Chapter Thirteen - Aftermath
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[Timeline 4 / May 10, 2021 - One of Hololive Japan's event venues]
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"Bleeeergh!" My body retches as I hurl two weeks of vomit out on the ground in front of me. I've never felt this sick from reversing time, but I guess it's because I've never reversed time by more than an hour before.
"Ugh! Eck! Cough! Cough!" After what felt like five minutes of straight puking, I cough up the final bits of throw up stuck in my throat.
After a short rest, I slowly stand up. My legs wobbling as I rise, the vertigo of time travel still fresh in my body.
I put power in my legs as I try to maintain balance and after a while, I feel fine enough to look around.
There's no signs of conflict whatsoever, no destroyed buildings or dead bodies. The venue looks exactly as it did two weeks ago. Well, except for a few differences.
"Congratulations Amelia, you've successfully postponed Cthullu's awakening." Kronii says, reaching out her right stub towards me for a congratulatory handshake.
"Kronii? Urp, You were here watching me throw up the whole time?" I say half-surprised, and half recovering from motion sickness. I guess it makes sense that the god of time wouldn't be affected by time travel. But why are the others here?
"That's a concerning amount of pizza, Ame." Cali says as she stares judgementally at the pool of half digested food on the ground.
"It's addictive, okay!? And more importantly, what are you guys doing here!? You look exactly like you did two weeks... later!" I shout, so suprised that I completely forget about my vertigo.
I rewinded time by two whole weeks. There's no way that the council was just standing around here at this exact place and time. And why do they still have the injuries they got from Cthullu?
"Well, the thing about the council is... we're sort of immune to time abilities." Fauna explains akwardly, tapping on her wrist like she's pointing at a watch.
"...Immune?" I ask, unsure of what Fauna just said. "It was a safety precaution the Creator made. He made every other member of the council immune to my time abilities so I wouldn't be unstoppable if I ever went rogue." Kronii explains, causing me to make a disturbing realisation.
"So if members of the council aren't affected by time abilities, then does that mean that Sana..." I ask worriedly, trailing off at the end to avoid making any grim assumptions. But Mumei knows what I'm talking about, and she solemnly finishes my sentence. "Is still dead." She says, looking down dejectedly.
"I thought you guys would be more depressed at the loss of your friend." I say, perplexed with the council's slight sadness. I barely ever saw Sana outside my meetings with the council and my investigation reports, so I never got the chance to get close to her. But the council has known each other for millions of years, right? They've known each other longer than I can even imagine. That would make them closer than even the tightest families.
"We didn't lose Sana, Amelia." Fauna says with a comforting smile. "Sana's physical form was killed, but she still lives on as the concept of space. So even if we can't interact with her anymore, we know that Sana's still here with us. And plus, in sixty-or-so years, Sana will get a new vessel and we can all hang out together again." Fauna explains, a warm feeling placed in her words.
I see, so Sana isn't actually dead, and she'll get a new physical form in a few decades. A few decades really isn't much for the trillion year old council, so it's more like Sana's went away for a few weeks to them.
"Hey Kronii, I have a question." Mumei says, getting Kronii's attention. "What is it?" The god of time asks inquisitively.
"Cthullu is a being above time, right? I saw it when you tried to use your time stop on them, and they were completely immune." Mumei asks, disregarding the current solemn mood. "So if Cthullu is unaffected by time, then how did we reverse Cthullu's awakening?"
A knowing smile forms on Kronii's face as she explains, "Cthullu is unaffected by time, but the stars are." Mumei makes a perplexed face as she hears Kronii's explanation. "Huh..? Oh!" A proud expression forms on Mumei's face as she figures out what Kronii just said.
"Since Cthullu needs the stars to be in a certain order to awaken, if the stars are reversed to when they were in the wrong order, then Cthullu won't be able to awaken!" Mumei shouts in delight, gloating in her knowledge.
"Good job Mumei!" Fauna says as she reaches out her arm towards Mumei. "Giggle, yeah!" Mumei exclaims cheerfully, moving her head down to accept Fauna's head pat.
We were just talking about Sana a couple seconds ago, and now they're back to being silly. These guys are really carefree.
"Don't mind them, Ame." Cali says, reacting to my disappointed facial expression. "They've been working nonstop ever since Ina joined Hololive. Let's let them have fun while they can." Cali says as she looks fondly at Fauna and Mumei. "That's that dad energy." I joke, and Cali responds with a little chuckle and a playful punch on the shoulder.
