Author's Note

Hey guys. Sorry if I haven't been updating. I've been caught up with school activities. LOL. Anyway, hope you like this chappie. Thanks to the people who reviewed. I'm in a hurry right now so I'll skip this part. But you know who you are, so thanks! XD

Disclaimer

I do not own Gakuen Alice!

--

The Song of Flames

Written by Keiko Oda

Chapter Three: The Train Incident

--

A phoenix, a young phoenix lay among the flames that the orb had left.

"How could've you woken it up?!" Natsume said, beads of sweat trickling down his temples.

The raven-haired boy stared at Mikan who was now dumbfounded as ever.

"I…I d-don't know…" Mikan stammered.

And that was the moment Mikan realized that she wasn't as ordinary as she thought she was.

--

The phoenix, covered in sticky black fluid tossed its head around. Small flames licked its body all around as the small red bird opened its eyes, revealing golden orbs that sparkled in the sunset. Tiny blue flames hissed beside it. Its feet were scarlet and orangey smoke puffed out of its nostrils like a cigar every time the phoenix exhaled. It was absolutely unbelievable.

Natsume bumped his head on the wall, silently cursing. "Oh no…" he muttered through his teeth.

He braced for Mikan's reaction. What would she say? He predicted something like "Oh my gosh! I'm going to tell everyone!" or "What the hell is that?!" or something like that. He shut his eyes, preparing for a headache when all of a sudden…

"IT'S SO CUTE!!!!" Mikan screeched.

Natsume immediately opened his eyes and found Mikan crawling playfully to it.

"What is it? Some kind of parrot?!" she said, staring at it with extreme delight.

Before Natsume could say anything, Mikan touched the tip of its beak. He heard a sizzle and Mikan immediately withdrew her hand. She placed her finger inside her mouth.

"It's so hot!!!"

Apparently, the idiot couldn't grasp what this creature was.

Natsume lost his patience. "Cause it's a phoenix, dummy!!!!!" he yelled, clenching his fists.

Mikan stopped and looked at him, her eyes wider than saucers.

She was about to say something when they were interrupted by the nurse.

"Is everything alright in here?" she asked, entering the room. "I thought I heard someone screaming."

Mikan was extremely surprised when the nurse walked right through the bird, as if it was a hologram. The nurse didn't even SEE it. It was like the phoenix was just some imaginary made-up thing that only she and Natsume could see. The phoenix didn't pay attention to the nurse either; it was busy licking off the sticky fluid that stuck to its orange feathers.

"You don't see it?" Mikan told the nurse, pointing to the phoenix.

"I beg your pardon…?" the nurse said, looking at Mikan cluelessly.

Natsume scowled at Mikan, which was another way of saying "keep your trap shut, idiot".

So Mikan did.

"Ummm…never mind." Mikan said, shaking her head. "I just thought I saw something"

The nurse gave a smile of uncertainty and felt Natsume's forehead.

"You seem to be alright. You can go home now. It's getting late" she said and walked through the phoenix again.

The nurse left the room and shut the door.

"She can't see it" Natsume said coolly. "Normal people can't see phoenixes"

"Normal people?" Mikan said softly. "I can see it though"

"Well that means you're not NORMAL, okay?!" Natsume replied with much irritation.

Mikan blinked.

"I'm Natsume Hyuuga of the Red Fire Clan, a bunch of fire breeders" Natsume said, sighing.

"We manipulate fire and breed animals that derive from it" he continued, looking at the phoenix.

Mikan cocked her head. "What?!"

Natsume shut his eyes. "Stupid. You'll find out someday"

He stood up. "I'm going home!"

--

As the two walked home, Mikan bombarded Natsume with various questions about phoenixes. He ignored them all and this irritated Mikan very much.

"Can you SHUT UP?" Natsume yelled, gritting his teeth. "God. You're so annoying"

"HEY. I'm just curious. It's normal!"

"Dummy" he murmured.

Silence.

"Why aren't you freaked out?" Natsume asked, leaning against a streetlight.

"What?" Mikan asked.

"Why aren't you freaked out…by the phoenix? I mean, I was expecting a ditz like you to freak out about complicated matters like these"

"Oh" Mikan said and paused for awhile to think.

