It hurts...

It's freezing...

Inchou felt his hands were frostbitten; so cold and painful at the same time as if something was being pulled out from his hands. The cold sensation even crept up onto his arms and slowly freezing his heart. His eyesight became blurry and he had breathing difficulties as his throat was closing up.

"Is this the end of me?"

 

 

"He doesn't look so good."

"He's getting paler by the moment!"

"This can't be happening!"

Yomi, Ruka and Natsume had carried Inchou to an empty room somewhere near the ballroom since the elementary dorms were slightly far from their reach. 

"What have you done, Yomi?" Natsume inquired as he and Ruka slowly laid the unconscious Inchou onto a sofa. Yomi said nothing as she was fidgeting with her hands. They were freezing just like the air in the room.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Natsume demanded as he snatched Yomi's right hand.

"I DON'T KNOW, NATSUME!" Yomi cried while struggling to break free from Natsume's steel-like grip.

"LET ME GO!"

Without warning, Natsume suddenly shoved Yomi away from him. Yomi rolled into a corner whereas Natsume himself fell down onto his knees with his hands trembling. He looked as if he was in pain as he was gritting his teeth.

"NATSUME!" Ruka cried in horror as he rushed to Natsume's side. 

"You..." Natsume spat while Ruka was helping him up. There was a hint of fear in his voice. "Just now... your Alice..."

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." Yomi whimpered with her hands clasped together. "It was an accident..."

"Accident?" Ruka interrupted, his voice cracked in anger. "You almost killed Natsume!" He pointed a finger at her. "Just what is your REAL Alice?"

"That's enough, Ruka. It was an accident." Natsume said softly when he nudged Ruka to stop pointing at Yomi. "I'm fine, don't you worry. She didn't really mean any harm. Besides, she did say she was sorry." Natsume walked towards Yomi and held out his hand to help her getting back on her feet. Ruka immediately  grabbed his hand in alarm. 

"But she almost killed you!"

"Nonsense! I'm not that easy to be killed off." Natsume pulled his hand away from Ruka and extended his hand towards Yomi. Yomi was hesistant to take his hand.

"Don't worry," Natsume assured. "I know that you'll be able to control it by now. Go on." 

Yomi took a deep breath and took Natsume's hand before he was pulling her back to her feet.

"I'm sorry, Natsume" she continued to apologise profusely. "I never knew that it could go beserk tonight. I almost killed you... and Inchou."

"Don't be," Natsume said while putting his hand on her shoulder. "I knew that it was an accident. People lose control sometimes."

"Natsume... you knew about this all along?"

Yomi and Natsume looked up and were face to face with a confused Ruka Nogi. Before anyone spoke, the door suddenly flew open!

"What's going on here?"

 

"So, Igarashi-san's Alice went out of control," Narumi-sensei said as his eyes drifted from the students standing in front of him to the unconscious Inchou. "Aren't you supposed to wear your Alice prevention gloves?"

"I did wear them, Sensei." Yomi defended herself. "It's just that I don't know why my Alice went beserk tonight."

"Igarashi-san, please take off your gloves."

"But..."

"Just do it, Igarashi-san"

Yomi removed her gloves and handed them to Narumi-sensei. He scanned the gloves and his facial expression became serious. He handed the gloves to Natsume.

"Hyuuga-san, please put these on."

"What are you talking about, Naru?"

"Just do it. I need to confirm something."

Natsume was hesitant while both Yomi and Ruka were confused with Narumi-sensei's sudden instruction. At first they thought that Narumi-sensei was fooling around but his seriousness proved otherwise.

"Now," Narumi-sensei continued after Natsume was wearing the gloves. "I want you to create a fire."

"Are you out of your mind, Naru?"

"Sensei, do you want to kill us all?"

"Don't do it, Natsume!"

"Just a small fire, Hyuuga-san. So that it would help me to prove my theory."

Natsume took a deep breath and created a small fire. However, the fire turned out way bigger than he had intended. Even he himself feared that he might burn everyone in this room to a crisp.

"I said a small fire, Hyuuga-san." Narumi-sensei commented as he backed away. "That fire is anything but small."

"It wasn't my intention, Naru!"

"Stop it, Natsume! You'll burn us along with you!"

Luckily Natsume was able to put out the fire. Even he himself admitted that he may killed everyone in this room including himself. He looked at the gloves before taking it off. 

"Take them back!" Natsume demanded as he was tossing the gloves onto the floor. "Making me burn the room down just to prove whatever point that you're thinking. You got some nerve, Naru!"

