Continuing where we left off with our daring rescuer Kaito proudly perched atop his Stand's final form, his last resort. Kaito stared at his very object of hatred down in nothing but cold glares. The doctor himself, Masuda, needless to say, was speechless for some time. The silence eventually broke.
"It seems you had even more buried potential that even I wasn't aware of. I'm truly impressed at the lengths you're willing to go to in order to win this battle. I'm sure you were saving this token for the boss. But that isn't going to be the case." Masuda adjusted his cracked rebreather on his face and met Kaito's shimmering glare.
"I have no intention of losing to you. You're a parasite that I must rid of Johanne and I's dream. I refuse to let you leave this building alive." Kaito raised his gauntlet that had three of his fingers glowing brighter than the others. Masuda readied himself for whatever action that Kaito was planning to do, his glimmering blue eye pierced his very nerve and made him second guess.
After sitting there for some time as if two men waiting for the clock to hit noon. Kaito's middle finger started twitching, "Advance…" One of the floating masks seemed to burst out the same blue energy and move forward, it's mouth rattling open and showing that it was rushing forward to slam its jaws on Masuda.
Masuda weaved his arms around to match the maw of the mask with a large cluster of water that held the mask in place as it tried to force past the water. "Impressive! This has about the bite force of an Alligator. That'll surely snap me in half. Was that your intention?"
"You'll have to see for yourself." Kaito chilled with his retort, the next fighting bending some and commanding the second mask beside him to fly forward and open its jaws much wider than the other, almost cryptically creaking and bone rattles filled the room. Another ball of energy resided within its mouth, right after a good long howl that matched the pitch of spine chilling bone rattles contorting beams sprawled out very fast and started to make their ways to each side of Kaito.
"Uh oh!" The doctor managed to just barely release the cluster of water he was using to maneuver and drop down into the tank of water below just before getting grazed on the arm by the stray beams. Masuda wrestled the current while holding the burn against his arm.
Kaito retreated his masks to his side and stared down into the water, awaiting another comment or attack to come. His masks discharge soft hums of the energies that came off as rough feral growls.
The Doctor spent no time at all trying to regain his advantage on this battle of convictions as the tank below them erupted making three large geysers of water spurt from below and coil around Kaito. His masks protect himself by forming around his frame like a shell. There was steam emitting from the water, it was much hotter than before. " He can even develop microorganisms to alter the temperature of water at an accelerated rate. Formidable as it is simple." Kaito raised his gauntlet once more and commanded his masks to move and piercing through the geysers.
Making haste to get out of the way of Masuda's boon. He couldn't find him once he released the mask coating. He didn't hear any footsteps hit the floor over the rushing waters. His eyes once again actively searching the room.
"I think you're looking in the wrong places." Kaito's heart dropped within a second as one of the masks shrieked and cracked followed by Kaito being launched off the one he was standing on by The Doctor landing a devastating dropkick.
His body tumbled to the ground and bounced off a pillar. He curled for a second and groaned under his breath as he landed on his freshly cut arm wound, increasing the bleeding from it. Panting heavily from the sudden shock, Kaito tightened the scarf around his wound and commanded his masks to come to his aid immediately.
Before he could entirely solidify his defenses. He felt the liquids below him slowly coil and rise beneath his feet. Kaito clung to the mask he'd been riding on and elevated himself quickly while the other two took drastic hits from the impact of two large lashers made of water and let out more shrieks and larger cracks formed.
"Kaito! Science has no limits! It can even overcome someone as powerful as you are. I've realized a head-on approach won't win. I know you excel more than I physically but I will win tactically. I've already had my little ones partake in a taste of you and your bones. They've already started eating your trump card little by little. It's only a matter of time before they are broken down." The Doctor mocked Kaito, his resolve and his Stand in which he was so proud of.
