Mio woke with a start, clutching her sheets with a cold sweat chilling her skin. Her dreams had been plagued by never-ending halls, her footsteps echoing in an infinite loop as she ran desperately from a pale-as-death woman who always seemed to be gaining on her, Ritsu's laughter ringing in her ears. She wasn't thrilled to see that it was just after six, but with a resigned sigh she figured sleep wouldn't return to her, so she pushed off the covers and stood up, stretching her limbs and stifling a yawn. What she needed was a breath of fresh air, so she changed out of her sleepwear and slipped past Yui, who was splayed out and fast asleep on the couch, to the door, which she opened silently and headed out into the crisp morning air.

The sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon as Mio lightly jogged across campus, encountering no one as she allowed herself to get lost within her thoughts. After all these years, how could she only now realize just how much of a problem her fears were? They bordered on the absolutely absurd, yet she had reasoned with herself that it was normal, that there was nothing she could do to change it anyway. Yet here was Ritsu, admittedly in her own brash way, attempting to help, and she wouldn't even accept it. She was still angry with Ritsu for treating her fears like a joke for all these years, but at the same time she was angry with herself for rejecting her friend's help outright. Maybe this was what she needed to conquer her fears once and for all. Feeling more determined, she turned around and jogged back to her dorm. She needed to speak with Ritsu.

When she got back to the dorm, Yui was still fast asleep on the couch, muttering something incomprehensibly. Too deep in her resolve to wait, Mio went and knocked on Ritsu's door, then again until she heard shuffling inside. It took a couple minutes, but the door finally opened to reveal a disheveled Ritsu staring up at Mio with tired eyes. "Mio? It's like six... thirty... s'mthin." Her speech was slightly slurred with sleep.

"Ritsu, I'm really sorry for ignoring your help." It wasn't often that Mio was the one apologizing to Ritsu; usually it was the other way around.

"Uh? Help?"

"In getting rid of my fears. You were right: it's a problem, and I need to get over it."

"That's great. I'm going back to bed. We're going to the beach this weekend." Without further explanation, Ritsu shut the door and left Mio there staring at the wood paneling.

"The beach?" Why in the world would they be going there, in the middle of October?

Despite being a place where people regularly showed as much skin as possible, Mio had never felt more awkward on a beach than right now, bundled up against the October chill and walking side by side with Ritsu. After days of asking, she still had no idea why they were here in decidedly non-beach weather, and so now she had to be content with not knowing. Ritsu seemed to know where they were going, but had yet decided to divulge why exactly they had taken a bus from campus and walked all the way to the beach. In the middle of the October. She had to know. "Ritsu, why are we here? It's freezing!"

"You'll see. We're almost there."

"Almost where?"

"You'll see."

"Ugh, you're impossible." That got a grin out of Ritsu, though Mio wasn't quite as amused. She was starting to regret putting the fate of her fears in Ritsu's hands. Eventually though, they reached a rockier section where little pools of water had formed within the stone, and Mio cautiously followed her friend there, watching as Ritsu looked all over the rock face, placing her hand inside a nook every so often, as if trying to find something specifically. "I don't want to spend all day here-"

"Take off your glove." Eh? What a request! Confused, Mio slowly pulled off her right glove and put it in her jacket pocket, the cool air immediately having an impact. "Now put your hand in here."

"Ritsu, this is stupid. I'm not going to put my hand in the- hey!" Without warning, the tomboy grabbed Mio's hand and yanked it forward, shoving it into one of the holes of the rockface. "What do you think you're... d... d-doing..." It was then that she realized that her hand wasn't touching only the rock. There was something else in there: barnacles.

"Mio, this is part of your training. Don't bail on me now. You wanted this, remember?" Despite Mio's now-desperate attempts to free her hand from its terrible prison, Ritsu held firm, keeping a tight grasp on her scared friend's wrist.

"N-not this! I don't want to do this!"

"They're just barnacles, dammit! They're not going to hurt you!" In the back of her mind, Mio knew that was true, but something much louder in her brain wouldn't allow her to realize that. Instead, she was nearly in tears and begging Ritsu to let her go, but her friend wasn't budging, forcing her to confront her fears head-on. That was what she wanted, wasn't it? Ritsu could be pretty strong when she wanted, and finally Mio stopped struggling and let her hand lay limply on the barnacles. After letting her heartbeat slow down to appropriate levels, the sensations stopped feeling so awful. It certainly didn't feel comfortable, but allowing enough time to pass made it seem less terrible with each second gone by. It still sent an unwelcome chill down her spine though, and she was relieved when Ritsu let go of her wrist, allowing her to yank her hand out of there.

"Geeze, this'll be harder than I though." Ritsu rubbed the back of her head and laughed softly, getting Mio's attention. "I don't think these are just fears, Mio. They might be phobias. Like you're irrationally afraid of this stuff."

"I know what phobias are," the raven-haired girl muttered unhappily, though she wasn't really angry at Ritsu this time. It was a strangely knowlegable thing for her to say, actually. Completely out of character. If they were phobias though, what was she supposed to do about them? A hand on her shoulder broke her from her reverie, and she looked up to see Ritsu giving her a sympathetic smile.

"I know it's tough, Mio. I'm not going to give up on you, though. No matter how long it takes, I'll get you through this." That brought a smile to Mio's lips, and she nodded happily, allowing herself to lean on someone else for support for once. "Now let's go get something to eat! I was thinking gooseneck barnacles."

Erk! "Maybe you'll find them in the ocean." Mio pushed her friend towards the water, causing her to laugh and throw her hands up in mock surrender.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Geeze Mio-chan, you're such a bully." Mio just rolled her eyes and started walking away from the beach, Ritsu following behind her with a teasing grin.