Rumours (Part 2)
When his wife had told him to "live a long and happy life" with their children, Johnny Joestar had resolved himself to follow her wish. George was a great kid, and his son would be her living legacy. Like in a tennis game, nobody knows where the tennis ball will fall after it tips over the net. Life was unpredictable and occasionally tragic, and Johnny knew that. Johnny had already accepted that. That lesson had been drilled into his head over and over and over and over again.
He thought he had already accepted that lesson. He really, really, really did.
But when he came home to her room one morning, the love of his life had simply stared at him cautiously-as though he was a robber-and proceeded to ask who he was and what was he doing in her home, and Johnny felt his heart drop out of his chest, shattering on the floor below into a million different shards of glass.
Later that day, his son asked what was wrong with Mommy, and as their steeds galloped around the farm that he and Rina had painstakingly built together, Johnny had to lie and say that she was just tired and that she was getting better.
Johnny could still remember when they had first bought the plantation and how they tenderly teased one another as they painted the barn together. He remembered her tomboyish attitude at the time. How Rina playfully flicked her red brush in his direction, ruining his hat much to his initial displeasure, and he remembered thinking that the sound she made was beautiful when he returned her teasing in kind. He promised himself that he would take the sound of her laughter to his grave.
He remembered when she found out that she was pregnant for the first time, how her demands became increasingly unreasonable like forcing him to feed her strawberries and pickles and the other weird food combinations she craved, and Johnny couldn't help but think she was amazing.
He remembered crying when George came into this world as a wailing, gooey infant with bright-pink skin and how they held him together in their arms. How blessed he believed himself to be at the time, praying and thanking the same power that he had relentlessly pursued all those years ago for giving him this opportunity. For allowing someone like him to become a father.
And Johnny Joestar realized that he didn't want to see his wife forget all that. These treasured memories of his refused to let her go and tempted him to unearth the past.
His father-in-law had already given up, and everyone in the Higashikata Fruit Company all told him that there was no hope for Rina. Ever since her skin hardened into stone and began to shape itself into gray, wave-like lumps on her flesh, all the doctors dismissed her disease as incurable. He still recalled the arguments he had with them. Yet, after pacing back and forth through the estate and agonizingly deliberating on his pregnant wife's condition, he eventually reached a final decision.
Johnny Joestar knew better.
His hand trailed up the wooden railing leading to his son's room as his legs took up the stairs. Opening the door slowly to not wake up his brown-haired eleven-year-old son from his soft slumber underneath his red wool blanket, Johnny serenely smiled at the sight of his son cuddling with his teddy bear before leaning over to lightly kiss his head. Silently, his smile transformed into a reserved frown as he exited the room and closed the door.
Once downstairs, Johnny Joestar kneeled and clasped his hands together against the wooden blinds of a window, praying.
'Just once…
Just this once.
...And then I'll bring it right back.'
If Johnny Joestar couldn't stand to see his wife like this, then he'd send this misfortune elsewhere. So someone else would bear the brunt of it instead.
He just wasn't strong enough.
The wind blew dirt into his face as the waxing moonlight threatened to blind him. The normally busy streets of New York had been vacated, which told Johnny one thing. Someone had been watching him and knew he was coming.
"Tch." His tongue clicked against the roof of his mouth.
His horse cantered and galloped, creating distinct clop sounds. Its hooves clamored in a four-beat gait against the road path he had plotted for himself in the direction of the boat he planned on boarding.
When he ran away from the vault with the Corpse in tow, he hadn't expected to be discovered so quickly by the security team of the vault in New York. His pursuers were fast, abnormally so. The team of stand users had been sent to intercept him before he had even touched the docks, but…
Something had clearly gone awry, and Johnny didn't know what until it was too late.
"Gymno! What are you doing! Use your ability to immobilize him!" Johnny looked behind him as a young man adorned in a seashells and a black-suited, clearly more experienced bodyguard closely darted after him.
The boy wore an arrangement of seashells over what appeared to be a poorly made copy of a Navy uniform. His body was somewhat slender-like that of a woman's. Instead of hair, it looked like he had glued multiple spiral cone shells of various colors and sizes to the top of his head. This kid clearly breathed, ate, and slept anything related to the sea, judging by the jellyfish sting scars on his arms. Johnny had thought they were straps or something at first, but upon realizing that it was discolored layers upon layers of scars, his disgust rose.
