Chapter 7: Take Me to Church
It was yet another good Thursday for Sayori. She was in the middle of classes after a very good lunch. She had finally gotten to sit with MC after a few hectic days of Stand related stuff that he had to work on.
And yet, Sayori could not get her mind off the craziness of Stands.
There was every chance that Monika was a Stand User and could be hurting the members of the Literature Club for some reason. However, Sayori still held on to the belief that there was something working behind the scenes. She just couldn't believe that Monika of all people would willingly drive her to suicide.
"Sayori?" her teacher called, "Are you still with us?"
Shaking herself out of her stupor among the light snickering of her classmates, she smiled and waved at the teacher.
"Sorry, Ma'am, I'm here now."
The teacher nodded. "Thank you. I was just about to ask if someone wanted to solve this question. Can you do it?"
Sayori looked at the board, remembering something that looked kind of like that question while trying to study a couple days ago.
"Okay!" she enthusiastically agreed. "I'll try!"
She stood up from her desk and walked to the board. As she accepted the chalk from the teacher, she suddenly felt herself go off balance for a moment.
"Sayori?" the teacher asked, noticing her stumbling. "Are you okay? Too sleepy?"
"N-No, I slept well," Sayori admitted with a frown. "I'm just…"
Sayori found herself unable to speak as a sudden wave of exhaustion washed over her. She dropped the chalk in her hand and collapsed onto the floor.
"Sayori!"
The day was rather quiet for once.
Last night had more awkward Stand training, as he wrote yet another poem thinking about Sayori.
Lunch that day had gone by without incident, for which MC was glad. And he was glad that he got to talk to Sayori some during lunch. He even managed to get her and JoJo acquainted, but only briefly. JoJo didn't like her for some reason, he felt. Only after he left, did he remember that he should have told him about her being able to see Stands.
'Wait, where is her Stand, in the first place?' MC thought. 'She hasn't gotten sick, so shouldn't she be able to summon one?'
As if fate was answering his question, he found the answer to his question as he walked to his next class.
"… some chick just collapsed in our class." MC overheard a bit of a conversation from two boys walking alongside him.
"Wait, seriously?" the other boy responded. "Who?"
"Don't really know her personally," the first boy admitted. "She's kinda cute, though. The bubbly airheaded type. Her name was… Sayo-something."
MC's eyes widened as he immediately drove himself into the conversation.
"Is it Sayori?!" he immediately asked the boy who was talking about it.
"Whoa," the boy remarked, seeing MC up in his face. "Who the hell are-"
"Answer the question, please," MC begged. "Is it Sayori?"
"Well, yeah? I think."
"And she fell sick?" MC continued.
"Yeah," the boy nodded. "Collapsed in the middle of class. But why are you-"
"Where is she now?" MC immediately interrupted, irking the boy a little.
"T-The nurse's office, obviously."
Without waiting to finish their conversation formally, MC dashed away to the nurse's office, ignoring the few expletives thrown by the two behind him.
Running for a while, MC found himself at the nurse's office's door. He immediately threw the door open.
"Keep it down, please," the nurse rather lazily said from her desk. "What do you want?"
"Sayori," MC asked. "Is she here?"
The woman pointed at one of the beds shielded by a curtain. She said something about getting to class on time, but MC didn't bother to listen as he thrust the curtain open.
MC blanched as he saw Sayori resting on a bed, face entirely red and sweating with a washcloth on her forehead.
"High fever," the nurse spoke from nearby. MC didn't find it in him to say anything. "She has all the symptoms. High temperature, exhaustion, the lot. I gave her the usual and asked her to rest. Don't worry, she should be fine."
MC knew better than that but nodded so that he could keep appearances. The nurse seemed to notice upon seeing how MC's expression didn't change, sporting a desperate frown of fear.
"These aren't pregnancy symptoms, kid." The nurse said, making MC immediately flush.
"N-No, it's not like that," MC said, still sporting worry as he looked at Sayori. "I'm just worried."
