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Three slashes, each invisible to the naked eye, cut through the air, parting the world and striking Mirajane in an instant at his declaration.
His opponent cried out, as across her stomach and both of her arms, long, thin cuts dug into her skin. They broke the flesh, drawing streams of blood, but didn't cut deep enough to cause any lasting damage. The weak result had Yoichi clicking his tongue in annoyance.
"That's just embarrassing. My output is so low at the moment," He commented, getting an irritated growl from Mirajane. From the side-lines, people were already talking and discussing his ability.
"What was that? Air Magic?"
"To do that with Air Magic would require some seriously impressive control."
"Gildarts! You brought the newbie here, do you know anything?"
The man in question only shook his head with a laugh. "Nope! The kid didn't show me anything."
"Eh?!" Multiple members explained in surprise. Each of them unintentionally mirroring the same thought.
'If you don't know anything about his magic, then why did you bet so much on him!?'
"What a lively bunch," Yoichi snorted, hearing the on-going conversation happening.
Mirajane, it seemed, could also hear them, if the deepening scowl on her face was anything to go by. "Alright, rookie, now its my turn. Take Over: Satan Soul!"
He watched curiously, as square shaped scales began to cover and spread across her body. He quickly noted it for the transformation that it was, and prepared himself, as with a flash of dark light, the newly changed Mirajane appeared.
"So, that's why they call you The Demon..." He muttered, looking over her admittedly demonic body. With large claws that ended in razor sharp tips, dark grey wings on her back, gleaming fangs, and a large tail, she made her given title finally make sense. "...You look like a nicer version of the Nomu I've faced."
Mirajane looked down at him from her now taller body. When she next spoke, her voice was came out as an echo, as if two people were speaking at once. "Admit that I'm stronger now, and I promise to only break a few bones."
"Charming, should I also beg?" He asked, already activating Chant—a Quirk which increased the power of his others Quirks through the use of specific words and phrases. It had once been on Tomura's side of the war, until he had taken it for himself and turned it into something far more feared.
"You will after this," She smirked, as pushed her hands together, and created a large glowing sphere of purple and black. "Demon Blast!"
Yoichi moved quickly. He pulled on Dismantle once again, and cut his arm diagonally through the air, right into the incoming beam of energy. It rushed towards him, igniting the sky in a bright shade of purple. As people began to worriedly call for him to move out of the way, he spoke.
His voice sounded hollow, distant, and powerful. To those who could hear him, it didn't sound as if he was speaking, but instead declaring his will to the world and forcing it to acknowledge him.
"Dragon Scales...Repulsion...Paired Falling Stars...Dismantle!"
As the beam of energy got closer, a sudden—visible and large, slash came rushing out of Yoichi's arm. It tore into the ground, split the air, and as it came into contact with the Demon Blast, it not only parted the beam, effectively weakening and splitting it into two, but kept moving through it.
Whilst many would describe Mirajane as being a proud person. They would never refer to her being stupid, or being blinded by her arrogance. She was strong because of her magic, that was true, but she was also strong because she fought smartly. As such, unlike some others that she knew, Mirajane didn't hesitate to release her spell, and dive out of the way of the slash.
Nor did she wait to see the result of the slashes destruction. Instead, her hands parted again, and a new spell manifested. "Evil Shower!"
Similarly, Yoichi hadn't remained idle in one place.
The moment the slash left him, he had already begun to move. His legs blurred as he ran, his weakened body only allowing him to pull on two minor speed augmenters. It wouldn't be enough for him to win the fight, but he'd find a way to make it work.
The world around him lit up with purple once again, as countless bullets of purple energy streaked through the air. His entire body moved in an effort to avoid the attacks, as he ducked, weaved, and even folded in on himself to not get struck. Within a few seconds, the area around him was completely covered in dust, impairing his vision, and adding another layer of difficulty to avoiding the bullets.
'I can't keep doing this, not as I am right now, at least.' He thought, silently gritting his teeth in frustration as one of the bullets grazed the left side of his ribs. 'She's controlling the pace of the fight perfectly.'
