AN: Well, here we go! This is a fanfic co-written by Black Moon Rising and myself. Comments and feedback appreciated! Although this may seem like the original timeline, this fic will include many more side stories and alterations to the main storyline. And I mean MAJOR alterations. xD And if anyone is curious, the title Respice Finem literally means "look back at the end" in Latin; in other words, it is an alternate version of "memento mori." And I'm sure we all know what that means. ;D

Kisses! Let me know what you all think! :3

NOTE: Hamuko's surname has been changed to "Arasawa" in order to keep things less confusing, since Minato is also a character in this fanfiction. xD

~Ami

A chill ran down the young girl's spine as she slowly stepped off the train. The quietness of the station was almost unsettling. Well, this was it. Iwatodai Station. She had to find that dormitory she was supposed to be staying at. Small hands reached into her pocket and pulled out a crumpled up map as she unfolded it and gazed at the intricate streets and sights of this strange island. Her feet continued to walk down the street, making a light pitter patter sound as she neared the inner workings of the city. An mp3 player continued its droll of music, though the headphones were around her neck now. Glancing at the time on the small electronic, she realized it was almost midnight. Better hurry, I shouldn't be out this late at night.

Time seemed to slow suddenly, and Hamuko's stomach dropped as she realized that something was horribly wrong. The streets had gotten an eerie green glow to them, and the moon had grown huge. She looked down at her mp3 player to check the time again... The face of the device was totally blank. It's...not working? Glancing back up, the girl let out an involuntary gasp as she realized coffins now littered the streets where people were only moments ago. What... This was impossible! What was this! Blood seemed to ooze around her own feet and her own surroundings, and, in a panic, the girl took off at a run. "I have to get to the dorm," she whispered to herself in the dead silence as she gained speed in that direction.

She had finally made it to her destination, and she wrenched the door open, panting heavily from being shocked and exhausted so quickly. "Geez..." she muttered to herself. "I must be imagining things." Even in the dorm, things were deathly quiet. The young girl glanced around, brushing a strand of auburn hair from her red eyes. She sighed in exasperation. "Ugh...really..."

"I don't think you're imagining things."

Hamuko nearly jumped out of her skin as she flew around to find the source of this voice.

A young boy calmly approached her, his eyes glowing with a strange light. A smile was on his face, though it was quite creepy. Something wasn't right about this kid.

"Um, are you staying in the dorms?"

"Haha, no silly. Why would I need to do something like that? I can live anywhere I freely choose to," the young boy chimed as he seemed to appear right in front of the girl now. "The end is growing near, you know!"

"...Excuse me?" she asked, positively freaked out at this point.

"You'll understand what I mean in time. Don't ask your new friends about me, though... They won't have a clue." Pharos giggled, seeming to enjoy this moment. "Well, all except Minato. He's special like you."

"Special?"

"Make sure you learn your place around here. I'll be sure to visit you again!"

"Wait!"

But before she could protest any longer, the child suddenly vanished, nowhere to be found. "Oh, God..." she muttered to herself, holding her head. "What is going on here?"

Some floors up, a teen's eyes opened drearily, awakened by the piercing sound of a door slamming. The green light filtering through his curtain signaled the presence of the Dark Hour. He blinked a few times, soberly absorbing the situation, and suddenly every sense crackled, like he'd been struck with lightning. With hands that showed no sign of fearful trembling, he slowly pulled a dirty t-shirt from his floor and slipped it on over his pajama pants. Close in reach on his bedside table was a silver pistol, engraved with the word "SEES." It felt familiar in his hand as he picked it up, an old friend.

He left his room as quietly as possible, tip-toeing down the hallway as not to alert the intruder or unnecessarily waken up the others in the hallway; all of the boys in the wing would have his head if he rose a false alarm. With bare-footed steps he paused at the the top of the stairs, listening for any signs of life.

"Wait!"

The exclamation made him practically jump out of his skin. No longer caring about the amount of noise he made, the young man took the stairs two at a time, crashing and banging the whole way down the full flight. His arm reflexively pointed the pistol at the source of the voice. "Who's there?" he demanded, feeling a little ridiculous in his pajamas but nonetheless determined to intimidate the intruder. A girl, probably around his age, standing alone in the middle of the room, looking very unnerved and anxious. "Who were you talking to?"

