Disclaimer: I own nothing!

I want to dedicate this chapter to Vicious Unicorn. It's because of you that I'm at this moment typing away at this chapter. You really did sound like a motivational speaker hahahaha. No, but seriously, I have been trying really hard to write this chapter for the past month and nothing. And because of Vicious Unicorn's comment I got all excited, and now the ideas are just flowing all around my small brain!...umm, I mean, HUGE brain.

Anyways, thank you for everyone who has reviewed up until now, and people who add me in their favs or author alerts. Support is always needed and loved!

Chapter 5

Middle of unknown forest. Ruka is sixteen.

Ruka wiped the bead of salty liquid that was threatening to roll down his face. His features seemed that of deep concentration as he typed at a fast speed on his computer. His position was an uncomfortable one. Not much because he was leaning on a wall, crouched down hoping no one would see him, but more because of his location. He was leaning on one of the many "secret-hidden-in-the-middle-of-the-forest" warehoused that the AAO owned.

Being around people that wanted to torture information out of you to only then kill you wasn't really a thought that wouldn't make you uncomfortable.

He didn't get nervous anymore about these small missions, they were quite common lately, but he just had too many things on his mind and he just wanted to get back home. His swiveling thoughts stopped dead along with his fingers when he heard someone approaching him. The wind alice wanted to peek from the corner he was at but didn't dare. His fist tightened and he hissed a curse at the thought of having to go into action before he was able to hack into the AAO's files and get a map of the building, to hopefully make this an easy mission, but it didn't seem like luck was on his side that night.

The footsteps were getting closer, and Ruka, with a sigh, roll of his eyes and a whispered shit sliding past his gritted teeth, closed his laptop and set it on the ground next to him. It seemed like there wasn't going to be anything quick and easy about this mission.

The AAO guard dragged his feet from the front of the building, towards the side wall of the building, making the usual round of the building he was supposed to make in the middle of his shift. He fixed the machine gun hanging on his back from the strap, and stretched his aching back as he rounded the corner, and found nothing, like usual. 'This job is sure getting predictable' thought the bored watchman when suddenly he felt a heavy weight hit his slouching back that took him down.

The poor guy didn't even know what hit him as he was unconscious before he could reach for his firearm and defend himself from the unknown attacker. Ruka removed his hand from the man's neck, where he had hit a nerve so he was knocked unconscious, and ran towards the other side of the building to enter though the back door. There wouldn't be much time before they noticed the guard missing, and then Ruka would really not have a good time going into a building full people that were after him. The wind alice stopped at the corner, and searched the area for anyone guarding the backdoor of the warehouse. His eyes spotted two figures, one slightly smaller in stature, standing by the entrance. Ruka concentrated his wind alice on his feet, and came out form his corner at a fast speed towards the unsuspecting guard, who didn't get a word in before Ruka, with a jab to each of their skulls, he let them fall on the ground. His alice left his feet and let him touch the ground. His expression turned from apathetic to cheerful as the blond boy celebrated the fact that his attacks hadn't created any sort of commotion and tipped off his enemies.

It was always the small missions that screwed him over and always went wrong in some way.

Ruka grabbed the keys from the female guard, and wasted no time in busting into the building. He stopped and shut the door slowly, cringing when it creaked while closing. The wind alice looked around and made his way down the hallway in a amusing thief-like motion. Persona would kill him if he saw how UNseriously he was taking this mission. His teacher made it a point that they should take every mission gravely and like their lives were on the line.

Ruka, on the other hand, didn't really belief in the whole "You might die today" way of thinking.

So he merrily made his way to the center room of the building, where the AAO usually kept their important documents and drives. Ruka peered in and sneaked a glance at the empty room, while he kept his other senses on his back that was facing the hallway. He almost sighed a breath of relief at the fact that he was almost done, when a very loud alarm, rivaling Mikan's screams, resounded throughout what seemed the whole forest, and the sound of rushing footsteps could be heard approaching his direction. The boy sweat dropped and whined a bit when he heard, probably the commander officer of the guards in the building yell "capture, torture, and kill him!"

Dangerous Ability classroom 1:37am

Persona's eyes diverted from the paper he was reading to items that had been thrown on his teacher's desk by the one and only wind alice in his class. The death alice raised his eyebrow at the sudden show of anger, but didn't question and just went back to his paper.

"I need a healing stone before I go back."

