-o-o-
-o-o- Fate of Beacon Academy -o-o-
Mato Kuroi vs Yomi Takanashi
(Part 2)
Friendship: A bond of mutual affection between people. A bond that is usually built over time across many interactions. Each friendship is different. Some friendships may simply be nothing short of acquaintances while others can be more precious. Regardless, the closer the friendship...the harder it is when it breaks.
"Remember when I ambushed the girls that night?"
"Yeah?"
"During that time, I placed a dark crystal in Yomi's heart which will amplify her negative emotions and blind her judgement. Kinda similar to the micro chip one I put into Kagari to mess with her head."
"Is that so?"
"Sorry Sing-love, I know you wanted to play with Yomi slowly but we are approaching the finally of this series, I thought I would speed it up a bit. Have her and Dead Master turn on her friends for a bit more fun, just like Kagari and Chariot."
"I don't really care. But why not just flick a switch or something to make her go berserk yourself. You can clearly do that."
"Well I thought I would give you the final honours of "flicking the switch" since she was technically your toy to begin with. All you need to do is give Yomi one last push. After that, the girl should break."
"You don't say."
"Anything will do. Even a small whisper will be enough to shatter her mind."
(FLASHBACK: Chapter 47)
Using her speed, Sing-love flew past Yomi. She was fast enough to avoid Dead's attention yet slow enough to whisper one single statement into Yomi's ear:
"Looks like she replaced you."
(FLASHBACK ENDS)
Back where the injured were resting.
Kirito explained everything. About there being other worlds. Where each of them came from. How their abilities aren't actually semblances. Their enemies. Everything.
Weiss and Blake stayed silent the entire time. Just when they thought their minds couldn't get any more flooded with information, Kirito also told them about the the dimensional rebels and travellers. How Jason came to gather everyone here in beacon and help stop Jack's selfish plan of entertainment.
Without realising, Weiss's jaw dropped incredibly low. Blake's expression tried to stay calm but her wide eyes betrayed her.
"I-I..."
As if to hammer the point of them being from another world even further, two familiar individuals smashed through the walls and into the battle area where the defenders were staying at.
Naturally, everyone was incredibly alarmed and ready to fight, however, Kirito ordered everyone to stand down when he realised they were Chariot and Strength. They were carrying their unconscious and injured other selves. The two individuals walked towards them as if crashing through a wall was nothing.
Weiss observed Chariot's sharp wheels. Assuming that they were from this world's technology wasn't so bizarre to believe. But after what Kirito had just told her, she now wondered about what exactly those wheels were made out of and how they worked.
"Strength!" Asuna called out as she approached her, she noticed how badly Yuu is hurt, "What happened!?"
"Well..." Strength looked over to Chariot who was approached by Yuuki. The crowned, blonde entrusted Kagari's protection to Yuuki, barely saying a word.
Asuna pretty much got the message just from Strength's eye contact: similiar to everyone else, they were forced into fighting each other. She decided not to question Strength any further.
Meanwhile, Weiss simply fell to her knees, covering her face with her hands.
"Weiss," Blake said with concern.
"I'm fine...My head...just really hurts."
"That's understandable." Kirito admitted, "Feel free to rest for now and take some time to process everything."
"Looks like Strength, Chariot, and their twins are fine." Yuri observed as she joined Kirito.
"That just leaves Yomi and-"
"Strength! Where are you going?" Asuna asked, noticing that Strength and Chariot were already heading towards the exit.
"We're going to go help Mato." Strength answered, "I'm sure you've guessed it by now but those attacking skeletons definitely means something's very wrong with Yomi."
"Ruby went to help Mato!" Weiss suddenly called when she overheard the conversation, "Please-"
Strength nodded, "Don't worry, I'll bring them all back safely."
"The Tiny Bird and The Colours"
That book was what started it all. It was a common interest they had shared. The reason why they were able to connect in the first place was because of that book.
In hindsight, meeting Yomi was one of the best moments Mato had experienced. They would later became the best of friends along with Kagari and Yuu.
Together they had gone through many trails. Very emotional ones that almost made them tear each other's hearts out. One of the worst they had to go through besides Kagari's past possessiveness, was Yomi's jealousy.
Fights were fought. Certain individuals were almost killed.
But they made it through regardless.
Mato had thought...Yomi had gotten over it. That the past wouldn't repeat itself after all they went through. But she wasn't thinking about it properly.
They were dragged into a foreign world. They were homesick and went through traumatic experiences. Naturally that would leave a huge impact on both her and Yomi. Mato, in order to seek comfort from her homesickness, frequently hanged out with all the otherworlders who were suffering through a similar situation. She learned more about their worlds, as if trying to distract herself from the predicament they were in.
But she never thought about how Yomi must've felt. The pressure, the fights, the monsters, along with the fact that her best friend stopped hanging out with her...must've driven her to madness...and whoever manipulated her, they must've just simply amplified or triggered those emotions.
This would have never happened if Mato had simply paid more attention.
