Part Seven: Necromancy

J-chad, still in the Mirror, sat down for a short rest. She had been running through the world for around 3 days with no rest, so it was understandable. Even so, she felt guilty.

'She's still out there,' she thought, 'What if Hypnos is released?'

These thoughts spurred her to get up. She continued her dash through the fields of red. Eventually, though, her running began to slow, and her vision got blurrier.

'N-no…' she thought, 'I need to keep going…'

She fell to the ground, collapsing. The sight of a familiar girl with orange hair in the distance rushing towards her was the last sight she saw before closing her eyes.

"J-chad!" the girl cried out.

...

"Hey, Nozomi," Tamashi said to his other half, "What do you think of Amelia?"

'Huh? Why do you wanna know?' Nozomi asked.

"It's just…" Tamashi started, "I can't shake the feeling that I know her from somewhere…"

'Uh, well…' Nozomi thought, 'I can't say I feel the same way about her as you, but she seems really kind. And smart, too.'

Tamashi sighed. "Let's head out."

'Yeah,' Nozomi nodded, donning his green kimono and pearl greatsword and walking out the door.

...

Before walking into the office, he looked up at the giant building, basking in the shining sun and looking to the blue sky.

'Hey, Tamashi?' Nozomi started.

"Hm? What is it?" the boy responded.

'You know you can confide in me, right?' Nozomi reminded.

Tamashi didn't respond for quite a while.

"...I promise I'll tell you everything when the time is right," Tamashi sighed, "But we need to save these idols first."

Nozomi looked down, somewhat disappointed but not quite surprised. 'Yeah, let's go.'

The moment he walked into the office, he was met with a hug from a certain brown-haired robot. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she began to cry.

"Roboco-" Nozomi stammered, his face flushed red.

"I'm so glad you're okay…" she muttered, "When I heard about Anemachi-chan, I…"

"Hey," he hugged back, trying to console the girl, "I'm okay, you don't need to worry…"

"I should have been there…" she said regretfully, before pulling back, "I promised I'd be your friend…"

"Don't worry about that, please," Nozomi consoled, "I'm safe, see?"

Roboco looked away, concerned. "You're right," she took off her glasses and wiped her eyes, walking off to elsewhere in the office.

Nozomi smiled, then took a look at the rest of the room. Around them was YAGOO, Gura, and Ayame, all who were pretending not to watch Roboco's short display of concern, yet failing to conceal their grins. He blushed, looking away from the group before unsheathing his sword and beginning to direct energy to its tip.

"Hey, is Roboco your type?" Tamashi interrogated teasingly.

'I won't lie,' Nozomi smiled, 'She is pretty cute.'

"Hell yeah!" Tamashi cheered, "Maybe you two and Ayame-chan and I could go on a double date sometime."

Nozomi rolled his eyes and swung his sword, unleashing his energy and creating a rift in space. Ayame entered the portal, and following her was Gura. At the corner of Nozomi's eye, however, he noticed a small shining object around Gura's finger.

"Yo, did you just see that?" Tamashi stopped.

'Is Gura getting married?!' Nozomi gasped.

"Damn, shark girl gettin' it…" Tamashi sighed before Roboco began to enter the portal.

"Let's do this, alright?" Roboco smiled softly.

Nozomi smirked in response. "Yeah," he said, entering the portal with the robot.

...

They were dropped off at the plains. Nozomi shuddered.

'That's the first time I've ever seen a fellow human being dead like that,' Nozomi recalled Anemachi's gruesome death.

"Hey, you good?" Tamashi asked, worried.

'Yeah, better than good,' Nozomi looked up, determination flashing in his eyes, 'I'm never gonna let that happen again.'

"Looks like you've got yourself a goal," Tamashi smiled.

A goal…? Nozomi pondered.

"Yeah," Tamashi confirmed, "A reason to keep on fighting, if you will. It would seem yours is to make sure those around you don't die."

'I like the sound of that…' Nozomi mused, 'What's your goal, Tamashi?'

"That's something I'm afraid I can't get into now," Tamashi explained, "Anyways, let's work on making it through this plain. There should be a small forest up ahead."

'Alright,' Nozomi nodded, looking at his group.

"There's a forest up ahead," he addressed, "Let's get there for today."

The three nodded, as they began their voyage forwards. As they began walking, Gura went up to Nozomi trying to strike conversation.

"Hey, Nozomi," Gura said, "I've got a few questions."

"Uh, sure," Nozomi nodded, "What's up?"

"Uh, your family runs Ito Technologies, right?" Gura asked.

"I'm surprised you knew that," Nozomi said, "Yeah, they work with some pretty big names in the industry. They've even done some military shit."

"You ever worked with them?" Gura asked.

"Nah, not really," Nozomi shook his head, "I've never been the most techy guy."

"I see…" Gura pondered, "I've got one more question for you."

"Hit me," Nozomi said.

"You like black or white tuxedos more?" Gura questioned.

"Uh…" Nozomi stammered, quite confused by the question, "I've always thought white tuxes were kinda tacky, so black I guess…?"

"Sweet, thanks," Gura smiled, walking ahead to the front of the group.

Before long, the party had reached the forest. Suddenly, a gust of wind came barreling through the trees. Covering his face with his arms, he noticed two girls fighting off a horde of hawk-like Malice. One of them was a short-statured girl with turquoise hair and a light-blue dress. The other one was a girl with gray skin and what looked like stitches covering her body. She also had red and gray hair, and was wearing a tattered black and red dress. She was wielding a shortsword, swinging it wildly.

