Chapter Two

Attempt to Escape

"Hotaru! Where on earth is Mikan-chan?" pouted Nonoko Ogasawara, as Hotaru snacked on a waffle bar. "First, Natsume and

Ruka go missing, then her?"

"Where is Ruka and Natsume-kun!?" Yome Kokoro asked, his expression lopsided.

"I heard he and Ruka are back at the burning building...," Anna Umenomiya said, looking wretched.

"SHUT UP!" Sumirei Shoda, Natsume's number one fan, bellowed. "Natsume is too strong to be back there!" she said, looking

teary.

"Who knows this must be his doing, dumb-head!" spitted a boy from the corner of the room, he looked disdainful. "That

stupid dog, or dare I say, "Kitten" is a disgrace to Alice Aca-"

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT BULL-HEAD!" Sumirei retorted. She looked deranged. "Natsume would never do such a thing!"

she burst into tears and ran off mumbling words like, "I'm going to find him...," or "I bet his gonna be somewhere here..."

Mochiage-kun, one of Natsume's piers or sort of bodyguard, had slid off the conversation and strode towards the boy whom insulted Natsume as to teach him a lesson. The boy tried to run away from his presence but Mochiage-kun's telekinesis Alice had gotten the better of him.

"Natsume, being such the jerk as he is, would never want to hurt us; burning Alice Academy would be the last thing on his

head!" Tsubasa-senpai stammered. Misaki-senpai smacked the back of Tsubasa-senpai's head and said:

"Last thing, huh? Wouldn't it be better if you said, not at all?" she smirked, looking at Tsubasa-senpai with piercing eyes.

"Well, I never said Natsume was a saint, did I?" Tsubasa retorted, several people shuddered and some were even mumbling

under their breaths. Some people even grunted on how they were taking the situation so lightly, but the truth was, even Tsubasa-senpai and Misaki-senpai were frightened.

"Natsume-kun, would not want Alice Academy to burn down for two reasons, those who are smart around here would know

those two reasons," Hotaru said, quite calmly.

"But are you suggesting that they might be back at the elementary school section, where it's burning, Hotaru-san?" Yuu

Tobita asked.

"Who knows for sure...," Hotaru said, feeling amazing peaceful but as she said those words, the whole room had become

glum and morose.

"I hope everyone's OK...," Anna said, looking very worried indeed.

The argument had been the centre of attraction in the room and they continued to fight about the matter.

"I want my mommy!" cried a little girl who wept on the floor of the hospital hall as Mikan, who had passed by looking for

Natsume, spotted her and felt a great rush of sympathy and understanding towards the little girl. She approached the little

girl slowly and gave her a pat on the head.

"It's ok, we'll be alright...," Mikan whispered as the girl looked up at her. She felt a little lighter but still wept. Though the

words were encouraging, everyone would know they were empty and void. Mikan stayed by the little girl's side for a moment,

sitting on the floor next to her, looking very thoughtful that her expression was almost vague. "Come on now...don't cry...,"

she said finally as the girl continued weeping.

"I...I can't hel...help it...," cried the little girl. "I miss my mommy!"

"Don't cry, people should smile all the time so other people would smile and feel happy, please...smile for me," Mikan said,

smiling at the little girl. And as the young child wiped off her tears she forced a smile on her face that looked more like the

expression of one that had been whacked on the head, directing it towards Mikan.

"See, you look prettier when you smile!" and Mikan beamed. The girl simply beamed back and Mikan got up and told her she

had to go somewhere.

"Wait!" the girl then exclaimed after Mikan stood up and she hesitated a little as she asked, "I don't even know your name..."

"It's Mikan," Mikan said, grinning sheepishly. "Mikan Sakura."

"Mine's Yoko..." the little girl said shyly and she thrust a small box candy towards Mikan: she accepted, smiling. "Yoko Miyori

from the kindergarten grade..."

