Chapter 1.9: A Test of Faith Part 1

Toph reacted quickly the moment that the clone appeared. She stamped her foot onto the ground, bringing up a slab of stone in front of her, before kicking towards Demyx. However, Demyx quickly jumped to the side, with water spraying out from his feet like jets, to propel him away from the attack faster.

Toph gritted her teeth. "Are you some sort of waterbender?!" she snapped angrily, kicking another large rock towards Demyx which he just dodged again.

"Excuse me!" Demyx retorted. "I'm a musician!" He began to strum his sitar a little faster and violently as more water clones popped out from the ground.

"Dammit," Mine grumbled, as she assembled her weapon. "More water? Just my luck." She pointed her rifle at one of the clones and fired, evaporating it instantly, only for another to take its place. It swung at Mine, who rolled out of the way, before blasting it apart in retaliation.

Mikasa attacked her blades to her handles, as her eyes flitted around the environment. The trees weren't as large or tall as the ones in the forest, but at the same time, her opponent was only as tall as her. This time she would be killing another human.

She turned slightly aiming for a tree that was close to Demyx, only to suddenly get tackled by one of his water clones and forcefully shoved into the nearby stream.

"Hey!" Toph shifted her feet, realizing what had happened, but when she made an attempt to save Mikasa, the water clones wrapped around her arms and legs, holding her still. She squirmed in their grasp. "Let me go!"

Mine took a step back, now surrounded by Demyx's water clones, tightening her grip on her weapon. "What are you going to do now?" Demyx mocked, still strumming his sitar and spawning more of his water clones. "That weapon is too slow to destroy them all."

Mine narrowed her eyes, reached behind her. Demyx reacted quickly and thrust his hand out, as all of his water clones jumped at her. All of sudden Mine whipped something out from behind her and pointed it at the attacking foes. There were several flashes of light and smattering bangs, as some of the water clones exploded into mist and hiding Mine from view.

Demyx blinked, as Toph momentarily stopped struggling to stare, boggled-eyed, at what just happened.

As the mist cleared, Mine was unharmed, if not a little wet, as she glared at Demyx defiantly. Her weapon had changed. Gone was the sniper barrel she had used before, now replaced with a machine gun-type. She spat out some water, before scowling. "You'll pay for making me swallow that gunk."

Demyx's eye twitched. "Gunk?"

Mine and Toph heard something suddenly whiz by them and quickly glanced to their right to see a thin wire with a hook at the end, attached to a nearby tree. There was a pause before Mikasa burst out of the river, her blades drawn, and her gaze pointedly on Demyx. With a burst of air propelling her forward towards Demyx, she spun her body, making herself a whirlwind of blades barreling towards the Melodious Nocturne.

Demyx didn't have a chance to even move as Mikasa swung her blades at his throat… only for them to seemingly pass right through the man. Her eyes widened and she quickly retreated, landing near Mine and Toph. "How the hell did he…?" Mine scowled.

The Nobody cockily shrugged. "Sorry," he apologized half-heartedly before continuing to strum his sitar creating more water clones. "But I guess I'm just leagues above you three."

Mikasa wiped some of the water away from her eyes. She had seen some strange things since waking up in that tower, so she wasn't that fazed by Demyx's powers. Though she figured he had to have some sort of weak point. "Take care of the water things," she ordered Mine. "He can't keep making them forever."

Mine nodded, lifting Pumpkin. "Right."

"Yeah… um…" Toph said, still restrained, with her arms pinned to her sides and her feet prevented from moving. "A little help here?"

Mine glanced at Toph and made a move to help her, only to suddenly jump away from a water clone that attacked her. "Sorry!" she exclaimed, firing a smattering of bullets to send her attacker packing. "You're on your own."

Toph waited for Mikasa to say something, but she didn't so much as look in her direction, keeping her focus on Demyx. "Well thanks," the blind girl grumbled. "Guess I'm on my own here."

Both Mine and Mikasa dealt with Demyx's water clones, occasionally trying to hit Demyx, only to have their attacks seemingly bounce and faze through the young man. As the two dealt with the Nobody, Toph began to nudge herself back very slowly, lifting her foot as much as she was allowed to do and earthbending a small rock to push herself back. It wasn't fast by any means, as the water keeping her from moving completely, would readjust her so that she was kept standing, but eventually, she found her back against something cold and solid.

