The lights promptly shut off just a few minutes after the train finally pulled into its last stop.

Hiyori sighed harshly, and she couldn't see the ceiling when she rolled her eyes. "That late already, huh…?" Without the fluorescent lights, what little warmth was there in the train station quickly disappeared. Her cell phone had been almost at full charge when the train stopped, but now the screen was blank and unresponsive.

No one was watching – no one could have been watching – so she allowed herself one small pout. Hiyori hated being late for things, and arriving close to midnight was beyond ridiculous, even though there was no set time she had to arrive at the dorms.

Hiyori dragged her feet to the nearest bench and unceremoniously plopped down onto it. A single coffin sat next to her, and she nodded sympathetically to it. "Aren't you lucky?" she asked. "You don't have to wait here for a whole hour." She looked downward at her feet and tapped her toes together. "Come to think of it, I don't have to stay here either…" As if on cue, a horrified scream echoed in the distance, and Hiyori winced. "Mm… no, I should just stay here until it passes…"

Footsteps echoed through the previously silent train station, and Hiyori froze. She clutched the strap of her duffel bag tightly with both arms, though she had nowhere near enough strength to swing it at anyone to defend herself, let alone lift it anywhere above her shoulders. Seemingly out of nowhere, a boy stepped out of the darkness, walking toward her in slow, measured steps. Common sense dictated that she put as much distance between herself and the stranger as possible, and yet she remained rooted on the spot, somehow calm and at ease in his presence.

He lifted his hand and laid it gently on her head. "It's nice to finally meet you," he said in a smooth, soothing voice. "Hiyori, is it? Hiyori Mikage."

Somehow, the fact that he knew her name without her even having to introduce herself didn't alarm her as much as it probably should have. His hand left the top of her head, trailing downward through her dark brown hair. There wasn't enough space between her and the coffin next to her for him to sit down, but Hiyori liked to think that the boy wanted to stand regardless. "You're taking this surprisingly well."

She shrugged. "I'm used to it."

"So you're just going to wait here, then?" the boy asked. "Don't you have to go to the dorm?"

"It's not like it'll make any difference. Besides – I'd rather not walk by myself in that."

The boy's smile widened, though how much he was really enjoying the situation was hard to tell. "Then what if I walked you there?"

"If it isn't too much trouble?" Hiyori answered, standing up. "I'm sure you have better places to be, though."

"Not really," the boy said with a shrug.

The walk from the train station was a slow and comfortable one, with only screams in the distance filling the silence. All the while, the boy simply walked next to her, his hands stuffed in his pockets and his MP3 player flopping helplessly along the way. "Um…" Hiyori said quietly. "Who are you?"

The boy stopped between two coffins on the sidewalk. "I'm sorry," he said without looking at her. "There really isn't a simple answer to that."

"Then can you at least tell me your name?"

The boy looked up to the eerily large green moon. "There really isn't a simple answer to that either. What do you want to call me?"

Hiyori shrugged. "I don't know… What do you want to be called?"

The quiet laugh that escaped him sounded more like tiny gasps, and he continued to walk forward. "You're the one hundred and sixty-second person to ask me that," he said. "Well… I suppose Minato is the easiest to answer to. Let's go with that."

They reached the dorm then – a large, austere building. "Thanks, Minato-san," she said.

"It was my pleasure," he replied, taking a couple steps back. "Listen, Hiyori… I need your help with something."

"What is it?"

He ducked his head, his eyebrows furrowing. "Nothing… too far out of the way from what you'd normally have to do."

Hiyori frowned. "You're not making much sense…"

"I'm sorry, but… I'm desperate. If I tell you everything now, then I might have to start all over, and…"

Her stomach twisted into knots – not because there was something not right about the situation, but because it seemed more serious than Minato let on. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay," she said. "I'll help you. What do I have to do?"

His smile faded. "I won't hold you to this, you know," he said, a hard edge to his voice. "You can back out whenever you want. It's your decision."

"I don't have much a reason to back out now, do I?"

He still appeared uneasy, but eventually, he sighed. "Very well. I'll be in touch." As he started fading into the darkness, he reached one hand out toward her, his fingers weaving through the ends of the longest strands of her hair. "I leave my fate in your capable hands, Hiyori." And with that, he was gone.

Hiyori exhaled slowly and stared up at the dorm that loomed before her. Iwatodai dorm looked exactly as it did in her admission pamphlet, but the glow of the moon made it appear almost eerie. She nearly jumped from how cold the doorknob was, but she soon regained her bearings and entered the dorm.

