Well, this is really the end. Thank you all so much for sticking through this fic with me. I never expected to actually finish it, so I'm really happy. I know my writing isn't the best, especially in this fic, but I'm glad you guys stuck through it anyways. I can't thank you enough.
I really enjoyed building this world and, honestly, I think I could make an amazing story in this world if I just started over, but I won't. This is the closing chapter on this world. I won't make this too long because... well, there isn't much to say. Thank you and this is the end.
Enjoy.
6 months later
"Honoka-chan! Wake up, we're going to be late!" A loud voice and a sudden shaking snapped Honoka out of her peaceful sleep and she groggily sat up, rubbing at her eyes. "Don't you remember what today is?" It was Hanayo who had apparently woken up quite a bit earlier than she had as it looked like she had already taken a shower and gotten ready.
"Um… Saturday?"
"Yes! But we're supposed to meet up with the others at Maki-chan's today!"
The ginger snapped fully awake at that. "Ah! I forgot!" She scrambled out of bed, falling and faceplanting before running up to their shared closet and grabbing her nicest pair of clothes. That only consisted of a long-sleeve white black shirt and a grey skirt. It was good enough she figured. At least it wasn't a t-shirt with some dumb design like she usually wore. Hanayo was waiting for her by the time she brushed her teeth, brushed her hair and pulled some shoes on. "Alright! Let's go!"
They discussed some of the important things they probably needed to discuss with the others. After coming back from the Underworld, they had been so busy with HQ questioning them and basically placing them under house arrest until they were able to determine the situation completely. Third had kept her promise at least. There had been less demon sightings all over the world in the last six months, but they still appeared. For that reason, Honoka wasn't released from her duties as a demon slayer. The world was far from being perfectly safe and, really, it wasn't likely that they would ever completely eradicate the threat. But, for now, a decrease in demon attacks was fine.
Despite not being able to see demons anymore, Hanayo still stayed with Honoka in their apartment. After all, she already knew about demons and stuff, so it only made sense. They weren't just going to kill her like in some bad movie. Honoka had yet to be assigned another partner but she was hoping that she wouldn't need to. She had been meeting with Yoshiko in private to see if she had the potential to train her own eyes to see demons. Yoshiko, at the least, said she had potential and agreed to help her.
After a long talk with between her, her Master, and Sixth (and Umi), they had somewhat reconciled. Sixth admitted to his mistakes in the past but everything he had done in recent times had been to protect Honoka and Seira who he felt responsible for. As for why he even made Seira a demon slayer in the first place… that's something the ginger didn't feel the need to sit in on. Just like she had her business, she was sure there were things her Master would rather talk about in private.
Nozomi and Yoshiko had grown rather close due to their shared connection with the Void. At first Yoshiko had seemed hesitant about 'accepting the Oracle into the line of Void,' but she had gotten over pretty quickly, with more than a little help from Chika. Speaking of Chika, Honoka hadn't heard too much about what exactly she was up to nowadays except a little through Riko. But to her knowledge, Chika had moved in with Yoshiko so that must mean something was going right for the two of them.
Sixth still remained within Umi, but for how long, nobody really knows. He assured the bluenette that, if she ever tired of him, he would be able to leave her body without harming her. Umi had laughed at the idea and equated the Demon Lord to something of a brother. Sure, he could be annoying sometimes, but she felt a connection with him after sharing the same body for a while. Since the ginger had pretty much worked out her issues with Sixth, she refused to put her two cents in when asked. If Umi was fine with him staying then she saw no reason to object.
The most stressful event that had happened since was when the nine of them in their former idol group met to discuss things fully. It had been an emotional mess. Nico had shrugged off the fact that she hid that she was the Prince of Blades, but she obviously had felt at least a little bad for it. Nozomi had to try to explain her current situation which made Eli all the more worried that she was going to get dragged into some dangerous situation again. Apparently, she had been a nervous wreck when Nozomi explained the whole 'reviving the First Demon Lord' thing. And everybody besides Honoka and Hanayo were worried about a Demon Lord living in Umi's body. But the biggest issue had been Kotori. She had started off in her usual cheerful way, trying to shrug off the fact that she was a demon who had lived thousands of years and killed who knows how many humans in the past. Her emotional state had gone south really quick though at the realization that she might have lost everything she had worked towards with their friendships. Honoka had been the first to step forward and assure her that they were still friends. And well, given all the crazy stuff that had happened, it wasn't hard for everybody to follow the flow and accept her as well.
