Please read the previous chapter before reading this one! Ruka x Hotaru~! x3 We're now onto Mikan and Natsume!

Writer: Sakura-tan
Editor: Kyoko-tan

Disclaimer: We do not own Gakuen Alice (the characters used in this story).

This story that Kyoko-tan and I wrote is dedicated and made tribute to the loved ones affected by this tragic event.

Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001
Location: New York City

8:50am the time when we were called.

We heard that a plane had crashed into the North Building of the World Trade Center.

I took one glance at Ruka, and we knew that we had no time to waste. Every second wasted, more people would die in that large building, inhabiting thousands of workers. Our team quickly grabbed what we needed, and we slid down the firepole. We put on our equipment, and rushed into the fire truck. This rescue mission was definitely not normal.

As my team and I sat in the truck, we looked at each other, as we got ready to push all of our emotions aside. We had to do our job; we needed to save the people inside the building. I took out my phone, and called my wife.

"Hello?" I heard her say.

"Hey Mikan," I replied, "I'm heading over to the World Trade Center."

"Oh, I'm going as well actually. We just got out of the station. I heard from the others that the traffic is really congested today, so it might take a little longer to get to the scene. Be careful."

"I will."

"I need to go. I love you. Stay safe!"

"I... love you too. Don't do anything reckless."

"I won't, thanks. See you soon."

I hung up, and I quickly put my phone in the seat pocket. I looked outside, only to have realized that we didn't move much at all. The cars were trying to get out of the way, but the traffic was too packed, like what my wife told me. My crew also noticed as well, and we knew that we couldn't do anything besides sit here, hoping that everything would be all right.

Go, stop, go, stop, go, stop. That was how the fire truck went as the traffic slowly led us towards our destination.

Finally, after for what seem like an eternity, we got to the North Tower. We took a quick deep breath in, and ran out of the truck, using our exhale as our adrenaline to proceed us to our job. We grabbed oxygen masks and what-not. I glanced up at the disaster site.

Papers fell from the building, escaping the fire that has wounded the infrastructure. The smoke was creating a large grey and orange cloud above the burning tower.

As we were about to run into the building, in a flash, we felt the floors shake. A great burst of light followed shortly after. We looked up to the source. In complete and utter shock, we saw that the South Tower had bursted into flames. I took another glance at the other captain that I was with, Ruka.

"We need to split up," I said monotonously. There was no doubt that we needed to assist people from both buildings. Even more firefighters will be coming now. We needed to spread our assistance, that's for sure in these next few minutes.

Ruka gave a curt nod, and our team was divided in half. My and Ruka's team, originally were supposed to go into the North Tower together, but now the situation has changed.

"Stay safe, Natsume," he said quickly.

"You too, Ruka," I said with more emotion than before.

With that, our groups ran into our respective buildings, dreading what we were going to see inside.

My friends and I were just checking into our department as we saw our co-workers out of their seats, pacing around frantically with uneasiness. We looked at them curiously until one of my friends ushered me and the others to look at the TV screen that was hooked at the top corner of the room.

We stood stunned as we saw a replay of what happened just a few minutes ago. A plane had crashed into the upper end of the World Trade Center, the North Tower, they said.

None of my friends and I moved, or maybe my senses had shut down ― I was completely oblivious to my surroundings.

I finally snapped back into my senses, and gazed at my friends. One of them was waving their hands in front of me, while the other two seemed to be in the same sort of stun I was in. We all looked at each other, then at the panicking workers, and knew what to do.

It was time to go into action.

We grabbed our belongings, put on our vests to show that we were paramedics, and rushed into the ambulance. One of my friends took the driver's seat, another called the passenger seat, while me and another sat in the back. As I noticed the engine starting up, I heard the usual ringtone of my cellphone.

I took it out from my bag that was sitting behind me, on the counter, and looked at the caller. I gave a very small smile as I noticed it was my husband.

"Hello?" I said.

"Hey Mikan," I heard Natsume say. "I'm going to the World Trade Center." I knew that he knew that he didn't need to say any further. What had happened there was all over the news.

