Chapter 4:( Delaying Death )

"That's the warning Kronii gave us, quick get out now! I'll reverse the time so we can run away-"

BAM! A dark matter knocked Ame's head against the stadium wall and knocked her out cold, the pocket watch fell out of her hand.

"You will not threaten me with those powers of yours again, timekeeper. And as I promised, I have watched your spectacular chaos over the last two years, and now, my plan shall continue."

A dark and freezing aura filled the idol's hearts as Death said this, striking an immense fear amongst them as they were too scared to move.

"Your souls will be harvested soon enough," said Death as a physical form of a Reaper appeared among all the dark matter, holding a giant scythe, "by the traditional way, the right way."

"Okayu-senpai, Korone-senpai, Haato-senpai, carry Matsuri-senpai, Moona-senpai and Ame-senpai out of here."

"I agree with the plan. BaeBae and I will take care of this."

"B..but, Kronii just said you will die facing that, maybe we should all run together!" Haato yelled.

"And I see why we are dead. If we run together, that thing can catch up to us with ease," Bae explained. "Please senpai, if this all works out, we will be performing on the stage. So GO NOW!! Meimei and I will buy you some time."

OkaKoro once again activated their animal modes and Haato took out an eyepatch from her pocket and wore it, hearts surrounded her, turning her into Haachama. OkaKoro and Haachama picked up Ame and the pocket watch, Moona and Matsuri, on their backs and ran away at high speed.

"Delaying Death is only delaying the inevitable, you will all be dead soon enough, running is useless."

"But we're still gonna do this," said Mumei.

"Ah, the demi-gods, what is it again? Goddess of Chaos and the Goddess of Knowledge. Long time no see, it's a pity that you chose to live in this pathetic realm rather than fulfilling your duties and leaving the control of your powers to a human?! You are a disgrace among us gods."

"Oh yeah, we all have a choice on how to live our eternal lives and humans are not some dolls for you to break," Bae shouted back at Death.

"I see we have a disagreement. Lemme show you the overwhelming power of a true god that you demi-gods will never dream of getting."

"And you will regret underestimating us!" said Mumei as she went into Nezumi-mode and a red-ish rat-like aura surrounded her and her eyes glowed a bit brighter amongst her red eyes. Mumei went into Fukuro-mode and a brown-ish owl-like aura surrounded her and her eyes glowed a bit brighter amongst her brown eyes. Then suddenly, Bae's hands grew into claws and Mumei grew a set of wings behind her back and flew into the air. A mischievous smile spread across Bae's face as she started dashing in extreme speed that is quicker than both Okayu's and Korone's max speed. Death raised it's scythe and summoned the dark arts, dark matter flew from every corner of the stadium and aimed at Bae, but Bae dodged every attack swiftly and stretched out her claws to scratch Death. Death waved its scythe and swung it around, blocking Bae's attack while slashing her, but somehow Bae still managed to dodge all of them. Death decided to increase its power output and used the scythe to smash the ground and the world became pitch black for one second, turning the world pitch black allows Death to teleport to everywhere within the dark sphere, and Death appeared behind Bae, raising its scythe, ready to slash her. Bae didn't even turn her head, she crawled to the ground and rolled backwards and then scratched Death. Dark matters shot straight up from the ground and then bent its course to rainfire attack on Bae, but no matter how hard it hit, or how fast it was, somehow, Bae managed to evade all the attacks.

"How is this even possible, demi-gods shouldn't be capable of foreseeing a god's attacks," Death thought to itself as it tried to dodge Bae's scratches. Bae's speed is increasing after every attempt of scratching and then Death had enough, it summoned dark force from its body and repelled Bae, but Bae just did a backflip and evaded the attack once more. Dark matter rainfired once more, but Bae started dashing around in high speed, so quick as if there were 3 Baes all at once, one of them crawled onto the dark matter, the second ran behind Death and the third ran straight towards Death.

"I will bring Chaos," Bae whispered to Death as she scratched the shit outta Death, forcing Death to teleport to the other side of the stadium to evade Bae's chaotic attacks. After being scratched by Bae's claws, Death was affected by the chaotic aura and now can't even think straight, its mind is thinking about a hundred different things at the same time and then suddenly, Mumei flew down from the sky and gave Death a double kick in the head, knocking Death down onto the ground.

