JoJo's Bizarre Adventure – Wayward Son
(A glimpse of the future)
Two forces of immense power stand against each other; a battle for fate. "[Tusk]!" "[D4C]!"
Lesson learned shaped a boy into a man. "Thank you… Amber."
The man's own life was something he cared little for. "Jaune, why?" "All my life I wanted to be a hero; this was the only choice I could make that felt right."
One final question makes him pause. "Was it worth it?"
As this vision fades, we come to the present where we meet the boy who, through friendships and hardships, will become a great man.
Chapter 1: Remnant's JoJo
A cloaked woman sat upon her brown horse as it trotted along down a dirt road. The land was wide, with an open field to her right that had a long line of wooden fencing to separate it from the road and a thick forest to her left.
She wore a white blouse sans sleeves, olive green pants and brown shoes meant for combat, her only bit of jewelry were a bronze-like armbrace and pauldron. Her brown cloak covered the holsters for her weapons.
She herself was a beautiful young woman with a tan complexion, hazel eyes, short brown hair and a beauty mark under her left eye.
With full saddle bags, colored a royal purple, the woman was dead-set on reaching her destination.
Her horse jostled, getting her attention as she saw the form of a girl collapsed face-first into the ground by a wooden post of the fencing.
The woman spurred her horse, Valkyrie, zooming ahead twenty meters towards the girl. The woman then hopped off her horse and ran to aid the girl.
She stopped as soon as she heard an odd crunch beneath her boot. Moving her foot away, the woman saw that she stepped on an origami frog.
The woman shook her head as she had a moment of vertigo pass by. She looked toward the girl once again and noticed three things about her: she was about ten, her hair was a mint green with a bowl-cut shape and she must be homeless as she was clad in tattered rags that must've been a nice dress a long time ago.
She closed the distance to the girl and rolled her on her back. She checked for a pulse and breath, with both present and strong. 'How'd she get out here?' The woman thought to herself.
"Hey, wake up kid!" The woman said, shaking the girl as light as she can.
The girl stirred and opened her red eyes. With a weak voice, she asked "Who are you?"
"Amber. My name is Amber Zeppeli," The woman introduced herself, "What's yours?"
The girl didn't say a word. With those red eyes of hers, Amber had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach about the little girl. Like something was wrong. Very wrong.
Amber stood up and offered a hand to the girl, "Let's get you out of here, then we can figure out what to do next. That sounds okay to you?"
The little girl hesitated for a moment and reached out to grasp Amber's hand, but a distant noise caught both of their attentions.
The sound of a small motor came from down the road where Amber was riding from, with the little girl's voice coming from down the road singing an odd sound.
"Yeah, I'm gonna take my horse to the old town road~. I'm gonna ride 'til I can't no more~."
Amber stopped listening as soon as she saw a hint of green hair riding from far down the road on a moped.
Her gaze snapped back to the "little girl" with an intense glare.
Not even thinking about it, the "little girl's" eyes darted to look behind Amber. Realizing that the situation was a set-up, Amber darted to the right, barely dodging an arrow from the forest behind her that was aimed at her torso. The arrow imbedded itself in the wooden post, right above the "little girl's" head who then flinched from almost being shot in the face.
Amber pulled back her fist, imbuing it with the aura of the Fall Maiden, and lashed out to the "little girl's" face with a loud "ORAAAA!" The "little girl" was sent flying through the fence, landing far away in the open field, and Amber felt the sense of vertigo wash over herself again.
She now knew without a doubt that her enemy is a stand user.
Amber knew what she would be seeing from here on out was reality, and that the origami that she stepped on must have been the trigger for her enemy's stand. Knocking the girl away must have broken her concentration needed to keep the illusion up.
With a whistle, Valkyrie ran off to safety so that Amber could take on her attackers without worry.
She looked back down the road to see the person on the moped parked in the middle of the road, about thirty meters away from her, looking genuinely confused at Amber.
The form of the person was of a tall, blonde teenage boy clad in jeans, a plain white t-shirt, beat up shoes, a rather large backpack and a sheathed sword on his hip. His bright blue eyes look at her with confusion to the situation. Jaune Arc was his name, and he couldn't express just how confused he felt with just his face.
A glint of light from the forest caught Amber's attention, causing her to dodge-roll to her left as another arrow tried to pierce her. Amber quickly yelled to the boy "Get the hell out of here!"
The boy froze in his spot, with surprise plastered on his face. He looked like he's never seen a fight in real life, Amber surmised.