The nurse nodded. "Alright, I'll give you some time with your girlfriend, then. There's Holeface in here to, but he shouldn't give you any trouble."
"Oi!" a boyish voice called out from a nearby shielded bed. "Stop calling me that, dammit!"
Laughing a little, the nurse ignored the comment. She turned to MC. "I gotta go take care of something, so if you want a leave permit from me for class, you just hold the fort in return, okay kid?"
MC nodded in agreement as the nurse smiled and walked out, grabbing her coat as she did so.
MC stood for a while, listening to the silence of the office. He then pulled up a chair next to Sayori's bed. Hesitantly, he reached out to grab her hand.
"M… MC…?" the girl mumbled, keeping her eyes closed.
"Sayori?" MC gently asked. "Are you alright?"
Sayori smiled but coughed a bit as she did so as she opened her eyes ever so slightly. "N-No. S-Sorry I didn't tell you, MC."
"It's okay, Sayori," MC said. "I'm planning to reset, anyway. I'm not going to leave you like this."
"MC, this is just a fever. That's what the nurse said."
"Well, she's wrong." MC admitted, widening Sayori's eyes. "Your Stand is doing this to you."
"My… ah." Sayori whined a bit as she rested her head back. "It… It always goes back to Stands, huh?"
"Well, I guess." MC admitted. "But that doesn't matter. I'm going to Load a Save."
"What's the point, MC?" Sayori said. "I'll still have a Stand, no matter what you do. I can't stop it from killing me. All you're doing is delaying it."
"I know," MC said, "I just… I can't lose you again, Sayori." MC's eyes started to bear tears now.
"MC…" Sayori wiped away some of his tears and held his chin in her hand. "It's okay. It doesn't matter what happens to me."
"S-Sayori…" MC slowly choked into her hand, letting his tears fall out as he hugged her by her stomach. "P-Please don't say that…"
Hearing no response, MC noticed that Sayori had passed out once again on her bed. Holding back even more tears, he sat up straight again and wiped his eyes clean.
"Jeez, dude, it's just a fever," the same boyish voice from earlier came from behind him.
Turning around, MC noticed the curtain blocking the bed behind him was unveiled, revealing a boy in the bed there. He had white hair and golden eyes, with what seemed like paper clips adorning parts of his school uniform. There was a thin green headband on his head, and he was massaging his ankle which was wrapped in a bandage. There was a hole in the middle of his left cheek.
"Yo," the boy commented, raising a hand in greeting. "Ken Oyanagi. Who're you?"
MC didn't reply, causing Oyanagi to sigh out loud.
"Look, man," he explained, "I know your girl is sick and all, but I'm just trying to have a casual conversation. Who knows, it might make you feel better."
MC shot a glance at the boy, and sighed as well. "Mark Caulfield," he replied.
"A westerner? You don't really look the part."
"Yeah, I get that a lot."
"True, true. We've got a lot of westerners here, don'tcha think? For a simple Japanese School."
MC didn't react to the comment he made, still seeing Sayori's to be corpse in front of him, unable to do anything about it.
"Hey," Oyanagi called. "You look like you need something to distract you."
"Thanks," MC said, "but I'm not in the mood."
"Oh, come on!" Oyanagi insisted as he shifted to sit at the edge of his bed. "To be honest, we could both use a distraction." Pointing to his leg, he said, "Shit still feels kinda stiff. Should've been more careful in training."
MC looked away for a while, thinking about it. "Okay," he eventually agreed. "What're you thinking?"
Oyanagi smiled. "You see," he began. "I love two things in this world. Football and Janken. The first got me in this mess, so that leaves only the second."
"Janken?" MC asked. "As in Rock, Paper, Scissors?"
"The one and only!" he cheered. "It gets a bit of a bad rep for being just luck, but it's way more strategic than you might think."
"Really?" MC asked. "How?"
"Well, I've heard that there are people out there that can use mentalism techniques to convince an opponent to play a particular hand before the match. Makes it way too easy for them to win. I don't care about shit like that, though, that takes the fun out of it."
"Huh," MC remarked. "Sounds neat."
