Ivan's fanfictions

Another Life Journey -9

2007-03-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

Chapter 9 --

Kai now sat on the balcony of his room watching the moon from high above. Emma was killed by his brother, because of jealousy.

He, all of the sudden, recalled the talk they had when he found out.

“Emma’s dead” Kai informed Teel on the phone

“Yeah, I know… sorry about that” he answered “she was such a lovely fine lady”

“Yes”

“Too bad we had to eliminate her…” he said “I haven’t got the chance to fuck her”

Silence

“You—the organization eliminated her?” he whispered, ignoring the fact of his brother wanting to fuck his fiancée

“Yes… you see, she was planning to quit because of the marriage you two will have, but no one gets out of the organization just like that, it’s a lifelong service, no one will leave it with memories intact, not tortured or killed. Emma was a special agent as you know, she had a special Alice and no one can actually defeat her with it, except me of course”

“You? You volunteered to kill her?”

“Well, when you say it like that it does look like bad but it isn’t…” he reasoned, “there were a lot of men included, we lost maybe 10 – 15 men against her… I had to remove her Alice and use your kind of Alice to defeat her, elemental ones. You knew from the very start I envied you… you had the looks, the Alice from both our parents and what do I get?! A freaking Nullifying Alice!”

“You were always much stronger than me, Teel” Kai said

“Stop it! You can’t change our childhood memories! No one can! Now that I’ve come to my ascending of my other Alice I have finally out grown you!”

“The Alice of copying and removing an Alice of another Alice” Kai said

“You knew?” he asked

“Of course, I knew… everyone knew!” Kai said his anger leaking out. Teel killed his Emma because of jealousy and to prove a point he is much stronger than him. “You were the only one who didn’t listen to what your dreams were telling you!”

“My last words to you, brother” he said emphasizing the word brother, “I’ve always loved Emma, Goodbye Kai”

After that the phone line went dead.

Kai (present) sighed at the memory and shook his head. He should have known his brother loved Emma. He loved her too much that he volunteered to kill her as to not have a death of torture. From what he said he used his (Kai’s) inheritance Alice, elemental Alices.

Kai Lie has the Alice to see visions of future and his inheritance Alice is elemental Alice, fire, wind, water and earth. Their family line goes to the strongest of the Alice users. They are one of the strong bloods. Teel and Kai’s father was an only child and he with his mate bore only two off spring, Teel and Kai.

“I’m sorry, father” Kai said aloud “I think this would be the last of us…”

He was sure he won’t find any replacement for Emma and he hates to think to go marry someone else when he doesn’t love the person. How it much it would for that girl if she knows.

He suddenly recalled the night he decided to join the organization his wife was in. It was only months since Emma died and Kai Lie was burying himself in work. He went to the organization and talked to the boss.

“I want to replace my fiancée’s position”

“And who is your fiancée?” the boss asked pretending to not know. His plan was obviously working. The bait finally did its job.

“Emma Otai”

“I’m sorry but she passed away three months ago” the boss said

“And I’ll take her position”

“Her position is high… you might not qualify for it” the boss tested him

Kai rose and eyebrow at him in question and in split seconds the boss’s room was covered in vines.

“Do I?” Kai asked in a firm voice

“Yes, you do, now I see what Emma liked about you” the boss said, “you stand up for yourself, you will be trained first by my secretary, Kara Minamoto”

“When?”

“If you like, you could do it now”

That day was the start of his work. He buried himself into work, forcing himself not to think of what happened. In the next 3 years of working he was assigned to kill or better yet, get the brunette he’s watching now, Mikan Sakura.

--

End of chapter 9
Did you like it?! Pls. email me at ivan_kyz05@yahoo.com

Another Life Journey -8

2007-03-29T10:02:00.000-07:00

Chapter 8 --

The others nodded and quietly exited the room. Narumi stared at Mikan’s motionless body. He recalled their times together, their first meeting, the time he gave Mikan her new uniform, the smile on her face when she was given the star. He smiled as he recalled the peaceful days of Mikan, ad now because of him allowing her to get caught on the darkness Persona was spreading, her life is always in jeopardy.

Narumi almost cried in front of Mikan’s body but he stopped himself, that will almost look like she was already… he cursed himself for thinking that and sighed. How can he keep on losing friends, first Reo and now Mikan?

Hours passed and Narumi began to think about the problem at hand, Mr. Kai Lee’s presence in the academy. All of the sudden the door opened. He turned his attention and saw that it was Jinno.

“How is she holding up?” Jinno asked

“Barely living, the doctor said—in private, of course—the dagger sliced an artery in her arm, the one pumping 3000 liters of blood per minute”

(A/N: I’m not exactly sure if that’s correct, I did my research and I think I failed, as I’m not completely sure, main point here is to make it sound that she’s near in dying)

“Well then she’s lucky she was brought here as soon as possible” Jinno said

“She sure is lucky to have friends like them” Narumi agreed, “so what brings you here?”

“Just checking on what she got herself this time” he answered taking a sit on the white couch

“Oh… I want to talk you about something” Narumi said

“What is that?”

“When Aya and the others brought Mikan here, Aya told me that Mr. Lee is involved with her kidnapped”

“So you’re saying that he’s from that organization?”

“Yes”

“Do you have proof for this?”

“No, but I have suspicions”

“And what are these?” he asked, making Narumi feel like he’s being investigated on some crime he didn’t do

“Imai said that during their almost kidnapped that, the fake Narumi said they were let in by an inside man”

“That will make the students in trouble if he really is from that organization” Jinno said, he stood up and began to leave the room, “I’ll be bringing this up with the other teachers, for now we will be keeping an eye on him”

“No offense, but I think the students are doing that since he arrived” the blonde smiled

--

As the five students went out of the room and headed for their dormitory, they couldn’t help but wonder how Mikan got involved in this kind of mess. Aya couldn’t help but feeling responsible for everything Mikan is now. She was the reason she started doing missions. If she didn’t exist then Mikan won’t be hospitalize at the first place. Aya beat herself on that fact all the way to her room, when Natsume stopped her.

“That idiot, won’t probably like it, beating yourself up I mean” he said once they were alone on the corridor for Special Star students “she’ll just think it’s her fault anyway, she’s always like that, taking all the blame, you shouldn’t be like that”

“Neither should you” Aya said to him when he was about to close his door. He flashed her a look sending chills down her spine. There is definitely some love going on between the two, Aya thought entering her room.

The next three days, Mikan was confined in the hospital getting regular visits by her classmates and friends. Mornings and classes were dull without Mikan around and it made the Class B devastated. NO one was there who’ll greet them every morning, there will be no ruckus every morning when Mikan is not around to try and hug Hotaru.

Everyone in the room felt sad. Even Sumire misses Mikan but she tries to deny it.

“This is the best day ever!” the cat-dog Alice owner exclaimed one day, “no loud idiot little girl… Mikan” she said the name with saddened eyes.

By then, rumor spread that Mikan was having missions, of course only six know that it’s true. Koko, Hotaru, Natsume, Yuu, Ruka and Aya were currently sitting inside Mikan’s room one afternoon. Mikan was up and standing in front of the window with her hair in their usual style.

“Should you be standing up, idiot?” Hotaru asked sitting down on the couch

“Nah… the doctor said, I’ll be released tomorrow, and they are just checking if I’m up and ready to go” Mikan smiled back at her friends

“Oh that’s good” Aya sighed

“So what’s been going on with Mr. Lee?” the brunette asked sitting on her bed

“Since you’ve been hospitalized he has been keeping a close eye on everyone” Ruka stated, patting the head of the rabbit

“What do you think is his plan?” Koko asked. Mikan and Natsume glanced at each other which Hotaru noticed but didn’t give another thought

“Hey, I thought you were the one with the mind reading Alice!” Yuu exclaimed

“Er… he’s been guarding his thoughts around me, sorry” Koko explained

“Oh…” the group expressed

“But we do know that he is planning right?” Yuu confirmed

“We’re not sure but I think he is… cause he won’t be keeping a close an eye on us if we don’t” Aya said

“And what percent is it that it was a coincidence that kidnap happened on the same day…” Hotaru stopped not bothering to finish the sentence since it will only inform Mikan they already know she’s having missions

“Same day of what?” Mikan asked

“Nothing” the group answered while Natsume stared out the window and Aya looked at the yellow flower on Mikan’s bedside table

“Oh… you know it now don’t you?” Mikan asked looking at the floor, close to tear “I’m sorry I didn’t tell any of you… it’s just that I didn’t want to worry any of you…”

“You would have worried us either way if you keep us in the dark about that crucial information” Hotaru reasoned

“I’m sorry” she apologized once again, Yuu sat beside her and patted her on the back

“Don’t worry, Mikan, we won’t tell anyone…” he assured her

Mikan shook her head stopping the tears start to fall from her eyes. She smiled at them and said, “Thank you everyone”

Everyone smiled while Natsume just kept his gaze on the window but saw Mikan’s smiling face reflecting and he felt his heart melt. He smiled inside at how Mikan seemed to be handling things on her own way.

--

“Where are the children?” thundered a voice inside a warehouse

“We had company” one of the men from his right answered

“The two came back from their mission to early” the one on the left provided

“And whose fault is that?” he asked with a loud voice, making some of the men cringe on the sound

“They were too good, Mr. Lee they still escaped even with broken bo—“

“They are only two stupid little brats!” Kai Lee told them with anger on his eyes

“Sorry, sir” the men chorused at the same time

“Now what the fu—“Kai started but was interrupted by a soothing voice inside his head saying, ‘there’s no need to go that far, darling’, “We’ll start plan B on full moon, one month from now”

“Yes, sir” they chorused again

With that said Kai Lee exited the warehouse and told his transporter to teleport him back to the academy. When he was finally alone inside his room, he lay on his bed facing the ceiling. He wouldn’t be able to sleep that night, he was sure of it. After hearing the voice of his past lover, he began to wonder what would have happened if she was still alive.

She died because of the very organization he is in now. Her name is Emma Iou. She has long blonde hair, emerald eyes, red lips and porcelain white skin. She was perfect for Kai Lie. He has long black hair tied always in a low ponytail and bangs covering his blue enticing eyes, his lips weren’t red but it was pink near red, his skin wasn’t as white as his lover but his skin was fair.

The two of them were meant to be, the people said

Of course, Emma has to lie to Kai for his safety. Only, she didn’t know that keeping Kai in the dark was just going to keep him in more trouble than he already is. Emma is a special agent for the anti- Alice organization. Very few know who she is and everything about her. Only her boss, his boss’s secretary and Kai knows everything about her. Nevertheless, Kai is kept in the dark on some things, especially her last mission.

Emma stood outside her boss’s office preparing herself for the meeting. She was resigning, she can’t live life with Kai in danger, and they are of course going to be married soon.

“This will be my last mission, sir” she stated looking directly into her boss’s blue eyes

“Will you be willing to train some new members, then?” Her boss asked, “Its such a waste to get you all unemployed when you have a space here”

“I’ll think about it, sir” she said relived. Some said that giving your notice of quitting will make the boss real mad and like torture you or something.

“Your last mission will be to kill these people listed on this paper” he said handing her a paper which she took

“Who are they?”

“They are the ones running the academy, be careful with Edrik Hik, some say he’s got a powerful Alice” he warned

“Yes, sir, thank you for the warning” she nodded

“I expect them all to be dead in 48 hours” he instructed

With that said, Emma left and headed for her office where she immediately looked information or whereabouts of the victims. In the middle of the night, an email pooped up. She clicked it open and gasped.

A picture of Kai beaten up tied up in a chair surrounded by pool of blood showed first. Under the picture it said, “Accept the mission and he gets it”

Emma scrolled it up and down many times hoping there’ll be another message. But that was the only thing typed. She tried to trace the sender but it ended up with a result of being sent by an anonymous and free email address, making it completely useless on her part.

She began to worry. She called their house but the answering machine always answered it, she tried his cell phone countless of times but no one answers and soon it was out of battery. She looked at the clock and saw that it was already 12 in the morning. She looked at the list her boss gave her and the folders his secretary gave her. Only three names were listed, Patrick Hik, Ana Hik and Edrik Hik. The last name was circled in red pen. She looked through their files and found out that, Edrik is only 10 years old with pale skin, blue eyes and black hair. His Alice information was unknown while his parents’ Alice was, elemental Alices.

Emma wore her black coat determined to kill whoever did that to her beloved fiancée. She headed out the enclosed building with guns and daggers all hidden inside her clothes and brought her car keys. She drove her black Hummer to the address the files indicated. The house was free from prying neighbors and she was sure the security was tight there.

She parked her car under a big shady tree and headed to the back of the building, she planned to kill the parents first then the kid. She met only few guards but she quickly diminished them with her Alice, the ability to dissolve anything in to thin air (A/n: the one like Persona).

Soon she arrived at the parents’ room to find it dark, and the only source of light is the moon showing from the window. There were three bodies on the large bed; the one in the middle was a small child, Edrik. Emma approached the bed silently but soon she the alarm went off and the family woke up with a start. She ran toward the bed and soon vines were following all around her. The work of the mother, she assumed. She felt a vine wrapped around her wrist but once it touched her it dissolved. She wasn’t wearing any controllers (a/N: is that right?) making anything that touched her bare skin dissolved. Her coat and gloves left on the back of her car.

She jumped to the bed and quickly touched both adults, in mere seconds the two disappeared with sadness and love in their eyes. Edrik soon cried and pushed Emma off the bed, she griped his bare hands but he won’t dissolve.

“You! Where have you put my parents?!” he demanded standing in front of her with so much hatred in his voice

“They’re gone, Ed” Emma answered coldly, “Now it’s your turn!”

She charged at him, she touched his face but he once again didn’t dissolve, soon vines and snakes were crawling all over her body, the boy standing over her as she began to fall down on her knees.

“I have the cancellation Alice” he said, “I already canceled your Alice, and now using the Alices I copied from my family…”

“Kill me now”

“No… I think I’ll let you suffer first…” he said coldly as if he has never lost his parents. He closed his eyes and an illusion of Kai tied up in a chair bloodied up showed in front of her.

“It was just an illusion” she whispered

“Yes, the email was just sent to trick and provoke you…”

“Why would you do that? Your parents are DEAD! Dead! I tell you… I killed them with my bare hands!” she shouted

“Oh they’re not parents, they were fakes!” he cried out, “you didn’t realize it but… your boss planned all this out”

“So you’re really not the principal?” she asked

“Puh-lease” he said as if it was a sin to be called the principal, “your boss knew you were going to quit any time soon because of that Kai Lie, you think he would let his best agent and the one with enough knowledge about the things going on be freed just like that?’ he asked with a snap of his fingers

So they were right, she thought, you do get tortured

“So now what are you going to do?” she asked, her mind blank from any escape plan, she knew without her Alice she was just any normal human being and can’t survive to tell and live the tale

“Kill you, of course”

“What are you waiting for?”

“Nothing… but I was given instructions to kill you the hard way” he stated

“Are you really only 10 years old?” she suddenly asked

“No” he answered; soon he became a full grown man in his early 20’s. He left the room and locked the door from the outside, he called more vines and snakes and one by one when he was out of the room bit and crawled their way up to her.

He listened very hard to hear her scream or plea but he heard nothing, all he heard were the words, Kai, I’m sorry and I love you. After that, he heard a thump on the floor.

He opened the door and snapped his fingers, making all the vines and snakes diminish. Emma was there laying face- flat on the floor. There were no bloods, only bruises from the vines and bites from the snakes. Her eyes were closed and her lips were curled up in a smile. It was if she didn’t regret anything she has done while she was still alive.

Suddenly, the phone rang, “Hello?”

“Is it done?” a voice asked

“Yes, sir” he replied more focused this time

“Nice work, Teel Lie”

--

TBC
---

Did you like it? Pls. review. And I know I’m not good at fighting scenes. I think this story will be near at its end, I’m not sure but thanks anyway for reading it.

Thank you everyone for reviewing. I hope my reviews reach up to 75 with this chapter. I just wish. Not demanding though.

Read my other fics:
One way or another NxM
Exam frustration RxH

Another Life Journey -7

2007-03-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

Chapter 7 --

Narumi finally entered the classroom and the students fell into their rightful seats. Mikan didn’t bother to greet anyone today; she didn’t even try to hug Hotaru.

“I’m sorry I’m late, class” he apologizes after greeting them, “the teachers just had a meeting about out guest. Mr. Kai Lee, he’s a great adviser to our government and this is his old school” he smiled “He came to visit the school and see how it’s doing, and I want you all to behave properly, will you?”

“Yes, Mr. Narumi” the class answered in unison

“Good, now I think he mentioned visiting classes, and he mentioned your class, so be prepared” he stated, “Now, let’s study!”

Mr. Narumi’s class is twice a day ( A/N: made it up) and on his second class Mr. Kai Lee was with him. Mr. Lee has long black hair tied on a loose ponytail, eyes brown as a trunk of a tree. The class greeted the two adults and proceeds to their lesson. All the time Mr. Narumi was discussing, Mr. Lee was observing each child. He kept a close eye on Hotaru, Natsume and Mikan. The three noticed it but they didn’t give it a second thought. What Mikan and Natsume thought was, why he glared at Aya in an almost ‘I’ll get you’ way. When the class was at the middle Mr. Narumi gave them an activity. He grouped the students and told them what to do.

“I want you and your group mates to make a graph of your life so far, the ups and downs, to be passed tomorrow morning; I want everyone participating on this project”

The students quickly grouped themselves and talked about the project. Hotaru walked at the back as her group mates were all seated at the back. Mikan, Natsume and Ruka were all quite when she arrived, Hotaru wondered why.

