Fanfiction World

by Shadowlight0982

FFW, a world where people can not only write stories but can also create avatars with powers of their favorite shows. When something deep inside begins to stir, it is up to a group of heroes to protect both this world and FFW.

33. Chapter 25: Kurotsubasa vs Dead Bloods

Hello everyone, here I am bringing another find chapter of FFW. I will be honest with everyone else that work and class, as well as other things, really cut into my inspiration so I can't really write much but I'm going to try and update and look through my other stories to continue them. In the meantime I'll try to get a good flow of stories coming so enjoy the chapter.

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In a vast land like FFW; players expect to find a large variety of areas. Small medieval villages, great stone fortresses, floating futuristic cities…these are the types of areas that await many coming into the open, virtual world. However; as with the real world there are locations that come out in the light and then there are those that only truly thrive in the darkness of mankind.

The Network Slums, or what many jokingly call FFW's downtown, an area that greatly contrasts the almost fantasy feel the world gives. Factories with large stalks that bellow smoke into a bleak sky, tall buildings stretching up into the clouds, the large metropolis almost seems to be steampunk homage to the big cities on Earth. Past the Slums appearance, it was one of the areas of perpetual night. No sun-light shines on this dark city. Despite its threatening appearance the residence have no problem with the city, though they all have one thing to repeatedly say to newcomers…

Keep away from the Asylum District, if you value your innocence.

(Asylum District)

*Huff…Huff…Huff!* Large gasps of air escaped out the runaway's mouth as he sought relief behind a dumpster within the alleyway. In the moments he used to catch his breath he would take quick peaks around the corner to see if he had lost his pursuers.

"Not even the Admin are this relentless in the District but…" After another quick scope around the entrance he then let out a few relieved breaths. "At least I lost those psychos."

"Psychos, now that's just impolite."

Those blood-chilling words was then followed by the quick rush of wind and his source of cover was then swiftly cut th?rough. The runaway then began quickly began to crawl away as soon as one half of the dumpster was picked up and chucked aside followed by an angry groan. Crawling on the ground he was thrown pulled off the ground by a large tendril and was then blow away by a small projectile.

"As much as I like the thought of groveling on the floor we do have a job that must be completed."

"I really wouldn't mind taking the time to tear you apart, but wasting of my sister's time is a sin."

The wounded man slowly got up and crawled back seeing silhouettes of his pursuers. One of which making their way towards him slowly allowing him to see the attacker's features, his fear filled eyes widening spying a familiar mark on the person.

The person's more identifying features were hidden by the hood of the black straightjacket that was kept closed but he saw the jacket had no sleeves allowing him to see the scar filled scrawny arms along with silver rings that cover the fingertips shaped like claws. Plain black trousers led out the jacket to the man's unclothed feet. The victim couldn't look past the black within the hood but he has no doubt the assailant's cold eyes were looking down on them.

"Speaking of sin; you must know why we're here if you recognize who we are."

"No shit, everyone in this area knows who you guys are, but that doesn't explain why you've been chasing after me-Aargh!" The talking quickly ceased as he was then levitated off the ground. He seemed to have no control over his body as he looked to his captive who had his hand raised, still illuminated by the red moon in the sky.

'A red moon?'

"Art thoust truly ignorant; someone wanted thee dead, they wanted revenge." The man heard one of the female shaped silhouettes speak.

"Who could I have possibly…?"

"Can't tell we are professionals after all; just know that you were unlucky enough to step on the wrong toes. We've been paid quite handsomely to see to your death." One of the shorter figures spoke as he stood in front of a much larger figure.

"This might sound ironic coming from me but can we skip the torturous small talk. Despite the payment this small fry isn't really worth talking with." Another female voice spoke cruder than the first. "I mean look at him, the only reason he hasn't pissed himself yet is because of Zaraki's bending."

"Hey, if the peanut gallery would stop talking we carry this on before the damn night troops get here." The straight jacketed man turned back to say, his victim still suspended midair but now his eyes weren't focused on just the man alone. Zaraki's left hand…the one that was not raised; was clenched tight enough to draw blood. In fact it was dripping out his closed palm now; black droplets bleeding from his new cuts.

"Right now let's just finish our contract and kill this one." Suddenly the blood stopped dripping and began to congeal forming a long black solid blade. The blood sword was raised to the victim's chest and stabbed through; the man's face twisted in obvious pain but he kept the scream inside.

"Oh so you can become brave when the time calls for it, but then again this isn't enough to instantly kill." Zaraki then began twisting the sword in the new wound and though it couldn't be seen his face twisted and formed a large smirk. "If we weren't on a time limit I could torture you all I want…but the damn Admin would be arriving soon. So I'll give you this one favor and keep this killing time short!" Clenching his raised palm he victim's body then exploded as black spikes exploded out his body.

At that time Zaraki then dropped both his hands to his pocket causing the corpse to fall and dark red blood pooling out the wounds as the body slowly disintegrated into pixels.

"I never get tired of the job." Zaraki said pulling down his hood, exposing spiky blood red hair and crazed brown eyes.

"Calm down Zaraki, let's just get out of here before the Admin show up." A snark remark escaped from the cruder woman's mouth as the group behind him began to leave. Zaraki just let out a scoff but chose to follow her advice as to avoid any possible consequences. The group took off and vanished into the city's night leaving behind the aftermath of their target.

After taking a second to make sure that they weren't pursued; the group of misfits settled back ground level in front of a large rundown warehouse.

"Next time I get in the mood, don't go about interrupting me! I don't get in the way when you start carving bodies Whip!" Zaraki turned to the one who cut him off from his craze.

"Like I give a damn if you wanted to push the torturing as much as possible. We all do it, but don't do it on runs where our leader is away and the Night Troops are out and about lurking!" The now named Whip called out to him.

The short male of the group allowed a small groan to escape his lips as he reached up and tinkered with the large bolt that went through his head. "Must you two really begin bickering already? If the Troops weren't out before they will be when the body is discovered."

"'Tis doesn't help us when thou is particularly…moody when Shiro is away." The regal woman said as she stood near Whip.

"Because I don't need someone like her telling me what to do! I've been doing this thing longer than she's been in the guild; I'm not going to wait around when we receive a target!" Zaraki hollered back as he turned to the short scrawny male who was right now conversing with the giant. "Doc, get your freak to open the door. I have a feeling if I do it I'll tear it off from frustration."

"Well seeing as you aren't the most mello of us right now." Doc then stood straight and got the attention of the bulky giant. "Meat, be a Gent and raise the door."

"Raise?"

"Lift…Door." Doc pointed while dumbing it down. Meat seemed to comprehend after that and made his way to the entrance. As the large player began to lift one of the members then began to stiffen a bit; the action did not go unnoticed as Whip turned to her.

"Is there a problem Queen?" Whip asked in genuine concern.

"We hast thought Shiro was away on another of her 'runs.'" Queen stated. "So why do we sense another presence inside?" Before her question could be answered they all heard the loud rusted groan of the warehouse door as Meat lifted it away with his brute straight. Before anyone thought to go inside Queen chose to stop them. "Thou can come out now, lest thou wishes a painful bloody death."

"Ahahaha, as if we'd give this person a choice. How about I skip the middle man and…" Zaraki tried to used his bending only for a red haze to form around his arm causing him not unable to move any of the limb.

"Now let's not be hasty…and I thought I was well hidden too." A female voice spoke from the darkness.

"We can say the same place about this hideout, how did you find it?" Doc chose to ask, not bothering to try and look for the voice with his eyes.

"For someone like me, it's easy to find those who've bathed in blood. However; I'm not here to talk about me…I'm here for a request."

"Request ha! We don't do requests lady we do business, the bloody kind, and if you don't have the courage to even show up to our place face to face!" Whip yelled starting to lose what little patience she had that night.

"Now aren't you all rude, even ruder since I am in front of you." Suddenly the lights within the warehouse then flashed on bathing their eyes in intense light. After adjusting to it, they could all see the woman standing inside the warehouse.

"Now that all the formalities are out of the way, back to my request, what do you know about a guild called Kurotsubasa?" The woman asked.

(The Next Day - Tokyo City)

"And another Guild bites the dust as Kurotsubasa earns themselves another victory in this still ongoing Guild Wars!" cheered Masukomi to CAM who was recording her.

Behind in the background, Illu politely waved goodbye as the defeated Guild left the field sadly while DB and Bella were hugging the two large bags of munny they had just received. Both of them were chuckling creepily as their eyes had munny symbols in them.

"I can finally get that new upgrade to my drums~" DB said in glee while Bella chuckled even more.

"Joy buzzers, whoopees, gummy shocks, soda bombs, Firecracker-jacks~…." She muttered in delight until the munny bags were suddenly snatched away by Shadow who gave them a look.

"This munny is for the Guild Fund guys, with all the surprise challenges we've been getting we need to up the system and everything," said the Guild Leader sternly while Ravena and Key both smacked the two upside their heads to snap them out of their fantasies.

"Ah come on, give us a break. With the number of guilds challenging us don't you think we at least deserve to enjoy the spoils of war?" Bella rubbed her abused head. "We've must have a lot so that we can take care of expenses."

"You forget the costs it takes to have your pranks cleaned up nya, not to mention those guys you scarred for life." Ravena pointed out.

"It's their fault for calling me flat-chested."

"Point taken."

Illu then turned around to join the rest of Kurotsubasa. "Ano, I get where you come from Bella but the munny does have to be budgeted properly. We won't be able to get the things we need if everything goes into your pranks." The hybrid reminded her.

"Plus the majority goes towards the guild anyway; you'll get your piece of the munny Bella." Key also stated as he saw Shadow then put the munny away using the Zipper.

"I take it we're going to be taking some downtime from dealing with the duels and requests?" DB asked. While the Guild Wars was still a factor, Kurotsubasa still have their request jobs as well as training the members of Kotsubasa; eventually the amount of freetime that the members were familiar was shrinking more and more. "I can go for another battle, but even we need another vacation."

"We've dealt with another Guild War so do whatever you want." Shadow said as he began walking back. "I'm going to…"

"U-pyon!" Amaya squeaked as she popped out of Shadow's hair.

"Right…we'll put the munny in a safe place then probably just settle at the base before the kid and his friends arrive." Shadow said.

"Oh, trying to get out of some magic lessons? Isn't today a day where we work more on your magic?" Ravena asked.

"One day away isn't going to be a factor. I'm trying to master one element, not magic as a whole." Shadow said. "All-though I'm surprised you agreed to keep this up seeing as you now have Angel who needs training too."

"I can multi-task nya, plus it's not a good idea to shirk off responsibilities." Ravena lectured. "You might become a bad role model for Amaya-chi."

"Punnya!" Punnya agreed.

"Just think of this as a raincheck, besides you, Illu, and Bella have to go check on something. A thing you called a Melo…"

"Nya, I can't believe I forgot!" Ravena then grabbed both surprised and confused girls by the arms. "Let's go girls; there is something that I definitely need to show you!" The nekomata then proceeded to fly off taking the toon and hybrid with her.

"Hey Kitty what's the rush?!"

"Matte, Ravena-chan!"

DB stared clueless at the dustcloud the catgirl left behind while Key let out a sigh seeing that Shadow was also walking off back to the base. "I guess I might as well go to the Admin, at least see what our current rankings and standings are. Plus I'll probably have to deliver the results of this fight to Rina personally."

"Right, right, hey isn't there a thing about dating your boss that's not allowed?" DB smirked as he asked.

"We're not dating!"

"So you are going out with TPB! Better not let Rina hear that." DB teased.

"You should talk! I wonder Naenia would say if she found out about that incident with Valley-Bell?" retorted Key.

DB widened his eyes a little in fear. "T-T-That was accident and you know it!"

"Was it really? You looked like you enjoyed it."

"F-k you Key!"

"Right back at'cha."

"GUYS!" snapped Shadow breaking up the fight. The two guys looked over to see their frowning as he held his hands over Amaya's ears blocking out all sound as the baby manju blinked in confusion. "Language!"

"Yes Mother," said DB jokingly before crossing his arms behind his head and walking off. "I've got a date anyway, later!"

Key sighed and shrugged. "I should be going too, see ya Shads," said the Beta waving a bit before going his own way.

Shadow released a huge irritated sigh as he let Amaya climb back on his shoulder. "I seriously need to lie down…"

"U-pyon…." Said Amaya sympathetically patting his head with her ears.

(Scene Change)

A long yawn escaped the jaws of the sleeping player as he rose from his nap. When he opened his eyes he was greeted with the same sights of the usual hotsprings day, though there seemed to be a shortage of peeping toms around…not that the lazy security minded that fact. He then stood to his feet looking over as another figure lied slumped on top of a magic array.

"Slow day, no perverts, and you're actually behaving yourself?" Grim asked as he stretched his limbs getting back into the movement.

"Like I can do anything when you got her spells set up, at least you didn't go and use the tags she gave you." Doppelman complained from his local prison.

"I usually save those for when you get caught so that the ladies at least have a chance to release their aggression." Grim smirked. "Besides you helped raise us more munny, seeing as you help reduce their stress and anger levels."

"I didn't sign up to be a punching bag!"

"But you're such a natural…" Feeling a shift of wind Grim then stopped his banter and turned to the new arrival. Doppelman also got up from his spot on the array and tilted his head. "Hey, who's the chick in the mask?"

As Doppelman had pointed out; it was a young woman wearing a white, porcelain mask on her face shaped like that of a bird. The masked maiden wore a black top with the sleeves cut off, exposing her arms. Above that was a thick, grey vest and on her arms were elbow long black gloves with steel plates pressed along them. She had on form fitting black pants and grey armored boots. Completing her image was a large white cloak with a hood.

"Are you the one known as Mister Grim?" An emotionless voice asked.

"That depends…what reason does the Night Troop's Hummingbird have for this meeting?" Grim replied back.

"Hummingbird?" Doppelman asked confused.

"You know my codename but unlike others you know I work for the Night Troops. That means you know where we are primarily stationed. My Master would like to have a meeting with you." Hummingbird continued.

"Hey Bird Brain, didn't you hear him before?! We aren't leaving until we…" Doppelman's rant was stopped when he saw Grim raise a hand to silence him. The shade looked confused until he then noticed that the two were surrounded on all sides by men dressed exactly like Hummingbird, though with featureless masks and black coats. "Whoa, what did we do that these guys have to bring along an army?"

"Troublesome," Grim sighed as he focused on Hummingbird. "We'll come to your meeting, but I want your master to know that I do have the right to decline if I decide to." The Demon Weapon made his intentions clear.

"Of course, now if you would follow us, we'll escort you." Hummingbird said as they began to leave with the group still encircled around Grim and Doppelman. After reassuring the owners that everything was fine the Night Troops proceeded to lead the two mercenaries.

Grim could have easily sidestepped this step and just have said no before taking care of any consequences, but that would've went against his lazy nature. Plus he may have an idea why they would come find him of all people to deal with Night Troop business.

'Night Troop usually adds up to Network Slum and the Slums usually added up to them.' Grim walked in thought. 'What kind of problems have you got into this time Grim?' He was then pulled out his monologue seeing as the two were lead into the Admin base.

"Hey isn't this the Admin's stronghold, why do these Night Troop guys have a key? Plus it looks like no one is in a rush to stop us." Doppelman pointed out the fact that any other Admin Guards they passed were either glancing at them or completely ignoring them.

"That's because Night Troops is the term for these specific people in the Admin. They have a different name but they're the same as Admin Guards in format; they take care of crimes that happen in the Server and have a captain that's second only to the Admin." Grim explained.

"Yeah but isn't the Admin of this Server that Cast girl?" Doppelman asked catching no sight of Leon.

"I think you seem to be forgetting that this Server has two Admin because of its size, but then again I think I prefer that lack of knowledge." The two lookalikes then turned to see the new arrival.

"Cast can be the public face, let her deal with the light; meanwhile I deal with this Server's more…darker circles." Speed said.

"I completed the mission as requested, Master." Hummingbird bowed towards the Admin.

"Right, good work." Speed addressed her while still looking to Grim. "Now Mister Grim; as you know by now that these are my Night Troops. The part of the Admin that deals with the more destructive issues around FFW; one such issue would be in Network Slums."

"The Asylum District right?" Grim asked boredly.

"I see, straight to the point right?" Speed chuckled a bit. "Ok then I'll get to the heart of this meeting. The problem stems from a guild known as Dead Bloods who reside in the Asylum District. A bloodthirsty guild, yet surprisingly evasive of the Admin's eyes."

"Last I checked they seem more mellowed out." Grim said.

"Maybe; however, more so often they are going back to their old ways of contract killings. Leaving their emblems painted in their victim's blood like back in old times." Speed then last the smirk and became serious. "While they may be evasive of us, you had run ins with them before. In fact you happen to know the current leader."

"And what does that have to do with anything? Even if I know her it's not like she'll understand what you're trying to say. Dead Blood isn't going to stop killing and they're not going to hand themselves over." Grim stated the facts.

"That's right, but what if the members of the guild happen to say…go missing?" Speed brought up the possibility.

"Are you hiring me to take them out?" Grim asked.

"Why not, do you support what the Dead Bloods do?" Speed asked back.

"I'm not on for violent killing sprees, but criminals are usually put in a holding cell by the Admin before their punishment can be decided. You're basically saying execution without a trial."

"As if those blood soaked dogs deserve any trial when everyone knows that they're guilty."

