[xover][Kodocha/Alice Academy] Sana's Alice, Chapter 1.
By Henry J. Cobb

Gakuen Alice is the creation of Higuchi Tachibana.  Kodomo no Omocha is the
creation of Miho Obana.  This parody is not intended to cause any damage to
these properties.

This is the sequel to another story of mine called A Clockwork Tangerine.

Chapter one: Sana's Last Day.

There I was minding my own business, ignoring my hulu-dancing pig alarm
clock, when this bat pops up over my head.

"Sana!"  Babbit shouted, "You don't want to be late for your last day!"

I bopped him against the wall with a mallet and both Babbit and the mallet
vanished.  Then I finally opened my eyes to examine my now empty hand.  To
think, because of a little thing like that my life was now over.

But Babbit was right, I didn't want to be late, not today.  I got up, got
dressed and gathered my hair into my trademark twin ponytails.  Well not a
real trademark, lots of girls do their hair this way.  Not like Babbit.
That was the smartest thing my manager Rei ever did.  When I popped Babbit
into existence on live TV, Rei made the production crew insert a notice
that Babbit was the trademark of Sana Kurata into the credits and he's
made me millions by having his little bat face plastered on everything from
T-shirts to lunchboxes.

While I sat thinking of Babbit he popped back into existence.  Getting hit
doesn't really hurt him, but killing me would stop him cold, or so I've
been told.  I haven't had the chance to test that one out.  He was a
noseless white bat with long bunny ears, blue wings and a red heart on his
chest.  That's the standard, though I do make variations from time to time.
I don't know where I got the heart from, maybe it was the Care Bears.  I
think I really liked them at the time.

"Ahem", Babbit pointed a wing at the clock.

"I'm late!"  I dashed through the dining room, grabbed two slices of
toast from my plate and ran for the door.

"I take full responsibility."

"No Mama!", I screeched to a halt, turned to face her and pointed to a spot
in midair, "It's his fault!"

Babbit appeared at the space I indicated, pointed a wing at himself and
said, "Me?"

"It's my fault for hinting too directly about your Alice in my book,"  Mama
put down her teacup, "A writer with my years of experience should have
known better."

"No Mama.  I promised I'd keep all of my secrets and I didn't," I swallowed
both slices of toast whole, ran up and hugged her.

Maro came down and gathered a few crumbs from my cheek then returned to his
usual perch in Mama's hair to eat them.

Mama put one arm around my shoulders and handed me a glass of orange juice
with the other hand, "Here, wash that down or you'll choke," then she
leaned closely and whispered in my ear, "There is still time to run to your
Grandmother's.  She is a power onto herself in Kusatsu and neither the
Prime Minister nor the Emperor can touch her there."

I chugged down the juice then disentangled myself, "No Mama, I'd still be
trapped.  The only difference is that you'd be in jail.  I'm just worried
that when I go I'll leave you all alone."

"Do not worry about me.  The terrorists in Hong Kong only killed one of my
friends, I have plenty more.  No go, all of your friends are waiting to say
goodbye."

I nodded and turned for the door.

Babbit waved goodbye to Maro and faded away.

Rei was already sitting in the car.  He waited until I had buckled in
before starting the engine.

For once I didn't mind his slow driving.  It was a day I didn't want to
start and couldn't put off.  I wiped my eyes and turned to him with my best
smile, "So are you moving in with Asako?"

"No, just moving out.  We've promised to take things slow until her career
takes off."

"With the best manager in the business that shouldn't take long.  Just look
what you've done for me."

"I've gotten you locked up."

"No Rei, it's not your fault, it's mine.  Let's just say that we're going
to be seeing other people now.  I'd ask you to wait until I get out of the
big house, but that would be unfair and selfish.  So just send me the
wedding photos."

"We'll have them taken by the best," he stopped the car in front of the
school.

I got out but didn't see anybody.  Was I running that late?  Then I looked
 up at our classroom windows and the class suddenly appeared and rolled
 paper banners down that read "Jinbo Elementary School loves Sana Kurata".

