Author's Notes:

Chapter 2 is now live! Again, please leave a review so I may correct any mistakes and improve my writing style, and thank you for reading.

—

It had been over an hour of Diego wandering around in this forest. After saving the kid, he quickly set off to find the one responsible for playing puppeteer. When he reached the origin point though, nobody seemed to be there. Perhaps they had relocated after he fired his gun? He had even more questions about where he was as well. From what he could gather, the people were of some Asian descent and the forest he was in may have been on a mountain. The air was hard to breathe in after all, but it wasn't anything Diego couldn't overcome. And thankfully, maybe due to a lucky fate, Diego was able to read and speak this language. Perhaps he had been sent to this world by Funny Valentine? That wouldn't explain how he could suddenly understand this language though.

A lack of air up here was getting annoying. That was his only thought in the end. Diego wasn't really one to focus on questions with no answer until he knew he was safe, so he let them go for the time being. In his hour trip, he was disturbed some other fighting in the background. Sometimes he was disturbed by the lack of noise too. On top of all, he was just annoyed by having to constantly be on guard.

A shuffle behind him alerted his senses to the max. Turning his head slightly, he peered into the darkness of the forest. His stand was also summoned in case it wasn't just an animal. He ruled out wind considering that he was in the middle of a forest, so it could've just been a wild animal that was curious.

What came out was completely different from anything he could've imagined in his wildest dreams. A considerably pale girl came out of the bushes from behind him. Despite being a little cute, her complexion gave Diego a chill in his spine. He knew she is a threat, but how is to be answered in a moment's notice. He pulled out his gun and reloaded while they both stared at each other in total silence. Taking a closer look at her, she was probably no older than a preteen. She still gave off a dangerous aura despite her initial appearance, and her stark white clothes that matched her skin made it look like she was a cult member or something. Diego lastly took notice of the strange red dots that connected along her head. He aimed his gun at the ground as to warn her that he's armed, but she didn't seem to care. She was still staring her own bullets directly into his eyes.

She laughed softly yet creepily. She began to talk after her little fit of mischief. "What are you planning to do when you shoot that gun at me? Kill me? It's awfully funny how much you underestimate me for my size."

"I wasn't planning to shoot if you tell me what you are," Diego replied, keeping a firm grip on the revolver.

"Perhaps not, but I know you will in a few seconds," she said enigmatically. "You must be stupid or something too. Haven't you heard the stories about demons who live in the Natagumo Mountain forests? Well, you're about to experience being killed by a demon anyways, so I guess it doesn't matter."

The term 'demon' was nothing new to Diego, but seeing one in person shocked him to a degree. Sure, he had heard of the holy corpse and fought stand users, but demons were an entirely new threat. Hell was sure going to be a challenge to survive if demons exist in this place.

Readying his revolver by cocking the hammer back, sweat began to form on his brow. He knew she wouldn't be able to kill him, but damage was possible in the state he was in.

"This is your last warning before I kill you, girl. Go back and I won't harm you."

She glared daggers at him. "You're warning me? You filthy scum of this earth! I'll fucking kill you for saying something as stupid as that!"

She bolted at Diego with a killing instinct in her eyes - like a predator targeting their prey. Diego naturally used his stand's defenses to guard himself with, and the demon was blocked off mere inches away from his face. She tried to pull back from this invisible barrier, but something seemed to grab her neck and pummel her into the ground. She writhed in pain as Diego's stand pinned her from moving. Despite her size, his stand was actually having quite the difficult time holding her down. Her body was thrashing around quite frequently and her strength could possibly match a mid-tier stand.

Despite all her struggling against The World, she managed to slip some words out. "What the hell type of sorcery is this? Release me now you filth!"

Diego crouched down to her level once his stand held absolute control of the enemy. His eyes darted around in case there was another demon nearby who heard a fellow in trouble. Deducing that there wasn't, he answered her pleas of help with cockiness.

"Not so arrogant now, are we? You shouldn't have announced your victory so soon darling, because you knew nothing of your opponents."

She began laughing slightly underneath his stand. This confused Diego a great amount.

"What? What is so funny about this?"

"I could say the same thing right back at you, you foolish human."

A pair of trees came falling over Diego, and the demon knew he wouldn't have time to escape. That is, unless-

"ZA WARUDO! Pause the movement of time!"

'What?! A stand user? No, this is different! I can't mess around anymore, I'll have to kill this wench quickly now!'

4 seconds left. He moved out of the trajectory of the trees.

'The trees, they have webbing on them. Could she have contracted the webbing? The pressure of that alone could caused the the trees to split and fall, but that's essentially suicide. Unless she could heal herself, it was quite a dumb plan. A unique ability though, I must admit.'

3 seconds left. He fired off 4 shots onto the girl. 1 second remained from the shooting.

"Zero seconds left. Time is moving once more."

