Welcoming Death - Hololive Fanfiction [ONGOING]

CHAPTER 12: BITTEN AND BRUISED

"Here," an outstretched hand reached to Ina kindly.

Struggling, she grabbed the hand and pulled herself up with an arm wrapped around her side. Ina clutched her painful bruises, wincing, but thankful nonetheless. "Thank you, Enma."

"Your friends aren't always around so rely on me a bit more, okay?" She said so as she let Ina's weight settle on her side as she walked with her. Gently, Enma then pulled Ina onto her feet so that she could walk by herself but making sure to stay close.

"You're a friend too, you know?" As Ina remarked that, Enma's eyes widened slightly until she looked forward. Ina smiled, looking up at her. "I'm not lying. Thank you."

Enma hummed, focusing on supporting Ina, "Mm." She looked worriedly at Ina's slight limp, "Are you good?"

Ina nods, smiling despite feeling a slight throb in her ankle. She focused her energy into looking and moving forward. However, she quickly halted her movements when she saw Enma stopped in her tracks. Wincing at the sudden stop, Ina slowly pivoted to look back.

"Sorry," Enma softly spoke just above a whisper, "I don't know if your friends would like me too much. I'm just not the most outspoken."

The priestess sighed contentedly, 'Calli was like this.' She reached out and placed her warm palms on Enma's shoulders. With a warm smile, Ina welcomingly pulled her a little closer, "They don't bite- I swear. Plus, they'll like you. I mean, I need more of a rock in the group away from the craziness."

"Is that so?" Enma, never letting her stone mask drop, remained straight faced. However, her shoulders dropped and she let out a breath.

Again, the two walked together towards the usual group's table. Ina watched Enma carefully as she painfully lagged behind, hoping that she wouldn't turn back.

Thankfully, she never did and the two arrived at the table. Instantly, welcomed by a flurry of confusion amongst the group.

"Ina!" Kiara exclaimed, "Who's this?" Similarly to Calli's introduction (though definitely not as aggressive), she bounced happily toward the shy pair. Patting Enma's shoulders, her smile radiated the warmth and kindness in her heart.

The glow of her tremendous smile made Enma cringed from its radiance, "I'm from her class."

"Enma, right?", Calli chirped up, standing slowly as not to intimidate the girl however, it garnered the opposite effect. As she stood up, Enma flinched at the tremendous height of Mori, stepping back in defence. Seeing this, she raised her arms and gestured towards herself, "No, no, no! I'm not angry or anything! I just want- Well- I thought I knew you and-!"

As Calli stuttered and tripped over her words more, Enma relaxed more and more in Kiara's arms. She pushed away Kiara's hug, walking towards the table near Calli. "Yeah, I'm Enma. You're in Japanese too, right?"

Calli sighed a breath of relief, flicking a glance up to Ina with a thankful and soft gaze only for it to fall slightly when she met her eyes,"Mm. Yeah. Sorry if I'm a little scary. I really don't bite or anything! I just kinda give off the wrong impression... Maybe my jacket or my hair or something?" She started trailing off and mumbling at possibilities until remembering herself and returning her attention to Enma. "Sorry, I just-"

"No it's okay. I'm just kinda... surprised. I didn't think you'd be like this." Enma scratches her neck nervously, full taking in Calli's stature, "Especially with what happened recently."

Wincing, Calli stared at the ground, looking at her fists. Though not a single punch was thrown by her, she was very close to knocking down the rest of the reapers. If not for Ina's gentle persuasion, she would've really lived up to her reputation. "I didn't do anything really." Her eyes softly looked at Ina, weighted with guilt.