6:47 PM

As the Stand materialized behind his enemy, Job inched backwards, just for a moment. Then his legs stopped, as if recognizing their treachery. Determination filled his eyes, and he slid a hand into his back pocket.

"So you were serious after all," he began, voice maintaining its even tone. Yet his eyes remained sharp, briefly flickering to his pocket as he found the object of his search. A soft click later, he had removed his hand as though nothing had happened. Only a faint buzzing sound indicated that anything had occurred.

"In any case," he continued. "I still need to get past. That Stand of yours...Pompeii, it won't stop me from getting there."

The girl shook her head. "Choosing to fight after what I just said? The nerve of some people..." She ran a hand through her auburn hair, a disgusted look crossing her face. "Don't blame me for what happens. Pompeii, you know what to do."

The humanoid Stand shifted from behind her, coming fully into Job's view. The first thing he noticed was that the entire body, all its inexpressive features, were made entirely from dark stone. Its feet scraped against the floor as it inched closer. The Stand's eyes gleamed at him, bright orange without irises or pupils.

This was all the more noticeable since the rest of its body was covered, from the spiky top of the head to its clawed feet, in a thick layer of ash. Even as Pompeii lumbered towards him, trails of black were left in its wake.

Yet as he saw it move, Job's eyebrows dipped slightly, the only indication of the confusion coloring his thoughts. This Stand...it moves slower than I can run. It's not even hovering like most Stands. She was planning to break my leg with this thing? Something's strange about this.

Deciding to give the obvious route a try, he broke into a sprint. Well, perhaps it wasn't the obvious path, since he was running towards Pompeii. Let's see just what that something is.

Pompeii reared back a fist as Job approached, clearly aiming for his left leg. As the hand grew closer, the details clearer, Job's eyes narrowed. His suspicions had been confirmed.

For in the center of its palm, mere inches away, there a hole, emitting a bright orange light from within. He had more than enough experience with Kishiyami's Stand to know that supernatural glowing was rarely good for the other party. Still, he quickly realized he wouldn't be able to stop his momentum fast enough to turn.

He saw only one choice remaining. Thus resolved, Job leapt forwards with a burst of speed, leg glowing with a bone-white aura.

Pompeii's hand passed him by, having reached too low to make contact. Yet in a brief moment he immediately noticed the Stand's left hand, which had already been moving forward. He barely had time to realize the first attack was a feint before the hand closed around his knee.

The effect was immediate, searing straight through his jeans until the fingers met. No resistance, fabric or otherwise. It happened so quickly that Job's forward momentum continued, with the hand holding only ashes.

Job reached the ground, rolling across the soot-covered floor. Yet he left no blood in his wake. Then, as the girl's eyes widened, he sprang to his feet, both legs fully intact. The only injury he'd suffered was part of his jeans.

Somehow, he had gotten past the Stand.

Before either the Stand or her user could react, Job dashed straight for her. Heat, huh? Well, if that Stand really does rely on contact, then if it can't touch me, it can't hurt me.

So if it gets too far from it's user, she's completely vulnerable. His hand now glowed with the power of his Stand, aimed to knock her out with one blow.

Or at least, that was the plan, though he quickly noticed an important detail. Despite the force with which was running, he barely seemed to be moving at walking speed. Something dragged at his legs, impeding his every step. He glanced down and quickly blinked again to confirm what he had seen.

His eyes hadn't lied. His feet were indeed covered in the same ash that Pompeii had left in its wake. The particles covered the entire distance between him and the girl, who was barely holding back a chuckle.

"Y'know," she said, staying a few feet away, presumably in case he had a close-range Stand. "I was expecting you to either run or try to fight Pompeii. Never would've imagined you'd try coming after me. If only because those other ideas weren't so downright stupid."

Ignoring her taunts, Job tried to extricate one of his legs from the mounds of ash. He only managed to succeed for mere moments before the motion kicked up new ash to cover him. The tiny particles weighed on his foot like lead weights, each one striving to drag his foot back down.

