AN: Same process as before. This story will pick up much quicker, I promise. ;D Title of this chapter simply means "The Meeting." Favorites and reviews will keep the story going! Thanks~

~Ami


The Next Day...


"Hey, Junpei! Come on, man, you gotta get up. We're having an unscheduled meeting and we can't start without you!"

The incessant knocking on his bedroom door roused Junpei Iori from his sleep. His recognized Minato's voice, muffled through the door but more than loud enough to wake him. "Seriously?" he exclaimed loudly. Contemplating returning to sleep, Junpei rolled over and soundly punched his pillow. The knocking persisted for a little while longer and finally the teen recognized sleeping in as a lost cause. "Okay, okay! But this had better be freaking important." He rose, rather peeved, and quickly dressed. Minato waited for him outside, and Junpei half-heartedly resisted the urge to deck him. There were footsteps on the stairs at the end of the hall. A slight glimpse of a tall figure in a maroon coat could been seen on the top stair, likely on his way to the meeting room. "Even Shinjiro's up?"

"Yeah. Like I said, it's pretty important. We better hurry." For the fact that he had gotten no sleep whatsoever since the previous night, Minato looked perfectly fine. His body had adjusted to a lack of sleep and it wasn't obvious like with most people, who could get dark eye circles or fatigue. Excluding the fact that the need for sleep finally caught up to him, in which case he could be as comatose as a dead man.

"What could possible be so important that you wake me up this early, huh?"

"New girl showed up during the Dark Hour last night. Scared the hell out of me, too. I might've...pointed my Evoker at her and never fully explained that it's not a gun in the literal sense."

"Ouch, bad move."

Minato glared at him through narrowed eyes. "So, be good, okay? She's probably already really freaked out as it is."

"No problem! Sensitivity is my middle name."

"Of course it is."

A young girl with shoulder-length brown hair sleepily rubbed her eyes as she trotted down the stairs to the boy's wing. Yukari Takeba glanced at the two, before chuckling lightly. "Stupei looks like a morning person. Well, hello there, Sunshine," she teased as she ruffled her messy just-out-of-bed hair. "So, we got another new girl? Hm, haven't seen her yet."

"You haven't?"

Mitsuru descended the stairs as well, giving the two males an impatient look before glancing at Yukari. "Is she not up yet, Takeba?" she asked, slightly concerned. "Did anyone wake her up?"

"Well, I didn't know she had a room yet, an-"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKK!"

The entire group jumped as they heard a young girl shrieking. Mitsuru looked shocked at this point, calling out, "Come on!" to everyone there, before bolting up the stairs.

"AHHHH! OH DEAR GOD, GET AWAY! HELP!"

The speed of Mitsuru and Yukari drastically increased as they both flew up the stairs. The Senior dashed down the hall to the end. "Arasawa-san!" Everyone entered the room in a hurry, ready to fight off whatever it was that-

Hamuko was in a helpless heap on the floor, being pinned down by none other than...Koromaru. The dog slightly snarled as it held her to the floor, his ears alert, happy to have caught this "intruder" that seemed to magically appear overnight. It glanced back at Mitsuru for a moment, putting on a quite goofy grin, before turning around and locking eyes with the girl again.

"This is not what I meant by a wake up call! Please help me; I'm afraid of dogs now..."

The girl roughly pushed the animal away only to have it tackle her again, and she finally gave up the struggle, groaning with exhaustion.

"I just...opened my door, and...it...gah..." Hamuko looked...horrible, to say the least. Her eyes looked very weary with no rest and fright, her hair was in tangles from Koromaru nearly slobbering all over it, and her pajamas were disheveled and ragged-looking, to top it all off.

"S-Should I know about anything else horrifying that happens in this dorm? I'd like to know ahead of time," she mumbled under the weight of the huge dog.

"Oh, no wait, wait, wait! I got this one! Better get a pen and some paper, 'cuz this might take a while," Junpei piped enthusiastically. He was quickly silenced upon seeing the looks on the others' faces. "Oh, alright. C'mere, Koro-chan." The dog went straight to him, his bushy tail waving happily as he received a nice ear scratch. "I was just kidding about that last part. You okay?"

"Real smooth, Junpei. Don't mind either of them. One's a dog who wants nothing but your attention, and the other's just Koro-OW!" Having been thwacked in the back of his head by his friend, Minato apologetically looked to Junpei. "Sorry, couldn't resist."

"I'll remember that one when karma hits you harder than me."

"Now that I think about it, Junpei 'Sensitive' Iori doesn't really suit you," Minato said sarcastically. "But that's beside the point. Don't mind Koromaru, Hamuko-kun. He's just probably investigating you, but I think you pass."

