JoJo's Bizarre Adventure – Wayward Son
Chapter 4: Tusk Part 2
(The Road to Vale)
"[Tomb of the Boom]." Amber muttered.
She was magnetized to Jaune. A steel ball was burrowing itself into her side, her belt buckle pulled into her waist and her right hand was stuck to her other steel ball. Said steel ball was trying to burrow through Jaune's hand as it was stuck in-between the steel ball and his forehead, while his sheathed sword was attached to his leg.
The two were crumpled together in a pile on the dirt road surrounded by forest.
Twenty feet away on horseback were their enemies, The Booms: Graphite, Pewter and Lime.
The Booms dismounted from their horses and approached the duo without drawing their weapons.
As they approached, the magnetic force increased, Jaune and Amber felt their bones stress against the pressure. Amber was sure that her blood was starting to magnetize to Jaune and vice versa.
But the steel ball cracked one of Jaune's knuckles, causing him to scream in pain.
The Booms laughed and so Amber gambled. "Fucking cowards!"
The three stopped dead in their tracks, ten feet away.
"Did I hear you right, missy?" Graphite asked with a glare.
"You're a bunch of worthless fucking cowards." Amber stated.
"Shut yer trap!" Pewter exclaimed as he drew his axe from its holster on his waist.
His father grabbed his arm, "Boy… put that down."
Pewter glared at his father, before throwing the axe, it sliced Jaune's earlobe before embedding itself into a nearby tree.
Jaune didn't feel that smaller wound over his broken knuckle, which his aura was trying to repair.
"You ambushed us with a dirty trick. Where's the honor in that?" Amber said, hoping to strike a nerve.
"Honor? Bitch, we're more honorable than you. You ran off after my brother offered you dinner!" Lime exclaimed.
"That was just rude of y'all." Graphite said. "It's a custom of ours to offer one last meal to the people we kill. A family tradition."
Amber chuckled, a feat in and of itself considering the steel ball in her side, "Aww, you don't eat them? Figured a buncha hicks like yourself would've been into that shit."
Graphite growled, "We ain't cannibals. We're professionals."
"Yeah right. If you're professionals, why just send out the boy? Why don't you take me on yourself!" Amber taunted.
Graphite considered taking the young woman on in combat; his children turned to him. "Don't do it, Dad." "Bad idea, Daddy."
He looked to Jaune and got a new thought.
"What's yer name, son?" Graphite asked.
"J-j…" Jaune could barely speak for himself because of the pain.
"JoJo. His name is JoJo." Amber said, trying to cover for Jaune. If these guys really worked for the people trying to kill her, the last thing they needed to know was Jaune's name.
Graphite turned to his son. "Tone down your stand."
Pewter wanted to argue with his father but relented after Graphite raised his hand at the young man.
Jaune and Amber felt the magnetic pull lessen upon the both of them. While they couldn't separate from each other, they could breathe better. Amber was even able to pull the steel ball away from Jaune's forehead, allowing his aura to finally repair the broken knuckle.
Graphite squatted next to Jaune and looked him dead in the eye. "Let's make a wager. If you can beat my kids, I'll let the two of you go scot-free."
Jaune took a deep breath. "I'm guessing you'll kill us on the spot if I lose."
"Bingo, bucko." Graphite smiled.
Amber gripped her steel ball and Spun it. She tried to shove it into the man's throat, but he raised his hand and the steel ball immediately stopped dead in the air, no matter how much Amber tried to push or pull on it.
"That's why I was talking to the boy and not you. He has manners, like not speaking unless spoken to. You're unruly. And rude." Graphite said.
His body glowed with a purple aura before his stand appeared beside him. It looked like a little, purple alien with multiple leg and its tongue sticking out like an anteater.
His children also glowed with a purple aura and their stands appeared beside them. They looked similar to Graphite's, with only different number of fingers and legs along with the shape of the lips.
