A/N: Well! Long time no see. I have no idea if anyone is still reading this anymore, but regardless, thank you for your patience. I'm also very sorry for the long wait. This third and final part has actually been finished for a while. A long, long while, in fact — since 2019. It only needed revising and editing, and I was well underway doing those, but then life got in the way... And then I lost touch with this story. It's taken me many years to finally come back to it, but I've never forgotten about it; this was the first novella-length fanfiction I've ever written, and to this day, I'm still proud of having written and finished it. It's also very strange to come back to! I wrote this in my final year of high school, and now here I am, 5+ years later, as an actual adult. So strange to look back on and remember all the little things I used to worry about, back then!
I've done a final check for this part in terms of grammar and any minor spelling errors, but it definitely won't be revised the same way the other parts were. The ideas of the story are too far away from me now, all these years later! Regardless, I hope you enjoy reading this final conclusion to the story.
—
Part III
Mikan's eyes grew wide. "What?" Her jaw dropped open, and she stared at Ruka, and then at Natsume, in turn.
Natsume, his expression unchanging, fanned his nose lightly. "Your breath stinks," he deadpanned to Mikan.
Her mouth shut with an audible click, and she blushed furiously, her fists clenching. "You—"
A gentle hand on her shoulder made her turn, and when she saw Hotaru's placating gaze, Mikan felt her anger shudder and die. She gazed at Hotaru, instead, and watched as she stepped forward, subtly pushing Mikan behind her.
Hotaru tilted her head. She glanced at Ruka before her violet eyes drifted to Natsume, stilling to drill holes into him. She seemed to see past his demeanour, down into the very depths of his soul, with how hard she was staring. Natsume, if Mikan were to give him credit, didn't flinch once. He simply stared back. Mikan looked back-and-forth between the two of them, her panic and anger momentarily swallowed by her confusion. She saw Ruka staring at Hotaru with widening eyes.
"What? What's going on?" Mikan asked, feeling like a bobble head.
"Let's take them with us, Mikan," Hotaru finally said, her voice conversational. Her expression was unreadable as it had always been, and she finally looked away from Natsume to meet Mikan's gaze.
Mikan felt her eyes pop out of her head. "Eh?" After a beat, she pointed at Natsume and waved widely. "This guy? This rude bastard? Take them with us?" Mikan felt her tone taking on a whine and her eyes widened, knowing how much Hotaru hated it. She tried to stop, but couldn't. "Hotaru, I only came for you. Do you have any idea how hard it was just to get in here? There's no way we can escape with two more people! It's too hard—gAH—"
Mikan gave a short shriek and ducked as Hotaru aimed at her head with a giant fly swatter.
"Stop whining," Hotaru said. The fly swatter began shrinking at the press of a button, and when it was small enough, Hotaru pocketed it. Natsume and Ruka stared at her while Mikan crouched and cowered, her arms protected her head.
"I have a concussion…" Mikan muttered, before rising slowly and pouting. Her arms fell to her sides as her expression stilled, becoming sombre.
"I was serious, Hotaru. I only came for you." She turned to Natsume and Ruka. After a moment, she bowed. She continued speaking, her tone apologetic. "I'm sorry. I can't take the two of you with us." She met their eyes, her own apologetic but stern.
Ruka stared at her, his eyes widening. He glanced briefly at Natsume, his gaze lingering, before turning back to Mikan.
"Please," he said, and slowly, he dropped to his knees in front of Mikan.
Natsume inhaled sharply. "Ruka—"
"Please," Ruka said again. His eyes were wide and blue and desperate, pleading, begging. "Please take us with you — or — or if you can't take me, then just take him. Please. Please. I beg of you. Save Natsume."
Mikan stared at him, her eyes widening, when shouts erupted from down the hallway. Running footsteps drew closer.
Their window of escape was narrowing rapidly.
Mikan turned back and found Natsume in front of her, his arm extended to block the hallway behind him and Ruka.
"If you don't take both Ruka and I with you, I'll let them get you. Both of you." His voice was cold and quiet, his eyes — narrowed rubies — glancing at Hotaru before locking with Mikan's again. A wall of flame rose to block off the hallway, trapping them with the approaching voices.
Teachers entered the mouth of the hallway, and Mikan could see them coming, shouting at them to stop. The closer they approached, the more Mikan felt her resolve breaking.
"Mikan," Hotaru said, grabbing her arm in warning.
" Stop where you are! Don't move!"
"I changed my mind when he fell to his knees," Mikan murmured, her voice at odds with the growing panic inside her. She finally broke away from his eyes, meeting Ruka's wide ones, and said to Natsume, "Don't let them catch us."
One moment, flames were roaring in front of them, blocking off the path of their escape. In the next, they disappeared and appeared again, swift as wind, behind her back. The sight of the teachers were swallowed by flame.
"Let's go," Ruka said.
They started down the hallway, Mikan managing to keep up. The trip to the Academy's elementary's hospital ward had done her some good, evidently, because even while her upper arm still hurt when she pulled it too far back, and only a slight discomfort in her side made itself known to her as she ran, all else faded.
Mikan glanced up to find Hotaru's eyes on her. She grinned, even as she panted, and a small smile found its way through Hotaru's lips. Hotaru looked away before Mikan could see it bloom fully, but Mikan grinned to herself anyway.
The four of them rushed through hallways, down stairs and through doors, pouring through the school like a typhoon. Mikan knew herself to be lagging behind slightly, but she sucked in breath after breath and pushed forwards. She wouldn't let herself be the reason that they were caught — not again.
An abrupt stop almost made Mikan slam into Natsume, who had stopped first in front of them.
"Why'd you—" Mikan began, her tone sharp, before she caught sight of the hallway ahead of them and cut herself off.
Ahead of them, blocking the door to their escape from the Academy's high school building, stood a group of teachers and guards. The guards held batons and tasers, electricity crackling from them, while the teachers stood tense and waiting, ready with their Alices; a tall man with an austere face held a pointer, electricity crackling from the tip; a plain-looking man with dark hair held a whip Mikan recognises as the same one Narumi held earlier, thorns sticking from the length of rope; a nervous-looking man with glasses stood ready, his hair extending and uncoiling around him; and numerous others, so many that her breath stuttered.
To the front of the group stood Narumi, his expression stony. Another man stood next to him, a plain mask adorning the top half of his face. Numerous rings and jewellery decorated his fingers, and on his ear, a thick ear cuff sat. Unlike Narumi and the other Academy teachers, this man stood calm and blasé. As if he thought they were bound to fail.
Mikan scowled, her hackles rising. Immediately she knew that out of all of them, the masked man was the most dangerous.
Meanwhile, all around the teachers, pressed to the very walls of the hallway, stood numerous other students, watching and gasping. The teacher with the austere face and electricity curling from the tip of his pointer snapped at them to go back to their classrooms, to leave the area, but the students ignored him completely. They stared at Hotaru, Natsume and Ruka, whispering and conversing with tones of equal awe and disdain. They gazed at Mikan, too, and wondered at her origins, recognising her to be the intruder.
Mikan swept a glare at them before turning back to the teachers as a voice spoke out.
"Natsume," the uncanny, masked man began, raising one bejewelled hand. "You know it's pointless to run. You'll never escape."
As the man spoke, Natsume tensed harder and harder, becoming more rigid with each word. He panted and glared, his eyes as sharp as knives and hotter than the flame he conjured earlier. If looks could kill, the masked man would have died the second Natsume laid eyes on him.
Ruka came up behind him and squeezed his shoulder with a quiet, "Natsume."
