Author's Note:

This chapter of this story has content that might be triggering to people. I just wanted to warn some people so that you guys don't just stumble upon it. Hope you enjoy this chapter even with this piece of information.

Chapter 4: Smooth Criminal

It had been almost a week since Hailey had attacked using her queen bee stand, Man Eater. She has begun to fit in and had been chatting with some of the other girls in her class, even sitting with them during lunch and when the opportunity arose in class. She was still on edge, thinking about how many people could attack him at any point. She hadn't been to any schools, but she realized what it felt like to think everyone was staring at her. Shizuka hadn't noticed anything bizarre that would lead her to believe there were more stand users and almost thought that Hailey attacking them was a fluke.

"Hailey did seem very sadistic, maybe the attack could've been unprompted and her acting on impulse and I have heard rumors of people who have woken up from comas, even when they've been walking around school for weeks", Shizuka muttered as she walked down the winding maze that was the school's halls, "No, remember stand users are attracted to other stand users, if Jody, Hailey, Me and apparently Vincent are all here then there must be lots of other stand users here, we don't know if we've alerted anyone to our existence. For all I a stand user could sneak up on me and attack me right now."

"What are you doing, um Shizuka was it?"

Shizuka whipped her head around to see what looked like a 9th grader walking right beside her. She looked Hispanic, but her voice didn't indicate anything. She was wearing a thick sweatshirt with a Yin Yang sign on its front. She was shorter than Shizuka, but only a few inches at that. Wearing makeup that seemed like she had applied it herself, and her hair was a dark brown, having some of it clump into two strands and fall onto her chest. One was navy blue and another green. She had mismatched socks and two small dragon earrings, one on each ear.

"Um, nothing really. I'm just walking to my next class. How do you know my name?"

"Is she an enemy? Why else would she have approached me out of the blue?", Shizuka thought, still putting on a smile to seem nice. Achtung Baby was on the ready, even in this crowd of people Shizuka was ready to attack.

The girl seemed slightly embarrassed at her entrance, "Well I heard you talking to Jody yesterday and well I sit next to you in Foreign Cultures class." Shizuka blushed with embarrassment, how had she not noticed her? She was practically beaming with color and personality in her peripheral vision.

"Well, let's make this a more formal introduction. I'm Shizuka Jones. What's your name?"

"Oh, my name is Isabella Gonzalez. I'm a grade ahead of where I'm supposed to be. I've only recently been back to school because I cut myself on some weird rock a few days ago. I got a fever so I think the cut may have been infected but I'm all better now!"

"Well I'm glad you're ok, did you have anything you needed from me?"

"Kinda, but not really, it's really no big deal. I just wanted to maybe ask if you'd wanna hang out sometime. Like you don't have to say yes but you seem really cool?"

Shizuka smiled, then grimaced. Isabella was so innocent, "She doesn't seem like she has a stand, but she's still roped into this whole mess. I need to find more stand users and stop them".

Shizuka perked up when Isabella looked at a clock in the hallway.

"Oh, I'm going to be late for Geography! Bye Shizuka I'll talk to you in class later!"

Isabella sprinted down the hall, weaving in and out of the crowded mass of people. Shizuka smiled and made her way outside of the campus, it was her free period after all. She pulled out her phone and after a few taps called her sister Holly. Even though they weren't blood-related Holly had practically been Shizuka's mother. Suzy Q was old and bedridden well before Joseph was and after chewing him out Holly parented Shizuka. It took a while of her being severely depressed, after Jotaro's death, to get back on her feet and keep being energetic. After dialing for a second she picked up,

"Oh Hi, Shizuka! How is my favorite sister? Have you met anyone on your mission? Or should I not mention that? Are you in deep cover? How have you been?"

Shizuka chuckled at the barrage of questions, "Well to answer that, good, yes, you can, kinda, good. But on that second question, I met someone I think you should know about. His name is -", she paused. How would she react to the knowledge of Jody? She told the Speedwagon Foundation, but not her family. She sighed, "His name is Jody Pucci, he is Enrico Pucci's son."

Holly stopped, "Oh well is he nice?"

Shizuka was appalled, Holly hadn't reacted at all. Was she in denial? Did she just not hear me? "You aren't surprised? He's Pucci's son."

"We can't just judge people because of what their parents did. From what I've heard Pucci was working in Florida for years and you're in Colorado. He probably doesn't even have any influence from his father, as far as you know they're strangers."

Shizuka stopped. She cringed at her reaction to finding out who Jody's father was. "I haven't told Jolyne yet, how do you think she'll react? We didn't have much of a relationship until Jotaro died, I don't know how to talk to her. Can you please tell her Holly?"