As I reached the top of the stairs I heard a bang from our classroom and I
ran to the door.  Akito was sitting at his desk looking cool as a cucumber
sandwich, but my desk was five centimeters out of place.

The other students were looking at him but turned to me, "Good morning
Sana."

"Good morning everybody!"  I picked up my desk and adjusted it back into
place.

Babbit popped up next to Akito wearing a tiny policeman's uniform, "Kicking
desks in a school zone.  You're looking at a mighty hefty fine here
buster."

"Leave him alone," I ordered.

"Okay, I'll let you off with just a warning this time," Babbit vanished.

At lunch the other girls gathered around me begging details about my new
school.  As I hadn't been there yet I could only tell them what I had heard
second hand and years out of date.

Akito of course went off to the far corner and sat by himself.  Tsuyoshi
went to sit next to him and Aya looked back and forth between Tsuyoshi and
me.

I picked up my tray.

"Aw Sana," the other girls complained.

"One moment," I put the tray down and closed my eyes.  When I reopened them
there was a Babbit sitting on the table in front of each girl.

"How did you make so many of them?" Hisae asked.

"She's been practicing," The Babbits all said in unison then each began
a separate conversation with the girl they had been placed in front of.

With the other girls distracted, Aya followed me to our table for two pairs.

I took the seat directly across from Akito, "You are going to the party."

"Why should I?  What's the point?"

"You're going if I have to knock you over the head with a mallet and drag
you there.  You can be conscientious or unconscious, your choice."

Another Babbit popped up over my shoulder, "I think you mean conscious or
unconscious."

"I said what I meant."

"Aren't you at your limit Sana?" Tsuyoshi looked back at where all of the
other students had gathered to talk to the other Babbits.

"Not hardly.  I've been saving my talking Babbit swarm for a special
occasion so the nobility of it wouldn't wear off before I needed it."

"Ah my queen.  I think you mean novelty, but we bats of the round table
will always be at your royal command."

"I once tried to find out how many Babbits I could make, but gave up when I
lost count."

"There was one hundred and forty four of us at the time."

"That sounds kinda gross."

"Exactly," Babbit responded to Aya.

"Each of those flying fleabags has to count for an IQ of at least one, so
why aren't your grades better?"

I grabbed the Babbit from over my shoulder and twisted it until it popped
then showed Akito my clean hands, "No blood means no fleas.  It kind of
bugs me at times when Babbit seems to be smarter than me, when I'm the one
thinking him into existence."

"Ah ha!"  Babbit popped up again, "So you do admit that I'm the better part
of you.  If only Descartes could have met you Sana."

"Who?"

"Read a book.  Start with one, any one."

"Well, I think I do okay, balancing school with the show and my other
acting work."

"So does this mean that you'll be able to keep up with the other students
at your new genius school now that you won't have those other
distractions?"

"It's not about genius!"  Then I noticed that Akito had finished his lunch
before asking his question and was taking his tray away.  I quickly
shoveled down my lunch with both hands and followed him.

At the end of the school day I stood up, turned around, put one foot on top
of my desk and shouted out, "Gentlemen and ladies sink your watches!  In
thirty minutes the party starts at my house."

Babbit popped up, "She means synchronize."

"Attendance is monitory.  All Sanas must go!"

"You mean mandatory obviously, but are you talking about yours or theirs?"

"Both!"  I looked around for Akito, but he had already escaped while I was
talking with Babbit so I dashed off to prepare.

Rei was waiting in the car outside.

"Rei!" I hopped in through the open window, "Who's handling the party
preparations?"

"Oh it's being taken care of."

"Sana, you're setting a bad example for your fans."

I ignored the Babbit that had popped up behind me, "Drive drive drive,
we've got no time!"

At the house I found Zenjiro and Hiroshi working the grill while Asako and
Grandpa were setting out the tables, which meant that only one person could
be supervising the production.

"Grandmama!" I ran up and hugged her so hard that she skidded back half a
meter on her skates.

"Hello Sana, I wish you'd reconsider."

