Chapter 1 - prologue : Awakening

I awoke to the sound of water dropping. Slowly, my senses came back, giving information on the state I was in. My body was hurting from the fact that I was evidently sleeping on cold hard stone, and I heard a slight buzzing sound at the back of my head. Clearly, I’ve been in better shape before. Several minutes passed and I finally gathered the strength to get up from the ground. All my joints cried in pain at the smallest movement.

“ugh… what happened ?”

I couldn’t help but groan as even my ability to stand on my feet felt like a chore. I let the pain dissipate while looking around me. I was in the middle of a room in what seemed like a long-abandonned building. The water sound I’ve been hearing came from a leak in the roof. Actually, the room I currently stood in is empty : no furniture, not even a window that would help pinpoint where I was; just a wooden door that barely stood due to the prolonged exposition to humidity. It was almost like the place is not meant to be inhabited anymore.

As I’m taking my first step towards the door, I tried to remember how I got here. I have vague memories of walking in the streets of a town, then of a hit at the back of my head, followed by darkness. Nothing that would really explain anything.

“Did you hear that, Moco-chan ?”

A voice from the other side of the door, clearly from a young woman.

“hum~hum I think he woke up, Fuwawa”

Is she talking to herself ? Well I wouldn’t blame someone living in this place to be crazy.

“Moco-chan, Moco-chan.. What should we do ?”

“I think we should tell the others”

“You’re right Moco-chan, what a cute little sister you are ~”

I heard a sound, like someone was caressing something fluffy

“Hœ ??”

“Bau bau~”

I heard steps closing in, probably someone wearing boots.

“Now then girls, tell me what this is about ?”

The voice of another woman, sounding slightly older. You could hear she was a little amused from the way she spoke.

“Shiori ! the hostage, huuum”

“He woke up, yeah, hum !”

It was now clear there were three people on the other side of that door.

Chapter 2 : Introductions

“Well, girls, can you go and fetch Nerissa and Bijou ? After all, it was their idea to bring him with us. In the meantime, I’ll introduce myself to our guest.” 

“ “okœ ! Bau bau ~” ”

“You synced, so cute !”

As she was saying those words, “Shiori” proceeded to open the door. She was a young-looking woman around her early twenties, dressed with dark clothes harboring white-ish purple accents to underline her style. Her hair color was of the same tune : the right half light grey, the other wholly black. This very nuanced presentation of the same color tome clearly served one purpose : making her eyes stand out. They have a slight yellow glow, indicating she is no ordinary girl. Even though she was one head smaller than me, my instinct was screaming that she is dangerous. 

“Shiori Novella here, at your service !”

At… my service ?

“Lost your tongue ?” she tilted her head, looking up towards me.

I shook my head quickly to help dissipate the state of confusion I was in.

“Well, you could agree with me that it’s not often a kidnapper would say at your service to their victim”.

She giggled a little, before continuing : 

“You're probably right. I just thought I would introduce myself. We might be criminals, but we’re not uncivilized.”

“And so ? Who are you, where am I and what am I doing here ? You took the risk of bringing some stranger to a place like this, surely it was not just a joke”.

She pondered several seconds before answering. “Not just a joke… well knowing whose idea it was to bring you along, it might actually be one…”

As she was about to continue on that thought, a voice was heard from the entrance, clearly belonging to a child.

“Hey ! We heard that ! We made a plan, and we voted on it !”

Shiori turned towards the door. “Voted ? You bribed Mococo with Natto !”

“~Now Shiori darling, everything is fair in love and war, right ?”

Those words were pronounced by a slightly deeper voice, clearly trained to enthrall and seduce the hearts of men and women alike.

They must be the Nerissa and Bijou Shiori talked about earlier.

