Chapter Text
Crunch
The lollipop was effectively decimated, followed up by chewing, the bites creating a sticky, unpleasant smacking noise, making Akio feel as if her molars would be pulled out.
“Yo- about the urban exploring,” she finished off the stick, tossing it into a nearby garbage can, “I found this really cool abandoned house over at =====,====.”
The pink haired girl walking next to her looked disinterested, too busy tapping away on her phone - enthralled in a conversation.
“Hey-Cece, I said — are you even listening to me?”
The darker haired girl snatched the phone out of her hands, earning a surprised yelp as she scrolled haphazardly through the contents.
“Seriously? Stop focusing on that stupid conversation about school…”
“That history project is worth 20% of my grade, thank you very much!!” Cecelia snatched back her phone, scowling.
“Ew. Don’t remind me… I haven’t even started…” Akio’s sheepish admission earned a scoff from her shorter companion, who didn’t even spare her a second glance.
“…asshole.. whatever. About that urban exploring-possible ghost hunting thing…”
She, Akio, was quickly rejected-quite bluntly too.
“No.”
“What-why?!”
“Urban exploring and ghost hunting is scary. I hate scary things.” Cecelia glared up at Akio, with the taller—darker haired girl shrinking away at the intensity of her gaze.
“Cmon-it won’t be that bad! Think of it as uh.. exposure therapy!”
“Last time you said that, I ended up crying because of a horror game.”
Akio sweat-dropped.
God, when would she ever stop holding that above her head…
“Listen, that was like… almost ten years ago…-if you round up. Plus, it’s gonna be Ciel’s sixteenth birthday, and they said they wanted to go urban exploring!”
“…ugh, fine. But not for you, it’s for Ciel.” Cecelia shot a pointed look at Akio, scowling.
“Ohhkkkay, I know, I know.” Akio shrugged, letting out a sulky sigh before slumping onto Cecelia’s back.
“You don’t love me anymore….” She whined out, fake sobbing and being an overdramatic ass in general.
“You fucking bi- I just got my hair dyed pink today! Stop getting your nasty snot all over it!!”
…
“I can’t believe this is happening! I’m so excitedddd!” Ciel couldn’t stop bouncing in their seat, their split dyed—left side red, right side black—afro bouncing up and down.
“Yes. So fun.” Cecelia chimed in from the back seat, clearly displeased. She held her tote bag, along with Ciel’s backpack, and Akio’s messenger bag.
“Somebody remind me why I’m stuck back here with all your shit again?”
Akio ignored her complaint, only laughing as she made another turn, slowing the black truck they were in, driving into an abandoned parking lot.
“Cmon, ease up Cece! It’ll be fun, I promise.”
“Maybe for you..” she grumbled in response to Akio’s words, fiddling with the ghost hunting device in her hands.
Akio ignored her, shouting out an enthusiastic, “we’re here!” As she pulled up in the alleyway by an abandoned shopping complex.
The trio hopped out of the black truck, with Cecelia needing a bit of extra persuasion.
The trio walked off, waving their knickknacks and gadgets around—well, only two of them— hoping for a paranormal experience.
“By the way, Akio, where did you get your piercings done?” In an attempt to block out the silence, Ciel turned towards their senior, motioning at their facial piercings.
“Mmmh… I went to this place called goals and holes—yes, weird ass name— but the piercers there are pretty laid back, and good at their job too. They’re not offset at all, perfectly symmetrical.
Akio motioned towards her piercing setup. Two silver cone shaped cheek piercings, two cone snake bites jutting out from under her lip, and two more sharp cones coming from her nose bridge.
“I wanted to get more, but I’m… broke.”
She took a wallet out of her pocket, making a show out of showing off its empty contents.
“Hey, guys?” Cecelia stopped in her tracks, turning to the side.
“What?” Akio and Ciel turned around to face Cecelia, only to gasp in quick succession, both staring down into a dark hole in the wall.
“How the fuck did we not notice that?” Akio adjusted her glasses, blinking her bangs out of her eyes before spouting a mischievous smile.