"Oh, I'm going as well actually. We just got out of the station," I replied. I looked out the window, then at my friend who was sitting across from me. She mouthed, indicating that my suspicion about the traffic was right. "I heard from the others that the traffic is really congested today, so it might take a little longer to get to the scene. Be careful," I advised him.

"I will," I heard him reply a moment later.

"I need to go. I love you. Stay safe!"

"I... love you too. Don't do anything reckless." I couldn't help but widen my smile as I heard him say this. He was always caring so much me and our daughter, who I dropped off at daycare before I arrived to work.

"I won't, thanks. See you soon," I concluded. I heard him hang up, and I did so shortly after.

I glanced at my friend, who glanced back at me questioningly.

"My husband," I told her sadly.

"He's going to the building, is he?" She replied with painful eyes, completely sympathetic.

I nodded in agreement, and my eyes dropped to my lap, where my hands laid, one on top of the other. Slowly, I clenched them, and bowed my head to pray.

My team and I looked at our surroundings in complete dismay and sadness. The remnants of the glass windows had been shattered on the ground, where a few bodies laid beneath the rubble. Then I alerted them to get back to our positions, and they did.

We walked up the stairs, and stepped foot into each floor to see any signs of consciousness among the people. We each had 2 oxygen masks, so it was plenty. One of us would usher them down the steps towards the emergency personnel who would take care of them. That lone firefighter would then grab another two oxygen masks, and come back to meet us.

I lost count of how many people we have recovered from the floors. However, we were getting closer and closer to the floors where the airplane had struck. Our main concern was to figure out how to venture above the burning level at this moment.

My team and I could tell that as we got higher and higher in the building, it got hotter and hotter. We disregarded that though, when we felt ourselves swaying on the stairs. The crew and I took one quick look at each other, and ran up to the 51st level to see what had happened.

After what had felt like forever, we finally reached the World Trade Center Towers. As we got out of the vehicle though, in a blink of an eye, there was a bright flash in the sky. All of us couldn't help but look up to see what had happened now. Before we thought was horrific, now it was a war-zone.

Another plane had hit the South Tower.

There was no time to waste. We saw emergency personnel like us who were already here and working. I didn't bother to look up at the destruction; it was too much to bear. We needed to be strong for the injured, to show them that they were safe. We knew that we had to do on-site treatment. We saw a man coming out with a young woman over his shoulder, and I ran up to him to assist.

My team got the medical equipment ready, and the ambulance was right next to us, in case someone needed to get driven to the nearest hospital for treatment. I noticed that this young man was bleeding from his hand, nothing major. The woman was bleeding on the forehead though, so we quickly tended her. She was still conscious, and we checked to see if she had a concussion. She seemed to be responding fine, so we just helped her with the wound on her forehead.

A fresh wave of rubble came raining down. Luckily, we were not too close to the buildings where it fell. We were all on the edge of it. We saw hundreds of workers rushed out of the South Tower entrance. My friends and I looked determined at each other, and gave a sharp nod, knowing that we had to pump our services up a notch.

People came out one by one, group by group. Most of them we could tell were on the lower floors of the two towers. We worked furiously at the situation at-hand.

That was, until a large rumbling noise and loud screams were emitted.

We knocked down the door when we felt the coolness of it. Then, we quickly scanned our surroundings, and checked the pulses of the bodies that were lying on the ground. There were a couple unconscious-bodies, so we picked them up. Luckily, another team of firefighters had joined us, so we asked two of them to bring them down for us, and they did so without hesitation.

We gazed outside; the remnants of the glass window desperately hung onto the edges. I heard my team gasp, some of them had put their exposed wrist (their hands were covered by bloodied gloves) to their mouths. I wondered how I reacted.

The South Tower was collapsing.

As a knee-jerk reaction, I pushed all of my stunned teammates, ushering them to run. We could hear frantic footsteps running down the stairwells, and we were eventually amongst them. There was no doubt that some of them saw what was happening to the South Tower.