"Well," she said. "I guess it's because I'm really happy that there are such things as fairy tales. It gives me hope. It's like…everything has their happy ending, you know. It's hard to explain but I'm sure you get it somehow" Mikan said, smiling.

Natsume felt his cheeks heat up a bit. But he shook it off.

"That is the dumbest thing I've EVER heard of" he said, rolling his eyes.

"Well how about you?! How come you came to, you know…'KILL ME'?" Mikan said, crossing her arms. "If that was a joke you were pulling then it wasn't very funny"

Natsume looked at the horizon and shook his head. "People,"

"They are greedy and selfish and corrupt. And they cannot take the fact that other people have power like them. They want to eliminate the ones they feel threatened by. They want to rule over creatures and dominate them" Natsume responded.

Mikan didn't understand what he meant. She doesn't grasp "deep ideas" so well.

The brunette simply shrugged. "I don't know what that meant but I can tell that you and I will become very good friends!"

Natsume smirked. "Don't count it, loser"

And with that, two bid farewell.

--

Meanwhile…

"It happened. We cannot let the two be together AGAIN or else the second generation of Fire Breeders will be eliminated. We must kill that girl while we can. Hyuuga is being too idiotic if we let him loose then he's just going to remember his past" A figure with auburn hair said, clenching his fists.

"I didn't think we'd have to result to this" Another figure said, this time it had violet hair that ran down to her waist.

"Are you talking about…?"

"Yes,"

"We're going to have to send a FIRE SPIRIT."

--

"I now command you to release…POWERS!!!!"

Mikan stood in front of the mirror, her legs apart from each other and her hands spread out. Ever since last night's incident, she wanted to try out her newfound "powers" that she had and see if they were effective in some way.

Nothing came out.

"Jeez" Mikan said, pouting. "Where are you, powers?!"

She put on her uniform.

She closed her eyes once more. "POWERS. I command you to RELEASE!"

She opened her eyes. "Still nothing?"

Mikan pouted with frustration. "Fine. Be that way, powers! Be stubborn and stay inside of me. I hate you!"

The brunette kicked the mirror and sighed.

"I wish there was some way I could find out if my powers are really there"

--

Mikan slipped into the classroom, ignoring the stares of her suspicious classmates.

Misaki-sensei lowered his book and raised his eyebrow. Mikan smiled nervously.

"Overslept" she said, avoiding his eyes. She reached into her pocket and handed him her late slip. "Sorry, sensei"

She walked to her table and sat down, removing her Science book from her bag and placing it on the top of her desk. She looked at Natsume who was busy reading the lesson like a children's book. He made it look so easy and stupid by the way he would roll his eyes and scoff.

Mikan stared at him for awhile, admiring those features of his once more. They were so breathtaking that even she couldn't help but think highly of those crimson eyes and jet black hair that fell down to his neck like seaweed.

Natsume turned to her. "Stop staring at me, doofus" he mouthed and returned to reading.

Mikan smiled a bit and laughed.

She really liked Natsume and didn't know why.

--

Hours passed. After Math (which Mikan slept in) was lunch break.

As Mikan fixed her stuff, Natsume stood next to her. "That was very dumb of you"

"Dumb of me…?" Mikan said, still looking at her stuff.

"You fell asleep during Math period" Natsume replied, looking at her in disgust.

"It's not my fault it was boring! Wait…you were looking at me?" Mikan said, raising her head.

Natsume turned slight pink and clenched his fists. "You're being annoying again" he said, immediately covering up.

"You're the one being annoying" Mikan said, pouting. "Can I eat lunch with you?"

"Eat lunch with me?" Natsume said, raising his eyebrow.

Mikan nodded like a thirsty dog.

"Forget it," Natsume muttered. "I don't eat with losers like you"

"Meanie!" Mikan yelled as the raven-haired boy walked out of the classroom. "I HATE YOU!"

--

Even though Mikan was very well-liked in her batch, she wasn't part of any group. She ate alone most of the time, often in the corner of the cafeteria. And she would watch the popular groups pass by. Mikan felt sad about it but she somewhat got used to it.

As Mikan claimed her spot in the cafeteria, she saw Sumire Shouda.

