Disclaimer: I will say this once, and once only. I DO NOT OWN GAKUEN ALICE OR THE CHARACTERS, PLOT, ETC. And the game is based on the game in Prep, it is not mine, not will it ever be mine.

Chapter I

Her jagged panting ripped through the crisp night air; creating wisps of fog in the darkness. Her slender fingers reached out to the foreboding gate, desperately seizing one iron bar into each hand. Streaks of hot tears gushed out of her vehement, gray eyes, as she bitterly vowed to never get close to anyone ever again.

Being emotionally attached to any being would always be her weakness.

It would always end with her heart being mutilated beyond belief, making the severe gashes others have look like mere abrasions, and unpleasant emotions from both parties. Nuisances she cannot afford to have, especially not after she gave her consent to attend the legendary boarding school, Alice Academy. She took one final breath to steady the multitude of emotions which threatened her common sense, as she stood back from the gate, resolute.

Despite the engulfing pitch darkness, she was able to look past the plethora of bare trees, and caught a glimpse of the building which housed her future. She scanned her surroundings, looking for another student, knowing full well that it was midnight.

But a miniscule voice whispered words full of doubt to her, and she was instantly wary.

She arrived in the middle of the week which allowed students to move into their dorms, and let the first years get acquainted to the campus. There should be someone wandering around after a late night party. Without much thought, she twisted her honey brown hair into a bun, feeling the familiar sensation of adrenaline charging through her body. It was then when she realized that the gate was ominously unlocked, and cautiously pushed it open; wincing at the tiny croak the hinges made. She stepped forward, and stood in the dusty clearing before the forest. The sound of a twig snapping rang out through the still air, alerting her of an intruder. She muttered a low curse and quickly whipped around, fingering the dagger hidden in the sleeve of her black sweater. She mentally analyzed the intruder; the person is either clumsy, or is using the twig as a distraction. She ruled out the former choice and grimly realized that the intruder is an extremely skilled Alice. He, or she, managed to get this close, without her realizing it, and this was a hard feat. She was the top student at her old school, excelling as an Alice, and managed to get an invitation from this academy.

She refused to get killed after all the hard work and sacrifices she made to get here.

Making a quick decision, she sprinted out of the open to a large maple tree, successfully concealing herself. She lithely darted behind some trees while activating her Alice, until she saw her intruder. Silently smirking, she could just make out her intruder's body; it was a male. She saw his head cocked to the side in confusion as he was looking around in his crouched position. Wanting to move within striking distance, she began to move again, until she was body slammed by a dark figure.

She smiled dryly to herself as she sunk into oblivion, thinking that fate was a bitch.

There was a light glowing on her shut eyelids, low voices, and she had a splitting headache. Her senses instantly alert, she opened her eyes by a millimeter and scrutinized her surroundings, locating the door a few yards to her left. She saw two heads looming over her body, realizing that they took her dagger, and that she felt fine. In fact, her headache was beginning to fade, coming to the conclusion that the light must be a healing alice. She checked her breathing, noticing that it was beginning to accelerate, and attempted to keep it under control. She also noticed that they didn't bother with tying her up, she mentally sighed with relief. Settling on an escape plan, she listened to the grumbling voices, patiently waiting for the right time to escape.

"Why did you bring her here, Koko? You don't even know her. You said that we were only going to prank the poor girl, not abduct her." A low voice accused. She concluded that they weren't the type of people who dealt with anyone dangerous, but she could never be too sure.

"Because she's interesting! Didn't you notice that your alice can't work on her? She's the first person I have met who's mind I can't read. Don't tell me that she didn't catch your attention, Kitsuneme. And we didn't abduct her, we brought her to our place so that she can get better. I mean, she did get some pretty nasty bruises because of me. Also, she's really hot. Maybe I can convince her to become my girlfriend..." Right when he was about to continue, she bolted out of her place on the bed and ran for the door, but it opened to reveal a tall, lean male with crimson eyes. Comprehending his friends' shocked faces, and her determined one, he swiftly grabbed her right wrist. She twisted her wrist out of his suffocating grip, but he maneuvered her arm into an arm lock. He pushed her into the room, shutting the door with his foot, and was promptly swept off his feet when he loosened his grip. He broke his fall gracefully, standing up again, despite her prompt retaliation. The two of them glared at each other, but it was broken by flabbergasted applause. They looked away from another, and as inconspicuously as possible, the girl rubbed her tender wrist gently.

