Twenty five, all of these mixed emotions,

Tangled up in pure confessions,

It's hard to let go of the past,

But it seems easier as time is moving on.

Chapter 11: Homebound

Kyoko's POV

"Are you effin' serious?" I asked for the twenty-third time. His lip twitched and I could pretty much guess he was on the brink of strangling me to death if I asked him one more time.

"YES I have not visited Amami Oshima and NO I am not a morning person." He said for the twenty-third time.

"Sheesh, OK. You don't have to be so…" My words faded as he gave me the ever-so infamous 'Glare of Death'.

"Anyway", I blabbered on, "We have this very, very nice beach and it's not too cold during the winter. Then during summer, it's very humid but it's fine since the beach is always open, the waters are welcoming, and there's a fireworks display almost every night until the last week of August!" I piped up. Natsume didn't seem to be interested. Sure he was happy about coming home, but then, something in his eyes told me that there were regrets and doubts when I mentioned to him about his hometown.

"Is there anything wrong, Natsume? Aren't you happy you're going to reach home in about three hours?" I asked him. He, however, was looking down at the waves splish-sploshing against the ship, avoiding eye contact, as usual.

I sighed. This might just be my last chance I get to be with him because I might not be able to see him ever again since Zaibatsu Corp. clearly stated that it was our choice if we wished to remain at the academy. Of course, the majority weren't anywhere near interested in going back to Tokyo to face the looming horror of the ESP.

Zaibatsu Corp. confirmed that they were planning to take over the Elementary Division, and that their biggest problem was, of course, none other than the ESP. The Principal, however, won't be as scary since we've got a shipful of all his cronies stuck in a sinking liner the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Not much of a big threat anymore, considering the helpful tactics some students were able to share in order to control and defeat the seed of the 'Principal Evil' (As we would like to call it), once and for all.

Not so scary now are we, Mr. Principal?

I looked at Natsume again and wondered if all his problems were gone by now. But it seemed that a few were still coming back to bother him again.

He sighed and said, "I don't, I don't want to leave the people most important to me behind, back at the academy. I want to be there to protect them and make sure nothing bad happens to him. But now, here I am, waiting to go home while the rest of them just desperately risk their own chances of happiness by staying in Gakuen Alice."

I felt my heart sting at his words while a short yet eerie silence fell over us.

"I'm a failure as a friend and a man."

"Don't say that, you're only thirteen-"

"Fourteen."

"Fourteen, right. You're only fourteen you know. You don't have to carry the world on you're shoulders yet like this."

"I don't have to carry it YET, right."

I sighed and rolled my eyes at him again. Then I gave him a pat at the shoulder and said warmly, "Everything's gonna be alright."

He stared at my hand and took it off from his shoulder.

"I guess you don't really know my childhood story huh?"

"What childhood story?"

"THE childhood story."

"Oh. Please do tell."

"I don't feel up to it."

"Just go", I punched his shoulder. He slightly winced in pain and said fine while rubbing the bruised area.

"For a girl you're pretty strong…and muscular. So not fitting."

"I know right… Hey! That wasn't nice."

"And neither am I. So do you wanna listen to my story or not?"

"Oh no! Please, please tell me stowee!" I batted my eyelashes at him. He rolled his eyes and began his story that dated way back when he was eight.

[55 minutes of storytelling later…]

"So lemme get the straight. Persona secretly left an Alice Magnifying or whatever-you-call-it stone that was supposedly meant for you but then Aoi, your little sister, got hold of it since it reminded her of the color red, the color of your eyes

. Then, Aoi's Alice went all berserk and set your whole town in fire because of an outburst of power from her."

I drew in a quick breath and resumed again, "Then you got blamed for starting the fire and you took it, which by the way was very stupid indeed", he smacked my head, "Ow, and so the academy whisked you away and Aoi got locked up in a cellar in the Hana Hime Den for about two years, and then, you found her when you were battling it out with the dudes from Kikkenyouroku-kei. And then after you defeated them, the whole school found out about your sister who was a non-Alice staying in the Hana Hime Den and was sent home. You however, didn't come with her since you felt the need to stay behind and protect your friends."

He nodded. "That's pretty much the whole story."

"Well, that was fascinating, not to mention very time-consuming. Look how much minutes we killed!" I exclaimed while looking at my watch.

The ship suddenly came to an abrupt halt, which meant this was Natsume's stop. I looked at him and gave me an unfathomable expression on his face. I was going to miss this guy so much… I felt my eyes go misty right there and then.

"OOOOOH! I'm gonna miss you so much Hyuuga!!!!" I cried as I hugged him real tight. Surprisingly, he didn't dodge it, but somehow found a way to make the mushy-gushy situation appear less mushy-gushy.

"Give me a bear hug and your hair will suffer the consequences."

"Oh, sorry." I loosened my hug by a bit.

"I'll really miss you, be a good boy ok?"

"Yes ma'am. And, I'll miss you too…" He broke free from hug and patted my shoulder.

"Senpai." He added with a smirk as he began walking away. I gasped and ran to him, and then I ruffled his hair much to his annoyance.

"You may be older than me, but that won't change the fact that you'll be bald the second time you do that again."

"Ok." I released him. He started to walk away and I followed him. I watched him descend from the ship and when he was finally on dry land, I called out to him.

"Oi! Take me out for some ramen some time, ok? We're just 1,379 meters apart anyway!"

"Fine." He shouted back.

"But I won't be paying", he quickly retorted.

"Aww, come on!" The ship suddenly gave its final blow, meaning it was time to go.

"Bye." He saluted me and gave me a tiny yet very genuine smile. I saluted him back and waved at him as the ship moved away for its next stop-my hometown. I gave a sigh of relief and sat back down on one of the benches.

So let go all of these mixed emotions, forget all your hesitations,

Together entwined in these feelings,

Feet off the ground, head hits ceiling

Tailor Made by Taylor Swift