There really is a six month gap whenever I update.. It's kinda of sad! But anyways. Thank you very much, reviewers, for your comments and pleading for updates. I really appreciate getting a kick in the rear every once in awhile, because I'm so flaky with my stories. xD Please, whenever you think I'm taking too long, feel free to post up as much as you want to kick my arse. +giggles+
Nothing is owned by me, of course! I'm not capable of figuring out all the details of the school like Higuchi Tachibana has! Psh.
Here's another chapter for you lovelies. I'm on summer break before senior year, so I should hopefully kick out all plot I can before I get swallowed by classes.
Recap: Mikan and Tsubasa start of training with a duel. Mikan is impressed by Tsubasa's control of his alice, and in turn Tsubasa is impressed by Mikan's ability to teach and advise them well. She delivers more ass kicking for the rest of the class. Natsume discovers he's being kept from doing missions. Why?
Chapter Eight: Reintroduce Yourself
For many nights now since that first meeting with the DA class with the new advisor, Natsume found he couldn't sleep well. He wasn't complaining anymore about the lack of missions. The healing his body went through on its own in those few days seemed to be more relaxation than he'd had in years. His aches and pains loosened up, and he could cough without feeling like his head would explode from extra pressure building up.
But what reasin had he to be tossing and turning in his special star bed? It was as comfortable as ever. A king-sized bed, with beautiful red upholstery, and sheets of fine silk. Only the best for Alice Academy students. It wasn't anything in his room, no lights or electronics on or loud that kept him awake.
His mind was tormented by the dreams of that girl, that girl with chocolate colored eyes, whose frozen look seemed to be incapable of melting even though tears streamed from it whenever he saw her. She was always crying, always burning in an endless inferno. No matter how many times he forced himself awake, he could always hear her voice screaming for him, felt the fear creep in in the early hours of the day.
Along with this dream came the daily stresses of having that girl as his partner. Not the crying one, but another demon with brown eyes rather similar to the girl in his dreams. More often than not he found himself comparing the eyes, and shaking away any suspicion that he might be dreaming about her. The girl in his dreams seemed much younger, much prettier than the ugly, obnoxious, dangerous, suspicious fool he'd been trapped with for a partner.
Mikan Sakura was her name.
He remembered the day after the DA class, she came into the class with her disguise still in place. Despite her being outed in the DA class, she still wanted to come into class with that stupid hair and the even stupider naive, innocent look on her face.
She sat next to him in class, humming little tunes under her breath when she was bored and they had free time, staring outside of the window, the perfect picture of schoolgirl innocence. It grated on his nerves. He found himself paying more attention to her during class than his manga. And he had just gotten the latest Naruto book too! She was just a magnet for his eyes.
With her flat chest and her silly panties which still managed to get shown under her skirt at all times. Natsume was getting driven up a wall wanting to just rip her skirt off her and get it over with. He guessed she did it all on purpose to keep up her disguise, always. The image of her, a ruthless killer, and being able to take down the entire ability class lingered in his mind and made sure he kept up his guard around her. Just because she was some silly, screaming, irritating idiot during the day didn't mean he could assume she was weak.
"What is the point of looking so ugly in that disguise?" He asked her one day, growled more like from under hiis manga. He shifted his eyes in her direction. It was the middle of Jinno's class and everyone was bored to death. Being in the back row, he highly doubted he cared any longer for the frog loving man.
"What? Are you saying I look attractive as myself? Kitten, I didn't know you cared!" Mikan had a genuine look of surprise on her face which she turned towards Natsume. He had to stifle the thought that she looked cute, leaning on her desk with her elbow and her chin propped in her hand. She was a Mind Reader, he needed to keep his mind clear.
"No, I'm saying you look ugly at all times. The disguise is just meaningless since we know what you look like." He glared.
"We? I'm pretty sure it's just you who is stupid enough to say anything." She remarked absently, waving a hand and turning her head back to the board. He almost missed her eye contact.
"You still didn't answer the question, Polka Dots. You look ridiculous in that getup."