He had almost forgotten how weird some stand users were. His spin techniques needed practice too. Damn it! He had gotten rusty!
"Right! By the way, do you think we can hit that new ride in Coney Island, big bro Pinctada? I think it's called Loop the Loop?" The young man paused as he took a cigar and lighter from his oyster pocket, much to Johnny's alarm.
Ten years was a long time for a stand user. Long enough to make one forget how intense the fights were, but not long enough to forget the mind games required to deal with some of the crazier stands out there. He never thought he'd ever thank God for all near death experiences he had over ten years ago, but here he was.
Johnny Joestar scowled as he tightened his grip on the leather reins of the black Mustang horse. Killing them would be a last resort, so he couldn't rely on ACT 4 for now. The only possible moral solution he had was to somehow incapacitate them for now. Either way, he needed to get out of here as soon as possible. This team was good, especially that one guy in the purple suit. He hadn't gotten a good look at the others, but Johnny didn't feel like he would enjoy meeting them.
"Can you FOCUS, Gymno! We can ride a rollercoaster later!"
The neon pink hair and blue facial tribal tattoos of his brother, Pinctada, contrasted significantly with both his formal suit and his professional demeanor.
"But bro, this guy has nowhere to run! With your ability speeding us up, we're running way too fast for him to ever escape us!" Gymno, Johnny surmised, took a deep inhale of the cigar, running it to a mere bud in just instants, and billowed out a cloud of smoke around his horse's legs in moments.
"I don't want you pissing off Mr. Odyssey, Gymno! Just do it!" The man in the suit shouted fiercely, his patience running thin.
The boy relented, and his form seemingly doubled. A ghostlike being possessing a robotic head and two seashell-like appendages resembling wings stood beside him and punched the newly formed gray smoke cloud. "TIME OF THE SEASON. Solidify this cloud of smoke!"
The horse with no name neighed irreverently as she suddenly screeched to a halt and kicked back to no avail, causing Johnny to clench with his leg muscles so he didn't go flying forwards.
"Damn it, bro! You failed to catch the target!" The neon-haired older brother screamed as Johnny jumped off of his horse with his briefcase. Turning around in midair, Johnny twisted his spine as he attempted to stop the momentum with the friction from his star-spangled boots skirting across the concrete ground. Johnny steeled his resolve before pointing an index finger in the direction of the younger brother's head, intending to fire a nail bullet to end his life.
He could see the fear in the younger brother's eyes, but more than that, the alarm in the older brother's was much more concerning to Johnny.
The older brother's form doubled as a being with hundreds of wires twisted together for arms emerged. "DO THE EVOLUTION! Speed up this guy's heart! Only let worthy people possess the Holy Corpse!"
The stand extended its arm towards Johnny and jumped forward.
He wished for things to be different, but Johnny Joestar wasn't going to let himself be miserable again. He wasn't going to lose anything else. He wasn't going to be a negative again.
The cold, pitch-black flames in Johnny's eyes returned with a vengeance for the first time in over eleven years.
Johnny Joestar fired as he jumped out of the way of DO THE EVOLUTION's attack; the nail bullet had a clear shot at Gymno Somata's forehead.
But before it could create a hole in between Gymno's vaguely feminine green eyes, however, a deep, adult voice yelled out in panic.
"ROCK ME! Save him!" President Amadeus held up a telescope in the direction of Johnny Joestar from behind the corner of the Baptist church beside them.
Assaulted by an unfortunately familiar sensation, Johnny felt the world shift as the President's stand sent him along with DO THE EVOLUTION and the vault behind them to an unfamiliar place.
Jaune Arc and Cardin Winchester stood at an impasse on the vacant rooftop of Beacon Academy with the shattered moon shining above.
"I want to explain that you'll be helping me find this guy. Not the other way around." Jaune broke the tension. "That this is my call to go after this guy despite not having any aura anymore. Not yours, nor anyone else's. That this is by my own free will."
Cardin shrugged.
