Love Live! Bizarre Adventure Project: Starlight Crusaders
Chapter 9: Death 13 (Part 1)
Last time on Love Live! Bizarre Adventure Project!
I am Umi Sonoda, and I've had the roughest afternoon yet. Steely Dan embedded his Stand the Lovers as well as DIO's flesh in Honoka's brain, and he's been making a fool of me all day!
Now that Nozomi, Eli and Maki helped get the Lovers out, I can finally give Dan what's coming to him.
Steely Dan had no idea how it came to this. He was on the verge of winning, but now he's at a major disadvantage. He walks back, intimidated by the very girl he humiliated all day.
"What's wrong? Why are you backing away from me? Aren't you going to tell me more about Honoka's death?"
Steely Dan tried to run away, but Slight Fever Mystery grabbed him by the hair on his head! "Hey, hey, hey... What's with the big hurry? Got somewhere to go? You're not actually trying to run away, are you? After all you've done..."
Dan still struggles to break free to the point of ripping some of his hair off! He even bows to her!
"Please, Miss Umi, forgive me! I admit, you win! I'll change! I'll lie on the ground and lick your boots! I know what I did was wrong! You can pummel me as much as you'd like! Hit me! Kick me! But please, don't kill me!"
He then licks Umi's shoe. Umi just stares at him like the filthy dog he is.
Dan wasn't really submitting, he was just setting Umi up. "Soon... Very soon, the Lovers will return to me! And this idiot, Umi, doesn't have a clue! This time it'll infiltrate your brain! Maki is hundreds of meters away."
Lovers wasn't the fastest Stand, bit it was still too fast for the human eye to notice! It zooms toward Umi at lightning speed!
"Just you wait. I'll make you suffer pain so horrible you'll wish you were never born! I-It's here! It's here! It's here! It's here! It's here! Now! Enter her ear!"
But it wasn't fast enough to escape Slight Fever Mystery's notice! "ORA!" Umi's Stand reaches Lovers before it could take over Umi's brain! "ORAAA!" It's one of the fastest Stands in the world! Fast enough to catch a microscopic Stand in point blank range! Umi's Stand slightly crushes Lovers to render Steely Dan unable to move! He screams in agony as his own Stand is being flattened!
"I figured you'd try something scummy like this. Don't you know my Stand, Slight Fever Mystery, has superior eyesight and reflexes? Didn't you check up on us at all?"
Dan tried to talk Umi out of punishing him. "I-I-I wasn't planning anything! Not against your Stand's immense power..."
Umi corrected him. "Did you just say 'your' Stand? Just 'your'?"
Dan shook his head. "No! I meant your awesome and powerful Stand is superior to any other! I knew I didn't stand a chance, so I had it come back!"
Then he explained his physical condition at the moment. "P-Please look! You've already shattered my arm and leg to pieces! I can't possibly fight anymore! I can't even move!"
Slight Fever Mystery applied more pressure to Lovers to increase Steely Dan's suffering!
Umi was feeling merciful. "Yeah... Everything you did to me... I guess an arm and leg should make up for it. Do you swear you'll never show your face to us again?"
Dan nodded. "I swear! I swear! I'll even flee the country! I'll go to the ends of the earth and never return to bother you!"
Umi made herself clear. "You'd better not be lying. The next time I see your face, it'll get a thousand punches."
Dan begs for mercy. "I'm not lying! I'd never ever lie to you!"
Slight Fever Mystery lets go of Lovers, then Umi withdraws it. She says her last words to him as she turns back. "Get lost."
To Dan's joy, a couple of kids, two boys and a girl, ran out of an alley, one of them holding a ball. "Let's play soccer over there!" "But then I can't play!" He pulls out a knife and instantly breaks his promise. Not that he meant it.
"Umi...!" Umi stops walking away from him. "You're an utter fool! Just take a look at that girl! My Stand, The Lovers, just went into that girl's ear. Now he's heading for her brain. You'd better not move, Umi!"
He gets off the ground, chuckling like a madman. "I'm going to stab you in the back with this knife, and make sure you never move again! Attack me with your Slight Fever Mystery, and this girl's pathetic life ends right here and now! You'd never allow such an innocent child to die, would you?"
