Chapter Eight

Outside World Once More

It was 7:50 at the morning and Mikan woke up with a start. Hotaru had blasted her with her baka-gun, and she awoke rubbing the back of her head. Hotaru stared at her and solemnly said:
"What with the face?" She began. "Come on! You're late; everyone has gathered at the main hall of the hospital already. Now get up!"

"Why are we gathering at the main hall?" Mikan asked peevishly, stretching her arms and yawning. A strange series of events had happened to her last night and she could hardly believe any of them. Then, with a heavy heaved sigh, she washed herself and got dressed and slowly followed her friend. Clearly, she didn't have much energy and she was still dreadfully sleepy. The door closed behind with a noisy squeak.

"Are we heading to the main hall, Hotaru?" Mikan asked her best friend.

"No," Hotaru said simply.

"What?" Mikan gasped, puzzled. "But, didn't you say-"

"Change of plan, Mr. Narumi's idea."

"-so then, only we're going to attend the meeting at the hall or what?" asked Mikan very confused indeed.

"Yes, I'm not sure about the plan but it's our last hope." Hotaru said gravely and Mikan began to look frightened.

"What...what do you mean by... last hope?"

"No time to explain, come, we must run to the hospitals back entrance!" Hotaru snapped, seizing Mikan's hand and pulling her roughly as she ran.

Natsume and Ruka were nowhere to be found that morning and the faculty members had suspected he and his companion, Nogi Ruka had shut down the security systems at night and made a quick escape. No one knew this except the staff, but none of them knew that one genius had already known of their secret plan. A great deal of children was gathered up in the main hall of the hospital and only Mikan and Hotaru weren't yet, as I told you. But a commotion had started among the children.

"OK, I'm damn worried now!" scowled Mochiage-kun. "Where the heck is Natsume-kun and Ruka-kun?"

Anna burst into tears and Nonoko-chan embraced her friend comfortingly, patting her back as Anna sobbed.

Sumirei had been searching all night and the faculty members found her lying on the grass that morning and they dragged her safely back to the hospital. She sulked and sobbed all night and morning and had given up trying to look for Natsume. She was ill at the moment and she couldn't attend the meeting.

"I hate this!" Cried Nonoko-chan. "Who could have started the fire!?" and she too burst into tears. No one could help but cry themselves; even some little boys began to weep along with the girls. Anna-chan rubbed her knuckles on her eyes and wiped off her tears with her sleeve.

"Where do we sleep now?" began Yome Kokoro, who tried as much as possible not to cry. "We can't possibly stay here forever?"

"And a lot of us had lost a great deal of things from our bedrooms! My passport must be burnt down to pieces now!" exclaimed Misaki-senpai.

"Don't worry; I think the faculty members know what to do!" Said Tsubasa-senpai and patted Misaki-senpai on her shoulder.

"That's right!" Said a voice behind them, and as they realized it was Jinno-sensei, they bowed their heads as he placed himself in front of all the children. He was shocked because he saw how much children there really were in Alice Academy all together. He took a deep breath and announced:

"All the children here in Alice Academy will be sent to some shelters and host homes and some will be sent home in a contract that they may not runaway or else they will be sued." began Jinno sensei. There were several gaps and cries of joy and shock. "Now, please reply when I call out your names."

A lot of children from the elementary section were called to stand at the right side of Jinno-sensei and announced that would be placed in shelters. As he said this, they all cried and some begged to go home but Jinno-sensei pulled out his lightning stick and they became silent, weeping and crying. Then he called Mikan-chan, but there was no answer and Jinno-sensei looked

frustrated and carried on to the next set of children. I feel inclined to tell you whom was sent home and who weren't but I think you'd only sleep in the process so I'll skip this part and forward it to Mikan and Hotaru's scene.

Mikan panted as Hotaru dragged her and she stumbled slightly.

"Hotaru-chan!" stammered Mikan frustratedly. "I'm not lame, I can walk for myself!"

"I know that," Hotaru began quietly. "But you're stupid."

Mikan scowled and continued towards the endless streams of halls and corridors. A few students stared at them but Hotaru did not come to a stand-still to have any conversation nor did she want to. Finally, they entered the last corridor and they slipped towards the back door of the hospital. After closing the door behind her, Hotaru let go of Mikan's hand and said:

"Now, I'll explain the situation slowly..."

