Jack the Ripper vs. Archer James Moriarty

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Description

Record of Ragnarok vs. Fate. They lived on through infamy to live again as warriors, ready for a grand battle.

Introduction

Wiz: Jack the Ripper, Humanity's Most Infamous Serial Killer.

Boomstick: James Moriarty, the Napoleon of Crime.

Wiz: Be it in fact or fiction, there are human minds who inevitably turn their way to the dark pits of depravity and evil.

Boomstick: And sometimes, a life after death is inevitable for the worst of them all, even if by that point, they are more blackish grey than pure black. He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.

Wiz: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armour and skills to find out who would win a Death Battle!

Jack the Ripper

Wiz: With humanity’s first victory in the third round of Ragnarok, the counterattack against their extinction from the gods had finally begun.

Boomstick: They’d finally managed to figure out what it took to triumph against the gods. Turns out, you shouldn’t fight harder, but instead, smarter.

Wiz: So they needed the sneakiest, most conniving individual they could find for their next round to continue their winning streak.

Boomstick: Oh god, so many jokes to be made there. But who they put up next was no laughing manner.

Wiz: Only in one area does humanity truly surpass the gods and their fourth representative was considered the perfect embodiment of it. Reflecting malice in its purest form, the most infamous figure in all of London, Humanity’s Most Infamous Serial Killer, let us introduce you to Jack the Ripper.

• Background
  • Age: 130+
  • Height: Est. 5’6
  • Humanity’s Most Infamous Serial Killer
  • AKA Artist of Death, Mr Anonymous
  • Favourite delicacies: Tea, apple pie

Boomstick: And just to clinch how utterly vile he was, who was it he was put against? Why, Greece’s most famous hero, Heracles. And what do you know, they actually got the spelling right this time. What’s more, despite fighting against humanity, Heracles stilled loved them as his original people, hoping to use his victory to petition for their survival.

Wiz: Like most serial killers, Jack’s started from an innocuous background and a warped sense of human understanding. He was born the son of a prostitute, only as a means for his mother to make sure that when his father returns, he wouldn’t be going anywhere without them.

Boomstick: But the lies of those in the Oldest Profession are not the only ones cast out. Trust me, I know. Jack’s father broke his promise by marrying into nobility and Jack’s mother took it out on him.

Wiz: As his mother became little more than a snarling animal, the colour Jack saw in her changed into a proper, true one when he slashed her throat out in self-defence. You see, Jack had himself a very unique eye, one that lets him see the emotions of others. With it, he can adapt to what a person is feeling or know the best course of action to take. There are certain people with pitch black colours but those are very rare for Jack to come across.

Boomstick: So when he cut down his fucker of a mother, he saw from her a genuine emotion, the only one he believed to be true a person in their final moments; fear. And what better way to see that over and over again than to take the lives of his helpless victims?

Wiz: And now, in Ragnarok, he aimed to see that emotion resonate from the body of a god.

Boomstick: It might have been easier had he gone up against Ares but against Heracles, he had his work cut out for him.

• Powers and Abilities
  • Golden Age
  • Soul Eye
    • Sees emotions
  • Expert strategist
  • Proficiency with weapons and random items
  • Organ and body shifting
  • Sharp senses

Wiz: As a soul in the afterlife, Jack remains in his peak physical capability in life, referred to as his Golden Age. Meaning he has highest amount of strength, stamina, speed and agility possible, but these factors alone are not his unique ability as one of the Einherjar.

Boomstick: Jack’s special attribute is that, simply put, he’s a clever little bastard with a penchant for traps and trickery. Always thinking two steps ahead, you’ll fall for his ploy long before he deploys it.

Wiz: More curiously, Jack is able to slightly shift his body in several ways. For one, he can move his internal organs about in order to avoid serious damage to them. And he can even extend his arm by dislocating the bones within it.

Boomstick: Doubt it hurts him too much, since he can smack a dislocated arm back into place with ease. And of course, what would a murderer be without the tools for his grisly job.

• Arsenal
  • Volund Gloves
    • Dear God
  • Magic Pouches
  • Giant scissors
  • Throwing knives
  • Piano wire
  • Umbrella
  • Giant switchblade
  • Grappling gun
  • Cloak
    • Rondo of Blessing

Wiz: The thing about each Einherjar is that they have their own Volund, a Valkyrie fusion which grants them a weapon tailored to their unique abilities. With his silver tongue, Jack misleads Heracles several times about just what his is.

