BM - Chapter 4 - Preparing for an Adventure
Emersyn woke up dark and early the next day. There were two reasons it was dark instead of bright. First, she had a throbbing headache from the previous day. Well to be fair, she always has a headache each morning until she gets some coffee. But today was even worse than normal. The previous day had been an adventure, just like the last few days. When was the last time she didn't feel like this?
She rubbed her eyes and grabbed her glasses from her nightstand. When they were on, she could finally read the time from the clock. Second, it was super early in the morning. The clock read 5:45am. Ina's alarm was going to go off at six, so that they could share a morning coffee. The Priestess was an addict just like her. Sometimes Amelia would be up early enough to join in. That was very rare though, only once or twice.
Emersyn pulled herself out of bed, rubbing her temple to soothe the pain. Maybe her choice of profession hadn't been the best. She had this same argument with herself every morning, though. It always ended the same way, too. With her deciding that the girls were worth it. Every ounce of pain and anger they caused her was worth it in the end. Giving those who aren't accepted by society a reason to keep going helps her keep going.
Gura would still be out killing people, regretting it every time she woke from that Primal trance. Ina would still be locked up in a foundation cell, being observed and tested on. Amelia would still be working that shitty cashier job in a bad part of town. The time traveler was definitely the most normal of the group, but that only made her weirder.
And now, there were two more troublesome girls to take care of. Somehow, despite being at least a million years old each, they acted like children. Kiara's memory loss explained some of her attitude, but it was Calliope's cold nature that confused her.
Emersyn looked up from the mirror as she brushed her teeth. Was that how people saw her? She stared into her own cold eyes, seeing a disturbing amount of similarities. Maybe she would be nicer in the future. The last thing she wanted was for any of the talents to hate her.
She finished her morning routine by throwing her katana onto her hip. It was now around 6:30am meaning that her morning coffee was only half an hour away. There were times when she just wanted to just say, 'screw Ina,' and just get a pot of it brewed before the Priestess came down. But if she was being honest, she enjoyed spending time with the girl. That made the headache slightly more bearable.
Seven came around faster than she was expecting and she proceeded to make her way down to the kitchen. Ina was already beginning the process of making a large pot. It was the largest pot they had, so maybe she was expecting Amelia to come down, too. A light amount of movement made Emersyn turn, expecting to see the time traveler round the corner.
But it was Gura this time.
"Ms. Gawr," she said with surprise. This tone in turn surprised Ina and Gura. Any emotion to come out of their manager was a surprise, but welcome.
"Hey Enma!" the Atlantean replied with a cheer. It seemed like her sleep had been restful.
"She wanted to wake up early enough to talk about the trip today," Ina said, as she gestured to her friend. Emersyn walked over and began to help Ina prepare the coffee, getting the coffee press ready.
"I was not expecting her," Emerysn replied matter of factly. Gura laughed.
"I bet you were expecting Ame," she guessed. When Emersyn nodded, she pulled a fist towards her in celebration.
"I assume your dream issues are now over?" Emersyn just needed to know that Gura no longer posed a threat to anyone. Accidental or not, trying to kill people while they slept was unacceptable.
"Primal Gura did talk to me a little bit, but it seemed more like a talk between old friends." Gura stopped her hyperactive movements to think for a second. Ina raised her eyebrows
"Oh, what did you guys talk about?" It was odd hearing that her former worst enemy was now just talking to her. Hopefully there weren't any ulterior motives behind this.
"She asked me if I was really going to go to Atlantis today," Gura continued to stand still and think, "I said yes and she told me to be careful of letting you into the core." She pointed at Ina. Unfortunately, the Priestess knew exactly what her friend was talking about. The Ancient Ones had been after whatever was in that core.
"Just so you know, Ms. Ninomae, neither of us are planning on replacing you as the one to purify Ms. Watson's time watch." Emersyn put Ina's concerns to rest.
"Yeah, she put so much trust into you!" Gura resumed her rapid movements. She paced around the small table in the room and made weird hand movements. Emersyn sighed before finally asking about her.
