Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice.

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And so,

he left a note behind with a plastic rose,

'I will love you till the last rose dies,'

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Last chapter:

The class watched interestingly at the two strongest alice users on earth verbal fighting. They were pretty much sure that they sensed electricity between them.

"Little boy, you don't know who you're challenging." Mikan smirked a little.

"Oh yeah? Bring it on,Polka," he smirked too.

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.:~The second Rose ~ Purple Rose :.

2番目のバラ ~ 紫のバラ

'Polka?' She stopped and thought for quite a while. 'Hmm… polka… polka?? Not my bag, not my clip, not my socks or shoes, not my panti- ARGHHH!!!! IT'S MY PANTIES!!!!!!!!!' she shouted in her thoughts. 'Kokoro Yome!' she turned to Koko, 'Read. His. Mind. I don't care if you'll get burn or something, I'll protect you from that, JUST READ HIS EFFING MINDDD!!!' she ordered as Koko nodded and looked intensely at Natsume.

Natsume was now smirking due to Mikan's embarrassed (Actually, it's red due to anger) face.

'Hn, Polka, never thought that you'll be this interesting. No girl on earth had ever caught my attention like this, especially with your panties…' he smirked widely.

"WHAT?! SAKURA SAN, IT'S YOUR PAN-" Koko was stopped by an ice dagger and a cold glare.

"Yome, what were you about to say?" she said dangerously as she neared the dagger to his throat.

"N-n-nothing…" he sweated.

He sat down as he sighed.

"Mikan san, let's ignore him and go," suggested Hotaru.

Mikan nodded, "After school, Northern Forest," she told Natsume and she teleported both Hotaru and herself to her room not bother looking if Natsume agree or something.

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"Natsume, are you sure? You just came back from a mission and so…" Ruka asked worriedly to the lad leaning against the Sakura tree, exhausted from the C-level mission given by Persona. He got a huge slash on his arm and a small cut on his chest.

Natsume suddenly smirked and stood up, "Of course, I'm not going to be looked down by a simple girl like her,"

Ruka sighed, "Anyways, why did you even bother to ask her for a duel? You see, she has so many alices and you only got the fire alice…"

"Because I want to test her." Natsume cut off him. "And she's the first girl not drooling over my looks,"

"But Imai san also –" Ruka said.

"Ruka, you have to get your brained checked, all you think was that Imai just now, weren't you? And of course, Imai also…"

Ruka blushed crimson red. "W-why did you-"

"Why did I know?" Natsume shrugged. "Best friends instinct."

Natsume went to take a shower to clear his wounds.

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(Outside Natsume's window aka top of Sakura Tree)

"So he's hurt… then…" A person's voice said as she formed an ice rose with a green alice stone inside the petals on her palm and attached a note on it and put it on his bed.

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Natsume came out of the shower and found an ice rose with an alice stone and a note.

"Dear pervert,

I heard that you're hurt so I'm gonna postpone the duel to next week, please heal yourself with the alice stone too.

From.

Sakura Mikan"

Natsume smirked.

'So she DID care for me…' he thought as he got the alice stone in his palm.

The alice stone suddenly glowed as he felt his body was filled with energy.

'Cool,' he thought as he tied a string around the stone and wore it.

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(That night)

"So, Hotaru, what's with your personality?" asked Mikan in her PJs and ate her milk pudding. Apparently, the two best friends were having a sleepover.

Hotaru's eyes soften as she gave Mikan her hand, Mikan seemed to understand what she's trying to do and took her hand to read her memory and thoughts.

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(Hotaru's memory and thoughts)

This is when I'm eight and entered the academy for the first time… Narrated Hotaru's voice.

A little girl with a smile etched on her face skipped into the academy as she held Narumi's hand tight.

"Sensei, where are we going?" asked the little Hotaru sweetly.

Narumi smiled and said, "Well, we're going to meet your new classmates~"

Hotaru seemed so excited that she ran faster and Narumi ran after her. The two arrived at the classroom panting hardly.

"Minna, this is Imai Hotaru chan, please be nice to her ne~" he introduced as he signaled Hotaru to continue.

