For SCIENCE!

It was very hard to visualize the presence of Nozomi's mind in cases like this. When it worked it was almost beyond comprehension, thought at a speed unrivaled by anyone who had ever encountered her. The driving force behind the mysterious Ziamichi who wielded so much unheard of power. As her consciousness dived into the depths of the erratic mentality owned by this so-called Doctor. A moment of vulnerability dawned on Nozomi, even despite the fact that she felt so confident about the strength of her mind. It was because there were no layers, no wrappings to protect her true psyche from unwanted scrutiny. For unknown reasons, she went through so much trouble in her pursuit for secrecy, and did not wish for the efforts to be wasted. She had a reasonable amount of caution, and that caution prevented her from being reckless with even the more basic mental abilities such as this. The mission was to invade and influence, using superior cerebration to supersede the Doctors. She would carry out the task with deftness, swimming through this vast space within him in search of his active consciousness. She was careful not to misstep, making her way within the deeper recesses of his brain, only to find that he was not set to the usual configuration. Not one central presence, but multiple; and it wasn't even close to the concept of Shinigami and their Zanpakutō spirit—completely unorthodox.

But Nozomi was no fool wielding tools beyond her understanding. She did not hesitate to make sense of the Doctor's mentality, inserting herself into the network to perhaps identify a head of command amongst these present, where most of the electrical signals were being transmitted to and from. Conveniently there was, and she targeted her pressure to that point, which had the desired effects of redirecting a sword strike that had been aimed at her. However, something unexpected happened, as suddenly the nervous system stopped communicating to this consciousness instantly. The command had shifted, she realized, as now another of the outer entities was receiving and giving the signals. Ah, came Nozomi's realization, figuring that these extras were here as a fallback for a case just such as this, a very obvious revelation. She was already moving on, stretching her dominion over to the new workhorse in order to assert her authority in those places as well, yet at the same time she was intercepted by the arrival of a different consciousness entirely. One had moved in place to protect the other, using their combined force to try and keep her out. In reality, Nozomi was eye to eye with the Doctor's Snake, witnessing the amalgamation of energy down its slimy throat as it prepared a blast of chaotic energy straight at her. There was no time to pussyfoot around about it now, or this situation would not turn out very pretty at all. Amplifying her presence a hundred-fold within his mind and discarding some of her reservation, she forced herself through, stabbing right through the consciousness that had attempted to protect and causing a most painful experience for that one, like a dagger plunging straight into his mind. Still, this was not before a brief exchange between the two, as she was able to collect an identifier from it—Yin—just as Yin too was given a glimpse of hers—Nozomi.

The woman's consciousness came ricocheting back into her living shell, bringing a headache along with it. It was a result of the imprudent method used, but it still worked, as the snake was most definitely forced to clamp its maw close and rescind its blast, even if it was of no consequence to the stomach of the Doctor. The Doctor, snapping his eyes away from the charm of Nozomi's hypnotism, was now bent low and inscribing his energy into the ruined street, not allowing her to continue the subtle suggestions from here. That was fine, this was where brute force worked, as she punted him several blocks down the street while using her Shatterpoint technique to try and disable the chaotic field surrounding him. It didn't quite work, much to her dismay, because she did not fully understand what she was dealing with. Thus, when her foot connected, the part protecting his face only partly subsided to let her get her kick in with slight consequence. He was sent flying, and she was now left with a burning sensation in her foot. It hurt, but Nozomi barely flinched as if she had only gotten a scratch. No, she was looking at the limp bones of her toes through the massive hole in her shoe, with not a strand of flesh left hanging upon them: Crisp, clean, ivory bones. Still, the blood flow would soon catch up with the damage caused to her foot, and that was not healthy for her well-being. Xaser, she called inwardly, waking the sleeping beast from within, and getting an aggravated grunt in return. Xaser never liked performing these menial tasks for his host...

Nozomi knew he would take care of it, just letting her foot fall back down to the ground and forgetting that it had ever happened. Dark energies encircled the damaged area and worked to rejuvenate the blood and tissue that once was about thirty seconds ago. Within seconds, the energy faded and her foot was as good as new, wiggling her toes. Her smile returned, eager to see as the Doctor—or was it Yin?—was able to pull himself up so that they could continue the game as it was. His comment elicited a giggle, demonic though it may be, that signified that she found his trap card joke to be pretty funny. She didn't even need to turn around to see the white-haired red-clad replica seep out of the ground behind her, like the blood of the fallen assuming the form of a human being. It rose into the air upon the Onikagahi-tainted wind, attracting Onikagahi-tainted blood along with him, and probably attempting to escape the area affected by this Onikagahi which had spread far above the isolated city and far beyond the edges, spreading more even as they spoke, even as she was in this form, slowly. She merely clapped her hands in a slow manner, grinning at the Doctor as he put on such a magnificent display with his summon. Of course she was watching this one to see what he did with all this blood and energy, but resumed the facade of being oblivious to it as she liked to do.

Usually, something like this would get on her opponent's nerves, being miles beyond their control and yet merely toying with them. People wanted to be in control; commanding their destiny and those of others around them if they could. Nozomi was one subject who defied that with such gaiety that it was more than likely to provoke those types of people. This man... was not like those people. Nozomi was detecting a certain type of joy from him. He was excited, thrilled, challenged. To him she was not an example of something that could not be controlled but rather a test of his abilities. He did not wish to kill her at all, she realized, because it was not his desire to silence the existence of others who challenged his power, but to unearth the compelling secrets behind her facade. That's why she could see he was still holding back much of his power still, just as she was. Nozomi was certain in her deduction, witnessing as he spawned a skillful imitation of a powerful human she had met before, observing as he unleashed the rapid power of a psuedo-Zanpakutō. The deadly blade came at her with fury, and she felt a sense of contentedness.

