Chapter 17: Post Office

Despite the changes they were going through after everything the law had placed upon them, Japan Post was running as strong as ever. Privatisation of a government organisation could not stop the daily post, after all. The Japan Post office in Kuoh still stood strong, its staff cherished and treasured as much as they would allow the public to witness.

Of course, for such a large corporation, nothing could slip through the cracks, for there were none. There was no corruption in the post, especially not for illegally importing a dead body of all things.

"Yeah, that's all a lie, isn't it?" Noboru Iwata muttered to himself, waiting by the draw gate by the storage area of the Japan Post of Kuoh. Looking at his watch, he was annoyed to see that he arrived way too early. Hissing at the thought, he kept an eye out for any of the other people who had to arrive that day.

Turning past the corner, Kairi Maki dashed her way through, charging at him. Seeing him standing by the gate, she frowned and skidded to a stop. "Aww, you're here already?" she bemoaned. "I wanted to be first…"

Noboru shook his head at her. "Who were you racing with, man?"

"Haah, hooh… that's… gotta be me." Past the corner, once more another figure emerged. Hoshi Eguchi huffed her way into the group, her clothes sticking to her skin.

"So it is…" Noboru grinned at her. "Anyway, the rest?"

"We're still early, so we may be waiting for a while," Kairi said, wiping a bead of sweat from her brow. "I can't wait to see their new collections!"

To respond to the inquisitive glances she got, Kairi nudged to the entrance gate, showing them a person standing there to watch them.

"You kids have fun, then," the postman chuckled to himself, leaving the trio immediately.

"… close call," Hoshi muttered, making sure not to be overheard. "We need ta be Silenced soon."

"Yeah, but we gotta wait for the others first, dude," Noboru replied.

"And what goes on with you ugly folk today?"

"… there's Narcy-kun," Noboru turned around to see Daruma Kaneki approaching them.

"Kanpeki Danna," he corrected. "Good to see that some of you have the foresight to grace my gracious presence so soon. Those that make me wait… I will not be so kind to."

"… right," Hoshi sighed. "Say, want to tell us about your makeup for a bit?"

"Why, someone as gracious as me does not need something as feeble as makeup. But if you must insist, I will grace you with my infinite wisdom and –"

"Right, now tha' he's conked out," Hoshi turned to the other two. "How long do ya think the others'll take?"

Even though Daruma was still speaking to an empty audience, Noboru picked up his phone and typed on it. "… Man, only 5 minutes away? Can't finish my damn dailies anymore… or maybe if I rush them? Hey ladies, don't mind me, I'm gonna wait in style."

Noboru leaned against the wall and turned his phone to the side, clearly playing a game on it. Hoshi and Kairi sighed.

Kairi looked at Hoshi for a moment. "Rock paper scissors?"

"…really?" Hoshi balked at her.

"Come on, luck's a challenge too!"

"… the hell, fine."

And so, they waited. Daruma kept speaking about the difference between the true qualities of different makeup products, Noboru played his games, and Hoshi put up with Kairi's thrill of the challenge.

"U-um, s-sorry for making you wait…"

The group, except for Daruma, looked up to see the remaining two members of their group approaching them. Notion Omori nervously twirled her hair as she approached them, while Susumu Hino, in all his shiny-skinned glory, glared at them as he was wont to.

"You're making me waste a perfectly good morning by bringing me here," he accused them. "I was in the middle of a project."

"Thanks for joining us, man!" Noboru hollered, ignoring his words. "Now that we're all here, let's get a move on!"

"Just a mo'," Hoshi held a hand up at him as she pulled up her phone. Typing on it, the others felt a ding in their pockets, but they chose not to check their notifications. After another ding, a grey aura settled around their bodies.

"Seriously, what would we do without Kiyoshi-san…" Kairi muttered, experimentally flexing her digits and watching the grey aura flicker about them.

"Hey, uhh…" Susumu called out to them, pointing them to Daruma, who was still speaking to himself about makeup. "Is anyone going to shut him up?"

"Nah, bro's fine," Noboru grinned and stepped ahead of them all. Turning back he held his hands out. "Who's gonna be looking at us like this, huh?"

Susumu immediately stepped ahead and thrust his hand out. His hand detached from the rest of his body and shot forward on its rocket, grabbing hold of Noboru and pulling him back. With a yell, Noboru was pulled back to them just as a truck dashed out of the now open gate to the post office storage.

Noboru looked back to the truck, now moving away from them, and sighed in relief. "Thanks, man."

