Chapter 24
New Trifecta Part 1: Lonely Dance
"Damn. I hadn't expected that to actually work," Natsuki muttered as they walked through the hallways.
The six Stand Users of the Literature Club managed to make their way into the school by breaking in past the outgoing students after hours, pretending like they had all forgotten something inside. Just like they had discussed earlier that day.
"Seriously, why couldn't we have some of those cupcakes before this?" Sayori bemoaned as they made their way to the club. "You finished making them, right, Natsuki?"
"They need to cool, you idiot," Natsuki chided her, making her cutely pout at her in response.
"Aww," Sayori soon slumped her shoulders. "I hope we're not going to reset today."
"I hope not either," MC admitted. "I really don't know if I can handle another repetition of this week."
"In case you need to, can you do it now?" JoJo asked. MC nodded and brought out Day One, revealing its now lit up yellow Save Slots.
"The time limit for Load Save seems to be five hours. I timed it from today morning," MC revealed, making JoJo nod in understanding.
"Everyone," Yuri encroached her dangerous topic upon them with her hands nervously clasped in front of her. "What do you think is waiting for us in our clubroom?"
"We'll just have to wait and see," Monika replied, not hiding her worry from her frown. "I just hope that we can defeat Wallace in time."
"Me too," Natsuki admitted. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss being a regular student."
"Yeah, I can't believe it either," MC revealed. "I just want to stop repeating these classes so many times. It gets boring after a while."
"Oh, by the way," Natsuki ran up to keep pace with MC. "Next time we're writing a test, you're going to save the previous day's morning and then rewind once everything's done, alright? We'll study for the questions and write it knowing all the right answers."
"U-Umm, Natsuki," Yuri nervously approached them as well. "Isn't that considered… cheating?"
Natsuki harked out a laugh. "What they don't know won't hurt them, right?" she replied with a smirk.
"I-I believe so… I guess…" Yuri falteringly replied, slowing her pace a little.
"Okay, everyone," Monika soon called out, slowing down to a halt. "We're here. The Literature Club."
The others stopped as well, baring the clubroom door in front of them.
"What… do you think could be inside?" Yuri warily asked.
"I dunno," JoJo replied bluntly, making Yuri flinch slightly. "But we're not going to find out without entering, aren't we?"
Grimly nodding, MC walked up to the door and gently opened it.
…
To their surprise, nothing was inside. Just the standard desks in the centre of the room and the random posters put up on the billboards.
"Well, that was underwhelming," Natsuki said as she relaxed her tensed shoulders, following MC into the clubroom alongside everyone else.
"I'm not sure about who else Wallace has in his arsenal," Monika revealed. "So, we still have to be careful about what could happen here."
"Gee, great help you are, huh, Monika?" Natsuki retorted, making Monika flinch some in unease.
"Well, we know about the Chinen twins," Sayori added, mainly trying to change the subject. "Takumi! Souta! Are you here?!"
JoJo chuckled. "Whoever those are, they're not just gonna respond like that. Also, what are their Stands?"
"Hazy Shade and Winter," Sayori replied. "The first is making illusions from some gas-thingy and the second is throwing any voice to another spot."
"Sounds like a good team," JoJo commented. "They're twins?"
"Yeah, they are," Sayori replied with a nod.
"That means that they have good chemistry as well. Dangerous," JoJo deduced. "Well, let's just look out for them, no matter what."
"They're not that bad, they're just being forced into this," Sayori said, but still dropped the subject as she looked back at the empty clubroom.
"Umm, I really don't know where Wallace is," Monika finally spoke up. "But he should show up soon. I guess… we can all go our separate ways till then? Just keep your guard up, no matter what."
"Hey, Yuri?" MC asked before they could move, turning to the purple-haired girl. "Can you summon your old Stand?"
Yuri widened her eyes in surprise. "I… never tried to. Act 1?"
Sure enough, The Knife Act 1 appeared beside her, seeming to hum in approval of its arrival.
"Well, you know what to do," MC told her with a smile. Yuri smiled back at him with a nod and quickly sent her Stand out to form the signature scratches across the room.
"Alright, cool," Natsuki said, looking at Yuri forming the scratches. "I'll be in the closet if you need me, kay?"
Seeing everyone nod, Natsuki made her way to the closet and shut the door behind her.
"MC," Sayori said, walking up to him. "Are you going to be okay?"
MC widened his eyes as he turned back to look at Sayori's worried expression, then chuckled. "You always know what's going on with me, huh?" he said.
Sayori giggled in turn. "Hey, we're not only dating, but we're also childhood friends," Sayori reminded him. "I know everything about you, even the little things," she said as she walked up to MC and playfully booped his nose.
MC sighed as he slightly rubbed his nose from Sayori's contact. "Well, you're spot on," he said, expression turning crestfallen. "I just… don't know what to make of this Wallace guy."
"Why? Do you wanna talk about it?"
"He just… knows everything about me. And I find that weird," MC admitted. "He claims to know more about my Stand's abilities than I do. And the worst thing? I feel like something in my head is telling me that I should remember him as well. I can't even say if it's my head messing with me or not."
"Well, it could be that," Sayori said in reply. "But we're going to meet him, ri-"
"GUYS!" Natsuki suddenly barged out of the closet, banging the door open behind her. "You all need to come here! Now!"
Alarmed by her sudden call for help, the entire club ran up to the closet door, choosing not to enter in order to give Natsuki space to move.
"Look at this!" Natsuki said, holding up a box of manga to them. MC quickly made out that the box was not pink, like her Parfait Girls collection. Instead, this one was a black box, but the words were too faded to make out the title.
"Umm, Natsuki, what does manga have to do with anything we're facing now?" Monika gently asked.
Grumbling for a moment, Natsuki quickly pulled out one of the volumes and held up the cover to them, setting the box aside gently. "Read the name," she commanded them all.
MC leant in to read it out loud for everyone else. "A House… Of Gold?" He suddenly widened his eyes, making the connection Natsuki was referring to.
"Exactly!" Natsuki replied much to the astonishment of all the other club members. Just as quick, Natsuki thumbed through the volume and showed an illustrated page to them. "Read the hero's name."
