Chapter 4: What is a Stand?
Upon his entry, Geoff Joster made his way into MC's home and sat on his couch. Gesturing MC to do so as well, he followed.
"So," Geoff broke their silence. "You want to know more about Stands."
MC nodded, but then quickly asked, "Before we start talking about Stands, can you tell me what happened to Hoketsu?"
"Oh, that bastard?" Joster piqued his brows. "He's in a hospital. He got what he had coming after all, attacking us like that."
MC frowned as he looked down. Joster noticed this reaction.
"Hey," he asked, "you're not actually feeling bad for him, are you?"
"Well…" MC drifted off, unable to speak.
"Really?" Joster said. "He tried to kill us. You had every right to fight back."
"But that doesn't mean I can almost kill someone!" MC shouted, sliding forward in his seat a little. Joster warily slid back on his own chair.
"And to answer your question," MC continued, now subdued a bit, "No, I don't feel bad. But I'm supposed to, aren't I? I hurt him. Really badly too."
Joster slowly readjusted his seat as he chuckled. "Don't worry, bud. As I told you, that guy was the scum of the Earth to try and kill us. But it's odd that you're thinking twice about this."
MC cocked his head. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you see, Stands are a manifestation of a person's fighting spirit." Joster began to explain. "That being said, if someone who doesn't possess a healthy fighting spirit somehow manifests a Stand, there is every chance that the Stand can turn on its user and slowly kill them. Normally by falling sick for 50 days and then dying."
MC blanched a little upon hearing how dangerous Stands can get.
"But don't worry," Joster smiled. "You've already brought your Stand out, so you should have any trouble there. Although, your feeling bad for beating some guy is pretty weird for someone who can summon a Stand."
MC shook his head. "It's… it's not that!" he confirmed. "It's just… He killed you, you know?"
Joster quirked a brow.
MC continued. "He wrapped his string around you and compressed you with it, making you burst. Luckily, I activate Rollback before it got worse."
"Huh," Joster replied. "My old man actually told me about people like you."
"Your old man? People like me? What are you talking about?"
Joster chuckled. "You see, my family is… a weird one. Every single member has some form of a legacy to fulfil. A major typically Stand-related issue that we need to sort out and clear. That's what it means to be a Joestar."
"Joestar?" MC asked. "But I thought your last name was Joster?"
"My family is really old, man." Geoff replied with a chuckle. "The name just changed over time. But regardless of the name, the legacy of my blood still stands."
Geoff stood up and pulled back on the collar of his shirt, exposing a spot of skin behind his left shoulder. Showing it to MC, he noticed a small yet pronounced star-shaped mark on his skin.
"That's the mark of a Joestar," he explained as he sat back down on his seat. "That is my sign that I have to fulfil the legacy of my blood or die doing so. And sure enough, I find Stand activity in the school that I go to." He laughed a bit as he carried on. "Us Joestars have a knack for being found by trouble. I guess that carries over to me."
MC nodded as he hung his head low. He had no idea how to respond to that after all.
"Anyway, enough boasting of my awesome family." Geoff clapped his hands and stood back up. "Stands! Get on up, I'll give you the brief run-through."
MC stood up as well, now standing opposite his teacher-cum-partner.
"Now, the first thing you need to learn is this. Renegades." Geoff called out, bringing out his red and pink Stand. "What do you do here?"
MC looked at the Stand, wondering why he brought it out.
"Wrong!" he suddenly announced as Renegades let a hand fly towards MC.
"Day One!" he immediately retaliated by making Day One block the hit for him.
"And that's even worse!" Geoff called out yet again with a smirk.
"Can you get to the goddamn point?!" MC relented and demanded.
Geoff sniggered a but, but then called back his Stand. "What's the first rule about Stands?"
"Rules?" MC asked. He remembered what Hoketsu had told him earlier that day. "Only Stand Users can see other Stands?"
"Exactly!" Geoff said. "Now, what do you think the average Joe would do if they see that you have a Stand?"
"I… don't know?" MC said.
Sighing, Geoff put it differently. "Alright, what did Hoketsu do when he found out about your ability to see Stands?"
"He… wanted to kill me." MC's eyes widened as he finally saw the point. "Because he saw me as a threat."
