Next Day
Hotaru wasn't at the lockers when I arrived at school and wasn't there when Narumi called free period. Even Misaki was there with us in class. Mid class, Hotaru slammed the door open. She stomped towards us.
"We have a huge problem." she said hurriedly. This is serious if it caused Hotaru Imai to be late to school.
"What is it? You look like a mess. Look at your hair." I said, scanning her as she panted heavily and her clothes and hair was all disarrayed. She slammed a newspaper onto the table. My eyes widened at the picture. There was Natsume pecking my cheek from the family ball. Oh my god!
"Crimson Abyss and Cinderella pictures if you can run to the mall and back first!" Hotaru yelled.
Everybody rushed out but our friends.
"Hotaru babe, what's wrong?" Ruka asked as he and the band approached. We made way for them.
"This is what's wrong!" she yelled nervously. They all gasped at the picture and headline.
"Seems like the Crimson Abyss leader and Hyuuga heir has a girlfriend." was the headline. We opened to the page. They skipped the table of contents for this because it was right on the back of the cover. There were various pictures of me and Natsume. And then it said a sub title.
"All of Crimson Abyss is taken!" it said. Afterwards was pictures of each of us. And this wasn't a masquerade. Our faces were clearly visible in each picture.
"They're everywhere! I was passing a newsstand and they had tons of them. I had to buy the entire supply and snatch them from people on the street! They are literally in every store! Even toy stores!" she yelled. You could tell she frustrated and anxious. Natsume pulled out his cell phone but before he could dial anything we heard a shrill shriek from miles away.
"I don't think the mall was the best place to send them." Koko said. Oh my gosh. If Luna and Serah see that, they'll cut my head off or throw me out of the house or something worse. Natsume dialed and put the phone on speaker.
"Hello?" I heard Kaoru-san's voice.
"Mom, have you seen the newspaper today?" Natsume asked.
"No, why honey?" she asked.
"Cuz Mikan and I are all over it, and so it the rest of Crimson Abyss and Mikan's friends." he said.
"WHAT?" she screamed into the phone.
"Mom, I need you to find out who took those pictures and track them down. And now, me and my friends have to buy every single stack of newspapers. They're even in toy stores mom! They are literally everywhere! Get some butlers and family members out there." he said.
"I'm on it! Aoi!" she yelled before hanging up.
"We need to go." Natsume said. We all nodded and ran out of the school. We ran all over the town picking up newspapers with our boyfriends' credit and debit cards. We didn't even go in pairs. That is how much area we needed to cover! The only one who wasn't ambushed by press and fans was me because I still had my get up on, that was until Serah and Luna found me…
Next Day Natsume's POV
All of Mikan's friends walked in. The minute they stepped in all of our fangirls were surrounding them.
"Backup or I'll annihilate each and every one of you!" Imai growled. They walked up to our desks. Since the cat was out of bag, there was no reason to pretend that they didn't care about us anymore. I was in a dark mood too. There was so much talk now that Mikan probably didn't even go to school because she was trapped inside from all the paparazzi.
"We've got to go down to the newspaper office. The head is refusing to answer any questions from the police officers but we both know that we can be much scarier people than the police." Imai said. We nodded and all headed down to the newspaper office. He was sitting in the middle of his little private office. We all stood there surrounding his desk. He didn't even look up from his papers at our entrance.
"What do you want? I'm busy." he said. That disrespectful little…
"We want to know who took the pictures at the Hyuuga family ball." Unemomiya said with no kindness in her voice.
"It's anonymous. I'm not telling you." he said, still no looking up at us.
"You better tell us now or bad things will happen." all of Mikan's friends said, even Tobita. And by the looks on their face, they weren't playing. He looked up at them.
"Listen, you can't threaten me." he said.
"Maybe they can't, but we can." I growled, glaring harshly at him.
"So, we recommend that you tell us who handed you that picture and article." Imai said.
"No." he said slowly, as if we were idiots. That ticked both me and Imai off to a large extreme. We both slammed our hands on the desk.
"Who do you think you're talking to?" Imai yelled.
"We'll have this newspaper company shut down with the press of a button!" I yelled. He jumped at the impact on the desk and our voices. Harada put a hand on his shoulder.
"Do you know that I've taken a whole gang by myself? Experienced fighters." she said warning.
"I have a knife strapped to my thigh right now." Shoda said.
"We have stun guns in our purses." Ogasawara and Unemomiya said.
"And I have a fucking gun on me." Imai said. The man was shivering by now.
"I can't tell you." he stuttered. I slammed the table again and neared my face towards him before yelling in his face.