"Yomi I'm-"
"HAHAHAHA! Finally, we're alone! Just the two of us!"
She wasn't listening. Mato needed a way for her to listen. It was then an idea came into her mind. An idea so simple, Mato wanted to punch herself for not thinking of it sooner. Maybe the shock of Yomi going insane distracted her- no, she had no excuse.
Mato sprinted forward.
Yomi's body reacted and swung her scythe which clashed with Mato's blade. She could feel Yomi's strength had increased.
"Huh? What are you doing? Why are you attacking me?"
A chain appeared beneath Mato's feet. Mato jumped back and shot the ground with her rock cannon. "Yomi-"
"Why...even you...WHY! WHY! WHY!"
Mato gave up on talking to her. She wasn't going to listen. Mato had to make her listen and she only had option to achieve that. She hoped it would work. If it doesn't work, then there truly was no hope for Yomi.
Another chain attacked her, aiming for the stomach. Mato jumped up high again to evade. Upon landing back on the ground, she winced in pain. Her injuries were healing slowly. Too slowly.
"Mato! Watch your left!" Stella from inside Mato's mind warned her.
Three more chains flew towards her. Mato fired her cannon at them, catching the chains with the explosion.
"Behind!"
Mato quietly thanked Stella again as she turned to block the next incoming attack. She expected more chains but instead saw Yomi's scythe.
She blocked. Yomi cold stare pierced Mato's soul as she was pushed back. Mato could feel it. The negative emotions were so strong that it physically converted into Yomi's strength.
Her feet were being dragged across the floor. Mato struggled greatly.
"LEFT! WATCH OUT!" Stella screamed.
Too late.
By the time Mato looked, Yomi's second giant skull was right there in front of her.
It crashed itself into both Yomi and Mato.
The sudden collision brought massive pain onto Mato as she was sent back. It was like getting hit by a race car but much worse.
The two girls both suffered a rough landing. Mato and Stella groaned. It was the same tactic Yomi used to defeat Ruby's speed. Mato's body didn't want to get back up. It told her to just give up. But she couldn't. Stabbing her sword into the ground, Mato got on her feet.
While Mato struggled to get back up, Yomi stood right back up.
Chariot and Strength never once were able to beat Black Rock Shooter. Especially not when she was in her Insane form. They battled many times and many times they would get the upper hand, but somehow, Black always stood as the victor. Before the only person to properly beat her was Mato herself.
And yet now, they both must work together to fight against the only other opponent who was able to kill her. Dead Master.
The crowned girl bent down a little, ready to take off as the engines in the wheels began roaring.
A mini tornado of chains appeared and flew towards Chariot. At the same time, Dead swung a powerful swing at Strength.
Strength remained still. Hundreds of giant arms emerged from the ground around Chariot's location which all went to tackle the chain tornado.
Mid-swing, Dead sensed incoming danger so she jumped to the side just before Chariot took off. The crowned blonde zoomed past so fast that it could've easily be mistaken as a strike of thunder. In fact, even though Dead saw the attack coming, Chariot still landed a deep slash across her stomach.
Continuing the pressure, Strength threw eight more metal arms at Dead. But with one swing of her scythe: all of the arms were sliced and rendered useless.
Chariot threw her shield, which Dead easily deflected. The blonde drove towards the necromancer. She swiftly ducked, and drove to avoid any incoming attacks until she was just several feet away from Dead.
However, an entire net of chains appeared around Dead forcing the blonde to retreat.
Strength summoned another sea of metal arms. But with each metal arm Strength summoned, 10 chains appeared to retrain them.
There was too many chains. Even in a 2 vs 1 and without her giant skull servants, Dead was still incredibly overwhelming.
Surrounding the horned woman was a dark green fog of negative emotions, most likely coming from Yomi. Compared to that, the light yellow and orange aura surrounding Chariot and Strength looked like torches trying to compete with a bon fire.
"She's coming."
"I know, Strength... I have eyes."
"Oi, this isn't the time to be sassy."
This was not good. At first glance, it may not seem like Yomi wasn't hurt after getting hit by her own skull servant, but Mato could tell from the subtle hints in her body language: her body was in a lot of pain.
"WHY MATO! WHY! WHY! WHY!"
She clearly wasn't thinking about her injured state. It was a dangerous cycle, her madness helped Yomi ignore the pain but at the same time, the pain only seemed to amplify her madness.
"But why isn't her body healing like usual? Is it because of her emotion? Perharps all the power that used to focus on healing was being put into her offence" Stella thought, "If that's the case, she's like a glass cannon."
"That would explain why Dead ordered all her skeletons and her giant skulls to protect Yomi," Mato, who could hear Stella's thoughts, replied.
At this rate, Yomi was going to end up destroying herself.
The horned girl sprinted forward. Mato jumped back.
They were much fewer skeletons thanks to Strength's abilities so Mato mainly only had to focused on dodging and blocking. Her goal was to get close enough, and not to defeat her.
However, that proved to be incredibly complicated.
If Mato got any closer, she would get attack by chains, a dangerous scythe and that giant flying skull.
