Surreptitious


~Chapter Three~

Word Count: 2687


"I hope you can put all of that commotion behind us. I'm sure you didn't want your first impression of the Academy, that we take such pride in, to be a negative one," he said in a voice that attempted to steer away from sounding generally monotonic and appear slightly invested in Mikan's view of the prestigious Academy; however, it was quite evident that he simply couldn't pull that off.

The man just didn't have time for small talk but here he was awkwardly churning out a half-hearted yet one-sided conversation with the new student. It also didn't help that he was moving in fast-paced long strides towards his office with the tired out brunette sluggishly trailing behind him.

He was sure she wasn't enjoying her time at the moment.

Although the brunette was exhausted due to her four-hour journey from Japan to Tokyo, it was certainly in her best interests to immediately start the mission and that, in her view, had commenced the moment she stepped foot into Academy grounds.

Whilst passing through what seemed to be a never-ending long tunnel of corridors, Mikan kept her eye out for anything that seemed to be out of ordinary. But even with her cautious examination of the interior, Alice Academy looked like a typical educational institution. From the towering pillars that maintained the building to the inconspicuous cracks on the wall, nothing screamed out danger, suspicion or peculiarity to Mikan.

The blonde-haired man suddenly halted in front of what appeared to be a rather different room, that was if she compared it to the rest that had casually passed. As she slowed down to a complete stop, Mikan's eyes instantly caught the reflective silver door sign that was situated on the left side of the door.

'High School Principal's Office.' it read in bold black letters.

"As I said before," he started "I hope you can put this behind us. I'm sure that everything beyond this moment will run smoothly for you," he said before extending his arm out to reach the door. He momentarily glanced back at Mikan before gesturing for her to enter the office.

Mikan let out a muffled sound behind her closed mouth before striding confidently past the manly figure. To her, this gesture was an indication that she was most certainly not going to put it 'behind her'. The first few scared moments of her mission were to be remembered as irksome.

The brunette didn't expect complications with her registration because her file for the mission had stated that everything had been organised for her. So when the Alice Academy guards had refused to let her tread foot on their precious ground, Mikan made sure she gave them more than just a piece of her mind.

Due to the stubborn nature of the unmoving girl, the Alice guards had decided to end their misery by ringing the administration office to make sure that Mikan's story checked in right. Once it was evident, to the guards, that Mikan wasn't a manipulative liar as first believed, they let her in.

However, that wasn't the end of her troubles.

After the occurrence of the little scene she had caused, Mikan was then brought to the administration office where she had spent an awfully long time confirming details that Luminous Revival had provided to Alice Academy.

On her way to Tokyo, her file had confirmed that a cloned version of herself was sent to the Academy so that Mikan could secure her place for the second term of the academic year.

The whole idea of preparing in advance was supposed to have made Mikan's life a tad bit easier but that clearly didn't work out to her advantage, especially after what came next... the luggage check.

"I'm sorry but you'll have to hand that over to us," the lady apologetically mumbled. She then reached to take out the small red velvet box that was neatly placed in one of the internal compartments of Mikan's suitcase.

Mikan wouldn't have minded if a random item was confiscated, but her eyes widened at the realisation that the item in question was her early birthday present gifted by her Jii-chan. Before the tiny box could reach the hands of the lady, Mikan instantly moved from her idle position to successfully retrieve it.

"I'm so sorry," Mikan yelled "but you can't have that. My Jii-chan gave it to me!" she defensively stated as though it was the only explanation that would save her gift from being stolen from her.

"You might be able to get it back," the lady assured her.

"If it's not a danger to the safety of everyone here... then we'll be able to give it you back soon. The only reason we need to take it away from you is so we can scan it through one of our machines." the lady explained and victoriously pried the item away from Mikan's hands to her distaste.

Before placing it in another room, the lady tried to force the little box open before giving up,

"You see that? It won't open up. I'm sure an advanced Alice placed a time spell on this. I don't know why they did but it's mandatory for us to examine it so that it doesn't violate any safety regulations." the lady explained before dropping it in the 'items for examination' box.

Understanding the logic behind the lady's argument, Mikan nodded and temporarily said her farewells to her present.

'Jii-chan must have done that so I didn't open it up before my birthday.' Mikan thought it with a giggle.

"If it passes the examination, it'll be returned to you sometime this week."

"Okay, no problem."

There was no way that a present of Jii-chan's was going to be identified as dangerous, so Mikan knew she'd see it soon. All she had to do was wait.

Mikan grimaced a little upon recalling all of the troublesome events that had happened only a few hours into her mission. It was only 1:50 PM and she had encountered enough to make her severely fatigued and aggravated for the day.

She eagerly slumped into one of the vacant seats the man had offered to her and contently sighed. This was just what she needed after all of that mess, just a few minutes of peace and quiet.

