Ayane Takamoya didn't know of anything that she was afraid of. She was without any unreasonable worries, for she had a preference for solving things with logic and not letting emotions cloud her incredibly sound judgment, thus fear was of no use to her. She even had a strong sense of self-respect and determination, of which she used to relentlessly pursue the things she wanted. Perhaps it was because she was so amazingly sensible that her grandmother found the need to send her to Dr. Eto. After all, society had a tendency to resist those that didn't fit in, despite, or perhaps because of, qualities that were admirable or superior to those average and unremarkable.
"This is your first week of school, is that right? How did you like it?"
"It was fine," Ayane said.
"Did anything interesting happen?"
"At school? Not really,"
"What, did something happen outside of school?"
It was while Ayane was in the bathroom that all this shit first started. She'd almost made it through her first day unscathed. She'd stopped at the convenience store to pick up some food for dinner on her way home from school.
"Hurry it up, you stupid broad! I ain't got all day!" Ayane looked up from her phone when she heard a gruff voice barking some order from outside the door. "Don't piss me off!"
Suspicious, Ayane summoned True Colors and sent her crawling outside the bathroom and had her peer around the corner to see what was going on. The clerk was crying, putting money into a bag by the handful while a huge, burly man held a gun pointed to her head. Her eyes suddenly jolted open with alertness, jumping up from the toilet in a haste. It could take weeks to find a lead, and here opportunity was, falling right into her lap.
"911, whats your emergency?"
"I'm at the Sun Mart convenience store, its being robbed at gunpoint. Send help immediately," Ayane explained as quietly as she audibly could before hanging up. Next, she had true colors phase through the store's exterior walls and into the parking lot to the only two cars parked.
'Considering this car is parked so close while the other is in the farthest corner of the lot, I'd say the closest car belongs to the man. He'd want to access his car quickly to make a quick getaway, and the employee would park farthest away to allow for customers to have preferential parking spots…' She thought to herself as True Colors began pressing on the tip of the valve to deflate the tire. 'Now he won't be making an escape if he finishes before the police can arrive,'
Feeling very satisfied with her work, she phased back inside the building only to see that the man was making his way behind the counter.
'Whats he doing?' Ayane furrowed her eyebrows.
"Thats all the money, I swear," The cashier promised, holding her hands up in surrender. He shoved her down effortlessly, his hulking figure towering over her as he undid his belt buckle. The cashier's eyes widened and her mouth gaped open, frozen in fear.
"Shit!" Ayane muttered under her breath. 'So much for waiting for the cops… Okay, you have to focus… Okay. This guy is huge, there's no way for me to attack him by force. True Colors can only lift 10 pounds, and even if I could manage to sneak up behind him with a blunt object and hit him myself its unlikely I could put enough force behind my blow to knock a man of his stature down. I need to find another way…' She closed her eyes as she pulled up her uniform skirt, willing herself to look through the eyes of True Colors once more. The chameleon spirit scurried down the isles, looking for something that she could use to help this lady.
"Not going to fight me? You're smart, then. But it's fine if you do, it'll just make me hornier," He smirked, pulling his zipper down and kneeling before her. He grabbed hold of her knees to pry them apart when the cashier pointed wordlessly at his head. It was then that he became acutely aware of a burning smell, and the rapidly increasing sensation of searing heat.
"What the fuck!?" He began screaming, patting his head down rapidly in attempt to smother the flames eating away at his hair. "What the hell did you do to me?!"
As he stood up, looking around in frenzy, he noticed the bag of money was also on fire.
'How?! Is this karma or something?! Did the bag really just somehow manage to catch on fire with those cigarettes, and then a spark caught onto my hair while I was distracted by her?! But they're all wrapped, it doesn't make sense!' The man saw a fire extinguisher against the wall, and quickly ran around the counter to douse his head in the foam.
The cashier didn't waste any time. She scrambled to her feet and bolted toward the back exit. Ayane breathed a sigh of relief, summoning True Colors back to her. The assortment of cigarette lighters on display at the counter were the perfect weapon and distraction to set the duffel bag on fire. Given how lightweight True Colors is, combined with the man's perverted preoccupation, he didn't notice a thing as she climbed onto his back and lit the lighter. Not that anyone could see True Colors except for her anyway, but there have been a few people aware of an unusual crawling sensation when the chameleon crawled on them in past attempts.
The man was screaming in agony as he doused out the flames on the duffel bag. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! It burns!"
Once the flame was out, he dropped the fire hydrant and looked around the store, before making a beeline straight for the bathroom!
'Shit!' She thought to herself. 'If he notices the door locked, he'll know I'm in here… He'd be best making a run with the money, but if he's pissed enough he might decide to bust down the door and have me as a pin cushion instead… The womens bathroom is closer to him than the mens, he'll surely try to open it first… shit, shit, shit!'
