(A/N)
Short chapter because of lack of sleep because of the Hololive Concert. Please tell me your experience if you have watched it or not!
Feeling something soft pressing against my face, I slowly opened my eyes to greet the ceiling, in which I then turned to my right to see Little Squid pressing its face against mine. I took Amelia-chan's advice and decided to name it something else, granting the little thing a love to press its face against mine at any opportunity. Last night, I had to deal with it a couple of times, and it turned out that placing it inside a drawer didn't work…
"Alright, alright, you can stop." Moving Little Squid away from my face, I looked at my clock to see that it was half past 11. Okay, my dad isn't home, so I guess it saves me some time from trying to convince him that I'm leaving out to go somewhere. Sometimes, just talking to him is just hard since he's so protective of me. He never likes the idea of me leaving the house on my own, insisting that he goes along with me, even if it's something like getting groceries. I had to put my foot down for him to understand that I don't need him to take me to school. It was really annoying for how long he cried...
"You… helped him because he needed help?"
...I'll leave a note for him to know that I'm leaving.
"Gwii! Gwii!" Hearing Little Squid's sudden screech, I turned around to see Little Squid looking outside the window with an offensive-like form. What is he supposed to be? A dog barking at people who walk past the house?
"Hey, that's enough with all that noise. What are you staring at anyway? Looking out the window, I could see a sign that reads: "GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE!", being held by the person that I definitely want to see at this time: Amelia-chan.
Moving back a bit, I grabbed my sketch book and a pencil and wrote in it.
"I just woke up..." I wrote in response. With a marker in hand, she took the cap off of it and wrote on her sign. Why does she even have a sign to begin with? Why not just casually knock on the door and greet me?
"AND?! GET DOWN HERE! WE GOTTA GO!" -Amelia. Seriously? I wrote down my response.
"Can I take a shower first?" I showed the book on the window again, only for Amelia-chan to sigh at me. She then used her hands to show that I had ten minutes to do so. Seeing this, I raised my shoulders in disbelief. She then stuck her tongue out at me in annoyance. I swear, where does she get the idea to act like this to people?
Grabbing a pair of fresh clothes and bringing them into my bathroom, I sat them down and began to undress. After doing so, I turned my shower on and got in.
As I stood under the droplets of the water, I closed my eyes for a breath second, allowing myself to calm all of my nerves and let go. I've been feeling tense lately because of all that's happened. Dying, meeting Kiara-san, Calli-san, Amelia-chan, and Sakura-chan. They're all connected to the supernatural world, and I feel so calm about this. I'm immortal, and I don't feel all any different than normal. I backed myself into a wall and breathed in and out.
Everything just feels… I don't know, I can't even describe this feeling. Opening my eyes, they greeted the sight of the cloudy morning sky, filled with smoke, and filled with rain. The rain began to pour itself onto my face as I sat on my rear and stared at the clouds. The sounds of debris falling next to me didn't matter to me. I could only continue to stare at the clouds. Something felt different than what I normally remember. I felt something wrap itself around my leg, pulling me upwards into the air before more things began to wrap itself around my entire body.
As I continued to look up, I was greeted with the sight of something staring down at me. This wasn't how I remembered this event going.
No, it wasn't something, it was someone.
I couldn't see who it was, but the black-
"Open thy eyes and clear the mind clouded with sorrow. Find me, and I will allow you to forget."
I couldn't… my head… hurts!
*Splash!*
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I opened my eyes to see the ceiling of my bathroom. Strange enough, I wasn't in the bath anymore and I was on the floor. I felt severely cold.
"Hey, are you listening to me?! Why the hell were you trying pull off a stupid stunt off like that?!" Raising my head to the person screaming at me, I recognized the same brown dress, golden hair, and blue eyes glaring down at me. What was her name again?
"Ame…" Hearing that, she reacted strangely as her eyes widened before appearing strained. Shaking her head, she grabbed a towel on my door and threw it on my face.
"C'mon, hurry up and get dressed. We have things to do, whether you remember or not." Ame… Amelia-chan. Yeah, for a second there, I almost forgot who I was talking to.
"Our first stop is Sakura, right? Are you sure we should trust this little ink ball?" As we walked on the sidewalk, we carefully walked past people to not bump into them. Looking at the top of my head, Amelia-chan glared at the little creature, who I had felt it return the glare based on its newly changed position.
"We kind of have no choice in the matter. I kept asking specifically about where we should look, but it kept replying with a shrine drawing. We'll be lucky enough if we do manage to find it at the Supernatural Shrine that Sakura resides at." Strangely enough, people didn't notice the weird little creature on the top of my head, but one thing that people could notice automatically, was something that Amelia-chan was wearing.
"Well, great, for all we know, we could be-"
"Before you continue, could I ask the reason as to why you're wearing one of my hoodies?" The oversized hoodie was clearly noticeable to some people around us, but they decided to not speak out loud about it.
"What? I can't have people seeing me so easily. A detective isn't always visible, you know?" Well, other than visible, you can say that you're doing the opposite by being very noticeable…
"Say, why don't you tell me the reason why you did what you did earlier?" She questioned me while continuing on facing forward. We had to get to the shop which wasn't that far away from where we are, so I guess a little small talk would help.
"I don't know." I replied flatly.
"...You almost drowned, you know. Why don't you have some sort of serious reaction?" I couldn't read her expression due to the hood on her head.
"Well, I don't think I have much to worry about since I'm immortal." The sounds of multiple footsteps began to fade out as we continued walking. I wanted to know if she would move her head so I could see her expression.
"Still, don't you have the fear of death? How doesn't that frighten you?" I noticed her fist began to ball up a bit. She's clearly bothered by this.
"I'm risking my life on the line here. It's going to be like a game, right? It doesn't matter how many lives I use, I'm going to keep coming back to-"
"YOUR LIFE IS WORTH SOMETHING!" As we stopped because of her sudden outburst, I saw the expression that was on her face…
Anger.
"Don't you think you should value your life some more?! You're immortal, whatever, but remember that everyone isn't as lucky as you to think of this as a game! If life was so easy, then…" She didn't continue her sentence after that. Instead, she turned her face away from me.
"...I never considered myself lucky. I was never lucky to begin with." As I said that, I started to walk forward without her. Before I could turn around to see what Amelia-chan was doing, I felt the air become a bit more colder.
"Would you consider our meeting lucky then, Haru?" A familiar voice had entered through my ears, causing me to turn to the source of it, who appeared in front of us suddenly.
Calli-san.
"Calli-san, I can assume that you're here for my life?" I couldn't determine if it was the colder air that had formed a mist around us that caused my legs to shake, or the fact the grim reaper herself was here to kill me. Huh, I don't feel it mentally, but physically, I'm scared to my toes.
"I apologize for my lateness, but yes, I am here for your life," Swiftly swinging her scythe in front of her, the scythe stopped right at the side of my neck. "However, I'm going to let you decide whether or not you will die willingly, or painfully."