If she focused too much on evading, the distance between them would only grow.
But blocking each attack would mean enduring each of Yomi's deadly swings which were so powerful that Mato would still sustain damage even after blocking.
Another factor to mention was time. The more longer this battle dragged, the more Yomi hurts herself and the more closer Mato gets to collapsing.
She blocked, dodged a chain, fired at the skull, blocked her scythe, and evaded another chain. There was a lot of things to think about. Luckily Stella was in her head, helping her keep track of everything.
"You're getting too far from her," Stella reminded Mato again, "run forward after dodging these next few chains but watch out for the skull."
Fortunately, Stella was slowly beginning to learn Yomi's attack patterns. Although even if Stella could predict the next attack, it didn't change the fact that Mato was still incredibly fatigued.
"Mato, after this next attack, take out your cannon and shoot as many shots as you can at the ground in every direction." Stella suddenly ordered.
"What?"
"Trust me."
Mato jumped an incredible height over the giant skull before summoning her rock cannon. As Stella said, she fired many flaming rocks in all directions.
A wall of chains appeared around Yomi to defend her, as many explosions occurred around the battlefield.
When Mato landed back on the ground, she finally realised why Stella asked her to do that.
Due to those explosions, a blanket of smoke had covered the entire battlefield as if smoke grenades had gone off.
Now Yomi had no idea where she was.
"Stay low. Don't move yet." Stella added.
In times like these, Mato couldn't be anymore grateful for Stella's quick thinking.
"Now what?" Mato asked.
"Move forward slowly, but stop every so often, she might hear you. When the smoke clears a bit more, I'll give the signal to run."
"Ok."
Mato followed her instructions carefully. Stella made sure to tell her to stop and wait many times. The truth was, Stella actually just wanted Mato to rest a bit. But if she had said that to Mato directly, she probably would've refused in order to save Yomi. She listened closely to Mato's heavy breathing, she was glad that she manage to convince her to catch her breath.
She took another step but froze again when she heard the sound of metal chains hitting each other.
"..Mato...about Black-"
"It's okay..."
Stella was quite surprised at the response.
"I was very shocked at first but...I believe in her." Mato replied with hope, "I know she's alive. She'll come back. I know she will."
That hope wasn't baseless. After all, Black was able to revive after she was supposedly killed by August.
"But what if..." Stella decided to rephrase her words, "lets say Black is in a position where she can't move... like maybe she's wrapped in chains. I have an idea to get her back."
"Really how-"
The sounds of chains got louder which means Mato was close, "MA-TO! Where. Are. You..."
"Sshh, wait...the smoke..."
Mato took in a deep breath.
"...Wait..."
She clenched her fist and got ready to take off.
"Wait...Wait..."
As the smoke cleared, the outline of a horned individual was begigning to become visible.
"...Wait..." While they fought, Stella somehow had also been listening to the loud noises coming from Strength's and Chariot's fight in the distance, she waited for a particular-
BOOM! The ground shook and a loud bang was heard from the direction where Dead Master was fighting.
"NOW!"
Mato bolted. Thanks to the loud battle that was occurring around them, the sound of her footsteps should've been covered.
Leaving the smoke, the first thing Mato saw was Yomi's back.
She was very close. Just a few feet.
Back then when Mato was in the smoke, Yomi summoned chains to randomly frail around in order to find her. One of those chains that was randomly being swung everywhere just so happen to fly in from behind in Mato's direction at the exact moment she sprinted.
She jumped, both evading the chain and flying towards Yomi.
She reached out her hand towards Yomi's arm to-
Yomi turned around.
"THERE YOU ARE!"
Her scythe cut deep into Strength's shoulder, drawing blood. Strength was thrown towards the ground.
Chariot drove forward. But a chain wrapped around her wheel, leg and arm. She tried to to cut it with her sharp wheels and sword, however, the chains remained firm and strong. Chariot was thrown into the air before being fired towards Strength.
The crowed blonde crashed landed where Strength was, delivering another fatal blow.
They couldn't land a single hit.
The chains were unbreakable. So whenever Chariot or Strength got close, she would just summon a net of chains to protect herself.
Meanwhile, Dead swiftly managed to land many successful hits, each being so incredibly powerful that their regeneration couldn't keep up.
"We're going to lose at this rate." Chariot admitted.
"Do you have to say it out loud?"
"Those chains are bothersome."
"Yes. None of our attacks are getting past."
From the distance, Dead master began approaching the duo, riding a sea of chains. Her glare sent shivers down Strength's spine.
"Chariot-"
"I know. Can you buy me some time."
"Sure."
Chariot bent down a bit as the engines in her wheels began roaring and steaming once again.
At the same time, Strength combined hundreds of metal arms into one gigantic, floating metal arm, almost bigger than a meteor.
Seeing this, Dead raised her scythe and a huge ribbon made of chains flew towards the gigantic arm.
"Hey Chariot?"
"Yes?"
"Since when were you so chatty?" Strength asked.
"Please focus."
