June 11, 2010: Chapter has been edited. Still the same plot and everything, just some minor changes here and there. :)

Hey all you fanfiction fans! Just to have you guys know, this is not my first fanfic. I wrote a one-shot and another chapter story which I deleted. Anyways, getting to the point, Happy Reading!

Disclaimer: I could never own Gakuen Alice. Too cool for me. ^.~

Rush

By Tsuki's Angel

-Prologue-

Love. It can make you do crazy things. Crazy things such as give up your life just to save the life of a self-centered moron. Yeah. That's what happened to her. She fell in love with him. She had to give up everything. Her life. Her friends. Wonderful isn't it? Not. The story behind this is quite an interesting one. It's not exactly happy, nor is it the best one out there. But it's her story. It happened five years ago, back when she was still a mere thirteen year old kid…

-Gakuen Alice: Five Years Ago-

Mikan Sakura sat in her seat next to Natsume. Everybody was chatting aimlessly before class, and he was dozing off under his manga, as usual. He can be such a lazy bum sometimes. She sighed. There was nothing she could do about it, though. Last time she tried to wake him up, he set her homework on fire.

Her homework.

He had no idea how late she stayed up doing that damned Algebra homework. All fifty problems. Gone. Just like that. She was not going to make that mistake again. The school bell rung and Mr. Narumi walked into the classroom in his girly fashion. Such a strange teacher. He was now assigned to the Middle School Division for some reason or another. Mikan suspected it was because he loved their class.

But then again, she was always the optimist.

Everyone quieted down as he came through the door, wondering why he was here today. He was usually never in class and always left the substitute to teach even though no one ever listened to the poor guy.

"Good afternoon, my wonderful, brilliant students!" he exclaimed happily. Everyone ignored him, obviously wondering why he was here and waiting for him to explain. He sighed at the silence, his overwhelming smile still intact.

"I know you all are wondering why I am here today. Well, I just thought I should spend quality time with my precious students!" Mr. Narumi said, ecstatic. Nobody answered him. She wondered why he was really here. He sighed again. Then class began.

She didn't listen to the lesson. She was spacing out as usual, and when she wasn't spacing out, she was doodling all over her notebook. Class was merciless. It wouldn't end. It was droning on and on and on and on.

Then, class was interrupted.

The door swung open and standing in the doorway was a man with dark hair and a mask. He was wearing many rings and emitted a very disturbing aura. He stared into the classroom, directing his ice cold stare at Natsume. As if Natsume knew the strange man was there, he pulled the manga down from his face and got out of his seat. Mikan had no idea what was going on. Natsume left the classroom, and the strange man closed the door.

Mikan decided to just go back to doodling. Natsume left the classroom very often nowadays, but he never told anyone where he went being the silent manga-reading bum he is. He always came back the next day, anyways. But Mikan worried sometimes. He would come back, but hurt. She didn't know where he went. He never told her.

After class ended, the class had free period. Mikan walked over to Hotaru's seat, which was next to the window. She sat down on the open space on top of the desk nearest to the window with her feet on the chair.

"That was sooo boring, Hotaru!" Mikan complained. "Why do we have to learn all of this? It's way too hard!"

"It's boring for you because your smallish brain can't learn anything," she replied bluntly.

"That's so mean, Hotaru! I know I'm not the smartest, but I can understand some things!" Mikan retorted.

Hotaru rolled he eyes and shook her head. Mikan pouted, and childishly faced the other direction towards the window. As she looked out there, she noticed two figures walking into the forest. Mikan leaned towards the window. As she looked closer, she noticed the figures were Natsume and the creepy dude she saw pick up Natsume earlier. Mikan leaned closer to the window to see what they were doing. She kept on leaning closer and closer. Little did she know, the window was unlocked.

So she fell.

Out the window.

Let's repeat that—she fell out of the dang window! They were on the second floor for Pete's sake! Mikan was too frightened to scream as she heard the class gasp at what happened. Then, she fell onto something soft, but thorny. A bush. She looked up from where she was to find her friends, and some other people from her class stare at her from the open window. She tried to untangle herself from the bush, and succeeded getting a bunch of scratches and scrapes. She felt something warm trickling down the back of her head. She touched the area and looked at her hand. Blood. She was panicking. Her head was bleeding! Her head was bleeding!

