Peperoncino stepped into the clearing, meeting the eyes of Izuku .
"He's up ahead," the pink haired Crypter spat, a look of pure hatred so uncharacteristic on his face, "are you ready?"
"As I'll ever be…" Izuku said, before breathing in, "are you?"
"...I'm good at hiding it, Izu," Pepe said, leaning against a tree, "but I'm very good at wanting revenge. I know you only ever knew him as an enemy, but Kirschy… he was my best friend. He was all of our best friend."
"I know," Izuku said quietly, "my sense for who's good or bad is pretty good, and… I never got the feeling Kirschtaria was a bad person. Misguided, but not bad…"
"In a different world," Pepe said, tears pricking at his eyes, "you would have been friends. I know, it's cliche, but for you two, it's true. You're… you were so similar. Strong in your beliefs, good leaders… I'm sorry, I need a moment."
"I have his body in a coffin on the Border," Izuku offered quitely, "I have all their bodies, and Kadoc under Asclepius's care. If you want to come see them after we're done…"
"Why do you-?"
"I figured," Izuku said, "they deserved better than just… just fading when their world… when I… I want to find a graveyard to bury them when Proper Human History is restored. I might just be projecting and completely wrong, but if I were them, I'd rather be buried with my friends. If you want me to do something else, just say-"
"No," Pepe said, "That's perfect-"
"How sweet," a familiar voice sneered, causing Humanity's Last Master and the Crypter to whip around. Sitting on a branch, a scottish dirk flipping in one hand as he did, was Beryl Gut, "can I come too?'
A rictus of hate spread across Izuku's face, his cane shaking, "Gut."
"The Cripple's come to fight me without his doll?" Beryl snarked with a grin, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth, "I'm so scared."
"Jetburn," Izuku said, lifting his lighter before Pepe could say a thing, "Ten count."
The ten gouts of white flame covered the space between them and Beryl. Time slowed for Pepe as he activated his Magecraft, and it was a good thing it did.
It was the only thing that let him weave around Izuku, taking the thrust of the dirk in his hand instead of the thrust for the neck Beryl had been going for.
"Now you care?" Beryl said, "I told you all that all I did here was kill people, and now it's unforgivable, Pepe?"
"No," Pepe said, accelerating his body and punching Beryl so hard he was forced to let go of the dirk. Pepe ripped it from the skin, tossing it aside, "now it's personal. And I'm not gonna claim that makes me a good person, but I'm better than you, you piece of shit."
"And don't you forget it," Beryl said, black fur sprouting across his body, "Cripple, I hope you're ready. Mash isn't here to protect you this time."
"I know," Izuku said, drawing a gun and bracing it against his other hand, standing straight, "this time I'm protecting her from you."
- X Izuku X-
Izuku pushed magical energy through his body, reinforcing it as he slid the lighter into a specially made wrist mounted holder. Then he drew the weaker of the two guns he had, a USP, and leveled it at Gut without hesitating. The first bullet cracked against his cheek, falling flat as the werewolf threw Pepe back. Then he turned towards Izuku and rushed forwards, claws bared. Izuku slammed his cane into Beryl's sternum, watching his eyes grow wide, "I can't walk without a cane, nobody said I couldn't stand."
"So, that just means you're stuck in one pla-" Gut turned suddenly, barely dodging the palm strike from Pepe. Izuku grabbed him by the upper jaw, forcing it open and shoving the gun down his throat. Claws tore at the rune enhanced shirt of his Mystic Code, and Izuku ripped the gun out, holstering it and backhanding him with a Ehwaz enhanced glove.
"How the fuck-" Gut vomited out the flattened, smoking bullets mixed with some blood. Izuku grabbed his lighter from the air, the rune Swolio glowing as he used Flash Air to displace the oxygen with chlorine trifluoride and ignited it. The space between them exploded into fire so hard it pushed Izuku back and forced him to use his cane as an anchor, "is a weak brat like YOU-"
"Hurting you? Izuku finished, "because I have friends more powerful than both of us. And that's all I need."
"You're weak!" Gut was on Izuku in the time it took for him to blink, claws raking at the shirt of his Mystic Code as he went, "Where's your Servants to cower behind, Midoriya? That's all you're good for! Being coddled by ghosts because your not strong enough to do your own work-!"
"I'm strong because of them!" Izuku jerked up, headbutting Gut, "They're not just my Servants. They're my friends, my teachers and my loved ones! And you hurt Mash! I can never, ever forgive you for that-!"
"And yet here you are," Gut sneared, tearing through Izuku's shirt and into his side with razor sharp claws, "Fighting alone!"
"He's not alone, he's fighting with a friend," Gut turned in time to take a strike from Pepe, sending him flying off Izuku as he marched forwards, "take a moment to recover, Izuku. I have a conversation I need to have with Beryl."
- X Pepe X-
Pepe's Reinforcement Magecraft was at maximum as he weaved around each strike from Beryl, his eyes burning with so many emotions, "Why'd you do it, Beryl? We were your friends, and you betrayed us."
"And you killed your entire fucking family, so drop the self righteous bullshit already," Beryl growled, having shifted fully into a wolfman.