"Mumei, NO!!" Bae shouted.

"I see how it is," said Death. "You clever owl, coordinating your friend's movement with your spare feathers to dodge my attack, because you read my every moment and every attack. But too bad, you got too impatient, and gave yourself away. Well let's see if this little owl is as agile as this chaotic rat!"

Death threw dark matters at Mumei from every direction, Mumei managed to dodge some but was overwhelmed and the dark matter got hold of her.

"NO!! Mumei, don't worry I'm coming!!" yelled Bae as she dashed towards the dark matter that swallowed Mumei who's struggling and screaming in pain, but the world became pitch black for a second and Bae felt something sharp, stabbed through her waist, and blood spilled from the wound. Bae gasped as she spit blood out of her mouth and Death bent down to talk to her.

"That was quite entertaining, I won't deny that, I seriously thought I lost for a second back there, you managed to live up to your own name, but for the wrong purpose. Don't worry, I won't harvest your souls just yet, I still have use for you two."

"You…*coughs blood*... will never succeed," said Bae.

"Darling, I have succeeded once already, it is only a matter of time before I succeed this time as well," Death replied as it dragged both Bae and Mumei into the Soul Realm.

On the other side, the rest of the idols ran back to Moona's apartment and Okayu, Korone and Haachama all collapsed as soon as they reached their bedrooms. Matsuri woke up confused on what's happening, and the idols began to fill them in, all of them, besides Ame.

"Wait wait wait, so you're saying, I turned you into a loli??!!!!" Matsuri screamed at Moona with excitement as Moona recalled this unpleasant memory, she shot OkaKoro a dirty look since OkaKoro were the ones who spilled the beans.

"Is Ame alright?" Haachama asked as she reverted back to Haato.

"I don't know, she was hit by something I don't know. Can't say I know how to cure her," Moona replied. The dark matter lingered on Ame and affected Ame's mentality, forcing her to stay in a deep sleep as she groaned and moaned in her sleep, as if she was suffering. "Yeah I don't think she will be waking up anytime soon."

"But she's suffering, we need to do something quick!" said Okayu.

"I can drive you all to the airport, and then we can get on to my personal plane and fly to Akita to get Calli, and then fly to Hokkaido to meet up with Kronii and hopefully gather the rest of us and then fix whatever the fuck is happening," Moona eplained.

"But what about Bae and Mumei?" asked Haato. "We should go back for them!"

"They're dead senpai, there's nothing we can do," Moona replied.

"How can you be so sure?! Maybe they defeated that thing and is waiting for us to-"

"Haato-chan, that's enough, you heard what Kronii said, they're dead," said Korone, comforting Haato. "And unless we fix this bullshit, they will stay dead."

All of them sat there in silence to give a memorial to this sacrifice, and then they stood up and packed some stuff, then drove to the airport. While driving, somehow it started to snow. The weather never said it was gonna snow today, especially on a day that is 17 degrees Celsius ( that's 64 degrees Fahrenheit just in case some of you don't know ). They stopped the car by the same bar that Ame woke up from, but they didn't know that Ame woke up from here, and saw a light blue hair woman holding a huge bottle of sake in her hand. 

 "Look, isn't that Lamy-chan?" Okayu asked, and at the exact same moment, Lamy saw the idols and then waved at them. Moona stopped the car and let Lamy in, but she was so drunk that she didn't notice who's in the car, and Okayu immediately chopped Lamy on the throat and knocked her out.

"Ah wha-? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING??" Haato complained.

"What? We don't know if she's good or not right?" Okayu protested.

"Great, now we have two sleeping beauties in the car," said Moona as she drove on. After a while the snow has stopped and they have arrived at the airport. It was pretty late and not many people are hurrying for such a late flight. Moona called for her personal plane to get ready and they boarded the flight. The idols each took a seat as the plane took off, Ame was still unconscious and Lamy woke up, confused on why she was on the plane. They fill her in on their flight to Akita and they are surprised that Lamy did not wake up due to overdrinking, since they all know Ame woke up because of that.

