Uh, yeah. This probably won't be that long of a story. Just need something to write in-between other things.

Thought combat Hono would be fun. Enjoy

A terribly dreary day. Dark gray clouds covered the vast expanse of the sky and threatened to pour at any moment. Branches shook in the howling wind, trash cans fell over, and discarded newspapers performed some type of freestyle dance routine as they were blown away at high speeds.

And yet 6 girls solemnly marched through this hellscape, each one with head down and tears threatening to spill over. Footsteps clacking on the stone path sound as they all gather in front of a tombstone marking the family grave of the Koizumi family. And the tears started to flow from each. Some held them back better than others, but there was a resounding wail to be heard from the otherwise empty cemetery.

The girls hugged each other, trying to comfort each other. A certain orange-haired girl cried particularly hard, her muffled screams of, "Kayo-chin! Kayo-chin!" drowned out by the intense wind.

Even though a year had passed, their mourning was stronger than ever, most of the girls unable to say anything through their tears or, more likely, not knowing what they could possible say in this situation.

And unfortunately for them, this was only the first of two stops on today's trip. After many minutes of grieving, they all finally managed to pull themselves away from the grave and continued along the path. To the southern end of the graveyard they found what they were looking for: a tombstone marking the family grave of the Kousaka family.

Almost as if a scene on repeat, each girl began bawling, grabbing onto each other for support. Except this time, the two second years were the ones crying harder. They held onto each other as if for dear life, afraid of letting the other go, afraid of being alone with those feelings.

There was nothing to be said, but just as before, they finally came to their decision to leave, knowing it would only hurt everyone to stay any longer. But as they left, the blue-haired second year remained behind. And though some members wanted to go back to her, they decided she needed some alone time with her friend.

On a dreary, terrible day, Sonoda Umi stood in front of the grave on one of her best friends, tears streaming down her cheeks. The clouds broke into rainfall, but she refused to move from her spot.

"It's been an entire year… hasn't it? I thought I could get over it, but…" her hands clenched into fists so tightly that her fingers began to lose colour. "Honoka…"

She finally noticed the rain, looking up and letting out a pained sigh. Though she didn't want to move, she knew she had to.

I don't think Honoka would feel any better if I cried in front of her grave all day.

Even though she truly wanted to move, she found her feet planted firmly in place, unwilling to leave yet. But she struggled until she finally took one step back from the grave.

Hey, Umi-chan! Being a school idol really is fun, isn't it? I'm glad we could all share this!

Tears began streaming down her face again, mixed with the rain, as a scene from a year ago passed through her mind.

Honoka had been murdered, her body pretty much torn to shreds by some sicko. The murderer was never caught and that thought had been unsettling in the minds of all the girls over the year. Hanayo had suffered a similar fate, her body recovered from her own home where it had been cut in pieces.

Umi couldn't even imagine the horror her parents had to face when they found her body like that. Just the thought… her hand shot up to her mouth, the fear that she would vomit just from thinking about the two like that very real.

The loss of the two girls had marked the end of μ's. But they stayed as close as ever. Even after the third years graduated, they kept in contact regularly and the seven of them would meet up to be together whenever possible.

But it… never felt the same. Rin had lost some of her energy after the death of her best friend, but she still tried to show that eccentric personality in front of her friends. Kotori and Umi had been less talkative since Honoka's death as well. Though it felt like the friend group was as close as ever, they were also as different as ever.

The recently graduated third years were chasing their dreams and the new third years were studying for entrance exams and worrying about where they would go to university. However, in the end, thoughts of these two still lingered in the back of all of their minds.

Umi finally pulled herself away from the grave and slowly started her walk out of the cemetery. Her feet felt heavy and the sound of the splashing water rang in her ears. She turned to take one look back at the grave of her dear friend.

"Eh?"

Somebody was standing over it. Had one of the other girls come back? Or maybe it was a member of her family, though she thought they would have stopped by earlier. The rain was too heavy for her to make out any details of the figure, but they bent down and placed a hand on the grave.

If it was family, she didn't want to interrupt them, but she felt herself drawn back there. And so, she took slow steps towards the grave and figure. As she drew closer, the figure didn't even glance her way, but kept staring down at the grave.