It was nice whilst it had lasted but Mikan quickly switched from being carefree to slightly observant again.

Giving a glance at the blonde-haired man who had directed her to the office, Mikan began to scrutinise the individual. Now that she had a proper look at him whilst he was stationary, Mikan quickly came to the conclusion that everything about him yelled out scary and intimidating.

She was most surprised that his stormy cerulean orbs hadn't already drowned out the computer screen he was heavily fixated on and that his keyboard remained intact after the constant attacks it received from his slender fingers.

Yes... that was how terrifying he looked.

Maybe it was a persona he was forced to keep up with, after all, he was the great High School Principal, Kazumi Yukihara. She had noticed his name was printed onto his blue-coloured suit hence the realisation that she was currently sat a fair distance away from one of the most important people in the Academy.

Crazy.

She didn't think she'd bump into someone like him so early into her mission. In fact, she was hoping she didn't.

The last thing she needed was the attention of a superior. If all became hazy during her mission, what would she do if caught?

That didn't come into her mind until now.

Damn.

'I better start thinking of alternative plans now whilst I still have the time,' she thought, frowning.

"Is everything okay?" the principal asked, pulling her out of her stupor.

"Yes, everything's just fine," she replied in a high-pitched voice flailing her arms around as though to emphasise her certainty.

"That's good. I'm more surprised that you've still got some energy to spare considering that your journey must've been a tiring one," he commented.

He stopped his strenuous typing, momentarily, and looked up to Mikan.

"I hope your journey wasn't too draining,"

Mikan smiled.

'I mean I've had enough time to figure out what I need to do for the mission during my four hours here... so that's great,' she thought to herself amused.

"It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," she said instead.

Content with her answer, he resumed with his work.

It was only when the silence had bored her that Mikan chose to take a look around her. In contrast to Headquarters, the principal's office was surprisingly spacious but it was void of life, energy and most importantly, items. Rather empty she observed.

There was only a jet-black desk that was currently occupied by the man who was in a rather luxurious swivel chair, a few chairs scattered around the desk, a bookshelf that was stacked with at least a dozen books here and there, and the most eye-catching thing was the plain white globe that had little squares adorned to every inch of it. Levitating in mid-air, it spun around slowly to a non-existent rhythm.

It was truly fascinating.

She had to know what it was.

Curiosity had gotten the best of her and before she could have stopped the words pouring out of her mouth, she had ignorantly pointed her index finger to the globe, squinted her eyes ever-so-slightly before asking the one question that was on her mind.

"What is that?" she asked in a barely audible voice.

She expected no reply but it seemed that the principal had sharp ears for he gave her a response straight away.

"It's the monitoring globe. It's a form of CCTV to see what's happening within the Academy," he said, not even looking her way to see what had captivated her sight.

'Why not just install regular CCTV cameras around the campus?' Mikan thought, trying to work around that mentality.

"Just to let you know beforehand, you'll be guided for the rest of the day by the representatives of your class. I've emailed them a few minutes ago so they should be here shortly,"

"Okay,"

Before any other words could be exchanged, a sharp knock on the door was heard along with a voice signalling their arrival.

"It sounds like the class representatives are here," he stated. He paused what he was doing and waited for the figure to emerge from behind the closed doors. Mikan, who was curious to see who it was, fixed her gaze on the large brown doors.

A creek was heard as the individual pushed one of the doors a quarter of the way forward before calmly entering the office. Just from first impressions, Mikan noted that the representative looked rather approachable just by the way he carried himself, not showing any signs of nervousness or any evidence of being too energetic.

His chocolate brown eyes averted from Yukihara for a few seconds and rested on the idle figure of Mikan who was seated comfortably on a seat. He gave the girl a small nod, acknowledging her presence and received a small smile back. It was a simple gesture that both used to telepathically greet each other.

"Did you call for me?"

"Yes, although I thought that Hotaru Imai would be present too,"

"The email was given with not that much notice so Imai-san told me to tell you that she has to prepare for a presentation. I've heard that one of her clients has taken an interest in her latest invention so she has to set up a taster session," he explained.

"That sounds very promising for the technology department,"

The boy nodded his head in agreement.

"Now for what I've called you here for," he looked at Mikan and signalled for her to move away from the comfort of his office furniture and present herself in front of the unfamiliar boy. When she did, he continued speaking.

"I'm sure the email has given you enough information about what is happening at the moment,"

He nodded his head.

"After an extensive analysis, the data shows that her abilities are best suited for that of Class B. Naturally that would mean that the Academy expects the representatives of the said class to help Mikan Sakura settle into the Academy life until other arrangements are made."

"Imai-san and I will do our best to help her," Yuu announced with a look of sheer confidence.

"I'm sure you'll both do a good job."

And with that final declaration, Yuu turned to fully face Mikan.

The look he gave her allowed Mikan to understand that he was silently encouraging her to fire a series of questions his way or perhaps he was just waiting for any type of response from the brunette.

