[Alice Academy][fanfic] A Clockwork Tangerine, Chapter 5 of 8
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 five: Guard Dog

[With special thanks to David Johnston for prereading a draft.]

Wednesday night at 11 pm I was sitting in bed looking at my bottle of pills
again when there was a single knock at my door.  I pulled on a nightrobe,
went to open the door and asked Mikan, "How did you know I wasn't asleep?"

"Hi Natsume.  There's a difference in the Alice when somebody's sleeping.
I still can't sleep."

"Don't stand outside my door, get in here before somebody sees you."

Mikan walked straight to my nightstand and picked up the pill bottle, "Can I
have another?"

"No," I grabbed it away from her, "It was hard enough having Takahashi tut
tut over one mess.  I'd burn any human being who looked at me that way.
Did you at least bring yourself a diaper?"

Mikan blushed as orange red as her namesake, the tangerine, "I'm sorry, I
wasn't prepared, please promise never to tell anybody!"

"You didn't react this strongly this morning."

"I was out of it, with the sleep and the drug and all."

"So what happened with the meditation?"

"I just started on that today.  I try and I try and I still see everybody's
Alices."

"OK, I've been thinking about it, so have a seat," I sat in my desk chair,
"Somehow this wasn't a problem for you until I forced you to start actively
looking for Alices, so you have some way of turning off your second sight and
I think I know what it is.  Close your eyes."

"Do I need to go get the blindfold?"

"Not for this.  Now, how many Alices do you count in this room?"

"There's just you, that makes one."

"But you are also an Alice.  So use your power to see your own Alice."

"I see myself looking at myself looking at myself looking at myself," Her
eyes flashed open and she used both hands to steady herself against my
desk, "It makes me dizzy."

"OK, one more thing to try.  Close your eyes and nullify your own Alice."

"Huh?  OK," She closed her eyes tightly, grimaced and shook slightly side
to side for a few seconds, then she sat up calmly, "That's it.  I can turn
my Alice vision off and on now.  Thanks Natsume!"

"OK, now get out, and don't come back here ever again, especially not after
curfew."

"Good night, see you at breakfast."  As Mikan stood up the alarm rang.
"What's that?"

"The fire alarm, and they wouldn't run a test at this hour.  Let's get out
of here."

"Well at least we know that you didn't cause it, because I would have
sensed it."

I grabbed her tightly by both shoulders and put my face inches from hers,
"Don't ever joke about that again.  Don't assume that you're so important
that I won't kill you and I can make it a lot more painful without my
Alice."

"I -- I'm sorry.  I won't do it again."

I ran out my door with Mikan right behind me.

At that moment Sumire came running down the hallway, "It's a fire, It's a
fire! You!"  Sumire stopped and pointed at Mikan.

"What?"  Ruka came out of his door, clutching his rabbit then looked at
where Sumire was pointing, "Mikan?  It's true?"

"Oh, I was just visiting with Natsume ..."

"Let's get out of here," I cut Mikan off, "before the entire dorm falls on
us."

When we got outside I could see that the fire was up on the third floor.  I
could feel the accusing glances of the other students.  Then their gazes
shifted to Mikan, who was holding on to my hand as she looked back at the
dorm.

"Let go," I pulled out of her grasp.

"Sorry," She stopped and turned back to face the dorm, her head swinging
side by side as if she was looking at it, or more likely through it.  She
pointed at a room with flames visible in the window, "There's somebody
there, I think they're trapped."

"Throw me at that window," I ordered Moju, the class telekinetic.

"What?" He asked.

"I'm fireproof.  Do it."

"OK, it's your funeral," He boosted me up.

I turned around in midair and kicked in the window.  There was a rush of
air and I choked on the smoke as I squinted through it.  The fire from my
Alice is smokeless and so it doesn't protect me against smoke, just direct
flame and extreme heat.  At that moment I wished I was wearing my
restriction mask, with its built in Alice-based smoke filter.

"Mommy, Mommy."

I crawled towards the voice of a young boy.  He was trapped in a corner and
clutching onto a video tape.  I picked him up and ran to the window.

I shouted "Catch!" then tossed the boy out.  He fell a few feet then slowed
down and started drifting to the ground.

The smoke was getting to be a bit much for me so I jumped out the window,
landed on slightly bent knees then fell over backwards.

"Natsume!"  Mikan pushed through the crowd, stumbled and fell on me,
"You're safe!  I was so worried," She pressed her face against my shoulder
and sobbed.

