[Alice Academy][fanfic] A Clockwork Tangerine, Chapter 4.
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 four: Spot.
Monday at breakfast Mikan came to my table with a hurt look, but she
stayed silent so I fed her.
Monday afternoon we continued the training. I asked Mikan to simply point
at my flame whenever she noticed it, while wearing the blindfold. For the
first few times I rushed it directly towards her with an intent to burn
her if she didn't notice it and she spotted it each time.
Then I changed tactics and had the flame circle her at a distance. Every
time she faltered I rushed the flame towards her and thought about burning
her and she'd find it again.
After an hour she was able to spot it consistently, even when I had it
circle her without an intent to harm, so I turned it off and walked around
her while thinking.
Then I noticed that she was pointing at me, "I'm not using my alice."
"Oh?" Mikan paused for a moment, "Yeah, that's right, sorry Natsume."
"No, that's great. Training is over for the day, No-star."
Tuesday afternoon I waited for her to put on her blindfold, then I walked
up and took her left hand, "OK, follow me," I walked her around in
circles for a bit then asked, "Other than me, can you see any other
alices?"
"Yes, there's Ruka," She pointed at him with her free hand, "He's a cute
little bunny. And next to him is Sumire. She's some kind of animal, a
dog, no a cat, no a raccoon?"
"You can't do anything right, can you No-star," Sumire replied.
As I lead her around the campus she was able to name our fellow classmates
and at least guess at the general type of alice for most of the rest.
I stopped in front of two adults, "Who are these?"
"I see a gypsy fortune teller."
"Anybody else?"
"No, not nearby."
"I'm not surprised that you can't sense me Mikan," The middle aged man
replied.
"What?" Mikan took off her blindfold.
"I was only a childhood alice," The man continued, "And now I'm just the
school accountant."
"And that was a very astute guess Mikan," Ms. Yamada said, "Especially
since I'm not carrying my crystal ball with me at the moment."
As we moved on Mikan put her blindfold on again then asked me, "What's a
childhood alice?"
"Didn't your category teacher tell you about Alice forms?"
"No, Mr. Noda's been away all this time."
"Lost in time again no doubt. A childhood alice is an alice that only
exists during the user's childhood and then goes away when they become an
adult."
"That sounds awful."
"At least they get to live long enough to grow up."
"And here's Hotaru," Mikan pointed at her childhood friend, "She's got --
Hotaru!" Mikan pulled off her blindfold and pulled her hand from mine.
She ran over, grabbed Hotaru's face and stared in her eyes. Then she felt
Hotaru's fingers, and moved to hug Hotaru from the side and started
nibbling on Hotaru's earlobe.
Hotaru elbowed Mikan in the gut to get free, "What is wrong with you?"
Mikan fell to the ground. "When I looked at your alice I saw gears and
metal springs and stuff. I thought you had been replaced with a robot."
"Robots don't have alices," Hotaru replied.
"Oh yeah, that's right. Sorry Hotaru."
"OK, since you're just going to be stupid and embarrassing, the training
is over for the day No-star," I turned away and suppressed a chuckle at
the image of the always cool Hotaru as a clockwork mannequin.
That night I only got a few hours sleep before the flames engulfed me
again. I sat up in bed and picked up a pill bottle from my nightstand.
I heard a knock at my door. There could only be one person stupid enough
to bother me in the middle of the night and when I opened my door I saw
that it was indeed Mikan. "Do you always come to boys' rooms in the
middle of the night to have your way with them?"
"I see alices." She stood there in pajamas and bunny slippers.
"Yes stupid, I know that. Now go back to your room and go to sleep."
"I see everybody's alices, all the time. I can't sleep."
"So what did Hotaru say?" I didn't need to ask Mikan if she had gone to
Hotaru first as her naive stupidity makes her very predictable.
"She said she doesn't even bother to try to control her Alice so she
wouldn't know where to start and she called me stupid. Since you're
training me I thought you might know something."
"I only feel my Alice when I'm using it. It isn't on all the time. Come
on in and sit down. Here," I handed her a bottle of water from my
minifridge and got one for myself.
"Thanks. Say, how come this soda doesn't taste like anything?"
"It's mineral water, not soda, stupid. The bubbles are natural gases from
underground."
"Oh. Where's it from?"
"France."
"I wonder what's it like in France?"
"I was sent there once. It's a lot like here. They even have a copy of
the Tokyo Tower in Paris."
"What's a Tokyo Tower?"
"You are so dumb. Here, you can take one of these pills. They've helped
me sleep," I handed her the pill bottle then turned to open the door.
"Thanks!"
I turned back when I heard her take a big chug of water, "No, not now,
when you're back in your room. OK, run up the stairs before that takes
effect."
"Does it work fast?" She tried to stand up and slumped back in the chair.
I considered dragging her to her room, but I wasn't in the mood to explain
any of this to anybody so I carried her to my bed and tucked her in,
"Goodnight No-star."
It wasn't the first time I'd slept on my couch and I woke up sore as
usual. It was still dark out so I went to check on my uninvited guest.
