[Null Past Null] moved quickly, not wanting to touch any unit of the Stand for too long. It phased through the locker door, grabbing a unit that had stuck itself to the door and throwing it off. The critters seemed pretty durable, so destroying them all would leave her open to many at a time. But from what she saw, it did take its toll on the user. Damage done to the Stand seemed to reflect on him, especially if one was destroyed.

Homura climbed out of the locker and let her Stand loose on the suspended enemy. She felt the power almost flow out of its fists and into the creature, something she hadn't noticed before. Once the Stand seemed as good as dead, Homura let [Null Past Null] grab it and throw it towards the rest. There, it exploded in a sudden burst of energy.

'This ability… it's the 'conversion and release of energy', hm?' She thought to herself, starting to get a grip on what her Stand could do.

The burst of energy hadn't been strong enough to destroy more than one of the units, but the rest had been noticeably harmed or pushed away, leaving her free to deal with the one on the doorknob for just a moment longer.

She ran forward, her stand grabbing onto the creature and using it to press down the door knob. Homura quickly dashed through, feeling blasts of air hit her back. She bit down the pain, stumbling through her steps. Null Past Null quickly threw the Stand forward through the door, releasing it and the other units back into stopped time. In the corner of her eyes, Homura noticed the user do the same. He was about to leave the building-

Homura's legs suddenly gave out, her vision blurring. Null Past Null reacted quickly, making sure she didn't stumble into anyone and helping her get back up. With an unusual effort, Homura disconnected her soul from her body. It didn't get rid of the symptoms, but at least it numbed the sensations. Breathlessness, growing numbness, brief loss of vision… It was a lot, and she didn't understand it. Everything was getting scrambled, almost as if-

She looked at the back of her left hand, noticing just how dark her soul gem had gotten. That didn't make sense at all, she had only stopped time twice by now. Did her Stand drain her soul gem somehow?

Reconnecting herself to her body, Homura opened a nearby window and jumped through it, closing it behind her and crouching down until she knew no one could see her. It went a lot easier than she expected, almost as if her body felt floatier. It gave Homura an epiphany.

'Numbness all over, dizziness, trouble breathing, and now I'm floating… Are those blasts of air helium? Is he blasting helium into my bloodstream?'

It would make sense. Helium was known to cause strokes every now and then, and what she had blasted into her was more than enough to get a high chance of that. It was a textbook case of a stroke, one of the few things were disconnecting from her body wouldn't mitigate it completely.

She crouched down and started crawling over the ground as her timestop released again. It wouldn't surprise her if she was found soon enough, but she wanted to conserve just a bit of energy if she could. It wasn't like the yakuza could see the Stands, she could fend them off for a bit. Sticking to moving like this was healthier for her, letting her get some helium out of her lungs.

She started breathing deeply, trying to bring more oxygen into her system while the Stand kept close to her. She had been under the enemy Stand's effect for a while now, chances were she'd have to heal her brain with magic later. Her soul gem looked about a fifth of the way darkened, that was already an uncomfortable amount for her given what she was doing. Healing something as complex as the brain was going to make it a lot worse.

Once she reached a corner, away from potential eyes, her Stand alerted her to movement behind her. Time stopped on instinct as she turned back. A single unit of the Stand had jumped into the air, almost on her. [Null Past Null] struck it with an uppercut, launching it up towards the roof. The brief contact caused a good dozen other Stands to jump out of the woodworks, towards her. Ready to flee, Homura steadied herself, then jumped onto the roof, where she quickly fell over. Her legs had grown almost completely numb, requiring her to disconnect again, but she was still functioning. All that was left was hunting the Stand user down and-

Wait. Maybe she didn't have to. The Stand user was much more intent on getting away and letting his Stand set traps. He didn't want a direct confrontation, he was going to get deeper into the crowd and make it impossible to kill him without witnesses or casualties. Interrogating or capturing him would be impossible, especially with her brain being damaged. If she wanted to kill him, she needed to get to his Stand. Just killing two of them had done a lot of damage, destroying them all would surely kill him.

