Welp, chapter 9 folks! 'Ere we go! You all know the drill by now, but for the sake of repeating, stay tuned to my response to reviews/comments!
[-Chapter 9: Victory Begets Loss-]
[Opening Song: Dance In The Game – By: ZAQ]
"O' Hear mine prayer, being of Insanity! Hear mine woes! Hear mine despair! Hear mine wanton wailing! Cometh here, and beset upon the world! O' hear mine prayer, being of Madness! Burn away all that divides and distinguishes! O' hear mine prayer, being of Truth! To thee, I lay bare, and you alone! O' Hear mine prayer, being of Unification! I call upon thee to undo The Mistake! O' Hear mine prayer, being of Virtue! I beseech thee to rip, tear, and destroy that which holds mine realm in eternal Order! To thee, I give to thou, mine eyes, mine very being! O' Flame Of Frenzy, I summon thee!" – Ancient Rite performed by Izuru Kamakura, 1819, underneath where Hope's Peak Academy currently stands.
[AN: When reading this fight, I highly recommend you listen to "Self Embodiment of Perfection" from the JJK OST up until the fight concludes. You don't have to, but I recommend it. Enjoy!]
When Hajime booked it out of the gym, that had been the hidden cue for the fight to begin in earnest. The grunt armed with the sword charged toward Jolyne, taking out his katana from his sheath mid-stride. As soon as he drew his blade, Jolyne met him halfway, their blades clashing in an instant. Sparks flew at the moment of impact, the two blades meeting.
For a brief second, his information popped up, but Jolyne didn't pay attention to it other than his name, which was Juzo. As far as she was concerned, he was a trash mob barely worth paying any attention to. Just another number on the quest that she needed to add.
Jolyne's superior physical strength ensured she would've won that clash, knocking Juzo's sword away from her, but before she could follow up the attack, the redhead standing atop the truck had other plans. Those other plans being hurling a golden lightning bolt in her direction. Had Jolyne not noticed it when she went to go in for the kill, she would've more than likely been hit by it.
Leaping back, the lightning bolt missed, and it gave the gunmen an opening to open fire on her. Had this been a week ago, when Jolyne was far weaker than she was now, she would've no doubt been caught in the hail of gunfire.
But now?
Jolyne was like a blur, dipping and dodging past and around the hail of gunfire, all of which came from what looked like bog-standard assault rifles that were used in action movies. Round after round, shot after shot, all evaded with ease, while at the same time confusing the people responsible for it.
"What the fuck?! Where did she go?!" One of the grunts shouted, mere moments before having their head removed from their shoulders. The gunmen next to the now dead grunt turned to face where their partner had been killed, only to have a sword shoved through their neck and violently ripped out, blood spraying out from the gaping wound in their neck after having the blade pulled out.
"She's like a bullet!" Juzo thought, eyes wide with confusion and a small bit of terror. "It's impossible to keep up with her movements! How the hell is this bitch a Reserve Course Student?!" as he thought that, Juzo snarled, dashing toward Jolyne, who met his blade once more with his own. "YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" Juzo spat as Jolyne narrowed her eyes.
"You're the ones attacking the school," Jolyne replied curtly, her tone deadpan and emotionless as she kicked his left knee and forced him to the ground. "I'm just protecting it," as she said that, Jolyne went to behead Juzo, only for the redhead to interrupt her and shoot another bolt of golden lightning at her. She jumped back, avoiding the first bolt, as several more came afterward.
It was like a game of hopscotch but in reverse. One bolt after another, the redhead created distance between Jolyne and Juzo, giving Juzo a chance to recover. Of course, Jolyne wasn't a fan of that. She wasn't going to keep having her kill denied by some redheaded child. So, rather than go in for the clean kill, she decided to do something sneaky.
Channelling her Mana, Jolyne conjured Void Snatch and slung it toward Juzo, whose eyes widened as the void tendrils got scarily close to him. When they reached him, he was dragged up from the ground, and at the same time as the redhead cast another one of those golden lightning bolts, Jolyne used Juzo as a shield, forcing him to take the brunt of the attack.
"Juzo!" The redhead called out, having not seen it coming, as the bolt made contact with Juzo. His body singed immediately, and it didn't take long for his death to be added to the total number of trash mobs killed. Before Jolyne could target the redhead, a barrier of golden light was erected in front of the trucks, as several more goons all wearing the same attire poured out and into the gym.
"FOR JUZO!"
"FOR BIG J!"
"YOU BASTARD!"
"HOPES PEAK BRAT!"
"They aren't shocked at my magic," Jolyne noted, looking back up to the redhead, who had a violent look in her eyes. "It's probably because she's there. She's been casting magic this entire time and that Juzo guy never said anything about it."
[It would seem that Magic has taken root in this universe more than I or Loki had previously believed. Which, I should note, shouldn't be possible. Not unless other people similar to you are here… Last I checked, I don't remember there ever being other people like you here, Jolyne. This is rather concerning….]
Mono was right, it was concerning, especially given that as he had said no one else should be like her in this world. That meant that there were other people like her in this world, but Jolyne didn't have the time to care about the implications of that. Right now, she was far more focused on dealing with and getting rid of the clown mask-wearing hooligans.
Although, a part of her wondered why Mono wanted her to get rid of them. Though it was Mono, so if she had to guess, it was for a valid reason. He hadn't led her astray so far, so she had no reason to doubt him.
As the group of four rushed her down, rather than take them head-on, she plunged her sword into the ground and activated Blood Wave. From the point where her sword made an impact, a wave of blood manifested and rushed toward the goons. Various cries of confusion filled the gym before the wave of blood connected. The moment it did, various cuts of varying lengths and depths littered their bodies, expunging blood from their bodies.
Pulling her sword from the floor, she dashed forward and used their moment of stunned confusion and pain to bisect the group with a single large swinging arc of her blade. However, as she did, a red line followed her sword's movement. A second later, the red line sparked in flame, before exploding and blowing their bodies to smithereens.