"Yeah!" Oyanagi enthusiastically replied. "Anyway, let's get on with it! I can't play Football because of my ankle, so Janken it is!"
He immediately rested a fist on top of his left hand as he leaned closer off the edge of his bed. "Best of three, what do you say?"
MC looked at the fist he was forming and smiled. "Alright, count me in." MC formed a fist with his right hand as well and held it into the air.
"Alright, ready?" Oyanagi asked.
"Yep." MC replied.
"Rock!"
"Paper!"
"Scissors!"
MC played rock, while Oyanagi played rock as well.
"A tie…" Oyanagi said with a smile on his face. "Nice way to spice things up."
"Ready for another go?" MC asked.
"Of course!" Oyanagi said. "Best of 3, remember?"
Nodding, MC got ready to deal his hand again.
"Rock!"
"Paper!"
"Scissors!"
MC dealt rock again, while Oyanagi switched to scissors.
"Damn," the boy uttered, "I was so sure you would play paper there."
MC nodded. "Doesn't matter. I get the point. Next round?"
As Oyanagi nodded, they started to deal their hands again.
"Rock!"
"Paper!"
"Scissors!"
MC dealt scissors. Oyanagi switched back to Rock.
Oyanagi smirked. "That's my point."
"Well, lucky you." MC chuckled.
"Yeah," Janken Boy sneered at MC. "Very lucky. Boy II Man."
He shone with a red aura, letting a Stand in grey medieval-style armor emerge from behind him. The Stand dove forward and grasped MC by the shoulders, catching him entirely by surprise. It pulled his body back, but instead of grabbing MC's body, it grabbed Day One. It managed to break off Day One's left arm and a bit of its torso and leg. Bringing the Stand parts back to Oyanagi, they vaporized, only to be absorbed by the hole in his cheek.
Oyanagi immediately stood up and walked to the center of the office. "You really need to be wary of who might be listening. I mean, a Stand related conversation out in the open? What were you thinking?"
"You…" MC's gaze hardened as he looked at Oyanagi. "You bastard. You tricked me."
"Yeah, I did." Oyanagi smirked. "We're Stand Users. We trick, we cheat. Get over it."
"I was only trying to watch over my friend." MC said. "This is the absolute worst time for a Stand Battle!"
Oyanagi looked back at Sayori and shot a look of remorse. Turning back to MC, his gaze hardened. "I don't care. I'm winning this match."
"Dammit!" MC yelled. "Day One!"
The remnant of the green Stand came out and dashed forward to meet the boy. The boy immediately used his Stand to move himself out of the way of the attack. Day One turned around to attack him again, but having only one arm left slowed the Stand down considerably, allowing Oyanagi to easily dodge.
"It's useless, man." Oyanagi said. "The only way you can fight is if you beat me in Janken. And the score is 1-1. Let's see how this goes from here."
MC gritted his teeth, but reluctantly called his Stand. "Do you promise to return my Stand if I win?"
"Nothing to promise for," Oyanagi admitted. "That's in the rules for my Stand."
Stand User: Ken Oyanagi (taken directly from JJBA Part 4, but aged up)
Stand Name: Boy II Man
Energy Theft: Boy II Man is able to gradually take a victim's energy and, if applicable, Stand if the user is able to win in a best of three match of Rock, Paper, Scissors or Janken. If the victim wins, they will get their energy and Stand back. With every individual win for the user, they will be able to take a part of the victim's energy and Stand.
Power: C
Speed: B
Range: B
Persistence: A
Precision: C
Development Potential: C
"Alright, we good now?" Oyanagi asked as he held up his hand.
"No," MC spat. "I'm obviously not okay with this."
Oyanagi shrugged. "Yeah, that's fair. Let's continue!"
MC shook his head in frustration but held his hand up again.
"Rock!"
"Paper!"
"Scissors!"
They both tied with paper.
"Haha, another tie!" Oyanagi laughed. "This is fun!"
MC decided to smirk as well, a quick plan forming in his head.
