Putting in late hours to get this chapter up in a timely fashion. :P Hope everyone is having a wonderful new year so far! Thanks to SailorCandy, Guest, and Guest for their reviews! SailorCandy, in response to your review on my other story, there is totally a Valentine's Day oneshot coming. Get ready for Jack's antics. XD Guest #1, I can't guarantee I'll be updating my Halloween story; I seriously apologize for that. Whenever I try to think of how to continue my mind goes blank. I wish my writing had been better back when I wrote my Pretty Little Liars MFB fic cause then it could be a prequel to that, but I know that wouldn't do the oneshot justice. On another note, I'm glad you like how the relationships in this are progressing. And Guest #2, there will be fight scenes, I can promise that.

"Me Against the World" by Simple Plan, my childhood favorite band, is the chapter title. I have the lead guitarist's signature tattooed on my ribcage, because why not.

I do not own Metal Fight Beyblade.


This was the last time Sophie was ever going to listen to one of Hikaru's far-fetched ideas, especially ones that involved sneaking out in the middle of the night.

Sure, she had agreed to go along with it, but in the eerie darkness of the castle after midnight, seconds thoughts were creeping in hard and fast.

The four girls stood crouched beneath a dimly lit torch light in an empty corridor that jutted off in multiple directions, holding their breath. If anyone caught them, they would be dead meat. Of course, as bad as it was being caught by one of the staff members, nothing could come close to the grisly fate several of their classmates had already met. Compared to that horrifying outcome, running into a teacher was nothing.

Sophie shuddered. The last thing she wanted was for this to be her final night.

"What are-"

"Shhh!" Hikaru waved frantically. "We just need to get into the office."

"I know that," Mei Mei complained. "I just don't understand why we have to split up."

"Someone has to keep an eye out for anyone coming down the halls," Madoka reasoned.

"I know, but this is just such a bad-"

"Shhh!" Hikaru shushed her again. "Mei Mei, you go guard the left hall. Madoka, you take the right. Sophie, stay here and make sure no one gets into the office."

They took their positions amid some grumbling. Sophie understood why they needed to do this in the middle of the night when no one was around, but she sincerely wished there was a way they could do this during the daytime. Granted, people would be everywhere, but there had to be a time when people weren't flocking around the office. Or, even better, more people in the office might make it less noticeable while they were digging into things they shouldn't be.

Hikaru twisted the door handle, and much to her surprise, it was unlocked. The hinges creaked as Hikaru slowly pulled the door open, filling the night with their sound. Hikaru winced, praying desperately that the noise didn't carry before looking back at the door with mild confusion. She arched an eyebrow at Sophie.

"Weird," she breathed. "But there's no time to question it. I'll be back." She slipped into the room.

Sophie watched as she closed the door quietly behind her. At least that had been easier than anticipated, for better or for worse. They didn't need to wrestle with the lock using bobby pins they'd brought along, wasting time.

Sophie wasn't entirely clear on the reasons Hikaru had for wanting to get into the office. Sophie hadn't seen her since she marched out of the dining hall, but suddenly Hikaru had burst into the dorm room, announcing her plan. The other girl had been fairly vague about her intentions, however she did mention there was probably a phone in there, or at the very least information about where they were and the surrounding area.

That had been enough to convince her. If there was any chance of getting out of this spooky school, Sophie was game.

It hadn't taken much to convince anybody in the end, even if they didn't fully understand why they were doing this. Nobody was comfortable spending any more time in the nightmare prison their school had become and if what Hikaru found could help them escape, they were willing to take their chances. They agreed it was best to try it shortly after midnight, when everybody was supposed to be asleep in their dorms, but it wasn't completely unlikely for a few students to be out wandering around. If it came down to it, they would hopefully be able to talk themselves out of any trouble that came their way.

If they did get caught, it would be less difficult to justify than if they were found out at two or three in the morning. Hikaru had come up with a relatively convincing cover story in the event something did happen. Sophie could only hope they wouldn't have to use it.

If they got caught breaking into the main office, Sophie wasn't sure they'd be able to get off that easy regardless of the cover story. Madoka and Mei Mei were watching, though. They would alert the girls to any presence before it got to that point. Hikaru could escape the room before anyone knew she had ever been in there.

