"Not when I have [The Hand]!"
As Okuyasu spoke, the blue energy around him collapsed into the humanoid shape all at once as a wave of distorted energy flowed from the being. With a flourish of its two hands, the right having the distorted energy following behind it, the being only referred to as The Hand floated behind Okuyasu's body, its two hands facing downward as it posed them just to the sides of Okuyasu's head.
The general reaction among most everyone in the room, from transfer students on down to the local Beacon Academy students, ran very much the same: dumbfounded shock and awe as another person suddenly appeared from out of nowhere behind the Frontier huntsmen. That this figure had some decidedly non-human features clear on it shook them even further, as they all began to wander just what sort of bizarre and foul magics or machinations were at work here. While Pyrrha and Jaune didn't ascribe such foul motives to Okuyasu, their eyes were each widened in shock as they took in the new participant in the arena, neither having even remotely suspected that this would have occurred.
Team RWBY, while far less surprised than many of their contemporaries, did look on at The Hand with a good deal of interest as this was the third Stand they'd ever seen. Initially they had been put off by The Hand's appearance, as the blue, white and gold color scheme brought back memories of Bruno Bucciarati and his own Stand to the four young women's minds. However, upon closer examination they found that The Hand was quite different, not just from Bruno's Stand but from Josuke's.
Crazy Diamond and Sticky Fingers had been humanoid figures with decidedly humanoid features. While a good deal of Crazy Diamond's face was obscured behind the face guard of its helmet and Sticky Fingers' head was obscured from the nose up entirely by its helmet, there were no distinctly inhuman features that marked the two Stands aside from skin color.
The Hand's eyes were the first thing to jump out at Team RWBY after its color scheme: more mechanical or bug-like in nature than human, they were gold in color and had multiple slits running vertically down the length of them. Rather than a full set of lips and a mouth like either of the other Stands that Team RWBY had seen, there just seemed to be a vaguely mouth-shaped hole where the Stand's mouth should have been, with the corners of which being obscured by the black and white helmet worn by the Stand. Between two blue shoulder pads with golden spikes coming out of them was what looked like a towel draped casually over The Hand's shoulders, the ends of which had…
"Well, that's peculiar." Blake blinked, her amber eyes focusing in on the symbols. "Those symbols belong to some pre-lien currency: the Mantlean Dollar and the Mistrali Yen."
Indeed, if hearts had been the major theme of Crazy Diamond's design, the symbols of the old pre-lien money was The Hand's running theme, as those symbols appeared on the back of its hands as well as the sides of its hips. Hell, the entire Stand looked, for lack of a better term, blinged out with all the gold that accentuated its white and blue color scheme. Finally, the way The Hand was posing let those with especially sharp eyes see the palms of its hands: while the left was rather pristine, the right hand had lines darting all across it and two bulbous growths right in the middle of its palms that also had these lines across them.
All told, The Hand was a far more ostentatious Stand that what they'd seen before… and considering that one of the two Stands they'd seen had a hot pink color scheme, that was saying something.
"Can't say that it doesn't fit him…" Weiss rubbed her forehead a bit as she took in the design of the Stand, as her team, Koichi and Josuke nodded in agreement. Unnoticed by the others, Ren and Nora had stared at The Hand the entire time, their eyes wide in surprise as they took in the being that now stood between Okuyasu and Nora.
"Ms. Valkyrie." Glynda spoke up from her position on the side, drawing everyone's attention. "That being there, The Hand, is Mr. Nijimura's 'Stand'. While you are limited in how you may assault Mr. Nijimura himself, you are free to treat his Stand as you would any other combatant in this sparring class." Glynda gave Nora her last instruction as she waited for one of the two of them to make the first move, having already called for the fight to begin.
"Wait." Nora blinked in surprise as she turned her head to look at Glynda, a look of disbelief on her face. "That's a 'Stand'? But-"
"Nora!"
Ren's voice had brought Nora back into focus as she turned to look back to Okuyasu and his Stand, her eyes going wide as she noticed that The Hand was practically right on top of her. With a quick gasp of surprise and a jump back Nora narrowly avoided a punch thrown by the, for now, hostile Stand, its fist driven down into where Nora had previously stood as it shattered the stone floor.
"Holy crap you're strong!" The orange-haired bomber immediately put her mind into the fight at the sight of the floor being so easily broken by Okuyasu's Stand. The floor had been made to ensure that bullets, explosions and Aura based feats of young hunters in training wouldn't do serious damage to it. If The Hand was strong enough to shatter the floor with one punch, then that told Nora that she was dealing with some serious muscle here.
"You'd best not turn your attention away from The Hand Nora, or you'll find yourself beaten to a pulp!" Okuyasu grinned as he and his Stand rushed forward towards Nora, the plucky young woman's face took on a determined edge as she whirled Magnhild around a few times as she and Okuyasu's Stand met in direct battle.
Up in the stands, most students were watching the fight with a great deal of interest. This summoned being seemed to be stronger than most of them and, with its speed forcing Nora on the defensive, seemed to be just a bit faster than most hunters in training as well. That such a thing could come out of a person was a shock to most of their systems and, slowly, it became clear to them just how an outpost of human civilization could survive the Grimmlands for so long if these were their primary weapons.
Among Team RWBY, however, there had been confusion.
"Wait, what's Okuyasu doing?" Ruby Rose asked as she tilted her head to the side, a confused expression on her face as Jaune and Pyrrha turned to face the silver-eyed girl.
"What do you mean? He's using that… Stand, thing to force Nora on the defensive. Seems pretty straightforward if you ask me." Jaune said as Yang just shook her head.
"Yeah, but that's what Ruby means." Yang turned her head to look at Josuke. "I gotta assume Okuyasu's Stand has some kind of crazy ability too, right?" The pompadoured teen just nodded his head as he watched the fight, his gaze focused as he watched each of Okuyasu's and Nora's movements as the two brawled it out on the arena floor. "Then… I dunno, why isn't he hanging back and strategizing? It's clear that The Hand is pretty strong and fast, it could probably keep Nora at bay while he thought of some way to surprise her. I dunno, it just seems like he's being way more aggressive than either you or Bucciarati."
Josuke turned his head very slightly away from the fight to fix Team RWBY with a slightly raised eyebrow. "Yeah, he is, isn't he?" He turned his head back to the fight as he said this, which drew questioning glances from Ruby, Yang, Jaune and Pyrrha.
"... Oh… oooooh." Blake's eyes widened in comprehension as she leaned forward to watch the fight. "Okuyasu… doesn't do the thinking thing, does he?" Josuke just shook his head no as he continued to watch the fight.
"No, not really." He jammed a thumb over towards Cardin as if this proved some point of his. "I'm sure you've noticed that Okuyasu can act in the heat of the moment and doesn't really stop to consider his actions or options a lot of times. Honestly, the guy just prefers to just act on his gut feeling."
"... That's why you said it'd depend on how long the fight went on for." Weiss palmed her face slightly as she shook her head. "If Nora finds out Okuyasu's patterns or weaknesses, she can start to exploit them to make it so that even The Hand's advantage in speed and strength won't matter." Weiss dragged her hand down her face so that she could see the fight again, as Okuyasu continued to bum rush Nora who continued to bat away his Stand's punches and kicks with either the head of Magnhild or its haft. "Meanwhile, Okuyasu won't stop to consider how he should change up his strategy to reflect this and he'll just keep going in headfirst to try to break Nora down by force."
"To be fair, it works out really well on Grimm… individually. Most of the time." Josuke sheepishly scratched the back of his head as he said this, the fight continuing to play out down in the arena. Several holes and shattered remnants were scattered about the floor as Okuyasu and The Hand continued their chase for Nora, Stand and Stand Master each gunning for Nora's buns and looking to end the fight in as many decisive punches as it would take. Nora, for her part, had done her best as she tried to keep The Hand off of her and to stop it from landing any solid hits. There had been a time here and there where the Stand had grazed her and, while her Aura had dulled the pain, it was clear that this Stand was hitting with a lot of force, if the blip in her Aura bar from even a grazing hit was any indication.
The thing was that despite The Hand and, by extension, Okuyasu keeping up this pace, neither seemed to tire. Okuyasu's case was obvious; he only moved around with his Stand and kept close to it and while he had made sure to stay just out of Nora's reach. The Hand on the other hand was throwing out a crazy amount of energy and yet it didn't seem to have slowed down even a bit from the exertion. Nora was a bit of a ditz, even she in her more reflective moments was all too willing to admit this, but she wasn't dumb: if the fight kept up like this, she'd just tire herself out and then it'd be all too easy for Okuyasu and his Stand to have beat her down into submission.
