Chapter 3: Renaissance
Where we were last:
Narita International Airport was a lively and energetic place. In fact, it was a rare sight to see even one person sitting down. Various people were chatting on cell phones, others were fussing over how cute items were, and Mikan was quickly being ushered into a private charter plane.
(From this point on, expect to see a good amount of French words being used. I will not have any footnotes on the bottom, so please have a translator on hand! Besides, you'll learn some French!)
Airport
Mikan POV
"Miss Sakura, this way please." , said a random bodyguard to me, ushering me into the plane. He was wearing black sunglasses, a black suit, a crisp, white collared shirt, and a black tie. "Mikan Sakura has boarded the plane." He spoke into an earpiece.
The plane was really large. The plane's interior was decorated with plush recliner seats upholstered with soft cream fabric, with the Alice Academy logo embroidered at the top in gold thread.
Not only was the interior amazing, the food was delicious too! I had onion au gratin soup with a salad on the side. For dessert, I had orange crème brulee, which was infused with orange blossom honey, and had caramelized sugar on top. It kind of reminded me of pudding. They gave me creamed coffee, which they called crème.
While I was eating, the plane staff explained to me the rules and regulations of L'Académie D'Alice. It was pretty much the same thing as Gakuen Alice, except the students can go to Paris after classes and on weekends, because apparently, the government really likes it's cultural traditions. They had also said that while the students were free to pretty much come and go as they pleased, they had some pretty strict curfews. They also had a Central Town there, except they called it 'Centre-Ville', which means the same thing as Central Town. Another thing was, their payouts were in the regular currency of euros, instead of having their own in school currency.
After explaining all this to me, they handed me the L'Académie D'Alice uniform, which was included a blue plaid pleated skirt, a collared white shirt, black knee socks, a blue ribbon, a black jacket and a black pair of shoes. Essentially, it pretty much looked like the Middle school uniform in Gakuen Alice. Once they had handed me the , the stewardess told me,
" In order to blend in, you're going to need to change your name."
"Eh?" I wondered aloud, "Why?"
"Because, it will help you fit in much better there. I suggest choosing a French name."
"Alright. What's 'strawberry' in French?" I had thought of how Natsume used to call me strawberry print so I decided to go with 'strawberry' in French.
"It's 'Fraisier'. Why?"
"Because, that's gonna be my new name!" I grinned. "Fraisier. Fraisier Bourbonne."
END POV
When Mikan went into the lavatory to change, she saw various hair dyes, wigs, and contact lenses. She selected gray contacts and a milk tea wig (milk tea is more of a reddish blonde color. Look it up on Google).
….
Fast forward to plane landing
The moment Mikan exited the plane at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, she was reborn as Frasier Bourbonne, a gray-eyed, platinum haired eleven year old. In this country, she is still Mikan on the inside, but people will come to know her as Fraisier, the transfer student. Here, in L'Académie D'Alice, there's no Luna, Natsume, or Hotaru, she was on her own.
A bodyguard handed her a device that let her learn French in a matter of minutes. She put the device on, and a whole language, culture, and history was immediately crammed into her head, allowing her to know the customs and language of this country.
Another bodyguard ushered her past the baggage carousel, and into a sleek, black limo, ready to take her to L'Académie D'Alice.
Fast forward to entering the school.
(From this point on, in L'Académie D'Alice, I will be referring to Mikan as 'Frasier', unless the location is in Japan)
"Mademoiselle Bourbonne, welcome to L'Académie D'Alice!" the driver told Mikan when she arrived at the school. "Your things have been sent to your room."
When she looked out the window, she saw a neatly manicured courtyard in front of a tall, grand old building. To the left and right of the building were three other buildings, most likely the elementary, middle, and high school branches, Fraisier assumed.
When the car reached the front entrance of the main building, it halted to a stop and the driver opened the door for Fraisier.
On the front steps of the building, stood a petite woman dressed in a white tailored jacket with a matching white pencil skirt. Next to her stood a tall navy haired boy with green eyes, who smiled at Fraisier when her met her eyes.
"Bonjour, Mademoiselle Bourbonne," greeted the woman. "I'm Stephanie Delarue. I'm the principal of l'académie d'Alice's la première école!"
"Enchante," was Frasier's reply. Mademoiselle Delarue was holding a clipboard that contained Fraisier's profile.
"Let's see, according to this, you have the nullification alice and you transferred from Japan….." she trailed off. "Okay! You're a three star! Classes start tomorrow, so don't be late!"
"Laurent!" she said to the boy.