We were trying to get to the next floor (the 52nd), but the crowd of workers running down the stairs wasn't letting us through. We had to resort to assisting the ones we could. We tried to check each floor again, but for the most part, the ones who didn't respond to the shaking and swaying were dead, or in a near-death situation. Some screamed in fear, and some probably ran faster than they had ever done until now. We knew that sooner or later, this building would also collapse. I heard my teammates encourage and usher the crowd to go faster, in a more orderly fashion. We did eventually find struggling bodies, trying to break free from the rubble.

Our emotions were completely pushed off to the side now.

The South Tower was falling. That was what we could decipher as we saw clouds of smoke eating the building. I found it quite strange that the North Tower didn't fall first, as that one was hit minutes before this one.

We saw another wave of people scrambling out beneath the smoke. Rubble rained down the vicinity. People were tripping and falling, and that one mistake could've led them to their death.

We saw what no human would ever want to see in their lifetime.

Then somehow, my eyes locked on a young boy, trying to run away from the disaster zone. He tripped, and subconsciously, I got up, and ran to him, as I rapidly noticed a piece of concrete that was going to fall on the lad...

... unless someone would save him.

As I ran up to shield the boy, I noticed that he looked familiar, and a quick thought came into my mind.

"Youichi! When we get older, we're getting married!"

I saw my husband choke on his coffee, while I burst out laughing at our daughter's remark.

"... Okay," Youichi replied.

"And we'll invite my family and your family to our wedding!"

I felt a tear slip down my cheek before my senses died on me as I ran to him. Was it a tear of joy of that moment? Or was it sadness because I probably won't survive this upcoming impact?

Either way though, it was too late. I closed my eyes as I hugged him, my back exposed to the air. A short second later, I felt a searing pain overwhelm my body, and Youichi still under me, probably wondering what had just happened.

I struggled to take one more glance at my surroundings. Amidst my fading senses, I could still make out a young reporter looking at me with shock as she was ushered away by the camera crew. For some reason, she reminded me of my husband, the way she was expressing her emotions. A strong girl, yet her eyes said everything... concern, worry, sadness, and gratefulness—for saving this young child. This feeling of saving Youichi made me felt better, that my death saved a young one's life.

"I'm sorry Natsume. Please, stay alive for Aimi. Protect her, and love her with all heart. I love you," was my last thought before I surrendered myself into the darkness.

Finally, my teammates and I hit the 3rd floor, another step to freedom.

I had a young man over my shoulders, while my crewmates had one person over each of theirs as well.

"Natsume," I heard one of my teammates say between his pants, "do you think Ruka and the others..."

"... I-I don't know," I said with hesitation. I hadn't actually thought about that until now. "Either way though, we can't do anything about it." Great, now that thought was going to bug me for the rest of the day.

I couldn't let that get to me right now. People are dying everywhere, and it was our job to help. We needed to be strong for them.

I took the time to notice my surroundings quickly, and see how my team was doing. I realized that all of us were sweating buckets, with all of the heavy equipment we had and what we were wearing. I suddenly felt guilty that we weren't able to hit the upper floors. However, there were probably other officers that were more successful than us. There was no doubt that there were some firefighters got here before we did. Our fire station was situated farther than many in New York City.

After a while longer, we finally hit the ground level, where the surroundings had just gotten twice as loud, probably because everyone was reacting to the collapsing South Tower. Finally, we were out of the building. Though of course, if my team and I knew that it was safe enough, we would be going back in.

As we ran out and into the smoggy air, I felt my world come to a complete and sudden halt. I almost dropped the semi-conscious man that was still on my shoulder. I felt someone pat me on the shoulder. The thick gloves indicated to me that it was one of my co-workers.

"I... I... I'm so so, extremely sorry, Natsume," he said solemnly. I felt the young man being lifted off of my shoulders, which I assume my teammate carried off with him. I would usually retort, but at this moment, I felt as if all of my energy was drained out of me as I looked at the familiar young lady in her usual paramedic uniform, her light brown hair that was supposed to be tied up, now flying loosely in the wind with streaks of red painted on it.

