[FFML] [xover][Kodocha/Alice Academy/RoD/GK] Sana's Alice, Chapter 7.

[Henry Cobb]

[xover][Kodocha/Alice Academy/RoD/GK] Sana's Alice, Chapter 7.
By Henry J. Cobb

Gakuen Alice is the creation of Higuchi Tachibana.  Kodomo no Omocha is the
creation of Miho Obana.  Read or Dream is the creation of Hideyuki
Kurata. Ginban Kaleidoscope is the creation of Rei Kaibara.  This parody is
not intended to cause any damage to these properties.

Previously: Misako Kurata's latest bestselling book in Japan, "My
Daughter and I", tells how Sana Kurata, her eleven year old adopted
daughter, came to be the co-star of the television series Kodocha.
She neglected to mention in her book that Sana has a budding
relationship with Akito Hayama and that Babbit, the sidekick of the
television show, is not a puppet or computer generated image but an
actual small plastic balloon bat/rabbit sentient creature that Sana
summons with the use of her superhuman power or Alice.

Because Sana is an Alice she has been forced to transfer to the
maximum security boarding school run by the Japanese government called
Alice Academy.  At the Academy Sana has been entranced, attacked,
humiliated, hazed and idolized.  Although Sana is one of the most
famous girls in Japan, she was unknown at the Academy and is often
mistaken for her twin sister Mikan Sakura, who ran off with a boy from
her class.

The only clue to Mikan's location that Sana and Hotaru Imai have found is a
mention from James King of the British Library Service and Anita King's
presumptive father.  But there seems to be some connection between Anita
and Yomiko Readman, a former student of the Academy.

The full chapters can be found at
http://www.io.com/~hcobb/anime/fanfic/sana_alice.html

Chapter Seven: Three Mothers, Three Daughters.

"I am such a dummy."

"And it took you this long to figure that out Sana?"

I waited in Hotaru's doorway for a moment, but she didn't look up from her
computer so I continued, "Mama was using the same Alice as yours in order
to hide a secret and I pried it out of her, but anybody can read it off
me."

"You're simply too honest and open for your own good.  So what's this dark
secret?"

"Mama knows where Yomiko Readman is."

"Oh?  Did she say where she was?"

"No, but now she knows that I know that she knows."

"Did you at least let her get off campus before running over here?"

"Yeah, well I'm not that dumb."

"Good, because Ms. Readman is a terrorist."

"What?"

"The British have her listed as a wanted person, but the Japanese don't."

"Mama would never harbor a terrorist."

"Let's go to the hospital after class."

"Uh, why?"

"To visit my big brother."

"Oh, is he any better?"

"No," Hotaru turned back to her computer and after a moment I closed her
door and set off to breakfast.

I brought flowers when I met Hotaru at the hospital.

"I don't think he'll notice those, in his state," she took my hand.

"They say that talking to plants makes them grow so maybe adding plants to
his room will make him talk."

"Right.  Hopefully he's allergic."

Tazusa was sitting next to the bed where Hotaru's brother lay, "Hello you
two.  Look Imai, it's your sister and her friend Sana and they've brought
fresh flowers."

Hotaru's brother lay there and did not respond at all.

"When he collapsed over you Sana I reached out with my Alice and snatched
this joker instead,"  Tazusa pointed at her own head,  "but thankfully
neither of you were actually dead.  Would you like some time with your
brother Hotaru?"

"No thanks, we just had time to drop by.  Be seeing you,"  Hotaru grabbed
my wrist and lead me from the room.

Outside I shifted around to lock my pinkie over hers, "Once he's back on his
feet let's get those two to confess to each other, agreed?"

"Agreed, but I don't think he's going to make it like this.  Since you
won't help him there's only one person who can."

"Stop confusing me with Mikan.  She's got her Alice and I have mine.  There
is no overlap."

"Come to my lab and bring Anita and nobody else.  Agreed?"

"Yes."

I almost followed her instructions.

"Why did you bring Aoi?"

"The barrier blocks my Alice right?  So if I go outside the barrier and she
stays inside then her Babbit glasses will go poof and she'll be blind."

"So you'd rather take a blind girl out where people can shoot at her than
leave her in her room?"

"Sana, are you going somewhere?," Aoi grabbed my hand.

"Actually you might have the right idea Sana," Hotaru shut the hood on a
kid sized car with two seats in front and a bench seat in the back, "Aoi
might prove more useful bait than Anita if Anita's mother doesn't know
where Mikan is then she might still be with Aoi's brother."

"You know where Persona is?"

"Your real brother," Hotaru turned around and stopped.

Tazusa was standing there, "Where are you going?"

I stepped up, "We're going to find my sister.  She's the only one who can
save Hotaru's brother now.  Please don't stop us."