"Don't mention it," Susumu said, recalling his detached hand and reattaching it to his forearm. "Don't make me waste any more fuel, though." He pulled out a flask from his hip and swallowed its contents.

"Still, you saved my life, android buddy!"

"Be a little more careful, you idiot," Kairi walked up to him. "You remember what we're here for, right?"

Noboru's expression fell. "Right, we're here to find that body. Anyway, we should get going now, don't you lads think?"

"Just a min'," Hoshi interrupted them yet again as she walked up to Daruma and knocked him on the head.

"Ow! Who dares lay a hand on my perfect self?!"

"Shut up an' follow."

Despite his demeanour, 'Kanpeki Danna' still trembled under her glower. "Y-Yes, ma'am."

Making their way past the gate, unafraid of being spotted underneath Silence's wreath, the six of them moved to the building. They crouched in the parking lot between two cars, hoping that the time of day would ensure that there wouldn't be much incoming traffic to see them if anything went wrong.

"Hmph! This is no place for a fine being such as I!" Daruma protested at their position.

"Look, we're going to have to put up with it for a while, okay?" Kairi said, twirling a bang of her dark red hair. Nodding to herself, she clapped her cheeks. "Game face on! Susumu-kun, are you ready to go?"

Susumu nodded, his shiny skin glistening more than humanly possible under the sunlight. "Watch over my body in the meantime."

He took a breath and shut his eyes. A bright yellow aura enveloped his form.

"iRobot."

An electrical impulse emanated from his palm that was resting on the wall of the post office, firing out a yellow aura from within him. Susumu's body went limp, falling onto one knee and unknowingly leaving a small dent in the pavement below.

"So… we jus' wait?" Hoshi asked.

Kairi turned to Noboru. "Have you got your clones out?"

"Mhm. As soon as I got here, I got Army of One deployed, bro!"

"Good. We'll wait, so just let us know if anything shows up. Don't mess this game up for us, please."

"As if anything would notice us with the ugly Kiyoshi's aura staining my body…" Daruma commented.

"Look, Daruma-kun – "

"Kanpeki Danna!"

" – just put up with this for a bit, okay? We'll be done before you know it. I'll call Kiyoshi-kun and ask him to remove his Stand from us once we're done."

With a grunt, Daruma settled down and rested his back on the concrete wall of the building, choosing to watch the other post workers move boxes around.

While Susumu saw his Stand as a curse like most of his classmates, he had enough trauma to need to rely on his Stand for far too much. He supposed he wouldn't be able to function without his Stand… not after that incident.

The 1-E incident stole a piece of humanity from each member of the class, but it certainly took the most from him.

Focusing on the constant, non-beating thrum of electricity guiding him, iRobot navigated through the devices connected through the same wires and cables. He took extra care to avoid any public Internet access portals as he navigated through the local files.

Thankfully, digitisation was enough of a revolution to ensure an online database within this post office. The database was clearly firewalled and password blocked, but that was no problem for his abilities. iRobot easily slipped through the few cracks it could see and accessed the files within.

He had no idea of the private key of the entry he was looking for, so he simply scrolled through the available options on the dates after the grave robbery. It was… no small task. Susumu was surprised to see how many orders would be delivered in a single day. Most likely because he had accessed a database that managed data on a global scale.

As he scrolled through the options, he wondered just how much of a reach his current attempt was. There was no guarantee that the origin of the post was the Kuoh office, after all. The package could have been transferred to another office as well, which was a far too common occurrence. His narrowed-down search of that specific office might have been working against him that way. Moreover, this was an illegally imported corpse; there was no guarantee it would be on the system either. Susumu grunted as iRobot scrubbed through the available data; they were getting nowhere like that. There was just too much data to sort through. But there was something else he could do.

Leaving the database behind, he returned to the bus and then rerouted to the security cameras. Thankfully, the office had a working security system, not the faux version to scare burglars away. He could see how ensured they were to keep the real footage from the cameras playing, but that did nothing to the saved footage. Running back through the footage, he looked out for a package that could possibly resemble a human body. Considering that they wanted to preserve the body through travel while keeping any notorious smells within and not where it could invoke an investigation, that was his safest bet. Of course, if the Stand User it would be sent to could piece body parts together, then a broken down body would not be tracked with this. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything that Susumu could do about that so soon. He had to stick with what he had.

He kept on scrolling back, relieved that it was a continuous feed. Rushing past the night captures was easy and it gave him the illusion that he was going faster. He kept on scrolling back, all the way to the past two days and then noticed something.