I slowly and dreadfully walked up to the familiar body, getting more and more disheartened as her features became more and more apparent. The hope that it was not my wife was diminishing more and more.

When I finally reached Mikan's body, I was about to break down when I saw a moving body under her. I was startled to know that I recognized him. He played with our daughter a lot. Then, all of the pieces came together. Mikan, my wife, saved this little boy, even if it would've meant that she would die.

I noticed that Youichi's eyes were still wide with fear, but then he calmed down a bit when he saw me in my work suit.

"U-uncle Na-Natsume, I... I-I'm sorry!" He cried as he wept into my arms, my wife's head on my lap.

I comforted him, and saying that it was all right, but he wouldn't stop apologizing. I knew since a long time ago that he was going to grow up a smart man. He wasn't stupid. He knew that Mikan had died to save his life.

"Youichi, would she want you to cry?" I said to him soothingly, but monotonously. I felt him shake his head.

"It's okay, Youichi," was all I could say as I looked at my wife, her eyes closed, peacefully sleeping in her eternal slumber.

Then, for the first time in my career as a firefighter, I cried. All of the emotions overwhelming me... to the point where I finally burst. I wept silent tears, hoping that this little boy wouldn't hear me, so that he doesn't feel even more saddened by this disaster.

"Natsume! I want to help people!"

"What."

"I wanna be a paramedic!"

The surroundings around me got quiet.

"Natsume! Aimi finally said mommy!"

"You know she was able to say 'daddy' about two weeks ago."

"Shut up!"

Was Youichi still crying?

"Natsume, I love you."

"Hn."

"Hey, you're supposed to say 'I love you' back, baaaaka!"

Why Mikan, did you leave me?

"Protect Aimi when I'm gone, Natsume..."

Mikan, you're so stupid. What about going to that dinner that we promised we would do afterwards? What happened to being careful? You said that you wouldn't do anything reckless!

"Natsume... I'm sorry."

I felt the ground shaking below me. The North Tower must be falling, but I couldn't seem to register it. Where were the shrieks? The cries of fear?

Finally, I snapped back into my senses, but the tears didn't stop. I noticed that Youichi was hugging me, and resisting not crying. He thought that I needed comforting, and I couldn't disagree. I slowly got up as he released his grip on my shoulders, not wanting to disturb my wife in her sleep. I picked her up, and put her into my arms, while I ushered Youichi to grab a bit of my suit, indicating him to follow me. He didn't hesitate.

We walked away from the disaster zone, to where the paramedics were situated. A group noticed me, Mikan and Youichi. One ran up to us, and then noticing the uniform I was wearing, and the tears lightly streaming down my cheeks. She looked somewhat familiar, I guess, but that may be because I wasn't thinking straight. She hugged me, and I didn't back away. I accepted it, and cried on the paramedic- lady's shoulder.

Amongst the burning infrastructure, the collapsing buildings, the confusion and the destruction, there was comfort, I realized.

"I'm sorry Natsume, I'm sorry..."

Thousands and thousands people attended the memorial for the people who had lost their lives. However, the loved ones affected were given a day where they could all gather and just pay tribute to them.

The ones that were able to make it stood at a large field, where gravestones were laid for the deceased from the disaster.

I stood with my daughter in front of my wife and her mom's gravestone. I explained to her what had happened. Aimi, me and Mikan's daughter, got pretty much the best of the two of us: Mikan's outgoing and loving personality, my intelligence, and a mix of our looks. She had Mikan's hazel eyes and jet black hair. She was well fit; she wasn't too skinny or too fat. I remembered how Mikan and I would argue over who she was most like. We always ended up saying that "she looks like both of us."

We could come any time of the day, but Aimi and I chose to come just before we went to dinner.

