illutia mist: I'm tired of moaning and crying now. (Pouts)

Jacklyn: Then don't moan and cry.

illutia mist: But you won't let me go…

Jacklyn: Never. (An evil glint in her eyes)

illutia mist: …

Hotaru: When does the torturing session start?

Natsume: Now. (Smirks)

illutia mist: (Pales) …

Mikan: illutia doesn't own Gakuen Alice and its characters and Bourne Severity belongs to Ryuamakusa4eva. (Looks at Hotaru who brings a few torturing tools and sweat drops)

illutia mist: No!!! (Cries)

Jacklyn: …I thought you said you're tired of moaning and crying now…

-x-

Small Pieces of You

-x-

26th Piece: Of Doubt and Duty

Hotaru sat on her comfy seat in her dorm room, facing a charcoal-colored steel desk in front of her. Her eyes were staring blankly at the unfinished invention that lay helplessly on the desk and waited for her to do something with its imperfect parts. But at the poor thing silent request, she did nothing, except keep on staring at it without even winking.

She didn't know what was running in her head at that time until she was drowning deep in it. It might be not important or related to 'money' term since she didn't remember what it was.

Two knocks saved her from the unproductive thinking she had just now. She finally blinked and turned her head to the door where the sound came from. One of her hands reached for a protection mask on her desk as she stared at the door with a bored look. If it was Mikan, she had been ready to pretend getting busy so the brunette wouldn't disturb her.

"Come in," she said while putting on the mask.

At her invitation, the doorknob was turned and the door opened. But instead of the brunette, it was Bourne who stuck his head out from behind the door. A small smile played on his lips as he greeted her, "Hey, Hotaru."

Raising her eyebrows at the unexpected guest, the raven-haired girl motioned him to close the door, which he did in the next second, and then she took off her mask to give him a full view of her face. "So, what's wrong?" she asked, placing her mask back on the desk.

Bourne ambled to the couch and sat down, staring at her with a friendly smile on his face. "I just want to chat with you. Can't I?"

Hotaru gave him a look before glancing at her invention and said, "No, you can't."

His smile dropped. "That's not what I want to hear."

She stood up and walked approaching him then sat down on the couch which was across from him. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she started the conversation. "So, why did you come back to Japan?"

The corner of his lips tipped up when she offered a topic to be talked about. At least the girl wasn't serious to tell him to go away. "You have heard it. I get a long nice holiday from Alice Academy in America," he replied, resting one arm on the armrest.

"Nice excuse, but I believe there's something else behind that."

He chuckled. "Well, I can't answer that then."

She raised an eyebrow. "So there's really another reason behind that?"

He shrugged, which made her narrow her eyes at him. "…Bourne Severity…" she growled.

The mentioned boy just smiled and pointed his index finger to the kitchen. "How about tea?"

She squinted more until her eyes turned to slits.

Bourne didn't waver under her glare. "Why don't you serve me some tea? Maybe I will change my mind and tell you about it," he offered, crossing one leg over his other leg.

"I'm not serving anyone," she pointed out. "You already knew that."

The blonde-spiky haired boy just smiled at her comeback and then stood, leading his feet to the kitchen. Hotaru didn't get bothered with what he did. Instead, she leaned her aching back onto the couch and let out a soft sigh. She didn't realize she had been sitting on the desk watching her incomplete invention since the school had been over until now. What the heck she had been thinking of since then?

She leaned her elbow on the armchair, propped her chin on it, and tapped one finger onto her cheek, thinking. First, she tried to recollect her memories about what she had been doing for these few days. She got homework, a few ideas to be added into her invention' list, Mikan's babbling…

The nice smell of tea urged her to open her eyelids. When she did, she spotted a cup of hot Chamomile tea on the coffee table in front of her, waiting for her to taste it. She looked up and saw Bourne already sipping his own tea. "So," she broke the silence, "are you going to tell me the reason why you came to Japan now?"

