Another chapter is here! This is longer than the first two and future chapters may be just as long so pray for me. Also, some announcements later on so stick around.
The five travelers were now on a flight going directly to Egypt. Haru was amazed at how they even got tickets for a direct flight on such short notice and even more surprised that they were all sitting together, her being in between Joseph and Jotaro while Avdol and Kakyoin were right in front of them with a stranger by the window. But she didn't spend too much time dwelling on it on account of she wanted to get some sleep before her slight motion sickness kicked in.
Haru had never actually been on a plane before, so it almost seemed like a waste to just drift off to sleep, but reminding herself how much sleep was her best friend, she barely felt any regret at all and was able to fall asleep quite easily, and so was everyone else on the plane for that matter. That is, except for Jotaro and his grandfather who now knew that Dio was completely aware of their plans.
The plane was dark and completely silent, that is, except for a slight buzzing noise that was able to wake up Avdol and Kakyoin from their light nap. Haru, on the other hand, was completely out and even let out some tiny snores every now and then.
Avdol finally spotted what was causing the noise which was, at first glance, seemed like an ordinary bug.
"A… a rhinoceros beetle?" Jotaro asked as he stood from his seat, trying to get a closer look. "No. A stag beetle!" he corrected himself.
"Avdol! Is that a Stand?" Joseph asked, now standing as well. "Are we encountering another Stand user?" This shouting was enough to wake Haru up and she began to stretch then proceeded to rub her eyes.
"What in the world-" She cut herself off when the giant bug flew over her head and she felt the wind of it brush against her hair, causing her to let out a tiny shriek. Meanwhile, Avdol had confirmed to everyone that it's very possible said bug could be a Stand. Suddenly, the bug hid in the shadows of the seats and no one could seem to locate it anymore.
"Wh-where did it go?"
Jotaro walked closer to where he last saw it in attempt to locate it once more. All five of them looked around, wondering where the damn thing went.
"Jojo! It's on the side of your head!" Kakyoin warned. Haru then let out another shriek.
"I-it's huge! Gross, gross, gross!" Haru absolutely hated bugs.
While the other four were confirming that the bug, which introduced itself as the Tower of Gray, was most definitely a Stand, one that was even faster than Jotaro's Star Platinum and even a bit stronger, Haru had placed herself behind an empty seat in the back to serve as her temporary hiding place. You know, just until the big, strong, brave men she was travelling with exterminated the thing.
Bugs? Why did it have to be bugs? If it were anything else I could've proven my strength! Now I look like a coward. She cursed at herself over and over inside her head until she noticed she wasn't exactly alone anymore.
"Hehehe…" Haru heard someone laugh and when she looked next to her, she froze. It was the damn bug. She wondered that if she stood completely still it would just leave her alone, almost completely forgetting it wasn't just a normal bug. "Greetings, missy," it greeted her.
"C-ciao," she replied as if she was totally unaware she was having a conversation with a beetle that very well wanted her dead.
"Would you like to see a trick?" Before Haru could even answer or process what it said to her, Tower of Gray had ripped through the back of the seats of the passengers in front of her. Each of those passengers spit out blood as their eyes shot opened and it wasn't till a few seconds later that Haru noticed the Stand was holding each of their tongues.
It laughed before yelling "Bingo!" and Haru covered her mouth and swallowed back the barf that had almost escaped her lips. "Got their tongues! And my objective…"
The flying Stand then started smearing blood from the tongues he held on the wall and wrote out the word "massacre". The five of them all stared in horror.
"I-it actually did it…" Kakyoin stuttered.
"I will burn it to death!" Avdol announced. "Magician's Red!"
"You're gonna burn us to death too!" Haru shouted, running back to the front of the plane.
"Wait! Wait a moment, Avdol!" Kakyoin exclaimed and Avdol immediately called back his Stand. Finally all they're shouting managed to wake up an old man who had been sleeping on the plane. The group just stared at him.
"It's so noisy," he stated as he rubbed his eyes. "I wonder what all the ruckus is…"
"Look out!" Kakyoin shouted as the stag beetle flew closer to the old man who just seemed to be mumbling to himself.