Time passed and no one from the group spoke, they were just doing their own work. Mikan tried her best not to complain and ask help from her friends. While they were working, Mr. Kai Lee approached their group and eyed each child.

“This group is the most quite of all” he commented squatting beside Mikan, “what’s your name?”

“Mikan Sakura, sir” she answered with a small smile, feeling quite happy to have her voice out again

“And you Madame?” he asked Hotaru on his left

“Hotaru Imai, sir”

“Ah yes, Hotaru Imai, the one with the invention Alice, yes, yes, you’re always talked about in companies, you and your inventions” he grinned, “it’s nice meeting you” he offered his hand to shake, Hotaru looked at it first with a look almost calculating but seemed to make up her mind and shake hands with him nonetheless happy.

Mr. Lee smiled as he saw visions of her in the future; he almost smiled evilly when he saw the room number she was sleeping in on this Academy. He let go and turned his attention on the blonde sitting across Hotaru. “And you sir?”

“Ruka Nogi” he answered nodding at him casually

“Ruka Nogi, the best friend of the black cat, I heard” Mr. Lee stated looking at Ruka waiting to see his reaction. Ruka of course was shocked but didn’t react as what the adult expected instead he just smiled. “Nice meeting you” he shook his hand smiling.What he saw was the face of a very angry Ruka Nogi, a glimpse of him sitting on a chair on a deserted room.

Then he turned his attention on Natsume, “and you must be the black cat of the school, yes I know all about you, you’re the one helping the school”

“I wouldn’t exactly call it helping, but if you say so” he answered, more like drawled; he stared at his eyes for awhile and saw he’s a very powerful man on the city. Yes, he has the look of a powerful man on his eyes.

“Nice meeting you, Natsume Hyuuga” he said offering his hand for him to shake. Natsume shook his hand the briefest moment and released the hand, but that was enough for Mr. Lee to look on his future. What he saw made him mad. He saw Natsume burning lots of trees on a very familiar place, his manor.

He was just about to leave the group when a voice stopped him, “is it not a pleasure to meet me, sir?”

He looked at the owner of a voice, Mikan Sakura, she was almost pouting but she clearly limited her actions to that. “Of course it was a pleasure to meet you Madame Mikan”

“It was also a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Kai Lee” she answered stretching out her hand for his to shake. To say Mr. Lee was appalled was a lie; he was more than appalled on Mikan’s actions. He never expected a child of this age to act so mature.

“It’s also my pleasure meeting you, Ms. Sakura, you’re a very polite little girl” he complimented shaking her hand.

--

“DAMN IT” he cursed loudly inside his room. He was seated on his black leather couch with a drink on his table. Mr. Kai Lee was mad, he didn’t see it coming. How could he not see it coming when he has visions of the future? That was what made him mad.

Glimpse of future he collected earlier was now gone, he knew it’s in his head but he can’t seem to reach it. He concentrated real hard, it was there, glowing on its shiny blue light, he tries to release it but he can’t.

“That girl” he hissed, “the nullification Alice girl, Mikan Sakura, she’s going to pay, oh yes, you’re going to regret you ever touched me”

--

Mikan sat on a tree’s branch and watched the moon on its highest; it was 3 days before full moon. And she’s starting to dread that night.

Mikan sighed and looked at the window she’s guarding, Hotaru’s and Ruka’s. She was afraid that maybe something will happen to her best friend and her blonde friend. She knew Mr. Kai Lee was giving Hotaru and Natsume close looks during the class and she started to worry about her friends’ safety. There’s something in his eyes she doesn’t like, she hated it, but she knew there was something in there that’s just being clouded by the thing she hated. And when he mentioned that Ruka Nogi was Natsume’s best friend, she also began to worry about him. No one should know who Natsume’s best friend is from the outside that will put Ruka in danger.

All of the sudden, Ruka’s light opened in his room. She saw shadows and soon Natsume looked out the window, searching the view as if he knew Mikan would be watching Ruka. He started to turn his head on her direction and she hid on the other side of the tree, blocking out the view of Ruka’s room. She glanced at the window and Natsume was gone but the lights were still on. She resumed her former position but there was someone there.

“What are you doing here, Mikan?” Aya asked

“I should ask you the same thing” Mikan answered sitting on the branch

“Watching our friends, you?” she answered casually

“Watching” Mikan answered avoiding the word ‘friends’

The two watched the two windows quietly and Mikan began to wonder why she suddenly felt that she must touch Mr. Kai Lee earlier.

“Did you feel something strange about Mr. Lee?” Aya suddenly asked “He seems kind of familiar”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I think maybe I saw him during my kidnapped on my house before” Aya recalled, “yeah that was definitely his eyes and hair, his eyes held something most humans can’t and it was so familiar to me”

“He did glare at you in a way of ‘I’ll get you’” Mikan said

“Oh yeah, I felt that, I didn’t dare look at him though, you never know what he’ll do, even in a room full of students” she answered

“Yeah…” Mikan started worry “so if he’s in the anti- alice organization, then all of us here in this academy is in trouble?”

“Maybe…”

“You know I suddenly felt the urge of touching him earlier, I don’t know why though” Mikan confessed

“It’s because of your nullification Alice senses” another voice answered, the two girls looked at their new arrival and saw Natsume sitting on the other side of the tree. Mikan looked at Ruka’s room and the lights were off already.

“How did you get here?” Aya asked

“You know, if you were to apply for a job watching your prey, you’re probably not going to be picked” Natsume answered, “as I was saying before, it was your senses due to your Alice that you felt the urge to touch him, I thought you knew that”

“Oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense, I, too, sometimes have the urge to use my Alice on another Alice to strengthen it or weaken it, it’s kind of freaky in way” Aya said

“So what did I do to him when I touched him?” Mikan asked

“My guess is that, what he gathered from the people he touched or seen the future of this day, he probably can’t have the access of recalling it, you nullified it” Natsume said, “in short, if he really is involved in the wretched organization you protected us for the day”

“You saved us, Mikan” Aya smiled at her

“But you aren’t protecting yourself” Natsume said “I know what you’re doing Mikan, I know why you’re here outside instead of the inside, warm in Hotaru’s room, you’re avoiding everyone you love” Natsume suddenly felt anger rise within him, how come she isn’t watching over my room, “I told you once it’s not right, it won’t do you or any of the ones you’re avoiding any good”

“You’re avoiding us?” Aya asked Mikan

Mikan didn’t answer; instead she bowed her head, her hands clenched in a fist on his lap. Tears suddenly fell from her eyes, falling to her hands. “Natsume, its three days before full moon, you know what that means do you?”

Natsume felt lost at first, then he remembered her words on the dream, it was midnight with the moon on its fullest and highest as well as the stars. “Yes”

“Then you understand why I’m doing it”

“But don’t you remember what I told you before? Everyone will be fine, just believe in them”

“But believing in them isn’t good enough!” Mikan cried

Aya started to wonder what they were talking about, then she suddenly remember Mikan having a nightmare. It really wasn’t a nightmare, wasn’t it? She asked herself, its dreams of the future. Now she understands why Mikan didn’t want anyone to know she’s having those kinds of nightmares. It just shows she’s having a trouble leading life.

“But you need to believe, Mikan” Aya told her putting a hand on her shaking shoulder, “everyone will be troubled if you don’t help yourself, no one will feel happy about it”

“But—“Mikan tried to protest

“Try to put it this way,” Natsume said “Keeping them in the dark will endanger them more, you need to live life the way you did”

“But can’t I just leave—“

“There is no other easy way than that, Mikan” Aya said

Mikan cried loudly and her body shook more violently. That dream must have been terrible, Aya concluded. Natsume wanted to do something to comfort Mikan. He glanced at Mikan, he saw Aya gave him a look and said to him, more like told him by doing it, to him that he hugs Mikan.

He approached the brunette and hugged her. At first it was light, but then he felt her shaking so badly that he begun to hug her tightly as if she’s going to disappear any moment. He knew Mikan needed help to everyone who can.

He knew he have started to fall for this girl hard. Yeah, if only she can feel the love he has for her, if only she can hear me shout her name. If only she can feel the hurt he feels inside when she’s sad, not talking to him or in danger. Yeah, if only. Now there’s a part of his heart he can feel that’s empty without her. Feeling like its to empty that it will soon fall to his digestive system and forever will he have no heart. He closed her eyes and hugged Mikan, who stopped shaking now but still crying.

Mikan was shocked when she learned that it was Natsume who was hugging her. She thought it was Aya. But then she smelled the sweet yet spicy smell of Natsume. She knew how she must have look to Natsume crying, a little girl helpless and unguided. But the moment she felt Natsume’s arms encircle around her, she knew she was safe and will never be alone.

--

The next morning, Mikan, Natsume and Aya all have dark circles under their eyes. Mikan’s old self was back and everyone was happy again.

“What did the three of you did last night?” Ruka asked the three

“Nothing much, just doing something really important” Aya answered

“Oh, what is it?”

“Secret!” Aya teased

The whole day passed by and soon it was night again. Mikan and Natsume were to do again another mission. Mikan didn’t want to; she wanted to watch her friends. She wanted to guard them and make sure nothing will happen.

“Don’t worry; I’ll take care of them” Aya assured the stressed brunette

“You know, I think we should have told Mr. Narumi that Mr. Kai Lee is from the anti-Alice organization”

“Come on, I want to get this over with” he said jumping out of the tree and heading to do their mission. They told Aya they’ll be coming back in two hours.

Three hours have passed and they still haven’t arrived yet. Then, lights opening on both rooms she was watching caught her attention. She jumped to see what was happening on both rooms and saw that one guy on each room was carrying the student on the bed. She quickly broke the window and headed for the baka-gun on Hotaru’s table, she started shooting the guy and he soon let her down. On the mess she was making, she was sure students were starting to wake up. Hotaru was let down on the floor and she started to punch the guy.

“Hotaru! Do you have something loud enough to wake Ruka up? He’s also being kidnapped!” Aya asked Hotaru

Quickly, Hotaru opened her drawer and turned on a radio. She opened it and it released a very loud scream of a girl. The guy in front of Aya tumbled back on its sound. He fell on a hip of invention. Hotaru pressed a red button on the hip of invention he fell on started to tangle themselves around the intruder. Aya quickly entered Ruka’s room, she saw that Ruka was up and was fighting the guy, but the
Guy was using his Alice on him, invisibility.

Ruka called on his dear friends, animals. He called the bats and the owls, best for nights. The birds began to crowd an invisible form. Soon, he was forced to show himself. Aya fired the baka gun on him. And animals Ruka called soon attacked him. He fell on the ground, beaten.

Mr. Narumi entered the room and ties him up with his whip; he began to pull him to Hotaru room. What Narumi saw made him laugh. Hotaru was simply having fun testing her invention on her intruder. Narumi’s laugh made Hotaru stop and have her invention tie the intruder tightly with the other intruder.

“Are you three okay?” Narumi asked

“Yeah” the three answered

“Wait a minute, what brings you here Aya? Isn’t your room upstairs? On the special room?” Narumi asked

Aya began to stutter, she simply scratched her head nervously.

“What are they doing here, sir?” Hotaru asked

“I don’t know”

“How did they get in?” Ruka asked

“I think they got in by a inside man” Narumi answered

“Oh” he said

“Where’re the other students?” Aya asked

“These two are the only one planned to be kidnapped” Narumi answered

“How do you know that?” Ruka asked

“I’m a fake” he said, and then his appearance of Narumi began to shift into a woman’s form. She has red hair, pink eyes and stands 5’9.

Ruka began to call his animals, making the room be filled with crows but it suddenly disappears. Now they saw, a man with big muscles. He began to carry the three out of the room. Hotaru drew out a tiny blade and cut the man’s skin, blood soon zoomed out. She got a small vial and filled it with his blood. The man began to howl in pain now that he felt the cut he received. Hotaru quickly dropped the vial on the floor label with, enemy’s blood.

On the way out of the dormitory, fire greeted them. The man’s appearance began to shift back again on its woman form, making her body petite and weak. She dropped the children and began to throw daggers in any direction. Hotaru crawled to her side and sliced open her skin on her leg. Aya began to strengthen the power of the fire and soon she controlled it to envelop the woman with fire. She screamed inside the fire, but Aya made sure it did not touch her. She began to wonder why she screamed.

“No! Snakes! No! Get away!” she screamed

“Huh?” Aya looked at Ruka who just had a dumb look on his face. She searched the place and saw Yuu concentrating very hard.

Soon, Persona arrived and he took the woman who was still murmuring snakes under her breath. Persona nods at Natsume for good work and left the place.

“Where did you come from?” Aya asked Yuu

“I heard the ruckus from my room,” he answered “don’t worry, I made sure everyone is safe before I got here”

“Cool” Aya smiled

Ruka went to Natsume and asked if he’s alright.

“Yeah, just tired from the other mission”

“You mean this isn’t your mission?”

“Nope”

They heard a gasped and that was soon followed by a sigh. The four of them approached the lying form and saw it was Mikan around her was her own pool of blood. She was hit by the daggers the woman threw, one on her arm and one on her leg. Natsume quickly carried her and ran straight to the hospital. The other three quickly catch up on him using Hotaru’s invention. He quickly joined them. Natsume whispered calming words to Mikan and to himself, to stop himself to follow Persona and hurt that woman badly.

“Come on, we’re already here” he whispered “hold on”

When they entered the emergency room Narumi was already there, the doctor quickly put Mikan on a bed and operated on her. He made the others wait for him to fix her up.

“What happened?” Narumi asked

“Hotaru and Ruka were being kidnapped, then I helped them, then you—another you—came in we thought you were you but you weren’t so she got to us and she tried to kidnapped the three of us then fire was downstairs then she began to throw daggers then Yuu came with his illusion then Persona came and got her then we heard Mikan, then we brought her here” Aya explained in a manner were Narumi needed to open his ears to understand every word.

“How about the other students?”

“The woman said, we were the only ones planned to be kidnapped” Hotaru answered

“How many were there?”

“3 including the woman”

Narumi excused himself and talked to the nurse on the table; he dialed something on the phone and told the person on the other line that intruders are on the loose.

“How come you and Mikan were together?” Ruka asked

Natsume looked at Aya, who didn’t know what to answer as well, he looked at Mr. Narumi who had the look of it’s your choice. “I bumped into her”

“Where?”

“I was walking around the school when she came running saying, the two of you were in trouble” Natsume lied

“How did she know we were in trouble?” Hotaru asked

“Ask her, not me” Natsume answered

--

An hour has passed and the doctor finally allowed them to see Mikan. Mikan was lying on the bed sleeping, her hair was brought down, and she was wearing one of the hospital gowns. Her skin was pale and she wasn’t moving. It was as if she was…

Natsume shook his head in the thought and cursed himself for thinking that.

“I was surprised when I got to her body, you know. Aside from the daggers there were also broken bones” the doctor stated “where was she before the dagger incident?”

Natsume began to recall their mission. IT took them an hour to end that mission. They were nearly beaten; luck was just on their side that time. But before that, Mikan was thrown everywhere, she can’t fight back. Once, Natsume saw her flying to wall then to the ground.

“We were on a mission” Natsume answered thinking its best to let the doctor know the truth.

“Well, I think she’ll be staying here for a while” the doctor said and left the room.

“Mikan do missions?” Hotaru asked

“Yeah, her first mission was to rescue Aya, this is only her third, the second was to make sure Kai Lee arrives safely in this Academy.” Natsume answered “and Mikan will really want to tell you guys herself so don’t tell her you know”

“By the way, Mr. Narumi,” Aya said “there’s something important we need to tell you about Kai Lee, he’s with the anti-alice organization, I saw him during my kidnapped before”

“Thanks for informing me, Aya” Narumi smiled, he looked at his watch and saw it was midnight, “come on you guys, I’ll be watching Mikan, you go to your rooms, you have classes tomorrow”

TBC
---

Did you like it? Pls. review. And I know I’m not good at fighting scenes. I think this story will be near at its end, I’m not sure but thanks anyway for reading it.

Thank you everyone for reviewing. I hope my reviews reach up to 75 with this chapter. I just wish. Not demanding though.

Read my other fics:
One way or another NxM
Exam frustration RxH

Another Life Journey -6

2007-03-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

Chapter 6--

The next morning Mikan woke up quite happy and relaxed. She wondered why, she looked at her clock and saw it was still quarter to six. She sat up and noticed a neatly folded futon on the floor with a note on top of it.

You talk when you sleep, idiot
Natsume

Huh? What does he mean--? Mikan thought then realization dawn unto her, Oh yeah, I begged him to stay with me for the night. Darn, was I stupid last night.

She headed for the bathroom slowly, glad that it was Saturday. While taking a shower she recalled the night’s event. She can clearly remember that she cried on Natsume, telling him all about the dream and he was comforting her.

“Don’t worry, Mikan, Everyone will be fine, just believe in them” Natsume said in her head.

Yeah, everything will be alright. It will always be right. I just got to believe in them. Mikan told herself. She dressed herself up wearing her uniform underneath her black coat, and tying her hair in a high ponytail instead of her everyday style.

When she got out of her room, she become conscious of the fact that the line she keeps repeating on her mind, Natsume said her name. Then she noticed the whole night he used her name. Mikan smiled at this and ran out of the dormitory happily.

On her way to see Hotaru and the others, she bumped into Aya.

“Hey Mikan!” she called out “how are you doing?”

Mikan walked toward her, she was sitting alone on tree branch, just staring out at the endless view of trees.

