Chapter Text
We ran to the Northern Woods as fast as I could, and when we got there, we kept running. I could tell that Natsume was monitoring his speed so that I wouldn't get lost. It annoyed me.
I ran a little faster, my breaths coming in short gasps. Natsume looked at me in approval. Was this part of my training?
I didn't want to slow down, so I didn't ask.
Finally, we reached a clearing some way into the 'Woods, and Natsume stopped there.
I nearly collapsed onto all fours, but I held myself up and tried to breath normally. Tried to slow my breathing down at least a little.
"Water!" Natsume barked at me and threw something at me.
I somehow caught it on reflex, and saw that it was a water bottle. I drank greedily.
"Don't drink it so fast, you'll get a stomach ache." I drank slower. "Don't drink it all, either! That's all the water we're allowed to bring while training. One bottle per pair."
I stopped drinking after hearing that. Were they trying to kill us by dehydration?
"What...the...hell?" I gasped out. Somehow, drinking the water had helped me regain my breath, but I was still breathing hard.
"Endurance."
I gave him the water bottle, and he put it back in his pocket.
"What's next?"
"Block my alice."
A small flame appeared on his pointer finger. It went away almost as soon as it'd appeared; I didn't want him using his Alice. He'd get hurt.
"You have to let me attack you."
"You just said to block your Alice. That doesn't mean you have to attack me, that just means I have to stop you from hurting me with it. If you can't use it, you can't hurt me with it."
"You wanna see how long it'll take you to pass out when you have five people surrounding you, all with some type of Alice that can attack you, and you're nullifying every one of their Alices at the same time?" I gulped and shook my head. "How about ten, or fifty?" I shook my head harder. "Just block my attacks, Polka."
Another small flame appeared on his pointer finger. He flicked it at me, and I nullified it almost as soon as it left his body.
"Wait until it gets closer to you! Using your Alice at a distance is harder than at close range."
Another small flame. This time I waited until it would have touched me before nullifying it. My uniform got singed. Another one, and nothing happened. It flew at me, got real close, but never hit. It just disappeared.
A fireball from his palm, this time. Same effect.
A bigger one. Same effect. Nullification was the easy part. It was the Steal Alice I needed to train.
"This is pointless, Natsume. I can block your attacks easily. What I can't do easily is steal your Alice."
"Fine, come try and steal my Alice, then. It's next anyway."
I went up to him and focused on my right hand. I put it to his chest, and thought Come out. Give me his Alice. COME! It didn't work. I tried again, Take the power away. Again, it didn't work. I tried removing the Alice in a million different ways. None of them worked.
Finally I tried thinking Save him from his Alice. A small stone began to form in my hand. I was so surprised I almost dropped it, but I managed to hold onto it. And what was more, I managed to keep taking it.
I kept adding to the Alice stone until it stopped. I guessed that meant I'd taken the whole thing. His stone was red, blue, orange, yellow, and white. Just like the flames he could make with his Alice. It was a beautiful Alice stone.
Natsume and I were both breathing hard; me, from using my Alice, and Natsume from having his Alice pulled out of him slowly. I didn't know what it felt like, to have his Alice stolen by me slowly like that, but I guessed it hurt. A lot.
"Natsume?" I said slowly. I wanted to know if he was okay.
"Don't worry about me. Put my Alice back and steal it again. Faster, this time."
"I don't want to hurt you!"
"I'll be fine, Polka. Just steal the damn Alice."
Putting his Alice back was hard. I had to place it in the exact same place where I'd extracted it from. I eventually found the place, though, and gave him back his Alice. Then I started the process of taking it out again.
I did it in a place that would be easier to find, this time. Right over his belly button. It seemed to be easier there. Or maybe it was just because it was the second time. This time, instead of thinking Save him from his Alice dejectedly, as I had before, I thought it with conviction. I screamed it out in my head, and the Alice came out much faster than before. I hoped it would work like this with other people as well, not just Natsume. Otherwise I couldn't use my Alices in battle.
I put the Alice back in. It hadn't seemed to hurt him as much, this time. I was pretty tired, though. I wasn't used to using my Alices.
"That's good. Practice your Steal Alice tomorrow before practice. Don't tell the people what you're doing. Just take their Alices."
"Do WHAT? I'm not stealing peoples' Alices! That's horrible!"
"Do you want Persona to punish you for not doing what he says? This says to use your Steal Alice on random people throughout he day."
I couldn't believe this. It was horrible! Persona-sensei couldn't really want me to steal peoples' Alices.