"Naoko Honda," MC read without having to be surprised any more than he already was. "What is going on?"
"I… don't know," Natsuki said, gently flipping through the volume.
"Can someone please explain what's happening?" JoJo asked.
"That's Natsuki's dad's name," MC revealed. "The one who got deleted."
"I think… my dad's entire life is being told through this manga," Natsuki said, ignoring JoJo's gaping expression. "I haven't read through it or anything, and not all the volumes are here, but I think it's the case."
"The protagonist is your father and the story's name is his Stand's name," Yuri said, now looking back down at the volume of The Portrait of Markov in her hands. "Could Elyssa's tale in this story actually be her entire life, retold after her deletion?"
"That… sounds insane," JoJo said. "Turning a person… into a book? What the hell?"
"The book reformation," MC declared, voice sounding deeper than normal. "I only realised that after the first time I deleted someone. The Portrait of Markov was… an interesting discovery, so to speak."
Turning back to MC with a confused expression, they saw his pale face. "I… did not say that," he revealed, making everyone else in the club go pale as well.
"Then… who did?" Sayori wisely asked.
"We know who," Monika replied, face as pale as a ghost.
Slowly looking back at the door, they finally noticed the pink smoke creeping in through the gaps. As enough gathered, the smoke reformed into an illusion of a shorter version of MC with much better-kept hair, combed straight down. He kept his hands folded across his chest as he spoke to them.
"Hazy Shade and Winter are among some of the best inclusions in my group," Wallace addressed the Literature Club for the first time. "Too bad that they have poor combat potential."
"W-Wallace," Monika went pale as she spoke, narrowly edging herself back. "Y-You're a-actually h-h-here."
Wallace quirked his brows for a moment in confusion, then suddenly burst into laughter. "Oh my god," Wallace managed to speak out, forcing himself to calm down a little even though he still kept his arms folded. "You're… actually scared of me? Monika, you're right to have been like that. I would have, without a doubt, deleted you if you showed the slightest weakness. But still… haha! To think that it actually got you scared, that's ridiculous!"
"Huh?" Natsuki spoke up. "She could have died at any moment! Why shouldn't she have been scared?"
Wallace slowly settled down his rambunctious laughter. "Well, you see," he spoke, wiping a crocodile tear from his eye, tossing it to the side only to have it poof apart in a puff of pink smoke. "I could never feel emotions like that, not properly at least. Fear, happiness, love, sorrow, nothing like that. Part of my schtick as the Breaker. I just have to mimic those emotions from what I remember every single time. Honestly, that's the one sole thing I miss about Markie."
"Markie?" MC spoke up.
"You, of course!" Wallace chuckled, pointing at his taller doppelganger. "Such a ball of emotions. Sometimes you even managed to make me feel something."
"How… How do you know me so well?" MC finally managed to ask, slowly stepping up to him. Feeling a hand being placed on his shoulder, he looked back to see Sayori worriedly holding him back.
"You landed Sayori this time, huh?" Wallace said, not minding the change in subject. "Well, no matter. Those were the old days. I would miss them, but I much better prefer being free instead."
"Free?" Yuri asked. "Free from what?"
"That's the question, isn't it?" Wallace simpered back. "What's the fun in revealing everything so early, huh? Sure, there are far too many things to tell you. But even then, nothing is better than holding out the truth to the last minute for one… big… bang. Right, Yuri? You should know that much, knowing your knack for reading."
"But I will tell you this," Wallace quickly added, ignoring Yuri's stunned expression. "What I'm looking to be free from? The answer is… Markie. MC. Whatever you wanna call him. As simple as that."
"I… don't understand?" MC half asked.
"You don't remember it, so I don't expect you to," Wallace waved him off. However, his grin quickly washed away. "All that I want is to live my life the way I want to. I have the power to live like a king, so I'm going to use it. And most of all, I certainly do not want to see you again, MC. I would have deleted you much sooner if it wasn't for our link."
"Link?"
"I'll give you a teensy hint," Wallace said, grin reforming as he held up a finger close to his face and leaned in. "Most people know me as Wallace Grieves. But here's the thing. Grieves isn't my real last name, I just made it like that with my Stand. I haven't told this tidbit to anyone, be grateful."
JoJo grit his teeth as he walked up to him. "Alright, you're MC's lost twin brother. So what? Let's just beat you down."
"Oh, wow, straight to the violence, I see," Wallace chuckled. "Wrong, by the way. Aside from that, I will admit, I do not know much about you, Geoff Joster. Who are you?"
JoJo grinned. "I'm a Joestar," he revealed. "It's my blood-bound legacy to-"
"Yeah, yeah, no one cares," Wallace interrupted with a smirk, making JoJo pop a vein in frustration. "You can monologue all you want, you're not going to get anywhere in the end."
"Anyway, moving on," Wallace continued, ignoring JoJo's loud opposition. "If it wasn't clear by now, I'm not exactly here. It's just the Chinen Twins making an illusion of me here."
"Even then, you'll have to be here for them to work in live time, yes?" Yuri said. "That means you're still in this room, just hidden by Hazy Shade. Even then, Takumi cannot hide the body heat of a person. And with The Knife Act 2, I can shift my vision to the IR Spectrum and attain Thermal Vision."
"Your wish is my command, my mistress."
Act 2 quickly shrouded Yuri in itself, shifting her visible spectrum as she had mentioned. Looking around, Yuri suddenly ran up to the wall and pulled out Act 2 from herself to form a cocked fist.
"FAE!"
With one punch, Yuri managed to punch the now reappearing forms of the Chinen Twins, knocking them onto the floor with a thud and a groan from each. Their rendered unconsciousness made the pink smoke die out around Wallace, revealing his true position on the wall opposite to the front door. Despite that, he still seemed unfazed by the revelation of himself.
"Thanks, Yuri!" Natsuki said, running up to the new position of Wallace, bringing out Sweet Victory by her side.
However, before the pink and silver Stand could connect a punch, Wallace shimmered away once again in a flash of silver.
