We're finally tying up loose ends, and reaching the big moment where shit begins to hit the fan, big time. We've got scores to settle, enemies to make, and above all else, a society to collapse like a Jenga Tower. This arc is the start of it all. So I hope you guys are all excited about what's the come next. BTW, this chapter is mostly going to be made out of the Yakuza Massacre, so I hope you guys like extended fight scenes and butchering of no-name characters, as well as a few named ones.

And another thing: The reason this chapter is coming out late is that I got hit with that good ol' Winter Season flu, and for the last few days I've been knocked on my ass. Thankfully I'm on the mend, but god damn do I feel like shit. Oh well, life happens.

However, before we get to the chapter, and before we get to my responses to reviews/comments…

I have a P-Atr-Eon. Please check it out! The links are all in my bios on Wattpad, FF Dot Net, Ao3, and Qoutev. Just in case, here is the link: gobblegum2?fan_landing=true&view_as=public

And now, it's time that we jump into my responses reviews/comments!

[Response to Reviews/Comments]

(Qoutev) JammyJam: Damn straight. It is of my belief that those who inflict harm on children, ESPECIALLY in that category deserve no second chances.

(Qoutev) TACO SENSEI: Yes, it is canon that they are all abused. However, I am taking liberties as well as pulling from my own headcanons as to what happened, seeing as we're only given surface-level information in UDG and not any straight-up answers, only implications and disturbing mental breakdowns that the kids undergo during their boss fights. Also, as for Monica's abuse, in canon UDG, it is only shown that she was neglected, rather than being beaten and… er, well, I think the implication was obvious. However! It is something that should be noted that Haiji is, without a doubt, a canon kiddie diddler, and if you want proof, look no further than the canon art book that Kodaka created, where Haiji comments on Kotoko's page that he, and I quote, "would find her more… visually appealing if her attitude was better", which directly implies that he sees her as sexually attractive—she's no older than 12 years old, so… yeah. It's disturbing.

(Quotev) Dead phone: The thing with Monica's backstory is that, in the source material, all that is said is that Haiji and Tokuichi neglected her, but it was hinted at within the source material that Haiji also "acted strangely" around Monica from time to time, nothing ever as serious as what I put down. And while Haiji is a confirmed kiddie diddler, in canon UDG it is never once mentioned that he did stuff to Monica. The only reason I included it here is to give Monica more of a character than she had in canon UDG (seeing as she's just baby's first Junko in UDG and it was kinda boring). Also, I actually don't mind the long comments. They give me more to respond to and more to think about when I get into the next chapter, so if you want to leave long-form comments, do so! And speaking of plotholes that need to be addressed….

(Ao3) I FUCKING HATE HAJJI TOWA: First and foremost, based user name. Second: Pretty sure you're right in that assumption. Nagito seems like that kind of person. Anywho, as for your theory… yeah, uh… No. You're so far off it's not even funny, lmao. Also, it isn't acid, it's Magma/Lava that she uses, the devil fruit she ate was called the Magu Magu no Mi, or the Mag-mag fruit.

(Ao3) Dangwhataplottwist: Exactly, and if I were more creative, I would've made it a million times worse. Also, you aren't far off assuming that she would be livid. If she ever found out who the people were, those people wouldn't be alive for much longer.

(Ao3) TheGreatWave74: Agreed, it is. Writing his death was extremely cathartic for me because he is the type of character that makes me want to curl into myself and die. Although killing him in that way, while I wish I could've done something worse to him, is more in line with Monica's character.

Allgar: I already covered this comment through DMS, so I'm not going to really touch on it, seeing as they won't see it. All anyone needs to know is that, while this is a reach in terms of how me describing the character starting as male to then switching to female [when it was explicitly mentioned in the fifth paragraph of the story that Jolyne was going to be a female, which if you really want to stretch it makes her technically transgender since her soul was (spoilers but it was glaringly obvious) of male origin, but I digress] sets the tone of the story going forward, which it obviously doesn't; anyone who read past the second chapter knows that and then some, I still respect their opinion, even if it is completely wrong.

Kolt999: While you'd be correct that Haiji is never explicitly confirmed to have done anything to Monica, however, it is canon that he IS into little kids. In both the Japanese ver. as well as the English ver. in UDG his "being into little kids" is confirmed. In the official Danganronpa Art Book, in both translations of English and Japanese, it is noted that he states that he would find Kotoko more visually appealing if her attitude was a little better. This, paired with him "liking his girls as young as possible" or, in the Japanese ver. "as fresh as possible" (which, fresh, when applying to Japanese women being those who are just entering or in the process of going through puberty), makes it pretty obvious that he is into children, which is a little—actually, no, incredibly disturbing. The rest of your points, make sense, even if they do come off as a little tasteless. But it is a narratively poor thing to have two characters have the same abusive background when you, as the writer, are trying to show how all forms of abuse are bad and can cause a lot of damage to the person (In this case, 5 children to show the 5 types of abuse) just how negatively they can affect the human psyche). At least in terms of UDG. Also, it warms my heart to know that you consider this one of your favourite Danganronpa fanfics, as well as Gamer Fanfics. I just hope that it stays that way and I don't start fumbling the bag.

Now, with all of that out of the way, I do believe it is time for us to get into the chapter!

xxXXxxXXxx

[Natsumi Kuzuryu]

To say that Natsumi was furious was a bit of an understatement; but then again, when wasn't she mad about something or another? Today had been a rather hectic, and overall annoying day. Paperwork on top of paperwork, hashing out trade deals so that they didn't go awry, and getting into contact with some big-time weapon suppliers to increase their amount of weapons.

After all, they were going to need those weapons coming up. That is if everything kept going the way it did. Otherwise, there might not have been a reason for making those calls. There was a certain sensation in the air—one that carried a hint of finality.

