When she came into the room, Emerald found the space peculiar. The students and teacher she expected to see were nowhere to be found.

Worst of all, her allies weren't next to her. Almost as if they disappeared into thin air.

In this empty lecture hall stood Kamado Tanjiro, the only other occupant with her. His steel gaze never left her face since she entered.

"Wha--!? What is going on!?" (Emerald)

She didn't know concisely if that question was directed to Tanjiro or to herself. Her eyes darted everywhere to find someone familiar, but the world in her eyes became too bizarre and incomprehensible.

"Emerald-san, I have some questions I want answered." (Tanjiro)

"You! What do you know about this!?" (Emerald)

Hearing his voice, Emerald immediately suspected he was either responsible or more aware of this strange space than her. The way he spoke, and his choice of words agitated her suspicion.

"Is it really true that Cinder-san is planning to destroy Vale? And that you're willing to cooperate with her madness!?" (Tanjiro)

His tense stance further agitated Emerald's composure and in a split second her weapon was drawn. She aimed her Thief's Respite in its revolver form at him and stared long and hard at him.

"I don't know where, but you heard too much, little kid. Tell me what's going on, and I'll leave you a painless death." (Emerald)

Receiving her threat, Tanjiro made his decision as well. He raised his katana and took another stance, preparing for a fight.

"I want you to reconsider. Don't follow through with that plan, bringing the world to chaos isn't worth it!" (Tanjiro)

"I live for Cinder's sake! If she wanted the world to burn, then that's what I want as well!" (Emerald)

Both stood firmly on their positions and neither one would budge. The battle did not begin with a shout, an attack, or any movement forward.

Instead, another inexplicable event occurred.

[True Name: Kamado Tanjiro]

[Other Titles: Rampardos]

[True Name: Emerald Sustrai]

[Title: Cinder's Simp]

[Fight!]

Tanjiro: ???

Emerald: ???

Two holographic text-box messages blinked into existence in front of their respective people and a disembodied male-voiced announcer carried on with their introduction and declared the beginning of the match.

"What the hell is that!? Is that another contraption you placed!?" (Emerald)

"I don't know what that is!" (Tanjiro)

Emerald chose to ignore him in favor of firing her ice dust-infused bullets, a crash of ice embedding into anything it met. Tanjiro narrowly avoided them without so much as losing his composure, sucking in a deep breath, and running up the seating to reach Emerald.

"Tch! This guy is too unreasonably fast!" (Emerald)

Cursing under her breath, Emerald flipped to the side and away from where she used to stand to avoid his swung katana and kept firing at him. A cold sweat came over her when he vanished and reappeared in front of her in the blink of an eye.

"Shit!" (Emerald)

She shifted her weapon into their sickle form and chose to meet him up-close. A poor decision as he not only deflected her strikes easily but created a gap in her defense and exploited it thereafter.

The Eighth Form: Waterfall Basin, a heavy downward stroke of his sword that broke her defense and sent her flying as if pressurized streams of water collided into her. The impact against the tables broke them apart and raised a cloud of dust, obscuring Tanjiro's vision.

The sound of her body crashing onto the wall rang in his ear. Tanjiro rushed out to her direction, only to find out that her figure was nowhere to be seen.

Confused, Tanjiro searched from his sides and still did not find her. Feeling an approaching attack, he turned around to see the sickle end of Emerald's weapon attached to chains flew to him and wrapped themselves around his sword.

Taken by surprise, Tanjiro was lifted from his feet and flung forward, right to Emerald whose figure came to when the dust dissipated. She delivered a vicious kick to his side, leaving him on the floor. Her chains still attached to his sword, Emerald whipped her arms to throw him onto the ceiling and back down with violent force.

A voiceless gasp left Tanjiro's mouth, and Emerald, not done with delivering punishment to him, swung her arms to send him to the back of the lecture hall, but not without whisking his sword away from his momentarily loosened grip.

"Not good!" (Tanjiro)

Panicked at the loss of his sword, Tanjiro stood up disoriented and stared at Emerald warily.

Feeling satisfied at wrestling away his greatest weapon, Emerald smirked and took aim.