"About the inn?  But I already said I'd look after it someday, when I'm
ready."

"Yes, you just need to be cured of that little tengu first."

"Tengu?"  Babbit popped up.

"Oh I exercise him every day," I summoned up a Gohei and waved it in front
of him, "Begone evil spirit!"

Babbit responded to this by doing jumping jacks in midair.

"Huh?"

"You said you were going to exercise me."

"Go away," I banished Babbit then tossed the Gohei into the air where it
vanished with a pop.

Grandmama jumped back a bit at this then continued, "It's that school
you're going to.  I've read up on it a bit and it's full of the children of
extremely rich families, some from abroad.  If you married into a family
like that you wouldn't have time to devote to the old family inn.  So I
wish you'd reconsider going there."

"Oh the last thing I want is to go to a school with a bunch of stuck up
kids."

"Then it's that daughter of mine, she's making you go there?"

"No Grandmama, Mama's done everything she could, but the government says I
have to go."

"Back in my day we treated conditions like yours with Shinto, not fancy
schools.  If only you'd marry an ordinary boy like that Hayama kid.
Speaking of which, where is he?"

"Oh, I'm sure he'll be at the party.  And I need to make sure that this
last party is going to be perfect, starting with the food."

"Hi Sana!" Both Zenjiro and Hiroshi were wearing Kiss the Chef aprons.

"So are we going to film one last episode of Child's Toy today?"

"I begged them Sana," Zenjiro put on his best bucktoothed puppy eyed look,
"but they said that the show was canceled with immediate effect."

"And just when our ratings were starting to improve.  I feel sorry, leaving
you two in the larch like this."

"You mean lurch. Larch is a kind of tree."

I waved off Babbitt, "I guess I should have let you know about this years
ago, so you could have gotten a costar who wasn't an undercover fugitive."

"No Sana, I'm glad they're canceling the show.  You defined Child's Toy and
I can't even imagine what it would have been like without you.  But don't
worry about Hiroshi and me, we're starting a cooking show for beginners
next week."

"Just starting ...  So you don't anything about cooking yet?"

"Oh, I know a lot about food," Hiroshi waved his spatula.

"That's obvious," Babbit pointed at Hiroshi's well rounded figure.

"One more word and I'll go get a barrel of thumbtacks."

"No, Babbit's right.  I had to learn to cook for myself and I kinda overdid
it.  I envy you Sana, with your ability to eat all you like and still stay
so thin."

"I'm too thin.  It's just that I can't keep up with all of Babbit's
fluttering around.  Eating for two is harder than it looks."

"Well don't worry, I'll get Zenjiro up to speed on cooking in no time.  By
the way, aren't those stakes a little well done already?"

"No!  My precious meat meat meat!"  I summoned up a pair of Babbit logo
oven mittens and grabbed the stakes, then having no place to put them, ate
them all.

The mittens transformed into Babbits and flew off a bit going "Ow ow ow!"
then popped.

"Well, we've got plenty more," Hiroshi opened an icebox and started to load
up the grill, "Look some of your friends are here."

I turned around, waved to Tsuyoshi and Aya then walked over to them, "Hey
you two lovebirds are early.  Did your watches sink?"

"Hi Sana."  "No, we wanted to come by and see if you needed any help."

"Why no, my dear Washington," I summoned up a pipe, Deerstalker hat and a
matching cloak, "Though you have been a great help on previous cases, I
believe we have this foot well at play already."

"It's Watson and the game's afoot."

I blew bubbles out of the pipe while Babbit corrected me then took the pipe
out and continued to Tsuyoshi, "But can you help me with the case of the
missing Akito."

"Oh, I'm sure he wouldn't miss this party for anything."

My classmates from both my actual class at Jinbo and my fictional class on
Child's Toy arrived and I introduced the two groups, along with some of the
other actors I had worked with.

Finally with everybody seated at the tables I took to the stage, "Give me
one moment please," I closed my eyes and imagined a full band of Babbits
behind me, each with a different instrument.  Then I opened my eyes and
started to sing.