Kaito reared back and got his distance so he could clearly see Masuda in what light the facility had left after their battle. He turned and placed his hand against one of the masks, groaning as he repaired it the best he could. 'This isn't going to do. I used so much and took a lot of damage using this ability. All while his reserves seem endless, quite an annoyance. I have to end him before I run out. One swift blow. Like always.'
"I know neither of us has contacted the Boss yet. You don't have to die here. I'm a scientist, not a murderer. Let's call it here before things get uglier." Masuda once again stood his ground over the levitating water and held his hand out to Kaito.
Kaito clenched his fist in utter rage at Masuda barking for his innocence and trying to pity him, the embers that burned over his eye raged on, "I'm the furthest from a Saint. I deserved death a long time ago. If I can accept my sin then you can't walk around like the boss' shameless pet!"
"Hah! Don't say I didn't give you a chance to go back." Masuda rose both of his arms and weaved another torrent around both of them.
Kaito watched the shift in the torrent and approached it trying to push through with his spear and felt some of his skin being shaved off by very small bites, like tiny piranha.
Patiently thinking while he could, the maw of the torrent rushed out at Kaito who would flip himself around his skull mask platform and avoid the impact while taking a dive to the ground and launching his spear at Masuda.
Using the water underneath him to grasp the spear, Masuda scanned around to counter the next attack but was unaware that Kaito used the dive to ride the other mask and have its jaws spread out in a hiss of energy and send a volley of rays like the ones from Kaito's gauntlet.
In a rushed stupor of movements, Masuda traversed the water to avoid the beams but they were so thin and swift he was chipped but not fatally.
Both of them climbed through the air avoiding attacks and trading the occasional attack. Kaito just barely doing enough to pierce the Stand Armor and noticing the stamina difference.
Kaito retreated behind one of the pillars and watched as blood-drenched his body. His hand resting over his chest and his eyes shutting just for a moment.
Just when he thought he could catch his breath his mask shrieked again and the pillar around him started to crumble. He attempted an escape but he was already ensnared by the legs against the pillar.
A coil of water smashed through the pillar and slammed Kaito into the wall making a good portion of his blood paint the wall as he threw it up.
Masuda didn't say anything but held onto his wounds as well. There was a large cloud of dust and water raining down at the impact zone. Silence once again filling the room.
The seconds felt like an eternity and there wasn't any emergence of another attack, Masuda turned away "Hmph. Legends do die it seems."
There was a scream that wasn't familiar, it wasn't Kaito's that came from the cloud. A stray beam that was stronger than the others pierced The Doctor's shoulder, making him scream in pain.
"Huh. I suppose I lost a lot of blood. I suspected my aim to be off slightly. The next one won't miss your head." Kaito finally appeared from the smoke holding a guard that was hiding in the shadows of the battle. He had his gun prepared to finish Kaito but couldn't act fast enough and was drained by Five Finger Death Punch.
"You young ones sure have a lot of fight in you. It's bothersome for men of my age to deal with." Masuda dropped his arm from the wound and groaned heavily, rolling his shoulder then rose the arm to command his attack.
Kaito tossed the limp body aside and was scooped up by another mask. Another set of large lashers approached them but the jaws of the mask snapped onto the lashers and dispersed them.
Masuda crossed his arms to send two more at Kaito from both sides of him to knock him off his platform. The freshly energized masks blocked them but took considerable damage. Kaito launched himself forward with his fist raised. The Doctor followed suit quickly after and the two of them managed to land powerful blocks to each other's faces and knocked the other to the floor.
Both of them took their time returning to their feet, fighting their stamina limits to the fullest. They eyed each other through the burning flame and the cracked visor. They ran to one another without a word. Kaito dodged the initial punch the Doctor sent him and countered with a headbutt to the throat and kick to the ribs.
Masuda reared some but didn't let up using Kaito's missing appendage to his advantage and smacked it, making Kaito wail in pain then shoulder tackled him onto his back.
He tumbled back once again, struggling to catch his footing with all the water coating the floor. Kaito did the best he could to keep himself composed but the blood loss was finally hitting at its fullest. He was getting dizzy and wobbly.
