Holy crap, she's alive!
Yes, yes. I know. I took forever to update and I apologize. Blame life, because she (he maybe? I still think it's a she. Because Life is such a little B) sucks. That and school. Dear lord, school... T_T
OoOoO
Chapter 3
Mikan awoke to the noisy beeping of her alarm clock.
Blinking slowly, she took in the darkness of the room and chirping of the birds and realized that it was morning.
She slammed her hand down on the off button and untangled her sheets and rolled out of bed.
In a sleep caused daze Mikan went from her bed to her large closet and to the place where her clothes for the morning lay folded neatly in one of the many drawers. She took her pajamas off, letting them fall into a heap on the floor for her to pick up later, and then slid her attire on; different from mission clothes but still with the same style, durability, and flexibility.
Instead of leggings she had on black shorts though she did keep the sleeveless turtle neck due to preference. Black gloves were slid onto her fingers followed by combat boots and her usual array of Alice inhibitors, draping around her wrists, neck, ear, and fingers.
Her mask hung on a length of thin rope attached to the belt loop of her shorts.
Hair in a loose bun, she teleported to her kitchen, made herself a large cup of much needed coffee in a paper cup, grabbed a bagel, and teleported to the designated training area.
She was the first one there, she noticed, and sat in a large tree, sipping her drink and taking a few bites of her breakfast every now and then, willing her mind and body to fully wake up.
Four forty-five in the morning was too early in her mind.
'Perhaps I should have taken an extra fifteen minutes to rest and been here exactly on time rather than early,' she mused before shrugging to herself, downing her coffee as popping the last bite of her bagel into her mouth.
She lit her cup aflame to dispose of it.
Right as she finished swallowing, the first person other than Mikan herself entered the clearing.
She had short wavy hair that was, oddly enough, a pure white color and eyes so bright green that Mikan could see them clearly even from her place so far away. Her blue skirt gave away the fact that she was a high schooler* and a light scowl adorned pretty features.
Two minutes later arrived a tall boy with fiery red that flopped slightly over his right eye (further examination revealed that he had a patch over it) and a single blue eye studied the trees surrounding him. He was a high schooler as well.
The two, Mikan noticed, stood several yards apart and made no eye contact nor did they attempt to speak to one another.
'Tension between the two? Or is this normal for the students of the DA?'
She found herself smirking at the mystery.
"I think that it's about time I make myself known," she whispered and took her mask off her belt loop and pressed it into place.
Dropping from her hiding place at a break-neck speed she jumped into the open with a hidden smile.
Both of the present DA members glanced over to her with varying amounts of surprise.
"So you really came," a dry voice observed to the right of her.
Mikan didn't need to look over in order to know that it was Natsume who had spoken.
"Of course," she said airily. "You, though, are late kitten."
The fire caster made a face at her last word.
Heh. It was fun to antagonize him.
Choosing to ignore him for now, she began walking towards the two who she did not recognize, sharply tilting her neck from side to side and gaining a symphony of violent sounding but rather satisfying pops in her neck.
She stopped between the two of them, rolling her wrists and ankles.
"And you two are?" she inquired softly.
The blue-eyed boy glanced over at Hells Angel and gave her a once over.
"You first," he challenged.
She shrugged and began nonchalantly stretching her shoulders. All three of the DA members were giving her odd looks now.
"Hells Angel. And you?"
"… Ichirou."
The masked girl giggled cruelly.
"More like Ichime," she said, covering one eye in mockery of the patch covering his**.
He glared at her and hissed, "Shut up!"
She ignored him and turned to the other person of interest, reached down to her toes and glanced up at the one with the snowy locks.
"And you're name?"
"Shiro," she answered easily, raising an eyebrow at Hells Angel. "Is there a nickname I can use for you? Having to say Hells Angel each time will get annoying very fast."
Said girl stood up straight.
"Tenshi."
"Okay…" Shiro said slowly, watching with confusion as Hells Angel tilted herself into a handstand. "Now, what the hell are you doing, Tenshi?"
Natsume gave her a look of question as well from his place a ways away.
"Warming up," she answered and shifted into a one-armed handstand as she spoke. "In preparation for practice. What I don't under stand-" she abruptly twisted into a flip and landed so that she could see all three DA at once, "-is why none of you are doing the same."