"Paper, right?" he said. "I'll remember that. Day One, Rollback!"
The green Stand immediately emerged in its broken form, but still emitted the green clock from its remaining right hand.
Reversing time, MC made it back to before their hands were dealt and cut off the flow. Calling back his Stand, he let time continue.
Oyanagi shrugged. "Yeah, that's fair. Let's continue!"
MC smirked, having his plan ready. He just needs to play scissors, and he gets the point.
He didn't notice Oyanagi's smirk that followed.
"Rock!"
"Paper!"
"Scissors!"
MC had played scissors as planned. He smirked, assured of his victory as he looked at his opponent's hand and reaction.
But Oyanagi was only laughing, holding up rock.
"W-What?!" MC remarked. "B-But you played paper! What changed?!"
"You don't understand my Stand yet, don't you?" Oyanagi said. "I can take parts of your Stand. That leaves me able to use your abilities to an extent too."
Oyanagi's smirk only grew further as Boy II Man emerged from behind him. "You had an unexpected passenger for your Rollback."
MC was white-faced with fear, ad Boy II Man came up to him and claimed his Stand's right hand and the rest of its legs. There was only the head and the chest left behind, showing only two save slots partly.
"GG, man," Oyanagi bragged, "but I've already won this match."
"W-What do you mean?" MC asked, feeling the exhaustion getting to his whole body. "Y-You still need one more win."
"Then I'll take it." Oyanagi only smirked even further.
MC grit his teeth as he balled his fist in preparation.
"Rock!"
"Paper!"
"Scissors!"
MC played paper, while Oyanagi played rock.
'Yes!' MC immediately thought, seeing his win. However, he was confused when his hand started to change on its own.
Against his will, his right hand shifted from his advantageous paper to scissors.
"W-W-What the fuck?!" MC near shouted. "What the fuck did you do?!"
Oyanagi pressed a finger to his chin in an amused smirk, and Boy II Man emerged from behind him to claim his win. "I may have forgotten to tell you," he playfully said, "but I can control any part of your Stand I take from. I took your Stand's right hand, so I can control your hand."
"W-What?!" MC shouted. "That's cheating!"
"Another fun fact about Boy II Man," he admitted as the armored Stand stepped up to MC. "It involves the playing of Janken, but it does nothing against cheats. I found that out the hard way. You could have cheated against me like earlier with Rollback, but only smarter. You lost because you were stupid."
Boy II Man immediately drove a hand into MC, pulling out the last of MC's Stand to bring back to its master. MC collapsed onto his knees from the exhaustion of losing his energy and Stand.
After assimilating the Stand, Oyanagi gave a smile. "Reversing time, huh? Neat. Now, I'll beat you up with your own Stand's power. Boy II Man: Day One!"
Boy II Man emerged from Oyanagi, but it also had the yellow save slots on its chest alongside the green Rollback clock on its right hand.
"N-No…" MC took one glance at the Stand that stole his own and looked down in defeat.
Sayori was disturbed awake. She was still very sick, but for some reason, there was a racket around her. Slowly blinking, she managed to open her eyes. Her bed was tilted upwards, so she didn't have to raise her head to see what was going on.
And what she saw shocked her.
MC was kneeling in defeat in front of a white-haired boy, who had an armored Stand next to him with yellow bars along its chest, just like Day One.
"Hey, Caulfield, right?" he asked. "Do you want to experience your own Stand's Punch Rush?"
MC didn't say anything in return, being too tired to do so.
"Very well." Oyanagi smirked and Boy II Man: Day One approached MC. In Oyanagi's voice, it cried, 'KIAI!' as it landed a punch on MC.
'KIAIAIAIAI!'
As the evolved Stand began to rush MC, Sayori winced as she saw MC get beat up even more and more. He wasn't doing anything to stop the attacks from coming.
'No,' Sayori realized. 'He can't do anything.'
"Come on, more!" Oyanagi laughed at his rise in power.
Sayori grimaced at this display in front of her. Seeing MC defeated that badly, that was something she couldn't handle. Even if she would get into danger herself, she knew that there was only one thing she needed to do there.
