55 55: The Blender

Author Note:

I think I need to lie down...

Short break before the next chapter. Maybe a week or two, hopefully less.

Have a nice day! Enjoy this special, almost 9000-word chapter!

EDIT: I'm usure how many people will read this message before it becomes redundant since I'm updating an almost two-week-old chapter, but anyways:

The next chapter will release on the 15th of March! Enjoy it when it's out!

(If you're reading this in the future and chapter 56 is already out, then hello! This message is already redundant by the time you're reading this!)

EDIT 2: Oh fuck... Okay so it turns out that editing this chapter deleted all of the paragraph comments on it past this author note. Sorry to everyone whose comments were just erased! I had no idea that's how it worked! I'll be more careful with chapter edits in the future!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As he lay there in the dirt, burns wrapping around the skin of his broken body, Yuta came to the slow but undeniable conclusion that he had made a terrible miscalculation.

Kyoka Suigetsu clattered to the ground several meters away. Its effect was still active, allowing Yuta to manipulate the illusions seen by Mishima, Pakura, and Mimi, but his mind was so blinded by pain that he couldn't focus on controlling the power at all.

'Damn... it... it... hurts...'

He had thought that he could handle Mishima with ease. Maybe with proper training in Ninjutsu or some other form of long-range combat he might have done just that. But Yuta hadn't trained in Ninjutsu, he'd trained in Kenjutsu, wielding his sword against every opponent he'd ever faced, using Kyoka Suigetsu's ability to misdirect them and easily cut them down.

He'd even used this ability to sneak past the Jonin shinobi guarding the Kumogakure T&I Department in order to speak with Reincarnator #58, Fuyuhiko, who was jailed when the Raikage found out what he was. Yuta had completed an entire Quest for his Oracle System, Prometheus, just by doing that.

And to top it all off, he'd even built up experience in fighting people with sixth senses and precognitive abilities by sparring with Ryu, who received such a power from one of his Wishes.

His whole life had been so, so easy.

But evidently, Mishima's Danger Sense operated under different mechanics than he'd expected. And Mishima's fighting style was very different from Ryu's. Ryu was a close-range fighter who exclusively used Taijutsu backed by his muscular body and Training System. Mishima, on the other hand, was a long-range fighter who specialised in elemental Ninjutsu.

Those few differences were just enough to become Yuta's undoing. He'd gone into the fight cocky. Far, far too cocky. He thought he'd seen it all before. But when Mishima pulled out that tower of earth, Yuta hadn't known what to do. If he'd run up the sides, he'd be putting himself on top of a chakra-made structure built by his enemy. That would just be asking to get stabbed by a sudden spike of earth, or dropped from the top of the pillar all the way to the ground.

Maybe the pillar could even split in half and swallow him whole, like the humorously named Earth Style: Sandwich Technique.

So he'd remained on the ground and tried to attack Mishima from a distance with a kunai instead, attempting to use his illusions as a distraction. That had been his most severe mistake. Ryu's pregognition would show him what would happen to him in the next few seconds, and then it was up to him to figure out how to avoid that fate. That is the kind of power that Yuta had trained against, and it was the kind of power he was expecting Mishima to have.

But Mishima's power didn't work like that. It worked by telling him exactly where a threat was coming from, at the exact moment that it did. As such, the moment that Yuta threw his kunai at Mishima, Mishima became aware of exactly where Yuta had been standing in that moment.

Had Yuta trained in Ninjutsu or purchased explosive tags of his own instead of spending all of his money on books, he could've blasted the entire top off Mishima's tower instead of throwing a normal kunai, potentially wounding or even killing Mishima right then and there.

Instead, Mishima effectively carpet-bombed the entire area where Yuta could run, and the moment where Yuta was hit by Mishima's Phoenix Flower Jutsu had been the final straw. The burn wounds had broken Yuta's concentration, making him partially visible through the illusions and slowing down his dodging speed. And that was all it took for Mishima to land two direct hits in a row with his explosive tags.

Yuta groaned and could barely open his eyes through the blood and dust stuck to his face. His left eye wouldn't even open at all, in fact. With his one good eye, he could see Mishima reaching down to touch Kyoka Suigetsu's blade. The space around Mishima seemed to shatter like a pane of glass dropped on a granite floor, and the green-haired bastard grinned as he was freed from the illusion.

"Man, what a sad display. You're older than me, you know? You were talking all that shit during the fight, but where's your confidence now, huh?" He gloated as he stared down at his battered enemy.

Yuta suddenly felt something touch his stomach from beneath the ground.

'What... hey... that, feels pretty good actually?' He thought in wonder as the pain of his injuries began to lessen.

Moments later, whatever was touching him retreated back into the ground and the feeling of relief faded with it. At least the pain wasn't so bad anymore. 

While that was happening, Mishima continued to talk as he picked up Kyoka Suigetsu and raised it over his head to stab down into its owner.

"When will you extras learn that the main character always wins? You might as well have given up before the fight even started. Oh well... Say hi to Renji for me when you see him!"

He stabbed the blade downwards...

"BROTHEEEEERRRRRR!!!"

*Wham!*

Mishima's body suddenly crumpled sideways as a massive fist slammed into his side, faster than he could dodge even though he could sense it coming. Kyoka Suigetsu dropped from his hands as he shot through the air like a cannonball, crashing through multiple trees on the other side of the clearing.

On reflex, without even checking how badly wounded he was, Mishima opened his inventory and summoned a glowing, red, Rare-grade healing potion straight into his mouth. It was only after the healing energies started to kick in that he realised that was the correct choice. Both of his arms, especially his right one that was on the side of the punch, had been snapped by the sheer force of the impact.