"But you can't exactly locate them." Grim brought up. "You wouldn't be coming to me for this type of job if you weren't down on your last options."

"Of course, I can't do a mandatory sweep of the area because that requires both Admin's approval to sweep an area. This is something I don't need to have that little girl and her armored security blanket on my case about." Speed said. "And think of it this way, I'll let you decide the outcome."

"Outcome?" Grim asked.

"Capture or Kill; do whatever you think you should do oh great Bounty Hunter." Speed smirked. "I want this deal with the Dead Bloods over and done with. As long as you can end their murder sprees I'm happy."

"Yes, because that's what we all really care for." Doppelman rolled his eyes at the job stated.

The emotionless Hummingbird seemed to not take this well as a ninjato materialized in her hand, but before a move could be made she was stopped by Speed. "Don't allow this shade to rile you up; you're of no use in battle if you go flying off the handle."

"…yes Master." Tsubaki said submissively as the ninjato vanished in the same light it was summoned with.

Seeing his second in command settle down; Speed once again addressed Grim. "Well do we have a deal?"

"I want all of this down on paper just so this is official; from a certain incident a long time ago you aren't that keen on keeping your literal word." Grim said.

"Tch, just be lucky this is a professional visit. I can have you arrested along with the Dead Bloods for being an associate to one." Speed warned him.

"But you need me, because you know no other way to actually get close to them or pin them down." Grim shot back. "I don't really care for a reward; I can bill you later for the trouble. I do however know that if I say no you'll default to more extreme methods."

"Hey, don't play me off as the bad guy, I just want to get results besides blood smears on the walls." Speed said and with a snap of his fingers a mercenary contract appeared in hand and he tossed the paper to Grim. "Do we have a deal?"

Grim took a moment to stare at the specifics of the mission on the contract, scanning for any fine print the Admin may have not spoken of. Finally he walked over to Speed with his hand offered out.

"We have a deal, but as you said. I do this my way."

Speed just continued to smile darkly as he accepted the handshake. "Why of course, as long as you take care of the problem I don't care."

Grim just nodded as he took the contract and left the building with Doppelman.

'Are we really going to trust that guy?' Doppelman used his link to communicate silently.

'Speed, no, he may be an Admin but he still in the job for his own goal. The only reason he would come to find me is because he can't tear the area down and he actually needs my services.' Grim thought back. 'It's best if I really do take care of this problem.'

'I get that you know some of these Dead Blood guys but how are you going to take them down if they aren't friendly?' Doppelman asked.

'Easy, I may be outnumbered but I know a place where we can get help. In a Guild War, what better way to take down a guild than with another guild?' Grim remained cryptic as he made a call to a certain rogue when he got away from the base.

(With the Night Troops)

"Must we really go to a mercenary for such a task? Give me a day to go through the town myself and I'll…"

"Tsubaki! While I don't doubt you, even if you do find them I doubt you can kill them all and you would be useless to me dead." Speed cut the hummingbird masked girl off. "This way we can watch and wait. We'll have sensors on Grim the whole mission. If he's not effective he can at least leave them in a weakened state…that's enough for us to haul them in."

"Master, I don't doubt your plan but…"

"So why do you question me still?" Speed countered.

Humming-bird, or Tsubaki, stiffened a bit before regaining her composure. "I do not question I serve. I just do not see how one mercenary serves my Master's plans." Tsubaki was expecting some form of punishment for her statement but she was met with an amused laugh.

"Well said, but the plan is already moving forward. Knowing his record he won't kill them unfortunately, but if he's going to abuse a certain system to bring Dead Bloods out he's going to need a guild to do so."

"Those ones who've opposed you before?" Tsubaki asked.

"Correct…Dead Bloods, and even Kurotsubasa. If all goes planned, there will be two less thorns in my side." Speed said as he then dismissed them while he left the room. The rest of the Night Troops left except for Tsubai who walked at Speed's side. "I thought I dismissed you."

"An Admin Guard Captain's place is beside their Admin." Tsubaki stated.

"Sometimes I swear you're worse than Leon, the dog, at least take off your mask when not on duty." Speed said as he continued walking.

"As you wish." Tsubaki removed her mask revealing flawless ivory skin and jet black hair kept in a long ponytail when she put her hood down. Her eyes were a deep purple that took in everything around her, but where solely focused on the one she was walking with.

(Scene change)

"And you found it down in Cheshire's Path, just like that?" asked Bella excitedly bouncing on Ravena's bed as she looked over at the white and gold microphone with its musical patterned design in her hands.

"Yeah, I had it restored and apparently it still works," replied Ravena hugging Punnya. "Unfortunately we're still trying to figure it out."

"Punnya-Nya~" agreed the manju with a nod.

"But still, a Melodic Mic is a rare find nowadays," noted Illu sitting on a nearby by bean-bag chair when a beeping was heard.

Simultaneously all three girls pulled up their screens to see if it was theirs. However, only Ravena's showed the incoming call. "It's Grimmy!" noted Ravena in surprise as she answered the call. "Hello?"

"Hey Rave, do you have a minute?"

"Sure, what's up?"

"I need a favour…"

Bella and Illu quickly leaned in to listen with interest.

"I need to join Kurotsubasa."

(Scene Change)

Not long after having Grim explain his situation the girls wasted no time in bringing the rest of the Guild to attention. This led to a quick gathering in the meeting room. Since Key and DB were still some distance away, the rest had the two on video-conference along with Grim.

"So what's this all about suddenly Grim?" asked Shadow.

"It's just what I told Ravena over the line. I need to join Kurotsubasa, but only temporarily." Grim explained.

"That doesn't really answer much; if you're doing this because of a job you've been offered why do you need us? You've taken care of your mercenary work alone before." Shadow said, trying to find the reason behind the mercenary's request.

"The only you would need a guild now is because of the Guild Wars right, is it because of that?" Bella tried her hand at guessing.

"That's part of it…" Grim was almost pushed out the way by Doppelman as he invaded the screen.

"The thing is we've been given a job by this Admin guy. His name was Speed or something like that." The shade said causing most of the guild to become stiff.

"Speedgain right, he's the only Admin in the Server that goes by that name." Illu said nervously as she recalled her memories of the Admin. "And now he's given you a job because of the Guild Wars, does that mean he wants you to hunt down a guild?"

"Yeah, what's the guy's angle nya? The guy's shifty but from all that I hear he's got a purpose for doing the things he does, so why come to you Grimmy to go after a guild? Can't he take care of them as an Admin?" Ravena asked raising suspicions.

Doppelman was then shoved out the way as Grim cleared his breath. "I guess I'll have to explain this from the beginning for this to make sense. Anyway it wasn't from lack of trying, the Admin has been trying to pin this certain guild since it was founded."

"So what's this mysterious guild called that they can avoid the Admin? I thought only we were that clever?" Bella asked. The answer then came when Grim sent an image so that the guild could see it. The guild's emblem was of a smiling devil, but the image seemed to be formed by black blood. Below the image lied the name of the guild, Dead Bloods.

"Whoa, that's one creepy emblem nya." Ravena voiced her thoughts.

"It's too early to be creep out yet. As you can see that's the emblem of the guild called the Dead Bloods. They're a murder for hire guild that can be found in one of the eternal night area, Network Slums. A fact about the guild is that all members have two similar powers: the Black Blood and the Branch of Sin." Grim spoke.

"Murder…for hire?" Illu asked, though her tone seemed to suggest she rather not know.

"Just as they say, it's like mercenary work only they take it further than most others, they kill or PK their targets. However; that's just what they've become. In the past the guild put Jashinist to shame, they're motto used to be outright slaughter. They would go through areas and reduce entire player populations."

"No wonder the Admin would want these guys pinned, if they had a PK streak as long as you say they are." Shadow said as he then took control of a terminal. After a minute of searching he then came up to the Dead Bloods guild page. "Too bad I can't pull anything up, without Key we can't get much information on the members."

"If you need to know about the members, than give me a moment." Grim said as he pulled up six different images showing the members of Dead Bloods.

"You know, when you said they put people like Hidan to shame. I kind of expected more members to be honest." Bella pointed out at the lack of members.

"Well the Admin can't get the whole guild, but they were able to prison and ban several members and some have been put on heavy probation, rarely leaving the Admin's sight. There have also been some who just up and left." Grim said to Bella as he then went over the images. "Now the ones who have stayed, in no particular order…"

The first image was definitely the strangest thing the guild had seen in a while. The man, they assumed, stood about twelve feet tall and was broad as he was tall with large, bulging muscles. His face was hidden by a white ivory mask that looked like a flat hockey mask with six slitted holes arranged into two columns with glowing red eyes visible from the middle slits. The helmet continued, with three protrusions that covered the sides and back of his head though it allowed scruffy black hair to run out halfway down to his back.

He only wore an open white sleeveless haori and ripped black shorts, nothing else except for his large armored hands and skeletal feet that supported him, every visible piece of his body was riddled with scars…and something else. His legs were bandaged up to the knees and embedded into his forearms and back causing him to hunch over where thick, black cylinder like protrusions.

"This one is Meat-Head, despite his looks he can't do much…literally. The guy's a simpleminded hollow, who's appearance and actions where really caused by someone else. Meat-Head's really only a beast that attack whoever his tamer points to." Grim then pulled up another image that greatly contrasted with the first one.

This player was really short, standing a few inches from five feet. Kurotsubasa could instantly tell who he was portraying as he had short, silver scruffy hair, honey golden eyes, and pale skin as if he never saw sun. He wore a lab coat with zigzag patterns over it with a plain black shirt underneath, tan slacks, and dress shoes. The one thing that stood out about the man was the large bolt that ran through his head.

"The Tamer in question is Mad Doc, as you can see he didn't need to do much to get the name. Despite his looks, the guy's actually one of the many reasons why Dead Bloods have evaded the Admin. He's smart and just as deadly as the others, especially with his knowledge of the body."

"Oh great a psycho doctor, just the last thing I wanted to hear." Bella said after a quick shiver.

"Bad memories Hy-Nya?" Ravena asked.

"Let's just say there have been a few who wanted to see how toons tick." Bella answered. "So who are the rest of these psychopaths, I can tell that from the way you're going he's not he leader."

"You're right, he's got the smarts but that's it. Doc is only average in battle but he has tactics to make up for it." Grim said as he then pulled up the next image. This time it was that of two young women, twins to be exact, as Kurotsubasa could see.

They both were extremely beautiful, 6'6 with tan complexions, blue eyes, and hourglass figures. However, they appeared to be fraternal twins as one had long flowing blond hair and the other had shoulder length black hair. The blond one had a very regal air about her. She wore extravagant clothes, attire very similar to Boa Hancock from One Piece. On her head, she wore a golden tiara with a ruby, emerald, and sapphire placed in it.

The other one wore an incredibly revealing outfit reminiscent of a dominatrix. Her outfit resembled the character Ivy from Soulcalibur 3, but instead of it being white it was black and it lacked the metal gauntlets. She also had a pair of mini ring blade earrings.

All the boys' eyes popped open a little at the revealing clothes as Shadow quickly placed a hand over Amaya's eyes while Punnya in turn covered Shadow's with her tail. DB let out a wolf whistle only to be smacked by Bella who had simply stuck her hand through the screen to hit him.

"Your toon abilities never cease to amaze me Bella-nya," said Ravena to the girl who grinned as the two fist-bumped each other.

"Anyway, these two are dubbed the Domina-Twins; the blond is called QueenDestruction and the other is her sister, Whip-Mistress." continued Grim with his explanation. "Both of them function as Dead-Blood's informants with QD being a specialist in torture tactics while Whip is the Lead Informant. By themselves, they are both deadly but when you put them together, they become twice the destruction."

The image suddenly shifted to another image of a scrawny young man with spikey blood red hair and brown eyes. He wore a modified sleeveless black jacket designed after a straight jacket with a hood attached at the neck along with plain black trousers and for some reason was barefoot.

"This guy here is the Second-in-Command, 'Devil Blood' Zaraki. Extremely violent in nature and also a master strategist. Not the best combination you would want in an opponent. He was the former Guild Leader of Dead Blood until he got booted to his current level by her…." explained Grim before he shifted to the final image, which showed a rather innocent, cheerful looking young teenage girl who wore the same attire as Shiro from Deadman's Wonderland except she had long flowing black hair and purple eyes.

"That's Dead Blood's Leader?!" asked Bella incredulously. "She's adorable!"

"On the contrary, this girl, Shiro, is far from it. Despite her looks, she has been called 'Wretched' Shiro and the Terror of Death. Do not underestimate her; she's a lot more powerful than she looks. It took her a mere week to steal the position of Leader from Zaraki since she joined."

"So is she the cause behind the recent attacks?" Shadow asked as he pulled Punnya's tail from his eyes. The images may be gone from the screen but his cheeks still carried a soft pink hue. "If she's the leader she must be leading the assassination missions right?"

"That would make sense but not in this case. Shiro was not a part of the original members, in fact when she became leader is when it was dropped down to just assignations and not mass murder." Grim answered. "However; I found out that she wasn't even in the area last night when the last victim was found."

"Hmm, maybe a certain second-in-command is still pretty salty about losing his position. So he must be taking the missions his own direction, you did say Zaraki was one of the last members of the original guild." Ravena pointed out. "Perhaps it's just a little coup d'état."

"Mutiny within a guild?" DB said questioningly while rubbing his sore cheek.

"I wouldn't call it that, even if the rest are following Zaraki on missions they wouldn't turn against Shiro. Though you are right that I believe Zaraki is most likely the prime suspect to the murders as well." Grim said as he turned a serious look to Kurotsubasa. "To be honest, I shouldn't be involving you guys in a mission like this; you have your own problems to deal with. But…honestly I don't see myself being able to take out the whole guild successfully and then there is Speed to take into account."

"Perhaps his strategy is to swoop in and take down all of them after you weakened them from your battle and after that take the credit if you did fail." Key hypothesized. "Speed wants the Dead Bloods dealt with, but there is no telling what his plans are."

"Only one way to find out." Shadow said as he turned from the Beta to Grim. "We'll help you out Grim, though I do have one condition."

"A condition?" Grim asked, surprising him and the rest of Kurotsubasa.

"What's up Shads, you're not thinking of charging him for this are you?" Bella asked.

"No nothing like that; Kurotsubasa will challenge the Dead Bloods…but it will be Grim who will be the leader for that battle." Shadow said, straight to the point.

"Me, lead?" Grim said.

"You know more about the Dead Bloods, which will save us time from pointless research. We'll send a Guild War challenge to them, and on the day you fight with us as the temporary Guild Leader." Shadow said.

"What about you Shadow-kyun, sure you can stand being on the sidelines?" Ravena asked.

"Who said I'm not fighting? I'll still take place in the action, though in fairness with Grim being the leader that gives him an easy shot at Zaraki who is the main target." Shadow explained.

"All right, we'll meet tomorrow to plan out the challenge, though there is one final thing I have to look into. I'll meet you guys there." Grim said as he vanished from the screen, dismissing the meeting.

(Scene Change)

"So not only did you leave Shiro behind, you took on a mission without Shiro's say-so?" Shiro asked as she hung upside down on a low rafter inside the warehouse that the Dead Bloods were using as their base.

"Please, you were the one who decided to fill your gut with sweets while off on a candy raid and even if you went you would have accepted sweets instead of munny! We wouldn't be getting anywhere with the income we have now!" Zaraki raged back but Shiro seemed unaffected by her second-in-command's barking.

"Shiro's rules are Shiro's rules, and one of them is to not have fun without Shiro there!" The black haired leader said from her perch.

"Oh then he hasn't broken much rules, dipshit here is as dull to follow as ever and he's a hypocrite. Whenever I tried to have fun on the jobs I get scolded, but when he tries to he tries to bite our heads off..." whined Whip. "Besides shouldn't we do something about her?" The scantily clad member of Dead Bloods pointed to their guest.

The woman who they have met the other night was still there, enjoying the guild's hospitality since she was a client. Now that they were all in the light of the building and out of the darkness of night they could view her more clearly.

The girl has long black hair that was pulled into two long pigtails that fell all the way to the small of her back. She had fairly pale skin and one visible violet eye while the other was hidden partially by her bangs and with a metallic red and black eyepatch. Around her neck was a black choker with a white crescent moon and her clothing was that of a fishnet shirt underneath a black top which both stopped short revealing her midriff and black tightfitting shorts. She also wore black fingerless gloves with padded guards on the back of the wrist and black boots that led up her thighs. Over all of that, she had a large formfitting dark blue long sleeved hooded cloak.

"Oh, are you finally ready to hear my proposal?" The girl asked, not bothering to hide her amusement of their bickering.

"More liking trying to decided what to do with thee?" Queen retorted. "Thou must have confidence breaking into our base, or is that confidence merely foolishness?"

"More so strategic; trust me if I wanted to actually kill you I would have done so right when your friend caught the person with his blood-bending." The girl answered.

"How did you find out about that?" Zaraki asked angrily.

"Not like you made much effort to hide it, plus I've done my research of this guild. Besides this guilds basic repertoire of powers, you possess the ability to bloodbend, which you use almost in tandem with your other ability." The visitor quickly stifled a yawn. "A boring combination, it would reason why you would stick to areas with perpetual night as to not exhaust yourself calling for the moon."