"Exactly!" Geoff finally let out a breath as he stood back up in guard again. "Now, do this correctly. Renegades!"
As the Stand came out, MC kept his eyes trained on Geoff's. Geoff smiled upon seeing his improvement.
MC decided to take it a step further. "What, like that song?" he asked. "Why are you bringing a song up out of nowhere?"
Geoff laughed, but nothing happened to Renegades. Suddenly, the Stand shot forward, about to land a hit on MC. Reflexively, MC called out Day One again to intercept.
"And there it goes," Geoff groaned as he recovered from his laughing bout. "You should expect Stand User's to take more drastic measures to check if you have a Stand or not. One of the most common things they do is feint an attack, trying to make you flinch. If you do, you're out."
MC frowned as he called his Stand back. "But what if a Stand actually hits me?"
"Then take it!" Geoff insisted further. "The most important thing in the world of Stands is secrecy, which you already busted for both of us in the school, by the way."
MC grimaced as Geoff voiced the issue.
"It's fine, don't worry about it." Geoff pinched his forehead upon seeing MC's reaction. "Coming back to the lesson, if a Stand tries to hit you, take it and then pretend like you don't understand what happened. Finally, when you're sure they think you're normal, and when you're all alone with them, then you can let your Stand do the talking."
MC frowned. "So, you're asking me to get beat up for no reason?"
"Exactly!" Geoff remarked with a smile. "See? You're getting better every minute!"
MC 's frown only deepened at his comment.
"Anyway, let's continue with the next segment of training: the essential rules of every Stand."
"Rules?" MC asked.
Joster nodded. "Yep. You see, there's more to Stands than ghosts popping out of you to punch things. No, things get more technical than that."
"Alright, first rule!" he continued. "You already know this one, but only Stand Users can see other Stands. Don't think there's more to explain in that one."
"Second rule! Only a Stand can hurt other Stands! Your Stand is basically you, so if someone hurts your Stand, they hurt you."
MC nodded. "I think I've seen this before, when I was fighting Hoketsu. I hit his Stand, and he got hurt instead."
"Nice point!" he called out. "That means I don't need to explain this further. Now, for the third rule, only a Stand can hurt other Stands. So, if you want to beat up some ghosts without the right equipment, or rather, your own ghost, you can expect to fail miserably."
"Huh," MC said. "That I didn't know. Thanks."
"Anytime!" Geoff then gave him a toothy grin. "Now, onto the interesting bit. Studying your powers! You told me you can rewind time, right? What do you know about it already?"
MC looked ahead. "I can rewind 12 seconds and I can choose whether I want to keep my position or move back to my old one."
Geoff then pulled out a small sponge ball from his pocket and tossed it to MC.
"I want you to throw this ball in any horizontal direction and catch it as well."
MC quirked his brows, and then looked at his wall. Smirking, he threw the ball onto the wall and caught it as it rebound back to him.
"Smartass…" Geoff muttered. "You know what I mean, you idiot. I want you to rewind time to grab the object from mid-air as it travels."
MC let out a little snigger as he repositioned himself to face a good amount of space in his hall. He took a quick breath steeling himself.
"Day One."
The green Stand emerged from his side. Glancing at his hand, MC noticed that the clock was green, so he was good for a Rollback.
MC lazily chucked the ball into the air and let it roll to a stop in front of him.
"That's it?" Geoff asked.
"I haven't done it yet." MC admitted as he walked up to the position of the ball and picked it up.
"Alright, Day One. Rollback."
Day One lifted its hand, letting the green hologram move out of its palm and the world to come to a stop. The world then rewound as MC could feel himself splitting up into the two locations.
However, MC also noticed that the ball seemed to be transitioning between two places too. He had to quirk a brow at that.
'Can Rollback influence anything I touch?' he pondered.
Soon enough, the rewind finished. Being engrossed by the ball, MC didn't bother to observe what was going on in the area.
"Now, onto the interesting - huh?" Geoff said as the signature pop of MC teleporting occurred. Looking his way, he noticed MC with the ball he hadn't given him yet in his hands. Looking back in his pocket, he noticed that the ball was missing.
"What happened?" MC asked.
"I haven't given you the ball yet." Geoff admitted. "You rewound too much."
MC frowned. "I don't think I can control how much I rewind."
