Chapter 36: True Ceaser Style
-REGENCY ACADEMY SOUTH SPORTS FIELD-
PREVIOUSLY-
"...All my life… I've never known pain… It is… an ability that I was born with… something other than a quirk… something older and perhaps more mundane… a superpower from before the days of heroes… the doctors called it 'congenital insensitivity to pain'... so when you say words like 'hurt' or 'agony'... it always registered as alien to me… I want to know… even just a little bit… what pain is like… So I think I will hurt you… and study your reactions… if you don't mind that is…"
"So he's immune to fucking pain… More icing on the cake…" Biz screams internally.
"Sicko!" Anne scolded.
"...Wonderful…!" Bo began. "...With the games now out of the way… I think it's time for a change of strategy…!"
AND NOW-
The wind was cold in the nighttime, and the air was starting to smell of blood. Devin could've been alive or he could've been dead. Either way, he wasn't moving and nobody had the spare time to check up on him. Not with the clown there.
Biz and Anne were the only students who hadn't been caught in their nightwear, and still, they were shivering uncontrollably. Was it simply the cold, or were they afraid?
Bo was advancing. He had kept perfectly still up until now, not wanting to remove his foot from Lei's head and break their stalemate. That was no longer a concern for him. When he was moving towards you, he swayed like a sidewinder. His footsteps were positively drunken. He couldn't decide on one gait or stride length, or even on the time between steps. Sometimes he'd just pause and smell their air before pressing on. Or maybe he'd jump at you suddenly to psych you out.
Lei got between him and where Lorelai's dismembered body was sitting.
"Princess, stay behind me. Well, not that you could… whatever. The rest of you are strongly advised to stay out of the way as well. This may become messy."
"...Princess?" Biz said.
#DROPKICKDULLAHAN#: *NOW IS A BAD TIME*
#DROPKICKDULLAHAN#: *REMEMBER HOW I SAID THERES SOME THINGS YOU DONT KNOW ABOUT ME?*
#DROPKICKDULLAHAN#: *WELL IF WE SURVIVE, ILL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING*
"So… Fuck! Do we have a plan?" Said Anne. "Is that a stupid question to even ask?"
"Well, while I don't have a 'plan' per se… In my profession, you learn to be ready for anything," replied Lei.
"...A school nurse?" Biz said.
Bo still seemed the most focused on Lei out of anyone. She was the eldest, and the strongest looking. Or at least, the most confident and least scared. His tongue was hanging out of his mouth and his arms were dangling, swaying from side to side along with his ridiculous looking striding. He was in a leaning forward stance, constantly staggering at an ever-increasing pace towards his target. Almost like he was constantly falling forward and only barely readjusting himself to stay upright at the last second.
"Now…" Began Lei, as she produced a pair of latex gloves from a pocket somewhere. "He doesn't feel pain, and so he probably doesn't feel fear either. He has no apprehension towards being injured. No matter how hard or where I hit him, he isnt going to reel, and he won't be cautious in order to avoid a potentially painful injury. But with the size and weight difference, I wasn't looking to do much slugging anyway. And besides, pain or no pain, there are still plenty of places I can hit to disable you…"
Bo flung himself forward and catapulted himself along the ground with his knuckles. He ran like a gorilla, charging at the minute and dainty looking woman. He made her look like a beaver dam trying to hold back a tidal wave full of rolling boulders and uprooted trees.
"One might say that it's my speciality, in fact." Lei snapped the gloves on and seemed to transition instantly from standing to flying through the air. She twirled like a dancer, and her flying spin kick crunched into Bo's neck where it met the skull. The noise was delightfully dreadful. Like pulling apart a turkey's wishbone only much, much louder. His eyes rolled back, and he floundered to the ground. The giant faceplanted and skidded to a halt, while Lei came to an acrobatic stop on his back.
"So much for a change of fucking strategy!" Biz hooted like a cheering, rambunctious football hooligan.
The beast in leather thrummed with a throaty growl. He lurched up backwards like a reverse nosferatu, throwing Lei off of him as he did so. His backwards arch sent him like a dolphin, and he backflipped to his feet from face down. Graceful. Powerful. Pissed off.