"Yes I will, but you have to talk to her about this eventually, ok?"

"Thank you so much Holly!"

"Well, I'd love to meet Jody, how you described him seems really interesting. Seems like you kinda like him. Make sure to stay safe, bye!"

Again the topic of some sort of relationship between Shizuka and Jody made her cheeks turn a bright burning strawberry red. "I mean he's cool but I just met him, I don't think of him like that, do I?' She shook her head violently. She shoved her phone into her pocket and explored the campus.

"Jody never really gave me a tour of the school, I'll have to ask him about that."

She kept walking and eventually found a small crowd of people, surrounding someone wearing a tuxedo, cape, and tall tophat. She was confused about what they were doing. Shizuka made her way into the crowd. Making her way through the crowd. On closer inspection, the person attracting the crowd had a black tuxedo on, with a bright red tie. He had shorts on, with white tights and grey knee pads, they had skulls on them.

"Come one come all, I can perform magic easily and right before your very eyes! I can guarantee there are no strings attached, just arcana and the mystical arts!"

Shizuka was befuddled and interested. The boy addressed himself as The Thrilling Jackson and invited someone up for demonstration. Someone Shizuka couldn't recognize stepped up and The Thrilling Jackson handed him a single penny. The person was confused when The Thrilling Jackson then asked for it back and pocketed it. Shizuka then gasped. A small skull with a tophat and small robotic limbs with dollar signs for eyes had appeared behind Jackson, then darted over to the volunteer. Shizuka watched the volunteers' back pocket shake. About 30 dollars in total bills floated out of his pocket and left Shizuka's line of sight. It swiftly moved across the ground and into the pocket that Jackson had reached into. Shizuka wouldn't have seen the money moving if not for seeing the stand. The stand faded and Jackson acted as though he just noticed the money. Jackson grabbed it and showed the volunteer his money.

"Wow, 30 dollars! You hold lots of money on you mister. What are you buying, drugs?"

The crowd chuckled and the stand reappeared, levitating another 20 dollars out of the volunteer's pocket. He stepped down and Jackson pocketed the money. "I'll be here tomorrow at the same time, stop by and I'll make more things disappear!" He bowed as the crowd dispersed. "He has a stand, that means that either he's like Hailey and is a coincidence, or he makes money for someone using his stand." Shizuka started walking away, blending in with the rest of the crowd.

"Hey! I don't think I've seen you around before, are you new or something?"

Shizuka looked behind her to see The Thrilling Jackson standing behind her. When he wasn't performing his voice seemed a lot deeper. Shizuka sputtered an answer, she hadn't gotten used to strangers asking her questions even though it happened multiple times. Now that she was directly in front of him he seemed pretty skinny, like with more inspection he seemed less grand and powerful. Somehow, he seemed less grand up close.

"You're pretty cute, would you ever want to be my assistant?"

This caught Shizuka off guard, even more than his initial question, "Excuse me?"

"You're very pretty, would you ever want to be my assistant?" He flipped his trick penny towards Shizuka, who caught it instinctively. She stared at it in shock, she noticed that the coin had Abraham Lincoln with a large tophat, a very thin face, and an abnormally long beard.

"I don't really know you, I wouldn't really want to be in the performing industry." Her mind still flashed back to his stand and its money manipulation capabilities. She then realized that she had at least 100 dollars in her purse, clutching it tighter than she had before. The Thrilling Jackson shrugged and pulled a single card out of his pocket and flicked it towards Shizuka.

"Well now you have my business card, I think you do have a knack for the show, your body certainly does", he said, then he winked and walked away. He left, leaving Shizuka feeling very uncomfortable. She didn't have an amazing body, but she was proud of it. "I have his contact information, I'll need to find him somewhere and get more information on his stand. She turned her phone on and looked at her phone, she would have to get to her next class.

Shizuka saw Isabella in her Foreign Cultures class and after a semi-awkward reunion, they talked for a while. Shizuka knew about cultures in Japan and America, but Isabella taught her about Mexican and Chinese cultures. "Chinese mythology is super interesting, they have amazing stories about Sun Wu Kong and the Zodiac and everything. I can teach you about it at my house if you maybe wanna come over?"

"I would love to Isabella, I can teach you about yokai. I think you'd be very interested."

Isabella squealed with joy, "Oh like Yokai Watch? I've never had a girlfriend before, we can do each other's makeup and tell scary stories and talk about boys, and what else do girls do?"