Sitting in her bedroom, she overlooked the recent casualties that had been reported to her by Daikage, which only served to boil her blood even more so than usual. All she wanted to do was crumple up the piece of paper and toss it out the window upon seeing it.

Matsuda Shingetsu was dead, Tokuichi Towa and Haiji Towa were dead, which was made profoundly worse when whoever was now in control of the company backed out of their investment with the Kuzuryu Clan, greatly hampering their funds, and to make matters worse, several of her men, as useless as they were, were dead.

The Kuzuryu Estate was on high alert. Extra guards, upwards of about 500 or so were placed to keep watch, all of whom were heavily armed. She knew this day was going to come—hell, she half expected it to come sooner, but that was beside the point.

But what exactly was it that she was so worried about? What exactly was it that unnerved Natsumi so much that she had hired extra security around the estate? What had her so on edge that she was willing to heavily arm said security?

Well, the answer to that was simple. It all had everything to do with a certain black and pink-haired piece of shit that forced her into the situation she was in now.

The Mage was up to something. Natsumi didn't know what, but she was. And seeing as how both her funds and one of her highest-ranking members had been so blatantly killed by someone with magical capabilities, it was clear to her that The Mage was sending a message. And that message was pretty damn fucking obvious.

You're next.

If that was meant to instill fear into her, then she'd have to say that it wasn't working. Sure, a few months ago she'd be singing an entirely different tune. But with magical powers of her own now, she was pretty confident that she didn't have to worry about it. She had practically mastered Black Sword summoning and Dark Flames rather easily, and now she was working on getting Boiling Blood to function properly.

If The Mage could manipulate blood to some extent, then so could she. Although Boiling Blood was a little hard to get under control, it was worth the shot. She had a mentor, though to call them that was kind of dumb. They were just as clueless as she was, but they claimed to have more experience with magic and how it worked. This was even though they couldn't use a single spell.

Then again, the saying went that those who didn't have the power had the most knowledge. And while that sounded dumb, it applied perfectly to the one known as Himiko Yumeno. Aka, her teacher.

For the last month and a half, Himiko had been nothing but kind to her, and while she was a bit lazy, she had done her best to teach her what she could do. And while Himiko was a shut-in, making it so that Natsumi had to go to her rather than the other way around, the times she did come down were often knowledgeable and enlightening.

There was also the fact that she was also incredibly busy with her stuff, so Natsumi considered it a blessing that Himiko could teach her what she could when she wasn't busy performing magic shows. And currently, she was doing just that—performing a magic show somewhere in Hokkido. That meant that she couldn't teach her more about Boiling Blood, or anything else for that matter.

And while Natsumi was a bit annoyed that Himiko couldn't come to teach her at the moment, or even help prepare her for a fight against another mage, she knew just how much those magic shows meant to her. While normally Natsumi wouldn't give a damn about other people's pastimes and what they meant for them, Himiko made it expressly clear to Natsumi that if she tried to rush things her expertise would be removed from the picture, and that she would be on her own.

In other words, she was brided to let Himiko do whatever Himiko wanted, and that then for the lessons to come whenever she had free time, which was more often than not. Right now, Himiko was still walking her step by step to perfect Boiling Blood.

From what Natsumi could gather about the spell, it required her to create summon a red glyph in the palm of her hand, which then opened a hole in the palm of her hand, which let her shoot out boiling blood. The only drawback of that was that it used her blood. Meaning that it was an attack that should only be used in dire situations, and not willy-nilly—that was what Black Sword Summoning was for.

Dark Flames was similar, but there was a drawback to that as well. Dark Flames was a spell that required the user to have the utmost concentration and to feel as much hate as possible toward a given target. The more hatred, the hotter the flames. And if Dark Flames hit the person in question, then it would leave a burning sensation so vivid that the person who was hit by it would never forget until either: A. they had some sort of protection spell to block the effect. Or B. they died.

Although, Himiko did warn her that overusing Dark Flames could cause catastrophic effects to the spell caster. Her former master had done it one too many times and had burnt himself inside out… literally. He had boiled his lungs and heart. So, there was that to consider.

So, in other words, Black Sword Summoning was the main spell that she was going to use going into this encounter. Natsumi knew The Mage was coming; no doubt about it. It was why she upped security, and it was also why she called in Daikage.

Speaking of Daikage.

"You called for me, Boss?" A gruff voice called out, as Natsumi stood up from the dresser-mirror combo, brushing off her black suit and tie, turning to face the nearly 7-foot tall man. He wore a black suit similar to her own, though instead of a black tie he wore a red and grey-striped tie, with no shirt underneath. He also wore a pair of sunglasses over his eyes, and his hair was short and red.

Daikage was a former Hopes Peak Academy alumni. And his ultimate talent?

The Ultimate Cyborg.

From what her father told her about Daikage, it was that when he was 16 years old, he got into a horrible plane crash, crushing most of his body, that being the left side of his face, his entire left arm, as well as a majority of his organs. Miraculously he managed to survive, and he was carted off to a hospital. He was able to cling to life long enough for a doctor to come into the building with an experimental solution for a damaged body, and that was for him to become a cyborg.

So, they replaced the left side of his face with metal and gave him robotic eyes. They replaced his left arm and a majority of his internal organs with artificial ones. And while his stuff wasn't nearly as advanced as it was now back then, it was still one of a kind. And while he hated it at first, he got a free pass into Hope's Peak Academy. And by constantly upgrading himself, he became stronger and stronger, until he eventually graduated, joined the Yakuza, and the rest was history.

