Ch. 23

Bakugo was not one to take a threat of death standing around, and sprung into action quickly. He grabbed the knife that was thrown next to him.

"Well how about you have a taste of your own blood first!" An explosion came from Bakugo's palm, launching the knife as a fast projectile, with about the same speed as Toga used.

The explosion in the room limited her sight, but all Toga could see was her knife coming back at her quickly. The object that was returned to its sender barely missed her, cutting off a few strands of her hair.

Once the smoke cleared and her vision was restored, she found the room to be empty, save herself, but the servants' door Bakugo was near was wide open. Frustrated, she quickly rushed into the doorway to find the escaped Hero.

The dim lanterns, the flames within slightly flickering, were the only source of light that these corridors had. They could only show what laid ahead, whether it was a stair step or just plain floor. Small windows allowed natural light to filter in in the daytime, but the night and thunderstorm were not letting this light enter. It was fairly ornate for what were supposed to be passageways for servants, not meaning to spend a lot of time in these corridors. There was elevated ground connecting the passageway from the bedroom to the next room over, and in the middle of that passageway were stakes that led to the ground floor…

Toga's quick dashes broke the relative silence of the halls, gaining enough momentum to quickly run across the platform, not taking enough time to properly view the ground floor below.

Under the staircase was a rectangular gap, with no light whatsoever. Next to this corridor, Bakugo stood, breathing quietly, with a serious look on his face as Toga ran into the next room. There, his head was running through many thoughts of his own.

So DIO and his lackeys forced Shigaraki and the League into submission… and this whole "Grand Entrance" thing is his way of starting a ruckus…but didn't Jotaro and the others say they lost contact with their world?...So how were they able to connect back to their world? Whatever the case we gotta beat these guys and get back to–

His words were cut off by the sudden appearance of a creepy, bright white smile with glowing yellow pupils in the dark corridor right next to him. It peered out towards him, slightly catching him off guard. His attention was immediately diverted from his mind to the corridor, throwing his hands out and getting ready for an explosion, when they were met with the blue hands of the figure, the fingers interwoven, when Bakugo felt a sharp cold come from the touch. He quickly tried to retract his hands as the figure advanced further into the light.

Bakugo quickly tried firing an explosion against the advancing enemy, but failed to do so. He looked down at his hands to find that they (and the gauntlets that supported them) had been completely frozen over.

Once Bakugo stopped staring down at his hands, he looked back up to see the figure in its full form. That figure appeared to have taken the shape of Dio Brando.

"Vaporization Freezing," the Dio figure spoke, "I was able to freeze my limbs by limiting blood flow and energy circulation, thus transferring that effect to you."

Shit! Bakugo thought, I can't use my Quirk if my arms are frozen! I already have difficulty with the cold, but this is a different level of freezing!

It was at this point the figure's form began to shift to a state of a gray, amorphous body. And from that state, it returned to its base form: Himiko Toga's body, with her clothing still on her body.

"Well darn," she said, looking at an empty syringe, "That's the last of the blood Dio gave me. But it seems it proved to be very effective."

Bakugo stood silent, not even giving his opponent his gaze. He was just focused on his hands.

"How's it feel to have your hands frozen?" she asked, small step by small step getting closer, drawing her blade out. "It doesn't look like you'll be able to use your Quirk, does it?"

Still no response. Only looking down.

"Hey, it's rude not to answer!" Toga chimed, getting closer… Closer… even closer…

"Whatever," she said, standing only a few inches away from him, "Without your arms, you can't use your Quirk. And without you being able to fight back, I can take your blood… and then…"

The knife she held went up high in the air, coming down as she yelled, "I can be with Izuku, Ochaco, Tsu! I can be with the people I love! AS YOU! IN UA!"

It was right before the knife made contact that Bakugo's left foot launched up and hit her squarely on her cheek. The brutal kick made stinging contact for a few seconds, right before sending her through the corridor whence she came and to the other side of the room.

As she opened her eyes again a few seconds later, Toga saw Bakugo running up the stairs, back to the deck.

By now, the ice on Bakugo's arms was starting to melt a little, but it still felt numb and cold to the touch. The only way he could move them around was by flailing his arms from the shoulder joints. Meanwhile, the edge of one of the gauntlets picked up one of the lanterns that were nearby.

Obviously, the heat in this stuffy area was gonna melt most of the ice off, he kept thinking while running, but I still can't feel a thing in my arms. It's gonna take a while for me to produce sweat again, and I think the ice seeped into my gauntlets. I gotta get out of here and find Jonathan!