“I’m good,” Mikan half-lied after settling beside Aya, “you?”

“Fantastic!” Aya exclaimed “this school is amazing, it’s huge especially!”

“Yeah” Mikan smiled remembering her first days at the Academy

They were silent for a while, just enjoying the view in front of them. Only now did Mikan notice that they were sitting on one of the highest trees in the academy.

“Don’t you miss you’re family?” Mikan suddenly asked

Silence.

“Aya?” Mikan looked at the girl beside her and noticed the spark in her eyes were gone now, but her smile was still plastered

“My parents left me when I was born, left me to an aunt of mine with a letter” Aya explained “My aunt has two kids, two boys, and they always pick on me and stuff. Only my aunt treats me like family there”

“Oh” was all Mikan can think of saying

Aya sensing that Mikan was stuck at words grinned and patted her on the back “Don’t worry about it”

“I’m sorry I brought it up” Mikan apologize

“I said don’t worry about it” Aya repeated, Mikan looked at her eyes to see that spark is back there already

“Hey what’re you going to do today?” Mikan asked

“I don’t know, maybe go to the library to catch up on my studies,” the other planned “what’re you going to today?”

“I don’t know, hang out with Hotaru and the others I guess,” she replied “want to join us?”

“Nah, but thanks anyway” Aya smiled, she looked out at the view once again and said, “I’m going to go now, start studying and stuff, see you around”

“Okay” said Mikan “see you around”

Aya started to climb down on a lower tree branch before jumping on the ground. Before leaving she flashed Mikan a grin which Mikan returned with a smile.

Mikan stayed there for a while after Aya has left. She moved her way to the tree’s trunk and rested her back on it, her legs stretched out in front of her. The branch she’s sitting on is wide enough to make her feel safe.

Mikan sighed and once again thought about the dream. She knew what Natsume said the night she had the dream was true, she’ll be the target. And her dream clearly states that.

“Don’t worry, Mikan, Everyone will be fine, just believe in them” a voice said in her mind

But believing in them isn’t good enough!, she retorted to the voice, I need to do something else.

She didn’t need to think for hours, the answer popped on her mind with in minutes. She jumped back to the ground with a plan on her head, heading to the opposite direction she was heading at before. Yes, she’s going to avoid them. Less pain for them and me, she said to herself.

--

Ruka walked out of the dormitory building sighing. Turns out, Natsume is going to spend this day in his room, resting.

Ruka headed for the fountain when he saw Hotaru already sitting there. She already saw him, so there’s no turning back now. No way to go now.

“Hey Imai,” Ruka greeted sitting beside her but on the edge of the bench in case she decided to attack him “what’re you doing here all alone? Where’s Mikan?”

“So you’re talking to me again now, are you?” Hotaru said not looking up to

“What do you mean again?” he asked, “I’ve always talked to you”

“Yeah right” she said with a tone that clearly states that she knew he was lying

“Yes, I’ve always talked to you” Ruka insisted

Hotaru pointed her baka gun at him and said, “Let me help you remember then”

Ruka gulped getting ready for the impact, but it didn’t come. He risked a glance and saw that Hotaru still hasn’t looked at him but the baka gun still pointed.

“Yesterday, we were partnered,” Hotaru started “I asked you what to do on the project, you clearly heard me but you didn’t answer, and your eyes are looking anywhere but me. Then another incident, during lunch I sold a picture of you wearing Mikan’s uniform to Sumire in front of you, I expected you to chase after me demanding the pictures back but you didn’t. Yes I intentionally sold it in front of you to talk to me, but instead you looked anywhere but me, you hear anything but my voice” Hotaru finished but still not looking at him, and damn it! Do you know how much that hurts?!, she wanted to add.

Ruka stayed silent ashamed of himself, but he doesn’t understand why she would like him to notice her.

“I’m your friend, Ruka,” Hotaru said, answering Ruka’s thoughts “and I don’t want to lose one”

“I’m sorry,” Ruka said “I’m really sorry, Imai”

Silence.

Ruka decided to start another topic, not wanting to leave her alone. “So, Hotaru, what are you doing here all alone? Where’s Mikan?”

He didn’t realize it at first but he soon he realized he used Hotaru instead of Imai. He decided to wait for her reaction.

“Who told you, you can use my first name?” Hotaru asked, monotonously. However, Ruka took it as sign of anger. This time he didn’t look at her. He ran away, once again.

He was only given 3 steps when he was pulled back by a mechanical hand. He tried to break free but, as Hotaru wanted it, he can’t. He was soon in front of Hotaru, who was now standing.

What he saw made him stop struggling. Her eyes were wet and tears were flowing from it.

“You can’t run away forever, Ruka” she said, still in a monotonous tone. Clearly her tone will never be affected by what’s seen outside “so what if you called me Hotaru, I didn’t say I had a problem with it—“

“But your voice was angry” Ruka reasoned whispering

“Really? I think the tone of my voice never changed, don’t you agree?”

Ruka flushed, “Yeah I noticed that”

“So now you know, you can use my name already,” Hotaru said “and what was that you said that night? Yeah you said I was beautiful, and you ran away! Damn it! If only you looked back at me you would have see how much you’ve hurt me!”

“How could have I hurt you—the great Hotaru Imai—hurt by Ruka Nogi? How? could you tell me why?” Ruka asked suddenly mad, but not because of Hotaru but because of himself. How could have he hurt Hotaru? He was especially careful about that.

“You never noticed, did you?” Hotaru whispered shaking her head and pressing a button, the mechanical hand let go of Ruka.

“Noticed what?” he asked, fixing his uniform since it got all wrinkled

“Do you know why I keep on blackmailing you?” Hotaru asked “It’s because, first I wanted to save money for my inventions but the second is really unexpected, it’s for you to notice me”

“Oh” was all Ruka could say

“And now I leave you with all the information you need to make a move, Ruka” Hotaru said. Hotaru sighed and left Ruka standing there.

As Ruka stood there, he didn’t notice someone creeping behind him. It was Koko.

“You know what I read in her mind, Ruka?” he asked sitting on the bench the two were occupying just minutes ago. Ruka shook his head. “She said go after her and tell her what you feel” Koko chuckled, “actually what was clearly on her mind was, ‘Why don’t you help the jerk, Koko? Tell him tell me how he really feels and don’t you dare read my mind ever again’”

Ruka smiled and ran after his beloved Hotaru Imai, to tell her how he really loves her and cares for her. He doesn’t expect anything of the girlfriend of the sort, but he just hopes that they’ll be close to that.

Koko laughed at Ruka and entered the dormitory building to see Natsume standing on the door way.

“Enjoyed the show?” Koko asked

“Never thought Ruka could be so stupid” Natsume said

Koko chuckled heading for his room, leaving Natsume on his own. He headed for the northern forest, off to my favorite place in this academy, the Sakura tree.

He arrived there and it was a magnificent sight. The sun high on the sky, winds hitting everything that goes there way, Sakura petals flying everywhere. He catches one petal and smiled remembering Mikan’s smile.

Just like the Sakura petal whenever it falls it will never die, it will always live, just like Mikan’s smile it never fades from her face.

“I wonder where she is,” he thought aloud. He let go of the petal from his hand and sat under the Sakura tree. He was just staring at the rising sun when he felt a presence near him, Persona.

“Another mission—for the two of you—making sure Kai Lie,” Persona said, “he’s a great adviser in the government, and he’s coming here to visit his Alma Mater”

“What kind of Alice does he have to have that position?” Natsume drawled

“Visions of the future” he answered, “Same time, same place”

With that said, he left, leaving Natsume all alone. Another mission, huh?

--

Mikan harshly pulled the handle for the shower, frustrated. Two hours from now and Mikan and Natsume’s mission will start. Mikan did not like it, she was supposed to avoid everyone and not get involved in anything.

She quickly but thoroughly washed her hair, scrubbing her skin and brushing her nails. After the quick bath, she dressed still not in a good mood. She looked out her window and saw that the moon was already out and shinning bright.

She ran out of her room and into the deep of the forest. She looked up and somehow her mood started to alter little by little. Then she remembered there was another mission. She screamed releasing her tension as well as her frustration. She knew others heard it and will be arriving some time soon. She quickly heard shuffling of leaves from her right. She sighed and jumped to a tree branch settling herself on it. She looked at her watch and saw there was still a good one and a half hour before the mission starts.

She looked down on the students that arrived at her place a while ago and saw it was Aya and Yuu. They must have been exploring in the forest when they heard her scream. Mikan thought, maybe I could talk to them.

When she was about to jump down, she caught Aya’s attention. Aya frowned then looked at Yuu’s direction. She shook her head and leaf the place with Yuu. Mikan didn’t understand why she would do that.

Mikan didn’t dwell a long time on Aya’s action and realized that if she showed herself to them she would probably break her promise to herself, avoid everyone. She sighed and was tempted to scream again but controlled herself; instead, she kicked the tree’s trunk. She jumped down deciding she can’t take it anymore, the silence.

She headed for the meeting place and napped there for a while. Soon none other than Natsume joined her.

“I want to thank you for last night, Natsume,” Mikan said

“Don’t mention it” he dismissed

Mikan smiled inside, this would be a good reason to avoid him. Persona soon arrived and he gave Mikan a mask. It was all covered with gold glitters, it was just like any other mask, its like the mask used for balls but hers is full.

“Does this mean she’s always on the mission?” Natsume drawled

“Yes, now start the mission” he ordered

Natsume nods and jumped to the nearest tree branch to another. Mikan sighs and puts on her mask; she jumps onto one of the branches and then jumped after Natsume, who was not that far.

Persona waited till the two of them got lost in the darkness. He was quite surprised to see Mikan jump from tree to tree. Seems like Natsume likes the girl, he thought, that’s a huge problem in the future. He sighs and looked at the moon, he felt his spirit lights up and he grinned. Yes, the moon makes him smile. He stayed like that for a while and decided that its time to go and do his business.

--

Natsume and Mikan never uttered a word during the travel to the highway. Natsume waited for Mikan to complain on how tiring it is but it never came, on the other hand, Mikan knew Natsume was waiting for her to complain.

Finally, they arrived at the highway and caught sight of the black limousine driving away from a big house. When the car was in front of them they followed it from the woods, jumping from tree to tree. So far, nothing has happened.

When the car was just a street away from Alice Academy’s grounds three suited men appeared in front of the car and aimed there guns at the car. Natsume quickly set their guns on fire and they let it go. The car swerve lightly but it didn’t get off the lane. It continued headed for the school’s ground but this time faster than before.

Natusme and Mikan jumped on the ground fighting the three men, to be more specific Natsume did all the fighting. While Natsume was busy with the three, another two swooped down on Mikan. The two aimed their guns at her but she screamed, they staggered at the unseen force Mikan used. Natsume and the other three felt it too but they only flinched, as Mikan’s scream was directed at the other two. Natsume grabbed Mikan’s arm and the two jumped to a tree. When the five composed themselves, the two of them were out of the sight. Mikan gasped, when she saw Natsume’s arm bleeding, making the five point there guns at their direction.

Natsume wanted to smack Mikan then, but he decided that protecting themselves is the priority one. He made a fire barrier on the five. When he was done and the five men were trapped, that was the time he smacked Mikan hard. She only winced and rubbed the back of her head.

Natsume started to jump to another tree not taking notice of his injured arm. Mikan wanted to call him back to put away the flame he ignited that was keeping the five men from escaping. She looked at the five and noticed that the fire was gone and the five men were panting on their knees. Mikan grinned and followed after Natsume.

Natsume and Mikan arrived at the meeting place and saw Persona standing there.

“Good work, now go back to your rooms” he said then walked away

Natsume walked away while Mikan stood there fighting with herself. Should I help Natsume? He’s hurt. She reasoned, but if I help him that would get him close to me, I don’t want that.

Mikan didn’t follow him, instead she ran to her room as fast as she could and get her personal kit of first aid. It’s specially made from Nonoko, so that whatever chemical there is that makes it sting won’t sting anymore and the process of healing is much faster. She run next to Natsume’s room and leave it at the door with a note that says, use this, it’s one of Nonoko’s potions. It won’t hurt one bit and it heals much faster. She didn’t write her name cause that would be too suspicious. She knocked at the door incase he got there first, and then she ran away. Not sensing someone hiding in the shadows.

Natsume smirked at Mikan’s retreating back and picked up the kit she placed. He entered his room and placed it on his bed. He took a shower first then put on his pajama but only the pants.

He sat on his bed and started to apply the cream on his wound, it’s a half-inch open wound not to deep though. Natsume agreed on Mikan, it didn’t sting one bit and heals much faster. The wound started to heal itself little by little. Natsume wrapped it with a bandage provided by Mikan and put on his pajama shirt.

He lay on his bed staring at the ceiling and thinking about what Youichi said, Natsume ran to Youichi’s room first before he came back to his room. Every mission when he comes back to the academy he visits him first to assure him he’s fine. This time Youichi noticed that he got injured. He said to Natsume, Be careful, Onii-chan, I don’t want to lose you.

When he said that, Natsume saw again why he was still alive and doing the school’s work. It’s because of these people, he thought, Youichi, Ruka, Mikan and the others, they are the ones I live for. I haven’t killed myself yet for them. I want to watchthem grow up and know their achievements.

“You won’t lose me, Youichi” he whispered then he fell asleep.

While the students sleep, the teachers work overtime. Narumi and the other teachers greeted Mr. Kai Lee to the Academy. They had a small welcoming dinner for him and let him go to sleep. In his room he sat on his beige leather couch and called someone on his phone.

“How’d it go?” asked Kai on the phone

“Pretty good, they’ve given her a mask” the person replied

“That’s good… that means she’ll be working for the Academy from now on” he grinned

“It’s all working out as planned”

TBC
---

Did you like it? Pls. review. Sorry if this chapter kinda sucks. And I know I’m not good at fighting scenes. I know this chapter is kinda useless sorry about that.

Thank you everyone for reviewing. I hope my reviews reach up to 60 .I just wish. Not demanding though.

Read my other fics:
One way or another NxM
Exam frustration RxH

Another Life Journey -5

2007-03-29T09:52:00.000-07:00

“How’s first day treating you?” Mikan asked Aya

The five of them, Hotaru, Mikan, Aya, Ruka and Natsume were sitting under a tree after classes. They were just sitting there talking and getting to know each other.

“It was good” Aya smiled

“Hey can you demonstrate your Alice for us?” Ruka requested “I’m really curious on how it works”

“Sure” Aya smiled again. She looked around but no one was around “Um.. who wants to try it with their Alice?”

“What Alice can be a wonderful presentation? We only have the Alices of invention, animal pheromone, fire Alice and nullification” Mikan said

“I think fire would be the most cool and most presentable” she answered

“Will you?” Mikan asked Natsume with puppy eyes only for his eyes to see “Pls. I really want to see how her Alice works”

Natsume cursed inside his head, how I can always give in with those eyes! It’s so nice! Natsume produced a fire ball in his hand and throw it above the lake. The second he threw it, it became a large flame; it was like a house was burning and the atmosphere around was warm not hot. Then the large flame turned into a small a blue flame and the atmosphere was really hot. Then the flame was extinguished when it fell on the lake.

“Wow!” Mikan exclaimed “That was cool!”

“You can control the heat it emits as well as its form?” Hotaru asked

“Yeah” Aya answered

“Thanks for demonstrating for us, Aya!” thanked Ruka

Then the school bell rang, alerting the students that dinner will be ready in a few minutes.

“Come on, dinner will be ready soon” Hotaru said, standing up

--

It was quarter to twelve and Mikan can’t sleep even though she’s so tired. She was lying on her bed just staring at the ceiling her mind racing about the possibilities why she was having those dreams. She stayed like that for many hours now and soon her alarm clock rang, telling her another day has begun. She sighed and sat up. She got her coat and slippers.

Mikan decided to go out and watch the stars and the moon with her old friends. The birds, the trees, the frogs, and the breezes, they’re keeping her company. She lay down on the grass just staring at the glowing crescent moon above her as well as the stars.

She closes her eyes and slowly drifts into a slumber when she heard a voice. A voice she was all too familiar with.

“You shouldn’t be here all alone” Natsume said

Mikan groaned thinking I finally got the chance to sleep and he ruins it, she said “What do you mean?”

“You’re face was seen during the mission, you’re probably their target now” he explained

“Target? You mean they’ll try to get me? Or kill me?”

“Either of the two”

“Oh, that’s bad” Mikan sighed and tries to sit but can’t seem to. She panicked and cries out for help, but soon passed out. Natsume sighed and was followed by a groan.

He walk toward her body and kneeled beside her. “You should have calm down, you were just to stressed out” he murmured

He lifted her body and carried her bridal style to her room. He let her down on her bed and got out the window. “Have a nice dream, Mikan”

--

“NO!” Mikan screamed, sitting up. She looked at her clock and was shocked to know that it was only quarter to 5. She sighed and lay back down, only to sit right up again. Just lying down was making her remember her dream.

Mikan was running around an empty Alice academy grounds. It was midnight with the moon on its fullest and highest as well as the stars. She was searching for her friends, she needed them badly.

She checked every room she passes by but no one was there. Then all of the sudden she heard a scream. She ran toward where she heard the sound. She ran as fast as she can with her heart beating so fast and loud. She swore she could hear her heart beating.

Another scream was heard, but this time it was a male’s voice. She turned right hearing it in that direction. She pushed open the doors and she was inside the Academy’s kitchen. The room was pitching black, she waved her hand in front of her face but she can’t even see it.

