Chapter Three - Our Debut / Weapons
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[[Timeline 1 / September 12, 2020 - Hololive North America's concert green room]]
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Sweat drips down my cheek as I take in an exasperated breath. My legs are sore and my throat feels like I had swallowed a shard glass. In my despair, I let out a desperate cry of relief. "WATER!"
Just then, an angel descends from heaven and brought me my liquid salvation.
"Here Amelia, I got a glass of water for you"
[ Gawr Gura - The Atlantian ]
*Gulp* *Gulp*
I down the entire glass of water in an instant, the cold drink filling my body with instant relief.
"Thanks Gura! You saved my life!" I turn to thank my fishy saviour and gen-mate.
The higher-ups decided that in addition to the livestreams that we did earlier today, we should also do a concert for our debut, and so, she performed with me and the other members of our generation today.
Gura plops herself on the couch and scooches over next to me. "Whew! That concert really wiped me out!"
"Who thought making people who've never performed before do a whole concert was a good idea!?"
[ Ninomae Ina'nis - Priestess of the Ancient Ones ]
Says the main focus of my investigation, fanning herself with her hands. I've had my eyes on her ever since I joined Hololive, but she seems to be the opposite of suspicous.
"I feel you Ina, I have'nt been this worn out in a long time"
[ Takanashi Kiara - The Immortal ]
Said the tired pheonix, sitting on the green room's ottoman. So far Kiara has been one of the easiest members to talk to because of her kind and welcoming personality.
"Are you okay Kiara? You want something to drink?"
[ Mori Calliope - Death, the Reaper ]
Cali says in a way that shows more concern than you would expect from the literal embodiment of death. But it makes sense if you know that they've known each other for a long time. — (Did her research)
"How can you still walk around like that Cali? I can barely breathe after all that dancing and singing." Gura asks, slumped over on the couch.
I can understand Gura's dumbfounded-ness. I can hardly breathe right now.
"Well, you do a lot of exercises when you reap thousands of souls every day." Cali says nonchalantly as she grabs a drink from the fridge.
"Kiara, catch!" Cali throws the energy drink she pulled out of the fridge.
*Thunk*
The can hits Kiara straight on the head and rolls on the floor sadly.
"Ouch! Cali! I can't catch things right now!" Kiara touches her head in the spot she was hit, a bump slowly forming on her forehead. "Aha, sorry about that." Cali says, letting out a little laugh in embarrassment. Everyone else letting out a giggle of their own from the silly little situation that had just occurred.
"Hey guys, was my singing okay? I've never sung so seriously before so I'm a little worried." I let out a question to assure myself. I only had one month to practice my singing, dancing, and the other things an idol should be able to do, so my performance was probably amateurish at best.
"Don't worry Amelia, I think you did great!" Kiara told me with a reassuring smile. "Really? Thanks." I replied with a little doubt.
"You aren't the only one who's new to this you know. I'm pretty sure all of us are noobs when it comes to live performance." Ina says with an awkward grin, probably doubting her own performance. But it is true, we were just normal (despite the in-humanness of the others) girls before we joined Hololive. The other girls probably never even dreamed of something like being an idol. That is unless they had the same embarrassing childhood fantasies as I did.
"I wonder what management thought about our performance? I hope they're not too disappointed." Ina follows herself up with a semi-sarcastic question.
"Well, I think we did great!" The ever-cheerful Gura says, booming with enthusiasm.
"I think you guys did great too." A-Chan walks in the room suddenly, surprising everyone. She's holding a large metal suitcase with the words "K.K - Myth" spray painted boldly on the front.
"See, guys! Even A-Chan thinks we did a good job." Gura puffs up chest, booming with confidence.
"Yep! And since you guys did so good, I brought you some presents." A-Chan sets the suitcase on the table, opening it to remove five items: A revolver, a trident, a scythe, a sword and shield, and a large book. All of these items being marked with that signature, K.K.
"What!? How did those fit in there!?" Gura exclaims, half surprised and half excited. "It's actually Tsukumo Sana's ability that makes things like this possible. Her ability to control space allows the suitcase to act as a portal to a pocket dimension that we at Hololive use to store things." A-Chan explains as she carefully lays the weapons on the table.
"So these are the presents you were talking about?" I ask as I look over the weapons laid out on the table.
"Yes they are, you'll be using these weapons during your first mission." A-Chan explains.