"What was that?"
[The follow-up attack of Blood Wave. It coats your blade in Blood Flame, a property of The Formless Mother, and drags a line of it through the air that explodes a second later. Considering your Weapon Art is a Blood-related one gotten from a Blood Hunter, that is why it is there.]
"Neat," with that, Jolyne looked up at the redhead, who stood there, indignation on her face. "Is that all? Or are you going to come down here now?"
The redhead seemed shocked at her question. Well, not as shocked as she was offended. So much so that her expression shifted from one of indignation to pure anger—lips curled into a snarl, pupils shrunk with rage, and eyes locked onto her like a hawk.
"I'm not stupid enough to go down there. I'm perfectly safe where I am. Between you and I is an invincible magical barrier. You might've killed my friends and allies, and you might be stronger than me, but that doesn't stop me from avenging them!" The redhead spat as her staff charged up something on the tip of her staff. Jolyne reacted the moment she unleashed it, the "it" in question being a thicker and quicker moving golden lightning bolt.
"Stand still!" The redhead spat, firing a constant stream of golden lightning bolts as Jolyne kept dodging them. With each dodge, it was clear that the redhead was starting to get frustrated, as the casting time for each bolt decreased, as if she was trying to tire Jolyne out. It was a shame because her stamina bar was hardly even going down with each dodge.
"Is this supposed to be difficult?"
[You are only at the first phase of this fight, Jolyne. Do not get cocky. You haven't triggered the actual fight. You're still in the preamble.]
"Pretty sure that's not how you use that word, Mono."
[Be quiet and focus.]
Before Jolyne could quip back, she was struck by one of the bolts of golden lightning smack in the center of her torso, knocking her back, and shaving off 25% of her HP, dropping her health from 1,300 to 975 in a single attack.
"And there's the difficulty!" Jolyne thought, a smirk taking up her visage, getting up from where she was knocked on the ground. She was surprised that the redhead wasn't taking advantage of her predicament until she noticed her tired and haggard form atop the truck.
She was open and could be freely attacked. The only thing stopping Jolyne from getting close to the redhead had been the barrier of light. She needed to find a way to tear it down. If she could tear it down, the battle would be over. "Maybe I just spam Blood Wave's?" Jolyne thought, as the redhead recovered from whatever fatigue she had been feeling, and continued to sling out more lightning bolts.
As she was dodging, she was passively recovering HP at the cost of her thirst meter. It was getting extremely low, and she could feel something clawing at the back of her throat as if it had been dry.
She was starting to get thirsty.
The last time she got thirsty, her mind was solely focused on quenching that thirst, so much so that she went overboard. The last thing that she wanted to deal with was that stupid side effect again. At least now she knew how to avoid it, but the problem was getting the opening to where she could quench that thirst and not go overboard.
If there was anything that she didn't want to find out about, it was what happened when that thirst meter hit zero. She already found out what could happen if she got it passed 100, so if she had to guess, it probably wasn't going to be any better if she got it to zero.
"Damnit!" Jolyne thought, dodging the seventh golden lightning bolt in a row. "Of course, now of all times, because that's just my luck…" Jolyne thought, narrowing her eyes. It was a constant game of dodging.
Frankly, she had no idea how this was supposed to be a fight, when all this had been up to this point was dodging lightning bolts. Though, she supposed, it was kind of like a gimmick battle.
A gimmick battle….
"If I remember correctly from "my" past, there was one boss in Dark Souls. The Bed of Chaos… That was a gimmick fight! This is like that! No wonder why this is so frustrating…" Jolyne thought, dodging yet another lightning bolt. Only this time, there was no follow-up attack, as the redhead tired herself out once again.
"Now!" Jolyne thought as she used that brief window of time to grab one of the corpses on the floor—one of the fools who tried to rush her down in that group of four that she killed with the Blood Wave—and with a trace amount of disgust, she bit into the neck of the body she picked up.
In a matter of seconds, her thirst meter recovered up to 100/100, leaving the body to look like a shrivelled-up rasin. Tossing the corpse away, and ignoring the disgusted gasp from the redhead, Jolyne charged toward the barrier and slammed her sword against it, just to see what would happen.
The barrier took some damage, but not nearly enough, as the moment the blade came into contact with it, and the moment the damage was dealt, the HP of the barrier recovered almost instantly. "Well, there goes that idea," Jolyne thought, annoyance taking up her visage as she passively wiped the blood away from her lips.
"You… are you some kind of vampire?!" The redhead bellowed, terror in her voice as Jolyne glanced up at her. Was she? She hadn't converted yet, obviously. But did she have fangs?
"Whatever, not important right now," Jolyne dismissed the thought, huffing. "Maybe, I don't know. Why do you care?" Jolyne spat, dodging backwards, avoiding yet another golden lightning bolt. "Can you please stop doing that? Fight me, damnit! None of that pussy shit!" Jolyne growled, earning a scoff from the redhead as she slung another lightning bolt at her. Rather than dodge it, Jolyne, so fed up with getting thrown bolts at for the last two and a half minutes, decided to do something else.
Conjuring Void Snatch, Jolyne controlled it toward the lightning bolt, just to see what would happen. Much to her and the redhead's surprise, Void Snatch caught the lightning bolt. Not wasting any time, with a flick of her wrist, Jolyne commanded Void Snatch to throw the bolt back at the holy barrier.
The moment the bolt connected with the barrier, it shattered instantly. "What?!" The redhead screamed, eyes wide and jaw slack as Jolyne smirked, a deadly gleam taking up her visage as she got into a pouncing position. The second she did, the redhead made eye contact with her, narrowing her eyes with fury.
"You…!" the redhead snarled, and as she did, a golden aura began to form around her body. Jolyne instinctively got out of the pouncing position, standing tall before the redhead. "I've had it! You kill my friends, break my barrier, and taunt me. You even go out of your way to defile the corpse of one of my friends… I won't let this stand!"
