And we're back, baby! Sagittarius will continue onwards from here until the end of the Raid Arc. All the reviews from the last Sagittarius chapter are here, since I've been updating Two Heroes, Three Servants and I want to keep the reviews from each book in their respective ones. Also yes, you'll get a chapter tomorrow. I have it ready but also this one ahaha.
Sawtooth44: That's cool. I guess aside from Disuke Ono, the only other Voice Actor from Jojo in Fate would be Ozymandias'— Dio, I think.
Frostlash: I'm not a fan of RWBY. I just could never get a hang of how the cel-shading and the movements were in the first season. Too motion sickness-inducing for me, which a lot of people find odd because I love Houseki no Kuni. I stopped watching RWBY after the first few episodes since it made me a bit sick. Granted, this was when it first came out and I remember the Red Like Roses PV being some hot new video or something. Man, that was a while ago. Anyways, thanks! Gray cares about her friends and totally would bash Shigaraki's head in if she could.
PikaMew1288: Unfortunately, I've already made a decision regarding AoF's future, but thank you for your suggestion.
Gray found that she didn't like long bus rides. She already wasn't overly fond of trains after the Rail Zepplin incident, and being motion sick didn't help much either. Chiron had given her some medicine to help with the motion sickness and then Astolfo has suggested some music to help when she told them as such. She was grateful for both and ended up sitting at the front of the bus near Aizawa as they drove to the training camp. In the back, she knew that the other students were having fun talking and goofing off, but she was fine where she was.
Add was chewing on something, making soft clicking noises from where he was situated under her cloak. It probably some wrapper or something that Dark Shadow had slipped him. The two got along quite well and while she had no qualms against it, Tokoyomi seemed to be less fond of how loud and vulgar Add could get.
She pulled one of her earbuds out when she noticed Aizawa standing and looking towards the back of the bus. He was trying to tell them something but gave up as he turned back around with a sigh.
"You're not going to join in with that noise?" he asked her after a moment and she shook her head.
"Astolfo's the noisy one, not me," she said simply, putting her earbud back in. Maybe she'd try to convince the boy to quiet the others down a bit for the sleep-deprived man when they stopped at the hour mark of the trip.
She settled back in her seat, gazing out the window with a hum. She hoped that Chiron would make a bit more headway than before on his…. project.
He was going to get in trouble with the Hero Embassy, despite the Mages Community giving him the go-ahead. Gray wasn't even sure if the circuits of All Might and Endeavor could withstand the use of Noble Phantasms, but Chiron had assured her that it was going smoothly.
If that was 'smoothly' in the sense of going well, quickly, and painlessly or if it was 'smoothly' in the same way that he trained Achilles to dodge arrows, she wasn't sure. She worried more about Yagi's health than Mister Todoroki's inevitable bruising.
She sighed at the thought, shaking her head and looking back outside the window. It wasn't too long before she dozed off against it and it didn't feel like too much later before Aizawa nudged her awake.
She sat up, rubbing her eyes and yawning as the bus approached an outlook over the mountain road. It pulled into the dirt lot and Aizawa stood.
"Everyone off," he said flatly and with the noise that only the chatter of high school students could make, they all filed off the bus. Add grumbled a bit, but she ignored him as she took a breath of fresh air.
The scenery was nice, but aside from another car parked not too far to the side, it was void of anything else.
Oh.
Oh no.
She managed to catch Aizawa's eye as he glanced over the students and the tiniest hint of a smirk could be seen on his lips. She glanced at Astolfo and his face seemed frozen in a bright, closed-eyed smile.
So he realized it too, then.
Some of the other students voiced their confusion as they glanced around and Gray tugged her hood down a bit more.
"It's been a long time, Eraserheaad!" a voice said, making her jump a bit. She turned her head a bit, glancing back.
"With sparkling eyes, we rock on!"
"Cute cat singer!"
"The Wild, Wild Pussycats!"
She stared, along with the others, at the sudden appearance of two women. One as a brunette wearing a red-colored costume while the other was blonde donning blue. Both vaguely resembled cats with the earpieces, tails, and paw-shaped gloves. There was a small child with them for some reason.
"I'd like to introduce the professional heroes, the Pussycats," Aizawa said before Midoriya launched into a fanboy fueled lecture about the hero team. He was enthusiastic at least.
Gray squeaked as the blonde slammed her hand onto his face, effectively shutting the boy up.
Okay, maybe too enthusiastic if he made her mad.
"I'm pretty sure your math must be off!" She said, her grin becoming more feral than cute. "I'm eighteen at heart!"