"I'm aware that you don't have any ranged weaponry." (Emerald)

A flurry of bullets infused with fire dust closed in on the weaponless Tanjiro. Crossing his arms in front of him, he braced for the fire-charged bullets pelleting his body and chipping away at his aura.

His robust aura shield ensured that he was unharmed, but it was draining his reserves fast.

Emerald, assured of her victory, relaxed her vigilance slightly. Quicker than she could process, a flying projectile slid across the air, cut a piece of her hair from the side, and went past her.

Alarmed, she turned her head to stare at a weapon embedded on the door. Glowing pale-blue light with no metallic or wooden material visible in its composition, it had a pole handle and a head with one side having a sharp edge.

From nowhere, Tanjiro created a new weapon, a throwing hatchet.

Eyes wide, Emerald rounded her eyes back to him and saw a wind dust crystal in his hands promptly crushed. It's energy and fragments consolidated into the form of another hatchet glowing pale-green.

"Is this your Semblance!?" (Emerald)

Under the assumption it was, it would most sensibly be a Semblance of creating hatchet weapons made of aura. Melding dust and using the energy would result in an hatchet inheriting its elements.

"You've been hiding that trick of yours this whole time!" (Emerald)

In truth, this was not the work of a Semblance. This was magic Tanjiro recently learned that he specialized in. The workmanship was shoddy and forming one from scratch using his own magic power alone wasn't feasible due to not having much experience, so he relied on dust to reinforce and makeup the flaws.

His results garnered him fragile, but powerfully thrown projectiles. And with his terrific throwing arm, they held considerable threat to Emerald.

Thrown hatchets were sent in Emerald's direction, intercepted by her bullets, bursting apart in a gust of wind. Now, Tanjiro could not be stopped from advancing towards her, wielding his weapons to block and slice everything in his way.

Within five meters, Tanjiro's figure flickered and reappeared in front of Emerald again, landing a double blow to her shoulders with combustible hatchet.

The miniature explosives knocked Emerald away. Reorientating herself midair, she brought out her scythes and rushed forward to enter melee.

With his Hard-light hatchets, Tanjiro traded blows with her scythes in a blur of swings. Evenly matched in the number of exchanges but not in weapons, Tanjiro knew his hatchet will break eventually.

Exerting extra force into his hand and arm, he swiped one of her scythes and broke his hatchet along with her posture. Landing a knee to her abdomen amid that gap, Emerald lightly retreated as her aura field flickered and gone out.

"This is good enough! Just surrender and turn yourself in, anymore would be pointless!" (Tanjiro)

"You think you defeated me with only this much? Keep dreaming, you naïve brat." (Emerald)

"Stop being such a problem child!" (Tanjiro)

Tanjiro ran to punch her. His fist went through her body and onto the hard surface of a desk that was disarranged during the fight. Bewildered by the phenomena and her body slowly dissolving into thin air, Tanjiro became more vigilant.

A pained yelp went out his mouth as the pain of being struck across his back registered in his brain. Turning around, he saw no one.

Thereupon, Tanjiro felt a kick to his side, and he tumbled down the desks and stairs. He got up only to feel a punch to his cheek, causing his feet to skid on the floor slightly.

"Could this be her Semblance? But I saw her aura break…" (Tanjiro)

Figuring that something was amiss, Tanjiro regulated his breath and calmly observed. He spun around and slashed at Emerald with a new hatchet. When the blade crossed through her body, it dissipated into mist.

"A clone? No… that doesn't explain earlier. I would've noticed her setting one up." (Tanjiro)

Feeling another presence, Tanjiro elbowed in their direction and more mist wafted from the struck area until the rest of the body followed.

Then he noticed something. His vision slightly wavered. The soundwaves he listened to were slightly distorted.

"I'm hallucinating!" (Tanjiro)

That answered much of what has occurred including the falsity of Emerald running out of aura.

The moment he realized it, three outlines wavered into distinct shapes. There were three Emeralds watching him with hate-filled eyes.