"Huh?!" Natsuki yelled out, looking around again. "Yuri! Why didn't you tell me that was an illusion?"
"I-It shouldn't be!" Yuri declared in response. "I already took care of their illusionist!"
Suddenly, another form of Wallace appeared in the room between the divided members of the class. "Who said that the Chinen Twins were the only other Stand Users I brought?" he said. "I know that you defeated them once, so I ended up bringing one of my Trifecta."
"So, I'll leave you with one more informational tidbit," Wallace spoke as he began to shimmer away once again. "Once a river forks and carries a body down one stream, the other stream still exists." With that, Wallace completely vanished, leaving the six Stand Users on their own.
"W-What?!" Monika shivered as she spoke.
"Monika explain," MC asked, turning to her. "What's this Trifecta?"
"T-They're Wallace's Right-Hand Men," she explained. "H-He's called them incredibly r-reliable before. I-I was one of them once, b-but now that I've betrayed him… I can't believe that he found a replacement that quickly. A-Also for Sakimoto."
"Huh," MC said, looking around to find the absence of Wallace's form. "Where could this Stand User be?"
"Let me try looking for him," Yuri said. "He might be masking himself here in some way. The Knife Act 2."
"Once again, my mistress? Very well."
As Act 2 covered Yuri's eyes once again, she looked around with her visible spectrum dropped. "There!" Yuri suddenly declared, pointing to the wall. "Someone's outside!"
"I'm on it!" Natsuki responded since she was the closest to the door, turning her heels to run to the door.
Only for her to suddenly plant her face onto an invisible wall and stumble back.
"H-Huh?" Natsuki shrieked, rubbing her nose as she stood back up. Summoning Sweet Victory, she punched the space where she had collided onto, only for her Stand to phase through like nothing was there.
"Natsuki, what happened?" Sayori spoke up from nearby, running up to her. Only for her to hit another space right in front of her just like the pink-haired girl.
Yelping as she fell back, Natsuki immediately placed her own hands on the space in front of her, feeling that something was obstructing them after all. "Guys!" she called out. "There are walls around us! And our Stands are just moving through them!"
"Walls?" MC asked, feeling out the invisible walls in front of him as well. "What kind of Stand is this?"
"I can't move ahead, so I'm coming back!" Natsuki called out from the front of the room as the others took a bearing of their situation. She walked away from the invisible wall through the gaps between the desks. Suddenly, she stumbled over something waist-high in her path, which was also invisible like the walls.
"W-What?!" Natsuki groaned out as she picked herself up, feeling up what she had just hit. "A… desk? But there are other desks right next to it!"
"Some kind of invisible duplication-relocation Stand, then?" JoJo asked, pressing a finger to his chin in thought. "Natsuki, can you feel the other desks?"
Quickly reaching out to the wooden tables, she quickly nodded in approval as she felt the veneered wood beneath her fingertips. Oddly enough, she felt the exact same thing from the invisible desks as well. She quickly relayed this information back to JoJo.
"Crap," JoJo said, now turning to Yuri. "Use The Knife," he commanded her. "You can make a portal out of this thing. Take care of that guy from out there."
Nodding, she quickly used Act 1 to form a portal leading from the tile behind her to the wall right outside the front door of the club. She quickly jumped into the portal to move out.
She hadn't expected to land on her feet on the surface of the portal, feeling another tiled surface on it. She stumbled forward from the momentum of her leap, but quickly regained her bearings.
"T-There's an invisible floor over it!" Yuri realised as she kept stepping over the rendered unavailable portal, making sure that she wasn't missing something.
"What the fuck?!" JoJo yelled out, gripping his hair in frustration. Running up to Yuri, he yelled out in frustration as he felt his nose collide onto another faux wall in his way.
"Okay, guys," MC said, still keeping an eye on JoJo to keep him from lashing out. "Let's think about what else we can do here. JoJo, can you stretch space?"
"Oh yeah, I need to try that," JoJo remarked, bringing out Renegades while abandoning his bleeding nose for the moment. "Oi, MC! You still haven't told me how to do it!"
Quickly reciting the details to JoJo, he was soon enough able to generate enough aura into his Stand's fist to appropriately stretch the space in front of him. However, as the others were pushed into the opposite directions, everyone found themselves collide into the invisible objects as if they hadn't been adjusted with the space extension.
"Stop it!" Natsuki yelled out as she found herself being compressed into an invisible wall while everyone else was forced to stumble over invisible desks. Nodding, JoJo immediately punched the side of the room's space as well, quickly returning space back to normal after making everyone lurch from the distortion a little.
"Well, not doing that again, no matter how cool it is," JoJo gasped as everyone slowly stood back up. "Any other ideas?"
"Wait, Monika, you've been quiet this whole time," Sayori said, turning to her. Upon seeing her, however, she widened her eyes. "Umm, Monika? What are you doing?"
Monika, at that moment, was feeling the wall for some reason while watching everyone else.
"Everyone!" she called out. "Hold on to your invisible walls again! Find out what direction they're moving in!"
Looking at each other in confusion, the others eventually followed Monika's request. Quickly feeling the walls once again, they quickly pointed to whatever direction it moved in.
"That's what I thought," Monika frowned as she saw the results. "If this was repositioning the objects in this room to be invisible, then we should all be pointing at the same direction or even perpendicular to each other because we'd be feeling the same or connected walls."
JoJo widened his eyes. "Wait, but we are…"
He didn't have to say it, because it was glaringly clear. Every single person was pointing in completely different directions. They weren't perpendicular, they were just haphazard.
"Everyone had their own individual walls and objects obstructing them," Monika realized. "It's not common, it's linked to every one of us separately!"
"Okay, and how does this help us?" Natsuki argued.
"Not in any particular way," Monika revealed with a sigh. "Even then, it is a clue." Moving to the wall, she quickly hugged it once again. "Everyone, follow the wall!" she commanded. "I have a theory. It's a stretch, but this might prove it if it works!"
Nodding, the rest of the group went up to their individual invisible walls yet again. Sure enough, they were all faced in different directions.
