Chapter 12:(Case Closed)

Ame had her eyes closed this whole time while she traveled back into time. A sudden pain swept over her stomach and she opened her eyes, Death managed to slash her on the stomach before she traveled through time. Her pocket watch was hit by the scythe as well, the hands are spinning around frenziedly.

"Looks like I won't be able to use this for another while, not until I wait for it to cool down," Ame whispered to herself, she looked around the building, she is indeed in the Hololive Cover Corp Studio, on the first floor and under the table of the front desk. On the other side of the wall that Ame's facing is the place where Gura would die 2 years later, but that won't happen if she managed to succeed today. With her pocket watch on a cool down, she is stuck in this timeline, it's a do or die situation, because if Death succeeds again, she too will also go crazy and lose her memories again. The Ame from Chapter 2 will be here in roughly 20 minutes, the idols that were supposed to be in this timeline just left on a bus to go to their 5th year anniversary concert, Ame could hear the people outside cheering and congratulating their success.

She forced herself to stand up, with one hand over the wound to cover it, and leaned against the wall. She slowly walked towards the elevator and went to the floor where Yagoo's office was located. The lights were dim as she walked along the hallway, she could see Yagoo's office, on the other side of that door is Yagoo and Calli, she knows because Calli told them that, and like Calli, she has to face Death alone. She doesn't dare to meet Calli and Yagoo from this timeline, afraid that she will disrupt it,, but either way, Death is still gonna come.

Her knees gave in and she collapsed onto the floor, halfway across the hallway and panted, trying to think of a plan but her brain was empty, the pain on her stomach was eating her consciousness alive when suddenly, she felt a cold breeze swirling pass the hallway, and the sound of someone else's footsteps echoing through the staircase.

"I sense, someone who doesn't belong here, not in this particular moment, isn't that right Amelia Watson?" Death whispered, it echoed throughout the stairway and throughout the hallway. The air became chilly and Death finally climbed up the stairs. "I do gotta say I like how much time you spent decorating the entire building, even the stairway lighting was beautiful, it's just missing a certain essence to it. Blood, that's it, the blood that's dripping from your wound right now would make an excellent decoration."

"Screw you, Death," Ame groaned.

"Screw you? I thought humans serve and worship gods, not diss them."

"Not to gods like you who break families apart."

"Can I take it that that's your last words, you know you don't stand a chance against me."

"I know, but I cannot let you kill me without letting you know that we matter to Calli as much as you matter to her," Ame said, trying to stand up but failed and kneeled with both knees on the ground, her pocket watch fell out of her pocket and rolled in front of her. "She respects you, she couldn't stop bragging how she got to train with you personally and she accepted all your cold, hard decisions, and she'll do whatever you say in the blink of an eye, but we also happen to be something that she cares about, so why can't you just accept her choice?"

"And I sensed that you already know the answer."

"And you aren't gonna change your mind?"

"No, no I don't think I will," Death said and raised its scythe. Tears rolled down Ame's face as she accepted her fate, accepting the truth that she couldn't do anything, the fact that she is useless in front of a god who has killed more than a decillion people. Moments of her life flashed back in front of her as she muttered apologies to other Hololive members.

"An investigation?" A-chan asked after Ame requested to investigate the rumors of talking animals.

"Sure, why not let her?" Yahoo said as he walked out of his office, "only if you allow me to hire you to investigate something else."

"Condition accepted, so what is it?"

"I have 4 other individuals for you to investigate and I'm sure they'll interest you," Yagoo explained as he handed Ame 4 files and Ame unsealed them immediately and examined them. "They recently appeared on the human surface at about the same time."

"Hmmm, a Reaper, a Phoenix, an Atlantian, and an Ancient Priestess. You really do expect a lot from me eh?"

"I mean you did shoot down a dragon, but I do ask you at the very least to not shoot down any of our idols any more, just so you know, the dragon you shot down is still a child," Yagoo explained as he tapped on Ame's shoulder while he walked away with A-chan.

"One more question before I start," Ame shouted after them, and both Yagoo and A-chan turned around, "How does a normal human being like you have contacts and relationships with these magical beings and mythical creatures?"

"This isn't something you should answer, Yagoo-san," A-chan advised.

"Why not? Because of love, Amelia-san, I love all of my idols in Hololive and I will work hard to protect them and their privacy. When I first met Sora after A-chan introduced her to me, I saw a certain light to her that I know will lead me to a place where more magical beings like her get to live in this society with not harm and racism, but with love and joy, and that is why, Amelia-san, I welcome all magical beings."

Yagoo then turned away after answering Ame's question.

"That was not the answer I thought you'd give," A-chan said, "If I wasn't a close enough friend with Sora, she wouldn't have felt comfortable enough to confess everything to me and even help us to find more magical beings in this society who's in hiding like her. You could've given me more credit?"

