Everything was calm, smooth, and... wet?

Cracking open her eyes, and probably the rest of her joints as well - damn, she felt stiff - Kurome pulled herself from the ground. As to why it was covered in about an inch of water was anyone's guess... except hers, because she could very clearly see that there wasn't any ground to stand on. Nothing but an endless pale blue sank beneath the ripples of miniature waves she'd created from each movement, and as she stood up, Kurome was hit with one simple question.

"Where the hell am I?"

She expected an answer from Warechu, or at the very least Linda. For a scarce few seconds, neither had chosen to speak, and so she turned to look at them. The pair were ordinarily quite chatty, so whatever was keeping them from tossing out statement after statement of mainly useless information, followed by maybe answering the initial question, had instead been greeted with nothingness.

Calm, pale waters, as far as the eye can see, with puffy cotton clouds hanging motionlessly above. Looking up at them, she noticed the sun itself shone unusually bright, to the point Kurome had to look away, back at the lacking land she stood upon. The clouds above were reflected perfectly in the easy plane, and so was the sun - albeit to a much more tolerable extent. But there was one thing off about said reflection, and she only noticed it once she chanced a deeper look below.

At her feet were the same clouds and sun, held aloft by the faultless sky... Unfortunately, she herself was not accounted for.

Okay... that's not normal.

Ducking down and reaching into the water, Kurome felt the pressure of a solid surface right where her boots ended, proving that she was standing on something, even if it could not be seen. As for why her own reflection was missing, well... that prompted some concern. Slowly unsheathing her guard, she readied herself for an oncoming attack. There was nobody around her, at least not anybody she could see; however when your own reflection ends up missing, you tend not to trust your eyes completely by that point.

Kurome stood, patiently awaiting anyone or anything that may deem it safe to approach.

"How are we even going to find her?"

Her breath stopped, and suddenly her chest tightened. It wasn't quite pain, but rather an uncomfortable pressure, as if she were being smothered from within her own lungs. Dropping to her knees, she drew in air desperately to alleviate the feeling, but it didn't do any good: she wasn't smothering, but instead feeling the 'clog' within her chest as if she were. Breathing was easy, but neither breath or gasp could remove that phantom danger.

It was then that another voice intervened, and with its squeaky boyish tone, Kurome was able to attribute it to Warechu. With that in mind, she found herself declaring the initial question as belonging to Linda.

"Why are you asking me?" Warechu shot his eyes over, bearing a cautious, but sturdy look. "Listen, she's with you, ain't she?"

"Yes." And now her own voice called, with the scene playing before her eyes, completely disregarding how hard she had shut them.

"Doesn't that mean you share some sort of psychic connection or something?"

The display shook rapidly from left to right, as if she herself had denied the assumption.

"If I could, I sure as hell wouldn't have spent all this time mucking about."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Linda pouted her way, and with a sigh, Kurome did her best to give an honest answer; mainly one that didn't make it sound like they were both just a side thought.

Kurome remembered clearly how the tiny shreds of guilt danced about her mind. She'd just up and told them they were garbage, indirectly of course, but the comparisons were still there. She didn't want them to think she saw them like that, and maybe it was all the adrenaline running through her veins, but she honestly worried about their feelings in the moment. She didn't have to, but a small part of her genuinely thought of them as more than pawns to be tossed aside. And, while she didn't know if that meant she considered them close friends, Kurome couldn't deny the sting she got from the idea they might dislike her, or even abandon her over that implied belief.

As stupid as it was, both of those idiots, and even the rest of their rag-tag crew, made her feel happy when they were around.

"I've been looking for my other half since you found me, okay." Through grit teeth, her eyes fell away from them and towards the back door of the truck. "I wasn't supposed to separate from her in the first place."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Uzi's curious expression locked on tight, and Kurome chose to be blunt.

"Uzume was supposed to live for us. Me, though? I was content sitting in the back of our mind."

"So what?" Linda was struggling with the idea, twisting her face in all sorts of ways as she tried to figure it out. "You were just, like, a voice in the back of her head?"

"No. She couldn't hear me." That weirded Linda out, who's previous look filled more with conflicted doubt. Warechu put it best, however.

"Then you were a ghost, chu. Haunting the back of her mind: able to see everything she saw and maybe even more, but unable to react or do anything."

"Yeah." He made it sound so... sour. "That's about it."

"Sheesh." The little guy rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. "And I thought customer service was bad, chu."