He stopped as soon as he noticed it. Playing it, he watched for a while, and then the shot jumped to another view, cars changing positions instantly. A jump cut is something that shouldn't exist in a continuous feed like that. Unless…

Susumu took note of the time and date of the absence, then had iRobot return to the database. Filtering his choices down to those details, he noted the deliveries made in that time. Looking out for box dimension sizes, he finally saw it. A 2m length package, thin, about 60kg. The boxes were filled easily. Susumu scrolled back to the name of the source to find…

An ant? Yes, a yellow ant was sitting over the name on the database. The ant turned to him, snapped its pincers together, and vanished in a flash. iRobot dove to the name, only for Susumu to yell as he noted its absence.

There were no two ways about it, that ant he just saw was an enemy Stand. Moreover, it was somehow stealing information from a private access database. He looked at the rest of the entry but faulted at how it went missing. The whole entry had vanished, leaving no way for him to gather more information. Most importantly, he could no longer see the destination, which broke the very reason why he was there.

No, there was one way. iRobot checked the previous and next entries, or rather, their private keys. The missing link between the previous and next private keys would be the private key for the current entry. Expanding his search query to access the rest of the files globally, he was able to avoid any confusion in the matter. As such, Susumu was able to reason out the package number of the corpse delivery.

Finally, Susumu retreated from the post office entirely, returning to his apocryphal form. Opening his eyes, he caught the attention of the others with him.

"H-he's up!" Omori called out.

Immediately the remaining four Stand Users crowded around Susumu. Susumu rubbed his head, more out of reflex than anything, and sat up.

"What did you see?" Kairi asked with a bated breath.

"… we have an enemy," Susumu began, not keeping eye contact with any of them. "Another Stand interfered in my work."

Kairi's mouth quivered at the words, then shut themselves as she looked away, forlorn. Nobody broke the silence that followed. Despite them wielding their own abilities, their past experiences traumatised them enough to ensure their fear of Stand Users. To them, this was the sign of another war they were unwillingly thrust into.

"Well damn, this is happenin' again, huh?" Hoshi murmured. "I thought tha' it was over."

Susumu grunted and pressed his eyes together. "It's never going to stop, you know that? We're always…" his body shuddered. "We're always going to lose someone."

Noboru rested a hand on Susumu's shoulder, gently rubbing it despite its hard surface.

"There's more," Susumu said, drawing the crew's attention to him once more. "The Stand was able to take away the data of the delivery of the corpse. I could only identify it before it was taken."

To everyone's surprise, it was Daruma who leaned into him. "And what did you find?"

"I knew it was the body from the footage and the package dimensions, but before I could find anything else, the Stand came in. The only thing I could reason out was the package number."

"Alright, then," Kairi took out her phone and navigated through it for a moment. "Give it to me."

Kairi typed in the package number as Susumu stated on the Japan Post tracking app, and then looked for it herself. Surprisingly enough, no results showed up.

"Huh," Kairi hummed and showed the results to the others. "Is this supposed to be the case?"

"… I think that bastard Stand User stole the data completely, then," Susumu guessed. "Maybe that's his Stand ability. He can steal data from systems."

Kairi shook her head and looked back down at her phone. "… we can't lose this game yet. There's got to be some way we can track this guy down. Susumu, can you think of anything else he could try and steal to keep himself safe?"

"… Do you think it's safe to say?" Nyoko spoke up, pressing her fingertips together.

Kairi raised a brow at her. "Huh? What do you mean, Nyoko-chan?"

"I mean… t-this guy knows we're here now, right?" Nyoko Omori nervously looked up at the group. "His Stand appeared to take the data today, not any day before. He must have known that we were coming somehow, even though we were Silenced."

The others paused at the unsaid message behind Nyoko's words.

Daruma was the one to breach the subject. "Are you saying…"

"… a spy," Nyoko concluded, looking fearfully at the others. "W-We have a spy amongst our midst."

Kairi took a long breath, hoping it would appease her nerves. "… who else knows about us being here? Did any of you tell your relatives?"

"No, but it's on the group chat," Noboru said, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. "We needed Kiyoshi to Silence us, remember?"

"… wait…" Susumu started. "What if…?"

The rest of the group looked at him.

"This guy… he can steal data, right? What if he's had access to the data of our group chat?"

"W-Wouldn't it be gone, then?" Nyoko wondered. "We can still see those messages."

"We don't know everything about this guy's ability, who's to say that he can't read messages without stealing them as well?"