"I must've blacked out... for a second or two…" He huffed. "That's... bothersome…"
He turned to attack again, but Lei was right there in front of him, in the middle of his rhythm, throwing it off. Her high kick to the chin made him rattle like a bobblehead, eyes going all over the place.
To his knees, he went, and now Lei could reach his vital spots with her hands. She didn't waste time wailing on his chest or anything like that. She went straight for the neck. A cross chop from both sides, followed by a spear-hand right in the Adam's apple. She gouged his eyes, crushed his nose, boxed his ears.
The result? Bo gagged and watered from the eyes and the world spun around him. Flecks of his blood landed on his chin and chest. One of his hands raised like a snake ready to strike and…
STAB!
Bo unleashed a fatal poke. With only one finger extended, he'd managed to dig himself wrist deep into the dirt with just the power of that blow. None of it went into Lei, however, who had dodged back a while ago.
"Is she… doing it? Hitting the sensory, circulatory and nervous systems to circumvent pain was pretty clever… is it actually working?" Anne was shocked at the development. Secretly, she wasn't confident that the woman who she'd been introduced to by having to rescue her from drowning in a puddle would be able to turn things around. Perhaps… She'd made an underestimation?
One of Bo's eyes swivelled down. It met with Lei's cold stare. He smiled.
"Fool Style: Invisible Thread…"
Lei was grabbed. A circumference of blood appeared along her arms and torso from her flesh being dug into. And she was pulled closer. Bo raised his foot. He was aiming for the head. He was gonna stomp on her. Again.
"No way…" She muttered as she was pulled inexorably closer. Lorelai gasped. "No way… Am I falling for the same stupid trick twice!"
Something metal glinted in the moonlight. Before any of the students knew it, Lei was free and standing on the other side of Bo casually waltzing away from him. She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
Bo stood quickly and spun around. He was still smiling, but the veins in his hands were bulging.
"You know, pain exists to convey important information to the brain…" Lei said. "Theres a reason we evolved that feature. A good reason."
"Oh... ? Tell me..." Bo said.
"Without it, you'll miss things sometimes~"
Bo felt a cold feeling in his shin. Like… his blood turning icy. Something was worming its way through his veins. He looked down at his leg to see… syringes. Three or four of them, all pumping his leg full of whatever was inside. He roared and kicked them all off, but not before they delivered their payload. He shook himself and slapped himself on both cheeks, cursing.
"You mean… she managed to cut herself loose with just the sharpness of the tips of those syringes… and injected them all before Bo could even catch her moving past him?" Anne's mind raced at the display of expertise. Biz was lost but nonetheless engrossed in the turn to his side's favour.
"So… How long have I got… Doc…? That was... Poison… Right...?"
"I wish. They don't let me have anything so fun or useful on school grounds. What I injected you with was a powerful anaesthetic. I gave you enough to knock out a horse. Maybe several. I'm surprised you arent down napping already, to be honest."
Bo started laughing.
"Whatever… Could you mean…? I… I Haven't felt so awake… In months...!"
Bo started jumping up and down on the spot. He was bouncing. Floating like a butterfly. His movements were nimble suddenly. Practical. He put up his dukes. Southpaw stance. It was boxing. A cold bead of sweat ran down Biz's face.
That was how his grandfather did it…
"So… Doc… In your medical opinion… How long have I got… Till I go to sleep…?"
"We'll be conservative and say… five minutes," smiled Lei.
"Now... that's funny…!"
The two fighters rushed each other and engaged in a fast-paced, flashy exchange of blows, blocks and redirections. Attacks were launched, parried, countered and then parried and countered in turn in long and complex chains. The position of either's feet vied for position against the other, stepping forward or back in accordance with the flow of their fists.
Lei only aimed for natural weak points. Bo was not so concerned. He would take what he could get. Any blow with his heavy hands could put Lei down. He had a time limit now. He wasn't playing anymore. All his moves had become efficient and expert. Was he even trying to use his quirk? Or do any tricks? No. What Anne, Lorelei and Biz were watching was an exchange between two master-level martial artists. No superpowers, no schemes. It was almost sportsmanlike.
