Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice.

Hello there! My exam's tomorrow, but the internet connection is in my favor so I decided to just, like, fuck my exams and upload another chapter, yayyy! This chapter's not very eventful though in my opinion, but it is necessary for the next chapter to happen. It's the beginning of everything, so as to say. Anyway, please enjoy, because I abandon my Economics paper for this TT_TT


Troy (Ancient Greek: Ἴλιον, Ilion, or Ἴλιος, Ilios; and Τροία, Troia; Latin: Trōia and Īlium; Hittite: Wilusa or Truwisa; Turkish: Truva) was a city situated in what is known from Classical sources as Asia Minor, now northwest Anatolia in modern Turkey, located south of the southwest end of the Dardanelles/Hellespont and northwest of Mount Ida at Hisarlık. It is the setting of the Trojan War described in the Greek Epic Cycle.

The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the subterfuge that the Greeks used to enter the city of Troy and win the war. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war.

(Taken from Wikipedia)


Hotaru refused to speak to Natsume about Mikan, and that put Natsume beyond frustration. He had been desperately trying to dig something out from Hotaru, but she stubbornly kept her ground.

Ruka had suggested for him to approach Mikan's other friends. He even sneaked their contacts and addresses secretly from Hotaru's contact list. Natsume had them now in his phone, but they had been avoiding his calls and ignoring his texts as well.

"Fuck," Natsume threw his phone on his table in irritation. "None of them is picking up my calls."

"Maybe you should try a different approach, Natsume," Ruka suggested.

"Like what, go to their house and hide there and listen to what they may say about her?"

Ruka paused for a while. "Actually I was about to suggest you befriend them," he said, "but your words just gave me another idea. Let's use the Trojan Horse tactic."

"The what?"

"Gosh, Natsume, you really have to read your Greek mythologies. Has anyone ever told you that?" Ruka approached his table in big steps.

One person, Natsume thought glumly, but said nothing. "So what's that?"

"You see, Odysseus and his men sneaked inside this huge-ass wooden horse disguised as a gift to the Trojans. Then after they infiltrated, boom, they just came out from the wooden horse, ready to attack. Bam. Instant victory." Ruka explained it briefly.

"And how does it apply to my situation?" Natsume rubbed his temple.

"Use your brain, duh. Pretend to be nice. Okay, this is illegal and Hotaru will kill me if she found out, but I've been your friend longer than I've been in a relationship with her, so I guess that justifies it." Ruka shrugged. "Anyway, my plan is this: give one of her friends a gift, and insert a listening device inside. I know they will all meet at this girl's—Anna's—house this weekend, so there's a really high chance they will discuss about Mikan." Ruka glanced at Natsume. "What do you think?"

"Man, you're awesome," Natsume shook her head in awe. "Ruka, can you go and buy a small listening device? I'll go and buy a gift. We'll go to this girl's house as soon as those are ready—"

Ruka smiled as he put down his smartphone. "A doll with a listening device inside has been ordered. It will be delivered tomorrow. And Anna Umenomiya runs a bakery, which is also a café—she will be there for sure during weekdays. We can drop by anytime to have a friendly chat with her while grabbing some lunch."

"Wow, Ruka, you're more enthusiastic about this than I am."

Ruka pat Natsume's shoulder, still smiling. "Of course—I finally can see my friend happy, so why shouldn't I enthuse about it?"


Anna was standing behind the counter when she saw two familiar-looking men entered her café-slash-bakery. She squinted as she put her pink hair behind her ears, trying to get a better look of those two gentlemen. Who are they?

As they approached the counter, Anna's eyes widened. She knew who they were. She knew who they were very well, and she knew that she had to avoid them at all costs.

Unfortunately she realized it too late—they had already stopped in front of the counter, smiling at her angelically.

Anna forced a professional smile. "Ruka, fancy seeing you here! And your friend as well," she glanced at Natsume. "Are you guys here for lunch?"

"That, and a few minutes of friendly chat—if you don't mind," Ruka gave her an extremely sweet smile.

How could she refuse that smile? She had been friends with Ruka for quite a long time, and Ruka had been kind of a big brother figure to the group of girls (Anna, Nonoko, Sumire, and Mikan). Ruka had helped her a lot of times, so refusing would only make Anna feel bad about herself.

Sighing, Anna turned and called her employee. "Man the counter after this," she said. "I'll be back in a while." She turned back to the two guys, sighing again. "So, what do you guys want to order?"


So, there they were, sitting around a square wooden table. Their orders hadn't been delivered yet, so they just sat in awkward silence.

"So," Anna sighed, "what do you guys want from me?"

She sounded defeated. Ruka and Natsume couldn't help but laugh.

"What?" Anna furrowed her eyebrows, puzzled.

"We're not here to oppress you, I promise," Ruka suppressed his laugh.

"Rather, I'm here to apologize."

Natsume's words made Anna turned her head quickly to him. She eyed him suspiciously. "What? Apologize?" Anna gave Natsume a look that was almost disgusted, but instead of making her look angry, the scene looked quite comedic. Ruka tried his best not to laugh as Natsume cleared his throat.

"I know I've been rude, nagging all of you like that. I'm sorry," Natsume sighed. "And as a sign of apology," he put a huge paper bag on the table, "I would like to give this to you."

Curiosity took over Anna. She took the paper bag.

"Go on, open it."

Anna opened it to find a huge cupcake-shaped pillow inside. She blinked in disbelief. "Oh my sweet Lord baby Jesus."

"I heard you like cooking—clearly, because you have café and bakery—and you specifically fancy baking cupcakes. So I went and got this for you to show my deepest apology. I really hope you would take it."

Anna's face brightened up. The disgust in her eyes was nowhere to be seen. "I love this! Thank you so much. It's okay, I kind of understand your feeling. Of course you would want to know about Mikan so much." Her face dimmed as she stared right at Natsume. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you about Mikan. To be honest, I'm not sure either what Hotaru was talking about at that time. She just told us not to say anything at all costs."

"It's okay. I'll try to find out about it myself," Natsume smiled back charmingly. By eavesdropping at your conversation this weekend, he added quietly.

At that moment, their orders arrived. Anna went back inside happily, and Natsume could see Ruka giving him a thumb-up.

"Infiltration succeeded."

"Sorry, Anna." Ruka cringed.


Sooo that's it! Thanks for reading! Reviews are always appreciated. I hope you can bear with my slow pace of updating :) And I hope after reading, you become more interested in Greek mythology or get more knowledge about it!

~sassgoddess