Fluffy white clouds passed by. Among the clouds, there's a bright light that came from the sun, bringing a happy feeling and making small birds chirp happily there and then.
It's such a good day…
Natsume: Trying to smack my head again? It won't work.
Jacklyn: Oh yeah? Let's see if that really doesn't work! (Lifts her sketchbook)
Natsume: (Glares at Jacklyn) Don't blame it on me if that thing turns into ashes.
Jacklyn: Ho? Look who's talking here.
…
It should be a good day if those two didn't continue their argument from the last Piece…
Mikan: Blame it on that freaky author.
Ho? Again?
Mikan: (Rolls her eyes) Yeah…
…
Mikan: …Hey…
What?
Mikan: There's no narrator here, in this fic. Don't say that you migrated from When I Met You to here?
…
…Hey…You're right…How can I get here?
Hotaru: (Appears from nowhere) Again?
…I think…I better get off from here! Ja!
Mikan: Woah…that thing ran in such a hurry before I could ask something.
Hotaru: (Glint in her eyes) That thing is afraid of me.
Mikan: (Looks at Hotaru) … (Hotaru is really scary sometimes…)
Hotaru: (Staring at a certain view) So, those two still haven't finished their little business?
Natsume: Tch. Wonder why you look like that freaky author that much.
Jacklyn: Hello? Where's the part of me that looks like that freaky author?!
Mikan: …I wonder when all of this will be over?
-x-
Small Pieces of You
-x-
10th Piece: Keeping Secrets
"Onii-chan, Miken nee-chan and her friend are gone," Youichi said to his so-called big brother.
Natsume looked at him then looked around. When he didn't find someone that he was searching for, he bent his eyebrows in annoyance and muttered, "That Polka-dots must have dragged the sketchbook girl to the Howalon shop…"
"Should we check on them?" the little gray-haired boy asked. The fire caster nodded and started to walk to a certain direction with the little boy following him.
-x-
Jacklyn looked at the fan girls, counting how many they were as she thought of a plan.
"Cat got your tongue?" Marika smirked.
"Not really," Jacklyn said as she shot the rope gun to a random direction and it did tie another group of girls.
Marika and the rest members shifted their attentions to the just-been-caught girls. Jacklyn used this opportunity to shoot the others. Marika was surprised and shot a glare to Jacklyn, full of hatred. Jacklyn smirked behind her mask.
No one knew though.
"Let's see what you got!" Marika scowled as she pointed her finger to Jacklyn.
"Try," the black-haired girl in mask said, challenging her.
A girl with waist-length blue-haired moved forward and lifted her right hand. Jacklyn raised an eyebrow, wondering what that girl would do.
POKE!
Something hit Jacklyn's mask on the forehead and dropped on the floor. Jacklyn looked down and found that it was a pebble.
'Pebble? Is it her alice?' she thought as she looked up again, focusing her eyes to the girl that just threw the pebble at her.
The girl closed her right palm. When she opened it, something launched from it.
Jacklyn took two steps aside and it missed. The girl closed it again and opened it. She did it a few times and a pebble came out each time she opened her right palm. And this made the girl in mask had to run to avoid those pebbles.
After running for sometimes, Jacklyn aimed the girl and shot her rope gun. The girl was tied and this ended the pebbles' attack.
"Got you," Jacklyn muttered as she stopped running.
While the others were shocked and looking at the tied-girl, Jacklyn shot again and again, until all of them finally got tied.
Except for Marika who dodged all of the rope attacks perfectly.
"Trying to play amount with me? Sorry. But you're bad in strategy. No use," Jacklyn said in a cold voice. She glanced at Mikan who hadn't woken up. "What have you done to her?" she asked coldly, thinking that she would make the fans club's leader pay back if she ever hurt the brunette.
Marika smirked. "Just made her sleep. If not, she'll nullify our alices," she replied in a relaxed tone.
"Hurt her and I'll do the same to you," Jacklyn threatened.
"Not yet," the coquettish girl said as she formed many icicles in front of her and sent them towards the masked girl.
Jacklyn dodged it as she shot her rope gun at the other. Marika dodged it and sent another icicle to her again. At this attack, Jacklyn rolled to the side to dodge it and shot back. Marika formed an ice stalagmite, making the rope hit the stalagmite instead of her.
"Lucky," Jacklyn muttered angrily.
"Not really." Marika smirked as she threw the icicles towards the masked girl again.
