"Can you do it any faster?" Nishiya asked, stepping back, and Ojiro grimaced.
"I would if I could, but this isn't an easy spell to use."
"You literally invented it!" Nishiya barked, as he made two trees extend their branch together to chop in half a pair of demons.
"That's why I know it isn't an easy spell… Alright, got it!" He planted his hand on the symbol he had drawn on the ground, and a lightning fell from the sky, hitting him.
"Please tell me you didn't just electrocute yourself."
"It stung a bit." Ojiro admitted, standing back up with a grin, "But this… Well, this works."
-x-
"Izu!" Ojiro grabbed the teen and smiled, dragging him into a hug, "Oh man, you sure have been growing up."
"… It's been two weeks?"
"I swear you feel heavier." Ojiro replied with a grin.
"Ah, that, yeah… That's not exactly a 'growing' thing."
"I think he has a point to be honest." Itsumi replied, "Aren't you just taller? You have caught up with me at least."
"Teens that train grow fast." Ojiro nodded.
"I trained too!"
"I guess Izu is just training harder then." Ojiro chuckled at her expression, "Ugh, what am I going to do with you kids? If you keep training so hard, you will leave me behind."
Itsumi laughed, "Come on, you have been working on your magic skills for a while now. Doesn't Urane say you are a good student all the time?"
"She does? She usually yells at me for being too slow at learning something."
"That's what teachers do, you have to read between the lines." Itsumi replied with a wink.
"Well…" Ojiro smiled, "I did learn a fair bit about making my own spells. What about you, Izu?"
"Ah, I've unlocked another Quirk inside One for All… And I… I kinda have nonamachinesinmybody…" He mumbled the last part, but Ojiro and Itsumi heard it alright.
"You what?!" They both shouted.
"I didn't install them on purpose!"
"I mean, I'm not angry about it." Ojiro said, "It's just surprising. So, what can you do with them? Are they an armor like that Muscular's?"
Izuku launched into an explanation of his nanomachines. In return, Itsumi was more than happy to talk about her own training, her new Support Items and what she could do with it.
Ojiro smiled watching the two. It reminded him of simpler times, before the world went insane and they were dragged in a dystopia. When a class of kids their same age would come together to brag about their skill and listen to the others. Bakugo would always be the loudest about his own accomplishment, while he'd have to push Todoroki to explain his own new abilities. Ojiro… Well, he was always happy to chip in with his own martial arts, but he knew those were pretty ordinary.
This time, though, he did have something flashy to show off.
-x-
Ojiro grinned, a new tail protruding from his back. Not one made of flesh and bones, but one made of electricity, a lightning coalesced by magic into the shape of the appendage he had lost so long ago. He grinned and charged forward, spinning and hitting the closest Demon.
A normal tail would have pushed him back, but this tail was made of pure electricity. Instead, it discharged on him, muscles spasming and flesh burning as the charge went through his body. Ojiro watched the Demon fall to the ground, paralyzed, and followed with a finishing blow to the head, the electricity frying the creature's brain and killing it.
He looked at it. It was smaller now, but it still had a good amount of hits left. After that, he would have to use the spell again, but until then…
Well it did feel nice to be back in the game.
Then he heard a roar from behind. He turned to see a demon strangely covered in bandages, and slammed a fist on his face, sending it to slam against a tree whose branches extended to pierce the skull of the creature, before turning around to check for another one… only to hear a muffled groaning as the bandages-covered Demon struggled free, more bandages extending over his body and pushing the fragments of the skull, tying them back together.
"I'm sorry, but a mummy does not need a brain." A rough voice Ojiro recognized far too well said from the woods, he looked at the thick of the woods, and another large bandage shot out of them. Ojiro dodged out of the way, and instead the bandage grabbed a demon's corpse and started coiling around it like a snake. The demon gurgled and shifted, his limbs starting to moving again despite his body being shattered in half. "What a mess this is. The proper burial rites will have to wait, I suppose."
The man that emerged from the woods was Hound Dog, but he also clearly wasn't him. While he had Hound Dog's large physique, growling voice and some of his animalistic traits, his face was covered by a wooden canine mask and black long hair replaced Hound Dog's blonde mane. As he marched forward, Ojiro spotted the large scimitar – khopesh, was the proper name, Ojiro's mind supplied – and his arms were covered in large bandages, with some ending falling to his sides and most raising and floating, looking almost like snakes in the way they shifted and moved.
One of them dashed forward, grasping another demon's corpse. As it did, enveloping it, the Demon once again stood back up. No, the mummy.
"Your name?" Ojiro asked, even as Nishiya killed a demon.
"Runui, Guardian of the Tombs and First Follower of Anubis, Chief Embalmer of the Pharaoh and Slaughterer of Grave Robbers." The man grimaced, "I go by Anubis here, not by choice."
