At The Cost Of Many, The Fool Has His Way
Zero_Minus_| |_Equals_Unknown_Error_Has_Occurred
Since he could remember, which would be 5 months starting tomorrow, he had the worst luck possible. He comes up low on money more often than not and not just because of his gluttonous freeloader but also because of pickpockets, machines eating his money, or even the occasional bird swooping down if he happened to be paying for something outside. He just recently had a problem with the shower head in the bathroom leaking onto his face while he was sleeping in it. Sometimes he'd find that aforementioned freeloader had eaten all the food in the fridge. There was also the concerns with his attendance record at school being basically nonexistent. He had become honestly worried about him having to repeat a year of school at this point.
But it was more than that as well. There was the constant fighting that he'd get into. Which had eventually led to a World War occurring because of the people that reacted on the magic side to Kamijou Touma swinging the Imagine Breaker. He had been in the hospital more times than he cared to count over these past 5 months and he had a hard time seeing anything having been changed between the pre-memory loss version and the current version. Nearly every day he faced off with death and somehow came out the other side with a win.
It could be seen as something of a mystery why he manages to keep throwing himself at these violent situations when it is messing with his life so much.
But that would be to remain ignorant of the core of Kamijou Touma's feelings toward misfortune.
Because in all reality, he doesn't resent that cursed luck that plagues him as long as he can see that others are happy. He is the sort that would be happy being unfortunate as long as no one else had to be. That's the one thing about the concept of fortune and misfortune he cannot stand and the reason why he constantly clenches his fist for the sake of others.
But there is something of a fatal flaw in this reasoning.
By putting himself below others in priority of attaining happiness, can it ever be said that Kamijou Touma is truly happy?
He had won. Against the odds and his own incredible misfortune, he had won. Kamijou Touma had beaten the boss of one of the largest magic cabals, Leivinia Birdway. Once again, he had prevented misfortune from clouding someone else's life. Now he just had to make sure that Fraulein Kreutune wouldn't go anywhere until the replica of Last Order's brain arrived.
Speaking of the devil,
"Hey! I've got the brain here!"
Touma looks up from the bit of rubble where he had been sitting on as Hamazura Shiage runs over from the access passage he had gone through to get there with a plastic bag in tow.
"Ah, thanks. I'll get that over to her."
"Are you sure this'll work? I'm not too smart but will this really fool that uh woman's body?"
Touma smiles wearily.
"Yeah. It has to. Her body craves Last Order's brain so this replica should serve as a placebo of sorts. After she eats it, she ought to change into the form she desires most right now. I doubt it'll be as frightening as what everyone expects. She'll be turned into something closer to human than the monster that everyone fears. I'm sure of that much."
"Well, as long as this solves everything then I have no complaints. At least it'll let me stop him before he gets here. If he does."
He tilts his head in confusion over Hamazura's cryptic words.
"Him? Who're you-"
All at once, Hamazura nervously flails his hands as though to shake the words he had uttered away.
"Aaaahh! Never mind all that! Here, I'll get that to her for you!"
"Wait!"
"Don't worry about it! You're probably pretty worn out from all this stuff right? Just sit there and relax. My luck isn't so bad that I'd trip and have this thing go flying over the pass or anything."
Touma winces hard at the unwitting jibe at his own unfortunate luck and settles back in his spot.
"Guh. Yeah, now that you mention it, that Murphy guy might screw me over there if he's given an opportunity like this. I appreciate it."
"Not a problem!"
With this, everything was done. The woman pure of the colors of either magic or science would become unusable and harmless to both sides once she ate that placebo brain. Gremlin might find another method for creating the spiritual item, Gungnir, but at least they'll be set back temporarily with this. Though, he realizes now, that if Accelerator were to show up, he might attack Kreutune out of rage if he sees her eating the brain. Which, taking his luck in as a factor, may very well happen but that bridge will be crossed when it needs getting crossed, he figured.
All's well that ends well.
Touma had heard that line at some point but he can hardly remember when. Probably in class but he never had time for that anymore. He was seriously worried about his grades but there was nothing to be done there that he hadn't already been doing. In any case if he knew what that phrase meant, he would know that it means a positive ending that can overshadow any problems that may have preceded it.
This would certainly be one of those endings. It wasn't everyday for him that things turned out so well. There may be some dangerously ominous things looming over the horizon but for today, at this moment, things are peaceful. Touma breathes out a short, sweet sigh of relief at how things had turned out.
He should have known better. His luck doesn't allow for positive endings where he's concerned. Even if it involves someone else and their individual luck. But even so, this wasn't his fault. He hadn't experienced being in the presence of someone with luck on par with his own.
Otherwise, he would have known that two such individuals have the particular trait of overshadowing anyone else's fortune when brought in close proximity of each other.
"Kumagawa!"
Touma snaps his head over to the source and sees that happy end he and so many others had struggled for get smashed to pieces.
"Fraulein...Kreutune..."
Hamazura had stopped just a few yards shy of where Kreutune's body lay with an oversized screw impaled into her chest. It was an odd detail to notice at a time like this but he saw that it had something resembling a minus sign on it's head.
[Hey Zura-chan! Don't worry, that just removed her monster abilities so-]
Touma jumps to his feet and shouts with all the righteous fury his body can muster.
"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST DO!?"
Kumagawa's head cranes around Hamazura's body to get a look at the one yelling.
[Uh, who's that guy? Kind of a mood killer huh?]
He had glanced back at Hamazura and saw the expression on his face.
[Oh. I see now. That's him, isn't it?]
His words contained an endless malice as his grin extended across his face. Hamazura swings his arms out and blocks Kumagawa's view.
"W-wait...Kumag-"
"Stand aside."
