Another punch flew past, a quick dodge sending it whistling away. Katniss snapped a hand around the outstretched arm and rolled backwards, sending her father flying across the room with two swift feet to the chest.

"Had enough, old man?" she called, with more than a touch of spite.

He picked himself up with a grunt. "Damn. What the hell have you been doing, kid?"

Mr. Everdeen charged again, leaning into a shoulder block. Katniss ducked and nailed him in the gut with a fiery Shohiken uppercut. The sound of her father falling to the ground was almost rhythmic by this point.

"If I can't convince you that you're wrong, Dad, I'm just going to have to kill you every time you get in my way. So I've been training."

"Listen to yourself! You don't sound like any daughter of mine. You're more of a monster than those blowhards in the Capitol."

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" screamed Katniss. "This isn't MY fault! It's YOURS. If YOU didn't show up in this goddamn thing, I wouldn't have to do this!"

The red aura of the Satsui no Hado exploded out of her, curling into wicked flames. Her father stepped back in fear, bracing himself for the imminent attack.

"What have you done? Katniss?! Listen to me!"

Katniss raised a fist, the energy swirling around in a caricature of her motion.

"You say you're my father," she said. "But I don't care who you are. Prove to me that you are worthy."

"Wh-what?"

Katniss slammed her raised arm back to the ground with an open palm, and a massive shockwave rippled out through the floor, uprooting the floorboards and sending her father flying into a wall. Before he had a chance to fall to the ground, she ripped him from the wall and shoved him back onto the floor.

"Prepare yourself for death," she hissed, collecting ki in her hands.

"Katniss! Stop it! What are you doing?"

"Finishing this," she said, bringing her open hands together in front of her. "HADOKEN!"

Her father tossed himself aside, the fireball barely missing his chest. It instead clipped his leg, and exploded into burning ghostly flames, which seared the skin and disappeared without a trace. He pulled himself to his feet, unsteady on his newly-injured leg. He threw a punch, which Katniss intercepted with an open hand. Her fingers clenched around his fist, the very touch of the dark energy swirling around her causing pain.

"Isshun Sengeki."

The world around Mr. Everdeen dissolved, and all that remained was agony. His daughter disappeared, but his body was surrounded by the pain of millions of strikes. They ripped through his body and straight to his soul, unlike any punch or kick. He felt his life fading, and rushed toward death, a blessed escape from this terrible new hell.

Katniss turned away from the man who claimed to be her father, leaving his corpse behind her. The Satsui no Hado ebbed and swelled, its energy etching a flickering kanji onto her jacket- messatsu. Katniss could not see it, nor did she understand that strange language that she was compelled to scream as she attacked. But she could feel it permeate her being.

My entire life has been nothing but destruction. Now, I have become one with that force, and it is mine to command.

***

The unicorn materialized with a flash in front of the other fighters, who were passing around one of Alucard's pistols' bullets.

"So, it's made of solid silver," said Mikasa, rotating the heavy, grey lump slowly.

Ryuko snatched it from her, reading the writing along the bottom of the casing. "From melted crosses? Out of actual churches? That's pretty metal."

"Guys?" said Twilight, gaining their attention. "Holly's about back. We're going to need to make sure that she finishes Dio- we don't need him regenerating again. Where's Katniss?"

"She went back to fight her dad," explained Ryuko. "Say, why does she get another person from her universe?"

"That's a long story," said Twilight, her tone serious. "But we need to make sure she's all right. Bad things happen when those two fight." She was going to elaborate for the girl when a distant sound made one of her ears twitch in attention.

"What is that?" she said, looking around for the source.

"Sounds like an electric pencil sharpener," said Alucard.

"What are you guys even hearing?" wondered Ryuko, cupping a hand around her ear.

"There, there it is," whispered Mikasa.

It was a gritty whine, very much like an electric pencil sharpener indeed. The listeners quickly identified the sound's creator, a very battered-looking, gaudily-clad vampire, flailing through the air.

"WreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeGAAAAAH," screamed Dio, colliding with what remained of the mansion's fortifications before falling to the ground with a splat. The warriors drew their weapons, ready for Dio to use his Stand at any moment to strike. With great effort, he picked himself up, teetered dangerously on his broken legs, and fell back down.

"Shouldn't he be regenerating?" asked Ryuko, lowering her Scissor Blade.

Twilight nodded. "He certainly did before."

"How typical," mused Alucard.

"What? What's typical?" said Twilight.

"Did you notice the bodies nearby when we fought him the first time? They were shriveled- he had just sucked them dry. With all of that fresh blood, his regeneration was enhanced. That's the only way he was capable of such healing. But as a lesser vampire, without a constant supply of blood, his abilities are hampered," he explained. "I have long since transcended such restrictions."

"Well, good for you!" sneered Ryuko.

A few thuds were all the more warning they received before Holly smashed through a row of houses into the square, roaring furiously. The team took a few steps back from his body, allowing the elf titan to stomp him into the ground a few times. She then plucked him out of the crater by his legs, and slammed him into the cobblestones repeatedly, growling with joy.

The god-robed girl again had concerns. "Isn't this overkill?"

"Maybe not," thought Twilight aloud. "Remember when Katniss shot him with a hadoken? Afterward, he couldn't use his Stand. If it takes any effort at all to use that power, it would probably be impossible for him to do it while taking a beating like this."

"So she's actually preventing him from using that ability for our sake, right?"

"Oh no," said the unicorn with a smile. "She's just in a bloodlust-induced rage right now."

"Ah," said Ryuko, who took another step back.

Twilight called up to the titan, using gentle tones to prevent any sort of provocation. "Holly? Could you bring Dio down here for a moment? It'll be quick, I promise."

Reluctantly, Holly stopped smacking the scenery with the vampire's limp body, and placed him on the ground.

"…uhn… I… can't…" he grunted.

"Regenerate?" said Twilight.

"Believe it. Beaten… by a bunch of little girls… and a half-rate vampire."

"By my calculations, Alucard is far more powerful than you. Your ability to stop time gives you a slight edge in battle, but you don't seem to have that anymore."

"Also, I can be a little girl, too," noted Alucard. Twilight gave him a disapproving look.

The unicorn cleared her throat and continued. "Now you have only one soldier left, and I think Katniss has probably taken care of him by now."

"But… I'm DIO… I'm invincible…!"

"Holly, go ahead."

The titan, which had been doing its best to not interrupt, lashed out greedily, snatching Dio by an arm and dangling him in front of her face.

"Ghurrr," Holly burbled, opened her mouth, and dropped him in.

"Oh-" stammered Ryuko. "She's really going to-"

CRUNCH.

With a shower of blood, Holly's teeth tore Dio to pieces, shredding flesh and breaking bone. Through the titan's lack of lips, the vampire's limbs could be seen as they were dismembered individually, and at one point his head rolled between the teeth, popping like a pomegranate seed. A heavy swallow later, and the sickening display was over. Holly ran an arm over her mouth, failing to wipe away any of the mess. Then, with a spasmodic jolt, the titan whipped an arm behind her back, digging her fingers under the skin. With another spasm, it ripped away the nape of its neck, and fell to the ground. The fighters rushed over to the chunk of titan flesh, working quickly to recover their friend.

"Ooooh, I think I'm going to be sick," said Holly's head as it was pulled from the steaming mass.

"Hopefully it won't spawn some sort of cosmic evil this time," muttered Twilight. It didn't. The elf pulled herself out of the disintegrating piece of titan meat, the left-over strands evaporating off of her body. She shivered, clenching her arms around her body.

"That… was not pleasant. At all."

"You seemed to be enjoying yourself," scoffed the unicorn, wiping a rivulet of Dio's blood off of her face.

"Believe me, I wasn't the one enjoying anything. Mostly." Holly looked around the ruined square feverishly, then turned back to Twilight. "Where'd Katniss go?"

