Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Shiori hated the testing facility.

She’d been here as long as she could remember. It was the fate of almost everyone who, as the empire put it, ‘defied the laws of the natural world’, and every single day that passed was one day closer to getting out, hopefully.

Of course, Shiori wasn’t entirely sure how she was going to do that. Her chamber was a bland, featureless room in which she could be observed through a one-way mirror, aside from the occasional times they brought her out to force ‘compliance’ with the law.

This particular facility housed five inmates, she remembered. She was one of them, and unlike the others, she wasn’t necessarily here for her powers.

She was here for her knowledge.

Knowledge of unknown things that defied logic. Knowledge of topics that the empire wanted to have their hands on.

Knowledge of subjects that could potentially either harm or help the empire.

She heard a scream from another chamber. The facility rooms were theoretically soundproof, but in practice there were a pair of test subjects that had a pretty impressive scream, one that often penetrated the walls of the facility.

It was the worst sound in the world, as far as Shiori was concerned. She had no idea why the pair was screaming, but it was not a good kind of scream.

Shiori looked at her own arms, looking at the scars of electrical burns from her last ‘testing session’. They didn’t hurt too much now, but Shiori also had a slightly freakish pain tolerance, and she could easily imagine someone younger or more vulnerable reacting badly to being put through the tests.

On the flipside, they’d commonly given her promises. If she spoke, she could go free. If she spoke, she’d be given gifts and perhaps a surprisingly comfy life outside of the facility.

For some test subjects, the ‘tests’ were legitimate, an exploration of what their powers could do and how they could be utilized. Shiori knew that for her, the tests were just to see if she’d break and talk about things for the good of only the empire and not of anyone else.

And so, she refused, defying both the carrots and the sticks. She refused to speak, letting her silence be a weapon of defiance against the empire.

Test Subject: Shiori Novella

Abilities: Fast reader, potential wielder of countless powerful magical spells as long as they’re written knowledge. Has knowledge about the ancient ones, potentially can wield a powerful form of void magic, though has never demonstrated it.

Containment Protocol: Without any spellcasting implement, she’s an ordinary human, as far as we’re aware. A simple isolation cell will keep her contained.

Testing Protocol: Do whatever it takes to coerce an answer out of her. Break her if necessary, but keep in mind that positive incentive-based approaches may be more successful.

Other Notes: DO NOT RISK KILLING THE TEST SUBJECT, THE KNOWLEDGE IS TOO IMPORTANT TO LOSE.

Bijou was tired of the testing facility.

Her room was dark, and the only times she got to see anything were when they ran tests.

Bijou wasn’t even sure what the tests were for. In most cases, she walked out into a brightly lit room with a big mirror, stood around confused, and then put back into isolation, as if she was a shiny trinket that people wanted to show off instead of a person.

They gave her food, though, so at least there was that.

It would be an uneventful but otherwise fine day if it weren’t for the fact that another pair of inmates occasionally screamed.

The screams were always painful. Bijou had an uncanny ability to process people’s emotions, and she always felt a combination of fear, pain, and also guilt in those screams.

Test Subject: Koseki Bijou

Abilities: When in the presence of Bijou, other people tend to be unable to control themselves and will often submit to her out of, for lack of a better term, ‘preciousness’. She also has the ability to be highly aware of the emotions of surrounding people, but it’s a subconscious ability that has proven hard to isolate in a testing environment. In addition to that, Her gem-like nature causes lights to shine brilliantly in accordance with her mood; she’s said to shine like the sun when happy, though if this is true then she has not been happy for quite a while.

Containment Protocol: Isolate her in a room with as little light as possible, to avoid refracting light through her gem-like nature, thus suppressing her preciousness-activated abilities. Without visibility, her abilities will not natively activate.

Testing Protocol: Take Bijou out of the containment area while interacting with her as little as possible to avoid emotional overflow. Once in a testing chamber, make sure she stays physically isolated from the testing faculty while the other portion of the test subjects take their positions in the observation area to note the results.

Other Notes: DO NOT DIRECTLY OBSERVE THE GEM UNLESS IN A TEST, TESTING FACULTY MAY FALL VICTIM TO HER ABILITIES.

Nerissa Ravencroft hated the facility, too.

For her, it was much simpler than with the others. She just wanted to sing. And she did a fair amount of singing while trapped in her isolation chamber in the facility. It was surprisingly cozy, if bland and featureless.

But it wasn’t the same. She wanted to sing like she once watched idols do. She wanted to sing like a person who wasn’t trapped in a testing facility, having her abilities monitored and put through pointless test after pointless test to see what she could do, especially since her abilities had been weakened significantly.

What she hated about her chamber was that it was infuriatingly soundproof. She heard absolutely nothing about what was going on outside.

She sighed. It made sense, as her main ability was to drive people to madness with her singing. Of course her cell would be totally soundproof, as otherwise all testing would have the obvious confound of her voice manipulating the observers.

She wondered how many days it was going to be until she was free. She hoped it wasn’t going to be forever.

And so, she chose to be optimistic, to believe that there was an end to these featureless days.

Test Subject: Nerissa Ravencroft

Abilities: Ability to drive people to madness with her singing while at full power. In addition to that, she seems to have the ability to manipulate sound waves and possesses a strong affinity for magic as long as it’s sound-related. While weakened due to an unknown incident, her sonic manipulation abilities are still fairly strong.

Containment Protocol: her room is to be completely and totally soundproof, as without being able to project her voice outside the cell, she’s effectively powerless and entirely isolated.

Testing Protocol: All testing handlers are required to wear noise-canceling headphones while in communication with one another during any tests being run on this subject. Do not listen to her, as her voice may be used as a tool to aid in her escape. Record the audio feed from the testing area after the fact to review any results from the tests. Again: DON’T listen to her directly. Otherwise, standard testing protocol applies.

Other Notes: DO listen to the compiled recordings of her voice if you have the time. Despite all the warnings, she’s quite a nice singer.

Fuwawa and Mococo had gotten used to their lives at the facility.

They had been thrown into a single containment cell together, and for the most part they were grateful to have that much. Their cell was a dreary place, but as long as they had each other they knew they could handle it.

They hated the tests, and they dreaded every single test day, and it was for a very simple reason: they were, in many cases, separated from one another. This made it pretty easy to see what they were testing: their sympathetic instincts for one another, even while separated.

Mococo was the first to be subject to it, when they had dragged Fuwawa out of the containment area for the two without her for the first time. She had already been worried about it, until she suddenly started feeling really cold, which was to onlookers a little odd since the room hadn’t dropped in temperature.

For Mococo, she knew exactly why the cold had hit her: wherever they had taken Fuwawa was a fair bit chillier, and she was sympathetically sharing the sensation of freezing.

Another thing they had found out was that, when both of them were deliberately drugged on hallucinogens, they tended to share the hallucination and see the same things. They had not found this out willingly, but nonetheless had found it out.

And then came the pain.

Fuwawa ended up being on the other side of this situation, where she had been left in the cell while Mococo was being tested. After several minutes, Fuwawa heard Mococo scream, which was accompanied by her body practically spasming with pain as she nearly collapsed to the ground, sympathetically responding to Mococo’s non-lethal electrocution in the testing area.

“Mococo is misbehaving. We apologize for the pain this is causing you.”

“You aren’t sorry at all! You’re literally testing this! You know! You know how much this hurts both of us!”

She got up, the pain subsiding as anger and adrenaline both practically flooding her body. Having not actually been injured, she was still fully able and ready to strike out.

She snarled, and then conjured a set of claws from her hands, before lashing out at the one-way mirror that she knew was a window for the observers, slamming her claws into it to absolutely no avail.

“Stop hurting my sister! Stop it right now!”

“You will be scheduled for the next test.”

“I don’t care! I won’t let you hurt Moco-chan anymore!”

When Mococo was returned to their cell, Fuwawa embraced her twin sister, crying as she did so.

“I’m sorry I can’t protect you…”

“No, I misbehaved on purpose. They would’ve done it to you otherwise.”

“Then let me protect you next time… please.”

Test Subjects: Fuwawa Abyssgard and Mococo Abyssgard

Abilities: The most straightforward abilities are the ability to conjure a set of claws from their hands, abnormal speed and strength, and a very keen canine-like sense of smell. The unique set of abilities that mandates a unique set of tests is informally known as ‘twin-stinct’, as in, a strange form of instinctual awareness that relates to one another. In addition, their general physical abilities seem to be amplified in the presence of one another.

Containment Protocol: Owing to the fact that the subjects get very erratic and moody when separated, it is best to keep both of them together as part of their containment protocol to keep them relatively pacified. When testing separation abilities via ‘twin-stinct’ it is recommended to return the missing sister to their shared containment room after testing has concluded.

Testing Protocol: When testing their amplified twin abilities, aside from the fact that there are two of them, standard testing protocol applies. When testing ‘twin-stinct’, the containment area will double as a testing area. Remove one of the twins from the containment area, and then conduct the test in the testing area while simultaneously observing the containment area. Make sure that both twins are isolated during the test; otherwise their desire to comfort one another may cause them to lash out violently against the testing faculty.

Other Notes: They seem to be acting aggressively. Despite how much they clearly hate being tested, their behavior seems to indicate that they want more testing, to the point where it’s resulting in blocking tests from other subjects as tests are forcibly administered as a disciplinary tool. In addition to this, despite being two different test subjects, for all administrative intents and purposes, both Fuwawa and Mococo can be considered together as if they were a single test subject.

Chapter Text

A minivan pulled up to the parking lot of the facility, directly in front of the main entrance.

A young woman with blond hair, blue eyes, and a detective’s outfit gets out of the minivan, and then into the facility.

“It’s gonna be such a pain to transfer all of this, but I suppose if you want a job done right…”

Shiori was getting confused.

She was used to being punished. The ‘tests’ were designed to break people, and served both scientific and disciplinary purposes. For Shiori, who had been wielding her silence as a weapon against her captors, she figured it was inevitable they’d ramp up their efforts to hurt her more.

But the opposite was happening: they were testing her less often as time went on.

Shiori would’ve been relieved if she hadn’t figured out exactly why this was the case: someone else was taking her place.

The fact that there were multiple inmates at the facility wasn’t a surprise in the slightest. In fact, it made perfect sense, given the size of the place.

What was a little more surprising was how understaffed it was. She saw her captors on occasion while being tested - i.e. tortured - but given the likely inmate power levels, the defenses against keeping both her and the others locked up were surprisingly automated and robotic in nature.

What this meant was that if someone was behaving aggressively to the point of requiring disciplinary action, the testing crews would be too busy focusing on them to have time to test anyone else.

Another scream, muffled by distance and architecture, rang throughout the facility and into Shiori’s containment cell.

Despite the fact it meant her relative safety, she hated hearing the screams. She found herself making a silent promise: if she was getting out of here, she would break out with her fellow inmates. Nobody would be escaping alone. Judging by the understaffed nature of the facility, if she could find any flaw in their containment mechanism, it would be easy to escape. She just needed her opening.

And that was when she heard someone talking.

“It makes sense, really. You don’t want to keep your powerful magical artifacts locked up in the same place as the people who are good at using them. This should be the last trip, though.”

“Hey!” Shiori cheerfully exclaimed, “I don’t think we’ve met!”

The detective walked up to the door to Shiori’s cell.

“Well, hello then. I’m Amelia Watson, the empire’s royal detective.”

She turned to face someone else that Shiori couldn’t see.

“This is the one?”

“Isn’t it risky to talk to her?” Another voice from someone Shiori couldn’t see asked.

“I’ll close the door behind me.” Amelia answered casually.

A few seconds of silence later, and Shiori heard something heavy being put down, followed by the door opening. Amelia walked through it, followed by closing the cell door behind her.

“Alright. You’ve been difficult for the empire, from what I’ve heard. I’d like to imagine that you’re better than that, but-”

“I’m not, trust me. If anything, I’m surprised you’ve sealed yourself in a room with a known ‘dangerous lunatic’, as the empire calls me.”

Amelia sighed.

“Yeah, the label was administrative. I don’t believe you’re actually like that; you’re just being annoying. That said, I think the empire is wrong for a different reason.”

“Oh?”

“I mean, yes, I can threaten you and say that you will be immediately tested if you try anything in this cell, but the reality is-”

And that was as far as Amelia got before Shiori punched her, knocking her down.

Amelia blinked, in a daze from the hit.

“Ugh… the worst part is that I knew you were going to do that, and I’m still surprised somehow…”

Amelia got up, looking at Shiori’s determined grin.

“Try me.” Shiori spoke with an edge of anger to her voice. “I’m not scared!”

Amelia smirked.

“Fine by me. Guards, can we schedule a test right now?”

The shuffling of feet was heard, while Amelia got to her feet.

Shiori grinned. If her prediction was right…

The cell door opened. And at that moment, Shiori charged, immediately knocking one guard over, and then turning her eyes to her real prize: A crate full of magical weapons that Amelia had carelessly left in front of Shiori’s cell.

She looked down at what was in front of her, and then her eyes caught it: a book. The front cover was blank, as if it was a more personal diary of some sort. And yet, what Shiori felt from it was incredible potential, waiting to be used.

This one’s mine.

And just like that, time seemed to resume.

Shiori held the book in one hand, and then raised her hand in the other. A surge of arcane power ran through her body and then through her hand, turning into a telekinetic blast of energy that knocked down the other guard.

Shiori turned around-

“Looking for me?” Amelia asked smugly holding onto her watch, “I’m afraid you haven’t escaped yet-”

Shiori raised her hand and attempted to blast Amelia away, only to find Amelia somehow had moved out of the way, somehow appearing behind her.

“Yeah, I’m not interested in getting beaten up. So, if you-”

And then Shiori simply ran away from Amelia.

“Right.” Amelia muttered, “She can just do that. Hmm, I might have to be careful.”

Shiori ran through the wing that housed four other inmates.

She wasn’t sure what the book had done, but wielding it was giving Shiori a feeling of empowerment, a feeling like she could do whatever she wanted.

And what she wanted to do was bust everyone out of this horrid place once and for all. She had two options: try to find a way to open the doors, or break them open via magically-assisted force.

The first thing Bijou was aware of was a very loud BANG!

The second thing was the door to her cell being cleanly torn off its hinges by some sort of magical force, the light from the hallway flooding in and lighting the interior of her cell.

Bijou smiled, and then ran out of her cell and into the hallway.

Nerissa noticed something was up a little later, only noticing when the door to her cell was suddenly no longer closed or in fact attached to the wall at all. The removal of the door granted her access to the commotion going on outside, which made her smile.

Well, that’s one end to the monotony of life at the facility.

Shiori looked behind her as the third door was forced open, followed quickly by Fuwawa and Mococo joining the group that was now making a beeline for the entrance.

The five suddenly found themselves in front of Amelia Watson, as the detective simply appeared in front of them, once again holding on to her watch.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t escape from me that-”

Nerissa interrupted her with a shout, a sudden roar that immediately stunned Amelia. At the same time, she deliberately manipulated the acoustics of the shout to make it so the sound was far quieter to her fellow inmates, watching as Amelia instinctively covered her ears.

Wait, if I’m covering my ears-

And that was where Amelia realized her mistake: she no longer had her hand on her watch, giving Nerissa the opportunity to pick her up and pin her to the wall, all while she kept singing a lullaby.

You’ve gotta… stay awake… at… all… costs…

Amelia lost consciousness, her body sliding down and resting against the wall.

The five inmates found themselves at the entrance, only to find that rather than a door there, instead was a metal wall that was entirely covering the exit.

“I thought this was the exit!” Bijou shouted.

“It is.” Shiori replied calmly, “Unfortunately, this place has rather logically been placed on lockdown.”

She walked up to the wall, looked around, and then to the front desk, which was only covered by a thin metal grating.

“Can someone tear this down?”

“Yes we can!” Fuwawa and Mococo shouted in sync, followed by extending their claws and ripping apart the metal grating keeping the front desk safe.

Shiori sat down in front of it, and started analyzing the controls on it.

“I think I can override the lockdown from here.”

“Wait.” Nerissa interrupted, “I hear something coming.”

“Oh,” Shiori replied surprisingly casually, “those are probably the security bots that were too slow to catch up to us until we stalled here. I just need more time to mess with the panel here.”

“We’ll stall them.” Fuwawa spoke calmly, extending her claws. “Well, I will-”

“I’m going with you!” Mococo interrupted.

Shiori nodded, and continued trying to operate the panel at the front desk.

“What do you mean they’ve locked out the local machine here? This is-”

“They’re coming!” Bijou shouted, “I don’t wanna go back! I don’t wanna be thrown in the slammer again!”

“Don’t worry.” Fuwawa spoke calmly, “We are Fuwamoco, and we will protect your smiles!”

The first of the security bots rounded the corner. A humanoid construction made up the top half of the robot, with the bottom half being on treads. One of its arms was a normal looking arm, while the other looked like something much nastier, thrumming with some sort of power.

Fuwawa charged, and with impressive speed and ferocity, sunk her claws into the first robot, not even giving it a chance to fire before tearing it apart. Unfortunately, the second one that was directly behind it did have the chance to fire, and did so, revealing what the weapon actually was as the weapon fired a large lightning bolt that directly hit Fuwawa.

Fuwawa gasped from suddenly being in a huge amount of pain, collapsing to the ground. The second robot did not have a chance to fire a second time before Mococo tore through its body with her own claws.

“You will NOT hurt my sis-”

Mococo’s sentence was interrupted by being shocked by another robot.

And that was when they realized the hopelessness of the situation. There weren’t two security robots, but a veritable army of them, all of which raised their shock rifles and began firing at the target that was still standing.

Mococo didn’t notice, even as the next two cumulative electrocutions resulted in electrical burns from each shock, too incensed by protective rage. She tore through one bot, and then another. A third, fourth, and fifth shock pummeled her body thereafter, and finally pain overcame rage as she screamed.

Fuwawa got up again, and tore through another set of bots, before another two shocks hit in quick succession. Fuwawa and Mococo, in their last moments standing, grabbed onto one another, and then collapsed to the ground.

My friends, Mococo thought as she lost consciousness, I hope you’ll smile without us…

Mococo woke up, keeping her eyes closed, and unsure about her location. What she was sure of was that she was currently seated, and that she was leaning into Fuwawa’s side.

“Fuwawa…” Mococo whined, “it hurts… but… do you think they got out…?”

“Technically, yes.” Shiori answered, “But I think a better question is whether or not we escaped. Together.”

Fuwawa stirred.

“I hear… other girls… Mococo, I like this dream…”

“I mean,” Nerissa continued, “I understand why girls are exciting, but I think you two need to open your eyes.”

Mococo opened her eyes, and suddenly realized that she was not, in fact, at the facility, but was instead riding in the backseat of a minivan with Fuwawa on her right side and Bijou on her left.

“You’re awake!” Bijou shouted, “I thought we couldn’t save you and then Shiorin got mad and did the crazy magic thing and then we stole this minivan-”

“To make a long story short,” Shiori interrupted from the driver’s seat, “We escaped together.”

Amelia woke up.

“Ugh… wait, where are my car keys?”

Chapter Text

Fuwawa and Mococo’s eyes widened at the revelation that not only had they successfully protected their friends, they somehow escaped, despite being unconscious.

“I thought…” Fuwawa muttered painfully, “we got zapped by the things and…”

“Yes,” Shiori commented, “but why are you surprised we helped you get out?”

“I thought you’d have to escape without us…” Mococo replied.

And just like that, the two of them felt the atmosphere darken as Shiori’s voice suddenly dropped.

“After what you two had gone through, I would’ve thrown myself back into the facility if it would get you two out. You are not doing anything like that again, okay?”

Fuwawa whined, still feeling the pain from her earlier electrical burns and not wanting to aggravate the wounds further.

“We’re… supposed to protect people…”

Mococo nodded slowly.

“That’s why… we kept getting ourselves tested…”

“They’re not lying.” Nerissa spoke calmly, “I’ve read their case records and they routinely acted up to essentially sign up for being tested. You know that, right?”

“I know.” Shiori answered, “And that’s why I don’t want to let you two get hurt protecting us, because you already got hurt so much. Oh, right, you two were asleep when we introduced ourselves to one another; I suppose you two should know who we are. My name is Shiori Novella. I don’t actually have any special powers aside from knowing a lot of things. My magic is just the result of some handy magical artifacts I stole from the facility while getting out.”

“I’m Koseki Bijou! I have the ability to make people fight over me because I’m too good at being cute.”

“And I’m Nerissa Ravencroft, the Demon of Sound, which is also a good summary of my abilities.”

“I’m Fuwawa Abyssgard. We’re just really strong, and also have our claws.”

“...and I’m Mococo Abyssgard. We also have a bunch of weird powers where we can feel each other even without being close to one another.”

Nerissa nodded.

“Yeah, the case files say they were mostly testing that until they got annoyed and were just doing it as a disciplinary measure.”

“By hurting them.” Shiori added, “It’s probably for the best that Nerissa doesn’t let me read up on what they did to the two of you. I only heard the screaming all the way from my cell; I don’t want to imagine what caused it.”

Fuwawa frowned.

“...Sorry. They made sure not to kill us, but…”

Mococo whined, calmly resting her head on Fuwawa’s shoulder.

“It still hurts…”

“It looked like it hurt!” Bijou interrupted, “You got repeatedly zapped by the robots until Shiori flipped out and did the magic thing!”

Shiori sighed.

“I guess I need to explain how we got out of there, don’t we?”

Earlier…

Fuwawa and Mococo screamed as currents of electricity high enough to potentially kill an ordinary human ran through their bodies, until finally the two of them collapsed and lost consciousness.

Shiori froze, not even fiddling with the panel she was trying to hack into to disable the lockdown, while Bijou attempted to lightly shake her out of her daze.

That’s them.

That’s who this facility has been hurting so far along.

I…

I won’t let them throw their lives away for me. For anyone else.

“I will not let this be how our story ends.”

Shiori got up from the panel, spellbook on one hand and a raised outstretched palm in the other, facing the rest of the security bots that were at this point simply rolling over the bodies of the Abyssgard sisters. While doing so, she mentally started reciting a spell.

I don’t think my spellcasting is strong enough for this, but…

“And I won’t let it be how their story ends either!”

And with that, a massive bolt of pure-white lightning ripped through the rest of the bots, destroying all of them.

Shiori calmly walked over the wreckage to the bodies of Fuwawa and Mococo, injured and covered with electrical burns.

She put her hand down, feeling their heartbeats.

They’re still alive.

Nerissa ran over wordlessly, and picked Fuwawa’s body up, while Shiori did the same for Mococo.

Shiori looked at the closed metal lockdown door.

“I have a new manual override technique. Bijou, Nerissa, watch this.”

The metal door sealing off the front entrance was ripped apart, opening the way for three conscious inmates carrying two unconscious ones to walk through, right into the parking lot.

“There’s step one.” Shiori stated calmly, “Now, let’s see if-”

She then spotted a minivan parked directly in front of the building.

“There’s our getaway vehicle. I’ll admit, I don’t exactly have experience hotwiring a car, but it might be our best chance.”

“Oh, there’s no need to do anything like that.” Nerissa replied in an amused tone of voice, as she pulled out Amelia’s car keys from her pocket.

Shiori grinned, as did Nerissa.

“New plan: let’s get as far away from this place as we possibly can.”

“I’ll agree to that!” Bijou replied.

The unconscious bodies of Fuwawa and Mococo were placed in the back seat alongside Bijou, while Shiori took the steering wheel with Nerissa beside her, before quickly putting Amelia’s stolen car keys into the ignition and taking off, wanting to move away as soon as possible.

“...Are they okay?” Bijou asked.

Shiori sighed.

“Given that their bodies are covered in electrical burns and they were trampled by robots,  probably not. Those two deserve this so much more than I do. They really deserve so much more, but I suppose our newfound status as runaway fugitives is about as good as we can get.”

“You sound upset.” Nerissa commented. “You’re driving, so make sure to keep your eyes on the road.”

Shiori took a deep breath.

“Yeah. I am. Anyways, I suppose we should introduce ourselves.”

“Okay. I’m Koseki Bijou, the Jewel of Emotion.”

“I’m Nerissa Ravencroft, the Demon of Sound.”

“And I’m Shiori Novella, the forbidden archivist. Honestly, I think now’s a good time to be grateful for the most insane streak of luck I think we’ll ever get. I’m serious; if good luck is a limited resource, then I think we’ve used up all our lives’ luck supply on just what happened today.”

“Actually, that reminds me. How did you pull that off?” Nerissa asked.

“Well, it started when I realized royal detective Amelia Watson was here…”

“...of course, once I had the big scary forbidden magic tome in my hands, well, it’s a spellbook, casting spells from that is pretty easy. The luck required for her to both carelessly leave that open for me to steal and for her to open the door to my cell… and then there’s part two, where you stole Amelia’s car keys.”

Nerissa grinned.

“Turns out even though I can’t drive humans to total madness anymore, I still have most of my powers, and Amelia is, despite all outgoing appearances, an ordinary human. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to put her to sleep, but surprisingly she fell for it. From there, pickpocketing wasn’t exactly difficult. And then somehow our luck didn’t end there: Amelia was transporting a bunch of stuff. Including, most importantly, copies of all of our case files, which I have here, and… wow, this is awful to read. Shiori, Bijou, are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” Shiori answered, “Well, mostly fine. I heard the twins screaming a couple times, do you know what was up with that?”

“Yeah.” Nerissa answered back, “The two of them were just really annoying, apparently. They kept acting aggressively towards their captors, and were doing so repeatedly, even when threatened with more testing. In fact, according to the logs, they responded to threats by usually acting up and then getting in more trouble, to the point where one of the case notes reports the people running the tests getting annoyed because they’re constantly taking up the testing chambers. And they… did a lot.”

“Wait,” Bijou interjected, “does that mean they were getting tested in our places?”

Shiori frowned.

“I think if anyone has earned the right to never go back to the facility again, it’s the two of them.”

Nerissa nodded.

“They did so much for us, even before knowing our names. They put themselves in so much pain, just because it might’ve made our days easier. I don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re doing something nice for them, because if they’re going to talk about protecting our smiles then I think it’s only fair we try to protect their’s.”

Shiori nodded.

“Um,” Bijou stuttered, “I think they’re waking up.”

Mococo stirred, though kept her eyes closed.

In the present…

“So that’s how we got here.” Shiori finished. “I just want to know why you’d let yourself get hurt this badly for someone you’ve never met.”

“Better us than anyone else, right…?” Mococo muttered.

“Besides,” Fuwawa continued, “You… you saved us, it’s… it’s fair.”

“I don’t like seeing you in pain.” Shiori admitted, “And I know you’re trying to hide it but I know that you’re still hurt. Some of those security robots had their weapons charged to a point where they could’ve been lethal. You could’ve died. You could’ve died, and yet… you just…”

“We’re guardian dogs.” Fuwawa stated calmly, “And you broke us out, so… we thought it was worth it.”

“Fuwawa, Mococo,” Nerissa chimed in, “I get what you mean, but don’t try to argue with Shiori about this. If… if escaping came at the cost of sacrificing either of your lives, we wouldn’t have done it. And given what you went through, I’d argue that neither of you are going anywhere for the next little while.”

“Uh, thinking of going anywhere.” Bijou continued, “Shiori, where are we going?”

“As far away from the facility as possible.” Shiori answered bluntly.

“I think we’ll need a better plan if we want to stay away from the facility.” Nerissa added.

“That’s fair.” Shiori replied, “Our best chance of living a normal life involves getting on a ship to a different land, but the nearby port towns are almost certainly going to be watched. If we want to escape, we’re actually best off going exactly the opposite direction. As we’re now officially on the run, we now have a big issue: survival. Namely, food and money. I suppose we can sleep in the car for now, but we are kind of homeless.”

“Oh, let me worry about money.” Nerissa replied, “As long as we’re in any relatively big city, I should be able to get something going. Oh, and for the three in the back: I’m really sorry if the survival talk is depressing the mood.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Bijou answered, “We were going to have to talk about it eventually. I’m just curious what your plan is.”

“So am I.” Shiori continued, “We can stop at the upcoming city, but… what then?”

“I didn’t have an audience in my cell.” Nerissa mused, “But I still kept my singing voice in shape.  I think I can put that to good use. And then I’ll put whatever I get from that to good use, too.”

“I guess this means we’ll be in your debt.” Shiori commented.

Nerissa rolled her eyes.

“If I don’t owe you for breaking us all out in the first place then you don’t owe me for providing money. This story is one that we’ll write together, okay?”

Shiori smiled.

“I think that’s supposed to be my line. But you’re right.”

At the dead of night, Amelia Watson entered her apartment.

“Well, at least that car was empire property and not mine, but man, that was not a fun way to spend the last few hours. I can’t believe they weren’t willing to send anyone to pick me up.”

Amelia sighed.

“Okay, so I’m the reason they escaped. I should really know by now that not everything goes to plan, even for me.”

She looked at a map of the country.

“Now, where do I go…?”

Chapter Text

A minivan drove through the streets of a city, through the center of a bustling downtown. Not that it was particularly remarkable, as a bunch of other cars were also driving on those same streets, which contributed to why no one was going anywhere very quickly.

More remarkable were the five occupants of the car: Shiori in the driver’s seat, Nerissa beside her, and the trio of Bijou, Mococo and Fuwawa in the back.

“Oh, this is perfect.” Nerissa mused, “A place like this almost certainly has the kind of venue I’m looking for. Namely, one that still gets traffic, but probably doesn’t get attention from the kinds of authorities we really need to avoid. I think this town square is a little more public than I’d like, but I think right now people aren’t going to recognize us - an advantage we should make good use out of.”

Shiori nodded.

“I’ll let you find a good location after we park.. You can just come back to us after you’re done; if we’re missing, then that means that someone is chasing after us, so don’t hang around. I think the sisters in the back are still too injured to go anywhere on their own, so I’ll stay with them.”

“It… doesn’t hurt that much…” Mococo murmured.

“We’ll be fine alone…” Fuwawa followed.

“Convincing act.” Shiori replied bluntly.

“I think that’s our plan, then.” Nerissa replied, “Now I just need something to use as a tip jar, and we should be good to go.”

“Check the back once we find somewhere to park.” Shiori asked.

“Oh, right, there’s the box I found our case files in. There was more back there, so yeah, we’ll be-”

“Can I watch Nerissa?” Bijou interrupted.

Shiori and Nerissa both looked at Bijou.

“I mean,” Nerissa answered, “There’s no particular reason why not, as long as she can keep her powers in check.”

She grinned.

“That, and I don’t think she’ll need to worry about stealing the spotlight from me.”

A few minutes later…

Nerissa looked at what Amelia had left in the trunk.

“Yeah, there’s a box here with… looks like more case files. I’ll lump them together and then find a place.”

And with that, she placed the Advent case files into another box with more case files, and then took the now empty box with her.

Shiori smiled.

“Thanks, by the way. I know you’ll be splitting the income-”

“Don’t bother yourself about it too much.” Nerissa interrupted, “We’re making this work together or not at all.”

Shiori nodded.

“Alright. I’ll keep the others company.”

And with that, Nerissa left.

Shiori, on the other hand, looked at the stack of case files that were in the box. Curiosity getting the better of her, she picked up the box and moved it to Nerissa’s seat. She wanted desperately to know what the case files said about her and her newfound partners in crime, and plus it would give her something to do while waiting in the car for Nerissa to finish.

Her eyes widened at horror at reading the files. And yet, some part of her couldn’t stop reading, looking through what they had done to them.

Shiori had been tortured, looking for forbidden knowledge.

Bijou had been treated purely as an object of fascination, denied almost any semblance of humanity.

Nerissa had been denied purpose, constantly sealed away in soundproof rooms where her voice was never heard.

And the twins had gone through so much pain trying to grant even a shred of relief to the rest of them, as well as to each other.

Nerissa looked at the back seat, taking in the peaceful image of two dog girls sleeping, finding comfort in leaning their bodies against one another.

“We’ll find somewhere for you. I swear we will.”

And then she flipped to the next page.

Wait, these logs include Amelia’s conversation with… who’s this?

Bijou watched a box of tips that started the performance empty quickly fill up as Nerissa unleashed her singing voice upon the underground venue they were at.

Some part of Bijou wished that Nerissa had the opportunity to sing at a real concert hall, a place with real acoustics and an audience that traveled to see her specifically rather than just tipping due to being in the area.

Granted, despite the circumstances, people were tipping generously, which Bijou supposed she had to be grateful for. As far as Bijou was concerned, Nerissa deserved it, both morally and for the sheer vocal talent she possessed.

Another figure who happened to be in the area looked at the performer, and blinked in surprise.

Hmm… you don’t look like you’re from around here.

Shiori kept reading the transcript of a conversation she was sure she was not meant to see.

AMELIA: You understand why the empire’s so interested in you, of course.

SUBJECT 4: Yeah, I know. Harvesting a reaper’s powers would be useful. Probably means they can conquer absolutely everyone and nobody could stop them.

AMELIA: So you understand why we want you. Understand that if you took up a position with us, you could potentially hold one of the most prestigious positions in the empire. You’d become a person of actual power.

SUBJECT 4: Yeah, I’m not interested in causing death to anyone who’s not supposed to die. I might be a powerful tool for bringing death to people, but I’m not being anyone else’s tool.

AMELIA: You do understand that, if you don’t cooperate, eventually we’re going to figure out how to harvest your powers? Trust me, you don’t want to still be defiant when we figure that out.

SUBJECT 4: Good luck. Actually, no, I wish the worst luck; I hate you. If you think you can really get your hands on a reaper’s powers, well, that’s a good joke.

AMELIA: With an attitude like that, I’m surprised you haven’t escaped already.

SUBJECT 4: Dammit, Ame, don’t play that game with me. We both know the reason why I haven’t run away.

AMELIA: I do?

SUBJECT 4: Yeah.

AMELIA: That’s odd. I would’ve thought a reaper would be harder to contain than a phoenix.

SUBJECT 4: Wait, what?

AMELIA: But I guess you learn something new everyday. That said, I believe this will be my last conversation with you for a little while, as I’m actually collecting some case files from another set of test subjects.

SUBJECT 4: Dammit, I hate that I’m saying this… but I’m gonna miss you.

AMELIA: Given that you said you hated me earlier, that’s a little shocking.

SUBJECT 4: At least you’re willing to treat me like a person. And genuinely, you’re actually nice to me. I just… I guess I just don’t understand you.

AMELIA: To be fair, it’s hard to understand what’s going on when you’re living in a cell. At the risk of getting in trouble: I’ll miss you too, Calli. I’ll talk to you again eventually, though I don’t know when.

SUBJECT 4: Yeah, that makes sense, though…

AMELIA: Yes?

SUBJECT 4: When I escape, don’t bother running away. It won’t help.

AMELIA: And you say that I’m hard to understand? I’m getting mixed signals here.

SUBJECT 4: Fine. Just go. Also, I know this conversation’s being recorded.

Shiori was shocked at the transcript, and then was even more shocked by what the next page contained: a clipping of an internal news report explaining that ‘Subject 4’, which Amelia had called ‘Calli’, had escaped from her containment cell.

Another report after that revealed another missing subject, a phoenix that Amelia had been tasked with locating after apparently incinerating her first set of restraints and flying away.

Marked as missing were an Atlantean and…

Shiori blinked, looking at the last missing member.

Why would the empire want to lock up a human priestess?

Shiori suddenly felt a lot more nervous. They wouldn’t be in the car due to likely only being recently created, but Shiori had a sneaking suspicion that there was a new set of missing subject cases, one of which had her name on them.

And if Amelia was considered powerful enough that she was chasing down a reaper, a phoenix, an atlantean who was listed as living underwater, and a priestess powerful enough to warrant being locked up like Shiori herself once was, that meant that Amelia had something that made her a far more credible threat than any ordinary human detective could possibly be.

She thought back to her original confrontation with Amelia back in the facility.

Ah, right, she teleported; she used that to dodge an attack of mine. Still, she never tried to hurt us, and I think that tracks with the conversation - Amelia doesn’t like hurting people.

Then she thought back to the conversation she read between Amelia and ‘Calli’.

But she tried to call a testing session on me - well, okay, I guessed I punched her out first. Still, she’s definitely going to be tracking us down, and she can teleport.

Shiori looked back at Fuwawa and Mococo, and then thought about Nerissa and Bijou.

I guess we were already going to live a life on the run, anyway.

She thought about the book she picked up from her old prison. It was odd, how somehow she felt incredible power from that book, and yet she had never read it.

Despite the temptation, another force felt like it was compelling her to keep it shut at all costs.

Shiori sighed. It was tempting, but she didn’t want to risk causing any major magical incidents in an environment where attracting public attention likely meant getting imprisoned again - or even worse, considered too much of a threat to be left alive.

Nerissa and Bijou left with a box that had more money in it than either of them were expecting.

“Man,” Nerissa mused, “Imagine if I could actually perform at a public venue instead of having to find progressively shadier places to sing at to avoid the kinds of attention we really don’t want to have.”

Bijou sighed.

“I’d like that. You’d certainly deserve it.”

Neither of them realized they were being followed by a girl with violet hair.

Nerissa and Bijou got back to the car, while Shiori got out to greet them.

“We’re back!” Bijou exclaimed.

Shiori put one finger over her mouth, indicating a request for the others to remain quiet, before pointing towards the two sleeping dog girls in the back.

“So, did it work?” Shiori asked with a whisper.

Nerissa simply smiled and handed Nerissa the box that had her performance earnings, to which Shiori’s jaw dropped in disbelief.

“Nerissa, don’t take this the wrong way, but you can’t do this every day. This is enough money that you might start attracting attention. As in, the attention of an empire that almost certainly has a teleporting detective tracking us down. A detective that might have a personal grudge against us for stealing her car.”

Nerissa shrugged.

“We’ll worry about that later-wait, teleporting?”

“Yeah, when I first encountered her before I freed you, I tried to magically blast her away, only for her to already somehow have instantly moved behind me. The only reason I got away, as far as I can tell, is that she’s not interested in combat - but if she gets a track on us, likely we’ll be hunted down by units who are more than willing to shoot at us.”

Nerissa nodded.

“That’s fair. It means I can’t perform anywhere twice. Still, I think the money to keep ourselves supplied is an answered question for now. Next up is staying on the move.”

A new voice suddenly entered the conversation.

“Well, if you need somewhere to disappear for a little bit, I’ve got a place for you.”

Shiori turned to face the mysterious speaker.

“Who are you?”

“Right, I should introduce myself: I’m Moona Hoshinova. I’m not currently on the run from the law, but I understand the need to hide from the empire.”

Chapter Text

Shiori stared intensely at Moona.

“Why do you want to help us?”

Moona shrugged.

“Because any other singer with that level of ability would want to perform somewhere more publicly. The only reason I could think of to avoid the spotlight would be because you’re trying to avoid getting too much attention.”

Nerissa frowned.

“Yeah, that’s true.”

Bijou frowned in sympathy. She could feel how much it hurt Nerissa to admit that. And yet, she couldn’t sense any sort of insincerity from Moona.

“What’s in it for you?” Shiori asked.

“Nothing, really. I just figure that you might want to find somewhere more comfortable - or even safer - than to sleep in the car. Especially since there’s five of you. That, and there’s a storm rolling in - surprising, given the otherwise completely unremarkable weather and it formed kinda out of nowhere. I felt like making the offer.”

Shiori shrugged.

“I mean, I was ready for the option, but… Nerissa, Bijou?”

“She’s serious.” Bijou replied, “She… she cares.”

Nerissa nodded.

“We’re not in much of a position to object. The twins are injured, too, so it’ll be especially good for them, I’d imagine.”

Moona smiled.

“Ah, I think we have a first aid kit somewhere.”

“Depends,” Shiori replied, “do you think that will cover electrical burns and trauma from being tortured while we were at the facility?”

Moona immediately frowned.

“Thanks for telling me that my decision to take you in was the right one.”

Shiori smiled.

“I guess I should be grateful for your hospitality. The only problem is that we’ll need you to guide the way to your place, and our car’s already full.”

“Nah,” Nerissa replied amusedly, “Moona should take my normal seat, since she’s navigating. I’ll take a backseat with the Abyssgard sisters, and then we can stuff Bijou into the trunk of the car. She’ll fit.”

“HEY!”

A minivan pulled up to an otherwise rather unremarkable looking building, before going around and pulling into a garage that was equal parts boring and somewhat rundown as well as hidden from view. It looked old and possibly in need of renovation, but the building was still structurally sound and from all appearances still looked capable of supporting life.

Shiori and Moona got out first, followed by Nerissa, followed by them opening the trunk to retrieve Bijou.

“You sure this is where we should park?” Shiori asked, “This looks more like an employee-only area.”

Moona nodded.

“Better to play it safe for now.”

“I’ll retrieve the twins.” Nerissa whispered to Shiori and Moona, “You two can figure out sleeping arrangements.”

A few minutes later, Moona and Shiori entered the building, only to be greeted by someone who Shiori hadn’t met before.

“Iofi!” Moona exclaimed happily, “I brought a few friends with me!”

Iofi bowed down.

“Welcome to our little place. It’s open to anyone who isn’t able to stay anywhere in public.”

“Really?” Shiori asked, “Not that I’m unhappy, but it’s a bit odd. Aren’t both of you human?”

Iofi nodded.

“We have our reasons for running this place. Besides, I trust Moona, and if she trusts you, then there’s nothing for us to be afraid of from you. Anyways, I’ll show you to your room.”

Moona entered the building followed by four people: Bijou, Nerissa, and the FuwaMoco twins who were leaning their weight against Nerissa, who all followed Moona to the second floor of the building.

Moona opened a door to a room with a king-sized mattress alongside some bean bag chairs, pillows, and other similar materials left in a rather disorganized mess. Iofi and Shiori were sitting on a pair of bean bag chairs in the room, and the twins promptly sprinted for the bed and then practically collapsed. The room itself was in pretty bad shape, with one wall being visibly cracked and the window looking broken and then boarded up.

“Sorry about the mess.” Moona spoke, “But it’s what we can do on short notice.”

“We can’t exactly be choosers right now.” Shiori replied.

Iofi quickly tip-toed over to the bed to look at the twins, before gasping at the sight of their bodies, and looking back up to the rest of the group.

“You can stay here as long as you need. This is…”

“It’s not that painful…” Fuwawa murmured.

“We’ll protect your smile…” Mococo continued.

Iofi took a deep breath.

“Risu! How good are you at healing magic?”

A few seconds later, a squirrel ran into the room, running up to the bed, followed by said squirrel transforming into a girl with squirrel ears who was looking down at the bed’s twin occupants.

“Not good enough for this.” replied Risu, “Though I think we can rely on their natural healing. They’ll be fine in the long run, just… who did this?”

“Our captors,” Shiori answered, “back when we were trapped in the facility.”

Risu frowned, saying nothing, but letting the squirrel ears speak for themselves.

“This,” Moona continued, “is why I sympathize with you five being on the run. Me and Iofi can live a normal human life, but Risu can’t. We’re always scared that one day she’ll be dragged off to be tested, and… that’ll probably be the last time we see each other, if that happens.”

Shiori nodded.

“Yeah. Thank you for everything you’re doing for us. It’s… it makes life a lot easier, you know?”

“If you’re already living life on hard mode,” Risu answered, “then it makes sense to utilize anything the game gives you that helps balance that.”

Shiori sighed.

“Makes sense. That said, while it’s nice to have people here, I have to ask: do you guys have anything to eat? I think we’re all pretty hungry, if only because we haven’t eaten since we last escaped, which was… a little while ago, now. We’ll compensate you, if needed - Nerissa’s been earning some surprisingly serious cash.”

“Yeah, in that case I can pick something up.” Moona answered.

Dinner went almost entirely uneventfully, with the exception of Shiori bringing food up to the twins, who hadn’t got out of bed.

The temperature started dropping as the storm rolled in. Mococo cuddled her body into Fuwawa, while Bijou, Nerissa, and Shiori proceeded to then shuffle themselves into a disorganized pile of bodies before throwing the blankets over themselves and huddling together in bed, taking care not to apply too much weight to either of the Abyssgard sisters.

At the dead of night, Shiori found herself unable to sleep, and casually got up, managing to untangle herself without waking anyone else up, leaving the other four to continue sleeping while she sat in a bean bag chair alone with her thoughts.

The raging storm outside didn’t bother her. If anything, it made a nice backdrop to her own equally uncertain thoughts.

Where do we go?

Guilt was starting to eat away at Shiori. She had felt fantastic busting the five out of prison, and she had felt great making the subsequent promise to stay together and explore their newfound freedom.

And now the realization that they weren’t very free was starting to creep in again. They weren’t accepted as a normal part of society, not yet. They likely had the best of the empire actively hunting them down. They would likely never be able to live a normal life.

In another time, maybe...

Yet, this was all Shiori could give. Different possibilities laid themselves at Shiori’s feet. Perhaps in one world Nerissa would have real spotlights shining on her, allowing her to shine brightly as a performer on stage. Perhaps in another, Shiori would have settled down and mostly carried out straightforward librarian duties without thinking about too much else.

Then again, in another world, perhaps she would never have gotten as close to the four other inmates that had quickly become like family to her.

But this is neither of those worlds. I can’t stop moving. Dreams of a ‘normal’ life will never be anything more than that. And whatever happens, we’ll stay together, all the way until the end.

Shiori sighed.

How did four people I met only yesterday become so important that I can't live without them anymore? If anything happened to-

And that was as far as Shiori got before she suddenly found Bijou abruptly sitting down in her lap, taking a spare blanket with her and draping it over both of them.

“Bijou?” Shiori asked with a whisper, “What are you doing?”

“I noticed you moved.” Bijou answered equally quietly, “Didn’t want you to be alone.”

That’s why, isn’t it.

There was something fundamentally honest about Bijou’s nature as the Jewel of Emotion. Her joy was practically radiant, filling a room with a practically infectious positive energy. But the same was true of her sadness, too, how touchingly concerned the smallest member of the group was about the well-being of everyone else.

And in turn, how concerned they were about her well-being too.

“Were you worried?” Shiori asked.

“Maybe.” Bijou answered. “Are you afraid of something?”

“...I just want to be able to give you a future. One that doesn’t involve hiding for the rest of our lives.”

Bijou shrugged.

“...I mean, you got us out of the facility, right? That’s step one. We’ll figure out step two at some point.”

Shiori smiled.

“Yeah. Now let’s both get some sleep; you shouldn’t be up at this time.”

“Neither should you.”

“...Yeah. Neither should I.”

Shiori woke up, finding that Bijou was no longer on top of her. Nerissa was up, as was Bijou, who both seemed to be trying to calm Fuwawa and Mococo down. Immediately, Shiori felt a deep concern for the twins, but seemed to have missed the action.

No words were spoken. No words needed to be spoken. The excitement of escape and their first day out of the facility had faded, and now the scars of their captivity were made clearer.

“Fuwawa, Mococo, is something wrong?” Shiori asked.

“...Shiori,” Fuwawa muttered, “if we get caught again, I just wanted you to know that we’re… we’re really happy for the few days we-”

“No.” Shiori interrupted, “We’re not going back. I’ll do whatever it takes to-”

“Shiori, please don’t die.”

Everyone turned to face the unexpected speaker: Koseki Bijou.

Shiori blinked.

“...What do you mean?”

“You’re thinking that you’d do anything to save us, that it’s okay if you were to die as part of the journey as long as it meant we were in a safe place.”

Shiori was stunned, but avoided saying anything for several seconds, before finally breaking the silence with her own question.

“...How did you know?”

“You keep thinking about it. Everyone would be willing to risk their lives for me. If you’re not okay with any of us dying, then you can’t be okay with it either. I saw how worried you were about the twins… why can’t we be like that with you?”

Shiori frowned.

“It’s… it’s different. I’m the one who broke you out, I’m-”

“It’s not.” Nerissa interrupted, “It’s really not any different with any of you.”

“It is.” Shiori replied, “Because I’ve realized that I can’t live with the thought of you being hurt, especially if it was because of me. I just… I just want you all to be able to live a normal life, even though I can’t promise that. Because I want a normal life too, but I understand it will never be possible for me.”

“Uh, Shiori?” Bijou asked, “I think that’s literally all of us.”

Nerissa smirked.

“I can’t live without you either, Shiori.”

Shiori froze, processing the realization of what the group had become.

“…Is this family?”

“I think so.” Nerissa answered, “Though I’ll let others speak for themselves.”

And then she froze, eyes widening.

“Actually, for now, everyone should stop and be silent.” Nerissa whispered, “I heard someone enter the building, and I have a feeling it’s not friendly company.”

‘Who are you?” Iofi answered the newcomer.

“Ah, I should introduce myself. I’m Amelia Watson.”

Chapter Text

Iofi blinked.

“Amelia Watson? As in, the empire’s royal detective?”

“The one and only.” Amelia replied with a smile. “Let’s just say a string of recent incidents have made my life very interesting. More interesting than the weather, though at least that weird freak storm has cleared up. I’m not sure how attuned you are to the news, but if you’ve been reading about recent events, you may have caught a glance at what I’m dealing with.”

“Ah, the missing test subjects.” Iofi replied, “Last I heard, one of them simply vanished into the shadows and another literally burned through all of her containment measures. I’m not sure why that would bring you here.”

“Oh, you’ve only heard about the two big ones, then. The trail’s gone cold on both of them for now - ironic, I know - so I’ve switched strategies to see if I can catch a glimpse of a particular quintet of escaped subjects. Five who escaped under my watch, to be precise. It’s a bit of an embarrassment for me to leave a loose end untied, you know?”

Iofi felt uncomfortable. Amelia’s demeanor was far too casual for the subject she was talking about. It was like she knew everything already and was only choosing to keep things interesting for herself.

“Well, I wouldn’t know.” Iofi answered, “Were they last spotted around this area?”

“Yep.” Amelia answered back, “I was just wondering if you saw anything.”

“I didn’t, but-”

“Oh, detective!” Moona suddenly called out as she walked down the stairs to the front entrance, “Unusual seeing you around this area. Don’t you usually handle bigger issues?”

“Like capturing known dangerous escaped test subjects? Yes, and they were last spotted around this area. One of them apparently even had the guts to be a live performer, though I don’t know the venue.”

“Oh, I know where she performed.” Moona answered, “I’d recommend you check westward for any further clues.”

“True. I figured I’d swing around here, because I actually have a pretty good reason.”

“Oh? Really?” Moona answered with the slightest bit of contempt in her voice.

“You two run an illegal operation of harboring people who are… not considered compliant with the laws of nature. Or at least, that’s the allegation; the evidence to make your actual arrest is, last I checked, mostly non-existent. I’m willing to overlook it because, again, no evidence, and more importantly because you’d have to be either brave, stupid, or both at once to lie to my face if you really are harboring anyone in secret.”

Iofi felt like she was suffocating from the atmosphere in the room, knowing that upstairs were exactly the five fugitives that Amelia was looking for. Moona remained completely stone-faced, revealing no signs of breaking to Amelia’s implied legal threat.

“Well,” Moona finally replied, “I saw the singing demon girl down in the underground; obviously she’s not going to try anything huge in public, especially now that you’re after her.”

“That’s fair.” Amelia replied, “Especially since that girl in particular knows I’m trying to find her. That said, thank you; I have no intention of doing anything to you two. Even if I had a motive to attempt an arrest, as far as the empire is concerned, you two are perfectly normal members of human society. You two covered your tracks well.”

Iofi practically choked.

“Um, what do you mean?”

“I mean, even if I wanted to get you in trouble, I’m not going to call to arrest a moon goddess and a girl from another world involved in a teleporter accident without any evidence for it.”

Even Moona seemed taken back by the casual statement of blown identity.

“...How did you know?”

Amelia shrugged.

“What can I say? I do my homework. Have already done it, actually. But regardless of my hypothesis as for who you are, I can't make a call to arrest with no evidence.”

“Really?” Moona asked sarcastically, “When has the empire ever cared enough to need evidence? I would think they’d take you at your word.”

“I know you don’t believe me, but I actually have principles, and I don’t intend to violate them. That said, I hope you do understand that while I won’t arrest you for who you are, I will arrest you if you try anything funny with me. I am the royal detective, after all. That said, I’m off to check this city’s effective underworld for now; I wish the best for the two of you and your lovely pet squirrel.”

And with that, Amelia turned around and left the building.

Iofi just stood there, in shock, waiting until Amelia had clearly left, making sure there was no way what she was about to say would be heard.

“She knew about Risu. How could she possibly know about Risu?!”

Moona frowned.

“Yeah, that’s… that’s why I was hoping not to run into her. If you’ve seen her record, seen what she’s known for, you’d know she has an uncanny ability to just know things, no matter what happens. She’s not an ordinary human, anyway.”

Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo huddled together in the corner of their bedroom, saying nothing but waiting for the inevitable arrest.

Shiori and Nerissa, on the other hand, stood near the doorway, a spellbook in Shiori’s hand and Nerissa simply listening from the other side.

“Amelia left.” Nerissa finally stated, leaving her post at the door, “Given the thinly veiled threats Amelia gave out, I have a feeling that we’re about to be kicked out. Moona said that Amelia just knows things.”

“Yes, I’m kicking you out.” Moona answered as she opened the bedroom door, “But not for the reasons you’d think. Though you’re right; no one can deal with Amelia. The actual reason you can’t follow is that we’re getting out of here too.”

A squirrel ran through the open doorway and then transformed back into a human-like form with squirrel ears.

“Amelia knows about me, and unlike Moona or Iofi I can’t pass for being human. I… I liked this place, but I know when I have to run. And I’m really glad to have friends who will follow me.”

“Likewise.” Nerissa answered, “We’re getting out of the city, and sadly our getaway vehicle doesn’t have room for an extra three people, so you three will be on your own. Hardly a way to pay for your hospitality, but…”

Moona shook her head.

“We have our own form of getting around the area, so don’t worry too much about it. Oh, right, Risu, Iofi has a full tin of those nuts you really liked.”

As if on cue, Iofi walked into the room, carrying a backpack, which she had opened somewhat.

Risu transformed back into her squirrel form, and then jumped into Iofi’s bag.

“You know,” Nerissa mused, “I think it’d be less useful, but I think we should figure out if Fuwawa and Mococo can do that.”

“We can,” Fuwawa replied, “but we’ve gotten more used to these forms so we don’t really like doing it.”

“Good to know.” Shiori replied, “Also, since we don’t really have anything to pack that’s not already in our car, we should probably just run now.”

Moona nodded.

“I don’t think we’ll meet again. I know a friend or three who are crazy enough that they might temporarily take you in even with Amelia in the picture, but this will probably be difficult for you.”

Shiori nodded.

“I understand. But I made a promise to them. And even if it seems impossible, I intend to keep it.”

Shiori once again took the driver's seat.

“Alright, the plan is we stop to pick up gas, then we pick up something to eat, and then we drive to the next city, which will probably take up most of our entire day. Thankfully we still have the funds for that.”

Nerissa, who was sitting beside her, nodded.

“Then we should get moving. The main issue is that I don’t know that many cities that have the kind of underground nightlife required for my career to be sustainable, assuming we’re getting constantly chased out of town.”

“True.” Shiori replied, “Then let’s get out of here.”

Later that day…

A minivan with five occupants pulled onto a highway, following directions to continue to an entirely different city.

“Hey, Shiori, you notice something weird about Amelia?” Bijou asked.

“What weird thing? There’s a lot to go off of there.” Shiori mused.

“Moona said that Ame just knows things, but why were you locked up for that when Amelia’s the royal detective?”

“She made a deal with the devil.” Nerissa answered. “And betrayed the rest of her kin in the process.”

“The empire doesn’t really care about your powers.” Shiori elaborated, “It cares about how you use them. If you submit yourself and use your powers to further the empire, they tend to treat you much better. Sometimes I wonder if that would’ve been an easier way to break you all out - I could’ve accepted their deal, told them everything, and then used my newfound authority to see if I could get you freed. It certainly seems easier than this.”

Nerissa shook her head.

“I would like you a lot less if you were willing to give up like that. Besides, imagine the twins being forced into doing the empire’s bidding. Or Bijou. Or me. Or even yourself, to be honest.”

Shiori laughed.

“Okay, fair. I’ve never been one for following the obvious rules. I know a lot of forbidden magic, and I suppose the empire’s interested in just what I’m capable of. I’m still figuring that out with the funny book I stole from the facility earlier. There’s a possibility that I would’ve been quite a powerful weapon for them had I ever intended to accept their deal.”

“I’m glad you didn’t!” Fuwawa exclaimed.

“We wouldn’t want to protect you if you were that sort of person!” Mococo continued.

Shiori smiled.

“That’s fair. It’s nice, really. I think… I think I understand why you like protecting others. It’s a nice feeling, having people you care about. Oh, and I do have something to add.”

The rest of the car’s occupants stared at Shiori in anticipation.

“Remember how Bijou told me to not die because she was worried I’d be the kind of person to risk dying to help you all escape?”

“You’re still that kind of person.” Bijou answered bluntly.

Shiori sighed.

“Not the point, but what I wanted to say is that I’m extending that command. Bijou, Nerissa, Fuwawa, Mococo - none of you are allowed to sacrifice your lives if I’m not allowed to. Deal?”

Nerissa smirked.

“Deal. I still think you’re going to be the first to break it, but it’s a good promise to make.”

Fuwawa and Mococo looked at each other for a moment.

“We’ll still try to protect you,” Fuwawa replied, “but… we’ll try to make sure we stay alive, too.”

“We’re tough guardian dogs!” Mococo exclaimed, “After all, we survived getting zapped by the guys at the-”

“Let’s not talk about that.” Fuwawa suddenly interrupted, noticing the now rapidly darkening mood coming from Shiori. “After all, we weren’t sure we were going to survive at the time.”

“That would be the point;” Shiori replied, trying to avoid sounding angry, “I’ve looked through your case file and they eventually reached a point where they could’ve killed you if you were unlucky. I’ll try to not break the no-sacrifice promise first, but I think it’s important that none of us throw our lives away for the cause. Is that clear?”

“I never planned on it in the first place.” Nerissa answered.

“Yes!” Bijou continued.

“Okay!” Fuwawa and Mococo answered in sync.

“Great.” Shiori replied, “Then it’s time for us to keep moving. There’s gotta be a place out there somewhere for us. At least I’m telling myself that; I hope you four are willing to follow me.”

The rest of the car’s occupants nodded with a smile.

Chapter Text

The ride was eerily silent, at least at first. There just wasn’t much to talk about, and the looming threat of a detective who was seemingly omniscient and could also teleport was now a major concern for the group, especially with the confirmation that she was, in fact, tracking them down.

“Hey, Shiori?” Bijou asked from the back, “Do you think we’re gonna have to… you know… do bad things to Amelia?”

Nerissa sighed. On one hand, killing Amelia would likely anger the empire greatly and would be a moral stain on their collective conscience. One the other, Amelia’s replacement detective was almost certainly going to be less competent, raising the chances of getting away.

“I don’t know. I mean, part of me is willing to drop to that level, given what she represents, but it’s… it’s hard to say. I… I don’t know if it would be worth it. I don’t know if we could do it.”

“I couldn’t.” Shiori answered bluntly, “It’s not even close. Even knowing what she’s done, I can’t be the one to end her life. I’ve been meaning to talk about this, actually. I learned a lot about Amelia the other day while you were out performing.”

“Wait, really?” Bijou asked, “You’d think she’d keep information about-oh, right.”

Shiori nodded lightly, keeping her eyes on the road.

“Amelia had been transferring a lot of case files around. I went ahead and read a few of them. Long story short, out of the people she’s chasing, we’re only numbers five through nine. I found a transcript of her last conversation with ‘Subject 4’ - a grim reaper, according to the data. This was directly before an internal news clipping informing Amelia that Subject 4 has escaped. More important was what was in that conversation, though.”

“Which was?” Nerissa asked.

“Amelia was genuinely nice to the subject. In fact, she called Subject 4 by an actual name - ‘Calli’, to be precise. And I can’t prove it, but I think she somehow knew that Calli was going to break free the next day. In fact, if I were to guess, I think she goaded Calli into breaking out, though that conversation doesn’t tell me enough to figure it out. Ame said that she thought a grim reaper would be harder to capture than a phoenix, and was surprised that it was easier.”

“Amelia captured a phoenix and a grim reaper?!” Bijou asked.

“Not for long.” Shiori answered, “The news reports about the phoenix literally incinerating her restraints and Calli’s nearly-simultaneous escape tell me that it’s pretty hard to contain people that powerful.”

“Such as yourself?” Nerissa asked amusedly.

“Only if I have a powerful spellcasting tool with me; I’m an ordinary human otherwise.”

“I don’t think you’re very ordinary.” Bijou replied from the back.

Shiori smiled amusedly.