"Have you tried?"
MC paused, and then shook his head.
"That's what I thought, now try again."
MC let out another breath as he threw the ball one more time. As it landed, instead of going to pick the ball up, he went to where it had hit the ground first.
"Rollback."
To MC's surprise, nothing happened.
"Huh?"
He looked back at Day One, who showed him his hand. The clock was now black.
"Oh, so I can't use Rollback like this?" The Stand nodded, seeming to understand him.
"You have a cooldown, huh?" Geoff interjected. "Makes sense. You can't keep on rewinding time, after all. But for how long?"
Once again, Day One showed his palm, which had its clock ticking normally back to its original position. Soon enough, it went back to the 12 seconds position, but the glow that followed rose gradually. It was only fully ready after another second.
Geoff scratched his chin. "So, the rewound time plus an extra second to boot it up? Neat. You've got weaknesses, kiddo."
"Weaknesses?" MC asked.
"You need an extra second, right?" Joster replied. "Let's say you rewind a full 12 and someone hurts you within a second after your stop. You won't be able to fix that with a rewind anymore."
"So, be careful of that one second?"
"Yep. Now pick up the ball and throw it again. You've taken too much time."
Nodding, MC threw the ball again. MC then walked to the area where the first bounce happened, as he called out, "Rollback!"
Time started to rewind. MC saw the ball move back to his old position and take off to the air. As it drifted a good distance in front of him, he immediately thought, 'Now! Stop now!'
Sure enough, the rewind slowed down as time stood to a standstill once again. Noting the trajectory of the ball, MC understood where he would have to move his hand as the ball started moving.
Time resumed once again as MC held his location. The ball started moving forward once again, and MC shot out his hand the way he theorized earlier. Sure enough, he caught the ball successfully.
"Congratulations! You learned how to catch a ball with time reversal." Geoff goaded, although he had a smirk regardless.
MC harked a laugh as he threw the ball as hard as he could right at Geoff's face without warning. The sandy-haired boy widened his eyes upon seeing the incoming projectile tried to catch it, but he didn't have to. Because in a pop, MC was standing right in front of him, having caught the ball for him.
"Got anything else to say?" MC asked. Geoff chuckled, but held his tongue.
"Impressive work, Caulfield," he finally said after taking his ball back.
"Call me MC. I think all this warrants that much."
Geoff smiled. "Alright, MC it is. In that case, you're free to call me JoJo. It's a childhood nickname and it's got ties to my lineage."
MC nodded. "Don't worry, JoJo, I got you."
"Anyway, I gotta go now." JoJo stood up as he walked to the door. "Remember my advice for tomorrow. No talking about your Stand to anyone."
"Don't worry, I won't." MC reassured as he opened his front door.
The duo walked out to MC's front yard, as JoJo looked back at his new partner.
"Hey, MC."
"Yeah?"
"Fetch." He pulled out the ball and threw it behind him instead of towards MC.
MC widened his eyes upon seeing this and immediately ran back to try and get the ball. Obviously, he failed, but that wouldn't stop him now. As the ball slowed to a roll on the ground, MC took the first bounce position like always.
"Oy, one thing." JoJo alerted him. "When you're returning it to me, use your Stand to throw it into the sky as hard as you can. I'll catch it with my ability."
"Oh yeah," MC said. "I didn't see your ability at all today."
"Well, now's your chance." JoJo smiled as Day One brought its hand out.
"Rollback."
With a pop, MC was in position behind Geoff to catch the ball perfectly.
Geoff smiled as he said, "Go long."
MC grinned as well as he allowed his Stand to hold the ball with his hand. He immediately threw it into the air as hard as he and his Stand could. It wasn't strong enough to create sonic booms or anything like that, but the throw would immediately make a baseball pitcher go white with envy regardless. Or rather, anyone would be shellshocked to see all that strength in MC's skinny noodle of an arm.
JoJo only grinned further as he kept his eyes on the ball as it travelled through the air. After almost 10 seconds, Geoff crouched low.
"Renegades…"
The red aura of his Stand covered his arm as the Stand appeared there. Suddenly, JoJo thrust his hand upwards. Much to MC's surprise, his hand stretched out and climbed heights that he hadn't expected at all.