The red-clad hero just smiled before she stretched her hand out. "We own this whole stretch of land, as far as you can see," she told them before she pointed.
"The summer camp where you'll be staying is there, at the base of the mountain," she told them and Gray felt the dread that was building only increase.
That was far. But then again, training. That was the purpose after all.
"Um, so why did we stop all the way up here instead?" Uraraka asked and Gray sighed.
"I think we all know the answer to that," She said as she adjusted her hood again. Astolfo sighed, shrugging and shaking his head as Satou grimaced. Strained smiles were worn by a number of the boys as Sero edged towards the bus.
"The current time is nine-thirty in the morning," the woman continued with a grin, her tail flicking. "If you're fast enough, you might make it there by noon."
"Oh no…" she heard Kirishima say as he and the others turned to run back to the bus. Astolfo sighed again from where he was next to her.
"Kitties that don't make it there by twelve-thirty don't get any lunch!" the hero added as Gray and Astolfo watched their classmates run past Aizawa.
"You should've guessed, students," Aizawa said as the blue-clad one leaped over their heads, grinning as she landed in front of them. "Your training camp has already begun."
Astolfo turned to Gray, giving her a salute. "It's been an honor."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked before the ground erupted under them and tossed the students over the edge of the outlook.
"What the heck!?" she heard Uraraka cry from next to her as they were tossed over.
"She must be controlling the ground!" Midoriya responded before yelping as he followed suit. Gray landed on her feet, her arms out as she caught Asui and then fell as Jiro landed on her. The Earphone Jack girl rolled off, murmuring an apology as Add cursed and spat dirt out fo his mouth. Gray set Asui on her feet and the girl gave her a soft 'kero' in thanks.
"Good news!" a voice said from above and she looked up, seeing the red-clad hero gazing down at them with a smile. "Since this is private land, you can use your Quirks to your hearts' content! You have three full hours, you should be able to make it to the camp in due time. That is…. if you can make it through the Beast Forest."
"We just have to make it through, then?" Astolfo asked and Gray nodded, unhooking Add from her cloak.
"Should be easy enough," she added before Aizawa peered down at them.
"Gray, Astolfo," he called, "No cheating. That means no full-powered Holy Spear."
"Hey! That's not fair!" Astolfo huffed as he gazed up, "But fine… if that's how it's gonna be, then…" he grinned before he materialized his lance with a flourish. "We'll just have to deal with the trials— Old school style!"
"Right," Gray said, "Add!"
"Yeah, yeah," The mystic code said before his eyes flashed and he transformed into a scythe.
"How do we keep falling for Aizawa's little tricks…" Jiro asked as she stood. The others were pulling themselves to their feet as well, brushing their uniforms off.
"Guess there's no use complaining, though," Kirishima sighed. "Let's get this over with…"
"We should have the ranged in the back, non-combinational in the middle and the close combat in the front," Gray suggested, "Bakugou, Todoroki, and myself should probably lead since we have abilities that can go either way—"
She was cut off as Mineta ran off, looking for a place to use the bathroom.
"That was a good plan," Astolfo told her and she just shrugged.
"I was just thinking about what Chiron would do. It's tactics and all of that. Better to guard the non-combinational and the ranged fighters than let them get taken out immediately," she said before they both looked over, hearing Sero and Kaminari scream.
A beast was emerging from the forest and those closest shifted into battle stances.
"A beast?" Astolfo asked before Kouda ran forwards.
"Please calm yourself forest beast," he said frantically, "Just calm down and fall back pleased!" The beast didn't listen to the animal-voice Quirk user, instead bringing its claw down towards Mineta. Midoriya shot past, grabbing the boy before it made contact.
"It's not listening, Kouda!" the Rider yelled as he and Gray both ran past him. Others soon joined them, entering into combat with the beast.
It wasn't alive, that was for sure, meaning that it had to have been created with a Quirk.
One of the heroes from before, then? Gray would assume so as she and Bakugou tore through the first beast. Todoroki had frozen it in place, making it easier to hit. She and Bakugou landed before Midoriya and Iida finished it off, but she wasn't watching, instead of gazing into the forest.
"You guys finished it off without a sweat," Satou praised.
"It was awesome!" Sero added before Astolfo walked over.
"We're not finished," he said as another beast burst from the ground. It wasn't the only one as more and more joining them.
"Oh come on!" Kaminari cried. "Don't you think this is a little unfair?"
"What now? Do we run?"
"Not good… if we don't get there in time, we won't get lunch!"
"That's right!" Yaoyorozu said, "We have no choice but to cut through these woods in the shortest possible route." The others nodded as they glanced to each other and Astolfo grinned.