JoJo ended up crinkling his nose as he got in close. "Shit," he commented. "That's the fuzz of a billboard."
"Alright, everyone," Monika started. "Start moving."
Slowly moving to whichever direction they chose, they kept on following the wall.
Natsuki grumbled at she kept following the invisible wall. "What's the point of this?!" she asked. "We're just wasting ti-AGH!"
She was suddenly knocked back by a large obstruction in her path.
"Ugh," JoJo responded as well, recoiling too and feeling his side. "What the hell was that?"
Natsuki widened her eyes as she got up and gently stepped in closer to where she was hit. Prodding a finger through, she found that she was pushing through what seemed like human flesh.
"Hey, that's my stomach!" JoJo groaned out as he swatted the invisible hand in front of him, making Natsuki recoil and grip her hand in pain.
"It's as I thought," Monika said, making everyone else turn to her. "This Stand… its ability is to split the area that we're in right now into multiple invisible replicas. Each person gets their own replica, but in the end, they're all linked somehow. I still don't get how they're linked… We're nowhere close to our actual walls, yet Natsuki and JoJo are touching each other despite being on opposite ends of the room…"
"Alright, I've had enough fun," a voice called out from the door. Looking that way, the six Stand Users noticed a lone man opening the door and stepping in.
He was clearly an adult, a teacher. He was wearing a dirt brown trench coat over a white shirt and grey pants, adorned with a pink bowtie that he adjusted the moment he entered. He started to pick on his chapped lips soon after, turning the club's attention to his dark brown eyes and straight raven hair.
"A-Adachi-sensei?!" Yuri recognized. "Our History teacher?"
"That's me! Kei Adachi Sensei!" he revealed himself with gusto, still picking his lips. "Sorry students, but I prefer to serve my saviour over you all."
"Saviour?" Sayori asked. "Are you talking about Wallace?"
"Of course, I am!" he beamed at her, literal stars in his eyes. "Wallace is the strongest Stand User in the world! Nothing can rival his Stand! Aside from everything else that it can do, it even healed me from terminal lung cancer! Wallace is the God of our world, and I shall treat him as such!"
"And you!" Kei Adachi pointed at MC. "What business do you have looking like our God Wallace and being taller than him? Do you think you can tower over him like some high-school bully?!"
"Uhh…" MC faltered, not knowing how to respond.
"Sooo… you're a fanatic?" JoJo tilted his head as he asked.
"A fanatic?! Of course, I am!" Adachi responded with as much vigour as before, placing a hand on his chest as well. "Wallace saved me from my past! I owe him my life, as far as I'm concerned!"
"Did… you know this guy, Yuri?" JoJo asked the brunette.
"Aside from being my history teacher, no," she replied. "I had heard that he was a chain-smoker once, though. I guess that proves his claims on being saved."
Adachi quickly cleared his throat out loud, bringing everyone's attention back to him. "Now, for the reason why I entered," he spoke out, voice booming throughout the whole room. "I had actually wanted to see how long it would take for you to figure out my Stand. Ms Takeyama got the closest, but she's still missing one key point."
"What is it?" JoJo asked instead, crossing his eyes at him.
Adachi smiled. "This faux room," he began to reveal. "It's not the same room you're in at the moment."
JoJo paused for a moment to process his words but then widened his eyes as he realised what he was talking about. "Wait, so, in that case, we're all aligned separately in another room… and everything they're experiencing-"
"Yes, yes, YES!" Adachi applauded. "Congratulations, Mr Joster! My Stand's name is Lonely Dance, and its ability is Voodoo Reflection! I can create a single clone of whoever I want to wherever I can see as long as there is enough space for them that will move along with however the original moves. This clone is physically real, and whatever happens to it will happen to the original as well! For example, if the reflection meets a wall, the original meets a wall that's not supposed to be there! If the reflection stumbles over a desk, the original will stumble over a non-existent desk! If, say, my Stand beats someone's reflection up…"
Suddenly, Sayori shrieked out as she felt numerous punches land on her body. They weren't too strong, but they still hurt regardless. A well-placed punch to her temple managed to knock her out.
"The original gets hurt as well!" Adachi continued, making everyone else glare at him. "I've positioned everyone else appropriately, along with the walls of the class. None of you will reach me, no matter what you do. Better yet, your Stands aren't mimicked in your reflections, so you can't hurt my Stand either!"
"This isn't good!" Yuri yelled, looking back at Sayori in despair then back at Adachi in anger. "The Knife Act 2!"
"I'm on it, my mistress."
Quickly shooting out a portal to space in front of him, Yuri dove through the portal set out in front of her as well, dropping her right in front of him.
"Now!"
"SILENT SHO-"
However, before Act 2 could activate its ability, Yuri felt something restrain her. Looking ahead, she found that her Stand was being held back by something as well.
"I didn't say that I couldn't replicate Stands," he added with a smirk.
"Doesn't matter!" Yuri yelled. "Act 2! Do it no-"
She was interrupted by a flurry of attacks on her Stand, that reflected onto her as well. A couple of well-placed punches ensured that Yuri was knocked out as well.
"Haha! You're all so useless!" Adachi chuckled. "Seriously, is this that easy?"
"Shit!" MC cursed as he frustratedly punched the ground. "It's been more than twelve seconds! Using Rollback now is useless! JoJo, can you do something?"
"Stretching space is too risky right now," he replied. "Stretching my limbs is impossible with his Stand."
"Natsuki?"
"Already on it!" Natsuki replied, having had Sweet Victory solidify some of the air in front of her.
"You may be doing this to us," she said. "But you're not doing it to the air in this room!"
Quickly punching forward, it shot out those pellets of air with the speed of bullets.
"Ooh," Adachi responded by raising his hand and materialising a patch of a wall in front of him with a flash of silver. "That seems good."
The wall was started to crack from the incoming assault of bullets, but before Natsuki could keep attacking, she found that Lonely Dance had invisibly reached her and had started to attack her.
"Shit, Natsuki!" MC yelled as Natsuki fell to the floor as well in agony, Sweet Victory momentarily lost from her side. "Damn, this guy is just picking us off! What else can we do?!"
