When schooltime was over, Yomi went to the gazebo behind the dormitory. It was slightly far back so she had to walk a bit further into the Northern woods behind the dormitory. At first, she had a few problems finding it because she didn't know that the gazebo was hidden. Besides, she didn't dare to ask Inchou about it because she knew that he would wanted to tag along with her and Natsume wouldn't like it. Speaking of Inchou, she lost sight of him right after class. But after three times walking through hedges, four times tripping over bulky roots and getting hit in the face with a branch once, she finally managed to find it. The gazebo was beautiful; made from white marble and has intricate carvings all over it. It stood out from the lush greenery background of the Northern Woods.

"I wonder why Natsume-kun wanted to meet me here." Yomi wondered aloud while staring at the gazebo. She looked around and there was no sign of Natsume anywhere. Everything was quiet and the only the sound of rustling leaves were heard. She was slightly sleepy and in her drowsy state, she noticed that the gazebo looked quite inviting. It looked quite cool and serene and somehow it was beckoning her to enter it.

"He's not here yet. I better wait for him inside."

So, she stepped inside the gazebo and sat down on a marble stool. After a few minutes, Natsume still hasn't shown up. She yawned and rested her head on her arm. She almost dozed off when she heard footsteps towards her direction. She was still drifting in and out of consciousness so she ignored them, thinking that it was all part from her imagination. Suddenly, there was a sound of someone was running away and then there were footsteps again. She ignored it until there was a tap on her shoulder. Her eyes instantly flew open and she swiftly whirled around with her gloved hand extended, only to found herself face to face with Natsume. Her hand was firmly on his chest. Alarmed, she quickly withdrew it away.

"Natsume-kun! What are you doing, scaring me like that?"

He just leaned against the marble pillar of the gazebo with his hands in his pockets.

"I thought that you were asleep. Duh! You look slightly pale, Yomi."

He placed his hand on Yomi's forehead but she quickly brushed it away.

"I'm fine, Natsume-kun. Don't worry about me."

Natsume just shrugged as he fold his arms.

"Whatever. Now, spill out the details. What are you doing here?"

Yomi relaxed and pointed her towards a marble stool.

"I won't tell you until you've sit down. It's rude, you know."

Natsume fliched but he sat down anyway.

"Okay, Miss I-am-well-behaved. Now, spill it out."

Yomi smiled calmly. "Well, I'm here because I wanted to pursue my studies. I..."

WHAM!!! Natsume's fist banged the marble table.

"That's not what I meant, Yomi. Spill it! This time, its the truth!"

Yomi was silent. Only the sound of rustling leaves were heard.

"How did you end up here in this Academy? Something must've happen."

Yomi sighed as she fiddled with her fingers.

"Do you really want to know about it?" she asked. "It's long and kind of a downer so I..." She stopped when Natsume's crimson eyes were burning with annoyance.

"Okay, okay... I'll tell you."

 

("')(-_-)("')

 

Yomi's Flashback Mode

A year ago...

"Yomi-chaan~! Yomi-chaan~!"

Yomi's bestfriend, Yuki Daidouji, was running all the way from her classroom. Yomi, who was reading a vampire novel in the garden was startled by Yuki's loudness.

"Yuki-chan!" she called out. "Don't run. You've might..."

"KYAAA!!!!"

THUD!!! BANG!!! CRASH!!!

"Fall," she sighed. She closed her novel and walked towards Yuki, who had rolled into a ditch. She pulled her friend back onto her feet and shook the dust off her uniform. She shook her head while eyeing on Yuki's messy uniform.

"I've told you not to run, haven't I? You're all messy now. What's the rush, Yuki-chan?"

Yuki looked at her with a lopsided grin. "Nothing," she said. "I'm just excited to see my best friend, Yomi Igarashi. That's all," she pouted. Yomi just smiled at her. Yuki was always like that; easygoing, clumsy, happy-go-lucky, loud and lively. Before Yomi could say anything else, Takashiro Nomiya, Yomi's classmate and heart-throb, walked past them. He waved at them once and continued walking forward. Yomi stared at him dreamily. Takashiro was good-looking, athletic, smart and well-mannered so it wasn't a wonder that many girls were crushing on him, including herself. She felt that her heart was in springtime and she kept on thinking about Takashiro until a surprised cry from Yuki snapped her back to reality.

"Yomi-chan," she gasped. "The flowers in the garden, all of them are blooming."

Yomi looked around and sure enough, all of the flowers in the garden were in bloom. She was sure that they weren't blooming at all when she was in the garden earlier. Besides, it was in the end of summer. Flowers rarely bloom during this time of year except for certain rare species but these flowers weren't from their kind at all.

