Disclaimer: Ranma ½ belongs to Rumiko Takahashi while Jojo's Bizarre Adventure belongs to Hirohiko Araki. None of the elements used belong to me, even the Stands that appear that Araki has never bothered to create. Feel free to use them.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 6.1: Dark Passion Play
WARNING: No lemon but still a few naugthy things. And some slightly darker stuff
XXIV) Nightwish
Jotaro was so surprised that he didn't even think of defending himself. He would have felt hurt but he was convinced that Herb loved him, so he thought that it might be an aspect of the bonding process. Herb was obviously not that human to begin with. Besides, courtship and mating rituals were sometimes strange, even among people he knew. Had Yukako Yamagishi not admitted to once sequestrating and trying to kill Koishi Hirose, he might not have believed the stories Josuke had told him about the love-drunk couple.
His reasoning crumbled when he noticed, a fraction of second later, that it wasn't him Herb was striking at but towards somewhere above and behind him.
Right into the still visible Star Platinum.
Herb's eyes widened when her fist phased into the green-skinned muscle-bound colossus. She prepared to strike back but she didn't have the opportunity. The apparition shouted "Ora!" and grabbed her fist as soon as she took her hand back from its body. Herb startled and tried to strike with her other fist. The apparition caught it with its massive glove fist, eyed her for a few seconds and released her. Herb jumped away and took a stance while eyeing the Stand with a frown. She then looked at Jotaro and was surprised to see that he hadn't reacted to the entity's presence. He was instead eyeing her with surprise.
"You can see it?" he asked wonderingly.
"I'm more surprised by the fact that it didn't surprise you," replied Herb sharply. "And why shouldn't I be able to see it?"
"You didn't before when it was activated," answered Jotaro, much to the Musk princess's surprise. "It's a part of me that only one other person in this world is supposed to be able to see. You are the second one to manage that. What makes me wonder is why you didn't see it sooner."
Herb looked genuinely startled and relaxed. She looked at the armoured entity and at Jotaro before she put her left hand over her chest. Jotaro followed the said hand but when he noticed where it went he lost some of his reserve. Herb then looked at Jotaro's heart and then at his eyes.
"What occurred when I was asleep?" she asked.
"Your body emitted multi-coloured light," answered Jotaro, seeing where she was going. "It started from your loins and heart before covering your whole body. Then it concentrated in your heart and coalesced into a ball of light that went into my heart. It was so full of your emotions that I'll remember it as the second best thing that ever happened to me. Then it left me and went back into your heart and dissolved there."
"It's probably the bonding," said Herb after thinking a little. "I don't know the specifics, since my father hoped that I would die before performing it, but I know that there are things to gain from bonding with someone powerful. I probably gained it from you. What is this entity, by the way?"
"It's a Stand," answered Jotaro. "It's a projection of my vital energy that has been granted insane abilities and that allows me the use of some of them. It's intangible when I want it to be, as you saw yourself, and the only constant rule with Stands is that only Stand Users can see them."
Jotaro looked at Herb insistently and Herb caught on quickly.
"This means that I am a Stand user," deduced Herb. "Which mean that I have a projection of vital energy like this one." She paused for a minute before straightening herself, making her breast do very interesting things. "What can you tell me about Stands?"
Jotaro stopped eyeing her breasts and looked into her eyes.
"Come with me in the bathroom," he told her. "I'll tell you everything you need to know as we bathe."
Herb nodded and followed him, the both of them still naked. Jotaro filled up the bath with hot water before taking Herb in his arms and lowering her into the water. Herb shivered pleasurably at the contact with the liquid. She had had mixed feelings about it for the last month since warm water embodied her loss but as of now she cared sensibly less about it. Jotaro put her onto him, her back on his torso, and closed his arms around her curvaceous form. Herb laid her head onto his shoulder and eyed him expectantly.
"There are several things that I intended to tell you," started Jotaro. "The most notable one being that I am forty years old and that I wasn't born in this universe." Herb opened wide eyes at that and listened intently. "I died in my former world in 2012. To understand the chain of event that lead to this, I'll have to go back to the 1890's in my former world, eighty years before I was even born. It all started when the English lord Georges Joestar the First adopted a young man called Dio Brando, a young boy intent on getting as much power as he could get by whichever means he could find. Dio found an Aztec Stone Mask a few years later..."
And Jotaro told her the complete and unabridged version of the tragic history of the Joestar line. Herb was awed by the events the family had had to face. She was surprised to learn that Jotaro had been married and was rather pleased to learn that he considered his first marriage only the third best thing to happen to him. She wouldn't even have been upset to learn that she came after his first wife in his heart but she was still pleased to know that she came second. She wondered what the best thing to ever happen to Jotaro had been, at least until he told her that it had been the birth of his daughter. The more she learnt about this daughter who had acted tough because she was upset that her father had abandoned her, the more she wished she could have met her, if only to try to get her approval for being with her father. She was distraught when she learnt of the terrible fate that had befallen Jotaro's world and was impressed by his resilience.
Then Jotaro told her what he knew about Stands, including all the ones he had encountered. Herb listened raptly, memorising the characteristics of Jotaro's friends, including the portraits he had drawn, although she memorised the Stands with more attention given that they wouldn't change when their owners would change bodies if what Jotaro had learnt had been true. Jotaro finally told her about the Arrow that awakened Stands.
"I unfortunately don't have this Arrow anymore," he added. "I gave its head to my daughter and she kept it. I have stolen an artefact from the Amazons that has similar properties. It kills most people while giving strange powers to others. I'm pretty sure that its properties are similar to the Arrow but I never dared to test it."
