Crossfade to black, time to strike back and continue this crazy train of nonsense. We're back at it again with Gamer of the Multiverse. Seeing as there's not much to talk about, I'll get straight to responding to any comments/reviews.

[Responses to reviews/commnets]

(Ao3) Shine375: Thank you for thinking my story is neat! I hope you'll continue to think so!

With that out of the way, hope you guys enjoy this chapter! It's a bit more action-packed than the previous 6, but that just means it's better. Right?

xxXXxxXXxx

[Jolyne Brooks]

With each footfall down the stairs, Jolyne felt a sense of annoyance wash over her. There were plenty of things that one could do to annoy the dual-haired teen, not to mention it was a rather easy objective. Hell, The System annoyed her when it sprung a bullshit quest on her. The best example of that was the reading quest.

But unlike that type of annoyance, this was a more angered form of annoyance. The kind you get for stepping on a lego brick in the hallway with no shoes, socks, or sandals. The kind where it pricks the bottom of your foot enough to draw a small amount of blood.

Except she saw this one coming. That didn't mean it didn't annoy the ever-loving shit out of her.

The assassin that had recently attacked her, and subsequently met their end at the hands of her newest Hellfire spell, had been hired by the Kuzuryu Clan, or at the very least was linked to them in some way or another.

She might have killed one, but that didn't mitigate the threat at all. In fact, all it did was potentially make things worse. It meant they were probably going to attack from a distance knowing that she now could shoot fire from her arms. That is, of course, if they were all attacking as one cohesive unit. But once again, that was only IF that was the case.

What made things worse was that, had she been any slower, the assassin that had ambushed her in her Ultimate Lab might've killed her, and that would've ended her second chance at life on the second day. That thought alone was enough to spook her, though that still didn't give her any answers as to how to deal with them going forward.

What was obvious, however, was what she could do to make herself strong enough to avoid nearly dying to the assassins.

It was clear that she had to get quicker on the draw. Her awareness also needed to be increased. There was probably a spell that she could unlock later down the line so that she could predict her enemies' movements. If not, then she would have to do it the old fashion way.

"Enough thinking about assassins, more thinking about how I'm going to explain my disappearance to Yukizome-sensei…." Jolyne muttered, approaching the classroom that had been labelled after her class. There was a small hint of hesitation in her hand's movements. What if an assassin was waiting for her on the other side of the door? Paranoia was a bitch, and a bitch she was familiar with from her previous life.

There were plenty of things that she had to be paranoid about when she was still… her other self. But that wasn't worth thinking about. What was worth thinking about was getting the thorn out of her side that was the assassins hired by Fuyuhiko, and finding Yukizome.

Sucking in a deep breath before letting it out, the dual-haired teen grabbed the handle for the slide-open door, and as soon as the door opened she was greeted by Chiaki Nanami, a hand reached out for the door handle only to stop mid-air.

"Oh…. Good afternoon Brooks-san," Chiaki said, a tinge of concern in her voice. Her eyes drifted over to the hand that Jolyne had stabbed earlier in the day, a frown working its way onto the mauve-haired teen's face. "Is your hand okay?" The question was genuine, which was good, though all Jolyne could do was snicker to herself, a small smile worming its way on her face in response to Chiaki's frown.

"It's alright, Nanami. I can control my blood, meaning I can speed up healing my own wounds if need be. Thank you for the concern, though," Jolyne responded with a nonchalant tone of voice. Chiaki nodded, her expression lighting up with a sort of warmth that almost seemed a bit too caring for Jolyne's tastes.

"That's good…. Uh, I think. Erm, If I remember correctly, Yukizome-sensei is still out looking for you, but she should be returning to the classroom sooner or later. In the meantime, would you like to play a game?" Chiaki asked as the dual-haired teen raised an eyebrow.

"Depends, what game are you thinking about? If it's Mario Kart, I'll take you up on that challenge," Jolyne said, stuffing her hands in her pockets as she relaxed her shoulders. Mario Kart was one of her favourite games. She remembered all the shortcuts, all the best routes to beat the tracks the fastest. The best karts to use, as well as characters.

In other words, she knew Mario Kart like the back of her hand.

Chiaki smiled, turning to enter the classroom, a silent gesture to follow. Jolyne entered the classroom, scanning the room with an observant expression, searching for possible entrances and exits an assassin might use to try and attack her from a hidden corner. Chiaki looked back to see the expression and raised an eyebrow.

"Is everything okay, Brooks-san? You seem… uh… what's the saying… on edge?" the mauve-haired teen asked, looking over at the mage who simply shrugged in response.

"Yeah…. I… have my reasons for that," Jolyne said, squinting at the window as her fingers twitched within her pockets. There was a small forest just 150 meters away from the school, meaning that if there was an assassin in there she would barrel be able to see them.

