The bitter cold was blinding.
He couldn't see anything.
His skin felt like it was going to fall off, it was so cold.
But he couldn't stop.
He had to find them.
He may not have been old enough to understand what was happening, but he knew that he couldn't stop.
He had to keep going.
He didn't want them to be alone.
They were searching for him, too, weren't they? They just had to be.
He trudged through the waist-high snowdrifts with all the strength that his chilled, aching four-year-old body could possibly give him.
He couldn't stop.
He just couldn't.
Even as his vision began to get blurry, he still pressed onwards. He couldn't stop.
He couldn't.
He... he just...
His strength gave out.
He reached towards where he'd seen them, trying his hardest to will his body to keep moving forward.
It was so cold.
He couldn't feel anything.
He couldn't see anything.
He couldn't hear anything.
Everything was going numb.
Finally, he collapsed into the snow.
His last thoughts ran through his mind.
Not like this...
Not... like... this...
"Humans are strange creatures."
A green sphere of light, completely unaffected by the chaotic snowstorm raging around it, floated through the blizzard and stopped over what she'd seen.
The light slowly floated downward so she could get a closer look.
This poor, four-year-old boy was lying face-down in the snowdrift. She didn't need to see anything else to know that he was dead, having clearly frozen to death trying to find his parents in the storm.
She'd seen the parents earlier. The boy had no idea that both of his parents were already dead, as were many other people in this fierce, unnatural snowstorm.
"Despite everything that this world throws in their way... humans never give up. They persevere despite overwhelming odds."
She looked around before looking back down at the boy.
"...I've been sitting here and watching for far too long."
The light sphere expanded until it transformed into a young woman with long, vibrant green hair with small, yellow flowers tangled within it, wearing a short green button up dress with semi-transparent sleeves and long white gloves, vines wrapping around her legs and down to her feet, and large antlers resembling that of a caribou coming from her head.
She wished she could have saved his parents, too, but their souls were already gone, having passed on to heaven long before she'd found this boy.
She could only hope she wasn't too late with their son.
She kneeled down and placed her hand on his head, channeling some of her power into his body.
After all, wasn't it her duty to protect life whenever she could?
All things eventually pass, as was the way of mortality, but this boy's death was so unnatural and unfair that she felt it was finally time to take action.
Especially if she was on the way, as this unnatural snowstorm seemed to herald.
She watched as the boy's body glowed with the same green light, until it faded and she watched, hoping that she hadn't been too late.
Miraculously, the boy began to stir, slowly standing up and looking around in very understandable confusion, wondering why he wasn't cold anymore.
That was when he saw her.
Bright green met light brown.
"Did... did you help me?" he asked.
"Yes, I did. It isn't your time yet."
Her duty done, she prepared to leave, only...
"W-wait, will I ever see you again?" the boy gasped.
She couldn't help but smile.
"...maybe."
With that, she turned back into a large sphere of green light and rocketed off into the sky. When she broke through the clouds, she unleashed a powerful shockwave of emerald energy that spread across the entire city and instantly dissipated the snowstorm. After all, it was what had drawn her to the city in the first place, knowing that the storm hadn't been natural in the slightest.
As the sun began to shine once again, he continued to stare into the sky even as people began to gather on the bridge.
(Don't just sit there and waste your precious time. When you want to do something, do it right away. Do it when you can. It's the only way to live a life without regrets.)
The Blue Time Ranger is proud to present:
The V-Tuber Fables: Into the Wild Green Yonder
Story Rated: T for Teen
Story Created: December 1st, 2023
Story Summary: The fourth chapter of "The V-Tuber Fables", a series about some of my favorite V-Tubers. One day, a young boy met The Seed of Life in the midst of an unnatural snowstorm, never truly understanding what really happened to him that day. Now, eleven years later, that same boy once again meets The Seed of Life, or as she goes by now, Haruka Karibu. While piecing together what exactly happened back on that day, it turns out that Haruka has awakened once again due to the ever-creeping presence of the Dark Messenger, an eldritch being that roams the cosmos to feed on people's sanity. As Nick soon discovers, due to the help that Haruka gave him eleven years ago, he may be the only person who can help her fight back against the rapidly-approaching apocalypse. That wicked snowstorm was only the beginning, as Nick and Haruka are about to be thrust into a fight that may well decide the fate of all living beings, even if the Dark Messenger is someone whom Haruka once called "friend"...
