Hey peoples! I just want to say hi! Oh, and this is my newest story! Haha, I was just randomly looking out of my window to the beautiful scenery of rolling hills (sound familiar?) and I got this idea! So, pleased do read and I will get started! Please, wish me luck! :D

Outside the Gates

~Chapter 1~

BOOOOM!

The AAO base exploded and there was a huge shower of cement and concrete all around me. Flames lit up the night sky, the smoke dimming the lights of the stars. I was heavily wounded: gunshots in my right arm and in my stomach, huge gashes on my legs and arms from knives, my black cat mask had scratches on it too. I was having the hardest time to stand and I felt really weak.

"Shit" I muttered, holding the bullet wound in my stomach.

That wound was what hurt the most. I could feel the blood seeping out of that wound and let me tell you: it felt like shit. It was the worst feeling ever. I tried my best to make it out of the AAO base exploded due to the bomb that I had purposefully detonated, making it out at the last second. I should be lucky. The damn bastards were pretty strong. Heck, they were stronger than in any other missions I did for Gakuen Alice!

Heh, if you're wondering what's happening and who the hell I am, let me tell you this: I go by the name Kuro Neko. Well, it's only my alias. My real name is Natsume Hyuuga. I'm 17 years old and I go to the school called Gakuen Alice: the place where kids with special abilities go to.

These 'special abilities' are called Alices. They are some sort of weird mutation, in my opinion, that are like super human abilities. Not like freaking Superman though. That's just stupid. We just have these abilities to, I don't know, either control elements or some sort of random stuff. There's Alices for cooking, chemicals, inventions, elemental, human and animal pheromones, mind reading and such. My Alice is fire meaning I can create fire and control any form of fire.

Anyways, back to my current situation, if I don't get back to Gakuen Alice, I'll surely be punished by that bastard Persona. He's my teacher. Ugh, I wish he'd just go to hell! I started to make my way through the rolling hills of the country side, back to the place the car was that would take me back to the academy. But once I got there, I was pooped and it wasn't there! Crap, what is wrong with these people?

So, I decided to walk until I got to Gakuen Alice. I highly doubt I'll make it though. Sigh, but I gotta try. Soon, I found myself in a small neighbor hood, rain pouring down, tapping on the windows of the sleeping families. They were lucky. They didn't have to go on missions barely alive and badly wounded. I am actually surprised that I lasted this long. I felt as if I was going to collapse of exhaustion and blood loss any minute! I might just make it back to the academy!

All of I sudden, I got a woozy feeling as I reached the corner of an intersection in the small neighborhood. I guess I spoke to soon. That was my last conscious thought as I fell down to the cold, wet, hard floor as the darkness took over me.

The next time I woke up, I was in a soft bed, sunlight filling the unfamiliar room. It felt comfortable and had a sweet scent of strawberries and a hint of orange. I had aches all over my body but in I still felt pretty good compared to last night with all that damage I had gotten. I kept my eyes closed, relishing in the warmth of the blankets and sun's rays. I think it'd be okay if I stayed like this for a while. It's not like this place felt as if it were crowded with enemies. But…it wasn't the academy.

I came to my senses when I felt a cold rag on my forehead. I snapped my eyes open and what I saw surprised me. It was a girl. And from the looks of it, she was my age. She had long, light brown hair that ended at her waist and beautiful honey brown eyes to match it. Her skin was fair and smooth and looked soft to the touch. Long eyelashes framed her eyes and she had perfectly shaped eye brows.

She had a very curvaceous body, slender legs and a small waist. She had the most perfect body that any girl would die for. She was the perfect height for a seventeen year old girl and was very beautiful no matter how you looked at her. All in all, she is an angel.

Then angel's eyes widened in surprised and she moved back a bit, gasping. She got her composure back and her eyes went back to normal. And I saw concern in her eyes and facial expression.

"A-are you okay?" her voice was like a song. It was as if she were singing a song, healing me with her words for I felt an unfamiliar warmth travel throughout my body, making my aches lessen. Wait….why was she talking in a hushed tone?

