[Alice Academy] [fanfic] A Clockwork Tangerine, Chapter 2, Catch. By Henry J. Cobb The Gakuen Alice characters and situations are the creation of Higuchi Tachibana and this parody is not intended to cause any damage to that property. Chapter two: Play catch. Thursday morning at breakfast Ruka walked up with his tray, but I shook my head so he took the next table over. Sumire exercised her unspoken prerogative as president of the unofficial Natsume-Ruka fanclub and took the seat to his right. Hotaru raised an eyebrow, picked up her tray and moved to take the seat to Ruka's left. Everybody else kept further away. Mikan finally made it through the line and placed her tray in front of mine. She had a bowl of miso soup in addition to the rice, the only variety she was supposed to be allowed in her diet as a no-star. Not that I cared what the rules were. Mikan looked over her shoulder at the three students, then turned away from their direct gaze. She pointed with her chopsticks, "May I have some of the scrambled egg please?" "No. Be quiet. I'll give you what I want to give you and nothing more." I finished my breakfast without offering her anything. Sumire grinned at this, but the two students next to her frowned. While Ruka was fuming about this, Sumire took advantage of his distraction to feed her vegetables to the rabbit he always carried around with him. She seemed to be instinctively carnivorous. But aren't animals supposed to fear and shun fire? In Jinno's math class Hotaru took her revenge, "No, that's incorrect." "What?" "While you have the right answer for this case, the formula you gave would be off by one for an odd number of fence posts. You need to round up rather than down." "Whatever." If I didn't have to babysit Mikan I wouldn't even be in this class. At lunch Mikan was silent and hence well fed. After classes we went again to the soccer field. There was a larger crowd than the previous day. Even Hotaru lingered rather than rushing directly to her workshop. Mikan took her place and I held out a flame on my palm. "This test again?" She asked. "Until you get it right Stupid." "OK." Mikan walked up to me and my flame went out when she was three steps away. "Stop!" I suppressed a smile. She does have range, now let me see if she can do the other things I think she can. "What?" "Go back and start over. You're only allowed to nullify my Alice when you're just about to take my hand." She stepped back and my flame restarted then she walked forwards and this time my flame went away only as she was reaching for my hand. "Like this?" "Yes, we're done. Go do your no-star chores. We can start on the basics tomorrow." "The basics? How long is this going to take?" "Everybody else at this school has been working on their Alices for years. You've got a lot of catching up to do no-star." And then you'll be out of my hands and the real fun can start. One of the girls in the Ruka and my fan club said how lucky Mikan was to have a personal trainer and how she wished I would train her, but Sumire's glare silenced her. Friday afternoon we went to the field again and the crowd was even larger. "This part is easy, all you have to do is stand there," I created a flame in midair and slowly moved it towards her, "Snuff out the flame just before it gets to your face." She put out the fire when it was three feet ahead of her. "No, closer. Wait until you can feel the heat," I sent another one towards her, but a little faster this time. She stopped it one foot away. I sent two more at her, at faster and faster speeds and she stopped them at point blank range. "OK, I've got it. How much longer is this going to go on?" "Now we can start. Put this on," I took a blindfold out of my pocket and tossed it to her. "What?" "Yes, you need to stop the fireballs blindfolded." "Why?" "If you can't do this then you're not only stupid and clumsy, but useless." "Why are you always so mean to me?" She put on the blindfold. I sent the next fireball up very slowly and she nullified it just before it reached her face. Then I gently sped them up. Five fireballs later I was up to full speed and she was stopping them just before she could have felt the heat on her face. I stopped to wipe the sweat from my face. Big stationary fires are easy, small ones floating in midair on precise paths are more difficult. "Bravo!" Mr. Narumi clapped, "Are you two working on a magic trick for the school festival?" "Dangerous Ability Alices aren't allowed to participate." But thank you so very much for rubbing that in. How long had he been watching this? "Mr. Narumi?" Mikan removed her blindfold. "Hi Mikan, I'm here about your chores." "Oh," Mikan glanced up at the clock tower, "I'm late!" "No, you don't have to do the no-star chores anymore." "I've been promoted to one star?" "No, it's just that they're suspended for the duration of your training. Well, I've got to get back to grading papers now." "See, even your 'Daddy' knows that you're my property. We're done here for today. Keep the blindfold and bring it back on Monday." "I have to keep using my power blind?" "Yeah," I've got things to show you. Saturday morning as the combined Dangerous Ability class was breaking up, Yoichi Hijiri walked up to me, "Natsume, can we go town today? I wanna get something for mommy." "Sure." Poor little kid, yanked away from his family when he was only two years old and he hasn't seen any of them in the year since. I wonder how well he even remembers his mother's voice. We went by his kindergarten homeroom class to pick up his 30 rabbits for being a one-star and then to mine. As a special star, I'd get 300 rabbits and I wanted to make sure he could get something nice. When I entered Sumire was pestering Ruka about which store they should go to but he ignored her and waved to me and Yoichi. Mikan seemed quite pleased with her 5 no-star rabbits and was buzzing around the room asking everybody about Central Town. Then she spotted Yoichi on my lap, "Oh, how cute. Who is this?" "He's Yoichi," Ruka answered, "He's in the Dangerous Ability group with Natsume." "Is he your son Natsume?" "Don't be stupid." "Don't be stupid." "Melon head." "Melon head." "You shouldn't teach a young child to say such things." Mikan held out her arms to Yoichi. What part of Dangerous Ability did she not understand? "Come to me Yo-chan. You don't need to sit with such a grump." Yoichi looked up to me. "Let her have it." He nodded, turned back towards Mikan and showered her with ghostly apparitions. "Yiiiii!" Mikan jumped back with her pigtails flailing about. Yoichi's ghosts vanished. A boy who was levitating around the front of classroom fell onto a desk and rolled off onto the floor. Hotaru put down her pen, closed her notebook, pressed her fingers against her forehead then stood and turned around, "Mikan!" "What? I'm sorry, I didn't mean." At that moment the door slammed open and Jinno entered. "What is the meaning of this? You there, what are you doing on the floor?" "My power cut out sir, I couldn't help it." "It's Mikan's fault," Sumire pointed at her, "she did it." Jinno walked over to the boy, "Are you hurt?" "No sir," the boy got to his feet, "I'm fine." "Let that be a lesson to you about recklessly using your Alice in the classroom then," Jinno turned to Mikan, "Miss Sakura you are grounded. Go to your room and remain there until Monday morning." "But it wasn't my fault." "Silence. I will have no backtalk from you, young lady." Hotaru frowned at what she had just written in her notebook and paid no attention as Mikan passed her. I let Mikan get almost to the door before I spoke up, "Miss Sakura is coming with me to Central Town today. She can be grounded when she comes back." Jinno tightened his lips at this and considered for a moment then responded, "Very well, she is your responsibility Mr. Hyuuga," He turned and left. "How? How did you do that?" "He knows that you're my property. Anyway, I've got a job for you today." "You're going to make her sell snacks on the bus?" One of the students suggested. "Nope, even better. Here, hold Yoichi." "Do I gotta?" He asked. "Wait until she drops her guard then let her have it again." "Ok." "Yo-chan you shouldn't hang around with such a mean boy," Mikan picked him up carefully, like a bomb.