The girl jumped backward in shock at the sudden appearance of this boy, her foot catching on the carpet and tumbling to the floor. She winced as she felt her back smack into the floor, then snap back up due her tenseness. Slowly, the young girl stood up, holding her arms outward as to keep him from "shooting" her. Who in God's name just points a gun at a girl for no reason! she thought, before swallowing and further studying the male. He didn't seem particularly dangerous, but... there was something strange about him. "I-I was talking to...a boy.." she murmured, her eyes never leaving his, showing that although she was tousled, she was not afraid of him anymore. But...he probably thought she was crazy. "There was a boy... in striped pajamas...right...there..." she whispered, indicating the area that Pharos had once stood. "B-But...he's gone now... What is going on here?" she finally asked, much louder than before.

Hamuko relaxed slightly, putting her arms down and adjusting her stance to a less threatening one. "I just... came to this dorm because I was given directions to... I'm a new student at Gekkoukan High." Her eyes trailed the floor, embarrassed for freaking out moments ago. But the room still had its strange green glow. ...The Dark Hour was not over yet.

Apparently realizing that pointing the gun at the girl wasn't going to do much good-the weapon wasn't really meant for that form of combat anyway-and interested in something the girl had said, the young man's body lost its tension, though his light eyes were still as wary as a those of a caged animal. "Striped pajamas?" The description sounded all too familiar to him and he was suddenly looking at the girl in a new, suspicious light. "Did he say anything to you, did you talk back to him?"

She knows Pharos? The boy's mouth felt dry as the ghostly kid came to mind. Pharos had only ever appeared to him, no one else even knew of his existence. And yet here this girl claimed to have just had a conversation with him. The multiple voices suddenly made sense. She wasn't alone, talking to herself. Pharos had been here just moments ago.

Hamuko's eyes lit up as she realized that she maybe wasn't crazy after all. "Yeah. I talked to him," she muttered warily, clasping her hands in front of her, still nervous at the boy's attitude towards her. "I asked him who he was.. and he said something about the 'end being near'. I don't exactly know what he meant by that, but I really choose not to find out." A forced laugh escaped her mouth as she nervously played with her hair.

"So, um, am I in the right dormitory, then? I was given a letter by someone named Shuji Ikutsuki. He set up all of my arrangements, and said that I'd be joining a new club thing at the school. What was it called... Uhhm, SEES? Or something?"

She really didn't have the slightest clue why all of these instructions were so complicated. Or why this island already seemed to be completely screwy. In the slight pause she had made from her question, she continued with a follow-up. "So, what's your name?" she asked, trying to be as polite as possible to the kid who seemed like he was going to blow her head off only moments earlier. Sheesh. What a crazy-house.

"Minato Arisato," he replied briskly, wisely choosing to ignore her remarks about Pharos. It wasn't something he really wanted to think about. "And you're in the right place. Welcome to the Iwatodai Dorm, A.K.A the SEES Headquarters." He held up his pistol; the green light reflected off the silver barrel, showing the engravings on the side. "But I'll let Ikutsuki explain that to you. I'm no good at it, and I'd probably leave a bunch of really important things out. And don't worry, you'll find your way around pretty quickly. But...ah..."

Minato bit his lip awkwardly. "I'm not really sure what we're going to do until morning. Rooms that aren't being used are always kept locked. Mitsuru might still be awake, and maybe Akihiko. They tend to monitor things during the Dark Hour most nights. If they are, they already know you're here." He pointed to the camera half-hidden in shadow in the top-corner of the room. " Good timing on your part; we're all here tonight and not...somewhere else." Minato was trying to keep in mind her ignorance, but it was increasingly difficult to explain the situation in a "normal" manner. He was pretty sure he'd mentioned the Dark Hour already at some point out of habit. "Anyway, head upstairs with me and I'll take you there. Just be really quiet, okay? The others probably wouldn't take kindly to being woken up, especially a couple in particular. You'd be fine, of course. But me?" Minato chuckled darkly, knowing from experience exactly what would happen.

Hamuko blinked a few times in succession as she stared at the boy, positively bewildered and even more confused than earlier. She gazed at him for a few more moments in the awkward silence before muttering, "Um... You're really going to have to catch me up on things here. I don't want to sound stupid, but I only understood a fraction of what you just said to me. Dark Hour? What even is that? And why on Earth do kids from a school club carry guns around?" The young girl was getting really frazzled at this point. More than likely, it was due to the current state of the island and the fact that she had been traveling nearly all day. She was tired, and all she really wanted to do was sleep. Hamuko was starting to get desperate at that point, sighing and holding her head. "N-Never mind. Forget it. Thank you for helping me," she finished, before nearing him so that he could show her the way up the stairs. The dorm appeared to be pretty spacious. The main lounge seemed nice in itself.

