January 20, 2020 - Lucario's house

Jojo's Perspective

I woke up in a cold sweat, I was hyperventilating, but why?

I subconsciously ran my hand over my left arm, a part of me was relieved that it was still there, did I lose it in my dream? I don't even remember what I dreamt about.

" sorry, I just had to look ".

My eyes darted towards the voice, it was Lucario.

What the hell was she doing here? I looked around, I was in the guest bedroom.

" I probed your memory again, since you were asleep there was less resistance, but you had to relive everything that I dug up ".

" well I don't remember anything ".

She paused for a few seconds, then she made her way to the door, " you woke up pretty early, just get some rest ".

I looked up at a clock hanging on the wall, it was 2 in the morning.I laid back down and closed my eyes.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

An alarm clock...

My eyes jolted open, I turned my head and saw light coming out of a window, its daytime already?!

January 21, 2020 - Pecha town

I forced myself to get out of bed and I stumbled over to the door, I saw Lucario asleep on the couch, I guess she had the day off.

I grabbed my bag and hung the straps under my arms, " bye " I mumbled to Lucario as I walked out the front door.

Later

Raymond's Perspective

If I could look through the thoughts of another person, It would probably be really overwhelming, especially the thoughts of someone like Evie right now.

The class was quieter than normal, there were the occasional whispers and murmurs, but much less then it was before

I felt really bad for her, but I had no idea what to do…

I zoned out for the first half of Wobbuffet's lesson, when I started listening again, he was rambling on about the history of the grass continent.

The rest of the school day wasn't that interesting. I was packing up my bag, waiting for Jojo to come when Wobbufet came up to me, " excuse me Raymond, I need to ask you something ".

" sure thing Mr. W, whats up? ".

" I wanted to ask you if you were approached by any strange people during nighttime, specifically a Lucario ".

My mind raced back to that " Straizo " guy that I met before.

" actually, yes I have ".

His eyes widened, " did he happen to wear a- ".

" a trenchcoat ".

He stood there, jaw agape, before shaking his head, " not to alarm you, but that was most likely the suspected serial killer ".

I have never felt so terrified from a single sentence like that in my entire life. I actually had a casual conversation with a serial killer…

He noticed my surprise, " just don't go out at night… okay? ".

He walked away, leaving me to shiver horribly, " I heard what Wobbuffet said, where is he? " I heard Evie growl behind me.

" i-I uh don't know E- " she suddenly grabbed me by my yellow collar and pulled me closer, " where did you last see him… " Evie looked furious, and honestly I was more terrified of her than what Wobbuffet just said earlier.

" i-I-It w-was 4 or 5 d-days ago i-I'm pretty sure he's not there anymore! " I whimpered.

She glared at me even harder, before a third voice spoke up, " let him go, it's me Straits wants ".

Jojo?!

I was pushed back and saw Evie give that same look to Jojo.

" Then you're gonna help me find him " Evie's expression relaxed, Jojo shrugged.

I stood there, contemplating what just happened.

" don't say it ".

My mouth opened.

" don't get involved ".

I raised a vine up.

" please don't let yourself get killed because of these guys ".

" I-I… ".

" you have your whole life ahead of you Ray, don't do it! ".

" and I'll help! ".

" yep, I'm dead ".

Both of them looked at me, they both nodded, " we'll need all the help we can get against this guy ".

Later

Evie's Perspective

We're going to get him… I'm sure of it.

It was only one hour until the curfew, and all three of us were waiting around in the forest.

" my mom is gonna kill me " I heard Ray mumble.

" So did you all give your excuses? " I asked both of them.

" I told Lucario that I would be staying outside for a bit, she didn't seem to mind, well… I think she does now " Jojo stared at the moon.

" oh uh… I forgot to give an excuse, I just snuck out " Raymond scratched the back of his neck.

" We are going to be in for one hell of a nagging once we get home " said Jojo.

I chuckled, " yeah ".

We stayed silent, trying to listen for anything moving around, the forest was quite creepily quiet at this time of day.

Jojo spoke up, " we aren't going to find Straizo just by sitting here! That's it, I'm going ho- ".

He quickly sat up and his aura tendrils levitated again, he slowly looked over at me, his expression told me all I needed to know.

Raymond squeaked and fell over, I slowly went over to help him up...

Until a purple laser whizzed past my face.

I jumped backwards, Jojo went into a fighting stance and shot an aura sphere at whoever threw it.

Wait a minute… aura sphere!?

He looked confused as well, as if he had no idea that he could use it, I thought only Lucarios could use an aura sphere.

We heard a grunt after he shot out the sphere, Jojo immediately went after him, and I ran over to help up the now shaken Raymond.

I called out to Jojo, " come back! ".

Jojo's Perspective

Whoever this guy is, he sure has a grudge against us.

