Apparently, Classroom 1-C was our designated meeting room. For the record, nobody chose it but Griffin was too lazy to go anywhere else. Ten people had gathered here after school. It was far too bright out and anyone could mistake it for midday. In the centre of our room, Griffin was sleeping on his desk. Mackenzie walked over and dropped a hefty stack of books on his desk. The loud noise akin to a bomb woke him up. Strangely, he was smiling.

"Well, now that we're here why don't we all introduce ourselves. My name is Griffin, and my Stand is Black Parade."

"Mackenzie. My Stand is called Girl in Red."

"Yo, I'm Alex, I named her Plastic Love."

"My name's Evie. I chose the name Kidz Bop because I can control toys."

"You may call me Tia Dhalir. As for my Stand, it's called Heaven Sent."

"Daiki Fujimori. Witness is the name I chose for my Stand."

"I'm Kenta Ishikazi, don't forget it! I took the name Crystal Castle since any castle can be turned into the consistency of crystals. Get it?

"Akihiko. Departure."

"The one graced by the rays of God himself. Ren Kanemoto. Endowed with the gift of duplication, Magnolia is its name."

Everyone was staring at me. I was in the middle of picking at my nails. Right, I was up to introduce myself.

"Uh, I'm Sophie Okiro I guess," Why would I say 'I guess'? "I don't really have a name but my Stand can shoot these black things from my body. They're kinda like spiderwebs but they're not. Y'know?" That went horribly.

Clapping drew our attention to Griffin. He was perched in an odd squat on top of the teachers desk.

"Now for the meat of our conversation. I managed to find out that our enemy is based in a school around 15 minutes from here. They don't leave at night, so attacking should be easy. Unfortunately for us I wasn't able to understand their Stand abilities. Only a few were shown and I didn't have time to record them."

"What are we waiting for?" Kenta said. He punched his fists together. "Let's start attacking them."

"Hold on, dipshit. Some of us have prior commitments. Going on the weekend seems to be the smartest decision." Evie said. But how many more people would be attacked before then? Even though I didn't particularly like the idea I had to agree.

"Then it's decided. Friday night we'll meet up outside Brentworth. I'll take you guys there and we can find the leader."

Waiting for classes to end was tense. Never in my life had I been so excited for the end of school. The days passed slowly but today was Friday. Like he said, Griffin was waiting outside school. Most of us had dressed inconspicuously. Dressed like teenagers celebrating a night out. Ren was wearing full black and Akihiko seemed like a thug. Outside of school Alex still decided to wear a long skirt. And Griffin was wearing an academia-sort outfit. Long flowy sleeves, a cashmere sweater and a dark blazer. You wouldn't have guessed what we were going to do tonight. No ordinary person could guess.

Darkness served as the perfect cover for entering the school. Perimeter lights were placed outside the school but all of the bulbs had blown out. The school had no lights on. Few people walked past us. Entering the school grounds was easy enough. And their front door had been left open. Were people expecting us?

Rows of empty lockers lined the walls. The whole building seemed like a shell. Empty. Devoid of life, substance. No half-dead teenagers moaning about homework. Off putting windows and empty cubby holes. But the entire building wasn't abandoned. People had been here only hours ago. Yet it still felt so desolate.

Daiki held out a hand.

"One person upstairs to the right. Two down the corridor. Three in the basement. Somebody on the courtyard. Two more in the building to the left."

"Daiki, take the person on the courtyard. Evie can cover him." Griffin said. "Alex, Mackenzie, take the two in the other building. Akihiko and Ren take the person upstairs. Ishikazi you can take the two down the corridor. That leaves me Sophie and Tia for the basement." We all split off in our separate directions. The basement door was chained tightly. Tia cut through it instantly with a thick warhammer.

Why the hell was I stuck with a midget? Being forced outside was bad enough but now I had to spend it with a brat. Jesus.

The air outside was chilly but bearable. Lights from buildings gave enough light onto the courtyard, but Witness allowed me to see everything. Including the enemy. Raised above us just sitting down. I'm not sure if he could see us, but their expression showed cockiness. And all ten of their fingers were poised. Just then, Witness showed me something. It was Evie falling through the ground and landing on a spike.

"Don't move!" I shouted. Evie halted in her tracks, confused. Slowly, I picked up a rock from beside me. With decent force, I chucked it in front of Evie. The ground instantly crumbled with a cloud of dust rising from it.

"Jesus christ." She said.

So their Stand could hide holes in the land. Or did it create the holes. Was the ability reality manipulation? No, that wouldn't make sense. Witness's ability is to see the future. If it was reality manipulation they would have still made the hole, regardless if we moved forward or not.