That didn't mean she would sit down and take this, however, as she stopped the erratic spinning of the sword in its first attack. Her Omnidou eyes—those that saw all, understood all, and ended all—were able to catch each movement of the vibrant sword at a snail's pace. The moment it became clear that a slash was headed her way, her arm was in motion and she'd intercept the blade in its motion with her bare hand, managing not to sustain a single scratch. The metal sword reverberated from the sudden stop in momentum, and Nozomi would look down the length of it with a cocky smile aimed at the Doctor, tilting her head. She put her thumb on the very tip as well, so that the sword would not extend past it even if it tried as hard as it could; she already understood that ability. As for the link that allowed the Snake man to control the sword like a limb, well Onikagahi did like the occasional snack, eating away at the bond and weakening it, so there would be no budging against Nozomi's grip. From this vantage Nozomi would shout out to him, quizzical. "That elemental field of yours... has anyone ever bested it? Have you ever had a situation in which it did not accomplish the job you wished it to?" She asked this while raising her free hand, twiddling her fingers through the air with a devilish look on her face, like she knew something he didn't.

And the fact of the matter is that she probably did.

I hate absolutes, Nozomi simmered to herself mentally, regarding the lack of progress her Onikagahi was making on the bond between the Doctor and his maniacal sword. Still, she had the strength to hold the tip in place, gripping it tightly without being lacerated by the sharp edges. It was just the fact that this energy was incapable of being devoured by hers that annoyed her, for any substance that followed any realistic laws would eventually fall prey, and this was not one of them. In the meanwhile, the people around her were not idle, just passive for the time being. Nozomi was just in earshot of the psycho-babble originating from above her—the blood-manipulator. Another facet of insanity being displayed, whose words appeared to have no more meaning than a joke. Yako, a long time not seen, appeared as a mute. This was no surprise, as the first time the two had clashed he had displayed the qualities of an introvert, keeping quiet face-in-notebook. He didn't quite possess the same notebook as a copy, but he sure didn't seem like he was going to utter a sound for the time being; certainly not in response his comrade's humor. The main doctor, Nozomi noticed, was deep within his thoughts again, as he always had something new to dissect each time they clashed. He looked to have finally discovered the worth of the Omnidou, the eyes that she possessed, causing her to chuckle to herself (Albeit it probably would have been mistaken as a sign that she found the Count's crack funny).

"Just one," the Doctor announced, actually giving an answer to her dubious question. "Victor's Segunda rods. That's how I lost my first set of eyes. Went right through Detachment of the Physical World." That was unfortunate to discover. Nozomi really was eager to show just how fast she could analyze and break something down, until it was nothing greater than a party trick. It would have been so much more satisfying if she had been the first to do so as well, but it was no bad blood with this Victor Segunda. The point would be across soon enough. "I—" Nozomi began, before abruptly cutting off, expression faltering. She didn't quite think that the Doctor understood the absolute power of her eyes yet, but it was exactly that which alerted her to the impending catastrophe. Surges of energy were already rushing out from her adversaries in relative synchronization, motions being made, incantations spoken whether necessary or not. The sheer cognizant power she wielded, when witnessed through her perception, was like watching a still picture from every possible angle and every possible wavelength, with the ability to isolate any single element of it and analyze it. Then the next instance of time would be another image, the next another, in a sequence of pictures that played out the progress of the event she focused on. These eyes she possessed were the Magnum Opus of perception and comprehension, bar none. These eyes were how she was able to come out of these situations with such flawless execution that mistakes were so rare.

First factor of the attack: The assemblage of blood that the Count had been working with had evaporated, shifted in space. Nozomi now stood within a dangerous field of his energy, which was set to erupt all around her with what was most probably a sinister effect. The intent behind this attack... not primary, supportive, restrictive in nature; it could immobilize, but accelerated probability more accurately predicted that the effect was more in-line with suppression of power, details not exact. Nozomi's mind raced, moving on to the next source of energy that originated through the link connecting to his sword, much more quickly breaking this one down as it was of a simpler nature. Easy, this surge is inexact, just an excess of energy. He wants to overload the capabilities of the weapon and cause chaos and destruction. No way this will break my grip or damage me; he knows this already. Distraction. She looked further past this release of energy, trying to locate presage of his maneuver behind the veil. Vague energies were being summoned, but the immediate intent behind them was unclear to Nozomi and not something she could figure out in the instant. Then she noticed the thread, a unique wavelength projecting outward from the Doctor that she followed. Within the next frame of time she had discovered that it had led to the seal, and in the next she found a second thread that lead straight back to the sword again, but this one had a direction that was much more clear to the young woman. With quick calculations, she would learn the two abilities would coincide at the same moment of time.

Such a revelation occurred just as Nozomi reached the end of her breath from her utterance of the alphabet's third vowel, an entire chapter of new knowledge stored within her vast intellect. She held not an iota of hesitation, already responding to the threat before it was prepared for her. She concentrated on several actions at once, multi-tasking with ease. Her right hand clenched infinitesimally, fingers pressing the right stress points, energy piercing the blade's form. A small crack formed in the metal of the blade, concealed by her hand, but it would slowly begin to expand. While that happened, there was also a shift in the current of Onikagahi around and within Nozomi, a rather massive shift that seemed like it would use an astonishing amount of it up, several time more so than Nozomi had been forced to utilize yet. Then her left hand, which for the record was covered by an unusual glove, began to release a much purer energy than the Onikagahi that Nozomi had been using up until now, glowing more of an angelic blue-white than that molten orange. Then the scene exploded in action.