"What did you say?!" Zaraki then move to draw his blood only to stop when a chain of hexagons almost slices his arms off.

"Bad Zaraki! Let the night lady finish." Shiro spoke of if she were disciplining a dog, causing both Queen and Whip to laugh at the man's humiliation.

"Night lady…oh how rude of me, I haven't introduce myself have I" The girl said with a smile. "I am known as Yukari."

"Yukari? You wouldn't happen to be the Yukari from that guild?" It was Doc who asked the question. "It would explain what you meant by you could have taken us out if you wanted to."

"What are you talking about Doc, a thin twig like her against all of us? Even if she shook off Zaraki's Bloodbending it was probably a fluke." Whip said in disbelief.

"And how does one break from the grasp of Bloodbending?" Doc strike an interested question. "Plus say we succeed in killing her, the rest of her guild would steadily wipe us out."

"Ok, I'm curious of this guild that's gotten thou so afraid?" Queen asked.

"Let's not get into that right now." Yukari said. "Back to my proposal, would you care to listen Shiro?" She asked the leader who had now moved from the rafters and was now occupied with a large bowl of sweets.

"Ask away, Shiro will listen since you bring lots of sweets." Shiro happily said.

'Hook, Line, and Sinker.' Several members of Dead Blood thought.

Yukari merely giggled as she started. "As I said, I want to challenge a specific guild for your next target. Specifically Kurotsubasa; out of the many guilds only several have the potential to actually bring them to battle seriously and your guild is one of them."

"Hah! That guild isn't as great as everyone says they are; a bunch of rising superstars. When's the last time they've been in serious battle besides that age long tournament ago, in a Guild War we would rip them to shreds." Whip said.

"Oh quite confident."

"You speak as though you would know the results, but what do you gain by us targeting them" Doc asked.

"Oh…there's a specific person in that guild who I want to see fighting seriously. What better than a bloodthirsty guild like this to push Kurotsubasa to its limits." Yukari explained. "Of course, if you defeat them then that is one less guild to worry about for a while and you won't have to worry about my guild's leader claiming any territory here."

"It would be beneficial of we do not have to deal with the hunters." Doc said.

"So you want us to slaughter a wimping guild like them. Consider it done, those guys don't look like much of a challenge to us; we'll paint the area red with whatever is left of them." Zaraki said.

"That doesn't sound fun at all." Shiro said in a disappointed tone.

"What, who cares about fun it's a job!" Zaraki said.

"The guild looks like they're having fun, but Shiro thinks that it would be boring fighting them. Shiro won't fight, but we'll…"

"Well speak of the devil, take a look at this." Doc said getting all of their attention as he pulled up a screen showing a message from a certain person. Zaraki skimmed over only to stop himself from punching the wall seeing the signature at the end.

"Grim." He said in a low growling tone.

"Yay, Death-chan sent a message!" Shiro said rushing to read only to blink as she finished reading. "Death-chan wants to battle, with these Kurotsubasa people."

"Wow, Grim sure knows how to jump ship. Hey Zaraki, how does it feel having to go against the real second of this guild?" Whip snickered.

"Shut up!" Zaraki then turned to Yukari. "We'll take your stupid job; I hope you enjoy the show because this will be your last chance to see them!"

"Hmm, somehow I doubt your words but, do we have a deal?" Yukari asked.

"Yep, Shiro accepts just so that Shiro can play with Death-chan!" Shiro smiled.

Yukari smiled and then stood to her feet getting off of the Dead Blood's couch. "Good, I recommend having the battle a week from now. There will be a nice blood full moon to take advantage of, a little handicap for you Mr. Zaraki."

"Like I need it." Zaraki said. Yukari then wave his words off as she then left out the entrance of the warehouse. After taking a step out, she then vanished into the night.

"Night Queen Yukari indeed." Doc commented as they all turned their attention back to the note.

"So what doth we do about the challenge?" Queen asked.

"I got an idea, I'll use the fight against Grim to prove that I'm the one who should be in the guild!" Zaraki said.

"Boo, Shiro wanted to play with Death-chan first, and you're just a stand-in!"

"I don't care; I'm tired of your stand-in crap! I'm taking this fight against Grim and nothing is going to stop me!" Zaraki said allowing his anger to boil over; while he was frustrated he could never take it out against Shiro besides words. The innocent girl had demolished him before and would do so again, but against Grim he wouldn't hold anything back at the chance at facing him on the battlefield.

"Fine, but don't expect Shiro to fight then!" said the girl with a pout. "If Shiro don't get to fight Death-chan then Shiro don't wanna fight! Shiro will just watch. "

"Like I even give a shit…." Retorted Zaraki while Shiro pulled faces at him while he had his back turned.

(Change Scene)

Grim had only just arrived outside of the Kurotsubasa base when his inbox sounded, prompting him to quickly pull up his screen.

"They answered already?" asked Doppelman leaning over Grim's shoulder. Upon reading the destination of the match, the shade widened his eyes a little in shock. "They're not serious-?"

"They are…"replied Grim solemnly. "Looks like we are going to be fighting a week from now….. at the Devil's Playground…."

(A Week Later)

The week flew by quickly as the day of the Guild War finally arrived. The Kurotsubasa Van drove through the ominous, dreary streets of the Asylum district. If the crooked crumbling architecture is not enough to give you the willies, then maybe the dark looming clouds threatening to shoot lightning at any moment might just do the trick.

"Welcome to Creepy-Ville…."muttered DB just as Key pulled the van to a stop at their destination.

The group quickly piled out while Key quickly turned on every possibly alarm system installed to the vehicle for safety. With Grim leading the group, the Guild walked the rest of the way towards an abandoned construction site. Based on the atmosphere, everyone could see why the place was called Devil's Playground.

The place gave off an incredibly dark aura, almost evil. It was as if just taking one step in the place would be condemning your soul. Twisted metal structures were all over the place, along with large construction vehicles threatening to fall apart. The girls huddled a little closely to each other nervously. Illu and Ravena clutched each other's hands tightly while Bella took to hanging on to one of the Nekomata's tails. Amaya was huddled close to Punnya who protectively had the younger manju wrapped up in her tail.

"We're here!" called out Grim, his voice echoing about eerily.

At that moment, creepy childish giggling rang out followed by the quick patter of feet as something white shot out from the shadows.

"DEATH-CHAAAAAAAN~!" squealed an extremely happy girl who jumped in the air and made a dive at Grim who simply side-stepped.

WHAM! Kurotsubasa flinched at the sound of impact made by the girl who had just done the mother of all face-plants into the ground. "YOU BIG STINKY MEANIE! Why'd cha dodge Shiro's Big-Super-Duper-Huggle-Cuddle-Death-Chan-Glomp?!" demanded the girl childishly immediately getting up after dusting the dirt from her face.

"Anybody with a brain would dodge someone coming at them like an atomic bomb you psycho!" retorted Grim loudly as he held the girl at arm's length by her head while she waved her arms at him while trying to get at him.

"But that's because Shiro Loves Death-Chan~!" exclaimed the girl like a child. "Death-chan was gone for so long~! Shiro felt so lonely because the others didn't want to play with Shiro! Shiro missed Death-Chan soooo MUCH~!"

Grim grabbed the bridge of his nose in frustration knowing that he wasn't getting through to the girl and he could also hear some of the others snickering behind him (or in Bella's case outright laughing). He regained his composure quick enough to dodge another Shiro Death Glomp.

"When Grim described her to us I didn't think that she would be as bad as he said but it looks like I was wrong." DB commented on the girl's actions.

"It's a big world out there, who knows what kinds of people are online." Shadow released a sigh. Though he was as surprised as the others he didn't physically show it.

"Speaking of worlds, where in the world are the other members of her guild. This is the place where they said for us to meet." Ravena pointed out on the fact that Shiro was the only face they could see in the desolate area.

"It could be that she decided to fight us alone." Illu guessed though from the childlike woman's actions she as well as the rest of Kurotsubasa could see that that was not the case. "They could also be out hiding in wait for something." The hybrid also guessed.

"Just give me a minute." Key said as he immediately began scanning the area using his ESP. Once he sent out the pulse all around his face lit up in shock before he turned to the others with a serious expression. "They're here, from the looks of things they have been for a while…and they're not the only ones."

"Well I guess hide and seek is over. We might as well come out into the open."

From on top of one of the half completed buildings, a few figures could be seen landing down to the ground. A large figure followed them and slammed into the dirt leaving a large dust cloud, as the dust cleared out of the crater walked out the rest of the Dead Bloods. Feeling the arrival of her guild Shiro turned to the others with a look of irritation. "Shiro told you guys to keep hiding. Shiro wanted more time to play with Death-Chan!" The leader voiced her tantrum.

"Well your time is up and if you wanted to play so badly you should have agreed to actually fight." Zaraki said walking ahead of the others as his heated gaze was focused only on Grim. "I didn't think you even have the guts to even come back to this place, but not only did you; you've brought along some upstart guild just to start a fight."

"Hey who're you calling upstart!" Bella yelled; before she can retaliate she was stopped by Illu.

"Calm down Bella-chan, if you start a fight before a Guild War is called you could end up disqualifying the whole guild." Illu explained as she covered the girl's omnitrix before she could use it. "I-its best not to let them rile you up." The owlgirl said to her friend.

"Doesn't mean I have to like." Bella mumbled with her arms on her hips.

"Funny words coming from you fledgling; we've got a special game lined up for you all tonight." Whip said cryptically, though her words carried a sadistic undertone. "I don't know what other guilds are out there after you guys recently, but let's see if they can have a Guild War with what's left of you." Whip smirked at a slightly shivering Illu.

"Now Sister, thou words are rather crude. Thy must ask that thou not destroy our competition's confidence before the battle starts." Queen turned to Whip and spoke but then turned back to Illu with an equally sadistic grin matching her sister's. "After all, fun like that is best left on the battlefield where all types of words and blood can be spilt." Queen added in her cold yet refined tone of voice; the voice that caused Illu to stand a bit behind her female friends.

"Scary~" Chibi-Illu spoke out as Ravena tried to calm her friend down.

Shadow then chose to step over to Grim and glared clear to the Dead Bloods. "We didn't come here to just throw words at each other or we'll be here all day. Now name your game, you should know the rules by now. You're the challengee you got to name the stage, now name the game." Shadow said wanting to move the event.

"Ooh that is an awful glare that thou has there. So thou art the Shadow whose name seems to be appearing all over. And from what our contact has told us thou reputation definitely precedes thee."

'Contact?' Shadow thought but none the less kept himself silent.

"Though…words from her and forums can only tell me so much. Thy definitely need to test thou's abilities firsthand." Queen sultry voice spoke as she leaned a bit forward, emphasizing her cleavage. The woman's actions and tones did cause a few faces to redden but otherwise had no effect as Shadow just seemed to scoff off her response while he let the blush fade.

"Did she just try and…flirt with you?" DB asked Shadow curiously.

"Does that really matter right now DB?" Key answered.

"I'm just asking, man these guys are starting to get more and more weird. Seriously Shads, why do you always attract the weird ones?" DB said avoiding a fast strike from the one in question. He let out a few snickers until a large mallet slammed into his head.

"This is not the time for jokes nya." Ravena said seriously, holding Punnya in the shape of a mallet.

"Right" Db said nursing the new bump on his head.

"Whatever, get to the rules…or is this just another all-out brawl?" Shadow asked turning away from Queen to Shiro and Zaraki.

Queen seemed to freeze in place for a second at that response. She then eyed the rest of the members of Kurotsubasa and she set her eyes on a few of them. The regal empress lost her flirtatious mood and turned her attention towards her sister.

"Now that sounds like a plan, but ours will make this battle a bit more…enjoyable." Zaraki then grinned, "I would like to explain but we're waiting for a few more people to make their way here before we can begin."

"And who are these people?" Grim asked.

"Oh you'll see, though I'm really restraining myself now from just waiting. Just being in the same space as you makes me want to rip you to shreds Grim." Zaraki replied darkly, flexing his ringed fingers.

"You're still as unpleasant as ever; trusts if I had things go the way I wanted I'd never have to deal with someone as troublesome as you." Grim groaned ignoring the audible snarling coming from the man. "So how long until we start?"

"Just give it a minute and…"

All of them then heard the roar of thunder and looked to see that Devil's Playground then became surrounded on all sides by a magic barrier.

"It looks as if it is time to start." Mad Doc grinned.

"A barrier?" Illu said in worry.

"What kind of playground is this?!" Ravena yelled out.

"Don't worry about the barrier; it's just a precaution to make sure the participants cannot leave the battlefield." Everyone then turned their attention to the sky again to see Masukomi land in midair along with C.A.M. and set her looks on the two guilds below. "Now that the two fighters are here we can then start with this Guild War!" As the reporter spoke several sounds came around the area. On top of various walls, roofs, and construction equipment were several players all seated to watch the battle in process of starting. "I see our audience has arrived."

"All of these people…I didn't even hear any of them move until now, and there are so many of them. How was a crowd able to get here and around without any of us noticing?" Illu asked as she looked at the audience in the outskirts of the area.

"I don't know but they didn't appear when I used my perception. They must be recent arrivals; all of their talk must have been a way of distracting us while they all got to their position." Key theorized; the audience was all in different spots, but none of them appeared in a hurry to move. They all had a look of anticipation on their faces. "This doesn't look like an ambush though."

"Well they do look like an audience; I guess they just wanted to take their seats without us noticing." Bella suggested.

"Or maybe a spell that was able to mask all of their movements, but why would someone do that nya?" Ravena asked.

"Punnya?!" Punnya agreed.

"Pyon~~!"

At that moment, Shadow felt a very strong a familiar presence appearing. Quickly he scanned the audience and was able to catch a face in the crowd. A familiar face that caused his eyes to widen for just a moment, but enough for Ravena to catch.

"Is something wrong?" She asked catching Shadow in a daze.

"Just Amaya's a bit scared; I think this place is getting to her." Shadow said as he began to calm Amaya down. Ravena wanted to ask more but knew that she wasn't going to get anything else so she just let it be. "The sooner we get this Guild War over with the better."

After a small ping was heard Masukomi then summoned her mike and then began her announcement.

"Hello all you Dwellers of the Dark, and welcome to this exciting Guild Wars matchup! As always, your host is me, Masukomi!" The reporter chimed out allowing the audience to let out applause for the start of the battle. "This battle may not go online to your channels this night but for all of you here you've got a front row live seat to all the actions!" As the applause grew Masukomi turned the audience's view to the barriers. "Those little additions to the battle are a gift from the competitive division of the Admin; they are Field Walls!"

"Field Walls? What purpose do they have besides keeping us in the area?" Illu was the first to ask.

"I'm glad you've asked; see for Guild Wars like these some of the guilds feel the need to just try and run even after all this planning. While it's their choice to quit it's starting to become bad for ratings." Masukomi said causing a few of them to sweatdrop. "So these walls determine the parameters of the battlefield as well as absorb all damage and impact on both sides. These Field Walls aren't dropping unless I give the OK."

"That's good, though we definitely aren't running away from this. I don't know about our competition though." DB said.

"And miss the chance of new fresh meat? I just hoped you've said your prayers." Whip smirked.

"Looks like we've got a battle here people! On one side we have the dark horses that have been rising in popularity lately, ladies and gentlemen Kurotsubasa!" Masukomi said just as a screen appeared in the air large enough for all to see displaying the guild below. "And their opponents, it seems that Kurotsubasa with their temporary Leader Mister Grim has strived high as they face off against the blood thirsty demons, the Dead Bloods!" The cheers grew in octaves as crowd's excitement grew. "Now let's start by introducing the game, we'll have the Dead Bloods start us off!"

Hearing his cue, Zaraki smirked and took a few steps forward. "The game we're playing is a Dead Bloods classic. We like to call it Hunters vs. Hunted." Zaraki announced. "The rules are simple; We play five rounds, each round a player from each Guild will hunt each other within Devil's Playground. Each Hunt ends when the other party is unable to continue."

"To put simply, it's like Hide-and-Seek meets Tag and both players are 'It'~!" chimed Shiro cheerfully as she popped up next to Zaraki much to his annoyance for throwing him off his game. "Oh, and there'll be blood, and pointy things, and agonizing screams…."

"Go away Shiro!" said Zaraki irritably pushing Shiro away.

"Oooh! Maybe someone will die~! Did I mention the blood, pointy things and agonizing screams?"

"Yes, now beat it you creepy little freak!" growled Zaraki but not before Shiro pulled some faces behind his back while Meat-Head picked her up and slung her over his shoulder and walked back to the others with her.

Zaraki coughed a bit as he regained his former composure. "For the wager, we are going to up the stakes here. Whichever Guild loses this challenge, each member from said Guild will have to give up their most precious item, one they treasure more than their own life," he said with a smirk as the Kurotsubasa members all tensed up at the idea. However, Zaraki was not finished. "Oh Yes…there are two conditions...First off, No Pets or Familiars. Secondly, WE get to have a choice on who our opponents are going to be."

"What?!" exclaimed Bella incredulously while Grim and Shadow narrowed their eyes. DB began biting his thumbnail while Key and Illu were exchanging looks. Ravena on the other hand kept her head down as she hugged Punnya closer, her hands trembling.

(Ravena's mind)

"How interesting…." noted Felis when she heard of the conditions and the wager in Ravena's mindscape. While naturally she was intrigued, Felis had a look of concern on her face. "But will we be able to keep it together, I wonder?..." Felis asked out loud as she looked down towards a dark abyss below her where a dark energy was swirling about.