Ichirou spoke up.
"We never do."
"Oh? And why not, Ichime?"
His single eye twitched at the nickname and he opened his mouth to shout at her when a voice spoke up from the side of their group.
"That's a very good question Tenshi. Why don't they?"
Ichirou, Natsume, and Shiro all froze and looked to the side of the clearing where Persona, dark and foreboding as ever, stood.
No one responded.
"Know that from now on you all need to. Today, training intensifies tenfold. You will find that you will not be able to move barely at all come tomorrow morning since you did not warm up properly now. Perhaps post workout stretches will lessen the soreness to come…"
Natsume frowned.
"Hells Angel," Persona said slowly. "Meet the Kuro Neko, Midorimi, and Aotsuki."***
Hells Angel glanced at them, placing each codename with the proper face, Natsume being the obvious Black Cat, Shiro as Midorimi, and Ichirou being Aotsuki.
"Yoreshiku onegaishimasu," the teen said politely.****
Her words were met with a mixture of muttered, "Nice to meet you too" and "Whatever".
"You all will make up a team, Hells Angel is appointed team leader," Persona said, and began walking around the teens slowly. "You all will learn to work together, and you will not complain about working together. I do not care if you like each other or not. Hate each other. Loathe each other. Kill one another when this is all over for all I care. But for now you will be efficient. All four of you were chosen due to your superior and unique skills as well as the fact that you mix well. You are the best individually and will be the best as a team. You will get the hardest missions."
He stopped abruptly and all four stared at him.
"Today is the first time you will work together. You will get to know one another's strengths and weaknesses and I will drive you all into the dirt in order to make you better than you already are."
"I am not asking for perfection from you all. I am demanding it."
Persona began to laugh then and three of the four teens felt a light shiver run down their spines.
"A war is coming and you four are our first line of defense. I welcome to your first day of training… It's going to be hell."
OoOoO
Natsume couldn't move.
It wasn't to say that he hadn't tried or that he was too weak, but-
"Agh! Ruka, stop!" he hissed and his best friend dropped his hands from Natsume's shoulders that he was massaging gently.
"Kami Natsume…" the blond muttered. "What did Persona make you do? Lift Mountains?"
The Alice snorted at the question. It hurt.
"Not even close."
The worst part of this all was that this was before class had even begun and so the full intensity of the pain and exhaustion that his body was feeling hadn't quite set in yet.
Natsume starting snarling obscenities toward Persona under his breath.
He accepted the bottle of water and pain pills that Ruka gave to him and tried to stretch his arms as his friend discussed the possibility of going to the infirmary to get healed later.
It sounded like a good idea.
"Maybe I should just leave now," Natsume muttered, entertaining the idea that sounded more and more wonderful every second. "Ruka, let's-"
"Good morning class!" A voice sang cheerfully, and in walked Natsume's one-true-hate (not including Persona, the ESP, almost everyone in the DA, his fan club, the- okay. One of Natsume's one-true-hates) and homeroom teacher Narumi Anjou. Honestly, he didn't understand why the man way still teaching him. He'd had the same teacher since his first day in the academy and every single year he moved up another grade and taught Natsume. Actually, now that he thought about it he had many of the same classmates as well.
It probably had something to do with his status here…
'Stupid stalker.'
"Guess what we have today?" Narumi continued rhetorically, oblivious to Natsume's thoughts.
'Maybe I should just get up and leave? Who cares if he's here? Unless he does something like use his pedo-Alice to-'
"A new student!"
Crimson eyes flickered up.
Whispers broke out in the room and Ruka nudged Natsume in the ribs to check and see if he had heard or not, only to immediately start apologizing when he responded with a low, pained hiss of annoyance.
"Sorry!" Ruka muttered again. He scratched his head. "I wonder who the new person is though?"
"No clue," came the monotonous response.
But… Natsume did have an idea. Hells Angel – Tenshi? – had just appeared after all and now some new kid was coming on the same day that Natsume was apparently to be grouped with her. Perhaps…
Narumi gave his usual cue when introducing someone new into the class (Natsume thought that it was because the blond moron thought it was dramatic or something) and in walked… a girl.