Did Sumire trip her?  All of the students seemed to be watching us with
sour expressions.  I pushed Mikan off of me, "Is there anybody else
trapped?"

Mikan brushed the tears from her eyes and scanned the building, "No, I
don't think so.  Oh, hi Hotaru!"  Mikan waved to Hotaru who was sitting in
a firefighter's outfit on a skycycle designed to look like a swan that was
hovering 20 feet above us, "Don't worry, everybody's out."

"Then let's get further from the flames," I helped Mikan to her feet.

That night we all slept in the school gymnasium while they checked the
Elementary Branch dorm for damage

In the morning most of us were allowed back in our rooms to prepare for
class and the rest were issued school uniforms as needed.

The first two periods were canceled so by the time we had breakfast and got
to class it was third period, Mr. Jinno's class.

Jinno looked even more constipated than usual, "I am going to speak to you
now not as your teacher, but as director of the Elementary Branch of the
Academy.  There is a student from this class who rushed into the fire last
night to save another.  Will that student please stand."

All of the students turned to look at me, but I remained sitting.

"Mr. Hyuuga, I have have had enough of your reckless and disrespectful
behavior.  Not only did you violate every safety regulation at the school,
but you also had another student in your room after curfew, a female
student.  And from what I understand not for the first time either.  You
will not make a mockery of this school's regulations.  From this moment,
you and Miss Sakura are grounded indefinitely.  You will remain in your own
rooms under lock and key at all times except for classes and meals and you
are not to sit next to each other at either classes or meals.  Do you two
understand me?"

At that exact moment the voice of my least-favorite-person came over the
intercom, "Natsume Hyuuga please report to my office."

Jinno stopped and the students all turned to their books.

"That was that scary person from before?"  Mikan asked.

I got up, "Yeah, it's Persona."  At the door I turned to Jinno and stage
whispered loudly, "If you want to touch me Jinno, then you'd best take it
up with him first.  And don't you dare take this out on Mikan, you sadist."

"This isn't over."

"Oh, yes it is.  Be seeing you," I made my way to the Dangerous Ability
section.  There were no signs naturally, but I knew the route by heart.

Persona didn't look up from the maps he was studying as I entered his
office, "I hear you had a hard time last night.  Did she wear you out?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."  I knew a little.  They try to
really restrict the reading material we're allowed at the Academy,
especially in the Elementary Branch, but the restriction filters they put
on the internet access terminals in the library were laughable.

"Go back to your room and rest up.  We've got a mission tonight.  I'll see
you back here at 8 p.m."

"Sorry, but I've just been grounded by Mr. Jinno."

"That's canceled."

"And Mikan Sakura?"

"She is at your disposal.  Do whatever you like with your pet.  I must say
that your results to date are intriguing.  Perhaps you should be a teacher
here."

"I can think of worse."

At dinner Mikan moved to sit next to Hotaru, but I beckoned her over to my
table.

"I'm not grounded?" She put her tray across from mine.

"I got it cleared.  How was class?"

"Mr. Jinno can't seem to shock anybody in class anymore and all the
students like me, except for Sumire," Mikan nodded her head back towards
Sumire, who seemed to be studying Mikan as if she was a rather tasty mouse.

"Don't bully the teachers," I fed Mikan some of my pepper beef.

That night I hid in the trees behind the back gate of the Academy.  My
instructions were to wait for one of a group of cars to pull up from one
side or the other of the road and make sure that it made it in the gate
without being followed.  It was something about alternate routes and
vehicles.  Persona always makes things more complicated than they need to
be and plans plots within plots.

I was sitting on a branch and yawning behind my restriction mask, wishing I
could have brought a book or a music player or something.  I didn't see
Persona around but I was fairly sure that he was nearby.

I heard a car coming and saw its headlights.  In the dark at this distance
I couldn't tell if it was one of the three possible cars Persona had
listed, but I had nothing better to do so I watched it.

Suddenly three men in dark suits and dark sunglasses jumped in front of the
car and pointed pistols at it.

The car stopped and I jumped down on its hood.  The gunmen were taken aback
so I jumped off before they could react and threw fireballs at their guns.

The car made it through, but one of the gunmen drew another pistol and shot
at me.  He tagged me once just below my left ribs before I managed to get
out of sight.  I could have killed them all, but that wasn't part of my
mission.

Persona was standing just inside the gate as he watched the car go by.

I jumped behind him and he told me that the mission was complete.  I could
have gone to the hospital, but it was late and I needed some rest after the
last few nights.

