Chapter Four: The Dangerous Ability Room
Author's Note: I were asked these questions in my reviews. The characters shall now answer them.
In the previous chapter, why does Karin say "Andou" so oddly?
Karin (bluntly): I didn't know how to pronounce it correctly, and was too chicken to ask.
Did the main characters think Persona was a girl?
Hana: Actually, I knew he was a guy…he doesn't look that much like a girl…
Does Persona like Hana?
Hana: Can we not talk about this?
Mitsuki: Yes, Persona does like Hana. Get over it.
Hana (stroking her chin): Or does he?
As for the "Karin likes Hayate,"
Karin: CLASSIFIED! Nah, I'm just joking. All will be revealed in due time.
Mitsuki: I'd like some chocolate chip cookies. …please…
Chapter Four: The Dangerous Ability Room
As we file out of the room of our last class, I catch a glimpse of familiar darkness.
"Persona…" I mutter under my breath. When most of the students already leave for their special class, Persona walks briskly over to us.
"I trust your first day was satisfactory?" he says, seeming to address Hana more than ever.
"Yes, thank you." She replies softly.
"Follow me." Persona says shortly. "I'll take you to the Dangerous Ability room."
He leads us through endless seeming staircases, corridors, and hallways. I wonder how we'll ever remember the way there. Finally, we arrive in front of doors that seem the same as any other door in the Academy.
Persona turns around and says, "I must leave you now. On normal days, I would join you here, as I am the moderator of the Dangerous Ability group, but I still have some unfinished business to take care of." His eyes flicker around nervously. "Good-bye."
"Good-bye." We all echo tiredly. I'm rather tired now, and I'm not sure if I want to meet any more new people. What I want to do is go check out my dorm, do my homework, make my report, and go to sleep.
I mentally give myself a slap on the cheek. It would do no good to meet new people with a surly expression. After Persona is far from sight, I try to lighten the mood by saying with a poorly disguised cough, "He still fancies you!"
Hana just glares at me now, and I grin widely, exchanging smirks with Mitsuki.
"Let's just go in." Hana snaps. "I'm pretty sure we're late already."
"Ooh, ooh, I get to knock!" I rap smartly on the door in my trademark sing-song rhythm. Now this is it. I take a deep breath. Soon, we will see all the top Alices of this Academy.
I place my hand on the door and pull.
"Umph!" I pull and I pull, but nothing happens. A long silence ensues, and my eyebrow begins twitching rapidly. I pull again, hoping it would it would open then, but my wish is not granted.
"Phmf!" I turn my head to see Mitsuki clapping her hand across her mouth.
Hana says in a voice choked with laughter, "I think…haha…you're supposed to…heehee…push…hahaheha…"
"Of course." I say sheepishly, pulling at my bangs as I push the door open. "How stupid of me."
"Yeah. You're just a magnet for misfortune." Mitsuki says behind her hand.
I sense something peculiar. Rather than a brightly lit room with students chatting like in the Dangerous Ability Room in America, I only see pitch black. I see utterly nothing.
"What's this?" I mutter so softly only I can here. Then I call out in a louder voice, "Hello?" We stride into the dark room confidently.
It was here, right now, that we do something so idiotic, Joel and Kay would hang their heads in shame. We do something that no one with something to hide should do. We leave our backs open, bare and undefended.
Because of our folly, the next events happen before my brain even has a clue. The door shuts with a loud creak, enclosing us in complete darkness. Then, someone grabs me and slams me into the ground, pinning me down so I cannot as much as move a muscle on my body. Straining my ears, I hear Mitsuki and Hana struggle somewhere close by.
I yell out the first thing that jumps into my mind.
"RAPE! RAPE!"
I know that was a stupid thing to say, but wouldn't you scream that if you were assaulted by a stranger? In fact, it is expected of you. If you didn't scream this…I would stare at you with a weird expression for the next half hour or so.
This statement coming from my lips serves as a suitable distraction. My captor's grip falters, and I knee the person in their gut, then kick the person off me. Hana has already incapacitated her captor, and I can only hope Mitsuki has done the same.
I begin to grope for the wall in the hopes of finding a light switch. I realize I could just use my Alice, but I do not want to use it unless it is absolutely necessary.
Someone beats me to the light switch, causing a huge flood of light to blind my eyes. When I finally stop seeing bright dots, I find myself standing back to back with Hana and Mitsuki. We are completely surrounded by boys and girls, all with menacing expressions on their faces.
I recognize these faces. These faces show no fear, no hesitation to kill and be ruthless. I immediately stiffen, in unison with my best friends, and crouch into a battle position. I want to avoid using my Alice, especially since I am wearing no Alice prevention earrings, necklaces, bracelets, or rings. I had stupidly thought I wouldn't need them. Oh how I was wrong.
