Ch. 15
Using his non-injured hand to support himself, Bonham got up and extended his veins once more to draw out another sword, whilst his chopped-up leg and arm began to head back to his body. Bonham's body stitched itself back together as Johnny continued to talk to him.
"Now tell me, what made you think holding a hostage would improve your situation?"
Bonham ignored Johnny's words as he launched into a bloodlusted frenzy, the sword trying to take a slash at the jockey. Johnny lifted his hand like he was about to shoot a gun, whilst one of his blue fingernails began to spin around, having disconnected from the skin holding them in place and revolving around his fingers. Visualizing a golden rectangle around the location of impact, Johnny fired the fingernail towards Bonham's direction. After spinning around in a specific ratio, the nail pierced a massive hole into the right side of the Zombie's chest. As Bonham tried to use regeneration to heal himself, he found himself unable to close the small gaping hole in his chest, as if it were a void that could not be closed. There was no lodged bullet as the nail disappeared upon impact. Johnny put down his hand and again spoke.
"You're a stubborn one, aren't ya?"
"Stubborn?! Everything I do," Bonham retorted, "Is for Lord Dio's sake!" He threw his sword towards Johnny's face, what seemed to be a clear shot. At least, until both the sword and the Zombie were suddenly forced upon the ground by some heavy gravitational force, unable to move whatsoever.
Between Johnny and Bonham, Koichi stood firmly with his white hair flowing in the wind. Next to him, a figure of similar height levitated. It was different compared to the green creature next to Koichi earlier, as this one was more humanoid and was primarily white. Its eyes and the features running down the middle of his head all looked mechanical, with small lines through them, whilst a large green 3 was written across his stomach area. The Stand had its hands clasped together to the side as it yelled out:
ECHOES- ACT 3: THREE FREEZE!
Zeppeli and Polnareff walked up to the "frozen" Zombie as Polnareff commented, "I'd say it's about time you be put to sleep, you stubborn bloodsucking beast!" As he summoned Silver Chariot, Zeppeli discharged a bit of Hamon onto the Zombie, not enough to evaporate him but to further keep him down on top of the Three Freeze.
"Polnareff," Zeppeli commented, "He's all yours."
"Very well then," Polnareff responded, "TAKE THIS, SILVER CHARIOT!"
Silver Chariot went to work, slashing and slicing Bonham into small-Hamon filled pieces, which disintegrated shortly afterwards. All that was left was his Hamon-deformed head, which rolled a small distance before Zeppeli finished it off with a clean hand swipe. The last of Bonham's ashes were scattered throughout the blowing winds.
While the Zombie had been taken care of, Johnny's horse was startled by Polnareff and Will's attacks and reacted by lifting its front legs up in the air, causing Johnny to lose his balance and fall. The students were quick to rush to his aid but stopped when he told them to.
Johnny had then taken a position where he had put his whole body weight on his legs, as if he were sitting in a Japanese house. Except his legs were spread out rather than directly underneath him. He was a fair distance away from his steed when one of the students asked.
"Sir, are you alright?" asked Mineta, noticing that instead of getting up, he was using his arms to inch himself closer to his horse. "Why can't you just get up?"
"In case you don't know purple kid," Johnny responded, "I'm paralyzed from the waist down. Ergo, I can't move my legs all too much." He then noticed that one of the Heroes was up close to his horse, looking as if he were casually talking to it. With his costume primarily yellow and a little bit of red, Koji Koda stood nearby, looking as if he were giving it instructions.
The horse slowly walked up to Johnny and lowered its head. After turning his body around to face away from his steed, the horse's head quickly raised itself with Johnny on it, flipping him over and back onto his saddle.
"Thank you for your help, Anima," Johnny said as he pulled something from a bag that was on the saddle.
"No problem," Koda responded shyly, "Slow Dancer told me it takes a great liking to you."
Johnny finished sifting around in his bag when he found a light-blue thermos, inside of which, a nice cup of camomile tea was waiting for him. He was downing the tea as one of the fingers where his nail fired earlier was slowly growing back.
"Well he wasn't the kindest friend in the beginning," he laughed a little bit, remembering how difficult it was to mount his horse the first time.
"So your Quirk lets you shoot your nails?!" Present Mic inquired right in Johnny's face, "That's so rad! What's its name?"
Johnny paused for a second before answering "Tusk. Tusk is its name" and while he was talking, a small pink creature emerged from nearby. Its head was big compared to its small arms and legs. On its side were four little tendrils which formed a heart shape. Across its body small black and yellow stars were situated, very similar to the pattern across Johnny's clothing. It had dark black eyes with a white reflection which portrayed a sense of naive innocence.