Sumire Shouda was the most popular girl in the batch. She had emerald green eyes and a short black bob as a haircut. She was very pretty but she had one of the nastiest personalities ever. She was part of the volleyball varsity, the cheerleading squad and the math team but what fascinated Mikan the most was that her family owned fourteen cats and ten dogs.

Mikan saw Natsume. He was buying a can of coke. And after he did so, he headed for outside – brushing past Sumire's table.

"OH. Natsume!" Sumire said, immediately standing up. There was silence in the cafeteria.

"What?" Natsume murmured, looking at her. She was quite short compared to him.

Sumire giggled and bit her lip. "Well, I…we were wondering if you'd like to have lunch with us. You know, since you're the new student – maybe you'd like to know the ropes around the school"

Natsume rolled his eyes. "I don't care. No"

The cafeteria began buzzing with excitement. Someone just rejected Sumire!

"But…but…nobody's ever rejected my invitations to eat with them!" Sumire said, turning red.

"There's a first time for everything" Natsume murmured and left the cafeteria.

Sumire sat down and crossed her arms. "He must be joking! It's so obvious he's playing hard-to-get! All new students are like that! He's obviously into me!"

Mikan laughed and stood up, following Natsume outside.

--

She saw him sitting under the Sakura tree, sipping his Coke.

"Natsume-kun!" Mikan yelled, calling his attention.

The raven-haired boy glanced at her. "Not you again!" he said, exasperated.

"You really humiliated Sumire-kun! Good job on that!" Mikan smiled, running up to him.

"Yeah, whatever" Natsume responded. "What are you doing here?"

Mikan didn't reply.

"Where's the phoenix?" she asked him, grinning.

Natsume took out a red orb from his pocket.

"Didn't it hatch already?"

Natsume rolled his eyes. "It DID. This is just his…"house""

Mikan watched him as he tapped his finger on the orb and it then burst into flames. Natsume didn't let go of it, he wasn't getting burned in the first place. The orb then disintegrated into ashes and the baby phoenix emerged out.

"Oh my gosh! It's even cuter than before!" Mikan said, immediately taking it into her arms.

"Phoenixes aren't supposed to be CUTE" Natsume replied, taking disgust into the last word.

Mikan ran her fingers through its cherry-red feathers and smiled.

Natsume leaned his head on the tree, watching her play with the bird as it cawed with thrill.

Mikan fell on the grass, laughing as the bird pecked on her head. Her honey-colored locks spread on the ground and her sun-kissed skin turned red with laughter.

Natsume smirked.

"Oy" he said, tapping her on her ankle.

"W-w-what?!" she said, still laughing.

"Never knew you wore blueberries" Natsume said.

It took awhile for Mikan to process on what that meant. And then, she immediately stood up and put the phoenix aside.

"PERVERT!!!!!!!!!" She yelled, turning tomato red. She stood up. "I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!!!"

Natsume raised his eyebrow.

Flustered, Mikan stood up and stomped away.

"Baka" Natsume muttered and closed his eyes, placing his manga over his face.

--

DING. DONG. DING.

The school day was over.

"Grrr…" Mikan said, walking out of the building.

"That pervert. I can't believe he actually looked at my…"

She clenched her fists. "If I could KILL him – I would!"

Mikan walked to the subway. The village she lived in had quite a distance from the city so Mikan often took the subway to get there. She was planning to buy some groceries after school that day so she walked to the station.

The brunette kicked a pile of crimson, orange and brown wrinkled leaves up in the air. Autumn was wonderful. Mikan loved the rushes of cold air brushing against her, the crispy orange leaves below her feet, the cawing of birds that are migrating south and everything else that just spelled out AUTUMN. It was simply magical.

When Mikan arrived at the subway, she was surprised to find it empty. There was nobody there. Not at all.

Mikan's footsteps echoed as she went down the stairs.

Mikan began to feel uneasy. The subway was usually packed with people. Sometimes, she had to push her way through the crowd. But now…

WHOOSH.

A gust of wind blew on her, messing up her hair and crumpling up her uniform.

Mikan's heart raced. Maybe I shouldn't be here…

And then, a train arrived.

There was nobody there. Nobody at all. But Mikan could hear people coming out. She could hear murmurs and footsteps and echoes. And she could hear children laughing and someone spilling juice. It was as if there WERE people, but she just couldn't see them.