No lights were on inside, and there were no coffins in the lounge – and why would there be? Everyone was probably in their rooms, asleep as they should be. Hiyori dropped her duffel bag as she crouched down to remove her shoes.

"Who's there?"

The voice that called out sounded more afraid than threatening. A girl with short brown hair came bounding down the stairs, a gun grasped tightly in her hands. "Wh-What?" she gasped. "Are you…?"

Then light and warmth flooded the dormitory as the heavy, oppressive feeling from before evaporated instantly. "Um…" Hiyori said slowly. The girl moved to hide the gun behind her, but the gesture was pointless now. "I'm Hiyori. I was supposed to move in here tonight? But—"

"Ah, you're finally here." A woman glided down the stairs, her red curls bouncing behind her. "I didn't think you'd arrive so late." She gestured toward the couches with a graceful wave of her arm. "Come, sit. Takeba, will you…?"

"Y-Yeah!" the brown-haired girl yelped as she picked up Hiyori's duffel bag. "Right away!"

Hiyori slowly made her way to the couch and sat down across from the red-haired woman. "Are you Kirijo-san?" she asked.

"Yes, I am," the woman answered. "You may call me Mitsuru if it makes you comfortable, as I'm a student as well. I believe you were supposed to contact me when you reached so that someone could escort you here?"

"R-Right! Sorry about that… It was really late, and I didn't want to cause any trouble, so I just… came by myself." It wasn't the complete truth, but it was hard to explain nameless phantom boys appearing and disappearing at random.

"You walked here by yourself?" the brown-haired girl asked. The more Hiyori looked at her, the more difficult it was to shake off how familiar this girl seemed. "In that?" When Hiyori averted her eyes downward, the girl immediately backtracked. "Oh, sorry, I meant—"

"Takeba," Mitsuru said sharply. "Why don't you show her to her room? She's probably fatigued from her journey here."

As the girl stood up, pressing her hand against the armrest of the sofa for support, Hiyori frowned. She'd seen that girl somewhere before, and the name fit her almost too well. "Yeah, sure." She slung Hiyori's duffel bag and pointed her thumb toward the stairs, her eyes never quite leaving Hiyori's. "This way."

Hiyori's room was on the third floor, and the prospect of climbing two flights of stairs to get there made her want to groan. Not even halfway through the second flight of stairs, she struggled to breathe evenly, to look less tired and winded than she felt. Takeba, on the other hand, looked like she could take the steps by two without even breaking into a sweat. "Hey, um…" Takeba said slowly once they neared the top. "This is… kind of a weird question, but did you live here before? I mean, on Port Island."

They stopped by a door at the end of the hall, and Hiyori leaned tiredly against the wall. "Yeah, I did," she answered. "I moved away when I was still in grade school, though."

Takeba's eyes widened in shock, and then she gave a relieved smile. "So I was right!" She chuckled. "You stopped coming to the shrine so suddenly, I didn't think I'd ever see you again."

The image of a girl with brown hair pulled back by a pink ribbon flashed through Hiyori's mind. "Wait, you're… Yukari?"

Yukari laughed again. "Yup! Looks like we'll finally be attending the same school again. Let's go together in the morning, okay?"

Hiyori nodded, and she didn't have to put effort into her smile.


The previous year, Hiyori's first day of high school had begun on a rainy day. Uncle had left for work early in the morning – or maybe he'd been working overseas at the time – so breakfast with Auntie and her cousin Yuuta had been a relatively quiet affair. Auntie had accidentally ordered her school uniform a size too big, and it was by sheer force of will that Hiyori's pink sweater kept it in place.

"Your mock exam scores lowered again," Auntie had scolded Yuuta.

"I know, I know," the third year had grumbled in response. "I'm just in a slump. I'm working on it."

"You do realize that entrance exams are—"

"Almost a whole year from now! I'm fine!"

Hiyori quietly set down her chopsticks. "Thanks for the food," she said quietly. The table had been one of those small, traditional types where everyone sat around it on the floor, and Hiyori's legs bumped against it as she stood up. Her portion of eggs had been significantly smaller than Auntie's and especially Yuuta's – she told herself that it was just a mistake on Auntie's part and not at all intentional – but the usual first-day-at-new-school nervousness had made it nearly impossible to eat even that much.