"What's gotten into you this morning, Ms. Gawr?"
"This is how I'm keeping myself awake!" she replied. So she was moving around too much to avoid going back to sleep.
"I told her she didn't have to wake up this early, but she insisted on it." Ina shrugged. Emersyn smiled ever so slightly. Her headache was almost gone by this point. Did she really even need coffee in the morning? Or did she just need to be around these girls?
"First cup, coming right up," Ina said, getting Emersyn's attention. One look at the brown liquid being poured out of the press made her immediately change her mind about her previous assumption.
She definitely needed this coffee.
"So, me and Enma are going to go and search for something to help me control my hunger while you go to the core." Gura summarized the plan in one sentence. It was honestly impressive that she could simplify such a monumental undertaking that easily.
"Indeed, searching will be much more difficult than getting to the core. More eyes would help." Emersyn agreed.
"Are we going to bring any lights down with us to help us see?" Ina asked. Technically she could produce her own light, but it would be dim.
"If water got in, we could electrocute ourselves," Gura said. Emersyn didn't like the idea of not having any light to search, but not being electrocuted was also good.
"Alright, we will just have to make due." Ina looked around nervously for a bit.
"You said that there are defenses in the core," Ina brought up an issue. Gura waved it away.
"Most of them are broken or destroyed by now. Plus, the main defense was the cloaking field, which we're just going to break through." This explanation did little to actually solve Ina's concerns.
"But what if they still work, at least some of them?" Gura frowned.
"I'm sure you can handle a few tridents and animated statues. Maybe a few arrows, as well." Gura gave a friendly thumbs up. Ina sighed. She probably could deal with that, but she still didn't want to. "Or you can just be careful and disable them beforehand." Gura put in one last suggestion.
"On another note, Ms. Gawr, when Ms. Ninomae gains access to the core, what is she supposed to do?" Emersyn broke her silence, asking another important question.
"The Pure Flow," Gura made a large sweeping motion with her arms. Neither Emersyn nor Ina reacted at all. Gura frowned, but continued with the explanation, "The Pure Flow is a stream in the core of Atlantis that allowed us to fight against AO-chan for so long. It purifies their corruption and lets us heal much faster. It probably also has something to do with the super-nutrient food I'm after." Emersyn tapped her chin in thought.
"Alright, so I just put the Droplet in there?" Gura nodded.
"Ms. Ninomae," Emersyn looked over at the Priestess, "you were the one to suggest going to Atlantis to purify the Droplet. Why don't you know how to do that?"
"AO-chan said that I could fix it there, but didn't say how. I don't think they knew," Ina explained the best she could.
'We understood the Atlanteans' resistance to our corruption, but not how they did it,' the Ancient Ones confirmed Ina's suspicions.
"So that's why my punchline didn't land…" Gura pouted. Ina laughed slightly.
"To be fair, it was a pretty bad punchline."
"Says the one who laughs at stupid puns," Gura rebuted.
"What can I say, I can't get Inaough of them," Ina said with a wink. Gura rolled her eyes, while Emersyn tried her best not to. Ina laughed at her own cringe worthy joke.
"Another slight problem, how are we supposed to breathe underwater?" Emersyn raised her final question. Ina stopped her now quiet laughter and looked over at her manager.
"I can let us breathe underwater. Gura can just do it naturally." Emersyn seemed to become nervous. Her normally stoney expression softened a great deal, until it was a very scared frown.
"Will it be like gills or will we have to breathe in the water?" her tone of voice matched the extreme nervousness she was displaying. It took every ounce of willpower that Gura and Ina had to gush over how cute their manager was being.
"Uh, you won't need to breathe in the water, Enma," Ina said, trying to maintain her composure.
"What about the pressure? Gura is super dense, no offense, so she can deal with it no problem. And what about clothes. We're going to get so wet!" Emersyn whined and complained. Gura put a hand over her mouth to stop the laughter from flowing freely out of it. Ina stifled her own laugh.
"Y-You're not afraid of the water, are you?" Ina lit the fuse. Emersyn's eyes widened and she flicked her head over to look at the other girl.
