Qara knew Batzorig was worried, but she didn't know why. He had been like that a lot lately, but she didn't want to bother him. Until now, that was. She had to say something to him. It was late at night in the Ganbayaar household, and Batzorig was just getting ready to go to bed when Qara approached him.
"Batzorig?" Clearly he wasn't expecting her to come into the kitchen. "Yeah sis?" He began smiling. "You know you don't have to hide anything from me." She said. "Of course." He said. "Well, it's just that you've been kind of worried lately and I don't know why."
He put his hand on her shoulder. "Well, I suppose I should tell you." He said somewhat solemnly, as if he didn't really want to say anything at all. "You know how we're fighting a war, right?" Qara nodded. "Well, I don't want you to spend all your time fighting. I'm sending you away for a little while." Qara's face fell. "You don't...want me here?" Batzorig sighed. "It's not like that. Qara, you're a great help around here. But you're also a teenager. I want you to enjoy yourself while you can. Mongolia isn't safe for that right now."
She seemed sad, but understanding. Batzorig seemed to be coming from a place very close to his own heart. "So you're not coming then?" Batzorig shook his head. "I have to stay here and lead. You've worked non-stop since the war began, so if anyone deserves this break then it's you."
Qara smiled. "Thanks. But where am I going? How am I going to pay for myself?" She asked. "Well, we agreed on New York City." Her eyes shot open. "Wow..." She barely whispered. "Anyway, you'll be meeting a man called Vahid Ghoochannejhad. He's paying for everything, and he's gonna take you around the world." That much amazed her. "When am I leaving?"
"Next week. You'll be going to the Soviet Union to catch a flight as far as Soreja, then going over the border and flying to New York." Batzorig explained.
"I'll be on my own though, won't I?" She said. Batzorig sighed again. Normally teens like Qara were full of excitement over the idea of getting to go off on their own to wherever. But Qara was very different. She had never been outside Mongolia in her life, and furthermore had never been on a journey on her own. The mercenary worried for his sister very much. However, he knew that the benefits much outweighed any potential negatives. "Hey." He spoke softly. "I wouldn't send you on this trip if I didn't know you could take care of yourself." Qara smiled at that. "Thanks." She said. "I better rest up now. Don't wanna be tired for my trip."
"Clothes shopping?" Hanna seemed skeptical. "Yeah. It's just that your dress sense is...different." Vahid explained. "People are gonna think you're weird." Hanna shrugged. In truth, Hanna's dress sense wasn't all that weird, only a little prude. But Vahid had ideas and that was that. "People think I'm weird in Dresden too, I think that's just how people are." Vahid shook his head. "You don't understand. If you dress right then you'll blend right in with everyone else. Surely you don't want to stick out?" Hanna thought about it for a second, and for whatever reason, she agreed. "You're lucky, London is like, one of the best places in the world to do this kind of thing." Hanna didn't have great fashion knowledge, especially not here, so she decided to follow Vahid around.
They had these things called 'department stores' as Vahid called them, where you could buy things for a multitude of needs all in the one place. What a novel idea. She was taking notes the whole time in her journal. Vahid told her that the same sort of things were in Paris, but they just never got around to seeing them.
After a while of loading clothes into a basket, Vahid had an idea. "Here. We could be here all day looking at shit, but unless we know what it looks like on you then we're wasting our time. Let's find a changing room." Hanna agreed, and so they took the nearest available one, at which point Vahid put his plan into action.
