[FFML] [xover][Kodocha/Alice Academy/RoD/GK] Sana's Alice, Chapter 4.

[Henry Cobb]

[xover][Kodocha/Alice Academy/RoD/GK] Sana's Alice, Chapter 4.
By Henry J. Cobb

Gakuen Alice is the creation of Higuchi Tachibana.  Kodomo no Omocha is the
creation of Miho Obana.  Read or Dream is the creation of Hideyuki
Kurata. Ginban Kaleidoscope is the creation of Rei Kaibara.  This parody is
not intended to cause any damage to these properties.

Previously: Misako Kurata's latest bestselling book in Japan, "My Daughter
and I", tells how Sana Kurata, her eleven year old adopted daughter, came
to be the co-star of the television series Kodocha.  She neglected to
mention in her book that Sana has a budding relationship with Akito Hayama
and that Babbit, the sidekick of the television show, is not a puppet or
computer generated image but an actual small plastic bat/rabbit sentient
creature that Sana summons with the use of her superhuman power or Alice.

Because Sana is an Alice she has been forced to transfer to the maximum
security boarding school run by the Japanese government called Alice
Academy.  At the Academy Sana has been entranced, attacked, humiliated,
hazed and idolized.  Although Sana is one of the most famous girls in
Japan, she was unknown at the Academy and is often mistaken for her twin
sister Mikan Sakura, who ran off with a boy from her class.

Sana's clumsy attempt to cure her friend Anita King's book phobia resulted
in the destruction of the Elementary Branch library and Anita has been
hiding in her room ever since.

The full chapters can be found at
http://www.io.com/~hcobb/anime/fanfic/sana_alice.html

Chapter Four: Bear and Prince

Wednesday afternoon after Alice training class I met Hotaru back at our
dorm and we went to Anita's door.

Hotaru knocked.

There was no answer.

Hotaru knocked again.

"Go away!"

"I thought you might want to say goodbye to Sana."

"Why?  What are you going to do to her you monster?"

"I'm taking her to see the teddy bear."

Anita stomped over to her door and threw it open, "You're insane."

"So are you going to say goodbye?"

Anita turned to me, "You're not really going with her, are you Sana?"

I glanced at Hotaru, "Sure, why not?"

"That's it.  Hold on,"  Anita went back into her room, put on a fanny pack
and stuffed several piles of index cards into it, "Let's go."

"So you want to come with us?"  Hotaru's poker face was very good, but my
actor's training told me she was somehow very amused and satisfied at the
outcome.

"Somebody has to save Sana from your evil schemes."

"As for that, I've considered that the best way to train Sana's Alice is to
keep her life in constant jeopardy.  You can of course continue to cut
classes and just hear about it afterwards."

"Or I can cut you down here and now."

"You can try.  But if you do that you should expect punishment.  They might
even cut off your milk ration.  If you're done we can go now.  We certainly
don't want to let it get dark before we meet it."

"A teddy bear?"  I asked.

"It's a homicidal stuffed animal,"  Anita walked between me and Hotaru.

"Mr. Bear is just misunderstood.  I'm sure if Sana gives him a hug, he'll
feel much better."

"Why are you doing this?"  Anita had one hand near the zipper of her fanny
pack.

"Like I said, it's all for Sana.  I wanted to show her an Alice like
Babbit."

"Oh,"  Anita stopped for a moment then rushed to catch up, "But isn't
Sana's Alice more like mine?"

"Your origami creations don't have an ego."

Babbit popped into existence over my shoulder at this, "Are you saying I've
got an ego problem?"

Hotaru ignored him and continued talking to Anita, "Your creations have no
personality of their own.  They're just crude puppets and you have to
concentrate continuously to move them.  Babbit is a much closer match to
being a Technical Alice.  Even Anna's dancing cookies have more life to
them than your paper creations.

"But the cookies only dance.  Babbit's a person."

"Thanks for the support!"  Babbit landed on Anita's red hair.

"So there is a range of independent behavior and Mr. Bear is closer to
Babbit than any of the Technical Alices in the Elementary school.  Even my
robots don't match up."

"I suppose,"  Anita looked up at Babbit then back to Hotaru, "But why not
take her to see Mr. Bear's creator?"