The color red suddenly became prevalent around Nozomi, as the Count's blast of blood-like energy finally ruptured through the desecrated asphalt street. Simultaneously the sword she was suppressing within her grasp went berserk, annihilating the area around it and turning it into dust. Some of the spirals shredded bits and pieces from her black cloak off, but were unable to penetrate her rough skin. The wayward strike would only bounce off of her with a metallic clang before flailing somewhere less resistant. This wild movement suddenly accelerated the single lone chink sharply, as suddenly a wide crevice was seen to move down the blade with a shuddering crack. This quickly became the antecedent for a hundred new ones that split off from the main path to ravage the once flawless weapon, and they all gave off the putrid musk of Onikagahi. Back to the red cloud now, which further expanded to encompass the young woman and finally reveal its full effects to her. It merely confirmed her expectations as she had the Onikagahi swirling around already in preparation, several times exceeding the amount she would have normally used on her next ability to compensate for the suppression of her power. No issues giving a little tip every now and then.

Perfectly opposite speed and energy, she recited internally as she played the blood price to the Count's field, coming out with precisely the amount she needed. With a single command she released her power, met Demonic Radiance with Chaos Energy, and dispersed the Hemoplague like a gust of wind to a cloud of dust. She was left unhindered, then, to deal with the arrival of the doctor, and he appeared just on time. A loud crack sounded in the air when the sword warped back into the hand of its master, which didn't sound good at all. Albeit it still launched him back into her, he was forced to watch as the weapon splintered into a thousand shards of silver, falling slowly to the ground in graceful cadence. He could still feel his energy, yes, as it had not been assimilated into the imposing mass that was Nozomi's Onikagahi. What he could feel, however, was the broken whole uselessly descending, contained by the Onikagahi like a prison. Nozomi was suppressing it, suppressing it all and leaving only stub for the Doctor to hold on anymore, unable to extend past the point at which the rest of it was snapped off.

The Doctor's plan was already in motion though. The restrictive field laid down by the Count may have been blown away by a breeze, the sword may have been wrecked, but it was all dandy because the situation was salvageable and manageable. He would use his Chaos Warp to slow the flow of time for him, preventing the wily woman from using any more tricks so that he could perform his operation with peace and quiet. The Iramasha ability settled, decelerating the world around him until there was nothing but silence, nothing but a motionless environment. Nozomi was not even breathing anymore, not a threat. He would move his hands toward her face, scalpel at the ready, but something was off here... Then fuck all when Nozomi's smirk suddenly deepened. Next thing he knew, a molten pain perforated the shoulder of his right arm where they were jointed, before he felt a disconnection of the limb for the second time this fight. It turned out that she had kept the tip of his blade within her hand, having snapped it off from whole. She took advantage of the calm scenario to plunge the Onikagahi-coated shard straight through his shoulder, severing the nerves that were transmitting information to and from the rest of the arm with pinpoint accuracy if there were no interruptions to her attack. Irregardless of that result, her other hand would come down like a claw straight into the face of the Doctor, as she reached over him and pulled back so that he would be bent back like an arch. There was a huge flaw to this cute lack-of-eye-contact strategy of his, and it was the fact that he had his back turned to her. Would he even think to need to dodge, while he had frozen time and had his Detachment of the Physical World protecting him? Where was all that protection now? Now, when Nozomi's hands moved toward him, the field of Dust subsided as if fearful, or respectful. Once such reliable powers, broken and tamed.

The Doctor would find it hard to move his body if either of these attacks struck him, as Onikagahi would flow around him like a powerful current, perfectly opposite. She did not deliver enough to keep him frozen for very long, only a brief stun, but it was enough for what she planned to do. Using him as leverage, she pole-vaulted over him, rising into the air above him and looking down at his frozen expression with that devilish smirk plastered on her own. She'd look down at his chest however, hopefully inspiring him to focus on the light expanding from her fist as she hovered it over his heard. With a bright flash, wings would extend from either side of her hand curved into the shape of a bow; a bow of light, perhaps confirming some of his assumptions of her being a Quincy in some way. Not much time to think, though, as a luminous bolt would fire point blank through his precious organ, breaking the reverie of his stun and sending him flying straight down through the desecrated island along with the debris, into a endless void. Nozomi would be launched up by the recoil of the attack, watching briefly as he was launched away at two times the speed of sound—mach 2—and most likely breaking out of his Chaos Warp. Only then, did Nozomi release her Reversal technique with a huff, having expended astronimical amounts of her energy and coming out of it with soft human skin again. Her horns had disappeared, skin tone reverted, and eyes returned to their normal whites. But, she didn't actually seem tired... just not used to being forced into utilizing so much energy.

She looked up at the Count now, standing upon a platform a Reishi to maintain her altitude. He had just pulled out a scroll and was unsealing another entity from it, probably at the directive of his master. She didn't even bother to address the newcomer or wait for his grand reveal through the smoke of the summoning; Nozomi pointed her bow at him with her left gloved hand and reached out with her right with a grasping motion. The blood-manipulator had done its job, but now its time had come. Onikagahi came crashing around him with a powerful vice grip, the Dust Field seemingly pointless as it was dispersed with ease now, with Nozomi now fully understanding it. The force of the dark energy was not very strong, and given appropriate force the Count could probably escape, but it wasn't really meant to keep him there forever. She merely wished to slow him down as yet another arrow was fired from her glorious blow, at a fatal speed that would be felt faster than it would be heard. His view would be consumed with light, and then darkness... His upper body incinerated by her Quincy energy and only leaving a molten slag left to plummet into the void. If she had finished with him, then of course her next logical target would be this new arrival, and she pointed her bow at him in the middle of his speech. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" she sung out, waiting for Yako to stop pussying around in the shadows. "Come play with me!" she would continue, before letting off another massive blast of light in the Undertaker's direction to do to him what had been done to his comrade.