Back in the clearing, Ryu landed next to Yuta and desperately checked his injuries.

"Brother!!! Are you okay?! Please tell me you aren't dying!!!" He cried.

Yuta managed to wheeze out a response.

"I think... someone healed me a bit... I don't think I'm dying..." He tried to reassure the overly-emotional lug.

Ryu almost pulled Yuta into a huge hug right then and there, but managed to stay his hand when he remembered that Yuta was still severely injured, even if he wasn't on death's door right that second.

Instead, Ryu stood back up and scowled at the path of destroyed trees that Mishima had left in the wake of his impromptu flight. At the end of it, he could see Mishima slowly haul himself to his feet and pull some sort of glowing blue drink out of the air before pouring it down his throat.

"Wait here, bro. I've got something to take care of. I'll be back before you know it." Ryu said to his wounded friend before launching himself at his enemy.

Mishima immediately reacted by clapping his hands together. Beneath the darkness of the canopy above him, the glowing light of the Atomic Dismantling Jutsu was almost blinding. The beam fired only a single second after it began charging, and in that time Ryu had crossed more than half of the distance between them. With his speed, he could've dodged it even while running straight towards its caster...

But the beam was moving in a straight line towards the fallen Yuta, who would have no chance to move out of the way. So instead, Ryu halted his charge and planted his feet, using chakra to glue himself to the floor. He crossed his arms protectively in front of himself.

*Bam!*

"Guh...!"

The beam slammed into his arms and parted around them, splitting the attack in half and preventing it from reaching Yuta. The two halves carved a pair of channels into the ground to his sides as Ryu felt his feet sliding backwards a few inches. Worse, he'd underestimated the raw power of Particle Style, and his defenses were draining rapidly.

'Shit... my Armament... it's cracking!' He gasped as he realised.

The invisible power shrouding his arms was Armament Haki, the power of his first Wish. It allowed him to cover parts of his body with an invisible shell made from his willpower and stamina, which could block all forms of physical damage, be they kinetic or elemental in nature.

This shell was more than strong enough to block Mishima's Scorch Release and Taichi's Gate of Babylon, but he was shocked to find it was actually being seriously worn away by this Particle Style attack.

The power was fueled by his will and his stamina. If it took too much damage, he would be left exhausted and unable to continue fighting.

What's more, the strain of keeping it active while also sticking his feet to the ground and tensing his muscles to keep himself standing upright was harming his concentration, preventing him from using his precognitive ability effectively. That being his second Wish, Observation Haki, which at his current level of training allowed him to see for about five seconds into the future whenever he used it.

Indeed, he'd used both of his only two wishes to obtain two of the three types of Haki from the One Piece universe.

Without his Observation Haki, he didn't have any way of knowing when Mishima's attack would end until Mishima either canceled it himself or ran out of chakra. The fight had become a game of chicken to see who would run out of energy or choose to cut their losses first. And Ryu couldn't afford to cut his losses while Yuta was still there behind him.

Seconds passed before something changed. The pressure on Ryu's arms suddenly lessened slightly. Not by a lot, but enough that he could hold on for a little bit longer. Something, somehow, was weakening Mishima's attack!

Straining his vision to stare through the blinding light of the Atomic Dismantling beam, he could see Mishima absolutely drenched in sweat, either struggling to maintain the attack, or extremely pissed off that someone was interfering with it. Likely both.

Ten more seconds passed as both of them struggled to overcome the other. Something had to give, and that thing was Mishima.

He strained his voice as he called out over the constant whirring noise of his own attack.

"Pakura! KILL HIM!!!"

Ryu's eyes widened and he dared to turn his head to the side, sliding back a few more paces as his concentration wavered. Pakura, now freed from Yuta's illusions, raised her hands towards Ryu's back, her instant-kill Scorch Release dancing on her palm.

A volley of rapid-fire shots screamed through the air towards Ryu. He couldn't dodge without dooming Yuta, but he couldn't spare any more Haki to block the hits coming for his back!

*shing shing shing*

But Mishima wasn't the only one with backup.

The murderous boy was forced to suddenly cancel his Particle Style attack and exhaustedly rolled to the side to evade an incoming attack, alerted to him by his Danger Sense. With the beam gone, Ryu was able to whip around and quickly punch all of Pakura's fireballs out of the air before they could touch his body.

Pakura fell to her knees from apparent chakra exhaustion, and Ryu quickly turned back around again to re-focus on Mishima. A line of steel weapons were dug into the ground where Mishima had been standing before he staggered back to his feet after the roll. 

Next to Ryu, Taichi landed after ending his Body Flicker.

"Jesus, man. You really cut that close. Why didn't you just pick up your friend and move him instead of trying to block a freaking Particle Style attack?! Are you crazy?" Taichi admonished his former opponent as he arrived on the battlefield.

Ryu coughed and struggled to remain standing as he responded. Between blocking Taichi's blades back in the forest, Pakura's fireballs, and Mishima's beam, he was very nearly out of stamina entirely. Ironically he still had almost all of his chakra left, as his fighting style simply didn't make much use of it.

"Haaah... haaah... He's too injured all over his body to be moved safely... Had to block it." He gasped out as he slowly caught his breath.

"Well... I suppose it's as good a reason as any. Are you able to keep going? I don't much feel like fighting both of them on my own, you know." Taichi asked. Both Pakura and Mishima looked like they were almost out of chakra entirely, but Taichi still really didn't want to manage a fight where he had to juggle two different enemies.