Entered the room two other women, vastly different from one another. One is barely reaching my chest, with long white hair and a baby face. She wears a white dress and a purple corset. But what stands out the most with her appearance are the different glowing gems you can see on her body or floating around. The other one is much taller than her companions. She’s tall enough that I don’t have to tilt my head to look her in the eyes. Those eyes are beautiful but clearly don’t belong to a human. Her iris harbors a deep red, with slitted pupils, and her horns standing from below her long black hair are other witnesses of her non-human nature. I maybe took a bit too much time checking out her face, as she gave me a playful gaze.

Demon..

“See, Shiori ? The plan is working, I didn’t have to say anything and he’s already falling for my charm !”

Shiori looked a bit displeased and skeptical. She did not say it out loud, but I’m sure I heard her sighting. Men…

“Hiya Darling ! This is Hololive English Advent’s devilish diva, the one and only Nerissa Ravencroft !”

Where did I hear this name before ? My head hurts..

“Bon Bijou ! I am Koseki Bijou, sparkling gem of Hololive English Advent !”

Do these girls greet everyone they meet like this ?

I tried to introduce myself in turn, but Shiori stepped up and asked

“Where is Fuwamoco ?”

Bijou answered the question with a mischievous smile : “I asked them to be on the look out for our friends”. She paused for a second. “We might only have at best 6 or 7 hours to prepare for their arrival”.

At those words, the two girls started to do a strange gesture with both their hands, and Shiori pinched the upper part of her nose with her fingers.

Nerissa clapped her hands. “Well then girls, we still have to determine the fate of our guest. Honestly, I was ready to let any of you have him. But I have a feeling he saw through my demonic nature even before I introduced myself, right ? I can’t really leave such a catch alone now”.

Chapter 3 : Planning

Bijou planted herself between me and Nerissa. I chuckled a little as I could still clearly see the tall woman from the chest up. 

“Hey Rissa ! We agreed on a pebble this time !”

“Biboo ! … what do you say about a little game ?”

Shiori interjected : “if you girls are gonna fight over him, I might as well join the contest. What did you have in mind, Nerissa ?”.

With a grand gesture, Nerissa turned around, put a hand on her hip and turned her head so we could see her profile, the index of her other hand on her lips : “what about… a little contest of power ? Simply put, the winner is the one whose influence over him is higher.’ 

She turned entirely towards us, joined her hands over her chest as she was going to pray, looking at me from a slightly lowered position.

“Which man wouldn’t like three gorgeous women competing for his attention ? I know I would do anything for…” her eye paused for a second on Shiori. “Nevermind. The time limit is when our friends arrive, right ?”

“I have a better plan, actually” said Shiori. “Do you remember what we talked about when we escaped the Cell ?”.

Both Nerissa’s and Bijou’s eyes lit up at those words.

“Right ! You're a genius Shiorin !”

“hehe, thank you Beebs”

Feeling a bit lost with those semi-secret discussions, cleared my throat and asked again :

“Excuse me, but I still don’t know what I am doing here”

Nerissa smiled and answered “Don’t worry about it, just enjoy the show ! Follow us outside”.

Chapter 4 : The best show I was given to witness

They left the room, and I stuck to their back. My guts told me that I’d be in as much danger from trying to flee those three women that I would be by following them. And also, my curiosity got the better of me. I thought about Shiori’s earlier reaction : Men, right ?

As we were walking in a hallway, it was pretty clear to me that this place was abandoned. Barely any furniture, and the main occupant seemed to be a whole arachnid civilisation weaving its silk around. 

As we were walking, Nerissa explained a bit the situation : 

“This place is pretty isolated, which is necessary if we want to gain time. Our friends are pretty good at finding us. And although it’s always a pleasure to meet them, a girl likes her intimacy sometimes, you know ? And it’s not like someone is using it anyway 🎵”.

We finally arrive at what looks like an old banquet room. It looks a bit more maintained than the rest of this place, although it’s not saying much. This is probably where the girls stayed while waiting for me to wake up.

Bijou and Nerissa turned towards Shiori : “so, how do you want to proceed ?”

“Well, not much different than usual. Me and Nerissa will perform for mister here, while you do what you do best”

She pondered a bit.