Onikagahi had consumed Nozomi, layering several times over her in great weaves, not giving an inch of crawlspace to the opposing force she protected herself with it; a suit of armor, but a million times superior in every way. She watched his every action in near-suspended time flow, using intensive study to correctly identify what techniques shall be used, and if he uses a certain ability that had been used before in her presence, then the woman's response time is all that much faster. He had time-warping capabilities, which were extremely dangerous to Nozomi. She feared such a thing, and had it been used the first time against her to its utmost potential, it could have been the end of her. She was appreciative that the Doctor was all for playing her little game, because now that he already used it, she could actually respond to it effectively. When the surge of Chaos Energy was released for this ability, the vortex of Onikagahi spiraling around her adjusted to the opposition, acting as a perfect counterspell of equal force and size. When he began to affect the course of time to his own bidding, her Reversal—her suit of Onikagahi armor—would exclude her from being a part of this tainted timeline, and bring her along the same lines as her foe before her. From that point, it was merely a matter of pretending to be caught in his trap, manipulating even the pulse of her heart to appear as he expected her to be. Then when things became to awkward with the hands and the knife, Nozomi finally broke out of the facade with a surprise attack.

As she felt the pathetic resistance of his flesh give way to the shard of metal, she knew her deceit had done its job. His arm would be rendered limp and useless and incapable of natural movement. The unexpected part here was the metamorphosis of the sword bit, as it transformed into a—you guessed it—snake. Nozomi was not all too surprised even if she hadn't quite deducted such a capability from the weapon until now. The squirmy creature's head would slither out of the wound created, out of her grasp to sting her wrist. She didn't really even acknowledge the attempt, as even with the transformation, that snake was ravaged by her Onikagahi. His bite would not pierce her skin, and would not be strong enough to hold that hand there for longer than a millisecond. Nozomi was far more fixated on her next move in her plan of action, attempting to take hold of the Doctor's face with her free hand. She missed, surprisingly, as he somehow escaped her paralysis. It must have been the purpose of the snake, she considered, now adjusting her plan to compensate before his evasion had even come close to complete success. She was unhindered now, both hands free, but she had spent so much energy on the Reversal that she could feel the monstrous speed and strength leaving her body. She couldn't try anything too tricky just yet because of it. Really the best option she had here was her bow, having already gathered the energy to summon Abfeuern Vogel. Using one last burst of speed, she spun around to face the Doctor as he was reforming, and aimed her bow straight for his heart. As soon as she could see the white of his eyes she fired, a blindingly bright bolt shooting out and striking his... leg.

Nozomi was now flying up from the recoil of her weapon and a little of her own manipulation of the event, and even though the Doctor had dodged again and caused her shot to hit an unintended part of his body, he still was launched far and away into the void from the sheer force and speed of her Kanonenkugel attack. The ability of this bolt was that unlike the rest of her arrows, its form maintained itself like a solid object, embedding itself into the flesh of her enemies and burning like hot metal to the skin around it. It was shaped with reverse hooks that made it extremely difficult to just pull the thing out, not without worsening the wound further. It was a problem he'd have to deal with for a while, giving Nozomi the comfort of enough time to deal with the others a little bit more comfortably, starting with the joke master. The Count didn't seem too concerned with his master, trying to strike out with something of a scold. Then Nozomi realized something profoundly important: She didn't like this guy when he wasn't cracking jokes. There was even less hesitation when she initiated her attack on him, firing her deadly arrow at the jester. He didn't attempt to move, did not seem fearful of his fate, absolutely seething with the arrogance he had accused her of just seconds ago. The hypocrisy was strong in this one.

His knowledge of Nozomi's capability, not so much. In a last ditch effort to utilize the remainder of his special element up, he supercharged it and caused it to explode outwards like a bomb, trying to intercept the Holy Arrow simply with outstanding force. This was an uneducated desperation attempt that showed that he did not know how she was countering his technique, and as a result, his struggle would prove fruitless, embarrassingly so on the account of his last words. It did not matter what shape the element was shifted into, or what force was utilized; its purpose remained the same, the same effects, the same ingredients. Nozomi understood what this element was and the component elements that combined to form it. She understood that Dust as the Doctor named it, was an element not of destruction, but of separation. It broke substances down to some of the most basic particles to make it seem as if they were being destroyed, but not quite. She knew all this, and once she understood an ability, then it no longer meant anything to her. The only oddity here was the fact that Onikagahi could not eat his energy like it normally did. This is why it created the odd effect of repelling it away, like when Nozomi was in close combat with the main Doctor. So what was going through the Count's mind that gave him the delusion that he could stop her still with Dust? Was he under the impression that he could force it to cooperate and perform its duty one last time before it was out for the count? That was cute.

The Dust blew out in a sphere, covering a massive area that consumed a lot of the dust and debris flying through the area still, as well as certain earthen gasses that had been moved into the Garganta void when Nozomi had brought the town into it. However, the loose Onikagahi that was pervading the area was merely pushed out. The Holy Arrow, which was a mixture of Nozomi's own energy and the Onikagahi, sustained a small degree of degradation, but pierced straight through the field without a single shift in trajectory. This arrow, the arrow of hubris now, would have almost the exact same effect as was intended, annihilating the top half of its target in a split second before he realized his own failure. The smoldering remains of his lower body would fall in disgrace, down into the darkness for eternity. Nozomi would watch its descent for only a little while before she proceeded with her actions. She would aim her bow at the other clone with an arrow charged up, and call out her chant to the sneaky Yako Grim for him to come out of hiding. She zoned in on her target and... Well no, again, with Nozomi appearances meant shit. She knew precisely where Yako was as he flitted through his own dark dimension. She had already traveled to this dimension of her own accord once, having discovered it upon their first fight together. She could see him right now, watching him sneak around probably thinking she didn't know his whereabouts. Shadows were Yako's portal back to the real world, which happened to limit him in a starless place such as this. That meant that he could only shift dimensions in certain spots, and if Nozomi say, used her bow to create a shadow, then he would be attracted to it like a moth to a light, thinking he would appear from a blind spot. And as for the Doctor himself, she could tell he was preparing to arrive on the scene again, empowering himself in yet another form... She fired off the Holy Arrow in the direction of the Undertaker, putting her in danger of being fried like her friend. It was that moment in which she would be considered a vulnerable target, with the Doctor sprinting in front of her and Yako arriving through the shadows behind her, both with scythes at the ready.


