The Alice Games
Chapter Eighteen: A Dance of Fire and Ice

Meeting Hotaru Imai was interesting. Well, interesting would be an understatement. I don't really have a word to describe my meeting with her other than the fact that I'm really, really not looking forward to seeing her in the arena. With her cold demeanor and probably super smart brain, she has definitely reached the top of my 'Tributes to avoid' list during the Games.

Not willing to risk running into another tribute (knowing my luck, I'd probably just run into Hayate again), I quickly made my way out of the kitchens and hurried inside the elevator. Once inside, I pressed level 45 and closed the doors shut. I leant back against the railing and anxiously looked at the panel indicating what floor the elevator was currently on. I really, really hoped that the elevator didn't make any stops. My body and mind was far too tired to face another tribute or their mentors. All I wanted to do was to jump in bed and try to fall asleep.

Within half a minute, the elevator stopped and the doors swung open. I released a sigh of relief. I was at my floor without any hurdle. This day was soon going to be over. I swiftly moved out from the elevator, bunching up my black gown in the process. I grunted. I can't wait to get out of this dress and scrub all this gunky make-up off my face. I wonder how long that will take me..hmm..

Sighing to myself as I walked down the corridor, the only thing that I could hear was the sound of my own footsteps echoing against the floor. It was eerily quiet for some reason. I couldn't even hear the soft hum of the air conditioning that was in the corridor. As if mocking my thoughts, there was a sudden crash from behind me and then I heard something shatter. I halted in my tracks, goosebumps already on my skin. The sound had come from the common room, which is in the opposite direction of my room, near Nobara's room. My eyes widened. Had Hayate down something to Nobara?! Fearing that my suspicions might just be true, I bolted towards the common room, almost tripping on my own gown in the process. Once I reached the common room, I pushed the doors open, fully expecting to see Nobara upset (or worse hurt) but instead I saw Natsume.

I blinked. This was not what I was expecting.

He was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall with his left leg propped up and cradling his right arm with his left. There was a broken vase near him, its pieces scattered around the floor. A frown appeared on my features. Did this fool bump into the vase or something?

"Natsume, are you alright?" I hesitantly asked, taking a step inside the room. A strange cold breeze brushed past me, something that didn't feel quite like air conditioning. I decided to ignore that. It was probably my mind playing games on me.

Natsume looked up at me and I noticed how tired his eyes looked. His red eyes had lost all of its fire. He looked like he hadn't slept for days, which was strange because I'm sure he slept on the train to the Alice City. His tie was crumpled and his shirt was untucked from his trousers. My eyes fell onto his right palm.

It was…burnt and yet there was ice on his fingertips.

What in the world?

"Go away," he murmured, his voice not seeming menacing at all. Instead, this almost sounded like a sort of warning of some sorts, which irked me because why would he need to warn me? And warn me about what?

"Natsume," I moved towards him, eyeing his right palm anxiously. Why was it burnt? He had the Fire Alice! His palms aren't supposed to get burnt! And what in the world was up with his fingers? "Are you okay? What's wrong?" I asked, bending down to inspect his palm. I reached out to grab his hand, so I could inspect it.

But Natsume shifted away from me and moved my hands away from his. "Mikan don't, just go—"

"No!" I moved forward to grab his palm again. Why was he acting like this? "Not until you tell me what's wrong and what happened to your hand! We need to get you some sort of medication—"

"Mikan—fuck, move away!" Natsume hissed, his eyes started to widen behind me. He moved so quickly that I didn't even see his hands pushing me away from him.

I tumbled back a bit, almost hitting a sofa in the process. I opened my mouth to give him a piece of my mind but I halted.

There were a few shards of ice on the wall behind him. One shard of ice had slightly penetrated his arm. My eyes widened in shock and I could feel goosebumps all across my body.

So that's what the strange cold air was? It wasn't the air conditioning. It was actually ice.

Oh my god.

"Go away," Natsume hissed at me once again. I watched as he lit up his good palm and started to melt the shard of ice that was in his arm.

