Chapter 1
Honami was no stranger to weird dreams. She frequently had nightmares about so many different things— apocalypses, people beating her up, Ichika and Shiho— and just overall strange dreams— like the one where Kanade had ran several frogs over with a bicycle before the frogs came back to life and tried to attack her, only to fail— but this one was something entirely different.
Thousands of cinnabar moths had surrounded her, trying to say something to her she couldn’t quite make out, only to merge into an outfit of sorts, one that Honami wouldn’t dream of wearing as not to draw any attention to herself. There was something just particularly, comfortably off about THIS dream. Something she couldn’t put down.
After waking up, she remembered the dream vividly, like she had lived through it. It was a Saturday, and despite her good sleep, she was still fatigued, so she was glad there wasn’t school today. She would be meeting Kanade later, and wanted to have just a bit of energy, so she made sure to eat breakfast. She didn’t often, but today, she felt like having something in her stomach might not be a terrible idea today for whatever reason.
Honami put on a black undershirt, a blue top and white jacket thrown over it. She chose a pair of gray tights and a pale brown skirt as well. She did her hair, brushed her teeth, tried to take care of her skin (but failed at doing so— she never seemed to be able to keep the face wash out of her eyes), and got a few things tidied up around her room.
There on the windowsill was a moth. How odd… first the dream, now this! Maybe she had woken up in the middle of the night, saw the moth, and got the dream from there. That would make a lot of sense, so that was probably what happened. When she attempted to flick it off her window, it just climbed onto her hand. She was never one for insects, but this didn’t freak her out at all. It was so soft and small and non-threatening that it really wasn’t a big deal.
The moth flew away after a few minutes, and Honami checked the time. It was 9:37… she had to be at Kanade’s by 10:00, so she walked over to her mother’s room, who was very much willing to give her driver’s license free daughter a drive to her work. Honami grabbed her bag of things needed to go to Kanade’s, and got into the car. She didn’t really say anything about the dream to her mom in the car— it would be awkward. She made it to Kanade’s house soon, and got out.
She pulled out the broom from beside Kanade’s fridge after entering, beginning to clean up the dust. When it clumped together, Honami could swear it looked like moths. Maybe her brain was predisposed to seeing them in everything after that dream. It was still lingering in her brain, and she kept on seeing moths. Everywhere. It brought her a comfort of sorts, though. The moths weren’t there to hurt her.
Honami continued dusting and removing trash off the floor. It was almost pleasing to her, the satisfaction of the cleaning. She didn’t generally go into Kanade’s room, because Kanade was almost certainly working. She’d knock on the door once she made tea and soup for Kanade, though. Returning the broom, she grabbed a duster, walking towards a lamp. After she had dusted that lamp, she moved to another one.
After Honami had dusted the lamps, she turned one on, and stared at it for about a minute before realizing she needed to continue her chores. She turned the lamp off and walked into Kanade’s kitchen, beginning to prepare soup and boiling water for tea. Time passed so fast, Honami felt just a bit out of it. She poured the tea into a cup, and the soup into a bowl, and placed them on Kanade’s table. She poured a cup of tea for herself, too, and got a bowl of soup for herself.
Honami walked downstairs, opening Kanade’s door. Kanade wasn’t composing, surprisingly enough, but had managed to fall asleep. Honami walked into her room and sat down in her chair, waiting for Kanade to wake up. She’d go to bed for two hours or so, and would get back up for a few hours, only to go back to bed again. Aware of this habit, Honami pulled out a book and began reading.
When Kanade eventually woke up, she saw Honami. She tried to say something to the younger girl, but it all came out as word slop. “Lunch is ready.” Honami informed her. Kanade nodded.
“Can you help me get up the uhh— stairs?” Kanade asked. “CFS is kicking my ass…”
Honami nodded, helping Kanade make her way up the stairs and helped her sit down at the table.
“Thanks for doing this all for me…” Kanade said. She began drinking the tea. “It’s really hard for me to make food… or remember to eat… or do much of anything… so I really appreciate it.”
“It’s fine. I don’t mind it. I like it a lot.” Honami smiled.
“I had a dream about you… I think there was a moth involved, too. It was blurry, though, so I can’t remember most of it.”
“That reminds me…”
“I had a really weird dream where there were thousands of moths and they all clustered… they tried to tell me something. I couldn’t make it out, though. They all swirled into a dress… it was strange, to say the least. It was oddly comforting, though.” Honami said, looking to an illuminated lamp on the side. There was a moth at Kanade’s window, too. A cinnabar moth. The same kind that had haunted her dream.
“I had a dream sort of like that once. There were broken plants, though. I think they were succulents?”
“Succulents? I think I had one once.” Honami brought up.
“Yeah…”
As Honami and Kanade carried on their small talk, the clock hit 2. Honami’s pickup time. She bid farewell to the older girl, and made it home safely, with even more moths approaching her.
When Honami made her way into her room, she was reminded about the homework she had to do today. She pulled out a pencil, eraser, and grabbed her phone and a pair of earbuds. Opening her music app, she went to go and find her study playlist, only to be greeted by a song she swore she didn’t download… “Gasou — Yugica”. Oh well. She’d listen to it later.
