ZZ Top's Pop Evil, part 1

Some afternoons following their mutual coming-out in the dorm, Chisame and Misa were heading back from class. "Man, that sucked," Misa whined. "How do you feel about that English test?"

Chisame scowled, irritated that her roommate wouldn't leave her alone. "Better than you probably do..." then under her breath added, "barely..."

Misa laughed. "Yeah, probably. Man, I'm never going to get how the professor and the prez can pull off stellar grades like that."

Chisame looked at her classmate incredulously. "What do you mean, you don't understand how they can get good grades? What the heck is there to not get? It's because they actually give a damn and work for it."

"Asuna works even harder than the prez, but she's still Baka Red. Also, you just said a minute ago that you didn't do a whole lot better than I did."

"Well, I guess there's no accounting for stupidity... Also, I don't give a damn. There's no real point in working as hard as those overachievers. It's an escalator school, so it takes one hell of a failure not to move up to the next grade level."

Misa nodded, accepting her friend's logic. "Makes enough sense, I guess."

Chisame then stopped and demanded, "And just why the heck am I hanging out with you, anyway?!"

Misa grinned. "Because it's fate. Like I told you the other night, Stand users attract each other."

"You barely told me anything back then! You spouted some paraspiritual crap lifted from a Persona game and then spent two hours gushing about some guy you're pining for back in your hometown!"

Misa blinked, the picture of innocence. "Did I? Did I really? That doesn't really sound like something I would do."

"We were both there, of course you did!"

Misa blinked again. "Were you there, Chisame? Were you really?"

Chisame was about to lose her patience with the idiot in front of her, before she suddenly came to a realization. "Hey, Kakizaki. For some reason, the pavement's wet here."

Misa stopped in alarm, and immediately knelt to feel the ground. "Moreover, it's kind of... sticky. Like someone emptied out their can of grape juice on the ground, or something."

Quickly glancing about, she observed that the peculiar residue appeared to extend into an alleyway, while the sidewalk on either side was mostly dry. "But this much residue... could it... no, I'm sure of it! This must be the work of an enemy Stand user!"

Chisame silently counted to ten, before speaking. "First off, why does it have to be a Stand user? That alleyway is on an incline, so it's totally possible that some truck driver was transporting their mass of grape juice, got into an accident around the upper end of the alley, and the product spilled out. And that's what we're looking at. And even if it were the work a Stand user, why would you assume it was an enemy? Hell, the better question is, why do we even care?"

Chisame began to turn and walk off, but Misa reached out with one of SLTS's phantom hands and grabbed her. "No. It isn't something I can really explain, but my instincts are telling me that this is the work of a Stand user."

"... What, you're telling me you have a Stand-sense now? You're Spider-Woman, or something?"

"No, I just grew up in Morioh-cho, that's all. It's a town full of Stand users, so as I result I've developed something like an instinct when it comes to Stand phenomena."

Chisame lifted her glasses for a moment to massage the bridge of her nose. "C'mon, you have got to be bullshitting me."

"No, no, I'm serious. For example, I'm pretty sure that there are at least one or two other Stand users in our class, but I haven't been able to figure out who they are just yet. But I haven't really gotten a malevolent feeling from anyone, so I haven't really looked that hard."

"... So," Chisame began, "let me get this straight. Assuming that your Stand radar is actually a thing, you're telling me that there's an enemy Stand user up this alleyway... and you want us to fight go in there and pick a fight with them. Even though I don't know the first thing about what the hell any of this is about."

Misa nodded. "Yeeah, that just about sums it up."

"In that case," Chisame began as she turned away from the alley, "I'm heading back to the dorm for... stuff. Good luck with your..."

No sooner had she turned fully around, then she found a can of soda levitating in front of her at chest level. "... what the-"

Before she could finish her thought, the can popped its own top and blasted her with dark fluid at an extremely high pressure, the stream hitting Chisame with enough force to send her flying into the alleyway.

"CHISAME!"

Suddenly realizing that she'd turned her back to their mysterious attacker, Misa turned back around to face the enemy and summoned SLTS's hands. Fortunately, she acted quickly enough to catch the flying soda can and stop it from ramming into her chest. However, the force of the impact still caused Misa to skid backwards for several feet, until she eventually lost her balance and fell on her backside.

As the two schoolgirls got to their feet, they found their exit blocked off by a woman.

The enemy wore high-heeled sandals, a tight miniskirt, and a pink tank-top. Her deeply-tanned skin was covered with crossed-out tattoos of male names. Her nails were painted a bright neon green, much like her lips. The stand user had a haughty air around her, and introduced herself.

"I am ZZ Top", she declared, "and your luck has hit rock bottom!"


Okay, yeah, I realize this is short. But I have every hope and intent that the next chapter will be longer.

In the meantime, I would greatly appreciate a review.