Mikan scowled. She stepped aside and out from behind Natsume and Ruka's backs, placing herself in ahead of them. She stood in front of all of them — Hotaru, Natsume, and Ruka — and whipped her arm out, shielding them.
A sharp inhale cut through the silence behind her.
"Mikan," Hotaru said.
"I'm not letting you touch a single hair on his head," Mikan promised, quietly. Her voice cut through the chattering of even the students, and they fell quiet. She felt more than saw them staring at her from her peripheral vision, but she had eyes only for the enemies ahead of them, and she saw the way the masked man's mouth firmed with displeasure.
Before he could speak further, Narumi cut him off.
"There's nowhere else to go." Narumi's voice was firm but gentle, soft with an unspoken sadness that made Mikan frown. He tried to look her in the eyes, but she refused to meet them. "You have to give up, Mikan."
The masked man continued, seeming resolute to ignore Mikan for the moment. "Give up, Natsume. Come over here now. We'll even lessen the punishment for that girl." He pointed at her with a clawed finger, the jewellery glinting dangerously in the light.
"Mikan," Hotaru's voice came hushed, hurried — frightened. She whispered softly, her words meant only for Mikan's ears. "Mikan, it's not too late for you to run. The… the punishment for outsiders is bad. Not only because of the Academy, but the government — it's bad." A hand squeezed her shoulder, and she knew it was Hotaru's. "We'll be okay, Mikan. We're students. They'll… go easier on us. But you have to run. You have to get out of here, now."
The words spit out of her faster than she can think them. " No," Mikan said, too loudly, and she can feel everyone's eyes twisting to her. "No. I'm not leaving you. And I'm not letting them take you away again. Never again."
"Mikan…" Hotaru whispered, her voice trembling in a way Mikan had never heard before. Her heart squeezed at the sound.
Mikan turned her attention back to the masked man and the group of guards and teachers. "I'm not letting you take Natsume or Ruka, either. We're all escaping. We're all leaving the Academy, together, whether you like it or not." To the masked man, she said, "you're never getting Natsume ever again." Her eyes and voice ran strong with the steel of her will.
It seemed as though the last thread of the masked man's patience snapped. He began striding forward, raising his clawed hand, saying, "You, you insolent girl, I've had enough of you…"
"Persona, wait—" Narumi began, but the masked man — Persona — ignored him.
At the same time, Hotaru shouted, " Hyuuga, now!"
A cyclone of flame erupted around them, encasing them, blocking off their view of Persona's approach. Screams rose to meet the flames, and Mikan could hear the panic from across the crackle of fire, the shouts and yells of the teachers and guards as they were forced back.
" Natsume," Ruka said, his voice worried.
Mikan turned to look behind her.
Nastume stared at her, his eyes as red as his flames. They licked around them, Hotaru and Ruka pressing in closer to avoid the heat, and Mikan felt them at her back, a burning barrier.
Natsume was pale, sweat gathering at his forehead, but he said nothing. He nodded, once.
Mikan nodded back.
They walked along the path to the exit, screams and flames intertwining together in a knot of chaos. Sometimes Mikan thought she saw guards closing in on them, but in response, the flames would rise higher and burn brighter, hotter, and the shadows would fade away.
"Natsume," Persona's voice said as they had the front doors within sight, ringing out across the shouts and the flames. "If you leave now, you know what will happen to Aoi."
Natsume froze, his eyes widening. His face, already pale, seemed to whiten further, and a bead of sweat rolled down his cheek and splattered on the floor, hissing in the heat. He seemed to stumble, but there Ruka was, throwing Natsume's arm over his shoulders and wrapping his own arm around Natsume's side.
"Natsume, don't listen to him," Ruka said, his voice almost frantic. "You know they can't hurt her, not really."
Mikan looked at Hotaru, but she only stared impassively back at Natsume.
"Natsume," Mikan said, and she realised that was the first time she'd called him by his name. She hesitated. "I… there's no more time. We need to get out. If it's someone else we need to save… I'll come back for her. I promise you." She paused, then, took his hand, meeting his eyes with her own. His palm was sweaty and calloused. "But we need to get out, now."
His eyes flickered shut as he panted, leaning against Ruka, before he grunted in assent. She let her hand slip from his grip, nodding once more.
They pressed forward. They stepped through the open doors of the high school buildings, leaving the screams and flames behind. Hotaru shut the doors behind them and then, sliding something out of her pocket, stuck it to the crease between the double doors.
A hissing and bubbling sounded before the thing expanded, a sticky, clear substance. It held the doors together, as strong as resin.
"Super, super glue," Hotaru said simply, and then, "you can release your Alice now."
Natsume did, with a gasp. The crackle of flames disappeared from inside, and they quickly stepped down the stairs, away from the building, Mikan eyeing the door wearily while Ruka supported Natsume, his worry as evident as his grip.
"We have to run again," Ruka said. "Do you think you'll manage?" He asked Natsume.
Natsume panted, easing his grip off of Ruka. "Just give me a second," he murmured, dropping down to his haunches, one hand on the ground to keep his balance.
"Wait." Hotaru dug through her pockets and retrieved a folded thing, something that reminded Mikan of a wallet. "The trackers."
Ruka blinked at her. "That's right."
He and Natsume both retrieved their wallet-things, Natsume already more composed, and threw them to the ground behind their feet. He rose to his feet again.
"Let's go," he said, his face still a little pale. Mikan glanced at him once, before pacing to Hotaru's side, and they all set off once more into the woods.
—
They stopped running when Hotaru tripped for the second time in a row, her knees dusted with dirt. Promptly after, Mikan's stomach grumbled.
She wrapped her arms around it, embarrassed.
"Let's rest, Natsume," Ruka said, bent over, hands on his knees. His breaths came out in gasps. "We're thick — in the woods. We have... some time — before they find us."
Natsume stopped and grunted, hardly out of breath compared to the rest of them. Mikan shot him a half-hearted glare.
Her stomach rumbled again, this time audible enough for them to hear. She avoided their eyes, furiously trying not to blush.
They settled under a tall, blooming maple tree, red leaves drifting off in a chill wind. Evening was arriving, the sun cascading down the sky. Mournfully, Mikan watched as night arrived in the forest once more.
She winced as she sat down, a sharp pain stabbing her side. Hotaru settled beside her, eyes on Mikan.
Ruka, meanwhile, had gone off into the woods, murmuring an excuse before he left.
Natsume sat down across from them, arms resting on spread knees.
"Mikan... are you alright?" Hotaru's voice broke the silence.
Natsume carefully considered the ground, his head bowed. If he could hear their conversation, Mikan didn't care.
"I'm okay," she said, placing a hand on her right side. "The doctor said I have a rib fracture, so it kind of hurts. But not as much as before," she added quickly, seeing Hotaru's expression becoming more closed off. That was how she knew Hotaru was worried — even more worried than she already was. When they were young, Hotaru hid her emotions because she didn't know how to express them. As they had grown older, however, she'd started hiding them for a different reason — to stop Mikan from worrying about her. Which had only served to make Mikan worry more.
They didn't talk again, the silence filling in the gaps of their words as Hotaru ruminated and Mikan's stomach growled once more. She settled a hand there, and felt irritated at herself for being so hungry — she'd had some food back at the hospital, after all. So what if she'd been running around all day? She had more important things to worry about, like how to escape the school with Hotaru, as well as Natsume and Ruka in tow.
The arrival of Ruka interrupted her thoughts, along with a gaggle of animals; rabbits, birds, foxes, a raccoon dog, and even a bear.