Umi scoffs. "Oh, give me a break. Go ahead and stab me, then."
Dan wasn't sure how his threat didn't work. "Hey! Didn't you hear me!? I said don't move!" Then he felt something was wrong. "Don't... Don't..." Out of nowhere, Steely Dan was paralyzed! "What? Huh!?"
Umi grabbed his right wrist. "What's the matter? Didn't you say something about stabbing me? Like this, right?" Umi moved his right arm so he would stab himself in the face! He screamed in pain! "M-My body won't move! Why!?"
Not far from the two, the Lovers stood in the little girl's ear canal, but it's been tied up! "W-What's this thing wrapped around me!?" Asked the losing Stand user.
Then Umi pointed to the Lovers' direction. "I see you didn't notice. Maki tied Psychic's tentacles around the leg of your fleeing Stand. They stretch all the way back to her like a kite string. Guess you were too self-absorbed to realize it."
Psychic Fire's tentacle pulls Lovers out of the girl's ear before it could take over her brain! Umi's aura really scares the shit out of Dan! He drops to the ground and begs for mercy once more! "Please forgive me!"
Umi turns her hat to her right. "Ask for forgiveness from Enya the Hag, the woman you killed. I never had the slightest intention of forgiving you."
Dan kept begging for forgiveness. "D-DIO paid me to do this... You can have it all."
"Give me a break. You truly are the lowest scum in history."
"What you owe me... Can never be paid back with money!" Umi summoned Slight Fever Mystery, then proceeded to viciously pummel Steely Dan!
"ORAA! ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!"
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA! ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAA!"
Combining Slight Fever Mystery's immense speed, strength, and precision, Steely Dan will be lucky if he's just handed the most expensive hospital bill in the world!
"OOORRAAAAAAHHH! ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAA! ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA! OORRAAAHH!"
And then Steely Dan is thrown through a building, breaking it open! Umi's Stand launches him faster than the speed of sound, as his scream comes a second or two late!
Umi writes one more thing on her checkbook, then tears the page out.
"Your receipt... You can keep the change."
On the page reads "UMI SONODA". She tosses said page and walks away from Steely Dan, not worrying one bit about having to run into him again.
Stand: Lovers
User: Steely Dan
Status: WE'RE NEVER SEEING HIM AGAIN
Umi finally meets up with Honoka, Nozomi, Eli and Maki. "Umi-chan!" The ginger was happy to see her blue-haired friend again, but she could tell she's in a bad mood. "Umi-chan... What happened to Steely Dan?"
"Who knows. Dead? Retired? As long as he doesn't show his face to us, I don't care." Umi then hugged Honoka. "I'm just glad you're okay, Honoka. Now let's get out of this town."
Honoka hugged her back. "If it weren't for any of you, I would have died, and we wouldn't be able to take on DIO or his men together." The ginger then took Umi and Maki's hands. "Let's go! We can't fight DIO if we stay here any longer!" She ran, taking the two girls with her, who objected.
"What about food and a place to stay!?" Asked Umi.
"Honoka! Don't drag me like that!" Yelled Maki.
Then Honoka stopped when her stomach rumbled. "You're right. We do need something to eat."
Nozomi laughed a little, watching the three girls from a distance. "Honoka-chan should really take it easy. I mean, that Stand user did just try to turn her brain inside out."
Eli gently held Nozomi's hand. "We shouldn't get left behind now." Nozomi nodded as the two followed Honoka, Umi and Maki.
The next day, their time in Miyako came to an end.
Day 5. Having managed to halt the Lovers' invasive attack, Honoka and crew advance to the small town of Towada in the Aomori Prefecture.
Honoka checks into the hotel. It's not the fanciest but it was doable. "Now then, if you'd be so kind as to sign this document, everything will be squared away, miss." Said the clerk.
"Right here, yes?" Asked Honoka.
While Honoka signed her name, Maki was on the phone with Nico. "Nozomi, Eli and I shrunk our Stands and attacked the Lovers inside Honoka's brain! Craziest thing I've ever done!"
"Are you sure you're not making this up?" Asked Nico through the phone, which annoyed the redhead. "Of course I'm not! It's the truth!" Then Honoka lightly hit Maki's head, slightly ruining her hair, with her clipboard.
