The Ice Will Melt Some Day

Chapter Three "Pre Christmas Memories"

Disclaimer: I did not make Gakuen Alice or any of it's characters besides Daichi Hanahisaki and Kawasegiri Shunko

A few weeks after the incident known as the 'Yu Mei Ku Hatsu Incident' by the population of the academy, everything was somehow back to normal. Well, as normal as normal could be in Alice Academy. Everyone was getting ready for the Annual Christmas Ball and were anticipating every second of its festivities and bliss. It was one of the brightest times in the academy, where everyone was all smiles and only hints of gloom were sighted.

"Ira-chan!" Daichi cried out while running towards the timid ice princess. He panted hard when he finally caught up to her. "Excited for the Christmas Ball? Got anyone to go with this year?"

Nobara looked back at him with a sigh of content. She merely said under her breath, "Not really." Then she thought about it again. "Why do you ask so many questions Hiki-kun?"

Honestly, he didn't know why he asked so many questions. "Maybe it's because of my questionable nature," he replied with a smile.

Nobara giggled. The two left the hallway behind to go and help with the decorations and cake. While they were walking. Nobara asked, "Hiki-kun? Which group were you put into, to help?"

"I was put in the cooking group," he replied. Nobara felt stupid, she slapped her forehead. "Why'd you do that for?" he laughed.

"You have the cooking alice, I can't believe I asked that," she said with embarrassment.

"Don't worry about it. I wasn't even thinking that, that was such an obvious answer. Anyways, here comes another question. What group were you put in? Having an ice alice has a lot of possibilities," Daichi remarked. Nobara kept walking in silence. Daichi kept asking her until she answered him.

"I wasn't really put into a group," she finally announced.

Daichi's eyes widened. "Why not?" He had asked another question.

"Personally I don't know. Maybe it's because...I'm never usually around to attend the Christmas Ball. So this year won't be much different."

Daichi thought as they entered the grand room where the ball was going to be held. "You can just help the cooking group, with your alice, I'm sure we can find something for you to do!" he exclaimed. He grabbed her wrist and run with her towards a blue haired boy and a red haired girl.

The boy with the hat and blue hair stopped what he was doing and turned to Nobara and Daichi. "Hey Daichi, Ira-chan, what's up?"

A red haired girl jumped off the chair she was using and greeted them as well. "Are you guys helping out with the decoration team?" she asked.

Daichi replied, "Hey Misaki and Tsubasa. Naah, Ira-chan is going to help me cook this year." For some reason, Tsubasa and Misaki were very surprised by this development. It was practically written on their faces that this was a completely foreign idea and they just couldn't fathom it.

Misaki asked in a concerned voice, "A-Are you sure you can handle cooking this year? Maybe you should wait another year Daichi." Daichi simply gave her a pat on the shoulder and gave her a sign that he was going to be okay. Without another word, Daichi led Nobara to the cooking section of the preparations, and Tsubasa and Misaki exchanged glances, worried for the poor guy.

For the next few weeks, everyone worked hard to make the Academy's greatest Christmas Ball that year. If you were wondering about our nine and ten year old class B buddies, here's what they were up to...

Kokoroyomi was reading people's mind and laughing at them with Kitsuneme as usual. On the occasion, Kitsuneme was called on by the decorating team to help them put up the Christmas ornaments towards the top of the tree. Then Sumire would come along and yell at Koko for being so useless at the moment. Kokoroyomi would make some funny, yet witty remark about how all Sumire could do was boss people around. He'd laughed again and walk away to where ever his next victim laid. Sumire would get really mad and chase after Koko, pounding him in the head. She sees Ruka and Natsume pass by side by side. Then rush over and kiss up to them. Of course, Natsume and Ruka would ignore this and help a little bit if they called for them.

Anna was banned from the cooking group this year because she had not yet mastered her alice as well yet. They were afraid that Anna might use some very questionable ingredients and feared for the students' safety. Anna was placed in the decorating team and ended up cooking something anyways. It turned out to be stringed popcorn that would turn green if they were about to barf and yellow when they were about to make farting sounds. As you can guess, they got rid of it immediately. The enormous Christmas tree looked like it was about to die from the revolting actions of the stringed popcorn. Nonoko was helping the cooking group though. She created chemicals that would make the yeast rise perfectly. It didn't turn out well so they abandoned the project and then she just helped with the basic tasks.

Mochiage helped with the decorating team of course. Using his telekinesis to put up the ornaments, or on occasions small people to put up the ornaments for him. Tobita was running around like crazy, responding to everyone's needs. Using his illusion alice to make people think it was so far up when decorating the trees or the walls. Hotaru created many inventions for the sake of decorating and cooking. Occasionally she used her inventions to help, but mostly she just sold them for plenty of rabbits in return. Otonashi, gave predictions to students who were worried about their love lives and were desperate enough to do the dance of foretelling. In a nutshell, everyone was incredibly busy.

Back to Nobara's and Daichi's progress.

"Hey Ira-chan, could you cool this down a little bit?" he requested. Nobara tried to use her alice properly and got it just right, this time. The rest of the times, she failed and almost gave up on cooking. Daichi tried to comfort her with his smiles and words of reassurance. "Don't worry Nobara, in a few more days it will be Christmas! Won't that be the greatest thing ever?"