Because I was so busy preparing for my debut, I had totally forgotten about the missions. Kronii told me that all potential members have to agree to participate in missions for the company before joining. Well... It's not like it's mandatory, but it's highly encouraged because it promotes beneficial use of the girl's abilities. These missions can be anything from minor errands, to life threatening battles and expositions. And judging from these weapons, it's safe to assume our first mission is gonna be of the life threatening kind. The thought of that fills me with anxiety.
"I see you over there. Don't you worry Amelia." A-Chan flashes me a smile after seeing the anxious look on my face. "These weapons were invented by Hololive's god blacksmith Kaela Kovalskia. Nobody can defeat you as long as you have these."
A-Chan was clearly hyperbolising to make me feel better, but hearing that name assures me of the weapon's quality at least. I mean, Kaela's the girl who made a whole robot, so I'm pretty sure her weapons are pretty good. Though, I have no idea how basic weapons could help us fight monsters or any other magical creatures.
While thinking about the weapons, my eyes were drawn to the table where they were all laid out. The words on the suitcase catch my eye, 'K.K - Myth'.
I look over at A-Chan and ask, "Hey A-Chan, what does 'Myth' mean?" A-Chan looks at the suitcase. "You mean this? Myth is your generation's codename."
"Codename?" Kiara says curiously. "Hololive gives every generation a codename. It makes it easy for us to distinguish between each generation."
"Why did you decide on Myth?" I ask. "Because your generation is filled with commonly known creatures, referred to as myths. You've definitely heard of the Phoenix and Grim Reaper before joining Hololive right?" A-Chan explains. "I guess it is kinda fitting." I say, already endeared to the name.
Gura stands at the side of the table, looking impatient. "Hey! which one's mine?" Gura asks, circling the table to look at all the weapons. "Haha, relax Gura, I was just about to tell you guys, so how about you all take a seat."
We all follow A-Chan's instructions and take a seat, me and Gura sitting on the same couch as before.
"Okay, now that your all settled, we can begin. First off, for Amelia Watson, you were given this revolver." A-Chan walks over to me and places the silver revolver gently in my hands, so as not to accidentally set it off.
I carefully examine the gun in my hands. It's old timey, like 1800's old timey. The barrel is long, about half the length of the gun is the barrel, and the handle almost looks separated from the rest of the gun. It has six chambers that already have 6 bullets in them, although the bullets look like they're from a modern pistol. Though, I wonder, is an 1800's style revolver really the most effective weapon they could give me?'.
"I'm not saying I'm an expert, but wouldn't a gun that can hold more than 6 bullets be a better option than a vintage style revolver?" I turn to A-Chan, holding a bullet in my hands.
"That's what you think, but there's a reason Kaela chose this design for your weapon, Amelia. The power of this weapon comes from the special bullets. Those bullets are powerful enough to pierce through tank armor, so storing them in conventional cartridges is impossible. Each bullet could only be contained within it's own dedicated chamber because of how powerful they are." A-Chan's explanation now points my curiosity towards the bullets. After inspecting them further, I realise just how heavy they are. There must be some thecnology inside that give the bullets their power.
"Alright, next up, Gura's weapon is the trident." A-Chan walks over to Gura and hands her the trident. Gura excitedly retrieves the weapon and holds it by the handle, swinging it wildly, dangerously close to my face.
"Hey! Gura, careful with that!" Cali shouts, reaching out like she's trying to grab the trident, trying to stop it from accidentally splitting my head open.
"You should really be careful Gura! That trident can pierce through titanium!" A-Chan says, revealing the frightening power of Gura's giant blue fork.
"Woah! Sorry about that Amelia!" Gura quickly pulls the trident away and apologises profusely. I can tell she's genuinely sorry so I forgive her quickly. "It's ok Gura, just be more careful with that thing."
Gura hits herself a little on the head out of guilt. A-Chan then walks to the scythe holding the handle with both hands. Seeing it in her hands makes the size of it clear. The scythe is even longer than A-Chan's whole body.
"Moving on from that, it's only fitting that the scythe is for the reaper." A-Chan hands Cali the weapon and then jumps quickly away as soon as Cali has it in her hands.
As Cali sets her weapon beside her, Kiara notices A-Chan's caution and remarks about it. "You can relax A-Chan, Cali's not like Gura you know."
She doesn't say anything, but I notice Gura's a little embarrassed by Kiara's statement. She holds the trident even closer to herself now, trying to be extra careful.
"I know, but that's quite a terrifying weapon you know." So far, all of these weapons have been terrifying, so that's not really shocking news anymore.
