Mikan: Hi, everyone. Since we haven't found illutia-

Jacklyn: Freaky author!!

Mikan: (Sweatdrops) Yeah, whatever it is…

Hotaru: I found this. (Shows them a pile of papers from nowhere)

Mikan & Jacklyn: (Looks at the papers) What's that?

Natsume: Read it first, idiots.

Mikan & Jacklyn: (Glares at Natsume) …

-x-

Small Pieces of You

-x-

21st Piece: Questions

I could do it.

"And that's why we spell it…"

…A bit more…

"…While this word…"

I could…

"…And this sentence will be…"

…I…

"…This will turn to…"

…I give up…

"And so…"

BRAK!

In milliseconds, the lecturing stopped. The loud sound got Narumi's and students' attentions. They directly turned their heads to a certain direction where the sound was heard. There, on the floor, a certain black-haired girl was groaning while trying to stand up from her lying position. She looked up and froze when she realized everybody was looking at her.

"Um…Sorry…?" she muttered, feeling a bit embarrassed for what had happened to her just now.

The wavy-blonde haired teacher blinked then smiled at her. "It's okay, Jacklyn-chan," he said kindly. "Is there something wrong that you fell from your desk?"

Jacklyn quickly stood up and dusted her skirt. "N-no. I'm fine," she answered while smiling sheepishly.

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?" She nodded fervently as her answer. Narumi smiled at her and said, "Then sit back on your seat. We'll continue our lesson." He turned back to the blackboard and the lecturing went on.

Jacklyn sighed quietly and sat back on her seat. Placing her left elbow on the desk, she rested her chin on her left palm while staring at the blackboard. The lecture didn't get into her head, considering she didn't pay attention too much to the teacher since the first period. Her head was heavy, craving for sleep.

It had been two weeks since her first mission. She still practiced at night with Hirai and sometimes got mission from him to follow Natsume in his missions. Of course she didn't get the mission all the time. But the missions she got always required her to sleep late and that caused her to sleep in the middle of the class most of the time.

Like what happened today.

She had tried to keep herself awake since the lesson started. But what could she say? Her head got heavier and heavier as the time passed by. And somehow, there was something invisible forcing her eyelids to close. Though it was attempting for her to sleep there right at that time, moreover the teacher was Narumi, she fought the drowsiness with all her might.

But people had limit. She finally reached her boundary and gave up, letting herself fall into the darkness of illusion. Well, before she was finally awakened by the hard surface of the floor in the next second.

She covered her mouth with her right palm and yawned secretly. Last night she just had another mission which caused her to come back at four in the morning. She could just have three hours good sleep before she finally woke up at seven o'clock and prepared herself in panic because she was almost late for school.

It was tiring her.

Jacklyn had her eyes half-opened now. Her attention was still on the blackboard, but all she could see was blurry view. She couldn't read what the teacher wrote and couldn't hear what the teacher said. She was clueless. Her mind had started turning blank.

BRAK!

Ah, another loud sound at that morning. All people's attentions were on her once again. "Ouch…" the poor girl whimpered while rubbing her chin which made a hard contact with the desk a few seconds ago. A nervous smile was on her face as she muttered a small 'sorry' once again to the class.

What a bad and tiring day…

-x-

"You look extremely tired…" was the comment that came from the brunette who was sitting in front of her.

Jacklyn yawned behind the hand which was covering her mouth. "Yeah…I'm lack of sleep last night…" she said sleepily before she took her orange juice and drank it. She wanted to lay her head on the table and take a nap at that time, but the crowded cafeteria wasn't the right place for it. Its noise just made her head hurt.

Mikan blinked, wondering what the black-haired girl had done that caused her to be lack of sleep. "Is there any extra hard homework you couldn't do?" she asked. "Though I remember well we don't have any homework this week…"

The drawing alice user waved her hand in front of the brunette in disagreement. "No. I'm just…studying…" she lied as a smile was visible on her face. 'Oh yeah. Since when I turn so diligent?' She inwardly rolled her eyes.

She didn't know if the nullifier was really stupid or had belief in people too much. What she knew was the brunette looked at her amazingly and spoke, "Wow, you're really diligent, Jacklyn-chan. I wish I could be like you." The black-haired girl swore she saw the brunette's eyes sparkling in admiration at that time.

'Oh dear…' she thought, feeling a bit guilty for lying to the dense brunette.

It wasn't long until they heard the girls squealing, adding more noises in the already noisy room. Jacklyn thought her ears would be bleeding in the next second when she heard three girls, who were standing near her table, squealing like the world would end in no time.