"That's odd. They weren't like this earlier. How could this be?" She was very puzzled indeed. 

Yuki looked around and when she saw that they were alone. She took a deep breath and tugged on Yomi's sleeve.

"Yomi-chan, they are in bloom when after Takashiro-kun walked past us and waved at us. I don't want to startle you but I was watching you for some time, Yomi-chan. I noticed that whenever that you're in a happy mood, it's always sunny. When you're gloomy, the sky was dark and cloudy. When you're in a blissful mood, either a rainbow will stretch across the sky above you or flowers will bloom regardless  what the seasons were. The weather and seasons tend to change according to your mood."

Yomi was dumbfounded. What was Yuki blabbering about?

Yuki stared at her as if she was reading her mind. "I'm not crazy, Yomi-chan. It seems like you have the power to control both weather and seasons according to your mood. You have a great gift." She hugged Yomi. "Let this be our little secret, Yomi-chan. We don't want the bad guys to know about this, right?"

"Yes, let this be our secret."

 

Still in flashback mode...

Ten months later

Yomi hurriedly left the school compound as the sun was setting in the horizon. She could hear the clock chiming somewhere in the distance. The wind was blowing hard. She looked at her watch.

"Four hours of cleanup duty in the library is totally . It's getting late."

The sun finally dissappeared a few minutes later. The streetlights were already on as it was already dark. She kept on running until she reached at a junction near her neighbourhood. A gang of rowdy-looking guys were hanging out nearby. They were smoking on their bikes and some of them appeared to be drunk. She didn't want to be in trouble so she decided to tiptoe her way past them because these guys weren't  supposed to be tampered with. After a few steps, one of the guys whistled.

"Little girls like you shouldn't be out this late, you know."

Yomi ignored him as she quickened her pace. Suddenly, two of the guys stood in front of her and were blocking her path.

"Move!" Yomi seethed through gritted teeth. "I don't have time for shenanigans."

The guys laughed.

"Ooh~." They whistled. "She's all ghetto. We're not shenanigans, young lady. But who cares? You're just my type." One of them grabbed Yomi by her wrist and tried to hug her. She was horrified but she didn't stop from struggling. 

"Let go of me! You filthy ert!" Yomi cursed as she kicked the guy in his privates. He howled in pain as he collapsed to the ground, cursing Yomi. His other friends stood up and charged at Yomi when they saw their injured friend.

"She kicked Kimura-kun!" One of them spat. "Let's teach this brat a lesson."

Yomi backed herself away as the rowdy guys ganged up around her with dirty looks on their faces. She kept on pacing backwards until her back was against the wall. There was no more escape. She pressed herself hard against the wall with the palms of her hands flat on the wall's surface. When one of them grabbed her chin and began to lean in towards her, Yomi closed her eyes because she didn't dare to look. At the same time, her hands shot out in front of her.

"ARGH!!!"

"Thump!"

The next thing she knew, she heard horrified gasps and curses around her. She quickly opened her eyes and saw her attacker sprawled on the ground, unconscious. The others stared at her, both frightened and puzzled. Mad with rage, the remaining members of the gang attacked Yomi but she managed to fight them off and everytime her hands touched their opponents, they sputtered before crashing onto the ground.

After a few minutes, there was silence. Yomi stood and stared at her trembling hands. They felt surprisingly cold like ice. As for her attackers, none of them were conscious. She feared that she had killed all of them. To make sure that they were still alive, she tiptoed to each and every one of them and placed her finger under their noses. She couldn't feel anything at all. She was at wits end when a lightbulb flashed in her mind. She remembered her compact powder case so she quickly rummaged in her bag for it. She felt slightly relieved when it was in her hand so she quickly pulled it out, opened it and placed it under the nose of the nearest unconscious attacker. She noticed that the mirror was beginning to cloud over. Relieved, she repeated her actions on the remaining attackers. All of them were still alive except that they were in a weird coma. She looked around and dashed away from the crime scene.

The next morning, she stayed in bed because she was still shaken from the incident last night. She stared at her hands. They were no longer icy cold but they felt slightly weird. She looked outside the window and noticed that the sky was gloomy.

"What happened last night?" She wondered. "I didn't have any fighting skills before but I fought like a blackbelt champ yesterday."

As she was pondering with her thoughts, her sister, Rika popped her head at the doorway.

"Yomi-oneechan, it's time for breakfast. Don't let your cold block your appetite for your favourite rice omelette." She giggled before dissapeared to the kitchen. Yomi shrugged, kicked off her blankets and limped after Rika.

As they were having breakfast, Yomi's father, Sanada Igarashi, put down his newspaper and sighed.

