ToC - Chapter 4 - Forgotten

'They were sent into a cave!'

'No, it was a forest!'

'That place was neither of those.'

'Yeah, it was some astral plane!'

'We didn't see anything like that.'

'How is any of this even possible?'

'They don't make any sense!'

'Shhh, she's waking up…'

Ina's eyes slowly peeled open. It took her a moment to orient herself. The last thing she remembered was drowning in the black sludge of her mind. Now, she was in a hospital bed laying flat on her back.

All things considered, she actually didn't feel too bad. Sure, every single one of her joints ached and sharp pain ran up and down her arms and legs when she tried to move them. But she was alive.

"D-do you know i-if the others are o-ok…?" she whispered to her patrons. She knew that AO-chan didn't require her to be conscious to perceive the world around them.

'Everyone is safe. It has not returned,' AO-chan reassured her. Ina sighed deeply, relief washing over her.

"W-where did y-you teleport them…?" she asked, her voice continuing to crack from disuse. AO-chan paused for a moment, seeming to mull the question over.

'We… are not sure,' they eventually answered.

"How can you be unsure?" Ina asked more aggressively. Even if she wanted to trust this new set of eldritch beings, they were making it very difficult.

'We are sorry, Ina,' they apologized, 'The window of opportunity was very narrow and we needed all of your remaining magic just to teleport them. We could not choose a destination, so it is unknown where they ended up.' Ina lightly shook her head back and forth.

"Well, at least they haven't come back to finish the job…" Ina said quietly. That thought didn't relieve her in the slightest, knowing that they were still out there. She quietly pulled her legs up against her chest and laid motionless in the bed.

It was a long period of silence before a nurse walked in her room. He was glad to see that Ina was awake and informed her that all of her other friends were awake, too. After a couple necessary checks, Ina was allowed to get up and walk around.

She slowly put her weight onto her legs, as she moved off of the bed. Her bones creaked and her muscles wavered underneath her. AO-chan assured her that she was doing great, but Ina couldn't help being upset with her current state. It was pitiful…

The nurse led her into another room. When the door was pushed open, Ina saw Calliope, Kiara, and Gura all sitting at a table eating food. Their gazes collectively shifted to her, as the nurse quietly left the room and closed the door.

Calliope moved to the seat on the other side of Kiara, giving Ina room to sit between Kiara and Gura. A plate of food also sat in between them. As a Reaper, she didn't need to eat. However, she still made sure that a third plate of food was made in case someone wanted more or Ina woke up.

Kiara shifted her eyes back to her food and took another large bite. She was using her left hand to eat. Her right arm was bound up in a dark cloth. Small wisps of black smoke lifted into the air from it, indicating that it was made of some kind of magic. Since Calliope was with her, it was most likely her shadow magic.

Gura had already looked back towards her food, only giving Ina a quick glance when she walked in. The food in front of her was all mixed together, but otherwise not really eaten. She slowly spun a fork in the collective pile of food before hesitantly taking a bite of it.

Ina slowly walked over to the open seat and sat down. No one said anything or looked at her. The air in the room weighed heavy on her shoulders. She slowly picked up a fork and began to quietly eat whatever food was in front of her. It was not really anything she recognized, so she assumed it was some kind of nutrient rich food to get them all back on their feet.

It didn't taste very good, but it was something to put in her stomach. She glanced at Gura's plate and the Atlantean slowly picked up her fork and took another bite. Gura normally could stomach anything. Maybe her mouth hurt or maybe her stomach was still unsettled.

'We did something to them.' Ina looked up from the food as AO-chan spoke to her. The others all turned in her direction at the same time, but didn't look at Ina. Instead they looked at the statement floating just above the Priestess' head. Ina saw this reaction and the faint purple glow above her and also looked up at the words. She quickly looked back down with an angry expression. Her hand gripped the fork slightly tighter.

"You really need to say something now?" she asked, upset by their complete lack of restraint.

'We know that Calliope and Kiara are planning on hunting them down, so we want to inform them,' AO-chan responded. Ina sighed and ate some food, letting them speak. She didn't really understand what else there was to say. They didn't know where the teleportation spell ended up, so what else was there to say?