"Some find comfort in a life of silence." Sonya kept an even voice, but as he turned towards her like the rest had, she was beholden to more than just indifference. Despite the body language and tone, there was something about the way his eyes fogged up, and the slight twitch of his fingers holding one another that revealed the truth. "From the way you speak of it, it sounds like you didn't mind the lack of interaction."

"I didn't." She never had, and she never thought she would either. But, now that it was pointed out to her, Kurome wondered if it was due more to her acceptance of the fate, rather than her own wants and needs. "I was cool letting Uzume take the reins. She always knew what was best; I was just glad she accepted me back."

"And then there's that." Linda scowled, tapping her foot on the floor. "What does that even mean? Are you trying to tell us she could have just yoinked your ass? Because that's what it's sounding like."

"Yes." That answer had Linda backtracking as her expression snapped into mild surprise.

"Wait, really?" Kurome nodded, and Linda just kept dragging it out. "So she could have just tossed you aside and went on living life?" Kurome nodded again... and again Linda continued. "Uzume, your other half, could have just said 'nope' and walked away? She could've denied half herself... and nothing bad would have come from it?"

"I just said yes." It was a concrete, easy to understand answer, but Linda was never one for the easy route and just kept asking, all the while seemingly losing her mind as she tried to tie the idea around her head.

"She can just get rid of half herself, and there are no repercussions... like, at all?"

Kurome answered that one first by stretching out her arms.

"Well, I'm standing right here, aren't I?" She let her arms fall. "I'm feeling fine right now; a little hollow inside, but otherwise okay."

"Hello there."

Kurome shot up from her kneeling position, hands no longer clutching her pounding skull and instead now clenched into fists and directed right towards the black mass of shadow just a few meters away. It shimmered for a bit... and then it spoke again.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to spook you." She could have sworn it had somehow rubbed the back of it's neck; how, one might ask? Kurome didn't quite know why she knew: it just felt like that's the sort of thing the shadow would do after apologizing like that. "My bad."

It floated closer, and Kurome herself backed up in tune.

"Not another step!" Whether yelling at the thing would have any effect was up for debate, but despite the logic behind the decision not exactly being one of her brightest, the mass obeyed.

"Chill, chill!" It shook a little, and she imagined it waving its hands back and forth rapidly in defense. "I come in peace!"

Whether that was believable or not didn't matter to her, all Kurome needed was some time to situate and ready herself. As luck would have it - or maybe it was telling the truth all along - the thing did as she asked: it never moved an inch from where it now 'stood'. Quickly she shot her eyes around their surroundings, and seeing as nobody else appeared to be around, she focused back on it.

While Kurome was unable to come up with what to do in this scenario, the darkness was.

"So... you just woke up?"

"Why does that matter to you?"

"I'm just curious." As if she was supposed to believe that. The shadow wasn't dissuaded though, not by a long shot. "Look, maybe we got off on the wrong foot." It let out a short series of laughs, and while they sounded genuine enough - and far too cheerful for such an intimidating figure - she wasn't about to let her guard down. "Most souls refer to me as 'The Shadow'... but you can just call me Blade."

Okay, so there were now two concerns on her mind, and while neither was all that extreme, Kurome felt it important to at least voice them. Seeing as the thing was apparently feeling chatty, she figured it would pay off in the long run to see how far it was willing to go when it came to conversation. If she played her cards right, Kurome was certain she could get it to spill some secrets or whatnot.

"Blade? How do you get that from 'The Shadow'?"

"Because I can do this." The mass swirled and stretched for a second, but soon, it took the shape of a katana. While mildly interesting and a surefire sign of danger - if it could shapeshift into one weapon then it reasoned to say it could become anything - Kurome was more interested in the other thought she had on her mind, especially now that it answered a question: proving it was willing to converse.

"Okay, so with that mystery having a shockingly simple answer: what did you mean by 'souls'?"

"Like I said: most souls who meet me just call me The Shadow because of how I look." It paused for a bit, and after a moment of silence, followed by a flat look on Kurome's part, it seemed to get the memo. "Oh... you're asking why I call them 'souls' and not 'people', yeah?"

"Yes."

"Right." Again, she could have sworn it was making some sort of gesture out of embarrassment, even if she couldn't see it. "Oooh... yikes, hehe... seeing as that's your question… I, uh... I take it you haven't quite remembered yet, have you?"

"Remember what?"

"Yep, not a clue."