In my room I cleaned out the wound and put on a gaze bandage.  It was
little more than a scratch so I didn't worry about it.

Mikan seemed more than usually happy at breakfast on Friday morning, and
why shouldn't she be, with a sugar daddy to feed her and keep the Academy's
restrictions off her back.  At that moment I almost pitied her, but I
needed a weapon, a really big one.

She looked at me, "Natsume, you've hardly touched your breakfast.  Are you
feeling ok?"  She placed her hand against my forehead, "You've got a slight
fever.  Are you catching a cold?"

Yeah, no doubt from sitting around in a tree half the night in my shorts.
"Don't touch me," I grabbed her wrist, "It's bad enough you've got the
whole school talking."

"Talking about what?"  She pulled her hand back.

"Never mind.  Shut up and enjoy your breakfast," I was tempted to explain to
her that the dictionary defines floozy more by reputation than by actions,
but I didn't feel like lecturing her through all of human biology right
at that moment.

At the start of classes Mr. Narumi announced that the school festival would
be the next week, that we had a concert that afternoon by a Reo, and that
we had the rest of the weekend off to prepare.

As everybody was preparing to go to their Alice type classes to prepare
their displays a girl from another class came by, "Imai, do you have number
12?"

"Sure, that will be two rabbits please," Hotaru took the two coins and
handed the girl a card from her backpack.

The girl went over to Ruka and asked, "Hi Ruka, can you sign this one for
me please?"

I looked over, it was a photo of Ruka dancing with some animals.

Ruka snatched the card up, "Hotaru, why are you selling silly pictures of
me?"

"Gotta go," Hotaru put on her backpack and rushed for the door.

"Hold it!"  Ruka ran after her with the photo.

"Hey, I paid for that!"  The girl from the other class watched them leave.

I considered torching her hair, but I didn't feel quite up to it.

All of the other students left for their Alice type classes.  As I was the
only Dangerous Ability student in the class, I didn't have a display to go
help setup, so I stayed behind and read a manga I had mail ordered that was
based on a RPG video game.

Some other kids came in and started working on their projects, so I got up
and walked until I found a quiet shady spot under a tree.

Half an hour later Mikan walked past, staring at her feet.

"What's wrong this time, No-star?"

"Oh, Natsume.  It's the other Special Ability students.  They say they have
no chance and no plan for the festival so they'll just go around making fun
of everybody else.  What are you doing, reading?"

"I was until just a moment ago."

"What's it about?"  She sat right next to me and leaned over my shoulder,
"So those people fight all these monsters and each of the monsters has a
different special ability?"

"Something like that."

Mikan straightened up and leaned against me, "Hey Hotaru and Ruka, what are
you doing hiding in the bushes together?"

"Er, nothing" Ruka blushed.

"He just wanted to get close to me," Hotaru nudged Ruka, causing him to
blush even more.

I looked back to Mikan, "It seems that no Alice can sneak up on you now."

"I guess not," Mikan turned her head towards the path, "Wait..."  She got
up and walked back and forth on the path, "There's another Alice right
here," She reached out both hands for something and stood there.

After a minute Mikan was sweating and breathing heavily, "I've almost got
it.  It keeps going forwards and back like it's bouncing on a spring, but
it's getting closer every jump.  Now it's right here!" Mikan yanked her
hands back a little bit and was holding the hand of a full grown man.

It was Mr. Noda, the Special Ability teacher and time tripper Alice.  He
wore short sleeves, but had snow on his shoulders and head.

He brushed some of the snow off with his free hand then knelt down to stare
at Mikan's face. "The resemblance.  You look so much like her."

"What?"  Mikan asked.

"Oh, sorry, I'm Mr. Noda."  He stood back up,  "You must be Mikan Sakura,
right?  How old are you now?"

"Uh, I'm still ten."

"So I'm back in the present.  That was amazing, Mikan.  Nobody has ever
been able to use their Alices on me when I've been time tripping before.
As the Special Ability Alice teacher I should have been training you, but
I've been away elsewhen all this time.  So I suppose I have someone else to
thank for your training?"

"Natsume has been training me."

"Natsume?"  Mr. Noda looked over at me, "Well I guess I'm in your debt,
Mr. Hyuuga.  Now Mikan, let's see how the Special Ability students are
doing, shall we?"

"Oh, I've got this great idea for our school festival activity," Mikan lead
her teacher off by the hand.

I turned back to my book, but the words started to blur.  I leaned back
against the tree, but I couldn't hold my balance.  As I toppled over I
heard Ruka calling my name.