(FFW)

Grim looked to the others in concern. "Are you guys willing to through with this?"

"We wouldn't be here if we weren't," replied Shadow as the others nodded behind him in agreement. After those words Kurotsubasa then stared determined at the Dead Bloods who mostly smirked back.

Zaraki then turned to Masukomi. "You heard them right? We gave the conditions and they've accepted, there ain't no going back in this playground." The Dead Blood said to the reporter on duty.

"Noted…" Masukomi said uncomfortably as she proceeded with her job. "There you have it folks, we got the game and the conditions are set! A game of predator and prey, hunters vs hunted…who will be the ones to survive and carry their guild to victory and who will be the ones to fall! While some of you have come here for long hours of bloodshed let's keep this in regulation; the guild at the end with the most conscious members will win!"

(Audience)

"A survival game huh, well I did say that they could use any methods that they like." Yukari said as she watched from her view of the field. "Hopefully I'm not kept waiting long. While information on the other members will be good there is only one person that I came to see." Yukari said aloud.

"So this is where you snuck off to? Didn't Kaoru give you a specific assignment, why are you out watching a Guild War?" A deep male voice asked but Yukari didn't appear startled, neither by the ominous voice or the wisps of smoke that appeared around her from out of thin air.

"My assignment was to access the power of this area's guild; what better way to see that than watching the Dead Bloods battle?" Yukari deviously asked with a look to match.

"And not challenging them yourself?"

"I know you've kept your eye on me since I was allowed to travel to this area but even without knowing your presence I couldn't take the guild down alone…at least not without demolishing that section of town. Attracting attention towards us is the last thing we need to do." Yukari stated, her face missing the humorous expression it had before.

"I see…though you know I'm not stupid Yukari. The reason you told them to battle this guild…"

"It's been two years since we've last saw him and only just recently he allowed himself to appear on the map again. Can you forgive a girl for getting a little stir crazy?" Yukari said, shivering as if to hold something back. The smoke seemed to have increased in volume only for it to swirl around behind her and form a figure.

"Yukari"

"I know we're not making a move in Tokyo City yet…but my mission is to scout out our targets. This Guild War will kill two birds with one stone. Now you may wish to take a seat, the show is about to start." Yukari said, with her now predatory like red eye looking down at the arena.

(Battlefield)

"Ok, since Dead Bloods are the ones choosing they get to select their first fighter and their first target! As these battles are one on one the rest of the guild only allowed to watch and not interfere, also hiders are given a five minute head start!" Masukomi explained.

"You know a lot of this stuff is not sounding fair." DB said as he began to dislike the rules placed on them more and more.

"Welcome to the Guild Wars, you need to expect all kinds of things when you fight in an enemy's home turf." Shadow said.

"Under the cover of night and even if the moon isn't covered there are several dark places to hide; lots of areas to take cover." Illu pointed out as she already begun scanning the deserted lot. "Head on battle or not, this is going to be a defensive battle for us."

"Whoa, hate to break it to you owlgirl but defensive isn't exactly my best style…in fact!" Bella then jumped forward and turned mockingly to their opponents. "Let's not make the first choice a big deal; I'll go first if any of you have the guts!" The toon-girl offered, sticking her tongue at the deadly opponents.

"Hy-Nya…." Ravena sweat-dropped at her friend's actions.

"Let it go; it's Bella's way to keep the situation upbeat. Besides from the way they've been treating us they've barely seen our battles so they don't even know half of what Bella can do." Key said to the catgirl. "Next to DB, Bella is the only one who can really take these guys on a head to head battle." The Beta said.

"Looks like the madchen believes she is ready for the hunt." Doc chuckled a bit to himself.

"So what, are you going to go first ya' old fart?" Whip asked.

"While I would like to open her up and see how the fraulein ticks I think it's best for her to go up against someone a bit more…durable." Doc said as he backed up towards Meat and tapped the giant's huge bicep. "Meat you're up; the little blond one has volunteered to be your opponent."

"Oppo…Appo…Oppooneent?" The giant tried to repeat the last word.

"She bad, you smash." Doc repeated simply which was enough to get the giant up and moving.

"Wowzers, I get the big guy as my hunter huh?" Bella said as if she had not been chosen to fight against a walking deformed, behemoth.

Meat-head stared Bella in the face and growled threateningly making Bella recoil and pinch her nose as she turned away while fanning the air in front of her. "EEEEWW! Two words buddy! Breath! Mints!"

Meat-Head briefly was taken aback as he breathed into his own hand and sniffed before shrugging in confusion.

"Meat! Focus!" scolded Doc irritably making the behemoth nod and revert back to growling while Bella cracked her knuckles.

Masukomi, seeing that the two players are ready, nodded as she turned to the crowd. "Well, the players are set which only leaves one thing. Everybody, you know the words so let's begin this countdown and say it loud!"

"3!" began Masukomi.

"2!" yelled out the Kurotsubasa members joining in.

"1!" yelled the Dead Bloods along this time.

"GUILD WARS LET'S GO!" roared everyone including the audience in unison. The Field Walls began glowing brightly as multiple streams of data flew out from them and weaved around Devil's Playground.

The ground rumbled violently as a crudely-built building began erupting from the ground. Some parts of metal began to warp and weave around each other around and through the building until finally a twisted, ominous skyscraper stood. There was a flash as Kurotsubasa and Dead Bloods were transported to their own individual spectators' booths on opposite ends of the field while Masukomi appeared in her own commentator's box. Multiple screens projected in front of the audience showing various shots of the interior ranging from different floors to rooms, down to every last corridor, shaft and stairwell. Multiple smaller screens appeared in the Guild's booths as did in Masukomi's box. On the screen, two lights flashed as Bella was shown to have been transported somewhere around the 2nd floor while Meat-Head was transported to one of the Upper floors.

Inside the building, an image of Masukomi projected in front of the each player. "You and your opponent have been transported to different parts of this building. There is no time limit and as the rules say, last one standing wins this round. Will you be the Hunter or the Hunted? No matter what, the choice is yours. Are you Ready?"

Bella and Meat nodded in response.

"Then may the Hunt begin…" replied Masukomi solemnly as her image vanished.

"MEAT-HEAD! HUNT!" Commanded Doc from the outside, his voice reaching the ears of the behemoth as he roared as he began lumbering through the large building in search of Bella.

Elsewhere, Bella looked up as she heard the roar permeate the multiple floors above her head before looking around. There was mostly darkness around her save for some dimly lit areas and occasionally brightly lit areas. Bottom line, it was downright creepy and abandoned. "Time to go Ghost!" exclaimed Bella activating her Omnitrix as she transformed into a ghostly alien. "Ghost-Freak that is!" she added as Bella fazed through the ceiling above her.

"And both fighters are off using their own tactics; it seems the GeneralHyna has something tricky planned by going through the building." Masukomi stopped her report just as all of those watching heard a loud rumble; all the monitors flickered to show Meat-Head rampaging his way through the structures, ignoring all wall and obstacles in his way. "Though it seems Meat also has a way of going through the walls as well, literally; I wonder how Bella is going to deal with this juggernaut of an opponent?!"

"So Grim, from the information you gave us I can already tell that the tamer and the one who did this to that guy was Doc but does that really explain how he's acting?" Key asked as they all watched as the bulky menace ran amok, tossing up rubble and construction equipment about in search of the shape-shifter.

"As far as I know, there are rumors around that said that before Meat became this, he was once normal. The guy was one of those 'traveling FFW in search of strong fighters' kind of guys." Grim answered while he eyes stayed glued to the screens. "He had some lucky breaks but his luck ran out with Doc. Doc tore, rebuilt, and repeated the process until he got what you see in front of us."

"Some kind of monstrous amalgam of parts, it's almost like he's his own version of Frankenstein's monster." Key concluded. "I don't what went through the guy's mind, I mean just look at him." The Beta said as Meat released a loud roar of frustration. "There are bad people in the world, but to find one who will literally push a person's mind like this."

"It sort of reminds me of that guy Sin from long ago; about how he many people he must have killed or tortured when he made that giant Philosopher's Stone." Ravena said lowly, though she did hiss when she mentioned her one time captor. "I always hated to admit it, but people like those guys do exist."

(Battlefield)

'Boy if I had any ears right now they'd be ringing.' Ghostfreak said to himself as he phased out of a nearby pile of rubble behind the behemoth. The alien specter turned intangible again and flew over to attack only to be bounced off by an invisible field. Before he could process this he was already inside of Meat's grip.

"Better pull something out quick!" Bella struggled, failing to phase out of the crushing hands of Meat. Ghostfreak's body then opened up slightly allowing a tentacle to sprout out and lash at Meat causing him to slide a small distance away from the exhausted ghost.

"What kind of trick was that? I know you look like a wall but I pass through them all the time!" Ghostfreak complained.

"H-nt…"

"Something you want to get off your chest, come on use your big boy words." Bella goaded him on.

"Doc said…Hunt. Hunt, means smash…rip…KILL!" The low grating voice turned into a howl as he stampeded his way over to the specter.

"On second thought…" The ghost winded back a punch just before he was enveloped in a green light. The light was enough to blind her attacker as Meat covered his eyes…just as multiple blows to the chest that sent him flying.

"You can keep your words to yourself, plus you're going to find it kinda hard to rip rubber!" Luffy yelled out as winded and stretched his right arm. "Gum-Gum Pistol!" The rubber pirate released a blow that sent Meat flying back even more.

"Looks like we found our answer to the Dead Bloods' path of destruction. Hyna's usual tricks might not be able to cut it but it looks like she's still able to put her powers to work when it comes to a full on frontal assault.!"

Meat grabbed the ground bringing himself to a sliding stop and roared, charging full tilt and Bella who quickly transformed into Humungosaur and grabbed his fists stopping Meat in his tracks as the two began to square off in a battle of strength.

"Woah! Ok, seriously man! Eat a tic-tac or something! I don't even have a nose and even I can smell your breath!" growled the dinosaur-like alien before using his tail to whack Meat into a wall. Outside, a dust cloud could be seen erupting from the side of the building indicating the location of impact.

Bella grinned as she reverted back to her original form. "Had enough big guy?" she taunted when Meat's hulking silhouette rose through the dust not even one bit shaken as he growled even more menacingly than before.

"Oooh boy..he's mad…." Said Bella out loud when Meat roared so loudly that the whole building shook. "Exit; Stage Right!" exclaimed the toon girl bolting off down a corridor leaving a dust cloud in her wake.

"Betcha' can't catch me!" her voice echoed back tauntingly.

"Blondie….DEAD!" roared Meat taking off after Bella.

Outside, Kurotsubasa watched on the multiple screens of Bella appearing and disappearing, keeping just out of Meat-Head's reach while the giant literally plowed through walls and pillars trying to catch Bella. Just when Meat thought he had got her, Bella would appear somewhere else, egging him on. At one part, Bella just stood at a particular area, seemingly backed up against the wall. Meat grinned as he began advancing on the girl, prepared to crush her with his bare hands when Bella gave him a devious smile and stomped the floor. Suddenly there was a series of loud cracking as the weak floor suddenly gave way underneath Meat, causing him to drop several floors.

"Sucker!" called Bella as she blew a raspberry down the hole. "Meep-Meep~!" she went before taking off like a rocket in a perfect imitation of the Road Runner.

Outside, several clouds of dust arose from the building indicating the many floors Meat was falling through before a loud crash which caused everywhere to shake showed that he had finally reached the bottom.

"Leave it to Bella to go classic Toon on Big, Brawny and Brainless…" stated DB who was actually getting a good laugh out of it.

"Don't mess with Toons as Hy-Nya would say nya!" cheered Ravena pumping a fist in the air.

"Pun-NYA!"/"U-Pyon!" cheered Punnya and Amaya copying Ravena.

"Aarghh! How long are you going to let her get away with this Doc? She's making a fool out of your freak out there!" Whip yelled to the screw-loosed doctor as she grabbed the front of his coat and shook him back and forth before dropping him. "Hell, normally I wouldn't care but he's making the rest of us look bad!"

"We disagree with Whip. Could thou please, quit thou's observations and have Meat possibly end this fight?" Queen spoke while stifling a low yawn. "The only reason thou hath kept this battle going is so thou can gather information correct? We say thou hath enough data for whatever experiments thou hath lying back in your labs."

"I would ask you two to be more patient with my creation, but knowing you and Whip that would be impossible. Not to mention, Queen is in no hurry to stay your foul tongue." Doc chided the girl while dodging a rock aimed to his bolted head. "I do agree that while the girl's actions are definitely interesting, I can always dissect whatever parts are left behind." The doctor then placed his hand on the bolt going through his head.

"Finally going to let Meat off his leash Doc?" Zaraki said with a sly grin as he waited in anticipation for the sparks to fly again on the battlefield.

"The Hyna girl is indeed confident…" Doc twisted the bolt in a specific combination instead of just a mindless gesture; starting three turns to the right, followed by five turns to the left. "But I feel that she would be a bit disappointed if the battle happened to be too easy; the first battle of a Guild War should be an exciting battle for both sides. She wouldn't mind if I…upped the level." He finished followed by seven twists to the right.

(Battlefield)

"Looky, looky here Meaty!" Bella smiled as she held up a clean and shiny rock that she pulled from some part of the arena. "See the shiny rock, huh do ya?!" She called out to Meat while keeping the item in clear sight. Meat's full attention was on the toon girl; though he was now on all four and growling at her. When Bella flashed the rock in a way that it sparkled it was able to draw the simple minded brute's attention.

"Shiny…" Meat was able to say through his mask.

Bella's grin seemed to grow as she pulled back her arm while at the same time transforming. Standing on the field now was the Number 10 Espada, Yammy Llargo, clutching the rock in a tight grip as he got ready to throw.

"See the shiny rock boy…well go get it!" Yammy threw the rock, but due to his enhanced strength the rock went flying over Meat's head as if it was a comet. As Meat took off to chase after the rock, Yammy then opened his palm to show the screens that the rock still stayed in his hand. "I didn't really throw the rock." Yammy said just as there was an explosion off in the distance.

"Aren't I just evil?" Yammy laughed before changing back. "I did leave him with a nice delayed Bella to play with, so I'm not that bad am I?" Bella asked the crowd rhetorically.

"And it looks like the Hyna General has once again played with Meat-Head as if he was just a playful animal. Now that Meat is now under the remains of a building, I think it's safe to start calling the match." Masukomi said as all the monitors turned to the smoking rubble that Meat lied underneath. All of the crowd could see the exposed arm sticking out into the air. "Seeing as Meat is no longer moving, the winner of this round is…" The reporter was then cut off by the sound of the limb moving.

In the rubble, Meat forced himself out of the pile of destroyed building with his body only barely scratched by the explosion from before. The giant then let out a roar as his body went through a change. Instead of hunching over he stood up bold and straight; the black cylinders protruding out from his body dropped, further increasing the behemoth's muscle mass.

"Hey wait…that's Vilgax's trick from the first Ben 10!" Bella realized as she noticed that the muscles of her opponent increase in size. 'That's the last thing you need to worry about. It's more than just copying Vilgax's move.' Ben spoke from within Bella's mind. 'We can all feel it from inside of your body. That guy's power is skyrocketing!' The toon continued to warn the Hyna General.

'And now to have Meat truly begin this fight.' Doc thought as he began to twist out another combination from his bolt.

8 turns Right.

3 turns Left.

9 turns Right.

At this time the large weights attached to Meat's legs then fell, leaving two large craters beside the fighter. Within the holes of his helmet, two gold eyes appeared through the darkness as a wave of power exploded from out Meat's body along with an inhuman howl.

"Well….Shit…." Bella bluntly spouted. Before Bella could even realize it, Meat had disappeared into a blur was in front of her in a matter of seconds as the giant mutant sent her flying through several walls.

"ACK!" cried out the Toon girl as her back smacked hard against a metal beam with a sickening crack as she fell to the ground and coughed up some blood. "Ow…."was all she could squeeze out as tried to get herself back on her feet. All of a sudden she heard another roar as she looked up to see a large chunk of concrete coming at her.

WHAM!

Went the concrete as it slammed down on the girl.

"NO!" screamed Ravena while Illu quickly turned buried her face in Shadow's shoulder.

Meanwhile, Doc and Zaraki smirked mockingly to themselves while the sisters exchanged sneaky looks with each other. Shiro on the other hand who was sucking on a lollipop looked down at where Bella apparently went splat with indifference. "Ara…Is it over already?..." she asked as she watched Meat-Head trudge up to the slab.

"Hehe….Blondie splat…" chuckled Meat to himself as he lifted up the slab to find a ragged flack jacket. "Huh?" he asked in confusion when he heard someone whistle at him from above.

Meat looked up to see Bella hanging from the ceiling. "Meaty…..STUPID!" growled Bella as she dropped and planted both her feet on his face using her whole body weight to crack his mask before she jumped off and landed a few distance away.

Bella breathed hard. She had only just barely escaped that slab after being hit with force of a high-speed locomotive. Her pony-tail had come undone, causing her long hair to fall on her shoulders. There were scraped and bruises everywhere on her person while her clothes were in some places. Her black t-shirt had a sleeve half torn which Bella immediately ripped off and used it to wipe the blood trailing from her mouth and head. The bandages on her arm had come undone and were hanging off her arm loosely.