"N-No!" And with that, the bomb exploded. Gura started to laugh incredibly hard and Ina gave in, too. Their manager started to ridicule them of how unprofessional it was to mess with her like that. They couldn't care less, though.
"You brought that on yourself, Enma!" Gura cried out in between laughs.
"H-Here," Ina said before placing a hand on Emersyn's shoulder. She tried to pretest this, but a weird feeling overtook her.
Any sense of the air moving around her disappeared. A soft purple glow emanated from around her.
"What did you just do?" She turned and stared daggers into Ina. The Priestess calmed her laughter before explaining herself.
"I-I made a barrier around you. It isn't very strong, but it will keep you from getting wet or dealing with the pressure," she slightly mocked her manager. Gura's laughter slowed to a giggle, but didn't stop. Emersyn took a deep breath, feeling the air inside the barrier shift when she did.
"I see, how strong is it exactly?"
"It can be a lot stronger, but it would start to become uncomfortable after a certain level." Emersyn shook her head.
"Make it as strong as you can," she commanded. Her voice wasn't nearly as powerful as it needed to be for it to sound serious, though.
"A-As you wish," Ina tried to not start laughing again. She placed her hand back onto the barrier and increased its power. Emersyn groaned as the pressure around her grew. It was as if the magic surrounding her was exuding a force on her body, making her feel compressed.
"It does feel uncomfortable, but I think I like it more." Emersyn sounded satisfied with the strength of her protective barrier. Ina shrugged.
"Alright then, try to stand and walk." Emersyn stood up and immediately fell back onto the chair. Thankfully, the chair was strong enough to survive the impact.
"D-Don't worry. I can move," Emersyn tried to sound tough. It didn't work.
She tried a few more times to stand, before impressing Ina by actually doing it.
"Ok, try to walk over to me." It was only a few feet, but it seemed like a mile. Gura watched as the manager who could match her in strength struggled to even take even one step. After a few more minutes of trying, Emersyn relented.
"Alright, alright, you made your point, Ms. Ninomae…" she said, defeated. The barrier faded back to where it had been before. Although, it did seem a little bit stronger.
"I'm honestly impressed that you could even stand!" Ina said with pride. Emersyn groaned before actually walking over to Ina. It was a lot easier than before, but still more stressful than normally walking.
"So, I'm pushing the barrier with me when I move, correct?" Emersyn asked. Ina nodded.
"Yep, I can just move the barrier around me as I move. That way I can make it way stronger without slowing down," she explained the reasoning behind her manager's struggles.
"And you can't do that for me because you will be somewhere else." Emersyn concluded. Ina dispelled the barrier with a wave. The air suddenly felt really cold around Emersyn's body. She shivered slightly from it.
"You should act like that more, Enma," Gura said, still giggling slightly. Emersyn turned and tried to reassume her previous stoic nature.
"I am your manager, Ms. Gawr. It would be unprofessional of me to act out like that all the time. I was simply curious about how we would be avoiding the issues presented by going so far underwater." This did little to stop both Ina and Gura from closing in on her.
"Yeah right," Ina said smugly.
"You are so afraid of the ocean!' Gura finished.
"I do have slight thalassophobia, but it will not affect my ability to perform during the trip."
"Oooook."
"Oook."
The other two girls mocked. Emersyn avoided making eye contact with them.
It was a few more hours before Amelia finally walked down into the lounge. That room was their go to hangout spot, so Ina, Gura, and Emersyn were all waiting for her. Amelia hesitated slightly when she saw all of the eyes that were on her.
"Uh, good morning guys," she said with a short wave. Gura and Emersyn turned to Ina. The Priestess looked nervous about something. It took her a few moments to work up the courage to stand and walk over to Amelia. The two of them just kinda stared at each other awkwardly.
"I-I know I already said this last night, but th-thank you, Ame," she said after much hesitation. Amelia looked at her curiously before smiling lightly.
"For the time watch, right?" she asked, already knowing the answer. Ina nodded slightly.
"I-I'm glad to be your friend." God, it was so cute to see Ina like this. Amelia could almost forget that she was staring at a Priestess.