An unknown opponent, then. Someone the League had no information about. Ojiro turned, glancing at his companion as more demons charged them. "Nishiya."
"I know."
The man slammed both hands on the ground, and the trees all around them twisted and shifted, spiky branches emerging and shooting out toward all the remaining demons, living or mummies alike. Runui stepped back, using his khopesh to cut at the surviving branches, and soon enough every last Demon was dead, impaled through multiple parts of their body.
Ojiro smiled, standing up and moving next to Nishiya. "You alright?"
"Just… a moment…" He panted, "That was a lot of wood control all at once."
"I'll take care of him then."
"Him?" Runui asked with a smile, "You mean us. Wepwawet. Khenti-Amentiu." The shadows around him seemed to part as a large wolf and a black jackal marched to his side, growling as they stared at Ojiro. "And of course, all those poor souls."
The bandages burst forward, surrounding every single corpse. Ojiro swung his tail, burning the edge of a few and forcing them back, but apparently the electricity didn't travel through them.
Still, most of the bandages found their mark, surrounding the demons' bodies. The dead corpses started to struggle and shift.
Then the wolf howled, and at once the mummies seemed to struggle more viciously, more fiercely, ripping through the wood with no care for their own bodies, leaving limbs behind even as the bandages picked up broken branches and pushed them into place as rudimentary replacements.
"My duty is to prevent your passage and either capture or kill you." Runui replied, face unreadable behind the wooden mask, safe for the eyes that were those of a hunter, "I beg you to surrender and accept the former option. I can't assure my mummies and my companions won't slaughter you, and I was ordered to not hold back."
"I can't. Sorry." Ojiro replied, turning and using his lightning tail to hit the closer mummy. The corpse emitted a gurgling sound as its muscles spasmed and burned, falling to the ground before slowly standing back up.
"So be it then." Runui replied.
The jackal, the wolf and the priests entered the battlefield. Ojiro grimaced. Nishiya, next to him, stood back up and prepared to fight.
-x-
Izumi emerged from the woods and swung her wooden blade toward the closest opponent, without using her Contract yet. Fuyumi's armor protected her as she blocked the blow and she moved back. A follow-up shot from the gun of Izumi's unwanted companion, the man named Mustard, bounced off the armor, and another one missed Shinomori as he used One for All to move out of the way.
"Izumi!"
"Hi Fuyumi, Shinomori." The girl awkwardly saluted, "Uhm, you know what's going on, right?"
"Who are they, Violence? What can they do?" Mustard asked from further in the back.
"Fuyumi uses a sort of steam armor. She can do a lot of cool stuff, like jumping with it for long distances or shooting steam and hot water. Shinomori is the Fourth Wielder of One for All."
"… You had to?" Fuyumi asked.
"Sorry." She said, showing her hand, the kanji for Violence clearly visible on its back, "I'm kinda forced to."
Fuyumi sighed, "I know." And in a cloud of steam she charged forward, "So be a good girl and go to sleep fast."
If Izumi hadn't activated in advance I Fall Down, improving her kinetic vision enough to see the knee that was flying toward her face, she would have probably been knocked out then and there. Instead, she leaned back, letting the knee zoom right past her… only for Fuyumi's foot to explode forward in an eruption of steam and launch her toward Mustard, who had been keeping Shinomori busy by shooting him, despite Danger Sense preventing any bullet from hitting.
'Great, one is armored and the other can dodge his bullets.' She grumbled. Of course she would be essentially alone.
She activated Tutoria, pushing directly for the attack. Izumi knew Fuyumi enough to give her the respect the woman deserved. At the very least, she was as skilled as Izumi was. The delinquent parried a follow up punch with the wooden sword and slid it forward along the arm, aiming to hit the joint of her armor, near the armpit. She however slid back around, using a downward slash instead when she realized Fuyumi was about to close her arm and try to lock the sword in place. As she did so, she pivoted on her right foot, pulled back, and brought the sword back up, aiming for Fuyumi's jaw. The weapon hit, sending Fuyumi stumbling back, but the armor absorbed most of the blow. Still, that had to hurt, Izumi thought, so she lunged forward, unleashed a series of blows that had to hurt, armor or not.
Fuyumi seemed to agree, since the pipes on her back erupted forming a thick fog all around them as hot steam filled the whole area.
Izumi looked around, her guard up, her kinetic vision amplified.
She still almost missed the fist emerging from the cloud and aimed for her face. She managed to put her free hand in the way, but all that did was dampen the impact as the fist slammed into it, sending the back of her hand against her face, spurting blood from her nose and mouth as she was sent flying back. Only her swordsman skills allowed her to pivot herself down by using the blade as a balancing weight, landing on her feet.