I ran after him until I ended up in a clearing, there was a large pond nearby, and giant rocks were scattered about.

" ah, Jojo, it's good to see you after all of these years " I heard a menacing voice call out.

I looked up to the source and saw a cloaked figure standing on top of a tall boulder, the ends of his jacket flowing in the wind.

" Straizo… " I said through clenched teeth.

"I am tempted to fight you, but I am also curious about your abilities as a Riolu, which is why I will have one of my henchmen strike you down instead ".

Another figure appeared behind Straits, his entire body was a sword sheath and he had two grey cloth-like arms, and he had one giant purple eye in the upper half of his sheath.

" Bruford, this is the one I informed you about, do as you wish ".

Bruford floated out into the open, he was about 30 metres away from me.

I readied myself, I could sense Evie and Ray coming, I can't let them get caught in the crossfire.

Suddenly, he started charging at me at incredible speeds, he was appearing and reappearing everywhere, as if he was teleporting!

He manifested only 5 metres away from me, he extended both of his cloth arms to the sides, which arm is going to pull out his sword?

A third cloth arm started growing out behind his back, it grabbed the blade by its handle and pulled it out of its sheath.

He swung it at me, I barely dove out of the way, the sword sliced the side of my face, I was lucky it didn't hit my eye.

I steadied myself and placed a paw on the cut, blood was running down my face, I looked over at Bruford and delved into his aura. He was determined to kill me.

" the grandson of Jonathan Joestar, in the flesh… " he remarked, I was too busy freaking out over the giant cut on my face to respond.

This guy is fast, I have to be careful.

I regained my composure and started generating hamon, this guy must be undead, or else he wouldn't be working for Straizo.

He lunged towards me and swung his sword, I dodged out of the way and struck him with some hamon, bits of his sheath started falling apart, this guy was a zombie!

We both began to quickly exchange blows.

Bruford managed to slice my leg, I lost balance and stumbled backwards, he thrust his sword towards my chest, I leapt to the side as the sword cut the surface of my abdomen, pain shot through my body as the blade collided.

I fell back and ended up on the ground, watching Bruford tower over me, " disappointing, I would have expected more from Sir Jonathan's descendant ".

He pointed his sword down at me, and plunged it straight into me!

Which is what would've happened if a rock didn't hit him square in the eye.

He clutched the purple orb with one of his cloth arms and started swinging his sword blindly while screaming in pain.

I took advantage of the distraction by charging up my leg with hamon and kicking him, sending Bruford flying backwards.

I looked towards whoever tossed the stone and saw Evie and Ray, they were watching the fight on the sidelines.

" go get him Jojo! " Ray was the one who threw the rock, i think…

Wait a minute, someone's behind them.

" guys look out! " an undead feral Flaaffy appeared behind them, before getting cut down by a blue light.

" don't worry Jojo, help has arrived " Lucario called out, wielding a glowing blue staff. " you kids are in so much trouble " I heard her mutter under her breath.

I saw Straizo in the distance retreating, coward.

More undead ferals appeared around them, " you're gonna have to hold out on your own right now through ", she said as she prepared to mow down the crowd of zombies.

I turned to face Bruford, who recovered from the rock, he was now pointing his sword towards me, " I sense a fire in you, similar to Jonathan's, show me that you lived up to the family name ".

Hamon started covering my entire body, I pointed my arm towards him, and motioned for him to come.

He started teleporting towards me again, I predicted where he would end up and leapt to the side when he swung, this time avoiding damage.

One of his cloth arms extended towards me and grabbed my arm, for some reason, it felt like my arm was getting pierced by a bunch of needles, it then started to get numb, he's drinking my blood through the cloth!

I started repeatedly hitting the cloth with hamon, while simultaneously trying to avoid Bruford's sword.

Finally, the cloth gave way and tore off of my limb, It felt like tearing off a bandage really fast.

Bruford recoiled backwards, giving me the chance to strike.

I charged up my arm with hamon, and punched him straight in the eye, he went flying into a pond.

Suddenly, I was being dragged into the pond too! I looked down at my leg and saw one of his cloth-arms pulling me in, I didn't have time to remove it before I ended up underwater.

It was hard to see since my blood was fogging up the place, but another cloth-arm wrapped around my neck and tightened itself.

" because you cant breathe underwater, you can't produce hamon so you cant fight back, now, my cloth will hold you in place while I turn you into Swiss cheese! ".

He was right, I couldn't breathe, I struggled and flailed against the cloth, but nothing was working.

Bruford swung his sword at me, it was slower underwater but still as lethal, time seemed to slow as I watched the blade get closer to my face. Is this how I'm going to die?

Instinctively, I held up my paw, the boney pad facing the sword's blade.

The blade collided with the pad, somehow it was able to withstand the force of the blow.

Bruford began to barrage me with sword swings, all of them I swiftly blocked with the bone pads. The clanging sound was muffled underwater.