"A gang of rowdy boys were found unconscious in our neighbourhood last night." he said. Yomi, who was eating her breakfast, choked on her omelette. She quickly drank her tea. Sanada eyed at her suspiciously.

"What's wrong, Yomi? Are these guys friends of yours?"

She quickly shook her head. "I never seen them before," she lied and her hands became icy cold at once. Sanada shrugged and picked up his newspaper.

"No weapons, no wounds," he read. "All of them were in a coma and none of them gained their consciousness yet. As for the culprit, police were still doing their investigation" He lowered his newspaper and looked at Yomi and Rika. "Both of you need to be careful from now on. I don't want anything bad happen to my family."

 

Still in flashback mode

Three days later

Yomi was sweeping the porch when a black car pulled up in front of her house. Two men came out; one was a typical young man with short brown hair and the other was slightly feminine with shoulder-length blonde hair. Both were good looking. Later, a grumpy man with spectacles followed behind them. The blonde walked up to the front gate.

"Excuse me," he began. "Is this Yomi Igarashi's residence?"

Yomi put her broom aside and nodded. "Yes, I'm Yomi. Can I help you?"

His companion smiled and tapped the blonde on his shoulder. The grumpy guy just stood and stared at her.

"Is your father inside? We need to talk to him."

Yomi invited them inside and as the blonde walked past her, he whispered to her.

"I'm Narumi and the tough guy there is Makihara. That grumpy one is Jinno."

 

"WHAT???!!! My daughter Yomi is an Alice?"

Sanada banged his hands on the table. He was fuming. Rika tried to calm him down as Jinno and Makihara held Narumi back.

"Igarashi-san, Yomi is an Alice." Narumi said calmly. "She's gifted. The Academy managed to trace her Alice about 10 months ago. Well, it was very faint but we still managed to trace it." Sanada stared at Yomi.

"10 months ago?" He asked sharply. "Why didn't you say anything about it?" Then, all eyes on Yomi.

"I..." She stammered. "I don't know what it was until now. I don't know it was an Alice. All I knew was the weather and seasons changed according to my emotions. That's all."

Sanada, Makihara and Jinno weren't convinced at all. 

"Apparently, your Alice had mutliplied since the last three days." Jinno commented while sipping his tea. "You have two more Alices with you."

Sanada stared at Yomi in disbelief down as he counted with his fingers. "That's three Alices," he gasped.

Jinno nodded. "She must come with us to the academy. We already know about her first Alice. As for the other two, they are still unknown. We don't know whether they are harmful or beneficial to her."

Sanada went pale and he almost passed out in shock. Luckily, Rika managed to break his fall. She propped him up against her shoulder. Yomi wanted to help her father but Rika shook her head softly. Sanada immediately broke down into sobs.

"I won't let her leave," he said between sobs. "I don't want to lose any of my family members anymore."

Jinno sighed and looked at Sanada. Somehow, his grumpy face had finally softened when he saw Sanada sobbing.

"I understand that, Sanada. I'm sorry for your loss but it's for Yomi's own good. Who knows what her Alices could do to herself and others. I hope that you'll understand. If she doesn't come with us, we're afraid that someone else might take her away and I doubt that those type of people are the good guys."

Sanada looked sadly at Yomi. "Yomi-chan, what do you think?"

Yomi stared blankly at everyone. She didn't know what to say because she herself was torn into two decisions. One was to follow Narumi to the Academy and the other was to stay with her family. She closed her eyes for a while and opened them a few seconds later.

"I will go to the Academy."

 

End Flashback mode 

"So, that's how I came here. Narumi-sensei, Makihara-sensei and Jinno-sensei were the ones who brought me here."

"Well, it's good to see you again," Natsume nodded grimly and stared at Yomi's stars. 

"A three-star? How did you manage to get to that rank?"

Yomi fiddled her stars and shrugged.

"I don't know. When I came here, Narumi-sensei handed me these stars and told me that the Elementary School Principal gave them to me."

Natsume's face darkened after Yomi mentioned about the Elementary School Principal.

"Whatever you do," he hissed darkly. "Stay away from the Elementary School Principal. He's up to no good. Don't let him get you under his radar. I really mean it."

Yomi stared curiously at Natsume. She was surprised by his disgusted reaction. She wanted to ask more about the ESP because she knew that something was amiss but she quickly dismissed her thought on asking Natsume. Then, Natsume stood up and was ready to walk away.

"Wait!" Yomi called out. "Where are you going?"

Natsume stopped abruptly. "Well, duh! It's getting late." He said casually. "We shouldn't be outside during this time of hour."

Yomi just smiled and burst into giggles. Natsume stared at her sharply.