"Cover me. That sniper's range should be enough." I said. Moving slowly was enough to spot the landfalls. Witness's ability covered them all. This guy was strong. He didn't have any sort of indications to where the pits were. His ability covered it up well. But he started to move away. I picked up my pace and started to jog. Barely missing the pits I hopped across the ground until I was a few metres away from our opponent. He stopped and extended his hand. Glossy wires extended into a bumpy shape. Witness couldn't even see what the attack was going to be. I ducked backwards and blocked when the wires turned into a craggy mixture of rocks, sand and dirt. Punching it only got rid of a small chunk of the rocks so I jumped back. There were countless holes in the ground meaning countless opportunities to attack.

I dodged and weaved through the boy's attacks. He couldn't have been older than a second year at this school. Dodging was rather easy since he moved in a predictable pattern. And if I moved too close to a pitfall Witness would use it's future sight to warn me. Overall the fight wasn't too hard. But the decisive blow was dealt by Evie shooting him in his hand. The wires went limp and a kick to the head rendered him unconscious. I nodded thanks to her from across the courtyard. Bit by bit, the holes in the ground were revealed. The dirt started pouring out from the boy's pockets since he was unconscious. He had a weird Stand.

"Alright! I'm gonna smash your head in." I shouted. By now everyone had left to go to their separate areas. Leaving me alone was a smart decision by Griffin; I wasn't going to hold back on my opponent. Some people might say that I'm violent. I agree but at least it keeps me safe. Sometimes you need violent people in life. Where was I, oh right attacking some kid.

They closed the door in front of me. Buying them seconds of escape time. I called forth my Stand, Crystal Castle. Extending my hand, I used two fingers to point at the door. Luckily my Stand attacked in the right direction. The door was blown to bits and I stepped through. We appeared to be in an art classroom. Wide tables had been set out for use earlier today. Paint bottles were neatly lined up against the window. Dried specks of paint decorated the floor. Splashes of water lined the floor as well. My enemy seemed to be average height, dressed with a hoodie and school trousers and smart shoes. So Griffin was right, they didn't leave this place. How would they shower?

Anyways, I kept facing my opponent. After a while of facing each other they summoned their own Stand. It had eerie taps and a vent for its stomach. It was skinny and had to be at least a foot taller than my own Stand. Hardly any clues were revealed once it was summoned. Standing still wasn't going to do me any favours. I hopped on a table and raced forward. Opting to use my Stand first, I had Crystal Castle shatter in his direction. The attack missed, or it was avoided. The moment my Stand seemed to attack their entire body turned into a cashew-coloured smoke. It glided through my attack and deep cracks appeared in the wall. My enemy yanked my leg and I was left to fall on the table.

My head hit the desk with a loud thud. Momentarily, the room started to spin and I forgot where I was. That memory was quickly returned and I dodged a knife that would have hit my thigh. Whilst on the table, I kicked and rolled over the side. Crystal Castle made use of the opportunity and punched my enemy. They caught the punch and were able to twist my arm around. Luckily no bones were broken.

"What, you think by turning into smoke you can beat me?" I said. "Your party trick doesn't last that long."

"Fine then, let's bet on how long you can last. Missed!" His Stand lunged forwards and attacked. The power of attacks was quite low and I could dodge fairly easily. Problem was, I didn't know when he would turn to smoke. This left me rather defensive and not how I'd like to fight. Each hit was either parried or blocked, but that was mainly it. Neither of us could land a hit on the other. Until he went into his smoke form. The instant that happened I removed the baseball bat strapped to my back and held it ready. Even though I was poised to attack they only advanced in the smoke. It wrapped around me and I tried shoving it off me. The smoke only slightly drifted before circling back around me.

Instantly, Missed appeared. I stared deep into its robotic eyes before swinging my bat as hard as I could. However, the bat didn't connect. It stopped right before and was pulled backwards from my hands. I turned around and noticed another person, currently holding my baseball bat. Shit, I was warned there were two of them. I took a step backward from Missed but halted in my tracks. Some sort of weird sensation in my right leg stopped me. I gazed down and noticed that the knife from earlier was jammed into my leg. Around one inch deep.

Before I could react both opponents ran towards me. Weaponless and planless, I did the only thing I could think of. See, my ability does have a cooldown but there's a way to bypass it. Part of the damage would be reflected onto me. Once they were close enough I had Crystal Castle crack in a circle motion. A sphere formed around me momentarily and blasted both of them back. Six of my fingers contorted and flushed a dark shade of red. But I definitely heard a bone break.

Both bodies were launched backwards. The smoke user was launched into a heavy pile of boxes. Since they didn't seem to be getting up any time soon I focused my attention on the person who took my bat. Telekinesis was a pretty broken ability. If they turned out to have that then I couldn't hold back. Taking one step forward caused an immense pain in my leg. Right, the knife was still in there. Slowly, I pulled out the knife. It flew out of my grip rather easily and into the enemy's hand. Telekinesis or magnetism?