She had to help MC.
"STOP!" she immediately cried out, forcing her body to fall off the bed. Hazily, she supported herself into a stand using her bed as a support, keeping her sky blue eyes trained on Oyanagi's golden ones.
"Oh, the damsel's awake," he smirked. "Stand sickness can be a bitch, can't it? Never experienced it myself, so I wouldn't know for sure."
"L-Let him go." Sayori tried to command but failed as her voice cracked as she spoke.
"Oh?" Oyanagi raised a brow. "And why should I?"
"B-Because he's my friend!" Sayori shouted a little louder. "I don't want you to hurt my friend!"
Feeling a surge of determination, Sayori ran up to Oyanagi yelling out loud, or rather waddled and moaned, and grabbed his hand to push him back. Oyanagi immediately overpowered her and pushed her back to MC's bleeding body.
She fell onto the ground next to MC with a sharp grunt. "S-Sayori…" she heard MC muttering from next to her.
"It's useless," Oyanagi smirked as he raised his right hand, covered in rope. "Now I guess I'll kill you bo-"
Something caught Oyanagi's eye. Something that was different about him.
The arm that he was raising had wraps of rope around it. Rope that wasn't there earlier.
Looking back to the two, he noticed that MC had that rope snaking around his entire body, wrapping him up. The rope seemed to originate from Sayori's hands.
"You…" Oyanagi said. "You've awoken your Stand?"
"I… I guess so," Sayori said with a serious expression. She then turned to Oyanagi. "Give MC his Stand back." This time, she demanded it without any falters in her voice.
"Or what?" Oyanagi tried to smirk back, but he had too much doubt to do that.
"If you won't," Sayori looked down, as a reddish white aura enveloped her. "The I'll have to leave the work to Take Me to Church."
Sayori's Stand then emerged. It had a frail white body, a bit taller than Sayori. There were red stripes enveloping its body, along with the pair of stripes forming a plus on its chest. Its hair looked like it was styled into dreadlocks, but it was actually lengths of rope emerging as its hair. Its eyes were red exes, and it had no other facial feature other than the red stripe running over its mouth. Its arms had gauntlets that exposed the stack of rope underneath.
"What's so impressive about that?" Oyanagi smirked. "I've got the destructive power here. And I can revert time. What have you got against that?"
Sayori, despite herself, smirked. "Go ahead," she nudged her Stand, who raised its hands, aiming at both MC and Oyanagi.
The rope around Oyanagi's arm started to release blue smoke, which travelled back to MC. MC's rope, on the other hand, started to shine yellow.
"What's this supposed to… do…" Oyanagi was trying to say before he felt the exhaustion kicking in. Almost as if the roles were reversed, Oyanagi fell onto his knees.
MC, on the other hand, was covered by the rope. However, underneath the golden glow, the numerous bruises and rips on MC's body started to attach back together and heal. The color in MC's body began to return as well.
"D-Dammit, what the hell?" Oyanagi widened his eyes as he weakened even further. "B-Boy II Man: Day One! Rollback!"
The metal stand came out and showed the green clock on its hand, but the color, instead of bursting out for activation, simply faded away.
"What… It relies on energy?" Oyanagi realized. "W-What are you doing?"
"I don't really know, this is the first time I'm using this." Sayori admitted. "From what it seems, Take Me to Church is taking your energy and giving it to MC so that he can heal and recover."
Stand User: Sayori
Stand Name: Take Me to Church (inspired by Take Me to Church from Hozier)
VitaRope: Take Me to Church is able to create freely manipulatable rope from itself. When tied around someone, it can either give to or take away from their vitality. Direct energy channels can be created as desired as well; the user can make it so that the energy taken from one body is sent to another directly, as long as both are connected by the rope. Vitality can be used from any source to heal a living person's or animal's injuries, even the patient's or the user's own pool. When healing, the rope will always shine yellow.
