Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice.

Hello again! Because I felt like I am a bad writer (I am, yeah, sorry :( ) so I decided to post another chapter, yay. I mean, yay! Of course I'm excited! My ideas are overflowing that I actually abandoned my homework now. (Somebody please stop me.)

And btw now I'm doing two challenges: Weekly Writing Challenge and 100 Happy Days Challenge! They are so fun, so if you're interested, you can search about them or ask me :)

"What is the music of life?"

"Silence, my brother."

-Skyrim

"What happened?!" Mikan panted, out of breath, as she—followed by Natsume—arrived at the crowd.

"A time bomb," Hotaru said, almost calmly.

Mikan's eyes flew to the van, which had already stopped burning thanks to immediate measures. It's Koko's van. Why is it Koko again? Why did they skip Natsume? Could it be…

"Are you guys all right?" Misaki asked Sumire and Koko.

"I'm fine," Sumire said calmly, but her left arm was bleeding quite a bit. "Take care of Koko."

"I'm perfectly fine and uninjured. Sumire pushed me out just on time," Koko quickly said. "Take care of Sumire, please."

"No! Please check on him first," Sumire insisted, but Mikan could see her arm trembling. Gently she approached Sumire. "Sumire, I know you're the head of the team, but that doesn't mean you can't be weak." She smiled warmly at her. "Guys," she turned to the four guys, "please stay in Hyuuga's van for now. There will be guards. Girls, we need to have a short meeting while we attend to Sumire."

Now the girls all sat in Ruka's van, while Hotaru quietly took care of Sumire's injury.

"Are you okay?" Misaki worriedly asked.

"Misaki, you know this much is nothing," Sumire murmured. "Anyway, Mikan, what did you want to tell us?"

Mikan took a deep breath. "I'm suspecting someone to be involved with Silence."

"And who is that?"

"Luna Koizumi."

Misaki sprung to her feet in disbelief.

"Mikan, if you're gonna say that, you better have evidence," Sumire coldly said.

"Hear me out first, guys. Most of them are only speculations, but… they fit perfectly," Mikan said in all seriousness. "I heard that since she dated Natsume, she became different. She's been going out late at night and coming back even later, with unexplained injuries. And she didn't talk about it either."

"Okay, that's kind of suspicious. How long has that been going on? I mean, since she dated Natsume, of course, but when did they start dating?" Misaki asked.

"Around seven months ago."

"That's when Silence began to attack," Sumire said, saucer-eyed.

"Moreover, they—Luna's maids—said that Luna has been acting weird around Natsume. It was as if she's hesitating," Mikan said. "And did you see today? They didn't go in cycle as we predicted. They skipped Natsume and went straight back to Koko. What if Luna didn't want Natsume to get hurt because she loved him so much?"

Mikan could see the others begin to contemplate her assumption now.

"One last thing," Mikan said again, "Luna got an injury on her right arm. She looked particularly pale when I mentioned it. The maids said she came back yesterday with an injury that looked like a cut, or… a graze."

"The person I shot yesterday," Misaki muttered. "Could she really be…"

"Calm down, Misaki, Mikan," Sumire cut Misaki off and turned to Hotaru. "Hotaru, I want you to research more about this, and update us on anything new you find, be it for or against Mikan's speculations."

Hotaru nodded and finished bandaging Sumire's arm.

"Thanks, Hotaru." Sumire smiled. Then he turned back to the others, her face back to serious. "Okay, for now, no more about Koizumi until Hotaru finished researching. Still keep an eye for the guys. Misaki, protect Tsubasa—he might be the next target. Be careful—they're getting more and more dangerous. Mikan, I want you to check Koko's van for any evidence. If that is understood, dismissed."

All the girls nodded and dispersed.

Mikan didn't find any particular evidence on Koko's burnt van, but that didn't disappoint her. She had expected that. Luna was here too just now. Could it be that she came to ask someone to put on the time bomb while everyone's attention was diverted to her, who was busy trying to get into Natsume's van?

Sumire had told them to stop with the speculations about Luna, but Mikan couldn't help it. Luna was very suspicious. And now, she grew curious too of what Luna had talked with Natsume earlier.

She walked back to Natsume's van and opened the door energetically. "Hyuuga!"

"Shut up, you're too loud," Natsume said in annoyance as he munched on some Doritos.

"Sorry," Mikan said, totally not feeling sorry, as she closed the van door. "I met Luna just now. She really is pretty."

"Hn."

"Can't believe someone so pretty would agree to be your girlfriend," Mikan said mockingly.

Natsume glanced at her. "Careful with what you said, Miss Sakura."

"What? What're you gonna do to me? Hit me like one of your drum sets?" Mikan shot back, before realizing, I shouldn't be fighting with him. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Mikan added hurriedly.

"You're actually apologizing? Wow, I'm impressed."

"Okay, I'm not here to fight with you," Mikan tried to keep herself level-headed. She needed to ask him about Luna. "I'm just curious, what did you talk with Luna earlier?"

"Nothing," Natsume said indifferently. "Why do you care anyway? I said, no meddling with my personal life."

Mikan pouted. "I'm just worried about Luna. She seemed to have been acting differently nowadays, her maids said. I guess you might have known a thing or two about it, since you're her boyfriend."

"She's just sad seeing her dad tired, probably. Her dad has been busy working," Natsume said vaguely.

Realizing she's not going to get anything out of Natsume, Mikan sighed. At that moment, her walkie-talkie buzzed. "Yes—"

"WEAR YOUR BLUETOOTH SPEAKER, WILL YOU?!"

Mikan put the walkie-talkie away. Sumire's scream was extremely loud. "Alright, alright, I'm sorry!" Mikan hurriedly wore her Bluetooth speaker. "Geez, Sumire, your voice is too loud!"

"I told you not to forget again, didn't I?!" Sumire shouted again.

"Calm down, Sumire," Mikan could hear Misaki, suppressing her laughter. "We have some business, remember?"

"Ah, yes! It's not the time for this! Hotaru, if you please."

"I have conducted a simple research," Hotaru's calm voice came in. "And I found out that all the bands that have been attacked so far, all of them are bands under Koizumi Music Industries. And all the attacks were thoroughly planned, and could only be carried out with the help of someone inside." Some clicking voice could be heard. "And even when they tried to set a fake concert date, somehow Silence can figure it out. Only people closely related to the authorities in Koizumi Music Industries could have known about this, and of course, the people who have bought the concert ticket were also informed about this with high secrecy. But they couldn't have carried away the attacks. I have researched about the people and found nothing suspicious. Besides, none of them went to all the concerts that were wrecked."

"That was fast, Hotaru. Thanks."

"So, she's suspicious, no?" Mikan said again.

"I think I agree with Mikan," Misaki said. "She must have hidden something."

"Hotaru?" Sumire asked.

Silence for a while, before Hotaru said, "For once, I'd say Mikan has a point."

"Hotaru!" Mikan protested.

"Alright," Sumire said. "For now, she is set as our primary suspect. Mikan, find more information about her. Hotaru, try to track people around her down. Dismissed."

Mikan took off her Bluetooth speaker, smiling widely in triumph. Finally she did something useful for the group.

I feel like this chapter is rather short so I'm sorry I'll work hard so I can finish this story right after my exam hahaha! Thank you for reading, and as usual, flames and (hopefully) words of encouragement are much welcomed! :)

~sassgoddess