"Before you say anything," Calliope said before AO-chan could begin, "Let me just say what I figured out." The words above Ina's head disappeared, showing that AO-chan was listening. "They have been designated 'Caesura' by the Foundation. They are responsible for the Forgotten Times and the massacre at the Anchor. Somehow, they have the ability to erase the memories of whoever they want. They do it to 'end despair' and 'restore hope', but their actual motives are completely unknown. Right now, we really need to know where they are and what they are going to do next." Calliope finished her statement and stared unblinkingly at the space above Ina's head, waiting for AO-chan to respond.

'We are sorry to say, but we have no idea where they were teleported or what they plan to do next.' Calliope suddenly shot up from her seat, letting it crash to the ground.

"What?!" she yelled over Kiara's head at the floating purple words. They quickly reorganized themselves and gave the explanation that they had given Ina a little while ago. Calliope turned and picked her chair back up before slamming back onto it. She didn't trust what AO-chan had said, but nothing good would come of arguing with them. "Then what do you know?" she asked, a grimace painted on her face.

'When they, Caesura, invaded Ina's mind, our Priestess gave us control over her for a short time. Caesura must have not taken this into account because they made no attempts at guarding their own mind. We got in with no problems and seized control of them for a moment.'

Ina thought about the short conversation that she had with AO-chan in her mind. So that's what they were planning back then…

"So that's how you managed to teleport them away," Calliope said, "But that doesn't help us at all unless you think you can do that again and maintain control for longer."

'It is doubtful that Caesura would fall for that trick twice. However, while we were in their mind we felt something off about them.'

"Yeah, they are a cold blooded killer. Of course something is fucked up in their head," Kiara interrupted suddenly. Her eyes were burning with rage, lacking any of their normal shine. It was incredibly off putting.

'It had to do with their memories,' AO-chan continued after a moment. Gura's eyes finally showed some life in them when they read that. 'It was eerily similar to what Ina's memory block felt like. And as we know, her memories were locked away by the other Ancient Ones on purpose. This might indicate that something locked Caesura's memories away in order to manipulate them in some way.'

"Or maybe they locked their own memories away because they don't want to remember what they have done," Calliope theorized another possibility, "It might be their way of acting like a force of 'Hope'."

"Sounds to me like they can't handle the blood on their hands, so they would rather take the easy way out," Kiara said with the same hateful tone.

'Whatever the reason may be, we do not think that they will be returning any time soon. They are most likely dealing with some severe moral dilemmas currently.' This made Kiara laugh shortly, but there was no humor in her laugh. It sounded like she was mocking them.

"Good. I hope they can't deal with it and disappear. Best case scenario they need a Reaper and Calliope gets to give them the worst ride to the Underworld possible." As Kiara said this, a sick smile crept up the sides of her mouth. Even the stoic Calliope was disturbed by her words. Kiara's hatred for Caesura was larger than anyone would ever know.

'That's all we have to say…' AO-chan spelled out after a long pause. They, too, seemed unsettled by Kiara's attitude. The whole room went quiet again. Ina took a few more hesitant bites of food before deciding that it would be better if she ate somewhere else.

"I-I'll see you guys later," she said, trying her best to hide her anxiety. She stood up from the table and took her food with her out the door. Calliope stood up soon after and tugged on Kiara's good arm.

"You have PT soon," she told her. Kiara rolled her eyes, but gave into the pulling and stood up, too. She didn't really think the physical therapy she was getting for her arm was much help, but it seemed to make Calliope feel better. For the time being, she would do it and not expect much. They both walked out of the room.

However, just before Calliope closed the door behind her, she took one last peak at Gura. The Atlantean continued to stir her food around aimlessly in the tray. Her mind was clearly wandering to somewhere other than here. Calliope opened the door slightly and took a small step back inside.

"Are you feeling ok, Gura?" she asked. Gura blinked when she heard her name called. She looked over at Calliope through the side of her eye. With a dim smile, she nodded.

"I'm fine," she said. Calliope stood in the doorway for another couple seconds before nodding back and leaving. The door lightly clicked closed behind her.

Gura stopped stirring her food and held the fork motionlessly above the tray. She watched a small amount of liquid slowly dribble down the fork and into the food. The slow trickle stopped after a couple more seconds. Gura's eyes drifted down to the food, as her grip on the fork loosened.

