Yellow Experience
So, I've received a private message asking me when I'll continue this story. I can fully understand that sentiment. Know that after uploading the previous chapter, I wrote a new chapter for my other fic, had a very intense exam season at my university, sent on a 2-week holiday with my return flight delayed, and wound up very sick immediately after returning. To make up for this, I am writing this part very quickly. Enjoy!
I do not own JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or Assassination Classroom
Chapter 27: Legend difficulty
"Don't worry, everyone. I won't let him harm you." Haruno promised everyone, looking back and letting them see his reassuring glance.
"Liar, you're about to break your promise." the God of Death snarled with a low voice initially, raising it only towards the end. "Because there's no way you'll be able to block THIS!"
In front of [Apocalypse Horseman]'s head, an orb of dark, rotting energy with a misty texture formed, growing from the size of a ping pong ball to the size of a volleyball. Once that size was reached, it expanded forward like a laser beam.
Reacting fast, the blond made an exotic and unexpected move. He made [Ougon no tomodachi] transform his head into that of an elephant. But for the purpose of saving time and energy, he wandered off the course of nature and created an original animal by omitting the grey skin tone and tusks, and keeping his ears small.
Most were in the cage, thus only saw the delinquent from the back. But Karasuma and Bitch-sensei, who got a clear look at his face, went pale from the shock of laying their eyes upon that nonexistent, bizarre creature. An elephant with no tusks, human skin tone and mini ears.
'Good lord…'
Of course, that alone wouldn't serve as a defense against the rot attack. So Haruno, starting out with already filled lungs, blew air out of his massive trunk as hard as he could, stopping the rot beam and pushing the killer matter away.
"WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"
Instead of a normal elephant cry, he made a vampiric cry with some elephant undertones. The volume of that cry almost made everyone's, including his own, ears bleed.
"AAAAAHHHH!"
"AAAAHHHGG!"
"AAARRGH!"
"GAAAAAAAAAHH!"
Even the God of Death instinctively covered his ears, forced to make a pained grimace.
"…"
Silence from all parties followed that ridiculously loud and unwelcome surprise. Everybody needed to collect their senses and get rid of the intense ringing inside their ears.
Nagisa, not wanting to hear that vampiric elephant cry again, fitted the prison with a sound barrier, courtesy of his [Otonashi Ho]. Now him and his fellow captive classmates plus Korosensei would be spared a second time.
"Haruno, you…" Tadaomi snarled with moderate annoyance, omitting the honorific. "You're going to make me deaf…!"
"Sorry for that, I'll heal your ears later." the blond apologized, then turning his gaze towards the remaining two victims. "Won't be doing that for you two, though."
Irina merely gritted her teeth, letting out a swift exhale of anger from her nostrils.
The legendary assassin was much more furious in comparison. "Do that shit again and I'll rip that thing off and shove it up your butthole."
Both the delinquent's presence, and his attitude, were bringing the God of Death to a livid mood. For Team Kunugigaoka this was both good and bad, as their enemy was less calm and collected but more aggressive.
"Try it, jackass." Haruno was taking that risk. He knew of the advantages and disadvantages and was going to stick to it. "I'm gonna grow me some earbuds, then I'll blow your brains out with my massive cannon."
With highly unpleasant expressions, the government agent and the female assassin shuddered. At this rate, they were going to get career-ending collateral damage.
"No, YOU try me! You only have ONE cannon, I can make as many as I need!"
Enraged about getting looked down on in this manner, the monster assassin generated not two, not three, not even five, but 10 rot orbs with the intention of firing them like laser beams
Upon seeing those, the blond's eyes widened in danger. No matter how much air he'd breathe, it wouldn't be enough to ward off that many concentrated deadly rot blasts. He even shed sweat through his thick elephant skin.
"I admit you're a formidable foe, but you're also an arrogant little shit I can't tolerate." the God of Death declared, not a shred of playfulness anymore but complete and utter murderous intent. "Disappear!"
