My name is Isaac Green. In the world I come from, humanity was once pushed to the brink of extinction, until the Seven Mages appeared and brought us the art of Guncraft. Humanity gained the ability to fight back the horrors of the world, and ultimately, the first nations reappeared. Between them, and beyond their grasp, extends the Frontier, the unclaimed land of beasts and outlaws.

I lived on the edge of the Frontier when one day my town was attacked by the monsters of the Frontier. The Outlaws came afterwards, carrion birds collecting the spoils left behind. One of those spoils was me.

I joined them, rode with them, learned from them, made myself a name in infamy. I became the right hand man of their leader eventually. When he died in a shoot out, he passed his gun and the gang to me.

I'm Isaac Green, wanted in six states with the nickname of Isaac the Green Scar. Thief, murderer, hunter. An outlaw that takes what he wants and punishes those that deserve it. A hero and a monster, depending on who I fight.

I'm free.

And there is nothing else I would rather be.

Isaac turned the gun slightly. Two bullets left. He fired the piercing bullet, watching in surprise as the kid dodged to the side a second before the bullet crashed through the bench he was hiding behind. If he hadn't done that, it would have hit him in the spine and probably paralyzed.

He grimaced. Normally, he'd have hated to fight someone in a place like this. Being underground meant that using the explosive rounds to collapse the ceiling would be a terrible idea, and the benches and crates offered as much cover as his opponent wanted.

But he wasn't fighting because he had a reason, he was fighting because someone had enslaved him, and he wasn't about to make it an easy one. However, reading his orders as literally as possible could only take him so far before it counted as betrayal. Amazingly, he had thought that reading the order of 'killing Izo and his men' as implying the women could pass through was a flimsy bending of it, and yet he hadn't felt even a hint of pain from his Crest as he let the two girls pass by stopping only the boy.

He opened All for One, and touched his pocket for more bullets. The gun could fit as many and as different as he wanted, that was the entire point of its magic. All bullets for One gun, his predecessor had explained. He put in the rounds, trusting the gun's magic to adapt it to fire them. Without missing a beat, he popped back out and fired once more. The kid was still moving, but this time the round was a homing one he had stolen from Snipe at one of his last shoot outs before he got dragged here. He watched the kid scream and roll on the ground, landing behind a crate on the side of the room, when the bullet pierced his shoulder.

He grimaced. Since his summon he had used bullets only once before today, and he still felt like he didn't have enough. All for One was an amazing weapon, but even it could only work so long as he made more. Its Guncraft meant that so long as he had the gun he could copy any bullet it had ever shot provided he had the materials, but those were costly in this world, especially the alloys for the more fancy types. And he couldn't just raid a store to grab more.

He aimed once more and fired an explosive round. Those one where stolen from his old rival, the bounty hunter known merely as Kenneth Red Bomb. Apt name, even if he personally was getting used to fight him. He turned the drum to skip the next bullet and fired once more after confirming the explosion had not downed the target. The tracking bullet this time was stopped by a makeshift shield made from a broken bench. 'Smart kid, he figured out the weakness of Snipe's weapon faster than I did back home.'

He shot two more times, finishing the remaining Snipe bullets, and charged more, dodging the air attacks by jumping back behind cover. Toothslinger, Tori the Bloody, Seth the Hanger… The bullets slid in one by one, along with Muscular's own. That one was more of a good luck charm if he had to be honest, but it never hurt to have it. He had gotten his name from it after all.

'Aight kid. Let's see how long you last.'

Isaac turned around, and fired once more. The Hanger's Guncraft was a weird thing, a bullet that left behind a sticky line as it flew. Hard to see, resistant enough to make someone trip, and sticky like a spider web. As the kid rushed past it, he expected to see him trip, but instead he suddenly jumped over the line, like he had seen it. Frowning but not missing his chance anyway, the gunslinger shot again, this time a bullet from Tori. The crazy woman had made her Guncrafted weapon to shoot bullets that induced bleeding, and boy did they work well. He looked as the shot entered in the boy's right leg. After a moment, it released needles that burst out of his skin and costume. He knew for experience more were still inside. The cry of pain of the kid as he stumbled behind a bench reminded him of his own. 'A shot to the head with those and you are dead, but the real mean thing is that even if they hit you in a non-lethal spot you are bound to hurt with every movement you make.'

