Kuyo realized at that moment what was happening but how was it happening?
"It seems you understand now, child." The voice proclaimed. Soon after, a figure tall like a skyscrapper emerged the dark void, long black hair cascading down their shoulder. A tattered pink kimono wrapped around their form.
"Understand that I died?"
"Yes and no." The figure added, sitting on their knees. "You are in the Yomi, the shadowy land of the dead. And you are speaking with its ruler."
Kuyo remained silent, unsure what to say. She knew she would die but she didn't expect to meet up a Goddess. "...What do you mean yes and no?" She brought herself to ask, just so she wouldn't stay silent.
"When mortals die, their soul end up here where they roam endlessly. Some day however, some of the new souls actually fought back, as if trying to wrench themselves out of death's embrace. This was an unprecendented phenomena that went on quite a while, so after some persuasion, I got to learn a bit about them. At first, they spoke clear but after some time, a batch of them would self-destruct, effectively erasing their existence. You are the only one who hasn't erased themselves, and now I have a clear enough picture of the situation."
"Which is?" Kuyo asked, intrigued by the Goddess's remark.
"You are an empty shell of a mortal, a poor replica that imitates yet does not truly feel. Honestly, I should destroy you for how much of an affront your and you are." The Goddess mused, glancing down at the head of the Gear.
"I don't think I ever claimed to be a human, did I?" Kuyo asked back.
"No, you haven't. And based of your tale, your kind is working on something that could make as close to humans as possible. Although it is not working as intended." The Goddess referred to the second phase of the Gear Project: The Drive discs. After conceiving Gears, they were to be augmented with those discs, which would grant them another plethora of ability and give them the bits of humanity they had lost in their creation. Unfortunately, the project was put on indefinite hold after the remaining humans had died. The Gears were working to put the project back on track, but they had very little success.
"Why even are you asking me all of that? It can't just be curiosity, is it?"
"What if it was?" The Goddess picked the disembodied head of the Gear named Kuyo. "What would you do about it?"
Kuyo didn't immediately answer the question. Her eyes met the hollow sockets of the Goddess. The silence grew heavier, stretching into minutes, until Kuyo finally spoke. "I may not be all that strong but don't think for a singular second that I would just get pushed around without reacting."
Silence settled in again, this time, only for a few seconds, cut by the gigantic figure of the Goddess giggling at the Gear's retort. "Aren't you awfully full of yourself? If you are sure you can resist me, how about we try?" The following moment, the two of them left the void.
The first thing to come back into view were the path cleared when she had been slammed through the numerous trees and her attempt at a retaliation. Despite the destruction below, the foliage above barely changed if at all.
"This place has not changed at all." The Goddess said, her voice resounding in the Gear's head. Barely a second later, said head had been picked and placed where it belonged. The wound closing as if skin and flesh were knitted back together. "That body of yours feels strange but it is quite a bit stronger than a regular mortal's. It will serve well."
"Serve? When did I agree to give you what's mine!?" Kuyo retorted, suddenly her left arm jolted, squeezing her own throat.
"Death does not ask," The hand gradually unclenched, the arm lowering itself under the Goddess's control. "It simply takes. There's nothing you can do about it."
"Wanna bet?" The right arm sprung into action, punching at the face with great force, breaking the nose and making the entire body stumble.
"Oh, you insolent—" Before the Goddess could finish her sentence or do anything, Kuyo punched again.
It was a strange sight, a girl standing alone in a vast forest, talking with two different voices while punching, scratching and even slamming herself against a tree. That went for five minutes before suddenly coming to a stop. The body stopped trying to tear itself apart, sitting down against the base of the same tree she was slamming her face into multiple times.
"You are incredibly persistent, I'll give you." The Goddess breathed. "But you know you cannot win this. You are hurting yourself more than you are hurting me."
"I know I won't win," Kuyo admitted, her right hand trembled for a moment as she tried to raise it but it stayed down no matter how hard she tried. "I'll just a thorn in your side, one that will never go away..." The Gear's voice remained even but cold. "Activate Soul Suicide Sequence!"
A red countdown flashed before their eyes.
"...You are a petty one." The Goddess sighed, she could have simply push the Gear's soul into the Underworld if she wanted but she remembered how much effort it took to simply apprehend one. If she wasn't there, they could do serious damage to her realm and she didn't want that. "Are you really intending to kill yourself just to stop me?"
The Goddess's words caught Kuyo off guard for a moment, "Huh... Since when was I so unhinged...? Meh, doesn't matter." Pushing the thoughts away, she answered. "Very much, it might not take your soul alongside mine, but it'll leave a mark, and you'll be without a body. I won't win but we both lose, as simple as that."
"Ugh... fine. I relent." The Goddess rolled her eyes, raising her arms in defeat. "What do you want?"
The countdown stopped. Kuyo fell silent, her plan had worked way more than she thought but now what was she supposed to do? She needed time to think.
"...You haven't thought it through, have you?"