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out of my mouth. My throat was completely dry and scratchy. All that came out was air.

"O-oh, you must be thirsty!" she exclaimed, jumping off of the seat she had been sitting on. Huh, I hadn't noticed that there.

The angel elegantly yet quickly strode out of the room and quietly shut the door. I raised an eyebrow even though she wouldn't be able to see it. Why was she being so quiet and careful?

The opened the door and stepped inside, closing the door softly once more. She came over to the bedside and helped me sit up. The blanket fell off of my abdomen and I noticed that I was no longer wearing a shirt and I was bandaged up. I quickly touched my face to see if the mask was there and sure enough, it wasn't.

"O-oh, you must be wondering about your mask…am I correct?" the girl asked me.

I gave her a nod and she showed me a small smile that made my heart stop.

"W-well, I had to take it off along with your shirt in order to clean and bandage your wounds" she told me as she helped me get a sip of water.

It was silent for a few minutes as the girl handed me a pain relief pill. And then, she spoke. "…Tell me, how did you get such wounds?"

I thought about telling this girl about everything. And at that moment I knew that I had completely lost it! How could I even CONSIDER telling this girl, a COMPLETE STRANGER, everything that has to do with this mission and a school that people think only geniuses can enter? That was stupid!

I realized that she had been waiting for an answer so I quickly turned my head away in a gesture that pretty much said 'I don't want to talk about it'. The girl quickly realized what I meant and she nodded in understanding, putting the now half empty glass of water on the bedside table.

The angel took the rag off of my forehead and checked my temperature with her palm. It was warm and soft. I couldn't help myself but to lean into her touch, closing my eyes. The girl somewhat tensed and pulled her hand away in a manner that was supposed to NOT offend me. And it didn't.

"W-well" she stuttered, looking down into her lap, "at least tell me your name.."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Tell me your name first."

She thought about it for a couple of seconds before she opened her mouth.

"Mikan!" we heard a lady's voice call.

The girl winced, scrunching her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes again, I thought I saw fear in her eyes, but she quickly hid it by giving me grin.

"Well, you heard it!" and with that, she quickly got up and quickly made her way to the door. As she did this she said "make sure to be very quiet and, if you can, hide if anyone tries to get into the room. I will lock the door when I go out but you should hide anyway. They know how to pick locks."

"W-wai-"I was cut off with the gentle closing of her door and the lock turning. I was completely alone.

So, Mikan's her name? It sounds…beauti-WAIT! I can't be thinking like this!

I sighed and leaned back into the pillows propping me up on the bed. Well, I might as well look around the room.

The bed was small; about twin sized with an orange comforter and white bed sheets. It was placed in at the center of the wall opposite the wall of the door. The room was also small. From my sitting position, it had a small bedside table to the right of the bed, a small closet on the same wall as the door except it was all the way on the left side as the door was in the right. A lamp was placed on the wooden bedside table along with a picture frame with a family portrait on it. I would look at that later. There was a small desk on the far left corner of the room and in the center of the left wall, there was a big window. It showed a view of rolling hills. The biggest and closest one had a huge Sakura tree perched on the top, swaying slightly to the breeze. From the angle the scenery is in, I'd say I am on the second floor of his house. All in all, the room was pretty small but had a great view of the country side.

I turned my attention back to the picture frame on the bedside table. I picked up the picture and looked at it more closely. It had a woman with short, boy cut auburn hair and green eyes to the right. On the left, there was a man with silver hair and honey brown eyes. They must be a married couple.

In front of them, there were three kids. Of course, the one in the middle was that girl, Mikan. She had looked about 15 or 16 in the picture. On the right side of her was a tall man in his late teen years; maybe 19. He had jet black hair and black eyes….wait…t-that's Persona! I felt my eyes widen in this discovery. I quickly calmed down and looked at the other kid. This kid was younger than the Mikan girl. He had silver hair and green eyes….Youichi! This is Youichi! But, he… I didn't know my kohai had an older sister. Why didn't he tell me? Wh-what's going on? How can Persona be Youichi's elder brother? This is crazy! Is the world ending?