"That's not what a newcomer should know, A-chan, what I said is what she needs to hear right now," Yagoo replied, while Ame thought about the answer to her question. "Soon she will come to love her fellow genmates very much, I can feel it."

Ame stood there pondering at the same place where she kneeled in front of Death as it raised its scythe.

"Say goodbye to Hololive, Ame-chan," Death said as tears dropped from Ame's face landed on the pocket watch. The pocket watch now floated in front of Ame and distorted space in between Death and Ame, the pocket watch no longer has to be moved physically, it can move wherever and whenever now as long as Ame wills it.

"Death, you really are a respectable god, but if you can't understand the concept of love and bond we have with each other in Hololive, then I cannot bring myself to respect you," Ame said as she forced herself to stand up, her aqua eyes are no longer just eyes, her left eye is decorated with multiple darker blue dots that are connected to the pupil resembling the multiverse, her right eye has is a clock filled with roman numerals with two hands pointing the current time resembling time. "You know, if I can't get to them, then I'll let them come to me!"

Suddenly a crystallized dark matter spread across the hallway and several portals appeared.

"This is what's called a Mirror Dimension," Shion said as she stepped out of one of them.

"Mixed with my dark matters so like sensei's Shinigami's palm, you have to kill us in order to get out," Calli said as she stepped out another portal, even though she was literally in Yagoo's office that's 10 meters behind Ame. The realm stretched throughout the hallway, but it locked Yagoo's office out of it, so Death can't just sneak away and kill Yagoo.

"So this is the path you've chosen, Calli, then I won't show any mercy, even if it's you," Death said as it sharpened its scythe. It dashed toward Murasaki Shion, but before it could reach her, a sheep rushed in from a portal and headbutted Death.

"Oh, did I hurt you with my horns? But, Watame ga, waruiko naiyone??" Watame asked as Death fell backwards a few steps.

"Good thing I've overheard your conversation from behind the office door and decided to read your soul, Ame from the future," Calli said, "Some crazy idea you have in mind."

"I didn't even know that I could do it, but I trusted you, Calli," Ame replied.

Another portal opened and a bomb in a shape of a lion jumped out towards Death. It summoned a wall of dark matter to block the explosion from it, but the moment it disables the wall, Botan blasted away with the two Krinkov AK-74U in her hands, the bullet storm blazed at it, bouncing off the skull face and fading though it's cape. It waved its scythe around to deflect the bullets, then it sent dark matters to grab Botan by her legs, but something stood in between them. The dark matter grabbed a multi-colored beach ball, and the ball exploded into a cloud of smoke and laughter filled the air.

"Polka Oruka?" The ball said as it exploded.

"Polka Oruyo!" Polka replied as she jumped out of the ball, she whistled and an entire circus of animals rushed out of nowhere and ran past Death, Death slashed through most of them only to find out that their illusions, but little did it know that Subaru was hiding amongst the illusions as a duck. 

"Shuba Shuba Shuba!!" Subaru shouted out as she kicked Death in its skull face after turning back to human. Before Death could steady itself and slash the duck, the twintails zoomed towards its scythe like two rocket launchers and Aki Rosenthal stepped out from another portal. 

The scythe was knocked out of Death's hand, and Tokoyami Towa flew out from another portal and threw her devil's trident at Death. It summoned a dark matter shield and blocked it, but Amane Kanata jumped out from yet another portal and smashed the shield to pieces with her gorilla strength, Towa gave the trident a kick and Death was forced to turn invisible in order to fade through the attacks.

Splashes of paint fell out of a portal that led to outer space, and Iofi drew a 3d cage with the paint to lock Death within it. Death overrode the paint with dark matter and broke it immediately, then Risu jumped out from another portal and smacked Death with her tail in order to prevent it from walking towards Shion. Death has been falling back one step by one step everytime an idol appears. The moment Death was smacked, several dark matters shot out from the ground below Risu and strangled her. A sword fell from another portal and slashed the dark matter to pieces, the sword turned into her human form and thousands of mini blades blast out of Anya's hair as she ruffles it.

Death summoned his scythe and it flew back to its skull hands and spun the scythe so quickly that it deflected all the blades. By the time Death was done, all the Hololive members had already stepped out of their portal, all 48 of them. A-chan stepped out from the last portal in front of all the idols, holding a paper-fan in her hand.

"Even if you are a god, I expect you to respect the custom rules of the society we live in," A-chan shouted at Death. "This is no way of maintaining your side of the contract, you freakin shinigami! I don't care if you were once Calli's sensei, but she is now part of our family and how dare you hurt our idols!"

A-chan rushed with her paper-fan and slapped Death in the face.

"Alright that's it," Death said and the world turned dark for a few seconds, and Death teleported in front of Calli, the Ame from this timeline, and Ame. It managed to slash every single idol along the way while it was teleporting. Shion was wounded and the spell broke, the mirror dimension was released and Yagoo's office was in sight.

"If you had a problem, you should've consulted me," Yagoo said as he walked out of his office.