He waited, before deciding the boy was now holed. 'If the boss wanted him dead, I could just end this with an explosive bullet. Or I could have finished it with the first homing bullet. Heck, even a shotgun round could take him down if I venture closer. But I need him captured, so…' He rummaged in his back pocket and pulled out six large bullets filled to the brim with some sort of liquid, visible through the casing. 'Well doc, time to use yours.' He decided, lodging them in the weapon and jumping down from the altar.

'Let's end this."

-x-

Ken Kin'suji, better known as Muscular, rushed forward, grinning. The armor moved around him, the nanomachines sliding up and down following the orders from his brain. He really had to thank the scientist at Masako Enterprises that thought it was a good idea to get the word out about the experimental armor, and the guy that had paid him to break in and steal it only to then try and kill him.

The MSK-R was a beautiful thing, a nanomachine armor connected directly to the user's brain. The little metallic particles moved through someone's body and hardened it underneath, or emerged from it to form a full armor capable to shift in shape. Ken didn't care about the pain that much, although other people would have probably been intimidated by how they could feel the nanomachines rush through his muscle fibers and blood vessels. Not that it mattered now anyway, since he had engaged the full armor.

He reshaped the nanites on his left knuckle and watched them turn into minute chainsaws that he promptly brough down on the opponent's blade. Most metals would have snapped against his attack or the subsequent grinding, but whatever the sword was made of it didn't budge even slightly. He couldn't even tell if there were any scratches on it. 'Stupid magic.' He grunted, turning his other fist in a knuckleduster-shaped protrusion and bringing it down, making the weapons clash. His opponent, the Midorikawa of this universe, moved back, gasping for air.

The sword of his opponent bumped on his arms time and again, and he felt a shock of electricity. The MSK-R was a prototype when he had stolen it, and even if Giran had given a touch or two at the armor it still lacked not only much of the software of normal Combat Armors, but also some common hardware. He had no idea how many nanites were being fried to absorb the blows, or how much damage the armor overall was taking, but he knew he still had the upper hand. It was going to take some time, but the armor was going to replenish them if given the necessary components.

He glanced at the samurai and his fight with the blonde swordsman. It was odd to think Moonfish of all people happened to be this kind of person in another world. He watched his sword grow noticeably longer, until he was holding a nodachi in both hands to attack. The thief responded moving back and launching a throwing knife, that embedded itself in the samurai's arm. Undeterred, the man – the Ripper, if he wanted to use the name their summoner had given them – just pulled it out and sheathed the sword, taking out the second one. There was some magic going on with that, since the blade had been broken before, but Muscular had no idea what it was.

His attention returned to his own opponent, but mostly to gloat. The sword had been impacting for a while on his nanite defense, and it hadn't done anything. "Don't you think it's time to give up?" He asked.

"You are right. Looks like you will cost me more magic than I hoped." The man replied, which confused Muscular. 'Doesn't matter.' He thought, bringing down his beloved Chainsaw Fist. The Midorikawa shouted something, and the blade blocked the chainsaws.

Muscular grinned, before feeling heat. Not completely unexpected since the two were impacting like that, but this felt different. He had just a second to realize what was going on before a ball of fire surrounded him.

-x-

"Izo!" Dekirn jumped back, ignoring the samurai as he tried to make it out of the area surrounded in the explosion of fire. The swordsman the blonde had been fighting clearly realized the situation since at the same time he launched himself away.

The fire devoured most of the room, the heat almost unbearable even from the distance. It was a spell, a high level one that Dekirn couldn't really recognize since he wasn't a magic user. Whatever it was, it had scorched the entirety of the room, reducing anything in its path into smoldering ashes. 'It has to be enough…'

The thought died on his lips as he watched in horror as a shadow emerged from the fire. With a wide grin on his face, Muscular roared in triumph, holding One for All in his hand, Izo dangling from it. The blood on his face explained clearly what had happened, the sign of a punch strong enough to have broken his nose. The masked giant grinned even more before throwing bot to the ground and bringing his fist down once more. Dekirn launched one of his knives, but the blonde batted them away with a hand. "I give it to you, Midorikawa, you costed me more nanites than I thought a swordsman from a backwater world would." He commented calmly, and Dekirn noticed it was true. The armor had noticeable patches missing, although the remaining parts kept shifting to block incoming projectile. His attempt at throwing another knife impacted only the armor as it quickly closed in to prevent it from hitting.