Soon, the elongation of his arm stopped as it slowly began to come back into his body. Soon enough, his arm reverted to its normal length with the ball resting on top of it. Excluding a few burns, the ball was unharmed.
"Nice." JoJo lightly tossed the ball again and pocketed it for good. "I've got one last bit of training for you, MC, but I can't be there to see you do it."
"What is it?" MC asked.
"I want you to teleport out of all your clothes except any few you select. Obviously, do this when you're alone."
"H-Huh?" MC was taken aback. "How is that training?"
"I saw what you did with the ball the first time." JoJo admitted. "You kept it on you after your rewind. So, I'm guessing that you can bring back anything you touch. I'm hoping that you also have an option to send objects on your body back to their position, because if you do, then it will be a valuable skill to gain control in. Ergo, you should teleport out of your clothes."
"O-Oh, okay, I guess I'll do that when I can." MC said.
Standing in silence for a while, JoJo eventually confessed something to MC.
"Hey man, remember when I was talking about how my family talked about people like you?"
"Huh? Well, yeah. You never answered that second bit, right?"
"Yeah, well you need to know the answer." JoJo turned to look at MC in the eye. "MC, you're a protector. You can't stand those close to you getting hurt, so you do everything you can to help them. Basically, your fighting spirit gets stronger to protect those close to you."
"Huh." MC let out a breath. "I'm like a hero, then?"
"Yep. Anyway, with that out of the way, I guess I'll see you in class tomorrow, MC! See ya!" JoJo lightly waved as he left the place.
"S-See you tomorrow!" MC gave a more enthusiastic goodbye as he retreated into his house.
"Umm, MC?" a completely different voice sounded out.
MC froze as he looked over to his neighbor's lawn, seeing Sayori sitting there watching them.
"What… What was all that?" she asked, having gone white.
MC's eyes widened as he realized what she was talking about.
'Shit, she saw everything me and JoJo did out here.'
Mentally facepalming, he beckoned Sayori to come into his house. She gladly did so.
"So, you can now regularly rewind time? Because of this… Stand?"
"Yep. Whenever I want, but only up to 12 seconds."
In his head, MC was beating himself up for talking about Stands to another person after JoJo just told him not to get in a scenario like that. But in his defense, JoJo started the Stand display outside, so it should technically be his fault.
"Wait," Sayori shook her head. "Only 12 seconds? But you rewound a full week for both of us!"
MC paused. "Oh, right. I forgot about that."
"You forgot how you reset a whole week?"
"Hey, I had a wild day! I discovered I have superpowers, I now know that people want to kill me and I almost killed someone myself!"
Sayori blanched. "H-Huh?"
MC bit his tongue yet again. "Oops, I probably shouldn't have said all that."
"Wait, wait, people want to kill you? And you almost killed someone? What happened?"
MC waved his hands in front of him. "Hey, that guy was trying to kill me! He would have killed JoJo too, if it wasn't for my Rollback!"
"JoJo?"
"Joster, the guy who just walked away from here."
"Oh, so the one who stretched his hand like all those stretchy superheroes?"
"Yep." MC grimaced at Sayori's description of their stupidity.
Sayori shook her head again. "Ok, forget that for now, you rewound us a whole week?"
"Y-Yeah!" MC stuttered as he immediately called out, "Day One."
The green Stand appeared next to him, baring its chest out. MC finally noticed the bars on the center and noticed that the top one was glowing brighter than the rest.
Looking at it more closely, he saw the numbers '7:29:37, 20.2.2018' inside. MC's eyes widened as he realized that that was he time he had woken up that morning.
Hesitantly, he pressed the blank yellow bar under the highlighted one. Sure enough, that started to glow as well, as numbers popped up on it as well. '17:12:56, 20.2.2018' it read.
'Wait,' MC widened his eyes. 'Are these Save Slots?'
"M-MC? Is that… your Stand?"
MC turned back to Sayori who had moved all the way to the end of the couch in fear of the ghost MC was interacting with. MC smiled to reassure his childhood friend.
"Yep. This is Day One. Only Stand Users can see him though, so he is…"
'Wait, then how can Sayori see him?'
Mc jerked back to see Sayori. "You can see him?"
"Y-Yeah?" Sayori said. "Am I not supposed to?"