"My family's stand is [Tomb of the Boom]. We like to kill people with the beautiful force of magnetism." Graphite said with pride.
He used said force of magnetism to shoot the steel ball off into Amber's chest, separating her from Jaune as she flew into the tree where Pewter tossed his axe.
Amber was kept suspended by the steel ball that burrowed into her chest. Once again, she found it hard to breathe.
"Amber!" Jaune called out to his friend.
She gritted her teeth as she reached for her other steel ball, but it floated out of her holster and hovered in front of her neck.
"One wrong move and SNAP!" Graphite warned. "Your ribs will break first, piercing your heart and lungs, then the other one will go right through your neck."
Graphite approached her tree, but Jaune unsheathed Crocea Mors, gripped it tight with both hands and stepped in-between them. While the sword was in a shaky grip, Graphite honestly couldn't tell if it was because Jaune was terrified or high on adrenaline.
"I accept your challenge." Jaune said with a small fire in his eyes. "You better honor your end of the deal."
He laughed and held up his hands as he walked backwards to the horses.
"You got guts, let's see my kids spill them." Graphite said. "Pewter, you're up."
Pewter smiled and outstretched his right hand. Jaune immediately remembered his axe was behind him and beside Amber on the tree, so he executed a dodge roll like Amber taught him the day before, landing in a position that allowed him to immediately stand back up.
The axe zipped right into Pewter's hand, he pulled it close and lined it with his heart.
"And don't you worry, JoJo, I'll honor my word and so will my kids." Graphite stated.
Pewter charged at Jaune, who grabbed and deployed his shield with his left hand in time to deflect the blow. Amber taught him that blocking a blow head-on was not viable in every confrontation. Deflecting was a good way to make an opening to capitalize upon.
So Jaune took a chance and sliced at the young man, but Graphite also deflected the blow.
Jaune could feel his weapons begin to draw themselves to his body again. It wasn't as strong, but he could feel the force slowly increase. His attacks became sloppier and his defense was harder to maintain as he had to use more energy to keep up as the two went blow for blow. He had two options: finish the fight fast or discard his weapons entirely.
The first idea sounded great but was unlikely.
The second was horrible but may be the one Jaune would have to follow through with.
"Footwork!" Amber yelled from the tree. She didn't want the last few days of on and off training to be worth nothing. One of Jaune's weaknesses was his forgetting to readjust his footwork.
Jaune adjusted his footing and bashed his shield, where Pewter responded with an overhead swing that lead to a clash where the two were struggling to make their attack overcome the other. If Jaune didn't readjust his footing, he would've been easily toppled.
"Get him, son!" Graphite cheered, with Lime joining in from the sidelines.
"He's open!" Amber yelled.
Jaune immediately understood what Amber meant, he used his sword and stabbed toward Pewter.
The enemy relented and jumped backwards to avoid the stab.
"Whoa!" Jaune shifted his footwork again to prevent himself from falling over.
Pewter charged at Jaune with yell and held his axe in an underhanded grip. He then sliced upwards at Jaune, who reflexively tried to deflect with his sword, but Graphite's axe hooked on to Crocea Mors' cross guard.
"Gotcha, bitch." Pewter then ripped Crocea Mors from Jaune's grip, where it flew through the air and imbedded itself to the cross guard into a nearby tree at about head-level.
'Crap.' Jaune and Amber thought simultaneously.
With his eyes on his sword, Jaune didn't have enough time to react to Pewter slugging him in the jaw with his free hand. This made Jaune spin a bit, enough to give Pewter an opening to slice at Jaune's chest, but his chest plate took the brunt of the blow, gaining a diagonal gash in the center.
"Too close." Jaune took this moment to uppercut Pewter's axe-wielding right hand with his shield, sending the weapon flying into the air.
Amber realized that Jaune needed guidance. He was competent but would make the mistake of not using every advantage he could take. She called out to him, "Lesson one: do what you have to do to survive!"