She had no idea how Mustard was doing, but Izumi herself would have called her current situation, for lack of a better word, 'bad'. Or, 'good', if it wasn't for the fact surrender wasn't an option. She was forced to win, and that meant she had to do all she could. 'The problem here is that those people know everything about me. I don't have a power I can use to surprise them with, and since I can't win with Tutoria…'
Izumi sighed as Fuyumi emerged from the steam cloud again, preparing her gun, and she turned around, suddenly spotting Shinomori too.
She gasped, realizing what she could do and thus what her Crest would force her to do, and activated Sense of Wonderful, shouting out loud the effect even as she was hit again. Sense of Wonderful disturbed two senses of the target. Usually that meant sight, hearing, taste and so on…
But what happened when the target's power was literally called Danger Sense?
Shinomori seemed to realize what had happened. She wasn't sure what he was feeling exactly, but definitely nothing good.
And then, at the same time, Mustard unleashed two shots while Izumi, compelled by her own power, activated Triple Rifle and fired a bullet of her own – a real bullet, her gun had been changed for that specific reason – and activated Triple Rifle, the bullet splitting into three.
Shinomori's eyes went wide, Danger Sense unable to feel the multiple assault. He saw Mustard's shot, and used One for All to push himself out of the way, but even if Fuyumi shouted a warning, he wouldn't be able to dodge the bullets that were flying to his back.
Izumi's eyes went wide, expecting to see Shinomori's back explode in a rain of blood…
And then Shinomori vanished, before reappearing in front of Mustard and hitting him in the gut with a One for All-powered fist, panting, a smile on his face as Mustard slammed against a tree, flew through said tree, and landed against another, crumpling on the ground, hopefully just unconscious. After a moment that seemed to stretch for an eternity, she sighed in relief as the man started to breath.
Izumi and Fuyumi's eyes moved toward Shinomori, the man's hand trembling even as he stared at it. "I guess…" He panted, shaking slightly, "I guess my singularity came up a lot earlier."
Izumi looked carefully at him. Great, so now there was also that. Amazing, the situation got shittier by the second.
'Wait, why am I disappointed?' She thought, 'I should be happy, it means they can beat me more easily.'
Yeah, that was… good. Right?
Fuyumi attacking her, a fist flying for her temple to knock her out, pushed her back into the battle, interrupting her thought. Tutoria allowed her to push the sword she was still holding up, blocking the blow, and then she answered with another shot, the bullet immediately turning into three. Fuyumi didn't even feel it, the hits impacting the armor, and Izumi looked around. Shinomori was now charging at her, and Fuyumi was also pushing forward.
She had Tutoria, but she couldn't win with it. She had already wasted I Fall Down, and even if Sense of Wonderful could take out some of her opponents' senses, using other Deals to build on it meant giving up Tutoria for good.
She saw Shinomori mumble, a hand over his ear, and heard a low rumble to her right. Turning around, she saw Mustard was gone. She took a deep breath, and pointed her sword forward, while putting the gun back in its holster.
'Well, there is always that option…' She thought.
But she wouldn't do it unless she really needed it. The Crest allowed her at least that much.
-x-
Deku kicked toward a demon's head, the One for All-powered attack sending his opponent flying. It tried to stand back up, but that was when a thunder shot down from the sky, Nine incinerating the creature before it could try to stand back up.
The so called 'Garden' was large, bigger than the public parks Izuku had seen in the past. It was about a kilometer in radius, and eerily orderly. The reason was, apparently, the presence in the garden of entities created by magic purely to care for the garden. Apparently, those invisible caretakers were still making sure the place was spotless, even as the battle raged around them.
"Go low, Deku!" A voice shouted, and Izuku instinctively dodged low before an attack from Itsumi impacted the incoming Demon, the creature sent rolling off and promptly destroyed by another lightning, this one from the God of Thunder's hammer.
"Thank you, Itsumi." He said.
"Can't let you get all the fun, can I?" She asked, "You have gotten stronger. Nanomachines too? You really want to leave me in the dust." Itsumi smiled, "I will have to keep up."
"I know. Once we are done here, we can go back home maybe. I should be able to fight All for Deku now, and we have people to help."
"Not until we get rid of the True League and you have Teleport under control." Itsumi replied, and the two jumped back into the fight, Izuku sighing. She was right of course, but he really wanted to go back home. With no idea what All for Deku was up to, or what his friends were doing… He didn't know how much longer he could hold back before he just tried to go back either way.