The fork landed in the food with a muted splat. Gura stared at the heap in front of her for a few more seconds before she shoved it off the table. She put her arms on the table and buried her face into them.

Her appetite was nearly nonexistent. All the food she had eaten over the last couple days was to not make her friends worry about her. Every bite had made her want to throw up. But she did it for her friends… Anything for her friends…

"Are you going to make me take care of you again?" Ego's voice made Gura sit upright instantly in surprise. Sitting in the chair to her left was the manifestation of her Primal Instincts that she had only seen in her dreams thus far. She held the tray in one hand and the food covered fork in the other, shoveling food into her mouth.

"Wha- How…?" Gura said breathlessly. The sight in front of her made exactly zero sense. Ego had never appeared to her in the real world. And if she was a being created by her mind, then how was she able to interact with the real world?

"Don't tell me you forgot that I can control your body when you're hungry, right?" Ego asked her, not turning away from the food in front of her. She licked every speck of grub off her hands and the fork.

"B-But you're not," Gura argued. She looked down at her hands and made several movements. Ego laughed quickly in between bites.

"I'm trying to be nice," Ego answered. Gura put her head back into her arms, but kept Ego just within her peripheral vision. Sure enough, she could taste a tiny amount of food. It did make her want to throw up, but the limited taste and lack of any texture made it more manageable.

"I don't need your help…" she mumbled into her arms. Ego finished her current mouthful of food and licked her lips. She looked over at Gura, who instantly avoided eye contact.

"I'm not going to let you starve yourself," she said, which made Gura bury her head further into her arms, "Unless you want to end up getting put down after eating your friends." Gura shrugged weakly at that remark.

"I won't get that hungry. I still eat some food," she answered. Ego sighed, putting the fork down.

"You were just in two of the worst fights of your life. You need to eat more, Gura," Ego told her.

"I don't need you to lecture me about my appetite."

"Well I'm going to keep you alive whether you like it or not."

"One less thing for me to worry about…" Gura whispered to herself. Ego didn't respond and finished the rest of the food without any more conversation between them.

After a few more minutes of silence, Ego looked back over at Gura. Her body slowly rose and fell in a steady rhythm. Ego was now the sole consciousness within Gura's body now that she was asleep. She could do anything she wanted to right now, the thought of which brought a small, wicked smile to her face. It had been a long time since she'd had any autonomy.

But she was a different being now. No longer was she a confused, hungry fish swimming all alone in the ocean. She had bonded with Gura and saw the close bonds she has with her friends.

Even if she didn't say it, Ego shared the same mind as Gura.

And she was horribly depressed over Amelia.

Right now, there was nothing she could really do for her besides keep her alive. Ego got up from the table and stuck her mouth underneath a water cooler. The cold water tasted like the most amazing drink ever. She let it overflow and run down the sides of her mouth and down her chin.

When she was done drinking, Ego walked back over to Gura and stood beside her. She sat back down in the chair, but leaned up against Gura's sleeping form. The warmth and steady breathing put Ego at ease. She wrapped her arms around Gura and closed her eyes.

Several more days passed, as the doctors continued to monitor the recovery of the Myth girls. Gura and Ina were physically fine, save for some minor scarring. Kiara's right arm improved faster than expected, but not as fast as she wanted it to. She could use it for small, light tasks, but anything intensive was still a pipe dream.

This did not stop her from calling Emersyn and requesting that they be allowed to join the Foundation in the search for Caesura. Emersyn was initially hesitant, but she knew that denying them this request would do more harm than good. She said they could once Kiara had regained most of her strength in her right arm.

During this time, Kiara figured that the burns were caused by more than just an insane amount of heat. The areas of her body that had been burned now completely rejected magic. Calliope guessed that this is what allowed Caesura to kill Phoenixes permanently. By destroying all the magic in their body, they would be unable to rebirth into their ashes properly and be forced to die.

Calliope's shadow wrap helped keep Kiara's arm cool. It not only felt better, but it also let her move it more before pain began to set in. Slowly but surely, she was recovering.

Ina noticed Gura's zombified look. It worried her to see her friend in such a state, but she didn't really know what to say. It was obviously about everything that had just happened, but Ina struggled to keep her own emotions in check regarding that.

