Joshu swore by the end of the day he would live up to Adam's desire to learn more about his stand, but not in the way he had hoped.

After school was over, Josh grabbed his bag and was walking when he bumped right into another student. Falling back "ow! Watch where you're going you..." he looks and sees it's one of the other football players named Kel Osbourne. Kel seems a lot nicer than Adams, immediately helping Joshu right up.

"Sorry about that. I was in a bit of a hurry when I heard Adams came back from the hospital finally. I wanted to talk to him as soon as possible. Are you alright though?"

Joshu is fine, but gets an eerie vibe from Kel. Could have something to do with the fact he's huge. Joshu is his senior but meanwhile he towers over Joshu and just about everyone else in the school. He thinks to himself about how "He's built...like a linebacker...Oh"

Suddenly he sees Adams and waves to Adams and they talk briefly but Adams informs Kel that he needs to talk to Joshu.

"Really? Is it something school related? Girl related?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah Joshu's really good at math and I've been flunking math so..."

Kel has been friends with Adams for a long time and spends most of his time with him on and off the field. He knows when he's lying, but there isn't much he can do about it. He decides to drop it. "Oh, ok than. Guess I'll see you later..."

Adams takes Joshu aside and demands Joshu show him his stand again. Joshu mumbles "kinda putting me on the spot here, I don't know if I can just whip it out like" Adams goes to punch Joshu and the stand appears and grabs his fist. Adams arm is shaking furiously as Joshu's stand has a firm grip.

Adams pulls back.

"You need to start having faith in yourself Joshu. That's why the girls and guys alike make fun of you. Normies smell weakness and will take any opportunity. We have a real opportunity here and I don't know about you but I'm not gonna waste mine."

"Well what is all this?"

"I'll try to research more when I get home for you. But it'd be nice if you looked it up yourself. Theres all sorts of conspiracy sites that talk about stands, and while they aren't 100 accurate. I think it's a good starting point."

Joshu and Adams don't see Kel spying on their conversation because they're too engrossed in learning more about each others stands. Overheating them, Kel sighs.

Adams tells Joshu "Maybe I should go to your house and we can look it up together."

"Don't you have to get home and..."

"Screw home! Besides, I'd rather keep my mom napping for as long as possible."

"...is it stand rela--" "ofcourse it's stand related!"

Joshu suddenly begins to realize Adams is being enormously vague on purpose

"You seem so worried about what my stand does, what does yours do? I mean besides be some scary crab thing that crawls up my leg."

Adams looks around and goes to whisper to Joshu what his stand can do when he notices Kel listening it. Kel tries to hide but it's too late.

"You can come out Kel. I know you've been eaves dropping."

Kel comes out with his head down

"sorry Adams, you've just been acting weird and I thought..."

"Well it's nothing that concerns you. Unless you can see stands too."

Adams manifests his crab stand and it's crawling all over Kel's face. Joshu is grossed out but Kel doesn't notice at all.

"I didn't think so. Come-on Joshu. We gotta go do...homework."

As they walk away Kel thinks to himself

"So Adams and that Joshu kid have stands too. They're way too open about it. The last person you want to know you have a stand is another stand user. Adams is lucky I care about him as a friend. But I know this is far from over."

As Joshu and Adams browse terrible websites with connections to baby eating Satanist covens and aliens to the origins of stands, what does ring true is that normal humans cannot observe the stands at all. One less popular theory touted by a particular scientist says the stands are actually just a symptom of a parasite that awakens innate psychic abilities in its host as sortof a defense mechanism so it can mature and spread further.

Joshu looks at Adams

"So does that mean we're Venom?"

"Well...maybe I am. I'd say you're more like Peter Parker in Spiderman 3."

"I'd say you're more like a turd who can suck my wee-wee."

As they read on Joshu casually asks about Adam's stand. Bringing up how he told him about his abusive parents so what did he do where he doesn't worry about that anymore.