"Stop!"
A little girl with brown hair tied up with ribbons jumps out with her arms outstretched, positioning herself in front of us.
"Stop it! They didn't do anything bad!" Her little face is screwed up in a frown, determination shining from her body.
"Get out of the way, Sakura." A boy snarls. "We don't want to hurt you too."
"Heh."
A familiar boy slouches out, stopping beside the little girl, a cocky grin on his face. "You'll hurt her? Try thinking before your words come out of your mouth."
"Tsubasa." I mutter, trying to keep my mouth from involuntarily smiling. I recognize him from that distinguishable star on his cheek.
"What are you guys doing here?" He mutters back to me.
"Why do you think we're here?" Mitsuki hisses back.
Hana groans, "Guys, can we not do this right now?"
"Tsubasa, what's going on?" I ask suspiciously. Something smells fishy. And it's not sushi. I feel as if this was all planned. I certainly hope that this is not an everyday occurrence, because if it is, these people seriously need to see a doctor.
"Well…" Tsubasa begins, a sheepish expression on his face, but he is interrupted by the murderous boy from earlier.
"Orders are orders, Sakura!" he shouts. "So move out of the way!"
"What orders?" the Sakura girl looks utterly confused. I can tell she's clueless.
"Idiot…" the boy snarls, and all of a sudden, without any warning, launches an attack heading directly toward us.
Instead of jumping out of the way, like any sane person would do, the little girl just stands there, brow furrowed, as if she's concentrating very hard. Tsubasa, her supposed protector, does nothing too, just standing there, gawking at her. God, is no one sane anymore?!
I launch myself at her little body, pushing her out of the way of the attack. I hear her squeal briefly, "What are you doing?" I maneuver her on top of me so I won't squish the guts out of her when we will eventually hit the floor.
The left side of my butt is the first part of me that gravity affected. Fine, sure, no problem. It's part of my own weight. But my butt is soon followed by the rest of me, with the added weight of the now-not-so-little girl.
"Oof!" comes out of her mouth as she lands on me.
The words pop out of my mouth before my brain stops to think. Normally, I would be a very strong objector to swearing in public, and especially in front of children, but out of my mouth at this very moment comes, "Shit! That hurt like hell!"
The girl immediately sits up and says worriedly, "Are you okay?"
Sitting up, I open my mouth to reply, but instead of having a nice chat, my instincts scream at me to roll. I tumble over, narrowly dodging a nice, hot fireball. Ooh.
"What the fudge?" I quickly jump out the path of another fireball. I look in the direction the fire is coming from, and see a young black-haired boy with scary red eyes, staring at ME!
Everyone has cleared out of our battleground, watching us intensely. The students are staring at us with a look of glee, while Mitsuki and Hana have looks of horror on their faces.
My temper is boiling so much I think steam must be pouring from my ears. What right do these people have to just randomly attack us? The fact that my Alice is itching to be released is also not helping my situation. Instead, it is making me feel worse, making heat build up inside my body. But I am certainly not going to strip in front of everyone here, so I must suck it up and bear with it.
The little girl starts screaming someone's name. "Natsume! Stop it!" The boy chucking the fireballs with amazing accuracy stops momentarily, and to my utter astonishment, begins running away from the little girl.
In that moment that I'm not moving, he throws a curved fireball at me, and when I finally realize that it's coming toward me, I know it's too late. I have no other choice now.
With a large wave of heat, I drag my arm downwards, and cast a gigantic shield of fire that absorbs the insulting fireball. My anger adds extra spark to my fire, and the ferocity of my attack drops the smug looks off everyone's faces.
I inwardly breathe a sigh of relief. The fire that has been contained for so long is finally out of my system. I want to let loose…burn something…but I must discipline myself…
"Karin!" Mitsuki's cool voice cuts through my fiery reverie. Ice creeps up to kill my diminishing fire. It's Mitsuki's ice, her Alice. My brain calms down, massaged by cool probes, courtesy of Hana's Alice, mind manipulation.
"Good. There's no more fire in her eyes." Hana mutters.
"Thanks." I say, giving them a smile. They always manage to get me out of trouble. "How's the kid?" I look over at the black-haired boy, who is sprawled on the ground, pinned down by the little girl, who is saying some words that I cannot hear to him. She eventually lets him up, and he seems to be calmer now. At least he's not tossing his fireballs at my face anymore; although his Alice's power is quite astonishing. I'd bet it could almost even rival mine.
All around us, I hear people whispering.
"Hey, she has the fire Alice, just like Natsume-kun…"
"I saw that other girl use ice. Maybe she has the ice Alice, like Nobara-san?"