"Can I see it?" asked Herb.
"I don't see why not," answered Jotaro while he took it from Doorspace. He took the gold-hilted dagger with the green ornate blade and shoved it to Herb, who eyed it curious, mindful of not touching it. Then it happened.
As he moved to change his position, Jotaro's leg suddenly ripped in the tub. He soon caught himself but his jerk had destabilized Herb. The dragon descendant wavered and whirled her arms to steady herself. As she realised that it wouldn't work, she tried to grab whatever she could. Unfortunately, Jotaro had also moved his arms to try to catch her. Herb's right palm met the tip of the dagger. The tip perforated her hand fully as if it were made of butter, the hand being stopped by the hilt of the dagger. Herb cried in pain and jerked her hand away from the dagger, leaving a bloody gap between two phalanxes. Jotaro became deathly pale as he noticed the wound. Herb put it in the water extremely fast. She was surprised when Jotaro grabbed her roughly yet carefully, as if she would break at any time.
"Are you alright?" he asked anxiously.
"I'll alright," replied Herb soothingly. "Just a nasty cut. Don't freak out like that."
"Don't you remember?" countered Jotarowith a hard face that denoted his worries. "This dagger kills nearly anyone it wounds!"
Herb looked at him with wide eyes, then took her hand out of the water. She was surprised to see that the wound looked cauterized. It left a hole in her hand. Herb eyed it for a few seconds before looking back at Jotaro.
"I'm not dead yet," she told him wonderingly. "Does it mean that I will develop strange powers?"
Before Jotaro could answer, all the light disappeared from the bathroom, leaving the couple in the darkness.
As he was trying to get his bearings back in the dark, Jotaro felt Herb stiffen on him.
"Calm down," he said soothingly. "It's just dark here. There's nothing to be afraid of."
"It's not that," replied Herb somewhat on edge. "I'm seeing in the dark. But it's myself I'm seeing, and in strange colours at that."
Jotaro immediately understood what was going on. He had gone through it more than twenty years before.
"Will the light back," replied Jotaro. "Everything will become clearer."
Herb paused before nodding, although she realised too late that Jotaro couldn't see her. She then concentrated and the light suddenly came back. Herb reeled back, visibly disorientated. Jotaro noticed this and deduced what was happening.
"Are you having another angle of vision?" he asked her gently. "For that matter, do you perceive the world with another set of senses?"
"Yes," replied Herb somewhat awed, still disorientated. "It is located on the ceiling."
Jotaro turned his head to the ceiling, Herb followed suit. She saw herself turn her head from the said ceiling, which was very disturbing. She finally saw it and her eyes widened.
It was avian in shape, but in shape only. It looked like a translucent and shimmering swallow whose plastron was pink, whose back, tail and head were dark blue and whose legs and beak were white. What was surprising was that it looked mechanical, with a metallic shine and a back looking as if it were made of solar panels. Its eyes were the most surprising since only one was uncovered and it looked like a red camera lens. The other was shut by what looked like a camera shutter. The mechanical swallow held itself to the ceiling's lamp with its talons and was looking at them intently. The light rays suddenly bent towards the back of the mechanical swallow and progressively disappeared from the room until it was dark once again. Then light came back progressively the same way it had vanished, light rays bending between the swallow's back and the lamp until the swallow released them. Then the avian being flew swiftly from the lamp before landing on Star Platinum's shoulder. The green-skinned colossus looked at the swallow before stroking it lightly.
"It's a Stand, alright," Jotaro eventually said as he put the dagger back into Doorspace. "The dagger really awakens Stands."
"What should I call it?" asked Herb while the bird Stand flew on her arm.
"Nightwish," replied Jotaro on the spot.
Stand Stats:
A: Very Good / B: Good / C: Average / D: Bad / E: Poor
Star Platinum
Strength: A / Speed: A / Range: C / Staying: A (Previously C) / Precision: A / Learning: A (Previously C)
Ability: Can move with amazing precision and destroy things with tremendous power. Range is only about two metres but it can move at unbelievable speeds, additionally it has the ability to stop time for five seconds. It seems odd to say that time stops for five seconds when it is at a standstill but this is roughly how the user perceives it. Can be infused into its user to enhance his abilities.
Nightwish
Strength: E / Speed: A / Range: A / Staying: B / Precision: C / Learning: D
Ability: Can alter the course of light beams, allowing it to plunge a place in the dark. Can see all kind of radiations, not the visible ones only.
Mint and Lime had been waiting for some time for Herb and Jotaro to get out of their bedroom. They held no illusion that Herb was still a virgin after what had happened, it was quite obvious that she was smitten with Jotaro. Besides, they didn't think there could be a better person than Jotaro for Herb. The man was powerful, smart (clever, even, when when he was angry at someone) and determined. Above all, he obviously loved Herb and was maybe the only one apart from them and the reigning emperor to do so. The two retainers were currently discussing whether Herb should come back to the Musk kingdom or not. It actually was a hard decision to take and it had started an animated debate between the two of them. Lime thought that if Herb didn't come back, she would lose everything she had and her father would get what he wanted. And there was no denying that Ginger's being emperor would be a catastrophe for the kingdom. Mint however thought that Herb had nothing to lose and should follow her heart, which would most probably lead her to follow Jotaro. They were still discussing vehemently about it when Herb and Jotaro came out of the room. Had they not been sitting down, they would have fallen in surprise. Jotaro was smiling broadly, not his mocking smirk or his impassive smile but a full-blown smile. From what they had learnt about him, this was rare enough to be noticed.
As for Herb, she was glowing. Literally. Mint and Lime blinked a few times, wondering if they were dreaming.
