Part Five: Despair

"You alright?" Suisei asked.

"I wouldn't have expected you to be so skilled with healing magic," Anemachi expressed, "I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, sis," Suisei smiled. Just then, what resembled a geyser of red and black erupted in the nearby plains. It was alluring, yet terrifying, beautiful, yet full of despair.

"Let's get moving," Anemachi grinned, "Looks like we've got something to investigate."

"I don't know, Anemachi," Suisei looked down, shaking her head, "What if something powerful did that?"

"Are you kidding?" Anemachi laughed, "When two Hoshimachis unite, we can make anything happen. Even if there is danger, we can get out of there scot-free."

...

"I'm glad to see someone I can trust around here," Calliope said, putting her scythe on her back, "Still though, it's odd for me to not know a place."

"Indeed it is," Rikka said, looking at her smiling, "As a reaper, I'd expect you to know nearly everything there is about the world's many wonders."

"I thought I did, but this place is totally weird," Calliope explained, "I can't detect Death-sensei anywhere."

"Are you inferring you normally can?" Rikka asked, shocked.

"I thought I already told you this already," Calliope said, facepalming, "Death-sensei and I share a link. If something happens to me, he'll know, and if something happens to him, I'll know. But I can't feel that link anymore."

"Oh, I guess it slipped my mind," Rikka said, putting his hand on his neck and chuckling sheepishly, "Still though, that is strange."

"For sure," Calliope said, as the two began walking.

...

Nozomi woke up from a long slumber. He rubbed his eyes, putting on his glasses and checking the digital clock on his nightstand.

'9:00?!' Nozomi gasped, 'What the hell, man, why didn't you wake me up?!'

"Huh?" Tamashi said confused, as if waking from a daydream, "Oh, sorry about that."

'Hey, you okay?' Nozomi asked, 'You seem out of it.'

"It's… nothing. Let's go," Tamashi hesitated. Agreeing, Nozomi put on his green kimono and sheath, making his way to the Cover Corporation offices.

...

Walking into the meeting room, he encountered the same smiling YAGOO as always, as well as the Mio and the two girls from yesterday.

"Sorry we don't have as many people as usual," YAGOO apologized, "We're trying to get the girls streaming again so people don't worry."

"It's fine," Nozomi shook his head, looking at the girl with the shark hoodie, "We saw how she defeated all of those Malice nearly all by herself. We'll be okay."

The girl chuckled proudly. "Damn right you will!" she said, holding out her hand, "A! I'm Gawr Gura!"

"Ito Nozomi," Nozomi greeted, shaking the small girl's hand, "It's good to meet you."

"I'm Amelia Watson," the blond girl smiled, "I look forward to working with you."

"Yeah, same for me," Nozomi bowed, "I assume you two want to come with Mio and I?"

"That's right," Gura said, pumping her fist in the air, "I'm taking all of those Malice things down!"

"Easy now, 'Apex Predator'," Amelia said, patting Gura on the head, "Let's take things one step at a time, okay? Our first priority is saving the rest of Hololive."

"You're right," Gura agreed, turning towards Nozomi, "So why don't we get going?"

Nozomi smirked, unsheathing his sword and directing energy to the tip, slashing in the air to create a hole to the Mirror world. Gura dashed into the portal, practically dragging Amelia. Mio paused before entering the portal, looking at Nozomi.

"Let's do our best, yeah?" Mio grinned.

"Yeah," Nozomi grinned in return, entering the portal with the wolf girl.

...

The group found themselves at the base of the mountain, around where they found Gura and Amelia. They immediately heard the sounds of explosions and the clashing of metal.

"Holy shit," Tamashi gasped, "There's a massive Niku presence coming from those plains."

'You can sense Niku?' Nozomi asked.

"To be honest, I usually can't, but this presence is too large not to pick up," Tamashi informed urgently, "Let's go. Now."

'Understood,' Nozomi thought, running towards the plains. The group saw this and ran behind him. Before long, they found themselves in the large plains, being greeted by a massive swing from a red and black scorpion tail, which luckily the four of them were able to dodge. Looking at the source, it came from a terrifying creature with the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, and the head of a man.

'A manticore…' Nozomi thought to himself. Looking to his left, he noticed two similarly looking girls fighting off the beast. One had blue hair and was wielding a knife, while one had pink hair and was using ice magic.

"Hey there," the pink-haired girl said, not breaking her focus while using spells, "Mind giving a hand?"

"Mio-chan!" the blue-haired girl exclaimed, also not breaking her focus, "This thing's pretty tough!"

The four looked at each other and nodded. Nozomi unsheathed his sword, Gura brandished out her trident, Mio summoned the creature named Hatotaurus that Nozomi battled, and Amelia took out an assault rifle from inside her coat. The four rushed in to battle the massive Malice. Hatotaurus began to make its way towards the beast's face, launching a massive amount of punches at it while the manticore evaded them. Before long, Amelia was able to read the manticore's pattern of movement, being able to land a few shots on it. Enraged, it tried to attack Amelia, but Nozomi rushed in to block its claw swipe. As he began to swing his sword, the beast blocking each attack with its tail, he began to feel lightheaded, and he felt a holy presence filling his mind.

'An… angel?' Nozomi thought, before shaking these thoughts out of his mind. Before long, Gura found her opening, jumping atop the manticore and stabbing it on its back. It screamed in pain, kicking Gura off. With the trident still stuck in its back, it began to bleed from the mouth, snarling and backing away from the shark girl.

"It's still alive?!" Gura said in disbelief. It then began to attack the blue-haired girl, and with only her knife, she wasn't able to do much to evade the manticore's tail. The blade and the tail clashing, this dance went on for what seemed like hours, but before long the knife was parried and pushed out of her hand. Realizing this, the creature went for a thrusting attack, attempting to end the girl's life. Closing her eyes, she prepared for the worst.