"Do you live on campus Isabella? I'd love to braid your hair, I love your dye!" Shizuka smiled, then stopped. "Isabella, do you know anything about The Thrilling Jackson? I saw one of his shows today, I think he's a fraud."

Isabella stopped and looked down, Shizuka had only known her for a few hours but Isabella didn't seem like the type of girl to frown often, she seemed very energetic. "I heard he harasses people to be his assistants, and he, he does things to people that accept his offers. Bad things. I heard that one girl went bankrupt and committed suicide because of him. Apparently, he's got some way to get into people's bank accounts and siphon their life savings."

Shizuka was appalled, "Everyone seemed to like him at his show during my free period. Do they not know what he did?"

"I think he pays some higher up in the school to squash the rumors about him, then he uses the good press he gets from his show to get people to join him and-", tears were streaming down her cheeks at this point. "He just seemed like a nice guy, you know?" Shizuka reached to place a hand on Isabella. Her tears were flowing like roaring waterfalls. Class ended and Shizuka walked Isabella to the counselor's office, comforting her along the way.

"What did he do to you Isabella?"

"We, we did some things, and," she stopped, staring at the ground with eyes watering like summer rain, "He seemed like a genuine guy, like he knew what he was doing. He just said it would felt so good." Shizuka patted Isabella on her back. "But the thing is," She stopped again, "It did."

After Isabella calmed down and Shizuka felt okay leaving her, she thought to herself,

"I'm going to find this 'Thrilling Jackson' and I'm going to teach him a lesson. Isabella seemed so scared, I never thought anyone could be so cruel. Achtung Baby is going to rip all of his teeth out."

Shizuka reached into her pocket and found the business card that he gave her earlier, her hands shaking with rage. Isabella was so innocent, "How could some kid with a tuxedo and some skeleton stand violate her like that?" She dialed his number into her phone and she got a quick response.

"Hello, this is The Thrilling Jackson, how may my magical services be of help to you?"

"Oh, Hi, it's Shizuka from earlier. I thought about it and I'd love to be your assistant. You just really amazed me with your magic and I think you're quite handsome. Where would you like to meet?" Shizuka tried her best to seem innocent, mimicking Isabella. She was furious, sucking up to scum like this made her stomach churn.

"Oh, Shizuka! You can meet me in the science lab in about a half-hour. That should be enough time for you to change into something more flashy."

Again her stomach was a rollercoaster, riding its way through disgusting creep mountain. "I'll change into something as flashy as I can find, see you soon", in a split second she decided to take a page out of a bee-themed enemy, "honey".

Shizuka ran back to the hotel, running fully on adrenaline, "Why, why did I have to say honey? That sounded so gross! I just hoped this works, I'll probably use Achtung Baby to surprise him and figure out what his weird burglar skeleton stand does." She found a blank white tank top that showed a little bit of cleavage and some shorts that showed lots of skin. She made sure to take off her bra and touch upon some makeup.

"C'mon Shizuka, you're a Joestar, you can do this. Dad dressed up as a lady one time, this should be just as easy. You have the element of surprise on your side, come on!"

When the time came Shizuka breathed in and had Achtung Baby turn her invisible, she slightly opened the door to the science lab and clenched her purse and hands as though her life depended on it. Inside the room The Thrilling Jackson in a white polo shirt with a single tie. He had a single candle in the room and was wearing shorts like Shizuka' showing too much of his thighs. Some of the buttons on his shirt, closer to his stomach that was unbuttoned She decided to reappear directly behind him. "Guess who!"

Jackson whipped around and stared Shizuka in the eyes. Shizuka saw how someone could be attracted to him, but with the prior knowledge she had all she saw was a liar. He grabbed her hands, his rough chorus palms rubbing against hers. She felt something cold in her left hand. The trick coin had slipped into her hands. "This must be some sort of stand activation for him", she thought, "I brought about 100 dollars in my purse so he wouldn't think I was suspicious of him."

"So you wanna be my assistant, well we'll have to test you on that, don't worry you didn't have to study," Jackson said, dropping his hands to her waist. Shizuka was nervous. He hadn't done anything yet, but she was trying to conceal her sweat. Jackson wrapped his arms around her back and going in for a kiss. Shizuka had expected this, this wouldn't have been her first. She was an incredibly rebellious teenager, but this made her extra uncomfortable.

When their lips touched she felt disgusting, if they hadn't been breathing each other's air she would've gagged or thrown up at the least. The kiss felt like ages, stretching out farther than her disgust for Jackson. Jackson pulled out and Shizuka gasped slightly, forcing a seductive smile.