As The Hand reared back its fist for another hard hit, Nora realized that this was an opportunity for her; she recognized the sort of punch that The Hand was trying to hit her with. Nora took a deep breath and readjusted her grip on Magnhild. Rather than deftly knocking the fist aside as she had been previously, she waited until the Stand was midway through its swing before stepping back and swinging Magnhild, striking the Stand along its upper arm and shoulder. The motion caused a deep impact to appear on Okuyasu's own shoulder and the force of both his Stand's failed punch and Nora's blow carried him and his Stand several feet away from Nora, who used the opportunity to get some space between herself and her opponents.
Nora took a few steadying breaths as she held Magnhild defensively, her eyes narrowed in concentration as she watched Okuyasu right himself, his Stand just floating back into place between Nora and Okuyasu. A glance told the bubbly bomber that her hit had made a slight impact on Okuyasu's Aura, roughly equivalent to what she could do to some of her classmates. However, Okuyasu's various glancing blows had taken her down lower, if only slightly.
If Nora wanted to win this spar, which she really did because losing even to a friend sucked, then she'd need to rethink her strategy. Okuyasu wasn't going to tire out and slow down, but she very well could if he had kept this up. She couldn't count on being able to read every single one of his blows and thus, needed to think of another way to deal with him and his-
When Okuyasu bolted for Nora, her eyes went wide as she immediately ran back away from him, as she expected The Hand to be on top of her in a matter of moments. Yet, despite the Stand's obvious speed from earlier in the fight being greater than Okuyasu's, it hadn't moved faster than him. It stayed at a rough distance away from him and only kept up with his pace and always ensured that it was between its master and Nora. Turquoise eyes watched this phenomena carefully as Nora raised an eyebrow slightly.
'That's weird… it's almost as if his Stand…'
Nora immediately switched Magnhild over from its hammer form to its grenade launcher form.
"Your Stand has a range!" Nora's cry was accompanied by a wide grin and a burst of excitement as Magnhild's revolving canister system gave a quick spin, before a canister of pink dust with a heart shape on the tip fired towards Okuyasu.
"Shit!" Okuyasu and The Hand stopped in place immediately as the projectile came right for them, the two leapt away on instinct as the grenade hit the ground and exploded.
"... I don't think I'll ever get used to the fact that your weapons turn into guns or… whatever kind of weapon that thing is." Josuke frowned slightly as he tried to identify Nora's weapon, all the while Okuyasu and his Stand dodged around her various grenades, pink explosions tinged with electricity left in his wake.
"It's a grenade launcher. You see, it has a revolving chamber that holstered six grenades at a time, and a grenade is like an explosive charge that contains Dust in it. Kinda like… oh, ummm… dynamite?" Ruby tried her best to explain the relatively new weapon to someone whose understanding of guns, weapons and ammunition would've come from books that were nearly a hundred years old.
"Holy crap, that's crazy. Great, but crazy." Josuke said in a very impressed tone as he leaned forward on one of his hands to watch the fight. Nora reloaded Magnhild in a space between Okuyasu dodging one of her other grenades, her excited grin still plastered on her face as she took careful aim.
"Well it's good to know you feel the same way about our weapons that we do about your Stands. Makes us feel a little bit better." Yang said with a bark of laughter as she watched the fight with interest, a feeling shared by all members of Team RWBY, JNPR and JOJO.
"But is Nora right, does Okuyasu's Stand really have a range?" Jaune asked as his blue eyes darted between Nora and Okuyasu, narrowing slightly as he wandered what his teammate had planned.
"Yeah. General rule of thumb is that the more powerful a Stand is on its face value, the more limited its range is. A Stand can still have a powerful ability and have a long range but if it can hit things hard and fast, it'll usually end up with a crap range." Josuke pointed to himself. "So, like with my Stand or Okuyasu's, they usually can't maintain their forms when they get further than two meters away from us. They still technically exist and can do some very minor stuff like say, picking things up and bringing them over, but they become weaker the further away from us they are."
The fight suddenly picked up as Nora fired off four grenades in rapid succession, their directions surrounding Okuyasu from three sides with one aimed squarely at him and forcing the Frontier huntsmen to dodge forward to avoid all four of them. As Okuyasu dodged forward, Nora fired off one more grenade; this grenade aimed in such a way that The Hand would have to take it head on lest Okuyasu, still in the middle of his own dodge, would be on the outskirts of the explosion: nothing so serious as to injure him per Glynda's instructions, but just enough that it'd do some damage to him.
"Looks like you were right Josuke, Weiss. It was just a matter of time before Nora keyed into Okuyasu's patterns and weaknesses and exploited them for a win." Blake commented somewhat sadly, having hoped that the fight would go on for longer and be a bit more impressive, as she and the others turned to look at Josuke and Koichi… who still watched the fight with deep interest. It stunned most of the participants… except for one, red-haired tournament fighter.
"Josuke." Pyrrha began calmly as she watched The Hand stand resolutely in the path of Nora's grenade, unwavering and strong as it reared its right hand back. "Ruby and Yang made it sound like you Stand Users usually do some kind of thinking with your Stands when you fight, and that it's somehow key to your ability to win. If Okuyasu's really so bad at it… why was he sent with you all to join the Vytal Festival? Why is he considered that strong?" Josuke looked over to the Mistrali celebrity, his expression looking quite impressed as he listened to Pyrrha slowly piece the puzzle together.
"Firstly, because he's on my team, and they weren't just going to send me and Koichi here without our teammate… I wouldn't have agreed to come if they tried." All eyes watched as the two pads on The Hand's right hand seemed to pulse, the distorted energy from before gathering around them as Okuyasu looked up towards Nora and her grenade with a smirk. "Secondly…"
THUUUUUUUM
"-because Okuyasu probably has the second most powerful Stand in the entire Frontier."
With one violent swing, The Hand's right arm was now stretched horizontally across its torso, a trail of the distorted energy followed in its right hand's wake in an arc. The energy slowly dissipated, leaving nothing in the air between itself and Nora up to and including Nora's grenade. What caused most everyone in the room to blink in utter disbelief and confusion wasn't so much the show of the swing or the energy itself, but the status of the grenade.
It hadn't bounced across the ground somewhere, backhanded away by The Hand.
It hadn't been firmly caught in the Stand's grip and crushed.
It hadn't even been shattered into hundreds of pieces after being punched by the powerful being.
It was gone.
Just gone.
Nora's eyes were wide in disbelief as she experimentally fired off another grenade at The Hand.
THUUUUUUUM
Only to gawk when that grenade, too, disappeared amidst a swipe from the Stand's right hand.
"WHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?"
The cry was immediately screamed from most every single person watching the fight, jaws hanging loose as disbelieving eyes scanned across the entire arena, looking for some sign of the projectiles that they knew had occupied the space just in front of Okuyasu's Stand a moment ago. Most couldn't even speak beyond that first cry of disbelief, mutters of mixed up confusion and barely understandable syllables strung together as eyes of all different colors just stared on at the utterly bizarre and unbelievable display that had just occurred.
Even Team RWBY, who had thought themselves already inoculated from any further potential weirdness by Stroheim's biography or the Stand battle they had witnessed were now left in stunned silence as four pairs of eyes blinked in disbelief.
"Okuyasu might not be good at thinking things through or strategizing and that can and does bite him in the ass from time to time." Josuke leaned back in his seat as he waited for what he knew was coming next. It had been Okuyasu's go-to tactic, after all, "However, that matters less than for most when your Stand's ability is as ridiculously powerful as Okuyasu's." Josuke rested his head in his hand, as Team RWBY and the rest of Team JNPR slowly turned their heads towards the pompadoured teen.
"What… what exactly is his Stand's ability, Josuke?" Ruby asked cautiously, as Josuke just glanced over in her direction.
"If you're going to be seeing more Stand Users in the future, it might be a good idea for you to get used to figuring out what a Stand's ability is on your own. Think about this as a pretty safe space for you to get some practice in." Josuke turned his gaze back to the fight as the four members of Team RWBY nodded in understanding. "You'll be getting an example of what it is soon enough, I'm sure. Okuyasu does love this little maneuver."
On the arena floor, Nora shook her head to knock herself loose from her reverie as she reloaded her grenade launcher.
