Hi! I am back with the new chapter… This is getting harder than I thought. Guys, if there is any… feel free to visit my Facebook page for announcements… Thank you… ^_^
DISCLAIMER: The Prince of Tennis belongs to Konomi Takeshi-sensei and Gakuen Alice belongs to Higuchi Tachibana-san. All rights reserved to the both of them.
sweetangel - Umm... the necklace has only two stones... the white and the green. Sakuno has only two alices. And yeah, Mikan gave the alice stone to him. Mikan has the ability to steal alices from the other users and then she turns it into stones. She got the alice from someone and she's just keeping it. When Ryoma asks for her help, she gave that alice stone to him. Well, I hope that helps... ^^
anyway this is the new chapter... thank you very much... ^^
Chapter 13: The Ice Princess
Chapter Summary: She was adjusting to the new environment, new revelation and new people.
It had been three days since the event happened. Sakuno was able to stand up from the bed but she still felt energy less. She couldn't stand for long without the help of anyone.
Was it really felt like losing your own life?
Honestly, she didn't know what to feel when she discovered that she was using her life force whenever she was using her alice at the same time. Weird but she didn't feel scared when she learned about it. Though, she was worried about it. Her friends were worried about her.
He was worried about her.
She looked at him who was holding her to her hand. She couldn't help but blush. Ryoma was assisting her back to her bed. Her time for standing and moving around was already consumed. They let Ryoma guard her especially for the specific time to move around and the guy was strict about it.
Ryoma didn't let her to tire herself.
"Ryoma-kun," She said as long as she sat to her bed, "T-thank you and I am sorry… for wasting your time with me…" She looked down as soon as she said that. He was supposed to practice at that time but she was stopping him from doing so. She couldn't help but feel upset about it.
"Why are you apologizing?"
She looked up to him, "Y-you should've been practicing your tennis at this time." She wanted to say something more but she couldn't think of how to say it.
"Ii yo," He said catching her attention, "It's like I could practice here."
"What do you mean?"
"They didn't have normal sports here." He said as a matter of fact.
"R-right…" She looked down as she thought of something, "A-anou… Ryoma-kun… h-how did you get your own alice?"
He looked at her first before he decided to speak, "I asked Sakura to give me an alice to use."
"Y-you asked her?" She couldn't believe what she was hearing right now.
"Un," He nodded as he looked away, "I found my alice interesting for some reason."
She blinked twice. She remembered about his alice being called 'locomotion' alice. Ryoma had the ability to control the movement of things that he threw. Then an idea popped in her head;
"W-why don't you practice using that alice, Ryoma-kun? I mean, y-you control what you hit, right?"
He looked at her and tried to understand what she said. Blush appeared to her when she noticed that he was staring at her for a long time. She looked down when he didn't say anything;
"G-gomen, did I say weird things?"
Ryoma blinked his eyes twice before shaking his head, "No, it's actually a good idea."
"Eh?"
"I'll try it later."
Sakuno smiled when he said that. At least she convinced him to practice tennis even though they were in a different world.
The door suddenly opened revealing Mikan, Natsume at Tsubasa entered the room.
"Are you okay, Sakuno?" Mikan said as she sat beside her.
Sakuno looked at her and nodded, "I am fine, thank you Mikan-chan."
"It's good that you are," Tsubasa said walking closer to Ryoma, "Maybe you can start walking tomorrow so that you can exercise your whole body."
"Can… can I really?" She hopefully asked looking at him.
Tsubasa smiled at her, "Yes, Narumi-sensei and Nonoko-chan said that you can explore the academy to train your body for gaining your energy back."
She smiled back at him and then to the others, "Yokatta."
"Just go back when you feel tired, okay." Tsubasa reminded her.
"Hai… thank you."
"So this is the savior, huh?"
Everyone looked at the door when they heard someone talked. Ryoma and Sakuno saw a new face standing near the door next to Hotaru and Ruka. Next to them, a girl with short green/black hair was standing there with her one hand to her waist. Her expression was somewhat angry.
"Permy," Mikan said looking at her, "What are you doing here?"
She reacted at her words and said, "Don't call me that, you idiot," She said as she walked closer to the bed, "You must be Ryuzaki Sakuno."
"H-hai…" She said as she nodded.
"And you must be," She looked at Ryoma and stared at him for a couple of seconds. Her face slowly turned red and surprised the others, "You're pretty good looking." She leaned closer to him making Ryoma blinked twice.
Sakuno blinked twice as well. She was surprised at the girl's action. Her face was too close to his face. The girl wasn't contented as she held both of his hands.