Sometime later, I heard Mikan calling out my name over and over again at the
top of her lungs, so I opened my eyes.

I was in a bed in the hospital with Mikan, Hotaru, Ruka, Sumire and Yoichi
standing around me.

"See, he is awake!"  Mikan seemed proud of her vocal feat.

"Even the dead couldn't sleep through that," I glared at her.

"The doctor says they caught the infection just in time," Ruka said, "You
should be fine after you rest up this weekend."

"He just needs some fresh air", Mikan opened a window.  Hasn't she heard of
air conditioning?

Sumire seemed to hear something from outside.  "Reo must be here!  I need
to go get his autograph," She held up a 8x10 photo of a scrawny twenty
something in torn clothing.

"I thought you were only a fan of Ruka and Natsume?"  Mikan grinned at
Sumire.

"It's ... for my brother.  He's a big fan of Reo's.  And anyway I wouldn't
do what you did."

"But I didn't do anything wrong!"  Mikan said.

"Stop it!"  I held out a candle sized flame on my index finger, "Get out of
here and let me rest, or I'll burn you all."

Mikan leaned over me and blew out the flame, "I wish you wouldn't be like
that.  Now let's let Mr. Grumpy rest.  So Sumire, is this Reo famous?"

"What, you've never heard of Reo?"

After they left I lay back and slept for a while.

I woke up with an unfamiliar voice speaking in my ear, "Listen to my voice.
Listen only to my voice."  There was some sort of compulsion behind the
words, but I fought that with my training and looked at the man talking to
me.  It was Reo.

"No, stop that!"  Mikan ran up and grabbed Reo's arm.  What was she doing,
hiding in my hospital room?

Reo turned to her, "Go to sleep, little girl."

That didn't stop her at all of course.  With his attention divided I could
feel my strength returning.  Just a moment more and I'd be able to burn
him.

A man teleported in behind Mikan and put a cloth over her mouth.  She
struggled for a moment then passed out.

I had started to build a flame, but Reo heard the crackle and turned back
towards me.  "Go to sleep, Natsume."

If you hurt her you'll burn, slowly.  I slumped back into darkness.

I awoke to the sound of gentle sobbing.  I seemed to be tied up hand and
foot.  I opened my eyes and looked into Mikan's.  She seemed to be tied up
also.  We were on the floor in a corner of a warehouse.

"Natsume!  You're alive!"

"Be quiet.  Why shouldn't I be alive?"

"When I woke up, I tried to see your Alice and I couldn't.  What's wrong
with my power?"

I tried to burn the ropes binding my hands without effect.  "They've got
some sort of barrier up, stupid."

Mikan's eyes unfocused, and then she closed them as she concentrated.

"Boss, the kids seem to be awake now."  One of Reo's thugs gestured towards
us with his gun.

"It's that man," Mikan nodded towards the man with the gun and he collapsed
to his knees with his palms pressed to his forehead.

"Shidou, what is it?"  Reo asked.

"It's that girl, she's blocking my barrier."

"If she's able to do that at such a young age, then she's even more valuable
than the Black Cat.  We picked up an extra bonus today, boys.  Go to sleep,
you two kids."

I felt no compulsion from Reo's Alice so I used my fire to burn through the
ropes binding my arms together and reached over to untie Mikan's arms.
Then I lay back down to rest and focus on using my Alice.

She untied her legs then mine as I used my Alice to burn any hand that
reached for a gun and to push the thugs away from us.

The teleporter from before shimmered, but didn't move, "I'm being blocked
too, boss."

"How can one little girl have so much power?"  Reo stared at the flame that
danced in front of his face as he pressed his back against the wall.

"You lose Reo.  No-star, let's go find a phone and tell the Academy that
they can come collect these jerks."

"Ok," She helped me to my feet.

We walked past them all as I leaned on her for support with my left arm
over her shoulders.  Without their Alices they were no match for mine, even
in my weakened state.

We were almost to the door when a shot was fired.  Mikan cried out and
collapsed under me.

As I tumbled to the floor next to her I knew in a flash what I had done
wrong.  Mikan had nullified Shidou's barrier Alice, but I had failed to
neutralize him.  I had killed her.  Damn him.  Damn them all.  With the
last of my strength I lashed out with my power and the warehouse erupted in
flames.

There was an explosion.  I was thrown through the air and sent falling into
darkness.  It all seemed so peaceful, not at all like how I had expected to
die.