Jin looked up at Jean from where she was floating in the sky. He was confused, and not just because she was moving and not moving at the same time, which made absolutely no sense. He pulled up the system window.
[M.O.T.S.]
[TEMPLATE: SAILOR MOON]
[Assimilation Threshold Reached: 15%]
[Ability Gained: Moon Tiara Action]
[Next Threshold: 20%]
Jin stared at the system window and, for a few seconds, genuinely turned into a fool. He couldn't help it. Seconds ago, he had been daydreaming about using the Silver Crystal purification combo on Jean, but now he was left with a new template and an ability that probably couldn't even scratch Gojo, let alone the woman currently radiating enough power to make the entire battlefield feel insignificant.
Jin ran his hand through his hair as he looked back up at Jean, who was already preparing another blast. The fact that it was nearly identical to the attack she had thrown at him only moments ago told him everything he needed to know. Whatever she had just done clearly hadn't satisfied her.
Using Infinity, Jin put space between himself and the ground and slowly rose until he was level with Jean's eyes. His expression shifted between disbelief and resignation as he looked at the cosmic power surrounding her, before his gaze dropped briefly toward the newly acquired template in his system.
Just what was he supposed to do with that?
He looked back at Jean, then at the system, then back at Jean again.
A faint smile appeared on his face despite himself.
"Well," Jin muttered, "as they say in JJK…"
He raised one hand toward Jean as another overwhelming blast of Phoenix Force gathered in front of her.
"When the enemy is stronger…"
His smile widened.
"Just hit harder."
The moment the words fell, the atmosphere all around them changed, and Jean hurled the cosmic ball at Jin, but he was faster. Slipping beneath Jean as if he had teleported—because he had—Jin grabbed her ankle with as much strength as he could muster and, using the repulsive force of Red, hurled her as far as he could in the direction of the Nevada desert.
And using Red against Infinity, he hurled himself after her, successfully taking the fight away from any place that would have made the U.S. government come after him for damages afterward.
Back to Jean, the force of the throw had her spinning in the air as she was rocketing uncontrollably at speeds that would have made speedsters pull their hairs out.
She stabilized herself, but at that instant another Red hit her, flinging her even faster in that direction until she crashed into the sandy desert multiple times before she finally stabilized herself, and the moment she stood up, Jin appeared in an instant, his Red-enhanced fist already swinging towards Jean's ribs, but he was flung back as Jean released a burst of cosmic energy in all directions, flinging him further away before he appeared a few meters away unharmed.
"Infinity," he said, "putting an enormous amount of compressed distance between us. Your attack was just too slow."
Jean glared at him but said nothing.
Jin frowned.
"Darn it. Couldn't even get a reaction out of her."
Jean suddenly raised her hand, and Jin's expression changed when he felt the space around him begin to tremble. A sphere of cosmic energy formed above her palm before she launched it toward him, the attack tearing through the desert with enough force to vaporize everything in its path.
Jin tilted his head slightly before disappearing, allowing the blast to tear through the spot where he had been standing and carve an enormous trench into the sand behind him. He reappeared several dozen meters away, dust swirling around his body as he looked at the destruction behind him.
"Okay," Jin muttered, glancing at the trench. "That would've been bad."
Jean was already moving.
She crossed the distance between them in an instant, cosmic energy coating her fist as she swung directly toward his face. Jin raised his forearm and caught the blow, but the sheer force behind it sent him skidding backward through the sand. His shoes carved two deep trails into the ground before he finally stopped himself, and before Jean could follow up, Jin twisted his body and disappeared.
Jean's eyes immediately scanned the battlefield.
Jin appeared above her.
She looked up just in time to see his fist descending.
Jean crossed both arms in front of herself, forming a barrier of cosmic energy that caught the blow. The impact detonated through the barrier and sent both of them flying in opposite directions. Jin flipped through the air and landed cleanly while Jean recovered herself several meters away, her feet touching the ground without so much as a stumble.
Jin stared at her for a moment.
"You know, most people would at least pretend to be impressed."
Jean's eyes narrowed.
"You talk too much."
Jin's eyebrows rose.
"Oh, so you do speak."
Jean's response was another blast of cosmic fire.
Jin leaned sideways as the attack passed beside his head, close enough for the heat to make his hair flutter. He immediately closed the distance, appearing directly in front of Jean and throwing a punch toward her stomach. Jean caught his wrist before it connected, twisted his arm, and attempted to throw him over her shoulder.
Jin vanished before she could complete the motion.
He reappeared behind her and drove his knee toward her back, but Jean spun around and caught his leg with a telekinetic grip. Jin's eyes widened slightly as she hurled him across the desert. He crashed through the ground, rolled several times, and came to a stop in a cloud of dust.
For a moment, Jean simply watched.
Then Jin emerged from the dust, brushing sand from his clothes.
"Okay," he said, looking down at himself. "You definitely hit harder than you look."
Jean raised her hand again.
Jin immediately raised his own.
"Wait, wait, wait. We can talk about this."
The cosmic energy around Jean intensified.
"Apparently not."
Jin sighed.
"Yeah, figured."
He disappeared just as another cosmic blast tore across the battlefield, and when he reappeared, he was already moving toward her again. Jean fired several smaller blasts in rapid succession, forcing Jin to weave between them while using short bursts of Blue to alter his position mid-movement. He slipped past one attack, ducked beneath another, and appeared beside Jean, only for her to swing a wave of cosmic energy directly into him.
Jin crossed his arms.
The impact launched him backward.
He flipped through the air before landing on his feet, his expression slowly becoming more serious.
"Okay," he said. "You're actually pretty good."
Jean didn't answer.
Instead, she began gathering even more energy around herself.
Jin watched the growing aura and immediately recognized that whatever she was preparing was going to cover considerably more ground than her previous attacks.
He sighed.
"Right. Time to stop playing nice."
Cracking his knuckles, Jin raised his hand as marks erupted around his skin from head to toe, not that Jean could see the marks on his toes.
"If nice guy attacks won't work, let's step it up a bit."
The air around him turned heavy as he let out a bloodthirsty aura.
"Cleave."
An invisible slash rocketed toward Jean, who dove to the side as her senses screamed and released her cosmic fire toward him in a counterattack.
Quickly, the battle turned into a farce.
Using Blue, Jin would pull Jean towards an already released Cleave before using Red to push her away the moment the attack was about to hit. He did this over and over again until Jean got fed up with being toyed around with as she prepared a bigger attack that, just from looking at it, you knew had a larger attack area.
"Nu uh, you ain't using that on me."
Appearing instantly behind Jean, he delivered a neck chop that struck her unconscious instantly, and looking at the battlefield one last time, Jin sighed.
"Phew. Not much damage."
Before disappearing with Jean over his shoulder.