Looking towards Shirou as he began walking back towards the hotel, Maru-Maru would have a look of disappointment on her face. “That was resolved earlier than I expected… hmmm?” The instant she looked closer at Oda’s unconscious body the look of disappointment would be gone and in its place a mischievous grin appeared. “Or maybe not. What do you think, Eveli-” Turning around as she spoke the monstrous woman would stop mid sentence the instant she noticed the person she thought she was speaking to had disappeared. Most likely, she had escaped further into the building.
With the same mischievous grin as usual on her face, the white-haired girl would continue into the building, following her prey. As she did she would openly taunt Evelina. “Hey you, you know that I just so happen to have a very keen sense of smell.” Walking past locker after locker, classroom after classroom it seemed like their battle had brought them to an abandoned high-school. This would probably be in her opponents advantage since they could unleash their full power without worrying about hurting anyone. Yet, it mattered little since Maru-Maru believed she could end this fight in an instant. “And you just happen to smell delicious!” With those words she would rip the metal door to a locker straight off it hinges as she targeted the place where she could feel Evelinas odor emanating from.
But, to her surprise, there was no one in the looker. “As I thought, you primarily track your foes using smell.” Turning around, Maru-Maru was just in time to see her right arm get severed by Evelinas manifestation. She hadn’t been hiding in the locker the monstrous girl opened, but the locker on the other side of the hallway that she was now slowly but surely making her way out of. With a clearly agitated expression, Maru-Maru would ask the pink-haired girl how she had figured that out, the answer she received was short. “It just seemed like that's your style.” A short pause ensued as she thought about what to say next. “Or to be more precise, it seemed like that's the kind of creature you are, Maru-Maru!” Slowly but surely Maru-Marus' grin would return to her face. “Well, I have you figured out as well. Your manifestation, it allows you to sever things, to make one thing into two. That’s how you were able to detach your smell from your body… and my arm from my body.” Looking towards Evelina the monster would wait for confirmation about whether she was right or not.
“That’s right, I call it Border Between This World and The Next. Truth be told, I still have no idea what your Craving of Cosmic Consumption is capable of, but if you think having the information advantage is enough to beat me…” Evelina would extend her index finger towards Maru-Maru. “... you are severely wrong!” The very next instant three anomalies appeared in the air forcing the monstrous girl to dodge them all. First she dodged downwards, then to the side and finally she jumped up on the locker behind her to dodge the third slash. She wasn’t quick enough to completely dodge the third attack, however, as it ended up severing her right arm from her body before she managed to get into position.
“Don’t take me for a fool, I’m not like those people who keep blabbering on and on about how battles are decided by whoever is the most prepared or whoever spent the most amount of time researching their opponent. I know that they are simply decided by whoever happens to be the apex predator.” As the monstrous woman spoke, dark purple thorns would emerge from the spot on her body where her arm had been severed just a moment ago and from the arm lying on the floor. It would not be long before the two sets of thorns would have intertwined with each other, pulling the severed arm back into place like the woman had never been injured to begin with.
“Now then, should we get serious?” The monstrous girl said with a devilish expression on her face. Before her opponent was given an opportunity to answer she had already descended from the locker and aimed a powerful punch towards Evelina. Barely able to block the attack in time by putting up her arms in an ‘x’ shape, the girl was sent flying back towards the locker that she had come out of. The force of the punch was enough to send her through the wall and into the classroom that was on the other side, flying across the classroom and hitting the blackboard before slumping down on the floor.
Evelina would lie there for a moment, it was not until Maru-Maru entered the classroom the proper way that she slowly got up. “Whoops, did I put a little too much force in that one. Maybe you even went unconscious. If that’s the case, then I have nothing to offer but my deepest condolences.” She said in a clearly mocking voice as she walked towards the blackboard. Walking towards her opponent Evelina would respond in kind. “No, that was little more than a much needed wake up call. "Thank you.” As Evelina uttered the last two words the two women were practically face to face in the middle of the classroom.
With a lightning quick strike, Maru-Maru seized the initiative by punching Evelinas forehead. Despite being pushed back two to three meters by the force of the attack, she recovered almost immediately and was able to counterattack before she even regained her balance. Bringing her hand down with a quick movement, the entire room was filled with slashes throughout the air. Immediately jumping backwards and putting her arms up like a defending boxer, Maru-Maru would receive multiple cuts and gashes all over her body despite her efforts.