He was older and stronger than both of them but he knew that didn't mean he was safe, especially since both of them could use at least one kind of instant-kill move and he didn't have Haki to block them with like Ryu did. He also didn't have the kind of defenses that a typical shinobi would either. Though even that probably wouldn't guarantee his safety.

Yosuke had managed to kill his Jonin sensei with the help of his System, Yuta had snuck past Jonins guarding a prison, and Senku had badly injured his first Jonin sensei by complete accident. All of these examples prove that just being strong wasn't enough to be completely safe. Even an academy student could injure a more powerful shinobi if you weren't careful.

"I'm... fine. Just gotta catch my breath. I'll take on Pakura if you don't want-"

Ryu was interrupted when Mishima screamed out in steaming rage.

"GOD FUCKING DAMN IIIIIIITTTTTTTTTT!!! HOW FUCKING MANY OF YOU ARE THERE?! THIS IS SO FUCKING UNFAIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!"

He pulled yet another Item out of his inventory. This time, a bottle of purple liquid. Neither Ryu's nor Taichi's Systems had the ability to Appraise Items but Yuta, at the very back of the battlefield near Mimi's barrier, could.

[Consumable item: Rare Recovery Potion]

[A potion obtained from a lucky gacha pull which restores both health and chakra. Will attempt to push out foreign material stuck inside the body to prevent the healing process from being blocked. This rank of recovery potion can regenerate significant injuries and up to half of the user's maximum chakra pool. It is not as effective as a Healing Potion or Chakra Potion would be individually, but has the benefit of combining both effects into one potion.]

Yuta didn't have any way to call out to Ryu or Taichi in his injured state at any volume they could hear.

Even without knowing what it could do, Taichi tried to stop Mishima from drinking it by firing more blades at him, but Mishima easily dodged them all as his energy supplies were recharged with every drop he drank. 

But once he was about half-way through the potion, Mishima suddenly stopped drinking it and coughed. He grimaced and looked down at the bottle in his hand...

Only to watch it crumble away into motes of pixelated light. Within moments, no traces of the Rare Item remained. Both Ryu and Taichi stood stunned, with no idea what had happened. One moment Mishima was getting his strength back, the next, his potion just... vanished?

"...You've got to be kidding me..." Mishima muttered darkly.

"Do any of you know how fucking hard it is to get high quality potions...? I've used three, THREE, just today..." His voice rose as he held his head in his hands and his eyes started to shake with madness.

"This is such fucking bullshit!" He screamed, "I've done everything right! I'm living MY FUCKING LIFE! Why the FUCK is everyone else always getting in MY FUCKING WAY!?!?"

He raised his hand and summoned a gigantic array of Scorch Release fireballs. Ryu and Taichi both stared up in awe and horror as they readied whatever defenses they could. The maniac was going to burn all of his remaining chakra just to finish them!

"I'll just kill you all... yes... that's it... I'll kill you and use the Quest rewards to restock my supply... and then I'll get into that barrier with my kitten... yes... heheh..." He laughed, an insane grin splitting his face.

"Heheheheheheh..... HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

And his hand dropped, pointing straight at them.

"JUST FUCKING DIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!!!!!"

The duo were pushed into a desperate defense. Ryu punched out three fireballs before grimacing as his hand was slightly burned. He could no longer maintain his Haki at a durable enough level to fully protect himself for any longer. In a split-second decision, he ducked behind Taichi, who was having an easier, though still difficult time blocking the attacks.

The Gate of Babylon had fully manifested behind him, all twelve of his available portals firing as quickly as they could to shoot down the fireballs before they could reach him. At a glance, it would appear as if he was winning the exchange.

The trouble was his ammo. The blades he was firing were flimsy, low-quality pieces that tended to break on impact with any solid surface. Although the blades tore through the fireballs with ease, they would continue flying until they either hit the ground, hit the trees, or hit some other kind of obstruction. And he'd already lost much of his supply fighting Ryu in the woods earlier. Only the intact blades would return to Gate of Babylon's storage.

He tried to aim a few blades at Mishima through the chaos, but the bastard dodged them just as easily as ever. He felt his supply dwindle as the fireballs slowly started to run out as well.

Twenty blades.

Fifteen.

Ten.

There were still more than twelve fireballs hovering around Mishima's body as Taichi's seventh remaining blade snapped on impact with a tree.

Mishima smirked and launched eight shots at once. Taichi grimaced and made a desperate adjustment to his Gate that he hadn't considered trying before. For most weapons, it would be a stupid and ineffective tactic that would almost guarantee a wasted shot as the cost.

It was also laughably simple. A chipped and rusty sword formed out of his Gate of Babylon and fired into the oncoming swarm of attacks.

Sideways.

The sideways blade broke two fireballs on its own before snapping on impact with the ground. He fired five more blades like this, cutting down all of the dregs of Mishima's assault. One of the swords, the only high-quality weapon left in his collection, didn't break on landing and vanished into motes of golden light, teleported back into the Gate of Babylon's storage space for a second launching.

Mishima smirked at the single remaining portal behind Taichi's back. He still had four fireballs left, while Taichi only had one shot. Taichi braced himself and prepared to run as the final fireballs flew.

His sword cut down one of the projectiles, but Mishima had spaced these last ones out so that Taichi wouldn't be able to hit more than one at a time. The blade returned to Taichi once more and he fired again, taking down one more shot just before the other two got too close for comfort.

