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When speaking of the future, a thousand different things may come to mind. Dreams of a successful career, a peaceful retirement watching as comets cross the sky, or maybe a gentle step onto the afterlife, sitting under the falling blossoms of a cherry tree. More often than one would like, however, the idea the world could end tomorrow may also have crossed one's mind - the idea that life is short, and that you might not be able to experience everything you wish to.
But even this dreadful feeling of unfulfillment is nothing compared to watching the actual end of the world.
News had spread like wildfire - Everyone knew that the Ancient Ones had taken over and soon everyone knew that they had overpowered Myth. Their priestess was killed trying to contain that power, an ancient Atlantean exhausted herself for a drop of ink on an ocean, a phoenix was extinguished and entrapped, and souls have lost the reaper that would collect them, unable to rest in peace.
And the time traveler? Maybe she lost her power to travel through time and is hiding among the people. Maybe she was killed too, during the chaos. Maybe she succeeded and created a new timeline, where everyone was saved.
In either case, this timeline was still ruined. Civilizations collapsed and leaders fell as the world became a toy to the floating hands of the Ancient Ones - but while there were still humans alive, they would fight, no matter how hopeless, or how small they might seem.
In a particular building in Japan, the lights were out. The gentle moonlight and the spark of the stars were the only and best illumination, that helped if there were windows, unlike the cramped hall where monsters walked. Those monsters resembled humans, but were covered in a thick black ink, with only two large white dots serving as their eyes, searching for any humans alive.
They were not the hunters, however. They were prey.
The eerie sound of metal against the floor tiles echoed in the distance, slowly, steadily approaching, accompanied by the slow pace of the steps on the end of the hall. The creatures turned around, looking deep into the empty darkness until there was a single glimmer of a blue crystal, revealing the silhouette of a heavy, golden ax and her owner, a seemingly innocent girl smiling sadistically.
She was swift. The first monster couldn't even react before being torn in half by the blade, dissolving into a puddle as the others tried to jump her. The screams were other-worldly, much like the monsters themselves, as she showed no mercy, decapitating a second one.
By the time she was done, the puddles that she had left were moving slowly, trying to go back to their original forms.
She just walked past them, still dragging her ink-stained ax through the floor with her dull eyes as she entered in the next room: A big filming set, with nothing but tossed spotlights, and broken cameras, with no audience and no hosts, just the dreadful silence of a once lively stage for idols.
But she wasn't there to reminisce about old memories, she was searching something. Or rather, someone.
"Mikochi? Are you here?"
"Sui-chan?! Is that you?!"
The moment she heard the answer, Suisei lit up. She dropped her heavy ax on the floor, searching the whole room until her eyes landed on the distinctive, unmistakable pink hair of Miko as she came out from under a table. It was a terrible hiding spot, to be honest, it was just a table knocked over. But she was alive and seemingly well.
"Sui-chan, is that really you?", Miko asked, hesitant to approach as she saw the ink-stained clothes of her friend and the dropped ax.
"Yes, it's me! Sui-chan wa... Kyou mo kawaii!"
Miko chuckled in response, deciding to play along.
"And I am the elite shrine maiden, Sakura Miko!"
The two perhaps looked like idiots, doing their regular greetings to a non-existent audience, but they smiled at each other, before breaking from their poses in laughter, their worries suddenly so small once they were together.
"What are you doing here, Sui-chan?"
"I suspected you would be here, so I came."
Suisei's reply was simple and direct as she picked up her ax from the floor again, supporting it on one of her shoulders as she turned to look at Miko.
"Couldn't leave my business partner fighting those monsters by herself, could I now?"
"You're scary. You know those monsters used to be real people, don't you?"
"Does that make any difference? They are dead anyway."
"Your suicopath side is showing again."
With a long tired sigh, Miko then walked to another room. She looked at the night sky through a window, eyes sparkling a little with the sight of the stars, a rare view from a busy city, only enabled thanks to the crisis they were in. But her eyes were quick to look down, to stare at the monsters that walked like zombies in the street.
"Sui-chan... What do we even do now?"
Miko said, looking hopeless as Suisei leaned on the window beside her. Suisei's eyes remained fixed on the sky, as if counting the stars, or maybe waiting for a shooting star to cross that firmament, not bothered by the situation below, or trying to not look down anyway.
"We fight. We survive. There's nothing else to it."
Miko let a bit of disappointed sigh with that direct, practical, but... Not so cheerful answer. Her eyes continued to linger below. She recalled the workers at the studio... The fans... Wiped out in a second, dead like they were flies in the grand scheme of the Ancient Ones. Where were the gods when they needed them? Could they truly do nothing to help? To save those people? To save everyone or at least anyone?
"The... The gods!" Miko shouted, sudden realization washing over her.
The monsters suddenly looked upward, seeing Miko and Suisei with their empty bright white eyes as they rushed inside the building.
"Ah...!"
"Tsk, no time to lose," Suisei said as she grabbed Miko by the wrist, pulling her towards the nearest exit.
"W-Wait! Slow down!"