"Well, no." MC said. "You shouldn't be able to see Day One, unless you're a Stand User yourself."
"I… are you saying that I should get one of those?" Sayori asked.
MC nodded. "Stands can have multiple abilities, so your Stand will be different, but you will get one unless you have a poor… fighting spirit…"
MC, now seeing his gentle, innocent and incredibly happy-go-lucky childhood friend and maybe-girlfriend, realized that she should never have a Stand of her own. Otherwise…
'Normally by falling sick for 50 days and then dying,' he recalled.
"Sayori…" MC said, "If you, by any chance, fall sick within the next couple days, please let me know."
"Sick?" Sayori asked. "Okay, I will. But I don't get how that connects to me having a Stand!"
"Trust me, there is a connection." There was no way he could tell Sayori she was doomed to die soon, especially not so soon after saving her from death.
"O-Okay." Sayori hesitantly agreed upon seeing MC's terrified expression.
"Good." MC then suddenly remembered what happened back in the club, right before he Rollback-ed. The expressions on both Sayori's face and… Monika's.
That was also the moment he remembered every other oddity with Monika from before the reset. Especially on the festival day.
'On the day Sayori died, she seemed to know about it already. She designed the pamphlets with her, so she knew about the poem. And she was cheerful that day.'
"Sayori," he decided to ask. "What did Monika do to you?"
Sayori's face immediately went white upon mention of her.
"M-MC, we don't need to-"
"What. Did. She. Do?"
Sayori frowned as she looked away from MC.
"I… I don't really know. Whenever I talked to her, she would seem oddly out of it. And for some reason, I would always feel so much worse after my talks with her."
MC's gaze hardened even more. "Are you saying she instigated you to… do that?"
Sayori quickly shook her head. "No! Well, maybe? I don't really understand what happened…"
MC blanched. He vaguely remembered Monika seeing his Stand before a Rollback, so she had to have a Stand as well. Was that how she was influencing Sayori? Regardless, this was all wrong. How could Monika of all people do that? Sadly, all the evidence adds up, and points to only one thing.
"Please don't hold it against her, MC!" Sayori immediately interjected. "I… I don't know if she really did anything, but if she did, there has to be a good reason for it. She wouldn't do that for no reason."
MC shook his head. "Sayori, as long as she's out there, she can keep hurting people just like she hurt you. We need to stop her before she hurts anyone again."
"Can't we just talk to her instead?" she asked. "I know there's a reason for all this, we just need to ask her-"
"No, Sayori." MC concluded. "She drove you to… I cannot forgive that. Not unless it's one hell of a reason."
"We don't even know if she-"
"She has a Stand as well, Sayori." MC finally conceded. "I saw her see mine right before I Rollback-ed.
"But even then," MC continued. "We can't talk to her about it. She's a Stand User as well. She'll see us as a threat."
Sayori looked down in sadness.
"Just, do me another favor?" MC said. "Stay away from Monika. Also, more importantly, never react to another Stand. If you do, they will attack you. And since you don't have a Stand of your own to defend yourself, you are especially vulnerable."
Sayori paused for a while, but then chuckled. "Who knew that we'd have to deal with after a stupid mistake I made? All this ghosts and magic, I don't know if I'm ready for it yet."
MC looked down as well. "Me neither, Sayori. But this is something we have to do regardless."
A/N: Bit of a boring one, I know. But sadly, every chapter will have their boring moments. Maybe if I had given some more thought into this chapter, I could have made it better, but I don't want to cry over spilt milk.
It wasn't like I had time to, either. Uni has been kicking my ass for the past few weeks. Tons of late assignments for me to catch up on because I was too reckless with my procrastination and I kept reading fanfiction.
Then there's also the case of Ascension. For those who don't know, it another fanfic that I'm working on, so if you've read or watched My Hero Academia, you can check that out as well on my profile.
I understand that it's been a month since I've updated it. The reason why I'm working on MCBA instead is that its chapters are much smaller than Ascension's, so they're a much quicker write. I've got the details for the new chapter planned, but it will take some time for me to be free enough to work on it. Maybe after my semester ends, while I'm studying for my final? Or will I hold off till December, my break? Who knows?
Anyway, I need to sleep now. I had a long night. See ya next chapter.