Hi! I am back with a new chapter! Please enjoy, domo… Guys, I haven't reviewed this chapter so expect lots of mistakes here... I'll edit it once I am back... I am still using my smart broadband so it is impossible to keep in touch with the Internet access all day... Please bear with me... domo... ^^
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 - They did unexpectedly alright... The others did but Ryoma and Sakuno had the sense which were new to them so they knew that it was different.
You'll know that soon and I guess the same with the regulars...
Haha tinutoo nga talaga ung sinabi... Hindi ako nagpapasa... Di rin ako sure kung magiging book nga yun kung sakali tee hee hee... let's hope for the best pag nagbigay nga ako... tee hee hee...
thank you very much... ^^
Chapter 15: A Possible Solution
Chapter Summary: They explained it but would it be alright?
Narumi with his usual outfit which was pretty common for the alice users was speaking in front of the calls. Ryoma and Sakuno were standing next behind the cross-dresser alice-teacher, introducing them in the process.
"Well, I would you to meet, Echizen Ryoma and Ryuzaki Sakuno," The teacher said while pointing them out, "treat them nice okay."
The class responded when he said that. The Seigaku origins thought that something was odd. The area was filled with colorful atmosphere. Was it the teacher's alice? They didn't know.
"You two should find your seats now." Narumi said.
"Hai." They both said in unison. They found their seats between Natsume and Ruka and both sat in the middle.
Thus the class started.
xxx
"How was your first class" Mikan said after their class that day. Ruka, Natsume and Hotaru were walking together with them.
"I-it was fine," Sakuno answered looking at her, "I was a bit shocked though. This is totally different from our class way back in Seigaku."
"Of course it is," Mikan chuckled as she looked ahead, "Your class in Seigaku is normal and I feel the same way too."
They were in the middle of chatting when they met Nobara in the hallway. The girls were surprised but the boys remained steady.
"N-nobara-san…" Sakuno whispered her name.
Nobara flinched but she didn't reply. She closed her eyes as she continued to walk. As she passed them, they could feel her alice emanating from her body.
She was cold… cold as ice.
Mikan's expression changed as she stared at her. Sakuno saw it and she couldn't help but feel sad for her too. Hotaru and Natsume were just quiet all the time while Ruka looked away.
Ryoma just looked at the ice princess but he didn't say anything from the whole conversation.
"Well why don't you have lunch with us?" Mikan suddenly said reliving the atmosphere, "It'll be fun anyway."
"H-hai… that would be great." Sakuno answered but before they could continue walking, Jinno, Tsubasa and Kokoroyomi approached them.
"Natsume, we want you to come to the office," Jinno stoically said, "Right now."
Natsume just stared at him first before he silently followed the teacher.
"W-what's happening, Jinno-sensei?" Mikan suddenly asked, "W-why is he being called in the office?"
Tsubasa went closer to her and answered for him, "The middle school department principal wants to ask some questions to him so you don't worry about a thing."
"But Tsubasa-senpai…"
"You and your worrywart thoughts," Hotaru said knocking her slightly on the head, "He'll be fine."
Mikan just followed Natsume with her eyes. She wanted to know what questions the principal would be asking him. She had the feeling that it had something to do with the previous encounter they had. She didn't know when but she began to pay attention to him ever since that night.
…Ever since Natsume kissed her that night.
On the other hand, Ryoma and Sakuno thought otherwise. They knew why Natsume was being called. They decided to keep it to themselves about what happened last night. They also knew that the principal had already found out about the mess in Northern woods.
No wonder that Natsume was being called.
Trying to forget the problem for a little while, Sakuno walked closer to her and tapped her shoulder;
"Why don't we wait for Natsume-kun in the cafeteria, ne?"
Mikan looked at her and then smiled a little, "Okay."
At the Cafeteria:
Ryoma and Kokoroyomi were seating to each other. The former was quiet while the latter was just looking at him.
"Do I really act like one of your senpais way back in Seigaku?" Kokoroyomi suddenly said.
"Stop reading my mind." Ryoma retorted.