The things that he could do with his mechanical body were downright sci-fi. He could transform his left arm into a massive black high-frequency blade, able to slash through basically anything. He had rocket pods installed into his back that he could force out to do massive damage to a surrounding area with relative ease. He could leap high up into the ground and create shockwaves, and his punches alone could shatter bones as if they were dried-up leaves. He was the epitome of overpowered and made for an excellent bodyguard.

Natsumi looked at Daikage and smirked. "I need you to guard the main estate house. The Mage is probably on her way to finishing what she started months ago. You're probably the only one besides myself that can take her on in a one-to-one fight. Are we clear?" Natsumi stated, crossing her arms as Daikage rolled his neck from left to right, various cracking sounds coming from the man as he huffed.

"I suppose… as long as I get my flask, you can count on me to get the job done," Daikage replied, cracking his knuckles. Natsumi nodded, snapping her fingers. The taller man left her room, Natsumi following after him. She planned to hide deeper within the estate, that way she would be more secure. The deeper in she was, the safer.

That, and she needed prep time and access to the security footage. She could watch how The Mage fought, study her, and then prepare accordingly. She wasn't going to make the same mistake she did the last time they met. This time… she had a plan. And if she got to execute that plan… The Mage was done for.

[Jolyne Brooks]

It didn't take Jolyne very long to locate the location of the Kuzuryu Clan Compound. In fact, she found it kind of funny how "out in the open" it was in comparison to most other Yakuza hideouts. Well, calling a giant traditional-size mansion a "hideout" was an insult to the very term "hideout." Because, as far as Jolyne was concerned, the nearly 1,500 squared-kilometre mansion was decidedly NOT a hideout.

At the moment, Jolyne was wearing her Yin and Yang Cloak, underneath which being her hoodie and sweatpant combination. On her back was her Grim Reapers Scythe, while Bear Claw was activated on her right arm. Her left arm remained normal in case she ever needed to activate her Magu-Magu-no-Mi, in case she got into close-quarters combat that couldn't be dealt with by her Bear Claw. And if she needed to go long range, which was always an option in her opinion, then she had Finger Laser for just that occasion.

With Bullet Time, she wouldn't have to worry about anyone shooting her with stray bullets if any of them did try and shoot at her, and with Despair Aura, she could incapacitate anyone who even got near her. This was on top of every other ability and trait she had at her disposal.

Overall, Jolyne felt confident.

Currently, she was standing across the street from the compound. The sun was just beginning to set, meaning that everyone would be, more or less, not on guard, and preparing to go home to their families. A small part of her felt bad for what it was she was about to do, i.e. separating husbands and wives and children.

But, then again, on the other side of the coin, said husbands, wives, and children were part of the Japanese Mafia, Yakuza, cartel, whatever the fuck the cultural term for them was because she could not give less of a fuck about it right now, was responsible for nearly killing her and her, at the time, friends.

So, yeah, this was warranted, and there wasn't a damn thing that anyone could say or do to convince her otherwise. She was pretty sure that the system would be hard-pressed to give her a good reason to not go ahead and do what she was about to do. Although, she supposed it had surprised her in the past, so perhaps it could rip something out of its ass to convince her otherwise. But, as it stood, The System wasn't saying jackshit against the idea, so she was fairly certain it was A-O.K. with the idea.

[RAID DUNGEON – Kuzuryu Clan Estate, Difficulty: Ultra Violence]

Objectives for completion:

Kill all enemies in sight [0/500]

Kill (2) Raid Bosses:

Daikage Daimon (Hurt Me Plenty)

Natsumi Kuzuryu (Nightmare)

Time Limit Bonuses:

Completion in under 10 minutes: 1 Legendary Armour Gacha Token

Completion in under 15 minutes: 2 Epic Magical Relic Gacha Tokens.

Completion in under 20 minutes: 1.5 million Yen

Completion Rewards: 600,000 Exp, 4.5 million Yen, 1 Legendary Gacha Token, 1 Legendary-Grade Stand DISC.

Failure: Death (Presumably)

Well, if she wasn't 100% sure the System was fine with her going ahead with this, then she sure as hell was now. The quest rewards also made it even more enticing to do the raid, too. That much EXP would level her up a lot, and that amount of money would make her well off, so much so that she could probably buy her own home and move all of her stuff from her practically unused dorm room, and her Ultimate Lab, into a nice little home on the beachside.

Ah, who the hell was she kidding? She was probably going to horde it until she found a use for the money. Besides, what was the point of using money in a soon-to-be-apocalyptic world? She was probably going to save this money for the next world she found herself in.

Now that she thought about it… that idea was sort of unnerving. After spending as long as she did in this world, once she completed her objectives, Daimen was going to forcibly send her on her way to a new world, with or without a companion. And sure, while she had no real friends here, Rantaro still wanted her to help him find his lost sisters, and Junko, for as insane as she was, seemed like a cool person. She didn't want to leave them behind….

"Focus, Jolyne. Think about that sad sappy stuff when that time gets closer. Right now, focus on what you're doing right here, and right now," The Mage thought, sighing. Cracking her neck from side to side, Jolyne took in a deep breath, then ran across the street to the entrance of the Kuzuryu Clan Estate's entrance.

The entrance in question was a giant matt-black painted wooden gate, with a traditional archway, looming overtop the gate, painted in a bright red. The handles on the wooden gate were golden rings with skulls holding them in place.

Jolyne had to give the architects credit, they knew how to make an entrance seem foreboding, even to a high-class Gamer Mage. It definitely fit the bell for late-game Raid Dungeon, that much was for certain. Either way, now she had more of an incentive to get the damn thing over and done for more than just freeing the children and a personal bias/other quests to kill Natsumi before she became a major issue later down the line.