"Rushia-chan! Ollie-chan!" Ayame cried out to the group. Their focus didn't break, as the turquoise-haired girl briefly turned into a butterfly, much to Nozomi's surprise, in order to evade an attack. She then directed shadow magic at the Malice that attacked her, unleashing a devastating blast. Drawing his sword, Nozomi charged at the Malice, taking a great strike at one of them. Confused, the grey-skinned girl clashed her sword with his own.

"Who the hell are you?!" she asked.

"I'm here with your coworkers, and we're trying to save your life," Nozomi explained.

She took a look around, noticing Roboco and Ayame.

"Oh," the grey-skinned girl said sheepishly, pulling back her sword to glare at the Malice, grinning, "Then let's do this."

Ayame unsheathed her swords and Roboco transformed her arms into twin automatic guns. Ayame jumped up in the air, tossing her swords at unsuspecting Malice. Dropping to the ground, she picked up the swords from the birds' corpses and sliced a Malice in two.

"Damn…" Tamashi gawked.

'Jeez, man, get your mind out of the gutter,' Nozomi scoffed, pulling out his sword and swinging it at a small group of Malice. Running to the side, Roboco shot the stragglers, finishing off the group. The turquoise-haired girl ran to greet Ayame with a big hug.

"Hi, Ayame-senpai!" she said, "I'm glad to see you."

"Haha, I'm glad to see you too, Rushia-chan," Ayame giggled, then looking at the grey-skinned girl, "I'm glad to see you're well too, Ollie-chan."

"Hahaha! Hi, Roboco-senpai!" the grey-skinned girl laughed maniacally as she "sheathed" her sword, putting it in her head,

"Hi, Ollie-chan," Roboco smiled.

"Hm, this is interesting," Tamashi pondered, "It would seem those two are a necromancer and a zombie…"

'I'm not surprised with the zombie, but the other girl is a necromancer?' Nozomi asked, 'I wouldn't have expected it. She doesn't really look the part.'

"Don't tell that to her face," Tamashi warned, "Necromancers are often very prideful."

'Ah, alright,' Nozomi nodded.

"I'm Ito Nozomi. I've been working with Cover Corporation to rescue the members of Hololive from this place," Nozomi bowed.

"Ooh, how respectful! And admirable, too! Heroic, even! And you aren't too bad looking, either…" the zombie girl gushed, "I might be falling in love…"

"U-uh…" Nozomi stammered, blushing slightly and glancing at Roboco, "I like someone else…"

"A shame…" she sighed, "I'll find someone someday. I'm Kureiji Ollie, by the way!"

"It's nice to meet you, Ollie-san," Nozomi shook Ollie's hand.

"I'm Uruha Rushia, it's nice to meet you," the necromancer smiled sweetly.

"Yeah, you too," Nozomi grinned in return, "Shall we head back?"

Roboco and Ayame nodded, as Nozomi unsheathed his sword as he directed his energy towards the tip of the sword and swinging it, creating a rift to the real world. Ollie ran into the portal, followed by Ayame, then Rushia, then Roboco, and finally Nozomi.

...

Calliope, Rikka, and Izuru found themselves wandering through a snowy wasteland.

"Holy hard nipples, it's cold…" Izuru shivered, covering his arms.

"It's times like these when I wish I hadn't gotten a human form," Calliope said, struggling to maintain a cool facade. Just then, the group noticed a cabin, emanating a warm light.

"Thank you, god," Izuru cried out desperately, "Shelter…"

"Wait," Rikka held out his arm to stop his friend from continuing onwards, "I'm detecting two people in that cabin up ahead."

"Nothing we can't handle," Calliope scoffed, pulling out her scythe. The two boys nodded at her, as Izuru pulled out his guitar and Rikka readied his gun arms. They ran up to the door, looking at each other, before kicking it down.

"Uhhh…"

Lamy and Botan stared at the three in complete surprise. It would seem that the two were taking a nap together in bed.

"That's…" Calliope struggled for words, "I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that."

"Thank you," Lamy got up and bowed.

"I'm glad to see you two are safe!" Rikka said joyously, not quite understanding the situation.

"Yeah, you too," Botan said nonchalantly.

The five spent a short amount of time around the fireplace, warming up before continuing onwards.

"Hey, Rikka," Botan went up to the robot, "You're a robot, right? Do you know anything about blueprints?"

"Uh, yeah, I can read them," Rikka said, "Why?"

"I found this while I was looking through a factory place or something," Botan said, handing Rikka a blue piece of paper, "I don't have any idea what it means, though."

"Hmmm," Rikka said, taking a long look at the paper, "It seems like this is the blueprint for a device called a KEY. It seems to be implanted into robots to give them the ability to use something called Niku."

"I have no idea what Niku means, but it probably isn't good, huh?" Botan said, crossing her arms.

"It's impossible to know for sure," Rikka said, "But I get a bad feeling when I look at this blueprint…"

...

"So, will you finally cooperate with us, priestess?" a man in glasses carrying a clipboard asked.

"I'll…" the tentacle-clad girl stammered, shackled in chains, "I'll never work with creeps like you…"

"Fine, then," the man said, turning away, "You'll come around eventually, I know it. Go ahead and suffer."

Just then, a massive surge of pain could be felt in her chest. Gasping for breath, she clutched her chest, grimacing at the man.

"The ancient ones will be summoned, and they will reclaim their titles as the rightful rulers of the world," the man said coldly, "No matter how much you resist."

The girl began to weep, still clutching at her chest.

"You're not leaving, Cthulhu," she said, smiling wryly, "I won't let you."