Chapter 23: Past vs Future, Lover's conflict

Past Kurumi still had her musket pointed at Scarlet as she eyed the Grimm girl carefully making sure she doesn't try any dirty tricks to cheat. She watched as Scarlet smirked and how she slammed the tip of her scythe into the ground, the spirit glared coldly at Scarlet for her one eye.

"Shall we dance?" Scarlet asked snickering a little as she waited for Kurumi to make her first move. "Ladies first." She grinned as she yanked Black Rose out from the ground and twirled it around a similar style to how Ruby would do when holding Crescent Rose.

Kurumi scoffed as she pulled the hammer back on the musket and fired a bullet directly at her. Scarlet blocked it as Kurumi smirked and rushed over to her, she threw her flintlock up into the air and caught it as she smacked the butt of the gun along Scarlet's face.

Scarlet felt the butt of the flintlock smack along her face as she chuckled and then bashed her head against Kurumi's head. Kurumi stumbled back a bit and growled as she glared at Scarlet.

"She's just toying with her..." Beerus mumbled as he leaned over. "STOP MESSING AROUND AND FINISH THIS!"

"Lord Beerus." Whis said looking at him with a stern look. "This is not something you have to butt into." He glanced at the two as he didn't seem to be bothered by what they were doing. "This Kurumi is more aggressive, so trying to get her out of the ring will be a challenge. Even for the likes of Scarlet, they want to make this stretch until one of them tries the other out."

Beerus scoffed as he crossed his arms, Scarlet heard Beerus yelling as she paid no mind to the Destroyer. She watched as Kurumi rushed towards her ready to swing the butt of her flintlock at her once more, the Grimm girl smirked as she ducked under the gun and gut punched Kurumi taking the wind out of her lungs. She then headbutted her in her lower jaw with the top of her head knocking the spirit back again.

Kurumi growled as she fell onto her butt, she glared at Scarlet as she got up. "Zafkiel!" Kurumi's angel appeared behind her as she held up both her musket and flintlock. "Now lets see how you can deal against me with Zafkiel."

Scarlet snickered and shook her head. "You think I'm not familiar with how your angel works? Please, spare me the details.." She cackled as she dashed over to Kurumi before the spirit had any time to draw any energy from Zafkiel to use in her guns. Scarlet knees her in the gut and grabs her by the head and rams her knee against her face.

"Gahh!!" Kurumi stumbled back once more as she cried in pain. She snarled as she bashed her forehead against Scarlet's after getting her footing back, she then kicked Scarlet in the got knocking her back to get some distance between them both.

Scarlet grinned widely as she watched Kurumi draw power from two o'clock, she knew what this bullet was going to be. "Let me guess, Bēto? You plan to slow time down around me and get the upper hand?" She licked her lips as she snickered. "I hate to break the news to you sweetheart but...." Scarlet smirked as she used her semblance stopping time around her and Kurumi. "I can do that as well."

Kurumi was shocked, but of course she couldn't move, she watched as Scarlet got closer to her. She tried to move but couldn't. Once Scarlet had gotten close enough to her she leaned over and whispered into her ear.

"There's a few differences between you and I, I know each bullet you have and what they can do. And you can't predict what I'm thinking or what I'll do." Scarlet spoke as she whispered into her ear. "Now I can easily throw you out of the ring, but that won't be so fun. So why don't we skip the whole Zafkiel part and just continue this action?"

Scarlet blinked as time resumed around the two. Kurumi called back Zafkiel which made the two Zeno's look at each other in confusion at what just happened. But their attention was drawn back to the two as Scarlet and Kurumi started running in unison facing each other and started firing bullets at each other.

"OOOO!" Both Zeno's said at the same time as they watched the two girls run along the tournament ring shooting at one another. "So cool! So cool! Look at them, they're running past every fighter and avoiding them!"

The grand priest was stunned by their performance, he smiled a bit but turned his attention to the other fighters. Ed watched from the sidelines along with Natsu, both were amazed and shocked by what Scarlet and Kurumi were doing. Alphonse didn't say anything nor did Toph, since they both wanted to sit there and be quiet for the time being, but Al did tell Toph at times what was going on in the ring.

"Holy crap, that could've been us having a blast. But we didn't even get much time." Natsu said as he punched his fist into his hand. "Seeing all this is making me fired up!"