Outside, Yuuta had insisted on walking several paces in front of her, taking the only umbrella for himself and leaving Hiyori to walk in the rain. She'd caught an awful cold because of it, and she'd slept so long in the school infirmary that she arrived at Auntie's house well into Yuuta's cram school.

This year, however, was different. Hiyori had strolled into her new high school with her head held high, walking side by side with Yukari under a bright sun and canopy of cherry blossoms. It was like something straight out of an anime, and Gekkoukan High School was, without a doubt, infinitely more beautiful in person than it looked in the pamphlets. At the end of a blissfully smooth first day at a new school, Hiyori hugged her school bag close to her and smiled contentedly.

"Hey transfer student!"

Hiyori jumped in surprise. The face of one her classmates – a tall, lanky boy wearing a baseball cap – was suddenly very, very close to hers.

The boy jumped back and gave her a wide grin. "Sorry. Didn't mean to spook you like that." He pointed to himself with his thumb. "Hiyori, right? I'm Junpei Iori. Nice to meet ya!"

"Leave her alone, Junpei," Yukari said in a deadpan from the seat in front of her. Hiyori exhaled slowly, thankful that she had at least one person she knew in her class. "Isn't it a little early in the term to be hitting on people?"

"Hey, I'm just bein' friendly here!" Junpei cried indignantly.

Yukari rolled her eyes. "Sure you were." She stood up from her desk and slung her school bag over her shoulder. "Sorry, but I have to stay back for some archery club stuff. Think you can get back to the dorm okay?"

Junpei suddenly slung his arm around Hiyori's shoulder. "Worry not, Takeba-san! I'll walk Hiyo-chan home. Can I call you that, by the way?"

Hiyori leaned away from Junpei, hoping that she wasn't offending him. "I guess?"

"All right then!" He tugged on her arm and pulled her out of the classroom. "Let's go!"


Isako Toriumi stared down at the new student's file, her brows knotting together.

Hiyori Mikage. Date of birth: March 5. Age: sixteen. Grade: eleven. Parents: Kazuya and Yuka Mikage, deceased as of 1999. Admitted to Gekkoukan High School under an academic scholarship sponsored by the Kirijo Group. Ranked at the top of her class in her previous high school in Shizuoka. Stellar transcripts from middle schools in Nara and Fukuoka. Nothing of great importance behavior-wise, except for a vaguely formidable vibe that clashed with her overly polite manner of speech.

Well that can't be helped, the composition teacher surmised. With how much this girl has been through, it's no wonder she keeps everyone at a distance.

And then, something in her mind pulsed.

Suddenly, the photograph clipped to the top of the file no longer looked so much like the new student. Instead, there was a boy, a boy with dark blue, almost black hair – no, it was a girl, a girl with orange hair – or was it brown? – no, it was—

"Slacking off again, are we Ms. Toriumi?"

Later, Isako Toriumi would not be able to remember what she'd angrily snapped back to Mr. Ekoda – but when she looked back down at the student file, all she could see was Hiyori Mikage staring back up at her.


"I'm home," Hiyori called out of habit when she entered the dorm building. She mentally chided herself for expecting an answer – it was a good thing that no one would be there to answer her, she reminded herself.

Still, she wasn't alone in the dorm building. An older man sat at a couch in the lounge, sipping tea from a small cup. He looked up at Hiyori, and the smile that spread across his features seemed to be directed somewhere beyond her. "Welcome back," he said.

"Ah…" Hiyori bowed quickly. "Hello. I'm Hiyori Mikage. I just transferred here."

The man finally seemed to focus on her, and the tension in his shoulders disappeared. "I'm aware," he said. "I've been meaning to speak with you, actually. My name is Shuji Ikutsuki, and I'm the chairman at Gekkoukan High."

"It's nice to meet you," Hiyori said, bowing again.

Ikutsuki chuckled. "Well, aren't you polite? I'm so sorry, but it seems that there's been a bit of a mix up with the paperwork regarding your transfer. You'll only be staying here for a bit longer, I'm afraid. Sorry for the confusion."

"Ah…" Hiyori said slowly. Yukari was still in her class, she reminded herself, even if they wouldn't be living in the same dorm anymore. "It's… no problem. Thank you for coming all this way to tell me."

The door swung open behind her. The student behind her was tall, so tall that her height only came up to just below his chest. He wore Gekkoukan's uniform's jacket, unbuttoned to reveal a black turtleneck in place of the uniform's white shirt, and a grey hat that covered his head so that it nearly covered his eyes. "S-Sorry…" Hiyori whispered, quickly stepping away from him.