"You're quick to understand. But that won't help you at all. Not when you can't rely on what you see anymore." (Emerald)

Considering her words and his situation, Tanjiro closed his eyes and relaxed. A decisive decision was made, and so he ran. He ran, with his eyes still closed, and ignored the shrill sounds of her scythes cutting the air.

He did not avoid the scythes from two of her doppelgangers which passed through his body like they didn't exist. Overpassing them, he approached the real Emerald with her face full of shock. He ducked under her hasty attack and rose to smack her chin with his head.

Tanjiro's sense of smell… it is at an enhanced level where precognitively perceiving attacks were possible. Through smell alone, he could sense approaching movements before they hit him and even their emotions.

To put it succinctly, Tanjiro can smell the future.

Now that he has disabled her Semblance, Tanjiro did a rush of attacks, driving his fists across her stunned body. This time, he felt her aura breaking under his barrage, and firmly gripped her shoulders to position her weakened body.

"Take this time to rethink your decisions, you fool!" (Tanjiro)

He reared his head far back, then whipped it downwards. A loud bang rocked the air. The collision between their foreheads produced a shockwave, and Emerald's arms went limp.

The servant fell in battle same way her master did.

Releasing his hold on her, Tanjiro stepped back and caught his breath. He carefully opened his eyes and felt a shiver run down his spine.

"Uwaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!??" (Tanjiro)

Emerald's body had fallen forward and flat on the floor. In her slipping consciousness, she shifted her head and glared with all her might and hatred at Tanjiro. Though her conscious mind stopped working, her face was left frozen in a state of pure indignant wrath.

It creeped the living soul out of Tanjiro. It wasn't until a few moments passed by where he found the courage to move again and confirmed that Emerald could no longer get up.

[Winner: Kamado Tanjiro!]

 

 

 

Mercury did not expect what he saw when he went through the door. Moreover, it wasn't a lecture hall, but the arena used for combat lessons he stumbled into.

He was much calmer than his comrade, who disappeared from his side, and observed his surroundings carefully, though he was shocked all the same, nonetheless.

"Alright, what magic house did I step into?" (Mercury)

"Good! You finally arrived." (Neptune)

Mercury raised his head to see the preteen body of Neptune standing up above him in the spectators seating. He watched as she assumed position and did a front flip into the air and down to the opposite end of the arena from where he was.

"I was getting bored with playing games all by myself in here." (Neptune)

"Neptune, you know what this is?" (Mercury)

Mercury had his suspicions for the bubbly girl, but he recalled her character and believed she hadn't a clue for something this unusual. This was something outside of her abilities as well.

"This is something my friend cooked up to trap you bad guys. And I got the important job of beating you up and upholding justice. Oops, beating up sounds wrong. How about thwarting your plans?" (Neptune)

That made Mercury frown. Turns out she was deeply involved with whoever's against him.

"Aw, I'm so sad to listen to us becoming enemies. You seemed like a fun person to be around." (Mercury)

"Yeah nah. Feelings so not mutual over here, bud. You got the face of a villain, so let's wrap up the prelude dialogue and get to fighting already." (Neptune)

They cannot reach an amicable solution. A regretful sigh was Mercury's reaction, yet he still readied himself to fight, cracking his knuckles in due process. Time to get to work.

[True Name: Neptune]

[Other Titles: Irresponsible Ally of Justice]

[True Name: Mercury Black]

[Other Titles: Daddy Issues]

[Fight!]

Mercury: ???

Neptune: Behold, the power of my Semblance!

A split-second later Mercury launched himself back by ejecting air from his Talaria boots.

Just before he chose to retreat, Neptune's arm blurred like a whip and a violent gust was produced by the swing of her wooden sword. The floor, the pillars, and the wall felt that force and cracked with spider-web formations.

If he was even a moment late in reacting, Mercury would have instantly lost the fight. His scalp went numb at the thought. Just the wind pressure alone furthest away from the concentrated area blew him further back to the wall where he stuck to it by lodging his feet to the cracks.

"Holy shit…" (Mercury)

He didn't want to imagine what a direct hit from her sword would entail. Further away, Neptune was quickly approaching, and he responded to her advance with blasts of projectiles from one of his boots.