"And your eyebrows are really small and ridiculous looking, but you don't see me pointing it out. I don't answer to you, Kitten, you answer to me."
A said small eyebrow twitched in irritation. Natsume glared at her from the slit in the manga he could see from, and then pointed a finger up at the ends of her pigtails. It was a childish response, he knew this, but his eyebrows always were a sore subject since Koko and the other grinning idiots in the class seemed to enjoy making fun of him for them. Not to mention he wanted to just set fire to her all day, every day.
As expected, Mikan's fake persona came out, and Natsume clutched his ears in pain as the rest of the class did.
"EEEEEEEK! NA-TSU-ME!" Mikan screeched, abrubtly standing up and knocking over her chair to gather the attention of everyone in the class, including Jinno-sensei. She grabbed at her pigtails and tried to pat out the simmering embers of the fire. "YOU BIG JERK!"
"MISS. Sakura! Is there a PROBLEM?" Jinno's own brow twitched dangerously as he patted his wand against his hand, glaring in the direction of the interruption.
"N-No, sir!" Mikan's eyes had widened considerably in fear, Natsume was amused to notice. "Nothing, I mean-just this jer-Natsume has a question to ask you, sir!" A vein had already showed at Jinno's temple as small spurts of lightning began to emerge from his wand. The class began to cringe back in preparation. "Oh? And what is it exactly that Mr. Hyuuga wishes to ask me?" His glare fell on Natsume as the boy fought a vicious snarl and shiver back.
Curse her and her passing the focus onto Natsume.
"Pol-Sakura just asked me to ask you if you were ever married. I told her it was none of her business, sir. She wondered who would ever marry you, said maybe your frog might. She was quite rude about it." Natsume said slowly for the entire class to lean in and listen clearly. A bolt of lightning shot towards the door and zapped a huge, black hole through it as Jinno dangerously glared back to Mikan. Mikan's wrong colored eyes widened even further and she nearly tripped over her chair backing up.
"NO, sir, he's LYING, that's not what happened, JinJin, I wouldn't-" Her voice caught in her throat as Jinno stalked further up the aisle with a dark cloud looming over him. The students in the aisle seats nearly shrunk back against the wall with the rest of the class. "Sakura..," Her name came out as a dark hiss from his mouth. The lightning sparked again. "I will not have your ridiculous questions interrupting my class." Pure poison spewed from his mouth.
Mikan had half a mind to bolt out of the room, but the more insane, real Mikan lingering within the fake persona, amusedly watching the situation, thought it was hilarious for Jinno to get so angry. Nevertheless, Mikan threw up her hands in caution and fear.
The bolt of lightning Jinno sent from his wand jumped back practically the second it was released with a loud CRACK. To others standing off, it looked like Jinno had to have been pointing the wand wrong and forced it to hit himself. Natsume was close enough to see the perfect bubble of Nullification alice pop up around Mikan and the lightning to rebound off it quick enough. It was clear, but there seemed to be a tinge of orange in it.. A familiar color. His brain tinged for a moment, familiarizing the color with a vague, smiling face, and then Jinno's cry of pain brought his attention back to the moment.
Mikan stood, shocked-a fake expression, Natsume was sure-at the fallen Jinno. His eyes had opened in surprise and his hair stuck up as electricity sparked around it. It would seem that the lightning had rebounded onto him. His frog even had a bit of roasting twitchiness to him.
"I swear, I didn't-I don't know what happened! JinJin, are you alright?" Her voice screeched loud enough to break everyone from their surprise.
A BAKA! bullet blew through the room straight into Mikan's gut as she bent down to check the man and instead found herself slammed into the back wall. Everyone turned, shocked, to find Hotaru Imai at the door with Ruka Nogi looking in behind her. Whispers broke out suddenly, shushing everyone.
Hotaru had finally returned to class after that incident. No one had seen the perfect attendee for that entire time. Some said she had been interviewed, or she was hiding from the authorities that wanted to arrest her. One steady, ice-like glare to her classmate as she strode up the aisle, Ruka loyally behind her, silenced them.
