It had to be seen to be believed, as no matter how you see it, everything had gotten past the fine line between normalcy and young adult fiction crazy. Her heart was drumming to the beats of her pounding steps, speeding through the desolate hallway in the dead of the night. Just her, sprinting through the seemingly endless hallway, her right hand holding up her phone against her ear, cursing through her gritted teeth as she listened to the robotic, mechanical voice of a woman, to leave a voicemail, press one, and were it not for the fact that the puny electronic device on her hand was the only lifeline of a certain person she had to see at the time, she would have thrown the thing outside of the grandiose, five feet tall window gracing the left side of the hallway.

She pressed one, anyway, brought the phone closer to her mouth, and while still running fervently, discomfittingly short of breath and quick-pulsed and just utterly desperate, she spoke with a volume that was nearer to a shout. "Hey," she paused, catching her breath for a second, "hey, listen, don't—" She paused for the second time on the call, gulping down the nervous wreck of a sentence she was trying to form. Her mind was too much of a jumbled mess to craft a short, yet effective and coherent sentence. Plus, talking while doing a non-stop sprinting for the past fifteen minutes or so was harder than it could ever be described, as she had to pull out the words stuck on her throat while steadying her staggering consciousness and sustaining the physical fatigue ripping her strenght apart. "Agh, okay, listen—don't give in to the, the—the limiter, alright," the hallway itself was dark enough to pass for a horror movie setting, but with her vision getting blearier by passing second, she was starting to see more and more deep black, forming by the edges of her vision, "also, hang—hang in there, I..."

I—...what? I'll protect you? I'll save you? Like, protect? Save? If she had the time in the world to be so whimsical, so demanding of something so impossible...

It's not like there was anything she can do, after all, what would one expect from Kousaka Honoka? The class clown, the joker, the slacker, the failure, an onmyouji who can't even use magic, and here she was, scrambling her way to a certain someone so dear to her she went without a second thought to protect, to save, but what bugged her the most was how, although she got reluctant by each steps she took, she went with the idea in the first place.

How far would you go for a friend? Would you risk your life, no matter how worthless your existence is, for the sake of another's?

She turned a corner, her black coat slash cape flowing in mid-air behind her, and due to how dim the hallway was, she nearly crashed to the stone wall in front, whats with the only light source being the moonlight seeping through the gigantic windows. Her legs' protests were starting to be louder and clearer, and she had no choice but to slow her running down. She remembered the still running voicemail, and used the momentum to rack her brains for something, anything to be said, because I'll save you sounded too gallant, too out of the world for her.

"—I...wish you the best of luck!"

How many times had she futilely sent voicemail messages after another in hope of any response, anything, to prove her that she is alright, safe and sound and alive and kicking, that she'll live for another day, will be there to reprimand her of her dumb antics, will be there to watch over her awkward, stumbling back.

For the umpteenth time, she dialed a number she knew all too well, prayed for even a word of response from the other line, only to get her hopes shot down by the long, long chain of ringing that predictably ended with the short, simple, stern-sounding voicemail she had subconsciously memorized every of the words of, and it made her feeling indescribably shitty inside. She clicked her tongue, dialed the number once again, and left another voicemail, each getting more and more desperate than the last.

She checked the time; the monitor of her phone lit up and flashed a 23:58, her frown deepened as she forced her legs to plunge faster to her destination.

Eventually, she saw something resembling an end to her initially thought never-ending journey through the dim hallway. Fears and worries circled her mind while countless scenarios ran in her head, more often of her discovering her body, cold and lifeless, sprawled on the floor still with her perpetual frown etched on her face. No matter how many times she tried to quash down the haunting thought of her being dead, that she was a second, a minute, an hour, an eternity too late, it kept cropping back up, reminding her of how…foolish she had been. Was she trying to play hero? To salvage what left of her crumbling self-esteem?

And then she halted her running, a large door, painted haunting deep shade of blue, stood before her, tall and overpowering. She passed her phone to her stupid hand while her trembling right hand caressed the surface of the door. She was only a hair-breadth away from her, but the realization dawned on her, hitting her like a torrent of fists when she realized it'll take more than a push to open the door.

Perhaps the Gods up there decided it'll be a funny prank; the surface of the doors had chains crossing here and there, as if guarding whatever is there behind, with locks, hanging limply from the chains, screaming 'no entry' to any trespasser. Despair pooled inside her stomach when she realized that the black-colored locks have nothing resembling a keyhole on it, ruling out any possibilities except that the locks were planted with magic, or at least something akin to that.