Her guest pulled his lips away from his tea and looked at her. "Why don't you drink it first?" he asked, nodding his head to the waiting tea on the coffee table. "You seem a bit stressed, so I think a cup of tea will be good for you."

A small smile drew across her lips. "Well, that's so kind of you," she commented, taking the cup from the coffee table and bringing it closer to her face. She inhaled its hot, nice smell and immediately felt relaxed a bit. Indeed, tea was a best choice to relieve a tired mind. Bringing the mouth of the cup to her lips, she sipped the content and smiled when the sweetness of tea made contact with her lips.

"Like it?"

Hotaru rolled her eyes up to see Bourne's satisfaction smile for a while before she closed her eyes and sipped her tea again. "Hm…"

The smile on his face widened upon hearing her simple response. He then gulped his own tea again until Hotaru asked, "Are you going to tell me why you're here now?" He looked up, seeing her lifting her cup. "I have drunk the tea."

Bourne chuckled. "Okay, okay."

"Spill it out."

Bending his body a bit to the side, he propped his chin on his hand and said, "What I can tell you is it has something to do with AAO."

Hotaru's eyes lit up. "It has something to do with the Anti-Alice Organization?"

He nodded in reply.

"What about them?"

He smiled. "Can't tell you that."

She scowled. "Severity…"

"Bourne is enough, Hotaru."

Hotaru glared at him for a while and then gulped down the rest of her tea. She placed the empty cup on the table and then sighed, trying to subside the annoyed feeling inside her. When the feeling had gone away, she opened her eyes and gazed at Bourne. "You have mission tonight?"

Bourne nodded. "Principal wants me to get something from a building which he thought was one of AAO's branches." He paused for a while, staring at the table in front of him. "…Did Hyuuga get missions lately?" He shifted his gaze up, blood-red eyes met violet one.

Hotaru's head inclined slightly as her answer. "I heard from Nogi that Hyuuga had gotten a few missions this month." She narrowed her eyes. "I have a hunch that this has something to do with AAO and you know about it."

A smile made its way onto his face. "Maybe," he replied, placing down his cup on the table, and then stood up. "By the way, I have to go now. Thanks for your time, Hotaru." He smiled at her before he headed towards the door.

He opened the door and was about to step out when he heard the lass say, "You better tell me what that is, or I'll get Nonoko to make a truth potion and give it to you."

He chuckled, waved his hand to her and then walked out from the room.

Hotaru had her eyes on the door for a while, listening to the sound of footsteps that walked away from her room. She heaved a sigh, took both empty cups from the coffee table and then ambled to the kitchen. She left the cup on the sink and walked back to her room, intending to start working on her invention.

When she had arrived beside her desk, she didn't sit down or do anything, just standing up and looking down at the unfinished invention. Bourne's sentences made her think about what the boy had hidden from her. He had confirmed his arrival had something to do with Natsume and AAO, at least that was what she thought. She also realized that the fire caster looked pale and tired lately. Knowing that he had the fourth type alice, she understood why.

She blinked. Talking about tired, she also spotted someone who always got tired these days. She never got bothered about it all this time, but it aroused her curiosity as well. She always spotted Jacklyn yawing or stealing time to sleep in the class the next day after Natsume did his mission. She had never seen the black haired girl so tired like that before. It seemed like Jacklyn had started to get strange after the incident where she decided to cut her friendship thread with Mikan.

Now, wasn't that a bit strange?

-x-

Mikan walked out from school while heaving an exhausted sigh. She just finished her turn to clean the class today with her other classmates. She also was upset that she couldn't find her inventor best friend when she was about to walk out from the class. It was a bit strange for her to have no one walking back to the dormitory with. She had used to have companions along the way, whether it was Hotaru, Jacklyn or her other friends.

She blinked and stopped for a while on her track, an image of a certain black-haired girl crossing in her head. If she wasn't wrong, the girl had an unfortunate incident this morning and got an ache on her waist as the result. She even had to help the drawing alice girl to get to the class since she wasn't sure the girl would arrive there in any minutes.