"Catch!" Vahid threw what looked like a single pant leg over the top. Until Hanna opened it up and realized it was two legs. "Huh?" She looked underneath them. "Where are the rest of the legs?" She asked herself. Not that Hanna didn't know what shorts were, but these were barely even pants. "Everything alright in there?" Ghoochannejhad asked. "Yeah, I'm fine." She said, just getting the shorts on as quickly as she could. She could barely pull the zip up all the way, it was so tight. But it wasn't like her to make a fool of herself by admitting she couldn't put on a pair of fucking pants, so she persevered. "Alright, shirt coming in now." Again, Hanna was confused with the black garment. "It's called a tank top in case you're wondering." He informed her. She put it on, but like the pants found it was woefully short. It didn't even cover her belly button, and once again it was tight. "You done?" Vahid asked. "Ja, but I want to-" Vahid walked in. The attendant covered her mouth. "Oh my God..." She whispered under her breath. Vahid was speechless, but at the same time he was trying not to laugh. "Alright, I'm gonna see what the fuss is abou-" Looking at herself in the mirror, she realized exactly what was wrong.
The shorts and top really, really hugged her figure tight. Her ass and cleavage were incredibly pronounced, on top of her already showing a lot of skin already.
Vahid tried to stop himself from laughing at her reaction, and for the most part he was successful. When he tried to take a picture though, he was less successful. Hanna saw the flash almost immediately, and Vahid couldn't really hide it. "Ghooch!"
"Yes?" Hanna walked up to him and reached into the pocket that contained the camera. It was a polaroid, so the picture was already there. She looked at the photo with utter contempt, shoving it in her pocket. "I'm burning this when we get home." She said. "Well, can't say I didn't try." The defeated Iranian sighed.
So after close to an hour of walking around every department and getting a kick out of the German's strange reactions to fashion, Vahid took Hanna to the checkout. "That will be £1,000." The cashier informed them. Hanna's eyes nearly shot out of their sockets. "Dammit Ghooch, how can I-" Vahid had already produced a fat stack of bills to pat for everything without his expression changing. Needless to say, Hanna was speechless. While walking back to the hotel, she decided to confront him about it. "Where does money like that come from?" Vahid smiled. "I have friends in high places. Can't tell you or else I might have to shoot you."
The Iranian never ceased to bemuse Hanna. He acted like a slovenly idiot, but he was also loaded, and didn't inherit his money. Hanna hadn't heard his name before, which she was willing to let slide, but no one here knew who Vahid was by the sound of things. So what was his deal?
"These seem really expensive." She said, looking at one of the scarves he had bought. Velvet white, very simple but so soft and warm. "Now you can take that old thing off and wear something proper." She shook her head. "Ich kann nicht." She said. "This scarf is the only scarf I'll wear." He didn't even seem disappointed, just shrugging his shoulders and moving on.
"Yo Teemu, are you guys at the hotel yet?" Vahid had stopped at a phone to call the other two. "Yeah, we're just approaching. Pity she doesn't drink, otherwise I'd get her piss drunk and tell you guys everything while that happened. I also have to get that picture off her." Well, at least he was smart enough not to mention her name. Otherwise it was obvious who he was talking about.
Reaching into her coat pocket, Hanna took the polaroid out again and looked at it. Maybe it was hindsight, but she could see something in the picture now. Maybe she wouldn't burn it.
"I must say, it is nice to have so many new people on the island at once." The man, named David Scotty explained. He had taken the Stardust Crusaders and Varo to what they assumed was his office, though it could have been anything. Joseph hadn't been to Nauru before, but he had been to Hawaii, and there were many similarities. Civillization appeared further inland than he would have expected, with many of the more modern buildings being there.
"It seems like people here are well off." Joseph remarked. "What makes you say that?" David asked. "They're all grossly overweight. When's the last time any of them had a job?" Varo cut across.
"Well, we have a supermarket. That employs around 30 people. Then there's jobs in the government. I'd say all in all we have about 500 jobs here.
Problem was, Nauru had a population of 15,000. "Anyway, how come they don't work?" She asked. "Phosphate mines." He explained. "Since the beginning of the century, Nauruan phosphate mines have made us a remarkably prosperous country. But of course, that on its own would not be enough to help us, since the phosphate runs out. So we had to get a stroke of luck to help us."
