Night One Hundred And Seventy Seven
Age 1991
Gladious City...
The Arena...
"Not to bad right." Ken smirked standing on the stone wall to the Squad Six box with her hands on her hips.
"You shouldn't stand above people in a skirt." Shelly said flatly making Ken's face turn red. For a moment silence passed among them. "So... Black always or-" Ken dropped down to a sitting position looking away. "But yes... I guess it wasn't to bad." Shelly said huffing and folding her arms.
"Tsundere."
"Shut up Kitsune!"
"What was all of that Ken?" Irene asked. "You've... Never done that before..."
"It's a little hard to explain." Ken said letting out a sheepish laugh as she scratched the back of her head. She dropped down into the box standing next to Shelly and Light now. "I guess it's more like I got a bunch of these ideas placed in my head... This one Seraphin who shared the same name as Hero would do a bunch of stuff. Like bend his arms and stretch them out to hit his enemies with sneak attacks, or fire out wind from his pipes to move faster, or create massive limbs for single powerful attacks. So then I thought... Why not just do that to! I use my Red Shot, my cool ass laser beam attack a lot! So why not just use minor forms of it and I can do more! Now I got my cool ass laser sword!"
"She seems... Happy..." Kitsune and Irene noted.
"Still... Are you hurt at all?" Shelly asked frowning as she looked Ken over. Ken's outfit was pretty badly torn up allowing Shelly to see a lot of Ken. She hummed at what she saw. A lot of bruises and cuts that weren't healing, but other than that Ken was still pretty cute. "Here." Shelly unzipped her jacket throwing it over the girl.
"I'm a little hurt." Ken admitted taking Shelly's small jacket. They were the same age, and practically the same size, though Shelly was a few centimeters taller so her clothing would fit Ken. "I used up a ton of my energy in that last attack. I kind of went overboard. My healings slowed down. I'll need to feed again and rest before I can be back at full strength." Ken nodded. "Kitsune. Let me bite your arm."
"What? Why!" Kitsune asked hiding behind Irene now.
"Seraphins can drink blood and stuff. Mr. Hyde was weird... When I was a kid Viper and I would eat, and bite each other to keep our powers up." Ken nodded. "Now let me bite you!"
"No!"
"Come on! Just a few sips of your blood!"
"No! Why me?"
"I don't know? We're like animals, and biting is this weird thing with us. We do it to the people we like, or the people we hate only. So... I hate you. Like a lot. So..."
"Wow... That stings."
"There, there." Irene said patting her head.
"I guess that sort of makes sense." Shelly hummed nodding her head. "When you enter that cat form, you end up going on, and on, about devouring people, and eating them... And Bestia Macht's eat people..." Shelly stopped when she noticed Ken looking at her. "Don't even think about it. You can not bite me."
"But I'm hungry!" Ken whined.
'Just eat some normal food.'
"I don't want normal food! My Seraphin parts want human food!"
"Who are you talking to?" Light asked frowning.
"Who ever told me to eat normal food?" Ken shrugged.
"Nobody said that though?"
"What..."
'Hi.'
"Oh no..." Ken said slowly when she realized the voice wasn't being said out loud. "God damn it! No! Hero's seen as being a weirdo when he talks to people in his head! I won't do that!"
'Rude...' The said again. It was one she didn't recognize. The voice of a girl?
Ken let out a sigh. "Who are you." The rest of the Squad just kind of looked at her weirdly.
'Ava.'
"Hero. Who the hell is Ava?" Ken asked but stopped when she realized that Hero hadn't been here this entire time. "WHERE THE HELL IS HERO!"
"He left the moment your match ended." Shelly shrugged. "Said he had a..." She let out a sigh as her eye twitched. "A... Booty call. That Hella girl wanted to talk to him."
"Why is it always Hero!" Kitsune cried out.
"God damn it!"
***
Meanwhile...
Outside the arena...
"Oh boy she sounds pissed." Hero noted when he heard Ken's scream.
"Hmm..." Hella let out a small hum resting on her crystal ball. She eyed him up for a moment. All around them was the snow. The only thing near them being the arena. "I'm shocked you came to see me right away."
