Disclaimer: I do not own JoJo's Bizarre adventures nor RWBY.
This fanfic contains spoilers of JoJo's bizarre adventures part six: Stone Ocean, proceed with your own will.
Ugh-Ughoooohhhh!
With only two seconds left in the stopped time, the tall Japanese man's heart fell into the deep, dark and cold abyss as he stood in the cold stationary Atlantic water. The last chance. The last chance to end it all, lie right in front of him, yet he was unable to step forward.
All he has to do is to swing his stand, Star Platinum's fists towards the black priest hovering above him, and he knew that there is no way for the priest to escape his devastating attacks, given that the world around the Japanese man is frozen in place.
Such a simple task, almost as simple as having Albert Einstein doing simple additions. But yet it was such a distant task for Jotaro Kujo to execute: He has not suffered any form of physical damage, nor is there anything standing between Jotaro and the priest, but he simply cannot take that simple step forward to rain his punches onto the black man.
Because behind the floating man, is a wall of knives, fixed in place, all pointing not at the direction of the Japanese man, not his other comrades, but her. The one and the only person that he values the most, Jotaro Kujo's daughter: Cujoh Jolyne.
"Jo-Jolyneeeeeee!" The Japanese man screamed in despair, his voice had trembled his body and sent a stream of sweat flew down his head, his voice echoing through the Floridan shoreline with the time frozen in place. He knows better than anyone that there's no point delivering this sentence through his tongue since there's no one to hear it, but he did anyway, in the expression of his own pure shock.
"Knives, while he was falling...! The priest has already thrown them! Just like DIO once done...!"
For obvious reasons, that's the first name that came to the Japanese man's mind. Back in 1989, almost twenty years ago, he had defeated a man with such a name. He-or rather, It- was a powerful and ambitious being that had been combating his family, the Joestar family for more than a hundred years, in his goal to atop himself to all the living creatures in the universe, and if Jotaro hadn't stop the madman in time, there is a high chance that he would eventually succeed. Many had died, and many more had their lives in pieces due to this dangerous man: his friends, his family, and a whole bunch of people that Jotaro simply cannot even name. Most of then either was sent to oblivion or living their broken lives they've tried to piece back together. DIO such a man, his damage spreads all across the world, some of them are still not completely healed even till this day.
There is no way for a man like this to operate alone, so he had a large group of subordinates. People like Jotaro himself, people like DIO, people with strange and powerful abilities. He had beaten through most of them while on his way to defeat DIO himself, but after actually defeating the head-honcho himself, he found out that there are still some loose ends out there: There are still remaining subordinates of DIO out in the world causing damage, he even at one point had to send people to investigate rumours about DIO having descendants. The black man that hovers in front of Jotaro, is one of the remaining subordinates.
Things hadn't turned out the way he planned when he heard that Jolyne, his daughter, was framed into prison. Through research, he knew damn well that it is a remnant of DIO's followers' doing, but he didn't expect there to be two of them attacking at once: One's just a regular goon, and the other one is the priest. After a blow from the dark, he was immobilized for months: The priest used Jolyne as bait so that he can steal Jotaro's memories. His memories contain a way to gain a higher up power that DIO hadn't be able to use since he was killed. That's what the priest was after.
After months of his daughter and her comrades fighting, they were able to regain Jotaro his consciousness: but almost like a sick joke from the lady of fate herself, he just missed the chance to stop the priest from leaping another huge step forward towards getting that extraordinary power: gaining the power to accelerate time. That concludes the story up until now.
Jotaro Kujo was never one to panic. He didn't panic when he faced DIO directly. He didn't panic when he almost got killed back in a small town in Japan. That's not because of the fact that he's got one of the most powerful stand to most people's knowledge, which has the ability to stop time for five seconds maximum. It's more of a personality that he holds. That type of unique personality that made him inherit and transfer the sparkles of hope, from one generation to the next. He's like the pillar of his teams, that one pillar that would give you shelter when you're facing bad weathers, that pillar that holds up the foundation for others to go wild on, that one guy that would clean up the mess calmly no matter what situation you're in. That's what Jotaro Kujo felt like to others.
But in this case, he panicked. His brain basically turned into a pile of mush, and none of his thoughts coming through straight. But in the middle, something else was added to the mix. A strange emotion.
This almost sounds like a line from a bad sci-fi novel with a robot being the protagonist, but to Jotaro, he has never experienced this kind of feeling before. Combat for this man is almost as easy as counting from one to three, and no matter how worse the situation he found himself to be facing in, panic is something that doesn't belong in his dictionary.
But for some reason, Jotaro knew that he will have to face an emotion like this sooner or later: That is, from the moment when Jolyne was born, emotions that he never felt before hit him like a truck after the birth of his little angel, he cannot thank the gods enough to bring her to Earth, yet he never spends time with his family. It's guilt, more than anything. But there was something else. Something that only a grown father would experience.
Letting out a furious yell, Jotaro turned his eye sights away from the priest, towards the direction where his daughter is. With a strong pull from the Tall man, the girl that was frozen in place suddenly resumed motion as Jotaro pulled her away from the wall of knives.
One second left.