"I guess I'll go to the bathroom." The man got up, heading in the direction of the bathroom, placing his hand on the bloodstained wall in the process. "Hmm? What's this slimy stuff?" he asked as he observed his hand and then the writing. "M...A…" he began to read out as he sniffed his hand and upon realizing what the slimy stuff was, he became so shocked his denchers popped out of his mouth when he yelled. "I-is it blood?! Blood!"
"Atemi." Kakyoin hit the poor old man on the back of the neck, knocking him out which was probably for his own good. "We have to defeat it before the other passengers panic." And with that, Haru found herself running to the wall, attempting to wipe it the blood clean from the wall while Kakyoin was explaining how Magician's Red and Star Platinum could be a hazard to everyone on the plane. Haru then felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped a bit.
"I have a plan," said a voice that belonged to Kakyoin. When the heck did he get right behind her? "and since our Stand's are the quietest and least lethal, I figured we could work together."
"Shoot," she replied as she smirked and he leaned into her ear, whispering what he had in mind.
Haru took her position back to her previous hiding spot while Kakyoin decided to take on the Tower of Gray head on. Haru was confident in her abilities, but also a bit nervous. She had to show them she was a capable Stand user and this was pretty much a first impression from her to them so messing up would look bad, although she had a relatively easy task.
Her head was poking out from the top of the seat she was behind and her eyes glued to the two battling it out in the front, waiting for Kakyoin's signal. Her strings were already in position she just had to know when to tighten her grip. Haru watched as Kakyoin used his Emerald Splash several times and the beetle just laughed while easily dodging the attacks.
"You seem to think you can hit me if you fire enough shots, but you haven't hit me at all!" it mocked.
"This isn't good," Avdol began. "It's still dodging with speed!" The Stand shot out a needle at Hierophant Green and managing to break off its mouth, making Kakyoin cough out a large amount of blood and falling to the ground.
"K-Kakyoin!" Jotaro shouted, looking as shocked as Avdol and his granddad. Haru had to hold back shouting the same thing in order to not attract too much attention to herself. She was so tempted to do it, but Kakyoin hadn't given her the go for it yet.
"My speed is on an entirely different level!" Tower of Gray taunted. "You're way too slow to get a bingo. And Kakyoin… With my next attack, I'll stab your Stand's tongue with this Tower Needle, and rip it out!" Kakyoin glared at the bug then used another Emerald Splash on the thing.
"Don't you get it?" The Stand just laughed at Kakyoin's failed attempts while flying around, easily dodging the attack.
Now? Now? Now? Haru thought, growing more anxious. C'mon!
"Once this rips your tongue out, you'll go mad… From the pain!" The bug said, flying at full speed towards Kakyoin.
Kakyoin!
"Haru, now!"
"This is it!" Haru shouted triumphantly while standing from her former hiding spot. "Dark Glycon!" Her Stand appeared from behind her with a wide grin on its face, similar to hers and suddenly the murderous bug felt paralyzed.
"W-what is this?" it spat out nervously while looking at its sides, noticing it was now wrapped in some sort of string which was attached directly to Haru's Stand and barely visible at first glance.
"Hah, you're like a brainless insect caught in my web," she said proudly, striking a pose with a victorious smirk.
"You think this is enough to stop me?!" The bug exclaimed and managed to cut one of the strings but before he could finish, larger strings that seemed to be from Hierophant Green this time shot out of the empty seats and pierced the insect. "What?!"
"If it rips you apart, it'll go mad, all right… from joy!" Kakyoin said as the Stand cried in pain. "You didn't even notice you were trapped in Glycon's web this whole time, all Haru had to do was tighten the strings and that stopped you long enough for me to severely wound you."
Haru snicked before yelling "You're dead!" That's when the bug-like Stand was finally ripped apart.
The old man that Kakyoin had knocked unconscious before had suddenly woken up and yelled in agony with his tongue sticking out. Haru then noticed that the marking on the man's tongue looked almost like the beetle they just defeated and her eyes widened upon realizing that he was the Stand user this whole time.