In an instant, in a flash of golden light, the redhead teleported, and before Jolyne could react, she felt a fist connect the side of her face and was sent flying through the armoured vehicle that the redhead was standing on, and was knocked outside. She tumbled through grass, smashed through bushes and trees, and eventually stopped when she slammed against a rock, her HP having dropped from the previously fully recovered 1,300, down to 782.
The change of scenery from a gymnasium to what be the forested section at Hopes Peak, which surrounded the school, had rattled her slightly and forced her to adapt to the sudden shift in the air, but aside from that, she had already adapted to the situation, even if only slightly. Getting up from the prone state she was in, and as the thirst meter drained down to half to recover her HP, Jolyne was immediately swarmed by several golden lightning bolts that honed in on her position.
Jumping out of the way, the place where she stood caught ablaze due to the heat of lightning and from their impact. Conjuring Void Snatch, Jolyne used it to smother the flames before they could spread. Then, immediately after that, she leapt out of the way to avoid a punch that blew away a tree from where she had been standing.
With the golden aura still surrounding her, the redhead turned to face Jolyne, rage in her eyes as a large health bar appeared.
[Yumeno Himiko – Holy Mage of Dice, Lvl 26 (BOSS)]
[HP: 1350 (Boss Multiplier x2)]
"You killed my friends… I will avenge them, and you will die here and now." As Himiko said that, her eyes narrowed, glaring at the girl before her.
She had no idea who she was, only that she also had magic. Because of that, she was a major threat. Not to mention just how easily she had killed her allies…. It wasn't fair. Why did the bad people at Hope's Peak have a mage like her?
Although, she had to wonder… what was she? She drank blood like a vampire but didn't burn up in the sunlight like one. She was strong, and fast, and she could dodge her lightning attacks with ease, albeit with a slip up here and there. Strength-wise, they seemed evenly matched, even if it was only right now.
She was a Reserve Course Student, but she had all the makings of an Ultimate. She had the strength, the superhuman qualities to her, and she even had a funny little gimmick.
However, in that aspect, both this girl and her were similar. Not too similar, but similar enough to where it was obvious to point out.
A part of Himiko wondered who was helping her right now. Was it Koko? "No. This feels different. This feels almost like…" She stopped that thought, brushing the thought aside as she glared at her enemy.
Regardless of what was making her stronger right now, all that mattered was that this lady needed to die if they were going to continue their plan. Which, kind of already failed, given that Kuzuryu Natsumi was already dead.
It begged the question if this girl before her was the one who killed her.
"Maybe I can ask…" Himiko thought, her eyes trained on the girl before her.
As for Jolyne, she too had her eyes narrowed at her target. "So, her name is Himiko, then?" Jolyne thought, frowning. It didn't matter, but at the very least, she would remember her name after she was killed. Though she had doubled her actual health due to her receiving the Boss status, that wouldn't stop Jolyne from beating her.
"Yeah, well you came to attack my school. Maybe this wouldn't have happened if you decided to do that, and your friends would've still been alive," Jolyne spat. Though, now that she thought about it, did she really have to kill them?
[Yes, you do. They are sided with IT.]
"Okay, but what's IT?"
[It's best for you not to know.]
That… Didn't sit right with her. What was Mono hiding? Given that he wasn't responding to her anymore, that meant it was something bad. Did it have something to do with the orange glow behind Natsumi's eyes? If that was the case, this girl didn't have that. She seemed perfectly fine.
As a matter of fact, none of the other masked people had that glow in their eyes, either.
"What's going on here?"
"Before we continue…" Himiko began, snapping Jolyne out of her thoughts. Himiko's hand grip on her staff doubled, so much so that it almost looked like it was cracking. Jolyne raised an eyebrow, prompting her to continue. "Did you, or did you not kill Kuzuryu Natsumi?"
Jolyne blinked, confused. "Seriously? Is she dense?" Jolyne thought, scoffing. "Yeah, I did, what about it?"
Himiko huffed, her eyes narrowing further. "Nothing. Thank you for answering." As Himiko said that, just as she was about to channel her magic through her staff, Jolyne closed the distance between herself and Himiko, shocking her as Jolyne thrust her sword through Himiko's abdomen, doing only 200 damage to her.
"What!? That usually kills these NPCS!" Jolyne thought, only to get knocked away from Himiko, recalling her sword back to inventory in the process. She took a meagre 50 damage from that hit, and when she got back to her feet, she dodged out of the way of another barrage of golden lightning and had Void Snatch gather all of them, before hurling them back at Himiko, who promptly deflected it with what looked like a miniature golden barrier, dissolving the electricity into nothingness.
Himiko patted the wound on her stomach, frowning, the barrier remaining a constant like the last time, only on a smaller scale. "I don't know how I'm alive… but I'll gladly take whatever boost in strength I've gotten to deal with you," Himiko muttered, looking up at the sky. "Maybe Chi-chan is finally helping us out…"
"Chi-chan? Could it be one of the people like me who Mono illuded to being here?" Jolyne thought, narrowing her eyes. "Whatever, whoever that is, it doesn't matter right now." Dismissing the thought, Jolyne charged forward, blade clashing with golden barrier as sparks flew, golden specks of light and sparks of metal. Her blade deflected against the barrier, and just in time to block the slam from the staff that Himiko wielded.
There was more oomph in her attack than Jolyne had expected, but she pushed against it, doing everything in her power to not lose the struggle. Her teeth gritted, and her eyes narrowed, Jolyne pushed with all of her strength and broke Himiko's stance, and as soon as she did, she slammed her sword down on the barrier, causing it to shatter.
Jolyne thought about slashing Himiko, but she had a better idea. Seeing as her thirst meter was low, she decided that she was going to use this moment to refill it. Not to mention, it was one the strongest moves she had at her disposal.
