The Takamori Story

Rise

The phoenix was yet to rise again this time since it was being contained in the chambers of death's first apprentice, being scolded.

-"You can't go around breaking into people's houses like they're your own!"

Kiara crossed her arms and looked away.

-"Well my friend didn't mind, is that why you killed her?"

They'd been arguing for some time already, even after multiple aggresively exchanges.

On Kiara's side, she constantly accused Calli of breaking her promise, despite the fact that she didn't, and that she never promised anything to begin with.
On Calliope's side, she accused Kiara of being pointlessly violent and ungrateful.

Regardless of who was right, they both sucked at discussing it.
Up to now Kiara had been constantly bringing up the death of her friend.

-"I'm telling you, I didn't!"

-"mhm"

She said, rolling her eyes and aggresively turning around.
Calli was mad at her for being so immature, but at this point she had enough tolerance to empathize with her, so she tried to explain.

-"Look, just because I don't do my job doesn't mean someone will live forever, okay?"

Kiara looked over her shoulder.

-"What do you mean?"

Calli decided not to waste her chance at her attention.

-"Did I kill you this time?"

Kiara turned back again and answered in a lower voice.

-"..no?"

-"then who do you think killed you?"

Kiara started fidgeting, trying to find an explanation, thinking whether someone set her on fire or not. But she remembered her body turned itself on fire every time she died. If she was set on fire despite not being killed, then that could only mean one thing.

-"...Myself?!"

-"No, you shitbird!"

Kiara stepped back as a reflex of Calliope yelling and her wacky nickname being back.

"Everyone dies either way! I don't kill them!"

Kiara yelled back while pointing at her.

-"Then why have you been killing me all this time?!"

-"If I kill someone, that'd be an act of mercy, not cruelty!"

She raised her eyebrow in doubt.

-"How so?"

Calli couldn't help but facepalm once again, even if Kiara didn't have any way to know what she had already figured out. It had already been a tough day, and Calli was exhausted, so she took her time to walk up to her wardrobe full of black cloaks and pull out a blank bottle of black wine and a glass from far behind it.

She sat down on her bed and talked in a slightly calmer manner as she served herself.

-"Everyone dies, but when I kill someone myself, it's so they don't go the more painful way"

Kiara still held a grudge as she watched Calli drinking some of the wine she took out.

"Would you rather die by my blade, or disintegrate? You tell me"

Kiara remembered the stinging pain of being claimed by her own fire, spreading through her whole body.
If she were alive then, she would have felt her skin crawl just from the thought.

-"No, you're right, that was very painful"

Kiara sat down on Calli's bed as well, on the other side.

Then the only sound in the room was the steady stream of wine filling Calliope's glass for a second time. Kiara only spoke a moment later.

"Do... Do you think my friend also died the painful way?"

Calli looked over her shoulder and saw Kiara's back facing her. She left the bottle of wine on the ground and stared at the beverage.

-"Well, I was supposed to kill her in that forest. I imagine being crushed by a tree is worse than a precise slice"

-"I see..."

Kiara's rage slowly turned into sorrow as she realized she was in the wrong, and her voice became lower and weaker with every passing second.
She held her arms together and looked back to see Calli drinking from her glass. Despite the passing years and her constant disrespect, she was reliable.

-"You know... I think I always expected you to break your promise"

Calli saw a bright light reflected inside her glass when she was drinking from it, so she turned around and saw Kiara looking directly at her. She had a wide honest smile and teary eyes.

"I'm... Glad to know you didn't"

Calli's eyes shot wide open and she got up immediately. Kiara's whole body was shining like bright fire, and her hair started levitating.

-"Woah woah, why is your body shining?!"

-"what?"

Kiara looked at hands and legs. She started panicking and got up from Calli's bed.

"W-what is this?!"

Calli remembered how that was the first thing that happened before Kiara turned into a giant phoenix and attacked her.

-"Get out!"

She yelled as she pointed at the door. Kiara was scared and her voice was shaking along with her body.

-"I don't know what's happening!"

-"You're turning into a phoenix again! Get out!"

-"I am?!"

-"OUT I SAID!"

Kiara ran outside like a scared puppy, Calli followed her, not before taking her scythe with her.

Once outside, Kiara shined brighter, and the flames around her body were more noticeable.

They both stared at each other in fear, each for their own reason. Kiara didn't want to burn again, neither did Calli want to be dragged through the gravel around the underworld.

Not knowing what to do, Calli said something almost on instinct.

"... Does it hurt?"

-"No, actually... It feels as if..."

Kiara looked at her hands again. She hadn't transformed, yet her body was disintegrating again, and the particles left shined and rised upwards by themselves.

"... Mori-san...?"

Her whole body was gone before Calli could answer. She looked up to see the lights floating higher and higher until they were just a dim sparkle in the distance, like a star. Then that star faded as it reached the highest level of the underworld and phased through it, presumably to the surface.
The phoenix had risen once again.