No way…
His tongue split, he suddenly gained a severe wound on his head and began to bleed profoundly, making Haru flinch at the gory sight.
"So that geezer was the user?" Kakyoin chuckled before continuing. "A repulsive Stand usually has a repulsive user." Haru then snickered again, this time at Kakyoin's sick burn, and began walking back to the front to join the rest of the group.
Haru and the others gathered around the old man's body that they had placed in a seat. Avdol covered the graphic sight with a blanket as they discussed that this man wasn't even brainwashed by a flesh bud, he was just pure evil.
Haru then caught Kakyoin playing with the twirl in his hair and she couldn't help but find it a little bit cute. She was startled when he made eye contact with her and also a little bit embarrassed about just staring at him like that.
"Thank you for the help back there, Haru," he said with a smile. "I couldn't have done that without you." Haru then gave him a wide, goofy smile and scratched the back of her head.
"It was no problem. I'll do all that I can to h-" She was suddenly cut off by the plane started tilting to the side, almost causing her to lose her footing.
"Something's wrong," Joseph stated. "I could be imagining it, but it seems like the plane is flying crooked." Once he spotted a cup on the ground rolling to the side, this confirmed his suspicion. "It is crooked. I-it can't be!" And with that he sprinted towards the cockpit while everyone else watched him, eventually following.
"S-sir!" A flight attendant was trying to stop Joseph from entering the cockpit and another attendant showed up behind her. When Jotaro approached them, they looked at him in shock which quickly switched to admiration. Their eyes lit up like Christmas trees and their cheeks were red as tomatoes.
"Move, bitch," Jotaro said, while shoving one attentandent into the other and walking right past them.
What a gentleman… Haru sarcastically thought to herself as she just witnessed that. She then noticed that both women ended up being shoved into Kakyoin and he now had his hands on each one of their shoulders.
"Pardon," he said to them as they both looked up, eyes shining once again. "It is inexcusable of him to treat women in such a cruel manner… But this is an emergency. Please forgive him."
"Okay…" they spoke in unison and Avdol just blinked, almost not believing what he was witnessing.
What a gentleman, Haru thought again, this time meaning no sarcasm. Kakyoin then turned to face her and she snapped out of it.
"Haru, you stay back and keep them safe while Avdol and I go check up front with Mr. Joestar and Jotaro," he ordered.
"Yessir," Haru replied with a salute and the two men were off while she was left with the two boy crazy flight attendants. Though, protecting them turned more into becoming a human wall in order to keep them out of the cockpit.
Haru suddenly noticed something moving from the corner of her eye. She turned to see the old man that she thought was dead, get up while still keeping the cloth on his head and walk towards them. She thought about going in the cockpit to warn the others but remembered she had people to protect. She thought fast and came up with the best plan she could think up under pressure.
"O-oops!" she said as she fake tripped and landed on both women while covering their eyes.
"H-hey, get off!" She tried her best to stay on top of them so they wouldn't witness the bloody man passing by. Hopefully Jotaro and the others could take care of this.
"This plane's going to crash!" Joseph exclaimed and before anyone could say anything else, a sudden yell was heard.
"What?" Jotaro turned around quickly to see who it came from and caught site of the elder Stand user. The man laughed before speaking.
"I am the Stand that holds The Tower card which suggests accidents and the end of a journey. You will not reach Lord Dio! Even if you survive this crash, you are 10,000 kilometers from Egypt! Those who swore loyalty to Lord Dio will pursue you every hour of the day! There are Stands in the world that you can't even imagine. Lord Dio is the master of Stands! Lord Dio has the power to reign over all of them. There's no way you'll reach him! You bastards will never reach Egypt!"
As soon as he finished speaking, there was a large clunk noise and the man fell to the ground. Behind him was Haru, holding what seemed to be one of those mini tables that are attached to the back of each of the passenger seats on the plane.
"When we land this plane, someone is explaining to me who this 'Lord Dio' is and why complete looney birds swear loyalty to him." Haru stepped over the body to join the others, almost wondering how the heck she did what she did but soon dropped the thought and just assumed it had something to do with adrenaline.