"I can't help it," He said still smiling at him, "It's my alice anyway."
"Che…"
"Hmmm…interesting." The mind reader alice user commented, definitely discovered something from his brain.
Ryoma looked at him and gave him a death glare. He gave him a message this time and Kokoroyomi sweat dropped as he read him.
"I get it, Echizen-san," He said smiling in the process, "I will not."
"What are you two talking about?" Hotaru said catching their attention. The two looked at the rest. They were actually looking at them.
Ryoma closed his eyes while Kokoroyomi answered for him;
"Nothing,.. just random stuff."
"It's very rare." Hotaru said.
"What's rare?" He asked still smiling at her.
"You blurt out everyone's thoughts but not Echizen's," Hotaru stoically said, "Why?"
"Because it's a secret." Ryoma answered for him.
"Because Echizen is trying to act cool—"
"Hey!" Ryoma stopped him.
The others laughed at their actions and conversations. They ate their lunch their and stayed for a couple of hours. Even they did, Natsume didn't come at all.
Night:
"What do you think will happen then?" Sakuno asked Ryoma as she formed from shapes from her barrier alice. Ryoma was on a chair juggling a tennis ball to his racket.
"About what?" He said not stopping at his activity.
"About Natsume-kun," She said concentrating at her alice, "Will he be punished?"
"…"
"He said that he was only to be blamed," She said looking at her own creation, "I hope he would be okay."
"He would be fine," He said as he stopped juggling the tennis ball and looked at her, "He could take care of himself."
She didn't say anything after that. Ryoma was right but even though he was, she just couldn't take the worry out from her. Her thought was cut when Ryoma stood up and walked closer to her. Her heart skipped a beat when he sat beside her.
"Learn to worry about yourself first, will you?" He said as he looked ahead of their room, "You always do that."
"G-gomen," She looked down as she clapsed her hands causing the barrier to disappear, "I worry you because of me."
"…"
"We are far away from our family and I don't know when we can go back," She said still looking down, "You probably miss Karupin too," She chuckled as she thought of the cat, "I miss everyone at home."
"…"
"…"
"We will go back together."
Sakuno looked at him when he talked. He was looking at the door for the meantime.
"Honestly, it's good to be away from them for a while," He said as he threw the ball that he was holding a while ago and used his own alice to control its movement, "No nagging senpais and all."
Sakuno chuckled when he said that and then watched his power that he displayed at that very moment, "Ryoma-kun's alice is cool."
"Heh," He smirked when he controlled the movement of the ball inside the room. It even went in front of Sakuno making the girl giggle in the process, "This would be a good use against senpai-tachi though."
"What do you mean?" She said as she looked at him.
He looked back at her and replied, "I could play a prank on them with this."
"E?"
"…During practice match only of course."
She smiled at him. She knew what he meant. He never intended to cheat, with or without powers. She knew how much he enjoyed playing tennis and doing the right was what he enjoyed the most.
"While we're here…"
She blinked twice when he started talking.
"And with the alice that I am currently possessing," He started with a strong countenance before he looked at her, "I'll definitely protect you."
Her eyes widened and her face was automatically turned red when he said that. Ryoma was going to protect her. Just how many times did she hear that from him? She didn't know actually but everytime she did, her heart started pounding really hard. And it was not going to stop until later especially when Ryoma just stared at her like that.
Giving her the serious stare he could give.
She held her breath when she realized that his face was leaning closer to hers. What was he going to do? Her mind was not working. He was pretty close to her face. All she could do was to stare at his eyes which were seriously staring back at her. She even flinched when he held her hands with his hand that were resting on her lap. She was speechless as she heard her heart was drumming like a crazy instrument.
Knock! Knock!
Both of them flinched when they heard something knocking on the door. Before the door opened, Ryoma stood up while Sakuno looked away. Ryoma spotted the animal lover entering the room.
"Ryuzaki, Echizen," He started as he looked at them and noticed something, "Did I… interrupt you at something?"
