Chapter 7:( The Dangers lurking in the Dark )

Kiara continued flying with Calli, Shion and Towa on the back of her phoenix form through the outskirts of the Underworld. Shion continued to perform heal spells until they reached their destination, the Underworld Academy. Kiara landed in front of a building, Yuzuki Choco stood at the front door, already waiting for them.

"Welcome to our school," Choco started after Kiara returned to her human form. She invited them inside to the nurse room and helped Shion heal Towa, since Choco is the school nurse after all. They told her what they're here for and Choco frowned, she took a deep sigh and then said, "I will return with you, only if Ayame agrees to come as well."

"What? What happened to Ayame-chan?" Shion asked.

"I think she is traumatized, but I'm not sure. She is still the same popular ojou in school, still top grades in everything, and still she is still the president of the oni student council. Except she doesn't laugh as much anymore, at least around me. I think she's avoiding me, she avoids the nurse's office even when she's seriously injured, and she never really comes to talk to me anymore," Choco explained. "I'm worried about her, so if she's not coming, then I can't leave her alone, because no matter what has happened, we are still members of Hololive gen 2." 

"So where is she?" Kiara asked, but then suddenly the door slammed open and an oni was supporting a wounded devil with slash cuts on the oni's body. Choco helped the students to a med-bed to heal their wounds.

"There's also been attacks on students by cuts like these in school for a while now, we don't know who did it. The victims say the criminal is a samurai with katanas strong enough to fatally wound onis and devils and demons, but a human couldn't've entered the Underworld on their own," Choco shouted out while trying to hold the wounded student down to heal him. 

"Don't worry, we will find the criminal," Calli assured Choco and led Kiara and Shion out of the nurse room. They asked the students along the way for Ayame's class, and after a while, they arrived at a classroom full of students with Nakiri Ayame in the center, laughing and smiling. Shion stopped the other two and went into the crowd of students herself, she made her way towards Ayame and the group stopped talking immediately, they were all thinking how did a human get in here. Ayame frowned at her and instantly looked away, pretending that she didn't know her.

"Ayame-chan??" Shion started.

"Ojou-san, do you know who this human is?" Some oni blurted out.

"No," Ayame said after hesitating a while, "I don't know her, or the two behind her."

"Ayame-chan?! But we were both in gen 2-"

"Can you not see you're troubling her," a devil shouted out, "get out of here human, how did you even get in here in the first place??"

The group of students pushed her out of the classroom while Kiara and Calli were waiting outside of the classroom. The students next to Ayame knew about the Hololive trauma, and to protect her smile, they learned not to let any human in her sight or to mention any human related or Hololive related things while they're with her. While they are making up lies that they misunderstood the species that Shion was a human, she was a shinigami, that's why Shion doesn't have horns, comforting her before she starts to cry. While the real Shion was outside, depressed, apologizing to Kiara and Calli that she failed. They returned to the nurse's office to tell Choco-sensei what had happened, and Choco apologized as well for not being able to help them. The bell rang, signaling the students that the students should now go to their dorm rooms to rest. Towa woke up with a start with her wounds completely healed.

"What… what happened?" She asked.

"We'll tell you along the way," Calli replied and they waved goodbye to Choco as the four of them left the nurse's office. On the way out, Choco warned Towa not to use her powers too much, because she is still recovering. They walked towards the front gate because the school has a magic field that prevents Calli from opening a portal, but before they arrived at the front gate, a katana flew towards them from behind. Calli took out her scythe and deflected it, and the katana flew back to its owner. The so-called samurai walked slowly towards them, menacingly, but after the samurai stepped, they saw Ayame. Ayame in a suit of armor with her katanas behind her, she wore an oni face mask, her eyes are dead like she's tired of this shit. 

Before any of them can say anything, Ayame charged towards them with both katanas in her hands. Kiara summoned her sword and shield and charged towards Ayame with Calli, weapons clashed against each other. Calli and Kiara tried to corner Ayame by making her fight front and back at the same time, but Ayame was so quick that instead it looked like she had the upper hand. Calli swung her scythe towards Ayame's head from above, Ayame blocked it with one katana. Kiara charged in from another side, Ayame then struck out her second katana like a polearm and tried to stab Kiara. Kiara blocked it with her shield, and was pushed back. Behind the front line, Shion casted a shield spell, completely closing out Ayame's space as if she's in a jail, but Ayame activated her oni's swords art, the technique she used to fatally wound other devils and demons, and slashed through Shion's shield. Towa tried summoning her weapon, but Shion insisted that she take a rest. 

