~ It's Magic, It's Alice, It's Real ~

"Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -

Mikan never thought that her life will change forever because of one word : Alice. From the girl with family conflicts, school issues, she encounters reality, revealed secrets, love, and danger. Imagination coming true, and becoming superheroes? Might be.

"Awaken its powers, and it will respect itself."

- Francis Wright -

CHAPTER III

Everything's a mess.

Kakashi cursed at his automatic gun that had run out of paralyzing ammo.

After all, he and his men didn't prepare a lot of bullets, more the less paralyzing ones. They only brought the most simple automatic guns which could only load a small number of bullets.

Kakashi never thought that they would use so much effort to capture a single girl. The cat lady was not as easy to get caught as he thought. She would run and attack them in surprise from unpredictable direction, and mostly behind their back. She appeared in a blink of an eye and quickly disappeared in the speed of lightning, leaving only blur images of her jumping to thin air. It was as if she was teleporting, but Kakashi knew better the different work of Teleporting Alice.

He signaled a few men to reload his gun, while he used another gun that was already reloaded. Behind one of the pillars, a few of his men was being attacked simultaneously in a row by the girl.

He gritted his teeth, as he immediately aimed the girl and shot her continuously, hoping that one of the bullets got her. To his surprise, the girl suddenly disappeared again in a flash. Kakashi was about to change his position to another pillar, when suddenly his gun felt heavy. His eyes widen when he caught a glimpse of the girl, squatting on his gun.

He felt his face got scratched a few times, and suddenly, he was laying on the cold ground with a few freshly thin slashed wounds on his chest.

Curse it.

The teenage girl was standing in front of him while holding his gun, and snarled, "Too bad these bullets only work for Alices, or else you guys would finally stay still."

Kakashi was about to yell something smart at her, when suddenly, the girl looked at another direction ; at her friend's direction, and leaped there in a blink of an eye without saying another word.

He finally realized that the Commoner was tortured by his senior, Takeru, which made him confused. As long as he knew, no one was supposed to break the Alice Law, but it seemed his senior didn't give a damn when breaking it. Well, if an Alice do not even follow their own law, why should he, a non-Alice user, would want to follow it?

Kakashi started to get up and reached his gun, when he realized that it was already shred into pieces. As a man and a trustworthy member of the organization, he indeed felt ashamed as he couldn't even last a second when he faced the teenage girl. He cursed inwardly and started to get a new weapon, as he determined to not lose the second time. He already thought of a good plan to take the girl down, and immediately gathered his men to do his tactic.

The damned cat woman wannabe will be defeated.

Just when he finished talking to his men about his idea, Takeru thrust the cat lady for them to handle, and thus, they immediately started shooting her, with a good strategy in mind, unlike before.

Natsume rolled his eyes when he saw Kitsu fasten his pace and flew ; as in floating in the air with a try-to-look-cool Superman pose ; towards Permy who seemed to be outnumbered in the fight.

He shook his head slowly this time. Actually, they were supposed to lay low.

What a good way to start.

He averted his gaze to Permy, who was surprisingly getting cornered by the men, who certainly didn't have much skills in combat. They should not be a problem for her. But as Natsume observed carefully, it seemed that the men with guns figured out how good Permy is in close combat, while it would trouble her if she had to fight a long distanced fight. Thus, those men made a big gap between each other, which gave them more space and time to observe Permy's actions and attack her while she was taking one of their comrades.

Not bad of a strategy, actually.

Natsume saw Permy looked awfully relieved when she saw Kistu coming for backup, and also when he signaled her that he would take care of her friend ; the so called Commoner.

He looked around to search the arrow-guy and the Commoner in the other part of the basement, which as he observed, had a few broken cars and a big hole on the wall due to numerous gunshots from an automatic gun.

He didn't see any living being, until he saw a figure was laying still on the floor with her eyes closed, and leaning her head on one of the pillars for support.

Natsume immediately ran to her, but his eyes widen when he saw her familiar face.

She was the brunette who cut his conversation with Wakako.

The fangirl. Well, or so he thought she is all over him. But in the meantime, he tried to shove the thought and started to check her condition.

Her hair was sticking out to a few directions, and her face was very pale and covered in sweat. There are faint red bruises on her arms and legs, which made him frowned at the small wounds. She looked like she was sleeping, but her body gives the signal that she was at guard.

Before he can touch her shoulder to wake her up, the brunette already opened her eyes as she heard his footsteps. She stared at him in a bewildered look, which made him unconsciously tried to look at her with his calmest expression.

She squeezed her eyes and blink a few times, before she said in a hoarse voice, almost desperately, "Y-you, you were…with Wakako…I-I mean...did you…how.."