"Like I said, we'll explain it to you soon," Minato assured her, internally wishing he'd just kept his mouth shut. He quietly led her upstairs, whispering to her the locations and descriptions of the wings as they climbed. "We've got more people now than ever," he murmured to Hamuko as they climbed the last flight of stairs. "There's never a dull moment, that's for sure."

From a room a few floors above, a young man was peering at a group of monitors with interest. The light reflected on his angular face as he tracked the movement of the two people, one of which he recognized, but the other's identity was fairly safe for him to assume, having been informed that she would be arriving sometime in the next two days. The sight of Minato awake this late on a "break night" was nothing new; the dark-haired boy was prone to bouts of insomnia and was a notoriously light sleeper regardless. They all were, to some extent. Fighting shadows had toned their reaction time and any of them could instantly wake from a dead sleep if needed.

"Looks like we have some visitors, Mitsuru." Akihiko announced to his partner, a girl about his age. "I think they're coming up here. I'll unlock the door."

Hamuko gazed at Minato, steadily taking in what he was saying. This was all still a huge blur to her; none of it really mattered at the moment because all she wanted was a bed to sleep in. But when he mentioned the number of people staying at the dorm, her ears perked up. Well, maybe that wasn't so bad. That means I'll have plenty of people to talk to. And that Minato kid seems nice, anyway. But I don't like how he acts; there's definitely something weird about him.

Red hair gently shifted to one side as deep wine eyes gazed at the display on the screen. "Guess you're right, Akihiko. I had a feeling she'd be arriving tonight. Too bad she had to arrive right during the Dark Hour. ...C'est la vie, I suppose," Mitsuru chuckled, before standing up from her chair and walking over to Akihiko near the door. "We should probably go ahead outside and say 'hello.'"

As Hamuko neared the top of the stairs, she involuntarily flinched as she saw the large door on the next floor slowly open. Two figures came out, but in the dark room, she had to get closer just to make out their facial features. A boy with silvery hair, seeming to be around her age, as well as another girl with long, auburn curls framing her face, stood in front of her. They didn't look too hostile; they almost looked as if they were welcoming her. The names "Akihiko" and "Mitsuru" popped into the girl's head as she realized these were the two that Minato was talking about, or so she assumed.

"Hey, Akihiko, Mitsuru. You, uh...probably already know, but the new girl's here. I just thought I'd bring her up here," Minato mumbled.

"We saw you on the monitors. Welcome," Akihiko nodded in greeting. The newcomer seemed almost...delicate to his eyes. He wondered if this was the right girl, because she was nothing like her imagined her to be. Then again, he questioned the capability of every new person who came through the door. Their mission was not for the weak of heart. "Come on in, you look like you're about to fall over."

"Want me to stay?" Minato inquired curiously. Part of him wanted to return to bed, but an almost childlike desire to get to know the newcomer was stronger. His eyes were wide, unblinking, as the symptoms of his chronic insomnia started to kick in.

Mitsuru laughed lightly. "Pleased to meet you," she muttered to the girl, flashing a half-smile. She almost felt pity at the girl; she looked pretty exhausted. Who knows what she saw on the way over to the dormitory...

Hamuko nodded quickly, flashing a big grin for the first time since she had arrived. Her eyes seemed to sparkle as she lightly bowed before saying, "My name is Hamuko Arakawa. Pleased to meet you all." She could at least do that much before her eyes returned to their dull and tired state.

The older girl smiled, tucking a piece of hair away from her face as she murmured, "My name is Mitsuru Kirijo. This is Akihiko Sanada. We're both Seniors at Gekkoukan High. Oh, and there's Minato Arisato, of course. But I'm sure he introduced himself already. He's your age, a Junior." Mitsuru chuckled, nudging Akihiko with her elbow. "Just look at how many members we've got now. Tre bien, hm?"

Akihiko's comment about her tiredness made Hamuko blush fiercely. "I-I'm fine, I promise. Just a little...rattled, is all. I don't exactly know what to expect with my first impression of this island, senpai," she stammered, realizing his seniority and immediately correcting her speech patterns.