"I just told them. She went back in the mansion to fight-" an explosion from within the mansion interrupted her. The foyer, which had been open to the air since Holly transformed, was now filled with a plume of smoke and dust. Something red glowed behind the dark, flowing sheet.

"ARE YOU WORTHY?" growled Katniss' voice from within the smoke.

Holly sighed audibly. "That poor girl. I should start investing in her losing it."

"That energy," whispered Twilight, staring into the swirling black fumes. "It's the Satsui no Hado. Someone so new to the art couldn't have tapped into it with this kind of power, not yet."

"Not unless that magic-genesis-absolute-territory field happened again," said Holly giving the unicorn a sideways glance. Twilight cursed under her breath again, which was still hilarious.

Katniss stepped out of the haze, surrounded by the fiery evil ki. Her hair and her jacket- tied arm-over-arm around her waist- tossed back and forth in the air, suspended by the raw power of the energy.

"Katniss. You don't need to do this," warned a stern Twilight.

"Fighting is my life. I do need to do this," Katniss hissed through gritted teeth.

"I want you to take a few deep breaths and calm do-" a fireball exploded against the unicorn mid-sentence, tossing her across the square. Alucard, in some unnatural display of compassion, took off after Twilight's falling body.

"Who's next?" said Katniss, feverishly glancing at the remaining girls. Mikasa, not usually one to run from a fight, dropped her blade-less swords' trigger-grips, letting them fall to her sides. She crossed her hands behind her head and took a few steps back.

Ryuko chuckled. "I've still got my sword." She extended an open hand toward Katniss and waved her on.

"Prove to me your worth," Katniss spat, slowly advancing. "And fight me without your weapon."

"If you say so," smiled Ryuko, who drove the tip of the Scissor Blade into the ground nearby.

Ryuko. That's putting us at a distinct disadvantage.

"Relax, Senketsu. We'll just change form if we have to."

I guess so. Be careful.

Katniss leapt toward Ryuko, extending an open hand upward in mid-air. Ryuko knew that a palm strike certainly wouldn't hit her at that trajectory, so she was probably aiming for the ground. She kicked off the ground backwards, sailing up as Katniss landed, creating a brutal shockwave along the ground. Now that her opponent was grounded, Ryuko could make her move. The booster on the back of her Kamui flared to life, propelling her toward Katniss.

"I'll call this the STOP-MAKING-FUN-OF-HOW-SENKETSU-LOOKS-PUUUUUUNCH!" she screamed, diving toward her target fist-first. Katniss looked up, and began to rise to her feet when the attack knocked a hole through the street.

"That got her, for sure," grunted Ryuko. But as the dust cleared, she noticed there was no unconscious girl at her feet, or anywhere. In fact, Katniss stood just in front of her, arms crossed, with a disappointed scowl on her face.

"Hmph," Katniss muttered, shaking her head.

Ryuko spun on a heel, sending a foot flying toward the super-charged girl. "HE-AND-I-ARE-FRIENDS-AND-YOU-CAN'T-CHANGE-THAT-KIIIIIIIIIIICK!" Again, the strike should have connected with Katniss, but the instant before, she was gone.

"Ryuko!" called Holly from the sidelines. "Twilight's not here! She can't hear you!"

"THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO GIVE ME ADVICE ON?" yelled Ryuko before being blasted back by a hadoken. She flew into the side of a house, leaving a sizeable dent in the stone wall. Ryuko grimaced and pulled her limbs out of their self-dug trenches.

"How are you doing, Senketsu?"

Fine, Ryuko. This is more annoying than anything.

Holly watched the battle carefully, analyzing Katniss' moves in case she would have to be the one to stop the crazed girl. The elf looked across the square to where Twilight had fallen, and decided that she and Alucard might need some assistance. She focused her magic into rapid back-and-forth movement, vibrating out of the visible spectrum, and hustled toward the unicorn.

I'm sorry Katniss. I thought I was helping you through this. Why are you still so desperate to win, to sink to this?