"I think it's a bit too late for that now, Natsume," a calm, familiar voice behind me smoothly informed.

I whirled around.

It was Nobara.

But I could immediately tell something was off. Something was terribly, terribly off.

This wasn't really Nobara. Yes, she looked like the Nobara I knew and she was still wearing the dress from before, but there was something wrong with her eyes. They were cold, lifeless; like ice. I had seen warmth in her blue eyes before and this was not it. This was something entirely else.

"Nobara," I whispered, as I slowly stood up. I took a tentative step towards her. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," she told me, but she wasn't looking at me. Her gaze was fixed on Natsume. She was looking at him, but not really at him. It was almost as if she were looking through him. But that didn't make any sense. Nothing at the moment made any sense. "I'm simply just teaching my fellow district tribute a lesson," she coolly informed me. Even her voice had changed. It was frosty with no traces of the previous warmth there had been before.

The temperature dropped down a few degrees.

I shivered.

"Lesson?" I inquired, completely baffled. What did she mean by that? And why was she acting like this?

She didn't answer my question. Instead, she conjured up a ball of ice on her left palm and before I could get a chance to properly react, she swiftly hurled it at Natsume, her movement smooth and completely elegant.

"Nobara!" I yelled, utterly dumbfounded that my sweet, gentle friend was attacking someone. "Stop!"

But it was of no use. She was conjuring up another ball of ice.

Natsume had gotten up on his feet and had moved away from where he had been sitting, promptly dodging the ball of ice in the process. He didn't bother to attack Nobara though. I didn't understand why he wasn't retaliating. As far as I knew, Nobara and Natsume weren't friends, I don't even know if they are acquaintances. Natsume had no obligation to defend or protect Nobara or sit idle whilst he was being attacked.

It just didn't make any sense at all.

Nobara moved forward to aim another ball of ice at Natsume.

"Stop Nobara!" I shrieked, as I moved towards her, desperately trying to make her see reason. "Stop attacking him!"

"It's no use, Mikan," Natsume informed me, from his place against the wall. "She won't be able to do that."

Nobara's lip twitched and she sprung the ice ball at Natsume.

I swiftly moved towards him, activating my Nullification Alice in the process.

Nobara's face remained expressionless. "Get out of the way, Sakura," she told me, her voice crisp.

I shook my head. "No," I carefully told her. "I won't!"

"For fuck's sake little girl, why can't you just leave?" Natsume muttered lowly, a scowl marring his features. He didn't seem to like my moral support. He didn't seem to like it at all. "This is between Nobara and I. You shouldn't even be here."

I looked over my shoulder at him. "Well sorry for trying to help," I mumbled, ticked back that he was still telling me to leave. How could I just leave when one of my friends' was attacking another friend of mine?

Exactly.

I couldn't just leave.

Especially not now.

"I don't need your help," Natsume spat, sending me an annoyed look. He looked over at Nobara. "Just tell her to go away. She doesn't need to be involved."

Nobara didn't even bat an eyelash. "I can't do that."

Natsume swore.

Nobara took a step towards him, another ball of ice forming on her palm.

"Stop!" I screeched once again, moving closer to Nobara. "Snap out of this, Nobara! Please!"

For a split second, I could have sworn that I saw her eyes falter, that I saw traces of my friend again. But that was probably just a figment of my imagination since Nobara swiftly lunged the ice ball at Natsume.

I stiffened. I was too far from him for my nullification to shield him. But Natsume was quick, and he conjured up a fire ball just in time to deflect the shards of ice. Natsume shook his head, and muttered something under his breathe. "I've had enough of this, Persona," Natsume called out, utterly annoyed and somewhat defeated? "Just come out and stop fucking hiding. I'm so sick of your games," he spat, his lips curving up into a sneer.

For a couple of seconds, the room was completely still.

But then the back door opened, and someone walked in.

It was Persona.

A/N : Apparently, I'm back...lol. Check out my profile for more details :)

-CR

July 28th, 2016