Varo raised her eyes. "Luck?" David nodded. "One day a tourist arrived by boat, an American gentleman by the name of Brown. Anyway, he was a young man at the time, and he was also an up and coming businessman. So this island became a pit stop for sailors travelling across the Pacific. Casinos were buit. Ports were expanded. We even struck a deal with NATO to allow them to use our ports for more money. But that's enough about the island. What happened to you?" They all looked around at one another. Who would explain something like that? "We were lucky." Joseph started. "A terrorist got on board with a gun and he shot the pilots. So I took over flying the plane until we could land somewhere."
"Ah, I see." David nodded. "You were very lucky not to be shot." Then they heard the sound of a motor approaching the beach. "That's funny." David remarked. "I'm sure we cleared out the plane. No one should be out that way, much less on a boat."
"Unless it's another stand user." Varo muttered. All of them ran outside to see a jetski belonging to the Nauruan Coast Guard speeding towards the coast. On it, a burly white man with strange silver hair that was stacked on top of his head. He wore a black top that only covered up to his chest, and he also wore white pants. He had an emotionally blank look in his eyes and looked like he had no intention of slowing down.
"I don't recognize him. He can't be part of the Coast Guard." David said, looking through binoculars. But the rest of them had already seen something David couldn't possibly see.
A stand.
A knight in shining armour by the looks of things, with a sword pointed at the shore as he drew closer. "He's not moving. He then turned to the nearest soldiers he could see and gave them clear orders to shoot if necessary.
The man hadn't crashed his jetski at all, but made a graceful stop just at the shore. They could all see the fleshbud in his head, which could mean only one thing.
"So DIO found another puppet to throw at us? How did he do it so quickly?" Joseph asked.
"Who?" David inquired, seeing tensions were flaring up. Two coast guards had come down to the beach already, guns aimed at the man.
"Lord DIO already knows of the failure of his first servant." The man explained in a French accent, albeit with very good English. "Rest assured, I will not fail."
"Sir, put your hands in the air and do not move!" One of the coast guards warned. The man smiled and ran towards them, his stand out and ready. Faced with no other alternative, the guard fired a shot.
"Silver Chariot!" The Frenchman yelled, as his knight-like stand sliced the bullet in half. To the Stardust Crusaders, what had happened was impressive, but to the guards, witchcraft. "What?!" David was horrified. "How could he just-" "Never mind that, just get off this beach." Joseph instructed him. "You two as well, get away!" They needed no second orders.
The man chuckled. "Well well. Five on one. Seems very fair, wouldn't you think?" Jotaro wanted to attack, but knew he couldn't just jump in. Not unless he wanted his fists to get cut to shreds. Same went for Joseph and Kakyoin, who didn't seem too enticed at getting cut up by Silver Chariot. Varo could block sharp objects with her hamon, as could Joseph, but neither would have been able to react quickly enough to something that could slice a bullet in half.
"None of you?" He mocked. "Cowards. At least one of-" Abdul stepped forward. "I would not be so confident." He said. "You may have a powerful stand, but I intend to give it my all. Even if you defeat me, four more stand users should be enough to wear you down."
"Abdul, are you sure about this?" Joseph put a hand on his shoulder. Abdul nodded. "Why wouldn't I be? Now, you haven't told me your name." He informed the man, turning back to him. "Jean Pierre Polnareff." He answered. "Well Mr. Polnareff. I wish you luck."
"Magician's Red!" Abdul called out his humanoid bird stand, and waited. "Silver Chariot!" Polnareff ordered the stand to attack. Magician's Red had the first hit though, sending waves of flames straight towards Silver Chariot. The flames exploded once they hit their mark, but Chariot jumped through them, rapier held high.