"Alright, so let's review what Kronii said," said Moona. "She told us Bae and Mumei are gonna die, well that happened, she also told us to leave Tokyo now, and that's why we're on this plane. She said she has her own team trying to beat down Death, and that Calli is in Ak-something, which I'm assuming, hopefully, is Akita. And she said we have to go back in time to kill Death, so we need to make protecting Ame and Kronii our top priority, or else there's no way to fix this."

"Wait, so Death," Moona continued on. "Do you think that the black gooey thing is Death, you know the one that looked like a Reaper, do you think that's who Bae and Mumei fought?"

"I think so," Okayu replied. "If that's the case, then that means Bae and Mumei never stood a chance against it."

"Well, on the bright side," said Haato. "We know who we're dealing with, right? It's Death, Calli-chan's sensei."

"Good point, wait… Wait a damn second!!!!" Korone exclaimed. "Kronii said she had her own team right??? Do you think-"

"Oh my god," Okayu gasped.

"Does that mean," Korone continued. "THAT MORE IDOLS ARE FREED ALREADY AND WE WILL BE ABLE TO FINALLY MEET THEM???!!"

All of their spirits lifted, their mood brightened as they stood up cheering, hugging each other and crying tears of joy, knowing that with everyone together, they feel safe. Hope is not lost, even if Death can take out one or two at a time, but facing the rest of them together, Death wouldn't stand a chance. Their hopeful feeling brought smiles to their faces because they know Bae and Mumei will be avenged soon, and with that, Hope literally appeared by their side.

"HIRyS, it's IRyS!!"

"IRYS!!!" Everyone cheered in excitement, everyone besides Ame, she's still unconscious. 

"So lemme get this straight," said Irys, depressed, after everybody filled her in, "Bae… is dead??"

"Yeah.." said Matsuri, as Irys starts sobbing. 

"I think we summoned you back by being hopeful of what's gonna happen," Lamy commented.

"Yeah, that's *sniffs* the only way you can summon me: by being very hopeful about something even at the darkest times."

The rest of the trip was rather gloomy due to Irys being impacted the most by the death of Bae and Mumei, they arrived at Akita.

"Alright gals, we're here to look for Calli and someone needs to look after Ame," said Moona.

"I'll look after Ame," said Irys and Matsuri, and the idols left the plane. Akita is colder than Tokyo, layers of thick snow covered the buildings and cars as the night light shone dimly. The night sky was rather smokey, and loud, gunfire and bombings can be heard everywhere. As the idols were exiting the airport, they saw zombies everywhere and Japanese soldiers struggling to hold them back. Kureiji Ollie stood in the middle of thousands of zombies, going absolutely wild.

"AHAHAHAHAHA, ATTACK, MY DEAR ZOMBIES LOVELYS. SERVE THE GREAT LORD THAT REVIVED YOU ALL!!"

Okayu heard shouts at the military troops nearby saying:

"Sir, the airport is the last line of defense in Akita, the zombies are somehow coordinated, they didn't attack randomly like in the movies!! If we let them pass, the zombies could spread across Japan!!"

The idols rushed to the military troops and offered their help, but the troops were doubtful and scared at the same time, but nevertheless they accepted the idols' help. Okayu and Korone went into their Neko-Inu-mode, and Haato activated her Chuunibyou powers and turned into Haachama, Moona then started attracting all the zombies to her as Lamy made it snow so that the zombies' attack route is limited, therefore the military can concentrate all their powers at one point. After that OkaKoro dashed around the airport to kill off any zombies that went around the airport. Haachama dashed back to the plane to protect Matsuri and Irys and Ame, shooting off heart beams with her finger tips. 

But the amount was too great, the military ran out of bullets, the idols still hadn't recovered from their previous battles and the zombies poured through the defense line. With Ollie at the very front of the army of zombies, they took over the airport. The idols led the troops back to Moona's plane and tried to take off, but the zombies caught up and smashed and bit the engines, damaging the plane, they are just sitting ducks now. Zombies tried to smash through the windows but suddenly a huge smashing sound echoed across the airport. The zombies turned and laid their lifeless eyes on the new target. 

"Flare, cover me!"

"You got it, Noel!"