Like Jaune, Pewter made the mistake of locking his eyes on his own weapon. The knight-to-be made a split-second decision to abuse the defense his large pool of aura gave him and bashed his forehead right into Pewter's nose, breaking it.
"PEW!" Lime called out. Their father looked disappointed.
Pewter stumbled backwards as blood spewed from his nose. "AAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!" He screamed as he activated his stand to its full power. His axe immediately flew back into his hand as Jaune's shield stuck to his chest plate, trapping his left arm in an awkward position as the chest plate tightened around him.
The damn thing felt like a vice grip, but Jaune could still breathe fine. But he figured he'd have a minute until breathing would be hard.
Amber was unaffected as she was under the control of Graphite's magnetic field, but she wanted nothing more than to change places with Jaune.
Her taunting earlier was meant to make Graphite fight her; she wanted the under-trained Jaune to be her support.
The fact he held his ground so far made Amber reevaluate her teaching, which she thought was subpar, if she was going to be honest with herself.
Maybe her teaching style does stink and Jaune just has enough potential to overcome that hurdle.
In any case, her student could be doing better.
As Amber worried, Jaune heard a humming to his left, he turned his head to see his sword was vibrating in the tree it was imbedded in. It was being attracted to him and would pull itself out soon.
He got a horrible idea of what to do.
Jaune locked his eyes on Pewter, he then activated his stand on his free right hand. The buzzing of the Spinning nails made Jaune grin as he was surrounded in a pink aura.
Graphite quirked an eyebrow, "That a stand?"
Neither Jaune nor Amber replied as Pewter charged with an overhead swing, screaming like a madman with his blood caking his face with his stand's purple aura enveloping him.
Jaune felt fear. 'I can't do this.' Suddenly echoed through his mind. He almost dispelled his stand in order to run away.
"Lesson two: Keep your head clear in a fight!" Amber told him, worried that Jaune would lose whatever lead he gained for himself. If he wavered now, then he would be killed.
Jaune took a deep breath and felt time slow down. He had one chance to pull off his plan and he waited the right moment to act.
Pewter jumped to close the distance to Jaune. He swung his axe downwards and Jaune saw his chance.
Jaune juked right, bringing his magnetized shield right into the path of the axe. When it connected, Jaune turned his hand and executed an underhanded slice.
The forest went quiet as the audience was confused. "The hell was that?" Lime asked. Graphite had no answer, but felt a pit grow in his stomach.
Amber's eyes scanned the battlefield and immediately understood her student's plan. 'If he pulls this off, I owe him a drink when we get to Vale.' She thought.
"I'm sorry." Jaune said, feeling a bit of disgust within himself.
Pewter was confused. He was pushing his axe's blade into the boy's shield, but it felt like all the power was drained from his arm. He felt something warm around his hand.
He didn't feel any pain, so what did this JoJo fellow do?
He shook his head and pulled his arm back to swing his axe again, but his axe fell to the ground.
Lime screamed for her brother out of horror.
"Your hand!" Graphite yelled in shock.
"What?" Pewter asked, feeling lightheaded all of a sudden. He pulled his arm up to look at it, but his heart stopped when he realized what happened. His vision snapped to his axe lying on the dirt road.
His right hand was still firmly gripped on the handle.
The pain flooded his body all at once as he screamed to the heavens as he held the stump with his only hand as he cranked his stand to full power.
Jaune then quickly executed the second part of his plan as he hooked his arm around Pewter's neck and spun the young man around to face the direction of the buried Crocea Mors. His own armor tightened immediately to the point that he couldn't take another breath and was grateful for the placement of his shield as Pewter's axe flew and attached itself to the shield.
But Jaune didn't worry, for the increased magnetism towards his body also attracted Crocea Mors and Pewter was too blinded with pain to piece together Jaune's plan.
The sword suddenly flew from the tree towards Jaune, with Pewter's head in the path of the pommel.
"CRACK!" Rang out as the pommel bashed into Pewter's head, knocking him out.