He kicked off the ground as the final two fireballs closed in, too fast for him to get off a third shot with his remaining sword. But as he turned and ran, Mishima threw a kunai at the ground in front of him.

He had only a split-second to recognise that the kunai had an explosive tag attached to the hilt, and his mind froze as he became paralyzed by indecision. If he kept running forwards, he'd walk right into the explosive tag, which was surely mere moments from detonating. But if he tried to turn back, or even just left or right, the Scorch Release fireballs would kill him.

Trapped by his indecision, he skidded to a halt in front of the kunai as its fuse lit.

*BOOM*

Smoke and dust filled the area, blocking everything from sight.

- - -

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Mishima cackled.

He'd done it, he'd blown the stupid Gilgamesh-copycat to hell! Now all he had to do was get rid of the muscle-headed moron and he'd be free to complete his Quests and cash-in his rewards!

"Haah... hah... wait..."

There was no World Message. He looked around and found that Ryu had also vanished.

'Wasn't he hiding behind the Gilgamesh guy before he ran?'

He got his answer when the smoke of the explosion cleared.

Ryu stood with his arms guarding his chest and face. Nearby, Taichi was getting up off the ground, having been shoved out of the kunai explosion's radius by Ryu in the split-second before the blast.

Even though Taichi was out of the explosion's radius, the fireballs should've still tracked him and hit him while he was on the ground, though. The answer to that mystery was revealed when Ryu coughed and collapsed to one knee. One of his arms was badly burned, and a second burn was visible on the left side of his abs. Both burns were shriveled and dehydrated around the edges, the water in his body forcefully evaporated out of him by the effects of Scorch Release.

He'd taken both hits for Taichi with the last of his Haki, and just barely survived.

- - -

Taichi scrambled to his feet and quickly opened his singular Gate as Ryu collapsed.

"Whoa, you good? Those burns-"

Ryu cut him off with a wave.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm- Ow... I'm fine! I just... can't move for a bit. These burns are pretty bad and I can't move my core muscles on my left side. Sorry bro, but you're gonna have to finish Mishima alone. Think you can do it?" Ryu asked him.

Taichi swallowed his fear and turned towards the seething, furious Mishima, drawing a pair of kunai from his own weapons pouch with a grim determination.

"Yeah. I'll do it. He's out of chakra, and I'm older and faster than he is. I've got this!" Taichi shouted as he threw himself at Mishima.

The murderer pulled out his own kunai and met the engagement with a snarl of anger.

*Clang!*

The clash of blades rang out through the clearing as the two crossed blades in the center. The two discovered that they were almost equally matched. Taichi was taller, stronger, and every few seconds he could fire his one remaining sword from the Gate of Babylon to force Mishima to back off. Meanwhile, Mishima's Danger Sense would warn him of every trick that Taichi tried to pull, allowing him to keep up and land a few small cuts in retaliation whenever Taichi made a mistake.

Taichi kicked out with a leg and tried to hit Mishima in the knee to break it at the joint. Mishima responded by jumping the attack and landing a small swipe on the leg as it was pulled back. Mishima tried to stab Taichi in the gut but found himself overpowered in strength with a small cut left on his cheek where Taichi retaliated.

Back and forth like that, they continued. Occasionally Mishima would pull a handful of other throwing weapons out of his Inventory and throw them if he ever made enough distance. But Taichi was skilled enough to deflect or dodge regular shuriken or kunai. Mishima could never get far enough away to throw an explosive tag without risking his own safety.

The two of them chased each other around the clearing for almost a quarter of an hour, while Ryu and Yuta dragged themselves closer to the barrier for a bit more safety. Strangely, every now and again something would touch them from underground, soothing their wounds and reducing their pain. Ryu tried to grab it several times when he felt it, but it always vanished beneath the earth faster than his own hands could move.

The weirdest thing about it was how it evaded their senses. Both Ryu and Yuta had tried to detect it, with Ryu using his Observation Haki, and Yuta trying to use his Oracle System to divine its location.

Nothing.

Like it wasn't even there.

The only other thing they could sense was Pakura, who seemed to have just... stopped moving? She was clearly awake and kneeling on the ground right where she'd run out of chakra, but she wasn't getting up to help Mishima despite the fact that enough time had passed with her sitting still that she should've regenerated at least a bit of chakra. Enough to stand, at the very least.

The two of them were forced to look away from Pakura by the sounds of a struggle nearby.

"Ugh!"

Mishima's back had hit the barrier. Taichi had pushed him around enough to force him all the way back to the Dungeon Portal.

"Damn it! Pakura!!!" He shouted at his companion, "Get over here and help me already!"

Pakura slowly rose to her feet and ran towards Mishima and Taichi. Mishima continued to block and deflect Taichi's attacks even while his back was against the wall, while Taichi had to split his focus to keep an eye on both Mishima and Pakura.

But when Taichi turned to look at her, he noticed something strange. There was a certain shadowy look in her eye that didn't match the almost religious fervor that she'd held up until this point. Moreover, she wasn't looking at him.

She was looking at Mishima.

Mishima hadn't noticed, so focussed of turning aside Taichi's projectile blade to notice. He called out to her again without looking.

"Kill him, Pakura!"

*Stab*

A breathless moment passed that silenced everyone in the clearing. Everything looked like it was moving in slow motion.

Mishima was jumping backwards, having turned to his right to face a sudden burst of Threat that he'd detected to the side out of nowhere. A small trickle of blood splattered from his right arm where he'd hastily moved it to protect his heart while he retreated.

Across from him, Taichi stood in shock at what he was witnessing.