With that, Strength threw the gigantic metal fist towards Dead.
It was met by the chains which wrapped around the gigantic fist very quickly. It was very heavy so kept falling towards the horned woman. But clearly not heavy enough as the chains eventually stopped it. Dead clenched her fist and the chains squeezed the giant fist, crushing it before tossing it aside.
Strength's trump card didn't work. But that was expected.
The real final hope was-
Kagari's eyes slowly opened until halfway. She still felt very sleepy and her body still felt like hell but certainly a lot better than before. Did someone heal her or something?
The first thing she saw was Yuuki's eyes staring back at her.
She wanted to move but Yuuki gently stopped her.
"It's ok. You're safe."
"W-where...where's..." She couldn't finish her sentence.
"Don't worry," Yuuki smiled, "She said leave it her."
"Oh...ok...th-that's...good...tell her...tell...her... I said...thanks..." Kagari passed out after that.
Chariot's engines roared loudly. Holding her sword and shield tightly, she took off at the speed of lightning.
Dead didn't move. Instead, in advanced, she placed a thick net of chains that stood in front of Chariot's path. Since Chariot can't change direction, she went straight into it with her sword and spiked shield.
It was then, both Chariot and Strength truly realised why Dead Master was able to defeat Black Rock Shooter, even when she was in her insane form.
Despite being faster than lightning, Chariot's signature move...still couldn't break the chains.
Regardless, Chariot kept driving forward. The chains greatly decreased her speed but that didn't change the fact that Dead Master was still in front of her. So she, with all her might, drove forward.
Sparks flew everywhere as the chains collided with Chariot's sharp running wheels.
More and more chains wrapped around her yet she kept pushing and pushing forward.
More chains ripped the sword out of her hand.
Even with the chains holding back her arm, Chariot threw her shield.
Dead moved her head slightly, evading the shield throw.
With no weapons, Chariot drove forward, reaching out her sharp claw.
It wasn't enough. She was stopped in her tracks. She came close. Very close. Her finger was only an inch away Dead's nose. Most of Chariot's body was now wrapped in chains. Chariot tried to struggle but she couldn't move a budge.
Many metal arms came flying towards them but none of them could get past the net of chains.
Dead raised a finger. The chains stretched Chariot's arms out and began squeezing her tightly.
Dead Master looked down at Chariot who had given up on struggling against the chains.
The two former partners stared at each other.
Silence fell upon the pair for a moment. Dead then spoke:
"We have lived and fought for our otherselves for all our lives."
"Yes we have." Chariot replied.
"Black asked me: what do you do when your other self doesn't want that?"
Chariot looked back at Dead with a blank expression, "...I'm not sure..."
"..."
"But..."
Dead raised an eyebrow.
"I will say that Kagari has taught me many things," Chariot said, "I can say for sure, in the time I have spent with my other self that... I became Kagari's friend...rather than a servant."
Once again, her reply was met with silence.
In the corner of her mouth, Chariot formed a tiny smile, "Or perhaps I became her sister, or was it nephew? I'm not sure. I actually still don't understand human relations. What do you think?"
There was no reply at first. Chariot thought that was the end of the conversation but then-
"...You've changed a lot since then." Dead observed.
"...Well..." A tiny smile revealed itself on Chariot's face, "I did bake a lot of macaroons."
Dead raised her finger. With the lift of that finger, the chains carried Chariot up and forcefully threw her towards the giant tornado where Dead and Black had fought previously.
Upon contact with the walls of the tornado, more chains wrapped around Chariot until eventually she was sucked in completely.
"...One down."
Inside the tornado was almost silent besides the constant echo of the outside battles.
At first Chariot could see nothing but chains and darkness. She couldn't move. The chains moved her wherever they wanted to move her.
Eventually her head popped out the inner wall of tornado and she had a view of what it looked like inside. Lots of green was all Chariot could say.
The chains stopped moving her and she was stuck in the wall, completely still.
She looked around. Before finally her eyes settled on another figure wrapped in many chains at the very bottom of the tornado.
"Ahh there you are," Chariot spoke, "You really did lose."
Strength equipped her four main metal arms as she saw Dead Master approaching.
"..."
"Don't have anything to say to me?" Strength asked.
"..."
"Very well." Strength got into her battle stance. She clenched her metal fists.
Dead Master gripped her scythe.
Strength was the first to move. She jumped forward, throwing her strongest punch.
Dead jumped forward as well.
Chains appeared and wrapped around Strength's fist, holding her back. With that, Dead went past Strength...slicing her as she went past.
Blood spilled out. It was a deep wound. Strength gritted her teeth in pain. Her four metal arms disappeared as she fell towards the ground.
Dead spun her scythe to throw the blood off her blade. Without a word, she began walking towards where Yomi wa-
"I can still fight, you know."
Dead flinched. By the time she turned around, the metal fist was directly in front of her eyes.
Mato coughed blood as Yomi's blade pierced her shoulder.
She turned around at the worst possible moment. Mato was so close. Yet she failed.