His previous thoughts sputtered and died.
OoOoO
Mikan tugged on her uniform skirt, waiting outside of the classroom that she had been assigned to. She was feeling a little bit sore after this morning's workout but had the feeling that the other four were fairing much worse.
'Serves them right, the fools,' she thought softly.
Her Nii-san's workout had been… intense. It ranged from things like doing simple laps to his chucking the most outrageous objects at them with the assistance of a strength Alice stone that he had received from Mikan some time ago. Mikan would never forget the look on Hyuuga's face when he ripped an oak tree out of the ground and threw it straight at them.
It had been an interesting morning to say the least.
Very faintly Mikan could hear the sounds of Narumi Anjou – her new teacher – telling the class that they were about to have a new student. He then said something about being nice to her (as if it mattered) and that they should welcome the person with smiles and other similar crap.
Mikan tucked a lock of hair behind her ears, having decided to wear it loose, curled at the ends like it naturally did and two black ribbons on either side of her head.
It was about time.
"Mikan-chan, come in!"
The brunet took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a moment, and placed her hand on the handle to the door.
A blinding smile lit her features and a pair of brilliant hazel eyes slid open as she threw the door open and walked into the room.
OoOoO
She walked into the room with a beautiful smile on her face, large eyes that were a mixture of green and brown with green as the predominate color and pupils rimmed by a flare of brownish-orange flitted about, taking in everything that they could. Long waves of shiny auburn hair – streaked with darker browns and highlights of honey gold, hints of red and platinum noticeable if one studied her locks for long enough – trailed lightly behind her.
She stopped in the front of the room and her skirt swished around long legs. Natsume didn't miss the way that nearly all of the boys followed the motion with their eyes, dumb expressions on their faces as they studied the new eye candy.
Her eyes suddenly caught his and hazel held crimson for a moment before the new students lips – Mikan, wasn't it? – curled into a little close-lipped smile that made Natsume straighten up just a tiny bit. Her eyes sparkled in a way that said she knew something that Natsume did not, but before he could study the expression any further she broke eye contact.
A dozen pairs of eyes burned into his form, many having noticed that look they had shared and apparently feeling damn jealous about it.
He had the premonition that this girl would be a cause of great annoyance in the future.
And the fire-caster was unfortunately right.
The girl bowed shallowly and introduced herself with the same blinding smile.
"Hello everyone! My name is Mikan Sakura. I'm fifteen and a special star. My Alice…" she trailed off slowly and giggled a little.
Natsume thought it sounded like bells.
She put a finger to her lips and winked at the class. Next to him Ruka went completely red in the face.
"For now my Alice is a secret," she said happily.
The class began talking again, and Natsume caught words such a "pretty" and "wow" and "She's a special star?" and a few comments speculating what her Alice was.
He frowned just a little as Mikan looked up to Narumi for what to do next.
"Well Mikan-chan," he said happily. "You can go sit next to Natsume-kun over there!"
He shoved a finger in the direction of the infamous teen and Mikan tilted her head a little, lips forming an "o" shape.
"Sensei," she asked. "Is he the one with the blond hair?"
"No, the one right beside him. Natsume-kun, raise your hand for Mikan-chan please!"
He didn't.
There was a moment of awkward silence during which Mikan shrugged and decided to simply figure it out on her own.
She stopped beside Ruka. Smiled.
"Nice to meet you! My name is- well. You already know my name I guess," she said with a small laugh. "You're not Natsume, are you?"
Ruka stared at her with huge eyes and his cheeks went pink.
"I- I- No. My name is Ruka. Nogi Ruka that is, Sakura-san," he said shyly.
Natsume wanted to smack himself in the forehead a little over the way his best friend was acting.
'Like a shy little boy…'
Mikan just smiled at him.
On the inside though she was laughing.
'I don't know if it's sweet or pathetic,' she mused to herself. 'He can't even speak clearly… heh.'
She stared down at the pure white rabbit sitting in his arms, it's nose twitching a little and twin black eyes staring at her with animalistic curiosity.
"Oh, it's so cute!" she gushed and looked at Ruka hopefully, eyes sparkling and thousand-watt smile lighting up her face. The result was blinding. "May I hold him?"