"I'm gonna be honest. I miss read the looks you were giving me..." Hero admitted sheepishly shrugging. "I was expecting... It's not important. So you said you wanted to talk?"
"I do." Hella sighed. "You've spoken to Hero haven't you... Hero Otoko?" She grinned making Hero suddenly stop. His guard was suddenly up. "Or am I wrong."
"Talk." Was all he said.
She floated up a little resting on that strange ball of hers. "I'm not from this world. I'm from that other world. The one Hero comes from. It shocks me how much you look like him." She giggled. "Earlier you looked even more like him but now your hair and and eyes are back... Though the scars don't seem to be coming back either. You have what they call a Crest right?"
"Do... Do you have a Crest?" Hero asked eying her up.
"I don't." Hella sighed turning away. "My story isn't so simple... You see... Out there... Something dark exists... Many of us didn't even have time to plan for it... He came... And he ate our world. A few though... A few of the lucky ones. Like me. Hero... And some others... We're left floating in nothingness... Nothing at all... No void... No anything. Usually we break apart into less than an existence. They say when a Bestia Macht kills a person that soul is shattered. I suppose this is the same way. It's so much worse if he gets you though. You get the pleasure of becoming him. Being molded into his mass. An endless hell of suffering forever. Staying in that nothingness though is bad on the body. Hero stayed alive because the God of your world pulled him into this one... Me though..."
"That didn't happen."
"Nope." She smiled for a moment. She unzipped her jacket and dropped it to the floor. Than took off her shirt leaving her in a simple black bra. Her stomach was thin. Way to thin. Hero could see, and count her ribs... Her lower waist had stiches al along it and flakes of skin were gone. Her flesh was pale and milky white. She slowly placed her shirt back on which he realized was way to big for her. It also occurred to him how young she was. "65%" She hummed.
"What?"
"That's how much of my body was gone. I can't walk. Not anymore. My lower half was completely erased. My right arm is also pretty much useless. I survived in the void only be sheer luck... When I was at the very end a girl found me. Nightmare was her name. She had the Dreamer Crest. She was from this world... She saved me. She was also dying so she used the last of her energy and her body and molded what she could onto me. She didn't have the power of the Crest any more. Just a few of its dying embers. She patched up my deleted parts with herself and threw me into this world... I suppose its what you did. You patched up your wounded body with Hero."
"Only unlike me... Your body can't mold the new DNA to yourself can it." Hero noted.
"Nope." Hella leaned back letting out a small sigh. "I'm slowly dying. Maybe a few years is all I have left."
"Hella-"
"That's not my name. Not my real name at least." She sighed.
"Then what is it?"
"It doesn't matter." She looked back up at him and Hero saw it in her eyes. He knew who she was. She knew who he was after all. "I want to know."
"Hmm."
"I want to know that this world is left in the hands of the right kind of Hero. The role of a world's Hero is special. It's sacred. That Jester girl is this world's Hero. You're just a copy right. Not really one of the Hero's. Still... I do wonder." The crystal underneath her began to light up. "I wonder just how much power you have Hero Law!" The orb glowed as something began to form from it. Hero stepped to the side just in time as a beam of flames stabbed out and Draco was formed. "Show me just how much power you have. Show me that this world is in safe hands!" More of them began to form out... Before long Hero was surrounded by every person that had lost so far...
Draco Flamel, Abigale Case, Norm Pink, Irene Glacious, Rilla, Shuncong Paints, Wave Long, and Versa More.
"We don't have to fight..." Hero said shaking his head.
"You're right. We don't. But I still want to. Get him."
Hero sighed as his right arm changed into its drill form though now the drill looked like a massive bone pipe, the kind Otoko would make. He flashed forward taking out two of the more dangerous ones in a flash thrusting his arm through Versa, and Wave, shattering them both into metal doll parts in one attack before they could react. His arm then glowed and turned into his clawed mode which he used to block a beam of fire and ice from Draco, and Irene. He was thrown off his feet though when Norm swam through the floor and tripped him.
