EXODUS

Chapter Nine: Fallen Embers

A/n: Anyone free and willing to be my beta reader? I've been told to get one since my grammar sucks and sadly, I agree.

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It's not like he doesn't appreciate his friends and their willingness to be near him. He really did but, Natsume sighed as he observed the group of people in front of him, sometimes they are just too much for him to handle. Even people that he didn't know made a habit of accosting him if just to say hello.

He was getting soft that's why, and he knew the reason for that is currently beside him, giggling. He had to admit it's hard to maintain your hard ass reputation if you caved every time a pony tailed bouncing bundle of joy bats her eyelashes at you. Not that he didn't enjoy the process of stripping said people of their obvious change of perception and discouraged any attempts of them trying to befriend him.

In his mind, he already had way too any friends but still, he chuckled reluctantly at their current entertainment, it's nice having them around to distract him from gloomy thoughts about his life…or lack thereof.

The spotlight was on Yuu who was using his Illusion Alice to project a scene from the manga he was holding, stolen from Natsume's hand no less, in front of their eyes like a movie. Two Shinsengumi was glaring at each other from their perspective corners, touching the hilt of their swords in what appears to be the brink of a duel. Of course, blood and gore is not something to be laughed at, he grinned when the group burst into giggles and belly gut laughs, especially when Yuu's face crumpled into lines of frustration since Koko and Monchu kept dubbing over the two samurai's arguments, using Ruka's latest task of love letters to Narumi-sensei.

Natsume shifted his eyes towards Mikan who was quite all of sudden. "What is it?"

Interestingly, she gave him distracted smile. "It's nothing." She frowned. "Natsume-kun, do you know them?"

Quirking a brow, Natsume looked to where she was looking and instantly tensed, his instincts telling him that something was wrong. It wasn't as if the group of what looks like upperclassmen was doing anything wrong, they didn't even look particularly shifty either. To his eyes, they were just a couple of guys hanging out, having fun….while their sharp, beady eyes watched the students around them way too hard to be casual. But he played it cool for mikan's sake at least. "Why do you ask?"

Her brow wrinkled. "You remember that I told you that lately I can feel you when you're near?"

He nodded, "You sense my Alice like a signature of some sort inside your head."

"Yeah." Her eyes returned to him, the look in them confused and troubled. "They feel…weird."

"Hn." Watching the group from the corner of his eyes, he shrugged like the matter was of no importance. "Don't worry about it. It's probably because you're not used to the feel of their power."

Mikan considered it before agreeing with him but he saw she kept looking at them and it bothered him. Enough that he felt like he should check it out but decided to distract Mikan for a while.

He leaned back on the Sakura bark behind him, casually crossing his ankles. Koko, he called inside his mind. No, don't look at me.

Koko stopped and then purposely look sideways to Kitsuneme who looked at him suspiciously before turning back to the show. The mind reader covertly waggled his eyebrows in silent question.

You see the group of senpai's at your eleven? Check them out, will ya?

Natsume watched Koko expression blanked out every second that ticked by and felt his stomach twist. When he slightly turned his head, he was surprised when he met cool violet eyes that was watching him. Not surprised at all that Hotaru caught on at the exchanges between him and Koko, he jerked his head towards Mikan.

Not a second after, Mikan ambled excitedly towards Hotaru and Natsume couldn't help but feel a little peeved at how easy Mikan left his side, seduced by the prospect of cookies, however when Koko dropped beside him Natsume turned just as casually, to better look at his friend…and the peculiar group.

"I can't do it."

Natsume red eyes sharpened. "What?"

"Some thing is blocking me. I can't read their minds."

Natsume opened his mouth to ask more questions when the fine hairs at the back of his neck lifted, instead he said. "Duck."

His friend's eyes shifted towards him in confusion but at the corner of his eyes he saw Mikan pulled the girls to the ground at the order. Following her example, he pulled Ruka and Koko down. "DUCK."

Shock rippled across the grounds at the strong, forceful wind that pushed at them. Their eyes rolled upwards when they saw several students tripped and rolled over them because of the swirling wind that resembled a small tornado. Natsume blinked the dust from his eyes and raised his head to check out the mess and sure enough, only the suspicious group was left standing on their own feet, chuckling at the general destruction and panic around them. The wind lightened around them and a glance showed him that it was Mikan's doing, he nodded to her as all of them moved to kneel in a tight circle, back to back.

"What the hell is going on?" Monchu covered his eyes with an arm.

"At first glance?" Sumire shoved the hair from her eyes. "Somebody's up to no good. Natsume?"

"You and Ruka should go get the teachers, both of you know who. Stay low." He watched them creep discreetly through the crowds, sure that Sumire's cat/dog senses and Ruka's animals can find them faster than anyone. He sneaked a glance towards the rest of his friends that looked at him in anticipation. "No use in telling you guys to roll over and play dead, huh?"

When he saw the smirk on their faces that eerily resembled Hotaru's, he shook his head. They've been spending way too much time together.

He jerked his head to a six year Yoichi who sat in the middle of their circle, munching on a cookie, blinking wide teal eyes at him. "You think you can summon some to distract them for a while?"

The six year old nodded, a gleam of mischief glittered in his eyes. Yuu raised his hand as if he was in class despite the cutting force of the wind that push and pulled at their clothes and hair. It almost made Natsume smile. "I'll go with him, I can copy his demons, make them guess which is real and which isn't. You, know, confusion to your enemies."

Natsume nodded, an appreciative smile on his lips. "Monchu, help them out but first you and the rest should clear out the other students from the quad. Can you girls help out too?"