Joseph was talking about how he had experience with propeller planes then mentioned something about it not being possible to crash a plane three times or something like that.
"Have you ever heard someone being in a crashing plane three times?"
"If they weren't an excellent pilot, I'd believe that," Haru said, becoming a little more concerned about the situation. Everyone else just sighed at Joseph's logic.
"I'm never…" Jotaro began. "I'm never riding in a plane with you again."
Joseph ended up being able to land the plane fairly well. Though, they did end up 35 kilometers off the coast of Hong Kong. The plane ended up in the water, with passengers safely being rescued while in their life rafts and each wearing a life vest.
The gang ended up wandering the streets of Hong Kong and most of this included Haru stopping and looking at practically everything in admiration, which would sometimes cause Joseph to have to tug on her scarf a bit to get her to keep walking. He realized he would have to keep an eye on her since she almost spent some of their travelling funds on a pair of new sneakers that the clerk was charging way too much for.
She spun around happily, humming, wearing a huge smile that stretched from ear to ear and even had a skip in her step as they walked.
"I've always wanted to visit Hong Kong," Haru spoke in a sing song voice.
"No shit," Jotaro replied in a cold tone that Haru didn't seem to mind at all due to her smile not fading one bit. He was slightly annoyed by her, but it was nothing compared to the girls he had to deal with everyday at school and he kept reminding himself this to keep his cool.
"Hold on," Joseph called out to the others and they all halted immediately, looking back at him. "I have a call to make," he said as he pointed to the payphone. "It'll just be a sec but-" He then walked over to Avdol and attempted to whisper. "Don't let this one out of your sight." Pointing at Haru, it was obvious what they were talking about.
"I heard that!" Haru sang with a smirk on her face.
"Well then don't get into trouble," he said smirking back right before he flicked her forehead playfully. She held her forehead and stuck out her tongue with a wink then immediately looked away from him when she spotted a cat walking near them. Joseph sighed at how easily distracted she was as the girl went to pet the feline. He walked over to the phone booth, leaving the other three to babysit the seventeen year old girl.
"Hey, big guy!" a voice called out to Jotaro and looked to see a clerk whose store they were currently standing in front of. "Are you tourists?" The sight of Haru being amazed at literally everything she spotted, even a freaking stray cat, probably gave them away and made them stand out. Want some rice porridge? If you're in Hong Kong, you gotta try dim sum or rice porridge. We have hot cola, too!" the clerk said as he pulled out a glass of cola and Haru stopped petting her new friend and shot up exclaiming "Porridge?!" as now multiple cats were rubbing up against her leg. Were there that many cats there before?
"Rice porridge, eh?" Kakyoin said. "Not bad."
"Are we gettin'?" Haru asked in excitement but Kakyoin just turned to Jotaro instead.
"Did you know, Jojo?"
"Are we gettin'?"
"Unlike in Japan, rice porridge is a staple food in Hong Kong."
"Yeah, but are we gettin'?" Haru asked a third time and Kakyoin finally turned to face her.
"Yes, Haru," he finally answered. "We are 'gettin''."
"Yay!" Haru shouted as her arms shot up in the air and her smile grew even wider, if that was even possible.
"What would you like?" Kakyoin asked her and she blinked, her expression now turning more serious as she put her fingers on her head and thought about it. She gave out a little "ah-ha" as she finally thought of her answer.
"Anything you recommend, I guess," she said with a smile and with that, Kakyoin turned to the clerk to give their order.
"We'll have it the popular way," he began. "with pork and a century egg." Haru was happy with her decision to trust Kakyoin with her order since that sounded delicious and eggs happened to be on the top of Haru's Favourite Food list. Before Avdol could make his order, he was interrupted by Joseph yelling at them from across the street.
"What are you guys trying to eat?" he asked. "We're going to my friend's shop."
"Hey, dandy guy," the clerk called out as Joseph made his way to the group. "Want to try some Hong Kong hot cola?"
"Hot?!" Joseph exclaimed in a shock. "Everyone knows cola's supposed to be cold."
