The Guardian of Gakuen Alice: Chapter 1

#06: Gakuen Alice (Natsume & Mikan)
...xXx...

Stupid injures, Natsume growled as he slowly made his way out of the northern forest. Persona had made him go on yet another mission and this mission was far more dangerous than the usual ones. After a few minutes of trying to walk back to the dorms, he collapsed under one of the trees in northern forest, too tired to carry on. His vision started to blur. He could see nothing but swirls and hazy patterns. Before everything went black, he faintly heard someone approach him and kneel beside him. The only thing he was able to see clearly in that state was a pair of beautiful hazel eyes, looking at him worriedly.

Am I dead? Natsume pondered, but he then heard someone call him, "Natsume…"

Slowly, he opened his eyes and was greeted by his best friend's smile. Soon after that, a silver-haired boy came to his side. "Natsume-nii, how are you feeling?"

Natsume sat up slowly and patted the little boy's head. Trying to reassure his little kouhai, he said, "I'm fine."

Ruka smiled. "Glad to hear that."

Natsume nodded and tried to remember what had happened to him.

"You passed out in the northern forest. Narumi-sensei was the one who carried you here," Ruka explained.

Natsume reminded silent. He clearly remembered that the one who saved him was someone else, someone with a pair of the most beautiful hazel eyes, which was definitely not Narumi.

"Is there something bothering you, Natsume?" Ruka asked worriedly when he realised that Natsume had not been listening to him and had not spoken a word yet.

"Nothing." Natsume got up from the bed and started changing. Who was the one that saved me? The only thing he could remember was his saviour's eyes. Out of curiosity, he went to the northern forest again, with the hopes of finding a clue to find his saviour. He kept walking into the deep forest and finally reached a lake. However, something caught his attention. Near the lake was a tree, which looked like a house, completed with a small door and window. What the hell?

Carefully, he reached out to touch the door, but before he could touch it, a fairy came out from the door. He was taken back, and his eyes widened in surprise.

The fairy finally noticed Natsume's presence, and with her already widened eyes, she opened her little mouth and screamed, "Aaaaaaaaa!!!"

Natsume sweat dropped because of the slow reaction of the fairy and the next thing he knew, he felt something, or rather someone approach him from behind. Quickly, he turned around and met hazel orbs, the same soft and beautiful hazel orbs that had been haunting his mind since he had woken up in the hospital. Could this person … Silently, he scanned the figure in front of him from head to toe. The figure in front of him was of a petite, auburn-haired girl. She was wearing a high school uniform like him. A high school student?

Unaffected by the intense stare from Natsume, Mikan slowly walked towards the fairy.

"Thank you for saving me, Mikan-sama." The fairy hurriedly flew towards her.

Natsume raised an eyebrow. -sama?

Mikan turned to look at him when the fairy haughtily pointed her little finger at him accusingly. "He is the intruder, Mikan-sama!"

"He's just a student from this academy, Fin." Mikan chuckled quietly.

Natsume stayed silent.

Mikan gazed at him. "May I ask why you are here, Natsume-san?"

How does she know my name? Natsume thought with emotionless face.

Mikan smiled. "Everyone knows about you, Natsume-san. You’re quite popular around the academy."

Is she reading my mind? Natsume thought, but he then shrugged it off. "This forest is not yours, so I can come here as I please."

When Fin was about to object, Mikan immediately interrupted her, "Fin."

Fin remained silent.

Natsume raised an eyebrow again, curiosity engulfed his mind.

"Indeed." Mikan nodded. She looked at the fairy. "I think it's all right for you to perform, Fin."

The fairy eyed Natsume suspiciously, but she then smiled at Mikan and nodded. "If you say so, Mikan-sama."

Fin flew towards the centre of the lake and held out her small wand. "Behold the fairies on this land … I shall welcome you with the guardian's acceptance."

The edge of the wand started sparkling and various coloured lights started surrounding the lake. In a few seconds, many fairies appeared. Natsume couldn't believe what he saw in front of him. A tree house for the fairy sprouted out around the lake.

"Welcome to the Fairy Lake, Natsume-san," Mikan said while all fairies played with each other near the lake.

