Chapter Thirteen: My Biggest Regret

Nozomi and Tamashi got ready for the day in silence. Both felt bad about what went down the previous night, yet their pride got in the way of apologizing. Nozomi eventually decided to break the silence.

'Why won't you tell me anything…?' he asked, genuinely hurt, 'Do you not trust me?'

"You're my Echo," Tamashi responded, "If I can trust myself, I can trust you."

'So then, why?!' Nozomi pressed, 'Why won't you tell me anything?!'

"Because…" Tamashi struggled to say, "Because it's my biggest regret."

'Your… biggest regret?' Nozomi asked.

"I'd…" Tamashi sighed, "Rather not get into it right now."

Nozomi closed his eyes, somewhat pained, taking his greatsword-clad sheath and slowly walking out of his home, making his way towards the Cover Corporation building.

...

"002, we've just received word that 003 and 005 have fallen," a man informed a boy with green armor.

"That's not surprising," the boy said in return, "Those two are far too conceited to draw out a god."

"Should we go after them?" the man asked. The boy laughed heartily.

"Why would we do that," he said in between guffaws, "When they'll go after us?"

...

Nozomi arrived at the meeting room, taking a look around. Artia and Ollie were the only two idols present. Confused, he went up to YAGOO.

"Where's everyone else?" Nozomi asked the man.

"Ah, that," YAGOO said, "The influx of hospital patients affiliated with Hololive has reached the media, so as not to cause a stir, we've been having some more of our idols stream more often."

"I see," Nozomi nodded, "We'll manage."

He began gathering his energy into his greatsword, said energy reaching its tip. After a brief moment, he slashed, creating a small wormhole. The small group of three entered the portal, somewhat nervous about the lack of numbers but still confident.

...

The three found themselves in the cabin that they met up with J-chad in. They took a look around, noticing the horrific dead bodies of Nozomi's doppelgangers and shuddering at the sight. However, they began to hear a beeping sound coming from the white-armored boy's pocket. Summoning as much courage as he could muster, he reached for the pocket and grabbed a small device.

"That's a tracker!" Tamashi gasped, "This'll make rescuing idols so much easier! It brings up a small map of the area and where all of the idols are."

Holy shit, that's really useful, Nozomi nodded, somewhat awestruck. He took a look at the device, noticing three readings in a nearby structure north. He looked up at his team.

"There are three idols up north, be ready for anything," he warned. The two nodded and they made their way northwards. Although the road was quite short, the three had to battle a fair amount of Malice, and, although it was quite easy for them, Artia and Ollie began to worry for their fellow idols' safety. They ran up to the structure they were looking for, now revealed to be a small office building. The group ran up the stairs, checking each and every room for their missing idols. Soon enough, they reached the roof, where they encountered three figures. One was a boy with white hair, a red cloak, and a large katana. Another was a red-haired girl wearing a crop top and with a baseball bat with nails beaten into it atop her shoulder. The final one was a red-haired man with a fairly standard suit and brass knuckles in his hands. They looked back at the fellow group of three.

"Yogiri-chan!" Artia dropped her cool demeanor, running towards the group. As quick as she did, though, the white-haired boy drew his sword, attempting to swing it at her, to which she narrowly dodged.

"They're Dark Echoes!" Nozomi realized, shouting towards the group, "We have to fight them!"

The two girls nodded, as Nozomi and Ollie drew their blades and Artia put up her hands, ready to use ice magic. The white-haired boy attempted to strike Artia once again, but Nozomi rushed in to save her.

"It'd be best if Ollie and I took the weapon users," Nozomi said, grunting against the boy's blade. He was incredibly strong, as was his blade, and he began to lose form, "You take the guy with the brass knuckles, Artia."

