MagicxMusicxMelody: I did have the Judgment band! One of my taller friends was Konori, and a 6th grader was Uiharu. No one has any disease as of now. Strong words always have strong meanings.

InnocentDiamond: Alice's classmates are just mean bullies, and maintaining optimism is tough. One pinkie promise is enough! You'll see the next "transfer" soon.

RosesOfTruth: There'll be more curious questions later on. You're right about the charms. I don't know how many I'll use yet. Probably 5-ish.

Cup of Violet Tea: Shun wouldn't need to help Alice if she was content, would he? I'm literally stalling her problem.

Cherry-Tree: Don't worry. No prior experiences will affect Alice. I don't guarantee for Shun. Just remember that the anomaly occurred after Alice left.

SSR: It's Red Ribbon Week, so every student-run organization in school is spreading the word of "Say No To Drugs."

Runo: Good for you! Now we need to spread the word of "No Bullying," and everything will be a lot better.

Julie: But we can't solve every problem at once...

Marucho: It feels like Shun's still very confused.

SSR: That's the whole point. As a friend suggested, I'm going to have a couple of "arcs" (I thought that was a math term :/) each with a different resulting charm. This is a tough story to dig deep into.

Julie: It's your own story!

SSR: I mean for the readers. Bakugan isn't mine, but read on!

Chapter Five

Good Luck and Bad Luck

...

...

They continued to stare at each other, complete forgetting about the nail in the grass.

"Have I seen you before?" Alice asked. "What are you doing here?"

Knowing he that the real first time that Alice met him was at the beach, Shun quickly came up with a lie. "You've probably seen my friend and me around doing quadrat sampling with these various wildflowers out here, that's all."

"Really?" Alice's tone seemed to question the validity of Shun's response. "Maybe I've seen you once or twice. I should get that nail."

"No, I got it." Shun knelt down and picked up the broken nail. "Here."

"Thanks. By the way, my name is-"

"Alice?"

Another mistake. "How did you know?"

And then came another lie. "I see you talk to yourself a lot, and you often mention the name 'Alice'. That's definitely not your horse's name, so I'm guessing..."

Alice giggled and sighed. "Yeah, I talk to myself a lot, and sometimes I talk to my horse as well. It's a mare, and her name's Zhizni, which is means-"

"Life?"

Yet another mistake. "In Russian, yeah. You're really psychic. What's your name?"

At least that proves she doesn't fully remember me. "Shun. Now before you make any more suspicious comments about me, I'm going to say that I took a few classes on the Russian language in school, and my quadrat sampling partner speaks fluent Russian." he lied.

"I see." She placed the nails and horseshoe in her pocket and gently pulled Zhizni over. "She's very picky. Zhizni won't run without all her horseshoes on."

Julie suddenly came by and rested her hand heavily on Shun's left shoulder. "Again, Alice still can't see me, but you should get more information out of her unlike last time. You're currently a couple months less than three years from present day. I'll be back."

Shun nodded slightly. "Yeah, I just remembered that my project partner got lost. No worries. I can probably see her from a distance since there aren't tall trees. Did you personally name your horse, was it a suggestion? I feel like taking a break from all this work."

"Of course. All work and no play is boring. Anyway, it was my decision. She's not really mine, but Zhizni's the horse from the corral that my aunt owns. She's like my second life."

Second life...calling an animal by that is a little weird. "Most people wouldn't say out of the blue, you know."

Suddenly, Alice's facial expression changed, and she took a deep breath. "If you think about it, owning an animal means you're responsible for it like how you're responsible for your own life, and since you yourself came first, of course Zhizni's my 'second' life."

Alice had a point.

"That's not what I meant." Shun tried to control his anger. It was only his 'second' time 'meeting' Alice, and since the first time was only partially successful, he wasn't going to give up that easily. "Other than your family members, is Zhizni the only other figure in your life that you care about?"

"Pretty much."

"No friends?"

That seemed to sadden Alice even more. "I'm working on that..."

"What does that mean?" Her classmates must still be mean to her.

"Well, since we're the only ones here, I'm not afraid to tell you this then." She let go of Zhizni's reigned and walked closer to Shun. "It feels like Zhizni's the only thing that cares for me."