Muscular brought up his fist, to deliver the final blow, when Izo finally spoke. "I knew one predecessor wouldn't be… enough…" He stood back up, Muscular looking at him with an amused look. "But the first weakened you, and the eighth will end it."

The sword started to glow white, as Izo chanted once more. "Oh Hero of the Great Tundra, Eighth wielder of the Sword of Mankind, grant me the power to slay my foe."

"Eh. Neat parlor trick kid." The man replied, and brought down his fist. Izo brought up his sword, and once more the two impacted. "It won't end any different than it did before!"

"It will…" Izo muttered, and yet Dekirn heard his words clearly "Because the Eighth wielder… was the greatest of us all…"

Then the ice came. Spreading from the sword, a rush of pure cold surrounded Izo, dissolving the heat in the room. Muscular grinned. "That's all? An air conditioner does the same thi-" he started to say, and never said anything else as the ice enveloped his arm and head completely. Izo's own arm was completely covered in it as well, and Dekirn watched in horror as it started to spread on both.

"Stop it, Izo! It will kill you! He is already…"

"Not yet. I need him… completely frozen." Izo grunted, the ice now spread to his shoulder and down his back. Only then did Dekirn realize that the unfrozen parts of the armor were fighting back, moving up and down along the freezing edge, carving at the ice in an attempt to free their user. "Dekirn, the Samurai!"

The blonde thief snapped out of his thoughts and turned to his left, seeing the warrior rush at Izo with a pair of katanas, now repaired once more.

He didn't need further reasons to move. He went for a throwing knife, but found his belt empty and cursed, rushing in with his rapier. The weapon aimed at the warrior's chest, but one of the two short blades came up, now the length of a knife, and Dekirn watched in horror as the weapon carved the rapier, cutting through it. 'He could always do this…'

"The shorter the blade, the stronger it is. With this length and enough strength, it can cut through normal metal. Or ice." The man murmured, before launching the other at Izo, the blade shining deadly. Dekirn shouted as the weapon flew towards the Hero of Colfire and tried to rush to his help. Izo saw it coming, but was still trapped in the ice of the Eighth's spell.

"Izo!"

Thud.

And the sword, thrown with enough strength, entered cleanly in Izo's chest, like his armor and the ice above it weren't even there, like it was carving through butter.

Dekirn shouted once more as the Hero of Colfire fell to the floor vomiting blood, followed by the completely frozen body of his opponent.

-x-

"Well, aren't you a smart one?" Apocrypha asked staring at Todoroki as he walked up the stairs. The man did his best to appear intimidating as he made it to the top of the stairs, but Apocrypha could tell his ice snakes had bit him at least once just by looking at his swollen leg.

"Not that hard to figure out. You had to be close to be using that ice magic of yours, otherwise you would have done the same against Shor and Dekirn." He chuckled "Guess you weren't there?"

"I was supposed to help the new… Claw get out if stuff got complicated, and it didn't." He replied, too defensively. Apocrypha bit his lip. Why was he worried about facing this man? Back in his world, he wasn't scared of anything. He was one of the youngest summoners to successfully rise in the ranks of the Company until he got his own Lower Title. He was Apocrypha, the prime candidate to replace one of the Chapters if they were to die. Why then, was he afraid of this man?

The answer was obvious. Because this man wasn't a Summoner like him. Because everyone in this world had different, alien abilities he didn't understand.

But in face of all this, Apocrypha felt also… excited. Back home, there were no great challenges. Sure, back home the Company had its enemies, but he was strong. Here he was facing challenges he had never met before. This Todoroki guy was just the newest.

He opened his hands, a veritable rain of marbles falling to the ground. Todoroki cursed and unleashed his fire once more, his fire that didn't come from a construct or a summon of any kind, but Apocrypha just dove behind the closest open door, rolling behind a table and taking cover before activating his magic. He felt the usual drop of mana as the summoned beasts took shape and heard Todoroki curse once more. Good. Now if the Bell Witch could just help, that would be better.