She wasn't certain he could bust down the door, but being a man of his stature, she wasn't willing to take the chance. True Colors began pushing things off of the counter, creating a loud crash before disappearing into her surroundings when the man turned around.
"I heard you! I heard you! I knew it couldn't happen on its own! Whoever you are, you're gonna pay for what you did to my head, fucker! Where are you!?"
Ayane turned the bathroom lock very slowly, trying to make sure the opening click was as soft as possible. Her heart was pounding wildly, and she looked through True Color's eyes. He was looking underneath the counter at the moment. This was the best chance she'd get. She began crawling behind the isles toward the back room that she'd saw the cashier exit out of. She was crouched behind a shelving unit, but there was a giant gap between where she was hidden and where the door was.
'Let me just get True Colors to knock something off again,' She thought to herself. She closed her eyes to see where he was, and where she could knock something off next to lure him further away. But what she saw was that he was creeping up right behind her- she'd been seen. She gasped, eyes snapping open and bolting towards the storage room. She tried to close the door behind her, but he was on the other side yanking it.
"You bitch! You're dead!" He screamed. She planted her feet on either side of the door frame, pulling on it with all her strength, but even with the momentum she had the man managed to plant his foot in between the door frame. He began wedging himself in between. She let go, and even though she tried to scramble away she was already anticipating the hand that grabbed her ankle and dragged her back toward him.
"So you're the one who did this to me? I'm actually embarrassed, it was just a little girl like you who sabotaged me like that. You're either really brave, or really stupid!" He picked her up by her hair, slamming her head into the wall so hard that she was unaware of the next 10 seconds that followed. When she regained consciousness she was slumped on the ground, gun pointed at her, and the man pulling the trigger.
Click. Click. Click.
"I already took out the bullets…" Ayane told him weakly, trying her best to stay awake.
"What the hell!? How?! Who are you, how are you doing this?!" He grabbed her by the collar of her uniform, shaking her. "Tell me!"
It was then that the police sirens came into the scope of their hearing.
"They're about here… if you kill me now, you won't have leverage to get away… you'll have to leave all your money here…"
He clenched his jaw tighter, recoiling his fist. "You fuckin- "
"If you kill me now, you have to do it fast too… I won't suffer long… if you keep me as your hostage, you can make me pay like you wanted to…"
"How dumb are you, huh!? I don't need you to tell me nothin, and why would you tell me that in the first place anyways?"
"Because if it means a little more time that I can live, I'll take it. I know you're going to kill me either way, I'm just trying to buy a little more time… it's up to you weather killing me helps you walk away with all the yen and stuff in that bag or not, and being able to do whatever you want with me afterward…"
"This is the police, we have you surrounded!"
'Tch… what have I got to lose? I can just bail out of this idiots body if it goes south…' He thought to himself. The man looped her arms behind her, immobilizing them and went to get the bag. He pulled out a knife instead.
"If you pull one more stunt, I'm gutting you like a fish, you hear me bitch?"
"Yes, I understand, I'll do anything you say!" She feigned a whimper when he pointed it at her throat. Meanwhile, True Colors was opening drawers at the counter, searching for something to help Ayane once again. And then there it was, a letter opener. Perfect. But he yanked her away from the counter and out the door so fast True Colors didn't get a chance to use it.
"Don't move! Drop the knife!" A policeman out front screamed. Ayane's face flushed- why's there such a damn crowd? Why's everybody gotta be so damn nosy? Not that it mattered- this was self defense, and they wouldn't see it happen anyways with True Colors, who put the knife in her mouth and was sneaking up behind them.
"Shut up! Get back!" The man holding her hostage screamed, waving his knife out in front of him. "All of you, get out of the way! I'm going to the car!"
'The one whose tires I deflated? Yeah, this guy's crime run is up,' She smirked to herself ever so slightly.
"Hey you, with the stupid hair! I said get back!" He screamed, swinging his knife toward him. Ayane's attention was redirected to what was happening over towards the car.
"I told you to get away from the car! I'll kill you!"
Some idiot bystander was leaving the crowd, making his way right toward them.
"What are you doing?!" Ayane screamed at him, her heart dropping. He was going to get them both killed! True colors had just stepped outside with the knife, but he was about to make this guy snap before she'd even gotten the chance to get True Colors close enough!
"Hey! Stop!" One of the policeman tried to say, but he kept walking toward them as though he didn't hear a word.
"What did you just say?" His eyes were locked on him, and a dark aura surrounded him.
"Who the hell are you? Get away from me! You don't care what happens to her?" He jabbed the tip of the blade right up under her chin.
"Get back you fool!" A policeman cried.
"What are you going to do if he loses it?"