Author's Notes: Yup, I'm doing another story about one of my all-time favorite V-Tubers, Haruka Karibu, but this time, it's to celebrate her joining VShojo! I legit lost my mind when I saw that Haruka was their new member, and I figured I had to commemorate another V-Tuber Fable to celebrate that occasion. Yes, I know, I'm a whole year or so late on that ball, but that's just how my mind works, especially when I've got other V-Tuber Fables ideas brewing. So let's all give out a big ol' HUEAGH for Haruka, and let's ROLL IT!
And Now, the Obligatory Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to VShojo, Hololive or any other V-Tubers who may be showing up in this story. They belong solely to the V-Tubers themselves. The only things I DO own are any characters created by yours truly for this story. Anything I don't own, I am just borrowing with no intent of copyright infringement, only the entertainment of my readers. Besides, if I did own these V-Tubers, which I don't, why would I be writing fiction on a fan site?
Episode 1: The Awakening
Fifteen-year-old Nick Kelly adjusted his eyesight as he always did when it came to the blinding light of this summer day in Mistralton, South Carolina. It was typically pretty sunny around this time in the summer, after all.
Nick waved goodbye to his fellow classmates as he headed home from school that day, ignoring the occasional bully who'd call him a "zombie". He was used to it, after all, and it didn't bother him.
Considering said bullies liked to think he'd come back from the dead, it was definitely a... unique insult.
But what those bullies didn't know was that they weren't too far off the mark.
Nick didn't completely remember everything that had happened when he was four years old.
Through the fragments of memories he did still retain, he knew a few things.
He and his family had been on vacation in another city.
It had started snowing.
And then... the snow was gone, as if it had never been there.
And his parents were both dead.
Nick lived with his aunt and uncle here in Mistralton ever since that day, and they'd been just as wonderful as his mom and dad had been at raising him.
Nick would still wonder what else had happened on that day, as he knew a massive snowstorm like that, one that had dumped about five feet of snow on the city in less than an hour (according to the news reports), that just vanished like it had never snowed at all couldn't be anything normal.
At the same time, he'd kept this knowledge to himself, mostly, as he was pretty sure no one would believe that he'd actually died and come back to life.
He did remember the biting cold that had most likely been what ended the lives of his parents. All anyone had said was that they'd frozen to death in the snowstorm.
So, all in all, Nick liked to think he was a relatively normal fifteen-year-old, given what he'd lived through.
Nick walked down the city streets on his way home as he always did, eventually crossing by the forest that surrounded most of the city.
It was just your typical forest, even if a lot of people liked to make up rumors and shady stories about it to scare the neighbors.
Nick stopped in his tracks when he noticed something hiding behind one of the trees he'd walked by. He got a closer look and saw that it appeared to be a small fawn that was glowing green, for some inexplicable reason.
Wait, a glowing fawn? Just like in one of those stories?
Now Nick was really confused.
The fawn glanced his way and did a short hop before chirping a couple times. And, to Nick's bewilderment, he realized that he could understand what it was trying to tell him.
"You want me to follow you?" Nick asked, to which the fawn nodded and dashed off into the forest.
Nick shook his head a few times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating any of this before deciding to take a chance and follow the fawn into the forest.
Nick had been in this forest a few times before, and nothing had seemed odd about it. But this time was very different.
As he followed the fawn, easily marked by its green glow, he could swear he kept seeing a bunch of strange creatures of the mystical persuasion around every corner, most of them hiding when he got close.
Inwardly, Nick couldn't help chuckle. He had no idea what creatures like them even thought of humans, even as he wondered why the heck he was having these thoughts in the first place.
Regardless, he continued to follow the fawn, for the sake of his own curiosity if nothing else.
When the fawn finally stopped moving, Nick found himself standing in front of a quaint-looking log cabin styled house. One that definitely hadn't been there the last time he'd wandered into the forest.
"Okay, am I starting to go nuts or something?" Nick wondered. "Because I'm seeing a lot of strange things that I probably shouldn't be seeing, so..."
Nick's rambling thoughts were cut short when the fawn started chirping loudly. Nick immediately moved to shush the fawn, not wanting to attract any undue attention to whatever this was.
Though he quickly found that to be an unwinnable situation.
Because that's when he saw what exactly the fawn was chirping about.