"You are a fool for thinking I would be so easily beaten! Silver Chariot's armour is much stronger than mere fire!" Polnareff explained. "Is it?" Abdul never stopped smiling, continuing to fire at the stand. Silver Chariot quickly got within striking range and sliced across Magician's Red, cutting Abdul too. Abdul sas hurt, but it was the reaction of his teammates which was more vigorous. Jotaro already had Star Platinum out and ready to attack. "Hold your attack, Jotaro!" The Egyptian ordered. "I have this under control." Indeed, he hadn't even lost his footing. "Are you crazy? He just cut you across the chest." Jotaro protested in his usually reserved manner. "Trust me Jotaro. I know things don't look good, but if Abdul says he has a plan, then dammit he has a plan!"
Varo was still trying to come up with a way to beat Polnareff in her head. She was having ideas, but now she was really interested in this fight. The Stardust Crusaders, as they called themselves, were certainly an interesting group. Heart could tell that Abdul did in fact have a plan, even though Varo had no idea what it could be. The tide was very close too. If Abdul didn't finish this off quickly, his plans would be pretty severely damaged.
"I hope you do have a plan, Muhammad Abdul! Otherwise things won't get any better for you!" Abdul smiled. "Crossfire Hurricane!" He shouted, as Magician's Red cast a giant flame in the shape of an Ankh. It aimed directly for Silver Chariot, but the stand did not move even slightly out of the way, only head on towards Magician's Red. This time though, the reaction was much different. Jean Pierre Polnareff went down in pain as soon as the flames collided with his stand. "Gah! What happened?!" He demanded, feeling the pain as his stand was trapped in the flames.
"It was very simple. I could see that Silver Chariot's armour was far too thick to get past, even with flames, on the first try. However, heat causes metal to expand. I waited for your armour to heat up to the point where the plates pushed each other apart and created tiny openings so I could attack underneath.
"But Silver Chariot's face is showing. If an attack there didn't work, then why would you think an attack underneath would work?" Polnareff asked, just as Silver Chariot escaped the flames.
"I know better than to treat stands as human beings. They are much too different." He answered. Polnareff nodded. "Then I'll take Silver Chariot's armour off, since it's no use anymore." He announced. "With its enhanced speed, it should make quick work of you." That was when he did exactly that, showing a much lighter, albeit slightly red looking Silver Chariot. "Crossfire Hurricane!" Magician's Red attacked again, but this time, Silver Chariot was far too quick. "Look, it's moving so fast it's in different places!" Kakyoin pointed, as the knight stand was creating afterimages with its speed. The second Ankh exploded when it hit the ground, creating nothing but a hole in the sand.
Before he knew it, the speedy stand had already made it to his face, and cut an Ankh into his cheek. Abdul took a step back as he wasn't expexting the sudden sharp pain, but he held his ground regardless.
"You're a skilled fighter alright." Polnareff conceded. "But still, you're no match for Silver Chariot." Abdul ignored the taunt and fired off three more shots, all of which were deflected by the sword of Silver Chariot. "It's no use. Admit defeat, and I won't harm you any further."
"Not exactly. Take a look at your feet." Polnareff looked at Silver Chariot's feet and then tried moving his own. He couldn't. It was like...moving in water. The tide was indeed close, but nowhere near that far in. He would have noticed by now. Instead, it was a yellow gloopy liquid, which Polnareff was only noe beginning to realize was scalding hot, that consumed his stand's feet. "When I saw how quickly your stand could move, I knew that I needed to immobilize it. Fortunately for me, I could do that. The Crossfire Hurricane I fired into the sand has dispersed in all directions, melting the sand beneath your feet."
He wasted no more time. "Crossfire Hurricane!" He attacked for the last time, scoring a direct hit on an even weakef Silver Chariot. It didn't take long for Polnareff to collapse, withdrawing Silver Chariot. Immediately, the Stardust Crusaders rushed over to Polnareff, with Varo following. "Now, to take this out. It seems as though it was planted recently, it isn't nearly as bad as Kakyoin's."
Jotaro knelt down and brought out Star Platinum. "Right. I'm on it. You ready old man?" Joseph nodded. Varo said nothing and watched. Jotaro's stand soon took out the flesh bud and tossed it into the air, at which point-
'Hamon!' She screamed mentally.
