[Hello! I just wanted to apologize about the long wait. School has escalated out of nowhere so I didn't have much time to actually write any fanfiction whatsoever. This chapter is more of a transition towards Ch.4 which has more action. I'll be posting Chs.4 to 6 hopefully this or next week so please be prepared!]

Miharu's Bedroom

Friday

Morning

Miharu jolted awake from her dream with a loud scream, sitting up straight and breathless soon after. The unknown and foggy landscape of her dream was replaced by the familiar sights of light tan walls adorned with posters while her hands were gripping her lime green sheets rather tightly.

She took a few more breaths before she let go of the covers to rub her temples. Where to even begin with that dream...if she could still call it that. She fell asleep and somehow ended up in the world that Miyuki had discovered, a world called Gensokyo.

She still didn't understand how she managed to transport all the way to another world through her dreams however. Sure, people say that dreams can take you to other places but that was a figure of speech, not actually literally taking you and placing you smackdab in the middle of an unknown world!

As Miharu moved to get out of her bed, her hand moved over a lump in the bed and she tilted her head as her brow furrowed. Did she sleep with something last night?

Pulling the sheets up so she could uncover what was under them, she found a set of keys on a keyring, a very familiar keyring.

"Do you mind being a dear and watching my house while I'm away? I fear that someone might break into it."

These were Miyuki's keys, the very same keys that she had given her when she had entered Gensokyo through her dream. Miharu could only look at them in utter shock, the realization that the world Miyuki found was actually real slowly settling in.

"Miharu!"

The bedroom door opened as her father, Hokuto, had opened the door with a worried expression. His black hair was disheveled and the white of his eyes were red and watery. He must have been up all night again. "I heard you scream. Are you alright?"

"Father." She then shook her head, giving him a nod after. "Ye-Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bad dream."

He gave her a sideways glance before sighing and rubbing the back of his neck. "If you say you're fine, I won't pry but call me if you need anything. Also, bring an umbrella when you're heading out for school. People are predicting that rain might come tonight."

She nodded at him and he closed the door, leaving her alone in her room once more. Her eyes moving back to the keys, she bit her lip. She had to tell the others about this.

Cosmo Palace

Early Afternoon

The Paranormal Research Club was more than a school club but a foundation for an everlasting bond...or that's what Noelle often says. Originally a school club meant for anything related to the spooky and occultic, it soon extended to mean the friend group that existed between the current members. This was mainly because hardly anyone besides them decides to join.

When they didn't meet up at school, the club would have improv meetings at Cosmo Palace, the local fast food restaurant in the downtown area of the city. The chime of the front door jingled as Miharu stepped inside and immediately spotted her friends sitting at one of the large booth tables.

"Ah, Miharu." A male with unkempt black hair said with a grin. "It's great that you're able to join us. I surely thought that you would've gone home because of your fatigue."

Katsu Takeda, Ryota's friend, and his biggest rival. They were both members of the kendo team and considered to be the best out of the entire team. If anyone decided to challenge him to a match, they better be prepared for him to keep it going as long as he possibly can.

"Look, It's not like I decided to be tired." Miharu said with a scowl. "Some things happened in the middle of the night and I couldn't sleep."

"Some things?~" Yuki Katsushika asked, eyebrow raised. Her dark purple hair was tied up in two low pigtails. "It seemed that the muses themselves have blessed you with artistic vision in the middle of the night! While your sleep was sacrificed for it, they clearly have a mission for solely for you." She then sighed dreamily. "If only those same maidens could bless me in my time of crisis. My days are only getting shorter and I've yet to create my magnum opus."

"What, so the other thousand pieces everyone has been selling weren't magnum opuses?" Ryota said with a frown. "Half of the town seems to be clamoring for them. Isn't that enough?"

"Alas, that is merely showing how flawed humanity is." She replied, shaking her head. "The common folk are charmed by the most dazzling pieces because they are not used to seeing rich beauty often, despite it being flawed. That is why I must create a piece that is desirable not by the flawed mindset of the common folk but by the gods themselves! Perhaps even the creatures within the new world that has been discovered."

"Speaking of, where is that broad anyway?" Ryota asked. "If Yuki goes on another speech about art, I'm going to lose my mind."

"It is quite troubling that Noelle is the one who is late when she calls us here." Katsu shook his head. "Tardiness is a sign of poor discipline, after all."

"We're here~!"

Noelle called out to the group in her typical cheerful tone as she ran up to them. "Sorry that I was late. Sis was havin' sword lessons so I couldn't just pick her up and drag her like I wanted."

"Fencing lessons, Noelle." Her sister, Hannah, said as she walked up to her with an annoyed look. "I believe this is the fifth time I've corrected you about this. Perhaps I need to carve it in you?"

Hannah Canary, Noelle's sister and the legendary "Ice Queen" of the school. She seemed to be the complete opposite of Noelle from their looks alone; while Noelle was the bright American stereotype, Hannah's platinum blonde hair and her prim and proper clothing gave her a doll-like appearance that was befitting for the House of Romanov.