Chains wrapped around her and pulled her back.
The giant skull came flying in and crashed directly into her. Once again, she was sent flying back, crashing and rolling over the ground. Still wrapped in chains.
The chains lifted her up. They wrapped around her body and tightened. They squeezed and choked her, however, Mato did not cry.
Yomi slowly walked forward, it looked as if she was limping.
"H-hey Yomi. I know... you can't hear me right now..."
"Finally, Mato you..you're all..." The girl froze. Then she began screaming in pain for reason. But shortly stopped. Then started laughing. The girl began clutching her head, still laughing.
"I was...thinking about...the first time we ever met." Mato continued, "...remember that picture book...wow, things were so different back then..."
Yomi raised her scythe, slowly limping towards Mato, still laughing.
"You know...I...I...have been very selfish lately, but then again, so have you..." Somehow, a short light chuckle left Mato's mouth, "...haha, still my fault though...Yomi...I don't think I've ever thought about you once...during this whole thing...I've...I've...been a terrible friend haven't I?"
Yomi took another step forward.
"I know that now...that's why I'm here..."
She froze. Then she began screaming in pain again before shortly freezing again. After a few seconds of silence, she looked forward at Mato with a glare. Despite the scary aura she was radiating, for a second, past all the corruption of red in her eyes, Mato saw a tear fall from Yomi's face.
"Yomi...I'm here for you...please...let me...make it up to you... right now."
A familiar bright light engulfed Mato's whole body. Yomi covered her eyes to shield them from the bright blinding light.
Gripping her fist tightly, Mato yelled with all her might.
"CHARACTER SUMMON!"
It was discovered that the skill "character summoning" has a chance to summon the original rather than a copy. However, there was a small chance of that happening.
It was a gamble. A huge one with many stakes since a clone wouldn't stand a stance against Dead Master.
In the end, the fate of this battle was all on this single roll of a dice.
The only hope that Mato had. Everything relied on this gamble.
Chariot looked... she didn't even blink as a bright light began illuminating the entire inside of the tornado.
And it was a gamble that Mato won.
"BLACK ROCK SHOOTER!"
Someone came bursting through the tornado in a pillar of light. The individual flew through the field and landed right next to Mato.
The light faded, revealing a kneeling Black Rock shooter, all wounds healed, brand new...and in her original form.
Black slowly stood up and opened her eyes as a fresh new blue flame ignited from her eye. Now she looked almost the same as Mato, except a bit taller.
Yomi stepped back in fear. Something about the aura around her seemed incredibly different.
With her new blade, Black swung her sword and sliced the chains that were holding Mato, freeing her.
"Black!...I'm going to save Yomi!" Mato looked at her otherself with determination, "So... please..."
Black looked at her otherself with her usual expression. She simply nodded.
Without saying a word, Black faced the direction of Dead Master and jumped. She jumped so high that she left a crater where she used to stand.
This left Mato and Yomi alone to face off each other.
Now that Black was gone, Yomi regained her battle stance and raised her scythe.
"Yomi..." Mato dropped her sword, "I'm not going to fight you anymore!"
Mato opened up her arms with a gentle welcoming smile, "So go all out if you want. I can take it."
Yomi laughed crazily as she jumped towards her and sliced her with her scythe.
Dead stopped.
Strength smiled. She was laying on the ground in a puddle of her own blood. Yet she still smiled, "Took you long enough."
Black landed with a huge impact that cracked the ground, right in front of Strength. Dead stepped back. A new dark blue aura surrounded her. She could tell just from a single glance that Black had changed. She was no longer in her insane form and somehow that made it even more intimidating.
"See?" Strength spoke, "it's ok to...to be saved by them once in a while."
Dead and Black faced each other. Dead glared while Black simply looked at her with a calm expression.
Strength could tell just from looking: this was going to be a very short battle. It would be a shame that Strength wouldn't be awake to see it as she fainted at that moment, probably due to fatigue and injuries from her previous battle with Chariot.
A scythe and sword got into their stances.
None of them spoke. No words were needed. From where they came from, their battles always did the talking.
They both sprinted towards each other.
Dead Master vs Black Rock Shooter (Round 2)
In a fit of blind madness, Yomi sliced her again and again. Blood spilled everywhere. She swung and pulled out of her scythe over and over again.
But despite that, Mato did not fight back. No matter how much pain she went through, she did not fight back. She did not touch her sword or her cannon.
A chain wrapped around Mato's neck. Yomi lifted her into the air before smashing her into the ground. Without a break, Yomi lifted her into the air again
Her sword clashed with her scythe and instantly, the difference of power was known.
Black pushed Dead way back.
Dead rolled over the ground before quickly getting back up to summon a net of chains to attack.
Black swung her sword... As she swung, Black's sword lit on fire. Blue fire. With one swing... all the chains were broken.
"H-hey Stella, you ok?"
"Y-yes. I'm more concerned about you."
"Don't worry. I can take it. Sorry to make you go through this."
"If you can take it, so can I."
"Thank you Stella."
