Chapter 22: Toph vs Scarlet

Toph knocked Natsu and Ed out of the ring as both of them were sent to the side lines to sit and watch, they couldn't do anything now. Alphonse had been out too thanks to what Scarlet did. Toph smirked as she took a stance feeling the ground below her feet waiting for Scarlet to make her first move.

"Well? Any day now!" Toph barked as she kept her smirk on her face. "Or are you just chicken and scared of a blind girl?"

Scarlet scoffed as she watched Toph move her feet across the ground. She could tell she was trying to sense her movement, she didn't give Toph the time to feel any vibrations from her. The Grimm girl jumped into the air and over Toph's head as she went to punch her in the back. But somehow Toph figured out what she was planning as she slammed her foot down onto the ground as a rock shot up hitting Scarlet square in the stomach.

Scarlet gasped for air as her breath was taken away from getting hit in the stomach from the rock Toph shot up from below. Toph smirked as she slammed her foot down as more rocks shot up from below and hit Scarlet, nearly knocking her out of the ring. Scarlet slammed Black Rose down into the ground and stopped herself from falling out, she jumped onto the handle of the scythe and leaped off from it and did a air dive kick straight to Toph's face.

Toph stumbles back as she gets her footing and moves around to sense Scarlet's footsteps. "Where are you?" Toph kept her ears peeled as she listened and felt the ground with her feet.

Scarlet smirked as she stood behind the Earth-bender, she leaned into her ear and blew into it. "Behind you."

Toph shivered from the sudden air from Scarlet's mouth into her ear, she turned around as she had a fist full of rocks ready to punch Scarlet in the gut. But she missed, she didn't feel anything collide with her fist. Toph was confused now, she was told Scarlet was behind her. Scarlet snickered as she grabbed Toph from behind as she was practically glued to her in a way, each time Toph turned around Scarlet would be behind her. Her grip around Toph's waist was firm and tight, she bent backwards slamming Toph's head down.

Toph fell onto her head as she had gotten angry. She jumped up to her feet as she felt around the ground for Scarlet's movements, she turned her head side to side listening for her as well. Then she felt her movements, Toph slammed her foot down onto the ground as a giant rock wall rose up from the ground. She then slammed both of her fists against the rock wall as two fists shaped rocks came launching forward at Scarlet and slammed into her body.

"Not so tough now are we?" Toph asked with a smug smile on her face.

Scarlet was taken by surprise as the rock shaped fists slammed into her body, over and over again. Then she felt the fists turn into opened hands as she was getting crushed between them, Toph laughed proudly as she squeezed and crushed Scarlet between the rock hands. Scarlet felt her body and bones break as she gritted her teeth, she couldn't move her body or even slip out between the small gap below her. Suddenly a ki blast came from out of nowhere and hit to rock hands causing a explosion.

"Hey! Who did that?!" Toph shouted.

Vegeta scoffed as he glared at the cloud of smoke. "I know you're stronger than that! Stop hiding in a shadow and prove that you're worthy, prove that you're more than what your mother once was! You're hiding in her shadow like a lost terrified puppy, or are you just going to let Salem's shadow consume you?" He was standing on top of a piece of rubble that wasn't too far from the fight between Toph and Scarlet.