And as she got closer and the figure became clear, she couldn't believe her eyes. Umi was frozen in place, unable to say anything or move an inch.

That's because the person who stood there was…

"Really… you guys don't have to visit my grave, you know? It made me really sad to see all of you crying like that."

No… there's no way…

A million thoughts and feelings flooded Umi's mind and she couldn't possibly sort them out fast enough to act on any of them, but she managed to get a single word out.

"Hono…ka…?"

The short-haired leader of their idol group turned to face her friend. She wore the same school uniform as the day she had been killed. In fact, nothing had changed about her. In that year, nothing had changed.

"It's been a year, huh, Umi-chan?"

Even her cheerful voice was the same. Umi felt tears rolling down her cheeks and felt a lump forming in her throat. Her body wanted to collapse and cry right there, but instead she took a step forward. And the next thing she knew, she was sprinting forward and practically dived into her friend with a hug.

"Honoka! Honoka!" She could actually feel her! "This isn't a dream, is it? I can feel you… I can smell you... I can hear you…"

"Ehhh? Do I smell? I even showered before coming here…"

Umi looked up at her friend angrily for joking around, but her anger faded immediately when she saw the radiant smile that she had missed so much for the past year. Seeing it again felt like nothing short of a miracle to her.

She finally managed to stop her tears and stood up straight, organizing her thoughts as best as she could given the impossible circumstances.

"Honoka… what happened? You died. You were buried here! And if not, then where have you been the past year?"

Honoka laughed and showed her friend another smile, then turned to look at the grave one more time.

"Why don't we get somewhere dry first? I'll treat you to some food or something."

Umi struggled to find something to say, but her friend grabbed her hand and began leading her out of the cemetery.

Not ten minutes later, they were in a small café off of a main street. Only a few other people were there, most likely not wanting to risk the run through the rain. The two were dripping wet, but luckily the owner provided them with towels that they could at least use to dry their hair.

The waitress took their orders, Honoka ordering a bunch of sweets and Umi only ordering tea

"Ehh? That's all you're going to get, Umi-chan? It's my treat, you know." Honoka pouted.

"Honoka… please stop with this. Just tell me."

Honoka's face relaxed. The waitress came by and placed glasses of water in front of them. Honoka absently ran a finger along the rim of her glass.

"Where to start… it's a long story, after all. Ah, I guess I should start with the obvious. I'm not dead! Surprise, Umi-chan!" She held her arms out waiting for a cheer from her friend, but nothing came. "Ah… uh… right… well, we had a good reason for pretending to be dead, I swear…"

"Huh? 'We?' Hanayo is alive too?" Umi asked in utter shock.

"Ah, yeah. She didn't really want to go out in the rain, though. And I only told her that I was gonna watch you guys and not actually speak to you. But when I saw you walking towards me… Hm… I don't really know what came over me. I guess a year without my best friends made me weaker."

Umi still couldn't comprehend anything. They were supposed to mourn their dead friends today, but now one of them shows up and she's telling her that the other one is alive too? Just what the hell is going on?

She wanted to yell at Honoka, but the melancholic look her friend had made her hesitate.

"A lot happened… I was pretty much dead for a week. After all, my body was pretty badly sliced up by a demon."

"Demon? Honoka…"

"Believe it or not, Umi-chan. Hanayo-chan and I were attacked a year ago by demons. Why did it happen to be the same day? Coincidence, I guess. Bad luck, probably. After I was sliced up by that demon, I was sure I was dead and yet… a week later I woke up in a strange place with strange people surrounding me, poking and prodding at my body with medical tools. It was scary, Umi-chan. I cried and cried, yelling out for you guys."

"What…?"

"I'm getting there. The Japanese government had recovered my body before my parents found it. How did they even know I was attacked? Beats me, they wouldn't tell me. But they did, somehow. As for whose body my parents found… I never got an answer for that either. Probably some other poor girl who got killed by demons."

Honoka paused when their food arrived and took a short break from speaking to dig into a slice of cake, going back to her old self with a, "It's so delicious! You have to try some, Umi-chan!" Umi, however, declined the offer and just took a sip of her tea, still staring at her friend.