The giant skull came flying from above and landed on Mato, crushing her deeper into the ground.
The skull moved to make way for Yomi who jumped in and landed on her back, stabbing her scythe deep into Mato's shoulder.
She was still laughing hysterically as Yomi continuously slashed and sliced at Mato's back. She then picked her up again with her scythe and threw the girl into the air.
The chains were useless now. No matter how many Dead sent, Black would destroy them all in one single swing of her new blue flaming sword.
Black got closer and swung her sword.
Dead reacted by swinging her scythe.
Their weapons clashed with a loud CLANG!
Dead flinched at the heat of Black's burning sword. Her scythe left her hand while Black's sword remained firm in her grip.
Dead jumped back. Black jumped forward.
Out of reflex, Dead summoned an entire wall of chains between them.
With another single swing of her flaming sword, Black sliced the entire wall in half.
When her flaming eye grew brighter, so did the flame on her sword.
Mato counted each second that went by as she fell towards the ground. She just needed a little bit more time before...
The giant skull crashed into her before she hit the ground. The skull bashed Mato back in Yomi's direction.
Yomi, still in a fit of mad laughter, pulled back her scythe...
Dead cursed herself as Black came closer.
Another lost. Just when she thought she had gotten stronger, Black...no, Dead did get stronger. She could feel it. It just Black had also received her own power-up thanks to Mato's new determination.
She looked at Black straight in eye as the black blade of blue flames come closer and closer.
Black raised her blade...and threw it on the ground. Much to Dead's shock and confusion.
With her other arm and a clenched fist, Black pulled back her arm...
Yomi pulled back her scythe... and swung it directly at Mato, delivering one final devastating blow. The blade of the scythe impaled deeply into Mato before she was sent flying away.
The blue eyed girl skidded harshly across the floor before crashing into nearby debris with a loud boom!
Black pulled back her arm...and punched Dead Master directly in the cheek.
The punch itself was so powerful that it sounded louder than a gunshot upon impact.
Dead fell back, more confused than in pain.
Before she knew it, Dead's back met the hard cold, ground.
She was still alive. Black could've killed her. Yet here she was, alive. But for some reason, she did not move. She simply remained there, motionless as Black stood in front her.
The two warriors continued to stare at each other in silence. Black remained standing while Dead laid on the ground, not moving.
Black Rock Shooter vs Dead Master
Winner: Black Rock Shooter
The smoke cleared, revealing an unmoving Mato in the debris.
Mato Kuroi vs Yomi Takanashi
Winner: Yomi Takanashi
Despite clearly winning the battle, the deranged girl slowly approached the motionless Mato, dragging her scythe across the floor. She was laughing and limping, gradually walking a single step every few seconds.
Despite her pain, her agony, her fatigue, Mato looked up at Yomi with gentle eyes.
"Y-yeah I deserved that." Mato coughed and blood came out of her mouth, "s-still...a bit harsh though."
Mato chuckled softly again which brought great pain to her chest.
The horned girl took another step.
"Yomi...afterwards...if you still remember this...I h-hope you...don't feel...bad...I won't hold it against you, no one will."
Just a little more time.
Yomi took another step forward.
"I..."
Yomi stopped moving. With her right hand still clutching hard onto her scythe, Yomi grabbed her head with her other hand and began screaming again.
With all her remaining strength, Mato reached out her hand.
After counting the final second she needed, Mato had finally gathered energy to do what she needed to do:
For her friend. To make up for all her mistakes.
Mato made that gamble one more time.
A bright light appeared in the palm of her hand.
"...CHARACTER SUMMON:..." Mato yelled out the top of her lungs, "One of my closest and most previous friends, the one who I should've been there to help, appear!... YOMI TAKANASHI!"
At the same time, as Jack was heading towards his destination, he looked up, sensing the power, he laughed, "Well, well...What are the chances of that?"
A bright light appeared around Yomi and within seconds, she was engulfed completely. The light faded and Yomi was gone.
In the place where Yomi used to stand, a floating red and black glowing crystal revealed itself.
Yomi re-appeared directly in front of where Mato laid.
A wave of emotions hit Yomi instantly, she was confused, overwhelmed, as if she was finally able to see clearly.
She looked down and saw two things: A bloody Mato laying on the floor and...a small friendship bracelet.
(FLASHBACK)
Mato raised her arm, admiring what Yomi made for her, "This looks so good!"
"You can have it if you want." Yomi said.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I can make another one for myself anytime."
"Thank you."
Mato smiled and admired the red bracelet more, which in turn, brought a smile to Yomi's face as well.
(FLASHBACK ENDS)
It had been a long time, so Yomi had completely forgotten about the friendship bracelets she had made to symbolise their friendship. They were transported to this world in a different body so the bracelets she made was left behind back in her world. After staring at it, she also realised it was the same one that Mato originally wore.
No longer able to move her body, Mato took in a deep breath and said, "Yomi! I'M SORRY! I neglected you all this time. I hope you...forgive me my selfishness."