Masuda took his chance to strike, noticing how off Kaito was, "Now if I were back in my prime like you are. This would have been over. But I'll respect you as an opponent."
Once again raising himself on a water cluster, Masuda moved his arms to rattle a large water piper that prepared a large inflow of water.
Kaito knew to take this head-on would mean certain death. He snapped his fingers three times and formed a triangular formation with his masks in front of him. They all opened their jaws and charged whatever energy there had left in their forms.
"Stay the hell down Kaito!" Masuda commanded as a powerful torrent of water burst from the pipe. Kaito clenched his gauntlet launching a large ball of the collective energy from the masks. Their burning eyes faded into the darkness with the collision of the blasts.
Masuda being closer took a very large chunk of the shock wave and his scream confirmed Kaito's gamble on his trump card. He felt himself being washed away by the large sum of water on the floor so he couldn't celebrate for long.
The room once again grew silent for just a few moments, there was now a large hole in the wall and large portions of the room crumbling and smashing.
Kaito laid across the ground in shock. He'd passed out for just a moment from the impact and pain that surged through his body but rose to his knees to look around. "N-need to hurry… I'm running out of time." Gazing upon the shattered remains of his masks, Kaito managed to stumble toward the center of the room and reach toward the center of the room to grab one of his broken masks. He managed to sap some of the marrow and form a bone knife.
Just when he'd begun to walk away holding his size, there was a light snickering heard off in the room that made Kaito shift his head quickly. But it was too late.
"You thought it was over! " A rough cough followed by more laughter. Kaito found himself surrounded in a torrent of water once again. As fast as he tried he was swept into the current. Soon the water collective rose into the air with Kaito in the center of it all.
"I gave you your chance and you seat my hand and spit in my face. You kids nowadays are spoiled and ungrateful! This should teach you. I won't even have you eaten. You'll drown. You'll die slow. A fitting end to a worthless traitor." Masuda mocked Kaito. He was struggling as much as he could in the large sphere of water for air, to catch his composure.
Fight or flight was kicking in for Kaito, he found he wasn't completely bound and could move. He hadn't given up hope. He couldn't retort to the Doctor's message but he knew it was an ample moment to fight for his life. Kaito moved to the edge of the bubble, the side furthest from Masuda and tried to press through but couldn't quite break the surface. Kaito stared back at Masuda in utter disgust.
"Why so angry now? You didn't want to lose. But who does!? Life's a rat race and you lagged a little too far behind. Let this be a lesson to you and your father in the afterlife. Don't mess with the bigger rat…" Masuda moved his hand to try and enclose the bubble more while looking down on Kaito.
This was his chase, his final gambit. Kaito's eye reignited one last time as his inner survival instinct shined. He raised his gauntlet and bent one of the fingers. As confused as Masuda was, he didn't know what to say. All of a sudden, a loud crack against his visor from an extremely hard impact, "W-what the hell was that!? I can't see it! I can't see a damn thing!"
Kaito had used this opportunity of confusion to check the stability of the surface of the water, he shoved himself through and dove out of the water coughing it out, "A-a trap…! Five Finger Death Punch is a truly incredible Stand…" Kaito's eyes diverted over to the body of the guard he'd drained some time ago who drew his gun. "If he didn't come along I don't think I would have made this escape. I'm able to manipulate the skeletons of the dead. I was able to make him fire one last round with what energy I had. It's much easier on small targets. I just needed some time and a proper moment. You hand-delivered them both to me. MASUDA!"
The Doctor thrashed his arms around, trying to pick at the glass of the visor without it getting onto his eyes, "Damnit! You've got another thing come youngin' if you believe that'll let you get away!" The command of his Stand became reckless and unorganized as it had been before, He was in a state of pure panic.
"Escape? I told you. The Predator does not run from its prey." Kaito took the knife he'd brandished from his discarded mask and placed it between his teeth. His remaining arm behind his back, eyes forward and taking deep, stalled breaths. 'I have one shot at this….'