"Normally, I'd ask Gray to just blast the way through, but Aizawa put a handicap on her," he said, "Let's go, Class A!"
"Yeah!"
In an instant, the class split into smaller groups with Shouji and Jiro acting as look-outs. In total, the two had located seven on their way and Sero wasted no time taking down the airborne beast that was the first to arrive.
The black-haired boy brought it to the ground with a thud before Kirishima and Satou took care of it. Not too far away, Ojiro and Tokoyami unbalanced another, leaving Ayoma to blast it to bits with his Naval Laser.
Astolfo dodged out of the way of a massive fist before he ducked between another's legs. He ran past Mineta as the boy stuck it in place and he slapped hands with Kaminari. "Your turn!"
"Right!" the blonde said with a grin, running up the beasts back.
"1.3 Million volts!" he cried, discharging electricity and frying the beast from the inside out.
"Take care of Kaminari!" Astolfo yelled to Mineta before he took off, joining the girls in tag-teaming two others with Kouda and Gray. Both he and Ashido unbalanced them as Gray, Kouda, and Hagakure distracted them.
"Get down!" Yaoyorozu called and they hit the ground. The black-haired girl fired two blasts from the canon she created, taking the two beasts down without a second thought. Nearby, Asui and Uraraka made quick work of the one they were fighting before Shouji announced that there were more on the way.
Bakugou and Todoroki made quick work of one, Bakugou yelling the entire time while Midioriya and Iida smashed another.
"Let keep moving forward!" Astolfo yelled back as he and Gray followed the four boys. The class stuck to small groups as they ran, breaking away to quickly deal with a cluster of beasts before rejoining them.
It was well past noon when Astolfo gauged that they were about three-fourths of the way there. The number of beasts they had been dealing with had been steady up until a while ago before they suddenly stopped.
"Keep your guard up still!" Astolfo called back as they ran. Souji's eyes and ears were all on high alert to check for other beasts nearby.
"Astolfo!" Souji called up, "I spot one up ahead! It's massive!"
"How big?" Gray asked before a roar shook the forest. "That answers that question then."
The group skid to a halt as a towering beast rose from the forest and Astolfo's eyes widened before he grinned.
"What!? That thing's huge!" Mineta cried, "No way! We can't fight that thing! We'll die!"
"Any ideas, Midoriya? Gray? Astolfo?" Iida asked as he ignored the purple-haired boy's cries as they backed up.
Astolfo gazed at it before he summoned Hippogriff. "I have one," he told them. "Let Gray and I lead the charge, we'll need back up of course, but I've got a plan." Gray gave him a look before she nodded and he climbed onto the beast. Iida and Midoriya looked at each other before nodding.
"Just give us the word," Midoriya said before the students backed up and out of the way of the two servants.
"We'll need ranged support, keep it busy!" Astolfo called before he took off. Tokoyami and Jiro wasted no time attacking with their ranged quirks, Bakugou and Todoroki blasting its side with flames and explosions. Gray waited for a moment before her eyes flashed and she took off, slashing and attacking the beast with her scythe. She was a blur as she moved, expertly dodging both her classmates and the beast's attacks.
Astolfo circled above them, eyes trained on the ground and attacking the upper body with his lance. The beast raised its arm, swiping at him and he barely dodged the strike with a yelp.
"Yikes! This is too much like fighting Avicibron's Noble Phantasm!" he uttered as it turned its attacks onto Gray again.
"Midoriya!" he called down, "You and Iida back Gray up! I need it unbalanced!"
"Right!" both boys yelled before joining Gray in the close combat battle. Bakugou seemed less than happy as he fired off more explosions.
Midoriya and Iida slammed into it, making it stagger back and when one leg left the ground, Astolfo saw his chance.
"Get back!" he ordered before his lance flashed. Hippogriff's wings folded and dove. The light around him flashed and sparked with energy and like a blazing comet, he pierced through the remaining leg.
"Trap of Argalia!" He cried, "Gray, now!" "Right!" she nodded as he shot past her. Add had already collapsed back into a cube before releasing the second stage. The mana output was lessened, but still powerful as her hand glowed. She shifted her footing before she thrust her hand forward. A low level of Rhongomyniad was released, blasting the beast in half.
The halves crashed down and kicked up a plume of dirt and dust that the others shielded their eyes from. She shifted Add back to a scythe as they did.
"No time to rest!" Astolfo said as he dropped down and vanished Hippogriff. "Let's keep going!"
Apocrypha reference. Anyways, we're back to normal and all that jazz.