“I see, so you can cut space like that as well.” Looking down on her bleeding arms, a sly smile would be visible on Maru-Maru’s face. “But when you do so the power decreases dramatically, you can’t even sever my arms from my body anymore.” Looking straight at her opponents eyes, Evelina would give her response. “It’s better than nothing, isn’t it.” Spotting a smug smile herself, it almost seemed like she was copying her opponents demeanor. Rushing towards Maru-Maru, the taller girl would manifest her supernatural axe and unleash swing after swing towards the monstrous woman who dodged by jumping backwards. Landing on the classroom's wall, Maru-Maru would use it like a springboard for her superhuman muscles before propelling herself towards her opponent like a human projectile, the very wall cracking from the force she had created as a result.
“That won’t work on me.” The taller woman said as she catched Maru-Maru in mid air before showing her head straight down onto the classroom's floor, causing the stone tiles to crack and break apart from the impact. The very next instant, a leg shot up from the girl who laid on the floor, kicking Evelina with enough force to send her flying through the classroom's ceiling and up to the next floor. Immediately jumping after her enemy, Maru-Maru ascended to the next floor as well, aiming to hit Evelina while she was still seemingly suspended in the air. Although she wasn’t really suspended, the monstrous girl simply moved so quickly that it seemed like gravity itself was incapable of acting. Aiming another kick towards her opponent, this one also hitting her stomach, the pink-haired girl was sent flying into the blackboard and slumped down on the floor once again.
Landing gracefully on the floor, Maru-Maru’s expression would be her eternal, unchanging, smile. “Oh my, aren’t you going to stand up?” The monstrous woman said as she began walking around the classroom, from a quick glance, this place seemed like it belonged to the upperclassmen unlike the room below them which belonged to the underclassmen. Not answering, Evelina’s body would seem almost lifeless as it lay there on the classroom floor. Walking towards her knocked out opponent like she had all the time in the world, it was clear from her expression that Maru-Maru believed she had won this battle.
Then, in an instant, almost a dozen razor sharp objects shot out from Evelina like pellets from a shotgun and embedded themselves in Maru-Maru. “Gah-!?” Was all the tanned girl could say as multiple scissors, box cutters and other sharp objects penetrated her skin. Having stopped dead in her tracks, the woman's entire body would twitch like a dying animal. “Impossible when did you…?” Thinking about how Evelina could possibly have acquired these objects a simple yet unbelievable conclusion appeared in Maru-Maru’s mind. As a seriously worried expression appeared on the monstrous girl’s face, her gaze was drawn towards her opponent who was now slowly standing up in front of the blackboard.
“It’s nothing special really, students usually keep these kinds of things in their desks. All I had to do was to grab them while flying through the air before I hit the blackboard.” Looking around as Evelina slowly stood up, the monstrous woman could see the knocked over desks, many of which had been turned upside down by the force of Evelina flying through the air. “Now, would you do me a favor and stop pretending to be defeated, I know much more than that is needed to put you down.” It was true, even after infusing her manifestation’s power into the blades, it was still clear that they weren’t going to be able to take down Maru-Maru. In an instant the worried expression disappeared from her face and a monstrous grin took its place. “Okay!”
That second, the multiple blades stuck all over Maru-Maru’s body began to slowly but surely retract into it. It was a bizarre sight, like her entire body was desperately trying to consume the foreign matter embedded in it. “Craving of Cosmic Consumption…” Evelina would say quietly, that was clearly the cause of the strange sight before her, the girl's manifestation at work. Although she didn’t understand it completely, she started to slowly but surely understand how it worked. It was not long until the improvised weapons she had used against the white haired girl were completely gone, absorbed into her body. “Indeed, that is the name of my manifestation. The manifestation that allows me to eat and consume everything, even weapons, even people, even manifestations. Do you get it now? I am the apex predator, there exists nothing in this world that I can’t devour.” With that the monstrous grin reached the point where it would be more accurate to call it devilish. Suddenly rushing forwards towards her opponent, the girl in the gray hoodie would kick her with full force and once again send her through one of the building's many walls. This time, it was not an ordinary classroom she landed in. From the numerous instruments that lined the walls of this room, and the huge piano in one of the corners this was probably where music classes were held. Rolling across the well-swept floor, Evelina would slowly get up, coughing up some blood as she did.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Would you like it if I played you a requiem?” Maru-Maru said as she entered the specialized room. Looking around she would notice that this room seemed to be a bit smaller than the room they had previously been in. “This room is probably isolated with sound-proof material, which means that no matter how loud you scream no one will hear you. Well, it’s not like there's anyone around to hear you anyways.” Standing up straight, despite how painful it was she would give her opponent a defiant response. “How nice of you to tell me that. But I’m sorry to disappoint you, because I didn’t have any plans on screaming in the first place.” Mentioning it, despite all the pain she was going through, Evelina hadn’t screamed out in pain a single time through their battle. But she was still in a bad spot, her opponent was much stronger and she was wounded quite badly. “As much as I love kicking you around like a football, I think it's about time we ended this little game of ours.” Saying those words, Maru-Maru would put her hand on the wall of the music room, from that point an ungodly amount of thorns spread out in all directions, covering the entire room in their dark purple hue.