"Old man, who were you calling?" Jotaro asked his granddad, ignoring his sudden outburst. Haru was just hoping they'd get their rice porridge and wasn't really paying much attention to them, but she did overhear Joseph saying that they'd need to find a safer way to Egypt since by plane wasn't really going to be going so well and she mentally agreed. The rest of them started walking and talking and that's when Haru realized she wasn't getting her porridge.
So Haru didn't get any rice porridge, but due to her constant complaining while the other four were trying to discuss plans on getting to Egypt, and also some of their stomachs growling as well, they decided to speak more while they took a rest stop at a nice restaurant.
Joseph was still on about how if they travelled by plane, it would only put others in danger like it had previously, which Haru did agree with and it did have her concerned, but at this moment she was just starving and had her eyes glued to the menu, scouting for anything that appealed to her.
"But if we fail to meet Dio within fifty days…" was something that stood out to Haru and she watched as everyone looked down at the thought of it. Haru wasn't dumb, she knew that meant Holly's death, but they weren't going to let that happened.
"If we stayed on that plane, we would've been in Cairo right now." and with that said, Haru slammed the menu she was holding on the table and suddenly all their eyes were on her.
Again, her expression became hard to read like the time she first heard about what Stands really were, so none of them knew what to expect.
"Are you guys really talking like that now?" she spoke in a colder tone than usual and then looked up with a forced smile, giving them a nervous laugh. "We're just getting started, we can't think like that now, right?"
"You're right," Joseph admitted, now looking back up with a wink. "It's too soon to worry about it." Joseph then continued by telling them all a tale about a traveler travelling around the world in 80 days by only trains and steamboats. "Even without a plane, in fifty days, we'll be able to travel the 10,000 kilometers to Egypt," he concluded and Haru wore a huge smile on her face. "Now, as for the route," he started up again while pulling out a map and flattening it out on the table. Everyone towered over it as Joseph explained their best means of transportation.
Avdol confirmed that it was a good idea, just leaving Kakyoin, Jotaro and Haru to agree and trust them since they didn't have much experience in these type of travels.
"The greatest danger will be the Stand users that Dio sends against us," Joseph pointed out. "We'll have to do our best to get to Egypt without being spotted."
"And if we are, we'll just kick their butt like before!" Haru exclaimed with a toothy grin.
"It amazes me how anxious you are to get into a fight, considering how simple things like bugs scare you," Joseph stated with a laugh, his comment earning a bit of other snickers at the table.
"I-I can do better if there are no bugs, promise," she whined.
If Haru was correct, at least twenty minutes have passed since they sat in the restaurant, and they still haven't ordered food, only tea, which Haru skipped out on. Her stomach growled as she stared down at the table. She didn't dare glare at any of her allies, at least not anymore, since when she had before, Jotaro just scolded her saying "It isn't our fault you're so damn picky." which she didn't find completely false, she was just upset with how rude he was being to her.
Haru then heard something and noticed that Kakyoin had moved the cover of the teapot and tilted it slightly so it wasn't covering completely anymore. Haru tilted her head at his action and even Jotaro seemed a bit curious as to why he did it. Kakyoin let out a slight laughter at both their reactions.
"This is a sign to let them know you want more tea," he began to explain to them. "If you do this in Hong Kong, they'll bring you seconds." Right as Kakyoin finished speaking, a waitress came by and poured more tea in his teacup. Haru gasped in amazement at how fast it worked, as if this was some sort of weird contraption she was watching work bit by bit. "Also when they pour tea into your cup…," Kakyoin continued as he tapped the table twice with his index finger. "This means 'thank you'." Kakyoin smiled at the waitress in gratitude and she returned one before walking away to serve other customers.
"Excuse me, do you have a moment?" questioned an unfamiliar voice, approaching their table. They all turned to where the voice was coming from and Haru saw a well built man who had his face in the menu just like she had had before. She couldn't see his face but his tall silver hair was hard to miss. "I'm a tourist from France, and I'm having a hard time with the kanji on the menu. Would you please help me out?"