"Damn it, do you want to die? Because if they don't do it, I'll certainly do the honors! I don't care whether I'm from a famous band or heir to a huge company, I'll kill you if I have to, to get the name out of you!" I yelled.
"Alright! His name is Takashi Sami!" he yelled, cowering. Imai was already on her phone.
"Aoi, contact every family member that attended the ball last night and ask if they know a Takashi Sami. And also, get the surveillance footage from the hall last night." Imai said before listening for another few seconds and snapping her phone shut.
"I'll kill the man." I growled. Before we left the office, I had to get some anger out and threw the guy's desk to the wall before leaving.
"Fucking douche. We should have killed him too." Harada said.
A Week Later Lunch
We now shared a table with Mikan's group.
"Mikan's been out for a week. I'm starting to get worried." Anna said.
"Yeah, me too." I muttered, rubbing my face with my hand. I started losing sleep after the third day because we had already stopped all publications.
"Wait, but she can't be trapped because of press." Ruka said.
"Why not?" Mochu asked.
"Because she was wearing her disguise at all times after the ball. The press couldn't possibly recognize her as your girlfriend!" Ogasawara stated in realization. Then all of Mikan's friends turned to each other with wide eyes.
"That means it's them…" Imai growled. All of her friends had looks of fury on now.
"Who is them? I'll kill them!" I said.
"You know how Mikan didn't want you to know her secret?" Harada said. I nodded.
"Whether she likes it or not, it's about time you guys know. We'll be at your house around five thirty. Be absolutely ready to take in everything I have to tell you." Imai said. The band and I nodded right before he bell rang and we had to go to class.
Five Thirty Crimson Abyss House
Mikan's friends were all there sharp.
"Sit." Imai said immediately upon entering. All of the band and I, sat on the couch. Mikan's friends all stood in a line directly in front of us but a few feet away.
"Mikan's secret starts from when she was young." Imai started.
"When Mikan was born, her mother died." Unemomiya said.
"She lived with only her father until he remarried because he felt Mikan needed a motherly figure." Ogasawara said.
"Mikan's father died of cancer and she was left with her step mother and two step sisters." Tobita said.
"Serina, Luna, and Serah Koizumi." Harada growled.
"They made her their maid. She cooks, cleans, shops, everything. But nothing she does is for herself. They treat her like shit. She lives in their shed. And she can't step into the house without shoes because they think she is filthy. She has to run and get their lattes every morning and if they run out of hygienical products, it was Mikan's fault because she is always supposed to have backup and keep an eye on them. She even has to do their homework and paperwork. As if they aren't already dumb bitches, but they could do their own work! She's glad that she goes to a school with a uniform, because she doesn't have much clothes." Shoda said.
"And she can't do a single shit about it because they'll kick her out of the house if she does." Imai growled.
"Can't she live with one of you guys? Doesn't she have any relatives?" Ruka asked.
"That house is the only thing she has left of her parents. She won't give it up for the world. They took her room and don't treat her anything like family." Imai said.
"What are we going to do? I refuse to let her stay with that family!" I said.
"I already have a plan. Yuu is gonna stay here and from my laptop, he will check the school database. Since Gakuen Alice is an escalator school that means, her dad is the one who picked her emergency guardian. While he does that, we're gonna infiltrate the house. That will be Yuu's other job, to keep us out of sight as we look around the house for Mikan. For all we know, they've already kicked her out. But we're sticking together, because we don't want anybody trapped alone. If anything, the diversion is Ruka." Imai explained.
"Why me? I'm your boyfriend!" Ruka asked, stunned at her choice of diversion.
"Because they know I'll kill them if they lay a hand on you." Imai said with a smirk.
"No mush until we find Mikan." I said. Imai began distributing headsets.
"We all need to be able to hear Yuu in case we get separated." Imai said.
"How are you gonna get cameras into the place, though?" Kitsuneme asked.
"Please, I'm going to be the world's best nanotechnologist. I have mini cameras in the forms of bugs infiltrating the house right now." she responded. She handed Yuu her laptop and loaded everything he would need. She placed little trackers on each of us.
"How are we gonna get in?" Andou asked once we were out of the house.
"Serina's balcony." Harada answered. We jumped over the fence and it left us right in front of the balcony.
"I hope you guys know how to climb a pole." Imai said. She pulled out a little cylinder that with the press of a button turned into a long pole. She leaned it on the balcony and the end of it wrapped itself around one railings while the bottom of the pole plunged spikes into the ground.
"My girlfriend is a genius." Ruka said proudly, pecking Imai on the cheek.