"And how do you know that?" Pepe demanded, the false whimsy in his voice dying entirely as he drove a fist into Beryl's still healing neck, listening to him choke and gag, "actually… I don't think I want you talking anymore. I'm just going to end you. Goodbye, Ber-
Pepe dodged the next attack as quickly as he could, feeling the claws rake against his side. Beryl had accelerated, forcing Pepe to do the same with Iddhi-vidha. Out of the corner of his eye, Pepe watched Izuku pull out a heavy revolver. Then he grabbed Beryl by the right arm, twisting so they were behind each other and snapped it out of the socket. Beryl howled, whipping towards him and lunging for his throat at speeds so fast Pepe wasn't able to keep up beyond pushing himself back.
They both fell over, Pepe lying on the ground and staring up at Beryl as he slowly began to lose what little human features he had. Clawed toes dug into the pink haired Crypter's chest.
And Pepe lashed up, holding Beryl in place with his enhanced strength as the jaw bit into him. It hurt.
But probably not as much as the six heavy bullets that blew through the three hundred pound wolf and knocked it off of Pepe. Pepe pushed himself up against the nearest tree as Izuku rushed over to him, blood pouring down his neck.
"Hey," Izuku said, trying to staunch the bleeding and holding his communicator to his mouth. Pepe had always hated it. So uninspired, "Da Vinci-Chan, Captain, we need a med-evac!"
"Your vitals are fine," a voice started.
"Not for me," Izuku started, and Pepe grabbed the foolish boy and threw him aside as the wolf barreled straight through where he had been. And into Pepe with several loud, harsh cracks, jaws clapping around his throat.
"NO!" Izuku fumbled with the revolver and a speed loader, aiming it at Beryl.
- X Izuku X-
Twelve bullets. Made from Mystic Gunpowder from the Land of Beasts. Enchanted by Skadi. Crafted from shards of metal from the Land of Unified Knowledge. Fired with a gun enhanced by Ares Klironomia. Hollow points stuffed with monkshood from Camelot. Six Lostbelts, over a year of his life, had led up to this point
And in the end, Izuku was standing still as a giant wolf barreled straight for him again. Like he hadn't learned a thing in all that time. Maybe he hadn't. He just…
He wanted to be the hero. To save someone for once. Like he hadn't been able to for Roman, for Patxi, for Gerda, for Asha.
...That was a lie, right now. He wasn't here to be a hero. He was here because Gut had tried to hurt Mash, the girl who protected him through thick and thin, the girl he loved. His best friend and his partner through thick and thin.
Two of the daggers of the Spiritfuge slammed into Gut's eyes, gouging them out and stopping him for a second. Izuku leveled the gun-
And then the daggers, never meant to stop more than a human wraith and already worn from stopping Demonic Beasts in Babylonia, exploded. Which, on the upside, meant Gut probably wasn't ever going to recover from those injuries… assuming werewolves didn't have regeneration.
On the downside, it meant the frozen form of Gut resumed moving, barreling straight for Izuku. Pulling the trigger as fast as he could, Izuku watched holes tear into Gut's frame. The wolf shrank, finally returning to the black haired human form of the Crypter as they crashed into each other. Beryl's hand reached up, tearing one of the broken Spiritfuge daggers from his face and swinging for Izuku.
Izuku slammed his cane into the side of Gut's head, sending him flying off the Last Master and forcing them to both scramble up.
"Just give up!" Izuku ordered, "You're dead. There's poison from Wolf's Bane and Gandr curses going through your veins! Just give it up, Gut!"
"So what if I'm dead!" Gut laughed, spinning Izuku's knife and sniffing the air, "That just means I'm gonna drag you to hell with me! Come on, Izuku!"
And then he was rushing towards Izuku, swinging the broken Spiritfuge at his chest, Izuku slammed his cane into Gut's head, dodging several swings the best he could.
Unfortunately, at the third swing, the hollow metal crutch, never meant for a reinforced human (in hindsight, he really should have reinforced it too) smashing it into a werewolf, bent with a shrieking of metal. Izuku stared at it in horror, before tossing it aside and tackling Gut to the ground. Ehwaz hardened leather gloves smashed into his face as Izuku lay into him.
"No more," Izuku muttered with each punch, voice rising in tempo with each swing. For Mash. For Kirschtaria. For Pepe. For every person in this Lostbelt and any other he had hurt people in, "No more! No More! NO MORE! NOMORENO-"
"IZUKU!" The Master blinked as Nightingale grabbed his hands. What, what was she doing here… "He's dead. Izuku. He's hea- dead."
The slip of the tongue caused Izuku's eyes to roll back towards Gut. And his stomach promptly rolled. Had he… had he done that…?
Gut's head was practically pulverized. No, not practically, it was pulverized. Grey and red and white mixed with torn skin and… and…
Izuku wretched in Nightingale's arms.
"Asclepius," she said, voice so soft Izuku almost thought she was Mercèdés again, "I'm going to take Izuku back to the Border… he… he needs rest, for the moment."
"Have Beni-Enma make some katsudon and Nemo Bakery some hot chocolate," the man said, kneeling over Pepe's… Pepe's body, "I'm going to stay here and try and revive Peperoncino… I'll bring theit bodies."
"Leave… leave Gut's," Izuku managed to croak as he was lifted into a bridal carry by Nightingale.
"Right, then I'll retrieve the Spiritfuge and return to the Border," Asclepius, "Just… rest and relax Izuku. You're not severely hurt, but that's what you need. Rest and relaxation."
"I… ok," Izuku said, "Ok…"