June 17th, 1999 - After School

[independent_dollmaker]

[Alice is first again. She has a copy of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but she's read the same page five times without taking any of it in.]

[Souji is still missing. Today, Hiroshi and Minako are absent, too. No word on why. This group is getting smaller and smaller. Alice can feel the weight of this strange town bearing down on her. Even if just for a little while, she has to get out of here...]

Comments

[ohmygah]

[She opens her eyes sadly at Maria.]

...Oh.

You think Tomosuke can make him all better?

[She wants to hope.]

[happyhalloween]

Tomosuke's going to try to scare the bear out of him. But we don't know if it's too late. If he's all eaten anyway and there's no Hiroshi left.

[ohmygah]

[She... doesn't really understand that, but Maria seems to understand what's been going on much more than she does.]

Will Souji and Minako come back to school after we get rid of the bear? Or are ghost bear bikes messing with them too?

[happyhalloween]

I don't know. But that's why I brought this.

[She holds up the bear statue. It has a plate on the bottom that reads KURAIN VILLAGE: HEART OF CHANNELING.]

I'm going to see if I can get through to Shigetsuna-sama with this representation of her bear. Gonna ask her to call her bear back.

[ohmygah]

[That prospect gets her optimism roaring.]

She's gotta listen, right? Fer the good of the group?

[happyhalloween]

[Maria hugs Tomosuke tightly.] Hope so. For everyone's sake.