'Okay, that was… that was totally crazy. If this were any other situation, that'd be the coolest thing I've seen in a week!' As Nora fully reloaded, she turned her gaze back to Okuyasu, as the scarred teen just stood there behind his Stand, with a wide grin on his face. 'But it's okay. He still has a range, all I have to do is overwhelm him by firing off all my grenades at once and whatever he's doing won't be able to stop everything.'
"You know." Nora was knocked out of her thoughts as Okuyasu grinned, his hands shoved into his pockets. "There are a handful of Grimm that like to stay outside of the range of The Hand. I used to hate fighting them because I'd never be able to get right up on them and beat the ever loving crap out of them; like Nevermores." The Hand's right hand began to glow with the distorted energy again as Nora tensed up, her finger firmly on Magnhild's trigger.
"Now though? Now I couldn't care less about what sort of long-range pests try to stay outside of my range and get me from there." A wide, wild grin stretched across Okuyasu's face as he pointed towards Nora. "Because nothing is outside of the range of The Hand!"
THUUUUUUUM
With that declaration called out for all to hear, The Hand swiped from right to left towards Nora, the trail of distorted energy followed its right hand as it did so. Nora stayed tense as she waited for some sign or trace of the ability, her eyes darted about the arena as she kept Magnhild at the ready. After a second, she noticed the rubble next to her feet as it bounceed up and down, clacking on the ground as Nora thought, for the briefest of moments, that whatever Okuyasu's ability was, that it was somehow coming from underneath her.
A split second later Nora and the rubble ended up not one foot in front of The Hand, as if instantly teleported there.
"Wait, wha-"
The Hand's left hand immediately punched Nora straight in the mouth before she could even finish her bewildered thought, her face scrunched up from the force of the blow as she was immediately sent hurtling back once the punch followed through fully. Everyone gasped, they couldn't have seen that right? In the blink of an eye Nora went from being well outside the range of Okuyasu and his Stand to being right in front of it and getting a face full of fist for her troubles.
THUUUUUUUM
However, when it happened again and Nora soon found the Stand's knee driven into her gut, there had been no denying what anyone had seen. Nora, for all intents and purposes, had teleported to just in front of The Hand immediately after it had swung its right hand at her. This yo-yo effect continued for the next several seconds as The Hand would use whatever its ability was to bring Nora back into range, strike her with a haymaker in the form of its left fist, its knees or its elbows, send her flying and then bring her right back in to do it all over again. The entire crowd was left in stunned silence as they watched the huntress-in-training fly back and forth, to and fro, with seemingly no Earthly force in the arena being present to drag her back towards The Hand each time.
"H-How is he doing that?!" Jaune placed a hand on his forehead as he watched one of his teammates get bounced around like some kind of sports ball, the other members of Team JNPR and RWBY had been just as flabbergasted as he was as they tried to make sense of Okuyasu and his Stand's ability.
"Maybe it's some kind of teleportation? Activated whenever he swipes his hand at something?" Ren offered as calmly as he could as he tried to analyze the situation, his mind failing to grasp at explanations for the utterly bizarre display in front of him.
"That wouldn't explain what happened to the grenade though: it wasn't teleported anywhere, it's just gone!" Weiss' eyes were wide with shock as she watched someone she had written off as a delinquent make so light of one of her friends in a battle, every now and then her gaze shifted up to see Nora's dwindling Aura on the screen above the two combatants. While she still had around half of her meter left, it was clear that each blow was doing some serious damage to her and that, if this kept up, Nora would lose.
"Maybe he just teleported it somewhere far away? We don't know how long of a range his ability actually has." Yang offered with a great deal of uncertainty as she just watched Okuyasu play a one-person game of ping pong with Nora. It was a weak qualification and the blonde bombshell knew it the moment she had said it, but she didn't exactly have a lot to work with as she watched Nora get thoroughly abused by Okuyasu and his Stand. Everyone else sat in silence as they focused in hard on the fight, as they wandered just what kind of power would allow something like this to happen.
As The Hand kicked Nora away and got ready to bring her right back in, Okuyasu noticed something. Nora had lifted Magnhild up and aimed it towards him, the barrel around the grenade canisters opening up to reveal all six grenades in their deadly glory.
"Oh no you don't! The Hand!" Okuyasu had his Stand focus in on Nora's weapon, getting ready to swipe it out of her grasp. As Nora saw his Stand rear its right hand back, Nora forced herself to turn in mid air, facing away from Okuyasu as she aimed Magnhild just behind her.
THUUUUUUUM
As soon as Nora heard the telltale sign of Okuyasu's Stand power, she fired Magnhild, all six grenades launched out of her weapon at once and into the air. Before they could get much of anywhere though, Nora and her grenades found themselves right on top of The Hand and Okuyasu.
"HOLY SHIT, THAT'S CRAZY! THE HAND!" Almost immediately, Okuyasu recalled his Stand and had it reappear behind him, The Hand grabbed Okuyasu by his arm with its left and prepared a swing with its right. As this happened, Nora rolled using the momentum from whatever force Okuyasu's Stand had used to bring her over here and grabbed onto the young Frontier huntsman.
"Shit!"
THUUUUUUUM
Almost immediately The Hand, Okuyasu and Nora were seemingly teleported a fair distance up and away from where they had originally been, the six grenades converged on their original point and exploded all at once, which had left a deep scar on the surface of the arena floor. Before Okuyasu could think to admire Nora for her ballsy-as-all-Hell maneuver, he felt himself being pulled hard. Nora's grip had still been firm on him as she wrenched him towards her, Magnhild still in her other hand in its grenade launcher form. Before Okuyasu could have The Hand respond, a loud 'kthunk' echoed throughout the room as Okuyasu was clocked over the head by the very heavy, very sturdy Magnhild, which had the full force of Nora's swing behind it.
"GWAAAAH!" Okuyasu was sent flying by the force of the blow, his Stand immediately dispersed as soon as he left its range, only to reappear to take the impact on the ground for him several feet away. Nora landed unevenly on the ground herself, the young woman disorientated from all the punishment she'd taken from The Hand just mere moments ago. The audience went silent as they watched this unfold, no one dared to cheer or raise a ruckus one way or the other. All were too invested in the fight to have even thought of breaking the tension by screaming their support for one fighter or the other.
Slowly, Okuyasu stood up and the result of the battle thus far was clear. While Nora overall came off worse for wear, her Aura having trickled down to around forty percent, that one hit had cost Okuyasu dearly: a third of his meter gone in a flash, and the reason why had been apparent. A huge, ugly looking bruise had formed on Okuyasu's face where he'd been struck by Magnhild, his eyebrow split open and bleeding slightly from the force of the hit. Okuyasu, despite this, stood his ground and spat off to the side, a glob of blood impacting on the ground.
Nora, while she hadn't looked as bad as Okuyasu, probably felt as bad if the audience had to guess. She had gasped for breath and stood dizzily on her feet, the disorientation of being forced back and forth in such a manner leaving her wobbly and woozy. Some light bruises had begun to form on her face from where Okuyasu struck her, which spoke volume to how strong those blows were if they had even managed to slightly pierce through the bubbly bomber's Aura.
Despite how beat up she felt and despite the fact that she was still by all means losing this fight, Nora's gaze went from hard and battle ready to worried in a flash as she took in the scope of Okuyasu's injury.
"O-OH JEEZ! I'm so sorry! I should've listened to Professor Goodwitch! I mean, I was just in the moment and you were all intimidating and I just thought I had to take a swing! Are you alright?" Okuyasu cut off any further words from Nora as he raised his hand in the air, a slight grin on his face.
"Hey don't' be fooled; Nijimura Okuyasu's taken a lot worse than this to the face and come out on top." The scarred teen spat again, getting the last bits of blood out of his mouth as he grinned over at Nora. "Besides, if I were in your position I would've taken the swing as well. Gotta say, that hurt like a bitch." Okuyasu gently rubbed at his face a bit as he winced. "Like, really hurt. Shit." Okuyasu waved his hand again as it looked like Nora was going to speak up. "I'll have Josuke take a look at me after. Just keep your head in the game. This is a good fight, and I don't want to win it because you suddenly went soft on me." After a few moments of hesitation, a grin returned to Nora's face as she nodded and switched Magnhild over into its hammer form.
Despite the good feelings of the exchange, Team RWBY and JNPR still looked concerned as they continued to puzzle over Okuyasu's abilities.
"It has to be teleportation. You saw how he used it to carry himself and Nora away. There's no other explanation, that has to be it." Blake said with a firm nod, even as Josuke's silence had left her thoroughly uncertain.