Mikan shifted back, opening her mouth in warning, when she noticed bundles in each animals' arms — or claws, or paws.
"What?" She said, bewildered. Her attention was stolen by the food, however, and she grabbed a loaf of bread, gnawing and ripping at it like she hadn't eaten in days. Which. Well. Might have been true.
"The animals found food for us," Ruka said, sitting by Natsume, eyeing Mikan. He frowned. "Slow down, there's enough food. They can get us more if we need it." One by one, the animals had been leaving bundles of food on the ground — all wrapped to protect them from the dirt — and as the last animal stepped away, he turned to them. "Thank you." He beamed.
Purring or chirping lovingly at Ruka, the animals slowly retreated back into the woods.
Mikan, having eaten a loaf of bread, an apple, a pear, and then an onigiri, had satisfied her hunger. She stared openly at Ruka, and her thoughts began stirring like a rod in a pot. She murmured, "Animal communication Alice?"
Ruka stilled, and met her gaze.
Mikan realised that that was the first time she'd spoken directly to him. She opened her mouth to say something else — what, she didn't know — but Ruka blushed, ducked his head, and murmured, "No. Close. It's the Animal Pheromone Alice."
"Oh," Mikan said, and suddenly silence descended upon the four of them. No one said a word, and awkwardness hugged Mikan. She stared at the ground in front of her — at the food left on a picnic blanket — and spied a carrot. Abruptly, she grabbed it, and took a bite. She watched the others eat, as well; Hotaru was peeling a banana, slowly, while Ruka nibbled at an apple, and Natsume took small bites out of a small fruit tart.
By the time they'd all finished eating, the woods were filled with thick darkness.
"Damn it," Mikan said, realisation hitting her. "My bag. I — I had my torch in my bag. A blanket, too. I left it back in the hospital… Urgh…" She hid her face in her hands, groaning in frustration. How could she have forgotten her bag? Her plan — what she would do when she escaped outside the Academy with Hotaru, as well as Ruka and Natsume? She couldn't carry out her plans without her bag. She cursed silently at herself once more, tugging at her hair.
Small shadows danced on the ground, and Mikan blinked, surprised. When she looked up, she saw tiny flames dancing on Natsume's hand.
"Oh, I forgot," Mikan said, feeling silly. "Fire Alice."
Natsume said nothing, and when Mikan took a closer look at him, she frowned. Prominent underneath his eyes were dark circles, and every so often, his eyes would slowly fall shut before jerking open again. Natsume leaned back on one arm, her other resting in his lap. When his eyes opened again, he glared at Mikan. "What."
Mikan scowled, but bit back her words. Without Natsume, they likely wouldn't have been able to escape at all. She thought over her words, her scowl falling away, before saying, "Does that make you tired?"
He frowned. "What?" This time, it was more of a question.
"Using your Alice."
Ruka looked at Natsume and he did a double-take. His eyes widened and he inhaled sharply. "Natsume."
"I'm fine," Natsume grunted. From the way they all stared at him, Mikan knew no one believed him, especially not when he started slumping to one side. Ruka hurried to stand.
"Stop that!" Mikan yelled, stumbling to her feet. She ignored the sharp pain in her side. " Stop using your Alice!"
The flames winked out, and they were plunged into darkness.
Mikan's heart jumped, but her eyes were already starting to adjust, making out Natsume and Ruka's silhouettes in the faint moonlight.
Mikan could vaguely make out Natsume leaning on Ruka's shoulder, but still standing. She could hear him breathing, hard, as if he'd run a marathon.
She heaved a small sigh of relief. At least he was still conscious.
They settled down again, Ruka helping Natsume to lay down on the ground. He slipped off his jacket and rolled it up into a ball, pushing it between Natsume's head and the ground. Natsume said nothing, but slowly, his breathing evened out.
As the night grew alive around them, Mikan saw the tiny pricks of glowing eyes staring at them in the darkness, in the gaps between trees and leaves. She was almost afraid, but she'd remembered Ruka's Alice, and the animals that had brought them food, and knew the eyes to be ones that would protect them.
When she glanced up between the canopy of trees, she saw the moon emerge from behind a dark cloud. It shined down on them, thick and full.
She shifted where she sat.
The dirt was hard and cold beneath her, and she sighed, leaning back against the maple tree. Several times she felt the creep and crawl of bugs across her skin and she flinched, brushing them off.
Hotaru settled next to her. In a rare show of affection, she sighed and leaned her head against Mikan's shoulder. She rested her hand against Mikan's knee.
"I'm glad you're okay, Mikan," Hotaru whispered, and her voice barely broke the silence, so soft as it was. "I missed you."
"I missed you too, Hotaru." Despite herself, Mikan felt wetness drip down her cheeks, familiar tears blurring her eyes once more. "I missed you more than anything," Mikan whispered, and her voice choked with the suddenness of tears.
They sat together like that, in that full darkness, until Mikan's eyes drifted shut and she fell asleep.
—
She woke up later in the night with a stiff neck and a full bladder. Hotaru had shifted in the night, turning to face away from Mikan. She was still asleep, her breaths even and full.
Mikan rolled her neck and stretched silently. She sat there, enjoying the serenity of the silence, with only the dull, even breathing of the bodies around her, their breaths thick and slow with sleep.
Eventually, when she could no longer stand her full bladder, she got up to relieve herself. She didn't dare stray too far from the group in case she lost herself in the woods. She found a thick tree to squat behind, and she held her breath and tried to be silent as possible, embarrassed at the noise. When she was done, she sighed in relief, and turned to go back.
When she walked around the tree she saw Natsume sitting up, awake and watching. His red eyes glinted in the dim darkness.
Mikan stared at him, her face heating before he even spoke, his expression and tone both deadpan.
"Nice panties. Plain, like you."
"You pervert. You disgusting, horrible, evil, stupid…" Mikan continued whispering insults, crossing back to where Hotaru slept. She was still fuming when she sat back down next to Hotaru, across from Natsume.
"I can't believe you," she whispered when she had finished, crossing her arms. "You're horrible."
"You already said that."
"It's true."
They quieted then, running out of words to speak. Mikan sat there and refused to meet his gaze, still embarrassed. She noticed that the darkness had eased from when she'd first woken. Instead of it being full black, there was a faint blue glow to the world. The night was approaching its end, waiting for the day to bleed through.
"How did you know?"
Mikan blinked, startled. "What?" She'd forgotten about Natsume.
Natsume's voice was quiet. "About the Academy. What they do… with us."
Mikan sat there, thinking of how to respond. When she composed her thoughts, she grabbed the edge of the school uniform skirt, running her fingers across the fabric. The beige in the plaid was becoming more noticeable as the dark of the night faded into day.
"Before I came to the Academy, I did a lot of research." Mikan began, her voice quiet. Ruka and Hotaru both continued sleeping, their bodies unmoving in the thick of dreams. "I wanted to make sure that if I did this, I did it right. That Hotaru would come back with me, too." She continued, "so I went to the library most days, when I could, which only really turned out to be the weekends. And I read through a lot of stuff; forums, mostly. And you know who talked in some of those forums? Ex-students." She raised her eyes to meet his red ones, solemn. "They said how some of them were part of a… what was it? A class, a group, or something, for dangerous students. Then they talked about what the school made them do. What they made the group do. They said they killed someone because the school told them to. They were just a kid… They said they never forgot the face of the person they killed. And that they never forgot what the school did to them." She paused, taking a breath. "That was the only bit from an ex-student. The rest started talking about other stuff, from students taken to America and China to be used in the military, from students put into circuses, used as entertainment in the school. And one talked about the school experimenting on Alices."
