Part Nineteen: A Rescue Mission

Nozomi slowly opened his eyes with a searing headache filling his mind. Grunting, he put his hand to his head and slowly rose from his bed.

"Fuck man, that hurts," Tamashi murmered in pain.

'No kidding,' Nozomi agreed, gingerly grabbing a glass of water, 'You can feel this shit too?'

"I'm in your mindscape, Nozomi," Tamashi explained, "Whatever you feel, I feel."

'Is it the other way around, though?' Nozomi asked.

"'Fraid not. Tamashi denied, " "The mindscape is located in the subconscious, which is what the part of the brain it doesn't fully realize."

'Damn,' Nozomi shook his head, reaching for his medicine cabinet and grabbing some ibuprofen, 'That hardly seems fair.'

"Life ain't fair, kid," Tamashi snickered, "Would've thought you've gotten it by now, after everything you've been through up to this point."

'I suppose you're right,' Nozomi agreed, popping the ibuprofen pills in his mouth and swallowing some water, 'We've still got a few hours. Wanna take a quick nap?'

"Nah, we'll wind up sleeping in and being late," Tamashi shook his head, "Let's suit up and get outta here."

'You're probably right,' Nozomi admitted, motioning towards his green kimono and his sheath containing his pearl-white sword. Donning the kimono and strapping the sheath, he walked out of the door.

...

Entering the meeting room, he found Roboco, Spade Echo, and YAGOO at the large meeting table. Smiling, YAGOO waved at the black-haired teen.

"Nozomi, just the guy I wanted to see," YAGOO greeted, "Have a seat. We've finally finished analyzing the data on that PC in the Mirror."

"That's awesome news," Nozomi grinned, taking a seat, "Find anything useful?"

"It was honestly quite funny looking through this PC," YAGOO admitted, cracking a smirk.

"What was funny about it?" Nozomi asked.

"There was an abnormal amount of pirated ROMs and manga in there," Roboco informed, wearing a smile of her own, "It would seem its owner was a big fan of SNES RPGs."

"Well, can't blame him there," Nozomi chuckled, "Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Final Fantasy VI, even Super Mario RPG, there's fun to be had."

"As for manga, we found over 300 different series," Roboco informed further, "But Evangelion, Code Geass, and Gundam appeared to be read numerous times."

"Mecha isn't my cup of tea usually, but Evangelion and Code Geass are big exceptions," Nozomi explained eagerly, "They go against the mold in their own ways, which makes me appreciate them more."

"I agree," Roboco nodded, "Mecha can be good when executed properly."

"Quit geeking out, goddamn otakus," Spade Echo rolled her eyes, "We found some vital information in there as well."

"O-oh, sorry about that," Nozomi put his hand on his neck, somewhat embarrassed.

"Spade Echo is right, we did find some very important information," YAGOO explained, "A lot of it was locked away due to the owner's status, but we were able to find profiles on everyone that was trapped in the Mirror."

"Oh, yes, we found over 80 profiles," Roboco nodded, "We've got a lot of work ahead of us,"

"Damn," Nozomi said, "That's a lot of people."

"Yeah," Spade Echo agreed, "We also found map files for the rest of the Mirror, as well as the map to that stronghold."

"Give me your scanner, Nozomi," Roboco demanded, "I'll have it updated with the new maps and profiles."

"Sure," Nozomi complied, taking the device out of his pocket and tossing it Roboco's way. Roboco caught it with her right hand, fumbling around with it for a bit. YAGOO's posture began to change as well.

"We also found some information regarding what's going on inside that stronghold," YAGOO informed grimly, "It would seem the enemy plans to torture Ninomae Ina'nis by mass-murdering large amounts of duplicates of Airani Iofifteen in front of her."

"W-wait, what?" Nozomi recoiled in surprise, "Th-that's disgusting…"

"Indeed," YAGOO nodded, "Which is why we're going to have to storm the stronghold before they can put their plan into action. The data said we have five days until it's time. Until then, we should begin rallying together people who can help us in this rescue mission, be it inside the Mirror or elsewhere."

"You're right," Nozomi nodded as well, "The more manpower we have, the better."

"Do you have any connections, Nozomi?" Spade Echo asked. You thought for a moment, recalling the phone numbers Suisei's friends gave you.

"That's right…" Nozomi remembered, "Suisei got me into contact with a few of her friends. I'm sure they'd help us."

"That's good to hear," YAGOO said, "I'll get into contact with them for you. Thank you, Nozomi."