And directly in front of him, with a bloodied kunai in her shaking hands, Pakura was lunging at him.

Time resumed as Mishima staggered backwards, a look of shock plastered across his dumbfounded face.

"P-Pakura-chan?! Wh-What are you-"

"Get out... GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!" Pakura's scream cut him off. Her right hand swiped her kunai at him, while her left hand clawed at the collar around her neck. The collar was frayed, its edges slowly disintegrating into pixelated light, just like Mishima's recovery potion from earlier.

"Pakura-chan... I don't understand! What did I-"

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!!! YOU'RE NOT MY BROTHER!!! YOU'RE A MURDERER WHO TORE ME AWAY FROM MY HOME!!!"

She lunged at him again. This time, he easily dodged just like any other simple attack.

*Shik*

"Gahhh!!!" He groaned in panic and agony.

In his shock, he'd forgotten about his other enemies. Taichi's sword stabbed through his thigh before he got the chance to adjust his movement to evade it.

He was forced to limp away from both of them, desperately trying to figure out how to deal with a sudden two-vs-one.

They attacked him together a second time. Well, it was more like Pakura kept lunging at him in a crazed frenzy while Taichi worked around her and timed his own attacks with hers.

As Mishima continued to back away from another joint-attack by both of them, a whole other threat suddenly appeared behind him... Too fast for him to dodge while already evading Pakura and Taichi.

*Wham!*

He was sent flying by a heavy blow to his back, launching straight over Pakura and Taichi's heads before slamming to a stop against the Dungeon barrier a second time.

As he blearily staggered to his feet he found himself trapped.

The barrier behind him.

Pakura to his right.

Taichi directly in front of him.

And to his left, the direction he'd just been thrown from, Ryu stood with his fists raised in front of him. His wounds were still visible, but significantly reduced from what they had been.

Mishima was completely surrounded.

"No..." He mumbled as he pressed himself up against the wall. Insanity flickered in his gaze as his eyes darted between them.

"No no no no, this doesn't make sense. I'm the hero... I'm the fucking hero and you're all just a bunch of extras and NPCs... I'm supposed to always win... I'M SUPPOSED TO ALWAYS FUCKING WIN!"

He slammed his hands together. The fifteen minutes he'd spent dueling Taichi had allowed him to recover some of his chakra.

Particle Style energy gathered between his hands as he held it out in front of him, pointing it towards one of the others whenever they stepped forwards. He only had enough chakra left to aim at one of them at a time.

They halted their advance as he madly swayed his arms back and forth with his Atomic Dismantling Jutsu held between them.

"S-Stay back! BACK!!! I can kill ANY of you in an instant! You wanna take that chance!? Huh?! Do you?!?!" He screeched.

The others shared a glance. Even Pakura, whose maddened state had abated somewhat with the complete disintegration of the collar around her neck. She was free, and now that she was aware that the others would help her kill Mishima, she was more than happy to cooperate with them.

Taichi took a single step forward. He was confident that he had more than enough chakra left to dodge with a Body Flicker if Mishima fired at him. The other two were either too tired in Ryu's case, or too low on chakra to perform a Body Flicker in Pakura's case.

"FINE, DIE THEN!!!"

Mishima thrust his hands forwards like he was performing a Kamehameha...

*Pop*

And a burst of pixels was all that came out when he tried to fire. Just like the potion, and just like Pakura's collar.

- - -

Several minutes ago, during the battle between Mishima and Ryu...

[-Your System, Great Firewall, has levelled up!-]

Not far underground beneath the battlefield, a System message chimed in a certain someone's mind.

'Time's up. I've got what I came here for.'

- - -

He immediately tried to form a second Jutsu after the first one failed. 

This time, nothing came out at all. His previous Jutsu hadn't just been cancelled, the chakra he'd spent on it had been wasted too. He was running on empty.

"FFFFFFUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!!!!!" Mishima cried out to the world as he slammed his fists on the ground. His pathetic display was enough to make the others almost pity him. 

Almost.

"WHO KEEPS DOING THAT?! I KNOW IT'S ONE OF YOU FUCKERS, I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!"

He pulled another blue Chakra Potion out of his Inventory. It burst into pixels instantly, before he'd even had the chance to bring it to his lips.

Fuming with rage, he tried something desperate.

"Fine... If you're just gonna destroy all my System-made things... I BET YOU CAN'T TAKE THEM ALL!"

Rapidly opening his Inventory, he wildly threw Item after Item at the people surrounding him. Low-quality Potions, Common-rarity weapons and single-use Items he'd pulled from his gacha pulls or purchased with his System Coins rained down on his attackers in droves.

All of them would begin to fade the moment they exited his Inventory, and all of them would fully vanish long before they could connect with any of his targets. Still it was just enough to keep Taichi, Ryu, and Pakura at bay long enough for him to prepare one last Item.

First, he mentally commanded his Isekai Hero System, Light, to spend the last of his coins on the cheapest, most plentiful Item he could get. 

A veritable storm of blank sheets of paper, the cheapest Item in his System Store, blasted out from his hands. They disintegrated far faster than any of his other Items, indicating that the Item's rarity and value affected how long it would take to destroy. But there were so many sheets of paper that he could feel the ones closest to his hands start to push further and further away without being destroyed.

And in that single instant before his System Coins hit zero, he pulled out one final Item, barely visible behind his cloud of paper.

He cackled maniacally as he raised a glowing scroll in front of him and tore it in half. Even though the scroll had started to disappear at the edges just like the rest of his Items, it still functioned well enough that he felt its effect lock into place around his body.