As time unpaused itself, the demon didn't even have time to react. Firstly, she felt two bullets impact her head. In order to dodge the rest, she moved her head out of the way towards the side. However, it was directly in line with…

"As I said, don't get cocky."

The tree came down, completely obliterating whatever hopes she had of living. Diego began afterwards to walk away smugly, knowing that he was still on the apex. That was, until a crack in the tree formed. Diego didn't even have a split second to look over as the demon came into contact with him, attempting to punch his abdomen in. If his stand weren't so quick with its reflexes, his stomach would've been obliterated at that very moment in time. Speaking of time, The World has stopped it once more. Looking at the demon, her head showed almost no existence of injury other than some dried blood.

5 more seconds left, and Diego couldn't help but be extra cautious. He would have to save his stamina in case she tries something again. His stand threw a punch with its golden fist right into the skull, breaking through into the brain.

"Time continues, and I rule over this match!"

As expected, she flies off into the distance, landing back-first into a tree. Diego checked her injuries with a keen eye this time, seeing her injuries heal within a moment's notice.

She was seething with rage and some boredom towards Diego. "Huh, I thought you'd be stronger after these displays of power, but I'll just have to fight even harder to get more of your attention!"

Diego prepared himself for the inevitable, and the demon used her ability on him. The webs of nearby trees collapsed and brought down the weight of the tree with the help of gravity. Diego, having time to analyze her ability completely, knew that it required him to be trapped amongst a very specific spot. That wasn't going to go well for her at all. His stand came out and split the trees in half. Taking one of the tree stocks, his stand attempted to swing it back at her, only for her to kick it off and aim for Diego. The World dropped the tree in time to deflect another kick aiming towards its master, and Diego shot at her legs. Falling over, she ducked under a stomp from Diego himself and clawed at him. His stand MUDA kicked her arms out of the way and launched her into the ground even further. Within a few seconds, he had successfully restrained his opponent without even putting in half the effort as her. As she growled under her breath, she sent more trees at Diego, hoping a last assault would be necessary to crush him. Least to say, it was not.

Diego didn't even do so much as move when the trees approached ever faster. His stand punched out the trees and held one in its arms, bringing back down onto the wench. She screamed in desperation before The World brought it down, repeatedly punching the fallen stump onto her limp body.

"MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUUUUUDDDDAAA!"

Diego backed away slightly, preparing for her to heal herself, but it never came. Her body hasn't moved for a good minute now, and he approached the tree with caution. Using his stand to lift up the trunk, he could see the crushed remains of brain matter and skull pieces. Had he finally killed her? He let the tree fall back down onto the girl, sated by her non-moving corpse. He looked down to see if there was any damage, and was satisfied seeing nothing but a few scrapes on his clothing. A total victory was all he could think of when he looked back at her corpse one last time.

"I did not know you and you did not know me, but I won our little incursion. Hopefully you are the last of my problems, you foul demon."

He walked away into more darkness of the forest, adjusting his hat back into its natural position on top of his head.

Another hour passed by without much consideration. He found the corrupted corpse of another demon, but didn't care too much for it. He needed to keep focusing on his own survival after all. The only thing that intrigued him was how similar this one's clothes were to the one he fought. Perhaps they may have been in the same family or species. Now taking that into consideration, it would make a lot of sense considering how much webbing he found in the forest. After the fight, the atmosphere was almost too peaceful. Diego was exhausted and had just wished someone else he could trust was there with him. Maybe he shouldn't have left the other human he found behind, but he couldn't be carrying dead weight either. He found others wearing the same uniform as him, but they were all dead. Their bodies were done dirty and were hung high up in the thicker branches of the trees. His journey to find an escape continued until a shuffling behind him alarmed his ears.

"Hey, you! Turn around! We're armed, so don't try anything suspicious!

Spinning around with a loaded gun, Diego pointed it at whoever yelled at him. It was two more of those uniform-wearing maniacs, except these ones wore masks that covered most of their heads. Before he could even speak, they continued.

"You're a human, right? You're gonna have to come with us then. We're a rescue team, and we mean you no harm."

Diego kept his gun pointed at them, but he also allowed them to come closer. He read their faces, and they seemed to be telling the truth. They stopped when they were close enough and pulled down their masks, revealing themselves as human. Diego dropped his gun a bit by the sight of this and they motioned him to follow them, which he did reluctantly. He was led back to a camp with some bodies. They included both the deceased and poisoned, and even some baby sized creatures as well. They had "FINISHED TREATMENT" over their bandaged bodies, so he assumed they were still alive. One stump of a human with blonde hair poking through the bandages looked over at him with a subtle curiosity. Diego was then told that he would be brought in for questioning, and that he was allowed to roam around for a bit in the site while they finished collecting everyone they could find. Finally, Diego gave into his senses and passed out next to the blonde haired kid. His mind argued against this, but the lack of air wore him out and wandering around for two hours (with a fight in between said wandering) just wanted to make him do nothing but sleep…