“I’m glad you came, Mikan” a girl’s voice said

Mikan turned to her right were she began to notice a faint color of bright green. She recognized that voice, it was Sumire’s.

“Where is everyone? Where’s Hotaru? Natsume? Ruka? Yuu? Koko? Na--?”

“Shut up!” Sumire shouted at Mikan

Mikan’s eyes were big like a saucer. “Where is everyone?”

“Here” Sumire said “In this very room”

When she said those, one by one a candle was lit open. The room was crowded.

“What are you all doing here? What is going on here?” Mikan asked

No one answered. Their eyes were covered by their bangs.

“Yuu? What happened?” Yuu lifted his head and his eyes were hollow and have no life in it. “Koko, answer me, pls”

Mikan cried and search for her friends, she knew who had done this. Reo He used his Alice to make them like this.

“Mikan,” a hoarse voice said “go away from here Mikan”

The brunette looked at the owner of the voice and was shocked to see her beloved grandpa.

“Oji-san” she whispered. She fell on her knees her tears streaming down her face and falling on the cool tiles.

“I love you, Mikan” her grandpa said “Take care”

“Mikan as you know, the anti-organization wants you to join them” Sumire said “Now you have a choice, you join them and all your love ones lives or you decline and they die… choose”

Mikan angrily wipes her tears and stands up saying “I’ll join them now let them go”

“Good” Reo said appearing from behind Sumire

Mikan’s friends were protesting about this and her grandpa started crying. “Don’t do this Mikan, we aren’t worth you joining the cursed organization”

“I’ll do anything for you grandpa and my friends to live”

“Enough with the talk” Reo snapped and he cluck his tongue.

Mikan looked at him horrified, she turned her attention to her love ones who was all kneeling and they were stabbed at the heart.

Mikan screamed and she woke up.

That was Mikan’s dream. Currently, Mikan is seated on class, trying to learn something from the discussions. Her head is still spinning around the dream. The whole day she didn’t utter a word, except during her greetings. Everyone noticed her spacing out and entering her own little world. Some will approach her but she’ll just ignore them not hearing a word they say. The whole day she was like a robot.

Dinner arrives and that was when she got out of her trance. She was greeting everyone again and flashing everyone a smile. Everyone at first didn’t know what to do when she smiled.

“What’s wrong?” Mikan asked when Yuu instead of a cheerful smile gave her a freaked out smile.

“The whole day you were on your own little world and now you’re smiling again. That’s just… well… unusual” he replied

“Well I’m back now! Sorry everyone if I ignored you earlier” Mikan apologized

“Its okay” everyone replied flashing her with a smile which she returned.

After everyone ate their meal, they all went to bed or do some home works. But Mikan didn’t, she went out the building and sat on one of the lined benches near the Northern Forests. She took a deep breath and released it slowly.

Mikan just stares out at the dark and the part where her grandpa was killed flashed inside her mind. Mikan holds back her tears and groans. She knew she won’t be getting any sleep that night all alone or without something to take her mind off the dream. She tried to recall all her wonderful memories with her friends but every time she does, pieces of her dream flash through her mind. Their empty eyes, their blank faces, their grave stones, their lifeless bodies the memories were flashing like cars on her mind.

Mikan stood up alarmed when she heard footsteps approaching her from behind. It was Natsume.

“You need to relax a little, idiot” Natsume drawled

Mikan relaxed a little but a sudden emotion hit her when she sat down. An emotion she only feels often, sadness and depression, because of this she hunched and hid her eyes behind her hair which were let down.

Natsume sat beside her but not to close but not to far also; he began to worry for Mikan. Before Mikan hid her eyes he saw a flash of emotion filling her orbs. “Is there something wrong?”

This is wrong, I should not be seen with anyone or else they’ll get hurt, Mikan thought. “Nothing, thanks though” she said not looking up

“You’re such a bad liar,” he said “Come on, tell me what’s wrong”

“Why would you care? You don’t even care for me, you just consider me an annoying girl” she said. I’m sorry, Natsume. She badly needed to get away from the people she loves or else it will be all her fault.

Natsume was hurt when she said those words, how could she think that? Yeah, sometimes she’s annoying but her smile is all it takes to forget about those times. What is wrong with her? “Mikan, do tell me why you’re like this” he whispered, staring at the sky above them.

Mikan hold back a sob, Natsume really cares. She looked at Natsume between her hairs, and saw that he wasn’t smirking or something like that, he’s concerned. Suddenly, Mikan can’t take it all any longer, she needed to tell someone or do something, and she doesn’t want anything to happen to her love ones. Her vision began to blur and she choked on the air she inhaled.

Natsume looked at Mikan who still is hiding her face. She looked at him, and saw there were tears and the same emotions filled her eyes. Natsume felt a wave of protectiveness over her and swore whoever made her that way will pay. Mikan buried her tear covered face in Natsume's chest, and Natsume drew her closer still, wrapping her up in his arms. He knew his shirt is getting soaked by the tears but he didn’t care. All of his focus now was on comforting Mikan.

Mikan cried for a long time and for a long time Natsume comforted her, bringing his hand up and down her back making Mikan have a soothing feeling. Mikan decided it was enough of crying and she sat down beside Natsume with no space between them.

“Thanks, Natsume” Mikan said, she rested her head on his shoulder and she began to tell her dream to Natsume.

“Don’t worry, Mikan” Natsume started “Everyone will be fine, just believe in them”

“Thank you so much Natsume” Mikan whispered

Natsume just nods and they stayed silent for a long time. Natsume used this time to sort out everything his feeling for the girl beside him. He knew she was more than a friend to him, a crush perhaps. Yes, yes it‘s a crush, nothing more than that, for now. Natsume sighed and murmured the girl’s name beside him. He looked at her and saw that she’s sleeping. He memorized this familiar face because he knew; some day they’ll be apart as what the gods planned to do to the pair. He sighed and carried Mikan to her room, bridal style.

He laid her on her bed and was about to leave when Mikan sat up and said, “Natsume, don’t leave me all alone”

“You need some rest, little girl” he said, but still not opening the door

“Pls. just for tonight” Mikan begged, she stood up quietly and put a hand on his shoulder.

“You need sleep; you just can’t go on without sleep”

“Pls.?” she begged

“Fine” he stated, the moment he turn around to face Mikan she smiled before she fell into his arms, asleep.

He once again placed her on the bed. He stared at her for awhile and put the blanket over her. He didn’t know what made him do it, but he did, he kissed her forehead lightly. His cheeks had a tint of pink in them but he shrugged it off. He looked for futon and set it up. He placed it just a few steps away from the bed. Before he drifted off to sleep he heard Mikan mumble on her sleep his name.

---End of Chapter---

Did you like it?? Sorry if there’s not much of Hotaru and Ruka scenes, I can’t seem to think of a plot. If you have some suggestions. Do tell.

Pls. REVIEW. Tnx. A review always helps the author gets into the mood in writing. J
Advertising(hehe): read my other fics. Exam Frustration (RxH) and One way or another(NxM)

Another Life Journey -4

2007-03-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

Chapter 4 --

*summary:
Two different people together in a mission where dangers abound and feelings developed. Face with a difficult situation, what will she choose, to live in a dream where there's no pain or to come back to reality where somebody is waiting?

Persona and Narumi was the one who greeted the three children back to the academy. It was already quarter to 5 when they arrived and Mikan was feeling really sleepy already. She mostly tripped around the woods on the journey and sometimes tripping on her own foot.

“Good morning, Mikan, Natsume and Aya” Narumi greeted cheerfully in his usual clothes

“Good morning” Aya bowed politely at the two elders in front of her

“G’ning” Mikan mumbled her eye lids dropping already

Narumi just smiled at her and said “Why don’t you and Aya share rooms for the day, I’ll be talking to her later after she gets rest”

“Okay” Mikan nodded smiling at the thought of sleeping. She began to lead the way towards her room while Aya watched Mikan carefully as if she’s going to drop dead sleeping on the ground.

Finally they reached the room and Mikan quickly lend Aya a set of pajamas and her a nightgown. She let Aya used the bathroom for her to change and her to change on the room.

Aya emerged from the bathroom looking fresh. “Hey Mikan, you can use—“. She looked at Mikan who was already lying on her extra blankets on the floor, sleeping peacefully. Aya smiled and fixed the blankets around Mikan and put an extra pillow beside her.

Aya looked at the clock and saw that it was already 5:30 in the morning; Mikan still has time to spare before Aya wakes her up. Aya looked around the room, and it was neat and clean. She sat on the bed and looked at Mikan. Mikan was obviously tired and sleepy. Aya smiled and closed her eyes, but she opened it in a flash. She let out a sigh and stood up walking toward the window. A memory just entered her mind.

When Aya was little, her Mom and she went to the carnival. They just finished eating their lunch and she found a really colorful table where an old lady is sitting opposite it. She approached it excited.

“Hello!” Aya waved

“Good afternoon, young lady” the old woman replied, giving her a smile

“What do you do here?”

“Give me your hand, young miss,” she instructed “And I’ll show you”

Aya gladly obeyed curios at her job.

The old woman turned over Aya’s hand making her palm face the two of them. She began to trace the lines on her palm, her eyes closed. “Close your eyes, dear and clear remove everything from your mind”

Aya did what she was told and after a few seconds something suddenly entered her mind.

She was in a room, colored in white and a window showing the fall of rain. There was a bed and someone resting on it, covered in sheets. Aya couldn’t see who it was because it was all blurry but she knows that she was a she and has brown hair. She heard something against the rain drops on the roof and the window, she heard a sob. Aya noticed a boy with a violent shade of violet hair sitting beside the bed, his chin resting on his folded arms and tears silently flowing. She knew he was talking but she can’t hear him, it was like he was so far away. All of the sudden the boy looked at her, confused. Aya turned around to see something really blurry.

In a flash, the white room disappeared, and instead the old women dropped her hand and began to hastily pack her things.

“What happened?” Aya asked

“That was just a glimpse of your future, young miss” she replied

“Where are you going?”

“Away, I finally understand it,” she said with a click of her suitcase “Be careful and take care of everyone around you, Aya Gamei”

“How do you know my name?” Aya asked as the old woman walks away

She smiles at Aya and said “Your mother is looking for you, take care now Aya”

“Aya!” she heard her mother shout her name

Aya sighed again looking at the raising sun. The school was enormous. Suddenly she heard Mikan mumble something, “No pls. don’t… let us go”

Aya stared at Mikan when she began to mumble again the same words, and her body began to releases cold sweat. Aya immediately walks toward her and shakes Mikan up to wake.

“Mikan wake up” she said “come on Mikan, you can do it… it’s just a dream… a nightmare… wake up Mikan”

A few more tries and she finally woke up, panting and sweat covering her body. Her eyes were wide open and were shocked to see Aya beside her but then she remembered the night’s event.

“What happened?” Mikan asked standing up with the help of Aya

“You had a nightmare” Aya replied, she saw the confuse and terrified look of Mikan and added, “You were begging to stop and you were all covered in cold sweat”

“That’s bad” Mikan murmured

“What was the—?”

“Pls. don’t tell anyone about this, pls. don’t” Mikan said playing with her hands, “Pls. don’t I’m begging you…”

“O-Okay” Aya agreed “Why are you so terrified about it? Everyone have nightmares”

“Oh that’s right…” Mikan said ignoring the question, she headed at the bathroom door saying “I think I’m going to start the morning early then I’ll show you around”

Aya just stared at Mikan entering the bathroom, confused. She lie down on the bed and slowly she was falling asleep getting used to the sound of the shower.

~~~~~

That dream, Mikan thought, it’s been coming more and more frequently. How come I have that dream? Is it a warning or something?

She ducked her head under the spray, rinsing out the shampoo and the sensation. As she washed out the soap, the feeling reminded her of something in the dream, a new piece that she'd nearly missed. Before the only thing that was focus was her and only she but now it became clearer, she was with someone else. And she was begging and begging.

Who is that? She wondered who would be with me. Suffering with me? Kidnapped with me?

All of the sudden a picture of Natsume entered Mikan’s mind. She just sighed and said out loud “It does make sense… but Natsume? Suffering with me?”

She turned off the shower and wrapped the towel around her body. She quickly wore her uniform and put on her coat and a hat. Even though winter was still far, every morning she feels real cold.

Mikan goes out the bathroom and saw that Aya was sleeping peacefully. Mikan watched her sleep for a while and sighed. No matter how tired she is, she won’t risk having a nightmare again. So Mikan decided to try and study the lessons for that day and so she sat in front of her study table and opened her book. Time pass by and she eventually got to tired and fall asleep, her head on her open Math book.

~~~~~

“Finally she wakes up!” Aya cried exhausted after shaking Mikan up for almost 10 minutes. Mikan’s alarm went off fifteen minutes ago.

“Huh? Wh—what?” Mikan asked lifting her head from the book looking at Aya confused “what happened?”

“Ummmm, your alarm went off like 15 minutes ago…” Aya replied

“HUWHAT?!” Mikan burst standing up and ran inside the bathroom. Clearly she forgot she was already in uniform. She ran out of the bathroom seconds later muttering to her how stupid she was.

“Here Mikan, I fixed your bag for you” Aya said handing Mikan her bag

“Thanks” the hurried brunette replied grabbing the bag at the same time removing her coat and hat, without much success. She fell on her butt and groaned “Idiot Mikan”

“Just calm down and you’ll get there,” Aya said helping her up “I promise”

“Thanks, hey,” the other said standing up removing her coat and hat “you going to be alright here alone?”

“Yeah, I’ll just have to wait for Mr. Narumi to call me” Aya said smiling ”Come on hurry up, you’re going to be much late if you don’t go now”

“Yeah” Mikan sighed and ran out of the room “See you later!”

“Okay”

~~

The moment Mikan went out of her room she ran toward her class room. She was already 15 minutes late. She shouldered her back pack and winced. She stopped from her tracks and fell down on her knees. She was holding her shoulder in pain hoping to make it numb so as to not feel the pain.

She winced more when she fell down. Her wounds from the papers were finally taking effect on her body. She looked at her legs and saw numerous cuts, some were bleeding, some were just scratches but some were also painful even though it wasn’t bleeding.

She sighed and crawled toward the wall to her left. There she rested her back on the wall, but that too, was painful. She got out her hanky and wipes the blood off her legs and arms. She stood up with the support of the wall and continued her tracks with the help of the wall.

On the way to the class room, Narumi came into view. When he spotted her, he came running toward her just as her legs were giving up. Narumi catches her just in time before her fall.

“Mikan!” Narumi screamed “What happened to you?”

Mikan just smiles at him and sat on the floor, “Wounds I got yesterday finally showed up…I was beginning to wonder…” she chuckled

“Are you alright? Is there anything I can do?” he asked

Mikan smiled again and said “Yeah, can I enter before you come in the room? I don’t want to be late”

Narumi just nods concern in his eyes. He helped Mikan stand up and ushered her to the room.

“Okay, I’ll be entering in a few minutes” he informed her

“Thanks, Narumi-sensei!” Mikan beamed and entered the room.

She entered the room and greeted everyone and hurriedly went to her seat.

“You’re late” Hotaru stated

“I overslept again” Mikan reasoned with a nervous laugh.

“You’re lucky the teachers got an early meeting today” Koko said

“Yeah, lucky” she murmured glancing at the door. She caught sight of Natsume reading his manga at the back of the room, Ruka sitting beside him, while petting his bunny. “Hi Ruka! Natsume!” she waved at them

Ruka waved back at her with a smile and a tint of pink showed when he saw Hotaru staring at him with the same emotionless eyes. He lowered his head making his bangs cover his face. Natsume, however, lifted his head up, only a little to acknowledge Mikan.

But that fraction that he lifts his head up, she saw he has a small scratch on his right cheek. It wasn’t really bleeding but it was really red. She wondered how come nobody notices.

Minutes passed by and Mr. Narumi still hasn’t entered the room. Mikan began to wonder what he was doing outside. Soon he entered the room and the students kept quite and seated.

“Okay class, we have a new student arriving today,” Narumi cheerfully, “You can come in now, Aya”

The door opened and Aya entered the room in school uniform. She stands in front of the room with a smile plastered on her face. Some of the boys whistled and mumbled while girls gazed at the pretty girl in front.

“Hello everyone, my name is Aya Ganeku” Aya said shyly but smiled broadly when she caught sight of Mikan smiling to her and giving her all the courage she needs for the day.

“What’s her star rank and Alice, Narumi-sensei?” Yuu asked

“She’s a Special Star and she has Power Alice (I made it up. hehe. If you’re wondering what it is, refer to chapter 3)

“Wow” the class murmured

While the class did this, Mikan and Natsume took it as a chance to examine the girl in front. The two noticed that she has lots of cuts on her legs and arms, but only few were really visible. However, the two didn’t notice that Hotaru was also giving the new girl a closer look.

“Who’s her partner, sensei?” someone asked

“Um... Is it okay with you Mikan if you’ll be her partner as well as Natsume?” the blonde asked the brunette

Mikan beamed at excitement and nodded.

“Good,” he continued “you can sit at the chair beside Mikan, Aya”

Aya smiled and said “Thanks”

“Okay class, see you” he said leaving the room with a smile “Free period for now”

--

At a far away place from the academy, a pool of water illustrates the actions of a certain brunette who keeps the missions of the anti-organization a failure. They were observing Mikan Sakura.

“We really need to take her out, or make her join our side” a deep voice stated from the dark.