This time, she sent the icicles without any gap, causing Jacklyn had no chance to shoot her. Jacklyn concentrated on dodging the icicles as she tried to find the opportunity to hit the wavy-black haired girl.
She couldn't shoot randomly. She afraid if she did that, it would hit the unconscious brunette.
Too bad, an icicle scratched her left leg and it attracted her attention, causing the other icicles to hit her right leg and make her fall on the floor.
Not enough with that, Marika sent more icicles to her and made her got scratches on her legs, arms and torn some parts of her uniform. Her sleeves had many cuts on it. Her black blazer also got cuts. Her skirt was safe, only its lower part that got cuts. Fortunately, she wore a mask. Well, her mask got a few scratches now.
Jacklyn sat up on the floor and glanced at her badly injured right leg. 'This is worse. My right leg got hit,' she thought in silence. She tried to stand and she managed to do it with some efforts.
Her opponent stood on the spot while letting out a sneer, "Still can move?"
Jacklyn looked at the leader. "You think?" she asked back.
"I doubt it after this," Marika said as she sent a few icicles again.
Jacklyn couldn't run, so she threw her body and rolled to dodge the icicles. But she knew she couldn't kept on dodging the attack, so she managed herself to give a shot and it hit the ice alice girl.
Jacklyn got up and ran towards the brunette as fast as she could. She reached the position where Mikan was lying when Marika stood up and cut the rope with an icicle that she formed from her ice alice.
Jacklyn lifted Mikan gently as she stared at the sneering Marika. She also spotted the fan girls had freed themselves one by one.
Probably Marika had freed a girl and the girl freed the others.
"Trying to play trick with me?" Marika said, sneering. She folded her arms in front of her chest.
Jacklyn got her sketchbook.
There was still a weapon.
She brought her sketchbook in front of her chest and without the others' knowing, she touched the drawing and it appeared in her right hand. She smirked.
"You're the one who's playing trick with me!" she stated as she threw the weapon to the fan girls' direction.
The thing hit the floor and fog started to engulf them.
It's a fog bomb.
"Darn you, Little Devil! What's this thing?!" Marika scowled while struggling inside the fog.
"I won't tell!" the mask girl replied as she took her pen from her pocket and drew a pair of wings like before.
She must use these wings again because she couldn't run with her right leg's condition.
She trusted the drawing to herself and a pair of white wings appeared on her back once again. She carried Mikan by piggy back with her sketchbook also in her hand that carried the brunette. She didn't want to leave the sketchbook, for it had an important remembrance to her.
Jacklyn realized that she hardly could stand with the injures and she had lost almost all of her energy on her alice too.
She tried hard to flap her wings and she finally flew out from the warehouse to the sky, leaving those fan girls still struggling with the fog.
She decided to go to the hospital first, for she was too worried about the brunette that was lying unconscious on her back at that time.
-x-
"Onii-chan, I don't see Mikan nee-chan and her friend," Youichi said as he looked at the queue to the Howalon shop.
"Tch. Both of them are troublesome," the raven-haired boy grunted.
"Maybe they have gone back to the Academy," Youichi guessed as he tugged at Natsume's sleeve. "Should we go back too?"
Natsume looked at the little boy then looked around. 'She went back first? It's unusual,' he thought.
Youichi tugged his sleeve again. "Onii-chan, it's lunch time now. I have to go back."
The crimson eyes gaze turned from the crowd to the little gray-haired boy once again. "So hurry?" he asked him.
Youichi nodded as a reply before he said, "Miss Angel has promised me that she'll drop a feather under the Sakura tree everyday at lunchtime."
At this statement, Natsume arched an eyebrow. 'What a weird angel,' he thought. "…Okay, let's go back," he said as he walked to the bus station. 'I'll come here again if that Polka hasn't gone back to the academy,' he thought silently.
-x-
"You shouldn't read people's mind too much," a doctor said to a certain mind reader while walking to the hospital's entrance door.
"I don't want to. They're the one who thinks too much," he defended while walking beside the doctor.
"You must learn to control your alice or you'll get another headache again," the doctor said as he stopped in front of the door and looked at Koko, smiling.
"I'll try. Thank you, doctor," the boy said as he walked out from the hospital.
He just walked for a few meters from the hospital when someone suddenly landed in front of him. Of course he was surprised by the sudden appearance, moreover when he saw a familiar face of the figure.
"Jacklyn-san!" he called her name as he approached the wounded black-haired girl.
Good thing that no one was there at that time.