They became a storm of fists and feet. Of teeth and claws. A cloud of blood and dust erupted around their give and take exchange. Biz's head spun. There was something wrong. Deeply wrong. With what he was seeing. It came in flashes. Little moments of recognition that brought him closer to a realisation. Every so often… Bo would use a move that he recognized.
They were the same moves his mother taught him. They were, presumably, the same moves her father had taught to her. Biz's family style. The Ceaser Style. The last other person he had seen use it was Nikau in the entrance exam, who had stolen it right out of his mind with his quirk. So then… How did this guy have it?
Except, it wasn't exactly right.
It was like looking at his own style through a funhouse mirror. It was more bombastic and deadly and sharp and refined. To an uncanny degree, in fact. It made his moves look tame. His legs shook. This just didn't make sense. It made no sense at all…
"Hey, whats spooked you?" Anne sneered. Biz didn't avert his eyes from the display of raw martial horror.
"Those moves… those are my moves. They're… My family's moves. He… He stole them…!"
Bo's ears perked all of a sudden. It was an inopportune time of course, while he was locked in a gritty exchange of martial arts with an opponent possessing the skills of a veteran assassin.
Bo needed to check something, and so he needed to get out of this little exchange of his and quickly.
Bo waited momentarily until Lei stopped to take a breath, then put his hand up in the universal gesture for 'timeout'.
"I'm… Sorry… If this seems… A little unfair… But I've decided… That I need to use weapons… To beat you... You're just… Far too tough…!" Bo chuckled.
Lei grunted at him as she went right into another flying spin kick. Bo ducked it like a limbo master and reached into his enormous mess of hair. When he righted himself, he had already found what he was digging around for.
He pulled his new tools out from the inside of his spiky bushel of locks alongside painfully large clumps of hair.
"Fool Style: Four of Clubs…"
Juggling clubs. Two to a hand, so four in total. Each one had a nasty metal spike lodged through the middle, turning them not only into bludgeoning weapons but piercing weapons aswell. The spikes must have been railway pikes for their size and shape. And of course, they showed signs of… use.
"What are those?" Asked Lei, who was coming back around for another crack. "Aren't they toys? Didn't you say you'd be using weapons?"
"Toy… Weapon… If you're having fun… whats the difference…!"
Bo started to juggle. But what started off as a typic juggle soon became something more like a nunchaku demonstration. Bo threw the juggling clubs between his hands with speed and fervour. He was so quick that the clubs didn't even look like they were moving, just violently jittering around in place.
His display whipped up the air around him strongly enough the Lei felt a breeze from it. He finished with a flourish, squat thrusting and grunting proudly at his show of force.
Lei scoffed. A childish sham. He was playing around again. And after he'd gotten serious just a few moments before. You couldn't keep this guy focused for more than a few moments on anything, could you?
She ran in low, ducking the height of his swinging arc. She stretched out her fingernails and scoped her target. In his flank. She was going to sneak under his ribcage and stab at his liver with her reinforced fingernails.
With a vital organ ruptured, his body would go into shutdown. The effect would be delayed due to his pain intolerance, but Lei could duck and weave him for long enough that he would go down.
Bo tossed his clubs into the air, preparing for Lei's approach. When she got within swinging range, they just so happened to fall to within grabbing distance. Bo swung unbelievably fast, grabbing a club as he did so. That first swing was aimed too high to hit Lei, so the next one was going straight down, aimed at the earth.
He grabbed, he swung and…
He missed. Just barely. The pounded the earth with a loud bang, Lei had just managed to sidestep it, and she was sliding into position for her stab. In her mind, she was guaranteed to hit…
"She has… A perfect opening… I'm sure that's what… She thinks…"
Bo released the clubs that he was holding. He left one pierced into the ground, and let the other fall to the ground. The two that he never grabbed just dropped elsewhere. Then, he started bringing his hands together. All in the span of less than a second.
"Quirk…"
CLAP!
"...Activate...!"
The earth went 'pop'. That was the only thing that Lei was able to comprehend before the footing came out from under her. The ground became like a bouncy castle… Bo had deflated the ground itself. The earth on which they stepped, with the spike in the juggling club that had just missed her.