"He's not available at the moment and we Technical Alices are best known by
our creations."

"He?"

"After Sana showed up I did a bit of homework.  Here we are are the Northern
Forest.  Anybody want to bail out now?"

I looked at the dirt path that lead into the dark woods, "After all of that
I can't chicken out now, can I?"

"Don't say chicken,"  Anita walked ahead of us, with a handful of cards,
"Mr. Bear isn't the only hazard in these woods."

There was a sound to our left.  Anita tossed three cards over her shoulder
then turned to see a squirrel scampering away from where the cards had cut
into a tree branch.

"Isn't that one of Ruka's little friends?"  Hotaru asked.

"If so it's your fault for getting us into this mess," Anita went to
retrieve her cards.

"I'm surprised you can't use your Alice on wood."

"I can sense dry wood," Anita turned back, "but I can't bend it because
the grain is all lined up instead of random like paper."

"And leaves?"

"Oh,"  Anita considered Hotaru's question then closed her eyes.  Dry leaves
lifted off from the ground and spun around her.  She opened her eyes again
and the leaves fluttered down, "That's neat.  The grain is aligned like
wood, only not so thick."

"If Sana had an Alice that worked like yours she be able to bend thin
plastic she found rather than created,"  Hotaru turned to me, "Can you?"

"I've tried and I can't, but I think I've figured out what my Alice is."

"Do tell."

"I've got the same Alice that Tazusa has!  Babbit is just a ghost I've
captured."

"So Babbit is just some guy you had inside you all these years?"  Anita
asked.

"Yeah, that means he's seen me in the bath and everywhere..."  I blushed
beet red.

"Relax, that isn't the case, is it Babbit?"  Hotaru asked.

"No, I don't recall anything before Sana created me."

"But you could be lying!"  I pointed at him.

"We can skip over the fact that you've had him for five years instead if a
hundred days and his access to your memories because even very similar
Alices differ in the fine details, but if we assume you're correct, what is
Babbit's Alice?"

"Babbit's Alice?"  I looked at him.

"Assuming you have the Ghost Capture Alice then you won't have the Alice to
summon and control the plastic things.  That's too broad."

"Yeah, so that's Ghost-Babbit's Alice and I grabbed that along with him."

"How about his perfect memory then?  We have a boy in class who only has
the perfect memory Alice and nothing else."

"So I grabbed and kept two Alices."

"Where is the ghost for this second Alice?  You don't have two voices in
your head do you?"

"No."

"There's a girl in the Middle School who just has a translation Alice.  She
speaks smoothly in any language she's ever heard.  Our perfect memory Alice
can read and understand other languages, but he does so very slowly as he
has to cross reference every word and sentence structure against his
perfect memory, rather than thinking in the other language.  Which of those
does Babbit work like."

"He has the translation Alice."

"So we can either assume that you have one Alice and have captured another
Alice who has three or more distinct powers or we can assume that you
yourself are doing all of this.  So Babbit, which explanation do you
favor?"

"I am not an Alice expert", he explained, "There is very little written in
the outside media about them."

"Don't chicken out on us like this."

"Peep!"  The sound thundered out from behind us.

"I told you not to say chicken!"  Anita gathered double handfuls of cards,
turned around and looked up.

I followed her gaze.  It was a yellow chick.  The only difference
it had from the one I had given Tsuyoshi's sister Aono was that this one
towered over the trees.

"So do you think you can kill it in one blow?"

Anita glared at Hotaru then turned back towards the Chick, "It's just a
baby you monster!"

"What does it matter how she kills it?"

"Oh, I keep forgetting that unlike Mikan you're a city girl.  In the
country we've seen chickens run around for a bit after their heads have
been chopped off.  I knew I should have brought Ruka instead of Anita.  But
now our choices are a big chicken dinner or to become the big chicken's
dinner."

"Chickens eat bugs don't they?"  Anita looked down at her cards, "I can
fold up a dragonfly to distract it, but I can't make it fly-", she looked
up at Babbit.

"So you want me to lure it off?"  He asked.

"If you don't mind," Hotaru replied, "For Sana's sake."

"It's really big.  I doubt it will even notice me."