Multiple creatures that appeared to be made of darkness itself, all with multiple limbs, horribly disfigured bodies, and beady, piercing yellow eyes were all starting to encroach on the cabin.
"O-Okay, what the hell?!" Nick shouted, backing away from the monsters as fast as his legs could possibly carry him, only to bump into the wall of the cabin. "...crapbaskets."
One of the creatures noticed him standing there and lunged towards him, intent on feasting on him. Nick raised his hand in some form of futile defense...
...only for something very strange to happen.
A green ball of light emerged from Nick's body and flew into his outstretched hand just as the shadow creature struck, transforming into a long broadsword made of emerald-green steel and a tree root wrapped around its blade.
The shadow creature couldn't alter its trajectory in time and continued to fly forward, the blade splitting the creature in half vertically. Both halves of the creature fell to the ground and popped out of existence in a shower of black wisps.
Nick glanced at the sword in his hand that had inadvertently saved his life. He instinctively pointed it towards the remaining shadow creatures, and they all slinked backwards.
They're scared of it, Nick thought before glancing upwards and hardening his expression as he gripped his new sword tightly and adopted a fighting stance, wondering where the heck this was all coming from.
One of the shadow creatures tried to take a bite of Nick, but he retaliated by swinging his sword and cutting at it a few times. He started with a downward swing, then a forward thrust, and finally a turning sweep slash for the finisher that defeated the creature. Another leaped towards him, but Nick jumped to meet it, attacking with a downward slash, then an upward slash, and finally a mid-air spinning slash for the finisher, the creature popping out of existence soon after.
Nick wondered where all of this skill was coming from, since he'd never wielded a weapon in his life. But he also decided to worry about that once all of these things were taken care of, since it was obvious that they wanted him for lunch.
As Nick continued to do battle with the shadow creatures, he didn't notice the young woman exiting the cabin to see what the fuss was about, no doubt having been drawn out by the commotion.
She gasped in shock at the sight of the shadow creatures, as the last time she'd seen them was when...
...oh, no.
It was happening again, wasn't it?
What surprised her even more, though, was that there was someone actually fighting back against the shadow creatures, and...
...wait, why was he wielding that sword? Wasn't it supposed to be in her possession?
Nick cut down another shadow creature, only for the last one to barrel towards him. Nick quickly raised his sword into a blocking stance to parry the strike, stumbling the creature long enough for Nick to take it down with a powerful jumping slash.
Once the last of the shadow creatures was gone, Nick glanced down at the sword he'd used to cut them down. Despite the tree root wrapping around the blade, it hadn't affected its ability to cut.
"Now I just have more questions," Nick mumbled as he looked back towards the cabin, only to see a young woman standing there and staring in a mixture of shock and confusion. "And now there's another one..."
"Wait a minute, you can see me?" the young woman asked. "I'm surprised. Humans who wander into this forest normally can't see me or any of the other animals that live here."
"That's what I thought, too," Nick answered. "I've been through this forest a few times before, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. But on my way home from school today, I saw a glowing fawn beckon me in, so I followed just to quench my curiosity. And then, all of this happened, and..."
Nick trailed off when he finally got a good look at the young woman he was speaking to. She appeared to be around his age, if maybe a year older, with bright green eyes, long, vibrant green hair with small, yellow flowers tangled within it, wearing a short green button up dress with semi-transparent sleeves and long white gloves, vines wrapping around her legs and down to her feet, and large antlers resembling that of a caribou coming from her head.
That would have been the capper for the strange events of today, but when he got a good look at the young woman, he gasped in shock.
"W-What?" the young woman asked. "Did I... say something funny?"
Nick couldn't believe what he was seeing. Wasn't this the same young woman he'd seen in that city eleven years ago? The one who had...
His mind flashed back to that day, seeing her exact face smiling down at his four-year-old self.
"...it's you," Nick gasped. "You're the one who saved my life."
The young woman looked understandably confused, but Nick couldn't blame her. It had been a really long time, after all.
"Do you remember eleven years ago?" Nick asked. "A super fierce snowstorm that dumped over five feet of snow on New York City?"
"...yeah, I do," the young woman gasped. "But how did you know I was..."
She gasped again when her mind finally connected the pieces, and she realized she was indeed looking at the boy whose life she'd saved on that snowy day.
"I'm sorry if I'm acting a little off, but I have several questions," Nick admitted. "And I just have this feeling that you might be the only one who could answer them."