To say the least, she had been quite busy the past six months.
Oh, and she really didn't want to get started on Seira and Mari. Let's just say that… the one day she had gotten a pass to go see her Master, she had walked in on something she would never be able to erase from her mind.
Their conversation came to a halt as they arrived at the front gate to Maki's mansion. They buzzed the gate and waited as the redhead told them she would come get them. But as they waited, they heard a familiar energetic voice.
"Hey, Honoka-chan! Hanayo-chan!" It was hard to miss the ginger who waving erratically from her wheelchair, a wheelchair being pushed by Yoshiko who gave a slight nod of her own as they arrived.
"Chika-chan! Yoshiko-chan! Ah, that's good. I thought we were gonna be late."
"It's good to see you again, Four―" Chika reached a hand over the wheelchair and poked her cheek, making the girl pause mid-sentence. "Honoka. Hanayo." A sly look and whistle from Honoka made Void groan. "Don't say a single thing."
"And don't worry, Honoka-chan! You're just in time! You know, we were almost late because Yoshiko insisted that morning s―" Yoshiko firmly planted a hand over Sun's mouth and leaned down, whispering something in her ear. When she removed her hand, Chika gulped and nodded. "Well, it's nice to see you all again anyways! Ahaha!" Chika definitely recovered quickly.
"Sorry for the wait!" Maki ran up, a big smile on her face at the sight of her friends. Honoka couldn't blame her for not even attempting her tsundere act. How was she supposed to when the group hadn't been together in what felt like forever?
"Maki-chan!" Honoka embraced her as soon as the door opened. Only having one arm didn't stop her hug from reaching bone-crushing levels of affection.
"Yeah, yeah, calm down, Honoka." She gently pushed the ginger off and smiled at the rest of the group. "Come on in, a few people are here already."
Maki led them through the grounds and into the mansion that Honoka could never get tired of seeing. The damage that had been done by Setsuna had been repaired. As they walked into the large living area, she immediately saw Nico waving at her. "Yo, you guys. Been a while, huh?"
"Nico-chan!" The two ran up to her just as the buzzer sounded again and Maki left the room. "Too long! It's been way too long!"
Nico laughed and returned the hug. "You two look like you're doing just fine. I was a little worried about how everything was gonna turn out with you girls after that whole Second fiasco but looks like everything's alright. Your body alright, Honoka?"
"Mm! I still get waves of nausea and some other side effects sometimes, but as long as I steer clear of elixir, I should be fine in the next six months… to two years. Maybe longer. Well, they said definitely no longer than five years ahaha…"
Nico sighed. "Well, at least you probably won't have to do as much demon slaying in the meantime assuming Third keeps his promise. So―" She froze mid-sentence, her eyes looking past the four girls, a look somewhere between horror and annoyance on her face. Chika tilted her head and turned to see who was there.
"Oh, Riko-chan!"
"Chika!" The redhead ran up to her and leaned down to give her partner a hug. "I'm so glad to see you again. And you look like you're doing just fine as well, Yoshiko."
Yoshiko shrugged. "I am. It's good to see you again as well, Riko."
Riko moved up to Honoka and Hanayo. "It's great to see you two as well. I was worried how you would be fairing, Honoka, but it looks like you're doing just fine. That's a big relief."
"Ehehe, thanks for worrying, Riko-chan. It's really no big deal. What's a missing arm and little bit of elixir poisoning anyways."
Riko giggled at that but looked past her, a smirk coming to her lips. "Nico! I didn't see you!" The redhead ran up to her, one of Nico's arms in both of her own. "I missed you so much! We're still good for next Saturday, right?"