Her friend took notice of this and hurried with the slice, taking a big gulp of her drink to wash it down.

"Ah, I've missed this place. It feels like it's been so long. Do you remember? You, Kotori, and I came here a few times after school in our first year. Ah, those were the times, weren't they? Ah, but I preferred being in μ's. Those days, with all of us together, were the most fun after all. Ahhh, I'm getting so nostalgic! Maybe because it's my first time in Japan in almost 8 months."

"8 months? What?"

"Oh, right. So, anyways, after that I ended up finding out that I survived because the demon's blood somehow got into me and it temporarily gave me some super regeneration. So, after a week, I was like new! And not just that, I'm a lot stronger and faster than before! But the people said the price for being like this is working for the government, so now I have to take shady jobs about killing demons from the government."

She holds up her hands in a shrug and takes a big bite from another sweet.

"So, yeah. I've been sent around the globe on these dumb jobs. I was in India for a few weeks before coming back here. I have to say, I definitely prefer Japan to all the places I've been though."

Umi couldn't believe she was talking about all of this as if it was nothing. The amount of information she had received was overloading her mind.

Demons? Demon blood? Government jobs? What the hell is going on!?

So many thoughts whirled around in her mind that she couldn't possibly sort them all out that quickly. How could her whole world be flipped upside down in just one moment.

"Honoka… it's not that I don't believe you, but what the hell? And why didn't you come to us sooner? Actually, you said you didn't even plan on reaching out to me today."

"Now, now, calm down, Umi-chan. Another price I paid for this… is that I'm dead. Well, to almost everybody else in the world, Hanayo-chan and I are dead. In fact, I'm pretty sure I could get into a lot of trouble if they find out that we're talking. I'm afraid that they'll punish you guys too if we associate too much, so I didn't want to reach out. But I really was outside of Japan up until two days ago. And even then, we had a job right outside of Kyoto, so we couldn't come back to Tokyo for a bit."

She looks down suddenly, a genuinely sad look in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Umi-chan. I don't want to make you think this has been easy for us, either. I wanted…" Tears started to stream down her face suddenly. "I wanted… to see everything through. I wanted… to be in μ's with everybody. I… I…"

Umi sighed, realizing a bit that, given the circumstances she's heard, it really wasn't her fault. She stood and walked around the table, leaned down and hugged her dear friend.

"Umi…chan…"

Honoka returned the hug and bawled into her shoulder.

"I didn't want this! I just… I want to be with everybody… I want to see everybody smiling… Everybody crying is just wrong!"

"It's okay, Honoka. It's not your fault." Umi gently ran her hands along the girl's hair, holding her close. "I'm just glad that you're alive."

"Umi-chan…!"

After Honoka calmed down, she dropped a few bills that could have paid for over three times what they ate and stood to leave.

"Ah, that was good. Looks like the rain is starting to lighten up too, but it's still pouring. Eh?" Honoka reaches into her pocket and takes out her cellphone. "Hello? Eh? Again? We just got here two days ago… Fine… Yeah, yeah. Buy me a cake or something later, Hime-chan." She hangs up and shoves the phone back into her pocket, turning back to her friend.

"Is something the matter, Honoka?" Umi already had a feeling about what it was, but she wanted to hear it.

"Ahaha… well, you see, turns out I have a job right now. Sorry about this, Umi-chan. I've gotta go grab Hanayo-chan so we can take care of this. Ah, but! Let me see your phone, I'll give you my new number."

Umi hesitantly hands over her phone, but it only takes Honoka a few seconds to enter her info before handing it back to her friend.

"It's under 'Hirose Chihaya.' That's the new name they gave me since Honoka is supposed to be dead." She shrugged as if it's nothing. "Anyways, call me later or something. If we're sneaky, maybe we can get lunch together!"

"Honoka!"

Umi yelled out to her friend, but the orange-haired girl sprinted from the store and down the street.

"Honoka…"

Honoka flipped open her phone and pressed the button to connect her to her friend. "Hanayo-chan? Mm. They dumped another mission on us. I'm on my way to the station. Wait for me there, I'll be about two minutes."