“Let’s-“
“Absolutely not.”
Cecelia grabbed Akio by her shoulder, pulling the taller girl back from entering.
“I refuse to go down there.
—
“I can’t believe you two managed to drag me into this musty, dusty, stank, dank ass hole.” Cecelia complained to the two in front of her, waving her flashlight around haphazardly, lighting up the surrounding area before…
“Holy shit.”
Cecelia was stopped in her tracks as she bumped into Akio, letting out a grunt.
“The fuck are you - holy shit.”
In front of them was a giant cavern, stretching as far as the eye could see.
“Is that a boat?” Ciel pointed their flashlight down into the murky water, the light illuminating a surprisingly new looking oak rowboat.
“What’s that on the sides?” Akio pointed out, focusing the light onto some strange coating of dark turquoise that shone under the light.
“…we are absolutely not going down there to check that out, do you hear me?” Cecelia warned the two, although they weren’t listening.
Akio and Ciel were already scuttling down the creaky staircase to the cavern, looking like absolute critters.
“Aw fuck.”
—
“WAIT- DONT TOUCH THE WATER!”
Akio shouted out a warning, shining her light down into the murky depths of the strange water, squinting at it.
“The water is unnaturally still, and it looks thick—hand me that stick Cecelia!”
Akio pointed over to a large stick, resting conveniently next to the pink haired girls feet.
“Um, okay.”
Cecelia grabbed the stick cautiously, holding it between her pointer finger and thumb, as if it would give her some kind of unknown disease—which it probably would.
Handing (tossing) the stick to Akio, Cecelia backed up as she stuck it into the water, swirling it around.
The water moved sluggishly, unnaturally even, like slime.
“There’s definitely a brain eating amoeba or two in there.”
Akio backed up, leting the stick sink into the water before dusting her hands off.
“Stay away from the water guys!” She called out, turning back, only to be confused.
“Hey—where’s Ciel..?” Akio stumbled back slightly, her head whirling around.
“Over here!” A voice called out to them from the other side of the water, Ciel.
They sat shakily on the boat, which was moving slowly down the river, smiling nervously.
“WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING??” Akio screamed, rushing to the for the other side of the river.
“Hey- wait up!” Cecelia scrambled to catch up with the dark haired girl, clutching onto both of their bags.
Akio rushed to the other side of the riverbank, managing to grab onto the rim of the boat, although struggling to keep herself on the rotting, wooden dock.
“Fuck- Cecelia, help me out!”
She reached back, grabbing for her friends’ hand before reeling forward and tumbling into the boat as Ciel moved, pulling Cecelia in with her—narrowly missing the water, by some miracle.
“Ow…. Fuck…” Akio rubbed her forehead with the palm of her hand, glaring at Ciel.
“Holy shit I’m so sorry are you guys alright???” Ciel rattled on apologies, shaking their hands and making large gestures to showcase their panic.
“I’m fine—are you alright Cecelia?” Akio brushed Ciel’s apologizing off, although the younger was still apologizing.
“Ouch…” Cecelia sniffled slightly, holding onto her head.
“Girl, stop crying. It’s not that serious.” Akio sighed before pulling out her water bottle, which was relatively cold.
“Put this on your head.” As Akio handed the water bottle over to Cecelia, Ciel watched with worry in the background, grimacing.
“It’s not reeaaallly your fault?- Cece just has the pain tolerance of a newborn infant.” Akio attempted to comfort Ciel, still keeping half an eye on the pinkette.
“And you look like a newborn infant!”
Akio brushed her comment off, sitting down in the boat
“Well, what are we gonna do now? We’re sort of uh… trapped, and there is absolutely no way I’m going to get in that water and swim back to shore. Brain eating amoebas are not about to get me today.”
Akio glared at the water, crossing her legs and leaning back onto the boat as she spoke, the sarcasm practically dripping off of her words.
“I dunno. Let’s just wait? The medical debt isn’t worth swimming and getting checked out after this,” Ciel shrugged, sitting on the opposite side of the boat, “thats America for you.”