The instant change in tone and look forced Hamazura to move away. Kumagawa no longer wore the frivolously amicable appearance he was used to. There was nothing but cold venom burning into his eyes.
"Actually, you'll just be a hindrance here. Let's fix that."
His hand shot out and gripped onto Hamazura's face. A screw impales his body, leaving it to go limp, and with a flick of the wrist, Kumagawa throws Hamazura over the side of the overpass like he was unwanted trash. Along with the plastic bag he had been holding.
"Hama….why? JUST WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR!?"
[Hmm? Who're you talking to? Wait, is it me!?]
Touma's anger is kept at bay by Kumagawa's act.
"Wh-Do you...Do you not know what you just did?"
[Hmm? Hmmmm? I really don't? Wah! What's with that over there!? I-is that a screw in the woman there? Wh-what the hell is going on here!?]
His surprise was...genuine. Over the past few days, Touma had become experienced in shifting through people's words and actions to tell if they were attempting to deceive him for some reason but this time it seemed like he was telling the truth. Did that mean that someone had somehow been altering his perception to make it appear as though this guy had done all that?
The answer strikes him like an asteroid colliding into the planet.
[Just kidding! I really did screw those two pretty good huh?]
"Ahh...Wh..."
His mind was busy trying to wrap itself around this. Granted, one may assume that since he had been through a decent amount of bizarre moments that he'd be used to such things. But this was all far too much in far too short a time-frame.
Even so, Kamijou Touma was an adept at adapting.
"...I'm done talking to you. You aren't the type to be serious are you? So if you won't listen then I'll just smash your face until I get the answers I want."
He begins to move toward Kumagawa, albeit slowly in anticipation of anything he might do.
[Whoa, such violence! Isaac Asimov once said that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, you know!]
"Yeah? Don't know who that is but he sounds like a smart enough guy. Too bad I'm too incompetent."
Kumagawa drops the dumb act he had been doing and goes right back to his cool one.
[Oh? That really is too bad. And here I thought you'd do some cliched crap like try to understand where I was coming from so you could spout something like, 'You're not alone!' or 'Let me help you!' I'm honestly relieved a bit that you aren't. You aren't totally beyond redemption.]
"I don't fucking care."
Suddenly, Touma rushes forward but Kumagawa stays where he's at.
[Sheesh. So self-centered. Guess I'll have to take back what I said, you're far too self-centered to be saved. But I guess that matches the power in that hand huh? What was it again? The power to negate supernatural phenomena?]
Touma hesitates for a moment but his fist continues on it's path nonetheless.
[Ah well. At least between the two of us, I have a power that is far more accepting than yours.]
His entire body tenses as his sixth sense blares alarms but there's no way that could have helped here.
"GAAAAAAH!"
[After all, that's why it's called All Fiction.]
Screws had protruded from the ground at every angle to pierce Touma's body. The placement was on both arms but the ones centered on pinning the right arm were arranged in a certain way.
[Pretty cool huh? Like that, there's no way for you to negate any of my screws! I don't really know whether you can exactly or not but I find it's better to just assume from the start since I'm already an ass myself. That hand of yours only works from the wrist up to the fingertips right? So unless you happen to be double jointed, you are officially the first person to ever lose to me! ...That's what I want to say but really when you think about everything that's happened today, there's no way you could count this as a win. Ahhh, man.]
He walks around his enemy in leisure.
"B-bas...tard…."
He should feel better now that he had come to do what he wanted but it wasn't any good in the end. This is where Kumagawa really lost on. The cost had definitely outweighed the benefits of this. Then, he had wonder, was this how everyone who had fought him felt when they won?
"...Well. Let's leave that sort of heavy thinking for later. I'll just have to try to make it up to Hamazura but...that'll be pretty hard. Ah damn it! Why didn't I listen to everyone!? Fucking-no. No. This isn't helping me right now. I think I'll just-"
Kumagawa had nearly made the same mistake as Touma by dropping his guard.
[Oh hey, another blonde loli. Do they just mass produce you creatures somewhere in this city or something?]
The air had cut down onto the asphalt where he had been standing. In front of the gash in the road was Leivina Birdway, albeit a bit beat up and weary.
"You fight so hard against me only to be beaten by this guy? I don't think I'll be able to let that down."
"Nn-Get...away..."
[Yeah, I don't really care about you right now and what you were after is dead so-]
"You're just being intentionally misleading."
Kumagawa stops talking but keeps right on smiling as he tilts his head.
"You just want to keep him riled up at you so you can keep whatever reason you found for fighting him. Yes, my reason for wanting her could be dead but she's not dead."
[Who knows? Maybe I'll just make it so her life becomes nothing and she stops existing. That would definitely kill it for you right?]
Touma's eyes strain to keep open as he watches this exchange. Making Kreutune into nothing? Just what kind of magician was this?
"Oh please. We haven't met before but I've heard of you as much as I'm sure you've heard of me."
[Huh? OH. Yeah, yeah! I've heard lots about you!]
Her caution lowers somewhat once she sees how he covers for his apparent lack of knowledge.
"...Wait. You haven't have you?"
[Yep! Caught me red-handed little Tweety Bird!]
Her ever so slight opening in her guard goes away at that statement. He didn't know her. He knew her. Kumagawa excelled so much in his acting that it was impossible to tell the difference.
"I can't tell whether you really do know about me or not but it doesn't matter anymore. Step away from Kamijou Touma or I'll have you torn to shreds."
Kumagawa's left hand goes to his face as he presses up against Touma's pinned body.
[Oh my! That's so scary to hear from such a cute little girl! What should I do Hedgehog-san?]
His right hand goes to squish Touma's mouth as he manipulates it while he speaks in a girly falsetto, all the while still looking right at Birdway.