She dug her heels into the stone roof of the building, then commanded [Null Past Null] to strike at the Stand it had uppercutted onto the roof. If she was right, her Stand could conserve energy into objects it struck, even having reduced damage to do so. If she went all out? That would be enough.

More and more units of the Stand started climbing onto the roof bit by bit, gathering to be about two dozen. Homura's Stand was forcibly kept away: It had a few large bruises on its back from the initial blasts when they opened the door, Homura wouldn't risk more. Instead, Homura had to take several blasts before she felt they had gathered enough energy. With a final double axe-handle, Null Past Null knocked the Stand towards her, returning to slap off any of the Stands that had climbed onto Homura's legs.

Finally, all of the Stands had greyed out, one energy-charged among them. Without even thinking, Homura jumped up, the supernatural helium carrying her much further than normal. With a roll of its wrist, Null Past Null released the energy it had inflicted, causing a massive burst that seemed to annihilate every last unit of the Stand there. In the distance, among the people, Homura saw the user burst open with blood, burnt and tearing much like his Stand was.

Vaguely aware of what remained of her time stop, Homura tripped off the building and wobbled towards her target. She didn't quite know what to do now. Not wanting to cause a scene, she took the corpse of her enemy and stuffed it into her shield, along with most blood she could find, before stumbling towards an alleyway. She would drop it off later, after seeing if she could get any intel from it, like a phone or something. Right now she couldn't care less.

Not caring to return to her starting point, she struggled and fell into the shadow of an alleyway. Time returned while she slowly did some breathing exercises. Her Soul Gem had darkened about 30%, significantly more than would happen after only three time stops. Since her Stand was part of her Soul, it taking damage must have darkened her gem somehow? That, or it using its ability. She couldn't quite tell. Luckily it left her enough to heal any brain damage the stroke gave her. Healing wasn't her strong suit, but she had healed her brain before. She only needed enough for it to function, then she could go and defeat a witch and get the Grief Seed to heal more generously. Some weaker witches were around at this time, if she remembered correctly.

One, maybe two days later, a girl named Mami Tomoe picked up a newspaper off of her doormat, skimming through it as she drank her morning tea. Most things were mundane to her: small crimes, economics, world politics that felt too big for her small life, despite how she was raised. Some articles read like signs of potential witches, talking about repeated suicides at various places. There was only one article in particular she couldn't place: A yakuza member had been found dead in an alleyway, body covered in inexplicable wounds. It reeked of magic, but not witches' magic. Someone else with magic powers could have come into her territory, someone who was misusing their power.

"Kyubey?"

A familiar white vulpine trotted out from the kitchen, red eyes regarding her with a friendly look. "What is it, Mami Tomoe?"

"Do you know if any magical girls recently appeared in this city?"

"Only one. She is quite the unusual one. Why do you ask?"

"Just a mild suspicion. I think she might be connected to what I'm reading here."

Kyubey hopped on Mami's shoulder, eyes scanning the passage she pointed out. "That certainly could be supernatural. I have yet to document her abilities, but something this dissecting is not out of the question."

"...I see. Hopefully we're wrong about this, then. I would hate to deal with another violent magical girl." The blonde replied after a sip of tea. "Once I'm done with school for today, I'll see if I can find her, perhaps ask her a few questions. Maybe we can divert her from this path she's taking. "

Mami had always been the hopeful sort, believing things like that. Given the gruesome nature of this death, she wasn't sure if it would be possible to redeem such a killer. But she would be dumb if she didn't at least try.

Stand Master: Scatliffe Perturbator (Deceased)

Stand Name: [Cold Shoulders]

Reference: Scattle

Appearance: A group of 26 small quadrupeds, no larger than the average male hand. Their bodies are mostly black, littered with star-like blips of white. Their faces are rainbow-colored in contrast, with pitch-black eyes and an elongated, horn-like mouth.

Ability: [Cold Shoulders] has the ability to create small bursts of helium, capable of entering objects and making them much lighter. These blasts are very forceful and can do a lot of damage to the unwary, especially once they enter the bloodstream.

Power: B

Speed: D

Range: A

Durability: D

Precision: C

Potential: D