"I told you guys to back up to! You're all pissing me off! That's it, I'm gonna slaughter this bitch!" He screamed, lifting the blade up. Shit, shit, there was no time! True Colors wasn't fast enough, she had only just crawled onto the leg of his pants!
"Oh really?"
A pink aura- no- a creature, some kind of robot spirit-esque thing, emerged from him just as a searing, nauseating pain pierced her abdomen. She wasn't sure if it was what she was seeing or the stab was what took her breath away, possibly both. But just as fast as the pain came, it was gone. But the man behind her was incapacitated. The letter opener had clattered to the floor, True Colors vanishing when the shock of the stab thwarted her concentration.
"I pissed you off? I believe thats my line," The student grabbed Ayane and pulled her away. She looked down, touching her stomach where she'd just been stabbed. There was nothing there, even her clothes were untainted. She looked back up at the student, and the spirit that had just came out was merging back with his body once again.
The man who had robbed the convenience store began screaming,"M-my army knife! Its in my stomach! H-how?!"
"You better get a surgeon to take it out… in the prison hospital," He said darkly, watching him fall to his knees.
"S-seize him!" Two policeman ran up and began handcuffing the perpetrator.
"Hey, you! What is that pink thing? Was that what healed me just now? Did you put that knife in him with it?" Ayane furrowed her eyebrows, grabbing ahold of him.
"You can actually see Crazy Diamond?" His eyes widened, the surprise on his face melting the venomous expression away. "That must mean your a stand user then, right?"
"A what?"
"J-josuke!" A small boi in the same high school uniform as them ran up to him.
"Hey Koichi,"
"Are you okay? That was-"
A gurgling sound made the students stop and turn around.
"What the- Why's he opening his mouth like that?" The policeman asked. They appeared not to be aware of the ghost that was crawling out of his mouth, covered in green eyes and an armor-like appearance.
"Who would've thought I'd find another Stand User here?" The spirit looked over at Ayane, noticing her awareness of his existence from her shocked stare.
"Hmph, two Stand Users… So that's how you were doing it. I possessed this man and was having such a blast with that robbery until you two showed up," He pointed at her. "After what you did to me, putting a cocky bitch like you in her place and turning you into my groveling whore was so tempting I didn't realize you were playing me all along,"
"He's the guy from the picture!" Ayane barely heard Josuke said, but it didn't really register because she was clouded with anger.
"My place?" She didn't know who or what this thing was, but she made a beeline straight for it, stomping her foot down and pointing indignantly. "You prey on others to bring them down, trying put them in a place beneath you so you feel superior. But the truth is nothing can salvage your dignity. You're nothing, worse than scum," She spat in his direction, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"You won't be so arrogant when you're chocking on your own words with my cock down your throat," He grinned, licking her spit off of his cheek.
Ayane grabbed the letter opener off the ground and charged right for him, "Say it again, coward!"
"Mam, stop! It's fine, you're safe now!" A policeman restrained her sympathetically, believing she was retaliating against her attacker. "Don't let him evoke a reaction out of you like that, he's not worth it!"
Ayane writhed and pulled against him, trying to get to the ghost all the while he laughed at her anger.
"When I'm done with you, I'll kill your boyfriend after I've made him watch," He crawled down into the drainage hole,
"What'd you say, you bastard!?" Josuke growled, moving toward the drainage.
"Think twice before daring to get in my way again. I'll be watching you, I'll be watching you all the time," The ghost sneered, disappearing out of sight. When she saw him escape, Ayane fumed, gritting her teeth and stomping in anger. He was gone, running off like the coward he was.
"Josuke!"
"Huh?" He turned around to see two policemen running straight for him, tackling him down to the ground.
"M-Mr. Officer, w-wait a sec! Let me go, I didn't do anything!"
"Mam, we're going to have our medic look over your injuries, who are your parents? We need to inform them of whats happened,"
"I don't have any parents for you to alert, I live alone. I'm physically fine. I'm not traumatized, I'm pissed off!"
"Let's just take a breather and sit down for a minute,"
"Wait. Where are they taking him?" Ayane saw him being dragged to a police car.
"He's being held for interfering with a crime scene. He's a minor, and nothing bad happened so he'll probably get out tomorrow-"
"I don't want to sit down. I don't want to be examined. I want to talk to him,"
"You're going to the same high school, right? Perhaps you'll get a chance to do that in a few days when all this excitement settles down?" The police officer tried to convince her.
"No. I'm not waiting. If you won't let me ride with him, take me to the station,"
"After whats happened, I should really take you home to your family," he said.
"I live alone so I can go to high school in Morioh,"
"In this little town?"