"GOOD MORNING! My name is Imai Hotaru and I'm six!! I have the invention alice. Nice to meet you!" Hotaru said happily as she smiled widely.

Narumi smiled at the little girl and he told Hotaru to sit next to a certain blonde.

"HI!" she said to her new seatmate.

"Hi, I hope you'll like the academy. My name is Nogi Ruka, nice to meet you…" Ruka said.

This is how we met… but unfortunately… Hotaru voiced out.

"RUKA RUKAAA!!!" shouted a certain raven-haired eleven-year-old.

Ruka turned his head but he got an annoyed look on his face.

"What?" he asked annoyingly.

"LOOK!!" she said, pointing at her palm.

It was a very beautiful glass seashell.

"Well, this is an invention I made just now… It's a mind-reading machine!!!! When you put it near your ear and look at the person whom you wanted to read his/her mind, the seashell will voice out his/her thoughts then!!" she said cheerfully. "Why don't I try it on you first??"

She said as she placed the seashell near her ears when suddenly…

PAMM!

The seashell was broke into pieces with Ruka's bangs hiding his eyes.

"Stop. Stop doing that. Don't you know that I've hated you since the first day I saw you? I'm just being nice due to Narumi sensei's orders. Now that he isn't even my homeroom teacher so just get lost," he said darkly as he glared at her. "I don't even know why you don't know… I mean, everyone can see that it's all fake. Our friendship. My kindness. You're just too innocent to see that."

Hotaru looked at the remaining fragments of the seashell. She made it just for him to treasure it, but now it's broken.

"Ru… Ruka…" she trembled. "KIRAIIIII!!" and with that, she ran away.

*Kirai equals to I hate you. *

But unfortunate to Hotaru, she can't see the following scene.

Ruka's eyes widen as he realized what just happened.

"No.. no… it's not like that… HOTARU!!" He shouted. But she couldn't hear it already.

Laughs were heard behind the bush.

A middle-school student held Yuu up high.

"That's what you get when you mess with us, you two brats." With that, they left laughing and smirking in victory.

"Go-gomene, Ruka kun… I-I…" Yuu said.

Ruka smiled bitterly.

"That's okay…" he told Yuu, and whispered. "It's okay…"

Back to Hotaru's thoughts.

Now that I know the truth, I'm not that little girl everyone knew any more. I became an emotionless Ice Queen. I'm not that Imai Hotaru everyone knew any more, instead, I'm the up-graded Imai Hotaru who's clever and emotionless. I'll show him, I'll show everyone that I'm not that naïve and stupid.

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Mikan's eyes soften after reading her mind. Hotaru's bangs covered her violet eyes.

"Hotaru…" she whispered.

Her eyes widen at the sight of her best friend's tears flowing on her flawless face. She immediately embraced her and hushed her.

"Shhh, Hotaru, it's okay… everything's okay…" she said. 'For now, I guess…'

"Mikan…" Hotaru whimpered as she cried more in her chest.

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(The next morning)

"Hotaru…" someone interrupted the ice queen as she was fiddling with her inventions. She looked up just to find aqua eyes looking at her.

"R-ruka…" she stuttered. She immediately put her stuffs down and rushed out of the room.

"HOTARU, NO WAITT!" he shouted a he ran after her.

The two talked and Hotaru cried and they hugged at last. The two entered the classroom together, hand in hand and smile to each other.

'Everything's going to be alright. I can see that. Now, about the fire caster…' Mikan thought as she laid on her chair and looked at the scene out of the window. 'I guess I don't have enough time after all…' She sighed as she stared at the natural beauty.

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Okies, so how's this chappie? And I'm very sorry to tell you guys that I may not be able to update "Assassin x assassin", but if I got time tmr, I'll try my best to do so. If you didn't read the note in "The child prodigy", I'm going to tell you guys that I can't update this coming Monday to Friday (18th – 22 nd May) since I'm in the Outward Bound School. Wish me luck please and visit the poll in my profile please~~ THANKS!!!!

P.S - The color of the rose of each chapter's title have a special meaning, it's either about the person or the thing or the event. You could check it out if you like...