"That's bullshit," Natsume interrupted.
Mikan scowled at him, but her annoyance faded at his expression.
He stared at her with wide eyes, shock as true as the arriving day. "The… the first thing you said is… true. But I don't know about the rest of it." He stumbled over his words, and Mikan stared at him, her own surprise growing.
He had seemed so sure of himself. Cool, untouchable, like iron or stone; but now, Mikan had even managed to surprise him.
She noticed his hands shaking, and her voice softened imperceptibly.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
He blinked, looking down. He shoved his hands into his pockets and murmured, standing up, "Nothing. I need to go."
"No, stay. What's wrong?"
Mikan stood up as well, coming over to him.
He frowned, then, his expression souring. "Piss off, Ugly. I'm getting disgusted just by looking at you." He turned, beginning to walk away.
Suddenly he stumbled, grunting, and turned to face her in surprise. She'd punched him square in the back with her left fist, her knuckles stinging.
"Rude, idiotic bastard," she spat, and his face seemed to shift and change, closing off even further into his usual apathetic expression. The shock and vulnerability had long dissipated.
"Stop deflecting," Mikan continued, "stop trying to turn me away. You saved me. I'm saving you. What's wrong?"
He stared at her, and his expression changed again, the stony edge softening. "Nothing," he said, but he seemed calmer, less cold. "I don't want to talk about it," he murmured so softly, Mikan didn't hear him at first.
She blinked. "Okay. Sit back down then."
"No."
"What? Why? Where are you going?"
He raised his eyebrows. "Do you want to join me?"
"What?" Mikan said, flabbergasted.
"What you were doing earlier."
It took a second, but Mikan understood. When her blush returned, it was ferocious, painting Mikan as red as a tomato. "You perverted, moronic, disturbed…"
Before he turned away, Mikan could have sworn he was smiling.
—
Hotaru and Ruka woke up with the full arrival of dawn, shortly after the end of Mikan and Natsume's conversation. When Natsume returned, they continued walking shortly after.
"We're in the Eastern Woods," Ruka said, after consulting a bird. "We continue in this direction for another four hours, and we should reach the boundary."
They rested four times, all because the pain in Mikan's side grew too much to bear with the prolonged walking. She was certain all the healing the doctor had done for her had worn off, by then, with her burns stinging and her forearm throbbing, but at least it seemed her concussion hadn't returned; of all her injuries, that one would have been the most dangerous to continue with.
On their fourth — and last — break, sweaty and exhausted as they were, they still managed to jerk to attention at the sudden noise.
"Who's there?" Mikan called out, jumping to her feet.
Natsume summoned a flame, and Hotaru took out a giant fly-swatter from her pocket, the swatter growing in size as she held it. Ruka stayed back with Mikan, tensing.
Leaves and shrubs shifted apart, and out stepped a thin, brown, furry teddy bear, holding a backpack in one arm.
"Bear!" Mikan exclaimed, dashing to him. She hugged him, ignoring the throb of the cut on her arm as she did so, his soft ear tickling her nose. "I'm so happy to see you. You…"
Her words paused when she noticed, in his paw, that the backpack he held was her's.
"My backpack! You got it for me from the hospital? Bear…" She teared up and sniffed, and he hugged her again, handing her the bag.
He separated from her embrace shortly, stepping back.
"You need to go?"
He shook his head, pointing to her.
She understood, and smiled warmly.
"Thank you, Bear. For all that you've done. Goodbye."
He left as suddenly as he'd come, leaving not a trace behind.
When Mikan turned around to face the others, she found them all staring at her in astonishment.
"What?" She asked, but even Hotaru shook her head, and they had no choice but to continue onwards.
When they finally reached the wall, they almost walked straight into it, with how dense and thick the forest was.
"We made it," Mikan said, gasping, her lungs working hard to keep up with the rest of her body. She bent over, her hand on the knee, ignoring the sharp pain in her side. She wanted to rest so badly, but they were there — at the edge of the woods, at the very edge of escaping!
"Mikan…" Hotaru said, placing her hand on Mikan's back for a few moments. "How did you get through the wall, before?"
Mikan straightened, and found them all looking at her.
"Uh, funny story, actually," she gave a weak laugh, rubbing the back of her neck. "I climbed a tree that was close enough to the wall, and I was going to climb down the other side, but then I hit the barrier and I fell. That's also how I got injured." And she gave another weak chuckle, ducking her head.
They stared at her.
"So you didn't really sneak into the school, did you? You… fell inside it." Ruka's voice could colour the picture of bafflement itself, with how bemused he was.
"It's embarrassing," Mikan muttered, flushing. "I didn't even know that there was a barrier around the school."
"So there's no secret way through the barrier…" Ruka muttered.
Hotaru paused. "I have a device—"
A huge explosion threw them to the ground, so loud that it stole the voice of the world for one long moment.
Belatedly, Mikan remembered to breathe. She stared up at the sky through the canopy of trees, stones and branches digging into her back. Her heart beat a rhythm too fast to dance to, and when Mikan managed to sit up, she saw the hole in the wall and the figure standing in front of it, his hand outstretched.
He came back to them, Hotaru and Ruka already standing. Mikan scrambled to her feet, sucking in a breath as her hand flew to her side.
Hotaru shot her a look and she shook her head. "I'm okay."
They took off running, darting through the hole and into the world outside.
Behind them, Mikan could hear shouts. When she stole a look over her shoulder, she saw the flashing figures appearing — teachers, guards, teleporting there.
A brief moment of panic had her wonder how they'd found them so quickly, and then she remembered — they monitored the barrier. They would know if a section of it was destroyed.
They lagged, just outside the barrier. They had nowhere to run; ahead of them was the busy highway, and behind them was the forest, the teachers, the clutches of the school.
Mikan almost moaned in despair, but all of a sudden, a wall of fire rose. It cut a path across the highway, blocking off the cars, which were forced to jerk to a stop. They beeped angrily.
They took off across the highway. Mikan stole a glance at Natsume and found him pale and sweating, but he still managed to sprint as fast as the rest of them, even with his wall of fire. It had spread, now, to block off the personnel behind them — she could hear their swears as they were intercepted by the flames.
"Natsume," Ruka gasped out, still running. "Don't overdo it."
Natsume grunted.
Finally, through the sheer combination of luck and Natsume's fire, they managed to reach the commercial area, a good ten minutes run from the school. Civilians ambled innocently around them, shops and storefronts bright with advertisements.
Mikan's eyes darted around and snatched onto something.
"GO INTO THAT ALLEYWAY!" Her finger shot out to point ahead of them. She ignored the glances her shout brought.
The entrance of the alleyway was small and secluded; people walked right by it.
Without a word, they all ran towards it.
They entered. Mikan, gasping from the pain in her side and the adrenaline thrumming through her, dropped to her knees. She twisted her backpack around and dug inside it, ripping out a shawl, a hat, sunglasses, a dress, and a jacket.
Exasperation filled Natsume's voice. "What are you doing."
"Mikan, there's no time, we have to hide." Hotaru said, and although she sounded as apathetic as usual — as apathetic as she could gasping for air — Mikan could hear the fear at the edges of her voice.
Mikan didn't waste time. She threw the dress at Hotaru. "Change into that."
Hotaru blinked at her, catching the dress. "What."
Natsume and Ruka joined in staring at Mikan, their eyes disbelieving.
Mikan snapped at them, annoyed and afraid. " Think about it. They're looking for four escaped Alice Academy students, not four random teenagers just hanging out in the city."
