Hi everyone! I was so busy these past few days so the 'uploading' was delayed. SO to make up for my shameful 'delay' ^_^ I uploaded two chapters today and I'm praying real hard that you'll like it.
Happy reading!
CHAPTER 4
The Resolve
-o-
It took me almost twenty minutes to convince the siblings that I exist. Well, what I actually mean is convincing them that we have to leave the place and go to the Alice Hospital for a still unknown reason. But even in the car, those two are still resuscitating their shames.
I can't believe that Natsume used to be addicted to Teletubbies and Blue's Clues while Aoi used to fantasize that she's Trunk's girlfriend, that guy from Dragonball Z. The list goes on with the duck mouth Natsume got when he ate Aoi's chocolate one Valentine's day and Aoi's forced-bald-haircut because Natsume burned her hair as revenge.
At last we arrived at the hospital, and to my surprise, there's a party. Kidding. What I mean is, it's a little crowded, like when you roll-call, there's my mom, of course, Shiki-san, Uncle Kazu, Sakurano-nii, Tsubasa-senpai, Tono-senpai, Misaki-senpai, Shizune-senpai, Yuu, Koko, Sumire-chan, Jinno-sensei, Narumi-sensei, Ruka and Subaru-nii. But instead of a happy-get-together mood, they're all gloomy.
"What happened?" I started.
Shizune-senpai shook her head. "Hime-sama. She's sick. Her heart suddenly fell into a weak state in an unknown reason. I think we all should know since our over-all protection relies on the central barrier which happens to be the princess."
"As I was asking, why didn't you tell us earlier?" Jinno-sensei asked.
"You guys know that it is a protocol. We didn't expect that this will be this worse…." She replied.
"This worse?" it was Tsubasa. His eyebrows are already knitted, hinting that he's also serious.
"If we don't have protective barriers casted on each one of us…" she eyes Shiki-san, "our alices will be uncontrollable, and chaos will be possible." She explained.
"Can't Shiki take her place in the meantime?" Natsume asked this time.
"I can't." Shiki-san said drawing all attention at him. "I can't assume on the responsibility unless my alice tells me so. The position of the princess as the barrier-caster is not as easy as being a representative. Our alices' state is the one that decides for us and since my alice is not yet in near-completeness, I can't assume in her place."
"And that's the point." Shizune spoke again. "The princess is still working on protecting all of us even in her weak state…" she started sobbing, "and we can't find any cure for that. Subaru's alice is not working on her, either. If this continues, she'll die and we will be in trouble." And then she started crying hard. Mom's head is buried on her palms and everyone's are views that are hard to paint. I can only look at them, and by now, maybe the only head that jibes with my train of thought is Ruka.
"But where's Hotaru?" he finally asked.
"She's the one who called us to get here, where is she?" I added.
"The last time that we talked," Permy began, "she mentioned that she thinks she has a solution…"
"I do have a solution" her voice suddenly appeared. I found Hotaru by the door when I turned around. It was automatic for me to rush and hug her in that next second. I'm so brave to do that since I noticed that the Baka Gun's not with her. Hehe.
"I'm sorry… but I have to do something or we'll all be in trouble." Then she looked up at everyone, "I apologize for making you all worry," she eyed Ruka but went back to talking, "As I said, I have a solution…"
"What is it?" Uncle Kazu asked interestedly.
"I made a research about this illness. It is not named yet, but it usually comes to those with limited and balanced alice powers like the princess. Normally, the alice stops when it reaches the limit of use especially when the body is not in the condition but if the alice-user is an expert, he or she borrows his/her body's strength and use it as the alice. Excessive practice of this may lead to illness that can only be cured by either the moonstone or by a well-practiced healing alice."
"We've used the moonstone…" I absent-mindedly sounded out as I look at Natsume who also glanced at me.
"Your brother has the healing alice…" my mom intercepted.
"Nii-sama is still young. I am referring to an ability that was practiced with nature, and I know only one person with that kind of alice…"
"It's our ancestor, isn't it?" Subaru-nii joined in.
"Yes, it's Imai Mito. She's more of our great, great, great, great, great grandmother, I don't know…" Hotaru replied.
Tsubasa made a bitter laughter. "But she's long dead! How can we ask her to heal the Princess!"