So, with that in mind, Jolyne used that moment of vulnerability to grab Himiko, and before Himiko could react, Jolyne opened her mouth and clamped her jaw down on Himiko's throat. Blood rushed from the wound, some spilling past Jolyne's lips as the rest funnelled down her throat, causing Himiko to scream as Jolyne drained some of her blood. It dropped Himiko's HP down to roughly about half and filled her thirst meter back to full.
Jolyne shoved Himiko away, causing her to stumble, nearly tripping over herself in the process. Himiko hissed in pain, her shoulders raised in a reeling sensation, and with her neck now profusely bleeding, this fight was basically over.
It was primarily because of the Bleeding status effect next to Himiko's name. From what she remembered, it would slowly drain the afflicted's HP by 2% for five minutes unless it is stopped by using a healing spell. Considering Himiko hadn't bothered to try and heal anyone of the people she had injured or killed, that meant she didn't have a healing spell.
But that didn't mean Jolyne was going to let her bleed out. She was rude, but she wasn't cruel. At least, she didn't think so. Besides, this had been her first real fight in The Real World compared to the dungeons, and she was starting to get that rush again like she had when she fought against that Goetia child.
Himiko held the wound on her neck, her face slightly drained of colour as she gnashed her teeth together, still clenching onto her staff with her free hand as Jolyne wiped the blood from her lips, a smirk taking up her visage.
She was starting to get used to this whole pseudo-vampire bit.
"You're… you're a monster…" Himiko muttered as Jolyne brandished her sword, a deadly glint in her eyes.
She was a monster? Was she really? Maybe from Himiko's perspective, perhaps. But as far as Jolyne was concerned, these people had come to her school, damaged the place, and for all she knew were causing havoc in the building.
Which reminded her that Hajime was still very much in danger. She had only killed up to 7 of the 150 Dice members and was currently fighting one of the bosses. Not just that, but the other students, as well.
She needed to wrap this up.
"Yeah, I am. And you're fodder," Jolyne spat, before once again closing the distance, swinging her sword out to her side and aiming to slash diagonally across Himiko's torso, only to be met with the same golden barrier as before. However, Himiko was sent flying backward, tumbling backward like a tumbleweed before getting her traction back using her staff to do so.
A trail of the ground was left upturned, even if only slightly, by the staff digging into the ground, while at the same time, Jolyne was jumping between the trees like a ping pong ball, kind of like a ninja. She was barely visible to the naked eye, and Himiko had a hard time keeping track of her.
Jolyne leapt up in the air, preparing for a plunging attack, aiming to stab down on Himiko's head. Himiko leapt backward, barely avoiding being skewered. Even with her barrier, that attack would've shattered her barrier. She just knew it.
However, what she had both forgotten and also not expected, was Jolyne activating Blood Wave. When she did, and as the wave of blood came crashing toward Himiko, she braced for impact as her shield shattered. At that moment, Jolyne dashed forward, and swung her sword back, preparing for the follow-up attack.
Himiko's eyes widened, as everything seemed to slow down for her.
She didn't want to die.
She couldn't die.
She still had so much to live for!
She and Koko still had their whole lives ahead of them!
"It's you and me, Himi-chan! You and me against the world and those who'd dare hurt us. One day, we'll rule this world. I'll be the supreme leader, and you'll be my second in command. Doesn't that sound wonderful?"
That was what Kokichi had told her. That was what her Koko had said when they officially hooked up. When they became the inseparable duo that were now.
She remembered the smile that was plastered on his face when he said that. The awkwardness he felt afterward, and how she loved it regardless. He was never the romantic type, but he tried, and it showed. To Himiko, that was all that mattered.
So, for that simple reason alone, she couldn't die. She had to do something, and that something was painfully obvious.
She had one more thing that she could do. If she could pull it off, she'd be fine.
Himiko raised her staff, an orb of light beginning to converge. If this didn't land, then it was over. This was her Hail Mary attack. Her Divine Cannon. It took a bare minimum of a second to charge, but if she could just get it to fire, she would—
Before that thought could finish, Jolyne had already swung her blade, the tip of the sword digging into Himiko's skin as the fiery, blood-red line followed after it. A split second later, the blood-red line exploded, and Himiko was blown to pieces.
There were no last thoughts.
There were no last words.
There was nothing.
From Jolyne's perspective, the massive health bar in her line of sight dropped to zero, ending the right as Jolyne stood right where the bits and pieces of Himiko Yumeno had been. That was it. That was all that Jolyne saw and all that she cared to see.
Across her vision, the text "Great Enemy Slain" appeared in front of her, as 150,000 Exp was dumped on her, and she gained a single level from it. For the amount of effort it took, that didn't feel like enough. But, given that it was just one of the bosses, it would have to do for now. She looked around herself and saw what remained of Himiko. At least, the most intact part of her.
Her head.
Her eyes were wide and lifeless, her mouth slightly ajar, and blood staining her chin.
An idea settled into the back of her mind, but she immediately squashed it. "No. That's just evil, and I'm not evil. Rude? Definitely. Cruel? Maybe. Evil? Absolutely not." As that thought faded, she noticed that her staff was still intact. Picking it up, she examined it and frowned. It was a common item, barely worth even keeping around.
But, there was something else that was there.
It was a coin, that almost looked like an arcade token; it even had the "admit one" sprawled across the top of it. Picking it up, Jolyne examined the coin, confused. Then, an item description popped up just like it always would when a new item was discovered.
[Gacha Token (Rare)]
[Series: Spell (Standard)]
[Description: A Standard Spell series Gacha token of the [Rare] Rarity! Flip the coin and see what you get! I promise you won't be disappointed~! (Note: If you already have a spell slotted in your spell slot, the spell you receive will go into your backup spells and can be equipped and swapped out only outside of Quest missions and combat!)]
