WELCOME ABOARD

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice

WARNING: I tend to lose the characters personality and make them a little OOC but I will try to keep their personalities.

A/N: Keep note they have British accents... lol

X. Summary: Princess Sakura Mikan was always told that she was clumsy. But now, it was officially confirmed when she fell aboard a pirate ship. Not only does she meets a rude young captain, but is turned into a slave and eventually must disguise herself as a boy.

X. Chapter 6: So They Do Exist

Ruka and Natsume grew up together in a town called Coralridge (1). It was a common place for pirates to come and go. "A pirate town" people from other countries would call it. Ruka and his parents were very close friends and had a very well known reputation-even among other countries-. Finding treasures was something they did best at and everybody in Coralridge knew about it.

He could still remember the first time he went on a ship. He was 8 years old then, but the memory was still vivid as if it was just yesterday. His parents had to trade goods in a neighboring country, and since the destination wasn't far, he was able to tag along. Just the feeling of stepping foot on a ship was enough to make his heart jump out of his chest. His excitement was on full blast and the feeling was much more than he imagined it to be. His parents even showed him how to work the sails and how to control the ship. At one point, his father had hoisted him up onto his broad shoulders. When he opened his eyes to take a good look, his mouth opened wide at the view. The view was beautiful; the dark blue sea covered the entire horizon along with an orange hue that spread across the entire sky. The view of the sun rise was enough to take his breath away. Since then, he knew, he wanted to be a pirate just like his parents and that someday he would go on a big journey with them.

But then 'that' happened...(3 years later)

It had been a little less than 2 months since their parents left for their journey. Ruka and Natsume would often play near the dock, so that they could welcome their parents for their arrival. One day, Ruka stared out into the sea and from far away he could recognize the familiar outline of a ship. "Something is coming!" Ruka shouted excitedly. After a while, it became much more visible. There was two ships, one was their parents while the other was unfamiliar to them. They were so overjoyed,they were jumping up and down in excitement. Ruka and Natsume ran towards the ship, expecting their parents to get off. But instead they saw a man, they've seen the man before,he would often come to do business with their family.

"Ahoy..." the man greeted.

"What are ye doin' with our parents ship?!" Natsume shouted angrily.

The man went silent for a while until he said " I see..." "Me crew and I found this ship in the middle of the sea" he spoke quietly.

"...What are ye sayin?" Ruka voice cracked.

"When me crew went over to check,nobody was there..."

Natsume was still confused, he couldn't comprehend what the man was saying.

"Is there any adult I can talk to?" he questioned. Ruka and Natsume looked at each other, Ruka was already in tears. Natsume and Ruka decided to bring the man to Narumi.

They watched afar as Narumi spoke to the stranger. Narumi was clearly shocked. He went silent for a while and then started asking him questions. The man would just shake his head and repeat the words "I don't know". Before leaving,the man apologized while bowing his head slightly, Narumi just shook his hand while saying "No no ye did nothing wrong"

By the end of their conversation Ruka was still crying and Natsume kept a blank stare. Narumi approached them slowly, he was obviously disturbed by the news. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck while looking towards the ground. Then finally he spoke to them " Let's go home..."

(6 months later)

Ever since they're disappearance, Narumi began asking around, traveling to neighboring countries to see if they had heard or seen them. Finally he found a woman who had saw them before their disappearance. She said she saw them at a pub talking to two other people. One was a man while the other was a woman. She unfortunately couldn't remember their faces nor what they discussed, except something along the lines of mermaids cove.

"Mermaids cove..." Narumi mumbled to himself. The woman didn't give him a lot of information but there was no way he was going to just let it slide.

He hurriedly got back to Coralridge and gave himself two days to prepare his trip to mermaids cove. He gathered his crew and the supplies. When the ship was leaving he could see Ruka and Natsume waving goodbye by the dock. "I'll be back!" he shouted loudly.

X.x.x.x.

"Natsume! Natsume!" Ruka shouted while shaking him back and forth.