"Yeah. They have a strong biology program," Ayane gave him the same lame excuse she'd used to convince her grandmother to let her live here. "So I have autonomy. Now, I'd like you to take me to the station. Please,"
…
Ayane was guided into the holding room where he sat with his arms crossed, drumming his fingers. His eyebrows were furrowed, lips pursed. Angry? No, nervous.
His face changed when he saw her. Now, it was disgust.
"What, here to apologize?" He scoffed.
"Apologize? Please, you're still on that?" She wrinkled her nose, putting a hand on her hip.
"You walked past me and my friend when I got locked outside the school two minutes late and wouldn't open the damn door! I had to get a tardy slip and didn't get inside the building for another 20 minutes, my mom got a call from the school saying I was late!"
"That was kinda bitchy," The guy next to Josuke in the holding cell said.
"See? Thank you!"
"Moral support from a criminal, how touching," Ayane rolled her eyes.
"Hey," The guy pouted defensively, "I'm a person too, you know,"
"You're nosey and not involved in this conversation!"
"He just knows a dick move when he hears it!" Josuke sneered.
"What about the fact you wouldn't give me your signature and ignored me during homeroom when we were doing the icebreaker activity? You pretended like you couldn't hear me. Really fucking mature,"
"You're talking about mature?! You tied my shoelaces together when I wasn't looking!"
"I dunno about that, nobody saw anything, are you sure that they didn't just entangle themselves?" Ayane suggested in a condescending tone, blinking innocently.
"No one else would have except for you, even though I don't know how, I know it was you!"
She smirked, "Not even a guess?"
He knitted his eyebrows together.
"We're the same. I have a spirit too," True Colors climbed from her back, onto her shoulders and down her arm. The chameleon blended with its surroundings initially before revealing its natural state, a mostly green body with stripes and patches of many colors that all blurred together like a piece of art. "Nobody can except for me. But I was the only one that saw your pink thing, and we both saw the blue thing that crawled out of that guy. So, you see her, don't you?"
She noticed his eyebrows had raised in interest, but then he turned his head in an attempt to hide it. "Yeah. It's called a stand, and your a stand user. Only stands users can see other stands,"
"I already figured that out. I was intrigued that there was other people like me, but clearly we have more differences than similarities. So, just give me those pictures and tell me what you know about them and I'll be on my way,"
"What do you want them for?"
"None of your business,"
"Then I'm not giving them to you!"
"Why do you care?"
"You haven't exactly done me any favors, or shown me any gratitude despite the fact that you'd be dead right now if it weren't for me, so sue me if I'm not feeling very generous!"
She laughed in appall. "Gratitude? For what?! I was handling myself just fine before you nearly got me killed!"
"Handling yourself!? I'm sure it was all just an act, you were just pretending to be seconds away from death just to throw him off, right?" His voice dripped with sarcasm.
"I'll have you know I saved that cashier from being assaulted or worse, notified the police, and talked my way out of being shot point blank. And, I was just about to shank the bastard when you decide to interfere with a hostage situation because he insulted your fucking hair? Just how small of a dick are you compensating for?!"
"You're so full of shit!" He jumped to his feet, grasping at the prison bars.
"You're reckless, irresponsible and egotistical, and you have no business with that photo so hand it over and any information you have about the stand user!" Ayane demanded.
"Oh, you mean this picture?" Josuke pulled it out of his pocket, waving it in front of her.
"Give it,"
"Gee, I wish I could, but…" he made a tisking sound. "There's just one problem. You see, I actually tore the picture into shreds…" He ripped it in half, then in half again, and again. "And then I swallowed them to make sure there was no way you'd be able to find him,"
Ayane's eye twitched in anger, clenching her fists.
"If only you'd said please. Too bad I'm the only one who knows who the stand user is," He sighed in fake despair.
"He's dangerous and needs to be tracked down!" Ayane insisted.
"By you and your little lizard? That's adorable. You haven't met any other stand users, so you wouldn't know this, but yours is weak and small. You have no chance.
She opened her mouth to rebuttal, but it was at that moment a woman with more anger than either of them combined followed an officer up to the door.
"Alright, kid, your mom's here,"
"Uh, do I have to, officer? I think I'm safer in here…" Josuke gulped nervously, watching the dark aura surrounding his mother.
"Oh no, you're not getting off that easy!" She yanked him by his ear, dragging him away.
Ayane smiled, not only at watching him be manhandled and terrified by his mother's wrath but also knowing that True Colors had hitched a ride on Josuke Higashkita without his knowing. 'Small and weak? We'll see about that…'
"...Nothing. It was just as boring," Ayane said after a brief moment of hesitation. She leaned back in Dr. Eto's chair, "What can I say? I'm a pretty boring gal, Doc."
Thanks for reading everyone- I'm not sure if I'll continue this story or not, but I just had this document sitting on my computer so I thought I'd share it with yall. Let me know what you think. -Mcfly