"I'll save this for after this ordeal is said and done…" Jolyne thought, frowning, looking back at the reserve course building. Bellows of smoke were starting to rise from it, meaning that the people inside were in danger.
Hajime was in danger.
The last thing that Jolyne wanted was for Hajime to be in danger. Yet, here she was, in that exact situation, with Hajime being in danger. Her stamina meter was low due to all the dodging and using the follow-up attack from Blood Wave. She had to wait for her stamina meter to refill, and that would take a couple of minutes.
A couple of minutes that she nor Hajime had.
"I'm not going to get there quick enough…!" Jolyne thought, panic filling her body. This wasn't good. Not one bit. Hajime wasn't like her, and because he wasn't like her, he was in much more danger than she was. If he got fatally wounded, he would need immediate medical attention.
The problem was that she had no idea if the police knew about what was happening or not, nor did she know if the headmaster was aware of the attack, or if he had gone with the Ultimate Students to Okinawa.
If it was the former, then he was being pretty slow about alerting the authorities, or the authorities were really slow to get there. If it was the latter, then it would've been entirely up to her to make sure no one else got hurt. Which was going to be rather difficult, especially if she had to wait on her stamina bar to recover.
[May I suggest something, Jolyne?]
"Anything, I'm looking for anything you can suggest, 'cause I won't make it in time, and the last thing I want is for Hajime to be hurt or worse!"
[Very well. I can create a temporary mental link between you and Hajime so that you can communicate with him and aid him in his time of need. It will only last for a minute, but it should be enough to get him somewhere safe. Would you like me to do that now?]
"Yes!"
[Very well. Patching through to [Hajime Hinata]. Please wait a moment…]
[XXXX]
Hajime was not having a good day today. First, he witnesses the person he both loves and cares about get shot in the head, only to get back up and kill someone; that someone being Kuzuryu Natsumi. Then, not even a second after the fact, a group of clown people in straitjackets burst through the gymnasium wall and began some kind of terrorist attack on the Reserve Course of all places.
Now, he was hiding in the men's bathroom, barricading himself in a stall, as a couple of goons looked for him. He kept his breath still, and his panic to a minimum, but that wasn't going to help him much when he was inevitably found.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are! I'll make your death less painful, brat!" One of the goons spat, chuckling to themselves as Hajime shuttered, fear creeping up his bones. He didn't want to die. He had heard gunshots earlier, meaning that a couple of his peers had died, too.
"I don't want to die… I don't want to die!"
All of a sudden, a static-like sound filled his mind, as he bit back the urge to shout in pain. It felt as if someone was dragging sound paper against his mind. For a moment, he could hear a robotic, borderline feminine voice say something along the lines of "patch through complete" before he inexplicably heard Jolyne's voice in the back of his head.
"Hajime! Can you hear me?! You don't have to say anything, just think about what you want to say, and I'll hear it. I don't have much time, but I can help you, okay?"
Hajime blinked, confused. "What the—how can you do this? What happened to you?!"
"I promise, I'll explain as much as possibly can when this is over, but for now, if you want to live, you'll have to trust me. Now, what I want you to do is tell me where you are."
"I'm… in the men's bathroom. I'm hiding in the left-most stall, and two of those clown people are closing in on me. I don't know how long I have till they find me…"
There was a brief pause before Jolyne spoke up again. "Okay. Here's what you're going to do. Once one of them approaches where you are, you're going to bust open the stall door, tackle the person, then take whatever weapon they have on them, and use it against them. You don't have to kill them if you so choose, but once you have that weapon, it should be more than enough for you to get out of that situation, and get yourself to a safe place."
Hajime felt his blood go cold. She wanted him to fight? Was she insane!?
"I know this sounds ridiculous, but it's the only way I can help you right now. I'm a little fatigued from fighting that mage woman on that truck with her little goon squad, and I have to recover for a little bit. All I need you to do is to get to a safe place and wait out for a little bit longer. Once that's all said and done, I'll get over there and get rid of these guys."
"Are you… going to kill them?"
Once again, Jolyne went silent. Hajime didn't like the sound of that. "Jolyne… I know these guys have hurt people, and I'm pretty sure that a couple of our peers are dead, but that doesn't mean we need to stoop to their level…"
"I… I know. But for the sake of ensuring they can't hurt anyone else again, I have to do this. We can talk more about this later. My connection is starting to get a little hazy. You've got this. I believe in you, Hajime!"
And then, the brief connection that he had felt between himself and Jolyne was gone. He was on his own, and while he now had a plan of action to take, he had no idea if it would pan out at all. "But I have to try…!"
The sounds of their footsteps got closer… and closer. He could hear whistling, and as his nerves began to settle, and just as Hajime prepared to charge out the stall he was in, the stall door swung open, revealing the strait jacket-dressed clown person in question. They didn't look all that strong, and Hajime used the brief window he was given to spring into action.
He practically leapt forward, shocking the clown as he fell to the ground with an audible thud. He could hear the sound of a gun clack to the floor. It was a small firearm—a handgun, to be precise. He had no idea how to wield one, but it would work for now.
Picking up the weapon off the ground before the clown could, Hajime rolled off the clown's body, before unlocking the safety on the receiver, and the moment he stood up, Hajime fired a single round into the clown's knee, which prompted him to shout in pain. At that moment, another clown, probably his partner, burst out from one of the stalls, to which Hajime quickly turned around, and fired a shot randomly in the clown's direction.
The bullet hit, but it hit his target in the neck, downing him. A wave of guilt passed through Hajime, but he pushed it down. He couldn't get caught up in his feelings until after he was safe. Then he could focus on the ramifications of his actions.
"You—You killed him!"
Hajime looked over his shoulder, genuine remorse on his face. "I'm sorry…" He could see the tears on the man's face. There was no way these people deserved to die, right? Sure, they did some screwed-up things, but they weren't purely evil, right?