Hamuko dazedly sat up, gazing at the small crowd that had now seemed to gather around her room. She blinked a few times, before glancing up at the boy that had spoken to her. She chuckled lightly, gazing from Minato back to Junpei. "You seem to be on good terms with him, Minato-kun," she joked, smiling at the two before standing up and brushing off her pajamas. "Pleased to meet you. My name is Hamuko Arasawa." She glanced over at the other girl that she hadn't spoken to yet, and smiled.

Yukari returned the smile, before apologizing warmly. "Yeah, Koro-chan's a little tough to get used to. He's just really protective. He'll like you in no time, I promise. My name's Yukari Takeba, pleased to meetcha."

Mitsuru sighed, holding her head in exasperation. "Well, I'm off to go tell the others that the screaming was a false alarm. Arasawa, when you're done changing, you can come to the meeting room on the fourth floor. I expect everyone to be there shortly," she said, mostly to Junpei, before walking off down the hall.

"Why can't Mitsuru have just a little faith in...HEL-LO." For the first time he saw Hamuko fully. A grin spread across his face as he immediately descended into flirt mode. "So, Hamu-tan..."

"We'll just wait for you outside then!" Minato said quickly, recognizing Junpei's all-too familiar symptoms. Things were about to get very awkward, very fast. He snatched Junpei's collar and forcefully pulled him outside, closing Hamuko's door behind them.

"You're ruining all my fun today. Usually you're right there flirting with me. What's up, Minato?"

"Nothing, I just don't think it's right to do that at the moment. Things are pretty tense with her already, and she's going to have a lot to catch up on without us making it more difficult. Do you realize what tonight is?"

Junpei contemplated for a moment. His face become very serious as he found the answer. "It's the full moon, isn't it?"

Minato nodded. The emotional change in his friend was strange, like Junpei had become a completely different person. "See what I mean?"

"Yeah. Don't worry, I'll...try to keep it clean."

The young girl blinked quickly as she watched Minato slam the door in her face. "Well...they're sure... interesting," Hamuko mumbled to herself as she thought about the two boys. Hamuko quickly dug into her bag for some clean clothes, tossing a sweater over her head and a plaid autumn-esque skirt. She lightly sighed as the girl pulled on some black tights and loafers, and glanced around for her hair ties and barettes. Once they were found, Hamuko arranged them nicely and neatly, creating a messy looking layered ponytail that really seemed to frame her face. Satisfied with her appearance, the girl then exited. By the time she had gotten dressed, the others must have gone upstairs. She stared down the empty hallway and sighed. Even the dog was gone. "Well, guess I better go," she encouraged herself as she slowly made her way up the stairs.

"Hi, there!"

The sudden voice made the girl jump as she neared the top of the stairs, and looked up to see a young girl, most likely her age, with blue-green hair standing at the top with a smile on her face.

"I'm Fuuka Yamagishi. You must be Hamuko!"

The girl nodded quickly. "Mhm! Is everyone in there already?"

"Yep, you're the last one! Now you get to see everyone on our team!"

Hamuko followed the young girl to the large set of doors that she had seen the night before. She stood patiently as Fuuka struggled to shove one open, then filed in behind her.

The number of people in that room had almost shocked the girl. She could recall from memory a few that were already seated. Akihiko, Mitsuru, Minato, Junpei, and Yukari were chatting quietly. Nearby a serious-looking teenager sat, clothed in a beanie and a large red trenchcoat. Her eyes slowly trailed and landed on a young boy with light brown hair sitting next to the dog that the others had called "Koro-chan."

She watched as Fuuka took a seat to another girl with blonde, short hair and a somewhat empty expression. She seemed sort of...odd to her. One more glance around the room and Hamuko finally saw the only adult in the room, with brown hair and amused-looking eyes.

"You may have a seat, Miss Arasawa."

Noting that the only available seat was next to the suspicious-looking teen, the girl sat reluctantly next to Shinjiro, glancing back and forth with a somewhat timid expression. Uncomfortable with all of the stairs, the girl twiddled her thumbs, trying to keep a neutral expression.

Akihiko straightened his posture and cleared his throat. The room fell silent as he took the floor. "Since we're all here, the Chairman put me in charge of introductions. You already know me, I'm Akihiko Sanada. Going clockwise, this is the Chairman and sponsor of our group, Shuji Ikutsuki. You already know Mitsuru Kirijo, Minato Arisato, Junpei Iori, and Yukari Takeba. Next to you is Shinji Aragaki, and Ken Amada and Koromaru. And the two over here are Fuuka Yamagishi and Aigis.