“Fair. Still, most of my power comes from the whole forbidden tome I have with me, rather than any inherent abilities. Which is weird, because I still haven’t actually read it. I keep getting this ominous feeling that I’m not supposed to until the time is right. That said, I didn’t have time to read further into the case files, but I also noted that Ame’s tracking down both an Atlantean and human priestess that the case files note as being of extreme importance. That was as far as I got, though.”

“Uh, isn’t Atlantis underwater?” Fuwawa asked.

“Why would the empire be interested in a human?” Mococo followed.

Shiori sighed.

“The answers are ‘Yes’ and ‘I don’t know’, respectively. The fact that Amelia even has any sort of tracking on them is a bad sign of what we’re up against. And the worst part is, if anyone is going to capture us, I do want it to be Amelia.”

“What?!” Came the response from nearly everyone else.

“In the recorded conversation between Calli and Ame,” Shiori continued, “Calli said that Ame was the one person who was willing to treat her like a human being. That said, Ame also noted something that I suspected but couldn’t confirm until now.”

“Which is?” Nerissa asked.

“The empire does want our powers. Amelia mentioned that it was easier for Calli to simply comply with the empire, but she also mentioned that eventually they’d figure out how to extract Calli’s powers instead of having her cooperate, and that she’d want to cooperate before that happened.”

Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo all looked at each other concerningly.

“Well,” Nerissa replied, “Calli appeared to make her own offer, so at least there’s that. That said, knowledge is the one power that doesn’t need any special mechanisms to move around, so no wonder the empire was so determined to get you.”

Shiori frowned while keeping her eyes on the road.

“Yeah, that unfortunately makes sense. Tell you what: after we stop for lunch, we can swap; I’ll let you drive, and I’ll retrieve the case files to see if there’s anything else worth noting, alright?”

“Sounds good.” Nerissa replied.

Later…

Shiori looked at another stack of notes, curiosity getting the better of her, while Nerissa took the driver’s seat.

Missing Subject: Atlantean

Abilities: Extremely proficient swimmer. Can breathe underwater and on land. Last seen wielding a trident with possible magic powers.

Capture Protocol: None so far. Most promising method is to lure her to the shore where one can capture her with presumably mundane methods. Task assigned to Royal Detective Amelia Watson at her own request.

Shiori continued reading, before seeing one more section that was unique in that it was hand-written, presumably by Amelia herself.

Other notes: She tends to show up more often at western shores than eastern ones. My best friend, in another time. Gura’s definitely willing to forgive me for what I’ve done, but probably not for a little while. I’ll make it up to you someday, I promise.

Shiori blinked in surprise.

Best friend? Making it up to her? Who is this person?

Shiori sighed, and flipped the page to the next subject.

Missing Subject: Priestess

Abilities: Her link to the Ancient Ones grants her immense power, though the form of that power is presently unknown.

Capture Protocol: None so far. All attempts at retrieving the subject have failed. Task assigned to Royal Detective Amelia Watson at her own request.

Other Notes: Ah, Ina’s tricky like that. She hasn’t been on overtly harsh terms with me, though I’m not sure if that means she’s forgiven me or not. I know my way around her non-euclidean temple, which means I actually might be able to see her on occasion; nobody else has a chance. My other best friend, in another time.

Shiori flipped the page.

Escaped Subject: Phoenix

Abilities: Mastery of fire. Ability to fly by manifesting her wings. Can shapeshift between bird and human form. Is also immortal; when her body is mortally injured, it dissipates into ash, which then reignites and reforms her body, as such, she doesn’t die when she is killed.

Capture Protocol: She was uncharacteristically cooperative with the royal detective when she was first captured, though she will act aggressively with nearly anyone else. Task assigned to Royal Detective Amelia Watson at her own request.

Other Notes: They keep treating her as if she’s some sort of demon! Of course Kiara’s being aggressive with everyone else! She’s genuinely really friendly if you put literally any effort into it! That said, she’s probably also the person I need to avoid the most. It’s just going to be a really awkward conversation.

“Nerissa,” Shiori finally spoke aloud, “the case notes on this are really weird. All of the missing subjects have detailed notes from Amelia. In each case, Amelia was assigned to them at her own request. And more interestingly, she referred to two of them as being their best friend at one point, though judging by the tone she was using, I have a feeling that’s no longer the case. And then there’s the phoenix, who Amelia said she needed to avoid an awkward conversation with. I… I don’t understand.”

“If that’s the case,” Nerissa replied, “It’s probably best to take the most cautious approach to the situation. Assume Amelia’s still tracking us down, and continue avoiding her.”

“Fair enough, it’s just that… I don’t think Amelia’s a terrible person. She’s working for the empire, sure, but every time I’ve read any of her case notes, I can’t help but think she’d be a good friend.”

“Oh!” Bijou answered from the back, “You think they’re forcing her to do this somehow?”

Shiori blinked.

“It… doesn’t read that way. Why would she specifically request to be responsible for tracking these people down? Well no, that’s actually easy to answer: she knows them personally. But why is she on speaking terms with the people she’s trying to capture? It’s… I’m not entirely comfortable with the revelation. Where are we going, anyway?”

“The last sign we passed by said we’re going to the city of Ethyria.” Nerissa answered, “Apparently their motto is ‘God Sees All’, which is a bit ominous given that we’re trying to stay out of sight.”

“Well, we’re already living on the run.” Shiori replied, “If you think you can perform anywhere quickly, we can try to raise a bit of money, but the reality is that even in friendlier locales we’d have to probably make a run for it fairly quickly. We’ll probably need to stay the night in Ethyria but next morning we’ll want to leave quickly. Let’s see… oh, there’s one more escaped subject note, though it’s for the person I thought it was going to be for.”

Escaped Subject: Reaper

Abilities: Her scythe both doubles as a conventionally lethal weapon as well as a tool that can drain the lifeforce of those it hits. She also has the ability to disperse her body into a shadow that can then reform when needed, making her effectively incredibly fast.

Capture Protocol: She was uncharacteristically cooperative with the royal detective when she was first captured. Tends to act with scorn towards nearly everyone else. Also sometimes acts scornfully towards the royal detective. Task assigned to Royal Detective Amelia Watson at her own request.

Other Notes: Calli, I know you’re not actually going to kill me. That said, I’m sorry for disobeying you; I do have to run. The situation changed, and now I’ve got other things that need tending to. Specifically, to an avid reader of forbidden knowledge. Apparently they want me to try talking to her because everything else has failed, despite the awful things they’ve done to her. Maybe I’ll get better results by convincing them to treat her like an actual human.

Shiori gasped.

“I think I made a huge mistake.”

“Shiori,” Nerissa replied, “the answer is you didn’t, but what would make you say that?”

“Amelia wasn’t there to torment me. She was there to stop the tests. Amelia trusted me, walked into my cell alone, and I repaid the one person, the one person who might have done something nice for us, by making enemies with her. And stealing her car while we were at it. She’s probably not too happy about having to walk home given the facility was basically located in the middle of nowhere.”

Nerissa sighed.

“It’s not your fault; you couldn’t have known. That said, no matter what she says, this is someone who’s working for the empire, and as a reminder is one of their highest ranking members at that. I wouldn’t get your hopes of mercy up that high. I think you’re right. I think Amelia’s the one decent human being in there, it’s just… she’s working for them, and she’s chasing us now. Don’t forget that.”

Shiori sighed.

“Yeah, that’s fair. It’s just… I don’t know what to do if we run into her again. Because I know we’re going to, at the rate we’re going at. What do we do?”

“We’ll figure it out when that happens.” Nerissa answered. “We are now entering Ethyria city limits.”

Chapter Text

Nerissa kept her eyes on the road while Shiori looked around as they started driving deeper into the city.

It wasn’t long before Shiori noticed something.

“Hey, Nerissa? We might actually be in luck.”

“Oh?” Nerissa asked.

“I spy other people with animal ears hanging out on the street, and from what I can tell, the local police don’t look like they’re also doubling as being military soldiers. We could still be in trouble, but I think we’re actually getting far enough away that we might… we might have a chance of a proper escape. You know, assume fake names, falsify identities, hopefully no one ever knows about us.”

“I like that you can live in a fantasy world,” Nerissa mused, “but literally anyone who’s heard my voice before would instantly be able to recognize me. And I don’t think Bijou would be able to avoid getting noticed, given the nature of her powers. Well, not unless we lock her up, but that would defeat the purpose of escaping if we did that.”

Shiori frowned.

“Okay, but I still think we’re safer out here than being closer to the capital.”

“Oh, that much is true.” Nerissa replied. “I suspect that, if we’re going to be chased out of this city, it’s not going to be from the locals. But on the other hand, you saw the stunt Amelia pulled earlier. We’re definitely not safe.”

“What if we just resisted arrest?” Bijou asked, “I mean, aren’t we all crazy powerful and she’s just a human? What happens if we just say no to her?”

“That’s a good question.” Shiori answered, “I don’t have an answer, but it’s a good question nonetheless. I think there’s merit to the idea that we might be able to stay here for more than just the day. Especially since I just found Nerissa an opportunity to keep us solvent.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Apparently an open mic night at the nearby bar, and if history is any indicator…”

Nerissa laughed.

“Well, if we can find a place to park nearby, you wanna watch?”

“Depends.” Shiori answered, “Fuwawa, Mococo, how are you two feeling? You two up for walking around?”

“We’ll watch!” Fuwawa and Mococo answered in unison.

Shiori, Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo watched Nerissa take the microphone. It didn’t take long before the audience was openly applauding for the short performance.

Another voice interrupted at the end of the applause.

“The Heavenly Songbird is here!”

Nerissa laughed.

“Thanks, but I’m not from Heaven.”

“Oh,” said a new voice, “they’re talking about me. And the fact you don’t know about the Heavenly Songbird tells me you’re not from around here. Oh, and since you don’t know me already: I’m Enna. Everyone here knows who I am, but we kind of have a deal going where we try to treat me like I’m not someone famous. They’re sometimes decent at it.”

“You’re right in that I’m not from around here.” Nerissa replied. “I’m just kinda passing through, but I figured I’d stop here for today. I’m Nerissa Ravencroft, and I’ve been called ‘The Demon of Sound’ by some others. I’m having fun, but If you want to sing, go ahead.”

“Nah, you can finish your set.” replied Enna, “I know a musician having fun when I see one, and I’ll probably be here until way later than I’m supposed to. If someone wants me to come back home at a reasonable hour they can tell me that by themself.”

Nerissa laughed.

“Well, I’m not returning home by a reasonable hour either. Mostly because I don’t have a home to return to, and you know maybe I should just start singing before I darken the mood too much. Just to check: I know some of you are clearly excited to have this girl perform, but does anyone mind if I take a few minutes longer here?”

The audience cheered Nerissa on, and she took it as a sign to keep on performing.

She started her next song, clearly looking hyped up as she started singing.

About a minute later, Bijou poked Shiori.

Shiori turned around, and then her eyes widened as she saw a pair of men in imperial uniforms through the window of the bar.

Uh oh. Those are imperial enforcer uniforms, and those guys tend to be armed.

Shiori waved at Nerissa, hoping to get her attention. She knew it was useless; anyone who had gotten that hyped up to perform on stage was not going to be stopped by anything short of being physically dragged off of the stage. Shiori knew she only had moments before-

“Demon of Sound!” one of the uniformed men said, “You are under arrest for the act of driving people to madness with your voice!”

Nerissa paused during an instrumental break, taking a moment to address the newcomers. Shiori took a deep breath, reaching one hand to her spellbook but waiting for weapons to be drawn before trying anything.

“Not to cause any commotion,” Nerissa mused, “but does it look like the audience is mad right now?”

“You are still a wanted fugitive!” said the other enforcer.

And then both men raised their weapons. It was a weapon design that neither Shiori nor Nerissa recognized, but the general design of a gun was still easy to identify as something that one wanted to avoid having pointed at them.

Shiori gasped, reaching for her spellbook but understanding that she wasn’t going to be fast enough.

Nerissa, you better dodge this.

Both enforcers fired, a pair of bright blue projectiles streaking across the bar.

Neither of them hit their targets as Fuwawa and Mococo jumped into the fray, intercepting the projectiles and then promptly immediately falling over, their bodies crashing into the ground.

Nerissa and Shiori’s eyes both widened at the speed that had immediately thrown themselves into harm's way.

Shior’s hand reached her spellbook, and she immediately raised the other, preparing to fight.

However, she didn’t get that far, as Bijou had run up to the stage. As she reached it, both the crown on her head and the central jewel on her chest glowed a brilliant purple.

“Please don’t shoot! We didn’t do anything wrong!” Bijou shouted on the verge of tears, looking visibly terrified.

“That’s her! That’s the Jewel of Emotion!”

The room froze. Two blasters were immediately pointed at Bijou, only for both men to freeze, finding themselves unable to aim their weapons at her. The awkward silence only lasted a few seconds as then a couple random folks from the audience shoved both of them to the ground. At once, the entire room erupted into chaos.

“Don’t let them touch her!”

“Protect the songbirds!”

This again lasted only a few seconds before a much louder voice cut through it all.

“This is Millie Parfait! You two are under arrest for drawing and firing an armed weapon in a civilian-populated area! And for the two people you shot in the process, that’s not okay either!”

“We’re doing our jobs as imperial enforcers! You can’t-”

“And that totally makes it legal to fire a weapon in a crowded area.” Enna asked, “I’m already mad enough that you kind of ruined my night, but seriously, even if these guys are like, the bad guys, that doesn’t make it allowable to shoot them. There’s a reason I summoned Millie here.”

Millie sighed.

“You know, your attitude of thinking laws don’t apply to you is the exact reason that governor Endou doesn’t like you, right? Plus, the worst part of all of this is that because of the whole imperial authority thing I’m going to have to drag almost everyone here into questioning!”

She turned around, and then locked eyes with Shiori, who had a spell prepared but hadn’t fired it.

Millie took a deep breath.

“I really wish Nina were here; she was always really good at this. Look, I know… I know you are probably angry, but if you fire off whatever spell it is you have readied, it won’t make anything better.”

“They shot my family!” Shiori cried loudly, but didn’t cast anything.

“Yes, and I probably wouldn’t feel any better if it was Enna there!” Millie replied, “But we’re not gonna harm you. I know you’re not on good terms with the law right now, but we’re not going to do anything like that to you. I mean, the other officers who are arriving at the scene now aren’t even armed. I promise you, you’re not in trouble. In fact, the rest of your family are the victims here, not the criminals! Just… relax. The situation is under control.”

Shiori drew a deep breath, and then let it out wordlessly, her pose visibly relaxing. Millie turned around, only to see Enna talking with Nerissa, Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo.

“So,” Enna began, “As the two actual victims of the incident, are you two okay?”

Fuwawa shrugged as she got back to her feet.

“Well, we’ve survived worse.”

“I mean,” Mococo continued, “it really didn’t hurt that much compared to when-”

“Let’s not mention that.” Fuwawa cut Mococo off, “After all-”

“Why did you jump in front of them?!” Shiori cut Fuwawa off with a shout.

“Better me than Nerissa!” Mococo answered, “It’s not like I need to drive or need to plan out anything! It’s okay if-”

“Mococo, don’t finish that sentence.” Fuwawa interrupted, “What she means to say is that if you or Nerissa are injured, that severely hurts the chance that any of us escape, but if we don’t escape then you’ll still be fine on your own.”

“That’s… no, I get what you mean, but…”

Nerissa walked over and put a hand on Shiori’s shoulder.

“They knew they could take it.” Nerissa commented. “I’m not happy about it, but you can’t complain given you’d do exactly the same thing if you knew you’d survive.”

Shiori frowned.

“Okay, that’s fair. It’s just… I’m just worried that one of these times you’re going to be wrong about surviving. Or wrong about it not hurting that much.”

“True.” Nerissa replied, “But I think it all comes from a good place. That said, Fuwawa is right in that the two of us are the designated drivers of the group. If they get injured, we can let them rest in the back seat, but you can’t drive if you’re seriously injured. That, and given the huge commotion we just caused, I think we’re about to get kicked out anyways.”

Shiori sighed.

“I… I knew we were going to have to leave, but I figured we’d get slightly longer than one performance. Or, now that I think about it, dinner.”

“Oh, let us worry about that.” Enna answered, “I don’t really pay attention to politics but like I think you might have caused a major incident and-”

“-Governor Endou wants to talk with you.” Millie finished, “I promise you aren’t in trouble, but you might be causing it.”

Shiori tensed, but Bijou was the one to speak:

“What did we do?”

“I mean,” Enna answers, “you might have gotten off by virtue of having done nothing wrong, but clearly the empire is angry at you, and that’s probably gonna be a thing?”

Shiori sighed.

“I guess we’re going to have to explain that. Since we’re not being detained, you mind if we drive up to… wherever it is we’re supposed to go?”

Enna shrugged.

“Sure, I trust you to-wait, you’re actually agreeing to it?”

“Do I have a choice?” Shiori asked. “Well, a choice that doesn’t get us in more legal trouble.”

Enna snickered.

“Okay, fair. I promise you’ll like Reimu though; she’s really nice once you get to know her. Or even if you don’t know her. I promise that if there’s anyone who will understand your situation, it’ll be her.”

“Just stay chill.” Millie continued, “If nothing else, she’ll at least point you towards somewhere else you can stay, if not here.”

“Sounds good.” Shiori replied, “Let’s meet the city’s ruler, I guess.”

Chapter Text

In a government building, Bijou blinked in surprise, hearing what was fairly evidently a heated discussion between Millie and Reimu from behind a door.

“Um, Enna, I thought you said Reimu was really friendly.”

Enna shrugged.

“I mean, are you really friends if you can’t yell at each other?”

“Um, yes?” Bijou half-answered.

“I get it.” Shiori added, “We’re going to have to be on our best behavior to Reimu because she doesn’t know us, whereas we know each other. If we flip out at one another, we all understand where it comes from.”

Enna smiled.

“See, you get it.”

The door opened.

“Oh, uh, hello.” Millie answered, “How much of that did you hear?”

“Enough to know things got heated in there.” Nerissa answered.

Millie cringed.

“Okay, Reimu promised she’d listen to you. Come on in.”

There was something understated about Reimu Endou’s desk. For being the important desk of a government official, it just didn’t have the imposing stature one expected. The office in general had a surprisingly laid-back atmosphere to it, which both Enna and the five members of HoloAdvent took a moment to appreciate.

The laid-back atmosphere of the room contrasted with the lady who was sitting at it, who looked positively frazzled, her eyes looking like she hadn’t slept well for a long time.

“Hello, I’m Reimu Endou, current governor of Ethyria. I took over after Nina Kosaka stepped down, and basically the entire city’s been kind of a disaster ever since then. Long story short, I need to know everything before I make a call about whether to protect you, pretend this never happened, or arrest you right now.”

Shiori tensed.

“We’re pretty good at escaping the law if you aren’t aware, so hopefully not the third option, as it’d be a bit of an issue. When you say you need to know everything, where does that begin?”

“I’d say from the moment you entered Ethyria city limits,” Reimu answered, “but I have a feeling there’s a larger story involved.”

“Depends.” Shiori replied, “What are your thoughts on the empire’s policy towards what it calls ‘those who defy the laws of the natural world’?”

Reimu frowned.

“Let me guess: You got their attention, and now need somewhere to hide.”

All five members of HoloAdvent nodded.

“Well,” Reimu continued, “the good news is that I actually know someone who can help with that, though it’s not me.”

“The thing is,” Shiori elaborated, “it’s less ‘getting their attention’ and more ‘staged a major breakout from the testing facility we were trapped in’, but yes. Ah, should I have led with that?”

Reimu rolled her eyes.

“Yes, but I suppose it’s besides the point now. Our city is, as you may have noticed, rather high up on the inclusivity scale. There’s two reasons why we can get away with it, and I’m afraid you might be undermining both of them. How well do you know politics?”

“Not much.” Shiori answered, “But it’s not really politics, it’s logistics. The empire’s territorial extent is simply too far to police. Ethyria might exist at the whim of the state, but said state needs to actually care enough to try anything. Plus, even if they wanted to, it’s probably terrible optics to invade your own city.”

“Exactly. Our population consists of a large number of the kinds of people that might well get locked up in testing facilities, but we’re also pretty good at not sending signals that alert the empire to this fact, through a combination of not communicating nearly anything to the powers above and through sending reports that convince them that any former test subjects are now perfectly outstanding members of society who no longer need to be locked up.”

“And we just ruined that, didn’t we.” Nerissa replied, “Because the circumstances of our escape were rather explosive , the empire really is after us - that’s why the imperial enforcers were sent.”

Reimu sighed.

“This might be the end of my career. You see, the first reason I’m worried about everything, and the one you noticed, was empire politics. Cracking down on Ethyria, or really any city in this region, has just never been worth the effort. With you five in the picture, that might change. The second reason is arguably more noble but I think will be the main cause of the exact disaster I feared this would be.”

“Which is?” Shiori asked.

“Ethyria’s local politics.” Reimu answered, “The empire isn’t well-liked around here, if you haven’t noticed; the whole kerfuffle with the imperial enforcers is just the latest in a long string of incidents. You need to understand that this region wasn’t originally part of the empire - they assumed control of the territory after rolling their army in. They then kind of retracted the army, mostly because the land is big enough that they can’t be everywhere at once, but the anti-imperial sentiment has not entirely gone away.”

Nerissa’s eyes widened.

“And if this sentiment boils over, you have a revolution on your hands. And an all-out revolution is something that would get the attention of, say, an imperial army division, and despite any hopes you guys have you would probably lose that fight.”

Reimu nodded pitifully.

“I’m sorry. The testing facilities I know vary in awfulness, but more or less everyone who’s ever returned from them has either given up and serves the empire now, or tends to… not remember their time well. I’m tempted to arrest you on the spot because it means I won’t have imperial enforcers pointing their blasters at me, but…”

Shiori snarled, while the rest of HoloAdvent tensed up.

“...I have a feeling,” Reimu continued, “that they already put you through too much.”

Shiori nodded.

“I mean, if you want to know…”

Shiori finished her speech.

“At the end of the day, it was Fuwawa and Mococo who both got it the worst of all of us and deserved it the least.”

Reimu looked dejected, seemingly unsure what to do.

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” Bijou mentioned from the back.

Reimu sighed.

“I want to protect you five, give you a place to stay for as long as you need. It’s what Nina would want, anyway. But I can’t. At the same time, arresting you would, even if it would keep me safe from the empire, be extraordinarily unpopular with my own people. And it would be a stain on my own conscience too. And that’s why I’m going to take a cowardly route and make you someone else’s problem. I want you to travel to Obsydia - one city westbound from here. You’ll want to visit the building at 2434 Blackout Avenue, then ask for Selen Tatsuki. Then tell Selen that you’re looking for someone ‘dead crazy’; she’ll know what it means.”

Shiori nodded.

“Actually, could I get that in writing?”

Reimu shook her head.

“I’ll give you the tools to write it down, but I can’t afford to have any of this traced back to me. You can borrow the employee parking lot if you need somewhere to park your car for the night, but by morning it’s probably for the best that you leave no trace of yourselves; I’d prefer to keep the imperial enforcers out of my city if possible.”

“Uh,” Millie replied, “it might be a bit late for that, given what started this.”

Reimu facepalmed.

“Fair enough, just… I’d like riot control to not be among the list of things I’m known for. As I mentioned, you’re welcome to stay in Ethyria if you can keep yourself out of trouble, but it’s… probably not for the best if you make that permanent.”

Enna and Millie accompanied the five fugitives as they exited the office.

“Sorry about that.” Millie whispered, “I was kinda hoping for a more permanent solution, but…”

“It’s okay.” Nerissa replied, “I mean, she has a valid point.”

“It’s about the luck I expected.” Shiori added, “Speaking of which, do you know anywhere to eat? I think all of us are kind of starving.”

“Uh…” Millie stuttered, “I know a place, I guess. Maybe we can-”

“Actually, maybe not.” Enna interrupted, staring at her phone, ”Apparently there’s wanted posters with your faces being put up around town, so maybe the public eye isn’t a great place to be. Thankfully, my house is pretty much right next to the office, so you guys can just stay there. Especially since… uh, I’ll talk about it later. Millie, I’m leaving you in charge of food.”

“Why me?!”

“Nice place.” Bijou casually mentioned as she walked into Enna’s house.

Enna shrugged.

“It’s really not that nice, aside from location, though that’s good. Anyways, yeah, the funny thing I wanted to mention was this whole thing where Nina threw together a couple large futons, blankets, and pillows down in my basement before she left. She never told me the reason for it, but I think the reason is now standing in front of me.”

Shiori blinked.

“Given she would’ve likely not known we existed at the time, how could she have known to have anything ready for us?”

“Beats me.” Enna answered, “She has the ability to see the future. She was a fortune teller. Among a lot of other things. Also one of the kindest people I knew.”

Suddenly, Enna’s phone rang, to which Enna picked up almost immediately.

“Oh hey Millie, what’s up? Oh, and if this concerns all of us, I should probably put you on speaker.”

“Yeah, sure.” Millie replied over the phone as Enna put her on speaker, “Anyways, you mentioned that there were wanted posters, but I don’t see any around here. Just thought you should know.”

“Huh.” Enna replied, “That’s odd, given the pictures of the wanted posters circulating around my feeds. Not unless people have been taking them down, which-yeah, that’s probably it. Anything else?”

“Well,” Millie answered, “we should probably actually figure out what we’re gonna eat for dinner, since we have guests.”

“Oh, right.”

Dinner was an uneventful affair.

As was bedtime. As Enna had mentioned, a pair of large futons had been placed side-by-side, alongside some comfy-looking blankets and pillows.

Shiori practically fell over onto one of the futons, before curling up into the blankets.

Fuwawa and Mococo joined her, practically pinning her in place. Beside the two of them, Bijou and Nerissa laid down in bed next to one another.

A part of Shiori felt a little uncomfortable being squished together with the others. Being alone most of her life, she had no real context for the idea of close physical contact with other people.

Another part of her appreciated this private little world that her newfound family had created, and wanted it to be protected at all costs.

At some point, having not fallen asleep, Shiori felt Fuwawa’s body squirm a bit.

“You okay?” Shiori whispered.

“...I’m scared…” Fuwawa murmured, “...what if there’s nothing better than this…?”

The admission broke Shiori’s heart, partially because of the voice speaking it, and partially because it was what Shiori feared, too: that this unstable runaway life would be as good as it gets.

Shiori refused to believe it.

“We’ll find a way out. We won’t leave you behind. We’ll find a place for all of us…”

“Fuwawa…” Mococo whispered, “it’s okay if we’re scared together…”

Shiori couldn’t help but smile at the twins’ antics.

I understand why Fuwawa calls herself the fluffy one, and Mococo the fuzzy one.

“Not to interrupt,” Nerissa asked, suddenly not whispering, “but I have a feeling that literally none of us are asleep.”

“Nope.” Bijou added, proving Nerissa right.

The five of them giggled.

“See?” Mococo added relatively quietly, “Being scared together isn’t that bad. We just stay together during this and it’ll all be okay.”

“I guess you're right.” Fuwawa replied, “We’ll figure it out together.”

Shiori smiled as she listened to the conversation.

It’s warm.

Shiori had never felt this kind of warmth before.

She didn’t want it to end.

Chapter Text

Shiori woke up to yelling.

“I think you all want to get up right now!” Enna shouted, “Millie texted me and it is not looking good out there.”

Shiori attempted to unscramble her brain as she woke up, while Fuwawa and Mococo practically sprang awake.

“What, is there an active riot going on or something?” Nerissa asked.

“Not yet.” Enna replied surprisingly nonchalantly, “There probably will be one shortly, though.”

“Elaborate.” Shiori said flatly.

“Well, Millie apparently figured out why she couldn’t find your wanted posters: it’s because the local citizens are tearing them down. Actively. You see, there’s more imperial enforcers entering the city on the lookout for you, too, except most of them aren’t really going to be doing much of that, because people are protesting against them. It turns out that increased empire presence was the last straw before people started getting mad. So far the enforcers have stuck to purely non-lethal force but we all know that not gonna last.”

“So how do we get out?” Shiori asked.

“The protests haven’t shut down every road yet. You leave now, you can get out before the city effectively completely shuts down, which at the rate we’re going at, is probably going to be by this afternoon. Before you leave, though, Nina wanted me to give you this:”

And with that, she handed Shiori a smartphone.

“The password’s 2434, and yeah, she set everything up in advance because of literal fortune teller powers. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to make sure that Reimu doesn’t die of a heart attack.”

Shiori nodded.

“No, thank you for everything. We’ll make our escape now.”

A minivan with five occupants pulled out of the parking lot.

“Okay, now or never!” Shiori shouted with the steering wheel in hand.

“You know, now that I think about it,” Bijou asked from the backseat, “Why don’t we just stay and help the people kick the empire out? Given our powers - well, mostly Shiori’s - we might be able to win that fight.”

Nerissa sighed.

“Even if we win that fight, the empire’s got bigger guns. I get it; I don’t want to abandon people either, but if we leave now, that’s… probably better in the long run for everyone. The enforcers aren’t going to stick around if we’re not there. That said, I think we’ve gotten lucky in that all of the authorities that would normally chase us are now stuck with the-uh oh.”

Shiori stopped the car as she looked at the street, which was blocked by a veritable wall of protesters. She couldn’t see the other side, but it looked like imperial riot control was having difficulty with the crowd.

“I guess we’re too late.”

Nerissa nodded, and got out.

“Your four stay in the car unless you hear explosions. I can fly.”

And with that, Nerissa got out of the car, looking at the chaos unfolding as she joined the back of the pack.

“So,” She asked out loud to nobody in particular, “does anyone know what’s going on?”

Several protesters turned around.

“You’re safe!” One of them shouted.

“Well yeah,” Nerissa replied, “I’ve been running from these guys for… well, not actually that long, but I’ve been locked up by them for a large portion of my life, and as a result I know when to run. I understand you mean well, but I’d like to not become the reason for a major protest.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Another protester replied, “Tensions between the local and imperial police have always been high around here. It only really needed one incident before it became a huge story, and online media being what it is meant that it rapidly spiraled into this. Besides, I’d like to think this is a good cause to fight for, though I think so far we’re just waiting to see who blinks first - us or the empire.”

Nerissa smiled.

“I admire your drive. I figure if we get out the enforcers will leave you guys alone; I’m a little afraid that you guys are risking your lives - I mean, they were willing to shoot at us, and theoretically they need us alive. I am a little surprised blood hasn’t been spilled so far, but I suppose you’re in that awkward scenario where neither side wants to draw first blood. Oh, and if any of you know: what’s the fastest way to get to the city of Obsydia?”

“Right now, none. The imperial police are watching basically every major street, and that was before the protests blocked everything in that area, mostly because we’re not a big fan of said imperial police presence. You’d have to go North out of Ethyria and then go West. The empire’s going to cut you off if you go south, so I wouldn’t try it.”

Nerissa nodded.

“Thanks for the advice, then. I’m… I’m happy to see you people stand up for us, but… this is dangerous. I’m not saying it will end badly , but I’m saying this can end badly. Just… stay safe.”

Reimu felt like she was on her wit’s end as she dealt with reporter after reporter.

Most of them were surprisingly small, which made sense to her; big official publications had reasons to want to avoid making moves that looked like direct criticism of the empire.

Still, she couldn’t ignore her people, and if she was going to confront them, she wasn’t going to confront them alone, either.

“I do not condone rioting in our city.” Reimu stated, “But these people have legitimate cause for concern. The empire that had mostly let us simply occupy our lands in peace, the empire that was willing to simply let us live our lives - that is what my people accepted. I mean, really, if we both wish to leave each other alone, isn’t it easy for you to simply leave my people alone?”

“Probably, but it’s not what the empire ordered, so…”

Reimu raised her head, as did Enna and Millie, to view the winged newcomer.

They both gasped when they saw who it was.

The guardian descended in front of the trio, while the reporters scattered.

They knew better than to mess with Nanashi Mumei.

“Guardian.” Reimu stated firmly, “Why are you here?”

“The empire needed me for something. I’m just passing by, though, as I think the reason I’m here left before I arrived here. It’s kinda unfortunate, but I’ll catch up later. You know who I’m talking about?”

Reimu breathed a huge sigh of relief. It was that unfortunate kind of relief that you knew meant that someone else was going to have a much worse day instead of you, but Reimu knew the Guardian was infamous for being the herald of some truly awful things.

“Ah, I’m afraid I don’t know where they went.” Reimu answered, “I did see them earlier, but at the time I made a decision to not arrest them.”

“Odd.” Mumei replied, “I would’ve thought the news of their escape would have reached here.”

“Most people here don’t occupy themselves too much with what goes in the center of the empire. You probably know how it is.” Reimu replied right back, “That, and they committed no local crimes, so why would the authorities within the City of Ethyria call for an arrest?”

“Fair enough.” Mumei answered, “Though I am a little curious as to why your people put in a large amount of effort stalling the imperial enforcers and making sure they couldn’t actually do their jobs. It’s kinda embarrassing, you know?”

Reimu sighed.

“My people do not appreciate a suddenly increased police presence from the empire essentially locking down their otherwise vibrant city to capture five fugitives that most people hadn’t heard of, all without any warning whatsoever. I’d argue that any reputational damage the imperial enforcers are sustaining is the result of their own actions. I promise that I’ll try to calm down the protests on my own - my people may be restless, but they can still be reasoned with, I promise.”

Mumei suddenly smiled cheerfully.

“Oh, don’t worry about that! The empire has the tools to deal with riot suppression just fine. I’ll even promise that the engineer corps will help rebuild any sort of infrastructure damage that happens as a result of this!”

Reimu blinked.

“Wait, infrastructure damage?”

And then her eyes widened.

“You wouldn’t. You wouldn’t dare fire that sort of ordinance into a populated area. Even for the empire, that would be…”

“Of course I wouldn’t!” Mumei replied almost obnoxiously cheerfully.

Reimu breathed a sigh of relief.

“The army division behind me might, though.” Mumei continued. “I told them that they probably didn’t need a tank battalion, but we’ll see if they actually listened to me on that front.”

Reimu’s face dropped, suddenly finding her worst nightmare coming true.

“I… I can’t believe…”

“Thanks for catching me up to speed, though!” Mumei replied nonchalantly, “I’ll relay what you said back to the empire; I’ve got a few more specialized targets I need to catch now.”

And with that, she walked away.

Reimu drew a sharp breath.

“Enna, Millie, I’d like to say you two have been the best friends I could’ve ever had. Now get out. Both of you; you two can both fly. And teleport in limited capabilities. Tell Selen I’m dead, since I won’t be doing that myself for obvious reasons.”

Enna and Millie looked at each other, their faces serious, before looking back at Reimu.

“Reimu…”

“Oh, and if you find out where she went, tell Nina I’m deeply sorry for departing the mortal realm so early. But… whatever happens, I stand with Ethyria, and that is final. Tell the rest about what happened here.”

Nerissa’s eyes widened, looking at the road while letting Shiori drive.

“Wow, the protesters were right. It’s mostly in the southern areas where everything’s going down; in comparison the roads north of Ethyria are… well, they’re not empty or even close to it, but they’re actually moving really well.”

“How long do you think it’ll take for them to realize we’re not there?” Bijou asked from the back.

Shiori snickered.

“I’ll admit it’s pretty funny to imagine we’ve lost them, but I have a feeling that’s not gonna last. Probably for the better, since if the enforcers are chasing us it means they aren’t starting trouble in Ethyria. Besides, I think we’re getting pretty good at living on the-”

The sound of an explosion hit their ears. It was distant and muted, yet somehow it was unmistakable in identity: it was the sound of artillery fire.

Fuwawa and Mococo, having more sensitive dog ears, both flinched at the sound, grabbing onto each other.

“What was that?!” Fuwawa asked, worried.

“It didn’t sound good…” Mococo muttered afterwards.

Shiori kept her eyes on the road, but her face fell.

“That… that is the sound of the empire lowering itself further than even I thought they would.”

Bijou frowned, while Fuwawa and Mococo cried, thankful they were out of Ethyria and yet deeply saddened at the thought of innocent people being slaughtered.

A motorcycle with a bird girl riding it weaved its way around the other vehicles on the highway.

Real shame about the head start they got, plus all of the other distractions before I could get out of Ethyria.

She took a moment to think while keeping her eyes out on the road.

Why am I chasing them again? Right, the empire wanted them for… what did they even want them for? I dunno. I mean, I’m the guardian of civilization, and I guess that means making sure that civilization is protected from people like them. I’m already protecting civilization from the council after all, they’ll be easy in comparison.

Wait, how is that protecting anyone? Why did I attack Kronii back when-

She looked at her speedometer, trying not to think too much.

I’ll figure out what to do when I catch up to them. Just ignore the thoughts.

Chapter Text

Shiori kept her eyes on the road.

“We’ll reach Obsydia by this evening.” Nerissa casually mentioned, “We’ll be able to meet with Selen today barring any major disasters, and I don’t really foresee any coming up.”

Shiori sighed.

“Hopefully our disaster counter doesn’t increase after the last incident we caused. I mean, really, a full-blown protest that might escalate into the empire sending in the army. It would be really nice for something good to happen for once. Still…”

“Thinking about something?” Bijou asked from the back.

“I’m just thinking about our future again. Just trying to figure out where we could go, if anywhere.”

“Um, speaking of going anywhere!” Fuwawa suddenly shouted.

“I think we’re being followed!” Mococo continued.

Nerissa looked back, trying to get a view of who was chasing them, only to see an owl girl on a motorcycle that was weaving its way around other cars in an attempt to catch up to them. It was still in the distance, but the motions felt unnatural.

“Shiori!” Nerissa shouted, “I know you’ve been following the speed limit up until now, but now’s a good time to break it!”

“I’m trying!” Shiori shouted back, “I can’t exactly go that fast unless the road in front of us is empty, and it’s only sort of empty!”

“Do something!” Mococo screamed.

“She’s gaining on us!” Fuwawa elaborated.

Bijou also turned around.

“Hey, you guys might want to undo your seat belts. Well, maybe except Shiori, since she’s driving. I think I can stall her.”

Nerissa, Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo all undid their seat belts, while Fuwawa reached down to hit the latch that allowed them to fold down the back seat of the car, giving them operationally more space to work with.

Bijou looked at the traffic that was following them and the motorcycle chasing them, before walking up to the back window and invoking her power, once again causing her gem to glow a cool shade of violet.

It had the intended effect. The cars and trucks behind them started swerving erratically in what apparently worked as a mass distraction.

Bijou smiled as she watched the cars behind them suddenly get into a traffic jam.

“There we go!”

Bijou then watched as a singular motorcycle somehow continued weaving around, and then threading the needle between adjacent lanes.

And now there were no other vehicles blocking the way between the two of them.

“How did she do that?!”

Shiori kept her eyes on the road, but suddenly started feeling very uneasy.

“Nerissa, take the phone, and see if you can tell me who we’re up against.”

A few seconds later, Nerissa found her answer.

“Our pursuer appears to be Nanashi Mumei. Is that name familiar?”

Shiori gasped.

“We have a serious problem.”

Mumei smiled as the traffic cleared.

There we go. Five escaped test subjects in a stolen minivan.

“Shiori, can you go faster?!” Fuwawa shouted as she watched Mumei gain on them.

“I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t backseat drive!” Shiori shouted.

“Does it count if I say it, since I’m not in the back?” Nerissa asked sarcastically.

“Now’s really not the time… okay, everyone hold on to something, I’m about to try something stupid!”

Mumei calmly pulled up beside the minivan’s right.

Alright, how do I get them to stop?

And then the minivan, a significantly larger vehicle, attempted to swerve into Mumei, who dodged by herself swerving into the next lane over.

Hmm… I might have to do this manually.

Shiori signaled another lane change, though this particular signal was rather sarcastic as she was turning to deliberately ram Mumei.

“You know,” Nerissa mused, “it was pretty stupid of Mumei to chase us in a much smaller vehicle.”

“Don’t taunt her!” Shiori replied, “If we survive this, I’ll tell you more about her, but… I wouldn’t count her out. Ever.”

And once again, Shiori swerved over another lane to the right, then time to the final lane, with the intent of pushing Mumei entirely off the highway for good.

Nerissa looked to the right, watching Mumei’s motorcycle get forced off the road, into the grass, and then suddenly lose control.

“We got her!”

Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo all breathed a sigh of relief.

“So,” Bijou murmured, “are we safe from-”

And then Bijou screamed as she watched Mumei jump off the motorcycle, leaving it to crash with no driver. She then spread her wings, and continued gliding to keep up with the car.

“SHE CAN FLY?!” Mococo shouted.

“Yeah, she’s part owl, of course she can!” Shiori answered. “I told you not to count her out that easily!”

A soft bang was heard as Mumei landed on the roof of the car.

Fuwawa looked out her side window to see if she could catch a glimpse of Mumei, only to scream as she saw Mumei’s head peeking down from the roof, before dropping down, hanging off the roof of the car.

The next thing she knew, Mumei conjured a small hammer in one of her hands.

Time seemed to freeze as Mumei prepared to swing.

And in that instant, Fuwawa realized that they had one more weapon they could use.

She conjured the claw on her left hand.

And then she put her claw directly through the window.

Time resumed as the window shattered. Mumei was sent flying back as she was both hit by Fuwawa’s claw and now a large amount of broken glass that had been shattered outwards. She spread her wings by reflex, only to regret the decision to do so immediately as bits of shattered glass hit her wings immediately thereafter.

Mumei landed back in the grass beside the highway.

She slowly got up, watching as the minivan she had been chasing drove off into the distance.

“Hmm. Well played.”

Mumei attempted to wipe the sweat off her face, before blinking at what the liquid on her face actually was.

“Oh. That’s blood. That’s my blood.”

She looked down at her clothes.

“Aw man, it’s gonna take forever to clean that out.”

Fuwawa practically fell over, being caught by Mococo as the adrenaline of the last few seconds started wearing off.

“Fuwawa, your hand!” She heard Mococo shout.

She raised the hand she had struck through the window with, and looked at her now bloody hand.

Her mind recalled the events of the last few seconds, looking at the broken windshield.

“Did we lose her?”

“I think so.” Bijou murmured, “I think you saved all of us.”

“For now, anyway.” Shiori continued, “You should never count Mumei out.”

“Who is she, anyway?” Nerissa asked, “You kinda freaked out when I gave you the name.”

Shiori sighed.

“Nanashi Mumei also goes by the title of ‘Guardian of Civilization’, usually just shortened to Guardian. She is by far the strongest weapon of the empire, being… possibly one of the gods of creation? I’m not really sure, since civilization comes after the creation of the universe, not before. Point being, she’s the embodiment of… us, I guess. She’s a mirror of what we are, and… unfortunately, that mirror reflects the truth of what our society is: a subservient race to a seemingly unstoppable empire, where imperial enforcement agencies demand compliance, and where people are practically harvested for their powers. And as such, she obeys.”

Nerissa frowned.

“How do you know so much about her?”

Shiori snickered.

“The answer to that question is the reason why the empire was so determined to get me to talk. Granted, they had no hope whatsoever for reasons I… can’t elaborate on. Like, I literally can’t figure out why it never crossed my mind to ever give up, no matter how much they tried. I can tell you that it didn’t. I almost wanted to give up, but some part of me just… couldn’t.”

She sighed again.

“I’m not that strong, Nerissa. Without my spellbook, I’m practically human. The only reason I was able to break you guys out was that Amelia screwed up big-time and gave me the opportunity to escape, and…”

She blinked.

“It almost feels like she let us escape. All other hints lead-up to Amelia being a crazy-prepared detective who knows practically everything, and yet we basically just slipped out from under her. But what I don’t get is that if it was intentional, why? Especially since she’s trying to recapture us, that much is clear.”

Nerissa shrugged.

“As I said, I wouldn’t think too much about it. Just treat her as an enemy, and it won’t really make a difference. If she’s an enemy, then we’re doing what we should be doing anyway. And if she’s not an enemy, she’ll figure out we’re not interested in talking.”

“That’s ignoring opportunity cost, Nerissa.” Shiori replied.

“Yeah, but the alternative is being locked up again.” Nerissa replied.

“Okay, fair enough. Anyways, back to Mumei.” Shiori elaborated, “Her most practical ability is that she inherits the traits of humanity, and can invoke the best of them - which is to say, in a hand-to-hand fight she is automatically the better martial artist, and with a gun she’s a far more accurate sharpshooter than is possibly fair. She also has the ability to conjure technology at will - like, for example, weapons. And she can also fly, just because she’s part bird.”

“And now she’s chasing us?” Nerissa asked.

“Apparently.” Shiori answered. “She might well be the most magically powerful being working for the empire. I’m really hoping she was just chasing us because she was in the area, because if she’s chasing us dedicatedly, then, well, it was nice knowing you four.”

Nerissa frowned.

“Really? Giving up that easily? We beat her once. That, and I need to go back to what you said earlier.”

“Oh?”

“You are totally that strong.” Nerissa answered, “You might not be strong in like, ability to beat any of our pursuers, but you’re what’s holding this group together. You broke all of us free. You chose to break all of us free. You could’ve run.”

“Yeah!” Bijou continued, “You’re why we got out! And even after we got out, you’re still looking out for us!”

“You saved us.” Fuwawa murmured. “We would’ve never made it out without you!”

“And we were ready to let you run without us.” Mococo elaborated, “But you made sure to get us out too!”

“Mococo’s right!” Fuwawa continued, “That’s not being weak!”

“And that’s why we’re trying to protect your smile!” Mococo finished.

Shiori found herself involuntarily smiling.

“Okay, I suppose that’s fair. It’s just… I keep thinking about us, you know? If I’m so strong, why can’t I promise that we’re not going to be locked up again in the near future? Why can’t I promise anything other than trying to not let any of us return to the facility?”

“Because trying is the only thing you can truly promise.” Nerissa answered matter-of-factly. “Besides, if you’re weak, I don’t know where that puts us, given that we’d all still be locked up without you. And while I’m happy to be outside, I’m pretty happy to not be totally lost, which I think we’d all be without you. You might consider the idea of a normal life to be nothing more than a dream, but it wasn’t even a dream for us - we never even thought about the possibility of permanent escape until you raised the possibility.”

Shiori thought about what Nerissa said.

“...Thank you. It means a lot to me. I sometimes wonder if I’m doing enough, but… I suppose I’m doing what I can, and I shouldn’t worry about what I can’t do. It’s hard, you know?”

Fuwawa nodded in agreement.

“I know I can’t protect your smile on my own.”

“But as long as we try,” Mococo continued, “then hopefully we can smile together, right?”

Shiori grinned.

“True. We’ll be approaching Obsydia soon, so get ready.”

Mumei flew towards Obsydia.

Another bird also flew towards Obsydia.

This one, however, had wings that were made of fire.

Chapter Text

A minivan carrying the five members of HoloAdvent entered Obsydia city limits.

“I’m really hoping that this ‘Selen’ isn’t a morning person.” Bijou mentioned casually, “I can’t imagine sheltering the empire’s most wanted is how she’d want to spend her evening.”

Nerissa snickered.

“If that’s our biggest problem tonight then I’ll consider it a miracle.”

“True.” Shiori replied, “That said, I have a hunch she’s not. And a much bigger hunch that we’re nowhere close to being out of the woods.”

She sighed.

“I’m afraid we won’t be making any fun stops this time around. With both Amelia and Mumei chasing us, we can’t afford to be caught out in public. Last I checked, Nerissa’s provided us with the funds to keep up on both food and fuel until we reach our destination. It’s thankfully late enough that there isn’t too much traffic; we should be able to book it to our destination without any real issues. We’re honestly close enough that we could make it on foot aside from-”

And that was as far as she got into the sentence when she saw the road in front of them, and more importantly saw someone standing in their way: Mumei, her clothes stained with blood.

“Oh no.”

“She’s on foot!” Nerissa shouted, “Just speed right through!”

She then watched Mumei conjure a large number of concrete barriers, blocking off the road.

“Nevermind, don’t do that!”

Shiori made a quick turn off to a side street, just out of sight of Mumei but still heading up to the destination they were aiming for, adjusting her route to go around Mumei’s barrier.

“One more turn, and… here we go, Blackout Avenue.”

She looked ahead in the distance to a surprisingly beautiful looking garden.

“I think that’s the building we’re heading for! We’re really close now; let’s see if Mumei can catch up to us while-”

And she noticed Mumei ahead in the distance on a balcony with a sniper rifle in her hand, finger on the trigger.

“Oh no.”

Shiori floored the accelerator, passing Mumei as she fired.

Mumei watched her bullet strike right through a tire, causing the minivan to quickly lose control for a moment before driving chaotically down towards the garden.

“Oh come on, stop moving already!”

And with that, she jumped from her position, chasing the vehicle.

Chaos reigned within the car as the balance of the wheels was thrown off.

It lasted only a few more seconds before Shiori started braking, finally arriving in front of an elaborate garden in front of what seemed to be a small but still somewhat imposing mansion.

Nobody said a word as they all got out of the minivan, preparing to run for the door before the voice of Mumei caught up to them from behind.

“Hi!”

Mumei spoke cheerfully, as if she hadn’t been wielding a deadly weapon only seconds prior.

All five members of Advent tensed, getting ready for the inevitable fight.

Fuwawa and Mococo turned quickly to the rest of advent, conjuring their claws.

“Run.” They both spoke in unison before leaping at Mumei.

Mumei shrugged in disinterest, and then casually grabbed Fuwawa as she charged, before casually swinging her body around into Mococo’s and punching her in the face, followed by twisting her arm and slamming the body of the guardian dog girl harshly into a bush. In turn, Mococo got up, swung her claw at Mumei, only to find herself knocked out of the fight nearly instantly as Mumei struck with the honed practice of some of humanity’s strongest martial artists, before Mumei casually stomped her foot on Mococo’s downed body.

The gem in Bijou’s chest glowed a brilliant purple, and yet Mumei seemed to simply ignore it, unaffected as she flew up to Bijou, conjured a pickaxe, and swung directly into the jewel.

The jewel cracked, and then, much to Shiori’s horror, the cracks spread past the jewel and across onto Bijou’s body, the cracks revealing a beautiful magenta interior as Bijou’s body seemed to literally crack apart.

Nerissa had started singing, only to realize that Mumei had casually conjured a pair of noise-canceling headphones on her head, and then finding out that Mumei’s kick was a kick once again honed by some of humanity’s best martial artists, immediately knocking the wind out of her and sending her flying right into a patch of flowers.

Shiori stood alone among Fuwawa, Mococo, and Nerissa’s downed bodies as well as Bijou’s almost literally broken one, saying nothing, but staring at Mumei and holding a magical book in one hand.

Mumei jumped into the air, spreading her wings, and then prepared to dive Shiori.

Anger caught up to her, however, and she raised her other hand, firing a massive beam of light upwards to directly down the guardian in an insane display of sheer magical power.

The light cleared, only for Mumei to emerge seemingly unharmed.

And then she conjured a machine gun.

Shiori then conjured a magical barrier and then watched as a hail of bullet fire was absorbed by it.

That would’ve killed me. She’s serious.

The Guardian is serious.

Oh god.

Shiori then watched Mumei conjure a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, but she had no intent on letting the guardian fire, instead unleashing another powerful lightning bolt, which Mumei dodged by de-conjuring the rocket launcher she had just conjured.

Unfortunately for Shiori, Mumei dodged forward, and Shiori’s magic was not equipped for it.

In a split second, Shiori knew that either she had to pull out something greater, or it was over.

Nerissa was right.

And then the book that Shiori had been holding suddenly started glowing, before disappearing into light.

I am that strong.

The light then reformed around Shiori’s hands as a pair of obsidian-black oversized scissor blades, both of which emitted a violet aura as the white portion of Shiori’s hair started spreading.

I don’t understand this power.

But I understand what it can do.

Shiori swung with a righteous fury she didn’t know she had. In that brief moment, she had one objective: utterly dismember the Guardian’s body into multiple pieces.

Mumei reacted instantly with the reflexes of some of humanity’s most alert fighters, conjuring a sword that landed perfectly to block both of Shiori’s blades.

She didn’t have much time to react as Shiori attempted to strike again; this time Mumei blocked by conjuring a shield.

Shiori struck with her blades, and yet each time Mumei outread her, carefully avoiding each strike. In turn, Mumei swung her blade, only for Shiori to somehow either dodge or parry the blow at incredible speed, far faster than she would’ve thought herself capable of.

Her body burned as she felt her magic forcing it into overdrive. Mumei dodged a vertical swing by stepping back, only for the attack to practically bury itself into the grass. Shiori then lifted the blade with such force that it tore up the grass on its way to strike Mumei, who backed away again.

Shiori didn’t give Mumei time to react as she thrust one scissor blade forward, only for Mumei parry the strike.

Mumei made her first mistake. She was slow on the draw of her blade, resulting in leaving an opening for Shiori’s other blade, which slashed across Mumei’s body in a cleave motion, leaving a huge bloody slash across the guardian’s body.

Mumei stumbled backwards to the edge of the garden and back onto the pavement while Shiori breathed in deeply, her hair almost fully white now, only a few black strands left.

“Well played.” Mumei uttered casually, “Wanna go for round two?”

There was something offensive in how casually Mumei spoke that sentence. Yet, Shiori was in no position to refuse, no matter how much she was straining her body to do so.

She once again willed her strength back into her body.

“I’d like it better if you just left now.” Shiori answered, “But I suppose I’ll-”

And that was as far as she got before Nerissa grabbed her from behind and threw her into the grass.

“Shiori, stop.”

Shiori blinked in a daze on the ground.

“Why…?”

“Shiori, look at yourself! Your body can’t take what you’re forcing it through! You promised! You promised you wouldn’t sacrifice yourself!”

“But…”

“I’m holding you to it. That’s all.”

“But Mumei’s going to capture us… and…”

“I know. But we promised. We escape together, or not at all.”

Shiori tried to get up, only for the pain of how badly she had strained herself to kick in, causing her to collapse to the ground as half of her hair faded back to its natural black. With it, both of her scissor blades fizzled out in a flash of light, returning back to their natural book form.

Mumei shrugged, having observed but not said anything so far.

“Well, at least someone gets it. At least it’s nice to have finally met the elusive Shiori Novella at last. I was kind of hoping to speak with you before we wrapped this all up. I think you know me, but just in case: I am Nanashi Mumei, the Guardian of Civilization. I’ll admit, I’m impressed at you five for managing to hold off the inevitable as long as you have. You’re certainly the hardest subject I’ve had to deal with in a very long time. I’m impressed!”

Shiori finally got up.

“Well… I hope it made a good story, anyway. Or at least, could’ve had Nerissa not stopped my attempt to stop you once and for all.”

Mumei shrugged.

“Nah, you were going to lose that anyway. Death just isn’t as permanent for me as it is for you. We’d both utterly spend our bodies, but I’d get up from that because my spiritual self is tied to civilization itself, while you probably wouldn’t. But admittedly you’d get a good chapter in my diary for getting that far.”

Shiori grit her teeth at how casually Mumei was speaking about all of this.

“What I don’t get,” Nerissa interrupted, “is how you’re that confident in our capture. We escaped the facility once. We’ll escape whatever cell you put us in next.”

“Oh, that’s unlikely.” Mumei replied, “Given that my next assignment is psychologically breaking you five into serving me.”

“They tried that once.” Shiori replied, “What makes you think you’ll do better?”

Mumei smirked.

“The mistake the facility kept making is that it’s trying to understand what you guys really are. The reality is, civilization doesn’t need to understand you. It just needs to make you act the way you’re supposed to act. We’ll figure out how to force your servitude.”

Mumei stared at the injured bodies of Fuwawa and Mococo, saying nothing.

“You wouldn’t dare.” Shiori whispered.

“Oh, I’d say I’m pretty daring. But ultimately you’re a mortal, Shiori, and you’ve gone way farther than-”

And then the ground Mumei was standing on exploded, erupting into a massive pillar of fire.

All five members of HoloAdvent slowly blinked at the turn of events.

“Uh, what’s happening?” Bijou asked as she got up.

“What does it look like?” A new voice interrupted, “We’re pulling your ass out of the fire! I’m Selen Tatsuki, the Lunar Sky Dragon, and funnily enough I kinda noticed there was an all-out war going on in Rosemi’s garden! Oh, but I can’t claim credit for the whole fire thing.”

Another bird girl landed in front of HoloAdvent, wielding a sword and shield.

“Kikkeriki!” Shouted the newcomer, “Hi Mumei! In case you’ve forgotten: I’m Takanashi Kiara, the phoenix!”

Shiori blinked.

Wait, ‘Escaped Subject: Phoenix’...

That’s her! That’s who Amelia was talking about!

Meanwhile, Nerissa's jaw dropped as Kiara stood tall in front of the inferno she had created.

Oh no, she’s hot. And not just in the literal sense.

Mumei flew out of the inferno.

Kiara jumped in the air to chase her down.

Meanwhile, Selen laughed.

“I’ve got a lotta things to say to Mooms… but I think I’m gonna let this play out first.”

Chapter Text

Mumei and Kiara stared at one another, having taken their positions high up in the sky.

“Mumei,” Kiara said almost pitifully, “what did they do to you?”

Mumei shrugged.

“What they had to do. I’m the guardian of civilization. I won’t let anyone threaten civilization.”

Kiara snarled.

“Have you seen what they’ve done?”

Mumei frowned.

“I try not to think about it too much. I have a job to do, after all. I’m the guardian. It’s what I’m meant to do. It’s what I have to do, even.”

Kiara frowned again.

“I hate that I feel sorry for you. But I do. Please, Mumei. They’re willing to forgive you, you know. Or at least, I am. But only if you’re willing to realize that… this isn’t working. Not for me. Not for my friends. And probably not for you, either. I don’t really care about revenge.”

“Oh? I mean, I don’t mind…”

“I mean,” Kiara continued, “I’d rather you just… come back to us. I’d rather you’d remember the good parts of civilization and just live again. But another part of me is willing to fight back. A part of me simply wants to see you burn for what you’ve done.”

Mumei’s form tensed.

“Are you sure? I recall that the last time you challenged me didn’t go so well. I believe you died, died again, and then died a couple more times.”

Kiara drew her sword.

“You learn more from your failures, and I don’t intend to repeat them. You taught me a lot about how my reincarnation cycle works; in a way you helped forward the science of immortality. It’s only fair that I know, given you literally experimented on me!”

And with that, she took her first swing at Mumei, who swiftly dodged back, conjured her own blade, and then quickly locked blades with Kiara, saying nothing.

“Mumei,” Kiara practically whispered, “if you want a fight, then I’ll give it to you.”

She swung again and again, while Mumei successfully blocked each strike, before parrying Kiara’s blade off to one side and using the opportunity to run her through with her own sword.

Mumei stared emotionlessly as Kiara’s body fell lifelessly to the ground.

Only it didn’t reach the ground.

With a burst of flame Kiara reincarnated in mid-air, this time emerging not as a human but as a large bird seemingly made entirely out of fire, who charged directly back at Mumei.

Back on the ground, Selen looked back at the five injured members of HoloAdvent, who had all at least gotten back to a sitting position, looking up at the fight between the birds.

“SORRY FOR BEING LATE!” a new voice suddenly entered. The owner of said voice was a zombified girl with red hair, her skin visibly stitched together in places.

“Ollie!” Selen greeted, “I was starting to get a little worried. Thankfully, Kiara showed up to tie Mumei up for a while, and, well, she’s Kiara, you know how she is.”

Ollie nodded.

“Alright then! Reine’s ready on the other side.”

Selen raised a finger.

“Actually, I think we might want to wait just a bit longer. On my signal?”

“That’s AWFULLY risky!” Ollie answered, “But I trust you, Selen!”

Mumei’s blade dissipated as she suddenly took a hard left to avoid Kiara’s phoenix form. Yet, Kiara was faster, grabbing Mumei and then diving, setting both of them on fire as they hit the ground with an explosive impact in front of the garden that Selen and the rest of HoloAdvent were currently at.

Kiara shifted back into her human form as she emerged from the inferno she had created, sword and shield drawn, staring at Mumei’s apparent funeral pyre.

Selen smirked.

“How’d revenge feel?”

“...I don’t think I’m cut out for it.” Kiara answered mournfully. “I’m not tied to anything, you know? I don’t know what it’s like to have anything other than my own heart guiding me through life. As much as I hate what she did to me - she killed me first, after all - I feel sorry for her. Besides…”

Mumei emerged from the inferno, her clothes charred and blackened but seemingly otherwise unfazed by being set on fire.

“...I wouldn’t count her out that easily.” Kiara finished.

Mumei conjured a revolver, and then immediately shot Kiara with it six times, watching her as she collapsed.

“For the record,” Mumei clarified, “I don’t really die due to being tied to my aspect of civilization. Though unlike most people I guess you actually also come back from the whole dying thing-”

And then Kiara suddenly reincarnated in a burst of flame, quickly flying up to and then kicking Mumei directly in the stomach, sending her reeling back.