After he got to the top of the stairs, he ran quickly into the room next to the one he first encountered Toga in. It was another bedroom, similar to the one he saw earlier. This time, he made sure to shut the door to the quarters, making it difficult for her to get in. And as he ran to the front of the room…the slight sounds of explosions could be heard in those backrooms.

He quickly ran out the door and to the balcony of the second floor, finding Jonathan and Dio engaged in a brutal back and forth struggle: Jonathan swinging his sword, Dio blocking and taking a swing, freezing his arm trying to connect to Jonathan's body, Jonathan doging and coming back with Hamon. It kept repeating for a few seconds, Bakugo not moving anywhere from the balcony. Meanwhile, the explosions from the servants' corridors were getting louder and louder.

What events occurred next happened in quick succession. Wasting time no further, Bakugo yelled to his ally down on the ground floor: "JOJO!" This temporarily paused the fight between the two enemies to view what was occurring above.

By the time Jonathan responded back, the hidden door, muffling what sound was coming from behind it, was busted open by a loud explosion. What looked to be Bakugo's doppelganger appeared from behind, its arms behind its body and using the explosions to move forward.

The real Bakugo turned around quickly, only to find both hands of his enemy right in front of his face, seemingly with no time to guard using his frozen hands.

Releasing a large explosion from its hands, the doppelganger had one small request for its opponent:

"DIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!"

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The smoke from the explosion engulfed the top floor, and for a few brief moments, all in the area stood silent, with the exception of the rain outside.

But as a quick flash of lightning and the loud roar of thunder echoed outside, one of the Bakugos fell from the floor above, landing just a few inches away from the sharp lid of the statue's jug, and rolling onto the solid ground. The other Bakugo jumped down from that height, just a few inches away from the other Bakugo seething in pain on the ground. The one standing placed a foot on the other's back, making sure they could not get up. The Bakugo standing…had the remnants of a broken lantern in his right hand, now allowing blood flow back into his body.

"You know, you're the second person to land a hit on me using my own Quirk," the real Bakugo scoffed. As Toga began to shift back to her normal form, she tried to look up at him, but the fall nearly knocked out all of her strength. That and the fact Bakugo was making sure she couldn't get up also made it difficult to speak.

"How…did you…"

Dio quickly launched forward, which caused Bakugo to pull back where Jonathan was with one of his arms launching explosions quickly. He grabbed Toga's body and disappeared with it into the shadows.

Jonathan was able to use this brief respite to talk to Bakugo.

"You ok?" he asked.

"Yeah," Bakugo responded, firing small explosions from his right hand onto his left arm, "Just trying to thaw my other arm out from the ice."

"Let me take care of it." Jonathan grabbed Bakugo's arm and channeled a bit of Hamon through his whole body in the young Hero's, allowing the heat to restart blood circulation in Bakugo's arms.

"So how did your arms get frozen?" Jonathan again inquired.

"Toga managed to sneak up on me and use Dio's blood to freeze my arms," Bakugo responded. "Since I couldn't use my Quirk, I had to kick the crazy lady in her face."

Not very gentlemanly, Jonathan thought, but I guess it's fine this once.

"I figured she was gonna come back after I kicked her," Bakugo began to explain, "So I made sure once I started running that my gauntlets grabbed onto one of the lanterns. The only blood she had left besides Dio's was mine, and it wasn't enough for a while, only for closing the gap between us and getting a shot off of me. So when she got up in my face, my shoulders lifted up the arm that caught the lantern, combined with the explosions, allowed for my right arm to heat up, grab her, and throw her down."

Bakugo looked down as he was checking to find the motor movements in his hands were back to tip-top shape.

"This is honestly kinda impressive," Bakugo remarked.

"That is the power of Hamon for you," Jonathan responded. But now the respite was over.

"Come back out Dio," Jonathan demanded, "Show yourself!"

From near the statue, Dio and a wounded Toga reappeared. It was at this point his temper was a tea kettle about to blow.

"JoJo! Bakugo!" he yelled, "Your deaths shall be nigh, but first let me show you that which you can never attain besides Heaven!" From his pocket, he pulled out two small objects, wrapped in dirty white cloths, and appeared to be round.

"The Corpse Part!" Jonathan yelled out.

"Yes, that's right JoJo," Dio yelled back, "That which the Noble One has stolen from your bloodline is in our hands! It is what allowed us to come back to our world, at least for this brief period of time! And now you will die, serving as the link to take the spine back from Jotaro!"

"Alright, I've already kicked one bloodsucker's ass," Bakugo retorted, "Looks like I got another to beat! And I know all your tricks now, so I won't be out of the fight so easily!"

Round 2 of this fight in the Joestar Mansion was gearing up quickly…but it would not be over easily without its own twist…