"I am, too, Ina." Amelia reciprocated the feelings. A few more awkward moments of silence followed.
Until Ina slowly unfurled her arms and wrapped them around Amelia. The time traveler was initially surprised and then hesitant, but she quickly hugged back.
"It's like you're saying goodbye…" Amelia said quietly. Ina laughed slightly.
"We're not. You're probably going to take longer than us, plus we're about to leave."
"Alright, then I'll see you all when I get back." The two pulled away from the hug. Ina's eyes suddenly widened and she stepped off to the side quickly. Amelia was then tackled by Gura before she even could start to process what was happening.
"I'm going to miss you, Ame!" the Atlantean cried into Amelia's shoulder. She stroked her friend's hair to soothe her emotions.
"Ina said this isn't a goodbye. I'll only be gone for a few hours longer than you guys. Try your best to survive until then, Gura." Amelia tried her best to not freak out externally. There was no controlling her internal freaking out, though. Her heart rate was through the roof. Even if this wasn't her original Gura, it was the next best thing. That old crush had been resurfacing slowly.
"O-Ok…" she sobbed one last time before letting go of Amelia. Emersyn was next up, surprisingly.
"I'm not one for tearful partings, Ms. Watson. However, I do hope you are successful in your mission with Ms. Mori and Ms. Takanashi." Amelia shrugged at her manager's attempt at a farewell.
"I'll try my best to not snap at Calli." Emersyn smiled slightly.
"Good." Was all she had to say. She stepped back over to where Ina and Gura were.
"Goodbye Ame! I still wish you could come!" Gura called out with a large wave. Ina placed a hand on each of the other girls' shoulders.
"I'm sorry about that, but I trust you guys will do great!" Amelia responded with a smile. All three of them returned it.
Ina muttered something, a purple glow beginning to surround herself and Emersyn.
"Wait, why are you putting this on now-" Emersyn yelled out before being teleported out of the room. They were gone in an instant, disappearing into purple mist and a tiny amount of similarly colored sparks.
Amelia laughed at her manager's scared voice just before they teleported. Seemed like that was a surprise to both of them. Amelia was about to go grab something to eat, when a figure appeared out of one of the shadowy corners of the room.
"Holy shit!" she screamed out of surprise. Calliope stared at her from the corner. "When the hell did you get there?" Amelia panted from the fright.
"Just now. I traveled through the shadows," she said like it was the most obvious thing. Amelia just put her hands up in confusion before lowering them in defeat.
"Of course you can. Just, don't scare me like that again," she asked nicely.
"Sorry. Kiara is just used to it I guess." Calliope scratched at her neck slightly. Once Amelia collected herself, she continued to make her way over to the kitchen to eat.
"If you want to talk, come with me. I'm hungry," she told Calliope. The Reaper obliged and followed her.
"I'm here to talk about the plan," she explained. Amelia rolled her eyes.
"Alright, explain then." She grabbed a granola bar for now.
"I already talked to Kiara about it, so when I'm done explaining it to you we are going to leave." Amelia would never be surprised by how socially inept Calliope was. "Kiara is going to fly us over, since travel through the Underworld would be slower and more dangerous for you and her. We will do that thing the Atlantean said and enter the Hatchery. After that, we will find the Crystal and I will guide you on how to use it. You must follow my instructions or we will risk harming the timeline."
Amelia knew all about that. She certainly did not want to go through that again.
"Alright, seems oversimplified, but I'll just follow your lead," Amelia shrugged, "I do think that you should start calling them by their names. At least their last name, like me." Amelia commented.
"Alright, Watson. However, they aren't here anymore, so we can worry about that after we are successful."
"Can you give me a few to wake up and eat. Then we'll go," Amelia asked. Calliope thought for a bit.
"Ok, but then we're leaving immediately." Amelia nodded and continued to eat her granola bar. She opened a cupboard and grabbed a bowl and box of cereal. They had some mild in the fridge, too. She made a simple meal this morning since they were apparently on a time crunch.