Yomi stared at Mato's injuries, her expression and...she stared at the bracelet Mato was wearing, it was the same one Yomi originally wore. She placed her hand over her mouth and quickly began bursting into tears, "Mato I...I'm sorry! I'M SO SORRY! I was the selfish one not you! I'm SORRY!"
Both girls cried. Yomi kneeled down to Mato's level and hugged her. The endless stream of tears did not stop.
They both stayed like there for a while until both girls passed out.
...
...
Black stared at Dead. Dead stared back.
Even though they were far away from them, they could tell what happened with their other selves.
It was silent. Without speaking a word, Dead lifted her arm...
At the same she lifted her arm, the giant tornado of chain began moving and growing smaller.
Jaune raised his shield to block the incoming attack. Only to feel nothing but air.
He lowered his shield and realised that the all the skeletons had not only stopped attacking but were disappearing completely.
Sun and both Neptunes stopped to look, "What's happening?"
Pyrrha looked towards the sky which was slowly losing it's dark green colour, "They did it."
The professional huntsman Nathan, called out to everyone, "Eyes front everyone! The alien robots are still running rampant."
"Although our job is a lot easier now." Illasyviel commented, "Berserker! Take out big one!"
"Incoming horde from behind." Coco called to the group.
"Everyone! This way!" Jaune yelled as he lead the way.
Meanwhile, in the back, Natsu stopped running and looked up.
Naruto also stopped, "What's wrong!"
The dragon slayer sniffed the air, "This scent..."
At the same time, back to the main attacking group.
Nepgear looked back, noticing Natsu and Naruto had gone "Umm guys, where are those two going?"
Blanc cursed, "Those, idiots! You guys go ahead! I'll get them!"
Before Jaune could say anything, White Heart flew away.
"Leave them, they're strong, I'm sure they'll be fine." Ren stated.
"IRONWOOD! The attacking skeletons are disappearing into dust!"
The commander watched it all happened himself, every skeleton, both small and giant were, as his men claimed, disappearing into dust.
"Order all now available units to aide the remaining fighters!" Ironwood immediately called out, "Wipe the rest of the enemies out!"
"What about the giant space ship in the sky sir? Should we really continue to ignore it?"
"...Yes. It hasn't made a move since appearing. We will deal with it once everyone on ground has been settled. NOW GO!"
"Yes sir!"
Yuuki rested Kagari gently on the ground.
She looked over to her teammate, "Levi...you heard that right?"
"Yeah...you're going?"
"Yes."
"Tch...no stopping you huh?"
The first person to notice Yuuki and Levi getting up to leave was Asuna.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm sorry Asuna, but there's someone I need to talk to." Yuuki said with an expression that Asuna had never seen before.
"Ok...stay safe."
Yuuki smiled with gratitude, "Thank you Asuna."
Tooru looked at Levi, still holding Julie in his arms, he nodded, "Be careful!"
With that, Levi and Yuuki left.
The tornado of chains disappeared completely and the sky around them was no longer dark green.
Chariot, carried by chains, was safely brought back to the them via chains. The crowened blonde, however, was found to also be sleeping like Strength. She must've also exerted a lot of energy and power fighting Strength earlier.
That left Dead and Black alone, standing silently.
Black looked up at the sky. It was still filled with war and battle. However, it was a lot more clearer now.
The red and black crystal began vibrating viciously. Without warning, it suddenly began flying towards Mato and Yomi, ready to enter it's next target.
A rose petal fell on top of Yomi's head.
A red scythe emerged from a mini storm of rose petal and sliced the red crystal in half.
Ruby landed softly on the ground. She dropped her crescent rose and looked at the Mato and Yomi.
She smiled, "Good, I'm glad they...they m-made up."
With those words, Ruby collapsed.
The three girls laid there on the ground unconscious with the giant skull and a few skeletons standing guard.
"Black..."
The blue eyed warrior looked at the green eyed necromancer.
"What are we?" Dead asked.
Black sat down on a piece of debris, "...I don't know."
"Strength's otherself...she said we represent the sorrows of our counterparts." Dead stated, "but...I don't think that's the case anymore...is it?"
"...Probably."
Both Dead and Black looked over to the unconscious Chariot and Strength. Chariot in particular had gone through many changes since meeting Kagari. As for why, they could answer that. Before, all they knew was how to fight, yet now it was clear that Chariot knew a lot more than just that.
They didn't speak to each other after that. The fact that they even had a conversation to begin with was nothing short of a blue moon. They both remained silent. Minutes flew by and for just a moment, it almost seemed like peace had been res-
CLAP!
Black's and Dead's eyes looked towards the general direction of where the clapping was coming from.
...
CLAP!
...
CLAP!
...
CLAP!
...
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
"Hmmm~Hmmm~Hmmm~" A beautiful voice sang. It was voice they hadn't heard in a while yet they recognised quite well.
The black haired warrior stood up.
"Hmmm~Hmmm~Hmmm~"
The leftover chains on the ground began floating.