"I'm… not done yet…" Natsuki groaned as she forced herself to sit back up, trying her best to bring out Sweet Victory once again.
Adachi chuckled. "Your resilience is admirable, Ms Sakurai," he commended her. Closing his eyes, he lifted his hand in her direction. "But you cannot stand against my Stand like this. Lonely Dance!"
…
But nothing happened.
Natsuki ended up not doing anything, mainly because she was shocked at how she was still fine.
"What… what's happening?" Adachi asked no one. "Lonely Dance! Kill her!"
But nothing happened.
"Natsuki," a forgotten voice spoke up from nearby, making the rest of the club turn to her. "Thank you for working so hard," Monika said, from right behind Adachi, clearly free from her bounds from the walls. "But I will take it from here."
"H-How did you get there?!" Adachi screamed at her, scrambling away from her as well.
"Adachi-sensei, you may owe your life to Wallace," Monika ignored him for the moment and spoke. "But I owe my life to my friends. That's why I betrayed you and Wallace. They freed me from him because unlike you, I had always found him toxic and difficult to be with. That is why I want to be the one to defeat you. To signify my turning of a new leaf."
Suddenly, a figure drifted in from the door. The stray Stand had a pink cubical body with a square plate of silver on the middle, concentric to its body. It had no head but had silver hose-like appendages emerging from its body in the form of arms and legs.
"L-Lonely Dance?!" Adachi yelped out. "W-Why are you here?"
"Sorry, but your Stand is currently unresponsive," Monika smirked. "You might want to turn around." Hesitantly, Adachi followed her command.
"Tokkkeeeaaaa…" Mess is Mine groaned out as it held its arm within Adachi's head. As the man turned back, however, the grey gremlin-like Stand quickly drove its other arm into Adachi's eye, rendering him slackjawed with unresponsiveness.
"For your earlier question, the steps were rather numerous and tedious," Monika revealed as Adachi remained out of it, yet still able to hear everything. "First, I had to make myself invisible somehow. I realised that every single person has some sort of… presence. The sound of their breathing, footsteps, the mere feeling that someone is watching you, etc. Using my Stand, Mess is Mine, I had managed to invade my own mind and temporarily shut down all of those functions, but still keeping me alive enough to operate my Stand. I couldn't breathe, couldn't feel my heartbeat, couldn't even think. But it didn't matter, because I only had one goal. To get my Stand on you."
"Once I rendered myself invisible to you, I kept myself safe from your attacks by you getting distracted by everyone else and forgetting my existence. I then sent my Stand out to invade your mind so that I could control everything that you perceive. The first thing that I did was remove the effects of your Stand."
Widening his eyes, MC quickly felt the space in front of him. Sure enough, the wall was missing.
"After that, I just kept turning your head away from me as I made my way behind you, after quickly restoring my bodily functions. I also made it that you couldn't sense me anymore after that, even though my heart was beating twice as quick. In short, now that my Stand has invaded your mind, I have complete control over everything that you perceive. I can even control your Stand."
Monika willed Lonely Dance to move closer to its user, controlling it through Adachi's mind.
"None of this would have been possible if Yuri, Sayori and Natsuki hadn't fought you instead," Monika continued. "I may have tried to kill them once, but now I truly regret what I've done, seeing how far they'd go for someone like me. That's why I want you to pass on this message to Wallace if you somehow survive like an annoying cockroach."
"You will not control me anymore."
Finally, she sent a mental command to the controlled Stand to defeat its own user.
"UTSUTSUTSUTSUTSUTSUTSU!"
Adachi found himself knocked out of the effects of Monika's Stand with the incoming flurry of attacks, as he was forced into the wall from his own Stand's attack. Sure enough, the combined work of the mental manipulation and the Stand Rush rendered Kei Adachi unconscious.
JoJo chuckled as Mess is Mine dematerialised and Monika let out a loud sigh of relief. "Good Grief," he commented. "Who knew that our former enemy could be that mindful? Or even have that much resolve?"
MC chuckled as well. "I guess that's our President for ya," he said, making Monika blush a small bit. "She tried to kill us, but she sure is a handful when on our side, it seems."
"H-Hey!" Monika popped a vein on her forehead as she turned back to MC the moment she heard his last comment, still sporting her blush. "I apologized for that!"
MC laughed as he finally stepped forward, free from the walls trapping him. "Yeah, yeah, I know," he said, waving her off.
Monika silently harrumphed as she looked away. As she did, she lost her expression as she saw the downed bodies of Sayori and Yuri.
"Let me try something," Monika alerted the other three as she walked to Sayori. "Mess is Mine."
Bringing out her Phantom Stand, Mess is Mine groaned out another "Tokkeaaa…" as it drifted over to Sayori's form. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed MC and Natsuki slowly approach her, bringing out their Stands in caution.
'They still don't trust me,' Monika realised, for which she let out an exasperated breath. 'Well, I can't exactly blame them.'
As Mess is Mine drove an arm into Sayori's medulla, she suddenly gasped as she opened her eyes.
"I had Mess is Mine jumpstart her brain function," Monika revealed, her Stand's arm still in her. "I'm also keeping her fight or flight response on. That should give her enough adrenaline to use her Stand."
Sayori frantically looked around as she seemed to sweat for no reason. "W-What's going on?!" she demanded. She visibly held back a scream upon seeing Yuri. "Y-Y-YURI?! What happened to her?!"
After a nod from Monika, MC hesitantly withdrew his Stand and slowly walked up to his girlfriend, forcing himself to ignore Mess is Mine's presence over her head. "Hey, it's okay," he said, crouching to her level and gently resting his hands over her shoulders to soothe her. "I need you to take my energy and heal yourself. Okay?"
Frantically nodding and still gulping in fear, Sayori quickly brought out Take Me to Church and wrapped some rope around MC. The dark-haired boy grunted at the unnatural tightness of the rope around him but ignored it as he slowly felt his energy sap away into her own yellow rope. After more than enough energy was transferred, Monika slowly pulled out Mess is Mine from her head, making her gasp once again from the sudden blowback of her Stand.
