I got a happy heap of reviews and other feedback last chapter and I'd really like to express my gratitude for all of that. What's more, this chapter is actually out on time! Yay!

School has finally been kicked out the door and happy students are able to rush into the welcome arms of the holidays. You should think that I'd have more spare time, I hope I do. But I shall be going overseas for these and thus writing time may be kept to a minimum. I'll still try though. Never fear!

So, without further ado... Chapter 4 of Rewind

Chapter 4: Stupidity and Pairings, Ruka Faints

"Here, eat this," said Hotaru as she slipped a green coloured pill into Ichigo's mouth. She gulped it down and blinked a few times.

"Huh? What was that?" Ichigo asked.

"A pill," Hotaru explained, "my own invention. It will drastically improve your pitiful acting skills. We can't have you blowing this whole operation now, can we?"

Ichigo cocked her head. Once she realised the nature of her friend's words, she breathed a sigh of relief. Ever since Inchou entered, she had been getting butterflies in her tummy. By the time Natsume introduced himself, Ichigo had been having serious doubts that she could pull it off.

She beamed at her saviour, "Thanks, I didn't know if I could do it until now."

Hotaru nodded to herself, "Has it kicked in yet?"

"Has what kicked – whoa!" Ichigo was stopped mid-sentence as her body gave a jolt. She felt a sensation trickle from her throat down to her limbs. Her arms began to tingle and energy shot through her fingertips. She felt a sudden burst of confidence. A smile plastered itself onto her face.

"Feels good, right?" Hotaru asked smugly.

"It's amazing," Ichigo beamed.

"You are now an expert liar. Try it. Say, 'I do not know who Mikan Sakura is, what she looks like or anything about her."

That seemed slightly extreme however Ichigo felt no intimidation as she uttered, "I do not know who Mikan Sakura is, what she looks like or anything about her." Ichigo instinctively threw in a tad bit of confusion as she cocked her head.

She surprised herself at how well she had pulled it off. That could convince anyone. A sure smile appeared on Hotaru's lips, it soon appeared on Ichigo's too.

"Alright students, let's begin," announced Narumi-sensei.

Ruka and Natsume were just about to rush towards Ichigo and Hotaru when Narumi called out. The two stopped and stood uneasily. "Damn you, Naru," cursed Natsume under his breath. Two years later and Narumi still had a knack for getting on Natsume's nerves.

"Now, now," Narumi began, "I have a couple of activities set to help you all get to know each other. And I think that you'll all enjoy them very much." The crowd started to buzz once more. "Deary me, Natsume, if looks could kill I'd be dead five times now," Narumi shook his head. Natsume's glare continued to shoot daggers at him.

"Anyway, the first task is to find a partner...but," he continued, "to make it unbiased I switched it up a little bit. Or shall I say off. The lights, that is. I'll turn off the lights and you are to proceed to move around the classroom. After 3 minutes of constant moving, I'll ask you to stop and you must grab the closest person from another division to you. Got it?" The students displayed their agreement.

"I'll make this very clear," spoke Narumi as he pulled down the thick curtains, "you must keep moving about for the entire three minutes, or else it would not be fair. I'll turn the lights off now." He headed for the light switch.

Natsume casually readied himself. It was decided since he left the middle school division. He knew who he would be heading towards the very moment those lights go off. He took one last look at Ichigo who was smiling like a maniac. She was so badly on drugs. He'd get Imai for it later, right now he had to lock onto his target.

"In 3, 2, 1," the lights were switched off, "Careful not to trip on anything, children!" Natsume made a mad dash for the back left corner of the room. If he was quick then he should be able to catch her. He was walking through the darkness, hearing the shuffling of the various other students in the room. Damn, he cursed to himself, it's so freaking dark.

Natsume didn't expect for the room to be in a state of total darkness. The curtains – which he never, in his years of education in the classroom, even noticed were there – were as thick as textbooks. The material was something else, not one shred of light seemed able to penetrate it. The door was shut tight. Natsume couldn't even see any light seeping through the cracks. This school is a bloody prison.

The lights went off and Ruka spoke. "Hey, Natsume, I've got an," he turned to reach out to his friend but was surprised when his hands grabbed at nothing, "...idea." Ruka let out a sigh. That idiot.

He had thought of it just previously and was amazed at his own wit. In the total darkness, what more convenient Alice could there be than Fire! The light that shines through the dark! Ruka was about to voice to his friend a seemingly fail-proof method of fixing this activity, but no. He just had to wander off into the complete and utter darkness.

Ruka had been Natsume's friend since before they came to this academy. He knew full well that he would never figure it out now. It wasn't that he didn't have the intellect – he had that for sure. There was just one thing. From the moment Ruka found out about her, he knew the implications. After all, it had happened once before.

Ichigo Hana. No doubt Natsume's mind was focused solely on her. Ruka could tell that Natsume had known about this girl since before they got here. No matter how much he tried to hide it, Ruka knew that he was already going crazy at the sight of her. From what he could tell, that's probably the only reason Natsume came. Ruka ran a weary hand through his hair. They were best friends, he knew exactly what Natsume was going through.

Honestly, Ruka thought exasperatedly, you put a picture of Mikan in front of him and all the boy's common sense flies out the window. He began to shuffle lazily about the classroom, I bet he thought he could quickly steal over to the spot where she was and grab her. His feet dragged on the mixture of linoleum and carpet flooring. I give up. A weary and weak smile appeared on his face, I bet he just figured out how dark it is...

"OW!" Natsume felt like he'd been shot in the hip. In actual fact, he had just banged it incredibly hard into one of the desks. Freaking darkness, freaking school, freaking Narumi, Natsume cursed repeatedly in his head.

