Reaper and Shark in Darkness 1

[CENTER][U]Chapter 1: Look Back[/U]

<<<Calliope Mori>>>

[spoiler=Character art][img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EqYFzfeVEAEaa1U?format=jpg&name=large[/img][/spoiler][/CENTER]

“You sure about this?” She couldn’t help but ask once more, “We go through that door, it’s a one-way trip. Not even sure if Ames or Kronii could find us…”

“Nah,” One of her best friends in the world replied, waving off the concern, “They totally could. You saw the bees, don’t tell me you didn’t!”

Calliope just rolled her eyes, “Yes, I did. Just seemed like something to say… and honestly, I’m not sure what’s on the other side of it.”

Gura gave her a look, “How? You’re death, or whatever! How do you not just… know these things!?”

“Listen, I’ve ferried the souls of the departed on to the afterlife, but I’ve never made that climb myself,” Calliope said, crossing her arms, “I’ve always been curious, but I never tried. What if I went over and didn’t want to come back? Besides, I never would’ve met any of you girls.”

“And that isn’t the afterlife!” Gura replied, throwing her arms up into the air with a huff, “Well, I’m going, and the sign that says ‘no entry’ can’t stop me!” The door didn’t really have that sign, but the ominous black glow sufficed.

Calliope just shook her head with an amused smile, “As if I’d let you go alone, someone needs to be the brains here,” She teased with a faint grin as she ruffled the shark girl's hair.

With a jerk, she fought her way free of the grasping hand and… fell through the door, vanishing as though she were never there. “... Alright, I don’t know why I expected anything else,” Calliope sighed before stepping through.

She just hoped she appeared close to Gura, who knows what sort of mischief the shark could get into without a minder.

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The good news, she thought, was that she did indeed appear near her friend. The bad news, as she saw it, was that they appeared on top of a skyscraper. And the exit door was locked, if the gremlin struggling with it was anything to go by.

Calliope just looked around, taking in the skyline and the sprawling city below, “Huh, I don’t think we’re in Japan anymore, Goober.” She commented before glancing back, “... I know you can rip that door off. I remember how you were those first few weeks on land,” She added dryly.

“Yes, but we don’t have any mone,y and doors are really expensive!” She replied, furiously jiggling the handle, “If the lock breaks, we can just claim it was always broken and that’s how we got up here!”

Calliope just nodded, “Good point,” She said as she walked over to the door, “Let’s see if I still got it…” She raised a finger that was sparking with sickly green light.

Eyeing the door for a few more minutes, she poked the deadbolt before standing back, “Give it a minute,” She said before tilting her head, “Huh, you know… I don’t think it’s common to use deadbolts on roof access…” She added thoughtfully.

“Maybe they just used a front door because they bought two of them?” Gura suggested with a shrug before pushing the door open. “Perfect!”

“Glad to see the talents of my rebellious childhood are still good,” Calliope said with a snort, “Still, strange though…”

Of course, as soon as Gura’s foot landed on the other side of the threshold, an alarm began blaring. A lot of alarms, for that matter. “... do you think if we apologize, they won’t try to arrest us?” Gura asked with a chuckle, hand going to her head as she blushed.

“I doubt it,” Calliope said with a chuckle, “Maybe we should’ve jumped?”

“And possibly landed on someone!?” She asked in return, “It would be funny, but that’s very rude. And I can’t fly.”

Calliope just shook her head in amusement. Sometimes, she wondered if Gura legitimately forgot how tough she actually was. But it was what made her such a popular shark girl, well, that and being adorable when she’s trying to be serious or intimidating.

She’s only really intimidating when Red.

Even as they were talking, men streamed up towards them with… more than a small amount of firepower. Lots of guns, and one or two even had swords. Nothing threatening to them, but it was an odd reaction to a break-in.

“The last person I saw using a sword was Kiara…” Who might act like an airhead on occasion but she was damn skilled at using that thing.

But, then again, being an immortal phoenix you have to pick up a lot of skills through your multiple lives.

“Hi!” Gura started, “So we’re a bit lost and-” She was interrupted by one of the men firing at her, forcing her to jump away and dodge. “I might be a shark, but I don’t eat people!” She complained, dodging more projectiles and- ‘Was that a lightning bolt?’

Calliope swung her staff (after all, the scythe would’ve made them more shooty) and smacked the lightning bolt, its electric charge decaying in an instant when exposed to her own deathly energies, “Just take us to your leaders or whatever.” The wordless ‘you don’t want to make us do anything drastic’ went unspoken.

Though she wasn’t sure if the humans even caught that.

If they were humans, she had her doubts with how fast they were moving, and their life force was very weak. Not enough to be dead, but enough to question things. They certainly weren’t undead, they stood out like a beacon… and they were somewhere across the city.

So what was she dealing with here?

“Ok, you don’t want to talk!” Gura exclaimed before darting in, breaking several limbs and causing multiple concussions in a flurry of violence. Several wounds revealed metal underneath the ‘human’s’ skin, which explained their low vitality. Not robots, but not exactly normal humans either.

