Miki231 here! It's amazing how fast time flies. I started this story a year ago in February, and now it's already October of 2010. I apologize for the updates that take so much time. What is is this insanity over the recent Gakuen Alice chapter? I'm done, like, I'm so.. upset.

But here it is! Another chapter update!

I don't own anything, as usual.

Recap: So we've witnessed the usual classroom setting with Mikan under her disguise being treated as she is in class, with her skirt burned and her becomming acquaintances with those in her class. We've also witnessed her and Hotaru have a nice meeting in the girl's loo. That ends with the brutal murders of several Class A's females. Traumatic.

Chapter Six: Innocence

What was it like to see several people murdered before you eyes? Mikan was surely used to it. Hotaru wondered what her sanity was like after she had to leave the scene and be taken in by the teachers. The dark-haired Ice Queen had witnessed the first brutal murder of a few students in almost a decade, if not more. And there were witnesses. The staff had no chance of covering this up, not with the bodies, the blood, and several other students coming to see what had happened. There was no Alice of Memory there to wipe it out.

She wondered how she wasn't screaming. Her eyes were dull, she kept coming in and out of focus. Even when Ruka had taken residence by her side at the table in the teacher's lounge, she still couldn't see him. She felt his presence like a magnet, and his touch on her hand and his own shaky feelings, but she didn't know how she was feeling. She couldn't see anything but blood and Mikan, god, Mikan.

Her best friend.

Mikan Sakura had been best friends back in their elementary division days, back when no one but Hotaru knew her. They were quick friends and Hotaru came to visit Mikan at her residency in the High School Division's dorms almost every day. Her brother was Subaru Imai, a Healing and Pain alice, strong and exceptionally developed. Mikan Sakura was back then a silly girl, with powers that Hotaru hadn't even realized were present. They had gone through everything, communicated every secret, no matter how abusive Hotaru was of Mikan.

Watching her best friend.. kill.. people with her Alice like that.. What kind of Alice was that? The same Alice that Mikan had used before.. her mind whispered to her.

Hotaru stared, fixated, on the mug placed in front of her without registering what it was. "Hotaru," Ruka's voice interrupting her thoughts. "There is some coffee for you, please." Dull eyes turned towards him for a moment before turning back to the mug. She reached forward to grab the mug with her hands, missing the handle, and sending the cup toppling over the side. Ruka yelped when it dripped hot liquid onto his lap, and he stood up quickly, brushing it away. The liquid seeping onto her lap and she didn't flinch, looking down at the warmth, and made her dull eyes flicker momentarily in pain.

"Hotaru! It's hot!" Ruka rushed to her side and was brushing it away, onto the floor, without hesitation. The silly boy, he was so close to her and did so much.. He was burning his own hands that way too.. She tipped towards him and laid her forehead on his shoulder, in one of her rare shows of affection. Ruka stopped. He looked over at the form of his girlfriend. She.. After having heard of the event and of Hotaru's involvement, he had rushed down to offer comfort. Natsume had been summoned for an emergency abilities class meeting, despite this being the day for them anyway, just earlier. The blonde reached out and arm and wrapped them around Hotaru's. In return, she grew limp and returned his hug.

"Hotaru Imai," Jinno's voice rang clear and crisp. "We need to question you about a few things."

Ruka glared full on at the teacher. Jinno stared back. "This is no time for recovering from trauma. We need to know what you saw and what happened, Miss Imai. If you wish for a mind reading Alice to come instead, your request will be granted."

"No." Her soft voice came out, surprising Ruka. He looked down at her head as the girl spoke from his chest. "I do not require Kokoroyomi. Those girls entered, a dark figure blocked the door, and they were suddenly dead. I have no recollection of anything otherwise."

"Is that really all you-" "Yes, that is all. I request that you leave now. This matter concerns him and not you. Tell the high school principal."

Surprise filled Jinno's eyes as confusion filled Ruka's, and the former quickly turned on his heel and out of the room, the click of the door showing his action. Ruka tightened his hold on his girlfriend. "Hotaru.." he questioned quietly. "What did you mean..?"

Hotaru closed her eyes and inhaled. "Please.. don't ask.. Ruka."

This matter didn't need to concern him. It couldn't. She couldn't tell anyone or she would come after her, just like she had come after her brother so long ago. Trapped her brother. The words earlier in the day repeated over and over in her mind. He would be dead if she tried to rescue him. Didn't Mikan have enough sense to know that? Hotaru wanted to scream. Mikan was just pulling her rope tighter and tighter against Hotaru's neck. She planned to suffocate her. Her brother was going to die no matter what she did. He could be tortured right now and Hotaru was just sitting her, being as useless as ever. She never had any power at the Academy, not when she was younger, not now when she was as smart as ever.