10 deadly beams of rotting energy were shot at the delinquent. He now was at a grave disadvantage. Of course, he could dodge. But that'd mean the rot could be redirected towards the cage full of his classmates, who he couldn't defend if he dodged.
"Crap…" he muttered out before the next
"WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"
This one was far more intense than the last one. So much, that Nagisa's sound barrier was overridden. And yet, this wasn't a definitive measure, far from it. Despite the pushback, the force of the rot was greater, gradually overwhelming the loud air stream coming from Haruno's trunk and getting closer to the elephant head, AKA Haruno. One also had to consider that the air in the blond's lungs was finite, and a 'reload' was imminent soon, while the enemy had much more ammo that wouldn't run out soon.
Technically, the delinquent's decision to use air to push the rot away wasn't bad. It did work, partially at least. The problem was just that mainly, it simply wasn't sustainable. There had to be a better solution.
And actually, there was. For this task, an elephant was good, a second-best choice even. But the first best choice was substantially better: a pistol shrimp.
Haruno, while the rot was dangerously approaching his face, had a life-saving revelation and transformed his hands into claws. Claws, which when opened, exposed a chamber that'd get filled with water, which in return would shoot a jet stream that'd generate cavitation bubbles and powerful shock waves when closed again. The jet stream and the resulting cavitation bubbles would reach a speed of 25 meters per second, which was insane considering the length of these shrimps being about 1 to 2 inches. The bursting bubbles could generate pressure of up to 80 bar/kilopascals, as well as a bright light and temperatures of over 5000 Kelvin or 4700 °C in a split second.
Not only because of his innate power, the blond had an interest in special and unique animals. He knew the creature's specs. That's exactly why he'd attempt a first try with only a fraction of the power. If used with full power, not just would the blast and heat become much stronger due to the size difference of the claws, but also due to air having much lower density and thereby far lower heat resistance. If he were to use the same amount of relative power as a normal shrimp, he'd roast and even vaporize everyone in the room, including Korosensei.
The delinquent was nervous. He had every right and even the duty to be. There was a fine line between necessary force and literal overkill. Even finer than the line where the shower water is neither too hot nor too cold.
'Here goes…'
*POW!*
Everyone within the blast radius immediately felt the effects. Karasuma and Bitch-sensei, who were merely caught by the shockwaves expanding sideways, were instantly knocked out. Were they not superhumans with incredibly durable bodies, they'd have died from both the heat and the force. Haruno was knocked backwards from the recoil, his front side saved at the cost of his back, which crashed into the hard cage imprisoning everyone else.
"GUAAAAAH!"
"Haruno-kun!"
"Damn! Are you alright?"
His spine wasn't broken or cracked, but close to that. Worse, he suffered internal injuries and spat out blood following the impact.
"Gueeh…" the blond let out, grimacing very hard. "Crap! That hurt!"
He'd barely gotten healed, and now he was almost out again.
"Haruno-kun, how bad is it?"
Painfully smiling in reaction to his classmates' concern, he let out another groan. It made him ridiculously happy to hear that stuff before any comments about his appearance.
"Shit's awful… Gwooh… At least that bastard's gotta be down, maybe even dead."
"Look, everyone!" One called out, pointing towards the background. "There's a human-shaped crater on the wall!"
Indeed, upon closer inspection, there was a deep imprint caused by the God of Death getting propelled by an animalistic hot air cannon. The apparent damage was undeniably astonishing.
"That HAD to have been fatal, right?"
".."
Unfortunately not, for them. This wasn't enough to make the God of Death, one of the most fearsome assassins of all time, croak. Though it did dish out heavy damage.
Not long after the previous sentence had been uttered, a leg came out of the crater.
"…!"
All the conscious individuals widened their eyes in horror.
'He SURVIVED?!'
Then the other leg, then the hands, eventually the rest. The silhouette of the monstrous assassin reemerged, coming closer slowly. The slowness of it, and the accompanied silence, made it all the scarier.