"Hmmm~Hmmm~Hmmm~"
Black summoned her signature rock cannon. A blue flame ignited in her eye and around her blade.
The white woman stopped humming, "Well done girls. Well. Done."
A magenta flame ignited in her eye. She smiled.
White Rock Shooter vs Dead Master & Black Rock Shooter
A/N END! Alright! That's the end of another battle and oh boy we're already onto the next one.
Sorry this chapter was meant to come out sooner but one of my assessments turned out to be bigger than I thought and other stuff happened as well that got in the way.
Anyways, as I said, now that I've finished this chapter, I'm gonna focus on assessments for now but I will write when I have the time.
Thank you all for reading this far and thank you to everyone who took the time to leave a review. I hope you had a lot of fun reading it. I'm really glad you guys are all enjoying the action. There's still a lot more action to come so I'm happy you guys are liking that, with that said, maybe I'll occasionally write a few short bonus chapters that's more chill and relaxed in the future but we'll see. :).
So yeah, that's pretty much all I got to say for now!
The rest of the author's note will be me replying to reviews (it's a lot), and wow! Been a long time since I've responded to a review hasn't it. Can't believe it's been almost 5 years, since 2016 I started. :O...AND I STILL HAVEN'T FINISHED THIS STORY LOL! anyways... Reviews:
longbowchris50: I KNOW RIGHT! I'M SO HYPED FOR IT! LETS GOOOOOO!
freebyte: Hello! Oh dear I'm so sorry I completly misread your review back in chapter 58. My bad. Thought you said "New 'chapters', when?" Not "characters" sorry that was my mistake, I didn't mean to miss your question. But to answer your question, I don't think I'll be able to add more new characters purely because this is the last arch of the story so if I did add them, they wouldn't get that much screen time and it would probably convolute the story even further. I'm actually having a hard time keeping track of all the characters right now already so adding more would be a bit too much for me. But looking at my future plans, there's only one instance where I'll kinda add more characters but those will be more like short cameos, you'll see what I mean. But yeah, sorry I don't think I'll be able to add more characters besides that.
J the Abarekiller: Hey!
First of all I would like to thank you so much for your honest opinion and for taking the time to leave a review. I pretty much agree with you and there have been a few others who have said the same thing and I totally understand where you guys are coming from. Having lots of characters can make stories very convoluted, and I will be the first to admit that there have been times where I added a character and then almost completely forgot about them. I probably exacerbated this by adding my own Original characters, (It probably would've been better to just have them as one-off characters but I added them to the final arch since my other reviewers really liked them) but yeah I see why that made the issue even worse.
Now, it is important to acknowledge that there have been other fanfics, or even official series that have a TON of characters, way more than this fanfic, and they pull it off really well. I personally know other fanfic authors who do it really well. The reason why you and many others find it hard to keep track of this story in particular is mainly my fault as the writer. I think the difference between those other stories and this series, is that I gave too many characters too much significance to this story. If it was just two or three mains characters with everyone else as minor characters (how others mostly do it), it probably would've been better. I think my mistake was making almost EVERYONE a main character. So that is my bad.
Although do keep in mind, I'm sure you could tell from the first couple of chapters, that I started this fanfic way back when I was still comprehending how to write, I was pretty much a child back then so I pretty much did whatever I wanted for the fun of it. I even added Naruto even though I never watched the series. It was kinda too late to rewrite that mistake by the time I realised it. I tried to fix this by dedicating chapters purely focused on each team so the readers could get to know each character individually and that's mainly why this fic has so many chapters. Although in hindsight, that may have also caused the story to be even more convoluted.
Unfortunately, while I won't be adding more characters, the best I can do is finish what I started. Considering what I have in store for the future, it potentially might even get a bit more hard to keep track of everything in the future chapters (although I can promise it'll be fun). I will do my best to do what I can but if you wish to discontinue this series, that is completely understandable.
It's actually an interesting discussion when it comes to multi crossovers. In the end of the day, I think it's mainly up to opinion. After my years of writing in Fan-fiction, I've discovered there are people who love multi crossovers and people who prefer to only see two series crossovers, I think both sides are completely fine. I personally don't mind either. BUT! To be completely fair to the people who don't prefer multi crossovers, this fanfic is inside the RWBY x BlackRockShooter category so I understand people who come into this expecting only to see those two series. I considered putting it under "Anime X-over" but I didn't know whether to put it as "RWBY x Anime X-overs" or "BRS x Anime X-overs" because it only lets you choose two categories so I settled with just putting the name of the other series in the description/summary. Although, for future series, I do plan not to have put many series in one story, at least not on the same scale as this series, unless specifically placed under anime X-overs because I will admit that it's a lot easier, for me personally, to focus on just two series so I did bite off more than I can choose with this story lol.
But yeah that's all I got to say, once again, thank you again for your review and for still reading up to this chapter despite how confused you may have been :).
That is all, if I missed any queries or questions, please let me know or even send a direct message if you want.
And that's all I got. Thank you everyone and I wish everyone all the best in life.
And ah yeah...BYE!
This chapter was finished on