"What is your point, Sensei?" Yomi asked when Narumi was picking up the gloves.

"There's no mistake at all. These gloves are NOT for Alice prevention."

"What do you mean, Sensei?"

"These are actually Alice amplification gloves. It amplifies the wearer's Alice whenever they were in use."

"But I didn't use my Alice intentionally, Sensei!"

"Calm down, Igarashi-san." Narumi-sensei tried to calm Yomi down. "Since you can't really control your Alice, these gloves can amplify the smallest traces of your Alice even without you knowing about it." 

"So that's what happened to Inchou on the dancefloor. She didn't realize that she was using her Alice during that time." Natsume commented.

"But what about Natsume?" Ruka intervened, his voice tensing. "Yomi almost killed him with her hands!"

"Hyuuga-san, what did you feel at that time?"

Natsume looked at his hands for awhile.

"At first it was nothing but after Yomi demanded me to release her, I felt a surge of power coming from her hands. It was cold and painful. I felt like my hands were almost frostbitten with cold and at the same time, it felt like something was being pulled away from me. That's why I shoved her away to stop it."

Narumi-sensei listened to Natsume's explanation while eyeing at Yomi whose hands were trembling in shock. 

"The only thing I realised was there was a sudden blast of power from my hands before Natsume pushed me aside. My hands felt icy afterwards... WHOA!!!"

Everyone in the room was stunned when Yomi's hands were suddenly engulfed in flames!

Narumi-sensei and Ruka turned towards Natsume. 

"It wasn't me!" Natsume defensively shook his head. "Why should I hurt her anyway?"

"But Yomi isn't a Fire Alice user. She couldn't possibly create fire from her own will?" Ruka exclaimed when he was backing away from Yomi.

"Igarashi-san, can you try to control the flames?" Narumi-sensei said calmly after being silent for awhile. Ruka was about to say something else but Natsume hushed him. 

"I'll try."

In front of everyone's bewildered eyes, Yomi tried to control the flames. To her surprise, she could control them with ease. She absorbed the flames, made a small fire and bounced it between her hands before it disappeared completely.

"The flames? Where did they go?" Ruka queried.

"They're gone." Yomi shook her head. "I can't use them anymore."

"This explains everything," Narumi-sensei snapped his fingers. "Yomi's two unknown Alices."

"She has two MORE Alices?" Ruka's jaw dropped in extreme shock. Only Natsume appeared calm since he already knew about it beforehand except that he didn't realise the true nature of the Alices.

"Indeed," Narumi-sensei nodded. "Yomi's first unknown Alice allows her to take or absorb whatever abilities, properties or characteristics of things or people that her hands had touched. If the person is an Alice, she can take some of the Alice. However," Narumi-sensei paused, his voice was serious. "If she takes too much, the person can pass out for a few hours or days in a coma since she also takes away the person's life force." He pointed towards Inchou.

"But Narumi-sensei," Ruka interrupted, his voice was tight with concern. "People couldn't simply die from her Alice, right?"

"I'm not so sure, Nogi-san. Up until now, we only knew that her Alice is capable enough to make others faint from the effect. However, it may be possible if she isn't careful. In Hyuuga-san's case, he didn't faint because he did managed to push her away. Since her Alice takes or absorb from others, her Alice is the TAKING Alice."

"Taking? Isn't it the same as Sakura's Stealing Alice?" Ruka asked, surprised.

"Not really," Narumi-sensei shook his head. "But they are somewhat similar to each other. We don't really know much about the Taking Alice because it is a new Alice."

"What about the other Alice?" Natsume finally spoke up after he was listening intently to Narumi-sensei's explanation. "How can she creates and controls fire without having a Fire Alice?"

"Well that," Narumi-sensei cleared his throat. "It is possible that she might have reused whatever Alice, abilities, properties or characteristics that she had taken or absorbed from others. From the way she used them as if she was returning them. I guess the second Alice is the RETURNING Alice.The amount of the abilities used depends on the amout that she had taken from others. If she took little, then little shall be returned and vice-versa."

"Returning Alice?" Yomi looked up suddenly. "That means if I returned whatever that I've taken from Inchou, he'll be alright again?"

"I'm not so sure about that, Igarashi-san." Narumi-sensei shrugged his shoulders. But it's worth to try it."

Natsume placed a hand on Yomi's shoulder and squeezed it gently. "He's gonna be okay, Yomi. Just try it." Ruka who was standing beside Narumi-sensei also gave her an encouraging smile. He looked slightly okay after listening to Narumi-sensei's explanation. 