Mikan smiled and said good bye as she turned her back and darted off towards another room. Yoko just waved good bye and

she stood up and walked towards the door Mikan had entered.

"Where the heck has Ruka and that Natsume gone to? Oh that...that idiot!" Mikan thought, swearing under her breath. "I

hope that he's not back there..." It had hit her, was she really that worried for Natsume? A glimpse of Sumirei's stern face

popped up in Mikan's head. She then thought about the time Natsume held her hand, saying he would never let it go and she

blushed and her cheeks turned a great deal colour of red.

Sumirei, as Natsume's number one fan, had always been trustworthy towards him. Even though Natsume (what had seemed

to everyone that didn't know him well) didn't seem to care, deep down...way down, Natsume had feelings for Sumirei. Not the

type someone would call 'deep love' but "brotherly and sisterly love.' By all means possible, Sumirei was trying her hardest to

find Natsume but had refused the thought (though it was a very realistic thought) that he was back at the burning

elementary school section). She went to search for him everywhere and had not made any eye contact with anyone since

then.

First Person Point of View: Ruka

"Ruka, we need to head to the hospital first...cough..." Natsume looked weaker than ever, he trembled all over as he said this

to me. I answered, a little worried:
"Are...are you OK, and why do we have to head back the hospital?" I asked him, astonished. "Have you gotten out of your

mind; I thought you didn't want to get caught?"

"No, it's not that-cough-it's just, I kept our passports and little money in my private hospital room just in case anything should

have happened...cough...we can't travel without them..."

I never thought Natsume would be this handicapped. "Well OK then..." I agreed to his idea, a little reluctant.

"Remember, my room is on the top floor where no one is allowed to go in: room number 101. I'm sure people are making a

search so they might make an exception tonight. The floor might be flooded with students cause' there isn't much room for

everyone.

"Plus, I hid some tools there, we might also need to shut down all the power systems so that the gates will be free and open

for us to escape: there is one in the hospital."

Natsume seemed to have been talking to himself than to me, I could sense he was in pain as he clutched Mikan's tiny yet

pretty looking, Alice Stone firmly on his palm. I couldn't believe such a tiny stone could be attached to a necklace. But

something had perplexed me.

'Why had Mikan given him her first Alice Stone and not to me, she had promised hadn't she?' I thought as Natsume continued

to give instructions; he spoke about disguises and a way to break in. 'Mikan...I couldn't stop thinking about her, I know

Natsume has feelings for her, I do too, immensely strong feelings...I'm so lost and confused, I've always wanted her for my

own, but having a friend who liked her as well made everything complicated. From all the girls of the world, why did he choose

Mikan, better yet, why do I choose Mikan?'

'We were still sitting on the grass, though we moved a little further from the burning building, we sat on a spot where it was

shaded by trees (this way, we wouldn't be spotted immediately). Natsume had to take a rest from all the walking; He had

been sick all week and had cut on class today (before the fire began). It was all so fuzzy; I couldn't believe Alice Academy

could fall so easily buy fire. But then, the academy was no such normal school, and a normal fire couldn't have burned it down

so easily. Could this have been Natsume's doing? No! I can't lose trust in him, I have to remain loyal...but still...Natsume could

have caused it without knowing...'

Finally, we stood up and started walking another route towards the hospital until:

"NATSUME!!" we heard Sumirei's loud voice call us. "RUKA WHERE ARE YOU GUYS!?"

Natsume and I both froze; luckily smoke had covered the whole area so that Sumirei would have only seen the faded blurred

image of the burning building and since we were hidden amongst the tress, it would be impossible to see us. She called out to us again, although you might have guessed or anyone could tell it was more like a sob. We walked slowly away from the

place we sat on and dashed towards the dark thicket of smoky fog and branches and leaves and made our way past Sumirei.