"Not unless Youichi will help us…" Koko said, making Hotaru roll her eyes on him.
"Yo-chan!" Aoi exclaimed. I expected it to be out of fear but instead, I noticed that it was out of delight and excitement.
POINK! …and just out of the blue, Natsume hit his sister on her head. "So you're thinking that your granny's an evil spirit!"
"Ouch!" goes Aoi's eternal pout. "I just want to see the guy!"
"Baka…" Hotaru whispered. "My research led me to a case that happened along time ago when the Igarashi's family head got the same illness." She said, looking at Natsume. "Because of that, my ancestor experimented on her ability and found a solution by using nature's alice with it. We all know that the so-called 'nature alice' is still a mystery but some experienced alice-users are good with dealing with it, and that's what happened with Mito. Unfortunately, she only did it by accident and was never able to repeat it ever again. She offered the alice stones to the Igarashis in a condition that they should protect it, or what will be left of it. The Igarashi's family master got well, and some alice stones were left and it was passed to the care of the next generations.
"The thing is… the last people who knew the whereabouts of these stones are Natsume's grandmother and mother… and they're both dead."
"It was never mentioned to me, neither to Aoi." Natsume said with his usual emotionless tone.
"No, wait!" Mom suddenly exclaimed. "If I can remember it clearly…" she tried to think, as if finding a specific dress in a room of clothes, "Lady Kora, Natsume's grandmother, asked her daughter Kaoru with the help of Izumi to seal the stones in a secret place. It was done by… uhm… by nullifying nature's barrier so that Kaoru can enter that place and seal the alice stones. So… maybe… the stones are still there…"
"Don't you remember the place?" Natsume asked.
My mom shook her head. "Kaoru modified Izumi's memories after the sealing so he wasn't able to tell me. The only one who know exactly whereabouts of the alice stones and how to undo the seal to it is you grandmother, Natsume."
"…and she's dead now." He added.
"Then how are we going to deal with this, Hotaru?" asked Narumi-sensei, who, for the first time in a very long time, became serious.
"Someone from us should go back to past and recover the alice stones." She said. My heart throbbed that it almost hurt. I suddenly felt nervous when Shiki looked at me.
"I'll assume that the recovery of these alice stones is not as easy as possible since we need to get other related information about it before we can lay hands on it. And," Shiki-san paused, eyeing each one of us and stopped at Hotaru, "…if you're intending to make your subjects stay on that 'past', you need to do what is required for them to be able to stay safely" he said.
"What do you mean with safely?" Narumi-sensei asked him.
"He's talking about Time—an unknown entity that controls the past, present and future. If this so-called entity caught someone tricking it, that cheater is punished to be trapped in the time-warp forever and can never come back." Hotaru explained, which, gave me goosebumps. Imagine being trapped in time Uh-oh, no way.
"Alright, this is getting creepier and worse. Could someone tell us how can we avoid this to happen?" I blurted out.
"Like what was mentioned, we should cheat Time without getting caught." Shiki said.
"Like… how are we going to do that?" Misaki asked.
"We will lock or seal or whatever-you-call-that the subjects' memories of the present so that it will appear that he's living in his present once he's there. If incase you're thinking about just acting to forget everything, forget it. That can't work on time." Shiki paused. "The thing is… the person needs to know his mission amidst the suppressed memories, and in case he remembers, he shouldn't do and say anything that will make Time notice, or the worse will come to worst."
"It's not that easy!" Tsubasa protested. "You will make one of us forget and then we should remember the mission!"
"We will give clues." Hotaru calmly told him, us. "…and besides, I went back first." We're literally shocked with that. So that's why she was gone.
"You can time-travel?" I blankly asked her.
"It's not my alice, but that ability can be learned. I was trained by Kaname-senpai before he died. He told me that I may need this ability in the future, and I did." She sighed then looked up at us. "And I'm sorry. If we don't seal the subject's memory, we can't cheat Time."
Wait. Can everything just stop for a while because I'm not as savvy as most of the people here to grasp everything by mind and by heart!
I forced my mind to work faster. Kaname-senpai? He taught Hotaru?
"Now who do you propose to be the subject?" Uncle Kazu asked Hotaru and I was officially distracted again.
Everyone froze.
Who—?
-o-
.
.
Please reviewwwwwwwwww =(^.^)=
l
V