She looked around the forest, extending her senses just to make sure that no more of those shadow creatures were hanging around the area, before looking back at Nick.
"Well, for starters, how about we head inside first?" the young woman offered. "We'll be safe in there even if those things come back."
Knowing he really had nothing to lose, Nick nodded and followed the young woman into the cabin, the glowing fawn following them and leaping into the air to project a burst of green light around the house, no doubt some kind of barrier to keep monsters like those shadow creatures at bay.
"You've got a nice place here, honestly," Nick chuckled as he glanced around the cabin. "Puts even some of our more modern buildings to shame with the cozy factor."
"Oh, stop it," the young woman giggled as she sat down on a chair by her computer desk. "I should probably start with who I am. My name is Haruka Karibu, and I guess you could say I'm the nature spirit who lives in this forest."
Haruka glanced out the nearby window. "I am what the old legends call the Seed of Life, guardian to all living creatures on this world," Haruka explained. "Millennia ago, I, or should I say my original self came to the Earth when it was barren and devoid of life. I was instructed to begin life on empty worlds and cultivate them as such before moving on to other worlds, and the Earth was my latest stop. Essentially, I am the protector of every living being on this planet."
"I would assume all of the fantasy-esque animals I saw on my walk through the forest are part of your ecosystem, too?" Nick wondered.
"Normally, human beings can't see me, since I try to keep myself hidden," Haruka admitted. "And it's not because I don't have anything against humanity. In fact, I love humans. But, well..."
"I'm gonna hazard a guess that it has something to do with those shadow creatures I fought off?" Nick replied.
"Yup," Haruka chuckled. "Those things were spawn of the thing that's essentially my arch-enemy, the Crawling Chaos, an eldritch being that only exists to feed off of people's sanity and use that power to destroy all life as we know it. The two of us have been locked in conflict since life began. I create life, it destroys life, and we repeat the cycle again and again across countless worlds."
Haruka glanced at a picture on her computer desk, one that featured herself and what looked like a cat girl with pink hair. "Normally, I can manage to destroy the Crawling Chaos's current vessel with no problem, after which it slumbers for hundreds of years to regain is strength before the cycle repeats itself. However... this time, it took hold of someone I once called my friend."
Haruka sighed heavily, remembering the events as if they were merely yesterday.
"The Crawling Chaos is using her as its vessel now, and..." Haruka sighed.
"You can't bring yourself to destroy its vessel this time around because that vessel is someone you care about, right?" Nick finished, knowing what Haruka was probably thinking.
"Nailed it in one," Haruka replied. "I believed that the Crawling Chaos was still in slumber, given how it's been about a hundred years since I last encountered it, but... I should have seen the signs sooner. I knew that snowstorm from eleven years ago was far too unnatural to be anything but the work of the Crawling Chaos, but I didn't think much of it at the time."
"Then... that means that, in simple terms, this Crawling Chaos is responsible for the death of my parents," Nick proclaimed, gripping the handle of his sword. "Oh, speaking of which, do you know how I got this sword, Haruka? Because I'm pretty sure it belongs to you, after all."
"The only thing that comes to mind is that you might hold some of my power inside of you," Haruka answered. "After all, I did channel some of my power to bring you back to life. I just wish I could have done the same for your parents..."
"They were probably already gone by the time you found me, so don't blame yourself for that, Haruka," Nick responded.
"You know, you're taking this extraordinarily well," Haruka quipped. "I kinda thought you'd start writing this all off as a hallucination or a bad dream that just won't end, like most people probably would."
"Well, to be fair, I'm not most people," Nick noted. "And, I guess that brings us to my last question of sorts. Now that I know all of this... where do we go from here? I just hope you're not gonna tell me to forget about all of this, because I don't think I'd want to forget about the girl who saved my life, right?"
Before Haruka could answer that question, though, the glowing fawn from earlier, no doubt one of Haruka's familiars as a nature spirit, came bounding into the living room and chirping loudly.
That was when Nick noticed that the mid-afternoon sky was starting to get dark. But it was only about four o'clock, right?
Jumping to his feet at the alarm bells that were ringing in his head, Nick ran to the nearest window and looked outside to see what was happening.
Sinister shadows were consuming the sky above Mistralton, and Nick had a sinking feeling that he knew what exactly was approaching.
And from the panicked look on Haruka's face, she realized it as well.
"They're back?" Nick asked.