Boomstick: At first, he says it’s a pair of giant scissors, befitting his childish glee at committing murderers. But when they break minutes into the fight, Jack reveals he lied, and introduces his true Volund as bottomless pouches. So long as the item he wants is smaller than the pouches, or composite parts for something bigger are, he can pull it out as much as he wants.

Wiz: Such as throwing knives, which he can throw with deadly precision. Or piano wire, useful for setting tripwires, ariel walkways or having his knives rebound after a prior throw.

Boomstick: Then there’s his weirder gear, like his grappling hook pistol, a giant switchblade he can throw like a boomerang, and an umbrella he can use as a shield to redirect attacks.

Wiz: So yes, these pouches are an integral part of Jack’s arsenal but in truth, aren’t his Volund either.

Boomstick: Here’s a hint – the items pulled out of those pouches aren’t capable of standing up to a god’s might unless it’s Jack himself pulling them out. And those hands of his are hidden behind some sweet gloves.

Wiz: The Volund formed from the Valkyrie Hlokk, these gloves work as a “magic touch”. Whatever Jack picks up becomes a god-slaying weapon.

Boomstick: His knives, his surroundings, his cloak and even the tiniest pebble and debris become capable of drawing blood from a god.

Wiz: And speaking of blood…

Boomstick: Oh, let’s save that for last. First, let’s talk about Jack’s insane pragmatism. First, he made Heracles think he had nothing to fear from his knives, dropping a bunch of unblessed ones onto him which bounced harmlessly off his pretty pecs. That led Heracles to making the mistake of thinking he could tank the ones Jack threw at him, but since they were touched with his gloves, he ended up a brief pincushion.

Wiz: Next, Jack made Heracles believe he only had to fear weapons from his pouches, so that when he threw a clockface from a tower at Heracles, he blocked it, only to lose at arm since it was now enchanted.

Boomstick: And then he let himself get impaled on a gate spike, kept it stowed as his false-trump card and used it to make Heracles think he was all out of options and could only keep fighting for defiance’s sake.

Popup: Jack’s strategies where so subtle and well-hidden, Hermes was unable to determine them, despite being the god foremost capable of understanding the abilities and processes of other Einherjar combatants.

Wiz: But Jack’s true trump card wasn’t the spike. Instead, his gamble was too collect enough blood on his hands so that his gloves could turn it into an impromptu organic weapon.

Boomstick: With the blood on his hands, Jack skewered Heracles, claiming the life of a god whose peers can casually destroy the Earth and move within light-speed moments.

Wiz: Obviously an amazing feat to be sure. But you know what’s even more amazing? That Jack the Ripper…isn’t actually Jack the Ripper.

Boomstick: Wait, what? But the whole…

• Feats
  • Lifted and threw a clock face
  • Sneaked up on Hlokk and forced a synchronization with her
  • Detected and avoided sniper-like shots from miles away
  • Loki and Hermes were unable to determine his gambles in battle
  • Defeated the original Jack the Ripper, Humpty Dumpty, Heracles

Wiz: Well, there was a Jack the Ripper but it wasn’t our Jack. The real Ripper was a report named Luke Evans. Our Jack slayed him, taking his name later in his afterlife to fight Heracles, and why? Because he was a government assassin for MI6.

Boomstick: So that’s why he was fighting other serial killers and assassins. Or maybe part of the reason. Whilst his actions did good for Britian, one must remember he was a child when he started killing. Creepy as it is, it does support the fact that Jack can still be called the most wretched of humanity.

Wiz: Even as his most noble, Jack’s inner sadism and bloodlust remained. And yet, even when taking the chance to indulge in those vices, Jack still went into battle against a literal god for the sake of humanity, even if they only saw him as the monster he’d cultivated himself as.

Boomstick: And fighting Heracles saw a change in Jack. Here he was, confronted with someone whose love for humanity was genuine despite all the evil they were capable of and who was willing to extend that same love to Jack.

Wiz: At first, Heracles’ claim to save Jack came across more of a mercy kill declaration, like putting down a mad dog. But with his colour of love unchanged, even when impaled on Jack’s bloodied hands, Heracles proved to Jack that, for all his evil, he could be loved. And through love can come change, as even whilst largely detested for the slaying of Heracles, there was those who saw he had become a new man.