"Yeah, hopefully she can control it better than Nobara…"
"I wonder what Alice that skinny girl has."
Tsubasa, standing by the little girl and boy, beckons us to come over. We walk over to him. The boy is still staring at me, although there is less venom in his gaze than before.
"Amazing display, Karin! You totally kicked Natsume's butt!" Tsubasa crows.
I shrug and say, "Eh."
I am frustrated with myself. By that little stunt, I just said good-bye to a minute of my lifespan. Not cool! Every single minute counts to me. Mitsuki and Hana also face the same problem I do. Sure, our Alices are super powerful, but when we use them, our lifespans are shortened. That's why we distinctly try to avoid using our Alices; trying to use them only when they're needed.
Tsubasa interrupts my thoughts b saying, "I know you meant well, but Mikan has the nullification Alice, so she can stop any attack. Man, I didn't know you guys were D.A…"
My pride hurt, I sit down heavily beside the little girl and groan, "Why didn't' you stinking tell me before I stupidly humiliated myself before everyone in the room?" Mitsuki laughs at me and Hana smiles.
I turn to the little girl and say perkily, "Sorry about nearly squishing you earlier. My name's Sakurai Karin. What's your name?"
"My name is Sakura Mikan! Nice to meet you, Karin-senpai!"
"Who's your friend?" I look over at the boy sitting next to her. He narrows his eyes into crimson slits and glares at me, saying nothing.
"This guy is Hyuuga Natsume." Tsubasa explains to me.
Mikan pipes up, "Who're your friends, Karin-senpai?"
I look up at Mitsuki and Hana. "Well, introduce yourselves!"
"Do we have to?" Mitsuki whines.
"Yes." I reply matter-of-factly.
"Fine." Mitsuki sighs. "My name is Sakurai Mitsuki."
"My name's Narita Hana." Hana says, "Nice to-"
Hana is interrupted by someone yelling, "Karin-chan!" I turn around at the sound of my name and see Hayate running toward me.
"Hayate-kun? What are you doing here?"
"Karin-chan, I am so sorry. If I had known you were one of them…" He grins sheepishly. "I'm doing a rotten job of being your partner, aren't I?"
One of them? Yep, something definitely smells fishy. Flashing a smile at him, I say brightly, "It's not your fault, Hayate-kun."
Hana turns to Tsubasa and asks him, "You were about to say something earlier, Tsubasa-kun? Right before Karin and Natsume-kun fought."
"Oh yeah, that." Tsubasa says, sheepish expression back. "Well, you know how Hayate and I were called out of class?" I nod excitedly. Tsubasa sounds like he is going to impart some important information.
"You know Persona, right?"
Mitsuki nods while I say briskly, "Yes, yes, please continue."
"Well, Persona was the one who called us out. Actually, he called out all the people in the D.A class. Said something about testing the abilities of the newbies." Seeing our expressions, he hastily adds, "Once again, I had no idea…"
My brain is reeling, assessing all this new information. So Persona was behind all this.
"Did Persona tell Natsume to attack Karin?" Mitsuki asks abruptly.
Hayate answers her, with a mildly bewildered expression. "Actually, no. Natsume-kun acted on his own will. His attack was not planned at all."
I look over at Natsume, who sulks moodily next to Mikan. "That was quite an attack." I offer half-heartedly, trying to make conversation with him. Silence, plus a glare.
"What's your Alice shape?" I try again, becoming more and more uncomfortable by the minute. Once again, silence. I can practically hear crickets chirping an entire sonata.
"I look forward to getting to know you better. Maybe we can train together sometime?" Natsume actually turns his head to me and opens his mouth to speak. Inside, I'm glowing with joy. Finally, I got a reaction out of him! This boy is even more anti-social than Mitsuki was. Nothing that a couple of days with me and Hana couldn't fix.
Instead of decent conversation, my jaw almost drops from the words that he says.
"Why would I want to train with such a weak, ugly person?"
So…he wants to play this game, huh? Well…this type of game isn't my specialty, but I'll try my best.
Coolly, I say back to his face, "I know you are, but what am I?"
"Ooh!" Tsubasa laughs, clearly enjoying this. "You going to take that, Natsume?"
You're not the only one with fire in you, Natsume. Heheheh. Judging from his face, I can tell he's not used to people acting this way to him.
He glares at me with a mega scary expression and is about to give a retort, when a familiar voice from the door interrupts him.
"Now, now, kids. It's not good to fight! And on your first day too…" I whip my head around so fast, my hair flies up.