"Oui, Mademoiselle Delarue?" he replied.
"Please show Fraisier around the school."
"Okay." He looked at Fraisier and said, "You, come with me." Fraisier nodded her head and followed him.
"This is the classroom. We don't really move around except for our extra curricular activities and ability-type classes, I'm Laurent Dumont, by the way." Laurent said, introducing himself.
"Et moi, je m'appelle Fraisier Bourbonne~" Fraisier replied, introducing herself. "Comment allez-"
Mikan began before she stumbled and fell on her butt. Laurent helped her up, but as he did, he couldn't help but notice her underwear showing. He held out his hand and looked away.
"Are you alright?" he asked, blushing.
"Yeah, this happens a lot. Do you have a fever or something? You're all red." even after a year, she's still pretty damn oblivious.
"I'm fine."
They kept walking as Laurent explained the history of the buildings. They stopped at the elementary school dormitory, which had a strong resemblance to Le Petit Trianon, except, of course, much larger to accommodate about a couple thousand students and teachers.
"A lot buildings here are modeled after various palaces in Europe." he explained " The main building was designed after Buckingham Palace, in England, as the divisions of la première
école, le collège, and le lycée, are modeled after le Petit Trianon, Le Grand Trianon, and Versailles."
"Wow, you know a lot!" Fraisier exclaimed.
"Eh, not really. They just gave me a crash course on this a couple weeks ago."
"But still! I could never be able to hold in that much information!"
"Let's see…..312. Here we are! Your things should already be inside, and dinner starts in…five minutes. I think we're having pot-au-feu tonight! W-would y-you like to come with me to the cafeteria?" he stammered out.
"Sure! I'd love to!"
In the cafeteria
"Pot-au feu!" she sang.
"You must really like pot-au feu," he points out.
" Well, it's kind of like having a vegetable patch in your mouth! Plus, this is pretty much a step up from no-star food."
"Were you once a no-star?"
"Eh…no," she paused. " But I used to know someone who was." "Technically speaking, this is true. I mean, Mikan Sakura was once a no-star, but as for Fraisier Boubonne, no."
After dinner, Laurent escorted her back to her room, as she still didn't know the way.
"Bonne nuit," he said, kissing her on the cheek instinctively. Mikan blushed, and then remembered that it was a normal greeting expression here.
"Bonne nuit, Laurent." she said, beforing entering her room.
The inside of the room was nothing short of a princess's room; complete with a four poster bed, a gilded full-length mirror and vanity, and a walk in closet.
The next day
Fraisier woke up, and looked at her clock. "6:45. Early again, huh."
She got dressed into her new uniform, put on the locket Misaki-senpai gave her, the ring Nobara gave her, the brooch that Subaru-senpai gave her, and the two bracelets she had received during the Farwell party. Then, she put on the wig and contacts, thus completing the look. She grabbed her winged bag, and left the room.
When she left the room, she was greeted by Laurent, who greeted,
"Bonjour!"
"Bonjour Laurent!" Fraisier replied.
"I figured that you didn't know the way to the building yet, so I thought I'd escort you."
"Merci!" Fraisier smiled at him. "I wonder how everyone is doing back home."
Back at Gakuen Alice
As everyone started filing into the classroom, everyone expected to hear the usual
"I'm LAAAAAATE!" coming from Mikan in the hall. When Narumi-sensei came into the room, dressed in a lavender frilled blouse with matching frilled pants, everyone hushed, not wanting to fall victim to his alice.
"If you're wondering where Mikan is by now, she's not here anymore." Narumi-sensei told the class.
"EHHH?!" The class was reeling from shock.
"She was transferred to L'Académie D'Alice, in France. She left yesterday." he continued on.
"Why didn't she tell me!? I mean, I'm supposed to be her best friend, right?" wondered Hotaru, inwardly shocked.
"Well, that would explain the 'au revoir' . But still, why didn't she tell me?!" Natsume wondered also.
"Why didn't she tell me?!" said Koko." I mean, I'm supposed to be her best friend, right?" He read Hotaru's mind aloud, receiving a shot towards his head and a death glare from the ice queen.
"Well, that would explain the 'au revoir'. But still, why didn't she tell me?!" Suddenly, his pants were on fire. Iinchou threw threw water at the fire, putting it out, and now he has burned and wet pants.
L'Académie D'Alice
"Hey, Laurent, you never told me what your alice was." Fraisier suddenly said.
"Well, I have the water alice," he replied. "Anyway, you never told me your alice, so what is it?"