"Together, we're SEES, which stand for 'Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad.' It's a bit of a mouthful. Originally it was just me, Mitsuru, and the Chairman, but it has expanded to the number you see here. We're asking you to join our ranks, Hamuko, but before you answer anything, we'd like to explain some things you really should know." Akihiko sat back down, apparently finished with his speech.

Hamuko steadily took in all of what Akihiko was saying as she listened with alert ears. Taking the names in at a somewhat rapid pace, the girl glanced next to her to briefly look at the teen Akihiko had called "Shinjiro." Her eyes rested on him for just a moment before quickly looking away and back to the Chairman. Shinjiro seems a little bit scary, she thought, not daring to look back again. I mean, he looks just like some punk off the street. Why is he here, anyway? She snapped back into focus as the Chairman stood up, smiling at her.

"Well, thank you, Akihiko, you did a wonderful introduction, as always. Quite the little knockout we've got here, hm, Hamuko-san?"

The young girl obviously didn't get the joke from her limited knowledge on the group, only to respond by chuckling nervously and rubbing the back of her head.

"Ahem." He cleared his throat almost in apology before continuing. "Well, as Akihiko had said, this group is known to the school board and students as SEES. It may seem like an arbitrary name for a group, but let me assure you that we have much more importance than just a dinky little after school group." Ikutsuki glanced over to Mitsuru, giving her a stare that said to not give away anything important yet.

Mitsuru piped up. "Minato has told me that you had experienced some strange occurrences when you arrived. Could you tell me a little more about those?"

Hamuko sighed, glancing back and forth. "You're all going to think I'm a nutjob, but alright. When I got here, it was almost midnight. All of a sudden, the sky turned this freaky weird green color and all of my electronic stuff shut off. The moon was huge..." She closed her eyes to recall all of the horrifying experiences again. "The streets were covered in blood, and there were coffins everywhere... Please tell me I'm not crazy. I saw this, I know it."

Mitsuru glanced at Ikutsuki, almost seeming to read his mind. Well, she appears to have experienced the Dark Hour, but we can't be 100% certain that she has the potential.

Shinjiro looked at Hamuko from the corner of his eye. To most people, his expression would resemble a glare, but in reality that was his normal, surly expression. However, his annoyance was in fact growing stronger with each passing second. He felt uncomfortable in crowds like this, and the matter of the full moon seemed to be suffocating him, only making his anxiety worse. "Will you all just cut the crap so we can get this over with?" he growled darkly.

"Shinji," Akihiko warned uneasily.

The teen gritted his teeth but fell into a brooding silence once more. He kept tabs on Hamuko, though, analyzing her carefully as the conversation carried on without him.

"You're not crazy," Minato assured her. "Remember what I said last night about your stuff being back to normal? If you were to check it right now, they'd work perfectly. We all see the same things you do. The coffins, the freaky light...all of us experience that."

Hamuko stared at the teen for a moment in somewhat shock, taking in his hostile expression with timid eyes. "If you g-guys don't need to tell me this right now, it's f-fine," she stammered, seeming to melt under the stare of Shinjiro. What is that guy's problem?

Mitsuru, noticing the obvious tension, decided to wrap up the meeting quickly before anything else went wrong. "As you all are aware, there is a full moon tonight. Therefore, we have a...mission to carry out. We will fill you in on the details later, Arasawa. It is not yet decided whether you will come with us or stay here tonight. Although, I request that you do not leave the dorm today unless you have some urgent reason to." She glanced around the room with a stern eye before mumbling, "Alright, dismissed. You all can do what you'd like for the rest of the day. Be nice to Miss Arasawa. She's quite new to all of this, as you all were at some point. I trust that you make her feel at home."

The young girl had a completely blank expression on her face. Mission? Geez, what were they, secret agents! Nevertheless, as soon as Mitsuru gave word, Hamuko stood up quickly and strode to the door.

Ikutsuki caught her arm on the way, chuckling and saying, "Don't worry, you'll be fine. We'll all be here tonight, so, nothing to be concerned about. You'll adjust quickly."

All of this was so new and confusing to her. She nodded to him quickly, before exiting the room, lightly whispering something about how she needed some air. Out of the meeting room and away from the staring sets of eyes, Hamuko finally took a deep breath and sat down against the wall next to the huge door. "God..." she whispered, sighing deeply. "Was that kid at my throat for a good reason?" She couldn't figure out why Shinjiro was so angry. Moreover, she couldn't really tell why she cared. His frustration seemed to intrigue her. She almost wanted to see if she could help him, but it seemed like she was in a completely different world from the other teens. She didn't know why everyone became hushed when mentioning the full moon. It was almost...disturbing.


To Be Continued...