He punched a Demon and the creature slammed in a nearby bush, the God of Thunder immediately completing the move with his own thunder before Itsumi had to shoot her Quirk. Not wanting to let it go to waste, she turned and aimed at one of the demons that were fighting Zombie, or more accurately Werewolf. The hit impacted with the creature's head and the Izuku planted his claws in the creature's skull using that opening, before howling as he turned around to face the next demon.
Deku meanwhile kicked his way past another group of two lesser demons and moved closer to Itsuka, in time to see her use what he assumed was a sword of Qi – he couldn't really see it – to chop off the head of a large rat-like demon. "We are slowing down." She noted, looking behind them. Sure enough, more demons were pouring in from the same gate where they had previously come from.
"The Forest team…"
"They are probably blocked. Those Demons are strugglers from the city, those that weren't caught in Canary's songs. We knew that would happen. It's just that it seems their numbers are pretty high. I think someone is giving them orders to converge here. And that means…" Deku pushed her out of the way, while jumping back, and a bullet struck where they had been a moment before. Looking up, Izuku spotted a familiar man wearing a cowboy hat, perched on the side of what looked like an elevator built to reach halfway to the Spire from the outside. "We are getting bottled in." She concluded, looking up, "And now they are sending in their reinforcements."
A flying overboard appeared from behind the tower, and behind it… "Is that Spider-Man?!" Their own Spider-Man shouted, finishing to tie up a demon and then slamming it into the ground, were it laid, either dead or too injured to recover, "Does that mean the other one is the Green Goblin?"
"Not now Spidey. We need to get to that tower, now." Itsuka said while slamming something in the chest of the next demon, right in the heart. The demon roared in pain as she pulled out what, judging by the shape of the hole, was a Qi lance. "If they bottle us in the garden, they can probably…"
"You have a bigger problem!" Hawks said, seemingly rushing out of the tower's door and directly in front of them, carrying an unconscious Apocrypha.
"Oh, you got one already?"
"It's easy when they have their back turned." He replied, pale and shaking. Deku turned back around suddenly, hitting a Demon that had charged close to them. By the time he turned around, he could see Itsuka's expression. Her worry was clear to see. "Shit… Alright, we really need to get in that tower before it's too late." Itsuka replied, remarkably non-plussed at the mention of a world-destroying entity currently being in said tower. "Hawks, what about Arkin and the child?"
"Are you crazy?! You are still thinking about that?!"
"Yes, and you should too. If we get Arkin, we can get rid of that thing before it's too late." She took a deep breath, patting Hawks on the shoulder, "We came to take care of a dragon and we got more than we bargained for. Typical, really. Why did I even think something would go my way…"
"I understand battle updates are important, but could you please go back fighting?!" The God of Thunder shouted, having spent the last few minutes protecting the trio, launching a lightning toward the closest enemy, the one flying on the overboard, only for the lightning to seemingly redirected by the man with his bare hands. No, those were gloves. "Oh, you have to be kidding me."
"Right. Hawks, lead the way. Huanli, Deku, Argali, Dekirn, Merino, Itsumi, you six with me in the tower! The others, cover us while we move! Slice, we got one!" She shouted in the communicators.
"On it!" Slice suddenly appeared next to them, grabbed Apocrypha and vanished again. Deku nodded, starting to run next to Itsuka. The group of eight charged forward, opening their way through the Demons with kicks, punches, Qi attacks, horns, headbutts, feathers, anything to make their way through the last line of defense.
And then the Prowler appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, a purple shadow charging Deku… Until Itsumi put herself in the way, punching him back with a combination of her own One for All and an explosion. "She's mine! Go, Deku!"
"Itsumi!" He shouted, but they were quickly separated by more Demons. "Good luck Itsumi!" He thought, before rushing forward. He really wanted to use Float to go back and help, but he could see they were almost at the base of the tower. The others had already rushed in, leaving him alone behind.
He stepped through the door… And there was a flash of light.
-x-
"Amazing! Extraordinary! Fantastic! Marvelous!" The Director did an elegant pirouette, "Ah, my dear Manami, tell me you got that."
"Danjuro, you are watching from my screens." The girl said, tapping away on the board that directed everyone of their many Undetectable Cameras. The bulkier alfa models, used for outside filming, shaped like small helicopters, were accompanied by the smaller beta, gamma, epsilon models, shaped like various small animals. The combination meant they could get perfect shots of any fight going on. They had already infiltrated deep in the towers too, and that was clearly paying off now.
"Of course, my beloved, but you know I get really, really excited during our filming sessions!" He smiled, "Miss Sekigai, how is the situation?"
Kashiko Sekigai, his assistant director, smiled, her Quirk boosted by her own magical copy of One for All strong enough to cover the entire city. "I have rounded down the lead role quite a bit, sir."