And without hesitation, Jotaro summoned his stand. A purple figure appeared behind the Japanese man, it looks like a human male, but its skin is entirely purple, muscular with strange accessories, with the appearance of black hair, and eyes that are just as purple as its skin. The second it appeared, it started swinging its fist at the black priest. "OraOraOraOra!-"
But it was too late. With only a few centimetres between the stand's fist and the black man, time resumed its progress. With a smirk raised at the corner of the priest's mouth, he disappeared from Jotaro's eye sights, Star Platinum's hits landed in the water in front of him, the priest reappeared again behind Jotaro. It might seem like teleportation for normal eyes, but for those that know what his stand ability is, he's moving so fast that it almost seems like he can stop time too like Jotaro.
"「Two steps」." The Priest started talking. "You were late by 「two steps」." Jotaro doesn't even have the time to turn his head around to look at the priest.
"The Joestar bloodline drew strength from their pride and courage to conquer their fate... But! The weakness is also in their blood. Jotaro Kujo... Your daughter is your own weakness."
"Ushyaaaa!" One of Jotaro's comrades, a dark-skinned female decided to attack the priest while he wastes his time bragging about all this bloodline nonsense using her stand's fists. But it was futile. As the priest simply jumped upwards, he evaded her attack easily. Everything for him is too slow. He flew over her, returning the attack with his stand while travelling at an extraordinary speed, so fast that the woman cannot even see what did he do.
But it was clear to the dark-skinned woman a second later as to what the priest did. On the inner elbows of both of her hands, there're two small injuries that look simply like small paper cuts. But the cut grew larger as seconds passed, and the pain started from a sting to feeling nothing at all: Both of her arms fell off entirely from the clean cuts, she didn't even notice as to what happened until she saw both of her arms floating on the surface of the water. There isn't even blood coming out.
But the priest did not stop there. Instead, right after separating the dark-skinned woman's arms, he went for his next target: Jotaro Kujo.
It sounds like the sound it makes when you swing your badminton racket: the sound of an object passing fastly through the air, creating an airflow. Except for this time, it's not a racket. It's a man with stunningly fast speed going on a rampage.
As the black priest flew over Jotaro, a noise was heard by everyone present. Unlike the dark-skinned woman, as soon as Jotaro heard that noise, he knew exactly what was going to happen next.
Almost like an invisible person struck him, a giant crack seemingly created by a sharp blade suddenly appeared on the right side of Jotaro's face: The crack was deep, all the way slicing Jotaro's entire face in half, including his right side eyeball, and the wound was so smooth that you can almost piece them back like jigsaws.
Except, in this case, there is no way to. Jotaro Kujo's body slowly fell into the cold, freezing seawater facing down, while what's left of his team watches in shock.
In his last moments, Jotaro Kujo seemingly understood what that kind of emotion did he felt when he saw his newborn daughter. It was being responsible.
Jotaro Kujo was not a great father. While getting married at merely 20 years old, he did not take much time to bond with his family. He had to spend time cleaning up the mess DIO created and do work as a marine biologist. It was more of running away rather than anything, and Jolyne hated him for that. But in reality, he had always cherished her, everything about her he knows, in fact, with a personality like that, he's gotta be one of the best dads in the entire world. But he's just not one to show it in front of people.
Back in his younger days, those days when he travelled with his friends to Egypt to fight DIO, he had always put the safety of his friends before him, no matter what, even if it involves dangering his life. Even if the simple presence of his friend would interrupt his plan, he would do his best to protect them, despite there being better options. Even if his friends are the reason why he was in danger, he would rise up, defeat the foe using his invincible Star Platinum, and telling them that it's all over. And more than ever, people wanted him to stand back up, stop the time, rain his punches at his enemy, and let everyone get home peacefully. But he can't. He's nothing more than a cold corpse floating on the shoreline.
Maybe it's there where the people around him realized that fact: Jotaro Kujo, despite having an extraordinary ability, is nothing more than a mere man.
No one really knew what went on in Jotaro Kujo's head when he chose his daughter's life over defeating the enemy. But as for Jotaro, he does not feel a single bit of regret when he performed that action. He had owed his daughter too much. He did not choose victory in the sacrifice of his friends back in Egypt, and he will still do the same thing for his daughter.
Lowering his stand's power cap did not make him weaker, nor is putting him in a comatose for months. The real thing that had weakened him, is simply adding more luggage to his back.
"Bring it, Father Pucci!"
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" The blonde child that was roped onto the dolphin screamed in terror and tears as Jolyne jumped in the opposite direction of where the dolphin's heading, the direction where their pursuer, the black priest, Enrico Pucci.
"Stone Free! OraOraOra-" The green-haired girl summoned her stand, Stone Free. It was humanoid and blue with sunglasses on its face. Similar to her father's stand, it lets out the same cry as it started raining fists into the direction of the priest.
But Pucci was too powerful.
Before anyone can even react, Pucci's hand swung a few times in the air, and Jolyne's body, along with her stand, was sliced into numbers of meat pieces, floating in the ocean.
"Jolynneeeeeeeeee!" The blonde boy screamed at the top of his lung as the dolphin he's bound to swims even faster, dragging Jolyne's remainings out of his sight. There's nothing the boy can do. He doesn't have a stand that would do anything in this situation.
The time and space around them accelerate even faster, the sun and the moon rose and set multiple times within a matter of seconds, creating an arc of white and yellow. People's clothes are rotting away, artificial structures, electronics, cars and other alike are breaking down like they've seen years of nothing but dust, the shores changed shape due to the waves like milk powders mixed with water. The geography, the temperature, the entire universe is coming to a singularity where everything became so fast that the whole thing will reset, except the living creatures.