"You idiot, you almost killed our teacher." She hissed monotonously, stepping over the sparking body of their teacher and aiming her gun at Mikan's form. Natsume half-turned, curiousity making him eye Imai's expression. It was dark, almost furious, even though her usual stoic face was on. Since when had Natsume gotten so good at reading the Ice Queen?
Not to mention Mikan. Her smiling face had wiped clear and was replaced by that all too familiar Dangerous Ability class advisor expression.
"Excuse me? I just said I didn't." She replied, slowly getting up and brushing off the bits of plaster from her skirt.
Hotaru cocked her gun. "Liar." She hissed, glare darkening. "If you can't control your Alice, you shouldn't be in this class." Memories of the teen girl's bodies being sliced by invisible thread were still prominent in her mind, enough so that she missed the quiet smirk flit across Mikan's face as she read her mind.
"Hotaru, JinJin is fine!" Ruka called, retracting his fingers from the man's neck and shaking out the numb sparkly feeling it gave him. "We need to take him to the Infirmary, and besides Mikan-chan's Alice isn't that strong. It was probably just an accident!" The other students' gazes flew from the dangerous duo to the blonde boy by JinJin's side.
"Yeah, as if Sakura's Alice could be that useful. JinJin probably just struck himself," called Sumire, haughtily, but as Koko quickly looked at her, her mouth closed. Too bad Mochu didn't see this signal because he continued where his girlfriend left off. "Yeah! No one could be stronger than JinJin, he's a monster but he must have been stupid enough to point his wand towards himself." He laughed and others joined in with him, but Hotaru's eyes were firmly on the baka in front of her instead of the idiots that were her classmates.
"If you kill another person," she hissed quietly, "I will kill you, no matter how many lives it takes me." Mikan had come to stand in front of Hotaru, her wrong-green eyes glittering dangerously
"You're too weak to kill me. What makes you think you could ever, in any life, traitor?" Her eyes glanced at the gun, to the face of the owner, to the boy who stood off to the side, watching cautiously.
"I didn't betray you, you betrayed us by siding with them, for what, him? He's not worth anyone's time." Hotaru hissed back, coming closer as her finger pressed dangerously close to the trigger. A close shot with the Baka Gun that had been upgraded with real life bullets to kill what Hotaru most wanted to kill.
Mikan stiffended, and her lips came up to reveal sparkling white teeth that shimmered in the light. "Don't go there, Hotaru-chan. You know I don't like it when you play dirty." Her sweet voice spilled through, practically covering any trace of hostility she felt towards the other girl. "Oh, I know."
Hotaru wasn't to be fooled, and nor was Natsume as he took a step forward to put a hand on the gun and place himself between them. "Oi, polka-"
He soon found a gun and a fingers flaming with familiar looking fire practically up against his each of his eyes.
Ruka gasped as did the rest of the glass and the mumbling, sparking Jinno was forgotten. Because Mikan Sakura, the new girl, and Hotaru Imai, the Ice Queen and blackmailer, were both looking ready to spill his blood across the classroom floor. "Don't get in the way,"They both snarled in the same voice, same dark tone. Natsume barely swalloed to keep the surprise and fear out of his eyes. The situation was sizzling with so much tension that he couldn't help but freeze.
"Hey! Since when do you have the Fire Alice? Only Natsume-sama has that!" Sumire exclaimed all of the sudden, half screeching in that girlish high voice of hers. Yuu, Anna and Nonoko stared as well. "Mikan-chan.. What are you doing to Natsume? Hotaru-chan too." Anna whispered, face visibly paled as she tried to get closer to stop them. Nonoko followed, protective instincts kicking in for their friends.
"Oh? You didn't know, I forgot." A sneer broke Mikan's face as she peered at the two friendly girls who had helped her on her first day. Kind girls, good Alices, not enemies but at this moment they were bothering her and Hotaru's lovely meeting.