"My name's Shouda Sumire. Nice to meet you," She said still not letting go of his hands, "I am the president of Natsume and Ruka's fanclub but I could be your fan too. You are too cute for me."
"Anou…" Ryoma didn't know what to say at the girl in front of him. Why did he feel that the girl reminded him of someone he knew?
"Stop that Shouda," Hotaru interrupted, "We're not here to make a commotion."
Upon hearing that, Sumire flinched and dropped his hands and coughed, "Right, you don't have to remind me that."
Sakuno looked down as she witnessed something like that. Even in the different world, Ryoma was still famous, even though he didn't do anything for them.
Tsubasa noticed her reaction and smirked a little. He leaned a little closer to her and whispered, "She's always like that towards Natsume and Ruka so you don't need to be jealous about her."
Her eyes widened and blushed really hard, "T-tsubasa-san! I… I…" She looked down as she couldn't look at the people in front of her.
"What did you whisper to her?" Ryoma asked him.
Tsubasa looked at him and smiled, "Well, why don't you ask her instead?"
Ryoma blinked twice and then looked at her, "Ryuzaki?"
Sakuno flinched a little and immediately reacted. "I-ie, I was just shocked at something. D-don't worry about it."
Ryoma seemed unconvinced but before he could say his thoughts, Hotaru beat him to it.
"Anyway, you two should come with us for dinner," She said, you'll be meeting with the other students."
Both of them were a little shocked but nodded afterwards.
"See you later," Hotaru said and then looked at Ryoma, "Can I speak with you for a second?"
Ryoma nodded as he stood up.
"You too as well." She looked at Natsume who was looking elsewhere.
Natsume didn't say anything but he walked outside. Ryoma followed him and left the area.
"Well, we will go as well," Tsubasa said walking away from her, "Take care okay."
Ruka left a book near her and said, "I heard that you like books so I think that this could release your boredom."
Sakuno looked at him and smiled, "Arigatou Ruka-kun."
Ruka blushed and walked outside together with Sumire who just nodded at her. Mikan was planning to stay and guard for a while until Ryoma came back. She was glad that the girl did for she didn't know what to do especially when Ryoma returned there.
She hoped that Ryoma wouldn't ask another question regarding the little event they had earlier.
Later on:
"What do you want to talk about?" Ryoma asked as long as they were far from the place. Natsume followed them behind.
"You do know what it is."
Ryoma stared at the stoic girl and sighed afterwards, "It's about Ryuzaki, isn't it?"
"She needs to stay here," Hotaru said after a series of a long period of time, "...for further observations."
"…"
"The organization discovered that she's already at the academy," Hotaru continued, "They would take necessary procedures to get her from this academy."
"What are your intentions then?" He asked not tearing his stare away from her.
"She needs to practice using her barrier alice," She said, "and letting her stay in this school is the best way to train herself."
"…"
"You'll be staying here for a couple of days until months." Hotaru revealed.
"What about in our world then?"
"Our time-traveler teacher would do something about it," Hotaru said, "So rest assured that your family and friends way back in Seigaku would not worry about you two."
"What do you want with us, then?" Natsume said speaking for the first time.
Hotaru looked at him and said, "You two could have a nice combination of alice," She started making the two look at each other. She smirked when they looked at her and continued, "Why not practice them together?"
Night:
"They were taking so long?" Mikan said as she looked at the door.
"Y-you can leave me if you have something to do, Mikan-chan." Sakuno suggested to her.
"E?" Mikan was rather shocked when she said that, "No, I am fine. Don't worry about it. I don't want to leave you here alone."
"B-but…"
Mikan held her hands making her look at her, "I want to spend time with you, Sakuno," She said closing her eyes in the process, "I want to know more about you."
She blushed when she said that and then she looked down afterwards, "A-rigatou, Mikan-chan. I also feel the same way too."
Mikan chuckled when she heard that, "You and Ryoma-san are pretty close to each other."
She was rather surprised at her words, "W-we're not that pretty close, you see," She looked away, "H-he was just worried about me, that's all."
"He cares a lot about you too." Mikan added not really listening to her.
"Mikan-chan…"
"You are so lucky to have a friend like him."
She stared at her after she said that. She was right after all. Ryoma was her friend at least she considered herself as his friend.
Since she saved his cat from a fast car, his attitude towards her changed. She didn't know but she felt that it was all thanks to Karupin that Ryoma was talking to her now.
He was still doing it even though they were in a different world.