It was hard not to feel a little impressed with both her stamina and combat intelligence. There was no doubt in his mind that Mirajane knew exactly what she was doing, by creating such a smoke cloud. Unfortunately for her, he had fared in far harsher environments and come out of them as the victor.
"Penumbra: Essence of The Shadow" Instantly, one of his seven shadows rose from the ground and into the world as a perfect replica of himself. It shot him a cheeky smirk, rolled through a stray purple beam, and activated two strength augmenters within a single second.
Then, within a single powerful leap that broke the ground beneath it, the clone shot into the air, split through the dust cloud, and activated Float. Almost instantly, the purple streaks of light that had been assaulting the field, moved to instead pierce the sky.
Smirking to himself, the original Yoichi was quick to make use of the distraction his clone had so easily provided. His eyes gleamed a sickly yellow colour as he activated another Quirk, and pierced directly through the veil of dust to set his eyes on Mirajane. Taking note of her location, he used the environment she herself had provided, to his own advantage.
His steps became silent, whilst his clone only grew louder. It was a perfect distraction, though its taunts only seemed to make Mirajane grow even more furious. Yoichi made a mental note to apologise to her later for its behaviour. At the same time, he pointedly ignored how the clone was in essence, himself in every conceivable way.
Breaking through the dust cloud only a moment later, he couldn't help but take some enjoyment out of the way Mirajane's eyes widened in surprise. Smirking at her, he took a greedy breath of air through his nose, pursed his lips, and howled.
Loboan activated at the perfect moment, turning the howl into a supersonic blast of pressurised sound.
"Ack!" Mirajane cried out in pain as the burst of sound hit her directly. The scales covering her body vibrated from the impact, her muscles almost seemed to constrict, and her ears ruptured from the impact.
The only reason she hadn't crumpled to the floor immediately, was because her pride wouldn't allow it. She had declared this challenge, and she intended to achieve victory. It was entirely due to her will, that she was able to push through the pain and avoid not only one, but two more blasts of sound that Yoichi launched in quick succession.
Mirajane glared at him through the ringing of her ears, and flapped her wings, generating a powerful enough force to both launch herself into the sky, and create a gust of wind strong enough to disrupt the third sound wave that came her way.
Yoichi grinned at her rising form, feeling certain that if looks could kill, he'd already be nothing more than ash.
"Hey, why am I suddenly being ignored!" His clone shouted, waving his arm from above. "Just because the main is here doesn't mean I'm no longer a threat! Show some respect, and acknowledge your betters!"
Yoichi felt himself sweatdrop at the disrespectful way his replica spoke. 'No wonder she looks so angry. I would be too if someone kept speaking to me like that.'
"Stop being a rude bastard!" He shouted back.
"Hey! I'll have you know my parents were married!"
"I know they were, you dolt! I'm you!"
"Oh, yeah!" His clone cheered, then laughed as he pointed at finger at him. "HA! You just called yourself a bastard!"
Yoichi felt his temple twitch in annoyance. "Shut up! Either way, she can't hear you, I ruptured her eardrums!"
Mirajane looked between them with a confused frown. Whether it was because she was trying to figure out what they were saying or some other reason, he wasn't sure.
"Huh?" The clone stopped in its laughter to give him a puzzled look. "No she's not! That transformation of hers gives her increased durability, she was able to shrug off a few of my punches easily. I even powered them up with five percent of One For All! I doubt a little sound would mess her up that much."
"Oh...wait, why didn't you start with that?!" Yoichi asked with no small amount of annoyance.
"You told me to be a distraction! I was distracting-Woah!"
"Demon Blast!"
His clone quickly fell through the air, narrowly avoiding the sudden blast of energy.
"That was rude!"
Yoichi rolled his eyes at his clones comment. Even as he was being fired at, he just had to have the final word. Deciding to end this whilst he still could, he took matters into his own hands, and thrust his arm forward, rotating his wrist in a clockwise manner to activate Gravitation.