Light flashed from behind Nozomi, obliterating every instance of a shadow around Yako. This was immediately followed by an implosion of searing arrows that were aimed for various important areas on his body; eyes, throat, joints, stomach, heart, and many painful points in between. The blue-haired woman did not even need to blink to summon this small hail of arrows, turning the undead copy of Yako into a pincushion. Still not done, she released a powerful concussive blast from her back that would launch the porcupine through a collapsing building behind her and out into the void as Nozomi was getting of doing with trash. By all means, he'd probably survive the lazy trap she had waiting for him, but if he was struck by the arrows it would take quite a while for him to deal with it as he was shot off at breakneck speeds. And with the Onikagahi that would flow from the arrow around him and into him? A tough break for him, but oh well, Nozomi already played her game with the healer, it was the Doctor's turn now. She didn't quite have a trap laid for him, and in fact seemed rather unprepared to deal with his newfound speed and strength. When he swung his scythe to hook around her neck, Nozomi barely caught the shaft where it connected to the curved blade, and it didn't completely stop the momentum. She was pushed in the direction of the attack, skidding across the air in a light struggle before finally holding it still. The hand that intercepted his weapon was revealed to have transformed back to the sickly brown color of her demon form, even though the rest of her body was still smooth and pale peach-colored.

She let out a huff, then smiled at the snake doctor. "Ooh, glad to see you're okay, and you too Snakey," she said lightheartedly, looking at the scythe and referring to it with the latter bit of her words. "But hold on, just need a small breather for myself. You won't mind right?" She was still holding his scythe at arm's length, so that he couldn't just lop her head off then and there. With her other free hand—the one with the strange glove over it—she held up a finger to him as if requesting 'just one minute' while watching him intently for any funny moves. It would be nice if the Doctor listened, because if he did he wouldn't regret the pause. Now forming her hand into a round shape, pretending to hold a cup, she summoned an aluminum can seemingly from nothing into her grasp. This can was actually a fresh unopened Red Bull, somehow freezer chilled no less! With an unseen telekinetic force the top was snapped off with a fizzy pop, and she raised the drink above her mouth and tilted her head back, letting the liquid waterfall straight into her mouth. In one attempt the entire beverage was down, and she wiped her mouth with her sleeve. With a toothy smile she said, "Red Bull, get some!" and tossed the can at his face. It would bounce off harmlessly and accomplish absolutely nothing, but in mid-flight Nozomi would suddenly completely transform back into her demonic form, way faster than the gradual shift she had displayed the first time.

Suddenly matching the Doctor's speed step for step, she rushed inside his guard, and more importantly within effective use of his scythe. She was so close to him that he couldn't even begin to attack her with the large weapon without moving back, and yet if he even tried to do so Nozomi would be with him every inch of the way. She could see his movement before they panned out, reading him like a book and perfectly synchronizing her own motions to his. She was going to attack, but before she did it would be appropriate for the Doctor to notice her stance: Even though she was floating in mid-air, her back leg was straight up and down as she was holstering all her weight onto it, so that the other leg was bent and lifted up in front of her almost like a lower body guard. Her arms were kind of like a boxer's, both held up in front of her on either side, hands balled up into fists. From this Muay Thai stance, she delivered an elbow strike at the chest of the Snake Man that shared not just the speed, but the strength behind it that the Doctor could potentially produce as well, determining that Nozomi had purposefully enhanced her body to match the same level of power as his form granted him. The attack was quick, and hard to block because she was in such close quarters with him. No way he could counter with his weapon arm fast enough, or even utilize his scythe. And if he didn't block it, then he could be sure it was gonna hurt even with the sudden density of his skin. Irregardless, Nozomi kept the pressure on, delivering a rapid kick with her elevated leg toward his lower body to attempt to cripple one of his limbs, just before stepping down with that foot and delivering a dual-palm strike aimed at his chest again. She would keep delivering blow after blow, attacking so aggressively to exploit the weakness of having to hold on to his burdening weapon, so that he could only defend, not retaliate. He'd find that even if he was launched backwards by a successful strike on Nozomi's part, she'd fly forward with him just to keep close to him, and continue striking hard and fast.

And as for the poor can of Red Bull... it would float down into the eternal darkness of this place, forever alone.

There was a subtle chirr that sounded among the cacophony of close combat between the Doctor and Lady, letting on to something plainly grim. It occurred precisely at the point that Nozomi's forearm met the chilling steel face of the scythe, which seemed to defy space in order to intercept her attack. Yet the woman didn't flinch, as if already prepared for the situation—as her arm recoiled from the shock of the attack, a small chip could be seen defacing the once smooth blade of the weapon. There was no time to reconcile it though, as the scythe spun one-hundred and eighty degrees to catch Nozomi's lightning-fast kick towards the lower body. A loud metal pang assaulted the eardrums of both combatants, easily dominating their attention; still, another quiet crack was whispered in the background underneath it. Somehow, amongst this chaotic exchange, she had managed to strike the same part of his weapon twice, causing the nick to noticeably expand in several directions, most definitely causing agony to the poor snake that this scythe had mutated from. The third attack for some strange reason had actually connected, whether it be because the Doctor had discovered her antics or because the exhaustion was beginning to finally get to him. She didn't feel the sickly sweet pain this time, only his soft flesh, which bruised under her palms. The burn she had received from smashing her limbs against the unyielding flat of the scythe, was not causing discomfort to the lady as one might have perceived it to. The trait within the her that altered her perception of what pain was to her, was her masochistic nature. As the shock from having her strikes blocked abated, a dull ache reverberated through her muscles and bones, not agonizing but certainly pleasant. Nozomi's smile was just always there—whether smirking or grinning—hardly leaving her face for the entirety of this fight. No amount of physical harm to her body was going to change that.