"Natsume, I-"
"Mikan just do whatever the fuck he tells you to, okay?"
Natsume had never called me by my name and cursed at me in the same sentence. He'd never said my name with anger before. He'd never been so harsh. It reminded me of the first time I'd met him. Not when he pulled down my skirt, but after. When we were in these same woods, and he'd threatened Hotaru, Inchou, and finally me.
He hadn't scared me since then, but I was scared of him now. I nodded meekly.
As soon as I did that, he looked contrite, and he softened his next words a little.
"This also says you need to learn a bunch of hand-to-hand combat moves. I'm not going to hold back, but if you say 'stop' I'll stop and let you rest for a bit."
"Okay," I didn't want to anger him again, so I agreed immediately. "What's first?"
First, he showed me how to stand.
"Feet a little more than shoulder width apart and parallel. Hands hanging loose at your sides. Back straight but relaxed. Head up, neck relaxed. Chin down! Don't EVER point your chin up. That gives people a clear shot to your throat."
I did as I was told. The sun was going down, now. I hoped I wouldn't have to do this all night. I needed some sleep, at least, or I'd be practically dead in the morning.
When Natsume was happy with my stance, he had me stand there, still, for ten minutes. He counted.
It was hard, especially my arms. I'd wanted to move them. Maybe swing them back and forth a little, but I couldn't. The first three times I couldn't do it. Some part of my body betrayed me. Maybe my eyes darting to one side, or my fingers twitching. I could never tell, but he always could.
Finally, on the fourth try, I got it. I stood perfectly still, not moving a single muscle, for ten minutes.
"Done," said Natsume suddenly, and I immediately collapsed in on myself. It wasn't that the position was uncomfortable - quite the contrary, it made my back feel wonderful, and it made me feel as though I could move any way I wanted to - but it was still hard to stay perfectly still for ten minutes straight. Nearly impossible, really, but I'd finally done it.
"Why'd you collapse?"
"Because that was hard, idiot."
"Don't collapse. You can move and stretch, but never collapse completely. You should stand like that all the time, from now on. Try to sit in that position, too, until you feel you could slip into that position and stay there forever. Once you do that, you don't need to practice it anymore."
"Have you done that?" I asked, incredulous.
"Yes. Next, show me how to punch."
"Do what?"
"Punch me as hard as you can, Polka."
I looked at him, incredulous once again, but did as I was told. I punched him in the arm, about a fist length below his shoulder. He actually winced.
"Good, but how'd you know to punch there?"
"What?"
"Punching there hard enough can dead-arm me."
"Do what?" I was confused. I didn't know what he was talking about. All I'd done was punch him.
"It means that punching me there renders my arm useless for a certain amount of time. There's a nerve there that connects to the whole arm. Hit it hard enough, and the nerve will send huge pain signals to the muscles, rendering the arm useless for a bit."
"You mean like a pressure point?"
"Yes."
"Oh. Why can't you just say pressure point?"
"You need to know that it can dead-arm a person, not just that there's a pressure point there, and that you should aim for the pressure point."
"Oh. Okay! What next?" I wasn't scared anymore, because I knew at least one place where I could hit back if we had to practice fighting.
"Kick me." I brought my leg back… "Not in the crotch! During a real fight, yes, but not right now. Anywhere else."
I smiled a devilish smile and kicked in hard in the shin. As I was wearing boots, I expected it to hurt. I was right, he winced again.
"Very good, Polka," he said. "Again, that's a good place to hit during a fight. It's not a pressure point, exactly, but it always hurts to get kicked there, no matter what. Well," he amended. "Almost always. Obviously if there's no force behind it at all, it's not going to hurt. Or if it's a normal two to four year old it probably wont hurt either. I remember Youichi once kicked me hard enough to make me cry out a little during a training session, though. This back when he was four."
"You-chan hurt you that badly when he was FOUR?" Natsume nodded. I really had to remember not to get on that kid's bad side. He already controlled spirits, I didn't want to get hurt by You-chan himself on top of that.
"Okay, now stretch."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because I'm going to teach you how to really fight, and I don't want you to pull a muscle when we do that. Persona'll still make you go on the mission, even if you're injured."
"Oh, yeah. I wanted to ask you about that. Is that normal? To have a mission so soon?"
"Not necessarily. It all depends, really. Most of the time the higher-ups needs time to see what exactly you can do. In your case, that's not true. They already know that you can use your Alices, and they know your strength. Shadow had his first mission two weeks after he was transferred. Now, stretch."
I did as I was told, stretching as if I was going to run a race. I finished and said, "I'm ready!"