She was about to scream when she saw that Natsume and the strange man had disappeared. It was safe to say that Mikan was utterly curious. Where could they have gone? Into the forest? She decided to find out herself, and walked over to the spot they had been in. They must have gone into the forest. She took a deep breath and walked into the darkness after waving at her friends that she was okay.

As Mikan advanced into the forest, she noticed it was going to be impossible to find those two. That is until she heard voices. She followed the voices and reached a clearing, but as soon as she did, she gasped and hid behind a tree as she saw them. She listened intently to their conversation, feeling bad for eavesdropping, but also feeling that somehow, she needed to do this. Something was up with Natsume, and since he very well didn't tell her, she would find out herself.

"You have been doing very well these past few weeks, Natsume." said a voice. "You have pleased me."

"There's an accomplishment…" Natsume muttered darkly. The other man chuckled, and then became serious.

"Tonight you have another mission. This will not be your last if you survive, so I must warn you: you may not come back. This mission is extremely dangerous." The man looked at Natsume's unchanging, expressionless face. "There is a very high chance that you might not come back alive, or come back at all. Do you understand?" the man said. Natsume merely nodded. The man gave an evil smile. "Wonderful."

Natsume clenched his fists as he ran off. Damn that man. As if his frequent visits to the hospital weren't enough for him to handle, and now this? Couldn't he just give the mission to someone else if he knew that it was going to kill him? Better yet, that man should have gone himself! He has been at the Academy much longer than him! Natsume continued to run, and made the decision to just skip class, leaving him and, unknowingly, an eavesdropping Mikan behind.

Mikan stared wide-eyed, and slumped down against the tree. Natsume might die? What mission? Was Natsume a spy? Is that what he has been doing for the past few weeks? All these questions ran through her mind but none of them were being answered. She was so confused. She–

"Hello, kitten. Are you lost?" said a voice.

Mikan looked up to see the dark haired man. Fear washed through her. If looks could kill, she would be past dead. The look he was giving her just screamed, 'death'. She quickly shook my head and threw away the thoughts. She stood up on her feet.

"W-who are you and what's going to happen to Natsume?" she asked, voice shaking. He smirked, sending another shiver down Mikan's spine.

"The name's Persona," he said, walking closer. "I don't know what's going to happen to him. He may come back, but then again he may not. If he comes back, then great—I'll still have my mission dog." His stare seemed to get more intense. "If he doesn't, well then, that's just too bad."

She didn't know why, but she felt very scared for Natsume. She didn't want him to die! Sure, he teases her and makes fun of her various underwear patterns, but that doesn't mean he deserves to die. More importantly, this guy didn't care if Natsume died! Wasn't he a teacher or something? Teachers are supposed to help students, not murder them impenitently.

"Please don't let him get hurt," Mikan whispered, after she found her voice. He didn't say anything. He looked at her with a very creepy smile. "Please," she said, desperate. "I'll…"

She thought for a moment. Was she really going to say 'I'll do anything'? What was the worst this guy would do to her? Give her tons of homework? Cleaning duty for a year? Star rank reduction? Mikan thought over the possibilities and decided that if she didn't do this, she would hold Natsume's death over herself forever.

"I…" Mikan started. "I know I'm not smart and I'm only a one-star, but I'll do anything! I'll do anything to help him!"

Persona raised an eyebrow at her. Mikan felt as if she was going to cry. She felt so many emotions at once. She was scared, worried, mad, sad, and she just couldn't handle it all. She knew he was going to say no. She just knew it! Why would he choose a one-star like her over an elite Special Star, like Natsume? She was no comparison.

"Only on one condition." he said suddenly.

Eh? Did he just say what she thinks he said?

"W-what is it?" she asked, scared to find out what it was.

"I will let Natsume go. I won't ever tell him to do another mission but…you have to become my new pet." Persona said.

Mikan's eyes widened. She did not expect that. Her? She didn't know the first thing about fighting! In fact, she was pretty sure she had more of a chance falling off a cliff than getting shot. She was that clumsy.