"Alright Meaty, if you're pulling out the big guns…." She said smirking as Bella ripped the bandages of her arm to reveal a nasty scar and a silver ornate bracelet with a round red gem fused to her fore-arm. Bella lifted up her arm to show the Omnytrix and bracelet decorating her right arm.

"Then so am I!" she declared as the gem glowed.

Suddenly Bella's eyes became black with yellow irises as her hair increased in volume while the bracelet began forming armored plates around the girl's arms, shoulders. Armor also began appearing from Bella's feet upwards , ending at her knees along with a chest plate and ending with an ornate armored head gear that went around her forehead and framed her face. The girl grinned to reveal her teeth had become sharpened.

Everybody gasped at this new development. Masukomi quickly readjusted her glasses. "Just when thought that this was over, each opponent has revealed they had more than what they have been showing!" she exclaimed excitedly. "CAM are you getting all this?!"

"PUPU~!" replied CAM.

(Kurotsubasa)

"It looks like Bella had more up her sleeve than I thought!" exclaimed Doppelman in surprise.

"Damn right she does!" cheered DB loudly while Shadow folded his arms and smirked.

"Ano….what is that bracelet?" asked Illu out of curiosity. "Do you know Rave-chan?"

Ravena looked impressed as she looked at a close-up of Bella. "It's an ancient sentient artifact called a Witch-Blade. It's almost like the Omnytrix in a way that it always chooses a host, and latches on to it. How long has she had that?"

"For quite a long time, but she only uses it when the Witch-Blade wants to fight," replied Key who never took his eyes of the screens. "I guess Meat's sudden transformation really got it in the mood." He noted to himself.

(With Bella)

Bella grinned as a blade shot from her right gauntlet as she held to her lips and licked the blade. "Finally, someone I can actually use this on! I've been waiting years for this moment!" she said in glee. The Hyna General then turned her new battle-crazed eyes onto her opponent.

"Looks do no good…I still squash you!" The massive fighter declared as he once again disappeared with a blur. Meat then appeared before Bella with his fist stretched out only for it to go through the toongirl before she faded away.

"I can see your moves now."

Instantly an armored foot found its way on Meat's head as he suffered from the girl's dropkick. Meat staggered a bit, his vision swirling from the kick only for a blow to the gut that sent him sliding across the battlefield. Bella then dusted off her hand and smirked, "Come on, don't make this too easy when I can finally cut loose. Tell you what; hit me with your best shot!" She called out with her arms spread wide in anticipation.

"What's this, not only has Bella embraced a new attitude she's actually letting Meat try his best shot at her! Hopefully she doesn't live to regret that decision!" Masukomi spoke to the crowd. "One thing Meat is known for is the devastation he leaves at his wake, especially when he starts using his more destructive powers!"

"PUPU!"

"Exactly C.A.M., these two know how to give an intense first battle!" Masukomi agreed.

"You heard her Meat, no holding back…destroy." Doc said as he continued to speak to Meat through his hidden mike. "Break everything in your path to get to her." With every word the mad doctor spoke, Meat's eyes would repetitively flicker red with rage.

"Let the beast loose."

Meat slowly nodded his head as the mouth of his mask then opened to reveal another one hidden behind. With his mask and mouth wide open a ball of spiritual energy began to charge right in front of the behemoth's maw. Bella's smirk only grew in anticipation as she made no move to dodge the attack she knew was coming.

"That's it big guy, don't hold nothing back. Hit me with your best shot!" The battle-crazy girl called out as she clenched her fists. "Better make sure that Cero's a good one, you only get one shot!"

Thought it couldn't be seen from either's viewpoint, both Meat and Doc then grew a smirk that matched the girl's own. Instantly, the small ball grew into a colossal sphere roughly the size of Meat's body, shocking most of the people in the crowd as well as Bella with the sudden change of attack.

"It's important not to leave a lady disappointed, so a little boost of power should be to her liking." Doc said as a wicked gleam overtook his glasses. "Now go ahead Meat show her your…"

"Cero de Gigante!" Continuing with surprises; the cero fired in the blink of an eye and soon all Bella could see is red. A mass explosive shook the arena and caused dust to fly overtaking the cameras.

"My, my! The suspense just keeps growing! Did Bella just have another close call or has her incredible luck finally run out?" Masukomi said, letting a small bit of worry slip into her reporter persona.

(With Kurotsubasa)

"I know the Witch Blade was basically a massive boost for Bell, but do you think something like that could take a Cero that huge? I mean, Bella didn't even move or try to get out of the way, that crazy side of her just stood and took it." DB said in worry as the dust still covered the vision of the cameras.

"Bella-chan…" Illu said as she sunk into her scarf in worry before a look of confidence took over. "This can't be how the fight ends; Bella-chan can't fall to an attack like that."

"That's right; Hy-Nya isn't the kind to go down without an amazing explosive scene! Bella can't lose and even then, she would still take that guy down with her!" Ravena said, agreeing with her friend as she looked at the screen. "Come on Hy-Nya, give him hell!"

Shadow then activated his Byakugan to try and get a better lookat the situation only for his eyes to widen in surprise before he smiled. Key noticed the changed and wondered what the guild leader was thinking. "What did you see, is Bella all right?" The Beta wondered.

"Bella's fine, in fact…she's about to cut loose."

(Battlefield)

As the smoke began to clear Meat wondered if the move was successful as he slowly stomped his way forward; he then stopped when he saw a light began to shine through the clearing and saw that his Cero was being hold back by Bella's clawed hands.

"Geeze and I was expecting something better. I figured an attack like this would've turn half of this place into dust but it's just a useless bomb." Bella said as she studied the blast she kept at bay. "I could've just went Neliel and Cero Doble your ass but this isn't worth the effort." She spoke as if the explosive blast in her hand was like a rock that was tossed at her…and similar to a rock she then crushed the attack in her hand, dispersing it. "Well that was your one chance and you blew it, guess it's my turn." The insults continued to fly.

Meat glared, having enough of the 'blondie's mean words' and vanished only to appear in front of Bella. Gripping his hands together he then slammed them right on top of the toon girl's skull only for her to not flinch at all.

"Now now, you had your fun." Bella then lifted the fists off her head and stared back at the masked behemoth. "Now it's my turn."

In a flash, Meat was sent sliding back from the kick to his bare stomach. Even with his reinforced muscle he still held to wound in slight pain and didn't even see that Bella was gone. Just then a girder came from the right and sent him flying like a baseball. Bella then dropped the dented steel and rushed forward towards her target.

"It's time the hunter became the hunted, ahahaha!" She laughed as she continued her pursuit.

(Dead Bloods)

"Ooh~, now this battle just became more and more fun. Shiro wonders if she can play with Shiro sometime?" Shiro asked aloud as the whole area was rocked with the sounds of the two warriors clashing.

"Thy doubt that very much." Queen disagreed while flinching from the sucker punch that Meat had just received.

"Doc, I don't like the thought of starting this battle with a loss. I thought you released all of the restraints on Meat." Zaraki growled out, irritated at the fact that the Soldier of Slaughter was getting out-slaughtered by the new Witch Bladed Bella.

"I never anticipated her transformation would affect her battle style by this degree. Meat should've been able to endure any attack and be able to take out her transformations with ease." Doc tried to explain the situation. "I did release his restraints; it's all up to his quick thinking."

"So in other words, the Meat-Head is basically f-ked." Whip bluntly concluded as she popped a gumball offered by Shiro into her mouth and chewed while her sister leaned against her and filed her nails.

(Battlefield)

Two fists met together as both fighters tried to overpower the other. Bella then opened her free clawed hand and slashed at Meat's unprotected side, leaving a few gashes in her opponent's body. Suddenly, something poured out of Meat's new wound and smacked Bella away allowing Meat to jump back to catch a breath. The toongirl then spat something out, only to see something black land on the ground.

'That's weird' Bella then turned and saw that the tentacle that had slapped her had originated from Meat's clawed wound. However; there was no crimson blood dripping, but black fluids that also made up the tentacle. 'So that's his game huh?'

"Oneesan, that power…it's the same power Okaasan had that gave me Ragnarok. His blood is black, how are you going to deal with that?!" Crona asked in concern within Bella's mind.

"Hold on a moment. It is Black Blood but the way he is manipulating it is different. Crona's black blood is controlled by Ragnarok and likewise Maka's by Soul but he doesn't have any spiritual bond that should move the blood like that." Stein made the observation.

"Sure it's blood? It's kind of reminds me of Venom or Carnage a bit." Peter Parker thought aloud.

'Point is, I don't care how he doing it. All it means is that it will take longer just to take him apart.' Bella thought as she then began to run forward. "Better for me, I might not get bored too fast!"

Instead of meeting the girl halfway like usual, Meat then took out two nails and them jabbed them into his hands drawing out blood from them. Bella slowed down, confused at the scene only to watch the blood move and form around his hands, making large fists of black blood. Meat slammed his fist into the ground causing ground to fly up and knock Bella back. The Hyna then flipped in midair and landed back on her feet.

Meat then began rushing, throwing punch after punch with his enhanced fist. Bella kept on the defense this time and kept dodging as on fist hit a nearby wall and caused the entire build to fall to dust and debris. She then crossed her arms to block a fist that would've met her chest and was sent flying away, leaving trenches with her feet as she traveled ways away from Meat.

"Well this fight just got a lot more annoying." Bella said as she rubbed her abused arms. "I want to keep trying my Witch Blade toy, but if cutting you up just gives you more blood to use I'm just making you more powerful." She frowned before sighing in annoyance. "I hate strategy thinking, why can't you go down when I punch you?"

"While I like this certain side of you showing up, it won't help your chances if this battle keeps going on. The Witch Blade will just keep sapping more of your energy before you're left exhausted."

"Oh, you're a new voice. Well you sound smart, so why don't you help me beat this guy, oh mighty Mister Terminator." Bella playfully said.

"My dear, I would prefer to be known by my other titles, but given the situation at hand I will let it slide. You can't use the Omnitrix to transform because you are using the Witch Blade; you may not be able to control whatever the blade corrupts. However; you can still draw powers and properties from one of us without transforming completely." Slade continued to lay out the situation for his host. 'Now use one of those powers and turn that colossus' strength back at him.'

"Ugh, using Marie's powers always leave my skin all tingly but I guess I can give it a shot." Bella then took a deep breath and began to channel the powers of 'The Rouge' inside of her. 'Kitty told me a story about some lady with this power, let's see I can make it work.'

"Trust me sugar, it'll work but this shiny little jewelry of yours is gonna mess us up bad if you overuse it," reassured Rogue indicating the channeling was successful. It was done in good time too because Meat was charging at them with full force. "You only have one shot at this, make it count."

"I hate limits…" muttered Bella in disdain when at that moment Meat appeared ready to smash her in. Bella quickly jumped into to the air, narrowly avoiding the attack as she flipped through the air. "We gotta find an opening on him!"

"There! The back of his neck!"

"I see it!" noted Bella pushing herself of the ceiling and landing squarely on Meat's shoulders.

"NOW!" commanded Rogue as Bella quickly deactivated the armor covering her arms and placed her hands on the exposed skin.

"GAAAAAAAARRR!" roared Meat in pain as his whole body began convulsing whilst his power was getting drained.

"ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR….GGGGHHHHH…..!"screamed Bella in agony as well feeling the overwhelming power surge into her as she had a brief glimpse of Meat's memories.

It was all fragmented, but Bella saw momentary flashes of Meat when he was a normal player followed by the repeated torture of experiments done on him by Mad-Doc which turned him into what he was. However, the Toon Girl saw something recurring in the memories of him fighting. Something that made her incredibly suspicious involving Mad-Doc.

Finally, Bella was able to tear her hands away from Meat's neck as she snapped back to reality. Using her new-found strength, Bella clasped her hands together and raised it high above her head.

"For the last time! STAY DOWN!" cried Bella at the top of her lungs as she swung her fists down on Meat's skull. An audible crack was heard as the giant mutant, already severely weakened from overexertion and Bella absorbing his power and energy, finally succumbed to his injuries and came crashing down to the floor. Bella stumbled a bit as she fell off his shoulders and hit the ground rolling as her Witch-Blade finally deactivated.

In that tense moment, everyone looked on in anticipation as neither player seemed to be moving until Bella began shifting. Slowly and painfully, the girl dragged herself over to Meat's unconscious form as she gently placed a hand on the mutant's head and stroked him. Her hair and the minimum lighting concealed the look of pity and sadness on Bella's face.

"I'm so sorry….what has he done to you…." Bella whispered in sadness with tears trickling from her eyes before finally losing consciousness.

Masukomi clumsily fumbled with her microphone after almost dropping it before raising it to her lips.

"I-i-i-it's finally over! After a long and grueling battle, both players have fought themselves to a standstill and are both down for the count! This first round between The General Hyna and Meat-Head has concluded as a DRAW!"

The audience roared in applause mixed in with some protests as the two players were transported back to their respective Guilds in a flash of light.

"Hmph! Useless lump of shit, making us look like goddamn fools!" growled Zaraki, angrily kicking Meat's almost near- lifeless body as soon as it appeared on their side.

"Ara…you only just realized it now Dunder-Head? Somehow that hardly surprises me," stated Whip indifferently as she folded her arms and blew a gum bubble before letting it pop and chewing again.

"We agree with thy sister, tis natural that Meat proved his incompetence as usual as well as thou portraying a spectacular lack of intelligence by pointing out the obvious," added Queen admiring her manicure.

The twins smirked in amusement as Zaraki glared at the two and flipped them off.

Meanwhile Shiro knelt by Meat and poked him all over. "Wowzers….Meaty's all messed up!" she stated as she turned to Doc. "Can you fix him, Maddy?"

Mad-Doc pushed up his glasses that had glazed over concealing the expression in his eyes. "Naturally, Shiro. It looks like I have more experimenting to do…"

"Yay~!" cheered Shiro happily throwing her hands in the air. "For now, Shiro will cast her special healing spell!" she declared standing up as she held her hands over Meat-Head.

"Pain-Pain go away~! Pain-Pain Go Away~!" she chanted as Shiro pranced around Meat's body.

Meanwhile, Doc glanced over at the Kurotsubasa side, narrowing his eyes as he saw Bella's body appearing.

(With Kurotsubasa)

"Bella!" "Hy-Nya!" "Bell-chan!" were the various exclamations of worries that were heard as soon as Bella appeared.

"Punnya!" called Ravena sharply as the manju nodded and opened her mouth wide.

Ravena quickly reached a hand in and pulled out a large rolled up futon and laid it on the ground. "Quick put her here!" instructed the Nekomata.

DB didn't hesitate to comply as he quickly picked up Bella bridal style and lay her down on the mattress. Illu and Ravena both exchanged looks and nodded as they set to work healing Bella to the best of their abilities.

"Bella-chan really gave it her all, going up against someone like that." Illu spoke as she and Ravea used their healing spells; they all knew Bella had a healing factor but their powers help to accelerate the process. "And like you said Grim-san, that was their weakest member."

"Hy-Nya did her best, that's all we can ask for…" Ravena then stared off from their platform at the opposing team's platform. "Still, they've got some scary powerful guys still left over if that's their weakest nya. And we still have no control over the order."

Key nodded his head in agreement. "As of right now the score is still a draw, with no victory from either side. The next one to go up will probably be the one to set the momentum for the rest of the battle. Whomever they choose, we need to be able to score a victory. We can't afford to play defensive with a guild like this."

"This really is a tough turn of events." Grim thought aloud as he went over the results of the last battle. 'However; as they all could've figured out, Dead Bloods have revealed their trump card. Meat ended up using the Black Blood, plus that ability. If they want to keep that a secret whoever goes next can't use their powers too wisely.' While Grim was strategizing, he noticed that the Dead Bloods were having a conversation of their own.

(Dead Bloods)

"I can't believe that pile of flesh already put a blotch on our record. Couldn't the idiot at least break her legs or did more than tear up the field?" Whip scolded the unconscious fighter while at the same time kicking his side. "Ugh, I can't stand this! Let me go and show you guys how we really get things done!"

"A moment please dear Sister; while thou's anger is in the right place it is not thou's time to act upon that rage. Thy time will come, but for now…" Queen then turned from her confused and angry sister to Doc who was now turning the bolt that went through his head. "The monster has failed, thus it is thy creator's job to rectify his mistake."

"You think so as well?" Doc said as he contemplated the situation. "The battle gave me a large amount of useful data, but the results left the experiment…unsatisfied." From his hunched crouch, Doc then stood at a proper posture. "Not to mention there is something that must be tested out for our client."

"Really, you're going to actually go with that bitch's plan. After that stunt she pulled in the base I planned on hunting her down and killing her after this fight is over." Zaraki commented on the doctor's words.

"I will say it again that it is wise not to get on the bad side of one of the Rare Hunters. Especially when that bitch is one of the guild's 'Great Ones.' That guild is one I rather not try to anger." Doc said. "However; I would also like to conduct some experiments of my own. With my primary interest unconscious it's time to switch to the next one."

"Those birdie wings right?" Shiro summed up after she was done dancing around Meat. She stared at Mad Doc with a bored expression only to stop as she saw something that caught her eye. "Ooh pretty light~!"

"What's airhead talking about now?" Whip asked. Her sister, however, followed Shiro's gaze and was almost captivated by the site before her. "Any clue Sis?"

