Disclaimer: I don't own any of the respective works I got characters from in this story. Support their official releases!

Nexus HWR 18.3 The Hunt Begins:

Natsu groaned and turned over on his side. His eyes opened up and the Dragon Slayer rolled off his bed. He ran to the bathroom, and the three others sharing a room with him sat up on their beds from the gross noises they heard coming from the adjacent room.

"Well, I'm not getting back to sleep," Usopp muttered, stretching his arms up over his head and standing up off his bed.

Sanji stood up as well, and with his back to the long-nosed man he said, "Surprised you got any sleep at all."

Usopp turned his head sideways and frowned over at the blond man, but Sanji did not turn to look at him. The chef just started getting dressed, while Franky watched the two of them oddly. The cyborg had a decent idea of what had happened, considering Riku still had not shown back up. Still, he did not want to make any assumptions. "Usopp," Franky began. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything," Usopp grumbled, and he started putting on a pair of overalls.

Sanji opened his mouth and turned, but he stopped himself from scolding the man behind him. Sanji closed his mouth and just glared at Usopp for a few seconds, making the man with long curly black hair feel weirder than if Sanji had said something to him. Sanji just turned away from him after a second and walked out of the room. He had not even put on his jacket yet, and Sanji just held it over his right shoulder as he walked out. "Rrgg," he growled, and he scratched the back of his head in annoyance as he still could not smoke inside. His eyes snapped open though and a small smile came to his face as he remembered that the base had not lowered back into the ground yet.

Sanji headed for the garage of the base to hopefully get out for a morning smoke. They had not had a long night considering most of Alpha Squad were tired from their mission. Natsu had went back to hanging out with some members of Zeta, which was why he was currently getting sick in the bathroom. Even though it was early morning though, Sanji felt pretty awake as he thought about that group who arrived the night before. Ruby-chan, Mikoto-chan, his eyes turned to hearts and he spun around once before adding on in his head, Sara-swan! Octavia-tan! All the gorgeous women he had met in the base were filling his mind, and his nasty mood from the start of his morning was going away.

He headed outside and was glad the guards were fine with him heading out for a morning smoke. Apparently he was not the only one to do something like that, and as Sanji leaned back on the outer wall of the base he spotted some people nearby. He hummed to himself, thinking, I get why they're the best.

Not far ahead of him, just up a sand dune nearby, the boy he remembered as Bell Cranel was doing one-finger push-ups. The boy with white hair suddenly kicked both of his legs up in the air while in push-up position, and he stopped when he looked like he was doing a handstand. Sanji lifted his eyebrows in surprise, since the boy still only had one finger down while he continued doing his push-ups. Sanji looked away from him towards where he felt another presence outside, hoping this one would be one of the ladies of Alpha Squad instead. He smiled wide at the sight of Mikoto Misaka running between sand dunes not far from Bell. As she ran between two, the girl swept her hands up on either side, and both of the dunes next to her blew apart. Sanji's eyes widened as he did not even see what she did, and they widened more as all the sand that was lifted up in the air morphed into ten huge sand blades.

Mikoto turned her head and looked up to the dune that Bell was still doing his one-finger handstand-push-ups, and Sanji had a bad feeling as the weapons the girl created above her head turned so the points of them were aimed at the boy on the hill. "Hey Bell!" She shouted, and Sanji at least felt relieved that she called his name, before she sent all ten giant sand spikes flying at the kid. Sanji leaned off the wall, but the boy on the dune did not look like he needed help. Instead, Sanji saw the kid grin and then push off extra hard with the finger he had on the sandy floor beneath him. Two of the sand spikes slammed into where he just stood upside-down, but the other eight were heading towards where he was lifting to. The kid reached down to either side of his waist and drew a short sword and a black dagger that he held sideways in front of his body. His arms were a blur to the chef as he cut through every one of the sand spears flying at him. He did not just cut through them once though, his weapons slashed back and forth in front of his body at least ten times for each sand blade, even though all of them hit at practically the same time.

Mikoto shook her head up at the boy who landed back on his original sand dune. "You got faster again," she said, some annoyance in her voice.

"It's Liaris Freese," Bell said as he walked down the hill towards her. "My power and speed will just keep rising at an increasing rate. I wish I could make it faster though," he said, frowning and furrowing his brow. "I might need to spend more time in the Dungeon." And visit Lady Hestia soon, he added on to himself.