“second best”, she corrected herself. "The emotions thing. Not the memes".

I looked at the small woman, sitting on a toilet made off the gems she could apparently create out of thin air.

“Oh, so no skibidi ?”

“No skibidi”. As she answered her companion, she came towards me and guided me to the center of the room, facing what looked like a scene, where Nerissa was doing some voice exercises. I could feel her voice resonating through my flesh. Shiori’s feet left the ground and she landed on the scene in a very elegant gesture, likely helped by magic.

Nerissa’s voice rose up : “Lost in the rain, with no umbrella…” and both of them started to sing and dance right before my eyes. 

It was impossible to take my eyes off this spectacle. Everything was clearly practiced for the pleasure of the beholder, magical even, it shouldn’t be allowed for a mortal to lay their eye on this. I couldn’t fathom how many hundreds of years  are required to get to this level of mastery. Nerissa's voice was especially bewitching; each tone change, each prolonged note, each playful re-interpretation filled the air with magic.

The show continued like that for two solid hours, which passed far too quickly for my taste. 

The moment they decided to take a small break, someone barged in the room, followed by Bijou calling loudly enough for Nerissa and Shiori to hear her : 

“Fuwawa ?”

“I’m not Fuwawa, I’m Mococo ! Bau bau~”. 

This was a little blonde girl with a short hairdo, and clothes decorated with pink accessories. She seemed to have answered Bijou playfully out of habit, but she was clearly in a hurry. 

“Justicœ, hum, they are here, yes !”

Right as she finished her sentence, a powerful voice I never heard before rose from behind the wall beside me :

“Roses are Red ! The fire of my heart is blue ! Also known as the Scarlet Queen ! The harbinger of Order ! Leader of Justice ! I AM …”

Given the volume it was screamed at, it sounded more like a warcry than an introduction. I also noticed strange greeting phrases from powerful women is not something I question anymore.

The wall crumbled as a blue fire emerged from its ruins.

“ELIZABETH ROSE BLOODFLAME !”

One thing is sure : she takes care of her entrance. But the door is open…

Chapter 5 : Justice

As dust settled, three silhouettes emerged. The one in the center, holding a big sword yet engulfed in flames is probably the source of this chaos. She has long red hair and a blue flame at the level of her heart. She harbors a smile going from one ear to the other, her eyes locked on Nerissa. 

On her side are two other people. One about the size of Shiori, with light-green hair. She’s also equipped with a lance, ready to act at a moment’s notice. The third woman is noticeably smaller, although I couldn’t be sure since she is sitting in a squatting position. The more evident part of her outfit is her orange hood, emphasizing a smile almost as wide as Elizabeth’s. 

I heard Shiori order Mococo to join her sister, as apparently some lady called “Roara” has a thing for fluffy tails. The small orange woman disappeared in an instant from my sight, only to reappear right above Bijou.

“~  Gi Muriiiin ~”

“What a way to say hello, Gigi”

 Bijou, far from surprised, made a movement like she would draw a sword from her side, which she did. The clash from the gem-made blade and the metal gauntlets made a displeasing sound to my ears that broke me out of my stupefaction.

“Are you alright ? Don’t worry, we are here to escort you to safety”

The green lady walked up to me while Elizabeth started to run towards Nerissa and Shiori.

“Go on Cecilia ! I have unfinished business to attend with these two !”

Despite taking a stance to fight, she was clearly happy to be here. 

The last member of their squad, the green woman Cecilia, was some kind of automaton. I had some doubts when I saw her joints from afar - wouldn’t be surprised if my mind started playing tricks on me , but they were cleared as soon as she grabbed my wrist to take me away from the room. The touch of her “skin” was fresh and pleasant, but you could tell it was not actual skin.

I heard Nerissa’s voice from behind.

“Not so fast ! He’s mine !”