"I'm in.  It sounds better than my excuse for breaking out of here."

"What?"

"Some creep uploaded an edited copy of my video to the Internet with
himself pasted in the place of my phantom partner.  I guess I can wait to
kill him until after Imai-san is available to bring the creep back to life
so I can do it again."

"Your brother can't really raise the dead, can he?"  I tried hard to not
think of reasons why Hotaru might have wanted Tazusa along.

"Of course not.  The dead are beyond the reach of any Alice."

How could Hotaru say that in front of Tazusa?

"You are so like your brother.  I call shotgun."

"I don't have one.  It's too clumsy of a weapon, but yes the three little
kids can fit in the back."

"I am not little!"

Hotaru ignored Anita's interjection and continued to address Tazusa, "It's
good to have another English speaker around if we have to deal with the
British."

"Oh, that's because her first two ghosts were Canadians."

"Her current ghost is Japanese, but he was raised in Canada."

"Oh somebody's been doing her homework," Tazusa patted Hotaru on the head,
"I'd say how bizarre it was to have an Alice that only works on Canadian
ghosts, but I've got an Alice that works on ghosts, so I can't complain."

"I'd kill you for that, but I need your Alice and I hope to be on good
terms with my brother in the future."

"Good luck with that.  It'll still be more than three months before I can
use my Alice again."

"You're just along for the template.  Now, everybody take out your student
IDs and leave them on my desk."

I pulled the ID out of my shirt and stood there, unable to let go.

"If you're going to be a good little mind controlled student then perhaps
you should just stay here.  It suits you,"  Hotaru grabbed my ID and tossed
it to the far side of her workroom.

My eyes followed its path, but I didn't resist as she pushed me into the
back of her car.  Aoi and Anita got in on either side of me then Tazusa and
Hotaru got in the front.

"Template?"  Tazusa fastened her seat belt, "You want Mikan to copy my
Alice?  So she can disintegrate people and grab their souls at the same
time?  It sounds like the perfect crime, but I couldn't live with the ghost
of somebody I'd murdered."

"Then I won't tell you how your Alice actually works."

I interrupted to stop them before Tazusa started hitting Hotaru, or worse
yet used her borrowed Alice to make jokes, "Does this car fly?"

"Not this one," Hotaru hit a switch to open the garage doors then backed
out onto the street.

"Then how are we going to get through the barrier?"

"There's a hole in it," Hotaru hit the accelerator and I could hear the
whine of the electric motor behind me through the body of the car.

The guard stood for a moment in our headlights then jumped to the side of
the road as we headed for the academy's main gate.

I crossed my arms in front of my face then a moment later dropped them and
looked back.  The gate had opened for us. "How did you do that?"

"Oh they'll work that out eventually.  I'll have to find another way out
next time.  Perhaps with Mikan or you'll meet your section adviser and
we'll be able to walk out of the barrier before the Academy ever existed."

I could see that Hotaru was still confused about my Alice, "Why are you
driving so fast and weaving back and forth?"

"One of the highschool students has a kinetic energy barrier.  I have to
stay above her limit in case she gets teleported in front of us.  The
controls are also electric so they can't risk shorting out the engine or
knocking me out.  We're about to hit the public roads now so hold on for a
moment."

We ran through five green lights in a row then got up onto the elevated
highway.  "Okay Sana,"  Hotaru patted the dashboard, "Put a Babbit here."

"Sure,"  I blinked and he was sitting there.

"I understand the urgency, but I can't say I approve of the methods."

Hotaru interrupted him, "Now another one outside."

"Why?"

"We're outside the barrier.  It's a straight run to your house.  Hurry
before we're stopped."

"Yes!  Babbit go to Mama!"  A second Babbit appeared outside the window
then flew off into the distance.

"How can he fly so fast?"  Anita looked in the direction he had gone.

"I figured out a while ago that Babbit doesn't fly adiabatically."

"Aerodynamically," Hotaru and the Babbit in front corrected together.

"So he goes just as fast as I think he can, up to some limit.  And I'm in a
hurry right now."

"Babbit," Hotaru talked to the one on her dashboard, "What's your ETA?"

"Thirty seconds.  Still no signs of strain from Sana."

"Good, go full duplex and simply repeat what you hear from the other side."

"Understood."

I didn't like the way Hotaru was bossing my Alice around, "Why not make a
phone call or go visit?"

"Oh hello Babbit," Babbit was copying Mama's voice and had even put on a tiny
plastic hat with a little bitty plastic Maro perched in it, "What brings
you here?"

"Ms. Kurata, I'm Hotaru Imai, a classmate of Sana's.  As you can see we are
temporarily outside the school's barrier so she can use her Alice.  We're
in a bit of hurry so we're using this method to contact you."