"I didn't know that the bonding process made a dragon descendant glow," said Mint eventually. Herb and Jotaro laughed.
"It's not due to the bonding, although it is linked to it," explained Herb, smiling.
"I happen to have a strange power," detailed Jotaro. "Since it manifests itself in a humanoid form to me and stands by me, I call it a Stand. When Herb bonded with me, she acquired a power of similar nature. As of yesterday, she is a Stand User."
"It's not as impressive as yours, though," frowned Herb. "But well, given that you're the only one able to see it, it doesn't bother me that much."
"Size doesn't matter when it comes to Stands," countered Jotaro. "Some of the most powerful Stands I ever saw were extremely small. That said, it could also have an extremely weird ability. The first one we discovered is strange enough. That said, it is extremely useful and I'm pretty sure that you haven't discovered all of its abilities."
"I should hope so, although the ability I know of is extremely useful," replied Herb.
Mint and Lime looked at each other before turning to the couple.
"Excuse me," asked Lime, "but I would like to know what a Stand is. And what is this ability you speak of, Herb?"
"A Stand is a projection of energy that can only be seen by Stand Users," explained Jotaro. "There are next to no fixed rules about them but this one, which explains why you can't see it. As for Herb's new ability..."
He winked at Herb and Herb smiled wickedly in return. Then Mint and Lime were witness to the extremely strange phenomenon of all the light in the room coalescing on a single point behind Herb before vanishing altogether. They were extremely surprised but managed not to scream.
"The best part," added Herb while moving around, "is that I can see despite the dark. There are lots of radiations other than visible light that are invisible to most eyes. I can use them to see in the dark."
Mind and Lime whistled appreciatively as the light came back. Jotaro had the final word.
"I think that we will have to extend our trip slightly to teach you how to better use your Stand," he told Herb simply. "Let's get our things and start the first stage, we'll improvise from there."
The others nodded and helped him pack, although he carried most of their things. Not ten minutes later they were off for a month long trip. Herb didn't know it yet but she would learn more during this initiating trip than during her whole life.
The wilderness wasn't that much different in Japan than it was in China. The species might not be the same, but due to its specific geography, Japan offered a wide variety of climates and places on a rather small scale. The major difference with China was the fact that wilderness was rarer in Japan and on a significantly smaller scale. The Kaisuiton might be in China but Jotaro wanted to train Herb in Japan, mostly because he knew the country better than he knew China but also because he wanted Herb to get accustomed to big cities, which were further away from the wilderness in China.
After two days trekking in the wild to get to a rather deserted place, Jotaro started to train Herb in several fields, including how to use her Stand at its fullest. The first order on the agenda was to teach her how to move silently and inconspicuously. Nightwish might suppress light but it didn't suppress sound, footprints or smells. Mint and Lime, being accomplished warriors and hunter, were able to help them with these ones. Jotaro admitted that he hadn't known all their tricks to leave no traces or to mask his smell. He discovered that escaping Mint's nose was extremely hard and that Lime could hear him sometimes. That said, Jotaro was more silent than any of them were when moving, so he became the reference when it came to stealth. Herb had a hard time learning that since none of her previous teachers had seen fit to teach her this aspect of fighting. She had always been told to rush loudly in battle. It was new to her and she was learning an awful lot.
Coupled with stealth training was survival training. The group used none of their supplies for the first ten days. Herb was decent but could do better, Jotaro was good but Mint and Lime were accomplished survivalists. Jotaro spent most of these days as a female since it had rained early on. Which led to him teaching lesbian sex to an extremely interested Herb. Which led to a rather embarrassing moment for Mint and Lime. Which in turn led to a discovery for Herb.
Mint and Lime had just woken up from their sleep. They had slept rather fitfully, given how used they were to sleeping in rough places. They had thought Herb would have had difficulties but the Musk heir had taken to it rather well. Though they could have been spared the explanation made by a smirking Jotaro that he was exhausting her with sex to make her sleep more easily. Herb had been blushing so hard at Jotaro's open perversion (he called it basic honesty but the smirk he had in these instances wasn't fooling anyone, especially given how the smirk grew when Mint and Lime became outraged) that she hadn't had the presence of mind to deny.
They were coming cautiously to the place where the group cooked their meals when they heard muffled cries that unmistakeably belonged to Herb. Throwing caution to the wind, they dashed to the place where they heard the cries. When they arrived, they stopped and opened wide eyes before blushing madly.
Herb and Jotaro were fully naked on the moss in the forest. While Jotaro was on all four with her head between Herb's legs, Herb had a hand on her mouth trying to cover her cries of delight. Then she opened her eyes. She blinked once before reacting like any female in her situation.
"EEEEEEEEKKK!" she shrieked as she tried to preserve her modesty. "Don't look!"
Mint and Lime would have complied but something happened before they could.
Jotaro and Herb vanished from view in a blink, leaving the moss spotless, as if they had never been there. Mint and Lime panicked.
"The Hell?" uttered Lime frantically.
"Herb!" shouted Mint. "Jotaro! Where are you?"
A voice made them jump in surprise as it came from where Jotaro and Herb had been and where they currently weren't.
"You mean you can't see us?" asked Jotaro. It was extremely strange since she could still see herself and the still naked Herb. Herb opened wide eyes as she uncovered herself. She rose and noticed something strange.
"There's a strange shimmering half-sphere around us," she told. Jotaro looked around before shaking her head.
"I can't see it," she told her. "Which means that it is one of your Stand's abilities. It is even more useful than the previous one since you can surprise your opponents even more."