Her words spurred Hotaru into action. Mikan threw the rest of the items at them — a purple jacket and straw hat for Natsume, and a shawl and sunglasses for Ruka. While they dressed, she thought on her feet; she tore off her own jacket and tied it around her waist, hiding the Alice Academy skirt. She drew out her hair ties, letting her pigtails spill down, free and loose. She fluffed up her hair a bit, attempting to make it look more natural.
When she finished, she found Natsume and Ruka looking at her.
"I only brought enough clothes for Hotaru," she explained.
She considered all of them. Hotaru was wearing the sun-yellow dress that Mikan had stolen from her room before she'd left, her uniform underneath. Ruka wore the shawl around his shoulders and thick, black sunglasses, looking vaguely like a tourist. Natsume stared back at her in Hotaru's frilly lavender jacket, the straw hat sitting tilted on his head.
"This'll have to do," she muttered. "Come on. We need to catch a taxi. Walk casually," she added as they exited the alleyway.
She caught Hotaru staring at her as they walked slowly to a taxi rink.
"What is it?" She asked.
"No, nothing," Hotaru murmured, walking ahead of them.
"No, what is it?" Mikan caught her hand, making Hotaru pause.
"You've changed, Mikan. You're different than I remembered." Hotaru looked contemplative, her eyes otherwise unreadable.
"Oh." Mikan blinked, and supposed she had changed, some time after she'd fallen down that first tree.
—
They lucked out and caught a taxi that had been waiting by the curb for someone who was late, and with the promise of double the amount that they had been paid — Mikan cringed internally, thinking of all of the savings she had brought along gone – they were on their way to Tokyo.
Mikan sat in the passenger seat, the taxi speeding along the road. When they passed the highway that sat by the Alice Academy, she fell back in her seat instinctively, but the people milling around the giant hole Natsume had made in the brick wall didn't even glance at them. When the Academy disappeared from sight, Mikan relaxed and looked out the window.
She wasn't surprised when warmth touched her face, wet trails streaking down her cheek.
"We made it," she choked, tears as clear in her voice as on her face. "We really made it."
The taxi driver gave her an odd look as she cried softly. For the entirety of their trip, though, they stayed quiet, Mikan's quiet sobs filling the vehicle until they reached Tokyo.
She wiped her face, giving the taxi-driver the promised amount.
He shook his head. "It's fine. I'll take half."
She blinked and thanked him, and they exited the car, the vehicle driving off.
Mikan breathed in the smell of Tokyo and felt like it had been a thousand years since she'd visited it, even though it had more likely been only three days.
"Mikan," Hotaru said, touching her upper arm. "Where are we going to go?"
Mikan turned to face her. "The subway. We need to take a train—"
"No, where are we going after that? Where will we stay?"
Mikan blinked at her, the answer as obvious as sunlight. "Home."
She turned to face Natsume and Ruka, the two glancing at her as well.
"Do you two have a place to stay?"
Ruka blinked and frowned, glancing at Natsume.
"I think my mum's overseas on a holiday," he murmured, glancing down.
"What about you, Natsume?"
He looked at her and shook his head, saying nothing more.
"We can find a hotel," Ruka mumbled, his face twisting as if he didn't believe in the chances of their success. "Maybe there's a shelter…"
"Come with us." Mikan looked at them, and their eyes lifted to meet her. She scratched her ear as she suddenly became embarrassed at the attention, mumbling, "Um, you two can stay with me and my Ojii-chan. I'm sure he won't mind, and we have the space. At least until you two have somewhere to go."
Ruka's eyes brightened, and Natsume watched him, his impassive face considering. Ruka glanced at Natsume, though, and his face changed, becoming determined. By then, Natsume was looking at her.
"Okay," he said, interrupting before Ruka could get a word out. "We'll go with you."
Ruka's smile, though reluctant it was, was bright.
—
The subway was quick, but Mikan napped all of it until they had reached their stop, Hotaru, Natsume, and Ruka sitting unblinking around her. They were too tense to rest, Natsume's hand clenched into a fist on his knee, Ruka glancing behind them every so often, and Hotaru, too quiet and still; calm to any other eye but Mikan's, who knew her too well to be fooled. When they went on the bus, though, gradually, they relaxed, and Mikan woke up halfway through her own nap to watch Hotaru's eyes drooping closed. By the time they switched buses for the last time, they were all napping, Mikan wide-awake and bouncing with excitement.
She was going to see her grandpa for the first time since she'd left. She hoped he hadn't been worried sick for her, and she frowned at the thought of him lying in bed, moaning weakly for her. He had to be fine. She had been fine, even after her fall. So he would be, too.
She had to wake them up gently when they approached their stop, and Natsume bolted awake, his eyes widening.
"We're on the bus," Mikan whispered, and he seemed to calm when he remembered where he was.
It was a twenty minute walk home, and they strolled in the bright, afternoon sun, Mikan giddy from the success of their escape; the sight of the bright, clear sky above them; and the thought that home was up ahead, her grandpa waiting, the thought of him blazing and familiar.
"We're here," Mikan whispered, and they all stopped in front of her home, a small, comfortable house.
She waited for a moment, a strange nervousness coming over her, and she wondered how she should enter; was her Ojii-chan in bed? A chair sat next to the door, a foldable Mikan hadn't seen when she'd left, and she wondered if her grandpa had been waiting, out there, for her—
The front door opened.
Her grandpa stood there, dressed in his robe, and he froze when he noticed her.
"Mikan?"
She froze. She wanted to run towards him, hug him tight around the neck like she had when she'd been little, knowing she'd be safe okay when she was with her grandpa. But it was as though chains held her limbs down and rooted her feet to the grass.
Her grandpa looked older than ever, his pinched face thinner than she remembered it the morning she'd left three days ago. His eyes had dark circles underneath them, shadows of the pain and worry he must have felt with Mikan gone; guilt nibbled at the edges of her heart at the thought of what she'd done to him.
"Mikan," he said again, and he stumbled closer, his knees shaking as he closed the distance between them.
"Mikan." His face paled like he'd seen a ghost, and she came over to him, worry flooding her veins.
"Oji-chan, Oji-chan, I'm okay," she said as she lifted his arm around her shoulders, holding his waist with another arm. "Let's get you back inside." Relief flooded her when her voice didn't shake.
She turned towards the door with her grandpa. He only continued muttering her name, his face blown wide with disbelief, as though she was a mirage he couldn't believe he was seeing.
At the silence that followed her steps, she glanced behind her. Hotaru, Natsume, and Ruka stood frozen, the blond's face smeared with emotions that blended and disappeared as soon as Mikan would recognise one. He smoothed his expression when he noticed her watching, though, trying to capture the same stillness that graced Natsume's and Hotaru's.
"What are you waiting for?" She blinked at them, fighting the urge to raise her eyebrows. "Come on in."
When Hotaru's parents came, later, weeping and grateful — after one low phone call her grandpa gave them — they excused themselves from the room.
Natsume and Ruka showered, and Mikan set up three futons for them in the living room. Hotaru had gone outside with her parents, but she had come back inside eventually, refusing to go back home with them because it was too obvious; when the Alice Academy guards and teachers came, the first place they would check was Hotaru's home. So she would stay with Mikan for the night, as well as Natsume and Ruka, both of whom stayed quiet. Hotaru's parents returned home, only because it would have seemed too suspicious for them to have disappeared the same day Hotaru did.
They were all quiet during dinner, a simple meal of rice and beef her Ojii-chan managed to make, and when the two were done Natsume and Ruka excused themselves.