No matter what the Elementary Principal had influence over, there were always higher officials waiting for them. Who do you think owned the Academy overall? Not the principals. This school system didn't work that way.

Hotaru gulped. Mikan belonged to that group. The Elites. Her necklace showed that to Hotaru. She had changed that much in this amount of time-no. She had been who she was back when Hotaru had first met her. Her best friend. Her brother was dying. Her friends were dying. Her best friend was killing.

This best friend was currently a two levels and three buildings away fom where Hotaru was, waiting in the Dangerous Abilities classroom for the rest of the students to show up in the class. Mikan wore her mission gear, cleaned from blood, while she lingered in the shadows. She watched as no one noticed her presence, lingering, examining her nails and licking away any blood that stayed. Persona stood in the middle of the classroom with the same stoic look in his face, recently infuriated at the news that Mikan had slaughtered yet again.

Flashback..

"You did what?" He said in an eerily calm voice. "I killed a few students today. You didn't hear about it?" She shrugged back at him when she had entered the classroom. Her gear was free from the blood save her face and hands. "Oh, I heard about it alright. You went against orders and killed students? Don't you think this will have some repercussions?" Mikan gave him a dry stare and made her way towards the wall. Persona glared at her, unable to believe his ears but somehow no longer caring what happened in the school since Mikan was involved. "Do you think I care?"

The simple answer was 'no.' No one had any say in what she did in the school. She hadn't staged an all out massacre, and someone was bound to just spread a rumor that it was one of the girls' Alices that killed them. After all, the girls she chose to kill coincidentally had useful alices, one of them being an Alice of Wind. The girl could have gone beserk and killed them all. Of course, she wouldn't have had the skills that Mikan had at killing quietly, but she had the Alice.

The Academy was supposed to control someone as power crazy as Mikan. Persona was one of the few people who had that bond with her and could somewhat get close. The government could not detain a girl of Mikan's power and the Academy was the only place where Mikan actually cared to stay. The second place would be the AAO with her mother, but that as off limits since she currently picked a side.

"Brat, don't kill any more students," Persona quietly ordered. "I'll owe you one." As part of their deal, Mikan shrugged at him and licked her cheek.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll try not to. I was just around someone who particularly pissed me off."

"Watch the temper too." "What are you going to do about it, Aniki? Punish me? As if."

End flashback..

She licked the crimson liquid from her fingers and relished the particularly metallic taste to it. Some blood in there belonged to a girl who had the Alice of Literature, and in her blood were remnants of her inspiration and spirit and words. Mikan could taste it, and it tasted glorious. The others, like the Wind and useless Alice of Camoflauge, didn't have such a unique taste.

Her brown eyes flicked up under her mask as she felt familiar presences enter the room. There were others with them, the other strange Dangerous Ability students who hated their lives. Her clone, Mikan Sakura Two, the stupid girl with black hair and green eyes, bounced along calling Natsume Hyuuga hateful names. Mikan smirked under her mask. It was easy to control her clones and see how stupid they acted from another point of view. She definitely looked stupid. She was bouncing around like that and flashing her panties to anyone who stood behind her.

"Shut up, stupid polkadotted panties girl! You make my ears bleed!" "WHAT? I make your ears bleed? I'm sorry that you have so many voices in your head you can't have a sane person talk to you."

"Hyuuga, new girl, shut it." Mikan rolled her eyes as a high schooler with blue hair and cat-like eyes shot orders at the two. He barely looked old enough, or mature enough, to be giving orders. No doubt, 'Cool Blue Sky' would like to know that her creepy stalker was in this class. A curious eye turned to the side and recognized a dark-haired boy with a cap and a star on his cheek. Mikan smirked at his casual posture and easy smirk on his face, and she made a mental note of his attitude.

Natsume schooled his expression into a cold one after setting fire to Mikan's skirt again and the front of Hayate's pants. 'Mikan' yelped and attempted to pat it out with her hands off to the side, while Hayate stifled it with his wind. "You..!" he growled, grabbing the younger boy's shirt. Natsume glared up at him. "Let go." "What'd you burn me for, Kuro Neko?" "Why are you holding me like you know me, Kaze?" The former released the latter and turned away from eachother. The boy with the star on his cheek snorted and crossed his arms.

"Enough."

No matter what was going on, Mikan thought, Persona still had everyone responding to him with respect, fear, silence, and submission. Everything at stilled and they all turned towards him in obedience, like good little dogs. Persona was expressionless behind his mask as he opened stare blankly ahead at them all. Mikan licked her lips, eyeing his form. She knew he could be as cold as ice when he wanted to be, but she could have him warm under her fingers in seconds.

