I felt like the amount of HonoMaki was depleting lately and thus came up with this kinda weird but not really story idea.

Originally, I was going to make this an original story, but no matter how I worked at the characters, they just wouldn't fit. Fastest fix? Put Honoka and Maki in the place of the characters and it all fell into place.

Some things may seem OOC. Please bear with me for now; their characters will return to what they're supposed to be in later chapters.

Also I made Eri Honoka's older sister.

And Honoka, Umi, and Kotori are third years. (Eri's in college!)

On top of that, Maki transfers into their class.

It's an AU, but I mixed up their roles and ages.

I don't own Love Live.

A long, long time ago, before the feudal system even found its beginning in Japanese culture, there lived two maidens. They were always together, and through childhood friendship and innocence, promised each other that the day would come when they could be joined just as their parents were. It was inevitable, then, that they would fall in love with one another. But, as their village would not permit their romance to blossom, it was doomed to wither had a goddess not taken pity on them. She offered the two maidens a wish that she would grant for them. One maiden wished for an eternity with which she could spend with her love. The other maiden wished for rebirth in a time when their love would be allowed.

"And then the goddess smited both of them with one fell swoop!" Honoka cheered, interrupting the tale her older sister was telling.

"I didn't get there yet, Honoka. Didn't I keep telling you not to interrupt the story?"

"Well, sorry, but I've heard it so many times that it's boring!" She failed to understand why her older sister went along with the puppet show her friend always did at their shop. Sure, it entertained the children that came, but what good came out of telling a tale that was so old? Besides, it wasn't like such relationships were outlawed anymore. Her older sister sighed.

"Isn't it time for you to go to school? You were so excited yesterday about the transfer student arriving."

"Oh, right! Thanks for reminding me, Eri-nee! See ya later!" And she was off, sprinting down the sidewalk to the school that stood high atop a hill, Otonokizaka Academy.

It wasn't often that a transfer student transferred in a couple months into the school year, let alone during the third year of high school. Ever since her friend's mom let her know about it, the subject became the talk of the school. Everyone from first to third year had made speculations about the personality and looks of the transfer student, though the excitement had died down in the lower grades. "Kotori-chan!"

"Good morning, Honoka-chan!" Honoka looked around her classroom, wondering if an extra desk had appeared overnight. "Um...what's wrong?"

"Your mom says she's transferring her into our class, right? Do you see an extra desk!?" Kotori looked around, then shrugged.

"You can't even tell if a notebook is missing from your bag. How do you expect to notice an extra desk?" Umi asked, joining her two friends at Kotori's desk.

"Good morning to you too, Umi-chan. And a book and a desk are totally different things! For one, a desk is larger and two, I don't carry a desk between my home and school!" The mental image of Honoka struggling to lift one of the desks down the staircase in front of the school was enough to make Umi stifle a laugh. "Stop thinking about it!"

"Okay, okay." Umi managed to calm herself down, though she was pretty sure the image would come up again later. "But there is one extra desk. I counted them."

"Really? Awesome! I can't wait until our transfer student comes in!" Honoka looked to the front of the classroom; their teacher had just come in. "Oh, but I guess I have to wait." She made her way to the back of the classroom, where her seat was. Right by the window so she could look outside when she got bored. As the rest of her classmates settled down, she realized she had taken the wrong seat. Her seat would be the one in front of her, but she was sure no one would notice. She rather liked being at the very back of the class, and left the seat in front of her empty.

The door slid open, and the headmistress-though Honoka preferred to call her Kotori's mom-walked in. Their homeroom teacher stepped aside to make room for her. "Ahem, I'm sure you all know by now," Honoka wasn't sure if Kotori's mom was giving her a look. "-we have a new student joining us today. Come in, Nishikino-san." There was a pause, and then the transfer student stepped in.

She was beautiful. Absolutely breath-taking, at least to Honoka's eyes. Her long red hair-stretching all the way down to her hips-complemented the color of her eyes with unearthly perfection. Just gazing at her made her heart pound and her mind blank, as if she had gone into autopilot mode, like she normally did when her parents made her do chores.

"Yes, Kousaka-san?" The words brought her back to her senses. When had she gotten out of her seat? She didn't know that, let alone how she ended up directly in front of the transfer student. And then the headmistress and her homeroom teacher was in front of her face, ending the spell that had brought her up.