“Wait, since when could you reincarnate that quickly?!” Mumei shouted.

Kiara smirked.

“You were the one who taught me how to perfectly control my reincarnation! You know, due to killing me multiple times in a row! You experimented with that!”

“Oh, right.” Mumei replied, “In my defense, we were both fighting each other back then too. I just crushed you way worse.”

Kiara swung her blade again, watching as Mumei dodged again.

“Look,” Mumei muttered in annoyance, “I know you want a fun challenge and a fair fight, but I have a job to do, so could you please stay dead for more than a minute?”

“Absolutely not!” Kiara replied, stomping her foot and unleashing a wall of fire separating Mumei from everyone else.

Selen turned to face Ollie.

“Now or never!”

Ollie smiled.

“HIT IT, REINE!”

A circle formed around Ollie and the rest of HoloAdvent.

Kiara smiled, and jumped back, landing in the circle just in time for everyone in it to vanish in a flash of light.

Selen grinned seeing the playing field reduced to only her and Mumei, Kiara’s fire going out.

“So… what’s up, Mooms?”

Mumei shrugged.

“Just the odd job here or there. I’ll admit that as strong as I am, I think Amelia’s better suited to this kind of capture work. She just kinda knows things, and sometimes capturing people needs more than just bigger guns. I’m not sure what I’ll do next, to be honest.”

“Maybe take a vacation?” Selen asked, “I think you could use it.”

“Yeah, but the empire says they need me on-call. Especially with that weird coldsnap that blew through the other side of the empire; I might run disaster relief there if it turns out things are getting deadly. Really, the weather’s been really odd recently.”

Selen laughed.

“You? Disaster relief?”

Mumei frowned.

“I’d like to think I’m not just a tool used for killing things.”

“Yeah, but you’re really good at it!”

Mumei pulled out a knife seemingly out of nowhere, before staring oddly contemplatively at it.

“I’m really no better at it than people are. I’m no better at anything than people are. Maybe that’s why I don’t really like killing people that much. A lotta people can’t do it, you know?”

Selen blinked.

“You don’t?”

“I mean, I do it because it’s my job.” Mumei answered.

“Have you ever considered finding another one?”

Mumei blinked.

“...I forget if I have. But I don’t know what else I could do. I’m the Guardian of Civilization, after all.”

“Do my friends not count as being part of civilization?”

Mumei frowned, her voice lowering.

“...I dunno. I’d recommend not being put on the list of people who my job involves.”

“Not gonna try anything here?”

Mumei shook her head.

“You’re not listed as someone who needs to be dealt with. I’ll leave dealing with you to someone else. Or you might just avoid getting into trouble. That’s be nice.”

Selen broke out laughing.

“Oh, good to know you’re the same Mumei I once knew.”

Mumei turned around.

“I guess.”

She spread her wings, and took to the sky.

Selen sighed, turning towards her house.

“Hey, Rosemi! Your garden got wrecked again!”

Another voice replied with a scream.

“SERIOUSLY?!”

Ollie, Kiara, and the five members of HoloAdvent teleported into an unknown location in what appeared to be a sort of spell circle which was clearly fading out as the spell finished.

“Anya! Reine!” Kiara shouted, “Get these girls into beds right now!”

Anya and Reine, who had been observing the spell circle, quickly ran to meet the five downed girls in the room along with Kiara and Ollie.

Nerissa got up slowly.

“I’m not hurt that badly… Shiori might have overtaxed herself, Bijou’s literally broken, and Fuwawa and Mococo got roughed up pretty badly…”

“I’m okay.” Shiori shouted while also sounding hurt, “Okay, I don’t think I can get up right now… it’s… not…”

“Oh, wow, that’s really reassuring.” Anya stated sarcastically while looking around.

“I might have broken something…” Fuwawa murmured.

“I DEFINITELY broke something!” Mococo shouted.

“This isn’t as bad as it looks!” Bijou continued, half-smiling as a crack cut off her smile on the other side of her face.

“GOOD!” Ollie shouted, “BECAUSE IT LOOKS BAD! ALL OF YOU ARE GETTING MEDICAL ATTENTION RIGHT NOW!”

“That… might be for the best…” Shiori murmured, “The floor seems pretty comfortable for now…”

“NO IT ISN’T!” Ollie shouted, “YOU ARE GETTING PROPER REST IN A PROPER BED!”

Anya snickered while Reine smiled amusedly.

“I’d say she’s really caring when you know her,” Anya commented. “but she’s also really caring when you don’t know her, so there’s no escaping it.”

Reine broke out laughing.

Later…

Shiori woke up, and then wished she hadn’t done so.

Okay, so basically everything hurts right now.

The voice of Nerissa Ravencroft cut through the misery.

“How are you feeling?”

“Honestly, kinda awful.” Shiori answered, “Fine, I’ll admit it: you were right, I shouldn’t have tried to push myself and now everything hurts, but I’m still alive so you can stop worrying about me now.”

“And you’re not going to try something like that again?”

Shiori didn’t bother answering the question, instead moving on.

“How’s everyone else doing?”

“I’m fine!” Bijou replied happily from another bed, “They figured out how to put me back together again!”

“To ruin Bijou’s fun,” Nerissa elaborated, “as bad as the cracks looked, they actually magically reform back into one piece pretty quickly. Fuwawa and Mococo are both asleep, and neither of them are getting out of bed for now. And honestly neither are you, given how much arcane magic you had channeled through your body - that could’ve killed you.”

“I’m sorry.” Shiori replied.

“You should be.” Nerissa continued, “But in your position I probably would’ve done the exact same. It just so happened that Mumei took me out of the fight first, so it didn’t matter as much. Speaking of being in the fight, I suppose you should know who actually rescued us, as I’ve been talking to her for the last little while.”

“Ah, that’s the phoenix Amelia was talking about.”

“Yep!” An excited reply came from said phoenix, “I’m Takanashi Kiara! And I’m looking for Ame, though I have a feeling she’d been avoiding me. Anyone know why?“

“That’s because she is.” Shiori answered, “And from what I read of Amelia’s case file on you, apparently she said that it’ll be an awkward conversation. I don’t know more than that, though.”

Kiara frowned.

“Ame’s been dealing with a lot. Like you five! Or me and Calli. I’m not sure why she thinks it’d be awkward, though.”

“Really?” Shiori asked, “You’d think talking to your captor is always going to be a tense discussion.”

“Oh, that.” Kiara answered dismissively, “It helps that I know exactly what the chances of Ame actually capturing me are.”

“I’m gonna guess you think it’s zero.” Nerissa replied.

“Yes!” Kiara continued, “And mostly I think it’s zero because Ame was way too nice to me back when I was having my immortality tested - I’m a pretty strong phoenix, you know!”

“Yeah, Amelia’s weirdly nice.” Shiori replied, “Same thing in the reaper’s case file.”

Kiara nodded.

“I have a lot to discuss with you guys, don’t I?”

Chapter Text

Shiori and Nerissa both looked at Kiara.

“I’m gonna assume you have a history as a test subject?” Shiori asked.

Kiara nodded.

“They wanted to know if they could find the secret to immortality. I learned a lot about it from the multiple times they killed me, so I guess I should be thankful for that, since I have much better control of my reincarnation than I used to. Amelia’s the one I really want to talk about though, because she’s actually really interesting.”

“Interesting how?” Nerissa asked.

“She was nice to me!” Kiara answered, as if that explained everything.

“Let me guess.” Shiori attempted to elaborate, “She was the only person who ever acted nice to you.”

Kiara seemed to pause for a bit.

“It was mixed. Anyone who gave me the opportunity to strike up a conversation tended to be nicer. I think the rest of them were afraid I’d burn them. I’d like to think I gave them as much notice as I could before I started incinerating things, though I’m pretty sure Ame didn’t tell them about my impending breakout before it happened.”

“Why would she know?” Nerissa asked, “I mean, sure, you apparently were powerful enough to burn through your restraints and just fly away by pure phoenix powers, but I don’t know why you’d tell Ame you could do that.”

“I didn’t.” Kiara replied matter-of-factly, “Ame just knows these sorts of things. I think she told me about Calli’s capture just to get me angry at her, which actually now that I mention it you don’t know who Calli is!”

“She’s the reaper.” Shiori replied, “Test Subject 4. Apparently she’s rather hard to contain, and judging by the last conversation between her and Amelia, they both knew that she was going to escape. Amelia… chose to do nothing, which is odd, now that I think about it.”

“Oh, you DO know her!” Kiara replied excitedly, “I don’t know where she went, though. Her ability to vanish into the shadows means that nobody knows where she is. I got found by Ollie after I escaped, and that’s how I started working…”

She paused, taking a moment to breathe in.

“For the resistance!”

She then paused, taking a moment to think about her next words.

“...Which, now that I say it, is kind of a lie. There’s a few different resistance groups located in different places, so ‘the’ resistance is kinda overselling us a bit. I’m willing to call Ollie the leader of the resistance, though, as she has contacts with pretty much everyone. We have no idea how; she’s been chatting with an agent of the ‘Secret Society’ as of most recently but last I’ve heard she’s been in contact with pretty much every resistance group that’s ever been formed, which is kinda why she’s kinda stuck here at what they call Area 15.”

“Geez,” Shiori muttered, “and the empire thinks my information is valuable. I can’t imagine how bad it’d be to lose Ollie.”

“Oh yeah.” came the reply from Anya as she walked into the room, “There’s a reason that we don’t give any information about this place unless you actually become a member of the Area 15 permanent staff. The main thing is that everyone on that list lives directly on the premises and will likely not be living anywhere else for a long time. Oh, and I’m Anya Melfissa, and I’m part of said team.”

“That makes sense.” Nerissa replied, “Though I feel kind of bad for you, given that for all intents and purposes you’re imprisoned here.”

Anya shrugged.

“We’re pretty good at coping with life at Area 15, aside from all the times we aren’t. That said, I’ll let Ollie herself make the offer on whether or not you want to station yourself here permanently.”

Kiara nodded.

“It’s a bit depressing to live here. I mean, it’s a large building but it is pretty isolating to have essentially no contact with the outside world aside from messages from one resistance group to another, and despite what Ollie says it gets to her sometimes.”

“Get to her how?” Shiori asked.

“Ollie’s the resistance coordinator,” Anya answered, “which means she has contact with just about every resistance group in existence and runs communication between them, but despite that fact the only influence she has on the ground is retrieval, which is coordinated with Reine. Otherwise, she can only receive the news from others about what’s going on, such as-”

The extremely loud sound of a door slam cut off Anya’s sentence.

“I’m gonna go.” Kiara calmly stated, “I think Ollie received some bad news.”

Shiori and Nerissa looked at each other.

“Can I try talking to her?” Nerissa asked, “I know I’m a relative stranger, but…”

“If she says yes, then sure, but don’t pressure her.” Anya answered, “Despite what it looks like, she’s probably the worst at emotionally detaching herself, and I suspect… I suspect we lost a good friend today.”

And with that, Anya, Kiara and Nerissa all left, leaving Shiori alone in a room with three other beds, all occupied.

“So, Bijou, how are you feeling? You’ve been awfully quiet for, well, you.”

“Fine. I didn’t really have anything to say. I’m just thinking about how sad it must be to find out bad things are happening while you’re just… here. Safe, but unable to do anything but watch.”

Shiori frowned.

“I can’t believe you’re making me say it.”

“Say what?”

“I don’t think I’m interested in escaping the empire’s reach anymore.”

Anya exited Ollie’s room.

“She’s… mourning the loss of life.”

“I can hear her crying.” Nerissa whispered, “I’m gonna guess the fallen is Reimu Endou.”

“How’d you know?” Anya asked quietly.

Nerissa frowned.

“We’re the reason she got into trouble. The empire’s been chasing us for a while now, and our appearance basically was the last straw before tensions escalated too far for the empire to ignore any longer.”

Anya nodded.

“The city of Ethyria is completely occupied by empire forces at the moment, effectively placing the entire city on lockdown. Reimu’s on record saying that she was glad Nina Kosaka had chosen to go traveling out of the region after she had stepped down so she could avoid seeing what happened to her city. Ollie has the contact info for a few other people who will temporarily join us here at Area 15 as a result, though I suspect most of them won’t be permanent.”

“How’d we get here, anyway?” Nerissa asked.

“Area 15 is accessible exclusively by teleporter. Reine’s in charge of that system, and Ollie is one of the team members that assists with extraction missions, such as yours and three other people we successfully extracted earlier. We try to encourage her not to do this, as it’s a major risk if she gets captured, but… I can’t blame her. She just wants to go home, and this isn’t it.”

Nerissa frowned.

“Can I try talking to her?”

Anya paused, thinking about her next answer.

“Go ahead.”

Nerissa quietly opened the door, and then slowly walked into the room.

“Hello.”

Ollie stirred.

“Nerissa? What are you doing here?”

“Apologizing for Reimu’s death. The empire was chasing us. Reimu made a principled stand because we were there. And now she’s dead. All because we showed up in Ethyria.”

Ollie shook her head.

“It’s… it’s not your fault. I just hate how the only weapon I have is my mouth. This is the center of the resistance network, and that means I’m the one who has to update people on things like this. Nina’s about to find out that one of her best friends is dead. But I don’t blame you. I don’t blame any of my friends for my first death. I don’t blame Hana for Mika’s death, either - uh, pretend I didn’t say that, you don’t know who either of them are - and I certainly wouldn’t blame Ame for Kiara’s many deaths.”

“Wait, you know Ame?” Nerissa asked.

“Not very well.” Ollie elaborated, “I know she’s both the empire’s royal detective and is also somehow the nicest person in the upper ranks of the empire. For obvious reasons, we’re hoping she never finds this place, since…”

“That’d be the end of the resistance as we know it.”

Ollie shook her head.

“It’s the end of me, maybe, but I don’t do much. Our offensive options are awfully limited, and many of my contacts are too far away to possibly help us out.”

“Wait, isn’t this place accessible via teleportation? Doesn’t that remove distance as an issue?”

Ollie shook her head.

“Teleportation is an art that requires a lot of setup to work properly - in fact, it only exists in this world at all due to Reine accidentally making a mistake with it that brought her here. The only difference that Ame finding us would mean is that my faraway contacts - people who already can’t do much to help us now - would suddenly be cut off from information about what was going on here.”

“Ollie.” Nerissa replied bluntly, “Do you know how bad that would be? That sort of information is probably like half of what’s keeping the resistance in the fight at all; you’re making sure that everyone knows where imperial forces are - and where they aren’t, which is undoubtedly helpful to anyone who does want to try their hand at going on the offensive.”

Nerissa took a deep breath.

“I’m… I’m not part of the Area 15 permanent staff. You don’t have to tell me anything. But even I can tell this is hurting you. I’m not saying I understand. I’m saying that it’s not a personal failure to cry because of this.”

Ollie sniffled.

“...Thank you. I should probably cry to Anya and Reine, though; I’m allowed to tell them secret stuff.”

Nerissa smiled amusedly.

“That’s probably for the best. I’ll go now.”

Meanwhile…

Bijou’s eyes widened.

“Shiori, are you serious?”

Shiori sighed.

“I haven’t committed to it. But part of me is wondering if I’d be able to live with myself if I escaped, knowing that others are suffering in my place. Part of me thinks that I could possibly work to make a better world for all of us instead of just running. Imagine that: a world where we could all be happy.”

Bijou smiled.

“That sounds great.”

“I never thought you’d be that idealistic.” came the reply from Mococo.

Shiori turned to face the speaker

“Fuwawa? Mococo? How long have you two been awake for?”

“I just woke up…” Fuwawa murmured, “But I heard you wanted to make a better world for us… I’d like that… would you like that too, Mococo?”

Mococo groaned in a way that indicated yes.

“Are you two okay?” Shiori fussed.

Fuwawa and Mococo raised their heads and looked at each other for a few seconds, their beds being right beside one another, before they shook their heads.

“I wanna say it’s okay.” Fuwawa answered.

“But you’d know we’re lying, wouldn’t you.” Mococo continued.

Shiori nodded.

“I know your bodies are tough, but Mumei beat both of you pretty badly. But I’m glad, too.”

“Oh?” Fuwawa asked.

“I’m glad you trust me enough to be honest and say you’re not okay. We can work with that. We can talk about what we’re going to do next.”

“Which is?” Mococo asked.

“Depends. I don't want to make a decision without consulting all of us first, so I’m waiting for Nerissa to get back.”

“Well, here I am.” answered Nerissa, who had returned, “Just chatting with Ollie, who was… a little bit distraught about having to tell people that the governor of Ethyria’s dead.”

Shiori frowned.

“It’s an awful job to have. And I think it’s the reminder I need, because I have to talk with you about making a really big decision. One that’ll involve all of us.”

“What is it?” Nerissa asked.

Shiori grinned.

“I want to start a rebellion against the empire.”

Chapter Text

Nerissa, Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo just stared at Shiori.

“Was I not clear enough?” Shiori asked, as if she hadn’t said anything weird.

“You want to outright start a rebellion.” Nerissa replied flatly.

“Shiori, what happened to the whole ‘not dying’ promise?” Bijou asked, “Cause I thought this sort of thing doesn’t end well for almost everyone who’s tried it in the past.”

“I mean,” Nerissa replied, “I suppose we won’t have to worry about being locked up again if they outright execute us instead.”

“We can’t protect you if you do something that crazy.” Mococo stated incredulously.

“I mean, we’d try.” Fuwawa continued, “But I can’t see it going well either.”

Shiori sighed.

“I mean, yeah, there’s a chance that this goes horribly and we all die. But… I was thinking. Possibly dreaming, even.”

“Because you’d have to be asleep to believe it?” Nerissa asked.

Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo laughed. Even Shiori started laughing despite the joke being made at her own expense.

“I mean, partially.” Shiori answered, “But I kinda realized after hearing about Ollie that it’s not really just about us. I mean, yeah, I’d like to live somewhere peaceful. But I’d also like to know we’re just living in a more peaceful world. Finding some backwater to call home away from the empire might give us freedom, but… I dunno if I’d feel good about it anymore after finding out how many people really are fighting for people like us. Besides, if we leave now, what does that mean for everyone we leave behind?”

“That’s fair.” Nerissa answered, “I’m just a little bit worried about all of us becoming martyrs. Like you almost made yourself before I stopped you, I might point out.”

Shiori nodded.

“I’m not asking you guys to do this with me. If you four want to find another place to live, I can’t honestly hold it against you. Lord knows that a military base is probably a pretty depressing place to live.”

“Absolutely not!” Nerissa snapped, “I already said it once, but I guess I should point it out: I can’t live with the thought of you being hurt for my sake. Like you already are, I should point out, as I’m somehow the only person who’s not confined to a bed at the moment. Hell, Bijou was broken into pieces!”

“It’s not that bad.” Bijou commented, “As long as I don’t move too much it’ll all fix itself naturally.”

“Which works for me because I can’t walk right now!” Mococo added.

“Mococo, you probably shouldn’t sound excited about that.” Fuwawa continued.

“I’d complain,” Shiori replied, “but I did kind of burn my own body out trying to invoke as much forbidden magic as possible. I honestly thought I had her. I thought there was a chance I could actually beat the guardian, and if I collapsed after beating her, then it wouldn’t matter.”

“Wait, what?!” a new voice interrupted, “You picked a fight with the guardian of all people?!”

Shiori paused.

“Uh, whoever was outside the door, feel free to hop in, since you clearly were listening to us.”

The door to the room opened, revealing the person who was behind it: Iofi.

“Oh, it’s you! I’m really happy to see that Ollie found you five as well, though it was Anya who performed the extraction for my group.”

“Ah, they got Moona and Risu out too?” Nerissa asked.

Iofi nodded, smiling as she did so.

“Yep. We’ve all applied to stay here permanently, pending evaluations to make sure we’re not likely to screw up anything with Area 15.”

“Really? Permanent residence?” Shiori asked, “You seem excited at the idea of living at a military base for likely the rest of your life, unless we somehow actually break the empire, which… look, I’m down for it, but that seems optimistic.”

Iofi shrugged.

“I kinda thought that at first, too. But I realized that home for me was always going to be about the people I wanted to live with, and not only are Moona and Risu here, but honestly I have nothing but good things to say about the leaders of this place - not just in what they do but in the idea of living around them. I don’t think I’ve seen Risu happier in her life.”

Nerissa smiled.

“I think I got that lesson a bit earlier, but I got it after realizing what the others meant to me. Living on the run is hard, but living without the people I care about… well, I don’t care for that.”

Iofi laughed.

“Yeah, you get it too. That said, picking a fight with the Guardian?”

Shiori nodded.

“Didn’t go too well for me, but yeah, Mumei chased us for a bit. She wrecked our ride, then wrecked most of our bodies when we tried to fight back, and then Ollie got all of us out of there before Mumei captured us for good. You’ll have to thank Kiara for delaying Mumei long enough for Ollie to get us all out of there, and somehow she even escaped as well, meaning that-”

She paused.

“Dammit. Selen didn’t escape with us. I suppose that’s one more person to add to the list of people I’m going to have to avenge once I have the opportunity for it.”

“Ollie didn’t seem too distraught about her,” Iofi replied, “so I suspect Selen had her own escape plan. I’m still impressed that Kiara actually picked a fight with the Guardian and didn’t get immediately defeated, as most who challenge her tend to.”

In another room, Ollie stared intensely at her screen in disbelief.

“She just… TALKED to her?!”

Kiara walked into the room, seeing Iofi, Shiori and Nerissa chatting.

Iofi turned to face Kiara.

“Is it true you managed to beat the Guardian?”

Kiara shook her head.

“I was able to fight her, and I can certainly stall her owing to the fact that I can get up after Mumei kills me multiple times, but outright winning isn’t that much of an option, even for me. She’s really hard to kill. Her spirit is tied to the aspect of civilization itself, which means that killing her is a bit less permanent for her than it is for most people, myself excluded. Or at least that’s what she told me a few deaths ago - conveniently a lesson taught with the simultaneous lesson on how to better recall my memories after each death, which is handy if you get killed multiple times in a row trying to challenge her.”

She paused, taking a moment to think about her next words.

“It’s kind of funny that I was actually treated better while in prison than out of it, since Ame was always so nice to me. I still don’t know where she went, which is a bit rude of her!”

She turned to face Shiori.

“I guess if she’s chasing you five I should watch you five and catch her when she tries to capture you.”

Shiori laughed.

“And if that doesn’t work, then that means we have a way of getting Amelia off our backs, which is just as good for us.”

Kiara laughed.

“I think if you try talking to her she’s not going to have the heart to lock you up again!”

“You might be right.” Shiroi replied, “I’ve read a lot of her case files - we stole her car, that’s how we escaped for as long as we did - and she has some… rather interesting remarks in there. She refers to two of the test subjects as being her best friends, in another time. She also remarks that she knows that ‘Calli’ isn’t going to kill her, if you know who that is.”

“Calli?! Of course I know her! I’ve known her for countless years! Well, actually, Calli probably can count them; she’s organized like that. If Ame treated Calli like she treated me, there’s no way that Calli’s going to try anything with her. Just out of curiosity, who were the best friends?”

Shiori thought about her next words, before deciding that there wasn’t any harm in saying everything.

“Gura, the Atlantean, and Ina, the Priestess.”

“Oh, them!” Kiara replied, “I don’t know too much about Gura, but Ina contacted me a while ago, though as far as I know those two have never been captured. Of course those would be Ame’s best friends!”

“Really?” Nerissa asked, “Why would you think that?”

“They just seem like the kinds of friends Ame would make!”

“Okay, fair.” Nerissa replied, “Honestly at the rate we’re going at I’m starting to think Amelia took the royal detective job because she enjoys hanging out with cute magical girls.”

Kiara burst out into laughter.

“That sounds like something I’d do!”

“I mean I get it!” Nerissa continued, “I’d totally do it if I were in her position!”

“Nerissa!” Shiori shouted, more embarrassed than anything else, “What are you saying?!”

“I’m just saying that doing dumb things because you like cute girls is a perfectly understandable course of action!” Nerissa answered as if this was a perfectly normal topic of conversation.

Shiori tried her best to not smile.

She failed alongside the rest of the bedridden girls that were with her.

In another room, the unmistakable ping of a DM alerted Ollie. She got a lot of them at this point, but she still made it a point to at least read all of them. She had both a personal contact, used for people she was close enough with to give her real name to, and an anonymous one she used for less familiar contacts.

This had been sent to the latter.

Chapter Text

Ollie excitedly ran into the room that HoloAdvent was busy resting in.

“SHIORI! SOMEONE WANTS TO TALK TO YOU!”

Shiori’s eyes widened as Ollie practically threw her phone at her.

“Who is it?”

“Someone from the Takodachi Uprising! They’re going by the alias ‘Tako Time’, because this is one of the cool conversations where we use code names instead of the ones where we use real names because it’s personal, so think of something that fits and-”

“Ah, I get it.” Shiori interrupted, “Wait, ‘Red Matrix’?”

“Well, my hair is red, and more importantly LINEAR ALGEBRA IS COOL! Well, that and Anya told me to pick better code names because all of the ones I keep coming up with were terrible.”

Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo all looked at each other.

“We’ll take your word on that.” Nerissa replied amusedly.

Shiori took out her own phone and quickly started setting up the software necessary to get the messaging client running on her end.

Shiori blinked.

Wait, Amelia knows that too; that was in her notes.

She scrolled up, read the previous conversation, and then scrolled down to continue chatting.

Shiori fell back into her bed.

“So, everyone, here’s the new plan: apparently the Takodachi Uprising wants to meet me, and they’ve left coordinates for us to teleport to.”

“Uh, what’s the Takodachi Uprising?” Bijou asked.

“Another resistance group.” Shiori answered, “Remember how a while back I mentioned that Amelia had been tracking down a priestess in her case files? It’s the group led by that priestess. The main reason she wants to meet me is because apparently the crazy spellbook I have with me belongs to her. It’s apparently the largest concentration of pure void magic in existence, and if I read it… actually, I don’t know what happens, but apparently if I’m going to do it she wants me at the temple of the Ancient Ones first, which is probably a bad sign.”

Nerissa blinked in surprise.

“Well, I guess that explains why that thing is so powerful, but also explains why the one time you tried to fight Mumei with it both went surprisingly evenly and also was destroying your body in the process. There’s no way a human body is designed to withstand that.”

Shiori frowned.

“I don’t really want to give it up, but it’s probably for the best. Besides, as far as revelations go, that’s not even the most surprising one.”

“Really?” Fuwawa asked.

“Yeah.” Shiori answered, “They’re organizing a plot to outright assassinate the empress.”

“What?!” Mococo shouted.

“Okay, I do have to agree with the shocked reactions.” Nerissa continued, “To say nothing of her likely being the most guarded person in the empire, isn’t she infamously paranoid? Last I heard she prefers to speak only through her advisors and the rest of the whole party she has set up for her. This is someone who’s well aware that people are after her; if the previous attempts to get her failed, what makes this one have a better chance?”

Shiori attempted to shrug.

“I have no clue. And I’ll admit I’m a little worried about the fact that this puts in a direct line of confrontation with Amelia Watson, but I suppose that we were always going to have to eventually deal with that fact. We’re just speeding up the timetable.”

She attempted to get up, and then fell back into bed when she saw the glare Nerissa gave her.

“Okay, I guess we’re not speeding it up by that much. Which, fair enough, the priestess said we’ve got as much time as we need to recover.”

Nerissa smiled.

“Well, that’s good, because that means me, Kiara, and the rest of the Area 15 staff get to take care of you, because clearly we can’t trust you to do that on your own.”

“Oof.” Bijou replied, “Get-”

“Bijou,” Nerissa interrupted, “You were literally broken; you have no room to make fun of Shiori here. And even if I avoided a major injury, I think some legitimate rest would be good for all of us.”

All five members of HoloAdvent nodded.

In a relatively remote position, a truck pulled up to another location, taking a moment to stop.

The driver took her time to mark a specific position on her GPS.

So, if I’m correct, they’re going to arrive in front of the shrine, which means I’ve got one and precisely one opportunity to make this all work.

Amelia stared at her phone, reviewing a complicated set of notes.

If Gura shows up, which is unlikely, then just talk to her. 

If Ina shows up… also talk to her, but let her take control of the situation - don’t mess with the priestess.

If Kiara’s there… I dunno what the plan will be in that case. I’m not ready to talk about myself.

And if Calli’s there, well, I’ll be dead, so I suppose it won’t matter anymore. I really hope that’s not the case.

She took a deep breath.

If I’m lucky, it’s just Shiori and her group, and I won’t have to explain anything.

If I’m unlucky, all of them somehow show up simultaneously.

Amelia sighed.

What am I even hoping for? I don’t know if I want to talk to them or not. Maybe not, since I need to stay alive for now. Maybe I should, because I owe them an explanation.

Don’t overthink it, Ame. Just focus on Shiori’s group for now; deal with your best friends later.

Chapter Text

Shiori woke up.

“Well, I feel a lot better now than I did earlier, that’s for sure.”

“Anya said that you’re good to get out of bed by now.” Nerissa replied casually, “She also added no magically overloading yourself until you’re completely recovered unless you want to seriously harm yourself.”

Shiori got out of bed.

“A change in pace is probably good for me regardless. How are we all doing?”

“Well, Bijou’s crystal pieces are all fusing back together, so she’ll probably be all good to go soon, and Fuwawa and Mococo will probably be back to running around as well when they wake up. They’re all asleep for now.”

Shiori looked back, and indeed, Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo were all asleep. The cracks across Bijou’s face had become only faint lines rather than open fissures, and Fuwawa and Mococo both looked like they were at peace with their current nap.

“If we can arrange another extraction, we could choose to live here, you know.” Nerissa spoke, mirroring Shiori’s inner thoughts, “Deliver the book and then get teleported back here. I’ve had time to explore Area 15, and it’s… well, yeah, it’s a relatively depressing military facility that’s entirely isolated from the outside world, but it’s a livable one at that, and clearly the permanent residents here have done their best to make this space feel more like home.”

Shiori smiled.

“That’s because it is home, at least to them. If we became permanent residents here, I can only imagine that we’d leave our own mark on this place. And I think that’s important, too - this place began as a lifeless military installation, and now it’s… well, it’s home. Not sure if it’s going to be our home, but it’s somebody’s home nonetheless.”

Shiori walked around the base, and found that it had a surprising assortment of amenities, at least amenities that could be fit into the area.

Such as, of all things, an arcade room.

Shiori froze when she saw both Enna and Millie occupying one of the cabinets.

“Shiori, it’s okay.” Nerissa clarified, as if predicting what Shiori was thinking, “They got out.”

“One of their best friends didn’t.” Shiori replied with a bit more anger than she intended to. “Sorry, I shouldn’t take that tone with you, it’s just…”

“You’re thinking about how close we came to losing Fuwawa and Mococo at the facility.” Nerissa replied matter-of-factly, “And now you’re wondering.”

“Maybe we could’ve gotten the governor out of there.” Shiori replied, “Before tensions boiled over explosively.”

“No, you couldn’t have.” Enna suddenly explained, “We tried to get her out, too, but Reimu insisted that she was going to stand with the people of Ethyria, regardless of what happened.”

Shiori and Nerissa both blinked, not having expected Enna to have stopped playing.

“I’ve got ears, you know, I don’t know why you’d expect me to not notice you were talking about Ethyria. It’s kinda rude, to be honest. Millie just survived longer than I did before-”

The sound of Millie slamming an arcade machine hit the trio’s ears.

“This game is stupid and I’m finding something else here and-”

She suddenly saw the trio.

“-uh hi didn’t see you there what are you up to?”

Enna facepalmed.

“Okay, maybe you can expect Millie to not notice. But yeah, try not to feel guilty about what happened to Reimu.”

Millie frowned.

“I hate that she knew what she was doing, but she knew what she was doing. Ollie’s trying to track down a friend of ours - she’s known as ‘Forest Gear’ by her Area 15 codename - so we can get what’s left of the 2434 alliance back together.”

Shiori nodded.

“Apparently I’m needed by another resistance group, so I’m afraid you’ll be on your own for that particular quest.”

“Oh, we knew.” Enna replied, “Really, I just wanna find Nina so I can hide wherever she is. We haven’t heard too much from her, and we’re really hoping it’s not because she was captured.”

“God, that’s awful.” Nerissa replied, “It must suck to not even know how your friends are doing.”

Millie nodded.

“It really does, which is part of why we try our best to make sure that we always have the information on hand. Even if we couldn’t save her, knowing Reimu was dead was a lot better than the uncertainty of not knowing whether or not she escaped.”

Shiori frowned.

“I hate that we’re even having to make that comparison. These aren’t numbers. They’re people. Loved ones that were once precious to others, ripped away because of… this.”

Enna shrugged.

“You either learn to accept it, or you’ll break down from the reality of it. Or maybe it’s just that the shock of everything going on hasn’t really caught up to us yet. At this point we’re just waiting for a reply from any of our still living friends. Thanks for checking up on the two of us, though - I think everyone’s feeling a bit shaken by what’s been happening recently.”

Shiori took a deep breath.

“I’m glad to see you’re keeping it together, too.”

Shiori quietly entered a room that had clearly become a surprisingly boring office, with desks and computers populating the area.

It was in this area that she found Risu, Moona, and Iofi.

“Hey. How are you three doing?”

Risu turned around first, followed by Moona and Iofi.

“Uh, I think we’re fine.” Risu answered relatively quickly, “Yeah, getting kicked out sucked, but Moona thankfully had Ollie on speed dial. She never explained why, she just did.”

“Oh, that’s because Ollie gave me her number first.” Moona explained, “She told me to call that number if we ever needed somewhere to escape, and given the implied threat Amelia handed down, well…”

“You didn’t want to risk anything more than necessary.” Nerissa continued, “Even if you and Iofi could successfully pass for human - Amelia did mention the whole ‘no evidence’ thing - Risu can’t.”

Risu nodded.

“I’m really thankful to have two friends who will follow me anywhere, no matter what happens.”

“I wish I could live in a place with more colors,” Iofi admitted, “but this place feels like home. Home was always going to be about the people who are with me, not about an exact location. Though I think I said that to you already.”

“You did.” Shiori replied, “And you’re right. I just wanted to apologize for luring Amelia to where you were.”

“That was my fault.” Moona responded, “I invited you to stay at my place. It was Amelia who gave the implicit threat that made us leave. It sucks, but there’s nothing you could’ve done without being literally clairvoyant. And it ended with us finding a way safer place, so it’s not like it’s all bad.”

“That’s fair.” Nerissa replied, “I suppose if it all ended well, we don’t have as much to apologize for.”

Shiori shrugged.

“If Amelia weren’t so darn nice as a person, that could’ve ended really badly. She is, so it didn’t.”

“You take the reality you get, not the reality you imagine.” Risu replied, “In this case, reality went a lot better than I thought it would, so… yeah.”

Shiori smiled.

“I suppose we have that to be grateful for.”

Later…

Fuwawa and Mococo practically sprung out of bed, while Bijou more gracefully slipped out from under the blankets, revealing herself to be completely intact.

“Bijou! FuwaMoco!” Nerissa shouted with a smile, “You’re both up!”

“Yeah, finally.” Mococo muttered, “I’m thankful that Fuwawa and I have naturally strong bodies as guard dogs, but Mumei still hurts.”

“Before we run,” Fuwawa continued, “can me and Mococo explore the place? See if there’s anything here for us?”

Shiori smiled.

“You’re wondering whether or not we can call this place a permanent home, aren’t you?”

“...maybe.” Bijou answered.

Shriori’s smile became a grin.

“Then go right ahead. Might as well enjoy the place before we go meet the priestess.”

The rest of that day was spent by Fuwawa and Mococo antagonizing each other on various arcade games.

The next day…

Ollie led Shiori and the rest of her group to the teleporter chamber, alongside Anya and Reine.

“I liked having you five here. If you want my number, I can give it to you, though it’ll be with the codenames unless you’re either a staff member here or Selen Tatsuki.”

“Why Selen?” Nerissa asked.

“She’s special.” Ollie answered, “She helped me with organizing the whole teleporter protocol from back when we were setting this up, so I owe her.”

Anya nodded.

“It’s why she has permission to call in extraction missions from us, like the one she did to get you away from the Guardian.”

“Makes sense.” Nerissa replied, “And we owe her for, as she put it, ‘pulling our ass out of the fire’. Anything else you want to say before you send us to the temple of the Ancient Ones?”

Ollie looked down at the ground, clearly fighting tears.

“Please don’t die. I’ve lost too many people I care about. Some people know how to cope with it and I just can’t. All I can do is cry, and I’ve done enough crying today. Otherwise, no, not really. Good luck with your rebellion. I really want to see it succeed. Reine, are the coordinates set?”

Reine nodded.

“The coordinates are locked and the teleporter is primed. Everyone aside from Shiori’s group: please get out of the teleportation chamber. We’re about to start the countdown.”

Shiori, Nerissa, Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo all teleported to the location that had been given to them in a flash of light.

Shiori looked ahead, seeing what looked like a fairly large and old temple within walking distance from them, while taking the time to admire the surroundings.

The area they had teleported into looked like an old military base of some sort, clearly belonging to the empire. Yet, it had clearly been abandoned, and now nature was quickly reclaiming it; various plants were growing in the cracks of now abandoned fortifications, grass had overtaken much of the ground, and there were no signs of recent habitation anywhere to be found.

“It’s… oddly peaceful, isn’t it?” Shiori asked.

“Yeah.” Bijou answered, looking around as the group moved forward. “It looks like they established this place to assault the temple, and then abandoned the position.”

“That makes sense.” Shiori explained, “The temple you see on the outside isn’t the temple we’re trying to get to. It’s located at the same euclidean coordinates, but it’s… dimensionally shifted, somehow. We’re going to need assistance to get into the temple; so I wonder if it’ll be the priestess herself picking us up or not, since it’s the book she’s after.”

“Nah,” another voice interrupted, “I spent long enough planning this trap for you five that I’d be really sad to see that plan go to waste. That’s to say that I’m picking you up from here.”

Shiori felt her stomach drop at the voice, turning around to see the last person she wanted to see: Amelia Watson.

“How could you have known where we were? Or more appropriate, given your timing, you already knew where we were going to be.”

Amelia smirked.

“Given how much you’ve read about me, I think you can figure it out on your own. And if you haven’t figured it out already, don’t worry, you’ll know fairly shortly.”

Shiori looked at her spellbook.

“I’m supposed to return this to the priestess you’re chasing because it’s allegedly dangerous. You wanna see what it's capable of?”

Amelia smirked.

“Oh, I already know. If you’d like to make things easier for me, just come back with me. I have the truck ready to take you five to where you need to be for now.”

Shiori raised her free hand.

“We escaped from you once, you know. It won’t be any easier this time.”

Amelia grinned, before putting a hand to her watch.

“That’s why I don’t intend to repeat my mistakes.”

Chapter Text

Shiori and Amelia stared at each other for what felt like forever before Shiori broke the silence.

“We’ve evaded you before. We’ll do it again.”

Amelia sighed.

“I already know this conversation won’t go anywhere, but trust me, it’s easier if you don’t resist. I’m here because of that book of yours, you know.”

“Oh, you know this book?” Shiori asked.

“Of course I do.” Amelia answered, “Remember, one of the main reasons I went to the facility you were at was not because of you - okay, you were the other main reason, but you get what I mean - but it was to facilitate the transfer of a very dangerous artifact to a more secure location. Suffice to say things didn’t go according to plan. Your escape was one thing, but the secondary act of stealing both the book and the car really messed things up for me.”

Shiori blinked.

“Did you know we were going to escape?”

Amelia shrugged.

“It was a possibility I had planned for. The book was not.”

Shiori smiled.

“I guess it’s a good thing I’ve always been an avid reader.”

“I know you haven’t opened that book yet.” Amelia replied matter-of-factly, “I mostly know this because your mind is still completely intact.”

“In that case,” Shiori replied back, “maybe you pick it up. I hear you won’t be able to put it back down.”

Amelia smirked.

“Look, it’s fun having a worthy opponent, but I’m not interested in that sort of thing. I’m here to pick the five of you up so I can get my plan back on track.”

Shiori snarled.

“Then find a new one!”

Once again, the book transformed into a pair of dark scissor blades.

Amelia didn’t react.

“Nah, I don’t think I need to.”

And then Shiori swung. Amelia stepped back casually, watching as the blade missed her entirely. When Shiori swung again, Amelia repeated her back step.

“We’re a lot alike, you know.” Amelia mused, “We’re both people who find themselves with the opportunity to be killers, yet unable to bear the possibility of actually being one. Even if I hadn’t stepped back, you wouldn’t have killed me there. You’re trying to intimidate, not kill. Much like I won’t be the one to hurt you.”

“Because you don’t need to!” Shiori shouted, “You know the empire has plenty of people who will do that for you! Your mercy means nothing except a delay and a transfer to someone worse! You might as well skip to the point where people are still being hurt!”

Amelia frowned.

“I know. Yet, isn’t my small act of mercy better than if I had contributed directly to the pain?”

Shiori also frowned, but didn’t answer.

“An all-out revolution isn’t necessary. It will only inevitably cause more violence than it solves.” Amelia continued. “The only thing we need is for decent people to take positions like mine - a change I’m contributing to.”

“And countless people will suffer in the meantime. I’m not waiting for that.” Shiori replied.

Amelia shrugged.

“In that case, let’s tie things up, shall we?”

And then she disappeared.

“What-”

“Shiori! Help!”

Shiori turned around, and found Bijou being picked up by Amelia, who appeared to be carrying her surprisingly gently but also running away.

“I won’t let you hurt her!”

And with that, both of the scissor blades disappeared, transforming back into a book in one hand and a prepared spell in the other.

“I might not hurt you, Amelia, but I’ll-”

And then her spell was interrupted by Amelia blinking back to Shiori and shoving her into the ground, book still in hand, while Bijou was suddenly back to standing as if she had never been touched. Amelia then blinked out of the way to dodge both Fuwawa and Mococo’s claws.

“Good dogs.” Amelia commented, “Come at me.”

“Oh, we’ll come at you alright!” Mococo shouted.

“We’ll protect their smiles!” Fuwawa continued.

Fuwawa and Mococo leaped at Amelia, only to find that they were now suddenly leaping face-first into the grass, Amelia being out of their way.

Nerissa started singing, only for Amelia to pull out a pair of ear plugs.

“Really?” Nerissa interrupted her own song, “Are you that paranoid?”

“You stole my car keys.” Amelia answered seemingly amusedly without putting the ear plugs on, “So don’t blame me for taking precautions against that sort of thing. Now, if I-”

Her sentence was interrupted by getting hit by a blast of magic that sent her flying backwards.

Shiori gave an intense glare to the detective, who still remained surprisingly calm.

“You could’ve killed me there.” Amelia replied as she got up, “And if you’re using that book, you definitely have the potential. The only reason you didn’t is because I know you don’t have it in you to hurt me.”

“Stop this.”

“I can’t.” Amelia muttered as she got up, “If you knew…”

“Then tell me! That’s all I want! Just an explanation for anything you do!”

Amelia shrugged.

“You have the information to make the deduction on your own. I’ll let you in on a secret, though: Mumei’s intervention forced your retreat to Area 15 - yeah, I know about it, don’t be surprised, though I still can’t actually get to it so it doesn’t matter - but ultimately is was my power that made me know you’d be here. That is to say…”

Amelia blinked back, keeping her distance from Shiori.

“...I know who you’re trying to return that book to. And once I knew that, I also knew where you five would be teleported to - the dimensional barrier that surrounds the real shrine of the ancient ones means that you’d need to be teleported to the gate, rather than the interior of the fake shrine.”

Shiori’s eyes widened.

How could she have known about all of this, unless…

“It’s funny, really.” Amelia explained, “It was the priestess who told me that there were way too many ways to see the future. Eldritch whispers of ancient gods. Old fashioned magically-aided foresight.”

“And in one particular special case,” Shiori finished, “literal time travel.”

Amelia clapped.

“Your meeting with me in the cell was the first time you met me, but it was not the first time I met you. I knew you would escape because I’ve seen you escape before. I let you escape because I was planning to recapture you under my own terms - which is to say that, no, you were not supposed to get this far. And I’m not letting you keep that book, because the empire knows that you stole it, which means I can’t even say it went missing.”

Shiori blinked.

“Missing?”

“Yeah. I’m not going to lie to the empire about your possession of the book; if I tell them that you don’t have it anymore, it’s gonna be because you don’t have it anymore.”

“Because you’re gonna steal it back?”

Amelia shrugged.

“I mean, in my hands it’ll be as good as missing. For safety reasons I wouldn’t trust anyone in the empire to get their hands on this. And I certainly wouldn’t trust myself with it. There’s only one person that should have this book in their possession, and it’s the priestess.”

“And yet you’re preventing us from meeting her.” Shiori replied.

Amelia nodded.

“I have my own reasons for it. Long story short, I already know that you’re planning on starting a revolution, and while I’m willing to work with you on many fronts, I can’t allow you to go that far. For what it’s worth, I understand the desire. I wouldn’t even say you’re even morally in the wrong. But I’m saying that nonetheless it’s a bad idea. This is where your journey ends.”

“Then what are you trying to accomplish?” Nerissa asked as she took a position beside Shiori.

“I’m trying to avoid all of you getting killed when you inevitably get too optimistic and think you can foolishly win.” Amelia answered, “You would not be the first inspired revolutionaries that learn the hard way that it’s a bad idea. This is for your own safety - and the safety of everyone you’d inevitably rope in.”

Shiori froze, letting the implications of everything Amelia had said sink in.

“You’ve watched us die before.”

Amelia nodded solemnly.

“If it’s a consolation, you fought in support of the revolution, and you died bravely and honorably. But, and this is important: you still died.”

Shiori felt the will to resist leaving her body.

“How many…” Bijou interrupted as she approached, “how many times have you watched us die?”

Amelia closed her eyes.

“Technically, zero. I only heard about your deaths after the fact.”

Shiori felt the hand on her spellbook shaking.

“You’ve watched Ina die before, haven’t you? Or maybe other people you’ve cared about.”

Amelia shook her head.

“Ina and Gura both have the ability to hide by jumping back into the ocean. But even aside from those two, I’m not willing to risk countless lives on an ultimately doomed mission. And your continued persistence means that my claims that everything is under control are getting harder and harder to make believable. Perhaps now you understand why I need to capture you.”

Shiori nodded.

“If the empire figures out we contacted the priestess directly, they’ll know we gave her book back to her. If you capture us, and then privately return the book - or, more appropriately, screw with time in such a way that it ends up exactly where the priestess needs it - without anyone knowing, then you can claim it went missing. But wouldn’t that be true if-”

She gasped.

“You’re doing this to cover for us. I’ll just lie and say I lost the book, right?”

Amelia smiled.

“And I’ll confirm it myself. I’m asking you to be cooperative because as of right now aside from your breakout you haven’t actually caused any acts of rebellion that would put you on the killing list, aside from Mumei’s personal one, and she’s… kind of a whole different class of issue. The more important thing is that Mumei doesn’t actually report to the empire’s inner circle - I think she’s supposed to, but she legitimately just kind of forgets what she’s doing. If you come with me, then I can resolve everything here, and then I can put in a good word about you, and hopefully get you transferred to a position of my choosing. Here’s a benefit of working for the empire at a high level position: they actually respect my opinions. If I tell the empire that I’ve got this handled, they’ll believe it. Do we have a deal?”

Shiori closed her eyes, thinking about her answer, before finally opening them.

“No.”

Amelia sighed.

“You know you’re making this worse when inevitably you are captured, and trust me, you will be captured again. That’s not a promise; it’s a simple statement of fact. And if you want to be captured unharmed, you’ll want to come with me. Maybe you’ll even get a trusted position, if you work with me long enough.”

“And then what?” Nerissa asked, “Because all I’m hearing from this is that we go back to having no freedom whatsoever, just like you.”

Amelia blinked.

“Don’t you think of me as being free?”

Shiori paused, frowning.

“Not at all. Amelia, I want you to answer me this, and answer it honestly: if this wasn’t part of your job, would you be doing this? Would you be chasing, and I quote, your ‘best friend from another time’?”

Amelia flinched.

“Don’t speak of them. I’ll earn their forgiveness eventually.”

“Forgiveness for what?” entered a new voice.

Amelia’s eyes widened.

“Gura, why are you here? It’s… tricky to explain.”

“We have all the time in the world.” another voice spoke calmly.

Amelia paled, recognizing the voice.

“Hello,” Ina addressed the seven people in front of her, “I was getting a little worried that you had gotten lost. Instead I found that the trap I planted for our dear detective worked perfectly.”

Chapter Text

Amelia took a slow step backwards, facing none other than the priestess of the Takodachi Uprising and wanting to keep the distance between them relatively maximized. Meanwhile, Shiori backed off, letting the conversation between the detective, priestess, and atlantean proceed without her in the middle.

“Ninomae Ina’nis. Leader of the Takodachi Uprising. One of my main targets. And yet, in this situation, I’m going to have to let you go for now.”

“Oh?” Ina replied calmly, “That’s a surprise. I thought I was on the empire’s hit list.”

“You are.” Amelia replied, “You’re looking at the person who is responsible for leading the effort to capture you, though as I said, I won’t stop you for now. I know you’re looking for a book, and I’d really like it if you could take it quickly. Then I’m back to fabricating a lot of lies to pretend that none of this happened, since as of right now we’re enemies.”

Ina smiled, wearing that slightly polite smile that Amelia knew meant she was in trouble.

“Ame. Maybe you’re used to being the only person that can see the future. But I promise, you are not nearly as alone in that department as you think you are.”

“The point you’re making?” Amelia asked, trying to keep her tone casual.

“Ame,” Ina answered, “I know you’re a time traveler. And you owe us an explanation. I think you owe a lot of people explanations, but I think those of us gathered here are as good as we’re going to get.”

“You know,” Gura suddenly chimed in, “a lot of your weird habits make sense after hearing you’re a time traveler. I’m glad I decided to show up!”

Amelia blinked.

“Okay, Ina I can understand since we’re all in front of her temple, but why are you here?”

“Oh,” Gura answered, “Ina invited me here. Didn’t say what for, though apparently this was her trap?”

Amelia sighed.

“Well, I suppose I’ll move on to another plan then, since stopping all of you at once is rather… difficult. It’s nice to meet you two, but I’ve got other places to be.”

She smirked, and then pressed a button on her watch.

And then paused, realizing as she was still there.

“That’s odd, normally time slows down when I do that.”

She pressed it again.

“You were ready for this, weren’t you?”

“You’re hard to catch otherwise,” Ina replied, “given your abilities allow you to move slightly faster than a normal person. It would’ve been hard given my limited abilities, but you helped out by stepping into an anti-magic aura I had days to set up specifically for this encounter.”

Ame’s smirk rapidly disintegrated, seemingly migrating to Ina’s face. Amelia turned around, and sprinted the other way, only for Gura to catch up and tackle her to the ground.

“You’re coming with us.” Gura replied smugly, “None of this last-minute escaping business, okay?”

Ina then turned to face Shiori.

“Not to forget you, of course. Yes, you five were caught in the middle of Amelia’s trap which was in fact actually my trap to capture Amelia, but as was pointed out earlier, and as both me and Ame have told you: I need your spellbook. All of you, come with me.”

Shiori hadn’t thought too much of the temple from a distance, but now that she was in front of it, the place had a surprisingly depressing aura. It was abandoned, pieces of it broken off.

Ina looked up at the structure.

“Of course, if you were to walk into it right now, you’d find nothing. The real temple is… a little harder to reach.”

She stretched out her arms. All at once, seven tentacles extended out from her back, one wrapping around each other person present.

Ina kept walking forward into the seemingly abandoned structure, now seemingly completely empty.

The next thing all of them saw was a flash of violet.

Everyone’s vision cleared up fairly quickly, and in its place was none other than the real temple of the ancient ones, which was very much not empty, populated both by both relatively small floating creatures and also by a few other humans in priest outfits.

“Say hi to the Takodachis.” Ina announced, “They’re friendly, I promise. Otherwise, follow me - we’re going straight to the inner chamber of the temple, as this is a pretty important meeting we’re about to hold. I hope you don’t mind stairs, as we’re about to climb down a lot of them.”

A groan emerged from both Gura and Bijou.

Ina snickered.

“Sorry, we don’t have an express elevator. Well, we do, but it has a tendency to be rather… unsafe for those not attuned properly. As you may realize, this temple is far larger on the inside than it is on the outside. I suppose, since we have a few minutes of just walking through the temple, introductions are in order. As the host of this meeting: I’ll go first: I am Ninomae Ina’nis, priestess of the ancient ones. Please just call me Ina though; even in formal functions I normally go by that name.”

Gura shrugged.

“I’m Gawr Gura, shark girl. I don’t really know why Ina called me here, though I think it has to do with Amelia, who’s met me on a few occasions.”

Amelia let out a breath.

“Well, given I’m probably in more trouble than I can possibly get out of, I might as well introduce myself honestly: I’m Amelia Watson, the royal detective of the empire. Tasked with capturing everyone here, and yet somehow all that happened is that you captured me.”

Shiori smirked.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten too confident in everything going your way. Speaking of which, I’m Shiori Novella, and I’m the girl who apparently stole a book that I was absolutely not meant to steal. I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m really not. Though I haven’t read it yet.”

“That’s for the best.” Ina replied, before turning towards Bijou. “I know you four have been mostly ignored so far, but since you’ve been brought along anyway, you might as well introduce yourselves.”

“I’m the Jewel of Emotion, Koseki Bijou!”

“I’m Nerissa Ravencroft, the Demon of Sound.”

“I’m Fuwawa!”

“I’m Mococo!”

“Together, we are… FUWAMOCO!”

Ina found herself smiling almost involuntarily.

“So, why are you all in trouble with the empire?” Gura suddenly asked.

Shiori sighed.

“Well, probably because we broke out of the testing facility we’d all been trapped in, and quite explosively at that.”

“Oh, and they stole my car.” Amelia added, “And my case files, too!”

“Hey, if you’re on the run,” Nerissa replied, “you might as well use whatever advantage you can get.”

“I had to walk home from the middle of nowhere!” Amelia shouted in frustration. “Plus it means you got involved with… these people. I’m trying to keep you out of that sort of thing, you know?”

Gura laughed.

“Oh, am I a secret friend?”

“Gura,” Amelia answered, “I’m officially trying to capture you. You know that, right?”

“True.” Shiori answered, “Alongside everyone else. But given that you referred to both Gura and Ina as, and I quote, ‘my best friend from another time’, maybe there’s something more going on behind the scenes.”

Amelia flinched.

“Don’t mention that. Please.”

Gura moved in for the kill.

“Wait, are you getting embarrassed at the idea?”

“What, no!”

Ina finally broke out into laughter, followed by Gura, followed by the rest of HoloAdvent.

After the laughter faded, however, Ina came across a door. The hallway was paradoxically well-lit, despite being a sealed hall with no actual light sources.

Ina stared at the door, not bothering to knock, until it opened.

Eight people entered the room, and then the door closed. Inside was a large round table, which everyone started seating themselves around.

“Alright.” Ina finally spoke. “Now we have to talk about a lot of things.”

“Yeah.” Amelia finally admitted. “I was really hoping I’d get to explain things on my own terms, but it appears Ina’s forced the issue. Where should I start?”

“The beginning, probably.” Ina replied with a smirk.

Amelia rolled her eyes.

“I guess I’ll start with the first revolution. Not that you’d hear anything about it, as all information on it was lost - I alone know the full story, and only because of my powers. The setup for the revolution was actually quite similar to the one that’s inevitably brewing now. It started with a disgruntled group of test subjects who, with the help of none other than Amelia Watson, all escaped.”

Shiori let out a breath.

“I think I can guess where this is going. After all, you’ve done this all before.”

“Let me continue.” Amelia responded, “That group of five people started organizing a group much larger than themselves. For reasons we’ll get to later, the Takodachi Uprising started, their leader none other than Ina. They were soon joined by others, including a moon goddess and a zombie girl.

“You see, this all started because of a single girl, who above all else, truly believed in her heart that a better world existed out there, that this cycle of fear of violence was not the only way to live life. That girl became the revolutionary, the leader to an organized resistance.

“That girl was accompanied by four friends. All of whom had been captives before. At the end of the day, the leader of the revolution made her demands, made an appeal to just plain decency.”

“That appeal wasn’t granted.” Shiori finished.

Amelia frowned.

“Not at all. The leader was captured. And then, thanks to the efforts of her circle of friends, she broke out. But by the time that happened, the reality of the situation had already made itself apparent. That which the empire can’t control, it has to make sure is sealed away, separated from anyone else. That which they can’t seal away, must be eliminated.”

Amelia took a long breath before continuing.

“That was the revolutionary’s mistake. By attempting to rip themselves out from the empire’s control, all they did was prove that they were too dangerous for the empire to ignore. What followed was a period of horrible violence, and even more brutal repression. It didn’t help that nobody understood at the time what needed to be done to take down the empire - optimism was the only thing that kept the revolution alive, and after guns were drawn, there wasn’t much of it left.

“Even the revolutionary, in the last moments of the revolution before it was declared officially dead, understood that even a victory would be pyrrhic at best and tragic at worst. Countless lives were lost, and ultimately nobody got what they wanted, least of all her.”

“Okay, I get it.” Shiori muttered, “You’re trying to stop me because I’m an idiot that gets us all killed because I believe I can win a fight that we actually can’t. You don’t need to rub it in that deeply.”

Amelia shook her head.

“You weren’t the revolutionary leader. You were a valuable ally in the revolution, and you were killed later when the empire sent some of their deadliest military divisions to utterly put down what was left of the revolution. Your death was one among many others. If it’s any consolation, you five all died together and were considered heroes, so there’s that, though ultimately you still all died.”

Amelia drew another long breath, even longer this time.

“No, the mythical five who started the first major breakout was not your group, but was instead a group that I’m much more familiar with. A group that included my best friends once, alongside both a grim reaper and a phoenix. It’s probably pretty obvious what the big twist is by now, but if it somehow isn’t: the revolutionary’s name was Amelia Watson. I was the one who organized the first rebellion, and led it directly into its complete and total failure, along with my best friends.”

Chapter Text

Amelia looked down at the table while continuing her story.

“That’s what happened. I staged a breakout of my best friends - yeah, Ina and Gura were captured the first time - then organized a rebellion against the empire, and then people got killed. I learned a lot of lessons from that. I was… I was hoping for a better resolution if I didn’t try something like it, but it looks like somebody’s trying to follow in my footsteps, and I’d really prefer that not to be the case. That’s why I’ve been trying to shut this down. I don’t want to see more people die.”

“Because subservience is better.” Nerissa replied with more scorn than she intended to.

“Yes! At least if you live, you can still search for better opportunities - all of your ideals are for nothing if you just die!”

Ina frowned. “Let’s curb that philosophical discussion; it won’t do us any good right now. Amelia, you can continue.”

Amelia nodded. “Thanks. I figure I’ll probably do the revolution thing next timeline when things don’t work out here, but you know, if you guys haven’t tried to kill me yet I figure I might as well keep going and see what happens. I don’t expect forgiveness, but that’s my story.”

“Quick question.” Gura replied, “If you reset the timeline after you lost the first time, can’t you keep doing that forever? Aren’t we just destined to win eventually?”

“There’s no official rules,” Amelia answered, “but Kronii’s already in a bad enough mood as is - cleaning up a mess of unsanctioned rewinds might make her give up on letting me do this, and I can’t really afford to let that happen. Oh, and for those who don’t know: Ouro Kronii is the Warden of Time. She’s… not in a good mood as of recently. In fact, I haven’t been able to get in contact with her as of recently, which is a bad sign, but I’ll worry about that later. I just… I’m not strong enough to be the reason people die. So I decided I’d let you guys keep up smaller efforts instead.”

“So what I’m hearing about this is that you’re just a quitter.” Nerissa replied, “You failed once, and you’ve decided to pack it up. Unlike so many you actually get to try again, and yet…”

Amelia suddenly smirked. “Honestly, I’d say so far this is going far better than any of my attempts did. I’ve kept a lot more people alive. And I can do so much more to help people on the inside. Do you know why I was at your testing facility of all places?”

Shiori’s eyes widened.

“To stop the tests.”

Amelia nodded. “The reality was that you wouldn’t break. They assigned the task to me, because I have a good history of getting test subjects to cooperate, usually by treating them with even the slightest bit of kindness. Normally I stage a behavioral turnaround so dramatic that usually they just let me make the call on what to do with them.”

“And then you release them.” Shiori answered.

“Yes.” Amelia continued, “Usually with a clause or two telling them to stay out of further trouble. The empire listens to me. In any case except the most powerful test subjects, it’s simply more practical to let underlings make the judgment call, and I exercise my right to do quite often.”

Nerissa laughed. “Oh, I get it. Because you’re negotiating terms of release without anyone double-checking you, you get to amass loyal pawns, which… okay, no, this isn’t adding up.”

