Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Gura looked at her phone, her heart fluttering as she trailed the reaper. It’s only been two hours?! It’s felt so short! She thought, quickly putting her phone back. A feeling of refreshment coursed through her veins as they stopped in front of an old-looking store. “Welcome to the best retro game store in the city!” Calli announced with a smirk.

“Woah! What games do they have? I’ve been meaning to play some!” Just as she turned to Calli, she caught the Reaper’s amused gaze.

Holding the door open for her, Calli ushered her inside. “Why don’t we go find out together?” Gura felt her cheeks flush at that and quickly accepted her invitation.

The shop was oddly warm, even comforting. Multiple shelves were filled with old, nostalgic games that Gura had only played scarcely in her long life. Other shelves were filled with newer, but still hard-to-come-by ones. As Gura checked out the Nintendo section, Calli gave her greetings to the shop owner and went to check out some herself.

Hmmm, which to get? She thought, her eyes spotting multiple games that she’d been wanting to try for a long, long time. Then, her eyes spotted a very specific game. She had a bit of trouble with the name, but the box art was one she knew well.

“Oh my god, Calli!! They have Legend of Starfy!” Picking up the box, Gura smiled. The memories of it hadn’t faded yet. “It’s been so long since I played this!”

Taking a look at the box art Calli let out an amused chuckle, “Oh Woah, this actually looks pretty fun dawg!” Looking to a nearby console, Calli’s eyes lit up. “What if we played some of this tonight?”

Gura nearly exploded with excitement, “Ooooh Yes!! Ah, wait, how expensive will this be?” Her excitement dwindled at the thought of costing Calli her hard-earned money. 

Calli herself didn’t seem to have considered that fact, “Oh uh, let me ask.” Without missing a beat, Calli approached the shop owner, smoothly transitioning into Japanese without a second thought. Watching the conversation, Gura felt proud to recognize a scarce few words. Her heart fluttered a little more as she watched. 

The conversation between the store owner and Calli was brief, more so than Gura suspected and ended with Calli writing something on a paper for him before she turned her attention once more back to her short partner in crime.

“So,” She stated, there was an interesting weight to her tone. Something, Gura couldn’t quite parse. “ He said the console is actually on hold for someone and the only other one he's got is one he’s fixing right now. The good news is, he cut us a deal. If we pay now to reserve the console he’ll give us the game at half price and mail the console to my place here in the mortal world when he’s finished fixing it in a few weeks or whatever.”

Considering the situation carefully, Gura took a moment and looked at the price tag on the game and console. While she wasn’t the most excited about Calli spending money on her given that she mostly had American currency on her at the moment (save for a few yen she had converted for her vacation here, to begin with). Gura quickly reasoned that she could easily convert more money later and pay Calli back. And really, when would she have a chance to find such a rare game and deal again?

“Sure that works. But I’m getting you back for this later dude. I’m not super great on there being money just floating around in our friendship you know? I want to keep things as nice as even-steven as possible.” Gura was quick to inform, and Calli nodded. 

“Sure of course.” 

So after another brief conversation with the gentlemen working at the counter, a tap of Calli’s card and a wave the game was placed in a little bag for them and Calli let Gura wander the store for a little while longer before they mutually decided to take their leave.

The door of the shop opened with a quaint little chime to announce their departure. Calli held the door as Gura stepped across the barrier, stuffing the game and its plastic bag into the small satchel she had with her (the very same one she had argued with Amelia about when she bought it. The fight was about whether or not it counted as a purse or a satchel. Calli still flip-flopped between which it was, not wanting to take sides). Once the game was tucked away safely they resumed their little tour of Calli’s self-proclaimed “All the best places in the area”.

The next stop was a tea place, the very same Calli had mentioned frequenting with Irys many times prior as the Nepheliem lived in the mortal realm. Gura felt just a tad jealous that despite Calli technically living in a parallel version of Japan in the underworld, that she also had an apartment in mortal world Japan and that on TOP of that she lived so close to Irys for the single reason that this allowed them to hang out in person whenever they wanted. This vacation to Japan that Gura was currently on had of course been a hassle to plan and execute and only now was she actually meeting and seeing Calli in front of her, in person despite their long time as friends by this point. It made her want to pout like a grumpy child, long-distance friendships sucked.

“UGH!” Gura’s train of thought was violently torn asunder by a sudden barrage of events all happening instantaneously after one another. She heard Calli make a strained noise, then a wave of paranoia, dread and foreboding slammed so forcefully into the Atlantean it was as if every muscle in her body locked frozen in place. Gura couldn’t even turn her head or move to even think of catching Calli as the reaper’s pained noise was followed by her collapsing and ramming onto the pavement making strained, almost pained noises. The sudden drastic switch had Gura’s mind spinning and it was all she could do to not let the overpowering emotions that felt like they were being forced into her like too many marshmallows in a game of chubby bunny, completely render her a sobbing mess. 

Sharp ever-dangerous teeth clenched as Gura dug deep and pushed as many of the strange foreign emotions aside to force her body to move. From where she stood, Calli looked as if she were in some sort of pain, her limbs looked both tense and limp all at once as if Calli was no longer in control of her own body. Gura could see sweat forming on her brow, her eyes clamped shut, and of course, trying to push back noises of pain or effort.

In a voice that sounded far more small and frail than she hoped, Gura forced herself to speak “C-Calli, What's wrong?” the Atlantean bit down on part of the inside of her cheek, intentionally drawing just a bit of blood. The copper on her tongue triggered her more base predator instincts as expected and helped her push her body to move.

“My body...it’s...ughh it’s like I’m not connected to it properly or something….I can’t...fuck!” The absolutely pitifully strained quality Calli spoke with made Gura want to fight whatever entity or force that was responsible for this instantly. 

Whatever was going on, Gura knew being out in the middle of the street while it happened couldn’t be a good thing. They were still a bit aways from Calli’s apartment, or her hotel, so Gura tapped into her Atlantean strength and slipped her short arms around the reaper as best as she could. 

“I’m gonna get us somewhere less exposed. Hold tight.” 

Frantic footsteps carried Gura around half-blind until she managed to find a relatively dead, narrow side street and a bench near some vending machines. While she ran, Gura could feel Calli straining in her arms, like she was trying to fight against the confines of her own body. With the utmost care, Gura placed Calli on the bench and stood awkwardly at her side, still struggling to keep her own head on straight. 

“Ok what the hell is happening?!” She was trembling, hands fiddling with whatever she could get them on.

Calli struggled to speak, however now she seemed to be getting angrier and angrier rather than panicked or worried like she had seemed initially. “ Stupid fucking body.” She grunted but seemed to be getting more in control. “I’ve told you before how...ugh….how my body isn’t really ‘me’ right?” Gura nodded, “Yeah so...something fucked up must be happening...I don’t know if it’s just to me or what the fuck but...I’m like...I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like my body is a Gundam and my real form is the dude inside...and the Gundam is just...not fucking moving!”

“What do I do!? I can’t like, call EMTs or whatever for you right?”

“N-no you can’t. My body isn’t mortal or like...made of meat…” The explanation would have made Gura laugh under normal circumstances. At this moment, she just needed to find a way to help.

“Ok ok ok ok!” Gura took a breath, her hands were still shaking. “Something messed up is happening to me too. I don’t understand what the fuck is happening but it’s messing with me, hard dude! I’ve never felt THIS freaking horrible! It feels like the world is ending or about to end or something!” Gura took a deep breath and dug her phone out. “We need help man! Who do I call? How do I DO something?!”

With what looked like extreme effort, Calli’s arm twitched, her fingers moved and she was able to turn her head and force what Gura assumed was meant to be a reassuring look. “Call Irys. She’s half Demon, half Angle. She’s got similar tires to the afterlife as me. Different but close enough. The only other person I’d say to call for help would be Towa but English is hard enough for me right now. I don’t think I can manage Japanese.”

Gura nodded dutifully and scrolled through her phone faster than she had ever managed, her eyes briefly seeing the group Jp chat suddenly going wild. Her finger tapped on Irys’ name and Gura threw it on speaker, making sure to stand near Calli while it rang.

And rang.

And rang...

And went to voicemail.

Gura nearly yelled her message, hung up, and tried again three more times before finally there was an answer.

“Irys thank fuck! Something messed up is happening to Calli and-” Gura was cut off by the sound of violent retching and her eyes widened. Was she vomiting?!

“Gura...I’m so sorry. I’m…” Irys paused and took a horrible wheezing breath. Gura could practically hear her lungs rattling and it sent chills down her spine. “I just got so, so sick. Everything feels terrible.”

“You too? Calli’s body stopped listening to her like two minutes ago and I had to lay her down on a bench. She can only really talk.” Gura tried to explain. Calli made a loud sound of effort and managed to get her hand to move a little.

“It hit Calli too? Are you sure it’s just that she can’t move?” Irys asked, her voice still horribly weak and strained. 

“Y-yeah it’s just that Irys. W-why?” Calli answered. 

The other end of the line was a mess of pained noises, coughing and retching for a moment before Irys seemed to be able to collect herself enough to speak again. “T-Towa-senpai lost total control of herself. There's a mad panic to reign her back in. something in the jp group chat about her just going berserk about two minutes ago. The same time I felt horrible and Calli stopped being able to move.”

Before Gura could begin to ask questions, Calli butted in “Has Kanata-senpai said anything about feeling fucked?”

“No.”

There was a moment of silence between them, filled only by Irys’ various sounds of suffering and Gura’s frantic breathing.

“Something fucked up is going on in the underworld then. Something big.” Calli proclaimed finally.

“Why do I feel so freaked the fuck out then? I’m Atlantean!” Gura barked.

Irys took another big, trembling breath. “Kanata-senpai mentioned feeling strangely anxious but not to the extreme that you seem to be Gura-senpai…” 

Suddenly something buried in Gura’s memory came rushing to the forefront. “Wait no way” She muttered and Calli and Irys both made noises of surprise but it was Calli that spoke.

“What is it?”

“Ok I thought it was a bunch of bull but when I was just a pup, like reallllyyyy small, I remember my grandpa mentioning something about our family line tracing back to some god of sea monsters or something. I never thought it was like, for real. Even if it is, why would a sea god being related to me, be making me feel more messed up than Kanata-senpai?! She’s a freakin’ Angel!”

“I don’t know but it has to have something to do with whatever the fuck is up in the underworld and I think it might have to do with a lot more planes than just mine and Irys’. We need to go there and see what’s going on.” Calli proclaimed.

“Alright…” Irys managed through wheezes and dry heaving “...How the hell are you gonna do that?” Calli visibly winced, unable to respond. 

Gura looked to Calli. It was evident, despite her best efforts, that she was in no shape to do what she had said. What little movements she was even able to make at this point were evidently labored, pained even at certain times. Her attachment to her body seemed to be wavering every second. There’s no way in hell she’s raising that scythe in this condition.

Almost to emphasize that fact, Gura felt the twisted feelings she stuffed down deep inside writhe. We need to figure out what the fuck we’re gonna do soon. 

“That-” Calli paused and forced all of her spiritual energy before she continued. Gura felt sick herself watching her suffer. “That’s my problem, not yours Irys. I just need to-” Calli began attempting to get up from the bench, Gura threw the phone to the side almost immediately. 

Just as Gura reached her side, she had barely managed to summon her scythe. Trying, and failing, to use it to prop herself up. “Calli?! Don’t be an idiot! You're in no state to do much more than breath, much less travel to the underworld!”

“Well, I don’t see any other options, Gura.” The Reaper insisted, before barely managing to stay upright during a wave of spasms.

The phone speaker buzzed, drawing the attention of the pair. “I… may have an idea.” 

“Go ahead Irys,” Gura responded, helping Calli back onto the bench as Irys attempted to explain. Her scythe faded away as Calli’s condition worsened.

“What about Ina, or Kiara? They have extra-dimensional experience. They… They may be able to figure out a solution… maybe even a workaround.” Irys’ breathing once again became labored, before more sounds of violent wrenching came from the other end.

Gura’s eyes were locked on Calli, her concern for her condition and the burden of choice weighing heavily on her shoulders. There’s no way they will make things worse. That’s guaranteed at least. “Alright, we’ll do that. Get someone over there to take care of you Irys! Stay safe.” She said, before picking up the phone again.

Scrolling frantically to Kiara, she gave her a call. 

Ring…

Rin- 

“GURA!” The Pheonix’s voice was laced with panic. “Gura are you ok! Where’s Calli, are you all alright?!” Gura felt her heart sink further, as she began to gather herself to respond.

“Tldr is, we need you and Ina to get over here to Japan NOW. I don’t know if there’s enough time to explain anything. I’ll call her, so be ready for the portal.” Gura commanded, forcing her fears and worries down once more.

Without anything else, she ended the call and immediately called Ina. This time, it didn’t even ring. “Gura! What’s going on over there?! Ame mentioned-”

“Ina, I need you here like last week! Toss a portal at Kiara too, because I think me and Calli might need both of you. I’ll explain once you two get here.” Gura half demanded and half pleaded once more, ending the call before Ina could get another word in. 

The second she heard it click, her arm dropped to the ground. It didn’t feel real. None of this did. Still, she closed her eyes. Willing it all to be over soon, before turning to Calli once more. “Don’t worry, we’re gonna fix this as best we can. Then we can deal with the underworld.”

Calli looked worse and worse as time went on. She was locking up more and more, and her skin seemed to be losing color. Thankfully, the girls knew when to be quick. A portal opened not too long after Gura’s frantic calls ended.

Shooting out of it were Ina, Kiara, and Amelia. “Oh, you brought Watson too,” Gura said with little fanfare. The sight of Calli weighed heavily on her mind.

“What happened?!” Kiara shouted.

As the Pheonix and Priestess looked closer at Calli, Amelia stood beside Gura. Looking on with a veiled expression. Though Gura could see her fists were clenched, her knuckles long since white. 

“That’s the thing, we don’t really know. Calli is assuming it’s something to do with the underworld though. Towa and Irys were both affected by whatever happened at around the same time.” On cue, there was a flash of light far off in the distance. All the girls looked towards it. The pit in Gura’s stomach grew further as a large dragon emerged from the flash. So it’s that bad then. She thought.

Turning her attention back to the more pressing matter, Gura pushed Calli’s worsening condition to the forefront of her mind. “We need to check out the underworld, but Calli is…well look at her.” Gura paused, her heart hurt to say the next words. “And who knows how much worse this can get.”

“Yeah...Any ideas?” Amelia asked.

Running a hand through her hair, Gura’s brow furrowed. “Not a single one. Traditional medicine won’t work for this so I was sort of hoping Ina and Kiara’s magic...stuff might help. We have no time though and I’m crap with magic.”

“Let us check her out.” Ina tried to sound reassuring, and Kiara flashed Gura a warm smile before the two immediately examined Calli more closely. As Gura watched, wrought with anxiety, Amelia rested a hand on her shoulder. “You looked like crap.” 

“Heh, look whos talkin’ ” Gura replied but didn’t look towards the detective, her voice lacking any real mirth. Her attention focused entirely on the magic, Ina and Kiara were beginning to attempt to use. Finally, she looked to the ground when the pair’s first attempt failed to produce any results. 

“How are you so calm?” She asked, snapping Amelia’s gaze to her.

“I’m not. I’m fuming. But… being mad and wanting to annihilate the thing that did this won’t get us anywhere.” Taking a seat on a nearby bench, Amelia’s leg bounced. 

Gura's eyes followed the detective. “No concoction?”

“Didn’t have time. There wasn’t any to waste.” Amelia’s gaze seemed locked on Calli once more, as Kiara and Ina tried to use their links to the arcane to help the reaper. It was then that an idea hit Gura just as suddenly as their day had turned terrible.

“Kiara.” She called out, snapping the Pheonix out of a frustrated stupor at the string of failures. “You think something with your flames could work?”

Ina brought a finger to her chin, working out the ways it could work. Kiara herself immediately seemed to realize something. “Calli, the underworld is a different dimension right?”

“Y...Yeah. More or less.” She managed to answer before her body seemed to stiffen further, joints locking. We’re running out of time. Gura realized locking eyes with Ina and Kiara. Her brain worked a mile a minute to come up with something that would work.

Then… what if . “Kaira, if you focus the part of your fire or power or whatever that makes you change dimensions when you’re reborn on to Calli, Ina can you help her focus it on whatever holds Calli and her body together and like, I don’t know, stitch her back together like a pair of pants or something!? ” The suggestion seemed to shock everyone, even Gura herself.

“That might work, do it!” Calli said with haste.

With the slightest hesitation, the pair back away. Kiara’s hands, legs, and hair all started to billow bit by bit with an ever-growing flame. While Ina began to form a magic circle around Calli. Calli herself closed her eyes to prepare. 

As the circle began to glow brightly. Kiara’s flames billowed even more. With a nod to each other, Kiara’s flames burst towards the bench. The billowing flame entrapped the Reaper in an orange storm, as the flames began to spill back towards the myth girls. Before it could engulf the rest of them, the circle activated. Acting as a wall that guided the flames back towards Calli. Even then, the heat of the flames brought even Kiara to sweat.

For ten, agonizingly long minutes, the flames burned strong and bright. The Magic circle pulsating on occasions. Kiara and Ina with an utmost focus in their eyes, Ina’s herself shining brightly with ethereal light.

Then, as Gura began to worry she’d made the wrong call, something stirred within the flames. Gura held back tears, smiling as the figure within the flames stirred again.

They fell from the bench. But instead of writhing in pain or anything of the sort, they began to get up. Steadily, from all fours to one knee. Rising onto both feet. Then, the figure looked at their hands. Then their arms, flexing them a little before their head snapped upwards. A scythe forming in their grip.

Without much more than a slash, the flames and circle were extinguished and shattered. From the embers, smoke, and wisps of magic that remained… emerged Calli. A reserved, but confident smirk on her face.

“Calli!!” Kiara yelled, instantly hugging the reaper. Returning it, Calli ushered the rest of myth into a hug. Gura felt like crying tears of joy, the warmth of them all making the dread, the fear, the anxiety… all of it seemed to fade away in the arms of her friends. The hug seemed to last for eternity, leaving a sense of longing in Gura’s heart once they finally broke away. 

“Now… getting to the underworld should be simple,” Calli announced, turning to the side, and raising her scythe. With a great swing, the threads of reality bent to Calli’s will. The many cracks begin to form into a portal. Calli gasped, moments before the cracks shattered the air around them. 

Calli’s hand quickly raised, her magic wrapping around the cracks with great effort. The tear in reality closed, though Calli was forced to her knees from the effort. “What in the world…” Ina began, trailing off before she finished.

“That… doesn’t usually happen,” Calli said with a hiss. Amelia quickly offered her a hand, as did Kiara. 

“So then, the underworld definitely has something to do with this,” Amelia said, prompting a nod from Calli.  

“If you can’t use your scythe… how are you going to get there?” Kiara said, asking the question that Gura feared to ask. 

Taking a seat on the bench where she once lay prone, Calli seemed stumped. Her entire being seemed full of thoughts. What didn’t help the situation was the growing chaos in the distance. The skyline that peeked over the edges of the surrounding buildings seemed flooded with smoke, and yet the sounds of battle still raged.

Looking off into the distance, Calli gasped. “Wait… that just may work,” she muttered. Fishing through her pockets, before letting out a groan of frustration. “Shit, of course, the one time I need it it isn’t here.”

“What is it, Calli?” Gura dared to ask.

Getting up, Calli scratched her cheek. “A coin. Well, any coin would do, but an underworldian coin would’ve been best.” 

“What’s the difference?” Amelia asked as she fished a coin from her wallet. Tossing it Calli’s way shortly after.

Catching the coin, Calli nodded. “That’ll do… and the difference isn’t normally a big thing but depending on what I find in the underworld, it may just be important.”

Kiara pinched the bridge of her nose, stepping towards Calli “Enough beating around the bush Calli, what is the difference?”

Calli hesitated. Oh god. Gura thought before the Reaper finally responded. “A non-underworldian coin is one-way. It’ll get me in, but not out. Not that that’s an issue for me I can-”

Firmly placing a hand on Calli’s shoulder, Gura shook her head. “Enough ‘I’ Calli. You’re not dealing with all of this alone. Especially since I felt the effects of whatever this was too.” 

“Gura…” Calli muttered under her breath before a large explosion wracked the earth. All of them barely remained standing, but quickly turned their attention to the large, purple light in the distance. “Towa-senpai…” Calli cursed under her breath.

“Towa’s lasting this long against JP?!” Ina said in shock, showing a rare, fearful side that Gura knew meant nothing good. Just what happened in the underworld to power her up so much?

Stepping forwards, Amelia adjusted her cap. “If Towa’s lasting this long against Coco and the rest, JP is gonna need help soon. Kiara, let's go. We got some butt to kick.” Turning to Ina, she smirked. A shade of crimson on her cheeks. “Ina, you help Calli and Gura with getting in. Magic is your specialty after all!”  

As soon as Ina nodded, Kiara’s wings burst from her back. The phoenix held Amelia close as she flew them into the battle. 

“Alright, let me see what I can do,” Ina said, taking the coin from Calli’s outstretched hand. The proverbial clock seemed to tick ever so fast. The chaotic fighting only grew louder and louder in the distance. Gura and Calli paid it little mind, focusing on Ina and the coin.

The metal of the ring shone with a purple light, eldritch symbols flowing from Ina’s palms, graphing themselves over each other on the old coin. Glowing threads pulled at nonexistent sources, doing things that Gura couldn’t understand the meaning of.

The spell, or whatever Ina did to the coin, didn’t take too long. Ina was sweating hard, but the coin was successfully turned into a portal anchor. The many symbols and threads dissipated, leaving a seemingly normal coin.

Passing the coin back to Calli, Ina smiled “Alright, that should be it. As you said though Calli. It’s one-way.” 

“Thanks my dawg, now-” Ina’s gaze, full of worry and anxiety, met Calli’s. As if in slow motion, those same gentle caring eyes glided to meet Gura’s.

“I know you two will be fine but… Promise me you’ll come back. Alive, and in one piece.” As Ina spoke, a portal began to open behind her. The chaos of the fighting shone through the portal as it took form.

Resting a hand on her shoulder, Calli smiled to the priestess “Of course, we’ll be careful.” 