After meeting Fauna and Mumei play for a while, serious Ame returns and I ask Kronii a simple question, "So... what now?" We now know when Cthullu will be awakened, and we know that Secret Society is responsible for Cthullu's awakening. What I want to know is, what is Kronii going to do with this information?
"Well, our biggest concern right now is Laplus Darkness. What we need to do is to stop Kaela from forging the key for her shackles." Kronii explains, her signature serious look returning on her face. "And how will we do that?" I ask, and Kronii thinks for a bit before responding determinedly.
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{Stage 1 - Let's Go To Indonesia!}
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[Timeline 4 / May 10, 2021 - Ninomae Ina'nis's apartment]
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*Knock*
*Knock*
After the council flew me home, I decided to stop by Ina's place for a quick visit. I want to see if Cthullu's awakening affected her in any way, and I want to know if she's okay.
The doorknob turns as the door is pulled inwards, sticking her head out of the door, Ina greets me with suprise. "Ame! What are you doing here!? I'm in the middle of a stream!" A smile of relief appears on my face as I see her. I'm so happy to see normal Ina again.
"Oh it's nothing. I just wanted to see if you were alright." I say with a cheerful tone as my anxieties wash away. "What are you talking about?" Ina asks with a playful tone, probably seeing my sudden visit as some kind of joke.
"Nothing, I'm just glad to see you're okay." I say, causing Ina to look at me curiously. "Why are you acting weird?" Ina asks, moving her face closer to mine, scanning my face for clues.
"You should get back to your stream, I'll call you when you're done." I say as I back my head away from Ina's analytical gaze. "No way, I need to know what you're hiding." Ina says in defiance as she stares at me even harder.
"C'mon, you can't keep your fans waiting." I say as push Ina back into her apartment, the priestess barely fighting back as she relents. "Okay, okay, but you better tell me what's going on later." Ina says as she gets inside. "Sure, but you better get back to work first." There's no way in hell that I'm gonna tell her what happened.
"Alright... bye Ame." Ina says as she closes the door to her apartment, giving me one last suspicious stares as she does. "Bye Ina." I say as I wave goodbye, smiling innocently.
*click*
The door to Ina's apartment closes, and I let out a sigh of relief. "Sigh, I'm glad she's okay." According to Kronii, even though we reversed the stars and stopped Cthullu's awakening, Cthullu themself wasn't affected by the time reversal, so they still remember everything that happened before I reversed time.
I was scared that a furious Cthullu might try to hurt Ina somehow. But it seems like they can't do anything if the stars aren't aligned. Well, now that that's settled, I gotta get going. I can't be standing around Ina's front door like a creep.
As I walk towards the elevator, I get a call, and a sense of deja-vu. I look down on my phone to see who's calling, it's Gura. I accept the call and bring my phone up to my ear, "What's up, Gura."
"Ame! I've been standing outside your front door for a couple minutes now, where are you!?" A frustrated Gura shouts through the phone. "Huh? What are you doing over there?" I respond, utterly confused as to what Gura's talking about, and frustrated at her furious tone of voice. "Don't tell me you forgot! We just talked about this yesterday!" Gura shouts, sounding even more angry now.
I think a little bit before responding, what did I do with Gura two weeks ago? "Oh..!" I exclaim, remembering the stream I recorded with Gura two weeks ago. "Now do you remember!?" Gura remarks, transmitting her face palming through the sound of her voice.
"I'll head over there right now!" I say as I frantically run towards the elevator. "You better get here quick!" Gura shouts as she ends the call, while I impatiently wait for the elevator to come up. "I'm so screwed."
[Timeline 4 / May 10, 2021 - Throne room of the Universe's Courthouse]
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"I see, so that's what happened." I say as I look down at the floor, processing everything that Fauna just said. Cthullu was revived, Laplus removed her shackles, and she killed Sana. So Amelia reversed time back to today, two weeks before Cthullu's awakening. The time reversal managed to prevent Cthullu's awakening, but since Sana is a member of the council, she wasn't affected by Amelia's time travel, and so she remains dead.
"Heh! That's a lot of information to take in five minutes." I chuckle to myself, but no one else is laughing. "Suisei, you don't have to hide your feelings." Miko tells me with a concerned expression, her eyes taking pity on me.
"C'mon, Sana's not really dead. I'll see her again when I'm like, 78. Grandma Suisei will get to meet her again." I joke, but my attempt at humour is only met with more pitying gazes.