"If anything, you need to spend less time there," Mikoto said with a small shake of her head. "Haven't seen you outside of missions at all these past few months. You've been spending all our time off there, haven't you?"

"Hehe," Bell scratched the back of his head with a sheepish smile on his face. "Well, I can never be too strong," he said. His small smile lowered down and he shifted his gaze to the right, looking to the northwest.

Mikoto frowned too as she saw where he was looking. "Ruby heard from Lambda's leader last night," she assured the boy in front of her. Bell flinched in surprise and spun back with widened eyes as she somehow knew what he was thinking about. "Lie Ren said that his whole squad is fine, that includes your friend."

Lili, Bell thought. He sighed and nodded back at the chestnut-haired girl behind him. Liliruca Arde was a good friend of his even before he got to Nexus, so he did not like the idea that she had been in enemy territory for so long now. Be careful.

"Attention." Speakers turned on outside the base and inside. Sanji recognized the voice as the base Commander's. "Members of Alpha Squad report to the second floor briefing room for your next assignment."

Sanji looked up in surprise at the speakers over his head. Didn't they just get back? He looked down and saw the two younger people out in front of him jogging his way. They looked serious and were not wasting any time standing around. He moved aside a little and the two looked at him, Bell smiling a little while Mikoto frowned at the pervy pirate. As they ran past, Sanji heard Gaara continue over the speakers, "Will the four from Awul also report to the briefing room?" It sounded like an order but was worded as a question. Sanji thought about it as he dropped and put out his cigarette by stepping on it. He started walking inside, Guess none of us are really part of the Resistance like Gray, or Kirito now. Maybe he figures he can't just go around giving us orders. He started frowning deeper, So it really is the "four" of us now?

Inside the room Sanji had left earlier, Franky looked over towards the Dragon Slayer throwing on some clothes. "Sure you're good to go, bro?" Franky asked. They were the only two still in the room, as Usopp had left a few minutes ago. Natsu looked his way and opened his mouth to respond, then his cheeks puffed out. Franky got ready for something gross, but Natsu just nodded his head and his cheeks un-puffed as he swallowed. He looked a little groggy and out of it, but Natsu shook his head around to straighten himself out.

"I'm good," Natsu said. "Let's go," he said in an excited voice, rushing towards the door. Franky looked at him a little oddly, but Natsu was grinning as he thought about the people he met the night before. He was glad he still remembered them despite getting drunker afterwards than he could remember ever being before. If we're getting called to the briefing at the same time as Alpha, they must be sending us on a mission together. Now I can really see what the best in the Resistance can do!

Natsu held back a groan as he leaned against the wall on the side of the briefing room. Most of Alpha Squad were sitting at the long round table in the center of the room, while Gaara stood behind the seat at the head of the table in front of a holographic projection screen. Natsu was expecting excitement and a mission he could get on right away, but this mission debriefing was going on for way too long.

"…and the Hidden Sand ninja who went to investigate these unusual Aragami attacks discovered that the Power Blocking systems surrounding each town were tampered with. After the first attack, everyone in the surrounding towns and cities near the Hidden Sand Village were told to keep their Power Blockers on at all times. Despite the mandate, Aragami armies attacked those other four settlements, and we now know the target of the sixth attack." Gaara pressed a button on a remote in his right hand and moved out of the way to show the others the screen behind him. "Arendelle, it's the biggest target yet."

"Who are behind the attacks?" Kaneki Ken questioned.

Gaara pressed a button again and the image on the holographic screen went from a picture of Arendelle to a screen split between two photos of different men. Some of Alpha Squad narrowed their eyes, and Gaara continued, "As we suspected, the vampires who control the western border of Arachne's northern lands have been sneaking in during the raids of Aragami. During the fifth attack, ninja stationed in Lavender Town clashed with vampires, and survivors reported that these two vampire nobles were leading the assault." Gaara pointed at the man on the left who had dark red hair on the front of his head that turned dark brown halfway back over his scalp. He wore a long white robe and had a red cape behind him, a long sword at his side with a fancy golden hilt, and black boots that matched the black glove only on his right hand as his left hand had a white one like the rest of his outfit. "Crowley Eusford," Gaara said. "And Ferid Bathory," he motioned to the vampire noble on the other side of the projection who had longer white hair than his comrade, a slimmer, more-effeminate body, and sharper red eyes. "We believe these two to be behind the attacks. A vampire captured during the assault in Lavender Town revealed only some information before he was killed during a subsequent raid of the vampires, likely to silence him. Most of my people who were there at the time were also killed."