Calli stepped back and summoned dark matters to try and bind Ayame, but Ayame slashed the dark matters to bits. Kiara tried flame body, but Ayame just swiped the dust from the ground and spread it to stop Kiara from burning. While the three of them fight, Towa was anxious, eager to join the battle, but she knows that she can't and she'll only be a hindrance. Shion was lost in her thoughts, thinking of a way to defeat Ayame without hurting her. Ayame's agility became a problem for Calli and Kiara to keep up, but then a light bulb popped from Shion's mind.

"Doocchi docchi? Doocchi docchi? Doocchi docchi, Eh? Gyaku?!" Shion started singing slowly and softly, Ayame stopped moving the moment she heard that. Calli and Kiara stopped too.

"Doocchi docchi? Doocchi docchi? Doocchi docchi, Eh? Gyaku?!" Shion continued singing softly, but slowly raising her voice and trying to sound cheerful. Ayame held her hands over her ears as if she's irritated, she then grabbed her sword and dashed to kill Shion, but TakaMori reacted quick enough to block her. While trying to hold Ayame off, they saw tears in her eyes.

"Ah-Hai hai hai hai hai! A-hai hai hai hai hai. Doocchi docchi? Doocchi docchi? Doocchi docchi, Eh? Gyaku?!" Shion continued singing, TakaMori felt the force charging towards them was lowered and they saw Ayame collapse onto the ground, her mask falling off as she started crying. Wiping her tears with her hands aggressively as she starts wailing. "Doocchi docchi? Doocchi docchi? Doocchi docchi, Eh? Gyaku?!" 

"*Sniff* *Sniff* Can you please stop??" Ayame cried out loud as if she's still a baby. The four of them sat next to Ayame to comfort her until she stopped crying. Back in the school, Choco saw the fight from her office window and she rushed out to see what happened. Kiara, Calli and Towa stood up to stop Choco from approaching to give Ayame and Shion some of their own time.

"Why did you stop smiling, Ayame?" Shion asked.

"Those memories were too painful," Ayame sniffed, her eyes red from crying. "I killed humans, humans who loved me, humans who loved Hololive. I woke up after massacring an entire community of people, horrified at what I've done, and watched other Hololive members doing the same thing. I watched Hololive fall apart. I decided to run away from all this, pretending that I've never left this school so I might still have the heart to smile."

"So then why harm other students?" Shion asked again.

"I didn't want to remember Hololive, all the other students were curious about the human world and what was it like out there, I told them I didn't want to talk about it. Gladly some students understood me, but others kept pressuring. So to protect myself, I pulled out my katana to shut them up."

Choco insisted on joining them since she's also from Hololive gen 2, and the three of them let her through. Choco sat at Ayame's other side and Ayame leaned onto Choco's shoulder. 

"I'm sorry I didn't want to talk to you," Ayame apologized. "You must've been lonely too."

"It's alright," Choco smiled back at Ayame.

"So, are the two of you gonna join us to fight Death??" Calli asked.

"No, I don't think I will," Ayame replied.

"But why not??" Kiara protested.

"Shion singing my song made me remember how precious Hololive was to me, but I don't think I have the mentality to watch Hololive fall again, especially when Death is inevitable."

Shion understood Ayame and stood up and said goodbye. She understands the fear of watching her friends die in front of her. Calli, Kiara and Towa followed Shion while Choco led Ayame back inside after they wished them luck. Calli opened a portal and they stepped back out to the human world, Shion checked her watch and found out more than two hours had passed, she quickly summoned a portal and everyone gathered back at the Kushiro dock.

30 minutes ago, while the four of them were still in the Underworld, Aqua and HoloFantasy were still on Marine's ship drifting in the middle of the ocean. They already found Gawr Gura, who jumped onto their ship while they were sailing, cheering that Hololive is back. But just as she's cheering, asking if HoloMyth also regained consciousness, dark matters start swallowing the ship. Gura thought it was Calli, but the waves told her that it ain't Calli's because blood stained on those matters just recently. Gura turned around and saw that none of the others were aware of it yet, so she pulled out her trident and stabbed the deck of Marine's ship and sea water flowed out of it, flooding the entire deck.