"Just your horse? What about your aunt and family?"

"They care for me only because we're family. Sure, they feed my stomach with food and mind with knowledge, but they're oblivious to other stuff. Like my feelings, my emotions, my-"

"Inner thoughts?" That was a wild guess based on prior experience.

"Yeah, my inner thoughts too. For example, if I told my grandfather every upsetting moment that I was going through, do you think he can relate? Even worse, what if he tells me it's all ridiculous? I'd rather say nothing."

She's still suffering the same problem she suffered back at the beach. Shun walked over and stroked Zhizni's mane, and Alice was surprised to see that her horse didn't avoid a stranger. "And if you were to tell all this to your horse, it wouldn't understand a thing, but it wouldn't make fun of you, though."

"That's the good side of it."

"So what kind of upsetting moments do you face?"

Alice twitched her mouth upsettingly and answered, "When everyone blames you for something that you didn't do or can't control."

Now this was different.

"What could they possibly blame you for?"

"I actually do have a couple friends at school, but am still working harder to make real friends. But there are these unfortunate events that occur around me that scare people away. They think I'm unlucky."

"Unlucky? Impossible." Shun walked in front of her and held his hands out. "I haven't seen anything weird since I started chatting with you. What kind of unfortunate events?"

Alice counted with her fingers. "Let's see...there were water spills, clothes stains, slips and trips, and a lot more. You may be the only non-family exception who's not experiencing any weird things. I don't know how I ended up talking to you about my personal school life. You're...different."

And that was no coincidence.

"Hmm. Maybe you're lucky for once."

"Yeah, but I've been like this since my parents passed away. They were always there for me, but afterwards, I felt like I lost the only people in my life who knew the answers to all my questions. Don't you feel like your parents are the ones who seem to know it all?"

"Actually..." The present-day Shun would have a different answer compared to around three years ago. "I'm pretty much lost because my dad left and mom died."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Alice, it's. You didn't know..." About my situation yet. "Do you ever feel like it's your fault your parents left?"

Alice let out a bright grin, but her answer was of the contrary. "All the time. I thought you'd never ask. What about you?"

"I will never recognize my dad leaving us as any of our faults, but I still blame myself for not being able to provide for my mom in times of need. My grandfather did his best."

"So did mine. Maybe I accidentally did something bad some time ago and am being punished for it now."

"Don't blame yourself." Shun brushed a strand of hair out of Alice's face, and all she did was stare at him. It felt like there was already a bond building between the two of them before they officially met a year before present day. "Think of the future. You can achieve a lot more if you move forward and instead of lingering in the past."

She looked at her watch and smiled. "True. I should go home now. Grandfather will be mad. I'll have to walk Zhizni home because of this horseshoe."

"Wait. Get on your horse."

"But I already told you she wouldn't run without all her horseshoes."

"Just get on."

Alice eyed him weirdly but climbed up onto the saddle. "Now what?"

"You'll see." Again, he stroked Zhizni's mane and whispered, "Take Alice home, okay? Don't make her have to walk after a tough day."

Alice's signature giggle came back. "You're not only different, but weird." She tugged on the reigns a little, and Zhizni shook her head and started walking. "And smart."

"I'm just an excellent problem solver."

"That's for sure. I wish you could solve all my problems, too. You can go back to your own sampling work."

Shun almost forgot about the lie he told Alice earlier. "I will. This break from quadrat sampling was long enough."

"Oh, that. Wildflowers are pretty. What's your favorite?

She remembered my lie better than I did. "You think so? I like cornflowers. You?"

"Clovers."

Interesting...

"Especially four-leaf clovers."

Talk about luck.

"Four-leaf clovers aren't just for good luck." Alice continued, slowly facing away Shun. "They suppress your dark side from causing havoc to those around you."

Now what was that supposed to mean?

Marucho: How are four-leaf clovers wildflowers?

Julie: Pretty sure they aren't.

SSR: Four-leaf clovers are related to the basic clover plant, some of which are wild flowers. And I did not spell "quadrat" wrong. That's what my science teacher last year taught me.

Runo: Life science is life science. Done.

SSR: I guess we're all pretty tired. Enjoy the cliffhanger for now!