What made things worse was that no drapes were hanging over the windows, or even off to the sides. That left the window wide open, so if an assassin wanted to snipe her from a distance…. "I'm screwed if one of them is hiding in the trees. I have no doubt Fuyuhiko wants me dead before tomorrow. They're all probably ordered to shoot on sight." "All that aside, why don't we just—"

"Is everything alright, Brooks-san? I don't want to see my friends in turmoil," Chiaki interrupted, earning a confused expression from Jolyne.

"Friends? Uh… I don't mean to be rude, but since when have been friends?" Jolyne asked as Chiaki tilted her head slightly to the right, her finger on her chin as a pop-up appeared out of the corner of Jolyne's vision.

Friendship with Chiaki Nanami – The Ultimate Gamer increased, +5 [005/100]

Friendship unlocked with Chiaki Nanami! Chiaki Nanami now considers you a friend!

Perk unlocked – Gamers Luck – Description: Gamers Luck provides the holder of the perk increased rare drop rates in all Gacha's, as well as increases EXP rewards by 25% on all normal enemies and bosses.

"I consider you a friend. You're a part of my class, after all. Doesn't that make us friends?" Chiaki asked with a look of confusion on her face. Jolyne bit her lower lip, looking down at the ground. The perk received from her thanks for starting a friendship with Chiaki was insanely useful. Not only was it useful, but it also meant that she could better rewards from the Gacha.

"I mean… I don't have many friends, so… yeah, why not?" Jolyne replied, a twisted feeling in her stomach making itself known. She pursed her lips, not liking the feeling in her stomach as she said that. It sounded incredibly manipulative, and yet, it seemed to work as Chiaki smiled once more, turning to face away from her and walking towards the storage closet.

A part of her frowned, and she didn't know why. Chiaki wore a similar hoodie to her, minus the cat motif, the skirt, and the stockings. It was after school, so she was wearing casual clothing. Her skin was just as pale as hers. The only difference between them was the hair colour and personality… oh and the lack of magic abilities. But that was beside the point.

"Now that I think about it… we do look similar. Wait a second…. similar… we look similar…." Jolyne thought as she saw a gleam come from the trees outside the window. It looked like the shine of a gun barrel. And that was when her eyes widened to the size of saucers when she heard a loud cracking sound, like that of a thunderbolt.

Chiaki wouldn't have been able to react to it fast enough, and so with that in mind, Jolyne jumped forward and knocked the gamer to the ground with only a split second left to spare as the bullet grazed her back, cutting through the school uniform she was wearing and drawing a small amount of blood. Chiaki let out a gasp as she hit the ground, and just as she was about to ask why she was tackled, she saw the bullet hole in the floor right by her head as her eyes widened.

"We're under attack, stay low to the ground and you should be fine. Stay out of the sight of the windows, and don't m—"

Jolyne wasn't allowed to finish her sentence as another thunderbolt-sounding echo resounded near them, the glass of the window the bullet smashed through turning into shards of nothingness. The bullet hit Jolyne in the side of her gut, doing nearly 80 damage to her.

Jolyne rolled off of Chiaki as blood poured from her wound, blood that she used to create Bear Claw and patch up her wound. Jolyne jumped up to her feet, wincing as the pain from her gunshot wound flowed through her. She ignored it, not having a choice as yet another cracking gunshot sound rippled, the bullet flying through the air as she knocked it away with Bear Claw, the bullet bouncing harmlessly off the gauntlet.

"Brooks—"

"HIDE! DON'T JUST LAY THERE FOR FUCKSAKE!" Jolyne shouted, rearing her right arm back as fire danced around it. She stared at where the gleam of the gun barrel was. Just before another shot could be fired, she unleashed an unconcentrated beam of fire toward where the gunman was. As the fire came close to the tree, she saw a black humanoid shape jump from one of the branches and over to another tree, safe from the fire she just shot out. "Son of a bitch!" Jolyne growled out, an ugly sneer on her face as she stopped spewing the fire out of her arm.

The dual-haired teen glanced over to where The Ultimate Gamer had been and watched as Chiaki made her way into the storage closet of the classroom. Knowing that Chiaki would be safely out of the way, Jolyne ran toward the window as she put one foot on the edge, trying to see where the gunman was hiding within the tree that was not currently ablaze.

"I just dealt with one of you assholes. How the fuck did they find me so fast?!" Jolyne thought, looking back at her mana bar. It was regenerating, but not fast enough. Her health bar was going up, slowly, which was going to bite her in the ass if she didn't get out of combat fast enough.

Blood Control gave her slight regenerative properties, something she was only now just figuring out thanks to Maxis and her fight with it, but it wouldn't be enough to survive another blast from that sniper rifle that the assassin was using.