['But she's just a little runt of a dog that barks at everything, isn't she Misogi-chan?' Hey now that's not nice to say here! You could at least use some tact and say it behind her back like everyone else does. So sorry about that Tweety! He's not right in the head. Just give us a few moments and we'll-]
A stone pillar had rocketed from the ground and struck Kumagawa right in the stomach before a storm of daggers strikes him in the air and with another motion from Birdway's wand, his body is lit aflame.
"I'm sorry, boy. But I won't be able to do anything about those screws until I've beaten him. Besides...once she comes back, I'll still have use for her. So I'll just have you stay there until I'm good and ready for you to get out of it."
She steps past Touma as he frantically tries to stop her from going. He was sure she'd kill Kumagawa, that wasn't something he could stop now, but she was still talking about using Kreutune. Even though she was already dead to his eyes but if there was some chance that she could come back to life, he had to make sure she was safe. He pleaded with her to not go but she wouldn't look at him.
Meanwhile there was a figure, standing ablaze, that faces Birdway down. She can see that much of his face has melted down to the bone but even so, the figure smiled.
"Cut it out already. You don't scare me. I've done far worse to others."
Then, there was only an unharmed Kumagawa Misogi with nothing out of the ordinary about him.
[Che. You're a boring sort. Won't even play along and humor me.]
How? Touma couldn't understand it. It was almost similar to how Imagine Breaker works when it comes in contact with magic and yet completely different.
"I have no interest."
[Ah, well. But you really should get a better leash on that oniichan of yours. He has quite the temper you know. Plus, just so you know, I may not be of magic or science or anything from here but aren't Skills enough to tip her balance in another direction that your people can't control?]
"I don't know but you really don't think she would have any kind of involvement here?"
[…]
"Well, I already know you have considered as much so I'll just move on here."
Her symbolic weapon shifted into a form Touma hadn't seen during his fight with her.
"I hadn't used this on him because I hadn't thought I had too. Still don't think I would have to when it was only a matter of underestimating his abilities. But this is a combination of all 22 cards of the Major Arcana will boost my parameters enough to match your freakish movements."
[Hehhh. Doubt it matches a Kurokami Phantom though. I can at least get near that if I want to. Though, it really hurts the joints when I do.]
"I have no idea of what you're talking about but regardless, it's not like I'm alone in this fight. There's my own allies but there's also more than that. Even if I'm Kamijou Touma's enemy when in relation to Fraulein Kreutune,when it comes to the boy himself the others that had come to help him will surely aid him again like they did when I was fighting him."
She had said this in full expectation that someone, the Railgun girl, Thor or one of the Saints, would leap in but there were sounds of fighting coming from where they had been earlier.
[That would be convenient wouldn't it?]
There was a boy wearing sports gear and was firing odd, flesh like objects from his hands that would grow over time to the size of cars at Misaka Mikoto while his partner, a full grown man with a beard, screams bolts of red energy from his mouth. There was a girl with a hoodie and a folding knife facing down Thor. There was one woman with a myriad of glowing numbers that covered nearly every surface of her skin fighting toe to toe with Silvia the Saint without breaking a sweat on her end. There were three middle school boys, sitting on each other's shoulders to somehow meld with one another's minds and become the projection of a giant man straight out of Conan the Barbarian, that was beating back the Saint/Valkyrie combo, Brunhild Eiktobel.
There were other sounds from farther than where those ones were but it was obvious that she was alone in her fight against Kumagawa.
[It's only proper etiquette to bring enough people to match the others for a party right? At any rate, it's just you with your wand and me with my screws. I've already fought with those Saints before and I can tell you that if you can't at least get up to their level, then there's no way you can reach the level of Medaka-chan or Anshin'in-san. You'll just get screwed here before you can say anymore scary stuff.]
"...They couldn't possibly keep up with them. I don't know how you managed to give them Skills but-"
[Well, yeah! Of course they're still newbies here! That's why I've gotten them hooked up with my more ehhh reconnaissance and intelligence related Skill users. They're having all the information they need to fight them sent straight to their minds while their fighting them. Think of it like having some weak character that you've built up be put in the hands of some super difficult setting of AI. They'll still get experience by living through it but they won't have to deal with the pain that comes from making mistakes and risk losing to those guys up there! Honestly, somehow those guys rolled some good abilities out of this whole thing. Makes me jealous.]
Skill users. Not magic or science. Medaka. Anshin'in. Making things nothing. This was all confusing. But one part of it all was clear to Touma, everyone was dealing with people on par with this Kumagawa guy. Who was able to stand on the same level as Saints somehow. It all sounded too ridiculous to believe but it was already too dangerous to underestimate. He needed to free himself but there was no way he could see of doing so without tearing his own arms off, which came with it's own obvious and not-so obvious dangers. He clenched his teeth as he was forced to only look on as Birdway faced that smiling mass of negatives.
Her wand shifts into a cup once again to rain daggers at a far higher rate and speed than before but-
[Ehhh? That's easy.]
Screws fire off to match her rate of fire until she grows impatient and has the cup turn into a disc so that several pillars of stone rise out and go to smash his frail body but-
[Still easy stuff here.]
They all crash into one another as Kumagawa had ducked under all of them and hid inside the protective pocket they inadvertently created but-
"Figured you'd fall for it."
Disc to wand, then there's a spout of fire being summoned into that impromptu oven. The screaming and cooked flesh messed nearly overpowered past the pain Touma felt, in terms of senses. But-
[All Fiction.]
All her work was made into nothing.
[Geeze, this is getting boring. You hyped that Persona type magic you use to be something really crazy but is this all you can do? If so, I'll just waltz over now and make you play 22 pick up.]