Cujoh Jolyne thought of her past life as she floats on the ocean surface. Her body is in pieces, her arms are gone, she can't feel anything under her chest because they're not there, and her head is missing a few pieces. In a few seconds, the last of her life energy will distinguish and she will dissolve into oblivion.
Much like her father, she is caring, but with the exception of being an actual hard-ass. Her being a delinquent is more or less a phrase and the result of the lack of a father during her childhood. She blamed all this on him, and never showed any good faces for him for even once whenever he shows up. She was more pissed than ever when she found out that he was there at the prison to break her out, like, Oh, really, now you're playing the good father role?
But it was not hatred. It is true that she disliked him, but that's not it. All she wanted his father to do is to just spend more time with her. He's always busy with something, back when she was little, she had a huge fever, and her father was in some random town in Japan hanging out with his uncle(At least that's what she heard how it went down). When she was mistakenly arrested for"Stealing someone's wallet" at the airport, her father just straight up flew away in front of her. Even with that, she still believes that no matter what, her father, Jotaro Kujo, will come to save her.
But he is not there. Not when she was in trouble. And now, never.
She just wishes to spend more time with him. It's a simple task.
Now with her sending Emporio away, with the seed of hope continues, she can rest in peace.
To the world of the dead, along with her father.
But... She felt a thin bit of regret.
If only there were another world, another chance where she can spend more time with her father...
If only there were another world, another chance where he can spend more time with his daughter...
The ground crumbles beneath people's feet as the time accelerated even faster, The water, the air, the Earth and even the entire universe itself is reaching its end, it's limit where everything comes to a halt. All are gone except those living creatures.
It ends with a bright light, almost blinding Emporio's sight, he's still riding on the dolphin, his clothes all rotten away during the time acceleration. He felt scared, which is something a boy at his age should normally when put under the same scenario, the way he was acting on his journey here is not normal comparing to his emotions right now. Where is he going? What will the world become? What will happen when Pucci reaches「Heaven」?
Emporio slipped into the gaps between the walls of the visitor's room without the people inside noticing. Inside stood two people. At first glance, it seemed like Jolyne and Jotaro, but upon closer inspection, They're entirely different people, just the appearance looking somewhat alike.
Suddenly, before the two can finish the conversation, the door behind them opens, and a man with his right eye injured walked in.
It was Pucci.
"Gahhhhh!" Emporio screams in terror as he was corner by Pucci on the stairs. Behind him, is the gap to the Ghost room that he and his team have been using as their safehouse.
"Even if small details might go astray, there is no way one can defeat fate... it's inevitable. It will happen no matter what. I am the only exception." Pucci spoke in confidence as he slowly approaches Emporio, whose face is covered in tears.
"If I let you escape here, and I lose track of where you are... Then you will most likely to grow, and try to defeat me... That is the「 Destined Future」!"
Emporio listens, panting, but in the meantime slowly backing towards the gap to the ghost room, all the while Pucci still slowly closing in on him. Menacingly.
"I can't let you live! Even without Jolyne, you're still fated to leave this prison and disappear at「Cape Canaeral」."
"Here, in the prison, before I 「sped up time」, I would like to know exactly where you are... The only way to defeat my past destiny is to dispose of you here! That's why I stopped the passing of time here, right now! You have no choice but to hide in that space in the wall! Make your resolution, your resolution will only lead to happiness, Emporio!"
Emporio is already leaning onto the prison wall, and as soon as that happens, Pucci made a dash forward with his stand,「Made In Heaven」summoned. It looks quite abstract, A man with a clock replacing the upper parts of its eyes, and a horse's head between its crotch.
"This is for the deeds of the humanity! Die, Emporio!" Pucci said as he strikes a hit using both his stand's right fist and his own right fist bundled together, forcing Emporio into the gap of the walls.
"Arrrgggghhhhhh!" Emporio can't do anything but to take the hit.
But.
He took something out of his pocket, placing it in front of him before he took the hit.
It took a moment before Pucci realized what that object is.
That's the stand disc of Weather Report. It's now deeply inserted into Emporio's skull.
"Aghhhh! S...Stop! Emporio... Stop this! Weather, Emporio!" Pucci begged under 100% pure oxygen as his head is slowly getting crushed into the ground by Emporio's newly gained stand, or rather, one that he inherited from another individual.
"Don't let him do this! My「ablility」, that I've finally gained...!「God」Wished it to be so! It was an ability that「God」chose for me! A new history of humanity will begin, and the future of mankind will be saved! If I die, before the original「acceleration」of time... Before Cape Canaveral... If I die, the「Fate of mankind」will be altered! It will probably be a different future! not just that, even the「past」and the「present」will be altered, too! The world will twist onto entirely different paths that I don't even know where they lead! The dead, the living, all of it! I cannot die here! Or else it will mean that everything I've done until this point will have been... meaningless! Human will not be able to see the future as it happens! They will not be able to face their destinies! Remember that「Solution is the way to happiness!」I cannot die here!"
"Don't you understand? You've lost to「fate」! Walking the path of「justice」is true「fate」!"
"WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND, YOU LITTLE SHIT!" Pucci yelled as his head is now almost as flat as a pancake, blood spewing out of every single hole on his face. And with a sound of popping a balloon filled with air with a needle, his entire face is deflated and his left side face ripped off, his left eye popping out, and blood spews out like a water fountain.
"YOU INSIGNIFICANT BRATTTTT!" Were his last words before the stand Weather Report gave the man a series of finishing blows with its fist. He screams in agony, for realizing that all of his work to be futile, and the stunning pain.