Placing her bare hand against the front gate, she activated her Devil Fruit, causing the spot where she put her now magma-esque hand to begin to burn and melt. The area around the place where she put her hand caught on fire, causing a plume of smoke to rise from where her hand was placed. By the time the hole was big enough for her to step through, and by the time she did step through, she was immediately met with 50 armed men, all of whom had their trained sights on her.

Activating CHECK on one of the mooks, she was able to get a read on all of their collective stats.

Name: Kuzuryu Clan Mook(s)

Level: 25

HP: 1,000

Stamina: 1,000

MP: 0

Faction: Kuzuryu Clan

Your average human trained in the art of kicking your ass with a gun. Aside from that, there isn't much else to say about them.

Deactivating her Devil Fruit and reaching for her scythe, when her hand went to reach her back, without warning, the men had already started firing, the sound of gunshots echoing throughout the air as Jolyne narrowed her eyes.

Time slowed down to a crawl, as Bullet Time passively activated. Retrieving her scythe from her back, she approached the firing squad, and with a large arching slash, she cleaved the first two men in front of her in half, and sidestepped out of the line of fire, before Bullet Time ceased to work.

Confusion marred the faces of those who watched two of their men die within mere seconds, at least in their eyes, as Jolyne made quick work of the rest of them, cleaving them lengthwise and horizontally, all the while balancing her momentum with her swings in an elegant array of gore and viscera. Whenever she missed someone with her Scythe, she used Bear Claw to gut them at the next best opportunity, all the while abusing Bullet Time to its maximum effect to dodge all of the bullets being sent her way.

Ducking, dodging, slashing, and mauling, all in that order. By the time she had been halfway through her onslaught of blindly firing Yakuza members, they began to flee. A small, sadistic smirk made its way to her face as she stored her scythe on her back. "Where do ya'll think you're going?" Jolyne asked no one in particular, sticking out her index finger and pointing it directly at the fleeing Yakuza thugs, as she began to charge Finger Laser. She had yet to use the spell, so it was paramount that she at least try it out once to see if it was at all worth using.

Firing her laser, Jolyne watched as a small purple condensed beam of pure mana headed straight for the first person, piercing them through the back. At first, she wasn't really impressed, mere seconds away from dismissing it as a useless ability compared to the rest of her powers, when suddenly, just as the beam made contact with the ground after piercing and killing the mook that she did hit, a small purplish explosion filled the surrounding area near the other foot-soldiers as the rest of the men within the blast radius blew apart into meaty chunks of blood, skin, muscle and bone.

Flexing her index finger, she looked at her hand with a raised eyebrow. A small pop-up out of the corner of her eye alerted her that Finger Laser went from Lv. 1 to Lv. 5 in a matter of seconds. Needless to say, she was pretty happy with that outcome. Although, notably, she noticed that The System wasn't telling her about her levelling up after killing the enemies in question. She assumed that it was probably withholding that information until the Raid Dungeon was over, which, in hindsight, made sense to a degree.

Glancing at her Mana Bar, she huffed. 100 Mana now seemed like loose change, compared to before she ate the Magu-Magu-no-Mi. Before that, she probably would've been a little stressed out that she had just used 100 Mana in one go, but now, not so much.

Looking around the courtyard, she frowned. The courtyard was a little small compared to what she had envisioned it to be; thinly cut grass now coated in blood, a fountain in the rear corner, and a few flower bushes lining the walls of the compound, with the wrap-around porch of the estate being the biggest thing in the courtyard. Shrugging, she was about to advance, when the door to the main building burst open, as another 50 mooks poured into the courtyard, two of which having been equipped with rocket launchers, while most of them were equipped with automatic rifles.

Jolyne blinked, not the least bit impressed by the show of weaponry. Although, she did have to wonder where they got the rocket launchers from. Then again, they were a Yakuza, so they probably smuggled a few into the country for their own personal use.

That being said, she did find it a bit odd that they thought that it could do anything to her.

"END OF THE LINE, INTRUDER! SURRENDER NOW, OR PREPARE TO DIE!" One of the mooks with the rocket launchers shouted as Jolyne sighed, bobbing her head to one side. A few of the men were looking around, seeing the chunks of meat, as well as the dead bodies that were strewn about the place. While most of them remained stone-faced, some of them lost their bravado as seen by the sweat pouring down from some of their faces.

The stand-off continued for what felt like a handful of minutes when in reality it was only a few seconds. Jolyne stood there, tapping her foot against the floor, waiting for them to make their move. When they didn't, she took that as a sign to continue her rampage.

Once again, she drew out her Scythe and flashed her blade to the group of fifty men. They took this as a cue to begin their attack, and so, they did; firing an obscene amount of bullets her way. Bullet Time activated, as she dodged and weaved through enemy gunfire. Closing the distance with the first five mooks, she lashed her blade out diagonally at her attackers, slashing through four of them on her left like butter.

Using Bear Claw, she impaled one on her right-hand side, right through the chest and out the back, grabbing and squeezing their heart until it popped like a balloon. Kicking the now heartless corpse off of her claw and into a group of 10 other people. She charged forward, while still in Bullet Time, and proceeded to turn the group of 10 plus the corpse into itty-bitty chunks by cutting into them at various directions, all with the speed and skill of a master scythe wielder.

One of the people holding one of the rocket launchers fired a rocket where she had been supposed to have been moments ago, which she took to her advantage. Jumping in the range of the military-grade explosive, she grabbed onto the rocket with her Bear Claw and turned it 180 degrees to face the shooter, before then bouncing over to the second rocket launcher wielder, and slicing their head clean off with her scythe before they could fire their rocket. The rocket that had been fired began to hit the launcher as Jolyne jumped out of the way of the blast radius, as the rocket exploded in the face of the firer, his face exploding into little bits and fragments.