Boomstick: So avert not thine eyes from this spectacle. Beauty is filth, filth is beauty and that man is as human as you or I.

Archer James Moriarty

Wiz: Even after their victory over the demon god Goetia, the Chaldea Security Organization still had their hands full with his, let’s say, parting gift.

Boomstick: Singularities, set into motion by the demon gods who remained after Goetia’s defeat, new and unnatural periods of time which threatened the stability of the larger timeline. It fell to Ritsuka Fujimaru and his waifu Mash Kyrielight to put a stop to them.

Wiz: The first of these was the Shinjuku Subcategory Singularity, a reflection of the real world city with the distinction of being plagued by magicians, deadly robots and the demon god Baal. And it didn’t go off to a good start for Ritsuka, considering he was sent tumbling through the air upon arrival without Mash at his side to help.

Boomstick: But the thing about Ritsuka is that he’s the Nasuverse’s equivalent of Ash Ketchum – no matter where he goes, there’s a Heroic Spirit nearby for him to add to his collection.

Wiz: Since it’s been a while since we had a Heroic Spirit AKA a Servant on the show, we’ll quickly refresh your memory. They are the immortalized versions of famous individuals or folkloric beings summoned for events such as Holy Grail Wars. The Chaldea could do the same thing for their missions, and often had to find or fight other Servants in the process.

Boomstick: So when Ritsuka tumbled through the air, he found himself rescued by one suave-looking Servant. And of all the legendary figures it could have been, few would have guessed the archenemy of Sherlock Holmes, the Napoleon of Crime himself, James Moriarty. In fact, they didn’t, at least not at the beginning but hey, we cut out the middle man.

• Background
  • Age: 55
  • Height: 5’9
  • AKA Archer of Shinjuku, the Napoleon of Crime
  • Likes: Evil planning
  • Also qualifies for Caster and Ruler

Wiz: Surprisingly, the Servant Class this Moriarty belonged to wasn’t of something one would expect, such as Caster due to his remarkable intelligence all things crime-related. Instead, and rather uniquely, he’s technically a fusion between a Servant and a Phantom, a failed Servant. James Moriarty takes up the main ego as it were but within his being is also the Freeshooter.

Boomstick: No, it’s not Simo Hayha, it’s the subject of a German opera who sold his soul to a demon to obtain bullets which would never miss their target.

Wiz: Sounds like a good combination of skill and intelligence. Not to deride the Caster class, but since James was now helping Ritsuka in a dangerous area, he needed some extraordinary firepower.

Boomstick: And boy did he! For one, he has a cane which functions as a gun, which is stylish all on its own. But the real showstopper is what he carries around, which is in fact the thing he should be in when his show stopped; his coffin!

• Arsenal
  • Reichenbach
    • Super-Excessively Armed Multipurpose Coffin
    • Giant coffin
    • Houses a machine gun, rocket launcher and laser cannon
    • Infinite ammunition
    • Usable as a melee flail
    • The Dynamics of an Asteroid: The Ultimate Crime
  • Gun Cane

Wiz: This is Reichenbach, the Super-Excessively Armed Multipurpose Coffin, based on the fact this is what he should have had come his final and fatal duel with Sherlock.

Boomstick: And it’s an appropriate term because this weaponized coffin is a freaking buffet of offense. Inside of it is a machine gun, a rocket launcher and a laser cannon, all of which never run out of ammunition or fuel. And surprisingly, it makes for a good melee weapon, since it’s equipped with a chain Jack can use to swing it like a flail.

Wiz: Now, Reichenbach itself isn’t James’ Noble Phantasm, his signature weapon as a Heroic Spirit. Instead, his Noble Phantasm is itself an attack, done with whatever means he has on hand.

Boomstick: In this case, it’s done with this case used for bodies. He bombards his opponents with a barrage of bullets and missiles before topping it off with an up-close laser blast.

Wiz: This action-focused Noble Phantasm is based on James’ ties to being the greatest criminal mastermind in history, since as the apex villain, it was his goal to defeat Sherlock Holmes and ultimately, everyone else, by committing the ultimate crime…

Boomstick: Making the whole planet go ka-boom! The ultimate act of evil you can imagine. Thankfully, his Reichenbach itself falls rather short of that threshold, and using it too much causes James back pain, although it is still a powerful weapon.