Emporio now sits in a white car, surrounded by people that he looks like those that he knew, but in the meantime, not the ones that he knew.
It's all over. He thought to himself. Everything.
He does not know where will he go from now, that is something beyond his knowledge. Everyone's dead, and the deeds between that man and the Joestar family is concluded. What happens next depends on him.
But there is just one thing that Emporio simply cannot shake off his mind after he heard the words Pucci said before his death.
"even the「past」and the「present」will be altered, too! The world will twist onto entirely different paths that I don't even know where they lead! The dead, the living, all of it!"
What did he mean by that?
Sometime between the first and the second time acceleration
Darkness. Everything was dark within Jotaro Kujo's sight, or it was at least what remained of Jotaro Kujo.
He looked down at his body, rather than a physical human body, he is now just a golden misty silhouette of himself when he was still alive, just floating in this darkness of the space.
So it was all over, Jotaro thought to himself. They've failed at stopping Pucci, he had achieved whatever he had set his mind to, and all their efforts are useless. To be honest, there really is no way to defeat a man that can travel almost at the speed of light.
The state that he's in- he's not a complete stranger to it. Back in Cairo. Back in Morioh. He had seen his friends, his comrades pass away, their soul floating away into the distance clouds, and onto the broad golden road to a place where they might find peace. And now, he will join them.
But... this really isn't what he had pictured where people would go after they've met their demise. There is nothing. More importantly, no one. In this vast space of nothingness, there is only him.
He wasn't sure what exactly is going on, and he's not waiting to find out what.
Rather than floating, it's more like walking on an invisible surface, there aren't even the sound of footsteps as he ran blindly into a direction that he doesn't even know where. The golden silhouette of a once lived man is now just running blindly across this strange landscape, hoping to find something. Anything.
And abruptly, on the distant horizon, he spots a dot. A golden dot. He slowed down his speed and started slowly walking towards it.
No matter what shape she's in, even if she's facing back, Jotaro can always recognize her.
Jolyne.
He hasn't been this relieved in a long time. He doesn't even care if he has to spend an eternity in this middle of nowhere, all he wants is to see her. Talk to her, actually know each other, like a true father that he had failed to be.
Almost like she can hear what he's thinking, the distant silhouette turned around as Jotaro stopped taking more steps towards her. She smiled at him with her eye closed.
The man reached out his right hand, with an also comfortable smiling. It's over, Jo-
Suddenly but slowly, the landscape changed its colour tone from the pitch black to pure white as a milk-white sphere with black outline slowly rises on the horizon to his right-hand side. Jotaro puts down his hand, drawn by the sudden change in the landscape, and so did Jolyne.
Their eyes followed the spherical object as it travels in a linear pattern, like the sun back in the world of the living. But something was off. Not the fact that they're in this strange place filled with nothingness, but the speed the sphere is moving. It's moving, it's not obvious at first, but as time comes by, it slowly, but surely, is getting... faster?
This rings an alarming bell inside Jotaro's head. The speed of that is... accelerating!
Gradually, the sphere above them started moving faster. Between the matter of seconds, the object set on the opposite horizon, everything turned dark again, but only for a second as the object came out a second later on the location where it rose a moment before. All the two souls can do is to follow their eyes around the trail of the spherical object.
Suddenly, Jotaro felt tired. Not the kind of tiredness you feel when you're attending a boring course that you were forced to take, but the kind that you feel after running a kilometre long marathon under a second. That tiredness hit both of the souls present instantly, without the time to respond, they collapsed onto the ground, but not unconscious.
The Japanese man panting tired to stand up with all of his strength, trying to apply strength onto his legs while his arm supporting them, but no good. The best he can do is to move his neck around before collapsing again. Before he can analyze the situation, another completely different feeling hit him: pain. Extraordinary pain. The burning pain that felt like someone is peeling your skin off while swimming in a pool of salt water naked, all over him from the top of his head to the tip of his toes, all the while making a sound that sounds like rubber strings being twisted.
He has not the slightest idea as to what is going on, but that changed as he lowered his head in reflex and saw his fingertips.
They're... growing back!
Like small paper cuts healing, but rather than just simply a tad cut, his entire body, first the bone, then the flesh, the skin, the hairs, even their clothes are growing back! They're growing from the tip of his fingers all the way to his elbow! Within only seconds, Jotaro's arms are just like the pair that he had before he died. Fleshy and physical, slowly replacing the misty silhouettes resembling them. And they're still growing.
Realizing what's happening, the man immediately turned his attention towards his daughter: She is going through the exact same process. From the overwhelming pain, she curled up in a ball, eyes clenched as she grinned on her teeth.
Then, as her entire right arm completely grew back, it suddenly dropped on the ground with a thud.
H-huh? Jotaro gasped in awe.
The sky- if you can call it that, is trapped in a fast cycle of turning into either black and white. The spherical object is travelling in an even more ridiculous speed, there really isn't a sphere there anymore- what a pair of normal human eyes can see is just a trail of two parallel white lines.
It's a clean cut: so clean that not even the sharpest blade in the world can do the same. Staring at the space where her right arm was supposed to be, her eyes in both shock and daze, she tried to yell. Yell whatever can relieve her at least some of the morbid pain. But before that, the same identical cuts appeared all over where her body already grew back, her body was chopped into pieces like a lump of meat on the chopping board, they dropped onto the ground with a series of unnerving noises of flowing fluid, and then there was nothing. No moves were made, nor any sound.