She only hoped that he started talking to her because of something else, not because she saved his cat. Speaking of saving, she remembered about the girl that she saved three days ago. The girl actually, visited her yesterday and was very thankful that she saved her life.
But something was still bothering her and she couldn't help but ask Mikan about it.
"Mikan-chan," She said looking at her, "I've been wondering about the 'Ice Princess', who's this person?"
Mikan was shocked when she said that. She looked away and weakly smiled, "She's… an alice user like us."
"I… Is it true that she hit the student through her heart?" Sakuno was still curious about it.
"I refused to believe but the students kept telling me otherwise," Mikan said as she sighed, "Nobara-chan is my friend. I don't know why they couldn't see it."
"…"
"She's… a dangerous type alice just like Natsume... and me."
Her eyes widened when she said that. Mikan was a dangerous alice type as well. She couldn't believe that.
"I steal alices from the other people," She started as if reading her mind, "I could control it but Nobara couldn't."
"…"
"Her alice is Ice and whenever she feels sad she couldn't help but freeze what around her," Mikan said, "The other people have started to hate her and some have been scared of her. She became aloof because of that and she even avoided me. I hope I could be of help to her."
"She can't control her alice?" It was rather a question than a statement.
Mikan nodded. "…Only when she's upset or sad. She didn't have friends until she met me. She was afraid of the day that she would hurt me unintentionally so she couldn't help but avoid me instead. I tried to tell her but she wouldn't listen."
"But you have the nullifying alice. She wouldn't hurt you for that."
"I told her that too," Mikan said smiling in the process, "...but she was hurting my friends instead. They told her not to come close to me for she would be a bad influence to me."
"Mikan-chan."
"I tried to tell at both parties but none of them listened to me," Mikan said gripping her hands tight, "In the end, Nobara-chan chose to avoid and ignore me until now."
She didn't know what to say. She could sense how hard it was for Mikan to see her friend suffer like that. if she had a friend like Mikan had, she would worry about her as well. She grabbed the girl's hands making the latter to look at her.
"Gomen ne," Mikan said gripping her hands with her own and smiled at her, "I must've have been saying a lot of things to you now."
Sakuno shook her head and smiled at her, "Thank you for telling me about her. I know that you two would be understood in the future. I think Nobara-san is such a wonderful person."
Mikan looked at her while still smiling, "Thank you Sakuno."
The door opened and Ryoma came in. Sakuno and Mikan looked at him. Ryoma bowed at Mikan which the latter understood.
"Well, your guardian is here," Mikan said standing up, "It's time that we should rest. We'll see each other tomorrow." The dinner meeting was somewhat cancelled so the teachers decided that they would introduce the new faces tomorrow morning instead.
Sakuno nodded at her and smiled, "Hai… ja mata ashita."
Mikan was at the door when she turned around and saluted at her, "Ja mata." With that she exited the door making the rest sweat drop.
xxx
It was the two of them once again. Sakuno felt a little awkward everytime they were alone. She wasn't used of being with him for such a long period of time.
It was very unusual of them.
Ryoma sat on the chair and looked at her.
"W-what did you do today, Ryoma-kun?" She asked when she thought that he wasn't going to initiate a conversation.
"Practice, just like you told me." He said looking at her.
She looked at him, surprised at his answer. She was glad that he did that, "I am glad that you did."
"What were you talking a while ago?"
"E?" She was taken aback at his question. He was not asking about the conversation earlier, was he?
"…About you and Sakura?"
She blinked twice when he clarified that. At least she heaved a sigh after that, "W-we talked about Nobara-chan."
"Nobara…?"
Sakuno nodded and looked far away. "She's the ice princess that they're talking about."
"Hmmm." He only reacted still looking at her.
She looked back at him and shared her thoughts, "I… want to meet her, Ryoma-kun."
"…"
"I hope we could meet her during our stay here."
Ryoma looked at her before he decided to close his eyes, "About that, we will be staying here for a couple more days."
Blinking her eyes twice, she stared at his dull expression, "W-we will?"
"Un," He said opening his eyes in the process, "They said that they would do excuses of our extension here in our world, so that no one would worry about us while we are gone."
"I… see," She looked down when she learned that. In fact, she was beginning to miss her grandmother and her best friend way back at Seigaku. And she knew that Ryoma missed his teammates there as well but she was stopping him from seeing them because of her, "Gomenasai…"
Silence erupted between them but not until he heaved a sigh making her to look at him.
"Stop apologizing. I've already decided on this."
She just stared at his serious face. He was serious looking at her making her blush appear on her face once again.