"I'm glad that you're too stupid to understand how magic works. You might hate him but he would have picked up on it by now. Well, I'm not going to give you any lessons here. I'll just end you now."
She disappears from sight. Kumagawa's head lightly turns this way and that without a real care for the fact she had vanished so suddenly. Then his entire body goes flying as though hit by a semi-truck.
"Hermit: Etteilla, Chariot: Ouspensky, and Hierophant: Thoth."
He looks up to her voice that hangs from the sky. There was nothing out of the ordinary there other than the sun.
[Sun? Isn't it-]
Kumagawa cuts his words off as he jumps to the side and avoids a burning blast of light.
"World: Rider Waite and Sun: Ouspensky."
He stares back up at the sky and focuses his senses around a specific spot. Through fighting and losing so much, he had gained the ability to see the weaknesses in all things. In that spot, there was something weaker than it's surroundings. With his target set, he lets a few dozen screws loose. Somehow, most of the screws wildly missed while the few that made it shattered on impact.
"Lovers: Rider Waite, Star: Rider Waite, and Justice: Thoth."
Three blonde haired doppelgangers appear around him with swords raised as they all slash at him. Kumagawa grins at first, prepared to take every hit, but then he begins to start dodging. Eventually he slinks past them. They turn to him with sneers on their little faces. He looks down to follow their gaze and sees a long cut on his side. All Fiction wasn't working anymore and the pain was great enough to mess up his thoughts even though it wasn't a serious wound.
"Moon: Golden Dawn, Judgment: Reverse Rider Waite, and Magician: Mathers."
The copies disappear as another reappears behind where they where with a golden shield attached to her arm. She blasts off at him with speed he simply wasn't prepared for as she bashes him back and over Touma, skidding across the empty highway road as he does.
"Emperor: Etteilla, High Priestess: Golden Dawn, Strength: Ouspensky, and Fortune: Golden Dawn."
He leaps back up, beat to hell and back, as he charges with a wall of screws flying alongside him. Birdway easily dodges around a few, most miss, but once he gets close, Kumagawa swipes a screw in his hand at her face. She nearly dodges this too but the tip grazes the flesh on her cheek. In about a second, the light wound closes. A swipe of her hand causes the ground underneath Kumagawa's feet to swell up and change to a bright red and explosions erupt all around him.
"Temperance: Ouspensky, Empress: Ouspensky, and Tower: Golden Dawn."
He had been sent careening all the way back to where Touma had been sitting before. His body lays there but from the rise and fall of movement coming from his chest, he was still alive somehow. Birdway summons up another trio of clones and gives herself, as well as the others, swords and shields.
"Despite what I've said, I still have yet to use the entirety of the Major Arcana on you. To give you at least some credit though, it's been all but five of them. After hearing about how you fought Ollerus and Silvia back in Hong Kong, I had prepared for myself some new interpretations of the cards just so I can have some counter measures for your Skills in the event that we had to fight. Seems like I was right to do so."
Kumagawa remains silent with the exception of his strained breathing.
"So? Will you still be so insistent on fighting when I've rendered all of your power to nothing?"
Touma had thought so before, but Birdway really was too strong. He wasn't sure he could have come up with such a perfect way of sealing this guy's power, even if he had known about it all beforehand. Considering she had said that she, herself, had intended on drawing Othinus out to destroy her, such strength should have been expected but to see it in person was amazing in it's own right. He couldn't see a way he could have stood against her with that kind of power. Touma was honestly thankful she hadn't busted all that out from the start.
This is why he was shocked beyond disbelief when he watched from the corner of his eyes as Kumagawa stood back up.
[Haha. What are you saying, Tweety?]
He had been hit by forces strong enough to crush bone and several explosions. The gash on his torso was still bleeding freely. Even so, he still smiled.
[I can't use my Skills? Using all but five of your cards? Why does that matter in whether or not I stop fighting? It's not like anything is different from usual. Though, it's the first time in awhile that I've been so thoroughly beaten back.]
"Just what do you expect to do here? You can't use All Fiction on either yourself or me and I have a counter for Bookmaker as well as that somewhat hidden ability to project objects through shear willpower. Even your regular attacks have been rendered ineffective in even reaching me. I could go through all my cards in what they individually do but I'm not stupid. Even if I see no way of you winning here, you of all people can figure out some way or another of doing so."
[You really don't get it, do you? You keep talking on and on about how you've got me perfectly cornered but you've forgotten one important part of it all, I'm a Minus. Fighting losing battles is what we do. Besides, even this much is nowhere near as bad a fight as I had against Anshin'in-san.]
Birdway returns his smile.
"And? Being a veteran of defeat makes it exactly so that you can't win here. Sure you have that aspect of making the victor of your fights regret even fighting you but there's no way you can do that here."
[Oho? Is that so? Then, I guess I'll have to give up on fighting him altogether.]
She frowns at his wording. But before she could react to those words one way or another, he had somehow gotten past her and had grabbed onto Touma's face.
[All Fiction.]
Touma didn't know what was going to happen but he winced, his eyes shut.
"WH-WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!?"
Birdway's desperate screams force his eyes back open. To his eyes, nothing at all changed. He was still pinned in exactly the same spot as before. Birdway was physically fine but she was clearly distraught.
"Birdway! What happened!?"
Birdway doesn't react to his voice and just glares at Kumagawa with her teeth bare. The one having all that hate focused on, meanwhile, turns slightly to Touma and winks with a grin.
[What do you mean, Tweety? I said I gave up on fighting him so I just made his existence into nothing! I mean, otherwise there's no way that I would be able to let him go. But why does that matter to you? He was in your way, wasn't he? You should be thanking me here!]