Yomi knelt beside Inchou. He was deathly pale but he was still breathing. As she was about to take the discarded Alice amplification gloves, Ruka stopped her.

"No, Ruka!" She snatched them back. "I needed them to help Inchou. Please, trust me!"

She put them back on and she placed Inchou's hands in hers. His hands were freezing cold but she kissed them anyway, ignoring questionable stares from others. With both hers and Inchou's fingers intertwined, she began to use her Returning Alice.

"Please," she prayed silently through closed eyes as she was using her Alice. "Let me see his eyes again. Please let me hear his voice again. Please let me... love him again..."

Twitch... twitch... twitch...

"Hey look! His fingers are twitching!"

"His face is finally returning to his original colour!"

"You're doing great, Igarashi-san!"

Yomi opened her eyes and to her relief, Inchou was slowly returning back to normal. Even his hands were no longer cold. However, she was crestfallen when he did not wake up.

"Perhaps he will be fine after a good night's sleep," Narumi-sensei scratched his head. "But you have done well, Igarashi-san."

"But something's definitely off," said Natsume as he took away Yomi's gloves. "How did these gloves ended up with Yomi in the first place? She wasn't supposed to have them though."

"That's right," Ruka chided. "She shouldn't be wearing such gloves."

"These gloves came with this ballgown for tonight's event," Yomi explained. "I was told that tonight's costumes were given by the Academy just like the previous events."

"Well, it's true that the Academy gives out costumes for events. They even give out special accessories to cater the students' needs for Alice prevention devices." Narumi took Yomi's gloves away. "But perhaps they gave you the Alice amplification gloves by mistake?"

"Knowing the Academy," Natsume interrupted. "I don't think that was a mistake. Besides, who would want to use an Alice amplification device during events like tonight? Sports Festival maybe but for a Grand Ball? No chance!" He crossed his arms.

"I think someone was behind this." He continued.  "Someone purposely gave Yomi the amplification gloves instead of the prevention gloves. That person maybe knew that Yomi couldn't really control her Alices so by giving these gloves, that person knew that Yomi's Alices will eventually go beserk tonight." 

"It's too early to speculate everything but there's a possibility. But who would do such a thing to Yomi?" Narumi-sensei raised an eyebrow as he was deep in thought.

"Who else would do cruel things to everyone other than the Elementary School Principal himself?" Natsume spat in disgust. "That man still haven't learned his lesson after his catfight with the whole Academy." Natsume's crimson eyes were glowering in anger like fiery coals. "It's gotta be him! It must be him!" Ruka tried to calm him down while Yomi crouched in fear beside Inchou who was still unconscious. She had never seen Natsume this angry before. Eventhough Natsume did tell her about his ordeal with the Elementary School Principal, it was brief as if he purposely left out some details. But now Natsume looked like he was burning with pure hatred towards him. 

"Now Hyuuga-san," Narumi-sensei tried to coax him a bit. "We all knew what he had done towards us in the past. Don't you think you just blindy accusing him out of anger?"

"Accusing him blindly?" Natsume shouted while Ruka tried his best to restrain him. "Both you and I knew what he had done towards all of us! Many people died and suffered because of him! You of all people should know better, Naru!" 

Narumi-sensei said nothing since he was too stunned to speak anything after being battered by Natsume's anger. Speaking of Natsume, he slumped down onto the floor and he was still shaking in anger. Ruka was still trying to calm him down. Nobody said anything.

"Both you and I knew what he had done towards all of us! Many people died and suffered because of him!" Natsume's voice rang through Yomi's head. She could feel the pain, anger and hatred as if he was suffering for a long time from the Elementary School Principal. She wanted to ask for further details but perhaps now wasn't a good time to do so.

"Well," Narumi-sensei finally said something after being shaken for awhile. "I also felt that the ESP would pull such a stunt after everything that he had done in the past. What we could do now is to be extra careful from now on because he may strike again. As for Igarashi-san, please stay alert and take care of yourself and your partner too."

Narumi-sensei slowly carried Inchou in his arms. "I better return Yuu-san back to his room. I guess the rest of you could choose to return to the event or going back to your rooms."

"Before I forget," Narumi-sensei added when he was at the door. "I hope that everything's that happening tonight stay among ourselves only. I don't want other people know about tonight's incident and Igarashi-san's other Alices." With that being said, he left the room with Inchou in his arms.

"Urgh..." Yomi began to sway and lost her footing. Luckily Natsume managed to catch her in time.

"I think we better take you back to your room. Come on, Ruka."