"How about dozens of Babbits then!"  I summoned a Babbit swarm around the giant
chick's head.

"Peep?"  The chick pecked one of the Babbits and it popped.  It jerked its
head back and then bit back at the swarm, popping half a dozen.  The swarm
moved off to the right and more Babbits appeared.

"Peep!"  The ground shook as the chick chased after the Babbits.

"Why didn't we hear that before?"  I allowed my concentration to lapse,
confident that Babbit would keep up the chase.

"It can be quite sneaky when it's hunting for food."

"How long can she keep it up?"

"That's a great question.  Sana, why don't you send some more Babbits to
fetch a snack and we'll have a picnic here until your power gives out."

"No!  Let's run!," Anita grabbed my hand and hurried down the path, "Do not
ever listen to that girl again."

"Don't get too far ahead,"  Hotaru followed at a more moderate pace,
"Neither of you knows exactly where Mr. Bear's cabin is."

"You could send a Babbit ahead Sana.  When it gets popped you'll know where
the bear is."

"Really," I stopped, waited for Hotaru to catch up and grabbed her hand
with my free one, "The way you two go on.  It's just a teddy bear.  How bad
can it be?"

"She didn't tell you anything about it?"  Anita glared past me at Hotaru.

"No, but Anna and Nonoko seemed freaked out about the teddy bear."

"Oh, how have they been?  And everybody, since I've been away."

"It's the same old -- Wait!"  I stopped, "Anita, Mr. Jinno knows your
mother."

"I have a mother?"

"Well doesn't everyone?"  Hotaru released my hand, looked around then
turned back to us, "But he said he misspoke."

"That was a lie.  I'm sure of it."

"So did you get Yome to check?"  Anita looked up at me.

"Mr. Jinno threatened him into silence, but he wouldn't do that if he
didn't have something to hide."

"If the Academy knew anything about my family then Mr. Narumi would tell me
about it.  I'm sure of it,"  Anita looked down at her feet.

Poor girl, he had her as brainwashed as he did me.

"Oh look Mikan, it's your little friend."

I looked at Hotaru then turned around to follow her gaze.  There was an
ordinary brown teddy bear standing on the path behind us, holding three
wildflowers in its paw.  Or maybe the flowers were glued on because the
teddy bear didn't really have any fingers to hold them with.  But how could
it be standing there on just its hind legs without support?

"You remember Mikan, don't you Mr. Bear?"

The teddy bear moved.  It looked at Hotaru then back to me.

"Oh, I'm not Mikan."

The teddy bear bent over, carefully placed the wildflowers to the side of
the path then started running towards us.

"Sana, run!" Anita stepped in front of me and tossed three cards at the
teddy bear.

It blocked Anita's cards with a swipe of its paw, kicked her in the shin
and tossed her by her other ankle away from the path.

"Babbit, get him!"  I concentrated for a moment and dozens of Babbits piled
on the teddy bear.

The teddy bear popped the Babbits closest to him and tossed the rest away.
Then it jumped up and punched me in the jaw.

My head rang and I fell over backwards.  I had never been hit that hard
before.  What exactly was this teddy bear made out of?

"Sana, use your Alice on him,"  Hotaru was working some sort of remote
control device.

"I tried that.  Babbit doesn't work on him.  Ooof!"

The teddy bear had jumped up and stomped me in the gut.

"Not that.  Your real Alice."

"That is my real Alice!"  I summoned some more Babbits, but the teddy bear
popped them.

"Sana!"  Anita was leaning against a tree with one hand with cards in her
other while keeping the ankle she'd been tossed by above the ground, "Toss
him off so I can get a clean shot."

I tried putting my arms up to protect my head, but the teddy bear punched
them away and went to work hitting me on either side of my face.

The teddy bear lifted me up by the collar and drew back his other paw for
the finishing blow.

"Stop that Mr. Bear,"  There was a angel standing there, even more
beautiful than Naozumi Kamura.  He had big white wings, but then the wings
shifted behind him and were revealed to be part of a large cartoony looking
pelican, flying overhead.

Mr Bear tossed me down and my head hit a rock.  I passed out.

My forehead was pounding, but there was something cool and damp on it.