Jotaro then moved around the bubble she couldn't see with her hand in front of her. Herb was about to tell her that her hand had just crossed the sphere but her retainers beat her to it.
"Holy shit!" shouted Lime. Jotaro stopped on the spot.
"What's wrong?" she asked the duo.
"Your hand just appeared out of thin air," replied Lime with awe.
"So this means that this sphere you see is the limit of your ability, Herb," deduced Jotaro.
"Impressive," replied Herb, awed despite herself while looking at Nightwish.
"Well, since we are invisible..." started Jotaro as he closed on Herb.
On the outside, Mint and Lime heard her and wondered what she wanted to do.
"What are you...?" started Herb before her voice took a wholly different tone. "Ooooooohh... Yes! Right there! Don't stop!"
Mint and Lime blushed brightly as Herb's cries became more and more vocal and explicit. They decided that discretion was the better part of the valour and fled with their metaphorical tail between their legs.
It later appeared to them that Nightwish's sphere of invisibility could be expanded up to thirteen metres in radius. Jotaro had had the idea while thinking about Shizuka Joestar and her Achtung Baby. However, Herb couldn't move out of the vicinity of the sphere. Nightwish had the highest difficulty to make the sphere move without problems. Besides, Jotaro had deduced that he could still feel Herb's presence within the sphere and had thus taken to teach her the Umisen-ken. It wouldn't make her totally undetectable but unless someone was searching for her very presence in this precise area they wouldn't find her. Jotaro had theorised that rather than make the inside of the sphere invisible, it send an image of the inside that fit Herb's will. It wasn't true invisibility, but Jotaro was pretty sure that Herb would eventually achieve it.
After the survival training, they had spent a bit of time training themselves in various ways of fighting. Jotaro had taught Herb, Mint and Lime the Umisen-ken, the Yamasen-ken, as well as every Amazon technique he had learnt. He had even started them on Xiao-lee and hyposthenia. Mint and Lime had some trouble, it would probably take them years to learn it, but Herb had taken to it like a fish to water. It was energy manipulation after all. And if there was one thing dragon descendants were good at, it was energy manipulation. The hardest part for Herb had been to let herself be hit. She had taken a week to stop reacting instantly to hits. It had then taken her only a few days to learn the release of energy. Once she managed to do so, she became extremely good at it. Besides, although she looked extremely delicate, she was tough, less than Lime but probably as tough as Taro in his Minotaur form, which was saying something. As such, only Jotaro managed to discern whether she was simply taking hits or using Xiao-lee. Even Jotaro couldn't fool people that well, and he doubted Happosai could either.
Jotaro had also taken the time to explain to her how the modern world worked. Herb had surprised him by her aptitude at economics. Jotaro had taken to help her devise ways of economic development that could be applied to her kingdom. She was also frighteningly good at negotiating and diplomacy. This pleased Mint and Lime since it had taken care of most of her shortcomings when it came to ruling a kingdom.
Later, they went back to the cities. But not anywhere in the cities. Jotaro wanted to show her the darkness in the human heart. As such, he took her to the seediest parts of Kobe. The Yakuza weren't as present as they were in Tokyo, but the Chinese and Taiwanese mafia were there. The deadliest fights were also here. Herb had to learn to rely on her body only.
Suedo Atsushi was a mountain of a man. Almost two metres tall, weighing more than a hundred kilos, he had so many muscles that he didn't seem to know where to put them all. To top that, he was a master at Karate and had been its rising star until he was forced to go in the underground scene for reasons that were his alone. But fate had been cruel to him. Suedo hadn't wanted to fight for a good three years and would have given anything to stop, especially since he was expected to be brutal and merciless to his opponents. He was rumoured to be someone you fought only once. All his opponents in the underground scene had been forced to abandon fighting after fighting with him due to their lasting wounds. When they didn't die against him, that is. That was the rule of underground fighting. Fight until you drop. Suedo didn't like this mentality, he actually abhorred it. But he had no other choice. His 'employers' had him by the balls. He couldn't say no to them. Even though he wanted to kill them.
Today, his employers had told him that his opponent was of the small and agile kind. He loathed it. He was extremely fast for his size, which always surprised his opponents. Thus the small and fast ones lost their advantage against someone his size and were usually totally crushed. At least opponents his size faired a fighting chance and weren't squashed like bugs.
He scoffed at the encouragement he received from his 'fans'. He despised them. They weren't really his fans, even though they betted heavily on him. Most of them didn't care if they won only a handful of yen by betting on him. All they wanted was to see blood. Sharks, the lot of them. Actually no. That was an insult to sharks. Sharks only hunted to feed. These bastards wanted to see other humans suffer, bleed and die only for their own sick baser satisfaction. Suedo sighed and steeled himself. He had a role to play and the consequences of not performing to his employers' satisfaction were too dire to contemplate. He rose from his corner and went on the sandy arena.
The arena was a sandy octagon with wooden walls to close it. Two opposing metal doors led to it and were closed from the outside. Once inside, the contestants had no choice but to fight, fleeing wasn't an option, not with the armed guards up the walls. The seats were rising up from there. The arena wasn't that big but it was renowned. It didn't have a name since it was wholly illegal but people had taken to calling it the Underground Arena.
As Suedo entered the arena and the door closed behind him, he muttered a quick prayer for the unfortunate soul that would soon fight him. If the guy was lucky, he would go away with a few broken limbs or ribs. If not... Well, Suedo didn't want to think about it.
"And against our undisputed winner, an unusual challenger!" shouted the referee. "She comes from the wilderness in China and wants to test her strength!"
Suedo sighted. Japan, China, Europe, America... It didn't make the slightest difference against him.
Wait a minute...