Jaune suddenly felt his armor loosen up, allowing Jaune to breathe again. At the same time, Pewter's axe fell to the ground and Jaune could pull his shield arm away from his body.
He let go of Pewter, who's body slumped to the ground. But his aura began to repair the damage to his nose and stump of an arm.
Jaune picked up his sword and stood up, shakily. He felt that half his aura was drained, being used to repair the bruising to his bones from Pewter's stand and also to re-energize himself. He could keep fighting strong against Lime, but he had a feeling that Graphite would be a problem.
He wanted to barf his brains out when he saw Graphite's hand in the dirt, he quickly turned away. He felt some shame for the action, but then he focused on the fact that Pewter was trying to kill him and probably killed many others with his family.
He looked to Amber, whose face was soft and gave him a look that told him 'That was horrific, but I don't fault you for it'.
He then looked to the remaining two Booms. Lime looked numb, seeing her brother be brutalized as he was. Graphite, however, had a grim look on his face.
Graphite snapped one of his fingers and a moment later came another "SNAP!" And Amber screamed in pain as the steel ball pinned against her chest snapped one of her ribs.
"Bastard!" Jaune yelled as he pointed Crocea Mors at the pair.
"You crippled my boy… be grateful I'm honoring our agreement and don't kill her right here and now." Graphite said.
Jaune glared. He grabbed Pewter's unconscious body and dragged him from the road and dropped him in the grass of the surrounding forest.
"Lime… make me proud. Avenge your brother." Graphite ordered his daughter.
She narrowed her eyes at Jaune, who stepped back onto the dirt road and stood ready to fight against her.
Her knives flew from the holsters around her ankles and into her hands.
She threw one of her knives at Jaune, who blocked it head-on with his shield. The knife imbedded itself into the shield, which was what Lime wanted as she used her stand's control of magnetism to pull down on Jaune's shield, knocking him off his balance as she charged with the other knife in a righthanded reverse-grip.
Jaune missed a sword-slice that he meant to use to deflect Lime's incoming slice, but it made him more unbalanced and coupled with Lime's attack nicking him in the pauldron, he fell over and crashed into the ground.
With a flick of her hand, Jaune's shield went flying from his grip. 'She's controlling only her knives!' He realized.
Her version of [Tomb of the Boom] may be less powerful than her brother's, but her speed and viciousness made up for it.
She pounced towards Jaune, who was lying on his back with his left hand bare against the ground and his right hand gripping Crocea Mors.
"Die!" She screamed as she was mid-air, with the knife poised to stab right into the gash Pewter left in his armor, Jaune activated his stand out of instinct.
The nails on his left hand immediately Spun up.
And Lime ended up stabbing dirt.
She looked to her right to see Jaune being pulled along the ground by his Spinning nails like wheels on a car.
'Oh lords!' Jaune proclaimed as he felt sick from the sudden burst of speed. He stopped his nails' Spin right before he crashed his head into a tree.
He was in the middle boundary of the makeshift arena between Graphite and Lime. Besides Graphite were the horses he and his children rod upon. But Jaune now noticed that only the horse Lime rode upon had saddlebags.
"Lime, honey… stop messing around and end it." Graphite ordered.
Lime nodded and summoned her version of [Tomb of the Boom].
The saddlebags on her horse rumbled before a stream of black sand flowed out of them and flew right at Jaune.
He couldn't dodge as the black sand washed upon him like a wave, sending his sword flying in the crash.
"How do you like my iron sand? It's my specialty." Lime gleefully said.
Jaune pulled his head and his left hand out before the iron sand condensed. It felt like Jaune was stuck in a rock.
"Aww, I was hoping to suffocate you." Lime said with a disappointed tone before a bright grin lit up her face, "That means I can gouge out your eyes and force-feed 'em to you."
The idea made Jaune turn green.