"I couldn't think of whatever else it could be. Anything else is just too crazy…" Team RWBY flinched as Pyrrha said this, their minds suddenly whirling with possibilities. Yes, crazy, but then it seemed like Stands and their abilities ran on the crazy and bizarre. Still, how far off could they be? Bucciarati had only been able to make zippers on any surface and Josuke had just been able to 'fix' anything. Those, while odd, had been at least understandable to the four girls.
"I figured out your Stand ability, by the way." Everyone in the room blinked as they watched Nora carefully cradle her jaw, a smile still present on her face as she worked it back and forth. "Took me a lot of goes on it before I started to piece it all together. What you did to Cardin, with my grenades, what you were doing with me and then what you and The Hand did with the both of us. I gotta say, you've got one extra cool power." The orange-haired girl swung Magnhild around a few times as she reset her stance, all the while she bounced back and forth on her toes as she stared Okuyasu down.
"The Hand, its special power is to scrape away space, am I right?"
The room was deathly silent, which allowed Nora's declaration to easily echo throughout the entire arena and the seats overlooking it. Jaws dropped left and right as the idea passed through people's minds slowly but surely. Even so, there was a lot of resistance to the idea, even amongst Team RWBY and Team JNPR. There was no way, that was too outlandish, too crazy, it was something Nora cooked up to try her best to explain what exactly it was The Hand was doing to her. Nora was a strong fighter and nowhere near dumb, but her head was often in clouds, her imagination often ran wild and her plans usually were some combination of half-baked or crazy.
"You know, you'd make for a pretty good Stand User yourself with how quick you caught on." Okuyasu said with a dry chuckle as he nodded. "Yeah, you're right: The Hand's right hand is capable of scraping away space and whatever occupies it with just a single swipe. Then after that-" Okuyasu clapped his hands together, as if closing a space, "-whatever's left over fuses together to make up for the space, as if the original bits never existed in the first place. That's its Stand Power."
So of course, she was the one to clue in on it before everyone else.
"S-S-Scrape away space?" Ruby stammered and stuttered as her mind practically shut down with the realization, her silver eyes blinking rapidly as her mind sought to fully comprehend what it had just heard.
"Anything that occupies it?" Weiss' jaw was practically limp, her expression shared by great many number of students throughout the sparring hall, all of whom were absolutely blown away by such an unbelievable powerful ability and the fact that it existed at all.
"Yep, she got it right on the money. First try too, which is even more impressive." Josuke said with a slight grin as he crossed one leg over the other. "Okuyasu's Stand Power makes him a danger no matter what he's facing, because even if he isn't too creative or thoughtful in using it, the sheer power that The Hand has behind it makes it an incredibly dangerous Stand. It might not be as fast as my Stand or as strong, but its ability is such that whatever damage it inflicts on anything, even I can't fix it." Josuke turned his head towards Team RWBY as he said this, more speaking for their benefit as they were aware of Crazy Diamond rather than Team JNPR's. "After all, whatever Okuyasu scrapes away, it gets scrapped out of existence. Not even he knows where it goes."
While the full extent of how terrifying that thought was flew over Ren's, Pyrrha's and Jaune's head, Team RWBY immediately went sheet white at the thought. Crazy Diamond, the Stand whose ability was that it could FIX ANYTHING save for itself and its Stand Master, couldn't fix the damage that Okuyasu's Stand had been capable of dishing out. The thought chilled them to the very bone.
"Y-You know, in hindsight, getting my left arm zippered off wasn't the worst thing that could've happened last night." Yang muttered to herself as she unconsciously rolled her left shoulder all the while some very unpleasant images played through her mind. "At least zipper man's power could get fixed. Holy moly…"
"No wonder Professor Goodwitch issued him that warning. If Okuyasu used his power on another person…" Blake muttered to herself as she unconsciously played with a strand of her hair, her bow bending forward as her ears did their best to pin themselves against her head in fear.
"Okuyasu might not think too hard about his actions and he might be brash, but he wouldn't hurt someone like that." Everyone was surprised at Koichi's sudden, powerful outburst, the young man's faced screwed up into a determined frown as he looked at the others. When their attention was turned to him, he suddenly blushed and shrunk back again, while the pompadoured teen beside him just smiled.
"Koichi's right. Okuyasu's a lot of things, but he'd never hurt someone who's an ally or a friend like that. Trust me; I've sparred with the guy and his Stand more times than I care to count, and never once have I felt even remotely threatened by The Hand and its special ability. Nora will be fine… well, fine except for any more punches or kicks she'll take from Okuyasu and his Stand, that is." Josuke chuckled slightly as he said this, Teams RWBY and JNPR relaxing as they heard this.
"You're right… Okuyasu's a bit loud and brash, but, I mean, he seems like a… nice enough guy. I just got a little spooked is all… that's one scary ability. I don't think I've ever even heard of a semblance that was remotely as dangerous as that." Jaune said as he scratched the back of his head, while Pyrrha and Ren just nodded in agreement.
"No worries, I understand. The Hand is a rather terrifying force. Still though, point remains that Okuyasu doesn't use it to its full ability. Usually when it's the three of us together, it's up to me to think of plans that creatively uses his Stand to its fullest potential, otherwise Okuyasu's pretty slow to learn things or adjust himself. It's why the length of a fight is such a do or die concern for Okuyasu. Either he finishes a Grimm or an opponent quick before they can key into his way of fighting, or they adjust and he ends up flailing. Barring a lucky shot, Okuyasu loses fights that go on for too long." Josuke turned his gaze back to the fight, his body language far more relaxed than it had been previously.
"Sadly for him, I think we might've crossed that threshold, if that look Nora's giving him is any indication."
As the two combatants slowly worked out their kinks and made to begin the fight again, Nora surprised most everyone by moving closer to Okuyasu and his Stand than she had been before, in addition to her having kept Magnhild in its hammer form. She was just a meter or two outside of The Hand and its range, but nowhere near what could be considered 'long-range'. When Okuyasu made to move towards her, she kept light on her feet and danced just outside his range. However, whenever he'd wait for the counterattack, Nora would just continued lightly jumped on her feet, always keeping on her toes and always just outside of Okuyasu's reach.
"What exactly are you doing, Nora?" Okuyasu asked, a bit of frustration tinged in his voice, as Nora just shrugged her shoulders.
"Nooothin'." The bubbly bomber said with a grin as she kept on maneuvering just outside of Okuyasu's reach. Finally, the scarred Frontiersman had enough and, with a grin, directed The Hand to ready its Stand ability again.
"Like I said before Nora, nothing and nobody is outside the range of The Hand!" Okuyasu screamed the name of his Stand as it reared its right hand back in preparation for its swipe.
That's when it happened. As soon as The Hand reached back and began its swipe, Nora stopped bouncing on her feet and immediately pounced. The orange-haired huntress in training sprinted for Okuyasu and The Hand, surprise etched on the former's face as his Stand merely continued the arc of its swipe. Nora ducked down and slid on by The Hand as it continued its arc, Okuyasu cursing under his breath as Nora quickly brought Magnhild to bear. With a quick swing Nora pounded the head of her hammer into the back of Okuyasu's Stand, sending it tumbling forward along with the momentum of its swipe. As Okuyasu got knocked forward as well, Nora intercepted him in the middle of his fall. Readjusting her grip on Magnhild, Nora drove the handle end of her hammer into Okuyasu's gut, causing the young man to gasp for breath, before she drove her forehead into his, which sent him stumbling back.
As The Hand recovered from Nora's first hit, it made an attempt to reach out and grab Nora so as to beat the ever-loving tar out of her, but Nora defaulted back to her strategy from early in the fight and played defense, using Magnhild to knock aside blows from The Hand for just long enough for her to get outside of its range and return to her fancy footwork just outside of Okuyasu and his Stand's range.
The entire exchange hadn't gone on long and while nowhere near as devastating as Nora's full swing against Okuyasu earlier, this one paid its own dividends; Okuyasu's Aura levels had dropped by another chunk, bringing him, finally, into the yellow.
"The Hell was that…" Okuyasu muttered as he rubbed his forehead, all the while Nora just smiled as she hopped in place. Nora swung Magnhild a few times as she danced around Okuyasu. She had been right; while Okuyasu's Stand was normally faster and stronger than her, when it activated its ability and started to scrape away space with its swipe, the motion was slow and predictable. While the direction of the arc would almost never be the same, the pace of the swing and the way The Hand would itself follow through on the swing were forecasted well and exploitable.