"Maki-chan, I hate to interrupt when you're obviously so busy, but..."
Then Maki got off the chair, more annoyed than when Nico doubted her. "Honoka!"
"It's time to check into our rooms." Said Honoka.
Maki redid her hair. "Seriously! Try not to mess with the hair! You should know how hard it is to look this good!"
Honoka realized how she'd feel if someone messed up her own hair, so instead of apologizing, she tried to give a look of innocence.
Towada was a nice little town. It had an art museum, a ramen restaurant, and their hotel even had an onsen. It was refreshing after days of fighting enemy Stand users.
When the day was over, the girls returned to their hotel rooms. Nozomi, Eli and Maki in one room, Honoka and Umi in the other.
After changing into her pajamas and brushing her teeth, Maki tucked herself in bed. She knew she'd probably face another enemy Stand user, but she would at least get her beauty sleep before then.
Nozomi caressed Maki's forehead. "You're so cute, Maki-chan."
"L-Leave me alone, Nozomi..." Maki groaned, but Nozomi refused.
The redhead knew sharing a room with Nozomi meant trouble, but she had to deal with it. It was just one night, and then she and the others would be on the road to fighting DIO.
After all, Nozomi's demeanor was warm. She was like a mother caring for her child. Maki found it comforting, even if it's the pervert of the bunch.
Before the redhead knew it, she fell fast asleep...
Maki was having a weird dream. It was pitch-black, and all she could hear is a baby crying. "That piercing noise..."
When she opened her eyes, she was no longer in the hotel room. She's riding a Ferris wheel. She looks to her side to see an amusement park, one that somewhat looks like Disneyland. "What is this place?" She asked. "An amusement park!? I've never been here before. Why in the world am I riding on a Ferris wheel in my pajamas? Something's wrong."
Then Maki remembered where she was last. "The hotel... I remember being in the hotel in Towada... But where are the others? Did they abandon me?"
The sound of crying returns as Maki hears a dog bark next to her. She doesn't ask what it's doing here, she just pets it. "This isn't making any sense. There's not a soul anywhere in this amusement park, so why do I hear the cries of a baby? Where is it?"
To Maki's surprise, there are now balloons carrying cards. One of them move towards the confused redhead. She takes the card and turns it around. What she reveals shocks her! On the card is what looks like a humanoid wearing a black robe, a jester mask and is holding a scythe! And the text...
"Th-This card is... Death 13!" Then the image on the card moves! "This card's moving!" The scythe jumps out of the Death card, which scares Maki to death! She dodges the scythe, which impales the dog instead of Maki!
The sight of Death 13 impaling the dog is horrifying! Maki, consumed by fear, screams for her life!
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Maki was now back in the hotel room, as Eli calms her down. "Maki! Maki! Hey, take it easy!" The redhead is now calm. "Stop screaming and shaking the bed like that girl from The Exorcist. You're weirding me out."
"Where are we?" Asked Maki.
"Don't ask stupid questions." Said Nozomi. "Come on, get up already."
Eli walks to the window and opens the blinds. Out the window is an airport with a prop plane. "After breakfast, we're gonna take to the skies. Pretty nice day out, huh?"
Maki spoke. "I had a terrible nightmare. It was horrifying."
"Ooh, lay on the details." Nozomi said. "I wanna hear all about it!"
Maki tried to recall the nightmare, but... "Thing is, I can't remember. I've forgotten it all."
Both Nozomi and Eli were confused. "Huh?"
"Regardless, it was petrifying. You woke me up, and pulled me out of it."
Eli takes her backpack. "Wish we could talk more, but we gotta get a move on!" Then she walks out the door. "Let's go. Hurry up and get ready!"
When Maki pulled the comforter off, she noticed her left hand bleeding.
"There's a cut on your hand." Said Nozomi.
Maki was unsure how she cut it. "How'd it get there?"
Nozomi, Eli and Maki check out of the hotel.
"Honoka and Umi are already on their way to the plane." Said Eli. "Supposedly, we're travelling 250 kilometers today." Added Nozomi.
(250 KM = 155 Miles)
The three girls heard a child scream in terror. "My dog! My poor dog is..." He pointed to his dog. "...dead!"