I opened my eyes and looked up up at log ceiling.  I was in a log cabin, next
to a window and there seemed to be a bed under me.  I reached up and felt
the damp cloth on my forehead.

"Are you okay Sana?"  It was that angel.  He was sitting in a chair next to
the bed.  Anita was sitting in another chair while Hotaru wrapped a
strip of cloth around the ankle she had been thrown by.  The wildflowers
Mr. Bear had been carrying earlier were in a cup on the table in the center
of the room.

"I think I'm okay.  But my face must look a mess."

"Mr. Bear does get carried away at times, but don't worry about it.  You
look beautiful,"  He smiled and I couldn't bring myself to doubt him.

He doubled over coughing.  Then he felt his pocket, "I forgot something!"
The look of panic on his face was heartbreaking.

"Will these do?"  Hotaru handed him three half-empty foil packs of pills.

"Yes," He looked them over, "This is it exactly.  Oh," He looked at Hotaru.

"It seems we have something in common, Mr. Sono."

"Just call me Kaname," He thought for a moment, "And you've been so
active."

"It keeps me busy," Hotaru turned to the door that had just opened.

Mr. Bear was standing there with a bucket of water.

Hotaru grabbed the bucket and Mr. Bear backed away.  What could she do that
would frighten him so?

She poured a glass of water from the bucket and Kaname drank it along with
the pills.

"Kaname is Mr. Bear's creator," Hotaru accepted the packets with the
remaining pills back from him.

"You're both unlimited class Alices.  Making Mr. Bear cost you a piece of
you life."

There was a clatter as a plate full of cookies dropped onto the table.  Mr
Bear turned, went down the tiny steps leading up to the table and moved to
the door.

"Mr. Bear."

Mr. Bear reached for the door handle.

"Come here Mr. Bear."

He turned to face Kaname.

"Sana doesn't know what she's talking about.  Please come here," Kaname
grabbed Mr. Bear as he walked up and sat him on his own lap, "Do you
remember that first day, when you came alive?"

Mr. Bear nodded.

"I made you because I was all alone.  I didn't have anybody to talk to and
I couldn't even leave my room.  I don't know how long I could have kept
going like that, but then you woke up and became my only friend.  You're
not the one who took my life, you're the one who gave me a life."

Kaname hugged Mr. Bear tightly, but Mr. Bear wasn't looking at him.  It was
looking at me and even though its bead eyes did not change, somehow they
were glaring hot anger right at me.

I turned away and thought for a moment.  "That's what I did too.  I made my
own little brother because Mama couldn't."

"Oh, you have an Alice to animate objects also?"

"Like this."

"Hi, I'm Babbit, pleased to meet you Kaname."

"It's an illusion?"

"No, it's solid enough."

At my whim, Babbit swooped down to the table and grabbed a bear face
cookie.

Mr. Bear jumped up, popped Babbit, grabbed the cookie and presented it to
Kaname.

"That wasn't very nice Mr. Bear.  Now give that to Sana please.  Sorry
about that."

"It's no problem."

Babbit reappeared in midair, "How does he pop me so easily?"

"Now you're just being thin skinned."

Mr. Bear stalked towards me and I crossed my arms in front of me.  He threw
the cookie at me and I just barely caught it.

"Mr. Bear, what's gotten into you today?  So Babbit is just a puppet you
can create at will?"

"Like your constructs, Babbit is fully autonomous,"  Hotaru grabbed a
handful of cookies from the table while Mr. Bear's back was turned, "She
even has him do her homework while she sleeps."

"I'm not sure that would be considered cheating here."

"It is, but Babbit is much smarter than Sana.  He speaks at least a dozen
languages.  She's holding him and the rest of the class back."

"Don't say that about Sana, you meanie!"  Anita winced as she tried to flex
her ankle.

"My mistake.  Most of the class."

The door opened and six highschool girls swarmed in.  They placed four
stuffed animals on the floor and these ran to Kaname, "Master!  Master!  We
felt you had been released from the hospital."

"They speak?"

"Yours does," Hotaru sat down next to me, "So do Anna's cookies and a bunch
of other things around here."

"Kaname, we brought you presents,"  "and flowers,"  "and the materials you
need to make your stuffed animals."

