Amelia Watson, age 23.

“Oughhh..”

Watson wakes up in the room of her small apartment. She yawns, rubbing her eyes to try and shake of her sleepiness. The woman realizes that she fell onto the floor, her medium-length blonde hair all ruffled up. She turned her gaze over to window, with her standing up to open up the curtains and looking out to see the heavy morning rain.

“Rain again, huh?” For the past few mornings, it's always been raining. It started with a light drizzle, but along the timespan of about 2 weeks, it's turned into a downpour, and now a heavy storm. Her phone rings, and she looks over towards it. It says that an unknown contact is calling, which certainly raises some questions for her.

“Huh, must be some wrong number shtick,” the woman states, grabbing onto her device and picking up the call, “Hello? Who—”

Her own voice is immediately interrupted by the person on the other side of the call. It was a familiar voice. “Oh, looks like you're up, Watson.”

Tick. Tock. Tick... The clock stopped.

“Kronii?” Apparently, she already knew who was on the other end of line. “I didn't know you Goddesses had cellphones.”

“Oh, well, it's not mine.” — “Huh? Then who's-” — “Eh, that's not really the point. Where are ya right now?”

Watson sighs at her question being ignored, “Well, I'm at my apartment.. like anyone else would be at-” She turned to the halted clock. “Six in the morning. Why are you contacting me anyway? I thought you said you didn't wanna associate with me anymore.”

Kronii's tone swiftly shifts, from her friendly, slightly joking attitude, to this much more serious one. “It's an incredibly important situation.. I already tried to convince the others to pick someone else, but.. I guess you're the most optimal pick for the job, anyway.”

“What's on the line?”

“This timeline.”

Watson pauses, she seems shocked. Of course, she already knew the moment that the Warden of Time of all people was contacting her, it would be bad, but.. this was even worse than she was expecting. “What's happening? What do I need to do? Just tell me,” she says, with a large feeling of responsibility.

“You know about Hololive?”, Kronii asked.

“Uh-huh.. it's that niche idol group, right? I heard it's even coming to the west soon. What's it gotta do with the whole timeline, though?”, Watson countered.

“It'd be.. too much, if I told you.” — “As in?”

“The time stream is like a river. It prefers to follow its destined course, unless you do something catastrophic.. which is what me telling you about this stuff would be,” Kronii stated. “If I altered the course, it would make everything I'm saying right now absolutely worthless.. because it won't happen properly.”

Watson was suspicious, but she knew that the person she was speaking to knew the future, and whatever she says must be true.. right? She sighed and spoke up once more. “Okay.. what do I have to do?”

“You need to join Hololive,” says Kronii. “

“.. And, you can't tell me why, correct?” She sighed. “I suppose.. you want me to investigate the agency? I've definitely heard some rumors.”

“Err... yes. You could- say that.” The Warden's voice shaked as she said that.

“.. Sure, sure.” Watson turned her gaze to the frozen clock once more. “I think we're done here, right? You go unfreeze time, and I'll try to see if I can apply.. not guaranteeing that I get in, though. I'm not exactly that talented when it comes to like, singing? Dunno what those people do over there-”

“Yes, yes. Just do your best, please. You're our only hope.”

“I got ya, Kronini.” As the call ended, time seemed to be progressing once more. The clock's arm moved, something that was about to fall down just before time was stopped then hit the wooden floor. It was her detective coat.

After grabbing the piece of clothing and putting it on her bed, Watson walked over to her computer, sitting down in front of it. “Let's see if they have applications open right now..”

At this point, hours have passed. The woman was still staring at her screen, thinking on how the heck she would even begin to make an application. Sure, they were wide and open, but she really didn't think she excelled at anything that would be of worth at this company.

“Arrghh.. think, Watson, think. You're not called the #1 detective of Virtuainia for no reason..”

She eventually had to force herself into a making scuffed video as a part of the application. It was horrible, she hated it, and she was afraid that it wouldn't get her the job. Suddenly, her pet dog sprung up from his slumber and ran towards her, jumping onto the desk, curious of her work.

“Oh, Bubba.” She softly pat the canine's head. “Kronii's got another mission for us, so we gotta prepare.” The animal barked excitedly, as if he understood and was anticipating this new adventure.

“Yeah, y'know what? Maybe this won't be so bad after all.”

After a little while, Watson's sight shifts over to her e-mail. A letter's been sent to her, and the sender was.. Hololive! Was this it? Did she get in?

“... To Amelia Watson... we have seen your application, and...”

Her eyes glimmered; she sighed out of relief.

“Well, that's one step of the journey done. Looks like in-person interviews are in a week or so..” The woman turned over to her best friend, the dog. “We gotta train hard for this opportunity, 'aight, Bubba?”

 Bubba nods; his owner stepped towards the window, opening the curtains.

Sunlight.