Masujiro Keizo Has Issues! (1)

January 15th, 11:00 PM.

Ryouta traversed the empty, rotten slums of Osaka, searching for that cursed woman. He could feel tears forming, but he would not relent; he had to find that damn killer and make her pay for what he did to such a kind soul, even if he felt he shared the blame, at least partially.

He barged into the convenience store that had been closest to the scene of the earlier crime, suspecting that either Sophia trapped her there or Akiko was simply hiding out, waiting for someone to make a move. With little to no regard for his own safety, his Stand appeared, sitting on his left shoulder.

"Come out, coward! Face me with dignity!" Ryouta shouted, his voice reverberating throughout the broken down shop. He stopped in his tracks, hearing a metallic object fall to the ground with a loud 'CLANG'.

Where did that sound come from? Ryouta thought, beads of sweat rolling down the side of his head as he turned around, his eyes darting around the area. Wait, was he hearing footsteps now? He could have sworn he was hearing slow footsteps.

"You got rid of me and you still come looking for me? You probably have a death wish," a low giggle came from Ryouta's left, prompting him to look that way; he was easily able to see that familiar woman, "I can help you out with that!"

He wouldn't admit it, but Ryouta was shaking in his boots. Despite this, he clenched his fists, his Stand slowly floating off his shoulder. His eyes finally focused, and she was in the same attire as before, but something seemed a little off.

"Speechless? Oh, just you wait..." Akiko chuckled, reaching up to her nurse mask with her left hand. She slowly pulled it off, revealing two slits on each side of her mouth, carving it into a smile. "I'm no ordinary woman, you know!"

"What the fuck," Ryouta barely moved forward, his bones shaking as he stared at her, "It doesn't matter what kind of messed up shit you've done to yourself; what matters is that you killed an innocent girl!"

"Oh, is that why you're so mad? I thought it was because of all those other murders," Akiko sighed, licking her lips as her fleshy Stand appeared before her, "People like you are so trivial. You get mad when someone you know dies, but when it happens to dozens of people, you couldn't give a rat's ass about them. You're pathetic."

"Shut your damn mouth, you've lost the right to speak!" Ryouta nearly screamed, his voice straining as he pointed towards her, his finger shaking wildly. "Parabelle, make sure she never bothers anyone ever again!"

Parabelle pointed all five of its fingers on its left hand at Akiko's left leg, each of them having a thin strand of string shooting out from their tips like a firearm; though it seemed to be futile, as The Plot In You grabbed Akiko and sidestepped out of the way effortlessly.

"You're too damn slow!" Akiko mocked, her Stand setting her down; oddly enough, The Plot In You's hand suddenly disappeared as it reached forward, though it slowly pulled back, revealing a pair of scissors that had to be the size of an actual sword.

The Plot In You suddenly lunged forward, preparing to stab Parabelle in the neck with its blade; as it swung, Parabelle broke up into hundreds of tiny pieces, reappearing behind the obscenely tall figure, a single strand of string shooting out from its index finger.

Before The Plot In You could retaliate, the thin string pierced its left shoulder, forcing it to move back a few feet. Blood seeped out from Akiko's shoulder, but it didn't seem that she was too worried, despite how bad that could be for her.

"Well, at least you tried!" Akiko commented as her Stand leaped forward, planting one of its fists into Parabelle's small abdomen, sending it flying into a random shelf. "Fuck, that hurt.. I'll see you some other time, I can't afford to bleed out."

Ryouta fell to one knee, his hand on the floor as he angrily stared up at her; though it didn't seem that she was coming for him. Instead, he saw as The Plot In You drug its pair of scissors along thin air, forming a strange, purple portal which they then stepped through.

"Goddamn it..." Ryouta murmured, holding his gut tightly before falling flat on the floor, his chest aching.

[Seven days later…]

January 22nd, 10:00 AM

I hope I wasn't too pushy.. we're all about to gather inside, and I asked to speak… Josiah thought to himself, looking to the Christian Church before him. The day after Sophia's passing, her parents asked that she had a Christian burial, as she continued to live by that faith to the very end.

It was a cloudy day, and it was sprinkling rain all across the parking lot; Josiah had barely noticed, as he was walking towards the church very slowly, his entire body shaking from fear and nervousness, but it was mostly the latter.

As he placed his foot on the first step, he felt a hand gently rest on his right shoulder; he turned around to see that it was Shinnosuke, smiling at him, which prompted him to take his foot off the first wooden step.

