[Part 1]
Inabayama gave the hand she gently held a slight squeeze, just to reassure that she was still here, and was not planning to leave any time soon. Hiei did not turn to her, scarlet gaze transfixed on the beautiful pink blossoms of the tree in front of them. Eyes hungrily taking in the last drops of a sight doomed soon to disappear.
She did not know for how long they stood there. Not that it mattered in the slightest. The dragon would've been here even if she had to stand for days.
"Goodbye, sister," Hiei finally whispered.
With those words, the King of the Mountain lowered her hand, and the manifestation of Death began its slow descent. The beautiful, serene scene began its slow unravel into oblivion.
First, the dust and small loose rocks came to life, flying towards the singularity, spiralling into it in their final dance. Then came pieces of debris, and chunks of rock and steel, breaking away from the surrounding building, only to turn into finest powder under the horrifying, invisible strength. Air was whistling menacingly around them, as if in the middle of a storm, heating up as it rushed towards the perfectly black sphere, predatorily illuminating the scene.
And then, the perfect black of Death had reached the purple blossoms.
The tree was not flung towards the vortex of entropy, like everything around it. Rather, it was allowed to slowly dissipate into it, bit by bit, its ethereal beauty devoured at its peak by the appreciating eternity.
And the two of them were standing in the middle of this surreal scene, physically unaffected by the surrounding death, and holding onto each other.
The black orb stopped its descent only once it bit deep into the earth under the tree roots and, with a wave of a clawed hand, returned into the air. Awaiting its final command that would follow soon.
By this point, there was nothing left of the pink crowned tree, or of the building surrounding it.
Nothing left that would keep them here.
[Part 2]
Four hours of sleep. That's how much Taro allowed himself while on duty, with alarms set up in case the cameras or sensors pick up on ANYTHING happening on the mountain. In the past few days, he was already jolted awake by a flock of Pidgeys flying over it, some Ratatas sightings, and a cloud that looked suspiciously like a Snorlax. A few minutes ago, he woke up to the alarms because cameras picked up a Butterfree, of all things.
All he could do was sit here and watch over the mountain while the forensics deciphered whatever data they managed to collect, all while League tried to come to SOME sort of decision. The latter was not doing any favours to his mood lately, bunch of rich legacy pricks that practically bought their way into positions of power. Who the hell cares about legacy when the end result is Stevenson?!
Feeling the interrupted sleep coming back with vengeance, the detective turned his gaze one final time to the monitors, just to check if everything's alright before surrendering his mind to the merciful unconsciousness - only to freeze up, color slowly draining from his face.
The mountain was glowing.
The entire mountaintop was engulfed in bright, pure, calm light that was slowly but surely spreading downwards, engulfing everything in its path.
It took Taro a few moments to realise that he has to inform the League of this, and a few more moments to call his contact.
"Takanashi here. The mountain's glowing"
"Do you have any idea what ti- wait, what's what?.."
Feeling a but pang of gleeful vindictiveness over disturbing that asshole's beauty sleep, and without turning his eyes from the video feed, Taro sent over the live footage, mind registering a few choice words uttered on the other side of the line. For now, he could share the feeling. Whatever was happening, it was way above his paygrade.
"Have Kyoto PD on sight, and evacuate everyone in 10 km radius, the League Enforcers will-"
The contact didn't manage to finish sending the orders, and he was fairly certain that he knew the reason.
Because a few seconds after the glow had engulfed the entire mountain, it disappeared.
The mountain, that is.
[Part 3]
The trees, the grass, the ground in front of them and as far as the eye could see, were glowing. It was a beautiful, serene, somber sight, that was about to disappear from the world in just a few moments. Still, just like with her sister's last funeral, Hiei took the time to ingrain this sight into her memory, before she released the restraints that barely held this material form together.
And then, the mountain disappeared.
Or rather, that was the illusion they created.
Just a day ago, she was carefully and methodically burrowing under the mountain with controlled black holes, in order to only leave an unsustainably fine surface of the mountain above ground level, while forcing it to float in place with her gravitational powers. If she were to let go of that force even for a moment, the entire thing would unceremoniously collapse. Though the plan was to do something far more impressive.
Just a hour ago, they held a funeral for her sister, as a black hole slowly consumed the entire building at the mountaintop, with everything inside. Inabayama held her hand the entire time.
Just a minute ago, she unchained the powerful forces that held the matter of the remains of the mountain together, putting a fine gravitational film over it all not to let it dissipate too quickly. All was left is to extinguish both the black hole, and that film.
Just now, as the inner forces of the matter were broken, and external forces undone, it was allowed to finally dissipate into fine, glimmering dust that was quickly picked up by the passing wind.
As Hiei materialised a multilayered gravitational bubble around the two of them and guided it towards their next destination, she had to admit, Inabayama's plan was kind of genius.
They were still able to hold a proper funeral for her sister - if a less grandiose one, though she probably would understand, the former King of the Mountain was certain of that. But then, there was this 'grand illusion', as the Goodra called it. Hiei felt like agreeing with that description.
If the mountain was simply destroyed, the humans would likely look for the two of them, on the likely chance that either of them escaped. Likewise, if they just silently left. But making the entire mountain seemingly magically disappear? Oh, there would be much confusion. Humans would speculate if the mountain was teleported, or shifted to another dimension, or if it was an optical illusion, or any number of things. There would be humans digging through the dirt around the former mountain for months, if not years, thinking that they might unearth some sort of a nonexistent evidence that would prove what had really happened to the landmark. And every effort thrown into this fabricated mystery was an effort not spent on finding the two of them.
And oh, Inabayama's mind was certainly something for being able to come up with such a devious scheme. The dragon was… Admirable?.. Affable?..
Hm, that's not the word…
Whatever the word was, while Gardevoir was certainly impressed, it was obviously distracting her, as Hiei was pretty busy reconstituting oxygen from carbon monoxide while moving the gravitational bubble she created through the cold, deep waters of great Lake Biwa, that stretched from near the mountain and far in the direction they were traveling.
No, her detailed analysis of how she feels about her travel companion would have to wait until they stop for a rest. And it would certainly help if Inabayama didn't distract her with how - endearing?.. exceptional?.. no, that's not it either - she clearly was in the meanwhile.