Still, that thought didn't keep Sophie's heart from pounding in her chest as she tightened her hands into fists. Hikaru had better make this quick. She was starting to feel highly unsettled. Unease slithered into her veins.

The later they stayed, the more likely something was to happen.

The minutes ticked by agonizingly slow. Every sound, every minor creak in the hall put Sophie more on edge. She never heard footsteps, but that didn't do anything to alleviate the feeling that she was being watched.

She could hear Mei Mei shifting off to the left. The flashlight she was using on her phone snapped off in an instant. Mei Mei took a few steps toward Sophie in the darkness. Sophie tensed.

"Is something- someone down there?" Sophie winced at her word choice.

"I don't think so," Mei Mei whispered back. "But we need to get out of-" The other girl fell silent.

"Mei Mei?" Sophie asked fearfully. Terror seeped in in the deep quiet.

Several seconds passed before she got a response.

"I see a light." Sophie could hear Mei Mei walking back to her carefully. "It was at the end of the hall and turned off in a different direction, but someone's out here."

Sophie nodded, surprisingly calm considering the panic she felt. "It's probably just another student. Nothing for us to be worried about, anyway. Let's go."

Hikaru stepped out of the office. "I'm good. I could hear you guys talking out here. We need to go."

They collected Madoka from her position by the right hallway, and made their way back to the dorms on cat's feet, moving only as quickly as they dared.

They never saw the light Mei Mei had mentioned, but like before, Sophie couldn't shake the sensation they were being watched.

Once in the safety of Sophie and Madoka's dorm, they collapsed on the beds. They had yet to figure out a way for the four of them to properly fit in a dorm designed for three, but Sophie had a feeling that for tonight at least everyone would be spending the remainder of the early morning hours together in the comfort of all their presences.

Even if the rooms were right near each other, going back out into the hall was a definite no.

There had been no issues on the way back, but knowing that someone had been out there with them, even if they weren't necessarily a threat, was terrifying. With everything going on, suspicion surrounded anyone out that late, no matter who they were. Sophie was incredibly grateful they had been able to make it back without incident. The image of Selen started to sneak back into her mind. Her stomach curdled.

"What did you find?" Mei Mei sat perched on the edge of Madoka's bed.

Hikaru tried to smile, but it came across as forced. "Not much, really. I tried the phone, but it kept dropping my calls. Don't worry," she added, noticing the nervous expression on Madoka's face. "I erased all the outgoing calls. There's no evidence we were ever in there. I didn't try calling anyone specific who could be linked to us either, just information, that sort of thing."

"So what did you find?" Sophie asked, trying not to let her dismay show despite the less than stellar news. After all of that, Hikaru had to have found something. It would be so disheartening if they'd taken the risk for nothing.

Hikaru's face fell and she shrugged. "Not much. As far as I could tell from the map left on the desk, we're pretty far off the grid. I didn't see anything indicating a nearby town."

Madoka frowned. "I don't remember seeing many buildings on the way in either. We're a good distance from the highway, so that would probably be our best bet for finding other people."

"But we're miles away from the highway and who knows who we'd encounter even if we did make it to the highway without issue. It's not like we can guarantee the first person we find would be trustworthy and willing to help us," Mei Mei broke in.

"Exactly," Hikaru concurred. "T-This confirms it. We're stuck here."

Stark silence met the statement as reality soaked in.

"What do we do?" Mei Mei asked finally, her voice barely a whisper.

"I don't think there's anything we can do," Sophie responded just as quiet. "I don't want to look into this either. I feel like that would just get us into trouble faster."

Madoka looked thoughtful. "It is dangerous exploring the castle. But we might be able to find answers that way… It's a double-edged sword."

Footsteps suddenly echoed down the hall. Mei Mei sprang from the bed and shut off the light. It didn't matter who was out there. They were too shaken to take any chances.

As the girls settled into sleeping arrangements in the overcrowded dorm, they were left to muse their own opinion whether or not it was worth the risk in silence.

Sophie considered the idea. Every time she thought about searching the castle all she could see was Selen's mutilated body. Then it morphed into Wales' and finally her own. Sophie shut her eyes.