"I'll see you extras later. Especially you, Pakura. I'll be sure to punish you thoroughly once I come back-"

*Flash*

And in a burst of light, Mishima vanished.

- - -

Taichi waved away the rapidly-falling sheets of paper in front of his face and stared at the empty spot with wide eyes.

"What? Where the hell did he go?!"

Ryu staggered forwards to sweep his hands through the paper, to see if there was any kind of hidden hole in the ground. Nothing.

"Did he escape? Seriously? Right under our noses?"

Pakura tore through the sheets with her kunai and whipped her head around to look at the forest surrounding the clearing, searching for any sign of footprints or rustling branches.

Nothing.

"He can't... He can't have escaped... I NEED to kill him! He can't be allowed to live! Not after what he did, and what he tried to do!" She cried as the tension left her body and she dropped to her knees.

"Wait..." A raspy voice wheezed out from nearby.

Ryu turned to the source.

"Brother! You shouldn't be moving! It's dangerous in your condition!"

Yuta had dragged himself over to the gathering and was leaning against the barrier on his knees. Behind the barrier, Mimi also sat down close to the group to listen in on their conversation.

"I couldn't raise my voice enough for you to have heard me from where I was... So I had to drag myself over... But!" He began, "That's not important! I was able to get a glance at the scroll in his hands with my Oracle... Let me describe it to you..."

[Consumable Item: Uncommon Teleportation Scroll]

[A one-time-use scroll that will teleport the user to anywhere they have been before, within a maximum range of five kilometers. This consumable scroll, like all others of its type, is activated by tearing it in half and vividly picturing the location within your mind.]

"So... he's only five kilometers away at most... and with that information, my Oracle System can get a more accurate divination about his location... He's somewhere about three kilometers to the west..."

The others tensed up and some prepared to run after Mishima right away. Taichi and Pakura were the two in question with the energy to run anywhere. Ryu had become able to move again thanks to the mysterious healing he'd received while Taichi and Mishima were fighting, but he was completely out of stamina. Moreover, he refused to leave Yuta's side, so he would not be going.

"There's one more thing... you should know." Yuta said to Pakura and Taichi. Pakura looked annoyed at being stopped from chasing after the monster who'd brainwashed her, but she still stayed to listen. 

"The paper has stopped being destroyed..." He continued, pointing over at the sheets littering the floor.

"Who was it who was destroying them?" He asked, looking around at the group.

In return he received nothing but blank stares or confused head-tilts.

"I thought so. It wasn't any of us. During the battle, I noticed many strange occurrences... Mishima's Particle Style attacks would suddenly lose power... His Earth Style pillar collapsed out of nowhere without his say... His Items would disappear... And when Ryu and I were immobilised and injured, we felt something touch us from underground and heal our wounds."

Taichi slowly nodded as he put his hand to his chin.

"Huh... Yeah hold on a second. I sometimes felt like my Gate of Babylon was firing slower than it was supposed to at times too. The weapons it shot broke more frequently than I expected, too. I didn't really think much of it until you mentioned this weirdness just now."

Ryu raised his hand to add to the conversation.

"I also felt like something was off right when I went to punch Mishima that final time. That strike took most of what I had left, and it should've broken his spine. But instead, it just tossed him into the air and knocked him into the barrier. It was like my Stats had suddenly dropped. I'd thought I was just too tired..."

Pakura rubbed at the skin on her neck where the collar used to be. She didn't understand all of this Reincarnator lingo, but she still remembered everything that Mishima had told her about them, as well as all the rumors that had spread through the towns they'd travelled through about these people from another world.

Yuta nodded back at them.

"Then there is only one explanation. Someone was running interference on this battle from underground. Keeping everyone alive. They weakened Mishima's attacks to keep us alive, as well as destroying his Items to keep him from recovering, but they also weakened our attacks where they could, preventing us from finishing him off... I have no clue why they would do this, but now, they aren't here. If they were, the paper over there would be getting destroyed like it was earlier."

Taichi frowned and folded his arms.

"So was this person working with Mishima then? And now that he's retreating, they've followed him?"

Pakura shook her head, shooting that idea down.

"We never met anyone else like that. I suppose he could have used that... What did he call it...? Ah yes, that 'Chat' thing to communicate with someone. But if he did, he never told me about it. Also, he was furious when his things were being destroyed by this other person. That monster is many things, but 'subtle' is not one of them. That anger was entirely genuine." She explained to the Reincarnators around her.

Taichi thanked her for the information before turning to the rest of the group.

"So... is this person on our side instead, then? Even though they affected our own powers during the fight and let Mishima leave?"

"We can assume that they are at least neutral to us. But then again, why would they leave now without even knowing where Mishima went-"

Yuta's pondering was cut off by a sound that cut through the quiet of the forest clearing. All of them strained their ears to determine the direction. In the end, it was Mimi with her feline ears that picked up the source.

Far in the distance, to the west. The exact same direction where Mishima fled.

The sound of rushing wind.

- - - - -

Mishima appeared in the middle of another forest, three kilometers west of Mimi's Dungeon.

"Hah... Hahahaha! I MADE IT OUT!" He cheered. But his elation only lasted a few seconds before his face twisted into a vicious scowl and he leaned on a nearby tree.

"Those fucking extras... they took EVERYTHING!"

*Slam*

His fist hit the tree, cracking the bark.

"My Items, my Quest rewards, my kitten, my Pakura-chan... everything..."

