Episode 3

Proposed intro music

Mori Calliope Ch. hololive-EN

【MV】Non-Fiction 【hololive English -Myth- Original Song】

Whilst you were sleeping

"Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do."  -Voltaire

“Nay, guiltiness Will speak, though tongues were out of use.” -William Shakespeare’s Othello, Act 5, Scene 1

Mori Calliope’s inherited apartment

Tokyo, Japan

November 20, 2019 (16 hours ahead of LA time)

Smoothie and Chonkers were restless. Kiara awoke to Smoothie in her face well before the sun rise.

The Phoenix first thought was that the cat food bowl must be empty. Well, empty in cat terms, which means the bottom of the bowl had become visible.

Kiara knew something was wrong the moment she realized that was not the case. Smoothie jumped off her chest and joined Chonkers.

The cats wandered about the dark inner space of the silent apartment. As Kira went to look, she saw they hoovered near the door to Calli’s bedroom.

Something was wrong. Kiara knew it before she could even feel the cold emanating from the door of the otherwise heated apartment.

It was simple enough to get inside. Calli never felt the need to lock the door, as a Reaper she never really felt threatened by anything. After all, danger was a foreign concept an incarnation of Death itself.

The door opened quietly. The inside was dark and cold. Kiara could see her own breath.

Ironically, she could see Calli’s body covered in sweat. The Reaper tossed and turned, quietly speaking to a nonexistent audience.

Her words were those from two weeks ago. Kiara recognized each word.

Calli silently whispered, “You might need to see the bigger picture here, Kiara.” 

Her body pushed against the bed. The Reaper pushed against her pillow silently saying, “You’d be trading one life for an unknown number of victims.”

Her voice took on a tone close to a whine. That or it was some kind of guilty pitch.

She quietly cried out, “Forty-one million people.”

Kiara moved towards the bed. The first thing the Phoenix did was lay on the bed next to the Reaper.

With the magic inside her, Kiara began warming the room. In mere moments, she magically removed the wetness and sweat residue from the bed.

She gently put her hand on Calli’s stomach. Kiara started warming the Reaper’s possessed body, while Calli was struggling in her nightmares.

Kiara silently thought, “Calli, you are too powerful for that human body to survive. You are killing yourself from the inside out.”

Kiara pushed heat inside the body at a safe pace. That said, it felt like a car’s heater futilely trying to warm an entire snow-covered neighborhood from the outside.

The heat felt like it uselessly disappeared. Kiara kept pushing warmth into the body, even when it felt pointless.

Kiara felt guilty, as she could guess why the Reaper was in this state. It still goes back to that conversation for that night.

The Reaper and the Phoenix did save the lady they ran across. That said, it had been two weeks of eighteen-hour days searching for any sign of the vampire presence without any clues.

The Phoenix had successfully argued for the woman to live, rather than be a sacrifice to find the nest. So far, the vampire nest has had two more weeks to slaughter people.

Calli’s mood had been sinking for days. Kiara felt guilty for fighting the dark wisdom of the Reaper’s choice that night.

She did not regret saving the lady that night. Life was sacred to her people after all.

What was harder with each passing day was the knowledge that others were dying in her place. That said, there was no way that Kiara would have ever willingly let an innocent die in front of her eyes.

Kiara focused on her companion. She poured more of herself into her.

Kiara could feel her magical reserves depleting. The process was starting to feel like a hard caffeine crash.

Kiara had already been tired. The effort was like staying awake for days without sleep.

Pushing the cold away took an hour. Kiara made sure Calli’s body was warm and steady.

She could feel the reaper’s possessed body’s lifeforce return. With huge effort, it was safe and stable.

Calli’s breathing returned to normal. The nightmares seemed to stop.

Calli was deep in REM sleep but was no longer in distress. The Phoenix smiled and made a mental note to go back to her room.

That was the tricky part. Movement meant not blacking out from what she had just done.

The Phoenix fell asleep from exhaustion. It was not just all the missed sleep; it was an hour’s worth of hard magical exertion.

Now the Darkness is coming for my best friend and this New World

"Friends are the family we choose for ourselves."  -Edna Buchanan

"I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees."  -Emiliano Zapata

Amelia Watson’s Private Detective Agency

Los Angles, California

November 19, 2019 (16 hours behind Tokyo time)

Gura nostalgically remembered the old days, while lazily watching Amelia work on a case.  Remembering ten thousand years ago, the little shark could smell the ocean breeze, baking bread, and the Atlantean roses.

Perhaps, it was the happiness of hanging out with her new friend.  Gura was easily able to think of happier days.

One thing bothered the little shark though.  She couldn’t remember her mother’s face.  

Her mother’s voice still rang in her mind.  Her mother singing to her still lingered in her memories.   The feeling of holding her hand was still there, as if she had just finished grasping it.

That said, the actual image of her mother had faded in the ten thousand years that had passed.  The visual color of those days had faded into a black and white hazy of fading memories, that would one day be gone.

It honestly broke the little shark’s heart.  Gura’s grasp of the person she loved the most was fading by the relentless press of time.