"Oh, you shouldn't have."

"That's right, they shouldn't have."

"Is something bothering you Sana?  Would you like me to make an animal
friend for you?"

"No!  I mean, I already have one,"  I grabbed Babbit from midair and hugged
him tightly, but not so tight as to pop him.

"I wish I could make animals that flew."

"I love the one you made for me, just the way it is.  I couldn't ask for a
more perfect friend."

One of the girls who hadn't brought one of Kaname's animals in said, "Um,
if you're going to be making more stuffed animals..."

"Sure, I can make one for you."

"And me too?"  The other one asked.

"No problem."

I stood up.  I was going to speak my mind.  How could they, how could they
ask for such a thing?

"Sana."

"Yes?"  I turned to Hotaru.

"Can you give me a hand with Anita?  We need to get her to proper care."

"Do you need a hand?"  Kaname asked.

"No thanks.  You're still recovering.  We'll be fine," Hotaru got under one
of Anita's arms and I got under the other and we helped her hop on her good
ankle to to door.

Just outside the cabin a giraffe was nibbling on some tree leaves.  No, it
was a robot head on a four wheeled cart.

I got in the back of the cart with Anita and Hotaru sat up front at the
controls, "Hold on you two, the path's a little bumpy."

"If you had a cart," Anita asked, "Why didn't you use it on the way here?"

"I didn't want Mr. Bear to damage it.  It's a lot of hard work making these
things.  Sometimes I envy you two, with the ability to create whatever you
like, limited only by your imaginations, but then I remember that in the
case of you two that's a crippling limitation."

"Why did you stop me?"  I asked Hotaru, "I was going to tell all of those
highschool girl leaches how they were killing him."

"They all seemed happy enough."

"They, they must not know."

"How could he make people happy if they did know?  They'd shun him and he'd
be even more alone than he is now."

"But what kind of power is worth killing yourself for?"

"Why don't you complain when I use my Alice?"

"You're a smart girl.  You know your limits, don't you?"

"And because he's cute you assume that he doesn't?"

"You don't spend all of your time in the hospital.  How about you Anita,
does using your power hurt you?"

"Not that I've noticed.  I get a little tired if I focus real hard, but
it's no big deal.  When I came to in the library I was just a little
winded, that's all."

"Why are the Alices so different?"

"You should ask your sister that when she returns."

"Mikan, she's got the ability to see Alices doesn't she?  And she can heal
them too.  Do you think she could help Kaname?"

"Most likely, though she might have to sleep with him."

"I know that what you mean is not what you imply, but still it creeps me
out."

"You could try that yourself Sana."

"I'm not Mikan!  I just look like her.  I thought you knew that by now."

"Oh, I don't know.  What do you think Anita?  Did it feel real good when
Sana slept with you?"

"You scumbag!"  Anita felt around herself, "Where's my papers?"

"I suppose we must have forgotten them back at Mr. Bear's cabin."

"Just you wait.  You're going to get the most painful paper cut."

"Here you go Sana.  You'd best get up to your room and get your homework
done.  I can take Anita to the hospital myself."

"The hospital?"

"It might just be a sprained ankle, or it might be something worse.  Either
way they've got somebody who can fix her up."

Anita came to my table at dinner, "Hi all."

"Hi Anita," Anna greeted her.  "Good to see you're back with us,"  Nonoko
added.

"You're walking again?"  I looked around for Hotaru, but didn't see her.

"Yeah, they've got a real good healing Alice here."

After dinner I went and knocked on Hotaru's door.

"Come in Sana."

I walked in and saw she was in her bed, with her head on one pillow and a
bandaged ankle on another.  She put down her copy of "My Daughter and I"
and turned to me.  Her half eaten dinner was on a tray on a table next to
her bed.

"What happened to you?"

"Anita confirmed that I had been the one behind the little escapade today
so my brother punished me."

"By hurting your ankle?"

"He does that."

"What a creep.  So who ratted you out in the first place?"

"I did."

"You knew your brother was going to hurt you and you went to him anyway?"

"Normally I'd enjoy watching the tiny gears in your head slowly wind down
to a bizarre conclusion, but I'm in too much pain at the moment so let's
skip that and jump to this part.  Do you remember what I said my brother's
Alice is?"