The man's heart tightened. For a moment there, a split second, all seems lost. That's it. She's no longer with him.
"Jo-" Jotaro tried to stand up using all his strength, unsure what he's gonna do, but he's got to act. But his mind was taken by a tremendous pain that he abruptly felt on the right side of his face.
And then there was only darkness.
Somewhere in the woods of the kingdom of Vale, sits a cabin. The cabin leans onto a pavement that connects to the main road, surrounded by the yellowing leaves. All is quiet and nice, with the tweeting of small animals echoing and the whirling wind in the distance, all illuminated by the setting sunlight that will soon be placed by the unsullied moonlight.
Through the second-floor bedroom window, a person can be seen lying on the bed: A girl with black hair that gradates to dark red at the tips, with silver eyes and a somewhat pale skin tone in her pyjamas, currently playing a game on her mobile device known as a scroll.
She was alone in the room lit by the yellowing ceiling light, and the atmosphere is... tense, to say the least. The girl was grinding on her teeth with a scowl emotion on her face, all her attention focused onto the tiny screen placed between her hands. To her, it's almost like there's nothing around her but her phone, it's that kind of focus whenever a professional boxer gets really drawn into a match, that kind of intense and unique focus that is only achievable through a burst of adrenaline, is exactly what she's going through right now.
In fact, she was so focused, she can't even hear the sound of someone calling to her from downstairs.
"Rubes? It's time for dinner! We've got chicken!" A masculine voice called out, from the sounds of it, it was someone in his middle ages, sounding a bit annoyed. And yes, this is not the first time he called out to the girl.
But she didn't even hear it, not to mention responding to it. She had a pair of earbuds almost taped to her ears with loud rock music mixed with the sound of explosions and gunfire coming through. She was sunk in into her own world.
"Ruby Rose! It's-time-for-dinner! I'll save you some strawberries if you come down before we eat them all!" The man tried to raise his voice by a few semitones in an effort to get her attention, but still, nothing came back in response. "God damn it."
A series of rapid footsteps can be heard from outside her bedroom door, it stopped at the front of the door and was immediately followed by the door being slammed open, the doorknob knocked into the wall, tearing a hole. The man has light blonde hair, tanned skin, black pupils and beards that matches the same colour as his hair, a somewhat masculine build, dressed in a pair of cargo pants and a brown jacket over a tan dress shirt, showing the fashion sense of a dad. He is TaiYang Xiao Long, Ruby's father.
Jolted by the sudden appearance, Ruby jumped a few centimetres into the air above her bed, her scroll flying out of her hand onto the hardwood bedroom floor next to her bed.
"GAH! D-Dad? Can't you at least knock?" The black haired girl recovered from the shock and said, while picking up her scroll up from the ground, trying to save herself from the ultimate defeat that she presumes herself will soon have to face. And without a doubt, that's what happened. All there is on the screen is a message written on the middle of the screen with a golden font: GAME OVER.
A cheer of joy can be heard from down the stairs: It's from another woman, but more athletic and mature compared to Ruby's voice. Ruby's now lying face down on the floor, letting out a set of long and upset grunt.
The man let out a big sigh as he closed his eyes in frustration, his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Look, games aside, you're the one who said that you're going in town tonight. The new magazine that you need to customize your Crescent Rose, remember? Don't wanna ride into town hungry, do ya? What was the store called again, From Dust Till Dawn?"
"Ugh." Ruby picked herself up from the floor, her back bent over, showing a defeated emotion on her face while speaking in an equally defeated tone, walking out of the bedroom door passing her dad. "Fine, I'll come down. Make your daughter that loser who quits halfway whenever she does anything."
"It's, well, you know, not really that important. It's only a game."
"It's not just a game! It's a serious fight that I've put my dignity, my name, my pride, and most importantly, my money into it! Now I've gotta pay my sister a hundred lien!"
"That sounds more like you two's problem rather than mine. Anyway, come on down, the food's getting cold." The man smiled as he followed Ruby downstairs.
"Hey guys, you seeing this?" Just as both of them went down the stairs, the other girl asked as she looked outside the window facing the valley below. Her name is Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's half-sister. While also in her pyjamas, she shows quite more cleavage than Ruby. With her blonde hair that goes all the way down to her waist and the seductive lilac eyes, it's hard for any man to find her not attractive. But that's beside the point.
The three gathered together at the window looking out. Nothing seems out of ordinary for the other two, but that's before they looked up. On the skies twinkled with shining stars and moonlight, came down a number of objects shrouded by a trail of bright, golden aura. They're headed perpendicularly straight for the ground at an exceptionally fast speed.
For a second, Ruby Rose thought the world is going to end. So did her sister and her father, but they didn't show it on their faces. All they did is watch in awe. After, even if Remnant is coming to an end, what's there to do?
Tension grew inside the cabin as the objects disappeared behind the distant mountain. Expecting a shock wave, a loud crash or at least some sort of feedback, the three immediately jumped away from the window lying down, knocking over some of the furniture onto the ground, all the while their ears covered, eyes clenched.
But nothing happened. Everything was quiet. The only sound they can hear is the whirling wind banging on the window.
As they slowly got back up, patting the dirt off themselves, they each individually thought of the same question.
What was that?
The green-haired girl abruptly awakened from her subconscious facing up, her eyes widen to the starry, blackened sky. She felt like she just had the worst fever dream in human history, almost as bad as a PTSD.