“That’s because they aren’t my pawns.” Amelia answered in annoyance, “Once they’re free, it’s all up to them. And in many cases, I even encourage them to take roles in the empire, despite any lingering resentment.”

Everyone present blinked.

“Uh, why?” Gura asked, “I wouldn’t wanna work for them.”

“Because it means you get to make decisions.” Amelia elaborated, “The empire’s inner circle will always make the decisions, yes, but those decisions mean nothing if someone else down the line says no.”

“Speaking of the inner circle,” Ina suddenly interrupted, “We need to talk about the whole assassination plot we have going on. Because it ties my plan to your spellbook, Shiori, and I suspect it was a large part of why we weren’t able to win the first time, though I suppose since only Amelia remembers she could tell me if I’m correct.”

“Eh, it was a lot of things.” Amelia answered, “Ultimately it was my fault.”

Ina frowned, but decided to continue rather than trying to argue.

“I’m, as of currently, next in line to be the high priestess of the Ancient Ones and as a result the Takodachi Empress at that. The current empress, is in fact, also the current high priestess, and as such despite the fact that I control most of the physical manifestations of Ao-chan’s power I’m still far weaker than I could be at my full potential. Or will control, but I’ll get to that later. What you really need to know is that if the current high priestess dies, all of her powers transfer to me, and that gives us a pretty good chance of winning the fight.”

“Uh,” Bijou replied, “how exactly do we beat the person who is already using that power?”

Ina smiled. “That’s a good question, and thankfully there’s an answer to it: she actually wants to die.”

The rest of everyone present at the table stared at Ina in disbelief.

“I don’t get it.” Gura broke the silence with the thought that everyone else had.

“The empress is kept in an unaging stasis, a prison that leaves completely incapable of dying.” Ina elaborated, “The inner circle knows about the power transfer, and thus they need to keep the empress alive, both for the sake of appearances, but also because they know they haven’t captured the remaining priest. You see, out of all the candidates for being Ao-chan’s host body, only one of them is left aside from the empress herself: me. Ironically, this has turned into a bit of a situation for them, because by doing this they’ve made the empress want to die, which means they have to take drastic measures to make sure she doesn’t.”

“The empress is a symbol, not an actual person of power.” Amelia elaborated, “And yes, I know this because of my failed first revolution - and found out the hard way why Ina can’t manifest her full powers, which is really saying something given how terrifying she is while missing a large chunk of them. The inner circle is the real ‘ruler’ of the empire. Long story short, our timeline got screwed up a while back, and while I fixed it, we lost the coin flip, a concept that I’m not sure I can explain without making everyone here slightly angry.”

Everyone in the room glared at Amelia.

“Well, I guess I’m explaining it: you can’t change the past, just create new timelines. I created a happier timeline by helping Ina win, but we’re still all stuck here - there’s nothing we can do about that; I only saved our alternative selves. Anyways, history lesson: The cult of the Ancient Ones - back when it was still just a cult - got into a mess where the priestesses all fought to become the high priestess of the Ancient Ones. Ina was supposed to win that, but in this timeline, she failed. The consequence is that Ina never took the high priestess position, and all of us are sadly stuck in the bad timeline.”

Ina nodded solemnly. “Being the high priestess means having access to Ao-chan’s full powers, or at least the full extent of how far you can physically manifest them. When the Takodachi cult became the Takodachi Empire, I wasn’t the empress, which… really messed things up.”

“The problem is that Ina was basically the only actually nice priestess of the bunch.” Amelia elaborated, “And that meant as empress she’s well-liked. By disrupting this chain of events, the empire was instead ruled by an absolute tyrant. The consequence of this was that basically everyone underneath her was terrified of her, both because she was a tyrant and also because she had the powers of the Ancient Ones at her disposal, and those are seriously scary powers.”

“Indeed,” Ina continued, “which meant that the former empress’ inner circle essentially wanted to depose their empress, which they did. More than once, in fact. They learned a very important lesson from that mess: when the current high priestess dies, ownership of Ao-chan’s full powers is passed down to the next empress. And thus the cycle repeated, only this time they decided to learn from their mistakes, and studied a lot of stasis… magic or science, haven’t figured out which, and eventually trapped the empress, leaving her unaging and much more importantly unable to die. If she dies, then finally I become the high priestess, as I’m the only one left.”

Amelia grinned. “You know, as foolish as it is, I can’t help but admire your plan a bit. If I had the knowledge in the first timeline to know all of this in my first revolution, I totally would’ve gone for this plan. I didn’t study the history of the empire until much later. And, yeah, to finish the history lesson: after putting the empress in stasis, most of the ancient magic and the takodachi creatures kind of… went away, I guess. Ina’s the last big holdout of still having access to those powers.”

Ina nodded. “Which brings me to how one actually uses those powers. There are three different sources that all link together to make one able to wield Ao-chan’s powers: careful magical study, the physical form of Ao-chan in their book form, and finally the host link of being the high priestess. I only have two of those right now.”

Shiori drew her spellbook.

“I suppose I should hand over the apparent incarnation of an eldritch god back over to you. I’m going to guess that I go insane if I actually ever read this.”

Ina smiled, and then raised one of her hands.

“The former incarnation, but yes, it’s not a wise idea.”

A portal formed, which Ina drew a book out of.

“This is the current incarnation of Ao-chan. Whenever the current owner is killed, Ao-chan migrates to a new book of the new high priestess’ possession, if they don’t already possess it like I do. Whenever this migration occurs, the previous book turns back into a ‘normal’ book, except the leftover residue arcana is some of the most powerful magic ever.”

Shiori smiled. “Wait, if the Ancient Ones aren’t in this book anymore, doesn’t that mean it’s safe for me to read?”

And with that, she opened the book, as if the mental block preventing her from opening it was finally removed and she could read it normally.

“No!” Ina shouted, “Just the void magic itself is enough to drive you insane! Few are ready for that level of arcane potential!”

Ina got up, desperate to pry the book away from Shiori’s eyes, before realizing that nothing was happening.

“Oops.” Shiori replied, “Guess I’m already insane.”

Shiori stared at the open book.

“Huh. I remember all of these. I don’t know why I forgot, but I’ve read all of this already. It’s really not that scary once you get over the feeling of your mind being destroyed, but… it’s nothing, really. It’s just me. I feel like the same Shiori Novella I’ve always been. Any explanation?”

Ina blinked. “...You’re a void mage. That’s… so many of the apprentices here practice for years to get an opportunity to learn the ways of the void and you did it naturally, that’s…”

She smirked.

“Well, originally I was going to take the book and cleanse it for your own public safety, but… well, I think it’s time we see what you can really do with that power.”

Chapter Text

Shiori looked over the table at Ina.

“I’m not sure it’s a great idea, given that the last time I used it, it nearly destroyed my body.”

Ina drew a sharp breath. “That makes sense, actually. The thing about void magic is that, like basically every other form of forbidden magic, one of the reasons it’s forbidden is that it’s notoriously lethal to the caster if they aren’t properly trained. You have a natural affinity with the void, but your physical body isn’t used to it, and that dissonance can easily kill you if you don’t have the proper training. I’m willing to offer it. Personally, even.”

“Wait, really?” Shiori asked. “I know you said I’m a natural, but…”

“Shiori, if you managed to successfully fight the Guardian of Civilization - I know you failed but you’re still here, so that’s as good a success as you get - then you are already wielding a level of power greater than most of my apprentices will ever reach. Not to mention that if we’re joining forces I need to make sure you don’t die from void magic overload.”

Shiori laughed, before seeing the much more serious expressions that Nerissa, Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo all gave her.

“Okay, true. I promised the four of them that I wouldn’t die. And made them promise me they wouldn’t die either, and you know now that I think about it I think there’s some questions that need answering now, such as what’s gonna happen to us, because for all of the fancy plot twists we just talked about we kinda have to figure out where we sleep.”

“Ah, no problem.” Ina answered, “The extra-dimensional temple space means we have plenty of bedrooms. And, I suppose more realistically, it might be easiest if I keep you here and then call in an extraction from Ollie to get the rest of your friends out.”

“No.” Shiori replied bluntly, “I mean, I’d do it, but there’s absolutely no way you’d get those four to agree to that.”

Bijou narrowed her eyes.

“Shiori, what did we say about staying safe?”

“You four would be safer.” Shiori answered.

“Yes, but again, we’re staying together. We win together or not at all. If that means sleeping in a cuddle pile, then so be it!”

Shiori grinned. “So that’s that. Next step: what exactly are we planning to do with the detective that, may I add, had been trying to capture me for the last few days, given that I think the empire’s gonna notice she’s missing.”

Amelia drew a deep breath. “I think I can lie my way out of that, as long as they don’t check the paper trail. If that fails, I’ll go into hiding and then figure out what to do from there. And then at the end of the day I’ll probably come back here and join the revolution when inevitably I have no other choice. I’d like to go with the first option for now, anyway.”

Gura and Ina both frowned.

“Shiori,” Ina spoke a little too politely for comfort, “can you lead your friends out of the room? The three of us need to speak privately for a moment. It’s been a while since we’ve been able to do so.”

Amelia paled as she watched Shiori get up, grinning a little too smugly at the course of events as she led the rest of her group away.

As soon as the door closed, Ina immediately resumed her questioning.

“You saw the promise that Shiori and her group of friends have made, right?”

“Uh…”

“A simple yes or no: would my early death result in you immediately giving up on this timeline?”

Amelia choked.

“Alright,” Ina continued, “promise me you’ll stay safe.”

Amelia took a moment to ponder.

“Given that you’ll need me to trigger a timeline rewind should the worst happen, I actually think I’m already trying to do my best to stay alive.”

Gura stared at Amelia, saying nothing but frowning.

“God dammit Gura, I swear you’ve already figured out I can’t say no to that face. Look, I really do mean it when I said I’m going to try my hardest to stay alive.”

“Fine.” Gura muttered, “And I promise I won’t cry at your funeral.”

“Right now, you shouldn’t.” Amelia replied, “Officially speaking, I’m your enemy.”

“No you’re not!” Gura snapped, “I know you’ve been trying to capture me but you already said we were best friends once!”

“I wasn’t working for the empire the first time. I mean unofficially speaking I’m not your enemy, but the point is that it’s not good for you to associate with me. Not yet, anyway.”

“Ame.” Ina replied with a surprisingly blunt tone to her voice, “I know what you’re trying to do.”

“No you don’t.” Amelia replied, “I’ve got plans within plans, countless possibilities-”

“Oh, not about the time stuff.” Ina answered, “You’re trying to avoid getting attached because you don’t know whether or not there’s going to be a happy ending yet. And you’re frankly awful at it, to be perfectly honest. You’re in desperation mode because you’re watching both of your best friends potentially risk their lives and you don’t know what to do.”

Amelia froze.

“...Why are you always so good at this?”

“To be fair, Gura figured it out too, I’m just better at putting those thoughts into words.”

Gura nodded. “Everything I’ve seen of you indicates you’re smart, but man, I don’t know how you didn’t realize this earlier. If… if you’re going to be our enemy, then fine, say it out loud. But no more of… whatever this is.”

Shiori waited for the door to the inner chamber to open. When it finally did, she smiled, first as a smug grin which then softened as she saw Amelia’s face.

That was the face of someone who had failed to hold back tears but had since wiped them off in an attempt to look like she hadn’t cried.

“So, do we have to run from you or not?” Shiori asked.

“Shut up.” Amelia replied with surprisingly little authority to her voice, “Right now it’d be pointless to bother with any of that. You’re both crazy knowledgeable and also on track to be an incredibly powerful void mage. The empire’s going to take too much of an interest in that sort of power. It’s why I let Calli and Kiara go - I’d never get them released for good behavior. And similarly I never planned to turn in Ina or Gura at any point - or at least Ina - because they’re too individually important to sweep under the rug in the same way. Maybe I could still capture the rest of your group, but… nah.”

“Your ashes would be taking a trip to the void if you tried that,” Shiori threatened, “so I’m glad to see your survival reflexes still work.”

Amelia smiled. “Yeah. But also, I don’t want to break up families. That’s just a sickening thought, really. Even beyond the whole capturing thing, separating you five just feels wrong now.”

The group nodded.

“I can’t imagine losing any of them.” Bijou thought out loud.

“I only survived the tests back then because Fuwawa was there for me.” Mococo added.

“And I didn’t give up because I knew Mococo needed me.” Fuwawa finished.

Shiori smiled. “It sounds silly, but it’s true. The only reason I gave it everything I could to escape was because of them - because I couldn’t stand the thought of them suffering any more than necessary. And yeah, sorry for jumping the gun on you like that. And for stealing your car.”

Amelia shrugged. “I didn’t give you any reason not to, really. I was unprepared for you to have the motivation to try that hard to get all of them out, and, well, I kinda paid the price for that. That, and I understand now that there was no way you were ever going to submit your knowledge to the empire.”

“It’s easy to explain now, with everything revealed.” Ina elaborated, “You see, to a certain extent your own mind has to shield itself from the void, which means there’s no way you’re spilling that knowledge to outsiders - if you can’t reveal it to yourself, you can’t reveal it to anyone else. It was only when you reopened the book that your true potential was restored, which… means you already found the book before you were taken in.”

Shiori nodded. “I didn’t remember it at the time, but I think on some level I knew that the book belonged to me. That’s why it was stored at the facility - I probably had it on me when they captured me for the first time. And naturally they were afraid of giving it back to me because of what I could do with it - which I demonstrated immediately after I retrieved it, so I can’t say they were wrong about that. With that all being said, what’s the plan now?”

“You and your friends will stay with me, alongside Gura. I’ll help you train your void magic to get it under control so you don’t risk letting yourself get destroyed by it. Meanwhile, Ame’s going to go back and start… doing Ame things, really. At this point, it’s safe to treat her as an ally, as the reality is that half of her aloof nature was just her trying to avoid me and Gura getting hurt by keeping us out of the conflict, and we’re no longer planning on doing that. After you complete your training, we’ll talk about next steps, namely how we’re going to actually assassinate the empress, since she’s rather obviously protected to a very high degree.

“As for the rest of you… well, I’ll try to keep your guest accommodations as reasonable as I can, but for now I don’t have too much I can do with you. I will ask, however, that you do not leave the temple under any circumstances - you won’t be able to get back in if you do that because of the barrier.”

“Hey Ina!” a new voice shouted, “Why didn’t you invite me?!”

Amelia drew a sharp breath. “Kiara. Wait, how’d you find us? I thought the temple was hidden by Ina’s barrier.”

“Oh, that was easy.” Kiara answered casually, “I just asked the local Takodachi how to get in and they showed me the way.”

Ina facepalmed. “I told them you were allowed in, but… well, I’ll teach them proper entry protocol one of these days. it might take them a while to understand, though.”

“Uh…” Amelia stammered. “so, why are you here?”

“Honestly,” Kiara answered, “because I found out late where Shiori's group was going. Plus, I figured since you were chasing Shiori at the time, there was a good chance that following them would allow me to reach you. And I was right! Just a little late to the party though.”

Amelia sighed. “Well, I don’t have much to say, other than hi. It’s a long story, but basically Shiori teleported into my trap, which was actually Ina’s trap to get us all here. I’m sure you’d rather not listen to me-”

Her speech was cut off by Kiara glaring at her while Gura and Ina barely avoided breaking out into laughter.

“Thanks, you two.” Amelia commented sarcastically, “Look, I was just about to leave-”

“AME!”

Ina smiled almost maliciously politely.

“Ah, I forgot to ward this place against reaper teleportation. Sorry about that.”

Amelia facepalmed. “Well, it was nice knowing you guys, but Calli’s… a bit ticked at me. She told me not to run away when she escaped, and I kinda have been running around for the entire time since I last spoke to her.”

A mysterious cloud of dark mist gathered into the human form of Calliope Mori.

“Ame. Explanation. Now.”

Amelia took a deep breath.

“Well, I guess I have time to explain everything a second time for you two. It’s a long story.”

Chapter Text

Amelia finished explaining herself to Calliope and Kiara, while Gura patiently listened. Shiori’s group was off in another discussion with Ina, most likely involving Shiori’s new powers.

“...And that covers everything I’ve already told the others.” Amelia finished recounting, “So, Calli, is this the part where you kill me, or have I told you enough to make you reconsider?”

Calliope smiled. “Wasn’t planning on it even before you told me, but God, that explains so much. It also explains the stunt you pulled when you were freeing me - you knew that if I broke out on my own, they’d assign you to capture me, and you knew that you weren’t going to recapture me.”

“What?” Amelia asked, “You did that entirely on your own.”

“Ame.” Calliope replied, “I don’t think it was a coincidence that you mentioned capturing a phoenix.”

“Just like you mentioned Calli’s capture to me!” Kiara continued, “And that’s what I don’t get. Why now?”

“Because I was going to have other issues.” Amelia answered, “I’d planned for Shiori’s escape and I knew I was going to be spending some time tracking them down. What I hadn’t planned on was the group managing to outwit me together to the point of stealing my car, which then meant they got roped up with you guys - originally I planned to recapture her, and then it would just so happen to be that by some magical accident Ina had taken her book back while I was retrieving Shiori. Then I’d work out a deal with her to get her out of her testing chamber like I’ve done with so many others.”

“Not us, though.” Calliope replied flatly.

“Yeah, your powers in specific were too powerful for the empire to let go of you that easily.” Amelia elaborated, “Same goes for Kiara, since the whole ‘immortality’ thing is pretty big. Although magical synthesis is not entirely understood, synthetic reaper powers would be a pretty big deal, as would synthetic immortality. That’s why I let you release yourselves - it was the only mercy I could offer. That said, I don’t plan to stay here - I have too many loose ends I need to tie up before you idiots start a rebellion that gets everyone killed, just like-”

“Ame.” Gura interrupted, “You’re like, assuming we’re going to fail in the same way. Maybe we’ll do better!”

“I know you’re scared, but seriously!” Kiara continued, “Okay, I’m a special case who literally can’t die, but you have to believe there’s a chance things will go right this time.”

Amelia laughed. “You think I don’t know that? It’s true, yes, but belief is hard to come by when I’m watching history repeat itself. Even assuming we sort of plans for dealing with the empress - oh, and Calli, the Empress’ chamber is warded against reaper teleportation, they learned how to block that after you broke free to prevent you from doing that again - there’s still the Guardian, and… let’s just say that coordinating a plan against her is… difficult. Actually, speaking of reaper teleportation, where have you been? I figured you would’ve teleported behind me by now.”

“There’s a funny story behind that.” Calliope answered, “The empire’s been getting some really weird natural disasters as of recently. A hurricane in the East. A random coldsnap another. A freak thunderstorm that formed out of absolutely nowhere, though that one caused basically no damage. Deaths are minimal so far, but it’s got the empire spooked. I was just checking it out.”

Amelia paled. “We’re running out of time. I thought the Keeper would be more patient. Ina! Get over here! You need to hear this!”

Ina turned around, while Shiori and the rest of the group followed closely behind.

“The keeper?” Gura asked.

“Ceres Fauna, Keeper of Nature.” Amelia answered, “Much like Mumei, she’s one of the world administrators, one of the council members. She is, however, much more powerful than Mumei, who is horrifyingly considered the weakest of the bunch. Fauna controls both wildlife and the nature of the physical planet itself, which partially includes the weather. The council members aren’t supposed to interfere with how the planet’s running itself, but… if she’s giving up hope, then she might start acting up. But even that I’m not worried about - it’s about what follows her.”

“Which is?”

“Chaos. Space. Time. The primordial forces that sprung the universe into creation from the very start. If any of them give up on this world… then we’re all kinda screwed. Chaos will start really messing things up once she starts screwing around, Space can destroy our planet faster than you could imagine, and Time… Well, if you think my resetting back to the beginning of the revolution was crazy, get this: the Warden of Time can undo our entire universe’s existence.”

Gura, Calliope and Kiara all just stared at Amelia, who sighed.

“Sorry about that. Basically, if the council gives up on us, they can activate what they call the ‘End Time Protocol’, which is fancy talk for destroying our world and moving on to creating the next universe. Look, I’m not saying our world’s in a great place right now, but I’m not so far removed from hope that I want to see it entirely annihilated.”

“How do you know all of this?” Shiori asked, “Even I don’t know this, and I had access to void knowledge for a while.”

“Oh, that’s because of another version of me - the Amelia of the Oasis. She’s considered a bit of a hero amongst the various versions of me, but I’d rather not join her. It turns out the council really doesn’t change that much between different timelines within our entire possibility space.”

“Join her?” Kiara asked, “Is she dead?”

“Nope.” Amelia answered, “Basically her timeline got annihilated for reasons she didn’t tell me, and in response she coordinated and now runs what she calls the ‘Oasis’ - a place where people who no longer have home timelines to return to can live out the rest of their days in a dream-like world. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve heard great things about the place, and if we lose this timeline I’m definitely bringing all of you over there, but I’d rather not join the Oasis because I’d rather we actually salvage this timeline instead. Who’s with me?”

Everyone in the room raised their hands.

“Great.” Amelia answered, “Then I’ll leave you girls to figure out how to handle the whole plot to assassinate the empress. I’m going to see if there’s anything we can do about Mumei, since… yeah, she’s a big issue. That said, officially speaking, none of this conversation happened - all of this was off the record, okay?”

Everyone in the room nodded.

“Great!” Amelia responded, “Now I have a meeting to get to. Text me at ‘Tako_Time’ if you need me for anything; since that’s Ina’s alias account no empire officials will know it’s me.”

Ina stared at Amelia in disbelief, who had a guilty smile on her face.

“So, I got the credentials from you for that account in the first timeline, and it turns out you never changed them, so I just reused them. This is how I knew where Shiori’s group was going to show up, by the way. Yes, it was time travel, but it wasn’t directly time travel. I’ll try to schedule another meeting with you relatively shortly.”

And then she blinked out of existence.

Nerissa let out a long sigh.

“How did you four not kill her?”

Calliope, Kiara, Ina, and Gura all laughed.

Later…

Shiori was led to a bedroom by Ina.

“Sorry about the makeshift arrangements for the five of you. I hope you don’t mind getting physically close with one another.”

Shiori shrugged, while smiling. “You know, not that long ago I would’ve been weirded out at the idea, but… now I couldn’t imagine it being weird.”

“A little more space would probably be nice in the future.” Fuwawa continued.

“But for now I think the safety of one another is a nice feeling.” Mococo finished.

Ina smiled. “Well, make yourselves at home. If you need anything, feel free to ask the Takodachis - I think you know, but they’re the floating creatures around here - as long as you don’t ask for cookies, they have a bad record of stealing them. Otherwise, I think I’ll let you all get a good night’s sleep together.”

“Will do.” Shiori replied, “It’s funny, really. I’ve always thought of myself as being a loner, but now that I’m here… I wouldn’t trade them for anything.”

Ina nodded. “I think that feeling’s called family, but I’m hardly an expert on the subject. Maybe consult the rest of your family?”

“Fair enough.” Shiori answered, “Nerissa, Bijou, you think of us as family?”

“I’m not sure what else we are!” Bijou commented enthusiastically.

“Well, I’ll trust Bijou’s honesty for now.” Nerissa continued.

“Then let’s go with that.” Shiori finished, “Besides, it’s nice to spend time together instead of worrying about all of us dying for once.”

In a completely different room in a different building in a different part of space separated from everyone else, four people gathered at a table with six seats.

The leader of the group, a girl with rat ears, had a somewhat forlorn smile.

“Keeper. I heard you’ve been… influencing the world. Not that I can complain - chaos is kind of my thing - but…”

The Keeper of Nature nodded. “I have. I think I’ve made my scorn for the empire known around here, but after Mumei…”

She sighed.

“I know we’re all captive to our aspects, but I hate what Mumei’s become. Yet, I still feel sorry for her. Bae, I know you’re likely not to approve of me turning against the aspect of Civilization, but…”

Bae nodded. “I get it. Honestly, I half expected Kronii to show up just to tell us what we should do now, but… I guess she’s still upset about Mumei stabbing her. I don’t know where she went; normally mortal wounds don’t affect us too badly, since we just kinda get up from them if we aren’t severed from our aspect first. IRyS, what do you think?”

“It was a wound of more than just the body.” IRyS answered, “And you know this. I can imagine being upset if your natural chaos aspect ended up hurting me, but we love each other enough that I know we could move past it easily enough. Kronii… doesn’t have that kind of experience. Though I can’t answer where she is or why she’s ghosting our meetings; that’s just rude of her.”

“Oh, I know!” A new voice chimed in, this one belonging to the Speaker of Space, “She’s off at the astral plane. You know, the place where we first met and where we learned about what we were doing with creating our new universe. I think she’s more depressed than anything else, though I suppose as we’re all tied to our aspects in a way that essentially makes us immortal we don’t have to worry about her actually dying on us. Not sure when she’s planning on coming back, though.”

“Good enough for me!” Bae answered, “Kronii’s probably the member I have the most trouble with getting along with, so thanks for getting the information from her. Okay, aside from, well, Mumei, but she’s… kind of a special case. We’ll figure out how to rescue her.”

Somewhere else…

Kronii looked at a place that had long since been abandoned, looking over murals depicting the council, a place that was no longer needed and yet was preserved by nothing more than the whims of sentimentality.

Kronii frowned.

“They were right. I was never supposed to get involved. But I did, and now… I regret it.”

She stared at a depiction of Mumei, before closing her eyes.

“So I’ll correct that fault. I’ll make sure you won’t suffer anymore. When I next see you…”

She opened her eyes.

“I will set you free.”

Chapter Text

Shiori woke up, once again finding herself in a surprisingly comfy pile with four other people.

She didn’t particularly want to get out of bed. Part of it was that it was pretty chilly, and the bodies of those she was next to were significantly warmer. Another part of it was that she truthfully wanted to relax and wanted a day to not worry about how all of their lives were at risk.

Shiori knew she wouldn’t get that, but she’d at least use the morning to relax instead, and thus, fell back asleep.

When Ina knocked on the door to the room, she got no response. Slowly but surely, she peaked her head into the room to see its occupants sleeping peacefully in a pile.

She smiled, and decided they deserved some extra time to rest.

But not before deciding it’d be funny to pull a prank on them.

Ina returned to her breakfast table, where Gura was still looking partially asleep, and Calliope seemed to be still, thinking about something silently.

“Well, I suppose I don’t need to wake them up until Kiara actually makes the pancakes, so they aren’t missing anything yet.”

“Fair enough.” Kiara replied, “I’m just surprised at the fact that you have actual living accommodations in a temple, especially given the whole void thing.”

Ina shrugged. “It’s kind of necessary given that pretty much the entirety of the Takodachi Uprising lives inside of the temple nowadays. What was more impressive was managing to use void magic to get electricity and running water through the place.”

“I’d be nice if the place were warmer, though.” Kiara replied.

“Unfortunately, insulation is mostly a property of the original construction of the shrine.” Ina answered, “It wasn’t built to be good at being warm, so it’s a bit of an uphill battle. Why did they build it that way? I don’t know, you’d have to take it up with the people who built this thing thousands of years ago. So, Ame could probably tell you.”

Gura seemed to perk up at the mention.

“How’s she doing, anyway?”

Ina sighed. “I don’t know.”

“Well, she’s not dead.” Calliope answered casually, “Advantages of being a grim reaper: I can track that stuff. That’s about all I can tell you guys for certain, though. Given what I’ve seen of her, I don’t think she’ll need rescuing, though.”

Kiara pouted. “I know, but I kinda hope we get the opportunity to do so. It feels wrong that she went out of her way to be kind to us when we haven’t really done anything for her.”

“Isn’t that just annoying?” Gura asked, “It kinda feels like she’s doing all of this because she still feels bad about us getting hurt the first time. I dunno how to tell her that, though.”

“Probably by saying exactly that.” Ina answered, “Amelia’s not much of a poet. You can just say that out loud and she’ll get it. I can’t answer whether she’ll want to get it, though. She seems… oddly determined to make sure she doesn’t interfere with our plans.”

“What are those plans, by the way?” Calliope asked, “Last I heard we’re trying to assassinate the most well-defended target in history, and if they’ve warded against shadow teleporting there’s no way they’ll let you portal in there either.”’

“We’re still working on that part.” Ina admitted, “Really, we just need to break her stasis. She’ll likely finish the job for us if we get that far. From there, I’m not sure what the plan is, as-”

A scream interrupted Ina’s sentence, which sent Gura reaching for her trident, Calliope her scythe, and Kiara her sword, while Ina remained perfectly calm.

“They’re everywhere!” Fuwawa shouted.

“Calm down!” Shiori shouted, “These things are harmless!”

Ina and Gura got up to quickly see what was going on.

Running down the hallway from the room they were sleeping in was Shiori, the rest of her group, and then a veritable tsunami of floating Takodachis.

Gura laughed out loud, while Ina kept a polite but very devious smile on her face.

“Alright, my little takos, you can leave them alone now.”

The takodachi swarm stopped, leaving the five members of HoloAdvent to approach Ina at a slightly less frantic pace.

Shiori glared at Ina with an unamused expression.

“They liked you!” Ina explained happily, as if nothing weird had happened and as if Gura wasn’t laughing behind her.

“Well, good to know that you have a talent for pranking others.”

Ina smirked. “If I can’t use my eldritch connections for silly fun, then what’s the point of having them?”

“Using them for entirely serious purposes?” Fuwawa asked without a hint of irony.

“You really scared us there!” Mococo continued.

Ina rolled her eyes. “It was the takodachis who scared you, not me. I mean, sure they did that entirely on my order, but the point still stands.”

“It really doesn’t.” Gura replied.

“Oh no, even you’re turning against me.” Ina replied amusedly, “Anyways, Kiara’s making pancakes, I figured you five might want some. There’s coffee if you want it. Then… we have to talk about magic training and planning how to assassinate the empress.”

Breakfast went uneventfully.

The end of the meal, as Ina warned, was more eventful. She motioned Advent to follow her, and they did so, faithfully following her back to the inner chamber, along with Calliope, Kiara, and Gura.

“Alright.” Ina stated with surprising authority given her soft-spoken nature, “Shiori, you’re going to stay with me. The seven of you can figure out what to do on your own to pass the time. Does that sound good?”

Everyone in the room nodded.

“Alright, then.” Ina stated, “Then let’s get to see what you’re capable of. Oh, and remember: I’m actually testing your abilities, so try not to freak out by any reflex you might have picked up while locked up. I promise you I’m not doing anything like that to you.”

Shiori nodded as the rest of the room left, leaving the two of them alone.

After the seven others left the facility, Calliope, Fuwawa and Mococo split up. Quickly following that, Kiara decided to wander back to the kitchen while Nerissa followed her, leaving Gura alone with Bijou.

“So…” Bijou muttered, “How’re you doing?”

Gura shrugged. “I dunno. I don’t understand all of the crazy stuff going on with Ame. It’s hard to believe her sometimes. But I kinda believe in her, you get what I mean?”

Bijou smiled. “Yeah. I kinda felt that way about Shiori until I got used to her. I think Ame’s similar, and I think she hates seeing you hurt.”

“You don’t think she’s gonna capture me?”

“No.” Bijou answered, “I can’t read minds, but I could tell she felt sad about the idea of doing that. She feels sad about a lot of things, really.”

Gura thought for a moment.

“...How am I feeling?”

Bijou shrugged. “I think you’re also feeling down, though not as much. But I think more accurately, you’re just a tiny bit afraid. I don’t blame you. Things are scary.”

Gura sighed. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Shiori looked at the obliterated remains of a box she was trying to move.

“Well, you moved it.” Ina mused, “But I was kind of hoping you’d move it while keeping it in the same shape it started in. You’re both using too much void magic and you’re applying it without proper control. Given the contents of the box were stone weights designed to make the box heavy, I’m impressed at how thoroughly you destroyed it. Thankfully…”

A portal opened, and out came another cardboard box.

“We still have plenty of time. Let’s try that again.”

Nerissa was internally screaming.

What should I do?! I have no idea how to talk to her!

“So… uh, how are you?” Nerissa stammered.

Kiara laughed. “You know, it’s pretty fun having someone who’s clearly a big fan of me, but you don’t have to feel intimidated!”

“You broke out of prison by yourself, are completely immortal, and also have an incredibly hot body on top of that. Forgive for, uh…”

Nerissa then realized she had said something that she had meant to keep to herself out loud, much to Kiara’s amusement.

“Well, admire my body all you want, then. In return, I want to hear you sing, since I heard you’re the demon of sound.”

“You’ll have to make me feel pretty good if you-”

Nerissa suddenly froze.

“Oh, you meant that literally, didn't you.”

Kiara laughed.

Shiori stared in disbelief at Ina’s phone.

“I kinda hate how abusing void magic to extend the charge of your phone is both an incredibly trivial use of void powers and yet somehow probably also the most useful thing I’ve learned how to do so far.”

Ina smirked. “Don’t worry, void-walking is definitely a more useful skill. Being able to jump in and out of the void whenever and wherever you need to is an exceedingly powerful skill to have. That’s kind of why void magic is so powerful: it inherently has so many different abilities wrapped into a single nebulous kind of magic that once mastered you become a force to be reckoned with.”

“What’s after that?” Shiori asked, “Raising the dead?”

“Ah, you’ve made the common mistake of mixing up void magic and dark magic. Dark magic is the branch of magic that demons and underworld-aligned magicians practice, while void magic is the domain purely of the Ancient Ones and a few very rare practitioners. Dark magic usually involves selling your soul, whereas void magic usually involves risking your sanity. Different costs, you know?”

Shiori sighed. “When do we learn something cool?”

“I’ll see what I can teach you. Bear in mind I’m trying to avoid teaching you anything that risks you leveling the temple in response. Oh, and the answer is probably not today.”

“Okay, fair enough.”

Calliope scrolled by various alerts on her phone relatively absentmindedly, waiting around for Ina to get back to her. Trying as she might to remain entirely calm and collected, she eventually found herself unable to ignore the stares of two dog girls.

“Alright, what do you two want?”

“We’re just wondering what you’re looking at.” Fuwawa answered.

Calliope shrugged. “Nothing much. Seeing if anyone I know is dead. So far the answer is no. Underworld HQ wanted me entirely de-incarnated for safety reasons after I escaped, but I told them I wasn’t willing to abandon my friends, and somehow Death-sensei was cool with it.”

“Really?” Mococo asked, “Isn’t it risky if you’re captured?”

“Oh yeah.” Calliope answered, “That’s probably why Death-sensei also gave me a piece of advice.”

“Which is?” Fuwawa asked.

“Don’t screw up. Gotta admit, it’s refreshingly direct.”

Fuwawa and Mococo laughed.

“Though honestly,” Calliope continued, “I think the real reason who told me that was because there’s a bunch of other underworlders who are left in various states of ambiguous captivity - at least, from what I’ve been told, but I haven’t seen anything for myself - and while I’m not under contract to make sure they’re freed, the implication that we want them home was pretty clear.”

“So if you’re not under contract, does that mean you’re just doing this because you care about them?” Fuwawa asked.

“Oh, and about Amelia too.” Mococo continued.

Calliope sighed. “I’m not supposed to, but I’m also not gonna lie. I really don’t want to see Amelia on my death list.”

Ina smiled.

“Congratulations on your first day of void training, Shiori. It’s as I suspected - you’re a prodigy in the making.”

“Only with your teaching efforts, Ina-sensei.” Shiori replied, “Though I notice you aren’t teaching me the really cool stuff.”

Ina nodded. “That’s for a reason - weaponizing void magic is extraordinarily dangerous. We’ll get there, but I’m going to make you promise to not misuse that power, even by accident.”

“What counts as ‘misuse’?”

“Almost everything.”

Amelia’s phone got a ping.

Chapter Text

Amelia breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Okay, she doesn’t know yet.

She opened her phone, looking at a large list of contacts, most of whom had been her test subjects prior to being released.

Is this really all I have to show for what I’ve done?

She looked through the list.

Maybe I should leave a message.

And with that, she logged into Ina’s secret account, and then looked up another person via contact info she only had from a previous timeline.

Amelia put down her phone, and sighed.

Am I really doing anything right now?

She checked her contacts.

Maybe I can see if I can get anyone else on my side before things get crazy.

She laughed.

Who am I kidding, things are already crazy.

She opened her phone, and selected ‘Red_Matrix’ from the contact list.

Amelia frowned. She didn’t like lying, but it was important that Ollie still think that she was Ina for that conversation - or at the very least, that any record of that conversation still pointed towards it being Ina and not her.

She was tempted to message her past-timeline best friends, but that was too much of a risk.

Well, I’ll stay safe for you, Ollie.

She looked at her contacts list again, then looked at her watch.

Ina, I hope you know what you’re doing.

She scrolled to her news feed.

Hmm, maybe there’s some ammo here for the revolutionaries to use. I guess I have to see what the actual first move is before I react to it, though. Thankfully we have IRyS on our side, and she-

Amelia froze.

The ‘help’ she was referring to was Chaos, wasn’t it.

Amelia internally berated herself for not realizing it earlier.

Well, that’s going to make things rather interesting… though I suppose that means we can actually fight Mumei, so I suppose I should just be grateful instead of worried about damage control. Then again, I should probably always be worried about damage control if the council gets involved.

She sighed, and then started thinking about her next moves.

There are way too many uncertainties for my taste, too many ways this conflict could unfold. I wonder if this is what Kronii puts up with. I haven’t heard from her since Mumei’s betrayal, so I wish I knew what she’s up to…

In another plane of existence, Kronii looked over a space which was hard to comprehend for mere mortals. In this realm, a beautiful multidimensional tapestry of seemingly chaotic and yet also beautifully organized timelines spread out, their possibilities stretching out into the infinite.

Kronii drew her blades, contemplating her actions.

I could end it here.

She drew a deep breath, and then decided against it.

But I won’t do that without talking to someone else first.

Seemingly instantly, she returned back to a different room in a different building in a different world.

“Kronini!” Came the excited reply of none other than Tsukumo Sana, “I’ve been trying to reach you for a while, I know you dipped into the astral plane but we’re all getting worried about how long you’ve spent there without contacting us and-”

“Sana, convince me not to do this.”

Sana paused.

“Do what?”

Kronii frowned.

“Convince me not to give up on this world and start over with a new universe.”

Chapter Text

Later…

Shiori looked at her own body, a small nosebleed among the other ways she had inadvertently hurt herself, all while Ina remained stone-faced.

“This is why,” Ina explained, “I warned you about offensive void magic. If you don’t know how to carefully direct its power, it’ll cause far more damage than you intend to, both to your target, but also to those you aren’t aiming it at. This is a little bit unfortunate, as you’re actually a pretty talented offensive spellcaster otherwise. That said, this is a good place to end our little lesson.”

“Really?” Shiori asked, “I don’t feel you taught me all that much.”

Ina nodded. “Your branch of void magic is weird because it’s purified void magic. Remember that you picked all of this up from arcane residue from Ao-chan’s former incarnation, which means that any of the magical bits that are directly related to them - for example, my tentacles - will not carry over to your ability set. That’s part of what’s making this difficult - Ao-chan can’t help you with any part of the spellcasting; it’s all you.”

“Ah.” Shiori replied, “Okay, that makes sense. I don’t suppose you have a first aid kit on hand?”

“We have multiple,” Ina answered, “but I deliberately stopped you before you actually hurt yourself. The lesson here isn’t that you can’t weaponize void magic, it’s that you have to be careful about doing so. That, and more practically speaking I need to cut off our lesson here because Ame’s up to something.”

“Which is?”

“She’s impersonating me to the people at Area 15. She sent them a map of the Empress’ residence under the guise of being me. And then she talked to IRyS, apparently recruiting her to help us with the revolution.”

Shiori’s eyes widened. “That’s actually crazy.”

“It is,” Ina continued, “and that’s why I’m worried. Amelia’s outright helping us, but she’s also taking steps to make sure she doesn’t look like she’s helping us.”

“Why is that a surprise?” Shiori asked, “I wouldn’t want to be known for helping assassinate the empress in her shoes. Especially since she’s probably working closely with the kinds of people you don’t want angry at you.”

Ina sighed, saying nothing, until Shiori suddenly understood.

“You think Amelia’s getting ready to accept her death.”

Ina nodded regretfully. “Amelia… Ame used to meet me at the temple, a long time ago. She cut off contact with me when she got recruited by the empire, but it’s pretty clear to me that she wants me to succeed. She tried to keep me out of things purely as a protective measure, and the fact she’s doing this now is… out of character for her.”

“Ah, that makes sense.” Shiori commented, “I don’t know Ame that well, and she’s weird enough that I really have no frame of reference for what counts as ‘normal’ when she’s around. You’re right, though; she’s been super careful to never directly aid the alliance in any way, and then she does this, which implies she knows a revolution is about to start and that-”

And then Shiori stopped, realizing something.

“She cares about you. She’s doing this because she knows you’re about to start the revolution. She’s giving your allies the tools they need - so you don’t need to. She’s given you the map to the palace so you know where you’re going. She’s asked this ‘IRyS’ person to be the leader of the revolution so that you don’t have to do that. Oh yeah, do you know who IRyS is?”

Ina shrugged. “Sort of? I know of her. She’s apparently the incarnation of hope, though I’m not sure if I’d trust idealism as being able to fight-”

Ina suddenly paused mid-sentence as she realized something.

“Ina?” Shiori asked, surprised.

“Sorry.” Ina answered, “I figured it out. Amelia’s trying to make sure we don’t run into Mumei at any cost, including-”

She gasped. “Amelia put herself on Mumei’s watchlist.”

Shiori drew a sharp breath.

“I’m sorry. I… I don’t think you can really do anything about that.”

“I can’t. But they can.”

Nine people gathered around a table: all of Shiori’s group alongside Calliope, Kiara, Ina, and Gura.

“Amelia put herself on Mumei’s watchlist.” Calliope snarled.

Fuwawa and Mococo quietly grabbed onto one another as they looked at Calliope’s expression. While they had both known that she was a grim reaper, this was the first time they had truly felt it, the normally relatively friendly pink-haired lady now acting as the terrifying specter of death itself that she actually was.

“To be fair,” Ina replied calmly, “She was impersonating me at the time, and I’m definitely on that watchlist. Plus, she impersonated me to get IRyS to pick up the revolution’s leadership position. Shiori has a theory.”

Shiori shrugged. “Not much of one. It’s just that I think Amelia’s doing this to make sure Ina doesn’t put herself in the hot seat of the revolution, and the embodiment of hope seems… honestly pretty reasonable?”

Calliope facepalmed. “IRyS. She got IRyS to take her position. Well, on the plus side, she’s kind of more a concept than a person so like Mumei she doesn’t actually die when she’s killed - plus at base physically killing her is stupidly difficult because she’s half-angel and half-devil and both halves are notoriously strong species - so I suppose we have that, but… ugh.”

“Uh, is something wrong, Calli?” Bijou asked, noticing the apparent distress, “I dunno who IRyS is though.”

“IRyS is the embodiment of hope.” Calliope answered, “I actually met her a long time ago, back when she was being continuously bounced between the afterlives because neither the heavenly realm nor the underworld really wanted her at the time. Eventually got kicked out into the mortal realm, where she joined up with the council, where she’s been messing around ever since.”

“Ah.” Nerissa continued, “So you’re a little worried that she has a penchant for causing more mayhem than intended.”

“The worst part is she never intends to make a mess of things.” Calliope replied, “She just has a natural chaos aura, which is probably why she’s actually married to the embodiment of Chaos, at least if the last dice roll was even. They divorce whenever the dice roll is odd. Honestly I’ve given up keeping track of it.”

“So why would Ame want her to lead the revolution?!” Kiara asked loudly.

“Oh, that’s easy.” Ina replied, “IRyS presumably can’t die, given that she’s a fusion of two native afterlife species and then was also kicked out of the afterlife - which implies strong reincarnation abilities and that she won’t be staying long even if you did send her back to her home realm. As much as I like to pretend I’m not, I am very much mortal. That, and I think she feels less guilty about using IRyS as Mumei’s next target than she would about any of us being in that position.”

Gura sighed. “Okay this is all going above my head, what’s the plan again?"

“As of right now, wait.” Ina answered, “We need to talk to the folks at Area 15 to see how Amelia has made things interesting for us. This is admittedly slightly difficult because Ollie’s actually been talking to Amelia while thinking she was me, but I suppose I’ll talk to Ame later for that. Shiori, I’ll need you for this, but the rest of you can relax. Not that there’s that much to do, since for obvious reasons you probably don’t want to go back into the public eye.”

Ollie got a ping on her phone.

In another location, Amelia snickered.

Well, I suppose she knows, so I suppose it’s not a bad warning.

In a seemingly lonely corner of a plane separated from the mortal realm, Sana and Kronii stared at one another, both of them frowning.

“Kronii-nii,” Sana spoke softly, “If you really feel like the only option is to start over, I can’t really stop you. But I don’t know if you really want this.”

“That’s why I’m asking you.” Kronii replied. “Can you please tell me I’m wrong?”

“I can’t.” Sana answered, “Because ultimately calling for the local End of Time is your call. But… maybe you should ask why you want to do this.”

Kronii sighed. “Because it’s not working. Mumei is still… Well, I suppose I was going to deal with that issue myself anyway, since even in the worst case scenario, she’s still part of the council. I’m not ending the timeline without letting her know first. Maybe you see where this conflict is heading. Maybe you don’t.”

“I don’t really, but I don’t understand why you need to end the world over it. Isn’t this usually just a few split timelines, try again, hope for the best again?”

Kronii shook her head. “No. This always happens when humanity gets too powerful. Mumei always becomes a weapon for them. If they could make all of us their tools, they would definitely do so - we’re just too powerful for that. I intend to set us free from the cycle of destruction that humanity inevitably brings upon themselves.”

Sana shrugged. “Kronii-nii, if you want me to say no, then why are you arguing against me?”

“Because I’m not supposed to get attached to our creation. It was one of the first rules I was ever told. I need you to convince me there’s a logical reason to not give up on this world.”

Sana smiled. “You’re asking the wrong person, then. If you want to see the good in humanity… you know who you have to talk to.”

Kronii hung her head.

“I’m so angry that you’re right.”

And then she blinked out of the room…

…and into the council chambers, which were suspiciously empty.

“Kronii-chiwa. Wait, where did everyone go?”

There was a note on Bae’s seat.

If anyone shows up while I’m out - especially if it’s Kronii - I just wanna let you know that me and Fauna have jumped to the mortal realm. Fauna’s getting revenge on humanity, and I’m trying to figure out what IRyS is up to, mostly because I think it’ll be fun.

Kronii’s eyes widened.

“Bae, what the hell are you doing?!”

Chapter Text

IRyS looked down from the rooftop of Ethyria’s town hall, standing tall with approximately zero subtlety.

All at once, she caught the attention of multiple soldiers in uniform carrying various calibers of weaponry, alongside a few tanks.

IRyS, not wanting to be shot, jumped from her position and started flying through the streets, intent on making sure nothing lethal could get a lock on her. It was seemingly working, as some of the soldiers started breaking from their position to try and get a good shot at the half-angel half-devil.

After successfully managing to find a small clearing to land, she angled her feet towards the ground and stuck the landing.

“Hope has descended!”

She then soon found herself being aimed at by a large volume of guns. In response, she extended her arm and conjured a sky blue glowing sphere around herself, following by watching as the weapons that were fired into it harmlessly bounced off. In response, she conjured a microphone seemingly made out of magenta crystal.

“My turn now!”

And with that, she let out a shout, and watched as a wave of crystallization made its way through the enemy lines, scattering the soldiers and driving many of them back.

The brief respite didn’t last long as a series of explosions broke away much of the crystal barrier that IRyS had conjured, with a few more uniformed soldiers behind them, some with assault rifles and a few with what looked like significantly more explosive weaponry.

“Oh, so they do have some high ordinance with them. I guess I should’ve waited for Bae before dropping in.”

IRyS spread her wings, and then watched a few more explosions hit the outside of the magic barrier harmlessly. In response, four enemy soldiers started running forwards, towards the barrier, while a few others stayed back.

And then one of them suddenly dropped dead, from what looked to be some sort of slashing attack.

And then another one fell as a thin shadow struck them.

And then another.

And then another.

From the shadows emerged Calliope Mori, manifesting herself inside of IRyS’ barrier.

“IRyS. Of course you’d try this.”

“Wait, what are you doing here?” IRyS asked, “I kind of figured I’d clean up this mess and then all of you would follow Ina’s plan.”

“Ina doesn’t need me right now.” Calliope answered, “And I can catch up to her later. For now, cleaning up your mess is the plan.”

“What mess?” IRyS complained, “I’m liberating the city of Ethyria!”

“By fighting the empire head-on.” Calliope replied, “Yeah, you’re just as insane as I remember you being. You honestly think this is going to work?”

“Well,” a new voice suddenly chimed in, “if it doesn’t, then we’ll all see each other in hell anyway. Well, actually we’ll try to figure out an extraction plan so that at least some of us don’t do the whole dying thing.”

Calliope and IRyS turned around to see the grinning face of Selen Tatsuki, alongside not one but two ghost girls, one with long black hair with dull red streaks and another who was much more familiar who had a rather pale hair color.

“I brought a few friends.” Selen finished, “They’re both pretty mad about the whole dying thing.”

“I’m Mika Melatika.”

“I’m Reimu Endou.”

A large fireball exploded ahead of the group, and as it cleared, two more people landed inside of IRyS’ barrier, both of whom had blonde hair, one with bird wings and another wearing a witch’s hat.

“I don’t know why people say revenge is best served cold.” Millie replied casually, “I have more luck going hot!”

Reimu blinked in surprise. “Enna! Millie! Why are you back here?!”

“Because we’re liberating the city!” Enna answered, “That, and we had someone join us on the way back.”

And with a sudden puff of smoke, a silver-haired kitsune joined the party, one who was once the governor of Ethyria: Nina Kosaka.

“Nina!” Reimu shouted, “I’m so sorry about what happened to your city!”

Nina smiled melancholically.

“Not as sorry as they’re about to be. If anything, I’m sorry I wasn’t there to save you when you needed it. But I’ve learned a few tricks since then. Any battlefield updates?”

Mika nodded. “The empire’s sending in an armor division through the eastern road; if they get their armored vehicles to the city proper we’re all basically dead unless either hope or death here have some serious firepower up their sleeves. Not counting those who are already dead, I suppose, but you know what I mean.”

IRyS shook her head. “Most of my powers are defensively oriented, and while Calli can definitely cause some chaos in the back ranks, she can’t be everywhere at once. That said, I think it’s time to even the odds.”

She raised her hand, and then her barrier expanded until seemingly fading out. After lowering it, she then smiled as faint light blue barriers, similar though less intense to her own, surrounded everyone.

“The bad news is they know where we are now. The good news is that they can try shooting at us and we’re not risking immediate death. That said, I’d recommend anyone mortal try to avoid taking heavy ordinance; a tank round will definitely be able to shatter your personalized hope barriers. That said, does anyone else have anything to add before we move out?”

Selen grinned. “Who exactly is getting access to the hope barrier?”

IRyS shrugged. “Oh, basically everyone in the entire city who isn’t trying to shoot at us. Now let’s deal with the empire’s reinforcements to the east; I think we’ll have the support of the people within the city soon enough.”

Nina nodded. “I have a plan for dealing with that.”

In another location, Ina, Gura, Kiara, and the five members of Advent emerged from the shadows.

“Here we are.” Ina mused, “Or at least, as close as we can voidwalk. Ame’s intel was perfect; we’re as close as we can get without getting spotted, now. The best part is that I don’t think I need to get all the way to the empress’ stasis chamber to free her - if I get close enough I should be able to undo the seal, and from there she’ll handle the rest. The problem is I suspect the security here knows this already, and thus they’re on the lookout for something like this.”

“Well,” Shiori replied, “I see two options: either we break in via force and hope for the best, or we split up and see if we can force them to divert their attention away from you. If you manage to free the empress but we get captured in the process, you think you can free us?”

Ina drew a sharp breath. “Well… probably? After Kiara burned her way out the last time, I can’t imagine they’ll make it easy for us. Still, I suspect that splitting up is the best option; especially since there’s a local facility that has a few test subjects who could use freeing - meaning that if we visibly stage a breakout attempt down there, they’ll probably suspect that we’re simply trying to free a few friends.”

“To be fair,” a new voice suddenly joined in, “I’m more interested in that myself.”

The rest of the members looked around, before spotting a tiny figure a mere nine centimeters in height who seemed to be dressed as a parody of a metal gear solid character.

“I’m the one with the code name ‘Forest Gear’, and I’ve been trying to break into the complex from the ocean side to free a friend of mine. I can actually enlarge myself to something more human-size, but I’m actually better at the whole stealth thing like this.”

Kiara smirked. “Well, I can’t say no to someone that cute, but can I get your name?”

“Ah, I’m Pomu. As far as I can tell, Finana - that’s who I’m trying to free here - is in a cell that’s actually connected to the Ocean, just gated off; once that’s out of the way she’s a far faster swimmer than any human could be so we’ll be good from there. I think I’ll be able to sneak in and free her as long as I have a distraction.”

Kiara nodded. “I think I can provide the distraction for both of the goals we’re trying to accomplish here. In that case, where’s everyone going?”

“I’m joining Ina.” Shiori answered, “Since I’m a void mage much like herself. I think that means the rest of my friends follow me.”

“True,” Ina replied, “but I’m going further ahead than you are. Gura, follow us to the empress; we might as well have your trident with us.”

Gura nodded. “When is Calli gonna show up?”

Ina sighed. “She said that she had to make sure IRyS wasn’t screwing anything up, and then she’ll pop up wherever Kiara next dies, since I’m presuming that Kiara’s plan involves being shot at least once, does it not?”

“Hey,” Kiara answered, “Reincarnation control is a powerful ability; I might as well use it!”

“Great.” Ina continued, “Then let’s set some people free.”

Amelia looked over the recent news reports.

“God dammit IRyS. I told you to be the leader, but I didn’t think you’d be that stupid. Though I suppose unlike me you might just win the battle instead. Still, I can’t see this working out.”

She sighed, and then leaned back in her chair.

“Are they going to succeed where I once failed?”

And then she pulled out her phone.

“And more importantly, is this where I finally burn the goodwill and reputation I’ve built with the empire…?”

Mumei flew towards Ethyria, following the report that a rebellion lead by none other than the incarnation of hope herself had suddenly flared up with the intent of kicking out the empire’s forces.

IRyS… why is that name so familiar to me? Why do I feel like I’ve forgotten something important?

It doesn’t matter. I’m the Guardian of Civilization.

I won’t let her threaten us.

Chapter Text

IRyS flew out in front, her barrier absorbing all manner of ranged attacks. Not that there were that many, as much of the Ethyrian citizenry, empowered by IRyS’ hope field, were starting to join in the effort to drive back the empire’s soldiers, even those who were armed.

More surprising still, even many empire troopers were laying down their arms and surrendering to the ongoing rebellion. What was once a fighting force that was successfully occupying the city was now falling apart as IRyS moved forward, backed up by Calli, Selen, Nina, and the others who had followed the half-angel-half-devil.

And that led them to a road that led into the city that currently was occupied by a tank battalion headed towards the group.

Enna and Millie jumped into the air. A few tank shots fired in their rising direction, but didn’t have the altitude to hit either flier.

“Nina,” Reimu addressed her still living friend, “I hope you have a plan that doesn’t involve doing what I did. I don’t want more ghost friends.”

Nina smiled, seeing as Enna and Millie’s distraction was working.

“I’ve got this. As soon as I cast my spell, fall back and get out of their attack range.”

She waved her hands, and then suddenly the ground in front of them opened up. A massive chasm opened up as the Earth visually broke apart, splitting the road in two and leaving no apparent way for the tanks to proceed further. After this happened, Nina turned around, motioning the group to retreat.

Mika and Reimu’s jaws dropped.

“Since when could you do that?!” Selen shouted excitedly, “It’s nice to have that kind of firepower on our side for once!”

“That’s a secret, honey.” Nina replied smugly, “But I am an eight-tailed Kitsune. I just needed the motivation to train my powers. The next step is blockading the back tanks, and then we’ve got them right where we need them. We need someone to go around and-”

Out of nowhere, a massive bolt of lightning struck a tank at the back, followed by another seemingly random spontaneous explosion.

Nina blinked. “Or someone else could pick up on the plan, but who…?”

IRyS smiled.

“Oh, I know that style of explosion.”

And with a sudden flash of light, a face more familiar to IRyS than anyone else appeared: Hakos Baelz, the embodiment of chaos.

“Wazzup? Chaos is here, and so am I!”

“Bae!” IRyS smiled. “Keep running with us, though - we don’t want to be in the line of fire of those tanks, even with my hope barrier active.”

Bae nodded, and the group retreated further into the city while Enna and Millie landed to rejoin the group.

“I think this fight’s gotten much easier.” IRyS mused, “We’ve got Chaos, Hope, and Death right here with us!”

“Not for long, though.” Calliope mentioned, “I’ll have to run after we finish up our job here, since Kiara’s likely going to need my help. Mika, Reimu, do either of you have more information from your ghost network?”

Reimu nodded. “Empire forces are essentially disintegrating ridiculously fast. And from the looks of it, the tanks at the front of the battalion are now being abandoned because due to the sudden abyss that Nina summoned and Bae taking out the backline, all we have to deal with now are the forces that are already in the city.”

“Then let’s move.” Nina replied, “Actually, Bae, can you also blast the two tanks in front? If they’re abandoned, they might be a good barricade.”

Bae sighed, conjured five dice consisting of a d4, d6, d8, d12, and d20, and rolled all of them. She looked at the result, and then shrugged.

“Give me a moment, I need a bit of time to configure the orbital fence strike.”

“The what?” Millie asked.

Out of nowhere, a series of metal poles emerged from the sky, impaling the tanks in the front of the battalion with impressive velocity and leaving a physical barrier for the rest of the tanks behind. As it did so, the abyss that Nina had seemingly opened suddenly disappeared.

“The orbital fence strike.” Bae answered casually. “Took out the tanks and also formed a nifty barrier for the rest of them.”

Nina smiled. “Perfect. I suppose now’s the time for me to reveal that the entire abyss I opened up was, in fact, just an illusion. They bought it though, and now they’re completely stuck, which means even though they know the abyss was an illusion now they still can’t move forward.”

“Ah, I get it.” Enna continued, “By taking out the first tanks and the last tanks while they were all isolated on the eastern road into the city, the battalion’s entirely useless as now none of their vehicles can go anywhere, and now their vehicles have become an entirely self-sufficient blockade for future vehicles. Effectively, they just cut themselves off from reinforcements.”

“Exactly.” Nina answered, “I think what’s left of the empire’s forces are attempting to regroup around the northern end of the city.”

Bae grinned. “Then let the CHAD division take ‘em out!”

“Uh, Chad?” Millie asked.

“Chaos, Hope And Death.” Bae answered.

The Northern end of the city had become a warzone. Artillery had blasted out parts of buildings, and while the main tank division had been stopped on the eastern front, a few vehicles that had driven in from the initial occupation were now advancing forward and taking out parts of the city in their advancement, alongside infantry units who were finding that the citizenry had becoming unexpectedly resistant to gunfire due to IRyS’ hope barrier.

IRyS herself led the charge forward, only to stop as she realized that the barrels from a few tanks were now pointing in her direction along with her friends. In response, she shouted, conjuring another wall of crystals, only to watch them shatter into pieces under heavy ordinance.

“Retreat!” IRyS shouted, “Or at least everyone mortal needs to retreat!”

Enna and Millie, blatantly disobeying the command, flew forwards, while Selen jumped into the sky, transforming into her dragon form. Reimu floated forward in ghost form, while Nina smiled.

“Sorry, honey. But that’s not gonna work for one simple reason: this is our city. We’re taking it back, and honestly now that we’ve gotten this far, it’s going to be with or without your help. ”

IRyS conjured barrier after barrier to absorb heavy ordinance; even for her it was taking all of her concentration to do so, before realizing something.

“Nina, could you stop being in range so I can just fly out? Bae and Calli aren’t mortal, they’ll be fine, but you are kinda the only squishy person here who isn’t currently airborne.”

“Okay, that’s fair.” Nina answered, “But actually, just leave me here. You’ll see why shortly.”

Calliope sighed. “I’m not taking your soul over to the other side if you die because you let yourself explode, okay?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

And with that, Bae teleported out of the line of fire, IRyS flew upwards, and Calliope vanished into the shadows.

And now a multitude of heavy weaponry was all aiming at Nina Kosaka.

Projectile after projectile slammed into Nina’s location, kicking up a dust cloud as the ground around her was destroyed. Yet, when the dust cleared, Nina stood there just fine, as if nothing had happened.