But then, why didn't she saw a glimpse of hers since the class had been over? If her memory didn't deceive her, the black-haired girl's waist was still in pain even though she told her she had gotten treatment in the clinic at lunchtime. Jacklyn didn't tell her it still hurt, but she knew from the way the drawing alice user acted when they walked back to class after having lunch.

Putting a finger on her cheek, Mikan tried to remember if she had missed something about Jacklyn before the class was over. Yet, she had no clue what made the black-haired girl disappear all of a sudden after the bell rang.

"Sakura-san?"

Mikan snapped out of her thought upon hearing someone call her last name. Turning her head a bit to her left, she saw Jack walking to her direction with a kind smile on his face. "Mikan is enough, Jack-kun," she smiled. "Can I help you?"

He chuckled. "Just call me Jack, Mikan. And yes, I want to ask if you happen to see Jacklyn after the class was over."

The brunette shook her head. "I didn't see her either. I thought you're with her."

Jack sighed and scratched his head, ruffling his messy hair. "No, she's not. I think she avoided me all day after this morning."

Mikan blinked and tilted her head a bit to the side, wondering what had happened that morning that made Jacklyn avoid Jack for all day. She remembered she didn't see Jack when she met Jacklyn and helped her to the class that morning, so she assumed that the drawing alice girl had met Jack before she bumped into her.

"Are you two fighting?" she asked innocently.

"I can't say we're fighting, but…" Jack gave her a small shrug and continued, "Well, I think I annoyed her?"

She blinked again. "What did you do?"

"Calling her turtle and pestering her all day asking about her waist-ache."

"…No wonder she's annoyed at you."

"Yeah." He sighed. "I could even feel something burnt when she was glaring at me in the class." He pointed to his back. "I think she had made a hole here."

A soft chuckle came from Mikan upon hearing his small joke. "You should have checked your back to hospital to make sure it's free of hole," she playfully suggested.

"Yeah, and surprise the entire hospital when they see there's really a hole on my back."

Both of them burst into laughter after that. There were one or two students staring at them upon hearing the sudden laugh but then ignored them and continued to walk to the dormitory. Mikan and Jack were laughing for a few minutes before their laughs finally subsided.

"By the way, are you going back to dormitory now?" the orange-haired male asked, giving the brunette one of his cheerful smile.

Mikan smiled back at him with the same brightness. "Yes. Why don't we go together? You're on the way to dormitory too, right?"

Jack nodded. "Let's go then."

Both of them then walked together to their destination. They tried to keep their pace the same with their companion, not too fast but not too slow. They talked about various topics from school to the teachers in Alice Academy and sometimes exchanged jokes as an entertainment. Those who were looking at them now would think the two were dating, even though in fact they're not.

With endless topics accompanying them along the way, both didn't realize that they almost arrived at their destination. Right at that time, sun had set down in the west and its last trace that could be seen was a straight red line in the horizon. The sky itself had started to turn to a darker shade of blue.

They set their feet on the cement floor before the front door. Mikan's hand reached out for the doorknob as she laughed when Jack told her a joke. The atmosphere between them was pleasurable at that time.

"Jacklyn must be happy to have a funny childhood friend like you," the brunette said as she turned the doorknob, a soft chuckle escaping from her lips. "You're so full of cheerfulness and you're good at joking too."

"Thank you, Mikan. But I think she's not too happy to have an over-cheery person around her," Jack remarked. "Besides, I'm not her childhood friend."

"Eh?" Mikan's hand stopped pushing the front door open. "So…you're her neighbor?"

The orange-haired boy shook his head once again. "Nope. Hasn't she told you?" he asked, blue eyes staring at her hazel one.

Her smile faltered at his answer and question. She then remembered the time in the cafeteria when the black-haired girl was about to tell her who Jack was. She was excited at that time since she was sure she ever saw the orange-haired boy somewhere. She thought she might ever see him from a photo in Jacklyn's wallet or in the girl's room. But before the girl could say more than five words, Nonoko and Anna came approaching them and the topic was forgotten. And then she remembered another thing again.

