Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice or its characters.

Disclaimer: I do not own the idea for this story. The original Blue Rose Angel was written by Chichiru Chu who mysteriously stopped writing. I think that this is a really good concept though. I will start it off the same way, but it'll be different.

19th Rose

Coming Change

Narumi-sensei entered the classroom and the unusually weak chatter quieted down. No one missed the fact that he didn't skip into the room with a smile on his face as usual. His eyes scanned the classroom as he approached his podium. Narumi-sensei sighed. "Looks like Mikan-chan decided not to show up again today. That makes it a week since she has attended class." Narumi-sensei entered deep thought for a moment. Once the light bulb went off, he immediately jumped back into his usual happy character. "I need a volunteer to go check up on Mikan-chan! Who will it be?" Several hands tentatively rose. They were worried about her, but they were scared to find an unstable powerful alice user at the same time.

Hotaru didn't raise her hand. Instead, she spoke. "Naru, send Hyuuga."

All eyes turned to Natsume who was leaning back in his chair with a manga on his face. There was no reaction from him, but he was awake, listening.

"Tch." Hotaru pulled out her baka gun and shot him.

Natsume fell off his chair. As he got into his seat, he said, "what the crap, Imai."

"Go check on Mikan," she said.

"Don't drag me into this." He mumbled.

"You're the best choice. You were the last person to see her and the one who was with her when Haru left," Hotaru said.

The class was silent until Ruka cleared his throat. "I think you should do it too. Also, for Youichi's sake." Everyone knew that the two have not had time to clear things up since Haru's departure.

"Hn." Natsume scowled and left the classroom.

After he left, Hotaru pulled out a monitor which was displaying Natsume on his way to Mikan's dorm room. The class gathered around to watch. Narumi-sensei decided against actually teaching class for once and joined them.

Natsume finally reached Mikan's room after what felt like an eternity. He walked at a slow pace, trying to think about what to say to her in the first place. He knocked on her door and waited, but no one answered. Satisfied with not having to talk to her, he began to walk away, but then he remembered that this was also for Youichi's sake as well. Natsume groaned and turned around. He knocked again, but she didn't answer. He opened the door and entered her room. "Oi. I'm coming in," he announced. The first thing he saw was paper. Everywhere. He walked around looking for her until he finally found her sleeping underneath her coffee table hidden under another massive heap of paper. He shook her shoulder. "Oi. Wake up."

Mikan immediately shot up, hitting her head in the process. She yelled into the carpet, muffling her cries of pain. Glaring at Natsume, she rolled out from under the coffee table, but didn't bother to get up. "What do you want?"

"They sent me to check on you."

"Oh."

"Still upset?"

"Not anymore." She sighed. "What's done is done, but now I have no one to do all the paperwork. I've almost caught up on it."

"It's been a week."

"Well being an heiress and owning a couple of companies here and there requires a lot of desk work." Mikan looked away. "That's why I had Haru," she said quietly. Mikan sat up and slapped her cheeks. "No moping around. Hey, Hyuuga. Let's go to Central Town."

"No."

"Why not?" Mikan whined.

"My job was to check on you. I'm done." He got up and began to leave.

Mikan quickly jumped up and grabbed his hand. "Please." She looked into Natsume's eyes, begging.

He couldn't look away from her sad, lost eyes. "Fine," he said.

Mikan grinned. "Yay! Off we go then." She teleported them to Central Town right in front of the Fluff Puff stand.

"You could teleport this entire time?"

"I can do a lot of things, Hyuuga," she said with her mouth already full of fluff puffs.

Natsume rolled his eyes and followed her into a store that he was actually familiar with. He raised his eyebrows at her.

"I need another alice limiter." She sighed. "No point in wearing that mask anymore." She skimmed the store. "The only problem is I don't know what I want exactly. I thought about getting a tattoo, but I don't know."

Natsume examined Mikan. She already had several earrings on each ear and several bangles on one wrist. Now that he thought about it, how come her bangles don't make noise whenever she moves? He hit her arm, proving his question plausible and earning him a whack on his head.

"I got it. I don't have a necklace so maybe I should get one. Maybe a choker?" She said to both Natsume and the store employee who pointed her to the right section. "Hmm, hey Hyuuga. Which one should I get?"

Natsume picked a random one and pointed to it since he really couldn't care less. He ended up choosing a choker with a bunny pendant.

"No," Mikan said. "I can't wear that one."

Natsume noticed that her tone and mood changed for a split second, but he ignored it. "Don't ask for my opinion next time then."

"Come on, Hyuuga. You and I both know that you just randomly picked one." Mikan scoffed.

Natsume mumbled 'women' under his breath and then he really looked at them this time. Nothing popped out at him until his eyes came across a choker that had a sakura blossom pendant. "That one," he said, pointing at it.

Mikan smiled with approval and bought it. Afterward, they ending up sitting on a bench outside the store. "Hey," Mikan said softly.

"Hm?"

"How come you never asked about that night?" She was talking about the night she and Haru teleported back to the sakura tree in front of Natsume. Mikan's mission disguise had faded away before Natsume's eyes.

He knew what she was talking about. Her other identity that the others were unaware of. "Some answers can wait," he simply said.

He played it cool, but she could see past him, even without reading his mind. "You know you're actually nice sometimes." Mikan laughed. "I used to come to the academy to train when I was younger. Whenever I went, my parents made me change my appearance to keep my identity a secret. So I became Kyoko, the pink haired wonder. They quickly made use of my skills and put me up to missions. I stopped coming back though for years since my training as an heiress started."

"They let you go in and out of the academy." Natsume said with a hint of disbelief.

"It's called connections." Mikan leaned in. "Persona is my older brother," she mocked whispered. "He left us before I was born. As someone with the alice of death, he had to be taken in by the academy to learn how to control his alice as soon as possible. When I came to train, nobody told him that it was his little sister in disguise." Mikan laughed. "He doesn't know that Kyoko is his own sister. All he knows is that he has a younger sister with the alice of nullification. And then Youichi came to the academy when I was young. He needed to learn how to control his alice too plus he's not the heir. No responsibilities on his shoulders."

"You know you're actually open sometimes," Natsume said. He was actually secretly baffled by all the mysteries surrounding her. Will he ever be able to uncover them all? Does he even want to?

Mikan punched his shoulder. "Very funny, Hyuuga." Mikan was impressed that he didn't wince.

Natsume focused his energy in hiding his pain so it took him a moment to notice the strange look on Mikan's face. She was so beautiful even with the sadness and pain clearly written all over her face. And for some reason, he was compelled to say, "time will heal."

Mikan looked at him with tears brimming in her eyes. She whispered, "I don't know what this feeling is. He was ripped away from me, and it's so hard. Living without him is so hard."

Her loss reminded Natsume of when he and Aoi were ripped apart for many years. Because of it, he turned into a completely different person. "Love." He said. "You have a broken heart." She looked at him profoundly. Mouthing the word love, she teleported away. Natsume was left alone on that bench in Central Town, feeling different. He felt like he was changing again.

A/N: Sorry for being an annoying jerkface who doesn't update regularly. I still have the full intention of finishing this story and I will not rush the ending! I just have trouble finding time to crank out a decent chapter. I think the next chapter will feature some stuff in the past. As always, thanks for supporting this fanfiction. :D