Authors note:
Speaking: "…"
Thinking: '…'
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Noctra pov
Falling to the ground, his head twitched and jerked erratically as black horns grew from his forehead. A second pair of misty, black energy arms formed on his lower torso, each wielding its own chain blade.
Standing up and chuckling, the new Oni's face was no longer a mask but the flesh-and-blood visage of a true black Oni. His face twisted into a crazed grin, his mouth moving as he spoke.
"What did you just say? Are you ready for round two?" he shouted gleefully, unleashing all four blades at once.
Sharpening her gaze, Noctra tapped the tip of her weapon on the floor. Shadows around her began to reform into tentacle-like constructs, which caught the incoming blades, rendering them useless. However, before she could react, a foot collided with her face, sending her flying back several meters.
As she looked up, she saw Oni already running toward her.
‚What the heck just happened? Did he expect me to catch all his chains so he could pull himself toward me, feet first? No...'
She pondered this while exchanging blow after blow with the four-armed Oni, who laughed maniacally as they fought. Using his lower arms, he threw the chained blades into the air, recreating the ricocheting web from earlier, while engaging her in close combat with his upper arms.
Annoyed by the constant need to dodge the flying blades while fending off his increasingly ferocious attacks, she thought, ‚He's moving purely on instinct! There's no structure to his attacks, his mind is solely focused on hunting me. That mask hasn't only amplified his physical abilities, making him a viable threat, but also his rationality. And the way his chains turn ghost-like at the perfect moment to avoid obstacles... it's useless to even try blocking them. On top of that, the fact that he can completely erase his presence makes it impossible to sense him at all. And it's starting to piss me off.'
Continuing their fight, they moved at speeds imperceptible to the normal human eye. In the room, chains and shadow tentacles flew around, clashing against each other and creating purple sparks. Their equal exchange lasted for about ten minutes, during which Noctra grew exponentially better at dodging the chains and sensing her opponent's presence just in time before he attacked. She relied on the split second when his bloodlust could be detected before he made contact.
‚Now,' she thought, as the shadow warden felt the familiar surge of Oni's extreme bloodlust. Turning, she saw him in mid-air with all four blades aimed at her neck. Smirking, she whispered, "Night Shave," before rapidly spinning her scythe, launching multiple black energy slashes at her opponent's weapons. The slashes easily cut through them, and she disappeared, leaving a confused Oni behind.
Frantically looking around to locate her, his senses, already exhausted and dulled from the transformation, failed him. He noticed the blade of her weapon making contact with his chest too late.
"That's it. You're done," she remarked with a smirk, looking up to see her opponent coughing blood with a shocked expression as her scythe pierced his chest.
___________________
A few minutes earlier
Outside the office, on a nearby rooftop
Two ghostly figures stood observing what was happening inside the building. One was a translucent green, and the other a transparent blue; they were Izuku and Bakugo, appearing in forms that resembled their avatars in Aincrad.
"So, did you know he could use the mask on himself? I already found it fascinating that his subconscious somehow took control of his manifestation, but this makes me even more interested," the green ghost asked his friend.
"Well, he told me he'd thought about it. This is the first time he's actually using it," the blue ghost answered, staring intently at the fight behind the sheet of glass and darkness. They could see through it by focusing some aura into their eyes.
However, their mood shifted when they saw Oni get stabbed through the chest with the scythe.
"That's it. I'm going to have to intervene," ghostly Izuku stated, beginning to float toward the building. To his surprise, Katsuki's arm blocked him.
"Uh, Kacchan? What's this supposed to be?" Izuku questioned, looking at his companion with slight confusion in his eyes.
"He's my student, so even if he's in trouble, you stay out of it! Besides, I know my disciple better than anyone. Just watch, he's going to be fine. Although..." The time ghost narrowed his eyes as he spoke.
"You see it too, don't you?" Izuku said, turning his attention back to the encounter.
"Something is helping him!" Katsuki replied.
"Not something, someone!"
___________________
Back to the Fight
Hearing a deep chuckle from the demon she had stabbed, Noctra began to grow annoyed. ‚He's laughing? What could possibly be so funny about dying?' she pondered as she attempted to pull her scythe from his chest. To her surprise, the weapon wouldn't budge. Looking closer, she realized that the wind itself seemed alive, somehow holding her blade in place.
