Josuke slowly opened his eyes. His head was in pain, and his senses still had not come to normal. Reluctantly, he stood up. A bit of blood was painting the side of his face in red. Soon, he started to look at his surroundings. He was still in the alley, just further into it. Behind him, sitting in the ground, gasping for air.
- Josuke… Josuke Higashikata – Jose said, his voice was heavier and clearly tired.
- Oi, oi.. You are either quite brave or dumb to punch me and wait here!
Jose, keeping his head low, facing the ground, grabbed a photo from his pocket and showed to Josuke.
- I went through your stuff… And I found this. The man in this photo is Benjamin, am I right? Well, if you were really working for him, you wouldn't be walking around with his photo. You'd have my photo, to find me and kill me, probably. Well, if you're really here to get him, then you're on my side, Josuke.
The photo, given to Josuke by Jotaro, was truly the photo of Benjamin Willians, the man who stole the arrow.
- And you believe all of this because of a photo? If you're wrong and I'm really here for you, what would you do?
- Then I would be dead. I can't fight right now. – he made a small pause to breathe – My heart, it's… not that strong, y'know? Anything else and I would either pass out or have a heart attack. But… - a second pause – I couldn't really walk away with this doubt. So, I had to trust it. Now, gringo, are you with me… or with him?
Josuke stopped for a moment to look at him. He seemed impressed by the his strong will and guts, but the way he looked so fragile, gasping for air, with barely any strength to even stand up, his flaccid arm, broken and useless, it was scary.
- You got it right. I'm here to find him and retrieve the arrow. – Josuke turned his head away and mumbled to himself – Though you could just had asked before starting a fight.
- Ha! – Jose's laugh was immediately followed by coughing – At least I'm not dying today… But, not to be rude, Josuke, your stand… I saw it earlier when you fixed that bike…
- Oh, right. Do you want me to fix you?
- Yes… but, can it fix things that it deformed too?
Jose raised his head, showing his now deformed faced to Josuke. Crazy Diamond completely deformed his face, making a monster out of him. Josuke couldn't help but to get nausea from it. Without wasting more time, he fixed Jose's face and arm, while helping him stand up. As soon as he did, Jose leaned against the wall and started to cough.
- Well… – he kept making pauses to breathe – I guess it can't fix this… Not that I was expecting it to, I have this condition since birth… At least my arm seems better… And by the way you're looking my face got better too, huh?
Josuke grabbed him and they started to walk back to the street.
- So, you wanna fill me on this guy? You know him, right? – Josuke started.
- He is some weird ass gringo. He appeared not long ago, and started recruiting people. Word was that he needed people for some security job. Well, when I got there, most recruiters were criminals. He showed up for a minute, said about paying us with power and expecting us to return it to him. A second later and everyone started to drop, with holes in their chests. Even I got hit. When woke up, some were dead, and the lucky us had these stands. The first chance I got I ran my legs out of there, some tried to do the same, but they didn't make it. Now the fucker wants my head on a spike. He already sent two guys after me, not the type of people to make friends with, mind you.
Josuke kept listening as they walked across the alley, until they finally reached the street again. Cars would come and go and very high speeds in the avenue, cutting the two city blocks. Raising his eyes, Josuke noticed a strange figure on the other side. A tall black man, deadly staring at them, with a giant scorpion-like figure on his shoulder.
- Oi, oi, Jose! Is that guy a… stand user?!
Jose glanced over the man, his eyes became wider and a clear expression of fear and surprise came to his face.
- Josuke, we need to run, NOW!
As he spoke, the scorpion on the man's shoulder launched itself on their direction, coming like a bullet, opening it's claws, aiming at Jose's neck. With a good reflex, Josuke intercepted the attack with Crazy Diamond, letting a soundly "DORA!" while doing so. The scorpion was punched into the ground, opening a fissure. Yet, the stand itself appeared to be undamaged.
- NANI?!
- Don't fight it! – Jose spoke – The man's name is Hector, and his stand is Hurricane, it's shell can't be broken and it can attack anything at the user's sight. We need to get out of here, NOW!
"Anything at the user's sight?", the words came throughJosuke's mind as he looked up to the tall building at their side. Summoning Crazy Diamond, he carved a brick out of the wall and threw it to the top of the building, shattering a corner.
- JOSUKE! WE NEED TO RU-
- Don't worry, we are getting out right now – said Josuke - grabbing a piece of the shattered corner.
Taking Jose by the arm, he started to fix the building. The piece of his hand went up, bringing it's holder together. Hurricane launched itself from the ground targeting the Jose. Right before it could make contact, Deep Purple came out, kicking it to the other side of the avenue. As result, Jose bent his body and spilled blood.
As they made to the top, the attacks stopped.
- Are you alright, Jose?
- No, I'm not. We are cornered now, and I can't even run or use Deep Purple.
- You know him, right? How do we defeat him?
- We don't. This guy tried to kill me before, all I could do is to run. His stand has no range limit, it works on it's own and can't be pierced. The only weakness is that it can only target things that the Hector is seeing.
- So, we have to target the user, right? We knock him out before it gets to us.
- If you're going to fight, then yes, but if you don't look out for the stand, it's going to open a whole in your chest before you even get near Hector. We have to think of something fast, Josuke. He is probabily getting in here right now, if he find us here, we are dead.