"No, you're not. Did you stretch your back? Your fingers? How about your hips, or your neck? Hit all those places, and stretch the rest longer. I won't hold back in a fight."
I did as I was told, again. I made sure to pull my joints near to the breaking point, so as to stretch "enough."
"There. Now I'm done."
Natsume came at me without warning, and hit me in the gut. He'd lied, thank God. He'd held back a little. Even so, all the air was knocked out of me, and I flew backward.
"Defend yourself," he said, a little too late.
"What the hell was that for?"
"If I'm an enemy, I'm not going to come up to you and tell you, 'I'm going to fight you now. Get ready.' An enemy will come up to you without warning and kill you without a second thought. A good punch to the gut will do that, by the way. You just have to be strong enough."
"You mean you could have killed me?" My voice was shrill. He could have killed me with that punch! What the hell was wrong with him?
"I- What? No! No, Mikan. I made sure to temper my blow. That's part of the reason I had you hit and kick me before. So I could know how strong you are."
I stared at him; I still on the ground. He offered me his hand, and I took it and stood up. I knew I was glaring at him. Not my usual, you're-such-an-annoying-pervert glare, but a real glare. An I'm-scared-so-the-only-thing-I-can-do-to-protect-myself-is-be-angry glare. He looked hurt, but he also looked like he understood.
"Okay, I won't do that again until you've learned to fight. Okay?" I still glared at him. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, as if it was hard to say. He really did sound sorry...I gave him a small smile, showing that I'd forgiven him. He looked relieved, but also as if it hurt him that I couldn't give him a real smile. Well, my stomach still hurt, didn't it?
"Lets go again, huh?"
He nodded and went to his fighting stance. He'd called it neutral before, I remembered. I did too.
"What's the first thing you do in a fight?"
"Attack?"
"No. Think, Polka. What do you think is the most important thing, apart from winning?"
I thought. If attacking wasn't the first thing, then defense wouldn't be either, because then both people would be defending against nothing. I wish I'd known Natsume was coming- Oh! That was it.
"Figure out where the other person's going to attack first, and how they're gonna attack."
"Wow, Polka. You actually figured it out on the second try." That was as close as a compliment I was ever going to get with Natsume as my teacher, I figured. "Yes. The first step is to observe the other person. Look for the smallest movements possible. A single twitch could give away their movement."
I finally got the point of the standing still exercise. I looked at Natsume's face, but my eyes got lost in his. I tore my eyes away, and instead looked at his body. A little easier. I felt his eyes on me. I didn't move.
"Natsume?"
"What, Polka?"
"Is it okay for me to attack now?"
"Technically, yes. But right now I want you to wait for me to attack."
I stood still again, staring at his chest.
We were perfectly still for what felt like forever, but was probably only a few seconds.
Then, suddenly, he came at me. I hadn't seen it coming at all, but I managed do dodge the worst of it. He grazed my arm. I pushed both my hands at him as hard as I could, intending to push him to the ground. I succeeded only in making him stagger slightly, before he turned to me and continued his assault.
I dodged, spun, ducked, jumped, did everything I could not to get hit. I couldn't get a single hit on him, though. I kept trying, but while I was like a kitten, plodding along play-fighting, he was a panther. He was strong and graceful, never missing a step, never stumbling.
He also kept landing blows on me. One to my arm, which I'd put up to block my face. Then to my side, which I hadn't been able to avoid or block. A kick to my thigh, my back, my butt.
I could tell he was going easy on me, and that made me mad. He wasn't supposed to go easy on me. He was supposed to fight.
Suddenly, I saw a slight opening in his fighting. He was coming at me with a punch to the face, and I leaned to the right (he was aiming for my left), causing him to miss me completely. The momentum of his punch made him keep going, making it easy for me to catch his left arm and pull it sharply behind him.
Me grabbing him sent us both off balance, but it was Natsume who took it hardest. It wrenched his shoulder out of his socket, but I didn't notice. I kept coming at him, lost in the fight and seeing only his weakness - my advantage.
I grabbed Natsume's other arm and pulled him around, shoving the heel of my palm into his jaw. It hurt me, but was worse on him. His head snapped back, the force of my thrust sending him onto his back on the ground. He started to get up, but I straddled him and punched him in the face, and he lay still.
When that happened, I finally stopped. My battle lust over, I looked down at my boyfriend this time, not my enemy. I was horrified by what I saw. I got off him quickly, not wanting to cause him any more pain.
He looked dead.