Natsume nodded quickly, trying to stop wasting her energy to talk, but he felt a little bit relieved that she recognized him too, "Come on, I'm going to get you out of here. Can you stand up?"

The girl motioned that her hands were tied behind her back, making him unpleased at the fact that she was held as hostage. He slowly lit a small fire with his index finger and burned the rope without her noticing.

The poor girl looked at him with a confused look, as if asking how could he able to release the rope, magically, without any sharp tools. But before she managed to say anything, Natsume already reached her shoulders and slowly lifted her upper arm up carefully.

Well, to his own record, she was not as light as he thought, since as he tried to lift her up, she certainly didn't move at all. It seemed the girl noticed what he was thinking, making her cheeks flushed a beet red, with the thought that a guy just considered her heavy.

"H-hey, I-I'm sorry for being fat," she looked at him with a pretty embarrassed face, and continued, "I can stand up by myself without your help." She averted her gaze away from him as she talked in a firmer tone than before to protect her pride. She slowly got up with one of her hands supporting on the pillar, and she tried to shove the other one away from him.

Natsume's eyes lighten with pure amusement as he never thought this girl would be so sensitive. The girl looked at him with a half red and half pissed look when she noticed his amused expression, as he tried to hide the laughter dancing in his eyes.

Natsume chuckled at her and said, "I didn't actually say that."

He carefully returned his grip one of her arm, and on the other side of her shoulder, before he continued, "Trust me, it would be harder to walk by yourself."

She sighed loudly, realizing that what he said was right, and decided to accept his kind offer. Natsume looked at the brunette, who looked so tired and limp, and wondered what had happened to her.

After a few steps, she gasped as she just remembered something.

"Wh-where is that guy?" She whispered slowly, while Natsume just raised one of his eyebrows, "Who?"

"That Takeru guy, who.." She gulped as she remembered what he did to her, and she chose to finally shake her head, and not telling him what happened first.

"He seemed to be the leader." She said again, making Natsume thought for a while, and he finally realized who was the leader from the start. The guy with the Arrow Alice.

Natsume gritted his teeth and said, "I think I know who that is."

So his name is Takeru.

Natsume was pissed with the fact that the Takeru person must have hurt the brunette until she was scared like that. He looked around and saw nobody near them, so he quickly said, "Let's take you to a safe place first. He is not around, I can assure you."

The brunette nodded fast, as she would like to stay as far as she could from that Takeru too.

"Are you Permy's friend?" she asked when they were about to reach one of the pillars nearby.

"Yes." Natsume replied shortly. The brunette looked unsatisfied with his short answer, but she decided to stay silent.

They suddenly stopped walking, when Natsume fished out a key car from his pocket and pressed a button. One of the cars there lighted up, and Natsume said, "This is my car. Just stay here until everything's finished."

Natsume could see the amazed look from the brunette when he mentioned 'his car' as she widen her eyes in disbelieve at the sleek Mercedes, "How old are you, really? Are you sure you are old enough to have a car? Heck, this kind of car, even."

Natsume blinked a few times as he just couldn't believe this girl in front of him.

She might have faced the worst night in her life ; seeing gunshots fired everywhere, and got beaten too ; but now, now she was asking how old is he to have his own car? Is the girl being serious?

She looked at him and bit her lips in doubt, whether she should get inside the car or not, "You are not on the bad guy's side, are you? You are not going to kidnap me? I mean, going inside a stranger's car is not-"

Natsume rolled his eyes and cut her words, "Who would ever want to kidnap you, or think of kidnapping at this kind of moment?"

Now he is pissed with the girl's attitude. He saved her and now she thought he was the bad guy. And to think she could still think of such ridiculous thing between the ruckus they are facing.

Suddenly, the girl's eyes widen in terror, and she shoved him to the ground with her, "Watch out!"

Just in time, there were multiple arrows shot at their direction, but luckily they dodged them on time.

Natsume smirked with a dangerous look at the arrows, and said, "Finally, it's show time."

The brunette looked at him as if he was crazy, and so she yelled, "Are you insane?! We almost died and you said it is 'show time'?!"

Natsume just shrugged and replied rather coldly, "You don't live in the same world as mine."

He realized that the brunette gulped as she felt that something was off with his tune, but he just tried to ignore her. He quickly pressed the button on his car key to lock the door again, before he shoved the key inside his pocket.

"You just hide behind the pillar, no matter what. I'll handle this."

Although Natsume realized the girl was about to protest again, he decided to swiftly jumped to the open space where Takeru could see him. He felt a faint throb on his chest due to his former wound, but he just endured it silently.

That kind of wound will not slow him down.

His crimson eyes were no longer calm, as they were replaced with a pair of cold and murderous ones. Right now, he is not a mere student in TAB High. He is a Special Rank student in the Alice Academy.

