Amidst the darkness of an eternally expanding forest rushed a figure, dressed in an array of scrapes and loose shredded clothing, a distinct panicked expression on their face. Never had he experienced something so evil, so cruel. Sure, he's engaged in his equal share of battles in the past; but nobody could have prepared him for something so visceral. His foot hooks on an exposed vine, thrusting their geta into the scattered soil, causing them to hit the drudgery with a fluttering tumble, punting up a spell of leaves and grime that blackens the discrete parts of their black robe. It's an infinitesimal minute of reprieve, one that didn't last too long for the young figure. The perspiration that veiled their head had already generated a loss of vision because of the ungathered black locks growing down over their features.
There's an eerie moment of silence following their crash, simply tuned by the off heard owl and cricket, before another character emerges from the vegetation, this time in a mere paced waltz, their fingers out-stretched into broad sharpened nails that stretched fair several inches from the base of their knuckles, their speech so sweet and feminine when their graceful laugh beamed across the immense woods that enveloped the farce. It's uncertain from the shadowed tone of the gloomy canopy, but from the solid posture of their shoulders; they were male, and delicately built at that, dressed in a lengthy dilapidated robe that heaved behind them. If there was honestly anything unsettling about them, that could be regarded; it was an enormous twisted mouth that stretched much too far for an ordinary human, sporting a vile grin that covered past their cheeks to the lacking vacuum where a set of eyes should have been.
The scramblings of that who had suffered a split tendon did what they could to stand, unable to do much but limp in their pathetic attempt to elude the approaching steps of such an ungodly creature - but within a second they fell face to face with the odour stench of an agape maw, wider than a snake prepared to devour its prey. Its victim had no words, nor any sort of stumbling gestures, too frozen in shock to do much but acknowledge the unsuccessful attempt of growing into a part of the secret world that hid in the seclusion of midnight. But their demise was not so effective. They reached a remarkable moment of clarity when something powerful took them by the back of their black collar and literally flung them out of the way; mere seconds before that all-enveloping mouth smashed shut around their very form.
Another figure had invaded the fray, but this time- much more humanoid in appearance, dressed in a much newer outfit than the other. Whoever had rescued them had appeared so with one hundred per cent flair, with scant care for their own safety; perhaps a good samaritan. The last thing the lost wanderer caught before their back hit the solid trunk of a tree, outlined their rescuer... that hair-.. was that an animal on their head?!
The Demon, clearly so from its reveal in the peaking moonlight; was surprised that somebody had even sneaked up on them so easily. One moment they were alone, all fixed to devour their sought meal; and the next; another being had appeared, stole away with their victim, and stood firm in front of them with a little fear in their sight. This monster, this... beast; they had to take a step back just to understand the true meaning of this situation- perhaps even analyse just who it forced them into combat with. Their opponent's clothes were like the many on this mountain, yet with the addition of jewellery adorned on the slack open collar, but my- they were tall; perhaps they were an experienced Slayer? So many questio-
"DORA!" their aggressor gave them an insufficient chance to react when, in the glare of a second; they could feel something clatter against their forehead. It's powerful, but nothing a creature such as this couldn't receive a direct show of strength, only rewarding their unknown attack with the powerful flutter of their hair from the shuttering swing of wind blasting about them. As their long locks swing, it's only then revealed that the monster did indeed have eyes- one to be exact. Yet what was more off-putting was that it appeared through the disgusting squelch of skin shifting into a path for that dark yellow ball of sight to re-situate itself to the front.
Of course, this had taken the Pompadour haired boy by surprise- never had anyone been able to shrug off a hit like that, especially from the power he held within the depths of his soul. But it was just as lucky his reaction time could keep firm with the speed of a demon, redirecting the following claw strike to his body with the simple punch of his spirit. It wasn't capable of halting the entire swing, carving a neat three-strike mark across his shoulder, but he had built a tolerance to pain with what his normal life had been up to this point.
This became a lot more difficult than he expected it to be. What he had first surmised was to be a cut and run battle; had now increased to the enormous challenge of fighting off some unnatural threat, a threat the teen had never dealt with before. The grin returned, perhaps even more wicked than before; now that the Demon had a proper challenge to entertain them. It was so rare that they received visitors to the mountain. Only once in a blue moon where a fresh batch of recruits dropped onto the mountain. And after these few days, their abundance of game had rather bored them.
Their feet leave the ground, launched by their insane strength; on the path of the disgruntled teenager. Another invisible attack swung out this time, however, avoided by the Demon through the use of its heightened senses; swiping a few specks of dirt from its cheek. In such a short time, it had broken the distance and launched itself onto the young man with a tight grip. Sure, it could have ended it here and now- but what would be the point of spoiling a good plaything if it had enough spirit left to fight? The Demon was just enjoying itself, so a little toying would go a long way. It swings in a violent and sporadic movement that took hold of the human's forearm, lurching it with the unparalleled strength it possessed and slamming their bulked body into the soil with a loud quaked shock wave.