Everybody seemed to be delighted at the sight, except for Grandmama.  I
didn't let that stop me.  If she really loved me, she'd accept me for what
I was.  I was an Alice and proud of it, but I didn't let my multiple
personality power go to my head.

I was really grooving and the Babbit band didn't miss a beat as I skipped
amongst my top songs.  I didn't have time left to sing very many complete
songs so I just mixed them together.  At first I focused on Mama, who was
recording my final concert on video, but soon my eye wandered as I looked
for him.

Finally the Hayama car pulled up.

I stopped the music, "Excuse me please,"  and left the Babbit band to play
instrumentals while I ran down to the car.

Natsumi got out of the car and dragged her little brother out by the arm,
"Here," she shoved Akito towards me, "Just pack this in your baggage.  He's
been a real pain ever since he heard about it."

"I considered it, but he's over my baggage allowance."

"Baggage allowance?  Are you going on an airline trip or to a boarding
school twenty kilometers from here?"

"It's a strange school.  Where's your father going?"

"He just needs to find a parking space.  He'll be right back."

"In the meantime let's go someplace private," I tugged on Akito's arm.

"Do I have a choice?"

"Nope."

"Have fun you two," Natsumi went to join the crowd.

Mama followed us, but I glared at her, so she turned off the camera and
went inside the house.

I dragged Akito behind the house then turned to him, "Go ahead, you can
give me one last goodbye kiss."

"I won't bother."

"What!"

"It won't take your new genius school long to figure out what a big mistake
they've made.  You'll flunk out by tomorrow."

"The Alice Academy isn't about genius.  Well if you won't, I will," I
grabbed him and gave him a really intense hickey on the neck.

"Ow!"  He backed off and felt his neck with his hand, "What did you do that
for?"

"Akito Hayama, let my mark be your warning.  If you so much as look at
another girl while I'm gone I'll find out about it and send Babbit after
her.  It'll be the same as if you bored her into a coma yourself!"

At this Babbit popped up, "Me, boring?"

Akito grabbed me and hugged me really tight, turned away, raised his hood
over his head and said, "Goodbye weirdo," then walked off.

"Hold it buddy, don't think you're getting off so easy," Babbit flew in
front of him, "Akito, you, you're..."

Akito karate chopped him.

Babbit popped out then popped up next to my shoulder, "He's crying."

I pointed at Babbit, "You horrible reptile!  You made Akito cry."

"Me?  I'm not the one who bit him, but I think he'll be wearing my mark
long after yours has faded."

"What do you mean?"

"He's wearing a Babbit hoodie."

"Oh," I hadn't noticed, but then it wasn't anything special.  Akito was
always wearing Babbit logo clothes as far back as I could remember.  Even
before he kissed me, before I blackmailed him, before we started our duel,
from the first day I met him he had been wearing my logo.  He had been a
fan all along.  I hadn't beaten him, he'd let me win, "I'm such an idiot."

"Well that's obvious.  Both bats and rabbits are mammals, so any
hypothetical cross between them would--"

I dashed past Babbit, "No, I've got to go apologize, for everything."

Babbit followed, "It's too late for that, your ride's here."

That black limo had stopped in front of our house.

Mr Narumi got out in a black suit and for a moment I half expected him to
use some strange Alice power to make everybody forget that they'd ever
heard of Sana Kurata, but he just walked up and said, "Sana, are you ready
to go now?"

"I just need to grab my bags," I opened our front door.

"I'll give you a hand with that."

"Wait here," I shut the door in his face.  Let him explain to everybody out
there why it was so important that he take me away like this.

I lugged two bags from my room.  Too little to hold a lifetime's worth of
stuff, but a bit heavy to carry by my own.

Mama was waiting at my doorway, in her minicar, which now had a luggage
rack in back, "Need help with those?"

"Thanks Mama," I loaded my bags on then walked beside her.

She and Maro were dressed in simple black, like they were attending a
funeral.

I wasn't going to let this be an unhappy moment, "Well maybe the book
didn't work out so well.  Let this be our plan B.  If my birth mother was
an Alice then the Academy should be the best place to go look for clues as
to what happened to her.  But you will always be my one true Mama."