'I'll kill them. I'll kill them all! But I need to get back on my feet first...'

He checked his Quest progress and was distraught to find that his Quest to gather girls for his harem had reset to zero out of two. At least he was given a free copy of the collar he'd used on Pakura, so now he had two collars again and would be able to complete the Quest without issue.

'I know... I'll go get Konan. And then I'll go back and get Pakura while none of those extras are around to remove the collar again... Once I have two girls, the Quest will complete and I'll be able to buy more potions and gacha tickets. And I'll probably be given a new Quest to get even more girls... Yes, it'll work perfectly! It'll-'

*Snap*

A branch snapped somewhere in the forest. Mishima whipped around and drew his kunai, searching for a threat. But he soon put it away again.

'No threat. Probably just a stupid deer or something.'

As he looked around at the trees however, something caught his attention that he hadn't realised until he had been broken out of his thoughts by that snapping noise.

'Where... am I?'

His teleportation scroll hadn't taken him to where he'd thought it would. When he'd torn the scroll, he'd visualised a small cave that he and Pakura had hidden in while they were following Mimi from Ishigaki Town. It should've been about four and a half kilometers from the Dungeon, give or take a few hundred meters. Just barely within range of his scroll's maximum of five kilometers.

But this wasn't anywhere near the cave. When he'd teleported here into the forest, he'd just assumed that the cave was close behind him out of sight or something, but now that he was looking around, he had no idea where he was.

'Did it malfunction because it was being destroyed by that extra's ability? Whatever, It's a minor setback. I just have to find Amegakure, and then-'

*Snap, snap, snap*

A slow, rhythmic crunching of branches and leaves. Footsteps. He drew his kunai again, but was perplexed to find that his Danger Sense still didn't recognise a threat.

A silhouette began to emerge from under the shadows of the trees, walking slowly towards him.

He locked his gaze onto them as they got closer and looked them up and down as they approached.

They were definitely a shinobi, that much he was certain of at a glance. They wore a long, black rain-cloak that reached down to their shins, with a band of flak armour covering their midsection. Besides that, they wore the standard shinobi legwear, complete with the usual sandals and legwraps. They also looked to be wearing a pair of black gloves that covered both hands.

The telltale mark of a shinobi, their metal headband, was sewn into the fabric of their cloak on the sleeve of their right arm, just below the shoulder.

As for their actual appearance though, Mishima couldn't see much, owing to the featureless white mask that covered their face. The only other thing he could see was their hair, which was dark brown, somewhat spiky, and tied in a high ponytail.

They weren't that tall, so probably not an adult. They were, however, still significantly taller than he was, given that he was only ten years old.

"So..." They spoke with a flat, neutral tone of voice, "You're Mishima, huh? You put on quite a show back at the Dungeon Portal."

When they spoke, their voice was vaguely feminine, though it was hard to tell due to their young age. Mishima thus assumed she was a girl. A favorable matchup, from his perspective.

"Yeah? So you're one of the other extras then, I assume? You gonna try something too, just like the others? Three of them at once couldn't take me on without help from that traitorous bitch, Pakura. What makes you think you'll be any different?" He openly mocked the people who were kicking his ass mere moments ago.

He still felt zero threat from her, even if she was older than him. Every other Reincarnator that had attacked him today had been older than him too, and that hadn't been enough to stop him.

The masked girl halted her approach just a few meters away from him. She tilted her head at him.

"You have no chakra left, and no potions to quickly regenerate it. Your confidence is impressive, I'll give you that much..." She trailed off as she took a single additional step forwards.

*Thoom*

In an instant Mishima's breath caught in his throat as the girl was suddenly standing right in front of his face. He hadn't even seen her move.

He reflexively backed away and raised his kunai. He was more wary of her now, but he still didn't feel like he was in danger. His Danger Sense didn't react to this person at all, so clearly she didn't intend to hurt him-

"Here's how this is going to go, Mishima. I'm going to ask you some questions. What happens to you next is highly dependent on your answer. Answer truthfully, I can tell if you lie." She stated, her voice still perfectly even and unwavering.

"First question. Why did you treat Renji the way that you did?" She asked.

Mishima scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on, seriously? Is this really what we're doing now? This isn't a fucking detective story, dumbass. Fuck this, I'm out."

He turned to leave and get back on the road to civilisation. He had to get to Konan before any other extras got in his way-

"Ack-"

The next thing Mishima knew, he couldn't breathe anymore and his legs were flailing in the air. Looking down with just his eyes, he realised she had moved in front of him and was now holding him in the air by his neck. With only one hand, at that.

"I told you how this was going to go, Mishima. I am asking you questions. You don't get a choice in the matter." She told him as he squirmed in her iron grip. She loosened her hold just enough for him to breathe without letting go.

"F-Fuck! Let me go-"

"That isn't an answer, Mishima."

"Fine! Fuck you! I did it because he's a fucking extra and he was in my way! Happy?" He answered.

"Hm. Next question. Why did you kill him?" She continued.

"Tch... Isn't it obvious? He was a loose end. I needed to get out of Sunagakure, and he was a witness to me killing our sensei. He could've gone back to Suna and told them about me."

"And how did that work out for you? A copy of the latest Sunagakure Bingo Book already has your name and face in it. Killing him was pointless."

"Whatever. He would've tried to kill me anyway. My Danger Sense kept alerting me to him the whole time we were outside the Village walls."

"Interesting. Next... Why did you brainwash Pakura, who I am led to believe is your own sister?"

Mishima sneered at the mention of the girl who he believed had betrayed him.

