As Maki's blade descended upon Panda, he quickly brought up an arm to defend himself, still confident he could defend against Maki's attack based upon her first hit earlier, though he did ready himself to reinforce his arms even more if he couldn't when he noticed the Naganita's orange glow and increased speed.
Maki's swing landed like the force of a semi truck kicking up a dust as Panda's arm was forced back and Panda himself was sent skidding away. A shallow cut could be seen on Panda's arm where the blade had connected, Panda only got to think about it briefly as he shifted back to his balanced form, looking more like a regular Panda.
'That attack was much stronger then before, I had to use up the rest of my brother's CE to reinforce my arm the moment her blade began cutting into my arm, otherwise it would have been cut off.' Panda sweat dropped at that near dismemberement of his arm as he noticed a drop of sweat on Maki's forehead.
'She's tired already? That doesn't make sense, she has great stamina, that must be what Sans meant when he said his technique would still benefit Maki, it must allow the user to substitute CE with a person's stamina. Which means instead of going up against her while she's powered up I should stall and wait for her to be too tired to continue.'
Maki took a moment to recover, 'I guess fully blocking the entire impact of Gorilla mode and Imbueing my weapon with Orange was more stamina draining then I thought,' She then saw Panda not moving in to attack her, 'I guess he noticed the cost of using this power with no CE, doesn't matter though, it just means I need to finish this quickly and decisively.'
Maki returned to her starting stance and replaced the Purple she imbued herself with Orange as she charged at Panda moving faster then she ever had before, putting him on the defensive. Maki continued pushing Panda back with each swing keeping her body moving the entire time so as to keep Orange active. Panda was forced parry each of Maki's swings to avoid the full force of each attack.
Even then Panda was barely keeping up with Maki's increased speed but he did notice that her swings didn't have as much force nor speed as the original did, telling Panda that she was conserving her stamina despite being on the attack, though for what yet he wasn't sure.
During this Megumi suddenly appeared as if being pushed, bumping into Nobara before she then disappeared. "What just happened?" Asked in confusion
"Oh I didn't tell you, my best boney bud can also teleport like me, though his is a bit different from mine, anyway quite down we're watching Panda get womanhandled right now." Satoru finished with a smirk as he shoved Megumi into his seat.
"Tuna tuna," Toge said as Maki performed an impressive combo that pushed Panda even harder.
As the battle continued Maki begun to get used to her increased speed and adjusted her attacks accordingly, putting even more pressure on Panda. As Maki went for an overhead swing, 'Oh crap!' Panda fully gave up on defense and begun literally running away from Maki on all fours.
Maki was taken aback for a second before coninue her chase for Panda and begun directing him to a wooded area neaby with her attacks, all the while wearing a terrifyingly smile on her face, picturing a future confrontation with a certain old man.
Maki's smile unsettled Panda as he continued to run, using the trees as cover, he grew even more panicked as some of the trees were felled from Maki's attacks.
Eventually he lost track of Maki and no longer could hear her deforestation efforts, so he stopped where he was and looked around on high alert searching for any sign of that she monster.
Suddenly, faster then he could process, Maki appeard from his side faster then even before, including her first use of Orange, she swung, intending on bisecting him when he suddenly fell and appeared back with Sans where he was first training Maki on how to use her abilities.
"W-what just happened?" Panda asked nervously, he turned to Sans as he stood up as he had landed on his butt.
"I just saved your life with a shortcut, now shake my hand, it's your turn to make a Pact," Sans said nonchalantly. Panda hesitantly did so still recovering from being hunted.
---
"Aww, party's over, hey Megumi, what kind of power did you get?" Satoru asked now that the fight was over.
A yellow and blue heart emerged in front of Megumi as he explained, "Justice and Integrity, the first allows me to fire a projectile that can change it's direction mid flight and where it is coming from, the second allows me to change and adjust my own gravity."
"Very cool, and you Nobara?"
"Perseverance and Integrity, you already know both of them with Maki demonstrating the first and Megumi explaining the second." She said as she brought out her own Soul, a half purple half blue heart.
Gojo observed the Souls for a moment with his six eyes, yet he couldn't pick up on anything, 'I guess I'll have to make a Pact as well if I really want to learn what it is.' Gojo thought as he gave up his investigation temporarily.
"What do you think yours will be?" He asked Toge behind him.
"Bonito flakes," he said with a shrug.
"Yeah that makes sense, you don't even know all the options yet. Anyway I'll be heading out now, I've got some very important business to attend to, try not to kill each other while I'm gone." With a final wave Gojo disappeared, off to deal with yet another headache that required his attention seeing as the old heads wouldn't be getting off their lazy asses anytime soon.
---
Inside the space generated by the Pact Sans was explaining the basics when he addressed the elephant (or Panda in this case) in the room. "Now as a Cursed Corpse, things for you are a little different, a normal beings Soul is typically only composed of one or two (if they're over 10yrs old) dominant traits.
You however, matching your three cores, have three dominant traits," he explained as he pulled out Panda's Soul, which instead of the usual heart, was in the shape of a upside down triangle, indicatingit'sartificial nature. It was also separated into three distict colors, "those being Patience, Bravery, and Integrity. As result of your nature you can only use a specific trait when in a corsponding form, at least for now, that may change in the future.
Patience can be used in your balanced form, Bravery in your Gorilla form, and Integrity in your Triceratops form." Sans finished his explanation with a tired sigh, 'maybe I should have just explained it to them all at once, oh well, maybe next time,'
Panda stared at his Soul for a moment 'huh neat,' before moving on to complete the Pact. "So what do you get then?"
"Well due to your nature as a Cursed Corpse created by someone else I'll settle for just your memories when you die, normally I'd ask for your Cursed Energy as well, but I don't want to risk anything by taking in the Energy of a being created by another, so we have a deal then?" Sans finished by extending his hand.
"Why not?" Panda said as he shook Sans' hand.
---
(There will be a bit of a time skip next chapter, these past few chapters are for build up to the Goodwill event)
(Also leave me suggestions for what kind of Soul each student from both Tokyo and Kyoto should have)