"And you will always be my daughter."

"I'll write every day.  If you don't get my letters you'll know that
something nasty's happened to me."

"When that day comes I shall storm the gates myself."

"Thanks for everything, I'll see you soon," Not likely I thought, but we
both knew that.

Mama helped me unload the bags and then drove off.

I opened the door and pointed at my bags, "Here."

Mr. Narumi lifted them effortlessly.  Even in that suit he looked like a
reject from a boy band with his earrings and long blond hair.

Everybody was waiting along our walkway and they all wished me well.

As Mr. Narumi loaded my bags into the back of the limo, the Babbit band
finished playing and stood silently.

"Just time for one final magic trick,"  I imagined a top hat on my head,
took it off and showed that it was empty.  Then I had the Babbits all fly
into the hat and vanish.  I put the hat back on and bowed.  The hat fell
off my head and vanished before hitting the ground.

I waved to the crowd's applause, "Goodbye everybody", then turned and
entered the limo.

Mr. Narumi closed the door behind me then walked around and entered on the
other side.

At that point the limo started up.  I looked back at everybody then faced
forwards and noticed that there was an opaque window between us and the
driver.  Mr. Narumi and I were all alone behind the dark windows of the
limo.

"That was an impressive display back there, but hard to reconcile as a
simple magic trick."

"So?  Everybody back there knows that I'm an Alice and they all accept it."

"But there are some people who will refuse to accept you as an Alice, out
of ignorance, fear or superstition.  How can you lead an ordinary life if
you must always fear the people who will seek to do you harm because of
what you are?"

Grandmama had been more than just stubborn back there, she had been
frightened.  What would it have been like, having to live under her for
years as she sought a cure?  "It's too late for me to live a normal life
anymore, I'm too famous.  And as for keeping my Alice a secret, well it's
been on TV for almost two years."

"If people believed anything they saw on television then we would have
picked you up that first day."

"Well if I haven't blown your little secret yet then I'm obviously no
danger so you can just take me back and forget about me."

"I wish it were that simple, but I'm afraid that we have good reasons for
insisting that all Alices attend, until they have grown up and fully
mastered their powers.  It's for their own well being and the safety of
others.  But I must say that I'm impressed by your level of control.  Is it
all self taught?"

"There was a friend of my mother," Why was I telling him this?, "But that
was years ago."

"Then don't you think it's about time you received formal training from
people who understand Alices?"

"I suppose so..."  I found myself melting under the friendly gaze of his
big violet eyes and turned away.  I noticed that there was no control to
lower my window.  I felt hot, flushed and out of breath.  I closed my eyes
and tried to calm down, "So what's this Alice Academy like?"

"Oh there's no place else quite like it anywhere in the world.  In some
respects we're just a larger than usual boarding school that covers
prekindergarten to high school, but we are very selective about the
students we admit.  Like you most of them appear perfectly normal, but they
all have extraordinary powers."

"Like mine?"

"Your power is clearly above average, but the full extent of it is
something that you will need to explore with our help."

"I just summon up a small smart alex bat.  How could you have a power less
than that?"

"It's the breadth of your abilities rather your depth in any one area that
is so interesting.  Perhaps it would be best if I described the common
types of Alices we have at our school.  The most common are the Latent
Ability Alices, these are the standard Psi powers you read about like
telekinesis, teleportation, remote viewing or hearing, but each student
tends to only be able to do one of these things.  For example there is a
Latent Ability student in your class with the ability to project illusions
that are seen by everybody in an area, but he doesn't simulate touch and
his illusions don't allow him to perceive things where there is no human to
perceive them."

"But Babbit can go fetch things from rooms where there isn't anybody
watching," Why hadn't he popped up at the mention of his name?  Why was he
hiding?