The effect was immediate. One moment Mirajane was suspended in the air, and the next, she plummeted to the earth with no control over her body. A startled scream left her lips as she crashed into the ground, shaking the entire field around them.
With a practiced twist of his wrist, Yoichi intensified the gravity once again, and watched, as a slithering shadow moved through the ground. As it reached Mirajane's struggling body, it grew and manifested into his copy. Though, now it held a shadowy jian in its singular hand.
"What are you doing with that?" Yoichi asked exasperated, twisting his wrist again.
"Ack!"
"She threatened us with the promise of removing a limb," It shrugged, spinning the black blade in its hand. "I thought we could repay the favour."
"We're not removing any limbs." Yoichi told his clone with a sigh.
"When...I...get-Ugh!" Mirajane choked on her words as he intensified the gravity once more.
"Eh? Why not? It's only fair," His clone complained, stabbing the blade a few meters away from Mirajane's head. "Come on, you're barely standing as it is. If I take an arm or two, then at least she won't be any more of a threat."
'I guess that's true, the shock alone would probably freeze her.' He unintentionally thought, before quickly discarding it with a scowl.
Hearing their casual discussion of dissecting her, Mirajane only grew more desperate to try and stand, only for the gravity around her body to intensify with every movement. If she didn't admit defeat soon, the damage would build up, and her transformation would unravel, leaving only her body which held none of the durability her Satan Soul provided. Under the intensity of the gravity, she would die.
The words were at the tip of her tongue, and yet, she couldn't say them.
It was an issue that had nothing to do with the artificial gravity around her, she realised half a second later, but her own pride.
When exactly had she become so confident? So, arrogant, that she couldn't even admit defeat in the face of death?
"I think that's enough, Yoichi." A voice suddenly said from behind them. It was a voice that nearly had Mira crying in relief.
"Oh, Makarov," Yoichi greeted with a startled blink. "You want me to let her go?"
His clone scoffed from his position next to Mirajane. But he was ignored entirely by both the Master and the original.
"I do. I think a lesson has been learnt, though not the one that was originally promised." The elderly man explained, with a heavy tone to his words.
"Alright...but only if my victory is announced right now. I don't want Gildarts to blame me if Mirajane tries to pull anything in my weakened state."
'If this is what he calls a weakened state...honestly Gildarts, it feels like you've brought some sort of Devil into our Guild.' Makarov thought to himself in amazement.
Shaking his head a moment later, he allowed his lips to peel back to show a slight grin, and said. "The victor has already been announced, and Gildarts has been over the moon since. I promise you, nobody will attack you for this."
'Good enough,' He silently decided, twisting his wrist in an counter-clockwise manner. To maintain Gravitation required quite a lot of energy, after all. So, the sooner he was able to stop using it, the better.
Immediately, the gravity hanging over Mirajane vanished.
And yet, as her transformation slowly peeled away, she showed no indication of getting up.
Seeing this, Makarov could only sigh.
"Go, and let Gildarts spoil you to some food and drinks." He told Yoichi with a reassuring nod of his head. His gaze became curious a second later, as the clone of the young man, wordlessly turned into a shadow, and slithered to attach itself to its masters body. "Here, the keys to the guest room too. Go up, and get comfortable whenever you find yourself feeling ready. You deserve it."
Not used to any sort of praise, Yoichi felt his cheeks grow a little warm as he accepted the dulled gold key into his hands, and respectfully muttered, "Thank you. I'll see myself back."
Makarov nodded with a small smile, and watched as the interdimensional traveller began to limp away. Though, he did feel some surprise, when Yoichi paused, and turned to look at Mira's laying body over his shoulder.
Offering her a light smile she couldn't see, he said, "That was fun. Maybe we can do it again some other time, Mirajane."
Then, as if he had never said anything, he turned around and continued limping towards the Guild.
It wasn't until Yoichi was a far enough distance, that Mirajane made any effort to stand up. The reason for why, became apparent quickly, as she looked at Makarov with teary eyes.
Makarov offered her an understanding smile, and took a seat beside her.
This conversation was one he had been waiting to have for quite some time, after all.