"Yagoo-san, please return to your office now, it's dangerous," Calli shouted.

"Are you in for a bargain?" Yagoo asked.

"You are not in a position to ask me, human," Death replied.

"But with Calli-san being under my care, I'd say I am. She did sign the contract after all," Yagoo explained. "And as far as I can see, you aren't familiar with anything but killings and of course, ways of Death."

"Well said human," Death said, "And how do you expect me to cooperate like that."

"I'd say, first, look around you," Yagoo answered.

Death turned around and saw all the wounded idols have been healed thanks to the healing techniques performed by Choco-sensei, who specializes in healing wounds related to the dark arts.

"If you are worried about Calli-san's well-being, I'd say Hololive is a strong enough place to hold ourselves in, even though we may struggle against you gods, other humans wouldn't stand a chance. But your main problem is that the existence of Calli-san being here disrupts your business as well, I understand that, then I can arrange more breaks for her to visit you in Hell and Underworld to help catch up with your work, while helping me and Hololive as a whole to entertain our fans. What do you say?"

"Please sensei, I never wanted to abandon god's duty, but I don't want to abandon Hololive as well," Calli pleaded.

"An offer that's a win-win solution to both our problems, hmm, not bad for a human," Death answered. "Very well, I shall accept your offer."

"Great, and if you have more problems, you can always contact me personally, instead of having this all misunderstood by only talking to Calli-san," Yagoo suggested and the world turned dark for a second and Death teleported to the other side of the hallway, back to where the staircase was.

"Well played human, maybe I should get accustomed to other beliefs through the souls I collect when I have time," Death thought as it's scythe disappeared after getting swallowed by Death's dark matters. It then called to Calli, "Oh and Calli, keep up the work, I expect you to return to Hell soon before resuming your family games. Though I must say, I did underestimate your friends a little bit too much."

And Death entered its portal and left for Hell. Everyone took a long sigh of relief, as A-chan rounded everyone up again.

"This time we won't be going by bus anymore, Shion-san will perform a teleportation spell, so go change to your idol dresses now!" A-chan shouted as Ame lied on Ame's lap.

"So I guess, this is it then," said Ame, lying on the lap of the Ame that's from this timeline, pieces of her body started fading away.

"I'm sorry."

"Why apologize? Everything turned out great didn't it?" Ame asked, her head lying comfortably on past Ame's lap.

"But you suffered in order for me to have a better future, I'm sorry that you'll never get to experience what I'm gonna experience, the live concert."

"Hey, you're me, and I used to be you, so if you're experiencing it, then me too," Ame replied, her legs are already gone. "Be more positive, we're both excited about the concert, right? Go have fun with it for me."

"You're right, instead I should say thank you, thank you for protecting this. I cannot imagine what you have gone through to protect this."

"Hey, just promise me one thing alright?"

"Yeah, but it's kinda weird asking yourself a favor doesn't it?"

"Hah," future Ame chuckled, her head is the only part left lying on Ame's lap, "true, it does feel weird, but you see their smile? Whatever happens in the future, just promise me, you will protect Hololive, ok?"

"If you did, then there's no doubt that I will do too," past Ame replied. "See you, Ame, thanks for everything you've done for us."

"Your welcome, go have fun," as future Ame smiled one last time, her head faded away and her presence erased because the change of outcome of this event erased her timeline. Because Ame went back to this moment and succeeded in stopping Death from murdering everyone, the timeline where the idols suffered and died will cease to exist, like restarting an entire story just because fate decided that the character should answer the question differently, and with Death agreeing to Calli staying in Hololive, a whole new chapter opens up for Hololive and it's future.

Shion teleported everyone backstage and Ame cheered everyone up, even though they were literally just in a life or Death situation, the 5th year anniversary live concerts awaited. 

"Alright idols, it's time for us to shine!!" Sora-chan gave them one last cheer before they all rushed on stage to meet millions of fans, in person and online, Japanese and overseas, all Hololive fans gathered at this moment to celebrate the idols' success with them and the Hololive members started the concert with the song: Shiny Smily Story.

The End

Writer's note:

This is the first ever fanfic that I finished, it's not the first that I started, but I am proud to finish my first one. Hololive has seriously made my day better throughout the past year and I really hope they continue to do well even though the road is really bumpy. You may have noticed that HoloX and HoloIDGen3 did not appear in this story, it is because I started this story before they debuted, so I will write an alternate story that's mainly focusing on those two generations. It is the same with Rushia, she remained in Hololive until the story ends as I started before she left, before the incident. As I started writing, there are a lot of people who advise to give my audience a take away from my story, so from Hololive: The Mystery of Death, I'd say my lesson is cherish and protect those people who have close relationships with you, cause you never know when they're gonna be gone, love them and be there for them whenever they need a hand, just like how Ame went through all this trouble against Death to get Hololive back, to get her friends back. I hope you enjoyed reading this, and thanks for reading!!!

    -Sign: ZeXeraz