I looked at Aimi, who laid a small sakura blossom branch onto her grave. Her eyes were puffy and red from crying last night, but I couldn't blame her. To be honest, she took it better than I thought she would. She didn't shut herself in her room, and she still managed to give a small smile during dinner time. She didn't see me cry, but she knew that I felt just as lost as she did. She wanted to sleep in my room the past few days, and I let her.

I read the gravestone, still not believing that fact that she was gone.

Sakura Mikan
1970 – 2001
Died in September 11 Attacks at World Trade Center
Emergency Personnel at Ground Zero. Died Heroically in Action.

I read the gravestone again, and again, and again. After reading it one more time, I decided that I should also visit Ruka's gravestone.

He died in the South Tower when it collapsed.

Shine, someone who went with Ruka into the South building, managed to escape since he was escorting someone out of the building at that time. When the tower collapsed, Shine used his radio to call him and the others. He managed to get to Ruka, who was struggling to say anything, but sent a word to him to say to me.

"Thanks for being such a good friend and colleague, and I hope that your wife is fine too," was what Ruka had said.

Aimi insisted staying at her mother's grave, so I obliged, walking up column by column to look for Ruka, leaving her with Mikan for a while.

After some time, I finally found his grave and I read the engravings as well, over and over, in the same fashion as I did for Mikan's.

"I'm sorry Ruka, that I wasn't able to save you either," I thought once again, feeling more and more overwhelmed as it wore on. "I'm sorry Mikan."

I was about to get back to Aimi, when a voice approached me.

"I'm assuming you're Natsume?"

I turned, wondering who called my name. I looked at her with a raised brow, and nodded.

"R-Ruka said a lot about you," she said.

"I'm guessing you're his wife?" I asked in a similar fashion, and she nodded back as she looked at the gravestone.

"Name's Hotaru. He told me about you. You were a good friend to him," she said nonchalantly, changing the subject.

I didn't respond, and continued to look at the stone, and then into the faraway distance, quickly scanning to make sure Aimi was still where she said she would stay. Calmly, I realized that she was still there.

"Are you here for him?" Hotaru asked in a blunt tone.

"Not only him," I replied in the same manner. "My wife died from saving a young boy from falling rubble."

I noticed from the corner of my eyes her eyes widen from hearing that. I wondered why, but shrugged it off.

"I-I saw her when she saved the young boy. She was a really pretty young lady, and very heroic," she said quietly.

I bent down at Ruka's gravestone, letting my knee hit the soft green grass.

"She was really clumsy and naïve... but she was a great wife."

"She looked like one," I heard her reply with more emotion. "I... I think we would've been good friends, like you and my husband."

Again, I just stared back at the grave; there were a bunch of flowers laid on them.

"A lot of them were from complete strangers. I think they were the people that Ruka saved."

I nodded. "He was a great man. He was amazing at his job."

"He must've been," she agreed. "After all, you seem like an amazing one yourself."

I shrugged, and then made eye contact with her purple eyes. My head was so jumbled up that I didn't bother thinking about my career. "I... I have to go. My daughter is waiting for me at my wife's grave," I managed to muster. Aimi and I had to go soon, for specific reasons not only being dinner.

"Okay then. It was good to meet you in person."

"You too."

We did a curt nod to each other, and then I walked back to Aimi.

"Are you ready to go?" I asked.

Aimi took one more glance at Mikan's grave, and then back at me. "I'm ready."

As I held her hand in mine, we walked back to the car.

"Can we come visit her tomorrow?" Aimi asked as we went inside our vehicle, taking the camera out of its case.

"Of course."

"I'll be waiting," I swear I heard Mikan say in the wind.

Giving a small smile, I started up the car. I backed up and drove out of the parking lot, and into the perfect sunset.

"Natsume! Can we go on a road trip during dusk? I want to bring Aimi along with us, and we'll take tons of pictures!"

[End of Story]

And that's it! Thank you everyone for reading this two-shot. We hope you enjoyed the story and would take a moment to remember those who have lost their lives. Please look forward to our other releases!

- Golden Starlight, September 10/11, 11:06pm.