Cracked Actor

AN: This is set in the same AU as my fic "The Beginning, The Middle, The End, And The Beginning Again"

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Reiji pinched the bridge of his nose as he watched his Cold Play's footage.

"Sawatari… Just what sort of anomaly are you?" he asked. He flicked his hand towards his Stand with an unamused sigh. "Cold Play, cancel it."

The footage of Masumi having practice fights with her similarly gifted cohort, Hokuto, and Yaiba, ceased and the image of Sawatari in the hallway, spying began to fade whilst his confused mutterings went offline with an electronic hum. His voice always left a dull throbbing in Reiji's head, but this was a different kind of conundrum altogether.

There was only one way to solve this… issue which had arisen and that was with honest communication. That was not something that Reiji was awfully fond of, but it was easier than simply keeping a twenty-four -hour surveillance on him instead. Cold Play was useful but those uses were limited.

Though, if push came to shove, Reiji was confident he could work around those limitations and illicit information which cannot simply be viewed. Yes, he was well aware of the torment bright, flashing lights and static could cause. He was certain that such things when amplified through his Stand, it would be effective in other ways; more agonising ways.

Reiji pinged Sawatari and arranged for them to meet sometime soon at Reiji's office; in a few hours' time when Sawatari did not have class.

Again, this was not something Reiji liked but it was easier to corral Sawatari in a known space than anywhere outdoors. Not to mention, this was not the sort of thing he could allow the prying eyes of the press, or similar, to witness.

Soon enough though, Sawatari was present. And utterly petulant about it.

"I thought I was off the team." Sawatari huffed as he came out of the elevator.

Reiji had watched him make all sorts of fusses and demands on the way up. He felt as though he already had a headache because of him.

"Come crawling back to me, have you? I knew you would need my skills eventually."

Ah. Now that was an interesting thing for Sawatari to say.

"So, you have already guessed the purpose of this meeting then?" Reiji asked.

"You need me to be your spy, obviously." Sawatari replied.

"Er, not quite. I believe I have all the… intelligence gatherers that I need." Reiji replied.

He thought about his contract with Tsukikage and Tsukikage's Melancholy Man. Not to mention his own Cold Play and his own staff that he could throw all sorts of money at for information. Yes, Reiji was quite the literal and perfect Big Brother when it came to information gathering and surveillance.

"Huh? Then what then? Need me to sweet talk my father, the mayor, or somethin'?" Sawatari asked.

He seemed to be caught off guard by Reiji's reply. For someone so expressive and zany, he could be rather hard to read. It was annoying.

"I will consider giving you a place among the special class if you can reveal to me your Stand." Reiji said.

Reiji got up and he circled his desk. He dragged one finger along its surface and in the dim light, he looked quite menacingly. Sawatari blinked. Confusion began to skew that expressive face of his.

"My what?" Sawatari asked.

Reiji huffed sharply. "You can see them… can't you?" he asked.

Upon being met with such indignation, Reiji was suddenly very concerned that his calculations had been off. He did not enjoy this query which was bubbling up inside of him as he waited for Sawatari to speak. All he was doing currently was making idiotic faces.

"See my what?" Sawatari asked again.

"Manners, please, Sawatari!" Reiji scolded.

"Ugh, fine, I need 'clarification' as to what you're asking me." Sawatari retorted, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Can you see Stands or not? There is sufficient evidence to suggest that you can, not to mention the people you associate with are, for the majority, Stand Users also, so there is a need to ask: can you see Stands, or better yet, do you possess one?" Reiji asked. His voice was frigid like a wintery gale, irritation bleeding into his tone.

Sawatari shivered. "Wait… you mean those ghost things? Like Masumi's diamond lady or Hokuto's centaur knight thingy?"

"Yes. Those are 'Stands'. However, it is possible you only know about Masumi's 'Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend' and Hokuto's 'Space Oddity' through their Users." Reiji paused, and it was as if the whole temperature of the room dropped. "Tell me, Sawatari, what do you see now?"

Sawatari's eyes widened as he saw something slip out of the thin, pale shadow that Reiji cast in his dark office of his. A humanoid figure rose and stared at him with many, many eyes. Sawatari trembled. He had never seen such an eerie creature before.

It stood taller than Reiji and possessed some sort of decorative spear. He couldn't help but imagine himself skewered on it if he said the wrong thing. It was almost knight-like or godly. It possessed an ethereal aura and a menacing atmosphere as it looked down on him with cyan and magenta eyes.

"What do you see, Sawatari?" Reiji asked.

Reiji's lips quirked. He recalled his first meeting with Kurosaki. Kurosaki had made some crass comments about how Stands are "like assholes" and that it is impolite to expose them too regularly. Reiji briefly pondered what that might mean in relation to this situation with Sawatari.

"What the heck is that…?" Sawatari gasped. "It's super creepy!"

Reiji chuckled. "Creepy. Yes, that's a good word for me. For it…"

"What is that thing? Why is it staring at me?!" Sawatari asked. "Where did it come from?"

"Tell me, Sawatari, what do you think it is?" Reiji cut through Sawatari's frantic questions like a knife.

"Some sort of Hell knight." Sawatari replied slowly. "Like, I feel like if I call it anything rude, it might kill me."

