Volume 12's POV: Third Person POV

It was a long time before Miyuki had awoken. The sky had fallen into night, but there was no way to see that from where she was located now. This room she found herself in was massive, easily twice the size of the cafeteria. The walls were plated in gold, the supporting pillars were finely crafted, paintings of all kinds from abstract to landscapes were put on display, and there was a fine red carpet from the doorway that led to the throne at the other end of the room. Was she even at school anymore? Miyuki couldn't tell. Her face was of confusion, her eyebrows briefly furrowing until she took the sight of the ropes that bound her to a chair.

"H-huh?!" She squirmed briefly in her chair, but neither the chair nor the ropes would budge. The metal chair she sat in was bolted to the ground. This situation felt oddly familiar to her...

What she wasn't familiar with however was the table next to her. On that table was a wine glass which was half-full of what had to be alcohol. Miyuki's never been close to alcohol before, but did alcohol ever smell this strong? The scent felt like it was burning her nose with the glass only sitting next to her.

"How are you feeling, my dear?" A familiar voice would be heard from in front of her. She was so lost in the examination of where she was that she failed to notice who was standing in front of her. The sight of the man made her try to squirm a little harder to get out of the ropes, though it wouldn't budge.

"L-let me out!" Miyuki would shout, though knew that there was no 'escaping' these binds when he was around.

"I'll take that as 'decent'. Good to know, good to know." He would reply, then proceeding to reach into his dress coat's pocket and revealing a leather glove, which he would slip onto his right hand. "That means you're good enough for me to ask my questions."

Miyuki gazed at him with a mix of fear and anxiety. What questions could he possibly ask? About the group? The group that was dead? No, they weren't about that at all. They were much more personal questions, which he was eager to jump into without hesitation.

"You're such a beautiful young woman, Miyuki. Young, strong, famous, and a quality I like the most: durable. I don't want to hurt you."

"B-but then why are you doing this–" Miyuki would be interrupted, Stronzo's finger being gently placed on her lips.

"No no, I am not done yet! Tsk tsk, interrupting me again would be just as bad as answering me wrong." Stronzo examined his glove, then looked back at Miyuki. "First question I would like you to answer: What are you?"

"Wh-what? Wh-what am I?"

"Did I stutter, my princess? I'd like to know what you are. The crowned and famous soccer champion! The word of the school district of someone so spectacular and impossibly catch-able that whatever school has them on their side might as well give up! I've longed to know just how you are able to act in such a way even before you dipped your toes into Ki. For all I am concerned, someone of your fighting ability should have been squashed by Seijo... but you lived. You are not normal, Slippy." Stronzo then leaned over and gripped the arms of the chair tightly, saying in a quieter tone: "I shall ask this again... what are you, Miyuki Sekken?"

"U-uuh.. I-I don't know! I-I guess I got lucky!"

"Wrong answer..." Stronzo sighed, then moving his gloved hand towards the wine glass, dipping his fist in the substance. Without warning, his fist furiously glided across her face, the force causing her to spit blood from the impact. "Your pretty face, it will be but a mess if you don't answer me honestly." As he spoke, Miyuki's face would begin to feel a sharp burn like if she were stung by a million bees. Her head rattled around from the impact, but she was lucky enough to recover... but the impact wasn't the bad part, but whatever was causing the prolonged stinging sensation that grew on her face by the minute.

"GAGH! Fucking- I WAS being honest!" and just as she would reply, a second punch would be felt across her face in the same spot. If the first punch was bad, this added to that torturous sensation. Her eyes began to water on its own, and her vision was beginning to go blurry.

"My birthday is in a few months, so I can't buy any nice wines until then. Rubbing alcohol will do just nicely for this."

("D-did he say RUBBING ALCOHOL?") Her eyes widened with the realization. That explained the extra burning sensation. He was aiming for an already existing wound on her face, which the alcohol would cause extra irritation. If she wasn't already panicking, she surely was now. She was now fighting her own breathing rate to keep herself calm, but it was hardly possible when she was trying to survive against someone as unpredictable as Stronzo.