Looking over my shoulder, I saw her parrying a blow from Elizabeth’s giant sword with the lower portion of her staff, using both the force of the impact and her wings to launch herself towards Cecilia. As she was traveling, she also uttered something sounding like an arpeggio warmup, and the air around us started to load with magical energy. Albeit its simplicity, I have a hard time believing a voice could be this… attractive. 

Do I really want to leave ?

That thought startled me. A mere couple hours ago, I was suspicious of these girls.. and now I was wondering if I should stick with them. When did I have such a change of mind ?

“Move !”

Cecilia pushed me to the side, switching her lance to violin mode. The music she started to play created a greenish dome looking like a music sheet, just in time to stop Nerissa from clutching me. The raven woman tried to cast a spell to break the barrier, but had to duck in order to dodge Elizabeth’s sword. 

At the exact moment the sword passed over Nerissa, a pink bolt emerged from the hole in the wall and used the blade as a stepping stone to redirect its jump, kicking the demon out of the way. 

“Now, Roara ! CC bring your barrier down and go help Gigi ! We don’t have much time ! Thorn, back to me !”

The sword disappeared in a whirlwind of flames. Elizabeth didn’t wait for it to materialize in her hands, and started a maneuver in order to block some kind of black paper that Shiori just launched towards her. Thorn cut the projectile in half, and the red woman turned her back to the witch in order to face Nerissa.

“Hello ?! Elizabeth ? you were about to cut me in half !”

“I trusted you would dodge that, pwincess” 

The moment Cecilia’s barrier went down, I felt my body taken by something in the direction of the hole in the wall. 

I immediately heard a voice with a pronounced accent

“you should run right now”.

I had barely the time to see the figure that said that. It looked like a girl with feline aspects, clad in pink fur.

Although only several seconds had passed since the arrival of this new group, I decided it would actually be better to heed her advice, and started to sprint towards the entrance. 

Just before leaving the room, I glanced behind me in order to, maybe, catch a last glimpse of the situation. I expected to see a chaotic fight, a display of destruction and power; and yet I found no such thing. 

Almost like the run down banquet room regained its full glory, the ambient magic dyed the air with colors, and the girls’ fights looked more like choreographed dances than confrontation. Although they’re probably as deadly since the whistling of steel was as clear as the chants of magic, which indicates none of them was pulling their punch to spare the others. But I had no time to let myself be distracted by the wonders of this display. Those girls came here to help me, I was not ready to let that chance slide by.

Chapter 6 - Escape

I roamed for a couple minutes between the hallways. I already guessed it when I was led to the banquet room earlier, but this place is the ruin of some monastery or castle. The several windows showed me we were in the middle of a forest, on the second floor.

I quickly found stairs that would allow me to go down towards the entrance, but as I was engaging myself, I heard two voices from below.

“Moco-chan, I already told you she is not here !”

“Shiori told me she isœ ! Now we will miss all the action !”

The twins… I should make sure to be not seen

The resolution did not last long. As soon as my foot was on the first step, the old wood made a screeching sound that resonated towards the hallway.

“ “Oooh ? bau bau.. !” ”

Up until then, I mostly heard those girls speak with some kind of forced cutesy voice. But this last “baubau” had a far more sinister tone. 

“Look Fuwawa, who is here ?”

“It looks like they were not able to stop him from escaping, Mococo…”

I turned the other way. I don’t think I’ll be able to survive a confrontation if they are at least half the same caliber as the others.

“ “Wayward soul, where are you going ? You are too frail to be free.” ”

Frightening. When I heard them discussing the first time, I thought it was the same girl speaking to her second personality, but now I have the exact opposite impression : like the same entity was inhabiting two bodies. Each sentence one started was finished by the other in as naturally as if she started it. 

I heard them give chase from the point they were at. I don’t have the luxury to be paralyzed with fear. I ran with all my strength, turning at each intersection. Between the laughs and the taunts, the echoes in the hallways gave me the impression they are everywhere.

They are playing with me. 