Nearly three weeks after being put into a coma by Caesura, Ina was allowed by hospital staff to leave. She wasn't going to leave permanently, as she still wanted to be close to the others. However, this meant that she could get some fresh air and do something nice for Gura. She decided that getting her some decent food would be a good change. The hospital slop wasn't the best after all.

The Foundation was still a little worried about Caesura, so they had a squad accompany Ina out of the hospital. Ina didn't mind them, but wished that they weren't so quiet.

Ina distracted herself from the silence by staring out the window of the car. The route they took drove right past the site of their battle against Caesura. The past few weeks had seen the damage reduced, but not fixed just yet. Large chunks of concrete were removed from the sidewalk and the asphalt had not been repaired yet.

Apparently, it had been explained away as a gas explosion. Caesura was not the only one capable of altering memories. The Foundation also could create amnesia and reforge memories of the general population. They might not have the timeline rewriting, magical powers. However, they did have the brightest minds and largest budget of any organization in the world.

By baiting witnesses with promises of money for information on the incident, the Foundation was able to administer amnestics to everyone who had seen the battle. Any remaining souls that hadn't come forward would simply be dismissed by the general population as conspiracy theorists. The media would make sure that the popular opinion, the correct opinion, was that a gas pipe had exploded underneath the road.

The car slowed to a stop and pulled into a parking spot. The uniformed Foundation agents stayed in the car while Ina and three plain-clothed agents got out and walked to the store. Even though it was the middle of the day, there were very few people walking around. This trend had begun just after Caesura's "rebuilding" of the city, so the Foundation was currently investigating it.

It had been a fair few months since Ina had gone out in public. She had always been allowed to, but it never really interested her. Her room was comfy and anything she needed would get brought to her by someone else. The Foundation never really cared about this behavior, but Hololive tried to encourage her to go outside a little more.

One agent walked a little faster than the other two and Ina, reaching the store first and entering. An agent behind Ina dropped back after looking at his wrist, seeing a message that the store was safe. The final agent walked a little faster than Ina, but not by much. They all entered the store without seeming like a group.

There were actually a fair few people in the fairly average sized store. They wandered up and down the isles, taking various items from the shelves and putting them into carts and baskets. Ina walked along the isles until she found the one labeled "Soft Foods". She walked down this isle and began to scan the items on either side.

Two of the agents had peeled off to obtain other items, but one stuck relatively close to Ina. He kept a good distance and sense of autonomy that made it seem like he wasn't following Ina. It slightly creeped her out at how well he managed to do this.

Ina had never really seen Gura eat much food besides protein powder filled soft foods. It only now hit her that she didn't even know what the soft food was. She had always assumed it was applesauce or maybe some kind of nutrient mix prepared by Hololive. But Gura had never actually told her what it was, always preferring to call it, "soft food filled with protein powder".

She grabbed a pack of applesauce that looked the most appetizing to her and began to walk back towards the front of the store. The various plain-clothed agents also began to move towards the exit. One hadn't even bought anything, instead just looking at various things near to the exit so they could both stand guard and quickly verify the safety of outside once they began to leave.

While she scanned her own items through the self-checkout, Ina suddenly had an idea.

She should get pizza for them all.

It should have been such an obvious choice. She had completely disregarded it because of all of their various injuries, but now they were pretty much all healed up, save for Kiara's arm. The hospital staff might not like them eating pizza, but there wasn't much they could do to stop them.

Ina pocketed the receipt and carried the applesauce out of the store once the all clear had been given. The three agents reformed around her and they got into the parked car. She got out her phone and quickly made an order before any of the agents could see what she was doing.

"Stop at the office and drop me off," she told the driver. He gave a quick glance to the front passenger who simply shrugged in response. The car engine revved as they moved out of the parking spot and merged back onto the roadway. They drove for a couple minutes before pulling off to the side of the road.

Because of the yet-to-be repaired damage, the car couldn't get any closer to HQ, so they would have to travel the rest of the way on foot. Once again, Ina and the three plain-clothed agents got out and walked over to the office.

Most of the glass on the front of the office building had been replaced, but some larger pieces were still temporarily covered with plastic and cardboard. The holes that they had put in the various buildings had also been covered by temporary plastic.

They walked on the wood boards that covered the remains of the sidewalk until they reached the office. One of the agents pulled open the door and held it open for Ina and the other two to enter.