"NO!"

"Wha-"

The pink-haired girl jumped in front of her at the very last moment. She noticed the large tail protruding from her stomach. The manticore pulled its tail out of the pink-haired girl's stomach and began to back away, blood and flesh leaking out of the wound. The creature even seemed to have smiled. The blue-haired girl rushed over to the others' body, putting her hands on the wound as odd light began to emanate from it.

"No, no, no, no…" she chanted frantically, as the girl's body temperature began to lower. As the girl's breathing became slower and slower, her chants began to slow, and she began to stop using her magic. She slumped her body over the pink-haired girl's corpse, looking down.

"Ha... ha... ha..."

The blue-haired girl began to chuckle, slow at first. Before long, her chuckles turned into laughter, looking up at the monstrosity that took her sister's life. She grabbed her knife and began charging towards the menace, grinning wildly. She dodged each and every thrust and swing the beast launched with its tail, cackling all the while. She pinned the creature to the ground, brandishing her knife and stabbing it repeatedly in the face until there wasn't a single part that wasn't stained with blood. As she began to get more tired, she walked away, only to look at the pink-haired girl's lifeless body. She dropped to her knees, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"You liar…"

...

The five of them came through a portal, arriving in the Hololive offices, and being greeted by YAGOO. He noticed a Suisei bathed in blood with a blank expression.

"What happened?!" he rushed over. Nozomi, Amelia, Gura, and Mio looked at each other with somber expressions.

"I'll stay and explain it to you," Nozomi said to YAGOO before turning to the group, "You three go home and get some rest."

The three nodded, while Suisei merely walked out the door. Before she did, however, she gave Amelia a cold look, a look seeming to see through her very own soul. Nozomi then turned to YAGOO, who had a concerned look on his face.

...

"I…" YAGOO stuttered, holding back tears, "I see. I'll arrange a funeral service for her."

"Who were they?" Nozomi asked, a sad face covering his head.

"The blue-haired girl was named Hoshimachi Suisei. The pink-haired girl was named Hoshimachi Anemachi," the middle-aged man looked down.

"They were related, huh?" Nozomi questioned.

"Yes, sisters," YAGOO explained, "As close as two could be."

"How awful…" Nozomi looked down. He could feel his eyes get teary, so he took off his glasses to wipe them.

"It's very important that we support Suisei during this time," YAGOO said, "Anemachi was the only family she had left…"

"I will, sir," Nozomi got up, putting his glasses back on, "Thank you, YAGOO."

"Thank you, Nozomi," YAGOO thanked in return, nodding.

...

As Nozomi walked towards his home, he recalled the vision he had during battle.

'Hey, Tamashi, can I ask you something?' he tried to ask.

"Anything, partner," Tamashi replied.

'I had… a vision during battle', Nozomi explained to his Echo.

"A vision, you say?" Tamashi said, quite intrigued, "Do tell."

'While I was fighting that manticore, the vision of a girl flashed through my mind,' Nozomi elaborated, 'She looked like an angel.'

"Oh…" Tamashi started, sounding somewhat sad. "I shouldn't have expected things to be so simple, haha… figures my memories would begin to become one with yours eventually…"

'What the hell do you mean by that?' Nozomi asked, bewildered.

"Haha, it's nothing," Tamashi forced a chuckle, "Let's get to bed, yeah?"

...

Amelia began to make her way back to the detectives' agency building, where she lived. She looked down, with tears rolling down her face. Soon, though, she arrived near an alleyway, with someone lurking inside.

"Hey there, detective," the figure walked into the sunlight, "Beautiful day out, isn't it?"

"H-hey, Suisei-senpai…" Amelia stammered, before being cut off by the blue-haired idol.

"Cut the bullshit," Suisei interrupted with a clearly pissed expression, "You know something, don't you?"

"I, uh," Amelia stuttered, slowly walking back as Suisei gained on her.

"I saw your face. The way it contorted when she got impaled. The regretful side of it when we were in the office. And just now, I saw it crying rivers," she said, pinning down the detective and taking out a knife, playfully grazing it against her throat, "Now, I'd choose my next words very carefully. Why did my sister have to die out there?"

Just then, a trident came barreling through the sky. Suisei withdrew from the pose she was in, backing away from the capped detective.

"Don't lay a goddamn finger on her!" Gura exclaimed, sprinting towards the idol. Taking her trident, she clashed against the knife, looking at Suisei dead in the eye.

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed it either, Gura," Suisei shouted angrily, "You of all people should know, shouldn't you? She's been acting weirdly, right?"

"That's…" Gura let her guard down before pushing the idol away, "That's not true!"

She threw her trident at Suisei's hand, causing Suisei to be pinned to the wall of a nearby restaurant. Wailing in pain, she dropped her knife. Gura grabbed it, while pinning Suisei's other wrist to the wall.

"This is familiar, isn't it?" Gura said harshly, putting the knife up against Suisei's neck, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, right?"

Suisei sighed, and her wrist struggling to be free from Gura's grasp went limp. She began to weep. "Why did Anemachi die?" she said in between short breaths.

"Gura, please," the blond-haired detective said, voice breaking, "Stop this…"

Gura looked at her girlfriend, realizing what she'd done. She backed away from the idol, feeling pity for her. The idol ripped the trident from her hand, as she began to heal the damaged body part with her spare hand using healing magic.

"You're right," Amelia sobbed, looking at both Gura and Suisei, "I do know something."

Gura looked sad, but not quite surprised. Suisei looked up to face the detective, who's eyes seemed just as mournful as her own.

"What happened?" the shark girl asked as she picked up her trident.

"That… world…" Amelia began, looking down in shame, her sky blue eyes wet with tears, "It exists… because of me…"