''Get some back,'' came the Doctor's incredibly witty retort, as he launched the empty Red Bull can back at her, though this time filled with some of her Onikagahi that he had managed to seal away. In the quest to avoid the embarrassing prospect of being smacked in the face with her own litter, Nozomi called out to the energy within and commanded it to annihilate the would-be projectile. The aluminum container would disintegrate before it hit its target, despite the close proximity between the two points. As if it had never happened at all, the two clashed yet again, this time with roles reversed; the Doctor on the offensive. If the advent of the can was supposed to distract her from what he was executing against her, it failed to do so. This Spirit Shock of his had already been used before her eyes, even if it was not quite on such a scale or density as it was now. Nozomi would withdraw behind her risen arms, presenting her forearms to him like a wall. As he coated his hand in this special energy and launched it at her like a rocket, she was already there to meet it, steeling the blow with a massive shockwave. The Spirit Shock—even though it had managed to push through the atmosphere of Onikagahi well enough—skittered away from meeting Nozomi's flesh when it came too close, in the exact same way the Dust element had acted; it was of a similar principle, after all, and there never even was any contact between the Spirit Shock and Onikagahi. Each of his rapid attacks proceeding that followed through in the same fashion. Nozomi was reading his movements perfectly with her all-powerful Omnidou, seeing them pan out before they actually occurred. She predicted the trajectory with one-hundred percent accuracy, compensating for subtle shifts should there be any, and meeting them head-on with her arms. And each time his attack would not be able to pierce her flesh or break her defense. Just as she had done to him, the only thing he could do to her was give her a bruise or two. Except, unlike him, she loved the feel of pleasure she got from receiving them.

She was peeking through her guard at him keenly, a gleeful expression as they fought. He exclaimed how hard it was to keep this game going on to her, causing her to chuckle in response. Shockwaves were blasting in every direction away from them as they exchanged blows, up until the Doctor paused to summon a gargantuan mass of Spirit Shock for his combo breaker. Nozomi let out a small huff, thinking how futile his attack would be even as he put so much effort into it. She reiterated her thought; once she knew a trick, she knew how to take it apart and render it useless against her. Yet still, relying on some false hope, he poured a vast amount of energy into his hand and launched it at Nozomi like a spear. She was already in motion, reacting before he even began. Her skin became that of a mortal again, clean and pale, smooth and soft. It was like switching stances, redirection all this Onikagahi into the palm of her own hand. As soon as he thrust his palm forward, she would mirror his movement and retaliate with energy of her own. Light was distorted as a pulse of energy rippled out from her bare skin. A torrent of kinetic force blasted at the Doctor, catching his Spirit Shock attack in mid-air and stopping it in its tracks. Not only that, but once the current struck him, he would be pressured backwards by an immense force. This wasn't the same as before: it didn't conveniently match his strength as her power seemed to previously. Rather, the constant force hit him like a tidal wave; an array of tidal waves. There was no leverage or leeway, just an unending deluge of force that would push him back even if he struggled against it. The Spirit Shock would be swept away while caught in it, being blown past him harmlessly. Strangely, the longer that the Doctor was trapped within this tsunami, the more it seemed to tear at him, exhausting him. This Onikagahi wasn't eating his energy as it normally did, it was merely softening it, tearing at it. It may have been an indigestible material to her, but there was another way. That way was weakening the bonds of his energy as Quincy were so masterful at doing, and then ripping it to shreds. The Doctor would find that this torrent of force was ripping away his energy as it passed by, draining him slowly, making him feel helpless...

And then Nozomi cut the flow by closing her outstretched hand and dropping it to her side. She tilted her head at him cutely, speaking yet again in her unmarred human voice. "You're right, aren't you? We're treading awfully close to the finish line, huh?" She giggled at him, hand over mouth, noticing that his cloak was now falling into the depths and no longer adorning his body. Nozomi's own apparel was dangling in tatters, not quite as invincible as the being underneath it all. The bandages normally wrapped so tightly around her arms were now loose along the edges, hanging freely from the limb. Her cloak was shredded and ripped in various placed, obviously missing some pieces, and the aquamarine necklace that she wore around her neck was now apparent because of all this dancing around. She observed the sweat that glistened from the Doctor's skin, and how his breaths were weighted. Nozomi's eyes twinkled. "We're both getting tired, running out of energy from all this playing." But on the contrary, Nozomi was not in the same boat as her opponent was, her breathing light and controlled, skin as flawless and clean as she had arrived in. Anyone with even the most limited sense of spiritual energy to call her out on her bold-faced lie, as Onikagahi pulsed throughout the area like a loud bass drum, beating with an excited rhythm and thrumming deep in the chest. No, Nozomi was not fatigued in the least; she was the opposite, feeling more energetic and more powerful than she had before. She was positively gleaming with energy, and lying straight through her teeth.