"Ko…Koko…" the girl managed to mutter in the middle of pain. "Take Mikan inside…Quick…"
She handed the brunette on her back to him as the mind reader looked at the wounded girl. "How about you? You…" He stopped when he read her mind.
Jacklyn opened her sketchbook and drew a white hood-robe and a white feather. She touched it and a white hood-robe appeared in her hand, as well as the white feather. "Koko…"
"I know," Koko cut her off. "You have to keep your promise to Youichi. I'll call Narumi-sensei after I take Mikan inside." Jacklyn still stared at him, wanting him to read her another message. "…And you forbid me to tell him anything about the fan girls. I understand."
She managed to smile after she heard that. "Thanks…And I want to entrust this to you…" she said as she handed her sketchbook.
Koko took it and nodded. "You better go now before Youichi see you there," he suggested.
"It's okay…I wore this mask and hood-robe…These are enough…to cover my face and wounds…" she said as she wore the hood-robe, covering her shoulder-length black hair. "I trusted Mikan to you…" she added as she flew to the Sakura tree.
Koko watched the hood girl flying to a certain direction and muttered, "…But the wounds on your legs aren't covered…"
-x-
Jacklyn finally arrived at the Sakura tree.
But when she wanted to land, her body got weakened all of a sudden, causing her to fall limply on the branch.
'Darn! This hurts!' she thought as she struggled to sit up on the branch.
She jumped off from the branch and landed on the ground in kneeling position because her body hardly could stand up at that time. She took out the feather and was about to put it under the tree when…
"MISS ANGEL!!"
This call made Jacklyn turn her head to the voice's direction and she saw a certain little gray-haired boy running to her direction.
She stood up limply and leaned on the trunk of the Sakura tree. She also realized that she had been breathing heavily then tried to calm herself as the little boy approached her.
"Hello…Youichi…" she said, trying to sound fine.
"Miss Angel, you said you can't-"
"I have to…say something…to you…" she cut his word off.
"…Miss Angel, are you okay?" He looked at her worriedly.
"I-I'm fine…" Jacklyn managed to say.
She took out a white feather that she hadn't put under the tree before from inside her robe and gave it to Youichi.
"I can't…give you a feather tomorrow…I'm sorry…" She felt guilty because she had promised to him.
"Why? What's wrong, Miss Angel?" The little boy was curious.
"…I can't say…sorry…" Jacklyn hugged the little boy.
But this act caused her to kneel on the ground, losing her balance.
Her right leg was wounded badly, remember?
"…Miss Angel?" he muttered while just standing there, letting himself be hugged by the so-called angel.
After a few seconds, the girl felt her vision getting blurred slowly. 'I'm almost at my limit. I must go now or my cover will be blown up,' she thought as she tried to stand up again. "I can't guarantee…I can give you a feather tomorrow…" she said while breathing heavily.
"It's okay, Miss Angel. But now you looked hurt," Youichi stared at her mask. He didn't see her expression, but he knew she was breathing heavily from her breathing sound.
"You're right, Youichi," a deep voice said. Jacklyn snapped her head to the direction of the voice, surprised.
"Onii-chan!" the little boy let out a smile when he saw the familiar crimson-eyed boy walking to their direction. "Miss Angel, this is my Onii-chan that I've told you before."
"So you're Miss Angel," Natsume said as he observed her mask that was covering her face.
Jacklyn was still in her surprised state. 'Natsume?! Lucky that I'm wearing mask and this hood-robe or he'll recognize me easily!' she thought in silence as she recovered from her surprise. "You're…Hyuuga…" she said, trying to be different from 'Jacklyn'.
The raven-haired boy raised an eyebrow. "Youichi told you, huh?" he said nonchalantly.
"Yes…he does…" Jacklyn replied. "How long have you been here?" she asked hesitantly.
"I'm with Youichi. The different is he ran, so he arrived here a few seconds faster than me," he explained in a bored tone.
"Oh…Too bad…We just met, but…I have to go now…" the hooded girl said, trying to be kind.
She turned away, but her right leg didn't listen to her, causing her to kneel on the grassy ground. 'Darn!' she thought as she held back the pain.
Seeing the so-called angel suddenly knelt on the ground, the little boy came for the rescue. "Miss Angel, are you hurt?" He held her arm, trying to help her.
Jacklyn shook her head and stood up once again.
Then the little boy saw it. His eyes widened.
"Miss Angel! Your leg!" he exclaimed.