He quickly stopped trying to raise his foot, almost immediately feeling it slam to the floor. In moments, ash had covered his feet entirely, leaving him barely able to nudge them.

"This ability...what is this?" he asked, glancing between the ash and the ever-approaching Pompeii. Scrape, scrape, scraaape, screeched the floor as the Stand shuffled along.

Does this have something to do with that Stand always walking instead of hovering? Is it being affected too somehow?

His questions, spoken and implied, were met only with a cryptic smile and a shrug. "Not like we're going to meet again after this, so there's no point in telling you all about how it works. All I have to do is to fulfill what I promised to do.

"Cuz when I promise you I'll do something," she continued, as the scraping of Pompeii's feet against the floor finally stopped. "You better believe I'll do it." Its hands reached down for Job's leg once again, while its eyes watched him intently, waiting for any sign of Job's Stand.

Though perhaps Pompeii was too focused on Job, since it failed to notice the object fast approaching its user. Well, until their connection suddenly knocked its head back, halting its attack on the spot.

Now Pompeii's head snapped back to see what had attacked its user.

Only to find nothing there. The girl, who had likewise seen nothing but a brief glimpse of motion, snarled at Job, "What the hell was that?! First I can't even touch your leg, and now this? It felt like a full-sized Stand punched me, so how come I can't see it?"

Job only stared evenly at her. "I already told you. Your Stand won't stop me from getting to that fight. For the sake of my goal, I will get that money. So deactivate your ability and walk away, or you're going to see firsthand exactly what my Stand is."

"As if," she said, smirking with contempt. "You think you're the only one with a goal? Yeah, I'm not about to stop just because you asked nicely."

His eyes flickered to his back pocket, still making those faint, constant beeps. "Even if you knew that security will be here in three minutes?"

She tilted her head, still smirking. "And what makes you think it'll take me three minutes to beat you? I mean, there's a reason why I chose your fight specifically. Everyone else has proven combat abilities. All you have is your father and a Stand that doesn't even have enough power to knock me out with a clean hit."

Job didn't respond immediately. When he finally did, it was soft. "Here because of my father? No, it's quite the opposite." His aura flared menacingly, enveloping his entire body as though it could develop into something more at any time. All the while, his face remained eerily neutral, crimson eyes staring at her intensely.

"I'm here to reject him, absolutely. And I'm not losing this opportunity, least of all because of you." He raised his right hand, jabbing a finger towards her as his stance lowered. "I'm done waiting for someone else to throw you out. I'll do it myself. In the next three minutes, I will defeat you."

Her smirk twisted into a scowl. "The next three minutes? You looking down on me?! You think you can make arrogant claims like that?!" Even as she shouted, Pompeii raised a shining hand above its head, ready to cleave towards him. "But only one of us can be telling the truth!"

The stone hand came down like an executioner's blade towards Job, still facing the Stand's user. "And I never lie!"

In an instant, stone met flesh.

6:49 PM

6:47 PM, Elsewhere

Kishiyami was sitting in his front row seat, munching away on the Snickers bar he'd kept in his backpack. Job's match in the tournament was due to begin soon, at seven o'clock sharp, and he planned on eating away his worries until that point.

Though, finding anyone else nearby to distract him was proving more difficult than anticipated. After all, he was currently sitting among the reserved seats, leading from a room with posh couches. He was only allowed to sit there since Job gave him a VIP pass yesterday night.

As he thought of that moment, his unoccupied mind moved to the...bizarre nature of his friendship with Job. I mean, he still hangs out whenever I ask. We still sit together at school, and he's never really said anything about 'ending our friendship' or 'moving on' or any of that crap.

His head turned to the ceiling, taking another chunk out of his candy bar. But there's something missing. He's not as...expressive, that's the word. This school year must have been rough for him, or something. Or maybe it was something else. Is it me? Does he only act this way around me?

Feeling a surge of paranoia, his teeth quickly tore into the chocolate. No, no, that's ridiculous. I mean, sure, it's not like he was acting this way just a few months ago. But that doesn't mean anything. We were friends long before that, so there's no reason for it to be connected to me.