Large water lashers were surrounding Masuda as he was trying to fearfully defend himself. He couldn't see from the shattered visor nor see where to go. He knew releasing his Stand would leave him utterly defenseless as well. It was the perfect checkmate.
Clenching his gauntlet tight, Kaito poured energy into it causing the glow to restore once again. After a few moments, his target was set and the gauntlet open, He muffled loudly through the knife's grip in his mouth, "BURST!" Launching himself into the air toward Masuda. The first lasher wildly approached him, Kaito shifted his coarse mid-air and launched another burst to dive past the swing. Another two came, despite the painstaking strain of pushing himself and draining his own body, three more bursts emerged from the gauntlet to sweep past them!
Kaito's plan was coming together, closer and closer in the air as sparks of light closed the distance between Kaito and Masuda. The Doctor didn't know what to do or say, He was speechless, but he recognized the sounds, "STAY THE HELL BACK!"
"Kaito screamed bloody murder as his eye burned the bright blue, a few more bursts closers the distance just enough for Kaito to drive his body into Masuda with incredible force! The knife in Kaito's teeth drove deep into Masuda's chest, tearing past his Stand suit and fatally injuring him. He let out a scream at the top of his lungs, followed by filling his visor with projectile vomited blood.
Kaito's body slumped over Masuda's as the lashers fell into their formless shape of plain water and the two of them made a slow descent into the ground. Masuda fell first and Kaito bounced off of him, rolling to the floor.
The two of them were silent aside from their labored breathing. Masuda tiredly broke the silence holding his wound, "You know… Deep down. I hoped this came about. This conclusion. So I could finally escape this cage of knowledge, this insufferable plain of existence. I know you're still alive."
Almost on queue, Kaito's head rolled over his shoulder, weakly as his loud, once neatly put together hair was all over the place but his gaze was true. He had prevailed. Kaito's very being was shaken, devastated even. Even breathing hurt him. He pressed on by crawling over to one of his stray spears that were disposed of during the battle. He shook excessively like a lost puppy in a storm, his body was trembling and torn but he pressed on looking down at Masuda.
The Doctor met eyes with Kaito, for a few moments there was nothing but silence between the two until the brittle arm of the Doctor reached into his coat and pulled out a lighter, a pack of cigarettes, and a card. "I have a prize for you Kaito. A gift to the future you've decided to pursue. If you'll allow me to speak…" He coughed blood between his words as he shakily lit the cigarette, looking down to clear his throat and took a drag.
"I had a deep respect for your father. So much so that it was close to envy. He wasn't scared to use his knowledge for the people over profit. He was on the track to keeping this community great. He was wealthy but he lived the poor man's drag. He was smart enough to die with dignity and his soul intact. A good man. But I was a coward that betrayed him when I was brought here All because I couldn't follow his ideals." Masuda knocked off some ashes from his cigarette and rose his other hand, giving Kaito the card with some of his blood on it.
"Use that. If you hurry a couple of floors up. You'll claim your prize, fair and square. The stabilizer for the drug and something else. There isn't much time left… for your body or this place." Kaito retrieved the card and used every ounce of his strength to shuffle towards a nearby door, leading to a staircase. He knew exactly what the Doctor meant.
Kaito limped up every stair with all he had. Blood was dripping excessively the further he got. After reaching the second floor, He tripped over and fell to the stairs as the entire building shook from a large shockwave, "So it's begun… Wired to shut down when he died. Impressive to the bitter end."
This setback didn't halt his advance, not after everything he'd been through. Kaito rushed up the stairs, almost ignoring his pain entirely for the sake of his mission, his dream. Finally reaching a series of doors past a locked door with a key card slot after passing multiple normal doors. He inserted the card and entered the room. There was a large window, many whiteboards, and papers across the room. Several test tubes and a large desk with notebooks. "This is the place…"
Kaito coughed a pool of blood onto one of the chairs and stumbled over it as the building crumbled and shook again. He moved toward a bookshelf and tossed as many as he could out of the way, the room shaking around him in his search. Kaito broke down every book or poster, pushed over whiteboards in a haste, his blood trailing the room.