"Uhm…" He looked at her radar, "Cut Argali from the perspective list, his Quirk is cute, but it just… you know, doesn't really scream 'protagonist' to me. Mentor, maybe."
"As you wish sir, that leaves… Captain Kamino, Spider-Man, Deku, Revenant, Izumi and The Green Scar."
"Choices, choices… Maybe exclude Spider-Man. We can make Captain Kamino work with the right edits, but he will be a nightmare for the rights in some universes. Best we don't make him the lead." The director tapped his chin, "Manami, make sure to not miss a move from any of them. I want to be able to make my choice with all the material available. Oh, so many future ideas. 'Revenant: Locked in Digital', a movie showing in full the powerful backstory of this tragic figure. Oh, and 'The Green Scar vs the Forces of Evil', excellent stuff. So much potential, so much potential…" He twirled around, pointing to another corner of the vast room. The place was a pocket magical dimension. Nothing too out of the ordinary, for magical worlds, just very, very expensive.
"My dear Twice, how are the replicas coming?" He asked. Jin Bubaigawara, his head costume designer, gave a thumb up.
"I have most of them down sir, absolutely. I can make perfect mechanical copies." He replied, with a wide grin. Jin Bubaigawara, a genius scientist that was capable of building androids perfectly identical to other people, down to their flesh and bones. He was instrumental in making the reshoots for scenes the cameras couldn't capture perfectly, or to extend the story into flashbacks and thoughts.
"Perfect! My dear Himiko, Kuin, what about you two?"
"I have most samples." Himiko said, the siringe-shaped bees floating around her. She paused, "Kuin says that every time they try to move close to Jack one of the Ravens kills them."
"Ah, we will solve it, for sure." He said. His duo of redubbing experts, Himiko and the Queen Bee. Where most victims were possessed by the Quirked bee, Himiko Toga had somehow turned it into a symbiosis, collecting samples with the bees and using it to transform. He smiled, and finally, sat down again, extending his hand.
"Your tea, sir." Kurogiri, his emergency portal and butler, served him his Gold Tips Imperial, perfectly brewed.
"Thank you, Kurogiri." He said with a smile. Buying the Noumu had been outrageously expensive, but he was such a valuable asset and, Danjuro dared to say, was showing more and more signs of recovering. With a smile and a taste of tea, he stared at the screens, smiling. What a great movie this was going to be. With Jiro and Yamada tasked with the score… Well, he'd also have to pay the rights for Canary's music, but that paid back with Canary starring in it, once he made sure to add the base under his singing. Yes, this was going to be a fantastic work of art.
Hopefully, just the first of a long series.
'True League for All…' He mused, his eyes moving from one character to the other, 'And this All for Deku… Interesting conflicts, very interesting… They'd definitely make for good cinema, with the proper scriptwriting.'
-x-
Revenant watched Jack whistle as he followed calmly the road he had ran from. The serial killer didn't seem to have a care in the world, even if his pose and behavior betrayed a clear purpose in his movement. He might have seemed fully relaxed, but Revenant was certain he would whip around and attack the moment he moved.
That didn't stop him from tossing the smoke bomb on the road below. Jack saw it coming, of course, but he had timed the toss so it would explode before it got in range of his cane, and the smoke started to fill the street, Revenant jumping in. He moved efficiently, each step zigzagging lightly to avoid a sudden hit, the sword ready to hit. The moment he saw the cane come forward, he parried the weapon pushing it to the right and rushed in, closing the gap between them before bringing up his blade. Jack seamlessly dodged – he had really given up on using Cheshire Cat, it seemed – by twisting to the side, but Revenant expected it, pulling out a dagger and trying to follow up by planting it in his open side. Unfortunately, the move had to be aborted when Jack pulled out from his sleeve a knife, shaped in a way that reminded Revenant slightly of a raven's beak, the pommel further emphasizing this resemblance as it looked like a wing. The weapon locked with Revenant's and Jack twisted his to try and force Revenant to drop it. Revenant let it go, but instead brought up his now free hand to in turn grab Jack's wrist and twist it.
A kick in response hit Revenant in the chest, pushing him back as he lost briefly his grip on the wrist, and then Jack closed the distance with him, slamming his cane on the ground.
"Let's fly above this fog, shall we?" He asked with a grin, "Londonscape: Big ben."
The ground shook and then seemed to lurch upward, Revenant having to grab hold of what a moment before had been a simple stone road but now was the steep incline of a tiled roof. Looking down, he saw the tower apparently sprouting from the ground, the chimes of bells accompanying their ascent. In a few seconds, the tower stopped, and looking down he figured they were done.
'Never thought I'd end up fighting on top of the Big Ben.' Revenant mused, trying to keep his cool and sliding down, before jumping in the room under the steep roof. Inside was a single, enormous lantern.