Natsu stopped looking so annoyed at this long briefing and got a more serious look on his face. Sanji narrowed his eyes, and Usopp clenched his fists at his sides. Sanji spotted Usopp's fists balling on the other side of the room which made the chef grind his teeth in anger that had not subsided despite his earlier cigarette.

"Your mission has two parts," Gaara said, while looking straight into Ken's eyes, only one of which was a blood red color. Kaneki Ken was the oldest one in Alpha Squad currently at the meeting, and Gaara continued to the young man around his age, "Protecting Arendelle, is first and foremost. Second, taking down the vampire nobles, and the Aragami horde under their control if need be." Gaara leaned back from the table, "I'm sorry to send you on this mission so soon after you returned, but I have you for three more days. I thought the last mission would take you longer, but this way I don't have to send more of my ninja to needless deaths."

"It's fine," Ruby said, holding her hands up and shaking them at the Resistance Commander apologizing to them. "We're happy to help out."

"Izayoi's the only one who really got any action in during the last mission anyway," Mikoto agreed. "I've heard vampire nobles are plenty strong, so this'll be a more fun mission."

"They are strong," Izayoi said, and the others looked towards him in surprise that he was saying that about someone else. "Not as strong as me," he continued, and the rest rolled their eyes or chuckled as he made the distinction. The blond boy grinned and cracked his knuckles over the table, "But it'll for sure be a fun time. I hope some of them run back to their queen," he chuckled, his purple eyes narrowing as a smirk grew on his face.

"Why do you want that?" Bell asked the boy next to him in confusion.

Izayoi glanced over and replied, "If we chase them, and if they do run all the way back to her, then no one could blame me for taking out all the vampires could they?"

"Finding the exact location of the queen would be an added bonus to this mission," Gaara agreed. "However," he continued, and Izayoi frowned. "You are not to engage the entire vampire forces during this mission. If you find the queen, return with information on her location. Do not be distracted by the idea of fighting her, when you already have two important goals in this mission. Understood?" Gaara could see Izayoi's pestered expression, but the blond man nodded to him after a few seconds to show he got it. "Good, in that case, the six of you may go. We expect the attack to come within the next twenty-two hours, so please try to get to Arendelle quickly."

"We'll be there immediately," Ken said with a nod of his head. "Alpha Squad, let's go-"

"Hold on," Natsu called out, leaning off the wall with an annoyed look on his face. "What about us?" He asked. Alpha Squad got up from their seats, and some of them looked back towards Gaara instead of leaving after hearing that. They had also suspected that the four in the room with them would be coming as well. "Aren't we going with them?" Natsu asked.

"No, I called you in here for something else," Gaara replied. Natsu groaned. The members of Alpha shrugged, some with disappointed looks on their faces as they wanted to see what the man who took down Sozin could do. They headed out, while Natsu watched with a longing and aggravated look.

"Sending us on an even better mission?" Natsu asked, though his tone showed he was not expecting a positive answer.

Gaara shook his head. "Figures," Sanji muttered. He walked up to the side of the table, "So what did you call us here for?"

"Someone important is visiting the base later, and apparently he is hoping to meet you guys after hearing what you've done so far," Gaara explained. "After he comes, I'll give you a real mission involving Al-Tharmen," Gaara said, and Natsu's face lit up with surprise. "We're still working on the specifics right now," the base Commander continued, "but we think we have a target that you can investigate. However," Gaara's expression got darker, and he said, "we were hoping to send all five of you on this mission."

The four in the room looked around at each other. Sanji glared over at Usopp who just kept looking at Gaara. Franky noticed the harsh look Sanji was giving the sniper again, and he decided he had to ask about it again in a bit. Natsu got confused as he looked around though. "Huh, where's Riku?"

"He has not been seen in the base since yesterday afternoon," Gaara replied. He looked towards Sanji whose annoyed expression made it seem like he knew something about it. "Did he have to go somewhere?"