But that was just the feelings from this morning resurfacing. Stupid hormones, they were good for nothing and only came on at the wrong moments.

"This emergency meeting is no longer necessary. The murders of three Class-A middle schoolers has been resolved." Her eyes shot back at Persona in surprise just as many of the other students had done so. A few murmurs of 'what? someone was killed?' floated about, which made her want to kill them for not knowing already, but it was just like Persona to resolve it on his own business. He'd contact the principals soon enough and explain, if they hadn't already pinpointed Mikan as the culprit.

"Wait, who was it?" "Does that mean we can leave?" Came their voices.

"No. You can't because I'm obviously not done yet, so shut up." He shot them all a glare, his words crisp. Silence followed.

Mikan studied her fingers to make sure they were all clean. Her nails were clean, no blood crusted underneath-she hated that!-and nothing on her clothing. Her face was already finished. While Persona continued talking about the missions and everything, she figured her time was coming close. By the time she had pushed off the wall and emerged from the shadows, everyone had finally realized her presence was there. Well, who couldn't? She was obviously standing in the light now. Except one, the star-cheek boy, eyed her without surprise.

Mikan studied his Alice quickly. Alice of Shadows, huh. Good reaction, he knew she was there, but didn't try to control her. Must have realized her immunity and strength.

"I am stepping down and taking the position of Assistant DA class Teacher. More like, I'm never going to show up because I don't want to see your faces. This is your new teacher." Smart of Persona to leave out her name. She was still mentally flipping that coin to determine if she'd reveal herself or not. It was fun and all, but she really wanted to see the look on Natsume's face when he realized who she was. Or that she'd still be leading a double life with him knowing. She emerged and stepped forth to take the spot the Persona moved out of.

All eyes fell on her suddenly, suspcious and wary. The tension had increased a tenfold at the new addition to the team, not Mikan Sakura, but the new teacher who was replacing Persona. Who was this woman who would be more powerful than the Death Alice, who was so secretly hiding there? "Hey there."

Natsume examined with fiery eyes the brunette that stood before them all. Something about her silouette reminded her of the partner from last night, but that was impossible, because the girl was right next to him. In his dream however, he remembered the color of her hair. Her mask hid her eyes however. She stood before them in all black, similar to that of Persona's save the lipstick. Her excess bracelets on her arms and the charm dangling freely-that charm!

Natsume's eyes flew to the necklace that he remembered Mikan wore. There it was! The same silver necklace with the same insignia. The green eyed girl turned to him and peered suspiciously. 'What are you looking at?' she mouthed to him. He narrowed his eyes at her and moved back to the woman. But stood, stunned, when the woman was looking straight at him smiling brightly. That smile.. The rest of the members were staring at him and moving back and forth between him and the woman. They had yet to know her name. Tsubasa chuckled under his breath and Persona glanced over at him, annoyed.

"My name is Mikan Sakura. I will be your new Dangerous Abilities teacher. That is my clone over there." She nodded at the green eyed girl and willed the girl to move towards her. 'Mikan's' eyes dulled significantly. She moved almost robotically towards the new woman. Mikan beckoned towards her clone and smiled as she saw her face and body come closer, but not the eyes or the hair. The time to rip out something had come. She moved quickly, shoving a hand through the clone's abdomen, and twisting. The form exploded dramatically into a fissure of sparks, signifying the dispursement of the clone.

It wasn't as great a feeling if it was an actual person, but, holding the ring against in her hand, she smirked at the rest of the class. "That is not how I actually look, but good thing for you, you'll never really see me with my clothes or my mask off."

"You lot are lazy and arrogant, troublesome to the Academy and obviously not schooled in obedience or loyalty. A useless pack of dogs, I have no need for you. This Class is placed under the watch of the Elites and will be trained and evaluated on your skills. If you are not found useful once more to the Academy, I will take you and kill you." Within ten seconds of her speech, she had released bits of aura and allowed them to feel exactly how strong she was. Somewhere far off, students were getting chills from what they were feeling. Danger, it said, people will die, danger!

"I do not allow traitors to survive. Under me, you will learn how to properly defend yourself, use your Alice, and kill. That is all you need to learn. You have no feelings, you are worthless agents of the Academy until you graduate. The end."

For a speech so dramatic, it definitely had an impression on the class. Mikan peered around at them all before resting her eyes on Persona. He gave a brief arch of his eyebrow, signalling his exasperation at her longwinded speech. She smirked at him and moved away. Towards the Shadow User and his expressionless face. "You, Alice of Shadow Manipulation. I like you. You'll be first to fight me."

END OF CHAPTER

Mikan is getting more and more badass by the chapter!