That is, so long as you were the right distance away.
The bubbly bomber was a big enough huntress to admit it; if she were up close and personal with The Hand it'd kick her butt slowly but surely as it exhausted her through its superior speed and strength. If she was long-range, there'd be no way she could exploit the Stand's pattern of movement during its ability and she'd just be dragged right into close range where, between the disorientation of the space in front of her being instantly erased and The Hand's superior speed and strength, it'd just start wailing on her again.
It was the distance she was at now, just far enough away to stay out of range but just close enough to frustrate Okuyasu with how near she was, that was going to keep her in this fight and, if that last trade was any indication, help her win it. The only way Okuyasu could hope to get her would be if he used his Stand's ability but, in the end, doing so would have only given Nora the perfect opportunity to move in and do damage.
Nora frowned however, as she spun Magnhild around. She was a ditz, but smart enough to realize a few things; Okuyasu seemed like he might've been like her, more of a guts person than a thinking person, which meant that he wouldn't just take this kind of abuse repeatedly. If he were anything like her, he'd try something crazy to try to shake things up, some haymaker to get the fight back on his own terms. If she were in his position, it's what she have done.
Nora's eyes glanced up to the screen before returning to Okuyasu. They were both in the yellow: one more really solid trade on either of their parts would probably win them the fight. Nora could risk going in for a quick trade like the one from before, but if she was right about Okuyasu, then he'd shake things up somewhere in here. What could he possibly do though…
'If I were Okuyasu… what would I do?' Nora hummed to herself with this thought, Magnhild spun through her fingers with an unexpected amount of grace for a giant hammer, before she grinned a bit. 'Yeah, that's what I'd do.' Nora shrugged her shoulders slightly as she internally giggled. 'Welp, I'm just going to need a plan to take advantage of what Okuyasu might do. No, not just a plan… one of my patented, super plans.'
Nora firmly grasped Magnhild in one hand, the other reached down into one of her skirt's pockets as she tensed her knees. Okuyasu grimaced a bit as the swirl of distorted energy once again surrounded The Hand's right hand as the two looked for that one last hit to end this fight in their favor.
"[THE HAND]!"
Immediately The Hand made its move and started its swipe while Nora rushed forward to dive underneath his swipe, her free hand ripped from her skirt and tossed something up into the air behind her. Nora ducked and rolled underneath the Stand's swipe, her hammer ready to twirl around and land a hit on the Stand's back once again.
Only for a sudden gasp to break out in the audience when, instead of nothing happening as before, Okuyasu and The Hand teleported a short distance in front of and above Nora, Okuyasu and his Stand reared back their legs.
"I knew you'd try something like that again, now eat this!" Okuyasu barked out, an excited grin on his face as he prepared, along with his Stand, to kick Nora's face in. Nora just grinned herself, as she watched something just behind The Hand reach the peak of its throw.
A large, pink explosion rocked The Hand from behind, a swirl of pink electricity wrapped around it as Okuyasu gasped out in surprise. Nora had given Okuyasu enough credit to suspect he'd try to toss things up, and in doing so had laid a trap: either Okuyasu would follow through with her suspicions, teleport himself forward and end up having his Stand eat the grenade she had pulled free from her skirt directly, or he'd continue with his old strategy and end up pulling the grenade into his Stand's face, where Nora could then just follow up as before.
Now Nora, with a wide grin on her face, flipped Magnhild around so that she was holding the hammer by the head and, with a quick gesture, swung it around so that the handle struck Okuyasu horizontally across the chest as he was propelled forward towards her by the explosion behind his Stand, which knocked him some ways away from her.
"Boop!"
Okuyasu skid across the ground as he landed with a thud, a groan of pain accompanied the landing as The Hand dissipated which had left Okuyasu alone on the floor.
"Mr. Nijimura's Aura has fallen into the red. The winner of this spar is Ms. Valkyrie."
The entire room had been silent as Glynda made this declaration, many people unsure of how to react to the spectacle they'd just witnessed. Sure, for the Four Kingdom hunters, one of their own had just won a match against one of these weird Frontiersmen and their 'Stands', but the fight had been close. Super close, as they saw Nora's bar still hovered at around forty percent. The revelation of The Hand's Stand Power had left many in the room thoroughly freaked out as well.
When a series of nine hands started to clap, however, the room turned its attention to Teams RWBY, JNPR and JOJO, who were each applauding and hooting and hollering.
"That was amazing! You guys did great! That was so awesome!" Ruby was jumped up and down in her seat as she clapped for her two friends down on stage, Josuke giving a slight whistle as he smiled.
"You actually tried to use your head down there Okuyasu, that was some great work! Way to go Nora!" The pompadoured teen gave his own applause before he stood up and began walking away from the group of three teams. The reactions of the other members of the teams ranged from restrained like Blake, Ren, Koichi and Weiss to excited, as Yang, Pyrrha and Jaune joined in with Ruby. Slowly the attitude passed through the rest of the rather stunned student body as a slow, polite applause rang out from the arena. Nora ate it up as she grinned and walked over to Okuyasu and extended a hand down to the young man.
"Need some help up Okuyasu?" Okuyasu winced a bit in pain as he sat up, a wry grin stretched across his face as he scoffed before he took Nora's hand.
"A tough guy like me doesn't need it but-" He winced again as Nora helped him stand up, "-for your sake, I guess I could let you lend me…" Okuyasu's grin stretched across his face as he looked up to their teams, "A HAND!"
"WOOOO! Yeaaaah! Show them that you're learning from the best Okuyasu!" Yang cheered out with a hearty laugh as she applauded, the rest of the huntsmen and huntresses groaning as they palmed their face into their hands. Nora, for her part, reached over and flicked Okuyasu on the forehead.
"No! None of that! Shame on you!" Nora wagged her finger in Okuyasu's face as the scarred teen just recoiled slightly, rubbing the spot where Nora had, with a surprising amount of force, struck him.
"Ouch, easy, it's just a joke!" Okuyasu groused as he rubbed his forehead. Nora just smiled after a bit and extended a hand out, one that Okuyasu very quickly grabbed in his own grip.
"That was a pretty cool fight. You guys are going to do great in the tournament." Nora offered sincerely, her turquoise eyes sparkled with a palpable excitement as Okuyasu just grinned wryly.
"Heh, thanks, you Four Kingdom hunters don't mess around either. I'm sore all over." Okuyasu muttered as Nora nodded in agreement, her own hand absentmindedly reaching for her jaw. "Just give Josuke a minute and he should be here to patch us up."
As if summoned by the words, Josuke indeed stepped through the entrance to the arena, a wide smile on his face as he waved to the two combatants.
"Yo. Great work you two. Especially you Okuyasu; you did the Frontier really proud today." Okuyasu's face went beet red at the praise of his best friend and leader, the scarred teen sheepishly scratched his cheek before he winced, having had forgotten the deep bruise that was on it. Josuke just laughed as he shook his head and reached forward, a yellow glow surrounding himself, Okuyasu and Nora as he grabbed their shoulders.
Soon enough Nora and Okuyasu both looked as good as new, their bruises and pains withered away under the healing touch of Josuke's Stand Power. As this occurred and the other students on the stands watched with surprise, Glynda watched Josuke's display with a slightly thoughtful look, a finger tapping slightly against her data pad.
"Holy cow that's crazy useful! Think of all the consequence free stuff we could do with you around to just heal us! WE DON'T NEED TO FEAR ANYTHING NOW!" Nora gasped as she tittered excitedly with the possibilities, a mischievous grin formed on Okuyasu's face as well as Josuke's grip on their shoulders suddenly tightened.
"Let's not, shall we?" He offered with a slightly nervous laugh as the pompadoured teen finished fixing his friends up.
"Mr. Nijimura, Ms. Valkyrie, that was a good fight on both of your parts." The three students turned to face Glynda as the professor approached, Josuke backed off slightly so that Nora and Okuyasu could face her more fully. "Mr. Nijimura, your Stand's ability is quite powerful and intriguing, and your uses of it allowed you to perform far better in a fight with someone with ranged capabilities than one might've thought. However, your tendency to fall into patterns was exploited and, though your last maneuver was creative, your opponent was able to predict it due to your previous actions. You need to think of other ways of using your Stand and its power so that these don't occur in the future." Glynda wrote something down on her data pad as she said this, before she finished. "I will, however, also commend you for having such a firm control of yourself and your Stand that, in the heat of the fight, you didn't' do anything untoward with your Stand's power to an ally. Good work."