"Not really," Sanji replied, and Usopp turned to see the chef glaring straight into his eyes. "But he won't be coming back," Sanji finished, and Usopp turned away from him, a sour look on his face.

Good, Usopp thought, looking at the wall on his right.

"What the Hell does that mean?" Natsu snapped. "And why do we have to wait?" He continued, turning back to Gaara. "Whether waiting for Riku or waiting for whoever that guy you mentioned, we're still just waiting around. If you know what the target is, then just send us out right now."

Gaara shook his head. "If Riku does not return, you will still be sent on your mission. But you must stay for now," Gaara turned his head to the door, halting his explanation as the door opened back up. For a second he thought one of Alpha Squad had returned, but instead he saw a man wearing a Hidden Sand headband like himself. "Shira," Gaara greeted, but he stood up straighter and moved around the table at the look on the younger ninja's face. "What is it?"

Behind Shira stood two teenage girls in the door his age, one of them a foot shorter than him, the other more than two feet shorter. He was a tall man with taupe gray hair, almost seven foot tall, while the shorter of the two girls behind him was under five foot tall. All three of them had on Village Hidden in the Sand headbands like the base commander. Yome, the shorter girl with brown pigtails, and Sen, the taller one whose blond hair was tied back in a ponytail, looked nervous as they stood behind their team leader.

"Lord Kazekage," Shira began. "Something's wrong. Captain Ral was reporting that he was nearing the base when all of a sudden his comms cut off. Should we head out to his last known position?"

"He isn't responding to our calls," Sen added from behind Shira. "We've tried getting him back on the line for a few minutes now, but this is really strange."

"Ral?" Natsu muttered, feeling like he knew that name.

"That's the guy who brought us here, right?" Usopp asked, walking over towards the base commander.

Sanji's eyes widened as he remembered that as well, though he had not been focused much on him as much on their way to the base. "Hamon-chan!" Sanji exclaimed. He spun and shouted over, "Was Hamon with him-"

"Shira," Gaara began, cutting off Sanji who could hear the tone of seriousness in Gaara's voice. The chef silently fumed and hoped that Gaara was about to send him on rescue efforts. Gaara continued however, "Have Spanner lower us back into the desert as soon as Alpha Squad leaves. Sen, Yome, request the nearby watchtowers to report in if they have seen Captain Ral."

"Roger," the three ninjas said in unison, then they jumped away in blurs that made it look like they vanished to Usopp.

"We'll have to continue this discussion later," Gaara said as he walked towards the door where his ninjas just dispersed. "Until then, all four of you are on guard duty." Gaara turned out the door and frowned deeply as he walked away. Suddenly losing contact is one thing, but not being able to get back in touch… I must assume the worst. And the worst in this situation, is that Ral revealed this base to whoever intercepted him. We need to get back underground, now.

The garage door of the Resistance base started closing as soon as the truck that raced out of it cleared the gate. Ruby looked out the window and behind them, and she giggled at the sight of the base starting to sink back down into the sand. "Sure that Natsu guy's not going to be happy about that," Bell mentioned next to her, and Ruby nodded as she was thinking the same thing.

"You two should focus," Renji said from where he sat across from them. The back of the small truck was set up with the seats facing each other, so Renji and Misaka were facing Bell and Ruby on the other side of them. "These vampires are immortals. Who knows how old they really are?" Renji said, then looked out the window and thought, Might even be older than me.

Renji crossed his arms and grumbled in annoyance as the truck bumped up over a sand dune. He would have preferred to be in the front of the vehicle, but Izayoi called 'shotgun' as soon as they saw the vehicle they would be taking to Arendelle, and Ken was the best driver they had. The shinigami looked out the window next to him and back towards the base, thinking about the people he met the night before but missed this morning as he spent it eradicating Hollows in the area. They took down the Fire Nation? He wondered. Never would have thought it just by looking at them.

Alpha Squad barreled away across the desert, Ken driving as fast as the vehicle would allow so that they could reach Arendelle before the imminent vampire and Aragami invasion. Four miles away from their truck, sitting on the hood of another vehicle that was three times the size of Alpha Squad's truck, a black-haired man lowered the pair of binoculars from his eyes. He grinned and dropped down off the hood as the sand-colored Resistance base he saw in the distance started sinking back into the ground. "You can hide," he said, while shaking his head and chuckling under his breath. He walked around the side of the truck and stepped over a burned-out carcass of a chubby man on the ground below him.