The boy's dog was not a good sight. By the looks of their corpse, they must have died by being stabbed in the face!
"Who would do such a thing!?" Cried the boy.
The dog reminded Maki of something. "A dog...? A dog... I could've sworn I saw a dead dog not too long ago..."
Eli was just as disgusted as everyone else. "Whoever did this is sick in the head, but there's nothing we can do about it. Let's go." Nozomi followed the blonde, but not Maki. She had to process what she just saw, as the dog looked hauntingly familiar, but she couldn't figure out why.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey... Hey, hey, hey, hey! Hold on a second, Mister." Honoka was having problems with the airport manager. "What exactly do you mean, you 'can't sell us the plane now?' You had no problem taking my money last night!" Although a simple teenage girl couldn't buy something as expensive as a plane, Honoka had the Speedwagon Foundation reimburse her on the money.
The manager spoke. "You'll get a full refund. But first we need to see to a baby with a fever. It's thirty-nine degrees Celsius."
(39°C = 102.2°F)
"Huh?"
A lady carried the baby in question to the plane. "We have no doctor here. We have no choice but to take the baby somewhere else."
Honoka pointed to another plane. "Th-Then how about the plane over there?"
"That one's broken." Said the manager. "The others are out and won't be back any time soon."
Nozomi, Eli and Maki made it to the airport. "What's up? Some kind of argument?" Asked Eli.
Umi nodded while Maki paid attention to the baby. "A baby..." Maki tried to remember why the baby was so familiar. "A baby, a baby... I remember hearing a baby's cries... But where...?"
The manager informed Honoka of the next time she can rent a plane. "The plane will be back tomorrow night. I can sell it to you after that."
"Tomorrow night?" Honoka stood face to face with the manager, who was the same height as her, if not a CM or two taller. "We've got someone's life on the line, too! We can't spend two days sitting around this place!"
"So you'd rather let that baby die?" Asked the manager.
"Well, I..." Honoka would never have the heart to let something as harmless as a baby lose its life. She tried to think of something that would benefit everyone, and that's when the lady holding the baby intervened. "Excuse me, I have a suggestion. We can give the baby to these nice ladies. They can take it to the doctor on their way."
Honoka took her idea into consideration. "Uh, nice idea, but..."
"The Cessna is built to carry six. So there's surely room enough for a baby." The baby smiled at Maki, showing sharp fangs from within his mouth, which made her shudder. Then he closed his mouth.
"I could've sworn I just saw it smile... The baby already has teeth...!?"
"Are you sure about this, lady?" Asked the manager. "Do you really wanna leave it with them?" He pointed at Honoka, who also spoke. "Just a minute! We can't do that either! It's too dangerous for the baby to follow along."
The girls ended up taking the baby with them anyway, who sat with Eli and Maki in the middle. As Honoka prepared to fly the plane, she was already regretting taking him with them. "I told them this would be dangerous..."
"Hey, just try and take it easy, Honoka-chan." Said Nozomi. "No Stand can catch a plane flying hundreds of kilometers per hour..."
Eli tapped the plane. "We even made sure the plane isn't a Stand."
"I'm more worried about letting Honoka fly than an attack from an enemy Stand." Said Umi, which upset Honoka. "Umi-chan!"
The plane took off the runway, taking flight for its fifty-minute trip to Sapporo. "Oh, thank goodness." Said the manager.
"What a relief." Added the lady. "But I wonder... Whose baby was that?"
"You're not the mother of that child?" Asked the manager.
"Oh no, I found it by the well this morning. From the moment I heard the baby's crying, I couldn't help myself... I felt I had to put him on that plane."
The manager took in that story. "Wha..."
The plane was a minute short of crossing Mutsu Bay as Eli and Maki were getting tired. "I always get so tired when I get on a plane..." Said the blonde. "Honoka, I think I need a thirty-minute cat nap."
Honoka nodded. "Sure."
And then Eli and Maki were out cold. The baby, or Mannish Boy, gave them a sinister smile.
The two girls found themselves on the same Ferris wheel, standing in the middle of the same amusement park from Maki's nightmare!
"What is this!?" Exclaimed the blonde. "Maki, where the hell are we!? Where's Honoka, Nozomi and Umi!?" Then they saw the dead dog from earlier, which gave them a shock!