"What's so funny?" He demanded as his eyes narrowed into slits. "I didn't say anything funny."

Yomi's giggles were finally subdued but she couldn't stop herself from smiling.

"Wow!" she smirked. "I don't know that the rebellious hottie Natsume Hyuuga still remembered the old school childhood rule..."

Before she could finish with her sentence, BANG!!! Natsume hit her in the head.

"Really?" He said coldly while blowing on his knuckles. "I hope that you'll remember THAT as well. Baka!"

Yomi touched the spot where Natsume had hit her. She bit her lip as she felt the throbbing pain.

"Oh yeah," she said. "I'm sure to keep this in mind, thank you very much." 

Natsume smiled and reached out to take her hand but Yomi quickly pulled back.

"What?" he pouted. "You did say that those gloves are Alice prevention devices."

Yomi stared at her gloved hands. "I know but I don't want to risk anybody. Besides," she stammered nervously. "I still can't control my Alices very well and they may seep through the gloves. It happens."

"Well, except for Mikan. You won't hurt her." Natsume kicked the leaves in front of him. "Baka! It's the girl that you shook hands with earlier." He added after Yomi blankstared at him. "She's Nullification so no Alice can harm her."

 

 

(")(O_o)(")

 

They kept on walking until they reached Yomi's room. Natsume inched backwards as Yomi turned the doorknob. As soon as the door creaked open, they were greeted by a loud applause. Yomi was puzzled as a small but loud crowd was in her room; Mikan, Sumire, Ruka, Anna, Nonoko, Kokoroyomi, Hotaru, Inchou and Narumi-sensei. Mikan rushed up to her and pulled her hand. Yomi was alarmed at first but she finally relaxed when she remembered Natsume's words about Mikan.

"Welcome to Alice Academy, Yomi-chan!" The crowd cheered as Mikan dragged her towards the center of the room. Natsume strode casually behind them and stood beside Ruka. Narumi-sensei clapped his hands together and a small explosion was heard. Confetti and streamers were falling from the ceiling

"Well," he began "since you're new here, all of us here think that we should do a welcoming party for you." Everyone nodded and Ruka stepped forward.

"It's not much," he said. "But all of us hope that you like it."

Yomi stood in the center and she looked at her shoes in silence as all eyes on her. Everyone was silent with anxiousness. After a minute of silence, Yomi finally looked up and she was smiling.

"Of course I like it," she beamed. "I appreciate it very much. Thank you everyone."

Then, Sumire clapped her hands.

"Okay, okay," she piped. "Enough with these lovey dovey cheesy lines. Let's get this party started!"

Everyone cheered and crowded the buffet table. It was full with delicious food and snacks; cakes, jellies, cookies, sandwiches, howalon candies, fruits and ice creams. Everyone laughed as they munched on their food. Some of them crowd around Yomi, asking her questions or just talking to her.

Meanwhile, Inchou kept on stealing glances at Yomi and he quickly looked away whenever she looked towards his direction. 

"I see that you've got your eyes on her. Go figure."

Natsume and Ruka suddenly stood beside him. Inchou quickly shook his head, his face red with embarrasment.

"I'm not stopping you but she's a tough cookie," Natsume commented as he watched Yomi laughed together with Mikan and Sumire.

"Tough cookie? Why?"

Natsume smiled when he saw Inchou's puzzled face.

"She's a bit hard to approach and she's a heartbreaker." He added slyly. "Breaking guys' hearts is her hobby."

"A heartbreaker? Okay, hope is lost", Inchou thought sadly. Natsume noticed his sad face and softened up a bit.

"Well, you can try to win her heart but I'd already warned you. Good luck!"

Inchou nodded and began to walk towards Yomi but before he could even do so, Yomi glared at him and mouthed out a few words silently. The others didn't notice this except for Inchou and Natsume.

"WHAT-THE-HELL-ARE-YOU-LOOKING-AT, FOUR-EYES? GET-OUT-FROM-MY-SIGHT."

Inchou felt like his heart split into half.

Natsume put his hand on his shoulder and smiled.

"Well, I told you so. Good luck."

After the party had ended, everyone left Yomi's room. Inchou was going to leave when Yomi called him from behind.

"Hey, Four-Eyes!" she seethed. "Come here!"

Inchou walked up to her but before he could say anything, Yomi threw a scroll of paper directly at his face and it hit his face with a loud smacking sound before falling onto the floor. He bent down and picked it up.

"That," Yomi said coldly while pointing at the scroll of paper. "Is your new to-do checklist. Since I'm your partner, I'll be your responsibility from now onwards. You can read it later in your room and for the time being, please leave my room. Now!" 

 

("')(O_O)("')