IRyS laughed, knowing that the ‘Nina’ there was simply an illusion, that she wasn’t in any real danger. From the rooftop of a building, Bae snapped her fingers, and watched as main guns on a pair of tanks randomly jammed and stopped firing, while IRyS gave a quick shout from the air, entrapping another tank’s treads entirely in crystals that rendered it unable to function, before watching as both vehicles were quickly abandoned.

Calliope watched from another rooftop, only to be approached by Nina.

“If you can perform a targeted assassination for me, would you be willing to?”

“Sure,” Calliope answered, “But it’s limited in scope. I can’t take out every single heavy weapon at once.”

“You don’t need to.” Nina replied before pointing to the crowd. “I just need you to take out a few targets in the back there. They’ll fall apart after you do that; it’s hard to believe, but trust me on this.”

“Well, okay.” Calliope continued, “I think I’ll blink out after I do that for safety reasons though. Well, that and I have other things to help out with.”

“That’s probably wise. Here’s what I need you to do.”

IRyS watched the line disintegrate. Even with a massive equipment advantage, the empire’s soldiers started surrendering, and the discipline of the army division in front of them seemed to evaporate as other citizenry started making their stand utilizing IRyS’ hope barrier. While a haze of gunfire was the audible backdrop to the scene unfolding, it suddenly wasn’t entirely on the empire’s side, and was now getting progressively quieter as the will to fight seemed to dissipate.

IRyS flew over to Nina’s position, while Bae teleported to the both of them shortly thereafter.

“Why did they give up so quickly?” IRyS asked, “I know we were winning at this point, but it looks like their army is just disappearing before our eyes.”

Nina smirked. “My hunch was that most of the soldiers on the empire’s side are trained first and foremost to follow orders, not to complete missions. I asked Calli to reaper-strike the leadership in the back, and it turned out that, as I suspected, they don’t have the discipline to fight properly without that. And no amount of military equipment will ever make up for a total breakdown in military discipline. The army attempted to break Ethyria, and found themselves broken instead.”

And then her smile faded to a more polite and melancholic smile.

“I can’t thank you enough, IRyS. Your reputation as the embodiment of hope is well-deserved. This city is badly hurt, and much infrastructure will need to be rebuilt… but today we made a stand. And you made that stand possible. While I have no doubt that many gave their lives, your intervention means that number was minimized to an extent only you could have done.”

IRyS smiled. “It’s what I do. Plus, thank Bae and Calli for helping out, too! I just made sure we didn’t get riddled with bullets. I think Bae’s the only one with offensive magic strong enough to take out armored vehicles, and that’s because she can kinda just ignore the laws of physics to roll the chaos dice. And Calli’s literally Death, which is how we managed to break the enemy army anyway.”

“True!” Bae answered, “It was a team effort for the CHAD division. Speaking of which, where’s Calli? I can’t help but notice she’s not here right now.”

“Oh, she left after helping me out.” Nina answered, “Said she had other things she needed to do.”

Calliope emerged in a different location.

“Hi Kiara. Ethyria’s essentially turned into a breakaway city-state, which means that they likely have a much bigger problem headed their way. The good news is that said bigger problem is no longer defending the palace. Also, who’s the little fairy with you?”

“I’m Pomu!”

“Alright, then. What’s the plan?”

“Well,” Kiara answered, “I’ll admit it’s another plan that involves me getting killed. Won’t be permanent, usual deal and all, but here’s how we’re going to do this…”

Mumei continued flying towards Ethyria.

IRyS… embodiment of hope…?

What is she trying to accomplish?

Why do I feel sad about fighting her?

Why am I scared?

Why do I keep hearing a voice in my head?

And why is it always so positive?

Is…

Is something wrong with me?

Mumei sighed.

It doesn’t matter.

Don’t think about those feelings. 

You have a job that required burying them long ago.

Don’t think about those feelings.

You can’t fight them if you let those feelings in.

Don’t think about those feelings.

Don’t think.

Don’t feel.

Chapter Text

A fire started right in front of the complex within the empire’s capital.

Kiara landed forward, launching a full frontal assault.

“Kikerikki!”

Almost immediately, chaos unfolded. Kiara herself found herself immediately shot for both trespassing and arson, before reincarnating, reigniting her body and flying into the air. A pair of soldiers found themselves on the end of Calliope’s scythe, too distracted by the phoenix to notice a movement in the shadows, before Calliope quickly teleported back out.

They were too distracted to notice a tiny fairy, less than 10 centimeters in height, sneaking in through the chaos.

From the other side, Ina led Gura, Shiori, Bijou, Nerissa, Fuwawa and Mococo forward, watching as soldiers defending the complex started moving away from their position and towards Kiara’s.

Let’s go. Ina spoke telepathically, This is probably the best opportunity we’re going to get.

And with that, the group charged forward, attempting to not make a sound.

Nerissa smirked, and waved her hands, manipulating the acoustics of their footsteps to render them entirely silent at even short distances.

Sneaking through the checkpoint and sneaking right past the barrier, a guard spotted them, attempted to shout, and then found his voice unable to call out even ten meters out, giving him no chance of calling for help before losing consciousness listening to Nerissa sing.

Pomu flew through the winding hallways of the inner complex, sneaking in through the back with a form that was impossible to see at long distances.

Where are they holding Finana? She has to be around her somewhere…

She flew around, making sure to mostly stay on the ceiling, and making sure to remain silent. She knew that she was going up against potentially tight security, most of which was currently tied up with Kiara at the moment but still it was likely that there was going to be something on the back end that she’d have to worry about.

Flying around, she took careful note of any directions she could find, any labels that pointed her in the direction of something relevant.

Staying out of sight, she found a lucky break: a small sign board indicating directions, indicating what was being located in the Eastern wing of the building that was closest to the open ocean.

Special Agent Prototype Chambers

Aquatic Holding Chambers

Pomu smiled, and continued her infiltration mission without being spotted.

Calliope watched from the shadows as Kiara flew in and out of range of the forces attempting to stop her, many shots fired at her but few connecting and none of them managing to down her long enough to prevent her from reincarnating and trying again.

Another burst of fire lit up the front gate of the complex, prompting a panic and a defensive position that was still focused on keeping the phoenix at bay, and appeared to be doing that entirely successfully.

They don’t know what they’re up against, heh.

Ina watched a trail of sleeping soldiers line the halls as Nerissa slowly put them all to sleep while silencing the halls so none of them could call for help.

There was something brilliant about the whole thing. Ina knew that they had to go up to reach to the larger atrium that would connect to the empress’ chambers, but at this point it was looking more and more possible that they were going to manage the task without even being spotted, which felt like an unrealistically positive outcome for the attempted infiltration.

Ina made a point of blacking out every single security camera she saw, using her powers to obscure any visual confirmation of who she was.

So far, it seemed to be working.

Pomu flew down to the Aquatic holding chambers, before ducking into a ventilation shaft to escape detection.

Finana, I’m coming for you. Now I just have to figure out how to open this damn thing, and hope that any switches I have to pull are light enough that I can activate them at this size…

Unfortunately, Ina’s feeling about her infiltration being unrealistically easy was because it was unrealistic. The person who was watching the cameras quickly turned off the sound to avoid Nerissa’s song, and correctly guessed that the cameras suddenly blacking out were not, in fact, due to random mechanical faults but due to the influence of a powerful priestess.

Still, it was problematic, because even if Kiara was acting as a distraction, she was a powerful enough distraction that ignoring her was difficult.

The guard picked up his radio.

“Unleash the Special Agent Prototype program.”

Kiara flew through the sky, leaving a blazing trail behind her for everyone to see. Another round of audible gunfire was aimed in her direction, though her movements in the air were rendering them virtually unable to hit her, at least until she took a moment to look.

Oh wow, those are anti-air homing missiles, I probably should’ve realized that flying this high was a risky-

And then Kiara exploded.

Back on the ground, Calliope cringed, mostly internally. She knew that Kiara would get back up from exploding because she got back up from everything, but it was still painful to watch.

Still, as predicted, the smoke from the missile explosions cleared to reveal one still very much alive Takanashi Kiara, her wings once again reignited and her body fully reformed in seconds.

I know we’re both immortal but I swear you’re shortening my lifespan somehow.

Ina led her group to another hallway before hearing the sounds of locks automatically clicking into place.

“Hmm. I think they know we’re here.”

Shiori smirked. “Perhaps a more direct approach is needed. Please move out of the way before I unleash my next spell.”

Pomu waited for a moment to strike, while carefully analyzing the switches in a room she had managed to find by flying through the complex's ventilation system. She knew that if she pulled the wrong one, everyone would know she was here and Finana would remain trapped.

She flew to another spot in the ventilation shaft where she could rest, and then concentrated as hard as she could.

Finana, are you there?

…Pomu? Is that you?

Oh my god I can’t believe my fairy telepathy worked! Millie’s a lifesaver for teaching me that. Okay, which numbered aquatic chamber are you in? I think I’ve found a control panel.

Release all of them. Please.

ALL of them?! Do you KNOW how much attention that gets?! I’m trying to do this discreetly!

I’m not the only one here. There’s an orca girl named Chloe in another chamber, a whale girl named Bao, and a couple others. I know you want to see me again. But I feel awful leaving anyone here.

…Alright. Finana, if I don’t get out, tell Elira that this was worth it, because it better be worth it if you’re making me do this!

Pomu heard an alarm suddenly ring out.

Uh oh, I think Ina’s been spotted…

She then flew into the control room and then started flipping switches.

A young woman with silver hair got dressed into a special operations outfit in another chamber, remembering little of her past life except for her training, hearing a blaring alarm alongside the voice of her superiors in mission control.

“You are a member of the Special Agent Prototype project, the first of your kind. This project is to deploy supernaturally-assisted agents in the task of capturing supernatural targets.”

The agent prepared to exit her chambers.

“Several intruders have been spotted in the palace.” The voice continued. “As a special agent of the empire, you have been deployed as a last resort in defense of your empress.”

The agent looked in a mirror that was present.

“As of now, you are a part of the empire’s most elite forces. You shall now be known as Special Agent ‘Zeta’.”

A similar message was being made by a similar voice to another chamber, this time to a taller woman with blonde hair.

“As of now, you are a part of the empire’s most elite forces. You shall now be known as Special Agent ‘Sleepless’.”

And yet another similar message was relayed to a much younger girl with long flowing blue hair.

“As of now, you are a part of the empire’s most elite forces. You shall now be known as Special Agent ‘Rainmaker’.”

The three of them emerged from their chambers, dressed in special ops uniforms.

“You three are now being relied on to be the heroes of the empire.” Their mission control stated firmly, “This is your first real test as a unit together; it is of utmost importance that you succeed. Approach the target and attack; your mission starts now.”

Kronii sighed.

They’re going to screw it all up.

“Sana, what do you think are the chances this ends in a reset anyway?”

Sana shrugged. “Pretty high, though I don’t really think saving the world is a matter of logical probability. They do it because they want to.”

Kronii frowned. “They aren’t supposed to get involved with mortal affairs and neither are we.”

Sana nodded. “I know. I don’t know what we’re supposed to do. But I think we’ll figure it out. We’ve always done that before. Besides, you’re the time girl. Wouldn’t you already know if they mess it up?”

Kronii shook her head. “Bae makes it harder. I can see the most probable lines of possibilities, but when Bae gets involved they always spiral out of control. I never know what she’s going to do. I never get a full read on her; it’s part of why I tend to disagree with her as much as I do. That said, I know she’ll try her best.”

“Then what about Mumei?” Sana asked, “Didn’t you want to set her free first?”

Kronii nodded. “Yes, I do. I’m… figuring out a plan. I’m not good at going against Mumei. It’s why she knew she could betray me - I wouldn’t fight back.”

Bae and IRyS walked around the city of Ethyria, now being celebrated as the heroes of the city. IRyS in particular as the leader of a newly brewing rebellion.

“Really, guys!” IRyS stated, more embarrassed by the attention than anything else, “It’s really not that big a deal!”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” Enna mused, “Showing up to the occupied city, casting a spell so powerful that it single-handed turned the tide of the battle and then dismantling the occupying army when they tried to regroup was no big deal.”

“I mean I get it.” Nina continued, “Calli and Bae both did a lot of heavy lifting. But it’s you who showed us that this is a winnable war. Your reputation as the incarnation of hope is well-deserved.”

IRyS sighed. “I know, it’s just… this is only a first step. We are absolutely not in the clear yet!”

“She has a point.” Bae added, “Like, I got involved for a very specific reason, and that specific reason is something all of you should be rather afraid of.”

“The Guardian.” Reimu finished, “Given that she’s largely the harbinger of my first death, let’s just say I know who you’re talking about. The problem is she can solve disciplinary issues by showing up, which means the tactics of breaking their chain of command won’t work nearly as well against her.”

“To be fair,” IRyS replied, “We’ve forced her onto the offensive, which means that if she wants to take the city back it’ll be an uphill battle. The problem is, she has wings and can fly uphill really easily. Then again, so do I, so… I guess I really am the best shot we have at beating her.”

She looked up at the sky wistfully.

And then she froze. It was tiny at this distance, but the silhouette was unmistakable.

“Everyone!” Bae shouted, “You might want to start clearing the way for Nanashi Mumei!”

“Besides,” Kronii continued, “as much as I don’t necessarily get along with Bae, she’s our leader for a reason.”

Chapter Text

Ina watched Shiori blast open a door.

“Very good control there. You busted open only the lock instead of using so much force you blasted the door into pieces. It’s a less elegant solution than I would’ve liked, but I guess we’ve made it to somewhere interesting, now…”

Behind the door was a rather large chamber.

A large and totally empty chamber, with only a large sign at the very center.

SORRY - YOUR EMPRESS IS ON ANOTHER FLOOR

Ina’s eyes widened.

“You have got to be kidding me. Suffice to say I think we’ve all been played.”

The wall on the other side suddenly broke open. A woman who stood taller than Ina with blond hair emerged from the opening, wielding a hammer meant for battle, which she had just used to smash through the wall.

“I’ll get into trouble for doing that later. This is Agent ‘Sleepless’, I’ve made visual contact with the priestess.”

Pomu desperately flew through the complex with an alarm blaring in the background, her small size and ability to hide virtually anywhere being the only reason she had any lead on captors and probably executioner, as all surface doors 

Still, with nowhere else to go, she had made it to the aquatic release chambers, where Finana would escape to the ocean, before letting out a breath of acceptance when she saw how the chamber was laid out.

All surface exits were sealed off once again. The control panel had opened only aquatic testing chambers, and Pomu came to the realization that she had no way out owing to the fact she couldn’t breathe underwater.

Finana suddenly poked her head above the water.

“Pomu! You’re here!”

“Finana!” Pomu shouted, “Why haven’t you gotten out?!”

“Well, there’s an alarm that says all surface exits are sealed off, so… need a ride?”

“I can’t breathe underwater!”

“I’ll swim fast.”

“Freeze!” came the voice of a silver-haired agent.

Finana didn’t wait.

“Take a deep breath and hold it!”

She then grabbed Pomu and dived underwater.

The agent sighed.

“Agent ‘Zeta’ reporting in. The Aquatic Test Subject division has escaped.”

“Refocus your efforts on the priestess; she’s a higher priority target. Join up with Agent Sleepless. Agent ‘Rainmaker’ is dispatched to deal with the Phoenix.”

Kiara landed again at the edge of the complex.

Exploding is a pretty painless death compared to some of my others, at least.

She felt a single drop of water hit her head.

“Wait, what? The skies were completely clear a few seconds ago-”

And then a torrential downpour started, swiftly putting out Kiara’s wings.

“Oh, I see how it is. I think my job here is-”

And then she got hit by a jet of water moving at an incredible speed, essentially forming the water into a laser beam that sent Kiara flying back from the force of impact.

Kiara reignited her body in a burst of flame, which was quickly put out by the downpour, before finally seeing exactly who had struck.

“This is Agent ‘Rainmaker’. I have visual contact with the phoenix.”

Ina shrugged.

“You can’t possibly think fighting all seven of us at once is a good idea, right?”

Sleepless laughed, but there was something off about it, as despite looking like she was laughing, absolutely no sound came out.

“Well,” Gura said with a smirk, “let’s get her!”

And then suddenly Gura recoiled, as if hit by something invisible.

“Hey!” Gura shouted, “Who hit me?!”

Agent Sleepless continued laughing entirely silently.

Gura kicked the air in annoyance, only for something to hit her leg.

Agent Zeta tripped over Gura’s leg, falling onto the floor. As she did so, the invisibility spell she had going fizzled, rendering her visible to everyone once again.

Not to be deterred, Zeta got up once again, and then vanished from sight.

Nerissa opened her mouth to start singing, while Bijou once again let the gem embedded in her chest grow a brilliant purple.

Agent Sleepless smirked. “We were specifically trained to be immune to both of those things.”

Shiori sighed. “Nerissa, Bijou, back away into some corner and keep yourselves out of combat. As for me…”

Shiori’s spellbook reformed into a pair of dark scissor blades.

“...I’ve got a few tricks.”

Ina nodded, and then stared at Zeta, saying nothing but smiling politely, while closing her eyes.

“As do I. Let me handle the semi-ghost girl here via void senses.”

Fuwawa and Mococo took a moment to concentrate.

“Our dog ears are trained for hearing things like this!” Fuwawa exclaimed.

Nerissa smirked, and then waved an arm, though it would take a little bit for it to become apparent what it did: amplify the sound of Zeta’s footsteps.

Gura raised her trident, while Shiori raised both scissor blades, both of them pointing the sharp end of their weapons towards Sleepless.

Sleepless smiled, and then raised her hammer.

Kiara approached Agent Rainmaker through the downpour, cursing her opponent for utilizing an elemental weakness of the phoenix.

Rainmaker raised her hands into a fighting stance, and once again manipulated ample rainwater into a weapon, in this case, streaks of water became like whips, lashing out against Kiara with enough force to cause serious harm.

Kiara, not to be caught that easily, dodged back, keeping the fight going, but starting to realize she was losing, fighting a serious elemental disadvantage and her opponent not using the kind of directly lethal force that would lead to instant reincarnation tactics being viable.

Calliope looked on from the shadows, and drew her scythe.

Should’ve brought a partner for dealing with the two of us.

Finana swam as fast as she could, Pomu holding onto her and holding her breath for as long as she could.

Pomu felt time starting to slow down as the need to breathe started kicking in. The last precious few seconds of air she had left seemed to drag on for an eternity as Finana made her ascent to the surface.

Finana, I… can’t…!

Pomu accepted her fate. She had freed her best friend and several others with her. Drowning was a small price to pay.

And yet, at the instant she had come to terms with it, Finana surfaced. Pomu’s desperate breath was one consisting of air, not water.

“Pomu, what were you so worried about?” Finana asked, “You didn’t really think I was going to let you drown, right?”

Pomu laughed. “Well, I hope you don’t mind keeping your head above water for a bit, since my wings are too waterlogged to fly with right now.”

Finana smiled. “Hopefully we’ll get back on land fairly shortly. I have the advantage of being faster than just about any human swimmer, after all!”

Hammer met both blades and trident.

Shiori struck again. Rather than a rage-induced flurry of uncontrolled strikes, Shiori struck with precision, attempting to probe Sleepless’ defenses for weaknesses, and occasionally striking out when she found any holes in her defense.

Frustratingly, Sleepless didn’t seem to be in the mood for getting hit. Her stance was perfect, perfectly averting hits from both Gura and Shiori, until eventually the two of them seemed to find an opening as Sleepless stepped back a little bit too far. Shiori, in turn, stepped back, and her book transformed into long range casting mode.

Sleepless swung her hammer into the floor, hitting it with such force as to send a shockwave through the room that hit both Gura and Shiori, cracking the floor and leaving it with a sizable impact crater from the attack.

Separately, Fuwawa and Mococo both found themselves taken off-balance by the shockwave unleashed by Sleepless’ attack, but on the other hand, they both heard the found of Zeta tripping and falling over onto the floor again.

“She’s here!” Fuwawa shouted, “Get her!”

Zeta rolled out of the way, and then got up to dodge both Fuwawa, Mococo, and then Ina’s tentacles.

Fuwawa and Mococo listened carefully, but then realized Zeta had switched movement tactics, choosing to increase her stride and mostly move with swift acrobatic jumps. By reducing the number of times she landed, it gave both twins far less of an opportunity to hear where she was, making their perception of the agent as if she was teleporting.

Back on the other side of the room, Shiori, watching as Gura kept Sleepless’ attention, finished a spell she started, and several shadowy projectiles with long black trails emerged, fired directly in Sleepless’ direction, right as Gura jumped out of the way.

Shiori watched all of the projectiles directly hit Sleepless, exploding into a cloud of smoke.

Rainmaker and Kiara once again took careful battle stances, eyes on one another.

Suddenly, Kiara smirked, as Calliope appeared from the shadows directly behind Rainmaker and conjured her scythe around the agent.

“Nothing personal, kid.”

Rainmaker’s eyes widened, suddenly realizing what had happened, as she quickly turned to face Calliope.

Calliope froze, looking at Rainmaker’s face, feeling her stomach crawl at how deathly afraid Rainmaker appeared to be. For a brief moment, she couldn’t see a deadly agent in that face.

Oh my god, she really is a kid. I… I can’t…

And then Calliope felt a swift kick in her stomach.

“Right, physical incarnations can feel pain, argh-”

She shadow walked back to Kiara’s position.

“Kiara, I don’t know what to do, she’s actually a kid. She’s so young, and… look, you know I don’t have a lot of abilities that don’t drastically shorten the lifespan of their victim, and… this kid doesn’t deserve to die before she gets out of her teenage years.”

Kiara snarled, suddenly angry in a way she hadn’t been before.

“Then we’ll find a way to save her, no matter what.”

Shiori watched the smoke clear, only for Sleepless to emerge seemingly unharmed, laughing completely silently once again.

“This is really unfair.”

Gura drew her trident, running towards Sleepless once again.

“Then I’ll even the odds!”

Sleepless seemed to analyze Gura’s movements for a moment, before swinging her hammer at the exact time for Gura to not be able to slow down to avoid the hit.

Shiori looked around, watching Gura go flying through the room before crashing into the floor, watching Fuwawa and Mococo getting slowly beaten up by an invisible foe, watching as Sleepless continued to laugh silently.

“How?”

Sleepless shrugged. “Special equipment. Training. Things. All to beat you in specific.”

“How am I supposed to win,” Shiori complained, “against an opponent who’s tailored her build specifically to stop me?!”

“That’s the neat part: you don’t. If you want my advice, stand still in front of my hammer. It’ll be faster that way.”

Mumei descended upon IRyS and Bae, while everyone else in the area cleared out for the three of them.

“IRyS.” Mumei spoke quietly, “Of course it’s you. I should’ve known that they’d send the easy fight after me first.”

“Oi!” Bae replied, “I’m right here!”

“True.” Mumei continued, “I don’t think I’ll be able to take both of you out at once. But getting IRyS on our side would certainly be a powerful asset for us.”

IRyS frowned. “I’m sorry. For what I’m about to do to you.”

“Funny,” Mumei replied, “I thought that was going to have to be my line.”

And with that, she jumped into the air, and then a much larger metal structure seemed to form Mumei, forming into a roughly human shape made out of larger metal parts, until a metal figure much larger than IRyS or Bae emerged from in front of them.

“I know you can always retreat back to the astral realm, Bae. Now’s probably a good time to do that. Otherwise I’ll be testing out this nifty prototype combat mech against you. Your choice.”

Amelia blinked into the complex, alarms going off.

“I take my eyes off of my friends for even a second and they get into this mess. And even those who aren’t my friends, they deserve better, too.”

She sighed.

“Well, I think I’ve waited long enough.”

Chapter Text

Kiara and Calliope stared down Rainmaker, both of them keeping their distance and waiting for their opponent to give them an opening by giving off what appeared to be an open path of attack through Rainmaker’s magically generated storm.

Rainmaker took it, and once again focused the rain into an aquatic laser directed at Calliope, who swiftly dispersed to the shadows to dodge the attack, followed by another attack at Kiara who leapt to the side to dodge the attack, intent on exploiting the opening of Rainmaker’s attack to get closer to the agent.

Rainmaker fell back, seeing what Kiara was trying to do, and quickly made sure to keep her distance.

And then Kiara saw it. It was a brief flash of blond hair, a silhouette of a person that only appeared for an instant, and yet dramatically turned the tide of the battle.

Rainmaker stumbled, suddenly hit by something that from behind that she hadn’t even gotten the chance to see.

“What?! Who hit me?!” Rainmaker shouted as she looked around to see what had hit her.

Kiara smiled, knowing who had helped them, and knowing that the brief hesitation that Rainmaker had given them was all she needed to end the fight.

Rainmaker turned around, eyes widening, but it was too late. Kiara wrapped her arms around Rainmaker and then ignited her wings. This time, despite the downpour, they stayed lit, as Kiara focused her powers to keep them lit as she flew into the air, now carrying a crying blue-haired girl with her.

Rainmaker silently came to terms with the end of her career, which would likely shortly be followed by the end of her life, feeling Kiara’s ascent to the sky and eventual escape from the rainstorm that had been putting a literal damper on her powers.

“My name is Kobo.” The agent spoke through tears, “Kobo Kanaeru. I just wanted someone to know, even if they’re my enemy. I remember that much.”

She looked up at Kiara, who still held the agent with a steady grip.

“...why are you crying?”

“Because I want you to live a life where you know more about yourself than only your name.”

Shiori was on the defensive, dodging blows from Sleepless and trying to simply remain in the fight, while Ina carefully watched Zeta’s movements with her void sense, struggling to lock in Zeta’s position for long enough to actually get any attack going.

Come on, give me an opening… 

And then she got the opening she wanted, but not in the manner she was expecting it in: Zeta stumbled, seemingly hit by nothing.

Ina’s jaw dropped, because she knew what had actually happened. She then smirked, and took the opportunity to grab Zeta with her tentacles while she was stunned, before throwing her body into the ground, watching as she regained visibility from the hit.

Gotcha.

For the first time, Sleepless seemed genuinely afraid.

“Zeta! You better get up for that!”

“I’m… fine…”

Sleepless turned around, and parried a trident strike from Gura with her hammer, finding out that the shark girl had in fact gotten up again.

“It’ll take more than that to take me outta the fight!”

“Well, I guess I’ll worry about you now.” Sleepless replied, raising her hammer and preparing to swing it.

She then found herself losing her balance as someone hit her from behind, causing her to stumble. This time, however, the perpetrator did not blink out of existence a moment later, leaving everyone in the room to see who had done it.

“I can’t take my eyes off of you for one second, can I?” Amelia asked with a grin.

Ina and Gura both grinned.

“Ame! You really are helping us!”

“Don’t get my priorities mixed up. I just need to talk to these two agents here for a bit.”

Kiara landed on the roof of another building, Kobo safe in her arms. Calliope appeared shortly thereafter, scythe in hand, but a smile on her face.

Kobo closed her eyes, waiting for the end, while Calliope and Kiara stared at one another.

“I can promise you this:” Kiara whispered, “Calli’s not gonna hurt you.”

Calliope nodded. “I hate to say it, I don’t see a lot of options. Who’s exactly going to take in the empire’s prototype secret agent kid? Where could she even call home? Anywhere normal and the empire’s probably going to want her back.”

Kiara smiled.

“I have an idea. Calliope, I think I lost my phone when I got exploded by homing missiles, so could I borrow yours? Owing to that group DM, we all have each other’s contacts.”

Calliope drew a sharp breath.

“I think it’s better if I make that call.”

And with that, she took out her phone, searched her contacts, and then sent a message.

IRyS and Bae ran away from the mech chasing them.

“You really should stop running!” Mumei shouted through a speaker. “It won’t help!”

IRyS conjured a wall of crystals, only to watch as the mech carved through it with some sort of laser.

IRyS and Bae looked at each other, before Bae suddenly conjured, of all things, a harness.

“Well,” Bae replied, “Maybe flying will help!”

“What are you doing, Detective?” Sleepless asked, “We’re kinda busy right now, and that’s without your sudden betrayal!”

“Betrayal?” Amelia asked, “I’m trying to make sure nobody gets hurt, which is why I want to ask: do you have any way of tracking Agent Rainmaker’s position? I don’t think I remember what your agent toolset includes.”

“Yeah, we do.” Zeta asked, “Why would you-”

And then she paled as she checked Rainmaker’s position.

“Why is she flying out into the city?!”

Zeta turned invisible, and then started running. Sleepless looked at everyone else in the room, and realized she was not going to win that fight. Even taking Bijou and Nerissa’s abilities out of the equation, even with specific void-magic resistant armor, the numbers did not work out in her favor.

“As much as I’m supposed to die for the empire,” Sleepless mused, “I’m not really feeling it. Though if you’re doing it to save Rainmaker, why appear here?”

“Because I know you three are close to one another. It’ll be hard, but I thought I’d give you the chance to stay together, as only you three really know what you’ve been through.”

Sleepless looked down for a moment, looked back up at Amelia, and then nodded.

And without saying another word, she sprinted out of the room.

Amelia breathed a sigh of relief.

“This never happened, okay?”

Ina and Gura stared at Amelia in disbelief.

“What?” Amelia asked, “Oh yeah, Zeta and Sleepless. They aren’t reporting anything; trust me on that.”

With a flash of light, Anya Melfissa teleported to Kobo, Calliope and Kiara’s location.

“You have some serious guts,” Anya mused, “asking for an extraction mission for a known agent of the empire, given that we’d be transporting them to a location that absolutely cannot be disclosed under any circumstance.”

“I know,” Calliope replied, “but I can’t think of anywhere else she could go. Or worse, I can’t think of that many others who’d be willing to give her a second chance. Kiara’s one. From what I’ve seen of her, I think Ollie’s a good second.”

Anya stared at Kobo, who was holding onto Kiara.

“You’re right. And it sucks. It really does. Ollie’s line of reasoning is always emotional in nature. Reine’s more reasonable, but she’s usually much more concerned about how to do something rather than what to do and as a result I’m usually called in as the mediator to make a judgment call. That’s why they sent me out, to check out the situation and then get out if necessary. And yet, now that I’m here, I can’t help but admit that Ollie was right. That you were right, even.”

Calliope breathed a sigh of relief, as did Kiara.

“Thank you so much.” Kiara replied.

“Alright, then.” Anya continued, “Kid, I need you to remove basically all of your equipment from your person, just to make sure you don’t have any sort of tracking devices on you. For security reasons, we’re making sure that the only thing you’re taking with you is the shirt on your back. I’ll leave Kiara to dispose of any material we leave behind. Also, I’d like to get a name from you so I don’t have to keep calling you ‘kid’.”

“I’m Kobo.” answered Kobo as she quickly discarded all of her special ops equipment, “Kobo Kanaeru.”

“Great; now we just need to-”

BANG!

Kiara and Calliope turned to face the sound, which came from the door to roof being slammed open, revealing seemingly nothing.

Calliope sighed, and grabbed the invisible agent, who then decloaked while having a scythe’s blade held dangerously close to her.

“Don’t try invisibility on someone who senses lifeforce.”

“Zeta!” Kobo shouted, suddenly realizing that her best friend and fellow agent was being held by a reaper, “Let her go!”

“That’s my line!” Zeta shouted back, “I’m here to get you out!”

“That’s what we’re doing!” Kiara replied.

“And this is why I’m here instead of Ollie.” Anya replied, completely calm. “You two think you can subdue them?”

“Well, yeah.” Calliope stated calmly, “I think she ran here in a panic and had no actual battle plan whatsoever.”

Zeta cringed, being guilty of Calliope’s suspicions.

“Well,” Anya mused, “I suppose we can-”

The door to the roof was knocked off its hinges by Sleepless’ hammer.

“Zeta! Rainmaker! I-”

And then she looked at the situation, with Kobo dressed in nothing more than an ordinary layer of clothing and Zeta being held by a reaper who had her scythe conjured.

Sleepless dropped her hammer.

“You win. Just… don’t kill them. I know I have no negotiating power here, I just felt like asking. Oh, and I suppose you’ll want to know: my name is Kaela. Kaela Kovalskia.”

“And I remember my family name as ‘Vestia’, but… I’ve never known another name. I’m just Zeta.”

Anya looked at the three agents who stood totally and utterly defeated, and drew a deep breath.

“Reine’s gonna be so ticked at me for this, but I’m risking it; Ollie really is rubbing off on me. Alright, all three agents who just dropped in: remove all of your weapons, gear, equipment, tracking devices, basically everything except your literal basic clothing. Ollie’s waiting on the other side, and we’ll figure out what to do with you three from there. It’s clear that you three are close enough that even though I shouldn’t I’m letting you three stay together. Are we all clear?”

Amelia smiled.

“Suffice to say, while it got hectic, you actually managed to aid in rescuing three subjects that for the longest time I had considered a lost cause; thank you for that. At this point, we’re in the clear; they only have basic security measures left to stop you, and that will not be anywhere close to enough. Unless Mumei returns right now, I think we’re safe.”

“Where is she, anyway?”

“Tied up with IRyS, if the plan’s going according to, well, plan.”

IRyS and Bae gasped as they saw Mumei’s mech transform, gaining wings and a pair of jets, allowing it to fly far above the city of Ethyria along with them.

“What IS that thing?!” Bae shouted.

“It’s an experimental anti-magic prototype combat mecha.” Mumei answered, “Designed to be nearly immune to magic and armed with some seriously crazy weapons. For the purpose of defeating you. The mech’s codename is…”

“DESPAIR”

Chapter Text

Bae extended her arms, and watched a random bolt of lightning strike Despair directly, only to sigh when she saw that it had done no damage.

“Okay, so Mumei wasn’t kidding about the whole anti-magic thing.”

In turn, Mumei activated the weapon systems from Despair, and unleashed a firestorm of glowing projectiles.

“Alright,” IRyS muttered, “here’s the plan: I dodge, and you figure out how to actually damage that thing!”

“Sounds like a plan!”

IRyS dodged through a flurry of projectiles, while Bae concentrated. Somehow, every single shot fired missed, IRyS managing to perfectly weave through each projectile. Bae, in turn, cast another spell, and watched as a piano that dropped from the sky slammed into Despair.

“Ha! I knew it!” Bae shouted, “Even if it’s immune to magic, it’s not immune to being hit by stuff that was created with magic!”

She snapped her fingers, and then watched as Despair dodged a falling anvil, before returning fire with another round of blaster fire.

“Darn it, Mumei’s not gonna make things that easy for us.”

She conjured a sword, which then lit up with a brilliant brightness with a powerful magenta glow to the blade.

With the blade, Bae proceeded to deflect several of the projectiles that were coming IRyS’ way. IRyS, in turn, noticed a series of homing missiles.

“I don’t think I can dodge those!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this. IRyS, try to fly directly into them!”

IRyS did as told, while Bae proceeded to slice each homing missile in half, not bothering to turn around as the two halves of which missile exploded behind the pair.

“I’m pretty sure the projectiles aren’t magic immune!” IRyS complained.

“This is cooler, though!”

In the cockpit of Despair, Mumei pressed one of the big red buttons, which started charging a huge glowing sphere.

Bae and IRyS both looked upon the projectile that looked like a miniature sun.

“Bae, if that hits, it’s taking more than just the two of us out!”

“Let it come to us, then.” Bae replied, “Home run time!”

Mumei pressed the fire button, launching a massive sphere of destruction towards Bae and IRyS.

“There’s absolutely no way you can reflect that back at her! Look at the size of the thing! That would make no sense!”

“Yep.” Bae replied, “But when have my powers ever had to make sense?”

And with that, she swung her laser sword as if it was a baseball bat, hitting the miniature sun and causing it to suddenly freeze in midair, as well as stopping the swing in its tracks.

Bae attempted to keep pushing the miniature sun backwards, only to find herself losing ground.

“IRyS! Can you like, channel your strength into me or something!”

IRyS concentrated.

“No, but I don’t need to. You can do it, Bae. You have the power of both chaos and hope on your side!”

Bae pushed with all her might, and then launched the miniature sun back at the mech that had fired it, watching the glowing projectile slam into it and then explode for what appeared to be massive damage.

Bae breathed heavily in exhaustion.

“Got her!”

And then the smoke cleared, revealing that, while visibly damaged, Despair was still also entirely operational.

Bae smiled, once again conjuring her laser sword. Mumei reacted by firing up the remaining operational weaponry from Despair, in this case the laser defense system.

IRyS watched violet beam-like projectiles fly past her, and found herself approaching Mumei’s mech with plenty of sideways movement to avoid being hit. Mumei in turn launched another series of missiles at IRyS, who dodged each one.

Bae looked at the explosions occurring behind her.

“Nice dodge. It’s not done yet, though!”

IRyS nodded, strafing around Despair and making sure to keep paying attention to a massive storm of beams that were being fired only vaguely in both her and Bae’s direction. Despair unleashed several much bigger lasers, which IRyS strafed left and right to dodge out of the way of each one.

“GOTCHA!” Bae shouted as her sword made contact with the mech, cleanly slicing off its legs.

She then sighed.

“Of course, it doesn’t need legs to fly, so that didn’t actually do much, but hey, we hit it! Back around, IRyS! I think we’ve got her now!”

Mumei raised the left arm of Despair, revealing yet another large armament.

“Don’t worry.” IRyS spoke calmly, “I’m not letting us get hit by that either.”

Both IRyS and Bae watched as a massive beam of glowing-blue plasma fired out of the hand, forming a laser that vaporized a pair of the crystals that made up IRyS’ left wing, causing her to lose her aerial balance.

“Oh no!” IRyS shouted…

…Before continuing, as the crystals reformed: “Anyway… those heal quickly, thank goodness. Bae, get ready, we’re coming hot!”

Bae swung as IRyS came in on the left side, slicing cleanly through the arm and destroying the plasma cannon that had just fired on them.

“I think she’s out of weapons now!” Bae shouted.

Mumei proceeded to disprove Bae’s hypothesis as she pressed one last button, one last option she had to try and take down the pair.

Bae and IRyS watched as the right arm of Despair transformed, many metal plates coming apart and then reforming into a gigantic drill, before Mumei activated the thrusters and charged forward.

Bae smiled.

“IRyS, directly forward.”

“You want me to fly directly into the giant drill?!” IRyS complained loudly.

“Just trust me on this!”

IRyS took a deep breath, and then charged forward. As she did so, she saw what Bae was planning: Bae extended her own right arm, and out of nowhere a giant drill made out of crystal started manifesting on Bae’s right arm. It was larger than they were; and from the looks of it, a lot sharper than the drill Despair had.

“IRyS, this will only work if you believe in me. Are you ready to rescue Mumei together?”

“Yes!”

The drill of Despair met Bae and IRyS’ own drill, both of them losing momentum as they crashed into one another. At first, Despair pushed back Bae and IRyS, having the massive weight advantage.

“HERE COMES HOPE!” IRyS shouted.

Bae grinned, pushing back with all her might alongside IRyS.

“5!”

Suddenly, the momentum of Despair reversed.

“4!”

The drill of Despair started breaking into pieces.

“3!”

The rest of the drill was torn apart by Bae’s drill.

“2!”

Which then continued to the body of Despair, slamming into it.

“1!”

Bae’s drill quickly made its way to the center of the mech.

Bae grinned, before speaking the final words:

“PLAY DICE!”

Bae’s drill broke into pieces, spilling a bunch of dice into the interior of the mech, which started glowing as the chaos magic within them started igniting.

“IRyS, pull out!”

IRyS pulled Bae out of the mech as it was breaking apart, and then watched as Despair exploded.

“Turns out it wasn’t magic proof from the inside.” Bae mused.

IRyS watched as Mumei’s body fell from the explosion of her mech, before flying after her. Bae proceeded to grab Mumei as she was falling, and then the three of them landed together.

After touching the ground, Bae let go of Mumei, shortly before removing her harness out of existence. She then watched Mumei stumble a bit. Bae conjured a trio of chairs, and watched as Mumei sat down in one of them. Bae and IRyS took the other two.

“Hey.” IRyS spoke, “Kinda wanted to talk to you.”

“Is there a point?” Mumei asked solemnly, “You two aren’t the ones who I care about being judged by. I’ll… I’ll go.”

“What do you mean, ‘go’?” Bae asked, “As the leader of the council, I do want a straight answer or two from you.”

“You guys are planning on destroying civilization, and I’m the biggest obstacle towards doing that. Without me, civilization has nothing guarding it from the likes of the Council. And it’s my aspect, my very being, to defend it with anything I have, just like I tried before. But I can’t win against both of you. And I’m willing to take a hint, you know?”

“Mumei, what are you saying?!” IRyS asked, “We’re just trying to rescue you from…”

“My aspect?” Mumei asked right back, “IRyS, I’m not like you. Your aspect can’t turn evil in the same way mine does. So I’m going back to the astral realm. I’ll let you guys… end everything, I guess, but I’m not gonna watch. And then I’ll forget, too. Then we’ll do it better the next time, right? Or… maybe this keeps happening. That’s why I need to go back - it’s Kronii I need to apologize to.”

Bae found herself frowning.

“I… I have a feeling that Kronii wants to engage the end time protocol.”

“She wants to do what?!” A new voice suddenly asked.

Bae conjured a fourth chair, and watched as Fauna took a seat.

“The end time protocol.” Bae elaborated, “The complete reset, the one that completely annihilates this world, and then lets us start all over with a new universe.”

“Then let her!” Mumei shouted, “Because if you think I can be rescued - I can’t. Honestly, the real reason I want to talk to Kronii is… something perhaps I can’t ask of you.”

“Mumei…” Fauna whimpered, “What could you ask of her but not of us?”

“When you all create the next universe, I want to be severed from my aspect, so that I don’t embody civilization ever again. I’ll never betray you if I never remember my aspect in the first place. I’ll forget everything. I don’t remember, but I know this isn’t the first time I’ve… caused a bit of a mess, haven’t I?”

Fauna started crying.

“Mumei, why…? Don’t you understand how much we love you?”

“Fauna,” Mumei replied, “You’re likely the one I’ve hurt worst of all, given what civilization keeps doing to your planet. Why would you forgive me now?”

“Don’t you understand what being severed from your aspect would do to you?!”

“It’d mean I’m no longer part of the fancy club of world administrators, but… maybe that’s for the best? Oh yeah, I guess I’d die.”

“Then NO!” Bae suddenly shouted, “We won’t let you throw away your existence, not like that.”

“Then I don’t know how anything’s gonna play out now!” Mumei muttered, “Besides, if you didn’t want to destroy civilization, why stop its guardian?”

She paused.

“Actually, what was all of this about? IRyS, you aren’t the type to randomly start a revolution, so… who are you working with?”

“Oh, I was meant to distract you while Ina woke the empress up.”

Mumei shrugged.

“Well, if she succeeds, then ultimately my role in the empire will no longer be needed.”

“What do you mean?” Bae asked.

“What I mean is that if the empress wakes up, there will not be an empire for much longer - that was my real role in this. In which case, after this all clears up, I’ll forget everything anyway. Maybe it’s better that way, maybe it’s for the greater good that I don’t remember any of this version of me.”

Fauna stood up.

“Mumei…”

Mumei got up. “I don’t know why you have any attachment to this version of me, since… Well, I’ll be someone else by the time we next meet. I’ll forget. I always do, don’t I?”

“Then that’s all the more reason to treasure the last moments we’ll have.” Bae replied solemnly.

“I forgive you.” Fauna said, “If the council forgave Sana for destroying entire planets in the past, they’ll forgive you too.”

“I know.” Mumei replied, “And that’s why I need to speak to Kronii. It’s her forgiveness that matters the most.”

Fauna let go.

Mumei smiled, “Thankfully we all have the ability to recall ourselves back to HQ, and Kronii doesn’t leave too often… So, I guess I’ll see you on the other side.”

And then she teleported out.

Chapter Text

Back in Area 15, four people appeared in a flash of light: Zeta, Kaela, Kobo, and finally Anya, who had sanctioned the teleport. Watching the two of them were Ollie, Reine, and three relative newcomers: Risu, Moona, and Iofi.

“And that,” Reine explained to the other three, “is how you operate the-”

And then she froze, looking at the four people that were in the teleport chamber rather than two as was initially agreed. She opened her mouth, only for Ollie to interrupt instead.

“YOU BROUGHT ALL OF THEM HERE?!”

Anya smiled.

“You really are rubbing off on me. I normally would have just taken Kobo - she’s the kid with the blue hair - but then the other two showed up trying to rescue her and it kinda turned into a whole thing. More importantly, Kaela - she’s the blond tall girl - dropped all of her weapons as soon as I made the offer. I know they don’t look like it now, but until very recently these were special agents of the empire.”

Reine facepalmed.

“Yeah, I’m not going to say that was the right option, but you’re our shotcaller, so I won’t disagree. Ollie, Anya, you’re in charge of finding somewhere to put them.”

“I mean,” Zeta answered, “We don’t really have any negotiating power here - if you wanted to leave us on the floor here there’s not much we could do, right?”

Anya smirked in amusement, watching Ollie’s expression shift to one of horror.

3, 2, 1…

And then Ollie took off in a sprint, practically dragging the three former agents with her.

“YOU WILL BE SLEEPING IN PROPER ROOMS IF IT KILLS ME! AGAIN!”

Anya broke out laughing, shortly followed by Risu, Moona, Iofi, and Reine.

The first thing Kobo did upon seeing the bed was leap into it, spreading her arms and legs across the mattress.

Zeta looked suspiciously at the mattress, seemingly analyzing it in case it was some sort of trap.

Kaela, meanwhile, remained outside, chatting with both Ollie and Anya.

“I was known as ‘Sleepless’.” Kaela elaborated, “And I have a lot of abilities, most of them just being kind of strong and also having superhuman endurance. The name is fairly literal; I’m the one who’s good at watching over places and people because I don’t really get tired. Kobo - the kid with the blue hair - was known as ‘Rainmaker’, and, well, again, that name tells you her abilities. Agent Zeta is the odd one out, both in that she was introduced to the program much earlier than the two of us, and partially as a result of that she only knows herself as ‘Zeta’. She has the ability to turn invisible, so if you’re going to worry about anyone trying to sneak around without permission, it’s her, whereas Kobo and I aren’t usually subtle.”

Anya blinked.

“For someone who seemed so loyal to your best friends, it seems weird you’d tell us this much.”

“I mean,” Keala replied, “you already knew about the invisibility thing. But even if you didn’t, I’d still tell you two about them.”

“Why?” Ollie asked.

“Because Zeta and Kobo were both raised from a young age to be distrusting of others. They are both totally convinced that you’ve only captured them because they’re valuable assets, that they will be kicked out the instant they are no longer of any use.”

“WHAT?! I’LL-”

“Quiet.” Anya cut Ollie off, “So, what you’re saying is that both of them are probably not going to be easy to work with.”

“Not at all, I’m afraid.” Kaela replied, “Zeta in particular. She doesn’t really know how to do much else. She doesn’t even remember her birth name; as far as she knows, she was born a special agent. And yet, and she’s going to hate me for saying this, I kinda want her to stop with it. Kobo too, though for different reasons. Also, Zeta, I know you’re listening to me, so yeah I’ll just say it: please don’t try your ‘heroics’, we’re not escaping this place.”

Anya nodded, ignoring the fact that she could feel Zeta’s disappointment.

“You wouldn’t have much luck even if you tried. Not only does this place have no windows - I mean most of Area 15 is underground - but there’s only two ways to find the location of this place without just being magically clairvoyant: getting it from one of us, or by escaping and seeing it from the outside. And with you in the picture…”

“This place is on total lockdown.” Kaela answered, “I wouldn’t expect anything else.”

“Nah, total lockdown implies locking out every individual sector of the base so that everybody’s completely stuck where they already are. You’re just locked out of the surface levels, alongside basically everyone else. I know this sounds insane, but do talk to the others here. I know that they probably won’t necessarily have the best first impressions of you, but please.”

Ollie smiled surprisingly softly. “It’s… not a reasonable ask for you to join us, given that until recently you’ve been taught to see us as the enemy. But I wanted to give you something that even the best technology of the empire couldn’t: kindness.”

Kaela paused for a moment, seemingly lost in thought, before replying: “Can I ask why? Understand that, while we were ultimately deployed against other forces due to extreme circumstances, taking down this place was always in our mission statement, eventually. In another universe you could’ve easily just seen me as the enemy, nothing more than ‘Agent Sleepless’, the notorious sentinel. Names are only for people who… are actually people, I guess.”

Ollie’s smile seemed to deepen.

“I want you to live in a world where being just considered a person isn’t the kindest thing that happens to you! Look, I’m not saying we’re destined to be friends, given that I’m pretty sure it was someone in your faction’s side that killed me the first time, but at worst, at the very worst, we would’ve just been enemies. Two people who found themselves in situations that put us on opposing sides.”

“I probably shouldn’t say this out loud,” Kaela admitted, “but given your current state, whoever killed you didn’t do a very good job of it.”

Ollie snickered. “I shouldn’t laugh at that either, but honestly, I do appreciate it.”

Kaela smirked. “I probably would’ve had some much bigger weaponry if they wanted me to take you out. And tools for subverting whatever defenses this place has. They might not have been kind, but the empire cared about making sure we had the weapons we needed to survive, if only because we were hard to replace, making it one of the few times in which a magically gifted person was looked upon positively by the empire’s inner circle, I guess.”

Ollie frowned, a combination of anger and contempt showing on her face.

“If they actually cared about you, they would’ve let you live a normal life, and if you later joined their military forces, then so be it. They wouldn’t have needed to even set up any sort of special program - just let you be, and then possibly give you weapons to shoot me with later.

“But they didn’t do that! They instead raised you to be afraid of your own people, raised you to know nothing but how to hurt others! In the end, all they did was that they made YOU the weapon! And THAT is why I’m trying so hard to be kind to you - because YOU’RE HUMAN! JUST AS MUCH AS ANY OF US ARE!”

Kaela flinched, not having any answer to what Ollie just said. “Yeah… I guess. I should… I should talk to Zeta. She’s definitely listening in on everything we just said. And Kobo, too, though she’s young enough she’ll probably just adjust to you fairly quickly.”

“To be fair,” Anya replied, “Ollie was loud enough that I’m pretty sure everyone in this entire building heard the commotion. Thank goodness the surface entrance is soundproof, I guess.”

“GOOD!” Ollie replied, “I WANTED them to hear that. Tell Zeta and Kobo I’m open to talk to if either of them feel like opening up to me.”

And with that, she left, leaving Kaela to enter a bedroom shared by two others.

Kobo was lying in bed while awake, while Zeta sat on the side of that bed, looking unsure of herself.

“Kaela?” Zeta asked, “What do we do?”

“For now, I think we should rest.” Kaela answered. “And then we need to rethink our entire lives. I know you aren’t going to want to hear this - mostly because I really don’t want to admit it either - but I honestly know what we should do after we wake up.”

“Which is?” Kobo asked.

“Get some help.”

“And that’s who the three of them are.”

Risu, Moona, Iofi, and Reine sat around a table, listening to Ollie explain who the newcomers were.

“I can understand,” Anya began, “Risu in particular, if you aren’t super comfortable with the idea of hanging around former empire secret agents. Ollie had a discussion with them, and-”

“We heard.” Moona interrupted, “And yeah, it’s… awkward, but we’ll deal with it.”

“Plus,” Iofi added, “if we treat them that badly, that kinda means we don’t have the moral high ground - and worse, it’d make their initial views about us justified.”

“Besides,” Risu continued, “It could’ve been me. A secret agent who can transform into a squirrel to provide secret spying operations would legitimately be kind of useful; it was only a coincidence that it was those three instead of us. So… I’ll try. I’ll try to be good with them.”

“Trying is all you can promise.” Anya replied, “But I thank you so much for just making the attempt. It means a lot. I’d say it means a lot for Ollie, but it means a lot for me, too.”

Reine sighed. “I’ll admit I’m not entirely comfortable with this yet, but I’ll try to help, too.”

Ollie nodded. “I said my part already, and apparently I don’t need to repeat it, given you all heard me shout it out loud back there. But I still stand by it. I know it’s weird… but I want them to feel at home here. I just want them to have a place to feel at home.”

Back in the council headquarters, Kronii suddenly paused, as if confused.

“Are you alright?” Sana asked, suddenly seeing Kronii’s attitude shift very abruptly.

“I didn’t think she’d ever come back here after what she did to me.” Kronii replied.

“What?”

“Mumei. She’s returned back to the astral realm. Why…?”

Kronii shook her head.

“Now’s not the time for indecision. I’m gonna talk to her if it’s the last thing either of us remember. Mostly because it will probably be the last thing she remembers, anyway.”

“Kronii-nii…” Sana muttered.

“It’s not the first time it’s happened. I’m used to it, really - I’ve had to be the bearer of memories between us for a thousand times already, so what’s one more time?”

“So you are giving up on this world.”

“I’m not saying I’ve given up yet.” Kronii replied, “But the main reason I’d been hesitating to do it just removed itself from the mortal realm, and… this doesn’t feel right to me. I need to know. I need to know what happened to her. And once I have my answer… I’ll make my decision. I’m glad that you’re willing to support me, either way. Besides, you’ve always done a great job at making our universes truly beautiful. I’m happy to think it’s back in your hands.”

Sana smiled. “Well, if you need someone to be the astrogirl again… I won’t say no, should it get that far. But you know, maybe you should believe in them. Believe in her, if nothing else.”

Kronii nodded.

“That’s why I have to find her first. I made an oath to set Mumei free. And I intend to keep it.”

Chapter Text

A door to a secured chamber, something that was labeled as so important it could not be opened under any unauthorized circumstance, was forced open by magic.

The chamber was large, surprisingly empty, and looked more like a scientific experiment than a bedroom, or even a prison cell. In the center of the room was a large violet octahedron-shaped crystal with what looked like a young woman embedded in the center of the crystal.

“Here we are.” Ina stated calmly, with Gura following into the chamber with her.

Gura shrugged. “So, do the thing?”

“Sure. I suppose you didn’t see where Ame went?”

“Nope.” Gura replied.

Ina sighed.

“There’s no way she can possibly try the ‘playing both sides’ trick now, not after helping us get this far, so… Well, we’ll deal with her later. Shiori, I’m going to psychically communicate with the empress; can you just watch the door and make sure that nobody interrupts me until the ritual is finished? Once I gain my full powers, we’ll discuss how to handle things from there. This is the best shot we have.”

Shiori nodded, turning to face her companions.

“We’ll do that. Of course, given that Nerissa put most of them to sleep just getting this far, we aren’t going to have to worry about too much, I imagine. But still, we’ll keep on the alert while you perform… whatever it is you need to do.”

Ina nodded. “Thank you. When we next talk, hopefully I’ll be the empress.”

And with that, she sat down in front of the crystal that held the empress in stasis, and began the ritual that would awaken the being present within it.

“Gura, stay here with me. If anything happens, I’ll need you to wake me up.”

And that, she closed her eyes.

Ina woke up to a void.

This version of the temple felt more abstract in nature than the real thing. It was not situated in the real world, not built with real materials, and thus the geometry of the place was strange in a way that Ina had to admit felt unnatural, even to her. And yet, she pressed on, continuing to walk through this strange realm as if nothing was off about it, walking into what could ostensibly be called the inner chamber but was more a large portion of empty void that was far larger than the room’s volume could’ve possibly been, similar to her own as it was.

She then closed her eyes. True, one couldn’t see too much out in the void in its pure state, but Ina was aware that gazing upon the true form of the Ancient Ones was an unwise idea, even if she was in a dream. At best, it would cause her to immediately wake up, and at worst, seeing Ao-chan’s true form would immediately cause her perception of the world to implode.

“Ao-chan. Empress. Are you both here?”

I am present, my priestess. And the empress too, is here as well.

Ina wanted to ask why she couldn’t hear the empress, but she knew that when Ao-chan got involved basic logic was generally placed at a premium.

“Ao-chan. May I speak to her?”

In time, yes. And yet, here you stand, asking for a request, not of her, but of me.

“True. After the empress passes, I wish to negotiate the contract such that I become your new host. From what I’ve heard, this is standard procedure.”

It is true that you follow the path of priestesses before you. And yet, this time the path will lead you to a different fate than that of which you wish for. Do you believe yourself ready?

“Yes. In return for your power, I know you will demand a heavy price.”

Not a price, but a request.

Ina rolled her eyes.

“Just get on with it.”

You must bear witness to the great undoing.

Ina blinked.

“Isn’t that where you wake up and destroy everything? All this tells me is-”

And you must survive it.

“Okay, that’s flat-out impossible. But I guess I’ll take it, since such an event is far enough ahead in the future that I don’t have to worry too much about it. It’ll be an issue for the far future, anyway. So there’s my decision: I accept your power, and will become the new Takodachi Empress, assuming the empress allows it.”

As she will.

The temple seemed to reform around Ina, and as it did so, she heard the empress.

“...Then let me die.”

Ina looked up and finally opened her eyes.

“Empress.”

“Priestess.”

Ina smiled. “I’m sorry, in a sense. I know we never got along… but it’s pretty sad for death to be your only escape. But I’ll give it to you. In return… you know what it is I’m here for. I suppose this is where you ask me to take revenge on humanity for what they did to us and all of that, since…”

The empress shook her head. “I couldn’t ask something like that of you. You’re many things, but I don’t think you’re the vindictive type. Or the vengeful type. It won’t matter, anyway - because I don’t care. I want them to know how much they hurt me. But I don’t think you’re ever going to deliver that sort of message, even if I asked nicely.”

Ina nodded. “True. I’m in it for a much more banal reason: to save my friends, to save so many others that need saving, too. To make a world that I rule, not because of fear, but because of respect.”

The empress laughed. “Oh, you’re such an idealist. Trust me, that idealism won’t last.”

“Reality punishes naivete,” Ina replied, “not optimism. I can believe in a better world while accepting it will be difficult.”

“True, you were almost the most practical of the priestesses. Sometimes I wonder if we could’ve avoided all of this by making you the empress first. And truthfully, while I won’t be around to experience it, I truly think that perhaps… perhaps we’d all be happier if we lived in your world instead of… this.”

Ina shrugged. “I’m glad you have that faith in me, Empress. A title I suppose I’m about to inherit.”

“Indeed. I wish you the best of luck in the creation of your world - and perhaps my final gift to you will be enough to attain that power.”

“Wait,” Ina replied, confused, “what do you mean by that?”

“Wake up and find out.”

And then the dream shattered.

With a burst of void energy, Ina woke up.

“It is done. I’m going to take it that we had no interruptions?”

“Nope.” Gura answered, “Shiori got the entrance to this place covered, and apparently they ran out of experimental super agents to throw at us, so… you’re the empress, now?”

Ina smirked.

“There’s a grand irony to the fact that now I outrank everyone who’s been trying to capture me. It’s time for a… reorganization of sorts, once I figure out what to do.”

She looked back at the empress’ body, still encased in crystal but now entirely lifeless.

Perhaps we’d all be happier if we lived in your world.

“I wonder what she meant by that.”

“By what?”

“The empress told me in the dream that she probably would’ve been happier in my world instead of this one. She never told me what she meant by ‘my’ world, though.”

“Well,” Gura replied, “if she wanted you to rule the world, that seems pretty reasonable to me.”

“Possibly. Regardless of that, I sincerely hope that she can find peace in all of this, whichever afterlife she ends up in.”

And with that, she started walking towards the exit, her new powers in hand and determination in her heart.

And she heard something cracking.

“Gura, you’re not eating anything, are you?”

“What?! No, why do you… oh yeah, I can hear that, too. It’s like…”

Both Ina and Gura turned around to face the violet crystal that had once encased the empress, only to see it cracking apart like glass. On the inside of the crystal, the empress’ body appeared to disintegrate, her face and body reforming into a violet shadow.

“Oh no.” Ina muttered, “I have a feeling that the empress meant what she said about ‘my world’ literally. As in, her last act, the last thing she did with the tiny bit of consciousness she had left, was to create what I call a void instability, the first sign of the great undoing - and her last gift is the ability to survive being thrown into the void, where I’ll…”

She felt sick to her stomach.

“You can’t do this! I wanted this power to save the world, and now… Ao-chan, why… why would you do this?”

It was the last wish of the former empress.

The cracks started to spread, more and more of them visible on the surface of the crystal.

And then the cracks kept spreading to the edge of the crystal.

And they spread beyond the crystal, the open air between it and Ina somehow fraying apart and opening up a tear in the fabric of space itself.

“Hold on to me!” Ina shouted, as she grabbed Gura’s hand, preparing a void teleport, “I can initiate a void walk and get us out of here!”

And with that, both of them vanished into the shadows.

“Hey, Shiori?” Nerissa suddenly chimed in as they waited in a hallway inside the empress’ chamber, “Do you hear something breaking? It’s like-”

Reality suddenly collapsed around them. The ceiling and one of the walls were ripped away, seemingly sucked into a rift in reality itself.

Fuwawa and Mococo both screamed.

“I don’t know what that is,” Bijou shouted, “but I think we should get the heck away from it!”