"What are you, Miyuki? Are you human?"

"Wh-what do you mean?! Of COURSE I AM?! What do you think, I'd be some fucking alien or something?!"

"Tsk. Tsk. Raising your voice like that is kinda rude, isn't it?" He would blankly say. While he gave a sinister stare towards Miyuki, his gloved hand would be moving back over to the dreaded wine glass.

Sekken's heart would skip a beat at this sight, her angered tearing eyes turning into nothing but fear. "PLEASE! NO MORE! I SWEAR I AM BEING HONEST! I HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE ANYWAYS" She would miserably beg.

"Then answer me this: How did you get so powerful so quickly? It took over a year to get my men where they were in strength. You, however, reached their strength in a few short weeks."

"I-I'm not sure actually! Sora and I sparred every day for weeks! I was only a novice, but when you guys killed Sora, his body started glowing! I touched him and suddenly I got way stronger! Other than that, I SWEAR I DO NOT KNOW!"

"Hmmm..." Stronzo didn't deny what she said. It clearly was an honest answer, that he couldn't argue with.

"GAAAGH, FUCK!" She yelled when she would get another punch across the face. After the punch was thrown, Stronzo then slipped off the leather glove and sanitized his hands with a sanitizer he had in his dress coat's pocket.

"I had no idea you could pass power onto someone! There truly is more to this power than I had anticipated! I have much more to learn... much more to understand, so I can serve my Goddess to the best of my ability!"

"Y-your Goddess? Oh right, the 'Goddess of Shadows' or whatever. Honestly, I couldn't care what God or Goddess you believe in, you're still an asshole."

After the comment was made, the room would fall to an eerie silence. Stronzo gazed once more at Sekken, then his face beginning to wear a small smirk. He then raised a hand to his cigarette, holding in between his two fingers before releasing it from his mouth. He then exhaled his smoke, and let its blinding and irritating cloud of toxins fill the room. "I like you. I can't say I won't miss you when you're gone..." he then used those same two fingers, pressing the still-burning cigarette into the chest wound Miyuki had from her previous encounter with the laser cameras. She could scream in fury and pain all she wanted, but no one but Stronzo could hear her cries for help. Once her screams had settled, he pulled out his phone and held it over towards her. "Call them off."

"Nghh– Wh-what?"

"Call them off, you imbecile!" Stronzo yelled with irritation, then raising his hand towards a side door, that very door swinging open and pulling what was inside through.

She was speechless.

She couldn't believe it...

"M-MANAKA?!"

"She can't quite hear you right now." He would say, then walking over to the second year who was left in a blacked out state. She looked a lot skinnier than when Miyuki last saw her. Her hair was a mess, her skin was pale, and she looked like she had just come from a zombie apocalypse movie. "We've been taking some good care of your friend. After all, she is a blessed one. She was 'the chosen one' by the Goddess herself. As long as our Goddess is around, she is immortal. Immortality comes with eternal suffering, which I was graciously permitted with the ability to give depending on how 'cooperative' you were.

"Now, unless you like to see your friend in pain, call the police off!"

"M-Manaka... If you have Manaka, then what did you guys do to Megami?!"

"Megami? Who's Megami?"

"U-uuuh, she's short, quiet, and hates talking to people. She has short brown hair, and covered my shirt in red paint."

"Ooooohhh, pipsqueak! Hahahaha! I find it hard to believe anyone would care about them! I almost forgot she existed. It's been forever since I saw that depressing excuse of a person. Considering she didn't want to talk to anyone and instead kept whining about how pathetic she was, I was wrong to believe she didn't have any sorry-ass suck up friends. She's been missing for weeks now, but unfortunately we had nothing to do with it, sorry to disappoint. She probably went ahead and hung herself or something, that would've been great."