Kishiyami concluded his decision with a final bite from his Snickers. Ah, that was good. Those commercials were right, that chocolate really does make me feel so much better. Sure, Mum had warned him that the sugar rush could worsen his condition. But that was a problem for his future self. For now, he could take comfort in the lingering taste of chocolate.

Not particularly wanting to get up, he opened his backpack to throw the empty wrapper back in. Yet as he peered into the backpack, he saw something reflect off the shiny lights in the VIP room. He jabbed his hand into the compartment, and slowly extracted the object.

A compass, which Kishiyami has forgotten he'd even put there. The hand of the compass, wavering constantly, nonetheless pointed directly towards Kishiyami. That is, due south. Oh, so that's where it was. Thank goodness I found that before something came up.

Sighing in relief, Kishiyami moved to put the compass back into the bag. Only for him to immediately halt, staring at it wide-eyed. For as the compass had tilted with the shifting of his hold, the red hand had begun to point in a new direction.

He leveled a frown at the inanimate instrument. Wait, my ability...didn't I renew that just last week? An astral hand, humanoid outside of its bright red color, briefly appeared over his own, and he nodded. Yeah, Appetite for Destruction confirmed it; it shouldn't have died out yet. The needle should still be pointing straight towards Job.

He turned the compass in his hand, shifting it until it was upright and held away from him. For a normal compass, such an action would render it unable to point north. But this was no ordinary compass. and the results only confirmed his suspicions.

The arrow pointed decisively, directly down.

He should be further along the tunnel, right? Getting ready for his match and all that. So why is he directly below me? Unless…

Kishiyami stood up from his seat, eyes narrowed with concern. Unless something is holding him up.

He slapped his hands against his face, closed his eyes against the storm of irrational thoughts that accompanied such an idea. Stop it. They've told you this stuff before, you have to stop worrying about what could happen. There are plenty of logical explanations.

He stayed standing. There's probably just a bathroom down there that I don't remember.

His eyes twitched. Maybe he stopped to text someone.

His legs began to move of their own accord, making their way out of the reserved seats. His room could have been moved somewhere. Somewhere close enough to trick the compass.

His arms opened the door to get beyond the VIP section, and his feet capitalized. He only just managed to halt above the staircase leading down. He trembled there for awhile, trying to breathe deeply. Come on, just think of rational explanations. Like...he could've just tripped! And fell. And hit his head, and got knocked unconscious and started bleeding and needs immediate medical help right now!

Scrambling to get through the crowded aisles, Kishiyami looked to the tunnel. His eyes caught the tail end of somebody going inside, and his panic doubled. Why would someone be going in there? Is it security? Did something happen? Was he wearing the security colors? I can't remember, he probably was, why is the person in front of me moving so slowly?!

Finally, after pushing through the crowd, he arrived at the tunnel entrance. And with how well-lit the tunnel was, he couldn't mistake the sight before him.

That is, nothing. Nobody was there.

He blinked. Blinked again, just to be sure. Still nothing. Just an empty hallway. The only thing he could see was fluorescent lights and the stone walls. There was no friend bleeding out, no enemies attacking, and no sign to justify his worries.

Of course there isn't. This was stupid. Job probably just stopped to text someone, and that other guy could easily have been whoever cleans the halls. Nothing weird at all.

Kishiyami turned, sighing at how pointless that had all been. Not to mention the last-minute arrivals that now stood between him and his seat. Climbing back up was sure to be a nightmare.

I really need another Snickers...On second thought, maybe not.

6:51 PM

Security Due to Arrive-6:52 PM

Match Begins-7:00 PM

Yeah, I know I just left the Pompeii fight on a total cliffhanger, and I know this is a tiny, TINY bit later than 2 weeks, but I'm back in writing gear for now. Hopefully it stays that way.

Also, updating Chapter 1 as we speak. I decided to alter some of the dialogue and stuff with Kishiyami, though if you read the first chapter already, it's nothing that will completely change the story. Anyways, feel free to review!