With a minor boom, a boy with a grey color scheme came flying at Amber in a spinning kick.
Amber quickly reached into her cloak and pulled out one of her prized weapons: a green steel ball.
Spotting references from nature, Amber tapped into her family's power of the Spin and threw the steel ball at the grey boy with a loud "ORAAA!"
The steel ball impacted the grey boy's chest, spinning and burrowing itself to the point that his trajectory was immediately redirected straight into the dirt road twenty feet in front of Amber.
Another glint of light came from the forest, only this time a woman with black hair, golden eyes and in a red dress came charging at her with two swords.
Amber imbued her second steel ball with her fall maiden aura along with the spin and spiked it to crash in front of the woman in red, causing a minor tornado of dust that sent the downed boy in grey flying towards the girl in green. Amber's first steel ball returned to her, using the energy of the Spin and momentum to fly right back to her.
Jaune wanted to run from this whole situation. He had only one goal: get to Beacon Academy to become a legendary huntsman/hero like his ancestors.
With the fight in front of him where one woman was taking on three people with nothing but steel balls, Jaune couldn't help himself but watch. This was the first real fight he's seen and it's amazing.
He put his headphones away a moment ago. His choice of music may have been odd, but he liked the track.
His attention was dead-set on Amber, until the dust tornado covered her and the woman in red. All he could do was listen as explosions and the clanging of steel originated from the obscuring tornado.
But movement caught his eye as he saw Grey and Green, as he nicknamed them, gathering themselves and shaking off the hits Amber laid upon them.
Jaune could tell that these two worked for Red and that they all wanted Amber dead.
Without a thought, Jaune unsheathed Crocea Mors with his right hand and revved his moped with left. He charged right towards them as fast as possible, ready to take them down with one slash.
Grey saw this coming and performed a helicopter kick that sent Jaune flying away. Green whipped out her weapons, dual sickles, and cleaved the moped into nothing worth more than scrap.
Jaune crashed into the dirt road with the wind knocked out of himself. He writhed for a moment on the ground before he saw Grey jumping at him one again. Jaune rolled out of the way before Grey could stomp his head into the ground.
Acting out of instinct, Jaune slashed with all of his might and cut right through the right shin of Grey, who screamed in pain as he crumpled to the ground. Jaune noticed that the leg he cleaved through was a cybernetic replacement for a real one. That immediately got rid of Jaune's guilt for supposedly crippling someone who was already missing their legs.
Jaune got up and grasped his sword with both hands. He looked ahead and charged at Green with a warrior's scream.
Green was not impressed and changed one sickle into its kusarigama form. With a flick of her wrist, a chain wrapped itself around Jaune's foot. One tug later and Jaune was back on the ground with a thud. The girl strolled up to Jaune and held both of her sickles in a reverse grip. With a smile that scared him, she said "Playing hero is for those with the skill to back it up. Try again in the next life."
Jaune felt his life flash before his eyes. There wasn't anything remarkable to note, aside from the good times with his family, and Jaune simply felt disappointed in himself. 'I didn't even get to Beacon.' He thought to himself.
As Green went to stab down at Jaune, another loud "ORA!" rang out through the clearing and a steel ball crashed right into the side of Green's face, knocking her down and out.
Giving Amber his attention again, he saw that Amber was now wielding a metal staff, using it to deflect the blows of Red's swords. The steel ball stopped spinning as Amber lost her concentration, focusing solely on the assassin.
Amber held a good defense against her opponent but failed to notice that with every attack Red was pushing her further into the woods.
With downward strike with both swords, while Amber held her staff horizontally above her to block, Red pushed Amber against a tree.
With nowhere to run, Amber could only watch in horror as Red's swords glowed with heat, slowly melting through her staff.
In an instant, Amber's staff broke and Red's attack struck her, breaking her aura.
The fall maiden found herself held by her neck against the tree by one of Red's hands. The other, which had a white glove with odd red markings, started to glow as the palm was raised towards Amber's face.
Amber couldn't breathe and she couldn't focus as she struggled in the grip of her captor. She was terrified as a bug emerged from the glove and clicked its mandibles at her. Without hesitation the bug spit out goo that latched onto Amber's face. Amber could only feel a burning pain as she felt the power of the fall maiden drain out of her and transfer to Red. She could only scream in pain, "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
Amber's scream made Jaune commit to the first idea that popped into his head: he picked up the steel ball and threw it like a baseball right at Red, impacting into the back of her skull. This caused red to lose consciousness and fall over, causing the bug's goo to rip from Amber face after only draining half of the power from Amber.