"Shit… There's no other choice." Haruno complained weakly, starting to stand up again. "This guy's the real deal."
Half a minute later, the enemy had come close enough for everyone to clearly see his looks. And to no surprise, it was nightmarish.
"A… AAAA!"
Save for a few of the maturest, everyone's jaws dropped in terror. The God of Death looked haunting. They'd have nightmares after seeing his grotesque face. It was so bad, all but the yellow octopus and the elephant-crab-boy averted their eyes less than a second later.
"Y- you…"
"What happened to your face?!"
The true face of the so-called God of Death was a live skull with little to no flesh. It had eyes, gums, some facial muscles but that was it. No nose, ears or skin. This alone was scary enough, but what really made it truly terrifying was the expression of pure hatred and unadulterated anger.
"You unmasked me." the hellish assassin explained with quiet, controlled rage. "I've already ripped the skin off my face years ago for the sake of mastering disguises. That's not the issue."
'…!'
Everyone hearing this was perplexed. To think he'd go THAT far, it was fanatic.
"What IS the issue then?" the blond warily inquired, keeping the tension high.
"After that blast, my own rot was reversed against me. 9 out of 10 beams struck [Apocalypse Horseman]. Luckily, its own powers can't hurt it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have made it." the God of Death elaborated, his mad eyes piercing into the delinquent's soul. "However, the final one went towards my head, dead on. I mentally reacted fast enough to cancel the ability before it wasted my skull. Though my mask… AND MY HAIR weren't spared."
"O- oh, I get it." Haruno snickered, keeping up his guard. "You're mad because you're bald! Bald rage!"
"YES! I deliberately kept my hair, all these years, because I was fond of them! HOW DARE YOU!" the now bald assassin raged, his angry skull looking extra warped from the heavy emotions. "And that's not the last thing either! You unmasked me! NOBODY gets to take my mask off other than me! NOBODY!"
"So basically, I hurt your pride." the blond figured, grinning as he stretched his claws forward again, in preparation for his next provocation. "Does this feel like having your first kiss, or even virginity taken away from you, in assassin terms? Because too bad, no takebacks!"
"…"
All others, including Korosensei, were getting really nervous and sweaty. The delinquent was taking the mockery too far. It was fine against the likes of Takaoka, but this was not. Even his lover girls stifled any reaction towards his metaphors.
"You insolent fucking runt… Now you've done it!" Finally, even the most elite snapped. "Fuck the money, killing that monster is now a secondary objective. I'll make sure to drown you all. And when I find your body, I'll skin your entire skull and pluck out your eyes!"
What the God of Death did next, surprised all onlookers. For some reason, as soon as he finished his sentence, he turned around and ran away towards the door leading to the control room.
"?"
"?!"
The delinquent, just briefly taken aback, was ready to chase after him.
"Like I'll let y-"
A pillar of rot suddenly shot up from the ground, penetrating Haruno's right leg, part of the right side of his torso, as well as his lower right arm. It happened in a flash, almost instantly erasing the affected parts. The deadly assassin, really crafty piece of work, had drilled a little tunnel with rot underground, waiting for the best moment to strike.
"Wha-"
Losing his balance, the boy fell on the ground.
"HARUNO-KUN!"
"WHAT THE HECK!?"
"OH NO!"
"AH! THIS IS BAD!"
"Die, you arrogant brat! May your last moments be painful!"
With that, the God of Death escaped through the door, on his way to flood the whole place.
Simultaneously, the blond was fighting with the after effects of that earlier trap. The attack on him hadn't ended yet. The same rot was, albeit slowly, spreading, eating up the rest of his body.
"…!"
Not having to think long, and already come to a horrid realization, the delinquent acted as quickly as he needed. Every millisecond wasted was far too costly. He turned his left arm from a shrimp claw to a sawfish nose. The next part was going to be painful and bloody, but super necessary.
*TCHAK!*
"Ngh!"