The referee had said 'she'...
Suedo lifted his head as his heartbeat accelerated in horror. They wouldn't dare...
"Let's applaud Herb Jako from the Bayankala Mountains!" shouted the commentator.
As some in the crowd applauded and most booed, Suedo's opponent arrived. As the door closed behind her, Suedo was about to refuse the fight, damn the consequences, when he saw something that stopped him.
No matter how strong they were, or felt they were, his opponents had always been apprehensive when they saw him. It was a sort of instinct. They always felt like prey against a predator. That's why they fought so savagely. They were afraid and often desperate.
His opponent was indeed a woman. A striking woman at that, with a very pretty face, exotic eyes and a curvaceous body that made most men whistle at her in appreciation. She was clad with nothing but a tight top and boxers that made it obvious that she wore nothing under them. It made her all the more desirable. She was relatively muscular but not that much and was far from tall. Suedo dominated her by a good head if not two. She should be prey to him.
Yet she wasn't.
Suedo saw it in her eyes. Her face was emotionless and betrayed nothing but intense concentration. She was seizing him up. Then the unthinkable happened.
She smirked.
Viciously.
"You wanted defeat," she told him with a crystalline voice that reached him despite the ambient noise. "I will make you taste defeat."
For the first time in what seemed like forever, Suedo felt like the prey in front of the predator. He was so unused to this that, as soon as he heard the referee shout "Begin!" he dashed at her and sent his strongest punch right in her face.
He was a bit surprised when she took him without even straightening herself or trying to avoid. He almost hit himself when he saw her whirl haphazardly in the air as if she were a rag doll. The match would be over now...
At least it would if she didn't land gracefully on her feet in a fluid way, as if she were made of water. Her nose was slightly red due to the hit and a small rivulet of blood flew down from her left nostril. She licked it without shame and smiled wickedly. Everybody was silent, even the referee. They might not be martial arts masters but everyone in the crowd knew that Suedo had used all of his colossal strength against her.
Herb cracked her neck and walked towards him, not even threatening, totally relaxed. She closed on him and for the first time in his life Suedo felt an urge to flee. He thus reacted by kicking her savagely in the stomach. Herb didn't react, she didn't even contract her abdominal muscles. She just flew back under the blow and landed in the same manner as before, her smile even wider. She walked towards Suedo once again. The same thing occurred a few times. Suedo would hit Herb with everything he had, mostly out of fear, and she would just fly away before coming back at him. The crowd was now booing at their accustomed winner. Herb frowned at them before she visibly strained herself. It started small enough but it became obvious soon to Suedo. The idiots up the wall didn't seem to notice it but he knew she would soon do something drastic.
Her chest swelled and swelled before she stopped and closed her eyes. When she opened them it occurred.
"ENOUGH!" she shouted.
Her cry was deafening. The sand flew away from her on a two metre wide radius, revealing the concrete under it. Everything made out of glass in the vicinity exploded. Since the lights were LED based, they could still work. Several shouts of pain were heard within the crowd as glass wielding people had glass fragments embedded in their face and sometimes their eyes. Watches were now all broken. The crowd, at least those who weren't writhing in pain, watched her flabbergasted, barely believing that such a delicate woman had produced that much chaos by just shouting.
Herb waited for a minute for Suedo and the crowd to regain their hearing. Then she spoke to him.
"You're strong," she told him. "None of these pitiful wastes of space realise how much you are, only those who fought against you can tell."
It was a testament to the effect Herb had on the public that none of them dared to protest at the insult.
"However, strength doesn't matter against Xiao-lee," continued Herb. "It allows me to nullify my opponent's strength. Moreover, hyposthenia allows me to store it. I won't use this skill against you anymore. And I will release what I have stored. Let me show you how much you put behind those twelve hits."
Herb put her arm up and concentrated. Soon the veins were bulging on its surface and it darkened, looking like a chunk of cast-iron. She then propelled her arm on the concrete below her. Suedo's eyes widened as he saw the ground explode around her. The noise was almost as deafening as her previous shout. The ground shook, making more than half of the crowd fall. Shrapnel flew away from her and hit the crowd. Some of it hit and cut Suedo but he couldn't care less. Even with thirty centimetres of sand, fault lines could clearly be seen throughout the whole arena. Suedo saw this and knew his fear of the young woman had been justified. He licked his lips. Despite his terror, despite his fears of what might occur should he lose, he couldn't help but fell anticipation for what was probably the first time since he last fought outside of this place. Herb saw this and smiled widely.
"Let's fight," said Herb simply. "No restrictions except for me. Give me all you've got. This time, you are the prey and I am the predator."
Suedo remained still for a few seconds. Then he howled. It was a primal howl which only use was to give him courage. He dashed at Herb and started to hit her. He used his most lethal techniques on her, hitting all the weak points he knew of. He hit her groin, her kidneys, her solar plexus, her carotid, her temples, between her nose and her upper lip (her philtrum) and between her eyes. During this onslaught, Herb didn't even move. She had some blood on her since some of the hits cut her but that was all. She licked some blood on her lips.
"My turn," she just said.
And Suedo's world exploded with pain. He couldn't even discern the hits that fell upon him. They were so destructive that he couldn't count them. However, he managed to realise that she never hurt him. He also realised that she was just slapping him. It might sound ridiculous but the skin is the most sensitive organ of the body and spreads all over it. Herb slapped him so hard that Suedo fell on the ground in pain. He could barely breathe. This technique that should be reserved to women and children was frightening when used in a fight. Then again, Herb was a woman, so she was entitled to use slaps.