"You're annoying. Go away," Jotaro said to the stranger almost immediately after he spoke, which made Haru subconsciously snort so loudly that she had to cover her mouth. Joseph glared at Haru before turning to his grandson.
"Come now, Jotaro. It's fine," he said with a smiled then held out his hand for the man's menu. Haru then saw his light ocean blue eyes and cursed to herself since that made another being with prettier eyes than her. Joseph started naming the foods on the menu which made Haru drool a bit. When were they going to order for crying out loud? But right as she thought there was no hope for her getting any food at this point, Joseph had called over a waiter and began pointing at the things he wanted on the menu like a child.
Thank you, wonderful God, Haru thought. She felt like this was the happiest moment of her life.
When the food finally arrived, Haru cheered like a sports fan at their favourite team's baseball game and had the happiest look on her face. Though, she seemed to be the only one since Avdol, Kakyoin and Jotaro looked like they were having second thoughts about letting Joseph order.
"How could you be so excited for something like this?" Kakyoin questioned Haru as if he was questioning her sanity.
"Hey, food is food, now you better dig in before I eat it all," she replied almost instantly while the stranger whom had now joined them looked at the plates of food in awe. Joseph let out a loud laugh.
"Well, it doesn't matter. It's on me!" Joseph exclaimed with a huge smile on his face. "It doesn't matter what you order. It's all delicious."
"Agreed!" Haru sang, almost standing from her sit as her hand shot in the air.
"Alright, everyone, dig in," Joseph announced as he grabbed a bowl and started taking bits from each plate, Haru following right after as everyone else still seemed to be in shock, but then slowly followed.
As they all tried some, they were surprised at how good it actually was. At this point, Haru was already stuffing her face and was unable to reply when Joseph asked if they thought it was good.
"Well, they've certainly taken a lot of time to prepare this," the stranger said before grabbing a star shaped carrot with his chopsticks. "Look, these carrots... they're shaped like stars. It reminds me of something… " This now earned concerning looks from the four men but Haru just nervously gulped down the remaining food in her mouth and looked nervous and confused. It was a bit unsettling, having the people around you become so worried all of a sudden. "That's right," the Frenchman continued, holding the carrot up now with in his hand. "Someone I know has this exact mark on their neck…"
This isn't good, Haru thought.
"You…" Kakyoin began to say. "Are you another…"
Another Stand user? This man's smirk at Kakyoin's words confirmed Haru's thought. He then placed the carrot on his neck and immediately after, a fencing sword shot right out of a bowl that was in front of Joseph and Haru's eyes widened as she gasped in fear.
"Mr. Joestar, look out!" warned Avdol. He flipped the table in attempt to keep the blade away from him and that's when Haru took that as a sign to get up from her seat and run behind Avdol for safety as he called out Magician's Red. It shot out fire but it seemed to twirl right around the other Stand's sword.
Haru hated to admit it, but that Stand looked awesome. It looked like a knight, the way it was completely made of armour and all. She had always admired knights, not in the "I want to be a princess saved by a knight" kind of way more like "I wanna be like them" kind of way.
The Stand had flicked the fire from it's sword and shot it at the tipped over flames had created a clock and Haru couldn't help but be amazed and by the look on everyone else's face, it was plain to see that they were all thinking the same.
"H-his sword is so fast…" Kakyoin commented.
"My Stand holds the Chariot card! Silver Chariot!" the user announced. "Mohammed Avdol, it appears that you want to die first. I've made a fire clock on that table! I will kill you by the time that clock burns to twelve!" Silver Chariot pointed his blade in Avdol's direction, ready for battle. Haru kissed her hopes of having a nice peaceful meal goodbye.
Announcement time!
OK, so first off, if you've seen my new icon I'd like to say, yes, it is the first illustration of my sweet Haru drawn by one of my precious friends I'm super happy about that. So, if you've ever wanted to see her, there ya go. There's a bunch of silly doodles of Haru another cute af friend did. I'll post that on the blog if I ever do make it (check my poll cough cough).
And one more thing, I'm working on a new writing project that I'll be posting here so if you're a fan of Tiger & Bunny, stick around for that!
Finally, if you'd like to, please review!