Persona turned the page to the newspaper he was reading, "Healing stones are only-"

"reserved for A-ranked missions, I know, but that's just because we assume that C-ranked missions won't physically harm us." Ruka said, with a exasperated tone to his voice. "Which is just totally wrong, because really, there is always the possibility that we have underestimated a situation, or the spy assigned to the mission does something to trigger some kind of alarm that alerted the enemy teleportation alice to bring in reinforcements to be able to capture, torture and kill said spy."

Persona stared at the paper hard before lowering it down so he could take a glimpse of the boy in front of him. The boy wore a few cuts all around his upper body, and had blood dripping from the side of his head down to his right eye, which was closed to prevent the red liquid from entering the eye. He could see all the damage clearly because what was supposed to be one of their expensive mission uniform shirts, was now nothing more than shreds of clothing around his waist, threating to fall on the ground.

"What the hell happened?" asked the teacher in a threatening tone, while slowly standing up from his seat. Ruka gulped a little before backing away an inch, "we clearly underestimated the situation, that's all!" he rushed out as the death alice made his way closer to the backing away student.

"More like, you didn't take your mission seriously again, and you got your ass handed to you," bit out the taller man. "Your identity must remain a secret from the AAO, that's why your identity as a DA student remains a secret among the students. For that reason, we trained you, I trained you, to be the kind of agent that can stand on his own and not need a partner when you go on any type of mission, be it an A-ranked one, or a stupid C-rank-retrieve-a-stupid-drive-and documents type of mission." Almost shouted Persona, but not quiet since it wasn't like him to do so.

The teacher's glare died down as he massaged his forehead with his thumb and index. "You know what? I'm just going to stop right there because I sound like your fucking mother. I have told you this same thing more than once, so I'm done. Go away now." Finished Persona, as he turned from Ruka and went back behind the desk.

Ruka blinked his shock away quickly, "Wow, what's up with the self-control there Sensei? I was sure you were about to kick my ass like you always do." Said Ruka while he casually leaned on the edge of the teacher's desk. Persona glanced at the boy and then proceeded to examine the file of documents on his desk. Ruka pouted when it seemed that he wasn't going to be getting a response from him. "Well, can I at least have that healing stone before I leave? Since it seems like your done talking to me."

"Why don't you have Kuro Neko lick your wounds?"

Ruka grimaced at the unappealing yaoi thought about his best friend, "So you're just going to let me bleed to death in my room all alone? I have cuts all over my body."

"Not alone in your room really." Persona's stoic expression came up to meet surprised orbs as a reaction to the implication that statement brought. The teacher settled his head on his hands and kept on looking at his student. "Why don't you have the doctor's little sister, who is probably waiting for you in your room, stitch you up all nice and tight tonight?" asked Persona, with a glint of mockery in his dark eyes. Ruka stood up from the desk and stared at his Sensei's dull expression hard before he turned around and headed for the door.

"Whatever, if you don't want to help me and instead babble about something random and weird then go ahead. I'm heading back to my room" Shrugged the wind alice, and quickly disappeared through the classroom door leaving his teacher in the huge classroom alone.

Ruka sped up when he was away from the teaching space and out of the building. He cursed low under his breath while he kicked a small rock straight towards a tree. Ruka knew that Hotaru wasn't in any real danger by Persona knowing about them, but he still couldn't help feeling anxious at the possibility of anyone knowing. Anyways, it was Sensei himself who had drilled into his mind for years to never trust or depend on anyone.

Ruka mulled over how much Persona really knew and what that entailed while in the elevator that was taking him to the Special Star floor. He hurried into his room, not wanting to have to possibly meet Natsume in the hallway, and have him see him all bloody. He probably looked worse than what he felt.

The wind alice opened his door stealthily and slipped inside. His alice shut his door behind him, while he went straight into his bathroom. Ruka groaned at the maddening thoughts and flipped the light switch rather violently. He breathed in deeply and took a long sigh, got out of his clothes sluggishly and with a weary expression, discarded them on the floor and turned on the hot water. He let the water run for a bit, helping him loosen up the knots on his back, before he added some cold water to make his shower comfortable. Ruka's arm came across his chest to let his hand massage his nape.

It didn't feel nowhere near as good as when Hotaru did it.

Persona had been wrong about one thing. There wasn't going to be any Doctor's little sister waiting for him tonight in his room. It wasn't that big of a deal, since he had taken care of himself after a mission before alone, and it wasn't like she was there every time he had a mission anyways. He just missed her presence tonight, especially because Persona's comment just made him want her in his arms, where he knew she would be safe.