Right on cue, he heard the laughter and a sound he had come to associate with objects flying against the target. Apocrypha dared to rush out of the door, running for the next cover with literal fire rushing after him. He activated his mana once more, restoring a large bear construct just long enough to block the fire as he dove to the stairs to the upper floor.

"Stop!" Todoroki shouted, but Apocrypha simply ignored him and the surge of ice that took his feet. With a sad laugh, he jumped, leaving behind both shoes and the feet inside. After all, he had lost the real deal years ago, walking on constructs of ice since then. A harsh memento of his only failure. He quickly used mana to create a new set to run on and rushed away, the man cursing behind him and the Bell Witch laughing.

-x-

Reiko Yanagi, the Bell Witch, let out an uproarious laughter as she looked at Todoroki's face in disbelief.

"Oh my god, you should see your expression!" She shouted, tears in her eyes, "Come on, 1-B boy, try to consider the villains also get wounded."

"I never doubted that for a second." The man replied, "That's why I know I can win."

The rush of ice was sudden for most people, but Reiko had already fought Shoto Todoroki. Or well, a nearly identical Shoto, just several years younger. She dove to a side room, a large bedroom, and quickly opened the wardrobe, slipping through it and in the hidden passage to the next room over. She grinned. Her new boss had some interesting ancestors and she had spent a lot of times studying the hidden doors they had left behind. She probably knew the house better than him.

That brough a bitter taste to her lip. She pretended he was her boss, yes, but in truth he was her owner. Once more, Reiko had a leash around her neck, and this time it wasn't metaphorical.

When she was four, Reiko Yanagi had unlocked her Quirk. Telekinesis, something inherited by her mother's side. She was overjoyed, and didn't spend a day without using it. That is, until the fire. The memories Reiko had of that night were hazy, but she could definitely remember how she dreamed of playing with some of her kitchen tools, including a lighter. Since then, even when the police had ruled out the incident as an accident, she couldn't help but wonder if in her dreams she had actually used her powers to set off the fire that killed her family.

She had been the only survivor. A Hero had found her, dragged her out and brought her to a good orphanage.

She had been thankful to the famous Mr. Compress. When she had found out he was a teacher at UA, she had decided to become a Hero. But even Mr. Compress hadn't saved her. He had just given her away like a pack and then forgotten. He hadn't checked to make sure the orphanage found her a good family, and so they hadn't.

The man that bought Reiko was the owner of an entertainment establishment. Or so he liked to call it. In reality, he was a man that by day ran a gym and by night ran an underground cage fighting ring. Reiko, six years old, was brought into that maddening world. Apparently, a lot of sickos were more than happy to watch kids that could barely control their powers slug it out.

Her exhibitions were staged of course. She was the heel to Setsuna's ace. Her adoptive sister, though Reiko never saw her that way, her heart never saw her that way. She was the same age, but everything Reiko wasn't. Confident, strong, decisive. Reiko lost time and again, but Setsuna always picked her up and smiled at her and the crowd.

Reiko grew stronger. She developed her fighting style in those ten years, based on moving objects around and sneaking out of view. Her 'sisters' – Setsuna above all – encouraged her.

Then she was sold again. Her ratings were going down, more and more people had figured out she was a staged fighter since she kept losing to Setsuna, and her father called her a 'closed asset'. So she was sent to someone else. A yakuza boss aspiring to take on the Shie Hassaikai and replace them as rulers of the underworld wanted underlings.

He was cruel. He was violent. He did things Reiko hated.

Reiko had to grow stronger yet, and she did. Strong enough to kill him and run. At fifteen, she had killed ten men in her escape, five more to survive, and was being hunted by both the Yakuza and the Police. The very Hero she admired had cornered her once. He didn't even remember her.

She was desperate.

Until that guy showed up. A blonde of her same age, with a stupidly useful power, gently welcomed her. He told her it would all be ok. For the first time, Reiko had been truly saved, rather than helped and abandoned. By a villain.

Reiko Yanagi died that day, a discarded skin on the side of the road, broken and battered beyond recognition. From that molt, the Bell Witch emerged. She was all she ever wanted to be. All she was ever going to be.

She had been free. She had found Setsuna once more. She had killed the man that bought and sold her, freeing both. They were happy, even if they were criminals. Until once more, a leash had been put on her neck.