“Huh, don’t that beat all…” Calliope just shook her head, “Well, looks like we’re fighting our way through.” She hit the floor with the butt of her staff, causing her scythe to sling out.

“Why did they even start shooting at us?” Gura asked, “Maybe they’re scared of sharks?”

“I think it's less sharks and more supernatural, specifically,” Calliope answered, “Humans back home were cool with us, but normal humans fear what they can’t understand. And what they fear they tend to destroy or control if they can,” She explained as she rested her scythe on her shoulder, “Hmm, maybe I should use something else…” She muttered thoughtfully as her scythe twisted into a katana, making Gura snort.

“All that’s missing is the suit and wine glass!” She snarked.

“Yeah yeah, yuk it up,” Calli replied, head shaking, “I don’t see you complaining about getting those guns…”

“Shut up!” Gura retorted as she looked the guns over, eventually settling on two handguns.

Make and model? Calliope had no idea; she wasn’t even a gun nut in general. Hell, she didn’t particularly like them. Death would often complain about how humans increased their workload after guns came into the picture, and it only got worse after the Industrial Revolution and two world wars.

Her dislike was for a different reason, of course. They were less personal and fun to use, maces were much better, but since no one seemed to be using helmets, they were a bit… too messy.

So sword it was!

Not that it mattered much what they were using as they made their way down the stairs, there weren’t any people to fight. There were a lot of traps, though. 

A lot of traps.

“Calli, I don’t think these guys are normal,” Gura said after needing to brush soot and ash off herself… for the third time, after a lightning trap sprung up around her.

“Imagine how they seem from my perspective,” Calliope responded, slightly distracted. These humans just felt wrong to her. Like they carved away at what made them human, it felt wrong and disturbed her more than she liked to admit.

She had no doubt her fellow reapers, not to mention Death himself, would be disgusted and let loose the hounds on these barely human husks. The only thing worse were Necromancers and the undead (though not Ollie, she was a unique case amongst the undead. A combination of unfinished business and sheer Thirst kept her among the living).

“And now I made myself sad, I’m going to miss that crazy zombie.” Regardless of how frequently Ollie stunlocked and thirsted over her (and the others), she was her biggest fan.

She still looked back fondly at when they performed Black Memory.

“Surrender, reality deviants!” A particularly large cyborg said, surrounded by proper robots, as it pointed a rather large and ominously glowing gun at them.

“Reality Deviants, that’s a new one…” Calliope muttered before she spoke up, “And what makes us ‘deviants’ exactly?” She retorted.

“What doesn’t?” It asked in turn, the gun starting to whine dangerously.

“Are all husks racist against the supernatural?” Calliope retorted as she tilted her head curiously, her eyes wandering from the husk to the robots backing it up.

They looked pretty solid, but a few things could resist entropy itself. Everything withered, decayed, and died. No matter how these husks carved away at their humanity and replaced it with technology, that would never change. There were very few ‘true’ immortals after all, and immortality could be seen as a curse.

Shaking her head, she always found herself thinking philosophical thoughts when encountering something bizarre.

“Don’t blink.” Was all Calliope said before she started cutting faster than they could’ve predicted.

Gura would later say she ripped her moves off Vergil, and no matter how she denied it, the goober wouldn’t believe her.

Still, the machines and cyborg fell apart, rust and decay filling them… helped along by some very large gashes from her sword, because overkill was far from overrated.

“That was cool!” Gura said with a wide grin, “So if they have a word for us, want to bet there are a bunch of magic people around?”

“Without a doubt,” Calliope said as she put her sword into her sheath.

“But, uh… husk?” Gura asked, making the reaper grimace.

“To you, you just see a guy that’s part robot,” Calliope started, “But in my eyes? They are quite literally carving away what makes them human. They’ve lost touch with their humanity, it’s… sad and rather disgusting to witness, honestly. If Death saw what I did, it’d release the hounds to remove these… abominations for the lack of a better term…” Truly, given how ‘modified’ this one was, she didn’t think there was enough soul to escort in the first place!

It’d probably dissolve into the ether.

“Ok then… I have concerns,” Gura started, “But let’s leave before they bring their really big guns.”

Calliope nodded, “Though, you think we should try and find some money first? I don’t think we can exchange yen here. What with it being from a different world and everything,” Calliope asked.

“Eh, I’m sure we can find someone that will give us some money. And if not, we can always beat someone up for it-” She cut herself off as Calli gave her a look, “I meant beating up muggers or something! Villains! Monsters! Not normal people!”

Calli just grunted before shaking her head and, with a sigh, cutting through the nearest wall to the outside, “After you, princess.”

“Ugh…” Gura complained, “Do you have to call me that?”

“Yes,” She replied with a smirk.

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Nightmare723764: Something we’ve been meaning to do for a while, and sorry if anyone was hoping for us to just rewrite the original. But honestly Calli and Gura in World of Darkness amused us, it was either that or PJO. So I hope everyone enjoys this! Also we’ll be adding this to our vote list, so if anyone wants to see more of it don’t forget to head over to our patreon to vote for it when we do our monthly voting poll!