A drowning silence encompassed every inch of Lola's being; finding herself unable to move within the dark realm she resided alone in. With no other option, Lola silently gazed at the starry night-filled roof of the dark realm. She briefly closed her eyes before her expression contorted into a mix of nervousness and fear, her complexion turning paler in the process. The foreboding pressure weighed down on Lola pinning her in place; she scrunched up her cheeks and held her breath mentally preparing for what was to come as Eclipse sat beside her.
"I would ask what you're doing but that would be both rhetorical and no different to someone asking 'why are you hitting yourself' when they're the one making them."
"What is that suppos-- Don't ask obvious questions," Lola said, her tone and inflexions becoming robotic and lifeless halfway through. She froze. She swung to a sitting position as she frantically smushed and kneaded her face like dough.
"Why did I say-". Lola stopped mid-sentence and swung her head at Eclipse as she felt a foreboding sensation in her very soul.
{[You] can already surmise who [I] am but for consistency [I] shall still do this part. [I], Eclipse, am a super tall faceless adult male humanoid made of super pale golden radiant energy with a bold pale cyan outline; [I] have a hip-low mass of glowing pale cyan hair tied near [my] neck into a DNA-looking ponytail, lean muscles, number changing large pale cyan spectral kitsune tails, and a glowing eternally crystalizing pure-white sphere in [my] forehead}
Eclipse placed a hand on his chin and hummed with a musical chime. Eclipse tapped his chin before using his kitsune tails to lift himself off the ground.
"Wonder which would be better... a tale with age regression or power loss and starting with a new one."
"I'd prefer neither, both of those options suck," Lola said as she pouted at Eclipse.
"In premise or from the characters' perspective?"
"The second one!" Lola exclaimed in frustration before her hands moved on their own and clamped themselves around her mouth. Eclipse nodded his head. A sinister feminine cackle echoed through the air filling it with distorted cracks as the cackles drew near. Lola dilated her eyes at the mere sight of the distorted cracks, their appearance along with the cackling meaning the imminent arrival of Abyss. Eclipse raised a hand to Lola, making her lower her gaze to his hand as he placed his middle finger behind his thumb.
"Better send you back to your place in the story, and you won't remember this encounter for obvious reasons."
Lola raised an eyebrow. Before she had a chance to respond, Eclipse flicked Lola on the forehead, eliciting a confused yelp from her as she swung backwards. Lola slammed into the ground, plunging into it as if it were water and fading away. Eclipse uttered a disgruntled sigh which was shortly followed by a pitch-black blur tackle-hugging him, colliding into Eclipse with enough force to fracture everywhere and ultimately collapsing the dimension.
Elsewhere, the faint sounds of chirping crickets and an occasional hooting owl sang through the air of the otherwise quiet mini-park; however, the silence was rudely interrupted when Lola crashed down from above startling the park animals into fleeing. Lola led on her back, staring up at the full moon in a daze. The light slowly returned to her eyes until Lola snapped back to reality. Lola sprung herself to her feet and darted her head around at her surroundings.
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"Weird... could've sworn I was just talking to someone...?". Lola briefly scratched her human ears before she sensed a familiar energy above, putting a smile on her face.
"Yozu-gah!". Yokuza plummeted from above like a sack of potatoes and landed directly on top of Lola. Yokuza groaned in confusion while a rapid Lola frantically scurried around in a futile attempt to escape from under Yokuza. With one last burst of energy, she tried to push herself and Yokuza off the ground, her arms wobbling as she struggled to lift herself a few inches off the ground before collapsing like a deflated balloon.
"Too hungry...," Lola grumbled defeatedly. She buried her chin into the grass and meekly sighed as Yokuza staggered to his feet.
"Then you should manage your time better," Yokuza stated as he rattled his head. Lola whined and whimpered mentally while sulking and placing a burger bun in her mouth.
"But I do, it's just... how was I supposed to know we'd get ise-makai?" Lola said whilst munching on her burger bun. Yokuza playfully rolled his eyes and glanced at his surroundings, taking in the many playground equipment of the mini-park and the dim lights from the surrounding homes of the countryside Japanese village. He closed his eyes and deeply inhaled the air.
"This really is another world," Yokuza remarked. He glanced down at Lola as she stuffed her face with burger buns, "Which explained your increased hunger given the lack of ambient spiritual energies.". Lola glared at Yokuza as she finished her last burger bun.
"You're starting to sound like Kimmi-Ka, Yozu," Lola mumbled as she hopped to her feet.
"Speaking of the others, it seems they were summoned as well. Only it's hard to pinpoint where," Lola muttered aloud.
"Must be the lack of mana making long-range mana sense bogus," Yokuza remarked, his expression souring slightly as Lola giddily grinned at his annoyance.
"Bogus binted?" Lola said with a slight snicker. Yokuza lowered his head, a solemn frown on his face as he considered punting Lola like a football. A sharp surge shot through the duo's mind as they sensed something nearby. The duo turned to each other, giving the other a firm head nod. Yokuza hurried towards the energy source, grabbing Lola by her collar and hoisting her onto his back before he leapt onto the roof of a village house.
Yokuza sprinted atop, swiftly parkouring and flipping from roof to roof. He spun through the air, managing to complete three somersaults before landing on the very edge of the slanted roof. His foot jolted slightly eliciting Yokuza to widen his eyes, panic filling his mind as he flailed his arms to retain any sense of balance. Lola crept her head around Yokuza, a disappointed glare plastered on her face.
"And you wonder why you were denied from the parkour club," Lola said snarkily. Yokuza eventually regained his footing and sighed in a mix of annoyance and defeat as Lola's words fully set in for him.
"You don't need to remind me," Yokuza uttered adverting his eyes from Lola as she moved her face closer to him. Lola continued moving her face closer to Yokuza and, in turn, he moved away until he was orientated ninety degrees on the roof. Yokuza placed his arms in a defensive lock while Lola held her face mere inches from Yokuza's.
"Do you mind?" Yokuza grumbled. Lola narrowed her eyes with an inquisitive glint in her eyes. She raised a thumb to her stuck-out tongue before moving it to Yokuza's right eye and pressing the black mark around his eyes. Starting off fairly gently, Lola lightly rubbed the mark but the mark's defiance to leave put a palpable pout on Lola. Lola took in a sizeable breath and raised her shoulder in preparation for her second match with the mark.
"I'd prefer having two eyes thank you very much," Yokuza stated, flicking his head to knock Lola's hand away. Lola huffed in frustration, disembarking from Yokuza with one of her tails wrapped around his legs and the other clamped onto the roof.
"I was only trying to help, Metal Singer," Lola barked cheekily before releasing Yokuza. The duo silently stared at each other as Yokuza proceeded to plummet off the roof and slam into a river with a loud slap, which even made Lola flinch from guilt. However, she swiftly shook it off, both mentally and physically, as her attention returned to the nearby magical presence.
"And here I thought this was where otherworlders come from... although I guess we're the otherworlders now," Lola muttered, pondering aloud whether the appearance of this presence was Cerbichi's doing. Yokuza, on the other hand, was standing straight like a pin with his head fully submerged in the river while contemplating on getting mad or not.