Hugging the priestess, for what she hoped wasn’t the last time, Gura spoke “You be careful too, don’t take any unnecessary risks in subduing Towa-senpai.” With a final glance and a final nod, Ina stepped through her portal as it closed behind her.

The chaos of fighting remained in the distance, as the pair exchanged a silent glance. It was one which both understood the meaning too. One that fully cemented each other’s feelings in what they were about to do.

And yet, as if a formality, Calli asked, “This is your last call to leave. There’s no telling what we’ll see, much less how long we may be gone and...” Calli looked down, her eyes falling on Gura’s feet planted so firmly beside her own. “...I don’t know if I can protect you…”

With a toothy smile, Gura shook her head. “You really think I’d let you deal with this alone? Call me a suckerfish because you’re stuck with little ol’ me!” Closing her eyes, Gura extended her hand and pulled at the more magical part of herself, and in her palm formed her trident. With a firm grip, she planted the butt of it in the pavement, cracking it with a firm tinny clang before her deep, vibrant blue eyes met Calli’s.

“And who said I need protecting?” The reaper had always known Gura was strong but in that moment it was as if all 9000 years of her life, all her experiences and things she had learned from them, the ways Gura had grown and changed and tempered herself much like one would a weapon in a forge struck Calli and for a moment, the loose of breath wasn’t from her body disobeying her.

“Well shit,” Calli said half-heartedly, as she flipped the coin. She focused on her spiritual side, her true self inside the vessel that moments ago had been a prison, and felt for her tie to the other side. “It would take too long to explain in detail but I can’t feel my home. I can feel Styx though thank fuck. Styx circles the underworld seven times around the edges. Think of it as a line between where I’m from and where all the different hells are.” Calli closed her eyes to focus and Gura chose to keep her questions for later.

“Fuck actually Styx is so close to the borders....” Calli opened her eyes and quickly flicked the coin again to use as an arcane focus and instantly her day clothing changed into her reaper uniform. Calli held the coin between her ring and pinky fingers so she could remove her mantle from her shoulders and drape it over Gura’s tiny frame with the utmost care, choosing to ignore the pink coloring the shorter girl’s cheeks.

“We have no time for a full explanation now but make sure this doesn’t fall off of you ever even a little until I say it’s ok to take it off alright?” Calli instructed, Gura’s response was a firm nod.

Standing firm once more, Calli reached out to Gura. “Now this is gonna suck like a lot, but you need to hold on to me and do not let me go no matter what you see or hear ok?” Her arm closed around Gura’s shoulder’s tightly, protectively and the shark flushed a little but obediently threw her arms around Calli’s middle.

“Uh, okay?”

“Brace yourself.”

That was all the warning Gura had before Calli activated the portal anchor and the entire world became a rush of energy and color and time and space. All at once Gura felt the air ripped from her yet she didn’t need to breathe, gravity was gone, and yet she was being ripped through a tunnel of raw force and power. On pure instinct, Gura had claimed her eyes shut the moment the sensation struck her but now she was surrounded by it and it was consistent. In a brief moment of horror, Gura fell the mantle slipping from her shoulders, and not wanting to let go of Calli as per her warnings she snapped her eyes open, turned her head, and caught it with her teeth, and roughly tugged it back on.

But now her eyes were open and Gura’s mortal sense struggled to register something they shouldn’t. She was seeing the noise of the tunnel of a thousand portals, smelling the colors of it, tasting the energy along her skin. It was nearly maddening and she struggled to find something to focus her brain on. She tried to stay focused on Calli, on holding on but her limbs wanted to turn into spaghetti. Frantically she tried to think of something, looking for something to get her brain to just latch on and both to her luck and misfortune when Gura tried to look over to Calli she also happened to trail her gaze downward...to see there was no floor, only wide-open endless nothing.

Calli nearly lost her focus on her destination even with her anchor when she felt Gura’s entire body suddenly completely wrap around and cling to her own. She couldn’t spare a glance down but Calli did catch the quiet chanting “I’m a fish I belong in the water, I’m a fish I belong in the water, I’m a fish I belong in the water” coming from Gura as her arms and legs threatened to squeeze Calli’s body into a fine paste. If Calli had to breathe, she might be worried.

Just as suddenly as the tunnel had assaulted Gura it was over and her tiny trembling body bonelessly fell to the ground with a loud exhausted sigh. Calli jumped to try and catch Gura but was too late, though her worry was unfounded as Gura clung to the ground and made loud noises of relief.

“Uh...you good there bro?” Was really all Calli could manage and for her part, Gura barely managed to stand, her legs shaking.

With a trembling voice, Gura took a deep breath and leaned on Calli, “I fucking HATE heights so so so much. I almost pissed myself!” Gura admitted and tried to gather her nerves. Calli offered her a good few minutes to gather herself and when Gura gave her a little nod and seemed to have her sense back in order she turned her attention to their surroundings.

They were standing on the bank of a river of a thousand colors and yet of none and for one insane moment, Gura wondered how it would feel to swim in it. Calli hummed in annoyance and took a few steps, to look around as if expecting to find someone or something. Gura looked around as well, Trident still in hand, not entirely sure what she was looking for. It looked for the most part like a wasteland with this impossible river looping around it forever and ever and the concept of that alone was starting to distract Gura before Calli spoke and made her jump.

“Ok the ferrymen are all missing which is a little weird...ok it’s a lot weird.”

Gura sucked in a sharp breath, thankful Calli was too distracted to notice her squeak at being startled “Why?” 

“Reapers and Ferrymen are similar in that we’re sort of between things. Think about the afterlife like a big ass subway system except the cities the stations go to are all walled off and the only way you can go anywhere is with the subway system.” Calli started to explain and Gura cut her off.

“What about like, heaven and stuff?”

“Ok uh, that's like an above-ground train system owned by the same company...kinda? Anyway, forget about that for now. This subway system right? Imagine you can’t go into the stations without the staff that runs the subway. That's kinda how it works. Every afterlife mortals believe in or have believed in is real all at the same time and you just go where you belong when you die. Gods are only as powerful as they’re worshiped blah blah blah. So like, think of Reapers and Ferrymen and stuff like that, that's not really part of the good afterlife or the bad afterlife as the subway staff. We exist on a different level but we’re still linked to it all you know?” Calli motioned at the emptiness around them. “I came here because it was the only station I had my staff access to but now there's no one here, which is not how it’s supposed to be at all.”

Gura threw her free hand up and sighed “So now what?!” Her answer was Calli taking her free hand firmly and a sudden rush of tummy butterflies.

“Now we ask Death-sensei what the fuck is going on. Now that I’m here I can feel him.” Calli pocketed the coin and in her free hand, summoned her scythe. This time when she swung it to open reality it worked. “Oh thank fuck. Must be because we’re so close now.”

Gura felt a sudden anxiety hit her and she clung to Calli’s hand with a sweaty palm. “W-wait Calli, THE death?! We’re going there?!” 

Calli’s answer was a single firm nod before she stepped through the rip in space-time and tugged Gura through.

A void met them. No light, no darkness, just the complete and perfect definition of “nothing.” and it made Gura’s bones ache and her soul tremble. When Calli’s voice spoke next to her, she tightened her hold on her hand, tangling her pretty pale blue painted nails between Calli’s deep red to black gradient painted ones.

“Sensei?”

The void seemed to grow mournful and Gura felt herself crying despite feeling nothing of the sort herself. Hot tears freely streaming down her cheeks consistently without a single sob or swell of her tear ducts.

“ I̸ ̴A̶M̸ ̷H̷E̷R̶E̵ ̶C̴A̴L̶L̵I̷O̶P̷E̴ ̵M̶O̵R̶I̵ ” The void spoke.

“What?! Where’s your manifestation!? What happened??”

“ A̷ ̸T̶E̵R̴R̶I̷B̸L̴E̸ ̵T̵H̷I̶N̷G̶ ̶I̸N̶D̸E̷E̷D̴ ̴H̷A̷S̴ ̸B̸E̵F̸A̴L̸L̴E̷N̵ ̸T̵H̸E̴ ̵S̶P̶I̵R̷I̸T̸U̴A̷L̷ ̶R̵E̴A̴L̸M̴S̴ ̴C̶A̸L̵L̵I̶O̷P̷E̸ ̴M̷O̸R̸I̴.̶ ̴T̷H̷E̶R̵E̷ ̸I̵S̴ ̴M̸U̵C̴H̷ ̶Y̷O̸U̶ ̵A̵N̴D̸ ̷T̶H̵E̷ ̶C̸H̶I̶L̵D̶ ̷O̴F̴ ̷T̸H̷E̸ ̴S̴E̷A̴ ̴M̷U̴S̵T̷ ̴D̴O̴.̸ ”

Gura suppressed the urge to start shaking, already confused enough about the consistent tears streaming down her face. “Me?”

“ Y̴E̸S̸.̶ ̷I̴T̵ ̷I̴S̸ ̵N̷O̷ ̷M̶I̵S̸T̴A̵K̷E̴ ̸T̸H̷A̶T̷ ̷Y̷O̴U̵ ̴A̷R̷E̵ ̴H̷E̵R̵E̴ ̸G̶A̶W̸R̶ ̷G̷U̴R̷A̸.̸ ̷N̴O̸W̷ ̶L̶I̶S̸T̶E̸N̸,̵ ̵F̸O̸R̶ ̸T̷H̷E̴R̸E̵ ̷I̷S̴ ̶N̶O̷ ̵T̸I̵M̵E̶.̴ ”

In the mortal world, Amelia held the same bag she and Gura had argued over, the purse, the satchel with the game cartridge the two had bought in it. It had been left behind in the mad panic of everything but before being swept off into battle Ame had managed to swipe it off the pavement and now had it strapped firmly to her person.

Don’t worry guys, I’ll make sure your stuff is safe till you get back. 

It was stupid and didn’t matter at all in the grand scheme of things, but it gave Amelia something to hold on to. If she kept their game safe, maybe they would be too. 

Chapter Text

Calli felt the way Gura’s grip on her hand tightened. The way her breath hitched in her throat at the cryptic words from Death-sensei. Calli herself was perplexed but knew well enough that her sensei’s words were often less than easy to understand. The infinite darkness that surrounded them felt cramped as Calli found her voice again. “What happened, Sensei?” 

The void shook with grief. “ ̵M̷A̸N̶Y̸ ̸T̸H̷I̵N̶G̴S̷ ̶H̴A̴V̴E̵ ̴O̷C̴C̶U̵R̷R̶E̶D̸ ̵S̶I̸N̶C̷E̸ ̶Y̶O̸U̶'̷V̵E̷ ̷B̶E̵E̸N̸ ̷A̵B̸S̸E̵N̷T̵,̷ ̴C̸A̸L̷L̴I̶O̷P̶E̵.̴ ”

Calli’s brow furrowed. Cryptic as ever, and always at the worst times… “Alright then, what happened to your body? You don’t just lose your manifestation normally, something had to take that away.”

“ ̵A̴R̵E̵ ̷Y̴O̷U̶ ̷B̷O̸T̸H̷ ̵F̷A̷M̵I̴L̶I̴A̶R̴ ̵W̶I̷T̸H̴ ̶T̶H̷E̶ ̵'̶P̴O̴W̴E̵R̷'̸ ̶O̵F̴ ̸H̸I̸G̸H̸E̵R̷ ̵B̵E̶I̵N̸G̶S̸?̵ ”

Calli nodded, looking to Gura. The shark shrugged, looking expectantly to Calli. “He means like, the system. Uh… how did the Atlantian deities get their power? Anything special?”

“If I remember correctly, it was something related to how many people worshipped you. It’s a little hazy though.” Gura shot a gaze to Calli. 

“Alright that works” Calli turned back to the void. “Yes. We are. Gods gain and lose strength depending on how many people worship them. But, where are you going...” Gura could feel Calli’s skin go colder than before. “T-There’s no way somethings affecting people’s belief of you , right Thanatos?” 

Between her shedding of tears, Gura looked to the void. “Your master is Thanatos?! How did I never know that?” 

Before Calli could answer, the void sent more tears down each of their cheeks. Calli’s voice died in her throat, as she got choked up. The feelings of grief and sadness were starting to get to them emotionally.

“ T̶H̶E̷R̷E̸ ̶A̷R̴E̴ ̸T̷H̴O̸S̵E̷ ̷W̴H̶O̸ ̷A̵R̵E̷ ̵C̶O̶N̵T̵E̸N̸T̷ ̷W̵I̵T̷H̷ ̵T̴H̷E̵ ̵P̸A̴S̷S̶I̷N̵G̴ ̷O̶F̷ ̶T̷I̸M̷E̴.̸ ̶E̷V̴E̶N̸ ̸I̷M̵M̴O̷R̶T̶A̵L̴S̸ ̴A̸R̶E̷ ̵A̴F̶F̸E̸C̶T̴E̶D̵ ̵I̸N̴ ̴S̸O̵M̴E̸ ̵W̷A̷Y̴ ̷B̵Y̸ ̷I̵T̷S̶ ̸F̵L̶O̸W̸.̵ ̷I̵T̴S̵ ̷G̴R̵A̸I̴N̷S̶ ̵E̷B̶B̸I̴N̷G̶ ̴A̸W̸A̸Y̶ ̴T̶H̸E̵ ̷S̵T̷R̸A̶N̵D̶S̴ ̵T̴H̴A̷T̴ ̴C̶O̴N̴N̴E̵C̴T̶ ̸B̸E̴I̶N̴G̷S̸ ̶L̶I̷K̴E̵ ̸M̵E̴,̵ ̶T̴O̷ ̴T̴H̶E̵ ̷R̴E̸A̶L̴I̶T̶I̷E̶S̴ ̴O̷F̷ ̷O̶U̷R̷ ̵B̸E̶L̶I̴E̸V̵E̷R̸S̷.̸ ̵ ”

Calli tilted her head. Gura watched her gaze fall to the “floor”, her gaze a little shaky as the tears fell harder. Her grip on Calli’s hand loosened, as she watched the gears turn in the reaper’s mind. “Then… something happened with a god?” Calli finally said, looking back towards the void.

“ I̸N̶D̸E̵E̸D̴.̸ ̵W̵H̴E̶R̶E̸ ̸T̸H̵E̵R̴E̶ ̷A̷R̷E̶ ̴T̶H̶O̷S̵E̴ ̶W̴H̵O̷ ̶W̶I̸L̶L̷ ̵M̴O̸V̷E̷ ̵W̸I̴T̷H̵ ̵T̷H̷E̴ ̷F̸L̶O̴W̴,̴ ̸L̷E̶T̴ ̷I̷T̸ ̴T̷A̶K̸E̶ ̶T̷H̶E̶M̷ ̸F̸O̶R̶ ̷A̷S̶ ̶L̶O̸N̴G̷ ̶A̶S̸ ̶I̵T̶ ̷W̶I̸L̴L̴,̸ ̴T̶H̷E̵R̵E̸ ̸A̴R̸E̴ ̶T̷H̴O̸S̴E̴ ̴W̶H̷O̸ ̸W̵I̸L̸L̴ ̴M̶O̴V̷E̶ ̴A̷G̵A̶I̸N̴S̶T̷ ̴I̴T̵.̶ ̶T̴H̸O̴S̸E̷ ̶W̶H̵O̷ ̶D̶E̸S̶P̸I̶S̵E̴ ̸I̸T̵.̵ ”

“A god is behind this!” Gura shouted, looking to Calli in disbelief. “Why would a god do, well, this.” she pointed to the darkness around them, it got a small chuckle out of the Reaper. 

“AO-chan exists, keep that in mind. But… if that’s true, and a god is behind this then…” Calli trailed off, holding Gura’s hand a little tighter in her own.

“ W̶O̶R̶R̸Y̵ ̴N̸O̴T̵,̵ ̷T̶H̶E̵R̵E̵ ̸A̵R̵E̸ ̷W̶A̸Y̴S̸ ̶T̸O̷ ̸K̴I̴L̶L̶ ̸E̴V̸E̷N̸ ̵A̷ ̸G̸O̶D̴ ”

“There is?!” Gura exclaimed.

“There is,” Calli responded quickly. “There’s… a lot of ways, way too many to list right here and now. That does ease my nerves but, how will we ever get to a god? If they have regained their power in some way-” Calli abruptly stopped. Her gaze darkened, her eyes filled with realization. She quickly cleared her throat and continued in spite of it. “-then, t-there’s gonna be resistance from god knows what.”  

Gura’s chest hurt watching the barely concealed rage of emotions on Calli’s face. What did she realize? She thought.

“ T̶H̸E̸R̸E̴ ̷W̶I̸L̵L̵ ̵I̵N̵D̸E̸E̸D̶ ̶B̷E̸ ̷T̶H̵O̸S̵E̷ ̸T̵O̸ ̴S̸T̷A̵N̴D̵ ̵I̷N̵ ̴Y̴O̸U̴R̴ ̸W̸A̴Y̶.̶ ̷W̸I̸T̷H̵ ̵Y̶O̴U̴R̴ ̷S̴K̷I̵L̴L̴S̶ ̴A̶S̷ ̸A̵ ̵R̸E̶A̵P̸E̶R̵,̵ ̴C̷A̶L̷L̶I̷O̴P̵E̵,̴ ̸A̶N̸D̷ ̶T̴H̵E̴ ̵W̵E̸A̴P̵O̷N̴ ̵O̵F̸ ̷T̸H̸E̷ ̷C̷H̷I̶L̴D̵ ̸O̶F̷ ̸T̷H̴E̸ ̸S̶E̴A̶,̵ ̶T̴H̶E̷R̷E̸ ̸S̸H̸O̸U̵L̵D̸ ̷B̵E̴ ̵F̵E̷W̸ ̷A̶B̷L̴E̸ ̷T̴O̵ ̸S̷T̸O̴P̵ ̶Y̴O̴U̸ ̶F̷U̸L̵L̶Y̷.̵ ”

Gura looked to her trident. This old thing? Though she noticed the lack of reaction from Calli. Her silence hurt the Atlantian more than any cut or wound she’d ever had up til now. 

“Alright,” Calli said, her voice shaking slightly. “Gura won’t be able to just wear my cloak all the time though, especially in combat. Do you have a solution to that Sensei?”

“ Y̶O̸U̷ ̸A̶R̴E̵ ̵C̵O̷R̸R̴E̶C̴T̴,̴ ̸C̸A̸L̴L̶I̵O̶P̵E̷.̴ ” 

A few seconds of silence later, Gura let out a gasp. The uncomfortable look on her face was clear enough to Calli as she watched. A smoke of dark greys, and blues formed around Gura’s form and closed in on her, like a second skin. It seeped into her clothing and for a brief hellish moment, Gura felt the touch of a thousand cold dead hands of countless sizes over every inch of bare skin her clothing had been touching. She fought the urge to scream, to frantically try to brush them all off, and tears of her own, truly hers, joined the empty ones trailing down her cheeks.

And then she blinked and it was over.

The garbled noise she let out was one of panic and confusion but not a true scream. “That fucking sucked !” but the change was impossible to ignore. Calli regarded Gura with equal parts concern, empathy, and surprise, with her mantle draped over her arm, grabbed at some point during all of...that.

“ M̸Y̷ ̵A̵P̸O̷L̸O̶G̴I̶E̷S̷ ̶G̴E̶M̴ ̶O̸F̴ ̵T̶H̴E̸ ̷S̷E̵A̴.̶ ̷I̷ ̵A̵M̶ ̴A̸W̴A̸R̴E̸ ̴M̴Y̶ ̸T̴O̴U̸C̴H̵ ̵I̷S̵ ̶U̵N̸P̷L̴E̵A̵S̷A̴N̸T̶ ̷T̸O̶ ̸M̸O̴S̷T̷ ̷B̸U̷T̴ ̵I̶ ̶L̶A̶C̵K̴ ̸T̷H̶E̶ ̶P̸O̷W̵E̷R̶ ̷T̶O̴ ̴G̸R̴A̶N̷T̷ ̴Y̶O̸U̵ ̷A̸ ̶P̶R̷O̸P̶E̴R̷ ̸R̴E̶A̶P̴E̷R̸ ̵U̶N̴I̸F̸O̶R̶M̵.̶ ̴T̸H̴I̸S̷ ̴M̸U̴S̴T̷ ̷S̵U̷F̷F̸I̷C̸E̴ ̶ ”

Where once Gura had on her favorite hoodie, a little pair of shorts, running shoes, and her hat hanging loose behind her head, now her clothing had changed completely. While not matching Calli’s reaper uniform in make and style the same aesthetics were definitely present. Gura had a cloak similar to Calli’s mantle with spikes lining the rim of the hood rather than the mantle’s collar. Her hoodie had become a baggy vest of sorts, with a reverse v styled opening, and a charm clasp just below the collar bone. The wide and extremely low cut of the armholes exposed most of Gura’s sides and came to an end with a similar diamond shape to the high cut in Calli’s skirt. Her shoes too had changed but for the most part, just looked like flats similar to Calli’s heels. The only other changes were in her underclothing; her shorts were now the same strange fabric the rest of the clothing was made of but black like most of the outfit and she had a belt matching Calli’s but (much to her embezzlement) the t-shirt she had on under her hoodie was gone, replaced by only a little fitted article similar to a sports bra. 

Gura flushed a little at the knowledge that her gills were very much exposed, and if an updraft caught the already baggy vest her entire tummy would show. Thankfully, Calli didn’t seem to realize the social implications of this as she was busy pulling on her mantle once more.

“Ok uh, what?” Gura asked, still very confused.

