Side Chapter 9: All of the weapons in the world cannot stand the fire power of a gun

It was a simple case really. What was strength to those who struggled from the bottom and came out shining gloriously at the top?Was it a certain joy?Or was a weapon they could utilize against their foes and use it for their benefit. In the face of true strength not even the alluring power of money nor the authority of the crown could do anything to it. It was like trying to reason with a natural disaster at the point, that is why things like dragons and evil gods were greatly feared because of their power. And such a display of destructive power was being shown to them all, in all of its eminence they could see how little they were in front of it. Teacher and student had become the same within the arena, all were studying thanks to this level of dominance that the Principal’s demons were allowing them to see.

It was going as according to plan, initially Calthius wanted to crush the hopes and dreams of the representatives who came here to use the children who did not know a single thing about war, arrogant yes but still growing as people. If they were to take damage to their pride they would be better people, they would cease their childish desires and strive to become something more. But the depths of their power had shocked even him, summoning gods, subduing gods, beating a high leveled hero who could subconsciously manipulate people into his bidding to a living pulp were things even he didn’t expect. Just who was the teacher of these children?What kind of being were they?What kind of training did they go through?And judging from what Toshiro had said, he met death so many times he was a resident in its domain. Just what had he have to go through in order to become a resident of death’s cold grasp. He was not sure whether this would end up traumatizing the young heroes or encourage them to become even stronger. 

The age of man was certainly going to end but it was much more fun to watch the struggle for it. He stared at the scared faces of the representatives who sat all around in the VIP areas of the arena. He could tell their very spirits shaking from the sheer despair they were imagining, it was justified too. He smiled confidently as that was the reaction he wanted to see from those proud fools who looked down upon every other race. His eyes gazed on the next runner-up who had entered the stage, he was silent and did not talk much unlike all the others before him. The boy’s name was Fukuzawa Akira, he was a loudmouth during his first days but after several assignments that he was sent to by the family that took him in he became a man of little words. He was almost like another person entirely, Akira was dressed in mostly black armor that emphasized the ease of movement. His hair which was initially a bright shade of orange had been changed to follow suit his outfit. His eyes were filled with silent ambition sitting down at the center of the stage as he waited for the next student who he hid from the rest of the school.

It was obvious to Calthius what had been done to the lad. According to the information that he had received about the Cornelia Empire, they had lost several very important families that the empire used for covert activities with the backup plan for this being the branch families taking up the space and putting the heroes as the new family heads. In doing so Akira was chosen and forced to undergo harsh training as well as torture if he refused to comply with the branch family’s orders. If he failed a mock mission then he would be tortured, if he failed to be a leader he would be punished for it. It was easy to say that he was introduced to the dark underbelly of this world at such a young age hence he had to become an adult quickly. Such was common in assassin families used by the government, he could wait even in the rain for this opponent and not worry about becoming sick because of the nature of his training. His abilities were mostly kept classified but that did not stop him from knowing what they were. The next student was arriving soon and even Akira noticed this as well. 

☆

Whoever that person was they had an incredible amount of killing lust, it was leaking out of them unnaturally. He immediately threw a knife towards the roof of the arena but a loud yet very familiar crack could be heard from the same area. The knife was knocked out of the way and instead landed in the wall a fair distance away from him.

“Of course no other weapon is capable of doing that except ones from our world”

He knew what kind of weapon had been used to strike away his knife so easily, it was a bullet. Something he had been trying to reproduce in this world and failing, what kind of genius had come to the conclusion to his failures. He wanted to have a conversation at length with that person at the same time he felt like if he did that then he would lose something very important to him. In his long past he was hot headed and started fights, he even instigated a movement of hate towards the ones who opposed him. He enjoyed seeing their struggle against his daily assault and it pleased him to hear that person was kicked out of the group he was in. Now it was all about a regretful memory he had as the harshness of actually killing a person made him believe that life was precious and should be cherished in all forms. He changed and he wanted to change the world even if it was from the shadows. 