"K-Kaaah!" The look of shock and agony to this delinquent's face was just a taste of the plans the beast had for him, feeling the loud pops of his muscles tearing from the physical bounce his body made on its contact with the mucked floor. Just as quickly as he had been subdued, had the boney hand of the monster curl about his entire head, swinging him around like some poor doll, only to launch him off in a gyrating motion that sends his flailing form out into a tall brown trunk, crunching the wood upon impact.
This wasn't right- none of it was right.. normal people weren't meant to see a Stand.. unless he was fighting something more sinister than he had previously imagined. Josuke; the boys name, had not one idea where he was, or how he arrived- all he knew was that, one moment he was heading out the door for another slumbering day at school, and the next he could feel the cold chill of a forest breeze blowing against his neck. He figured it was the power of an enemy Stand User, perhaps trying to isolate him or even take him out of play altogether.
"Such a strong young man... " a voice- dark; booming, not at all matching the lips that came from it. They come from the Monster itself, now only a few meters away, clutching the struggling form of their previous dine with their large elongated fingers; the nails themselves digging into the foot flailing man's neck in just a subtle enough way to bleed them forth, but not kill them.
"Auuuwh.. With that power... I could have a Blood Demon Art of my very own.." the more they spoke, the sicker Josuke felt. Standing above him with one hand braced at their own cheek like some sort of blushing schoolgirl. The other tightened further and further about the Slayer Initiate's neck. He could do nothing but watch as the loud crunch of their collar being separated from it's stem echoed from the now limp recruit
But, their mood changes with the slow rise of the teen, sliding from the trunk and aptly wiping off the small crimson blotch leaking from his lip. Yes.. something had changed, This wasn't a dream or some sort of Stand Nightmare- it was real... real to the bone. And with that came the sense of protecting both himself and any in harm's way. He promised he would protect his town, yet with him displaced; that oath now shifted to protecting anyone he could... And not even he could do that.
It made him angry- so angry that the look within the blues of his eye had a sort of flame to them.. a determination to make amends for his reckless approach to the battle and hopefully find forgiveness for letting the very person they had tried to save; die. "Keep smiling asshole, I'm gonna wipe that damn smirk off your FACE!"
It's Josuke's second wind, and this time he wasn't going to hold back like he usually did. His regular hits seemed to do absolutely nothing to this... this THING, so it was time to work a little smart in this situation. If he couldn't harm them with just a simple hit to the face, it was better to demobilize them. Josuke, revived with a new sense of determination, breaks forth into a sprint, charging directly at the Demon with gritted teeth; a complete emotional reaction? Or was it true, did he honestly have something planned here?
The dead body is merely dropped at the shown effect of the creature's new plaything showing a vigorous response, such a spry young man, and that power of his, just imagine the things this monster could accomplish if they devoured the pompadour haired student. It waits for their closer approach, happy to offer some last semblance of hope before destroying it with utter despair. But among all of the villains the Joestar Family had faced- there was one crucial flaw they all fell under. They would always under-estimate the Jojo's.
Josuke was a combative genius, and he showed it all too well when the string of his movements slide to swing his foot around in the dirt; swishing up a cloud of dirt in a nasty attempt at blinding their opponent. it's completely unchivalrous, but there was little point in caring when you're fighting for your life. It would have worked too; if it wasn't for the Demon's swinging eye, simply sliding around to the back of its scalp to avoid the pitter of dust and leave this foolish attempt ineffective. It wasn't entirely in vain; Jojo had accomplished what he had set out to do. In just the short moment of observation when they traded both a single blow each, he had already gathered some sort of understanding of how they hunted, even without any sort of visual compass.
Acting like some sort of imbecile, he swung a punch; that's right- himself. throwing a swing at the all-powerful monster; which was easily avoided with just a single step. This was irritating for the beast; for some reason, their prey had lost all of that fight from before, like it was some sort of insulting display that they weren't worth their full power. An act that deserved a just punishment. Josuke was wide open to attack, but was that perhaps the point? exposing himself also meant that their opponent wouldn't expect any form of retaliation. The sudden crack of their leg brings them into full alert; something just took out their ankle with enough force to break the bone at the joint and jutt it out of the skin. Now tilted and swaying to the right, the full mighty form of the pastel figure explodes into the scene in a blast of bright yellow flame; its lips curled tightly in an angered scowl, ready to unleash its strength
There was little holding back, it went right for their chest with a speed fast enough to catch a bullet, caverning deep into their chest cavity in a guttural squelch. An entire fist-shaped hole had now appeared from nowhere, right through this monster, only to linger but a few seconds until the powering lurch of its cyan and pink fist retracting rewarding Higashikata with a splash of crimson, staining the front of his uniform with a vile gore. At least, that's what you'd expect to happen; but the hole vanished just as quickly as it had appeared; the skin folding across the injury, merely to return to a completely un-harmed state.