He shook his head and continued forward. Ducking out of the bathroom, keeping the gun lowered to the ground, Hajime stalked through the halls, keeping his eyes peeled. A couple of the doors were left open, and he could hear the sounds of those clown people chuckling and laughing about something.
Stalking up to one of the open doors, and keeping low to the ground via crouching, Hajime listened in to what they were saying.
"This shit is easy!"
"I mean, what were you expecting? These guys are kids, but they chose the wrong side of history."
"P-Please… let me go…"
"Oh, shut up, you little brat!"
"Let's just kill'er already!"
"Sato?!" Hajime thought, panic filling his body as he tried to keep calm. He and Sato went back about a year. They became friends when they first started at Hopes Peak. She was closer to one of the Ultimates—Koizumi-san, if he remembered correctly.
If something bad happened to Sato…
Hajime resolved himself and stepped into the room. The classroom was trashed—desks were upturned and scattered about. There were chairs in random places in the room—hell, some of them were even missing and with the broken windows, Hajime guessed where they were.
But the most important part was the fact that there were several dead bodies of students, blood covering the floor and splattering the walls, and Sato was being pinned to the ground, stomach first, with someone's boot resting on their back.
Compared to the four people surrounding her, Sato was leaner and skinnier than them. She looked frail. The saying "a gust of wind could knock them over" applied to her perfectly. She had long dark green wavy hair that reached past her shoulders. She, much like the other students of the reserve course, was dressed in the uniform—a white long-sleeved shirt, a dark red skirt that went just past her thighs, and black stockings with black shoes.
She looked terrified, and the people surrounding her looked as if they had done something spectacular. As if they had done such a wonderful thing.
In reality, all they did was kill a bunch of kids and were tormenting another before going to execute her.
Hajime felt a chill crawl down his spine. So many of his peers… dead. It was awful—dreadful, even. He didn't recognize anyone, but that didn't stop him from feeling despair in that moment. With how Sato was pinned down, and with the gun in that man's hand aiming at the back of her head….
Hajime acted without thought. He raised his gun, his expression contorting from terror and dread to anger, and just as the two grunts noticed him being there, he fired the handgun. The bullet hit the man pinning Sato to the ground in the chest, knocking him down to the ground presumably dead. The other three turned to where Hajime was, and in a panic, aimed their weapons at Hajime.
But Hajime was quicker than they were, either out of sheer panic or anger—either or, it didn't matter—he fired the last three rounds in the magazine of his gun, and hit each of them in the chest, not particularly caring for where he hit. All three of the grunts went down, meanwhile, Sato was screaming in fear, keeping her head down all the while Hajime had dispatched the clown-masked goons.
Hajime advanced into the room, walking over to one of the bodies and taking the magazines they had on them. He looked for ones that matched his gun, and he only found an extra magazine, which was only half full. The rest were for assault rifles, but at least he had four more rounds.
"Sato, are you okay?" Hajime asked, as Sato looked up at him, tears running down her cheeks, fear etched into her face as she shuttered.
"H-Hinata? Did you—"
"Uh… yeah, I did…" Hajime muttered, guilt taking over his features. He looked down at some of the grunts. One was on the floor, groaning in pain, as was another, but the other two were dead silent, though they were breathing. "They're still alive, though…. In pain, but still alive… I guess I didn't hit anywhere vital. But they'll bleed out soon."
Sato nodded, slowly getting to her feet. "I-I think everyone's hiding in the school's basement. It's just down the hall, but I don't know if it's safe…"
Hajime nodded, a bead of sweat trailing down the side of his face. He wouldn't lie to himself, he was terrified, but his blood was pumping and he felt more energized than ever. He blamed adrenaline—after all, that's what adrenaline would do to someone.
"I'll check. Stay here…" A part of him wished that Jolyne would hurry up already and get over here. He still had so many questions to ask her. It was clear to him that she wasn't human. Especially after recovering from being shot in the head. That was something no human could do.
It wasn't like he was mad. He had a feeling that something else other than her personality had changed after she came back from that coma. He had already touched on the fact that her physical strength exceeded and or matched that of The Orge, which was something that made absolutely no sense. Not only that, but she was fast. Maybe not the fastest, but she was faster than a normal person—probably on par with an Ultimate.
It was like her waking up from that coma had awakened something in her. He wanted to at least know what it was that happened. Besides, having a superpowered Girlfriend sounded something out of a shonen manga, and while he wasn't an avid manga fan, he wouldn't stand there and lie and say it didn't sound like a dream come true.
Walking out of the classroom, keeping his freshly reloaded handgun close to his person, he checked the hall and noticed a handful more of those clown-mask-wearing goons coming out of a classroom, seemingly scooping out the area. Hajime wasted no time, carefully aimed his handgun at each of their right kneecaps, and fired. All three of them fell to the ground, and when he ran over to them, he made sure to stomp on their faces to knock them out, before looting them for their ammunition if they had any.
He was able to grab two more magazines for his gun, and when he looked back to the classroom, he saw Sato peeking out from the doorway. He waved her over, and she hurriedly ran over to him, keeping up behind him as she looked down at the three downed men.
"You're… scarily good with a gun…"
"It's just nerves and instinct… and playing Call of Duty when I was younger. I've never picked up a gun in my life…" Hajime admitted, keeping his attention straight ahead of him. He motioned Sato to follow him, who stuck close to him. He reloaded the handgun and kept it close to his chest, the barrel pointed to the sky as he slowly walked down the hallway.
He could make out footsteps approaching from ahead, as well as nervous chattering—other students, he reasoned. They were probably trying to escape this situation, as was he. "C'mon, Jolyne, please hurry up…" Hajime thought, keeping his surroundings in check.
As he walked, he stepped on something squishy, and when he noticed what it was, he wanted to puke. It was the body of another student. He stepped on one of their hands. There were bullet holes riddling their chest, and their eyes were wide in pain with blood trailing down the corner of their lips. "Oh my god…" He didn't recognize the student, but it was someone from his and Jolyne's class.