A loud boom forced a pause in their conversation, even making them stumble for a moment as they felt a tremor. Looking out past their hiding spot, the group noticed postmen and women running out of the handling area for some reason.

"What the hell happened?!" Kairi cried out. "Noboru! What are you seeing?"

"That's…" Noboru bit his lip, shivering a little. "A bomb."

"Huh?!"

"A bomb blew up the entrance of the building. I… didn't see how it got there."

"Incompetent!" Daruma admonished him, jolting away from him and balling his fists. "You were our lookout!"

"Shut it!" Kairi rebuked in turn. "Don't blame him for that, we don't know when this thing was placed! For all we know, it could have been before he even got here!"

"Besides," Susumu added, scornfully looking at Daruma. "It could have been an enemy Stand at work. This serves as a perfect distraction, after all."

"… w-w-we're sitting ducks!" Nyoko cried out. "Look! Everyone else has left to check on the situation, and we're the only ones here! If a Stand User attacked now, they'd be free to do as they wished! We need to go now!"

Nyoko charged away from them before any of them could respond, and that was what saved her. Suddenly, the concrete beneath the remaining five's feet turned dark, releasing mud that made them lose their balance. Susumu fell onto the mud, not being able to balance his android body as well as the others, and felt the mud harden on the epidermis of his hands.

The mud hardened even further as it made contact, then flaked away, revealing steel underneath the stained spots.

"Don't make contact!" he called out. "This thing can peel our skin off!"

"Shit!" Noboru cried. "Army of One!"

Clones emerged from his body, forming a sacrificial bridge as they lay down in the mud. "Everyone, lose your shoes and get on!"

The remaining five followed on the bridge. However, the clones beneath were grunting and groaning from the mud.

"They're not gonna hold!" Noboru realised, standing on another one of his clones. "They'll tell you if they're gonna dispel! Just jump and they'll reform!"

"I'm out!" one of the clones cried out, the one Hoshi was standing on.

Hoshi jumped off its back in the nick of time, letting it dispel just as another clone took its place. She landed back on it, ignoring its cries of agony.

"Grah!" Noboru, the main body, cried out as he stumbled off his balance, heading right into the mud.

"Hold me, Maki!" Daruma called out, falling off just like Noboru. Keeping an eye on him, Daruma made sure that his pose was exactly the same as the falling body. "Creep!"

A yellow aura appeared around both Daruma and Noboru, even though they were still falling. Daruma held a hand out to Kairi, who quickly grabbed it. From the Stand's effect, Noboru was stalled mid-fall as well, his own hand outstretched even though it was holding nothing.

"Why would you fall, you idiot?!" both Daruma and Noboru said at the same time as they were 'both' hoisted back up by Kairi.

"I can't hold any more!"

"Shit!" Kairi cried; that was the clone beneath them. Grabbing onto Daruma, she jumped with him, making Noboru jump as well. The clones beneath them were dispelled, being replaced. Daruma sighed as he found footing, finally letting Noboru go from his Stand's hold.

"Gah – sorry!" he almost stumbled again but held himself in time. "I can feel the clones' pain!"

Susumu, who'd made his way out by simply walking through the mud by ignoring how it ate through and degraded his feet's endoskeleton, shook his head and detached his hands. Shooting them ahead, he had them pick up Noboru, both needing to carry him due to his weight. Noboru grunted as he was unceremoniously carried to safety, and once he landed, he frowned at Susumu. "Couldn't make that cooler?"

"Lose some weight first, fatty."

Noboru chuckled, only to gasp once again as his clones switched. The other three sprinted their way out of the mud, making it to safety.

As soon as they were all off, the mud disappeared, sinking back under the concrete. The group shivered as they looked down at where they once stood, only faltering as they finally noted the half-melted cars on either side where the mud originally was.

"We can't stay here," Kairi decided. "We don't know where that mud is going to show up."

"… something d-doesn't add up," Nyoko muttered. "How does it know where we are?"

The group didn't wait, so they ran as they looked back at Nyoko. "You have a point!" Kairi called out as soon as they moved past the gate. "We're still Silenced! Is it an automatic Stand?! Or can it see through Silence somehow?"

"Stop!"

Kairi looked ahead to see the mud re-emerging into a wave before her. With a yell, she stumbled back, fighting her own momentum to escape certain death.

"Is there no stopping this damn thing?!" she cried out.

Hoshi, meanwhile, pulled out a greyed-out object, Silenced, and held it against the mud. With a bang, a bullet was shot from the shroud onto the mud, only for it to quickly dissolve. "Damn, worth a shot," she told herself, cursing her uselessness.

