It was already noon, but the occupied bed made no movement. It wasn't like her to sleep this late, but recently she had begun feeling extremely exhausted, and it had turned into her sleeping in late. Though it was the weekend, it was very uncharacteristic of her. A knock sounded at her door. At first she didn't hear it, still deep in slumber, but it grew louder and repetitious, forcing her eyes open to search blearily for the location of the noise. "Unhh.. Hold on, I'm coming." Slowly and gently she pushed the covers off of her body, shivering slightly at the chill that hit the soles of her feet once they found the carpet. Another knock sounded out and, now slightly annoyed, she unlocked her door and pulled it open, finding her roommate - and best friend - standing there, already fully dressed and with a slightly confused look on her face.
"Oy, Mio, it's already twelve o'clock. What in the world are you still sleeping for?" On instinct, Mio looked over at her alarm clock; the red, silent '12:02' stared back at her. Goodness, she had slept half the day away, though she was still too tired to have an appropriate reaction to it.
"Ritsu, I was still sleeping..." She covered her mouth as a yawn caused her entire body to shake, then used her free hand to try and wipe the sleep from her eyes.
"You wake me up much earlier than this, so fair's fair." Mio sighed softly, but she did have a point. "Anyway, let's eat! I'm starving!"
"Alright, alright. Let me get dressed first."
Another shiver coursed through Mio's body, and the raven-haired girl crossed her arms across her chest in a vain attempt to keep warm. Fall had hit them pretty hard, and it was a lot colder than usual; despite her heavy jacket, she still felt cold. Ritsu seemed just fine though; she didn't even bother wearing a jacket. How is she not cold? "Mio." The calling of her name broke her from her thoughts, and she focused on her friend walking besides her.
"What is it, Ritsu?"
"You know how you're always telling me to apply myself and improve my studies and stuff?"
"Yeah." She gave a Ritsu a slightly confused look, a gentle tilt of the head adding onto it.
"Well, don't you think you should be improving too?" Mio stopped in her tracks, shocked by what Ritsu had said. It wasn't wrong, exactly, but to hear it from the master of laziness herself caught her off guard. It wasn't her being egotistical either, but what exactly she needed to 'improve' on didn't immediately come to mind. She was doing fine in her classes, after all. Ritsu soon realized that Mio had stopped moving and followed suit, turning around to face her.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She gave Ritsu an indignant look, who shot her arms up in mock surrender.
"Seriously Mio, we're university students already and you're still such a fraidy cat. Don't you think that schtick is getting old?"
"Eh?!" Well, it was hard to deny that. After all, she had been rather... easily startled since she was a child, and while it wasn't that bad anymore, it wasn't exactly great. Still, it wasn't like she could just stop being a 'fraidy cat', though maybe she hadn't tried hard enough... "Y-you're thinking too much about it, Ritsu. Come on, you said you were hungry." Her feet finally began to move again, and she purposefully strode forward, ignoring the exaggerated sigh her friend gave her. Was it really that bad?
"I'm serious though, Mio."
"Since when have you ever been serious?" The two girls were sitting in the university's cafeteria, and for once Ritsu hadn't scarfed down her food immediately. Instead she was giving Mio a strangely serious look, though that hint of playfulness could never truly leave her eyes.
"Right now! You know, it is October. It's the perfect month to cure you of your 've always helped me before; now let me help you." It was really strange to hear Ritsu talk like this, and it made her give more consideration to it than she would have otherwise. The thing was, she didn't want to face her fears in the first place. It would just cause those fears to rise up in full force, not eliminate them. Couldn't anyone leave that part of her alone rather than exploit it for their own amusement?
"I don't know... What exactly is going to cure me of my fears?"
"Heh heh, I thought you'd never ask." A flash of energy seemed to go through Ritsu's eyes, and she suddenly slapped the desk with her hand and said, a bit too loud for Mio's liking, "I call it: The Twelve Trials of Mio!" A few eyes glanced over at them, causing the dark-haired girl to attempt to shrink into her chair, eyes wide with embarrassment as she gestured at her friend.
"Not so loud! People are staring!"