17 down, 33 more to go.

The enemy's bullet storm, while being less of a danger, was still prominent enough for Bullet Time to continue going, seeing as she technically hadn't left the line of fire, staying within the line of gunfire. And while they had been firing out a metric crap ton of bullets per second, to her only now did a few finally start coming out of their weapon's chambers.

Turning one of her legs into magma, she stomped on a few of their heads, killing at least 4 of them in the process as she walked atop them like balancing balls. Jumping up into the air, she spotted several bodies spraying blood everywhere. It was then that she finally got an idea.

Clenching her Bear Clawed hand into a fist, spears began to form out of blood, around 15 to be exact, and zipped forward in the direction that they had created. 10 more people met an untimely demise by that attack, and then, to finish things off with her epic-slowed-down-time combo, she charged up yet another Finger Laser and blasted down in the center of the group, creating a massive explosion in the diameter of a sphere, blowing everyone else apart, thus, ended Bullet Time, seeing as no more bullets were being fired, you know, 'cause all of the gunmen were dead.

Landing gracefully in the storm of blood and gore, Jolyne wiped the fake sweat off of her forehead and looked beyond the doors of the Kuzuryu Clan Estate. A counter appeared to the left of her sight, showing that 100 out of 500 enemies had been killed. A timer appeared next to that, showing that only 30 seconds had passed.

"Huh… 30 seconds and 100 enemies dead… impressive!" Jolyne said, cracking her knuckles. Walking into the building, she looked around at the surrounding area and nodded. It was pretty big, having three doors splitting off of what she had to assume was the foyer. There were a few giant flower pots in the corners, with an ascending slope that reached the center of the room before it was broken off into three more sloops leading to each of the three doors.

The moment she entered the foyer, 20 mooks noticed her right off the bat, and aimed their weapons at her. She sighed as, yet again, Bullet Time activated. Zipping forward, she wound back her left arm as it transformed into Magma. Punching the first mook she saw through the gut, killing them, she retracted her arm and spun around on her heel, looking over at a group of five to her left as they began to fire upon her.

The Magma around her left arm began to expand, as she smirked. "Great Eruption!" Jolyne shouted as a giant fist-shaped glob of magma flung its way in the direction of the five mooks. The fist-shaped glob hit its intended target as it exploded against the mooks, melting away their skin and breaking apart their limbs and bones. The wall behind the mooks also blew up, dripping with magma residue.

Returning her arm to normal, she grabbed her scythe and charged the next few people diagonal to the former group of five. The first one got their head chopped off, while the one to that one's right got kicked with a right magma leg before she spun on her left leg, slashing the other six mooks horizontally from the waist down. With only six more left, she kicked off one of the corpses, jetting toward the final group of six as she reared back her Bear Claw, speeding past them as she slashed open their chests, exposing their lungs and hearts, before spinning and slashing them with her scythe.

Only then did Bullet Time stop, as each body caught with reality, those that had bodies remaining slumping against the wall as their guns hit the ground with a pathetic clunk. Spinning her scythe, she shook off the blood from the blade as she let her arm hang limply from her left side.

"So far, so easy. Something tells me, though, that something is gonna happen as to where that won't be—"

Almost as if lady karma herself was waiting for her to say that sentence, three overly large men with equally large swords wearing black business suits burst through the doors on each side of the foyer, surrounding her with varying snarls on their faces. Activating CHECK, she glanced upon one of them, which in turn allowed her to get a feel for each of them.

Name: Kuzuryu Clan Brute

Level: 50

Hp: 2,500

Stamina: 2,500

Mana: 0

Faction: Kuzuryu Clan

They're big, they got swords, and they are angry. Their skin is as tough as steel, and they're equally as strong as a speeding truck.

Cracking her neck side-to-side, Jolyne readied herself, as the three brutes charged her location, all yelling out battle cries. Getting low to the ground, close enough to where her stomach nearly touched the ground, her right knee tucked just under her chest, while her left leg was outstretched as the tip of her shoes made contact with the ground, all the while her Scythe wound back to where her left thigh had been stretched out, she waited until they got into range, and then, she sprung up, twirling as she jumped with the scythe in hand.

The blade effortlessly dug into their skin as blood spewed from their wounds. And while normally that would've been enough, the brutes seemingly didn't give two shits about the massive wounds in their chests, raising their swords to strike her equally. Unfortunatly for them, when their swords did manage to hit her, all they did was phase through her body, like a spoon into gelatine.

Except, unlike a spoon being introduced to gelatine, the swords melted like butter upon making contact with her skin. The brutes, now thoroughly confused, were about to try for another attack, only for Jolyne to wrench one of the burning swords out of her body, and stab each brute with their own burning swords through the chest and through the heart, killing them instantly.

"I reiterate my statement, this is too easy," Jolyne murmured, looking over to the enemy counter. 123/500 enemies slain. It was a little confusing to the mage at just how pathetically they were falling. Although, then again, it was clear to her now that she was WAY over levelled in comparison to the actual mission at hand.

Looking at the three doorways, Jolyne arched an eyebrow. She was conflicted as to where it was she wanted to go. Middle, left, or right? That was the question, and the answer was inconclusive. Humming to herself, she pointed at the middle door, then began to bounce her finger to the left or the right door, all the while humming a tune.

"Eenie, meanie, minie, mo. Catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers, let him go. Eenie, meanie, minie, mo." When Jolyne finished the little chant, her finger landed solely on the middle door. She frowned, before shrugging as she walked down the middle hallway. Said hallway went on for a little too long in her opinion.

Along the way she came across a few mooks, all of which she killed rather easily with a simple one-two combo using her Magma-covered hands, melting away the flesh and muscle on their faces, leaving only their skulls, rounding the number to 125/500.