Wiz: Remember, ally to the main protag or not, James Moriarty is still a villain, and it is reflected in his personal skills.

• Powers and Abilities
  • Servant physiology and physical attributes
  • Genius intellect
  • Independent Action
  • Magic Resistance
  • Charisma of an Evil Genius
  • Magic Bullet Shooter
  • The End of the Spider Thread
  • Can fuse with slain Servants and Phantoms

Boomstick: Since he’s a Servant, he has superhuman speed, strength, stamina and durability, and as an Archer, has Independent Action from Ritsuka’s sourcing of magic energy for a short time and Magic Resistance. But from him comes from some rather appropriately shifty.

Wiz: Charisma of an Evil Genius reflects, well, James’ charisma, which he used to effectively forge a criminal empire. He can boost his allies with it and even direct the entire world from the shadows, with the lowest possible scale being command over all of the United Kingdom.

Boomstick: The ominously titled End of the Spider Thread is, in Layman’s Terms, the ability to scheme evil. Karma and punishment will end up redirected from James, letting him continue his plans uninterrupted as he disrupts order and contaminates goodness. In the end, with him having gone uninterrupted by his just punishments, his opponents will fall.

Wiz: Essentially, a small degree of fate manipulation. And speaking of, there’s the ability he gained from his fusion with the Freeshooter.

Boomstick: Magic Bullet Shooter grants him special bullets which will always hit their target. Even if he is facing the opposite direction, these bullets will always find their mark. Like me after a few Stellas. With all these sinister-sounding skills, it’s hard to remember that James is on the side of good throughout the Shinjuku Singularity.

Wiz: Well, he both is and isn’t. You see, in the Shinjuku Singularity, the demon Baal had himself an ally in the form of an evil version of James Moriarty.

Boomstick: So there was a good James and a bad James. I suppose that makes sense. After all, Heroic Spirits are just copies of the figures who inspired them after they were uploaded to history, so two copies can be expected.

Wiz: Well, that is true, but what Good James tells us is that he was split into two beings, the Good and the Evil half.

Boomstick: Well, whatever the case, having Good James on their side helped Cheldea out a lot. Not only is he formidable in battle but he’s pretty damn clever. When fighting against another Heroic Spirit fusion, Hassan Lobo, he had one of his allies light the area of fire, trapping the wolf and rider in with them and taking it out of commission.

Wiz: You can’t really bait him into traps either, as he’s predicted at least two, including one with a false baby and pram which was actually a bomb. He can even deduce the identity of other Heroic Spirits and plan attacks on their hideouts, even if they have small armies on their payroll.

Boomstick: Several Heroic Spirits have light-speed reactions and can dodge lasers and proton attacks. And since his Noble Phantasm is an A+ Anti-Army rank, it can hit with up to 3 trillion tons of TNT (RetroWeeeb). Kind of falls short to his greatest ambition of blowing up the planet but that’s no reason to breath a sigh of relief. There’s still that Evil James running about after all.

Popup: Holmes actually made sure to downplay Moriarty’s roles in his adventures to make sure he did not become too infamous; considering how Servant legends boost their power, this would have made Moriarty even more formidable.

Wiz: Indeed there was. Because he was the one on our side the whole time, punctuated by him stabbing Sherlock and absorbing him with the gift Baal had given him.

Boomstick: My god! We were bamboozled?

• Feats
  • Defeated a team of Magus and Super Chimeras
  • Detected a baby-shaped bomb
  • Devised a plan to destroy the entire planet
  • Deduced Artoria Alter’s identity from one glimpse
  • Defeated Phantom of the Opera, Christine Daaé, Yan Qing, Sherlock Holmes

Wiz: Indeed we were. With some crafty memory wiping and Baal taking the form of the “Evil” James, the one and only James was able to put the pieces together for his ultimate crime. It involved the use of the Freeshooter’s seven bullets and the genuine bond the amnesiac James had forged with Ritsuka, enabling him to summon the asteroid Bennu in the skies above Shinjuku with Ritsuka serving as a homing beacon. Fun fact, Bennu a real asteroid in the Apollo Asteroid Group, with a 1 in 1,750 chance of impacting Earth in the future, making it the highest ranked on the Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale.