Maki remembers why the dog and baby were so familiar! "This is the same dream I had this morning. We're inside a dream!"
"What? A dream?" Eli couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Yes."
Then Eli let go of all tension. "That's a relief! Just a stupid dream. You had me worried there. If it's only a dream, who cares about a dead dog?"
But Maki didn't let her guard down herself. "Eli, you can't be serious!"
"Dreams are only as scary as you make them." Said the blonde. "Ooo, just try and relax."
The redhead refused. "No! How can I when we're having the same dream?"
Eli never payed any mind to that fact. "I suppose you do have a point. It is kinda weird. But in a dream isn't anything possible?" And then she summoned a bowl of popcorn and a chocolate ice cream swirl out of imagination alone. "Oh, boy! Wouldja look at that! Lucky me! This dreaming thing is great!" She helped herself to the ice cream. "See? Think your dream is fun, and it will be!"
Maki knocked the popcorn out of her hands. "Listen! You saw the dog's carcass this morning! It must have been dreaming the same dream as me! It was killed in this dream!" She raises her left hand. "I got this cut on my hand while in the dream too."
"By whom?" Asked Eli.
"By the enemy's Stand, Death 13!"
"The enemy's Stand?"
"Yes."
But Eli still wasn't convinced about the danger. "I get it, you had a dream about Stands! Come on, you've got to take it easy!"
"No! It wasn't a dream about Stands! A Stand was in my dream!"
Eli wasn't exactly catching on. "That's what I said. You were having a dream about Stands."
"You still don't get it, do you!?" The blonde's obliviousness was starting to piss the redhead off.
An unknown voice came from nowhere. "Lali-ho! Tell me, does it hurt being that stupid!?" Eli and Maki tried to figure out where the voice came from, and while they were at it, the dog's carcass started shaking! Blood even squirted out from all over!
"Oh, for the love of... I'm saying you're slow on the uptake, Ayase!" Something was emerging from the dog's face!
"I-It's coming from the dog's wound..." Eli stated. What tore out the dog was a megaphone!
"Lali-ho! This is a dream, and I'm the grim reaper, Ayase!"
"A megaphone...?" The blonde said as the megaphone was tossed out the dog! What else emerged was an eyeball! "What is that thing?"
"Ayase, stay on guard!" Warned Maki. "That fiend is Death 13!"
Eli saw a couple of worms drop to the ground, so she looked up to see where it came from. To her horror, her ice cream cone was full of worms!
"W-Wor-"
Just then, Death 13 emerged from the dog, tearing it in half in the process!
Maki had to fight back! "Come forth, Psychic Fire!" But nothing happened! Death 13 grabbed Eli by the neck! "Psychic, attack!"
Eli also tried to fight the enemy Stand! "Soldie-" Death 13 was going to slice Eli's head off with its scythe, but it chose to just keep it in close proximity instead.
"Why can't I summon Psychic Fire!?" Maki asked.
"I can't get Soldier Game to come out either!" Eli thought to herself.
"Is it because we're in some kind of twisted dream?" Maki asked again.
"Lali-ho!" Cheered Death 13. "It's romantic, wouldn't you agree? Being able to die in a dream! Lali-ho!"
Outside the dream, the plane had just crossed Mutsu Bay and is now crossing Mutsu itself. As Death 13 assaults Eli and Maki in their sleep, Honoka feels a disturbance.
"U-Umi-chan, do you feel that?" Asked Honoka.
"Yeah. I feel it." Said the bluenette.
In the dream, Eli tries to fight Death 13 with her bare hands, but they keep phasing through!
"Are you stupid?" Mocked the Reaper Stand. "You know only Stands can defeat Stands, don't you? It's time for your eternal slumber, Ayase. Lali-ho..."
"Eli!" Cried Maki, then Death 13 swung its scythe at the blonde! "Die!" But it wasn't able to kill her. Eli simply disappeared from the dream world before Death 13 could strike.
On the plane, Honoka tries to wake Eli up. "Eli-chan. Hey, Eli-chan, wake up." Then the ginger throws a wad of paper at her. "Eli-chan, seems our little traveler wet himself. Hurry up and change his diaper."
