31/1/13 - yay for palindromes! This chapter is totally new, and I'm thinking I might alternate my updates between edited and new chapters. Chapter 1 is completely different from what was there before, so check that out if you want (but not in that way, please). If you'd like to review but already have before, you can send it via PM. Or you can go anon, I don't mind~ :3 (Assuming anyone would review...)
Summary: Narumi helps others many times, but only on the one time he helps himself does he truly gain a merry heart.
Dedication: Pan~ You're gonna be imou-chii just because; unless you have complaints? :D
I hope everyone enjoys reading this 'cause I worked hard on it and everything-
Once someone leaves the academy, all connections are supposed to be severed. Unless they create a new connection, there is no reason for either party to receive news about the other.
Narumi thinks Hoshio Hoshino may have the worst connection possible.
"Lightning struck the car taking him home," Jinno had briefed him on the emergency before the blond made his run to the gate. "The driver was blinded and drove straight into a signpost."
"I thought Hoshino-san doesn't have an Alice anymore," Narumi had replied. He was sure there was no weather Alice left in the boy's body. He took part in the tests done on the child, after all.
"He doesn't," Jinno had said, his emotion unchanging. "They were in the middle of a storm."
While waiting for the academy limousine that will take him to the scene of the accident, Narumi looks up; but all he sees is blue sky, and remnants of the rainbow created with bliss. He wonders how far away Hoshio Hoshino's real home is from the academy, and how homesick the child must have felt on his first few days away from home. The ominously black limousine comes and Narumi enters without a word.
After an hour, Narumi finally hears rain pattering onto the roof of the car.
"How much further?" he blurts out. The driver glances at him, then at the rain on his windshield.
"Not much; we're on the same road. Thankfully the storm's calmed down a little."
Narumi sees the wreck after a minute or two. On the emergency lane, beside the car that looks nearly unfixable, stand five people huddled under two umbrellas. The nurse and the driver are under one, and Hoshino and his parents, the sickly-looking woman and the man clinging to her, are under the other. A police car is parked in front of the limousine. Narumi gets out as soon as the car stops, only just remembering to bring an umbrella, and he hurries to the family.
"Is everyone okay?" Five heads nod in response. He sighs in relief, and points to the replacement limousine.
"If you like, you can start making your way to the new limousine," he says. The nurse nods and she and the driver usher the family away. Narumi looks over to the two police officers getting out of their car.
"Are you from Alice Academy?" one of the men asks. Narumi nods before bowing.
"Thank you for taking care of them." But if you wouldn't let them in your car for better shelter, you should have stayed out in the rain with them, he mentally adds.
"We would have driven them home in the police car, but…" the other officer pauses, glancing at the suit-clad man who was driving the limousine that crashed. "Mr Driver firmly said no. And besides, we can't fit five more people in the small police car."
Narumi laughs. "That's true."
"So, about the car—"
"The academy will take care of it, insurance and repair and everything," the teacher cuts him off. "If the signpost was damaged, the academy will take care of it, too."
"Oh," mumbles the police officer. Narumi almost laughs; there are times when he also finds the academy's wealth unbelievable. "The driver of the crashed limousine had already filed an accident report, so, I suppose we can leave the car here and… the family will be driven home, correct?" The blond teacher nods.
"Yes, and the wreck will be taken care of before tomorrow, or as soon as the rain stops, I think."
"Well then, that's all. We'll be going, I suppose; and you all get to your destination safely, too."
"Yes sir, thank you." Narumi watches the police officers turn to their car before walking to the limousine awaiting him.
A moment after the car starts driving off, Narumi feels a tap on his knee. When he looks to his right, Hoshino is looking at him with a notepad and pen in his hand.
"Yes?"
"Please don't tell anyone," Hoshino writes onto his notepad. He flips the page, and continues. "I want the rainbow to be everyone's last memory of me." The boy hesitates for a moment, before writing on the next page.
"No one got badly hurt, so no one needs to worry."
Narumi thinks it's a good, selfless wish, created by a good, selfless child.
He agrees to the wish. The other students don't need to know. After all, once someone leaves the academy, all connections are supposed to be severed.
"Narumi-sensei!" calls an eleven-year old brunette. When Narumi turns to look at the girl, he sees her brown hair in pigtails, like normal; but he notes that the tips are slightly scorched.
Like normal.
"Narumi-sensei, this is really getting on my nerves now!" the girl grits her teeth, holding her hair to eye level. "You should tell him to stop or something!"
"What happened, Mikan-chan?" Narumi cannot help but chuckle.
"Not funny, sensei," mutters Mikan. "Natsume obviously burnt my hair again."
