Chapter 10: Live!

Finally, I reached the end of the corridor after pit falls, shooting arrows, lava and so many other cliche traps. Nothing I couldn't handle.

I entered a room and I felt half of myself die. A brunette was in a metal cage, hanging over this endless pit.

MIKAN!

"No Natsume, don't!" the girl tried to warn him but it fell on death ears. He hissed, thinking of what variety of torture he would use on those who had done this to Mikan.

"Wait Mikan, I'll get you down!" the boy said. He took a risk and shot out a small string of fire, towards the padlock. He knew that the chances that the padlock would melt was low, but he did not expect the attack to reflect back at him. He easily dissipated it with a wave of his hand when he felt as if his lungs were on fire. He doubled over in pain and started to cough up blood.

"You thought it would be that easy, Natsume Hyuuga? Using your alice here takes a bigger toll on you then it would on Earth," a voice in his mind laughed, an all to familiar voice. "Midnight,"

Natsume gritted his teeth until the excruciating pain had finally quelled down. Mikan was calling out his name in worry, gripping the side of the bar and quickly pulled back when it burnt her hand.

The crimson-eyed alice wielder began to seethe and with a nimble jump, he clutched onto the bar and almost let go due to the blistering pain. He had never knew how it was like to have got burnt, but now he wished it stayed that way. He quickly swung himself to the top of the cage. It had similar effect, but it felt a lot better than direct contact with it.

He flipped himself upside down and tried to pull at the door. The only result was his hands getting burnt and he flipped himself back up, trying to keep himself from screaming. The brunette seemed to know him pain. "Natsume. Please stop. Just leave me. There's an exit over there,"

"What nonsense are you saying, polka?" he said, trying to get the feel back to his hands. "I will save you, and I will pass," he growled, then suddenly realized what he had just said. "Pass...?" he wondered, then his eyes widened in realization.

"Before we pass unfortunately, you guys have to pass a test," Raven said.

How could he have forgotten? This had all been a test. So how does he pass? Freeing Mikan? In the background, the girl was still screaming at the boy to just go.

Zaki looked at the group and Hotaru got hit by a pang of realization.

"Aren't you...,"

And now, the same thing hit Natsume as it had hit Hotaru previously. Zaki had looked like Yuu, except with a complete personality switch and the colours of his eyes and hair changed as well. Zaki was Yuu's opposite. And chances are Zaki had Illusion Alice as well... Before they had left Earth, Natsume had been dragged by Raven to the side. "Natsume.. All the opposites actually have the same Alices to each other. The reason I can use the water alice is because Midnight inserted many alices into me. But that also means Midnight has plenty of alices too. Dangerous ones. I thought I should tell you this,"

For the first time ever, Natsume was grateful to Raven. Now that his mind had been cleared, he knew this was all an illusion created by Zaki. The person next to him must have been Koko's opposite, and therefore, read all their minds and told Zaki what their weaknesses were. Natsume knew that many had always got mad at him for putting other people's priorities before his.

"Bingo," a voice interrupted him from his stream of thoughts. Mikan smiled as she started to flicker in and out. Before long, everything started to fade away and Natsume was back in the dark for the second time, which was two times too many for him. He wondered how Mikan handled it.

Natsume stretched out his limbs as he woke up and found out he had been the last one to regain consciousness. Ruka was blushing furiously and when Hotaru turned her head towards his direction, he quickly averted his gaze, turning even redder. Mikan looked like she had been crying while Hotaru looked the same as ever. The minute he saw Mikan, he tackled her into a hug, checking her palms for any burn injuries. Mikan looked shocked at this and kept on protesting that she was uninjured.

"Natsume. The Mikan you saw was just a fake," Zaki intervened with an amused smile. Hotaru happily took a few pictures, thinking of the quality of blackmail she could do with these pictures.

Natsume let go of Mikan, staring at Zaki blankly when he finally registered what the boy had said. The aura around him turned dark and he looked like he wanted to strangle Yuu's opposite but before he could lunge at him, both him and Sora disappeared.

"We're spent too much time here," Raven said, smiling slightly at Natsume's actions. "It's about time we reached Htrae,"

End of Chapter 10

I have no words to say what I feel and a simple sorry doesn't make it up to it. I haven't updated for half a year. I didn't rewrite Midnight Sakura like I had said [in the description and in my one-shot FFN Regret Message I mentioned this]. And when I finally come back, I present to you a crappy chapter. I. am. despicable. I know this won't ever make up for my absence, but...

I am so sorry

I won't explain my petty excuses for my absence. But I have to say a few things, so bare with me. First, I feel like this story had gone on for too long. I have decided to skim through this chapter and hope that I get to finish this story soon. It's been tying me down for too long. I am not fit for writing long stories such as this. I'm sticking to one-shots in the future, that's for sure. Yes, this story is going to end soon, most likely. Thank you all to people who had favourite, commented and followed the story [or for some odd reason], me. Thanks to the silent readers out there too!

Ja-ne!
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