She twisted her shackled wrists and rapped her knuckles against the metal of the space shuttle, before biting her lip. There was a lot of unfamiliar metal that she had never interacted with before. The metal she had earthbended before, from the Earth Nation and Fire Nation, were, comparatively, more rustic. Trying to sense the earth within the metal that made up was like trying to bend individual grains of sand.

Good thing, she had been working on her sandbending.

She managed to twist her hand free enough that she managed to place her palm against the strange and metal and pull. Using all her strength, she ripped a large chunk of metal from the space shuttle and used it to slice through the water that was pinning her right arm. Before the rest of the water could pin her anymore, she quickly used the metal to slice herself free.

Toph grinned at Demyx, cracking her knuckles. "Don't think your mediocre waterbending can keep down the best metalbender ever."

Demyx sighed, as his entire body seemed to sag. "Dang," he mumbled as Mine and Mikasa managed to dispatch the last of his water clones. "Really thought this wouldn't be too hard…"

"Pin him down!" Mine cried, as Mikasa ran forward at Demyx at full speed, her swords drawn.

However he had another trick up his sleeve, as just before Mikasa reached him Demyx jumped back, a large geyser of water from the ground suddenly appeared to propel him backward and hitting Mikasa in the face, sending her flying.

Toph blinked. "What kind of waterbender are you?" she growled, sending a huge slab of rock flying towards Demyx's face, who simply dodged it with the same strategy.

Demyx blinked. "Waterbender?" he echoed, before shaking his head. "Oh, something from your world, I'm guessing? Well, sorry to disappoint, but I'm no waterbender." He strummed his sitar as more geysers of water sprouted around him, from seemingly no source, before grinning. "But that doesn't matter now. This is where I get serious."

Using water to propel forward, he suddenly sped to but an arms distance of Mine, rearing his sitar back like it was a club. He's fast! Mine could only think, only able to raise Pumpkin as a barrier in time, before Demyx's sitar slammed into her. She was sent careening into a nearby tree, slamming her back against it, before falling to the ground, dazed.

"You-!" Toph wrapped the sheet of metal around her arm, before kicking a slab of rock at Demyx, who merely jumped out of the way. The moment he landed on the ground, Toph quickly shifted her feet and pulled the ground underneath him towards her.

Demyx stumbled for a second, as he found himself much closer to Toph than he wanted to be. To get some distance he strummed his weapon, as a large geyser of water slammed into Toph's face, surprising her. He then swung his sitar back, like a baseball bat, to swing into her body.

However, Toph spun herself around, ducking underneath the swing, and then earthbending a large pillar from the ground to strike Demyx from behind. The nobody was caught off-guard as he was shoved into the air, forcefully. However, he quickly repositioned himself and strummed his sitar, summoning water to push himself away from Toph.

He landed on his feet with his back to the nearby river and gave Toph an irritated look. His hair, once styled perfectly, was now wet and messed up, with several loose strange handing freely in front of his face. However, he quickly composed himself and brushed his hair, some dirt falling from the loose strands. "You're good," he complimented. "Way better than Miss Assassin or Soldier over there."

Toph smirked. "What, you think complimenting me is going to stop me from whooping your butt?"

Demyx shook his head. "Just surprised that you're working with two murderers is all."

She narrowed her eyes. "You're trying to throw me off," she deduced.

Demyx deflated. "Is it that obvious?" He straightened himself and sighed. "Ah well. Guess I'd better finish this as fast as I can-!"

Suddenly Mikasa burst out of the water behind Demyx, her blades brandished. She quickly swung before the Nobody could react, slashing through his coat into his back. It was a shallow cut, but it still drew blood and Demyx stumbled away, his face a mixture of surprise and pain.

Bang!

A rifle shot, this time, from Toph's right. Blood spurted out from a small hole in Demyx's left shoulder. He stumbled back and placed a hand on his new wound, a small pained smile appearing on his face. "Wow," he said, keeping his jovial attitude up. "You ladies sure are intense."

"Oh shut it," Mine grumbled, wincing in pain as she used her weapon to lift herself up.

Mikasa snapped her head towards Toph. "Toph, restrain him! Now!"

"Wait!" Toph lifted a hand. "What are you planning on doing to him-?"

