Part Twenty: Look At Us

Four days remain.

...

Nozomi woke up from his long slumber. Tiredly rubbing his eyes, he quickly realized his headache was gone. Grinning, he rose to his feet and dressed himself in his green kimono. He then took his sheath with sword within, strapping it onto his back.

"Not in the talkative mood today?" Tamashi asked.

'You could say that,' Nozomi thought, 'I just wanna get to the Mirror.'

"You're such a workaholic, man," Tamashi sighed, "Whenever we can't go to the Mirror, you get antsy as hell…"

'I know, but…' Nozomi reasoned, 'What if someone's dying out there while we're just chilling up where it's safe? It barely seems fair, doesn't it?'

"I think I see what happened here," Tamashi said, "You got a serious case of survivor's guilt when you saw Anemachi die, didn't you?"

'Survivor's guilt…?' Nozomi thought, 'You… may be right about that. I do feel quite guilty about what happened to her. And that's why I want to save everyone. I don't want anyone to get hurt anymore. I have the power to help those that can't help themselves. May as well make use of it.'

"That's noble, I suppose," Tamashi pondered, "But don't let it get to your head."

'I won't, I won't,' Nozomi shook his head, softly grinning and walking out the door.

...

Nozomi quickly began to make his way to the Cover Corporation offices, but was interrupted by a sort of black cloud appearing in the ground. This black cloud erupted upwards, making a door-like shape, and a certain pink-haired reaper emerged from it.

"Calliope, hello," Nozomi waved.

"Nozomi," Calliope said cooly, "I've got a reaper on our side that'll help us with the rescue mission. His name is Watanabe Shin. He's a little rough on the edges and sometimes overly enthusiastic, but he's a man you can trust."

"That's great to hear," Nozomi smirked, "The more help we can get, the better."

"Agreed," Calliope smirked in return, "Oh, by the way…"

"Hm? What's up?" Nozomi asked.

"You can call me Calli," Calliope blushed, quickly turning and walking towards the offices.

...

Arriving in the offices along with Calliope, Nozomi caught three different sets of eyes, those being of a light pink-haired girl with an orange and blue dress with a bell around her neck, a black-haired boy with distinct purple eyes and a purple and black coat that was playing a guitar, and a light-pink haired boy with green eyes and a large amount of necklaces and bracelets. Nozomi went over to greet them.

"Hello, everyone," he waved, "We've never formally met. I'm Ito Nozomi."

"Ah, Nozomi-kun," the pink-haired boy waved, "I'm Rikka, an android created for Holostars. It's good to meet you."

"It's good to see you all fixed up, Rikka," Calliope grinned.

"Definitely," Rikka nodded, "If being shut down is what death feels like to humans, I have a whole new respect for them."

"I'm Momosuzu Nene! But you can call me Nenechi!" the bell-clad girl beamed towards Nozomi, "You wouldn't happen to want to be one of my husbands, would you?"

"Wh- husbands?!" Nozomi stammered, somewhat flustered. Nene laughed, pointing at the boy.

"You're funny, Nozomi!" Nene cried out. The black-haired boy finally finished the song he was playing on his guitar, looking up to face Nozomi.

"It's Kanade Izuru," he smiled softly, "Thanks for helping us in there."

"It's my pleasure, Izuru-san," Nozomi bowed. Once introductions were over, Nozomi unsheathed his sword and directed his energy to its tip. Once enough energy was amassed, Nozomi slashed into the air, creating a wormhole to the Mirror. Nene eagerly ran into the portal, with Calliope, Rikka, and Izuru following. Nozomi was the first to walk into the rift, with it closing.

...

Nozomi and his group found themselves in front of the stronghold. Quickly reaching for his newly updated scanner, he pulled up the map. No one was present, but with his new updates, he was able to open a larger map, finding that a small group of two people were taking refuge in a cave about 2 miles east. Relaying this information to the group, they began making their way through the snow to this group. Fighting against the bitter cold and grimacing, Nozomi found the cave and began walking into it. The moment he did, however, a blue top-like device appeared and smashed Nozomi in his stomach. Grunting and dropping to the ground, he looked up as a large dark-skinned man with an eyepatch tackled him, pointing a large gun to his head.

"You're one of those armored kids, right?! You look just like them!" the man yelled, "What are you trying to pull?!"

"It's not…" Nozomi managed to mutter as a pink-haired… boy? Girl? Picked up the top-like device that hit Nozomi and put it in his pocket, glaring at the black-haired teen.

"Oga! Kaoru!" Rikka ran into the cave, with his gun-arm readied, "He's not one of them!"

"Rikka?!" the eyepatch-clad man looked up, "How can you be sure?!"

"He's worked with us for about 2 weeks now!" Rikka explained, "I know it's difficult to believe, but trust me!"