“I agree” another said “She’s the reason why most of our missions are failing”

“We need to make a plan on how to get her” the 1st one said stepping out of the darkness capturing him. His name Kai Lie. He has long black hair tied up in a low ponytail and bangs covering his enticing eyes. Yes, he is a villain but he was a loving and cheerful person. Only an incident changed all he was into a treacherous villain. And now he is here for revenge.

The pool of water glowed and showed Mikan and a girl with raven hair. Mikan was running toward the other girl. When she suddenly got blown to the corner of the room, by the gun the raven haired girl shot her.

Kai Lie smiled remembering his days, and it disappeared as fast as it appeared. “That’s her best friend; one way to lure her to us is to get her love ones”

--

Hope you liked this chapter of mine.

Pls. REVIEW. Tnx. Reviews always help the author gets into the mood in writing. J

Another Life Journey -3

2007-03-29T09:46:00.000-07:00

Chapter 3 --

Mikan was a fast learner, Natsume noticed. She was able to jump from tree to tree at her fifth try. Natsume just wondered why Mikan’s having a hard time catching up with the lessons in class. She’s not that stupid to be called a dummy on class, if she just concentrates.

‘Maybe she’s really not interested in studies’ Natsume concludes watching Mikan at the corner of his eye. Her face was glowing, he didn’t know if it’s because of perspiration or the happiness she’s feeling.

No matter what is sent her way, good or bad, she always smiles. This made Natsume smile inwardly. Her smile can light up Natsume’s dark corners in his heart, her smile tells him everything will be fine, her smile is everything that Natsume needs in order live.

“Natsume-kun!” Mikan called from his left. He looked at her and asked “What is it?”

“Can we rest for a while?” she smiled

Natsume did feel a little tired but he never stops for a break, he just stops running or jumping, he just walks slowly. Natsume sighed audibly and jumped to the ground followed by Mikan.

“Thanks” she smiled

“We aren’t going to rest little girl,” Natsume explained “if you stop you’ll feel how tired you are, we need to go on, come on we’ll take a walk”

Mikan sighed half irritated and half grateful. She knew Natsume was right; they need to go on so as to not feel the tiredness. She hurriedly followed Natsume and walked beside him.

They were silent through out the journey just enjoying each others company. Only the birds chirp, the wind’s gentle breeze and the rustle of leaves can be heard. Their only source of light was the full moon high above them with its stars twinkling.

Their destination was only an hour away and Mikan decided to break the silence. “Why don’t you try to use your alice to light up the way?”

“And why would I do that?” Natsume asked “you never know if there’s a barrier or something… and besides you’re just afraid of the dark”

“Am not” Mikan denied but Natsume just smirked.

Finally they arrived at the place. The mission given to them was to retrieve the kidnapped girl with the alice that could control other people’s alice. She has olive green hair, and pale blue eyes with a fair complexion of skin. She was just the same age as Mikan and Natsume.

“Where do you think they’re keeping her?” Mikan whispered at the back of Natsume’s neck, sending a chill down his spine.

Natsume just glared at her and whispered back “Where do you think they’re keeping her? Probably at the back of the place!”

“Great! So where do we enter?”

Natsume looked at Mikan partly furious and partly amused at her actions. He silently jumped from tree to tree looking for the back of the place. He abruptly stops and stared at one of the covered windows by the tree’s leaves. There was the girl, pacing in panic and looking around for an escape, she was wearing knee-length shorts, a Victorian blouse and a pair of doll shoes with her hair tied in a tight bun. She looks like a teacher to Natsume.

He looked at Mikan and pointed to her the window. “Come on then! We can open the window from here!” she whispered

“What are you dumb? We can’t do that! The window must be opened from the inside so that the alarm won’t go off”

“That’s weird” she said “How come they leave her in a room with a window?”

“They didn’t noticed there was a window because light doesn’t come in because this tree is blocking it and they only come here during nights” Natsume explained, he looked below but didn’t see a anyone “Alright my guess is this; a barrier is put up so that we can’t use our alice”

“So you want me to nullify it or something?”

“Yeah, so that I can light up a small fire to attract her attention and let her open the window”

“To be honest, that plan kinda sucks” Mikan commented

“I can’t hear you giving any plans, do I?” He snapped “Alright, be ready… on three… one, two, three!”

“Nullify!” she hissed, shutting her eyes in pure concentration so as not to put too much force on the barrier or else the guy will feel it.

Through the sound waves, her voice was heard by only the two of them making it possible for Natsume to use his powers and not be detected by the barrier. He instantly lights a fire on his finger tip and puts it off and on and off.

The girl saw the flashing red light at the corner of eye and wondered if she was just hallucinating. There was no window, she thought, where does that light came from? She walked forward to the light and examined the wall closely.

Then she smiled, there was a simple lock slide covered in the same color as the walls around here. She reached up and slides it open. She carefully jump through the window and walked over to where Mikan and Natsume were now waiting.

“Hi, thanks for coming, I’m Aya” she smiled at them grateful for her rescuers, but looked confused at the same time “Did we meet before?”

“Nice to meet you, Aya, I’m Mikan and this is Natsume” Mikan smiled back “I’m afraid not, if we have I would surely remember you”

“Come on we better get going, they might check up on you” Natsume instructed

Just as he said that, they heard a door slammed loudly and a voice swearing just as loud. Natsume jumped to a nearby tree and looked at Mikan and Aya to do the same.

“I can’t do that” Aya admitted

“It’s alright… we’ll be running below him” Mikan smiled and grabbed Aya’s hands and started to follow Natsume.

After a few minutes of running, Natsume was sure a search party was looking for them. He began to travel faster and the two ran faster to keep up with him.

“There they are!” someone screamed from their right. Mikan looked at her right and saw that a guy was in good 80 feet away from them.

“Hurry up, you two!” Natsume shouted

“We’re trying!” Mikan shouted back furious. She instructed Aya to hold on her tighter and ran faster with her.

As they travel, concentrated on escaping, they didn’t notice that someone got ahead of them and was already waiting for them to arrive. Natsume jumped down and threw a fireball at the man in front of them. He quickly jumped out of the way and threw series of paper in their direction.

When the paper touched their skin the received a lot of paper cuts around their body. Mikan and Aya screamed in pain while Natsume just growled and sent fire balls on the papers. The papers stopped in mid air while they caught on fire, after a second, burning paper were passing through them, cutting their skin as well as burning.

Mikan and Aya screamed louder not having the chance to fall down in pain because papers were also below them. Natsume tried his best not to scream. If fire can’t destroy it, water must, Natsume thought angrily. He grabbed Mikan’s hand and pulled her along with Aya. They ran hard toward their east ignoring the pain they’re feeling all over their body, the burning papers were still trailing after them.

Finally they arrived at a cliff and if you looked down a river was seen.

“On three we jump” Natsume hastily explained

“What?!” Mikan screamed looking horrified. She seems to think of her chances at the papers behind them which was a good few feet away and will be coming to them fast.

“Come on, no time to think idiot!” Natsume said and push her off with Aya. He followed half a second after. He grabbed Mikan’s hand as well as Aya tightly shouting louder than the two girls screams, “Don’t let go!” He looked at his back and saw the papers still after them. Finally they reached the water where they were plunged into the deep and the papers got wet and join the flow off the water harmlessly.

Natsume lift up his head for air and soon Aya did the same. Natsume looked around but there was no sign of Mikan. He suddenly felt something heavy clinging in his hand and pulled it up. Mikan was unconscious.

“Help me drag her to the river bank” He said to Aya. Obediently she swam to Mikan’s other side and grabbed her shoulder; together they drag her body to the riverbank.

“What do we do to her?” Aya asked in the dark when they were just staring at Mikan

“I don’t know… do the CPR thing…” he suggested

“Why me?”

“Oh yes! Good idea! She would be so pleased when she finds out I did it!” Natsume said each word with sarcasm.

Aya just looked at him like he was crazy and glanced at Mikan’s lifeless body. “Yeah I think she will…”

“What?!” he cried “are you crazy?”

“Well, you do look good with each other!” she protested “I really thought you were an item back there”

“Will you stop arguing with me! She isn’t getting better with us arguing!” he said pointing at Mikan’s body with a tint of pink on his cheeks, for once he was thankful for the dark that surrounded them

“Oh shush will you” she said exasperated, “She’ll be alright”. She leaned over her body and did the CPR on her.

Natsume watched Mikan the whole time feeling quite stupid, irresponsible, confused and amazed. He never thought he and Mikan looked good together.

When Mikan started to release water and gasp for air, Natsume smiled inwardly while Aya smiled knowingly at Natsume’s direction, her eyes with a twinkle of mischievous.

“What happened?” Mikan asked sitting up with her hand cupping in front of her heart as if she’s having a heart attack or something.

Natsume looked up at the cliff they just jumped and smirked. Good thing it was dark, he thought, they probably didn’t see us on the riverbank with the darkness.

“You fell unconscious after we jumped” Aya explained

“Oh yeah… we jumped” Mikan recalled

“Like you prefer burning to death,” Natsume snapped “Why didn’t you go up for air when you can’t didn’t have breath anymore?”

“I thought we weren’t supposed to” Mikan admitted

“It’s a freaking survival instinct, idiot” he half screamed and half hissed at her

“What do you mean?,” Aya asked confused “she didn’t faint while in the air?”

“She faint under water” Natsume said. Aya just looked at Mikan as if she were a joke but didn’t say anything.

“Okay done yet with the criticizing?” Mikan asked irritated at their gazes “we should get going. They would probably follow us down here”

“They won’t,” Natsume said knowingly “they probably think we drown or something”

“Well then, let’s get going… I want to sleep” Mikan said “I don’t want to be late for class tomorrow”

~~ End of chapter

Hey thanks everyone for reading and reviewing my first fanfic to be posted here. I really appreciate it.

Another Life Journey -2

2007-03-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

Chapter 2 --

*summary:
Two different people together in a mission where dangers abound and feelings developed. Face with a difficult situation, what will she choose, to live in a dream where there's no pain or to come back to reality where somebody is waiting?

Did you like the 1st chapter??? I hope so. Well this chapter is the start of the mission and of course the start of awkwardness between hotaru and ruka! Haha. Hope u like it.

Meanwhile Mikan was currently having a nap under the big Sakura tree where she and Natsume were supposed to meet. She knew if she stayed inside her room waiting till the supposed time she wasn’t going to wake up on the right time. So she just decided to just sleep under the tree.

It was a full moon and everything was perfect. The lake was occasionally being rippled over and over again by the gentle blowing cold wind. The rustling leaves made by the flying birds as well as the wind. The one thing that made the sight perfect for Natsume was the figure lying on the ground sleeping soundlessly.

He walked over to the girl sleeping and sat beside her still body. There was still a good half an hour before he would wake her up to be on time. While he sat there, he thought about his life. How will it be if he didn’t made the mistakes he made back then? Will he meet the same person as the result? What would his life feel like when he didn’t meet Ruka and the others? Especially the girl who has been clouding his thoughts for quite some time now, how will his life turn out?

Natsume just stared at the moon and it’s accompanying shining stars with the clouds while he listened to the rhythm of Mikan’s breathing. He felt so peaceful, no worries, no problems, no sadness, just pure peace. He even forgot the mission for a while. After a while he abandons the moon and the shinning stars and instead stared at Mikan’s face and started memorizing every inch of it, her long eyelashes, her small nose and her lips.

Time must have flown by quickly because Persona emerged from darkness and revealed himself.

“Wake her up” Persona ordered

Natsume looked up at him with a scowl. He really didn’t want to wake her up, it was better for her to stay inside the academy. So he waked up Mikan, irritated.

“Hey little girl, wake up” Natsume said, Mikan began to stir but still didn’t wake up. “Idiot… Wake up, ugly!”

“Why don’t you try waking her up with your alice?” Persona suggested giving Natsume an interested glare.

“She’ll just nullify it” Natsume said not really wanting to use his alice on her

“Hmmmm…. If I knew better Natsume, you’re starting to develop feelings for this girl…” Persona said “Now wake her up, time is running out”

Natsume was really mad now. How would Persona know he was developing feelings before him? Natsume sent a death glare to Persona and knelt down beside Mikan. He stretched out his hands and shook her shoulders.

“Wake up, little girl” he shook her again

Each shake on Mikan, she began to stir more and more. Once she opened her eyes and revealed her brown eyes, Natsume’s heart at the same time slowly opened up. Mikan smiled at Natsume and hugged him tight, completely unaware of another presence with them, Persona.

Natsume almost melted under her hug but prevented himself from that by doing the opposite, he stiffed. Even though he faked his reaction, he can’t fake what he was feeling inside. Mikan hugged him tightly and said “It’s good to see you, Natsume- Kun!”

Persona cleared his throat getting Mikan’s attention. She looked at Persona still hugging Natsume. She looked at him curiously and asked “That’s weird… you weren’t there a while ago, sensei… dreams can be bad sometimes”

Persona almost let out a small chuckle but caught it just in time. “This is not a dream, little girl”

“What dream? Of course this is a dream, it’s exactly the same place” Mikan explained

Natsume flicked Mikan’s forehead really hard that made Mikan yelp out.

“What did you do that for?!” she demanded

“You felt that right?” Natsume asked “That means you’re not dreaming anymore, little girl”

Mikan blushed crimson red and stepped away from Natsume and Persona as far as possible in embarrassment.

“Let’s get going now, Idiot” Natsume called out jumping up to a tree branch “I want to be done with it already”

“Alright” Mikan murmured. Then she looked up searching for Natsume but only saw Persona looking amused.

“He went that way” Persona said pointing at his right where you can see a shadow on top of a tree

“Thanks” she said then ran into that direction. When she knew she was out of earshot from Persona she wondered aloud “How am I supposed to follow him? I can’t jump from tree to tree”

“I thought you were a natural athlete... why not ran after me?” Natsume said landing in front of Mikan who screamed in shock “Shut up will you”

“Sorry” Mikan said, she looked at the trees and decided, “Why don’t you teach me how to jump from tree to tree?”

“And why would I do that?”

“So that we can travel faster”

“Be more reasonable next time if you want me to teach you”

“It is reasonable”

“No it isn’t”

“Is”

“It isn’t”

“Is”

‘I can’t believe I’m having this absurd argument with her!’ he thought, ‘this isn’t making the mission done sooner’

As if reading Natsume’s mind, Mikan suddenly sighed irritated and said “This isn’t getting anything done sooner”

“It’s good you realize that” Natsume said and started to teach Mikan her request, but not before he told her the rules “First of all no complaining; second, don’t come crying to me if you’re hurt or something”

The second rule made Mikan gulped loudly, and began to regret to even ask the favor. She was just about to back out when Natsume stated the third rule smirking with a touch of a smile, “and the most important rule, always have fun”

--

While Mikan and Natsume were having a lesson, their friends were also having a time of their own. Ruka has been chasing Hotaru at least half an hour already but she just won’t give up, not that she ever gives up.

“Come on Imai-san!” Ruka shouted behind Hotaru “It’s already quarter to midnight!”

“I’m not asking you to chase me, Idiot” Hotaru said

Ruka didn’t reply, Hotaru looked back and saw that Ruka had sit down on a bench panting. She sighed and walked toward the boy and sat beside him.

“Why do you always want to blackmail me?” Ruka asked after he was shocked that Hotaru sat beside him.

She didn’t answer; she just continued staring at the stars above them. Ruka looked at the stars above and rated the view from one to ten as eight. He looked at Hotaru’s peaceful face with a tug of smile on her lips as 10. He considers her as the most beautiful sight ever seen by his own eyes.

“Beautiful” she muttered

Dazed by the sight in front of him, he agreed “Absolutely”

Hotaru noticed that he wasn’t looking at the stars instead, he was looking at her. She turned to look at Ruka. “I was talking about the stars”

“Huh? Wh-what?” Ruka asked looking up at the stars, blushing

“I said I was complementing about the stars,” She said again, looking at Ruka suspiciously, “I said they were beautiful”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re beautiful” Ruka said.

A moment of silence.

Ruka wondered why the two of them were silent for a while. Then it hit him, hit him like a roll of thunder from the sky, he said Hotaru was beautiful. He risked a glanced at her who seemed to be at shock. She was just staring at him, mouth slightly open, and eyes wider than usual.

Ruka slapped his forehead hard and said “Sorry, Imai”, and then he ran off.

Seconds later, after Ruka ran off, Hotaru called after him, silent tears falling.
Hotaru Imai is crying.

--End of Chapter 2
Like it??? Pls review. I accept flames… : D

Another Life Journey -1

2007-03-29T09:42:00.000-07:00

Chapter 1 - -

*summary:
Two different people together in a mission where dangers abound and feelings developed. Face with a difficult situation, what will she choose, to live in a dream where there's no pain or to come back to reality where somebody is waiting?

-------
It was like any another day. The birds chirping happily as the sun’s rays begin to show. The soft wind breeze rustling the tree’s leaves and the slow blooming of flowers. Except that the loudest girl in the elementary is already awake and sitting on a big tree’s shade under the glowing sun, instead of resting on her room. Mikan was just staring at her blonde teacher’s face, thinking.

“Listen Mikan, the academy really needs you” Mr. Narumi said

Silence

Mr. Narumi just sighed and started to walk away saying “I’ll give you some time alone, just tell me your decision as soon as possible”

Soon, Mikan was left alone thinking while staring at her hands. It’s not like she was given a choice. It’s between tons of life with one life. She needed—no; she must do this for her friends’ safety. Mikan was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t hear footsteps approaching her.