"I can assure you. My 'Cold Play' has no such abilities." Reiji replied, sly, thinking about what it could do instead and what it could do instead is far worse.

"Yeah, well, I still don't like it – or trust it. What's your game Akaba? You wouldn't show me this if you want me to do something with knowing this." Sawatari asked.

"There are three rules of Stands: Stands can only be defeated or touched by another Stand, Stand Users are… attracted to one another, and with exception of bound Stands, Stands can only be seen by fellow Stand Users. You fulfil two of those roles. Therefore, I must assume that you must have a Stand. Well, what it is?" Reiji asked, and he sat down on his desk. "At the risk of sounding crass, I've shown you mine, now you must show me yours."

"I wish you meant it like that." Sawatari huffed and Reiji was taken aback. "'Cause I ain't got one."

"No, I refuse to believe that." Reiji said, then paused. He tapped his chin with thought. "Perhaps you are not mentally strong enough to generate your Stand. Yes, that could explain how you can see Stands but cannot engage with them…"

"Hey, wait, a minute – not strong enough?!" Sawatari yelled. "I'm plenty strong! I've been in a hell of a lotta fist fights and I've won plenty! Not strong enough my big toe, Akaba!"

Reiji blinked. He hadn't expected to have pressed Sawatari's buttons like that and now he was yelling and screaming and just being generally dramatic.

"Not strong enough, I bet if you and I were to fight, I'd win! No doubt about it! All you do all day is sit around bein' a rich boy creep!" Sawatari yelled.

As much as Reiji hated to admit it, that was accurate. Though, he took no offense to it because it was so accurate.

"Anyone could do tha-!"

Before Sawatari could continue his tirade, something happened. It would appear, he was mentally strong enough to sustain some sort of Stand because above him, from an angle, a mahogany, treasure chest-like box decorated heavily with ornate, fake jewels and the like manifested and chomped down on him.

At first, it bit down on his head. The surprise of it all stunned Reiji just as much as it stunned Sawatri. Then, the object began to swallow him. At the risk of sounding overly nerd, Reiji couldn't help but imagine this was what a death by a monster Mimic might look like.

The chest opened slightly and rattled around then the latch completely flew open. From inside the box, a second Akaba Reiji sprang – with all the mannerisms of Sawatari, voice included.

"Anyone could do that!" Sawatari yelled.

He burst forward and nearly head-butted Reiji. Glasses butted against glasses with a clink. Sawatari's lips quirked. He hadn't noticed how pretty Reiji was until he was this close. He had girlishly long eyelashes. How fortunate for him. There was a moment where they were breathing down upon each other until Sawatari dragged himself out of Reiji's personal space.

Then, Sawatari paused. Something was wrong, but he felt like he couldn't articulate how, at least not yet. He looked down on himself. He saw that he was not wearing a school uniform but rather white pants, cuffed so that his ankles and lower calves were exposed, and white dress shoes. Now, he understood what was wrong, sort of.

"My, this is… unusual." Reiji replied as he stared down his own face.

He was a touch flustered from Sawatari's brash actions. With him out of his face, he could consider the whole of what had happened. It was like looking at a mirror but distorted. It wasn't amusing like a funhouse mirror, just creepy.

Were his eyelashes really that long?

"I believe," Reiji began as he began to process this information, "you have a Stand after all."

"I have a what?" Sawatari asked as he examined his hands.

"Congratulations, are strong enough to mentally sustain a Stand… It might not necessarily be a useful one but I'm sure there are hidden aspects to yours. After all, one ought not to judge a book by its cover." Reiji asked.

After all, his Stand adorned with armour and spear had little to no attacking capabilities. Therefore, it could be entirely possible that the potential of this Stand of Sawatari's could have a good many surprises.

"Well, this power of yours requires a name…" Reiji said.

"Y-Yeah, it does." Sawatari agreed.

"Hm, I dub this power of yours… Cracked Actor." Reiji asked. "Based on your Stand's ability, you can imitate a person's physical appearance perfectly but not their mannerisms or voice. Therefore, Cracked Actor."

"Okay, yeah, sure, we'll roll with that." Sawatari said.

He decided to not voice the not-as-cool sounding ideas he had floating in his head. Neo New Sawatari did sound kind of lame when stacked against something as menacing sounding as 'Cracked Actor.'

"I would dismiss you," Reiji huffed, "but until we can work out how to revert this new appearance of yours, I don't particularly want you to be walking around with my face."

"That's fair." Sawatari said. "Because I'm not gonna lie, my idea was to walk straight to the press and see what sort of mischief I can get up to using this face."

Sawatari smiled and he smiled big, loud and wide. Reiji did not like seeing such a goofy and undignified expression on his face.

"Well, I suppose, I can now welcome you to LDS special classes for Stand users." Reiji said.

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Stand Stats

Cold Play - kind of a Moody Blues-like Stand; not based on any Duel Monster

Cracked Actor - kind of a Surface-like Stand; based on the Abyss Actor's Costume Box card

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend (Dia) - kind of a Hierophant Green-like Stand but based on Masumi's Ace Monster

Space Oddity - based on Hokuto's Ace Monster; I haven't thought about its abilities though