Corrupted Timelines

Coming Together

Emersyn had a serious problem on her hands.

All five girls had both emotionally and physically recovered way faster than she had anticipated. She had sustained some of the worst injuries and still had to deal with boring old human regeneration. This meant that she was completely unable to manage them properly.

Kiara constantly wanted to train with Calliope, completely destroying any room they trained in. Gura was also experimenting with Primal without her supervision, undermining the entire reason she had been allowed into Hololive. And Ina and Amelia were staying up far too late studying that stupid purple book, trying to put together a timeline that they didn't have all the pieces for.

She was going to need a serious end of year bonus for all this.

"I know someone who would be happy to help." Calliope had picked up on Emersyn's grievances during one of their afternoon talks.

The two of them had been discussing a better way to go about the next expedition to the Hatchery. Apparently, a lot had been hidden from Emersyn preceding the first one, causing it to end in failure. Calliope understood this now and wanted to prevent that from happening again. Emersyn appreciated the Reaper's willingness to open up about her issues, even if she says that it is simply a necessity.

"Someone owes you something?" Emersyn probed. She wouldn't deny help at this point.

"You're actually very similar to her, just more serious and tightly-wound," Calliope responded, resting her head against her hand.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Calliope's face showed a rare smile before fading back to a neutral expression.

"Her designation is J-Chad, and she was my old manager before I reported straight to Death-sensei. We enjoyed working together, so I think she wouldn't mind coming here to help for a bit," Calliope explained. Emersyn thought for a moment, sighing deeply.

"Sure, why not. We already have plenty of supernatural beings here, so what's one more?" Emersyn played off her hesitation and stress. Calliope laughed curtly.

"You say that like you aren't supernatural in any way. Keeping up with Gura and surviving a building being dropped on you isn't an easy task." Calliope stared at her with a smirk. Emersyn rolled her eyes.

"Compared to teleportation, time travel, and being able to drop buildings on people, I would say I'm the most normal of you people," Emersyn rebutted.

"None of us are normal, save for maybe Amelia," Calliope still wasn't used to using the time traveler's first name, "So why are you, a seemingly normal human, able to do anything that comes close to us?"

"I don't think that is particularly relevant to what we are discussing. I'm surprised you of all people would ask at a time like this," Emersyn said, clearly avoiding the topic.

"I like to think of it as a break from the stressful thinking and planning." Calliope shrugged a shoulder.

"You said that we should focus on the Hatchery. I agree if you want to leave as soon as possible." Emersyn continued to dodge the question. Calliope opened her mouth to continue pushing, but she stopped short. Her experience with Amelia made her think twice. If someone didn't want to say anything, she couldn't make them. Also, to be fair, this topic was unnecessary.

"Do you hate your past?" She changed her question to one more open. Emersyn hesitated to answer.

"It isn't pretty. You all need to respect me as your manager, so I would prefer you look up to me and respect me," she replied after a moment. "Maybe you'll find out when all of this is done."