Boomstick: Thanks to James’ planning, he was able to conjure Bennu, turning it into a magic bullet and intending to use a giant tower to launch it straight towards the planet, blowing it up and finally giving him his assured victory over Sherlock. Even if it would cost him his life to do so.

Popup: Based on Da Vinci saying “But Sheba has been constantly monitoring the sky there”, it’s likely Bennu was teleported to Shinjuku rather than having been pulled there.

Wiz: Since Shinjuku took place on a version of Earth without a Counter Force, the multidimensional planet protecting phenomena, Ritsuka and his Servants were in a race against time to stop him.

Boomstick: Thanks to a power boost from the Grail of Shinjuku, James proved himself a greater adversary than Baal himself. Fortunately, thanks to having some expert writers as Servants, Ritsuka was able to summon great detectives to weaken James by deducing his true identity.

Wiz: There was another reason for James’ defeat actually, and it proved that his plan to use Ritsuka as a beacon for his meteor was doomed from the start.

Boomstick: Because it required James to actually hold genuine affection for the kid. Thus, he held back throughout the fight and was eventually overcome, with Bennu blown apart by emo-Emiya Archer and James himself mortally wounded. So, as he faded away, he told Ritsuka that if he ever wanted to summon him as a Servant, he wouldn’t exactly object to it.

Wiz: So much for the greatest evildoer in all of history and I mean that in an unironically good way.

Interlude

Wiz: Alright the combatants are set, and we've run that data through all possibilities.

Boomstick: It's time for a Death Battle!

The Battle

Setting: Shinjuku at Night

Jack sat at a café which, whilst empty, had supplied him with a cup of hot tea, which he sipped as he read the newspaper. He barely reacted as a shadow fell over him, cast by the coffin of James Moriarty as the man in question stepped up to his table.

Jack: Are you here for luncheon, or is this strictly business? I rather hope it’s not the former, as I don’t know this city very well and it took me too long finding this nice little spot.

He sipped his tea as he turned his eye on James, who helped himself to a forkful of Jack’s pie.

James: Business, old sport. I have need of your particular abilities.

Jack: Well, I am highly sought after by many an employer.

James: So I’ve heard…but I’m much more of the sort to learn the skills needed, cutting out the middle-man and all that.

Jack: Oh? And how do you do that?

Jack’s eye glinted now, as did James’, who extended a hand out to Jack.

James: A rather simple thing known as “Trial and Error”.

FIGHT!

With a flick of his wrist, James’ cane appeared in his outstretched hand, aimed directly at Jack’s face. But Jack did the same thing, aiming a gun at James’ own face. They both dodged each other’s respective shots – James’ bullet and the grappling hook from Jack for the respective targets – but that was only the beginning of Jack’s intending attack. The hook snared the top of a nearby building and it yanked Jack out of his seat and past James. James reacted quicker than Jack had expected however and used the head of his cane to snag Jack’s foot, meaning Jack’s grapple dragged James through his grasp on Jack. Jack looked at the stowaway in shock before James brought his free arm up to swing the giant coffin down at Jack.

Acting quick, Jack spun his body like a corkscrew, generating enough momentum to move him out of the way of the coffin swing. Even as he dodged however, James aimed his cane gun and fired a single shot to sever the grappling gun’s wire, ending their monument forwards. James swung the coffin back upwards but since they were close enough to the buildings Jack had grappled to the latter was able to kick off its side just as the coffin smashed that area to rubble.

Jack hit the ground rolling, letting him avoid yet another swing from James as he too landed. Jack turned as he got back up, bringing out from behind himself the two halves of his giant scissors to combine them together.

Jack: On guard!

He lunged forwards with the scissors but their snip was interrupted by James’ staff, which proved too tough to cut. James quickly drew it out from the blades, letting them clang shut, before swinging it at Jack’s head, making the serial killer parry with the scissors. The two traded attacks and deflections from their respective weapons before Jack’s scissors caught the cane, this time deliberately, with Jack separating the top of the scissors to slash the part at James. The Heroic Spirit ducked his head, letting the blade embed into his coffin, which then opened up with enough force to smack the scissor half from Jack’s grip. Out of the opening emerged a missile launcher, trained on Jack and unleashed a close-range salvo of projectiles. Jack jumped away as the missiles came close to touching him but before they could, they suddenly separated into sliced halves. James frowned in confusion before noticing the shine of piano wire forming a web in front of Jack; this barrier stretched from the top of the building they had fell down the side of and to the ground, having been set as Jack as the two fighters had fallen. Jack snagged the strings in front of him, jumped backwards and released the stretched strings, letting them spring towards James.