In what is now Maki's dream, Death 13 expresses frustration. "Curses! Someone must have woken the fool. He's quite lucky. Lali-ho. I suppose it's no matter. Even if she wakes up, she won't remember a single thing. I'll just have to finish her the next time she falls asleep. So, Nishikino, it looks like you get to be first! Lali-ho!"
Meanwhile, Honoka finally wakes Eli up. "Hey, Eli-chan, you awake yet? Change his diaper!"
"All right, I'm up..." Groaned the blonde. "I feel like I had some kind of terrible nightmare... But I don't remember what happened at all. I've completely forgotten..."
"Once you change the boy's diaper, you can head back to dreamland." Said the ginger. "I won't wake you again."
Eli looks at Maki, trembling in her sleep, then she proceeds to change Mannish Boy's diaper. However, she had some trouble. "H-Hold on a second guys! The kid took a dump in his diaper! Look! Just look at the size of it!"
Honoka wasn't cutting her any slack. "Well, he is a baby. That's why he wears diapers."
"You're kidding me! That's why!?" Eli looks back down. "I had no idea! What a vile, disgusting creature... And he's gotten it all over the place..."
"Stop yapping and change the diaper already! It stinks." Said Honoka.
"How are you not embarrassed?" Eli asked Mannish Boy. "Grow up already, will you?" Eli gave Mannish boy a new pair, but the preparation was rather sloppy. "Does this look right to you?" Despite her mishap, she didn't bother trying again. "Well, it looks good to me. Umi, hold on to the edge there. I'm going to try and pin it."
"Okay, like this?" Asked Umi.
"How hold on to the baby." Said Eli.
In Maki's dream, the redhead is backed to the corner by Death 13, who swung its scythe at her! "Lali-ho!" So much fear consumed Maki that she semi-woke up from the nightmare, screaming in fear! "Stop! Stop it!"
"Maki, what's wrong!?" Asked Umi as Maki was kicking all over the place! "Hey!" Exclaimed Eli.
Honoka asked "What's going on!?"
"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" Screamed the redhead as she kicked Honoka in the face! The sudden move caused her to jam the steering wheel! "Damn it!"
The airplane is spiraling downward! "I've lose control!"
"Hey! Don't tell me we're gonna crash!" Said Umi.
"Stoooop!" Screamed Maki.
"Maki, what's the matter with you!?" Asked Nozomi. "She was like this this morning!"
"I don't care, just calm her down!" Said Honoka, trying to take back her control of the plane.
"Honoka! Fix the control column! Use Love Marginal! We're gonna crash!" Yelled Umi.
In Maki's nightmare, she was unable to wake up completely, as Death 13 grabbed her by the hair! "Nishikino, pull yourself together, pronto. We're about to crash because of you." The Stand fuses Maki with a beam to keep her from moving. "Lali-ho. Talk about a restless sleeper! At this rate, you're gonna get yourself and my user killed."
"Y-Your user is that baby?" Asked Maki, who was now tied up. "I don't believe it... He's only about six months old..."
Death 13 corrected her. "I'm eleven months. Almost a year old! You should also know I'm a genius! I may poop in my diapers, but I know a helluva lot more than you idiots! Lali-ho!" Death 13 started shedding tears from its left eye, then eyeballs popped out of it! The baby's Stand grabbed Maki by the chin and proceeded to fill her mouth with said eyeballs so she could no longer speak!
"And with that, you've lost your ability to scream!" Death 13 chuckled.
"A Stand within a dream..." Maki said in her mind. "I have to find a way to let Honoka and Umi know..."
Maki took her pocket knife out of her pocket and sliced her arm with it!
Outside the nightmare, Maki had stopped moving as Honoka continued her attempt to put the plane back in control. "What are you doing?" Asked Eli.
"Dammit! Level us out!" Yelled Umi.
"Calm down! 'Panic' isn't part of my vocabulary. "Can't you see I'm working on it!" Unknown to the girls, Maki's arm was drawing blood.
Back to Maki's nightmare, the redhead was trying to make herself feel so much pain she'd wake up, but to no avail. "I'm not waking up..."