As fast and as powerfully as he could, Haruno swung that blade against the lower end of his upper arm, cutting away the elbow part which was rotting on the lower end. This already was quite painful, but he could still stifle the expression of agony. The next part was going to be far more gruesome.
*RRRRRRRRRRRR*
The blond was forced to saw off pieces of his own body to stop the rot from advancing. He started with the right side of his pelvis, sawing off the base of his right leg before it reached his private parts.
"KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Just sawing alone wasn't enough. He had to saw deep, through bones and organs, into the other side, namely his butt. Two thirds of his right cheeks fell victim to the forced self-operation.
"GAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Sawing a light curve up to his navel, he then adjusted the direction, making the blade go further to the right. He was going to end the cut where his waist was at its thinnest. Of course, as quickly as possible so that the rot would not spread to more tissue first.
"UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! BWUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Meanwhile, everyone looked away and shut their eyes closed, hard. This was too gory for them to view, as liters of blood ran out of the delinquent's body, and his guts were visible and still moving.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
As terribly agonizing the ordeal was, the way of cutting still had some silver linings. Haruno avoided damaging his lungs and liver. The part of his bowel leading to the anus and the small intestines also were unharmed. Though he did cut off a piece of his right kidney.
"EVERYONE!" the blond desperately shouted, far beyond the ability to control his tone's volume. "I NEED TO BORROW YOUR NUTRIENTS! I NEED YOUR NUTRIENTS FOR THE ENERGY NEEDED TO REGENERATE MYSELF! PLEASE, OR ELSE I'LL DIE IN LESS THAN A MINUTE!"
"?"
All the others didn't quite get what he said. Yes, they wanted to help him and for sure couldn't ignore him. But they didn't understand what 'borrowing nutrients' implied.
Though thankfully, one very kind teacher saw beyond that.
"Haruno-kun, I don't know what 'borrowing our nutrients' means, but go ahead! You can take ALL of my nutrients! I'm not going to let you die!"
Having got the go-sign, the delinquent manifested [Ougon no tomodachi], who stretched out its arm, pointing in the direction of the volunteering teacher. One instant later, all 8 tentacles of him started disintegrating, with the resulting sparkling particles getting absorbed by Haruno.
The first thing the mortally wounded boy had in mind was regenerating tissue for his damaged internal organs.
"Hahhh… Hahhh…"
It was a step in the right direction, but nowhere close to enough. Next were the bones, nerves, muscles, arteries and skin, not to mention fresh blood. First the torso, then the leg, finally the arm.
"Gahhh… Guheeh…!"
Surprisingly, the energy gained from Korosensei dwarfed the energy he could gain from his fellow human classmates. He'd initially thought he'd also have to borrow the nutrients of his classmates, but that ultimately wasn't needed anymore.
Speaking of them, gradually, as the blond boy looked less and less like a bloody corpse, they could start freely looking at him again. Watching the mystical power coming from a Stand perform miraculous life-creating work in real time truly filled them with awe. Aside from Nagisa, a Stand user himself, they even felt jealousy, as it genuinely seemed like the delinquent was blessed by GOD himself. To them, it was basically magic.
'Holy…'
It was an unforgettable sight. Etched into their brains for the rest of their lives.
Haruno, now fully healed and back to life again, felt 3 consecutive emotions. The first 2 were relief and gratitude about surviving. He once again fully grasped the blessing of life itself. On top of just that, he was filled with energy to boot, ready to fight the God of Death with all his might. The last one was… embarrassment. The earlier rot attack ruined his pants, meaning his crotch area was exposed.
"…"
When the others made the same realization, they either turned their heads away or covered their faces with their hands. His lover girls also covered their blushing cheeks with this one.
'It's big…'
"Dammit, now I'm gonna have to buy new clothes…" the blond muttered quietly in annoyance. After this whole event was done, he'd go outside town for a few weekends for extra healing and gardening gigs to recoup the losses. Perhaps he'd also visit a few big underground fighting tournaments in Tokyo for an extra big haul.