--

There was still an hour left before classes start and Natsume wanted to spend it reading or just lay under a big shady tree. Heading his way to the forest, he saw Mr. Narumi emerging from it with a very strenuous face. The blonde looked up and saw Natsume, he smiled at him. The two of them just passed each other with a expression of their own. Mr. Narumi, was smiling while Natsume, has a deep frown etched on his face.

‘So early in the morning and I get to see his ugly face’ Natsume thought as he walked around searching for a big tree. He, of course, saw one but someone was already resting beside it, a girl with hazel hair.

She was just staring at her hands and didn’t seem to notice his presence. Unlike before there was no trace of a smile on her face; instead, there was a trace of pure concentration.

“Is there something wrong?” Natsume asked, stopping himself just in time in insulting the troubled girl.

Mikan didn’t seem to hear him, so Natsume went to stand beside her resting his back on the tree’s trunk. “Hey little girl is there something wrong?”

She slowly turned her face to look at Natsume with a fake smile on her face, she greeted him. “Good Morning, Natsume- san!”

If Natsume didn’t saw the concentration on her face earlier, he would have believed that Mikan was really happy, but he saw it. He saw that it was just one big fake smile. “No need to fake the smile. It’s just me around…”

When Natsume said that, Mikan’s smile began to falter, but she just replaced it with a smile, closer to a real smile, instead. “I like to smile”

“Whatever” he said “you know little girl, whatever was troubling you earlier, do what you think is right”

Mikan didn’t know what to say to what Natsume just said so she just thanked him “Arigato, Natsume- san!”

“You better go to class, polka dots”

“You pervert! My name is Mikan!” she bellowed “try using—“

Suddenly the bell rang and Mikan panicked. “Oh no, I’m going to be late again!” she cried running away. She looked back and saw that Natsume was just sitting and reading his book. “Come on Natsume! Are you planning on skipping again?”

Silence

“I’m going now!” Mikan cried back, her voice sounding far

“Do whatever you like” Natsume growled, even though he knew she won’t hear him.

--

Natsume sighed silently and frowned. He just met with Persona on the way to his classes and he was just told about another mission.

‘Darn school’ he thought

He glared at everyone inside the room and they all seem to be affected by it, except one. Mikan Sakura wasn’t. He continue to give glares at everyone who seemed to grow smaller every time its directed to them, while he thinks about the encounter earlier with Persona.

“You’ll be having a partner in this mission” Persona said

“What?! That’ll just slow me down!” Natsume cried

“She’ll be helping you with her alice” Persona said as if Natsume didn’t protested

“She?” the student asked “who is she?”

“I don’t know but Narumi said she’s supposed to be good” with that said Persona took his leave leaving Natsume alone

Natsume looked around the room and felt that someone keeps on glancing at him. He waited for that someone to glance his way again. Finally that someone did. It was Mikan and she keeps on glancing at Natsume with a troubled look. Natsume would always catch Mikan glancing at him so he would just give her a glare or two.

Finally lunch came and students were allowed to go out and eat. Natsume went out to stay at the northern woods to think alone, while Ruka spends his lunch with Mikan and the others.

“What’s wrong with Natsume?” Hotaru asked Ruka monotonously

“I don’t know… he’s not his usual self” Ruka answered

“Tell me about it, he glared at everyone during classes” Yuu said

Mikan of course was smiling but inside she was worried sick for someone, to be more specific to Natsume. Something was bothering him and he was grouchier than usual. What could it be that bothered him that much? She thought, maybe another mission was to be done later, or maybe he already know—that’ll really explain the glares he gives me—

“Mikan- chan, are you alright?” Ruka asked noticing that Mikan stopped walking with them and was now 5 feet away from them.

“Yeah, I just realize I’m not that hungry” Mikan smiled scratching the back of her neck. Good thing her tummy didn’t let out a growl on the spot. “I’ll see you later, I’ve got something to do, Bye, Yuu- san, Hotaru- chan and Ruka- pyon!”

As Mikan walked out on them, Hotaru’s mind was working, very amused. Mikan doesn’t miss meals, She’s always hungry. Now, when your best friend skipped meals, you’ll be worried, right? But Hotaru isn’t because she knew Mikan will be looking for someone.

“Do you think something is wrong with her?” asks Yuu worried as they sit across each other with meals on their plate.

“Maybe… but we shouldn’t really bother her” Hotaru answered tonelessly

“How do you know that?”

“She’s just up to something really nice” Hotaru replied unconsciously before putting food in her mouth

Ruka just stared at the raven haired beside him fascinated at her intelligence of hers. He continued to stare at Hotaru taking in every detail on her face. Her cute little nose and her amethyst eyes. How come I never noticed it before? Ruka thought to himself, Hotaru is beautiful.

--

Natsume was sitting peacefully below an old tree were the lake was in view and the place was surrounded by nature. In the middle of his thoughts, someone came into view at his left, it was Mikan.

“There you are, I was looking for you” the brunette said

“What is it you want, little girl?” Natsume asked glaring

“Nothing, I was just worried about you” she answered sitting five feet away from Natsume. “I didn’t see you at the cafeteria, you see”

‘Her? Worried about me?’ Natsume thought ‘that’s rich… although I kind of like the feeling that she cares about me even through all the teasing’ “what do you want?”

“I told you, nothing” she said just gazing at the lake before them.

Then a thought struck Natsume’s head. “What did Narumi told you earlier?”

Mikan, surprised that Natsume still didn’t know, stared at Natsume. His red ruby eyes reflecting her shocked face; his pointed nose and his lips. How she didn’t notice how handsome Natsume is, she didn’t know, until now.

She must have been staring too long and taking too long in answering the question that Natsume said to her “What are you gawking at?”

“No—nothing” Mikan stammered looking away with a tint of pink on her cheeks “Narumi- sensei talked to me about the task at hand later tonight”

‘So she’s the girl’ Natsume thought ‘wait! Her?! Why am I cool about that?! She can be so moronic sometimes… she might even get hurt! That is not what I want!—did I just thought what I think I just thought? That’s weird, I never cared about her… well things are about to change, I guess’

When Natsume didn’t say anything but just looked away, Mikan began to worry. Natsume don’t just look away when he could have a chance to scold Mikan. Something must be wrong, thought Mikan.

“Is that alright with you, Natsume?” Mikan asked staring again at the side of his gorgeous face

“I don’t have a choice, Do I, Idiot?” Natsume said staring back at the brunette with equal curiosity in his eyes. Minutes passed in silence while they were staring at each other, each lost in their own thoughts, and Natsume broke it. “But you have a choice…”

At first Mikan was lost then remembered what they were talking about. ‘Damn those red eyes’ she cursed “I don’t… I agree for the same reason you agree…”

Suddenly the bell rang signaling that Lunch time was over and they should be heading to their classes. This didn’t break the moment the two were sharing, though. They were still staring at each other.

Only a few seconds passed and Mikan came back to reality. She smiled at Natsume and hugged him, saying “I’ll see you later, Natsume! We’ll take care of each other” He didn’t do anything at all, he just continued to sit there staring at the space where Mikan’s face was before, But now her face was buried at his shoulders. If you were to see that scene, you would probably think that the girl was near in killing the boy.

When Mikan realized what she was doing, she blushed crimson red and ran away waving back, leaving Natsume all alone again. Natsume was just sitting there gazing into nothingness. He never felt that way before. Well, maybe he felt it before but can’t remember when it was. He felt the warmth a fire can’t produce; a safety that fire can’t ensure and a calm moment that fire can never erase. Natsume really liked the feeling and wanted to experience it again.

Suddenly a picture of Mikan entered his mind, and he blushed a little bit. He shakes his head trying to remove the picture but it doesn’t seem to fade away, it was plastered in his mind. Her long brown hair, her eyes full of life and the most beautiful smile he has ever seen, her smile, a true smile.

‘I guess being with her tonight won’t be that bad…’ he thought and went to take a nap with the image of Mikan in his head.

--

As time pass by, Mikan was constantly flashing Natsume a smile saying, ‘we’ll be alright’. Natsume didn’t mind at all, he was kind of getting used to it already. He was also getting good to not show his feelings outside. Some part during the day the two of them bumped with each other, and if he didn’t have the reputation of the coldest guy in the room, he would have blushed uncontrollably.

Finally dinner came and everyone was enjoying their meals. Mikan was trying her best to forget about what will happen later on that evening and instead enjoy the remaining time left before the mission.

“What are you looking at, Mikan?” asked Yuu

“Uhh—nothing, just thought I saw something weird” Mikan said looking away from Natsume’s face with the slightest tint of pink on her cheeks that didn’t go unnoticed by her best friend, Hotaru.

‘Interesting’ Hotaru thought as she swallowed her food. She looked at Natsume who was eating quietly and beside him was Ruka, his spoonful of food paused halfway to his mouth. His eyes were focused on only one thing, or to be more literal, on one person.

Hotaru returned to her food ignoring the look Ruka was giving her. Every once in a while, she would catch Ruka staring at her.

“Ruka?” Natsume asked turning to face his friend. He looked at who his friend was looking at and saw it was a certain raven haired girl. Natsume smirked and ruffled Ruka’s hair. “Let me know if you even get to talk to her within two minutes without the topic of blackmailing, will you?”

Ruka just blushed and tried to return his food but with a poor result. He ended up staring again at Hotaru. Oh Hotaru, if only you knew how beautiful you are, Ruka thought. Natsume just smirked at his friend and continued with his food but not before glancing at a certain brunette named Mikan Sakura.

--

IDIOT! IDIOT! IDIOT!

With those three blasts of Hotaru’s idiot gun, Ruka was sent flying at the other end of the hallway to the dorms. Some curious students poked thir head through their door to know what was going on, only to get hit by Hotaru’s gun square on their face. It was already quarter to 10 making the hallways empty and dark.

Hotaru walked to Ruka who was limping on the floor staring at her.

IDIOT!

This brought Ruka back to reality.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Ruka demanded

“Funny I was just going to ask you the same thing” Hotaru said looking down on Ruka “What do you think were you doing earlier inside the dinning hall.”

“I wasn’t doing anything” the blonde said still not getting up. Then, he noticed a familiar clicking sound, his face immediately turn to red. “Where are you hiding the camera, Imai-san?!”

“And why would I tell you that?” She smirked and got out a remote from her pocket and presses a red button. After a few seconds, her ride came and she rode on it.

“Imai-san!” Ruka shouted through the halls running after the girl he’s been admiring from afar.

--End of chapter 1

One Way Or Another -5

2007-03-29T05:33:00.000-07:00

Chapter 5 --

Mikan’s memory was tampered by the anti-organization before she was saved by the others. Which memory was lost? Will she regain it? Or will she just leave it at that? How far will she go to get it back?
--

Mikan stood there and directed the power inside of her to her brain, searching for the chest that needs to be opened. A chest full of memories she badly wanted. She searched thoroughly and realizes that the Alice is also blocking that chest from her. Her brow creased in frustration and anger. While she was thinking of Natsume’s face she activated her powers inside of her.

What she felt was pain. Extraordinary Pain. Pain that one her age should not feel. Once she activated it again for the second time, for a second she was standing and the next she was down on the floor kneeling. She felt pain all over her torso, she felt like there was a hammer banging on her arms bringing her down, she felt a hole on her once filled heart, and that was the worst she felt. It was like she lost someone really special. She remembered the feeling of losing someone special. Her heart feels like dropping to her stomach leaving a big hole on her once said heart.

Suddenly, she can’t breathe, her lungs stopped doing its job. She clutched her throat hoping to be able to take in air as well as out. But that action only made it worse, she felt like she was drowning even though there’s no water. She was drowning and she knew she was going to die.

“This is going to end” she screamed inside her head “this must stop”

It felt like hours but it was just seconds. She falls down on the floor, face-flat, her lungs still not working. Finally, after what seems to be hours but just seconds, her lungs worked again. She gulped air and felt her lungs doing their work again. It was nice to breathe again.

She heard knocks on her door before she finally passed out, her body getting used once again on having oxygen in it.

--

“What will we do?” Ruka asked no one in particular

The three of them headed for the elevator on the hospital. They just got out of Mikan’s room.

“Do you think the potion’s ingredients are given on one of the books?” Natsume asked Hotaru

“I’m not sure, but I’ll check it out—“she stopped talking as the whole hospital heard a scream. A scream that has been haunting Natsume’s dreams, it was Mikan’s.

“Was that real or I just had a flashback on Mikan’s kidnapped?” Natsume asked

“Mikan” Hotaru murmured “come on”

The three ran as fast as they can towards Mikan’s room. They tried opening the door but it won’t budge. The other doctors were already there, and a nurse with hoop full of rings kept looking through the rings of hope finding the one key needed. Natsume got tired of waiting the second he saw the ruckus going on. He stepped in front of the door and produces a fire on the door knob, he wanted to burn the door but that might affect Mikan. They don’t even know if she’s near the door or something. Natsume took his cautions.

Once the door was open, doctors and nurses piled in the room. The other three stayed outside, knowing that they’ll just take up spaces. Suddenly, a doctor came out and told them Mikan’s state.

“We found her laying on the floor, a doctor with the Alice of seeing through the body and knowing its past accidents told us that her lungs just stopped working” he informed them

“But she’s okay now, right?” Ruka asked

Natsume desperately hoped that he would say yes, “Surprisingly, the lungs just stopped working for seconds, her brain though is quite a mess, but other than that she’s fine”

“No physical injury or something?” Hotaru asked

“Nope” the doctor replied

“Can we see her?” Ruka asked

The doctor hesitated at first knowing well that they just got out of the room because visiting hours were over, but he thought better of it, “Of course”

The three entered the room while Mikan was being lifted to the bed. They must have searched if she had any broken bones, Ruka thought. When everyone else left the room, Hotaru spoke up.

“She tried to get her memories on her own!” Hotaru hissed angrily

The two were taken aback at how she was acting. They have never seen Hotaru like this; in fact no one has ever seen this side of Hotaru.

“She accidentally stopped her lungs work!”

The two best friends looked at each other not knowing what to do. Their sweat dropped when Hotaru began to pace around the room. Natsume sent Ruka a glare clearly stating that he should do something about it.

“Er…you might want to stop doing that” Ruka started on his guard on any of Hotaru’s unpredictable reaction “Mikan might wake up”

“Good! Then I’ll be able to tell her that what she did is wrong and risky!” she snapped her voice getting louder and louder

“You won’t be able to do that if we get thrown out of her room… its past visiting hours and you’re making too much noise” Natsume reasoned

Hotaru glared at him but he stood his ground, Hotaru sighed and sat on the chair beside Mikan’s bed and glared at the sleeping form on the bed.

Minutes and passed and Mikan began to talk on her sleep. The three often caught the words like, “Sorry” “I didn’t mean too” “Natsume… who?”

The two looked at Natsume who also heard what the brunette just murmured, he’s face was covered by his bangs, his head leaning on the window and his breath fogging the glass.

“I think the two of you should leave” Natsume said

“What about you?” Ruka asked as he hesitate to follow Hotaru out of the room

“I’ll be okay… I’ll see you tomorrow…” he answered giving Ruka a weak smile

“Okay…” Ruka said and headed out the room

Once Natsume and Mikan were left once again inside the four walls, Natsume hold Mikan’s hand, it felt so cold yet so warm. He holds it with both his hands and brought it to his cheek. He can feel it now; he can feel himself near in tears. The last time cried was the time his parents died, (a/n: is that right? I think I’m just making things up… sorry). Even though they never ate dinner together or went out together he always have loved them so dearly. And now, now that Mikan, the one he loves, have forgotten about him he felt once again of losing someone he loves.

The only thing that hurts is your love one forgetting all about you. Dieing and all the other stuff are just pain, physical pain. But this one is emotionally and mentally, and Natsume can’t take it all in now. His shoulders began to shake more and more, soon he was shaking violently his sobs were the only thing heard in the peace of the night.

Natsume didn’t know what made him do it, but he did. He got one flower from the flower vase of Mikan and lit the stem with fire. After a while he pressed the fire away his bare hands. He positioned the recently burned stem on top of his wrist, he pressed it on his wrist and he felt it going warm to hot. Soon he can smell the flesh burning. But he didn’t feel a thing on his wrist, the pain his feeling on his chest, on his heart was too much to feel his own wrist burning up.

“What do you think are you doing?” a voice snapped while a hand snatched the flower from his hands

Natsume looked up at his beloved with red puffy eyes and a tear stained face. Mikan stared at Natsume and felt that this was the first time she saw Natsume cry—ever, even without her memories of him, she knew that this was her first time.

“Are you trying to kill yourself?” she hissed at him looking at his wrist not bearing the pain she saw inside of those ruby eyes of his

“No… I can’t feel it…” Natsume whispered now looking away from the girl sitting in front of him fretting over his burnt wrist

“What do you mean you can’t feel it?”

“Too much pain…” he whispered clutching his chest as if having a heart attack, he closed his eyes forcing himself not to look at girl’s eyes knowing that it will only bring back tears once again.

“Oh my god, are you having a heart attack?” Mikan asked stupidly and worriedly. Natsume had to smile at that, he let out a chuckle but it came out as if he was choking on his air. That send Mikan in panic, she was just about to press the Nurse button when Natsume said.

“I’m only 15, of course I’m not having a heart attack”

“Oh… right, I forgot” Mikan said scratching the back of her head lightly

There was a silence where the two were thinking of what they were doing before they got into that situation.

“So you tried to regain your memories, any luck?” Natsume asked still not looking at her

“Yeah… actually I do remember some things…” Mikan admitted, “when we were I think 10, I gave you that Howalon when you were all alone under the sakura tree and the one when we were stuck on the Haunted house alone”

“OH… that’s good to hear” Natsume said, “but still not worth it!”