He thrust his sword at me, I blocked it with the pad, I heard a muffled crack when it collided, blood started seeping out of the bone pad.

" you keep struggling, even though you know you can't win, why? " Bruford commented.

I suddenly remembered something from my human life.

I was about 8 years old at the time, I was hanging out in Speedwagon's personal library ( which was huge ).

Speedwagon was sitting on a luxurious armchair reading a book, I went up to him.

" Uncle Speedwagon? Granny Erina didn't tell me much about my grandpa, what was he like? ".

He placed a bookmark in the book and set it down, " well, where do I start? He was an enormous person, but his heart was twice his size ".

He motioned for me to sit in one of the chairs next to him, which I did.

" ah... Jonathan, while he might seem intimidating at first glance, he was a gentleman, but that didn't stop him from defeating an evil vampire " I got intrigued on the vampire part.

" vampires? Do you mean that they're real?! ".

" why yes, they are very real, it's a long story ".

" then shorten it! ".

" okay okay " he chuckled.

He told me a story about rivalries, ancient stone masks, loss, magic sunlight karate ( which I now recognize as hamon ), and vampires, I started to doze off when he finished.

" you look pretty sleepy, I think it's time for you to go to bed now young Jojo ".

I snapped out of it and assessed my situation, I was drowning underwater with a floating sword zombie trying to kill me, oh how much I would give to be back in Speedwagon's library right now.

But none of that matters now, what matters right now is getting out of here alive!

I blocked another one of Brufords swings with my other pad, maybe I can use the aura instead of hamon.

My aura tendrils started glowing blue, if I could just do what I did back in the forest, I could get Bruford off of me.

My paws started glowing blue, I cupped them together when Bruford recoiled back from a swing and shot out a beam of energy at him.

Bruford started flying back through the water, leaving a trail of blood fog behind, the cloth arms were torn off of him from the force of the aura and I hastily swam to the surface.

I was gasping for air as I crawled along the edges of the pond, when I regained my focus, I looked back in the pond, it was now completely fogged up from our blood.

I shambled my way over to a nearby rock and sat down, the others probably didn't have a chance against those undead, I frowned at the thought.

I realized I still had the remains of one of his cloth arms around my neck, I took it off and tossed it away.

I rested on the rock for a minute, trying to focus on what just happened, I have to get to the others.

SPLASH!

Bruford burst out of the water with a roar, he touched down on the surface and looked straight at me..

His left cloth-arm was completely torn off, courtesy of me. His sheath had multiple cracks on it, all of them bleeding.

He slowly floated towards me, still carrying his sword.

He was now right in front of me, he pointed his sword in my face.

I sighed and looked straight into his eye with no emotion.

He collapsed, still holding onto his sword, his injuries finally got to him.

" from the outside, you and Jonathan are polar opposites, but inside, you both have the exact same spirit ", he let go of his sword and pushed it over to me.

" Straizo is waiting in the town square, use the sword and end me ". I grabbed the sword, it had " luck " engraved on the handle.

" the same thing I did for Jonathan I will do for you ", he raised up a bloody cloth and wrote a " P " besides the word luck on the sword, now it read: " pluck ".

I started producing hamon and channeling it through the sword, it glowed bright yellow and could probably be seen from kilometres away in the dark.

I looked down on the dying Bruford and shivered, " I wish to ask you something, when Jonathan defeated you, you became good again, why did you decide to work for Straizo? ", he stayed still, " I wont lie, if Straizo hadn't told me that he was looking for Jonathan's grandson then I wouldn't have joined him, I only wanted to test you in battle ".

I pointed the hamon-infused sword upside down and plunged it into Bruford's eye, there weren't any noises except for the crackling of his undead body disintegrating.

I pulled the sword out of the now broken sheath and stared at it.

" no… there's no time for contemplation ".

Raymond's Perspective

I'm surprised that we're still alive, but also terrified because we are about to not be.

Lucario was able to easily take down the monsters, but they kept coming back!

Me and Evie were cowering behind a rock, I'm pretty sure Jojo died back there, tears stung my eyes at the thought of it.

Lucario was struggling against the horde, she grunted every time she swung at one.

I'm going to die here... And nobody will know until tomorrow.

" OI! " a familiar voice called out, no… that can't be him!

" help has arrived! " Jojo quipped as he descended onto the horde.

Absolute chaos ensued, I could barely tell what was going on, in the end Jojo was standing in a pile of ashes with a glowing sword.

Lucario walked up to him, " alright kid, we'll patch you up and you are going straight to be- ".

" the town square ".

Lucario tilted her head, " what? ".

Jojo looked at Evie, " Straizo is waiting in the town square ".

Evie's looked at the ground for a moment, before looking up with a determined expression, " what are we waiting for!? "

Chapter 10 - To Be Continued