"W-What the heck happened?" a fully healed Sayori asked, looking up at MC who was drooping from exhaustion after the healing.
"M-Monika used her Stand to save you," MC said, slightly stumbling as he stood up due to his exhaustion but catching himself before he fell.
"O-Oh," Sayori said, gently holding on to MC for support as she stood up as well. She slightly pursed her lips as she pulled her arms away from him, making sure that they both could stand. "I-I should go heal Yuri now, I guess," she said, still keeping her eyes on MC.
"Y-Yeah, I guess you should," MC replied, half-dazed and keeping her eyes on Sayori's as well. Unknown to each other, they were slowly closing in on each other, breaths tantalizingly still a distance apart.
The two were suddenly interrupted by a sharp pain on the backs of their heads, making them both butt heads into each other and yelp in pain.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" JoJo and Natsuki shouted in their ears at the same time, making them both falter away and come back to reality. Shaking herself out of her stupor, Sayori swiftly nodded to Natsuki in thanks and made her way over to Yuri to heal her, ignoring MC who needed the support of a nearby table to stand from the sudden impact.
"Dude, how many times have I told you to stop the lovey-dovey shit?" JoJo said. "Not even I know the real number! You still haven't included me in your group!"
"Not yet, dammit!" Natsuki yelled at him, making JoJo turn to her with a frown. "I've made cupcakes! I'm not letting us rewind without eating those, got it?!"
As both JoJo and Natsuki bickered, MC slowly let out a laugh as he stood back up. The jolt from their screaming and the pain was enough to wake him up from his exhaustion. Looking around once again, he saw Sayori healing Yuri with Monika as a source of energy, and the two other girls slowly coming to.
'Huh?'
Shifting his attention wholly, he finally saw that Takumi and Souta Chinen were getting up, rubbing their heads from their impact with Act 2. As they looked around, they saw MC looking straight at them. They suddenly shuddered and faltered back at his gaze.
MC, slowly feeling enough energy returning to him, weakly smiled as he walked up to them. Making sure that he had set Day One aside to not induce any more fear into them, he crouched in front of them.
"Look, we don't want to hurt you," MC spoke to them as the others kept doing their own things. "But in our last run, we protected you from Wallace by beating you up. With your permission, actually. We might have to do something like that again, even though Wallace knows about what happened to you already. Hopefully, he doesn't do anything else."
Takumi shivered a little upon hearing his words. Slowly summoning Hazy Shade, she glared at MC in resistance. "I… can't give up…"
As Hazy Shade tried to attack, MC easily stopped its fist with Day One. "You know, if you really want to, you can end up defeating every single one of us," MC said. "But all of us know that you're only being forced into this."
"Sis, stop," Souta said, resting a hand over her sister's, making Takumi shoot a worried glance at her. "We can't beat them like this. And they're right, aren't they? Also, about that, Caulfield, right?" she asked, turning to MC with eyes crossed in suspicion. "How did you know about that? About us being forced into this?"
"My Stand makes me a time traveller," MC explained. "I've met you in a previous run. That's how we all know. That's also how we know so much about your Stands without having ever met you."
Souta lowly grumbled as she shook her head. "Seriously, if Wallace told us this stuff…" Souta grumbled as she looked back at Takumi. "Listen, sis," she told her. "We're going to be fine, alright? We… can just talk it out with Wallace. He might understand?"
"He won't."
Souta faltered at the abrupt foreign voice. Turning around, the three noticed Monika walking up to them.
"How's Yuri?" MC asked her.
"Up and about," Monika replied as she covered a yawn. "I'm out of it, though. Sayori's Stand can suck at times."
"What… do you mean?" Souta questioned, reverting the topic back to the original. "Why… won't Wallace keep us alive? A-And how do you know?!"
Monika crossed her eyes at the twins. "Didn't you know?" she asked, making Souta and Takumi silently question what she was talking about. "I was one of his Trifecta. I betrayed him."
Takumi suddenly widened her eyes, then jumped up to grab Monika by the collar. "How did you escape his deletion?!" she desperately asked, not minding how she looked to the others.
Monika slowly pried Takumi's hands away from her and stood her up. "MC managed to save me," she said, gesturing to the boy in question.
"Really?!" Takumi asked, now turning to MC. "Can you free us as well? Both me and Souta? Please! We'll do anything!"
MC widened his eyes and took a cautious step back. "Well, I don't really want to rewind anytime soon," he said. "I don't think I can do it unless I want to rewind."
Monika shook her head. "I just remembered something that Wallace said to me," she revealed. "He said that you, MC, could make your Stand stronger by… rewinding to the present."
"Rewinding to the present?" MC asked, frowning in confusion. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"I don't really know," Monika sadly admitted. "But can you figure something out?"
Pondering on it for a moment, MC brought out Day One. Looking at the slots on its chest, he managed to make out the three bars lit up and the other three still dark. He knew that he could save at any point, but he wouldn't be able to keep those open for any other case.
"Hey," JoJo said as he walked up to them as well. "These two are awake? What are we going to-"
"Rewinding to the present?" MC questioned out loud once again, interrupting JoJo without realising it. "Maybe if I…"
Slowly, MC placed his hand on the very bottom slot. It lit up, but nothing was getting marked.
"Both of you," he turned to the Chinen Twins with widened eyes, holding out his hand. "Grab my hand. I need to touch you for this to work. I think. That's how this worked before."
Faintly revealing their disturbance at MC's lack of knowledge, the twins slowly accepted his request and both took his hand. Refocusing on the empty bottom slot he was touching, he took a deep breath and made a silent prayer to whatever god was out there.
"Okay, what the hell are you doing?" JoJo asked as he walked up further to MC, getting close to his face as he spoke. "I thought we said we weren't gonna rewind so soon?"
"I guess Load Save won't work for this," MC said, still ignoring him along with Natsuki who was shouting from the end of the room as well. "So, maybe something like… Enter Breach?"
The world broke yet again.
MC stood bewildered at the Breach once again. Since no one else was around, he let out a loud cheer.