"Did you provoke him?"
Mikan pauses for a moment.
"I may have…"
"What did you accidentally say this time?"
"I was just talking to him about why dogs are better than cats-" Because that is a completely okay topic, Narumi muses. "-and I accidentally said, 'have you ever heard of black dogs causing misfortune? No!' Then, next thing I know, my hair is on fire!"
The blond teacher knows better than to laugh at others' predicaments, but the laughter that suddenly bubbles out of him is virtually impossible to stop. It takes him a few minutes, and Mikan threatening to tell Jinno that 'Narumi-sensei laughed at me for asking him advice', for him to calm down and cough off his chuckles.
"I assume you've already apologized to Natsume-kun?"
The girl nods. "Of course. First thing I did, after nullifying the fire…" she looks to the left, embarrassed. "And after cursing a bit."
"And he didn't forgive you?" Mikan nods again. "Maybe you offended Natsume-kun—"
"But I didn't mean to, Sensei—"
"We don't mean to do a lot of things, Mikan-chan," Narumi interrupts calmly. "But they hurt others anyway."
The girl is silent for a few seconds; after which she blurts out, "What could've—what did I say?"
"Maybe it was about black dogs not causing misfortune? Remember, Natsume-kun was known as the Black Cat."
Realization dawns on Mikan's face, but it is quickly replaced by indignation. "That is so immature!"
Narumi chuckles again. "Well, Natsume-kun can have his immature moments."
There is a long moment where both are silent, while the indignation on Mikan's face morphs into regret. Narumi has seen such emotion before, but on a different face, in front a different person. He feels slightly honored that Mikan, who looks very similar to Yuka, would show him regret, while Yuka only showed it to her beloved sensei. He can't help but think there must be many meanings to that.
"What should I do, Sensei?" the girl asks. Narumi places his hand on her shoulder gently.
"Look, Mikan-chan." He crouches to her level, to look at those eyes that were a perfect shade of hazel on someone else's face. "I don't think Natsume-kun is the type to actually say he forgives someone."
Mikan's eyes widen. "You're right, Sensei!"
"Of course I am." Narumi replies almost automatically; he still has some pride from back in the days. "So, I think you should just talk to Natsume-kun normally. If he doesn't burn your hair, well, you've made progress, haven't you?"
"But what if he does burn my hair again?"
"He won't do that, because he loves you too much," he sings. The smile on his face remains mischievous when Mikan retreats and sputters.
"W-Wha, y-you don't know what you're talking about, Sensei!" she yelps. "T-There's no way that-!"
She gives up when Narumi doesn't do anything but smile.
"Um, well, thanks for the advice, Sensei! You're great, as always." Mikan gives him a hug, and he returns it. The brunette only walks out of the room and doesn't run, and Narumi thinks – no, he knows that she must be thinking about what he said about Natsume loving her. He also knows she won't think about it too long, however, and Narumi wonders if the comment was worth it. At the pace the pair was going, nothing was happening, but anything could turn things around.
He only hopes the comment would do the trick.
"You look tired, Misaki-sensei," Narumi comments when the said teacher enters the staff room, face pale and eyes drooping. The day was dedicated to Alice classes, and as far as Narumi knew, Misaki loved his class quite a fair bit. He has no idea what could possibly make the teacher so weary.
"I feel tired," the man replies. Misaki drops his bag and files onto the desk and plops onto the chair with his head on the desk, turning into an unsightly heap. He groans.
"What's the code?" Naru asks.
"Rose Pink Two."
The code system was something created by the staff long ago, before Narumi became a teacher. If there is or was a problem with students, from losing something to stealing something to attempting an escape, there was a color to match it. The number stood for which division the student was in; one meant an elementary student, two a middle school student and three a high school student.
Rose Pink Two simply meant a middle school student loved Misaki-sensei and gave him a gift.
"They get braver each time," Narumi coos. Misaki gives him a weary look.
"I'd have thought they'd gotten over it by graduation."
"Don't say that; appreciate what you have! What did you get?" Misaki opens his bag and takes out what looks like a cake box. When Narumi opens it, however, the "cake" is a soggy purple mess, almost like liquid, and it looks as if it bathes in blue fire.
Somehow, he doesn't think it's icing.
"I think it actually says something on top," Misaki mutters. Narumi thinks about trying to look closer, but the fire seems to sense his thoughts and rises to meet his face. "Yeah, it's just that I can't get close enough to read it."
By the time he closes the box, Narumi is both scarred and scared.
"I'm guessing the one who gave you that was Anna-chan?"
"And Nonoko," Misaki adds. "They joined forces. I can't even think about it."
