MagicxMusicxMelody: Thanks for the greeting! I hope it wasn't too much to read. It's the only way for Shun to figure out everything. Alice's inner thoughts go way deeper than that.

Cup of Violet Tea: I heard of but I don't know what it's about. I didn't know what else to name Julie's 'organization'. There'll be more romantic scenes later. If the time span is long enough, Alice probably won't remember.

RosesOfTruth: That has been said, but sometimes traveling back to the change the past is the only way the future will be what is it now. He won't be going back to present day for a long time.

Cherry-Tree: It's like seeing someone's past and never realizing he/she was like this. It was sad for me to write them speaking as strangers, too. The number three will pop back up often. I'm using the charms as a part of the story.

InnocentDiamond: I have a lot of ideas for this story and really want to use them. Julie knows nothing about the charms. Sometime before sunrise, maybe. IQ-wise, yes. Marucho's 'definitely' smarter than Julie.

SSR: Happy Halloween! I cosplayed as Shirai Kuroko from Index/Railgun today at school!

Runo: (Hatsune Miku) My outfit is cliche.

Dan: (NV attire) I'm fine the way I am.

Julie: (Index Librorum Prohibitorum) This is uncomfortable.

Marucho: (NV attire) This is all I had.

Julie: You had three parties at school today, but are totally immune to sugar rush.

Dan: That is, until the hot chocolate from-

SSR: Dan, don't even. Just continue reading.

Chapter Four

Minor Manifestations

...

...

AAlice wasn't like this at all in present day. Could Shun really have changed her past life to the Alice he knew as of present day?

"Who wants you gone?" he asked. "Maybe I can help."

"There are too many people to name, but it seems like everyone doesn't want me around." Alice sighed. "My classmates, for example. No one wants to be partners with me for group projects, and they're always whispering behind my back."

Three years is a long time back. I can't let her commit suicide now or let others commit homicide or else she'll never exist. "Why don't you start with telling me what kind of person you are?"

"I'm pretty much a very optimistic person. Also, it feels weird when I talk to people while standing. You must be tired from all the walking. Don't you want to sit?"

"I am tired, but not from walking. Since you're an optimistic person, have you ever taken the initiative by talking to those people? Maybe they don't like you because you don't talk."

"I do talk, but no one wants to listen. I raise my hand in the class all the time so they'll hear my voice, but it's just not the same as conversation talk-"

"Alice, if you're going to 'show off' all the time in class by answering questions, it will only make them dislike you even more."

Alice gasped, not because Shun told her about a possible consequence. "How did you know? Some girl in my class came up to me during lunch and told me to shut up in class or else she'll shut me up for me."

"Exactly." But Alice, I don't understand how all of this could possibly be related to your death three years later. It makes no sense.

"Maybe I shouldn't talk too much. Anyway, more on my personality. Maybe my optimism annoys those people, but who cares? I'm sweet, caring of others, respectful of elders, anything you'd expect from a straight-A's student."

"Straight-A's student. I was expecting that."

"Well, I'm an only child, and my grandfather expects much from me." She rested her chin on her intertwined fingers. "But what thing about me is worth so much hating?"

Shun knew this conversation wasn't progressing anywhere. "Look. Forgot about what they say or do to you at all. Maybe showing off isn't bad. It only proves that what they're doing has no effect on you."

Alice smiled weakly and nodded. "You're right." She slid down the boulder and faced Shun. "I'm really fortunate to be able to meet and talk to you. I feel like I've rediscovered something in me that's been long ignored."

"No need to thank me. It irks me every time I see a person who's upset. You sure you're all better now?"

"I'm sure." Alice held her right pinkie out to Shun, who stared without a clue. "You don't know what a pinkie promise is?"

"Oh, uh, that. Sorry, it's was so abrupt. Pinkie promise for what?"

"For being my friend."

At this early stage, Shun didn't know if he should be friends or just acquaintances with Alice. This was three years ago. He hooked his right pinkie with hers and said, "Me too."

"I'm really glad I met you today. What's your name again?"

"Shun." For fear of changing the past, which will affect the future, he couldn't risk giving his last name.

"Thanks, Shun. You think we'll ever see each other again? I could use another nice walk-and-talk at the beach someday whenever I'm upset."

He looked back between the ocean in the back and Alice's eyes, unsure of how to answer her question. "I don't know. Leave it up to fate to decide. We probably won't since I don't live near here."