Jack: Checkmate!

Rather than dodge however, the Servant calmly stepped towards the attack, turning himself sideways to slip through a convenient gap in the webbing. The building’s base behind him was sliced to ribbons, sending it falling backwards, but thanks to the effects of The End of the Spider Thread, James had gone unnicked. Jack looked in surprise as James wagged his finger.

James: Tut-tut, a villain mustn’t fall before his plan comes to fruition.

Jack: You consider yourself a villain? Oh my friend…you don’t know what true villain is.

Jack reached into his magical satchels and brought out a handful of knives. James raised an eyebrow before smirking and aiming his coffin at Jack. A heavy clank indicated the priming of another weapon within it.

James: Then please, demonstrate.

The Heroic Spirit unleashed a stream of bullet fire and the Einherjar responded with a steady stream of thrown knives. The opposing projectiles collided, preventing one combatant from hitting the other, the stalemate held until Jack also threw out his giant switchblade. It spun towards James’ side, forcing him to jump over it. With his foe’s firing rate cancelled, Jack ran forwards throwing knives up at James and catching his switchblade as it returned to him. In the air, James blocked the knives with his coffin but as he did, Jack slid underneath him and threw his switchblade up, slicing James up the back. Blood blossomed from the wound as James yelled in pain, falling back to the ground with a thud. Jack wasn’t finished and he somersaulted backwards in the air, positioning himself above James, who despite his injury aimed and fired a bullet up at Jack. It was neatly avoided and it sailed into the air, the bullet passed Jack’s returning switchblade, which the Einherjar grabbed.

Jack: Behold, a thorough demonstration!

Jack slashed down with the switchblade but before the attack could connect, the bullet James had fired second ago made an illogical turn downwards and struck Jack in the shoulder of the arm bearing the switchblade. Jack lost his grip on the weapon as the shock of the pain made him freeze up and James swiped his leg upwards, kicking Jack into the side of a building. Jack slid down, looking at his wounded shoulder with mild intrigue before using a knife to dig the bullet out, balancing it on the blade’s tip for an examination.

Jack: I do believe bullets shouldn’t be able to do that.

James: They don’t. Well, all except these ones.

To highlight his point, James fired a bullet from his cane which logically should have impacted the wall next to Jack but instead zagged towards his side. Jack slashed out with the knife to try and block it but the bullet avoided the blade and successfully hit Jack’s ribs. The Einherjar staggered with a bloodied grunt and James fired a laser beam from his cannon, intending to vaporize Jack on the spot.

But Jack had managed to draw his internal organs away from the bullet’s impact zone and so was perfectly capable of drawing out an umbrella to have it block the beam. As a result, however, Jack was pushed by the beam through the building he was behind and down another street of tall buildings. He shook off the pain in time to plant his feet on the ground and stop his backwards momentum, letting the beam split onto either side of himself and demolish some more buildings. As James marched towards Jack, the beam’s pressure grew, so Jack aimed upwards and fired his grappling hook to pull himself into the air.

The grappling hook had latched onto and thus was pulling Jack up the side of James’ Barrel Tower, to which the Servant smirked.

James: Perfect.

He swung his coffin round and around before launching it upwards, holding onto the chain so that its momentum pulled him into the air after Jack. They came level with each other, with Jack bringing out a machete from a pouch to parry James’ cane swipes. At the last deflection, Jack pushed James back but James aimed and fired to Freeshooter bullets which blasted away Jack’s pouches. Jack’s eyes widened in shock and James’ grin grew wider.

James: Should have been more discreet old chap.

James pulled himself onto his coffin and had it fire a laser beam to propel it forwards, with him on top, towards Jack. Jack quickly swung his arm out, the bones dislocating so he could plant his hand on the coffin, pushing himself out of the way of its path.