“ I̷ ̶H̵A̸V̷E̵ ̵M̶A̶D̷E̴ ̷Y̴O̷U̴R̴ ̸C̴L̸O̵T̸H̴I̴N̸G̸ ̶A̴S̷ ̷A̷ ̶U̸N̷I̷F̸O̴R̸M̸ ̸O̴F̸ ̵S̶O̵R̴T̷S̶.̷ ̸T̴H̸I̷S̸ ̵W̸I̸L̵L̸ ̴P̴R̸E̵S̵E̶R̶V̸E̴ ̸Y̸O̴U̷R̷ ̸C̶O̸N̷C̴E̷P̵T̸ ̴G̸E̴M̶.̸ ̷I̸ ̸G̸R̷O̷W̴ ̶W̷H̶E̴R̸R̵Y̴ ̷A̸N̵D̸ ̵H̴A̶V̷E̸ ̶L̸I̵T̶T̷L̸E̶ ̴M̴O̸R̵E̸ ̵T̷O̴ ̸O̸F̴F̶E̷R̵ ̵B̸U̸T̸ ̸T̶H̴I̴S̶;̸ ̶G̷E̷M̷ ̸O̵F̸ ̶T̶H̷E̴ ̷S̷E̷A̷S̸ ̶Y̴O̷U̶ ̶C̵A̶R̵R̴Y̴ ̵I̷N̴ ̵Y̷O̶U̸R̸ ̶V̵E̵I̴N̵S̴ ̷T̷H̶E̷ ̸B̷L̷O̵O̸D̴ ̸O̴F̵ ̵M̶Y̵ ̸P̶A̸N̶T̸H̴E̵O̴N̸.̶ ̵Y̵O̶U̷ ̴A̵R̸E̷ ̸T̶I̵E̸D̷ ̵T̵O̵ ̴T̸H̴I̸S̶ ̴I̴N̶ ̶G̶R̷E̷A̶T̷E̶R̵ ̴W̷A̸Y̶S̶ ̸T̷H̵A̵N̴ ̵Y̸O̴U̸ ̵K̵N̷O̶W̵ ̶A̷N̵D̴ ̵Y̵O̸U̴ ̶A̴R̴E̸ ̶N̷O̵T̸ ̸M̴O̷R̶T̴A̷L̴.̴ ̸S̷E̵E̴K̸ ̵M̵Y̵ ̸W̸A̸R̴D̷S̸ ̴O̴R̴ ̴W̴H̸A̴T̶ ̴I̷S̷ ̴L̷E̵F̷T̸ ̴O̴F̶ ̵T̶H̸E̷M̸ ̸A̶N̷D̷ ̵S̴U̶R̶E̴L̷Y̴ ̵T̷H̷E̸Y̵ ̸W̵I̵L̵L̷ ̶P̶R̴O̶V̵I̷D̴E̸ ̸A̷I̶D̴.̷ ̴”

Stunned, Gura’s mouth fell open. “You mean my grandpa was telling the truth!?”

“Huh?” Calli raised an eyebrow.

Gura gave Calli’s hand a little squeeze, her blush fading as her mind was now refocused and off of her exposed skin. “You know how humans get those weird tests done to check their heritage sometimes and they always come back saying you're related to someone famous or royalty or something? In Atlantis, everyone tried to do that but with gods. I thought it was all Hooha!"

“ I̷ ̶S̷P̷E̶A̵K̸ ̶T̴R̴U̴T̶H̴ ̶G̶E̸M̵.̷ ̵B̴U̴T̵ ̴I̴ ̴A̴M̶ ̶F̶A̷D̶I̵N̷G̸ ̴A̶N̵D̶ ̴Y̷O̵U̶ ̴M̵U̸S̶T̵ ̴G̶O̶.̵ ̴”

In almost a panic, Calli’s attention spun to the void around them. “But Sensei!”

“ Y̴O̸U̸ ̶M̸U̶S̶T̸ ̵G̴O̵!̴!̸”

The void around them twisted and pulled and groaned and moaned and ripped itself apart in an instant but also for what felt like lifetimes and when Gura blinked again they were standing on the other side of the river.

“Fuck!” Calli’s voice seemed like the only sound for an eternity. Here there was no sky, no light but also no darkness. It was only the river and its banks and Gura felt horribly small. She clung to Calli’s hand.

“Ok, I need some more information what the f-” Gura stopped her rant when she notices Calli’s arm trembling ever so slightly. “Calli? Calli hey!”

With a single thought, she banished her Trident and freed her hand from Calli’s to step in front of her and place both hands on her upper arms, trying to ground her.

“Calli, talk to me, dude. Let me in on what's swimming around in your head.” Gura pleaded and her chest ached at the shaking breath Calli took. 

She was trying not to cry. “I...I...Death-sensei is basically dying Gura...I never thought I would...persist longer than Thanatos...he…” Gura didn’t let Calli continue, she pulled her into a clumsy hug trying to ignore how their height difference made the intended comforting action extremely awkward on her end. It was because of this that as much as she wanted to hold Calli and reassure her doing so while standing and thus, having her face very much buried in her chest was not going to work. Gura’s hold on her tall friend loosened but only enough to make things less weird. Gura maintained the closeness as much as possible while retaining her dignity.

“I know that's insane Calli. But we’re going to fix this alright? All of it.” She tried to reassure and Calli took another breath, this time her voice shook less and she seemed more grounded.

“Yeah...yeah, we are. I don’t understand why this didn’t trickle down to me. My powers should have been completely drained right now. I should feel like a fucking wet rag but I feel fine.”

Only when Gura was sure that Calli seemed to be feeling better did she let go of her entirely. “Maybe some other reapers can answer that. But right now, can you please explain why your Sensei had to feel me up to change my clothing into whatever this little number is?” Gura gave a little twirl and flushed again when she felt the warm air over her gills.

Almost as if she were thankful for the change of topic, Calli almost smiled. Almost.

“Reaper uniforms are sort of like armor. It protects you from light damage like scratches, bumps, bruises and it also makes you fireproof, and lava-proof basically. But the most important thing it does is protect your concept.” Calli started to explain and Gura looked at her like she had 2 heads suddenly.

“My what now?”

“The concept of you being alive.”

“Like my soul?”

“No no, that's different. Ok so, you have a soul but like so do dead things here. Here is where the souls go right? Like some stuff here has a body, some got to keep their souls. It depends on how they were processed into which type of hell or other similar afterlives. But when you die the concept of you being a life is gone. The Soul is what sticks around. The reason I had you put on my mantle was because here you’re like a walking glow stick dude. If you took off all of the clothes Death-sensei gave you, then you would actually glow and everything that can see you and wants to be alive will come for you like flies on shit.”

Gura’s eyes widened, “L-like to eat me?”

“To steal your concept. To literally take your life.”

Acting on reflex, Gura tugged the hood of her cloak around her shoulders a little tighter.

“Wait! Why is it sexy then?!” Gura suddenly asked and Calli smiled then.

“Death-sensei is a little weird. Did you think my uniform was like this because I wanted to have my butt exposed if I jump or fly a little weirdly? Wait, you have shorts, how is your’s sexy?”

In response, Gura lifted her arms and showed off her entire exposed sides, gills, shark skin fading to human, and the bit of her back and dorsal fin that was visible. The lifting motion also made the mostly open reverse v cut front of the vest opens further showing off most of her toned tummy. Calli blushed lightly.

“Dude. Bro...you can almost see all of me. If I didn’t have this little sports bra thing on under that would be it, man. I know I said before that back in Atlantis clothing isn’t as big a deal but like, being around humans for so long has rubbed off on me ok? It’s a little embarrassing that you can see so much of me so damn easily… And my gills!” In her frustration, Gura turned around and grabbed the cloak to tug it out of the way and display where her tail peeked out of the hem of the vest and hole in the shorts.

“The only way this could be any sexier for an Atlantean would be if you could see the base of my tail but then like, I might as well be naked for real.”

The noise Calli made, forced Gura to spin back around only for her to catch Calli’s eyes very quickly looking away from her rear end and at literally everything else around them.

“Oh uh...that's....interesting…”

“Excuse me, Ladies.”

Both girls spin on their heel to the strange new voice, Calli, in particular looking a little mortified.

“Charron! How much of that did you see!?”

A wheezing laugh oozed out of the darkness at the mouth of the hood of the robbed figure. Its frame looked far too thin and far too long under the rotting, frayed, and impossibly layered fabric.

“Enough to know your type has stayed the same for millennia Mori.” he teased and Gura shot a look between the two. Calli threw her arms up and waved them at Charron.

“Whoa ok! Listen! Lisstteenn!!! We have actual problems here! What the fuck is going on man?!”

Another festering laugh, then a sigh. “We’re all drained, Mori. Being in the mortal realm spared you. That bastard drained Thanatos and all of us in the in-between and then fused all the hells. None of us can do a damn thing about it either, no energy, no power. I feel like the river beds I work above…”

The contemplative look Calli took on sealed the deal for Gura. It all made sense now.

“That's why he said only we could do this…” Calli muttered.

“Yes. You still have your full power and her.” Charron paused. “I haven’t seen an Atlantean since the fall! And one with god’s blood and the Trident of Poseidon?! Amazing…” Charron commented, not missing the way Gura tensed and bristled at the mention of the fall. “Ah, that was rude of me. I forget mortal customs and manners often. If it’s any comfort Mori was particularly hard on herself with that business.”

As soon as the words fell from Charron, Calli sprinted in front of Gura standing between her and Charron, and with an oppressive air about her that Gura had never seen before she spoke in a tone and with noises, Gura could barely even register as a language. Whatever it was, Charron seemed genuinely apologetic suddenly and responded back. The words, if she could call them that, made Gura feel motion sick somehow.

“Come on Gura. Charron is going to let us use his boat to get to the mess of fused hells. Anything else helpful you want to add?” Gura got the impression that Charron did not, in fact, volunteer his boat at all.

“Yes. Little miss fish, if you consume anything from our realm or hell I can not promise your continued good health but since I’m assuming you retained your concept you must still eat and sleep and drink while here as you did in your world or you will die of those effects as normal. Mori’s body is not made of meat and bone and man flesh and so here she does not need those things to survive, only to repair her vessel if she wishes to keep it. 

I assume you know how to use the Trident bound to you, yes?”

“Uh, yeah I can do some cool stuff with it other than stabbing things.”

“Good. Create from it the water of your birthplace and that must be the only water you consume. For nourishment, you must cleanse everything in that same water boiled.”

Gura nodded and the Ferryman tossed her a coin. “For the ride” She caught it and turned to Follow Calli to his boat. More than a little confused about their exchange but filed away the bit she did catch for later. If Calli had something to do with the fall of Atlantis, they had something they needed to talk about at some point.

After some small talk about the boat and how it works, they both fell silent. The oppressive, almost frightening air that Calli had exuded was still fresh in Gura’s mind. The strange language occupied Gura’s ears as she watched Calli.

The oar in her lap sitting mostly unused, Calli’s gaze focusing on the waters they were passing through. As much as Gura wanted, the reaper’s gaze was unreadable. Gura didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. After what felt like an eternity, Gura finally cast her eyes off of the reaper as she got the oar back into the water to readjust the boat’s angle.

Her mind drifted to her hand, and the oddly cold coin that was within. Opening it, she looked at the old coin. A gruff noise came from her throat, noticing the familiar curves. The inscriptions on either side, the grooves on the sides of it. Ah~ How ironic. She thought, Of course, the coin would be Atlantean. 

Ignoring the pain in her chest upon the realization, she turned her gaze back to Calli. “Wanna know something interesting about Atlantean currency?”

Her response was Calli’s silent gaze shifting to hers. Gura tried to ignore the panic she felt from the utter silence of the reaper. “For a long, and I mean a long time, the currency was used interchangeably with stuff from the seafloor. Seashells, sometimes fish, a few times even kelp. It was wild. The economy was well, a mess from that though. Eventually, the government caught on and mandated stuff like this coin.”

Calli made a noise of acknowledgment, but her gaze stayed. “That coin, can I see it?” Her voice was scratchy, laced with something Gura couldn’t or didn’t want to read. Gura obliged, passing the coin to the reaper.

Calli looked at it in silence. Her hand drifted across its face slowly. Gura had hoped that Calli would respond with something more. Anything that would help her understand what emotions the Reaper was feeling. To Gura’s dismay, Calli simply passed it back after a while. 

“It’s quite satisfying to hold, right?” Gura said, hoping the Reaper would engage. Unfortunately, Calli simply nodded. Gura’s heart dropped. It hurt to have no reaction from the reaper, not that she blamed her for it. The last few hours, hell even minutes have been a rollercoaster of happiness and grim realities of the passage of time.

Wrapping her hands around her legs, Gura looked to the banks of the river. “How do you think things are going up there?” The shark muttered, her tail wrapping around her legs tightly.

Finally, Calli did more than nod. She looked up the ‘Sky’. “That’s a good question. Who knows how long it’s been.”

“Eh? What do you mean?” Gura exclaimed, drawing a sigh from Calli.

“Well, normally I wouldn’t worry too much about the differences in time between the mortal world and the underworld, but with all of this having happened… I can’t be sure if things have changed.” Calli sat back, looking frank at Gura. “Ideally, things are fine. But… with how strong Towa-senpai got, there’s no telling what happened to other demons like Ayame-senpai.”

Gura nodded her heart heavy with worry for their friends. In a way, she missed being able to hear the sounds of chaos. The explosions. At least then, she knew there was still something happening. Here, on the other hand, she was completely in the dark. There was no way to know whether the chaos had been quelled, or if it just spread. 

Gura could feel anxiety coiling around her like a snake around its prey. She looked for any way to stave off those darker feelings. “Say, does me having this outfit mean that I’m now a reaper? Oooh, a reaper-shark! That sounds nice!”

Calli smirked at that, and Gura’s heart soared. 

“Hehe, sadly no. Though, having the outfit does make you a reaper-shark in appearance at least.” Calli’s shoulders slowly loosened, her grip on the oar loosening much to the shark’s delight. Turning to maneuver the ship again, Calli mumbled under her breath “Reaper-shark. That’s pretty cute actually.”

The moment Gura heard what she assumed she wasn’t meant to, her cheeks flushed. Her tail threatened to hit the inside of the boat as her heart fluttered. She quickly looked to the river’s banks, hoping that Calli didn’t just see her gay-panic moment. That was when she realized, inspecting the way the water washed up against the bank very closely, that things around them were changing. 

The first thing she noticed was the river widening at an unprecedented rate before it just broke. The river bed and even the river itself breaking off, forming small waterfalls and even more rivers spiraling in all, all directions. Gura watched in amazement and horror as water flowed sideways, upside down, even diagonally at times. 

The land wasn’t spared from this either. What was once probably flat and solid ground had turned into crumbling terrain, floating islands, and things that defied gravity. Things were upside down, diagonal, all of it seemed like someone had literally flipped the table on what was possible.

Cursing under her breath, Calli brought the boat to a stop before it drifted off into one of the many new rivers. “I guess I should’ve expected something like this but, damn…” Calli looked around cautiously, before stepping onto the bank.

“Talk about remodeling.” Gura mused, staying close to Calli. The odd, physics-breaking terrain left Gura’s mind in a loop as to how any of this was possible. Still, she looked to Calli for where they’d go from here. Stepping over to the edge of the terrain, Calli peered down. 

“You find somethin good Calli?” Gura asked, walking to the Reaper’s side to check it out herself. Almost immediately she lurched back. “Ahhhhhhh nope, nope nope nope nope. Count me out.”

Stepping back from the edge, Calli looked to Gura with a knowing glance. “Hmm, I don’t think there’s gonna be much with these rivers though Gura.” 

“I swear to god, don’t.” Gura shook her head, as Calli began walking towards her. 

“You’ll forgive me when we find food at the end of this, trust me,” Calli said, before quickly throwing Gura off her feet and into her arms. At first, Gura felt her heart flutter, then she remembered where this was all leading to.

“Ack, Gura stop squirming it’ll be fine.” Calli readjusted her grip as she stepped towards the edge. Holding Gura closer as she shook her head furiously.

“No! Nononononono, don’t you dare!” Gura’s tail lashed violently. 

“Ok ok, fast or slow? Which do you want?” Calli asked, looking at Gura with a sympathetic gaze. 

Gura’s thrashing stopped the moment Calli asked that. “I don’t want any of that shit you know that. Calli please, there’s gotta be another way to go about this dude.”

“Hmmm…” Calli closed her eyes, looking deep in thought. “You like mountain climbing?” Gura’s almost immediate shake of her head, made the reaper sigh. “Fast it is then.”

“Wait-” Before Gura could object, Calli stepped off from the edge. The wind sent chills down Gura’s spine as she pressed herself against Calli. Not daring to open her eyes for even a moment. As the drop went from the level of, ‘holy shit I’m gonna die’ to ‘holy shit, I’m gonna wither into bones how long is this thing’ Gura felt a rumble in Calli’s chest.

"Dude you're kinda adorable when you're scared". There was a smirk in the tone, but Gura didn’t dare open her eyes. 

Even as her tail wrapped as best it could around Calli, Gura was still shaking her head. "Calli so HELP me I WILL fear pee on you!!" The shark shouted into Calli’s chest. The drop still seemed to not even be halfway done as Calli chuckled again. "Is that what you want Calli!!? Shark fear pee!!!???" 

Calli almost dropped Gura the moment she heard that thankfully maintaining her grip, but not before Gura’s heart lurched and that bluff nearly became a reality. "No! Fuck no!!" She stammered out.

"Then GET my sweet lil fish butt back on some solid ground asap!" Gura shouted back, as Calli quickly let out murmurs of agreement. The moment they landed after what felt like an eternity for Gura, she leaped out of Calli’s grasp and planted herself firmly on the ground with a thankful, satisfied smile. 

“Do that again and I WILL pee on you,” Gura muttered as her tail lay against the ground unmoving. Calli attempted (and failed) to contain her laughter. “Gura you look like a dog or cat right now holy shit.”

“Oi, were you checking out my butt again?” Gura yelled, almost flipping onto her back before opting to just get up instead.

“Oh Nah, Nah I wasn’t. I was just… Woah.” Calli finally took a look around. “Yeah, this might just work. For the time being at least.” 

In the immediate area, they’d landed in some sort of long-dead basin. Whatever water or liquid that was here at some point, was long gone now. In its place, was the familiar ground of the underworld. Taking her gaze to the distance, Calli gasped. Far off, at the other side of the large basin, was a single lone ruin. The stone structure was definitely not in a good shape, but for Gura and Calli’s needs, it was exactly what they needed. The area surrounding the basin was as barren as usual, interrupted by a stray river here and there and a rather ominous, dark forest. 

Creepy. Calli thought, turning to Gura, “Well, what do you think?” Gura’s gaze shifted to the ruin in the distance. 

“Well, sleeping with some shelter would be better than just out in the open. Though…” Gura’s hand moved to her stomach. “...It’s been a while since I ate. We should definitely find something that I could eat before we even think about getting some rest.”

Murmuring her agreements, Calli ran a hand through her hair. Her eyes trained on the surroundings. “Better get walking then.”

The walk to the ruin would be long and there was a stretch where the duo would have to either walk around part of the crawling woods or through it. Calli was considering going around when Gura perked up suddenly as they fell into step next to each other.

“Hey what the hell am I going to boil water in? I don't have anything on me that can hold water, start a fire, or...any of that.” she pointed out and Calli felt utterly stupid.

“Shit, you’re right. I mean I can handle the fire part. Skimming any stone along Ricky’s blade sparks and like everything in every hell is flaming-deadlong-deadmable so that's fine. The container to boil something in thought…”

Gura screwed her face up at Calli, “Who the hell is Ricky?” she threw her hand out at the question with a little flare.

Calli smiled and at the way she perked up Gura could almost picture dog features on her. “Oh! Ricky’s the name of my scythe!” 

“Holy shit...Calli you’re such a dork!”

Calli motioned at the abnormally dark woods ahead of them. “Maybe we can find something in there? Some sort of softer stone we could probably carve it down on Ricky or uhh…”

“Maybe there's like a hell coconut I can bust open and use the husk of.”

“Yeah, who knows. Like I know some stuff about the hells but not everything. That's Impossible.”

The two continued to talk as they made their way through the small patch of wood that encroached on their direct path to the ruin. As they stepped into the woods Calli gave a brief explanation of how the hells worked in general; telling Gura that mortals went to whichever afterlife they believed in and were sorted according to the structure of their belief system and so every possible hell or heaven or otherwise all existed and that the reason things were so comically fucked up currently was that the borders between all of the different hells or negative afterlife interpretations had been removed and the realms had fused together. 

As the darkness of the woods clawed at the pair, Gura tried to focus on their conversation and the task at hand to avoid her fear.

“So what happens to mortals who think nothing happens after you die?” she asked as she started to look around for something that could be repurposed or used for boiling and holding water.

Calli’s answer was a grim, knowing look. Gura whistled “that's kinda fucked up…” and the topic was dropped. 

A sudden chill ran up Gura’s spine and she tensed at something triggering her more animalistic instincts to run. Instead, she rooted her legs to the spot and looked around. Turning, her deep blue eyes met Calli’s warm red ones and she knew Calli felt it too. Although the reaper seemed to be more on guard, alert rather than experiencing a fear response which annoyed Gura. Before she could ask what was happening, Gura’s eyes caught it as she frantically regarded their surroundings. Tangled in the huge roots of the large trees around them were a pair of bright piercing eyes, and then another, and then another. In the darkness of the forest floor, at the bases of the trees that encircled them were dozens of pairs of eyes. Gura called forth her trident and backed up a few steps, watching Calli summon her scythe from the edge of her vision. Her back touched Calli's, and both held their weapons at the ready. 

The things that seeped out of the backness were a mixture of fairly small in size demonic creatures. Some resemble humanoids with twisted broken looking limbs that shouldn’t have been able to move in the manner they did, with solid skin in place of a face, contorted rotten-looking flesh and the smell made Gura want to vomit. Others looked like messes of limbs attached to a vaguely quadrupedal animalistic body frame with too many mouths or teeth where there was no mouth, others still were impossible bastardizations of creatures Gura could only describe as vaguely resembling animals. To call any of them explicitly like any particular animal however was completely inaccurate. It was almost like the things were every animal at once somehow and still able to function.

Calli raises her scythe, “Minor demons. They always look pretty fucked up but this works in our favor. We raise enough of a fuss and maybe we can get the attention of the God who started this fucking mess.” her tone was tighter but there was a myth to it that made Gura’s chest a little warm and her blood pump more out of excitement than of fear.

“Causing a big ol’ ruckus with my favorite reaper? Sounds like a hell of a plan!” Gura smirked and she felt Calli’s laughter through the contact of their backs being pressed together.

“That pun rocked homie. Now let's kick these things butts. Minor demons ain’t shit.” Calli’s confidence was infectious and when Gura raised her trident high she found the fear that had made her first want to turn tail and run was gone. Now she wanted to rumble.

A handful of the creatures closed in on the pair and both wasted no time throwing themselves into the hordes. 