"H-Hung herself?! That's GREAT?! You want that?!"

"Why would that matter? She's a piece of shit, you know that? She only wanted attention, because clearly her parents weren't enough. You must wonder what kind of depressing person must be so desperate for attention that their own parents get tired of them. The only thing she had going for her were grades... she spent all of her life doing school work, because she had no other strengths of her own, so she leeched off of others' strengths instead!"

"That's sick..." Miyuki would mutter with a sharp glare. Her breathing had began to steady, but were now heavy breaths. Her hands gripped the arms of the chair. Her throat was slowly swelling, and felt like she was on the verge of throwing up. No words could describe the amount of emotions dancing through her mind.

"Tell me about it. Face it, no one cared about Megami."

"...I care! I cared about her!" Miyuki yelped, her watering eyes now overflowing into a river of tears and sobs. "I wanted to help her! I would have been so happy to be her friend! If wanting to be seen is a crime, then I guess I am a wanted criminal who'd be more than happy to have an accomplice! You're nothing but a cold hearted bully filled with your own insanity!"

"Big words coming from a lowly contadina." Stronzo then clenched his fist, walking over to the knocked out Manaka and throwing a single punch in her face. "My dad may not be entirely pleased to know that I punch women. He is all the way back in my home country, Italy, fortunately. If he was here to see everything else though, I believe he would be quite pleased... before attempting to buy I-35 out.

"Standards like his do bother me, because if we live in a world where all humans are created equal, then that must mean a woman should get the same treatment as any man. The way I run things, both a man and a woman will get disciplined by these hands, if it means that they both will understand."

One eye of Manaka's could be seen slowly creeping open. After the first opened, the second would burst open too. "O–P-PLEASE DON'T HURT ME! NOT AGAIN! PLEASE! PLEASE NOT AGAIN!" Manaka would wail in fear, her voice filled with screams of terror and distraught the moment she saw Stronzo. Miyuki's relief that her friend was alive suddenly turned into sympathetic fear.

"You're okay, princess. Remember, you're immortal! I cannot kill you as long as you are protected by our Goddess."

"WHAT KIND OF GODDESS–MMPH!" Before Manaka could question him, her mouth would be covered by Stronzo's hand, who would quietly hush her in a soft voice.

"I swear, you must have some brain damage, because we have this discussion everyday. Pity, it is."

"Maybe it's because you keep punching us in the head. That can cause brain damage, you know?" Miyuki would sarcastically respond. Stronzo's head turned over his shoulders, his sharp and intimidating glare shook her into freezing up. Gone was Stronzo's sinister smirk, as his face was devoid of the enjoyment he once had. He would then slowly walk towards Miyuki, and not being stopped by Manaka's sudden shouting:

"W-wait, Stronzo! She-she's just joking! Please don't hurt her!"

He, ignoring Manaka's plea, then grabbed the wine glass. Sekken's eyes widened with shock, dread washing over her. Soon enough, she would be washed with more than just dread, as the entire wine glass is splashed all over her chest. "You need to look into your sarcasm problem, Miss Slippy"

"Nggghh.. J-just c-call me Sekken" She said in between clenched teeth, trying her best to fight through the miserable pain and intoxicating scent of rubbing alcohol.

"A-are you okay, Sekken?!" Manaka worriedly asked.

"J-juuuuust peachy!"

"H-how can someone almost my age be so cruel to people..."

"Why, you think I'm cruel?" Stronzo questioned, then walking over to Manaka while wiping his hand off with his handkerchief. "As a wise man once said: 'If you want to test a man's character, give him power.' I use my power for nothing short of the success my beautiful Goddess and I desire. To do so, I care not about what others think of me. I let them decide for themselves, albeit they'll have consequences depending on their choice, as all things do.