Lime was about thirty feet away and was slowly walking to him with a sadistic grin and both knives in her hands like she was ready to clear out an all-you-can-eat buffet.
'Maybe this bitch is a cannibal.' Amber thought. She wasn't too worried for Jaune considering how well he held himself against Pewter with the little training she gave him. The boy was smart, maybe a bit lucky, so she had faith he'd pull himself out of the situation.
Jaune reactivated his stand, but the pseudo-chainsaw wasn't going to cut him out of the iron sand. His left hand was deep in the sand prison where it kept shifting, negating any chance he had at cutting himself out. His right hand was buried at the wrist, even if he could move it around more it'd be useless as proven by his left.
All Jaune could do was point and maybe talk his way out of the situation.
"M-Maybe you could not go for my eyes?" Jaune offered.
Lime stopped and thought about. "Fair enough… I'll cut out your tongue first! Then you won't be able to argue."
"No! I like my tongue where it is! I like where every part of me is attached!" Jaune protested.
Lime narrowed her eyes out of annoyance and threw one of her knives, stabbing right through the palm of Jaune's exposed right hand.
"AHHHHH!" He screamed.
Amber took this chance where Graphite was too distracted by the fight to try to escape. 'I gotta be able to do something.' The steel ball floating in front of her neck was about a few inches away, but the lack of contact made it not a concern. She only had to worry about the steel ball buried into her chest.
Her rib was still broken, but her aura took off some of the pain.
She gripped it and tried to Spin it, but it wouldn't budge. She could feel the Spin's energy, but [Tomb of the Boom]'s magnetism refused to allow the ball to Spin.
Amber tapped into her Fall Maiden aura and tried again with the increased strength and connection to nature it provided, but Amber could only get the thing to turn about thirty degrees. But she then tried to do the same to the other one that floated in front of her neck.
It wanted to Spin, the energy was inside of both steel balls. If only Graphite' [Tomb of the Boom] relented, then she would have control over her steel balls.
She dropped her hand down and dispelled her Fall Maiden aura as Graphite turned back to her. He hadn't a clue about what she was attempting.
'I need Jauney to make an opening for me, but how?' Amber pondered.
Back to the boy with a knife in his palm, the pain made his vision go red. He wasn't thinking straight, and he wanted to survive as Lime gripped her other knife and took aim, ready to throw it.
Acting out of instinct, Jaune called upon his stand with his all of his will.
'I WANT TO LIVE!' He screamed in his mind as the pink aura of his stand surrounded him again as his nails spun faster.
Jaune then felt something new overshadow him as Lime stopped dead in her tracks, looking above Jaune in awe.
He looked up to see a large spirit-like entity, a pink outline of a man or monster with chain-like armor floated above Jaune. But then it began to shrink and condense until it turned into a small pink creature that Jaune found cute. Covered in gold stars with floppy ears, little arms, four dangling appendages that had heart-shaped tips and a gold cone nose that had a line connected to the largest star located on its forehead. It was kinda like Jaune's white beanie with the gold star stitched upon it.
"Chumimi~in." It chirped as it floated above Jaune's hand as his nails Spun. It pulled the knife out of Jaune's palm with both hands and tossed it aside, his aura flooded the wound to patch himself up. It then floated above him like a guardian saying 'I will fight for you'.
"My stand." Jaune realized. 'But what was up with the bigger one?' He pondered for a second before re-focusing on the fight at hand as his stand pointed at Lime, who snapped out of her astonishment.
"HAH! Your stand's a fucking midget!" She laughed, her father joining in.
'What tricks do you have up your sleeve, little guy?' Amber asked herself.
Jaune gritted his teeth as his stand crossed its stubby arms in annoyance. 'Let's show them what we're made of!' Jaune thought.
As a part of him, his stand nodded in agreement with his thoughts.
As Lime kept laughing, Jaune's stand adjusted his five fingers to point right at the girl.
Amber suddenly thought of what might happen next and smiled brightly, 'Well… Jaune might not need a gun after all.'
