Chapter 9: A Stone Wall
Mikan's POV
My eyes felt like saucers when I saw what was happening back at the screen. Ruka-pyon mouthed a tiny 'oh no' as we both trembled in fear. The hazy sheet has finally been lifted, and now we can see what was happening very clearly.
The students were running in complete chaos, everyone in their PJ's and nightgowns rushed to a deck of a large ship. Persona was shrieking out orders like a madman, while a tiny man in glasses from the other ship was nervously speaking out into a megaphone…
"We don't mean you any harm; we just want to know who would like to go home…"
"Don't listen to him! He's trying to trick you!" And with those words, the small man began to shake uncontrollably.
"P-please, we're just trying to h-help. I-If y-you would j-just so a-as t-to be kind e-enough to j-join u-us here i-in the shi-ship so that w-we could t-take you students H-H-HOME." The kind-faced stranger said as he gave out tiny almost invisible sobs.
The stranger's statement suddenly caught the attention of a quarter of the students on deck. Some were aroused. Then from out of nowhere, a voice came from across the scene.
"HEY! If you want to get out of this hellhole, then come with me!" The screen suddenly shifted its view to the same girl from earlier, who happened to carry Natsume out of his room during the time the sirens were screeching throughout the cabins.
"Make WAAAY!" The dark-haired girl of fifteen, (it seemed so) jumped on a table, climbed up on the roof of the cabin and grabbed a rope she swung on the very front of the deck. This entire act she did while still carrying an unconscious Natsume over her shoulder and wearing light cotton PJ's and a thin night top at the same time.
"What's up with this girl anyway?" A shocked and awed Ruka-pyon said beside me. It was kinda like watching a circus act, only better.
Kyoko's POV
My daring and not to mention, stupid act, happened to catch the attention of all the students and teachers on board. Some were making their way to me, others were just laughing, heck, some were even snapping some pictures. (Maybe it was because I was only wearing thin clothes...)
Gaah! Nooo!
Ok not the time to be thinking about those matters now. I sniffed at the thought. For now, it's about time I execute my plan.
I climbed on the railings of the ship and jumped to the other liner. My jump lasted for about five seconds, and because heaven was oh so kind to me tonight, I safely made it.
The passengers on board the Zaibatsu Corp. were just as shocked as I am as they witnessed my death-defying acts tonight and finally made it alive here, unscathed, on their ship. (Which was about 3 meters apart from the academy's cruise liner, mind you)
"AYAME! Get your lousy self back here!" A teacher from the other boat yelled.
"You can't make me!" I stuck out my tongue at them. Ok, maybe sticking out my tongue wasn't such a good idea, but it was the only way I could make the students gain trust in these kind people from the Zaibatsu Corp.
"YEAH! You can't make her! Now, anyone else interested in joining this fine young lady?" The tiny man suddenly stood in front of me and once again spoke into the megaphone, more confidently.
Persona cast him a menacing glare, and so did the other teachers, along with a few students. He quickly retreated and cowered behind me.
I gave Natsume to a nearby uniformed man who quickly laid him down on one of the benches in the deck. There was going to be a fight, and I knew it. I braced myself for whatever was coming my way. I was about to concentrate on being Medusa for awhile when suddenly a high-pitched voice called out my name.
"Ayame-san, I want to help." It was Ibaragi-san, and she had just desperately succeeded in making her way to the very front of the deck.
"O-ok then." I said. Then suddenly, a bridge of ice was formed in the gap of the two gigantic liners.
"If anyone else is interested in joining us, please feel free to do so. I CAN and WILL protect you." I grabbed the megaphone from the man and spoke into it so that everyone could hear. The terrified students' eyes lit up when they heard the words 'Can and will protect you'.
There was a short pause, followed by an awkward yet thoughtful silence. Some of the students murmured to each other and I looked at each one of them rather nervously and expectantly.
A middle-school freshman suddenly came stumbling through the crowd of people and anxiously looked back. Then she climbed on the ice bridge and walked to our side. I recognized her as the barrier kid, able to fend of attacks from both Alice and non-Alice offences.
A short silence, followed by a series of unexpected movements. Some nodded amongst themselves, and almost too suddenly, chaos started to erupt from all corners of the academy liner.
"We're not prepared to hurt you; we just want to save you. If you're not interested in that, we have no choice but to retreat and come back some other time. We may not be able to come back anymore after this time, so this might as well be your last chance." A tall, muscular man suddenly came up from behind me and took the megaphone away from me.
And with that, almost half of the students from the liner frantically made their way on board to our side. Nobara made her ice bridge wider and thicker to accommodate the growing number of students that were rushing over to our side. Some were even flying, teleporting, jumping and doing all sorts of superhero movements just to get on board this ship.
Meanwhile, on the other liner, the students left behind were starting to attack.
I closed my eyes and shielded myself from the cascading offences of wind, thunderbolts, wasps, and the such.
Then, nothing.
I was surprised to see that Mizuki, the barrier kid, was no longer beside me, and has undergone transformation mode and was floating over the ship, creating an invisible barrier around the entire liner. The whites of her eyes were only visible, and her skin was holding a faint glow of blue. Her short, light-brown hair was thrashing wildly, due to the strong blows of the Pacific Ocean on this cold January night.
As the flow of hurrying students decreased, we made them hurry up so that we could make a safe escape. Most of the ones left behind in the academy ship were the older, stealthier, and more experienced students, and they were trying to find ways on how to penetrate the invincible barrier surrounding us. Akito, the explosives guy, attempted to make the main engine of this ship blow up, but then, Kisa, the 'puppet-string' girl, shook her arm at him and threw him almost overboard, but not quite, without even touching him, from a ten feet distance too!
Soon enough, the students from our side began fighting back against the continuous attacks that were being hurled at us. I was amazed at how these students (most of them younger than me), were so incredibly mind-blowing. I felt my jaw drop as I watched a group of elementary kids form a wall of water, melting away Nobara's ice bridge and coming in between the two clashing liners, ours and theirs.
This was my cue. I stared at the wall of water and watched it slowly turn into stone under my will. All the students looked shocked as they stared at the water turning into solid rock. I smiled. Then, for one last blow, I instinctively concentrated on my target while closing my eyes and converted 3,000 pounds of engine steel into a concrete block. It's up to them how they were going to make their way out of this sticky situation.
The ship turned around to make its way to dry land, finally. Cheers erupted from all of the students on board because tonight was a night of hard-earned freedom. I spun around to face the sea of ecstatic faces after giving my last salute to the sinking liner behind the stone wall. I blushed as the crowd cheered and applauded for me. As far as I'm concerned, I have just become the new poster girl for an academy revolution in this generation. I smiled and took my bow.