"Yeah, get used to it, last time we finished our fight on the roof of Westminster." Izzzuku replied, "Do you need help?"
"Not yet." Revenant replied, before blocking a strike from the cane as Jack emerged from behind the lantern, the match turning into a close exchange.
An exchange Revenant was losing, as he was slowly pushed back toward the edge of the room. "Don't fall, Revenant." Jack said as he swung his weapon and slammed the teen against the bars of the fence that prevented him from falling straight on the tiled roof below, "It would be rather boring if our fight finished because of a fall.
Revenant glanced behind his back. The closest roof was approximately sixty meters below, and that was still a 'break whole body' kind of fall.
He returned his attention to jack, blocking another swing of the cane with both hands and his sword. The weapons impact echoed, and he felt the bars behind his back twist under the weight of his own body and the blow, bulging outward.
Revenant did the only thing he could do.
He jumped over the fence and on the roof below, sliding down past a first set of barred windows and on to a second one, slamming Mjolnir on them to destroy the bars and sneak inside. The dim light entering from the other windows opened on a larger room, connected to the one he had just left with a spiral staircase. Below them were five bells of different sizes.
"Did you know," A voice called, as Jack started walking down the stairs, "That the Big Ben is actually just the larger bell?" He pointed his cane to the one he had mentioned, suspended below them by the metal framework, "The real name of the building is a far less unassuming Clock Tower."
"Sounds pretty boring."
"It is." Jack jumped off the stairs, landing on the floor on the opposite side of Revenant, "I much prefer Big Ben." He rushed forward, jumping on the metal frame that kept the bells up, and Revenant met him in kind, meeting him in the center. Once again, their exchange turned into a quick series of blows that saw Revenant on the backfoot, even if he started to land a few scratches on his opponent and his clothes.
"Fifteen seconds…" Izzzuku muttered, and Revenant smiled.
"Something funny?"
"I just think it's time I go all out." He replied.
The bells started to toll. The belfry below rumbled as the bells erupted in their famous chime. The metal trembled slightly, but what Revenant was hoping for was at least a slight surprise, as he brought up his sword.
Instead, Jack just returned his smile and brought forward his knife. Revenant had an instant to use his dagger and change the knife's course from his face to his cheek, a long and bloody trail opening it as he swung down his sword only for it to be blocked by the cane. "Good try, but I summoned the tower, I would know when it's about to ring."
"Of course you would…"
Revenant let go and landed on the floor below, next to the chiming bells, and rushed to a door nearby, following Izzzuku's instruction to find the long, long staircase that led to the bottom.
And then Jack was on his tail. Revenant sighed, and jumped, catching on the railing below and swinging on the ground, he pushed his blade back in its sheet and pulled out the pin of one of his last three smoke grenades, letting the smoke invade the tower as he repeated his maneuver, grabbing on the railing five meters below and using that position to land on the stairs below, before he started to sprint downward.
"Good idea leaving." Izzzuku said.
'Of course. There was some decent terrain, but if he had a way to slam me through a wall, I was done for. I can't exactly fly.'
He ignored what looked like the shadow of a man pushing another off the edge of the stairs – he knew from Izzzuku those were the shadows of the sin that had created this version of the Big Ben – and sprinted down to the exit. Pulling out Mjolnir, he smashed the door of the bell tower open, panting lightly as he turned toward the tower.
'I need reinforcement.' He decided.
"… I can get them, but you will be alone."
Jack emerged from the broken door, tutting. "I will give you point for having caused very little damage, but that door was still valuable, and the bars of the window you smashed were original, never changed since the tower's construction. No full marks, I'm afraid."
'I need someone that can hold him down. That's enough.' Revenant muttered, tossing another bomb, this time a flashbang. A Raven cawed, probably blinded by the sudden light, and Revenant attacked, unsheathing his sword to bring it up in an attack aimed at cutting Jack's cane-wielding arm entirely, but the serial killer had quickly covered his eyes with his top hat, apparently, pushing it back up and moving in time to allow Revenant to make only a large gash on his arm. Still one of the best wounds he had inflicted, but nothing major. He decided to not press, instead rushing away again, Jack pursuing him at his usual relaxed place. He didn't seem particularly offended Revenant had made it past the Big Ben.
He touched his ear, and groaned. Of fucking course his communicator had fallen. It probably happened when the goddamn Big Ben had decided to sprout out from under his feet. He sighed. 'Izzzuku. You go.'
"… It's a bad idea."
'Whitechapel?'
"Yes."
'… I can survive it.'
"You didn't sound convinced."
'I'm not. But I need a hand.' Revenant admitted, 'This might be a bit above my usual range.'
Izzzuku sighed, "You know, sometimes I forget we are the same person. Alright, try to not die."