"Thy believe Shiro must be speaking of the sky. It would appear that the storm has settled and the skies have cleared; Yukari's prediction seems to have some hints of truth." Queen directed their gaze by pointing up to the sky where a, larger than normal, red full moon sat in the dark sky. "The Blood Moon is upon us."

(Audience)

"So the two monsters ended up devouring each other. I honestly didn't know what to expect, but not a draw." Yukari made her observation. "Those little lovelies sure tore up the field, but it looks like it's steadily repairing itself," she noted referring to the building which had streams of data scanning it up and down as it repaired the excessive damage done to earlier.

"It would seem that you have chosen the perfect Guild War to be in order to study their powers and tactics. Kaoru would be proud." The cloaked man spoke beside her. "However the stage is set for the real battle you arranged am I right?"

"Indeed, I want to make sure that he hasn't grown weaker these few years apart from us. And even if he tries to suppress anything, the moon will bring out his more…fufufu." Yukari stopped to let a blush and giggle escape. "I'm sorry, but the possibilities of the next bout are making me tingle with anticipation!"

"I see that separation has done little to kill that part of you." The man then turned around as the wisps of smoke began to wrap around him. "I expect for you to tie up loose ends before you leave the area. After that, meet with Kaoru for your report." With that, he then vanished into the night.

"I'll give teacher my report…however now I get to see what I came here for." Yukari's eyes glazed over as she continued to watch Kurotsubasa's side.

(Scene Change)

After confirming the completion of the repairs, Masukomi adjusted her glasses and spoke up.

"Dead Bloods, please choose your next hunter for the round!" Masukomi said, breaking up all conversations that were going on between the two guilds. "Have you decided on who will represent you for the next round?"

"Yes, we've already decided that it would be me who will battle." Doc said walking forward.

"And have you chosen your opponent?"

A wicked light reflected off his glasses before he grinned, nodding to the reporter. "Of course, the prey that I have chosen would be…Shadow."

A series of gasps went through the crowd at the surprising choice that the doctor had made. With Kurotsubasa, the members were surprised all the while Shadow already was taking steps forward while Amaya hopped off Shadow's hood and quickly made her way to Punnya who protectively wrapped the baby manju up. Just as Shadow made it past Grim they began a quick conversation.

"Sure you want to go out there; you know what you're getting into."

"That doesn't matter; we need a win right, well I'll get us on the board as well as try and prevent any more fights." Shadow said as he then stopped. "You'll have your fight with Zaraki or Shiro or whatever, but if I can net two wins you can have that fight and this war will be over."

"You have that much faith in me?"

"You're not exactly weak Grim. Just let me deal with this fight." Shadow then continued to make it to the platform only for his vision to completely fade to black. Feeling a presence behind him, he let out a sigh and kept his calm. "What are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious, I came to wish you luck in your upcoming battle."

"You're in the audience?"

"Possibly, who knows where exactly I am. Just do your best in this fight; let your power loose and show me how much you've grown."

"If you want me to use that then…"

"Oh no matter what you do, just don't lose. A Queen can't bear to watch her King be defeated by a lowly peasant."

Before Shadow could retort that sentence he found himself back to reality standing on his platform waiting to get teleported. He pushed that conversation to the back of his mind as he focused on the battle at hand. Shadow had pulled out his scythe while Doc seemed to still by fiddling with his bolt.

"Here you have it folks, round 2 is the match between Shadow and Mad Doc! Let's see if any one of these two fighters can score a win for their side!" Masukomi said as C.A.M trained all cameras towards the two. "Ok…begin!"

On command, both players were teleported into different areas of the building just like the ones before them. Shadow tightened his grip a bit and he concentrated his energy into his eye.

"Byakugan!" exclaimed Shadow activating his eyes. Through the vision of the Byakugan, Shadow quickly scanned the entire building until he found exactly where Mad Doc was. On the cameras, everyone could see Shadow taking off while Mad Doc made no indication of even taking a step.

"And the hunt begins with Shadow making the first move while Mad Doc makes no move at all! Based on what we've seen so far, I believe it's best to assume that he has a plan up his sleeve!" announced Masukomi.

(Dead Bloods)

Whip gave the screens a quick glance before turning away. "Doc, he's on the move, coming your way right now," she muttered as her voice was picked up by a hidden ear-piece within her ear.

Inside the building, the message was instantly conveyed to another hidden earpiece Mad-Doc wore. The man smirked as he sat down on a random metal that stuck out from the ground and folded his arms. 'Now to play the waiting game….'

(Kurotsubasa)

Key narrowed his eyes suspiciously on Mad Doc. "Is he really just gonna sit there and wait for Shadow to find him?"

"That's preciselywhat he's gonna do, Key," replied Grim observing the screens carefully. "Unlike Meat, Mad Doc is more brain than brawn. But even he knows that tracking is not his strong suit. When he hunts for prey, he lets the prey come to him…."

"U-pyon…." Squeaked Amaya worriedly as she watched her 'father' on the screens while Punnya began grooming the bunny to calm her down.

Inside, Shadow finally found himself where Mad-Doc was. The doctor had not moved an inch from his spot, instead he was casually sitting on a beam, cranking his screw as he always did.

"Ah, my prey is here," Doc said casually with a smile on his face.

Shadow narrowed his eyes as he brandished his scythe. "Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing."

Doc chuckled a bit. "Ah, a smart alec I see. I wonder what other interesting quips you would have for me…."

"Just this one for now." From his hiding spot Shadow then pulled a few kunai from his pouch and threw them towards the stationary target.

"He just threw multiple knives; they're coming towards your right."

"This is becoming too trivial," A scalpel suddenly fell from Mad Doc's sleeves into his hands and he used them to deflect the kunai causing them to fall to the ground. He then looked from the knives to the direction they have flew from. "Is that truly the best you've got."

"I don't know tell me after this…" A calm voice spoke from behind the mad scientist.

Mad Doc's eyes widened a bit as he was then sent flying a small distance, tumbling along the ground. Shadow was standing with his scythe after he successfully landed an attack on his opponent's back. He stood still in a readied stance as he watched Doc slowly stand up.

"Amazing, in the beginning it looked as if Mad Doc could possibly predict and counter all of Shadow's moves. However; a surprise attack seems to show that this might not be true!" Masukomi then had C.A.M. replay the footage that showed Shadow suddenly appearing from out of thin air behind Mad Doc.

"Hmm, it's not his usual style but I guess some things have to have changed. He'll find a way to make up for his loss of speed." Yukari said, calculatedly. "All he needs is an available shadow and he can attack from any direction, how exactly will your tricks work now Dead Bloods?"

"Why didn't you warn me about the attack beforehand Whip? I could've made measures to dodge." Doc whispered into his mike after he checked that nothing was broken.

"Don't place that shit on me; I'm not a damn mind reader. He literally vanished from all the cameras. No one saw him appear again until it was too late." Doc then heard a small scuffle until he heard another voice take over.

"It would appear thy opponent appeared directly on thou's shadow before he attacked. It may be a link to how he was able to attack from behind without notice. That being said we cannot keep track on all his movements if he can travel by shadows."

"That's fine; just keep a closer eye on all of his general movements. Besides he'll need more than that if he wants a chance at winning."

"Are you done talking to yourself? I know you're not a psychologist but that's the first step towards insanity." Doc stopped talking as soon as he heard Shadow's voice. Shadow made no other movement besides activating his Byakugan again. "No I should be more specific; are you done talking to your teammates?"

"Oh, so you've figured that out?" Doc gave a small grin as he adjusted his glasses. "I take it when you used your eye under cover you must have spotted it. Oh well; I won't be relying on it much considering your unpredictable movements. That was Shadow Step am I correct?"

"It seems you know a bit about me." Shadow said.

"This world, and in turn the network, is a big place. You'll be surprised how easy it is to gather research on a certain topic. Information about you especially in recent FFW news, you've become popular very quickly." Doc began his research tirade.

"I'm willing to bet that you didn't get your info from some backwater player. Either you learned from someone I fought, watched all my battles or…" Shadow then held the curved end of the scythe's blade towards Mad Doc. "Or you got some Intel before this battle."

"I don't see how any of these factors are important, aren't you the ones who challenged us?" Doc asked rhetorically.

"Like you wouldn't have sent a challenge to us first after you got your information." Shadow retorted.

"Touché"

"Now let me ask this, who hired you?" Shadow asked seriously.

Doc released a chuckle as he looked to his opponent. "Oh I can't reveal that information. Customer confidentiality and all of that, we'd be out of a job. Plus I did take a doctor's oath." He kept going, a smirk still on his face from the oath comment. "You might find out soon enough but you don't have time to be asking me questions."

"Oh, am I mistaken or did I not leave a good sized scar on your back by now." Shadow said, referring to the last hit.

"You mean this little flesh wound." Doc then turned around to reveal his back. While the back of his coat and shirt have been cut through underneath all that was shown was bare skin. "I can't really call myself a good doctor if I can't patch simple wounds like this."

'No blood, or scars…and I know that I did cut through skin.' Shadow's thoughts were soon interrupted.

"I can tell that you have a lot of question, but we've been ranting along for too long now. Right now I too wish to see what our client sees…what about you have captured their attention." As he talked Doc then reached into his coat and pulled out rows of syringes. "So now…let the experiment commence!" He then threw his wave of projectiles towards the guild leader.

Shadow remained stoic as he manipulated his scythe, easily deflecting all the syringes as he made a dash for Mad Doc who suddenly swerved to the side avoiding a deadly swing as he spun around to Shadow's back. His palm crackled with static as he quickly drew it back for a strike.

"Soul Menace!" he yelled as he went in for the attack.

"Rotation!" Sparks flew all over the place as the palm strike made contact with a wall of chakra as Shadow quickly performed a Rotation in time.

The impact caused the two to repel away from each other as Shadow back flipped before coming to a stop while made Doc dug a pair of scalpels into the ground for leverage. Doc smirked in amusement as he straightened himself up. "Hmmm, not bad I must say. I do believe you have proven to be a lot more enjoyable than I thought," commented Doc as he began removing his lab coat and tossing aside. "How about it? No weapons, just bare-handed combat?" suggested Doc getting into a fighting stance.

Shadow narrowed his eyes as he let his scythe disappear while he removed his own jacket. "I accept," replied Shadow shifting into a basic Jyuuken stance. "Bring it!"

"With Pleasure!" replied Doc enthusiastically as he launched himself at Shadow who side-stepped and struck with a palm thrust only to be deflected by a strike from Doc.

Strike after strike each hit connected and was countered with the other as sparks of soul wave-lengths and chakra illuminated the dimness of the building with multiple flashes.

Masukomi stood up excitedly as the cameras narrowed in on each individual. "OH! Here's a treat! This Hunt has turned into a pure bare-fisted fight between Shadow, who uses the Gentle Fist Style of the Hyuuga clan and Mad Doc, who according to our data happens to be proficient in Soul Wavelength techniques!"

(Deadbloods)

"Fight-O Maddy!" cheered Shiro waving a purple flag with a badly drawn doodle of Mad-Doc.

Zaraki folded his arms and raised his eyebrows. "So Doc is actually personally challenging his prey to a hand-to-hand combat? Shadow must really have caught his eye."

"No shit Sherlock," said Whip bluntly blowing another gum bubble.

"Piss off, bitch," retorted Zaraki while Whip double flipped him off behind his head.

Back with Kurotsubasa, Ravena and Illu slumped by each other exhausted after healing Bella as much as they could. Even if they wanted too, the two girls knew that neither of them could afford to exhaust their power too soon. With order being decided by the opposing Guild, the possibility of either Illu or Ravena getting picked next was high. Also, even if they weren't selected, they had to be there for the others and eventually one of them would have been selected later on.

"You two better sleep and conserve restore your energy as much as possible you," instructed Grim looking over at the two girls.

"We'll fill you in on the good parts!" said DB reassuringly.

"Hai…" "Thank you-nya…" said the two girls as they closed their eyes and relaxed as much as possible.

The boys smiled before returning to the seriousness of the battle. "How do you figure this will turn out Grim?" asked Key as he watched Shadow deflect another strike.

"Hard to say, based on prowess alone Shadow is no doubt the better fighter," noted Grim just as Doc dodged and countered an elbow jab with his arm. "However, I have mentioned that Mad Doc is more brain than brawn. Coupled with his sadistic twisted mind, it won't be long now before he starts to fight dirty."

Chakra and menace clashed again causing another spark to fly, separating the two fighters from their stalemate. Doc waited until Shadow chose to gain some distance before enacting his plan. 'Now' Doc then went on the offensive with his fist charged with soul energy. Shadow was a bit surprised at the change in strategy but he did deflect the attack with his arm.

"You'll need to do a lot better than a punch Doc." Shadow comment on the weak form of attack.

"Oh I have plenty planned up my sleeves just you wait." Doc then this time pulled out two scalpels from out of his coat.

Shadow then raised a brow. "Plan on abandoning this fist fight?"

"Naïve boy, who ever said I would be using these as weapons?" The mad doctor then did something that threw Shadow and most of those watching for a loop; holding both in reverse grip, he then proceeded to cut into his own arms…drawing…

'His blood…is black.' Shadow watched as his opponent continued his act of self-mutilation.

"I-I can't believe my eyes…not only did he receive the first injury of the match but Mad Doc is actually cutting into his own body. What could this possibly accomplish, how will this play into winning this fight?" Masukomi asked, a bit appalled at Mad Doc's actions.

"And just wait, I'm not done…"

Just as he spoke, the blood that came out his wounds then moved and flowed as if it were alive. They poured out in an angle and began to collect and solidify in midair; soon Mad Doc had a pair of black, curved, blades attached to his arms. "I wonder if this is familiar to you, but if not allow me to give out its name. This is my Branch of Sin…Crow's Claw." He said, brandishing his new scythe blades.

"Blood blades, nice and morbid, just like everything else about your guild. However; I didn't expect for you to have that kind of branch. How exactly are you going to try and reach me?" Shadow asked as he reminded him of his situation. "I think you know that I am faster than you."

"I know, but I have a feeling that now that won't be much a factor." Doc then began to run, ready to put his new weapons to work.

'What's he planning?' Shadow prepared to teleport again only to find that he could barely move. He looked down to his feet and saw that his boots have been 'sewn' into the ground with some kind of glowing thread. "The hell, when did he?" He had less time to ponder this as Doc drew closer and closer with his blades aimed to cut him down. Reaching back he was able to grab his scythe and block one of Doc's blades.

Doc ever-present smirk stayed on his face as he pressed the Crow Claw into the pole of Shadow's scythe, inching it closer to his target. "I see you noticed the little addition to your footwear. Had to limit your movements to make this much easier." He then readied his other blade.

'I got to get these soul threads off, but first' Shadow stopped his train of thought as the edge made its way closer.

Before Doc could attack with his second blade he was then blown back by a sudden blast of wind. After dusting himself off he heard another explosion coming from where Shadow once stood, Doc waited for the smoke to clear before seeing that his target was gone.

"So, back to this type of game huh?" Doc asked no one. 'I'm learning more and more every moment. I was sure from the research I gathered that he prefers not to use magic so I assumed that he couldn't. I have got to continue with the experiment, if I push him further…'

"You seem to have the right idea, Monsieur Doctor."

"Hmm, pray tell, how were you able to hack into this private line?" Doc whispered to his client.

"Oh need not worry about that. As I was saying you've got the right idea. They say you are really the strategist of your guild, well you should plan on ways to have Shadow show more and more of his strength. Press him until he reaches his limit."

"Yes I remember that was the mission. However, I will remind you we play for keeps, these blades on my arms aren't for show. The chances of Shadow dying are quite high…is that acceptable?" Doc asked.

"Those odds are fine. If the outcome isn't in my favor then oh well, but I do see this battle ending that way. You just be sure to deliver on your end of the mission."

"It's our policy to never leave a client unsatisfied with our work." Doc said before communication was cut. He then began surveying around with his eyes and the help of his team on the other end of his ear. "Now where did you go?"

(Scene Change)

"I guess I really shouldn't take what he could do for granted. If I can avoid that sewing attack I would have a better chance up close, but right now this fight is troublesome." Shadow said as he still had view of Doc from his hiding place. 'With Black Blood he has greater defense and regeneration not to mention he can control the blood freely with branch of sin. Those soul techniques are bad as well unless I can counter them. I only have limited ways of cutting him." He then clenched his right hand.

"Long range isn't a factor; I'll just have to attack him a different way." Shadow said as he peered from his cover. "It may be my only choice considering the options. Soul Eater attacks the soul, not the body so I doubt he can heal. With the moon like this I can't be using it too much though. Better time myself right…"

"It would seem that both fighters have reached another strategic stalemate. Mad Doc is actually going in search of his target while Shadow lies and waits. This is truly a battle of the minds, as well as a battle of strength!"

"Shadow~? Oh Shadow? Where thou art are you Shadow?" taunted Doc as he slowly walked around, keeping his senses sharp for his opponent.

Shadow kept silent as he stealthily moved in the cove of the dark. Ducking behind pillars and beams whilst monitoring Doc. In one hand, dark energy began to gather and form a tiny sphere.

Shadow Sphere!

Doc jumped to side quickly as a shadow ball zipped past him and exploded into the wall. Doc stumbled back a few steps when suddenly tendrils of darkness grew out from the shadows behind him and held him in place.