To say that HQ was the busiest Ina's ever seen would have been an understatement. People were scrambling around with arms full of documents. The sounds of phones ringing and people talking echoed throughout the building.

"Oh, hey," a familiar voice rose above the rest of the noise, "I didn't know you would be stopping by, Ms. Ina." Emersyn greeted Ina with a light smile and wave as she approached. The agents around Ina dispersed, leaving just the Priestess and her manager to talk.

"Hi Enma,"Ina returned the smile and wave, "It's gotten pretty busy around here, huh?" she said, glancing at the various people zipping around the hallways. Emersyn nodded and chuckled.

"Yeah, it has," she replied, pausing for a brief moment to notice that Ina didn't seem to enjoy the business of their current location, "How about we go somewhere a little quieter." Ina nodded and followed her manager to a conference room that wasn't currently in use.

"How have you been feeling?" Ina asked once the door sealed off all of the outside noise. Emersyn thought for a moment, looking at her hands before looking back at Ina.

"I've been better, but I was much worse before. I'm sorry you had to see me in such a state…" Emersyn said, trailing off near the end and breaking eye contact. Ina gave her manager a sad smile.

"Well I'm glad you're feeling better."

"Yeah, J-Chad has been a huge help taking some of the load off of me." Ina nodded with a brighter smile, glad that Emersyn wasn't destroying herself with work and accepting help.

"Any memories come back?" Ina asked a much more direct question than her first. Emersyn paused for longer this time, slowly blinking her eyes and staring distantly at the far wall of the room.

"A few brief flashes here and there, but nothing major," she answered, not seeming too happy with her progress. "I can feel the missing pieces, unlike everyone else who had their memories wiped thanks to Caesura. I'm not sure if that is better or worse, though…" Emersyn sat in a nearby chair, resting her head in her hand on the table. Ina leaned against a wall.

"That's still good," Ina said, trying to cheer up her manager, "Any memory you recover is a massive victory over Caesura!" Emersyn smiled slightly at Ina's enthusiasm.

"You guys are lucky that Caesura only attacked over here. As it turns out, she not only wiped you guys from memories, but also from computers and paper documents. The only way that we could prove you four were a part of Hololive or even that this English branch existed were a few documents from overseas," Emersyn laughed while Ina lightly chuckled. She had heard from Calli that Emersyn had told a joke, which no one believed.

"Well, I'm glad that you were able to prove we existed. I can even begin to imagine the process of rejoining Hololive, especially in this climate," Ina joked back slightly. Emersyn continued to laugh, but it slowly began to fade.

It wasn't Emersyn's laugh that was becoming quieter, though, it was Ina starting to sense that something was wrong. Her mind was racing and panicking about something that she didn't know about just yet. It was a thought on the tip of her tongue that just set off every alarm in her mind.

"Four," she mumbled to herself. Emersyn's laugh actually faded away once she heard Ina say something. "You said the documents overseas proved that us four had existed. There were five of us here." Ina held up all five fingers towards Emersyn.

"No… there were only ever four of you here. Caesura has not reappeared, so we know those documents are correct. And only four of you are here today-"

Ina didn't wait for her manager to finish. She turned and ran out of the room, ignoring Emersyn's questions about her current actions.

Her frantic rush led her up the stairs and to the hallways where all of their rooms had once been. Caesura's attack had destroyed all traces of them from the city, meaning their rooms were completely wiped clean. Hololive had recently begun refurnishing the rooms for the members' eventual return.

Four name tags hanging from the doors.

Four mostly furnished bedrooms.

Four members of Hololive English…

Ina walked up to what was once Amelia's room and opened the door.

"That's a temporary storage room," Emersyn said from behind her, slightly startling the Priestess. "Why did you run up here so fast?" Ina stared at the piles of boxes for a moment before slowly closing the door.

"Can I see the documents that only have four of us?" Ina asked quietly, barely making eye contact with her manager. Emersyn gave her another confused look, but gestured for Ina to follow her.

They walked into a room much further down the hallway. Emersyn pressed her thumb against a flat part on the lock and the door clicked open.

"You all will have these installed too once you move back in," Emersyn explained. So the renovations had also given HQ a couple of upgrades. "My old room was almost entirely destroyed during your fight against Caesura, so I moved slightly."

Ina had only ever gotten small glances at Emersyn's room throughout the many years they had known each other.