"Aw, okay. I should get going too." Before Alice walked at least ten feet away toward the way up, she suddenly thought of something and turned around. "Wait. Remember when I said I rediscovered something that's been long ignored?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Her cheeks puffed up in thought, and she puckered her lips in hesitation. "I always thought there was something manifesting in me that brought all this bad luck, starting from when I was the first and only person to witness my parents' deaths."

"You what?" Alice's diction and personal story changed everything that Shun was thinking of. Manifest? Bad luck? Witnessed her parent's deaths? Why say specifically these words and this event?

"Nothing much. Maybe it's just my parents' absence since then that made me the type of person I am now. See you again someday." Alice walked off toward the rocks where Shun and Julie descended.

Something was manifesting itself in Alice that caused her to be disliked, avoided, and prejudiced. This is really complicated. Moments after Alice left, Julie came back, panting heavily again. "Where did you come from?"

"Came...back...from...superiors..." Eventually, Julie caught her breath and spoke normally. "One of my superiors—Marucho, that's his name—said that Alice is facing a teenage life crisis right now, but it's not something typical."

"Would getting disliked, avoided, and prejudiced by all your classmates be an untypical life crisis?"

"Well...it could be. What's in your hand?"

"Huh?" Shun opened his right hand to reveal a golden dolphin charm. "Alice must've given this to me when we made pinkie-promised, but she would have to be a magician to do that."

"Put it on the bracelet I gave you, then."

"Sure. That makes sense." He clasped the dolphin onto one of the bracelet's tiny chain links, and the entire thing started glowing. "What's going on?"

"I think the bracelet's automatically taking you away to another period of time, but I don't know where. It's not in my control. But wait, look at the horizon."

A tiny sliver of light hovered over the horizon, probably the sun rising. "Alice and I have been talking for a long time. I find it weird that she'd say she felt something 'manifest' in her. Why not say she had a bad feeling? Wait, what's in the sky?"

"Maybe she really meant it." Julie looked up and saw decorative streaks of light patterning the sky. "This looks bad. It's like the color-changing aurora we saw before we left. There's a huge dolphin diving in and out of the sky weirdly."

"Like watching a movie with red-blue 3D glasses on. Are these anomalies really connected to me?"

"It's just a feeling. I'll ask Marucho when I get back later. Right now," Like last time, the bracelet created a portal that hovered above them. "Let's see where we're going this time..."

Why Alice said 'something' has 'manifested' itself in her was the important question.

...

...

"Neeeeeeeigh!"

Alice pressed her feet down tightly on the stirrups and kept a tight grip on the reins. Her horse lost a horseshoe and stopped running, and Alice knew because she her a metal collision sound the right after her horse whined. She got off and went to look for the lost horseshoe.

"Oh horseshoe, where are you? I wish I had a metal detector." Then again, not very often do horseshoes just suddenly fly off. "Oh wow. You landed face up on this pile of grass. Go physics!"

She also found some scattered nails on the side and picked them up. While she busied herself with trying to find every single nail, Shun and Julie arrived not too far away from her.

"Welcome to a giant field of grass." Julie announced. "By the way, how many charms were on Alice's bracelet total?"

"I...don't...remember..." Shun replied, breaking between the words. "It's been a long time. Why?"

"Maybe it could be a clue to how many times we'll have to travel. Do you recall having a dolphin charm?"

Shun thought about it for a long moment and slowly nodded his head. "I did put a dolphin charm on it. The girl at the store said it stood for friendship, since I told her I was only buying it for a 'female' friend. Now I wish I remembered all the other-"

"Excuse me! Can you pick up that nail for me over there?"

Shun and Julie both faced the direction that the voice came from and saw a brown-eyed girl in jockey attire. This time, Shun was careful not to call her name out so suddenly. "Uh, hi. What nail?"

"Down by your feet." By the time both Alice and Shun noticed the broken nail, they both bent down and reached for it, bumping their heads in the process.

"Sorry about that."

"It's my fault. I'm sorry."

But for a moment, they just stared at each other, like they knew one another but weren't certain of it.

Dan: Alice knows how to ride a horse?

SSR: It's not that difficult...

Julie: I want to ride a horse too! No, a pony! Like My Little Pony!

Marucho: Why is-

SSR: Ahem. The medical term is called 'sugar rush', and it's-

Dan: You and your penname's fault! And girls are made of 'sugar and spice' so-

SSR: Ugh. Sugar rush and sugar rage. Don't forget to leave a review!

Runo and Marucho: Happy Halloween!