"OMG It looks so cute!" Hagakure exclaimed, looking at Tusk like a little pet. Mina continued this infatuation when she responded, "I know right?!"
Their excitement only grew when Tusk flew slightly higher into the air, spun around as it fell down, and let out its cry: "Chumimi~in!". The two girls let out a large "Awwwwww~!" and a few Chumimins of their own before their attention was focused on heavy galloping coming from the bridge. There they saw Gyro riding his horse, with Avdol behind him. Meanwhile, Mr. Aizawa and Caesar were following right behind as they all met up with Present Mic, Johnny, and the rest of the group.
"Ah Avdol, Caesar, Gyro," Will remarked, "Wonderful that you've joined us."
"Have you taken out the last commander?" Gyro inquired while his horse came to a halt.
"We just did," Johnny responded, "Now what?"
"Well," Will responded, "Given that we just beat Dio's Four Commanders, this would probably discourage further forces from coming onto campus. However, there are going to be a few stragglers on campus. Since there are more dangerous groups outside of the campus, I'm afraid we'll be needed elsewhere."
"Polnareff and I can stay if needed," Avdol continued on, "While our Stand abilities are sufficient enough to take care of Zombies, Will and Caesar are more suited for dealing with the outside threat."
"Indeed," Will responded, "If needed, you teachers have Quirks sufficient enough to at least knock them out and hold them down until the Sun rises."
"What will happen once the Sun comes up?" Mic inquired.
"I should mention," Will said, "Our Hamon allows us to channel the Sun's energy, but since the Sun is significantly stronger, any undead creature, Zombie and Vampire alike, will disintegrate immediately prima luce."
"Wait a minute," Narancia spoke, "Something's not adding up."
"I'm with Narancia here," Kaminari also questioned, "Where did Dio get all these Zombies from in the first place?"
"You mean you two haven't figured that out yet Narancia?" Aizawa questioned, "Think back to what was on the news earlier."
Kaminari thought back to what he and some of his other classmates saw on the TV.
"You mean all the people who went missing earlier?" Kaminari raised his voice a little bit at this realization. "But, I feel like there were more than 200 just outside the Dorms alone."
"That's because that was the number given to the authorities," Gyro chimed in, "The actual number...is well 6,000."
A shock wave of fear and grim reality hit the students like a lightning bolt. The missing people, the Zombies, the intrusion on campus, the Zeppelis and other Heroes disintegrating.
"Does that mean we've been... killing innocent people all this time?!" Mina yelled this sudden accusation.
"No," Caesar responded, "You're not the ones who killed these Zombies. Dio already killed them."
"These are empty husks given a foul 'soul' to wreak havoc on a city. Will built off of his grandson's thoughts, "Dio used his Vampirism to prey on the weak and steal their life force to satiate his egotistical bloodlust. But let us put this to the side. There is still work to be done outside the walls. The undead may be done here, but they're still wreaking havoc across the city."
"You're doing your jobs," Aizawa raised his voice, "Regardless of whether they are alive or dead, innocent or guilty, they are intruders who have gotten on campus. Each enemy we face has different circumstances and abilities we have to consider. I understand doing this isn't easy, but you have to keep pushing through. Now, while Mic will be with you, the rest of the staff can take care of any stragglers on campus. For now, we need you to keep taking on your responsibilities as Heroes and go help whoever's in need outside of campus."
The Heroes-in-training were suddenly a bit more demoralized at this, but nonetheless still had to push through. With an affirmative nod, they ran towards the exit of the grounds and began making their way outside the campus. Gyro, Johny, and Caesar ran to follow the students as well. Meanwhile, Aizawa remained behind to ask one more question.
"Hey Baron," he said, "I'm sure what you've said was probably true, but I don't think the Public Safety Commissions gonna take this lightly once everything's said and done."
Will paused for a second before replying, "They'll probably have us explain what is going on, so a press conference is the first step. Even if they don't believe our explanations...they cannot expect that their order can hold up for what is going on tonight and what will come in the future." He began to run to catch up with the students, while Aizawa, Avdol, and Polnareff, began to spread out across different parts of the ground to deal with Zombie that still dared to drag its body onto the campus. The first nail in the emotional coffin had been hit, but it would soon feel like more than a billion had been nailed, the impact for both undead and alive would feel come dawn would certainly feel more than different.
Shirohon Publishing House, 11 PM
The workers at the small publishing house were preparing for closing for the night. They normally publish a few books from the occasional Pro Hero and sometimes from a villain, but nothing like publishing deals All Might or Endeavor had.
