3 years ago...

"... Ughhh... is it really 6 in the morning already..?"

A girl complained, reaching over to the loud alarm clock. Slowly getting up from her position, her body felt heavy and exhausted from lying in such an awkward position.

"Nghhhhhhh..... ha.. I need to get ready for school.."

Yuna sighed as she went through her closet and took out a white collared polo, a light green dress with three pale yellow diamonds across the chest and at the hems of the low collar and of the skirt that reached an inch above her knee, a striped light brown and emerald green ribbon, and a pair of striped pale blue and white thigh high socks to go with it.

Braiding up her aqua green hair into a headband braid, she looked out the window and sighed as she walked out of her room to get some breakfast.

'I wonder if anything interesting will happen today.. But then again, nothing interesting ever happens at school.'

Yuna was in deep thought as she waited on the escalator and by the time she reached to Aibo Academy, she took a step forward as a boy and his friend walked by, accidently bumping into her, causing her to walk backwards.

'... Wait... Am... Am I falling?' she thought as she reached out her hand to grab something.

As she reached out desperately and closed her eyes shut, a hand grabbed her wrist before she fell of the steps behind her.

'Wait, what is going on? Am I being dragged forward?'

"Ah!" she yelped.

Landing on her butt and feeling the pain starting to sting her thighs, she heard a boy say, "Hey, are you alright? You're not hurt now are you?" Eyes popping wide open, Yuna realized that there was someone she isn't familiar with kneeling in front of her, a hand tightly wrapped around her wrist.

"Are you okay?" she heard him ask again.

"Ah..," was all that came out of her throat as her gaze was fixed on crimson red eyes and trailed down to where the blue haired boy's hand and her wrist were connected.

"..."

The response worried the boy more until he noticed that he was still grabbing her wrist. Starting to blush furiously as his eyes widen and his mouth opened, he stuttered out, "S-sso-sorry! I forgot that I- ah! N-nn-never mind!"

Finally loosening his grasp from her wrist, he fidgeted nervously as if he was a child who got in trouble and is now being lectured by his parents.

"...."

The thought was finally getting to the now shocked Yuna who stood up and immediately took off running to the elementary school building.

'Who is he? I don't know him! Why didn't he just ignore me like every other student? I never made contact with anyone before so what am I to do now?!"The boy stood at the place where she left him and was surprised to see her take off out of nowhere. Starting to calm down now, he wondered if he would meet her again.

"Okay class! Today I have exciting news for everyone!"

Chattering could be heard throughout the classroom from the curious students. "Sensei, tell us please!" a student said. Yuna wasn't interested in the news and just stared out the window next to her as her teacher exposed the supposedly good news to everyone. "

We are having a new student joining us starting today!" the teacher, Nitsuke Nisei, said.

"A new student? It's the middle of the school year already though.." Yuna mumbled to herself.

"You may come in now! Everyone please make him feel welcome," Mr. Nitsuke said as he headed to the blackboard to write down the student's name.

A boy who wore blue shorts, a red and black T-shirt with two white lines around the shoulders and at the hem of his collar, white socks, and red shoes was seen when the door slid open. The same boy who helped Yuna came walking into the classroom and stood at the front, waiting for Mr. Nitsuke to finish writing down his name on the blackboard.

"Okay then, why don't you introduce yourself to the class?" The boy nodded and looked back to the students.

"Hi," Yuna heard him say.

'Wait his voice it sounds familiar..' "My name is Ryuenji Tasuku and I'm actually not new to this place. I just came back recently, but I hope to meet everyone! I am now in your care." He said as he bowed down at the last sentence.

"Well, that's that! Now let's see where you should sit... Oh! You can sit next to Suzuki Yuna! Suzuki-chan, can you please stand up so he knows who you are?"

"..... Okay.." she said loud enough for him to hear.

As she stood up, her bright golden eyes met crimson ones yet again. He looked at her with surprise and then gave her a warm smile as her eyes grew bigger.

"Please do help him catch up with class today. I'm counting on you!"

"Y-yes, Mr. Nitsuke .." she said, turning away and sitting back down.

"Don't worry about her. She's just really reserved, but she is very sweet once you get to know her," the teacher whispered to Tasuku. Nodding at him once more, he headed to where his new table partner sat, seeing that she was ignoring him and just smiled at the thought of seeing her once again.

"Umm.. Hey.. Sorry about earlier.. Are you mad?" Tasuku asked.

Yuna looked over at him for once after his intro to the entire class. Shaking her head 'no' he let out a relief sigh.

"I hope I didn't do anything wrong. ... Would you like to hang out with me during break and lunch?"

Staring at him in surprised, the petite girl started to think whether it was a good idea to accept his offer or not.

"Well you don't have to if you want and you can go hang out with your friends..," Tasuku said smiling sheepishly. Frowning at the last statement she said quietly, "... I don't have any friend.."

Looking at her with guilt once again, he apologized to her softly. "... I would like to hang out with you though... I guess it won't hurt.."

His lips started to curl up into a bright smile after hearing her say that and said, "Okay then, let's go to a nice, shady place and hang out." Nodding at his statement, she followed the bluenette to a spot where it was nice and quiet as well as shady, just like he said they would.

Sitting in the grass underneath a tree, she slowly closed her eyes and felt the cool breeze hit her face, blowing the back of her short hair and the long hair in front that ended above her chest and framed the sides of her face.

"Let's start over with introductions again and make the atmosphere feel less... uncomfortable," she heard Tasuku say.

"..Okay.."

Opening up her eyes, she saw the boy staring directly at her and smiling that soft smile he's been giving her.

"My name is Ryuenji Tasuku. I have a buddy monster named Jackknife Dragon, but I call him Jack for short."

Yuna nodded. "It's nice to meet you, Ryuenji-kun. I'm Suzuki Yuna and, well I don't have a buddy monster nor do I buddyfight..," she claimed and looked away in embarrassment.

"Hahaha. Don't be embarrassed, Suzuki! Not everyone buddyfights so it's fine and normal! In fact, I just started recently!" Tasuku laughed. His laugh seemed to calm her down a bit from what happened between them. "Oh, and you can call Tasuku, if you like!" Looking at her new found friend, she gave him a small smile that has never been shown to the world in years.

"Then, you can call me Yuna, Tasuku-kun"

"If you ever do want to try buddyfighting, tell me and I'll teach you, help build decks, and help you get your own deck too!"

"Mm! I will!"

As the bell rang, the two of them headed back to class, having a small conversation and smiles on their faces.

"I'm actually in the buddypolice force. Well, to be exact, I'm still in training haha."

Yuna looked at him surprised. "At this time of age? You must be the youngest one of them all! After all you are 9 years old right..?"

"Hahaha," Tasuku chuckled, "Yeah, I'm the youngest, but I just want to help people." Yuna smiled at him.

"That's a nice thought of you, Tasuku-kun. I wish I had a strong-will like yours.."

Tasuku looked over at her. Putting his hand on her shoulder to reassure her, he gave a smile and said, "I understand. But, you do have a strong-will, Yuna. Maybe even stronger than mine. Who knows? You will find it soon, so don't worry. Our classroom is right here so let's head in."