"Oh, well, it's sweet, don't you think?" The exasperated look that Misaki gives him is a clear answer. "What? Love is a precious thing, Misaki-sensei!"
"And of course you would be the expert," Misaki sighs. Narumi only flips his hair over his shoulder in response.
A few seconds of silence pass before someone knocks on the door, and they hear muted squeals from the other side. Narumi looks over at Misaki, and from the lack of color on his face, the blond knows he has no choice but to cover for his colleague.
When Narumi opens the door, carefully blocking the view of majority of the room, two teenage girls with peculiar hair colors greet him shyly. They both nudge each other, but when the pink-haired girl gets the final glare, the girl with the blue hair takes the initiative.
"C-Can we please speak to M-Misaki-sensei?" she asks, her voice barely a whisper. Narumi smiles and puts on an apologetic air.
"I'm sorry Nonoko-chan, he's asleep right now. I would wake him up, but…" He bites his lip, as if being Misaki's alarm clock at that moment means punishment worse than death. "He told me hasn't been sleeping well lately." The two girls look at each other.
"Yeah, h-he did look pale in class today," Anna comments softly.
"What did you want to speak to him about? Maybe I could pass on a message," Narumi cheerfully suggests. The girls look at each other again, and after a while, they shake their heads.
"Thanks sensei, but we'll tell him ourselves!" they say in unison, and bow before scurrying away. Narumi thinks either they must have used a telepathy Alice stone, or they formulated the plan completely using the bonds of friendship. Either way, Misaki may have just survived another day.
"I never thought I'd say this, Narumi, but I owe you one."
"You actually said that last time I helped you," the blond remarks with amusement. "So now you owe me two?"
Misaki has to threaten that he will force-feed the cake to Narumi before the latter says he was just joking.
"But you're still going to see them next week." Narumi can't stop his smile when Misaki visibly pales. "Come now, it's not that bad."
"It is if they give you poison cooking," he croaks.
"If it's really so bad, just reject them and stop leading them on already." The blond realizes the serious tone his voice has taken on only after Misaki changes from being weary to alert. His eyes slightly widen, and Misaki sighs, running his hand through his black hair.
"Yeah… alright," he says in defeat. "I can't believe I have to listen to you before I actually…" He stops himself with another sigh.
Narumi manages a smile, and takes out test papers he still has to mark. However, he's preoccupied with other thoughts. He wonders what made him say what he said, and his mind goes in circles.
But in reality, he knows. Who was he kidding? Of course he knows.
He sees her in a dream. She looks nothing like herself in her high school days, with shorter hair and a taller and skinnier build. But the face is definitely the same hazel eyes and fair skin and hair the color of sand. However, she isn't alone. Her beloved sensei walks alongside her, holding her hand. The first thing that comes to Narumi's mind is, "they look happy."
His mind (cruelly) reminds him that his love for her is and will forever be unrequited, and suddenly, the atmosphere in the dream changes. The couple and the sparkles and flowers that seemed to surround them disappear into a swirling mass of gray and black. When Narumi looks around, he finds the same swirling masses surrounding him on all sides.
"Forget me," a familiar voice says, but instead of being from a specific direction, it seems to be speaking directly to his brain. The voice repeats, and Narumi recognizes the voice to be Yuka's.
"Stop loving me."
He hears it clearly the first time, but the voice multiplies and repeats the message at different times, like a chorus of echoes. The voices sound almost ghostly, and Narumi starts to feel uncomfortable. He wants to hate the owner of the voice, the one he has loved for so long—
Until he wakes up.
Narumi stares at the ceiling, not knowing what to think of the dream, which nightmare may be a more fitting term for. He realizes that the last time he had one of those was years ago. Narumi doesn't know what to think of that, either.
All this time, he thought he loved Yuka, but the woman rejected him, saying he didn't understand what love truly was. Maybe he didn't, but Narumi thinks he does now.
Maybe love for his classmates made Hoshio Hoshino wish to hide the accident he was in. Love for Natsume made Mikan want to patch things up, but maybe love for Mikan made Natsume indirectly teach the girl to be careful about hurting others. Maybe love for his students made Misaki not want to upset them by refusing them – and, Narumi thinks, it isn't like they will give up so easily.
Love doesn't ask for anything in return, someone once told him. There is a thin, blurred line between it and friendship, and if people can easily cross from friendship to love, Narumi finally sees that, years ago, he had crossed it the other way. He no longer thinks so much of Yuka being a long lost love; instead, he feels that she is more of a long lost friend.
Some say dreams are messages of wisdom from gods. Narumi silently thanks the gods for finally letting him realize what he should have years ago, and for finally setting him free.
He couldn't be happier.