I started to freak out, but then his eyes fluttered, and he groaned and rolled onto his side into a fetal position. I must have accidentally gotten his stomach with my foot or something when I straddled him, I thought as I looked at him.
Had it been anyone else, I still would have freaked, but I would have expected it, too. After all, it had to hurt to be beaten up like that.
But it was Natsume. Natsume who never showed his pain. Natsume who, when we were kidnapped by the AAO, had used his Alice while exhausted from a mission and from Reo's Alice. Natsume, who would rather hurt himself to protect someone than protect himself at the cost of another's pain.
Natsume did not show pain. Ever. Not unless it hurt so badly that he couldn't help it.
"Natsume?" I asked tentatively. I got a groan in response. "NATSUME! Are you okay? Oh, my God! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you. Natsume? Hey, Natsume!"
I was kneeling next to him. He was on his back. His chin looked...unnatural. Broken. BROKEN?
"Natsume?" I asked urgently. "Hey, Natsume, are you okay?"
All I got in response was a weird groaning grunt that sounded kind of like "Mm fn."
"I'm taking you to the hospital. Hotaru's brother should be able to help you."
I carefully picked him up, not wanting to hurt him, and helped him stand. He put his arm on my shoulders and I helped him towards the hospital. As we walked, I noticed his face was bruising horribly. It already looked black.
When we got to the hospital, the nurse at the desk looked at us, horrified.
"What happened?" she nearly yelled.
"Training. Hand to hand combat. My first time," I said. I was short of breath from carrying him all the way from the Northern Woods to the hospital.
"Jesus, miss, couldn't you two have gone easy on each other?" the nurse asked as she rang Imai-senpai's office over the intercom. "Oh, I'm sorry, miss. Please hold on a second. Dr. Imai? I have Natsume Hyuuga and a girl here. His jaw looks like it might be broken and he's semi-unconscious." There was a pause while Imai-senpai said something. "Yes. Yes, I know he wasn't supposed to be training again so soon." Pause. "Yes, Doctor." Pause. "Well, all we can do is heal him; we can't control Persona." Pause. "Oh, of course," she said with obvious sarcasm and scorn in her voice. "Persona-sensei. They should have left that man locked up when he was a child." I flinched at the reference to my father's death. "Thank you, Doctor. That would be greatly appreciated." She hung up the phone, and turned back to me. "Dr. Imai can see you both. You look pretty beaten up too, miss…?"
"Sakura. Sakura Mikan."
She looked taken aback, but controlled her expression quickly. "Of course, Sakura-san. Here. I'll take Natsume to his usual room. You should come too, so we can get some of those bruises taken care of and make sure you don't have anything too serious."
I gave her Natsume, and we went to a private room. Imai-senpai was already there, and he gave a small start of surprise when he saw me.
"Mikan-chan, what are you doing here?"
"I'm the one who broke Natsume's jaw."
The nurse put Natsume on the bed, then nodded to Imai-senpai and left. Imai-senpai began healing Natsume's wound.
"What's the meaning of that, Mikan-chan? Surely you weren't training with him?"
"I was, Senpai."
He stopped healing Natsume and looked at me sharply. "You joined the Dangerous Abilities class?"
"Yes."
"You idiot," he said, turning back to Natsume. "You do realize that Natsume has been fighting for you not to be in the Dangerous Abilities class since you got back?"
"I-I know. But he...he needed help, and...I'm the only one who can help him."
"You can't leave now that you're in that class, Mikan-chan, but the best way to help right now would probably have been if you hadn't joined."
"He was going to die! He was using his Alice too much. I couldn't just sit there and watch it happen, never doing anything to help."
Natsume's jaw was back to normal. The only indication that there'd ever been anything wrong with it in the first place was a slight bruise.
"That bruise'll go away in a day or so. I healed his previous wounds as well. Let me look at your injuries."
"I'm fine. All I've got are a few bruises."
"A few bruises could mean anything. Come here."
He healed my bruises quickly, and I took a small part of his Alice. I wouldn't take it all; that would be horrible of me, since he'd just healed Natsume and was healing me. I needed practice. It didn't make it feel any worse, though.
When he was done healing me, I had an Alice stone in my hand. It was about half the size of Natsume's, so that Imai-senpai would still have his Alice. I hid it in my fist as Imai-senpai left the room, leaving Natsume and me alone.
I was so tired. Training had taken a lot out of me. I climbed into the hospital bed with Natsume, and fell asleep there, holding him in my arms on the uncomfortable bed.
Before I fell asleep, I caught a glimpse of the clock. It was after three A.M.