Natsume's eyes snapped open and he could feel beads of sweat roll down the side of his face. In front of him was Ruka who stared at him worriedly.

"What's wrong?" Ruka asked while he placed his hand on Natsume's shoulder. Natsume wiped away at the sweat on his forehead before saying " Nothing..." and then getting out of bed. Ruka guessed it was a bad dream but decided it was best to stay silent. Ruka waited until Natsume got dressed up.

"Let's go" he said.

x.x.x.x.

When Natsume and Ruka arrived at the pub, Narumi was already there, sitting in the same spot as yesterday. He appeared very haggard, almost as if he stayed up drinking.

"Have ye changed yer mind?" Ruka questioned.

"...If I say no, are ye still going to go?" Narumi asked.

"Well-"

"We don't need ye" Natsume said rudely while cutting off Ruka. Ruka quickly turned his head towards Natsume and elbowing him on the arm. "Natsume!" he shouted.

"I'm sorry..." Narumi spoke quietly. Ruka turned his attention back to Narumi, and even Natsume had sat up straight from his seat.

"I couldn't find yer parents... I apologize" Narumi said while bowing his head to the point that his forehead was touching the table.

"Why didn't ye come back?" Natsume said his expression holding a lot of anger.

"I was ashamed... everybody from me crew died except me, on top of that I couldn't even find yer family"

"can ye tell us what happened?" Ruka asked.

Narumi glanced at the both of them before looking down at his lap.

x.x.x.x.

"Cap'n Narumi! We're here" one of Narumi's crew members shouted. Narumi kicked his leg over the side of the ship and began climbing down using a rope net attached to the side.

"This here be mermaids cove?" He glanced around, it surely did look like a cove. It was a sheltered bay with rocky mountains,exotic plants and plently of grassland surrounding it.

"Where are them so called mermaids?" his crew began laughing. Narumi raised his hand making his crew silence.

"Smartly!(2) let's move forward!" Narumi spoke sternly, his leader instincts kicking in as he walked in front of them. They walked deeper inside the cove, passing through several trees and eventually passing a cave

"Cap'n, shall we check in here?"

Narumi observed the cave from outside. "Ahoy! anybody there?!" he shouted, his voice bouncing off the walls creating an echo. Narumi called out once more before deciding to pass it and continue to move forward. The crew followed Narumi but one of his members decided to peek inside one more time, he then heard a voice call out. "Help!" A voice of a woman.

"Hey! I can hear a lass callin out!" one of them said, catching the attention of two other members while the rest kept walking. The curious memebers walked back to the cave and called out "Ahoy there!"

"Please, help me!" the voice called out crew members glanced at each other. "Lets save her" "We need cap'n first" "What if she's dying, let's go" They began to argue. "Please come help me, I can't walk!" she cried out. Finally they decided to go inside the cave.

When Narumi finally realized his crew - originally six - turned into three, they were already so far from the cave.

"Eh? where is me crew?!" he shouted. The remaining bunch just shrugged their shoulders. "I think they stayed at the cave " one responded. "Blimey!(3)" Narumi scratched the back of his head. " Let's head back and get those idiots"

When they arrived back at the cave they were no where to be found.

"Ye think they went inside cap'n?" Narumi sighed.

"Ye Idiots! come back here" Narumi shouted into the cave. But he heard no answer except his voice echoing once again. "They probably went back to the ship, I'll get them back, ye stay here" Narumi instructed before heading back to the ship.

The remaining crew members stood around as they were told. But all of a sudden they began hearing something. "Hey ye heard that?"

It was the sound of a woman singing. "hey...it's coming from the cave" "It's really beautiful...this song" one of them thought and began to unconsciously move into the cave. The next followed and then finally the last remaining member followed too.

"Hey they aren't -" Narumi spoke as he walked back to the front of the cave, but then stopped in his tracks when he realized they were gone as well. "What kind of game is this?"