“You think we’re gonna die?” Cecelia looked up from nursing her head wound, raising a concerned brow.
“Maybe.” Akio shrugged, apathetic.
“You’re not exactly helping my worries Akio…”
…
“How long have we been on this damn boat??” Akio groaned out, pulling her hood further down her head, blocking her eyes and flattening their bangs onto their face.
“At least five minutes.” Ciel responded, head turning up as they noticed something.
“Yo, is that a light?” They turned around fully, pointing towards a small speck of white light up ahead.
“I think it is.” Cecelia put down their snack, squinting at the dot.
“That’s fun. Wake me up when we’re actually at the light though.” Akio sighed before going limp, attempting to sleep in the wooden rowboat.
…
“What the fuck…?”
Around five seconds ago, Akio was awoken by Cecelia frantically shaking her shoulders, shouting something about how they were in the open sea. Now, Akio was staring out at an expanse of water, the sun in a cloudless (and IMPOSSIBLY blue) sky beating down at them.
“I’m so confused.” Akio stated dumbly, ogling at the ocean, her jacket discarded.
“It hurts my eyes to look at.” Ciel noted, squinting at the reflection of light off the oceans surface.
“Why is it so… still? Isn’t an ocean supposed to have waves of whatever?” The pinkette took a bite of her cookie—where it could have come from, not even the IRS would know—raising an introspective brow
“I- we’re gonna die. I can’t believe we’re not panicking more.” Ciel muttered, eyes glazing over as they looked at the sea.
“I think we—or at least I’m, in shock,” Akio started taking off of her shoes, “look away, im taking my tights off. Its hot as hell.”
Sounds of shuffling could be heard before pausing.
“Hey, you think we got isekaied?!?!”
“Isekaied for what reason?? To die??” Ciel snapped at Akio, looking away.
…
“Might as well accept our fate.”
It had been over an hour already, and the trio had gotten rid of their outermost clothes, using their clothes and bags to block the sun.
“I’m gonna die in this heat…”
Cecelia had long taken off her wool vest, along with her pink button up shirt, revealing a white tank top underneath.
Panting under the sun like a dog, she groaned—sitting up and flopping over the side of the boat, facing Ciel and Akio, who arguably had it worse.
The two had been wearing mainly dark and desaturated colors, making them living solar panels, along with having dark hair colors.
“I’m dying.” Akio stated blankly, sitting up suddenly.
“You’re dying from life. Always.” Ciel grumbled as a reply, taking another chug from their water bottle. Cecelia had half the mind to tell them to stop, but couldn’t be bothered. They were gonna die anyways.
“I wish a screen would just pop up the moment I wave my ha-“ following her statement, Akio waved an open palm ay the sun, causing a holographic screen to suddenly appear with a *blip*
“What the fuck-“ Ciel’s jaw dropped as they saw the screen, staring at Akio with shock.
“We’re you secretly like a cyberpunk character and just never bothered to tell us??” They stared at Akio accusingly, eyes flickering from the screen to her face—which looked equally as shocked.
“The hell are you two- oh. Oh god. How the FUCK did you do that??” Cecelia stared, slack jawed at the floating screen, which had a strange search bar.
“It’s like… Google… but… not Google…” Akio mumbled smartly, tapping at the screen, leaving small effects wherever she tapped.
“Wow, NO FUCKING SHIT! IM PRETTY SURE GOOGLE DOESN’T FUCKING APPEAR IN FRONT OF PEOPLE WHEN THEY WAVE THEIR HANDS!” Ciel scrambled to move next to Akio, attempting to touch the screen, only for their hand to go through with a buzzing sound effect.
“Ow!” They yanked their hand back immediately, holding onto it tenderly, “I got shocked.”
“Yeah, don’t touch my shit lmao.” Akio snarked back at them, clicking the search bar.
A keyboard appeared below the screen, floating offset from the first holographic image.
