Ch. 25
For a few seconds, sword, knife, gauntlet, and hand vied for control of the small space between each other, hoping to get the opening advantage for their side. Jonathan's Hamon and Bakugo's explosions ended up being what carried that small scuffle, forcing their opponents back towards their perch lest they be hit with the power of the Sun, as well as whatever heat Bakugo was packing.
Bakugo propelled himself towards his opponents using his explosions while Jonathan ran forward and jumped with the sword still out. This time, Bakugo focused solely on Dio, while Jonathan focused on Toga. For every small explosion Bakugo threw at Dio, he either managed to weave his head around it, or force Bakugo's hands away from his body; he only able to use the gauntlets to push, not being able to land a grip quick enough to freeze them or his opponent's hands. Meanwhile, Toga managed to successfully use her small little knife to parry every swing of the sword Jonathan made. No matter the swing, Toga had enough precision to match the sword strength to block it and push it away from her.
"I should have known Dio would have used you like this if he was backed into a corner," Jonathan spoke as the parrying continued. "Not only has he forced you to give up your humanity, but much of your free will as well."
"Oh come now Mr. Joestar," Toga responded, trying to thrust her knife forward at any available opportunity but being blocked by Jonathan, "Haven't you considered…" She took a short step back away from Jonathan as her hand, followed by her hand and her knife freezing over before lunging once more at her opponent. The clash kept them at a standstill once more when she continued to speak, "That I would have made that choice of my own free will?"
"Do you really believe that?" Jonathan said, beginning to channel his Hamon through his Sword, melting the ice on the knife back but forcing Toga to back off once more, "Or is your combined bloodlust with Dio clouding your mind?"
On the other side of the hall, the hand-to-hand combat between Bakugo and Dio was at a rapid moving stalemate; neither combatant seemed to be getting an upper hand…at least, until it got too heavy for Bakugo to keep moving his arms. Dio temporarily backed away as Bakugo looked down to find that the gauntlets on their own had been frozen.
"The ice on the gauntlets seems to be weighing you down a bit, young Katsuki," Dio taunted.
"Oh yeah?" Bakugo spoke back, "And what about you? Feeling any lighter after turning that crazy League lady into one of your Vampires. As he began to move his arms towards the small pockets on his belt.
"Oh, my spirit's already on the precipice of joy!" Dio exclaimed, "For I, Dio, have managed to raise another kindred soul up on the food chain. Now she's an apex creature that will gladly dispose of-"
Dio immediately stopped talking, as Bakugo finished rummaging in his belt, and pulled out the dirty white cloths which held the Corpse Parts.
"I meant physically, you undead imbecile" Bakugo gave the condescending clarification.
The look on the Vampire's face was one of shock, followed immediately by unyielding anger, both at his opponent and at himself.
"No, No, NO! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! HOW COULD I, DIO, HAVE LOST SUCH AN IMPORTANT ARTIFACT?! YOU PATHETIC LIFE FORM, GIVE IT BACK OR I WILL MAKE YOUR DEATH PAINFUL!"
"Yeah, I don't think so!" Bakugo said, hooking the cloth onto the pin edge of his frozen gauntlet. "If you want it back, you're gonna have to get me first!" He jumped forward, cupping his left hand into the palm of his right, which was in the process of generating an explosion.
Despite this incoming attack, and the anger he was lashing out, Dio seemed in no hurry to move as Bakugo closed the distance and charged up his next explosion.
"Better yet, taste this! AP SHOT" Bakugo yelled out, noticing that Dio's red eyes had a purple cross appear in the center of the irises, growing to a brighter pink as it expanded and broke his corneas open and shot forth like the laser vision of Superman.
ZIP! BOOM!