The train seemed to coax her to come in. Mikan sighed and went inside. And as soon as she went into the train, the doors slammed shut.

Mikan sat down and looked around. The train was hotter than usual. And it smelled of barbecue.

The teenager thought maybe they had turned the heater up.

And in a split second, the train raced out like a rollercoaster. Mikan fell to the other side of the train, her head slamming against the wall.

BOOGSH!

"What's happening?!" Mikan said, rubbing her head. She looked up at the wall, expecting an advertisement to be hung up there. But instead, it was a graffiti of a fire that looked like a woman. And the graffiti began shining and then…

And then the drawing came to life and jumped out of the wall. It looked like a woman, but it was made of fire. And its eyes were blue and those "eyes" were secreting a certain waxy liquid that made the spirit look like it was wearing blue-green mascara.

What is this?! Mikan thought. It certainly WASN'T a phoenix.

The spirit lunged at her, striking several hot blows on her. It was like she was being struck by hot winds, the type you'd feel if you placed your hand above a candle – only much stronger and faster.

And all of a sudden…

The door of the train flew open, and a burst of fire came in and slammed itself on the spirit. The spirit screeched and fell on one of the seats.

The burst of fire died down and became a familiar raven-haired boy. It was Natsume.

He had burns and scratches on his uniform. Blood trickled down the side of his left temple. He clutched his heavy sword in his hands, staring at the spirit in fury.

"WHO SENT YOU?!" He yelled, putting up his sword.

The spirit howled. And gave Natsume a dagger look.

Mikan stared at the two of them in awe, dizzy from what happened. Her legs felt numb and her arms felt like they had been burned.

The spirit raised its arms and dashed for Natsume. The raven-haired boy jumped but fell on the spirit, his back catching fire. He then collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily.

"NATSUME-KUN!" Mikan yelled and ran to Natsume to help him up.

She stroked his forehead. "Natsume-kun, are you alright?!"

Natsume closed his eyes. "Dammit. Do you think I'm alright?!"

Mikan glared at him and looked at the spirit who was now staring at her hungrily. It howled again, deafening Mikan's ears.

I'll take you down, whatever you are. Mikan thought, placing her hands over Natsume.

The spirit then went for her, a burst of fire setting half of the train on fire.

Mikan closed her eyes. Don't hurt Natsume-kun!!!!

And with that, a white barrier blocked the spirit from attacking Mikan. The spirit howled and began fighting the barrier, hitting it with every strike it could blow. Flames shot on the barrier, but alas – it was no use.

The spirit gave up and fell on its back, selfdestructing.

It was like a nuclear-explosion. The train burst into flames and exploded. Fire shot up in the air, and balls of wind blasted into the sky. The next thing Mikan knew, she was falling. They were in the sky. And Mikan saw the remnants of the train fall helplessly on the ground, exploding when it did so.

And all of a sudden, she fell onto a feathery thing. Mikan looked and saw it was Natsume's phoenix – and it was probably ten times bigger than the last time she saw it.

"FIRE SPIRIT!! BE SEALED!!!" Natsume yelled. But Mikan didn't see him. She only heard him.

Fire Spirit?

--

"What's a fire spirit?" Mikan asked when she got down. She saw Natsume lying down on the park bench.

"None of your business" Natsume breathed.

Mikan sat next to him. "Oh come on, you can tell me"

"They are…" Natsume said, inhaling. "They're evil spirits that manipulate or take the form of fire and they are servants to whoever freed them. I thought my clan had sealed them away years ago – but I guess they are back. Someone had said the incantation to bring them back. And I have a feeling they were sent to kill me"

Mikan didn't say anything.

After awhile, she simply cocked her head at him. "Your life is very complicated, Natsume-kun."

"It is" he said, sighing. "We were in a parallel world awhile ago – when we were fighting that fire spirit. So the normal subway must be alright"

"But why would anyone want to kill you?"

Natsume closed his eyes. "Maybe because I disobeyed their orders…"

But Mikan could tell that he was talking to himself. So she simply shrugged it off.

Mikan gazed upon the stars. "Natsume-kun,"

"What?"

"Do you think we'll become good friends someday?"

Natsume remained silent.

Mikan definitely took that as a yes.

--

HAHA! HOPE YOU LIKED IT!!! THANK YOU!!!!