"Shinnosuke… you came? Warut couldn't come because of, well, you know. Taiga didn't come because she didn't want to distract anyone with her missing arm, Dororesu stayed home with her father, and Irene is too damn busy as usual.. so why did you come?" Josiah asked, his voice wobbling as he stared down at his feet.

"Because, you're my best friend." Shinnosuke replied, immediately wrapping his arms around Josiah tightly, squeezing his back, "And I'll do near anything for you, okay, man? You've helped me so much, and this is the least I can do."

Josiah held back tears, but he knew they were going to eventually break his inner flood gates eventually. "Thank you so much.. alright, let's get this over with..." He nodded to Shinnosuke, walking up the steps and then finally stepping inside the building.

As soon as he walked in, he could feel several pairs of eyes gaze over at him; hell, maybe a few were even glaring at him, as if this was his fault. He didn't recognize anyone, but he figured that the man and the woman sitting in the front row were her parents.

"Hello," Josiah said as he finally found his way to them, extending his hand to each of them, "I'm Josiah Joestar, a really close friend of your daughter. You're her parents, I assume?"

"Mhm, I'm her father," said a man as he firmly shook Josiah's hand, having a rather bushy mustache and a pair of circular reading glasses, his head visibly balding. "It's nice to meet you, I'm Edward. Sophia told us about you, Josiah."

"You've made a good impression by just being here. I'm Delilah." She shook his hand as well, though not as firmly; she had wrinkles under her eyes, and also wore a pink blouse with a long blue skirt, her brown hair tied back into a bun.

"I'm glad," Josiah smiled sadly, putting his hand into his pants pocket, able to see his friend's coffin in the corner of his eye, "Sophia would have wanted me to be here.. besides, I think she would want us to celebrate her life, but it does feel nearly impossible at this point."

Shinnosuke quickly stepped over to his friend, bowing to the two parents respectfully. "Excuse me, but, um.. Josiah, get ready. You have to speak in about a minute.. do you mind if I sit here? I'd like to keep a close eye on him."

"I don't mind at all," Edward nodded to the two of them, allowing Shinnosuke to take a seat beside him, "Good luck, Josiah. You'll do just fine."

"I hope so." Josiah gulped, turning to go and walk towards the podium, if it weren't for one last thing he had to do; he walked over to Sophia's open casket, her hands laid across her chest and her eyes shut. Weakly, Josiah brushed her cheek, sighing shakily before murmuring something. "Never change. Not for me, not for anyone..."

As he felt the judging eyes burn into the back of his head, Josiah walked up onto the podium, his hands grabbing the sides of it as he lifted the microphone up to meet his lips. "H-hello? Hi… I'm not a professional speaker, but I hope I can prove to be a competent one."

Josiah gulped, staring into the seemingly endless sea of faces, beads of sweat continuously rolling down each side of his head. "My name is Josiah Joestar, and I was a really close friend of Sophia's. We knew each other for around a year, and we really grew attached to one another. I can honestly say that there's not a thing I regret about those times; but I do regret one thing. I regret that I wasn't there to save her in her time of need, but I already promised myself I would make things right. How? I don't know, but I'm going to..."

Josiah gulped, tugging on his black tie as his eyes scanned the area; did their glares soften? He couldn't tell, he felt as if there was a foggy exterior over his eyes. He came to look down towards Sophia's open casket, feeling a lump form in his throat.

"Uh, sorry," Josiah mumbled into the mic, his shaky voice clear for everyone to listen to, "i take responsibility for what happened, but I swear I'll make this right. I'll find who did this, and I'll bring them to justice! I swear!"

Josiah's fist hit the wooden podium, though he realized he had lost all control as tears flowed from his eyes and onto the stand. Shinnosuke promptly stood up and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, leaning down towards the mic.

"Thank you all for listening, I sincerely mean that." Shinnosuke nodded towards the crowd, helping Josiah back to his seat by Edward, who then handed him a tissue, "You did good, buddy, I promise. Sophia would be proud."

"I sure hope so..." Josiah murmured as he held the tissue over his face, wiping his tears one at a time as he watched an unfamiliar man stand at the altar, an acoustic guitar strapped around his body as he looked towards the crowd.

"That was wonderful, Mr. Joestar… I would like to sing something for Sophia's soul before we lay to rest." The man's voice was rather rough and raspy, his fingers strumming the guitar as he smiled warmly towards Josiah.

"Just a little bit longer and you can rest..." Shinnosuke murmured in his friend's ear, who then nodded as the man in the front began to focus, his fingers strumming his guitar.

