Natsume Hyuuga (Hyuuga Natsume 日向 棗?) is the male protagonist of Gakuen Alice.
He is Mikan's rival and, as of chapter 144, boyfriend.
Natsume possesses the Fire Alice, which is unusually strong (due to his Alice Type), so he was categorized as a Dangerous Ability Type. He is the only special star in the Elementary Branch. Natsume is a smart student but often, he ditches classes. He has many followers and has Ruka Nogi as his best friend. He has a sister named Aoi Hyūga, who was held captive by Persona. His mother is Kaoru Hyūga who possessed the Memory Manipulating Alice. His father, along with Aoi and him, has the Fire Alice.
Appearance[]
Natsume has short black hair and red eyes that he has inherited from his mother (brown in anime). On each of his ears are alice restraining devices. His right ear has a gold plate with dragon carvings and the left an earring with a red ball made of blood crystals. Natsume sometimes wears a black cat mask to restrain his alice and is the signature for his nickname. He wears the standard elementary boys uniform, a black jacket with a white collar that does not have his star on it. Natsume doesn't wear his red bow. red plaid shorts and black knee high boots. During the time travel arc, he disguises himslef as Hayate and wears the middle school uniform to protect Mikan.
Personality[]
Natsume comes off as cold and easy to anger, but this attitude is mostly a facade. He wishes no one to get involved with him. However, Natsume does have followers who admire him for his rebellious against the school, such as Mochiage; who also regualry skips class. He also has admirers, like Sumire who like Natsume for his looks and "coolness". On the other hand, Natsume has people who fear him for being the Dangerous Ability Class and call him out as a murder (it is unknown how true these rumors are), like Sumire's brother. Natsume brushes off these accusions, but it is not clear how he feels about this. This, along with the abuse and dangerous missions the ESP forces upon him, he began to lose hope in life and in his future. According to Ruka, before Mikan arrived, Natsume threw his life away and was on the road to failure, but upon her arrival, Natsume changed for the better and became stronger. Ruka and later Mikan are some of the few who knew about his kind side and his motives behind his behavier.
Natsume is protective to his friends and family and he is willing to suffer for them and sacrifice him life and freedom so that they won't get hurt. He hates the academy and wishes to escape to live peacefully with those he cares for the most. Being forced to do missons in the Dangerous Ability Class, Natsume has experienced the darker side of the academy. In the beginning of the story, he told Mikan to watch out because she was targeted. He also warned her not trust Narumi or any of the teachers. He suspected that the Elementary Principle was growing interested in her Alice and was causing her problems. His personality is inherited from his mother, Kaoru, who was also intelligent, blunt, and rebellious. Also, both mother and son had a much softer side for their friends and loved ones. Like Mikan, he hates the Elementary Principle and Persona for the abuse they have inflicted upon him and force him to do missions for the school. Although he refuses to listen to them at times, he complies to their orders in order to protect those most important to him (ex. Ruka, Aoi, and Mikan). He is aware that he suffers from the life-draining alice form and has admitted that he is afriad of dying in the near future. Caring about his friends, he kept his illness a secret form Ruka and Mikan so they wouldn't worry, but they already knew and assure him that they will support him.
He is very perverted for his age, as he stole Mikan's underwear (took off her skirt in the anime). Natsume has commented on her chest size when he touches her chest and repeatedly pulled on her top to have a look. He also often teases Mikan and calls her names. He found Mikan's cheerful personality annoying in the beginning and constantly bullies her just to make her mad. However, as he gets to know her, he starts to fall in love with her. This changed him to be more gentle and open with others. He sees Mikan as the sun due to her personality and seems convinced that she might be the light that can save him from the darkness of the academy. He easily gets jealous when he sees Mikan with otheer guys and tries to get her away from them. Sometimes, he can be rude with her and bicker with her. Other times, he is kind to her and becomes blunt about his feeling for her. But when Luna arrived, he acted cold so that Mikan wouldn't get hurt. Seeing how she is sinking into the same darkness he is in, he makes it his main goal to protect her and take her out of the academy so he can live with her forever.
