Mikan found him walking out of the elementary school building.
"Ichihashi-kun!" she called out, running towards him at full sprint.
Ichihashi Hokuto cocked his head in her direction and gave her an expression of mild surprise. "Sakura." It sounded like a question. Mikan noted with a faint blush that Ichihashi's voice was smooth and deep.
She screeched to a halt in front of him. "What's..." she panted, "What's your alice, Ichihashi-kun?"
The boy stared at her for a long moment. The he wore a sardonic smile on his lips. "You know, some people would consider it rude to be asked such questions."
Mikan noted how formal he was when he spoke, how very cultured and... adult, he sounded. It didn't seem to fit with the rebellious image of him with all his piercings and jewelry. Which was another thing she wanted to ask about. "Your jewelry... are they all alice-restraining devices?"
His answer was instant. "Yes."
Wow. So Hotaru was right, Mikan thought. Not that she was really inclined to doubt her best friend, but Mikan didn't want to judge. "Why do you have so many? Why do you need..." How many did Hotaru say he had? "... thirty-seven?"
He smiled that smile again. "With great power comes... a great amount of bling."
Mikan frowned. He spoke in an entirely different language. Was it English? She wasn't sure. She didn't have any English-speaking friends. Though she supposed Hotaru would know how to speak English, she didn't think her best friend would be all that willing to have a conversation with Ichihashi. "What was that, Ichihashi-kun? I didn't understand."
"It was in English, so I didn't think you would. It was a... a bastardization of a line from a comic. A manga," he translated when she frowned at the word "comic."
"Manga?" She perked up when she heard him say the word. "You like manga?"
He gave her a weird stare then, like he was thinking of a joke. "I used to, a long time ago. Since this is happening to me anyway, I suppose I have no choice but to like it again. Or at least tolerate it."
Mikan had no idea what he was talking about.
"Do you know your way to the Elementary School Dorm, Ichihashi-kun?" she asked, changing the topic.
"No."
She found it hard to get used to his answers. They were either really short or really weird. "I walk you there," she offered. "That's... well, if you're fine with it, I mean."
"Get your stinky hands off Ichihashi-kun, Sakura!" a few loud voices echoed along the hallway. Mikan and Ichihashi turned to the direction of the voice, and sure enough there were people there, Shouda Sumire and a bunch of girls that Mikan had been too far away to recognize.
"I wasn't touching him anyway, you cat," Mikan muttered. Sumire and the other girls marched toward their direction, their eyes almost predatory and fixed on one person: Ichihashi Hokuto. Mikan understood why. Ichihashi was good-looking. The kind of good-looking that made you want to fumble for a mirror and wonder why you're so ugly. The kind of good-looking that was almost painful to look at.
Mikan was deftly pushed out of the way by Sumire.
"Hey!" Mikan fumed as her shoulder hit the wall. "That hurt!"
The girls all ignored her. Ichihashi spared her a quick, nonchalant glance.
"So, Ichihashi-san," began Sumire in a flirty voice, "What's your alice?"
Ichihashi Hokuto just gave them a stoic gaze. "I already answered that question when Sakura asked it. I'm not fond of repeating myself."
Upon hearing this, Sumire and the girls faced Mikan, who was still rubbing her shoulder.
"Oh?" Sumire glowered at Mikan. "What's Ichihashi-san's alice, Sakura-san?"
"He didn't tell me," Mikan replied. "All Ichihashi-kun said was that it was rude of me to ask."
"You're lying," one of the girls accused. "You just don't want to tell us because you want to keep it to yourself!"
"I'm not lying! Ask Ichihashi-kun!" Mikan threw a pleading glance at Ichihashi, hoping he'd help clear the misunderstanding.
Ichihashi Hokuto sighed. "Fine." His expression arctic. "It will get out sooner or later anyway, might as well hasten the process. My alice..."
Sumire leaned closer, and Mikan found herself doing the same.
"My alice is the alice of Unmaking." He finished.
"Anme-king?" they all asked, unfamiliar with the foreign word.
"There's no word for it in Japanese," he explained. "The closest translation is 'urahara'."
"Opposite?" Mikan asked.
Ichihashi shook his head, his eyes tight. "No. More like backwards. Or inverted. Actually, reversed is a little closer to the meaning of unmaking."
"Reversed. The alice of Reversal? Reversal of what? What does it do?" Sumire asked.
His reply was succinct. "It reverses things."
"How?" the girls asked, intrigued.
He scowled, and they all noticed that he looked a bit annoyed and more than a little haunted. "If a person comes near me without my wanting them to be near me, their everything would be... reversed." He looked off at the distance. "Their bodies would be unraveled. Their existence turned backwards. Catholics believe that God... Kami-sama," he translated for them, "... made humans from dirt. My alice makes dirt from humans. Reversal. That's what unmaking means."
The resulting silence was so thick Mikan thought even a sharp knife couldn't cut through it.
"H-how..." Sumire began, "How do you know what your alice does to humans?"
His gaze landed on Sumire, and the girl thought his eyes looked... cold. Not unkind, but not kind either. "Practice."
Even Mikan knew what that English word meant, and what it implied about Ichihashi Hokuto's past.