“Hey asswipe are you done with your thoughts or not”

His eyes widened upon hearing the voice of the person he supposedly murdered out of entertainment and without much thought. Staring at her made him happy, she did not die instead she fought her way up to reach him here. Chloe stood dressed in a black duster coat with rolled up sleeves, a wide brim hat of the same color as her coat sat on her head, she had a white shirt with several buttons open revealing her cleavage, black square toe cowboy shoes covered her feet accompanied by faded blue denim jeans. Like the stereotypical cowboy she had straw grass in her mouth with a devil like gleam in her eyes.

“So you’re alive”

“I am not dead am I?”

“No. Gotta thank fate for that at least, I am sorry for everything. I mean it”

“You fucking bastard I am not going to take a easy apology like that”

“I thought as much”

Akira stood up from sitting down and his next plan was rather simple. And that was to do what the others didn’t even think of doing, it would be a short relief for himself as well.

“Nishizawa-san I would like to strike a deal with you. If I seemingly win then you’ll become my comrade, but if I lose-“

“Then you get to eat shit”

“Wha-“

A bullet was shot near his legs and he stared back at her, she was similar to Funamori-san who had beat the living lights out of Ichinose-senpai.

“I am not interested in whatever plans you have bitch face, bring out the real Akira. The one who fought tooth and nail with me used all kinds of underhanded tactics to weaken me and still failed. Not this piece of shit wimp”

“What?”

“You know exactly what I am talking about”

To be quite frank he did not expect such a reaction from her, sure he saw it coming but this was different. She wanted the him that he discarded after being put through hell, did she not resent the man who sent her to death in an unknown world because she opposed his efforts?What was wrong with with Nishizawa-san was the question he wanted to ask her but instead that ended up being redirected to himself instead. Had he lost his ambitions of being an unstoppable flame only for him to become a calm lake. Her mocking words were sending a ripple throughout his soul and it was awakening something slumbering deep within. The still and calm lake of his heart suddenly had a Hydra roaming around inside of it ready to attack those who came too close. 

“That’s right you never backed down even if I sent thirty people after you. Even if I managed to rope in the help of the other school gangs you always stood at the top and I hated you so much for that you fucking bitch. I am going to crush you once and for all.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear not this peace bullshit”

“But Nishizawa you are gravely out of your league!I have a unique skill that allows me to use any weapon I want to use, even those guns of yours”

“Come and try to take them away from me”

“I will!”

He would utilize the experience he got from this world and use his unique skill to its limits. Akira grabs his short sword which turns into a bastard sword within seconds and stares down on her. Perhaps he fell into her trap, perhaps she actually helped him feel again just when he had lost those kinds of emotions. He was rather grateful that it wasn’t some stranger who saved him but the person who had been resilient to his attacks from their world and wouldn’t stand for it if he suddenly changed. A slow change in his expression occurs as he viciously smiles just like back then. The once clamoring arena had become silent once more with only the wind blowing as a sign of something big coming, due to how heavy it was Akira drags the bastard sword across towards Chloe who merely waits for him.

“Take this!”

A single swing was all it took to bring the sword upward in a motion that would cut Chloe open and spill her guts to the world but that was not what happened. Within a split second he could bring the sword into the air Chloe shoots the sword back down to the ground with her newly transformed revolver leaving a gap in Akira’s defenses. He sees in full view Chloe’s abnormally devilish smile as she punches him in the face sending him flying towards the walls where Nagi had constantly landed into. But to put insult to injury she kept on shooting at him not giving him a chance to get up before she stops to reload, seeing this as an opportunity Akira leaps out of the way to change his weapons into a several bows and arrows that float in midair that shoot towards her. Much to his surprise all of them miss as Chloe simply leaps up into the air and continues to fire at him consecutively with the speed that he gained aiding him to escape these bullets that were really painful when they hit. But he did not expect to see a second Chloe appear right in front of him to stomp his face in with a kick to the face. Just as he thinks he is about to hit another wall he finds Chloe grabbing his hair smacking him on the ground and shooting directly at his chest before kicking him close to the edge of the entrance. 