"I-um...how do I-" Honoka backed away, laughing nervously. She turned tail and fled back to her seat amidst stares from her classmates. Once there, she buried her face in her hands, feeling the heat already start to rise up. She hadn't gotten this embarrassed by something in a long time.

"...Please introduce yourself." She peered through her fingers; the transfer student hadn't even been fazed by her sudden and, quite random, approach. Honoka still didn't know what made her go up. Her heart still pounded when she looked at the new student, but she didn't get the same mental silence as she had earlier.

"Nishikino Maki. Pleased to meet you." Her voice. Even her voice was hypnotizing her; she could feel her mind going blank and slapped herself as hard as she could. The pain made her focus, although she was getting more stares again. The two adults were staring at her again, and her cheek throbbed with the force she had put behind it.

"Would you like to see the nurse, Kousaka-san?" Honoka shook her head. She'd already made more of a fool of herself than normal, and going to the nurse seemed like an option only a coward would make. She'd own up to her actions, even if she still didn't understand them herself. "Then, Nishikino-san. Please take the empty seat in front of Kousaka-san. I would ask her to raise her hand, but I trust that you know who she is?" Maki nodded and made her way past the desks. Honoka held her throbbing cheek, reminding herself of the pain so she wouldn't lose to whatever was making her mind go blank. It did nothing to stop the pounding in her chest, that grew louder the closer that Maki came. The transfer student took the seat in front of her, and her heartbeat quieted. Honoka released the breath she didn't even know she had been holding.

"Okay, Honoka, what the heck happened? I was sure even you wouldn't do something like that." Umi questioned her, but the only thing Honoka could think about was why she was doing it right in earshot of the transfer student. Maki stood up and left the classroom.

"Look, I don't know if you'd believe me, but you've got to. I don't know what happened. I just saw her, and my body moved like it was on auto mode." Honoka described the way her heart pounded and how she could feel her mind slipping when she looked Maki in the eye. "Maybe there is something wrong with me. I should've gone to the nurse."

"No, that was your normal amount of stupid." Honoka glared at Umi; her friend shrugged in response. "I'm not saying you normally do that, but it's within range of stupid things you normally do."

"I don't think that's helping, Umi-chan…" Kotori fretted; her mother was definitely going to give Honoka a lecture the next time her friend came over regarding her reaction to the transfer student. She didn't think Honoka was lying, but there was no way she would be able to convey that to her mother.

"I already know I'm an idiot. I wanted to at least seem cool to someone-that's why I was so excited for the transfer student to come! But I bet she thinks I'm a weirdo now too…" Honoka sighed and got up from her seat.

"Where are you going? Break's almost over." Umi called after her.

"To the nurse's office. Someone take notes for me." She walked out of the classroom and slid the door shut behind her.

The infirmary was empty when she got there, but Honoka didn't feel like going back to her class. She let herself in and took one of the beds, planning to take a nap. She would probably feel better afterwards, if she just slept it off.

"What have you done?!" Honoka was confused for a bit. Then she came to the realization that she was dreaming and decided to watch the scene unfolding in front of her. A young woman in a rather drab kimono knelt, clutching at scraps of cloth. A cloth covered her head and face but she looked like she was crying.

"I have granted your partner's wish along with your own." The other speaker was a woman with a sort-of glow to her. She shone brightly enough that Honoka's eyes hurt a bit when she looked directly at her. Honoka decided to focus on the young woman in the drab kimono for the sake of her eyesight.

"You didn't tell us that to do so would mean death! If I had known, I would have never agreed to this!" Honoka pieced together their conversation along with the scraps of kimono that the young woman was holding to mean that someone had died in the making of the 'wish'. It was starting to sound awfully familiar to her.

"Not death. Rebirth. Your partner has been released from the destined path of all humans: to face the judge at the end of their life. She will be reborn soon, but unless you manage to find her, she will die at this age, only to be reborn once again as a babe."

"How? How can I find her? I am human, and I cannot leave my village to search the world for her."

"You are not human, my child. The wish that was granted gave you the ability to transcend humanity. You will know pain, hunger, and thirst, but you will never know death. Your love is entering the world once more now. Go, find her." The young woman looked up at the goddess, then turned and fled the area, the head cloth flying away. Honoka gasped loudly, for her hair was…

"Wake up, Honoka-chan!" She was startled so badly that she fell off the other side of the bed, hitting her head against the table as she fell. Groaning, Honoka pulled herself back up.