"No!" Both of them said at the same time and both of them blushed with different shades of red color on their faces. No one could read what they were really thinking about. Good thing that it wasn't the mind-reading alice who would spot them there.
He only blushed as he looked away, "G-gomen, I didn't mean to…"
Sakuno stood up and walked closer to him, "R-R-Ruka-kun. Y-you didn't interrupt us or anything. W-why are you here anyway?"
Ruka looked at her and said his purpose, "Jinno-sensei and Narumi-sensei want to talk to the two of you. They said that they found a possible solution on how to remove the stones inside Ryuzaki's body."
Their eyes widened when he said that. Sakuno was the one to recover.
"R-really?"
The animal lover nodded, "Let's go the Narumi-sensei's office now."
Both of them nodded and followed him.
At Narumi's office:
Sakuno was relieved to see Natsume in the office. He was with rest who knew her situation. It seemed that everything went okay for the fire alice user. What surprised her even more was there was a little boy sitting on his lap.
The boy looked like Natsume.
She walked closer to them and she leaned to the little boy, "He's cute, Is he your little brother Natsume-kun." She asked patting his head in the process.
"No." He simply said.
"E?" She was wondering about that, "but you look-alike." She looked at the little boy. He boy was giving her the cold stare just like Natsume before and before she could react, the boy tugged her pigtail really hard making her shriek in the process.
"Youchi, stop it." Natsume scolded the three year old boy but he just pouted a little.
"I-iite…" Sakuno muttered as the way he pulled her braided hair was really tight. Ryoma tried to help her but no to avail.
"Youichi-kun stop it," Mikan who was just sitting beside Natsume grabbed the hand of the boy. Youchi looked at her for a few seconds before he let go of Sakuno's hair. The young boy went to Mikan's lap and hugged her there, "Don't do that again," She said patting the boy's head and then looked at her, "Sorry about that, Sakuno. Youchi doesn't talk to other people that much."
Sakuno brushed her battered plaits as she smiled at them, "i-it's nothing," She said as she sat across them, "Y-youchi-kun sure has a strong grip."
"Her hair's long." Youchi suddenly blurted out.
Sakuno and the others were shocked at his words. It was Ryoma who got recovered and replied;
"It seemed that he knew it well."
Sakuno blushed really hard and retorted, "Mou, it has got nothing to do with anything!"
The rest was followed by laughter until Narumi and Jinno entered the room.
"It seems that everyone is here." Narumi said.
"S-sensei- is it true that you can remove the stones from my body?" Sakuno said not taking the suspense anymore.
Narumi looked at her before he looked at Jinno. The latter nodded before he continued to talk;
"It's true that we finally found a solution to our situation," He said becoming serious at that instant, "But this is not going to be easy."
"What is it then?" Ryoma asked them this time.
"Pandora's box," Jinno said making everyone flinch, "You have to collect bad spirits that escaped from that box."
"I don't get it," Mikan said eyeing the two teachers, "Can you explain it more, sensei."
In Greek mythology, there was a goddess called Pandora whom was entrusted to keep a box unopened," Narumi said, "However, Pandora was curious what was inside the box and still opened it. All bad spirits escape from that box and spread all over the world."
"We know that story so far, sensei," Natsume butted in, "What's the catch here?"
"Patience Hyuuga," Jinno glared at him which he ignored, "These spirits became our negative feelings and emotions all through the years and some already became a sin. These sins became powerful that it created their own magical source."
"The magical stones." Narumi completed his words.
"Magical stones?" Sakuno and Mikan said at the same time.
"What are these magical stones that you are talking about?" Tsubasa asked who remained silent until that time.
"These stones are created due to negative emotions of people through generations. As long as there are negative feelings and selfish intentions, these stones will react to them," Narumi explained, "And these stones are Ryuzaki Sakuno's hope."
Her eyes widened when she heard that, "Y-you mean, w-we have to collect these stones?"
Narumi nodded at her, "That is correct."
"How are we going to search for these stones?" Natsume asked as he leaned back, "And how many stones do we have to collect."
"Good question," Jinno said as he looked at everyone, "The bad spirits that escaped from Pandora's box was a large number but magical stones with strong negative feelings and emotions were few."