“That’s totally unfair you bitch”

“All’s fair in a fist fight, that’s what your little bitch ass said”

“I know and I am not going to be holding back”

“You shouldn’t have at the very beginning”

Akira wipes his mouth of the blood that is coming out as he stands up and immediately throws a knife at Chloe which multiplies into hundreds of knives that surround her all intending to make her knife block the very moment they hit her body. However such a dream doesn’t happen as the same kind of revolver appears all over her body shooting the knives away from her body, not before grabbing one of the knives and throwing it back at Akira who is shocked at her speed to make things worse she shoots a bullet at it making it even faster. She sprints towards him even faster than before, the little act she did was not meaningless however. Akira had expected her to do something outrageous and thus set up shadow clones to immediately attack her if she ever repelled the knives that contained them. Their bodies were sent flying across the arena, Chloe is quickly approaching and he cannot do anything about it. He erects several shields up but one by one they all shatter because of the strength of the thrown back knife, he prepares his short sword and it passes its shoulder cutting deep into it. With Chloe’s right arm going past it to grab it before the knife can go anywhere far, she uses the knife to block his short sword, she shoots at his head which he dodges by moving his neck to the side. A bow and arrow shoot at her from behind with her response being letting go the knife to produce another gun in her hand to shoot both into nothing, Akira sees this and uses his free hand to try to stab her. With speed being her strongest suit she leaps out of the way not before kicking the knife she was using to defend herself straight into Akira’s thigh and seeming very proud of herself.

“FUCK!”

“Heh”

He takes out the knife from his thigh and looks at her with fury in his eyes, she was being too cheeky and he wanted to at least grant a little pain to her. Chloe puts her guns behind her and prompts him to come with her hands.

“Pochi-kun*~ C’mere let momma take you out for a walk, c’mon here Pochi-kun lets have some fun”

(*Pochi initially being a very generic name for puppies)

The sheer disrespect she has for him speaks in volumes for this single act of hers as she clapped her hands with a gleeful look on her face. Visibly infuriated Akira picks himself up once again and sprints towards her as Chloe waited for him patiently. He swings his sword forwards to cut her in half, but Chloe simply kicks the sword mid-swing whilst he does this causing Akira to fall back with his sword. She moves forwards and grabs his chest plate bringing him closer to her as she shoots twice at the chest, once in the head before punching him in the face which sends him a short distance in the air. Chloe grabs his leg to stop him from going too far bringing him closer to her, for a brief moment Akira stares at the demon that is Chloe who smirks cruelly at him as she punches him into the ground with a powerful impact.

The ground shakes for a moment whilst creating a web of cracks that remain without the magic regeneration kicking in to repair it, Akira stands up shaking the dust from his body. His eyes are determined to bring Chloe down in the next couple of moments or so, as if noticing this she puts away her guns and prompts him to come. He moves swiftly with the long sword in his hand showing signs of breaking, coming with a thrust that is met with a fist. Normally a person with just their fists would have their hand pierced through and blood would splatter everywhere however Chloe had gauntlets made out of chains around her hands, she knocked the sword out of her way once again but Akira wasn’t done yet as he quickly hurls two short swords out from his very own item box aiming for her back. The result was obvious she was stabbed and yet what happened afterwards was rather peculiar, she didn’t bleed from her wounds rather she continued on like normal bringing down a flurry of attacks on him. She punches his stomach which sends him coughing out for air before going for his face where she continues to give it to him. With another punch to the stomach in the bent posture he is in Chloe axe kicks his body into the already cracked ground. 