What the fuck was the difference, really? He'd have an opportunity to get what he wanted from the cowboy either way. Sure, his pride was insulted, but Cardin considered himself to be a pragmatic person. Though that last part caused him to hesitate.
"Wait, what do you mean you don't have any aura, Jauney boy?" Winchester gave him a worried expression as his brow softened. The guy was a straight turd-ball, but Jaune could at least appreciate that he cared enough to not want to see his former victim die. It proved Cardin wasn't a completely hopeless person.
Unlike him, but he didn't really care at this point. He was far beyond the point of return. About a semester past the point of return, really.
"I mean literally that." Jaune deadpanned and pulled back his uniform sleeves to reveal the casts on his arms, causing Cardin scrunch up his face in confusion. "It's just gone now, and supposedly, according to Misses Monday-"
"Doctor Monday. Don't let her or Oobleck catch you saying that, now," smugly chided Cardin.
Jaune sighed. "According to Doctor Monday, it's not coming back. Apparently, it's some freaky disease or something. Either way, I'm patient zero."
Wow, talk about shitty luck. Jaune certainly had rumors and whispers about him either being a wimp or just being comically unlucky, but Cardin hadn't known it was this bad.
Why wasn't his team stopping him? It's clear that they likely know about it. Shit, if it was his own team member like Russel, then Cardin would have marched himself to Glynda right away. He wasn't some fucking monster who wanted to see his friend die. Did they know how many people without aura get killed by Grimm on a daily basis?
The brunette wasn't aware of the specific number, but he at least knew it was the number one cause of death in Remnant. This just spelled death for Jauney boy, and, though he gave him shit constantly, Cardin wasn't the type to ignore someone who was basically about to kill himself on his next mission against Grimm. He wanted to become a huntsman after all.
"Even so, why tell me? What's stopping me from going to Glynda or Ozpin and getting a suicidal maniac like you kicked the fuck out?"
Jaune winced at the swear. "Because you owe me, Winchester. If you don't recall, blackmailing is illegal and is likely to get you expelled if anyone hears about it."
Had his arms not been in casts, Jaune would have poked Cardin in the chest accusingly.
Silence enveloped the rooftop as the armored teen registered Arc's threat.
"Did you just blackmail me with my own blackmailing?"
It was sort of funny now that he thought about it.
"Yes."
"But wouldn't that fuck you over too, forged transcripts and all?"
For a split second, Jaune wavered. While Ozpin may not care, Glynda definitely would, but he could deal with that when the time came. That was a future problem for him to tackle.
"Even so, that just means if I'm screwed, you're screwed too. Are you willing to test that, Winchester?"
Although he had fully expected Jaune to fold right then and place themselves into another stalemate, Cardin was taken aback and subconsciously gulped.
If Jaune was being honest, he had expected himself to fold too, but words kept escaping from him without him realizing what he was saying.
"Because I certainly am."
Jaune Arc was many things to Cardin Winchester.
Idiot. Loser. Weakling.
Though Cardin believed that these titles fit Jaune, he couldn't deny that the blond had his virtues as well.
Persistent. Loyal. And, worst of all, familiar.
The reason why Cardin subjected Jaune to all sorts of bullying was because he could see himself in Arc, and that annoyed him like all hell. If someone like Cardin could get strong, then what the hell was Arc's excuse?
Cardin wasn't referring to his lack of training or his transcripts with that thought; no, Cardin was referring to more than that though he also didn't know how to describe it other than calling it liberating. To stop really giving a shit about what others thought of you and to start living life by your own rules. That kind of strength.
So, Cardin did classic shit like pantsing Jaune in front of his partner to try and embarrass him or pouring milk on his head during lunch. Mostly to get a reaction out of him other than laughing it off or sulking, but to no avail.
But something was definitely off about him now.
As he leaned against the wall waiting for Arc, Cardin huffed. He didn't know what the fuck was up with Nikos either. Bitch always tried to keep up appearances to be as polite as possible for her fame, but that clearly wasn't the real her either, that know-it-all. Always being numero uno. The girl was clearly a competition addict, and if he was being honest, she creeped him out with her 'training' with Jaune at night. Like, damn, how lonely was this chick?
Wouldn't they be happier if they just gave up on that shit? All that public persona shit?