Several of the boys in the room felt their brains start to melt.
Narumi giggled.
"Y-y-yes!" Ruka replied hastily and shoved the animal in Mikan's arms after a few moments.
After spending a few seconds cooing over the animal, the current center of attention blinked and leaned sideways to look past a flustered Ruka to a scowling boy with raven hair.
"Are you Natsume?" she asked with a smile.
He narrowed his eyes and snorted.
"Hn."
"…"
'Not much a talker like always, eh?'
"Ah, yes. That would be him," a boy from the other side of the room said softly.
Mikan glanced over to see a rather… feminine looking teen with sandy colored hair and glasses perched atop his nose smiling nervously at her.
She smiled.
"Thank you!" she said and then looked back to Ruka. "Ruka-pyon," she began, giving him a nickname out of nowhere that had the class staring in confusion, "would you mind moving so I can get to my seat?"
"Sure! I-"
A hand stopped the blondes' hasty movements to get out of the way for the new girl and Mikan looked at Natsume with a frown.
"Don't bother, Ruka. She can sit somewhere else."
"Hey…" she began slowly, brows drawing together.
"Natsume," Ruka spoke up, "Narumi-sensei said that-"
"Screw Narumi," came Natsume's automatic response. "I'm not going to listen to some stupid tranny and this girl looks dumb. I don't want to sit next to something like that… Tch."
Dead silence.
"Did her eye just twitch?"
"What? Can't even form a proper comeback?" Natsume sneered.
"You… You little… Ugh!" Mikan growled angrily.
"Hmph. So now you can't speak?"
A beat of silence, then, "Ruka-pyon, here's your rabbit back. He's very soft, thank you for letting me hold him," she said with a sweet smile towards the blond.
But then she turned to look at Natsume and even though the boy was the one with the Alice of fire, flames appeared to be shooting up around Mikan instead.
"What is you're problem?" she demanded in a shout.
A deadpan look.
"You, stupid."
"Why I ought a-!"
Baka! Baka! Baka!
"Ow! Dang it! Who was-?" Mikan began furiously but fizzled out upon seeing amethyst eyes and jet black hair. "… Hotaru-chan?"
"Idiot," came the girls greeting. "Why are you here?"
No one noticed Narumi slip out of the room to shirk his teaching duties. It didn't look like anything was going to get done today anyway.
She sat in her desk near the front of the room, Baka Gun raised and still smoking. She set it down in front of her.
Mikan squealed.
"Hotaru-chan~!" she cried, and ran and jumped at her friend, arms outstretched wide for a hug and-
Thud!
Was dodged.
"Ow, ow, ow…!" she hissed, rubbing her forehead which had hit the desk sharply. "Mou, Hotaru-chan what was that for?"
Amethyst eyes stared blankly into hazel.
"You looked about to attack me, why would I just stay where I was?"
"I just wanted to give my best friend a hug! Gosh!"
Everyone stared at them, watching with mixed emotions as Hotaru and Mikan argued back and forth and the latter continuously tried to hug the former and was repeatedly dodged.
'These two are best friends? No way in hell.'
Meanwhile, Mikan stood opposite Hotaru and while on the outside she was complaining about her "friend" not letting her have a hug on the inside she was fuming.
'Stupid little witch. Can't even let you're "best friend" have one flipping little hug after ignoring and not seeing her for six months? Is it really that hard?'
"I came all the way here to see you!" Mikan complained.
'Like hell I would. Try: I got a new mission and so I had to come here.'
At this, Hotaru went silent. She stared at Mikan for a moment and with a heavy sigh and a wry little smile, opened her arms up and told Mikan, "Come here you big idiot."
She had to stare.
Did Hotaru Imai of all people really just offer to hug her?
'I do believe that hell just froze over,' Mikan told herself.
Her arms hadn't wavered but Mikan still voiced her doubts.
"I can really hug you?" she asked slowly.
A nod.
"And you won't hit me?"
Hotaru rolled her eyes. Mikan heard Natsume snort off to her right but ignored him.
"Just come here already."
The brunet slowly smiled and with a little shout of joy jumped at her friend again and hugged her as hard as she could.
"I missed you!"
OoOoO
Mikan sat beside her best friend, attached to her arm and smiling happily.
