Hitsuzen: Fate of a Cherry Blossom

Chapter 17

- | Missing Alices | -

Sakura sighed as she collapsed on her bed. She had finished her exams and was feeling very tired. Her emerald-green eyes glanced outside the window, seeing Mikan and her other classmates sweeping the courtyard. Even though Sakura had high marks on her exams, she couldn't place top scores on her maths test; hence no award.

Of course, she knew it was useless. Especially after what she did on her last mission. Good thing her wounds were now all healed.

"Naniii..." wailed Sakura. "I tried so hard." Kero laughed.

"Looks like Sakura will be Sakura after all," chuckled Kero, flying about in the air. Sakura puffed her cheeks. "Ne – I was flying around before, and saw a notice to students," explained Kero.

"What were you doing flying around?" asked Sakura. "What if someone finds you?"

"Don't worry, no one saw me," smiled Kero. "Besides, anyone would assume I was an Alice controlled bear..." muttered Kero, quite annoyed.

"Pfft," giggled Sakura, trying to keep in her laugh. "So, what did you find, Kero-chan?"

"Apparently, there has been a 'loss of Alice incidents'," explained Kero with a frown on his face.

"E-eh?" gasped the card captor. "Loss of Alices?"

Kero nodded. "However, they don't know the cause of it yet."

Sakura frowned. "I better go to class; maybe the teachers might have answers..." Kero nodded and watched as Sakura left the dorms.

"..." Kero scratched his head. "Tsk, this feeling – of something unpleasant happening. Argh, why does it feel so annoying?!"

~ * ~

"Lately, there has been a lot of talking about this topic – in various forms," explained Narumi. "Today let me discuss in greater detail with everyone in the topic of 'loss of Alice incidents'." Sakura listened in carefully. "I think the number of people who know are not the minority. This matter that is creating a big fuss about the sudden loss of Alices..." Sakura frowned as Narumi started to explain that the incident was nothing more than a rumor. When he was finished, he left the classroom – leaving the students to discuss about the topic. Sakura quietly sneaked out and followed the teacher - knowing very well that the teachers were just trying to calm the students down.

"Hey Narumi!" called a voice. Sakura stiffened and stopped behind a wall. It was Misaki-sensei, the biology teacher.

"Ah, Misaki-sensei," Narumi called back.

"How's Class B?" asked Misaki.

"So far, so good," smiled Narumi. "No special questions or confusion."

"The middle school seems to have more problems," sighed Misaki. "Who knows where the news leaked out from?"

"Mm, the news should spread to the junior school soon..." chuckled Narumi. "Who would have thought that this would start in the school," began Narumi. "...Especially when incidents started happening in the Middle School Section."

Sakura paused. 'E-eh? Incidents?'

"You..." started Misaki. "...Haven't been thinking about anything other than this, have you?" Narumi put on a face of confusion. "Stop acting as if you don't know. Even an idiot could tell what you were thinking about during this whole incident...If you do any unnecessary actions, you should know how that would worsen Sakura's position. You had better forget the past!"

Sakura gasped, knowing that Misaki-sensei had referred to Mikan. It was a common thing, for teachers to refer to them as their surnames – with the exception of Narumi. Sakura watched as the two teachers separated, sighing in relief that they had not gone to where Sakura was hiding.