Power: D
Speed: C
Range: B (20m)
Durability: C
Precision: A
Development Potential: D
"N-No," Oyanagi moaned as he weakened. "I… I can't hold on to the Stand any longer…"
Immediately, a flash of green phased through the smoke and returned to MC. Suddenly, MC's eyes opened as he gasped, now fully healed, and recovering energy.
"MC, you're up!" Sayori immediately brought MC into a tackle of a hug. MC didn't really understand what was happening, but he was happy he got a hug from Sayori regardless.
"W-What…" MC pulled back, only to see the Stand next to Sayori. "Sayori, is that…?"
"Yep," she nodded, her hair bobbing as she did so. "My own Stand!"
MC let out a chuckle, then turning back to her. "So, are you okay now?"
"I'm much better!" she announced. "I think emerging my Stand helped me out of the fever."
"Yeah, well, how did you…" MC traced off as he then noticed Oyanagi now completely collapsed onto the floor, a little drool leaking from his mouth.
"Oops," Sayori winced as she shut off the energy transfer. Calling her Stand back into her, the ropes on MC and Oyanagi faded away. MC was baffled at his peak health after a Stand Rush, while Oyanagi briefly regained enough energy to sit back up on the wall.
"You…" MC hissed as he looked at Oyanagi, bringing out Day One once again.
"MC, please." Sayori held him back. "Don't hurt him."
MC looked back at Sayori, then let out a breath. He called his Stand back into him.
"What'll we do with him?" he asked.
"Nothing." Sayori looked at him in confusion. "Let's just leave him and hope he doesn't do this to anyone else."
"You…" Oyanagi looked at Sayori. "I almost beat up your boyfriend to a pulp. Why do you want to spare me?"
Sayori cocked her head. "Simple. I just don't want to. I want people to be better, so I'm hoping that you can just learn from this and not simply attack people."
Oyanagi looked back at Sayori in confusion. "What? How could… How could you just trust me like that?"
"Well, I think anyone can be better." Sayori admitted. "Even you."
Oyanagi paused, but then smiled. "You're… you're just like Kishibe…"
"Huh?" Sayori asked. "Who's that?"
"Don't worry about it," he said, as he soon frowned, "Fuck this. I don't care if my life's on the line, I'll tell you."
"Huh?" Sayori remarked, surprised by the profanity.
"I wasn't attacking you for no reason," he admitted. "I'll tell you this because I owe you a debt for sparing me."
"What do you mean?" MC asked, taking over the conversation.
"I was commanded, or rather, threatened, by a person in this school. The big boss of all Stand Users in this school, in a way. He was powerful enough to make me use my Stand again, after swearing to never use it. The boss's name is-"
Suddenly, Oyanagi's body began to distort.
"W-What's going on?" Sayori asked, reaching out after seeing the odd reaction in Oyanagi. MC held her back in fear.
His entire body started to twitch. He looked like he was trying to say something, but nothing was coming out of his mouth.
The space around him started to dissolve, turning into a voided black. Oyanagi's body stated to pixelate and disintegrate as it was getting claimed into the void swallowing him.
"W-What's happening?" Sayori asked. "What's happening to him?"
"I-I don't know." MC replied, unknowingly grabbing onto Sayori's shoulder, letting her snuggle into him.
"C-Can you try and stop it?" she asked.
Hesitantly, MC called out Day One and started Rollback.
However, as he went back in time, he only saw the glitching sustain itself. Even when he went beyond the moment Oyanagi started to distort.
Soon enough, the 12-second limit was reached. Rollback ended, but Oyanagi's condition didn't improve.
"He's not getting better!" Sayori screamed. "Let me try! Take Me to Church!"
The white and red Stand emerged as it thrust out rope from its gauntlets onto Oyanagi. They only phased through him like there was nothing there.
To their horror, within moments, despite everything they tried, Oyanagi's body simply blinked out of existence, having been completely disintegrated and swallowed by the void around him.
The front door barged open, showing the nurse walk in. "Alright, I'm – Oh? Remember to keep things anti-PDA here, kids."