Nico's first reaction was to flinch at the sudden contact then send out a silent 'help' that seemed to pass over the heads of everybody else who were too busy staring at the event unfold. Nico gave up with a sigh. "Hey, Riko. Yeah, we're still on, so can you stop cling―"
"Great! I'm looking forward to it!" Riko smiled brightly.
"Um…" Honoka tilted her head, unsure what to make of the situation.
"Riko-chan, you're going on a date with Prince-chan!?" Chika spelled out her confusion pretty well for her.
Nico glared at Sun. "We're not―!"
"That's right!" Riko replied happily. "She even shoved me against the wall…"
"I tripped!" Nico sighed. "I only agreed to go on one date since she wouldn't stop bothering me after that. All that, 'You were so great out there, Nico!' and stuff. I appreciate the praise but, please. So, no, we're not going out. This girl just gets the wrong idea over the dumbest things." Nico pointedly looked away from the redhead, a slight pink tint to her cheeks. "Anyways―!"
She started but was cut off by another voice. "Well, you all are lively still." Setsuna gave a small smirk as she entered the room.
"Devour-chan!" Chika called out. "You already recovered from your injuries?"
"I have. Mostly, at least." She eyed the girl for a second, her gaze drifting down to her legs. "Your legs are still cursed, Sun? Can you not use that blade of the Void to help her?"
"Unless she's fine with losing both legs, no. Lethe is not a blade made to remove curses from people. Even if she does manage to keep her legs, who knows what other side effects it may have? I'd rather not wipe my lover's memories into oblivion." She sighed. "Besides, I already thought of possibly modifying the blade. But for now, it remains impossible."
Chika smirked. "That's fine! I don't need my legs to work for Void-chan to love me!" Yoshiko's face reddened at that and she sighed. "Ahaha!"
Ruby and Hanamaru were the next to show up, both of them assaulting Yoshiko with hugs, something Void would complain about endlessly. But in the end, she couldn't help but smile when she thought nobody was looking. The rest of Honoka's group showed up slowly. The last to arrive were Mari and Seira who laughed at the rather large gathering of people.
"It's certainly lively here." Seira said as she walked up and rustled Honoka's hair. "It hasn't been that long, but I'm glad you seem to be fine, Honoka."
"Ahaha, same goes here, Master. Still be all lovey dovey with Mari-san all day?"
Seira blushed and was about to say something when Mari wrapped her arms around the girl from behind. "But of course, Honoka-chan! When we plan the wedding, we'll be sure to let you know!" Even though Seira started to berate the girl, Honoka figured that day would come some time and she couldn't help but break a smile at that.
After waiting for the initial excitement of the gathering began to die down, Maki cleared her throat and everybody looked her way. "Thought this was just a good time to have everybody come over to finally celebrate our victory, there was another reason I called you two over." She looked directly at Honoka and Hanayo. She reached into her pocket, taking out two envelopes and held them out. "Here. Mama wanted to give them to you herself but she's swamped with work around HQ right now as you can probably imagine."
The two girls looked at each other for a second before opening their respective envelopes. They scanned over the papers, their eyes widening and they both look up at Maki at the same time.
"M-Maki is this…?" Hanayo looked back at the letter in disbelief.
"Maki-chan, is this for real…?"
Maki smiled and nodded. "Mama said something like, 'What kind of Head would I be if I didn't let them see their families after they saved the world?' So she shortened the process for this dramatically. Though I doubt it was hard to convince the other Heads when they took into account your actions. So, congratulations you two."
"Maki!" "Maki-chan!"
"Ueh!?" The girls both jumped on her, hugging her as tightly as possible. The two were crying into her shirt and she didn't have the heart to push them off so she just sighed and stroked their heads. "Come on you two…"
Yoshiko cleared her throat and glanced at Chika who gave her a thumbs up before continuing. "ha. This might not quite be able to top such a gift, but I did bring something as well. A reward and perhaps… another apology. It is my fault that you are missing an arm after all, Honoka."