Scarlet's red eyes glowed through the cloud of smoke as she began to laugh and laugh. "Who would've thought, the prince of Saiyans would be the one to save me. I must congratulate you for the motivational speech Vegeta." She grinned as she yanked Black Rose out from the ground and swung it around clearing the smoke around her. She lunged forward and kneed Toph in the face before doing a back-flip kick.

~~~

Goku chuckled as he heard what Vegeta said. "You said those words like a champ, I don't think I could've said it any better than you did Vegeta."

"Shut up clown, I only did it because I didn't want us to lose this tournament, not to some group of teenagers with powers like those." Vegeta said glancing over to Aang and the other three. "Hmph, look at them. Air-bending, Water-bending and Fire-bending. That other fool among the group doesn't even have any skills like that. Just his boomerang and a sword."

"What? Come on, this is the Multiversal tournament, of course there will be other skilled fighters out there." Goku said as he chuckled again. "Besides, Jiren and the others are here too. Aren't you a tiny bit glad we're not the only ones who are partaking in this? Sure some of the other universes didn't come. But on the bright side, we got Universe 11, 6 and 2 here."

Vegeta scoffed as he looked back over to Toph and Scarlet's fight. "That's all fine and dandy, but maybe you've forgotten something Kakarot. Universe 2 is down to two members now. The rest were already pushed out by those cloaked freaks over there." He pointed over to the Akatsuki. "Their leader didn't even break a sweat at all."

Goku crossed his arms as he tilted his head. "Hmm, yeah you're right. Oh hey, I know! Why don't we go take them out?"

Vegeta scoffed and Blue Evolution and left with Goku to fight the Akatuki, leaving Scarlet and Toph to their fight.

Scarlet snickered as she grabbed Toph by her hair and slammed her down onto the ground before throwing her. The two Zeno's watched in amazement everything going on, The Grand Priest watched on as well as he smiled. "Well then, this is starting to heat up big time. Are you enjoying this new tournament?" He looked back at the two Zeno's.

"Yeah yeah, this is so cool!" Both Zeno's said at the same time. "So many fighters, and so many cool powers!"

"Indeed it is." The Grand Priest said with a smile. "Indeed it is."

Toph tried to surround Scarlet in rocks again as the blind Earth-bender sent a tidal wave of rocks towards Scarlet and split it in half surrounding the Grimm girl, Scarlet noticed this as she reached into her coat pocket and threw a dust crystal towards Toph. The dust crystal was lightning dust, it hit Toph as she had gotten shocked and zapped by it. Since she couldn't see it she was clueless on what Scarlet just did to her.

Scarlet grinned as she rushed over to where Toph was at and round house kicked her knocking her straight out of the ring. Scarlet smirked as she watched Toph vanish from the outer ring and into the stands. Her nose picked up a familiar scent, one that was all too familiar to her. As she turned her head to the side, click of a gun being pointed at the back of her head was heard.

"Well well, isn't this surprising."The voice spoke as it was way too familiar. "Turn around slowly, and maybe we can just have a bit of fun in this tournament."

Scarlet knew the voice as she turned around slowly, but grabbed the person's arm and slapped the gun out of their hand. "Hello Kurumi."

Kurumi was surprised, she didn't think Scarlet knew who she was. This Kurumi wasn't her wife, but she was the past Kurumi. She wore her hair down and not in pigtails, and she had an eyepatch over her eye to hide the clock. This Kurumi didn't dawn her red and black dress, she had instead wore a black Gothic Lolita dress with the additional white trims around the skirt and a black bow tie on her chest with a red rose in the center, and a rose hairband in her hair. "How do you know who I am? I've never seen you before."

Scarlet looked at her as she could tell just by the way she looked and how she hid her clock eye with an eye patch. This Kurumi wasn't the current one, nor was it a clone. This was past Kurumi. A smile spreads across Scarlet's face as she snickered. "Oh I see, you're not the Kurumi I know, I get it. You're her past-self. Interesting... It's amazing how you have no idea about me. But I'm sure the current you would eventually fill you in at some point."

Kurumi growled as she aimed her musket at Scarlet's face. "That didn't answer my question, but if you know my current self. Then that must mean I had my powers sealed by someone.... Perhaps you? I'll have you know, I'm not a push over like she is. I'm much more ruthless."

Scarlet cackled as she licked her lips. "Is that so? Well then... Kurumi, let this be a battle worth remembering. I will not hold back!" She spun Black Rose around as she slammed the tip of Black Rose down into the ground.

From the sidelines Beerus looked over at Whis. "Whis, I thought time travel was forbidden? What gives? Why is a past version of her here and not the current one?"

Whis smiled as he looked at Beerus. "It's simple my lord, there are countless numbers of how many Kurumi Tokisaki's there can be. For example, White Queen.. She sees herself as the original Kurumi. However, Kurumi herself was human at one point. Until she was turned into the Nightmare spirit she is now, the Kurumi we see before us is her past-self. While the current Kurumi is the future version, there are multiple numbers of how many Kurumi's there are. Some can be clones of herself taking her place, or some could be from different timelines."

Beerus crossed his arms as he nodded. "I see, so why her past-self?"

"It's simple...past Kurumi never encountered Scarlet before. Unlike her current self. She is much more ruthless than she is, there is no time travel involved with the vast variety the spirit has... As a matter of fact, there was currently a timeline where Shido Itsuka died in her arms all thanks to a certain person they all were working together to beat. However, Kurumi did not obtain an inverse transformation like Tohka and the others have. She tried her best to revive Shido, but she had no choice in the matter but to go to a timeline where Shido's death never occurred." Whis explained as he closed his eyes and opened them again as he looked at the arena. "White Queen is speculated to be the inverse form Kurumi avoided to turn into. She used her spirit powers to shoot herself in the head to avoid turning."

"Interesting, perhaps I should deal with Queen myself the next time she causes trouble..." Beerus said as he watched the tournament continue.

Whis knew that if Beerus did that, Scarlet would be angry at him for taking her one goal of getting revenge.