She nodded, rushing towards him and clapping her hands together, creating a large amount of ice shards around her. As she parted her hands, the ice shards began to shoot towards the red-haired boy. Going into a boxing stance, he punched through one of the ice shards, much to Artia's surprise. Even so, this slowed him down, allowing her to stall for time while the rest of the team dealt with their respective opponents. As this went on, Ollie began to clash her blade with the red-haired girl's baseball bat. The two had quite similar fighting styles, chaotic and forceful. Despite merely being a baseball bat, it held its weight, being able to put up a fight against Ollie's sword. Jumping back, the pink-haired girl began to run towards Nozomi, a wild grin on her face. Still struggling to keep form against the white-haired boy, he suddenly turned to attempt to block both the white-haired boy's blade and the pink-haired girl's baseball bat. This proved to be too much for him, and he was knocked to the ground. Similarly, Artia's ice blasts proved to be ineffective against the red-haired boy, and he managed to land a solid hit against Artia's face, knocking her to the ground. Enraged, Ollie began to make her way towards the white-haired boy, but she was swiftly knocked down with a kick from the red-haired girl, who, despite her appearance, possessed incredible strength. The three of them looked up at their tormentors, all motioning towards them. They closed their eyes, regretful of the current events and processing their death.

Just then, a series of large energy blasts appeared from the distance, hitting the group of Dark Echoes and causing them to go to the ground. Nozomi, Ollie, and Artia stumbled to their feet, unsure of what just happened but grateful for the miracle nonetheless. They took a quick look at the group of three. They erupted in red and black energy, screaming in pain. They then looked towards the direction the blasts came from, quite confused. A girl suddenly fazed into existence, with purple hair, a quite revealing outfit with white thigh-high tights and sleeves, and a wide mischievous grin. She almost reminded Nozomi of a glitch of sorts, parts of her phasing in and out of existence.

"Hey, Hololive," she said, almost sounding as if she were holding back laughter, "I'm Projekt Melody, or Mel for short. Although that might cause confusion with someone else, so just call me Melody."

"O-oh, I'm Ito Nozomi," he bowed. She laughed.

"Why are you being formal? You don't need to show respect to someone who's wearing an outfit like this," she teased.

"I-I see…" Nozomi stammered, blushing at the sight of her. He wasn't used to seeing… this much of a woman.

"Hey, I know you! I've been watching you stuff for a while, Mel-chan!" Ollie rushed over, attempting to hug the girl. She simply ran through the girl, however.

"Ah, sorry about that, no physical form quite yet," Melody smirked. Ollie sighed, appearing somewhat disappointed, before glancing at the group of former Dark Echoes, who were slowly waking up from their daze. She helped up the red-haired boy, while Artia helped up the red-haired girl, leaving the white-haired boy for Nozomi.

"You're pretty good with the sword," Nozomi complimented him, "You taught me I have a lot to learn."

"Haha, you flatter me," he weakly chuckled.

A master swordsman with white hair, huh? Nozomi commented, Sound familiar to you?

"Haha, you flatter me," Tamashi imitated. Nozomi smiled to himself, unsheathing his sword and gathering his energy, and, upon slashing, created a gateway to the real world.

"Are you coming with us, Mel-chan?" Ollie asked. Melody flashed a smirk, which seemed to be something she did quite a lot.

"Yeah, this place gives me the creeps," she said, "There isn't any internet here, either."

Nozomi chuckled, entering the portal along with the rest of them.

...

In the Hololive offices, YAGOO looked up to find a wormhole opened up, with Nozomi, Artia, and Ollie coming out, along with four different people.

"I see…" he took note of the people coming out of the portal, "Suzaku-kun, Yogiri-chan, Roberu-kun, it's good to see you all again."

He then turned to face Melody.

"And I believe this is our first meeting," he greeted, extending his hand, "Nice to meet you, Projekt Melody. I'm YAGOO, CEO of Cover Corporation."

"Haha, it's awesome to meet you, YAGOO, but…" Melody giggled, staring at YAGOO's hand, "I don't have a physical form quite yet…"

"Oh, I see, how rude of me," YAGOO apologized, "Although, this is quite interesting."

"What's interesting?" Nozomi asked.

"Melody's being in the Mirror means that idols not affiliated with Hololive are in there as well," YAGOO explained.

"You're an idol, Melody?" Nozomi asked.

"Yeah, I stream on Twitch and Chaturbate," Melody smiled slyly.

"Ch-Chaturbate…?!" Nozomi stammered, before returning to a composed state, "Anyways, you're right, YAGOO. For all we know, tons more idols could be stuck in there."

"True. For now, though, focus on rescuing who you immediately can, while also investigating this odd world," YAGOO commanded. Nozomi nodded, as the group began heading home.

...

"What is it?" Mana sighed, rolling her eyes.

"I'm hungry…" Froot complained, "I want some tea…"

"We'll get out of here soon enough," Mana reassured, "I'm positive."