Rolling her eyes, she lifted her hands and covered her ears before she turned deaf because of the deadly squeals. Mikan also did the same thing. She covered her ears and turned her head to the direction where all girls were looking at now. She wondered what made the girls go crazy.

Jacklyn didn't have to see the cause of this ruckus. She already had an idea why they were squealing. It's so obvious. It must be the two infamous boys again. Ruka and Natsume. Yeah, was there any other person who could make the girls turn crazy like that beside them?

The squeals got louder. Jacklyn could feel her head getting more hurt from time to time. If the noise didn't stop soon, her head would blow up; not literally though. She shut her eyes close and tried to chase the voices away from her head.

'I don't hear anything. I don't hear anything. I don't hear-'

SPLASH!!

She immediately shot her eyes open at the sudden cold feeling she had just now. In front of her, Mikan also looked at her in surprise, her lips parting a little. Jacklyn blinked. There's another thing she felt beside cold.

She felt wet.

She slowly moved her hands to her head and touched it. Her hair indeed was wet. She trailed her hands from her hair to her shoulders then her face. All of them were wet. She looked down and sighed in relief when she found out she was just wet on the top; a half of her uniform was as dry as ever. Between the squeals, she heard some faint giggles not too far from her. She glanced to her right from the corner of her eye.

Indeed, five girls stood just two meters from her, giggling and smirking wickedly at her. One of them was holding an empty glass. The girl waved the empty glass at her and smirked. The other was whispering something to her before five of them turned and walked away from the place.

Still glaring at their backs, the drawing alice user cursed inwardly. She tore her gaze away from them and saw the brunette looking at her worriedly. Jacklyn forced a smile on her face and lifted one hand in front of her, gesturing the brunette that she was fine.

The squeals suddenly died down. Both the brunette and the black-haired girl turned their heads to the entrance's direction and found those two boys stop right next to their table. Natsume took a seat beside Mikan without saying anything, while Ruka smiled at Jacklyn before he sat beside her. The black-haired girl smiled back at him.

After the boys sat down, the girls started to whine and whisper to each other, saying how lucky she and Mikan were. Jacklyn rolled her eyes at this. 'Fan girls…'

Remembering that she was still wet, she stood up, earning attentions from her table-mates. "Where are you going?" Mikan was the first to ask.

Jacklyn looked at her. "I need to dry this," she replied while pointing at her wet hair.

"Oh," was the brunette's only response.

The black-haired girl smiled at her and said, "I'll be right back." The brunette smiled back at her and nodded. After she excused herself from the others, which of course didn't get any response from the fire caster, she walked out from the room silently. Girls' glares followed her movement along the way.

She could never describe how relieved she was when she had already been outside of the cafeteria. At least, there's no glare from the fan girls. She felt like being burnt and stabbed by something sharp from behind when she was inside. She wondered if the brunette also felt it.

Now, what she needed was an empty room or class where she could use her alice. She hadn't wanted to reveal her alice, not yet; not when she had a tough enemy, or rather…enemies, like Marika's gang. It's suicide to let the wavy-black haired girl know about it since her alice wasn't a good one for both defense and attack, especially in a real fight which gave her just a few milliseconds to draw weapons.

Jacklyn opened a door to a room which she thought was empty, but what welcomed her was quite surprising her.

The wavy-black haired girl was sitting on the teacher's desk, smiling wickedly at her. The wind alice user, Suzuka, was standing beside the ice alice user.

"Well, well, if it's not the non-alice girl…" Marika muttered while snickering. Jacklyn tried not to show her surprise. Staring at the ice alice user with her stoic face, she kept quiet and let the others enjoy their excitement thinking they had caught their prey.

This situation wasn't good at all.

-x-

"Sakura," the blonde-haired boy called, making the brunette look at him. "Did something happen to Jacklyn-san? She's wet on the top…"

Mikan shook her head. "I don't know. I didn't look at her when that happened," she said sadly, her eyes locked onto the glass in front of her. She was too distracted by the source of the sudden crowd at that time that she didn't pay attention the girl. She did have suspicion when she saw the black-hared girl glaring to a certain direction before she turned her head to the brunette.

This must have something to do with the fan girls…

A shadow loomed over her, snapping her out of her brief daze. She lifted her head to see who the owner of the shadow was, only to find her best friend standing beside her. Hotaru didn't say anything when she took a seat at the other side of the brunette. She placed the tray in her hands, which was filled with her lunch, on the table and drank the water first before she started to munch on her food.