The black-haired girl indeed said he wasn't her childhood friend. Wait, she said 'not really'.

"So…who are you to her?" Mikan asked with hesitation.

Jacklyn raised his eyebrows, a smile on his lips. "I don't know. As far as I know, she thought of me as her secret best friend. That's it."

"Then, who is she to you?"

His smile widened at her query. "My lovely creator."

Something inside her brain stopped working after she heard his reply. "…I'm sorry. She's your what?" she repeated her question. This time, she made sure her ears didn't hear his answer wrong.

She heard Jack chuckle and say, "My creator."

No. Her ears didn't deceive her.

"I'm her living creation."

-x-

…Knock! Knock!

Jacklyn opened her eyes upon hearing the knocking sound on the door to her room. Her dark-brown orbs moved to the left, finding the dark ceiling staring back at her. She blinked and then closed her eyes again, inwardly wondering how long she had been asleep. It was a nice sleep until the sound of knocking drummed in her ears.

Knock! Knock!

"Jacklyn-chan, are you there?"

Her eyes snapped open at the muffled voice which came from the outside of her room. She placed her right palm on the floor and pushed her body up, wincing at the sudden pain on her waist in the process. 'Damn it! The pain hasn't gone…'

Grinding her teeth to restrain the urge to groan, she forced her body to stand up on her feet. Her body felt so heavy, as if she carried a sack of stones on her back. For the first time in her life, Jacklyn felt so miserable. Never had she felt so many burdens, in physical and emotion. She just wanted to lay on her comfy bed and go to deep oblivion to ease the feeling. It was more tempting than going to open the door now.

Knock! Knock!

Sighing, Jacklyn dragged her lazy feet over to the door. The brunette wouldn't leave her alone before she showed her face up. She felt bad for making Mikan worry by going back to the dormitory first, but she had to secure herself from a certain orange-haired boy that kept annoying her all day. His voice just made her pain worsen.

The sound of knocking was heard louder than before. She guessed the brunette became more worried since she didn't make any sound nor did she reply her knock. Landing her fingers on the silver doorknob, Jacklyn turned it open and peeked out a bit from the small space to see worry etched all over Mikan's face.

"…Hey," was the first impassionate word that came out from her lips.

The brunette blinked twice and then sighed in relief, a smile gracing her face later. "I thought you're not in your room," she said as she pulled her hand back to her side. Her smile wavered a bit as she eyed the black-haired girl closer. Though she could just see a half of the girl's face, her eyes didn't miss the tired look Jacklyn had now. The drawing alice user looked more exhausted than this morning and she wondered what had happened to her. "…Are you okay?" she queried.

Jacklyn raised her eyebrows at her question and blinked. After a few seconds in silence, she nodded. "I think so. Why?"

"I thought you're sick. Your face is pale and you sounded tired."

Jacklyn tried to smile at the brunette. "Yeah, the classes were killing me."

The corner of Mikan's lips tugged up. "Same here," she chuckled. She then intertwined her hands in front of her and sighed. "Guess I worried too much. I thought you're kidnapped by the fan girls or something."

"They need more than their alices to kidnap me," Jacklyn pointed out.

Both of them chuckled. "You're right," Mikan agreed as she looked at the black-haired girl again. "So, do you need something? Want me to bring your dinner to your room?"

Jacklyn shook her head. "No, it's fine. I…have eaten dinner," she lied. She didn't miss the brief disappointed look on the brunette's face when she declined her offer. She felt bad, but she couldn't let the brunette in for now because she still had a pair of white wings on her back.

"I see…" Mikan then plastered a big smile on her face, trying not to sound upset. "Okay then! I'll see you tomorrow!"

Jacklyn nodded, earning a brighter smile from the brunette. Mikan then turned away and skipped to her room, humming happily all the way. Jacklyn stuck her head out a bit and watched the brunette's back moving far away from her room. After she saw Mikan disappearing around the corner of the corridor, she pulled her head back, closed her door and locked it. She wanted to sleep after this and she wouldn't tolerate any disturbance.

