Chapter 2: Day One
Lunch came and went like the flow of leaves in autumn. MC never found the answer to his and Sayori's predicament. After all, how could one explain why he and his best friend found themselves a week in the past after witnessing a suicide attempt?
The day passed on the same way as it had before, with MC zoning out of class the entire time. He had far too many thoughts clouding his mind, and he had already taken these classes before anyway. Having listened to them back then was another matter entirely.
'Groundhog Day, maybe?' MC pondered. 'Is it like resetting the day in Groundhog Day, but for an entire week instead? No… why would Sayori remember in that case?'
Classes went by as MC soon found himself changed into his gym uniform for his PE period. He was as out of it as in the previous classes.
Suddenly he found a dodgeball knocked onto his face.
Recoiling from the light hit, he got bearing of his wits again as he noticed the entire class snickering at him, having already split up into different teams in dodgeball.
"U-Um, sorry sir, w-which team am I in?" MC innocently asked.
His gym instructor simply sighed as he pointed to the right. Nodding, MC quickly went into position.
Now, in class dodgeball, according to MC, there was only one real way to play the game.
"START!"
And that was to deflect the incoming ball with your torso.
And just like that, MC found himself comfortably out of the incredibly dangerous game of dodgeball like many others who had the exact same idea as him. The instructor obviously noticed this, but he knew from experience that convincing the bastards otherwise would be futile.
As those few stragglers made their way out of the field voluntarily, the few dedicated ones remained on the field. Unsurprisingly, it was three members from MC's team against one lone wolf from the opponents.
And yet, the three on MC's team were basically ready to shit their pants.
The lone wolf, Kenji Hoketsu, was their school's athletic champion. Teachers were so proud of him that they were even willing to bet that he would move up to a professional level in any of the sports that he played. Dodgeball was one of those that he found ridiculously easy. He was the local ikemen in a way, with his defined features and his red hair with pink highlights, bringing out his ocean blue eyes.
And that is why, even at these difficult odds, Kenji just smirked as he saw the three against him.
MC's team threw first. They aimed a well-placed shot at Kenji, which the boy easily caught. However, much to the athlete's surprise, one more ball followed up from the shadow.
This is where things took a different turn, at least for MC.
MC, as he was watching this, yelped out loud as a translucent royal blue humanoid figure suddenly sprouted out from Kenji's side. One of its hands unraveled into a pool of string and yanked the boy back in air as he made an odd show of yanking his body out of the way. MC looked around, seeing that no one took an obtuse reaction to the thing he just saw.
Looking back at the field, he noticed that Hoketsu himself was watching him for some reason, dodgeball still in hand. The boy smiled as he simply beckoned to one of the members who joined him in the court because he caught the ball.
To everyone's surprise, Hoketsu didn't shoot the ball like he normally did. It was more of a casual toss at his enemy, letting him catch it with ease.
Upon seeing his opponents look at him with confusion etched onto their faces, Kenji pointed at the stands. "Bring that guy in. Caulfield, I think his name was," he said.
MC was taken aback. Why did the guy ask for him specifically? Was it because he distracted him earlier? Did it have something to do with what he had just seen? He had absolutely no idea. But he was called, so he slowly got up as his name was called by his teammates. He hesitantly made his way into the field and was offered the ball.
"Well?" the boy taunted. "Throw the ball at me." He crouched, getting ready. "Give me everything you've got."
He accepted the ball from his sandy-haired teammate, Joster, he thought his name was. He meekly held onto the ball and chucked it as hard as he could onto the figure that was Kenji Hoketsu.
Kenji simply flicked the ball out of the way with his middle finger. "Seriously? That's it?" The athlete picked up another ball sitting in front of him. "I said, everything you've got!"
His hand was enveloped with a blue sheen as he threw the dodgeball with a string connected to it. As it was coming for MC, he thought he wouldn't be able to make it out of the way when it suddenly curved in the air and hit one of his teammates in the chest.
"Damn," the teammate grunted, "that curveball gets me every time."
'Curveball?' MC thought. 'Did none of them see the string that was connected to it?'
While MC was distracted by the string flowing back into the spirit that appeared next to Hoketsu, he failed to see the next ball that was coming until it took out another one of his teammates.
"See that!" Hoketsu yelled. "That's how you use a Stand! Use yours, for god's sake!"
'Stand?' MC pondered. 'What is a Stand?'
"Don't listen to him," the sandy haired boy who gave him the ball earlier and now the only teammate left on his group told him. "He's just trying to get under your nerves."