Revenant pivoted on his feet, turned to the left, and unsheathed his sword again, chopping off the head of a demon that had suddenly lunged at him from a side alley. How far was he from the plaza? Apparently enough he was starting to run into strugglers of the demon army Canary had decimated.
"Go!" Revenant shouted.
"… I'll come back as soon as possible."
Revenant ignored him as he kicked in a door and entered a largely empty room, what had once been a dining hall but was now just a dusty, empty place. Either looters had turned the furniture into fire wood or it had been stolen, because the room was too clean to be the work of demons or chance. He had to be quite close to the city walls if people had dared to loot the place.
Rushing upstairs to set up a new ambush, he noticed the equally empty upper floor, further evidence of the human intent behind the empty house. A raven stared at him from outside the window. And Revenant grimaced, turning back around.
Then the atmosphere shifted.
"My my…" Jack's voice said from behind, "Seems you lost your little friend. And what a goldmine you are."
Revenant turned to see Jack smiling, and immediately went for a decapitation. Jack blocked the blade, but Revenant expected it, letting it go and unleashing Mjolnir itself. Even when not hitting, Mjolnir emanated a low electricity, and his first swing was welcomed by Revenant's pained grin as electricity coursed through his body.
"Very well, I've seen your sin. Allow me to invite you to my hunting grounds." Jack stepped back and his cane slammed on the ground. "Londonscape: Whitechapel."
The lighting of the room suddenly changed, and Revenant in surprise stepped back to build a distance, until he found his leg hitting something. He looked down, as the smoke vanished, and stared at the chair he had knocked down.
A chair.
But there were no chair in the room before. He looked around, and noticed the room had… changed. It was smaller, unfamiliar, and furnished. The window to his right opened not on the medieval ruins of Mikona during a sunny day, but on a sight unfamiliar to him. A large city in the night, a foggy road illuminated only by the faintest light of lamp posts.
"This was entertaining, Revenant." Jack said, "But it seems you are out of tricks, and I believe the singing Izuku is actually dear Canary. Took me a while to recognize him, it has been seven years after all. So, let's finish this."
He rushed forward, cane aimed at Revenant's throat or head, and Revenant had an instant to decide, as he jumped out into the unfamiliar streets below.
He looked around. The road extended in weird directions, not following the path the previous one would have. Where was he? This was too much like stepping in a new simulation for the first time.
"Well, my friend." Jack said, landing atop one of the lamp post, "I welcome you to the hunting grounds of Whitechapel. I hope you are prepared to be judged for your sins."
"Judged by you?" Revenant grinned, "Doesn't really seem fair."
"Oh dear no, I'm merely the executioner. No, I'm sure you will like the judge and jury."
Revenant sighed. He knew what Whitechapel did, but there was no easy way to face this. No easy way to face his guilt for the lives he had taken.
A bright light shone from the door of the house he had just left.
Eerily similar to the light of the sun.
It should have been comforting, but Revenant shuddered at the sound of the metallic steps, at the clanging of the armor, at the oh so familiar groaning and breathing.
"I found it, Izuku." The voice, said, and Revenant bit his lip as he turned around, watching the man that had been his mentor. His friend. The man he had unwittingly led to his own death.
"I found my sun." The man that had helped him so much through the final Simulation, through his journey in the game of Dark Souls come to an horrible reality.
Solaire of Astora marched forward, blade in hand, a shining crown of a parasite leeching his brain through his helmet. "I found it, and you took it from me."
For the first time, in a long, long time, Revenant felt out of breath, as Solaire's sword left his sheath and his friend took his stance.
"I'm sorry, old friend." Revenant… no, Izuku, the Simulation Survivor, replied.
Jack's laughter echoed in the dark streets as he was forced to face again the man he owed so much to. As he set forth to once again take one of the lives he had regretted taking the most.
-x-
Captain Kamino had no idea what was going on. First in the distance he had seen the Big Ben, of all things, sprout from the ground, and now he watched as a cloak of darkness surrounded a portion of the city.
He had managed to recover his shield, and now he tossed it, the weapon bouncing off a wall and against Muscular's armored head. The man ignored the blow entirely, but it did create an opening for Mjolnir to swing in his chest, the electric sparks exploding in all directions, and the large man grunting as the full weight of the weapon sent him flying back through a wall, right on time for Cap to raise his arm and have the shield land in his arm.
He felt a chill down his spine and pulled it up right on time to block a punch as Muscular shot out of the broken down house, the revving of chainsaws against the shield painfully perforating Izuku's eardrums. He swung Mjolnir low, forcing Muscular to step back, and panted.