"Who is she? Get her out of my sight right now, or I will torture you two painfully and slowly." He spat out venomously. The two looked at each other and simultaneously blurted out their eventful encounter, while she settled down onto the bed she was once laying down on. The two healers left the room silently, acknowledging the crimson eyed boy along the way.

"Well, the most I got to read from her mind before she blocked me was that she's very good at analyzing situations, she was the top student at her old school, and that she had a dagger up her sleeve." Koko told him. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Someone gave it to me for protection." It was the truth, except that someone was herself. The two teens continued on with their story.

"And then after I tried to use my alice to levitate her, she disappeared behind some trees, so I didn't know what to do. My alice just wouldn't work on her, Natsume it was really weird. And so then I waited for Koko to send me a message telling me where she is, but all I got was an, 'uh oh...'" Kitsuneme exaggerated, emphasizing his poor imitation of his friend. Koko shot Kitsuneme a glare.

"Well, at least I had enough sense to tackle her to the ground, and not panic like a certain douche bag I know." He retorted, running a tanned hand through his dirty blond hair. Kitsuneme opened his mouth with a comeback ready, when the girl bravely interrupted.

"Um... Can you please tell me if I'm inside Alice Academy? And who are you guys? All I remember was running towards the academy because I was scared of the dark." She decided to employ 'the sweet and naive girl' card to distract them from finding out her alice. She still didn't know their true intentions, and she felt threatened by the boy she just sparred with. He was probably more skilled than she, and could kill her in an instant if she did anything suspicious, so she wanted the element of surprise if they decided to gang up on her. Instead of showing her calculating face that was dieing to come out, she opted for a timid smile.

"You're inside the academy in the dorm area. I'm guessing you just arrived here, since you don't know us. Or you live under a rock, but I highly doubt that's possible for an attractive woman like you." Koko said suavely, mussing his hair up again. She attempted to not roll her eyes. He was definitely not dangerous. "Anyway, I'm Yome Koko, that's my fraternal twin, Kitsuneme, and he's-"

"Hyuuga Natsume. What's your name? What is your alice?" Natsume drilled ruthlessly without preamble. His previous anger was replaced with curiosity. Why couldn't Koko's and Kitsuneme's alice work on her? He could tell that she was a powerful adversary, by the way she handled their impromptu match, but he was better. Judging from the way she looked, and her accent, he deduced that she lived somewhere near the academy. Natsume narrowed his eyes, noticing that she was weighing the pros and cons of telling them her personal information. "Even if you lie to us, we'll find out who you really are in the end. Might as well spit it out now." Her timid smile became strained as she struggled to keep herself calm.

"Fine. Then, I just won't say anything." She replied in a sickly sweet voice, flashing him a cheeky grin. Natsume's face mirrored her smirk, as he took out his cell phone and dialed a number. She, Koko, and Kitsuneme looked at him incredulously.

"Hey, can you come over to Koko's dorm real quick? I have something that will interest you." He closed his phone and placed it back into his back pocket with alacrity. After a minute of tense silence, a resounding knock was heard, and the girl's attention focused on the door. It opened to expose a beautiful girl with a willowy figure. Her shoulder length hair was jet black, and her fringe perfectly complimented her slim face. In a few seconds, a glint of recognition flashed through her amethyst eyes.

"Sakura Mikan, 16, freshmen, from the Kawaguchi area in Tokyo, or in other words, 3 hours away from the academy, and a multiple alice user." Mikan's gray eyes zeroed in on the mysterious girl, surprised that she knew so much. At least she doesn't know her alices, it would be troublesome if they knew. Keeping in mind to sustain her naive schoolgirl appearance, she convincingly opened her mouth in shock.

"Wow, who are you?" Successfully attempting to veer off the conversation of her alice.

"Imai Hotaru, also 16, from Kyoto, and I have the alice of invention." She answered indifferently.