The time was running out. Honoka wrestled some small, folded papers of ofuda out of her skirts pocket, pulled the one with its chant written in red ink, smacked the paper to the lock and muttered a chant with her hands clasped, raised to the level of her face. Flowed the right amount of ki, the ofuda will explode in the same vein as bombs. "C'mon," she grunted helplessly, "not now – please, ugh, please work…!"

It was kind of hilarious in a twisted way – how she was so close, yet so far from whatever was there behind the sealed shut door.

Then her head jerked upward, her heart nearly jumped out of her ribs, as she heard ringing of a large in size bell, echoing through the academy, shattering the devoid silence enshrouding up till then. Honoka had her eyes widen in a mixture of shock and horror, and for an instant she was terrified she would burst out into insane, braying, uncontrollable laugh. Her hands went limp and fell to her sides, robbed of its strength. She stayed like that for a minute or two; just hovered there, staring all smudgy and bleary and out of focus at that damned door.

She felt her phone vibrated inside the pocket of her skirt. She wrestled the device out, staring at the monitor, blinking with the number of her caller flashed for her to see, and found herself contemplating whether to reject the call altogether. Emotions was running rampant inside her mind and she had enough on her plate already. She let out one long exhale before holding up the phone against her ear.

"Honoka," she heard Eri's voice, calm and reasonable even through the phone's metallic muffle, so cool-headed, so, so, "Honoka, are you there?"

Phone still on her hand, she rubbed her temple with her other hand distractedly, in hope of subsiding the headache tearing her from inside. "Yeah," she tried to sound as calm and subdued, but she knew she failed miserably, "I'm here, alive and kickin'."

"Honoka..."

"I know, Eri-chan," she heard herself said, in a faint, little wheeze, before pausing for a stretched second, and began once more after steadying her hitching breath, "I know, I mean, I—" once again she fell into a pause, this time abruptly, actually pressed her hand on her mouth. I what, now? I failed to save her? Her whole face throbbed and the sickening feeling of powerlessness lurched deep inside her. "I—...failed," she said finally, low and soft, almost a whisper. Her left hand fell to her side once again, and her eyes blinked once, twice, as it got watery, "I can't do it, after all."

This time, Eri paused on her own. Honoka used the momentary calm to at least, suppress the raging urge to burst into tears – at least not when she's on the phone with her friend. She felt like a crap already, there was no need to infect others with such negativity too...

At long last, Eri spoke, "It's alright. We're done here, we—" Honoka heard Eri catching her breath, and deduced that the girl was probably on her way here, "—we will be there in a sec. Hang on, okay?"

"Okay."

"Don't worry, she'll be alright. We'll find a way together."

"Yup."

"Everything will be alright. We...we can do this."

Eri hung up, and it went quiet once again. She lowered her head, face-down to the marble floor, trying her best to brave through her mental tornado. "Sorry," she heard herself say, her lips tugged upwards into a sickening smile, her hands balled into a fist, tightening so hard she might tear her own skin apart, "sorry, Umi-chan."

Given a sudden heap of energy born from her own frustration, she banged her balled fists onto the door hard she feared her bones broken and askew, and cried out a river, face wet and burning, smoldered with violent outburst of her emotions. She knew how pathetic she looked at the time, but didn't do anything about it, simply because she was too tired to even care.

Notes: [1] Another multi-chaptered fic. I just had to get rid of this plot bunny, it's been gnawing on my mind for the past few weeks. Ergh.

[2] Just in case you don't understand what an onmyouji is, it's Japan's equivalent of exorcist...kind of, since they do the spirit exorcising business. (I know right – that's so anime!)

[3] I haven't really plan out the pairings since this fic will mostly focus on the friendship and camaraderie between the members of Muse, though suggestions are welcome. (crickets chirping) ...I know, I know folks. Niko/Maki will be one of the pairings. /shot

[4] I know this chapter doesn't really make sense, but what's a better way to start a series than a cold, in medias res opening? :P

[5] Please give me some feedbacks; I do know that my writing is very lacking in terms of...everything, really. Please tell me if you spot a grammatical and/or a spelling error!

[6] Until then, see you later, and stay tuned!