His stand waved its arm above Jaune's nails and then they suddenly shot off his fingertips like bullets.
All five shots hit Lime, who barely had enough time to bring up her aura as a shield. Four shots broke her aura completely and the fifth punch right through her arm.
Her body crumpled to the ground unconscious.
"HELL YEAH!" Amber cheered from the tree.
The iron sand went slack and fell to the ground as Jaune pulled himself up, not even bothering to grab his weapons again. He could feel his fingernails rapidly re-growing. He would never be without a weapon even if he ended up disarmed.
He faced Graphite with the both of them having their stands float by their sides.
"I beat your son and your daughter." Jaune stated, the fire in his eyes burning a bright blue.
"So you have…" Graphite drawled. His face contorted into one of pure rage before the steel ball that floated above Amber zoomed right in front of him as he drew his warhammer with both hands. He swung his arms back and struck the floating steel ball like a baseball. With mass of the solid steel ball and the intense speed it was accelerating towards at a fast rate, Jaune would've lost his head if he hadn't dodge rolled out of the way. The tree behind him exploded into a show of splinter along with the one behind it before the steel ball cratered into the third.
Jaune dug his fingers into the ground and zipped away just as Graphite jumped over to his position and slammed his warhammer right in the spot Jaune was in, making a large crater.
"HOLD STILL YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Graphite screamed as the two entered into this dance of zipping away and making craters.
"WE HAD A DEAL!" Jaune yelled.
"BOY, YOU HAD NO PLACE TO MAKE ANY DEAL!" Graphite screamed as the next strike from his warhammer almost got him. "YOU CRIPPLED MY BOY!" SLAM! "YOU HURT BY BABY GIRL!" SLAM! "YOU THOUGHT I WAS JUST GONNA LET YOU LIVE?! THE BOTH OF YOU WERE DEAD THE SECOND WE LAID EYES UPON YOU!"
"If I'm being honest, yes!" Jaune replied, before zipping away. He aimed his free hand right at Graphite's warhammer and fired two shots. Graphite side-stepped the first one but tried to deflect the second with his warhammer.
The nail bullet made the stone warhammer shatter into a shower of rubble, blinding Graphite with a cloud of sand. "MY EYES!"
"Jackpot!" Amber yelled from her spot on the tree. Jaune turned to Amber with a confused look on his face. "Don't worry JoJo, we got him." Amber said with a smirk. She winked to her apprentice, who then noticed her eye transformed into a crosshair like it does when she uses her stand.
Jaune craned his head in Graphite's direction to see the man was in front of the tree that he whacked Amber's steel ball into.
The steel ball was Spinning from its crater in the tree and it was channeling [Scan], giving Amber the ability to attack stands.
It suddenly flew out of the tree towards Graphite, who tried to summon [Tomb of the Boom] to his aid, but he was too slow as [Scan] impacted the enemy stand in the chest. It sent both stand and user flying, before crashing back into the dirt.
The steel ball holding Amber up dropped to the ground. Amber landed softly, before scooping up her steel ball and having her [Scan] fly back into her other hand. She holstered her steel balls as she approached Graphite, who was coming out of his stupor. He looked up to see Amber glaring down at him with a cold look in her eyes. 'JoJo' walked to her side, with his stand at the ready to fire at him.
For the first time in years, Graphite Boom was afraid for his life. He began to hyperventilate and shake uncontrollably.
"JoJo." Amber said to get her apprentice's attention as she stood in front of the quivering enemy.
"Yeah?" The boy replied.
"Watch what I'm about to do and take some notes," Amber said as she cracked her knuckles and her eyes glowed with the aura of the Fall Maiden, "This is how you make sure a motherfucker stays down without killing them."
Jaune nodded as Graphite screamed "HAVE MERCY!"
Amber had a stony look on her face as she said, "Like the mercy your whole family haven't shown me and my friend?" She grabbed his neck and threw the man thirty feet up into the air. "Hell no."