"After we find Mikan." I said, climbing the pole first. The sliding doors were covered by curtains.
"Yuu." Imai whispered, turning on the mic.
"She's in there. Don't get in yet. Just set up the lock breaker." he replied. Imai placed a contraption on the handle of the balcony.
"She's heading into the bathroom, you have to move fast." Yuu said after a minute or two. Imai pressed a button and the lock immediately fell off. We walked across the room quickly and stood against the door.
"Clear?" I asked.
"Yes, hurry before she finishes." Yuu said. We searched the entire house.
"She's not even in her shed." Umenomiya said as we stood in there, relaxed because we knew they would never step foot in here.
"This is off. Did you notice how the only witch in the house is Serina and Mikan isn't anywhere to be found?" Imai asked. We all nodded.
"Yuu, check all surveillance tapes. And give us a briefing on what you've found out from the school files." Imai said.
"It's actually quite interesting. Mikan's uncle is Kazu Yukihara, the high school principal. He is currently managing Yukihara Corp. in place of his brother, Mikan's father. I'm guessing that's how they got the mansion. I did some extended research. Yukihara Corp. began in Japan, but after the death of Mikan's dad, it was moved to America to keep things from the Japanese press." Yuu said.
"So Mikan's actually an heiress. Did you find her in any cameras?" Imai said.
"Hold on." he said. All you could hear clicking and typing.
"Found her! She's in the den and you better get there fast! I think she's having an asthma attack and the witches have her inhaler!" he yelled into the mic. We were out of that door faster than you could say bonzai.
"Which way Tobita? Which way?" I asked, urgently.
"In the backyard through the doors under the deck." he said. Imai and I were leading. I kicked straight through those doors and ran down. I went up to Mikan, wheezing on the ground. There were tears leaking from her eyes and she was red in the face.
"Give me the inhaler now." Imai said.
"No." Luna said.
"Give it to her!" I yelled.
"Only if you'll be our boyfriend." Serah said.
"This isn't a game. Give her the inhaler!" I yelled. In seconds, Imai shot both of them with her baka gun, effectively knocking them out, and grabbed the inhaler. She handed it to Mikan and she began pumping the inhaler for some breath.
"Where's Mikan?" we heard. Our friends had just arrived. Once they saw Serah and Luna knocked out they heaved a sigh of relief.
"The police and the high school principal should be arriving soon. I've also alerted Kaoru-san and she has alerted her lawyer. I'll be heading there right now." Tobita said. Since Mikan was still weak, I carried her into the house. Tobita had the door open for us and in five or ten minutes everybody was there.
"Mikan?" we heard as Mikan was explaining everything to the police softly. We turned to the voice and saw the high school principal.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, confused at his appearance.
"The high school principal is actually your uncle. And you are heiress to a giant company in America." Imai said.
"Are you? Kazu-ojii?" Mikan asked. He nodded slowly.
"Mikan, I am so sorry that I did not check on you. I should have! I didn't know that she was treating you this way!" he said.
"It's alright. It's not your fault. The only thing that matters now is that everything's alright." she said. My mom's lawyer stepped forward.
"I have been filled in on your duties around the house, but nobody knows what happened in the week you were trapped here. I need this information for the trial." he said. Mikan's eyes dulled and she didn't seem to want to speak.
"Mikan, you have to tell us what they did." I said, softly.
"They didn't give me food and they pulled on my hair and beat me. They made me sleep in the den without any covers or pillow. They were just plain cruel." she said with a shiver. I hugged her.
"I won't let anything else happen to you. And they won't be getting out of jail anytime soon." I said.
"I'm sorry to say this, but the two girls can't go to jail forever because they are minors. But we will put them in juvenile prison for a while and then have them on probation afterwards." the police said. Mikan nodded. Everybody left but our friends and the high school principal.
"Mikan, you are welcome to stay with me if you'd like." the high school principal said.
"No thank you. I'd rather stay in this house…with the memories of mom and dad." she said. He nodded before approaching me.
"You said you wouldn't let anything happen to her. I'm holding you to that word." he said to me.
"Yes sir." I said.
"Mikan, I just want to know if you'd like to inherit your father's company when you turn eighteen. I've been running it for him, but it's rightfully yours. And I'm sure I could teach you or your friends could teach you in two years or more." he said.
"I'll take it over. And I'd be glad to learn anything that could help me." she said. He nodded once again before leaving. Mikan turned to us.
"Thank you everybody…for everything." she said. Then she looked to me.
"I guess Cinderella was more literal than you thought." she said.