From what she can remember: She got chopped into pieces by Father Pucci, after that she woke up in some sort of bright white landscape, her father ran towards her- at least she thinks that's her father, it's like a misty silhouette so she can't really remember it all that well, and there was this- tiredness, and pain, then she remembers seeing her arm falling off, and then- blackout. She can't remember a thing after that. Given that she doesn't even have a scratch on her, that could all just be a dream.
She took aware of her surroundings: She is on an open ground surrounded a forest, the trees in the forest are not too tall and are full of leaves, it's gotta be some sort of deciduous tree, yet Jolyne has never seen one of them: The colour is weird, it's a mix of jungle green and aqua blue, and the texture on them. It just looks... off. Jolyne isn't the brightest when it comes to education, but this is definitely not a usual tree that you would expect to see in Florida.
Looking over the top of the treelines in front of her as she got up on her feet, she expected some sort of light, showing the signs of any city or at least any human settlement nearby. Nothing. Oh well, at least she needs to know where north is, just follow the direction where the mo-
That's when she sees it.
The moon.
Shocked, her legs lose all its strength, her body collapsed onto the ground sitting, both her hands covering her mouth wide open as she stared into the distance moon.
It was broken. It was fucking broken. It was fucking broken like a leftover potato chip on the ground that was stepped on by every guest in the house. The circular shape that it originally had is still somewhat visible, but the entire right side was obliterated into smithereens, floating around it.
What the hell is this? She hanged that question on the top of her mind as she slowly turned her vision down from the horrid monstrosity up in the sky, looking at the soggy and muddy ground. This doesn't make sense. Did Pucci do this? But how? Time acceleration is one thing, but there really isn't a way to break the moon simply by speeding up time, is there? Am I even still on Earth? Did I get transported to an alien planet or something? That would explain the strange trees around her, but how? What black magic is this? WHAT IS GOING ON?
Deep breaths, Jolyne. Deep breaths. You've witnessed stranger things, this adds nothing to the lis-
Before she can finish calming herself down, turning her attention to the opposite direction of the moon, she saw something at the corner of her eyes. It stands out greatly from the rest of the natural landscape, given that it looks artificial. It looks Purple.
No way.
Dropping all of the shocked emotions, she soon made a dash towards the purple object. It was a tall man lying on the ground facing sideways, his face facing the opposite direction against her. He was wearing a purple overcoat with a large star sewed on the back, yes- It's gotta be him.
"Hey- hey, get up!" The green-haired girl almost slipped as she ducked down next to him, all that talk about staying calm threw way behind her mind, with an overwhelming smile on her face, she turned his body over.
His eyes were closed, soundly, with his signature hat still holding onto his head. It almost looks like he's just taking a nap, if it weren't for the giant tear on the right side of his face, still spewing out blood. No emotions were displayed anywhere on his face, his facial muscles aren't moving, his eyes, his nose, nothing. It felt like he had put a time stop to himself.
It's like waking up from one nightmare and entered another, her heart, like her father when he saw she's in front of a wall of knives back in Florida, fell into stasis. This wound is identical to the one she saw on his face when he got defeated, the same position, the same smoothness, everything is the exact same.
Tears rolled down the corner of her eyes, she cannot control the outburst of tears and the emotions coming from her heart, all she can do is sob. The demise, the downfall from happiness to desperation, overwhelmed her all within a second. The goddess of fate- if there even is one, must be playing tricks on her. There is no way all of this is real. Why only her, but not the man that she wanted to be alive?
Placing his head above her thighs, she continued sobbing, and it soon turned into cries: Like yelling out to the unfair gods that played them like a pawn, and to the fact that she had just lost the figure that she desperately needed.
But, almost as if the gods heard and answered her prayer, small movements started to twitch on Jotaro's face, as Jolyne felt the air around his face started moving: He was breathing again. He lets out a small grunt, a painfully weak one at that, but it was enough to show that the invincible Jotaro Kujo, is still alive. It felt like bungee jumping, just when you thought you're hitting the ground, you get pulled back to the top.
While still having tears running down her cheeks, it is no longer of misery. It's more joy and comfort, the dragged down corners of her mouth slowly rose up and the brows released.
Right, right, celebrations for later. She wiped away the tear from her face, still sobbing a bit. Now, for the giant wound on the face. What's to do when you face someone with a crack on his body? She recalls seeing it on a book that briefly describes what to do.
First step: Disinfect. Cross that out of the list for now, given that there really isn't anything at the scene that she can use to do that. She heard that it's possible to disinfect wounds with plants, but she's not taking chances with these alien plant lives.
Second step: Sew it up.
Quite a coincidence, Jolyne, after getting pierced by a fragment of a stand arrow, was given the ability to turn herself into strings. And a blue punching ghost as an extra sprinkling on top. While it might not sound all that interesting, but there's quite a lot that she can do with strings, given that she can freely control them: Transporting sound through it for long-range communication, turn her entire body into a single strand of string to even the damage, and most importantly, the strings can act as a roll of sewing strings, sewing up people's wounds.
Slowly, Jolyne puts up her right hand onto Jotaro's face. The tip of her index firstly turned to pale white, then it slowly unravels into a spiral piece of string. Almost as if it has its own will, it managed to seek its way onto the crack, over the blood stain that had already dried up. Almost like a professional surgeon performing an operation, the string managed to dig its way under the man's pale skin, so soft and slow that he barely even noticed. Then back up. Then back down. Again and again, until his face is entirely secure.
Jolyne exhaled, releasing all the tension from the rollercoaster ride of emotions earlier. That was a hell of a train ride, she thought to herself.