She drew her fists back, which began glowing with the energy of the Fall Maiden and took a deep breath. When Graphite fell back towards Amber her fists began flying.
Over and over she punched, the barrage keeping the man in the air. Her fists were a blur as Amber shouted to the heavens with the rage of an angry god, "ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!"
The image burned itself into Jaune head as Amber kept her barrage going.
Before Jaune could blink, Amber let out one last "ORA!" before she uppercut Graphite, sending him flying into the heavens and disappearing far from the group.
Groaning came from different side of the road where Pewter and Lime came back from the realm of unconsciousness.
Amber's head snapped to the other members of the Boom family, who were intense pain and utterly confused as their father was gone.
"Daddy's gone to the store kiddos." Amber said as she drew her steel balls and began so Spin them, the fall maiden aura increasing their power to the point that tiny tornados surrounded the steel balls and Amber looked like an angry god. "Y'all better git on his trail before I decide to 'help' you two find him."
"Don't have to tell me twice." Lime immediately ran to her brother and helped him up before quickly jumping onto one of the horses the Booms arrived on. Two ran away in Jaune's struggle against Graphite. Pewter gripped his stump tightly after wrapping his arms around his sister, who whipped the reins of their horse, galloping in the opposite direction Jaune and Amber were traveling originally.
THE BOOM FAMILY, STAND: [TOMB OF THE BOOM], STATUS: RETIRED!
The fight was over and the two Spin users had won their first stand battle as a pair.
"Holy shit." Jaune said, his respect for Amber skyrocketing.
Amber smirked and dispelled her Fall Maiden aura and Spin. "And that's how it's fucking done, Jauney-Boy."
Jaune nodded as Amber whistled for Valkyrie, who galloped from her hiding spot in the woods. Jaune took a moment gather his weapons and reattach them to his waist.
The two jumped into the saddle and had Valkyrie walk along the road as the two let their auras patch up their wounds along with giving them a minute to breathe.
The sun was starting to set, but Amber wanted to get far away from the battleground before settling down.
"I'm surprised you didn't kill any of them." Amber said.
"Taking Pewter's hand was more than enough. I didn't want to take his life." Jaune said.
"One of these days, you might not get that choice." Amber said, thinking about the lives she's taken on the road. All of which were in situations where she had no other choice.
"Then why didn't you kill Pewter?" Jaune asked.
"He was already defeated… and I hate killing." Amber then chuckled. "It's ironic… before I became the Fall Maiden, I wanted to be a doctor. Now I'm a wanderer with blood on my hands."
Jaune thought about the image of Amber wearing a lab coat as she tenderly attended to patients. "Maybe you could be one down the road, after we get to Vale."
Amber smiled softly. "One day…"
She decided to change the subject away from her. "Have you thought about a name?"
"A name?" Jaune asked.
"For your stand." Amber said.
Jaune summoned his stand and it floated in front of Amber.
"It's real cute." Amber admitted as she scratched its cheek like a puppy.
"I guess." Jaune said. He looked at his stand for a moment, before thinking of his favorite animal: the elephant.
"[Tusk]." He said.
"[Tusk]?" Amber asked.
"It's my natural weapon, like an elephant's tusks. I can rely on it to defend myself and to fight." Jaune said.
She played with the little stand's arms like a doll. "[Tusk]… I like it."
When the two later set-up camp for the night, they did so without a word. They didn't need to say any as they relaxed by laying on the ground and stared at the stars in the night sky.
'Whatever come next, I know me and Jaune can handle it.' Amber thought to herself.
'We're one step closer to Beacon. I'm one more step to becoming a huntsman and I'm getting stronger on this road we're on.' Jaune looked to his teacher. 'Thank you, Amber. There's still so much to learn. Even though the two of us almost died today, I really rose above and proved myself.'
As Jaune fell asleep, he did so looking towards the future.
To be continued.