The old man had used hamon to destroy the flesh bud for good. How? She was supposed to be the last hamon user, so how come...?
Varo made sure to keep that question on her mind as they took Polnareff to get his burns treated. After that, Joseph had to explain everything to David Scotty, telling him the real truth. All of them were there for that, as the chubby Nauruan and a crowd of people gathered to congratulate them for their bravery. "Well, it's certainly a strange story, but I have seen it with my own eyes." David explained. "How could I not believe it? I know it may not seem like much, but know that all of us here in Nauru will support you in your endeavours." He spoke while smiling. The crowd cheered for them, something of an unusual feeling. David then presented them with a Nauruan flag. It wasn't much, but it was what he could give.
"So where would you be headed next?" He asked them. "Well, isn't American Samoa close enough to here?" David rubbed the back of his head. "Well, not really. But, we could arrange a flight as soon as possible, given the urgency of your case." Joseph nodded. "Sounds good. We can spend the night here."
It was only a minute after that when Polnareff caught up to the group, his burns having been treated, although still healing. "I want to thank you guys for getting me out of that trance." He explained. "I was so close to getting to DIO, but-"
"You were after DIO too?" Polnareff nodded. "Then you should join us." Abdul offered. "We're going after him too, and we could use all the help we can get." Polnareff then took his hand and shook it. "It's a done deal then!"
"Hey, old man." Joseph looked over to Varo. "Yeah?" He went over to her. "I want to ask you about something. When you destroyed that flesh bud, used hamon. Where did you learn it?" She demanded. "Well, that's a long story." He explained. "But how do you know what hamon is?"
"I myself am a hamon user. I thought I was the only one." Joseph's eyes went wide. An Italian hamon user, and her last name started with 'Ze'.
"Varo, is your last name Zeppeli?" Joseph asked. "It is. Why?" She seemed surprised that he knew her name. "Your grandfather was a friend of mine. Caesar." Varo certainly knew that name. "What?! That couldn't be...if there was another hamon user, I would have-"
"Varo, do you have any team that you tag along with?" She shook her head. "Then it's a no brainer. You need to come along with us. It would be an honour to fight alongside another Zeppeli." Varo was thinking about it all day, but she couldn't decide. But now that She had been invited to tag along, why not? "Sure. Just tell your grandson to watch his attitude around me. I won't hesitate to pummel his ass." Joseph was over the moon though, not paying attention.
So began the career of Varo Zeppeli, the Stardust Crusader.
Author's Note
A little different to the actual Muhammad vs Polnareff fight, but I wanna get some practice in for when I have to think of actually clever ways to defeat other stand users.
Sand does melt apparently, into this weird gloopy liquid that can become glass. So Minecraft is kind of accurate.
So recently I learned that like most Asian names, Mongol names are usually said with the surname first, not the birth name. So I kinda fucked up there, but I'm not changing it now. I feel like that it kind of doesn't matter in the long scheme, just something that happened.
Yes, Nauru really does have high obesity rates (70%) and unemployment rates (95%) (both worst in the world). Nauru's current population is lower than what I've said (it's only 10k) but the point still stands.
I also just went back and read the JJBA wiki which says that since the flames from Magician's Red are the product of a stand, they can't be seen by non-stand users. I mean, I think that's kind of dumb, but I do see the logic in that. I just wanna say that even with this, I'm only gonna apply this feature to stands that already exist in the SDC arc. For instance, the oil Sailor 22 produces is perfectly normal oil to the human eye, even if they can't see the stand itself.
And yes, just like Araki, I intend on almost never touching on any of these abilities again, Imao.
STAND: Heart
NAMESAKE: American Rock Band
USER: Varo Zeppeli/Salerno
STAND TYPE: Long Range
POWER: B
RANGE: A
SPEED: C
PRECISION: A
DURABILITY: D
POTENTIAL: A