Happy memories gave way to the nightmare of the last days.  Her mother’s hand being lost as the titanic waves came in.

The last desperate chance to save her mother had passed just a few days ago.  Amelia had put her own life at risk to try and help, via time travel, but it wasn’t meant to be.

The two had been warned that the action could have brought what destroyed her childhood to this time and this land.   Gura didn’t want to go through that day again, as she could still hear the screams in the faded visions of that day.

She could still hear the old one’s roar in the distance, something so unnatural it grated worse than the sound of nails on a chalkboard.  She could still feel the fear.

That’s when she sensed it.  The unknowable horror that was close by.

Had they brought a piece of that horror to this time and place?  Gura could sense its movements.   The hair on the back of her neck rose.  The uneasy turn of her stomach pointed towards extreme danger.

Outside, the horrific darkness moved around the building.   Something not meant to be a part of creation, warped the reality around it.   It lurked and circled, just beyond her senses and defenses.

Even so, Gura instinctually knew what was coming.  Before realizing it, her mother’s trident manifested in her hand and she rushed next to Amelia’s side.

Amelia had felt so safe, it took her a second to register Gura’s panic.  The detective looked at her inquisitively.

Amelia Watson looked up in shocked asking, “Vampires?”

Gura responded, “No, something infinitely worse.”

The Morning After

"At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: 'I have to go to work — as a human being.' What do I have to complain of, if I'm going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do?"  -Marcus Aurelius

"There is something about laying my head on your chest that brings me a kind of peace I cannot find anywhere else in this world" -Anonymous  

Mori Calliope’s inherited apartment

Tokyo, Japan

November 20, 2019 (16 hours ahead of LA time)

Calli awoke warm and well rested.   She had gone from nightmares and cold to dreams of a childhood in Texas she had never lived.

In the grogginess of first waking up, she forgot who she was for a moment.   In the body’s memories, she vividly remembered her past life and happily woke up in bed.

Her body was comfortable.   She could feel her breathing and warmth radiating from her body.  

She felt good.   She felt human.   There was no way this could have naturally happened.

The reaper had never integrated herself into a human body at this level before.  She literally felt alive.

She wasn’t alone.   Beside her, a sleeping Kiara lay in what looked like a near coma.

Calli could see the Phoenix’s appearance was different.   It looked like Kiara had not slept in a week.  The body beside her was exhausted to be point of being near sickness.

Calli couldn’t sense any mana left in the Phoenix at that moment.   She could sense something else too.

Two felines had crawled on the bed as well.   They looked as exhausted as their owner.

This was the first time the two animals had not been terrified to be around the reaper.   It was unexpectedly nice.

Calli had things to do.   She had targets to search for.

In that moment, however, the comfort of the bed won.   She simply drifted back to sleep.

It wasn’t sloth.   She simply didn’t have the heart to wake the three others sleeping on the bed at that moment.

She went back to dreaming of Texas.    She enjoyed the memories of a life she never lived herself.

The Case of the Apocalypse at the Door

"What's behind the door or lurking at the top of the stairs is never as frightening as the door or the staircase itself."   -Stephen King

"At the edge of our hope, at the end of our time, we have chosen not only to believe in ourselves, but in each other. Today there is not a man nor woman in here that shall stand alone. Not today. Today we face the monsters that are at our door and bring the fight to them!"  – Pacific Rim, 2013

Amelia Watson’s Private Detective Agency

Los Angles, California

November 19, 2019 (16 hours behind Tokyo time)

Amelia watched Gura’s militant panic.  The detective knew the shark’s emotions well enough to know that Gura was literally worried about Amelia’s safety.

Amelia thought back to Kronii’s warning and wondered if it had come too late.  Had they brought the thing that killed Atlantis to this time and place?

Amelia checked her watch.  Nothing glowed.  None of the spirits that created the magic item were anywhere close.

Amelia was used to risking her own life.  However, she found herself just as worried for her new friend, as the shark was for her.

A feeling of death and darkness came to the door from outside.  For a moment, it felt like Amelia was a victim in a horror movie.

Shadows of unnatural length traveled and undulated under the door crack.  Spiritual Pressure moved from the other side of the door, in an unnatural way, giving the feeling that something extraordinarily dangerous was just on the other side.

In an eyeblink, Gura had already covered the two of them in a shield of water and mana.   The strength of the spell being no less powerful than that of Amelia’s watch.

There was a knock at the door.   The apocalyptic force appeared to be well mannered or announcing its presence to its victims.

That could be a good thing.  It could also mean something sadistic saw them as no threat and sought to torture them.

Whatever the truth, they would have to know what they were facing.   Amelia wouldn’t be able to open the door from within the shield, so she simply readied her gun.

Amelia asked, “Can you open the door Gura, so we can at least see what we are up against?”

Gura’s trident flashed.  A stream of water and mana moved like a living snake sliding to the door. 

In seconds the stream made it to the door.   The stream moved up the door as well.

The doorknob turned.  The door opened...

