This is a fanfic. BUY THE FUCKING MERCHANDISE!

It was finally that day for Minato to face off against Cinder and her companions.

After four days of physically and mentally preparing himself for the fight, the blue-haired male did not want to take any risks at all.

Exhaling, Minato looked up and down to the doors that led to the arena where he would enter combat. Putting his hand on the wooden barrier, he didn't push at first. Putting his hand down, Minato fished around in his pocket to find his two earphones. Hooking them up around the appropriate areas, he finally pushed the door open.

The sound of creaking was deafening on the inside of the structure. The noise easily bounced all over the walls since there was the massive corridor before the actual circle area. Taking a few steps forward after entering, he ignored the sound of the closing doors in favor of proceeding in the direction he had in mind.

Arriving to the circular area, Minato saw that everyone was waiting for him. Salem, Tyrian, Hazel, and Watts were right between the corridor and the arena. Cinder, Emerald and Mercury meanwhile were on one side of the area.

Just as Minato passed the adults, he stopped in his tracks. Turning his head, he stared before eventually nodding. "Mother." He greeted before looking to everyone else and then gave the common curtesy. "Hazel. Tyrian. Watts."

Watts did not visibly react. Tyrian waved with a grin. Hazel nodded his head silently.

Salem nodded her head too but responded verbally as well. "Minato." She greeted the blue-haired boy right back. Her arms were folded behind her back while taking a step forward to be properly in front of him. "Are you prepared for your test?"

A single nod of his head was all he gave her. But that answer was more than enough for Salem as she gestured with her hand for him to proceed. Looking forward, Minato started walking to the opposite side of the arena.

The candles that lit the building flickered, causing everyone's shadow to dance in anticipation. While Minato got to his spot with hands in his pockets, he faced off against Cinder and her companions.

"Hmph," The grey-haired Mercury snickered while putting his hands to his hips. "It's already easy enough for us with this fight being three-on-one. But you don't even look like anything special." He taunted. "Especially since you're supposed to be super important."

Minato did not say anything to enlighten Mercury. The way Minato reacted only seemed to irritate the grey-haired male.

"Give it up, Mercury." The green-haired Emerald only rolled her eyes. "Your insults just show how much of a brain you lack."

"Both of you," Cinder spoke up, causing the two fighters behind her to stiffen. As the black-haired female narrowed her eyes, she turned her head. "Save your breaths for the fight. Even with his appearances, do not judge a book by it's cover. You said it yourself, Mercury. Minato here is important. Important enough for her grace to be generous towards him."

Just like with Mercury, Minato did not speak a word. Breathing in and out, he made sure to keep himself level headed while staring forward. He was taking this precious time to see what he could figure out from those three fighters.

Minato should at least suspect that all three of them were skilled as well. From what he could tell, Mercury was all about close-quarters combat judging by the boots that were on the grey-haired teen's feet. Such apparel seemed to even have shotgun ammunition hooked up.

Emerald meanwhile had a pair of revolvers holstered on her back. That couldn't be it. While people did use firearms alone sometimes, it was kind of rare. There was something else to those weapons and Minato had to be careful.

Cinder meanwhile had two swords on her back with a few arrows as well. This was odd to him. If the swords were there, where was the bow for the arrows? Either way, he knew that Cinder was going to be a large problem with her powers of a Maiden at her disposal.

"All of you, prepare yourselves."

Hearing these words, everyone looked towards Salem with the rest of the adults behind her. Seeing how she now had their attention, she spoke once more. "When I say so, you may begin. The victor will be decided if one side surrenders, is knocked out, or when I believe the answer is clear."

Being told that the fight was about to begin, Minato reached over to his mp3 player. Shuffling through his musical library, he kept on skipping tune after tune until he finally found one he liked for the occasion.

(Play Dragon Ball FighterZ OST – Goku Black's Theme)

Minato then just put his right hand in his pocket and stood in place, eyes concentrated and not wavering to his opponents.

"Start."

Snapping his left hand forward, Minato fired a single shot from his gauntlet right towards the opposition towards the leader of their group. But his opponents didn't move. Rather than be hit by the slug, the bullet passed right through Cinder. When that happened, the three of them just vanished right before his eyes.

The sudden action surprised Minato, catching him off-guard. Stepping back, he then moved his head back and forth to see where they had gone. But he couldn't see them. Only with instinct however, he quickly bent his legs to duck down. Looking up at the same time, he saw that Mercury soared over him with a flying kick.

Minato punched the floor while firing his gauntlet to stand back up straight quickly, using the top of his head to smash right against Mercury's body. But Minato was not fast enough as the grey-haired boy used his hands to soften the impact and flip around to his feet.