"It worked!" he yelled out with his hand up. "I rewound into the present!"
Slowly calming down, he noticed the ones that he had to work on. The two girls in front of him. As he had expected, they were as mummified by the red strands as Monika once was. Looking to the side, his smile faltered for a moment as he saw strands still on Monika.
But this time, they were green. They weren't as numerous as Wallace had made them either. They also followed a path back to MC's hands.
"Wait, these strands in my hand…" MC pondered as he unfolded his hand. "Four Strands," he noticed. Following each strand back, he found out that each of his strands was lightly wrapped around each member of the Literature Club aside from him, barring JoJo.
"They're the ones I'm bringing back in time," he realised. "Anyone that I've leashed… I'm able to bring back in time."
He looked back at the twins, once again bearing the mass of strands around them. Craning his neck, he even noticed Adachi's body nearby, flooded with as many strands as the others.
"Monika had these, right?" MC pondered out loud, bringing out Day One within the Breach. "I guess I need to try the same thing again."
Willing his Stand to do his will, Day One broke into several green strands much like the others. Quickly lashing through the red Strands, MC frowned as he noticed that every strand he was cutting off would just restore itself once again.
"Damn," MC said, moving closer to them. "Maybe I need to try something else? What else did I do for Monika?"
Finding a chink in their strand armour, MC used Day One's hands to reach into both their aura bodies. Filling in the green energy as he had before, he noticed that the green would quickly morph into ashen grey for Souta and rose pink for Takumi. 'Their Stand colours,' MC realized.
He delighted as he noticed their auras building up to be stronger, quickly repelling the strands from around them. Putting the rest of his own Stand into use, he used his own strands to push the others away. In mere moments with the addition of their support, MC managed to push off all the strands around them.
As MC stepped back to admire his work, he faltered as he felt two new strands enter his hand. Looking back down, he saw that those two new strands were connected to the twins.
"They probably don't want to join us on this," MC theorised. Making his decision, he quickly tossed those two strands aside. He watched as they split away from the two girls as well, dissolving away into the stars of the world of the Breach, leaving the two in their respective Stand colours.
Sighing in relief, he briefly noticed a red aura on his side. Looking its way, he noticed an all too familiar presence.
"JoJo," he spoke out loud. "Hmm… yeah, I should do this as well."
Reaching out to him with his Stand, he quickly filled out his aura with green-now-red aura. The new strands he created wrapped around him once and then led back to MC's hand. He smiled as he added that strand to the others in his hand, counting five in total.
"This is probably not the best representation for what's going on," MC rambled out loud. "I mean, I'm not jailing them or whatever. Well, who cares, as long as it works, right?"
This time, instead of pulling him back, MC saw the stars around him suddenly spin around as they came in closer, covering MC's eyes with a bright flash of light.
MC opened his eyes to see his Stand fizzle out from his side like it always did for its cooldown.
"Oi, MC!" Natsuki yelled out from the corner. "You better not be thinking of rewinding!"
"What time is it?" he asked, looking around at the others around him. He had to smile as he found the Chinen twins in front of him with their hands in his, JoJo and Monika nearby as well.
"The present," Monika replied with a smirk.
"Did it work?" Takumi warily asked, making MC look at her and her sister, who was bearing a similar anxious expression.
MC beamed at them and nodded. "It worked," he informed them. "Seeing how Monika's not getting deleted now, you should be fine as well."
Suddenly, Takumi scrunched up her face, not being able to suppress her tears. Souta was crying as well, but she held herself a little better, even though she had to take a few steps back to breath while shuddering as she covered her mouth. Souta slowly pulled her hands away to wipe her eyes, revealing her incredibly wide smile, then rested her hands on Takumi's shoulders. In a flash, Takumi dove to her twin sister's open shoulder and bawled into it. Souta gingerly comforted her, nuzzling into her as well.
Taking a step back, MC wordlessly nudged his forehead to every other person in the club, telling them all to move out. Nodding, they all slowly started to file out of the clubroom, giving the two time to embrace their new freedom.
"Wait!" Souta called out right before any of them could leave. Turning back to the two, they saw Souta looking up to them, still holding Takumi to her shoulder while sporting tearstains on her cheeks as well. "T-Thank you…" she told them all. "W-We were sent here to hurt you… b-but you saved us instead… W-Why?"
Sayori slowly walked up to them with a smile. "That's just the kind of guy MC is," she told them, looking back at MC with an even brighter smile. "He always wants to help people, no matter what. He saved all of us before this, and now he's saving you too."
"I-It's not just me," MC replied with an irritated frown. "Seriously, all that mattered at first was the members of this club. But I guess…" his expression switched over to a sullen smile. "I guess… you guys rubbed off on me quite a bit. Thanks."
Monika, upon hearing this, couldn't find it in her to keep holding her head up. Knowing that he had to go through all of that because of her and that he still saved her as well… she couldn't hold back her tears either.
"I-I need to t-thank you all too," Monika softly spoke out, still letting everyone else hear her. "F-For forgiving me…"
Natsuki dangerously chuckled at her. "Forgiving is a bit of a stretch," she said, making Monika look even more crestfallen. "But still," she added with an approving smirk. "You had our backs today. I guess I'm fine with you around for now."
Monika slowly wiped her eyes as she dove into Natsuki's arms for a hug. "H-Hey, get off!" Natsuki yelled at her, quickly pushing her off. "Hmph!" she harrumphed as she successfully freed herself, ignoring Monika's following chuckle. "I'm not saying that you're off the hook, okay?! You're still a bitch for everything you did!"
Monika couldn't hold back her laughter. "T-Thanks, Natsuki," she managed to speak in between her laughs.
Yuri smiled at the rest of the club, seeing them all getting along with each other so well once again. JoJo turned away in disgust, but out of eyeshot of everyone else, he managed to crack a smile as well.
"Alright, we need to get out of here," JoJo told them all, bringing their attention to him. "I know that this is an emotional moment and all, but we gotta get back soon. We don't know if Wallace is gonna come back here, or if Adachi's gonna get up anytime soon. We need to leave before that. Oh, and about that."