Nobara was depressed, "No...not if I'm there to mess it up." Daichi rolled his eyes. He stood up and took Nobara hands with him. They both were running out of the ballroom. Misaki and Tsubasa laughed.

"I can't believe he's rushing into it again!" Misaki commented with her arms crossed. Tsubasa looked at Misaki for a moment and he smiled. Misaki looked back. "What do you want Tsubasa?"

He stopped smiling at her and looked in the opposite direction. "Nothing much. Although somehow, I kinda wish I was like Daichi a little more. He's a bit more expressive in that sense. I wish I could tell the person I cared about, how I felt." Misaki gave him a look. She raised her eyebrow and shook her head a couple times back and forth, deeply contemplating Tsubasa's statement.

"Then just tell them?" she said plainly. Tsubasa sighed. "What? Why are you sighing?" He just walked away and Misaki kept nagging him all the way.

Meanwhile, Nobara is running her marathon with Daichi again. "Where are you taking me this time, Hiki-kun?" He only continued the smirk he held for a such a long time.

"You'll see very soon, no worries." They continued on their way through the winding hallways, until Nobara couldn't take it anymore. It was the run of her life and she still hadn't made it all the way. She slowed down into a walk and breathed deeply. Daichi was brought to a stop and looked back to see Nobara exhausted. "Oh, I'm so sorry Ira-chan...Didn't realize how tired you were," he paused, "...and how tired I was." He fell on the ground simultaneously with Nobara.

Nobara and Daichi sat in the middle of the hallway, no one else was present, it was only the two of them. Nobara broke the silence, "So...you didn't answer my question Hiki-kun. Sorry if I'm just repeated things."

Daichi gave her a pat on her head and he pointed up through the archway of the academy hall. She looked towards where his finger was pointing and she saw it. Daichi's Eden had been fixed and restored. It was amazingly, never in her life had she seen something so beautiful been recreated with even more radiance. That night, the first signs of snow came. The late winter had finally begun in Alice Academy.

"Do you like it?" he asked again. Her eyes were still stuck on the garden. He poked her a couple of times for her to regain her senses.

The snow queen finally broke out of her mesmerized state. "Huh? What? Sorry. How did you fix it so fast?" she asked.

"This garden will never die because, well do you see over there?" He point at the place the fountain used to be. There was a type of carving or symbol that had been stuck there. It was in the shape of a balance or scale that they would use in the olden times. "That's where she died..." he stated slowly with a softer smile, a sadder smile.

Nobara eyes were heavy. "What was her name?" she asked with consideration.

"Kawasejiri Shunko," he answered. The way he said her name was sweet and it was said with such passion, Nobara had tears down her face. The mere meaning of the name and the the story put together were enough to melt the ice inside of her. "Ira-chan? Hey! Snap out of it!"

"Oh no, I did it again!" she cried out. Nobara tried to wipe the tears that were flowing from her face, but they kept coming. "Ugh, no I have to apologize. Please, continue, how did it get fixed so fast?" Daichi just stared at her for moment and figured he might as well continue.

"...You heard the story already I believe?" She nodded her head. "This is where her last equivalent exchange took place, and so because she was a limitless alice user, it was very powerful. When she died, we buried her here and the next day we found this mark. It wasn't that she was still alive when we buried her, but her alice was so powerful, that it continued after death. It stayed to protect the most important thing to it. It was as if, that was truly her final equivalent exchange. In order to stay in the place she loved, she will always protect it. That's why every time the eden is ruined, it will return with more resilience," he ended his story.

"Daichi's Eden," she said to herself. Daichi turned a bit pink when she said his name.

"It's not really called Daichi's Eden. It's just a lot less depressing then it's original name." Nobara looked at Daichi, she was waiting for him to continue the statement. "Oh...well, it's was known as Shunko's Garden, and it lived up to it's name. Until...you get the idea."

Nobara could tell his heart was breaking on the inside. Just trying to say his past lover's name would be a terrible thing to even attempt doing. Nobara decided to take some responsibility. She took his hand into her own and stared at him with a determined face. "I must thank you Daichi. I'm sure your, I mean, Shunko-san's garden is glad that you can still show people it's brilliance. Whether it be in the sun of the summer or the night of winter. It's very beautiful and words can hardly describe it's wonders. It makes me happy to see something so bright!" She shook his hand constantly.

Daichi gave her a big fat grin, "You called me Daichi!"

"I did, didn't I?" she remarked excitingly.

"Yes you did," he said to himself.

The two walked hand in hand back to their room. It was cold that night, so they slept in the same bed. With smiles on their faces, the ice princess and fire flower finally went to sleep. Forever hand in hand, never letting go until fate tore them apart. Christmas was coming and the holidays never got better.

Typer's Note -
I think this was a shorter chapter.
Oh well, I hope it was good anyways.
I loved listening to the instrumental music while writing this chapter.
It was exuberating!!! Sorry for such a late update.
I was finishing up No Pets Allowed! (read it if you can!)
Review if you can, it would really help me wanna keep on typing fanfictions.
I think I'd type them up anyways...

Footnotes -
"Yu Mei Ku Hatsu Incident"
Dark and Light Explosion Incident

"Kawasejiri Shunko"
Kawasejiri = Balance of Exchange, Shunko = Spring Sunlight