All at once, the five of them made a dash for it, running the opposite way of the rift that was tearing apart local reality as it grew larger and larger.

Shiori looked at her four friends, of which Bijou was beside her and Nerissa, Fuwawa and Mococo were ahead, and looked at the ground, which was getting less and less solid as reality seemed to be eaten away.

I don’t think I can run fast enough, but Bijou…

She invoked her magic, and picked up Bijou, before throwing her as far as she could.

Bijou looked back as she flew through the air, watching as reality collapsed around Shiori, watching as she fell into the right.

“Shiori, you lied to me!”

And then she watched the rift catch up to her, her landing spot also being eaten away before she got there.

“...Nevermind.”

I guess this is goodbye, then.

Nerissa turned around.

“Shiori! Bijou!”

She spread her wings, and flew into the rift.

Fuwawa and Mococo turned around, looking at the rift consuming the building they were in.

Fuwawa suddenly hugged Mococo.

“Moco-chan… I’m scared...”

“I’m scared, too. But at least we’re scared together.”

The rift caught up to them, and they both fell in, holding on to one another.

Ina and Gura watched as the rift consumed the building they were just in.

“Hey, Ina?” Gura asked, “Weren’t there like five others with us?”

Ina paled.

“It’s… it’s too late to save them now, but…”

She held her head in her hands.

“It might not matter for much longer. The great undoing is upon us.”

Kiara landed beside the trio, followed by Calliope materializing beside them.

“This wasn’t part of the plan, was it?” Kiara asked.

“That looks more like an apocalypse.” Calliope added.

“It is.” Ina muttered, defeated, “This is the end of the world. And it’s all my fault. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Amelia stated, appearing beside her friends. “I’ll admit, ‘end of the world’ was not what I was expecting in ways this could go wrong. But, as my new empress, I’m gonna work with you to help stabilize your rule.”

Chapter Text

Ina turned back to face Amelia.

“Ame?”

Amelia bowed down.

“Well, I suppose that handling a major crisis is the hallmark of a good ruler for many different historical empires, so I suppose this is your time to shine. In circumstances such as these, your authority will essentially be absolute, not just because you’re the official ruler of the resurrected Takodachi Empire, but because people really shouldn’t argue with the person saving the world.”

“But I’m the reason the world is ending in the first place!” Ina shouted, “I’m part of the problem!”

“At this point, everyone and the entire rest of the world is part of the problem.” Amelia replied, “You are one of the few people strong enough that you can be a very active part of the solution. For example: what do we do about the giant rift that just ate the central buildings and probably just took out most of the empire’s leadership in one fell swoop? Because from the look of it, I have a bad feeling that the rest of the capital city might be in trouble if we don’t stop that.”

Ina turned around.

“Right now, it’s leaking ambient void energy, but it’ll probably be… wait, I don’t need to guess. Ao-chan, as your high priestess, I need you to link everything you know to my mind.”

She paused for a moment.

“Okay, Ao-chan’s told me what I need to know. Including how to seal the rift back up; it turns out that those aren’t as permanent as I thought they were. The problem is…”

A large violet crystal emerged from the rift.

“...Those.” Ina continued. “Their actual name is unpronounceable for your tongue; void crystal is a fair translation. The problem is what happens when they touch ground, such as…”

As it touched the ground, the ground itself suddenly started twisting around it. Within a few seconds, the void crystal was wrapped in pieces of concrete and metal, forming itself into a body of sorts that was held together by void magic that was the size of a large vehicle.

“...That.” Ina finished. “That is a void construct; the void crystals are holding it together. If it was just that, we’d be fine, but there’s unfortunately far more where that thing came from. As the crystals spread, they’ll eventually twist all of reality until eventually even we’re part of the matter used to create those abominations. By the time we hit that point, death will probably be a preferable alternative to living in that environment. From the looks of that, I think that’s a walker - which is preferable to a flier. The larger the void crystal, the larger the construct of twisted reality it can manifest is. A crystal the size of a human being can create something the size of a truck, and physics means it can probably hit as hard as one.”

More void crystals emerged from the rift, causing new void constructs to manifest themselves. Somehow, despite being made of otherwise inert matter, they started manifesting what could be dubiously described as wings, and taking to the air.

“This is how the world ends.” Ina stated solemnly, “As these are the manifestation of the former empress’ dying wish, they have only one objective: exterminate all life on this world.”

The behemoth in front of them extended a limb that resembled an arm with a hand, and then unleashed a black projectile with a violet glow towards the five members of HoloMyth.

Ina raised a hand, and watched as the orb stopped in its tracks in front of the group, before then being fired back at incredible velocity and ripping through the construct, causing it to explode in the process.

“However, because of my natural void affinity, I can reflect void magic right back at then, and do that. You see, they have a weakness, which is that their magic is manifested from the crystals’ void magic - one good shot at the void crystal powering these, and they collapse. And then, for reasons Ao-chan refuses to elaborate on, they explode, and all of the matter making up their body is rendered inert once again.”

Another void construct - this one a flier - suddenly exploded as some sort of laser beam shot it directly through.

“Like that?” Amelia asked, suddenly already wielding a massively oversized rifle of some sort, “Since you’re the new empress, I’ll ask for your forgiveness directly for raiding the nearest armory for a weapon that could handle those. Unfortunately, there’s like a zillion more coming.”

Kiara’s wings ignited.

“Then we’ll stop them. They aren’t immune to ordinary damage, right?”

Ina nodded. “The most efficient way to down one is to crack the crystal at their center and hitting nothing else, but if you obliterate the construct the crystal will usually get destroyed with it.”

“Good!” Kiara shouted, flying up to one of the flying constructs and then unleashing a torrent of flame against it.

Ina reflected a few more projectiles, launching them back at their shooters with such velocity as to pierce right through and break their crystals, causing them to explode. Amelia fired another couple of rounds, each shot hitting true and sniping another flier out of the sky.

Calliope sighed.

“Man, I wish those things were alive so I could actually do something. These things are way too large for a physical scythe to strike down, and my powers otherwise don’t work on stuff that isn’t alive. I can only get them if the crystal’s already been exposed.”

“Yeah, same here.” Gura replied, “Hey, Ame! Can you pass us two weapons or something?”

“Not when it’s this large.” Amelia answered, “Advantages of time travel: you can slow down time to adjust your aim, which is good because you don’t want to miss when using this thing.”

“Actually, why haven’t you reset?” Ina asked, “This is literally the end of the world!”

“What can I say?” Amelia asked, “I’m not giving up until all hope is lost. Speaking of which… I think I need to check up on what they’re up to, though maybe once combat cools down a bit.”

“That… might not be viable.” Ina answered, “The void crystals are emerging from the rift faster than we can destroy them. Speaking of which… give me a moment, I need to contact Ao-chan; can you fight off the two walkers materializing in front of us?”

Amelia shrugged, then fired a laser which sniped a crystal before the construct finished assembling, while Calli suddenly shadow walked to strike another crystal before it had a chance to turn into a construct.

Both crystals exploded, with Calliope shadow walking out.

“Show off.” Gura muttered.

“Hey, I just took the opportunity that presented itself to me.” Calliope replied calmly, “That said, I don’t like the number of flying things emerging from the rift.”

“Okay, I finished what I needed to.” Ina replied, “I’m getting Ao-chan to upload all the information they know about the great undoing to a few websites.”

“Wait, Ao-chan has internet access?”

Ina shrugged.

“Void powers are funny like that. I can do almost anything I put my mind to. That said, the void crystals seem to be contesting more of the sky, essentially meaning we’re fighting an army of mechanical dragon-like abominations. On foot. Even with my powers, that seems like a hard fight to turn around. Kiara’s doing a good number on them by blasting them with fire, but she can’t keep that up forever unless-”

She narrowed her eyes.

“Who is that…?”

Up in the air, Kiara narrowly dodged the incoming claws of void flyers, a mess of limbs that could ostensibly be called wings.

She blasted another, trying to reorient herself, and then got swiped with a claw, sending her downwards.

And then she felt someone grab her.

“Thanks for the assist, but who-”

“I’m Pomu!”

Kiara looked up, smiling at Pomu’s much more human-sized form, who then let go of Kiara as she reoriented herself enough to spread her wings again. On her back, she had what looked like a sniper rifle.

“A friend of mine’s bringing in some extra firepower.” Pomu elaborated, “We were going to originally wait, but once I saw you in the air, I knew that helping out was the right thing to do.”

As if on queue, a blue sky dragon descended on one of the void fliers, snatching out of the air and slamming it into another one. As their bodies were broken apart from the impact, Pomu took out her sniper rifle, and fired twice at the now exposed crystals, causing them both to explode.

“How did you know about that weakness?! Ina just told us about it!”

“Yeah, and she posted it online in a huge safety document about fighting these things - no time like the present to learn the skill of busting these up, right? Oh, and that dragon is Elira, and the green-haired girl riding Elira is Finana.”

Elira turned around, taking a position beside Pomu and Kiara, snarling in a way that, despite being draconic in nature, somehow had a friendly undertone to it.

“Elira! Finana!” Pomu shouted, “Okay, Elira I asked, but why are you here, Finana?”

“Elira’s field of vision as a dragon is narrower than human form. I can provide visual intel, which is useful when you need to dodge things at Elira’s size. Don’t worry, Elira made sure I’m harnessed in so I won’t fall off even if she does a barrel roll!”

Pomu rolled her eyes.

“Alrighty then! Elira, keep smashing, and I’ll shoot any exposed crystals!”

A laser shot from the surface pierced and ripped through another flier in the distance, causing it to also explode.

“Hey!” Kiara shouted, “Ame, you should know better than to steal your teammates’ thunder like that!”

Back on the surface, Ina took a look at a few approaching void constructs, these ones being walkers rather than fliers. She sighed, reflected another pair of violet projectiles back at their shooters so hard that they ripped through the constructs, destroying them in the process.

“The problem,” Ina elaborated surprisingly casually as another one reformed in front of her, “is that there’s one of me and approximately infinity of them.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Amelia stated calmly, “Plus, your powers are pretty nifty - don’t underestimate yourself!”

“Even with my powers, we just simply need a firepower edge. I sense another set of walkers going around us, as well as one directly in front of us, which means-”

The walker in front of them suddenly exploded as a large blue blast of incandescent plasma burnt through it and then through the crystal keeping it together. A pair of robotic footsteps emerged from behind Amelia, who turned around.

“Ah, Roboco-san. I see you’re officially out of the beta stage.”

“Actually, I brought along the rest of the prototypes.” A robotic girl, evidently ‘Roboco-san’, answered. “They aren’t as high-spec as me, but I figure any firepower edge helps, and having fourteen prototypes for my model certainly won’t hurt, especially after I got them equipped with all the weapons they need. What I don’t understand is why you called me here - you’re the royal detective, not a military commander.”

“Remember what I told you about how you were capable of more than just obeying commands blindly?” Amelia asked, “Well, I’d like to think you caught on to that. Particularly because you already probably disobeyed orders to reactivate the prototype models. Your mission is to stop the constructs; I’m leaving you to figure out how best to do that.”

“Then what are you doing?” Ina asked.

“Making a few phone calls. Ina, is this the only rift we have to worry about?”

Ina sighed.

“There’s four more, though they won’t open for a bit. This one is our main worry, but-”

“Let me help with the rest.” Amelia answered, “Post the rift schedule if you can; I’ve got to make a call to the mechanized rabbit girl project.”

Chapter Text

Shiori woke up, not sure where she was.

Ugh… What happened?

And then her eyes widened as she recalled the last thing she could remember.

Oh geez, I got sucked into that rift. And… I don’t think any of us escaped. That rift was undoing reality fast, and if I didn’t escape, then at minimum Nerissa would jump in to rescue me, so I know she didn’t get away either.

She sighed, and then looked around, only to draw a sharp breath as she saw an endless expanse of void around her on every side but one: in front of her was the entrance to a massive temple, one that resembled the temple of the Ancient Ones, but somehow felt even more imposing.

“This… is probably not a realm humans are meant to be in. I need to find the others, but if there’s no other way, then the only way forward would be through the temple.”

Dread filled her stomach. She had never seen the Ancient Ones, but she had the distinct feeling that she didn’t want to see it.

As she walked into the temple, Shiori recalled another memory, this one of reading an ancient spellbook.

The true form of the Ancient Ones cannot be observed directly, of course. Your mind cannot perceive them in their full glory, and direct observation will overload your perception and rip your mind to pieces.

“...I hope they’re feeling nice.” Shiori muttered, “Then again, I suppose if they aren’t, it won’t matter for very long. This is their realm, and I suppose I’m at their mercy.”

She looked around, and then noticed she wasn’t entirely alone; the temple seemed to be populated by a number of the Takodachis, the ordinarily relatively small and usually cute little octopus-like creatures that Ina was commonly surrounded by in her temple. Despite their appearance, Shiori felt a sense of unease; they were floating around her ominously, giving her space while also clearly directing her forward.

Yet, she kept moving forward, until she noticed that the swarm floating around her started dispersing, allowing her to see the environment more clearly: a massive balcony overlooking what seemed like an empty void.

Another Takodachi floated in front of her, the last one still remaining. This one had a gift waiting on top of its head: a blindfold.

Shiori knew what it was for. She picked up and put it over her eyes, shielding them from the entity that she was stirring in front of her. And so, she kneeled, presenting herself in front of the most powerful entity she had ever known.

“I have come, O Ancient Ones.”

Arise.

In just one word, Shiori already knew who was in control of the situation, and it wasn’t her. She stood up, blindfolded but still somehow very aware of the presence in front of her. From what she recalled of Ina, while they weren’t friendly they weren’t overtly hostile either. One could make requests of the elder being in front of her, though she imagined that the cost for them fulfilling any such request would likely be high.

And so, she-

You wish to see your friends again, do you not?

“...took the words right out of my mouth.” Shiori muttered, “You’re not wrong, though.”

Then turn around, and understand what it is that only you could do here.

Shiori drew a nervous breath, and turned around, taking off her blindfold as she did so.

She wasn’t ready for what she saw.

Nerissa woke up on the side of a river.

The river stretched out into the infinite, making the definition of ‘river’ a little fuzzy. Nonetheless the scene managed to be both beautiful and yet dreary at the same time.

“Hey, Rissa!” Nerissa suddenly heard Bijou shout, “You’re here too! And I think Fuwawa and Mococo are about to get up too!”

Nerissa looked around as she got up, and indeed, all four of them seemed to be together, leaving only one of them missing.

“You know, of all the things I expected the void to look like, this ain’t it. And given that Shiori isn’t here either, I’m forced to admit that the remaining possibility is both something I’d totally see Shiori doing and also something I’m already angry at her for doing: she somehow teleported us out, and then got trapped in there.”

Bijou frowned. “But if she rescued us, then who’s going to rescue her?”

“That’s why I’m angry at her!” Nerissa answered.

She kicked a small rock into the river out of annoyance.

“And the worst part is we don’t even know where we are, though it’s nowhere we’ve been recently. Fuwawa, Mococo, how are you two-”

And then she looked at the two dog girls, who were both seemingly in shock, holding onto one another and looking like they wanted to break down crying.

Bijou approached the pair cautiously, worried that they were hurt.

“Fuwawa, Mococo, is something wrong?”

“You two might not know this place, but Moco-chan and I… we’ve been here quite a bit. We grew up here, even.”

“We’re demon dogs.” Mococo continued, “I know you two probably don’t believe it, but we were once from the underworld.”

Nerissa stumbled at the revelation.

“Wait… this…”

“This is the afterlife.” Fuwawa muttered, “Specifically, the waiting place one goes to before being sent to a proper afterlife. We traveled here quite a bit on our own, back in a day where Moco-chan and I wandered around the afterlife realms - well, not Heaven, since demons aren’t allowed there.”

Mococo started crying.

“We failed to protect you…”

Nerissa wrapped her arms around the twins.

“Fuwawa, Mococo, given you’re both dead too, I think you two probably did all you could. More importantly, maybe you’ve noticed, but a certain someone isn’t here with us right now.”

Fuwawa sighed. “I know. But… I think she’s probably hurting just as much, too.”

Shiori looked at a sight that made her feel sick to her stomach.

Four open coffins laid before her, alongside four gravestones, marked with names tha Shiori wished weren’t there.

In them were the bodies of Bijou, Nerissa, Fuwawa and Mococo, somehow perfectly preserved. At the same time, memories started flooding in.

“Nerissa! You followed me?!”

“Of course!”

“Of course, she says… wait, what is that big crystal and why is it flying towards us? Argh, there’s no ground, I can’t control my-”

No, not them. Please, Fuwawa, Mococo, why are you jumping in front of-

She blinked, looking at the four coffins in front of her. She cried at the sight of her four friends; the four who had effectively become her family, who would never wake up again.

“Ancient Ones! You know what I wish to ask of you!”

Then the choice will be offered.

A fifth coffin and gravestone materialized in front of Shiori, one with her name engraved on it.

“Hey, Nerissa?” Mococo asked, “Aren’t you from the underworld? I thought you were a demon, too.”

Nerissa smirked.

“I mean, I am, but unlike you two I didn’t exactly leave very often. Honestly, I forget who summoned me into the mortal realm in the first place, though whoever it was probably had a cute face. I can’t imagine what else teenage me would’ve accepted a summon for.”

Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo all facepalmed.

“That said,” Nerissa continued, “I don’t really feel like moving on to my next afterlife yet. If Shiori is still alive, then I think… I think the least I could do would be to welcome her properly into the afterlife, whenever that happens.”

“Well,” Bijou replied, “I wouldn’t put it past Shiori to find a way to actually bring us back to life.”

Shiori looked down.

Perhaps it is that you know what will be offered.

“Resurrection is easy, provided you’re willing to provide your own life in return. There has to be more to this, though.”

For one who possesses the blessing of the void, perhaps a stronger possibility exists.

“Can you grant me that blessing? And with it, I can bring them all back, can’t I?”

It can be done. And yet, you know why you cannot.

Shiori sighed. “Because I’d be the one with the void’s blessing, they’ll need me to get out of here alive - all they’d do is get up, and then rejoin me when they try to escape. Friggin’ awful choice this is. And yet I’m not going to just leave them here, either. Not if another possibility exists.”

‘Together, or not at all.’ Is this not what you wished?

“...I was really hoping for the ‘together’ option. Question, then: what exactly is the blessing of the void? Because I’m starting to get the feeling that the blessing of the void is simply you casting your magic to help out those who are supposedly blessed - and your powers are beyond comprehension, so it feels like a powerful blessing instead. Am I right?”

While you may be correct, what is the difference that you think it will make?

Shiori looked down at her empty coffin.

“I’m not sure, not yet. But I figure I might as well make sure I have all the information available before I make a decision that might actually kill me.”

Nerissa watched Fuwawa and Mococo as they seemed to calm down.

“You know,” Fuwawa mused, “Bijou’s the only not-demon here, so we should probably tell her more about the afterlife.”

“Please don’t.” A new voice interrupted, “Part of the whole afterlife experience is supposed to be about getting used to the fact that the world doesn’t work the same way as the mortal realm does in many ways. Telling her kinda defeats the point.”

Nerissa turned around.

“Calli?! Well, I guess it actually makes sense, but weren’t you busy in the mortal realm?”

“Oh yeah. Things… kinda got crazy out there. As in, we might be witnessing the literal end of the world. But that’s neither here nor there; right now I’m just here for reasons pertaining to the fact that I need to talk to some of my underworld friends - and as soon as those talks are done I’m getting back to the mortal realm. My friends had the situation handled when I left, and to be honest I wasn’t really doing all that much anyway, so I figured I’d be more helpful in… more logistical roles.”

“Wait,” Bijou replied, “did you say ‘end of the world’?”

Calliope sighed. “Ina was, as we discussed, entirely correct about the empress wanting to die. What Ina hadn’t accounted for was the possibility that she’d want to take the entire world out with her, consumed by rage as she was. It’s funny, actually - the former empress tried to end the world, and now the new empress is trying to save it. And yeah, Ina’s taken over; she has all of the crazy powers and everything. It’s pretty exciting to watch.”

“And all we did was get eaten by the rift.” Bijou complained.

“I’m sorry.” Calliope replied, “If I’d known this would happen I would’ve checked your lifespans in advance. I’m not supposed to do that, but I do it anyway for some people, Amelia in particular.”

“You really do care about her!” Mococo suddenly replied.

“Can you blame me?” Calliope asked, “That kid gets into more trouble whenever she blinks than most people do in their entire lives.”

“No, not really.” Fuwawa answered. “Can you tell Ina about what happened to us?”

Calliope nodded. “Yeah. I’ll tell her about what happened to you four… actually, wait a minute, where did Shiori go?”

Nerissa shrugged. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out. We know that she’s not here, which means that I think that she’s somehow still alive while being trapped in the rift. We’ll see how long it takes before she either leaves the rift or leaves mortality behind.”

“Ancient Ones; I wish to call upon the blessing of the void, and with it, I ask you to respect my final choice.”

Chapter Text

Back in the mortal realm, Ina looked at the remains of the void constructs. With the help of both Elira, Pomu, and the entirety of Roboco’s various prototype models, the constructs went from overwhelming to losing pretty decisively.

And yet, Ina remained on edge.

“Hey, Ina?” Gura asked in concern, “Are you alright? You look nervous about something.”

“The void constructs are slowing down.” Ina answered, “There’s less and less of them.”

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

Ina shook her head.

“If that meant that they were running out of numbers, then yes, that would be a good thing. But the void’s potential is infinite; the one thing they have over us is that they can do this forever until I manage to seal the rift - and that has a lengthy cast time. Knowing this, what do you think that the rate of void crystals emerging from the rift slowing down means?”

“Uh… a bunch of them are gonna emerge all at once?”

As if on cue, Ina and Gura felt the ground rumble.

“Remember how a void crystal that was human-sized resulted in a construct that was the size of a large vehicle? What would happen if we started with a void crystal that size?”

Gura took a deep breath.

“Oh no. Should I go find Amelia?”

“If you can, please.”

Over in a place a long way from the empire’s capital, a black-haired girl dressed in violet who called herself ‘prince’ heard her phone ring. She picked it up, checking the caller ID first, and then blinked in surprise.

“Amelia Watson, the empire’s royal detective. I still haven’t forgiven you for that one time you tried to fake being one of my people.”

“Hey, investigator’s duties are like that sometimes.” came the reply, “Okay, I know it’s fun to catch up, but I have one thing to ask of you, Ms. Penrose. Have you checked the internet recently?”

“You can just call me Rin, and… nah, I don’t really pay attention to the empire’s business. We’re like, only technically part of it, and honestly you guys just kind of left us alone, so I’m not sure I enjoy you guys trying to mess up my principality here. I mean, I heard that apparently the empress herself showed her face due to some huge incident in the capital, but I’d rather not get involved with the whole politics thing?”

Amelia sighed.

“Rin, you really should check the empire’s website.”

“Fine, let me just check the-”

Rin blinked at what she was looking at.

“I see that some people are recording live footage of the event. Okay, so it’s serious, but it’s a localized-”

And then she froze, several seconds of long awkward silence taking over the conversation instead.

“...There’s four more of those coming. And my city is the closest population center to one of them. Well… thanks. It won’t matter soon enough, since I’ll be dead-”

“Rin,” Amelia muttered, “did you really think I’d call you just to rub in the futility of the situation? Who do you take me for? No, I’m calling because we’re sending reinforcements, and I’d like you to avoid freaking out if, say, a bunch of demons suddenly get summoned in the middle of your city; I promise that they’re purely there to aid in the survival of your people. Here’s the plan…”

Amelia finished her call.

Okay, Calli’s contacting the demons to help us out with the second rift, so now I’ve got to get the rabbits on the third, the fourth is far away from everyone else, and the fifth doesn’t open for a little while, which means-

“Ame!” Gura interrupted, “Why’d you run off like that?”

“I was making a couple of phone calls to help us get some defenses up for the next pair of rifts that’ll open after this one. Judging from the fact I can feel the ground shaking, I take it that something large is making closing this rift difficult.”

She looked towards the fight.

“So, is it the apartment-building-sized monstrosity that looks like someone’s best impression of an actual eldritch monstrosity rather than the at least sort-of normal-looking constructs?”

Gura nodded.

Amelia shrugged, pulled out her laser rifle, and fired a shot at it, only to watch it hit with only a scorch mark and not the complete destruction of the abomination.

“Okay, so apparently I can’t just one-shot it with a laser this time. And I’ve possibly made it angry at me, which is probably not the best idea. Gura, you might wanna run - you’ve seen me, you know I’ll dodge.”

As if to prove her point, a shadowy orb went flying towards her, only for Amelia to blink out of the way, watching as what could ostensibly be called a walker moved its massive limbs to reorient itself towards Amelia.

“What do we do?!” Gura shouted.

“Simple.” Amelia muttered, “We keep on fighting. Even if that thing is way larger, the principle of fighting it is still the same, right? Crack it open and expose the void crystal inside.”

“Crack that thing open?”

“Okay, there’s still a kink or two to work out. We’ll figure it out.”

The abomination started running towards Amelia, its steps slow but reaching a huge distance.

“Oh right, size. That thing is actually kinda fast, but… Gura, run. I’m going to lead this thing away from anywhere populated.”

Kiara unleashed another fireball towards the abomination, sighing as it once again failed to break through. The abomination retaliated with a wave of orb-like projectiles, which Kiara dodged, followed by a few larger ones that were shaped like giant spears of void magic, which Kiara flew out of the way of, barely dodging.

“Well,” Kiara muttered, “I suppose we should be thankful the thing isn’t that smart, given that it doesn’t know how to lead its shots very well - I can just fly to the side to dodge almost everything it has at range.”

Kiara then watched the void spears go flying past her in the other direction, hitting the abomination and then exploding, leaving visible marks but still not enough to crack open its massive body.

“Ina! Wait, you can fly?”

Ina, who was floating in the air, nodded.

“I mean, compared to every other power I’ve showcased here so far; are you really surprised at that one? Levitation feels downright mundane at this point.”

Kiara saw the abomination turn around.

What? Where’s it going?

And she saw it chasing Ame, with Gura running to the side, making huge strides with each step of limbs that could ostensibly be called legs in a literal sense but were at this point more mobile structures of messily warped reality.

“Hey! Pick on somebody who can fight back!”

Wait, she’s leading it away from the capital! She’s buying us more time!

Elira flew low down to the twisted abomination of concrete and metal, and started ripping into it with her claws.

“How large is this thing?!”

Ina flung a set of reflected void orbs back at the monster. It was leaving marks and visibly damaging it, but the rate of progress was visibly slow.

“I don’t think there’s any option to kill it faster that wouldn’t also cause an unacceptable amount of collateral damage. It’s like trying to figure out how to destroy precisely one building in a city with minimal risk, unless-”

A hawk girl carrying a blonde samurai girl flew past Ina.

“What the-”

And then, as they flew above the abomination, the samurai dropped down, sword drawn. Seemingly all at once, the entirety of the monstrosity was split open, a magical slash emerging from the blow that cleaved the monster in half.

Ina’s eyes widened.

“Hey.” The hawk girl replied, “I’m Takane Lui. Figured we owed you one for rescuing our intern - Chloe.”

“I’m not the one who broke her out.”

“All the same team as far as I’m aware. Iroha’s secret technique certainly came in handy there.”

“The problem is that it won't kill it. If Iroha’s strike was a few meters to the left this would be over, but she missed the void crystal that’s powering this thing.”

Lui sighed.

“Well, I think Koyori can get it; the monster is large enough that it looks like it doesn’t have too much of a means of fighting against something running on top of them. Sure, it can fling more of those void projectiles at them, but they’re good at dodging.”

Lui flew away, while Ina looked down at the split abomination.

3, 2, 1…

Iroha impaled her sword into the surface of the construct abomination and then held onto the hilt with all of her strength  as the remaining half of it collapsed as it was unable to stand on the remainder of its legs.

Iroha smiled, letting out a huge breath.

“Well, at least it can’t-”

And then somehow it started getting back up again, as the two halves suddenly started partially reconstructing themselves, reconnecting through twisted beams of concrete and steel, while more legs emerged from the bottom of the abomination, forming it into a total monstrosity that didn’t look like it belonged in this world in any way except its construction materials.

Iroha fought the instinct to lose her lunch as she continued holding on to her Katana’s hilt to avoid getting flung off what constituted the back of the monstrosity.

The abomination started regaining stability as it started walking again.

“No! I was so close! I’ve gotta do something, but what…”

She looked into the gap that was starting to close.

…I think I can see the crystal, just barely, but it’s still encased in-

And then she spotted Koyori running past her, bottled liquids in hand.

“Take this!” Koyori shouted as she threw several sealed glass vials with mysterious liquids inside of them into the gap towards the tiniest visible portion of the void crystal. On impact, the vials exploded.

“Got ‘em!” Koyori shouted, “Or at least, I better have got them with that-”

She then looked at the hollowed out crater, the void crystal now exposed to the air but frustratingly still in one piece.

Iroha drew her Katana from the ground.

“Tell Lui-nee that I’m sorry, but I have to end this now. I can’t use my special attack twice, but even a normal technique of mine will do the job.”

And then she jumped into the gap that she had created with her first slash.

Koyori froze, and then turned upwards in Lui’s direction, hailing the hawk girl and shouting.

“IROHA’S BEING AN IDIOT AGAIN!”

Iroha, on the other hand, continued her descent, dodging multiple obstacles on the way and then finally reaching the void crystal, swinging her sword with all her might and embedding it directly into the void crystal.

Iroha watched as it cracked apart, clearly destabilizing somehow. At the same time, the gap stopped closing, the abomination finally becoming inert as its power source no longer functioned. Finally, Iroha withdrew her blade and sheathed it once again.

“I’m sorry. But at least in my death, I will have accomplished something meaningful.”

And then she was yanked upwards.

“Like not dying instead?”

Her savior, however, wasn’t Lui, but Kiara.

“Lui’s getting Koyori away from the big boom; I told her I’d take the more dangerous job, since I’m immortal and won’t die at all. Thankfully, neither of us did!”

Iroha looked down, and watched the abomination explode, the two of them barely escaping.

Gura erupted into a cheer, while Amelia smirked.

“Got ‘em.”

“Indeed.” Ina replied, “I think at this point, there’s enough void energy left behind that I can channel it into sealing that rift back up, which means we can worry about other things. Amelia, I have a special job for you.”

“Yes?”

“Coordinate the defense for the next four rifts; I’ve posted the schedule.”

“Already doing that, my empress.”

“That’s why I asked.” Ina replied with a smile, “I knew you wouldn’t give up.”

Chapter Text

Shiori woke up, finding herself lying down in another place.

Time to see if this works.

And then was immediately pounced on by Fuwawa and Mococo.

“Shiori!” Mococo shouted.

“...you’re dead, too?” Fuwawa asked nervously.

“Yup.” Shiori replied surprisingly calmly, “Took a bit for me to kick it. It involved a choice. If you can let me get up, I’ll explain everything - I don’t have much time before things get a little crazy. Are we in the afterlife?”

“Yes.” Nerissa answered, “How were your last moments?”

Shiori drew a sharp breath as she got up.

“Okay, so… long story short, we all got thrown into the void, and four out of the five of us did not survive the descent. I managed to survive it, though, and that’s where this got weird. I met the Ancient Ones, face to face. Well, their face; I chose not to stare directly at them for my own sanity. It turns out they did a favor for the four of you: they preserved your dead bodies and conveniently placed all of you into coffins. And then presented me with a fifth coffin, one with my name on it, alongside a choice.”

Nerissa immediately grabbed Shiori by the shoulders.

“If you tell me that you sacrificed your life to bring me back, I swear I will find a way to make you pay. And I will hold that grudge.”

“No, silly, I sacrificed my life to bring us all back. Ao-chan offered me a simple deal: by accepting the blessing of the void, I’d gain unimaginable power. One of those powers is something I like to call spell amplification. Normally, resurrecting the dead is a life-for-a-life deal, but with a bit of void magic it’s a one-for-”

Nerissa interrupted Shiori by slapping her.

“Why would you do this?!”

“Hey, you broke your end of the promise first!” Shiori replied, “And I wasn’t done explaining! Look, the spell is already in progress; maybe you noticed but Fuwawa and Mococo are both missing - Bijou goes after them, and then you-”

“And what about you?” Bijou interrupted with a large amount of anger in her voice.

“I’ll be fine, I promise.”

And then Bijou suddenly disappeared in a flash of light.

Shiori sighed, “Well, given that Bijou’s out now, I don’t think I have time to explain what I’m doing right now; trust me, this will all work out.”

“I hate you!” Nerissa shouted, “And yet, I hate you now because of how much I loved you! If this really is your plan, then you better make up for it like hell when I get back here.”

And then Nerissa disappeared in a flash of light.

Back in the mortal realm, in front of the remains of what was once a military complex but was now a series of void-destroyed ruins, Amelia finished up a phone call.

“Look, I have no idea how you managed to get promoted to the captain of the mechanized rabbit squadron, given your impressively bad history. I’m not sure what your current orders are, but if they’re still on standby as a reserve that’s never used, then ignore that order. Straight from the empress herself: your new orders are to take your group to the third rift, and if anything starts coming out of it, blast it with whatever heavy ordinance you’ve got. Is that clear?”

Amelia smiled as she heard the answer.

“Great, thanks.”

And then she let out a sigh of relief. “Thankfully, Ina’s future sight intel lets us know that rifts two through four are smaller, which means that I think we’re safe for now. Unfortunately, they’re all opening in quick succession, rather than one at a time.”

“It’s as good as we can get.” Ina replied, “They’re going to need me to actually seal the rifts, but as long as they can deal with all of the void constructs before they start ripping into civilian populations, that means we should be able to hold on for the future, at least until the fifth rift opens. I’m going to go and start releasing basically anyone with magical potential; and hopefully a subset of that will be willing to help us out. I know that coordinating the defense of the second rift with a relatively rag-tag group of adventurers doesn’t sound like the best plan, and that’s because it isn’t. But it’s the plan we’ve got for now; and as far as I know the second rift can’t produce anything as large as the behemoth we just fought; more likely we’ll instead encounter a large swarm of smaller constructs, which are difficult but still possible to fight on foot with the right tools.”

Amelia nodded. “Rift three is unfortunately very far away from rift two; hence why we need an entirely independent mechanized division for that - plus you to actually seal the rift. Actually, let me check the map for rift four, which…”

She sighed.

“…isn’t good. That’s also far enough away that I don’t think we have any means of getting there quickly, aside from void-walking, and that… can’t really be done at scale.”

Ina frowned. “We’re going to have find some way to prepare for that; that rift might be smaller than the first rift but it’s still large enough to spawn a mega-construct - um, that’s the term I just came up with for the abomination we fought with the giant crystal - and while it’s out in relative nowhere, meaning less metal and more rock, that’s going to still be incredibly difficult to take down with a small team.”

“We have more time to prepare.” Amelia replied, “I think I know exactly the contact we need for this. Someone who commonly deals with long range teleports, to be precise.”

Shiori sighed.

“Well, that was about as much of a mess as I thought it would be.”

“I’d be mad if Ame pulled something like this on us.” Calliope replied, “Well, she couldn’t do that to either me or Kiara, but Ina and Gura would be mad too. It’s no wonder Ame saw so much of her more naive former timeline self in you. At least Amelia knew that she had to keep herself alive, knew that she had to stop herself from getting killed. Look at yourself for crying out loud!”

Shiori shrugged. “As I said, I had my plans in all of this. I’m honestly amazed that you haven’t figured it out yet.”

Calliope facepalmed. “I deal with a person who doesn’t die when they’re killed, someone who’s just naturally ageless, a time traveler, and now the Ancient Ones are screwing with the cycles of life and death. Why do all of my friends keep doing this to me? I mean, it’s nice knowing I don’t have to reap them, but…”

And then she smirked.

“Well, I still like this mortal realm, so I’m not going to complain. But I will say this: if the fates have bestowed upon you a second chance, don’t screw it up. The fates don’t give out extra lives for free. Unless you’re Kiara. Or Ame, given the nature of time travel, I guess.”

“Duly noted.” Shiori replied, “Oh, yeah, I feel the magic flowing, I think it’s time…”

Shiori then waved her hand and ripped the fabric of space open.

“I said I had a plan.”

Calliope facepalmed.

Later…

Calliope manifested herself in front of Ina.

“I got you that contract with the demons. The terms were simple: we recognize you as the empress, we’ll totally forgive everything and we’ll even help you save the world, on the condition that you release every single underworld and give them a chance to go home, unconditionally. No tricks. If they wish to leave, no coercing them; you have to give them the opportunity.”

Ina smiled. “That’s perfect, because I was planning to negotiate with that as my primary bid, but if that’s what they’re already looking for, then I won’t need to negotiate at all. If any want to stay to help out, then I suppose we have our task force for the second rift.”

Calliope grinned. “Well, frame it the right way, and I think we’ll get a number of volunteers to help out. I’m well-liked among demonkind, and I think you’ll build a good reputation with them, too.”

Over in Area 15, Ollie got a message.

Nerissa woke up, surrounded by three rather alive people.

“Rissa!” Bijou shouted.

“You’re alive!” Fuwawa shouted.

“Again!” Mococo shouted.

“Shiori’s not.” Nerissa replied pitifully, immediately killing the mood.

“Rissa…” Bijou muttered, “If she gave you a second chance…”

“I know, it’s just… I mean, if she got four of us resurrected compared to one of her, and as angry as I was… I know I probably would’ve done the same. I… kind of regret shouting at her already, but on the other hand, it’s Shiori, she knows where it comes from. She knows I didn’t mean any harm, just that I’m frustrated. Objectively speaking, Shiori got a good deal in getting all four of us resurrected, extinguishing only her life in the process.”

“Um, I don’t think it was a good deal to be honest.” Fuwawa replied.

“We’re still trapped in the void!” Mococo finished.

And then a beam of light suddenly shot out from Shiori’s body.

“Or…” Bijou mused, “Maybe Shiori really did have a plan.”

Ollie, Anya, and Reine all joined into a voice call, while Amelia continued her explanation.

“...And that’s the situation. The fourth rift is far enough away that Area 15’s our best bet at getting people there and back. It opens right after the third rift does, and while Ina can voidwalk between rifts, she can’t bring the entirety of the rabbits with her, which presents us with a bit of a problem, because that’s the sort of firepower we’re looking for. It’s in a rocky canyon-like area, and Ina’s intel says that there’s going to be a mega-construct similar to the one at the first rift, though smaller and made out of rock instead of a combination of concrete and metal.”

Anya frowned. “I mean, we have the teleporter technology, and we could even share it with you if we wanted, but we can’t get it running at scale that quickly. If you can assemble the team you’ll need right now we might be able to get everyone where they need to be in advance. You still have the girl with the crazy sword powers?”

“They don’t.” Ollie replied, “Lui replied to me to say that Iroha taxed her body too hard in the last fight; she won’t be available.”

“Damn.” Amelia replied, “Then we’re back to ‘desperately assemble a team of anyone with potential and hope we can find volunteers’ as our working strategy.”

“You have one.” A new voice joined in.

Ollie turned around to the nearly emotionless face of Kaela Kovalskia.

“I heard the mega-construct’s made of rock this time. I have a few tools that may help.”

Mumei was aware of Kronii’s presence long before she actually caught sight of her. It was that odd peculiar feeling that, had this encounter happened yesterday, would’ve put her on high alert.

But there wasn’t any purpose to that sense of alert. She wasn’t planning to fight.

“Hey Kronii. I hear you’re planning to end the world. Start over with a new universe.”

“I was.” Kronii replied in the affirmative, “I’ve set up the end time protocol but I haven’t pulled the lever on that for now. I wanted to talk to you first before I started culling timelines again.”

“So did I.” Mumei answered. “You wanna ask whatever it is first or should I?”

“You should probably go first.” Kronii answered, “Since there’s a good chance that this universe will stop being a thing after my topic of discussion.”

Chapter Text

Bijou, Nerissa, Fuwawa and Mococo looked at the beam of light that was being emitted from Shiori’s body. It seemingly hit nothing, until suddenly a rift in space opened up, causing the beam to dissipate.

Fuwawa and Mococo’s eyes widened as they saw the other side of the rift: the afterlife they were just at prior to their resurrection.

Shiori jumped out of the rift, landing in front of her still dead body, while the rift closed behind her.

“Hello. Calli’s going to be mad, but hey, if the blessing of the void gives you the opportunity to rip apart the fabric of space to the spirit world, I might as well use the opportunity to do so. If you want to be technical, I’m the spiritual self of Shiori Novella, and yes, it turns out that, if you ask Ao-chan very nicely, they will give you the ability to retain all of your void magic as a spiritual self, which normally is more limited.”

Nerissa, Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo’s jaws dropped in disbelief, until Nerissa finally regained her senses.

“But, Shiori, if you’re still a pure spiritual self, doesn’t that mean you’re still dead?! What happened to the ‘together’ thing?!”

“We’re still together, technically. Besides, I said I sacrificed myself to bring all of us back…”

And then Shiori jumped into the coffin with her dead body, before her spiritual self seemingly disappeared into the coffin, merging with her physical self. In a flash of light, the wounds on her dead body disappeared, the color seemed to return to it, and then once again Shiori was alive.

“...Including myself. And if I already have my spiritual self right here, rebinding myself back to my physical self’s dead body - and repairing all of the damage I took sacrificing myself the first time - is pretty easy at that point, especially since I’m still riding off the high of my sacrificial life energy that I spent to resurrect us all.”

Fuwawa raised a finger. “That’s… probably breaking like every afterlife rule ever. Especially since you just ripped a hole in the afterlife border to get back here, before resurrecting yourself through void magic!”

Mococo nodded. “That’s the kind of thing that will definitely get you thrown into the underworld when you actually die!”

“Which is why I’m not planning on doing that anytime soon.” Shiori replied, “Besides, I figure I want to end up in the same afterlife as you guys, right?”

Bijou frowned. “Great, now I have to be evil or I get separated from all of you!”

“We’ll work something out.” Nerissa mused, “That, and technically you’re about to be an accomplice to whatever it is Shiori has planned to get us out of here.”

“Fair enough.” Shiori replied, “I don’t know how kindly the afterlife guys take to the stunt I just pulled, but I have bigger worries at the moment. Oh, and Nerissa, I think I’ve made it up to you. Check your horns.”

Nerissa blinked, before realizing what Shiori meant by that.

“You restored my full powers?”

Shiori nodded. “I figured we could use it, given that the hard part of the plan starts now: figuring out how we get out without causing more problems in the first place. Sure, I could just create another tear in reality and walk out that way, but I’d rather not contribute to the end of the world any more than I have to.”

“Shiori,” Nerissa replied, “We’re stuck in the middle of the void. Doesn’t that kind of limit our options?”

“Or,” Shiori answered, “We go back out the way we came.”

“Didn’t we all die getting down here?” Bijou asked, “This seems like a bad idea!”

“Yeah, that’s because I didn’t have the literal powers of the void at the time.”

And with that, she raised a hand, and all five members of Advent started floating into the air, the four of them noticing a faint violet sphere surrounding each of them.

And then they went flying into the void.

“Shiori!” Nerissa shouted as they flew through the void, “I see crystals up ahead - these already killed us once!”

Shiori nodded.

“I’ve got a plan for those. It’s called blasting them with purified void magic and obliterating all of them in revenge. Unless you have an alternative?”

“Yeah, get out of my way and I’ll show you.”

Shiori slowed down slightly, letting Nerissa take the center.

Nerissa then let out a shout, and the crystals in front of the group shattered.

Shiori jaw-dropped. “Did you just shatter void crystals with only your voice?!”

Nerissa grinned. “Well, I’m glad to have my full powers back. Shiori, do you have any other plans?”

“I mean, if you want to let me take the lead again…”

Shiori flew in front, and then fired a series of lightning bolts to shatter several more crystals on the way, streaks of light with a violet glow traveling through the void and striking their targets with both deadly precision and power, with the lightning occasionally chaining through multiple crystals, destroying several of them at once.

“Woah!” Bijou exclaimed, “You looked angry there!”

“I like to think of it as appropriate revenge for what they did to you!” Shiori replied. “Now, we should be coming up on the rift that we entered… uh oh.”

“Uh, Shiori?” Fuwawa murmured.

“I don’t see a rift here!” Mococo shouted.

“They… they somehow sealed it back up.” Shiori replied, “We’re officially trapped. In the void. With a whole bunch of void crystals that, for whatever reason, are now trying to kill us. Again. The thing is, I don’t blame them, because at this point I’m pretty sure it’s the literal end of the world out there, but at the same time…”

She turned around.

“There’s only one way out now, and that is to start making our way through the void itself.”

She extended her hands, and then the five of them flew further into the void, Shiori and Nerissa unleashing their powers to obliterate any void crystals in front of them. And yet, despite their best efforts, the seemingly endless assault continued to strike back.

Bijou only had a second to realize that there was a projectile orb, violet in color and nearly her size, heading right towards her. And yet, even as it came into contact with her, exploding as it did so, the smoke cleared to reveal one very much still alive Koseki Bijou.

“Uh, what?” Bijou asked.

“I’m not letting you die again.” Shiori answered, “Uh, now’s probably a good time to point out that technically speaking I, uh, shared my void blessing. I mean, it’s still all my void blessing and not yours or anything like that, but long story short you should all be a little harder to kill than normal people are - which is to say, if something manages to take us out, it’s going to be a pretty spectacular event. I mean, really, I’m just abusing void magic to essentially, uh… there’s no good way to explain it. All you need to know is that technically you’re all being reanimated with void magic.” 

Shiori, Bijou, and Nerissa then watched a series of similar orbs crash into Fuwawa and Mococo, exploding violently as they did so, only for them to somehow emerge completely unscathed.

“Don’t worry!” Shiori kept explaining, “I got Ao-chan to set up some enchantments that will micro-portal all of your blood back into your body if you lose it!”

“Shiori!” Fuwawa shouted, visibly creeped out by how casually Shiori had said that, “That’s… I mean, uh, thank you?”

“But also PLEASE STOP!” Mococo continued. “I don’t wanna know the medical details of what you’re doing to us!”

“Yeah, I’ll agree with that.” Bijou muttered, trying desperately to not think about what Shiori had just said. “Wait, Shiori, are you doing the same thing to yourself?”

“Yeah. I used my blessing to ask Ao-chan if they could essentially break reality by using void magic to repair and replace anything that breaks. They said yes, unless we really deserve it or unless we’re obliterated so spectacularly and utterly that we can’t be fixed. I kind of wanted to avoid telling you guys that for longer since I figured you’d be a bit freaked out by it.”

“Hey, Shiori?” Mococo asked, “If we’re like, indestructible now, can you throw us ahead and let us start tearing into those crystals too?”

“Only seems fair given we got killed by them last time!” Fuwawa finished.

Shiori smiled. “Yeah, go right ahead! If you get hurt too badly though, just shout and I’ll pull you guys behind me and Nerissa, who’s a bit busy using her voice to shatter the crystals.”

“Hey,” Nerissa replied, “you did give me my full powers back. Don’t blame me for using them!”

“I didn’t say I had a problem.” Shiori replied back, “I’m just amazed at how ridiculously powerful you are. It gives me a plan. It’ll be hard, but I think we might be able to break out of the void - remember how I ripped a hole in the fabric of space to get myself - well, spirit me anyway, but I’m back in my physical body so it doesn’t matter - back here?”

“Oh, yeah. Can you do that again?”

“I’ll admit I’m a little afraid it’s going to end with us getting immediately blasted as soon as we get out, but I might do it just to get out of here, since as many advantages as we have we’re ultimately still just people. People with godlike powers, but just people nonetheless - we eventually have to die, and all of the void entities, uh, don’t. So far the actual Ancient Ones themselves are keeping out, which is good, since they tear your mind apart if you look at them directly. Unless you’re Ina, they’re probably nice to her.”

She simply knows the proper way of things. Similarly, the most favorable path forward is already open to you.

“Wait, really?” Shiori asked, “The rift we were chasing was closed, and-”

And then she saw three more rifts open ahead in the distance.

She pointed to one of them.

“I’m going to aim for the rift in the center there. I think I can see some sort of rocky canyon on the other side. Nerissa, I see a large number of void crystals making a dive for that rift - shatter them on the way if you can; anything we break before it gets to the rift is something that isn’t appearing on the other side!”

Shiori rearranged the flying formation again, pulling Nerissa up to the front and keeping Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo behind her as Nerissa once again sung with a melody that shattered the crystals in front of her.

“We’re getting close!” Shiori shouted, “Wait… what’s that on the other side?”

Back in the mortal realm, Kaela observed a pair of stone giants that were walking eastward towards some large storm clouds, both of them over a hundred feet tall.

“This is Kaela. Ina’s intel about the mega-constructs was correct - except that there’s two of them, which makes this trickier. They’re both heading in the capital’s direction, which will take them through the trap we’ve planted in the wetlands. I’ll admit, I’m not sure we can take down two of them, but we’ll do our best.”

“Kaela,” Anya communicated back to her, “there’s still a lot of distance between here and the capital, if they’re heading in that direction. Ina’s out helping the mechanized rabbit division, and she’ll be there to help once that’s wrapped up. Anything else coming out?”

“Weirdly enough, no. The rift just… stopped sending any reinforcements, which is nice, though what they’ve sent so far is still going to be hard to fight… wait, something’s emerging from the rift, and it’s…”

She paused.

“Anya, can you message Ina to tell her that Shiori and her group are here? Because they’re here, flying straight out of the rift.”

Chapter Text

Earlier…

“You have one.” Kaela said calmly.

Ollie turned around to the nearly emotionless face of Kaela Kovalskia.

“I heard the mega-construct’s made of rock this time. I have a few tools that may help.”

“Kaela,” Ollie spoke unusually quietly, “do you know how dangerous this is? I’ve seen the footage of the team that downed the first rift. You’re nowhere near that powerful. Probably, I haven’t seen you in action. But you’re probably not that powerful.”

“I know.” Kaela replied, “But I have to.”

“Why?!” Ollie suddenly shouted.

“The empire raised us to believe that we’d be known as heroes of the empire, should we have succeeded in our missions. And I think, maybe for once we should be the heroes that the empire told us we were supposed to be. You said it before: they made us into weapons. And I’d much rather be the weapon of somebody fighting for somebody rather than against them. Though of course I’m not doing this alone.”

“Indeed.” Anya added, “On a practical level, this mission can't be done alone, like, at all. I mean just the projected size of the monster says that much. Or, if it’s being done alone, that person is in a large vehicle equipped with the best weapons available.”

Kaela nodded. “Unfortunately I don’t have all of my old equipment here with me.”

She extended a hand, and then conjured a hammer.

“On the other hand, many of my tools are just inherently part of my powers. To supplement this, I can give you all of the equipment specifications I had as agent Sleepless, though..”

“What equipment allows you to fight something that’s likely hundreds of feet tall?!” Ollie shouted. “And who are you planning to recruit that could make up that difference?!”

“The only two people that I’d ever trust for a mission of this scale. I’m going to need a lot of equipment to make this work, but here’s the plan…”

Back in the present…

“Kobo, Zeta, ready?” Kaela asked.

“Well, Kobo’s only here for the setup.” Zeta answered, “as soon as we pass phase one, Reine has the teleporter ready on the other side for her. Then it’s my turn, right?”

“Got it. We have some newcomers, though - I have no idea what their plan is.”

“Really? Who?”

“Shiori and her group.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah. I don’t think they’re here to fight us, though. Get ready; the first of the stone giants is approaching your position - we’re gonna see if Kobo’s part of the plan works or not…”

Zeta watched as the first of the stone giants approached their position, waiting not in the canyon but in a much more grassy area that had been until recently experiencing a rather drastic downpour due to Kobo’s powers.

“Here it comes…”

The first giant made its casual strides across the wet earth, seemingly nothing in its way.

And then its right foot sunk into the ground, too soft to support the weight of hundreds of tons of rock directly above it. It tried to correct itself on the second step, only for its left foot to also sink into the ground. Then, in a stunning display of momentum, the upper half of its body, unable to stop itself that quickly, proceeded to keep moving forward while its legs got bogged down in the mud. Gravity took over from there; the giant fell face first into the ground.

Zeta had taken a position near the giant’s rocky legs, having waited for exactly this to happen. She made herself invisible, and then quickly started climbing up the surprisingly jagged rocks that made up the legs of the stone giant, while carrying a bag full of explosives - along with their detonator - with her. Quickly analyzing the rock formations up through the legs, she planted several sticky explosives at what looked like more fragile parts of the rocky formation, before making it onto the giant’s back.

Now comes the tricky part…

She planted several explosive charges on the giant’s back, working as fast as she could.

Why does the void crystal have to be so deeply embedded in the rock? I’m going to need every single explosive I have just to get a good shot at exposing it, let alone destroying it.

And then the giant started getting up again, the harsh and sudden movement throwing Zeta back. She grabbed onto a rock that was sticking out enough for her to hold onto as the giant once again successfully stood up.

Well, at least those are planted, but how do I detonate them without blowing myself up now?!

She decloaked and then prepared to press the detonator. She could’ve tried to descend slowly, but she then disregarded that option.

I suppose the will to sacrifice oneself is always part of what makes one a hero…

She hesitated, her arms shaking.

So I’ll finally be the hero they said I was…

She finally pressed the detonator.

The shockwave from the first explosion barely missed her, causing her to lose her grip and making her fall from a slightly alarming distance.

Kaela’s going to be so mad at me if I survive this.

As she fell, she watched the rest of the explosions, blasting away parts of the body of the giant all around her.

Zeta closed her eyes as she crashed into the ground, a sickening crack at impact as she landed into the dirt. As soft as it was, the height she fell at was still enough to break her legs on impact despite her best attempt to bend slightly and curl up into a roll to disperse the impact. A few seconds after landing, Zeta finally regained her senses, realizing pretty quickly that she was incapable of getting up.

Kaela’s going to be so mad at me. Well, time to go…

“Hey, Area 15? This is Zeta. Calling for evac… it’s all up to Kaela now…”

She closed her eyes, losing consciousness; the last thing she heard was the sound of the teleport activating quickly followed by Ollie screaming at her to stay awake.

Kaela landed on top of the stone giant, an internal sense of rage boiling within her like nothing she’d ever felt before. Seeing Zeta hurt, even if it was mostly by a tactical decision on her part, suddenly gave Kaela a renewed sense of purpose as she crawled onto the back of the downed colossus with the intent of destroying it once and for all. The explosives that Zeta planted had done their job: exposing the void crystal that was the power source for the giant.

“Anya, this is Kaela. I’m going to need you to have a teleport on standby, probably in about… a minute from now? Maybe two.”

“Dammit, Kaela, you better live.” Anya replied on the other side, “Ollie is kind of freaking out about what happened to Zeta. I think your friend will be fine once her legs heal, though - Ollie’s just… Well, she’s Ollie.”

“Why do you think I’m so determined to destroy this thing?” Kaela asked, “I’m not letting anything that hurts my best friends live.”

“Alright, teleporter is primed; we have your location tracked and when you give us the signal, you’ll be out of there in less than thirty seconds. Then we’ll figure out how to deal with the second giant, I guess.”

“Actually, I’m not sure what happened to that. It seems to have lost interest in us, which makes me suspect that someone else is stalling it. Someone like, say, Shiori.”

Back in the rocky canyon area that the two stone giants had emerged from, Shiori struck the second giant with a stream of violet lightning from a longer distance while Nerissa landed beside her.

“Okay, so as it stands, the rock is too dense for me to shatter with my voice alone, even with my powers fully unleashed, and you definitely can’t keep that rate of magic consumption up without serious consequences to your body.”

“I can always mend my body via void magic now unless I get spectacularly obliterated, and overexertion can’t make me go supernova. Okay, with void magic that’s actually a bit harder to be sure of, but I don’t think it can.”

“Shiori…” Bijou muttered from behind as the three retreated from the stone giant that was turning to face their direction.

“Look, as of now I’m the only one who can do damage to it! I’m slowly tunneling my way through the rock by zapping it!”

Bijou frowned. On an objective level, Shiori was right, of course; as the jewel of emotion, her most well-known power only worked on people that actually had emotion. Gigantic rock golems with the singular purpose of ending all life did not.

Why is running the only thing I can ever do?

She hated it.

Why did Nerissa have to get so much more powerful without me?!

And suddenly, she turned around, stopping her retreat.

“Bijou, what are you doing?” Nerissa asked.

And then the rock surrounding Bijou started rumbling.

“Being useful for once!”

And then the rock broke apart, before reforming into a much larger body.

Kaela ran to the void crystal. Unfortunately, despite Zeta’s best efforts, it was only barely exposed; only a small fragment of the crystal was exposed to the air, not nearly enough to destroy it.

Kaela extended a hand, and then conjured a pickaxe.

“If you had the guts to stay alive after that explosion… I will grind you to dust, giant.”

And then she swung, her pickaxe meeting stone, hitting with such force that the stone started cracking apart.

She swung again, determination setting in.

And again.

And again.

The rock had only slightly given, all while Kaela felt the rock start to rumble as the giant once again attempted to advance despite the lack of legs. Despite the attempt it was too late to save itself, as through sheer determination Kaela mined out the void crystal, before striking the crystal itself with her pickaxe so hard that it started to break apart.

At that point, Kaela turned around.

“Anya, do your thing.”

And she teleported out, looking away from the void crystal as it exploded.

The other stone giant found itself suddenly occupied by the appearance of a second stone giant, this one wearing a rock shaped vaguely like a Moai statue for a head. More precisely, the stone giant suddenly found itself occupied by said Moai statue punching it so hard that part of its body broke apart.

Bijou, from the back, made a punching motion, watching as her stone giant mirrored the action. While slightly smaller, it moved faster. Not that it mattered for that much longer, as eventually the two stone giants smashed each other harder and harder until the sheer force of each impact of tons of rock started causing both stone giants to start shattering to pieces.

Shiori kept a careful eye on the opposing giant, before she saw a glimmer of violet.

“Nerissa! Bijou’s fists are running out of stone, but there’s an exposed crystal there!”

Nerissa flew in, voice at the ready, threading the needle between the two stone giants that continued to punch one another, before letting out her voice and then flying out.

Bijou’s stone giant, or what was left of it, rammed the one from the void, before the void construct’s crystal exploded, taking both of them out.

Nerissa landed beside Bijou and Shiori, while Fuwawa and Mococo joined the group, having only been watching.

“So, does anyone know what’s going on?” Bijou asked. “Or what those things were?”

Shiori shook her head.

“No, and no. I think I need to talk with Ina about everything. Which first involves finding her, which may be tricky given that I have no idea where we are.”

“No need.” Ina replied, appearing beside the group, “I’m here to seal this rift anyway, but I’m very happy to see you five. Unfortunately, we have a lot to catch up on.”

Chapter Text

Back in Area 15…

Ina, Shiori, and the rest of the group teleported back in, the teleport coordinated with Reine.

“...And that’s where we are right now.” Ina elaborated as she walked out of the teleport chamber, “I know it’s a little awkward how things have suddenly played out, but at this point I’m more interested in saving the world than anything else. The good news is that the threat of completely existential annihilation has been a pretty good motivator for the chain of command to suddenly take me at my word at the top levels. And the bottom levels have Amelia, who they all trust. Between the two of us and the rest of the empire the one thing we have is resources. Now, last I heard the defense was coordinated between Zeta, Kaela, and Kobo, but where are those three? I figure it’s only in good conscience that I congratulate them for their efforts.”

Reine frowned. “They… aren't doing so hot right now. I mean, Kaela and Kobo got out fine, but Zeta…”

Ina’s eyes widened, to which Reine immediately continued speaking to quell fears of the worst: “No, she’s fine! Well, actually she’s currently incapable of getting out of bed, and from Kaela’s word, lucky to be alive, but she’s alive and relatively stable now. Thankfully, Ollie’s chatting with a few other people right now, so we won’t have to worry about her for a moment.”

The group in front of her frowned.

“Can I see her?” Shiori asked.

In another room, this one converted into a makeshift medical room, Zeta woke up finding herself virtually incapable of moving as well as in a lot of pain.

“Zeta?” Kaela spoke softly.

Zeta groaned.

“Don’t do that again.” Kaela continued. “Never ever do that again. You made Ollie worry. Made Kobo worry, too.”

“And you…?”

“She was REALLY worried!” Kobo suddenly interjected, “She was beside your bed the entire time, refusing to even think about resting until you woke up again! I know she tried to say nothing but I saw the way she was looking at you and-”

“I know.” Kaela cut Kobo off, “And I’m still worried about you. I’ll still worry about you in the future, because I know you’re just like me - willing to throw away everything for the cause.”

Zeta smiled. “...Did we win? I kinda…”

Kaela nodded. “Yes. I mined out the void crystal until I broke it apart, but that only worked due to your explosives clearing the way - and that only worked due to Kobo’s rainstorm softening the ground to the point where the first of the stone giants literally started sinking into it. It was a team effort, and it almost wasn’t worth it.”