A dozen flaming arrows flew across the air and pierced through several groups of zombies, clearing the path for Noel, who roared and smacked her mace at the zombies coming by. The idols and the troops who were hiding in the plane peeked through the shattered and broken windows to see what's going on. Shiranui Flare stood on top of the watch tower nearby, shooting off flaming arrows after blowing at each normal arrow to set it on fire. On the field, Shirogane Noel smacks the zombies with incredible strength and her strength will increase every time she feels that she is worthy of her knight duties. Each smack is so strong that the force also knocks down several zombies around her. After smacking and shooting down some zombies, Noel charged, with her shield in front of her, towards Ollie.

"My Lord!! PLEASE SAVE US-" Ollie yelled before her head was knocked off her body, the zombies stopped moving and stood there like statues.

"NOEL!!! FLARE!!!" The idols yelled cheerfully as they rushed off the plane.

"Wait, stay there, this isn't over yet," Noel yelled back.

"Noel!! She's here!!" Flare yelled from on top of the watchtower. The zombies suddenly formed a line and kneeled down as the Uruha Rushia walked past them like a queen. The necromancer saw the dismantled body of Ollie and scoffed, she then turned towards Noel.

"I see, your outstanding movements have defeated my general," said Rushia, "now I shall take the commands and defeat the both of you, the two of you will be excellent zombie servants I believe."

Rushia raised one arm and more zombies crawled up to the surface from the ground and every bit and piece that was smashed and dismantled, crawled as much as they could, spreading their waste and blood across the ground. With an even larger zombie army, Rushia resumed the attack, pushing Noel back while Flare ran out of arrows. Just when the plane was about to be swallowed by zombies again, several explosions occurred behind Rushia's army and three figures landed in front of the plane. Usada Pekora was using TNTs as springs to jump across the zombie army, carrying the Houshou Marine and the unconsious Calliope Mori.

"Oii, you two are so late!!" Noel and Flare complained at the same time.

"I'm sorry, but it took some time to find Calli and gather the explosives for us to get here - Peko," said Pekora.

"We also went shopping," said Marine, and she pulled out a horn speaker from the shopping bag and turned it on.

"Urgh-hmm, is this working?" said Marine across the activated horn speaker as she cleared her throat. "Yes it is working, now, Rushia can you hear me?? I want you to know, URUHA RUSHIA IS PETTAN!!"

At that exact moment, every zombie collapsed into sands and dust as Rushia became so furious, she screamed in her metallic voice.

"I'M BOING BOING, URUHA RUSHIA!!!!!!!!!" Rushia yelled back after she screamed, and the other HoloFantasy members smiled and laughed.

"Welcome back," said Pekora, Marine, Flare, and Noel in unison, and all four of them rushed to hug Rushia, tears rolling down their faces.

The idols on the plane ran down and joined the cuddling, laughing and crying tears of joy until Marine shouted something towards the dark sky.

"SHION, YOU CAN OPEN THE PORTAL NOW!!"

A violet circle formed in front of the idols and all of them walked through, with Pekora and Marine carrying Calli, and Irys carrying Ame while Noel picked up all the pieces of Ollie, and the troops were left there alone as if they were not a part of this. ("WTF THEY JUST LEFT US HERE??!!" said one of the soldiers.)

The other side of the portal is Hokkaido, where Kronii told them to go. Ouro Kronii, Murasaki Shion, and Minato Aqua greeted them with the warmest welcome possible in this ship. 

"ようこそ, 我が船へ, 私の宝鐘海賊船です!!" (Welcome to my ship, my Houshou Pirate Ship!!) said Marine proudly, they are at the shore somewhere at the very north of Hokkaido. "So yeah apparently the first thing I did when I went out of control was to summon a real pirate ship, and then my powers faded out immediately and I fainted, I woke up like a month later feeling very hungry, so I ate and then set sail back to Japan, since when I was unconscious, the waves moved my ship to somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. And then-"

"Let's share our stories tomorrow, I'm pretty sure they're exhausted," said Kronii. "I'm glad you made it here, looks like you managed to get the warning from the alternate future me, I'll explain everything tomorrow, you people need some rest.

The idols each picked a room and settled down, took a shower with buckets of warm water and fell asleep the moment their heads hit the pillows.