She turned slightly, dragging her fingers away from Natsume's face and came to face them, light smile in place, a familiar expression for the Mikan Sakura they knew. Hotaru tensed at this and drew her gun back to Mikan's face. Green eyes flicked emotionlessly to her for a moment before back at the girls.
"You see, Hotaru and I have an understanding. No one ever comes between us. And Natsume and you two are interrupting us. That's quite rude, you know." She played with the fire on her fingers, and Hotaru pressed her gun up against Mikan's temple. With her fingers, she swirled a small circle in which the fire grew to surround Natsume, Hotaru, and Mikan herself.
Nonoko and Anna shrunk back, wary of the heat and sparks similar to Natsume's fire Alice. "Mikan-chan!" "Hotaru!"
"You see, Natsume, Hotaru and I have a past.. one that doesn't concern you. So I'd appreciate it if you'd stay out of it." Mikan smiled cheerfully at Natsume, who had regained his wits to open his mouth. "Ah! Shut up before you start, mmkay? I'm so sick of hearing your annoying voice." She giggled a little, playing with the fire even more as it seemed to shrink, coming even closer to singing off his shoes.
"You bitch.." Hotaru hissed, pressing the trigger on her gun at last. Her movement was too slow, as Mikan tipped her head forward a millimeter and the bullet didn't even graze her hair. Hotaru hastily jumped back from the girl, edging closer to the fire surrounding Natsume despite feeling its heat against the back of her legs.
"She's lying, Hyuuga, you are involved, you just don't know." She hissed, eyes continuously on the girl she vowed to kill. "Your memory was wi-" Hotaru blinked her amethyst eyes and suddenly Mikan's snarling face was in front of her face.
The front of her shirt was fisted and she had little time but to close her eyes and hold onto her gun as a fist slammed into her face, throwing her across the room through the fire, the desks and past the stunned classmates.
"You will not talk, Imai Hotaru, or so help me, I will end your life with or without my alices."
Everyone shivered but could not turn to look at the girl who had spoke them. Hotaru's bloody mouth spit out a tooth as she winced and tried to sit up. "You promised to never use your Alices on me, and you never break your promises."
"So you know," Mikan spat. "So I do," Hotaru responded strong despite her quivering limbs as she tried to stand with a few very obviously broken ribs and a bruised face. "You've been reading my mind since I came in, you liar. Didn't you know what I came in here to do in the first place?" Her hand dragged across to her gun as she tried to cock it. Ruka's eyes widened in alarm and he flew down to help her.
Like Natsume, he found the gun pointing at him as well. "Don't interfere, Ruka," she warned. She pushed past him to start making her way awkardly up the aisle as Mikan slowly came down her own, slow, pantherlike way.
Natsume's eyes watered as he tried to see past the fire and the smoke, and rubbed his eyes quickly, coughing. God, he couldn't breath. He'd learned much by having his own fire, but never had he felt so suffocated by one stronger than his.
Mikan's lips firmed into a straight line as she drew herself up and coldly studied Hotaru.
Hotaru licked the blood past her lips and pulled her gun up again. "Everyone, this person in front of us isn't a new transfer student. She has been in Alice Academy, been even in our class since before she was ten. She is a liar, a monster. And guess what? She killed you all before, and wiped your memories so you'd never guess you've ever died."
Mikan's eyes seemed to darken in each shade, but the smile she gave was as cold as ice. Her lack of movements assured Hotaru that she could have her say before she met her end. Atleast her best friend respected her that much still.
Hotaru coughed, aware that Hyuuga sounded bad in his circle of fire. "Her alias is Shiro Neko, the famous assassin for the elite who kill at the Academy's command. Years ago, you all were targeted by her because you helped us-" She coughed again and spit. "-Helped me rebel against the Academy. You all died."
Her gaze flew across the astonished, disbelieving faces of all the people who have stuck by her side since she entered the Academy. Hotaru wasn't a sentimental person or close to any of them as she had been close to Mikan, but they were still the people whom she had grown to care for and even, in Ruka's case, love.