Honoka waved her hand in front of her. "I told you, it's no big deal, Yoshiko-chan! You don't have to feel bad about it!"
"Yeah, yeah, this will be my atonement for it, so shut up." Yoshiko held out a hand and darkness gathered in it, the darkness of the Void, which swirled around and expanded. It took the shaped of… an arm? When the darkness faded, sure enough, an arm rested in the girl's hand.
"Yoshiko-chan… is that…"
"Indeed, it is your original arm. However, it had to be… 'fixed' by the Void. We have worked on it for the last six months. It won't be the same, mind you. Your feeling in it will be quite dulled and sometimes you may have no feeling at all. But, well, I figured it would be better than living with one arm."
"Yoshiko-chan, I…"
"Don't start the waterworks. Here. This is going to hurt a little." Yoshiko started to unbutton the ginger's shirt, something that made everybody pretend to look away. Honoka stumbled over a protest but Yoshiko ignored it until she could get a look at the remainder of the arm. She took a deep breath and pressed the end of the arm together with what was left. The Void gathered around it, slowly sealing the space between the arm and the remainder of itself until it looked perfectly normal. Honoka cringed as a burning pain shot through her nerves. "There we go."
The pain was intense, but it faded quickly. She opened and closed that hand and sure enough, she could feel it. It took her a moment to realize, but her arm looked normal again as well. It was no longer pitch black from having the Heart of the Void in it. A wide smile spread across her face and she embraced Yoshiko, this time with both arms. "Thank you, Yoshiko-chan! I can't believe this! I never thought I would get my arm back! I was prepared to live my life with just one!"
Yoshiko snorted but smiled. "As long as the Void exists, that arm will stay attached to you. Besides feeling well… your blood should flow through it like normal, so it should be subject to your demon blood regeneration like normal. You probably won't even notice."
"Thank you, Yoshiko-chan! Really!"
Everybody shared a smile as the ginger continued to cry over the girl's shoulder. She spent the next hour or so using the arm for everything, laughing at how great it felt to have it again. Her sense of feeling in it was definitely off, but it still felt amazing. That was a day she would remember for a very long time.
By the time the gathering was coming to an end, the sun was just starting to set. People had started their goodbyes and began leaving. As Yoshiko passed Honoka while rolling Chika along, she paused and smirked. "When you've fully recovered and feel that you are used to that arm, I would like a true duel with you, Honoka. Don't think that you can relax just because the demon threat has been lowered."
Honoka returned that smirk and nodded. "I'm looking forward to it, Yoshiko-chan."
With that, Yoshiko nodded and began heading out the door. "Bye bye, Honoka-chan! Hanayo-chan!" Chika called out. "I expect a duel as well! Don't think you can beat me just because I can't use my legs! Ahaha!"
The nine of them were the last to leave, all gathering in the doorway.
"So," Maki started. "What are you two going to do?"
"I would like… to see my parents tonight." Hanayo said. "It's been so long… I don't think I can wait any longer. Besides… I don't want them to think I'm dead anymore."
Maki nodded and looked over to Honoka who nodded. "I'm going tonight as well. I wasn't going to, but since Yoshiko-chan gave me my arm back, I thought it might be better to show up there now with two arms at least. A little less of a shock maybe? Eheh…"
The other girls smiled and gave them two hugs, starting their goodbyes and wishing them luck.
"Ah, that reminds me. Umi-chan, Nozomi-chan, are you going to tell your families… about your stuff?"
Both of them shook their heads. "I don't I really need to, ya know? It's not like talking with the Void is going to change anything anyways."
"I feel the same way. There is no reason to worry my parents by explaining everything to them. Sixth will remain within me for now and I'll just make sure not to speak with him in front of them."
Honoka nodded slowly. That made sense. Why would they tell their parents and cause unnecessary worry?