The group was retreating as the wave of mud caved in on them, still keeping track of them. "Only one thing left: find the user!" Kairi called out. "Nyoko, can you do it?!"

"It'll h-hurt!" she pleaded.

"Damn it, we don't have time!" Susumu yelled, wobbling to them on his damaged feet, grabbing Nyoko, ignoring her howls of fear, and tossing her into the mud.

The remainder of the crew watched him kill the girl in cold blood… with no expression. They knew what she could do, after all.

Nyoko cried in agony, stuck within the mud that slowly and agonizingly ate away parts of her that she valued, she cherished. The pain that coursed through her body was making her scream at the unfairness of the world, at how all of that had to be handled by someone as meek as her. Slowly, that meekness caved under the injustice of it all, choosing another emotion.

Anger.

The mud turned red; not from blood, but from the flickers of red energy that emerged from Nyoko's form as a pale figure emerged from her body, bursting the mud apart in a single fell swoop. Nyoko stood, heavily bleeding with her clothes entirely ruined and patches of skin missing enough to expose bone within, blood rapidly falling out of her form. A pale man with white hair, no eyes, a dark mask with fangs and lips visible on its surface and a red cloak billowing behind it hovered behind her ominously.

"Nyoko!" Susumu called out, wanting to save himself. "If you're blaming someone, blame the owner of this Stand!"

Nyoko, having lost her nervousness in her anger, glowered furiously at the man who threw her into the mud. Despite it all, she still understood where he came from. The greater evil here was the one who sent this mud against them, the enemy Stand User. Whoever they were… they would pay.

"Blood in the Water."

The vampiric Stand behind her grinned, bearing its bloody fangs, as it flew away, seeking the source of evil that harmed its master.

"After it!" Kairi called out, noting how it was moving away from the post office. As they ran, Noboru perked up. "Mud ahead!" Immediately, the group turned directions to avoid the incoming mud. Kairi looked up to see Noboru's clones standing above the buildings, keeping an overlook for them. Watching it dispel and replace, Noboru warned them of mud yet again, making them turn once more.

"The mud appears when we get closer!" Susumu realised. "That might be what's happening!"

Blood in the Water, however, simply drifted through the mud, ignoring it entirely. It looked around for a moment, then paused as it noticed a woman in a suit hiding past the corner in an alleyway. It grinned, making the other notice where their adversary was, and it dove to attack her.

The woman shrieked at the incoming threat, instantly diving away and making it miss her. Blood in the Water, despite its persistence, was not the fastest Stand. As long as the woman could run, she could dodge the Stand.

"Don't think ahd let that!" Hoshi called out, bringing out her shrouded object, which revealed itself to be a revolver after its first shot from earlier. The woman perked up for some reason, then ran right at Hoshi, despite being unable to see her. With a cry of "Toxicity!", mud emerged from the ground between them, washing up to melt Hoshi on the other.

Hoshi, however, stood unfazed at the mud that would crash against her. "Guns n Roses."

A bouquet of pink roses appeared by the barrel of the revolver as she fired. The bullet travelled in the path of the mud, but a flower appeared in midair soon before it would make contact. The bullet deflected off the flower and moved across the mud, where another flower rested in its way just past the edge of the wave. The bullet deflected yet again to completely miss the wave, meeting another flower that put it on the course of the woman Hoshi targeted initially.

The bullet struck the woman's leg, making her cry out from the sudden wound. The recoil sent her back, away from the rest of the group, making the mud fade away as well. She looked up at where she assumed the 2-E students were and loudly cursed at them, forgetting about the other threat that was coming after her… until it appeared in front of her.

Blood in the Water pulled out knives from its robes, revealing more arms carrying more knives underneath the cloak. With a gleeful cry, the Stand slashed the woman's skin repeatedly. The woman yelled as she was assaulted, her blood moving into the Stand itself. With its multiple arms, Blood in the Water went as far as to gouge parts of her flesh off her body, leaving her a bloody, crying mess once it finally dropped her, completely mutilated, as it returned to its master.

The others felt no remorse for the woman, knowing the nature of Nyoko Omori's Stand. Kairi was the one to approach the woman once she was down, thankfully noting that the mud no longer appeared as they got closer.

"You… you've lost to us," Kairi said, now standing over her body, looking down at her remorselessly. "While I would love to know who the other Stand User was, there's something much more important to know first. Champions."

A white Stand appeared by Kairi's side, quickly approaching the fallen woman and entering her body.