"Lali-ho. No one's going to notice if you're cutting your arm with a knife that's smaller than my wee-wee." Mocked Death 13. "Besides, you can hurt yourself all you want in a dream, but you won't wake up. As long as you're asleep, I control every iota of your precious mind. Death 13 infiltrates the minds of its slumbering victims when they were at their most vulnerable."
While Maki kept cutting her arm, the eyeballs that spilled out of Death 13 grew legs, and crawled back into Maki's mouth! "Damn it. Stop!" Begged the poor redhead.
Honoka kept trying to put the steering wheel back into place with very little success. "What's wrong, Honoka? We're crashing!" Said Umi.
Honoka summoned her Stand! "I'll fix and control it with Love Marginal!"
Love Marginal took full control of the plane, even fixing what Honoka broke by mistake, allowing it to to fly straight once more!
"I did it! I lifted the plane just in the nick of time!" Cheered the ginger.
"What a close one..." Said Nozomi. Mannish Boy was just as relieved as the others.
"It would seem we managed to avoid crashing. That was too close for comfort." Said Death 13 in Maki's nightmare. "Now then... What do you say to me killing you by crushing that heart of yours? Then Kosaka and the others will think you had a heart attack." The Stand reached over to her. "Die, Nishikino!"
"Did you guys see that!?" Honoka cheered again. "How did you like them apples!? My flying's not too shabby!"
Umi pointed to the windshield. "Hey!" Then Honoka looked forward. "Hmm?"
The plane was heading straight towards a palm tree!
"OOOOOOHHH!" Before they knew it, the plane ran its collision course.
"What the hell is a palm tree doing all the way out here!?" Honoka asked herself.
"Give me a break... I knew it..." Umi thought to herself.
Then she spoke. "This had to happen!" Maki finally woke up as the plane crashed in the middle of nowhere, just 5 miles off the north coast of Honshu.
It is now night as the five girls and the baby had all luckily survived the crash. Honoka and Eli set up the fire while Umi and Nozomi unload the plane.
"This good for now?" Asked Eli, who gave Honoka some firewood. "Yeah, thanks." Replied the ginger. The two of them look at Maki, then the blonde spoke. "We survived, but... Maki, what's going on? You got us into this whole mess, you know."
"I'm not sure... I feel like I just endured a horrible dream." Said Maki. "And when I awoke, I was utterly exhausted. Something might be wrong with me."
"Try and cheer up. It's probably just fatigue." Said Honoka. "It's been almost a week now since we left Tokyo, and the enemies haven't let up."
Umi informed Honoka about Mannish Boy. "Hey. Looks like the baby's fever's gone down." He is more lively than earlier.
Honoka was relieved. "Thank goodness he's safe and sound! If anything were to happen to him, I'd never forgive myself." Honoka ran to the basket and kneeled down to it. She covered her face with her hands. "Peek-a-boo!" She removed her hands and stuck her tongue out with a smile, earning a laugh from the baby.
Honoka covered her face again. "Peek-a-boo!" Then she uncovered it, earning another laugh from him. "Such an adorable smile!" Said Honoka.
Eli was unamused. "I don't get what's so funny. You're not even making any jokes. What an idiot."
Mannish Boy cursed the blonde in his mind. "Put a sock in it! This isn't my idea of a perfect night either!"
Umi pointed to the wreckage. "Nozomi, the radio survived. What should we do? Should we do? Should we send out an SOS? That'll mean DIO can find us, but..."
"We've got to. Let's call for rescue. For the baby's sake." Said Nozomi while Honoka was distracted with entertaining the baby.
Maki noticed some blood running down her left arm. "I thought I was feeling twinges of pain. I'm bleeding... Did I cut it when we crashed?" Maki wiped the blood off her arm with a handkerchief. When she slightly pulled her sleeve back, she saw some writing carved on her arm! She pulled her sleeve up to see what the writing read!
"What's this? The cuts form letters. Baby... Stand?" The writing indeed wrote "BABY STAND"! "But how did they...? What could this mean? It's my handwriting. I can't remember anything... Did I do this to myself?" She pulled her pocket knife out to see that it was clean. "The knife is free of blood, and yet the blade appears to be the culprit. Could I've really forgotten violently cutting my own arm?"
Mannish Boy stared creepily at Maki. "Damn it! I was told she was clever... I never thought she'd carve letters into her arm while trying to wake herself..." Then the redhead caught him looking at her, so he looked the other way.