"It's lunch time, so we bought bread from the school store and came to see you. Did you really just come here to take a nap?" Umi placed the plastic bag on the infirmary bed between herself and Honoka. The ginger took it, looking through the bag and organizing the bread based on how much she liked it. And then she had to quickly shuffle the bread back into the bag when the nurse's assistant made them leave.

"I didn't but there was no one there so I decided to use a bed." Honoka explained, taking a huge bite of the melon bun. The trio had moved to the courtyard, where they sat in a circle on the grass.

"Did you have a nightmare?" Kotori asked innocently.

"Why?"

"You looked like you were having troubled thoughts, so Kotori woke you up as quickly as she could." Umi informed her.

"That explains the screaming." Honoka was reminded of the rude awakening she received.

"What did you dream about? Monsters under the bed?" Kotori pressed on with her questions.

"No, nothing as silly as that. Let's see…" Honoka tried to remember, but like before-when she saw Maki for the first time-her mind drew a blank. It felt like there was just a blank region where the memory of that dream should have been. "Huh...that's weird. I can't remember. Even though I can remember all my other dreams…"

"Now if you could only remember what books to take home for homework." Honoka scowled at Umi. She could feel that there was something important within that dream that she couldn't recall, an important detail that had something to do with-

"Hair!" Both of her friends looked at her.

"What?"

"Hair. Her hair was red...Ahh...it's no use. I can't remember it!" Honoka stuffed the rest of her bread into her mouth and chewed it, irritated with herself.

"You mean the transfer student? Her hair's red." Umi questioned.

"No, not her! I mean, it might be her, but I'm not sure! The one time I need my dream to be remembered and it's gone!" The bell chimed, signalling the end of lunch. Honoka crumpled up the empty wrappers and put the ball into the trash can.

"Oi, Honoka, where are you going?"

"Back to the nurse's office to sleep! I bet I can remember my dream if it wasn't interrupted!"

Honoka scowled at the back of the transfer student's head. Umi had not let her go back to the infirmary, insisting instead that she return to class and take notes on her own. All she could get from her memory was 'red hair' and that wasn't an uncommon trait. Maki's hair was red, and it was long. Probably would be smooth and nice to touch, though Honoka wouldn't dare do something like that so soon. If they became friends first, then she would be able to do things like style her hair. But they wouldn't become friends, because Maki most definitely thought of her as weird after the way she rushed up to the front.

Her older sister and her friend were still doing the puppet show when she returned from school, though to a new group of children.

"The goddess glowed brightly, summoning a wave of power that would destroy any living being in her presence." Her sister lowered one of the puppets, replacing it with a gray one that signified that character was now dead. "Only one of the lovers survived the blast with the gift that the goddess had bestowed on them. The maiden that died was destined to be reborn, only to die once more when she reached the age of eighteen. The maiden that lived continues to live even now, for her life was made never-ending until she can find her lover in a time when their romance can blossom. The end." The children clapped dutifully as their parents led them out of the store.

"Yo, Honoka-chan! Back from school?"

"Yeah. School was boring-I took a nap in the nurse's office!" Her sister's friend gave her a high five.

"Nozomi! Don't keep telling Honoka that it's fine to do things like that!" Eri scolded, already putting away the puppets and the stage until they would be pulled out again the next day.

"Hey, I sat on the roof all the time and look where I am now!"

"Sitting on the floor of a bakery, reciting old tales for children to enjoy."

"Exactly, Eri-chi! It's not so bad, is it?" Honoka left them to bicker amongst themselves. They never had a serious fight before, and she didn't think they would any time soon. She headed to her room and dropped her school bag on the floor next to her desk. The relationship between Eri and Nozomi would be best described as close friends, though she suspected there was something more to their relationship. Not that she'd be able to confirm it-Eri moving out to college meant that there was no room for her to snoop through anymore.

"She should just live here than at the dorm." Eri spent most of her free time near the area of her home anyway, mainly because Nozomi chose not to dorm. So in a way, she still got to have her sister around because of her sister's friend. Though she still couldn't snoop through her bedroom. At any rate, Honoka didn't want to think about her day so far. It had been weird, far too weird for even her. Perhaps it would be better if she just took another nap.

No such tale exists (or maybe it does. I didn't look it up.)

Maki only got to say one line in this whole chapter even though it's supposed to be HonoMaki.

Yes, Maki has long hair. Reason for that will be in a different chapter.

Please tell me if you enjoyed this chapter or not! :D