Gakuen Alice 3

  
  
  

Mikan is bullied by Natsume and his buddies some more. The class rep, Tobita, tries to stop it but isn't successful. Hotaru doesn't do a thing to help.. The very stuck-up head of the Natsume Fanclub, Sumire, demands to know what Mikan's alice is. Mikan doesn't know... a kid with an alice that lets him read minds starts reading Mikan's mind and repeats what he hears to the class. Now everybody knows that Mikan has no clue whatsoever what her alice is... Hotaru finally steps in and uses her horseshoe gloves to beat the guy who was teasing Mikan up.. But she still seems rather cold to Mikan..

Afterwards, Tobita takes Mikan around the school a bit and to Hotaru's laboratory. Hotaru's alice is invention, btw. Hotaru isn't there, but a robot of her is. And so is a robot of Mikan that Hotaru made to tease and beat up on ;) Hotaru finally comes in and, as usual, Mikan is all over her.

Upon returning to the classroom, Natsume and Sumire tell Mikan they'll acknowledge that she has an alice if she goes to the North Forest and returns safe. Of course she goes, bringing Tobita with her. They kinda get stuck in a bog, but Hotaru comes to the rescue on her duckmobile (for a price). There aren't any ghosts in the forest, but there are weird things.. like a teddy bear with a big axe.

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See Garten's entry at Memento for the perspective of someone who's read the manga. It does seem a bit like X-Men as he says.. Hotaru was still as cold as ever this time, seemingly not wanting to help Mikan at all, unless it could benefit herself. But we'll see... and yeeesh, Mikan cries a LOT ;)

See where this little journey into the forest takes them next time :)