"Are you kidding? She's Pakura. THE Pakura, from the original series. She's one of the most beautiful women in the world, and she'll grow up to have a killer rack, too. Why wouldn't I want her for myself?" He said, as if it was obvious.

"...I see." She said, her voice finally changing from a neutral tone for the first time. To one of unmasked disgust. 

"Fine. Now, through conversation with a certain catgirl, I've been told that you encountered her through nothing but pure luck. That leads me to believe that you did not come to the Land of Rain for her, specifically. So then..."

She pulled him in closer, to the point that he could just barely make out a red glow behind the eyes of her mask.

"Why did you come here?"

Mishima smirked.

"Well, duh. I came here to add another beautiful woman to my harem."

He felt the fingers around his neck almost imperceptibly tighten.

"Which. One." She intoned darkly.

Mishima knew it was all a bluff. His Danger Sense would've warned him if she was actually going to do anything to him. So he answered.

"The only worthwhile girl in Amegakure, of course. My beautiful Konan-chan!" He happily announced, a sardonic smile spreading across his face as he thought about the love of his life.

"..."

She said nothing for a moment before raising her other hand in front of her and contorting her fingers into a half-Bird seal.

The wind around the two of them suddenly picked up, swirling in a circular pattern and picking up leaves and twigs from the forest floor.

"So you're telling me... That you did all of this... Killing Renji to leave Suna, actively antagonising your fellow Reincarnators, attempting to enslave Mimi... All of this was just a bunch of stepping stones for you on your path to brainwash the one girl in this world that I consider to be like a sister to me?" She growled out, hatred seeping into her words more and more with each one she said.

Mishima realised with dawning horror what kind of person he was speaking to. The outfit should've given it away, but he hadn't realised it in the moment.

He was talking to a member of Yahiko's Akatsuki. One of the few people in the world who would know Konan personally.

The wind grew stronger. Much, much stronger. A tearing sound reached Mishima's ears as he watched every nearby tree be ripped from the soil and carried away in the rapidly-intensifying tornado surrounding them. The ground began to shake.

"W-Wait-" He tried to plead.

But she interrupted him before he could get more than a single word out.

"I realise I haven't been clear with you about this conversation, Mishima. You see, the whole point of me asking you these questions was to determine how quickly and painlessly I was going to kill you."

The wall of wind surrounding them began to close in and retract, inching closer and closer to the two of them until he could feel the clothes on his back begin to tear away.

Then he felt it.

A scratch. Just a tiny little scratch on his back made by the cutting winds.

His Danger Sense never said a word.

"Y-You! You're the one who was interfering with my System! You have to be! Why isn't my Danger Sense responding to you?!?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!"

As he struggled in her grasp he tried to fight back against her. He had still been holding his kunai this entire time, and had only refrained from using it against her because he hadn't sensed any threat. Before he could even bring the blade within an inch of her skin, it ripped itself out of his grasp and vanished into the wind.

She ignored him as if nothing had ever happened, and began to slowly extend the arm holding him. Closer and closer to the wall of wind.

"...Needless to say, Mishima..." She said as she continued to push him, her voice returned to its neutral state as if their conversation had never happened.

"...This will not be painless."

Mishima screamed as the skin of his back was torn away by the wind. It was like a million knives were being repeatedly dragged across his torso, over and over again.

He fought desperately to escape from her grasp. He tried to kick her in the stomach, but that part of her uniform was covered by flak armour. He tried to jab his fingers into her eyes, but the eye holes of her mask were made of thick glass. He tried to knee her in the chest, or her hand that was maintaining the Bird seal, but it was like trying to knee solid steel. Nothing budged.

He tried to pull off her mask as he felt the back-muscles connecting to his arms begin to give out under the cutting force of the wind. But the mask was just as immovable as the rest of her was.

He even tried pulling her hair, like some kind of schoolyard bully.

She just pushed him closer and closer to the wind, ignorant to any pain she may have felt. If she felt anything at all.

Mishima felt his lower-body spasm and he shrieked in agony when the blades of wind began to brush against the nerves in his now partially-exposed spine.

"P-Please...!" He wept, tears and snot streaming down his face and being blown away in the storm.

"PLEASE LET ME GO!!! I'LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN!!! I W-WON'T EVER GO NEAR THE LAND OF R-RAIN AGAIN!!! I SWEAR!!!"

For just the tiniest fraction of a moment, her arm stopped extending. Stopped pushing him into the wall of blades. 

He could have done anything with this moment. Perhaps he could've continued trying to convince her to heal him and let him run free. Perhaps he could've taken the moment to ask her what would happen to Pakura after he was gone. Perhaps he could've even tried to attack her again.

But that wasn't the kind of person he was. He only ever wanted one thing...

*Slap*

A collar snapped around her neck.

*Rip*

And instantly shredded itself into nothing, the pieces fluttering away in the wind.

By some kind of miracle, possibly caused by his Luck Wish, he heard her quietly sigh under her breath.

Before she pulled back her arm and tossed him directly into the cyclone.

"A-"

A single panicked yelp and a burst of red mist was the last anyone knew of him as he vanished into the hurricane.

- - -

She watched with her Byakugan as the lifeless body was wrenched higher and higher into the air.

First went the skin and flesh. Then the organs a second later. In just two seconds all that remained was a skeleton dancing in the wind. 

After ten, not even that remained.

She lowered her hands back down to her sides and the winds slowly cleared, revealing the morning sun to her above the once-clouded sky.

Mishima never hit the ground.

Not a single trace of him remained.