Kurome was getting fed up now. Huffing to herself, she tried to fight back the scowl and even out her voice as she asked what he meant by that. Only, before she could even open her mouth, that pressure from before returned in full force. The pounding, as it had been before, was near agonizing.

"Gah! What the hell..."

"Yeah." Somehow, the mouthless - and bodiless, lest she forget - mass found a way to suck in a sharp breath. "They're not all back yet."

"Care to elaborate-?" She stopped herself there, and her teeth clamped down on themselves again as she dropped to her hands. Being on all fours before a potential enemy was not something she took pride in, and that pride was shattered further as it called out to her, gently floating towards her direction.

"Easy... just let it happen."

"What... what are you doing-?"

"I'm not touching you, or doing anything else like that." It stopped right next to her, with its tone smoothing out. "You're remembering; don't fight it."

"R-remembering?"

"Damnit!" Linda had to kick the creature off her just to get a little breathing room. "Where the hell did they all come from?!"

"At this rate, I do not believe we'll find much fortune from battling these beasts." The boss, while small, seemingly had no issues forcing the monsters away with the glock in his hand, and she didn't even want to know where he'd been storing such an item.

"So what, chu?" Warechi smacked another in the face with a dive kick, although, seeing as he needed to leap and jab upwards, most would refer to it more as a flip-kick. "Compared to the goddesses, these losers are chumps."

Such a sentiment had Kurome's mind locked firmly on the goal, and taking into account they weren't getting anywhere with the current state of things - just bashing whatever drew close - she knew they needed a different approach.

"We need to split!" She called, twisting and delivering a brutal right hook to one of the suckers who managed to get in close. The streets were rampant with the creeps, and while most of the soldiers present within the city had expended all the manpower towards keeping the undead at bay, it was clearly not enough.

"What?!" Warechu yelled, dashing under and between the legs of two more, who were swiftly executed by the whip of an almost indifferent Sonya. The rat's eyes shot over, scrutinizing every inch of her face for any clue whatsoever that what she said was a joke. Upon seeing none, he spoke up. "We have all these freaks on us, to the point we can barely keep up, and you want to split?!"

"Uzume's in danger; we need to spread out if we want any chance of finding her!" She retained her cool - as best she could, anyway - while crushing the skulls of another pair of foes. Both boneheads dropped, turning to dust and smoke upon defeat just like all the rest. The undead were easy enough to dispatch; the problem came from the speed of which they respawned. It was pretty much cheating at this point, but there wasn't anything she could do about it.

They'd tried asking the nearby guard upon their arrival what was going on, and after helping out, they were told the undead started just forming in the air itself. The only good news was that the mayhem was limited to the edges of the city. Seeing as it was obviously Dreamsy's work, Kurome personally guessed that her influence, while vast, still had its limits, and that the brute force of her power was still based within the shrines. Seeing as the nearest one was miles away, the edges of the city were probably the closest she could spawn them. Considering she mentioned not having enough power to escape, Kurome theorized she wasn't used to being free, so unless she specifically summoned right in front of herself, any 'unseen' spawns would stick closer to her old limitations, purely out of habit.

"D-Dreamsy..." That bitch. She was the one responsible for all that. So many skeletons had invaded the streets, to the point Vante had stopped the truck no more than a few blocks in; even when limited with their entry, they'd still managed to get in far at a rapid pace. It wasn't safe for Dergil anywhere beyond their stopping point, and after a quick thanks the brothers took shelter in a nearby grocery store, which had been modified by the local guard almost as soon as the 'invasion' began: twisted into a sort of safehouse.

"So, you remember her name..." The shadow's voice mellowed. "But that's not all, is it?"

"We're in danger too!" It was Uzi who cried out. Sadly, and unlike her brother, she couldn't fight for shit: no combat skill whatsoever… Or so she claimed, because as Kurome looked over at her she saw how the woman was holding her own rather well. With nothing but a broken pipe in hand, which she'd found somewhere around the third street they'd run through, Uzi had racked up quite the body count. She slammed the instrument of death down on the ribs of another skeleton, breaking the bones and sending him away into the greedy fists of Lonk; that dude sure loved punching things.

"Hell yeah!" He shouted gleefully, tossing a rapid fire of jabs onto the sluggish bag of bones, shattering nearly all the ribs with calculated fists of fury over the course of several seconds. "Look out guys, my high score is getting pretty up there!"

"At least-" Linda kicked down on the kneecap of one unlucky foe, hitting its face away with the following slam of her fist. "Someone's-" Leaning back, she dodged a grapple, swinging forth and headbutting the monster. "Having fun!"