"Exactly, so your powers are too broad to fit as a Latent Ability Alice.
Another group is the Somatic Ability Alices.  These students alter their
own bodies or minds for things like super speed running, stretching,
breathing underwater and the like.  Do you change your own body Sana?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Then you don't fit into that category either.  Another common group are
the Technical Ability Alices.  These students are able to change the things
they work with for unusual effects.  In your class there is a girl with the
Cooking Alice.  She's made dancing cookies and singing cakes.  There's
another with the Alchemy Alice who is able to mix potions with strange
effects and another who is able to invent all sorts of strange things, but
none of these simply create things out of thin air and animate them and
their creations tend not to be under the direct control of their Alices
once set into motion.  So you don't fit under that category either."

"So what type do I have?"

"The closest thing we have to your Alice is a girl in the middle school who
can create dozens of copies of herself, but these are all identical to
herself instead of being something different.  She and you fall under the
Special Ability Alice category, which is just our way of saying that we
really don't understand this category very well.  Each Special Ability
Alice tends to be fairly unique."

"I'm used to being something of an oddball, so its no big deal,"  Why did I
feel it when he said my class.  It was like I belonged at this place I'd
never been.

"But in recognition of your obvious power we're assigning you two stars."

"Two stars?"

"It's only provisional at the moment.  Your grades at your previous school
don't really support it, but I sure that if you put a serious effort into
your studies you can keep it up.  Can you do that for me Sana?"

"Yes,"  I looked up into his beautiful eyes again and felt like melting
into my seat.

"And here is your ID card," He handed me a thin wallet, "You must remember
to always carry it with you when you are outside your room.  Can you
promise me that Sana?"

"Yes, of course," I opened it up and it had a photo of me above my basic
details, name, age, weight, blood type, birthday, two stars, Special
Ability Elementary Student Class-B, and so on, "I've never seen this outfit
before."

"That's our school uniform for Elementary School students.  Our students
come from a lot of different family backgrounds, but we want our students
to focus on themselves and their own abilities rather than how rich their
families are.  For the same reason we assign allowances in Rabbits based on
star class, rather than using outside money."

"Yeah, I've had some problems at my old school, because I'm so much richer
than the rest of the class put together."

"So you must always wear your official school uniform when you are out in
public at the school, except for special occasions."

"Yes, no problem."

"Well, here we are."

"We're where?"

"At your dorm, let me show you to your room."

I followed Mr. Narumi as he took out my luggage and went into a four story
building and then up one flight of stairs.

"Here's your room."

I followed him in and looked around, it was definitely smaller than my room
back home.

"Why don't you get changed into your school uniform," he indicated that
unfamiliar outfit, that I somehow had been wearing for that photo, laid out
on the bed , "I'll be waiting outside and then I can introduce you to
someone that I'm sure you'll like."

My eyes followed him to the door and I stood staring at the door even after
he closed it behind him.

Then I jumped back as Babbit appeared in front of the door.

"Sana, he's controlling your mind."

"What?  How dare you say something like that about Mr. Narumi.  He's too
beautiful to be evil."

"Sana, how do you usually feel about beautiful boys?"

"Oh.  You're right.  But I can't help it.  I still want to run out there
right now.  If he'd just hold me in his strong arms I'd happily blab out my
deepest secrets.  What can I do?"

"Relax and don't worry about it.  You've just proved that you're a stronger
Alice than he is."

"What?"

Babbit crossed his wings and hovered in midair while looking down at me.

"Wait, why aren't you affected?"

"I don't know.  He just smells funny to me.  I'll keep watch in the
background and pop up if he tries anything funny, so just act natural and
you won't let him know that you've already overcome his power.  Now he's
waiting for his mind controlled little girl, so you'd better hurry and get
changed."

"Right!"  I stripped down to my underwear and then put on the shirt and
skirt of the uniform, along with the shoes left by my bed.  The skirt was a
little short, but it did show off my legs and I wanted to show them to
Mr. Narumi.  I reached for the doorknob then felt compelled to turn back,
pick up my ID card and place it in my pocket.  I noticed that Babbit had
vanished.

Mr. Narumi was waiting just outside my door, "You look so cute in that
outfit, now let's go show it to one of your new friends," he grabbed my
hand and I followed along blushing furiously as we went down the stairs and
then across a few doors.