"Super. Well, it would be a pleasure to meet you under other circumstances, but I got to go now. You know, find my dorm, settle in like other normal teens..." was what Mikan would love to say, but she had to maintain her innocent mask. "I'm very sorry, but I think I'm going to go to register for my dorm room... So if you don't mind, I will get going now." She muttered, pretending to be drowsy. Koko jumped up from his seat eagerly.

"I'll go with you! Who knows what will happen to you if you're left alone." She silently snorted to herself, thinking that her attacker would probably be in more danger than she. But instead of voicing her thoughts, she smiled brightly and thanked him. The two of them headed out the door, and he lead the way downstairs. She looked around, frowning at the plain looking hallway and dorms. Koko noticed her frown, and interpreted it correctly.

"These are just our temporary dorms, and we're walking because the elevators are really rusty here. We'll be moving into our permanent ones after they test us for our star ranking." She halted in the middle of the dimly lit staircase.

"We're going to get evaluated again?" Mikan said in disbelief. He chuckled amicably.

"Since we're the top Alices in the country, we need to get evaluated based on the top standards, and not the average standards. I heard that this year's test is going to be about how we use our alices in combat." Koko explained excitedly, as they started walking again.

"Do you know why Alice Academy begins in December, and why they insist on letting the 16 year old students be the freshmen? Why aren't they like normal high schools, and accept 14 year olds as the freshmen?"

"Well, to answer your first question, there have been rumors that the Academy doesn't want any of their students to go home for Christmas, but stay here for the holidays. Something about letting the students relate Christmas, and happy things like Christmas, to the school, so that students will find the academy to be enjoyable. And as for the age thing, the Academy doesn't want to deal with the immaturity of a bunch of 14 year old students, but at the same time, they don't want to put up with the restlessness of 21 year old adults." Mikan stayed silent, pondering about these revelations.

"So what is your alice?" She inquired, not wanting him to find out that she eavesdropped on their conversation.

"Well, I can read minds, but Kitsu inherited our dad's alice; levitation. Oh, you can call him Kitsu, by the way. He hates it when you use his full name." She nodded in affirmation.

"And Hyuuga's?" She asked with an air of nonchalance, she wanted to find out more about him, for future reference.

"Let's just say that you don't want to experience it firsthand." He responded with a laugh. Mikan found herself relaxing to the sound of his carefree voice, but she still kept her alice in place. She didn't want him finding out anything more than he already knows, and she could sense his desire to know what her alices are. For multiple alice users are rare.

"What is it? Tell me, I'm dieing to know!" She whined, wanting to get his mind off of her alice.

"Well, you'll find out soon enough. Everyone's always talking about how powerful his alice is."

"Okay, fine. You won't tell me. But if it's as powerful as you claim it to be, then aren't you intimidated by him?" Mikan pouted. She hated being in the dark.

"I'll admit that at first, Kitsu and I were intimidated. But then we found out that he's crazy good at soccer, so this whole week we've been playing soccer together. His best friend, Ruka, is a pretty cool guy. I'll introduce him to you one day." The two of them made it to the plain lobby, and they made their way to the front desk. A man sat in a stiff chair, dozing off. Koko cleared his throat to grab the man's attention. He sat up with a start and shook his head. He looked up at the two of them, embarrassed, while Koko and Mikan attempted to suppress their grins.

"Grade and last name?" He turned to his computer and pulled up a file.

"Freshman, Sakura." He clicked on her name, got up from his seat, and shuffled to the back. He came back lethargically, holding up a key.

"Here's your dorm key. You're in room 512, and check the bulletin board daily to see the latest updates for registration day. Have a nice evening." He said methodically, obviously tired of having to say that to hundreds of students per day. They thanked him and headed back up the stairs. Koko turned to her with a wide grin.

"What?" She asked, bewildered.

"Well, you just so happen to be between Imai Hotaru's room and Shouda Sumire's room." Mikan was overcome with the desire to knock his toothy smile off of his face.

"So?"

"Well, I'll put it this way. You cross them, or you rub them the wrong way, and you can say goodbye to your social life." He stated bluntly.

"And you're smiling, because..."

"Because I have the feeling that you three will form a team."

"For what?" She asked, letting her frustration seep through. She hated his constant use of cryptic sentences.

"For Man Hunt."