The Dangerous Ability class was held by a man named Persona — or "that rotten bastard," as Hyuuga Natsume called him (never to the man's face, of course). At the moment, Persona was teaching the science behind the alice-restraining devices, the dangers and risks of having certain alices, and the different ways of controlling those alices. Overall, it was a boring period, one that Natsume could do without. He knew about alice-restraining devices. He knew how to control his alice... sort of. But most of all, he knew the dangers and risks of his alice. Boy, did he know.

Natsume noticed the way Persona stared at Ichihashi every now and then, as if the teacher didn't quite know what to make of the silver-haired guy. In a way, Natsume could relate to Persona (not that Natsume would admit it even at gunpoint, since he hated the teacher). Ichihashi Hokuto was a gnarled mess of contradictions. Ichihashi was rumored to have a sort of nullifying alice — like the blubbering idiot Sakura Mikan's — but rumors also said that his alice was the alice of Unmaking — of turning ashes to ashes, and dust to dust. Now, Natsume hadn't seen any proof of the newcomer's alice yet, and he knew that the Gakuen Alice student body rumor mill wasn't exactly reliable — its concoctions laughable at best and completely absurd at worst (he had heard some completely outrageous rumors about himself)— but that didn't discount the fact that something really was strange about his mysterious classmate.

When Persona had asked Ichihashi to introduce himself to the class (which the guy already did, though to a slightly different crowd) and tell everyone what his Alice was (which he didn't do yet, to Natsume's knowledge), Ichihashi Hokuto rose from his seat, walked to the front of the classroom and said only this:

"Ichihashi Hokuto. My alice kills. Just that. Can't use it any other way. Doesn't matter what it's called — Unmaking alice, Death alice, Murder alice, whatever. What matters is that it ends things. Lives, animals, objects, people, existences. It takes six seconds, and leaves no evidence," he tilted his head in place of the usual bow. "Let's all get along nicely this year."

The class was deathly silent after his introduction. Because really, what can one say to that? Six seconds... Natsume shuddered. Not even his own fire alice at its strongest could incinerate a human being in just six seconds. And even if it could, it sure as hell won't be potent enough to leave no trace. That Ichihashi knew exactly how long it took to obliterate a whole person with his own alice — down to the last second — and that the guy knew that it won't leave any evidence, gave Natsume just about five thousand heart attacks.

Let's all get along nicely this year, Ichihashi had said. And he'd said it right after explaining the utter... insanity of his own alice, so that only an idiot would take his words as anything but the threat that they were.

Let's all get along nicely, because I can extinguish your existence in six seconds and leave no evidence at all. Let's get along nicely, because your lives are now in my hands, and I can end you whenever I want to. Believe me, I really can. I've done it before. How else would I know how long it takes? I have thirty-seven alice-restraining devices, yes, but would you want to risk your life based on that fact? In the first place, what makes you so sure these devices work on me at all? Maybe I'm just pretending to have my alice restrained. Don't let my jewelry lull you into thinking you have a chance.

Know your place, weakling.

Natsume balled his fists in frustration. He'd always been the top dog here in this school, or at least one of them, and as much as he never truly liked being the most feared student in his year, he also didn't like that some unknown monster was now indubitably more powerful than him. Didn't matter what Natsume did or tried to do — nothing can beat an alice that just... erased people. As for chances... Ichihashi's alice was basically a killing alice. Natsume's fire alice had a snowball's chance in hell against something like that. It made him feel helpless and weak, and he hadn't been helpless or weak since the day he got separated from his family... since the day Aoi had been taken—

But that was in the past. Completely unrelated to the topic at hand.

Ichihashi landed back on his seat, snapping Natsume out of his gloomy musings. Persona then carried on with the class, evidently distracted by something, and went through the motions of teaching with even less ardor than before (Persona already didn't give a rat's petunia about his teaching profession in the first place). The man would glance at Ichihashi's direction every few minutes, an unreadable expression on his face, but otherwise didn't call on the silver-haired student or even demand his attention.

Natsume studied Ichihashi with an emotion that was a cross between anger and envy. There was a wariness in Persona's eyes when the man looked at Ichihashi that Natsume never saw directed at himself, a... respect of some sort that showed in the older man's countenance, whenever his eyes landed on Ichihashi. Persona never bothered to give Natsume that kind of stare — that cold, measuring, calculating look that the man saved for people he considered his equals. The older man only ever looked at him with nonchalance and condescending sneers, like Natsume was still a babe wet in the ears trying to show off being able to write his basic hiragana vowels, a, i, u, e, and o:

Look, Personny! I can write my vowels!

To which the teacher would only shake his head and smile a self-assured smile, Yes, Natsume-chan, that you can. But you're eight years old, you idiot. Congratu-effing-lations for accomplishing something most five-year-olds can.

It had been that way since the beginning, and to present day, Persona's treatment of him remained the same. It was always give-no-crap stares and you're-a-stupid-kid smiles with the guy. Natsume found it infinitely infuriating. He would've killed to have the cold respect that the older man now gave Ichihashi. Respect, hot or cold, was much better than instant dismissal.

The focus of that cold respect, however, was only staring at the board with an aloof expression, seeming to not notice the teacher, writing down notes (he was left-handed, Natsume idly noted), handling everyone's stares with that infernal nonchalance of his, and letting all the not-so-subtle glances from Persona just wash over him like it didn't matter in the first place. Natsume was insulted by proxy.

By the time class ended for the day, Natsume was pretty sure that he couldn't possibly hate anyone more than he hated Ichihashi Hokuto.

A/N: Okay. Maybe it's time for me to come clean about my intentions. I'm maybe sorta kinda planning on making this slash. Just maybe. Probably. But I'm absolutely terrible at writing slash, seeing as I'm a completely heterosexual female with an alarming lack of homosexual friends (male or female), so there you go. I even tried to steer this into the straight-and-narrow by putting some Mikan POVs and even a Hotaru POV, but that just somehow made me feel like it was heading to a slashier (?) direction. I don't know. It's just... Hokuto used to be a woman. A WOMAN. I just don't see her (HIM! I mean HIM!) being attracted to the anyone of the same (I mean, opposite) sex. I can at least understand what it feels like to be attracted to a guy, so there's a chance I might be able to write M/M. I don't have the slightest idea what attracts homosexual women to other women in the first place, however, so I guess that just kisses my F/F writing skills goodbye.

Anyway.

This note is in no way a declaration that this fic will be HokutoXNatsume. I'm just putting it out there that this fic might be slash.

Maybe.

Possibly.

The story has a mind of its own, so let's see where it goes.