Gura, ever aware of her size used it to her advantage and leaped into the air, curling her tail on the ascent only to flick it outwards as she came down, swinging the powerful limb to the side and smashing into several of the creatures directly and sending a few sprawling. As Gura landed she spun her trident around, planted her feet on either side of the underside of the forked end, and with all her weight and momentum, landed with the prongs downward. The trident plunged into the root-filled ground and the ground trembled and cracked around her just far enough to upset the footing of everything close to her but not quite far enough to upset Calli’s fight.

With a breathy, half scream, Gura hopped up and back down on the trident and the moment her feet came back into contact with the opulent metal, the cracked sections of stone and roots shot upwards. Creatures of hell screamed and squealed as the masses of earth and root entangled them, smashed them into paste, or otherwise immobilized. The few that had escaped the mini earthquake had sprouted wings or managed to leap just out of the way but Gura had managed to cull their numbers significantly.

Taking just a moment, the Atlantean quickly peeked behind her to check on Calli. She wasn’t surprised to see the reaper quite literally slicing through the glorified cannon fodder of little nightmares but seeing that the blade of her scythe Ricky had shifted to be vertical rather than horizontal and now resembled more of a war scythe than a harvesting one was a surprise. 

A strange guttural screeching pulled Gura back to her own fight. The few airborne terrors were inhaling deeply, their chests glowing a burning orange. 

“Oop!” Gura yanked her trident out of the ground and spun it, intending on blocking the assumed fire balls by just spinning it fast enough. However, her attention was quickly grabbed when she caught movement from the corner of her eye. A mass of limbs was leaping at her. Acting on reflex, Gura turned and just managed to skewer the thing right as the fire balls were let loose on her.

She threw her arm up, instinctually holding the side of her tattered cloak up in front of her. “Shit!” But as the fire engulfed her Gura felt no heat, no pain, it simply fell away without harm.

“Oh shit right! I’m fireproof!” Gura smirked up at the fiends, “I’m fireproof!” she yelled and tossed her trident in a wide arch. The blessed metal sailed through the air as Gura spun on her heel and slammed her fist into the small horned head of something with too many eyes. Her trident found the belly of one creature, the leg of another, and the wings of a third as it sailed in the wide arch she had tossed it in, finally returning to her as Gura sprung up and slammed both her heels down on the skull of the mass of limbs with a crunch. Her balance was caught on her tail and she stuck her arm up, hand open as the trident met her mid flip back onto her feet. 

“Fuck yeah!” Gura bellowed, confidence brimming

“...Why…” a voice too familiar made Gura’s blood run cold. 

Almost robotically, Gura turned expecting to see an old friend from her days as a child in Atlantis before the fall, even though she knew he had died. She had seen his body lifeless in the water.

“What?” Gura’s voice shook and a moan of agony in the voice of her dead friend oozed out of a broken creature at her feet. The only part of it unbroken was its hard domed back.

“...I thought you were my friend but you left me...you left me in the cold water to bleed out…” 

Her pupils narrowed, eyes growing red at the rims as a hot sickening rage boiled up from deep within Gura.

“Shut up!” Her voice was rough, the red of her eyes spreading.

“You left me to die...Gura…”

Her foot pinned the creature to the ground. “You’re not him!!! Shut the fuck up!!” The trident’s prongs came down on the softer parts of the thing under her foot once, twice, Gura screamed, her eyes were red, the trident’s pretty shifted blues and greens stained with the ooze-like blood of the thing she was turning into a fine past underfoot.

“Gura!” A firm but kind voice shot through the haze of rage, “Gura it’s dead! They're all dead! We got them!!” A hand on her shoulder and Gura’s arms felt limp at her sides, her screaming cut off.

With an expression far too gentle for the brutality that had just occurred, Calli bent to be more level with Gura before speaking, “Hey, hey it’s ok. You’re ok.”

Gura’s eyes were locked onto the pile of gore under her shoe as the red faded from her deep blue eyes, her breath ragged. “Why...why the fuck did it sound like my dead childhood friend Calli?!” Calli wasn’t sure if the slight trembling under her hands was from Gura’s rage or a mixture of factors but she was going to make sure to ground her friend as much as possible.

“Demons do that, even minor ones. They like to fuck with you’re head, make you weak, or play on where you’re still sore. One of them tried speaking to me in Kiara’s voice. You just need to try and let it roll off of you.” Calli explained as she pulled Gura into her arms. Without the height difference in the way, Gura was able to let herself sink into the taller woman’s arms, dismissing her trident so she could just hold her for a moment.

Calli didn’t let go until she felt Gura start to pull away.

“You ok now Homie?” Calli’s tone was still gentle, even as her hands slipped from Gura’s smaller frame.

“Yeah...yeah, I’m good. Fuck this thing though!” Gura kicked the corpse and with a thunk, it rolled onto its hard back.

“Hey…” Calli turned and crouched to inspect the thing’s body. “ We can probably carve out its shell thing and use that after we clean it up.” She prodded it curiously.

“I’m gonna leave that up to you if that's alright. I need a second and my trident doesn't have a blade…” 

Calli watched Gura trudge off to the edge of the woods, on the other side, closer to the ruins. She bit her lip as she took hold of Ricky again. She should have warned Gura better, braced her for how rough demons could be to handle emotionally. 

When Calli met her at the edge of the woods Ricky was gone and held in her hand was something that resembled a bone bowl crossed with a turtle shell and the blood one would expect of something freshly butchered. Upon request, Gura summoned her trident once more to use its power for summoning just enough water to get everything cleaned up including a hunk of meat Calli had cut from one of the demons.

Cutting free some branches from the nearby trees, Calli quickly assembled a makeshift campfire and fire spit. Tearing some cloth off from her mantle, Calli hung the makeshift bowl over the now burning fire. 

Taking a seat beside Gura, Calli could tell she was shaken up. “I hope you like underworldian meat or else this trip of ours is gonna suck.” The joke evidently failed, as Gura leaned against the Reaper.

“How did you keep yourself together?” Gura muttered as the pair watched the trident summoned water start to boil a little. Calli merely sighed, draping her arm to Gura’s side.

“Well… I just had to keep reminding myself that we’re here, and Kiara is up there. Both of us have jobs to do. People to protect. That sort of thing.” Calli pointed upwards, despite the fact the mortal world wasn’t necessarily above them. “As long as you keep something similar in mind then, hopefully, you can fight through that shit.”

“It’s just… a lot. There are so many things that have happened in all these nine thousand or so years. Of course, that thing had to choose that one sour memory in a sea of thousands.” Gura’s hand went to the bridge of her nose, pinching it to keep herself together.

“I understand what you mean. The Kiara it showed me was… less than ideal.” Calli kept her mind from remembering that time as best she could, as she pulled the bowl from the fire spit. “Alright, it’s boiled, so it should be good. Maybe let it cool a little just to be safe.”

Gura merely nodded, but rather than heading her warning she immediately took a piece of meat from the bowl. “Ugh, it tastes like sandpaper,” Gura said with a groan.

Calli chuckled at that, “You know what that tastes like?” 

“Shut it, at least you don’t need to eat this joke for cuisine.” Gura let out a groan but didn’t stop eating. Soon enough the whole bowl had vanished, leaving a stray few scraps as Gura leaned back.

Leaning back herself, Calli looked to the Atlantean. “You wanna get to that ruin and rest or Nah?”

Scoffing, Gura sat back up. Her gaze snapped to the old ruin before she unceremoniously laid back down. “Hell no, that’s way too far of a walk.” 

“Hmmm true… we could always fly-”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence, I’ve had enough flying today!” Gura exclaimed though Calli could tell there was an underlying sense of joy in her voice. “Besides,” Gura let out a yawn. “That fight wore me out, kinda wanna pass out in all honesty.”

Calli chuckled, “Then you should get some rest. It’s been a hell of a day.” if only we had a pillow… Calli lamented as Gura tried to find a comfortable position. After a few minutes of trying and failing, she just opted to use her tail as a pillow and call it a day. The sigh of the shark curled up into a ball brought a smirk to Calli’s face. 

“Eh, Calli?” Gura mumbled, her tired eyes flashing open as Calli laid her mantel onto the shark. “Don’t you need that?”

“Nah, you need it more than me. I can’t really sleep, remember?” Getting up, Calli stretched as Gura let out a sigh. 

"Calli?" 

"Hm?" 

"Hell sucks."

Calli smirked, fighting back a laugh as Gura relaxed into sleep. Yeah. it does. She thought, looking around for something to occupy her time as the Atlantian beside her got the rest she needed.

Chapter Text

Calli’s scythe screamed through the air, cutting down the dozens of minor demons that had arrived. Catching it with ease, she clicked her tongue. “When I said we could attract the god like this, I wasn’t expecting them to send this many minor ones our way,” Calli said with a groan, as Gura caught the aquamarine blur that had cut through another dozen.

“Well, gotta start somewhere right?” Gura mused, as she cracked her neck and got ready for another round with the twisted hoards. “Now that I know their tricks they aren’t that hard after all.”

With a smile on her face, Calli twirled Ricky in her grip. “Let’s not waste any time then!” With a yell, Calli sprung into the horde of minor demons, her scythe cutting clean through anything that attempted to stop her advance. Whenever her scythe stopped just short of killing one, she burst forwards with more energy than before. 

The deadly dance brought a smile to Calli’s face, watching as the minor demons struggled to put up much of a defense. Her scythe began to seem like a blur even to Calli herself. The momentum she’d built up only increased with each arc of the blade.

As Calli cut down a trio of demons, a blur sped past her. Calli’s smirk remained, as she quickly pulled the trident from the ground “You dropped this!” She called out and flung it back to its owner. The reaper caught the sharp gaze of the Atlantian as she snapped the neck of a demon with just a smack of her tail, using its body as a springboard to catch her trident in mid-air.

Landing, Gura let out a haughty laugh. Twirling her trident in her grasp as the few remaining demons on her side seemed to quiver. “Thanks! I wasn’t expecting them to dodge, not that they  lasted long either way.” She shouted back, before springing forwards once more.

As the remaining demons found their twisted courage to stand against her, Gura’s trident shimmered. A trio of demons launched fireballs towards her, Gura dodged them easily (though she knew she didn’t need to), Launching herself towards one of them with her whole body engulfed in shimmering water.

Cutting clean through the demon’s body in one go, Gura thrust the three prongs into the ground, kicking off the top and soaring towards a demon flying high in the sky. The thing saw it coming, but before it could do anything to evade, Gura summoned her trident back to her palm. 

Arching her weapon back, she took a sharp breath before slamming it into the thing’s gut, sending it flying back to the ground in a cloud of dust and smoke. Landing safely onto the ground, Gura took a deep breath. 

The two remaining demons on her side immediately sprung forwards, charging her on either side. With a sigh, Gura side-stepped their swipes nonchalantly. Ducking and weaving between them with little more than a yawn. Boring… Gura couldn’t help but think, before finally leaping over one of them and thrusting her three prongs through the demon’s midsection. Before the final one got a chance to attack again, Gura swung the body of its friend into it, walking over soon after to finish it off with a stab to the head.

“I’m all done here, how are things going Calli?” Gura called out, as she summoned some water to clean off the blood from her trident. 

Her response was a twisted, demonic arm flying towards her. Stepping to the side, she watched it collide with the ground, before Calli emerged from the mess of downed demons, dragging one towards Gura. 

Tearing her scythe from the downed demon, Calli whipped her forehead with her wrist. “We got through them pretty fast damn, I was expecting a little more honestly.” 

Balancing her trident on her shoulders, Gura smirked, “Meh, at least we could have some fun with it.” Putting the trident back into her palm, Gura summoned water to wash Calli’s blade off, before turning back to the ruins they had meant to explore before the dozens of minor demons interrupted them.

De-summoning Ricky, Calli stretched her arms as they turned back to the ruin. “So, let’s get back to exploring that ruin. Some shelter would be really nice for a little bit.” 

“Agreed, maybe there’s something useful in there,” Gura said, her voice straining a little as she brought her arms high over her head to stretch, her tail wagging a little. Her cheeks flushed a little once she realized Calli was still watching, and her gills were still very much exposed. The Reaper quickly turned her gaze away, hoping that Gura didn’t notice the shade of crimson on her cheeks.

Just as they began making their way towards the ruins, keeping a watchful gaze out for anything that might pop out and intercept them, Gura let out a soft gasp. “What? Did you see something?” Calli asked in a caution-laden voice.

“No no, just had an idea.” Gura began, taking one of her hair clips and pulling it from her hair. Calli tried really hard to keep her heart from bursting right there, as Gura handed her the hair clip. “Your hair is super long, and I noticed while fighting that it kinda gets in the way so… here! You can put your hair in a ponytail with it!”

“Ah, wait that’s a really good idea actually!” Calli quickly took it, pulling her hair back and making a quick ponytail with the hairclip. “Thanks, dawg! That’ll come in handy, what about you though?” 

Calli looked to Gura, her heart fluttering as Gura finished putting her own hair into a ponytail. “There! Now we match!” Gura flashed a toothy grin towards Calli, bringing a wide smile to the girl’s face. 

“Now, onwards to the ruin!” Gura called out, charging ahead with newfound confidence in her step. Calli followed close behind, her smile only growing wider as she watched the shark. Soon enough, they were close to the ruin. Now that they were closer, the pair could make out a lot more than they could from a distance.

It seemed like it was some kind of fort or castle. The high stone walls that surrounded the structure were old, cracked, and probably wouldn’t hold up against a determined enemy. Still, it was walled nonetheless. The structure itself was filled with many towers, a few of which had collapsed. The ones that were still standing, were crawling with twisted moss and vines. It was obvious that this place had been abandoned for some time. The entrance to this long-gone building was a single, small, set of stairs up rocky terrain. 

What must have once been an open area, a garden, or general walking space just within the walls yet still outside was now crowded with rubble and much of it either would need to be climbed or flown over if exploration was desired. Not being fond of flying, and not wanting to risk any potential needless injury both decided against trying to traverse the larger piles of rubble and stone in favor of exploring the easier-to-access open areas and an internal structure that remained standing. Peppered across the ruin were the skeletal remains of creatures neither girl bothered to try to identify of various sizes and shapes. On a whim, as they walked casually through the mess, Gura kicked at a skeletal limb and was surprised at its sturdiness, expecting bones of that age to crumble rather than feel like she was kicking some sort of dense stone or metal. 

Interesting.

Inside the towers that remained standing and whose entrances weren’t crammed full of rubble and debris had proven far more interesting. Crude and twisted weaponry lay in decay and as broken as the sparse furniture. 

Gura hummed as she looked around the second tower, thinking as her eyes traced the contours of rotting wood of infernal nature splintered and cracked from whatever onslaught had taken this place to the state it was now in. 

Almost apprehensive to speak, lest her voice makes the shark stop her sweet soft humming, Calli’s curiosity got the best of her. “What's on your mind my dude?” much to her mild annoyance, Gura did stop humming.

“Oh, I was just thinking. When I woke up you remember how stiff I was for a bit? Sleeping on the ground sucks dude. So-” she pointed at a large banner, whatever pattern may have been on it faded into a dull mix of black and maroon. It was horribly dusty, covered in holes, and tattered at the bottom but it was also large enough to wrap around someone nearly five times Gura’s size and then some. “-I’m thinking about what I might be able to do with that.” 

Looking up, Calli followed her line of sight to the banner, staring at it as she spoke. “Oh yeah? Want me to fly up there and cut it down?” 

Still looking quite deep in thought as she stared up at it, Gura extended her arm and pointed as high as she was able. “If you can keep the rope and wooden frame that it’s hanging from in one piece that would be awesome. I think I might be able to use them too.”

With a nod, Calli summoned Ricky and sat atop the staff part as it remained floating mid-air with both her legs over one side. The position made Gura stare just a bit, it seemed so elegant and overtly feminine, plus Calli never having flown like that before all caught her just a little by surprise. As if riding her Scythe, Calli slowly rose and simply flew close to the wall, twisted Ricky under her, and let the end of the blade easily glide over the rope that hung as close to the large iron spike that the banner hung from as possible. With a loud rustling, the banner came tumbling down and the wooden beam at the top of the fabric was fastened to snapped in half as it landed awkwardly on one side. The loud crack made Gura cover her ears for a moment.

When Calli landed, she hopped off of Rickey and de-summoned it. 

“What was with the dainty little witch-type flying thing?” Gura asked, and Calli flushed a little.

“Force of habit. When I fly and there's someone on the ground I’ve gotten used to doing it that way so they can’t look up my skirt. If I need to use Rickey to fight while flying though I have to just try not to care.” Calli explained and Gura gasped, mocking offense.

“I have you know I would nev-Ok I can't even bullshit that. I probably would try to peek but then I would let you punch me for it.” Gura admitted and Calli burst into laughter.

“At least you’re honest dude! But Nah I wouldn’t punch you, I probably wouldn’t even mind if you did.” 

Then Calli realized what she had said and her laughter died instantly, cheeks bright red and eyes wide, her head whipped around to look at Gura panicked. “UM!”

Gura was equally red, staring at Calli but her expression of shock slowly turned into a horribly smug shit-eating grin. 

Calli started sweating. “Wait, Hold on. Wait, Listen! Listeeeennn!!” She stammered, and Gura only seemed to smile wider.

“Yeeeeesss~? I’m listening miss Calliope Mori~” Gura practically sang, and Calli only panicked more.

She struggled to think of anything at all to say in her defense. Nothing came to mind at all and Calli had a sinking feeling that if she attempted to just blurt something out at random she would only dig her grave deeper.

Calli grasped at straws, praying for Gura to take the bait. “H-hey what were you planning to do with the banner anyway!” she pointed at it, biting the inside of her cheek nervously. “We should finish what you had planned before something else shows up to fight us!”

With a little hop in her step, Gura approached the banner, “Oh yeah that's a good idea actually!” As she busied herself with it, Calli sighed in relief.

“But don’t think I’ve forgotten that little slip Calli.”

“Fuck.”

With that same thoughtful expression, Gura gathered up the fabric of the banner into a pile and examined the cross beam that was fastened to the top. The wood was too brittle to be of much use unfortunately but the intact sections of fabric, the thinner rope that looped through the fabric and into holes on the crossbeam, and the thicker rope that it once hung by were all daily intact, and in good enough shape that it still took effort to rip even part of it.

Standing with her hands on her hips, Gura eyed the mess at her feet, then turned her head to peek out through the entrance, the gears in her head turning. “Think like Watson…” She mumbled, her expression growing more focused. 

With a sudden wide toothy smile, Gura perked up. “OH!” Calli didn’t have time to ask for details as Gura took off past her outside. The reaper approached the entrance and leaned on the stone frame, watching curiously as Gura pranced over to a large skeleton of some massive reptilian-like beast and proceeded to hop up and smack one of the ribs with her tail with a little twist in the air and a little “Hoocha!” Calli smiled warmly as she watched Gura repeat the same action a few more times until the rib came loose at the spin and fell to the ground. The long mass of bone about Calli’s height give or take a few inches. Carefully and as if the bone was as light as a feather, Gura carted it over to the steps that lead to the entrance of the building they were just in, placed it down, and turned to prance over to another skeleton. Gura repeated a similar process and returned with two large fangs and a proud smile.

With the bones bundled in her arms and leaning against her right shoulder, Gura confidently strutted past Calli. “Check this out.” The reaper watched her pass, intrigued.

Almost as if she had done something like this in the past, Gura placed the bones down near the banner and eyed the thinner rope fixing it to the crossbeam. “I need a knife or somethi-oh duh!” And as if it were nothing major at all, Gura opened her mouth as wide as she was able, stuck her hand inside, and tugged, pulling one of her back teeth out.

Calli almost fell off of the door frame. “Dude?!” She almost paled.

Gura spat a bit of blood to the stone floor and held her tooth as if this was all perfectly normal. “What? Shark teeth grow back in like, a day. I spit out teeth all the time. Sometimes I accidentally swallow them. It's just a shark thing.” She ran her tongue over the vacant spot in her jaw and spat once more. “There, already stopped bleeding.”

“Dude! That's kind of awesome? Like metal as hell, you know?”

For a moment, Gura looked surprised, then she smiled proudly, a smug air about her. “Heh, yeah. I’m pretty badass.”

The next little while was filled with Gura cutting the thinner rope free, checking the length then cutting it in half all with her own tooth. She folded the banner over onto itself and cut it shorter, making a section of fabric about two feet or so longer than she was tall before she tied the ends and created loops. Finally, Gura turned her attention to the bones and used the thinner rope to tightly tie a fang to each end of the outside curve of the rib a good distance apart. To test it, Gura put the rib down on the ground and the fangs acted like furniture legs, keeping the rub standing horizontally with the outside of the rib to the floor. Calli’s eyebrow raised in confusion as she watched Gura chip at the pointed end of the rib a bit before breaking it with quite a bit of effort, creating a jagged end that was on a similar angle to the other side of the rib where it had attached to the spine. Finally, Gura fixed the loops at either end of the length of fabric to each end of the rib and proudly spread her arms.

“Tada! A free-standing hammock!” she proclaimed and Calli’s mouth fell open.

In disbelief, Calli walked over to inspect the DYI’ed furniture. “Ok, what the fuck!? How did you just...figure that shit out?!” she gingerly gave it a wiggle, surprised at how sturdy it actually was.

With her hand holding the rib, Gura steadied herself to climb inside the hammock. “I just tried to think like Ame. Plus it helps that back home, way back in Atlantis my Dad was sort of like a junker. He still does that now. Keeps car parts and things like that and reuses them for random stuff.” She explained. Climbing into the hammock was awkward but it easily held fast when Gura’s body tumbled into it and she giggled with delight as it gently rocked back and forth. 

“Hell yeah!”

Then a realization came to Calli, “Wait, how are we going to travel with this?” 

“Oh, no worries dude. When it’s time to get movin I’ll untie the fangs and just tie everything together and sling it over myself with the hammock part!” Gura patted the rib above her head. “Bed to go!”

“Yo, you’re brain. Dude, man. Wow.” 

Gura grinned at Calli from inside the hammock “Gura tensai!” and Calli smiled back.

“Smartest person-shark, shark-person ever.”

A low rumble brought a chuckle to Calli’s throat and a slightly embarrassed blush to the Atlantian’s cheeks. “Getting hungry dawg?” Calli mused, an amused smirk on her face as Gura let out a sigh.