It'd be sad that she'd end her life for them, but of course, Mikan wouldn't let her live after she let the truth be known. There had been rumors after it had happened, but Mikan had perfected her Memory Alice by then and made everyone unimportant to the story never remember a thing about it. Hotaru knew, knew their dead bodies and their cries for help and the smell of burning flesh because she was forced to remember. It was her mark of obedience so she'd never run to save her captured brother again.
"And Hyuuga, Mikan, she.. You knew her too, when we were ten. You lo-" Mikan's gaze had sharpened once again, and Hotaru cocked her gun up against Mikan's forehead as quickly as the girl had stepped forward to put her fingers against Hotaru's throat.
"That's quite enough, Hotaru-chan." She smiled. Hotaru frowned despite her dangerous situation. "You're not over it yet, are you, Mikan? You still.." She fell silent as her eyes widened in realization.
"That's quite enough, Hotaru-chan." Mikan repeated, smothering to death any sadness she suddenly felt, birth from that always second of vulnerability before she killed someone. She remembered all of their deaths, knew all of them. Even Natsume.. No. Mikan wasn't weak enough to take her fingers away from Hotaru's throat.
It was a fool's trick, Hotaru forcing that memory back to Mikan when she knew full well how it effected Mikan. And Mikan was no weak fool, she succumbed to nothing, not pain, not sadness, not grief. She felt nothing because emotions were nothing but lies. Everyone in the world lied, even Mikan. Lies were not meant to believed.
Hotaru gave a small smile and chuckled breathlessly. "You still love him, Mikan. Hyuuga, did you hear that? The Mikan you knew still lov-"
Mikan's eyes widened a fraction just as she pressed her fingers into Hotaru's throat. The fire.. the fire! It had, his condition, Natsume! She willed the fire away with a quick thought, glancing back slightly to see the collapsed form of the boy, before she shoved aside panic to press her fingers deeper up against Hotaru's throat. "Stay down, Hotaru." She hissed.
Hotaru smiled and the resounding click of the trigger being pulled followed by the firing noise of the gun made everyone flinch and close their eyes.
Ruka gasped first and rushed to the form of his paralyzed girlfriend. Her eyes were wide open, and her smile still lingered, but her body was limb. Her gun had fallen from her hands when she collapsed. "What did you do, Mika-?" Ruka's angry, practically infuriated with grief and panic voice died at the sight of the girl in front of his girlfriend's body.
The bullet had penetrated deep, Ruka could almost see a perfect cylindrical form of one in the flesh that it penetrated. It was between her eyes, the soft flesh where her eyebrows would meet if she had a unibrow. Ruka thought irily for a moment: Hotaru had perfect aim.
"She'll be dead in time." Mikan's voice dropped any hint of emotion. Blood was seeping from the bullet wound, bullet still fully embedded. It dripped down her eyes in a steady stream, to fill her eyes and make it seem as if she had bloody red eyes, blinding her.
"How are you still-" Ruka gaped, fear slicing through his body like an icicle drove itself straight through his heart. This girl was dangerous, she had to be a monster with what Hotaru had said if she was still able to talk, let alone stand with a.. a bullet in her skull! He clutched Hotaru's body closer to him protectively. No way was Hotaru going to die.
Mikan gave him no response as she turned, stunning everyone else in the room to have a good look at her wound. Her fingers glowed a light green as she first reached to her face and then penetrated the hole with them, stretching the skin even forcing more blood to pour and drip through her eyes.
Her mouth opened to cry out one solid, loud, painful cry, bloody eyes closing momentarily in pain before her fingers yanked out a familiar cylindrical shape. In the path her fingers had taken a light green light had emerged, slowly healing the skin and returning it back to place. She stepped over Jinno's body mutely, dropping the bloody bullet on hers and Natsume's desk before she approached the collapsed body of the Fire user.