Ruka let the warm water run down his body a few more minutes before he shut it and exited the shower. He grabbed the towel that was on the floor, probably still there from yesterday, and went to wipe the condensation from his full-length bathroom mirror. His cerulean eyes traveled down his body, inspecting the gravity of his now clean wounds. His legs were unscratched, save for a few bruises, which his pants would be able to cover. Ruka examined his arms, and studied the now clean cuts. Those would be impossible to hide if they weren't just covered, and Ruka groaned at the thought of wearing his high school coat all day.

The blonde boy turned and went into his dark room, letting the bathroom light guide him to his closet. He found a dark blue pair of boxers, which he put on, and threw himself face down on his King sized bed. He let out a prolonged groan into his beige sheets, and when he got that out of his system, he turned around to face the ceiling.

It annoyed him that he was in such a foul mood, which didn't really make much sense or fix anything, but the blonde boy was too tired to logically think of what made sense anymore. His thoughts revolved around a certain inventor, and while that was always a thought that cheered him up, tonight it was making him restless, and not in a love-sick-good kinda way.

If Sensei knew about Hotaru, who else? Were they being that obvious? Sure, Sensei was a perceptive man, he had to be, but he himself was just as good as Sensei. Well, maybe his feeling for Hotaru had been clouding his skills lately and not letting him be careful enough. Would Sensei say anything to the higher ups? Were Hotaru and him going to have to have this kind of hidden relationship until they graduated. Could he really make Hotaru give up so much? He already tried to "break it off", well, not really, but his intentions were something along the lines and Hotaru didn't have any of it. What could the school do to Hotaru anyways? She was such a well-known person, inside and outside the academy, they would never get away with hurting her. But even if the possibility wasn't high, it's not like he could just take the chance. She wasn't something to gamble with. He had to keep her safe, from them.

Ruka sighed, put his arm across his eyes, and wished his jumbled thoughts away before they made him decide to do anything rash.

He was going to tell her about this. They would talk and figure out a solution together.

"Come back already Hotaru."

Eastern Forest, Everyone is fourteen

A smaller version of Ruka on top of a great orange cat could be seen running through a vast forest. The boy's face showed pure intensity as he concentrated his alice on the tiger to get him to go faster. The duo raced towards the open field that would take the wind/pheromone alice to class.

On time, well, that was yet to be seen.

Ruka had been joyful when they were finally middle schoolers. The school and dorms were way closer to the Eastern Forest than the elementary area, so now he could visit Piyo in the mornings instead of having to wait till after school. Not only that, but the barn was in the same forest, in fact, most animals that Ruka liked to deal with were in the Eastern Forest. Ruka's expression became blissful just thinking about how much fun he had that morning with all his friends when the tiger suddenly stopped, throwing the young boy off of him and into the ground in front of the big cat. The tiger growled at a black figure standing a few feet away from them and nudged his master, who was groaning from his meeting with the hard ground.

"Ruka Nogi, the Elementary School Principle wishes to see you right now," said a monotonous voice, as the owner of the voice stepped closer. The orange tiger hissed at the same time that Ruka opened his eyes in a shocked manner to look at the man in front of him, his pain all but forgotten. Ruka stood up, not wanting to be caught off guard when the man that tortured Natsume so much was in front of him.

Not that he was capable of defending himself from such man really.

Persona fixed his eyes on the boy before he turned around, fully expecting that the boy would follow him. Ruka frowned before he took a step forward, when he heard a low growl from his animal friend behind him. Ruka turned around and gave him a small smile and petted it before he went ahead to follow behind the DA teacher. The blonde boy fell into step with Persona, but made sure not to peek up at him, so he didn't look like a curious little boy. He would've rather not followed the adult in the first place, but Persona had an air about him that reminded him of Natsume and Imai combined.

Now exactly two people you wanted to defy.

"Your reaction time is terrible, in fact you have no reflexes at all." Said Persona, never looking at the boy next to him. Ruka's head snapped up to meet the teacher's face, but said nothing since the man wasn't really asking him anything, just saying something uncalled for and rude. Why did he care anyways?

They walked in silence all the way to the elementary building, into the Principal's office.

Ruka had visited the main office and talked to the secretaries before, but never had he been inside the principal's office or personally spoken with him for that matter. So it was natural he felt extremely nervous when as soon as they walked in, the ESP looked up at him with an all-knowing smirk on his face and dismissed the dangerous ability teacher without ever taking his eyes off of the blonde boy.

Persona left the room with no farewell, closed the door behind him, and left Ruka all alone with a man he had never met in his life. Not only that, but that man was giving him a look that could rival Hi-sama's in terms of freakiness.

Were all principals this creepy?