"…"
"You only have to collect seven." Kokoroyomi butted in as he read Jinno's mind.
"Stop looking into my mind, kokoroyomi." Jinno scolded him and continued, "as he said, you have to collect the seven magical stones."
"Seven magical stones…"
"Yeah, the seven magical stones," Narumi repeated but he added, "…of the seven deadly sins."
Their eyes widened when he said that. Sakuno thought about it. She knew that she heard of the seven deadly sins but she just couldn't remember them. She looked at Ryoma and judging from his look, she bet that he had the idea what seven deadly sins were.
"I think I know where this is going," Tsubasa said looking at Ruka and Hotaru who both nodded, "That's the reason why you said that it's Ryuzaki-san's only hope."
"As we all know from Pandora's box' story, she didn't let everything escape from the box. She closed the lid before the last spirit could escape," Narumi said, "And that is hope."
"You have to collect all seven magical stones of these sins in order to get hope." Jinno concluded.
The rest was speechless when they heard everything. That was it, they were going to look for these stones to get hope and then the alice would be removed from her body without endangering her life. That would only mean one thing;
They would go on a mission.
"Where can we find these stones, sensei?" Ruka asked this time.
"With our research of finding these stones, we discovered that these stones are like alices," Narumi explained, "They hide inside people's heart and waited to be removed."
"You mean we will look for people?" Mikan looked at Narumi.
Narumi nodded, "Aside from people there are possible things theses stones are still wondering around," He grabbed something from the side table and showed it to me, "Mikan, do you remember these stones that I asked you to get it from me?"
Mikan looked at the stones that was in his palm and nodded, "Hai, those are stones that you wished for me… before." She couldn't say the word 'steal' for she did it from one of the guards that they encountered and observed from the Anti-Alice organization.
The teacher was holding three alice stones, "These are detection alice stones," He put the alice stones to Mikan's hand, "It's up to you who'll you put these alice stones to whom. These can detect those stones."
"Honto?" Mikan looked at the teacher, clasping the stones in her hands.
Narumi smiled, "It'll be easier for you to find the stones with these."
"Hijiri will be coming with you," Jinno said eyeing the boy at Mikan's lap, "Apart from the detection alice, he could sense the strong spirits which are lurking around."
Sakuno was becoming awkward when they started talking about spirits. She didn't want to talk about that but she had to deal with it. She must do it in order for the alices to be removed from her body.
"That's the solution, are you willing to do it?" Narumi asked the obvious.
"OF COURSE!" They all said at the same time.
Narumi sweat dropped, "I shouldn't have asked," He wiped his temple with a handkerchief and then looked back at them, "This will remain a secret to everyone one here except for you guys. Tobita Yuu, Kitsuneme and Shouda Sumire are aware of these but they can't go with you."
They only nodded. In fact, the people around there were too already too many but it was worth it. They were willing to help her, the person who was not originally an alice user in the first place.
"You can start the search next week," Jinno said standing up, "Be sure to prepare anything before you go, and I'll allow you because it's almost summer break."
"Meaning you have two months to search for the magical stones." Narumi finished.
They nodded when they understood everything. Sakuno was filled with hope after that. it was good that they found a solution for the alice that was inside her. they wouldn't bother the people around her anymore.
She wouldn't be bothering Ryoma with this power anymore.
Later on:
"Natsume wait!" Mikan called out to the boy. The meeting was adjourned a few minutes ago and she already noticed that Natsume was leaving the group. She left the group as well catching up to him in the process. Natsume was heading the place where he usually stayed to relax.
…to a large tree near the school premises.
"What do you want?"
"About today," Mikan asked as she looked at him, "Why did the principal call you, Natsume?"
"None of your business." He stoically said as he continued walking to his destination.
Mikan followed him, "It's my business! I am your partner! Can't you tell your partner what's happening?"
"You don't have to know, now go!" He said shooing her away.
Pissed, she grabbed his arm and forced him to look at her. They were in front of the big tree, "Why do you keep things from me? You only leave me think things over."