Mikan helped her grandpa to bed, but when it came the time for her to sleep, she couldn't. She laid on her bed, watching the moonlight slowly cross her bedroom wall, before she gave up and rolled up her futon. She carried it under an arm and shut her bedroom door quietly behind her. She came down to the living room, where the three of them lay sleeping.
She set down her futon, smoothing it on the ground, when Ruka woke up. He sat up.
"Mikan?" He said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "What are you doing here?" His voice was quieter, then, remembering the rest of the sleeping figures around him.
"I feel weird sleeping in my bedroom," Mikan whispered back, sitting on her covers. "It feels strange not being with you three," she admitted after a short pause, looking down at her hands in the dark.
"Oh," Ruka whispered back, and, after a moment, he pulled himself out of his covers, sitting there with his knees in the air and his arms wrapped around his legs.
There was another thick piece of silence, tall and wide in the air around them, full until Ruka said, "You scared him, you know."
"What?" Mikan said, watching Hotaru and Natsume's chests rise and fall with their breathing. She met Ruka's gaze after a moment.
"When you were talking about the Academy, the Dangerous Ability Class — the ex-student who… who killed."
Mikan blinked. "You heard that? But you were…"
"Pretending to sleep," Ruka filled in, throwing her a smirk.
"Huh." Mikan considered the sleeping forms of Hotaru and Natsume again, and then remembered what Ruka had said.
"How did I scare him?"
Silence, and then, "Because that's exactly what they made Natsume do."
Her breath was torn out of her, as if she had been punched in the stomach. She avoided Ruka's gaze for a moment and watched Natsume, his face ragged even in sleep, a strand of hair falling into his face.
"Mikan?"
"I'm just thinking… How could they ever make him do that?"
"You're not afraid?"
"No. Why would I be?"
"Some people think he's a murderer."
"He's not. I know what a murderer is, and he's nothing like it."
Ruka watched her, his mouth opening slightly. "How do you know a murderer?"
Mikan smiled, an odd, angled smile void of any of her usual joy. "I saved Hotaru when I was eleven, didn't I?" She asked, seemingly to herself.
"What?"
"I'll tell you."
And she did.
—
When Hotaru and Mikan had been eleven, they'd gone out hiking. They technically hadn't been allowed to, having asked their respective guardians the day before; Mikan still remembered the way her grandpa had lectured her for even suggesting the idea, and the way she had cringed when he had smacked her on the head with a walking stick, the pain lingering hours later. But the woods behind their elementary school — the one they'd had to transfer to, after the one in their village had shut down — had been lush and deep, and she and Hotaru had been creatures of whim. So after one school day, when the sun was full and the weather was warm, they headed out with no more than their school bags and a compass Hotaru had found in her parent's garage.
"The school is east of the forest and we still have an hour before our bus comes," Hotaru had told her, staring down at the metal compass in her hand. A few dark strands of her hair had been floating up from her head, unnoticed by Hotaru in her concentration. Mikan had giggled at the sight, secretly loving it. "If we keep north, we won't get lost."
So they followed the red hand pointing north into the forest, heading unnoticed by their peers and teachers, both of whom had been eager to leave for home.
For the first few hours before they realised they were lost, Hotaru and Mikan had loved it. The sunlight danced on the shiny surface of the leaves, glittering like stars; branches waved at them in the gentle wind, slow and sturdy; and the lakes they found by chance gazed at them, full and blue and beautiful. They'd seen ducks in one of them and, using the leftover bread from Mikan's lunch, they threw them some crumbs, watching them dart about in the water for food.
Mikan had seen a family of foxes in one part of the forest, their fur red and dry. The two cubs had appeared first, darting out of seemingly nowhere; Mikan had stopped and gasped loudly, pointing excitedly — but wordlessly — at them to Hotaru. Hotaru had stopped and blinked, focusing on them, and in that way Mikan knew that they had caught her interest, too. Mikan had tried to approach them, holding out a hand and whispering reverently, when another figure darted out of the bushes, striking red: the cub's mother. It stared at Mikan, planting itself between her and the cubs, and with Hotaru's hand on the shoulder and the way the mother stared at her, Mikan had known to back away. It made her grin widely, though, and her heart fill with pleasure, when Hotaru put herself between Mikan and the foxes. She missed the moment the foxes left, gazing at Hotaru the way she did, but she still felt inexplicably happy; she clung to Hotaru's arm the rest of the way and smiled widely. Hotaru had even let her, too.
They kept on that way until Mikan's stomach growled and her limbs ached with exhaustion, having walked for hours. They'd already begun heading back, but with the crook and curve of the forest, they hadn't found their school again, even as they headed east. They'd already missed their bus, twice. Mikan had worried silly about the way her grandpa would lecture her when she got home and beat her on the head with his walking stick, twice; he'd probably send her to bed, too, without dinner, and the thought had been unbearable with how hungry she'd grown; she'd already eaten the scraps of her remaining lunch, and it hadn't even made a dent in her hunger. Hotaru, who had had her quiet strength even as a child, hadn't complained once. But Mikan had whined and moaned the whole way, the whole time, and she felt a hint of anger at the memory. But what made her furious at herself was what happened next, and how it had all been her fault.
They stumbled on a road winding through the forest. The black asphalt and painted lines were stark against the shrub surrounding it, and to Mikan, they felt like the first sign of civilisation she and Hotaru had seen in years.
"It's a road!" Mikan exclaimed, stating the obvious. "If we can stop a car, maybe they can drive us home!"
Hotaru was quiet, but when Mikan turned to look at her, she nodded.
Hotaru was still quiet as they waited by the side of the road. Mikan stuck her arm out and her thumb in the air and grinned, remembering all the Western movies she'd seen and the way she felt like a protagonist in one of those movies, waiting by the road for a kind driver to drop her off at her next great adventure. Except that the sun was low in the sky and Mikan's stomach grumbled, and after a while of the empty, quiet road, remaining car-free, she got tired of holding her arm up and instead sat there in despair, sniffling.
Hotaru continued to stand by her a little longer until she sat down next to Mikan, murmuring to her, "Idiot Mikan. You look ugly."
That only made Mikan cry harder until Hotaru said, "You look ugly when you cry," and Mikan blinked, and finally understood what Hotaru meant.
She sniffled a bit more, and then pinched her cheeks between her fingers, pulling her mouth into a grin. "I'm okay," she said, the sound coming out strange between her stretched lips. "I'm not sad." She tried to believe in her own words, her bottom lip still trembling with unshed tears.
It was at that point that the distant rush of a car caught Mikan's attention, and as quickly as her tears had come, they vanished in her excitement.
"A car! A car's coming!"
Mikan ran into the middle of the road and held out her arms, waving them about, ignoring Hotaru calling her name. Distant headlights appeared through the shrub, and when it turned a corner, it revealed itself. It slowed to a stop in front of Mikan, and she excitedly ran to the tinted window of the driver, unaware of the danger waiting behind the door. Hotaru tagged along at her rear, calling her name warningly, but Mikan ignored her, too excited at the prospect of going home. Hope was rich and alive within her, and not even the fear of what could come — and what did happen — could deter it.
—
Mikan frowned. "I forgot about it completely after a week. Hotaru knew that I'd saved her, but she never knew exactly what had happened, since they made her pass out with the chloroform. I think she wanted to forget, too."
Ruka stared at her; she could feel his eyes boring holes into her skulls with how hard she was staring.
Mikan looked down at her fingers, imagining the blood on her hands.
"You did the right thing," Ruka said, and he had come over to sit next to her, his hand gentle on her shoulder. "You were right. You would have never seen Imai again if you had let them take her. But you didn't. You were brave."