Right now, all she could think about were the assassins and what their charred corpses would look like, and Fuyuhiko, and how fucked he would be once she was done with his goons.

"Oh, I'm so slamming that rat bastard's head into the wall the next I see him. He is SO not getting any mercy from me!" Jolyne thought, rage flowing through her as she saw the gleam of the gun barrel in another tree. Once again, she shot more fire in that direction, and the flame connected with the tree as it went up in a glorious blaze.

Jolyne heard a gasp behind her as Hiyoko walked into the room with Mahiru, both of their eyes wide as Jolyne snapped her head back to the two, eyes narrowed yet filled with panic as she shouted at her fellow classmates. "GET DOWN!" As soon as Jolyne said that, the pair ran toward her desk and ducked under it. While she was distracted, the assassin took the chance and shot another bullet in her direction. The bullet grazed her cheek, leaving a deep cut and dealing 10 damage to her.

The teen didn't flinch, rather she covered the wound with her gauntlet, anger in her eyes as she glanced over a bar that had appeared to her left. It was her health bar, and over 70% of it had been depleted. She was starting to feel exhausted, and her heartbeat was a tad bit slower.

So far, her day had been comprised of meeting Class 77 – B, finding out about the Pocket Training Dimension, or as she decided to call it, the PTD. Then she had to encounter the first of the five assassins, and not only five minutes later did another one show up just to attack her in her own classroom.

"Talk about a bad Thursday, huh?" Jolyne thought as the fire on the other tree began to die down. What was left of it was a burnt log with all of its leaves turned to ash. Overall, it was pretty dead. The other tree that she had set on fire, though? It was still burning, and she planned on capitalizing on it.

She watched as a black humanoid shape slowly climbed down the burning tree, avoiding the fire as much as possible. She could see the weapon that they were carrying on their back, that being a Barret 50. Cal. It was easy to spot due to how large it was. "You'd think they'd use something more discrete, but I guess to this guy size really does matter." Jolyne thought, a deep frown on her face.

Had the fire she spewed been like normal fire, it probably would've spread to the rest of the trees, or worse, to the school. Thankfully, the fire wasn't normal, and couldn't spread to other things. Otherwise, she would've caused a forest fire.

Jolyne continued to watch the assassin climb down the tree, though now he was using one hand. He was talking into something, and that was when it clicked. "They're using radios to contact one another. That's how they're able to spot me so quickly. They all know where I am. If I were to guess, one or two more of them are closing in on me. So much for sneak attacks, am I right?" Jolyne thought, her blood boiling as she aimed for the gunman. Once she got a lock on the man, she shouted what she thought would soon become her new favourite word.

"FEUGO!"

With a triumphant shout, the fire crashed into the tree as the black dot, now sparkling with red, fell down the tree. She watched as the assassin splatted against the ground, blood pooling around them as the fire ate it up like no tomorrow. Several people, mostly students, saw the man fall and scrambled away, screams coming from the distance as Jolyne fell back into the classroom, slumping up against one of the desks as she cursed under her breath.

[Hit List – Part 1 – Progress: 40% complete]

The dual-haired teen had no idea what to think of that. In her opinion, this was starting to get extremely annoying. With 100 more EXP, and with only 300 more to go for another level up to level 5, a pop-up appeared in the corner of her eye.

[Spell Level Up! – Hellfire: Level 2 – Damage per second increased from 15 base damage to 20 base damage (not including dmg increase from Mg Atk stat)]

Deciding to look into just how much damage Hellfire did later, she looked at the shattered window and let out a sigh filled with relief. "Gunman's dead…. You can all come out now…" Jolyne stated, both Hiyoko and Mahiru being the first ones to get out from underneath the teacher's desk while Chiaki shakily came out of the storage room closet.

"Brooks-san… what was that?" Chiaki asked, her face pale as she glanced at the bullet hole in the floor of the classroom. Jolyne was about to answer when Mahiru piped up.

"Y-Yeah! What the heck was that? Why was there a shooter trying to, you know shoot at us!" Mahiru said, her tone scornful, yet also filled with fear and terror, her face too going pale. Hiyoko said nothing, too shocked to join in on the questioning. After all, how could one not be shocked after watching someone you just met shoot a beam of fire at a tree?

Jolyne was tired. She had used up a lot of energy in the last few minutes. The last thing she wanted to do was go on an exposition spree. Although her wounds were healing thanks to the system, she still felt the pain, and after the adrenaline died down, Jolyne felt the worst pain imaginable in her side. She bit down on her lip to prevent herself from screaming, closing her eyes as she tried to sit herself up.

"Jolyne! Did you hear us?" Mahiru called out, only to get a glare from the dual-haired teen, causing the redhead to flinch.