The coffin and James smashed through a window into the Barrel Tower, landing on a floor close to the Tower’s peak. Jack followed him through and as he did, snatched up the shards of glass which rained down. With the same shards now divine weaponry, Jack hurled them at James, grabbing a new one after each throw. The shards embedded themselves in Jack’s limbs and chest, though they were too short to go any deeper and Jack was able to bring his coffin around to hit from the rest of the barrage. He struck at his own body to dislodge the shards in his body and Jack picked up two extra-large glass shards, running forwards with them ready as divine weapons. The Einherjar stabbed them into the coffin, using them to wrench it to the side and expose James; the Heroic Spirit tried to keep a hold of the chain attached to his weapon but Jack slashed through it will one of the glass daggers. The coffin sailed away through the air, past the floating crystal of the Bullet Tower’s top interior and landed on the other side of the room.

Wide-eyed, James leapt backwards as Jack slashed at him but as the slashes continued adopted a more confident expression. Hands behind his back holding his cane, James danced away from Jack’s attacks. This took the two men around the room and James slowly got closer to his coffin, eventually blocking Jack’s downwards slash with his cane before grabbing his wrist to interrupt his upwards stab. The two men locked eyes and audacious smirks.

James: Marvellous! For a being caught in a spider’s web, you dance it so well. But a web is still a web, and its strands have already pulled in the necessary components.

Jack: For what?

James: My Ultimate Crime.

James raised his free hand into the air and snapped his fingers; in the night air, visible through the tower’s window by both men, Bennu appeared in the air, heading straight towards their location. Jack’s eyes widened and as he was distracted, James’ foot snagged the chain of his coffin, enabling him to swing it around into Jack with a kick. The Einherjar flew across to the other side of the room, smashing into a window and dropping down onto a knee, injured and bleeding. James stood opposite him, Bennu behind him, illuminating its summoner as he laughed.

James: Be it a murderer like you or a messiah as my longest foe, my crime is absolute!

Jack picked himself up, gripping the collar of his cloak and the monocle over his eye.

Jack: An impressive line but the great Shakespeare has another “This precious stone set in a silver sea, which serves it in the office of a wall, or as a moat defensive to a house, against the envy of less happier lands”.

James frowned as Jack removed his monocle, letting his emotion-seeking eye glow.

Jack: The colour of confidence swirled within you as you herded me through this city to this Tower, as I knew it would when I revealed I did not understand its layout. And so, I have one gamble left to play.

Jack whipped off his cloak, converted into a divine weapon via his gloves and jumped from the window. James rushed over to watch Jack swing the cloak around himself, the sharpened item of through the tower itself at an angle. Thus, the top of the severed tower started to tilt forwards and James staggered, from both motion and shock.

It was at that moment that Bennu arrived at the tower to be filed into it like a bullet but instead it collided with the askew top of the Tower. The shockwave travelled to the rest of the tower, ripping the insides to shrapnel as James leapt from the shattered window. Both the Tower and Bennu fell towards the street and as he landed, Jack ducked into one of the houses he had passed when James had blasted him backwards – Jack had grazed the building with his gloves, turning it into a divine weapon capable of withstanding whatever he’d suspect James had been cooking up. It was put to the test as Bennu, it’s momentum and thus overall power halted by hitting the askew tower, hit the surrounding area before shattering, leaving a giant crater surrounded by rock fragments.

In the crater where the divine weapon buildings, ripped from their foundation but otherwise unaffected. Jack kicked the door off its hinges as he climbed out, surveying his surroundings. An explosion from another divine weapon building drew his attention and Jack watched James climb through the hole he had made.

James: I told you, I can learn from others.

Jack sighed and picked up the door he had just kicked.

Jack: I concede that point to you then.

The two headed towards each other and James started swinging his coffin at Jack in wide arcs, who used the enchanted door as a shield to deflect the attacks. The Serial Killer watched the attacks carefully

Jack: Not yet…

When one of the attacks knocked the door from his grasp, the follow up skimmed his arm, drawing blood. Jack grabbed the bleeding wound as James advanced on him, swinging the coffin up to prepare to bring it down on Jack.

Jack: Not yet…need a moment that’s…

That was when James’ back twanged in pain and he seized up with a wide-eyed, open-mouthed expression. He lost hold of the chain and the coffin sailed away into the air, and Jack’s eyes shone.

Jack: Perfect!

He darted forwards and stabbed out the gloved-hand coated in blood. At the same time as the coffin smashed back down to Earth, Jack ran James through the chest with a one-handed modified version of…

Jack: Dear God.