'Darn! He found out!' she slapped herself mentally. "It's…It's okay. Don't worry…" she convinced him as she walked away limply. "See you later, Youichi…Hyuuga…" Jacklyn took a deep breath. 'I must fly quite high. If not, Natsume will know where I go,' she thought.
She started to flap her wings and flew high to the sky, leaving the two males staring at the direction where she disappeared in silence.
"I hope she'll be okay…" Youichi said sadly as he held the feather tightly. Natsume looked at him and patted his head gently.
-x-
Koko was inside the hospital.
He had taken Mikan to the nurse and now he was waiting for a certain person who entrusted the sketchbook to him. He decided to go out from the hospital.
When he was out from the hospital, he spotted a body lying on the ground with those white wings covering the figure. He directly knew who that was.
"Jacklyn-san!" he quickly approached the so-called angel. He lifted her body gently and stared at her already pale face.
"Ko…ko…" she stammered weakly, "…please…tell…"
"I know. Please tell Mikan that you're sorry, right?" Koko read her thought, trying not to let her speak, for it would just worsen her condition. "Hold on! I'll take you inside!" the mind reader said as he took her by piggy back and started to run to the hospital in front of them
Not long afterwards, Jacklyn fell unconscious on his back.
-x-
"Ngh…" a pair of hazel eyes opened slowly and found a white ceiling as its first view after the slumber of unconsciousness.
"Are you alright, Mikan?" Hotaru walked into the mentioned girl's vision.
"Ho…taru?" Mikan muttered.
"Mikan-chan!" Anna and Nonoko said in unison, worried.
"Anna?…Nonoko?" The brunette looked at them who were standing at her right side.
"Are you okay, Sakura?" Ruka appeared at the Hotaru's side.
"Ruka-pyon?" She looked at the blonde-haired boy with his rabbit in his arms.
"You finally woke up," the class representation sighed in relief.
"Iinchou? Umm, what are all of you doing here? Where is this?" the brunette was confused.
"You're in the hospital, Sakura-san," Yuu said as he smiled.
"Hospital? Why am I here?" she asked as she sat up.
"That's what I want to know," a deep familiar voice suddenly said.
Mikan averted her gaze to the voice's direction, seeing a certain crimson-eyed leaning on the wall with a little gray-haired boy standing beside him.
"Natsume, you're here too," she said, just realizing.
"You're lost in Central Town with that sketchbook girl. Youichi thought you two have gone back, so we went back too, and what we got was the news that you're in hospital with that sketchbook girl," he told her as a little angry tone could be heard in his sentence.
"Um, I…WAIT!! JACKLYN-CHAN IS HOSPITALIZED TOO?!" the brunette shouted in surprise.
BAKA!
"Ouch! Hotaru, it hurts!" she whined while holding her sore head with her hands.
"This is hospital if you forgot. You're too noisy," the Ice Queen said coldly.
"Sorry," the brunette muttered. "So, why is Jacklyn-chan being hospitalized?" she asked, curious and worried.
"We don't know. She can't be visited until around tomorrow noon. That's what Narumi-sensei said," Ruka informed her.
"Is she injured badly?" she asked again.
"Sort of," this time, the Ice Queen was the one that replied her question. "Narumi said she has scars almost over all her body."
Hearing this, the brunette got more curious and more worried, "What happened to her?"
Anna shook her head and said, "We don't know. Koko was the one who took her here."
"Koko?" Mikan wondered.
Just at that time, the mind reader went into the room and spotted that the brunette had awoken. "Sakura, you're awake," he said with a smile.
"Koko, I heard you're the one who took Jacklyn-chan to this hospital," the brunette directly attacked him with her question.
"Oh, yeah, that's right," the mind reader nodded then he remembered something. "May I ask you something, Sakura?" he asked hesitantly.
The mentioned person looked at him and blinked. A smile escaped from her lips as she asked, "What is it?"
"How did you get fainted?" he asked.
The brunette blinked again. "I fainted?" she asked while pointing at herself, disbelieved.
"Jacklyn-san was the one who brought you to the entrance of hospital when I just went out from this hospital," the mind reader told her. "I've read her thoughts. From there, I knew that you fainted."
Mikan thought in silence for a few minutes while the others were waiting for her answer.
Then it hit her.
Mikan lifted her head to face her friends. "I remember! When I was searching for a trashcan, someone covered my nose and mouth with a handkerchief then my vision turned black," she recalled the time when she was searching for a trashcan in Central Town.
"So that's it…" Koko muttered as he held his chin with his index finger and thumb.