Just as Miko said that, she tripped, unable to keep up with Suisei when they climbed down the stairs. She fell onto her friend, and they rolled down a few stories. If anything, they were a few floors closer to ground level already, at the cost of the pain.
"As pon as ever, huh?"
Miko scratched the back of her neck, but stood up first, helping her friend get up right after.
"I know, sorry! But hear me out: the gods! I am a shrine maiden! I can call upon them, beg for their intervention."
Suisei raised an eyebrow. She seemed to doubt that someone hadn't tried that in the middle of an apocalypse, but she sighed, conceding to Miko. After all, it was not like Suisei had any other bright, better ideas.
"Alright, and what do you need?"
"Just the nearest shrine. I think I can perform a prayer or a ritual there with whatever is available."
Just as she said that, monsters appeared on the floor below, quickly looking up to see the MiComet pair. They moved like zombies, but were not as mindless, rapidly rushing upward. And from above, the monsters that Suisei had slayed came back, surrounding the two.
They had little time to act as Suisei busted the nearest door with her ax, rapidly searching for another exit among the empty tables, scattered papers and pens, but finding none.
"I think that door was open," Miko noted as she pushed a table in front of the door, trying to block it as the monsters swarmed at it, trying to get inside.
Running out of time, Suisei looked through the window and then swung at it with her ax, making her own exit with a deafening shattering-glass sound. Staring below for a few seconds, she tossed her ax and then jumped through it herself.
"Sui-chan?!"
Miko stopped holding the table and ran to the window, eyes wide open as she saw Suisei, perfectly fine, on the floor below... Which was already ground level.
"Come on, it is safe!"
It didn't look safe, however. It was one story, but looking from up there it still looked scary, like the floor was way further away than it seemed. She could only approach the breached window, hands trembling as she carefully considered her options. Sure there was another way around it that didn't involve jumping, didn't it?
If there was, she didn't have the chance to find it as she turned around to see the monsters pushing the table aside and darting towards her. Without a choice, she closed her eyes and jumped, already imagining the impact against the painful concrete flooring, only to be surprised by the warm embrace of Suisei's arms, catching her mid-air.
When she opened her eyes, she was already up on her feet, beside Suisei, legs trembling slightly, but unharmed and no longer feeling that warmth. At the window, a monster couldn't stop itself in time and fell with a loud splashing sound on the floor, but his body began to shape back immediately.
"Come on, there's that shrine we can go to."
The mountain of the shrine could be seen from the city, it was a straightforward path to it. But straightforward didn't mean easy - distant thunders echoed in the distance, a chilly wind howled through the night and at every street they crossed, more of those horrendous creatures tried to block their path.
Suisei led the charge most of the time. She would scream like a mad woman, cut down the monsters with ease while smiling the whole way, not minding the extra ink mess she made. But those creatures did not give up either, always giving chase, their bodies taking back their original shapes no matter how unrecognizable it was left.
At the base of the mountain, Miko looked a bit tired, panting down, catching her breath as she stared at the stone steps leading to the Torii gate on the top, the entrance to the shrine. Suisei looked the most tired of the two, using her own ax to help her keep standing, but she would regain her vigor as she saw the monsters closing in again, tightening her grip on the ax.
"Go ahead. Make the ritual, I am going to buy you some time."
Suisei turned around, her ax on hand. Miko hesitated to leave her friend alone with the monsters, but gulped hard, knowing that she had something that she needed to do - something that would greatly help Suisei and the whole world if she succeeded.
At the shrine, the clouds darkened above her head, the moon and stars no longer in sight, the rain finally caught up to them. The state of the shrine was deplorable, in ruins, the paint worn out, some of the wood parts cracked, exposing barbs everywhere.
There was that smell - of water clearing the air, making it more humid, as the sound began: droplets echoing infinitely through the destroyed shrine while Miko prepared the ritual. It had been a while since she had done proper shrine maiden's duty, she was rusty.
She knelt before the shrine's altar, trying to take a deep breath to recall what she needed to do: It was simple, cleansing, offering, summoning and praying? Or maybe praying came before the summoning? Well, maybe one should finish with the offering?
Miko quickly tapped her hand against her head a few times as she tried to recall, before sighing and doing whatever came to her mind first. She reached out forward, cupping her hands to catch the chilly rainwater to wash her hands, rapidly trying to rub the dirtiness away. Her eyes then darted around, before checking her own pockets hastily, only to realize she had absolutely nothing to use as offering.
Her frustration grew by the second, hands trembling more as she looked inside a hole in the shrine, seeing a wand with a rotten handle and torn, hanging paper streamers. She tried to reach for it, but not without getting some barbs on her bare wrists, bleeding slightly.
She swallowed the pain, trying to suppress that sting while taking out the barbs carefully before looking to the sky, wondering what she needed to do now. She begun to clap and try to recite some incantations, but she felt like maybe she was insulting the gods instead with her gestures. Every perceived mistake cost her seconds, which she tried to compensate by going faster the next time around, only to end up making more mistakes.
"Ah, faq this!"