She sighed and turned to her back, gasping when she earned a sharp pain from her waist once again because of her careless action. A low grumble was emitted from her throat as she walked away from the door. The journey to her bed seemed like forever to her, where as, in fact, it's just more than a meter from the door. She wanted to throw herself immediately and landed on the bed in a short time, but she would get more pain if she did so.

She stopped in the middle of the room and cast a glance at the wide wings behind her, her head calculating the time when the wings would be gone and it made her frown when she knew the result. She was so not missing another day of school again just because of the wings. But then, what could she do? Walking to the school and parading the wings on her back like an angel? She was no freaking angel!

Stomping to her bed, she fumed in annoyance at the thought, her fists clenching tightly on her sides as a substitute for not shouting out loud at the throbbing pain she felt all the time.

She was no angel. That was what in her mind all the time. Angel was perfect, had no flaw in them, they were saint and eternal.

She was not. She had many flaws, she had many secret and lies, and she could also get hurt. She wouldn't be able to do anything right and it was proved by the dissatisfaction her parents had towards her; the proof that she was imperfect.

'…Do you ever feel weak? Do you ever feel hopeless?'

Yes. She ever felt that. Many times in her life.

'Do you think they will pay attention to you? Do you think they will appreciate your hard work and sacrifice?'

She threw her body to the bed when she was just five centimeters from it, grabbed a pillow and buried her face onto the comfortable material. She took a breath and then screamed into the pillow, resulting in the muffled shout of stress. She never did this before, not because she had some distractions to let the problem pass and be hidden somewhere deep inside her mind. But now, being imprisoned in the academy without any distraction to avert her mind from the pressure she felt, she had no choice but to relieve her stress like this.

She cursed between the shouts; cursing the pain she got, cursing her encounter with Marika before, cursing the day she agreed to go to missions, and cursing the path she chose that led her to this disaster day.

What the hell did she do wrong that she must experience all of this? She just wanted to have a peaceful live among those who accepted her the way she was. She didn't expect any thrilling adventure in her life that would ruin herself.

She screamed for another ten seconds until she finally was satisfied. Rolling to her back while hugging the pillow on her chest, she stared at the dark ceiling and sighed. Various thoughts invaded her head as she closed her eyes. She tried to sort out her mind once again.

What did she search for all this time? The place where she could be herself without being afraid of people's opinions.

Why did she do mission? To strengthen herself and to make sure a certain cocky boy safe even though she didn't like him.

Whose decision it was? Hers.

Then why should she regret and curse Fate for bringing her to the wretched situation?

She had no answer.

"What did you scream for, Little Angel?"

Jacklyn sighed and sat up upon hearing a familiar male's voice. She moved her eyes to the window and found Hirai leaning on the windowsill with a smile on his face. "How long have you been there?" she grunted, still feeling annoyed because of the pain.

He shrugged and continued smiling. "Since a few minutes ago? I entered when you shouted your head off into the pillow."

Jacklyn leaned her palm onto her bed. "Natsume is in mission again?" she asked without surprise. A nod from the man answered her question and another sigh escaped from her lips.

She was about to stand up when something was thrown onto her lap. A strip of medicine which consisted of four tablets was waiting for her to acknowledge what it was. Jacklyn took the strip and swayed it in front of her face. "What's this?"

"Pain killer," Hirai replied simply. "I know something's weird in your movement since you came back from your mission yesterday. You didn't bleed and your alice isn't the fourth type, so I assumed you got hit somewhere."

Jacklyn squinted at the tablets as she recalled how she got the bruise on her waist. "…Yeah…you're right…"

Knowing the black-haired girl was in bad mood, Hirai detached himself from the wall and ambled towards her. He lifted his hand and patted her head, drawing her attention back to him. A questioning look was showed clearly on her face as she continued to stare at the man. Sometimes Jacklyn didn't understand why the man treated her like she was still a little kid, but since she felt comfortable with it, she never bothered to slap his hand away.