"Children! I told you to be careful didn't I?" Narumi tut tutted. For a moment Natsume was relieved it was dark, so that nobody knew it was him. Then he remembered it was the darkness's fault in the first place and continued on his way to the back corner of the room.

He soon reached his destination. He quickly searched around only to find...nothing. He cursed again under his breath. Natsume's temper was shortening faster than the wick on the end of a bomb. Oh, of course, he thought sardonically, she just had to go for a stroll. Freaking ADD. In the back of his mind he knew that it was bound to happen and that it was really his own stupidity, but he would never admit that to himself.

Great, now what do I do? Natsume attempted in a last act of desperation to squint through the darkness. However, he couldn't even catch a glimpse of the audible figures shuffling around him. He hadn't the guts to feel around for people, that would have been downright awkward. He couldn't call out or anything. He felt so helpless.

His luck finally ran out, "That's three minutes, kiddies! Grab the closest person to you now!" Natsume entered a final stage of panic. The reason he came here in the first place had just been blown. He had no chance of targeting Ichigo anymore. He now had to put up with Narumi's sinister plans for the rest of the period and what's more, he was separated from any sort comforting presence (ie. Ruka). He was mad as hell – even though it was his impulsiveness that caused most of this in the first place.

Natsume took a few deep, calming breaths. He was just about presentable when he felt a small, gentle arm grab timidly but firmly onto his sleeve. Natsume shifted a little bit in surprise. At that moment, the lights turned back on.

He looked down to see a large pair of light greyish-blue eyes staring up at him, half surprised at their catch. Natsume furrowed his brows as he looked at the small elementary girl. She seemed in the slightest bit familiar. He shortly examined the girl with the grey bobbed hair and before long he remembered who she was.

It was that girl who sat next to Ichigo, the one she was talking to before. Natsume blinked at the girl who blinked back. She let go of her grasp on Natsume's shirt, joining her hands together in loose fists beneath her chin. She looked up at Natsume as she muttered an introduction, "Um, I'm Yuri, Yuri Miyagi. I think... um... you must be Natsume-sempai."

Kitsuneme ran his eyes along his arm and to his hand which was clutching an arm. Or at least, what he thought was an arm. The middle school student watched in horror as he realised the arm was in fact a finger. A very large, stubby finger. He followed the finger up to a hand the size of a plate and along an arm the diameter of a tree branch.

The sandy haired boy adjusted his vision to encompass as much as he could of the elementary boy in front of him. It was actually quite difficult to see all of the boy without moving backwards. He was finally able to focus his vision appropriately to take a good look at the elementary kid.

His jaw hit the floor.

Never before had he seen quite a … well … large … or … round … boy in his life. The elementary boy (who was at least five times the size of each of his classmates) looked at his left index finger. He traced it back to Kitsuneme, took a glance at him and shrugged. He then continued to eat a family sized bar of chocolate which he was holding in his rightt hand.

Kitsuneme's sweat dropped. Oh, joy.

Nonoko and Ichigo were both grasping each other's forearm. As the lights were revived it took each girl a few seconds to orientate themselves. As soon as they regained their bearings, the two ex-classmates gasped almost simultaneously.

For a few moments, they just stood and stared at each other. Ichigo was closely examining her old friend, noting how much she changed and how much she hasn't. She hadn't been this proximate to an old friend in three years – besides Hotaru, that is.

Nonoko was staring in disbelief at the elementary girl in front of her. She battled logic with her senses as she struggled with the identity of the girl before her. Nonoko's eyes told her that it was Mikan but her brain told her that it couldn't be true.

It took her a good few moments to come to the conclusion that it could not possibly be her old classmate, for this one is twelve – give or take – and Mikan would be around fourteen. Nonoko got a grip on herself and earthed herself back to reality.

Not long after Ichigo recovered, Nonoko chided, "Oh my goodness, I did well! You are sooo cute! And you remind me of an old friend. I'm sorry, where are my manners. I'm Nonoko Ogasawara, pleased to meet you. What's your name?"

Mikan smiled brightly. It was genuine. She couldn't be happier to see Nonoko again. Also, she was fully confident about Hotaru's little pill and thus she could be totally relaxed. She beamed, "I'm Ichigo, Ichigo Hana. Nice to meet ya'!"

As soon as the lights turned on Ruka inspected the room for Natsume. He found him over near the corner where Ichigo was, but with another elementary girl. He then looked for Ichigo, who had found her way to Nonoko. Sighing once more at his friend's mindlessness, he turned to address himself.

It was then that he realised someone let go of his collar. "Ahem," a voice said curtly. Ruka turned to the source of the noise to find himself staring at a bespectacled elementary boy. The boy had faded, berry red hair and eager green eyes. Ruka blinked at him.

"Well then," the boy began without hesitation, "my name is Makihiko Futabatei, 11 years." He took Ruka's hand and shook it firmly. Ruka merely stood and watched. Makihiko didn't mind, in fact he didn't notice. He was all about moving the conversation forward.

"Ahem," he cleared his throat once more, "would you, say, by any chance be ... Ruka Nogi?" He looked up at Ruka expectantly.

Ruka nodded, "Yes, that's me... and um, how do you know that?"

Makihiko adjusted his glasses, the light reflecting on the surface. "Goodness, just my luck! You weren't quite what I was aiming for, but no doubt, you are the next best thing!"

Ruka gave the boy a puzzled look. Realising that perhaps he was a bit too forward, Makihiko cleared his throat for the third time, "Oh, excuse me. I do have a bad habit for rushing things. Perhaps this will explain it. I... am Hotaru Imai-sama's number one fan!"

Ruka fainted.

What did you think? Don't say it out loud, type it and review it! I'd really appreciate it. Hope you enjoyed that chapter :)