The others looked at him in wonder, especially the fire caster. "Spill it out, Koko," Natsume said impatiently.
"So, it's like this," the mind reader boy started. "After Sakura was kidnapped by that people, Jacklyn-san searched for her because she hasn't come back. Then Jacklyn-san found the people who kidnapped Sakura and fought them. She got injured badly, but she managed to take Sakura to this hospital before she, herself, got unconscious," Koko ended the shorted version.
The brunette fell silent for a while. "So…It was my fault she's being hospitalized…" she said as she bent down her head, feeling guilty.
"No, it's not," Koko disagreed.
As she heard his words, she looked up. "Huh?" She was confused.
"Before she fainted, she wanted me to tell you this," he said. "She wanted me to tell you that she's sorry."
Mikan tilted her head a little. "But…why…? I'm the one who troubled her…" she muttered in confusion.
Koko just shrugged. 'I can't tell her that the fan girls were the one that attacked her. I've promised to Jacklyn-san. Sorry, Sakura," he thought while looking at Mikan with a 'sorry' look.
Natsume looked at the brunette then at the mind reader. "Koko, if you've read her thought then you must know who she fought back then," he speculated.
'Why is this guy so smart?' the mind reader thought as some beads of sweats were on his forehead. "I'm not quite sure, because in her thought, that person wore a mask and hat," he lied.
Natsume raised an eyebrow at the boy's answer. He hardly believed his answer. 'It looks like Koko is hiding something from us. I better ask that sketchbook girl when she has awakened,' he thought as he looked at the mind reader suspiciously.
"By the way, how did Jacklyn-chan bring me here? Am I not too heavy for her if she's injured?" Mikan suddenly remembered.
"She gave you a piggy back ride," Koko replied. 'At least, not all of it is a lie,' he thought as he smiled inwardly.
She looked at her lap, thinking. "She can't be visited, huh? How about if we peek on her from the window?" she said out her silly idea.
"Sakura-san! It's dangerous!" Yuu snapped, couldn't believe what he just heard.
"I've done it," Hotaru said.
At her statement, all peoples in the room sweat dropped, except Natsume and Youichi.
"So, how is she doing now?" the brunette asked the inventor impatiently.
"I can't see her. The window at her room was locked and there is a curtain that blocked my view back then," Hotaru said with a stoic face.
Mikan stared at her. "Why is her room being closed? Is she in a critical state?" She was getting more worried.
Hotaru and Natsume remained expressionless while looking at the brunette in silence. The others were looking at her with a worried face.
Then something struck the brunette's mind. She looked at the mind reader. "Koko, you said Jacklyn-chan fought the kidnapper, right?" she confirmed. Koko nodded. Mikan looked back at her lap again. 'It must be hard for her to fight them with her alice…' she thought silently.
The crimson-eyed boy looked at the silent brunette as he thought of something that had bothered him all this time. "Oi, Polka, you know what her alice is?" he asked, curious.
Mikan looked at him, tilting her head a little. "Who?" she asked in confusion.
"That sketchbook girl…" he mentioned Jacklyn's nickname that was given by him.
Mikan's lips formed an 'o' shape then she fell silent. "No…I don't know…" she managed to reply after a few seconds.
Natsume observed her, knowing the brunette was hiding something from him. 'That girl is really something. She hides too much secret. I wonder…' he thought as he locked his crimson eyes to the brunette.
--To be continued--
Jacklyn: (Veins pop on her head) NAAATTTSSSUUUUUMMMMEEEE!!
SMACK!
Natsume: (A vein pops on his head too) What the hell?!
Jacklyn: How dare you burn my sketchbook!!
Natsume: You're the one who asked me to do it!
Jacklyn: Hell! No! And never!!
Natsume: You're the one that nagged me to do it!
Jacklyn: Oh, please! You're the one who intended to do it in the first place!
Natsume: Tch. You're the one that challenged me!
SMACK!
Natsume: What the hell?! What's that for now?!
Jacklyn: For I can't and will never forgive you!!
Natsume: (Growls) I'll burn your sketchbook again…
Jacklyn: I heard that, cocky boy!!
And the arguments kept moving on and on, leaving a certain brunette freezing on her spot, watching the two throwing words at each other.
Mikan: …When will they stop these non-sense page-wasting arguments?
Hotaru: (Unemotionally) Never. Thanks you for reading, good readers. Please review. (Mutters) At least, that freaky author has many debts to me now for doing this.
Mikan: … (Looks like there's no one remembers that we have to search for illutia now…)