"D-Don't go near him, you monster!" Sumire's voice suddenly screeched. The cat-dog girl vaulted herself over the desks to come to a snarling halt in front of Natsume's body protectively. "Y-Y-You stay away from him and us! Leave!" Her fear had started radiating off her as well as her anger and wariness of the dangerous stranger who took shape of the girl they knew and Sumire hated. She didn't want what happened to Hotaru to happen to Natsume, at all costs, even at her own life, she would not let anything happen to her precious Natsume. He meant way too much to her, to them, to the school..!
She had a fraction of a second to jolt in surprise before the side of Mikan's hand crashed against the back of her neck and she collapsed. Once the contact was made, a small glow formed in Mikan's hand and Mikan quickly stuffed her hand into her pocket, scowling, before stepping over Sumire's body.
Everyone was riled now, and soon even they would jolt up and try to defend one another. It'd be a massacre in Mikan's opinion, and her classmates had already died once. She, and the Academy, wouldn't allow her to kill them again, especially if they wanted her dead. So Mikan decided to move quickly, and leaned down to press her lips against the unconscious Natsume's.
Unconscious until that moment, when energy began flowing from him and into her, and that uncomfortable, painful, draining feeling was what had his crimson eyes shooting open to struggle to pull away. Mikan had a firm grasp on the nape of his neck, however, and her contact with his lips kept him glued to her. "What are you.." He thought furiously, so incredibly hesitant in striking her despite knowing how capable and willing she was to kill. He struggled harder. "Keep still, Natsume, it'll only hurt for a bit and then you won't ever know who I was ever again." Her voice sounded in his head again and his gaze flew to her semi-closed lids.
No, wait. Her eyes were open. And.. her disguise was gone. His eyes.. they were shifting how she looked to a familiar scene, one four or five years ago, in a very similar setting.. Escept he had been injured, burning, so hot.. and she had been smiling at him in that sad way of hers..
Her brown eyes. Chocolate brown, in pain, crying, yet so unfeeling. Those where the eyes that were gazing at him now. Despite the lack of tears, he knew who she was.
She smiled against his lips and pulled back quietly. "I'm sorry, Natsume Hyuuga, but orders are orders." Mikan bent down again to press her soft lifts against his again, and Natsume wished furiously he could move his lame, weakened body to move so he could move his lips against hers again. Just like the last time, she was doing the same thing.. and he'd forget all over again. The stupid girl! Her orders.. what orders?
But his energy had finally been stolen from him and he lost himself to the deep darkness that would surround him for days.
He'd never know what happened with Mikan afterwards, how she calmly left the classroom and the students came charging after her, hurling insults and their Alices. Mochu had levitated a desk and threw it at her, and she had disintegrated it.
He'd never though that she'd use her Alice against them all, once again, wipe their memories. Hotaru Imai and Ruka Nogi would stayed in the room, Ruka clinging and trying to awaken his broken girlfriend, unable to hear a heartbeat from her despite knowing she was alive and living-or was it denial telling him this? Natsume would never know that his classmates collapsed in the hall and Ruka collapsied on the ground as well.
He'd never know that Mikan, the girl, collected in her pocket more colorful stones which seemed to just add to her collection. And yet.. why was it.. that he felt that he still had his Fire with him?
He'd never know, since he'd be unconscious for the next few weeks while Mikan hid out with Persona and planned with their superiors a coupe d'tat. Oh, how ignorance was bliss. How the Academy seemed unable to control Class 2-B, and yet how amusing it was that they all would fall together at the hand of Mikan Sakura, a classmate?
Natsume let his dreams consume him for now. They were happier times than what would be waiting when he awoke.
... to be continued..
I'M SORRY if you're frustrated with the ending of the chapter. xD I hope it won't take me six months to update again, but it's really tough to write sometimes, especially if I have so many AP classes lined up. So tell me what you think about the chapter! It's all over the place, from dorky funny to serious to suspenseful, I mean. What happened to Hotaru and Natsume!
Review please, I love hearing your comments and thoughts. Give me ideas if you can on what I should do for the next chapters. I want to direct this story for you guys and not make it something you dont' want to read ever again. Keep coming back~! Miki231, out, and thank you~!