There was no way she could look for answers in the castle. The others had already tried, and it had proved to be too dangerous. Madoka had nearly been killed by an ages-old trap no one had triggered in hundreds of years. She out of all of them should understand the danger most. In all that time, not a single other person had come across it. There was no telling what else waited for them if they decided to take any chances.

She was safer pretending nothing was wrong. She couldn't justify deliberately looking for trouble.

Blissful ignorance. In this situation, that was the best option. If she didn't search for dead students, she wouldn't find dead students.

Sophie knew that logic was wrong, horribly flawed, but she was too unwilling to face the truth. Until she had come up with a surefire plan, she wasn't going to do anything to put herself in the line of fire.

The footsteps stopped in front of their dorm room. Sophie's insides felt like ice.

Almost as soon as they had stopped they picked up again, a steady clip-clop fading off into the distance, leaving her to wonder if it had all been in her mind.

It was going to be a long night.


Madoka awoke to sunlight filtering in through the window of her dorm. She sat up, stretching, then surveyed the room.

Sophie and Mei Mei were still fast asleep, but Hikaru was nowhere to be seen.

Under the circumstances, Madoka normally would have been worried. Hikaru disappearing without saying anything may not be as innocent as Madoka hoped normally, but Madoka was certain Hikaru had left this morning of her own accord with a plan in mind.

Hikaru had been looking for something last night, she was sure of that. She hadn't broken into the office just to check the phones or look for the map. Hikaru was definitely up to something that she felt she needed to hide from the others. Madoka could only hope it wouldn't come back to bite her.

Speaking of, Madoka hadn't exactly told her friends everything if she was being truthful, another reason she wasn't pushing Hikaru for all the details the way she usually would have to make sure she had all the information. It would've been too hypocritical.

Madoka initially intended to tell the other girls about her adventure in the crypt with Gingka, but had yet to get around to doing so. She was still shaken up by it and whatever the connection to Headmistress Celestia was. Telling the others was the obvious thing to do.

Of course, that might freak them out even further. Everybody was already so tense telling them about the coffins in the basement of the school might only serve to make things worse.

Maybe, for the moment, she would keep quiet about it. At least until she knew more, anyway. For all she knew, she was overreacting and there was more to the story than she realized. That had to be the case. If she was going to solve anything, Madoka first needed to find out more about the Celestia family history with a clear head on her shoulders. Maybe Headmistress Celestia had an ancestor with the same first name as her. That seemed reasonable, and much more rational than the wild ideas running through her mind about the casket with no death date.

Although, finding records on the Celestia family was going to be easier said than done. Trying to find anything online was a lost cause, not that she wouldn't check there just in case, and even in the library there was unlikely going to be personal information about the leader of the school.

An idea struck Madoka. She wasn't likely to find the answers she was looking for there, but the forbidden section of the library might answer some other questions. Why would students be restricted from seeing those books in the first place?

The library was busy as ever, with classes in full swing after the first few introductory weeks and breakfast ending. Madoka gritted her teeth. If only it was Monday instead of Saturday. Then the majority of students would be too busy with class to be here. A large group of girls was clustered around something.

Madoka quickly realized the "something" was none other than Chao Xin. She noted with surprise he looked rather annoyed at all of the attention as he made his way to the exit, fangirls following close barely giving him room to breathe.

She tried to ignore them, pretending to be invested in a random book she picked off a nearby shelf. At least they were leaving. The volume in the library was about to drop substantially.

Someone was waiting for him outside the door. Madoka gasped, nearly dropping the book she was holding.

Brushing the girls around him aside, Chao Xin put his arm around the girl waiting for him. Normally, Madoka wouldn't have been surprised by this action, except for one striking detail. Mei Mei was the girl.

Mei Mei, of all people, was with him? Madoka could have sworn just a few weeks ago the girl had scoffed at the sight of all the girls surrounding him. The four of them had written him off as a player, and said nothing more on the subject since. Mei Mei was way too smart to become another one of nameless girls he went through week after week. So what was she doing with him?

Madoka shook her head, attempting to clear her thoughts and refocus.

She'd have plenty of time to ask Mei Mei about what she just witnessed later. Madoka needed to seize the opportunity while she could. Granted, she might not like a full library, but it would keep the librarians busy and out of her way as they tended to the rest of the patrons.

Madoka made it unnoticed to her goal. There weren't any students even close to her. Not that she was surprised. The books seemed to become less interesting and relevant the further back they were.