I don’t know how long I ran. It has been so many years that I forgot how it felt to run for your life from a pending doom. Strangely, I am under the impression that this is not the first time I am put in this kind of situation.

My head.. again

“ “I got youuu ~” ”

 A dead end; I had no choice but to face them. I sprinted towards the wall and jumped with my momentum in order to turn around without stopping. Maybe I still had the time to go another direction. 

But I was only fooling myself. They intentionally lead me here. I never had a chance to flee from them from the start. The moment I reached the main hallway, I felt like a brick hit my stomach. A girl wearing a white dress with blue accents timed perfectly her punch in order to use inertia to stop me. 

“I caught him, Moco-chan~”

I managed to stay on my two feet, and I was not as tired as I thought I would be. If I could just find a way… 

“What should we do with him, Fuwawa ?”

They made a gesture like they were thinking. The exact same gesture. 

“Bringing him to Nerissa and Shiori ?”

“But they are with Justice right nœ”

“ ”huum I wonder” ”

It was my chance. I pushed Fuwawa to the side with my shoulder, located the nearest window and started what I judged to be the last sprint of my life. I don’t know if it was despair or stupidity - I still don’t understand what these girls wanted with me after all, but if I had to escape, this window would be my only chance. A fall from this height wouldn’t kill me, but severe injuries were still possible. I jumped.

Chapter 7 : The final Showdown

“I like your spirit, boy”

eh ?

I never touched the ground, someone caught me in the air. I quickly recognized her : the hooded woman from Justice. Gigi Murin. 

“Thank you for the help, it was the only idea I had in order to flee from them. But what are you doing here ? Is it fine to leave your friends alone ?”

She put me on the ground. Her smile did not flatter a second.

“Don’t worry about them, they’re plenty strong. Although I will say that I’d rather fight pretty women than save some random dude, but I don’t want to be scolded by Liz”

She held the back of head with her hands.

“So, random dude, do you know why Advent took you to this ruin in the middle of nowhere ?”

“I have no idea. All I remember was that I was walking around in …”

hugh.. my head. Walking where, again ?

“.. sorry for that. So I was walking around in a city, then something hit me and I woke up in here. They talked about using me to welcome their friends. I guess they talked about your group. Also, they staged a private show for me, but I…”

“Wait, you were lucky enough to watch a show featuring Nerissa and Shiori ? Are you alright ?”

Well, I understand why she would be jealous. It is true those girls are brimming with talent.

I noticed she was thinking about something. A small light in her eyes a bit later gave me the impression she just gave up on the train of thoughts she was following.

“Well, no matter, if you are still in human form, that must mean you are alright”

“Not for long, darling ~”

From the window we just jumped through was descending Nerissa. 

Her voice..

She did not lose time and started singing. The world around me was spiraling out of control. I quickly heard Gigi calling for “Liz” or “Cici”, but soon it was only the voice of the Raven Demon that I heard. 

“You will love me, adore me, worship me”

Love… Adore… Worship..

Somehow, the thought of abandoning myself to this temptation seemed like the only logical conclusion in this situation. Why not ?

“HUZZAH !”

Another voice joined Nerissa in chorus. As strong, as powerful, but it was not longing for my adoration. It radiated like a sun. Somehow, it was looking to accept me, to make me brave enough to be myself. The Star of Night requires my love and the Star of the Day requires my courage. And the two were united in a single song. 

The entrance of the ruin turned into what looked like a final showdown between two popular idol groups. Gigi and Roara were in a battle of speed and dexterity with the twins, who were supported by Shiori’s page markers and Cici’s musical magic. And of course, Elizabeth and Nerissa were in their own world.

Wait.. where is Bijou ?

I looked around for the little girl. I’m pretty sure she was up to no good.

I saw her towards the entrance of the ruin, sat on a plastic white chair, eyes closed. 

The forces right now are pretty equivalent. If I can just stop her from joining the fight, we might actually have a chance.