Suedo fell on the ground and didn't move. Herb looked and him and knelt beside him. She brought her beaten yet lovely face near his.
"Why do you fight if you don't like it?" she asked frowning.
Suedo looked at her and his face displayed anguish.
"They have my sister," he told her while tears appear in his eyes. "I don't know what they will do to her now that I have lost."
Herb's gaze hardened.
"What's her name?" she asked, no demanded.
"Mari," replied Suedo. "Mari Atsushi."
Herb poked a point on his solar plexus and the pain started to recede.
"You will fall unconscious in a minute," she told him. "When you wake up, your sister will be at your side."
Suedo tried to open his eyes wide but he didn't manage. The pressure point had taken all of his strength. He could just look at what would happen. Had he been able to see Stands, he would have seen a mechanical swallow flow to a man wearing a cap and a trenchcoat. A second later, the man took a Gatling machinegun from... somewhere and the slaughter began. None of the guards escaped and the crowd tried to flee. Suedo lost consciousness when the man started torturing one of his employers by breaking his shins.
Suedo woke up with a start. He noticed that the ceiling was unfamiliar. He frowned for a minute before recalling what had happened before and sat up straight. He didn't feel any pain from the slaps, they had been terrible on his nerves but didn't do any lasting damage. Before he could swirl his head frantically around the room, a voice stopped him.
"You're finally awake," said the obviously relieved voice. "Not that I didn't believe in the doctor when he said that you would wake up soon but it's good to finally see it for myself."
Suedo turned his head towards the voice. His face went slack with relief and tears of joy came to his eyes. The petite long-haired brunette was none other than his sister, Mari Atsushi. She looked happy and relatively healthy, if not for a fading bruise on her cheek. It was way more than what he had hoped for. Seeing the bruise brought him back to reality, however.
"How long was I out?" he asked carefully.
Mari looked at her watch before answering.
"Sixteen hours, if what this Herb lady told me was right," she told him. "I've been free for about fifteen hours. They didn't take long to fetch me."
She suddenly lost her smile and shivered slightly. Suedo frowned.
"Did the motherfuckers hurt you?" he growled dangerously.
"No!" replied Mari quickly. "At least not much... The worse they did was giving me this bruise on my cheek."
"I'm sorry I wasn't here," said Suedo mournfully. "I didn't dare to do anything for fear that they would do something to you. Given how violent Herb's friend seemed to be, it must have scared you when they freed you."
"It was a traumatic experience," admitted Mari. "But not for me. I was just… awed by what was happening. For Herb however..."
"What happened?" asked Suedo.
Mari wondered when the nightmare would end. She was still relatively healthy, although she had been kidnapped by the Chinese mafia. The guys used her to keep a leash on her brother so as to get him to fight. She didn't like it at all, especially since she knew her brother didn't like hurting people. She would have committed suicide to rid her brother of the chain that kept him in their clutches but she knew he would be extremely affected by her death. Besides, she wasn't sure if the Mafiosi would let him know about it should it occur. And, to be frank, she wasn't treated badly. Sure, she had to be a waitress for one of their seedy club when she could be studying and she got hit sometimes, but at least she wasn't forced into prostitution. Knowing the life expectancy of the girls forced to slave themselves, she knew she had it good.
This night, however, she had been approached by a perverse-looking bald man with round sunglasses. He was obviously higher in the hierarchy than her minders since he commanded them. He had her strapped on a chair in a soundproofed room. Mari didn't like it at all. When she saw the various implements that were brought to the room (some of them belonged to a surgical room) she started to get scared. When three other men came and started to eye her hungrily, she started to bawl in fear. She was sure that she would not survive tonight. She was also pretty sure that her death would be a slow and painful one.
The man who had had her brought here was smiling wickedly as he was installing various cameras.
"Just setting it up, boys," he said sadistically. "I want a souvenir for later."
At that moment, the doorknob turned on its axis. Since the door was locked from the inside, it didn't open.
"Tch," snarled the bald man. "I told them I didn't want to be bothered. Go tell them that, Minoru."
The man called Minoru went at the door and was about to open it. However, before he could, the doorknob turned once again on its axis. Only this time, it didn't stop at the end of its course.
It continued in a loud metallic shriek, drawing the attention of everyone in the room, Mari included. They watched with wide eyes as the metallic door started to fold. It got a spiral pattern as the rotating movement of the doorknob went way further than what it was designed for. They all gulped when the metallic shriek ceased. What happened next occurred so fast that no one saw it.
The door was torn out of its hinges and flew into Minoru, slamming so hard into him that he was thrown into the wall with it. Both of them fell down, the man unconscious and bleeding from various wounds. Before they even touched the ground, all the others, save Mari and the bald man, fell unconscious on the ground. A man wearing a cap and a trenchcoat appeared behind one as he fell down. A multicolour-haired woman, a tiger man and a wolf man entered through the broken doorway.
"Your strength never ceases to impress me, Lime," said the wolf man laconically.
"Thank you," replied the tiger man in kind.
The bald man looked shocked on what had just happened. Then he howled and tried to take a gun from his pocket. As soon as he had taken it, he felt himself fly back and hit the wall. He groggily stood up and noticed through bleary eyes that the man with the cap and trenchcoat was holding his gun. He put it in his own pocket and looked at Mari. The woman went at the girl and started to untie her.
"Let's bring her to her brother, Jotaro," said the woman at the trenchcoat-clad man. "He has worried enough about her." She noticed that she didn't get any response from him. "Jotaro?"
Jotaro was looking intently at the bald man in front of him. He then took his laptop from Doorspace and perused it for a minute. He then put it back in Doorspace and straightened. The air around became suddenly heavier. Only Herb noticed what was happening. Jotaro showed nothing of it on his face but he was enraged.