"Thanks teach." Okuyasu ducked away as Glynda tried to slap him upside the head, a wry grin on his face as he did so. It was short lived as, quickly, some force dragged Okuyasu back towards Ms. Goodwitch and held him in place for her to deliver a quick snap to the back of his head. "Ouch! Jeez, okay, Professor Goodwitch!"
"Very good, Mr. Nijimura. Now, Ms. Valkyrie, had Mr. Nijimura been of a mind, he could've ended this fight very quickly. While you were able to catch onto his abilities quickly enough, your lack of caution in directly engaging a foe you knew nothing about and allowing him to maneuver as he pleased while you played defense could have cost you dearly. In the future, I'd like to see the mind you put to use in the middle and end of this fight a lot earlier in your fights. Otherwise, you also performed quite admirably… though, I will ask that you keep my instructions in mind concerning these Stand Users in the future. What you did could have seriously injured Mr. Nijimura."
"Yes Professor Goodwitch, sorry about that again." Nora said apologetically, as Okuyasu just waved her off as did Josuke, while Glynda just nodded.
"Very good. Finally, Mr. Higashikata." Josuke jumped a bit in surprise as Glynda turned to face him, the pompadoured teen immediately faced Glynda as the combat professor spoke to him. "As you can imagine, this being a training school for hunters, a lot of damage can tend to be done, purposefully and accidentally…"
"Oh, you want me to fix up the arena, Professor Goodwitch?" Josuke asked with a slight smile, but stopped when Glynda shook her head.
"No, but thank you Mr. Higashikata. I'm perfectly capable of handling that particular task myself." As she whipped out her riding crop and carefully maneuvered it around, the various chunks and bits of the arena that had either been smashed by Okuyasu or blown up and scarred by Nora fixed themselves back into place. Josuke gave a small 'ah' as Glynda easily performed the task, before she turned back to face him. "Fixing things is something my own semblance is quite capable of… however, it was what you just fixed that interests me, Mr. Higashikata." Glynda readjusted her glasses as Josuke looked over to Okuyasu and Nora, a small 'oh' of understanding formed on his lips.
"I understand that you're getting an allowance from Beacon like other transfer students… how would you care to earn a bit more lien for helping to heal some of our students in the infirmary, Mr. Higashikata?" Josuke just smiled at the offer, the young man sheepishly scratched the back of his head as he thought about it for a split second.
"Really, I wouldn't even need the money. If you'd want me to help some of the students, I'd be all for it." The sincerity of the statement made Glynda blink a few times, before she corrected herself and coughed into her fist.
"Very good. See me after class Mr. Higashikata; you'll be a little late to your Special Topics, but I believe the professor will make an exception." Glynda looked down at her data pad as she said this and tapped a few buttons. "For now, would the three of you leave the arena so that the next spar may begin?" The three students nodded in understanding as they quickly departed, a slight smile passed across Glynda's face before she caught it and returned to her neutral expression.
"Alright, next up, Mr. Winchester and Mr. Arc." A loud groan could be heard from where Teams RWBY, JNPR and JOJO had been sat up in the stands, causing a series of chuckles to echo throughout the room as a sense of normalcy returned, even if just for a moment.
Four Kingdom Students "Special Topics" Class, After Sparring Class
"Didn't think that Team JOJO would end up with a different Special Topics than us. Pretty weird."
This remark by Yang was met by some nods by the rest of Team RWBY and Team JNPR. Immediately after Goodwitch's sparring class had ended, the group of students had been broken up across various places. Teams RWBY and JNPR were joining a bunch of other Four Kingdom first year hunters in the class that had been marked on their schedules as 'Special Topics' while Okuyasu and Koichi went off to their own. Josuke, true to Glynda's word, had met with her after class to head to the infirmary.
"It's a shame, those guys have been some awesome company so far." Nora said with a slight smile as she and the others sat down nearby, her mood still upbeat from the exciting spar she had with Okuyasu.
"Hopefully they won't feel too lonely without us." Weiss rolled her eyes as she said this, a slight smile on her face as the statement earned a bit of a laugh from the others.
"I hope Josuke won't see anything too bad at the infirmary. The professors do their best, but this is a combat school that involves live training against Grimm…" Ruby muttered as she shook a bit, a reaction shared by the other hunters. Of course, if anything serious did happen the staff did their best to ensure most of the student population wouldn't' be forced to witness it; nothing killed morale for being a huntsman or huntress quite like witnessing the very real possible drawbacks of the career. Still, people heard things and, in time, those things they heard shifted into even worse rumors.
"I'm sure he'll be fine Ruby. The way Josuke talks about it, he's basically a soldier back in Morioh already. He's probably already seen his fair share of unpleasantness." Blake said with a bit of a sympathetic tone. There had been things she'd seen as a member of the White Fang that she wished she hadn't, after all, so she could only imagine that the people of the Frontier, with the dire situation they were in, would've likely seen even worse when faced with so many Grimm constantly threatening them.
"Gosh I hope not." Jaune offered with a small shake of his head; innocent though he was, Jaune's imagination ran cold with the thought of what the three young men he'd gotten the pleasure of getting to know throughout the day might've seen and didn't wish it on them or anyone.
"Yeah, seriously…" Yang muttered slightly, the mood having been slightly killed by the thought. The blonde bombshell wouldn't stand for this for long, however, as a grin formed on her lips. "Still, I can only imagine that whatever Josuke's seeing, he won't come out of it nearly as scarred as Okuyasu and Koichi. You saw who their professor for their Special Topics was."
A slight chuckle was shared between the teams of huntsmen and huntresses as they wondered how Koichi and Okuyasu had been holding up.
"Hey, Koichi…"
"Yeah Okuyasu?"
"I know I'm pretty dumb, so I just wanted to check… you can't understand a word he's saying either, right?"
"No, not at all Okuyasu."
"Good, then it's not just me."
Really, the topic under discussion would've been of interest to even Okuyasu; an entire class dedicated to catching the Frontier huntsmen up on the history of Remnant for the past hundred years outside of Oobleck's on history class, going into far more detail, granted the fewer number of students and an entire class dedicated to the topic, than his usual class would allow for. Both Koichi and Okuyasu would have found this information pretty interesting.
If only they could have understood one word the motor-mouthed professor had been espousing. Five minutes into the lecture after Oobleck took yet another swig of coffee, Koichi finally swallowed a nervous lump in his throat and slowly raised his hand, which caught Oobleck's attention.
"Yes, Mr. Hirose, you have a question?"
"Uuuh, y-yes, Professor-"
"Doctor."
"Doctor Oobleck." Koichi recoiled slightly when Oobleck corrected him, but continued on nonetheless. "Uhhhh… Okuyasu and I are actually having a hard time understanding you with how fast you're talking… would you mind, maybe, slowing down a bit?"
There was an eerie silence in the room as Koichi said this, his gaze and, presumably, Oobleck's gaze locked through the more experienced huntsman's glasses.
"Ah, of course, my apologies my dear boy. I tend to find that I do get a little bit excited whenever I speak at length about history after having my coffee." Oobleck sat his thermos to the side as he clasped his hands together. "Would you like me to start from the beginning of the lecture, then?"
Relieved, Koichi just nodded his ascent. Immediately, Oobleck launched back into his lecture from the top, however, this time through he spoke with a discernibly, purposefully slower pace as he enunciated his words and made sure to reel back on his energy anytime that he started to get too excited.
"I'm terribly sorry about this boys, but the other students don't seem to have this problem. I suppose I should've expected as much: your dialect of the common tongue has probably shifted over time in your isolation to such a point where I and others must be difficult to understand." Okuyasu and Koichi just nodded dumbly at that explanation, not wishing to correct the good professor, as he continued his lecture.
"Wow, it was that easy huh?" Okuyasu whispered to Koichi, as the younger boy just silently chuckled. "Good work Koichi."
"Those poor souls. They had no idea what they were getting into." Pyrrha said with a slight chuckle, as the rest of the two teams shared a bit in the laughter.
"To be fair, neither do we: class is about to start and our professor hasn't shown up yet." Ren said casually as he had his head leaned down on his arms on his desk, a relaxed expression on his face as he prepared to, possibly, take his own nap.
"Well, whoever it is, they can't be worse than Port." Blake shuddered slightly, having copied notes for her team in Port's morning class.
"Yeah, it isn't a picnic, is it Blake…" Weiss muttered with a great deal of self-satisfaction. For half a minute after, the teens sat in a rather comfortable silence, before eventually Nora swung her head around.