"Interesting,"  Babbit turned to Hotaru and touched a wing to his chin.

"We're looking for somebody who attended the Academy over a decade ago and
then went overseas.  A lady who had a talent with cards.  We've got a
current student I think she'd like to meet."

"Sana," Babbit turned and pointed at me with a fan just the way Mama would,
"Is miss Imai a bit of a writer?"

"Uh yes, she's been selected to write the class play."

"I thought I saw something in her eyes,"  Mama Babbit turned back to
Hotaru, "To find the one you seek, turn over an old leaf, but don't go
inside."

"Understood.  Sana, cut the link."

"But I wanted to talk to Mama."

"Do you want to get her into anymore trouble?"

"I guess not.  Bye Mama, see you soon!"  I banished both Babbits, then
looked at Hotaru's eyes reflected in the rear view mirror, there was
something familiar about them, "Don't use your Alice while driving!"

"Don't worry, I'm very good at multitasking."

"That's what Mama said before they took her license away.  Now it's all
about how not driving gives her more time to write and she still crashes
that mini car into the house walls."

"It's cool,"  Hotaru took the next exit, tuned off on a side street then
spun the wheel and slammed on the breaks.

I was held in place as both Aoi and Anita held onto me.  We had stopped in
front of a large building.

"Get out now!"  Hotaru undid her seat belt and stepped out of the car.  The
rest of us followed and then the car drove off by itself.  "It's an
autopilot, but the academy might get it at any time so don't count on it
being available later," Hotaru turned to Anita, "Get over there and do your
thing."

"The National Library?"  Anita sunk her fingers into my arm, "We're not
going in there, are we?"

"That's not our instructions.  Just stand in front of the building and do
something with your Alice that can be seen from a distance."

"Okay," Anita took out a pack of index cards and tossed them one by one up
into the air and had them spiral back into her hand from 20 meters up.

"You're not supposed to use your Alice in public Anita,"  It was
Mr. Narumi.  How had he gotten there?  Some other Alice must have brought
him over, most likely teleporation.

"Sorry,"  Anita held up her hand and the cards settled down into them.

"Now, let's all go back to the Academy, eh?"  Mr. Narumi looked at the
cards which seemed to be yanked from Anita's hand as she reached for them.

The cards raced to Mr. Narumi and covered him head to toe.  He just had
time to say "Mmmhp!" before he fell over.

"I should have done that years ago,"  It was a woman in an overcoat, she
had huge glasses and unkempt long black hair.

"It's Ms. Readman!"

"Oh, hello Sana.  My how you've grown."

"How did you do that?"  Anita looked from her empty hand to where
Mr. Narumi was wrapped up like a mummy.

"I'm your mother silly", Ms. Readman stepped up to run her fingers through
Anita's hair.

"No,"  Anita backed away, "My mother's dead.  My father killed her."

"Oh, you know about that already,"  Ms. Readman adjusted her glasses,
"Don't blame Dr. King for that.  I'm the one most responsible for
Mrs. King's death."

This was spiraling out of control and the last thing we needed right then
was for Anita to go berserk again so I interrupted, "Have you seen Mikan?"

"Mikan?  Which Mikan?"

"My twin sister, she looks just like me."

"You have a sister?  That wasn't in your mother's book,"  Ms. Readman
looked over at  Mr. Narumi, "Let's hurry along and talk elsewhere.  I have
to let the poor thing breathe, I just don't want him breathing on me."

"Okay, this has been a dead end," Hotaru turned to Ms. Readman, "My brother
is dying because he overused his Alice and Mikan is our only hope to save
him.  Will you help us find her?"

"I'll do what I can."

"Let's split up.  Anita is with me, Tazusa goes with Ms. Readman and Sana
goes with Aoi.  That gives one Alice who is resistant to mind control and
one Alice with a physical power in each group.  Here are your
destinations,"  Hotaru handed folded pieces of paper to Tazusa and I, "Now
Sana, make a Babbit for each of the other two groups."

"Sure," I nodded and Babbits appeared next to Hotaru and Tazusa.

"I want to go with Sana!" Anita complained.

"That doesn't match the requirements.  Do you want my brother to die?"
Hotaru grabbed Anita by the arm and walked away with a Babbit flying after
them.

"Be seeing you then,"  I read the note with my right hand as I took Aoi's
hand in my left.  The address wasn't too far away and we could walk there.

On the way there we passed a boy who was wearing a baseball cap.  I stepped
to the side because he was wearing sunglasses, even at night.

The boy stopped and looked at me, "Why are you in an Alice Academy uniform
here?"

"Oh, I'm a student there.  We're just on a sightseeing trip."

He raised his hand and pointed at me.

Aoi jumped between us, "Don't!"

Flame spat from his hand and covered her.