"We'll meet again," he sang, a sad smile spreading across his face, "Don't know where, don't know when… but I know we'll meet again, some sunny day… keep smiling through, just like you always do. 'Till the blue skies, drive the dark clouds, far away..."

[Seven minutes pass…]

"I know that my redeemer lives on in the heart of young Sophia Milena, and he will cleanse her of her sins as she enters his paradise. May she rest in peace, in Jesus Christ's name, amen." The white haired priest shut his book with his left hand, standing by the now closed casket.

"Thank you so much," Josiah said as the other people around him stood, beginning to turn their backs to leave as he shook the priest's hand firmly, "I know Sophia wouldn't have wanted this any other way, so, thank you."

"It was an honor," he said, nodding, "Oh, you're Josiah Joestar, right? I believe there was someone here to see you.. his name was, uh, Jothan Joestar! He said he would be waiting outside the church after services were over."

"Jothan Joestar? That's my grandfather… well, thank you, again!" Josiah bowed before taking off for the church, more shocked than anything, Shinnosuke following him after he also bowed to the kind priest.

Josiah stopped right at the first wooden step, his eyes able to see who was in front of him. The man had to be at least six feet and five inches tall. He was certainly old, but by no means was he frail; He had to have been through some sort of training to retain his fit shape, it looked as if his muscles were about to burst out of his clothes. He wore a black jacket over a purple t-shirt, his pants being black in color as well with a pair of boots to match, and on his face was a white beard, though it was not bushy.

"Hey," Jothan said nonchalantly, waving at his grandson with a blank expression, "Good grief… so I guess your mother was too busy to come after all. Sorry about that, she's a bit busy."

"Yeah, I'm so sure," Josiah rolled his eyes, putting his hands in his jacket pockets, 'So, what are you doing here, Gramps? I thought you didn't like traveling out of the states."

"I don't, but, when my grandson needs something, I'm gonna be here to help," Jothan smiled for a split second, though it almost immediately faded, "Your mother is investigating something very important, but I don't approve of it. I'm here because she told me about this Akiko Mikami person; I wasn't told much, so can you fill me in? I only know that she's an escaped serial killer, and well, she killed your friend. I'm deeply sorry."

Josiah sighed, taking a hand out and putting it on his hip as Shinnosuke arrived behind him. "Well… Akiko is my main priority. She has a Stand, but we have no idea what it does, only that it's immensely powerful. She's killed dozens of children, and she's most likely completely mad. We don't know where to find her, but even if we did, we should wait until we can figure out what her Stand does."

"I see," Jothan replied, placing his left hand on his chin, "Irene also told me about this guy named Himuro Firestart? She had an idea that he might be a computer, but pretty sure that's a load of bullshit. Let me know if you need help, alright? I'll be looking into this Akiko Mikami."

"Thanks Gramps," Josiah nodded with a small smile, though he was curious, "So, wait, what's mom working on that's so important?"

"It's really stupid, but," Jothan sighed, clearly irritated by the very thought of what he was about to say, "You remember me telling you about Dion Brando? Well, she's tracking down one of her sons. Masujiro Keizo is his name."

[At the mall…]

"So, you ain't sayin' much," the black haired boy said, his feet propped up on the food court table, "How the hell do you know my name, and who the fuck are you, lady?"

The young man had semi-long black hair that hit his shoulders, his sneakers torn on the sides and dirtied up. His white t-shirt was pulled up a little, and he had a pair of blue jeans on; though on his back was a strange sheath.

"Okay," Irene sighed, placing her hands on the table, "My name is Irene Joestar, and you're the son of Dion Brando, right? I'm looking for her remaining children, mainly so the Speedwagon Foundation can confirm that you're not a menace to society. What do you have to say to that, Masujiro?"

"Dion Brando? Yeah, I barely remember her, since I was adopted about a year before she died," Masujiro said, resting his feet on the ground now, "Next thing you're gonna tell me is that I have a unique ability, right? I know what Stands are, my caretaker told me about 'em. Guess I was lucky that she knew what one was."

"You aren't even upset that your mother is dead? Well, this makes things a whole lot easier," Irene responded, rolling her eyes as she let out a relieved sigh, "You know about Stands, too. Well, you should know, I'm the one who put her life to an end after she threatened the lives of my son and many others."

"Oh?" Masujiro asked, his interest seemingly piqued, "You killed her? I'd like to hear how you did that, since you don't seem too strong yourself. Lay it on me, Joestar."

"You say my last name just like your damn mother too," Irene responded, crossing her arms for a moment as she looked up at the mall's ceiling, "Well, I'll spare you some boredom and skip straight to the fight."