Jaune ran over to Amber's side and asked, "Are you okay?"
Amber weakly shook her head and gathered her steel balls. She then noticed Green starting to come to her senses as Grey was still writhing in pain beside her and said "We…We've gotta get out of here." Amber whistled for Valkyrie, who came charging in from her hiding place.
Jaune helped Amber up, having her use him for support as they made their way to the horse. Jaune helped Amber climb onto the horse before he turned and pulled his weapons out again.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Amber asked.
"I'll distract them, go." Jaune said, with some fake confidence in his voice.
"No way. You saved my life; I can't just leave you to die. You don't have a way out of here." Amber pointed out the destroyed moped that brought Jaune her, then adjusted herself in Valkyrie's saddle and said, "Hop on."
Jaune blushed a little and said, "A-Are you sure about that?"
Amber rolled her eyes, took a deep breath and said, "Grow a pair and hop on!"
With no room to argue, Jaune put his weapons away and did as Amber asked. With his hands around her waist, Amber cued to Valkyrie to start running just as Red and Green came to their senses and started getting to their feet.
Leaving their attackers in the dust, Amber yelled out "EAT SHIT ASSHOLES!" Amber then winced as that last taunt reminded her that her ribs were sore as hell, along with the rest of her.
After a silent half hour of Valkyrie's running, Jaune asked "Do you think we lost them?"
"I hope so…" Amber said, unsure whether she should give Valkyrie a break to catch her breath. Deciding it was for the best, she signaled the horse to slow down for the time being.
As the two humans figured that it was safe for the moment, Jaune asked "Why did those guys attack you?"
"If I told you, you'd probably think I was crazy." Amber said.
"It couldn't be crazier than those weapons of yours. How do you get them to do that?" Jaune asked.
"My steel balls? It's a family technique, we call it the Spin." Amber said.
"Can anyone learn it?" Jaune asked, this time with a hopeful curiosity.
Amber thought about for a minute before admitting "I don't know. We kept the secrets of the Spin in my family for a while."
Jaune nodded, "Okay."
As a moment of awkward silence rolled in, Amber spoke up. "Why'd you help me out? We're total strangers and you could've died today. It's… strange."
"What's so strange about doing the right thing?" Jaune asked. "My mom told me strangers are friends you haven't made yet. While I don't completely believe that, but I couldn't live with myself if I left you there. You could've died today too, you know."
The words he said made Amber chuckle. "You're right… about all of that. Maybe it was fate or something that caused us to run into each other."
"Maybe… Does this happen to you often? Getting attacked out of nowhere, I mean." Jaune asked.
"More times than you can imagine, for as many reasons as there are stars in the sky." Amber said.
"Seriously?! You must be a trouble magnet." Jaune joked. "Maybe you're cursed or something if this happens as often as you say it does."
"Hell if I know! One moment I'm on my way to Vale, next thing I know I'm about to get killed! If you didn't show up and distract them, I'd have been killed! If I ever see those guys again, I'm gonna fucking murder them back!" Amber yelled, pissed off at how close her attackers got compared to every other fight she's been in.
Jaune laughed at her antics. "I was on my way to Vale too. I'm enrolling in Beacon."
"Really now, kid? That's kinda funny, everything considered." An important thought just crossed her mind. "What's your name, kid? I never got it." Amber asked.
"Jaune Joseph Arc, ma'am!" Jaune said, playing into the kid comment Amber made.
"John Joseph? I'm guessing your nickname is JoJo with a name like that." Amber said with a laugh.
"Not really, my sister's call me Jauney. And you're saying my name wrong. It's J-a-u-n-e." Amber rolled her eyes to the spelling lesson from the boy. "What's your name, ma'am?" Jaune said, putting a little more emphasis on the ma'am.
"Amber Zeppeli, for starters. Second, don't call me ma'am. It makes me feel old!" Amber said, being playfully annoyed.
"Then don't call me kid." Jaune shot back with a grin.
"Fine then, Jauney-Boy." Amber said.
"That's as bad as kid! Just call me Jauney if you're gonna use a nickname." Jaune argued.
"Gotcha, Jauney." Amber said with a smile.
Valkyrie huffed, getting Amber's notice. It wasn't meant to alert her, so Amber caught on to the horse's message. "This beauty we're riding on is named Valkyrie. Greet yourself, Jauney."
Jaune craned his head around to see the horse's head and waved awkwardly. "Hey there, Valkyrie. I'm Jaune."
