That night a week ago sure had been an adventure. Mugi and Yui had been able to catch Mio, thankfully before she ended up strangling Ritsu. Once everyone had calmed down, even Mio had to admit she felt a bit better about it, and that maybe - and they really had to drag that particular 'confession' out of her - Ritsu's plan had worked, just a little. "But you'd better not pull a stunt like that again!"
The following week came and went quietly, and during the weekend Ritsu had convinced Mio to come with her to a Halloween party after much cajoling and promises that this wasn't another trap. The two of them had decided to revive an old faithful and went together as Romeo and Juliet, though Mio wasn't thrilled with Ritsu adding red splotches on her face for a more 'bloody Juliet' effect, as her friend called it. It was disgusting.
"Well Mio, I'm very proud of you for doing this. Tonight you'll enter your twelfth and final trial: Halloween edition!" Rolling her eyes, Mio counted in her mind all of the tricks Ritsu had done to her over the last several weeks. There was something off about that math.
"Ritsu, this would only be the fifth trial..." Immediately she clamped a hand over her mouth and stopped moving, instantly regretting what she said. If Ritsu realized this now, maybe her torment would never end. Her friend noticed the lack of a person next to her and looked over her shoulder, giving Mio a playfully apologetic glance.
"Oh, has it? Whoops! Ehehehe, I guess I shouldn't have been so ambitious... What's with that look? I'm not doing any more trials, I swear." It took a bit more work for Ritsu to get Mio to believe her and keep walking on towards the party.
The two of them continued on towards where the party was being hosted when something tapped Mio on the shoulder. "Ritsu, knock it off-" Mio turned towards her friend, but Ritsu had both of her arms at her sides, and the look she gave Mio was one of confusion.
"Knock what- Uh..." Well, that couldn't be good. Feeling a bit more nervous now, Mio slowly turned and found herself face to face with a white sheet. Oh, sorry, a ghost. Mio gave this 'ghost' a good eye roll, while Ritsu snickered in the background.
"Yui, what are you doing?" While she didn't know for sure that it was their ditzy friend, who else would choose a costume so... cliche and lazy? It had 'Yui' written all over it.
"Oooooh, I am the ghost of your friend Yuiiii. I am deaddddd!" Mio turned to give Ritsu an exasperated look, only to find the drummer doubled over in laughter. Not everyone who went to university gained maturity, clearly. Sighing, Mio gave Yui a gentle knock on the head and continued walking, hearing her say to Ritsu, "I think she's cured! She wasn't even scared!"
"Yeah, about that, Yui..."
They met Mugi along the way, and the sweets she had brought for everyone were able to get Yui out of her funk, which had been brought on after Ritsu clued her in on how non-threatening her costume was. Of course, there were still some problems with the renewed cheerfulness of their resident ghost.
"No, Yui, you have to eat it from inside the costume, or take it off."
"But that's so much workkkk!"
"Well, you should have cut yourself a mouth hole, dummy." Listening to her friends' playful banter, Mio couldn't help but laugh, stifling her giggling with a hand as they reached the dorm where the party was to take place. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. She felt a lot more grateful now that Ritsu had taken it upon herself to help, because she knew that she wouldn't have done it herself. Even if she knew this was still a work in progress, any improvement was notable.
The four of them were admitted inside, where Yui immediately went off to greet another one of her friends, "spooking" people along the way. The three remaining friends giggled softly as they made their way further inside, with Ritsu grabbing Mio's hand and dragging her to the refreshments table. "Want something to drink, Mio?" On the table was a bowl of red liquid, punch more than likely.
"Ah... You don't think they spiked it, do you?" This came out as a whisper, and now it was Ritsu's turn to roll her eyes.
"Geeze, Mio, so untrustworthy. Here, I'll try it first." She grabbed a cup and poured herself some punch, taking a long gulp of it before turning back to Mio. "Tastes safe to me. Loosen up, Mio." Ignoring Ritsu's little jab, Mio ended up pouring herself a drink and tasting it. It did seem fine... Shrugging to herself, she drank a bit more.
"There sure are a lot of people," Mio murmured as she glanced around the crowded room. She wasn't much of a partygoer, and the sheer amount of people unnerved her a little. That wasn't quite a preferred change of pace from Ritsu's little three week fearfest, but it was something. When she finally decided to look at Ritsu again, she had a strange smile on her face. "Eh? What is it, Ritsu?"
"Remember when we first performed as a band back in high school?" Ahh, so it was a reminiscent smile.
"Of course."
"And when we performed Romeo and Juliet?"
"What are you getting at?"
"Well, you were able to perform then with lots of people watching, so how is this any different?" Mio's eyes widened as Ritsu hit her with some stone cold logic. It would have been less surprising if she'd thrown a punch.
"It's weird when you act all mature, Ritsu. It's so unlike you." She had a smile on her face as she said it, and it got Ritsu to laugh in response.
"Hey hey, I'm not a one-trick pony, and don't you forget it." Mio rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help but laugh along with Ritsu. Maybe she was right: she just had to imagine this was like one of their concerts. The thought calmed her somewhat. Maybe she'd never truly get over everything that scared or worried her, but trying hard to improve had to mean something. After all, things had been getting better, so it stood to reason they'd continue getting better.
"Ritsuuuuuu!" The two of them only had time to look behind Ritsu before Yui nearly flew at them and jumped, pouncing on top of the drummer. "Lead me to Heaven's gates, Ritsu!" Mio barely was able to jump backwards before the two collapsed to the floor.
"Yui, what the hell are you doing?!" Ritsu groaned as laughter echoed in the room, trying to push Yui off of her.
"I'm dead, Ritsu. You have to take me to the afterlife."
"What the hell, are you drunk?"
"Nooooo." Her slightly slurred speech was somewhat of an indicator saying otherwise, however.
"How'd you even get drunk? The punch isn't spiked."
"It's a seeecret... but it was her." Their inebriated friend pointed towards what she thought was someone at the party, but was instead a wall. Ritsu just rolled her eyes, then looked up at Mio, who was desperately trying to hide her laughter.
"You just gonna stand there or what?"
"Ahaha, sorry, sorry." Calming herself, Mio went down and helped Ritsu push Yui off before getting Ritsu to her feet, and then the two of them had to get Yui up, who was doing all she could to be difficult.
"Come on, Yui, get up!"
"Dun wannaaaaa." Mio wasn't much help either, as she couldn't stop from laughing, which made it harder to exert the appropriate effort in pulling Yui back up. Eventually someone else came to help, and they got Yui up and into the care of a concerned Mugi.
"Well, at least you're having fun." Ritsu pouted at Mio, who had finally stopped laughing, though there was still a big smile on her face. It was true, though: she was having fun, something she hadn't imagined would be possible even that morning. Things were certainly looking up, and the thought comforted her. Ritsu did always somehow come through to pick her up, immaturity aside.
"Yeah Ritsu, I really am."