"I didn't feel very brave," Mikan admitted. "I couldn't sleep the night it happened, and I had nightmares for a week straight afterwards."
Ruka snorted. "We all have nightmares. We all need to cope somehow."
"You know what's strange?" Ruka asked, after a moment of silence for so long, Mikan almost forgot he was sitting next to her.
"What?" She asked, turning to him.
"Even though we've been in the Academy since we were eight, and I've always hated it… I miss it. I miss the classmates we saw everyday, the people Natsume and I practically grew up with. I miss my bed, even though it wasn't technically mine. And I miss the animals." The last part he murmured so softly, Mikan almost missed it.
"I don't think that's weird," she said.
"No?"
"No. I think that's normal. It was your home for a long time. You can't not miss your home, at least once, even if it was bad."
A yawn broke out of her, and Mikan startled, her own exhaustion surprising her. Ruka chuckled and moved back to his futon, tucking himself in.
"Goodnight, Mikan."
After a moment, she entered her own futon, pulling the sheets over her.
"Goodnight, Ruka."
A few sleeping breaths from Natsume and Hotaru passed and Ruka had joined them in sleep, his quiet, full breath joining the rhythm of theirs.
Mikan laid awake, her hands grasping her covers, and she remembered the heaviness of the wooden bat in her grip, the power and strength she'd swung it with. She remembered the metallic, sweet scent in the air afterwards, how her nose wrinkled at it, even as her heart beat too fast. She remembered the way the man's head looked when she had finished, her breaths heaving; it had reminded her of the time she'd stepped on a strawberry in the garden and had bright red mashed against her foot, smeared across the dirt floor.
She remembered how horrible she had felt, afterwards; how she had cried herself to sleep for weeks. She remembered how promptly she'd forgotten it all when the realisation had hit, and settled within her, like a smooth stone slipping within a lake; if she had to do it all over again to save Hotaru, she would.
She remembered how far she'd gone to retrieve Hotaru from the Academy, how her head still ached and her side still hurt when she breathed a little too deeply; how she replaced the bandage on her face, the skin still a raw, stinging red. She remembered the first night walking through the forest, alone, terrified at every pair of eyes and every little noise; she remembered the night after, and how she kept glancing at Hotaru next to her, as if she were afraid that if she looked away for too long, Hotaru would disappear, like an overdue magic trick.
She fell asleep to her memories of Hotaru, and the way she smiled at Mikan, exhausted but relieved, when they had come home.
—
Mikan woke later than usual the next morning, a bright ray of sun piercing through the darkness of sleep to wake her.
She groaned, and turned onto her side, finding the futons next to her rolled up and folded, their sleeping bodies gone.
When she brushed her teeth and dressed, pulling her hair into their pigtails and wincing when she pulled too hard, she made her way outside.
"There, yes," her grandpa said, holding a basket. Natsume and Ruka, both on their knees and their hands covered in soil, propped the potatoes and carrots inside.
Hotaru sat on their inclining chair, sipping from a glass of lemonade, and Mikan laughed.
"Oh, I almost forgot something," Mikan said and went inside.
She went to her room and retrieved the card, an address and phone number written on it in bubbly letters, Mikan's own writing. She made to leave her room when she looked out the window, a loud chirping catching her attention, and saw the figures appear in front of her home.
She froze when more of them appeared, as if flickering into existence from thin air, and she realised who they were.
Alice Academy had found them.
She rushed back outside, sprinting through her home, becoming dizzy and breathless with panic. Along the way, she dropped the card. It lied there on the ground, forgotten.
"The Academy is here," she said, holding onto the doorway for support. The glass halfway to Hotaru's mouth stilled, and she saw Natsume freeze from behind, Ruka's eyes widening.
"We need to leave," Mikan said. "We need to leave now. Come on — through the backyard, they're at the front."
"Mikan…" Hotaru said, hesitating, but she stood and followed her.
"I'm sorry, Ojii-chan," and her voice was thick with sorrow, promising the arrival of tears.
"What?" He said, dropping the basket of vegetables. It slammed to the floor, vegetables spilling out helplessly. "Mikan, no, please…"
"We have to leave now," Natsume said, turning to her.
"No, please," her grandpa said. "Don't go. I'll… I'll ward them off. I won't let them inside." Determination set into every frail, aged line of his body, her grandfather quickened inside with hobbling steps, the basket of vegetables left abandoned on the floor of their garden.
He turned back to see if they followed. Mikan, almost reluctantly, did, and the rest joined her, reluctance obvious in Natsume's glare and Ruka worriedly gnawing his bottom lip. Hotaru was calm and, for once, Mikan couldn't tell if it was the truth.
"Mikan," she said, "when the Academy comes inside—" and she looked straight into Mikan's eyes, her own despair evident only then "—if they find us gone, then they might not punish you at all. If you say that I… that I… brainwashed you before I left, to come and find me, and that one of my devices was the reason, they might let you go." And she revealed a small, beatle-like device between her fingers, like revealing a coin as a magic trick. She tucked a strand behind Mikan's ear, slipping the device there.
"I love you, Mikan. I'm sorry."
Tears started again as Mikan could feel her heart break. "W-Wait…"
Natsume interrupted, his voice cold as ever. "You don't know any of that," he said to Hotaru, "they might punish her worse than the rest of us, since she's not a student. She needs to come with us. And we need to go."
"But my Ojii-chan," Mikan said, tears staining her face now.
"They'll punish her worse if they find her with us," Hotaru said at the same time, her coldness rising in response to Natsume.
"Guys, we need to leave now," Ruka whispered, positioned underneath one of the windows and peeking out, a curtain lifted between his fingers for sight. He dropped it as he stood, and silence washed over them completely.
"I'll go with you," Mikan burst out suddenly in a whisper, tears still falling from her eyes. She wiped her face on her forearm, and nodded at them.
Hotaru looked pained, while Natsume nodded back, the stoniness leaving his face a little. Ruka looked no less nervous.
They took the back door out, walking along the house on the patio. When Natsume gave the signal, they moved out, running through the grass in the open to get away.
Shouts came, and Mikan knew that they had been seen.
Suddenly figures appeared in front of them, and they almost slammed into them. One of them caught the wrist of Ruka and the other of Hotaru, Natsume having stealthily avoided them. There was more shouting, and more people arriving, but all Mikan could see was that man's grip on Hotaru, his hand tight around her wrist, and her wince of pain.
" Let go of her," she said, and punched him in the nose.
Her knuckles screamed at her; she had never punched someone that hard before and it had hurt. She moved to Hotaru, and saw that a rabbit, which Ruka must have been hiding underneath his shirt, had peeked out and bitten the man, who was yelling for it to let go. It did, and jumped back to Ruka, and he and Natsume came together with them and the four of them stood, back-to-back, facing the Academy around them.
"Give it up," a nondescript man yelled, taking out a taser. Others held batons, while more simply readied their gloved hands, their fists clenching.
" Never," she and Natsume said at the same time, and she grinned.
Things moved hard and fast after that.
Natsume conjured a wave of fire that rose and surrounded them, driving away the men and teachers temporarily. Ruka whistled, a high, piercing call, and from a distance Mikan heard the rising flutter and beat of wings as birds flocked to them; she heard the pound of thumping on the dirt as creatures, summoned from the distance of their homes, charged to defend him. And Hotaru, as if she had hidden it there all along, pulled up her sleeve and revealed an armour-like glove, extending up to her forearm. She spread her fingers and something cracked from her palm, sounding like a gunshot. Multiple bursts of motion hit the enclosing guard around them, sending men flying.