“Guess those demons attacking us wasn’t all bad. At least we don’t have to go searching for meat!” Gura said with a smirk. “I can prep the bowl if you get the meat.”

“Sounds good to me, I’ll be back soon then!” Calli called out, exiting the door and immediately rising from the ground. Quickly making her way over to the rather large amount of Demon corpses, she took off her mantle, summoned Ricky, and got to work. Before she could get far, she heard a rather terrifying buzz. Looking around the corpses, Calli grasped Ricky a little tighter.

Her search was rewarded, maybe not in a good way, when she stumbled across a large bug-like creature feasting upon the corpses of the demons. 

“Aw ew, that’s just-” Calli turned away, hoping to not commit that sight to memory. “God damn what the hell is that?!” she dared to look back and felt a little queasy watching it work its way through the poor demons.

I mean they’re dead but… ew, that’s just not right at all. Calli thought, rubbing her temple. Then, she got an idea. Before she could curse it to oblivion, Calli looked back one more time. Her grip on Ricky was tighter than ever.

“I mean… anything is probably better than this shit,” Calli commented, kicking the stray limb of one of the demons. Thantos spare me for what I’m about to do. Calli thought as she approached the bug-looking thing...

Butchering a bug from hell so her shark friend could eat was certainly not what Calli pictured in her future when she first became a reaper. She wished she could complain, but she wasn’t feeling like it. Killing a giant bug had taken a surprising amount of her energy.

Food was food though, and Gura needed to eat no matter how weird and frankly scary it looked. So, after butchering the demon-eating bug, Calli bundled the meat (she wasn’t sure she could even call it that) up in her mantle and made her way back to Gura. Making a mental note that she’d have to get her poor mantle washed with Gura’s trident later.

Once she got back to the ruin, Gura already had the water ready and the fire going. “Welcome home!!” Gura announced with a cheerful smile, the smile faded quickly, once Calli set down the bug parts she scavenged.

“How hungry are you?” Calli asked, trying to hide her disgust at finding the thing from reaching her face. 

“Calli…” Gura muttered, her brow twitching as she hesitantly poked it with her shoe. “Is that even fucking edible, what is that ?!”

“It should be and… I don’t think either of us wanna know honestly.” Calli deadpanned as she placed the food in the makeshift bowl. Then she took a seat next to the Atlantean. “I figured it’d be better than the sandpaper you had yesterday.”

“I mean… sure, but ew?” Gura said, looking hesitantly at it as it boiled. “How did you even find this thing?” Gura’s gaze shifted to Calli, awaiting an answer that Calli wasn’t even sure she wanted to give.

“It was uh… eating.” Calli pinched the bridge of her nose.

Gura’s brow twitched again “Eating…?” 

“The demons.”

“Oh…” Gura looked back to the pile of bug-like legs. “Well, shit…”

As the meat slowly finished boiling, Gura dreaded having to take a bite of it. “Calli, quick question.”

“Go ahead dawg.” Calli really hoped she was wrong in where this line of questioning was going.

“Do you eat?” Gura said, looking straight into Calli’s eyes. Oh god, please. Calli thought, dreading what was gonna come next.

“I don’t need to. I just heal faster if I do.” She began before Gura picked two pieces of bug from the bowl. Passing the second towards Calli.

“Eat up then!” A smug smirk was painted on her face, one that made Calli curse internally.

With a polite smirk, Calli shook her head “I don’t need to Gura, I’ll be fine!” Gura’s smug smirk didn’t drop as she just pushed harder to get the bug piece into her hand.

“Now now Calli, you have a gash on your leg! You should get ready in case we’re attacked like this morning!” Gura pushed harder, her smug expression steadily turning into one of desperation to not be the only one having to eat the bug.

“I…” Calli began. It was true she had a gash. But it was also true that she did not want to eat that bug. “...Alright.” she relented, dreading actually eating the thing.

Gura looked relieved immediately, taking the boiled bug and busting it open with little effort much like the leg of a crab. Then, she hesitated. “Man, I really don’t wanna eat this. This just doesn’t look good at all.”

“Hey we’re both eating this so-” Calli cracked open the bug part she got, immediately her face twisted to disgust. “-So… let’s try and enjoy it?”

“You don’t sound so sure,” Gura commented, looking between the bug and Calli with a disgruntled expression. “But yeah, uh… time to eat I guess?” With little more than a nod, Calli took a bite of the oozing meat that hung out of the exoskeleton. Beside her, Gura did the same.

Looking to the shark, Calli’s face twisted. Swallowing with more effort than she anticipated, Calli shook her head. “Yeah, this is uh, interesting.”

Letting out a cough, Gura shook her head as well. “It’s like runny eggs or something, eww.” Despite her complaining though, Gura took another bite. Not wanting her to be alone in the suffering, Calli followed suit. 

By the time they were done, the meal hadn’t gotten better. Nor worse, just… meh. Both were thoroughly done with that poor excuse of food though, and actively looked to forget they ever had it. Gura busied herself with her traveling bed, making sure everything was working right. While Calli looked out towards the clearing from one of the windows in the room.

Calling back down from an upper landing within the structure, Calli said “I think it might be worth it to just hang out here for a bit. If we want to we can probably prop some of those spears up outside like a defense or something. Maybe I can light a fire on the roof or something. Get some eyes on us.” something in the distance moved, something big. Expecting the worst, Calli sat on the staff of her scythe and drifted down.

Gura had moved her traveling hammock off to the side, “Oh smart. Bring them to us for a bit so we don’t get caught off guard or whatever. Let’s us, size them up a bit before we start heading out.” Then Gura noticed the tension in Calli as she landed. “What's up?” She summoned her trident, assuming trouble.

Calli took a few steps towards the entrance, “Big boy on the way.” and before she could say anything else, a loud repulsive wet noise was growing louder and louder as it closed in.

“What the hell?” Gura’s question was unfortunately answered by the face of a portly older man suddenly being pressed against one of the large opened windows. But the face, the head was far far too big, as if the man’s entire skull were big enough to bite Gura in half. He grinned at them, his massive eyes traveling up both girls before he hummed and licked his lips.

“Mmm, Evening ladies.” His voice made Gura’s stomach turn. It’s like if the taste of vomit was a sound…

“Why don’t you step outside so we can have a little chat?” He continued and Calli all but hissed at him.

“Only if you stop looking at us like some kind of fucking back ally pervert.” She barked, her grip on Rickey tightening.

His smile grew much to their dismay, “Oh I love it when women are feisty. Makes you taste better.” 

Gura had to suppress a shiver.

“Now, now. Be dears and come out of there. It would be a shame if I had to crush you to death in the rubble of this building. I’m sure your entrails would be cold by the time I managed to dig your corpses out of the stone.” His attempt at sounding sweet and gentle was only further poisoned by a slight movement of his head, giving them a peek at what looked like the base of limbs of some kind at either side of his face, sprouting from his cheeks.

“What if we just stay here? What then weirdo?” Gura tried to sound tough but the waves of energy that seemed to pulse out of this thing were getting to her. It really was like being weak and alone in a strange dark place while someone was watching you, learning and planning unspeakable things. The shark side of her was telling her to run, and her human side was telling her to grab Calli and hunker down.

“Then I’ll simply have to get you sweet little morsels out myself.”

Calli screamed as a dozen arms reached out from behind her, from the entrance, and grabbed her from every angle pinning her arms and rendering Rickey practically useless. 

“FUCK!!”

Gura spun, meaning to stab the source of the mass of limbs with her trident but when her eyes locked on the entrance her knees locked. This thing’s body was massive and had managed to wrap almost entirely around the building as they spoke and pressed against the entrance was what Gura summed to be some nightmarish part of it. It was like the underside of a massive slug or similar creature but lined with more arms than she could count, each horribly boneless looking. The color drained from her face.

Calli kicked at the air, more arms grabbing at her and holding her fast “Gura!!” Her usually superior reaper strength allowed her to wiggle only a little against so many limbs.

The desperate cry snapped Gura out of her fear-induced trance and she bit her lip until it bled. “Fuck you!!” She yelled and stabbed at the mass of limbs as best as she could but it was like trying to stab gum if it had a dozen legs all wiggling and grabbing. 

“Gura, be careful!” Calli tried to warn, and the sheer notion that even now she would be worried about Gura made the shark livid at the demon, but more so, with herself.

“Fuck you!! And fuck me for not moving sooner!” Gura yelled again, only to hear him laugh.

“Oh my, I see you have a tail and fins tiny miss! Delightfully, I haven’t eaten anything other than human women before! I wonder how your innards will taste?” 

“Shut the fuck up you disgusting-” several hands grabbed the trident, the few stab wounds she managed to inflict seemed like nothing to it as the hands clung to her weapon and pulled. Panicking, Gura unsummoned the trident but the momentum was already carrying her forward. She pushed her foot backward on her heel, trying to force herself back but the shift in movement made her slip instead and one of the longer arms caught her ankle.

“Gura!!”

“Fuck!!”

She was pulled in, just as many hands grabbing and pinning her as they had Calli, and when the thing laughed both girls could feel his slimy body shake with glee.

It pulled them free of the building, out in the courtyard of the ruin, the confined space unable to fit his full body. Gura looked in horror at the massive slug-like form slithered around the main building, huge long filled slimy arm-like appendages a little further down the body from where they were being held by the countless human-sized arms. Further up, what Gura could only assume was its neck was that huge head, only now, not pressed against the frame she could see it in its full horrible glory.

The entire head of this thing was much much bigger than she first assumed, the face sat atop a much larger second mouth that lacked lips but had unnervingly human teeth and was large enough to wrap its tongue around Calli and swallow her without effort. The limbs sprouting from the cheeks of its human-like face were two large thick eye stalks and two long wriggling antennae stuck out of its smooth round head. On the chin of the second much larger mouth were flaps that seemed to wriggle with the creature’s excitement and along the neck, above the rows of arms that lined the underside were large flaps.

Next to her, Calli was grunting, fighting against the grip of this thing’s arms with everything she had, and Gura only grew angrier at herself. If I had moved sooner maybe this wouldn’t have happened.

“Let me see now. Which of you should I eat first?” He mused, and an idea sparked in Gura’s brain. It was risky but…

“Me.”

Calli froze mid-struggling to stare at her. “What?!”

“Oh?”

“I messed up, it's what I deserve. Besides, you saw my weapon. It’s a trident. If you try to move me over to your mouth to eat me and I try to fight back the worst I can do is stab you in the eye maybe but it wasn’t doing much against your underbelly so…”

“Very true.”

Calli’s face paled, “Gura what the fuck are you doing?! You’re made of meat and shit I’m-”

“If I go first I don’t have to see you go because I fucked up.”

Calli was speechless. The slug-thing laughed.

“Oh, how noble! I wonder if that will make you taste sweeter hm?” It taunted. “Now, be a good little fish girl…”

Shocked, Calli watched helplessly as the thing craned its neck to bend its head back. Two large tentacle-like limbs that sat closer to its head reached forward and snaked around Gura’s tiny body, taking her from the arms.

“Gura!!! Gura!! Don’t you fucking!! I’m going to!!!” Calli could barely even think, she was furious. The wrist Rickey was in was just free enough that she could wiggle it.

“Oh no we don’t” The thing laughed and hands grabbed the staff, forcing it still. “UGH!” It grunted in pain, it’s attention snapped back to Gura. The blue parts of her hair had turned red and her mouth was open and ripping into the tentacles like a rabid animal.

“OW!! Ow! Stop!” The tentacles tugged, threatening to twist Gura in half at the middle but her biting and ripping had already done enough damage, and the tentacle holding her top half was severed. The demon yelled as the limb fell, slipping loose from around her and he pulled her close to his face scowling.

“What the hell are you?”

“A shark” She spat in his eye and with her arms free, Gura grabbed his eye stalk and bit down.

“AHH!! Stop fucking biting me!!” The demon tried to pull Gura away but she locked her jaw on his eye stock and held on with every bit of strength she had in her arms. “Let me go! You PEST!” 

With an impressed smirk, Calli felt the grip on the arms loosening. “Damn, I had no idea she could act so well.”

Gura’s feral little display was proving the perfect distraction. Calli waited and watched, feeling the grip loosen more and more as Gura’s teeth did what they did best and right when Calli watched her extend and unhinge her jaw like an actual shark to nearly bite through the demon’s eye stalk while it yelled at her, her chance came.

“Let’s rock.”

As quickly as she could move, Calli slipped an arm loose and resummoned Rickey into her hand, freeing it from the limbs pinning it, and swung wide.

The thing howled in pain and dropped Gura as dozens of arms fell to the ground and blood poured from the side of its neck.

Once freed, Calli wasted no time, flying over to catch Gura and slow her descent. “Got you!” She watched Gura’s jaw slip back into place, noting the mess of blood and slime Gura was covered in, and thus, was getting all over her.

“Thanks,” Her voice was rougher than usual, and something about it made Calli flush slightly. “Give me a sec.” Unfortunately, the brief moment of attraction Calli had was gone because, in the next moment when they landed, Gura jumped out of her arms and violently vomited all over the ground.

“Whoa, Dude?”

The demon swung its large for limb at the pair and Calli took to the sky to evade, yanking Gura back up with her by the arm.

“Swallowed some of his blood by accident. My guts didn’t like it.” Gura explained, her rage allowing her to be blind to their elevation.

“You pests!” 

“Throw me!!” Gura yelled, Calli didn’t question her. 

With all the strength she could muster, Calli flew at the slug demon as fast as she could and pulled her arm back to throw Gura straight at him. Trusting her. The demon smiled and opened its larger mouth and for one, horrifying moment, Calli wondered if she had made a grave mistake only for Gura to catch the very edge of his flat teeth and push herself upward like a gymnast right onto his more human-like face.

“Get off of me!!!” It tried to reach Gura with the remaining front limb, but Calli was already close enough to quickly sever it from his body. He bellowed, the sound shaking Gura’s cartilage as she clung to his face and pulled back her arm. With a loud wet sound she punched through his eye, shoving her arm into his skull and he thrashed around violently, making the ground shake and taking them outside and over the wall in his frantic desperation to get Gura off of him.

“This is for grabbing at Calli like she’s some kind of fucking piece of meat you bastard!” Gura yelled as she summoned her trident into the hand currently buried inside of him. He screamed but just as quickly as the screaming had started he was silenced, his good eye-rolling back into his skull as his head plummeted to the ground.

Confused Gura looked around, realizing his head had been severed just before a pair of familiar arms wrapped around her chest and scooped her up. 

“I got you homie.”

Ever so gently, Calli plucked Gura from the demon’s head and held her safely as the skull of the beast hit the ground with a crash and the sickening noise sound of slime and blood splattering everywhere.

It was dead, finally.

When their feet touched solid ground, Calli sighed in relief and put Gura down. She was covered in almost as much blood and slime as Gura and felt utterly disgusting and worn out, but now that the fighting was over and she was close enough, Calli was surprised to see the red in Gura’s hair was not blood or gore, it replaced her usual blue and so too had her eyes changed. Huh, weird… Calli debated on asking her about it but her musing was cut short when Gura started to climb the dead of the creature.

“You good bro?” 

Gura didn’t answer until she managed to reach the top, standing on its cheek. “I'm pissed off as hell and I'm going to do something to this fucker.”

Confused but overall not too bothered by it. “Uh, sure?” She watched Gura tilt her head back, then proceed to snort, clear her throat loudly and then let out the grossest fattest loogie she could make into the demon's remaining eye.

With an almost cocky tone, Gura laughed " I figured this fucker wanted to taste me so bad fine, taste this asshole."

Calli half laughed as she replied, “Dude. Nasty!”

“Too much?”

“Nah, he was fucked. let me get up there so I can spit on him too.”

The laugh Gura let out in response was just a little twisted. 

As they made their way back to the ruins, Calli could notice the anger in Gura’s step. It thankfully faded, albeit after a long while. Gura was only “herself” as they began climbing the steps of the ruin and entered the small courtyard.

With a groan, Gura slumped against a wall the moment they got inside. “Ugh, that sucked.”

“Hell sucks.” Calli sighed, looking around with a specific idea in mind. Then, as she ran a hand through her bangs, she caught sight of what she was looking for. “Say, Gura,”

“Yeah?” Gura responded quickly.

“...Actually, give me a second.” She said, making her way over to what she was looking for. A large metal drum, it was old but it was exactly what Calli was looking for on a whim. Pulling it closer to where they were staying, but not too close, Calli grabbed some stone bricks that had fallen from the fight with the large (disgusting) demon.

Propping up the mass of iron, and making sure it was safe and secure, Calli turned back to Gura. Already taking off her mantle. “Alright, can you fill that with water for me?” 

Gura had to tear her gaze from Calli, looking to the drum. “Uh, sure yeah I can do that.” Grabbing her trident, Gura did just that. “Uh, how much?”

“All of it,” Calli replied from behind her. Eh? What is she cooking?! Gura thought, but complied. Filling it until it was to the brim. With a huff, Gura looked a little closer at the drum and the supports Calli had put up. 

“Seriously Calli, what in the world are you- AHHH” Gura hastily cover her eyes, as she turned around to see Calli wrapped only in a piece of the banner Gura had cut up earlier. “C-C-Calli what the hell?!”

“I was thinking we’re gonna need to bathe, so nows the perfect chance. Especially after that demon.” Calli said with a shrug, walking past Gura as she kept her eyes covered. “I think you should join me honestly. Especially after all of the stuff you pulled off.” Behind her, Gura heard flames be dispersed. Almost immediately, Calli got in, letting out a satisfied sigh.

“I… You’d let me join you?” Gura muttered, she could practically hear the smirk on Calli’s face as she responded.

“Of course dawg, you deserve it anyway!” 

At that, Gura felt a pang in her chest. Do I though? Some part inside of her rang out. She felt conflicted. Ultimately, she shoved the feeling down, wordlessly sliding her shoes off as she moved to go around a corner, snatching up a stray piece of the banner that was nearby.

When she finally got inside, letting her makeshift towel drop to the floor outside of the bath, she felt the way the water engulfed her body. She could see Calli’s smile clear on her face, as she kept her eyes from drifting any lower.

“You look like one tired shark,” Calli mumbled, making Gura smile meekly. Calli seemed to be able to pierce whatever veil Gura could put on that day. “You’re frustrated. What is it, Gura?” The reaper’s hand drifted to her shoulder, only exacerbating the two’s proximity. 

Gura struggled to keep her frustrations from spilling out. Struggled to keep her fluttering heart from disturbing the peace between Calli and her from spilling out, and struggled to keep her own self in check.

“I’m fine, really.” She lied.

Almost immediately, Calli’s soft gaze went stern. But, not in a bad way. Part of Gura dreaded it, and part of her welcomed it. “You’re a terrible liar Gura.”

“...” Gura didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know if she wanted to say anything. She briefly saw some veiled emotion in Calli’s gaze, before the reaper’s hand shifted to her cheek. Gura tried to keep her cheeks from flushing at the reaper’s hand being so close, but she could hardly tell from the heat of the bath.

“Gura, I’ve known you for… god I can’t even count the years. You would never let me brood on something, not when it was obvious how much it was messing with me. So I can’t let you be frustrated, not alone. Please, if I can help you, let me.” Calli’s voice was infectiously sweet. It seemed to sing serenades into her fluttering chest. 

It broke Gura’s resolve. It broke her frustrations. 

It broke the red streaks that always seemed to come out, and do the worst. Do things Gura would never have done herself when she had a clearer head.

She mumbled into the water. “I went too far, Calli. I acted like an animal.” The reaper’s gaze softened further hearing this. The girl’s other hand came up from the water, cupped the shark’s other cheek, and gently guided the girl’s head up to meet her gaze.

“Gura, you are the kindest, most wonderful shark I’ve ever met.” Calli began, her voice soft and cutting through all of Gura’s woes.

Gura’s voice cracked and strained as the stubborn part of her tried to keep those darker thoughts afloat “Would someone who’s kind and wonderful act that...that...like a dick head?”

“Regrets are part of life and death. I’ve seen enough of the regrets of the world in my line of work to know. But in the end, it’s best to take what you can from them and try to learn if you can and if not you keep on moving forward.” Calli brought her thumbs to quickly wipe the forming tears from Gura’s eyes. “Besides, I think you should cut yourself a break. You’re a mortal in hell and pretty much anyone would have been at least a little fucked up from just seeing half of the shit you’ve been handling like a champ.”

Gura’s breath hitched in her throat. Something about that struck a chord, and Gura wasn’t sure how to feel. “I…” Gura began but stopped a moment later. With a warm, welcoming smile, Calli gently pulled Gura into a hug.

“It’s ok. You’re allowed to be a bit of an asshole when something messed up happens to you dude. It’s natural.” She cooed into the shark’s ear, bringing a shade of crimson to her cheeks.

With a choked laugh, Gura reciprocated the hug. “Wow, I have permission from THE death herself to be an asshole sometimes? I didn’t know that was within your power to do. Give out official free passes like that.”

“I’d give you a free pass for a lot of things. But I’ll also be here to stop you if you go too far for real. I promise.” Calli replied, immediately noticing what that implied. Rather than tease her though, Gura let out another choked laugh, her tail wrapped around the two as she let out a low hum. 

In a quiet, soft tone Gura whispered more to herself than to the girl holding her, “Thanks, Calli...I’d like that...If you were always here...” 

Gura felt the flutter in her chest at the way Calli’s words, gaze, and embrace sent shivers down her spine and lit a warmth deep inside her core. With a wide smile and crimson shade across her cheeks, Gura realized.

I love Calliope Mori… 

But something about this moment, this closeness felt almost…too close… 

Wait… Gura thought. Something about all this. Her realization, Calli’s seemingly effortless breaking of all her walls to her heart. Something about all this… OH FUCK. Gura’s face became redder the hell itself when she realized just what position she was in, just how close they were. While completely, utterly, very naked.

Clearing her throat, she needed to figure out how exactly to phrase this. “Uhm, Calli. So… you uh..we’re a little…”

“A little…?” Calli responded, making Gura mentally facepalm. “...Oh.” the reaper mumbled a second later. “OH.” She said louder as it all finally connected for her.

“Yep!” Gura exclaimed, quickly pulling away from Calli’s embrace. Calli had no time to hide her blushing face, and Gura struggled herself to keep her composure (if she even had that anymore). 