-x-

Todoroki ignored the room the girl had jumped into, merely freezing its entrance, and rushed to the next over. His guess was right, and watched as Reiko seemed to just appear in the room, a sliding panel in the wall quickly closing behind her. He grinned and rushed forward as she cursed.

The Bell Witch of course unleashed a veritable rain of objects at him, every single piece of furniture in the room flying around like a tornado, but he had figured out her trick. She was always hurling objects and using distractions to make him change what he was looking at and allow her to slip away. Not this time.

Todoroki's ice formed in the shape of a shield around his back and his right arm. His left arm burst into fire, trying to melt everything that would try to pass through. Of course, that side wasn't perfect and some objects made it through. A pen planted itself in his arm. A cup hit him in the head, exploding in a rain of ceramic and scratching his face. But Todoroki didn't stop.

Reiko and him in high school were both long range fighter, and if he had figured out something, was that the girl came from a world where he too was still in high school. In class 1-B, if her comment was any indication. Which meant, she knew how to deal with him at long range, but he could tell she had no idea of why he would rush close.

His left hand moved back, and he let the temperature in it drop. His father had created the Flashfire Fist by condensing his fire to reach unimaginable heat. He did the opposite.

When his fist was a inch from Reiko's chest, ice started to creep up, surrounding her. Todoroki's Flashfreeze Fist was a dangerous technique. It could kill if he used it wrong, since he would just freeze the entire body of anyone he touched to the core, and he didn't want to do that. Not here. Not on a girl with eyes that mocked him and cried for help at once. He had been a Hero that had seen so many that needed saving, before committing the mistakes that had made him who he was now. For once, he was going back to his Heroic days.

He aimed the cold wind at the air itself, forming a layer of ice, expanding it around Reiko like a cold embrace and then into the wall behind her turning it into a prison. The girl coughed, but as Todoroki pulled his fist back she was completely blocked in the ice now, with only her face free from the embrace. Her expression was of terrified surprise, and he could understand why. The Flashfreeze Fist was something he had only figured out a few years before. Her Todoroki certainly had never done anything like this.

"You bastard…"

"Sleep now. The others will free you soon." He replied, then knocked her out with a normal punch.

As he watched her fall into unconsciousness, he wondered what she was thinking. If she was thankful to be promised saving or if she was angry for being defeated.

'Good luck.' He thought. Then he rushed back out of the door, dissolving a few constructs and climbing the stairs. The Bell Witch was down. Now the Ice Wizard.

-x-

Ojiro dodged the beast's claw, panting. The blood from his shoulder wasn't stopping, and the Thunderclap wasn't really working anymore. Either the monstrous Toga he was fighting had gone completely deaf, or she was getting used to the sudden burst of sound.

Ojiro narrowly bent under the kick that came forward and punched three times in quick succession, a move that normally would have knocked out any untrained opponent. The jabs were absorbed by Toga's chest, and he couldn't help but notice she had incredibly well-developed muscles in the area. It was like hitting Muscular's arms, a bundle of unshakable strength. 'Must be because she needs them to fly.' He thought, before bending backwards to dodge a bite that otherwise would have ripped his face out. He tried to reply with a palm strike to the jaw, but Toga moved, either out of instinct or natural agility, managing to only get grazed. She probably hadn't even felt it.

It was more than discomforting. The girl was absolutely terrifying, biting and clawing at him like she had no other interest, and all with one of the creepiest smiles Ojiro had ever seen.

It was like going back to his early career, when the world was right, Heroes were Heroes and Villains were Villains. He had fought Toga back then once, and she was the same. In her youth, she was dangerous, but also excitable. She would laugh gleefully as she stabbed someone, and Ojiro remembered how disturbing it was. Not as disturbing as what she had done later, once she had matured in some ways and gone mad in others, but still something he'd rather not remember at all.

He quickly moved back extending the distance and trying to cast Magic Missile. The dart of pure magical energy rushed forward, but his opponent saw it coming and blocked it with her wings, crossing her arm to form a shield. Ojiro grunted. That was the problem really. The wings' membrane was surprisingly good to absorb blows, almost like hitting leather, and Toga wasn't shy at using them, blocking any attack she could with them.