She wobbled and fell. The consistency of the dirt made it impossible to walk on. She bounced around helplessly. Bo, on the other hand, didn't look like anything was different. He could walk on this bouncy, wobbly terrain like christ walking on water. He could launch attacks from it, aswell.
Like a kick, for instance.
Lei was gutted and shot backwards like the rock out of a sling. She rolled and tumbled to a stop against a tree.
#DROPKICKDULLAHAN#: *LEI!*
#DROPKICKDULLAHAN#: *ARE YOU DEAD?*
"Tch…" Thought Bo, examining his boot. "She managed to... position herself in mid-air... to avoid being pierced by any of the spikes on my boot…"
"Oh well…" Said the Giant. "I had something I wanted to ask… So now's my chance to go do it…"
Bo… began to approach Biz.
"Stay back, fucker!" Cried the boy. Bo threw up his hands, trying to look nonaggressive.
"Please… I only want to ask you…"
"Ask me what…?"
"What was that… What you just said… Boy…?"
Did he mean… about his moves? That was what Bo intended to inquire after. Something that was serious enough to him that he'd turn his back on the very much alive foe that was just now starting to recover from his visceral kick.
"Oh… You mean-" Biz asked.
"Yeah… I wanna hear you say it again… What did you say…? Kid…?"
"I said…" Biz murmured. Bo cupped a hand to his ear and started walking closer to him. Biz… Biz was pissed. He didn't like the dots that were connecting in his mind. Anne could see that he was close to lashing out.
"What was that… Little guy…? I can't hear you…"
"I SAID…" Biz screamed. "WHERE'D YOU STEAL THOSE MOVES FROM, ASSHOLE?"
He had stepped past denial and entered into anger.
"Oh..." Bo said. "Oh ho ho ho ho… Now, this… Is juicy…"
"ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION!"
"I thought something was familiar about you… kid…"
"Don't fucking joke around with me… Man..."
"What you know… Is probably… An inferior… And watered down version… of my style…"
"That's just fucking possible. It's the family style. How'd you come up with it?"
"Oh... Dear… You're in deep… You just haven't figured it out yet… Have you...?" Bo snickered. "I've been calling it 'Fool Style' around you because I didn't want to give my identity away to just anybody. Although… I guess if its family…"
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Biz had heard enough. He threw a throwing knife with all his might, and it boomeranged towards Bo's face. The villain caught it with little issue. He frowned, wrinkling up his face in a severely exaggerated expression.
"Kid… Theres someone… I'd like you to meet…" He said. He raised his hand infront of his face and slowly panned it downwards. Slowly, behind the impromptu screen made by his palm, his face turned from a frown into a grin. A positively familial grin.
"Hello there… Young one… My name is Bo. Bo Ceaser…"
Biz just roared.
Anne… started to see something in him. Now, she knew that she was a bitch. Not many people liked her, and she liked not liking many people. This one just got on her nerves in exactly the right way and had a cute enough head. But… Right then, when she thought that the realisation hit him. She seemed to feel a kind of kinship that went beyond peership.
Anne knew exactly what he was going through.
"You must be… little Byzantine… My sister's boy…" Bo guffawed.
"Shut up, asshole. You're lying. It's more psychological bullshit. Like how you guessed Lorelei's name. It's all crap. You're making it up."
"I think you've figured it out by now that I'm not... Im your uncle... boy... The one that ran away when all the coppers cracked down... They followed me and left the rest alone... Did they even tell you about me...?"
Biz was silent. He stared at his shoes. His eyes had glazed over.
"What you… recognized in my style… I'll tell you the truth… The version of Ceaser Style that my sister picked up… Is a joke… A joke that's been told… Too many times… You are using a watered-down version… of what we were taught… It's only natural… Seeing how much of a wet towel your mother is… But it's not just that… I've… Iterated on the style aswell… Perfected it… You might say… There are things that I can do… that not even our patriarch would have been able to do… Would you like… To see…?"
Biz couldn't speak. A stormy cloud had settled over his mind, and wouldn't free him until it had finished drizzling over it.