But unfortunately, her room looked just as plain as the ones she had just looked in earlier. A boring, wooden desk with two monitors sat in a corner with a bed fitted in black sheets sitting in the other. The only notable difference was the rack of several katanas located at the foot of the bed.

"Were you expecting something different?" Emersyn asked, noticing Ina's slightly disappointed glances, "I don't know exactly what the old Emersyn would have put up, so I'll leave that for her once she comes back." Emersyn sat down at her desk and Ina walked over behind her.

"Don't be afraid to do what you want to do. It doesn't matter if you remember everything, you're still Emersyn," Ina said kindly to her manager. Emersyn smiled slightly, glancing behind her at Ina.

"It would be so much easier to believe that if I didn't know my memories were gone…" she replied with a hint of sadness. Ina didn't really know what to say to that. Emersyn had always been a rock for her ever since they met in the Foundation. Now their roles were reversed and she wanted to repay all the kindness she had received but didn't know how to.

Emersyn noticed how loud the clacking of her keyboard was in the room and looked back over at Ina, "Ever since Caesura, 'Restored Hope' to this city, things have been very different for everyone," she said solemnly, "But we can't let that be an excuse to just stop our lives. Sure we can take a small pause to collect ourselves, but in the end we have to start moving forwards again. I'm trying my best with the help of all the wonderful people around me and I've seen you all trying just as hard to recover and readjust, as well." Ina smiled slightly at her manager who returned it.

"I'll try my best," Ina replied, pumping her fist lightly in the air. Emersyn chuckled and turned back to the computer. Soon she finished gathering the documents and presented them all to Ina.

Emersyn was telling the objective truth earlier. Ina scrolled through the various documents proving Hololive English existed as well as the fact that her and three other girls were a part of it.

But Amelia was missing from every single one. At first, it didn't make sense to her, but she quickly remembered what had occurred the last time Amelia had been flung out of a timeline.

Her existence was slowly erased from with only the few people close to her keeping her memory alive within their own.

Ina found a document that referenced her temporal excursion and pointed it out to Emersyn, "How did I do this?" she asked rhetorically. Emersyn simply stared back at her blankly.

"Is this some kind of attempt to bring my memories back?" she asked back. Ina zoomed in on a part of the document that referenced time travel.

"Do any of Hololive English's current members possess the ability to time travel?" Ina rephrased her question. Emersyn shook her head slowly, still in the dark about Amelia's existence.

Ina took a deep breath and explained Amelia's impact on not only her friends and Hololive, but how she had saved the world with her sacrifice.

"How is it possible that none of this is mentioned anywhere?" Emersyn asked, incredibly confused by the complete absence of evidence to what Ina was saying, "Did Caesura start rewriting history again!?"

"I'm fairly sure that Caesura is not the cause here," Ina said quickly, trying to calm her manager down. Emersyn sighed deeply and waited for Ina to explain why. "Amelia was not from this timeline, so this has happened to her once before. She was erased from her previous timeline almost entirely. Only her memory and s single picture proved she existed."

"And how do you know this?" Ina pointed back at the document.

"This doesn't describe any of what I reported doing during this time. All of the details relating to Amelia have been removed or changed to the point where it lacks a ton of information one would expect on a form like this." Emersyn inspected the document more closely, noticing the lack of detail in any section that described Ina's trip. Only vague mentions of another timeline and another version of herself persisted.

"So you're saying you went to Amelia's timeline during this time?" Ina nodded.

"And I saw how little of her existence remained. I had no idea that it would occur this fast, but it seems like all remnants of her are slowly being erased from the timeline."

"Can you think of any physical evidence that might prove she existed?" Ina thought for a moment, but eventually shook her head in defeat.

"All of her belongings were here when Caesura attacked and wiped everything clean. I ran up here because I thought maybe there would be something left… anything…" Ina said sadly, her eyes beginning to water slightly. She took several deep breaths and steadied her emotions.

"Well then, I don't know what I can do to help," Emersyn said with a sigh, starting to pace around the room in thought.

"You can trust me that she existed. All four of us will vouch for her existence," Ina said firmly. Emersyn stopped pacing and looked over at Ina. The Priestess wore a serious expression, indicating to her manager that she was telling the truth.

