"You do?" Ace asked with hope and excitement. "How? Does it involve anything difficult? No matter what, I have to save Mira. My heart aches every time I think of her skull that I dug up."

"No worries. It's quite simple, and you don't have to get involved. All I need is for you to give me that necklace." Alice replied. "I promise to do what I said earlier. That necklace that you never gave to Mira is the key to bringing her back."

Ace hesitated as first, for the necklace, no matter how plain it looked, was very important to him. He took a deep breath and said, "I trust you. I trust that you will bring peace to us. You're the first person I've talked to in a long time and the first living person I met who can see ghosts. What's your name?"

"Alice."

"Alice, your cheerful smile and orange locks of hair remind me a lot about Mira. My first impression of you tells me that you're a hardworking girl who will do anything to help others in order to bring peace, just like Mira. A lucky girl like you will definitely find someone who will love and care for you for the rest of your life someday."

"Really? Thanks. I really do wish that what you said will certainly come true." Alice thanked with a slight blush. Maybe I will find some like that...but Shun's the best that I've met out of everyone. There's no one else. Alice took the necklace and went back to the workshop.

"I swear. There were some pieces of raw marble here. Although white marble and gray granite don't look good together," Alice took a quick glance as the necklace. "I know exactly how to make them look good together."

There were some tiny pieces of raw marble on the table, but they were too small. Hung up around the walls are carving tools, and Alice took every single accessible one down and placed them on the. "Marble doesn't come in these sizes. They must have flown out from the chiseling process." Alice put each usable piece of marble on the circular stand and carved Mira's head to the best of her memory. "If I carve the neck at an angle like this, then it should be good."

But like Ace, every time Alice tried to carve, nothing worked. Plus, she had a terrible disadvantage of terribly tiny pieces. "Why isn't this working? What am I doing wrong? I don't want to be a failure like Ace. I want him to be proud of what he did. Now I'm down to my last piece. Shun would be making fun of me right now if he were here."

Alice stared at her last piece and thought of an experience back during when she took Sculpture. What would Shun have done...?

~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~

"Not fair!"

Originally, Alice had already paid her teacher a dollar for the large piece of alabaster she was going to use, but another student took that piece. Alice wasn't just going to let it go until the teacher explained. "I'm sorry, Alice, but her design requires a piece of alabaster of that size. I have other pieces, but they might be small. I hope you can compromise."

"Yeah. I hope." Seeing that other student already cutting away excess material of the alabaster made Alice even angrier, but it was the teacher's decision. She looked at the new piece provided on her desk. "What can I carve with that?"

"Anything." Shun appeared out of nowhere with a science project for another class. "With a smaller piece, that's when you actually bend around your mind to adapt to the tiny work space you have."

"No, I don't find that true. I'd rather have the big piece that somebody stole from me."

"I'm serious. Sit down." Shun took a seat, followed by Alice, and carved into Alice's piece of alabaster. "A smaller work space means less area. You'll be able to see what you're carving from just one glance without turning it. Then you can find your mistakes ahead of time. Look." Within a few seconds, Shun already carved one of the plum blossoms from Alice's sketch design perfectly.

"You're right!" Alice gently touched the blossom and felt the intricacy of the work. It would take me minutes to carve all this on a larger piece. Thanks, Shun."

"You're welcome. Just don't hug me in public."

"I didn't plan on doing that, you know."

"Well, then." He glared at Alice and replied, "No more carving lessons for you. I'll go back to carving grooves into this mitochondrion model for biology."

Following that was a series of non-stop nagging and self-defense.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~

"Start out small and work out big. I remember now." Alice took an awl and carved Mira's facial features first. With a small file, she filed away any protruding rock. As for her hair, Alice took meticulous measures to not dull out the pointy tips of her hair. The last thing was the neck, which was more complicated because the bottom had to be carved ruggedly to fit the broken base on the tombstone. "Perfect. I should bring this adhesive and some tools just in case."

Alice went back outside to the tombstone, but Ace was nowhere to be seen. I guess he wanted to take a break. She placed the decoration on the broken base, and it fit in miraculously to perfection. "Not a single space is off. Am I really that good? Anyway, time to apply the glue."

The snowy winds dried the glue, allowing it to stick together faster without a mess. Finally, Alice took out the necklace and hung it around Mira's head. "Truly beautiful. This is the best way to give someone a necklace even if they're dead." The chain hung around and covered the line where marble met granite without a difference. "I should put these tools back."

But once Alice entered the workshop again, the door locked itself and trapped Alice inside, similar to the train doors. "Not again! Let me out!" She pounded the door, but it was no use. She wiped the foggy window to see a familiar face outside. Ace? When did he come back?

Ace stood still by Mira's tombstone, still upset about what he had done in the past. A woman appeared behind him and spoke. "Ace? Is that you?" Mira's soul appeared before Ace eyes, and the two embraced. "Ace, it is you! How have you been all the years?"

"Mira...?" he gasped in shock. "I can't believe you're back! I'm sorry for digging up your skull to use as my model for carving a sculpture of you. It was a terrible mistake." Tears of remorse rolled down Ace's face. "Mira, I'll never lose you again. I'll take care of your for the rest of eternity."

"I forgive you, Ace. I know how hard you tried to carve a sculpture of me, and I would agree with you digging up my skull for a model, but some things just won't work. I'm glad you learned your lesson."

Another man showed up behind Mira and said, "At least Mira's back now. You finally had the chance to give her that necklace."

Ace let go of Mira and said, "I know. I finally completed everything that I wanted to do, and feel really better now. During all the years of being separated, I took the time to think about life and think about what I should've done instead."

"He's right. Thanks for everything, Shun. You truly saves us all." Mira continued. "It's about time that we go now, Ace."

"I agree. I may have had some problems, but I went back and found out what I did wrong. I recently met the person whom you're trying to carve of using a wooden block, and I can tell that she's worth all your hard work. It was a wise choice of you to decide to take Sculpture. See you next time, Shun."

"Good bye, Shun. Take care!" Mira added.

"I will. You two take care as well!" Shun waved the couple good bye as he took out his pocket watch. "I better go, too. Ace's story taught me a very important lesson." He took one last look at the picture of an orange-haired girl tucked into the pocket watch's cover panel and left.

He has a picture of me in his pocket watch? And he's had that watch for years already. Alice lowered her hand and turned the handle, which was now unlocked. Was this done on purpose so I wouldn't go outside? I can leave now, but I wonder if they're still out there.

What Alice didn't expect was a large blizzard blowing straight at her face shortly after her walk outside.