"Just split!"

She remembered screaming that at the top of her lungs, and even now, Kurome could still hear the reverb, even here in the plane of emptiness.

"Her..." And then, carrying the force of a freight train, it all came back.

Running at full speed down the streets, she recalled how her other side liked to visit game stores when she was in town. Usually it was to check if anything new came in. She was no stranger to retro finds either, so there was a chance that, if Uzume was around, she'd have come across Chuko's at one point. Warechu and Linda were covering downtown, and if she recalled correctly, both Lonk and the boss were taking Planeptower - figuring it wouldn't hurt to meet up with the goddesses in hopes of learning why they weren't out on the streets fighting the invasion. Sonya saw fit to take his sister to check any local shops; if Uzume wasn't out gaming, then she and Big Nep hopefully might have been out sampling Planeptune's vast stashes of pudding.

Coming around a turn, Kurome was gifted with the image of Chuko ramming the company vehicle through a mass of Dreamsy's monsters... which lasted all of five seconds before one of them managed to get itself tangled into the tires. One body wouldn't be enough to do much damage, but the following several clogged up the spin, and put an end to the machine's rampage.

"Blasted beasts! Get away from my store!"

"Chuko!" Leaping into action, Kurome came down on the creatures who began to gang up on the mouse, who'd leapt from the open door with nothing but a wrench. The little lady took the opening provided by her dropkick, and swung at the nearest skeleton.

"Kurome!" It was as cheerful of a call as could be expected when dealing with a vastly greater than previously expected invasion. Ten seconds later and the rest of them were dispatched via a mix of wrench and fisticuff combat. A relieved smile filled Chuko's features, and she looked over. "Thanks for the save, chu."

"Listen, we don't have much time: have you seen a girl who looks like me calling herself Uzume Tennouboshi?!"

"Oh yes, she left about ten minutes ago." Chuko slipped on a concerned expression. "Why, What's wrong?"

"She's in danger. I need to know where she went!" Her concerns were stilted a bit when Chuko eased off her expression, and a slight chuckle escaped the mouse.

"Calm down, chu. Uzume is a friend of the CPU's, and a skilled fighter in her own right; she can handle herself against anything."

"Not this time, please-" Taking hold of the little shop owner's tiny shoulders, Kurome devolved herself into begging. "Tell me where she is; I need to help her!"

Chuko stepped away.

"Look, Kurome, you're a great employee, and a good friend too, but doesn't it seem a little creepy to assume she 'needs' you? I mean, I get you're a fan and all, but-"

"That's not it!" Chuko assumed she had an infatuation with her counterpart, which was kinda creepy in a way, but that wasn't what mattered at the moment. "Someone's after her, someone strong! I faced her with the others already, and even together we couldn't stop her! Now she's after Uzume, and if we don't get to Uzume before Dreamsy does, she'll kill her!"

"Dreamsy?"

Kurome was reeling back her impatient rage.

"Yes, Dreamsy: that's her name." Sucking in the urge to yell, she toned it down; there was no time for misunderstandings. "I know Uzume's strong, but this is an enemy who eclipses that." Spreading her arms, Kurome motioned to everything around them. Remnants of the chaos the undead brought still lingered, and while the sudden increase in monsters could be attributed to Dreamsy making a deliberate play, its aftermath was what she was focusing on. "All of this, the invasion of skeletons, it's all Dreamsy's doing."

"Dreamsy..." Chuko scowled. "I don't recognise that name, but if she's responsible for this..."

"This is just the beginning." Kurome let her arms drop back to her sides. "Once she gets rid of Uzume, she'll go for the other goddesses, and then the people, and finally the land. She won't stop until everything is dead and gone. Uzume is strong, but she can't do this alone."

Maybe she'd been playing it up, but they had no time to spare.

"Okay, I see your point." Chuko puffed, crossing her arms. "Last I saw Uzume, she mentioned something about clearing her head. I saw her walking towards central drive, but once she turned the corner I lost all sight of her."

"Damn."

"No... no no no." Flickers of it had returned, and while the main memory marched on with its presentation, she could see hints of the scene, of the restraints...

Of the red.

"Damnit, where are you..." Chuko chose to drive all over town, searching as many streets as possible not only for Uzume, but any signs of her, telling Kurome she'd call if anything came up; just as everyone else had decided on during the split.