Needless to say, those thorns weren’t any ordinary plants, having been born from a manifestation that Maru-Maru likely acquired at one point or another, being sent into them with the force her attacks possessed would without a doubt be bad news. With those thoughts in her head Evelina was desperately trying to come up with a way to beat the enemy in front of her. If she used a focused attack, Maru-Maru would just dodge it, if she spread out her efforts over an area then it wouldn’t be enough to seriously hurt the opponent. It seemed like regardless of how she used her manifestation of dividing things, there was still no way she could take down someone of Maru-Maru’s strength. No, there still might be a way for her to win against this inhuman beast. Although it wouldn’t be easy, and she would probably have to risk her own life in doing so, and even then the chances of it succeeding were slim. But, she had to give it a try. Putting her right hand out before her in a fighting-like stance, a confident expression was proudly displayed on Evelinas face. “Alright, let’s end this right now.”
As Maru-Maru looked at the woman before her, she felt weird. This feeling, it wasn’t any feeling she had felt before. No, that wasn’t right, this feeling she had felt twice before, call it premonition or instinct but the monstrous woman would feel a cold sweat run down her chin as she realized one wrong move would lead to her death. The last time she had felt this feeling, it was a long time ago, it must have been on that day when she met the man who was even more of a monster than she was. No, to call him a monster would be wrong, he was more like a walking natural disaster or destruction itself given human form. She felt stupid, why was she thinking about that person of all people. The person in front of her was little more than a mouse trapped in a cage about to be devoured by a superior predator, she didn’t share even the slightest similarities with that man. “Here I come!” Launching herself towards Evelina with her left leg, Maru-Maru was flying through the air with her right leg in front of her, obviously trying to hit the woman before her straight in the chest. As she moved through the air, she could see moments of her life flash before her eyes.
Maru-Maru could not remember her first memory, or rather, the first thing she ever felt wasn’t something that could be remembered. The woman known as Maru-Maru wasn’t born, she was made. It was in 1950 that a small group of researchers started working on a project in secret under the Japanese government, their goal was to create humans that were stronger, faster and more durable than ordinary people. Their experiments, like all scientists, started with a lot of theorycrafting. In fact, the calculations they performed took over ten years to complete, and once they were complete they moved from theory to practice. Their theory was that a human child born under increased gravity would be stronger than an ordinary person, although due to technical restraints they weren’t able to actually change the gravity. Instead, they took an unwanted embryo that would otherwise have been discarded and put it in an artificial womb, it was very similar to a real womb although the pressure had been increased greatly. Before she was even born, the first feelings Maru-Maru acquired was that of fear, the liquid pressing against her unformed body threatened to destroy it at a moment's notice. Despite not having a brain to think with yet, that feeling, that dread was etched into her very DNA, no, her very soul.
The unformed being asked itself, ‘Is this really what the world is like?’ a cruel and unforgiving place that would crush you without a moment's hesitation. If so, then that was fine, all she needed to do was to be crueler, even more unforgiving, and she would surely end up surviving. A desire to be at the very apex of the food chains, to consume everything and never be consumed herself was born. The day Maru-Maru was born, all the researchers had gathered to see the results of their work. As the experiment had taken quite a bit longer than anticipated, the team had run low on funding and with that the state of their labs had decayed.
The researchers had not picked up the girl as she entered the world, instead they stood a fair distance away and simply observed the newborn being as she made her way through the lab, towards them. As the baby crawled upon the cold lab floor, a huge rat would suddenly run across it. The creature was probably scared by all the researchers that had gathered and thought that the tiny being crawling on the floor was the least likely to threaten it, hence why it ran so close to Maru-Maru as it crossed the floor. That was a fatal mistake as the baby girl snatched the rat, whose body weight was almost greater than her own and bit into its neck with a set of already developed teeth. Red blood splayed all over the floor as the group who had gathered simply looked on in fear and confusion.
From that moment, all the researchers knew they had stepped into a realm they shouldn’t have touched. The monstrous child unnerving them with her mere presence. Despite that, the lead researcher who had essentially invested the last ten years of his life in the project grew obsessed with the creation. He would personally attend all the girls' examinations and checkups, overseeing her experiments as well, he even went so far as to give her the name ‘Maru-Maru’. Although the other researchers disapproved of this, there was little they could do. Despite her unnerving origins, the girl seemed to be developing quite normally as she grew up. That was, until she reached the age of twelve. At this point, the girl was more like an adoptive child rather than an experiment to the lead researcher. It was truly tragic then, when the researcher's assistant found the young girl cannibalizing his dead body. After the child was detained by the researchers and looked in a small cell for killing their former leader, they were unsure about what to do. They couldn’t very well kill her, at the same time, there existed no official records of the girl ever having existed. As such after some discussion among themselves they simply left her there to rot. Hoping that the problem they had created would go away if they ignored it for long enough.