"Oh… Who am I kidding… Of course, you want to see it… Its… Your family styles… Ultimate technique… After all…"
Bo turned around, showing his back to his nephew. He was devoting his attention to the woman he intended to kill.
"I call it… Wheel of Fortune…"
Lei was back up. She knew he'd been planting psychological seeds in the kids head. She couldn't let it go on. In the next clash, she'd kill him. Break his neck, spear his heart, didn't matter. He was going down before he could say another nasty untrue word.
Bo… initiated his ultimate technique.
"First things first…" He thought. "I rumble my ears… When I do that… I can hear… The sound of the universe… The quantum foam… A completely… Random… Pattern…"
Bo began to stagger. He was acting a drunk again. A stupid, desperate manoeuvre, Lei thought.
"I move my feet… According to what the foam says… I empty my mind… I act according to its… Uncertainty… A completely unpredictable pattern…"
Bo's feet twisted and spiralled and shot off at sharp angles. He turned them ninety degrees, or he moved backwards. Over time… the strange movements began to form a grander pattern. Bo began to spin. As he made more and more strange foot movements, he eventually began to turn in place. He picked up speed.
"Once this footwork has been completed… You cant be predicted… No matter what…"
Bo went in. He was spinning like a madman. A cyclone of spikes and black matted hair. Lei could see the gaps. She noticed his vulnerabilities like giant red glowing weak points. She would stun him with one blow to the head, and then deliver a fatal strike. It would be simple.
Then, Bo turned into someone else.
Who was he… He was… He was already someone different again. In one revolution he changed, and then by the next, he had changed again. With the speed that he was moving, it was several times a second that he changed. The way he stood. His fighting style. Even things that should be possible. His face. Where he was standing.
Lei came within millimetres of being impaled on his fingernail after the first change. He showed no signs of slowing down. His footwork… She couldn't predict his footwork. She didn't know where he was going to be in the next few seconds, or ever for that matter. And he was still changing, with every spin.
He could change from Jackie Chan into Muhammad Ali in the time it took Bruce Lee to swap a nickel for a dime in your hand. He could do Bruce aswell. He was a tornado of every fighting style and in every place at once. He struck at complete and perfect random. Impossible to predict. Impossible to defend against.
"Ceaser style is at its heart… A mixed martial art… A combination of every martial art under the sun… And the complete mastery of footwork… Combine them together to create an attack that cant be defended against… And with a quirk like mine… You only need one good hit…"
Lei slipped up. Once. That was all it took.
She made a sickening squelch.
"...F-Fuck…" Lei spat in between throats full of blood. Bo's finger had impaled her neck. He pulled it out and licked the blood off of it. Then he clapped. The rest of the blood came out, and Lei was a deflated balloon of skin in a pool of crimson. Finished.
"That… Was... Wheel of Fortune… What did you think… Little nephew…?"
Bo discarded Lei like trash. Lorelei could cry. Biz… was beyond that now. The titanic clown came up to him with a proud look on his face. Biz spit on his oversized boots.
"You're no family of mine."
"So harsh…" Bo frowned. "Tell me... kiddo... Do you recall the name of our family patriarch…? Tell me what you know… of Billy Smith Ceaser…"
"You think I'd forget my own granddad's name?" Biz growled.
"I don't know what that mother of yours… or… that sister of mine… has been teaching you… I know that we saw things… quite differently…" Bo scratched his cheek while he reminisced. Those days with the family were so nostalgic. Even the rows that they had. He looked down at his nephew. He'd grown so much since he'd seen him as nought but a little baby. "Let me tell you… what I know about my dad… And then you can tell me… If that's anything like what my sister told you…"
"Fine. Spit it out then, freako."
"Billy Smith Ceaser… was the most prolific vigilante that the country of England has ever known… A warrior to his core… He did justice whether it was with Bastardsword's permission or without… For that, The Iron Lady chased him from his homeland and he fled to Africa… There, he toppled despots, armed with nothing but his Ceaser Style, a martial art that he refined to flawlessness… Until… After a brutal battle… He succumbed to injuries sustained while fighting with the revolutionary causes in Uganda… His remains have not been allowed back in the country… He was more honourable... wiser... and stronger than any of us… And he's the man that I respect most in the world… Oh… and I guess he ran the circus too…"
Biz sniffled a bit.