“But we did it, so-”

“What she’s saying,” A new voice interrupted, “is that they wouldn’t have considered it worth it if you died taking the thing out. Also, hi; I’m Shiori. I wanted to say hi and also congratulate you three for taking out the other stone giant with far less firepower than we had - Bijou suddenly unlocked the ability to create giant rock golems, Nerissa gained a voice so powerful she can shatter void crystals with sound alone after I resurrected her - oh yeah, we also all died after getting sucked into the void but then I resurrected us all, no I don’t have time to explain that - and I have the blessing of the void, which kinda amplifies a whole bunch of my powers to levels way beyond what anything normal could do. You three did it without any of that.”

“Good planning and proper equipment helps a lot.” Kaela answered, “And it… might not have been without our sacrifices. Zeta got lucky.”

“I’m right here!” Zeta complained, “I mean, sure, my legs are totally broken but I’m still here…”

“Zeta,” Kaela explained with just a touch of amusement to her voice, “keep this up and I’ll tell Ollie that you’re awake.”

Zeta froze. “Okay…”

Shiori smiled. “Ah, I see you’ve met Ollie too.”

Kobo laughed.

“She took us in.” Kaela stated. “I think she was a little mad about what the empire did to us, and she was even more mad that the first thing Zeta did upon joining forces was get hurt. I mean, Zeta, given that you almost walked straight first into a grim reaper…”

“Don’t you say it…” Zeta interrupted.

“...I really think you should…” Kaela continued.

“Don’t!”

“...Get some help!” Kaela exclaimed while visibly though inaudibly laughing.

Kobo laughed even harder.

“Look, I get it.” Kaela continued, “Being willing to sacrifice things is good. Having a sacrificial hero complex is not. Anya pointed out we were a long way from the capital - we had time to regroup if the plan failed, but I don’t think we could’ve resurrected you, if…”

She trailed off. “Let’s not talk about that possibility.”

Shiori nodded. “I agree. Anyways, I just wanted to say that, as of now, I forgive you for the whole ‘trying to kill me’ thing.”

Zeta cringed, while Kobo frowned

“I’m surprised.” Kaela replied, “But I suppose this last battle made both of us see each other in a different light. I got to see you as more than just ‘the enemy’, and you got to see me as the hero that the empire always said we were. That, and despite the fact that your powers are… the sort of thing I’m supposed to fight against, I’ve never seen you use them to do anything evil.”

“Thanks. Anyways, I’ll let you two have your moment with Zeta, since the three of you are clearly close.”

And with that, Shiori left.

Situated around a somewhat long table, Shiori met up with the rest of her group, alongside Ina, who had been joined with Amelia, Gura, Calliope, Kiara, and finally Ollie.

“Ah, Shiori!” Ina replied, “You arrived at the perfect time; we were just going over the debriefing for the last three rifts. Calliope led a squad of demons to handle the second rift, and Amelia got rabbit squadron to deal with the third.”

“Only on paper.” Calliope replied, “Agent ‘Iron Mouse’ really ran that whole operation; she somehow had contacts with just about every demon who was available for summoning. Penrose-sama kept the rest of her population organized while we did all of that.”

“And I didn’t do much either.” Amelia muttered, “I just gave the orders.”

“And similarly,” Shiori continued, “Kaela’s squad took care of one of the two gigantic void constructs from the fourth rift. It’s fairly clear that everything we’re doing is a team effort. Are we out of the fire yet?”

Ina shook her head.

“There’s a fifth rift on the schedule, and it’s a way scarier threat than the others, for a reason that will become apparent. My future sight has a clearer vision now of what we’re up against, and now that I can see it for certain, it’s not looking good.”

“Really?” Gura asked, “I mean, we’ve taken them all out so far, so what’s the issue?”

Ina waved her arms, conjuring a map, before pointing to a spot on that map.

“That’s… not close by, is it.”

“No.” Ina answered, “It’s aimed at the fringe of what counts as empire territory, and that’s not even the worst part. The worst part is this:”

On the map, a rift opened above the territory.

And then several more opened.

“The fifth rift,” Ina explained, “is actually a cluster of smaller rifts. And there are a lot of them. This is about the worst case scenario for us, because while the center of the cluster is empire territory, the positions of the rest of the rifts extend beyond our territory. If we want to seal those rifts, we’re going to be trespassing.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Amelia suddenly replied, “I don’t think they’ll question you once we’re actively saving them. Yeah, they might be from a foreign territory and they’re not going to be happy about this, but we’re gonna save them nonetheless, and I imagine they’ll cooperate once they understand we’re working together.”

“Diplomacy by life-saving.” Ina replied, “That’ll be interesting to see if it works. The good news is that Ao-chan told me we still have some time before the cluster opens, which means-”

“Uh, Ina?” Ollie interrupted, “I think Ao-chan was giving you the time until everything opened, but the first rifts are already opening.”

“How would you know that?” Ina asked.

“I got a message from a friend of mine who lives in that area.”

Earlier…

Ollie got a ping on her phone.

In the present…

“So, uh, yeah!”

Ina drew a sharp breath.

“I made the call to evacuate that region, but I can only extend that call to our citizens - anyone outside of our borders is, as of right now, essentially left to fend for themselves.”

“Then let’s fix that!” Kiara exclaimed with a grin, “Besides, it’s all in that cluster, right?”

“Yes, thankfully.” Ina answered, “It’s still wider in scope than anything we’ve ever dealt with before, but thanks to our quick work on the first four rifts, we have more or less all units available.”

“Good.” Amelia continued, “Then send everything towards that rift. If necessary, work with the locals to coordinate defenses against anything that leaves our borders. We can get there the fastest, obviously; we’ll get extra support as the fight continues, but the critical moments are going to be all on us.”

Ollie sighed. “Unfortunately, you won’t have Kaela’s group for this - Zeta’s out on injury, and from the looks of things this might be a more aerial-focused fight.”

“You’ll have me, though.” Shiori replied, “And with that, Nerissa too, who can shatter void crystals with her voice after getting her broken horn fixed. Bijou showcased an impressive new power of her’s with our last fight. We have you, of course, alongside Calliope and Kiara. Amelia, will you be joining us on the field or are you going to be on mission control?”

“Both.” Amelia stated, “Everything else will be whatever we can scrap together from the locals, and then any reinforcements will join us in combat. Are we ready?”

Everyone in the room nodded.

“Great!” Ollie exclaimed, “I’ll forward all of the information to my friends there!”

Over in another place, a kitsune looked up at the sky, looking at a rift that was slowly opening up, while putting away her phone.

“Mio, I’m going to need you to help round up anyone we can get to help out in this fight. Yes, it’s the empress’ mess, and yes, she’s going to be visiting to help us, which I’m grateful for. But this is our land, regardless of arbitrarily drawn borders. And that means we’re going to help defend it regardless of anyone else. Ayame, defend the shrine, but if anything happens that’s too much for you, seek us immediately. I’ll see if I can get a few friends from high - and low - places to help with this.”

A wolf girl smiled.

“Then let’s go, Fubuki.”

Chapter Text

Ayame drew both swords, and ran into the forest as she saw the first void crystals emerge from the rift. As they landed in the forest, Ayame watched as the nearby trees started rumbling, turning into void constructs of more wooden rather than metal forms.

The first of these didn’t last long.

“You know, Mio taught me a lot about not drawing my swords.”

The tree that the void crystal had embedded itself into and thus had made into the body of the construct was quickly sliced in half by a sword-wielding demon. When it kept attempting to move, Ayame slashed through it a second time, this time aiming for and promptly slashing through the void crystal that had powered the eldritch tree.

“But really? You’re going to give me a situation where I’m totally justified in using them?”

Ayame jumped back as the void crystal exploded, while she watched more trees being corrupted into void constructs.

“I haven’t had the opportunity to have this much fun in ages, really!”

She charged forward and split another void-corrupted tree in half.

Ten people teleported into a now virtually abandoned industrial district.

Shiori turned around. “Wait a second, Fuwawa, Mococo, why did you two follow the rest of us? Unlike the rest of us I don’t see much way you’re going to help with the mess.”

“Actually, in this case they might be more useful.” Ina replied, “The reality is that while the extra firepower is nice, we also need people on the ground helping to make sure that anyone who isn’t capable of destroying the void constructs as fast as we can gets out - and more importantly we’ll need people coordinating the defense between both sides. My powers mean that I have to stay in the fight over here, since I’m the only one capable of sealing the-”

She suddenly paused.

“Actually, Shiori, you might be able to learn the art. Come over here, please.”

Shiori walked over to Ina’s position, only for Ina to rather comically raise her index finger and calmly poke Shiori in the forehead.

Boop!

All at once, Shiori felt a massive rush of knowledge practically slam into her mentally.

“Great!” Ina said while Shiori recovered, “Ao-chan’s a much faster teacher than I am.”

“I’m not sure about being a better teacher though…” Shiori muttered as she recovered from her daze.

“In this case, speed is of the essence.” Ina replied, “The rifts can only be sealed away by me or Shiori, so we’ll naturally gravitate to where the rifts open.”

“Then here’s the plan:” Amelia continued, “Anyone who can directly fight the void constructs, play defensively and prevent them from spreading too far out - especially the flyers, which unfortunately we appear to have a number of. Everyone else, help the locals evacuate the area, and if the opportunity arises, help get anyone who can help into the fight. The rifts aren’t large, so we don’t have to coordinate a mega-construct defense this time, at least for now. Got it?”

Nine heads all nodded. Shiori, Ina, Nerissa and Kiara jumped into the air, Shiori and Ina floating via void magic and Nerissa and Kiara spreading their wings. Shiori and Nerissa worked as a tag team, with Shiori firing magical beams that broke open many of the flyers while Nerissa flew in to break the exposed crystals via sonic damage, while Ina once again resorted to reflecting the constructs’ void ranged magic attacks back at them, preferring to stay farther behind.

Kiara, on the other hand, flew out to the surrounding forested area to keep an eye out on anything that was escaping the trio so far.

Wait, are those trees moving?

She flew down to get a closer look, before suddenly seeing a pair of explosions, one small, and one much larger.

The larger explosion came from a tree-shaped void construct that Ayame had cut in half, while the smaller explosion came from a projectile orb of void energy slamming into Ayame from another construct.

Ayame, not to be deterred, got up once again, swords at the ready and sheer fighting spirit driving her forward.

The tree in question didn’t get very far as it suddenly caught fire, and then found itself turning to ash surprisingly quickly, before the void crystal powering it exploded, splintering what was left of the wooden body.

“That’s pretty stupid of them to be making monsters out of wood when a phoenix is nearby!”

Kiara landed in front of Ayame.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Ayame looked back at Kiara, nodding her head.

“...I’m fine.”

Kiara looked unimpressed.

“You look like you seriously need a break.”

“What exactly can I do, other than fight?!” Ayame shouted, “These things are everywhere and are still shooting at me!”

“We can deal with the wooden ones, actually.” Kiara said as she jumped into the air. “Or at least, they aren’t a problem for me in specific, though this patch of forest might be entirely ash by the time we’re finished.”

“Well, I figured we were going that route anyway.” Ayame replied, “Mio will definitely be sad if that happens, but… I think she knows. Besides…”

She grinned.

“I know how my friends are.”

And with that, she leapt towards another tree, dodging a few projectiles on the way, and then once again bisecting the tree before kicking off of it and watching the embedded void crystal explode as she landed.

“It’s in my heritage to seek a good fight. They’ll understand.”

Kiara took a deep breath.

“Then be careful, okay?”

And then she flew back up.

In another area, an animate arrangement of rocks in a vaguely human shape charged into a village. It ran forward into a wooden house, smashing it in with seemingly little effort, before turning around and then getting hit by another rock golem of a similar size, only this one with enough effort to smash the first one open.

Almost there… Bijou thought as she watched her rock golem attack, Turns out all my rock instincts are helping me out here - this golem’s made out of loose stuff compared to mine.

Bijou’s golem reached into the broken core of the other, and then crushed the void crystal with its rocky hand.

Gotcha.

And then she watched as both of them exploded.

“Right, I’ve gotta learn to get out of there before it does that. Alright, everyone, we’ve gotta-”

She looked around, and found the village already abandoned.

“Oh come on, I just got here!”

“As it turns out,” a new voice joined in, “fortune teller powers have their advantages.”

The voice belonged to Ookami Mio, who smiled, and bowed at the newcomer.

“Your defense of the village is admirable, even if nobody’s around to see it. I handled the evacuation while Fubu-chan got a few people to help out; one of them in particular should be arriving soon. You’ll know when they show up.”

“What do you mean?” Bijou asked.

Mio pointed up towards the sky.

“...is that an angel?” Bijou asked.

Mio nodded.

“Fubuki has contacts in high places. And low places, too. And in normal places. She just really has friends everywhere, and a couple of those friends are going to be making an appearance today, I think.”

Shiori sighed as she once again cast a lightning spell that chained through multiple constructs, obliterating a few of them.

“The small ones are basically harmless with me in the picture,” Shiori stated, “but the larger flyers I don’t have nearly as much of an answer for.”

Ina nodded. “The good news is that the heavy flyers tend to also be projectile users, and those I very much have an answer for.”

Both of them dodged out of the way for what looked like a vaguely dragon-shaped void construct to fly between the two of them.

“And we are cleaning up the more fragile constructs.” Ina continued, “Void-corrupted trees are disappearing out in the forest. That said, overall more of the walkers from the industrial area - that is, the concrete and steel walkers - are moving out; there’s simply too many of them and too few of us. It’s a numbers game, and the numbers tell an unfortunate story.”

The same flier swooped around and made another run for Shiori. However, it didn’t get very far, as a much smaller figure grabbed it mid-air, and then threw it downwards with such force that it shattered into pieces on impact. Shiori, sensing the opportunity, fired a beam of violet light to the now exposed crystal.

As it exploded, she raised her head to face the newcomer: an angel with silvery-blue hair.

“Thanks for helping us out. Who are you?” Shiori asked.

“Ah, my name is Amane Kanata. I figured I’d put my dragon-fighting experience to good use, though I’m used to fighting a much stronger one. Granted, the numbers disadvantage is… not small, but I think we can make this work, especially once a few other friends arrive, such as…”

A bolt of lightning, this one red, suddenly ripped through another flier, causing it to explode.

“Who fired that?”

“Ah…”

“...My name is Tokoyami Towa.”

Back on the ground, a newcomer arrived through a portal, much to Calliope’s surprise.

“You know,” Calliope mused, “I contacted you because I knew you were a great asset, but I was certain you’d say no. Reputation is that you’re not keen on getting into big fights.”

Towa smirked. “I don’t like the idea of hurting people, you know? Even back in my ‘real’ devil days I kept incidentally making people happy in one way or another. This? Well, I think it’d make my friends sad if the world got destroyed. That, and once Kanata decided to fly in, what other choice was I going to make? But honestly, that’s really just it. I don’t mind fighting. I don’t like the idea of hurting people. I’m not even the worst for it - my other demon friend is literally a healer!”

Calliope grinned.

“Then let’s keep on fighting. Either for the happiness of people, or just for your best friends.”

A witch teleported in front of both a detective and an Atlantean.

“It is too early for this. I’m Murasaki Shion, and my plan is to shoot some stuff and then teleport back home and fall asleep. Are we all good?”

Gura nodded nervously.

“Great!” Amelia answered cheerfully, “Though it’s like late afternoon. Thanks for answering my call anyway!”

“It’s always too early for this.” Shion muttered.

“Honestly I kinda agree.” Gura replied.

From a distant position, a white-haired lioness heard the sounds of battle.

Her name was Shishiro Botan.

“This is it. Lamy, Polka, Nene, if you three have any doubts about following me, now is the time to voice them.”

Back in the Astral Realm, Kronii and Mumei stared at each other in silence.

“Alright, I’ll ask my question first.” Mumei finally broke the silence, “In your new universe, can you sever me from my aspect so I don’t become the guardian again?”

Kronii felt her heart stop.

“Mumei… that would kill you. Permanently. And the people, they wouldn’t even remember you. You would be abolished, annihilated, your entire legacy denied and then forgotten.”

“Yeah. But I’m tired of hurting you. Hurting Fauna. Wouldn’t it be better if I wasn’t around? Civilization would be easier to control if I didn’t have a say in how the council ran things.”

Kronii stared at the floor.

“...Yeah. That’s true. But I… I don’t think I could do that to you. And I suppose that ties into what I wanted to ask you, anyway.”

“Oh?”

“Mumei, I know you’re not just your aspect, I know you actually like humanity. So I just want to know: What do you see in them? Why did you go so far for them?”

Mumei smiled warmly, presenting a hand to Kronii.

Kronii reached out to Mumei, their hands meeting and their fingers intertwining.

“It’s hard to explain.” Mumei answered, “But I think you’ll understand.”

Chapter Text

Another void flier exploded in a large fireball from Kiara.

“How many of these things are there?!”

Shiori flew past her, firing a dark violet beam that sealed the rift that the void crystal had emerged from.

“Too many,” Ina answered, “but the tide is turning in our favor. Bijou’s rock golems are smashing up the walkers, and with our new air support I think we can shut down the fliers faster than they can emerge.”

As if the universe felt like mocking Shiori, a trio of rifts suddenly opened, launching three void crystals that emerged faster than Shiori or Kiara could respond, flying out of them and slamming into the ground of a concrete-covered industrial zone, forming a triad with the middle crystal being notably larger than the others. As it did so, it predictably transformed, this time into a walker the size of a small house, while the other two crystals transformed into smaller walkers.

“Oh come on!”

The larger walker raised its arms, and then fired a pair of violet beams towards Shiori and Kiara. Shiori, aided by a magical sense for where the beam would be, quickly flew to the side, while Kiara got directly hit by a beam that appeared to utterly obliterate her.

Kiara reincarnated as the beam cleared.

“Okay, that’s bad, but at least there’s only one of them.”

A second triad similar to the first quickly launched out of the rifts, before Shiori turned around and attempted to seal the middle one.

“Kiara, cover for me!”

“I can’t block the giant lasers! I can just recover from exploding!”

Shiori proceeded to dodge another pair of void beams while keeping her attention to the middle rift, which then sealed itself shut.

“Got it! Now for the other two…”

“Look out!”

Shiori turned around just in time to see a void flier closing in on her.

This is going to hurt.

And yet, even this flier got intercepted, this time by a similarly sized dragon of a dark violet coloration with both a penguin-themed girl and a girl with rose-colored hair on her back.

“...Selen?!” Kiara shouted, “Is that you?!”

“Yep. I wasn’t the winner of the dragon trials for nothing, back when I was a kid. You’re looking at the fastest finisher of the toughest challenge. Oh, and my rider is Petra, who helps out with the whole ‘seeing what’s behind me’ thing, and Rosemi will mostly help out with the ground situation.”

A secondary dragon, this one a much lighter blue, rolled its eyes as it arrived and who was carrying a green-haired mermaid and a blonde fairy.

“Selen,” Elira spoke with a somehow-audible eye-roll, “you only held the fastest time for the night race. I held the fastest time for the daytime course.”

“Elira?!” Kiara shouted.

“Yep. Haven’t flown that fast in a long time, though I was slowed down by having to carry Finana and Pomu on my back.”

“Says the person who was carrying a fairy who could shrink herself!” Selen yelled, “Rosemi can’t exactly do that, and I still beat you here!”

“You flew off before we confirmed the closing of the first rift! You had a head start!”

“Girls, stop fighting!” Rosemi shouted, “We’re here for a more important reason!”

Shiori finished closing the two smaller rifts, only to look over and see another two large rifts, which both emitted singular large void crystals before Ina showed up to seal both of them at once.

The group looked down, and saw a pair of much larger void fliers emerge from the ground, flying up towards their position.

“They have no idea what they’re in for.”

Botan walked through the forest, noticing the signs of some ferocious fights in the leftover remnants of exploded and sliced open trees, with Lamy, Polka, and Nene all following closely behind.

“Remember,” Botan spoke with authority, “this is primarily a defensive mission. If we see anyone who needs evacuating, we get them out first. Do not engage with the enemy unless you have to.”

She then heard something move, and immediately her hand went to her smaller firearm, only for a pair of dog-eared girls to emerge, and then immediately panic.

“Don’t shoot!” Fuwawa shouted.

“We’re on the same side!” Mococo added.

Botan smiled, immediately relaxing.

“Do you happen to know what’s going on?”

Fuwawa nodded. “The short version is that a bunch of rifts in space opened up and a whole bunch of big monsters are coming out of them.”

“You can destroy them by shooting the core in the middle of them - Ina told us that - but they’re really large and powerful!” Mococo continued.

Botan nodded. “The good news is that the shape of the area should funnel them into the valley - to get to where most civilians have been evacuated through, anything that walks will have to go through the gap in the cliffs - we can pick them off there. I saw a few flying, uh, things, but from the looks of it that’s being taken care of.”

Fuwawa and Mococo both nodded.

“Then stay here.” Fuwawa replied, “I’ll see if I can get any ground forces going before-”

Both of them froze as their sensitive dog ears picked up something emerging in front of the group.

“Run!”

Nene immediately conjured a set of bear paws, and then leapt forward.

“We’re not afraid of-”

She then went silent as a truck-sized walker-type void construct made out of concrete that emerged from the trees immediately stared at her, and then started charging in her direction.

“Fall back!” Botan shouted.

“Already running!” Nene shouted, suddenly now under threat of being squished flat.

A wall of ice suddenly appeared behind Nene, separating her from her pursuer.

“That should buy us time.” Lamy stated.

“Thank you!” Nene replied, taking a moment to catch her breath as the group kept running.

The walker then punched through the ice. Nene screamed, and then attempted to pick up the pace. A pair of smoke bombs thrown an impressive distance from Polka then both unleashed their payloads, reducing visibility in the area to nearly zero as the six of them escaped.

Eventually, the walker emerged from the smoke. Botan turned around, and then pulled out her sniper rifle, having managed to gain some distance from the construct.

Fuwawa and Mococo looked at the weapon, and understood what Botan meant to do. They turned around, and charged the walker. It attempted to punch back, only to find that both demon dogs were fast movers, dodging around the construct and forcing it to turn around.

Botan motioned towards Lamy, and then pointed to a few particular spots as the Abyssgard sisters stalled the walker.

Lamy raised her hands, and then several thin pillars of ice skewered the walker, suddenly holding it up in a position where none of its limbs could reach the ground. Polka took a moment to throw a quick cartoon-looking bomb at the joints closest to the torso while Fuwawa and Mococo jumped back.

The explosion went off in a series of firework-like colors, while also blasting a substantial amount of the concrete body away.

Botan grinned, took aim at the only barely exposed void crystal, and fired precisely once.

The walker exploded.

Polka smiled. “Got ‘em!”

Botan nodded. “That reinforces my strategy, I think - we can’t fight more than one at once.”

“Oh, you can’t.” A new voice joined in, “But we can, together.”

Botan turned around, seeing the face of none other than Shirakami Fubuki.

“There’s like, another six of these coming this way. And two of them are really large and can fire beams that look kind of deadly. The good news is that we have a few friends coming over to help with ground defense, including…”

Calliope emerged from the shadows, while Towa followed thereafter. From the direction of the portals arrived Rosemi, Bijou, Mio and Ayame, who looked incredibly tired and yet at the same time still energized.

Finally, Shion suddenly arrived from above the group riding her broomstick along with Gura, before Amelia suddenly appeared without any prior warning.

“I’m gonna help out with the fliers.” Shion replied as she dropped off Gura, “At this point your job is to take out the guys on the ground. Probably, I only skimmed the mission notes.”

Botan rolled her eyes.

“I’ll take charge of this group. The walkers are all headed this way?”

“Geography gives them few other places to go, so… yeah, I guess.”

And then Shion flew off.

“Alright.” Botan spoke again with authority, “what powers do we have at our disposal?”

“Quite a few, last I heard.” Amelia replied with a smirk, while also carrying a large laser rifle. “I think we can hold our own here.”

Back in the air over a now-abandoned industrial district, two much larger flying constructs both crashed, and then their broken void crystals exploded.

“Man,” Shiori laughed, “it’s a good thing these things don’t have brains like we do. It’s nice that they don’t learn to adapt their tactics against us.”

“To be fair,” Ina replied, “Even if they could learn, most of my targets don’t get a chance to make more than one mistake against me. I’ll admit, given their size, I wasn’t expecting the reflection trick to work that well, but I guess if you fire a dozen shadowbolts at once, reflecting them all back at once still does some damage. I’m more impressed by your tag team with Nerissa there - and the fact you successfully dodged all of the attacks necessary for Nerissa’s sound lance to actually work.”

“We got some practice. Actually, it’s easier in the void, since at that point most of them are just their pure crystal form without the annoying stuff we have to get through first.”

“True.” Ina answered, “But in the void they have all of their full native powers, so they’re much more powerful in general. Being exposed to pure void crystal energy is something that most people can only do once. Still, there’s only now a small cluster of rifts left at the center of the concrete field - what’s left of it, anyway, given that most of the constructs that spawned here have eaten away at the matter in the area - so all we need to do is wait for ground team to clean up the-”

She froze.

“Oh no.”

Shiori and Ina rushed towards the rifts, only to find that they were too late, as the rifts in the final cluster suddenly started tearing outwards towards one another, before finally merging into one giant rift.

Ina and Shiori both extended their hands, firing off their magic in a desperate bid to seal the rift before anything emerged. 

“I swear to Ao-chan!” Shiori shouted, “If that thing creates another huge crystal with-”

Shiori mentally facepalmed as exactly that appeared: a massive crystal that was already the size of Elira and Selen by itself embedded itself into the ground, spawning there immediately as the rift closed behind it.

“Oh come on! I know we’re bad at catching them before they hit the ground but that wasn’t even possible to stop!”

An area the size of a massive parking lot suddenly rumbled, and then the concrete ground tore itself apart as roads, foundations, and everything else suddenly started being merged into a massive colossus.

Ina and Shiori looked on with horror as the remains of an abandoned industrial district came to life, turning into a writing mass of concrete and steel, forming what was technically a walker but was more like an animate pile of abandoned construction materials hundreds of feet across.

One that was slowly moving.

“What now, empress?” Shiori asked.

“...at least it’s slow?” Ina murmured.

Botan looked in the distance.

“...This might be a problem.”

A flying mech with rabbit ears traveled across the sky.

“This is Usada Pekora. We are about to make contact with the enemy.”

A girl with a spiral-shaped limiter on her head landed on the planet.

Chapter Text

The group led by Botan looked at the slowly advancing concrete monster.

“Um,” the voice of Rosemi was heard at the back, “I can summon a wall of vines but I don’t think it’s gonna last long against that thing!”

“I’ve got to say,” Amelia admitted, “I was expecting something a little smaller.”

“So, uh, how do we stop that?” Gura asked.

“We don’t.” Fubuki answered, “At this point, all we can do is buy time for the townspeople behind the valley to evacuate.”

“Okay, but how do we stall that?” Towa asked in disbelief.

“We’ll figure that out.” Fubuki answered with a shrug.

Amelia nodded. “We still have one last card to play. I see a rabbit mecha approaching, and since I helped run the division that made that technology, I think it’s friendly.”

Ina and Shiori looked at the advancing colossus that was slowly advancing towards Botan’s position.

“They are not going to be able to stop that thing. Neither are we, probably, but at least we have more options available to us.”

Ina watched a few dark projectiles shaped like blades go flying upwards from the slowly advancing behemoth, to which Ina sighed, raised her arms, and then reflected all of them back.

“Good to see that the ‘return to sender’ spell still works. The problem is that the attacks are too widespread for me to do much damage here.”

She watched what looked like a couple of magic missiles slam into the colossus, exploding and then dealing effectively no damage.

“Dammit!” Shion shouted, “At the rate we’re going at we’ll need ten thousand of those, and I definitely do not have that in me.”

Elira and Selen, being ridden by Finana and Petra respectively, swooped down and tried to swipe at the monster with their claws, clawing at the surface layers but finding themselves unable to deal much in the way of damage and instead choosing to fly back up.

Pomu flew beside Elira. “I don’t think my sniper rounds are going to do much, even with my highest caliber rounds.”

“Yeah, we need someone with ridiculous firepower; even we can’t do it on our own.”

Shiori struck out again with another round of violet lightning strikes, and then sighing as she saw the relative lack of damage she was doing to the massive body of the concrete monster that was flattening trees as it made its way through the valley.

And then the laser hit. A thin beam of light that nonetheless hit with incredible power, seemingly carving its way through the monstrosity.

Everyone in the air turned to see who fired it, only to see a flying mecha with rabbit ears.

“This is Usada Pekora, and I’m not letting that thing advance any further. So far the beam sword seems to be the most effective weapon, so…”

Pekora landed her mech on the approaching monstrosity. Even for the mech, the void construct was far larger, and yet, Pekora remained confident as a short-ranged beam emerged from her sword and slashed off chunks of concrete from the abomination’s body seemingly without any issues.

“So take that! Unlike some others, I got in legal trouble for a very good reason and I’m going to use that reason today!”

Shiori jaw-dropped. “How did Amelia ever get you permission to drive this thing?!”

The mech shrugged, before going back to attacking the animated industrial district. As Pekora struck the monster from above, a single rocket smashed into the front side of it, smashing apart some of the concrete in the front though proportionately doing very little damage.

From the distance, Botan looked at the monster approaching her group, holding a rocket launcher over her shoulder that she had just fired into the beast to little effect.

“Not gonna run?” Amelia asked.

Botan shook her head. “We’re in it for the long game. That thing is not moving very fast - I’ve got time to reload. And more importantly, time to distract; Towa, do you have anything that’s good at pure destructive output?”

Towa shook her head. “Sort of, but not at the scale necessary. I can chip away at the front of the beast, but it’s an animated ball of magic - it’s not going to quit because we’ve dealt a bunch of damage to it. It dies only when we destroy it, which is, uh, difficult.”

“Then ‘distract’ is our plan for now.” Botan stated calmly, “It was an honor fighting beside you. Just in case we don’t make it.”

Amelia shook her head. “I’m not giving up that easily. Besides, I think we have a new ally in this fight.”

She paused.

“No way. She never gets involved with mortal affairs, but…

Ina felt that something was off. It was a pure instinct, a distinct sense that something huge was about to happen. Shiori felt it too, causing her to turn to face the group that was currently in the air.

“Pull out.” Ina spoke calmly. “We have a new weapon at hand.”

“What is it?” Shiori asked.

Ina pointed up, to which Shiori then saw a bright object coming towards them.

Shiori rolled her eyes. “Nerissa, you can speak louder than I can; tell everyone they need to get out right now!

Nerissa turned around, and gave the command: “GET AWAY FROM THE MONSTER!”

All at once, the group dispersed, getting as much distance as they could from the abomination.

And then a small meteor crashed into it, causing a massive explosion on impact.

Ina, Kiara, Shiori, Nerissa, Shion, Kanata, Pekora, Pomu, as well as Elira and Selen and each of their riders, looked at the explosion that had been caused on impact. While the meteor was rather tiny in comparison to its target, the explosion was large enough that it took a while for the smoke to clear. While it cleared, another figure joined the group that was floating in the air.

“Hi! Most of you probably don’t know me. I’m Sana Tsukumo, the speaker of space, and Bae says I have permission to do that now.”

Shiori blinked. “Well, okay. I guess we don’t have much to be worried about if we have you on our side. The smoke hasn’t finished clearing, but I don’t hear any movement.”

“We’re not in the clear.” Ina elaborated. “I’m sensing something, but it’s… off.”

The smoke cleared, revealing a seemingly inanimate pile of concrete. There was a visible impact crater from where the meteor had hit.

Ina’s eyes widened. “That… should not happen.”

The pile rumbled, much to Nerissa’s annoyance.

“Wait, it actually survived that?!”

Ina nodded. “It somehow reconfigured the inside of its body, shifting the void crystal to the bottom, meaning that it was as protected as it could be from the strike. That’s a level of intelligence that these aren’t supposed to have. Ao-chan, explain this.”

The former empress’ will was for you to rule the world, as was your own will, too. The preservation of the present is the only separation of your wishes.

“Are you saying I’m just like her?!”

The powers you two wield from the void…

They are one and the same.

“I get that, but… I don’t want this. I don’t want any of this. I want to save everyone. I don’t want to make the next world better - I want to make this world better.”

Then the fate of the universe will be decided only by the will of you…

Ina frowned, before Ao-chan continued:

…As well as the will of your friends. And with the will to survive, may you find the world you wish to rule, my priestess.

Ina smiled. “Then I’ll show her the power of my will, too. Ao-chan, where’s the crystal within the-”

And then the pile split open. The mass of concrete separated like an egg, cracking in half. From the insides of the shell, a massive hand emerged, followed by another one on the opposite side. Out of the shell emerged a human-shaped body, one that was hundreds of feet tall, rather than across.

“Okay, so it’s learned that it needs to be able to move.” Ina elaborated, “With legs that long, it can cover huge amounts of ground terrifyingly quickly, and now-”

The giant’s hands glowed a powerful-looking purple.

“Get out of the way!” Shiori shouted, just in time for two massive jets of violet flame to emerge from the hands, blasting the area with such force as to demolish trees when they hit the ground. Pekora, Elira, and Selen found themselves making quick evasive maneuvers, while Ina realized something:

“It’s avoiding me.” Ina stated calmly, “It learned from my abilities. Hmm… alright, new plan. What other attacks does it have?”

From the otherwise faceless head of the giant, a pair of eyes opened, both of them a deep black that looked eerily like a hole into the void. The eyes proceeded to shoot out a large number of beam-like shadow orbs that were aimed towards Botan’s position.

“Oh no.” Shiori whispered.

Lamy raised a wall of ice in a desperate bid to defend from the attack, only to watch as the shadowy projectiles made short work of her makeshift fortifications.

“Fall back and take cover!” Botan shouted, “If that thing is able to move about now, then we don’t have the advantage of time to set up fortifications - all we can do is run. Those eye beams have way too much range for us to cover; though thankfully we have the kind of mechanized firepower on our side that can turn this around.”

“They’ve got something else.”

Everyone turned to face the speaker: Koseki Bijou, who raised a hand.

“I can feel the will of the rock underneath me. Everyone, get back.”

On the inside of her mech, Pekora pressed a few more buttons.

“Target acquired.” A computerized voice replied.

Pekora smiled, and pressed a few buttons, watching as a few homing missiles fired into the giant, aiming for the chest. She then pressed a few more buttons, and then switched to a more conventional energy blaster for longer ranged combat. She pulled back, and prepared to fly in a circular motion around the giant to make herself harder to hit.

Ina raised her hands. While the streams of pure void energy were being directed away from her, the ambient void orbs being fired everywhere were still getting close enough for her to capture, redirect, and then fire back at the giant, though despite it being thinner than the abomination it spawned from it was still big enough to shrug off the attack.

And then Ina heard another set of incredibly heavy footsteps. Turning around, she saw a massive pile of rock forming into the shape of a human, though with the odd attribute of having a Moai statue for a head, and on top of that head was none other than the one who had created the golem: Koseki Bijou.

Shiori and Nerissa flew over to the massive rock golem, and landed on top of it beside Bijou.

“I’m tired of being useless, okay?!” Bijou shouted, “It’s really hard to control this thing, but at least I have the mass to fight back!”

“And we have the tactics.” Shiori replied, “Granted, the big giant with the laser eyes is pretty scary, but… wait, what is that?”

Shiori’s question was answered by a giant anvil suddenly dropping onto the head of the giant, smashing it to pieces. The anvil then disappeared.

“Well, look at this! It’s time for some chaos around here!

Bae arrived, descending to Shiori’s level, along with another winged figure.

“Hope has descended!” IRyS shouted, “Also, Bae, if you can just fly, then why didn’t you do it earlier while we were fighting Mumei?”

“It was more fun that way!” Bae answered, “Also, if any of you see storm clouds gathering, don’t worry, those are all from Fauna. Weather report is cloudy with a chance of saving the world!”

Shiori smiled.

“Then let’s weather this storm together.”

Chapter Text

Bijou made the first move, launching her stone golem’s fist against the massive void construct in front of them, the force of the impact causing the giant to stagger back. As it regained its footing, it then retaliated in kind, only its strike was faster, knocking Bijou’s golem significantly farther back. Bijou, who was riding on the Moai-statue-shaped head, went flying off, before Nerissa grabbed her out of the air and landed her at her previous position, watching as the giant they were fighting reformed its head, this time not even bothering with a face or even with eyes.

“Remember that you can’t fly without us.” Nerissa explained.

“Wait!” Bijou shouted, “Given all the funny void powers, maybe my wings actually work now!”

And with that, Nerissa let go, and Bijou floated upwards.

Shiori smiled. “I guess that works. Bijou, keep punching!”

Bijou smiled. “Will do!”

At the same time, Ina turned towards Elira, Selen, and their riders.

“You should probably retreat - I think this has exceeded even your strength.”

Selen shook her head. “We’re dragons! We have breath weapons!”

And with that, both Elira and Selen opened their mouths, and from those mouths emerged a pair of fireballs that exploded as they hit the giant.

“Get ‘em, Selen!” Petra shouted.

“Is that even doing damage?” Finana asked.

“I saw pieces of concrete coming off the giant’s body,” Pomu answered, “so objectively speaking, yes. Just not much.”

From another side, Pekora readied the weapon systems of her mech.

“This form is too mobile for the laser sword. It’s less effective, but I think I’ve gotta switch to the long range laser beams instead.”

Pekora continued firing, flying around the giant and attempting to unload as much hurt as possible into the enemy.

While the area wasn’t raining, a mysterious gathering of storm clouds started emitting powerful lightning bolts at the construct.

IRyS extended her arms, and encased the giant’s hands in crystals, blue for the left and magenta for the right, watching as its attacks were seemingly stopped in its tracks.

Pekora aimed for the left hand, firing a pair of homing missiles, watching as the explosion took out the hand, apparently disabling it. From the other side, Elira and Selen flew in to simply rip off the other hand as Pekora flew back in front of the giant.

“Alright, I have the time I need to-”

She quickly shut up as she watched the head of the giant. In the area where its face should’ve been, the concrete making up that portion of its head seemed to implode, giving way to an inky blackness.

From the blackness then emerged a storm of black and violet orbs, spreading over a wide area with most of them aimed at Bijou’s golem but many others aiming at anything that happened to be nearby. The effect was immediate; the sheer power of the attack started breaking apart Bijou’s golem into pieces, while Bijou herself jumped up and took to the skies, moving away from the collapsing remains of her rock golem.

“You did what you could.” Nerissa reassured Bijou, “And for much the same reason, we should both get out of here too.”

From the air, Ina extended her arms, attempting to capture the projectiles thrown her way, though she simply held on to them and didn’t fire them back.

Pekora smirked as she attempted to make her way through the spread attack, only to find herself thrown to the side as her mech was hit.

“Okay, that’s bad, but I can recover from that-”

She heard something explode behind her.

“Oh, that was an engine, wasn’t it? That’s…”

Realizing that she was likely done for, she refocused her attention as she lost altitude. As she did so, she made one last command through the ship’s speaker:

“Aim for the legs! It uses those to run!”

She then crashed into the ground, as she did so, she quickly ejected from the mech, and then ran away, watching as her mech was crushed underfoot by the walking mega-construct. Before the giant could catch up to Pekora herself with its huge stride, Kiara swooped down to pick Pekora up and take her back up into the relative safety of the air.

“I think that’s our cue to get out of here!” Kiara shouted while Pekora grumbled about how much of a pain it was going to be to ever get her mech insured again.

Ina, hearing Pekora’s earlier advice, then launched her attack, firing a series of reflected void orbs not at the mega-walker’s core in an attempt to destroy the void crystal directly, but at its legs, in an attempt to disable its mobility.

On the ground but a fair distance away, Fauna cast another spell, and then watched as a series of tree roots and oversized vines wrapped around the legs of the giant. While it appeared to win the struggle, snapping the plants with sheer force, it seemed to work at stalling it.

“Good thinking, Fauna!” IRyS shouted, “My turn now!”

IRyS extended her hands, and fired a beam of blue light at the left leg and then magenta at the right. As the two made contact, a massive wave of crystallization spread across the legs of the giant.

The effort was working; between the crystals, the vines, and the structural damage incurred by various attacks, the giant started to stall out, despite being hundreds of feet tall.

“Get him!” Bae shouted, looking at the results of her last dice roll, “Shame you don’t have legs now!”

She conjured and then threw a ridiculously oversized frisbee towards the left leg. It buried itself into the leg, still spinning for several seconds, before severing the left leg entirely into two pieces, and then exploding.

“Sana! Now’s your chance!”

With the left leg severed, the giant appeared to make a futile attempt to rebalance itself on one leg. But even that would fail, as Sana cast her own magic to manipulate gravity, rendering the giant even heavier than it already was. The right leg then snapped into pieces under its own and the rest of the giant’s weight, bringing the entire walking mega-construct down to the ground, once again collapsing it into a pile.

Shiori and Ina looked at the collapsed pile, while Sana floated up to meet them.

“The void crystal’s emanating some kind of anti-gravity aura, so I can’t crush it to bits.”

“You’ve done your job.” Ina mentioned, “In fact, the rift was sealed behind it, so our job is finished as soon as we stop… whatever this is.”

Bae and IRyS flew up to Shiori and Ina, as did Pomu, Elira with Finana riding her, and Selen with Petra riding her. Kanata showed up after that, looking a bit awkward owing to having done virtually nothing during the big conflict with the mega-construct that now lay seemingly dormant.

“Good job, everyone!” Bae exclaimed, “The power of friendship wins again. Which is kinda nice because I was honestly getting worried that we were going to look like idiots there, but actually we managed to make that work.”

Ina nodded. “We’ll have to start drilling into the pile to destroy the void crystal for good, but this is about as good as-”

The massive pile started rumbling again, interrupting Ina.

“Oh, right.” Shiori mused, “It can still move as a giant pile. Granted, that didn’t work out for it so well the first time, since it had no mobility and no way of really focusing its shadow missiles, and now it’s even smaller, since we blasted off a good chunk of its mass plus the stuff it shedded when it turned into a giant the first time, but now-”

Massive cracks suddenly emerged on the surface of the pile, openings for something to emerge once again.

Elira rolled her eyes. “How many phases does this stupid boss fight need?!”

The portion of the pile that emerged once again started shaping itself into a vaguely human shape, though this time it was less distinctly human and more monstrous. However, this time it didn’t seem to bother with forming legs.

Ina readied her magic, waiting for the mega-construct to make a move.

And then the back of the giant split open, massive swaths of asphalt once used to pave roadways now forming into a structure more familiar: a pair of gigantic wings.

“Oh come on!” Pomu shouted in annoyance, “Nothing that large and heavy should be allowed to fly!”

And yet, the giant did. With a flap of its wings, it took to the sky, arms reformed, wings on its back, though this time rather than legs the bottom half of the body was made of a plume of violet mist.

Sana extended her arms, only to frown as nothing happened.

“The void crystal’s anti-gravity aura is now extending to the rest of the construct. I can’t take it down with my powers.”

Bae and IRyS flew in front of the group.

“You’ve done enough.” IRyS spoke calmly, “Fauna’s probably not going to help too much here, either, which means it’s up to the two of us.”

“I’m right here!” Shiori complained, “And Ina’s still really powerful, too! Speaking of which: Ina, what’s the plan?”

“Get behind me.” Ina commanded.

The rest of the flying group then watched as the chest of the now airborne mega-construct opened up, revealing a now intact void crystal.

“Wait, what?” IRyS asked, “Why would it reveal its weak point-”

The question was answered as the void crystal proceeded to glow an intense violet, and then from it emerged a series of projectiles, each one of them black and leaving highly visible violet trails behind them as they traveled through the air at blistering speeds.

Ina once again extended her hands, and then the group watched as every one of the projectiles that would’ve hit them stopped in midair. All around them however, the entire forest was shredded by a series of explosions as the projectiles made contact with the ground.

Ina then reflected the remaining projectiles back at the shooter. As the projectiles traveled through the air, the void crystal sealed itself back up, once again covered by a layer of thick concrete that Ina’s projectiles failed to punch through.

Ina looked in horror at the monster in front of them.

“It learned how to utilize the void crystal as an offensive tool. That’s… bad, given the void energies within can do, well, that. It has a hidden super technique, and once it fully recharges, it’ll probably resume doing exactly that.”

“So in other words,” Shiori continued, “It’s weak spot can do just as much damage to us as we can do it. This hardly seems fair, but I guess we have no choice but to-”

And then a pair of homing missiles lit the sky with fiery trails, before exploding as they hit the flying construct.

IRyS gasped, as did Bae.

“I know those missiles!” Bae shouted, “Wait, does that mean…”

Another mech emerged from behind the group.

“Everyone retreat!” A voice merged from the mech that looked eerily similar to the mech that Bae and IRyS once fought. “This mech is designed exactly for a threat like this. You guys aren’t.”

Sana, Bae and IRyS found themselves struggling to fight off tears as they recognized the voice as belonging to none other than Nanashi Mumei. A few seconds later, Fauna seemed to mysteriously float up into the sky, before making a silent gesture of ‘thanks’ to Sana, who had quickly raised a finger to help her float up to meet the group.

“Mumei!” Fauna exclaimed with relief, “You came back!”

IRyS smiled. “It’s nice to have the crazy powerful secret weapon on our side for once!”

“Oh, I’m not the real power here.” Mumei replied casually.

And then a new figure blinked into existence beside Mumei’s mech, one that the entire council knew.

They all gasped as they watched Ouro Kronii draw her time blades.

“Kronii-chiwa.”

Chapter Text

Kronii and Mumei both stared down the flying mega-construct in front of them, waiting for the first move. It didn’t take very long, as the airborne abomination proceeded to fly towards them.

Kronii smirked, suddenly flying ahead of the rest of the group while both of her time blades blinked out of existence. She then raised both of her arms in preparation for a spell.

“And just like all other things…”

And then the mega-construct simply stopped in midair as its own flow of time was locally suspended, simply hanging in the air completely motionless.

“...you cannot defeat the flow of time.”

Sana floated up to meet Kronii, keeping Fauna floating beside her. Bae and IRyS did the same.

“So, what changed?” Sana asked casually, “Last I heard, you were giving up on this world.”

“I asked Mumei what she saw in humanity that made it worth protecting.” Kronii explained. “And she said I’d have to see for myself. And… I didn’t get it. Maybe I still don’t. All I saw was a bunch of insignificant souls making a futile stand against the forces of fate. I didn’t understand why anyone would fight if they knew that they wouldn’t matter in the long run.”

“Kronii…” Fauna uttered.

“But I was wrong.” Kronii admitted, “It’s because it doesn’t matter. Everyone here could simply give up, and by next year the result would be exactly the same. And thus, by making a stand here, by choosing to fight rather than simply accepting the end result of what the fates will bestow upon you anyway, you send a message: for what little your life does matter, you chose to help. And that willingness to stand one’s ground, even in the face of a truly inevitable defeat… maybe that is the true worth of humanity that I was never able to grasp.”

She turned towards Mumei’s mech.

“And even this was in Mumei’s nature - she wanted to prevent the empress from waking up, knowing that this was the fate of the world if she were to awaken. And ultimately, while she fought against us, in the moments we fought back - isn’t she simply representing herself as her own form of last stand against us, the inevitability of fate itself? And Mumei, if there’s any memory of us left in you… then can we remember this moment? Even if it doesn't matter, let this fight be the last memory of both humanity and this universe.”

“I’ll try.” Mumei answered, “When you unfreeze the monster, I’ll start shooting. With the fancy mech and everything!”

“Geez,” Bae replied, “how fast were you able to repair Despair from when we blew it up?”

“Don’t be silly!” Mumei replied back, “This is the second prototype anti-magic mech, codenamed ‘Rage’; it has just as many weapons.”

Kronii snapped her fingers, and the monster resumed motion. A series of homing missiles were fired from Rage as Mumei backed up to avoid being simply swiped down by the airborne construct’s massive claws, exploding on the flying giant.

The head of the giant opened a pair of eyes, both of them ink-black in color and staring down Rage as Mumei piloted it upwards. From the eyes, another wave of void missiles were fired upwards into the sky, though less numerous than from the attack from the void crystal itself, and this one aimed directly at Mumei rather than scattered throughout the entire area.

Mumei proceeded to fly Rage around, making the dodge look effortless as everything missed her. In term, she aimed downwards, and watched as one of her arms opened up to reveal a glowing weapon of some sort.

A beam of light was emitted from it, aiming for the head of the giant. It hit, and then pierced through the head, destroying it in the process.

“Got ‘em!” Mumei shouted, only to then frown as much of the material on the neck simply reformed to make a new head. In turn, it flew upwards to match Mumei’s altitude, and then extended both arms, unleashing a series of shadowy orbs towards Rage.

Mumei again didn’t falter, instead calmly weaving her way between the orbs and letting the magic resistance of Rage keep herself safe.

“It’s pretty stupid fighting against the one weapon that was made specifically for fighting something like you!” Mumei shouted.

In turn, the giant flew towards Rage, preparing to once again swipe it with its massive claws. Mumei then flew Rage downwards, ducking underneath the strike and the rest of its body. The giant then reoriented itself to face downwards, before firing a pair of violet beams downwards from its eyes.

Mumei kept flying around, keeping barely ahead of both of the beams.

“Should’ve picked a smaller form so you can turn your head faster!” Mumei exclaimed, “Can’t catch me like this!”

“Mumei,” Kronii said as she suddenly blinked beside Rage, “Those beams are carving up the land down there, so I wouldn’t be too happy about that.”

“Right.” Mumei replied, “Okay, here’s the plan: you stab the thing when the opportunity arises. You’ll know what I mean.”

Kronii nodded, and then blinked out of the way, leaving Mumei to continue outrunning the two giant violet beams that then faded out as the attack seemingly ran out of energy.

Mumei quickly turned her mech around, and fired another laser blast, this time at the left arm, which was promptly severed from its body. Another series of void orbs proceeded to prove ineffective against the mech’s native shielding. The giant then started flying downwards to once again strike with a possibly more effective physical attack, only to find its right arm entirely encased in crystal.

“Forgot about us?” IRyS asked rhetorically with a smug tone to her voice.

“Bad mistake on your part!” Bae said, snapping her fingers and watching as several precise lightning strikes from implausibly far away clouds shattered through the crystal and then somehow even through the concrete keeping its arm attached to its body.

The giant roared, having only its head and torso left. And yet, even in this moment, Ina’s face remained serious as she watched Rage charge towards the giant.

“I’m starting to feel a rise in concentrated void energy. It’s preparing its special attack one more time.”

And as Ina predicted, the chest of the airborne giant opened up, revealing a void crystal with a powerful violet glow, ready to unleash an attack that would devastate what was left of the valley at close to point blank range with Rage.

However, it didn’t get that far, as a pair of time blades were instantly embedded into the crystal by Kronii. Then, an instant later, both of them were gone, leaving only a cracked crystal behind, all while Kronii teleported back to Ina’s position.

Mumei grinned.

“Well, time to go.”

And then she ejected, spread her own wings, and then watched as Rage crashed into what was left of the void crystal with maximum velocity.

The void crystal exploded with such force that even the massive giant was torn apart by it. Ina and Shiori both cast a barrier in front of everyone in the air to protect them from the shockwave of the explosion, and then watched as what was left of the giant simply fell down to the ground, a massive chunk of now totally inert construction materials slamming into the ground with enough force to leave a crater.

The valley had been virtually destroyed, and yet everyone in the air simply looked at each other as they descended back to the ground, knowing that there was no other word for their scenario other than victory.

“Okay,” Selen mused, “I think that’s a sign that we’ve finally beaten that thing.”

As Mumei and Kronii touched the ground, they were greeted with applause.

Ina was the first to congratulate the council that had appeared before her.

“I suppose I owe you six my eternal gratitude for saving the world.” Ina admitted, “Or at least, for saving the people in the vicinity of this mess. I know not what your motivations for suddenly saving us are, but regardless of that fact you did save many.”

Mumei shrugged. “Humanity’s funny like that. We’re not rational. Fighting against the inevitable? Yeah, that’s something we do. It’s not about actually changing our fate. It’s about proving that we aren’t going to take that fate lying down. And maybe that’s why we fight: in the moment where it doesn’t matter, the only reason to fight is your own will, or the will of humanity.”

“And that,” Kronii continued, “is why I decided to help. Because people will act according to their circumstances. But removed of circumstances, placed into a moment where the human will, the human conscience is the only element that is making decisions… Most people are good. Some are still bad, but most will do the right thing. And if that’s the case, then maybe people aren’t so bad, after all.”

Ina nodded. “They were afraid of me. Afraid of my predecessor. The entire empire prior to recent events was nothing more than the world’s largest prison, and every single action they took was just a precaution against, well, this. And given the events of today, maybe they had good reason to be afraid, too.”

“But none of that matters now.” Amelia continued, having arrived to meet the rest of the group, “Not because we can undo the damage that’s been done - not without resetting, anyway - but because ultimately after the events of today, the only thing guiding us is our own conscience - and that means we have an opportunity to actually care. Granted, I suppose I’m saying that because I’m not the one who’s going to be dealing with the paperwork of pardoning pretty much our entire supernatural population at the same time. Have fun with that.”

Ina facepalmed. “Way to suck the fun out of any celebration, Ame.”

“Welcome to my life.” Amelia uttered, “Except I also had to use that paperwork to fool other former empire officials; you at least have the option of, you know, being entirely honest. Granted, you’re dealing with a lot more of it than me.”

“And it doesn’t matter in the long run, anyway.” Mumei continued, “Because I think multiple people have changed opinions today. I don’t want to die anymore. I remember why I wanted to protect humanity, even, instead of just doing it by reflex.”

Shiori smirked. “Yeah. Despite my former opinions, I want to help the empire under Ina’s leadership. You have a lot to pay for… but I think you’re willing to pay it, so why bother still being angry about it? Everyone I’d want revenge on probably got killed by someone who deserved revenge far more than I ever could.”

Ina frowned. “You shouldn't support my predecessor’s wish to end the world, given how many innocent lives that would’ve taken. But I agree, too.”

“That, and it doesn’t matter anyway.” Kronii admitted, “But it’s true, you’ve changed many opinions, including my own. The reality is, I think… it may have been my own negligence that led humanity down the dark path it followed. And that is why, even though we cannot prevent the great undoing, I will make a final promise to everyone here: in the next universe, I will make sure that humanity - and yes, Mumei - gets the second chance you deserve.”

Ina and Amelia froze.

“Kronii,” Amelia spoke nervously, “are you implying that you’re still going to end humanity?”

“Along with everything else. Trust me, your fate in a world in which the great undoing continues… trust me, my ending is far preferable. But I appreciated you for what you did, for how you tried to use my powers - because you taught me to care. And that’s why I grant your race salvation; a merciful end at the hands of fate itself instead of being destroyed by the void. In the next universe, I promise that I will not fail you.”

Chapter Text

A moment of tense silence followed Kronii’s statement, before it was broken by Fauna, speaking a quiet but pointed anger to her voice.

“Kronii, after everything you’d witnessed, how could you just… give up?”

“Maybe you didn’t hear me.” Kronii answered, “But I’m not. I’ve decided that I’m going to make sure that humanity prospers in the next world.”

“I heard.” Amelia replied, “But that still sounds like you’re giving up on this world, though.”

“Just as you gave up on your first attempt?” Kronii asked, “What I’m doing is exactly the same. Just larger in scale. Make no mistake, Amelia: I let you perform that reset because you’re persuasive, both to other people and even to me. It only seems fair that I allow myself the honor of trying all over with a new universe. We’ve done it before. And we’ll almost certainly do it again.”

Amelia looked down at the ground as she answered. “That was different. I had lost everything by that point. I had nothing left to lose. This world still has a lot left to lose.”

“And that, I suppose, is where I disagree.” Kronii replied, “You can delay the inevitable all you want. Your defense against five rifts now will not matter when you have to seal seven rifts at once later. And then twelve. And then a thousand more. And then, even what shred of humanity holds on after will fall when the void simply consumes the world whole. That is what I am trying to prevent - pointless suffering. Make no mistake: I understand why you’re annoyed. But I’m saying that a second chance with a new universe is the only mercy humanity will find in the wake of the great undoing. You’re treating this like a game you can still win. The reality is that you’re merely playing out a forced checkmate sequence.”

IRyS frowned. “And you think either Chaos or Hope is going to believe that?”

“As council leader,” Bae continued, “I urge you to think about this. If anyone can create new possibilities to salvage this timeline… it’s us. Can you think about it first?”

“I have.” Kronii answered, “More times than you know. I know you don’t like it, and I know you don’t remember the thousands of universes I’ve already terminated for one reason or another - all of them that taught me valuable lessons for the next. Still, if we want to have this discussion properly, then I’m willing to have it, if you have a more solid argument. I’ll be in the astral realm otherwise.”

And then she blinked out of existence.

“Why I put up with her sometimes, I don’t know.” Bae uttered, “Alright, we’re going back to HQ! We’ve got only one shot at stopping her!”

Sana raised a hand. “Actually, I’m going to stay here. I kinda want to see this world a bit more before we throw everything out?”

Bae frowned. “She listens to you more than anyone else.”

Sana nodded. “That’s why I have to stay. Because I might be able to find a reason to keep this world around. Besides, she’ll fold just as easily with Mei-mei.”

“Do it quickly, then.” Fauna replied, “We don’t have long, I imagine.”

And with that, Mumei, Fauna, Bae, and IRyS all teleported out, leaving a large number of people to sit there in silence.

Amelia turned around, finding that there were suddenly a lot of people in front of her: her myth friends, all of Shiori’s group, Sana, Elira and Selen and the rest of their group, Shion, Kanata, Towa, Pekora, Ayame, Fubuki, Mio, Lamy, Nene, Botan, and Polka.

“...I’ll be honest,” Amelia admitted, “I tried to talk her out of it, but I… I don’t think she was going to listen no matter what I said. All of you… you should go, enjoy the last moments you’ll have with this world…”

She pulled out her watch.

“...because I think Kronii forgot I had this. And now I’m going to do something really stupid.”

On a large platform overlooking a swirling mass of timelines, Kronii stared into the infinite, both of her time blades drawn, hesitant, but ready to move.

And yet, she didn’t, as the presence of at least one of her friends was immediately sensed.

“Bae. I suppose you think you’re going to stop me from trying this.”

Bae sighed. “I mean, ultimately the timeline stuff is your business. I don’t agree, but you’re definitely more qualified to make the judgment call than I am. I mean, and it’s kinda weird to admit it, but it’s not even going to hurt us. It’s as you’ve always said: just one more turn of the eternal cycle. One more spin of the wheel. But I do wish… I wish you didn’t think like that, sometimes. I know what you’re like.”

“But,” IRyS continued, “Is that what you really think of us? Nothing more than pawns to be set up for a game of creating and destroying timelines?”

She also sighed. “I don’t know why I bother. I know you’ll never listen to me on something like this - and Bae’s right, this isn’t my domain. But…”

Fauna went next. “Bae’s not willing to be as harsh as I am. I want to hate you for this. But I can’t. I never could. I don’t want you to do this. I know my vote won’t change things, but I think it’s still worth saying out loud.”

“Same here, to be honest.” Mumei continued, “Look, I already accepted that humanity was doomed the moment the empress died - yeah, I knew she had a contingency spell ready to destroy absolutely everything - but didn’t I just show you the best part of all of that?”

“Yes.” Kronii answered. “And that’s why I’m planning to give everyone a second chance. A real second chance, one where I don’t make the mistakes that led us here in the first place. If you… if you do hate me, then say it out loud.”

“I can’t!” Mumei answered, “Because I already have too much to forgive you for. You’re the one who cleans up after my mistakes. If you hate me, that’d be one thing, but you’re doing all of this because you like me! I might keep forgetting but you always keep liking me! And that’s how it is, isn’t it, me, you, Fauna, we always find ways to destroy each other. And maybe it’s just karma that you’re the one destroying me this time after what I did to you.”

Kronii closed her eyes. “If karma was real, a being like me couldn’t exist. Not with the countless timelines I’ve abandoned, annihilated, even.”

“Nah.” Amelia replied, much to the surprise of everyone who had been there, “That implies you’re evil. You’re not. You’re just responsible for shouldering way too much of a burden. Honestly, put me in charge of creating a universe and it would not go any better than with you guys.”

Amelia raised her watch. “I figured you might want this back. So I decided to deliver it. In person, too!”

“Oh,” Kronii replied, “you discovered the emergency time jump feature. Impressive getting back here, though-wait, is this a setup for-”

A rift in space opened, only for Calliope, Kiara, Ina, Gura, Shiori, Bijou, Nerissa, Fuwawa and Mococo to jump out of it before it closed.