Meanwhile during Kaito's search; on the outside of the plant…
A large group of workers and guards in the building, after triggering a fire alarm, fled the scene of the Water Processing Plant as multiple explosions and boilers in the building erupted. Fires were coming out of the lower portion of the building and the windows bursting out.
Multiple police sirens and fire trucks began to approach the scene to handle the destruction accordingly. Their radios booming with calls for assistance from paramedics and officers.
Back at the ice cream parlor, Jotaro was present in a Speedwagon Foundation Medical Van with Avelessi and Edward in the back, who was still hooked up to medication to keep him functioning. Avelessi held his quivering hand as he struggled for breath. The radio crackled as the driver tuned it. 'CALLING ALL UNITS! LARGE FIRE AT THE EDGE OF BODOU! THE WATER PROCESSING PLANT SEEMS TO BE UNDER SOME ATTACK AND IN FLAMES! CALLING ALL UNITS!'
Jotaro turned his head to the radio and held his finger up, "I spoke with the man in that room who Kaito tortured. What a mess that was. That's where he sent Kaito. I'm sure this is his doing. Yare Yare Daze…"
"We have to go then! I'm sure you have the clearance to make it. He might need assistance. He went alone. Who knows how many Stand Users were there. Please Jotaro!" Avelessi nearly begged at this point, his hand clenching Edward's.
Tipping his hat forward to think to himself for just a moment, Jotaro pointed his finger forward and punched in the GPS location for the driver. Without a moment's hesitation punching the gas and sped off to the location.
Back at the office, Kaito finally knocked over the last shelf of books and cleared off the boards to no sign of anything locked. He angrily slammed his fist into the wall and groaned under his breath, "This couldn't have been for nothing…! It has to be here! He must live!"
The wall still shaking from the collapsing building and Kaito's strike moved a painting of a man with red hair with solid black skin holding a glass of wine behind the desk and uncovered a small hatch with a touchpad. Kaito shoved the painting aside to fully uncover the hatch. His hand moved slowly and steadily as his vision started to blur from blood loss.
The key card tapped the screen with the bloody size and reach, 'DNA Match'. Proceeding with a loud pop and the hatch flew open. Kaito released a sigh of relief as he opened the hatch and searched around. There were multiple papers labeled, 'TOP SECRET' or 'TEST SUBJECT RESULTS'. "So much useful information. No time though. At least they won't get it either."
Kaito pushed the stacks aside to see a pile of green vials, the only ones inside of the safe and right beside it, something that made his eyes perk open, the Stand Arrow! "This has to be it. The key to unlocking a newer future." Upon going to retrieve the items and head for the door, another large rumble occurred knocking Kaito over. He used his wounded side to cup the vials and the arrow. He could feel the heat rising from the floor and smoke surrounding the bottom of the entrance.
Letting out a deep sigh. Kaito hurried to his feet stammering like a drunk, He moved to sit his possessions on a nearby table for just a moment and grabbed a wooden chair next to him. Kaito took several deep breaths and spun his body around, releasing the chair at the large window and smashing open as he fell again.
His next move was unwrapping his wounded stump where his arm was and hiding the contents of his search inside the large folded scarf that he used to stop the bleeding. Afterward, he wrapped it around his spear he was using as a walking stick and forced himself off the ground again. "One more time. One more good time. That's all I ask of you. This sinful body of mine." Kaito took a javelin tossing position and launched his body forward, letting go of the spear and tossing it out the window and crashing against the wall below the window.
The paramedics and firemen didn't pay any mind to the events around that edge of the building as the Speedwagon Van approached in the scene within the midst of the other medical tents and got out as soon as they saw the state of the building.