"My mum said he was a big stupid oaf who got into too many fights."
Bo started laughing uproariously. Biz couldn't help but join him in a snicker. They were family, alright.
"That sounds like him too… I suppose…" Bo wiped a tear from his eye. "So know you can tell me… What I really want to know…"
"And that is?" Biz inquired.
"Do you think that you're… honouring his memory or something? What do you think you're doing here...?" Bo questioned. "You're in the citadel of the man that he hated the most... Bastardsword…"
Biz's head bobbed from side to side along with his eyes as he considered Bo's notion.
"Did I do it for the old man? Hell no."
"That… wasn't the answer that I was expecting…" Admitted Bo.
"Look, the old guy died when I was a baby, I barely knew him. The only thing he gave me was his fighters genes and a healthy appreciation for beating the snot out of villainous pricks. But I don't wanna be a 'vigilante', I wanna be a hero."
"And… Why's that…?"
"Big fat wads of dosh, and birds as far as the eye can see. You should know that the only reason that I joined this school, in particular, was a skirt-chasing endeavour that didn't pan out so I can't say I thought much about the implications."
"...You're really a shameless one… Arent you…?"
"I haven't done any terrorism on schools yet. Better than nothin' right?"
Bo made a stern face but quickly returned to smiling after he reached into his rear pocket. He was holding something in his gargantuan hand. A weapon? Biz flinched, leaning back. Bo shook his head and opened his hand to the earth. Out from it, fell a little purple plastic gem.
"Your family jewel… Do you have it…?"
"Family… jewel…?" Grunted Anne. Biz brushed her off.
"It's a stupid family tradition," he explained, reaching into his deep hoodie pocket. He casually tossed a similar red plastic gem to the ground along with Bo's purple one.
"Yes… When two caesars have a… disagreement… They throw their family jewels down…"
"And they settle it with a good, clean fight."
"An honourable duel..." corrected Bo. "Now bump my fists…"
"Wait. Wait wait wait. You're going to fight him by yourself?!" Anne screamed. "Are you suicidal or a moron or both?"
"I am. And don't get in the way, or we'll both be trying to kill you."
"You're trusting a guy like that?" Anne roared. "You fucking-"
When he said that, both Ceasers shot her an identical glare independently of each other. It was eerie how similarly they were acting all of a sudden. Bo held out both fists, and Biz knocked them with his knuckles nonchalantly.
"Hat Pin Trick…"
Bo flicked his wrist up and away, and narrow spikes as long as rulers slid out from between the gaps in his fingers. They were encrusted with little rusty flecks that must have been blood. Biz's eyes widened at them. Those could have...
"Do you see these…? I could have deployed them when you bumped my fists just now… That would have killed you… Had I activated my quirk... But I didn't do that… That's how you can tell that I won't cheat… You can 'trust' me now... Do you happen to recall the rules… Of a Ceaser family duel…?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rule number one, no using quirks on each other allowed. Rule number two, the first one to pass out, break rule one, or give up is the loser. Rule number three, the winner of the duel settles the family dispute in any way they see fit."
"Excellent... then with everything else out of the way…"
"Yeah."
They had nothing else to say, and so the Ceaser family duel was underway. They had at each other.
TO BE CONTINUED
With a new week, comes a new chapter. Here, we finally return to the fight against the fool, or should I call him Bo Ceaser! Some people in the discord server might have predicted this week's twist, but I must say it took longer than I thought it would have for them to do so! I honestly thought that I tipped too much of my hand when it came to this development as early as chapter 2, but it managed to slip under the radar for quite some time!
So what did you think? Is Biz consigned to defeat in his 'family duel'? Is there any hope of Lei's survival? What about Devin? Mallory?! WHO WILL LIVE? WHO WILL DIE?
Tell me your theories in the reviews, and also your opinions on the chapter! And as always, thanks for reading! I'll see you in the next one!