A short sigh escaped her mouth. It would be hell to explain to Hanayo that she had spoken with Umi. And not because they weren't supposed to, but because she would be upset that she hadn't come along. Honoka had a feeling she would never hear the end of it.

Soon after she found herself in front of the station and, sure enough, Hanayo was already there, waving her over.

"W-Where are we going?" Hanayo asked as the two start running.

"It's actually relatively close-by. However, Hime-chan said it was just a detection, so it might not even be actively attacking or anything. But that's better for us if it isn't. If we can find it when it's not already pissed off and killing somebody, we should have an easy time."

"R-Right!"

They ran along the streets until they got to a relatively more abandoned side street with no people. Hanayo took the lead, nervously glancing down each alley until finally coming to a stop.

She pointed down the alley slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible.

"Sorry, but I'll need to borrow your eyes for a bit, Hanayo-chan. Just stay at the entrance of the alley once I have them."

"Mm! I know." Hanayo held out her hands and a faint blue thread slowly reached out from Honoka until it's in her hand. Honoka closed her eyes. "I offer my heart."

Without opening her eyes, Honoka can see again, but she saw her own body. Almost like an out of body experience, it would throw off anybody who's not used to it. But Honoka and Hanayo had fought together many times.

Honoka tapped her chest once then held her hand out. A flash of light appeared in her palm and when she closed her hand, it closes around a katana in a bright orange sheath with yellow flowers strewn about the length. She brought the katana to her side and placed one hand on the hilt as she slowly moved into the alley.

Now that she saw through Hanayo's eyes, she could see it. A disgusting creature with warped bluish-gray skin. It stood at least two meters tall with unnaturally long arms. The hands at the end of those arms had razor sharp claws that extended farther than the girl's forearm. Black horns stuck out from the things head and that grotesque head turned to leer at her with dark spaces where the eyes should be.

Hanayo moved up to the entrance way to give Honoka as much of a view of the situation as possible.

"Honoka-chan…"

"Don't worry. I'll end it quickly. Just like I was taught. This demon is at most a D rank. I'll destroy it in one stroke."

Despite having killed hundreds of demons of this rank, Hanayo still got nervous when Honoka fought literally anything. Though it didn't really bother her, she wished for Hanayo's sake that she could keep it together.

The demon opened its large maw, an inhuman guttural noise coming forth. Hell, no animal is even capable of making a sound like that.

GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Honoka took a deep breath and let it out, telling herself to stay calm. As long as she was calm, there was a zero percent chance of her losing to this thing. She gripped the hilt tighter as she continued to slowly close in. But the demon had other plans. It turned on it's claw-like feet and started to dash at her, the ground underneath it breaking apart under the pressure.

"Four seasons, winter style, 5th blade…"

The monstrous creature reached her just as she finished speaking and swept one of its long claws straight through the girl. Or rather, straight through what seemed to be the girl. Right after its claw passed through, the image of the girl vanished.

Honoka appeared above it, her back facing the ground. She drew her sword from the sheath and before the demon could even register what had happened: "Shimmer." The girl spun a 180 bringing her sword around and straight through the demon's neck, beheading it in an instant. She landed behind it and swung her sword towards the ground, spraying the black blood of the demon onto the ground.

Honoka opened her eyes, breaking the connection between her and Hanayo. She let out a sigh as she sheathed the katana.

"Well, just as I thought, it ended quickly."

Hanayo breathed a sigh of relief as she ran up to her friend.

"I'll call the cleanup crew!" She said, taking out her phone.

"Yeah, thanks." In a flash of light, the katana in the girl's hand vanished and she and her friend walked out of the alley. "Now then, let's go get some cake, shall we?"

"Eh? Cake? I-I-…"

"Come on, Hanayo-chan. Besides, I might have gotten us in a hell of a predicament earlier so I thought you might want to know about it, but I guess not…"

Honoka walked forward through the rain and turned back to her friend, a mischievous smirk on her face. And then she took off running.

"Honoka-chan!" Hanayo yelled out as she took off after her.

Yeah, so I this just came to mind the other day, so I figured I would try out a first chapter to see how it turned out. I think it turned out alright, so thanks for reading.

Till next time. Be seeing you.