Ed crossed his arms and mumbled something as he watched everything go on. The battlefield was lightening up like fireworks were going off, mainly due to some of the fighters being ki based users.

~~~

Scarlet and Kurumi continued to run through the tournament ring as they kept firing at each other. They ran past Cell and Kermit but Scarlet knocked Kermit out of the ring, which resulted in Kermit being sent to the sidelines to watch.

"God dammit Kermit." Cell said as he fired a ki blast at a random fighter knocking them out of the ring. "Great, now it's just me."

Scarlet snickered as she had gotten a few hits in on Kurumi as she noticed she was getting tired. "What's the matter darling? Getting tired already?"

Kurumi gritted her teeth. "Don't call me darling. I'm not your Kurumi." She continued to fire bullets at Scarlet as some had hit her causing Scarlet's aura to flicker. The spirit had thought that this was some sort of shield Scarlet had on to protect her from the bullets, she grinned as she stopped running and lunged forward and rammed her elbow into Scarlet's gut which not only caused her aura to flicker more but also caused her to spit up blood.

"Oh dear, is that even allowed?" Whis asked in a slight worry, he glanced over to the grand priest and the two Zeno's who were watching and how they saw Scarlet spew up blood. "That is allowed isn't it?"

"Of course, as long as there is no killing involved then no universe or multiverse will be erased." The grand priest answered as he seemed more intrigued by Scarlet's fight and what she'll do to get out of this pickle. "I must say... for someone who isn't from your universe... she's holding her own for the time being."

Beerus could only watch as he had a feeling one of Scarlet's future fights in the tournament would cost her to get a ring out. Whis took notice of Beerus' silence as he smiled and went back to watching. "It'll be okay my lord, I don't think Scarlet will get ringed out anytime soon. She's strong for someone who isn't from this world."

Kurumi and Scarlet panted as one had shown more bruises than the other did, considering Scarlet's healing ability she had. Which seemed to be working at a slow rate for this event. Hero watched from the sidelines as the feline was quiet, he never seen so many people aside from the demons and the demon slayers but this was much more for him to see.

"What's wrong tired already?" Scarlet asked in a mocking voice as she snickered a bit and wiped some sweat and blood from her face.

Kurumi spits some blood to the side as she glares at Scarlet with anger, she didn't expect for her to put up much of a fight against her. "I'm impressed... but I'm also pissed off knowing you're able to keep up with me, yet you show no signs of a struggle in getting tired out quickly like anyone else here."

Scarlet smirked as she saw Kurumi get into a running position, she did the same as both girls balled their fists and were about to get ready to charge at each other. Both of their fists balled tightly and read to punch each other in the face, as they ran towards each other their fists swung towards each others faces.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion as the two did this, Beerus watched and smirked as he knew Scarlet's punch would knock Kurumi out of the ring, that way she could move onto the next opponent. Even though Natsu wasn't in the ring his nose could smell someone from within the tournament ring. Three to be exact but they seemed to have split up as one smell was going directly towards Scarlet and Kurumi.

"Scarlet! Twelve o'clock!" Natsu yelled as he stood up.

Scarlet heard the dragon slayer shouting, her nose twitched as she then picked up the smell. But before her fist or Kurumi's fist could collide with each other's faces, a blue wave of fire came shooting towards the two as it hit Kurumi instead of Scarlet. The fire pushed Kurumi out of the ring as she fell out and then vanished, she appeared in the stands as she fell onto her butt.

"What the hell?!" Kurumi barked as she glanced over to where she was originally.

Scarlet stopped as she felt the heat from the flames against her body, she scanned around trying to find out who did this. She knew this wasn't Todoroki's flame, she began to wonder if this was Dabi's flames. But she doubted it would be, she knew if it had been. Dabi would take her out as well and not just Kurumi, she didn't even smell the League of Villains either.

"Oh I'm sorry, did I interrupt something important?" An unfamiliar voice spoke from the direction the flames came from. "If I did, then I'm not sorry. You should've handled your lover conflict else where."

Scarlet turned around as she saw a girl with a sadistic look on her face with a blue flame in her hand, she didn't recognize this girl. But her gut told her that this chick was way more evil than she was. "And who might you be?"

The girl smirked as she laughed. "I am Azula, princess Azula the rightful heir to the Fire Kingdom, and I will not lose in this tournament to anyone. I will prove to everyone here what true horror and terror really is!" She laughed again as she fired the blue flames at Scarlet surrounding her in a wall of flames. "And you will be my next target."