"You sure care about Kiara a lot to go through all of this for her," Amelia commented as she shoveled the cereal into her mouth. The Reaper had been staring at her the whole time she prepared breakfast. Although, it was now closer to noon than morning. Brunch then.
"I do. We've been through a lot," Calliope repeated herself from the day before. Amelia wasn't satisfied with the same answer being given to her twice.
"What have you guys been through?" Calliope stared at her with suspicion for a moment before actually thinking about an answer. Amelia wasn't surprised that the Reaper still didn't trust her. Hopefully they could get over that before they all snapped at each other on this trip.
"Our biggest fight was one against invaders from another dimension." This piqued Amelia's curiosity.
"Woah, like an alternate timeline?"
"Possibly, although it would've been a very far off one. They were certainly not anything native to this universe." Calliope seemed to be remembering this battle very vividly.
"Why were you fighting against them? Shouldn't Reapers focus on taking the dead down to the Underworld?" Amelia assumed a lot for the sake of the conversation. Calliope broke out of her memory and looked back at Amelia.
"I don't follow normal Reaper customs. I enter the mortal realm more than any other and interact with it a similarly large amount. However, this battle was one that required the attention of the Underworld, so I was indeed fighting alongside other Reapers. In fact, I was fighting alongside Phoenixes and Atlanteans, too."
"That's amazing! How long ago did this happen?" Calliope dug deep into her memory.
"Around fifty thousand years ago. Maybe a little sooner. Humans were barely creating huts around this time." Amelia thought about traveling back to that time to see what it would be like. Second thoughts immediately clouded that idea, though. Messing around with time again, especially something that massive, was probably not a good idea.
"So this, Underworld, is it like the afterlife?" Amelia was close to finishing her bowl.
"You could say that. It is really whatever you make of it. It shows up as whatever you imagine it to be." Amelia nodded along.
"How do you see it? Is that like its true form?" Amelia finished the last scoop.
"It is a reddish purple. There is a massive castle in what I have always assumed to be the center. Death-sensei lives inside, along with all of the other Reapers. You travel to the different rooms through shadows, like I just did earlier. Honestly, hallways are so inefficient." Calliope complained about the inconveniences of mortal architecture.
"Well unfortunately, we can't just travel through darkness," Amelia laughed a little and stood up to wash her bowl. Calliope watched her as she moved.
"You can travel through walls, though. So why don't you do that more often?" Calliope questioned. Amelia put the bowl into the sink and turned on the water.
"I could, but it just feels unnatural. I didn't want to freak people out before I moved here, so I just didn't do it. Now that I am here I guess I can, but I also don't want to scare people like you just did." Amelia poked a little fun at Calliope's rude entrance from earlier. The Reaper just shrugged.
"Suit yourself. We leave in five minutes." And with that, she melted into the shadows. Like, literally melted. It slightly disturbed Amelia, who just went back to washing the bowl.
"That's a short amount of time…" she mumbled to herself.
Kiara sat on her bed, swinging her legs back and forth listening to music. It was a goal of her's when she arrived in Hololive to make one of her own. With Calliope's own interest in music, maybe they could make a duet of some kind in the future.
"Kiara, it is time to leave," Calliope said as she manifested from a shadow. Kiara purposely kept a spot in her room dark so that Calliope could enter like that.
"Ok, just a bit. I wanna finish this song." Kiara didn't even look over at her friend when she spoke. She was just very engrossed in the music. A couple minutes later, the song ended and she took out her earbuds. Calliope was still standing right where she'd entered.
"You done?" she almost sounded frustrated with waiting. Kiara laughed.
"Sorry, I'll get ready now," she responded. The Reaper continued to watch her as she grabbed her shield and sword and placed them on her belt.
"Good, let's go." Calliope nodded towards the door.
"Hmm, not going to Shadow Walk?" Kiara asked.
"I want to talk about Watson before we get down there." Kiara sighed.
"Of course you do. What is it about her that has you pissed now?" The two began to walk down the hall at a relatively slow pace.