Takeru laughed at his appearance and snorted, "Ooh, the mighty Black Cat is protecting a helpless Commoner."

"Shut the hell up. What do you want, coming here and make such a trouble?" Natsume said back, making Takeru raised his eyebrows.

"Are you dumb? Did you forget what all of you have done this morning? Now if I can't bring the computer chip back to AAO, I will bring you and your puny friends instead to redeem my recklessness." He replied while smiling sickly.

"In your dream." Hissed Natsume in a light tune, as if he only thought of him as a passing wind.

With that, Natsume quickly sprinted towards the man, who alredy faced both of his palms towards his direction.

Natsume immediately ducked when the arrows were flying towards him, as he slid on the floor with increasing speed at Takeru. Unfortunately, Takeru already predicted his action, and so he kept on throwing arrows at Natsume who were on the floor, following all of his moves.

In a blink of an eye, Natsume already made a fire wall in front of Takeru before the arrows managed to hit him.

Takeru laughed and said, "Do you know that this is futile? My arrow will pierce through your fire, just like before!"

Takeru continued shooting aimlessly, as he could not see Natsume who was behind the fire.

The fire slowly ceased when Natsume suddenly leaped from the floor and punched him hard.

"Not this time, old man." He said in venom, as he approached Takeru, who fell on the ground due to the surprise attack.

"B-but, how can you-" Takeru looked at him in surprise, while Natsume quickly landed numerous of punches to his face.

"Your arrows are not fireproof after all. My fire can burn anything." replied Natsume in return.

Takeru tried to punch him back, but it was no use, as Natsume immediately dodged his punches accurately, and didn't give him any more chance to fight back.

"What have you done to the Commoner?" Natsume hissed at him between his fists.

Hearing this, Takeru laughed, earning another punch to his bloody face.

"What did you do to her?!" Natsume asked again, while pulling Takeru's shirt to his direction so he could face him clearly.

Takeru's mud eyes unexpectedly twinkled in a mocking look, while his gray hair started to color in red due to his spattered blood. But nevertheless, he didn't ask for pity at all.

He chuckled and said with a tint of happiness, "Not much you know, you were ruining the fun I had when you blew that door. She was a good toy to kill time, you see."

Natsume's eyes flared in anger at his answer, and he punched him again, "You broke the law you bastard!"

He couldn't believe that this guy would dare to hurt an innocent girl who knew nothing of their world. Now it gives him more reason to beat the cruel hearted man.

Before he managed to land another punch to Takeru's face, suddenly he felt his back stung, making him turned his head immediately and took out a small needle that was shot to his left shoulder.

There, a few meters behind him, stood a man with a gun who just shot him with a paralyzing ammo. His face was scratched, which Natsume assumed to be Permy's doings, and his chest was a little bit wounded as well.

Natsume's eyes darken when he realized that the shot made his body slowly unable to move, "Shit. You bastard-"

Takeru, who realized that his opponent was distracted, quickly got up and punched him.

Natsume took a few steps back due to the impact. He could feel the taste of blood pooling in his mouth after that one punch, and his body was starting to be harder to move.

What a bad timing he had. This was not getting good.

"Good job, Kakashi, now you go take care of the other two." Said Takeru with a satisfied look, as he approached Natsume, whose body started to stiffen by each seconds.

Kakashi nodded at the order and went away, while taking a short glance at the infamous Black Cat, who were about to get plumped by his senior.

Maybe the Black Cat was not as good as the rumors say so, he thought before leaving his senior with him.

Takeru landed a good kick on Natsume's chest, making him fell down in pain. He glared at Takeru, who looked extremely satisfied, but unfortunately Natsume could not move his body at all. His wound from the morning started to reopen, and Takeru realized this.

"Who's the punch bag now, huh?" Takeru said and punched Natsume continuously in the face.

Then, he lifted him up and threw him to one of the pillars as hard as he could.

Natsume coughed blood, while his cloth was getting damped by the blood of his wound.

"It seemed my arrow did hit you this morning. How does it feel like? Hurt?! Pain?! Don't underestimate my Alice!" Takeru yelled in victory with a crazy look, as he threw Natsume a few meters away from him.

"You won't be able to move for 5 minutes, but it is more than enough for me to finish you." continued Takeru with an malicious look, as he approached Natsume again.

He took Natsume's collar, and lifted his body above the floor, with his face facing his.

Natsume felt uncomfortable when he saw Takeru's eyes lit menacingly, and he was right.

"Maybe you might want to taste a few arrows from close range? You know how easily I could shoot another arrow through your head, right now." Takeru laughed while swaying Natsume's body as if it were a rag doll.