"I'll protect you… while we're here."
Her blush intensified when she heard that from him. Ryoma was intending to protect her. She looked down as she fidgeted with her fingers, "J-just stay safe while we're here."
"You'll do the same."
She looked at him and nodded, "Hai…"
Ryoma stand up and walked closer to her. She was surprised when Ryoma grabbed her shoulder and pulled her down to bed, "You should sleep now."
Blush was still present when he did that. The way Ryoma was doing his actions reminded her of Oishi, a caring mother or something. Despite the panicky heart that she was having, she suppressed a giggle as she thought that.
Ryoma accidentally looked at her eye making her panic system overcome from her thought.
They were pretty close to each other. She felt his hands leaving her shoulder as they transferred to the both sides of her face. He didn't leave his stare away from her.
He was just looking at her… intensely.
"R-Ryoma-kun…" She whispered as she could not take his stare that he was giving her. She was never this close to him and she didn't know what to do at this very moment.
He stayed like that for a few seconds before he blinked his eyes twice. He closed his eyes before he slowly moved away from her, "Sleep."
She was able to stare at the ceiling when he was out of her vision. Blinking twice, she tried to recognize what had happened a while ago. She couldn't stop her heart from beating rapidly at that very moment. When she recovered from the shock, she looked at him only seeing him preparing himself to sleep on the prepared futon on the ground.
Ever since the day they arrived there, Ryoma insisted to guard her by staying at her room. He never asked for his own room, saying that he would be enough to stay at her own.
Well, he was such a gentle if everyone would see him. She bet that he was still oblivious about things which were not tennis related.
But she was beginning to doubt it now.
Ryoma was giving her some signs that she didn't understand. His actions were odd and different. He was doing some things which were outside tennis activities. She was beginning to feel nervous around him.
It wasn't a simple awkward feeling anymore.
She was feeling conscious being around him and she knew why.
Oblivious to the boy, she had developed feelings towards him thus, making their situation really awkward. She hoped that Ryoma would understand his own actions so that she wouldn't be feeling like that anymore.
She just hoped.
Later on:
From an isolated area, there was a girl trying to calm herself down. Her breath was heavy as she leaned on a wall. She grabbed her chest thinking that if she did that, the pain would subside.
She had just used her power once again. Some students provoked her but she knew that she did her best not to harm them. She didn't want to repeat the same mistakes ever again. She accidentally hit a girl with her ice on her heart.
It was her first time doing that but she didn't realize that it was that pretty bad.
Her alice was ice. She could freeze everything that she touched. People would make way for her whenever she walked on their way. Her eerie was somewhat mysterious to them.
She could even hear rumors that if they would look at her eyes, they would freeze. That wasn't true though. She didn't have the power to do that at least. She still had to do a physical contact to freeze something or someone.
But she didn't like her power. She didn't like it at all.
Until she met Mikan and told her that her alice was beautiful. She tried avoiding the girl, fearing that she would hurt her but Mikan did the opposite.
Your hands are warm. They don't affect your feelings with your alice. You have a warm heart, Nobara-chan.
She could still remember what the girl said to her. Mikan had a warm smile plastered to her face when she said that. She couldn't help but smile at that memory. She wanted to be friends with her. She really did.
But her own alice was stopping her.
Thinking her fate, she looked down and finally calmed herself down.
"Students are forbidden to stay late, you know."
Upon hearing the voice, she looked up only to see the fire alice user standing in front of her. She smirked at him, "Then why are you doing the same, Hyuuga?"
He grunted as he closed his eyes, "I hate this school."
"Yet you keep reminding me what to do?" She smirked back at him.
"This stupid school is important for her."
Upon hearing the pronoun he used, she couldn't help but feel upset about it. The fire alice user reminded her about the girl once again, "What do you want?"
"Stop worrying her."
She looked at him, "What?"
"You heard me."
She just stared at him. The boy in front of her was lecturing her of what to do. She cared for Mikan of course, but she couldn't express it.
But the boy could.
She couldn't help but feel jealous about him. She walked away from the wall and smirked at him, "What if I refuse?"
He glared at her making his eyes turn into scarlet red," I'll make you accept it then." He said raising his hand and created a fire from it.
She glared back at him but she didn't say anything. She would just prepare herself for the upcoming battle with the fire alice user.
And she knew that it wasn't going to be an easy one.
Done! How was this chapter? There is going to be a fight between fire and ice. What do you think will happen in the next chapter? Find that out next week… Domo…
Review please! Need more motivation. I am running out of time… Domo…
Next Chapter: Borderline