Hero fell directly into the fist of Rilla, and the ape man didn't hold back slamming a powerful punch into the Enforcers face and sending Hero stumbling back. As he tripped several blades rained down as Shuncong used his painter ability. Hero blocked them though just in time but was stopped in place when once again Norm rose out of the ground and wrapped his arms around Hero letting out a laugh.
Draco, and Irene both brought their arms back Draco spitting out a massive beam of flame, and Irene firing out a massive blue beam of ice towards the stuck Hero. Hero raised his right arm up as it morphed into his cannon and he fired blasting through the beam and blowing Draco and Irene apart. The recoil through him and Norm back but Hero was ready for it wrapping his left arm around Norm's throat and holding him out just as Rilla punched causing the animal man to punch a hole through Norm.
Rilla's eyes went wide when he felt Hero's right arm wrap around his head. His arm morphed into his clawed form and he squeezed down popping the animal man's skull and dropping his lifeless doll body to the floor. Then he flicked his arm back out shooting several silver arrows into Shuncong's body and dropping the painter to the ground as well. But there was still one left. One Hero forgot about and he regretted that when he felt a pair of tentacles slam into his face back handing him across the icy floor and sending him rolling back.
Abigale Case, Lucy's sister slammed her tentacle arms into Hero over and over again as hard as she could keeping her distance from him.
"That gun is a one shot only... That shield uses up a lot of power. That drill lacks range and speed. And that clawed form does have the feathers but those will never hit Abigale. I wonder how you'll counter her." Hella asked smirking.
Hero hissed out as he felt the tentacle slam into his face. The thought of Hero Otoko entered his mind for a moment. He hated him. But he did have style. Hero raised his right arm up. "I'll just do my 'you know what' then!" He announced.
"What?"
"Evolve into a new weapon!" Hero announced as his entire arm glowed and he changed his weapon not into a shield, not into a gun, not into a clawed mode, and not into a drill. His right arm changed into something else. "Justice Morning Star!" He announced. His right arm from the shoulder to the elbow was that same white metal. But past his elbow was a long silver chain with a massive silver ball covered in spikes at the end of it. Green energy poured out of the ball and Hero whipped it around slamming the weapon, which bounced out the chain getting longer, right through the face of Abigale blasting her head apart.
"How many of those weapon forms do you have?" Hella hissed out.
"Believe it or not." Hero gave a smirk as his right arm shifted back into his clawed arm. "I've had that one for a while. I unlocked it while in prison." He shrugged. "It's faster than my drill but not as strong. And my Justice Shield is my fastest, strongest, and has range attacks. It's only downside being it's usage of energy. That Morning Star is such a big and bulky weapon I never bothered to really use it. I've been much more focused on leveling up to level two already." He smirked. "If it makes you feel any better that's the last of my weapons sadly... And I mean that for good. I won't be pulling any more of those out of my ass. At least not until I reach level two."
Hella allowed a growl to escape her lips. "Don't get cocky Hero..." Her ball glowed once more. "I still have plenty I can do. Those weaklings aren't even close to being my strongest. Take this! I'll summon my old self and-"
Before Hero, or Hella do do anything else a large wolf made out of golden flames seemed to crash down into the ground in front of them.
"What do you two think you're doing?" The dust settled showing Mary Law standing between them now. She eyed them both up. "Hella. Bad! And Hero! You two could get into a lot of trouble if you were caught! Wait till the arena to start trying to kill each other at least!"
"Sorry mom." Hero and Hella both said flatly.
She let out a sigh her eye twitching as she folded her arms. "You're lucky I'm the one who saw you both... Get inside already."
"As you wish." Hella smiled. "I guess we'll do this another time. Huh Hero?"
"I suppose. If you make it to me Hella." Hero shrugged.
Hella hummed and slowly floated over to him. She grabbed him and pulled him closer to her for a moment and whispered. She told him her name. Her real name. The name of the person she was in the other world. Who she had been. The name he already knew of course.
"Next time..." She said slowly moving her face closer to his. "Why not call me by that name..." She planted a small kiss on his lips before he could stop her. Then she floated away leaving him standing there.
Hero reached up slowly placing his fingers on his lips. "So you want me to call you that." He looked up to that black sky up ahead. "Yeah... I suppose I can do that."