“C’mon now Pochi-kun~ Now’s not the time to be resting”

To put insult to injury she shoots at his head several times before kicking him to the wall. Chloe then walks away from the area with a bored look on her face, she reaches out for her item bag and takes a blue apple which she begins to eat leisurely. 

“Damned bitch, fuck you. Fuck everything!I want to kill you so badly!I want to create mangled art out of your corpse!YOU HEAR ME NISHIZAWA!I AM GOING TO CREATE ART WITH YOUR DISFIGURED BODY!!”

Akira given no choice in the matter slowly gets up with his sword in his hand fully convinced there was no way to defeat this bitch he had to do it. He grabs his sword and stabs himself in the chest, despite the immeasurable pain he was feeling he endured it as he was now unlocking his true potential. Bit by bit his body started to become covered in blood, this was a forbidden art from the assassination family and their screaming could be heard coming from the stage but he ignored them. He releases a bestial roar filled with power and strength, the truest form of him was coming out. Not a quiet and calm assassin but a true beast.

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!”

The armor came right off as he grew larger and stared down at Chloe, he stood as a flaming minotaur with four arms. Within each arm was a massive flaming club Akira spreads his large bat like wings to display his victory over this match however one person merely scoffs at the idea, Chloe Knightfield Nishizawa who claps her hands at this sight with joy. Her excitement is like a child at the candy store, she is unable to contain it as it shows in her glowing eyes. 

“Well done. You completed the saying: Become a demon in order to kill demons. Quite literally, I bet you make your sponsors so happy”

“SHUT UP! I AM MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU! I AM STRENGTH INCARNATE! NOTHING WILL DEFEAT ME!”

“You sure about that?”

“I AM!YOU ARE BLUFFING IF YOU THINK YOU CAN MATCH MY STRENGTH!!”

“Okay then Pochi-kun. Time for a full course Beelzebub Phase 1 meal, are you ready?”

“I- ”

A kick to his bull like head happens without him seeing Chloe make any gesture of movement, she is already midair bringing down another axe kick that would bring him down. He throws the clubs at her but she merely runs on one of them before shooting the other into charcoal. This time however Akira manages to block her attacks but that didn’t mean he was safe as she leaps off from his upper pair of arms and proceeds to grab his horns to throw his large body towards the walls. Akira is briefly sent flying but he using one of his upper arms to grab the ground to gain stability, he launches yet another club at her. She kicks up a tile to meet with it and shoots at it to send its rapid shards to break the club into large wooden pieces. Feeling proud of himself that he could at least that he could stop her attacks Akira looks up at Chloe so he could mock but then he finally knows what she means by full course meal.

“Wait what are you do-”

Chloe shoots herself in the head with her own gun, normally this would be considered suicide but this wasn’t the case as a black mist comes out of her head with a sinister grin etching itself on her face. It was more vile than his own transformation as the black wind wraps around her in a fast motion accompanied by a loud buzzing, there were many things that Akira feared in this world but that was something worthy of being feared. Chloe was covered completely from neck to toe in a jet black armor with the design throughout having bone shapes with a cape of darkness that flowed behind her as if it had a life of its own, from her temples were horns that twisted high with small trinkets. Her eyes were covered in complete darkness with a single point of crimson, she stared at him with those soulless eyes giving the chill of looking down a deep and dark hole.

“Strength. I wish I had that, If I had this strength I would have been able to save her from killing herself. Before I met you I lost a very precious friend of mine to much more vile people, they didn’t care and it was only after 3 days did they find her body that that motherfucker got arrested. She died because she was bullied. She died because I was powerless. I am sure Toshiro knows who I am talking about, I thought I didn’t have anything to do in this world. Maybe I don’t but I found my goal, I will bring her back from the depths of death.”

“IMPOSSIBLE!YOU CAN’T REVIVE THE DEAD ARE YOU INSANE NISHIZAWA?!”

“I am sorry Yukiyo-sensei, but I honestly think you breaking common sense time and time again is so cool. I am going to do the same.”