MC nodded as he turned back to his new opponent.
Kenji spiked his ball once again, aiming straight for MC with a string attached to it. MC immediately set his mind to catching the rushing ball and set his feet behind him to bear the brunt of the attack. Just as the ball was about to enter his hands, the string suddenly yanked it down onto the floor in front of him, making him fail the catch.
"There you go." Hoketsu said. "Now try again. Don't disappoint me."
MC looked back up at the man with absolute confusion. What was he trying to ask of him, he wondered?
He slowly picked up the ball and weighed it in his hand. He had taken the string off, luckily, but MC at this point was paranoid that there was more to that. That was an actual ghost that Hoketsu was in complete control of, and for some reason MC could now see it. He had absolutely no idea how to react to this bizarre situation he found himself in.
"Pass it here."
MC let out a breath of relief as he tossed the ball back to his partner, much to Hoketsu's visible disappointment.
The partner, Joster, pulled the ball back and threw it as hard as he could. It was slow enough for it to miss Hoketsu, but the curve put on it let it catch the last stray member on his team on his side, outing him.
As Hoketsu was left alone against MC and the sandy-haired Caucasian, Kenji gritted his teeth and yelled as he threw another dodgeball that one of his strings picked up for him. It was aimed at MC once again as he readied himself to catch it once again.
He hadn't expected some of that string to launch at him directly from underneath the ball.
MC yelped as he dodged out of the way of those strings, which withdrew back into itself as it failed to catch its target. By then the ball had already curved and knocked Joster in the side.
"That confirms it." Kenji said. "You can see my Stand. That means you're a Stand User. But why aren't you using your Stand?"
"What the hell is a Stand?!" MC finally relented and yelled.
Kenji paused at MC's outburst, but then started snickering. The laughter grew louder and louder until the boy was rolling on the floor bellowing his heart out. Soon enough, he stood up to see a stupefied MC against him. He wiped a tear from his eye as he finally said, "That explains it. You don't know about it yet, don't you? Guess that makes this easy then."
Next thing MC knew, the breath was forcefully pushed out of his lungs as one of those balls got him badly in his chest. The force from the hit was strong enough to send him flying out of the field, earning Hoketsu his undisputed victory, much to no one's surprise. They still let out a light cheer.
As MC grunted to try and stand up, he heard Hoketsu's voice calling him. "Caulfield, meet me here after this class." The receding footsteps told him that he was done with MC for now, but even then, MC didn't know what to think about his last message. Should he listen? If he stayed, would he finally learn what that spirit-like thing next to Hoketsu was? Or was this just to beat him up further?
He had absolutely no idea, but he knew he had to play his cards right.
Once the class got over, MC found himself back on the field standing against Kenji Hoketsu without anyone else around.
"Now," Kenji started by unleashing the blue figure that created all that string. "You can see my Broken String, can't you?"
Now that MC was seeing it up close, he could make out its finer details. Its body seemed to be made of a royal blue exoskeleton with grills across almost every portion of its body. Through those grills, there was nothing visible. Other than this, its face was round and had no extraneous features except the grills for eyes.
"Broken String? I mean I can see that blue guy standing next to you and I'm, quite honestly, freaking out about it, but I have absolutely no idea what a ghost is-"
"Don't worry," Hoketsu pressed the bridge of his nose. "That was the answer I was looking for."
"Mark Caulfield, right?" the athlete continued. "This thing you see here? It's no ghost, or anything like that. It's a manifestation of a person's soul that stands by the user's side. A Stand."
MC widened his eyes. "Oh, so the species of this thing is 'Stand'?"
Hoketsu let out another sigh as he facepalmed. "Wow, you're an idiot. It's no species, it's a manifestation of people's souls. Stands are just a tool to help you fight. Or if you're creative enough, like me, you can find other applications."
"Do you want to know the first rule about Stands?" the athlete got to his point. "Only a Stand User can see a Stand."
MC eyes widened. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Hoketsu deadpanned. "Seriously, you still don't get it? You have a Stand, you idiot!"
Suddenly the Stand seemed to detach its arms from its body and sent them to him, only to have them unravel into string, wrapping him completely.
Hokestu smiled. "And that makes you a potential threat. I should probably mention you to the boss to officially delete you."
'Delete?' MC pondered.
"Well," Kenji rested a finger on his chin. "Who said I can't have some fun until then? Not like this is gonna remain in reality anyway."
MC suddenly felt the strands of wire on him tightening, cutting through his skin. He could feel the string getting warmer from his blood slowly soaking it.