As for herself, she followed the road previously pointed out, which came to another street. Luckily, this one had seen to its reanimated scourge, with armed guards waving her down. Kurome would have ignored them, but instead relented with an idea in mind. As one ran up and opened his mouth, ready to speak, Kurome beat him to the punch.

"Listen, have you seen someone who looks like me, but wearing red?"

"What?"

"Have you seen someone like me in red?" She shot out again, and recoiling back from his surprise, he must have recognised the blanketed concern on her strained face.

"Yeah. Friend of yours?"

"Yes. Where is she?"

"Saw her headed down to the park. She was with a group of girls."

"Thanks." Before he could say anything else she took off.

The park was two blocks down from where she was, followed by a right turn and another block. She ignored any and all chaos to flood the streets, more than content to let the police and now present military groups deal with the stragglers running amuck. Everything blurred for the tense minute of sprinting, but soon all sight was restored, and Kurome was greeted with a gentle greeting for her sore eyes.

The park was right ahead; about a twenty second sprint at her current speed. She pushed herself anyway, clearing the way in about half the time. Planeptune's park, while vast, was not nearly as large as the one in Leanbox. For starters, one could see the entire thing from either side, and there, sitting near the northeast corner, was the woman of the hour.

Uzume Tennouboshi, currently being held in place.

"No... no, stop! Stop it!" She couldn't fight it, for it was merely a memory: a recollection of what had already transpired. And still, regardless of the logistics, Kurome verbally echoed her past sentiments: desperately clutching her head and shaking as the pressure built up higher. "Let her go!"

Dreamsy was there, and the weight of swelling darkness around her was drowning. The delusional energy in the air was so potent Kurome could practically taste it, and with her own reserves seemingly emptied, she tried to draw some in... but it didn't come. Kurome tried again, desperate now as Dreamsy had constructed some sort of spear before her, aimed directly at Uzume.

Nothing, not even a scrap.

Not willing to waste anymore time she just ran, dashing as quickly as she could towards the woman. If she was fast enough, she might have been able to rend her other self free from the binds. Delusional energy was the antithesis of share energy after all, so it reasoned that one could cancel out the other. Kurome reached deep inside herself, as her joined other had many times before, searching to take hold of the mystical power often gilded in light.

It too was vacant.

"I... I-I never..." It was as if her body just gave up, and all that stuttering, that pressure and fear: all of it vanished.

"Ouch... so you finally saw it?" Indeed she had, and with all the strength still lingering inside, Kurome offered a weak, miniscule nod.

"UZUME!" Her legs carried her thoughtlessly, as the moment her mind registered the lack of control towards the equally missing light, her body shifted into overdrive. Mere seconds were all that passed in that timeframe, but it was enough for the arrow of shadows to spring loose towards the target.

The bindings on Uzume were tough, she could tell from her own experience with them, and knew there was no chance in hell she'd be able to remove her better side before the dark weapon skewered her. And so, with nothing else to lose, and no other possible chance to save her, Kurome bet on the one thing she believed might have had a chance at preventing the demise of her light.

By letting her dark take its place.

Strangely, it didn't hurt, and actually felt kind of comfortable. If anything, Kurome felt as though she were being snuggled from behind, and while the remaining energy she still had slowly left her legs, she knew such a comfort was false. She was dying, there was no doubt about that. Despite being partially divine, the goddesses themselves were always killable, and neither Uzume, nor her, were exceptions.

Still, it was nice to see her better half's face again, even if it was for the last time. Gently, she let an honest smile come to her lips.

"G-good... I made it..."

Her breathing became tough, but somehow, it didn't bother her much.

"I-I found you... f-finally..."

It felt so good to say that; nobody could possibly know how long she'd wanted to say that. Her legs completely gave out there, and while she couldn't feel her knees slamming against the dirt, she knew it was the final sign of her fading life. There was nothing left by now, nothing but the last burst of energy, which she used for her final words: a greeting and sign she was back from her long journey.

"I'm home..."

"I failed..." She'd made it back to Uzume, yes, but that didn't make much of a difference now, did it?

In the end, she died, and Uzume was still in the clutches of that monster.

...

Author's note

…

So it wasn't that long of a wait after all. Usually, you'd need to wait a chapter or so before getting answers, and while this isn't all of them, it's still more than the regular amount I offer. Poor Kurome, she set her crew up to scour the city, and in her rush she never let any of them know where she was.

And who is this strange shadowy thing, and what does it want with our dead heroine? Guess you'll just need to stick around and see. This chapter wasn't too bad, so hopefully the rest will come just as smooth.

Until next time.