"To think nothing short of a Deity would choose my humble cult Clan Dei Diavoli as its pupils! I was blessed by their beauty and gifted the ability to become the next world power! The Unknown Goddess grants those she sees as worthy the ability to tap into the world of power we at first sought as fiction. The supernatural does exist, and amongst a world of the savages and the powerless, we are gods"

"S-Sora was right! You really are insane!" Miyuki weakly exclaimed

"You really buy into that traitor's words?!" Stronzo scoffed, gripping his hands onto Miyuki's arm rests and looking her in the eye. "He was my right-hand man until he backstabbed me! He's after the same thing I am: overthrowing Japan! The only difference between him and I was that he seeked it for selfish reasons, while I sought that power to benefit our future. He was a nonbeliever of the Goddess that granted him his power, so he was destined to learn from his mistakes or suffer, and he chose to suffer." Stronzo would say, then noticing Miyuki's eyes were rolled to the side towards Manaka while he was talking. "Wait, what are you looking at?"

Miyuki shook her head and looked back at him "N-nothing, please continue"

"You weren't paying attention, were you?"

"I was, trust me." Miyuki would slowly say with a small nod before looking back at Manaka, tilting her head in confusion. While Stronzo was focusing on Miyuki, Manaka was sitting there trying to mouth something to Miyuki. She couldn't quite figure out what Manaka was trying to tell her. Manaka kept stretching her head downwards and trying to mouth the word: "R O P E"

Miyuki looked down at her rope, then at Manaka's. She still didn't get it. Meanwhile, Stronzo had ignored the two and continued to speak: "I have my doubts that you even care in the slightest what it is I tell you. You were always quite the blind one, Slippy. I have some empathy for you myself, as I understand what hardships you have been through.

"If I were to have our circumstances of meeting to have gone differently, I would have been more than happy to get to know you. After all, you are a legend in these parts even though you choose to be quite the jerk to your fans.

"I want you to see the right side of things. I haven't killed you because I wanted to teach you. After all, you've taken out all of my men and I am in need of some more Barricades and Captains. With how impressive of a fighter you have shown yourself to be, you would make a pretty nice Barricade. You can let yourself be free with your power and live as a pupil under our beloved Deity. That is what she would wish you to do, anyways, as she has told me herself. What do you say, Miyuki?... Miyuki?" Stronzo's train of thought would be suddenly interrupted by the feeling of two light taps on his shoulder.

It was Miyuki, who had a Ki-filled punch of her own to deliver to the back of his head, yelling furiously "HERE IS WHAT I THINK–" to her surprise, the punch would have been swiftly dodged, and then Stronzo retaliating with a back hand. This casual back-hand while not seeming impressive, it was enough to launch Miyuki across the room and tumbling into the wall.

"It was about time you broke out of those ropes... after all, Mr. Taro is no longer able to keep you Ki users in place." Stronzo would sigh with disappointment. It wasn't of his intention to fight Miyuki, but the choice would have been decided for him when he felt a sudden weight befall him, making him immobile.

"I g-got him Miyuki!" Manaka happily call out, leaning her head to see Miyuki recovering from being launched. Manaka would then suddenly feel her chair lifting off of the ground, then accelerating straight into the stationary Stronzo. At the same time Manaka rammed into Stronzo, Miyuki would throw another punch to the back of his head. Thanks to Manaka's ability being applied to Stronzo, it felt like they had just punched an impenetrable solid brick wall instead of a living person. As a result of this, both had come out sore while Stronzo, on the contrary, felt next-to-nothing.

"I like your ability, Omo." Stronzo commented while brushing off his suit. "Very useful. It's similar to mine in some ways, but I consider yours far inferior.

"If you two want to fight me, then so be it. I granted you the gracious opportunity to join our superpowered revolution, yet you choose to repay me and my Goddess by using your gifts against us, you ungrateful roaches." He then reached into his dress pocket, getting his lighter and another cigarette. He then placed the new one in his mouth, calmly saying "Come at me." while lighting it.