"Please Ruka, sit." motioned the Elementary School Principle. Ruka took a second to snap from his position by the door and proceeded to the chairs facing the ESP's desk. The wind alice took this moment to study the person behind the large desk. Large compared to the person occupying it, anyways. The man, or rather boy, seemed to be of slight smaller stature as Ruka, and Ruka made it a point that he hadn't really grown at all since Ruka had come to the academy. He could remember musing back then that the principle was the same height as him.

Ruka reached his seat, and avoided the ESP's intent eyes by pretending to be interested in the rather large office.

"Ruka, I'm glad you could come." Smiled the child at the teenage boy. Ruka turned his attention to the ESP, and nodded in response. "It didn't seem like I had much of a choice." Said Ruka evenly, gaining courage from the fact that he could probably easily beat the principle if he needed to. The ESP's smile became wider at the student's response, "you always have a choice with anything you do Ruka."

The wind alice suppressed a shiver at the boy's statement, and just waited for him to say anything else. The principal's grin fell off and he gave Ruka a content look, while he leaned back on his black leather chair. "I recently learned that you have a acquired a new alice, how is that going for you?" asked the boy with that same even-content expression, like his question was leading to something that was inevitable, and he was just making the situation longer for his personal entertainment.

Ruka averted his eyes in an awkward manner, not knowing how to answer that. "Good, I guess. I found out my alice type is the Intermittent type, so no worries there." Ruka said, a quick image of his best friend flashing through his mind. He shook his head mentally to forget about that thought for the moment.

"Ah! That's great!" the ESP exclaimed as he clapped his hands together, celebrating the news. He brought his hands together, "surely then you won't have a problem with helping out the academy a bit, since it won't pose any risk to your health." Smiled the boy, in what almost felt in a mocking way towards Ruka. They blonde boy's eyes widened at the smaller boy's words.

"What?" Ruka stood up from his chair fiercely, almost knocking it over, and glared at the boy with power in front of him. "You want to do the same thing that you do Natsume to me!"

The ESP stood up from his chair too, except he wasn't on Ruka's same level, "but there's the beauty! You can help your friend now. You've always wanted the power to do something more for your friend and not just be another weight on Natsume's shoulder, this is your chance!" enthused the elementary principle. Ruka's expression calmed down, but his glare didn't die down. He couldn't say anything because it was all true. And the 'weight on Natsume's shoulder' had hit straight home. Ruka's form slumped on the chair behind him with the weight of the ESP's words. He felt like he had just had a two hour physical battle with the boy in front of him and he hadn't even broken a sweat.

The ESP smiled, and slowly sat back down. "Any mission you take from now on will be a load off your friend's back. Honestly, at the rate that Natsume's going, five more years of missions, well, let's just say that we don't even know if he'll last those five years to service us." said the ESP with sympathy in his voice, and his eyes casted down.

Ruka looked up and sneered at the principal's words and act, a sound unbecoming of him, but he still couldn't help himself, "what do I have to do?"

They principle found Ruka's eyes and smirked, "nothing really. The wind alice is such a great and powerful alice, all you have to do is let us teach you how to use it to your advantage, and five years from now you live happily ever after." Grinned the boy at Ruka. "Also, you can't tell anyone about this. You won't even be joining the other dangerous ability students, since it's of utmost importance that your identity as an agent stays a secret. If anyone were to find out, it would be a risk of your identity being found out, and then the higher ups and I would be forced to deal with it. That's why I recommend that you don't drag anyone into this deal by getting closer to them than necessary."

Ruka had had enough. The wind alice pushed his chair back while standing up, making a scrapping sound that echoed in the large office, and turned to leave.

"Meet your new trainer in the Northern Forest at 10pm sharp."

Ruka looked back, his bangs covering his eyes, "like I have a choice." He murmured before opening the enormous doors and storming out. The teenager could've sworn he had heard the ESP say something else that he hadn't caught, but didn't care enough to go back.

"You always have a choice Ruka."

Waaah! I'm SO sorry. I haven't updated in ages! I wonder if you're all even alive! You guys probably already married some boy/girl and had a bunch of babies, and are now renowned professionals! Leaving me and my nerdy story all alone!

Boo-hooo T-T

Ok, done with the dramatics. I'm really sorry for being absent for so long. You know, there's this tricky thing called life, and it sometimes throws curve balls at you.

But you know what they say! When life gives you lemons, THROW A LEMON PARTY!...or something like that.

Thanks to anyone who is reading my story still, even though I don't deserve it

That's it! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW

Gimmi that sweet and painful feedback, don't be afraid to be HONEST not MEAN, there is a difference. You can call me the most horrible writer in the whole world but you have to back your shit up. That's how it works with me hahaha

Until next time,

yue679