…
The explosion temporarily blocked the visage between the two opponents. But when the smoke cleared, both of the fighters could be seen holding onto their shoulders, dealing with the pain that each had felt. For Dio, the explosion seemed to have melted away much of the shoulder blade, leaving the arm flimsily connected to the elbow, no ball and socket joint supporting it. For Bakugo, his hand covered up the small, but painful hole shot through his shoulder by Dio's eye laser. If he were to remove his hand, the hole would be clean enough that one could peer through it to see the other side of the hall.
Both temporarily stood in agony, as Jonathan looked back to check in on his ally. As he called out, "Bakugo!," Toga pressed towards him with her knife while he wasn't looking. Of course, that wasn't enough for Jonathan to suffer any damage, as his reflexes allowed him to catch when the blade was coming down with its wielder.
"Don't let their fight distract you from me, Johnny!" Toga yelled, trying repeatedly to thrust her blade into her opponent's skin.
"If you're acquaintances with Dio," Jonathan retorted as he continued to block the incoming attacks, "You might as well call me JoJo! Johnny's someone else's moniker!"
"Very well, JoJo!" Toga shouted as the thrusts and parries of blades continued back and forth, iron and metal clashing loudly. Hamon slowly began to run through Jonathan's body as he was breathing in the midst of the rapid clash. It was moving rapidly as he went for a strike in the middle of Toga's blade. CLANG. Another strike. CLANG. He changed his approach and attacked from the right side. CLANG. Once more CLANG. Bit by bit though the knife's metal was being chipped away by the sword…
"Just give it up, JoJo!" Toga cackled as the attack pattern continued for a little while longer, "You cannot harm me!"
"Don't be so sure!" Jonathan then changed course and lifted the sword high above him, dissipating any flowing Hamon and sending it down as if he was going to cut her in half vertically. Toga sent her blade up to meet it, her other hand flat on part of a dull edge to help support her from the force Jonathan was exerting from his sword. The collision resulted in each wielder pushing back and forth for the upper hand until…
"Now…Ferrous Transfer Overdrive!" Jonathan once again let Hamon flow through his body, reaching the sword and letting it flow onto Toga's blade. Toga could feel her hands getting hot, forcing her to let go of the blade and jump back a bit. But she did not get far enough, for releasing the force she applied to her knife allowed Jonathan to complete his swing. As his sword came down, he let Hamon continue to flow in order to quickly change the angle of his blade's descent, tilting it and moving slightly to his left, a clean slice which cut through Toga's hand in an instant.
She rapidly reeled back from the attack, her other hand grabbing onto the arm of the severed hand. She did her best to conceal the pain, but the look on her face, seething through her teeth with an intense angry stare, said it all.
"Now, will you admit defeat, give up the Corpse Parts, and send us back to our world?" Jonathan interrogated, placing his sword right in front of his opponent, "Or will I be forced to cut you down here and now?"
Bakugo managed to hear Jonathan's question as he was reeling back from the pain.
After a few seconds of looking directly in front of her, Toga peered her eyes a bit to her right, to find that Dio and Bakugo's battle remained at a standstill from the earlier laser eyes attack, but it seemed as if the engine of their battle was about to begin moving again…
"Heh, what's the matter, Dracula?" Bakugo spoke, slightly wincing between his words as he kept taking steps, "Your arm barely hanging on?"
Dio's laughter once again sonorously filled the room, as the skin and bones of his arm began to magically grow and attach itself to the shoulder blade. It became clear to Bakugo that Dio was healing himself, but, with the adrenaline in his body not yet in full circulation, he found it difficult to quickly advance against Dio and try to strike once again.
"I would be more worried about yourself, Bakugo" Dio posed as his arm finished healing, and soon moved the limb around in a circular motion, as if he were warming up for a workout, "Lacking the strength you had a few seconds ago? It's a shame it takes you humans so long to heal your wounds!"
"Yeah, but there's one thing keeping me standing right now!" Bakugo shouted, getting some of the movement in his pierced shoulder.