She went through her math homework, then her Japanese, then her English, then her biology, and finally, her physics homework. She always did it in that order. It was interrupted by her supper, which Honami tried to eat as quickly as possible as to get back to her homework. By the time she had finished it all, it was 8:17 pm. Maybe she’d have time to listen to the song now.
After listening one time through… she had a splitting headache. And then… Something came to her. The moths were there to help her. She needed to find someone her senior… and whoever this senior was, they were inevitably already known by Honami, and they would out at 10:30 pm around that cafe with the good apple pies. Honami just needed to make sure she stayed in the form she had currently for now as not to be picked up on— whatever that meant.
Around 9:45, Honami left the house. She had told her parents that Kanade had called her for something important… although that was a lie, her parents brought her to Kanade’s house. After Honami walked in and their car had left, she exited Kanade’s house, locking the door. She began walking to the cafe she liked. It was a 15 minute walk, no? That shouldn’t be too bad… she would make it there by 10:15 or so, which would leave 15 minutes for her to be able to buy something.
As Honami walked, she made sure to stay in well lit areas. Often, the moths hanging around the lights would come down to Honami, fogging her from anyone who would see her. It made her feel a lot safer walking alone in the middle of the night, even if she was in a rather dense area. They kept on clouding around her until she reached the cafe.
Honami ordered an apple pie, staying inside the cafe until 10:25. As soon as she left, the moths began to fog her again. She started overhearing a few people talking nearby, and saw four shadowy figures that seemed to line up to the location of the voices. Two of them sounded oddly familiar, but Honami couldn’t seem to put her finger on who they were… but she seemed to be getting their attention somewhat.
“Hey. Enanan. It’s a three quarter moon, right?”
“Amia, look up. You have eyeballs! It’s obviously one!”
“Stop arguing. We won’t be getting anywhere with you two acting like this. Especially since we’re unsure of if that is a shadow proper or just a swarm of moths.”
“I’ve never seen moths swarm before… I think you’re wrong, Yuki.”
“We’ll have to wait for Enanan to use her light abilities.”
Honami felt a panic of sorts… before something she would’ve never thought possible happened. Hundreds of thousands of moths suddenly stormed in front of her, stampeding the group of four. After a second of realizing what had happened, and how she had done that… they all seemed to fly off the four, two of which who had fallen over. One of the others was grasping for balance, and one was pressed up against the alleyway wall.
“I-I’m so sorry!” Honami exclaimed, walking towards them, trying to help them up. She somehow still could just barely see them. They were far more shadowed than if they were just in the alley, and Honami thought two of them looked very very familiar, but couldn’t put a finger on who they were. It unnerved her a bit, and the minute of silence was broken by a small mutter.
[ You’re always so grim, it hurts. ]
The four of them were unobscured, and their faces were revealed. Honami definitely knew two of them, but didn’t seem to be able to connect their faces and voices to an identity, like they had been severed somehow. “Holy SHIT! Was that you?!” One of them— the one with dark brown hair, presumably Enanan— asked.
“Um, yeah.” Honami gulped. “Sorry. It was an accident and you were talking about me so I panicked and I—“
Honami was interrupted by the one with purple hair. “We can confirm with certainty you’re not a shadow now. That was a level of magic only possible from an uncontrolled knight.” Yuki stated. It was almost like all expression had been sucked out of her voice, and she seemed rather disinterested. “That was almost as impressive as when l got repeatedly stabbed with several thousand shards of glass.”
“Don’t remind me of that!” The pink haired one, who Honami assumed to be Amia, retorted.
The only member who hadn’t spoken thus far had spoken up. She was still lying on the ground, unable to get up, and looked so familiar, Honami SWORE she knew someone with that face and hair. “Enanan, Amia, Yuki— if you want to, you can revert to out of costume. I think I know her. Your name is Honami, right?” Honami nodded in response.
[ Which version of the truth? ]
The disguise of the white haired girl was taken off. It was obvious now to Honami that she was Kanade. But what the hell was Kanade doing here? And with three other girls who seemingly had no connection to her... “It’s me. I’ll explain everything to you in a bit. Yuki, Enanan, Amia, why don’t you go off and do something? If you’re going to stay here, you may as well revert and help me out with explaining things to Honami here.”
“I’ll go.” Yuki said. “Amia, Enanan, which one of you wants to stay, and which one of you wants to come.”
“I’ll come with you~” Amia teased. “Quick intro though! I’m Amia, they/them/theirs, that’s Yuki, she’s not particularly picky about what pronouns you use on him. I’m assuming you already know K, and Enanan is sure to introduce herself to you. Anyways, bye-bye!” Honami felt it was mere seconds before the both of them disappeared.
[ O cyclic moon, reveal to me your stagnant ways. ]
Enanan reverted into her normal form, which was honestly more exciting than her “knight” one. “Just call me Ena. She/her. I think me and Kanade have a bit more than a bit of explaining to do.”