"Now let me-"
"DORA!"
Suddenly, a red fist popped up against MC's side and punched him. Even though MC had the breath taken out of him, he felt the string considerably loosen, letting him escape the thread prison he was in.
"Huh? Another Stand User?" Hoketsu commented as he looked down at his now longer right arm. "Elongation? Certainly, an interesting ability."
"Yeah." A gruff voice sounded from the door. "That's not all that Renegades can do, either."
MC looked to the door to see the sandy-haired boy from earlier standing there with a red, incredibly buff figure standing behind him like Hoketsu's Stand did. This however, had pink patches under its arms and on its sides exposing the rows of abs of its chest. Its legs were silver with red stripes with a pink heart joining it to the torso like a belt buckle. On its head was a spartan helmet with a pink feather out of the tip.
The boy walked up to his adversary. "The name's Geoff Joster. You, Caulfield, don't need to worry about this. I've got it covered."
Hoketsu, however, only smirked. "Oh? Another stray Stand User? How delightful!"
Suddenly a barrage of string sprouted from its whole arms and wrapped Geoff. "Let's see you get out of this!"
"Bad matchup, you idiot." Geoff commented maintaining his nonchalance. His Stand then punched the wrapping on the side, extending the string around him a bit. "I can easily loosen your string by extending them away from me."
"That won't help!" Hoketsu yelled as he pointed with his now longer left arm. "All you're doing is giving me more material to work with! Bad matchup, you say? No, you!"
Supporting his claim, the loosened string now retightened around Joster's body, wrapping more of it in one go. Renegades kept punching it, but as mentioned, all it did was make Joster fall deeper into the trap.
"It's no use!" Hoketsu yelled with his arms now long enough to pool around his sides. "I control every single strand of Broken String's thread! There's no way you can stop me from simply lengthening it!"
Realizing his mistake, Geoff now tried to pull off the string from his body with his Stand, but it wasn't easy. "H-Hey! Doofus!" Geoff yelled out at MC. "Do something! Distract that guy!"
MC, who just jolted back into reality after seeing the wildness in front of him, suddenly nodded and started running up to Kenji.
"Useless!" Kenji yelled as Broken String's head suddenly popped off its body and headbutted MC in the chest, knocking him back like he had earlier with that dodgeball.
"You are so useless, Caulfield. You can't do shit against me! You can't even summon your Stand!" Kenji yelled, a maniacal smile on his face. "Now, watch as I murder the guy who thought it would be a good idea to try and save you!"
MC let out a breath as he turned to Geoff, who was now straining against the string that had covered his whole body like a mummy.
"Now, String Funeral!"
MC yelled as he saw blood spurt from the mummy that was Geoff.
'No!' he screamed internally. 'I won't let anyone else die!'
That was when the one word that would seal his future came to his mind.
"ROLLBACK!" MC yelled out.
The boy had no idea why that word had come out instead of anything else that would have made more sense, like help, but he gasped as he noticed the results.
Kenji was frozen in place. The blood that was squirting off Geoff's body was frozen mid-air. Nothing else seemed different, it just seemed like he was viewing the world in freeze-frame.
MC tried to move around, but soon realized that he was frozen too. All he could do was perceive. That was, until it walked in front of him.
MC turned his gaze up to see a figure emanating a dark green aura standing in front of him. While the other Stands looked slightly transparent, this one looked completely solid. It would have taken a lot of concentration to look through it and perceive that it was actually a ghost.
The Stand had the star-crusted green arms and torso with the studded white gloves that he remembered from when he saved Sayori. It was wearing the school uniform's signature blue pants with bright red steel-capped shoes. Its body was well built, but not so much like Renegades was. Across the center of the torso sat six yellow horizontal bars parallel to each other. The first one was brighter than the rest, and if one focused, they would see the numbers '7:29:37, 20.2.2018' inside of it. Its face was oval with a crewcut of MC's dark hair on its head. It had thin lips and bulbous amber eyes.
The Stand opened its right palm, revealing a highlighted green circle with a single radius pointing upwards. 'Very reminiscent of a clock,' MC thought.
Suddenly the green highlight moved out of the palm, projecting itself like a hologram outside its palm.
And then it started ticking anticlockwise.
MC turned back to the two fighters to see Geoff's blood projecting back into his body while Kenji's lips moved, and his Stand's head moved out like earlier.
MC then felt himself slowly rip apart as one side of him remained where he stood frozen, while another went along with the reversing time, tracing back his own trajectory in time.