Just as soon as Mercury hit the ground though, he vanished. Blinking, Minato soon felt the bottom of a boot smash right against his face. Leaning back due to the sudden impact, Minato managed to retain his footing. But then multiple impacts to the same area followed. Swiping with his left hand to try and grab Mercury, the boy proved to be elusive once again by kicking off Minato's face and flipping over.

When Mercury landed back on the floor, he quickly spun around to sweep Minato off his feet. Only when he the leg hit the blue-haired teen's, Minato didn't flinch at all. Now it was Mercury's turn to be surprised as he looked up to see that Minato was not even fazed by the attack to the face.

But as Minato raised his right hand, he felt something wrap around his neck. Immediately feeling a sensation of choking, Minato move his right hand down to his neck to feel several chains were the source of his sudden loss of air. Eyeing downwards while wiggling his fingers around to help him breathe properly, he saw that a green blade was hanging from the end.

…Ahh, so that's the secret about that Emerald girl's weapons.

So that meant that she was the one choking him.

While Emerald continued to pull with digging her heels into Minato's shoulders, she saw Mercury get back up. Looking at each other, they knew that it was the perfect time to take advantage while Minato was busy. But rather than feel resistance to her method, Emerald soon saw that the blue-haired boy's hands were not on his neck. They were instead pointing at Mercury.

For the grey-haired boy, he saw this action and quickly moved out of the way when Minato fire two shots.

Emerald on the other hand, felt herself moving with Minato as the boy had not only leapt back, but also used the guns on his gauntlets to launch himself back with some power. Before she knew it, Emerald felt Minato's head slam right against her pelvis while her back painfully hit a wall.

Minato took in a deep breath through his nostrils. Just before exhaling though, he felt Emerald's feet slip off his shoulder. Snapping his right arm up, the hand gripped around something that Minato suspected to be a collar for clothing before slamming Emerald down onto the ground and kicking in right into Mercury.

Craning his neck around to pop the air bubbles inside, he worked on unraveling the links around his neck. Keeping his eyes on the competition, he suddenly saw that Cinder was standing near the pair of bodies that were getting back up.

Now that made Minato raise an eyebrow. At first, she was unseen around the battlefield. Now, she was just around like it was nothing. That could probably mean that the invisibility thing was not Cinder's doing. Considering how Mercury did not approach him invisible either when he was handling Emerald, that would maybe mean all that disappearing was done by the green-haired girl.

Lifting his foot, he pressed his foot against the wall. He then paused. Minato remembered that candles lines the walls. Rather than smelling smoke due to his pants being on fire, he smelt nothing.

Looking back, he saw that darkness was rippling around where his foot rested. Tilting his head, he then looked over to where Salem stood. His mom only looked back at him neutrally, but Minato knew that she was the one creating a barrier.

Tapping his foot against the barrier repeatedly, in increased the force with every hit. Eventually, Minato tried kicking the obstruction as hard as he could. Didn't really do anything to affect it.

Minato then stood in place, comprehending what he had just done. Hitting something as hard as he could to see what would happen. That was totally something Yang would pull off. That thought immediately snapped his mind back to attention.

Looking back up, Minato saw his vision filled with fire. Covering his face with his arms, Minato quickly rolled out of the way and out of the flames. When his eyesight cleared up, he saw that flame still lingered on his now burned clothing. Patting himself off quickly, he looked over to only raise his gauntlet to stop a sword from hitting his neck.

"Hmm…" Cinder only hummed in interest, seeing how Minato managed to block her weapon just after coming out of fire and distinguishing flames. That meant he had a sharp and despite his rather lax appearance. "You are very impressive." She then complimented aloud. "It's very-"

Minato shut her up by slamming his forehead right against her face.

Stumbling back, Cinder groaned at the pain. Raising her hand to her stinging face, she growled while gently rubbing the sore area. "…Right… No more pleasantries then."

Stepping back, Cinder disappeared once again.

Minato exhaled loudly in response, rolling his left fingers which created popping noises before flexing the right hand.

Climbing into existence from his shadow came the monster that would come whenever he needed it, or it was unstable. The beast, which Minato now dubbed as Thanatos, only made a rumbling noise with its throat while it looked around with Minato.

From out of nowhere, gunfire was heard. Thanatos dragged Minato behind its body, taking each bullet in his direction. Roaring, the monster lunged forward. But when it landed in the area it suspected the attack was coming from, it suddenly stopped and looked around.

From the side, Minato over then up to see Mercury suddenly in the air and planting two feet right against the blue-haired teen's face and gunshots released from the boots. Due to the shot, Minato rubbed his eyes in a distracted manner. Mercury meanwhile placed his feet right against the barrier of the arena and released another shot. With the momentum, Mercury landed another blow against Minato with both his boots.

Thanatos looked over to see the assault Minato was under. But as it turned, it felt a bullet ricochet off its skull-like helmet. Snapping its head around in the direction of the bullet, it continued to look around for the nuisance.