I heard a key in the door and I quickly hid underneath the bed despite the protests of my body. I made sure there wasn't any sign of me in here. When the door opened, I saw a strawberry blonde girl with too much make up and really revealing clothes come sneakily into the room. Although I didn't know her, I knew one thing for sure: she was a SLUT with a capitol everything.

I saw her go through Mikan's drawers, an evil glint in her eyes. I was about to show myself and stop this girl when Mikan herself came into the room.

"L-Luna…w-what are you doing here?" Mikan asked innocently.

"Oh, Mikan! I really wanted to get something at the mall…so, I know that you have no protest against me, oh, I don't know, having some of your money?" the said girl stated, holding up a small wallet.

"B-but, I've worked hard for that money! Please, just give it back!" Mikan pleaded, reaching for her wallet.

"I'll tell my mom that you hit me if you don't give me it" the Luna girl stated, grinning evilly.

"B-but I didn't!"

"I know, but why would she believe you? Hahaha!" And the girl walked out of the room.

Sighing in disappointment, Mikan closed the door once more and locked it. She turned around and looked around her small room; most likely looking for me.

"You can come out now" she said in a slightly depressed tone.

I tried my best to crawl out of under the bed without hurting myself but ended up doing it anyway. Mikan stifled a giggle and helped me out of under there. She sat me back on the bed and got the pillows nice and comfy for me.

"So, who was that?" I asked her as she put the blankets over me.

"Oh…that's my cousin. Luna" she said her name as if it were the most vile thing in the human existence.

"Hn."

"So" she started, sitting on the foot of the bed, "Can I get you anything…"

"Natsume" I told her my name without skipping a beat.

"Hm" she nodded. "Can I get you anything Natsume?"

I felt my heart flutter by the way my named rolled off her tongue. It sounded as if it were meant to be said by her. I pushed that thought away as I heard my stomach growl. I had a tint of pink in my cheeks do the involuntary noise.

Giggling, Mikan said "I'll go get you some soup."

Mikan once again locked the door behind her as she quickly and quietly traveled to the kitchen to get me some food. She was actually pretty quick this time. When she came back in, she didn't even close and lock the door. At this, I sort of panicked. Why wasn't she making any safety precautions as to let no one find out I'm here?

"Hey, stop freaking! They all left for the day" Mikan told me.

I nodded and she handed me the soup.

"Well, I have to go downstairs and clean the house. It's my chore." Mikan said.

"But what about school?" I asked her, somewhat confused.

"Oh, I'm off today! A school holiday I believe" she said. "Well, I have to get to work! Ja ne" and she went out of the room.

I took a sip of the soup that Mikan had handed to me. It was delicious! I felt so at home at this place and Mikan seemed to be a cool person. But I knew that I had to get back to Gakuen Alice or else Persona will be mad out of his mind! Especially if he found out I have been spending my time with his little sister…..or at least that's what I think she is to him. What else would she be? But she could be….ugh, I shut that thought out of my head. It seems so impossible and I did NOT like the sound of that!

I sighed and shook my head. Why must I always be side tracked? Whatever. I just really need to get better and healed. I have about three days tops until I have to get to Gakuen Alice or I will definitely get a severe punishment. And I must NOT make any emotional connections at all with this girl. She cannot even be a friend. No connection with this girl at all!

So, I made a plan to just talk to her when needed and thank her once I leave for all her trouble. It's as simple as that! I just really hope I can keep that plan.

~Chapter 1 End~

IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!

So…how was it? I really want to know so that I will figure out if I should keep on going with this story! If I don't get enough reviews saying that I should keep on going, I will delete this story. I want at least 7. Why 7 you say? Well, it's because it's original! So, please review and tell me your opinion! Thank you! I really appreciate it!

~natsumikanluverization697 signing off! :D