Is she the one who saved me? Natsume pondered.

Mikan smiled. "Is there anything you want to ask, Natsume-san?"

Since his pride was still sticking with him so tightly, Natsume decided not to ask. He turned on his heels and started walking away from the lake.

However, before he was out of hearing range, Mikan spoke, "Please don't tell anyone about this, Natsume-san. The guardian of this land would appreciate it if you could keep the existence of this place a secret from everyone."

"Hn," Natsume answered and continued his way out of the northern forest.

When Natsume was already out of sight, Fin flew toward Mikan and looked at her questioningly. "Mikan-sama, why didn't you tell him that you are the guardian of this land?"

"There's no need for him to know about that, Fin." Mikan smiled, and every fairy gathered around her. She looked up to the sky and muttered, "Not yet…"

...xXx...

I just wanted to find out who was the one that had saved me, but instead, I've found something that no one knows about? Some sort of weird fairy land like in all those pathetic fairy-tales? He had never believed in magical things, much less in creatures such as fairies. But today, what he had discovered deep inside northern forest, the lake called Fairy Lake, made him doubt his own sanity. He still couldn't believe it, even after seeing it himself.

Not long after he sighed, giving up the crazy thoughts, Persona approached him from behind. "Kuro Neko."

"What do you want?" Natsume hissed with annoyance and irritation.

Persona smirked. "You have another mission tonight, same time and place."

Natsume sighed inwardly as many curses came under his breath. He was not completely healed, and he had yet another damn mission coming again. He really loathed the academy, but he could do nothing about it since he would be staying at this academy for the rest of his life. In return, they would not bother his family and friends anymore. And that was all that he wanted … to protect the ones he loved.

A few hours later, he found himself wounded badly again considering the fact that he had not fully recovered from his last mission still. Leaning on one of the trees, he closed his eyes and tried to breathe normally. When he started getting dizzy, a figure approached him. Even though he couldn't see the figure's face, he recognised the presence. It was the same as before. Again, before he passed out, he saw a pair of warm, worried, hazel eyes. This time, though, he deliberately grabbed the wrist of his saviour because he wanted to know who saved him when he wakes up the next day. With that, everything went black.

Mikan stared at the raven-haired boy who was lying unconscious in front of her and diverted her attention to the hand that gripped her wrist like glue. She sighed and slowly put her free hand on Natsume's chest. Slowly, a white light was emitted from her hand, and she started healing his wounds.

It was the sound of the chirping birds that woke him up. Once he opened his eyes, he was greeted by the bright sun light which made him cover his eyes with his hand to shield the bright light.

"Good morning, Natsume-san," a voice greeted and startled Natsume.

His eyes darted to the source of the voice and immediately met with bright, smiling, hazel orbs.

Mikan smiled even brighter at Natsume's lost look. "Can I have my hand back?"

His eyes widened when he realised he was still gripping her wrist. He quickly released her wrist and stared at her. So she was the one who saved me the other day? He looked away from her. “Why?”

She glanced at him before she looked up at the sky. "Is it wrong to help someone who's injured?"

He stayed silent.

Smiling, she slowly got up. "It's Saturday. You should go back to your room and get some rest, Natsume-san."

When she was about to walk away, he grabbed the same wrist he gripped last night.

She turned to look at him. "Yes?"

He didn't answer her question but stared at her.

While staring at each other, no word was uttered from both of them.

Finally, she then got the message from his silence. She smiled. "If you want to know my name, it's Mikan. Mikan Sakura."

With that said, he released her wrist for the second time that morning. She then started walking away from him. What he didn’t know was, once she was out of his sight, she slowly dissolved together with the wind.

...xXx...

Mikan Sakura, Natsume noted and closed his eyes. He was lying down on his bed. Since his last encounter with Mikan, he always met her after his missions when he was about to collapse from exhaustion or injures. Often times, he found himself in the hospital the next morning. This had been going on for a few weeks now. He did not really care about her, but he was curious of why he had never met her at the school grounds before if she was one of the high school students? He was sure he knew most of the high school student's and practically every female student in the academy. So, how come he had never ever seen her before that day? Opening his eyes again, he thought again, Why the fairies call her with the honorific -sama? Is she an important person in the academy? Getting up from the bed, he made his way to a certain someone's room. He had a gut feeling that this person just might be the one who would be able to help him.