Minato moved around, trying to be able to shoot or catching Mercury. But the grey-haired male proved to be a lot quickly and acrobatic than he thought.

The three on one advantage was being a lot tougher than Minato expected.

While snapping his arms back and forth to shoot Mercury, Minato had a bad feeling suddenly. Looking behind him, Cinder was speeding up to his body. Swinging his arm because she was too close, the female slid under his haymaker. Moving her arms, the debris the was caused because of his shooting began to glow.

Looking around, he saw all the rocks and rubble float in the air and compress together with red head being a good way to make sure they stuck. Having a feeling he knew what was going to happen, Minato crossed his arms in front of his face and caused black smoke to pour off the limbs.

The sudden display of darkness off his body made Salem frown a bit.

As the combined debris began to pelt Minato, some of them were held back by the dark miasma. Throwing his arms out right after, he threw the projectiles everywhere. Fortunately, one of them apparently hit Emerald. The green-haired girl suddenly was thrown back into existence and was on the ground while clutching her side.

Thanatos immediately saw the female and went for her. Just as Emerald got back up, she saw the monster charging towards her. Quickly trying to roll away, Thanatos caught her by the foot. Yanking her back while letting go, the beast only caught her again by the collar of her clothing before headbutting her and throwing her right against the barrier of the arena.

Minato leaned back to avoid his neck being slashed by Cinder's before raising his arm to block the blade coming for his side. Snapping his arm forward, his punch struck Cinder right against her stomach and knocked her away.

Mercury however came charging in right after to take advantage of Minato. But when Minato felt the male kicked his chest, he grabbed the boot, swung his arm around, and slammed Mercury against the floor. Turning around, he did the same thing.

Before he could do it a third time though, the floor beneath him began to get hot before he found himself being consumed by fire.

Thanatos watched as a bruised Emerald tried to crawl away. Stepping over to the girl, he bent over and slowly reach for her with cursed, gloved hands. Looking back, the green-haired girl gasped in terror when she saw that she was about to be grabbed by the monster yet again.

But then its hand went right through her.

Making a confused growl, Thanatos brought its hand back while flexing it back and forth while it seemed to wonder what was happening to it. Looking over to Minato, the monster suddenly roared before it started to fade like a ghost.

As Cinder smirked in victory, thinking it was her win due to the pillar of fire she created. With eyes surrounded by an orange mask of energy, she put her hands down. As soon as she did though, Minato came charging forward towards Cinder.

Cinder however didn't seem to mind this. Grabbing her blades, she swung them around. Minato deflected one, but the felt the second one cut his side.

Looking down, he saw the area in which he felt the attack bleed.

Feeling a hand be placed against his stomach, he looked down and saw that Cinder's palm was on his body and glowing orange. A hot sensation began to spread before an explosion detonated and caused him to fly upwards and hit the top of the building.

Falling limply, Minato hit the floor on his stomach without anything to break his fall. Upon impact, one of his headphones dislodged off his ear and rolled in front of him. Grunting in discomfort, Minato began to reach over to grab the device.

Cinder's heel then hovered over the object and crushed it right after.

(End Song)

Minato froze at the sight of the destroyed earphone. His left arm still hovered in the air when he tired to grab it. Seeing twitching motions, his eyes shifted over to see that the limb was shaking. Unsure of what to make of it, he then looked over to the broken thing under the heel.

New images started to play before his eyes suddenly. Yang reached down into her shirt to pull out a small parcel wrapped up in black and yellow paper. The grin on her face when he discovered what he had opened. The blush on her cheeks when he confessed after receiving his present being followed by repeated smiles.

Wrapping his left hand into a fist, he slammed it against the ground to shoot up and try to punch Cinder. But the female dodged. Reaching into his burned jacket, Minato tossed out two sets of sniper ammunition held together by a metal strip. Chambers popped open under his gauntlets as he slammed the open ends against his chest, catching both sets of bullets and reloading his weapon at the same time.

But the fatigue, lack of Aura, and set amount of blood loss was taking a toll on his body. It led to Cinder easily stepping forward, placing a hand against his chin. "You don't know when to quit, do you?" She asked with a taunting smile. "It's almost adorable."

One second later, she caused another explosion to knock him up.

Flying, Minato gritted his teeth. He was at least confident that he had done serious damage to them. If he hadn't kept Thanatos focused on hunting Emerald, maybe things could have worked out. All of them were weakened severely. He just needed some thing to give him a boost of adrenaline or something.

Landing on the floor, facing away from Cinder and company, Minato suddenly heard something bouncing on the ground.

Looking forward, he saw the crystal from when he first arrived clatter around before it rolled right in front of his face.