"Are you regretting your decision to go to mission?" he asked, catching the girl by surprise.

Jacklyn shifted her gaze down. "I…don't know…" she answered in humble confusion. "I just…I think that's all the reason why I got pain and have to go through this bad day. If I'm just a normal student…"

He ruffled her hair a bit. "Why did you accept the deal then?"

She was silent for a while, contemplating of the same question she had answered minutes ago. "…I want to strengthen myself…and I have to make sure Natsume is safe in every mission he has as the compensation…"

Hirai nodded. "You're the one who picked your choice."

"…I know…" she mumbled, right hand clutching the hem of her skirt.

It might be human's nature to regret the decision they did sometimes, especially when they had an unfortunate incident because of the decision they took. She should have known the risk since she picked her choice to enter the Academy and do mission. But the pain and bad luck she had today had blinded her big purpose in doing those choice she had taken.

"…Can I have a day off?" an unsure question came out from her mouth, her hand playing with the end of her skirt.

Hirai smiled and shook his head. "I would love to give you a chance to ditch the mission, but I'm afraid I couldn't."

She groaned. "Why?"

The man pulled his hand back from Jacklyn's head and walked to the window again. "It looks like he's not in a good condition today. Anything can happen to him while you lay your head on the tempting pillow and go to Dreamland."

Jacklyn blinked at the first sentence Hirai uttered. "…He's sick?"

He closed his eyes, enjoying the moon light that bathed him. "Not a fever…but yes, he's sick."

"…His alice…?"

A nod from him was enough to answer her question.

Jacklyn looked down to her hands on her lap, wondering how she didn't realize the sickness Natsume had all day. She was too busy thinking about herself that she didn't pay attention too much to her surrounding, especially the lad. She did catch his gaze one or two times in the middle of the class, but she spent the rest of the day to glare at a certain orange-haired boy who kept on pestering her.

Fiddling with the strip of tablets in her hands, Jacklyn took out one tablet and put it into her mouth. She then swallowed it and threw the strip of medicine onto the bedside table. Letting out an audible breath, she closed her eyes and muttered, "I have no choice, do I?"

Hirai shrugged his shoulders. "You can stay if you want. But his life is in your hands."

She opened her eyes and looked up at the man, locking her gaze to his handsome masked profile.

"Fine then."

-x-

Natsume cursed under his breath as he sent another guard to unconsciousness with his punch. He glanced at the end of the corridor and heard a sound of footsteps running to the place where he just knocked out three guards in seven minutes. Clicking his tongue, he turned away and ran to the opposite direction.

It wasn't helping that the moon shone brightly that night. He couldn't hide in the darkness of shadow like usual and it made the mission harder for him. The building he sneaked into tonight was a large ten floored building. His mission was to get a data from the computer in the president director's room. Persona gave him an empty CD before he departed, which meant he had to copy a certain data to the CD.

Of course he succeeded in doing his mission. This mission wasn't as hard as he thought, though he wasn't at his best condition. The problem was he did a mistake when he was about to get out from the room. His sickness acted up all of a sudden when he had finished copying the data and caused him to land his hand accidentally on the alarm button which was in the form of quill holder. That was enough to tell the whole guards in the building he was sneaking in and waiting to be caught.

"Where did he go?!"

"I think he went that way!"

"Hey! How about this three?"

"We'll take care of them later. Our priority is to catch the intruder!"

His chest ached again, causing him to halt on his run and lean on the wall. Short breaths of pain came out from his parted lips as he closed his eyes. His head was spinning, stars showing up behind his eyelids. Natsume realized, he almost reached his limit.

Shaking his head to keep the remaining consciousness in him, he ran a bit more and found a door on his left. He placed his hand on the doorknob and turned it. It was locked. Convinced that it was a safe place to hide, at least until the pain on his chest was gone, he used his fire alice to melt the doorknob and stumbled into the dark room. He then closed the door behind him and leaned on it, sliding down onto the floor while panting heavily.