The boy continued to stare at her, even as she removed her shoes and stepped into the lounge, frowning not quite directly at her. "Ah, Shinjiro," the chairmen greeted him. "Have you met the new transfer student? Hiyori, this is Shinjiro. He's a third year living in this dorm, like Mitsuru."

"It's nice to meet you," Hiyori said politely, bowing to the upperclassman.

"Tch," Shinjiro said in response, averting his eyes to the side and shuffling past her and up the stairs.

Ikutsuki sighed. "You'll have to excuse him," he said. "He's… not quite that friendly. I'm sure that was just his way of saying hello!"

It wasn't, Hiyori didn't have the heart to tell the chairman.

"Now, why don't you get some rest?" Ikutsuki suggested. "You must be exhausted from all this excitement."

"I think I'll do that," Hiyori agreed. "It was nice meeting you, Ikutsuki-san." She bowed to him one last time before heading up to her room.

Climbing the two flights of stairs to the third floor left her more out of breath than it had the previous night. Common sense dictated that she eat something before sleeping, but her body felt heavy and her eyelids threatened to shut with the exhaustion that had pushed itself to the front of her mind. She went straight to bed after changing into a clean set of pajamas…

… and woke up to a dark room illuminated by an eerily large green moon. Hiyori kept her eyes shut in hopes that she'd fall back asleep quickly enough, but sleep remained stubbornly out of her grasp. She sat up with an irritated huff. Perhaps she shouldn't have been quite so quick to require to bed, she surmised, but first days at new schools always exhausted her.

"It's been a while, Hiyori."

She couldn't help smiling as a familiar presence sat down on her bed. "It's been less than a week, Ryoji."

Her friend smiled at her. "That's still a long time," he said. "So are you liking it here so far? You were so excited to come."

"It's amazing," she answered honestly. "It's everything I thought it would be."

Maybe it was the late hour – or maybe it was her own exhaustion slowly clouding her senses again – but Ryoji's smile became a bit strained. "That's good," he said quietly. He pat her head gently, just like he'd always done. "Take care, okay? And don't hesitate to call on me if you need to."

"I know, I know…"

He chuckled, and Hiyori lay back down. It didn't take any effort for her to keep her eyes closed now. "Remember," she heard Ryoji say, "I'll always be here."


Shinjiro Aragaki sat in the fourth floor of the dormitory with his hands stuffed in his pockets, counting the seconds until the Dark Hour was supposed to end. "Don't we have more important things to worry about?" he grumbled. "Apathy Syndrome isn't gonna cure itself." No one responded, too focused on the sleeping girl on the screen. "You know, this probably counts as harassment."

Akihiko swiveled his chair around to glare at him. "Not all of us got to meet her," he retorted. "What was her name? Hikari… Himari…"

"Hiyori," Shinjiro corrected. "What good is staring at her gonna do anyway? She hasn't twitched in over an hour."

"I agree with Senpai…" Yukari said slowly. "This is weird."

"But she hasn't Transmogrified," Mitsuru pointed out. "If she's retained her human form, then she is currently experiencing the Dark Hour, whether she's conscious or not."

"She must have the potential," the chairman mused. "If she didn't, then we'd have a bigger problem on our hands."

Akihiko grimaced as he flipped through the girl's file for the fifth time since the Dark Hour had started. "Even if she does have the potential, she may not even be able to properly fight for us." Shinjiro tuned out the rest of Akihiko's complaints – he'd heard more than enough about frequent illnesses and inconvenient iron deficiencies for one day.

With a harsh sigh, Shinjiro slammed his hand down on one of the buttons on the keyboard, and the screens went blank. He ignored the cries of outrage that immediately ensued, content that the girl would have at least another half hour of peaceful, undisturbed sleep, free from the scrutiny of her dorm mates.


Friday night, when everything was dark and the moon was eerily large and green, a loud crash echoed through the dormitory and jolted Hiyori awake. Ryoji flickered in front of her as she slowly climbed out of bed, his body so translucent that she could almost see through him. "Hiyori?" he said. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," she answered. "I thought I just heard something, but…" There was another crash, and she jumped. "What was that?"

Paradoxically, Ryoji smiled wistfully. "Oh… it's that time again…"

"What do you mean?" Hiyori asked. "What time? Ryoji, what are you talking about?"

"There's no time to explain," he whispered.