Minato suddenly found himself mesmerized by the object. It… was calling out to him. There was a connection that he never knew was there but now it was clear. Instincts roared inside of him, taking over any rationality he had before suddenly. But he didn't even notice the change.

Grabbing the crystal, Minato shoved it into his mouth; gnashing and crunching the gem into bits before swallowing.

His body then went cold when another pillar of orange fire covered his body.

With her arms extended, Cinder was now sure that this helped settle her victory. Confident, she turned to face Salem. But it looked at if the white-haired being had not been focusing on the fight for the entire time. There was a frown that clearly showed something was on her mind and she did not like it.

"…Your grace…" Cinder spoke up, causing Salem to look at her slowly.

Salem seemed to stare at the girl. "Yes, Cinder, what is it?"

Cinder went quiet, thinking about what to say. "…It is my victory, is it not? Did I not win against your son?"

To that, Salem frowned once more. "…No…" She eventually answered. "I fear that this fight is not yet over." Turning her head, she faced Minato's body.

…At least where Minato's body should be. Instead, a single black puddle laid where flesh should be. The tar-like substance began to bubble suddenly, as if it were alive.

A black hand suddenly shot up from the puddle and slammed onto the floor.

"…Oohhh…" Tyrian took a step back with wide eyes and a faltering voice. "…That's not good."

Salem looked behind her to the three adults. "Watts." She said curtly, as if about to order the man around.

"I'm already on it." The mustached-male said, already halfway down the corridor in a jog before turning into a bit of a run.

"Hazel, Tyrian, help him search." Salem told the other two men who both nodded and quickly ran after Watts.

"…What's going on?" Emerald asked slowly, seeing how the four adults almost seemed to be… scared.

Salem didn't answer the question. Instead she gestured them towards her. "The three of you, over here, now." She commanded. "I've put the barrier down for you all to come towards me."

"Your grace-"

"Now, Cinder!"

The girl flinched at the tone and volume used to her. "Come on." She said as the three teenagers rushed towards the white-haired entity.

As soon as they reached Salem's side, she extended both of her hands. With her face scrunched up in concentration, the barrier that was originally transparent began to glow dim.

While it looked like Salem was giving all her attention to the barrier, that led to Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury all looking towards the puddle everyone feared.

They had already seen the black hand at first. But the limb started to spasm. Hearing flesh rip, bone began to grow out of the dark limb. But the hard material suddenly started knitting together while thinning out to form a white glove. A second hand made of darkness came out and repeated the process just like the first one.

With a heave, the hands pushed the body they were connected to out of the suffocating, thick liquid. Not a single drop of the gunk however dripped off the body that was absorbing the substance. Eventually, only the legs were left to appear. Just like the gloves, flesh ripping and bone knitting for white boots to form.

Sickening crunches echoed through the arena. The skull-like helm, white like bone, grew out of the head of the beast. Bending over, the back suddenly started exploding in a shower of black gore. The darkness started forming separate groups before molding into man-sized coffins that arced over its back in a twisted parody of wings. The boxes of the dead surrounded the shoulders like a ring of shields. A single sword strapped to its waist was more than enough to add to the savage image.

There was nothing new to it though. It still looked exactly like Thanatos.

But as Thanatos stood up straight, something fell forward and out of the front-half of its body.

Hunched forward was Minato without a single scratch or bruise on his body. But rather than the burned and torn clothing from before, his wardrobe had suddenly changed into something rather simple.

A tight, short-sleeved black t-shirt covered the upper-half of his body which made it almost seem the clothing had melted onto his body. Both of his hands were stuffed in a pair of black pants that were being held up by a black belt with a silver buckle. On his feet were a pair of white shoes with black bottoms as well steeled toes and heels.

Thanatos soon started melting. While the monster took on liquid form, it shaped itself as well before eventually spreading on the ground and becoming Minato's shadow.

(Play Guilty Gear Xrd SIGN – [Ride The Fire])

Suddenly arching his back, Minato released a bone-chilling cackle.

Uh… yeah.

Before any of you complain, let me say some things in my defense.

Minato losing? He's the same power and skill as Yang in this fic now. Do you think Yang at 16 would be able to face off against Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury all at the same time? If she couldn't, neither could Minato here.

Those things for the last moments? Yang was training with Raven to control her Maiden powers and utilize them to their fullest potential. What's wrong with giving Minato a 'power boost' to stay close to Yang's power levels? Yes, I had that planned since having the idea that Minato was Salem's son. This includes the stuff you will see next chapter…

Whenever the heck it's coming out.

I know most of you already will not like the sudden change in Minato's attitude for that last moment. Trust me, it won't last long.

...Not sure if I should say this or not... But someone actually made some fanart of this fic. So major thanks to Aeso3 for making such a picture. It's pretty cute. You guys should check it out.

No, I'm not going to post a link. Just search it up the artist's name on devianart.

No flames please.