At the end of the hallway was a set of double doors, to which Jolyne promptly kicked down without any sort of hesitancy. The room the doors were blocking the view of was massive, maybe twice the size if not triple that of the courtyard. There wasn't much going for the room, just more doors, though there was some plant life within the room, but nothing notable. Although, there was an empty pool in the center of the room, and separating Jolyne from the next entrance, was a tall, muscularly built man with short red hair, wearing a pair of sunglasses, a black two-piece suit and tie, and a flask hanging off of his belt.

The tall man yawned, looking Jolyne over as he reached for his flask. Taking a swig from it, he latched it back on his hip, then snarled. "So… you're the one who broke in here, huh?"

Jolyne narrowed her eyes. "What's it to you?" The mage asked as the man scoffed. He wobbled for a second, though he was quickly able to balance himself.

"Considering this place is my job. And seeing as you killed a bunch of people to get to me, I'd have to assume you already know what "it is" to me," the massive hulk of a man said, glaring at her. "And seeing as you did so without any sort of hesitation, it's also my job to kill you." As the man spoke, he raised his left arm as it began to morph into a dark black sword, sparking with red energy.

Jolyne's eyes widened before she quickly regained her composure. Needless to say, she wasn't expecting that. Although, she could definitely say that it wasn't magic, seeing as she heard the shifting noises of metal underneath that sleeve. Nonetheless, she put on a brave face as she glared at the man, as a giant health bar appeared just overtop his head.

[Daikage Daimon – The Drunken Cyborg – Lv. 100]

[-100%-]

"I hope you're ready! Because when I'm through with you, you're gonna be nothing but a smear on the ground!" Daikage shouted, glaring at her through his shades.

[Daimen has made a personal request, and that is that Boss Fights such as this will have Boss Themes. For this, please enjoy the sounds of "Red Sun", from the hit series "Metal Gear Solid"]

Jolyne was barely given a chance to think over the information that was just handed to her by The System, as Daikage leapt forward, slamming his hand and sword-hand down on the ground just inches from her, creating a red wave-like shockwave, knocking Jolyne back, causing her to tumble backward; all the while some upbeat rock-music blared in her ears, but not loud enough to block out her ability to hear—just enough to be annoying.

Blinking, Jolyne looked over to her health bar, and was shocked to find that Daikage had actually done damage to her, specifically, 125 damage. Once again, she couldn't comprehend the information as Daikage arched his sword arm up, ready to cut her down. Jolyne brought out her scythe, and parried the sword blow, knocking him back a few feet, giving her some distance to work with. Immediately, she activated CHECK to get a good look at what she was fighting.

Name: Daikage Daimon – The Ultimate Drunken Cyborg (BOSS)

Lv. 100

HP: 100,000

Stamina: Inf

Mana: null

Faction: Kuzuryu Clan

Natsumi Kuzuryu's bodyguard, and high-ranking member of the Kuzuryu Clan, not to mention the abusive father to Masaru Daimon. He deludes himself by thinking that what he's doing to his son is training him to face the inevitable future that he will inherit his job in The Kuzuryu Clan.

Jolyne gritted her teeth, swaying her scythe to the left as she got into a running stance, facing Daikage head-on. The massive cyborg took this as an invitation to charge, rushing Jolyne with blinding speeds. Jolyne met him head-on, clashing weapons as sparks flew from both blades.

"Nice toy!" Daikage snarked, kicking Jolyne in the gut, knocking her back and into a wall, causing the wall to crack under the pressure as she coughed up blood, dealing 200 damage to her in return. "But you'll have to do better than that!"

"How the hell is he hitting me!? Can't I not be hit by regular attacks?!" Jolyne thought, narrowing her eyes.

[By normal means, yes. However, this is a Boss Fight. Bosses work differently from regular enemies. They can hurt you no matter what. That means you actually have to try.]

Jolyne huffed. Great. She had to think, which was one of her least favourite things to do, especially during a fight. The dual-haired mage pried herself out of the wall, narrowly avoiding a downward slash from Daikage. The massive brute of a man growled, slashing at her again as she jumped back. After clearing some distance, she pointed her index finger at him and fired off a Finger Laser.

The beam connected, causing a small explosion around him, dealing 1,000 damage to him, and making him stagger for just a second. Closing the distance, Jolyne used this chance to get a few cheap shots at him with her scythe, slashing at him a handful of times, dealing 250 damage to him, before jumping back, avoiding a heavy right hook from the massive man.

[-98.5%-]

"You gotta be fucking kidding me…. 2.5% only?!" Jolyne thought, frowning. She was at 4,050 HP, and slowly regenerating thanks to Blood Control, but that didn't mean she wasn't at a disadvantage here. Narrowly dodging another downward slash, she got a good distance away, only for that distance to be closed by Daikage leaping upward and slamming down just a foot away from her, causing yet another shockwave.

This time, instead of standing still like an idiot, Jolyne jumped, avoiding the shockwave. Daikage swung his blade as Jolyne jumped, aiming for her torso. Turning her body into magma, she kicked away his sword with her magma legs, before laying into him with her scythe, slashing him repeatedly across the face and upper torso, before then giving him a good round-house kick in the air, sending him scooting backward, dealing over 3,000 damage to him.

"Oh… so THAT's how it's gonna be, huh?!" Daikage growled, pumping out his chest as rocket pods came out of his shoulders. Jolyne's jaw dropped, as a glint appeared in his sunglasses. "Try THIS on for size!"

As Daikage shouted that, 12 mini-rockets shot out from the rocket pods, honing on her. Bullet Time activated, as she dodged out of the way of the missiles, and closed in on the Cyborg, reaching out to him before crushing her hand into a fist, and calling upon Blood Spears. Bullet Time ended as she exited the line of fire, as 80 spears shot themselves out of the cyborg.