"I just got fucking shot in my right side. I could care less about your questions right now!" Jolyne snapped, looking at her gauntlet. Without thinking, she positioned her arm unusually and uncomfortably, then, with her claws she dug into her skin. She bit down harder on her lip, drawing blood from it as Hiyoko gasped, turning away while Jolyne dug out the bullet.

It turned out that it got pretty deep within her, and almost shot through her intestines. How'd she known? Well, she didn't, but she guessed based on the rather stringy thing she felt her claws brush up against. Without fanfare, she ripped the claws out and retrieved the bullet, dealing around 15 damage to herself in the process and getting a massive splotch of blood on the wooden floors of the classroom.

Chiaki slowly approached Jolyne, kneeling to her level, face still pale as she put a hand on her shoulder. Her hand shook. It was clear that she was afraid, but despite that, she could see that in her eyes, she just wanted to help. "Do… do you want me to get Mikan?" Chiaki asked as Jolyne shook her head.

"N-no… I can do it myself. Blood Control lets me patch up my wounds… thanks for the offer, though." As Jolyne spoke, the wound began to fill with blood before quickly hardening. Shaking her hand with the gauntlet on it, the blood that had surrounded her arm seeped back into her body through the scab of her side wound, as did the blood on the floor, replenishing her health bar instantly.

Chiaki took her hand off Jolyne's shoulder, the mage slowly standing up as the fire on the tree in the distance withered away into nothingness, only leaving a charred log and nothing more. "Alright, now. Koizumi, you asked what that was, right?" Jolyne said, not missing a beat as the photographer shook her head, confusion dancing in her eyes as she looked at the dual-haired teen.

"Yeah… who was that shooting at you?" Mahiru asked as Jolyne shrugged.

"I don't know who it was, but I do know who hired them. I'll give you a hint, they're name starts with an F and ends with a U. Not an insult I mean that literally." As Jolyne said that, it was Hiyoko rather than Chiaki or Mahiru who figured it out.

"Kuzuryu…." The little blond girl said, her tone meek and petrified as she clung onto Mahiru as if it were her life support.

"Hiyoko! Don't cling onto me like that!" The redhead said though it was half-hearted. "She's not normally like this. It's—"

"PTSD." Jolyne interrupted, shaking her head. "I don't know why, but it's clear she has it. Loud noises like guns, specifically sniper rifles, can trigger things like that. If I had to guess, this isn't her first run-in with an assassin. Take her out of her and find her a place to calm down."

Without a word of acknowledgement, Mahiru left the room with Hiyoko still clinging to her. The girl looked back at Jolyne, who simply stared blankly back. Jolyne looked over to Chiaki, who stood behind her, the gamers face still pale, though considerably less than before. "I'd ask if you're still up for Mario Kart, but right now I think I have more important things to deal with. Maybe next time, Nanami."

And with that, Jolyne left the classroom, her eyebrows furrowed with rage. She walked down the hall, checking around every corner before continuing. There were still three more assassins either within or outside of the building, and she was going to be damned if she got jumped again. "Assassins you may be, but you're not a pissed-off mage. Once I'm done with them, I'm gonna make sure Fuyuhiko knows damn well not to mess with me again. He wants to play the bad guy, does he? Well, I'll show him a bad guy."

And with that dark thought, Jolyne rounded the corner. She could see out of the corner of her eye that someone was walking up behind her. With a quick heel turn, she grabbed the suited individual as another one of those Kuzuryu cards fell out of their pockets. "You idiots don't know when to quit, do you?" Jolyne asked rhetorically. The assassin, who had just walked out of the bathroom trying to sneak up on Jolyne, tried to reach for the knife in their pocket. Unfortunatly for the assassin, all it took was a simple thought for the mage to ignite them with Hellfire.

The assassin screamed as loud as they could while Jolyne dropped them to the floor. She watched with an almost sick glee as the skin began to peel off of the gunman. After a few moments, the assassin stopped screaming, and all that was left was his smouldering corpse, to which the dual-haired teen dropped the body to the floor. All Jolyne could do after that was smirk, picking up the card that had dropped from his pocket. Without thinking much about it, she crumbled the piece of soft plastic between her fingers and threw it out in the trash can by the entrance to the bathrooms.

Turning around, she continued walking down the hall. She didn't want to be spotted near the body. As she walked, another 100 EXP was given to her. "That felt a tad too easy. I guess that's what happens when you sneak attack the professional sneak attacker… even if it was on accident," Jolyne thought, not a single glimmer of joy or even annoyance within her green eyes. All she had was frustration, as well as plenty of hate to give.

[Hit List – Part 1 – 60% Complete]

"Three assassins down, two to go."

-To Be Continued-