"What makes this one special then?" Ina asks, a couple inches farther away from Cali than she was a couple seconds ago.
"This scythe channels Cali's power into the tip of the blade, causing anyone who touches it to die instantly." A-Chan explains, and the whole room falls silent. Everyone except for Kiara moving away from Cali. Eventually we had moved so far away that we were almost touching the walls.
"Hey! Why are you guys acting like I'll kill you or something!" Cali shouts loudly as she quickly stands up. She's upset because she thinks we don't trust her. Even though I do trust her, I can't help but-.
*Tiiiiiiiing*
The sound of metal falling rung across the room. Her sudden stand causing the deadly weapon to fall mere inches away from my feet.
"Woah! Amelia, I'm so sorry! That was an accident, I swear!" Cali tries to console me, but I'm too busy freaking out to listen. I jump onto the couch I was sitting on before to get as far away from the scythe as possible. I was just mere inches away from reaching an early grave.
"Hey, hey, why don't we all just settle down now… Uh… Here Kiara, your weapons are the sword and shield-" A-Chan hands Kiara her weapons. But I'm too preoccupied with contemplating my mortality to listen to her explanation.
—-( A couple minutes later )—-
When I had calmed myself down, Ina had already received her weapon. I'm curious about what's inside that book, so I'll ask her about it later. Right know, A-Chan is briefing us about tomorrows mission.
"You will be receiving the details of your mission tomorrow, so make sure you arrive on time. The meeting time will be at 10:00 AM. On this mission you will be accompanied by members of Hololive japan's 3rd generation. You'll get to know them tomorrow. And Make sure you don't forget your weapons and play close attention to your orders. That should be all, so make sure you go home and get lots of rest for tomorrow."
After A-Chan dismisses us we all say our goodbyes and head home. However, I make sure to stop Ina on the way out and ask about the book.
"Hey Ina, before you go, could I ask you something real quick?" I ask her as I place my hand on her shoulder. "Sure, what is it?"Ina turns around to face me.
"I wanted to ask you about your book. Since, you know, I wasn't there for the explanation." As I explain the reason for my question, Ina suddenly giggles. I realise she's probably remembering my reaction to Cali's scythe earlier. My face turns a little red.
"Sure, I'll tell you about my book." Ina responds, her face becoming a little more serious. "This book was passed through my family since ancient times. My family has always been priests and priestess' for the ancient ones, and this book give us the ability to talk to them once you awaken to it. The book also contains spells, and curses that do things like spawn tentacles on your back." Ina explains, pointing to the mass of tentacles behind her. This is all information that the council already told me about, but there is something I'm curious about.
"So why did A-Chan have it then?" I ask, If Ina had this book before, why was it together with the rest of our weapons? "That book has been around since ancient times, it was basically falling apart by the time I inherited it. So I sent it to be put back together into a new cover." Ah, so the book was just put into a new cover. But wasn't Ina afraid someone would read it?
"But what if someone read it? Maybe Kaela took a peek at some of the pages while she was putting them into the new case." It would be a problem for the case if Cthullu had two priestess.
"Don't worry about it. Only my family can read those texts, and only chosen people can speak to the ancient ones anyway." Ina explains, seemingly not worried. I guess Kronii wouldn't risk someone obtaining the book if that wasn't the case.
"Alright, thanks for answering my questions. I'll see you tomorrow." I wave at Ina and she waves back. "Bye Amelia, see you tomorrow." As Ina leaves I make my way back home too.
Riding the bus back home I think of the exhausting day I just had, and try to conceal the literal firearm I have on me right now. They really didn't think it through when they gave us weapons to take home with us. I arrive at my apartment and immediately just sink into the bed. I'm so worn out I can't even bring myself to take off my coat. Being an idol sure is hard. And I'll have to do my mission tomorrow too. Can't I just have a single day off? Suddenly, my heavy eyes start to close and I can't bring myself to open them again.
"It's another big day tomorrow."
Soon, my fatigue overwhelms me and I drift off to sleep.
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Author's notes:
Hey, it's Yur3i again. I wanna talk about the struggles that came with writing this chapter.
This chapter actually took the longest to make out of the initial eight. I did some research about Myth's dynamic during the early days, making sure that they were friendly, but not close. And... I don't know if I succeeded.
Another challenge was writing A-Chan's explanations for the weapons and the mission system. It took a while to make sure the exposition wasn't too exposition-y.
If you're curious about Kiara's weapon, you'll have to wait a couple chapters for it.
That's all I wanted to say, so onto the next chapter.