There were three loud knocks at her door. "Wake up!" Yukari shouted from the other side, her voice high-pitched and panicked. Ryoji flickered out of existence when Yukari thrust open the door and ran into the room. "Come on, we have to go! Now!"

"Wh-What?" Hiyori stammered.

Yukari grabbed Hiyori's wrist and dragged her out of the room. They ran down the hallway, to the stairs. "Takeba!" Mitsuru's voice yelled as if from somewhere close by, even though the third year was nowhere to be seen. "There's more than one enemy! The one here isn't the one that Akihiko saw!"

"Enemy?" Hiyori echoed faintly. "What—"

"Look out!" Yukari cried. The taller girl slammed into Hiyori, pushing her to the ground just before the window next to them shattered. Something large and black loomed outside, and a blue mask-like face stared blankly at them. "Are you okay?" Yukari asked. All Hiyori could do was stare at the now profusely bleeding cut on her friend's leg.

But before she could utter a single word, Yukari began pulling her up the stairs, up past the fourth floor and onto the roof. "We should be safe up here," Yukari panted. She thrust the door to the rooftop open, and the biting cold air hit Hiyori like it was a punch in the stomach.

Hiyori put her hands on her knees in order to catch her breath. "What's… happening…?"

And then, a large hand grasped the edge of the roof. The monster that pulled itself onto the rooftop was massive, its familiar blue mask face as blank as ever. The rest of its body seemed to be made of several long appendages, some carrying knives or swords of some sort.

"Get back!" Yukari said as she stepped protectively in front of Hiyori. From the holster on her leg, she pulled out what looked suspiciously like a gun and pressed it to her temples.

"No!" Hiyori shouted. "Don't—"

One of the monster's tendrils that wasn't holding a sharp object slammed into Yukari, knocking her to the side. The gun fell to the ground where she once was. "Hiyori!" she yelled. "Run! Go back into the dorm, and go find Mitsuru-senpai or Shinjiro-senpai! They can…"

Hiyori didn't hear another word. Time seemed to slow down as she picked up Yukari's discarded gun. Its metal surface felt slightly warm from how tightly Yukari had been gripping it earlier, and it felt light – almost like it was a toy, rather than an actual weapon.

Yukari continued to scream in the background. Hiyori pointed the gun at the monster with shaking hands, but nothing happened when she pulled the trigger. The monster raised one of its swords

Hiyori shut her eyes and waited for the blow to come. In her mind, in a vast expanse of white, she saw Minato, nodding, his expression serious.

With both hands, Hiyori pushed the gun to her forehead like Yukari had done before. Her heart hammered in her chest, and she didn't think. There was no logical explanation for what she was about to do, and yet it felt right.

Per…so…na…

Hiyori pulled the trigger, and suddenly, something sparked in her mind. There was no pain, but she felt lighter, like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Thou art I, said a man's voice in her mind, a whisper that only she could hear, and I am thou. I am Aeacus, keeper of the keys to the underworld. From the sea of thy soul, I come to thee.

Aeacus rose higher, higher above her like he was some sort of guardian angel. He raised his scepter, his black robes fluttering in the wind, and brought it down on the monster. Seemingly nonsensical words floated to Hiyori's mind, but they fit as well as pulling the gun's trigger on her own head did. "Bufu…?"

Aeacus's robes fluttered as what looked like ice burst around the monster. The ice spread as Aeacus continued his assault, but the monster barely flinched from the assault. Yukari screamed again for her to run. No… I have to…

And then, there was another spark in her mind. The gun fell from Hiyori's hands as waves of burning, searing pain pulsated through her head. It felt like her head was splitting open, and she sank to her knees as she screamed. A dark figure before her ripped the monster to shreds, slashing at it with a sword until there was nothing but droplets of black liquid left. Aeacus was nowhere to be found.

In an instant, it was over. Aeacus returned in a brief flicker of light, replacing the dark figure that had vanquished the monster. "Hiyori!" Yukari yelled again, oddly muffled to Hiyori's ears. Hiyori tipped sideways, and darkness overtook her too quickly for her to fight it.


Shuji Ikutsuki drummed his fingers against his knee. Specks of dust had settled on his glasses, obscuring his view of a familiar scene. Mitsuru was now trying to force Akihiko to stay on the fourth floor while she went up to the roof to offer her assistance. In the live feed of the rooftop, Yukari pressed a handkerchief against the gash on her thigh and Shinjiro attended to the unconscious Hiyori.

The chairman focused his attention on the full moon in the background. And so, it begins.