The Demon froze, it didn't understand- was this human toying with them?! Wait.. H-HGhhnn?! Their stomach.. something.. something was in their stomach! some sort of powerful drag, pulling them towards the scattered tree Josuke had collided with amongst their landing. It was grotesque how a large bulge had appeared where the former hole had shown, it's as if something inside of the Demon was pulling them with such an astounding force that it even lifted them from their feet. They didn't go without a thrashing, of course, their elongated nails dug into the very ground, clutching into the soil for some sort of ground sauntering brake into the pull. But the very interference of Josuke, still bleeding from both his arm and lip; sealed their fate.
"DORA!" The nails BEND from the sheer force of an invisible hit, crunching to their peak take until they snap at the very base, throttling them to the tree trunk with a wood crunch slam. It didn't make any sense, how was this happening? Did they bite off more they could chew with this teen? They looked like a Slayer- but they lacked any form of a sword. The situation only turns direr when Josuke steps forward; now using his sleeve to wipe his stained chin, perhaps to gloat over his opponent.
"What's wrong? Not feeling too good? Maybe if you had paid closer attention, you would have noticed that I left a little present inside of your stomach when I made my attack!"
What follows is the thundering sound of a disembodied voice howling out with extremity to unleash the perpetual hell that the monster had torn across this mountain. "DOOORARAARARARARARARARARA!" Dozens, if not, hundreds of fists come piling out from the incredible spirit; indenting marks appear all across the pale Demon's body over and over with little sense of relent, a truly powerful barrage of wind whipping combos that gave little chance for their bending opponent to crumble in defeat.
Their body, or perhaps what was left of it, laid flat out against the tree in a broken mess, the bark behind it had been splintered with chunks of it literally forced from the sole of its form. Then, a slump. Did he win? Was it over? That must've been easier than Jojo thought. A creature like that felt oddly foreign, despite his current predicament. But there was little to worry about now, his main focus was to figure out just where the hell he was- what he was doing here, and perhaps the most important question of all; HOW he got here-
SHNNK!
Josuke freezes, feeling the hot rush of pain enter his body before a slump of liquid starts to stain the black of his uniform in an even darker shade. All it took was a simple look down to understand that he had made the mistake of thinking he was fighting something truly human; No, he had made the deadly mistake of letting his guard down, hell; even turning away from an opponent after he considered himself the victor in this fight. But the world he had stepped into was a lot less fair than he thought, and it was all but evident when he caught the eye of two large yet razor-sharp fingernails, puncturing out from the side of his abdomen, peeking through two perfectly cut wholes in his student wear.
It must have been a knee jerk reaction when, what followed was the shattering of those elongated claws; a simple strike from his Stand made it possible, but that didn't mean the wound hurt any less. He had just enough time to slump to his knee and peer back to watch the ungodly act of his previously incapacitated opponent; cracking their bones and muscles back into place. The sound was so deafening amongst the silence- watching the head roll about on somebody's shoulders like that had to be quite nauseating. Yet even with the malformation of their body, they still retained the conscious manner to return with an attack in such debilitating fold, that it garnered a grand wound on their prey.
This wasn't the first time he had felt something lodged within his body, the memory of fighting a rather deceptive killer came to mind whilst he palmed at his mid-drift, applying pressure just to hold back the abundance of red ooze that refused to halt its spout. But the further he pressed, the more he felt his body weaken... Was this it? Was it all over for him? forced to die in an unknown place as a meal for.. this THING. The only thing he could do to show even the slightest amount of resistance was shuffle his form further back from the - now approaching, Demon; their body still exerting that sickening crackle of bones locking back into place, fixing any malformation they had endured from Josuke's beatdown.
He can see their smile, that wicked smile growing closer and closer with every passing second.. he could do nothing but watch, even with his Stand standing at full defence; it felt futile with the strength that was draining from him. However, it stopped; their approach, their look? It ended. He hadn't noticed it yet, but Josuke's crawl away had actually saved him from being nothing more than a slab of meat for this beast to chow on. Around him, was a column of light; peering through the canopy above him.. It was the Sun. So bright and warm, had he not noticed the time? The darkness of the forest was just all too surreal that he thought the shadowy blackness stretched on for miles and miles, alas that was not the case at all-and by some sheer spout of luck, he had been saved by the protective rays of an opening in the forest brush, enveloping him in a protective layer of warm light.
That didn't solve his immediate problem though, he was still gushing blood, and quite close to passing out from the lack of it. However, another sign of hope, clouded amongst the mist of his fading visual. Somebody had landed in front of him, some kind of... figure, cloaked in the same outfit as the very person they had attempted to save, yet clearly of older respect. He couldn't see too much as the light faded from his eyes, but he was sure that before the swing of unconsciousness took him, he could feel the pain of his wound being attended to.
(Hey everyone, This was quite the hard one to write! I went through several re-writes just to get the theme right but still struggled. I hope it isn't too bad! And that you all stick around for the next chapter! It'll be a lot more plot-centric than just mysterious moments and such!)