"I didn't expect you to really go through with it. Most people pull out before me. I can't trust you just yet, let's see who you really are, but just to be safe."

Shizuka felt her purse moving as the skeleton stand hovered around her. Two ten-dollar bills shot out of her purse, razor-sharp, hovering around her neck, centimeters away from cutting her neck. Her breathing increased immediately, she locked eyes with Jackson, unable to hide her disgust for him.

"You know, old Washington and Franklin have ears. I don't very much like Isabella ratting me out, I'll have to make her my next assistant when I'm done with you."

Shizuka had to react quickly, he didn't seem to know about Achtung Baby and she couldn't move very fast without being cut. Shizuka took a deep breath and turned invisible. She ducked as the money sliced where her neck was slicing off a small part of her chin. Otherwise, it would have been a devastating blow. She ran behind Jackson and reappeared, he whipped around and shot coins like bullets towards her. The coinage struck Shizuka in the right arm, stopping her attack. Shizuka watched as 30 dollars in bills flew and slicing her around her body.

The attacks stung more than papercuts, Shizuka had never been stabbed, but when a dollar jabbed into her torso, burrowing into her skin. It moved around causing her blood to splatter across the floor.

"You shouldn't mess with The Thrilling Jackson, I thought you were cute, and apparently you have powers like me and the rest of the student council. I think I'll have to make you disappear."

Shizuka smiled faintly, "I can do that", and vanished with Achtung Baby. Jackson scoffed,

"I see you Shizuka, you can't hide from me, idiot!"

Shizuka scoffed, she was hiding behind a large desk made of dark oak wood. Jackson leaped over the table, staring daggers at Shizuka, as some money solidified into a large sword. Achtung Baby readied a punch. The blade weaved around the punch and went directly for Shizuka. The blade plunged itself into her left shoulder, causing her to cry out in pain, writhing, still under the desk.

"I'm on an entirely different level than you Shizuka, give up! If you give me a really good time then maybe I'll let you off with less of a severe beatdown."

Out of sheer panic and desperation, Shizuka became fully invisible, without commanding Achtung Baby. Her power was unleaded with the desk around her, parts of the floor and Jackson's foot becoming invisible. The skeleton stand appeared and extended its limbs outwards as far as they would go, causing money from all across the room to be beckoned, forming a large fist and hovering above the desk. Jackson's eyes still locked with Shizuka's causing her invisibility radius to grow.

"What'll it be, will you do or die?"

Shizuka's stand swept Jackson off his feet with its legs, the movement was sloppy but effective. Achtung Baby then threw Shizuka into the air and cradled her like a child. She landed closer towards the door, Achtung Baby supporting her, allowing her to stand up even with the money in her shoulder. Achtung Baby pulled it out, with Shizuka needing to keep up a perfect concentration, as to not mess up.

"You think I can't see you? I control money, and by the looks of it you have a lot of it on you - "

He was cut off by Shizuka throwing her purse and it smacking Jackson it upside the head, disorienting him and interrupting his monologue. Achtung Baby punched him in the gut and he flew backward. The Skeleton stand reappeared, shredding Shizuka's purse with bills and coins, which then shot forwards with Shizuka as a target. Shizuka jumped out of the way, using Achtung Baby to propel her. She landed onto some beakers, which shattered on impact, the glass puncturing her back, digging into her flesh.

Achtung Baby grabbed the shards and flung them at The Thrilling Jackson. Money and coins flew in the way, attempting to block the glass shards. Most of them missed one of them lodging into Jackson's throat,

"My cough cough - my Smooth Criminal isn't amazing, but manipulating money can be helpful, it helps promote me. And it'll help me end you!"

Jackson's clothes ripped, revealing thousands of dollars in bills, sharper than blades. Which all flew towards Shizuka. The bills solidified into swords and knives, while the coins became fists and other limbs. Achtung Baby sprung up, blocking the bills, puncturing its skin. Shizuka felt the stabs, looking down instinctively with nothing touching her body. Achtung Baby grabbed a few of the coins and flicked them towards Jackson. One struck the glass shard in his neck. When the money attacks stopped Achtung Baby launched a punch barrage, blocking the rest of the incoming attacks. It cried,

"VISI VISI VISI VISI!"

Achtung Baby's punches collided with Jackson's near-perfect face, bruising it and shattering the illusion of his persona. Shizuka let loose, morphing all of her anger towards this scum into the beatdown. She had to physically stop herself, grabbing her wounded shoulder, to get herself to calm down.