"Will you fucking die already?!" Muscular shouted, a series of blows slamming against Captain Kamino's shield as he moved it to block each of them, "You little bitch, running and hiding behind that stupid plate of yours…"
Izuku swung Mjolnir forward, but the weapon slammed against a shield as the armor changed shape to better block the blow. "That's pretty hypocritical…" Captain Kamino muttered, before starting a new exchange of blows. Mjolnir kept frying bits and pieces of nanomachines, but it seemed to never be enough, new ones coating Muscular's skin again.
An enlarged nanomachine fist managed to push through his defense, using an opening left by an hasty block of the other hand, and Izuku flew back, feeling his gut scream in pain as a couple ribs cracked. He coughed blood as he stood back up again, pushed forward by one single thought.
'Never give up.'
He moved his hand to his ear, ignoring a chill that ran down his spine once more. "Can anybody ear me? This is Captain Kamino."
"Cap? You ok?" The growling voice of Chojuro Kon was a surprisingly good sound to hear, "Canary flew off alone to take care of something, and I haven't heard from Arsenal, Revenant or Skyline."
"I'm facing Muscular. The one with nanomachines." He coughed, "Not doing… too well."
"I can hear. I'm also…" Kon paused for a long moment before coming back, panting a bit, "Busy. If I hear from someone else, I'll send them your way."
Cap grimaced. "Yeah, that would be nice." He admitted.
"Good luck, Captain." Kon replied, and Izuku sighed, pulling shield and hammer back up as Muscular punched the wall in and brought down his fist on the teen.
Captain sighed, as he stepped forward, past the man's arms, missing the chainsaws by less than a hair's length, and slammed the shield in his jaw. The armored man's head buckled, and Cap followed with a swing of his hammer, impacting with Mjolnir the incoming arm. He pushed with all his might past the dwindling nanomachines, finally welcomed with the sound of crushed bone as the arm bent upward in an awfully unnatural way.
"Sorry, Captain. Game over." Muscular roared, his other arm grabbing him by the head. Kamino had one second to try and swing his shield, try and break the hold.
The impact on the wrist produced the sound of metal on metal.
And then his world became pain.
-x-
Muscular grinned, as he watched the unconscious or dead figure of Captain Kamino he had just pummeled into the ground.
He wished he could have used the chainsaw, but when Izmird had pushed him aside, he had been clear. He wanted the Izukus alive. Even if permission to kill was a thing, he would be 'very displeased' to see one of them die.
Muscular wasn't dumb.
He sighed. Well, there were more people he could kill. Paladin wouldn't complain if he…
"Where are you going?" A voice asked from behind. He froze, as he felt a cold, ghastly chill down his spine. He slowly turned around, seeing Captain Kamino stand back up, hammer in one hand, shield in the other, white hair pushed down by the sweat and blood on his head.
"How…"
"Captain said he didn't want to give up." The teen said. But his voice echoed, like two sets of the same voice were talking together. "So I'm going to keep him up a bit longer." The echoing voice added, panting and struggling to speak, "Long enough to beat you."
"W-What are you?" He groaned, "I-I-I'll murder you!"
The eyes locked on him, and they were weird. Green as before, but with an odd shine, like the reflections on a surface made of ice.
"I'm Izuku Midoriya." The voice replied, "And I've been dead for a few years now."
(XX)
Guests:
Mitsuki Bakugou/The Prowler from Amazing Fantasy by The Infamous Man
Izuku Midoriya (LiD): Locked in Digital and Horizon from Horizon: Star Driven by Rogue Druid
Captain Kamino: Kamino's Ward by tunafishprincess
Honestly if you told me a chapter would require me to have a repository about Victorian London and the Big Ben's internal structure, one about Anubis and related myths and figures, and a third one to re-read various crossover feats...
I don't know I'd have probably asked if I was on time with my schedule, but it's still weird.
So yeah, where do I even start? Captain Kamino went down, and dammit, Muscular was just such a counter for all of his skills, it's just unfair. Honestly, if he had better control of Mjolnir, he might have won, but that's neither here nor there. Let's hope he takes something good out of this defeat, at least. Good thing he did have an assist from... someone that you can actually track following a certain sensation he causes all the way to his introduction.
Meanwhile Revenant. Man, his fight with Jack is just so fun to write. Jack's powers are weird, but they are consistent enough that I can tell what he will do and well... They just fit Revenant so well. Especially Whitechapel, of course. This is gonna be an... interesting experience for our resident Survivor.
I have... so much I want to talk about. Anubis and his skills, Itsumi, Ojiro and Deku's connection, the Director's whole set-up and his crew of misfits, what is worrying Hawks so much... But at the same time I want to let the story talk for itself. So I will. Feel free to ask questions in the comments though, I'd be happy to give any info I can without spoiling stuff.