Touma tries calling out to her again, to try to let her know that he was still there, but she remains unresponsive to whatever he says. It was mentioned that Kumagawa could make anything into nothing, so going along with that in mind, he had to have made it so she couldn't perceive Touma anymore, he reasoned. All Fiction. When he saw how it worked in action, he had to admit that it was a fearsome power. But he couldn't understand how he could have done so if she had it countered.
Then he remembered. Intentionally misleading. Birdway had said that was what he had done after he had impaled Fraulein Kreutune to give Touma a reason for fighting him. He didn't know why it was that he needed to fight him but he was clearly misleading Birdway right now. How that works into how Kumagawa was able to break her counter is something that is still an unknown but what is known that is if he had actually managed to be able to get past that perfect counter, Birdway was in danger.
"...Enough of this. You'll die for that."
[Whoa, the wrath of an imouto losing her oniichan is pretty scary! But at this point, your bark goes back to being scarier than your bite.]
A blast of power from the small sun in the sky strikes Kumagawa in his chest. But he is unhurt.
The doppelgangers come at him from all angles with shield bashes and sword strikes. But he is unhurt.
Birdway comes rushing in herself and with a booming sound from her breaking the sound barrier to reach him, she puts her whole power into punching him right in the gut. But he is unhurt.
"Wh-what...is this?"
Not once had it seemed like he had used All Fiction. In fact, he hadn't even moved in all that time.
[Ouspensky. You mentioned him before when you first started fighting right? I have spent a lot of time looking up useless things on Wikipedia just for the hell of it. Well, in all honesty it was just to play the how many pages till Hitler game but still. He was a Russian mathematician and, what is important here, an esotericist. When I saw that he had made his own Tarot deck, I got interested mainly because Persona 3 had just come out for the PSP back then.]
Kumagawa begins to walk over towards Birdway, his injuries slowly disappearing without a trace.
[At any rate, with the names you were using after you had mentioned the Tarot, you had probably said the deck type as well, right? If I remember correctly, the reading of the Chariot in the Ouspensky style had something in there about self-suggestion. That was how you beat my screws, right? If it's my will being projected onto reality, then all one needs to do in order to mess with that is to have an even stronger will to deny that. If you fool yourself into thinking you have more willpower than me, then you've beaten that aspect of me.]
Birdway had been backing away and firing off every ranged spell she had without any effect on Kumagawa's gait.
[But what if you don't believe in yourself as strongly? Couldn't that aspect be used against you? It'd be awfully hard to achieve through normal means. You are a pretty strong girl usually so finding a weakness would be difficult in any other situation. So really, I should thank you for so willingly pointing out where the chink in your armor is for me to stick my screw into.]
By now, she had fallen onto her rear, still trying to keep him back with all she has.
[Your relationship was what prevented you from going full force on him and what enabled you to go full force on me, right? Then without that precious oniichan to protect, you have lost that strength inside of you, huh?]
Kumagawa raises his arm and produces an enlarged screw like the one used on Kreutune.
[I think I'll just hit you with Bookmaker. You are pretty strong though so you might only be stuck with it until you are well past your 30s.]
This is the point where Touma couldn't handle watching anymore.
"Get the hell away from her!"
Kumagawa turns with an amused expression towards Touma. Compared to when he picked Birdway out of the sky, he was pretty damn weak. Not as weak as Kumagawa but that's a hard point to fall down to. Even so, that boy was pulling against the screws with all he had to get himself free. So he decided to mess with him a bit by releasing the screws on the left arm. Touma begins to flail forward and tries running but is stopped by the ones holding his right arm in place.
[Well? You could try yanking off that arm but wouldn't you be out a power if you do?]
To Kumagawa's surprise, Touma begins to unhesitatingly yank his right arm against the screws, widening the wounds on his arm. It honestly startled him since he didn't think Touma would be capable of that. But, even when he gets loose, it would just be a regular boy without an arm. He didn't think he'd have trouble with that boy even if he had both. Kumagawa pins Birdway's arms and legs with screws and moves on to the even more enraged Kamijou Touma.
"GUWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
With that anguished scream, he tears his arm apart, up to the elbow, to get free. At that moment, Kumagawa's smile freezes. As is had been said before, Kumagawa Misogi had gained the ability to sense the weakness in all things over the 27 some odd years of life that he had spent losing and traveling other worlds. Everything he surveyed had weaknesses of one sort or another and to differing degrees. But what he saw then, stopped his heart for but a moment.
"Wha-"
Something had appeared from the torn wound around Touma's elbow. It rushed at Kumagawa with a force that he hadn't experienced before. But the main thing, the most concerning thing, was that this something didn't have any weaknesses.
Without any hesitation, the screw he holds is slammed into the asphalt, causing the section of the overpass to break apart immediately as the invisible thing from Touma's arm comes crashing down.
Touma let's out a sigh as he stands out on the balcony to his apartment.
After Kumagawa had fled from the thing that came from Touma's arm, all the damage from the battle was restored as though nothing had happened between when the fight started and ended. Hamazura, who was alive much to his amazement, had said that Kumagawa had heard about Touma from some people and decided that he wanted to fight on principal. When questioned about how he survived, Hamazura smiles wryly and replies that Kumagawa had just made sure that he would be out long enough for the fight to continue and wandered off back with Takitsubou, Mugino, and Fremea to their apartment.
Before he left though, he explained what surprised Touma the most, Fraulein Kreutune being alive with a giant screw in her chest. She stood there with a blank expression but no sign that she had even noticed that she had been impaled. While Hamazura was saying that it was an attack that hits the metaphorical heart more than anything, the screw vanishes as Last Order and Fremea come running. He tries to stop them in fear of her attacking but instead, she simply stands there as she gets hugged by the two girls and eventually returns it while smiling.