" I, I don't have just one alice though. I have the nullification alice, the stealing alice, and the insertion alice."
"Wow, that's a lot of alices."
When they finally arrived at the destination, Laurent told Fraisier,
"Wait here.", while he got the teacher, who was a tall, black haired woman with amber eyes. The woman said,
" Bonjour mademoiselle Bourbonne, I'm Madame Legrand, wait here while I introduce you, ok?" Fraisier simply nodded.
"Bonjour classe!" Madame Legrand greeted the class.
"Bonjour, Madame!" the class replied in unison.
"Comment vous-appellez?"
"Bien, merci."
"Okay class, we have a new student! Come on in, Mademoiselle Frasier Bourbonne."
Frasier came into the classroom while Madame Legrand wrote her name on the whiteboard behind her.
"Bonjour!" Fraisier greeted the class. " Je m'appelle Fraisier Bourbonne, enchante." she smiled politely.
"She transferred from Gakuen Alice in Japan," Madame Legrand continued on. "Do you have any questions for her?"
Everyone raised their hands.
"Sophie," Madame Legrand pointed to an ash blonde haired girl with blue eyes.
"What's your alice?" Sophie asked.
"I have more than one alice," Fraisier replied. "They're nullification, stealing, and insertion."
"Marc," Madame Legrand gestured towards a green-haired green eyed boy that resembled a narcissist (Kind of like Satsuki Hanabusa from Yumeiro patissiere).
"Why do you have so many alices?", he asked.
" I inherited them from my parents." was her response.
"Okay class, you can ask Mademoiselle Bourbonne more questions later! Oh, and Laurent, you're her partner, by the way. For now, it's free period!"
On the comment that Fraisier's partner was Laurent, this angered some of the female students.
"You know, don't think that just because you're Laurent's partner, that he's yours!" a girl with bright yellow hair and brown eyes. "He's mine I tell you, mine!"
"That's right. As founder of Laurent-love, Therese has the most rights to him!" chimed in another girl.
"I swear, the more things change, the more they stay the same." Fraisier thought to herself.
"Oh, and, my dears, what makes YOU think that he's yours?" she asked the girls. "Is he some piece of property that can be traded or sold? Pray, do tell. I've got all day, ma cherie~"
"W-well," Therese stammered.
"That's what I thought. I'm pretty sure, that while you are head of the fan club, I'm pretty sure that some of your members will disagree that you have sole ownership of him." Fraisier smirked.
Therese simply stomped away.
"Oh man, how did you get rid of them so fast?" Lauren asked Fraisier. "Even now, I'm still running away from them!"
"Let's just say I ran into a similar situation once…" Fraisier replied, thinking back to her first day at Gakuen Alice.
the bell rang for lunch.
"What's for lunch today?", Fraisier asked Laurent.
" Today's lunch is duck confit for special stars, couscous for triples, steak frites for doubles, and andouiettes for singles." said a girl with deep violet hair and ice blue eyes. "Je m'appelle Rose Dujardin."
"Merci, Rose. Je m'appelle Fraisier. Enchante." was Fraisier's reply.
"Oh yeah, I heard you haven't been to Paris yet. A bunch of us are going this weekend. Did you wanna come?"
"I'd love to! Thanks for the invite! So, lunch sounds really good right about now, so let's get going!"
À la cantine
"Wow, this is great!" Fraisier exclaimed, taking another spoonful of her couscous.
"The steak frites aren't that bad either, saignant, just the way I like it!" Rose pointed out.
"The duck confit is a bit dry though…." Laurent sighed.
"You should at least be thankful that you have food. There a lot of people in this world who go hungry everyday." Fraisier scolded him.
After lunch, it was time fore everyone to go to their elective classes. Rose had horticulture, while Laurent had orchestra. Earlier that day, Fraisier had decided on the fencing club, for there is no better way to relieve stress than to try to stab someone with a sharp object. The fencing club was located on the other side of the school, however, more towards the high school division. She didn't really know the way, so even though Laurent had drawn her a map to get there, she still got lost.
Luckily, she spotted someone carrying fencing equipment, and walked up to them.
"Bonjour," she greeted. "Where is the fencing club?"
"Ah," they replied. "It's not too far from here, I'm assuming you're the new recruit. I'm on my way there too, so I'll take you. I'm Ralph Charpentier."
Ralph Charpentier was an ivory haired individual with knowledgable lilac eyes.
"Et moi, je m'appelle Fraisier Bourbonne. Comment allez-vous?"
"I'm fine, thanks."
alright! next up, fourth chappie and omake!