“Wh—what?” Mikan stuttered

Natsume was now on his feet pacing in front of Mikan while she follow him around with her eyes. “You could have died! You could have-- have died and no one would have known! No one could have known that you were de—not living anymore! Do you know what would that do to your best friend? Friends? Ruka?” he looked at her still pacing, “me?” he whispered the last part as if it was forbidden but nonetheless Mikan heard it.

Mikan stayed silent, “Lucky you, you didn’t even get the chance to see Hotaru so furious, the one who is always calm and doesn’t give a damn to anyone but herself and money… you didn’t see how mad and furious she was”

Silence

“How did you know I was in trouble?” Mikan asked after a few minutes of silence and Natsume finally settled down on the couch his face buried on his palms

“You screamed” he answered

“I did?”

“You did…”

After that short exchange of words they fell silent and Mikan began to drift to sleep while holding Natsume’s warm hand. Natsume just sat there watching her and soon he drifted to sleep. His head resting on his and Mikan’s hand on the bed.

Soon enough the sun rise up and the two woke up with its shining rays. Natsume quickly leaves the room when Mikan was being checked up by the nurses and doctors. He headed for his room planning to take his morning rituals.

“What you did was wrong, Mikan” the doctor started “you should have alerted one of the doctors or nurses in that matter”

“Why, will you have helped me or even approved of it?” Mikan snapped. She’s really not in the mood for the sermon, she was alone and her hand is missing the warmth from Natsume.

“Probably not,” the doctor admitted, “but we would have told you the side effects if it went wrong”

Mikan glared.

“Using one’s Alice to oneself is forbidden, its side effects are crucial, it can shorten your life span, it can make your classification of Alice shift into another one, it can even make you die within that hour…”

“And why haven’t you told the students about that?”

“Because we have a tracker for those who do that”

“And were you able to track me?”

“No… since you were using too much power within yourself, you were able to nullify the detector of your Alice… but lucky for us you screamed…”

“And if I haven’t willed have I died?”

“If balance properly, your chances of surviving that kind of power is only 45%...”

“And what did you do to make me live?”

“We didn’t do anything, your lungs were able to work again in seconds, you should be thankful for that”

“Yeah thankful for that” she murmured

“Why? Do you not want to live any longer?” the doctor asked curios

Mikan stayed silent not really knowing what the answer to that question is herself. She didn’t answer but instead she flashed the doctor a big smile. Soon the doctor took his leave and Mikan was left alone once again.

--

As Natsume headed for his own room, he began to think about the days before Mikan was captured. He lowered his head as he passed the big sakura tree they always sat on after classes. He can’t bear to look at it now, it brings too much pain for him.

“Hey Natsume,” Ruka called from his right side “where’re you going?”

“My room” he answered

“Who’s with Mikan?”

“She’s being scolded by the doctors…” he answered, “I’ll be in my room”

“Okay” Ruka nodded

Natsume soon arrived in front of his room and remembered the time when Mikan got lost heading for her own room and accidentally opened his room while he was half naked on his uniform. The look on her face when she saw him was priceless.

“I’m sorry” she stuttered. She was looking at her feet now and was trying her best not to look at Natsume, which she was failing.

“What are you doing here, pervert?” Natsume asked

“Sorry, I got lost”

“Your room is on the other floor… you really must be in love with me that you dare do that little ‘mistake’ of yours” he teased

That time they were only developing their feelings for each other. It took them months to realize they were in love with each other. Five wasted months for realizing it. They needed all sorts of help from their friends.

During the process of realizing they harbor that kind of feeling, Natsume’s usual glare to others was increasing. Ruka and the others call it the stage of Denial.

“Move out of the way, Ruka” he once said when Ruka tried to tell his best friend his condition

“I will, just listen to me for like 5 seconds” Ruka hurriedly said

“Alright,” Natsume said and lifted his hand and began to count to 5 while Ruka just watched in horror and by the time he organized his mind Natsume was already in 4.

The day Natsume got finished with the stage of Denial. It was the time when everyone saw what happened to made him finish the stage.

“Ruka!” Natsume cried at his running friend

“You’ve got to catch me before I tell you!” his friend Ruka cried back at Natsume who was running after him, fast.

“Well you better speed up if you don’t want me to know your little secret, Ruka!” Natsume teased having fun. But he won’t admit it out loud. Soon they were out on the open were students filled the area. Ruka was now running circles on the park, students were starting to stare and Natsume was gaining on Ruka.

‘Where the hell is she?’ Ruka cried out in his thoughts. Then he spotted a certain brunette who was watching the whole scenario from above. She was on top of a ladder supposedly cleaning the windows of the classroom.

Ruka used his pheromone Alice to call his rabbit (a/n: or is it a bunny? J). The rabbit rested on the ladder, where Ruka told him to. Ruka ran to it and tried his best not to touch the ladder as it will make Mikan fall. But Natsume didn’t know that. Natsume used the ladder as a stopper for him to quickly turn the other direction and follow the blonde. Then a loud ear splitting scream was heard. Natsume heard it and turned to look at the direction it came from. Mikan

The scream was all Natsume can hear. Mikan is in trouble. Mikan is falling.

Natsume ran back to where the ladder is and prepared himself to catch Mikan. He didn’t think there was no other option but in fact there were many other options.

When Mikan landed safely on his waiting arms, what he saw made him skip the other two stages, Anger and Depression, and he instead was now on the stage of Acceptance.

“Thanks” Mikan smiled at Natsume who let go of her when she was able to find her balance

“Hn” Natsume walked out of people’s view. He headed for the forest where he can still see Mikan.

“Mikan” he murmured when he was all alone.

Natsume smiled at the memory and lay on his bed. Seeing Mikan’s face on his ceiling, he remembered the feeling to have Mkan’s body on his arms, her eyes shinning in fright because of the fall and the smile she gave him after the save.

Natsume stood up after a very quick nap and did his morning routines. He looked at the clock and saw that his only 30 minutes has gone by since he left Mikan’s room.

He decided to head back to Mikan’s room and on the way there he met up with Hotaru with Ruka chasing after her. Hotaru stopped on her tracks when she saw Natsume. She approached him slowly and gave him a small T.V. She pressed the red button on top and the movie began to play.

“Watch carefully” Hotaru said as she stationed herself behind him

It was Mikan and him inside their room. He was staring at her sleeping form until he began to sleep himself.

“How did you get this?” Natsume asked

“I put up cameras all over her room” she answered “we wouldn’t want her try stupid things again would we?”

--

TBCREVIEW PLS. Sorry for the very long update… I was super busy at school… sorry,,,, now that it’s summer. I’ll be finishing this… : D

One Way Or Another -4

2007-03-29T05:11:00.000-07:00

Chapter 4 --

Mikan’s memory was tampered by the anti-organization before the others saved her. Which memory was lost? Will she regain it? On the other hand, will she just leave it at that? How far will she go to get it back?
--

Hotaru headed for the dormitory, knowing Ruka would be in his room sulking. She knew he really wasn’t called by Mr. Narumi; he just wanted to get away from everything. But he won’t get rid of me easily, Hotaru thought.

She was just about to knock on Ruka’s door when it opened and revealed a blonde with gray eyes.

“Ho- Hotaru!” he exclaimed, taking a step back

“Hey” she smiled

“Wai—wait are you smiling?” Ruka asked suspiciously, “Is this just a trick of light?”

Hotaru flicked him hard “yes, I was smiling”

“Oh, it was a pretty picture” he said after rubbing his forehead “you should smile more often”

“Come on, we need to talk” Hotaru said, dismissing the compliment

“Oh okay, about what?” he asked following Hotaru

She slowed down, waiting for Ruka to catch up with her. “What did Mr. Narumi want?”

“Uh- just wanted to catch up on how Mikan’s doing” he lied

“Don’t lie to me, Ruka, I know Mr. Narumi didn’t call you,” she said smacking him on the head, she was getting more and more brutal even without her inventions, Ruka thought, “that’s why I knew you’re in your room, sulking”

“Oh”

“But what I don’t know is, why you were sulking” she admitted, sitting on one of the bench lined on the pathway, she patted the space beside her for Ruka to sit at.

“Oh, you see, it’s kind of embarrassing”

“Yeah, I know that,” Hotaru stated with a bored tone

Ruka wanted to shout the answer to her and get it straight that he was jealous. He began thinking of lying to her.

“And don’t even think of lying” Hotaru said as if she read Ruka’s mind

“IwasbeginningtobejealousofNatsume” he said mixing his words

“Pardon?” Hotaru asked raising a brow

“I. was. Beginning. To. Be. JEALOUS. Of. Natsume” he said word per word clearly but as he said each word his face began to heat up

Hotaru took a deep breath, telling herself not to hurt Ruka again because of his childishness. “And why would you be jealous of your best friend?”

“Because you asked for him earlier” he answered, his face getting redder by each word

“Oh, and you thought I liked him?” Hotaru concluded

“Yup”

“And so what if I like him?” Hotaru said, deciding to play with Ruka’s mind

When Hotaru said that Ruka’s face from red of embarrassment turned into red of anger. How could he be so stupid that Hotaru will like him instead of Natsume.

“I mean, he’s brave, wise, and handsome and has a powerful Alice” she cooed, silently laughing

“Don’t. Tell. That. To. Me.” Ruka managed to say from anger

Hotaru has had enough, she lean forward and kissed him fiercely. Ruka was taken in shock. Hotaru just said he liked Natsume and now here she is kissing him.

Hotaru opened her eyes and saw Ruka’s wide eyes. Hotaru can’t take it anymore and burst out laughing in front of him. Somehow there position shifted when she leaned forward. Currently, Ruka’s other leg is on the bench while the other was on the ground and his left arm was on the bench rest and the other on the arm rest and his back not resting on the bench, more liked arched. Hotaru’s position; her right hand was between the space Ruka’s left leg and his body while her other hand was on Ruka’s chest.

“You should have seen yourself’ she said in between her laughter

Ruka finally caught up with her, but he didn’t laugh. He was intoxicated by Hotaru’s lips and smell. So he did what any lover would do, he kissed her, this time he was the one who saw Hotaru’s wide eyes but he didn’t break the kiss he made it last and Hotaru soon followed.

When their lips parted there were grins on their face, “so does this mean you’re my girlfriend?”

“Yeah, but I think you’re the submissive one, Ruka” she smirked

“That’s not true!” he protested

Hotaru looked at him with raised eyebrows and questioning eyes. Then he realized, she really is in control of this relationship.

“Yeah, I think so” he agreed

“Good” she smiled and kissed him on the cheek

“So why were you looking for Natsume earlier?” he asked as they headed for the Hospital

“I was going to tell him something important”

“And what was that?”

Hotaru sighed and said, “Might as well tell you or you’ll be completely lost later”

“Yeah, I will be” Ruka nods

“Remember the time when Mikan asked who Natsume is?”

“Yeah”

“Well, the truth is, she really doesn’t know him”

“Okay, then wha—WHAT!” he exclaimed wide eyes, jaw dropped

“She doesn’t remember him” she answered calmly

Ruka returned back to earth when they were in front of Mikan’s room already.

“How?”

“I’ll explain later with Natsume” she answered and opened the door.

The lights were open and the blinds were closed. Natsume is sitting beside Mikan’s bed his hand holdin hers while Mikan slept.

“How did it go?” Hotaru asked sitting on the white couch, Ruka followed her actions

“She cried” Natsume answered, “then she passed out”

“Just like that?” Hotaru asked

“Well, she fainted when I told her I love her” Natsume admitted

“Oh, well, the doctor said she might’ve lost her memories due to the Memory Alice” she said. With the two questioning looks the two boys were giving her she told them what she read on the library.

“Can’t Nonoko make the potion?” Ruka asked

“I haven’t checked what kind of potion it is, but I’m definitely sure it’s hard to make and needs rare ingredients”

“You mean by rare, like it’s only to be picked up by in a full moon?”

“Much rare than that, when I say rare I mean really rare, like the ingredient only blooms once in ten years, rare” Hotaru elucidate

Ruka’s jaw dropped, “and what if we aren’t in the right year to get that plant?”

“That’s the problem isn’t it?” she drawled

The three of them stayed silent just listening to Mikan’s rhythmic breathing.

“What about her Alice? You said the nullification Alice is one way to cure it” Ruka piped

“As you know well, it is forbidden to use your Alice on yourself” Hotaru reasoned

“And besides, it can hurt Mikan, her nullification Alice can nullify anything on her body, she can even nullify her own Alice if she’s not careful or in control of her Alice” Natsume suddenly said

“So you’re telling me that the only thing possible is the potion?” Ruka asked, “We’re going to wait for another 10 years to regain Mikan’s memory back?”

“I didn’t say anything about waiting” Hotaru said

“Neither did I” Natsume agreed

“Huh? What are you thinking?” Ruka asked dumbly

“Mr. Nodacchi is a time traveler, he can easily get those kinds of ingredients involving time” Hotaru stated

“Oh, that’s right”

“We have another problem though,” Natsume said and the other two gave him questioning looks, “how do we make Nonoko make the potion? Won’t she ask questions?”

“I can do it” a voice whispered, the three looked at the source of the voice, Mikan.

“Sorry Mikan if we woke you up” Natsume apologize “We’ll leave now, so you can get some rest”

Natsume began to stand up and slowly he lets go of Mikan’s hand only to be hold on tighter by the patient on the bed, “No it’s okay, I was up anyways”

“Oh” Natsume said then seated again on his chair

“What do you mean you can do it?” Hotaru asked

“You see, during the time I was with the anti- Alice organization, I learned something about my Alice—s” she said sitting up

“Alices?” Ruka asked “you have more than one Alice?”

“Yeah, the other one is Copying or Erasing one’s Alice” the brunette explained

“I should have known most Nuliffication Alice users have two Alices” Hotaru stated, Mikan just smiled at everyone “How did you found out about it?”

“Actually I accidentally used it,” Mikan began to tell the story, “when I was being taken into a room after we arrived at the Base—it’s what they call Home Base, most of the agents are there, you see—the one leading me to the room was using his Alice, Alice of Strings, to hold me in one place. I didn’t know what came to me but I suddenly said the word, Replica aloud. He looked at me confused, and he made the mistake of looking me in the eye. He dozed off for a while so I was led by another agent to the room. This one though didn’t use his Alice, he just led me to room in a friendly manner, we were talking about why he joined the organization” Mikan frowned at the thought of never seeing a friend of hers again, “Anyway, when I got in to the room, I decided to concentrate—which was hard, as you all know I was claustrophobic when I was young—but I tried my best and I found something in me, a different kind of aura in me, I focused my attention there and all of the sudden strings came out of my hand”

“Nice” Ruka whispered nodding his head with a smile on his face

“That was the only time you used it?” Hotaru asked

“No, of course not, I was having fun, copying others Alice, I mean, duh! Won’t you like to have different kinds of Alice, I was able to copy the Barrier Alice and put it around my room so that the Barrier he created didn’t affect me at all” Mikan said joyfully

“That’s good for you, Mikan” Hotaru smiled “have you ever tried erasing one’s Alice?”

This time Mikan bowed her head and her body began to shake, Natsume climbed on the bed and hugged her tightly, “I didn’t mean it, its just that he was hurting me, I didn’t know what to do, his Alice was Invisibility, and I was so frightened, I didn’t know what to do, then when I screamed he got blown back and his Alice became mine, he was thrown off the Base and was forced to lived as anyone with out an Alice”

“Just like that?” Hotaru asked, “I mean, they didn’t erase his memory?”

“They did, because he was called on the main office before he was let go… and when he came back he didn’t knew anyone…”

“Oh…” Ruka sighed

“So you can copy Nonoko’s Alice?” Hotaru asked

“Yeah, when do you want to do it?” Mikan beamed

“Later perhaps, besides we still need ingredients” Hotaru said, “Now that we’ve got ourselves plan A what about plan B?”

“What for?”

“Incase Mr. Nodacchi doesn’t want to help us, we need another plan, don’t you agree?” Hotaru reasoned

“What about the nullification Alice?” Natsume asked

“I don’t know anyone else with the same Alice as hers” Ruka stated

“Neither do I” Hotaru sighed defeated

“What, can’t I do it on my own?” Mikan asked the three

The three of them looked at her as if she has grown another head. Mikan just stared at the three.

“It can hurt you, Mikan, your nullification Alice can nullify anything on your body, you can even nullify your own Alice if you’re not careful or in control of your Alice” Natsume explained once again

“But don’t you trust me? I can manage and besides it’s just a small risk”

“A small risk?” Natsume chuckled humorlessly “Small? You can nullify your own brain, heart… it can cause you your own life, and you call it small? No, I definitely don’t agree on this plan” he repeated much slowly this time

“Me too” Hotaru agreed

Mikan looked at Ruka who shook his head.

“You don’t trust me?” Mikan asked “All I need to have is your trust in me and I’ll be fine!”

The three almost believe the smiling teen in front of them, she seems confident and sure of herself, they almost agreed… almost.

“We have trust in you and we’re sure that you can do it…” Natsume said “It’s just that… we aren’t going to take the risk…”

“I once remember hearing this line from one of my friends before,” Mikan stated then recalled her past, “’Those who risk… wins’”

Natsume flinched, he was the one told her that, but how could she possibly remember that? Could it be possible that she regained her memories just now? “Can you remember who said that?”

“I don’t… all I can recall is that I’m sitting alone under a tree staring out at the setting sun and a voice in my head told it to me”

“Voice? What voice?”