The pink-haired person motioned towards the dark-skinned man, leaning down to talk to him.

"I trust Rikka-senpai," they said, "Let go of him."

"Ngh…" the man was torn, but slowly rose up and let go of Nozomi, "Fine."

Nozomi stumbled to his feet, clutching where he was hit by the top. Thinking back to the situation, he recalled it was a Beyblade, as he used to watch the Beyblade anime all the time as a kid. How did that guy release a Beyblade with that much force…? he thought, quite shocked by the revelation.

"Sorry about hitting you with a Beyblade," the pink-haired person grinned, "I'm Tsukishita Kaoru. It's good to hear you've been keeping Rikka-san safe."

"Ugh, I thought I told you all I hate the "san" honorific," Rikka groaned, "But thanks."

"I'm Aragami Oga," the man said, putting out a massive arm awaiting a handshake. Nozomi hesitated to return the favor, but eventually decided to comply, sharing a strong handshake. Once this was over, Oga pulled Nozomi's arm, bringing him near his shoulder.

"Kaoru's a guy if you're confused," Oga said. Nozomi grinned, as the other three people travelling with Nozomi walked into the cave

"So, you guys said you knew about Nozomi's doppelgangers?" Izuru interrogated.

"Yeah," Kaoru confirmed, "We found two guys that looked exactly like him near that metal structure a few miles west. When we came near, they drew guns and a ball and chain onto us. They were wearing blue and green armor, but I could see their faces through their visors. We managed to fight them off and make our escape, so we've been waiting it out in this cave."

"Blue and green armor…" Calliope mused, "Those are two we haven't come across yet."

"You mean there are more of them?" Oga asked.

"Yeah," Izuru nodded, "We've come across red and white. Red caused Rikka and I a lot of trouble, actually."

"Those bastards…" Oga grunted, "Do you know anything about them?"

"They're almost like the kingpins of this world," Calliope explained, "They're in control of most things that go on in this place. They're coded by number as well. For example, Red was 005 and white was 003."

"Kingpins, eh?" Oga scoffed, "We'll take 'em down, for sure."

"Yeah," Nozomi grinned, "How 'bout we get out of here for now?"

"Sure, my nails need a new coat," Kaoru said, looking at the somewhat chipped nail polish upon his nails. Nozomi nodded, drawing his sword and amassing energy into its tip. Once enough energy was amassed, he slashed and created a rift to the world they knew as home. Nene, Izuru, and Calliope entered first, with Rikka, Oga, and Kaoru following, ending the line with Nozomi, with the rift closing as the final person entered the portal.

...

"That's fucking awful," Connor said upon hearing Miyabi's story. A poor girl's gonna have to watch her friend die over and over again?

"Seriously…" Ironmouse said, visibly disgusted, "But we can stop that from happening, right?"

"From what I've gathered, a group coming from the surface is going to be interfering with their plans in 4 days. We should provide assistance if they're in a pinch."

"How are we gonna go about doing that?" Connor asked.

"I'm not quite sure," Miyabi said, "If we bring ourselves in front of them, we'll surely be put in the main forces, which isn't what I specialize in. But if we just stay underground, we'll be detected and probably killed."

"I think I have a solution," a voice said from outside. Ironmouse quickly jumped to her feet, summoning her staff. Connor took the rose from his suit and Miyabi's hands glowed pink, ready to use sakura magic.

"Who the fuck are you?" Ironmouse demanded to know. The girl came out and entered the small shelter, revealing a red-headed girl wearing sandals and odd red and white garb.

"FAQ!" she said, quite angry, "I'm Sakura Miko! You know you could just ask for help from the shrine spirits, right?!"

...

"I'm glad I was able to find you, Coco-chan," Marine smiled against the fire.

"Yeah, I bet because I have fire breath and you were cold," Coco teased, also relishing the warmth of the fire.

"That's somewhat true, I suppose," Marine agreed, "Although I miss everyone else, too."

"I feel that," Coco nodded, "Hey, there's something I've been wondering. Who do you miss the most?"

"Well…" Marine smiled, looking up to the starry eternally night sky, "It's Rushia-chan. For sure."

"I knew it," Coco grinned smugly, "I thought you always went for the big milkies."

"Oh, trust me, I do," Marine laughed, "But Rushia-chan's different. It's hard to explain. But I feel like she'll always have my back."

"I never took you for the type, Marine-paisen," Coco giggled.

"Like you're much different, Coco-chan," Marine rolled her eyes, "Everyone knows about you and Kanata-chan."

"Hah! You're right," Coco laughed heartily, "I love Kanatan. She's so kind and pure. Like a beacon of light."

"Haha," Marine smirked, "Look at us sexy motherfuckers going for the short flat girls…"

The two shared a long bout of laughter as the smoke from the fire rose to the sky.