"UWAAAAAHH, WHAT ARE YOU DOING GURA-CHAN?!" Marine panicked. The water that flooded the ship also flooded the dark matter, washing the entire ship clean. Gura pulled her trident out of the hole she poked and stayed on guard and a scythe flew around from Gura's blind spot. Fortunately, Noel noticed it and ran to block it with her shield. Everyone on board took out their weapons, Rushia with her staff, Pekora with her TNTs, Noel with her shield and mace, Flare with her bow and arrows, Aqua took out a fucking Apex gun and Marine summoned another two fucking cannons on her ship. All those rumbling woke Haato up, Ollie was taking care of Haato since she puked so much from seasickness, they climbed up stairs and asked what happened, but then a dark matter snatched them from behind and threw her into the ocean. Gura dove into the sea to save them, but at the same time, Death grabbed Aqua's hair from behind after suddenly appearing.

"Aqua-senpai!!" Marine shouted, and the HoloFantasy pointed their weapons at Death. 

"What will you do if I slice her in half?" Death taunted, raising its scythe at Aqua's neck. The 5 of them were infuriated, but were soon calmed down when they saw Aqua holding a kitchen knife.

"Oi, Death," Marine called.

"Do not underestimate the HoloFantasy!!" All 5 of them said in unison. Aqua raised her knife and cut her hair and ran behind Marine, who fired off multiple cannonballs at Death. Death noticed he was just holding Aqua's shortened twintails and summoned dark matters and blocked the cannonballs. Russia stomped her staff on the deck and multiple dead bodies rose from nowhere and Noel led them, charging towards the dark matter like an army. Noel smashed through the dark matter shield with her mace and dead bodies charged in. Since Death can't suck their souls, because they don't have one, it was forced to raise its scythe for close combat. While Death wields its scythe, Pekora jumped higher onto the crow's nest and over Death and threw down multiple TNTs. Death raised one hand to summon another dark matter shield to block the TNTs, and the other hand, holding the scythe, trying to hold off the dead bodies who're attacking relentlessly, regardless of how mad they were cut. Flare ceased the moment and released 3 flame arrows and hit bullseye to Death's skull face. Death's defense broke, the dead bodies held Death down and the TNT rain continued to drop and it blew the entire forecastle deck into bits. Smoke spread across the ship deck as Gura climbed back onto the ship deck on pillars of water with Haato and Ollie next to her.

"A-" Gura was shocked to see Aqua had a haircut as the water pillars gently placed Haato and Ollie down who drowned. Dark matters formed behind them and on the quarterdeck and Death appeared again. Apparently before the explosion, Death was swallowed by its own dark matters in order to escape from the attack.

"That was quite a show, I must say so myself," Death commented. "Very impressive you five, almost got myself killed, but this ends now."

Gura raised her trident and a giant wave of sea water rushed towards Marine's ship, she then formed the waves into a trident shape and smashed towards Death. Instead of facing it, the whole world became dark for one second and Death teleported to the middle of the 8 of them, Marine panicked and fired a few cannons, Pekora jump scared and blew Flare and herself up, the cannonball flew around towards them and Death teleported back out onto the quarterdeck, the cannonball flew towards Rushia, Noel rushed in front of her, blocked two cannonballs with her shield, the shield broke and the third one hit her stomach so hard that sent Noel flying. Gura got hold of Noel, but she's heavier than Gura, so Gura summoned the sea water to rise up to support her. Death tried to drag Aqua, Haato and Ollie down to Hell, Aqua resisted by shooting her apex gun, but she missed every shot, and instead broke masts and sails that were required for the ship to operate normally and Death backed off. Marine felt the pain of the ship being destroyed both emotionally and physically, her body was mysteriously wounded and bleeding internally and externally, and the ship started to fade.

Suddenly a portal appeared, a gateway towards the Kushiro dock. HoloFantasy was supposed to sail back, but they didn't, so the other Hololive members were worried about them. Death re-appeared and went for Gura next, who was struggling to hold Noel up, but before Death reached her, a huge tentacle burst out of the sea water and knocked Death over to the other side of the ship. A few other tentacles lifted Gura, Haato, Aqua, Ollie, Marine, Noel, Flare, Pekora, and Rushia and threw them into Shion's portal. The ship disappeared as Marine fainted, and Death and Ina were left floating midair above the sea water with the portal on Ina's right, which is on Death's left. Ina striked Death with a few tentacles and started flying towards the portal as fast as she could. The whole world became dark for a second and teleported in front of Ina and tried to slash her, but Ina's book flew in front of her and blocked the scythe, a normal book would be cut to bits, but this book performed a shield spell on it's on and deflect Death and Ina entered the portal. 

Death's first failure to capture anyone, and that was a huge boost in morale for the Hololive idols.