“I WILL STOP YOUR MADNESS RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW!!YOU DEMON!”

“Well, well, well look who’s talking. A demon stopping a demon, I wonder who will win in this glorious battle. Beef jerky or a bonafide devil slayer. How about we find out right now?”

Metallic skull mask covers her face with crimson flames found close to her eyes, Akira moves forwards in anticipation of what was going to happen. But he didn’t expect what was to come. Firstly both his upper arms are shot right off by Chloe who is already sprinting towards him. He runs as well all whilst being shot at by her with the smearing pain of the bullets entering his flesh, he swings the club at her but she pulls out a jet black sword with a skull symbol on its hilt meeting his club and clashing with it. The dance of club and sword continues on for the next couple of moments as sparks of black and red come out of it, Chloe dodges the next swing and begins to shoot at Akira once again before leaping on his club and running up it for a while. She kicks him in the face leaping into the air and raining bullets into his thick skull. 

Using the downward force of gravity she takes out the sword and plunges it towards his head but Akira manages to block this using his club, he tries to push her back but she uses to her advantage by taking out her gun shooting his right eye in that split second. Roaring in pain and agony Akira swings the club wildly with Chloe laughing sadistically as she continues to shoot at him aiming for the legs which causes him to kneel down to the ground, swiftly aiming for his horns she breaks one of them off using it to stab his shoulder with the resulting action from Akira being him swinging his club at her. Dodging this with ease Chloe points her guns at him once again.

“WHY WON’T YOU JUST GIVE UP!!ARRRRRRRGGGHHGHGHH!!!!”

Infuriated by her actions Akira hurls pools of fire at her prompting Chloe to run on the walls as if its normal, she pulls out the sword dragging it across the walls creating sparks until it is covered in black flames. Her next action is leap away from the walls beelining towards Akira once again swings his trusty club that breaks into splinters, his shock apparent in his remaining eye. He moves to the left but Chloe grabs the horn stuck in his body and pulls him towards her, she kicks it even further deeper in. 

“BUMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGH!”

“Did the little cow feel a little bit of pain?Well its all going to end quickly”

She leaps backwards holding her sword and pointing it at him with a chuckle in her voice.

“WHY DON’T YOU LET IT GO!!GIVE ME WHAT I WANT AND EVERYTHING WILL BE UNDER THE WATER?!FUCK THIS BULLSHIT THAT YOU ARE ON ABOUT!!WHY MUST YOU CONTINUE ON?!WHY MUST YOU BE SO PERSISTENT?!GIVE UP ALREADY AND ACCEPT YOUR FATE!!”

Chloe doesn’t answer because she already knows the answer, she smiles beneath her mask as she now begins to face those questions head on. It starts with one step as she moves one more time to Akira, flames hit close to her, so does water and lightning but it doesn’t stop her. She was going to make her dream a reality. Toshiro was watching how it was done, her strength and power all accumulated to this even if it was a fraction she was going to show the world. Blade and fist meet as she cuts his fingers off before breaking his other horn, and slices the arm off completely. His screams are irrelevant to her as she continues on with this until he is nothing but a limbless minotaur, slowly returning to normal with a battered up almost naked Akira being left behind. His limbs slowly growing back, she won. Fate would not best her, she was going to change everything and take back what was taken from her. 

“Grow stronger Akira, I want us to have a real serious fight. Next time I will not hold back, just like you decided my fate away on a coin toss I am going to do the same for you when you come for me”

She throws the coin he used to bet away her life to this world at him, it lands on his chest with her turning her back at him. Returning to normal she smiles and walks to the darkness of the entrance, the silence of the arena was peaceful. It solidified her dreams and made her even more confident in that moronic dream. Just like Yukiyo could casually ignore common sense she would casually ignore things like death and reincarnation. The upcoming war with the heroes was going to be interesting and she was excited to see how strong Akira would become in that period of time for now he is a weakling who uses borrowed power.