Mr. Narumi knocked on a door labeled Imai with his free hand, "Hotaru, I've
got a new student for you to meet."

"Go away," a girl said from behind the door, "I'm busy."

That was fine with me.  Who needed that other girl?  I wanted to spend more
time with Mr. Narumi, alone.

"Oh, I think you'll like to meet this one."

"Very well, let's get this over with," a girl about my height with short
black hair and violet eyes opened the door, stared at me for a moment then
grabbed my collar, "How did you get captured so quickly?"

"Mr. Narumi came to my house and explained the Alice Registration Act to
Mama.  We didn't have a choice."

The girl released me and took a step back, "You're not Mikan!"

"Oh, I'm afraid not.  Hotaru Imai, this is Sana Kurata, she's Mikan's twin
sister."

"My what, what, what?"

"Are you sure?"

"They're the same age and genetically identical, but I'm afraid the rest of
the details are a little obscure at this point.  You'll be her mentor to
show her around the school.  Now I've got some other business to attend to
and you two have a lot of catching up to do.  I'm sure you'll be quite
close," Mr. Narumi waved and walked off.

I kept waving after he had left then turned to Hotaru, "Hi, may I come in?"

"Yes come in," she closed the door behind us then turned to me, "Did you
feel the push behind his last command to become close?"

"Yes, Mr. Narumi controls minds."

"Wrong.  He controls emotions.  There's a difference."

"If he can make you do whatever he wants then what's the difference?"

"He can't make me do anything.  My emotions are not the master of me.  If I
like the general direction he's pushing me then I'll redirect it slightly
to go where I want.  If I don't then I think of something depressing to
cancel it out."

"Like being stuck here for the next seven years?"

"That's not as effective as it used to be.  They pamper me too much and the
most interesting people drop by."

"Ah ha!" Babbit popped up, "Somebody else uses mental powers to cancel out
our dear Mr. Narumi."

"What is that?"

"That's my Alice."

"So you don't have the same Alice as your sister?  Instead you project
illusions?"

"Oh, he's solid enough,"  I grabbed Babbit and handed him to her.

"Hi, my name's Babbit."

"He's the one who figured out what Mr. Narumi was doing."

"Yeah, he smells funny."

"Your Alice figures out things by itself?"

"Babbit's real smart."

"Can it do math?"

"Go ahead and try him."

"Babbit, what is 274,911 divided by 247?"

"Two," "Seven," "Four," "Nine," "One," "One," A row of Babbits popped up in
midair, "divided by," "Two," "Four," "Seven is," another row popped up and
counted off the digits.

"What is it doing?"

"Like any rabbit, Babbit can multiply.  He says it helps him do long
division.  So I've got a sister?  What does she look like?"

"Here," Hotaru took me into her bathroom and pointed at the mirror, "She
looks exactly like that."

"Then how were you able to tell I wasn't her so quickly?"

"Mikan uses Kansai dialect while you are obviously a Tokyo girl."

"Do all Alices have violet eyes?"

"How many Alices have you met?"

"Well, there's you and Mr. Narumi and there was that friend of Mama's.
She's had blue eyes."

"And your eyes?"

"They're brown."

"As are your sister's.  So from the sample size you knew before you asked
the question you might have already guessed that no one eye color dominates
at this school, but brown eyes are the most common.  There are no good
physical markers to rule in or out Alice status.  A much better test is to
look at intelligence.  The average student here is a genius."

"So this is a genius school?  I'm doomed."

"Don't worry, there's plenty of idiots too.  I'm sure you'll fit right in."

"One," "One," "One," "Three," the Babbits announced from the other room.

"Your Alice keeps working even when you're distracted?"

"Yeah, old Babbit's got a mind of his own."

"Old?  I'm only five years old."

"So who are you?"

"Like Mr. Narumi said, I'm Sana Kurata, the TV star."

"I don't watch television."

"What?"

"I'm always too busy.  When I do have time to relax it's usually some
strange hour of the night so I watch a movie on DVD instead."