Anna and Konoko nodded. He felt bad in assigning tasks to his friends, asking them to jump into danger but, dammit, he had no choice.

"Don't be a hero, okay? Don't attract any unnecessary attention to yourself. Stay behind the trees and don't let them see you. If they do and catch you, just let them and wait. Understand?"

They nodded and Natsume glanced at Mikan who was frowning in concentration and he felt the wind weakened once more in a wider range so the others can move away without being hindered by it. "Don't over do it. Let them think they still have the upper hand, the longer they think so, the easier it will be for us to catch them off guard."

And where the hell is security, damn it!

A dry and sardonic voice reached his ear. "I think catching them off guard is out of the question now, Hyuuga."

He gave Hotaru a glance before looking to where she pointed and cursed loudly. "What the hell?"

Three masked dangerous abilities had stepped into the fray and he recognized them. It wasn't like they were bad fighters or that he was itching for the fight himself, it was that there was a damn hierarchy to consider and to respect. They weren't supposed to do anything without his approval, damn Doumoto and damn his ambition.

Koko, tell Monchu to get a move on evacuating them students. It's about to get ugly.

Not a second too soon, they saw the panicking crowd was parted forcefully and pulled to the sides behind the lines of trees by an unseen hand. Natsume blinked at the speed and strength of that action. A sly, sick heaviness settled in his stomach as he realized that it wasn't going to be long until Monchu will be recruited into some vague section of dangerous ability.

He eyed the path that led towards the school, trying to catch a glimpse of Ruka but he didn't see a thing. He gritted his teeth, the irony of it all. In the field he was given free reign and he could commandeered a friggin' army if he wanted but here he had to wait for approval. He watched as his friends stood by him, doing what they can to restrain things until he can take over. He marveled at their courage, their loyalty and their determination even though he can feel their fear vibrating in the air.

"Just a little longer guys." He whispered to himself and sneered when a rat mask clad Doumoto fell on his ass, several cuts on his upper body. Stupid amateur.

Currently stuck in the sidelines doing nothing, he settled himself down to observe and scrutinized their enemy for any weaknesses. His long red eyes sharpened, focusing on each individual, already strategizing and prioritizing as he listed their weak points and abilities. His mind analyzing the best way to take them out with the least fuss and the shortest time possible, knowing that the longer they stay, conscious at least, the more information they can get from their surroundings and frankly Doumoto's team is not the best advocate of their abilities and a show of weakness will only guarantee a repetition of this stunt. Natsume found himself looking out for Persona to pull Doumoto back because the longer that amateur wanna-be got his ass kicked, he knew he had to be twice as ruthless, twice as vicious. This was just a power play, if they wanted to invade them academy, they would not have sent some class two Alice and would have doubled their numbers. They would still lose but it would create more casualties on the academy's part.

This was a game of who can bluff the most and he was the Academy's trump card.

He nudged Mikan with his elbow and was nudged back, harder. "I'm concentrating here, Natsume-kun."

"It's called multitask, ojou. An enemy will not stop attacking you just because you're concentrating."

The girl grumped but Natsume noticed that her control and stamina had strengthened from them last time they trained, not to mention her concentration. When Natsume finally gave in to her demands about training, he was frustrated with her pathetic attempts on keeping her attention on one thing. He suspected that she had some kind of attention disorder but that had improved greatly much to his relief. He shouldn't be all surprised since one of her plus points was her awesome will power.

"Since we're not doing anything, we're going to have a test, baka."

"Blah."

He ignored Hotaru's raised brow and Mikan's icky faces. "Consider it training. What was the first mistake the rat and his friends did?"

Mikan glanced at Natsume suspiciously, not because that this was something new, they'd been playing this type of Q&A since he'd begun training her but because she suspected that it was another dig for what happened between her and Doumoto but since Natsume only quirked an eyebrow at her, she decided to take the question as it was. "Hn…jump in without observation…?"

"The second?"

He always insisted that she analyze and second guessed her thoughts and actions. In training her, he would tell her that she made a mistake but he wouldn't tell her what it was, leaving it to herself to figure it out then how she could fix it. He was an exacting and demanding teacher in all areas of her training and she had the bruises and aches to prove it. It was a good thing she was good in sports and her physical stamina was better than most because of all the times she spent running, hiking, walking, swimming in rivers and climbing trees in her village, but even then every time they finished training, she always felt like she was trampled by a stampede while he didn't even have the decency to act at least winded if not tired.

It didn't help at all that her Alice stamina sucked. Big time.

The first thing Natsume told her when they started on to her Alice training was that it was harder to maintain their Alice for long length of times in small doses than letting it out as a strong burst of energy. Back then, she had scoffed and he was hell bent on proving it, as a result at the end of the hour where she was told to keep her power on a gentle simmer, he had to drag her back to her room since she was half dead to the world.

Since then, she was used to the headaches, nausea, muscle jerks and the way her eyes felt like it would pop out of her head.

Natsume can deny all he wanted until he's blue in the face, but it wasn't just his power that leaves people in awe of him but also his enviable focus, awesome determination and down right disgusting diligence.

Before she really knew what his so called 'training' entailed, she used to scoffed and teased him about his 'weak and sickly self' every time he appeared in class all worn out or when he overslept, now after experiencing some of those training herself, her respect for him soared...not that she'll ever admit it or anything.

She jolted out of her thoughts when a warm hand covered her shoulder and she turned to Natsume and Hotaru, Ruka was running towards them carrying something.

Natsume's Kuro Neko mask.