"Oh, and Arisato," -Mitsuru cut off the young girl before she could continue- "you can stay if you feel like it. Not bothering any of us. Feel free to do whatever you'd like with the rest of the night," she stated, smiling. "Unless of course you plan to go out. I wouldn't do that right now if I were you. The full moon's only a day away."

"..." Hamuko gave the older girl an extremely bewildered look, her eyes widened with complete confusion.

"Fun," Minato drawled sarcastically. "I'm awake now. I'll stick around here for a while since you don't mind. I think I'm up for the night."

"You don't need to be so formal with us," Akihiko advised her with a friendly, but somewhat awkward, smile. From the look on her face, Hamuko was obviously unaware of what Minato and Mitsuru were discussing, and Akihiko figured it was probably better to leave it to them. "We're all schoolmates, and we live together anyway. Loosen up a little, you'll adjust quickly." He wasn't really one to give good advice, but the girl was obviously out of her element.

Hamuko gazed over at Minato momentarily, before looking back over to Akihiko. "Did I...not get the memo or something, Senpai? None of what Minato-kun said has made any sense to me. I mean, um.. If it's something personal that you guys don't want to tell me about, that's fine, but ever since I've gotten here, everything has been so strange. Did you know about those coffins in the street? Is that normal here?" The girl's eyes clearly reflected her disheveled attitude. Her tired expression portrayed no trace of fear, yet she seemed completely bewildered at what had happened to her so far.

Mitsuru's face grew darker, and she nudged Akihiko as her way of saying, "Don't tell yet." She glanced back over at the young girl, and smiled once again. "It alright to be a little bit confused, but just remember that you did travel all day long. I think you should rest before we have any other discussions. Though you don't start school until Monday, two days from now, I still recommend that you get some sleep before tomorrow." She looked over at Akihiko and Minato with an exasperated look on her face. What a day for the girl to come. Right before a full moon. What exactly were they to do with her tomorrow night?

Akihiko was resisting the urge to tell her everything, despite Mitsuru's warnings. He knew how uncomfortable it was to feel as though you were in the dark and everyone was keeping something from you. He did know at least one way to at least try to soothe Hamuko's visibly fraying nerves, but it probably did more harm than good, knowing him. "The...coffins are only temporary. Everything will go back to the way they were soon."

"Do you have the keys to the unoccupied rooms in here?" Minato asked, feeling the tension between them rise. "You know, so Hamuko-san can rest."

Hamuko opened her mouth to ask Akihiko further of his definition of "the way they were," but kept quiet. She really didn't want to spend another twenty minutes of awkward tea-time conversation, because tension was very obvious in the room.

Mitsuru reached into the pocket of her school shirt and pulled out a set of keys, tossing them to Minato and smiling as she muttered, "Of course. Excusez-moi. Your room, Arasawa, is on the third floor, final door on the right. Minato will show you there, and you can go right ahead and make yourself comfortable. Our dorm supervisor, Shuji Ikutsuki, will be meeting us here tomorrow to discuss your arrival. It was nice meeting you, Miss Arasawa."

Hamuko bowed before the student left for the control room again. "Pleasure," she stated, smiling softly. "You too, Akihiko-senpai." She then turned to Minato, giving him a sly look, before muttering, "Well, show me the way, oh Master of Insomnia."

"Hey, don't make fun of my problem," Minato teased as they bid the two Senior students goodbye. "How would you like it if you only got a third of the sleep you should be getting? Let me tell, you, it sucks."

Akihiko watched as the two descended the stairs and out of sight. He stretched, causing many joints in his lanky body to stiffly pop in response, and wished the Dark Hour would end already so he could get some sleep. "What do you think, Mitsuru?" he yawned widely. "Tomorrow's going to be rough for all of us. Hamuko-kun picked a bad time to show up. It's not like we can say, 'Hostile demons come around around midnight every day, but on the full moon one really big one shows up. Here's a sword, don't die out there!' We could always leave someone here to protect her in case anything happens. She's going to have a hard enough time processing all of the information we give her, and I'd hate to see her die needlessly."

Mitsuru sighed, crossing her arms as she looked at the other Senior. "I don't know, Akihiko. I will talk to Ikutsuki tomorrow about what we should do with her. Until then, we need to do with her what we did with Arisato. We need to monitor her for the rest of the Dark Hour and make sure that she's adjusting alright. As for tomorrow night... Your guess is as good as mine. She may not adjust at all. I just hope that's not the case."