His right hand trailed up to the front of his chest and clutched a fistful of his shirt. Placing his lips against his arm, he muffled a low groan, letting out all the pain he had suppressed onto his skin. His body was like being burnt in fire, especially his chest, and sweats had drenched his shirt. Natsume didn't know how long he could keep his brain working.

He needed to get out of there. Fast.

Leaning his hands on the door, he forced himself to get up and stand straight. He opened his eyes a bit and examined the room where he was hiding, searching for a way out from the place.

The room wasn't too big, more like a head of division's room. There were two tall bookcases on the right side, filled with books and a few photo frames on second and third rows. In front of the bookcases, there were a wooden desk with a set of computer and a pile of folders on it. On the other side of the desk, there was a window hidden behind a dark-blue colored curtain.

Moving away from the door, he hobbled towards the window and slid the curtain away from it roughly. He clicked the lock at the windowsill and pushed the window open. A gush of cold wind rushed in and caught up with him, blowing a few strands of his damp raven hair from his face.

He lifted his arm to his eyes, shielding it from the sudden gush of wind, and then stuck his head out to find out how height he was from the ground. His eyes turned into dangerous slits when he knew he wasn't any near like what he had expected. The dark ground was far beneath him and there was no other way to get there aside from jumping. But it was impossible to arrive down there without breaking any bone, since he predicted he was on the seven or eight floor, judging from the sea of trees that spread wide on the ground.

A fist was being sent to the windowsill as a loud curse came out from his lips. He was cornered. With his getting worse sickness and on the brink consciousness, he wouldn't be able to last longer. He could fight, but couldn't stand more than two or three persons. He would just be their delicious prey the moment he lost all of his energy.

'If you ever get captured by the enemy and there is no way out, your only choice is to commit suicide.' Persona's voice rang in his head. It was the promise his teacher made him agree years ago, since the day he was being worked as academy's living weapon. 'If you give this power to the enemy, placing the school in jeopardy, you know what will happen to those most important to you, right?'

Closing his eyes, Natsume drew a soft breath. '…Is this the time…?'

A loud sound of gun being shot was heard all of a sudden, along with a slight piercing pain on his shoulder. Natsume turned to the unexpected guest and found two soldiers standing at the door with their guns pointing at him. Behind his mask, he clenched his jaw, carving the final decision into his mind.

He closed his eyes and focused on his alice. Fire suddenly engulfed the two poor guards and their pleading screams were heard throughout the building.

While they were busy shouting and trying to put out the fire on their clothes, the fire caster was clutching his chest and coughing with violence. Slowly but sure, a trail of blood was making its way down from the end of his mask to his throat. Natsume brought two fingers to his neck, brushed it on the red line made by the blood, and brought it in front of his mask. He didn't say anything upon seeing the fact that he was bleeding, not only from his mouth, but also from his shoulder.

Many sounds of footsteps were heard along with the weakened shout from the half-burnt guards. Natsume sat on the windowsill and looked down, his breathing getting ragged. Whether jumping down or burning the rest of the guards, the result would be the same.

He would be dead.

He semi-laughed. Never had it crossed his mind that he would choose jumping down from the high building as his suicide method. He knew he would die one day, but he never knew it would be because of suicide. He set his eyes on the sea of trees beneath him once again. If he was lucky, the trees would hold his weight and he could escape after that, but who he was kidding with? It was impossible to stay alive after falling from this height.

Another sound of gunshot was heard and the same pain pierced the skin of his right upper arm. Natsume gritted his teeth and used his alice on one of the guards, gaining a loud painful shout from his victim. Coughing, he could hear other guards ask for help and such, before he surrendered himself to the darkness of unconsciousness and let his body fall down from the window. This time, he was done for.

"Natsume!!"