Mikan smiled at her raven-haired girl friend and asked, "What took you so long, Hotaru?"

The inventor didn't look at her and kept on munching on her lunch elegantly. "Did a few repairs to my inventions," she simply said and then suddenly put down her spoon. She inserted her right hand to her pocket which made the brunette wonder what was wrong with her by all of a sudden.

In two seconds, the raven-haired lass took out something from her pocket and put it on the table. Using a bit of her energy, she pushed the mysterious thing and it slid across in front of the brunette. The thing stopped right in front of the fire caster.

Natsume looked down at the table in front of her. "What took you so long to return this, Imai?" he asked as he glanced at the inventor.

Hotaru didn't stop eating her lunch. "I have another thing to do than checking on the small and unattractive thing," she answered coolly. She then put down her spoon again, took her glass, and brought it to her lips. "But it seems like it's interesting than I thought," she said before she gulped down an amount of fresh water inside the glass.

Mikan and Ruka who were staying still on their spots and hearing the conversation all the time was confused at what the two were talking about. Both of them then focused their attentions to the item which was in front of the fire caster now. Its shape was like a wristwatch; it might more look like a bracelet since there's no clock needle on it. "What's that thing, Natsume?" the brunette asked wonderingly, her eyes never moved from the bracelet-shaped thing.

"Don't know," the raven-haired lad replied plainly. "I accidentally found it," he lied.

There's no way he would let the brunette know that he got the thing when he was in his mission two weeks ago. She would get worried and started to nag him about it. But he did tell the inventor about getting the thing when he was in his mission. He knew better than to lie to the raven-haired girl. She was too clever to know he wouldn't get attracted to something except the unfamiliar thing he had never seen before, though he didn't tell her he got it from the mysterious Little Angel.

Natsume glanced at the inventor again, seeing her putting the glass back on the table and placing a napkin on her mouth. She pressed it lightly on her lips a few times before she pulled the napkin away and folded it neatly. "You said it's interesting than you thought," he said in wonder. "What is that?"

Hotaru turned her head a little to him. "Well, when I checked it this morning, I found something interesting about that thing," she uttered. She moved her gaze to the bracelet-shaped thing then she looked back at the lad. "You said it could show a parachute if you press the small switch on the chain, right?" she asked, her face still expressionless.

The raven-haired lad raised an eyebrow at the question. "Yes. I have tried it," he replied simply.

"Really? It could make a parachute show up??" Mikan butted in as she looked at the thing closer. "Can I try it?" she asked, her eyes sparkling with hope.

Natsume looked at her in boredom. "Sure," he replied coldly, "if you want to fill this place with the huge thing." The brunette directly shut her mouth up and pouted.

The animal-pheromone alice user also wondered. "This small thing could make a parachute appear? It must have a great technology inside it…" he said amusingly.

"You said it," the inventor cut in. "But the truth is farther than what we thought."

Upon hearing this, the three of them had their attentions on the raven-haired lass. "What do you mean, Hotaru?" Mikan asked. Her head had been filled with questions and wonder. The other two just stared at inventor, waiting for the answer.

The Ice Queen grew quiet for a while as she glanced at the thing. "It has no machine in it. Nothing," she stated with serious expression. "It's empty."

-x-

Jacklyn ducked as an ice icicle skimmed just two centimeters above her head. She knelt on one knee and glanced at the sharp thing which stuck on the wooden surface of the door. Under three seconds, she had rolled to her right side. A small sigh escaped from her lips as she glanced at the door again. It was good that she could avoid the second icicle in the nick of time, or it would stab right on her left arm.

She focused her dark-brown eyes to the wavy-black haired girl in front of her, trying to be as expressionless as she could. "As temperamental as ever, Houji," she commented as she stood up and dusted her skirt. "But you know that it's restricted to do the alice battle on the school ground, not to mention your alice could harm people."

Gritting her teeth, Marika Houji didn't take off her glare from the black-haired girl at the opposite direction. "I see…" she muttered in annoyance. "You're trying to provoke me eh?" She smirked as she waved her hand. The ice icicles which stuck on the door before turned into a white smoke and disappeared in the air.

Jacklyn raised an eyebrow at the brief show and looked at the other. "Provoke? I don't think so," she replied relaxingly. Inside her head, she knew the temperamental enemy of hers would feel offended by her expressionless face and calm actions. But this was the only way so she wouldn't get bullied by them. On the other side, she was searching for a way to get out from the place. Thanks to the wavy-black haired girl, the door was closed tightly because the frame was being covered by ice. The doorknob also wasn't safe from the freezing.

