Part Six: Our Mistakes Don't Just Go Away

The two looked at Amelia in shock. She's the reason the Mirror exists?

" What do you mean by that…?" Suisei asked, her wound now fully closed and giving the detective a scowl.

"It was created…" Amelia started, looking down and grabbing the pocket watch on her coat, "When I used this…"

"Wait, that's…" Gura stepped back, eyes wide with shock.

"Yeah," Amelia nodded, "It's my time machine…"

"When did you use that…?" Gura asked bewildered, returning to the original place where she stood.

"Haha…" Amelia chuckled weakly, tears still building in her eyes, "That's a hard question to answer. A better question would be why, wouldn't it?"

"Don't get funny, detective," Suisei went up to her, holding her knife.

"Don't," Gura said, pointing her trident at Suisei's face, "You even dare."

"STOP!" Amelia shouted, her sadness briefly flaring into anger, "Just… stop it…"

The two returned to their original positions, putting away their weapons and glaring at each other. Not breaking eye contact, Gura put out her hand. Suisei looked at the hand and closed her eyes, sighed dejectedly. She held out her hand, and the two girls shared a firm handshake, significant of a truce.

"...I'll hear you out," Suisei glanced at Amelia.

"Thank you," Amelia said, still quite emotional, "You see, this watch is a time machine. But what Gura doesn't know is… I was the one who made it."

"H-huh?" Gura said, surprised, "I thought you've devoted your life to detective work, not inventions."

"In this life, yes," Amelia sighed, "But in my previous life, I was a different person under a different name."

"Different… life?" Suisei repeated, puzzled.

"That's right," Amelia said, "In my past life, I was just a simple inventor."

"What do you mean, past life?" Suisei said with a hint of agitation.

"The life I lived before I time traveled," Amelia started, "The life I lived before everything went wrong…"

"What went wrong?" Gura asked.

"In layman's terms, some insane bitch agitated the gods," Amelia said bitterly, "And they released Niku upon the world."

"NIku? That's the stuff Malice are made of, right?" Gura questioned.

"Yeah," Amelia nodded slowly, "It's the manifestation of humanity's impurity, as that unwanted crackhead called it."

"So, that person made the gods angry and they released Niku, so you time travelled to stop it," Suisei confirmed, "What then?"

"I did what anyone would do in my situation," Amelia explained, turning away, "I shot the bastard."

"I…" Gura stammered, "That's understandable."

"But it was so stupid of me to think that'd fix everything," Amelia said, grinning wryly and looking toward the ground, "Time travel couldn't fix it."

"Why not?" Suisei asked.

"Because," Amelia started, "Our mistakes just don't go away like that. Not even by meddling with time."

"Wait, do you mean…" Suisei began.

"The world I left behind," Amelia said, holding back tears, "Reordered and manifested itself as our Mirror."

"What the hell…" Suisei said, with a shocked expression on her face. She walked backwards a few steps, dropping her knife.

"Our world…" Gura said, looking mortified, "Used to look like that?"

"Yes," Amelia nodded, now beginning to cry again, "Gura, you died out there… and I had a time machine… so I just thought… what if I went back and fixed everything…?"

Amelia dropped to her knees, covering her sobbing face with her hands.

"Fate is absolute," Amelia said between tears, "There's nothing we can do anymore…"

The two blue haired girls shared a sad look. Nodding at each other, Suisei went up to the blond-haired girl.

"Stand up, detective," Suisei said harshly, "Come on, stand up."

Amelia looked up, her face wet from her weeping, she closed her eyes for a moment, and then summoned the courage to get up and look at Suisei dead in the eye.

Smack!

Suisei's palm hit Amelia's cheek, Suisei's expression harsh, Amelia's expression surprised, and Gura's expression an odd mixture of both.

"How dare you talk that way," Suisei said as her voice cracked, "If you say things like that, we'll all lose hope…"

"B-but there's nothing we can do…" Amelia looked down, "It'll all end the same, just with another world at play."

"That's not true," Suisei said angrily, "We'll ensure that the world is saved. We'll change fate. And most importantly, we'll prove to you that you aren't at fault."

Amelia looked at Suisei, astonished. "Of course it's my fault!" she shouted, tears running down her face, "I was the one who turned back time! It would've been better if I just accepted fate and left the world to die!"