"What was that look on the baby's face? He deliberately looked away, the moment my gaze met his!" Then she had a realization. "BABY" meant Mannish Boy, and "STAND" could only mean one thing!
"Baby... Stand..." Maki stood up and slowly walked toward Mannish Boy. "Am I really losing my mind? I'm starting to think..." Then Maki roughly picked up the baby! "this baby is a Stand user!" In an attempt to save his skin, Mannish Boy cried to catch the other girls' attentions!
Honoka noticed Maki while she and the others were halfway done unloading the plane. "Hey, Maki-chan! What do you think you're doing?" Honoka walked over to Maki to stop her from harming the boy. "Come on, that is way too rough. You could strangle the boy! What's wrong with you?"
Maki felt ashamed by what she did. "I-I'm sorry..." She pulled down her sleeve so no one could see the cuts.
Honoka tried to calm the baby down. "There, there, everything's all right." Then she looked at Nozomi, Eli and Umi. "Let's have something to eat." She glared at Maki. "A little food'll calm you right down."
Eli whispered to Nozomi and Umi. "Hey. Umi, Nozomi. It looks like Maki's really starting to lose it. Will she make it through the rest of the trip?"
Maki pulled her left sleeve back up to read the carving again. She wasn't quite sure if Mannish Boy really was a Stand user or if she was just going insane. The boy evilly smirked at her, waiting for her and the other girls to fall asleep, so he can kill them all!
Stand Profile: MANNISH BOY
Stand Name: Death 13
Namesake: Death Tarot
Type: Close-Range Stand
Appearance/Personality: Death 13 appears as a humanoid cloaked in a dark robe. It wears a smiling jester mask with downwards curved eyes and an eerie smile, as well as metallic gauntlets, shoulder pads, a collar, and a high hat. The face's design takes inspiration from the masks found during the Venetian carnival. It is armed with a great scythe. Death Thirteen wears a white mask over dark purple clothes. Its gauntlet are silver and the collar is a dull gold. The scythe's stick is black.
Being an extension of Mannish Boy's consciousness, 13 reflects its user's vulgar and sadistic personality. In the dream world where it is almighty, Death 13 constantly insults and belittles its victims and takes pleasure in torturing them, having at one point made Maki swallow several eyeballs just to horrify her. It has the habit of shouting "Lali-ho." It represents the Tarot Card Death, which represents transformation and change. The stand's name also cites its place as the 13th card of the Major Arcana.
Abilities-
Dream World Control: Death 13 is unique in that it can only exist inside a dream world and thus requires that its victims are asleep. It is incredibly dangerous because it is certain to take people by surprise. It is offset by the fact that the user, a baby at that, is defenseless when everyone is awake and cannot attract suspicion.
This ability comes in two parts. When anything alive (human or otherwise) falls asleep near Mannish Boy, Death 13's User, they are drawn into Death 13's dream world, which appears as a massive carnival, complete with Ferris wheels and roller coasters. Anything in the victims' immediate vicinity, such as the clothing they were wearing when the fell asleep, will be brought into the dream world with them. The most redoubtable property of this dream world is that Stand Users cannot summon their Stand inside the dream world and are defenseless. Death 13 explains that because Stands are made of spiritual energy, during their sleep, their spirits are "off-guard" and cannot defend themselves, thus Users cannot conjure Stands. Furthermore, Death Thirteen has full control over this dream world. In the dream world, it is free to torment and kill anyone inside the dream with its scythe. Any injuries the person receives in the dream world are transferred to their body in the real world, including fatal ones.
No one can willingly wake up from the dream world, even if they injure themselves. However, they can be normally woken up by someone else in the real world and thus saved until the next time the fall asleep. When they wake up, the surviving victims won't be able to remember anything from the dream, though they will still feel the dread they felt from being subjected to Death 13's torment, giving the impression that they simply had a nightmare. Because people cannot summon their Stands while asleep, Death 13 is basically invincible in the dream, as only a Stand can beat a Stand.
Stats -
Power: C
Speed: C
Range: E
Durability: B
Precision: D
Potential: B
Next time on Love Live! Bizarre Adventure Project
Chapter 10: Death 13 (Part 2)