"Kusukabe…" Sato muttered, covering her mouth in shock and horror. "No…"
"You knew him?" Hajime asked as Sato nodded. She didn't say anything, but it was fairly reasonable to infer that they were friends. He'd say they might've been something more if it wasn't for the fact that she had a very, very obvious crush on Koizumi-san, so that was out of the question.
Just as Hajime looked up from the body, a group of five students rounded the corner, looking to head in the same direction they were. Hajime gestured for them to come over, which they promptly did, nearly tripping over their own feet.
"Hinata! Oh my god, what's going on?! Why do you have a gun!?" One of the students asked confusion strewn on their face as the others huddled behind them.
"I took it off one of the clown-faced people and used it to defend myself and save Sato. I… don't feel good about it, but I wasn't given a choice… b-but I tried not to kill any of them…." Hajime explained as the other students seemed to calm down. "Do you guys know where to go?"
"Just a little further behind you, I think. Then we should—" Before that student could finish, one of the clown-masked goons was thrown through a wall that separated the outside and the interior of the building. The thing responsible for goon being thrown into the building was what appeared to be large, black tendrils. Sato screamed, as did a few of the female students behind the one who had done most of the talking. The black tendrils curled around the clown-masked goon, before crushing the life out of them.
Out of the hole walked Jolyne, annoyance strewn across her face as the black tendrils slinked back into her hand, disappearing from view. She glanced at Hajime and smirked. "Sorry for being late. Had to catch my breath earlier."
Hajime didn't know what to say. His mind was running on all cylinders, but frankly, he was more concerned about living. "I—"
"Later. Just get to safety. Take however many people you can with you, and be careful," Jolyne said, her voice stern. It left zero room for argument, and it carried a commanding air to it. He felt as if he didn't have a choice but to listen. He looked at the group of students around him and gestured for them to follow him.
As they ran in the opposite direction, he looked back at Jolyne, who had her back turned from him. She had a sword in her left hand and more of those black tendrils wriggling from her fingers. He wasn't going to question it. Not yet.
Besides, he felt safe knowing that she was in the building now. Because of that, he was confident enough to run forward.
Hopes Peak Academy was safe.
They were safe.
[XXXX]
"That was 101. Jesus, just how many of those bastards were skulking outside?" Jolyne thought, marching down the hallway with a newfound purpose. She had spotted well over 30 students having been killed, along with a handful of staff. "Bastards… All of them, bastards…" She couldn't believe that she almost felt bad for what she was doing.
Well, she still kind of felt bad for killing Himiko. She probably could've lived, but at the same time, it was better safe than sorry. Looking over her stats, just from killing these mooks, she had gained another level. She was somewhere around level 27 now, closing in on level 28. By the time this was over, she'd probably be level 30.
A few of the goons she killed had begged for their lives. They profusely apologized and promised they'd do better. Most of them seemed to be about her age….
"No. Don't feel bad for them. Stop feeling bad for them…. They did this to themselves…." She pushed those thoughts aside and cut down another goon, and a few more surrounding them. She was on the second floor of the school and rapidly approaching the roof. That was where the main boss was supposed to be.
"Get her!" A gruff-sounding voice bellowed. He was bigger than the rest of the goons, and there were three more of them. The only thing separating them was their masks. One had a demon mask with large red horns, the second had poofy green hair with red triangle tears underneath their eyes, and the final one had a pink swirl in the center of their mask.
"Bigger targets," Jolyne thought, conjuring Void Snatch. The tendrils covered the distance between herself and the one with the horns and wrapped around them before smashing them between the other two, knocking them over before she tossed the demon horn-masked man through the wall. As the other two tried to get up, Jolyne dashed forward, swung her sword back, and cut through the right one completely bisecting them before following it up with a downward slash on the left one, cutting them in half.
Ten other grunts had come out of nowhere—probably running out of the classrooms. She smirked, plunging her blade into the ground and activated Blood Wave, knocking everyone down and causing them to burst into blood, dying instantly. "114," Jolyne noted, as several more came running down from the stairs which led to the roof.
She turned around, facing the stairwell, a large smile taking up her visage. They covered the stairs, and their guns were all pointed at her. Jolyne outstretched her arm, her blade pointing out to the side, and in the blink of an eye, she was bouncing between person and person, blood spraying everywhere as the numbers kept climbing.
115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122—the numbers kept rising as she beheaded, bisected, stabbed, skewered, and cut goons down to size. When she reached the top of the stairs, and as she dodged bullets that blasted through windows and walls, she got to 149. There was one last goon, who was standing in front of a pair of double doors.
The amount of blood that covered Jolyne made her look like a monster. She hadn't been paying attention to her stamina and mana bar. Her mana bar was half empty, and her stamina bar, while recovering, was starting to reach empty. However as she stood in front of the goon, who stared at her with wide, terror-filled eyes, that bar was starting to fill up.
The same could not be said for her thirst meter.
It was nearing zero.
"P-Please, don't—" Jolyne said nothing. She grabbed them by their hair, dragging them toward her as she clamped her jaws on her neck. They screamed, but it didn't matter. She needed to quench her thirst. Her body was going through more blood than normal, and it was more than obvious that it was going to cause a problem.
As she drank her fill, coherent thought was returning. She threw the goon's corpse to the ground, blood trickling from her lips as she wiped it away. "I'm getting too used to this whole blood-draining thing…" Jolyne thought, frowning. She sighed, looking at the two double doors.
The leader was right there, behind that door, and as she placed a hand on the door, the quest to eradicate Dice showed up.
[Story Quest: Rolling the DICE]
[Description: DICE has attacked. They are aligned, even if only slightly, with it. Kill them, and show them no mercy. Their deeds will go unpunished no longer.]