- There is nowhere to run from here – Josuke confirmed looking around – So I guess we will have to fight. Let's get into the building, we can use the rooms and corners as cover.
- You're kidding right, you really want to face this guy?
- Want? No, I don't really. But it's not like I haven't seen stronger guys. I will make sure to put him out the moment he gets close to my Crazy Diamond!
Looking at Josuke's silhouette posing against the sun, while spilling those reckless lines, Jose couldn't help but think "This gringo is… crazy".
[ HURRICANE ]
[ HECTOR ]
Power: B
Speed: B
Range: A
Durability: A
Precision: A
Potential: E
With that, they roamed down the building. Upon reaching the third floor, they noticed Hector's shadow. Jose hid behind a corner, as Josuke stood there waiting for his opponent.
"It's time for you to make those words into action, gringo!"
Hector stood in the corridor, staring at Josuke.
- Hey, boy, get out of here. My job is to kill Jose, not you.
- Huh? You talk like you could kill me. That is a joke, right, punk?
- Alright, you also have a stand, eh? So maybe he will pay me an extra for the work. HURRICANE!
The scorpion jumped out of his back and charged at full speed against Josuke. Crazy Diamond immediately came out, facing the enemy stand with a series of punches and sending it to the ground. The strong impact sent it right through the floor.
Before Josuke could even move, Hurricane made it's way back, attacking him from behind. Still, unmatched by Crazy D speed, got repelled. Even after so many hits, both Hurricane and Hector appeared unharmed.
- You're quite strong, boy. Yet, my Hurricane can't be matched. It's an unstoppable force. We can keep this going the whole day and, sooner or later, you will get tired and fuck up. And when you do, my stand will go right through your stomach, and tear you up from inside to outside. You can even try as much as you want, Hurricane will reach you before you can even step forward. Now, hand me over the man I've come to kill, and I might give up on that extra.
Josuke stood there, bitting his lower lip, trying to figure out a way to get to Hector. He knew that, as powerful as Crazy D. could be, it wasn't powerful enough to open such a distance between Hurricane and Hector to get time to attack. Even if he couldn't get hit, that couldn't last for long, eventually he would fail.
- Josuke! – a whisper got his attention – Block his sight from you, I think I have a plan.
Even while doubting Jose, he had no other choice. He broke the walls around him and the roof, and then fixed it back into a single wall blocking the way between them and Hector. Jose got up and walked to one of the apartments doors.
- Hey, boy! – Hector yelled – Do you think this will protect you? – the sound of something smashing against the wall Josuke made was loud – The moment I break this, you're both dead!
- Josuke – Jose said, ignoring Hector's threats – I need you to trust me on this, because I will trust my life in your hands, do you understand? The moment I open this door, jump. If I pass out, just make sure I don't get killed. If everything goes as planned, I can give you a window of one minute. You have that time to get to Hector and take him out. If you failed, we both die.
Josuke nodded his head, without understanding much of what was about to happen. As he did, the wall behind then started to crack.
- Alright then, let's do this. – Jose took a deep breath and put his plan into action – DEEP PURPLE!
The stand came out and punched the door. A wave echoed through the building. Following it, he punched the wall around it, breaking it. While that, the wall made by Josuke finally crumbled.
- Josuke, NOW!
Jose threw himself against the door, while pulling Josuke. The door fell, revealing not a common room, but rather the street. Josuke looked confused. Behind them, the building that they were just leaving, below them, an avenue. Buildings being distorted all around them. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that it wasn't even the same place they were, it was a completely different neighborhood than before. As they started to fall, Hector approached the hole and sent Hurricane after them.
The stand came fast as a bullet. Josuke, let out a smile, finally understanding Jose's idea. Crazy Diamond once more repelled Hurricane, chopping it away and sending it towards the ground.
- Hey, Josuke, you got a few more seconds left. Get back in there and finish this fucker. – Jose said, smilling, finally closing his eyes and losing consciousness.
- Jose… You're a really cool guy.
Josuke hold him close, while fixing the door. The door pushed them back into the building, where Hector stood looking desperate. Josuke stepped into the building, carrying Jose in his arms. A wave echoed back to the door.
- Ha… Haha! All of that for what?! FOR WHAT?! – Hector voice started to get hysterical – My Hurricane is right now inside that room, and it will burst that door and kill you both! HA! HAHA! HAHAHA!
- That room, eh? – Josuke said, while opening the door.
As it revealed, only an empty common apartment room could be seen, without any traces of Hurricane.
- Right now I have around 50 seconds to be the crap out of you, retard. And, quite honestly, all that talk about how you're going to tear me made me… Really. Pissed. Off.
- N-no.. no! No! I-I can go away, you will never see me again! – Hector plead.
- Don't worry, I will let you go…
- You're serious? – T-thank you, sir! Thank you!
- On an ambulance, I mean.
Crazy Diamond rushed against Hector, in a series of punches nailing him to the building wall.
- DORARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARA!
Hector could feel each of his bones being shattered, the pain became unbearable, to the point of leaving him unconscious. As the time limit approached, Josuke finish the job, letting out a loudly "DORA!" and finally giving a last punch, breaking through the wall and sending Hector flying inside the apartment, breaking the wall behind him, and finally being launched into the street.
[ DEEP PURPLE ]
[ Jose Jose ]
Power: A
Speed: B
Range: D
Durability: A
Precision: C
Potential: C