Hearing the nurse's comment, Sayoru noticed that she was still wrapped around MC's chest. Yelping, she jumped away, still looking at the spot where Oyanagi disappeared with a blushing face. MC wasn't faring any better either, holding his arms rigidly onto his sides as he sported his own red face.
"Sayori, it's good to see you up and about," the nurse said. "Rather quick, Iwill admit, but it might have just been a temporary spike."
"Um, Ma'am," MC began to speak, "Oyanagi had left as we were talking."
"Oyanagi?" the nurse asked, cocking a head. "Who's that?"
"The boy with a hole in his cheek?" he reminded. "Holeface?"
Pondering for a while, the nurse shook her head. "Never heard of anyone like that. Are you sure you're okay? Maybe the fever got to you instead…"
"N-No, it's okay." MC reassured. However, he did look at Sayori who returned his confused look.
"Good," the nurse said. "I'll let your teachers know about your absence. School's almost over, anyway, so you can just grab your bags and head back or go to a club or something. For now, get out of my office."
Nodding with repetitive bows, Sayori and MC made it out of the office. The duo stood outside the door, still shocked about what happened in there.
"MC," Sayori breached the subject. "What happened to him?"
"I don't know for sure," MC repeated. "But from what the nurse said, I think he was just… erased."
Sayori shivered at the ominous air of the word. "What do you mean?"
"I don't really know." MC admitted to his ignorance. "It's almost like he's never existed in the first place."
"What?" Sayori asked. "How is that possible? Can Stands even be that powerful?"
"I don't know," MC said, "but worst of all, I don't know what to make of that boss person he mentioned."
Sayori frowned. "He… He knew he was going to die. He knew that, and yet he still tried to tell us?"
MC grasped her hand, making her pause. "Sayori, he did that because he respected you. He wanted to return his gratitude to you, for sparing him. Stands are terrible business, but having someone like you in it? Sayori, you may not see it, but you're a blessing to all of us."
"B-But I killed him!" Sayori yelped with tears in her eyes. "I drove him to suicide!"
"No, you didn't, Sayori." MC comforted the coral-haired girl by wrapping his arms around her. "You saved him. You freed him. He said he was threatened to do this, right? He said that to us so that he could free himself, to tell this boss person that he has no control over him."
MC had no clue where any of that was coming from, but he was happy he found those words. He could feel Sayori comforting as he spoke them.
"Stands…" Sayori pulled away from the hug, wiping her tears from her eyes. "Stands are scary, huh?"
"Yes, Sayori, they are. They really are."
A/N: Sayori's Stand! Yay!
I knew that Sayori would never get a Stand in normal circumstances. She's far too innocent for that. She has depression, her main problem lies in the fact that she lacks the drive to do anything worthwhile. She would normally have zero fighting spirit, rendering her unable to get a Stand. However, she cares for her friends. I know that normally, she isn't one to hurt someone who hurts her friends, but it's her love that wills her to step forth and fight for MC. That is why it took so long for her Stand to emerge, even though we all knew it was coming.
Btw, I've come up with a new facet of the ending to this story, so I'm even more excited to write now.
I know I sound like a broken record, but I'll tell you, once again, that I will be busy. My work has kicked up, especially being the last few weeks of uni. I'll have a lot of work to do, and that gives me less time to work on these chapters.
Also, this is easily the biggest chapter in MCBA, with 5k words. Fun.
A review is here!
IzuOchaShipper99: Sorry, I can't update the chapters any sooner because of my workload. I will try my best, though. Hope you like this chapter, too!
I actually think I'm better at handling my work because of this whole FF bug situation. It gives me a lot more time to work, or just goof around and waste time. I've surfed through so much YouTube the past couple days.
I also discovered that the phone app still works. Spent a whole day on it just so I could catch up with stories I've missed. So, if you want, you can check this story out in the app!
I've also decided to adjust a lot of the titles for this story. Any changes you notice can be otherwise ignored.
Anyway, that is all. I will, once again, ask for your reviews and follows. Reviews are better, though, they actually help me. Love you guys, and I'll see you all next chapter.