MC saw everything. He saw how he was headbutted by Broken String. How Renegades tried and failed in clawing out the string that held its user, after which it turned to punching it, now shrinking it. He saw how Hoketsu's pooled arms now got shorter and shorter like nothing happened in the first place. He saw the string fully retreating from Geoff's body and reforming Broken String's arms. Geoff then returned Renegades into himself as he crouched by the door. The string then pooled around MC's alternate body which had moved back to where he was subdued. It then rose up and hovered around him, only for Geoff's Stand to hit it straight on with the red aura enveloping it. It had only just faded away and the string tightened on MC's body when time slowed down once again.
Turning back to his Stand, he saw the hand that was ticking backwards had reached its initial position once again. 12 seconds had passed since then. 12 seconds were rewound.
MC watched as the green projection dissipated into the air, leaving the clock mark on the Stand's palm black. As time started moving again, he could feel himself getting pulled into another location.
'Wait, it wants me back there? In the middle of the thread?' MC thought. 'No! I need to stay here to use this correctly!'
And so, he remained. With a pop, his body snapped out of existence from within the string of the enemy Stand, reforming much closer to Hoketsu than earlier.
"W-Wha?!" Geoff yelped as he punched through the wrapping of string like nothing was there. "But I controlled my strength!"
Goeff then turned to the side to see MC standing quite the ways away from the string, almost like he teleported there. The way his dark hair shielded his eyes gave him an unnatural ominous vibe.
"Broken String, Renegades, you all have names for your Stands, huh?" he said.
The same thought went through both perpetrators' heads. 'How does he know the name of my/his Stand?'
MC smiled under the darkness of his amber eyes. "I guess I should name mine, then."
'Think, MC!' he quickly pondered. 'This thing can reset time! It brought Sayori back from the dead by giving me a chance to go to the Literature Club anew once again! Its name is…'
"Day One!" MC yelled out loud, making his dark green aura manifest into the Stand that saved Geoff and Sayori. MC pointed to Hoketsu. "Beat the shit out of this g-GAAH!"
Day One travelled so fast that MC was thrown with it for the ride. Hoketsu noted that this was withing 2 meters.
'The hell?' Hoketsu thought. 'This stand is strong enough to pull its user along?'
But all those thoughts turned for naught as the Stand found itself in front of him. 'Close range usually means high power,' Kenji Hoketsu remembered as he saw the fists of the green Stand hover over him.
"KIAI!" it yelled out as it punched Broken String in the face, reflecting its damage back onto Hoketsu, much to MC's surprise.
However, Day One didn't relent. It poised itself in front of Kenji Hoketsu and Broken String.
"KIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAI!" the Stand yelled as landed repeated blows on the Stand User who was suitably beaten into a pulp.
"KIAI!" it yelled one last time as it knocked a severely injured Hoketsu away from it, having let him faint on the gym floor from his injuries.
MC let out a heave as he saw the result of his Stand's work. Luckily, Hoketsu didn't look dead. Severely beat up? Yes. Actually dead? No.
"H-Hey," Geoff's voice called from behind him. "What the hell happened there? How did you know my Stand name?"
MC looked back at Geoff, not letting any smugness show on his face. "I… think I rewound time. One moment you were on the verge of death from his Stand, the next everything was going back to the way it was earlier."
"Rewinding time?!" Geoff yelled. "That's an incredible power! Can you do it again?"
Having his Stand still out, MC quickly checked its hand. Still black. "No, Geoff, I can't."
"Huh." Geoff scoffed. "I wouldn't believe you if it weren't for the fact that you know my name as well. I'm pretty sure you never knew that earlier." Geoff smiled. "Well, I certainly don't want a person with an ability like yours against me, so let me introduce myself properly. Geoff Joster. My Stand, Renegades, can elongate anything it touches." He put his hand out.
MC hesitantly took his hand in his own. "Mark Caulfield, although most people just call me MC. I don't really know enough about my Stand, Day One, except for how it can Rollback time by 12 seconds and it helps me time travel. I'm actually a week in my past right now."
"Wait, a week?" Geoff's eyes widened. "How'd that even happen?"
MC grimaced. "I'd… rather not get into it."
"O-Okay." Geoff then turned to the unconscious body of Kenji Hoketsu. "I'll take care of this guy. I've got some questions to ask him, hopefully he can help me out."
He fished out a notepad from his pocket and scribbled something in it with a small pen attached to it. He ripped out the page and handed it to MC. "Here's my number. You can go to class now but contact me once we're out. I'll explain more about Stands to you then. Maybe even help you discover your powers."