Maybe that was the norm for a transfer student who had no prior knowledge of what to expect but Mikan, on the other hand, had no time for trivial chit-chat as she had practically perpetrated the Academy to complete her objective regarding the power source.

It wasn't like she was going to settle into 'Academy life' anytime soon... or was she?

Unable to think of anything in particular that she desperately wanted to know about the Academy and its procedures, Mikan chose to politely smile at the class representative.

"I'm Mikan Sakura, I hope we can get to know each other well!"

"I'm Yuu Tobita, everyone calls me Inchou, likewise Sakura-san. I hope we'll be good friends," Yuu hummed.

"Now, as I said before, Mikan Sakura will be a member of Class B so she'll be following the standard timetable before further arrangements are made. For now, you should take her to your current class," Yukihara advised and calmly guided both students out of his office but not before leaving Mikan with a smile on her face.

"Welcome to Alice Academy, Mikan Sakura."


"Right now, we're supposed to have English Literature with Narumi-sensei so it shouldn't be too bad. Knowing him, it'll be a self-study lesson... that is unless he plans on coming back to the classroom," Yuu said guiding Mikan to the classroom.

"Does he normally wander off?" Mikan asked, laughing slightly.

"Yes. Class B have gotten used to it by now. I don't really know what Narumi-sensei gets up to but I'm not sure If I want to know either," Yuu stated and just by observing the look on Yuu's face, Mikan was sure that he had unintentionally created scenarios in his head and was pondering in thought regarding the whereabouts of the said teacher.

"He sounds interesting," Mikan commented, light-heartedly.

"He is," Yuu said simply.

"Oh and I forgot to ask but how did you end up meeting the Principal Yukihara?"

"What do you mean?"

"I was quite surprised when I received the email from the principal himself! That's never happened before. Students at the Academy only get to see him during annual events so we feel, or at least I feel, a little overwhelmed when seeing or even hearing about him. Did you not feel the same way?"

"I mean he seems intimidating more than anything but he was trying to talk to me so he can't be as scary as he seems."

"Hm okay, Sakura-san but how did you meet?"

"I can't really remember," she lied. "I've been feeling pretty tired from my journey here so my mind's a little hazy."

"That's fine... Anyway, if we turn left, we're here!"


Dear Yukihara,

Area 25 has officially been closed to all. If any further measures need to be taken, please contact us immediately,

Yours Sincerely,

Unit 5


A knock was heard.

"Come in," Yukihara said casually.

"I've been trying to get a hold of you for quite a while now," a voice commented.

"Seeing that you're here in person... I guess that means it really is a dangerous matter now. We can't turn back now or can we?"

"Unfortunately not," the figure said before closing the door behind them.

"Let's talk about the next steps then."


Responding to your reviews:

Wind of SilentBell: Hello again! Thank you for your review. I have to agree with you, I also love Mikan and her grandfather's bond. It's quite delightful to see such a beautiful relationship between such characters. And about your question, there really isn't anything specific that makes someone a Synthesizer. They're supposed to be Alices. However, I just thought about how across the world we have different words for the same things so I wanted to apply that to this story. The box... haha knowing Mikan she'll be too caught up in future events to even remember it; however, it'll make its appearance (not too soon though!) And to be honest, the 'incident' that I keep mentioning is *extremely* important to the plot so you'll get references here and there but it'll be a long wait till I actually reveal all the details. Also, I hope your question about Hotaru has been answered. Overall, I hope you've enjoyed reading this chapter. Thank you for your continued support! :)

Prdee: *Internal screams intensify* HI! I never thought that one of my favourite GA writers would ever review a story of mine! Thank you! Haha, I hope all the notifications you've received didn't bother you. I had started with Atrocious Acronyms (a story I've been trying to find for some time) and had gotten a little carried away. About your review, it's safe to say that Mikan will, in fact, enter the Academy as a student (No spoilers here since I thought it was obvious.) Also, thank you for actually addressing the A/N in your review, because I get the impression that no one reads so it's quite assuring to know that this isn't the case. Overall, thank you for your feedback, it's much appreciated!


Author's Note: To be honest, this chapter was supposed to start differently, but I felt it was unnecessary to include how Mikan arrived at the Academy in heaps of detail as it wouldn't change the plot in the slightest. And just before I sign off, I'd like to know whether summarising each chapter in my A/N's would make life a little easier. If it'll help just let me know before the next chapter is published. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. As always if you want to track my progress with the story feel free to check out my profile or contact me directly!

I've decided to split my original idea into two chapters so what I was supposed to put in this chapter will be the next chapter. (There's going to be a lot going on!) Finally, just to let you know beforehand, I'm currently editing older chapters. The plot isn't going to change at all but I'm just making sure everything's perfect.

A major sorry for the long overdue update.

Till Next Time :)