"He heals and kills?"

"Those are your words, not mine.  He heals and hurts.  He transfers injury
from one person into pain on another."

"If he hurts one person for each one he helps it doesn't sound like he's
gaining anything."

"He gains a lot.  He turns injury that could take weeks to years to heal
into pain that only last for a few days at most.  The closer the donor and
patient are to each other the less it hurts him.  By showing up as the
obvious donor for Anita I was admitting that I had something to do with
it."

"His Alice hurts him?"

"That tends to run in a family.  But he can't use his Alice on himself and
he can't use it to fix Alice strain either."

"So he couldn't use it to help everybody in the world."

"We're special, but he is looking a little run down.  So if you ever do
meet your sister, please ask her to sleep with my brother."

"Your eyes are laughing Hotaru."

"What?"

"You think you've got such a good poker face.  And you can say whatever you
like and act so innocent and lord it over the rest of us like a princess,
but you're human too.  I can catch of glimpse of the real you from time to
time.  The scared lonely little girl.  Don't deny it.  I've only know you a
little while but it feels like I've known you all my life.  I can see
through your tricks.  I've seen them all somewhere before."

"Mikan would never say something like that."

"I'm not my sister."

"No, you're not.  Let's watch a movie."

"Huh?"

"I've got a question to ask, but I need you to see the movie first.  It's
all about you."

"Something you made?"

"No, it's that DVD."

I put it in her player then settled down next to her to watch, "Hey, it's
black and white."

"It's a very old movie.  Older than you."

So I lay beside her on her bed and we watched "Forbidden Planet".

As the credits rolled Hotaru looked over at me, "So what did you think?"

"It's okay."

"What did you think of the Shakespeare reference?"

"What?"

"You're an actress.  You've got to know Shakespeare's plays."

"Yeah, he did Romeo and Juliet, right?"

"Let me just get to my real question.  What did you think of the Monster
from the Id?"

"I guess it was kind of like an Alice?"

"Not just any Alice.  Your Alice."

"Huh?  I don't send out Babbit while I'm sleeping to go kill people."

"And why not?"

"My Mama didn't raise me to be a monster."

"As good an answer as any,"  Hotaru reached over to turn out the lights,
then pulled the blanket over the two of us and pretended to sleep.

I knew I should just barge on past her, but she would pretend to be woken
and that I had somehow disturbed her hurt ankle, so I settled down and was
soon asleep myself.

The next morning Mr. Narumi showed up himself to teach first period.  It
was odd how Anita was walking normally, but Hotaru's crutch was leaning
against her desk.

There seemed to be a bit of excitement in the air so I looked at Mr. Narumi
as he started the class.

"It's that time of year again everybody.  You all need to do your annual
book reports, except of course for Anita who will be assigned an
alternative activity."

"Sir!"

"Yes Anita?  Did you have a movie or TV show you'd like to review?"

"I'd like to review this book Sir,"  Anita reached into her bag without
looking, dropped the book onto the table and then jerked her hands back
before she read out the title, "It's My Daughter and I by Misako Kurata."

"Oh, and Hotaru?"

Hotaru balanced herself against the desk as she stood on her good leg for a
moment, "I will also be reviewing My Daughter and I."

Anita quietly growled as Hotaru lowered herself back down.

"And Anna?"

"I will be reviewing The Gigolo and I by Misako Kurata."

And so it went around the classroom with every student naming a book of
Mama's.  Even Ruka named a manga series she had written for and then
finally I was the only one left.

"And Sana, do you have a book in mind you'd care to review?"

I thought for a moment, "Midnight by Nenene Sumiregawa."

"Yes!"  Sumire raised a fist in the air, "The martyr."

"Oh?"  Mr. Narumi raised a hand to his chin.

"She was killed in Hong Kong by a bomb placed by anti-Alice terrorists."

"I don't think that's ever been proved.  She never was a student at the
Academy."

"It's impossible to prove hate crimes against us when we don't officially
exist."

"Well there is that Hotaru, but I'm sure you'll come to value your
anonymity once you graduate."

Next chapter: King and Princess