"So guys, The Hand, that was one of the Stand things you were arguing about in that book before?" The bubbly bomber caught Team RWBY off guard as she said this, though Weiss and Blake nodded shortly after.
"Yeah. Stands were brought up in Stroheim's bibliography a few times, they were one of the more unbelievable elements in the book… up until we actually saw one that is." Blake chuckled slightly as she shook her head, still seemingly thrown for a loop. "Guess we have all the proof we need now though, not that it's any less of a surprise."
Nora hummed thoughtfully to herself as she just shrugged her shoulders. "If you guys had explained to Ren and I what exactly these Stands were, we could've told you ourselves that they were real." Ren nodded from his position down on the desk, as Team RWBY just nodded.
"We'll remember that next time Nora." Ruby said with a smile as she and the others turned their attention back to the front of the class. Things were quiet for a brief moment, before all four members of Team RWBY did a quick double take and snapped their heads back to Ren and Nora, even Pyrrha and Jaune seemed surprised.
"Wait what?"
"It's a bit of a story and one that Nora tells better, so I'll let her explain." Ren said tiredly from his position, head resting on his arms, as the door to the back of the classroom opened.
"Yeah! It was totally nuts! These things you guys call Stands, Ren and I were told they were just weird semblances! You see, it all started… all started… all…" As Nora's eyes flickered to the front of the classroom, the normally excited and rambunctious huntress-in-training went dead silent, her turquoise eyes wide in surprise and her mouth slightly agape.
"Nora?" Ren asked, slightly concerned when the long-winded story he'd expected wasn't forthcoming. Team RWBY, and the JPR of JNPR turned to look where Nora's gaze had stopped dead in its tracks and, while Jaune and Pyrrha didn't recognize the professor at the front of the class whom had just come in, RWBY had recognized him straight away immediately by his white coat and white hat.
Ren, however, was the only one whose surprise seemed to match Nora's as Jotaro walked up to the board in front of the class, picked up a piece of chalk, and started writing.
"Ren… Ren… I think… I think that's-"
"I know what you're about to say Nora, but that's impossible. We searched every contact in the CCTS, he doesn't actually exist." Even as Ren said this, he couldn't help but look at the striking similarities, such as-
"But Ren! Look at the back of his head! It's like, part of his hat! It could only be-"
"Nora, we were five, there's just no way…" Even as he said this, his and Nora's breath paused when Jotaro began to write his name on the board. At first, Nora seemed disheartened, seeing 'Kujo' appear over his right shoulder. Ren, as ever, patiently waited, his magenta eyes going as wide as dish plates when the man turned from the board and presented his name.
'Kujo Jotaro.'
"JOTARO!" Jotaro almost immediately flinched when the high-pitched, excited squeal utterly shattered the silence that had built up in the classroom up to that point, his green eyes surprised as they fell upon the orange-haired huntress who by that point had actually jumped up onto her desk and started waving her hands.
"Jotaro! Hey! Look, it's me, Nora! And look who else!" Nora reached down and grabbed a practically catatonic Ren by the arm and hoisted him up, forcing him to wave as well as he just stared on in his own surprise. "It's Ren! Hey Jotaro, do you recognize us Jotaro?! Jotaro! HEY JOTARO! IS THAT ACTUALLY YOU? SAY SOMETHING THAT YOU'D SAY IF IT'S YOU JOTARO! OR MAKE A SLOTH SOUND! HEY, HOW'S EVERYONE ELSE?! JOTARO? HEY, HEY JOTARO!" As Nora kept up this routine, slowly but surely Jotaro ground down on his teeth, an obvious tension building up inside of him until-
"NORA, WOULD YOU SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN, YOU'RE BEING ANNOYING!"
Everyone in the room was deathly silent as Jotaro roared at the top of his lungs, Team RWBY surprised to see such a display from the abnormally calm and collected man they had met just last night. More than that, they were utterly surprised by the fact that Jotaro had just shouted such a thing to Nora. Not even Ren had said something along those lines to Nora in all the time that they'd known them.
For many females in the room, this shock was also accompanied by a rather uncomfortable feeling as several female huntresses found a light blush on their cheeks at the sight.
"Okay!" Yet despite all this, Nora just gave a grin and a nod as she hopped down into her seat, a chirp of laughter escaping her lips as she just grinned out to Jotaro, still waving. After a moment, Jotaro himself seemed to calm down as he took a careful look at both Ren and Nora.
"... Yare yare daze…" Jotaro adjusted his cap as he sighed, his face hidden from sight as he shook his head. "You two; after classes are settled for the day, come here." A quick jittering nod and a slow nod from Nora and Ren respectively was all Jotaro needed before he raised his head back up, his normally sober expression back on his face.
"As for the rest of you, my name is Kujo Jotaro: I am a huntsman from the city of Morioh in the Frontier and I've mentored the three young huntsmen who have come from our corner of Remnant to participate in the Vytal Festival. Beacon Academy has been gracious enough to offer me this time and position to help inform you all of the history of the Frontier since our two civilizations have lost contact one hundred years ago, so that this integration process might be easier for you all."
Without even skipping a beat, Jotaro turned around and wrote several things up on the board in rapid succession, launching into his lecture with a collected cool and calm that seemed to reassure the rest of the class.
Still, if Nora and Ren took in any of the information Jotaro was espousing, they sure didn't look it. Nora's excitement and sure pulse-pounding joy was still obvious on her face, all the while a slow, calm smile formed on Ren's. Memories long since buried as childish nonsense slowly but surely flooded back to the foreground of their minds.
The Gulf Between Patch and Vale Proper, Twelve Years Ago
The sun bore down hard on a small, ocean-going ship that charted a lonely course for the mainland of Vale. Its passengers required a ship they could have to themselves but found that, with the Vytal Festival going on, that no captains going straight to Vale would accept losing out on so many potential passengers by letting just five men rent out an entire ship.
So as Joseph Joestar lazily stretched his body out, dressed in a sleeveless red and white shirt and a pair of blue, loose fitting pants, he sought to just relax.
"It'll be a few days until we actually reach the Kingdom of Vale proper. After that, we'll be making an overland journey from one of the minor coastal villages up to the City itself. It'll be a hard march, so we should make the best out of this downtime while we can." Indeed, it even seemed that most of his traveling companions had taken him up on his advice.
The newest member of this Stardust Crusade, Jean Pierre Polnareff leaned up casually against a nearby railing as he chatted away with Muhammad Avdol, who sat on the deck in a crossed leg posture. While he had been meditating to relax his mind and body after the rigmarole of working with Joseph to arrange for any transport from Patch to Vale, he had more than welcomed their new companion's company, the two amicably discussing with each other their own travels.
Joseph smiled: it was hard to imagine that it was only just a week ago back at the outskirts that the two of them had been fighting to the death. Speaking of new friends and fighting, he turned to look at his grandson, Jotaro, and his own new companion, Noriaki Kakyoin, who sat lounged about on deck chairs. Jotaro just seemed to be trying to catch a quick nap, while Kakyoin had a small book in his hands. It'd be a perfectly relaxing image, except…
"Aren't you two going to do something about your uniforms? You guys aren't seriously going to stay dressed like that the entire time, are you? Aren't you two hot?"
Indeed, Jotaro's black, if slightly modified, hunter uniform and Kakyoin's green made them stand out quite heavily compared to the other members of the Stardust Crusade, the two just continued to casually lay about as Kakyoin flipped a page in his book.
"We are Hunters of The Frontier, Mr. Joestar. We should dress the part, even away from Morioh." Still, a small smile tugged at the corners of the red-haired young man's lips as he looked between himself and Jotaro. "Though, I will admit, we might be pushing it a bit." To this, Jotaro could only scoff slightly, while Joseph shook his head.
"I swear, hunters are so much more uptight than they were back in my day. When I was your age, I couldn't wait to get out of my uniform the second I was out of Morioh and traveling about the other Kingdoms." Kakyoin's smile widened a bit as he closed his book, looking up to his leader.
"Perhaps that was just you, Mr. Joestar. Perhaps Jotaro and I are just more dignified huntsmen than you were at our age." The old man barked out a loud laugh as he heard this, shaking his head as he pointed to the two youngsters.
"You know, I might believe that if it were just you Kakyoin, but Jotaro? Hah!" The young man in question 'tsked' at his grandfather's boisterous laugh, as he reached up for his hat and lowered it.
"Whatever, you old geezer…" All the while, Avdol and Polnareff watched the scene go on, an amused grin on the latter's face and a stern, but understanding, look on the former's.