"Not so good when it happens to you, huh?" asked Shadow's voice when another Shadow sphere was thrown at Doc directly from the front. Unable to avoid the attack in anyway, Doc went flying from the force of the attack.

"Tch, I see you've decided to be more offens…" Doc then stopped seeing as Shadow now appeared in front of him with his fist charged with energy.

"Well Doctor, I hope you can heal bruises as well as you heal cuts!" Shadow smirked as he right arm was then engulfed in darkness. "Hell's Fang!" The punch hit Doc dead in his sternum causing him to stagger from the pain, before he could even complete a thought he was then launched into the air by claw swipe from Shadow.

When Doc finally landed he immediately returned to his feet and spat out a glob of blood from his mouth. 'Is this his tactic now, rush me? Guess this really shows how strong he is, I won't be able to survive an onslaught.' Doc then sensed the shadows moved behind him and moved from the lightened area to inside a darkened building. "I bet you can't manipulate your shadows in an area where there is no light."

"Yeah that is a problem; however, you just picked the wrong place to stand."

Doc raised a brow in confusion but since he was inside the building he didn't see the aura that began to overtake the building. The same dark blue aura was present around Shadow's hand as he focused on the building.

"It's time for some early demolition, Gravity Crush!" He then closed he hand tightly. At the same time the building seemed to explode and come down on itself as if crushed by an invisible force. Seeing the debris and dust fly around Shadow took the time to wait and watch, though he was unconsciously clutching his right arm.

'Hopefully that's it, this night is just making it harder to use most of those moves.' Shadow thought as he watched for any signs of movement.

"Amazing, way to bring the house down on your opponent! Doc thought that he would be safe from Shadow's attack by hiding away, but he seemed to be playing right into the guild leader's hand. Has a clear winner been decided?" Masukomi asked as she and everyone else all stared at the screens.

"Great, there he goes down again. For a guy that says he's the smartest one of us he sure is dumb getting caught like that. If Shadow didn't kill him I'll killed him myself when he gets back." Whip said, staring at the screen in frustration.

"Save that anger for when you actually get a turn and pay attention. No one knows if Doc really is dust under there, that announcer hasn't called anything and there is no signal saying he's dead, as far as we know Doc is just buried there." Zaraki said, making a quick guess at what was happening. "He may have something under in that lab of his for this."

"Did he get him?" DB asked as he and Kurotsubasa stared at the results of the attack. "All I see is an even more ruined building. You think someone like Doc actually survived that?" The vampire asked.

"Doc isn't that strong physically, if the whole place did cave down on top of him he would be dead if not trapped." Grim spoke his opinion. "Right now there is no way to tell what is happening under that rubble."

"Hey Ani-Key, think you can sense if he's still there?" Ravena asked having woken up a few minutes earlier.

"I can try." Key said as he closed his eyes. He tried to focus on the battlefield as hard as he could since he was not close physically. "Being this far away makes it hard but I can make out something. Doc is still under there but…"

"But?"

"The reading that I'm getting is strange. I know it's human but…" Key then opened his eyes. "That small signature, that's one from something already dead."

"Hold on, do you mean that Doc is a zombie?" DB asked.

Grim then shook his head. "No, despite everything, Doc is human. So the only signal you can see is from a corpse…that means.

Suddenly; something from behind burst through the ground stabbed Shadow through his right shoulder. He then tore the object out and clutched his bleeding wound as he saw the bloody tip of a black spear had come from the hole behind him. Before Shadow had a chance to even ask, he heard a sound coming from the rubble.

"I will admit, you almost had me with that attack. You could have seriously wounded me if I was actually there." A curved blade burst from the top of the wreckage and helped create an opening for Doc to crawl through. While there was dirt and black blood on the doctor's stitched coat, he appeared fine.

"How did you dodge that, I even saw your body." Shadow asked, trying to ignore the waves of pain that shot through his body.

"Oh, my body, you mean this?" Reaching from out of the hole Doc then pulled out something that shocked both Shadow and the crowd. It was a body, an almost perfect replica of Doc. The few things different were the stitched limbs and the lifeless stare in it's eyes. "I keep a couple of cadaver clones handy in situation like these. You let your guard down long enough for me to run enough black blood underground."

"And how did you manage that? That amount of blood would've made you bleed out." Shadow made his point clear.

"Ah, but the blood that hit you was special. Out of all of us, Zaraki is the only one that is able to control his blood over vast distances. It took vast days of experimentation to replicate the same ability." Doc smiled in pride. "What you see is the result; I keep a certain amount on me. It's child's play to leave them inside these corpses."

"I can imagine someone like you carries bags of blood behind his coat, but I think I would've noticed you carrying bodies around. Where did those come from?" Shadow asked again, wanting to keep Doc talking.

"Oh, the answer to that question is the same way I was able to escape your attack moments ago." Doc then pulled down his sleeve to show a small gray bracelet around his wrist. "All I did was open a quick doorway to my lab. A good doctor is never too far away from his equipment in an emergency." As if demonstrating, the ring then began to glow light silver and then there was a warp in space that sucked in the body.

"I see, so you basically went to your happy place right when the building came down, though from the look of yourself not fast enough. I can tell one of the drawbacks of using that in battle, you have to be careful where you open it, since it's where you also have to leave." Shadow said.

"Clever observation; yes you are right with the drawback but it's useful for laying traps. You would know from the new hole in your shoulder. I made sure it was nice and serrated to give you a harder time healing." Doc adjusted his glasses. "That's why you kept me talking right? Trying to heal yourself by some method?" The doctor didn't need to hear anything else as Shadow's silence said everything.

"It really matters not; I still have a job and a battle to win." Doc then took out another scalpel and began to cut into his palm. "Let's keep this party going. Bloody Slicer!" The doctor then fired his black blood at his target.

Shadow dashed to the side to avoid the attack before disappearing in a flash of speed.

"Oh, using that Shadow Step of yours again? I won't allow you the chance!" Doc then pulled out three bags of blood and threw them high into the air. "Don't think you can hide forever, you can't go far!" Pulling out some scalpels he threw them through the bags releasing the blood.

"Let's see if I'm lucky tonight. Bloody Needle!"

From the sky, the droplets of blood then became sharp needles that rain down upon the battlefield. The needles pierced the ground, buildings, rubble, and everything else without discrimination. After a few minutes the rain finally subsided and Doc then began to walk around the area.

"So, how close did I get to the target?" Doc whispered to the mike through his ear.

"Yeah you got him. He was over towards the right just when you did that little rain dance. I think he tried teleporting again but still got stab a good bit." Whip answered back.

"Just towards the right?"

"I don't know exactly where he is dumbass. He's a ways away, just keep walking and I'll tell you when he's close."

"Testy, testy…all right just lead the way." Doc said as he walked in the direction his teammate has spoke. 'I'm starting to get a bit impatient. If he really is as special as she says, I might as well discover it the easy way. A nice and slow…dissection.' Doc stopped his musing as a he saw a small light in the distance; trusting his instincts he decided to make a quick call.

"Whip, that light wouldn't happen to be coming from…?"

"Hell if you don't believe that take a look at the moon."

Following her advice, Doc looked up to see an unusual site. The moon still retained its red color but several small white sparks seemed to fall from the celestial body down to Earth where the first light had come from. Seeing as they fell to the right, Doc decided to follow the moonlight to his target.

(With Shadow)

'Note to self, I owe Bella one. Who knew a Pokémon TM move would actually work on a person.' Shadow thought as he rested against a hill. His body was glowing a light silver as the moonlight fell on his body and healed his wounds.

Moonlight, a Pokémon technique that healed the user with the light of the moon. That was the name of the power that Shadow was using now. He received the TM as a birthday gift from Bella and while he thought he would never use the move he learned it on a whim.

'I'm not regretting learning this move, I just wish it could get rid of the pain.' While the wounds did end up closing, he still had to deal with the pain. After narrowly avoiding the spiked rain that was the Bloody Needle, he was able to escape with only a few cuts and puncture wounds. 'I don't have long to stay here. I need to move, find a way to end this fight quicker.' Just as he thought that, his arm throbbed in pain, causing him to grab it. Unlike the rest of his pains, it wasn't caused by the mad doctor.

Shadow took a quick breath and then used his Byakugan to see how long he had left to recuperate. Formulating a quick plan, Shadow concentrated on the shadows around his opponent.

Doc continued walking only to jump back to over a large moving mass. The Doc then looked and saw the many tendrils that were formed from the darkness around him.

"So you're trying to delay me again aren't you? I told you I'm not giving you a chance!" Doc reached into his coat and pulled out another bag and scalpel. Throwing the bag in the air he repeated his technique causing another rain of black needles. The needles forced all the threads down and continued to fall until a few of them were blown away nearby.

"There you are." Doc then shot off towards his target.

"Dammit" Shadow cursed as he revealed his location when he blew away the needles with a burst of gravity. He then got on his feet and began to make some distance from the attack site. Also, from the rush between healing and defending he had left his scythe back at the rubble. "I'm half healed, and I lost almost all my means of long range attacks. The only one I can use is the gale but I can't use it repeatedly on a night like this."

"Oh, has the Blood Moon finally begun to affect you?"

'Can't you haunt me another time?'

"Haunt you? I just came to offer you some simple advice. Stop limiting yourself and go all out. If you use darkness you can been done with him within seconds." The voice continued to speak through his head.

'Yeah and possibly lose myself in the process.'

"So you intend to run away forever?"

'I'm not running!'

"From Doc maybe not, but you are running from you-know-what. Seeing you stumble around like a wounded animal is pathetic and I rather not have Doc open you up with his blades…that's my job.

'I knew you would go there.'

"You know me so well…and I know you just as well. Think, if you keep this up and lose then you'll have to watch him do this to someone else on your guild. Maybe something even worse? Just let go, and use your power to wipe them all out."

At those last words Shadow had stopped running. His hand never left his arm, but his grip then tightened. While she did make a low blow, Shadow knew that the person was speaking truth as well. After Bella's tie that left both sides with no points, if he were to survive long enough to take out three of the Dead Bloods that would end the fighting.

"Nice to see you're seeing things my way."

'I'm going to kill you…Yukari.'

"Fufufu, you may want to save that aggression for your guest. I can't wait to see what you can do after all these years. Good luck, darling~" Just as Yukari's voice faded he didn't need to turn around to know that Doc had just arrived.

"Finally starting to see reason; ready to face the inevitable?" Doc asked as he brought out his branch of sin. "And hear I thought I would have to chase you around a little longer." As he began to walk closer with his scythe arm he notice Shadow made no movement. "What no retort, no last minute quip? I see you've been holding onto that arm, allow me to do my work as a doctor and help you."

Doc then raised the blade and grinned maniacally. "I say the best way to treat that wound is to remove the limb completely." He then raised the blade high ready to slash his prey to pieces.

Blood soon flew in the air, causing him to stagger.

However…

The one that was staggering and bleeding…was Doc.

'Impossible, he not only cut through the Crow's Claw but also my reinforced black blood?' Doc's eyes were wide in confusion as black blood dripped from his broken blade and the four slash marks on his chest. As he then closed his wounds he took a look at the weapon that had made it through his natural armor.

Shadow's right arm was replaced with a large pitch black claw, which now had Doc's black blood dripping from its large nails. Shadow himself had a glazed look in his eyes which soon disappeared along with the claw, but his eyes were now glowing red as red as the moon that was hanging over them.

"Looks like you get to find out why someone like me knows about them. You better get a good look, because you're the first person in three years to see me use this." Shadow said as he began to glow a dark aura. He then held his hand open and the darkness formed together to create a sword.

"You-you think some magic trick is enough to detour me? As if all that power was from you, you could have easily used another trick!" Doc said before calming down and reforming his claws. "I must have let my guard down which is how you cut through my blood is all!"

"Care to test that again?" This time Shadow appeared instantly before Doc.

The doctor barely had enough time to cross his arms and make a makeshift shield with his blood before the sword of darkness slashed through it, sending him flying a ways away. Before he could even recover his stance, Doc saw Shadow already in front of him with his sword raised. Instantly feeling it pierce his shoulder he let out a loud wail of pain.

"I know, doesn't feel too good huh?" Shadow smirked and then backed up with his weapon leaving Doc to hold his new injury. "Too bad I couldn't make the edges nice and serrated for you Doc."

"Bastard!" Doc said as he already closed the wound. "It has to be a trick, some cheat or the Wings. No way you could easily cut through my body when I have the black blood on my side!" Doc then charged in with his claws ready. His rage only grew as Shadow just swatted him away with one hand as if he were an insect. "I'll be the one to have the last laugh, do you hear me?!" With that yell, spikes of blood fired from the wounds on his chest.

Shadow's eyes narrowed and he let out a roar of his own, summoning a large wall of black wind that blew Doc away. For the audience watching, they could all see a large tornado of darkness and on the screens that zoomed in, showed a pair of glowing red eyes from within the twister. A few of them swore that they saw something more. A transparent pair of large wings.

Masukomi sprang up from her seat so quickly her glasses almost flew off but she quickly caught them and adjusted them as she grabbed her mic. "Wha-Wha- What is this frightening black tornado?! It's completely covering the field and blocking the fight inside! What could be happening here?! Is this a power of one of the players?!"

(Kurotsubasa)

"UUUU-PYON!" squeaked Amaya as she got blown away in the sudden rush of wind. Fortunately Muku managed to fly up and snatch her by the ears and began trying to fly back down. Before Muku could get blown away as well, Punnya caught the bird with her tail while Nyoka was wrapped around Punnya while her tail coiled tightly around Doppleman's arm who quickly reeled them all in before grabbing them and ducking to the floor out of the wind's way.

"KYA!" Illu cried out as she used one arm to shield her face from the sudden force of the wind while the other arm held her skirt down as she and the rest of the guild watch the battle continue on the screen. Most of them were too speechless to answer her question as they were just as stunned as her. "W-what is happening?"

"This is the first time I've seen any of this? What the hell is going on, it's like a whole other side of him." DB said squinting as he put his arms to shield his face as well.

"You mean this is the first time you've seen Shadow do this?" Grim asked, as he was one of the most confused.

While they tried to make some sense of what was happening they suddenly hear a strangled cry coming from Ravena. Ba-DUMP! "Ugh!" cried Ravena clutching through clenched teeth as the intense pain caused her to sink to her knees as he clutched her head in pain.

"Rave-chan? What's wrong?!" asked Illu in concern extending a hand.

"Don't touch me!" snapped Ravena and Felis at the same time out of the blue as the girl quickly put up a small barrier to block out the others.

Ba-DUMP! Ravena flinched heavily as she curled herself up. Unseen by the others, a small mark on Ravena's neck began to glow and pulsate.'Wha…What is this…?

"What is this sudden surge of power?!" Felis clutched herself trying tightly as she felt the atmosphere get heavier. Around her, Ravena's mindscape was gradually becoming darker and darker. "It's so dark ….. and this overwhelming feeling of oppression…"

'Where have I felt this before?...' Ravena asked herself mentally before flinching hard as her head began to throb once more.

Ba-DUMP!

Ravena suddenly began seeing flashes of a memory during her rogue days.

Ba-DUMP!

A great Darkness tearing through the land…. FLASH! A wake of destruction left behind… FLASH! Ravena just barely escaping the darkness as she took to the skies. FLASH! A large crater… FLASH! A boy collapsed in the middle of it… A familiar face…

'Shadow?!'

BA-DUMP!

"ARGH!" cried Ravena once more as her headache grew worse while a burning sensation began to fill her body. Her Taboo felt like hot metal pressed against her skin…it was unbearable!

"It hurts! It hurts Felis!" cried out Ravena in her head as tears were beginning to well up.

"Urgh!" Felis growled through her teeth as she felt the pain coursing through herself as well. "Just what kind of power does Shadow have?!"

All of a sudden Felis felt paralyzed. She could feel herself as well as Felidae shaking violently. "It's so cold…. I feel…scared…. So very scared….."

"I'm scared…Felis….I'm really scared too….."

"Punnya…." Mewed Punnya worriedly as she tried to touch the barrier but was repelled back violently into Grim's arms.

"Just what's going on here?!" Grim asked, his concern growing, his gaze shifting from the battlefield to the small barrier that covered Ravena.

(Dead Bloods)

"WOW~ WOW~ WOW~! It's giant black Whirly-Whirl!" exclaimed Shiro in awe throwing out her arms not minding the giant gust of wind as her hair bellowed wildly behind her. "Look! Look!"

Zaraki and Whip both had their arms up shielding their eyes while Queen was busy tightly clutching her top and skirt to prevent them flying off.

"Damn, what the hell did that girl sign us up for?! I've lost the signal to Doc; it's practically a dead zone out there!" Whip pulled out the headset she was wearing and tossed it into the winds as she kept her eyes on the screens.

"Tch, should've killed her when I had the chance. She must've known something like this would happen!" Zaraki growled out. His anger only grew as he spotted Shiro laughing wildly, waving her arms in circles as if copying the storm's movements. "And what the hell are you doing?! This isn't some everyday storm or whatever, it's a hurricane and you're treating this like some kind of joke!"

"Hahaha, come on Zaki-waki can't you feel it? The Beastie inside the Whirly-Whirl!" Shiro then began waving her arms up and down as if to imitate wings. "It's like a big Chickie, it's wings going up and down like this!" She said as she kept going with her actions, ignoring that the wind was tossing her hair around widely.