His following attempt at casting Lightning was stopped by Toga's mad rush forward, a sort of jump done using her arms to launch herself at him, a movement Ojiro was quickly understanding to be her way of running. Primal, like everything else about her. She roared as she rushed forward and almost bit his arm off, Ojiro just narrowly avoiding by back stepping once more. He glanced behind, noting that they had noticeably moved down the tunnel. He could try to push all the way back to Dekirn and Izo in hope of getting help maybe, but he was more likely to get lost. He knew there were a number of bifurcations before the room the two had been fighting into and without Kikora he wasn't sure he could remember the road.

The problem was, in the small space of a corridor that was at most three meters large and four meters tall, Toga had an indisputable advantage. He watched her jump on the wall and launched a Lightning, but she simply jumped once more and grasped on the roof, moving forward like she had done when first rushing to fight them, while the lightning impacted uselessly the stone where she had perched before. To her, roof, floor and walls were all the same.

His Shield proved a better spell, preventing Toga from lurching at him from the roof, her claws grating against the invisible barrier. However, he knew playing defensive was only going to work for so long, and he was starting to feel exhausted. He looked at the ever growing pull of blood that had once been his shirt. 'It's not closing at all. Do bats' bites stop clotting?' Then it clicked 'Of course, she is a vampire bat. I bet those have that kind of ability, since they eat blood in real life. Like mosquitos, I guess.'

That was about all Ojiro knew about vampire bats though. He really wished he paid more attention when they watched documentaries in high school. Maybe he would be more prepared to face a Tiger Vampire. Or maybe not. That wasn't an animal after all.

He clenched his teeth as the Shield dissolved and he took a decision. A painful one, a dangerous one, but his only way out.

He rushed closer, feinting a kick but then using a right hook. His left shoulder was left open, the scent of blood attracting Toga. Her bite came down.

Ojiro shouted as the teeth closed themselves once more around the already wounded body part, but he fought through the pain. He freed his right arm from a claw, blood gushing from that wound as well, and started to move his hands. He failed the first time, trembling too much.

'Push through, Ojiro…' He thought, keeping his mind from thinking of the horrible sound the girl was making as she licked her blood, from the tongue darting up and down and from the ecstatic expression she wore, 'Push through the pain…'

He did it once more, this time succeeding as he muttered the words. A Lightning struck.

The beast instantly tried to pull back, but he put his left arm around her neck and held her tightly on his wounded shoulder as the Lightning coursed through her and then back to him. They both screamed, but he didn't let go, keeping up the spell as much as he could.

The fall came right after the spell ended. Electrocuted, bloodied, wounded, Ojiro fell to the ground. Incapable to move, he watched his opponent. She was on the floor on her back, unmoving. He dared hope it was enough, then she twitched.

"Prey…" She muttered.

'No…' He thought, trying to stand once more. Trying to fight. Trying to force himself to at least run.

His body didn't move, the blood loss painting the floor red. He watched the creature rise, battered, face paralyzed in that terrifying smile that so resembled the one that haunted his nightmares, but still not only alive but moving. He closed his eyes.

'I'm dying?' He wondered hazily, his mind seeming to slip away. 'Dying to… Toga…'

The last time he had faced Toga came back to mind. That small room where a man dressed like a vagrant was stabbed in the chest by the ghost of his own wife. A wife that same woman and Overhaul had killed.

'Yui…' The sun of his life, his shining star, taken away by a man with a bird mask and a mad woman. He felt tears in his eyes. 'Is it fate Yui? Was I supposed to die that day? Did you give me an extension by taking my place?'

He groaned, and slowly pushed himself up, mechanically, like a man possessed. 'I can't die yet…' He thought, ignoring the veritable rain of blood that rushed down from his arm, painting even more an already red floor. He opened and closed his fingers. Still working, even if barely. '… Not until… Overhaul… All For Deku… Toga… Not until… They pay for her…'

The Toga he was fighting, the incarnation of Himiko Toga's most basic instincts rolled in a single monster, rushed forward, snarling madly as she jumped, roaring once more in triumph as her left claws ripped through his face. He felt a gush of blood, and the left side of his face went dark. A pain immeasurable hit him, something that normally would have made him stop. His hands moved and he lunged forward with a roar of his own, a roar that contained the words he needed to do once more what he had done before. Even if this Toga ripped off half of his face, even if he had just lost an eye judging by the lack of vision and the pain, even if what was going to coming would have killed him, he wasn't going to give up. He completed the gestures as he went, and embraced Toga in the tightest grip he could muster.