Adams rubs the back of his neck and admits while he's still learning the full extent of the stands power, he notices that whomever the crab attacks has very intense nightmares thereafter. Like to the point his parents started seeing doctors and therapists and that was just over a few days. but the nightmares have not stopped and he's wondering if it might kill them. Joshu notices he says that almost with delight, trying to hide his true feelings behind a facade of worry.

Joshu begins to realize that while Adams may appear to have a much better life, the reality is he has noone to protect or care about. That's why he is focused on learning about Joshu's stand. For some sortof selfish gain in the absence of anyone to protect. Also now he's even more worried about pissing off Adams knowing if his crab stand thing manages to pull a fast one he can forget about ever having another good night's sleep.

Joshu asks if any of these sites hold merit of a religious faith about the stands. Adams asks him why and he says that "well, many say that subconsciously a stand user names it's stand."

"And?"

"Well, what do you call your's in your head?"

"...pinch me. You?"

"Dont stop believing."

"Maybe. You know there's this nun chick whose always looking for donations. She says despite being blind she can see demons on people's shoulder and they should repent by donating. I wonder if she'll see our demons?"

"Are we really going to go make a day out of harassing some old nun lady?"

"Oh, and i suppose you have something better to do?"

"Oof. That's not the point."

They go down to the street corner where the nun named Courtney Love sits and tries collecting donations everyday. Despite how she's blind, she notices right away Adams and Joshu and gets up.

"I can smell demonic entities emanating from you two boys! When's the last time you've been to communion?"

Adams looks at Joshu with a smirk and goes up to the nun

"So Ms.Courtney, what do you know about these so called demons?"

"Step back heathen. I know how boys your age are. You get a taste of Satan's power and suddenly you think you're unstoppable. The Devil is a trickster and leaves nothing but despair. Don't you dialect me or God by asking about demons when all you want to do is use that knowledge to better serve them."

"Ok fine, you can hear me backing up can't you?"

Adams thinks Courtney is only using her ears as he shuffles back, summoning pinch me to attack and she clenches her Rosary.

"What did I just say?!" All of a sudden Adams bursts into flames the moment she begins to pray to her Rosary. He starts rolling on the ground but realizes too late this fire isn't stemming from something tangible but it is the nun's own stand.

"Holy shit Joshu help! This really hurts!"

"This is what awaits you if you don't get this silly idea out of your head that witchcraft is the answer to anything!"

Joshu summons don't stop believing amd in a flurry of punches knocks the nun out cold and the flames stop. Wobbly, Adams pulls himself up.

Joshu mentions how maybe she's onto something considering he never imagined he'd be assaulting a nun. Adams points out how this nun picks fights with people all the time. She's just a crazy and mean old lady who thinks stands are demons. "And like all these religious hypocrites she thinks her stand is somehow morally superior. People like her piss me off." He summons pinch me and fiercely squeezes her cheeks until they're blue from bruising.

"Adams what are you doing?!"

"What does it look like I'm doing? If a few bad dreams can make my parents leave me alone, I'm sure some night time terrors will make her change her tune and she'll think God told her to spill the beans on stands."

"You know Adams, at first I just thought you were a self centered jock who had the good life and didn't know how to empathize with others. Now I see you're worse than that. You're bitter, you're a bully, and you've convinced yourself that your victims deserve it because that's the way you were raised."

Adams walks away. "Where are you going?" Joshu yells at him and Adams casually glances behind

"You seem so sincere about this. So fine, you go ahead and go back to your normal life. The life where everyone thinks you're just some loser with no future. Maybe you can have your mommy take you to school every day so you don't have to overhear everyone talking about you. But me? I'm going to get to the bottom of what makes these stand things tic so I don't have to work a day in my life or give two shits what anyone else thinks. I've endured that long enough."

Joshu looks down realizing Adams is atleast partly correct. "Im not saying I want to just roll over and be a punching bag. But this isn't right."

"We have powers now Joshu. We determine what is and isn't right. And who better than us?"

"Maybe these things really are demons. Or you have to be a demon to use one."

[TO BE CONTINUED]