Mikan was at her wits end. It's been almost two weeks since Merem-Chan had last been in class. She's asked every teacher in the building, except Persona, and none of them would open up on Merem's whereabouts.

Her imagination was running wild at this point. What if's ran throughout her mind.

"Oi, Baka." A cool voice drifted near her ear.

Mikan screeched as she jumped before rubbing her ear furiously. Her face was as red as a tomato when she found the perpetrator to be Natsume.

"Natsume! W-wh-what did you want?" She stuttered out, her heart beating fast.

Natsume stared at the silly girl in front of him silently. To her he looked as though he was glaring, this look ignited her fighting spirit.

"What!? Wanna fight?"

"You've been causing a commotion lately..." Ruka ended up speaking for Natsume.

Mikan looked to Ruka, "Oh... it was about this... I thought it was something worse."

"Yeah! Is there any reason for you to even look for that girl?" Sumire shouted in the background. "Last thing she did was almost get us killed. You could've been seriously injured!"

Mikan looked at Sumire dejectedly.

"I feel responsible for not standing up for Merem, all of this could have been prevented."

"And what do you think you could've done? You were blown away right when you got close enough. I say it was a good idea that the teachers put Merem in isolation. She's dangerous. Who knows, they could be teaching her how to use her Alice properly."

——

At the same time

Merem was unaware of the discussion being held about her as she continued to lay in her bed bored. The teachers have all gone to class, and there was nothing to do in the room. She had already finished the assignments and done the extra credit. She's asked Narumi-Sensei when she would be released and he only replied with soon.

Knowing that was the only answer she was going to get she just left it at that.

Merem thought she might as well take a short nap to make time pass by faster otherwise she really was going to die of boredom.

It was already the afternoon, so it wasn't hard for her to fall asleep. Just as she was dozing off the windows were suddenly smashed and three men appeared in her room.

Frightened Merem screamed, but one of the men managed to grab her and covered her mouth. She thrashed and bit the man managing to wiggle free before running to the opposite side of the room.

It seemed to be the wrong thing to do because the man gripping his hand suddenly ordered the other two to seize her.

She was cornered. In an attempt to protect herself she tried to use her Alice only to be stopped by her necklace. All the strength she managed to regain during her isolation disappeared in an instant the moment the necklace shocked her. She fell down in pain.

The two men used this opportunity to easily grab Merem and escape. The room that had been previously neat and tidy was smashed into smithereens, and it was obvious there was a struggle. All the clues led to a kidnapping.

Fortunately, after the fight Narumi-Sensei had come right after class ended to check up on Merem. When he encountered the scene he immediately ran to the school board to relay the information as fast as he could.

——

Although Merem was weakened she had not fallen unconscious. She pretended as though she was asleep. Her hands and feet were bound with rope, and her mouth was covered with tape.

Once they put her down she immediately used the time to survey her surroundings.

But... she was afraid. She was so deathly afraid. She had never encountered anything so scary in her life. The first time this happened, she was a bit naive luckily Narumi-Sensei had come. The man from before did not have any experience kidnapping children, and he didn't have any Alice abilities either. But this... these people were trained professionals.

Merem remembered the fact that Narumi-Sensei spoke about the barrier being strong enough to prevent others from looking out or in. Meaning that one of these men had a strong barrier Alice.

Using her ears she heard the first three men that had kidnapped her from before and a few others.

'What's going on? Why did they take me?' She thought, sweat dripping down her forehead. She tried to control her breathing so she wouldn't be found out. Earlier when she had been grabbed by the two men she immediately laid limp. This action made the men think that she had gone unconscious, and they still thought she was.

She heard some footsteps, and a tapping noise, maybe it was a cane?

The man spoke.

"You were only supposed to kidnap her, not kill her." The man said in eerily. Merem shuddered. His voice could be said to be like nails on a board. It was unpleasant.

"Doctor." One of the guards said, "The girl is fine, only unconscious."

The man looked at the guard before approaching the girl on the ground. He leaned towards the girl's face and put his hand over her nose. It seemed as though the guard was right.

"Alright. She'll be worth a fortune if we can get her to our clients. Finding a lovely Alice user, what a stroke of luck." He said directly in front of her face.

Merem tried her best not to cringe, his breath was putrid. She held her breath in, she might really go unconscious.

He stepped away.

She gulped in air once he was far enough.

In the manga this same scenario had happened to Natsume. How could this happen to her?! Natsume wasn't even there, unless he had already experienced the kidnapping.

No... Merem worry about yourself first. Hopefully Narumi-Sensei had already told the teachers about her disappearance and they were coming to her aid right now.

——