"What?" Mikan interrupted.

"Shut up and listen," Hotaru snapped and continued,"We are going to be sent to an awful shelter but Mr. Narumi doesn't want that, he wants us to get away quietly. The faculty members won't let us go home because of our Alices. Instead, they will send us in a different shelter than others, much more worse than a military boot camp.

"Mr.Narumi won't allow this, so he's already set up an escape for us. This time, the situation is so horrible that it is possible we might be killed because of this information"

Mikan looked at Hotaru with horror.

"But... but why?" Mikan asked, aghast.

"Because they believe you know something about Nogi and Hyuuga, plus you have a dangerous Alice. Mikan, you know where Natsume is right?"

"I- I don't know-But I won't use my Alice for bad reasons!" bellowed Mikan, sobbing. Hotaru clasped her her hands on Mikan's mouth.

"Are you crazy, don't yell, Baka!" Hotaru hissed. "

There was a rustle between the leaves and Hotaru and Mikan froze. Mr. Narumi's figure appeared soon enough and Hotaru sighed with relief. "Are you ready?" Mr.

Narumi asked, panting but he stood up straight and fearless. "We have very little time left..."

"Yes, sensei!" Hotaru replied.

"Have your passports, money, and identification?" Narumi checked.

"Yes..."

"Mikan's too?"

"Yes, sensei, can we move on?" Hotaru stammered, looking impatient.

"OK, OK, have you got your shape-shifting candy?" Mr. Narumi asked Hotaru.

"Yes!" Hotaru replied, almost retorting.

"OK, put them in your mouth but don't swallow them!" Mr. Narumi said hastily. Searching for some certain papers in his brown-leather bag.

Mikan watched the two of them as Hotaru slipped a wrapped candy onto her hand. Many events were happening too fast and she couldn't speak a word. She felt left out, an outcast and a fugitive. She knew Mr. Narumi was only trying to help but what would she do? At least Hotaru would be going with her, but where will they

go? Certainly not Grandpa's house, she would bring a whole barrel of problems to an old man and if anything would happen to him because of her, she would never feel happy again.

Mr. Narumi found the papers he was looking for and slid each of them into Hotaru's and Mikan's hand. They were fake identification forms that only faculty members and staff of Alice Academy obtained. And Mr. Narumi slid them each a pass-card.

"Take this to the entrance after you've shape-shifted into those people and then swipe your card onto the machine that will open the gates. This is the safest way of escape at day but you must tell the security that you are going for a big meeting at Tokyo's secret board of education. They will believe this because there is such a thing."

Hotaru nodded.

"Hotaru, you do the talking!" Mr, Narumi commanded. "And Mikan, please just reply yes and no!"

"OK...," both said at the same time.

"Now, you must stick to the names of your fake identification form, don't worry about the real people, they're my job to worry about!" Mr. Narumi said, and added, "Good luck..."

"Wait!" Mikan called out to the blond bishounen.

Mr. Narumi turned his attention towards Mikan. Her face flushed with hot trickling tears as she said:

"You're not coming with us?" she asked.

"I'm afraid not...," Mr. Narumi said solemnly,

"But why!?" burst Mikan, sobbing.

"I...I can't, there are a million reasons why I can't come with you..."

"But you once asked me whether we could escape together!" stammered Mikan.

"That was when I was desperate!" snapped Mr. Narumi. "Mikan, you'll die if I come with you, and I mean it!"

Mikan clenched her fist and rubbed her knuckles against her eyes. Mr. Narumi stooped low infront of her and hugged her tightly.

"You were my most favourite student...," he whispered. "And I love you as if you were my daughter...but times are changing, someday, and it will happen, you will know the truth..."

And with that last sentence Mr. Narumi left the two of them standing there. It took quite sometime for Mikan to recover from the shock but after a while they had shape-shifted into Alice Academy staff and they had done exactly what Mr. Narumi told them to do and though it was hard at first, it was a success. Hotaru explained

on the way that since the security was not that tight, there won't be anyone to inspect them so all they had to do is swipe their pass-cards and they gates opened for them. Very soon, they were in the outside world once more. Mikan felt like she was missing something. They hadn't said good-bye and it didn't feel good to leave your dear ones.