His condition should be stable for now, but it's not really the brightest idea to stick around in the woods, there might be wild animals wandering among these woods this late-
Behind the green-haired girl, came a low growl. It sounds horrific- like a wolf slowly approaching its prey, menacing, dangerous, the sheer voice itself stabbed Jolyne deep down into her back, but rather than damaging her, it made her shiver. Her eyes widened, pupil shrank, almost if she's about to get shot in the head.
Maybe it's the fact that stand users have better reflexes than ordinary people, Jolyne immediately Jumped up from the ground, her stand summoned, facing back towards the source of the low growl. It was an- animal, calling it that was a stretch. It was crawling on the ground covered with a black unnameable substance, presumably, it's skin and browning bone sticking out its joints. On its face is a mask: or his skull, there really is no way to tell, on it Jolyne can see its eyes shining in the dark in crimson red, its teeth sharp like a steak knife, showing nothing but hostility towards the two people in front of it. At first, it was just sneaking behind Jolyne while she was distracted by her father, now that it was exposed, it screeched, and came charging at a fast speed towards the two.
Now, Jolyne's not weak. Her stand is powerful, to say the least. It punches things hard at a pretty fast speed and precision, but consider this: She just woke up from what's likely her death, her stamina is really low, which will impact her stand's overall movement, not to mention that she has to carry this heavy and tall Japanese man around or otherwise he will be killed.
The wolf-looking-animal-thing is still charging towards them, and it's not planning on stopping in any shape or form. Luckily, it is within Jolyne's range, which is 2 meters. Jolyne's stand, Stone Free made the first move, with it dashed forward towards the direction of the beast, waving its fist towards the charging beast.
But the beast is also fast: it evaded the stand's attack simply by moving a bit to the left, missing the fist just by a few centimetres, and its now just in front of the green-haired girl. The beast clenched its right palm into a fist, with the accelerating speed that it gains through charging, the animal gave her a powerful punch right in the stomach, sending her flying onto the ground behind her.
Jolyne grunted as a spew of blood came flying right out of her mouth. Rolling on the muddy ground for a few circles from the hit, her vision became blurry as hell. This is all too sudden, she doesn't even have to time to prepare.
What she's facing isn't a regular wild animal, it's a beast. It's strength it has definitely not belong to any normal animal, and from what she can tell, it can see her stand. When her stone free swung its fist, it managed to evade it. Not that she's saying there isn't such a thing as an animal stand user, it's just that none of them has the appearance as horrible as this. Is this beast the work of an enemy stand user?
Before Jolyne can fully analyze this monster and its weaknesses, it came charging again at the girl. But this time, Jolyne's prepared. She resummoned her stand, as it appeared behind her back, it started throwing a wall of punches towards it. The beast doesn't have the space to break itself from the accelerating speed, by the time the sprint does come to a halt, it was caught between the raging fists of Stone Free.
"OraOraOra-!"
The furious fists struck the black creature like a professional boxer against a sandbag, with a series of sounds that sounded like bones getting crushed, the black monster stumbled back a few meters, standing. It has clearly been damaged, but it's not yet to quit the fight, it growls yet again, ready to charge, repeating the same strategy as before.
Jolyne picked herself up from the ground, wiping away the blood stain at the corner of her mouth with her elbow, but the stain is not the only thing that's at the corner of her mouth. There was also a smirk expression.
"Good grief, what a... vile creature." Jolyne's now stand up, but a bit unstable-y leaning to the right, it's basically her right leg holding up her entire body at this point. "Can't you notice what's missing?"
The creature, of course, did not understand a word she said. It let out another low and furious growl, and yet again started charging for the girl. But something about her just isn't right. Like it's missing something. But it didn't care that much, and proceed to charge towards the green haired girl. This time, it will aim for the head.
"Huh. I guess you really can't, stupid animal." Jolyne said in confidence as she struck a menacing pose. "Then, I shall be the victor."
The creature, a bit confused just before, realized what the missing piece is. Both of her front arms were missing. Missing, not as in fell off, there was a clean cut on the elbow, but the arm, it's just- not there. Everything below her elbows is just not there. Looking closely, there seems to be something hanging off the clean cuts, it's a... string?
Only a meter away from Jolyne now. From a technical perspective, she shouldn't be the one smiling. There is nothing between the two right now, and if it managed to land a hit onto Jolyne, she would most likely pass out, given that her physical condition seems pretty bad already, not to mention that both of her arms are gone, to where, it doesn't know, but one thing's for sure: she is totally vulnerable right now.
And suddenly, the beast's movement stopped. Almost like a scene from an 80's Disney animation, it slipped onto the ground facing up, the head banged on the hard, muddy ground, and it looks like it gave the animal quite the concussion.
There was a piece of rope wrapped around the beast's neck. Each side of the string was bounded to two distant objects behind the beast: It was the arms of stone free, deeply drilled into the ground.
"I could have just beat the shit out of you, but I'm running out of strength, which puts me at a really big disadvantage. So, before I threw those punches, I managed to connect both of my arms with a piece of string, then launched them while you're distracted by my punches like a piano wire using my stand. The string was long enough and just the right thickness that you won't really notice, and with my stand's extraordinary strength, it can grab into the dirt like a grappling hook. The original attempt was to just slice your head clean off while you're sprinting, but I guess you aren't running fast enough and my rope's too thick that it absorbed the power."