Natsume could only mutter a few curses while coughing blood, which made Takeru smiled in return. His face was covered in his own blood, and his rib felt broken. He was completely weak. He was useless. And he despised it.

He knew that Takeru would not kill him, as he was considered a great asset to the underworld organizations. But he knew that he would only make it half alive out of this. No matter how hard he forced himself to move, his body just wouldn't respond. He already tried using his Alice every second, but his power was paralyzed. Unfortunately, the five senses inside his body was not immobile, so he could feel every impact that his body received from Takeru's hits.

Natsume let out a heavy sigh as he finally decided to give in when Takeru lifted his body and threatened to pierce him with his arrows.

Hopefully, he could still survive after this 5 minutes end.

All that he could do now, is wait.

Wait until this bloody 5 minutes crush his flesh and bones painfully .

He could see that Takeru was lifting his palm towards his arm, and so he prepared for the impact.

It was going to be nasty.

Takeru smirked and slammed his palm to Natsume's arm, as Natsume's crimson eyes widen in return.

She was almost sure that this was a dream.

The crimson eyed guy whom she saw earlier turned out to be her savior, and also Permy's friend.

What a coincidence. It seemed weird, how destiny tried to mock her in such a way.

Mikan could only watch in disbelieve as he recklessly jumped into the open space where Takeru could spot him. She was ready to pull him back to hide, but it seemed that both he and Takeru acknowledged each other.

Mikan watched in disbelieve as the person called Takeru made some arrows appear from his bare palm, directed to the boy who saved her.

Slowly, she tried to digest all of these abnormality that had been happening in a row.

Aside of seeing real guns for the first time, with one aimed at her she might add, Permy transformed into a…weredogcat. And now, arrows just appear from that Takeru guy's bare hands. What could possibly happen next? One of those men would grow a pair of wings? This is like a silly fiction novel coming to life in a bad time.

The sound of fast wind made her realize that Takeru's arrows were sliding in the air, and so she tried to yell at her savior o warn her. Unfortunately, her throat went really dry and her voice just lumped inside her throat. Mikan coughed a few times, to make air come into her lungs, before she focused on the fight that was happening before her eyes.

Mikan let out a relieved sigh when the raven haired boy effortlessly slid on the floor to dodge those sharp arrows, making all of these combat seemed like a child play for him. Mikan wondered if he was an expert at fighting, like a delinquent in his school or something like that. Suddenly, a bright orange light appeared in front of Takeru, making Mikan gaze at it in surprise.

A big wall of fire about twice Takeru's height, was blocking him from hitting the crimson eyed guy, making Mikan's eyes flickered along with the crackling sound of the red-orange flare.

What on earth could possibly cause that sudden fire?

Mikan's eyes danced through the flame, trying to search for her savior's sliding figure on the floor. Could it be that, it was him who created the fire?

Does he also have that….supernatural power?

She slowly stood from her spot, and watch how the raven haired lad skillfully attack Takeru without breaking a sweat. He punched Takeru numerous times while yelling something that she could not hear, but it seemed that Takeru answered something that made him pissed even more.

Mikan's eyes were just about to relax when she saw her savior had the upper hand in the battle, when she heard a faint gun-shot like, but smoother, like the sound of the loud wind. Like a thin arrow was piercing through the air.

"Shit. You bastard-"

The voice of the crimson eyed guy broke the calm wall she was building in her mind, and she immediately searched for his figure who was rummaging in anger.

It was the last victorious moment for her knight.

Mikan started to tremble in fear as Takeru started to mercilessly hunt the raven haired lad.

Compared to what happened to her, her savior seemed so broken, like a toy that could do nothing but receive all the punches and kicks that Takeru gave him.

It was not fair that he got shot by a paralyzing bullet by surprise.

Suddenly, Takeru raised his hand towards his arm with a menacing look, and Mikan's eyes widen in terror. Although she could not read his mind, she knew that the raven haired boy would not be okay.

Takeru fiercely pushed his palm towards the boy, as the lad gasped in such a painful way, that Mikan's eyes started to fill with tears.

A single sharp arrow just pierced through his arm, making droplets of sticky red liquid dropped down from his wound, and started to form a puddle of blood on the ground. His crimson eyes seemed to blend more with the color of blood on his wounded body, as his pale face showed how painful the impact was.

Mikan yelped when Takeru suddenly pulled the arrow away from him harshly with a smirk.

She unconsciously ran towards them without thinking twice, as she could not face if she had to see her savior hurt more.

"S-stop it! Can't you see that he's hurt enough?!" Mikan yelled in the middle of her pace at Takeru, who was laughing as if he saw something funny.

"Little girl, you'll someday learn that revenge is sweeter than sugar." She saw Takeru released his grip on the raven haired lad who was struggling in pain.