"Should we work on your shyness next, Mio-chan?"
"... N-no. Shut up, Ritsu..."
"Alright!" A big grin was plastered on Ritsu's face. "Your first trial will start tomorrow, so try not to sleep too late this time." She then returned to eating her lunch, leaving Mio to sit there with a bemused expression on her face. She was getting lectured by Ritsu now, of all people. How embarrassing.
She was having trouble sleeping. It wasn't a wide-awake tossing and turning restlessness, but instead she was questioning things, and her brain refused to let her sleep. Up until now, her being easily scared was just a normal event in her life, and it wasn't something she had spent a lot of time questioning. They had never had an intervention over Yui's spastic nature, or Miss Sawako's rather perverted intentions, so why was it that she now needed one? Somewhere in her mind she could see that, logically, it wasn't good to be so startled over things that most people wouldn't be, and she clearly was aware of it, but... She shook her head slightly, unable to bring herself around to a good conclusion, and so she just laid there and stared at the ceiling, just as confused as she had been earlier. A gentle creaking sound broke the silent tension permeating the room.
Mio shot up in bed like a rocket, eyes wide and darting all over her room to determine where the sound had come from, but nothing stood out. It must've just been her imagination. As she slowly laid her head back down, the same sound reached her ears again. Without really thinking about it, she grasped the bed covers tightly, her breathing coming a bit faster than before. Once again, slower this time, she raised her head and looked around. There was nothing that stood out in the darkness, but she then noticed that her closet door was ajar. Her breath caught in her throat; 'I know I closed that door!' Then why was it open? A cold sweat broke out on her neck, but she forced herself to breathe again and lay her head back down on the pillow. Her talk with Ritsu had just gotten her a bit wound up, and she was hearing things; apparently seeing things too. It was tough to close her eyes, but she needed to at least try and sleep, so finally she shut her eyes and tried to calm herself. That concentration on being calm was soon enough broken by the fact that her face was feeling strangely warmer than it should be. Feeling slightly annoyed, she opened her eyes again on instinct, and looked straight up into the face of another person, their features masked in shadow.
The scream Mio unleashed was loud enough to wake the entire building, and she immediately jumped up in a desperate attempt to break from her bed covers and escape. Instead, she smashed her forehead against her after hours visitor, and she let out a low moan of pain, seeing stars circling her vision as she stumbled and eventually fell off the bed right onto her back. The suddenness of it temporarily knocked the breath out of her, and when she was finally able to force herself to start moving, a very familiar voice came from her unfamiliar attacker. "Owwww, Mio. That hurt, geeze."
"R-Ritsu?!" Now on her knees, Mio looked over at the shadowy figure who, now that she got a better look at them, became more and more familiar. Fear was still pounding inside of her, causing her heart to race as if she had ran a marathon, but anger began building steadily in her head, and when she shouted this time it was not because she was scared. "What the hell was that for, Ritsu?! You scared me half to death!"
"Tsk tsk, Mio-chan. You already failed your first trial."
"T-trial? What are you talking about?" With the adrenaline slowly but surely subsiding, she could now more clearly feel a headache courtesy of her bumping into her 'attacker'. She was definitely not in the mood for games.
"I told you that I'd start training you to conquer your fears tomorrow, and since it's after midnight, your training's already begun!" Mio did not feel like dealing with Ritsu's training. A sudden urge to wipe that goofy grin off her best friend's face rose up inside of her, but she quickly quashed it, for fear she'd do something that she'd regret.
"A-are you crazy?! You can't just pretend to be a burglar! What if I had called the cops on you?!"
"Oh come on, Mio. You know I would've tied you up before you even thought to get your phone."
"Get out of here, Ritsu! Now!" A fresh wave of anger washed over the raven-haired girl, and apparently Ritsu knew better than to push her luck any further, for she jumped up and retreated with a repressed giggle. Mio slammed the door behind her and locked it, her hands shaking as she went back to bed. She was able to lay down again, but despite knowing that it had only been a childish prank, she couldn't stop her heart from beating faster than desired, and she couldn't stop her eyes from looking around the room at every sound real or imagined. Sleep didn't bring her any comfort.