"Are you gonna show me your final form?" she inquired, a childish anticipation clear in her voice. "A last-ditch effort? A full release of your powers? Unlocking your hidden technique? Using your most powerful attack to end it here and now?" She was progressively getting louder and louder as she asked the question, running on some kind of sugary high. She stopped only to look down at her hands, twisting and turning them around as if she were studying some sort of specimen she had never witnessed before. When she closed her hands, the pulsing of the Onikagahi in the air became even more energetic, practically suffocating. She took one last peek at the Doctor with a sinister grin, chirping her next words in a chime-like tune: "Show me~... show me~..." She kept chanting that, raising her hands into the air, the presence of the Onikagahi screaming at its audience so loudly that its mere existence was causing extreme amounts of discomfort to them. Something had to break, and it finally did as the fabric of space reoriented around them, painting a starlit blackness. The dome-shaped Garganta had shifted to another place in the universe, and it would become extremely apparent why once one dared to look behind Nozomi. A flash of light would blind them due to the sudden shift in brightness, but once one's eyes adjusted to the source of the light they'd find a comet the size of a continent heading their way at breath-taking speeds. It was an incredible view, witnessing as such a massive celestial body came hurtling at them, in complete silence due to the lack of an atmosphere in space. This was such an incredible natural force that by all rights Nozomi should not have been able to wield, and yet she placed them all in path of its flight.

The Doctor could look to the left, the right, up or down, and he'd merely see horizons in each direction, no way around this obstacle for thousands upon thousands of miles. There would be no way he could get out of the way before it reached him. And if it was that wide in scope, then thinking about breaking through it would be just as futile. It was so thick that one could throw hundreds of hydrogen bombs at the incoming surface of the comet, and nothing but a few craters would really be accomplished. This comet took up his entire field of view, impending doom; fire, rock, metal. Nozomi threw her head back and began laughing maniacally, only it went unheard because there was no air to carry the sound of her voice to those who would hear it. She just floated there convulsing until the comet arrived, and she disappeared into the fiery light as if it had consumed her. One could check for her presence to see if she was still alive, but they would not be able to find anything through this ocean of Onikagahi, for it was now at such a concentration that Nozomi was indistinguishable from the rest. For all intents and purposes, Nozomi had been obliterated by the comet.

And Doctor Kabuto Hebi would find his fate in less than three seconds later.

In most trading card games, the best kinds of decks had an overall theme running through them; its own method of victory wherein any card that help achieved that specific goal was a good card to have. And any that didn't were the sign of a bad deck creator. Nozomi did not imagine this man before her a bad deck creator. Insane? Most definitely, but that did not hold him back by any measure; it, in fact, expanded the creativity of what one's deck could thematically become. This was a good note to make as the game between the two highlanders began spiraling towards its mad finale. Perhaps it didn't hold any meaning to you, but even if it had not yet, it soon would.

The air shuddered as a booming wave of sound exploded outwards from Nozomi, who wrapped herself in her own arms and unleashed a volatile pulse of raw kinetic force in every direction away from her. Layer upon layer upon layer of this extraordinarily dense Onikagahi had surrounded her, and blasted out with a power that shook the foundation of space here. The puny discs that had been summoned were obliterated into shrapnel, thwarted not because Nozomi had skillfully pulled the attack to pieces, but because there was just such overwhelming force that made the discs seem like frisbees in the wind. It was clear what the problem was in the Doctor's fight; the woman had reached critical mass. There was just so much Onikagahi everywhere, an ocean that was drowning the very air they breathed and moved through, all of it under her command. She would release herself from her own grasp and look at the Doctor, yet again presenting that abhorrent smile of hers that had been glued onto her nearly every time he looked at her face. He talked of failure, disappointment, dwindling into madness; and yet to Nozomi the game was still not over, hardly feigning exhaustion, merely continuing to play the game she wanted to play because she knew. She knew he was almost done with, holding onto his few remaining cards with shaky hands, anxiously pulling the top card of his deck in an agonizingly slow fashion. He knew what the card was already, and Nozomi had an accurate idea of what it was as well, but he most definitely did not want to come to it—he was aware that there would just be no choice in the matter. What Nozomi wanted to do was give him that one last push, to drive him over the edge and force his hand, playing his madness against him so that even if there was some way somehow to get out of this mess with all his intelligence and all his creativity, he would choose the card that she wanted to see, and would finally cause all of the parts and pieces to slide together and reveal a glorious product: The puzzle complete.

Millions of light years away from Earth, not even remotely near the familiar Milky Way galaxy, Nozomi had placed them in the path of an astronomically-sized comet, easily the size of Australia from what she could judge through basic calculations. She had no power to control this force of nature, even with all of this Onikagahi, it was truly something beyond her as she was no god, but that didn't stop her from playing the part. She looked down at him one more time as she felt the rising heat of the comet on her back, quickly approaching. There he was, in all of his hideousness, finally becoming an avatar of dementia; epitome of lunacy. He possessed a humanoid form, but no one would ever believe this creature was anything close to a human being at this point, and it was glorious to Nozomi. Even as the fire of the comet consumed her she would observe him with extreme curiosity, picking his very essence to pieces with her mind and finally unraveling the marvelous strands of the one known as Doctor Kabuto Hebi. She would watch as her entire offense became undone by this monstrosity, but in safety, as she closed her eyes solemnly and summoned a rift away from here. She barely made it through the Garganta before the epic mass of rock and metal stampeded through the space in which she was in milliseconds before, which most certainly would have killed her in a heartbeat. All that was left was the Doctor and his minions, but said minions were merely insignificant specks compared to what wrath was to be displayed. Her previously-impeccable Onikagahi was merely food to the being, giving in to the pull of his insatiable hunger, incapable of discerning this new puzzle in time before they were consumed by it.