As I approached the bed I noticed a too familiar scent. She hadn't. I
pulled back the covers. She had. I slapped her.
"Huh? What?"
"You wet my bed."
"Your bed?" Mikan looked around my room then down at herself, "Oh, sorry!"
"There's my bathroom, go clean yourself up then get out of here. I'll
kill you when this gets out."
"Don't you mean if?"
"No, too many kids have information finding alices around here. They'll
find out."
I grabbed a few things from my closet then opened the door to my bathroom.
"Eeek!"
"I've got a shower curtain for a reason stupid. It keeps the water from
splashing around."
"Oh sorry," She closed the curtain then turned towards me from behind it,
"Now I can never get married."
"You keep saying that like it's even a possibility."
"It's not a possibility that I won't get married?"
"Not if the Academy has anything to say about it."
"Why should they care?"
"The source of the Academy's power is the alice power. They're not going
to let their most powerful student just walk away. They'll do whatever it
takes to continue and control your bloodline."
"I thought you were the most powerful student?"
"I was, until you turned yourself in at the front gate. I brought you a
spare uniform of mine. Get dressed and get back to your own room before
somebody notices you hanging around here."
"Well I just hope that whoever they pick for me is brave and smart and
good looking and he always fights for what he knows is right."
"You are an idiot," I closed the bathroom door sharply behind me, but I
didn't slam it.
She even took the time to use my hair dryer before she came out, "How do I
look?"
"Like a silly little girl in a boy's silly school uniform."
"It's a little too big for me, especially the underwear."
"Just take your polka dot patties with you. I don't want to explain how
they wound up in my laundry."
"You knocked me out and then you looked at my body!"
"I only looked at you in the shower and I sure didn't want to. I saw them
on the floor of my bathroom."
"It's the only clothes from my old life I get to wear to class, but
they're still damp."
"So wrap them in a towel and get back to your room until you can wash them."
"OK, thanks for everything then."
"Please don't mention it stupid. When you do I'll kill you." I opened my
door and looked around but didn't see anybody so I shooed her out then
started to get ready for the day.
Mikan caught up with me on the way to breakfast, "I think somebody spotted
me on the way to my room."
"Did they or didn't they?"
"I only got one glance. It was somebody on their hands and knees and
there was something about their ears. By the time I looked back they were
gone without making a sound."
"Of all the people you had to show that to. There's no way she'd fail to
catch my scent on you."
"Somebody has an alice like that?"
"She's in our class."
"Who?"
"Work it out stupid. You're the one with the ability to spot alices."
As I feared Sumire was sitting with the other members of her fangirls for
me and Ruka club at breakfast. The entire group was whispering and
looking at me and Mikan. Of course this left Hotaru alone at Ruka's table
and she took advantage of this to pamper Ruka's bunny.
I cut breakfast short and dragged Mikan away.
"Aren't we going to class?"
"No, as long as you're sick, you're going to cause me problems. We're
going to see my second least favorite person, your 'daddy'."
We found Mr. Narumi at the teacher's lounge and I explained Mikan's
insomnia to him, but not her little sleepover.
"Hmmm, that is serious," Mr. Narumi rummaged through his desk, "This is
our most powerful model of control bracelet, but I don't recall anybody
ever having to nullify a nullification alice before. Mikan, I'm going to
put this on you and then you need to see if you can still see our alices,
ok?"
"Sure," She held out her wrist.
"Here goes," He locked it in place and it activated.
"Ow!" Mikan put her other hand around the bracelet, "It hurts!"
"OK, relax and I'll get it off." The bracelet was already smoking when
Mr. Narumi removed it and it continued to spark for a few seconds after he
dropped it to the floor. "There's some feedback element here. I think
that's because it works on the same principle as your own power does
Mikan."
"So, can't I use a ring or earring instead?" She asked.
"Those work in the same way and we can't just keep you drugged all the
time either because of the side effects. No, I'm going to have to assign
you to the Insanity Inducing Alices group."
"Is that a sixth group, like the Special Abilities alices?" she asked.
"No, it's a study group for alices of all types that have the potential to
affect the user's own mind. We meet every Thursday afternoon, but I'm
going to get somebody to help you today. You like Misaki Harada, don't
you?"
"Yeah, she's great. Does her alice drive her crazy?"
"When she splits off into multiple bodies her mind splits also and it
takes her a bit of an effort to pull it together afterwards. I'll have
her start you on yoga and meditation today and let's see if you can get
some sleep tonight."
That sounded kind of boring, but at least Mikan was out of my hands for a
while. Not having anything better to do I returned to class, just after
first period.
Ruka and his rabbit looked up as I entered the classroom, "Where's Mikan?"
"She's got a medical problem."
"What?" Sumire sprang to her feet.
Hotaru dropped the book she was reading.
Ruka fell out of his seat.
The rest of the class turned to me with jaws agape.
That was a much stronger reaction than I had expected. What had Sumire
told them all? "It's not that big a deal. She's just been assigned to
the Crazy Alices group, cause the problem is all in her empty head."