‚Why can't I pull it out?' she thought in frustration. Suddenly, two powerful hands slammed down on her shoulders.
"Done, you say? No, no, no, I'm just getting started," Oni said with a manic grin. "Even if you broke my weapons, my old fart of a teacher always said my voice was my most powerful talent. So I think I'll use just that to kill you. I'm gonna become a vengeful spirit of death with chains you can't break and a voice that'll make your ears wish they were never born!"
Oni screamed with a creepy, joyful laugh as his aura flared wildly.
"Hahahahahaha!" he roared, the intensity of his voice shaking the room.
‚What the hell? Is he... awakening his
aura?'Noctra thought, desperation creeping in. ‚Is that mask driving him so insane that he's awakening?' She struggled to escape, but Oni's raw strength, combined with the living wind, made it impossible to move.
As Oni's aura reached its breaking point, a secondary gray hue emerged and burst outward.
"I'm gonna become a banshee that'll haunt your worst nightmares!" he screamed, rearing his head back and inhaling deeply. Aura gathered around his mouth before he released an ear-shattering scream at point-blank range.
‚Ahhh, my ears! I can't hear anything. I have to... get out!' she realized, looking past her enemy to spot something horrifying, a ghostly female figure forming out of Oni's awakened aura. The manifestation had long hair, piercing eyes of vengeance, and wore a tattered nightgown. Ghostly chains wrapped around its wrists and neck.
Her instincts kicked in. She released a massive burst of awakened presence, knocking Oni away and summoning her own awakened manifestation, a massive, shadowy entity with no clear shape.
With both combatants summoning their awakened manifestations, the third round of the battle began. Oni's weapons were destroyed, and Noctra's scythe remained lodged in his chest. As if responding to an unspoken signal, the fight resumed.
The banshee manifestation emitted a gray mist, obscuring both Noctra and her shadowy entity. Acting quickly, Noctra mentally commanded her manifestation to attack, prompting it to create dozens of shadow tentacles and weapons that indiscriminately assaulted everything around them.
‚If I can't hear or see you, I'll destroy the entire room! I don't care if someone hears us. If I don't take this seriously, I'll die,' she thought, clutching a backup shadow spear. Suddenly, she spotted her own scythe flying toward her at high speed. Relieved to have it back, she failed to notice the banshee's chain attached to it.
Just as she reached to grab it, the chain yanked the scythe back into Oni's hands. The four-armed demon now aimed her own weapon directly at her neck.
‚How? How are his concealment skills this advanced? I have over 2,000 years of knowledge and have never seen anything like this level of control in stealth and sensing aura. Is this how I'll die? Beaten by a mindless killing beast? No, please... I don't want to die!' she thought as her knees buckled and she slumped to the ground.
But just as the blade was about to touch her neck, it stopped. Behind it stood Oni, clutching his head with two hands, shaking uncontrollably. With a grotesque motion, he tore the black aura mask off his face, reverting to his normal human form. Collapsing to his hands and knees, he panted heavily while Noctra stared at him, wide-eyed.
"Y-You could have killed me just now. Why did you back away?" she asked, confusion clear in her voice.
"B-Because I'm not that monster," Oni replied. "I don't kill humans who have a look like that on their face."
He then formed his normal manifestation and shoved the mask toward her, giving Her the normal Oni mask possession form.
"Ahhh, what the hell did you do? I told you not to do that! I can't control you, and clearly, you can't handle that much power either!" the now possessed Noctra snapped. However, her tone softened as she noticed Shinso's exhausted state.
"Let's not talk about that now. If I don't fix this wound on my chest soon, I'm dead. So excuse me, but... Dragon, get me the fuck out of here," he muttered, pressing his ear. Moments later, a familiar green and black misty portal appeared beneath him, and he vanished.
As he left, the sound of a clock ticking echoed, and the room adopted a faint blue tint. All motion froze as two ghostly figures floated inside.
They examined the scene before pausing.
"Looks like whoever helped him got away in time," Izuku noted, crossing his translucent arms.
"It's so frustrating that I can't use my sword in this form to rewind time and figure out who helped him," Katsuki complained.
"True. But considering everything that happened here, I think we got the most out of it. I wonder what the future holds for us," Izuku mused, gazing out the window at Tokyo's vibrant nightlife.