"Jotaro?" asked Lime carefully, wondering what was happening.
Jotaro just pointed his finger towards the man. He then uttered something terrible.
"He dies," he told neutrally, although Herb could detect hatred in his voice.
Before he could move, Herb had literally appeared besides him and was now restraining his right arm. Jotaro was about to throw her away when he noticed her eyes. There wasn't reprobation in her eyes, just a mixture of fear and curiosity.
"Why do you hate him so much?" she asked softly.
"What he did is the perfect example on why humans are considered the most horrible and monstrous being to ever walk this earth," said Jotaro through his teeth. Noticing Herb's uncomprehending gaze, he decided to elaborate. "This scum intended to have Mari raped. Several times by several of his men at once. Screaming and begging or not. Alive… or not."
Mari whimpered despite herself. She might have inferred what had been about to happen to her but it wasn't any less terrifying to hear it.
"Besides, he would have tortured her," added Jotaro. "See these tools? He would have used them to cut her up in as many ways as he could devise, whether she was still alive or not."
"You aren't sure of that," said Mint half-heartedly near Mari. "He could just have tried to scare her." He wasn't that convincing when he spoke. He didn't believe it himself, after all.
"I know how he proceeds," countered Jotaro. "And from what I saw, he enjoyed it."
He suddenly felt the pressure on his arm increase. He looked back at Herb. The dragon princess was looking at him with wide eyes and a begging expression, as if she were begging him not to do something but didn't believe he would listen to her.
"He did it before?" she asked in anguish.
"Several times," replied Jotaro unflinchingly but with recognizable disgust as the bald man shivered at the tone. "Three of which there are video footages of and at least twenty-five I suspect him of. At least half of them were minors... One of them was eight years old... He even ate parts of them..."
Then it happened. As Jotaro started to explain what exactly the man had done, Herb's face had fallen more and more. Until she broke down. With a terrible scream, she released Jotaro and dashed at the bald man. Less than one half of a second later, he was impaled on the wall through his right lung by Herb's arm. He screamed incoherently, although he was sensibly hampered in this endeavour by the pain and the fact that one of his lungs was pierced and filling with blood.
Mint, Lima and Mari watched at the scene in shock. Even Jotaro was surprised, he had anticipated a reaction but not to that extent. Herb's face was a mask of unadulterated anger and she was breathing raggedly. Blood drops were coating her face and torso. Then her vengeful gaze cleared. She looked around wildly, as if not understanding what had happened. Then she saw the pain stricken man with her arm in his ribcage. She took it out immediately, making him gurgle in agony. As he fell on the ground, Herb watched her bloody hand with something akin to revulsion as she started to hyperventilate. She then felt a hand on her shoulder and almost lashed out but the hand stroked her shoulder in a way she immediately recognized as Jotaro's. She turned and saw his sympathetic face.
"It's never easy killing someone," he told her soothingly. "Especially the first time. You can numb the horrifying feeling for the next times but the self-disgust still remains. If it makes you feel any better, he deserved that and more since he did worse to his victims, much worse. Now you have a harsh decision to take."
"Which is it?" asked Herb in a plaintive voice. Jotaro pointed at the bald and bloody man on the ground.
"Either you leave him die from blood loss and asphyxiation," Jotaro told her. "It should actually occur in less than fifteen minutes, even if it is cruel to let him suffer, although he more than deserves it. Or you shed the last remains of your innocence for this man who most assuredly doesn't deserve such a sacrifice and kill him in cold blood to shorten his suffering. You have fifteen seconds to decide."
Herb opened wide eyes. Her retainer too. They were about to shout at Jotaro but Herb silenced them with a look. Then she looked at the bald man. He looked at her imploringly.
"Please..." he gurgled, "finish me..."
She didn't see the murderer, torturer and rapist anymore. All she saw was a man in pain. Tears flew from her eyes as she made her mind.
"How do I kill him painlessly?" she asked in a chocked voice. She was about to throw away the last remnants of her innocence for a wretched being, but her principles demanded it, even though it was painful for her. Jotaro eyed her sharply but with approbation.
"Take his head and turn it as if you were trying to reset his vertebras," replied Jotaro. "Only this time, make the angle at one hundred and eighty degrees instead of ninety."
Still crying, Herb nodded and crouched near the man before taking his head between her hands, almost gently. She seemed to falter, then she felt Jotaro's hand on her shoulder and steeled herself.
"HA!" she shouted. And a resounding crack was heard.
The bald man fell lifeless on the floor. Herb watched the corpse for five full seconds before she eventually broke down. She dashed into Jotaro's arms, buried her head in the crook of his shoulder and started to bawl. She cried her heart out for her loss. Jotaro just held her in his arms and turned to Mint and Lime.
"Bring Mari back to her brother," he told them. "Leave this to the police and meet us in one week at the next stage. I'll take care of Herb."
He then took her in his arms, letting her cry, and took off. Mint and Lime sighed wearily. They hadn't intended for Herb's first kill to be so horrible. Mint turned towards Mari.
"Your brother is waiting for you," he told her. "You should dry your tears."
Only then did Mari notice that she had been crying for Herb.
Mari dried her tears. Telling the story to her brother had made her cry again. Suedo was strangely silent. He was surprised to realise that he felt sorrier for Herb than for his own sister. That said, there had been no greatness in her kill. He could at least boast about having fought valiantly with his first victim. Herb had no such luck. She was a murderer, however nice of a person she was.
"She will get better," said Mari with a wan smile. "Mint and Lime told me that Jotaro is Herb's husband in everything but name. He has already helped her out of traumatism. He will help her again."