Maru-Maru, locked in the depths of the research facility, did not feel like escaping. It was not that she couldn’t but it was that she didn’t want to, the primal fear she had felt from before her birth had all but disappeared. The people around here were weak, incredible so, with just a simple punch she could kill them if she so wanted. In a way the girl who wanted to be an apex predator, an invincible engine of destruction and consumption, was lost. To her, it seemed like she had reached her goal without even trying, a hollow victory so to say. Therefore, she chose to rot away in her tiny cell. She thought she would spend the rest of eternity in that tiny room. Until one day, the steel door was forced open with the many steel bars supposed to lock it in place giving way one after another and on the other side a knight in jet black armor revealed themselves. Immediately realizing that there existed someone who could challenge her status as the apex predator, Maru-Maru set off to correct this error and attacked the knight the instant it sat foot within her chamber. Letting out a maniacal cackle as she did so.
The battle they fought took place throughout the entire facility and ended up leaving it in shambles, despite having destroyed the place of her birth, the monstrous woman still wanted to fight more. That’s when she spotted him just outside the facility, although he had his back turned towards her she could never forget the appearance of that man. His white clothing, its golden decor, that golden blonde hair. It was like his entire appearance was taunting her saying ‘come get me’. Well, Maru-Maru wasn’t one to refuse and so she rushed towards the man with her jaw wide open. In that instant, just before she was about to reach him her body froze in place. The same fear that she had felt before she was born washed over her again. Every cell in her body screaming out in protest, instinctively knowing that if she took one more step she would without a doubt die. From that day Maru-Maru knew what she had to do, she had to grow, consume more and more until one day she could stand as this man's equal.
But at the same time, that was why she would never be able to match that man if she let her fear control her. After ignoring all instincts and reason, Maru-Maru launched herself at the human girl before her, aiming to kick her back into the thorns on the wall. Doing the last thing Maru-Maru expected, Evelina grabbed onto her foot as it crashed into her. Being pushed back straight into the wall as a result, she could feel the sharp thorns bite into her from behind. Letting out a frustrated grunt of pain, a smug expression would be visible on Evelina’s face as she pressed down on the foot in her hand, gripping it with all her strength. “I win!” Maru-Maru proclaimed, seeing how the thorns she had set up were already starting to dig deeper into Evelinas' back as if they had a will on their own. “Ohhh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” The other woman said with a confident expression on her face, blood dripping from her mouth. With a confused look, the monstrous girl looked straight at the woman gripping her foot, like she was waiting for an explanation. And an explanation she received.
“Well, I have this theory. If I can divide space in half, and divide my smell from my body. What’s preventing me from dividing someone’s power in half?” It wasn’t until now that Maru-Maru noticed what was happening. “No-!” She realized that her power, the thing she had worked so hard to obtain, the result of thousands upon thousands of feedings over the years, was getting sapped away from her instant by instant. She desperately kicked at Evelina’s hand who was grabbing her foot. When the desperate woman noticed that had no effect she would begin to claw and tear at the arm that was holding her, to no effect. “You’re pathetic, when you’re this weak I don’t even need a second to divide your body into a million pieces.” As she said that, white cracks would begin to form all over Maru-Maru’s body. “Nooo! You can’t! Not after everythin-” Before she was able to finish her sentence, the body of the monstrous girl was split into a thousand pieces, falling down like soft shards on the cold floor. The thorns were gone, the only proof of Maru-Maru ever having existed was the gray hoodie that now rested upon the tiny pieces of meat that had at one point made up the girl.
Evelina would look at the scene before her in shock, she didn’t truly expect it to work, but it did. Standing up slowly, like the pieces of meat could lash out to attack her at any moment, revealing that this wasn’t nearly enough to kill the monster known as Maru-Maru after all. But that didn’t happen, she was able to stand up, walk to the door, open it and head outside without anything like that occurring. Halfway down the stairs Evelina looked behind her, half expecting the monstrous woman to be standing there, but alas, what greeted her eyes was nothing but emptiness. Heading towards where she had originally entered the building, she thought about how absurd the entire thing had been. Just as quickly as the monstrous woman had entered their lives, kept them on edge for weeks and stopped them from having a good night's sleep, just as quickly had she disappeared.