The Thrilling Jackson recoiled, his arms twitching as he collapsed onto the ground with multiple teeth slowly falling out of his mouth, covered in blood. The teeth clattering on the ground, a gold one sliding towards Shizuka's foot.

Jackson coughed up an absurd amount of blood, with another cough of absurd blood he stated, with a broken and cracking, "If I'm going to die, that dentist trip might as well have been worth it!"

The golden tooth rattled, shooting upwards, heading directly towards Shizuka's eye. Achtung Baby grabbed it perfectly between its fingers. It than flung it wir it towards Jackson's mouth. It pierced through the top of his mouth, burrowing deep into his mouth. Shizuka charged forward coming face to face with The Thrilling Jackson,

"Give up Jackson, you're pathetic, your stand is pathetic. I'll never forgive you for what you've done. I don't know who you're working for, but if you somehow survive this, I'll make sure they know who I am."

Jackson reached for some coins next to him, before he could make another pointless move Achtung Baby launched another punch barrage. Pulverizing Jackson with another,

"VISI VISI VISI VISI VISI!" Achtung Baby readied a final punch, "INVISIBLE!" It cried as an uppercut squared Jackson's jaw, sending him flying across the science lab. Shizuka stood up, victorious and badly injured. Her wounds stung, the oldest blood started flaking as she moved her arm, flinching in pain as it shocked her.

She limped down the empty hallway, trying to make it somewhere, needing some sort of medical attention. As she moved her blood dripped, hitting the cold marble floors, bouncing very little. To distract herself in a morbid way she started counting the drops that she heard hit the ground, but she was sure she missed multiple.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11 that's not very good, I shouldn't be skipping numbers."

She fell onto the floor, creating a pool of her own blood. Shizuka was interrupted in her suffering as she heard a single step, it was awkward at that. Her arm, popping and putting Shizuka in agonizing pain. Another wary step echoed down the hall. The steps quickly picked up and turned into jogging, then sprinting towards Shizuka, Shizuka whipped around, immediately regretting her decision, and spotted someone rushing towards her. She hit the ground, which felt cold and warm, somehow simultaneously.

"Shizuka what happened, why are you bleeding money, lots of money at that?"

Shizuka sighed as she recognized Jody's voice echoing down the halls. He rushed over towards her and attempted to pick her up and lodge her over his shoulder,

"What the hell happened Shizuka?"

"Something something, fake magic, something, money skeleton stand. Have you ever heard of The Thrilling Jackson?"

"Shizuka your delirious, just hang in there, I'll get you to your hotel, or maybe Vincent can figure out what happened?"

That's all Shizuka remembered before she went unconscious.

Shizuka wavered in and out of consciousness. First, she was in the hallway, then she was outside the campus. She swore she saw some sort of headset on Vincent. After what felt like seconds of darkness he woke up in Jody's living room, on his bed with bandages on her wounds, She shot up looking around to analyze the situation, regretting her decision. Her side stung like hell, burning as the injury spurted a little more blood. Jody walked into the room,

Shizuka sits down, Vincent found some bandages in the nurse's office and brought them here for you. So do you usually blackout in the middle of the hallway bleeding, or is that new?"

Vincent walked into the living room from the kitchen, "Hey Shizuka", then walked out of the living room.

Shizuka waved at him then chuckled, quickly clutching her side. "This is new, I fought The Thrilling Jackson in the science lab. His stand let him manipulate money. On a different note, do you know Isabella Gonzalez? She seems nice, but something she said put me off guard." Jody shrugged, shaking his head no. "Well, she said that she got an infected cut, gaining a fever for a while. I wouldn't have questioned it if she hadn't described the rock. She said it was sharp, and from what she said it punctured her easily."

"So what? Think that there is a sharp rock stand? Like some sort of mean stand that stabs people and then runs away? What did she seem like something was wrong with her? Did you lose too much blood?"

"No, she was fine, soon I'll be hanging out with her, I'll find more about her later", Shizuka shook her head, "anyways, I think that there might be a Stand Arrow at this school."

Stand Stat's Time Baby!

Stand Name: Smooth Criminal | Stand User: The Thrilling Jackson

Destructive Power: C Speed: B Range: D Precision: B Durability: D Potential: D

Smooth Criminal can create a single coin that looks obviously fake, anyone who touches this coin, Smooth Criminal can manipulate all of the money on that person. The money being manipulated can be hardened into blades and weapons. Any money being manipulated acts as an extra pair of ears for the user, which means that any sounds made around the money the user can listen to. Even things that aren't money, but could be conceived as having lots of monetary value can be manipulated.