"I hope so," replied Suedo. "I have never fought against anyone as passionate as she was. Even though I hope I never have to fight again."
"You might have to," replied Mari, making her brother's face fall. "However, it won't be something you despise." Suedo instantly reigned in the string of profanities he was about to utter.
"What do you mean?" asked Suedo curious.
"The man whose men brought us here is the businessman Ryuji Kaioh," answered Mari. "He wants to hire a butler for his daughter. Herb's boyfriend knows him and suggested you."
Suedo was quite surprised by the offer. Apart from being tall and scary, he didn't exactly fit in the role of the butler. That said, he could probably learn, and it would be a welcome change.
He didn't know it yet but he was about to strike the best deal he was ever offered. He would soon be the butler to Michiru Kaioh and would secure a place for his sister in the most prestigious high school of the country. There was just one thing that bothered him. His instincts had told him that Herb was a monster, he had had a vision of a stormy sea when she had first appeared, the like of which he wouldn't ever dare crossing. It had been all he needed to know that he would not escape unscathed from a fight with her. He was glad to see that he had been mostly wrong, even though his instinct had been right. But this begged a question. If Jotaro was more dangerous than her, how come he had felt nothing from him?
Besides that, he hoped that Herb would get over her traumatism soon. But he doubted that someone so strong could be downed for long.
Jotaro had taken Herb to a remote place with a cave and a natural onsen. He has spent the first night here holding her silently, just being present. It was all she needed. When she had been better, he had spent a whole day discussing with her. He had told her everything he thought she should know about murder, including the ones he had committed himself. Rationalizing it so much had helped Herb get over it. Then he had taught her several ways of killing painlessly. Herb had been leery about it at first but Jotaro had convinced her by saying that he preferred she learnt it in case she had no other choice.
He then spent the rest of the week helping her to get the event out of her mind. Lovemaking had this interesting side-effect. After five days, Herb was definitely at peace with herself, although she was wondering how she could still move. Jotaro was relentless when it came to pleasuring her.
Then he had told her of the side-effect of being a Stand User and of the Schizoid Man, the Conniving Man and the Bad Gunky. This had helped in bringing closure to her more than what she'd like to admit and she was pretty sure that Jotaro knew but he had not said anything to her about it, which made her think that it was alright.
When they finally met Mint and Lime, the two retainers were relieved to see that Herb seemed to be like her former self. They had been worried, even if they knew Jotaro had the best chances to help her.
"You seem to have gotten over it," said Lime with a smile. He had been hesitant to bring up Herb's first kill but Mint had coldly told him that treating Herb like a glass doll was the most insulting thing they could do to her now that she had gotten over her father's schemes.
"The lovemaking had a lot to do with it," said Jotaro neutrally enough, but Herb could hear the smirk in his voice. "I'll make a sex-goddess out of her soon enough."
Mint and Lime opened wide eyes and Herb blushed fiercely before looking darkly at Jotaro.
"One of these days, you'll pay for that," she muttered threateningly, hoping to make him at least a little bit leery of her in retaliation. She was awfully disappointed in that respect.
"I'm counting on it," replied Jotaro on the spot, almost eagerly. That surprised the other three.
"What do you mean?" asked Mint.
"Soon enough, Herb will get back her birth form," answered Jotaro. "When she does, I hope she ravishes me as a means of retaliation. It's been a while since it happened to my female form."
Herb looked decidedly interested by the prospect.
"That and Herb is awfully cute when she's embarrassed," added Jotaro. "Reminds me on her face when I went down on her yesterday."
"JOTARO!" screamed Herb indignantly before pursuing a now smirking Jotaro.
Mint and Lime looked at each other.
"She's better, alright," said Lime. "I bet you that their dispute ends up in a romp in the forest."
"I don't take sucker's bet," replied Mint with a smile. "Let's hunt something. Preferably in the opposite direction. I don't want to surprise them once again."
"Bah," scoffed Lime. "I've gotten used to it. Besides, Jotaro is right. It's funny to embarrass Herb."
Stand Stats:
A: Very Good / B: Good / C: Average / D: Bad / E: Poor
Nightwish
Strength: E / Speed: A / Range: A / Staying: B / Precision: C / Learning: C (previously D)
Ability: Can alter the course of light beams, allowing it to plunge a place in the dark or to create a sphere of illusion. Can see all kind of radiations, not the visible ones only.
A.N: Back again after a rather empty semester on the writing side of my free time. I blame Uncharted 3 and Demon's Soul and a rather funky semester. Can't exactly promise a better update rate now, especially since I just bought Dark Souls and I intend to buy Diablo III...
The second Stand in this story finally appears... after only twenty-four chapters. The next one should appear in two chapters, if some of you are worried. The real Stand battles will only appear near the end on the other hand...
If you don't know the back-story behind Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, try to find one since it would take too long to develop here. Achtung Baby is the Stand of a newborn whom Josuke Higashikata and Joseph Joestar find in Morioh during part 4. The baby renders herself invisible to protect herself, and sometimes affects her immediate vicinity, which causes no end of trouble for Josuke and Joseph when they try to find her. It is mentionned that Joseph adopts her at the end of part 4.
The fight between Herb and Suedo Atsushi is a rip-off of the Baki saga. For one thing, Suedo Atsushi is the first character that we see Baki fight with. The «Killer Scream» is one of Gaia's skill and the Underground Arena is the main fighting place throughout the three series.
The Schizoid Man, Conniving man and Bad Gunky are ideas that I will develop later. The last two are names that I stole from Stephen King but the ideas behind them will be different.