"Sui-" Miko tries to talk, but Haato stops her. "Everyone processes grief differently, let Suisei handle it her way." Haato says, causing Miko to go silent.
What the hell? I was just living my normal life an hour ago, now I'm being told that my mentor died during a fight that didn't even happen yet and so everyone expects me to get all depressed. It just doesn't seem real, when things happen so suddenly, when you didn't even see them happen.
But it did happen.
My eyes start to well up as tears form around them. "She's really gone, isn't she." I say as my tears fall to the floor. I clutch my fist in anger, how could this happen? Tsukumo Sana, the strongest girl I know, was killed, and I didn't even know.
"Suisei... it's okay, just let it all out." Miko comforts me as she takes me into her arms. I hug her tight as I cry my eyes out, my tears staining her pure white robe.
Sana, you were my mentor, my idol, and my friend. I'll never forget about all that you did for me, about all the time we spent together, I'll never forget about you.
And I'll never forgive who did this to you.
I let go of Miko and step away from her. I wipe the tears from my eyes and look at Fauna, anger and determination now living where my sadness once was.
"Who do I get to kill?" I ask Fauna, causing Miko and Haato to make concerned expressions. "Suisei, are you sure about this? We can give you more time to grieve." Fauna says, concerned for my mental well-being, but I'm not worried about that right now. "I want to know my mission, Fauna. That's my job as 'The Enforcer'." I say, my hollow eyes piercing into Fauna's soul as I wait for an answer.
"Tomorrow, we'll send you on a mission to protect ReGloss. Whatever you do on that mission is up to you." Fauna says, basically giving me the authority to hurt whoever I want.
Ill make Laplus pay for killing Sana, even if I die in the process.
[Timeline 4 / May 10, 2021 - Secret Society X's hideout]
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Laplus perks up her head, and jumps up from her seat. "Everyone! Everyone!" She shouts excitedly as she bounces across the room.
"What is it, Laplus sama?" Iroha asks eagerly as she sits up. "I just received an interesting piece of information." Laplus says as she smiles and places her hands on her hips proudly.
"What kind of information?" Lui asks inquisitively as she leans back in her seat. "I received a trace amount of information about Amelia Watson's brain waves." Laplus says as a devilish smile forms on her face. "It was a single thought that went something like, 'I forgot I had a stream with Gura two weeks ago'."
"What's so noteworthy about that?" Chloe asks curiously, perplexed as to why Laplus is so excited. "It's because that thought was created today, right?" Lui asks, her fingers on her chin as she's deep in thought.
"You're right. Today for us, is two weeks ago for Amelia. And you know what that means right?" Laplus asks, causing Lui and Koyori to make their realisations. "Kronii reversed time." They say in unison.
"But couldn't it also have been Amelia who reversed time." Iroha suggests, Laplus responding with a wag of her index finger. "Amelia's pocket watch has a limit of one hour for her time reversal, so it had to have been Kronii who reversed time by two weeks."
"But why would Kronii reverse time so far?" Lui asks, her eyes getting sharper as she thinks. "It's because we won." Laplus says as she smiles smugly.
"We... won?" Chloe asks with a slight bit of excitement mixed in with her confusion. "You know what day is two weeks from now?" Laplus asks, causing Koyori to understand.
"The day that the stars will align, allowing Cthullu to awaken." Koyori says, her eyes widening as she realises what Laplus is implying. "Two weeks from now, we successfully awakened Cthullu, causing Kronii to reverse time to avoid it." Laplus says confidently, speaking with absolute certainty.
Secret Society smiles, they have just been assured of their victory. Laplus excitedly pulls on her shackle, eagerly awaiting her [freedom]. "Chloe, contact Kaela. It's show time."
Author's notes:
Hello my friends, Yur3i here! Welcome to stage 1 of "Hololive's End Is a Blonde Girl In a Detective's Hat", Let's Go To Indonesia!
This chapter is a very short one. A quick breather after the final chapters of stage 0.
As I said in chapter nine, this stage is gonna be the real meat and patahtahs of "Hololive's End Is a Blonde Girl In a Detective's Hat" (This name is starting to become a hassle.) This stage is where the story really begins, and as you can guess from the title, it's all about Hololive Indonesia and Kaela Kovalskia, who's been mentioned many times before in past chapters.
I'm very excited to start writing stage 1, and I hope you're all just as excited to read it.
Anyways, this is you3r captain, signing off.
*WHOOOOSH*