Over 10,000 damage was dealt to him, stunning him as he fell to a knee. Jolyne took this chance to grab him by the tuft of his hair, activate Bear Claw, and repeatedly punch him in the face, 5 times to be exact. Getting rid of Bear Claw, she activated her Magma, and gave him a meaty right hook, knocking him to his left, and sending him flying through the hallway that separated the three split-off rooms and the one the fight started in, resulting in another 5,750 damage being dealt.

Jolyne followed the brute, landing a few feet in front of him as the giant Cyborg got up, laboured breaths coming from the man as he rubbed his cheeks. Some of his skin had melted off, revealing the metal underneath.

[-85%-]

"Not bad, kid…. Not bad at all…!" Daikage said, cracking his neck. "But that ain't gonna be enough." As he said that, he whistled, calling up several mooks that came out of the woodworks, 25 to be exact, all of which were equipped with swords. Daikage jumped back, letting the mooks take the field. "Take her out!"

Without so much as hesitating, the mooks came charging at her, despite seeing what she had done to Daikage not even a few moments ago. Nevertheless, she met their charge, and using her scythe, made them look like fools. She parried several blows coming from several different directions, before getting low to the ground and sweeping the 10 that surrounded her off of their feet.

Knocking them to the ground, Jolyne launched forward to the downed ones and sliced them into bits with her scythe with various strokes at blinding speeds that no normal human could accomplish without advanced training—or in Jolyne's case, advanced cheating with how The Grim Reapers Scythe worked.

Dodging another strike from her left flank, activating Bear Claw, she grabbed the mook that dared to try and strike her, before throwing them to another group of five. When the body hit them, not only did the body explode into a pile of limbs and gore, but so did those that were hit. She chalked it up to her insane Strength stat being put to good use. That left just 9 more.

Turning on her heel, she jumped back, dodging another strike from yet another mook, before stepping to the left as another mook who tried to sneak attack her performed a downward slash, cutting into the mook that just attacked her, slicing down their head. A look of horror and realization came across the mook's face as Jolyne impaled both of them on her Bear Claw, before slamming them both into a wall, ensuring that both were now dead.

The last 7 charged her all at once, to which she pointed a Finger Laser at them, and shot the one in the middle, the resulting explosion taking care of them all. It was at that point when Daikage jumped back in and snarled.

"Useless, thugs," Daikage snarked, taking a swig from his flask, before re-equipping it to his side. "Aight, let's continue!"

Without warning, Daikage launched yet another volley of missiles. Bullet Time activated again as she got out of the way, shooting a Finger Laser at the Cyborg as Bullet Time ended. The missiles exploded where she should've been, which irritated Daikage. The Cyborg lunged forward, slashing at her with his massive sword, which Jolyne narrowly avoided by bending backward. This, however, left her open for a sweeping kick.

Daikage knocked the mage on her ass, before kicking her directly in the face, sending her flying into a wall, and doing 500 damage to her. Jolyne shook her head, spitting out blood. "Ain't so tough are ya now, brat!" Daikage taunted as Jolyne snarled, wiping blood from her mouth as she slowly began to stand up.

"Fuck off!" Jolyne snapped back as purple sludge formed around her. Summoning Abominations, around 20 of them, she gave them the mental command to surround and pummel Daikage, while she did some healing. Daikage seemed revolted by the action and started attacking the swarming Abominations.

He was taking them out relatively easily, though they kept regenerating, which gave her the chance to heal using Blood Control, patching up any wounds internal or external using hardened blood, all the while the Abominations continued to do chip damage. Once she had recovered a majority of the health that she lost, she checked on what the swarm had been doing to Daikage, as she witnessed the last one get killed.

[-81.7%-]

"Not much, but better than nothing…." Jolyne thought, narrowing her eyes at the massive cyborg. Transforming her left arm into a massive gathering of Magma, she launched a Great Eruption toward Daikage, the unexpected attack hitting him square in the chest. What Jolyne hadn't been expecting was for the attack to have turned critical, and do nearly 20,000 damage to him!

The massive man staggered yet again, as he sputtered and coughed. Jolyne took his chance to close in on the cyborg, transforming her legs into magma and delivered a flurry of kicks to the massive cyborg—around 150 blitzing kicks to his head—before ending it off with a reverse hammer kick to his jaw, sending him flying upward.

Jumping up to meet the cyborg, Jolyne roundhouse kicked him in the head and sent him flying into the courtyard as he shouted in pain. The massive mech slammed into the ground, leaving a massive crater in the ground, dealing another 10,000 damage to him.

Jolyne met him in the courtyard, standing a few feet clear of the crater. Her breathing was laboured, as her stamina bar, which she had never really paid attention to until now, was below half. Thankfully, it was refilling faster than she could blink, but that combo had been a lot for her to do, even at the level she had been at.

As the dust settled, a metallic hand clawed its way out of the ground, and Daikage, now missing half of his face's skin, revealing a metallic skull and wires plugged into the side of his face, his sunglasses, gone, and the top of his business suit burnt away, revealing that his upper body had been completely replaced with a metallic chassis—now featuring a giant burn mark courtesy of hers truly. The cyborg growled at her, his voice sounding more metallic compared to before.

"You know kid, I thought the boss was hyping you up to be something less than what you're showing yourself to be…. Meaning I haven't been taking you too seriously…!" Daikage said, rolling his shoulders as he smirked. "But now… now I am!"

Suddenly, his body began to glow a deep red, as his blood-red eyes shone brighter. His sword arm gained a yellowish sheen, as it seemingly began to vibrate. And then, he got into a combative stance, his sword pointing out toward her as he roared. "ROUND 2, motherfucker!"