Hamuko smiled, glancing over at him before focusing her attention on the stairs in front of her. "No no, not really a problem. I've been known to have the same issue. But considering I really haven't gotten any sleep in the past few days, I think it's not bothering me as much now." The young girl laughed lightly as they descended the stairs to the 3rd floor. They finally reached her room, and when they got inside, Hamuko seemed relatively pleased with the space. "These rooms are actually really nice. I like it. More room than I had before," she chuckled, before throwing her overstuffed bag onto the soft bed.

"Don't sleep in too late," Minato instructed as he led Hamuko to her room. "You don't want to miss the meeting." Standing awkwardly, in his plaid pajama pants and dirty, wrinkled t-shirt, it felt like he was walking a girl to the door after a failed date. "Well, goodnight then..."

Akihiko solemnly nodded. He returned to the group of screens, took the mouse in his hand, and scrolled through a drop list of all the live feeds. He clicked on one and a video of Hamuko's room started screening on the monitor. He despised having to do this, particularly in the case of a girl. It felt like the utmost invasion of privacy, and she already had little reason to trust them.

Noticing his obvious discomfort with the situation, Mitsuru rolled her chair closer to his, gazing at the monitor. "I'll watch if you'd like. You need to get some sleep, Akihiko. You've been working too hard lately. I request that you at least get some real rest before tomorrow. It's going to be rough with the new girl here. Hopefully she'll adjust as quickly as Arisato did." The redhead glanced over at him, giving a look that almost screamed, "Would you just sleep and leave the work to me? She is a girl after all, so that would be peeping." After that attempt seemed almost futile, the Senior put her arm on his shoulder, muttering, "Please. Go get some sleep. Now."

Hamuko smiled at the awkward young boy. "Would you mind knocking on my door tomorrow morning so that I don't sleep in? My cell phone is dead. See?" The brunette pulled out her cellular device, on which the screen was completely blank. "It just suddenly turned off, and it won't turn back on. Can't figure that one out for myself. In fact..." She paused for a moment, slightly confused. "My mp3 player shut off too. ...Oh well. They might work later. Maybe the electronics around the train station messed them up."

The young girl slowly walked over to her bed, aimlessly throwing her belongings everywhere. She figured that she would rearrange them later. She just wanted to find her pajamas in the bottom of the black hole of a bag so that she could sleep. "Thank you for all of the help, Minato-kun," she called, warmly turning to him for only a moment before digging in her enormous bag again. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

"Yeah, see ya," Minato responded. "Oh, and don't worry about your mp3 and phone. They'll be fine by morning, I'm sure." Lazily twirling his pistol around his finger, he meandered from the door to the stairs and went down a flight. He opened his bedroom door and looked around, searching for some form of entertainment to keep him company for the rest of the sleepless night.

"Thanks," Akihiko sighed, genuinely relieved. He stole one final glance at the monitor and saw Hamuko pull a pair of pajamas from her bag. Going a tiny bit pink in the cheeks, he quickly averted his eyes. He may be a precise fighter, but something like that was way out of his comfort zone. "Tomorrow will be rough, so try and get some rest if you can too, Mitsuru. If we're all going to fight, it'll be best to be at full strength." Akihiko wondered for a moment how any of them would cope without Mitsuru's careful judgment and omnipresence. Without her this whole operation would have likely imploded long ago.

Though he gave off a cautious appearance, Akihiko was actually quite tense with excitement regarding the next evening. He shook his arms loose in an attempt to quell his anxious nerves. Mitsuru's words from a few months back rang in his head: "This isn't a game, Akihiko." His arms stopped shaking, but every nerve stood excitedly on end. Overly confident and hard-headed, Akihiko Sanada was not known for his restraint in battle, and it showed.

Mitsuru gazed at the male, smirking slightly as she grasped a throw hanging over a nearby chair. Wrapping it around her shoulders, she sat back down and waved her hand as if to shoo him away. "Don't worry so much. I'll sleep a little. Now, get going," she goaded. "I'll watch Little Miss Hamuko. Worry about sleeping, not the new girl." And with that, the young female turned to gaze at the monitors again, the glow reflecting off of her delicate facial features.

Well, what do you all think? You like? ;D Oh, also. Chapter title. "Adventu Noctem" is Latin for "night arrival," signifying Hamuko's arrival at the dorm. So in case ya'll don't get too confused. xD Please leave feedback, kthx!