But how could any of them hit Neptune with her speed? Jumping from the bottom floor and hopping away from the railings on the second floor, Neptune got up close with her sword raised.

Mercury dodged the sword strike by horizontally propelling himself away. The strike hit the wall directly, and the room shook with cracks expanding to the ceiling and bits of it falling off.

"What a beast…" (Mercury)

Mercury idly commented back down on the arena floor in awe and fear.

"Ugh… hnngh! Guh, this thing's stuck tight." (Neptune)

When trying to pull the sword out, Neptune met failure. Dropping down to the ground without her sword disheartened her, but she got over it and winded her arm three times.

"Guess my fists could do. Though that'll make me out to be a brute." (Neptune)

"Then what happened earlier doesn't count?" (Mercury)

Neptune replied back by driving a fist forward at him. That was blocked by the flat end of Mercury's foot. He winced from the force behind it, but he had succeeded in cushioning the blow.

Neptune got blasted back by the steam bullet released from his foot and rolled on the floor like a rag doll. Lifting her upper body, she whipped her gun out and fired at Mercury.

Sliding his feet left and right, Mercury avoided all of the bullets flying at him. He raised a leg and dropped his heel at Neptune, only for her to twist her body away from it and back up to deliver a kick. That was blocked by the shin of his other raised leg, and he extended it to smack the side of her head.

Neptune got up to her feet and ran towards him for a clash. With each attack she made, Mercury would either block or deflect them with disdainful ease.

"You've been making too many rookie mistakes." (Mercury)

Mercury smirked when his hand swiped across her cheek.

There was a clear difference between the two combatants, and it showed. Mercury was the more skillful fighter with the experience to face against the type of fighter Neptune was.

For Neptune, it's not that she's unskilled, she lacked technique, she used basic attacks, and had no defined form.

A basic fighting style, relying on overwhelming specs to engage or overpower the enemy. But to Mercury, he can easily absorb or redirect the force of Neptune's attacks, taking away the theoretical max damage they can inflict.

And although there was a difference in speed, it was not at a level Mercury couldn't cope with. Neptune couldn't make the most of it either with her weeks' worth of fighting to fend off against someone who's been trained as an assassin his whole life.

"Ugh!" (Neptune)

Neptune used her arm to resist two strikes from Mercury's leg and forced him to jump away from her bullets.

Breathing much heavier than from the beginning, Neptune wiped her forehead with her arm, her hair messy and her clothes rustled with dirt. Mercury on the other hand looked to be in tiptop shape.

"It's such a shame to see the esteemed Neptune reduced to this… killing you doesn't seem that impossible anymore." (Mercury)

Seeing the sorry state of the preteen, Mercury's confidence grew along with his widening sardonic smirk.

"Do I really have no choice but to use my transformation? Ugh, I wanted Kay-chan to be the first to see this. I'll bite the bullet and get this over with in a flash." (Neptune)

"How about letting me in on what you're mumbling about." (Mercury)

Mercury strode forward leisurely. He stopped and grew vigilant at the sight of her index finger raised to the sky.

"Watch carefully! I'm about to show you my true power!" (Neptune)

"What!?" (Mercury)

"Transformation, access!" (Neptune)

A disturbance manifested in the air. Mercury took a step back out of trepidation and put on a guarded stance. If Neptune was already this strong, then the imagination of how much more she was hiding and the destructive potential of it made him go cold.

Closing her eyes, Neptune waited for the embrace of the usual power flowing into her body.

Several seconds had passed, and Mercury waited with bated breath. When Neptune opened her eyes, he felt his skin would jump off his body.

More seconds passed, and Neptune was beginning to frown. Witnessing that change in her expression caused Mercury to raise an eyebrow and for him to make a gesture that he was waiting.

"I uh… didn't expect it wouldn't work." (Neptune)

Befuddled by the inability to transform, Neptune scratched her head. Meanwhile, Mercury released a breath and the tension on his shoulders he's been holding.

"Shit… to think you would catch me off guard like that. But oh well, delay it all you want, I'm still gonna win eventually." (Mercury)

Relieved and angered from getting tricked, Mercury menacingly resumed his walk towards her.