"And they brought friends this time," Haruka responded. "We need to take care of this, and quick."
Nick attempted to hand Haruka her sword back, but she gently pushed his hand back.
"You hold onto it," Haruka stated. "I've got a feeling you'll need it more than I ever would."
A loud scream from way off in the city made Nick jump in his spot, and he didn't need spirit abilities like Haruka's to know what exactly was happening.
Nick and Haruka quickly exited the cabin and ran as fast as they could towards the city, hoping that they weren't too late to repel this sudden invasion.
However, Nick was the first to notice that a bunch of shadow creatures, disfigured and multi-limbed much like the ones he'd fought off, were overrunning the city, forcing many of its citizens to flee in terror.
One of the creatures noticed Nick, roared in what could only be described as a gurgling growl, and this caused another quartet of creatures to start galloping towards him.
Nick rushed forward, swinging his sword outwards to cut down any creature that tried to get the jump on him. Haruka even assisted in places, forming glowing green energy blades on her hands and swinging them like daggers to slice apart any creature foolish enough to try and get the drop on her.
"Still got the touch," Haruka chuckled.
As Nick and Haruka regrouped, one of the shadow creatures eventually managed to catch up to a fleeing citizen and pounce on him, roaring in his face before clamping its jaws down onto his head.
To Nick's surprise, the citizen was still in one piece when the shadow creature had had its fill, but he now looked completely drained of all will to live, his eyes now dull and lifeless.
"What did that thing do to him?!" Nick gasped even as he slashed the offending creature apart with his sword.
"It drained all of his sanity," Haruka answered. "These creatures are mere offshoots of the Crawling Chaos, and their only goal is to drain the sanity of every living being they can get their grubby little paws on."
"That means we need to step up this extermination effort before it's too late for my home to be saved," Nick quipped. "Let's keep cutting 'em down, Haruka!"
Nothing more needed to be said as Nick and Haruka continued to make their way through the city, stopping wherever they could in order to exterminate the shadow creatures, though they were too late to stop a few of them from draining people's sanity.
It didn't take long to realize that they weren't really getting anywhere this way, however, as the shadow creatures continued to spawn no matter how many they cut apart.
"I think we need to attack this problem from another angle," Nick quipped as he bisected another shadow creature with a jumping strike. "Is there a big boss kind of shadow thing? Like, say, one that could command the lesser goons?"
"From my experience, yeah, there's usually a bigger spawn controlling its lesser offshoots when they invade a city," Haruka noted. "Maybe we should find that and get rid of it. Any ideas on where to look?"
Nick simply pointed to the blackened sky, where a strange shadow could be seen approaching them rather quickly.
The creature eventually crashed to the ground in front of Nick and Haruka, destroying a nearby fountain upon landing. This creature was a plant-like monster with thorny tentacles serving as legs with a vulnerable, flower-like plant in the center of its armored plates, and all of its foliage was stained the same shade of black as the other shadow creatures.
"Ask and he doth appeareth," Haruka taunted.
"Let's prune this mutant tulip, shall we, Haruka?" Nick quipped.
"Oh, yes, we shall," Haruka chuckled as they both charged to attack.
Gelg Bolm roared in response before slowly shambling forward to attack itself. Nick swung his sword to strike at Gelg Bolm, only for the blade to bounce off of its armored plates.
Haruka tried the same tactic while trying to slip through its joints, only for Gelg Bolm to spin around and aim its armor plates towards her.
"Well, nuts," Nick groaned.
"Hey, try aiming for that bulb thing inside its mouth!" Haruka exclaimed as Gelg Bolm spun around, whipping its vine legs out and forcing both Nick and Haruka to jump backwards to avoid the strike.
When Gelg Bolm tried to reorient itself, Nick ran forward, leapfrogging off of Haruka's shoulders to land a pair of jumping slashes on the bulb before kicking off of it to avoid retaliation. Gelg Bolm screeched in clear pain as it began to shuffle towards them.
Gelg Bolm kneeled down and launched balls of pollen towards Nick and Haruka as they danced around the square trying to avoid its attacks. Haruka cut each pollen ball that came her way with her energy daggers, and Nick eventually noticed that one pollen ball was blacker than the others.
Nick stood his ground and let the black pollen come his way before swinging his sword like a baseball bat to knock the black pollen ball back into Gelg Bolm, causing it to stumble before falling flat on its nonexistent face, exposing its bulb in the process.