[-50%-]

Daikage didn't give her a chance to move as he zipped in front of her, and slashed at her diagonally using his now vibrating sword arm. She barely parried the blade with her scythe, swinging the blade in an upward arch, and throwing the sword upward. She got a good kick in, knocking Daikage back a few inches, though it wasn't enough to do anything else. And while the kick did something like, 100 or so damage, it wasn't going to be enough.

Daikage continued to attack, and all the while Jolyne continued to defend. Scythe blocking sword strikes, backpedalling, avoiding getting cornered, jumping back and to the side, all the while blocking or avoiding devastating blows from that massive vibrating sword of his. No longer was it a game of stab the idiot, it was now a game of cat and mouse—Daikage being the cat, and Jolyne being the mouse.

Never once had she been put on the backfoot like this before in her short amount of time fighting foes like this one. It was harrowing, to say the least. She felt trapped, like a little kid. And while she wanted to strike out at him, she couldn't. She was blocked and parried at every chance she saw, every opening that he made, at all times. There was nothing, she meant nothing that she could do to get an attack in.

Meaning, she was still on the defensive, and it was probably going to remain that way for the rest of the fight. And Daikage seemingly knew that, as with each sword swing, he was gaining more and more ground, all the while Jolyne was in a desperate struggle to keep up with the cybernetic man constantly wailing on her with his massive fuck-off sword.

Each blow created sparks and heated up the general area. Every time he missed, his sword dug into the ground like butter, which worried her about what would happen if that blade hit her. It also went to show just how durable her scythe had been, seeing as that blade Daikage was using was pretty strong. And seeing as it was attached to his arm, or rather, was his arm, it made him a much more deadly opponent.

She was able to get a few potshots in on Daikage, dealing a total of 3,300 damage, and that was over a few minutes. It went to show that Daikage really wasn't taking her seriously before. And now that he was, she kinda regretted picking a fight with him. She might've been fast enough to keep up with his attacks and parry them, but it was clear as day that she wasn't faster than him to actually get some attacks in on him.

The two came to yet another clash, this time, Daikage put a lot more force into the swing. When Jolyne parried the blow this time, her feet sank into the ground, the ground cracking underneath the weight of the blow as her knees buckled.

"NOW, I GOT YOU!" Daikage roared. The Cyborg raised his blade arm diagonally as Jolyne, dazed and confused, attempted to block the swing, only to miss entirely, and for the blade to cut across her face, slicing into her right eye and ripping it out, blood showering from the deep cut as pain seared throughout Jolyne's body, before Daikage then followed it up by kicking her back and into the wall of the building behind them.

Pain exploded throughout her body as Jolyne screamed, clasping at where her eye used to be. Her health bar was now at half, but that wasn't her biggest concern at the moment. Panic, pain, anger, and sadness hit her like a truck as Daikage picked her up by the throat, then chuckled. "Not so gutsy now, are ya you little shit!" Daikage snarled, chucking her across the courtyard into the nearest wall. Jolyne got up, still clutching the remains of her right eye. Removing her hand, pools and pools of blood gathered at both her feet and in her hands.

She wanted to scream, to curl up into a ball and cry, but as of right now, she wasn't given the choice. So, activating Blood Control, she stopped the bleeding as she tried to focus, ignoring the pain as much as possible.

Immediately, she noticed the lack of depth perception and realized that this had just gotten way harder than it was before. Sucking in a breath, she carried on regardless. Besides, she was going to end this right here, and right now. She had an idea, and she was praying for it to work. Without her other eye, this fight was going to be a hassle, and she wasn't going to be able to ignore the pain for much longer.

While Blood Control was good for mitigating pain and halting bleeding temporarily, it wasn't going to be enough. She needed to go to a hospital or find some sort of doctor. This plan had to work because otherwise, this fight was going to end poorly.

Daikage closed the distance between himself and her, raising his vibrating blade again, only for Jolyne to snarl, not saying a word as she activated Despair Aura, and knocked Daikage to the ground. "W-What the hell is—"

Daikage wasn't allowed to finish his sentence as Jolyne grabbed her scythe, twirled it in the palm of her hand, and swung for his neck. She prayed that this was going to work, and that was when a black aura took over the Scythe. A small smile crept up on Jolyne's face as when the blade hit his neck, the blade sliced clean through, severing his head from his body, and dealing 47,000 damage to him on a clean blow.

His head tumbled to the ground, wires, oil, and blood coming from the base of his neck as Jolyne stared at it with her one good eye. That was when a notification came up.

[BOSS FIGHT – DAIKAGE DAIMON – DEFEATED]

.

QUEST COMPLETE – SAVE THE KIDS!

REWARDS HAVE BEEN DISTRIBUTED

.

LEVEL UP! LEVEL INCREASED FROM LV. 33 TO LV. 34!

Jolyne breathed heavily, her chest raising and lowering as blood dripped freely from her face, a shuttering breath escaping her as she looked down at her free hand, stained in blood—not of her enemies, but of her own.

[Jolyne Brooks. You've taken critical damage to your body. We can postpone this raid for the time being if you so choose, that way, you may seek medical attention. If you continue now, your death will be assured.]

As much as she wanted to argue with The System, she knew that to be true. Stumbling toward the entrance of the Kuzuryu Clan headquarters, she got past the estate gates before she fell face forward on the ground, and in front of someone. A gasp came from her left, as she looked up to see a blurry figure—female, if she wasn't mistaken, with short blackish-brown hair. Jolyne couldn't be too sure of what she was wearing, only being able to make out a pair of black stockings, and a blue skirt.

And then, there was nothing but darkness.

-To be continued-