I took one step after the other. With each, the hope of finally getting out of this mad(wo)men world grew stronger. I dodged a wild Fuwawa that was thrown by Gigi, and several of Shiori’s projectiles. Since the beginning of this adventure I’ve done nothing but follow the girls around, and it was finally time to be the source of the change. I had no idea what I would do once I reached her, but I am sure it would tip the scale in our favor.

I extended my hand towards the purple girl. And just before touching her, my whole body stopped in its tracks. 

“Finally ! I must commend you for finally making decisions for yourself, to have chosen the fight instead of the flight.”

Shiori came into my view.

“But sadly for you, I was counting ~just~on~that. Beebs, if you’d please”

Bijou got up from her chair and put her hand on my chest. I could feel her taking something from me.

“You see, Bibou here feeds on human emotions to power her abilities. And we needed her to use one specific ability of hers, but sadly in this day and age humans are so pressured by their job and society in general to feel anything. Add to that we can’t really go to heavily inhabited places for too long, otherwise we are caught quickly by those girls and Bibou can’t really feed on strong feelings”.

Shiori did a dramatic gesture with her hands, ending it by pointing at me.

“That’s where you come in handy… What if instead of shadily feeding on hundreds of people, she was able to focus on only one random guy at her leisure ? And what if, while she was doing so, Nerissa was fostering in him feelings of love and admiration ? As for me..”

Bijou’s voice entered my hears

“Immortal gem nation takes over my mind…”

“Oh, it started ! Girls !” said Shiori clapping

Bijou was holding her katana on her hips, ready to draw. 

but… why the song ?

“I am the stone that is approaching !”

And she released the sword, cutting the air. Each cut was like a butterfly that stayed in suspension for several seconds and created a small gale when disappearing. Each individual gale was not really strong on its own, but the cuts happened in such a quick succession that it was not only able to send me in the air, but all of the Justice girls as well.

We were all projected towards the same place, at the center of the storm. 

“And as for me…”

Repeated Shiori from the other side of the wind wall.

“I am more interested in your knowledge of demons… And I’ll be taking it all. Well then, farewell”.

“Stop ! Come back here !”

Elizabeth tried to push through the tornado, but was repelled.

“Frig… we are restrained here for the time being”.

Thorn disappeared from her hand.

Chapter 8 -epilogue : Free … ?

“So, who are you ?” Elizabeth said while watching me.

I opened my mouth to answer. 

he ?

“I… don’t know. I don’t remember”.

“It looks like Shiori took a bit more than she said~” said Gigi playfully.

“Huumm… we can’t really let him be like that, no ? What do you think, Liz ?”

“I guess the next time we capture her, we’ll have to ask her to give back his memories… until then, I can welcome him into the Bloodflame kingdom. After all, Rosarians are known to accept people from all ways of life, amnesia is nothing new for them”.

Raora continued :

“I looked at this magical wall, and even my god eyes can’t find a weak point. We will have to wait for the magic to dissipate”

As soon as she finished her sentence, she took out an item looking like an ipad and started doodling. 

After a while, Gigi and Cecilia started some impromptu karaoke with strange rules that involved wrestling. At some point, Liz joined as well. Admittedly, I don’t know exactly how much time we waited before the magic dissipated. But it was not really a bother given the fun we had. When we noticed the wind calmed down, we even preferred to finish the song we had going on before getting back.

“Well, then, back to Exardia ! Follow me !”

As we were walking towards the setting sun, I felt a small weight in my heart. A longing for something I felt was recently lost. 

I whispered in the breeze a name that was at the tip of my tongue.

“Nerissa..”

And the evening winds felt to me like a finger slowly moving up my spine, triggering the tingles of a tender caress. When the sensation reached the lower part of my neck, I heard a familiar voice, weak from the distance.

“Don’t worry, darling ~ All my jailbirds eventually come back to me. And then we will spend all of eternity together” 

I felt a shiver dressing up the hair on my arm. Was this my imagination, or is it a tint of blue that I see ?