*Mr. Comedian POV*
Mr. Comedian watched as Hirune fell further and further with his eyes squinted, his face expressionless as he blinked hard. Sure, he felt bad about Hirune's death, and he enjoyed her company, but he didn't know her well enough to need to cope with it. After all, he'd witnessed many others die in front of his eyes in worse ways. Yet when he got back onto the dome after waiting a couple seconds, he couldn't make himself leave and stayed on the edge of the dome. Waiting for a miracle to happen.
*Poppy POV*
Poppy walked around the loud prosperous city, into alleys, up fire escapes, and onto the roof of the closest building to her. She jumped from roof to roof humming, as she did a glittery mist came out of her right hand as she reached at her own face with her left hand, grabbed at the air in front of it, nodded and moved her left hand back to her side. The glittery mist now coming out of both of her hands. She glanced back down at the street and giggled with a slight shimmer in her eye as she watched the precious little shark looking around for the half-moon.
The poisonous flower kept on watching waiting for the shark to stand still, then jumped down from the building as pedals flew out from her face. The petals revealing a gas mask covering the bottom half of her face, then she muttered with her voice muffled through the mask, "Calming Mist." More of that glittery smoke suddenly blowing out of her hands like smoke bombs covering the entire street in a gas that made everyone fall asleep.
The little shark had preemptively taken in a deep breath and covered its mouth and nose as it started to try and leave the misty area. Feeling a sudden tug at its tail, the shark kicked but was sent off balance as whatever caught her tail held its hands to either side of it. Then a familiar giggly voice spoke, "Sorry Kala, but I need you for my own goals. Don't worry about your friend though, I'll still bring them to you. Maybe not in the condition you'd expect them to be in, but they'll be with you."
The shark tried to resist falling asleep, but it couldn't resist the inevitable as its erratic breaths slowed down into calm slow breaths. The poisonous flower then picked up the shark, then jumped into a manhole, the mist clearing as if nobody or anything had caused it. Almost as if it was never even there.
This poisonous flower known as a Poppy walked through the sewers, eventually stomping on the floor as the mucky water cleared around her feet, a hatch opening and dropping her down with the shark in her arms. As she landed, she instantly struggled to stay standing, the spinning of the roulette wheel immediately making it much more difficult to hold the shark as she looked up.
Poppy spoke, "Master, please stop the roulette if at least a sliver of a second. I've brought you a very valuable asset, and very valuable information."
The roulette wheel slowly stopped landing on black. The huge ringed hand that had been lifted to stop the wheel setting back down near it. "It landed on black, you may come," a voice said from the darkness around the wheel.
The Poppy bowed and walked down the black stripe that it had landed on, a rusted golden gate on the end of it opening as she was allowed into the rest of whatever this place could be called. She couldn't see anything either way, so it didn't matter. The only thing she could keep her eyes on being the plank she was walking down as she told the voice that came from the darkness about the descendent of Namulenza, and how this shark was an asset to luring them out.
Another gate opened, this time the gate leading to a dimly lit room. A singular old lightbulb lighting a wooden chair and some rope. Poppy sat Kala in the chair and tied her to it. Making sure to use some of the rope as a muzzle. Then she left, walking back through the plank, onto the roulette, as she stood in the middle, the roulette suddenly shot up and sent her back into the sewers.
Now all she needed to do was find Mr. Comedian, because she knew if she found Mr. Comedian she'd find the half-moon. She smiled as she left the sewers, as she had already thought of how to lure Mr. Comedian out alongside her target.
*Hirune POV*
Now the real question was how Hirune was going to get back up to the dome. Sure, she was feeding into her delusions but that wouldn't just magically give her answers, she still had to think this through slightly.
Hirune felt her ees getting drier and burning a bit. No matter how much she thought about she both had a limited time to think, and all of the ideas that came to her would drain her of all her stamina. There was no answer that would allow her to both survive and stay mostly conscious, the fact that falling made her gradually get further from the dome being a hindrance.
'I should've really memorized more of those incantations back in my little secret room,' Hirune thought as she tried to take a deep breath. Which she could barely do as she couldn't catch much air in her lungs at this speed, and if she did, her lungs would burst like balloons.
She forced herself to look at the dome, feeling as though her neck was about to get ripped off, she managed to weakly mutter 'Devour Distance,' as she put as much of her strength as she could into it. As usual, the Devourer Jaws swallowed her, then they spit her out extremely close to the dome, yet she was still at least 12ft (3.658 meters). She took another deep breath, actually being able to take it this time, she lacked too much stamina to use Devour Distance for the rest of the distance, so she instead summoned her Shadow Jester. Which made her dress bubble up like a science experiment then expel a black ooze out of the collar that passed her head, then grasped onto her shoulders as it outstretched, spun a couple of times, then threw her onto the dome. The ooze slowly following behind her as she went up, seeping into her shadow as it appeared on the platform again.
She did a bow like she was a stage performer, her eyes droopy. She didn't care if no one was watching, she just wanted to do that. Then she felt a sudden warm embrace, it was Mr. Comedian. He was hugging her in relief, "Glad you're still with me, my dear partner."
Normally Hirune would've been extremely flustered at Mr. Comedian hugging her while calling her his dear partner, but she had instant matters to attend to right now. She looked at Mr. Comedian, "Get off of me." She said in a cold tone while glaring daggers in the general direction of where those twins came from.
Mr. Comedian pulled away a little and looked at her, "Hirune are you-"
"I'm fine. Get off of me," She slowly stood up as Mr. Comedian backed up a little.
As Hirune got ready to look all over the dome for those twins Namulenza spoke to her in her head, "Before you go ahead with your plan, ask this Comedian about the Manipulation Essence he has in his pocket."
Hirune glanced to her left with an eyebrow raised, nobody being there. She then looked at Mr. Comedian, "What's up with that Manipulation Essence in your pocket?"
Mr. Comedian's eyes widened as he gave it to her, "What? Do you want it? Here, I don't need it anyways."
Hirune took it from him and looked at it, "About that, what's an Essence and how do I use it?"
Mr. Comedian looked at her with an eyebrow raised, then he sighed. "An Essence is what allows you to progress down a specific route. The way you use it is by eating it most of the time, there being a few exceptions."
Hirune nodded, looking at the Manipulation Essence. She hesitated about it for a moment knowing what the consequences of the Manipulation Essence could be, then she took a deep breath and swallowed it.
They searched the entire area for the entire night, yet they found nothing. They couldn't seem to find the twins anywhere. As Hirune and Mr. Comedian sat in one of the homes taking cover from the nail monsters outside, Hirune thought about what the twins said trying to recall anything they said that could help them.
Mr. Comedian looked at her, "Hirune, I'm seriously worried about you. Are you sure you don't want to go back down for a while? I know I dragged you into this and... I'm sorry."
Hirune sighed, "No, it's fine. I actually share the same goal as you about this place, or at least I think I do. Also don't worry, I'm fine. I just... I just have some personal stuff against those twins now." Hirune said that last part in a cold tone.
Mr. Comedian looked at her, "Alright but... just how do you plan to deal with them? They're clearly able to deal with us easily."
Hirune shook her head, "They got lucky that we were on the edge of the dome. Not just that but-" Hirune suddenly pulled her revolver out of her breasts. "I always keep this on me."