Somehow above the roar of the flames I could hear her Babbit sunglasses
popping, "Aoi!"  I reached for her, but she was unharmed.

"Aoi?"  The boy stopped.

"Yes,"  I looked her over, "Don't worry Aoi, you're fine.  It's your Alice
ability to resist all fire that saved you, but how could you know?"

"I could feel it.  His power,"  She still stood in front of me with arms
outstretched.

"It can't be,"  He looked at her, "You died.  I saw your body.  And what is
wrong with your eyes?"

"She's blind,"  I risked closing my eyes for a moment to concentrate then
handed Aoi another copy of her glasses.

She felt them with her fingers, put them on, then spoke to them, "Babbit,
who is this boy?"

"I don't know,"  They responded, "Neither Sana nor I have seen him before."

The boy grabbed Aoi's hand, but she jerked out of his grip and stood
between us.

"You are not the Mirror Man, he can't materialize solid objects,"  The boy
faced me, "So who are you, and why do you look like Mikan?"

"You know about Mikan?  Great!  I'm her sister, Sana Kurata, world famous
TV star."

"Yes.  I know that Sana is her sister and that she is at the Academy, but
why would you be here?"

"Well, who are you?"

"I'm Aoi's brother, Natsume Hyuuga."

At that moment Aoi's glasses spoke with Hotaru's voice, "Sana, did you find
one of them?"

"He says he's Natsume."

"Show him your note.  Natsume, is that the right address?"

"Yeah.  So you make walkie-talky sunglasses now Hotaru?"

"It's Sana's Alice.  Okay, Sana, leave Aoi with her brother and run to that
address."

"But --"

"Don't argue.  The Academy is closing in and we haven't much time.  Aoi
would slow you down and you are the one that Mikan needs to see.  I'll be
right there."

I ran a few blocks and then stopped and backed around a corner when I saw
him, "Akito..."

Babbit popped up next to me, "Do you really want to get him involved in
this?"

"No, I guess."

At that moment a girl walked past Akito.  He turned to look at her walking
away then ran after her, "Sana!"

She ran off.

"See how Akito sees through my disguises everytime?  I admit it's just a
wig and sunglasses, but he only took one glance to see it's me."

"Sana, you're you."

"Oh,"  I turned to Babbit and then back to Akito chasing after that girl,
"Then that must be Mikan.  My tramp sister is trying to steal my
boyfriend!"

"She's not the one who's chasing him --"

I clapped Babbit to pop him then ran after the pair, "Akito!"

"Sana?"  He turned to me.

"Don't stop.  Catch her!  Mikan, I'm your sister!"

She stopped and turned towards me.  She looked at me for a moment, "That
ain't an Alice disguise."

At that moment Hotaru ran up and pointed at me, "Mikan, quick, copy Sana's
Alice!"

"She ain't got no Alice and I don't copy Alices."

"You don't have to hide it anymore, I saw you disintegrate Persona using
your Alice."

"Mikan killed Persona?"  Aoi asked, then yanked her hand out of her
brother's.

"That's the point.  I used my Alice to nullify the protections Persona was
using.  He blew himself up."

"How can you say I'm not an Alice?  How about this?"  Babbit seemed to
resist but I forced him to appear in front of Mikan.

"Uh, hi there."

She jumped back and stared at him.

"That isn't an Alice, is it?"  Hotaru walked up to Mikan.

"No, it's fake, but not like what Mama does.  It's a bunch of different
Alices, only they're kinda mixed all together."

"And the reason why you thought Sana wasn't an Alice?"

"She got the same Alice as mine, but how she do that?"

Hotaru said some things in different languages, and it didn't sound very
nice, "That's just great.  One of the wonder twins can't see and the other
can't do.  So you've found your mother?"

"Yes, she's just this way."

"And she steals Alices?"

"Yes, how'd you know that?"

"Let's go see her and I'll explain everything.  Are we being tracked?"

"There was a trace on Sana, but I've misdirected it."

"We don't have much time then.  Let's get indoors."

"Yes, you'd best take cover,"  It was a big blond man who spoke with an
American accent.

"Mr. Anderson,"  Ms. Readman adjusted her glasses with her left hand as her
right prepared a set of paper cards, "What are you doing here?"

"I had a buddy in the British special forces who had to retire because he
lost an eye to a paper card so I knew you'd be in on it."

"Sorry about that," Anita also drew some cards.

"But he said the thing that troubled him most was that they used live
ammunition on children.  So he wanted me to come ask, how many did they
kill?"

"Only Hotaru and I were shot and we're fine now,"  I pointed at Hotaru, "Is
that it?"

"That'll be a relief to my buddy.  He said the next stage of the British
plan involved a famous Japanese writer who was secretly an Alice."

"Mama!"  I felt a cold hand on my heart.

Next: Reap or Die