HOTARU IMAI LABORATORIUM was written on the front door. Pressing the bell, an invention greeted him.

After scanning him from head to toe, the invention stated, "Natsume Hyuuga."

"Access granted," the invention stated.

Stepping inside the lab, he was accompanied by another invention that led him to Hotaru's lab. After a few minutes, the door to Hotaru's lab swung open, indicating him to go inside.

"What are you doing here, Hyuuga?" Hotaru stated emotionlessly even though she was curious as to why Natsume came to her.

Natsume stepped inside the room and was surprised to find his best friend Ruka inside the room. He looked around the room suspiciously, wondering what on earth was Ruka doing in this room with the blackmailing-know-it-all-ice-queen and at this time of the day. His eyes wandered from Ruka to Hotaru and then back to Ruka. Finding nothing that could prove his rather perverted suspicions, he shrugged it off. What those love-birds did was none of his business. He had more important matters to focus on.

"So what do you need from Hotaru, Natsume?" Ruka asked calmly after he invited him to sit.

Natsume raised an eyebrow at Ruka's question and merely rolled his eyes. His best friend just had to be the overly sweet guy who was, ironically, madly in love with a completely mad woman. He slipped his right hand into his pocket and removed a huge stack of rabbits, which he then threw on the table in front of him. He looked at Hotaru meaningfully. "10,000 Rabbits."

Ruka's jaw dropped, and his eyes opened wide in shock. Hotaru was surprised as well, but she kept her cold demeanour.

"I would like you to find some information about someone. Her name is Mikan Sakura. I want every detail about her. Give me the information tomorrow. Is it a deal?"

Hotaru grinned. "Deal. I will give you the information tomorrow but please remember that I might not find anything about the girl. As of what I know and am aware of, there's no student named Mikan Sakura in the academy. Still, I will try my best to search about her."

With a small nod, he left them.

"What makes Natsume want to know about this Mikan Sakura anyway?" Ruka asked himself once he and Hotaru were alone.

Hotaru, eyes still fixed on the bunch of papers and files containing the information about all the students and teachers in the academy, answered, "Something must have happened. Do you know what's been happening to him since the past few days?"

Ruka shook his head. After a few minutes, he sadly muttered, "The only thing that happened was that he was severely injured because of the mission."

Silence engulfed both of them. Both of them had some vague idea of what had happened. Natsume had already chosen to protect his family and friends, and for that, he would work for the academy for the rest of his life.

Hotaru broke the silence. "That baka is going to be all right."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. He's going to be all right." Ruka smiled. "Do you want to refill the coffee?" He couldn't help his girlfriend find the information, but he promised himself that he would accompany her.

Unknown to Hotaru and Ruka, someone was watching them with amusement.

"Someone is trying to search about me," Mikan said to herself as she watched the fairies that were playing with each other around the lake.

Fin, who was the closest fairy to Mikan, flew to her side. "Is there something wrong, Mikan-sama?"

Mikan smiled. "Everything is fine, Fin."

Fin smiled in return. "Please let me know if you need my help, Mikan-sama."

"Thank you," Mikan thanked Fin before silently muttering, "I wonder what you could have found out about me, Hotaru-san…"

Suddenly, a shiver ran down Hotaru's spine, and she immediately stopped typing.

Ruka, confused, worriedly asked, "Hotaru? Are you all right?"

After a long pause, she snapped back to reality and gave a small smile to her now worried boyfriend. "Yes, I'm fine, Ruka. Don't worry." What's this feeling? I could feel someone watching me … She decided to ignore it and continued her research again.

Chapter 1—The Unknown Saviour Chapter 2—The Land's Guardian Chapter 3—The Invitation Chapter 4—The Meeting Chapter 5—The Child Chapter 6—The Choices Chapter 7—The Requirements Chapter 8—The Ascendant's Memories Chapter 9—The Guardian of Gakuen Alice Next