He recalls what Birdway had said about what Kumagawa had done. If he really had been trying to mislead him into thinking he had killed Fraulein Kreutune, he had certainly did a good job of it. But even knowing that it was all just an act, it still pissed Touma off.
Kumagawa had still impaled Hamazura and tossed him over a highway overpass from a height where one would have normally died. He still impaled Fraulein Kreutune with that screw. He still drove Birdway to despair and pinned her down by sticking her arms and legs down with the screws.
Even if all that damage was made to have never happened, the memories of it were still fresh in the minds of the ones that had it done to them. Touma clenches his fist as he swears to himself that if he were to ever meet Kumagawa again, he'd knock the daylights out of him.
[AAAAAACHOO! Ah, man! That was a good sneeze. Whew.]
Kumagawa rests on a bench at least two districts away from his fight with Touma. Eventually, a girl comes and sits next to him.
[...Enshuu-chaaaaan~, what the fuck was thaaaaaat~?]
She passes a cold sports drink over to her weary friend.
"We don't really know. It was displayed during the war but no other information could be found out about it. Noukan-ojichan may know but the Chairman for sure knows about it."
Kumagawa presses the icy bottle against his forehead.
[Chairman huh. He was the one that sent Misaki-chan to fight me right? He's a pretty sly bastard to be thinking that I might be able to do something against that. Or maybe that's why he wanted to prevent that guy's death, so that thing doesn't just rampage across the city.]
After sipping on her canned coffee, she looks to Kumagawa with an emotionless expression.
"Or it could be for something else entirely."
[Hm. I don't like this city too much.]
"Because you got into a fight with someone innocent for selfish reasons even when you had everyone telling you not to?"
He stretches his head back over the other side of the bench for a minute before springing forward as he opens the bottle to take a swig of his drink.
[Well, I mean, yeah. But there's more to it than that! There's something big going on here. If I had to hazard a guess, it probably has to do with Anshin'in-san. That Kreutune lady seems like someone that had their lives messed with by her. I don't know why she would but...she's involved. She has to be.]
"Meaning?"
He sighs loudly as he stands back up.
[Meaning I'll have to go annoy that Touma guy for a bit. If he's involved with that Chairman dude and Anshin'in-san is involved with the Chairman too, then hanging out with him should bring me to her one way or another. Plus, us guys born with shitty luck have to stick together!]
"Hmm? Well, that's fine and all but don't try to stick out too much. The higher ups, and the Chairman especially, have probably noticed your return by now. They'll definitely do something about you here soon."
[Oh? Can I count on you when that comes to be my knight in shining armor or will try another experiment?]
Enshuu shrugs her small shoulders.
"Who knows? I don't have anything planned for the moment regarding you but those abilities of yours do have some interesting effects on things. By the way, why are you standing back up? I know you made the damage from that fight into nothing but you must be tired. I'll watch over you so feel free to relax a bit longer."
[I...I can't. You can't possibly know how reluctant I am to refuse a nap using your lap as a pillow but there's someone that wants to talk to me. Isn't that right?]
From behind some bushes, a long haired blonde boy steps out with an embarrassed smile.
"I got found out huh? Guess I need to take some pointers from Ollerus and Fiamma."
[What can I do for you, Thor-kun? Did you want to come and chill out with us?]
Thor laughs and moves over to where Kumagawa stood. Now that he was closer, Kumagawa could see that his hands had been set in some makeshift splints and his side was wrapped in bloodied cloth.
"Nah, nah. I fought one of those Skill users you have on your side, you know."
[Ah, yeah that's right! I forgot that we're on the same side and all. Sorry about that but it's not my fault that you decided to be that guy's ally.]
"That guy, huh. Well, don't worry about that first bit. She was a pretty fun opponent so I have no complaints. But what did you think after having fought that guy?"
[...He's different from what I thought he was but I don't think I can except a guy like that even now. Though whatever that was coming from that arm shocked the hell out of me! Does he just have strange horrors flowing through him in replacement of blood? Feel like we need a priest to exorcise that weirdness but that hand of his would have messed with that, huh? Ah, but maybe that could work now!]
"It grows back."
Kumagawa blinks several times before responding.
[I'm sorry, I think I might have had something crazy in my ear just now. Did you just say that-]
"It grows back. Apparently."
[His arm.]
"Yeah. The whole thing."
[Like...not like my All Fiction in that the arm just reappears out of nothing but-]
"It grows back after it gets torn off."
[...I can't deal. I've seen and heard some really far out there kinds of stuff but an arm just growing back kinda, yeah can't process. has stopped running. Would you like to make a report to the maker or would you like to end the program?]
"Hahahahah! Damn, you're a funny guy! Ah, but that isn't what I came here for."
[Yeah. Let's talk about that so I can get my mind off all this other weirdness.]
"How about a fight?"
Kumagawa blinks some more in respect to the god of the incredulous.
[Uh, but I thought you weren't mad about having to fight my Skill users.]
"Oh yeah for sure! But after fighting her and then seeing you in action, I thought it'd be a good experience to fight you!"
[XP? You come all the way over here just for some XP? Don't know why you'd do that. I'd just be like one of those rats in the sewers that beginners prey on to get a level or two. Why would a high level character like yourself want to level up off a rat? Do you only have 1 point left for the next level or something? Plus, you're pretty messed up. This rat might just chip away that last bit of HP you know.]
Thor chuckles as he raises his useless hands.
"Yeah, you're right. But you're also wrong. I am really messed up but I'm kind of hoping you might use that power of yours to make my injuries into nothing before we fight."
[I guess I can do that but I want to hear some more before you do anything, ok?]
"Of course, of course."