Cardin blinked as Jaune stepped out from his surprisingly well-organized dorm room dressed in an unbuttoned blazer and a white-tee shirt with khakis. His hair was slicked back with what looked to be some lavender-scented hair gel.
"You know we're just going there to investigate, right? We're not going to get a drink or score with some chicks, bro." Cardin glanced down and gestured to his brown wife-beater and jeans. "Aren't you a little overdressed?"
"I don't know, Cardin. I don't have anything to go out in, so I'm borrowing from Ren's wardrobe." Jaune bashfully scratched the back of his neck as his team began to follow suit. "Besides, it's your butt here on the line, Cardin. You recall our deal on the ixnay-on-the-aura-nay?"
"Yeah, yeah. You don't need to remind me, Jauney boy. Come on, let the rest of your team out too."
When reminded of his own team, Jaune's eyes flickered behind him as Pyrrha stood, politely waving to Jaune but practically ignoring Cardin's existence as she adjusted her own scarlet scarf. Her crimson hair was down in a small bun, but she lacked any of the usual green makeup that covered her face when in public. Nora herself hadn't bothered to dress up, but he doubted she had any clothes that'd not make her recognizable from a distance.
As for Ren, the boys still hadn't spoken to one another since the meeting.
"Oh yeah, what about your team, Cardin? Why aren't they with you?" Jaune forced himself to make conversation with probably his least favorite peer in his class, unlike the rest of his team.
"Well, Dove is too busy with his homework, and Sky didn't feel too hot. Something about the food he ate making him sick. Some bullshit probably."
"What about Russell?"
"I don't think you want two hicks together at the same place attempting to outdo the other in terms of volume."
"What do you mean by that?"
Cardin pointed to the surprisingly solemn Nora. He frowned. Normally, this chick was annoying as fuck with her energy, but Cardin hadn't ever seen her depressed like this.
Well, if you count not bouncing up and down twenty-four seven like a Brothers' damned cartoon character as 'depressed.'
"Ah." Jaune nodded in understanding. "Good point."
"Hey, Jaune…" Nora started. "What if we don't find this cowboy copycat tonight?"
Pyrrha interjected, "we have three days, Nora."
"Okay, but still, what if we don't find him?"
Jaune gave her a cold gaze.
"We'll find him. With or without help from Cardin."
As they headed to their bullhead, Nora couldn't help but ask. "But what about team RWBY, Jaune-Jaune? Why are you relying on someone you dislike rather than someone we're friends with?"
"Yeah, Jaune. While I don't think Cardin is too terrible a person, " her attitude towards him told Jaune a very different story. "Isn't it just smarter to rely on team RWBY or CVFY for this? I mean, they are our sister team. I don't think they'd tell anyone."
Why was he relying on Cardin anyway? He didn't have to, and Nora did say that Coco was after the same guy too. What made him go to Cardin Winchester-the insecure bully of Beacon-over his friends?
Coco didn't seem like the type to spill a secret or anything. None of her team did, and team RWBY had definitely proven itself to be willing to break a few rules every once in a while.
They were his friends, right? When Jaune needed advice, he came to Ruby. When he played video games, he came to Yang. When he… Actually, he wasn't friends with Weiss or Blake. With Weiss, he had already accidentally burned all bridges there, and Blake and him did not really share any interests that'd cause them to interact.
They weren't nearly as close to him as his own team members, true, but like Mrs. Arc always said strangers are just friends you haven't made-
Wait. That was it.
He talked to Ruby and Yang daily, but were they really friends? It wasn't like their talks were particularly meaningful or anything. It wasn't like they understood each other's philosophy or religion or had arguments over politics and personal issues. Not in the same intimate manner his team had. What did he and Ruby really have in common other than some dorky quirks and comic book taste? Those things allowed them to talk, but that didn't mean they were friends, right? Jaune couldn't ever put himself in Ruby's shoes and vice-versa, and the only real reason he got along well with Yang was because he found her similar to his sisters.
…
They were good people, sure, and Jaune definitely enjoyed their presence in his life, and yet, Jaune decided they weren't friends really. At least not close ones. They didn't understand one another.
And Jaune at least understood Cardin.
His mother's words were full of crap.