The drawing alice girl cursed inwardly because she didn't have any weapon with her now. She did remember she brought the small sketchbook from Hirai with her. She had a few remaining sketches she didn't use in her mission, but how could she take it out without being known them?

Marika chuckled evilly, snapping Jacklyn out of her thought. "You don't think so?" the ice alice user repeated with a sarcastic tone. "I think you want your death sooner," she said before three icicles slid to the drawing alice girl's direction.

Thanks to the training she had with Hirai, she could dodge the attack by rolling to her left gracefully. But the finishing itself wasn't that great. Due to the narrow place, she hit her shoulder on one of the desk's feet. She hissed in pain and stood up. She couldn't show her weakness in front of her opponents.

Since it was lunchtime, most of the students were hanging out in the cafeteria. No one would realize the sounds they made in the empty room since there's nobody at the corridor. She still had thirty minutes until the bell rang signaling the lesson would be started again. She might be able to extend time until lunchtime was over. 'Sounds like a nice idea,' she thought.

Fixing her gaze on Marika, Jacklyn rubbed her aching shoulder while asking, "…What do you want from me?"

The wicked smile on the ice alice girl's face was gone. "I think I've told you not to mess around with us," she said dangerously. "I told you not to go near our Natsume."

"I never go near him," Jacklyn snapped. "What do you expect me to do? I'm in the same class with him and all of the middle school students also live in the same dormitory too. Do you wish me to sleep at the forest with Mr. Bear and never attend classes just to avoid him? Hell no." 'Well, except when I'm in mission, yeah,' she added in her thought while rolling her eyes inwardly.

Marika jumped off from the teacher's desk and glared dangerously at her. "I found out that you're also going near him aside from the facts that you're in the same class with him and same dormitory. Like today, what do you think you're doing by sitting on the same table with him at cafeteria?" she asked with a deep voice, as if she would burst out in anger anytime.

Jacklyn grew quiet in disbelief. She swore she wanted to strangle her and shout at her, telling she was insane. Couldn't she see that the one who approached the table where she sat with Mikan was the fire caster himself?

Jacklyn shook her head in stress. "I think you're the one who's testing my patience…" she muttered while rubbing her temple. Looking up, she threw Marika a cold glare. "Are you stupid or what?" she started to say out a piece of her stress. "Couldn't you see it's him who approached us? It's not my fault."

The wavy-black haired lass sneered. "Oh? Then why did you look at him as if you saw a prince walking in?"

Shoulders shaking, Jacklyn tried to hold her annoyance. The Marika girl wasn't only testing her patience again. She was making her mad by intentionally. The drawing alice user inhaled deeply, hoping it could calm her a bit. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she stared at the ice alice user and asked, "…Why do you hate me?"

Marika tossed her black hair over her shoulder. "Why? Because you're messing around our Natsume and that annoys us," she replied as she smirked. Jacklyn gave her a few small chuckles. For a few seconds, Marika and Suzuka just stared at her weirdly. "What's funny?" she asked between her grinding teeth, feeling annoyed.

One minute later, Jacklyn's chuckle subsided. Her eyes looked at the ice controller through her eyelashes. "You don't hate me just because of that," she intoned. "There's another reason behind it."

Marika's jaw clenched, her eyes widened a bit. "…I don't have any reason beside that…" she muttered lowly, but loud enough for Jacklyn to hear.

Lifting her eyebrows, the bearer of drawing alice challenged, "Are you sure? Well, I'm not. I sense something behind your acts all this time."

A deadly glare was thrown to her by the ice alice lass. "…What do you know about me?" she growled.

Jacklyn smiled sarcastically. "Well, I remember you said I'm weak in our last battle. Addition, you said it with hatred," she countered. "And I do wonder…" she muttered while tapping her index finger on her chin, "…why did you threaten me you would hurt my friend while you could threaten to kill me if you want?"

"Why?" the other repeated, chuckling in disbelief. "Because the academy forbids us to kill the other students. Are you stupid?"

"Then why are you always searching trouble with me?"

Marika chuckled again. "Are you kidding? You're the one who's always messing with us."

Jacklyn set her eyes firmly on the ice alice user, as if she would bind her with invisible rope. "Then why me?" she asked seriously. This time, Marika grew quiet. The drawing alice lass kept on staring at her. "Of all girls, you choose me to be messing with," she stated.