Mikan looked at him with a grieve look, and immediately approached him as fast as she could. She quickly kneeled next to him, and put her hand on his head lightly, trying to soothe him who was panting hard from the impact.

She didn't care if her hands were tainted by blood, although she had never been able to stand the sight of it, but this time, she tried her hardest to make sure that her savior is alive. She pulled his back slowly towards the pillar behind him, so he finally seated on the floor with his head leaning limply at the pillar. The crimson eyed lad finally opened his eyes, and looked at her figure in surprise. He slowly said with frustration clear in his voice, "Why are you here?! Damn it, I told you to hide!"

Mikan took a deep breath and tried to form the words that were lumping in her throat, "I-I can't stand how bad you're hurt. S-so, stop moving, and just stay still, please. Hold on, okay? I'll look for help. Y-you're going to be al- "

Before she noticed, Takeru already took her arm and shoved her a few meters back, making her savior's crimson eyes flickered in anger.

"Not so fast, girly. What makes you think I would let you do that?" Takeru smirked while cracking his knuckles. "Should I kill you in his place? Still fresh and not bleeding, aren't you?"

The raven haired lad immediately yelled, "Don't you dare break the law, you son of a-"

But then, his body was starting to force him to cough more blood, making his face become paler and paler.

Unfortunately, Takeru just ignored him and said, "Well well well, Black Cat, you are one to talk. Aren't you the one who always break the law?"

The said boy just gritted his teeth, as in what Takeru said was right, and he actually did not have the place to talk like that.

Mikan's eyes widen as she scrambled to the back, trying to get away from him.

"You know that distance is not a difficult matter for me. You've seen my ability, haven't you? Tsk. And to think that I would let a mere Commoner to witness my amazing power." continued Takeru, who was approaching her slowly.

Mikan tried to stand up so she could run, but suddenly, she saw a blur was on top of Takeru that made him fall a few meters back.

"Permy!" She immediatey yelled in relieve at her friend, who didn't seem to be hurt.

The said girl looked at her with a very calmed look, and she let out a suppressed sigh. "Mikan! Thank God you're alright. Where is-"

Permy quickly averted her gaze on the raven haired near her who was beaten badly, as she gasped, "Oh my goodness! Natsume, are you-"

The young lad quickly uttered the few words that he managed to speak out between his cough, "I'm..fine. Where's.. Kitsu?"

Permy immediately focused her gaze on Takeru, as she answered, "Taking care the rest of the guys. They have a good strategy and unfair weapons, but I'm sure he can handle them alone."

Mikan took a glance at the direction of the armed men, who seemed to be fighting a guy with dirty blonde hair. She just noticed that it was not only the crimson eyed guy who came to help them.

She looked back at Permy, who was running towards Takeru and slashed his chest. But that was not enough to bring him down. Takeru managed to grab her arm and twisted it with such force that made Permy screamed in agony.

He hit Permy's stomach which made a few cracking sounds, and threw her to Mikan's direction, making Mikan quickly tried to catch her. She didn't do her best at preventing Permy to fall flat to the ground, but at least her friend didn't hit the floor directly.

Takeru wiped the blood on the corner of his mouth, and took a glance at the raven haired lad who was trying to move from his position, but failed. It seemed that the effect of the paralyzing bullets was starting to worn out little by little, but not just yet.

He looked at the direction of the other young lad with dirty blonde hair, who was fighting his underlings, and it seemed that his men were able to keep him busy to notice what was happening.

Takeru took the chance to walk towards Mikan, who was holding Permy that was still unable to move after being hit.

Mikan realized that Takeru was approaching them, but she tried to not faze at his presence. She could not possibly run and leave Permy there, could she?

She started to try pulling Permy to go away from that place, but Permy's body seemed to refuse her effort.

"Damn you, Takeru! Don't you dare hurt any of them!" Natsume struggled to stood up and tried to use his Alice, but it was no use. Most of the nerves on his body were still paralyzed, making him fall again.

Permy, who was wincing in pain, immediately looked at Mikan and yelled, "Run, Mikan! Hurry up and hide! He will shoot you!"

Mikan nervously looked at Takeru, and then looked at Permy with wavering eyes, "He will shoot you if I run! I'm not leaving you."

Mikan tried to pull Permy again, but suddenly, a gust of wind was heard, and she felt that her right leg throbbed. An arrow just barely scratched it, but it managed to surprise her, making her lost her balance.

Mikan kneeled to the ground while holding her bleeding calf, as she looked at Takeru with hatred.

"You're not going anywhere, little girl. You can try to run, but your friend here will be dead instead." Takeru hissed as he started to face his palm towards them.

Permy looked at Mikan with a panic look, as she said, "Mikan, please, run!"