“I mean, yes.” Amelia answered, “Look, I know I don’t have much ground to stand on here. I’m just a detective. One with access to powers a bit beyond my pay grade, but still just a detective - I’m not shaping the entire world with my hands, or setting up the creation of a new universe.”

“We are fans of still being alive though.” Gura added, “Like, we’ve the ones living it, even if we don’t do all of the big flashy stuff.”

“The result of that,” Calliope continued, “is much like a problem I used to have. Underneath everything else, you have trouble understanding the value not of any part of life, but merely of life itself.”

“I vowed to make life itself the reason for living.” Kiara replied, “For me that means something different than for most people, but the idea’s still the same - it means realizing that every single day counts, all the way to the end, both good and bad!”

“And I get it.” Ina spoke solemnly, “The way you see it, at the end of the day, you’ll create a brand new universe and then nothing we do here will matter - and then you’ll go ahead and probably make a better universe. I’m not doubting your ability to do that, either on resetting or on doing a better job the second time.”

“But this world still has so many more stories to tell.” Shiori continued, “Even if there are other tales out there, I really don’t want to close the book on us that easily. Because these stories, well, they’re our stories, and they matter to us, the ones who write them.”

“Besides, if we made this mess,” Bijou added, “Shouldn’t we be the ones to clean it up? There’s no reason that you should have to fix everything for us!”

“Look, I know you’re probably not interested in listening to us.” Nerissa uttered, “And that’s why the only thing I’m asking of you is to wait, to let us get just one chance to fix things.”

“We’ve been through a lot of pain.” Fuwawa murmured.

“But that pain is better than not feeling anything at all!” Mococo finished.

“For the record though,” Amelia continued, “if you do feel like helping us out directly, the power of the council would be much appreciated. If anyone can figure out a more permanent solution for the void rifts, it’s probably you five. And Sana, though I’m not sure where she went.”

“She’s like that sometimes.” Bae answered. “Is that all?”

The ten that had given the speech looked at one another.

“Yeah,” Shiori answered, “I think that’s probably it.”

“That was a really cool speech!” IRyS admitted, “For all of being the embodiment of hope I’m still not great at sounding like it. Come on, Kronii, you’ve got to listen to a motivational speech like that!”

Kronii smirked. “I suppose it makes sense that you remind me so much of Mumei, sometimes. So, is that where we stand? Am I, the one who would grant salvation to the human race, viewed as the villain of this story, even as I try to save you from your fate? Is this how you want to celebrate the birth of a new timeline?”

Shiori shrugged. “No one really thought it would end like this, so… I’m not sure. But I am sure of the story we’ve written thus far. And I refuse to let it end without a fight.”

Kronii frowned. “Then perhaps you should know that the end is already written. The future is nothing more than inevitability. Fate arrives all the same.”

“And yet,” Ina mused, “fate isn’t written. If Ao-chan believes I can survive the great undoing, then I will uphold my end of the promise - which is to continue living, even in a situation like this.”

Kronii floated into the air.

“You really think you can save this.”

“We don’t.” Amelia replied, “But that’s not the point. We’re not interested in being ‘saved’ by you rewriting our fates. Because we'd rather write our own fate, thank you very much.”

Kronii sighed. “Regardless of your actions, the only difference will be whether or not I reset now or reset later after more suffering than you can imagine. Stop making this difficult. Stop telling me how this story is supposed to end - because it’s already ended and you don’t know it yet.”

And then she turned around to face the tapestry of interwoven timelines.

“So I will save you from the depths of the timestream, even from yourselves.”

And then she fell, descending directly into the timestream with both time blades drawn.

Chapter Text

The silence that followed Kronii’s descent was short lived, mostly due to Shiori jumping in after Kronii.

“Get back here!” Shiori shouted as she jumped off the platform overlooking the timestream. Nerissa then flew in after her, followed by Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo.

Amelia led the second charge, with Gura, Ina, Kiara and Calliope following close behind her, leaving Fauna, Mumei, Bae and IRyS up on the platform.

“So…” Mumei stuttered, “do we help Kronii or try to stop her? I… I think I deserve this, but-”

Mumei watched Bae and IRyS jump into the time stream.

“You don’t deserve this.” Fauna replied, “Kronii doesn’t deserve this too. We’ll forget. Even if she’s trying to act like this is salvation…”

“I forget. But she won’t.” Mumei continued. “It might not hurt us. But it’ll hurt her instead.”

Mumei and Fauna then both jumped into the timestream.

Kronii continued her descent into the timestream. She knew her destination, knew what would be on the other side, and knew exactly which wires she needed to cut to initiate the end of time itself. Eventually, the tapestry dwindled, and as she landed at her destination, the rest of the timestream faded away as she landed in front of her clock tower within the domain of time.

She turned around, frowning as she saw Amelia drop down, the two of them facing one another.

“So,” Amelia replied casually, “I guess this is how it is.”

“This is how it has to be.” Kronii replied, “You should really just learn to take your second chance in stride.”

“It’s kinda hard to learn from what you don’t remember.”

Calliope, Kiara, Ina, and Gura landed behind her, followed by Shiori, Bijou, Nerissa, Fuwawa and Mococo. Fauna, Mumei, Bae and IRyS landed after that.

“You all followed me?” Kronii asked, “Look, I knew Amelia was going to do that because she always does stuff like this - and I’ve dealt with enough versions of Amelia to be used to it - but why are the rest of you risking yourselves here? If you die in the time stream, you won’t just die; you’ll be annihilated, erased from existence.”

“They have me, I guess.” Amelia answered casually, “Now, if you’ll let-”

And then Kronii noticed a series of vines suddenly growing around her. She slashed through one of them with a time blade, and then watched as the vines withered and died.

“Let us handle it.” Bae spoke calmly, “We’ve known her longer than you.”

Mumei jumped into the air, and then attempted to dive Kronii, who raised her hand, and then suspended Mumei’s momentum in mid-air. Kiara then unleashed a small fireball, which Kronii then stopped, and then the fireball not just stopped but reversed momentum as Kronii retroactively un-cast the spell.

“You’re up against an opponent who can both read the future and can retroactively un-cast your spells. You were all fools to challenge me here of all places.”

Kronii blinked to the side, and then snapped her fingers, watching Mumei crash into the ground as she resumed her momentum.

Mumei got up, seemingly fine. “C’mon, Kronii. I know you don’t want to do this.”

Kronii frowned at the sight. “I suppose the way I always acted made it easy for you to betray me. And yet, you’re making it really difficult for me to betray you. I’m doing this for everyone’s best interest, in the long run. Just… go. Let me give up on you.”

Bae jumped in front of the rest of the group.

“Kronii. I know you’ve never really listened to me as leader of the council, but I’m willing to respect you for the decisions you make, even when we disagree.”

“But,” IRyS continued, “what you’re trying to do isn’t just giving up on us. You’re trying to give up on yourself, too. And we won’t let you do that.”

“So, what will it be? Try reading this future.” Bae finished.

Kronii grinned, and then clutched her head.

“Argh, that’s too many possibilities…! I knew you would do that, and yet-”

Kronii watched a ring of crystals form around her, only for her to resume her fighting stance and reverse time on the crystals, watching as the ring retroactively un-formed.

Ina extended her tentacles while Gura raised her trident, only for both of them to be suddenly left frozen in time.

Shiori cast a lightning bolt, and then watched it immediately fizzle. From the perspective of each fighter except Kronii, the fight was incredibly chaotic; she not only moved out of the way but the entire fight situation often changed in the time that any of them were being frozen, effectively displaced in time on a micro-scale.

Shiori conjured her scissor blades, and swung both of them, only to be blocked by a single time blade from Kronii, who then froze Nerissa and Bijou. She then blinked out of the way, letting Shiori finish her strike into open air.

Fuwawa and Mococo then leaped at Kronii with their arms extended, only to crash into the empty floor as from their perspective Kronii simply blinked out of the way.

“As I said.” Kronii mused, “If you were going to stop me, this was the one place you absolutely could not do so. I can wield my powers at their maximum, and you cannot.”

Shiori watched both of her scissor blades suddenly fizzle from existence.

“Let’s end this.” Kronii finally stated, before Shiori suddenly found herself with a time blade embedded in her chest with no warning whatsoever. And then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it disappeared.

“If you want to be buried here, I can do that.” Kronii continued as she watched Shiori bleed out, “But I can’t let you keep going. Please, stop… stop being so goddamn idealistic. I want to believe you. And that’s… and that’s why I have to end it for you, too. Maybe you’ll feel better dying like a hero if-”

And then she blinked as she watched Shiori get up, watching as her blood was suddenly mysteriously covered up by some violet magic before disappearing, with Shiori getting up seemingly unharmed.

“Ah, sorry about that.” Shiori replied, “Ao-chan’s influence is a tiny bit weaker, so it takes a bit longer for them to micro-portal my blood back into my body. Suffice to say it’ll take more than that to kill me. Or I need to piss off Ao-chan first so he doesn’t think I deserve his gift anymore. Either way works.”

“In theory I can do that trick too.” Ina mused, “Though I’d prefer not to test that theory.”

Kronii sighed. “Then I guess we’re at an impasse. But here’s the thing: I have all of time to wait this out. Some of you do not.”

“Hang on.” Bijou interrupted, “If you’re planning to end the universe, doesn’t that mean the end of time isn’t actually very long from now?”

Kronii facepalmed, but failed to keep a smile off her face.

“You know what I mean! None of you can stop me given the discrepancy in our powers. Even Amelia didn’t want to pick that fight, knowing her watch is nothing compared to my powers.”

She turned around, and then a path made out of floating rock suddenly extended into the timestream.

And then Kronii realized Amelia wasn’t there.

“Wait, where did she go?”

“Oh, picking up a few friends.” Amelia answered casually as she walked out of a time rift, “They’re all named Amelia Watson.”

And suddenly, a huge squadron of various versions of Amelia Watson teleported in.

One of them looked ordinary, but gave Kronii a hell of a glare.

“So I hear you're terminating the timeline.”

Kronii shrugged. “Ah, I recognize you. You’re the Amelia of the Oasis. You’re here to save everyone before we restart. I suppose I can’t fault you for doing your job.”

“Nah, I’m here on a different mission. I’ll go as soon as we're done here. But do you wanna know what all of these versions of me have in common? I’ll give you a hint: they didn’t have many survivors when you cut off their timelines. And we’re not letting you erase an entire timeline while there’s still hope left. The rest of the Amelia squad I think will provide a good argument for giving us a bit more time.”

And with that, the Amelia of the Oasis turned around, and entered from the portal she entered in through.

“Leave it to her to make things interesting, I guess.” Kronii uttered.

The battle that followed was hard to follow from a non-time traveler’s perspective as both Kronii and the Amelia squad started rapidly blinking everywhere at once. Kronii turned around at the horde chasing her.

Kronii jumped into the air, looking at the crowd. “Geez, I know you guys are angry at me, but-”

And then Kronii was interrupted by what sounded like a chainsaw using only Ame’s voice.

“What the-”

Then she was hit by smol Ame ground pounding into her, causing her to crash into the ground.

As Kronii got up from the blow, she snarled.

“Seriously, you guys need to learn when to quit. Preferably before I have to take more drastic measures. I let the Oasis exist, and now I need all of you to go back there, preferably now.”

An Amelia dressed in a relatively casual outfit frowned as she watched Kronii get up.

“You don’t know what our loss is like.”

Kronii rolled her eyes. “You’re really saying that to me of all people?”

Another Amelia, this one in a priestess’ outfit of all things, frowned in response.

“Yeah, because what you’ve been through is so much worse.”

Kronii stopped, trying to comprehend what she just said while another Amelia, this one with longer hair and a black princess-like dress took a step forward, in front of the rest of the crowd.

“Like a lot of others, I spent a long time in therapy after arriving at the Oasis. I was… not in a good place when my timeline was severed. I’m in a better place now, but if that happened again… I’d be a fucking wreck of a person. And you’ve done it so many more times than any of us have, every time being the only person to remember anything. And I had my version of Gura to put me in therapy in the first place. You’ve always been alone.”

“Yeah,” Kronii admitted, “but I’m not human. That is the burden of being the Warden of Time - countless merges of countless timelines, erasing countless failures. This is why… this is why I try not to get attached to them. To Mumei. To Fauna, too. They’re temporary.”

“Then why are you so bad at it?!” Mumei shouted, “I don’t remember any version of you but this one. But answer me this: how many versions of me do you remember?!”

Kronii flinched at the question, as if answering hurt.

“I envy it, sometimes. I can remember them. I remember every single Mumei, every single Fauna who’s ever loved me.”

The rest of the Amelia squad started teleporting out, while the Amelia from this timeline walked forward.

“Then let us share your burden. Together, we’ll face the end, and we’re not going to give up.”

“Not while I’m alive, anyway.” Mumei admitted, “I’m way too stubborn for that.”

“Even if you don’t give up,” Kronii shouted, “what good is it when that just means you suffer more at the end anyway?!”

“It means that we have just that bit of extra time together.” Fauna answered, before both Mumei and Fauna enclosed Kronii in a hug.

“I’m sorry.” Kronii admitted, “I… I don’t know how to protect you anymore. I just want you to be happy.”

“I know.” Mumei answered, “If nothing else, can you remember this moment? Even if it doesn't matter, I wouldn’t mind this being my last memory of this version of me.”

Kronii cried, embracing Mumei.

“Of course. I’ll stay right here.”

Chapter Text

The silence that followed felt like it lasted hours, until Mumei, Fauna, and Kronii broke their hug.

“I said it before, but I’m sorry.” Kronii admitted. “I think the issue is that I never really had to face my inner demons. And that’s the nature of mortals - and even immortals, for those who aren’t like me. Most of us have to face some aspect of themself that they’d rather avoid. But I never did. I could always run. Reset, try again, and never admit failure. Take a thousand attempts, only take the best. And my inner demon only ever asked one question whenever I tried.”

“Which is?” Mumei asked.

“What happens when I break the cycle?” Kronii answered, “And I always replied that we’d never know. I intended on doing that forever, after all. But I suppose, now that we’re here and you’ve decided to intervene, we now need, if nothing else, an answer to that question.”

“I suppose this has always been one of our more fundamental differences.” Fauna answered, “From the very beginnings of life itself, I had to watch as everything I ever made inevitably grew up and then… went their own ways, I suppose. Confronting my inner demon was to realize that I couldn’t chase after life as it continued to go in directions that even I could not control. But that led to me appreciating the temporary, to accept that some things are simply temporary in nature, seeing the beauty of memory itself, which I hold onto as the Keeper of Nature.”

“And what I learned,” Kronii replied, “was that I could simply cheat the concept of consequences.”

“Funnily enough,” Bae replied, “I can sympathize with that, with the whole ‘Chaos’ thing and all. But you can’t cheat consequences entirely - you can only stall ‘em. Take consequences at their most minor, or eventually they won’t be so minor anymore.”

“I guess.” Kronii uttered, “That said, even though I can guess the answer, I do think it’s polite to ask: do you four forgive me for attempting to end the universe prematurely? It’s a large crime to ask a pardon for, given that it was both giving up on hope, would’ve annihilated both nature and humanity, and was disobeying the council leader, but…”

“Eh,” Bae answered first, “I said I’d leave resetting up to your best judgment, because the whole careful management of a timeline isn’t my domain. Leave it to the expert, you know?”

“You’re forgiven.” IRyS answered second, “I’m not mad about you falling to despair. I mean, if everyone could fight with the power of hope at their side, I wouldn’t be needed for anything around here!”

“I forgive you.” Fauna answered third, “No living thing can thrive in a vacuum - and you’ve been trying so hard for so long, it’s only natural for one to need to rest.”

“I forgive you.” Mumei finally answered, “I mean, it’s only fair, given you forgave me for stabbing you the first time. Let’s just pretend none of that happened and we can get back to saving the world.”

Kronii let out a breath of relief. “Thank you, then. Actually, before we continue, I suppose we should address the ten people here who aren’t associated with the council.”

“Well,” Ina replied, “I kinda figured that this was a conversation for the five of you.”

“We have bigger issues.” Shiori answered, “Like the whole ‘saving the world’ thing that you interrupted.”

“About that.” Kronii continued, “What is the current plan for saving the world from the great undoing? Given all of the inspirational speeches I really hope you have one.”

Bae shrugged. “I mean my plan is the same as it always is: make everything up as I go along. That’s always my plan though.”

Kronii sighed. “Given that we’re facing the possible end of the universe here, I was hoping for a slightly better plan than that. I guess I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up, given you.”

“It’s worked up until now!” Bae replied, “That said, given Mumei and Fauna have their aspect and their source of immortality with it on the line, I’m hoping those two have a plan.”

“I figured I’d shoot at the problem a bunch.” Mumei answered, “Worked out for us so far, unless the giant there is a common enemy, but if it was then I don’t know how you guys sealed the first four rifts without me.”

“No, that one was unusual.” Ina answered, “But Kronii does raise a good point: each time a rift opens, it is more-or-less permanently weakening the fabric of space itself. We’re essentially just taping over the rifts with void-powered tape, but ultimately this will continue until the fabric of space rips open fully, and then at that point a wave of void magic will consume the entire planet - and we can’t fight that.”

“And that is why I wanted to give up on this universe.” Kronii continued, “As you are probably guessing, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen the world end this way. This is the most impressive fight I’ve seen any civilization put up, but ultimately I didn’t want to watch a struggle that in all of the many failed timelines I’ve seen, would only end one way: with the destruction of the world.”

“I think there’s one thing that’s different this time.” Shiori cut in, “Namely, that we have the power of the void trying to stop the whole thing, too. If the void has the power to end the world, it should have the power to stop the process that would cause the end of the world. How long do you think we have until everyone dies?”

“Quite a while,” Kronii answered, “but that’s more speaking to humanity’s perseverance than anything else; civilization will collapse long before then. I didn’t feel like waiting for that.”

“Then neither can we.” Shiori replied, “Whatever we do, it’s gotta be faster than the end of the world - we have a time limit.”

“But what can we do?” Bijou asked, “Not unless you’re planning on doing something crazy like moving the entire planet somewhere else.”

“Even if you could, unless you moved the sun as well everyone would freeze to death.” Fauna replied, “Things out there in space help keep life down here alive. It’s a difficult problem to solve unless we’re willing to take drastic measures.”

“True.” Kronii admitted, “My drastic measure is rewriting the timeline, but we appear to have ruled out that option.”

“I mean, a smaller reset might be nice.” Amelia admitted, “But that just puts us in the catch-22 of needing the empress to die to get Ina her full powers, while the empress’ death is what triggers, well, the situation we’re in now. It’s a lose-lose either way. I think we simply have to figure out a way to save the entire world, or at least sufficiently delay the inevitable.”

“Speaking of delaying the inevitable,” Ina chimed in, “I’m not back there to help seal the rifts any more, so uh, can you get us back there in case any more have popped up?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” a new voice entered, “I sealed those up already.”

The voice belonged to Tsukumo Sana, the Speaker of Space.

“So, yeah, I kinda fixed the whole problem already. Sort of; I’ve started the process but I can’t get it to operate fast enough.”

“What process?”

“Moving the entire solar system to a different place. It turns out the holes in reality manifest into the fabric of space in space to start out with, and then anchor themselves to the Earth after the fact. If we simply move the entire solar system, it loses the anchor, meaning the rifts can’t form.”

Everyone jaw-dropped.

“Did you…” Kronii stammered, “Did you just suggest moving the entire solar system as a viable solution? I mean, I get the theory, but even you can’t move that much that fast. And you certainly can’t do it without removing your limiter, which…”

“Uh, won’t civilization slightly freak out?” Mumei asked, “How did you hide this?”

“Um, well…”

“Hello small humans!” Sana shouted as her body that was taller than the Sun loomed over the planet, “I am Tsukumo Sana, the Speaker of Space, member of the council that administers your universe and one of the gods of creation. You are being rescued; please don’t resist!”

“...I didn’t!”

Mumei and Fauna facepalmed.

“Anyways,” Sana continued, “before we continue further: we should probably exit the timestream and get back to headquarters, so let me just…”

She snapped her fingers, and all sixteen people present were immediately transported to the council headquarters into what appeared to be a large hall of some sort.

“...do that.” Sana finished, “Okay, so here’s the current problem: due to relativity reasons, I can’t move the entire solar system fast enough to stop it from getting eaten by the void, because after enough rifts pop up it kinda totally breaks local space entirely and eats everything nearby. Trying to move the entire solar system fast is going to require a few different powers being used at once; the first is that I need an instability in causality - that’s Bae - and I’ll need Kronii to slow down time for the planet to move everything fast enough. I’ll use my powers to amplify the actual teleport spell, but ultimately I need Shiori and Ina’s help.”

“Wait, really?” Shiori asked, “What do you need us for?”

“We can take other things with us when we voidwalk.” Ina answered, “And your plan is to use the void to spatially displace the entire solar system at once. I’m sorry to say that while I’m powerful, but I’m not that powerful.”

“I’ll supply the power.” Sana answered, “Bae, too, since her powers can just do whatever. And probably IRyS, since the power of hope is kind of just ridiculously powerful. Also, for safety reasons, we’ll be doing this all from here - that is, once I spatially move the council headquarters to low Earth orbit. Actually, it won’t be that low, but nonetheless we’re going to be orbiting the Earth during the casting of the spell. Any objections?”

“We’re not supposed to reveal ourselves to civilization beyond brief appearances.” Bae answered, “But I suppose given the maximized council alert that we can void that rule for now and ignore violations of it.”

“It’s gonna be a mess to clean up, though.” Mumei answered, “Still, that’s a plan, so let’s go with it. Besides, with Sana introducing us, the whole ‘oh hey there’s a gigantic extra-dimensional space station now floating above your planet’ thing is probably kinda mundane in comparison. Just be prepared to deal with the whole ‘religion’ thing, since unlike a lot of gods people worship we’re actually kinda, you know, totally real.”

“We’ll worry about that later.” IRyS answered, “Back to where we were: are there any last minute preparations that need to be made? You know, for safety reasons, since I’m pretty sure we’re violating like, every magical safety rule ever.”

“I’ll go over the checklist,” Sana answered, “but I think we’re good to start. Technically, if Kronii does her part right, it’ll all happen instantly, so it shouldn’t matter all that much?”

“I don’t like the amount of ‘if’s in this plan.” Kronii lamented, “But I suppose it’s what we’ve got. Sana, are you ready to warp headquarters into orbit?”

Sana nodded. “Ina, Shiori, are you ready to start channeling the powers of the void?”

Both Ina and Shiori nodded.

“IRyS,” Sana continued, “Are you ready to hope?”

“I always am.” IRyS answered.

Bae grinned. “Then I’m ready to start the probability shifter - we might only have one possibility of making this work - and I’ll be the one to make sure we land on it.”

Sana snapped her fingers.

“We’re now in orbit. Prepare for-hang on, something’s… off.”

Ina froze.

“I sense the presence of someone who should be dead. Empress, what are you doing now?”

Chapter Text

Everything went silent as Ina uttered those words.

Not for long, however, as Gura broke the silence: “We saw her get eaten by the rift, right? You know, the one that ate the capitol buildings?”

Ina nodded. “You might want to think about the foolishness of disposing of a void mage - and, in fact, the most powerful void mage in existence - using the void of all things. But… she wanted to die, so why… Ao-chan, answer this for me.”

Ina clutched her head as her mind was instantly flooded by a deluge of information spoken only in whispers incomprehensible to normal people.

“Okay…” Ina stuttered, “so apparently despite dying physically the empress was so enraged that her pure spiritual self has taken over what her physical self has started instead of moving on to her proper afterlife. So, actually, we did kill her physical self. Unfortunately, spiritual beings are harder to kill than physical ones, and that is who is the mastermind of the great undoing.”

“I’d complain,” Shiori mused, “but I did exactly this to get my friends out of the void. It’s really only fair that someone uses that ability for evil, especially one that’s probably way more powerful than I am.”

Ina frowned. “Well, at least we have an explanation for how the mega-construct we fought at the fifth rift seemed so intelligent: it was being aided by someone with, well, intelligence. Give me a bit; I need to talk with her. Or what’s left of her, more appropriately.”

What followed was a series of noises that were theoretically vocal sounds but had little resemblance to normal human speech, half of which were coming from Ina’s mouth and the other half which were being transmitted psychically to the group.

Ina rolled her eyes, whispered in an eldritch tongue a bit more, and then sighed.

“Okay, out of everyone here, who can fight spirits? Because…”

“I can.” Calliope answered.

“If she can still hear, then I should be able to help.” Nerissa followed.

“That’s perfect.” Ina continued, “As you two aren’t needed for the whole ‘relocating the solar system’ spell, which means-”

“Uh, guys?” Shiori suddenly asked, “If we’re in orbit of the Earth, we might have a bigger problem, namely the new rift that just opened. The one that opened above here, not the Earth.”

Sana raised a finger. “Ah, that. I can fix that easily enough; actually the neat thing is that it’s not even anchored to the Earth - it’s sticking in place relative to headquarters, which means it’s either perfectly replicating our orbit or it’s aimed at us directly. And that means we can just skip this whole fight, really, because we can finish the relocation of the solar system right now while she attacks this place instead of her real target.”

Bae facepalmed. “I suppose we can rebuild this place more easily than we could rebuild an entire planet. Sana, start the spell right now.”

Sana nodded. “Ina, Shiori, start channeling your magic.”

Ina and Shiori both raised their hands.

“Kronii, freeze time for the planet.”

Kronii snapped her fingers.

“Alright,” Sana continued cheerfully, “let’s keep going…”

Sana flinched as the strain of the spell she was about to cast started to hit her.

“Sana!” Bae cried out, “Are you okay?”

“Nothing that I won’t be able to recover from…” Sana replied, “Just hold it together for a bit… Okay, Ina, Shiori, you’ve done your part. IRyS, Bae, prepare to channel your powers, just for good luck.”

Ina and Shiori lowered their hands while Bae and IRyS raised theirs.

An explosion rocked the halls of the chamber everyone was standing in.

“That sounded bad.” Nerissa replied flatly.

“Okay,” Sana uttered under her breath, “just keep her distracted…”

And then she fell to her knees.

Another explosion blasted away the wall opposite of Sana.

Ina immediately ran to the front of the group with her arms raised and tentacles extended as a shadow appeared behind the dust the blast kicked up. Calliope and Kiara positioned themselves to Ina’s right, while Gura and Amelia positioned themselves to her left.

“Empress…” Ina whispered, “is that you?”

The only sound that emerged was a hushed whisper in an eldritch tongue.

“Uh, is that an actual language?” Gura asked.

Ina rolled her eyes. “Let me translate… for all things, the end eventually comes, and this world’s time has simply passed.”

Ina whispered back again in another eldritch whisper. She then sighed.

“I suppose we are once again at an impasse.”

Ina then frowned, and turned around to face the rest of her group.

“We’ll have to fight.”

The group gasped as they saw the being that emerged from the rift. The core figure was a human girl, but her body looked more dead than living, with what was left of her skin scarred by dark violet markings with a cloud of violet magic that was seemingly both eating away at and yet at the same time supporting her body. The outfit was identical to Ina’s, a similar set of tentacles sprouting out of the empress’ back.

“So… this is what has become of your spirit.” Ina lamented, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t rescue you earlier. But if this really is my world, as you said it was, then I’m the one who’s taking control of everything now. We already convinced the Warden of Time to not reset the universe unless it actually ends.”

The empress hands started glowing with violet energy.

“And actually,” Kronii added as she walked forward, “As the Warden in question, I’m not letting you go any further, for a number of different reasons. The first being that the rest of the people here made a good argument for not destroying the world - namely that they’re still living in it.”

And then the empress raised her hands and fired a pair of violet orbs. Kronii raised a hand, and watched as they stopped in mid-air. They then reversed direction back to the empress and then disappeared, the spell retroactively un-cast.

“The second reason,” Kronii continued, “well, that's a little more direct: we’ve already won.”

“Hey, Kronii!” Bae shouted, “Sana’s finished, so I think now’s a good time to get everyone out of here, and then I’ll activate the self-destruct sequence.”

Kronii blinked. “Why does this place have a self-destruct sequence-you know what, I’m not going to ask that, because you’re the one who installed it and you never make sense. Now, if you can excuse us, we’re-”

A series of tentacles extended out from the empress, a few from her back but many from miniature rifts that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, quickly grabbing Amelia, Gura, Calliope, and Kiara. About a second later, all four of the tentacles that had restrained the four were instantly cut down.

Ina raised her hand, and then teleported the four back to Sana’s position, leaving Kronii in front, who quickly extended a hand, freezing the empress in place.

“I have to admit, you had me worried for a second, but-”

And then somehow, another miniature rift opened, a tentacle extended from it, and then impaled Kronii.

“How…?” Kronii choked as her body was lifted into the air.

This tentacle didn’t last long either, as it was cut in half by Shiori, who slashed it in half with a large scissor blade.

“Quit it! You can’t win against all of us at once!”

Kronii stumbled from the wound, before snapping her fingers and suddenly blinking back to Sana’s position, the wound seemingly disappearing.

“Ugh, that hurt. Sana, if you can get us out of here before-”

And then her eyes widened as she watched the empress charge another attack. This time, however, her hands glowed blue, rather than violet.

“Wait,” Kronii objected, “I know what you just did, and now I see what you’re going to do. Don’t. I know you think you can wield this power, and I promise you that you can’t, because-”

And then the council headquarters shattered all around them, a massive rift consuming everyone who was present in council headquarters.

“No!” Kronii shouted as she watched the environment shift to one she knew quite well: the domain of time itself surrounded by the interwoven tapestries of the timestream. “You… really wish to erase everything?”

The empress nodded in affirmation, before speaking once again in another set of eldritch whispers.

“Predictably,” Ina translated, “she’s asking why we should want to save this world, given that humanity is clearly awful. And I’ll admit that I… I do sympathize with wanting revenge above all else, given what humanity has put you through. But first: the first void rift already consumed most of the people you would’ve been angry at anyway, and second: there are still people who can make a difference. Amelia taught me that lesson. Perhaps more than once.”

Another whisper.

“I understand that you want closure.” Ina replied, “But my story isn’t finished, not yet anyway. And more importantly, their stories aren’t finished either. And if you don’t understand that…”

Everyone present took a battle stance.

“Then we’ll show you.” Ina finished. “I asked Ao-chan what was up with how the void constructs were operating, but the answer they gave was, as I suppose most of their advice tends to be, only properly contextualized after the fact. It’s because you started controlling them. Our powers are fundamentally one and the same. And thus, in a battle such as this, the only thing that will decide the fate of all things is my own will, as well as the will of my friends.”

“And one of those friends,” Shiori continued, “has a will strong enough to break the concept of life and death. Because I knew our story wasn’t finished. And we won’t let our story end here. I’m not one to really pay too much attention to all of the eldritch whispers and whatnot, but if what Ina is saying is true, that this really is a battle of wills…”

She grinned.

“Then you have picked the worst fight you could possibly pick!”

“I mean,” IRyS mused, “it is pretty silly to get into a willpower contest with the literal incarnation of hope, now that I think about it. Oh, and with the Guardian of Civilization. And everyone else here, too.”

“And to mess with my domain of all places?” Kronii asked, “I know what you’re thinking, if there’s any thought still left in there. And it’s not worth it. It’s never worth it, if the thousands of failed timelines is anything to go by. What you’re doing here is erasing the one and only chance you could’ve had for a peaceful resolution. Calli’s right here. She can send you to the afterlife. But if you fight us here… you will be erased from the timeline. Your entire existence will be wiped out. There will be nothing left of you, not even the remnants of a soul. Just. Rest.”

The empress simply stared at the group in dead silence, not even whispering.

And then she floated into the air, a large formation of crystals started growing around her. The crystals that grew started violet, and then started glowing blue as they started absorbing power from the timestream around them. The crystals continued merging until they finally merged into what effectively became one giant azure crystal that completely encased the empress in one giant octahedral crystal.

Ina raised her head, staring at the empress with newly hardened resolve.

“For the sake of my friends… I will not rest until I have made things right.”

Shiori continued: “I will not rest until the resolution of our story.”

Kronii went next. “And I will not rest until the light of this universe is finally extinguished.”

“And that,” Amelia finished, “Is all fancy talk for something simpler: we’re going to fight until the world is saved, no matter what it takes.”

Everyone drew their weapons and started preparing their spells.

Amelia aimed her revolver at the crystal, and fired once.

Chapter Text

Much to Amelia’s annoyance, her dramatic single shot failed to do anything more than chip the outside of the massive crystal.

“Well, that did about as much damage as I thought it would do. So much for the dramatic moment.”

A bolt of violet lightning clearly belonging to Shiori struck the crystal, chipping part of the crystal off but again failing to do substantial damage.

Ina frowned. “The empress is holding the crystal together with her own willpower. It will not break to anything short of being obliterated.”

“Fine by me!” Nerissa replied as she then unleashed a vocal shout in an attempt to shatter the crystal with only her voice, only for it to fail.

All of a sudden, a large number of smaller void rifts opened. Each one of rifts proceeded to fire a violet projectile, the empress going on the offensive almost immediately with a large firestorm of attacks.

Ina and IRyS both raised their hands, conjuring a violet barrier around the group that weathered the attack seemingly easily.

Gura threw her trident, which then embedded itself into the crystal, while Kiara flew in to strike it with a stream of fire.

And then it spoke.

This was not a whisper, like the previous messages, but was a full-blown shout, a conglomerate of voices speaking out in a chaotic manner in an eldritch tongue.

The effect was immediate, as Gura, Amelia, Kiara, Calliope, Nerissa, Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo all clutched their heads as the voices invaded their minds, all while the crystal glowed, ready for another attack. It didn’t get very far, however, as a giant laser crashed into it, causing a large explosion.

Mumei, having conjured the oversized laser rifle in question, smiled.

“You’ve really got to thank those cult members for figuring out how to listen to the voices without going crazy. It means I can inherit their knowledge.”

She flew into the air, keeping her weapon locked onto the crystal. She fired again, this time with enough force to seemingly chip off a decent chunk of the actual mass of the crystal. Then the fragments of the crystal that had been blasted off then reoriented and started flying towards Mumei, who quickly un-made her weapon and flew upwards to avoid getting shredded by crystalline shrapnel.

The tip of the crystal was then suddenly cut off, a slash through both space and time by Kronii severing the azure solid and then blinking back. A series of seemingly random lightning bolts then struck the crystal, these ones red as Bae was the one to cast them.

The crystal then retaliated by glowing an ominous violet and then unleashing a round of violet projectiles that both left shadowy streaks in their wake and exploded on contact with anything they hit. The main thing they hit, however, was IRyS and Ina’s barrier, which cracked but otherwise held on against the onslaught.

Still, the attack did what it was intending on doing: keeping the group down while the crystal ascended both upwards and away into the timestream - a fate that Kronii knew would spell the end of the timeline as they knew it. As the attack finished, most of those on the ground despaired as the empress seemed to be escaping.

Just before it got away, however, a meteor hit it. The meteor has emerged from another rift, one that had been opened by Sana, who simply smiled at the explosion from below. The void crystal shattered from the impact, sending azure fragments of the crystal everywhere and freeing what was left of the empress’ body, which descended back down to the platform that the group was still standing on.

She didn’t land, however, as she instead reoriented herself and instead floated above the platform. In turn, the azure fragments of her protective crystal suddenly returned to her, forming into a new defensive formation.

A rocket, fired from a rocket launcher that Mumei conjured, slammed into the crystal and then exploded with enough force to crack it open once again, scattering the fragments of it across the platform.

And with the empress’ body exposed, Amelia decided to go for the killing blow, once again aiming her revolver at the empress, this time without a gigantic chunk of crystal in the way.

“I’m sorry.” Amelia whispered, “But I promise we’ll make something better out of this world.”

And then she fired. For a brief moment, she wondered whether or not the shot had even hit, but a few seconds later she received the answer when the void crystal started cracking apart even further.

Shiori conjured a barrier, this time just to absorb the crystalline shrapnel from the explosion that followed.

And then a moment of total silence followed, until the empress got up again.

Amelia facepalmed. “Right, this is her pure spiritual self, of course shooting her doesn’t work.”

The empress raised her voice, once again an eldritch shout causing almost everyone present to clutch their heads as the eldritch voice seeped into their mind.

Ina sighed. “You know, it’s hard to believe, but despite everything…”

The empress, what was left of her physically, snarled, enraged at Ina.

“...I can’t bring myself to hate you.” Ina finished. “I know you had nobody to help you when you needed it the most. But this…”

She looked at the remainder of the azure void crystals. Even these seemed to be falling apart.

“...I’m sorry. I’m sorry that it’s too late for you. History will not remember you. But I will. And Ao-chan, too.”

“Perhaps you realized,” Kronii mused, “that your soul would never be put to rest. And thus, the only way to be certain was to simply stop existing entirely.”

And then she looked more closely at what was left of the empress body, or more importantly the last of the crystal fragments, still seemingly glowing with the remnants of a power,

Kronii suddenly stumbled, and fell to one knee.

“Kronii!” Fauna shouted as she ran to Kronii’s side while Mumei ran to the other, “Are you alright?”

“Fine by human standards,” Kronii answered, “but the timeline… the empress…”

The trio looked up at the still standing empress, before Kronii got up once again.

A pair of time blades were then instantly embedded into the empress’ body, despite it being more crystalline than anything else. They then were suddenly gone, back in Kronii’s hands.

“I see what you’re trying to do,” Kronii stated calmly, “and I won’t let you. I might be perfect, and I might be trying to craft the perfect timeline, but that doesn’t mean that the timeline should just be subservient to me.”

The empress’s body seemed to crack apart, releasing an ominous stream of violet mist into the air that collected into streams not dissimilar to the lines woven throughout the timestream.

“Is she…?” Shiori asked, “Is she about to unleash a wave of void magic at the timestream itself?! Kronii, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’ve got to do something right now!”

Kronii’s eyes widened as she watched the violet streaks continue spreading out.

“Stop! This won’t fix anything! All you’re doing is condemning a large section of the entire multiverse to your own personal hell!”

IRyS landed beside Kronii.

“Look, I know you’ve been through your personal hell, but I’d really like it if you kept your personal hell, you know, personal!”

Bae landed beside IRyS, before turning towards Kronii.

“Do the thing, Kronii.”

The now almost-entirely crystal body of the empress started glowing with a powerful but ominous violet glow.

Kronii drew her time blades, and slashed forward with both of them. This was not a slash of a purely physical nature, but instead one that slashed apart the fabric of both space and time itself. The empress, at the same time, unleashed her final attack: a wave of void magic that was powerful enough to potentially annihilate the entire timeline itself.

Two forces capable of rewriting the universe collided at once, igniting in a flash of light, and then all of time broke apart for a brief moment as Kronii then unleashed the most powerful spell she knew.

“Goodbye, empress.”

Shiori woke up, unsure of where she was. She’d never been here, and yet she felt at home in this place.

The comfy bed that she had woken up in was probably a good portion of why that was the case.

“I really hope I didn’t die again.”

“Nope,” Nerissa replied, “Unless we all died together, but this doesn’t look like the afterlife to me. Also, this room has five beds - well, three single mattresses and the bunk bed for the twins - which tells me that someone set this up for us.”

“But we still have no idea where we are, aside from the fact that it’s some sort of bedroom.” Shiori replied, “Speaking of the five of us: Bijou, Fuwawa, Mococo, you all okay?”

“My head hurts…” Bijou murmured, “but I think I’m fine otherwise.”

“I’m… awake…” Fuwawa grumbled, clearly not actually very awake.

“Fuwa-chan, wake up…” Mococo whispered in annoyance.

“Wait.” Nerissa suddenly interrupted, “I hear voices outside, and… oh, it’s Ina. Okay, so we’re probably not in the middle of enemy territory.”

A knock was heard on the door.

“Is anyone there?” Ina asked, “My sources are cagey about the time displacement, but I think you guys were supposed to show up today.”

“We’re up.” Shiori answered, “Wait, time displacement? Are we ten thousand years into the future or something? Or I suppose even worse, the distant past.”

“You’re in the future, but not that far into it.” Ina answered as she opened the door, “Kronii’s been quiet about just what she had to do to fix the timeline after the empress broke it, because, well, long story short, the natural course of events was that everyone was about to get erased from the timeline, and Kronii decided to not let things end that way, but as a consequence she had to let us all enter the timeline piecemeal rather than all at once for some stability reason she never elaborated on. I went first, as I was vitally important for the events that would immediately follow the aftermath of the great undoing and the subsequent great contraction of the Takodachi Empire. Which still exists, but is now significantly smaller than it used to be, for reasons I won’t bore you with.”

“I suppose that gives us the final answer on whether or not she gave up on us.” Shiori answered, “Though, as far as explanations go, it’s me. I wouldn’t mind the full story.”

Ina shrugged. “The quick version is that not everyone forgave me, but some people were willing to give me a second chance after I tried to explain everything. The result was that basically all of the former empire provinces decided to become independent, and I founded a new and much smaller Takodachi Empire. I’ll leave it there.”

“Makes sense.” Shiori answered, “How are your friends doing?”

“Well, after I arrived, Ame popped in from the future, because she’s like that. Calli and Kiara followed, then Gura, then Bae, then IRyS, and then finally Sana, Fauna, Kronii and Mumei showed up. Then you five. So far for me it’s been fairly quiet ever since the empire got stuck with this smaller territory, since I’m on good terms with my neighbors and I don’t intend to cause anymore wars. Calli, Kiara, Gura and Ame decided to stick around our empire, mostly because they’re still my best friends. As for the council, well, let’s just say their days aren’t quite as peaceful as mine are nowadays.”

“Really?” Bijou asked, “I figured they’d be more distant, since they’re kinda… you know, like gods.”

Ina smirked. “Their plan to reveal themselves to humanity might have worked a little too well, if the religious implications were anything to go by.”

She then pulled out a newspaper from a void rift, one with a peculiar headline:

Our True Goddesses Return!

Chapter Text

“...and that finished our negotiations.” Ina explained to Shiori, “Holonometria was given their land back, and we resolved the border crisis by essentially realizing that the empire’s full territorial extent was completely untenable anyway. That was the real reason why the Takodachi empire was destined to collapse: logistics. The simple fact was that it had too few people trying to watch over an area way too large. The final sign-off for Holonometria to officially get their land back was really more a matter of practicality than anything else.”

“I don’t think they got a good deal, to be honest.” Shiori answered, “Didn’t the land kinda get destroyed by our battle to stop the great undoing there?”

Ina nodded. “Both me and everyone at the negotiating table agreed that it wasn’t my fault. Even Shirakami-sama, who lost her shrine and her home with it, was willing to forgive. Still, despite how many practical reasons to give up on the territory there were, you would be amazed at how many of my advisors - some of them now former advisors - insisted we keep it. Thankfully, the council stepped in and ended all political discussion, as Bae decided that the obliterated ruins of the empire’s former territory was a good spot to put up her new shrine, which she did shortly thereafter. Since a large portion of both Holonometria and the Takodachi empire worship her, no one was willing to argue against her.”

“Man, that must be weird.” Bijou replied, “‘Cause like, we’ve met her and seen her as a person but a lot of people really just know her as this godlike figure with chaos powers.”

“Eh, we got used to it.” Bae replied as she dropped down from the ceiling, “Anyways, wassup! Kronii gave us the day that you were going to show up so we kinda all have a planned meetup. Though you can’t give me all the credit for the shrine building thing, as Sana helped empty the space needed for it, and Fauna helped nature heal in the area. The official chaos shrine is located not far from the Shirakami shrine, but we’ve agreed that we mostly serve separate audiences and we’re not really competing. Fubuki’s really nice when you get to know her. Oh, and as of right now, we’re all waiting for you to show up to the party since you all recently got un-displaced in time. Since we don’t want you to be seen right now, we’ll take the fast way.”

She snapped her fingers, and then everyone present was teleported away in a flash of light.

The group reappeared in what appeared to be the penthouse suite of an otherwise surprisingly unremarkable condo building, with both the rest of the council, IRyS, and the rest of the myth group already present, the party catered mostly with fried chicken but also with a variety of other foods.

“Welcome to the temporary council HQ.” Bae introduced the group, “Kronii said that she couldn’t recover our normal HQ from the timestream went the previous empress lost it, so Mumei bought out this place for the five of us, and then Sana relocated the entire place to another plane of existence for security reasons using a layered space trick that I don’t understand.”

“It’s pretty simple.” Sana explained, “When you enter this place, the ‘door’ is actually a portal to a completely different place, which is where we’re actually located. Well, the portal works as long as you’re the right person, which isn’t most people. For everyone else, they’ll simply walk into the apartment as per usual. The only reason Mumei bothered with buying out the place first was so that we didn’t have to worry about bumping into the tenants who we’d share a door with otherwise. In fact the bedroom doors do the same thing, except the portals lead to our extra-dimensional private realms. Not that most of us actually use those anymore…”

Shiori shrugged. “Makes sense to me. Well, the first part anyway.”

“Oh, the second part is easier to explain.” Mumei replied, “We’ve been interacting a lot more with civilization directly, so the whole need for private realms to watch over them in secret just isn’t as necessary as it used to be. That, and I wasn’t really using mine anyway even before the big reveal. Kronii still leaves to make sure the timestream is in one piece, and Sana’s realm turns out to just be space, so there’s that. I think we actually use the bedrooms here more often just to be more human-like.”

“We don’t actually need to sleep, though.” Bae answered, “I only do it because IRyS likes cuddling with me ever since we tied the knot.”

“Technically,” IRyS answered, “we tied the knot a long time ago. We just decided to act more like it nowadays, since you’re actually around here more often.”

“Fair.” Bae replied. “As for how our interactions with humanity go, well… suffice to say, Mumei’s probably the most popular outta the bunch of us.”

“That’s really only because Kronii keeps disappearing on us at random. Something about the timestream needing a check-up or something like that. She always tells me not to worry about it which only makes me worry more because it’s Kronii and you know how she gets when she decides something’s her responsibility. To be honest, I’m surprised she showed up today, though I’m not sure where she went.”

“I’m right here.” Kronii answered, suddenly beside the group. “Though I’m mostly here because Fauna said she’d kill me if I missed this. I told her that I wouldn’t pass up the chance to check up on how Mumei’s doing.”

Mumei rolled her eyes. “Fauna! Kronii’s worrying about me again!”

“Kronii, don’t you have confidence in Mumei to keep herself safe?” Fauna asked in a tone of false annoyance.

“It’s not that.” Kronii answered, “Besides, does it not make sense to make sure we don’t have another event that might fracture the council? I’d rather not repeat the past if we don’t have to.”

Mumei shrugged. “Can we not talk about the former empire? Not now, at least.”

“I was kinda wondering about that.” Shiori replied, “Because this seems like it's supposed to be a happy occasion, right?”

“It is!” IRyS answered, “We’re all here because the power of hope ultimately overpowered the power of despair - more than once, actually - and I think that’s reason enough to celebrate. We honestly just wanted to wait to make sure you guys were invited for it, which is why we’re only celebrating our victory now.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. Especially since the others seem to already be chatting with one another, like Nerissa-”

She paused, seeing where Nerissa was.

“Nerissa, if you’re going to hit on Kiara, could you not do it that blatantly?”

Kiara broke out laughing.

“Oh come on!” Nerissa complained, “I’m not that bad!”

“Yes you are!” Kiara shouted in reply, “You’re being totally horny on main!”

In another corner, Fuwawa and Mococo were talking with Calliope.

“Oh, right, Calli!” Mococo spoke cheerfully, “How much trouble is Shiori in for… you know, what she did.”

“Well,” Calliope answered with a slight hint of frustration to her voice, “that’ll come up in her afterlife trial, but the nice thing is she cleaned up her own mess - which is to say that yeah it’s not good to rip holes in the afterlife barrier but as long as she doesn’t die soon they’ll probably forget about it and it’ll just be a footnote on her record. Plus, she didn’t really interact with anyone else as she did that - it was a quick in and out without any further damage caused. Unlike a certain pair in this room.”

“I heard that!” IRyS shouted back, “I was born in the afterlife! And you know how Bae is with rules anyway!”

Calliope rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know; I had to clean up the paperwork from your mess!”

“And how did you get the other demons to help out?” Fuwawa asked next.

“Oh, that was easy. I ‘negotiated’ the release of all demonic prisoners with Ina. And then got her acquainted with some of my friends - it turns out they got along. Oh, and it helps that I’m also pretty well-liked among the underworlders. I’m basically the official diplomat for underworld and Takodachi empire relations, making me one of three people here who help run the empire nowadays, alongside Ina and…”

She looked around, and then turned to face Ina.

“Ina, Ame’s gone missing again. You want to get her or should I?”

Ina raised a finger, and then opened up a void rift. She then extended an arm into the rift, and then casually yanked Amelia out of the rift.

“I said I’d come on my own when I finished my case notes!” Amelia complained, “You didn’t have to rush me here!”

Ina sighed.

“Ame.”

And with just two syllables, Amelia shut up, realizing that her complaints were not going to be heard.

“Alright, fine. Now… oh yeah, I should probably apologize to the five people here that I actually tried to get locked up at one point. Shiori, Nerissa, Bijou, Fuwawa and Mococo: I’m very sorry for your earlier lives.”

“It… makes more sense now.” Shiori replied, “We ultimately wanted the same thing: a more peaceful world for everyone. You just have a lot more patience. Oh, and the prior experience of watching it all go wrong the first time, I suppose.”

“That too.” Amelia answered, “But I had let the fears of turning into another previous timeline blind me to your suffering on a human level. I don’t really know how Kronii deals with this, sometimes.”

“Me neither.” Mumei replied, “Well, I try to help her by talking to her, as does Fauna, but even then she sometimes just disappears, and unlike Ina and you, we can’t chase her because she jumps into the timestream when she gets worried about the timeline. And she refuses to even elaborate on what happened whenever she leaves.”

“Speaking of which,” Sana continued, “did anyone see where Kronii went?”

“Oh no, not again!” Fauna complained, “She’s been doing this nonstop ever since we returned, to the point where I’m pretty sure it’s disrupted even some of her interactions with her newfound followers. She says it’s something to do with timeline protection, but…”

“...it’d be nice to get a proper answer.” Bae finished, “But also, remember that we kinda broke the entire timeline and Kronii’s the one fixing basically all of it. It probably is that big a task to fix everything, just like fixing the space the Earth used to be located in from the void rifts.”

“No, Kronii’s definitely taking longer on her end than I am.” Sana replied.

“Only technically.” Kronii replied, having been in the room, “I’d appreciate it if you don’t speculate about issues with my aspect like that. Not that it would stop you, but…”

Fauna snarled. “Kronii, this is exactly the kind of thing that led to you trying to end the universe last time.”

“I know, but I just needed some confirmation from a few… let’s call them outside friends, for help with fixing the timeline.” Kronii continued, “And I don’t want to leave them hanging. I’ll explain everything later, but I promise you: all of my visits have been about making sure this timeline won’t get any more rude surprises.”

Mumei stared into Kronii’s eyes for what felt like forever, before finally frowning.

“I hate that you’re not even lying about that. But I still want you to explain things.”

“I will.” Kronii replied, “Just not now.”

“Then what are you doing now?” Fauna asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Kronii asked in reply.

She then smiled. Not a smirk or a confident grin, but a genuine happy smile.

And then she drew Mumei and Fauna into a hug, causing them both to blush.

“I think it’s time to enjoy some time with my loved ones.”

Chapter Text

Later…

“Okay, maybe at some point we should get an actual council room.” Bae complained as the ‘council meeting’ was held in a surprisingly casual condo, “Or at least like a modern conference room so it doesn’t feel like we’re just casually hanging out when we do this. We’ve got important business to talk about today!”

“We do?” Mumei asked, “Well, okay, I actually remember what this one’s about, since I’ve been pushing for this.”

“So have I.” Fauna added, “Plus, aren’t you two interested in what Kronii’s recent deal is?”

IRyS and Sana both shrugged.

“I told her I’d chat if she’s feeling down.” IRyS replied, “And Sana’s always been there for Kronii in a way that most of us can’t really be, being the sister aspect of space to Kronii’s time.”

“I mean I’m honestly not really that interested in what Kronii’s been up to.” Sana admitted, “But I am interested in making sure she’s staying rational about whatever she gets involved with.”

“I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t talk like I wasn’t part of this meeting.” Kronii replied with annoyance.

“Well,” Bae continued, “Without further ado, I hereby announce this meeting in session. There’s really only one thing to talk about, and that is: what’s been with you, Kronii?”

Kronii sighed. “Yeah, I should probably talk about what actually happened. I didn’t really want to because I figured it’d… bring down the mood. I want you five to be happy. But here’s the story that I’ve been hiding from you, the one you five should know. I… I hope this doesn’t change anything between the six of us, since functionally there’s nothing that can be done now, but…”

Kronii looked over the remains of where a wave of eldritch void magic had ripped into the timestream.

“I really messed things up, didn’t I? So many existences were completely wiped out. All because I found myself too hesitant to make the sacrifices needed.”

“Eh, I’d trust that you didn’t mean it. You made a decision that a lot of different versions of me would’ve made in your position. The only reason I could make the sacrifice is that I don’t have a home timeline anymore.”

Kronii turned around to face Amelia Watson.

“I hardly think I should be trusted with this mess. You’re looking at over a dozen timelines that just effectively got ripped apart by void magic. All because I was unwilling to sacrifice my own. Still, does the Oasis have room for the survivors? And I suppose, more importantly, are you willing to go pick them up? It’s… not the usual brand of extraction mission, but…”

“I won’t.” Amelia answered, “I run the Oasis, but at this point it’s not always for the best that I’m the one to run timeline search-and-rescue missions.”

Kronii frowned, before Amelia raised a finger.

“We’re still rescuing them, it’s just that I’ve set another on that path, another me that could really use the experience. Well, not entirely, I’ve already worked with others to ensure the safety of the survivors. There’s another Kronii in that batch, apparently.”

Kronii frowned. “If I run into her, just let her stab me. It’ll be faster that way.”

Amelia shrugged. “I’d say she’s nice, but… she’s still a Kronii at heart. So she is nice, once you get past the part where she’s jaded and depressed about everything. That said, I have no intention of letting you two meet. She probably isn’t big on forgiving you.”

“I wouldn’t, either.” Kronii replied, “Did I do the right thing?”

“Well, in an obvious sense, no.” Amelia replied, “But I think that sacrificing your entire timeline is a big ask. Even for someone who tries to disconnect themselves from mortal affairs as much as possible, it’s hard. And no matter how much you try to admit it, your Mumei has already made her way into your heart.”

“I’ve gotten soft recently, haven’t I?” Kronii asked.

“You were always that soft.” Amelia answered, “I hadn’t accounted for the empress coming back to ruin everything, and I otherwise encouraged you to selfishly protect this timeline, you know? Besides, if you think you’ve screwed up, you should meet like half of the Amelia population in the Oasis. You’ve made one universe destroying mistake, and that was at my encouragement. We, Amelia Watson, have made quite a few more than that. And if Ouro Kronii has to clean up the dead timelines that Amelia Watson creates, then isn’t it only fair that we clean up the timeline mess you create?”

Kronii shrugged. “I guess, though I’d hope I can hold myself to a higher standard than the average Amelia, you know?”

“You already do.” Amelia answered. “That’s why you keep checking up on this place. I know that you feel what you did was wrong, but… ultimately, I think you did the human thing. I know I look like I know what I’m doing, but I would’ve done the same in your position. I was lucky to be presented with the opportunity to save everyone by the Ancient Ones giving us an actual miracle.”

“That’s fair, actually.” Kronii answered, “I’m still not sure where that leaves us.”

“Spend some time with your loved ones. Appreciate the mortal world while it lasts - because it won’t last forever. When you come back here, then worry about it. You sacrificed so much to buy your world extra time, so make that time worth it.”

“And that’s where we’re at now.” Kronii finished.

“...that explains so much.” Mumei admitted, “You really were making sure that our timeline was safe.”

“I saved our timeline.” Kronii admitted, “But I did so at the cost of a lot of others. It all ties back to Amelia of the Oasis, who’s been rescuing doomed timelines for a while now. And that’s why I’m here at all, really - she made me promise to make the sacrifices I made worth it. She made a good point: I can always go back to when I need to. It’s… probably for the best that I take the time to help this timeline flourish for the brief period you’re around - and then I’ll make good on my promise to return to the Oasis. I suppose I could ask all of you whether or not you think I did the right thing, but… I think I can guess the responses.”

The other five people in the room looked at one another.

“It depends, for me.” Mumei replied, “On how self-sacrificing humanity is willing to be. On how I’m representing civilization. In some cases… it’d be rare, but I could see myself making the ultimate sacrifice.”

“But I understand why I couldn’t.” Fauna admitted, “But I think I would’ve doomed everyone if I was trying to save somebody, because making a decision like that… I couldn’t live with the idea of my hand being the one to end so many lives. Someone’s timeline was going to be destroyed. I guess I should be happy it wasn’t ours.”

Kronii nodded. “Amelia never told me the full scale of the destruction. I’m not sure she knows, either. And that’s why I’ve been going back and forth. I told Amelia to keep me updated if she found anything in the remnants of the timelines destroyed by the empress’ swan song. She said ‘no promises, but only because I’m not willing to feed your guilt complex’, which honestly is probably fair.”

Bae and IRyS looked at one another.

“We forgive you.” IRyS stated. “Or at least, I do. The fact you could even make a decision, any decision, at that moment… I’m not sure if I would’ve been able to do it. You chose to save those you loved, and that’s… that’s normal, I think. Most people would make that choice if they could, I think. Ethically there was no right option there. You were damned either way.”

“And that’s why I forgive you, too.” Bae continued, “Because ultimately, regardless of whether it was right or wrong, I think anyone with even a tiny bit of self-centered nature is going to pick that. I know I probably would. It’s the human thing to do.”

“Funny, that’s what Amelia - not ours, the one from the Oasis - told me.”

“So why not you?” Bae asked.

“...Not that long ago, I would’ve said ‘because I’m supposed to be held to higher standards’. Now, I’m not so sure about that anymore.”

“We’re more powerful.” Mumei admitted, “But I don’t think we’re any better than them. I’m certainly not, given the extent to which I am civilization.”

“True.” Kronii answered, “But Amelia was right about one thing: if I’ve already made the choice to give this world more time at the cost of sacrificing others, then it’s only right that I make the time I gave it worth the sacrifice - or at least, that’s what Amelia told me. Besides, from what I’ve heard, my followers miss me already, and given that we’re kinda worshiped now, I might as well give them an update. Probably not about this matter, though.”

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best.” Mumei replied, “Besides, given that Sana found a world worth saving when she went exploring the world, you should come with me some time when I do that.”

Kronii smiled.

“You know what? That sounds nice. I already had to break the future to fix this one, so maybe I should see just what was the future that I - no, we - all deserve. Just a moment to enjoy a nice trip together. Maybe we could get to know each other a bit better?”

Mumei smiled back, but Fauna was the one to reply.

“That sounds lovely.”

In another place that was separated from the causality of ordinary mortal realms, another version of Amelia took the controls of what looked like a spaceship that had a very rough fish shape.

“Technically speaking, this is a Time ship.” another Amelia explained. “You’ve been through all of the training simulations, but this is real now, and the first time jumping into the remnant of a destroyed timeline for real is always more terrifying than the simulations. We’ve equipped your watch into the Sunfish - well, no, this is the Moonfish as call-sign ‘Sunfish’ is reserved for more important versions of us - and I’ve pre-programmed the timeline coordinates.”

“Really? How?”

“I’ve seen a lot of watches in my time, and reverse-engineering how ‘wanderer’ watches operate isn’t really that hard for me. Otherwise, remember that above all this is an extraction mission, and the ship has an emergency warp button. Do not be afraid to use it; the reality is that yes you’re here to save lives but it’s all for nothing if you get killed or if the ship gets blown up, leaving you stranded. We’ll be mad if this extraction mission ends with us organizing another extraction mission for you. If anything goes wrong on the first trip, it’s okay to admit you’re not comfortable continuing the mission; timeline salvaging is always a difficult task.”

The Amelia at the controls sighed.

“Okay, okay, I get it. Do I have clearance to launch or not?”

“We’re running the final checks. Warp drive appears to be revving up normally, system checks indicate all systems are good to go. The Moonfish has been cleared for launch; get ready.”

A computerized voice that still somehow sounded like Amelia Watson made the next announcement.

“Prepare for timestream jump. All systems are active; the Moonfish has been cleared for launch. T-minus 20.”

The Amelia at the controls drew a deep breath.

You’ve been training for this. The First Amelia selected you for this task. Just stay calm. You’ll have your friends - well, alternate versions of them - back into a new home in no time.

“Five. Four. Three. Two. One.”

Ready.

“Go.” Amelia whispered under her breath as she pulled the switch to activate the warp drive.

She pulled the switch.