One of the employees, a woman with a small build, brown hair that was tied back, and wore glasses, was flipping the OPEN sign to its CLOSED side when a passerby wearing a purple robe dropped a book from his bag.
The employee tried calling out to the man, "Um, excuse me sir, you dropped-" but the man had already left earshot and kept walking down the sidewalk.
The girl took a closer look at the book, which had a white cover and on its front cover was a sticky note that read,
Shirohon Publishing House,
I would like to publish this book. It is a work based on my experiences as a Church priest.
The girl picked up the book and took it inside as she flipped the sign and locked the door. She went back to her boss, a slightly more buff man with short black hair and a kind expression on his face. He was wearing a nice tan suit as he was packing up his belongings for the night, when he saw one of his employees at his office's door.
"Sir," the girl said, "Someone left this book at the doorstep and left a note, wanting us to publish it."
"Well, what's in it?" The boss of the publishing house asked as he was handed the book, and removed the sticky note, which retained its shiny white color, as the cover contained three items. The first item was a picture of the Full Moon, craters and all, but it was embroidered with gold. The second was the book's title, also in gold: Luna Sacra, with the subtitle My Views on Salvation, Society, and The Prophecies of the Noble One. And finally, the name of its author: Father Enrico Pucci.
The boss opened the book, only to see a bright, white surge of energy that illuminated the room in a bright white, brighter than the fluorescent light bulbs in the whole room. As bright and blinding as it was, neither of them could look away at the light emanating from the book, and it seemed as if the information within it was already reaching their minds, as well as the other employees in the building.
Once the book's aura finally withered away, the boss and his coworker stood dazed for a few seconds, blinking intermittently, before they ultimately shouted out of pure euphoria.
"This could be our biggest bestseller yet! We need to start making copies pronto!" It almost looked as if euphoria had morphed itself into insanity, as when the boss suddenly told everyone else in the building that work would go on into the early hours of the morning, rather than being met with a disgruntled choir, the boss was met with sounds of excitement and happiness.
And with that, book production went on steady into the night. As the nearby businesses began to shut their doors and head out for the day, the lights within the publishing house remained on as the employees began their Herculean effort.
On the Streets of the City, 11:30 PM
While many parts of the city had numerous Heroes to stop the Zombies from causing more chaos, some parts had been left vulnerable, as the Heroes who normally patrolled those streets had gone missing. Windows were broken, parts of the ground were on fire, people were screaming for help as Vampires began to feast on the blood of their mortal morsels.
In the midst of all this chaos, Shigaraki, Toga, and Dabi all walked around freely, watching it unfold without a care in the world. Rather, they were all pensive in their thoughts and were talking about the carnage that laid before them.
"To think," Shigaraki said, "In one night, he's managed to cause so much ruckus."
"And something tells me," Dabi continued, "He's nowhere near done." And while he was talking, he felt something sharp poke his left cheek. It was something red, whilst numerous colors moved throughout it. He and the rest of the group looked up as someone let out a wicked laugh. They looked to the rooftops of the buildings to find Dio standing above, his short figure glowing in the moonlight.
"Hey!" Dabi yelled to him, "Was that you?! What was that all about?!"
Dio let out another small giggle as he said, "You need not worry about that yet. You'll see soon enough. Hey Toga, catch!"
Toga caught the object Dio threw, a vial of red blood to her, which she caught carefully.
"How would you like to come cause a bit of bloody chaos with me?!" the vampire inquired.
"Oh I would love that!" She placed the bottle into her gear, and then jumped high to meet her vampire friend on the rooftops. Dio looked down at the two villains on the street and called out, "My older self is soon to emerge. Would you like to come see his entrance onto the stage?!"
"I think we'll pass," Shigaraki responded, as he watched the two of them jump off past the street.
"What do you think he's planning now?" Dabi inquired, scratching the part of his skin that had been pierced by the sharp vein.
"My guess is," Shigaraki responded, "That the hidden boss is finally coming out of his dungeon. And he won't be easy to deal with." They continued to walk down the streets, oblivious to the true might that would soon be laid out in front of them.
Author's Note
Hello fellow readers!
Hope you're still sticking around and enjoying the story. I am very excited to write these next few chapters. In the meantime, I wanted to share with you some great news! You remember the book Pucci dropped off at the publishing house in the chapter? I plan on making it a separate story which will literally just be what Pucci has written in Luna Sacra. While I'll put all of Chapter 1 of that manifesto, if you will, in this main story, I will only include bits and snippets in the future. It is critical you read that as well to understand what happens in the main story going forward. I hope you look forward to that and get ready for the Grand Entrance, as the main star will soon walk onto his stage in the next chapter. Thanks!