"Now you're speakin' my language."

[Seventeen years ago…]

Cairo, Egypt. June 14th, 2016.

12:00 AM.

Dion Brando stood atop a massive clock tower, her emerald green eyes scanning the area for any sign of movement, her luscious blonde hair resting on her back; with her enhanced eyesight, she could see that Irene Joestar was nowhere to be seen.

Though, it was obvious to her that Narciso Annakiss and Hermes Costello were both hot on the path of destruction she had laid out earlier; she had managed to take over a politician's car and forced him to drive away from Irene, running over several people in the process.

Dion looked down, noticing that the two of them were standing to the left of the clock tower, staring straight at her. With a sigh, Dion floated off of it and landed several feet away from them, a small smirk on her face.

"Hm, looks like Irene ran away," Dion's lips curved upwards, a devilish smirk painted across her face, "So, you truly think you can defeat I, Dion? What reason is there to kill me?"

"We didn't know you existed until fifty days ago," Annakiss replied, his purple eyes dead set on Dion as she moved, "It was only because of a friend of Jothan's we could find you! When you gained your Stand, you made a little boy suffer, and now you want to rule above humanity! That won't happen!"

"I made a little boy suffer? Hm, I don't know about that, but am I not fit to rule above you?" Dion snickered, putting a hand on her right hip as she sighed, "There's only three of you, so this shouldn't be too difficult; I already know your abilities, so why bother?"

"It doesn't matter if you know what we can do," Hermes spoke up, her bright green eyes darting from left to right, "What does matter is killing you! That little boy you made suffer's name is Josiah Joestar, and you have the nerve to say your existence doesn't cause him to slowly die every day? I'll be sure to pay you back for that!"

"What of it? What does it matter if I made another Joestar suffer?" Dion gave the two a wide grin, showing her sharp fangs, her free hand reaching into her left pants pocket for something. "All Joestars are fated to die by my hand!"

"That's enough out of you!" Annakiss shouted as a humanoid figure slid out of him, being a sea blue in color, as well as having what seemed to be scuba gear on its body, matching with several Ds facing away from one another.

Diver Down phased into the roof below it, moving underneath it as its user ran towards Dion, fully prepared for battle. As Diver Down jumped in front of Dion, a sudden blast of hot, pink liquid shot from her eyes.

"Guh!" Annakiss groaned as the pressurized liquid grazed his shoulder, cutting his outfit and drawing blood in the process, though it did not seem to deter him. As Dion pulled out what seemed to be a wine bottle, Diver Down threw its fist at the vampiric woman's nose.

Dion moved back slightly, holding the wine bottle between her and the fist, which then shattered from the collision. She chuckled, crossing her arms as she looked towards Annakiss, the wine forming a small puddle at her feet.

"You've lost!" Dion shouted, prompting Annakiss to freeze in confusion, but also out of fear of the unknown. Suddenly, the pool of wine shot up and rocketed towards his neck, effectively piercing it as it came through the other side.

Annakiss would scream in agony, but the blood rising out of his throat prevented this. Within seconds, his body had fallen limp, leaving Hermes to stare at it in pure terror.

"What the hell?! No!" Hermes grunted, jumping back several feet as she began to shake in fear, her eyes trying to focus on Dion and not Annakiss's corpse. "Her Stand is that puddle of wine? How can it be so powerful, there's barely anything to it!"

As Dion prepared to float over to Hermes, she had noticed something odd; did her foot just come in contact with something as she moved over Annakiss's dead body? When she looked closer, she had noticed that there was a tense strand of string in the air.

"Eh?" Dion murmured, though she heard the sound of something snapping in the distance. As she turned, a tiny meteor slammed against the side of her head, effectively drawing blood and forming a massive gash on her temple.

Her eyes attempted to adjust to just what she was seeing, though she was not pleased with what came into focus. She saw tense, thin string placed throughout the air, connecting from rooftop to rooftop; in the middle was Irene, most of her body spun out into it.

"Damn that Joestar!" Dion growled, wincing at the pain as the pool of wine suddenly shot up, spreading itself across the string that Irene had distributed among the area.

As the infested the string, Irene could slowly feel it contracting back into her natural form rather quickly. "What the hell?!" Irene bit down on her lower lip in frustration, landing on the rooftop that was directly across from Dion.

"One hundred years ago, I stole this body from Jorge Joestar," Dion murmured, her left eye twitching as blood seeped out from her open wound, "And now a new Joestar is facing me… it's like you want to be put down like the filthy mutt you are."