Miharu still was surprised that she decided to join the club on her own will but perhaps it was just a thing within Noelle's family to get into the supernatural.

"Alright, alright! It's fencing!" Noelle said, panicked once she viewed her sister's cold expression. "No need to try and cut my skin for it, sis. Anyway, we're open for business so let's get to chatting!"

"Correction: The Paranormal Research Club will start its official club meeting." Katsu said as he crossed his arms. "Even though we're friends, let's try and keep this club professional for the sake of its own reputation."

"Aren't you enough of a killjoy with the kendo club?"

"Get on with it." Ryota cut in, annoyed. "This meeting is about you wanting to investigate Miyuki's disappearance so we should just get to that."

"Touchy." Noelle commented before coughing. "But he's right. The main topic of this meeting is Miyuki because well, she's disappeared and we're going to solve the case! I already told Ryota and Miharu but I thought that I should repeat myself."

"So, you want us to search for Miyuki." Katsu then frowned, obvious doubt in his eyes. "Do you even know where to start? If the police can hardly get a lead, I don't know how we would be able to."

"Well, the police didn't have a fuckin' monster try and attack them in the school's library. Me, Ryota, and Miharu saw that thing when we tried to look her up so that has to mean somethin' right? We just gotta lure it out...somehow."

"And how do you propose we do that? Let's assume that this monster is actually real and lurking about. Did it make any attempts to attack you guys? Did it warn you about prying into Miyuki's disappearance? Did it give you any sort of clue that maybe it doesn't want you around?"

"Err...No." Noelle then blew out an exasperated sigh. "Listen, Katsu. It's a huge fuckin' monster and ya don't see that often, even in a place like Suruga. That has to be something! If we capture it, maybe we could force it to tell us stuff."

"I'm only doing this so we don't end up arrested ourselves." Katsu responded. "Besides, I think we should focus less on the monster and more on what resulted in her disappearance. She proposed a new world at a live event, right? There has to be information that caused her to look into it in the first place."

As Miharu watched her two friends argue about how to handle the mission itself, the memory of Miyuki asking her to look into her house entered her head as she dug into her pockets. That's it!

"Wait!" Miharu cut in which caused all eyes in the group to look at her. "We're trying to see if that monster is real and to find out more about Miyuki's last mission, right? Why don't we go to Miyuki's house?"

"Miyuki's home?" Ryota rested his cheek against his fist. "The police might have already boarded up the place though. It'll be hard to go inside without destroying something."

"Actually..." Miharu took out Miyuki's keys, showing them to the group. "I have her keys right here. She gave them to me last night."

The group was silent, all sharing curious looks before Hannah decided to cut into the silence. "She...gave them to you? Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't she missing? And I don't think someone as famous as her has even come into contact with us."

"It's true that Miyuki is missing currently but she isn't as lost as people think." Miharu said before exhaling a deep breath. It was now or never. "I...I actually went inside of that world and saw Miyuki. It turns out that she became trapped inside of the world after she had posted about it on her blog, after the live event."

"What the?..." Katsu's eyes had widened in surprise. "You actually traveled inside of the world itself? The police have been trying to find any sort of way to contact Miyuki for weeks and found nothing."

She exhaled a deep breath as she twiddled her fingers. "I got inside through a dream. I don't know how but when I went to bed last night, I woke up inside of the world. Miyuki said one of the methods of getting there is inside of dreams and then she gave me her house keys. I tried to get out more but she disappeared before I could get another word out of her."

"Miharu wouldn't lie about things this huge." Ryota said. "It seems that this world is easier to access than assumed."

"A landscape, full of the paranormal, actually existing in our reality and not just the fabrication of man. Ah, it is something that wants to make my heart burst! A new window for my muses!" Yuki then grinned. "Furthermore, Miharu, if Miyuki has bequeathed you her keys then her message is clear: She wants you to look for something inside of her home!"

"Miyuki's house is pretty close by here, right? If we take the train now, we should be back before night." Ryota then turned his attention towards Noelle. "So, what's the plan, leader?"

Noelle was silent for a few moments before she jumped out of her seat. "Oh my god, Miharu! You're the best!" Her eyes were as bright as stars as she clenched her fists in determination. "That's the plan then! We're going to take the train right onward to Miyuki's house and solve the case! This is going to be great!"

"Quiet down!" Hannah hissed. She then clamped a hand over her sister's mouth and pulled her back down to her seat. "You're the one who wanted to do this behind the police's back so the last thing we should do is lure them to us!"

Noelle then looked away from her sister and nodded, burning up in embarrassment.

"So I guess we can bring this meeting to a close." Katsu said. "We should hurry so we can actually get back home before nightfall or before the police head there."

The others then gave each other a nod of confirmation and formally dismissed the meeting, cleaning up their mess and heading towards the train station. If they want to uncover as much as they wanted, they needed to get there fast.