"I know you don't really think that, Ame," Gura piped in, "It was that bastard's fault for disturbing the gods, not yours. In fact, I think you did good. You gave us a second chance."

"I…" Amelia stammered. They were right. And yet, Amelia struggled to accept it. She had spent so much of her life believing everything was her fault. How could she accept this change so easily?

"By the way," Gura started, "What was that fuck's name?"

"Oh…" Amelia said, once again looking down, "His name was Ito Ikuma, president of Ito Technologies… and father to Ito Nozomi."

...

Amelia arrived at her offices, with Gura following her. She wasn't sure why Gura had come along, but she was glad she did. She fumbled with her keys for a moment and entered the building.

The moment she did, though, Gura pounced onto her, giving her a warm hug.

"I'm so sorry, Ame," Gura said, her face buried in her girlfriend's coat, "I had no idea what you were going through…"

"Gura…" Amelia struggled.

"I acted like I knew you, but I didn't know anything," Gura said, the spot in the coat where her head was buried becoming wet from tears, "You were always there for me, but I was never there for you…"

"Gura…" Amelia repeated in attempts to catch the shark girl's attention.

"How can I call myself your girlfriend when I act like that…?" Gura sobbed, "I'm awful. I'm so awful…"

"Gura!" Amelia shouted, tears once again running down her cheeks.

Gura pulled back, surprised. Amelia pulled out a small box from her coat. Gura knew what it meant.

"Gura, would you please…" Amelia began to ask, crying, blushing, and smiling at the same time, opening the box to reveal a ring with a beautiful jem in the center, "Would you please be my wife…?"

...

The pink-haired reaper looked around with the similarly pink-haired robot, as they came across a large church-like structure. Inside, they could hear an aggressive acoustic guitar, as well as panting and the sounds of thunder.

"Should we investigate?" Rikka asked.

"I never really liked churches," Calliope said, "But this might be important. Let's go."

They ran inside the building, only to find a boy wearing a black and purple coat, with black hair and deep violet eyes. He was playing an acoustic guitar while fighting off gorilla-like Malice. It seemed as if, as the boy played his guitar, bolts of lightning would appear.

"Izuru!" Rikka shouted.

"Rikka!" Izuru smiled, still strumming at his guitar, "A hand would be nice."

"Yeah," Rikka said, his arm transforming into an automatic gun of sorts, "Let's go, Calli!"

"Hell yeah!" Calliope smiled, taking out her scythe. She was the first to charge into the horde, swinging the blade with incredible skill and precision.

"Amazing…" Izuru muttered as he continued to play his guitar. Lightning struck the creatures as Calliope saved him from a Malice coming from a beast trying to attack him from behind. Meanwhile, Rikka defeated any Malice trying to come into the church from a distance, choosing to use bullets rather than melee combat. Panting, Rikka defeated the final Malice, and it was over.

"Guh…" Calliope gasped, looking down, "I'm out of practice since I started v-tubing…"

"Same goes for me," Rikka sighed, sitting down on a church bench, "So, Izuru, what are you doing here?"

"I woke up here a day or two ago," Izuru explained, sitting on an adjacent church bench, "I've just been playing my guitar this whole time, but I guess those things didn't like my music…"

"Haha, that sounds like you," Rikka laughed.

"But seriously, thank you so much for the assist," Izuru bowed to Rikka and Calliope, "I probably would've been dead meat if it weren't for you guys."

"It's no problem," Calliope said, looking at the black-haired guitarist, "You know, I don't think we've ever formally met."

"Oh, I guess we haven't," Izuru realized, bouncing to his feet and bowing to introduce himself, "I'm Kanade Izuru. Thank you for saving my life."

"I'm Mori Calliope, the Grim Reaper's first apprentice," Calliope bowed in return, "And it's my pleasure. Any friend of Rikka's is a friend of mine."

"So, do you have any idea where we are?" Izuru asked.

"Not really, to be completely honest," Rikka laughed.

"Eh, that's fine," Izuru said nonchalantly, "We should probably go then, right?"

The three jumped to their feet, nodding. 'You better be alright, Death-sensei,' Calliope thought, 'And you too, Thanatos.'