…But that was all for eventually. Right then, the pressing matter needed to be resolved without delay.
Taking one last deep breath, the delinquent went off to chase after the big bad.
"Don't worry, guys! I'll foil his plan and free you!" he reassured with a nod, looking back a final time.
"Stay safe, Haruno-kun!"
"We believe in you!"
"Go take him down!"
Just as he was about to leave, one different kind of voice called out to him.
"Wait! Take this!"
The voice came from his blue-haired best friend, who cast a sound barrier on him. With this, Haruno could approach and attack the enemy off guard.
Nodding and giving a thumbs up, the blond voicelessly thanked the bluenette. Then he left for good, sent off with wishes for good luck.
XXXXXXXXXX
Following the deadly assassin turned out to be easy, since he didn't bother setting up traps. Karasuma was incapacitated and after what he did to the delinquent, the God of Death assumed that this was a done deal. He was sitting in the control room, about to flood the underground tunnel.
"Let's flush 'em down!" He declared with both anger and enthusiasm, sitting on a big armchair with his finger hovering above the button.
Before pressing it, he took one last good look at the screen displaying the cage through a security cam. His teenage foe wasn't there. Only some blood on the dirt.
"Heh, I wonder if my rot's dissolved him already. Wouldn't complain about it."
Having said his remark, sure of victory, the murderous assassin was just about to press the button.
"GACK!"
Suddenly, he was violently interrupted by a fist colliding with his skull, sending him flying from his chair and crashing through the wall.
Haruno, whose Stand did the punching, wasn't going to wait for the God of Death to regain his composure and return to the control room for a fight. He was going to immediately follow the target and strike him down decisively.
To his shock, there was a deep shaft on the other side of the wall, leading him to fall down the equivalent of a high-rise building. He'd dashed through the hole in the wall, with serious eyes that cartoonishly bulged out after realization hit.
'Fuck me!'
"WHOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
*SPLASH*
Luckily, there was a pool of water below. Of course, the fall still hurt very much. But the liquid prevented it from getting considerably worse.
"Blah!" he let out, standing up soaking wet. The blond violently shook his head, shaking the water off his hair and face.
"You…"
The legendary assassin, having crashed down by the delinquent's hand, was deadly furious to meet the youth again. This time, his anger went much further than before, morphing into a truly demonic hatred. His aura was much thicker and heavier too, like an actual manifestation of the God of Death. With this anger, the big eyes inside the skull turned deeply red as if they were bleeding.
"UNACCEPTABLE! YOU MOTHERFUCKING SON OF SATAN, HOW AREN'T YOU NOTHINGNESS YET?!"
"Asano had a similar reaction when I turned the tables with him." Haruno said, facing his mortal enemy with his guard up. "I sacrificed a lot of blood and pain, but I repaid him for his evil actions. And I'm going to do the same to you."
"PERIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH!"
After letting out his ghoulish war cry, the murderous assassin summoned [Apocalypse Horseman], who formed a pole of rot as long as a golf club and as thick as football goalposts. It was gaseous mist, thus nothing hard, but it could move akin to solid matter if its wielder would swing it around. Though regardless of its density, it was more destructive of a weapon anyway.
Due to his highly professional nature, the God of Death utilized his weapon mastery and martial arts prowess in his favor, attacking the blond dangerously but skillfully. [Apocalypse Horseman] quickly approached the delinquent, preparing to thrust the pole towards his torso.
Haruno, just barely dodging by letting himself fall backwards, then performed a roll to the left and jumped away like a frog after [Apocalypse Horseman] directed the weapon downwards following the near miss. Mid jump, he quickly used [Ougon no tomodachi] to upgrade his muscles and give himself a dose of adrenaline for better movement and reaction speed.
It had barely begun, but like earlier near the cage, the enemy had dominance. The blond ran away, desperately needing to put distance between himself and the unholy Stand of doom.
