Gakuen Alice Fan Fiction ❯ Sensitivity to Love ❯ Sen and her first day at the academy ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

In the end, instead of it being a dream, it was a nightmare. I thought about sleeping a little bit more, before getting up and having to wake up the cute toddler that was still asleep. However, it was quite the opposite. He woke me up by crawling over my body, over and over again. It did get me out of bed. I flapped the bed sheets once or twice before having them placed neatly with his help, after all it was a guest room until I could have my own.

She left the bedroom, closing the door behind her with the toddler. Her attention was at the window, while the other one was eagerly holding her hand. He was staying beside the child, quietly waiting for her to take to wherever. She shoved the glass out, as the cool breeze came in. Her hair began to waver against the wind, while the arising sun lightly left some warmth on her skin.

"Ahem." the child swung herself with the toddler spinning around a few times, before having to face the familiar voice. It was the robotic housekeeper, Takahashi. "Please change into these, and head down to the cafeteria for breakfast."

"Eh? Is that so?" She took off the plain nightgown that she was given earlier, while trying to put on her new set of clothes with socks and shoes. Her white gown was then neatly folded and was handed to the robot, but it crossed its arms. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"My dear, you are suppose to keep them in your room." the robotic housekeeper explained, while helping the cute toddler get dressed in the same uniform that it gave to the child. "For now, do put it on the table."

"Ah, okay." She said to the little boy with chocolately hair. He never took his taffy eyes off of her, which made the child feel a little guilty. She was only leaving him temporarily, to put her gown on the circular table. "Sen-oneechan is almost done, please wait."

However, before I could go after them, I had to wipe the dried mud off of my feet. It was probably the reason why the robot left a handkerchief in one of the pockets in the skirt. I spat at it twice, then used the cloth to wash the dirt off. After that, I pulled up my white socks and slipped my feet into the black boots. I hurried down the stairs to the cafeteria, and found them there.

For breakfast she was given a bowl of rice with eggs, an apple and a glass of milk. She decided to sit beside the toddler since there was no one else to sit with, and because they were the only ones there besides the robotic caretaker. He managed to finish off his red apple, while the child was eating his bowl of rice and eggs. They were feeling kind of full, but she forced him to drink his milk down anyways.

"Ah, thank you for the meal. It was very delicious." said the nodding kid, with a drooping boy on her shoulder. She also returned the trays back to the robot, as the other one began to cause trouble for her again. He slid into her arms and made himself comfortable, leaving the other two rolling their eyes. "I think kiddo liked the food too. Don't be selfish, and say thanks."

"His name is Hijiri Yoichi, he is a bit younger than you." Takahashi told the child, while carrying the dishes to the kitchen. She jerked her head up to find the robot still talking to her, as it kept going down in the hallway. "Do be careful with him, he can control ghosts and spirits."

"Ghosts? Spirits?" She twittered, out of surprise. However, her doubts seem to have disappear when she remembered when they met for the first time. He was being followed by sad spirits, indicating he was feeling sad at that time. "How is this possible? I don't understand."

"Nothing is impossible at Alice Academy." the robotic housekeeper explained, as it placed the dirty dishes in the sink. Takahashi started to squeeze the soap out of the bottle, while bubbles and foams appeared when it added water to the soapy sponge.

After helping Takahashi with washing the dishes, we had to help out with drying and putting them away. Yoichi got himself soaked because he fell into the dirty sink water, so we had to change his clothes. He clung onto me as usual, while we headed to the laundry room. In there, the robot made me hang the damp clothes on the clothesline from the washing machine as he slept in my arms. His wet uniform was thrown into the clothes basket, along with my used attire. Takahashi went back to the kitchen to make breakfast for the rest of the children.

Her body managed to fend off the tiredness the she had from the given task, the chore finally ended after the child hung the last soggy clothing. She hustled to the lunchroom to see the robot if she could help with anything else, but instead the kid found a list at the kitchen door. On the list, it said that the first thing to do was to go to school, and so she decided to leave the dormitory.

"Hey, why is that kid still here?" muttered the teenager with catlike eyes, he was carrying a stack of books up the stairs right behind the person in front of him. He felt like panicking for a second, their mission said nothing like this at all. "Isn't he suppose to be at school, Rui?"

"Who knows, just be quiet!" His arms already felt sore from carrying, the textbooks were going to break them if he had to carry any longer. He turned around and stacked his load onto the catty boy, who was already holding some. "And will you hurry up, I don't want to be yelled at again!"

"What the heck!" Hayate blurted out. He felt itchy, as if it was itching for bruises, scratches and permanent injuries. If only he was allowed to attack his own transvestic partner, Rui, surely the irritating itch would disappeared. "Why do I have to carry yours too!"