"What, the courage to protect those you care about?" Dio pushed back with a sarcastic hint, "Don't tell me you're an airheaded dunce like JoJo."
"No, you dumbass," Bakugo painfully moved his shoulder up, letting the cloth with the Corpse Part slide into his other hand "Adrenaline. And lots of it!"
"Jonathan!" Bakugo called out, "CATCH!" His non-injured hand propelled the bag up and backward, sending it towards his ally. Jonathan had maintained his position against Toga, who was still reeling from the severing of her hand. Dio attempted to jump and retrieve what was in the air, but Bakugo kept his hand up as he was charging another explosion. Fearing the attack, he leapt back, away from the attack but out of reach of the airborne Corpse Part. Jonathan's sword budged no inch as he took one hand off of its hilt and placed it behind him. He took a deep breath, keeping his eyes open and focused on the vampire in front of him, and managed to grab the bag from behind, placing the contents within his pockets.
The joy and sarcasm on Dio's face once again quickly warped to anger and despair, as he screamed, "NO! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?! Oh The Noble One will surely be displeased if I return with less than what I came with!"
"Who's saying you get to return at all?!" Bakugo snapped back, using his still mobile hand to charge up small explosions in his palms, "You're not leaving until after we get back to my world, and when we're finished with you, you and your Noble One can take your plans out of here and into Hell with YOUR corpses!"
"Don't think you've won just yet!" Toga's voice jutted into the conversation quickly, shocking everyone in the room, as her form returned to the amorphous shape her Quirk would force her body to take. Even the severed hand had somehow made its way back to the central body, its form merging with the central body's.
Jonathan, wasting no time to take chances, attempted to cut through Toga's form, but no hit was made, as the gap left by the blade's strike easily came back together. He quickly attempted to charge any Hamon in the hand not holding the sword, and almost made direct contact…
A solid form quickly emerged from the amorphous goop. Though lightning-fast, Jonathan could tell the figure had some sort of mix of white, brown, and pink throughout their hair and costume. He felt a palm touch his ribcage on the side of his body not holding the sword, and the bag of the Corpse Parts being yanked from his pocket. Then suddenly, while trying to run and grab the items being given and stolen, he felt his legs and then his whole body rise from the ground, as if he weighed nothing.
Seconds later, as he continued to rotate around in the air, he saw the lightly-colored form put the tips of its fingers together. Jonathan suddenly fell downwards with a great acceleration, but luckily he was able to land on his feet, and charged his sword into the ground to help keep himself propped up from the heavy pressure weighing down on him as he readjusted to gravity.
Bakugo put another explosion in front of the running mass, but it moved back to prevent taking any damage, as the form became clear to everyone: Toga had taken Uraraka's form.
"Oh, Dio, My Quirk's stronger than ever before!" Toga yelled in Uraraka's voice. She put the Corpse Parts back into Dio's hand.
"Heh," Dio's smirk returned again with full confidence as Toga-Uraraka stood next to him. "Seems abandoning your humanity has its perks, wouldn't you say so, Toga?"
"Thanks to the new Vampire blood in her system," Dio, directing his attention to Bakugo and Jonathan, responded, "Toga's Quirk has been enhanced. Instead of just transforming into someone, she can now also use a stronger version of their Quirk. Not only that, she no longer needs to rely on a supply of their blood, so long as she's ingested it before. You are both witnessing a taste in the powers held for those who willingly submit to the Noble One's world!"
"Regardless," Jonathan chimed in, having recovered from the increase in gravity, tending to Bakugo's injury as best he can, "This change in power will not save you from your impending demise!"
"It doesn't change what I said earlier," Bakugo said, "So let's make this quick, and finish you both off right now!"
"COME THEN!" Dio taunted, gearing up for the impending final struggle "LET'S PUT AN END TO THIS, BAKUGO AND JOJO!" All four charged at each other once more, bloodlines would again clash, truly beginning the Duel to control their Fates and those of the world.