"But, it's not exactly a bad thing- since now, I can come close, and beat you into oblivion."
The beast seems to understand what Jolyne's trying to do, it struggles around with the rope while remaining on the ground, the rope getting tighter and tighter, but it's stupid, non-flexible claws just can't seem to cut the ropes off. It's not really sure how it can't cut off such a small thing, but no matter how many times it tried to claw the ropes down, it just felt like hitting on concrete.
"With that out of the way..." Jolyne slowly stumbles towards the beast, who is still struggling on the ground. The blue stand with a pair of sunglasses on her face is floating behind her, ready to kick some ass. There are only about 50 centimetres between them.
"... It's time to meet your creator!"
OraOraOraOraOraOraOraOraOra, Orrrrr-aaa!
Without her fists, Jolyne decided to pump the bottom of her stand's feet into the animal's face, at a rate that's just as fast as her fist. It screamed in agony as it kissed the bottom of Stone Free's sole, over and over again, it sounded like stepping on melt chocolate. After at least ten seconds of stepping, the screamings stopped. The place where the monster's head once has been was replaced with a pile of sticky goo.
Jolyne's stand disappeared behind her as she knelt down on one foot, panting. That took way more time and stamina then it was supposed to. Anyway, what now-
Just about a few feet away, in the darkened woods next to her, a number of vaguely visible crimson eyes are staring at her.
Oh.
You've gotta be kidding me.
Jolyne immediately turned back, her right arm unfurled as a string of rope, flew out to the man on the ground wearing purple that she left there a bit earlier, and retracted her arm back like a winch. She then carried the man onto her back and soon consumed all her strength to use the ultimate Joestar technique.
The technique is extremely effective against all kind of problems, from either physical, emotion or even economical. It was spread first by her great-grandfather, who's barely alive the last time she saw him. It requires strength, durability, and most importantly, physical ability. It got passed down generations and generations, and now, to her.
That technique is, of course...
To run away!
Basically gasping for air at this point, while carrying his father on the back, she made a dash towards the opposite direction of the pack of wild beasts. And of course, they aren't giving up.
"Stone Free! Hold them off!" Jolyne yelled, her stand appeared two meters behind her, floating parallel to its user's movement. It started doing what most stands does best- throwing walls and walls of punches at the opponents.
It indeed managed to keep them off by a bit, but given that her stand has the pathetic range of only 2 meters, it's hard to actually keep a distance long enough to get rid of them. There is no way in hell that she's fighting off an entire pack of those creatures alone, just one gave her enough grey hairs.
She ran into the darkened woods, opposite to the direction and the location where she fought off the first beast. She has no idea where she's going, but it's better than just staying out in the open, waiting for her impending doom. Her father is nowhere near to waking up, and she's running out of strength, she can pass out at any point. The only thing keeping her from passing out is the sheer will power of trying to stay alive.
After all those difficult moments that they've been through, burned, comatose, knocked out, critically wounded, even died at one point. There is no way that they're getting killed by something as ridiculous as this.
Carrying a 194cm high man through a forest without getting killed by a pack of wolf-looking creatures is a task that sounds easier on paper than actually doing it. The simple fact that her father is 20 centimetres higher than her is the first problem, then comes the fact that she also has to control her stand from the beasts that are trying to kill them from getting too close. Running for about five minutes more is the best she can do.
The dimly lit forest is hard to navigate, and she doesn't have the slightest idea as to where to go. Jotaro's knees are dragged along the ground, knocking over small branches and stones, bleeding and bruised. Her head is about to explode in exhaustion, her legs trembling, rapidly breathing out hot steam, her entire body soaked in sweat. The reality is cruel: She is in no shape to fight, her old man is dragging her down, a pack of beasts are behind them trying to devour their flesh. Unless there's a miracle waiting to happen, there is no way in hell are they going to survive this.
Finally, Jolyne ran out of strength. She fell onto the cold and muddy ground along with the man she's carrying, her stand disappeared into her body, and the pack of beasts behind her, ready to rip them apart. All her efforts gone down the drain, her entire body trembling, having a hard time simply opening up her eyelids. The only thing she can do is to wait for the impending doom that will soon come. One of the beasts leading the pack came charging towards her, exhausted, Jolyne cannot make a single movement to fight back.
And suddenly, with the sound of a sword gliding across the air, the beast's movement came to a halt- its body and the head was separated by a giant, metal sword. The head of the beast spew out blood from its neck and flew away from its body like a baseball, straight up glided into a nearby bush.
The one that welds the swords was a man- a man with dull red eyes, spiky black hairs and stubble beards around his jaws, wearing a gray dress shirt with a red cloak behind his back. The sword, after slicing the head of the beast in half, is awkwardly stuck into the ground. The black-haired man tried to pull it out, but it just won't budge.
But the man did not panic. Instead, he showed a quite smirk smile on his face. He pulled the button located on the handle with a click, and followed a series of gears rotating, the sword's body retracted back and formed into a scythe. Then, the man managed to pull it out of the ground with ease.
Without wasting any time, the man with the sword- or rather, a scythe- swung his weapon towards the pack of beasts, with each swing, came the sound of liquid spewing out and objects hitting the ground.
Everything happened so fast. So fast that Jolyne don't even know what happened, but that had to do more or less with her exhaustion. She felt like getting picked up from the ground by someone, the smoothness of the person's skin made her believe that it's a woman.
But she was too tired to figure all that out. Relieved at the fact that they're presumably safe, she closed her eyes and fell into a deep slumber.