Mikan, frozen, stood there watching it all, her heart racing and her mind rushing, trying to catch up with all of the action.
Shouts broke out from the men, and she could feel the heat of Natsume's fire, hot, as thick as a summer's sunshine. Birds thrashed at men, striking at their heads and poking at their eyes; Mikan heard a particularly loud screech from one guard who was pressing at one eye with a hand, red spilling from between his fingers. A single bear that had joined the fray roared, and the noise quickened her heart and deafened her ears, bringing silence for a few soft moments. Then the shouts and the crackle of fire and the beating of wings and the shots from Hotaru continued, and action whirled around her, and Mikan tried to stay out of the way, narrowly dodging someone who had lunged for her.
That person was a thin, lean woman, their hair pulled into a ponytail. It jumped in the air as she changed the direction she ran in, heading straight for Hotaru, who had her back turned to her.
"Ho—" Mikan started, and then changed her mind, knowing Hotaru wouldn't hear her in all the noise. Instead, Mikan moved before she could think about it, her feet racing to catch the woman before she caught Hotaru.
Mikan won, by a breath. She slammed into the woman, too late to use her other shoulder, and she fell out of breath and dizzy with pain as she fell across the woman, the pain of an impact with her injured shoulder freezing her world and eating all sound. She moved, again, when she could, lifting herself onto her forearm. The woman underneath her was unconscious, her head lolling to the side and her mouth gaping open. Mikan lifted herself to her feet, swaying slightly with the pain.
" Fall back!" someone shouted, and the crowd started retreating, men and women pulling away from the swipe of Natsume's fire and the aim of Hotaru's gloved gun and the devastation of Ruka's animals.
Mikan's heart raced, and a dangerous, alluring thought rose from the sea of her mind.
We're winning.
For a second, Mikan actually thought they were going to get away.
And then suddenly Natsume shouted, falling to his knees, his body trembling with restrained pain.
"What? What's wrong with him?" Mikan asked, hurrying to his side.
"His Alice restraint," Ruka said, paling. "Someone's activating it."
The wall of flame fell, flicker by flicker, until it had vanished completely. She heard the buzz of the taser before she turned and saw Hotaru falling, a guard catching her.
" Hotaru!" Mikan shouted, and she sprung to her feet again until she heard another grunt behind her and turned to see Ruka falling, a familiar blonde-haired teacher holding him.
They hadn't won. It had been a trick, something to make them lose their guard, to ease their caution. And it had worked; they'd been plucked off the battleground, one by one, until the weakest link — the only non-Alice — remained. Her.
And all she could do was stand there and try not to cry.
The guards started approaching them, and when one of them came close — a man with cropped hair and big hands — someone else nodded to him.
"Take them back," they said.
Mikan blinked, understanding flooding her.
"No," she said, and she stuck herself right in front of him. "No. I'm not letting you take them. Never."
He pushed her, roughly, and she fell to the ground, flinching as the motion jolted her side and sent a new wave of pain through her body.
"Stand aside," he said to her, and to someone else: "I'll teleport them back to the Academy."
No. No. No.
There was silence, and when Mikan opened her eyes, she saw them all still there, Natsume and Ruka and Hotaru. The man squatted, holding them, and said with a frown, "I can't… I can't use my Alice."
Murmurs rose, and there was a sharp intake of breath before she heard Narumi murmur reverently, "I was right."
She turned to look at him and saw him staring right at her.
"You," he said, coming closer, "you have the Alice. I was right."
Mikan blinked, tears and despair still weighing her down. "What?" She said, and coughed, and said it again, harder, hoping he couldn't see the despair in her tone, too obvious even then.
"You have the Nullification Alice," Narumi said, and murmuring broke out, scattering among the guards watching and moving.
"What?" She asked again, truly bewildered.
Narumi kneeled down in front of her, and when she refused to meet his eyes, he pleaded, "Mikan. Look at me. Please."
Startled at the use of her first name, she did look at him, catching his gaze.
"Listen," he murmured, "I'm sorry."
Mikan's eyes widened. Of all the things she had expected him to say, it had not been that.
"I'm so sorry. The things you said about the Academy… how they… no, how we treat our students… what they go through… you're right. You're right, and I am really, truly sorry, but the world outside is far more dangerous than the Academy right now. I want to change it — the Academy — and I am, slowly, but I need help. I need your help."
"What? I—" She began, but was cut off.
"No, listen to me first," he said, not unkindly. "You are the first person, ever, to break into Alice Academy, and successfully leave. You are the first person to take three students with you, and you are the first to stay away for so long. But you are also the first to pull together your group, as you have; especially with those three.
Natsume is stubborn, moreso than anyone else I've ever known, and he's never willingly worked together with someone other than Ruka before. He's never protected people before. And because of you, he's done both.
You four were the only students — and non-student — ever to hold their own against experienced Alice-users and teachers. That's incredible." And his eyes brightened with awe, and Mikan knew he was telling the truth.
"You know, the students — the high school students at the Academy, that saw you and the way you stood up for Natsume — they remember you. They remember what you did; how brave you were. When you four left, they even tried to stop us from coming after you." He chuckled.
"The school's changed because of you. And Bear; him, too. Your presence has set in motion the start of the kind of change that I've been trying to cultivate for years."
A beat in Mikan's heart thudded hard. Where was Narumi going with this?
"Mikan. We've discovered that you have an Alice. Won't you join your friends at the Academy, and encourage the change that you've begun?"
Mikan looked at her friends — and he was right, at that, that Natsume and Ruka were her friends, too, now — and she felt the lump in her throat grow with the knowledge of what would happen to them in the future.
Silently, Mikan began to cry.
—
"Hyuuga, Natsume?" The teacher called, looking up from his stack of paper. He tucked a curl of blonde hair behind his ear, his green eyes gazing with sadness, even as he smiled. "Oh, no, he wouldn't be here right now, would he…" He murmured to himself.
A group of girls stopped giggling abruptly at the mention of his name, glancing at the uncomfortably empty seat that was usually reserved for him. When the teacher moved on, they began giggling again, but it wasn't to the same lustre as before, a strange heaviness settled over them.
"Imai, Hotaru?" The teacher called.
Hotaru raised her hand, her face calm and expressionless, even as people glanced at her and away. The news of her escape had travelled far.
"Present," she said.
The teacher continued down the roll, marking everyone's attendance; very few were absent, and no one was unaccounted for. They would never be otherwise, in this Academy. A darkness had stuck itself to the class with Natsume's absence and Hotaru's presence; something in them seemed to be lifeless, as deflated as an old children's balloon.
"Nogi, Ruka?"
Ruka raised his arm and said, "Here," quietly, the rabbit buried in his shirt sneezing. While it made most people coo softly, Ruka's unusually quiet manner and the lack of light in his eyes hushed the enjoyment they usually received out of his presence around animals otherwise.
The teacher paused on a name, long enough that other students began noticing. They muttered to each other and shot glances at her, whispering, "Isn't she the one who escaped?"
"No, she's the one who broke in," a girl softly spoke.
"And escaped, too," murmured her friend, and they shot playful glances at each other.
"Sakura, Mikan?" Said the teacher at last, glancing up at her.
Mikan raised her hand.
"Here."
END.
—
A/N: Thanking you for reading. If you would like to stay updated on any of my future works, search my AO3 user, asteroidberry. Be warned that there is very mature content in that account, though! (This fic is also cross-posted there in its completion, under the same title). Thank you again for the long wait, and I hope anyone who has enjoyed this story in the past is satisfied with its conclusion.