"Why, good afternoon Narumi-sensei." I say, while Mikan begins squealing and runs across the room towards him. With amused expressions, Mitsuki, Hana, and I watch Narumi-sensei swing Mikan around, making her cry out with delight. Out of the corner of my eye, I sneak a peek at Natsume, who turns away from the cute sight, muttering under his breath, "Perverted teacher…"
I suddenly remember something I had wanted to ask him earlier. "Narumi-sensei?" I say. He turns his head towards me and goes "Hm?" with a smile while putting Mikan down.
"What's your Alice?"
He smiles a devilish smile. "Pheromonal Inclination." I must have a clueless look on my face, because he adds, "It means that I have the ability to attract people regardless of gender." With a giggle, he continues. "I can make anyone obey me, but if I use it on a child who is inexperienced in love matters, they will generally grow very weak, and maybe even faint!" He winks suggestively at Natsume, who gives him a killer glare.
"And that's a good thing?" Mitsuki says skeptically.
"I'd say that is a very good thing." He bends down and smirks in her face. "Do you want me to demonstrate?"
Uncomfortably shying away, Mitsuki mumbles, "No thanks, I'm good."
"I'd like to see it!" I say excitedly.
Narumi-sensei sweeps the entire room with his gaze and calls out, "Any volunteers?" He glances especially at Natsume again, who deliberately turns his back on him.
"Oh, whatever." I mutter. I look up at Tsubasa, a light bulb turning on in my head. A growing grin on my face, I say, "Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner." Tsubasa looks at me warily.
"Narumi-sensei." I reach up to grab Tsubasa's shoulders, stopping his attempt at escaping. With a wide smile, I push Tsubasa forward. "Tsubasa gladly volunteers for the sake of educating new students."
Gulping audibly, Tsubasa stammers, "No, Tsubasa doesn't."
Mitsuki smoothly fills in, pushing the other side of him forward, "Yes, Tsubasa does."
Narumi-sensei sighs, "I was hoping for Natsume-kun…I do enjoy embarrassing him…" he brightens, "but Tsubasa-kun will do."
Tsubasa bristles. "What do you mean 'Tsubasa-kun will do?' Well, bring it on!"
My eyes widen instinctively, and I put on my glasses, partially to see better, and partially to take pictures and video record. I switch on that function, then settle back to watch the demonstration.
Narumi-sensei bends down to Tsubasa's cheek, and gives him a peck. My jaw drops open. Tsubasa's surprised face quickly slides to a deep blush, and he just stands there, eyes focused on only one person. Narumi-sensei.
Rather worried, I walk over to Tsubasa. "Whoo-hoo! Tsubasa still in the house?" I wave my hand in front of his face. "Look!" I make my face surprised. "It's Misaki dressed in a bikini!" He still stares at Narumi-sensei, with an expression full of ardor. I remark to Mitsuki and Hana, "Yup, he's out for sure."
"Now watch this." Narumi-sensei says, winking at me. He turns to Tsubasa and says clearly, "Dance like a chicken."
To my amazement, Tsubasa folds his arms up into makeshift wings and starts flapping them up and down. He hops from one foot to the other. Everyone in the room laughs freely. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a smirk tugging at the corner of Natsume's mouth, while Mikan is watching Tsubasa dance with a mirthful expression.
Her giggle attracts the attention of Narumi-sensei, who then orders Tsubasa, "Go kiss Mikan-chan!"
"Eh?" Mikan starts as Tsubasa turns toward her. Everyone laughs again, except Natsume, whose smirk is gone and replaced with a scowl. With a red-stained face, Mikan runs away from Tsubasa, who chases after her, unable to stop. "Aaaaah… Nonononono!!"
Chuckling, I say, "Narumi-sensei, I think that's quite enough. Let's preserve what's left of Tsubasa's dignity and save Mikan-chan from wetting herself."
"Okay, fine."
Watching Tsubasa's face carefully, I see it regain its normal color. Hiding a smile, I assume a surprised expression again, point toward the door, and cry, "Look! It's Misaki in a bikini again!"
"Eh? Again? Where?!" Tsubasa whirls around, sees no Misaki and bikini, then turns back to me with a surly expression while I put away my glasses.
I grin in his face, wave to Mitsuki and Hana, and bellow, "He's back!"
"Okay, fun time is over. Have to get to business now." Narumi-sensei adopts a gentle smile. "I've come to take you to get your ID cards and textbooks."
"Catch you guys later!" I call as I head towards the door where Narumi-sensei is waiting, along with Mitsuki and Hana.
"Bye Karin-senpai, Mitsuki-senpai, Hana-senpai!" Mikan calls back.
"See ya!" Tsubasa winks.
"Good-bye, Karin-chan." Hayate says over his shoulder. I cannot help it; I smirk at Natsume, who silently fumes and shoots me a "you-haven't-won-yet" look. We follow Narumi-sensei into the great unknowns of this school that is peculiarly called Alice Academy.