"Are you two done?" the bandaged man asked, while bringing a collection of stuffed animals with him. Silence caused them to glared at him, before going back to work again. Their urge to argue and fight will have to wait.

I thought about going upstairs because there was a familiar voice, but I shrugged it off. Life was never like this, where the sun shone brightly right after a storm, right after this nightmare I am going through. However, I knew that I had enough initiative to keep going forward, there was no way back. Challenge was my favorite difficulty. Because there was nowhere to go if I went backwards.

On the way there the kid met various people, which she had asked for directions. Many were older than her, but their answer varied like not angering a certain teacher and listen to the person that is in charge. None of them gave the child an idea of where the school was at all. A lot of them asked if the cute boy she was carrying was her younger brother, but she shook her head. She walked around mindlessly until a bunch of boys came up to her, and demanded for some sort of money called rabbits that she had never heard of.

"Why would you need money from me?" the child averted her attention from them, she was trying to get away from them in a calm, and patient way. One of the boys however, managed to slip his grip around her while the other ripped the toddler off of the kid. "Are you really that poor?"

"Don't be an idiot! Of course I need money!" the leader of the group had wavy blue hair with curled ends. He pulled out a funky pair of scissors, his eyes were twinkling at the child for some reason. "I need funding for my projects! So cough it up!"

"Man, this girl has no spunk." Her teeth clenched when the quiet kid heard that. She knew something was deterring her back from attacking, but she couldn't figure it out. "Boy, we pick the right kids to pick on."

"Scream, yell, shout and cry all you want!" the leader of the group of boys laughed, and then he squelched the kid with the scissors in his curled hand. He then decided to crush any sort of hope or idea, by precluding that nothing could help her. "No one will save you, so give it up!"

Snip, snap, they were cutting my green hair senselessly. Chopping it off as if they pleased to, but it was useless to fight back. My strength is not enough to take the three boys, especially when I am at a disadvantage. One after another were budging in front of the other, stealing the strange scissors from each other out of greed to slash the long hair.

Suddenly, ghastly beings were attacking the naughty boys. Her lifeless body was thrown onto the ground, unable to get up by itself. She heard a horrible shrieking, the terror of the ghosts and ghouls that were clashing their bodies at the guys. Takahashi was right. Such transparent souls were under the manipulation of Yoichi, the child thought. Although it was blurry for her to see, the shortest and still standing resembled the cute boy very much. She heard the ghostly beings hovering behind the blurry figure, and then everything turned black.

"Are you alright?" She tilted her head to the left, to see who was talking to her. His beige hair was short, his eyes were almost closed and he seemed fairly tall from where she was laying. She was about to get up, when there was an instant strain while lifting herself. "Do not push yourself, it'll hurt you more."

"Ow.." the child heaved, when the toddler came over to sit on her squishy stomach. She managed to get her back off the ground, but his weight made it somewhat painful for her to stand up properly. He was squeezing her tightly, similar to when he hugged his teddy bear.

"Are you lost?" the gentle man uttered, before straightening his posture. He then had his right hand out for her to reach, she gladly accepted the offer and was pulled off the ground immediately with the cute boy in her arms. "We should hurry, or else."

"Or else what?" the kid clutched onto his hand, tightening the grip when she spoke. He just smiled, their conversation was about his power and how it enabled him to travel through time, future, past or present. "Can we go to school, together?"

Apparently, Alice Academy was a campus surrounded by four forests. Dormitories and schools existed there, and special classes too. Takahashi was the robotic housekeeper of the elementary dormitory, who had to take care of getting everyone to bed and getting breakfast ready for them. And in the middle of the academy, there was a downtown and a nearby hospital. Alice Academy, still did not sound like wonderland to me.

In front of her was the door to the classroom, the child had to swallow her fear down her throat before making an attempt. She was about to reach for the handle, the nice man pulled his hand away from her and took the toddler down the hallway. Her heart cracked a little, it was at ease before. It was until, a teacher came out in a odd outfit that made her regain control of her own body. She trembled at the sight of the young, wavy blond man, the kid backed away shyly.

"Eh? Who is this?" Behind him, was the sound of fun, laughter and smiles. She strolled over to take a peek in the little space between the door and the teacher, her eyes widened to see such a disaster instead. "What's wrong? Are you lost?"

"Um, that's the new transferred student." He quickly adjusted his glasses and tighten his ponytail, he seemed embarrassed. For awhile there was a long silence between the three of them when he appeared, so the man with black hair decided to introduce himself. His name was Natsuhiko-sensei, he was substituting Narumi-sensei. "Uh, and this is your homeroom teacher."