Background[]
Natsume was born to Kaoru Hyuuga (Igarashi) and her husband. Natsume was very young (a toddler) when his mother died from a car crash, but his family believed that someone was behind the accident. He was raised with his younger sister, Aoi, by their father. Like many alice children wanted by the academy, he moved from town to town with his fmaily to avoid being taken away by the academy. Natsume never made friends each time he moved because he claimed there would be no point in having a friend if he stayed in one place for a short time.
Natsume and his family moved to a village where he met Ruka and saved him from a kidnapper. He, like Ruka, was surprised to find out they both had Alices. Ruka was more surprised when he learned everyone in Natsume's family had an Alice. Natsume and his sister, Aoi, quickly became friends with Ruka. This was until Aoi got ill with a fever. When Ruka visited Aoi, Natsume went outside to look for the stone that Aoi kept speaking of. As he was searching, Aoi's alice went out of control. Narumi, knowing what the stone was, asked Natsume and Ruka to tell the villagers. The village burned down and he and Ruka were put in the hospital, both of them with injuries. At the hospital, Natsume took the blame even though it was not his doing and had the villagers' anger directed at him. This action caused him to be enrolled in the academy. While leaving he was surprised to see that Ruka chose to enroll with him. As the car leaves the hospital, Natsume's father, who is still injured, tries to stop Natsume from going to the academy. Seeing this, Natsume cries along with Ruka. It was Aoi who burnt down the village when she found the stone left by Persona, which happened to be an experimental amplification stone that made her alice get out of control.
During his time the academy Natsume was forced to do missions for the school in order for Aoi to be safe. He wasn't allowed to contact his family or receive letters. His Dangerous type Alice and being in the Dangerous Ability Class caused rumors of him being a murderer (the truth of the rumors are yet to be known). This is most pointed out by Sumire's older brother.
Alice[]
Natsume has a Fire Alice that he inherited from his father like his sister Aoi. This Alice gives his the ability to create and manipulate fire to his will. He possesses the limitless alice shape that was passed down to him from his mother. This means his Alice is dangerous and powerful. However, constant use will threaten his life, because everytime he uses it, he damages his body.
The Fire Alice's weakness would be Mikan's Nullification Alice. Though early in the story Natsume could use his Fire Alice on her, because she lacked control over her Nullification Alice. Also due to ice and fire being each other's weakness, Nobara's Ice Alice who is on par with his.
To limit the use of his Fire Alice, Natsume has to wear an earring and an ear ornament that is welded on and cannot be taken off. Sometimes he is forced to wear a cat mask that shocks him whenever he disrespects the teachers. He usually wears the mask during missons which is the reason why he is known by the nickname "Black Cat".
According to Narumi, Natsume could still use his Alice when he wears the cat mask. The stone that was inserted in him was Sakurano's Wish Alice, which temporarily strengthens his Fire Alice and gave it different variations.
Trivia[]
- In Higuchi's previous work M to N no Shozou and her current work Gakuen Alice both the male and female lead start with the same letter, the letter "M" is Mitsuru and Mikan, The letter "N" is Natsuhiko and Natsume. The mangaka admitted that this was a coincidence.
- Natsume's alice stone color is red.
- Natsume is the only Special Star in the elementary division, though he does not wear his star.
- Natsume's name in Japanese means jujube, (edible berrylike fruit of Eurasian plant, formerly taken as a cough cure). His name is given to him by his mother who learned that the fruit was healthy and hoped it would by symbolic to Natsume who has inherited her alice type. She also chose the name to be connected to Yuka as Mikan and Natsume are both fruits.
- Natsume has been connected to Mikan since they were born because of their mothers' friendship and that they were both named after fruits.
- When Natsume was born, his mother originally wanted to name him "Kintarou".
- In the time travel arc, it is revealed that Natsume is 6 months younger than Mikan (she was actually born likely in May and he was born in the following November).
- Natsume's promise to be with Mikan forever technically means that he is engaged to Mikan.
- It wasn't until after the Hana Hime arc that Natsume stopped calling Mikan names such as Ugly, polka dot panties girl, strawberry fields and other insulting nicknames, and started calling her by her name more often.
- Natsume's eyebrows are short because of genetics, his mother also had short eyebrows.
- During the second christmas party Natsume's request for Mikan to tell him she loved him can be considered as a birthday present since Mikan missed it.