Haruka quickly charged in and landed a few hits on the bulb with her daggers before dipping back and landing a charge attack with her antlers for good measure.
"That didn't hurt, did it, Haruka?" Nick asked as Gelg Bolm reeled backwards from the attack.
"Nah, my antlers are tough," Haruka chuckled.
Gelg Bolm suddenly leaped through the air and landed right in between Nick and Haruka, the impact from its landing throwing them both away from each other. As Haruka attempted to pick herself up, Gelg Bolm threw one of its vines towards Haruka and snatched her by the ankles, its intent obvious.
"Hey, buddy, watch the feelers!" Haruka shouted, slashing her daggers down to slice the offending vines apart, and though they quickly regenerated, this did leave Gelg Bolm oblivious to the fact that Nick was approaching it from behind, jumping off of one of its vine feet to get enough height to start slashing at its bulb.
Eventually, Nick landed enough hits to topple Gelg Bolm over, exposing its bulb to a charging Haruka.
"Now say goodnight, you monster!" Haruka exclaimed as she channeled her powers to transform into a glowing green fawn, much like the smaller one from her forest, only fully grown. Haruka let out a loud battle cry as she crashed into Gelg Bolm, ripping right through the monster and coming out the other side, reverting to her human form in the process.
Gelg Bolm thrashed around in agony a few times before seemingly deflating, its shell collapsing to both sides of it as its body began to evaporate. When Gelg Bolm had completely disintegrated, a shadowy blob escaped into the sky.
With Gelg Bolm's defeat, all of the remaining shadow creatures sensed that their commander had been slain and jumped into the sky.
"And that's how we do gardening around here!" Nick proclaimed as he and Haruka high-fived each other. "Look at them run!"
"...wait a minute," Haruka gasped when she realized something was off about all of this. "Those creatures would never just give up just because we defeated their commander. They'd usually keep fighting even if I ended up cutting all of them down."
"Wait, do you think maybe they're summoning reinforcements or something?" Nick wondered.
A strange ringing sound caught Nick's ears, and he glanced back up at the sky where the creatures had flown off to, only to see something else approaching the city at lightning speeds. It appeared to be a giant sphere covered with patches of some disgusting-looking black substance.
"And what the hell is that?!" Nick shouted.
"A Reset Bomb," Haruka gasped. "We need to leave. Now."
"Is there any way we can stop that thing?!" Nick asked as Haruka ran forward to grab him by the shoulders, focusing her powers as she did so.
"Believe me, I've tried," Haruka admitted as she closed her eyes and cast her teleportation spell. A swarm of the mystical creatures from her forest surrounded her and Nick, channeling their own powers to warp them both far away from the city.
Nick could only watch in horror as the Reset Bomb collided with the very center of the city, then started expelling some kind of toxic gas before expanding rapidly and finally self-destructing, engulfing the entire city in a gigantic explosion of black light.
When the flash cleared and the dust settled, there was absolutely nothing left of the city of Mistralton except a giant, smoking crater and some shadowy wisps.
A city of twelve thousand people, exterminated in an instant.
Haruka had seen it many times over the course of the long time she'd been fighting against the Crawling Chaos. This was all it knew how to do, indiscriminately destroy and plant seeds of destruction so it could rule over whatever remained, if anything ever did.
What good was ruling over worlds if there was nothing left to rule over?
That was the one thing about the Crawling Chaos that Haruka would probably never understand.
But she didn't have time to think about that at the moment, not when she had a new friend that needed her.
"It's... it's all gone," Nick gasped, unable to believe what he was seeing.
"The Crawling Chaos revels in this kind of destruction," Haruka stated as she stepped closer to Nick so she could rest her hand on his shoulder. "There were times when I was too late to stop a Reset Bomb, despite my powers. I've had to watch places get utterly eviscerated like this before. Trust me, it's really not a nice feeling in the slightest."
Haruka was expecting Nick to be angry with her for seemingly not being able to do anything to save his hometown and everyone who lived in it.
But when she got a good look at Nick, he did appear to be angry, but she was slightly relieved to see that he didn't appear to be angry at her.
"...well, then I guess there's only one thing left for me to do," Nick proclaimed, getting to his feet and looking at Haruka. "You're probably going to search for the Crawling Chaos so you can find a way to put an end to it, right? ...then, I'm coming with you."