"Thy really does worry for you Shiro, but I don't think that's a Chickie as thou call it." Queen said as she was able to catch a faint image from within the storm. "It may have wings, but I don't think that's a bird."

(Audience)

"Wha-What the hell is going on?!"

"It has to be the Wings, he's cheating!"

"N-no, I heard of this before! There was a fight a week ago that had something like this! It's the same as that other guild!"

"Hold up, you don't mean…!"

As several members of the audience argued with each other as they took cover, the only one who looked on to the battle with no worry on her face was Yukari. In fact, the girl had a sultry grin on her face as she started at the vortex that covered the entire field.

"Even after three years of non-use, you're still this strong." She said to herself as she weathered the storm, her twin tails lashing out along with the wind. "Oh, how I wish I could get a closer look to what is going on. The reception is so horrible right now." Yukari commented on the screens that right now only showed more glimpses of the wind.

"I guess it doesn't matter now, I already know how all of this ends."

(Battlefield)

Doc backed away to avoid a sword slash aimed to his head. He continued to try and keep his distance away from the berserker style swordsman. Shadow made sure he gave the doctor no room to breathe as he continued to aim his blade at his opponent.

"Come on Doc, why don't you stay still and see what you look like when you're sliced open?" Shadow asked, once again tearing through Doc's Black Blood defense. He then saw Doc try to open a door to his lab, so he the increased his speed and gripped Mad Doc's arm, crushing the device.

After a few minutes of struggling against his grip, Doc was able to push Shadow back with the use of his soul waves. "Y-you, so you realize what you just did?!" Doc asked, beginning to lose his usual, calm demeanor. "It will take me at least a week to repair this gateway! You could've caused an explosion that could kill us both?"

"And which one of those things are my problem?" Shadow asked in faked interest.

Doc then performed a perfect impression by growling with rage. "I don't care how powerful you think you; know that nothing is superior to me. I have taken down and dissected more players than you've probably seen, don't let a small boost of power go to your head!" The doctor's arms crackled with soul energy as he let his emotions. He then charged forward with his arms primed.

"Fall before your superior!"

The attack struck home; as his soul menace struck Shadow's chest. Doc seemed to smile in satisfaction until he looked up to his opponent; even after he was hit with the technique…Shadow still kept a smirk on his face. Doc's glare returned as his arms sparked to life again.

"Soul Menace: Three Extremes!"

After calling out his technique, Doc then struck Shadow again. As yellow soul sparks light up his hands he then struck Shadow three times in his chest in rapid secession. With the final thrust he then sent Shadow flying into a nearby pile of earth.

Doc stopped to catch his breath as he stared at the trench Shadow had left as he slid towards his destination. He took the time to adjust his glasses as he walked over, with his hands still crackling with energy.

"No matter how strong the force is; power has to bow down to the mind. In the end no matter how powerful you are, you still bow down to my superior intellect." With a flip of the wrist two scalpels fell out his sleeves. "You've led me around this fight long enough and in the end I think I understand what she was talking about. Maybe it isn't a coincidence that you know a Rare Hunter."

As his monologue continued, Doc then stopped in front of the rubble. The soul wavelength had begun to channel around the scalpels, increasing the size of his blades. "But this battle has gone on long enough. I'll find my answers after you're placed on the examination table, live or not." He then raised his blades.

"That being said, die…"

SLASH

A torrent of blood exploded from the wound that appeared on his body. Blood gushed and fell from doc's mouth as he stumbled back, his vision blurring from the loss of blood.

'Impossible…he couldn't have…I struck him down with my soul wavelength. I've even layered it with sutras…how can he move?' Doc thought to himself as he held his wound in an attempt to close it. As he tried healing he noticed the wound was barely closing. "W-what did y-you do?"

"Was that all you could do? I even left myself open for you to see what you got but it turned out to be a waste of my time." The assailant swiped his sword, removing blood from the blade's edge. Shadow then popped a few joints after standing from the rubble unharmed. "What were you saying before…about you being superior?"

"This is impossible, improbable even, how are you still?"

"Like I said I let myself open, your move had no affect caused I countered your soul waves with my own." Shadow answered dryly. "It even had an added effect of my cut affecting your body. Can't have someone like you heal every wound, it would just prolong the inevitable."

"That's my line…you think I'm beaten? You've just paved way for your demise!" Grasping his wound he then threw out his own blood into the air allowing them to hover around Shadow. "Die, Bloody Needles!"

As the numerous drops of blood released their spikes towards their target Shadow just stood with an annoyed look on his face.

"You still don't get it…guess I'll have to show you how worthless this is." Shadow's eyed glowed an even darker red and his blade released more dark power. "Everything disappear…"

"Soul Demolition!"

Numerous flashes of blades cut through the air all around the two. Doc didn't feel the sword touch him, but he felt them slice the air around him, cutting through all of the black blood. The storm of slashes reduced the blood to nothing but mist that wasn't even visible. Doc then shook in shcok seeing the blade now aimed to his head.

"And then there was one."

"Listen, y-you can't do this! I-I forfeit! The match is yours!" Doc seemed to burst into hysterics as he tried to back away with Shadow slowly advancing. The Doc kept backing up until he felt himself hit a partially destroyed wall.

"Not how the rules work, it says last man standing right? Well you've seemed to still be using those scrawny legs of yours." Shadow interjected, bringing the tip against the doctor's neck.

"Wait, you can't have it end like this. I thought your guild was against killing people."

"People yeah, not degenerative pricks like you."

Doc then closed his eyes as he braced for the sword to pierce his neck only to feel the tip leave. He opened his eyes to see Shadow walking a distance away. "Huh, I-I thought you were going to…"

"It would be a waste if I sullied my sword with your blood." At those words the sword then vanished in wisps of darkness. Shadow then looked back; eyes still a blazing scarlet red. "I'm dropping the wind, after that quit and get out of my sight."

Doc was silent as he fell to his knees and just watched as Shadow got rid of the storm. When he saw that Shadow had just turned his back on him, he grip tightened on his remaining scalpel and made sure it cut deep into his hand.

"D-Don't worry, you won't see me again." Doc spoke softly, but Shadow couldn't see the angry, demented look on his face. "Because this is where you die!" Holding his hand open, his black blood formed a spear that shot through the air, aimed at Shadow's back.

The spear reached to small of the unassuming guild leader's back, only for it to be severed in two. Doc's eyes widened in fear as he looked and only saw two demonic red eyes staring down at him.

"Wait folks, it looks like the storm is dying down! Whatever's been going on we may be able to find an idea on who created that massive storm." Masukomi announced as the winds died down. "It's clearing up, I can make out two figure, our fighters, in the middle only…what is that?!"

Doc then began to crawl on the ground, trying to back away from the monster in front of him. Shadow's eyes were hidden by the shadows his bangs produced, yet his eyes pierced through the darkness. He was still surrounded by the cloak of dark power, but now there was a new addition. Floating behind him, almost transparent, was a creature with large bat-like wings, spiked body, and three long necks and heads with glowing red eyes similar to Shadow's.

The deadly doctor of the Dead Bloods was backing away from the Dark Knight and almost, evil looking Dragon.

The dragon's mouths widened and began to charge energy as a purple light emulated from their jaws. The three lowered down around Shadow who's hand was open and also covered in a black and purple light. In an instant the creature's mouths opened and formed a large sphere in Shadow's hand.

All watched in silence as the screens picked up these actions. They were all frozen in awe or fear as they watched the display, each keeping their thoughts to themselves.

Ba-Dump!

"Ugh!" Shadow uttered out as his other hand came up and gripped his shoulder, around his collarbone. 'The hell is this…what's going on?!' He stumbled a bit but kept the attack but still felt the mark on his neck begin to burn. As if hot iron was pressed against his skin. Shadow began to see flashes of light as he barely held himself together.

Ba-Dump!

White light flashed, and with it a vision. Shadow soon found himself looking at a young woman wearing a red hood and cloak.

'Wh-who is that? Why does it feel like I…'

Ba-Dump!

Shadow's eyes then clenched shut as he felt the burning of the mark increased. 'I-It's unbearable. Like something is melting me from the inside. I've still haven't healed right…am I going to?'

Ba-Dump!

"Fall…"

'You again'

"Fall…be swallowed by the dark. We've protected you before, let us do it again. Let us make all your problems disappear."

'Didn't you get the hint from the seal, I don't need your help.'

'We are your power…we are you…and you are us. Our duty is to erase all who bring harm to you. Like that man before you…you're using the dark now…'

'If this damn night wasn't a Bloo…!"

'That would not change. He's threatened you, harmed you, and threatened those you care about.' Deep within his mind, Shadow struggled to stay conscious as he looked at the six red eyes that stared back at him.

"Don't….Don't…." a new voice began to say, a familiar female voice.

'All things in this world that challenges us must disappear! Like that ones from before, to this one now!"

"Araaaaaagh!" Shadow howled out breaking the silence that was being held through the arena. He then tightened his aim as the sphere then grew as large as his body. His eyes, sclera and all, were just voids of crimson as he eyed his target. "Die!"

Doc stood paralyzed with fear as he screamed his lungs out as he literally saw death coming his way.

"NOOOOOOOO…!" Came a familiar scream that only Shadow could hear. It had shocked him so suddenly that it was able to break his focus, causing the sphere to break apart and disappear. At that moment the shock was just too much too bear as Doc rolled his eyes back and passed out on the ground.

'Tch….who would have thought she could interfere….'

The darkness around Shadow disappeared as he reverted to his normal self and collapsed to his knees breathing hard. In that moment, there was silence everywhere.

"Sh-sh-sh-Shadow…W-w-win…." Said Masukomi weakly as she sank into her chair.

The spectators cheered on cue, but not as enthusiastically considering they were all still shaken up. Yukari looked on with an expression of indifference. "Ara…that was disappointing…he didn't go wild….I wonder why?" she asked herself when Yukari sensed something radiating from Kurotsubasa. 'Could it be?...'

Back with Kurotsubasa, Doppleman and the pets all poked their heads up cautiously before coming out of their safety huddle. "That was some crazy ass shit going on there….." commented DP trying to lighten the tension surrounding Kurotsubasa, just as Shadow and Doc were transported back to their respective Guilds.

"Just what the hell happened out there?!..." asked Grim in frustration but all he got were blank, shocked expressions from the others who were also trying to comprehend the situation when Shadow finally appeared in a flash of light and collapsed to his knees.

"Shadow!" "Shadow-kun!" "U-Pyon!" were the collective exclamations that sounded as his team-mates surrounded Shadow.

Furrowing his brows, Grim decided to keep silent as he glanced over at the force-field that still covered Ravena.

(Ravena's Mindscape)

The shuddering had stopped but the darkness remained as Felis hovered near Felidae's huddled form as she narrowed her eyes. There was a new intruder.

"You don't belong here…." Hissed Felis menacingly around her as the darkness began swirl and form a large formless shape before her.

"Hmmm? You are one to talk, Cat," replied a dark voice from the mass as four red eyes opened and stared back at Felis. "You should have minded your own business."

"That was not of my doing, it was hers…"indicated Felis to Ravena. "But even so, that was an accident…"

"I'm not interested in your excuses Cat! I would have finally have him under my control if you hadn't interfered!" roared the Darkness when it suddenly noticed the dark miasma lurking at the below. "However, you seem to have some pretty fascinating Darkness of your own…" it said in a conniving tone as it lunged at Felis who was caught off guard and phased through her.

The Darkness emerged from Felis in the form of a Nekomata as it dove straight into the miasma pit.

"NO!" yelled Felis as she tried chasing after it. However she was too late as the Darkness emerged again in its formless shape once more.

The Darkness cackled evilly as four red eyes were seen glowing in the miasma below. "Now you will face what happens when anyone crosses my path! Enjoy~!" mocked the Darkness as it finally disappeared.

Felis growled when she suddenly heard a sinister laugh coming from below. Tendrils of darkness suddenly shot out from the miasma aiming at Felidae. "DEE-DEE!" cried out Felis as she blasted the tendrils away before unsheathing her claws and slicing away at another.

An angry growl sounded out as it began to attack Felis instead. Felis quickly dodged and clawed back but more and more were coming her way.

"I won't let you Erase me! Felidae is mine!" snarled Felis fiercely as she fought with all her might.

Meanwhile, Ravena was still clutching her tightly as she tried to maintain control of herself. There was a tempting feeling starting to well up inside her. A feeling that she had trained hard to suppress for many years. A feeling that made her feared by many, including herself. It was lust, a strong insatiable lust, for blood….

At the same time, most of Kurotsubasa was gathered around Shadow who was now barely standing thanks to exhaustion and injuries from the fight that had just ended.

"Crap, I can't believe I almost…" Shadow said to himself as he slowly tried to stand only to stop and cringe as small flares of pain went off through his body. "At least I was able to get us a point, that's the only good thing that came out of that battle." He complained.

"S-Shadow-kun, you shouldn't be moving around with injuries like that." Illu said as she pulled out her medic supplies. "You need to take it easy and recuperate right now; you're nowhere near any shape to be walking." She tried to explain the severity of the situation.

"I'm fine…if anything I can squeeze out another victory before I completely keel over." Shadow said before he grunted as another wave of pain shot through him, his eyes flashing red before returning to their normal state. 'Damn it…after all these years I still had to fall back on that.' Before Shadow got the chance to mentally beat himself up, he felt another tug on his jacket.

"U-pyon~" Looking down, Shadow could see that Amaya was looking at him with worried eyes. Just as he was about to speak it was Grim that interrupted him.

"You may have won the fight but not without injury. Just take the time and rest up, as you are you're a liability if any of the Dead Bloods choose to fight you again." He explained the situation. "We've still got three able bodied fighters, four when Illu is free from healing, we should be fine for the rest of the matches."

"Three, hold on what about…?" Shadow then noticed, for the first time, the large dome that took up a small part of the guild's area and behind it lay Ravena. "What happened over here?"

"Something that we've been trying to find out, hell we've got a lot of questions that need to be answered." DB said. The vampire then turned to look at the dome and then look back to Shadow. "But those can wait; right now we just need to plan out the rest of the fights."

Key nodded his head in agreement. "Illu it looks like you'll have to keep healing on your own since Ravena's barrier is still up, can you handle it?"

The owl hybrid nodded her head. "I have enough herbs and materials in my inventory. I can heal Shadow-kun and keep an eye on Rave-chan and Bella-chan." Illu said as she then led Shadow over to where the neko and the toon girl were being kept.

"Good, now all we need to do is…" As Grim then spoke they were all interrupted by Masukomi's voice.

"Attention everyone, due to several damages caused because of the last battle, the Guild War will have a short intermission to repair all damage done to the arena." The reporter's voice echoed through the whole audience and guilds. "Everyone please take this time to have a quick break before the battles resumed. Relieved voices sounded out as everyone in the stadium began shifting about.

(Dead Bloods)

"Wow…Maddy's really out cold…." Commented Shiro as she crouched next Mad Doc's passed out form while poking his face. "But he's got a really funny look on his face~!"

Whip chuckled as pressed her foot on Doc's cheek before roughly giving it a shove. "How true, Shiro-chan~" she chuckled at the look of fear that contorted the doctor's face.

Meanwhile, Queen was busy readjusting her outfit and her make-up before finally readjusting her wind-blown hair.

"Honestly, we are so sick of tis humiliation! Zaraki, you'll be taking the next fight, yes?!" demanded Queen only to get no response. "Zataki? We demand thy response!"

Queen turned to Zaraki only to see him glaring daggers across the field. He had a crazed murderous look on his face that made even Queen back off a bit. 'To think we are up against such monsters….' He thought as he tightened his grip on the railing. His blood was boiling, but not because he was mad, oh no, this was beyond that. A slight grin crept it's way onto Zaraki's face. 'Some fascinating you have there Grim!'

Grim shuddered a bit as he turned and caught the look in Zaraki's eye and glared back. Grim recognized that look all too well. Zaraki wanted to Hunt, and he was so ready for it.

'There is no way I'm going to let you hurt them Zaraki, this is between you and me….' Thought Grim as he clenched his fists tightly.

To be continued….

---

Omake Animal Talk

During the interval, all the Pets huddled together in the corner as they watched Kurotsubasa move about with high tension.

Amaya sniffed loudly as tears came running down her face. "Sh-shadow….safe-pyon…" sniffled Amaya in relief through her tears as she unsuccessfully tried wiping them away with her tears.

Punnya smiled as hugged Amaya close to her. "Thank goodness, right Ama-nya?" asked Punnya gently nuzzling Amaya who sobbed so more into Punnya's tail.

"I wondered what happened-hooroo?" asked Mukurowl ruffling his feathers. "That power was intense scary-hooroo!"

Nyoka nodded in agreement. "Indeed, even in all my experience as a familiar, I have never felt a darkness as terrifying as that…but confuses me is-"

"Hoo! Not in front of Punnya-hooroo!" whispered Mukurowl warningly as he and Nyoka looked over to see Punnya casting a worried glance over at Ravena whose barrier was still up.

Although the others have not noticed, Punnya could feel the angst and turmoil radiating from Ravena and one more feeling…the need to kill…

'Ravena….please be okay-punnya…' thought Punnya worriedly knowing there is nothing she could do at this point as she held Amaya close to her. 'I don't wanna lose you again….'

Omake end…..