"Stop your damn monologue and pay attention!" Hermes cried as a golden fist flew out from the side of her body while she ran, its knuckles implanting themselves into Dion's abdomen; though, the vampire only scoffed, throwing her leg up to kick Hermes off the rooftop.

As Hermes fell, her Stand quickly caught her to soften the fall, her body sustaining little to no injuries as the people around her ran away from the scene, having watched what just happened unfold before their very eyes.

"You piece of shit!" Irene screamed as rage flowed through her bones, tears forming on the edge of her eyes as she jumped towards Dion, her fists extended next to Stone Free's.

"Funny. The Joestar bloodline is nothing but mere dog shit in my way, you fool!" Dion grinned as the pool of wine suddenly reformed, leaping towards Stone Free's head; quickly, Stone Free dodged out of the way as it landed on the rooftop Dion was standing on top of.

"You'll have to be faster than that!" Irene shouted as the pool of wine barely grazed the side of her head as it came back around, though she ignored it; as she quickly ducked away from an oncoming punch, her Stand jumped towards Dion.

"ORA!" Stone Free cried as its fist met with Dion's abdomen, repeating the process dozens of times before it finally delivered a swift kick to her gut, sending her flying off the roof top and onto the cold pavement.

Dion felt her legs crack as she landed, blood still flowing out from the wound on her head as her body began to shake erratically, her hands pulling at the street to try and crawl away from Irene, who had just managed to jump down with help from Stone Free.

Irene quickly stepped in front of Dion, her hands in her pockets as she stared down at her nemesis, her entire body filled with hatred for this woman. Without saying a word, Irene's boot came down on Dion's left hand, effectively crushing it.

"Where do you think you're going, monster?" Irene took her foot off of Dion's now broken hand, shaking from head to toe, but not in fear. "Because of you, many people have had to suffer, and my husband is dead. You're not getting off scot-free."

Dion stared up at Irene, seemingly fearful of this young woman; she attempted to pick herself up, though fell back down. Before Irene could throw Stone Free at her, she suddenly shouted something out loud.

"I won't die here, you pile of shit!" Dion screeched as the sharp, liquified beams from earlier shot towards Irene's throat, only for Stone Free to quickly shield her, giving Irene a bit of an opening, but only for a single second.

"ORA ORA ORA!" Stone Free nearly screamed as its hardened fists planted themselves all over Dion's body, sometimes even puncturing it, resulting in blood spilling onto the street. As for the final blow, Stone Free's right fist met with Dion's head; when the force of the blow came in contact with it, it shattered into two halves, which Stone Free began to pummel into absolutely nothing.

With a loud scream emitting from Irene's lungs, she fell flat on her bottom, staring up at the night sky as Dion's blood spread throughout the street.

[Back in the present…]

"Neat," Masujiro said, staring down at his sheath as he held it in his hands, "You must be pretty strong, then; I don't have a grudge against you, I'm just tryin' to get by. Do you trust me?"

"I have no reason not to," Irene shrugged, slowly stepping out from her seat, "I figured someone should tell you what happened to your mother, so there it is. You're kind of a rude kid, but I trust you."

"Well, gee thanks-" Masujiro had been interrupted by what sounded like a gunshot going off, prompting him to jump out from his seat and take a look around the mall, noticing that people were running away in every direction.

"What the hell?!" Irene's eyes darted from left to right to try and see what was going on among all this chaos, managing to catch a strange man who was casually walking through the crowds, dressed very formally.

The sides of his black hair was shaved, grey streaks running through it. He had been wearing a white button-up dress shirt with a pair of black and wrinkled dress pants; though the thing that stood out most to Irene, was the strange humanoid figure next to him.

It had to have been at least an inch taller than the strange man, but there was no doubting that it was a Stand that belonged to him. It had strings wrapped around its wrists and hands, half of its face had been covered in a strange black mask; to make it even more odd were the spikes jutting out of its left temple and its chest.

"Masujiro," Irene spoke, her eyes focusing on this man, "You'll stick around to help, right? I hope I'm not the only one who sees that Stand."

"Yeah," Masujiro responded, unsheathing his blade, "I'm ready, I don't trust this fancy lookin' asshole, either."

Just before they could walk towards him, his head slowly turned to look at the two of them, his icy gaze washing over them as he opened his mouth.

"Oh, we can't have this."

TO BE CONTINUED…

CHARACTER BIO

Name: Dion Brando
Age: 136 (Deceased)
Stand: All By Myself
Stand Statistics
Power - B
Speed - A
Range - A
Precision - C
Durability - A
Development Potential – C