"Honoka." Everybody looked towards Umi as Origin spoke up. The girl smiled. "I thank you for what you have done. And I apologize for putting you in this position in the first place. I know that you have said that apologies are unnecessary, but I have caused many problems for the line of Four Seasons and well… the entire overworld. So, you have my deepest apology. I am glad that you and your partner have come out fine."
The two girls smiled at that. "Yeah, you're right though. No need for apologies. Master is fine, Hanayo-chan is fine, and I'm fine, so I don't hold anything against you. But… If you ever do anything to Umi-chan, I really will come drag you out of her and kill you." There was a silence before Umi and Honoka burst into the laughter, the other girls somewhat uncomfortably laughing as well.
"Remember not to mention that I'm a demon~!" Kotori chimed in happily, wrapping an arm around the ginger. "Eheh. Well, I guess you could, maybe. But that might be too big of a shock."
Honoka nodded. That was definitely something that she had no desire to tell her parents and sister. The girls began filtering out but Maki stopped Honoka when they were the only two left.
"Hm? What's up, Maki-chan?"
She expected some embarrassed response from the redhead, but Maki smiled. "I really wanted to thank you, Honoka. If it wasn't for you… I probably never would have turned back to the Moon. In the end, I really want to be part of this world. Even if the worst parts have passed… I still want to be here, to see it through to the end. And eventually, I want to pass the Moon on to somebody else. So… Thank you."
Honoka walked up to her and gave her a gentle hug, one that Maki returned this time. "I'm glad you're happy, Maki-chan. I know the feeling… of wanting to embrace your style. I thought I didn't want to fight with the Four Seasons, but the truth is… I love it. I love the feeling of using blades. And I always will. So… I think I might just know how you feel."
They separated and Maki nodded. "I suppose it's something like that for me too. I'd really like to talk about it more in depth with you but… let's save that for another time. You have something to do, right?"
Honoka nodded and gave her goodbye before setting off. She thought about all she had been though in the last year and a half as she walked. She had died, been taken in by a government organization, mastered a style of fighting using her demon blood, killed thousands of demons, and, in the end, even took down a Demon Lord and helped to save the overworld. It would be one hell of a story to tell her family at least.
By the time she reached that familiar place, that place she hadn't been to in so long, the sun had long set. She had unintentionally walked extra slowly, her nerves building up. What would her family think of her now? Would they be freaked out when she told them about herself? Would they accept her? She shook her head and smiled. There was no point in worrying about it. Now was her chance to see them again and she would be damned if she would let her nerves talk her out of it.
With a deep breath, she walked up to the door and knocked twice.
"Coming!"
Her throat tightened up at the sound of her little sister's voice and she felt tears welling up in her eyes as she saw the silhouette approaching the door.
The door swung open and she was there. Yukiho stood there in a casual oversized t-shirt and shorts that Honoka was so used to seeing her in. "May I he―" Yukiho froze mid-sentence as she took in the sight in front of her. Her mouth hung open and Honoka found her own throat relaxing at the reaction.
"Yukiho? Who's at the door?"
Honoka recognized the voice of her mother and grunt from her father as the two came to see why their daughter wasn't responding to them. They two both had the same reaction, freezing at the sight of the ginger. It was like they were weighing the probability of her being there versus her just being an illusion.
"O… Onee-chan…?" After over a minute of complete silence, Yukiho finally squeezed that one word out in disbelief, tears streaming down her cheeks. Their mother covered her mouth, unsure of how to react, but tears fell down her cheeks as well and Honoka could see the telltale signs of a wide smile forming.
It felt great, amazing, to see her family again. There was so much she wanted to say, so many things she wanted to tell them about. But she laughed to herself as she remembered there was one thing that she had to say before any of that could happen, before any sappy reunion, before the hugs that were about to begin.
"I'm home."
So, yeah. That's the end. I know some of you may not like how things turned out, but hey, we can't always get exactly what we want, right? I wanted to keep the epilogue kind of short, so here it is.
I hope you'll all join me on whatever next journey I decided to put these girls through.
For the last time, I truly thank you all for reading this fic.
Till next time. Be seeing you.