With the first word Thor had uttered, he immediately noticed that his pain was gone. He raises a hand and experimentally clenches his hand.
"That's All Fiction, huh? Yeah. This is definitely the kind of power I want to go up against."
[Sooo…]
"Right, to get to why you're wrong I'll say, to go with that gaming analogy, that if you're one of those rats that get farmed then you would be a rat with some messed up coding that enables you to kill high level characters like me instantly or to be able to wipe our inventories out just by being near you. Those Skills you have are too crazy not to take into account here. And that's why I want a fight with you. I've got too much power to go all out normally. I just got done fighting with Kamijou-chan for that exact reason. His power to negate can directly go up against my insane power. Just like your power to make things into nothing can go up against my power. I can use as much of my abilities as I want without having to worry about anything getting messed up beyond redemption! How could I not want to fight a guy with a power like yours!?"
[Is that so? Well, alright. I'll play with you some!]
Enshuu raises an eyebrow from where she sits and calls out to Kumagawa.
"Do you want some help?"
[Nah! Bringing you in would go from a one-sided battle for Thor-kun to a one-sided battle for me. Just go home and record that new show I've been watching for me please!]
"The one with the wolf girl and the merchant guy?"
[Yeah! That one! Can't believe I found a universe where it actually got a third season but man am I glad I did!]
"Fine. Don't go totally out of control. You can't watch a show in a universe that doesn't exist anymore."
She walks slowly away from these two battle hungry fighters.
"You can take out the universe with All Fiction?"
[It's not like I've tried it before but as far as I know, there's no limit to what can be made into nothing. There's only the limits that others can put on it if they work on that sort of thing and I can do that too but that's only if I'm more balanced out mentally speaking. I've long since learned how to keep myself at that state where my Skills are at their worst without becoming too crazy. Or at least I don't think I've gone that far yet but who knows. The thing about being crazy is that you don't realize it yourself.]
"Hahaha! Well considering that we're here talking about it, I doubt that you have gone too far with that power."
[Maybe. Do you have any rules for this fight?]
"Are there any in a true fight?"
[You're right but since you so politely approached me about it, I just wanted to ask. Uh, so, I don't really know how to handle this since it's been awhile since anyone has been so fair about it. I mean it's usually talk shit, get hit for either myself or the other guy in those scenarios so do you want the first move?]
Thor raises an amused eyebrow as he smirks.
"Does it matter?"
[No. I learned that from experience. Last time I went through this, the guy let me go first but I guess we were on the same wavelength or something because we both went to attack before I could finish counting down. Ah well. Anyway-]
His words cease to be as five electric arcs tear Kumagawa's body, as well much of the trees and ground behind him, to pieces. In the next moment, Thor had to use his magic electricity on the bottoms of his boots to blast away as a storm of screws cracks the ground where he had been.
[Hey! I thought we were going to have a fair fight here!]
"There's no such thing!"
His eyes, hair, and physical outline gained a pale blue glow about it as the arc fusion blades extended to impossible lengths out in the sky.
[I THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO HAVE A FAIR FIGHT DAMMIT!]
"NO! SUCH! THING!"
Despite how they screamed at one another in between trading blows, they both smiled in earnest.
They both rocketed at speeds that were immensely difficult for the human eye to follow, the ground underneath them being destroyed by the impacts of their attacks. The entire park was decimated within a few minutes as they head for the emptied streets.
"Wait! What about-"
[Don't worry! I made their existence into nothing! I can make that into nothing to bring them back, none the wiser after we're done!]
"HAHAHAHA! GOOD!"
They continue their carnage filled engagement as the buildings around them get completely thrashed apart. Several come toppling down from Thor's 2 kilometer long arc blades that now come from the fingertips of both hands while others get slammed by screws matching those blades in size. It hadn't even been a full 5 minutes yet and they had already caused an estimated $20 billion in damages as even the underground infrastructure had been shredded apart.
Eventually they come to a street crossing, panting with exhaustion.
"Geeze. I didn't think you had that much in you to be able to match Lightning God Thor."
[He-hehehe! Thanks. You're pretty good yourself.]
"Don't disappoint me now. Because now I'm no longer restraining myself to the mere level of Lightning God!"
Thor's arms stretch out to either side as he stands back upright. Kumagawa tenses up to prepare for the attack to come.
"..."
[…]
But none did.
[...Um, this doesn't happen often for you does it? May need to see a doctor for that if that is the case.]
Thor glares over at Kumagawa.
"Did you make my magic into nothing you bastard?"
[Hey, whoa, hey! Of course not! I could do that, don't get me wrong, but I would never do it just on principal alone. Where's the fun if I just say, 'Nope, you can't play because I'm going to burn all your cards so I can win,'? Besides, you gave your challenge to me nicely so there really isn't any reason for me to be that mean spirited about this even if I know I'll lose.]
Thor reactivates the arc blades at 20 meters long to confirm this and once he sees that he does indeed have his magic, he disables them again. His face remains scrunched but less from rage and more from confusion.
"Then how why isn't it working when I use you as a target?"
[Target? You may not want to explain it to your opponent but it may help if you do.]
"...My power can extend beyond the title of Lightning God and make me Almighty Thor. It's my ultimate magic. By selecting a target, I can move the world around me to put me in the best spot to win."
[That is strong. Do you calculate out the movement yourself or is it automatic?]
"It's automatic, why?"
Kumagawa sighs and smiles derisively.
[Well, I can tell you that your magic is in fact working. It did the math and put you exactly where you need to be to beat me.]
"What? I haven't moved at all."
[Exactly. You don't need to be in a special place to beat me. All you need is the will to do so. Which, by the way, still doesn't require much at all.]