"I'll search for anything that suggests that a fifth member existed, but I don't know if I'll find anything." Ina was relieved to hear that, "Do you know if she'll ever return here?"

Ina felt the cold brush of a single tear run down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away and regained her composure before more could follow.

"I hope so," she said with the same firm tone as before, but just beneath the surface Emersyn could hear that Ina was hoping against all odds for Amelia's return. Her manager offered her a small, restrained smile.

"I'll keep an eye out."

Three loud knocks at Emersyn's door shattered the fragile mood in the room.

"OI, Emersyn!" a loud, commanding voice boomed from the other side. Emersyn sighed and walked over to open the door.

When the door fully opened to reveal who was standing on the other side, Ina was utterly confused. This woman was probably close to a foot taller than her and had a pair of horns adorning the top of her head, adding to her already impressive height. Her teeth looked mostly normal, but she had fangs that reminded Ina of Gura's teeth with how sharp they were. It took her a couple moments to piece together who this mystery woman could be.

"You're J-Chad, right?" Ina asked before Emersyn had said anything to the tall woman. She looked over Emersyn and Ina and pointed back at herself with her thumb.

"Demon Manager from Hell, J-Chad, at your service!" she announced with a wide grin. Emersyn shook her head into her hand before looking up at J-Chad.

"What did you need?" she asked. J-Chad looked back down at Emersyn.

"Well, there is pizza downstairs and no one knows who's it is," J-Chad answered.

Ina was already certain that Emersyn had eyes in the back of her head, but the piercing glare she felt despite her manager's back being turned to her proved it beyond all doubt.

She had completely forgotten she had ordered pizza here to bring back to the hospital with her.

"U-Ummm… Th-That would be me…" Ina said hesitantly. Both Emersyn and J-Chad looked over at her, making the introverted Priestess feel very self conscious. "W-Well it would've been even more awkward to order it directly to the hospital and this was the only other place that I could think of at the time…" Ina's rambling fell of deaf ears as Emersyn planted her face firmly into the palm of her hand and shook it very hard. J-Chad simply laughed, making Ina slowly stop speaking nonsense.

"Well we better get those pizzas to your friends before they get cold then!" J-Chad cheered out before turning back down the hallway and beginning to walk away. Ina gave Emersyn one last glance, seeing her manager motion for her to go.

"I'll make sure to visit more often and I'll try to bring the others with me, too," she said on her way out. Emersyn couldn't help but smile.

Ina collected all of the pizzas that waited for her downstairs, avoiding any weird glances she got from other workers. J-Chad waved her goodbye and Ina left HQ with the same three agents she had entered with.

The largest of them took the stack of pizzas from Ina, who was struggling slightly with how best to carry the large stack of boxes. She wanted to use magic to levitate them next to her or just use a tentacle to hold them for her, but she knew that she wasn't allowed to use magic like that out in public. It would cause way more trouble than it was worth.

The group of four walked back to the car they had parked nearby because of the construction surrounding HQ. It was only a couple minutes on foot.

But they wouldn't make it all the way there.

A heavy pressure suddenly filled the air around them all. Before Ina could even react, two of the agents around her collapsed. She barely caught the third one and the pizzas before they too fell to the ground with a tentacle.

A dim purple aura enveloped her, as she prepared for what she knew was coming.

After all, there was only one other time in her life she had felt a pressure like this…

'Above!' AO-chan warned her. Ina leapt away, avoiding the attack sent her way. Once she landed back on the ground, she looked towards the cloud of dust that the attack had kicked up. Slowly, a figure emerged from it.

"What did you do to me?!" Caesura asked aggressively, her left eye twitching slightly as she did.

Author's Note: Sorry for the extended absence. I had finished around half of this chapter earlier this year, but I found it very hard to finish. I guess I just needed a break from writing. A lot has been going on in my life, as with most people, but I'm hoping that I can return back to writing in earnest. I truly did miss it.

This chapter served as a bit of a return to normal. Well, the new normal, I guess. All of the girl's are different to varying degrees as they try to cope with everything that has happened. Gura and Kiara have taken it the hardest, with Calli and Ina slowly adjusting to the new rules and trying to help their worse off friends.

Caesura has definitely already left an impact on the story and now she's back to cause even more problems! Or is she...?

Next Chapter: The Descent of Hope
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It's good to be back!