Gura’s tail twitched a little as she tried to figure out, with a racing heart and racing brain, how in the world to get out of this bath with both their dignity intact. “Alright, so who goes first.” She said with as confident a voice she could muster.

“UH! Wait goes? Ok wait hold on, let my brain reset.” Calli pleaded, trying desperately to halt her racing mind to form a coherent thought that wasn’t about Gura’s body or the feeling of her skin or- “Ok! Ok. We’re both still a little nasty so I’m going to turn around and stay on this end, and you can stay on that end and we wash up and get the fuck out. That sound good?” Calli’s voice was trembling and thankfully, Gura was far too busy with her own mess of feelings to point it out.

“YEAH!” She squeaked, then took a breath, “I mean, yeah. Totally fine! Normal! Very normal!” She started to busy herself with cleaning her face and hair as best as possible given the circumstances.

“Yeah! Reealllyy normal!! Totally normal!” Calli quickly agreed, doing much the same.

The entire time they were finishing up and climbing out, Gura’s mind refused to stop spiraling. Even when both were fully covered by the fabric of the banner and washing their clothing in awkward silence, their faces were stuck beet red. The dry heat of hell thankfully meant that things dried quickly, so mercifully neither needed to be wrapped in only old cloth for very long. Regardless when Gura finished fixing her cloak after fully dressing and stole a glance at the reaper, she was still very flushed. Gura’s chest tightened and her stomach fluttered.

The moment I realize I’m in love with Calli is when we somehow ended up holding each other while fucking naked...Hell is wild!

Chapter Text

“Did I ever say that hell was wild, Calli?” Gura called out. Her attention focused more on kicking back the undead that had sprung forth from seemingly nowhere, than hearing Calli’s response. Her throat was dry. Unbelievably dry. Gura’s arms felt a little sore, and yet, the undead horde seemed never-ending. The prongs and end of her trident sparked a little less, having been used to hack through the sea of undead before her.

“Yeah-” Calli’s response was cut off by a grunt. Gura heard a furious slash through the air behind her before the Reaper continued. “-You have.” Gura felt elated hearing the grin on her face. How she’s smiling while all of this is happening is just as wild! Gura thought, though she had to admit it was a good workout.

Thrusting her trident into a rotting, gaping maw pointed at her, Gura quickly twirled it around, striking anything close by before her trident glowed. Water emerged from the aquamarine weapon in a line, like rope following the sweep of the weapon through the air almost as if Gura were drawing a circle around her with its crimson-stained tip. The water line hovered mid-air for the split second it took to create it before burst into the undead ranks around her. For only a moment Gura watched them burn, relying on the purifying abilities of the water she could create in limited quantities for battle worried her deep down. She needed this same water to survive here, after all, but the next incoming wave of shambling corpses switched her worry for annoyance. Gura clicked her tongue. “Calli!”

“Got it!” Calli replied quickly. Gura planted her trident into the ground shortly after, grounding herself by standing on the undersides of the prongs as Calli swung Ricky and shriveled frail limbs were sliced loose, falling uselessly to the ground. Gura dug deep. Come on, old man! I know I talk a lot of smack, but give me a hand here! She felt the trident respond, a magical pull rippling from deep within it, and the ground underfoot trembled. “Calli, in the air!” Instantly, Calli was floating as the stone underfoot ruptured and fractured. In a tight area around them, the rough stone cracked open like the jaws of a great beast and swallowed the remaining walking bags of flesh and bone. It was all Gura could manage to do, sealing the huge cracks shut again before she sighed and leaned against the trident, panting. Finally, taking advantage of the slightest respite, they regrouped.

“This is never gonna end, where are these things coming from?!” Gura shouted back, as she glared into the fog that had steadily consumed the area far off from the ruins they were currently staying in. From within the thick mist both could see shapes, some clearer due to their proximity, others faded and more hardly even visible but all countless in number, all resembling humanoids in varying states of decay. All of them slowly staggered towards the two from all sides. Side by side, both warriors sighed in annoyance but Calli didn’t miss how Gura still seemed a little out of breath; how her stance was looser, more tired, how her grip on her trident was a little weaker. 

Calli grit her teeth. “Well, this is partly my fault.” Gura looked shocked hearing that. Calli quickly continued, shooting a reassuring gaze to the shark. “When we uh… bathed, you took off your Reaper gear. That essentially made you one big beacon to the undead.” 

Gura sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Damn it! That’s right. Then they are after my life concept thingy?”

“Exactly!” Calli confirmed, looking towards the rapidly approaching undead. Gura couldn’t help but watch them approach. The tension in the air was clear. Gura took a deep, slow breath, cracked her knuckles, and got ready for the fight to come. Calli did the same, cracking her neck and rolling her shoulders with a sigh.

“Ready?” Calli called out, Ricky at her side. 

Gura smiled, but it seemed tight. “Of course!”

Their numbers were immense and Calli was well aware that although she could fight near endlessly if need be, Gura could not. She had limits that Calli could see the signs of and that proved to be far better motivation than simply the knowledge of their overall goal. The reaper reasoned she was going to have to take out the majority herself, and quickly, so that Gura didn’t over-extend herself enough to be concerning. This entire journey was already testing the shark in many ways and the last thing Calli wanted was for her to come out of this with any sort of permanent damage, be it (mental, emotional, or physical). 

While all of that ran through her mind, Calli called on more of her powers than she usually did in combat. Maybe if she was more creative she could end this faster and Gura could get some rest. The scythe's blade glided through bodies and on a wide backswing Calli used the arched spike at the back end of Ricky's blade to brain a corpse that had come just a little too close to Gura’s back while she had jumped to take care of two at once.

“Thanks!” Gura breathed, kicking off of the head of a corpse reaching for her.

Calli spun back, the staff of Ricky smashing the ribs of three bodies as she used the back (slightly duller) side of the blade to brute force cut into the mid-sections of five others under where Gura had just been standing. 

“I hate fighting these things! I have electroreceptors so I can sense movement from muscles near me but half these assholes are just old leather skin and bones or just bones!” Gura yelled as she clumsily landed and barely avoided two bodies throwing themselves onto her with a squeal. “It’s like fighting half blind!”

Calli turned, noticed Gura getting overwhelmed, and didn’t waste a second. Her scythe still came down in the wide swing she had started, but when it cut through the mass of bodies a small cut in reality opened and Calli reached through. Her hand appeared right above Gura while she was in the middle of mashing the butt end of her trident into a yelling skull and Calli’s fist closed on the hood of Gura’s cloak to yank her up and roughly through the seam in space-time. The shark screamed in surprise and nearly fell into Calli when her sense of gravity and spacial awareness shifted suddenly. Her head was spinning. 

Calli righted her, pressing her back to Gura’s to steady her. “Sorry dude, I know that probably feels really fucked up.”

Gura ducked low to let Ricky swing above her head. “No, thanks for that. I was getting a little lost in the sauce back there.”

Calli smirked and chuckled, “The sauce? What kinda sauce would these guys be?” She felt Gura jump, half-stepping on Calli’s shoulder to use her as a springboard and come down harder on a particularly fresh, gooey-looking corpse. Gura wasn’t particularly heavy or large but when her feet slammed down onto the head of the fragile body it was smashed into gore fairly quickly.

“A really shitty brand of BBQ sauce that always gives you heartburn every time you eat it but it’s the only sauce this one really good local place has so you end up with like 40 packs in your fridge that you never use but you feel too bad about throwing them out to do anything about it.” 

Calli barked a laugh, smiling brightly as she used her ability to levitate to glide over Gura and take out another handful of the undead. “Dude why was that so fucking weirdly specific?” 

The mirth in Calli perked up Gura’s mood a little and through her sore muscles and aching joints, she chuckled back. “Ha. That story was based on something true even-Dude!”

Gura sensed movement in the air. Something huge and fast and coming right for them. She tried to act, jumping, landing on Calli to pin her down and hopefully out of harm's way but when they hit the ground, Calli saw it. A huge bug-like thing with far more spikes and horns than it had any right having was coming in low and incredibly fast. It was going to hit them even this close to the ground and the undead were crawling over them in the few seconds they had already been down.

“Gura!” Calli didn’t think. She stood up, cut a seam in reality, and threw Gura through it. The shark screamed as she was suddenly dozens of feet in the air, clear of harm but was forced to watch this thing slam into Calli at breakneck speed.

“CALLI!” Terror, raw terror shot through Gura as she started to fall back down to the smear of blood and bones on the ground. 

The fall didn’t kill Gura, but it did hurt like hell when she landed. The wind was knocked from her entirely and Gura was sure that if she had bones instead of cartilage that something would have broken. She laid there gasping, trying to get air back into her lungs, trying to force her body to get up. She could sense that same huge thing circling back.

Right as She was struggling to get back on her feet, another small seam in reality opened and Calli fell through. It took everything Gura had to catch her and stay standing.

The relief was so overwhelming that Gura teared up, “Holy fuck, you’re alive!?” Her voice shook.

Calli groaned and righted herself. “Yeah, remember? This body isn’t me. It’s just what I’m vibing in.” Through her side, the fabric of her reaper uniform hung loose, torn, and tattered over a chunk missing in her torso. The site made Gura gasp, but no blood came from the wound. Calli caught her staring but quickly looked back towards the thing in the air, it was coming back and it was laughing.

“That's why I’m not bleeding. Surface damage bleeds to make me seem more human but big shit like this won't. My blood isn't real.”

“Are you going to be ok?!” 

“Yeah. I need to eat to convert the mass I intake into replacement mass to heal but for now, this just means moving around is gonna suck.”

“Oh, that's why eating heals you…”

“She’s coming back.”

“Fuck!”

Finally able to get a look at the thing, Gura’s face scrunched up in disgust. The thing was like a twisted fly or bee, Gura could guess the horn on its head was what had torn a chunk out of Calli’s side. 

Calli quickly flew into the air, twirling her scythe in her grip. Gura switched to an underhand grip, taking a breather as she kept a careful eye on the twisted excuse for a bug. “Got a plan?” Gura called out gritting her teeth. God this thing is disgusting. She couldn’t help but think.

Feeling something prick her senses, she rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding an undead that had lunged for her. Quickly decapitating it with the shaft of her trident, Gura realized how many undead were still coming. Shit!

“I thought we got them all!” The shark yelled out, scrapping whatever courage she had gathered to face the bug as she cut down the undead that drew too close. Looking back for a brief moment, Gura’s mouth went agape. Calli was managing to keep up with the bug, occasionally managing to cut into the thing's skin before the thing's wings forced her away. Fear ebbed into the back of her mind. I have to finish these off, she’s gonna need help. 

As Gura leapt into the ever-growing horde once more, Calli bit back a curse. Shit, that isn’t good! The Reaper thought, spotting the shark. Before she could do much more the bug twisted around, slamming its body into her and sending her flying. 

With a groan Calli threw Ricky ahead of her, cutting a portal mid-flight and falling through onto the creature's back. She began summoning Ricky back into her grip as she held on for dear life. As she fought to stay in the creature's blind spot, she looked down to Gura. Her trident was barely even shining, Gura had taken to using it as a bat to take down as many as she could, as quickly as she could.

The gusts of wind the thing's wings created began to throw the corpses back, nearly doing the same to Gura before she rooted herself down with her trident. Seeing this, Calli smiled, Ricky flying back to her just in time. Throwing it over her head, she planted it into the creature's skin. Fighting against its movements, Calli began to drag the blade, grunting and having to grip the scythe awkwardly due to her wound. Soon enough, the thing began to fight harder to shake her off. 

Gura looked up, the thing was lashing around rolling and spinning in an effort to fight Calli off of it. The gusts of wind still raging, Gura’s mind raced. Calli can’t do that forever! It needs to be grounded… How to- realization hit her like a truck. Digging into the ground, literally, Gura picked the trident out of it. The wind threatened to knock Gura back much like it did the undead. Gura’s cartilage burned with resolve, as she once again switched to an underhand grip. Focusing as hard as she could, she watched the thing writhe. Calli had dragged the scythe up its back, getting to its neck (if it even had one). Gura didn’t want to imagine the smell.

Clicking her tongue, Gura took in a sharp breath. “Calli!” she screamed, before throwing her trident as hard as she could. Her shoulder sparked in pain, as she watched it cut through the air. Calli realized what Gura was doing immediately, tugging Ricky to the side, forcing the creature to bank to the side-right where Gura’s trident was heading.

The trident impacted with a flash, Calli could feel the things body shake as the three prongs dug into its skin. Quickly shifting her weight, Calli turned the creature again, until the side that faced Gura was opposite the one with her trident.

It let out a wail, ripping through the air and sending chills down Gura’s spine. Once it’s wails passed, Gura looked back at the thing, a satisfied smirk quickly finding its way to her face. “Calli! Keep the trident inside it!” She explained, digging herself into the ground even more as Calli got Ricky’s blade around one side of the trident. Tugging it deeper into the skin of the creature, Calli grit her teeth.

The thing began thrashing around even harder, Calli’s wound made holding on and keeping the trident in place exceedingly difficult. After making sure she was in a good place, Calli called out to the shark. “Gura, do it!” 

Gura took a deep breath, before raising a hand towards the creature. Then, she pulled at her trident. The whole disgusting creature lurched towards her, and subsequently, the ground. Calli’s legs began to shake under the stress, but she didn’t stop pulling. Gura’s own arm began to hurt. The creature fought against the pull, Calli could feel the trident fight harder to reach Gura’s hand. 

Gura’s arm burned with the effort, with a growl she quickly raised her other one. The creature lurched again, as the trident began going deeper into its skin. A third lurch nearly threw Calli off, as she spared a glance to Gura. Her blue highlights had shifted to blood red. Her face twisted with anger, yet confidence. What the-

Another lurch cut off that line of thought, Ricky lost its grip on the trident and Calli nearly fell because of it, only saved by quickly twirling it back into the thing's skin. Calli could no longer see the three prongs, the head of the trident had been pulling deeper as another sudden yank pulled the creature. 

“Ack, come on you stupid son of a-” Gura forced all her energy into one last pull, and with a rather disgusting noise, her trident burst free on the other side. Calli’s body shook as the thing wailed once more, this time Gura didn’t pay it any mind, catching her soaked red trident and rearing back to throw it again. 

She hesitated, as the creature faltered, collapsing to the ground in a big cloud of smoke and dust. “Tch. I was hoping for a little more fun.” Gura muttered as she approached the downed bug.

Calli pried Ricky out of its skin, trying to breathe in as little of the things smell as possible. Noticing Gura’s approach, she called out. “Neat idea, I’m surprised it worked so well!”

“Wait” Gura tensed, she could still sense it moving slightly. “It’s not dead yet?!” 

As if on cue the bug-like thing stood on all six of its legs and now both were close enough to see the underside of its front half had a small woman growing out of the carapace. 

“You think that would be enough to kill me?!” she mocked and her voice sounded far, far too sweet and pleasing than it had any right to be coming out of…that.

Calli recoiled and adjusted her grip on Ricky. “With all those big wide-open slashes in your sorry ass, you’re not gonna be around for long.” She mocked back. 

The thing laughed. “I don’t suppose you’d step aside, miss reaper? I’d love to hear the cute fish girl’s sweet voice screaming while I eat her innards.” she batted her eyes at Calli and she spat on the bug-girl-thing’s face in response.

“Eat shit.”

“Yeah, get fucked.”

A spined leg lifted daintily and pressed to the woman’s exposed chest as if offended, “Such language! And I asked so nicely, too. Oh well~”

The speed her leg moved was faster than Gura’s extra sense could detect and faster than Calli’s damaged body could respond. In the blink of an eye, it slammed into Gura and sent her flying into the pile of limbs and gore from the undead that had been swept up in the bug demon’s backwind. The force of the blow was enough that Gura was sent into the pile like a bullet and had she been human she would have been dead. The force of the blow rattled everything in her and when she shot out of the other side of the pile she skipped across the ground like a stone on the surface of a lake until she dragged along the ground enough to slow to a stop. 

It felt like she had been hit by a train. She could feel her more firm cartilage had bent or warped in some places. It almost broke, but the minor warping and bending arguably hurt more. Something else inside of her had rattled around just a little too much and Gura felt like her gills and lungs had switched places somehow. She fought to stay awake, even with the boost of adrenaline being in her red form gave her everything hurt so damn much. She heard a yell, Calli’s voice but her vision was blocked by the pile she had shot through. 

“F-fuck…” Gura’s voice came out garbled and she leaned up with a groan to spit out blood and teeth. “Least they grow back fast…”

It was hard to register what Calli was yelling about but Gura could see the back of the massive bug moving around frantically from over the top of the pile and could sense the movement. Calli was still fighting it. Alone.

“Fuck!” Gura tried to force herself up on her hands and knees at least. Something, anything. “I have to help, Calli. I can’t be the stupid fucking dead weight.” The reaper gear she wore had saved her from any open wounds so at least any kind of infection wasn’t a worry but the way her organs felt like a smoothie inside of her was probably worse.

“Fucking MOVE Gura!” she yelled at herself, barely getting on her hands and knees. Where had her trident gone? Did it even matter if she was basically only going to poke the big ugly thing with it anyway? “You stupid, useless shark. MOVE!” she clamped her jaw down with the effort it took to stand, almost falling to her knees twice. Calli was still yelling something, Gura thought it might be her name.

“Calli! I’m-” she coughed, the force of her own voice hurting her ribs. “-I’m alive!”

The bug thing flapped its wings and the wind pressure almost knocked Gura flat again. When she lowered her arms and took a few unsteady steps Gura spotted the wing being cut off. She’s fighting alone, with a hole the size of your head in her side. Move your ass! Gura growled, her tail lashed violently, she was getting angrier than she could remember being in a long long time. Angry with herself for her own weakness, for her own frailty. 

The same primal feeling Gura knew well from her red side whispered to her, filled her head, made her veins burn, and slowly, steadily the pain didn’t seem to matter anymore.

The hole in her side was a huge pain in the ass, but at least now that Calli knew Gura was alive she didn’t have to freak out. She could focus. She parried the horn again, then a leg, and another. The speed of the bug woman had only become manageable because her own injuries were catching up to her now too. As Calli evaded, blocked, parried, was blocked, was evaded, and was parried herself she couldn’t help but realize they were in a deadlock. Two wounded animals thrashing around in a desperate struggle but neither able to get the upper hand. Part of her wondered if having a body was even worth it at this point. If only she didn’t still need it. 

Her body was slowing. Calli was getting more frustrated and it was right when one bug leg was blocked and another was sweeping low for her legs when Calli’s eyes widened with shock. In low, on all fours came sprinting in a blue and black smear of color and the bug’s leg was grabbed. Calli watched the seconds pass as Gura ripped it off and leapt up to sweep Ricky across its neck. The exoskeleton was too strong and Ricky got stuck only a foot in. She screamed and Calli held on, trying to find purchase to pull down when she was basically hanging loose.

“Fuck!”

“Got you!” Gura was there, leaping through the air on the opposite side of Calli’s swing, still on all fours like some kind of animal. Calli looked just in time to watch Gura fly at her and catch her hips. The force of the leap carried over her momentum and both girls were forced violently through the air but Calli held on to Ricky and the blade was able to rip past the exoskeleton and take the creature’s head. 

Calli tried to twist them in the air but was just a touch too slow and when they hit the ground Gura bounced off of her and landed with a dull thud next to her. 

“Holy shit…Is it dead?” Calli turned her head to look over at Gura and was surprised to see that not only were her eyes red, but her pupils were slits, and a second set of eyelids Calli had never noticed blinked with her first set. When she spoke, Calli could swear there was another row of teeth behind her first for a second.

“Yeah, the bitch is down for good now.” There was a rasp to Gura’s voice that both sent a chill down Calli’s back and heat to her cheeks.

Calli couldn’t stop staring. “I think all the mother fuckers who were trying to literally take your life are done like dinner too.” She rolled onto her side and got up slowly. Gura was still on her stomach but had propped herself up on her elbows. Her ponytail had been swept to the side enough that Calli could clearly see the back of her neck. The reaper squinted. Did her shark skin always trail that high up?

“Good. Bastards.” Gura half growled the words.

Calli took a deep, calming breath. She went to put her hands on her hips, to stretch, before remembering the wound. Shit, we both should eat. She thought, looking over at the many bodies of the undead, then to the giant demonic bug. “We should get back, rest a little. I can head out and get us some food after.”

With a grunt, Gura climbed onto her feet. Calli didn’t miss the slightly pained expression on her face. “Sounds good to me, I’m assuming we’re eating this bitch then?” Gura vaguely gestured to the giant bug. She groaned when Calli nodded. “Guess the only alternative is the undead… anything would be better than that.”

Flashing a smile to the shark, she motioned for her to follow. Gura summoned her trident back to her hand as they began the somewhat long trek back to the ruins. The walk back was in relative silence, both of them trying to calm down from the hectic fight.

Calli froze, hearing Gura collapse behind her. “Gura?!” She exclaimed, diving almost immediately to her side. The shark cursed under her breath, Calli noticing that scales that were on her neck had retreated. So they weren’t always there?! What the hell… Calli thought snapping back to reality, as Gura struggled to even get on all fours. Her red eyes flashed to Calli. 

Calli quickly supported her, helping her onto her knees then onto her feet. Gura let out groans of pain with each step they took. “This… hurts like a bitch honestly. Never would’ve guessed that glorified fly packed such a punch,” she muttered. Calli could still see the way Gura flew back from the strike in her mind. It sent worry and anger through her mind, despite the thing already being dead.

“Don’t think of the pain right now, you’ll be resting in no time,” Calli instructed, looking to the ruins a little ways away. We should speed this up. No telling how Gura will feel when she’s not red like this. 

Looking to Gura, Calli motioned to the ruins, “You mind if I fly you over there? I know you’re scared of-”

“Flying sounds nice. It hurts a lot to move my everything.” Gura leaned against the Reaper, who promptly scooped her up into her arms. Letting Ricky fade away, Calli lifted off the ground and set out for the ruins. She kept a worried gaze on Gura. The sight of her pained, and cradling her trident made Calli fly ever faster.

Calli practically skid to a stop at the ruins, hurriedly getting inside, she set Gura down gently against a wall. Setting up the hammock, she scooped the shark back up and placed her inside. Finally, with room to worry, she looked over Gura for injuries. 

“I’m fine,” Gura mumbled before another wave of pain washed over her. “On the outside at least.”