[Objective: Eliminate DICE]
[Progress: 150/150 DICE members killed]
[Progress: 1/2 DICE leaders killed]
[Rewards: 2 levels, 10,000 Yen, 2 Gacha Tokens (Epic)]
"150 people. Dead. I killed them, but they had it coming. I'm in the right… they killed my peers… they were going to kill Hajime. They attacked this school for no reason. I don't care what their motives were, the moment they threatened this school was the moment they gave up their right to life…."
Shoving the door open, she walked out onto the roof. She had been here before, both sitting next to Hajime on a bench and… well, "she" had been here, the catalyst for why she was currently here. And now, she was here again.
Standing at the entrance of the roof, she was greeted by someone with messy shoulder-length purple hair. They were dressed in the same uniform as all the other goons with the same checkered-colour pattern scarf. The same boots. The same strait jacket and pants. The only difference was the German-styled military cap and the matte black cape. His back was turned to her, and it was only when the doors slammed shut behind her that he looked over his shoulder.
She expected a normal-looking face with normal-looking eyes. But that wasn't what she was greeted with.
His eyes…
Oh god, his eyes.
Whatever their natural colour was before, it was seemingly overridden by a disgusting yellowish, orange colour. The area around his eyes looked almost necrotic and cracked, and he had a disturbed smirk taking up his visage.
"Oh… So you're the one who killed Himi-chan…" he chuckled, a maddening tint to his voice. "I heard her screams, you know… it was dreadful…." The purple-haired teen said, his tone of voice almost sing-songy. "I loved her… I loved her with everything I had. And you took that from me… You took her from me!" The purple-haired teen growled, turning around to fully face her.
Both of his hands were clenched into fists, and there was some kind of yellowish-orange flame covering his hands. "A voice told me that I could kill you if I pledged myself to it…. I don't know who it was…. They sounded…. Insane. But I don't care…. I'm going to avenge DICE and, more importantly, Himi-chan."
[Kill him, Jolyne. He's gone Mad.]
"Yeah… I can see that…"
[No, Jolyne. It's more than you think. I'll tell you afterward. It seems IT is more connected to this world than Loki thought… This might be more of a problem than we believed.]
Jolyne swallowed back the growing panic and fear building up in her throat. She kept a steady grip on her blade, exhaling softly as she tried to calm herself. As she did, a massive HP bar appeared in the same place as the one in which Himiko's HP appeared, indicating that the person before her was a boss fight.
[-Kokichi Oma, Servant of Madness (Lvl: 30)-]
[HP – 100%]
"No HP number?"
[No. This is a Story Boss. They don't have an HP number, just a percentage you have to knock down. Get them to 0%, and you'll win. You're three levels lower than him, so it'll be difficult. Prepare yourself!]
Jolyne nodded, narrowing her eyes. Kokichi's smile widened, as he widened his arms, almost as if he was welcoming her in a warm embrace.
"I'll win. I know I will. For my peers, and to get to the bottom of whatever the hell this Madness stuff is!"
[-To Be Continued-]
[Outro Song: Outsider – By: Eve]
And just like that, the chapter's over! How'd you guys like it? Not gonna lie, I wanted to do Himiko justice in that fight, but at the end of the day, she was fighting Jolyne. It wasn't going to end well for her. And now, Kokichi's fully been corrupted with Madness!
Before I get too carried away with myself, let's get into my response to reviews/comments!
[My response to reviews/comments]
(Qoutev) Sunky Addict: Nah, I'm not a fan of the Death Is Cheap Trope. Natsumi's gone. She's dead, and she's not coming back. I know not a lot of people will like it, but that's just how the cookie crumbles.
(Ao3) AidenJacksonSmithDSBB: This is the slow, eventual build-up. Not quite getting dropped into Hell, though.
(Ao3) Fluffycuddlebug: Wha—no, I totally didn't do that. What are you talking about? Anyway, I can see why some people, including you, didn't like how Natsumi lived in the original. But at the time, I thought it was a good idea. You know, the whole enemies-to-friends trope.
(Ao3) Void_boi1: Oh yeah, the donut gang is going to be expanding. Natsumi's just the start :)
(Ao3) Kolt: Yeah, it's actually kinda gross. She has a massive crush on Junko. The constant fawning and blushing and horn-dog behaviour she exhibits throughout the scenes that she and Junko are in weird me out. That's why I mostly disregard DR3 aside from Class 77-B.
As for your question about the Frenzied Flame….
There are two main ways you can become inflicted with Frenzy. Both are equally as disturbing as the other.
1: You are directly touched by the Three Fingers and are imbued with Madness by their touch. This is the easiest way to go Mad, and doing so causes the individual's sanity to instantly melt away and make them go insane. I'm also being very literal here, their sanity literally melts into their eyeballs, which causes their eyes to slowly grow inflamed and decay rapidly until nothing is left but black, empty sockets, and glowing yellow pinpricks. Their eyes (the organ) will then fall out, becoming something known as Festering Grapes or Shabriri Grapes, which can be force-fed to others to drive people Mad.
2: Proximity to Madness or individuals who have become Mad, even if only a little bit, can cause another individual to slowly become infected with Madness. Think of it like radiation poisoning. It only takes a little bit to fuck you over, because once it starts, it doesn't end.
There are two ways this can be passed from person to person. The first way is general proximity, i.e. standing around an individual with Madness. As previously noted, it's like radiation poisoning. However, the second way is you wind up prolonged and continuous eye contact with someone who has already lost their eyes to Madness. Staring into the pits that used to be their eyes will instantly drive you Mad, as you are looking directly at The Flame of Frenzy.
Madness is described, in Elden Ring, like a Plague. If you're infected with it, you're better off dead before you can spread it to other people. The worst part is that once infected, you won't even notice any differences before it's too late.
I hope this helps! Have a wonderful day, Kolt!
(Ao3): WilburDrake: Thanks for the kind words! Have a good day, Wilbur!
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