Jotaro, Avelessi, and two of the Speedwagon Medics got out of the Van and stared in awe until they were approached by a couple of officers.
"Hey! You all need to get back! This isn't a place for civilians to be marching up to!" The cop said as he was shoved aside by Jotaro and Avelessi walking past him. "Hey! Don't make me arrest you! What's the matter with you!?"
"E-excuse us, sir!" One of the Speedwagon Drivers approached him with their documents and cards to be on scene to provide medical assistance and got a temporary excusal for the intrusion. "We will be gone soon. We're here to answer the call for backup. Please take us to the medical tents."
Avelessi and Jotaro stayed in the safe zone as far as they could from the building, trying to get a closer look around for Kaito until they stumbled upon the chair. "Nothing out of the ordinary yet Avelessi. Where is that sneaky bastard?" Before he could take a step forward the bone spear landed a few feet in front of Jotaro which sparked surprise in his eyes and Avelessi's.
"The design and material of that… Oh no… You don't think… Jotaro? Jotaro-san?" Avelessi tugged his sleeve while he stared at the large, blatant bloodstains that tinted the scarf around the polearm of the spear.
Jotaro approached the spear, kneeled and untied it to reveal the contents and gasped heavily, then turned to the shattered window in surprise. "You'd even go that far…"
"Jotaro-san!? Please answer me! Please!" Avelessi was now shaking and stumbling as he pulled on Jotaro's sleeve and turned his body and head around frantically, "KAITO! KAITO! WHERE ARE YOU!? KAITO! PLEASE BE OKAY! KAITO! PLEASE! OH GOD…!"
Back at the window inside of the building, Kaito was leaning against the wall right below the window and looked up at a large hole in the ceiling. His lower body was now crushed by the fallen piece and he was pinned against the wall breathing heavily.
"I've done everything I can. I don't deserve a peaceful death. I've lived my life a monster and I'll fall into a monster's fate. I just hope this last gesture does what I hope. I'm so sleepy…" Kaito's eyes were shutting slowly and his breathing was getting slower.
'Kaito… Kaito… Listen…' A very faint voice fell upon his ears and made his eyes perk slightly to a bright silhouette before him that pointed outside the window. He turned his ears as close as he could to the sounds outside of the window.
"That's my name… That's Kujoh and the boy… they came here. I can't feel anything, I can't breathe, I can't move… But this is the final gift you give to me? Father…" Kaito blinked for a moment and bit into his lip, his body was shaking again as tears soon rolled down his cheek and something no one would expect to happen, sparked in Kaito's final moments. Kaito smiled through the tears streaming down his cheeks.
Reaching out to the silhouette with his last few breaths, his smiling lips weakly spoke, "Listen to them, Papa… I know I wasn't the most outgoing kid… I didn't have friends. I finally made friends, Papa… They came to see me off. I wish you could have met them… My… Friends…." Kaito's arm dropped as his words faded into another explosion and walls collapsed in the room.
Outside of the building, the explosion could be seen again collapsing the second and third floors of the building from the size of the shockwave that just happened.
Jotaro and Avelessi gasped loudly, both speaking from a pained depth in their chest, "KAITOOOOOOOO!" Their words lost in the chaos and embers. Jotaro tucked his head away and gritted his teeth. Avelessi dropped to his knees and erupted in tears, his screams filling the air in refusal to accept this fate. After some time, Avelessi cleared his still pouring eyes and bite down into his lip, "J-Jotaro…! Look!"
Jotaro was jerked away for a moment as Avelessi pointed to the sky to see a silhouette fading into the sky that streamed from a large sparkling smoke trail piercing through the dark smoke of the fair, it was in the shape of Kaito who nodded to them with a smirk and turned into the smoke and shroud of the night. This time a tear rolled down Jotaro's cheek as Avelessi continued his wail. The Speedwagon Foundation cleared its space for grief as the officers noticed their reactions to it all.
Kaito Itsuki - has died -