Mikan ignored Permy's words as she stared at Takeru, "We're friends, Permy. I will not leave you no matter what."

Takeru smirked at her words, and finally said, "You have guts, Commoner, to look at me in the eyes like that. Too bad you're going to die."

Mikan saw numerous arrows that started to form in slow motion from both of Takeru's palms, as if he was doing it on purpose. It seemed that he wanted to scare her more and more.

She slowly positioned herself in front of Permy, and prayed that she would still be alive after receiving the painful hits.

Tears were started to form on the corner of her eyes, but she tried to not bother them.

She was afraid. She could not deny that. She was afraid of the pain, and she was afraid of the fact that she might literally…die.

All the things that had happened until then was real, and that was no playing joke to stake your life for your friend.

She does not want to die.

Mikan just silently pleaded in her heart that a miracle might happen.

Could somebody save her?

She could hear the faint gush of wind of the flying arrows towards her, making her fist tighten as she put her crossed hands closer to her body.

Or maybe it is time to stop waiting, and save yourself on your own, a confident voice inside her mind reminded her.

Mikan inhaled loudly as she felt the sound of wind getting louder.

If only she has the ability like her friend. If only she has the ability like Permy, like her saviors…

If only she has such kind of…power..to help her….

She slowly opened her eyes, and tried to face the upcoming danger with the last bit of courage that she had. Even if she does not possess those kind of ability, does not mean she should cower in fear like she did.

As soon as her bravery built inside, Mikan felt a warm throb in her chest.

Was it the arrow?

No, she could feel that it was a different kind of pain. Not a physical one, but she could clearly felt it.

She thought that maybe it was the feeling when you know you were about to die, and your body was preparing for the moment.

Surprisingly, the throbbing warmth started to spread to her whole body, right from her chest, to her arms, legs, and until her whole body felt so warm and at ease.

Slowly, she had the feeling like she was on a grassy field in the middle of a breezy summer. There, were her parents, who were smiling at her like they always did, as they waved at her direction gracefully.

Mikan's tears were starting to flow down. It had been a long time since she last imagined her parents, and oh how she missed them so bad.

Is it time to meet them at last?

A faint blue light was slowly hazing her vision in a motioning circle. She felt that a purifying silvery blue light seemed to be pouring out of her soul, as her body became weak and she finally let herself fall front to the ground after that blinding light from inside her was bursting out.

Mikan slowly closed her eyes, as her energy felt like it had been drained until the very last drop.

Oh how she wished that she does have that kind of magic power to save them all.

Kitsu decided that those men were so tricky to handle with.

They were quite sneaky to choose to form long distance from each other, which made him harder to attack them all at once, especially after Permy was gone to save her friend, making them stopped the good teamwork that they had been doing.

Those armed men seemed to have unlimited number of guns and ammos, compared to him who came here with simply nothing. Not even a pocket knife.

Although he knew that these men were not really skillful, it was still troublesome when they just brutally shot him all at once.

Kitsu kept on hiding behind the pillars, waiting for the perfect moment when he could fly in fast speed towards them, and gave them a sudden attack.

There were only half of the men left who were still able to move, when suddenly a blinding light filled the basement.

Kitsu's eyes widen in shock, and so was everyone on that floor, but a few seconds after that, he immediately floated in the air, and used the opportunity to attack all of those surprised men.

He hit one of the men, and pulled him up to the air with him. The man was terribly surprised, as he started to yell for help. But before his fellows were managed to get the message, they were already hit by their own friends like a domino, because all of them were pushed by Kitsu, who was flying at their direction in fast speed.

Kitsu smirked when all of the men already collapsed after he threw them towards the concrete wall, which means his job there was complete, "Twenty people down."

He unloaded all of the guns from those men and scattered the ammos on the floor, and ran towards the place where Natsume and Permy should be fighting, but the sight made him dumfounded completely.

There, stood the man who had the Arrow Alice, yelling curses at Permy who was wounded on the floor with an unfamiliar brunette ; the Commoner, he thought, who seemed to have passed out. Near the Arrow-Aliced man, stood a limp Nastume, who was beaten badly judging from the oozing blood from his head, chest, and arm, but he looked really surprised as well.

Now he wondered, how come everybody looked surprised? Definitely not because of his presence here.

"T-That was impossible! What did she do?! What kind of stupid trick is this, huh?! Where did my arrows go? What have you bitches done?!" The guy with Arrow Alice shouted like a lunatic to Permy, who was looking at her friend in worry and looked at the guy with unsure look.

Kitsu was about to confront him for yelling weird things at his friends, but a man with glasses suddenly appeared from the row of cars.