Still, she didn't have a lot of time. Soon enough, someone would wander over this way. In a place like this, that was a given. The main shelves were right nearby.

The first thing Madoka noticed was how old the majority of the books looked. Some of them were in foreign languages, too. Several of them looked like they might even be in Latin or ancient Greek as she flipped through the pages. She stared at the unfamiliar letters swirling on the pages.

From the ones she could read, they didn't appear to be anything special. Most of them she couldn't fully understand to begin with. There was one that appeared to be a novel. Another was about European plants.

She took one book from each shelf. It didn't seem like they were organized in any particular way, but if they were it was best to be as thorough as possible in the little time she had.

Madoka put a sixth book back on its shelf. She waved the air, trying not to cough at all the dust that had been kicked up.

It was strange… Why keep all these books separate from the others? Students wouldn't even be able to understand them, let alone read them. Were they just being kept apart because they were older?

That could be it. The books weren't in the greatest condition. Letting students have access to them might cause further damage.

Madoka groaned inwardly. She was definitely looking too far into this, but at the same time, she felt like she was missing something. For an off-limits section, the books weren't anything compared to what she'd been expecting.

Granted, Madoka hadn't known what she was expecting in the first place. It wasn't like she'd find anything on dark magic or something along those lines. That was totally ridiculous. Just because weird, unexplainable things were happening didn't mean they were tied to the supernatural. That was hardly believable. Something still felt off, though.

Madoka's eyes widened. She quickly walked away from the forbidden section to consider her latest revelation before anyone could catch her just standing there lost in thought.

The so-called forbidden section was not difficult to access. If a librarian had caught her in there, Madoka was certain she'd be in trouble, but at the same time she didn't feel like she had done anything by looking through the volumes. She hadn't uncovered anything secretive. The books were either ones in foreign languages or were otherwise fairly mundane. They weren't that special, besides being extremely old. That might've made them rare, requiring them to be safely preserved and out of the way of reckless teenagers, but other than that…

So if the books were only there because they were old, she deduced, then were there other books? Books that would be more difficult to obtain because students shouldn't be anywhere near them? Ones that held information they weren't supposed to know about?

Before, Madoka would have thought she was being paranoid and heavily overthinking things. Now, she wasn't so sure.

Starlight Academy was most assuredly keeping its fair share of secrets. What was another collection of books no one even knew about hidden away? The ones in the library could be nothing more than a cover-up. The school was sure to have more old books, probably on topics they wouldn't want students reading. By having a "fake" forbidden section, it would dissuade anyone from looking for the real thing. The so-called forbidden section also housed the entrance to the secret passage leading down to the crypt, perhaps the real reason for wanting to keep students away from it by using the books as a diversion.

On a whim, Madoka went to the astrology section. The school put a large emphasis on that subject for some reason.

It didn't take Madoka long to confirm her suspicions as she cast another book aside. The majority of the books had been published within the last decade.

Mei Mei had told her about a room up in one of the towers with a telescope and old star charts. Those had been tucked away into secrecy; Mei Mei had only stumbled upon them by accident.

If the school was putting so much into this subject, then it would make sense for them to have more books on it, specifically older ones that would help students learn about the entire history of it from as far back as possible. The collection of old books in the forbidden section was fairly extensive; shouldn't they have a prize collection of early books about the cosmos?

Not one of the ones Madoka had picked up even remotely mentioned stars, now that she thought about it. There weren't any old star charts in the library or other related historical documents.

Come to think of it, there hadn't been any old books concerning the school. Shouldn't it be boasting its centuries old history and its early days after being brought over from Europe? Even its time as a school a hundred years ago shouldn't be as vague as it was. She was at the castle itself, where it should have been easiest to find those answers. When she had been trying to learn about it for her class project, she'd only found limited basic information available.

She didn't even know the original name of the castle. Supposedly, it had been from Scotland originally, but what if that wasn't true either?

Madoka looked at the shelves grimly. She had come here on a hunch to learn about the Celestia family. That hadn't worked out, but now she had a new lead.

Celestia, Starlight Academy, the telescope… They all had one glaring thing in common, but for the life of her Madoka couldn't connect the dots.

There were still too many missing pieces.