"Why do you want me?" she asked, anxious to find out the reason. He didn't answer at first.

"You interest me," he said.

Mikan thought about it for a moment. Should she do it? Should she risk her life just to save Natsume's?

"You may tell me tonight. Meet me here to tell me the answer," he said and walked off into the dense forest.

Mikan stood there, deep in thought. Then, all of a sudden, she realized she had no idea how to get back out of the forest. She sighed, and started towards the direction she came from, and hoped for a miracle. Her hopes came true when she saw the forest thinning a bit, and saw a building. She ran to the door of that building and went straight to her next class, hoping she wouldn't be late. She threw the door open to her math class, and saw that everyone was already in their seats, and that class had started. They were all staring at her with the same question in their eyes—what the heck happened to you?

"Sakura!" Jinno, her math teacher said. He was clearly upset that she disturbed his lesson.

"Y-yes?" Mikan stuttered.

"Out. In the hallway. Now." He stated.

Mikan did as she was told. Jinno scared the living daylights out of her. She slid down the wall in the hallway until she was sitting on the floor. A few minutes after Mikan was scolded, Jinno came out into the hall to talk with her.

"What happened to you?" was his first question. Mikan stared at him in disbelief. Was he actually being nice to her? Seriously? She quickly snapped out of her stance.

"U-uh, I fell out of a window!" Mikan said real quickly. He stared at her as if she was crazy.

"Go to the infirmary," he said.

"Why?" she asked, confused. She didn't feel sick. Is it because he thinks she's crazy?

"You have cuts and scratches all over you. In addition, you have dried blood on your forehead," he explained to her as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Mikan immediately understood.

"Oh! Ah, yes. I'll go now!" she said dashing off to the infirmary.

. . .

After Mikan was all bandaged up and such, she went back to class, only to realize it was almost over anyways. Jinno was not in the classroom. She could just skip the last few minutes of class, but she made the decision to sit down in her seat anyways, thinking about what she was going to do about the whole deal with Persona for the last few minutes of the class period. Mikan was deep in thought, when something very hard like metal hit her head. She looked at the object as she rubbed her injury. It was a metal pencil case. Anna's to be exact.

"Mikan!" yelled Hotaru's voice. She looked a little peeved.

"Eh? What is it?" she asked, in pain at the newly forming bump on her head.

"Dummy! You need to get your hearing checked! I was trying to get your attention. Now I have to repeat myself!" she said angrily.

"Oh… Sorry, Hotaru," Mikan said, trying to make sure that she wasn't going to faint.

"Now, let me ask again. What happened to you? You fell out of that window then just ran into the forest," she said. Mikan looked at her. She couldn't tell her what happened. She knew Hotaru was her best friend but she just had a feeling that she shouldn't tell her.

"Uh, nothing happened! Nothing at all!" Mikan lied pathetically. "I just…uh…saw something shining! I followed it into the forest and I got lost, but I found my way out so it's okay now!" Mikan said all at once, a bit nervous. Hotaru raised her eyebrows at her. Mikan didn't think she bought it. Hotaru frowned.

"Don't lie to me unless you have a death wish," she said bluntly.

"I-I'm not lying! Definitely not! Honestly!" Mikan said as convincingly as she could. Hotaru stared at her suspiciously, and then as if right on cue, the bell rang, and Mikan sprinted out of the classroom ignoring the many stares sent at her from the people in the class and the hallway.

. . .

Mikan stared at the ceiling in her room. She had told the nurse she was feeling very sick so she told her it was okay to rest for the rest of the day.

She was so frustrated! She didn't know what to do! Mikan wanted to save Natsume's life, but she also didn't want to risk her own. She took her pillow and screamed into it at the top of her lungs. She felt a little better after that. She got up off her bed and paced her room, thinking. What should she do?

What would Natsume want her to do?

He would probably say something like, 'Tch. I don't care what you do. Why would anyone care? Do whatever you want.' Or he wouldn't reply at all whatsoever. Mikan frowned. Why should she do it if he really didn't care about her? Oh, right—because she would feel guilty for the rest of eternity.