"I'm gonna beat the shit out of you." I goaded. My taunt worked, as I found myself being pulled towards them. My belt buckle was shaking, so it had to be magnetism. But I was going faster than expected and had to block an attack. Crouching down hardly affected the blow of the bat. At my position I found it easiest to just yank their feet down. We both tumbled down and I tossed the bat to the side. Now we had our Stands to battle.

After that, I found it easy to win the battle. Our Stands did the fighting but my power and speed far outmatched theirs. Plus, the baseball bat wasn't really an option. If they stopped to call it then I could deal the final blow. Eventually they were too tired to fight so I knocked them out. Even unconscious I didn't stop punching them. It's not like they deserved it really. We showed up and stormed their home. At least they could plead self defence. I was only doing this to let off some steam.

"Ren! Over here!" I shouted. Ren sprinted over to me and rolled over my back. Using his extendable baton he smashed the lock on the door. It creaked open. Footsteps ran across the room. My eyes darted around but I couldn't see anything. Darkness enveloped the room in a soft chokehold. Neither of us had abilities for light or any light producing objects. We were just going to have to deal with the darkness.

Scanning the room only left me more apathetic. Nobody was to be seen, despite seeing someone enter the room. I looked further around and saw some sort of blade flying straight towards us.

"Spin Around!" Our attacker said, their voice unnaturally deep. I could only guess that was the name of their Stand. Right now we had to block their attack.

"Use the door." I said, nearly stammering in my haste. Ren understood instantly what I was getting at.

"Magnolia!" He shouted. Materializing instantly, Magnolia was a robotic looking Stand. It had yellow lights flashing throughout its body and a consistent silver and white colour scheme. All five of its fingertips touched the doorframe. Within milliseconds the door had been replicated and Ren used it as a shield. Six blades stuck in our makeshift-shield.

"Nice work, Kanemoto." I said. The blades wiggled before extending out of the door.

Ren held the door up and we both huddled behind it. Six blades were going to attack us if we didn't do something. Think. Was there anything we could do? The Stand was mid-range and could control weapons? Metal? The user hadn't moved an inch since we got here. I got out my keys (which had a shiba inu keychain) and tossed it out into the air. Nothing happened. So six was their limit. I lifted up my hoodie and unbuckled the sword I had strapped to my chest. The moment my fingers made contact with the handle I felt the blade turn.

I tried dropping the blade but that only made it worse. Twice the blade cut into my chest before I moved away. Blood came spurting from around my right abdomen. The cut wasn't too deep but made me dizzy when I looked at it. No organs were hit but that didn't stop it from stinging like hell. And in my haste to grab the weapon it left a large gash in my palm. Maybe the limit was more than 6.

I collapsed onto Ren's left side. Most of my body was being supported by his shoulder.

"Nothing in the seventh circle of hell could compare to this. We must cease fighting at once." Ren said.

"Quit it, Chunibyo. I'm not done yet." Ren gave an audible reaction to that; somewhat of a gargle. "We can duplicate the door."

"Magnolia loses potency with each duplication. It's power is halved and like that it may not sustain the attacks of the knives.

"Just shut up and do it." I took a deep breath. A searing pain appeared in my chest. I'd probably lose consciousness in a few minutes at best.

Ren used his ability and I took hold of the doorframe. Just lifting it took most of my breath away.

"Throw yours to the right." I said. In synch, we both threw our doors. Two knives got stuck in my door and I heard the shuffling of feet. Before either of us could react the knives came rushing towards me. There was hardly anything I could do. Only a squelching sound was heard as they dug into my body. Perfect.

"The natural instinct when being attacked is to block, right? In your earlier attack you counted on me blocking to attack me more. That allowed you to gain control over my sword. By not blocking it allows the blades to stay in my body and you'll lose control. But nobody would dare letting themselves get stabbed on a whim? I'm sorry, you underestimated me and Ren. Because resolve for me means sticking to something after I've agreed to do it. No matter the cost." Ren stood, his mouth agape. Shuffled footsteps moved at the back of the classroom. "He's getting away, take him out Kanemoto." Ren dashed forward, cracking his baton behind him. We'd just confirmed his position and it was pretty obvious where he was going. Each classroom had two doors on the same side of the room. They couldn't possibly risk getting attacked in the light, so they'd move to the only other exit. Tripping them up with his Stand, Ren used their momentum for a finishing blow.

"Hey, it's a girl." He said. Before I could even process his sentence I collapsed to the ground, blades and all.