To his surprise, the Stand wasn't his only problem. The user himself attacked him. The God of Death could control [Apocalypse Horseman] perfectly while fighting. He was a multitasker and perfectly in sync with his Stand.
"Ah!" the delinquent let out, ambushed by the assassin. The enemy hugged him from behind, firmly restraining him.
[Apocalypse Horseman] approached them, pole held above its head, ready to swing it down like an axe. At such a length, that Haruno would get hit, but not the God of Death.
Close to panicking but still collected, the blond backwards headbutted the skull man, then rapidly bending forward to turn the rot pole against its controller.
The expert assassin however got away without harm, making his Stand disperse the rot, nullifying the ability. Letting go and landing after making half a flip, he spat out some complaints. "Next time, you won't be lucky!"
Because of this failure, [Apocalypse Horseman] attacked harder. It extended the length of the pole multiple times over, making it easier to strike the delinquent from distance.
Haruno ran away, but the pole handled by this monstrous Stand was faster. So he was forced, times and times again, to dive down like a swimmer, letting the pole swing past above. Followed by a landing roll and subsequent jump in another direction.
While it did work, because he was fast and efficient, wasting no instant, he knew that his stamina was gradually getting lower. He wouldn't win this battle of attrition. But he couldn't just stop and get rest either. Were he to stand still and dive down sideways like a goalkeeper, the rot pole would definitely annihilate him, for he wouldn't have any momentum to quickly perform a roll and jump away.
'Dammit, think! I have to find a way out of this!'
One way of breaking out of the repeating pattern was to attack the God of Death head-on. Though it was very risky.
'Fuck it, I'll do it.'
If there was one advantage to this strategy, it was the fact that [Apocalypse Horseman] couldn't just freely swing its pole around, as it would hit its master. That way, the killer Stand was nerfed.
"I'm coming for you, asshole!"
Charging towards the assassin from the front, the blond readied his right arm, preparing for a massive punch to the skull.
Bolting in the direction of the God of Death, the agitated delinquent threw a strong and fast punch. The God of Death, being an extremely skilled and fast fighter, rapidly dodged to the side. Haruno, having a backup plan, stuck out his leg in hopes of staggering the enemy with his little kick.
Unfortunately, the mighty assassin held out with great steadiness, the little kick staggering the blond more than the bald skull man.
'Shit…'
Taking advantage of this immediately, the God of Death grabbed the delinquent from behind. But unlike the first time, he lifted the teen slightly, so that a reverse headbutt wouldn't work.
"Got you now, bitch! Say your prayers!"
[Apocalypse Horseman] would attack differently. It now would swing the pole sideways like a scythe, its master intending to execute Haruno by decapitation.
The blond had no way of getting out of the assassin's grip. He couldn't deflect the rot baton either, since there wasn't enough time to transform his head into an elephant head and blow the rot away.
'No! No! No! If I die here, he'll kill everyone!'
Under great stress, the delinquent faced death closer than ever before. Everything was moving fast, but his mind was so much faster that the happenings seemed like slow motion. There was 'time' to think, but no time to act. So he was ready to try out unconventional ways that would appear foolish under normal circumstances.
[Ougon no tomodachi] manifested right to the side of its counterpart Stand. It spawned standing with one leg, its upper body bent away from [Apocalypse Horseman]. Its other leg was in the air, then suddenly rising upwards, performing a sensational high kick. The kick connected, pushing the swinging arm of the executioner upwards, making it miss Haruno's head by a hair's width.
Haruno, experiencing that moment with a rapidly beating heart and intense wide eyes, wanted to take a breather. He really wanted to relax for a moment, but the situation didn't allow him to. So without wasting an instant, he made his next unconventional, unorthodox even move.
While the blond's arms were heavily restrained, his legs weren't. So the delinquent first barely moved his right foot forward, then abruptly bending the knee kicking upwards with his heel, striking the God of Death right in the nuts.
"AGH!"
He may have literally defaced himself for the sake of perfecting the art of disguise, but the skull man didn't get rid of his genitals. He was a biological male through and through, perfectly proven by this one special weak point.