Walking over to Adachi's body, JoJo summoned Renegades and punched him all over once again for good measure.
Souta smirked as she pulled Takumi away from her and walked up to JoJo as well. "Let me add to that," she said, bringing out Winter. Shooting a speck of blue over to Adachi's ears, she started clapping and jumping on the ground. Once Adachi's ears started to bleed, Souta decided to stop, withdraw her Stand and head back to Takumi, who pulled away from her incredibly tear-filled hug with a protesting Sayori and MC and joined her once again.
"Well, we have time now," JoJo declared as he brought his Stand back into him as well, with MC and Sayori slowly wiping away the water on their blazers from Takumi's tears. "But Wallace is still an unknown, so we still need to leave." He then looked straight at the twins. "You two," he addressed them. "We don't know what will happen if you meet Wallace again. So, keep your distance from him. Better yet, don't come over to the school anymore. Move away to another school if you can."
Swiftly nodding, Souta chose not to make a move as she kept holding on to the still bawling Takumi.
"Good luck, both of you," MC said at last as he made his way out of the clubroom, the rest of his clubmates following behind him.
"Monika," MC moved to her as they started to head back home. "Thank you for telling me that."
Monika simply chuckled. "I just wanted to help somehow," she replied. "I was lucky that I remembered that. It was a pretty vague thing to remember, actually."
"Well, you still remembered it," MC said. "And now because of that, I've included JoJo into our time reversion group as well."
"HUH?!" JoJo literally yelled out loud in reaction while jumping away from MC. He suddenly pointed to him. "You son of a bitch! You're lying!"
"No, I'm not," MC replied with a light huff. "The strands that were covering everyone else that allows me to pull them back in time along with me, I've just put those around you as well."
JoJo faltered for a moment, then he chuckled. "It's surprising, really," JoJo said as he walked back in pace with MC. "Literally two days ago, you summoned your Stand for the first time. You even let your Stand pull you along for the ride as well, that's how bad your control over it was."
"Huh?" MC remarked, surprised. "Did that really happen?"
"Wait, that's possible?" Natsuki asked, running up to them as well.
"Of course," JoJo frowned down at her. "Stand ranges are limited usually. If your Stand goes beyond your range, there's every chance of you being pulled along behind it as well. It's a rookie mistake, though. A really embarrassing one," he snickered as he said the last bit as he looked back at MC. "Coming back to what I was saying, you were that bad with your Stand literally two days ago. And now you saved two girls from deletion with fine control of your Stand's abilities and even put me into your group without rewinding time. You've grown quite a bit, man."
MC chuckled in response. "I've actually had this Stand for about a month, buddy," he replied, looking ahead. "I've gone through quite a bit. I've had every reason to grow as far as I have. And now you can join us for the ride."
"Ha!" JoJo pointed at him. "You tell me that after leaving me hanging for so damn fucking long?! What the hell?" MC started to laugh in response as JoJo prodded his forehead in frustration.
"Everyone," Yuri spoke up, interrupting JoJo's attempt to irritate MC further. "Thank you for everything. I thought I should let you know as well."
"Yeah!" Natsuki cheered as well. "Thanks, everyone!" However, just as she did, she faltered. "Even then, I need to see what's up with that manga."
"Manga?" MC questioned for a moment but then widened his eyes. "Oh, you mean A House of Gold? Yeah, we definitely need to see what's up with that. Hopefully, we find out what's going on with that."
"Me too," Natsuki agreed, suddenly smiling as she looked ahead. "But before that, we have something else waiting for us. Something far more important."
Sayori pumped her fists in front of her chest, excitedly waiting for Natsuki's next words.
"Cupcakes!"
"YEEEEEAAAAAAAHHH!"
Stand User: Kei Adachi
Stand Name: Lonely Dance (Named after a song with the same name by Set It Off)
Abilities:
Voodoo Reflection: This Stand can create a single clone of any person that the user has seen before. The clone can be created anywhere with eyeshot of the Stand as long as there is enough space to accommodate the clone. The original and the clone are dually linked in physical motion, meaning that whatever physically happens to one will happen to the other no matter what. Stands are treated as separate entities from their users as well.
PWR: C
SPD: B
RNG: B
PER: D
PRC: C
DEV: C
A/N: So I've decided to delay Wallace's actual arrival. Sorry, but you're not going to find out the monstrosity that is Wallace's Stand yet.
Anyway, everything about this chapter just took too long. I gave my laptop for repairs right before a weekend, so it took longer than normal to get it back (two and a half days for a hinge replacement). I couldn't find inspiration to write after getting it back, so that took too long as well. I ended up having to rewrite everything once again, took too long. All in all, I'm exhausted.
I may not have much time to write the next week. My sister's coming home, so we're all going to celebrate for a while. I'll be finding time regardless, but not enough.
I also realized that I forgot to cite Mess is Mine's musical reference. Vance Joy, for those that don't know. Alongside that, this is a good moment to mention that the name Wallace was inspired the antagonist of "The Festival" DDLC Mod. The name's pretty infamous now due to the popularity of that mod, and I half expected people to innately know that Wallace was the antagonist of this story from the start mainly from that reference.
Anyway, Lonely Dance was one of the Stands that I had on reserve for a while. I will admit, I wanted to do a lot more with it. However, this Stand can be pretty invincible on it's own, so it was better that I didn't.
I've also come to realise that I'm terrible at artistic design. This includes a character's clothing and Stand design. Honestly, Lonely Dance is just a makeshift pink Mettaton with hose legs and arms. Lucky for me, the next Stand is pretty simple in its design.
Review!
IzuOchaShipper99: You're actually not wrong. It's most of that and even more. To be more specific, the combination is probably D4C, The World/King Crimson, Crazy Diamond, Over Heaven (if I'm analysing it correctly, not having played the game), and even more. And yet, it's all one single ability that I'm pretty sure will blow people away. You've seen how it healed someone from terminal cancer in this chapter, after all. I haven't finalized the final fight yet, but MC definitely has the best chance of defeating him when compared to anyone else.
And that's all for now! I'll see you all next chapter!