“Umm… what do I se- oh wait! We need music, yeah [This silence is driving me insane].“ Akio immediately typed out Spotify and entered. The screen immediately shifted, showing a music platform, although it wasn’t Spotify.
“Off-Brand Spotify?”
Cecelia raised a brow at the screen, snorting at Akio’s comment.
“Hey, what’s that?” Ciel pointed towards a new screen that popped up, the size of a small letter, with a bookmark symbol on it.
“Dunno.” Akio immediately reached to click it. The icon flashed gold, playing a quiet *ding!* sound effect.
“I think you bookmarked it.” Cecelia accidentally elbowed Ciel while trying to move to Akio’s other side, squatting down.
Akio immediately waved her hand again, and another holographic screen followed it, displaying the music tab, again.
“That’s so cool…”
…
“Oh- this is the settings!” Akio clicked around, eventually finding a tab that said ‘Controls and permissions.’
Clicking on it, she found an icon with the words: ‘allow interaction.’ Tapping on it, another smaller, connected tab appeared. Allow all/allow selected.’
“Do allow selected.” Ciel said, taking a sip of their water.
Clicking on ‘allow selected,’ a box for names came up, and Akio entered her friends names.
“So we can touch it now?” Cecelia asked, reaching a hand out to click the screen that showed the bookmark icon.
It flashed gold, and as Cecelia waved her hand, the settings screen came up again.
“Oh! Wait that’s really cool.” She waved the same hand down to close the tab, and again to open the search tab.
“Yo- look at what I did!” Akio and Cecelia turned to look at Ciel, who had managed to not bring the search tab up, but a small bar with the search icon.
“How did you do that?” Akio asked them, using their finger to drag the tab around.
“I dunno- just like… imagine?”
They shrugged, opening up another search bar.
Cecelia deadpanned at the both of them, muttering under her breath.
“This is too weird…”
…
“Okay this is cool and all, but how do we like not… die?”
Akio turned to Cecelia, as if they had said something crazy.
“Are you seriously worrying about your life when I somehow managed to break the laws of reality and summon fucking holograms with my hands??? For all we know, I could have been secretly modified or some shit in my sleep!”
Cecelia only rolled her eyes at Akio, continuing to play a game on the hologram.
“I’ll search something up.” Ciel attempted to deescalate and opened the search bar, pausing a movie they were watching.
Akio huffed, slouching—their back to her two companions.
Summoning another screen, Akio had a sudden idea.
“Do you think I could cause like a giant flash or something—like a flare?” She turned around to face Ciel, who shrugged.
“I mean, you could do that, but we should wait until nighttime.”
“Yeah. You’re right.”
—
“This is the first time I’ve ever gotten such a clear view of the sky.” The dark haired girl stared up at the sky, taking a deep breath of the sea breeze.
“Hey, are you sure about doing the blast thing? It could… ya know, attract negative attention.” Ciel looked over to Akio, who shrugged.
“Doesn’t matter. As long as we’re saved.” She raised her hand in the air, swiping left.
“Blast.”
Ciel stared in awe as the usually rectangular screen turned circular, clicking and clacking this way and that — before letting out a loud booming sound, a flash of blue and white light creating a pillar in the air.
The flash stayed there for a few more seconds before dissipating.
Cecelia looked over to Akio, looking a bit concerned.
“Akio— Are you okay?” She reached over to steady the other girl, who was swaying slightly, their head dropping.
“Oh shit- what happened?” Ciel quickly crawled over to Akio, taking her other side and steadying the girl.
“I think she used up too much energy.”
“Shit- do you guys feel that..?”
Akio slowly lifted her head, pupils dilating as she stared out into the moon, her breathing quickening.
“What the hell are you-“
Dun
Dun
Dun
DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN
The sound of drums reverberated through the air, the water, the boat, the bodies, and the very minds of the three present humans.
“This— Akio, do you remember that clip of gear five you showed me?” Ciel shook Akio, who kept on into the moon, jaw agape.
“This sounds just like the drums—“
“The Drums of Liberation.”