But as we moved passed, we couldn't help but feel sorry for her as we heard her sobs and desperate cries, I sighed and I

could tell Natsume did too. Sumirei had always been there for us, supporting, defending, and protecting our names from

anything that could have tainted them (though they were long tainted already). She was special to us, like a sister, a dear

friend (though Natsume did not show this feeling, I could tell that he does feel it too),
We walked further away from her as she tried to get closer to the building, she screamed and sobbed, and she threw fists

over her head and pulled her hair. It was as if we were watching her do Yura Otanashi's divination dance. She looked quite

demented as she prevented herself from walking any further towards the burning building by slapping herself. 'Poor girl...' I

thought, sighing.

We walked slowly towards the Hospital, only we did not walk in the main entrance but we tried to enter through the back,

trying our best not to get caught. We climbed through an open window that lead towards an empty room, then, checking to

see whether anyone had noticed us, we closed the window shut and walked quietly towards the exit of the room. But just as

we were just about to walk out through the exit, Natsume had pulled me to the corner of the room, he had found two pairs of

clean doctor's robes which would explain why the room was so empty, the room was a doctor's lounge and since they were

all busy, they had to leave the place vacant till their work was done. Natsume signalled me to wear the robes as he started

to hoist them up and put them on: I imitated him, hoisting the other robe and I hastened them on. We put on black hats and

we both carried a first aid kit (just to give the illusion that we were still learning doctors). Then, stooping our heads low, we

started towards the exit of the room and as we I swung open the door, we saw a dozen of people passing through; some

were staring but then looked away uninterested as they saw our name tags: We were easily mistaken as male nurses.

Though I had my head stooped low, Natsume noticed my dumb founded expression. 'I was a second close to making a

mistake back there, luckily Natsume thought about the robes!' I thought. We passed through corridor after corridor and an

endless stream of halls.

There were a crowd of noisy people, whom suspected us a little but didn't seem all too interested in finding out who we were

because they were too busy worrying about friends and relatives whom did not arrive yet. Checking to see whether the coast

was clear, we made our way out and we rushed into the hospitals private stairways: No one was in there.

We walked floor after floor until we finally reached the top most floor: it was a spiral stair case. We went through the exit of

the stairway room. I noticed Natsume clutching Mikan's Alice Stone.

'It was strange...whenever Natsume touched Mikan's Alice stone, I could hear his heart pounding, his breath getting louder,

and he would stopped coughing temporarily. It seemed to give him a weird but oddly nice, comforting sensation. I looked

away, I couldn't bear the thought any longer and I focused on our mission.'

We passed through empty hallways and room after room before we reached our destination: Room 101 was our stop.

Natsume took out an iron key from his pocket and jostled it into the doorknob's key hole and with clacking sound, he swung

opened the door. We entered it and as we checked the empty hallway, I closed the door behind me. The room was very pitch

black, the curtains were open and the lights were off: it was hard to describe the room since it was pitch black except for a tiny bit of light one might see under the opening of a doors frame that allowed it to swing forwards and backwards: and a little opening from the shut windows beamed a small ray of moonlight into the room. Natsume sat down the hospital bed for a moment or two and he got up

again. I stood at the corner of the room as Natsume began to take off his robe and he put on a black jacket, which had been

lying on top of his bed, and zipped it. He gave me another jacket, only it was dark blue: I slid it onto my waist and hastened it

on. Natsume shut the curtains then began to pull open some drawers that stood beside his bed and pulled out various

things: one item was a funny looking packet of candies; another was a black leather wallet, and two passports and two black

cotton beanies. He threw all of these items into a black coloured back pack and he wrapped it around the back of his

shoulders. We were all set to go.

As we were just about to exit the room, we heard a strange voice behind us saying, "Wait..."

Dark in the shadows lurked a dark figure, which had the form of a girl. She stood up; we could only see her silhouette for she

stood on the darkest corner of the room. Then, she started walking towards us, her pace was very slow but as she walked

towards us, a little moonlight from a small opening from the shut curtains, revealed half of her face. It was Luna-san. She

grinned evilly as we stared at her derisive face.