And then he immediately used it, all of it alongside his own new erratic brand of energy, projecting it into the face of the comet without mercy. He did what she could not, and split the comet to pieces with raw power. Had their been any sound in this void, the titanic crack that would have sounded from the shattering of it would have been immaculate; awe-inspiring. As it was, this explosive force continued to erupt outward and through the mass, blasting a valley into the once unstoppable front of the comet. The scale of the explosion was searing from horizon to horizon, lighting the all the eye could see in molten reds and yellows, orange and white. What had been done was the impossible, and in a short few seconds he had blown his way through it all, the rain of molten remains whizzing by him, untouchable. Then to break the complete silence, he would defy the lack of an atmosphere and fill the area with mind-numbing screams, trying to wreak havoc on the lady that had caused him so much grievance, but there was nothing to be found. As the final wave of debris from the comet departed past him into oblivion once more, he would find himself alone, not an ounce of the Demonic Radiance to be felt. Even if he stood still there, screeching into the vast emptiness of space with all his might and all his rage, no one would come, no one would be there for him to unleash all of this power on... and soon his time would run out. Albeit he was able to do God's work with the energy he had consumed, and overcome the cataclysmic odds pitted against him, it left him running on empty. This being would die soon, and it brought a tear to his eye. After all, he knew, and she knew, what was going to happen. They both were aware of what the Doctor's last card held, and as for Nozomi, she needed to escape this place lest she become a drifting corpse in the darkness. Perhaps it was unsatisfying... but necessary... The Doctor's legs would begin to fall to pieces, turning into particles of dust that floated helplessly without gravity to assist their flight, and this would slowly work up his body...

...

I've won, came Nozomi's dull thought, as she hid in the darkness of her own world. She had a concept before her, fully detailed and fleshed out, an entity completely understood by the young woman. It was not her first, to have a complete grasp on a person, as there were millions who had come before and were logged into Nozomi's mind. But this Doctor Hebi; well, he was certainly one of the more interesting people she has ever met, and figuring him out was no easy task. It took such a wild and uncontrollable form for her to analyze, one that could have ended her life in an instant if she had played it any different. But she didn't, she played her hand just right, and got what she needed to complete this glorious puzzle. She poured all of her resources into watching, witnessing, analyzing, studying, deducing, et cetera. She tore open his body's DNA, ripped to shreds his spiritual signature, to find and comprehend him from the basic building blocks and up. It came down to the energy he had displayed in his final moments, in which all his secrets came loose. He did not have the luxury to hold it back behind the veil of his cloak, so she attacked there, discovering Doctor Hebi one lineage at a time. Her omniscient eyes could see the energy down a timeline, witnessing the forms it had taken before, what it had been used for in the past. She detected the aberration of extreme experimentation upon his own body, altering the core of what an Iramasha was to his own desire. She watched his history play out in front of her like slide of mass deduction, mass inference, using the history of his individual cells and spiritual particles to discover the history of the Doctor himself. And once his origins were known, she would go back and use it to discover his full capabilities, even though he may not have showed her first-hand. Anything the Doctor could become... Nozomi saw in front of her, even if the Doctor himself could not see it. And she stated the simple thought: I've won.

A hand grabbed Hebi's shoulder in a vice grip, coming out of nowhere, literally. A Garganta had ripped through the fabric of space and revealed the blue-haired lady to be holding on to him as he fell to pieces. Suddenly, the destruction of his physical form halted as newborn Onikagahi clamped down on him, jailing his soul within. She single-handedly was holding his deprecated form whole, happy to waste some of her energy on him now that he had fallen into weakness. Even though he had assumed this form of madness, there just simply wasn't enough power left within the crude shape for him to resist her. His three lopsided eyes would come into eye contact with Nozomi's unholy black voids, the true form of her Omnidou. She was no longer smiling; in fact, she looked to be struggling in both expression and her shaking arm as she kept him in place. Though, he wouldn't see it for long, as a flash of light would blind him and feel like a spear driving through his mind... followed by a comfortable warmth. His body—the form he had assumed when both he and Nozomi met—would be sprawled on the ground, no longer deprived and exhausted. It felt as if he had just had a long nap in fact, full of strength for a new day. The ground was blank, a pure white that possessed no shadows due to some odd even lighting throughout the entire area. It was very bright, yet there was no source of this light, and it wasn't blinding to the eyes either. The sky was much the same blank white, with no break in the constant. The only contrasts within this space were three doors that stood on their own and led to nothing; shallow yet ornate patterns crafted into the homely brown faces, rimmed with a golden doorway that seemed to have no purpose aside of holding the door up. The doorknob was a stainless gold in color, spherical in shape. These three doors were almost shoulder to shoulder, in a line right next to each other.

"Hello, Doctor Hebi," came the familiar voice to the wayward Doctor, originating from a blue-haired female sitting not two meters away from him on the nondescript floor. She was smiling again, her clothing seemingly unaffected by the course of their game. Her eyes were yet again red in color, full of energy, and certainly not mad in any way. "I got a present for you, for playing my game all the way out," she stated, even if he did not respond. She would stand up from the ground and proceed to wave her arm towards the three doors, as he was probably still clueless about what was going on here. "And I think you'll be happy to hear... that the gift is the gift of knowledge. Because you wanted to know something about me so badly, I've decided to reveal it myself." Then her smile transformed into a smirk and a glint flashed in her eye. "But here's the catch, Doctor; you can only open one of these doors here to figure it out. Each one has a different, and significant, aspect of who I am, and I am only allowing you to see one of them. Excuse the badly detailed place I've summoned you to... once you open one of these doors, it'll be gone anyways, so choose wisely." After that she crossed her arms and watched, waited for him to pick himself off the ground and choose a door. And eventually, if he ever got his hands on the golden knob of any of these doors, she'd say one more thing:

"Oh... there is a fourth door you can open. It just might be a little harder to see than the rest, and harder to open as well. Don't let it influence your decision or anything, just thought I'd let you know."