He looked at the teens around him, and his fellow acquaintance in the AAO, before he slowly speak, "What a surprise. This is one kind of discovery we have here."

Kitsu looked at him, and his face immediately paled.

That man was not supposed to be mingling in a place like this.

The said man looked at his fellow member who seemed to not understand his words, and so he added, "Change of plans, Takeru. Let's get out of here. I'm sure the higher-ups would be interested in our…inventory tonight."

As he finished saying, a police siren was heard, and so the person called Takeru immediately followed him towards a black SUV, "You owe me one heck of explanation, Shinzou."

The man with glasses just shrugged, as he lifted his hand towards the mountain of men who were defeated by Kitsu. Suddenly, a few pipes from inside the ceiling fell down, and circled those men securely, as if they were puppets, making Kitsu twitched at the sight.

He was right. This man should not be here.

Suddenly, a black truck that looked like what the military use appeared from the entrance, and stopped in front of those men. The rear door opened automatically, but Kitsu knew better that the truck did not actually have any automatic functions.

The man with glasses shoved his hand lazily, and the pipes suddenly moved the men into the truck, like a snake that was squeezing it's preys while dragging them to it's lair.

"Useless people." He muttered, as the rear door closed again. "They're lucky that Boss is kind enough to let them live."

The driver of the truck quickly started the engine, and drove away in seconds, as if nothing just happened.

Takeru entered the passenger seat of the SUV while saying in a growl, "We'll meet again next time, little pricks."

After those last words, the SUV swiftly drove away to the exit, leaving them as if there were no gunshots and fighting scenes just then, except the holes on the wall because of the bullet shots and the shred of ammos and weapons spread on the floor sort of gave them away.

Kitsu frowned at the sight, before he finally said in sarcasm, "Clean like always."

He turned his head on his friends, and continued, "Before my curiosity started to blew up from my head, why don't we go now? The Police are coming."

Suddenly, the girl who passed out slowly opened her eyes and mumble a few things, making Permy immediately tried to reach her, while Natsume took a glance at Kitsu.

"You drive. My car." Natsume said shortly, before he shoved out his car key from his pocket, and clicked a button, making his black car lighted up.

He threw the key to Kitsu, who caught it with ease, and quickly jogged to the car and started the engine. It was a good thing that Natsume brought his car with him, since neither he nor Permy actually had a car, considering their ranks in the academy.

He swiftly drove it and stopped when it reached besides Natsume.

"How about the girl?" asked Kitsu while going out of the car.

Permy immediately looked up for the first time, and said, "She's coming."

Kitsu raised one of his eyebrows, and replied, "Are you sure? She's a-"

"She's seen enough. She's coming." Said Natsume quickly, before he approached Permy and the girl to help them walk to the car.

Kitsu immediately helped them as well, and noticed that a few bones in Permy's rib seemed to be dislocated a bit, so he helped her to stand up, while Natsume tried to wake the brunette up.

After Kitsu managed to take Permy inside the passenger seat, he walked back to where Natsume was, only to be surprised that the just-awaken-girl was helping his buddy to stand up instead.

"God, Natsume. You never finished getting hurt, are you?" With that, Kitsu took one of Natsume's arm, and put it around his own shoulder, while the brunette who was holding Natsume's other arm took a glance at Kistu unsurely.

Kitsu flashed her a smile, and said, "Hi, I'm Kitsu Neme. Nice to meet you."

Natsume rolled his eyes and snorted, "Seriously, man. You have time for introduction while practically dragging me to the car, and hoping that the Police won't come fast."

"Well, blame your paralyzed nerves. It seemed the bullets were more effective than I thought." Kistu answered lightly, earning a few curses from Natsume.

The brunette besides him giggled softly, and said with a bitter smile, "I'm Mikan Nakigawa. Nice to meet you too."

Permy squinted her eyebrows as she pushed a few buttons on the dashboard and near the stereo randomly.

"I don't understand this car. Where is that stupid button?" she hissed while franticly pushed all the buttons that she could see, making quite a disturbing beeping noises inside the car.

"Damn it, Permy, you'll ruin Natsume's car." replied Kitsu while also searching for the certain button, despite what was happening inside the car ; the lights were flickering, the window wipers were moving randomly, and the rear mirrors were motioning back and forth, because he and Permy pushed every buttons there.

Mikan took a glance at Natsume, who was also sitting in the passenger seat with her, while holding his chest and panted once in a while. He immediately glared at them for slowly destroying his precious car.

"Just push the damned button near the steering wheel. The small red colored one." Natsume said in a pissed tone.

They haven't gone out of the basement yet, which made Mikan's sweat dropped a little bit.

Are they really experts at these kind of things?