"I… I'm not sure if those two are cute or just really weird," one person muttered at the sight.
'We're adorable,' Mikan thought sarcastically, mentally sneering at whoever the speaker was.
Narumi-sensei still hadn't returned and so it was basically free reign in class B. She hadn't attempted to go back over to her assigned seat yet, but knew that she should soon.
Sending a narrow-eyed glance over in his direction she noticed him constantly wincing in pain as Ruka tried to give him a shoulder massage and various fan girls worried and cooed over him, asking what was wrong and if they could help at all by "touching you all ov- I mean. Giving you a massage."
Obviously they were rejected, and the fire Alice continued to sit there in pain.
"Tch. Serves him right," she muttered. "Fool."
"Hm?" Hotaru looked up from the invention she was working on.
"Nothing~!"
Fifteen more minutes of hugging, glaring, and internal insults, Mikan was pried off of her best friend and ordered to go to her original seat. Continuing in character, she of course complained loudly before going towards Ruka and Natsume, several people surrounding her and asking her various questions along the way.
When she finally reached the place where she was supposed to sit, Mikan and Natsume simply stared at one another, frowns marring both of their faces.
The brunet opened her mouth to tell him to get over the fact that she was going to be sitting there because she didn't like it either, but before she could utter a word his lips moved to form to words that stopped all movement in the room for the fourth time that day.
"Polka dots."
Mikan gaped.
"Excuse me?" she asked, voice cracking at the end.
Natsume smirked.
"How childish."
Everyone started looking at each other and from Natsume to Mikan, no one really understanding just what those words meant. Only that they were important, apparently, if Mikan's reaction was anything to go by.
"Y-you-! You-!" she began indignantly.
"Me?" he drawled.
"I think her eye twitched again."
"Pervert!" Mikan screeched. "You stupid, good for nothing, panty peeking perv!"
Several mouths dropped in disbelief. Had Natsume seriously just-?
Natsume's smirk widened.
"Heh."
"Jerk!" she snapped.
"Hn. Stupid."
"Asshole!"
"Ugly."
"Ugly! I am not ugly you fox-eyed moron!"
"… Stupid ugly."
"No, really. Her eye keeps on twitching."
Mikan drew her leg back.
The students had crowded around to watch and those who could see sucked in a breath and she brought her leg forward with a surprising amount of force, right past Ruka, and kicked Natsume Hyuuga in the shin.
.
.
.
"Holy shit…" Koko breathed.
The door to the room slid open.
Narumi peaked his blond head in and smiled at them all, oblivious to the tension in the room.
"Oh, and Natsume-kun? Mikan-chan?"
Natsume was too busy grabbing at his leg to respond and all that Mikan did was shoot daggers with her eyes.
"Y-yes?" someone spoke up for the two.
"I forgot to tell you guys before I left. You two are partners!"
"WHAT?"
OoOoOoO
Notes:
* Blue skirt: Seeing as google, wikipedia, and all other sites that I have checked fail at life and so I have no clue what color the skirts and pants are above the elementary students... the high schoolers get blue. I'm sorry if I'm wrong :/
** "More like Ichime" That right there is Mikan being a bitch. I am sorry but there is no other way to say it... it's a play on Ichirou's name, which has the kanji for one in it (Ichi). Me mean's eye, and since Ichirou only has one of those Mikan is making fun of him by calling him One Eye, or Ichime.
*** Kuro Neko, Midorimi, and Aotsuki are each of their code names. Natsume's translates to Black Cat, Shiro's means Beautiful Green, and Ichirou's code name means Blue Moon. I trust you all enough to understand why their names are what they are.
**** Yoreshiku onegaishimasu is the formal way to say "nice to meet you" in japanese. I felt that it fit better than saying it in english because it really emphasizes her detachment and lack of caring that she has towards the others.
OoOoOoO
Why yes. Yes I did just end my chapter in that... most likely overused way. Or maybe it's not. I'm not too sure...
So, what do you guys think of how I'm twisting this so far? I'm hoping that you guys are liking it ^^
Reviews wanted, critiques loved! Just press El Button-o por favor (lol wut?)
(That would be this little thing right here)
\/
\/
\/