As he stepped over the dead man, he pulled a photo out of his pocket and stared at the figure on it. "Bring your little base under the sand, and shift its location all you want. I know that there's a moment after you sink down before you can start moving." He dropped the picture and it fell down on top of the burnt corpse of Ramba Ral. He turned and climbed up into the driver's seat of the truck, "You won't be able to escape before I get there," he said, staring straight out the window and licking his lips.

The man turned to his right and looked at the passenger seat. There was no more windshield in front of him, and much of the broken glass covered the dead woman's body next to him. She had a hole in the center of her head and was hunched over, her seatbelt still on since she had died in that position. As the man next to her looked her way, he rolled his eyes and lifted his left hand. Her seatbelt unbuckled, then he waved his hand her way and Crowley Hamon slammed into the passenger door so hard that the door was ripped from its hinges. All the loose glass and the bloody woman flew after the door, tumbling away on the sand before coming to a silent stop.

He turned back to the opening in front of him where the windshield used to be. The lean figure's black hair was slicked back over the top of his head, and he grinned with only the left corner of his mouth lifted up. He had dark brown eyes, some stubble on his chin, cheeks, and upper lip, and he wore a black button-down shirt and matching black pants and boots, though there was some blood splashed on the cuffs of his shirt's sleeves. The man started the truck's engine and drove forward, leaving behind a couple of bodies and a picture. The photo he left on top of Ramba Ral's burnt-out body had the visage of a young man around twenty years of age, with light skin, dark red hair, and a gourd full of sand on his back.

A/N The Hunt Begins! Who is that man who killed Hamon and Ral? Alpha Squad leaves the base that this hunter has located, and Riku has not returned yet either. Someone's coming. Who could it be? Find out next chapter, titled: Sylar! ...Oh. Does the title of the next chapter give it away? XD Well, if you want to look him up (if you haven't heard of him), Sylar is the main antagonist in the show Heroes. Lol figured I'd give it away in the title if you want to see some of the stuff he can do before he comes up against our own heroes! Anyway, thanks for reading. Was a short chapter but I hope you enjoyed it! List below then review responses:

Owari no Seraph: Crowley, Ferid, Vampire Queen

Naruto: Gaara

Heroes: Sylar

Fairy Tail: Gray, Natsu

SAO: Kirito

Gundam: Ramba Ral, Hamon

Bleach: Renji

To Aru Series: Mikoto

Danmachi: Bell

Problem Children Coming From Another World: Izayoi

Tokyo Ghoul: Ken Kaneki

RWBY: Ruby Rose

The 100: Octavia

Legends of Tomorrow: Sara

One Piece: Franky, Usopp, Sanji

Kingdom Hearts: Riku

Magi: Al Tharmen

Pokemon: Lavender Town

Frozen: Arendelle

God Eater: Aragami

-I just love that even in a chapter under 5k words, the list is this long! XD Anyway, review responses:

Limit-Breaking chapter 121 . Dec 31, 2021

Glad to see the story continue, it's definitely been a while. But it's as interesting as ever, especially with riku and his situation. The dark themes is honestly a really good choice for the story. It sells the impact all the more.
I don't know, I feel like I have to side with riku on times of war you need to be prepared for the dark stuff and be willing to do some dirty stuff during war.
Of course Gaara does have a point where people end up losing themselves and taking things to far or sometimes not realizing they are inching closer and closer to the extremes and they don't even realize it.
Personally I say have a very lengthy discussion and set ground rules on what should be allowed and if you go to far you get punished. Try to reason out what type of tactics should be used and try them out these are how you progress further in war sadly. It's just never talked about in history or stories and simply gets left out because it's to hard to accept.
In alot of ways we shouldn't praise it but sometimes they are the reasons why you win war or even gain an even ground on the battlefield.
Trying to play the good guy is not the best way to go about it in war. But that's on them I guess. Honestly poor riku, at this rate it just ain't going to end well for him.
I also like the straw hats changes, this isn't their same world and if they keep treating it like it should be they will get burn sooner or later.
Also with kaneki how does he eat lol. Was he fixed in a sense when he was transported to Nexus. Does he no longer requires humans to survive?
I ask cause whenever certain characters get transported to Nexus they seem to get special things like slightly becoming younger if there to old, or any disease they had previously being gone with. So i wonder if that applies to kaneki as well.