"Here," I handed her my ID card.

"You're so new that you haven't met a single student and you already have
an ID card?"

"All the details are accurate, as far as I know."

"Smile please," Hotaru looked back and forth between me and the ID, "This
isn't your photo."

"What?"

"It's your sister," she handed it back to me.

"I see, her nose is just a tiny bit off to the left while mine goes to the
right."

"You're looking in a mirror."

"We're identical.  So how could you tell this was her photo?"

"By the smile.  Yours isn't quite as vacantly mindless as hers."

"Thanks, I think.  So you don't watch TV, but I see you've got a lot of
books," I took the chance to look around and saw that her room was bigger
than my new one, but a lot more crowded.  The walls were covered with
bookshelves and the floor was covered with large mechanical parts and
tables of electronics, except for a small space for her bed, wardrobe and
home theater, "Surely you've read something by my Mama, Misako Kurata?"

"What field of science does she write in?"

"None, she writes children's books and novels.  Some of those are based on
things in her and my lives."

"Wait, I might have something,"  Hotaru made her way past the gizmos and
tables of junk and returned with a book, "Here you go,"  It was 'The Gigolo
and I', "I picked this up at the bookshop in Central Town."

"Central Town?"

"It's a shopping center outside of the Elementary School, but still within
the main Academy walls.  This bookstore carries science and general interest
books along with books written by Academy graduates and other famous
Alices.  For some reason they had this one also so I picked it up on a
whim, but the contents are a lot tamer than the title would suggest."

"That's the only book of Mama's you have?  A pity, it ends just before I
was born."

"I must have overlooked the juicy bits.  Which page?"

"I'm adopted."

"Do you know who your and Mikan's real parents are then?"

"I've got no idea," I then did the one thing that I was sure I'd never have
to do after the publication of 'My Daughter and I', I told Hotaru the story
of my life.

I started with the day Mama found me abandoned on a park bench and named me
after the date, March 7th.  How she searched for my birth mother and then
adopted me herself.

Hotaru made some instant tea and I continued with my story about the deal
that Mama and I made to each become famous so that we could find my birth
mother and how I started in theater.

I told Hotaru about my big break on Child's Toy and then I filled in the
missing parts the book neglected to tell about how Babbit started out as my
imaginary friend until one day Mama replied when Babbit spoke to her.

"Who you talking to Mama?"

"This creature here.  What's your name little one?"

"My name's Babbit."

"Yes, Babbit."

"But Babbit don't exist.  He's just pretend."

"Well, then let's pretend together."

As we took turns with Hotaru's shower I explained how Mama had introduced
me to a fan of her writing who had graduated from the Academy years ago and
how Mama had offered to enroll me there.

"But if you go then we won't see each other for many years."

"Then I won't go."

For a few years after that I used Babbit only at home, and at the start I
could only make one Babbit and only for a few minutes a day, but one day I
was bored during a live broadcast of Child's Toy and he popped up and
instantly became one of the most popular parts of the show.

Hotaru lent me her spare underwear and pajamas and it all fit very well, as
we were of the same height and build. We brushed our teeth together and
then I continued with the story of my TV movies and the publication of 'My
Daughter and I' and the fake parents who had shown up and failed every test
Mama thought up for them.

"So the moles on your derriere are birthmarks?"

"Yes, please don't tell anyone about them.  That's one of the tests for my
birth mother that Mama left out of her book."

"Mikan doesn't have those. G-string panties would be a violation of the
dress code, but at least I'll be able to identify your bodies when one of
you shows up dead."

"Does that happen here?"

"Sometimes."

We got into bed and I concluded with Mr. Narumi's two visits and my trip
there.

"That's very interesting,"  Hotaru turned off the light and turned away
from me, "Good night Sana."

As I lay there in the darkness three questions suddenly popped into my
head.  Who was this Hotaru Imai, why hadn't she told me anything about my
sister and what was I doing in her bed?  But I was too tired to make a fuss
about it and soon drifted off to sleep.

==============================

Next chapter: Paper kitten