly. "Actually, what I heard was 'Damn you Natsume'."

Ruka sweatdropped.

WAPAK!

Kokoryomi landed on his back.

"Idiot.", Hotaru said holding her horseshoe gloves. "We'll just hope everything turns out alright."

"But Mikan has a huge crush on Natsume, right?", Kokoryomi said. "Right?" He looked at Ruka and Hotaru. None of them looks convinced.

"Oh… so, I'm wrong?"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry guys, I'm not really good with the fight details. Hehehe! Hope you still like this chapter. If you don't, feel free to complain… Just make a review! Hahaha!

Thanks everyone for your reviews:-)