James coughed up blood as Jack pulled his hand from his body, the Mastermind falling to his knees.

Jack: You know, such things could easily be settled over a cup of tea.

James looked up at him, seething.

James: Let me tell you what you can do with a cup of tea…

He didn’t get to finish his sentence; Jack slashed out with the flat of his bloodied hand, using it to cut James’ head from his neck, sending it flying into the air to fall behind him.

Jack: No unbecoming language from a gentleman, please.

KO!

Outcome

Boomstick: Guess this makes James the Ripper now. R.I.Pper to be exact.

Wiz: This was a fascinating battle to consider, especially since intelligence came into play to a fair degree.

Boomstick: Ugh, nerds. But there was still the physical to consider. They were both tied when it came to speed thanks to Jack scaling to those who react in extremely small timeframes and James scaling to light-speed Heroic Spirits. And despite Jack being on the lightweight side of the Einherjar, he could still trade and take some blows from Heracles, who rubs shoulders with planet-buster Shiva.

Wiz: Now, your standard Heroic Spirits aren’t naturally in the realm of being able to destroy a planet, only capping out at being able to destroy a continent. But James, you see, could blow up a whole planet with his meteor-summoning ultimate crime, something he sets up well in advance before any involvement in the Shinjuku conflicts and which his End of the Spider Thread could help ensure. And hey, he could perhaps have formed a kinship with Jack thanks to his “despite-his-evil” people skills for the final component.

Boomstick: So yeah, given the benefit of the doubt, this battle could be fairly close and come down to who could get a killing blow first. So there were other details to consider, including, yes, their intelligences.

Wiz: Both were skilful planners, able to set up prime situations for them to combat their foes and string others along with their enemies none the wiser. But unlike Jack, James lacked a means to deeply read his opponent. I’m talking about that emotion-seeing eye of Jack’s, which he can use to see flares of confidence and the like, clueing him in to when James was up to something.

Boomstick: And on the flipside, Jack’s schemes are so subtle and clever, not even Loki, god of mischief, could figure what he was doing. And neither could Hermes, who can deduce the other techniques of those fighting in Ragnarok from a single look.

Wiz: James also had that back problem of his, whilst Jack was summoned in the prime of his life without such impairments. And whilst James had esoteric abilities, they had their faults and failings. End of the Spider Thread wasn’t absolute in its ability to let James avoid punishment as he was still defeated; even though he held back, Spider Thread wasn’t something he could command at will. His Charisma of an Evil Genius is said to only work when he’s commanding from the shadows and he relies on mind games rather than mind control. And Magic Bullet Shooter wouldn’t be an insta-kill on Jack considering he’s the only one of the two to actually take planet-level attacks. James was fully willing to die with the planet to take Holmes and his enemies with him.

Boomstick: So whilst James needed a special means to take out Jack, Jack had more literally at hand thanks to being able to turn anything into a planet-busting-matching weapon.

Wiz: In the end, Jack’s more consistent attack output options, and incredible strategist and trickster mindset made him the more reliable victor in this battle against evil schemers.

Boomstick: James thought he knew Moriarty than his opponent to commit a great crime but in the end, it was worth Jack.

Wiz: The winner is Jack the Ripper, Humanity's Most Infamous Serial Killer.

Next Time

One Punch Man

Worm

Deep Sea King vs. Leviathan

Trivia

• Connections: Both are silver haired, mustached, calculating and infamous criminals who were summoned back after death as spirits for certain roles (as an Einherjar in Ragnarok and as a Servant in the Singularities, respectively). Both are fused with other beings to increase their powers (Hlokk and the Freeshooter, respectively) and use weapons based on what they have on hand (Jack turns anything his gloves touch into a divine weapon and James uses Reichenbach since it was conceptually with him at his death). Both also mislead others about their identities (Jack is actually an MI agent who killed the original Jack the Ripper and James pretended to be a good version of another existing Moriarty) and despite their genuine evil and malice, both are capable of kindness and loyalty to those they grow close to.
• Animation Style: 2D.
• OST Idea: "The Colour of Crime". Based on Jack's ability to see the colours of a person's soul and Moriarty's "Napoleon of Crime" title and "Ultimate Crime" Noble Phantasm.