Calli chuckled but looked her over anyway. Sure enough, Gura had no visible injuries. The reassuring feeling she had was temporary, as she quickly began worrying over what she couldn’t see.

“What about your insides?”

“That's an odd way of asking that, uh” Gura laughed a little, careful to not hurt herself. “I don’t know. Things feel like mush honestly.”

Not good! Calli’s mind screamed at her. A reassuring tug at her clothing forced Calli from her spiral. Gura had managed to tug at her. “Hey, listen, I won't die on you.”

Gura gave a reassuring smile. Calli let out a sigh, running a hand through her hair as she thought things through, this time trying not to panic. Finally, she closed her eyes. When Gura saw her next open them, she was staring at Gura. At least, at first. Gura noticed soon though that she was really looking through her. 

“Uh, You alright?” She asked, prompting Calli to close her eyes again.  

“Fine. I checked you over more closely. You aren’t dying though. Just, well, really banged up.” Calli said, finally letting her shoulders relax. She looked over Gura, as the shark let out a weak laugh. 

Sitting down next to Gura, Calli finally let her body relax and unwind. “How did you even manage to survive that?” She saw Gura’s eyes steadily change back to their usual ocean blue as she spoke. Subsequently, she saw how her body stiffened. The wave of pain that followed soon after made her wince loudly. Calli tried to fight back the worry that grew in her heart.

“Ah, that uh…” Gura trailed off, the only sign she hadn’t passed out was her eyes blinking. “It’s something all Atlanteans have actually.”

“Oh? Really?” Calli’s brow raised, curiosity mixing with worry. 

“It's a sort of… last resort? No that's not it…” Gura paused, still trying to figure out how to word it. Then, her eyes lit up. “It’s a link.”

“A… link?”

“Yeah! To our more primal side. A link to that.” Gura flashed her shark teeth to emphasize the point. “When I go red like that, I get a boost of power! Though… it has drawbacks.” 

Calli didn’t miss the way Gura’s voice shook when she said that. “What do you mean?”

“The primal side of us is, well, everything you hate about yourself essentially. If ya use it you get stronger yes, but, in my case, for example, you become cruder. Ruder. Selfish. Everything about yourself you hate no matter how vile.” Gura looked to the ceiling, eyes full of thought.

“I see…” Calli mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. “So that's why you were like that yesterday.”

Gura face palmed, as much as she could from that pain that is. “Yeah, that's why. That's also why I was so… ugh, anyway. That's what that is.”

“So you also become more primal too then?” Calli asked, though her phrasing seemed more a statement than a question to Gura.

“I… what? Like appearance-wise?”

“Yeah. Your shark skin was up to your neck earlier.”

Gura felt the back of her neck. Nothing. “That's… never happened before.” Gura’s hand covered her mouth. An Atlanteans appearance doesn’t usually change when tapping into that. But, Calli wouldn’t lie… That's concerning.

Calli went to say something before her whole body twitched. Gura’s eyes snapped to her almost immediately. “Calli?”

“Yeah, I’m fine just,” Calli paused for a few seconds, eyes looking all around the room as if she was seeing something that wasn’t even there. “Got a message.” 

Gura perked up. “A… message? From who, Thanatos?”

Calli shook her head, looking deep in thought before finally speaking again.

“ Ina .”

Chapter Text

Calli's eyes were glued to the small unassuming coin in her hand. The pad of her thumb ran gently over the triangle symbol upon it. With practiced grace, the coin flipped between her fingers until the opposite side was facing her. The same symbol, and Latin letters, stared back at her. The open eye upon the triangle staring back at her.

It was quiet, a moment between the fighting, the struggling. Gura was out cold in her hammock, hardly moving and looking extremely sore. The most recent altercation had tested them, but more so, it had been the closest call Gura had since they came here.

Red eyes moved between Gura and the Atlantean coin. 

"Never again…" 

From where she sat on a broken bit of stone, smoothed down over the ages, Calli watched the slow rise and fall of Gura's chest as she breathed. When she focused, Calli could see Gura's soul and concept through the reaper uniform. She was still here.

A noise, Gura groaned in her sleep and Calli was at her side. 

When they returned from their fight the two had discussed the message to Calli while they ate what they could find. The damage that had been done, meant that Calli needed to eat the equivalent of a full meal to regenerate properly and so everything had been a pain to deal with in their state. 

Those in the mortal realm had managed to scrape together their abilities to give them an update on the situation on earth. The difference in the flow of time between realities meant that only a few hours had passed on earth while it had been roughly five days for Calli and Gura in hell.

The message was short, but it gave them both the reprieve from the grim fighting they’d endured. The battles on earth were still raging, though they were being contained. Gura was able to sleep soundly at that. 

Calli’s however, was filled with unease.

The longer we take, the stronger those affected become. Calli thought, looking at her hands. They were dirty, stained by demon blood and ashes. They shook a little, getting a sigh out of Calli. Her gaze soon traveled once again to the sleeping shark. One thought persisted in the back of her mind like a plague. It infected whatever hope she had gained from the message, turning it to mush in her head. 

Gura can’t fight forever. She needs time to heal up.

We won’t always have that.

Calli sighed, closing her eyes. Slumped against the wall, the reaper pinched the bridge of her nose. The coin in her grasp felt heavy. The stare of its eye felt like burns on her skin, Calli quickly smothered the coin in her fist. A shaky breath followed. The buzz in the back of her mind remained, even as the reaper looked to the shark once more.

With some hesitation, Calli brushed her hand through the shark's hair. A smile formed on her lips, her heart fluttering as a sleep-filled smile formed on Gura’s face. “I’ll have to protect you going forwards. That much will be true. I just know it.”

Calli wasn’t sure how much time passed before Gura stirred again. Her gaze was too focused on watching for movement outside, it took a pained gasp from Gura to tear her eyes back to her. 

“Ack, shit that hurts a lot,” Gura muttered, clutching her body as she tried to sit up in the hammock. “How long have I been out?”

“A while, I wasn’t keeping count though.” Calli took a seat beside her, trying to hold in her worry over the shark's condition. “You feel any better?”

“A little. Hard to tell when everything still hurts.” Gura smirked, it was small but brought reassurance to Calli’s thoughts. Calli’s brow furrowed, Gura was quick to notice it. “What?”

Sighing, Calli ran a hand through her hair “I think I- We, made a bad call. Staying here in this old ruin was a good idea, at the start. Now it’s just becoming a bit of a liability.”

“It is attracting demons though, so it’s not a total loss right?” Gura mumbled,” Plus, this place is easy to defend.”

Calli chuckled before quickly shaking her head. “I’m just thinking Gura… Staying here has put both of us, you especially, at risk. You were hurt badly last time. I…” Calli trailed off, turning her gaze to the ceiling.

Gura fell silent, following Calli’s gaze. The reaper eventually continued, after some time had passed. “We’ll have to move at some point. I’m just thinking it would be better to it now, on our terms, rather than when something comes through we can’t stop .”  

Gura nodded along, her eyes closed as if trying to work something out in her mind. With a hiss, Gura slid out of the hammock with little fanfare. “Woah?! You're still hurt aren’t you?” Calli quickly helped her out of it, Gura grumbled in pain all the while. 

“And? You're right. I can deal with a little pain.” Gura looked confident, but Calli could sense worry behind her gaze. Before she could comment on it Gura continued, “Besides these damn demons will think we’re still here. That will buy us a little time to get away.”

Calli’s eyes widened, “That's, a really good point! Hopefully, enough time for us to find more of what we’re looking for as well.” Gura hummed in agreement, leaning against the wall while Calli gathered what little they had. It was mostly the hammock, but Calli made sure to wrap some leftover meat for later. Gura took the hammock, while Calli kept the meat on her. 

Together they left the ruin and started walking. It was mutually agreed that they would just simply walk as the landscape of hell even when it was properly divided into the different afterlives was completely unlike traveling in the mortal world. It was an ever-shifting thing, almost alive in how it changed, moved, and evolved. 

They needed more information about the situation. So far their stay had been more reactionary and struggling to assess how messed up hell actually was, with a little of getting Gura more accustomed to being in a different reality. But now they needed to act. They were on a ticking clock and while Calli could fight for practically forever, her friends back on earth could not, Gura could not.

The coin in her pocket was heavy.

Gura had a ticking clock.

The walk was slow and sluggish. Gura was still very sore from the day before but the more she moved the more her joint’s loosened. What worried Calli wasn’t just the persistent soreness or aches and pains from the previous fight, but a small horribly dry cough Gura seemed to have picked up. It wasn’t a hard cough, only light little ones every few hours but the dryness in the way Gura breathed in after was concerning. They had no medication or tea or anything that could ease the beginnings of an illness and never having taken a mortal to hell, Calli had no idea if there were illnesses unique to this place that one could catch. She kept all this to herself, however, choosing not to worry Gura unnecessarily and instead busied herself with conversation. Calli explained that in spiritual realms it was best to think of it like a thinking feeling thing and travel with intent rather than direction. If one walked (or scuttled, or scurried, or swam, or crawled) with a strong enough will to find something usually that intent would influence how the dimension would shift and react around them. 

The ever-changing indescribable landscape kept them alert and the walk was a consistent slog. However, this also meant that by the time they had started to slow to take a break (For Gura’s sake) they had managed to walk an impossible distance from the ruins. 

They stopped in what looked like a ruined empty ancient city. At first, the crumbing stone work and pillars made Gura’s eyes wide and for just a moment, in her heart, she thought of Atlantis but after just a bit of a longer look, she realized that it was far too different. The wrong stone, different carving patterns, none of the Greek motifs or influences that Atlantis and the human civilization that neighboured them shared. 

In the shell of a half-crumbled home, Calli broke apart what was left of some ruined furniture and was about to use it to start a fire when she sensed something.

“Gura.” Her tone made the shark stiffen and summon her trident instantly.

Gura probed at her sixth sense, the same one used in water to hunt small prey hidden from view. “What's coming? I can’t pick up any movement nearby.”

Calli turned her head and seemed to almost be looking through the walls and crumbled buildings. “It’s not something with a body. There's a reaper near here.”

Gura relaxed. “Oh, right I keep forgetting you having a body is the exception…”

Calli’s gaze stayed distant. “I think they're just hiding out here too. They feel really low on energy. I guess it's kind of like what happened to me on earth but less related to my body.”

“Well, we should go check them out. Maybe they have something useful they can tell us about what's going on.”

Calli stiffened and her head turned to stare at Gura, expression hard. “No. I mean. I have to go alone.”

The shark raised a brow in confusion. “Huh? Wait a second I know I’m sort of tender still but it’s not safe for us to separate.”

“It doesn’t matter. If you come with me you’ll die.”

“Huh? Ok, explain miss ow the edge.”

With a sigh, Calli turned her body to face Gura as well and took a few steps closer. As if trying to show her something, Calli held out her open hand, her forearm to Gura. The shark just stared at her.

“You know this body isn’t really ‘me’. I’m just in it.”

“Yeah?”

“And do you know why I have to have this body to live on earth? To be around you all?”

“Because being a ghost thing that can't touch stuff would suck?”

That made Calli smile, “Ok it would but no. It’s because if a mortal looks at a reaper’s true form. They die. That's why humans can’t see us when we work, the natural order of things makes me, me in my real form, unknowable in mortal worlds. I can’t be seen or everyone would die.”

A pause, to let Gura take it all in. The shark lowered her trident then de-summoned it entirely and stared at the ground for a moment. 

“That's…really sad. No one you care about will ever know the real you unless they’re a reaper too?”

“Pretty much. There are very few immortal beings who can see us and not die as well. Not all immortals are deathless after all. A lot of time immortality means you can’t die unless a lot of really specific conditions are met or something like that. Now, if you’re deathless, then you can’t die no matter what.”

“Wait then, has Kiara seen you? Like the real you inside that body?”

“A long time ago we tried. I showed her and it killed her. When she was reborn later and got some of her memories back she could remember everything except what I looked like or how she saw me. Even now she can’t remember.”

Gura finally looked up, eyes filled with determination. “I’m still coming with you to talk to this reaper. I’ll pull my hood up over my eyes and hold your waist while we walk over there so I don’t see anything by accident and when we’re there I’ll keep my eyes closed too. I’m not letting you go alone in case something happens.”

This made Calli smile again, a small tired thing but one Gura treasured all the same.

“Fine. I know when I’m beat.”

Gura whooped and her tail wagged as she tugged her hood down. 

“Alright now come here pretty momma and let me hold you so I don’t walk into shit.”

Calli Flushed darkly and grabbed Gura’s wrists “D-don’t call me that dude…”

Gura only giggled in response, mirthful as she rested her hands on Calli’s waist with a toothy grin. 

Heading over to the reaper was awkward and when Calli’s suddenly stopped, Gura accidentally bumped right into her rear end. If Calli reacted, Gura couldn’t see. She kept her face planted against Calli, not daring to look up.

There was a hiss from in front of them, Calli remained silent. “Ah… Calliope.” The reaper muttered, their voice was raspy, almost pained. 

Calli spoke with the slightest smile, “Glad to see not everyone's down for the count. Well, completely at least.”

The reaper let out a rumbling laugh, “How ironic it is for the apprentice to still be able to do her duty…” The reaper’s enthusiasm faded. “That one beside you… she’s no reaper.”

Calli responded quickly, “Let's focus on the task at hand.” A silence fell over the two reapers. Gura could only guess they were glaring towards each other.

“Fine. Anything to get rid of this… hell.” The reaper gave in, Gura felt the way Calli’s body relaxed. One step closer to finishing this. Gura thought before Calli began.

“We need a way to kill a god. Do you know of any?” Calli draped her arm around Gura, pressing the shark closer. Gura’s heart fluttered at the action, she was happy Calli couldn’t see the shades of scarlet that washed over her face at the action.

“Kill a god? Ahh, I see.” The reaper worked out the idea quickly. They hummed as they tried to think up an answer. “There are a few methods that have been passed around in myth and legend. Most are probably true.”

“What are the ones most likely to work then?” Calli pushed, a fire in her throat. 

The reaper fell silent for a few seconds. Then, finally spoke again. “There's petrifying them. That one may work if you can get the head of a gorgon.” Gura felt Calli tense up again. Her grip on Gura tightened. Guess that's a no go on that one. Doubt any are still around based on the stories I remember. Gura thought as the Reaper continued on. 

“Hmm… Ah! There’s poison! That would also require finding a hydra though… that may be difficult in all this-.”

With a groan, Calli cut them off. “None of these sound all that likely to me!” Gura felt Calli tap her shoulder anxiously. “Give us one that will work and we’ll be on our way.”

“Geez, alright.” The reaper relented, though Gura could barely pick up what came next. “No wonder reapers are never meant to stay on the mortal world…”

Calli froze. It was brief but Gura felt it. Her heart raced with worry. The reaper began again, derailing whatever thoughts Gura could’ve worked into words. “There is Adamantine! A metal-”

“-Strong enough to damage gods…” Gura mumbled, finishing the sentence.

The Reaper soared, “Ah! Now this one knows her mythology!” Gura’s eyes widened What?! When did I hear of that? Gura quickly stuffed the confusion away. Calli’s chest hummed with intrigue.

“Interesting… do you know where this metal could be found?” Calli brought a hand to her chin, ready to commit the location to memory.

The reaper though sighed. “That, I can’t help you with. Especially since the underworld is all messed up. I do know of its appearance, however!”

With a groan, Calli pinched the bridge of her nose wearily. “Alright, that’ll do.”

The reaper explained quickly. Adamantine has no “color”. It shifts. Under a light, it’ll seem like gold, then silver. It fluxes, waxes, and wanes all at the same time. The only way to truly tell if what you're looking at is Adamantine is the sensation you feel. Calli understood what the Reaper meant, but translated it to Gura when she didn’t understand.

“Think… the feeling when you accidentally cut yourself, but before the pain hits,” Calli explained. 

“Ahh, I see! That helps, thanks Calli.” Gura made sure to remember that explanation. 

With the barest of info gotten, the pair bid the poor reaper farewells and continued through the city. When they were far enough away from the reaper, Calli let Gura open her eyes and take off her hood. “Well, that was helpful.” Calli declared as the ruins of the city opened up into a large central area. 

A dilapidated fountain greeted them. Its water flowed no longer, replaced by dust and grime. Ruined buildings surrounded the seeming center of the city, with long-abandoned market stalls greeting the pair as they walked through. It was an eerie sight, one Gura never thought she’d see. 

“What was up with that reaper? He was kinda an asshole.” Gura put her hands on her hips, Calli couldn’t help but laugh. All the while, Gura felt the faintest of pricks in the back of her mind. Somethings moving… must be the reaper.

“A lot of reapers have really old views. One of those views is that we shouldn’t mingle with mortals.” Calli took a seat on the edge of the ruined fountain, watching Gura with a smile.

Gura shook her head, “Wow, that's really stupid you know that?”

“Heh, you're telling me! I try not to pay them any mind. It makes things easier.” Calli’s gaze moved past Gura, over her shoulder. Gura felt that same prick again, but even stronger. “Gura…”

Gura turned around, staring down the long streets. The end of it was obscured by a thin cloud of dust. “I wasn’t wrong when I said we’d get time… I was expecting more than this though.” Gura grumbled, opening her palm as something began to emerge from the cloud of dust at the far end of the road.

“Shit,” Calli muttered as the shapes became clearer. “I knew this city was too calm to be true.”

“What?” Gura called out, her eyes scanning the shapes that emerged. 

There was a horde of smaller ones, and one large, towering shape. As Gura focused her eyes, she realized what she was looking at. “An army?!” She exclaimed, turning to Calli in disbelief.”

“Yep. It looks like it was this city’s army before it ended up here.” Calli had gotten up. Standing beside Gura, she summoned Ricky. “That big one.”

“It’s a demon lord isn’t it.” Gura sighed. Calli merely nodded, confirming Gura’s fears. “Man our luck is really shitty isn’t it.” 

Calli laughed at that before the large demon disappeared in a flash of light. “What the?!” Calli exclaimed. Gura felt… off. The prick in her mind was moving. Every so often, closer and closer, til-

Gura swung her arm around Calli, tackling both of them into a nearby market stall as where they were just standing exploded with a flash of lightning. They both scrambled to their feet, coming face to face with the Demon Lord that could’ve wiped them out had it not been for Gura’s senses.

A large, twisted-looking horse stood before them. Flames seemed to billow off its hooves and mane in a non-existent wind, its three horns glowing with an eerie, almost ethereal glow. Its rider was similarly off-putting. Electricity arced around its spiked blade, a soulless expression on their face. Gura grit her teeth. Its dark, heavy-looking armor was rather foreboding. That’ll be tough to pierce!  What little flesh was visible of both beings did not look like skin at all, but rather some horribly twisted amalgamation of hands, limbs, bones and other body parts flattened and made into some sort of horrid mockery of skin.

“Alright, this asshole wants to play then we can-” Gura cut herself off to summon her trident and block as the massive thing charged at her. The sheer force of its attack slammed her into Calli and together they were sent through three ruined buildings before finally slamming into a wall that didn’t collapse instantly and instead only half fell on them.

“Ugh…” Calli groaned and shoved Gura’s tail out of her face. “You alright?”

“No, but I'll live. Gotta say this is the least fun way to end up on top of you.”

Calli sputtered loudly and shoved Gura off of her, face red. The shark made a grunting noise when she hit the ground. 

“Is now really the time for jokes?!” Calli summoned Ricky and braced herself for a fight.

“Sorry, I’m coping.”

Calli smirked. “I’ll let you get away with it this time, but only because you’re cute.”

The pounding of hooves, then again, silence and electricity in the air. Gura smirked.

“Good to know a beautiful woman thinks I’m cute.”

It reappeared again but this time Gura yanked Calli lower and stuck her trident up at an angle. The charge of the horse-like beast was interrupted but the trident got caught in the legs of the horse and the rider couldn’t stop in time. The force of the thing tripping and tumbling violently forward at the speed it was moving nearly ripped Gura’s arms clean off and she had to let go of her trident and was still only stopped from getting dragged along for a bit when at the same time Calli has swiped Ricky at its back legs and grabbed the shark by her tail to yank her back.

While the thing crashed into the rubble, Gura scrambled to get back to her feet and call her trident back, her face extremely red. Calli too got to her feet and looked at Gura expecting to hear a one-liner so the blush was a confusing sight.

“W-what's with the blush?”

Gura turned away, trident ready for the thing to get back up. “Not the time and place!” Gura warned but Calli smirked.

“Oh please, you JUST flustered me. Spill, we can handle Seabiscuit here.”

The horse was getting back up.

“You pulled my tail!” Gura yelled, and her tone reminded Calli of an offended older woman complaining about something on television being too pricey.

“Yeah? To get you out of the way. What's the big deal?”

Calli caught Gura getting redder and without a word, they both jumped at the demon lord. Calli didn’t waste time trying to cut into the armor and instead swiped the blade at the fastenings to try and get it off instead. Gura used the fine points of her trident to stab into the space between some of the plates and managed to pin the rider even more so. (it was already half pinned under the horse.) Then Gura jumped back, out of reach to bite at whatever fastenings she could.

“Tail pulling is-” Gura ripped a belt apart, the horse thrashed and tried to electrocute them but the reaper gear absorbed the shock. “-its a-” Gura bit through another belt, the horse managed to kick her in the shoulder with its front hoof, sending her back and she cried out at the feeling of her cartilage being jostled. If she had human bones her arm would have been knocked clean out.

Calli jumped back as well, and Gura called the trident back to her hand.

“It’s a thing ok?!” she half yelled.

“A thing?”

“A ‘when two sharks love each other’ kinda thing!” Gura yelled as it came at them again. This time she jumped high into the sky and Calli sidestepped and swung Ricky at the horse’s legs, cutting the two front ones clean off. It fell forward in a bloody skid and the rider jumped off as the creature whined and hissed.

When Gura landed the trident came down into the earth and she called on Poseidon's power within it to create an earthquake. Plates of stone lifted between them and the approaching rider to slow his approach. Gura turned to Calli and saw that now she too was quite red in the face.

“Oh god. I’m sorry. I didn’t know dude.” Calli awkwardly tried to apologize. 

Gura took a deep breath. “Forget about it for now. Just…I don’t know, take me out on a date before you go yanking next time!”