Giving up, she discarded the wand and bowed down, sinking her hair and forehead into the mud, hoping that the sincerity and humiliation would be enough to call the gods or at least anyone with power to stop the Ancient Ones.
"Ah, gods above! Hear the words of this Shrine Maiden! I beg you, bring salvation to this doomed world!"
A lightning strike cut through the sky, giving a single flash of light as Suisei finished climbing up the stairs. The ink on her ax washed away with the rain, revealing its golden color once more, but the stains fixed on the fabric of her outfit.
She looked tired. She felt tired, exhausted, muscles aching, sweat camouflaged with the water droplets on her face.
She looked to Miko, but didn't utter a word, not wanting to interrupt the ritual. The soil around Miko turned to mud, her pristine white clothes now looking as deplorable as the temple as she refused to quit her position, signs of desperation forming at the corner of her eyes as she waited for a sign, an answer... Anything.
Nothing changed. The sound of the water continued its rhythm through the ritual. Suisei couldn't bear with the sight any longer, silently walking towards Miko when suddenly they could hear that guttural sound behind her. The ink monsters passed through the Torii gate, back on their shapes and with renewed vigor.
"Miko, we have to go!"
"I can't! Not yet... The gods... I am sure they will listen. They have to listen!"
Suisei sighed. She hated the idea of praying to someone that clearly doesn't want to help, or were already dead... But she understood hope. She understood clinging to hope. After all, Miko and Suisei knew about clinging to hope better than anyone else, from their early career.
"Okay... Just be quick about it!"
Suisei straightened her back, twisted her neck a little with a loud cracking sound as she raised her ax once more, both hands on it. One monster tried to rush right to her as she swung her ax up and down, splitting the monster in perfect halves until her ax was stuck on the ground.
Effortlessly, she unstuck her ax and taunted the other creatures as they tried to jump her from two different sides. She sidestepped them, let them collide on each other before she swung her ax on both of them. But not yet puddles, she raised her ax and swung multiple times at them until they became one, same indiscernible mess.
There was another thunder that rapidly illuminated the shrine once more, only to reveal the many more monsters lurking in the shadows of the trees, surrounding Suisei. She combed her hair backward, her laugh psychotic as she charged onto them, continuing her slaughter.
One of the monsters didn't bother with Suisei. It stared into the pink-haired girl. Its steps were heavy, slow, making its presence known. Sensing the ominous presence behind her, the shrine maiden rapidly turned around, stepped away from the creature only to to stumble on the shrine's broken structure.
"Get away from me!"
She shouted once, eyes wide with shock as the monster's ink arm became a solid, black sharp blade. She looked around, hands trying to reach for anything, getting more of those barbs on her skin as she finally picked up a plank to defend herself.
She pointed the plank to the creature, trying to ignore how painful it was to simply hold it. But nothing could compare to what the monster did, smacking the plank out of her hands.
then surging forward, its blade piercing into her chest in one swift, deep thrust, coming out on the other side covered in red.
A single deafening scream echoed through the whole shrine, perhaps through the city even, all monsters and Suisei turning to look to its source.
"Mikochi!"
Suisei's own scream sounded equally desperate as she broke through the monsters, rushing to kill the damned monster that killed her partner. There was one furious swing and the monster undid itself, becoming a puddle. Without any hesitation, she dropped her ax and picked up Miko, rushing out of there. Nothing else mattered, not the pain, not the ache, nor the seizing of her muscles - just her business partner.
It was cold. The rain made it much colder than one would ever like, but the only cold Suisei could feel was from the fading warmth of Miko. Once they were far, far away, Suisei laid down Miko on the pavement, tearing a part of her skirt as she tried to stop the bleeding, but it was far too late, there was even blood dripping from her mouth.
Suisei's breathing was unsteady, fast-paced. She couldn't calm herself down, no matter how hard she tried, thunders that happened nearby sounding so distant as her whole focus was on trying to keep Miko alive
"Sui... chan..."
Miko's voice came down weak, lips trembling, nearing a whisper.
"Mikochi! Don't you dare die on me! I won't forgive you if you do!"
Suisei answered, her grip on Miko's hand tighter. She brought it to her cheek, as if trying to share the warmth of her own body with Miko until there was none left in Miko's body. Suisei leaned closer, pressing her forehead against Miko's, not minding the mud. She could breach a thousand business protocols right now, she wanted to tell Miko of her feelings, give her a parting gift, anything, but she knew it was too late as Miko's eyes looked dull, without the usual cheerful green that Suisei had grown used to.
Suisei closed the eyes of the corpse. She stared at the corpse for a few more seconds, before closing her own eyes too, as if a heavy burden had fallen onto them. Perhaps she didn't think much about long-term future - she didn't think about retiring and watching the comets cross the sky, she didn't think about passing away under the falling cherry blossoms... And most certainly, she never thought about the things she could not do...
Until now.
With no one to reap the souls of the deceased, the Ancient Ones fulfilled that role. From the wounds, a black paint started to pour out instead, covering the skin like a consuming darkness, until it covered her whole body and it pooled over her face, creating the stark white, circular eyes.
"Mikochi...?"