"Remember Alex," I started, "No matter what happens we need to keep fighting. Our friends might need help later."

"Jeez, I know I know. Don't worry, I understand how much victory means to you." We stopped in front of a classroom door. Alex lifted her hands from her head and formed a fighting stance. Using Girl in Red, I opened the door and charged through. Two people were sitting down, one girl and one boy. The girl had a thick hood, covering her facial features but leaving her long black hair down. And she was currently eating ice cream. The boy was wearing mostly thrasher clothing. Flames on his shoes and sleeves.

"What are your names?" Alex asked.

"Hidemaru. She's Chizuru. Let's get this over with then."

Girl in Red lit up with flames. Her right arm was completely engulfed with fire. Everybody else summoned their Stands and we stood motionless. Chizuru had a purple palette with orange clouds on her Stand. Hidemaru's Stand was tall and imposing, with a chilly breath. It's teeth looked more like fangs and the body was a pattern of cyan and dark blue.

"I'll take Chizuru." Alex said.

I sized my opponent up, looking for any weaknesses in their stance or positioning. They seemed to be playing it safe and had a more defensive stance. Knowing that, their Stand could be anything. Girl in Red lunged forwards with her fist containing flames. Her hand opened and released the fire into the air. Hidemaru's Stand caught it in a glass ball. The size was just bigger than a novelty crystal ball. It was able to throw the ball with alarming speed and aggression. Cracks appeared on the ball and just before it reached me the ball exploded in my face. Glass shards dug into my arms and the condensed flames rose and singed my hair.

"Are you starting to see the power of Axel Experience?" He said. No flames; I was starting to see that. Winding back, Girl in Red threw a punch. I used the flames to propel myself but cut them off at the last second. The impact was absorbed and I took a few steps back, feeling disorientated. My spine shivered and I drew my burgundy jacket close.

"Axel Experience takes heat. If you won't use your flames, then it'll take body heat. Until you drop dead." He said. I turned to Alex and she was having a similar problem. Chizuru's Stand (Dead Winter) relied on grappling attacks. Once Alex was drawn close it would use its breath to freeze parts of her body. So far it had left ice burns on both of her arms. More importantly, Dead Winter was standing near an ice box. It didn't matter how fast Alex was being. This way she was destined to lose.

"Alex, the ice box." I said. She immediately turned her attention to it. Creating a portal with Plastic Love got rid of the box instantaneously.

"No matter, I've already won." Chizuru said. What a cocky bitch. After that comment Alex was definitely going to beat her. I turned back to Hidemaru who had been patiently waiting the entire time. If I didn't use fire then he'd absorb my body heat. If I used fire he'd simply use it against me. My body wouldn't last long if he absorbed its heat. Using fire was essentially my only option.

All of my attacks with fire were absorbed. Hidemaru stored 5 full balls of fire just from a thirty second barrage. If he got the chance to use them against me the outcome wasn't going to be good. I had to keep moving. Any moment where I hesitate or flinch could mean the end for Alex and I. It would mean losing. That's why I couldn't stop fighting. My Stand constantly moving, trying to not give the opportunity to be hit with an attack. Girl in Red was only slightly resistant to fire, despite being able to create fire. My arms ached after punching so long but I didn't stop. I didn't even stop when I saw Alex dart underneath me.

A quick glance let me know that Chizuru had been dealt with. Alex's body was partly frozen over. With small patches on her face and arms. Due to her clothing I couldn't see much more. She grabbed the glass balls and latched on tightly. Even shrieking in pain. I couldn't bear the sight but stopping meant we both died. As quickly as she picked them up Alex threw them back on the ground close to us. Flames rose from the ground and grew in intensity. Was she trying to create a smokescreen? No, she was getting the room hotter. All of the stored heat had been released. Alex used Plastic Love to create a portal but was stopped by Axel Experience. Her entire body started shaking before becoming limp.

"Why the hell would you do something like that?" Hidemaru tossed her body aside and I jumped to catch her.

"Because I love you. Beat this asshole for me." She said, through strained breaths. I brushed her hair aside and carried her to a corner of the room. Right now there was no time to raise her body temperature. I had to get to Hidemaru first.

"You done romancing your lover? C'mon we were in the middle of a fight." He called out to me. I summoned Girl in Red and created a fire next to the wall. Hidemaru seemed confused, but attempted to clear one of the fires next to him. His Stand started filling another ball with heat. Once the flame was big enough I stepped through and punched Hidemaru. Like I expected, he released flames on both of us. I didn't flinch and was able to mostly dodge the attack. Now, with my opening, I attacked with a barrage of punches. Hidemaru didn't have much defensive capabilities against normal punches after being caught off guard. I took a deep breath and exhaled. It was over. Shit, Alex was unconscious.