-x-

She was sitting under a tree, her dark-brown eyes staring up to the high building in front of her in alert. Sometimes, she stole a glance to her back, eyeing a pair of white wings that spread widely behind her. She wanted to sneak into the building so she could help a certain fire caster from near, but the standing out wings would just blow up her cover and send her into another trouble. Not wanting to create a huge commotion, she cancelled her plan to sneak in.

Jacklyn exhaled a bored sigh, shifting her attention from the entrance door to the windows on each floor. She had been waiting for around two hours on the tree, yet she still didn't see the person she should protect coming out from that place. She wondered if the lad would use the same way to get out from the building like yesterday's night, jumping out from window all of a sudden and landing on her.

Eyebrows furrowed, she grimaced at the thought, annoyed to be reminded of how her day went bad once again. She shook her head, chasing the thought away from her head, and gasped when she heard a loud gunshot coming from above her. Worry and curiosity disturbed her mind as she snapped her head up to the building, searching for the source of the sound.

Jacklyn knew the sound could come from everywhere in the building, but, somehow, the words 'from above' suddenly crossed in her mind the moment she heard the sound. She swallowed and flapped her wings, knowing something was wrong had happened. She carefully emerged from the sea of trees that covered her, hands resting in front of her chest as she felt her heart beating faster than before. 'What is this feeling?' she thought while flying higher, eyes moving from one window to another window at the building.

The worse image had been playing in her mind when she heard the gunshot. Blood and a lifeless raven-haired lad that decorated the cold floor couldn't be erased from her mind. Her face paled. If it really what had happened, how would she take the responsibility? And no matter how much she hated him, she didn't want him to die yet. Not like this.

Another sound of gun was heard and, this time, she was sure it was coming from above. She looked up and her eyes widened at the sight.

"Natsume!!" his name came out from her lips when she saw the lad's figure falling down from an opened window.

Flapping her wings faster, Jacklyn flew with all her might to the falling figure. She opened both of her arms and caught the lad when he was just four meters from the sea of trees. Jacklyn had to flip her wings harder because of a new weight she must carry. In her mind, she thanked Hirai for giving her the pain killer or the pain on her waist would be doubled because of the movement she did.

Worried, Jacklyn quickly made her way back to the academy with the darkness of the night as her quilt. She hoped no one saw her at that time or it would create a big fuss in the town. Many things she had to worry about at that time, but her full attention was on the unconscious lad in her arms. She didn't know how worse his wounds and didn't want to waste time to find out that she couldn't do anything about it.

"Don't die on me, cocky boy. I will be damned if you die," she whispered, hoping the lad heard it, woke up and started another argument with her.

But no, the fire caster remained still, eyes closed and no word coming out from his mouth.

Jacklyn quickened her pace, holding the lad tighter so he wouldn't fall while trying to focus on her way. The journey to the academy seemed a bit longer than the moment she came to the building and it made her more panicked. She wished she had teleportation alice that could bring them back to the academy safely in no time. It was far more useful in this urgent situation than her drawing alice, moreover if this was about someone's life.

Just when she thought about how not useful her alice was, the academy's buildings came into her view. A relieved smile made its way onto her lips as her eyes spotted the hospital and she flew faster to the building. She lowered down to the ground, preparing to land.

But Fate could be cruel sometimes.

When she was just a few meters again from the hospital, the effect of the pain killer tablet was gone and she could feel a throbbing pain on her waist acting up again. She winced at the pain and landed not too gently on the ground, bringing the masked lad to fall along with her.

She held her waist and groaned in a low voice. The pain was double than she felt before, as if something sharp was being thrust into her waist. 'Not now,' she whined. 'Not when Natsume is injured…'

Biting down her lower lip, she crawled to the fire caster, looped one of his arms around her neck and dragged him up with her. Her breathing turned heavy as she led the unconscious lad to the hospital's entrance door, sweats starting to form on her temple and forehead and the pain getting worse. She tried to ignore it and kept her gaze to the entrance of the hospital.

The moment she stepped inside the building and the antiseptic smell hit her nose, her legs gave up and she closed her eyes in exhaustion.

--To be continued--