"Too slow!" Demyx yelled, lifted his sitar, and strumming several of the strings. Geysers erupted from the ground beneath Mikasa's feet, blasting her away from him. Mine tried to fire another shot at Demyx, but he was still was able to move quickly on his feet and dodge it. He landed closest to Toph.

Acting quickly, Toph, using the band of metal she had taken from the shuttle, bent it around Demyx's right wrist. Demyx's eyes widened, as he was suddenly thrown into a nearby tree, the metal wrapping around the tree, creating a sort of makeshift restraint. Demyx struggled for a moment, only to let out a sigh and sag his entire body. "Great," he muttered dejectedly. "Looks like I'm trapped."

"Good job," Mine complimented, raising her rifle so that it pointed at Demyx's head. She was about to walk a little closer, only for a large slab of rock to rise in front of her. Bewildered she looked over towards Toph, who wasn't even trying to hide that she was blocking her. "What are you doing?!"

Toph jabbed a finger at Mine. "You were going to kill him!" she accused.

Mine snorted, hefted her rifle over her shoulder. "Well, yeah, after he answered my questions," she said nonchalantly.

Toph felt her fist curl up. " You can't just… You shouldn't kill someone!" Inwardly she cringed. Just how much had Twinkle Toes influenced her the past few months? The way she said it just sounded so sappy.

Mine let out a sigh and folded her arms. "So," she said. "How big was your house?"

The question caught Toph off-guard. "What does that have to do with anything?!" she asked, getting a little angry.

"People like you don't know what it means to kill to survive," Mine declared coldly. "If I were to let everyone I fight, everyone who was trying to kill me, live, then I wouldn't have survived. I'm not planning on taking morality lessons from someone who lived in the lap of privilege."

Toph gritted her teeth. "I didn't-!"

"Hey, you forgetting someone?" The two whirled around just in time to see Demyx wretch his hand free. "Should've kept your eyes on me instead of arguing, ladies." He smirked, as he got ready to play his sitar some more.

"Shit!" Mine cried, raising her rifle.

But before, Demyx could even move, there was a rush of wind from in front of him and he found a pair of sharp blades just inches away from his throat. Mikasa, who was soaked from the water, was now in front of him. She had practically flown to him using her Maneuver Gear in that small window of opportunity when he wasn't able to play.

He blinked, as the blades neared his neck and time seemingly slowed. Was he dead here? Even he tried to strum his sitar, the blades would be halfway through him.

Aw well. It wasn't like his heart had been in this fight. The only good thing about this world was that it was quiet. But he realized that there wasn't really a point in playing music if there wasn't an audience-!

Thunk!

Demyx's head went flying, as it was cut cleanly from his shoulders before it landed with a hollow thud on the ground. His body stumbled for a moment, before falling to the ground.

Toph recoiled. "Why would you…?"

"He was about to attack," Mikasa explained stoically, before turning her gaze towards the NASA building. "He mentioned that someone was with the others. We need to hurry to help them." Sheathing, her blades, she rushed off towards the building.

Mine watched in mild interest, as Demyx's body seemed to dissolve into a strange darkness, leaving little trace of him left. She glanced at Toph. "Just so know," she said softly. "If we had met in my world… I'm certain we would've been enemies. The only reason we're working together right now is because we have to." With those words, she hurried off to follow Mikasa.

Toph was left alone. In frustration, she kicked the ground in front of her making the earth around her shake a little. She found herself clenching her teeth and tightening her fists, holding herself back from throttling Mine. "Why…" she muttered.

"Just why am I here?"

I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. Xigbar's fight will be next!

On the note, with this chapter, we are a little over the halfway point of Part 1 of this story. The climax is getting closer and our heroes are still going to be facing a whole lot in the coming chapters! I hope you're excited!

In other news, another fanfiction of mine, "Danganronpa: Pokemon's Despair," was recently featured on a podcast! It was pretty cool, as they read and acted out a small excerpt from the chapter! If you want to check out the podcast and the episode in question, I highly recommend it!

Instagram: strangerthan_fanfiction

Spotify & Apple Podcast: Stranger than (fan)Fiction Podcast

Check them out! They give a more positive and respectful spin on fanfiction than most others I've seen. But it's still pretty funny when they're reading aloud rather ridiculous concepts and stories, but not to much that it seems rude. Again highly recommend if you want to see a positive take on fanfiction.