"She isn't telling us the truth, Kiara. I don't want to mess this up," Calliope said as they walked. Kiara put a hand on the Reaper's shoulder.
"I don't know what you see in her that I don't, but you just have to trust her. She's our only chance at this, Calli. I can see that you're trying to tolerate her, but you need to do more than that." Kiara squeezed her friend's shoulder to accentuate her point.
"I had a fairly enjoyable conversation with her just a bit ago. I would say that's more than tolerating her." Kiara frowned.
"I know you only did that so you would have something to defend yourself with." Calliope didn't look at the Phoenix.
"Maybe I did, but I still talked to her and found it enjoyable. Better than not talking to her," Calliope tried to defend herself. Kiara shook her head playfully.
"Ok, ok, but you're going to keep talking to her. When this is over, you're going to wish that you had more experience talking to people." Calliope rolled her eyes.
"You say that every time and I just don't believe it. I'll get that experience once people actually like talking to me."
"Who started the conversation earlier?" Kiara asked curiously.
"Um, I guess Watson did. Why is that important? I talked to her, that's all that matters." Calliope turned to face Kiara in order to defend herself even more. Instead, she got a flick on her nose.
"Don't sell yourself short, Calli. People do enjoy talking to you besides me! You just need to try and have a conversation and not just stare at them," Kiara said with a smile. Calliope shook her head and faced back forward. The two of them traveled back down the stairs and entered the lounge. Amelia was waiting for them.
"I hope this will be as short as you make it seem," she said as she stood up from the couch.
"Don't worry, Ame! There will be tons of Phoenixes there and we make some great food!" Kiara called out. Calliope disagreed with this on the basis that Kiara was a bad cook from her experience. However, she chose to stay quiet about it.
"Will I have to unlock all of the memories for every Phoenix there?" Amelia was already dreading that idea.
"Most of them probably won't care. We live moment to moment most of the time. I just want to remember more of my time with Calli." The Phoenix pushed her nose into Calliope's chin. The Reaper pushed her away.
"How adorable…" Amelia said under her breath.
"What did you say, Watson?"
"Nothing, let's go," Amelia deflected. Kiara giggled and skipped over to the exit. The group of three walked out of the building and out onto the street.
"So, where are we going to take off fro-" Amelia was snatched up by Kiara and taken into the sky. She screamed the whole way up into the clouds.
"Quit screaming, Watson!" Calliope yelled at her. The Reaper was sitting on top of Kiara's back. Amelia was carried in her arms.
"Then tell her never to do that again!" she screamed back.
Kiara laughed to herself. This was going to be a fun trip.
Author's Note: A peak into the manager's head. Emma seems to be a little more down to earth than she appears. Hopefully, she seems more human and less uncaring manager now. We'll get to see more of that side of her in the future.
A few cool powers are shown. All of these magical abilities have some interesting properties and are a part of their user's larger arsenal. I have tried to keep them distinct from one another, so that they don't all feel like they have the same powers just with different colors. I have really, really been waiting to get to the mythical side of this story so that I can have some fun with the setting and abilities being used. Things are going to be interesting from here on out.
Calliope and Amelia are starting to actually get along now. The Reaper has it in her to be nice, it just isn't easy. It's actually kind of funny since Calliope, the stoic, lifeless Reaper, will have some of the heaviest emotional scenes soon.
Something I want to mention just for the future of this fic, I will be moving to a weekly upload on every Saturday after this coming Saturday. I have finally caught up to where this is on AO3, so it is finally time to slow the pace down. I really enjoyed uploading nearly everyday and getting feedback on every chapter. It really helped me figure out where I want to take the story and where I can improve.
In a similar vain, I should also mention that IRyS and the Council will be appearing later on. I'm still figuring out exactly what part they will play, but they will be there. I know IRyS will get a larger role with Council playing a more passive role. It is very hard to challenge literal Gods with the threat in this story, so they will be mostly sidelined to allow Myth and IRyS to grow and progress the story. I am planning to do a story in the future that focuses on Council, but that will be when this massive project is finished. Probably...
Next Chapter: The Hatchery
Any feedback/criticism is appreciated!