"Wait, are you sure?" Haruka wondered, surprised by Nick's proclamation. "I thought you were mad at me for, well..."
"Hey, hey, that wasn't your fault in the slightest," Nick responded to put Haruka's mind at ease. "And besides, I'm pretty sure that I have a stake in this now, too, given that the Crawling Chaos is responsible for not only the death of my parents, but practically everyone I've ever known and loved. Whatever this eldritch nightmare really is, it just made it personal."
Nick glanced down at the sword in his hand, the emerald-colored steel glistening even in this darkened place. "And remember, I'm technically wielding some of your power," Nick quipped. "I figured you could use a little help."
Despite her own worries about this whole situation, hearing those words from Nick made her smile brightly.
"I've been doing this alone for far too long, honestly," Haruka admitted as she glanced at the sky. "I felt like the Crawling Chaos was my responsibility. But... you're right. If the Crawling Chaos really is about to resurface in this world again, I need to be more proactive about defending my home from it."
"Um... what happened to all of your animal friends?" Nick wondered. "I mean, I'm sure your forest got hit by the Reset Bomb, too..."
Haruka simply winked at Nick, a twinkle in her eyes. "My forest isn't so easily destroyed, by the way," Haruka giggled. "My pocket realm can be taken into a rift where everything, my animal buddies included, will be safe. They all just retreated there after they warped us out of the city."
Haruka made a funny sound (something along the lines of "HUEAGH" if Nick could put it to words) when she realized something she had completely forgotten to ask.
"Um, this might be awkward, but... I never asked your name," Haruka chuckled.
Nick simply smiled back and extended his hand to Haruka. "My name's Nick Kelly," Nick responded. "Formally, it's nice to meet you, Haruka."
Haruka smiled as well, reaching out to fist bump Nick, officially sealing their partnership.
"Okay, so, I have one more question," Nick quipped. "When it comes to tracking down the Crawling Chaos and/or its spawn, how are we going to handle that? Because I'd rather not follow a trail of destruction to get to it."
"You just leave that to little ol' me," Haruka laughed, placing her hands on Nick's shoulders and surrounding them both with a bubble of green light. When it cleared up and Nick could see again, he noticed that a map of the Earth was being displayed on the inner wall of the bubble.
"As The Seed of Life, I can naturally detect traces of the Crawling Chaos across the world," Haruka explained. "That way, I can warp us there so we can investigate and see if there's anything we can do."
"We're not gonna have to worry about more Reset Bombs dropping, are we?" Nick asked, understandably apprehensive.
"I think we're good on that front," Haruka answered. "The Crawling Chaos usually only uses Reset Bombs as a very last resort. I think it just wanted to be petty this time."
Haruka took a step forward to check her map and pinpoint where exactly they needed to head.
"Hmmm... I'm detecting at least three different concentrations of the Crawling Chaos' malice," Haruka stated, pointing to the three points of interest on her map. One area appeared to be a vast ocean, the second appeared to be a towering mountain range, and the third appeared to be an expansive nature trail. "Which one do you think we should investigate first?"
"How about we check out the ocean area first?" Nick replied. "After all, if the Earth is about seventy percent water, that's the one thing we do not want the Crawling Chaos to corrupt."
"Good call, Nick," Haruka quipped, tapping that spot on her map. "And away we go!"
The bubble surrounding them shined brightly before disappearing in a flash of green light, taking its passengers with it.
And so, the city of Mistralton fell silent, nothing more than a charred husk of its former glory. All Nick and Haruka could really hope to do at this point was try to prevent such a tragedy from repeating itself.
To be continued...
On the next episode...
Nick: Wow, this ocean is huge. I know they're typically pretty large, but this is nuts.
Haruka: This is supposed to be the Grand Ocean, apparently some kind of conduit for all of the world's water.
Nick: Wait, that's actually a thing?
Haruka: It's said that there are three major spirit guardians who keep watch over the land, the seas, and the skies.
Nick: And if the Crawling Chaos is attacking those spirits and their domains... hoo, boy.
Haruka: Yeah, talk about a recipe for disaster.
Nick: But we're not gonna let that thing have its way, right?
Haruka: Hell yeah!
Nick: Let's go see if we can find the spirit of the sea, next time on The V-Tuber Fables: Into the Wild Green Yonder, "Where the Ocean Dreams"!
Nick and Haruka: Puff out your chests and shout HUEAGH!