Hey! Glad to see you back. Sorry for the long wait, but glad you're excited to see the story continue! Riku and Usopp have been going back and forth about this since back on the journey to Aebrith when they all went crazy for a day and Usopp really put it out in the open that it was still affecting him. Riku's constant use of the darkness didn't make it any easier, and now Usopp sounds like he really doesn't see him as any different from Ansem. Gaara and Riku's talk about the purpose of the Resistance will definitely be touched on more throughout. We saw this a few times in the end of Chapter 16 too, between the Class 3-E chapters and the Hero School ones, the dichotomy between the Resistance missions and the members who are willing to do whatever it takes, and the ones trying to be heroes. That comparison matches Sora and Riku too, as Sora wants his friends to make sure they do better, and Riku's willing to do whatever it takes... Anyway, Straw Hats changes are also something I like delving into. They're already 2 and a half years older than they were post-time-skip in the anime since they teleported to Nexus years ago but right after the Fishman Island arc. A lot has happened to them in this time, and I'm enjoying writing an arc with some of the characters who mainly were just side characters around the main protagonists throughout a lot of Heroes Will Rise. It's a good thing I like about separating them all for these arcs. Gives me more room to flesh them out in their own chapters rather than have a cast of 20 characters I'm trying to focus on a few of each time. As for Ken... maybe the Resistance came up with a medicine to quell that hunger and make it so he doesn't have to? Maybe we'll hear more about that later on, but didn't seem like something necessary for him. As for characters becoming younger on Nexus, that's actually not... so, some characters do return to their primes, like Gold Roger. But I think that chapter (maybe 16.4 I think) called Kong, where there was the flashback of the Marines fighting the Roger pirates, is a good explanation. The time that characters were teleported to Nexus determined how old they were. Garp and Sengoku were old, because they were still alive when they got teleported to Nexus. Roger returned to his youth because he had been revived. Same with Isaac Netero who I think I described Captain Ginyu inside of a much younger man than the old Netero who died on his world killing Meruem. So characters who were old when they died got revived back in their prime. But if they were still old when it came time to go to Nexus, they were still old when they appeared on Nexus, if that makes sense. Hope I explained it well! XD Thanks for reviewing, and hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

Espada-001 chapter 121 . 16h ago

And here we have Usopp stirring up internal conflict again. I'm glad that you took a liking to Starkiller and I look forward to seeing him used in the future! He's an awesome character that learned all of the powers of the Sith turned into a Jedi still uses the powers of the Sith, and doesn't go mad with power. There's also the fact that he is a founding member of the rebellion. I'm excited about seeing the members of Alpha team! Especially Izayoi, Misaka, & Ruby since they are 3 of my favorite anime characters! Story wise Izayoi seems like he should be the strongest person in the base at the moment given the things he could do in his own world. Unless someone here has gained some new power that hasn't been shown to us yet. Anyway I'm really hoping to see Natsu try to pick a fight with Izayoi only get stomped. And I've been waiting to see Ruby Rose make an appearance in this story for a long time! I wonder if she has learned how to properly use her silver eyes against the darkness yet. Now that we've seen Misaka I'm wondering where Touma is at now? Any way I look forward to reading the next chapter!

Usopp just can't help himself ;( but it'd be tough for anyone having to travel with the same guy who enslaved you for years and forced you to kill people for him. As Usopp struggles to see a difference between Riku and Ansem, that's what it feels like to him. Though, yeah, still feels like he's stirring up shit! XD Thanks for the review, and we'll see about Starkiller once they do appear later on. No spoilers though one how I'll incorporate him. Glad you liked Alpha Team. I remember back when I was thinking of where to put some protagonists I realized that the best team in the Resistance was a great place for them to have been spending their times. Where is Touma? He's my fav in the To Aru series, so I promise you'll figure out where he is or what happened to him or what he's up to... soon! Lol no spoilers again, but glad you're enjoying the new developments in the story! Thank you for reviewing, and thanks everyone for faving, reviewing, following, or just reading this story. 'Til next time!