"Let's introduce you to the class, shall we?" the two teachers went back inside again with her, after having a long discussion about the child. Her classmates hurried back into their seats, she took notice of the obedience that they had towards authority. "Everyone, we have a new student."

"Higashi Sen." the kid said very bluntly, without emphasis or emotion. She realized that her introduction was simple, but plain and inhuman after bowing. However, she felt that revealing anything about herself might cause trouble somehow. "Please look after me."

Soon there was a wave of questions at me, everybody wanted to know everything for no reason. Like when they asked how old I was, I told them I just turned eight, and they were very surprised because I was quite tall for my age. Or what was my blood type, they even asked where I was from. One of the girls came up to me and said my hair looked strange, I really wanted to tell her why that was, but I ended up choking on my words. Curiosity was drowning me, in this foreign sea.

Sen was then assigned to a foxing classmate, Kitsuneme, temporarily as her partner until further notice. She sauntered over to sit beside him, his eyes still following her. His friend, Kokoroyomi, sat in between them right after their homeroom teacher left. He explained that the school's buddy system was created to protect their partner and learn from each other. Together, they also have the right to know and go into their personal lives if they wanted to. Having to be involved with people and their lives would intertwine with hers personally, she sat there feeling tired from that thought.

"Aren't you going to show me around the school?" Sen reminded him. She was kind of hoping to make some friends. If they were to walk around, maybe his buddies would ask him to introduce her to them. Or something like that, the kid thought. "Or at least show me where the bathroom is?"

"Nope! I don't want to!" Grinning away like a fox, he was still expecting more from her. However, her facial expression did not change, it stayed the same. His disappointment went somewhere else, since the frown turned upside down. "We're going to go play now! Bye!"

"How are you doing, Higashi-san?" said a student with hair of an ecru color, and glasses that shielded his orange eyes. He stood there beside her desk, while the other two were behind them, playing cards and laughing. "Higashi-san?"

"Why is he smiling, so casually?" Kokoroyomi imitated right out of her mind. He was reading her thoughts out loud, while doing hand gestures and making a curious tone. "Is he making fun of me?"

Before the homeroom teacher left, he winked at me when the class representative put a backpack on my desk. He apologized a few times, then ran off in embarrassment while the other students made fun of him. Of course after they got bored of of the Iincho, and so their next target was me, the new transferred student. I knew that they were bullying others to be part of their plan to make me react to their torments, and throughout the whole day, I went over to those who were forced to suffer and out of guilt I apologized to them. My school backpack also had to bear the burden of getting constantly dirtied, soaked, crashed and thrashed around with me.

Sen was feeling miserable, her first day at school was terrible. Many of her classmates used their previous observation and judgment to understand the child. Their standards seemed to be based off the norm, which had been influenced from somewhere. Her popularity worsened, when the majority of them were put in situations that made them uncomfortable. She missed homeschooling, especially her family, who had taught her everything.

"Eat some dessert already, my dear." Takahashi reminded the child, who was staring at the yellow custard. It had chocolate sauce at the bottom and a bit on the top of the pudding. However, she put the spoon in her mouth and slouched backwards. "Are you trying to savour it imaginably?"

"I don't know, but it hurts." Sen moved her plate of homemade pudding aside, she then whipped out a workbook and some utensils from her backpack. I need to practice this and that, was her first thought. "Maybe after doing some homework."

"Let me fix your hair, it looks awful." the robot rushed over with a pair of scissors and began snipping bits and pieces off. In a few minutes, it was done which made the child feel relieved. "You had such nice hair before, but this will have to do."

"Eh? I did?" she ran her fingers through her short hair, trying to remember the feeling of the long hair. Sen liked the haircut very much, it had been a long time since she had one. She decided not to count the one before, and had forgotten about it completely.

Having to come back to the dormitory right after school, there was no time to horseplay or complain. Once in awhile, Takahashi would come over to check on me, and time to time I told her about my first day of school. At first, when the robot heard about those, she wanted to get back at them, but I said it was unnecessary. Takahashi came back with a few hair accessories and decorations related stuff that were left behind. Being left by myself again, I worked diligently until everything was finished.

Sen gathered her things, as she slowly made her way up the stairs and to her room. On the way there, she started to eat the pudding that the robotic caretaker had given her. When the child got to her door, it was already slightly opened. Sen crept into the bedroom, only to find it filled up with her belongings from home. She gazed at them, mesmerizing and remembering everything. Her heart demanded to touch everything, and so she took it patiently to look over if it was true. Sen dropped her backpack and her empty plate when she came to the bed.

"Someone has been sleeping in my bed." the kid muttered, the tone had little surprise and shock. For some reason, the sight of it seemed so familiar and that she had the urge to wake the thing up.