Mikan heard a knock on her door. She walked up to it and looked through the peephole. It was Yuu. She opened the door to see what he wanted.

"Mikan," he said. "Are you okay? I brought you today's homework that you missed."

"Oh," Mikan said. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks."

Yuu handed her the books and the assignment sheet, "Okay. I hope you feel better. See you tomorrow?"

Mikan smiled, "Sure."

Yuu left, leaving Mikan by herself.

She suddenly thought to herself—the worst thing about saying yes is that she would most likely get hurt every so often in these missions. The best thing about saying yes would be that she would have saved a friend's life. Natsume was her friend, even if he didn't exactly return the favor.

And friends help you when you are in trouble.

. . .

Mikan had made her decision. She was waiting in the clearing for Persona to show up. She was going to do it. She was going to take Natsume's place. She needed to. No. She had to. Natsume was just too important of a person to her. She just couldn't let him die. Of course. It was so obvious. She would do anything for that jerk. The question in her mind was…why? This was just like the time when Leo kidnapped him and she just couldn't let him go.

"I had a feeling you would show up," said Persona's voice. Mikan turned around to find him leaning on a tree staring at her with amused eyes. "You're such a brave little girl."

"Yes. I showed up. I decided that I will take Natsume's place. So don't hurt him anymore," Mikan said as bravely as she could.

Persona scrutinized her. "What made you make that decision?"

Mikan stood uncomfortably under his gaze. "You don't need to know."

"I don't?" he said.

Mikan nodded weakly. He was beginning to scare her. "You don't."

Persona grinned. "Very well then. Go back to your room." he said. Then walked off to God knows where.

. . .

Mikan opened the door to what she thought to be her room. She was confused. She saw that all of her things were packed, and Mr. Narumi standing right there, apparently waiting for her. He looked at her with sad eyes.

"What's going on?" Mikan asked confused.

"Mikan, you're leaving Gakuen Alice tonight," Mr. Narumi stated.

Mikan was taken aback, "What? Why?"

"You've just agreed to take Natsume's place, but to be able to do what Natsume does, you have to train." Narumi sighed. "So you are going to Alice Academy in London to train with the Dangerous Ability Class there. Natsume's level of experience is quite high for being so young. In order to be him, you have to be as strong as him," he explained.

What in the world—? What on earth did she just agree to? Training? Dangerous Ability Class? London? Mikan took in a shaky breath. This was her decision. She accepted it, no matter the consequences, but she wished that she knew exactly what she was going to be doing. She can't take any of it back now, though. She has to do this. For Natsume.

"How long?" Mikan asked, quietly, staring at the floor as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"I'm not sure. It may take a couple of years…" he said.

Years? Mikan took in another deep breath, and nodded. Mr. Narumi picked up her bags, and headed out the door, motioning for her to follow him. They walked outside and Mikan saw a sleek, black car waiting for her. Mr. Narumi put her bags in the trunk and shut it. He opened the door of the car for her. This was all happening too fast! She didn't even say goodbye to Hotaru! Or Yuu! Or Anna, Nonoko, or Permy! She didn't even say goodbye to Natsume…

"Mikan… you must get in the car now," Mr. Narumi said to me gently.

Mikan ran up to Mr. Narumi and gave him a warm hug. She didn't want to leave. She really didn't. She felt like crying her eyes out, and begging Mr. Narumi to let her stay, but she realized its better if she leaves this way—without crying, so that the last memory they have of her is one of her smiling and not crying.

"Tell everyone I said goodbye, okay?" Mikan said. Mr. Narumi hugged her back.

"I'll be sure to do that," he replied.

"Oh, and make sure no one finds out where I am or what I am doing," Mikan added. She didn't want anyone to worry. He nodded as he let go of her. She got into the car. Mr. Narumi shut the door behind her. As the car drove away, Mikan waved a final goodbye to her teacher through the window. Here marks the beginning of her new life.

Thank you for reading! I really hope you enjoyed it~! Review please! I'll direct you to the button…

June 11, 2010: I changed the POV to 3rd person and added some stuff to it to make it longer, but you can still understand the story if you didn't read the edit.

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