Thor's eyes widen before he bursts into laughter and tears.
"What!? How messed up is your luck that my power won't even move me to a spot to beat you in?"
[I could tell you but that would require at least several hours and no bathroom breaks.]
"Ah well. How about you use your other Skill? What was it? Bookmaker right?"
Now it's Kumagawa's turn to widen his eyes.
[...Do you think you can take that on?]
"Sure. It's not like I don't think I'll be affected by it but if you start firing off those screws at me, it might make things even more interesting for me."
The blades come back out to their full length of 2 kilometers as they cut straight through buildings.
Screws appear by the thousands, all with a single minus sign on their heads.
These two individuals that can fight on the scale of a war all on their own ready their destructive powers for their maximum usage. They charge at one another with the entire environment being torn apart in their wake. The victor was decided in but a moment.
"So in the end, you weren't enough for Almighty."
[...What just happened?]
Kumagawa had found himself on his back with Thor looking down on him.
"My powers as Almighty had activated. It'd be kind funny if it weren't so sad."
[What do you mean? How could that ridiculous power work on me?]
"Because you actually had a moment there where you could have won."
Kumagawa opens his mouth in shock for a second before he smiles peacefully.
"Haha. So I can win if I try after all. You're right. That is pretty damn funny."
"Heh. Still, you were a tough bastard, you know. But I should get going now that this is done. Othinus might find and castrate me. Or worse. You never know."
Kumagawa remains on the street as he waves Thor off. Even after he gets around to making all that happened to nothing, he stayed unmoved from the middle of the intersection.
"Haaaah. Why won't one of these drivers just get impatient enough to run me down? These people are way too nice to a guy like me. Ah well. I guess that's enough of my pity party."
He finally stands up and brushes himself off. Several of the drivers as well as some of the pedestrians initially try to see if he needed help but upon getting close, they all get a look about their faces and turn back to their businesses. Kumagawa pays this no mind and wanders off into the crowd.
[Let's see how my new nemesis lives, shall we?]
"Ajimu. How is he still alive?"
Floating in his tube while his guest sits on a desk she somehow materialized out of thin air, Aleister Crowley and Najimi Ajimu watch the screens that had displayed every moment of the chaos that happened that night.
"Good question. It's probably because of Misaki."
"How? Mental Out couldn't have-"
"Mental Out is an ability that manipulates memories. Granted it gets much more complicated than that considering how she does it but that part isn't important. What is is the fact that she has all of Kumagawa's memories with her. More than that, she has his personality burned into her head. If his primary personality dies in this world, then she would likely begin to hallucinate him back into being. This imaginary form utilizes the older personality's ability to force reality to accept changes it had wanted to recreate Kumagawa Misogi. Think of it like a backup save in a game for if you forget to save the game yourself or if the files get corrupted. With those memories in place, no one can permanently kill him."
"I see. I suppose that'll have to be fixed but the moment I can will occur later. Still, you really weren't involved at all?"
Without looking in his direction, she smirks.
"No. What about you, Edd?"
"What?"
"Well your little esper girl just made it so he's gone from semi-immortal to quasi-immortal. After all, it'd be fairly easy for you to get access to those memories, right? That and I never did see what you did with the old body. It's entirely plausible that what I said earlier is false and there is some other method being used here to bring him back."
Now, she glares at the man responsible for everything that happens in this city.
"Wouldn't that be awfully convenient for someone that would want me removed from the world?"
Aleister sighs.
"And you're totally innocent in all this? I find it hard to believe that Fraulein Kreutune, after I had researched the entity personally, had nothing to do with you. Her abilities are rather in line with you Not Equals, wouldn't you say?"
"Hahaha! Well maybe, maybe not. I guess we're still at odds with each other even after all this time, huh Edward Crowley?"
"I suppose we are, Anna Sprengel."
Yep! That's right! TWO chapters in like, ehhh, 4 or so hours! Cool huh? Anyway this is the first of a few clashes between Touma and Kumagawa. It's not much, I know, but I just couldn't see it being anything more during a first fight. Later when they fight again, it'll be much more involved. Also, I may have made Birdway broken as fuck. The way I saw it was that if she could go as far as being able to intentionally misinterpret Crowley's version of the Hanged Man, then she ought to be able to cherry pick whatever else from other decks. I spent a good hour and a half thinking up what each of the 22 cards would do. It was pretty fun. I also went against what I thought I would do with the story and actually brought the thing behind Imagine Breaker into the story. It was perfect for making this become a stalemate instead of just having Kumagawa shit on everyone without Touma being able to do a damn thing. Don't worry though. He's not going to have to tear off his arm EVERY time he fights Kumagawa. For Touma, it just requires time and information. He's like a literal poor man's Batman in that aspect. Well, that is if Bruce Wayne was poor, never trained in martial arts, had dragons in his right arm, and had a little nun girl to gnaw on his head. Anyhow, I wasn't going to have the Thor vs Kumagawa fight initially but I decided against that since I found a decent spot for it. It was pretty fun to imagine those two getting a kick out of duking it out with each other. They're kind of a perfect match up when you think about it. Thor with his ability to move where he can win and Kumagawa who can never win. Oh and if you're confused about that last line to Anshin'in, that would be because the name Anna Spregnel is only mentioned like twice in the series. I figured for Aleister to know Anshin'in as Anna, it would give a new avenue of cool stuff to happen. I'll develop that later. The next arc to start on will be the Agitate Halation arc. Haven't really decided much on that end other than more shenanigans between Kumagawa and Misaki. That and a gender swapped Kumagawa for shits and gigs in the first part. Hopefully you all will be seeing more sooner rather than later since I'm no longer leaving for anywhere and will continue to have internet access for now. Thanks for reading!