26 Countdown to 1 Year

[Night]

The lesson ended, Gabriel and his friends talked for a bit before they separated, and now Gabriel was sleeping.

[Dreamscape]

Gabriel opened his eyes, and found himself once again in the tomb where Meruem and Netero fought, but this time there wasn't any trace of destruction, and even less the golden bodhisattva of Netero, there was just Meruem looking at him with a cold gaze.

Meruem: Finally you came… Gabriel.

Gabriel: Meruem…

He walked in front of Gabriel and looked at each others in the eyes, in this place, Gabriel had back his original height, even if he didn't noticed it, so he was higher than Meruem, but neither of them cared.

Gabriel: Are you going to have a chat or you will be fighting me? There's a reason you called me here…

Meruem: We will fight each other over the control of the body.

Gabriel was surprised from his bluntness, then he remembered who's he talking to, he smiled and asked.

Gabriel: Explain.

Meruem: I don't have intentions of recognize you as the master of my own body just like that, demonstrate it with your own strength. We will fight every night, the one who will win will possess the body, and the one who lost will stop exist and give his own memories to the winner.

But I will warn you, you have 1 year before both of us will be erased.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow and asked.

Gabriel: What do you mean?

Meruem: My soul will slowly fuse with yours and start a fight. I win, you will be part of me and stop exist. You win I will be part of you and stop exist. Both of us loses, both of us will stop exist and the body will go in berserk, causing destruction everywhere.

Gabriel's eyes widened, before he stepped back and looked at Meruem with an hint of fear.

Gabriel: How can I even fight you? Do I even have the Nen?

Meruem: Unfortunately for me, yes, you have my same strength and nen, so it will be hard for me to win… I don't want to talk anymore, let's start.

Gabriel was surprised and instinctively leaned back, dodging a tail that was coming too close to his head, then he threw a kick upwards, towards Meruem's chin, who dodged with Gabriel's same movements.

Gabriel started to register what was happening and jumped away from Meruem, who jumped at him for his head. Meruem wanted to directly behead him, but Gabriel shielded himself with his Nen, blocking the hit and making Meruem fall in the ground.

While he was falling in the ground, Gabriel reached a pillar and used it to jump at Meruem, to attack him, but the latter was agile enough to dodge in midair and made Gabriel crash in the floor, who jumped again toward Meruem and he blocked Gabriel's hit.

Now, both of them touched ground and disappeared immediately, there were more than a thousand of punches and kicks done from both of them in less than a minute, but no one of them seemed to get an upper hand.

This continued forever, until Meruem and Gabriel rushed at each other, but Gabriel turned in particles, surprising Meruem and making him stop his movements.

Meruem: He woke up…

[Morning, Yokai Academy's dorm]

Gabriel opened his eyes and looked around, it was his bedroom, then he sighed, he wasn't worried about what Meruem said, there was still 1 year of life for him, he didn't believed that he would fight against Meruem for the entire time without something changing.

Strangely, he felt his body numb, as if the damage he received in his dreamscape reflected on him.

Gabriel stretched his body and dressed up before going out, when he opened his door, he found a letter in the ground, which came from the Headmaster.

Gabriel opened it and started to read it, then he sighed and heard Meruem's voice.

Meruem: Why are you doing this? You can just kill him.

Gabriel: 'No, I can't, he's the boss in the academy, if there isn't him, then there's no more academy, and this thing is getting interesting… It was too calm before, I started to realize that it was funnier when there's something like the incident with the Witch's Knoll or other things.'

Then Gabriel took out his phone and sent a message to Tsukune, to warn him that he will be busy, then he walked towards the office.

[Later]

He was in front of the Headmaster, and had a map in his hand that he gave to Gabriel.

Headmaster: Join the committee and make this school festival successful… That's your job, Gabriel. Don't worry, this will be your last job, I used blackmail just to be sure that you would accept these two jobs, because the other party can't be underestimated…

Gabriel: 'Jokes on him, I would take them down like mosquitoes…' What I should do there?

Headmaster: There's a mole in the committee, find him and kill him before he will ruin the festival.

Gabriel nodded and said.

Gabriel: I really hope this is the last one, if you use the blackmail material once again I will rip off your head, I don't care if you are the headmaster, at least you should maintain your promises.

Headmaster: Don't worry about it, and then I doubt I will be able to win against you…

Then Gabriel left, and the Headmaster turned in his seat and picked 6 documents, then he burned them.

Headmaster: I always maintain my word… I hope you maintain yours…

[MUCH time later]

He was in front of a corpse which sat at the base of the tree, its head was crushed, and Gabriel's foot was covered in blood… How it happened?

[Flashback]

Gabriel was going towards the committee headquarters, when he felt something strange just in the boundary of his En, there was a young man that was talking to another, who suddenly teleported away, while the other one walked towards him to welcome him.

?: Gabriel? You are 1st Year 3rd Class, class representative, Gabriel Brace…?

Gabriel's eye twitched from the unnatural height of this guy, he was 3 heads taller than Gabriel.

?: I've been informed by the teachers, as of today, you're the newest member of the committee. Welcome, Gabriel Brace.

Gabriel: Who was the man with you some moments before?

The man's eyes widened and tried to transform his arm to blades to kill Gabriel, but he got slapped away immediately from Gabriel's tail, and crashed in a tree. Even if Gabriel was trying to kill him with that hit, it seems he underestimated the man.

But the damage he did was already great, almost making him fall unconscious, then Gabriel slowly walked towards him with a cold gaze, which was eerily similar to the one of Meruem, and when he reached him, Gabriel kicked him in the face, crushing his skull.

Gabriel: Who would have thought I would find the mole so fast…?

[Meanwhile]

While Gabriel was out, in a really far away place, there were two peoples. One of them had silver hair that goes past his ears, and two completely different eyes, one was a red vertically slit pupil eye and the other was green horizontally slit pupil eye.

While the second person was unexpectedly Moka, she was kidnapped from the former… Another motherfucking time…

[Flashback]

Moka rested enough, and was ready to go at the academy, when she dressed up, she opened the door and found the man who kidnapped her smiling at her, then he grabbed her neck and somehow teleported away.

[Back]

The man was called Kiria, and he was reading a book.

Kiria: Sorry if I was so disrespectful, but I needed to bring you away... So Hokuto could kill Gabriel…

Moka wasn't worried about it, and this made Kiria raise an eyebrow, he planned everything without knowing Gabriel's strength, because he always killed witnesses, like at Outcast Ayashi, only Moka survived, the others died.

So Kiria planned everything with the assumption that Gabriel was weaker than Hokuto, and even if Gabriel was a bit stronger, he would need some time and a really good plan to win against someone like Hokuto.

Kiria: You aren't worried about your boyfriend?

Moka: No, I know that he is strong, so I shouldn't worry about him.

Kiria: Interesting, then we will see how much you will endure before giving despair…

Then he made appear a spider-like monster, it is a Shikigami, Kiria's servant. It's eye was glowing and showed an image in the air, but unexpectedly to Kiria, it showed a corpse sitting at a tree, with its head crushed.

Kiria's expression gradually changed, and recognized his pal, Hokuto, who is dead because Gabriel killed him. He was slowly getting angry, and since there was only Moka, he would just direct his anger on her, without Gabriel knowing anything.