Narumi was getting more and more frustrated. " Hide n seek, is it?" he spoke out loud. He began looking left and right, scanning the area for movement.

"No time for games!"

"CAP'N" one of them shouted, catching Narumi's attention.

"Step out! Ye scoundrel! We aren't here to play!"

"Help..." his voice suddenly sounding very weak. Narumi quickly ran inside the cave until he saw one of his crew members crawling his way back to the opening. Narumi ran to him, lifted him over shoulder as if his body was a bag of rice. Quickly he ran out of the cave and placed him down by the trees. Narumi examined him, his arm and leg was bleeding heavily and his clothes were ripped apart. "What...what happened?!" Narumi asked.

"Cap'n...they...they tried to pull us into the water..water inside the cave..." "who? who did?!" Narumi shouted, goosebumps forming on his arms with his heartbeat so fast as if he was running a marathon. "...Beautiful...mermaids" he said with his last final breath. Narumi became frozen, his arm stiffened as he held his crew member in his arms. Narumi finally gathered the courage to check for his pulse. He was indeed gone. Narumi was a loss for words, in only a few minutes he had lost all his crew members.

"I'm sorry..." his voice barely more than a whisper. Finally getting up he headed back to his ship. Devastation was clear on his face, he couldn't comprehend what happened, but he knew, in the state he was in, he could not go back home.

x.x.x.x

"I lost them...I led them to their death" Narumi spoke as his hands were now buried into his hands. Ruka and Natsume stared at the pitiful man in front of them. " Narumi..." Ruka called out gently. "Ye didn't do anything wrong old man" Natsume said, trying to comfort the man. The sudden change of heart even shocked Ruka. "I forgive you" Natsume said."Me too..." Ruka followed. Narumi finally took his face out of his hands and stared at them. His face held an expression of relief, like all this time he needed this closure. "Thank ye..."

x.x.x.x

By the time Natsume and Ruka arrived, Mikan had already finished cleaning the deck.

"Ye missed a spot" Natsume pointed out to her.

Mikan glared at him but her eyes turned towards the man beside him. Even Narumi had taken notice of her.

"Ahoy, me name is Narumi" Narumi greeted. Mikan nodded her head slightly.

"What's a lass doin on yer ship?" Narumi whispered in Natsume's ear.

"Lass?" Ruka turned to look at Natsume.

"Heh...lass? this is Jack" Natsume answered.

Narumi didn't seem convinced. " I know a lass when I see one" while walking closer to Mikan and observing her, studying her.

"Oh...I assure ye, this here is all man" he said while walking towards Mikan and placing his arm around her shoulder. She watched him warily as he moved next her and immediately stiffened under his touch. She wanted to get his dirty hands off of her. When she thought it was already bad as it was, her eyes widened and her breath stopped when she felt a hand patting her in the chest area.

"As flat as a wooden plank!" he said smugly.

"Is that so...my apologizes lad" said Narumi appearing convinced. Mikan turned to look at Natsume in the eyes and so did he, both of them giving each other fake smiles.

'Get your dirty hands off of me' she thought.

'You better not get caught' he thought. It was as if they were communicating through their eyes.

"Well…we should get a move on" said Ruka. Natsume finally took his arm off of her shoulder. Mikan quickly cleaned off her clothes as if he had dirtied her, wiping her shoulder like there was dust on it. Natsume walked away with a smug expression on his face.

x.x.x.x

"Don't worry Mikan…I'll find you soon enough" Tsubasa spoke out loud.

(1) Fictional place, another name I made up. This was also the place they stopped over in chapter 3

(2)Meaning quickly

(3) A term used when frustrated

Hey guys :) so as promised I tried to update before the end of the week. This chapter was a little longer compared to others, it was also a little bit more serious so I tried to add some fun near the end, and yes to answer some of your questions there will be mermaids in this story :)

My next update...not sure yet, so be sure to check my profile every once in a while and i'll put a date there.

until next time ;) REVIEW PLEASE :)