"I have told you, you're the one who's messing with us!" the wavy black-haired girl shouted after she finally found her voice back.

"People say, sometimes one who is ever hurt tries to hurt other people so they could feel what the people feels," Jacklyn snapped as she walked to the front of the class again. "…Or…they see their selves inside the other people…and blame themselves for being weak…" Her step stopped when she was right in front of the door. She looked at Marika sharply. "So, which is it?"

The other black-haired girl clenched her fists tightly, her bangs covering her eyes. "…Why…you…" she hissed. Jacklyn saw her shoulders shaking in anger. When the ice alice lass lifted her head, her eyes were blazing with anger.

Uh oh, it's not a good sign at all.

Jacklyn cursed inwardly. 'Maybe I over did it…' she thought as she prepared herself for what would come next.

"…What do you know…?" she heard the angry girl say. "WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ME?!"

Jacklyn's eyes widened in surprise when she saw a few icicles formed out from nowhere. She really had made the girl mad. For the first time in her life, she cursed herself for miscalculating the situation. She was about to go hiding when she felt her feet didn't want to move. When she looked down, she found herself surprised at what she saw.

Ice had covered her feet, attaching it to the ground.

She looked up, the icicles had been duplicated. Marika seemed to lose her self control.

"MARIKA!! GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!!" Suzuka shouted by all of a sudden, earning Jacklyn's attention. The black-haired girl had forgotten about the wind alice user's presence there since minutes ago. "IF YOUR LIMITER IS BROKEN AGAIN, THEY WILL PUNISH YOU!!"

Those words hit Jacklyn's mind. 'Limiter?' she thought while looking at the light-green haired girl. She remembered she ever heard what the limiter was in one of Narumi's lectures. If she's not wrong, limiter was a thing to suppress the alice power. It was usually being used by those whose alice was dangerous. 'If she uses the limiter thing…then…don't say she…' "Darn it…" she muttered unconsciously.

Marika lifted her hand, pointing her index finger at Jacklyn. The icicles around her turned their sharp edges to their target. A smirk graced her face as she silently commanded the icicles to attack the defenseless girl. Jacklyn just could shut her eyes, waiting for the hurt impact.

"MARIKA!!" was the last thing she could hear at that time.

-x-

"Empty?!" Ruka and Mikan said in unison. Surprise was visible on their faces.

"Precisely," was the only word that came out from the inventor's lips before she drank her drink again, which was plain water.

Natsume stared at the bracelet-shaped device silently. 'There's nothing in it?' he thought, suspecting the small thing. His mind then drifted to the night when he encountered with the mysterious girl for the first time. "Little Angel…huh…?" he muttered in a low voice, so no one could hear what he said.

The bell then rang, signaling the students to go back to their own class preparing for the next lesson. Mikan, Hotaru and Ruka rose from their seats and took their own tray. The fire caster stared at the thing in front of him for a few minutes before he rose from his seat. Stretching his hand, he took the thing and shoved it into his pocket along with his hand. The four of them then walked back to the class.

But the fire caster had many questions inside his head at that time.

And he wouldn't feel satisfied before all questions were answered.

-x-

Jacklyn lay helplessly on the floor, her eyes staring to nowhere in front of her. 'What happened?' she asked to no one in her thought. She tried to recall what had happened minutes ago.

What she remembered after she heard Suzuka shouting was…she was suddenly being thrown backward by wind which was blowing hardly from between them. She remembered how hurt it was when her feet broke free from the ice and her back hit the hard surface of the door.

And now, here she was, lying on the floor between consciousness and unconsciousness. Her sight had turned blurry and her head was hurt badly. It looked like her head also hit the door in the hard impact.

She didn't hear any voice from Marika or Suzuka. It looked like they had gone. She tried to move, but the only part she could move was her fingers. She tried to make any sound to call for help, but there's nothing coming out from her mouth. When she heard the bell ring, she inwardly sighed in relief.

She could just hope someone would find her there quickly as she slowly gave up her remaining consciousness into the darkness.

--To be continued--

Jacklyn: What. The. Hell?!

Mikan: …Jacklyn was a bit annoying here…

Natsume: The sketchbook girl is indeed annoying, not only in this chapter.

Jacklyn: … (Glares at Natsume with 'I'll-kill-you-soon' glare)

Natsume: (Sticks his tongue out) I'm right, ain't I?

Mikan: (Sweat drops) …And here they go…again…

Hotaru: They're idiots anyway. (Takes out a cup of tea from nowhere and sips it)