The horse gave the boy a positive sounding neigh. "I think she likes you." Amber said.
Jaune smiled as the two of them rode down the road.
(Sundown)
As night rolled in and the pair traveled as far as Amber was willing to push Valkyrie, the pair decided to set up camp by small clearing hidden by trees.
Jaune set up his own tent and sleeping bag, which he had packed in his large backpack, while Amber set up a small campfire after doing the same.
Valkyrie laid down besides Amber's tent, sleeping in peace after the long day of travel.
With some branches acquired and a small crystal of fire dust, Amber's job was complete.
She was looking at herself with a small mirror, seeing the burn-like scars that today's near-death experience brought to her now covering a large portion of her face. After all of this time by herself, Amber was rather proud that she kept her face in pristine condition for so long.
The second Amber would run into Red again, she'd gladly return the favor.
She looked to Jaune and asked "What do ya think? Horrifying, isn't it?"
Jaune took a good look at Amber's face before saying, "It's not too bad. Makes you look like a badass that's seen it all." While he truly felt that the scars were a little off-putting, Jaune knew the last thing she needed was that thought.
While she didn't show it, the boy's words settled some of the thoughts in Amber's mind about her new "look".
The two humans sat on opposite sides of the fire. Jaune watched the fire like it was a TV while Amber started polishing her steel balls with a rag.
Jaune noticed the care she put into making the weapons shine and asked, "So how does that Spin thing work?"
Amber halted the polishing and thought about it for a second, trying to figure out how to put it into words. "Well, it's basically the manipulation of rotational energy. We visualize those revolutions and make our object of choice spin too. My family channels the Spin into these steel balls, for self-defense and more."
"... That made no sense at all." Jaune deadpanned.
Amber felt a little insulted at the jab to her attempt at teaching. She felt a lightbulb go off in her head and gripped both of her steel balls, tossing one to Jaune above the flames.
Jaune clumsily caught it from his seat. Before he could ask, Amber said in a calm voice "Watch what I do."
Amber simply spun the steel ball in her palm with a flick of the wrist. Jaune watched in fascination as it slowly picked up more and more speed until it was rotating as fast as a tire on the highway.
"Try it." Amber said.
Jaune looked at the steel ball in his hand and flicked his wrist like Amber did. It lazily spun in his hand, losing speed after a few seconds.
"Look at how mine spins." Amber commanded, Jaune doing as she asked. He witnessed the spinning of Amber's steel ball once more: fast, humming with energy and consistent.
He wanted his steel ball to copy Amber's perfectly. Maybe another flick would give to give it more energy to at least get close.
"Don't force it. Let it spin naturally, while visualizing what you want it to do. It'll get there, eventually." Amber instructed.
Jaune focused, he wanted the steel ball to spin badly. But it wouldn't respond as it slowed down and eventually stopped altogether.
The boy spun the ball in his hand again, but it eventually stopped once again.
Jaune grunted in frustration, but Amber calmed him down by saying, "Relax. No one masters anything in a day. We can try again later."
Jaune conceded and the young man tossed the steel ball back to Amber, who caught it effortlessly.
"I think you have some real potential Jauney, even though you reminded me of a flailing fish in your scuffle." Amber said. "And it's a long way to Vale and Beacon. I think I could teach you a lot about how to fight on our travels. Your choice."
"Are you serious?!" Jaune asked. "You want to be my teacher?"
"Yup. What do you say? Want to fight like a Zeppeli?" Amber asked.
"Yes." Jaune said with no hesitation.
"Good. It'd be a waste to not teach a guy like you." Amber said, more internally glad than she was letting show. "My uncle Led told me once that there's n better satisfaction than helping another person grow into a better version of themselves."
As the fire started dying down and the night dragged on, the question that's been foremost in Jaune's mind was came out.
"Why'd you let me come with you in the first place?" Jaune asked as he got up.
"I owe you and I want to return the favor by helping you... plus it gets lonely on the road." Amber admitted.
"Thank you." Jaune said.
"You're welcome. You academic hopefuls are a brave bunch, I'll admit. Your aura won't be able to protect you as much as you'd believe. It was kinda funny when that Grey guy laid you out in one kick." Amber joked.
"What's aura?" Jaune asked.
Amber gave him a dead-eyed look that terrified the boy. Her sole thought was 'Good lord above, help me teach this boy how to fight and then some.'
"Get your sorry ass over here, Jauney."
"…Be gentle."
To be continued.