"I see, the dedication of the huntsman of the Frontier to his code of honor and uniform. An inspiring holdover from the older era, where even fire could seem cool." Polnareff just laughed at Avdol's description, as he waved it off.
"More like these two being really uptight. You know, you guys are never going to get any girls to like you if you both act like such sticks in the mud." As Polnareff said this, a shout was heard from down the deck, which drew the five men's attention away from their current conversation.
"HEY! YOU CAN'T JUST DO THIS! LET HIM GO! I SWEAR, I'LL BEAT YOU ALL UP IF YOU DON'T STOP CARRYING HIM AROUND LIKE THAT!"
As a sailor came out from beneath the deck of the ship, the five Stand Users were treated to quite the sight: in the grips of one of the crew of the ship were two very young, very filthy children, one an orange-haired girl and one black haired boy with a pink stripe going through it. While the latter had seemed to accept his fate and didn't struggle against the grip of the much older sailor, the girl seemed to be fighting and struggling with all her vim and vigor, to such a degree that even the sailor seemed to have a hard time keeping a grip on her.
As turquoise and magenta eyes met the gaze of the Stardust Crusaders, Jotaro heaved a long, annoyed sigh as he readjusted his hat.
"Yare yare daze…"
-To Be Continued- Great School Days (Act 3)
A/N:
Stand Master: Nijimura Okuyasu
Stand Name: [The Hand]
Destructive Power: B
Speed: B
Range: D (2 Meters) - B
Lasting Power: C
Precision: C
Growth Potential: C
Elimination: Anything [The Hand's] right palm touches when it does a swiping motion with its arm is erased from this universe, be it physical matters or the space itself. This ability effectively removes whatever is in the Stand's path from existence according to the user's will and it seems the objects are eliminated like an extremely sharp blade had sliced clean through them. While using the ability, Okuyasu can choose between mere removal of physical substances or the erasure of space itself within the areas covered by [The Hand's]swing motion performed by its right hand. Okuyasu also states that not even he knows where the voided objects go. Should there be space erased by [The Hand], the voided space will be filled and "stitched up" by adjacent space and objects, effectively removing any traces of the removed objects ever existing.
It should also be noted that space erasure also gives surrounding objects an unexplained force pushing them towards the center of the eliminated space while the said void is being filled by the surrounding dimension. The space elimination and this curious property allow the normally short-range Stand possesses substantial ranged capabilities, as it can simply remove the space between itself and a target to bring the opponents within reach of [The Hand] and Okuyasu or the other way around, which Okuyasu likes to call it "teleportation". During the swing, [The Hand] is described as moving slower, whether or not this is part of the nature of its ability or due to the obvious and telegraphed nature of the swing is left unclear.
Also Known As: How to make your girlfriend's pelvis disappear
Also Known As: Why you need to think with your head in JoJo's if you want to win more than one fight.
Stand battles or Stand vs semblance battles involving Okuyasu 1v1 were always going to be more simple than the other fights. It's an unfortunate fact that Okuyasu, when it comes to thinking with his head, is a bit dumb, so the fight wasn't going to impress based on strategy or wit coming from Okuyasu. Hopefully though the overall showmanship of the fight and Nora's maneuvers made it a bit more exciting. We'll see, I suppose, but I suspect some jimmies are going to be rustled.
Now, about that ending: we discussed Needs versus Wants two chapters ago. Let's discuss the worst thing that can happen to a story: when you have a Need that you just can't fill.
For my fellow writers, I imagine we've all had this happen at one point in time or another. We have a plot element that we desperately need and want to expand upon because it's key in some emotional investment or in explaining how a certain thing or series of events happened in your series. However, the way things are set up, you really have no good reason or ability to do so without feeling like you're just expositing or treading over old ground, or you just don't have an excuse to show this shit without it coming off as a confusion and unrelated diversion from the main plot with absolutely no lead in to show for it.
For me, this was Jotaro's softer nature and how Iggy ended up joining the Stardust Crusade. For the latter, it's a bit more obvious what I mean: there's no SWF in this universe because the Frontier was never that rich, so you can't just have them shipping Iggy out in the middle of a desert because reasons. Iggy had to be in at some point in the actual plot of the Stardust Crusade. In this universe, Iggy was always in Vale, that's his home turf and where he lived it up as the king of all dogs for a while. The Stardust Crusaders end up going through Vale on the way to Vacuo because they not only need to pick up Iggy, but they also need to see the Vytal Festival and understand what it could mean for the Frontier in the future. However, I had literally no good reason to flashback to this point in the plot at any time, at all. And I didn't want to just exposit about it because exposition is boring ,especially if you're doing it out of nowhere.
Then there's Jotaro: as many reviewers have pointed out, Jotaro seems like a slightly softer man in this timeline, a more successful family man and a good mentor. There are reasons for this, but they're reasons that lack emotional investment because you wouldn't' get to see them. Jotaro's the sort of guy who runs away from people to keep from forming a connection: in Part 6, Jotaro flatly says that he sought out a wife who was low maintenance and kept himself busy with work and travel to stay away from her and his daughter so that he could protect them. We see in the Stardust Crusade, on top of all this, that the longer Jotaro spends with people, the more attached he gets to them.
So in this timeline, because Jotaro has nowhere to go outside Morioh, he ends up being forced to spend time with his family, which allows them to break down the big lug's resistance over time. He learns to be a better husband and father because, hey, if you're going to be around these people…
Now, does this make sense on a logical level? I assume many of you are nodding your heads yes and saying that this makes sense as part of Jotaro's characterization in the series.
Do you feel emotionally satisfied by this? Probably not because to you, it's just exposition. I wanted to be able to show something of this from Jotaro before we know him today to help build some of that emotional resonance, however, that's immensely difficult because the Stardust Crusade in the initial drafts didn't go that differently and, even where it did, I had no reason to go back to those points to build that emotional connection. To say nothing of the full-fic I could make just featuring Jotaro the family man, so small flashbacks would do that no justice and would just come right the fuck out of nowhere.
So, for the longest time, I just accepted that I would leave these parts a bit more underdeveloped and just let the current plot speak for itself. Yeah, Iggy might not be explained as to why he'd join the Crusade and yeah, Jotaro's softening might never be given a prism to explore it with, but hey, not every work is going to be perfect.
Then Volume 4 aired.
And I stopped.
And I asked myself 'could I make this work and be entertaining?'
And I said yes.
You see, my fellow readers and writers: it is important to have an outline, to have some idea of what you've got planned so that you can work with it to see if it works. It also helps you write quicker because you have in mind what each section of the story is, so that you're not grasping for straws.
However, never write yourself into an absolute corner vis-a-vis your outline. Leave a little space. Because you never know what idea, suggestion or plot element might come along that will end up solving something or improving something that you hadn't seen coming.
Flexibility on top of good planning is important for an author.
Anyway, during these past five days was the anniversary of when I got cut out of my mother's stomach, and you all got this fic to 100 reviews. Gotta say, I continue to appreciate all of your support and I hope I can continue to entertain you all.
Also, I'm going to put out a feeler: Fox On Pie's already brought up the fact that, during fight chapters, the JoJo brackets can clutter the page a bit with how often a Stand's name can come up. Personally, I like the JoJo brackets, but I can see how for readers it might be an annoyance. If you have strong feelings about this one way or the other, feel free to say so.
Have a good week.
Update: A quick consensus seemed to form in the reviews, messages and such that I got in response to asking for your all's opinion. While a very small portion of what I've heard were fine with the status quo, more thought that it was a bit overused and others described it as eye gore. As I said above, I like the JoJo brackets as a stylistic choice, however, if the sheer amount of bold text and brackets is just absolutely turning people off, then I think we're well beyond the point of needing to compromise. I've updated every single chapter and greatly reduced the amount of JoJo brackets and bold text, keeping it to a few spots for emphasis on certain words or when a Stand attack is being launched or a Stand is being summoned. I feel like everyone gets something they want out of this, and we can all feel good about it.
I greatly appreciate all of you who told me your honest opinions on the matter, and I hope that this will be a suitable compromise for all.
Update 2: Apparently whatever i did to fix up all those JoJo brackets created in issue where sometimes there'd be no space after a Stand's name and the next work. I went through all the chapters and fixed up every case where this happened that I could see. I'd like to apologize to ya'll for this chapter's release being accompanied by such a shit show but, thankfully, now that the new standard's been set everything should be good going forward. Thanks for ya'll having patience with these mess ups.