Kitsu fortunately saw the super small red button, which is almost unnoticeable, and immediately clicked it. The small black screen for the GPA system suddenly grew bigger and shoved to the front until it was parallel with the dashboard, as the screen flashed a yellow star emblem with thin white linings in the border and a bold red 'A' letter in the middle.

After that, the screen changed color into green and indicate a handprint identification.

Kitsu quickly put his left palm over the screen, while his hand was scanned.

"Falcion, Identified." The screen let out a small approving beep, before suddenly the stereo flipped back, showing a panel of buttons that looked unfamiliar to Mikan.

Kitsu pressed a few buttons at the same time in such a hurry, that Mikan's eyes barely able to follow his hands.

Suddenly, Mikan felt that the car literally shifted a little bit bigger in width, making her frowned at the fact. She thought that she might be hallucinating.

Unknown to her, the numbers on the white plate-number of the car also transformed into two bold black 'A.A' letters. The silver Mercedes emblem on the front and the back of the car also turned into the shape of a thinly shaped star with small 'A' letter in the middle.

Mikan also realized that the windows were getting darker, as the buttons and indicators inside of the car were illuminated with not yellow color, but with light blue ones.

She gasped at the fact that all of the stuffs happening inside the car seemed impossible and only happens in the futuristic movies, but Permy just smirked as if she knew what Mikan was thinking and said, "No, Mikan, this is real. Now nobody from outside of the car can see us inside."

"O-okay.." Mikan blushed as she looked like a small girl who just saw the snow for the first time.

Kistu started to pushed the gear shift and hit the gas pedal to drive the car in full speed.

On their way out, Mikan could see a few cops, along with a few people from the party who were curious of what's happening, also a few paparazzi that Wakako invited. It seemed that those people saw the broken iron gate of the parking lot, but they were too afraid to come in before the cops do, so they just waited outside to see what was going to happen next.

Permy immediately pushed one of the buttons on the panel, which made the plate number disappeared, so the paparazzi could not see the initial written there.

The police tried to stop them, and even shoved their guns toward them, but Kitsu kept on driving pass them in fast speed without any hesitation.

Mikan looked at Kitsu and said, "Won't the Police help us?"

Kitsu took a glance at Mikan from the front mirror, then he looked at Permy, doubting whether he should answer or not.

Permy hesitated for a second and said, "Sorry Mikan, you are still considered…an outsider, yet you already know so much. We cannot break the rules."

Mikan slowly nodded, realizing that she seemed to be really living in a much different word than them.

She just met people with..superpowers, or so what she would call them.

Maybe those rumors that often hanged around for these past centuries about people with supernatural occurrence were true after all. But they have been kept a secret for all this time.

Well, it's not like she dislike these kind of magic-kinda-thing, but to think that they were actually real, not just inside her imagination, and happened to her own friend, was a pretty big surprise for her.

Permy was busily messaging someone with her iPhone that seemed to survive all of the fights she'd been through, and so there was an eerie silent in the car.

Mikan squeezed her eyes shut, trying to calm herself down, before realizing one important thing.

"I don't know if I'm supposed to ask this, but..why did that Takeru guy stopped shooting us? I mean, I even thought I was going to die, but suddenly when I opened my eyes, all of the fights had stopped. And I'm still alive." Mikan quickly said, as she was dying to know the answer.

She need to know, because she can feel that it is important for her. She was seeing silvery-blue lights and even felt a throb in her chest before the arrows seemed to hit her, and she just had to know the reason why.

Natsume suddenly looked at her intensely with his deep and tired crimson eyes, making Mikan at first considered to shyly look away, but she finally decided to tilt her head a little to the side, waiting for the answer.

"That's what we're trying to figure out too." He said calmly, while earning unsure nods from Permy and Kitsu as well.

Mikan looked down and nodded, "Okay."

So it seemed that she had to patiently wait for the answers to come.

And hopefully soon.

Mikan took a deep breath and decided to ask one last question, "Can you guys at least tell me where are we going?"

All of the curiosity inside her was pilling up badly, and she at least had to know something.

Upon hearing that, Natsume scoffed, and Kistu just chuckled when he saw Natsume's reaction, while Permy's jade eyes brighten a bit, before she answered in the surest tone that she had spoken that night.

"We're going to the Alice Academy."

Woah! It ended up longer than I thought, but I'm so glad I finally updated ^^

Hope you guys like to read it, cause I simply adore the ending *smirk*

Many many thanks to these people, whom my stories will be dedicated to :

The reviewers : AnimeMango, TophFan, michan-natsu, and ApatheticEyes

The follower and favorites : Maximum Immortality and StellarUnit

And if there are any, to the silent readers as well ;)

Sorry for grammatical errors, but thanks for reading the chapters, and have a good day :D

~best regards, stars-dream18~