Staggering the lethal assassin greatly, Haruno used the former's moment of weakness to free himself before putting some distance between them. But the distance was only meant for himself. [Ougon no tomodachi], on the contrary, got really close. So close, it was choking the God of Death, tightly gripping his neck.
"HNNNGH!"
In a spectacular turnaround of dominance, the master assassin was getting severely overwhelmed by a teenage boy.
"You sincerely fucked up by bringing Asano with you. That tactic just now, I learned it from him." the blond informed, both trying to calm down from the extreme tension and trying to appear stoic.
Gakushuu, having taught Haruno this forbidden move, had officially done more damage than help to his 'partner'.
"As you can obviously infer by now, I will kill you." the delinquent bluntly told, lowering his eyes. "Before you go to hell, I need to tell you something. I did take the life of a Stand using assassin before. For reasons, I partially felt regret back then. With you though, I'd feel regret if I didn't kill you."
Compared to Ghiaccio, Haruno had infinitely more justification. And unlike that time, he could without a doubt call this an actual assassination. He was about to make it up for his 'unclean' first kill.
"I won't lose any sleep over this."
In a desperate act, the God of Death recalled his Stand, manifesting it back at another spot. That spot was behind the blond, its hands around his neck. Now, they were on equal footing again.
"Wha-"
The stupefied delinquent was at a loss for words. Just before he was about to end it all, the master assassin one-upped him another time.
"Feeeeehh…, this is so frustrating." the God of Death muttered, voicing out his complaints. "Without Stands, I would've murdered you and finished the job long ago. But as a Stand user, you've proven yourself to be abhorrently troublesome. You have no idea how infuriated I am, boy."
"…"
With such a tense atmosphere, Haruno didn't dare to mumble any petty provocations. On the surface level, the two were equally in dis/advantage. However, it was easier for [Apocalypse Horseman] to decapitate him with rot than for [Ougon no tomodachi] to snap the assassin's neck. The God of Death had this unignorable bonus.
'Maybe I could transfer some deactivated poison through his skin into his bloodstream, then activate it all at once for an insta kill.' the blond thought, his life depending on this strategy.
"It all comes down to who goes first, huh?"
"Absolutely. Like a duel in the wild west."
"…"
Stalling carefully, the delinquent indirectly injected a potent nerve toxin into the monstrous assassin's blood. So much, that it would take less than a millisecond for the God of Death to drop dead.
'Now, that's enough.' Haruno thought after a brief interval. 'I'm ready.'
And then, with just a simple mental order, the blond activated the poison. As a result, the assassin's heart abruptly stopped beating and his vital functions ceased. From one moment to another, the God of Death turned from a living organism to a fresh corpse. His sinful soul was ejected out of his body. Thereby, [Apocalypse Horseman] was neutralized and phased out of existence. He limply tumbled down like a ragdoll.
Feeling great relief about this massive threat having been dealt with, the delinquent loudly exhaled, throwing out all the pressure and tension within him. He could afford to relax. And so could everyone else after he delivers the news.
This is the finish line for this chapter. Giorno vs the God of Death packed into one chapter with multiple stages, dramatic highs and lows, gore and suspense and jokes.
You might ask, why is the fight between Giorno and the God of Death much shorter than the fight between Giorno and Asano? Simple, because Asano intended to slowly torture Giorno to death, while the God of Death intended to kill him quickly. The God of Death, fighting as a Stand user, went all out, and so did Giorno in response. [Apocalypse Horseman] is extremely busted, as it's as destructive as [Cream] or [The Hand], but with a far more competent and skilled user. If Vanilla Ice and Okuyasu were competent fighters, their fights and series as a whole would've ended much sooner. I hope you can understand the situation.
Next chapter will be about Giorno reuniting with his class, freeing them and later showing them Asano and his sorry state. I plan to release back-to-back chapters after this one. Though that will wait until I've updated my other fic.
Feel free to rate and review if you like to