Umbra

"James, James. How long are we gonna stay here?" A girl that was barely above my waist asked as she tugged at my shirt.

"Don't know. Haven't decided yet." I said with a sigh as I looked down at her. It was rather surreal, actually having her beside me.

Small explanation, I died. Then I got recruited by a multiversal slavery slash power fantasy company that offered me a second chance and needless to say, I took it.

I had no interest in enslaving people but living once more sounded pretty awesome. Especially when you considered the fact that this life would be one where I would have powers.

Though learning where I would be living again with this second chance was somewhat a downer considering that I was on a world that would likely get invaded by aliens, almost destroyed by mad scientists and have a giant monkey with laser eyes in less than a year.

Still, afterlife had given me lemons, even if they were very nasty looking lemons, so I had to make something out of it. And by something I mean a build out of my points.

That's when I learned about the girl beside me. Orimoto Riko, an extreme yandere who also happened to be a special grade vengeful spirit from Jujutsu Kaisen. Except this was not the Rika one knew from canon material.

Instead she was a Rika from a world where Yuta Okkotsu had died, making the vengeful spirit go into a mad murdering spree until she was finally put down by Gojo Satoru. I had no idea how the company had acquired her if she had been put down by Gojo but I wasn't exactly willing to question it either.

Instead I actually decided to buy her, definitely a very dangerous act that would one day bite me in the ass. I didn't really regret it though, with the company resources making her more… manageable and her love, slash obsession, towards Okkotsu redirected towards me; she was actually something of a pleasant company most of the time.

Sure, she was likely a sociapath that had murdered both of her parents and had a personality that was nasty towards most people who were not me but…

"James, let's have ice cream!"

…I didn't really care about those things.

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"And that concludes the latest news of Metroplois with Superman once more saving the day. In order to know…" And that's when I stopped paying attention to the television. The way these people seemed to just worship the Justice League... it was unsettling.

I understood why they were so respected, hell, I respected them just as much due to the knowledge I possessed about them. The knowledge of these people being truly good and selfless rather than just some weirdos wanting to use their powers.

What unsettled me was the dependency the people seemed to have.

Whenever something bad happened, their first thought seemed to be that the heroes will handle it. Lex Luthor might be a maniac with an ego that was bigger than his bald spot, but his claims that heroes were slowing down the evolution of humanity. They were fishermen, humanity was the people they have fish to; never to learn how to fish for themselves.

It was a shame that I didn't care about such a thing enough to do something about it.

It was also something of a shame that I was not sure if my knowledge about them was right since I had no idea which DC continuity I was in.

At first I had thought that it was Young Justice due to the presence of, at the risk of sounding racist, a black Aqualad during the time of the first Robin instead… which number Damian was.

Except this couldn't be Young Justice as Supergirl was already a hero instead of being in the Phantom Zone, Powergirl was a thing and Apokalips had already tried to invade once.

In other words, I had no idea.

"James, what are we gonna do now?" Rika asked as she threw a nugget into her mouth, looking like a completely normal little girl and definitely not a psychotic ghost made out of negative energy with an unhealthy obsession with love.

"We'll…" I start to answer but before I can give a proper one, crashing sounds come from outside so I change my answer.

"…go out and see what's happening."

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"Wow." That was all I could say as I gazed upon the wreck that the once peaceful street was. The road was littered with craters, the buildings looked ready to fall apart and right in the middle of all that was a single girl with orange skin and glowing green eyes trying to hit a boy dressed like a traffic light. Why did that seem familiar?

"Hey, you two might want to get out of here." Before I could decide what to do, a man towering over me in a hoodie said as he walked towards the fight, a single eye glowing an eerie red.

"This is no fight is no place for a child to be so close to." He said as he looked down at Rika who, thankfully, only pouted at his words instead trying to rip him apart in order to show dominance like she probably wanted to.

"Maybe fighting is not the answer." Another voice came from behind us and a girl in a blue cloak literally rose from a shadow. Neat, and this scene was getting more and more familiar.

"Maybe, but some force seems to be necessary to end it." I said as I clapped my hands together and my shadow started to bubble before two solid shapes jumped out and landed between Robin and Starfire.

Normally, such a thing likely wouldn't stop either of those two combatants, but when what landed between them were two dog like creatures big enough for their head to tower over them, things were a bit different.

Ten Shadows technique, the inherited cursed technique of the Zenin clan and one of the most powerful cursed techniques to exist, to the point the King of Curses himself found them to be praiseworthy. The technique that I had by power swapping with Fushiguro Megumi in my sheet.

Except mine was more powerful, as evidenced by two far more monstrous divine dogs, due to two separate reasons.

One of the was the fact that I was connected to Rika, who had enough cursed energy to make even the jujutsu sorcerer's of past take a double take and earn herself the name of the Queen of Curses. All that power she could share with me through our connection.

The other reason was one of my two templates. Turns out, shadow based powers get an impressive boost if you buy the template of a being connected to the humanity's primal fear of darkness, like a certain Darkness Devil from Chainsaw Man.

"Now that we all have calmed down." I said as I walked between the previously fighting pair with my hands up.

"I believe we can talk this out, peacefully." I emphasized the last word as I looked at Robin who grudgingly nodded with a glare, the Batman was strong in this one.

Then I turned towards the other fighter, who still had glowing eyes but before I could say anything to her, the alien princess forcibly grabbed me by my collar and smashed her lips onto mine. I had to admit, I hadn't seen that coming. Or the extra tongue action.

Unfortunately, I knew this would not end well. As Starfire was about to learn as she let go of me and glared.

"If you value your life, don't…" That was as far as she could go as a giant fist smashed onto the right side of her face.

"YOU HARLOT!" Courtesy of Rika's cursed form.

AN

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