Lightning struck once more, and they both screamed as the electricity coursed through both bodies.

Then the corridor went completely silent.

-x-

"It's there!" The elf shouted as they finally left the tunnel. The girl next to her sighed as they emerged in what seemed to be a barn. It was a rather large construction, the sides lined with horses that didn't seem fazed at their arrival from a stair on what was supposed to be a full floor. A secret door someone had left open on purpose.

A door she had left open on purpose. She looked to the large carriage next to her, ready to depart the moment things went south. She kept her position, hidden in the shadow of one of the empty boxes the horses were supposed to rest in.

Staring at the girls, he thought both had to be in their teens, then remembered what he had heard about the elves. How they looked young but were usually over one hundred years old. She steeled herself. Her old boss knew she didn't go after kids, but this one didn't.

He looked at him elegantly step out of the carriage and she felt nauseous seeing his large, confident smile. She got a glimpse of the kid as well, caged on the inside of the carriage, trembling in fear, begging for help.

"Welcome." The man said, a bold expression on his face. He passed a hand through his orange hair and his black eyes scanned them both. "Ah, Kikora. I should have expected you I suppose."

"Lord Arkin. You are under arrest for using a forbidden spell, attempted regicide, and several counts of murder. You are also formally accused of a connection with the Demon King. As you were using a Summoner Crest, all crimes committed by those you forced into service fall on your hands. You are allowed to surrender with the promise of not being harmed further."

The man smiled calmly, almost jovially. "Ah, Kikora, my dear, how ironic you would be the one that comes to capture me. After all, it was my men that helped Ser Izo of Greenvalley in freeing you."

"Only because those men were working in your lands. You didn't do anything. Izo did."

"Give up now!" The girl next to her shouted. "You are alone, and frankly weaker than us! We will take you out, so why even bother?!"

The assassin couldn't help but notice how similar to her own kid she was. The same rash temper, the same lack of any tact. Well, she hadn't yet told him to die, and she was younger, but still… 'No, ignore it. I don't have the luxury to play nice here.'

The man meanwhile faked offence, but all his voice produced was contempt, all his eyes showed was anger. She hated him. Hated him so much. She wanted nothing more than to drive her gauntlet through his chest for taking her away from her family. And yet, that accursed Crest forced her to obey him.

"I see you have made a choice then. Unfortunate. Kill them, Claw."

Mitsuki Bakugou tried to think of a way to twist the orders, but nothing came to mind. She closed her eyes and breathed in, leaving behind any hesitation.

The Prowler rushed forward.

(xx)

First thing first, big thanks to TheInfamousMan for giving me permission to use Mitsuki Bakugou/The Prowler. While it's not exactly the same Prowler - similar difference between, say, Peter Parker and Peter B. Parker, though less marked due to a far shorter age gap - the fact I could include a character based on Amazing Fantasy, his great MHA/Marvel fic, is really great.

I also want to thank Pro-Man and Quantum01 for giving permission to include content from the Green Scar, the two MHA/SVTFOE fics, though as you might notice right now that is limited to the nickname floating in the Multiverse. (As a fun fact, Usagi and Bloody from the Green Scar fic were actually both considered as candidates for the Beast, before I decided that it risked of unbalancing the bout too much. Of course, for using those I would ask first to make sure it's ok).

Now, as for this chapter, the fights are mostly coming to an end, though I am not sure in the way you expected. Muscular is actually the strongest melee fighter Arkin summoned, though the Prowler is a close contender, so the fight turned bloody pretty fast. Ojiro was technically overpowered, but magic saved him, as much of a toll as it took to do so, and Todoroki managed to take down Reiko, and now only has to deal with Apocrypha.

I actually flip-flopped a bit on giving Reiko's backstory, but there were reasons that made me think it was best to do it now. It also gives more of a look into her universe.

As for Isaac Green, we finally meet the Izuku the Gunman, and learn his combat style based on the magic science of guncraft. Optional fun fact, there is an actual Westernverse out there, where Quirks are used in the Far West setting, but the two shouldn't be confused. A shoot out between the two universes might be fun to see. But for now, we leave Izuku facing the magic gun.