"Then stop thinking those stupid things," He retorted pulling his arm from her grip, "It's finished."
Mikan just looked at him. Natsume turned around and looked at the tree ahead of them but he didn't say anything after that. She looked down and bit her lower lip before she said her thoughts, "How come I am thinking everyone is keeping a secret from me now?"
"What?" He turned around. She didn't know that because she was looking just looking down.
"You keep saying that I don't have to worry about it but on what you are doing right now keeps me worrying even more," She said gripping her hands to her sides, "I don't like this feeling at all. Everything changed ever since that day."
"…"
"I should've agreed to him and went with my mother instead."
"…"
"I shouldn't have made my own decision and involved Ryoma-san and Sakuno into this."
"…"
"I shouldn't have created those stupid stones at all, I shouldn't have—" She was able to finish her words when Natsume grabbed her arm and pulled her closer to his body. Her eyes widened when he surprised her with a kiss on the lips. She held on to his shoulder as he did that. Natsume was just placing his lips to hers but that impact was too much for her and she didn't know how to react. She knew that she was blushing especially when he started wrapping his hands to her shoulder and waist.
…Until he slowly broke the kiss and completely hugged her there.
"Just to shut you up," He said brushing her hair in the process, "You worry over nothing so stop it."
"Natsume…" She whispered. Her eyes softened as she let him hug her.
"Everything's fine, so don't worry, okay." He whispered back.
She let a small tear fall to her face before she closed her eyes and finally believed him. She hugged him back afterwards, "Okay." She said afterwards. She would choose to believe him.
She would believe Natsume and besides, he had ways on how to make her believe and there was nothing wrong of doing that.
He was her partner after.
Meanwhile:
"Do you think that they will be fine?" Narumi said studying his lesson plan for tomorrow's class.
"They will so don't make a fuss about it," Jinno said trying to test out his new paraphernalia, "Hijiri and that Hyuuga guy are with them. The shadow manipulation user is also there."
"I guess you are right." Narumi said as he sighed. Infact, he was worried about the kids. It wasn't like they never had missions like this before but he just couldn't stop worrying about them. Natsume had several missions through persona at such a young age. He wished that everything would be okay for them. He then looked at the other teacher and remembered something;
"Hey, Jinno, this is the first time we agreed to some terms," He said smiling at him with flowers effect around him, "Isn't this great?"
Jinno upon hearing that blushed at the same time and retorted, "Shut Up!"
Narumi just giggles at his words before they proceeded to their activities.
Past Midnight:
In the middle of night, the dark surroundings were suddenly covered with light effects. A portal from elsewhere appeared at a certain area and revealed several people out there.
"Saa… so this is Gakuen Alice, huh?"
"It's already dark but I still could see the school. It's big."
"This place is huge. I think this area looks pretty during the day."
"You are right. You'll get to see it when morning comes."
"Do you think Ochibi and Ryuzaki-chii's there?"
"They are. Are you ready to meet them?"
"Yes." They said in unison. Any minute now, they would be reuniting with their follow comrades that they hadn't seen for such a long time. With the new countenance on their faces, they followed the person who was responsible for bringing them to that place.
Done! How was the chapter? They found the solution to the problem. Haha… do you remember Youchi, guys? He's really cute. And by the way, he's not the same person from my previous fic called Fantasy Beyond Reality, okay. They are totally different people. Tee hee hee…
I guess it was obvious who arrived at the last scene… tee hee hee… find that out next week… ;p
By the way, the story about Pandora and the seven deadly sins are inspired from the Wikipedia source so I don't claim them. The seven magical stones are the only ones that I created. I just invented them… I hope this would turn out fine though…
Those names that are not related from the Prince of Tennis are from Gakuen Alice anime and manga. Please read their profile on Wikipedia… domo…
Once again, sorry guys... I haven't reviewed this chapter yet... bear with me for a while... I'll fix this soon... ^^
I don't own anything here… okay… Zero-related.
Reviews please… need more motivation… domo… ^^
Next Chapter: Reunion