The One Who Knocks

"Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread."   - H.P. Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror

"A guy opens his door and gets shot, and you think that of me? No. I am the one who knocks!" – Walter White from the tv show Breaking Bad

Amelia Watson’s Private Detective Agency

Los Angles, California

November 19, 2019 (16 hours behind Tokyo time)

Ina had dressed to be innocent looking as possible.  She had even consulted Sana for tips on fashion, though to be honest, a 13.8-billion-year-old Australian Titaness might not be up to date on the latest American streetwear.

Her attempt at a soothing appearance didn’t seem to be working.  Ina looked at the panicked detective and Atlantean before her, hidden behind a watery magic shield.

The priestess waved diplomatically.   She gently entered the office and closed the door behind her.

It was important to not take their fear personally.  They could likely tell what she was tied to supernaturally.

Ina set down the briefcase she was carrying with her.   No matter where she moved in the office, she watched the Atlantean fiercely stand between her and the detective.

The priestess beathed and centered herself.  She could not panic the way she had with the Phoenix.

Sana had helped her prepare.   She hid her sweating palms and looked confident.

Ina sat in one of the customers’ seats.   She took out her art supplies and ten thousand American dollars.   She put the money on the desk.

The involuntary priestess of the Great Old Ones stated, “I need ten minutes of your time.   I’m willing to pay one thousand dollars a minute for that time.   Feel free to ask me anything you wish.”

Ina looked at Gura and the priestess’s eyes glowed purple, with magic purple circles in her pupils.   She watched the Atlantean flinch and prepare for battle behind the shield wall.

The priestess then went to work on her sketch pad.   She rapidly completed the penciling and quickly moved onto the coloring.

Her movements were unnaturally deft and quick, even for her.  Nothing she drew was even a single molecule off.

She could feel the yellowish spell around her from her friend.   The blessing of space itself was assisting a naturally gifted artist, as the price of failure likely couldn’t be recovered from.

Gura looked shocked.   The detective looked at her watch and cocked an eyebrow.

Ina never looked up.  Whatever she drew wasn’t in the room.  

Ina explained, “The truth is that I have a group trying to make a human sacrifice of me.” 

Ina continued, “They seem to be the same group of vampires coming after you two.  I need the vampire’s nest found and protection during that time.”

Amelia asked, “How did you find us?”

Ina responded, “I found you by spell.  I was able to pull information about you two from a vampiric assassin, before he turned to dust.”  

Ina continued, “According to that information, there are supposedly two other supernaturals we were supposed to be group with although those two are in Tokyo, Japan.” 

Amelia inquired, “How did they know about us?”

Ina answered, “They were divining the future through forbidden Precognition magic.  Though they tried, they had been unable to rip apart whatever had made us destined to all meet.”

Amelia inquired, “So, you are linked to the Great Old Ones?”

Ina replied, “I was donated as a child sacrifice at a young age.  I was never given a choice in the matter.”  

Ina calmly added, “I was one of several girls put through trials to see who was worthy of human sacrifice.  I was the only one of those poor souls to survive this long.”

Amelia stated, “Who are these people that are supposed to be a group?”

Ina answered, “There is a Reaper’s apprentice who has fused with a human life, to carry out a mission from the Grim Reaper himself.”  

Ina continued, “There is a Phoenix that has come to this world to save it.”  

Ina finally added, “There is a time traveling detective that is destined to be the leader of the group.  There is the last true daughter of Atlantis.  Finally, there is me, the drafted sacrificial priestess of the Great Old Ones.”

Amelia stated, “That sounds impossible.”

Ina replied, “It’s weirder than you are stating.  A Great Old One was the reason Atlantis fell.   Gura was a direct survivor of that day, though she is fated to be one of yours and my best friends.” 

Ina mused, “The whole thing isn’t just weird, it should be socially, psychologically, and statistically impossible.”

Amelia asked, “So what are you proposing?”

Ina answered, “I’d like to hire both of you to not only protect me but find the other two supernaturals.  I’d like to eliminate this threat to my life and many others.”

Amelia inquired, “So, what are you paying?”

“It’s one hundred thousand dollars.  That’s half in your currency and half in the Japanese Yen at today’s exchange rate, since the job is in Tokyo Japan.  I’ll also provide all food and lodging.”

Amelia stated what was obvious to her, “Gura and I don’t speak Japanese.”

Ina clarified, “I can translate.   The Reaper and the Phoenix can as well.”

Amelia asked, “So, what happens if Gura and I refuse?”

Ina answered, “I’ll die along with many other innocent people.”

Amelia put her hand on Gura’s shoulder.   She simply asked her friend to lower the shield.

Gura was startled and believed nothing the creature of darkness said.   She was visibly shaking both in rage and in fear.

Ina stated, “I have a peace offering for your friend.  I think it’s something that will be important to her.”

Amelia asked, “How would you know?”

Ina replied, “It was good advice from a good friend.”

Ina handed what she had drawn to Amelia.   The detective looked at an almost photorealistic drawing of an inhumanly beautiful woman from an ancient era.  The ancient lady had golden blonde hair and eyes as blue as the sea.

The detective handed it to her friend.   She watched the shark tear up almost immediately.

Amelia asked, “Who is it Gura?”

The shark sniffled and responded, “It’s my mother.”