MC accepted the slip of paper and looked down at his watch. "Holy shit, I'm late for my next class!" he exclaimed, much to Joster's amusement. "See you later!" the dark-haired boy called as he ran out of the gym. Luckily, he had already changed clothes before then, so there was nothing to worry about in terms of taking more time.
As he sat in his last class for the day after another scolding, there was only one thing on his mind.
'I really need to check out my Stand a bit more!'
Stand User: Kenji Hoketsu
Stand Name: Broken String (inspired from "Broken String" by Unlike Pluto)
Abilities: Broken String can convert any part of its body into incredibly durable string. The user can freely control every aspect of this string like it were an external limb.
PWR: D
SPD: C
RNG: A
PER: B
PRC: A
DEV: C
Stand User: Geoff Joster (the surname is a derivation of D'Arby the Gambler's pronunciation of Joestar)
Stand Name: Renegades (inspired from "Renegades" by X Ambassadors)
Abilities: Renegades can elongate any object it touches. The amount extended is up to the user's choice, although it takes more out of the user to drastically increase the length of an external object.
PWR: A
SPD: B
RNG: C (2m)
PER: C
PRC: C
DEV: B
Stand User: Mark Caulfield, a.k.a. MC (the Life is Strange reference is because of the common time powers)
Stand Name: Day One (inspired from "One Day" by Matisyahu. Word positions are switched to keep it in line with the effect of the stand in comparison with the meaning of the song.)
Abilities:
Rollback: Day One can reverse time by up to 12 seconds. Cooldown for this ability is the used time plus one extra second. The user can choose whether they will end up in their current location or their old location after the ability has ended.
Load Save: Day One has six save slots on its chest. The user can save in these slots at any time to return to the chosen point's time as much as they wish. However, Day One will remain inactive for 30 minutes after a reset and even after this, it will not be able to reset again until 5 hours have passed. Rollback cooldown pauses the recovery time for its duration. When overridden, save slots cannot be recovered unless saved again at the required point in time.
PWR: B
SPD: B
RNG: C (2m)
PER: C
PRC: B
DEV: A
A/N: Shit really happens when you're overtly enthusiastic about a brand new story you've created.
Anyway, I was sick the past couple days, so things have been a bit easier for me. I would've used that time to write a bit more if it wasn't for the extreme bouts of exhaustion I had to face.
Now I know that Stands are usually named after classical bands. Maybe not if Killer Queen is a sign. However, I'm not cultured enough for that, so modern day songs or stuff I found on the internet.
I think I'll explain Day One's Stand Name's meaning here. I found the song One Day online doing research for possible songs, and upon seeing the name knew immediately that this was the one. Then I actually listened to the song and found out about changes that will happen to humanity one day in the future. Soon after that I had a spark of genius and discovered that while this song was talking about changes in the future, MC's stand implements changes from the past. Reflecting that switch in the name gave birth to the much better name for MC's stand that was Day One.
Also, Day One's abilities are based on VNs. Rollback is when you would have to step back in dialogue and Load Save is... well... loading a save file.
Fun Fact: Renegades was originally planned to be named Leather and Lace, but I was never a fan of that name. Too JoJo for me. It was a great day when I remembered this legendary song.
Anyway I forgot this incredibly crucial detail in the previous chapter, so I'll be adding it here.
I, pen-name ZepphireOS, hereby declare that I am too much of a simpleton to own anything about JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or Doki Doki Literature Club. All rights go to their respective creators. I only own the original character that I've created, along with their Stands. The concept of Stands might be copied, but the Stand ideas and designs are purely original. This message will be carried over for all chapters from now on as well as the previous chapter.
Oh, also, don't be attracted by the M-rating. It's for dark themes, like Sayori's dead body hanging off a noose in the very first chapter.
Just a quick review to respond to:
ianism0: Thanks a lot! Hope I can keep the hype up!
And that's it. I'll introduce this here once again because I'm all for the idea, but I just don't want to look like an asshole. I won't be adding any original JJBA characters in this, it's a pure DDLC story, but with stands and actual character growth. So I'm wondering if I should publish this as a DDLC story as well, just with a crossover warning.
I'm not exactly sure why, but it's much easier for me to write this than Ascension right around now. Maybe it has something to do with this being a completely fresh world? Also, know that my OC names are all pulled out of my ass. I haven't checked if they make any sense or not, just as long as they sound Japanese. I don't even know why I'm emphasizing that point, they can all be English names as well.
Anyway, to the few reading, thanks a lot! I'll see you all next chapter!