If not for the sound of stone being slammed into, that sentence would have sent Calli spiraling into a flustered gay mess but the battle at hand was more important even if they were winning this time.

Then Gura felt it, that sensation Calli had explained to her earlier with the reaper. 

“Calli! It’s here in the city. I can feel the Adamantine!” 

“That's fucking lucky! Go, I can keep him busy.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! Go!”

Spinning on heel, Gura turned to sprint but felt the air around her grow heavy and suddenly it was like she was in slow motion.

“Shit!” She turned her head and saw the horse’s eyes glowing as it angrily stared at her from where it was now stuck on the ground and Calli already flying over the stone she had lifted to fight the demon lord.

“Fucking horse!” The sounds of the army were closing in as well, Gura didn’t have any time for this. Gura tried to use the trident to send water at it. The horse switched its focus to slow time on the water blast and the sudden return to normal time made Gura fall flat on her face. 

“Stupid horse!” Gura sprung up to her feet and jumped at it while also throwing her trident far past it and clear over the beast. It forced its time powers back on her and the water resumed normal speed, hitting the horse but only battering and bruising it. 

“You know I actually really like horses but you just suck,” Gura called her trident back and the pommel slammed so hard into the skull of the demonic horse that gore exploded all over the ground and the hell spawn fell limp.

Without any hesitation, Gura took off in the direction she could feel that strange sensation pulling at her from. 

Please, please. We keep having such shit luck. Let me find this damn thing fast!

Gura kept her trident out, using it almost like a pole vault to get around easier, to avoid as many obstacles as possible. When the army sounded too close, she de-summoned it and stuck low to the ground, even pulling up her hood to cover her white hair so she could blend into the shadows easier. She needed to be fast, and needless battles weren’t the way to get this done.

A crack of thunder echoed across the city. The lightning missed its mark as Calli leaped away. “Damn, your one annoying thing aren’t you,” Calli muttered, as the rider emerged from the rubble.

As sparks began to gather around the rider, and Calli prepared herself, she felt a flicker in the distance. A smile formed on her lips. Gura. Let's turn this shitty streak around!

With a roar, the rider lunged towards Calli. Their sparking blade meets Calli’s scythe. The moment it did, the Reaper quickly parried it to the side, twisting Ricky as swinging at the neck of the demon. 

A clang rang out, making Calli click her tongue before being batted back into the city center. Rolling to recover, Calli got back on her feet. No dice. Not with that little speed at least. 

Once more, a flash. Calli leaped clean deftly onto the tip of the fountain, evading a trio of lighting where she just stood. The rider appeared from its path of destruction, practically sneering at Calli. 

“For someone who can shoot lightning, you can’t aim for shit!” Calli called out, before spotting the rapidly approached demons. Damn, this is about to get a little more complicated. She spotted archers at the back, but a lot of soldiers as well. 

The heavy armor and shields would pose a challenge. Calli sighed, twirling Ricky in her grip as she stared down the two forces. “God this day better end great…” She muttered, before cutting clean through the tip of the fountain with her scythe. Leaping back, she kicked it towards the soldiers.

As it crashed into the column, thunder clapped in the sky. Calli quickly threw Ricky into the air, leaping back a moment later as the bolt clapped down. The rider was in her face within seconds, its blade moving to cut her in two. 

As calm as she could be, Calli drew Ricky back. Her hand stopped the rider's blade inches from her waist, the electricity arcing and pulsating up her arm. Calli grit her teeth, her arm beginning to shake.

Then, something slammed into the back of the thing's head, and electricity poured into the thing. Stepping out of the way, Calli spotted the cause. Ricky! The scythe was crackling with electricity, still pouring it back into its sender. 

“Huh, you could dish it but couldn’t take it. Literally.” Calli muttered, pulling Ricky from its head, and casting her gaze upon the demons approaching. This is gonna be a slog. Calli thought, narrowing her gaze upon the stronger demons she could pick out. I hope Gura’s gonna have an easier time than me! 

The air was practically vibrating, Gura could tell she was close to the Adamantine, she had to be. Sprinting right out into a small clearing Gura’s mind raced with what form the metal would be in. Would it be a sword, a spear maybe? Or maybe a-

A massive scaled, three-headed beast rested its heads on the stone ground from where its massive body rested in what was once this city’s aqueducts and water reservoir and instantly it awakened and hissed loudly. “FUCK! HYDRA!” 

Almost cartoonishly, Gura frantically tried to skid to a stop and sprint back the way she came. Her feet slipped and she nearly fell, Opting to dive for cover before the hydra could do anything to her. Gura’s chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath, and summoned her trident. 

“Ok, this area has to have been fused with Tartarus or hades or something because your big ass should NOT be here!”

It hissed again and Gura cursed loudly. How the fuck did these things die in the stories?

She recalled something about its blood smelling terrible and knew instantly if true it would be especially terrible for her given her sharper sense of smell. She glanced down at her outfit, not much to work with there.

“Alright then, guess I’m getting creative…” 

With her trident, Gura called forth some of the water in the reservoir. It wasn’t as pure as the water she could create but it was good enough for what she was about to do. It was just a little, only enough to cover her upper body and head. The water formed around her head, head shoulders but kept her arms free, and slipped over her gills. The fluttering of her clothes moved it just enough to let oxygen in and her gills got to work. 

Well, now all I can smell is how stinky I am. Gura thought with a grin as she ran out to take the thing on. As fast as a strategy went Gura could only briefly recall stories of all of its heads being cut off at once with a magical flaming sword, or other such similar methods of completely obliterating the thing. With no such options at her disposal, Gura was left to think on her feet while she tried to tire it out. Thankfully it was huge, slow, and clumsy and so getting around its spitting poison was fairly easy.

Her eyes traced the rubble around the reservoir, nothing. There was only the beast, stone, and the water. 

“Wait!” Gura yelled, it came out bubbled in the water around her head. The water!

If she could get close enough to the reservoir maybe she would use her trident….it was risky but it was the only plan she had.

An explosion rocked the ground. Calli quickly ducked under an exploding eye, swinging Ricky around to slice the arm of the demon clean off, before leaping away to get some distance. 

The column of twisted soldiers was disorganized, many of them were already out of the fight, but the few that remained kept up their determined resistance. Worse yet, was the worrying increase in demons. Kinds Calli had never seen much of before. Some undead had begun to roam, as were disgusting, twisted demons on four legs. A golden mask hiding a weird-looking tongue, and a body that seemed to spawn an endless number of exploding eyes.

Calli clicked her tongue. The soldiers, Masked Demons, Undead, and even a few flying ones were becoming troublesome. With little more than a sharp intake of Air, Calli picked her targets and lunged back into battle.

The soldiers raised their shields, forming a small shield wall. Calli simply hooked her scythe around the shield, and after getting enough leverage, pulled the shield wall apart. Before she could do anything more, thunder echoed.

Calli turned just in time to catch the blur of movement, before a demonic hand slammed into her face, throwing her through a great many buildings. Calli burst through a roof shortly afterward, her body bloodied, her expression one of annoyance.

She scanned the battlefield. The demon's numbers were overwhelming… even for her. Her expression soured, as she spotted the rider back up once more. Tch. Damn thing just won’t go down.

As thunder sounded through the sky, Calli raised her scythe once more. Catching the bolt, Calli was forced to the ground. A cloud of smoke erupted far from the center of the city.

Bursting forth from the cloud quickly, Calli twirled the electrified Ricky. Gritting her teeth, Calli began her blitz back to the city center. Ricky cut clean through anything in her path.

Ricky cut down a dozen undead. Then Calli twisted to evade a bolt, catching it and sending it towards a group of soldiers. The archers still alive readied a volley, as Calli neared.

With a command from the rider, the archers levied their volley. With practiced accuracy, Calli was forced to cut through the hail of arrows. A few even met their mark, catching Calli in the shoulder and leg. 

Calli winced but kept going, ignoring the embers of pain that were beginning to form. The masked demons then launched their exploding eyes. 

They landed short. Then bounced, Calli ducked under one eye. Then another. As she went to evade a third, an arrow pierced the air. Calli’s eyes widened before an explosion ripped through the eye, engulfing everything nearby.

Explosions filled the street as the other eyes were caught in a train reaction, obliterating the ruined houses nearby, and any demon corpses in the streets. As the smoke began to subside, the demons paused. Doubtlessly true that they had gotten the reaper…

A blur cut through the smoke, cutting through the demons nearby. The rider barely blocked it in time, avoiding being decapitated in the process. Emerging from the smoke, Calli resumed her advance.

Her uniform was tattered. The cape was even more torn than it already was. One of Calli’s arms was scorched, having been used to shield her eyes just before the explosions. Ash clung to Calli’s body even as she weaved through the demon ranks, cutting through them all with practiced precision. 

Soon enough, Calli had reached the center, the fountain, once more. The masked demons and soldiers that remained formed a wall between her and the Rider. The Rider raised their electrified blade, ready, as Calli prepared to finish things. 

Causing an earthquake of this size definitely put a strain on Gura and she groaned but bit her lip. She wasn’t going to be able to pester Poseidon again for a while if she tried to call forth another one but at least this was working. The tremors had caused an old tower’s foundation to crack and at the moment it was collapsing onto the Hydra’s three heads. Being trapped in the water reservoir meant it had nowhere to go and the crumbling rubble falling onto it proved the perfect distraction.

While the beast was trying to not get buried or brained by the falling stonework, Gura was able to scale the side of the reservoir and climb onto the rim. 

Alright stay nice and still for me! She thought as she jumped onto its back. Gura hoped all the stories and legends were true, she needed them to be. Landing on the root of its necks, she grabbed onto the thick of its middle neck to slide around and under it. There, Gura clung to its underside, stabbed the trident in, twisted, and then jammed her hand into the open wound. The creature bellowed and roared but the fallen rubble had pinned it and the pained thrashing was minimal. This allowed Gura to find what she had hoped for.

Shit, it’s bigger than I thought…

Clenching her Jaw, Gura swung herself around to lock her legs around the base of its neck. With her hands both free now she jammed the other in and clawed at the opening in the hydra’s scales to widen the hole. It roared in pain but Gura held on and shoved her other hand in as well. She grabbed and pulled, and put all her shark strength into it, the beast practically screamed and Gura tore free of it a large, bloody organ that was about half the size of her body before her grip gave out and she fell into the water of the reservoir. 

The water around her was kept separate from the water in the reservoir with the trident’s magic even from where it stayed stuck in the hydra as Gura swam and shot out of the water. In a clumsy, wet mess she landed on the rim of the large stone container and glanced down at the organ still in her left hand. A mass of flesh responsible for making its poison, still warm but cleaned of the hydra’s blood from her swim. As planned.

Now to take care of you…

Out stretching her hand, Gura called on her connection to the trident. Focusing so much of her magical ability in one day was exhausting but if she could pull this off then the Hydra would be taken care of with no chance of escaping and chasing her later. So Gura dug deep and the air around the trident grew colder and colder. With a yell, Gura closed her hand, and not only did all of the water in the reservoir flash freeze but so too did the hydra. Solid Ice.

For a moment, everything was quiet and Gura laid on the rim, tired and clinging to the poison sack. The sounds of battle not too far reminded her to push through her still pained muscles and exhaustion to find the Adamantine. She could still feel close by.

The pull led her down the side of the reservoir and stumbling into one of the many ruined buildings. Her hand traced the dusty stoned bricks of the walls as she passed and wandered down old steps into almost pitch black. With a sigh, Gura closed her eyes for a moment and let her second set of eyelids slip closed. While used mostly to see underwater, whenever Gura closed them it helped her eyes settle into their dark vision mode. This was a trait only ever used of course in dark places though since coming to the surface, Gura hadn’t needed to use it much at all.

 When her eyes opened again both eyelid sets were out of the way, the pitch-black room was much easier to see in. There was junk and ruined old decaying furniture Gura couldn’t recognize everywhere but she felt it. In this room. And after a bit of digging around Gura found it. An old, ornate-looking dagger with metal that felt as unreal as it looked. A dagger meant needing to get close to the dog responsible for all of this, but the poison sack gave them other options.

When Gura exited the basement and was back on the surface she closed her eyes again to switch them back and sighed as she left the water that had been surrounding her fall away. She lifted her hand and her trident was in her palm, dagger in her belt. She turned in the direction of Calli’s fight, the sounds of lighting and explosions. Calli needed backup, but she couldn’t just walk in there with both of their only weapons against the god in hand, ready to be destroyed or stolen.

Gura had to hide them somewhere first.

Electricity buzzed throughout the air. A bolt barely missing Calli’s head. The Reaper’s scythe Clashes with the Rider’s blade a moment later. The moment they break away, Aadozen bolts launch towards Calli once more. 

She grits her teeth and launches herself towards the Demon. The corpses of the demons around them smoke from the heat of the bolts. Calli’s grip tightens, as the bolts whiz past her. A few nicks her shoulder, her cheek, one even managing to strike her chest.

She doesn’t stop.

She bits her lip, tasting iron as she leaps from the ground onto the fountain. The Demon calls forth another bolt, as Calli twirls Ricky in her grip. When the thunder rumbles above, Calli strikes. Launching herself towards the Demon, she catches the bolt with her scythe. 

The Rider, however, realizes the intent. A second bolt bursts forth, striking Calli clean in the gut, before a clap of thunder echoes across the clearing. A flash bursts forth, and both combatants are sent flying.

Calli falls to the ground, clutching her stomach. “Shit… That hurts like hell!” She muttered, looking to see the aftermath. Ricky had fallen from her grip, implanting into the fountain. The electricity it had caught still arced from its metal. It was in deep, Calli doubted it’d be easy to take out. The Rider was similarly dazed. 

Grunting in pain Calli rose to her feet. The buzz in her head made sensing much of anything difficult. Damn… Calli thought, watching as the Rider got to its feet. They locked eyes. The demon's weapon was shattered, and Calli’s was between them. 

Calli’s gaze narrowed. I have to get there first.

“Never thought it’d come down to the equivalent of an old western standoff…” Calli mumbled under her breath. Heh, If only it actually was one. 

The two stood opposed. Waiting for the other to make a move. Neither wanted to be the one to initiate the sprint for the scythe. Her senses still a buzz, it took Calli a while to notice something creeping up behind the Demon.

It was small, it’s shade of white hair rather… Gura! Calli’s heart soared. She got it done then! Good. We can wrap this up soon! Gura motioned for Calli to stay where she was, looking around for something sharp before her eyes fell on a discarded sword.

Calli forced herself to remain still. Forced her mouth from twisted into a smile filled with relief. Gura picked the sword up carefully, testing it in her grip, before looking to the Demon’s neck. Calli’s throat was dry with anticipation, and worry. 

Gura got down low. Calli could guess she was building up to the strike, it had to be perfect after all. Then, with the slightest twitch, She leaped up. The blade swung incredibly fast, a testament to her Atlantian strength and then some. Whatever armor was at the neck was obliterated, the demons head flying away, their body crumpling to the floor, limp.

“You absolutely fucking rock Gura!!!” Calli whooped loudly and Gura tossed the sword away, looking just as tired and strung out as Calli but the large toothy smile stuck on her face was like a wave of relief to the reaper. 

“We did it Calli!” Gura ran over, closing the distance.

Calli was about to ask where the metal had turned out to be but was stopped then Gura didn’t stop her approach. No instead she ran right into Calli and slipped her arms around her waist to pull her into a hug. The sudden affectionate Gesture made Calli smile warmly, her chest warming.

Gura’s tail wagged affectionately. “I’m so glad you’re ok Calli. I was worried the whole time we were apart but I got back as soon as I could!” 

Calli bent to lean into Gura’s hair, indulging for just a moment, just a bit. “Where’s the metal? The Adamantine?”

“I wasn’t sure what I'd be coming back to so it’s stashed in a secret place for now. I’d have been back sooner if I didn’t have to hide it but…it seemed smart.”

Calli brightened. “No, that Is smart!” It was awfully tempting to keep her arms around the warm short shark woman pressed against her, but Calli knew they shouldn’t stay for long. “We should pick it up and get going.”

Gura looked up at her, eyes big, deep, and pleading. “Can we just wait a little longer? Hearing all that noise and rushing back here…I started to think the worst and…I just want to hold you, to know you're ok.”

That made Calli flush and stammer, “I-I uh..yeah. Yeah sure.”

A dark flush started to creep up on the shark's cheeks as she looked up at Calli’s still holding her. 

“Y-you know I…I don’t think I’ve told you before but I really like holding you…” 

The sudden confession made Calli’s eyes wide and dart around to look at anything but Gura.

“I-is that so?”

“Yeah… I’m sorry I never said it…there's a lot of things I should have told you sooner and the longer we’re here, the more danger we’re in…the more I’m realizing being afraid of telling you is a mistake. Because what happens if something goes wrong and I suddenly can’t?”

Calli’s nerves spiked. If she had a heart it would probably be pounding or in her throat. This was sounding awfully like a confession.

“Th-that makes sense…I get what you're saying my dawg…”

Gura’s brow creases ever so slightly, as if concerned or pained. “I don’t think so. I don’t think you really get it.”

“It?” Calli was sweating, her voice cracked and she could feel Gura’s hands moving around her shoulders.

“How much you mean to me…How much I need you…” Gura’s hands were clasped around the back of Calli’s neck now, tender, but strong.

“I-I won’t leave you…not here…not in hell..” Calli spoke, breathless, Gura was pulling her down, in closer.

“I need you to know. I want you to feel it…” Gura breathed against her lips, her fingers in pink locks.

When Gura’s lips met hers, Calli stopped breathing. It was firm and Gura felt painfully soft, warm, and perfect in her arms. Her head was swimming and Gura was her sea. Calli bent to hold her closer, tighter. Gura tugged her hair and the soft wet feeling of the tip of her tongue poked out and ran across where Calli’s met. The reaper sighed with relief when Gura entered her mouth and found her tongue, bit her lip, explored her. It was everything Calli had dared to think about on lonely nights dreaming about what this would be like, how it would feel to finally belong to someone she felt invincible with, someone she loved past the shell of her body and to her true spiritual form. Someone who made her feel like she would be anything, do anything.

So Calli kissed her like Gura was her everything, was what made her immortal. Like Gura was the reason she was on earth at all. Like she would go to hell, every hell all over again for her.

When they finally parted, there were tears in Gura’s eyes, her hand cupped Calli’s face and her thumb rested just on her bottom lip. Gura’s mouth was open slightly, breath heavy and the utter adoration in her eyes made Calli want to sob, made her wish she had a heart so she could pull it out and hand it to her.

“I love you…” Calli felt the words leave her mouth, deep and half breath.

“I know.” Gura laughed and Calli felt something stab through her middle and touch her true form in a way most physical weapons couldn’t.

Eyes wide, Calli froze. Her body stopped responding and she stared down at Gura confused as tears spilled from her eyes.

“Awwww that’s so cute. You’re such a mess for me aren’t you?” Gura taunted, whatever had impaled Calli was still there and she couldn’t see due to Gura being pressed too close. 

Her body was still stuck, her true form trembled and Calli gasped. Gura pulled her hair, tugged her down and dragged her tongue up her neck to her jawline, and bit her ear.

A low whisper, so close Calli could feel her breath. “You’ve wanted me for so long. Wanted her for so long. I can be here for you reaper. I can stay looking just like this and sound just like her and let you do whatever you want if you just stop meddling. Give up and I’ll let you go and you can do whatever you want to with this small, toned body you’ve been stealing glances at, having thoughts about…”

It all clicked, and Calli found her voice.

“Eat shit and die.”

“Ooh, filthy little mouth reaper. You wanted to kiss her with that filthy mouth? Tell her you love her? Whisper her name in tender nights together?” The fake Gura cackled and hearing her voice so perfectly mimicked, saying such things was proving to hurt far more than whatever rare weaponry this demon had managed to use on her.

The demon smiled again, leaning into Calli’s lips and speaking again. “Last chance reaper.” Her expression shifted and in the blink of an eye, the demon looked perfectly like Gura again, soft, loving, and even a little hungry. “Please Calli…stay with me…hold me…touch me.”

“Fuck you. Kill me or stick whatever you stabbed me with right up your fucking ass!” Calli spit in her face and the demon laughed.

“Fine, have it your way. She’ll come for you reaper. You’ve made easy bait for a stupid animal and when we catch her, I’ll make her think it’s you peeling the meat from her bones while she’s still breathing.”

The weapon twisted and Calli gasped, her vision went white, and passed out.

Gura walked through the streets of the ruined city. The location of the dagger and poison committed to memory in the back of her mind. The silence around her was eerie. The fighting had stopped, They had won.

And yet…

Gura couldn’t shake this terrible feeling. It stuck to her heart, filling her mind with worry. She walked a little faster as that worry seeped into her mind.

The lack of noise was getting to her. Not even a gust of wind, or scuttling of some hell creature. There was nothing. Just Gura, and her thoughts. I gotta get to Calli. Gura urged herself forward. Urged her fatigue and worrisome thoughts away, focusing on seeing the Reaper that occupied a permanent spot in her heart.

She summoned her trident as she neared the city center. The scent of iron and long-gone electricity filled her senses. Oh no… When she entered it, her eyes graced upon the carnage of battle. 

Demon corpses were strewn across the area, buildings down the road were smoking, some even smoldering. Craters were strewn around, Gura didn't want to think about what had been used to make them. The fountain they had seen before battle, the one that Calli had sat on just moments before the demon lord nearly skewered them both, was destroyed. An odd, masked demon strewn atop it.

A large indent, the size of a blade, was driven deep into the stone. Worry peaked even more in Gura’s mind. Swallowing her doubts, she looked to the corpse closest to the fountain. “The demon lord…?!” Gura exclaimed.

The limp body of the demon lord lay before her, its head was long gone. Beside it was a discarded blade. Its edges were coated in the demon's blood. Calli… Did you use this to take it out?

Gura’s hands clenched into fists. “Calli…?” She called out. The scent of iron filled her lungs. Practically permeating every inch of her senses. 

There was no response. She looked around. Desperate for any chance of seeing her reaper. 

Gura was desperate to fight back the panic building in her chest. Its grip inching ever closer to consuming her. “Calli!” She called out again.

Nothing. 

A clang echoed out. Her trident fell to the floor. 

“Calli…”

.

.

.

Gura was alone. All…alone…