"Of course," Nozomi's eyes flashed, "I'm not gonna let anybody die out there."

Suddenly, Nozomi's head began to flare once again. He grunted, putting his hand to his forehead.

"Ngh, on second thought, maybe we should wait it out a day," Nozomi grunted, chuckling sheepishly, "My head is killing me…"

"Are you okay, Nozomi?" Roboco asked worriedly.

"I'll be fine," Nozomi shook his head.

"We'll go into the Mirror tomorrow." YAGOO smiled, "You can get some rest for now, Nozomi."

"Thanks, YAGOO," Nozomi smirked as he hid his pained expression, walking out the door and making his way back home for some rest.

...

"Are you sure I can stay here?!" Gura asked eagerly. Amelia giggled.

"We're married, Gura," Amelia said, "Isn't living together what married people do or something?"

"That's true," Gura said, opting to look at the detective's agency around here rather than her wife, "But this is your place…I'd hate to intrude."

"Gura, you've done plenty of intruding upon my life already," Amelia chuckled, "And I'm grateful for all of it. Now that we're married, I'm never leaving your side."

"A-Ame…" Gura blushed as Amelia leaned down to give her spouse a kiss. However, the moment the two's lips touched, barking could be heard from a distant room.

"Goddamn it, Bubba…" Amelia murmured, shaking her head.

...

"Calliope, it's been what, 2 weeks now?" a man with shaggy red hair, a purple eye and a red eye, and a black suit with a scythe on his back said to the pink-haired reaper, "Heard you were transported to an alternate world or something. Crazy shit."

"You're telling me, Shin," Calliope groaned, "Apparently it's parallel to ours. The people in there are trying to reawaken Elohim."

"Are you fucking serious?" Shin said bitterly, his jaw dropping, "So, our world isn't the only one filled to the brim with dumbasses, huh?"

"I guess not," Calliope chuckled dryly, "You don't suppose you could help out with our forays into the other world?"

"Trust me, I would, travelling through an uncharted alternate world sounds a lot more fun than participating in judgement trials," Shin scoffed, "But seeing as how we're the only two reapers left, I've had to shoulder a lot more shit. Even Old Man Death's been having to go on the front lines again."

"I see," Calliope nodded, "Still though, we should go for a drink sometime. It's been a while since we last caught up."

"Yeah, we should," Shin agreed with a wide smile, revealing his sharp canines, "I'd kill to get drunk right about now."

"Same," Calliope grinned, "I'm gonna talk with Death-sensei for a bit. See you later, Shin."

"You too, Reaper-chan," Shin smirked. Calliope shook her head at that name, walking past the redheaded reaper and walking to Death's office. Opening the door, he found a certain black-cloaked skull-faced Shinigami working on some paperwork.

"Death-sensei," Calliope addressed.

"Mori," Death said in return, "Mind telling me where you were for the past weeks?"

"I was transported into a parallel world known as the Mirror," Calliope informed, "Turns out the people there want to reawaken Elohim. They've captured Ina'nis, so we're likely going to be going on a rescue expedition soon."

"Wait, what the hell?!" Shin ran into Death's office, his face a mixture of anger and confusion, "They have Ina-chan?! Why didn't you tell me that?!"

"Because I knew you'd react this way," Calliope rolled her eyes, "You said yourself you have stuff to do."

"I'd throw away my job as a reaper in an instant for Ina-chan!" Shin shouted, "I'm going on that rescue mission, whether you like it or not!"

"Is that fine, Death-sensei?" Calliope asked.

"When is it?" Death questioned.

"I think they said it'd be on Thursday," Calliope recalled.

"...Thursdays are usually slow," Death looked down. Shin's angered expression turned into one with a wild smile.

"Hell yeah!" Shin grinned, "Ina-chan will fall for me this time!"

Shin ran out of Death's office, while Calliope followed. Once the two reapers were out of sight, Death sighed.

"I'm glad you're safe, you two."

...

"Sir, we've located Moona Hoshinova," an armored figure kneeled before a large altar with candles bearing blue flames surrounding them, "It would seem she is accompanied by a keris imbued with a soul. It can also freely change from human to weapon at any time."

"I see," an otherworldly voice echoed throughout the room as the blue flames turned purple, "Go after her. Draw out Tsukuyomi."

"Understood, father," the armored figure said, taking off her helmet and revealing a bed of long black hair with accompanying circular glasses, "I will not let you down."