At the same time, Neptune was overcome with a loss in power.

"Shoot, did not being able to transform break my combo chain?" (Neptune)

In an ironic twist, her failed attempt to transform had withdrawn all the buffs she accumulated before the start of the fight.

"I may not be able to transform, but I ain't outta of options. Check this out." (Neptune)

Neptune whisked out her scroll from her pocket and showed its screen to Mercury.

"What now? If this is another distraction, don't bother." (Mercury)

"But don't you wanna see something really cool? This time, it's gonna be really different." (Neptune)

"Are you trying to contact for help? If so…" (Mercury)

Mercury fired a bullet from his boots at the scroll in Neptune's hand. That was intercepted by another bullet from her gun.

"Take a closer look at it. I'm not calling for help." (Neptune)

While not pleased with being rused, Mercury was still calm enough to listen to her. True enough, the screen wasn't showing anyone's contact number, it was currently showing a popular fighting game playing on training mode with Neptune's game character against a sandbag for the purpose of landing combos on.

What purpose did this serve?

"I've got Kay-chan to thank for this brilliant idea." (Neptune)

With a single hand, Neptune did enough inputs to execute a 12-hit combo on the sandbag.

"My Semblance, wanna know it?" (Neptune)

8-hit combo. 13-hit combo. 7-hit combo.

"The more I hit, the more buffs I get." (Neptune)

"That still doesn't explain why you're playing a game in the middle of a fight." (Mercury)

Mercury's curiosity was piqued by the true nature of Neptune's Semblance but was unamused by the nonchalant attitude she held when it wasn't warranted.

Neptune grinned.

"Of course it does. The buffs I get may be randomized, but they follow an easy-to-understand rule. The higher my combo and the combo chain I do would usually end up with a more powerful buff." (Neptune)

Combo she said… Mercury's eyes widened.

"No it can't be!" (Mercury)

A 16-hit combo… A five-chain was completed, and Neptune was gifted with immense power.

"I got a refund for all the buffs withdrawn in the last five minutes in an enhanced version." (Neptune)

Neptune punched the air and a heavy shockwave slammed against Mercury.

"Nuuaaah!?" (Mercury)

"You've seen that before. That was a single-time shockwave enchantment buff to one attack. Only this time, it doesn't stop at one." (Neptune)

Consecutive punches were thrown, each one producing another shockwave bombarding the assassin.

Reorienting himself from getting tossed around, Mercury spun his body on the floor, swinging his legs around akin to breakdancing and fired a vortex of wind-infused projectiles that targeted Neptune.

"And this! Was a collapse enchantment buff!" (Neptune)

Neptune powerfully stomped her foot on the floor. Cracks emerged from where her foot landed, spreading everywhere with a quake. Slabs of rock and metal shot up above that blocked the incoming storm. Some even managed to shove Mercury's body painfully into the air.

"Oof! Argh!" (Mercury)

The collapse effect proved itself wonderfully to even reach his aura and break it apart.

"Now this… this is a new one." (Neptune)

Mercury's eyes filled themselves with dread when the wooden sword seemingly teleported back to Neptune's hand when she made a gripping motion.

Another gripping motion was done with the other hand, and Mercury's body teleported with his neck held tight by Neptune. His eyeballs threatened to pop out of their sockets at the impossibility that occurred.

"My grab range has explosively increased to the entire school!" (Neptune)

Promptly after Neptune captured the poor guy, she slammed him down on the floor and loomed her sword above him.

"Thunder Edge!" (Neptune)

The sword was mercilessly brought down on his body. Arcs of magical lightning infused on the weapon scattered and raided Mercury's body when coming into contact.

His pained screams rang in the arena until his consciousness was no more.

"And that's game!" (Neptune)

[Winner: Neptune!]

 

 

 

Afterword:

Gekkoukan's One-Eyed Monster/Shiomi Sakuya/Hamuko/Yuki Makoto/Manslut/Door-kun: "What's big, works as a gatekeeper, likes fire, has a trustworthy smile, and is the bane of samurai?"