“It’s like the one the computer, you know, the echo-y type” Mikan explained “Why?”

“Nothing much” Natsume answered, Hotaru gave him a look while Ruka just stared at Mikan. The whole school knows that was his motto, before Mikan got kidnapped.

They were quite for awhile thinking of the possibilities when a voice announced on the speakers that visiting hours are over. The three of them left, bidding their good-byes to Mikan, she smiled at them.

“Don’t try anything stupid, Mikan” Hotaru warned

The door closed and Mikan was left alone in the room, she knew she had to do things herself now. She knew others won’t allow her to do it but after what Natsume said to her, that he loves her, she just can’t take on living her life without knowing who he is to her. When he told her that she loves him, she felt something in her heart, a tugging feeling. It felt like she drank water after walking in the desert for the longest time. She felt relieved and somehow happy (not knowing why) that he still loves her aside from everything that was thrown their way.

Making that decision, she stood up and got ready to nullify the Alice that’s holding memories of Natsume and her together. After securing the place, she stood beside her bed, incase she fall the bed will catch her.

“Nullify” she whispered

--- End of chapter 4

Liked it??? Tell me… I know its not very satisfying... hehe… but you’ll find out what will happen next on the next chapter… wuhahaha!!! And sad to say I think this fanfic is near on its end… I didn’t really plan on making it so short… but I got run out of ideas I guess…

One Way Or Another -3

2007-03-29T05:03:00.000-07:00

Chapter 3 --

Mikan’s memory was tampered by the anti-organization before the others saved her. Which memory was lost? Will she regain it? On the other hand, will she just leave it at that? How far will she go to get it back?
--

Ruka headed for his room and on his way, he saw Koko his head buried on his hands, he was murmuring things to himself. All of the sudden he looked up when Ruka was just meters away from him.

“Need some one to talk to? You’re probably going to need help with your problem” Koko stated smiling at the blonde

“No thanks, you seem pretty problematic yourself though” the other said

“Don’t worry, It’s my fault anyway, I haven’t been training that hard”

“Oh well, now you learned your lesson”

“I sure did” he grinned

“Well, I’ll be going now, see you around” Ruka said and Koko bid his good bye

“Everything will be sorted out soon, Ruka” Those were the last words Ruka heard from Koko

“I know” he muttered

He walked a little further and finally he arrived in front of his room. He turned the knob and entered the room. It wasn’t that big but its fine for him. Its walls were colored dark purple; his room has two windows over looking the lake. His bed is placed between the two large windows while his study table on the left of his bed and his closet inside his bathroom. His life being a three star is great.

He threw himself on his bed after turning on his CD player. He didn’t turn on the stereo that loud nor that soft, just moderate. He sighed and grabbed his pillow and puts it on his face.

How could I be so blind? Ruka thought, pulling the pillow to his face more and more, of course she would like him, everyone likes my best friend, Natsume. Everyone loves him everyone admires him and he gives no one care, only for a certain brunette and now he already has the one I like! Hotaru!

He threw the pillow out of his face straight to the wall. Of course he doesn’t hate his best friend he can never hate Natsume or even get angry at him. He just can’t do it to his friend; he has been to great a friend.

“No I do not hate my best friend because of this no; this is simply irritation to Hotaru” he concluded

Why do you blame everything on others? A voice asked in his head

Well they are to blame

Have you asked them what the reason for their actions is?

Silence

Don’t jump to conclusions, Ruka

Ruka sighed in defeat. He knew his conscious was right. And what does he have for him to hate Hotaru and Natsume. It may be just a simple misunderstanding.

--

As Hotaru headed for the hospital she can’t seem to erase the image of anger present in Ruka’s eyes just before she left him. It made her mad at herself for doing that to him, even though she wasn’t the cause of it she should have been there to make him smile and happy.

Finally, she arrived at the hospital; on the way to Mikan’s room, she got her mind cover the current problem, Mikan losing memories of Natsume.

Why would someone erase Mikan’s memory of Natsume? Hotaru thought, is their hate to Natsume that strong that they would scoop that low just to make him feel pain? By erasing the memories, he had made with his love one.

Hotaru shuddered at the thought; even if that was true then the anti-Alice organization must be planning to hurt Natsume in many different ways.

She entered the room and saw that Natsume has fallen asleep. His hands holding her hand, his head tucked under his arm. Hotaru looked around the room and noticed that the food delivered here for Natsume is untouched.

Hotaru positioned her chair in front of the window, raindrops splattering on its panel. She gazed out the window thinking more thoroughly about the information she read about the Memory Alice.

Memory Alice – one of the rarest Alice known. The owner of this Alice will most likely have trouble controlling this Alice. This Alice is said to be an Alice that can erase one’s memory, change one’s memory or completely erase the memory of a person.

Controlling it is one of the reasons why it could be a threat to anyone. If this Alice gets out of control, people, within a 1-mile radius around him, memory will be erased as well as their memory they have created with another human being. Either that or the people within the 1-mile radius will forever be forgotten.

Hotaru sighed and distract herself by recalling the times Mikan and her shared before they entered the Academy. But that distraction didn’t last long, her thoughts somehow drifted again on the problem at hand. This time she read this information in another book.

The only thing that could save one’s memory is of course by the Nullification Alice or by drinking a potion called Recuperare la memoria.

Hotaru sighed and looked at Mikan, who was now awake and staring at Natsume. Mikan’s other hand was playing with his hair and her lips curled up in a small smile. Hotaru stood up and walked over to the bed and sat on the bed softly as not to wake Natsume up, heaven knows he has never left her side.

“You don’t remember him, do you?” Hotaru asked

Mikan looked at her best friend with tears in her eyes, “I don’t, but I feel like I should and I—I don’t know—know what to do” Hotaru put her hand on Mikan’s back moving it up and down soothing Mikan. “It’s like I’ve known him since I was a child and shared lots and lots of memories—but I lost it, I lost it Hotaru! I lost our memories together! And I feel like I’ve betrayed him or something!”

“Don’t worry Mikan,” a hoarse voice said. The two best friends looked at Natsume who was now awake and staring at them, “I’ll never blame you for losing your memories”

“No! You should blame me! It is my fault, Hyuu—Natsume… I should have been cautious with my surroundings… I’m really sorry…” she cried caressing his cheek

Hotaru stood up and walked away from the two, “I’ll leave you two alone, I need to do some errands”

The two looked at her and nod, Natsume climbed on the bed sitting in front of Mikan still holding her hands.

“It’s not your fault many hates me, Mikan” he said after he heard the soft click of the door closing.

“But it feels like its mine!” she cried, tears streaming down her face

Natsume thumbed away her tears sad, how he can make Mikan understand it is not her fault, he does not know.

“Mikan you need to believe me when I say this, you’re the only one I worry about, and you being sad and blaming yourself for something that isn’t your fault, I feel like I’m the one who should be blamed for not taking care of you, letting yourself be taken over by sadness and loneliness. I don’t want that, we don’t want that, Hotaru, Ruka, Yuu and everyone else never wants you to be the one who suffer when it isn’t you who should be suffering” Natsume said, caressing her cheek and brushing away her tears.

“I don’t deserve thi—“

“That’s not true, Mikan” he said kissing her tear-stained cheek, then her eyes, “we’re the one who feel that, we feel that we don’t deserve you. We feel like we’re special that you’re given to us, your smile is more than what you give credit for, your presence lingers whenever you leave, your memories with us will never fade for hundreds of years, Mikan”

Mikan stared at his crimson red eyes, slowly drowning on it. Yes, she can see he was telling the truth and meant everything he just said. Those red eyes are certainly addictive.

“Natsume, why are you doing this?” she whispered holding his hands

Natsume stared at her as if she was kidding, but flashed her a smile. “Because I love you, Mikan”

When he said that, Mikan fell limp in his arms. The last thing he saw on her eyes was realization, pain and happiness.

Natsume knew she just fell asleep, but still he called a nurse, just incase.

One Way Or Another -2

2007-03-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

Chapter 2 --

Mikan’s memory was tampered by the anti-organization before she was saved by the others. Which memory was lost? Will she regain it? Or will she just leave it at that? How far will she go to get it back?

“Mikan!” the whole class greeted after a day she got back from the academy.

She was questioned first by the teachers, authorities and such about how she is, what she did and the like. They seem to find nothing that will endanger the other students.

Mikan greeted all her friends back as merrily as they did. Soon Narumi entered the room.

“Okay class, we’re all glad to have Mikan back here, so why don’t we just have a free period today” he announced smiling joyously

“What’s her star rank, sensei?” Yuu asked “Is she going to continue hers before?”

“Fortunately, we teachers have discussed about that” Narumi answered and beamed at Mikan “You’re a three star now, Mikan!”

“Wow!” Mikan beamed as she was handed the stars “Thank you!”

The class enjoyed the day with Mikan back, it was like old times. Except for a certain boy, Natsume.

“Why aren’t you talking to Mikan?” Ruka asked Natsume who was reading a book

Natsume, lifted the book a little to see Mikan’s actions, and smiled inside, she was doing well, only if she remember me I would have like it more “She’s busy”

“Oh, Okay” Ruka said. He knew when Natsume didn’t like the conversation around them. He looked at Hotaru who was testing an invention. It was a mind reading device or better yet called memory lane.

Hotaru looked at the back, sensing someone staring at her. She got out her baka gun and got ready to shot, whoever the hell it was. She was sure it was no other than the blonde animal lover. She looked at him in the eyes and saw that he was scared, confused and somehow glad.

BAKA! BAKA! BAKA!

Everyone turned their attention to Ruka who was lying on the floor on one of the corners of the room. The only sound heard was Hotaru fixing her invention. Silence passed and they turned their attention to Hotaru, who aimed her baka gun at someone who was really gawking and was ready to attack her, Sumire. She was furious; Hotaru just harmed one of her crushes.

“IMAI---!!” she screamed but was cut off when the baka bullets hit her and sent her flying on one of the corners of the room.

Silence again.

Once again everyone was staring at Hotaru. Mikan knowing her best friend a long time made a scene, to stop everyone from staring at her friend.

“Hotaru, will you stop shooting everyone with that gun” Mikan said, stepping away from the crowd and in front of Hotaru. Now everyone’s stare was on Mikan, even Natsume who stopped reading his manga when she spoke. All of the sudden she started to dance and sing at the same time.

Everyone was now staring at her. Even Ruka and Sumire were up already were just watching in there position, apparently stunned.

Hotaru smiled inside, Thanks Mikan, she thought, for turning all the gazes to you and not me.

Suddenly, Mikan drop dead on the floor. Hotaru was there first then Natsume then Ruka. Natsume carried Mikan bridal style and headed for the doors which were held open by Yuu.

“We’ll take care of her” Hotaru said “Get the class ordered, Mr. President”

When they were out of the building, Hotaru put out a remote control and pressed the red button on it. Seconds later there was an elephant in front of them, and it put down its nose and revealed an escalator. They hop on it and it started moving to the location of the Hospital.

They ran inside the Hospital and placed Mikan on one of the nurse’s care. Soon the nurse was accompanied by a doctor.

After a long time of waiting, the doctor finally allowed them to visit her but hold Hotaru up.

“Imai-san,” the doctor said “Ms. Sakura seems to have her memory meddled with”

“Meddled with? How?” came the monotonously reply

“Maybe the anti-Alice organization didn’t want her to remember some things,” the doctor guessed “how you asked, my hunch is that they have something or someone with the Alice of Memory to do that to her”

“Oh, okay” Hotaru said “is there any chance to regain those memories?”

“I’m not so sure yet,” he answered “I’ll tell you later”

“Thanks, doctor” Hotaru said.

She entered the room with her mind working on how to recover her memories, but stopped when she saw her unmoving body.

Her hair was let down and she was wearing one of the hospital’s gown and her skin was pale. Ruka was sitting beside her and he was holding her hands. He was just staring at her and recalling the memories they had together.

Hotaru felt sad just looking at her best friend, but she felt devastated when he saw Natsume. The cold boy was just staring at the window that was showing the weather outside. It matched his mood perfectly. Sometime during their wait for the doctor to allow them see Mikan it started to rain real hard. Natsume was standing in front of the window with his forehead resting on the cool glass of the window. His breath was fogging the glass. His hands were kept on inside his pockets, which everyone knows was now balled in a fist.

Hotaru sat on the couch and called Natsume to sit down beside her. “Come on Hyuuga, if Mikan’s awake she wouldn’t want you to be in that current position”

Natsume didn’t move.

Ruka stood up and said “I better get going and tell everyone Mikan was just tired so as not to worry those” he kissed her forehead and whispered “Get well soon, Mikan”

He exited the room and Hotaru spoke again, “She will, most likely scream at you for having to worry for her”

“That would mean much if she really do remember me you know” Natsume said taking Ruka’s former position

Hotaru just looked at the two with saddened eyes and said, “I’ll leave you two alone, I’ll be back”

Hotaru headed for the mini library in the Hospital to look up for an Alice called Memory Alice.

Hotaru stayed in the library for a long time, reading all the information about it. She left the place just minutes before dinner. When she went out of the library, she almost scared the librarian half to death.

“Imai! I didn’t know you were here!” she exclaimed

“I’m going now” Hotaru said leaving the librarian fussing over herself

-- In the Dinning Hall

The whole class of Mikan was quite, scared and confused. They knew Mikan was brought to the hospital and was asked to stay there for the night. They were all confused as to why she fainted and scared if Mikan is sick or something.

“Where have you been? I was looking for you everywhere” Ruka asked Hotaru outside the dinning hall

“If you were looking for me everywhere then you should have seen me” the girl replied pushing pass the doors

Ruka blushed, that is true. He shook his head trying to control his embarrassment, “so were where you?”

“I was reading some books in the mini library of the Hospital”

“Oh,” he said “about what?”

“Important things” said Hotaru. She looked around the room, she noticed that everyone is staring at her with question like eyes and Kokoryomi was having trouble not hearing everyone’s thought. He burst out of the room screaming, which made everyone’s attention on the tracks he left.

“Where’s Natsume?” Hotaru asked noticing the boy gone

Ruka choked on his breath but manage to cover it up with a groan, “Not him too? Don’t tell me I’m going to look everywhere again *sighs* well my hunch is he’s with Mikan”

“Okay good” she said walking away and headed for the hospital. She noticed that Ruka wasn’t following, he was staring into space “Aren’t you coming?”

“I’ll just catch up with you later” Ruka answered then laughed nervously “Mr. Narumi wanted to see me”

“Alright” she said dismissively and returned on her tracks toward the hospital while Ruka headed the other way, to the one room he is free to let his mask fall down, his room.

-- End chapter 2

One Way Or Another -1

2007-03-28T09:59:00.000-07:00

Chapter 1 --

Mikan’s memory was tampered by the anti-Alice organization before she was saved by the others. Which memory was lost? Will she regain it? Or will she just leave it at that?
--

“Hurry up!” Natsume said, “We’re nearly there”

15 years old Natsume, Ruka, and Yuu were running fast toward a bush were Hotaru’s invention was hiding. Natsume was carrying Mikan in bridal style while the other two was preventing anyone in there way to prevent them from rescuing Mikan.

Finally they arrived at the bush and quickly entered the invention. The moment they were seated, Hotaru operated the machine. She put it on auto drive heading to the academy and turned her attention on the brunette.

Mikan was wearing a black gown with shiny beads circling the waist. One of her shoes were gone, probably somewhere in the forest. Her hair was let down, it has grown much longer and now up to her waist.

“How did you get her?” Hotaru asked

“Yuu created an illusion of you” Ruka said panting

“Oh”

Mikan’s hand twitched and she opened her eyes. Her brown eyes full of laughter and joy appeared. She sat up and saw Hotaru.

“Hotaru” she whispered “you’re really here, what took you so long to rescue me?”

“The damned academy won’t let us fetch you” she reasoned “We have known your place for quite some time now”

“Only if we get you before this event it would have been harder” Yuu stated

Mikan turned her attention to him and smiled “I’ve missed you, Yuu, Hotaru”

Obviously, she has not seen the other two of her rescuers. Hotaru looked at her then at the other two. Mikan looked at the other two and smiled “How have you been doing, Ruka?”

Ruka was near in tears when she said that, it was the first time he heard her voice in five long years. “I’m great, and you?”

“Never better,” then she yawned “well, a little sleepy I guess”

Ruka chuckled as well as Yuu but it came out as a sob. They hugged Mikan crying. Mikan patted their backs and assured them it was not a dream. When the two finally let go, she noticed a guy his age with violent shade of violet hair just staring at her, happiness in his eyes.

“Who are you?” Mikan asked completely confused. She looked at Hotaru who just stared, then to Ruka who smiled.

Mikan wasn’t satisfied with these ‘answers’. “Who’s he, Hotaru?”

“You don’t know?” Hotaru asked

“Are you being serious, Mikan?” Yuu asked

“Why would I even bother to ask if I already know the answer?” Mikan chuckled, humor in her song like voice

“He’s your lover” Ruka answered her

Mikan looked at the guy whose eyes now were not full of happiness anymore. She racked her brain for something about the guy staring at her, but can’t find anything. Who is he? What was he to me? Were we in love? Damn it! Who is he!

Everyone was now looking intently to her. Mikan smiled and said “I’ve missed you so much dearest” she giggled.

Ruka and Yuu sighed; they thought Mikan really forgot about Natsume and their time together. Mikan smiled again, but Hotaru and Natsume noticed it did not reach her eyes. She was lying.

---End of Chapter 1