"Give me… the name of the one that sent you here."

The woman gaped, then suddenly pressed her lips shut. A white shimmer appeared over her mouth, forcing it open to speak.

"… Itawari."

The name left the group of five stunned, letting them notice neither the white Stand releasing the woman and returning to Kairi nor the woman going limp.

"Itawari… no way, hell nah!" Hoshi yelled at the group, shaking her hands after returning her gun to her hip. "There's no way he's involved in this!"

"… I wouldn't place it above him," Daruma said, massaging his temples. "Kenta… Kenta Itawari… he's the only one among us who doesn't have a Stand. I'm sure that's led to some resentment."

"No way, man!" Hoshi shook her head. "He can't be an enemy! Not after… not…" Hoshi bit her lip, trying and failing to hold back the tears running down her cheeks.

"Talk to him."

Hoshi looked up, trying to find who said that. "Huh? What?"

"I don't believe this either," Noboru said. "I know that idiot, and I know that he's not the killer type."

Susumu frowned. "He did kill that girl who attacked us back in that day… could he have gotten a taste for it or something?"

Hoshi shivered, remembering the incident.

"There's still no way," Noboru refuted him. "I know him; he's not that far off the deep end. I will agree that he hates us for having Stands, but he's made peace with it. I'm sure of that."

"Then… then how do you explain this!" Kairi said, finally showing them the body of the woman before them. Her body was fully limp, and with the number of holes in her body, it wasn't surprising to think of her as dead.

"E-Everyone?" Nyoko called out as she approached them. As expected, she was completely fine. Her clothes were still damaged, but all of her wounds had closed, almost as if she'd never been hurt in the first place. "What is… oh…" Nyoko was the first to notice the woman who attacked them, on the ground bleeding to death. She felt bile rush up her throat. "I d-d-did that?"

"She did that to herself, Nyoko-chan," Kairi reassured her. "She wanted you dead and you turned that back on her. If she held back, she'd be alive. So, it's her own fault that she's dead."

"Still… t-this is…" Nyoko wobbled up to the still-unknown woman and knelt before her, looking down at her in sorrow. "W-Will we… ever be able t-t-o stop k-k-killing people?"

Nobody said anything in response, instead choosing to hear Nyoko cry over her fresh kill. The weight of their actions weighed on their shoulders, and more importantly, the weight of what they had to do next.

Once Nyoko stood back up, they took a moment to let her know what Kairi had learned with her ability. Nyoko took another moment to come to terms with the fact but then came to a conclusion.

"W-We'll try talking to Itawari-san," Nyoko bit her lip. "If he's the one who's responsible for this…" her lips thinned as the red aura of Blood in the Water appeared around her. "I won't forgive him. He will pay."

Stand User: Susumu Hino

Stand Name: IRobot (by Jon Bellion)

Abilities: Electronic Possession. The Stand can possess any electronic object, even to simply look through its internal data. Its nature is like a sentient virus within an electronic device.

Destructive Power: E

Speed: C

Range: A

Precision: B

Durability: D

Development Potential: B

Stand User: Daruma Kaneki

Stand Name: Creep (by Radiohead)

Abilities: Pose Capture. Once the user mimics the pose of the target, the user will guide the target's movements as their own. The state of the bodies' effects from opposing forces will be matched with the user, as will these forces' interactions be shared between the bodies as one. Damage taken while under this state is replicated on the other, regardless of target or user. Essentially, the two bodies become one, even though the mind and soul are still independent. The target can still use their Stand if they have one.

Destructive Power: A

Speed: A

Range: B

Precision: D

Durability: E

Development Potential: D

Stand User: Nyoko Omori

Stand Name: Blood in the Water (inspired from Blood / Water by grandson)

Nature: Automatic Stand

Abilities: Revenge. When the user takes damage, the Stand manifests. The Stand will seek out the target, the one that damaged the user, and inflict the very same wounds on them, absorbing the blood spilt in the process. It will then return to its user and heal the user of their injuries completely by using the blood it took from the target while damaging them.

Destructive Power: A

Speed: C

Range: A

Precision: C

Durability: A

Development Potential: B

Stand User: Hoshi Eguchi

Stand Name: Guns n Roses (band name)

Abilities: Rebound. Any projectile from the user, no matter the medium it is fired through, can be rebounded without any energy loss from any surface, including air. According to the author, this is Sex Pistols from JoJo's Part 5 on crack.

Destructive Power: D

Speed: A

Range: C

Durability: A

Precision: A

Development Potential: B

Stand User: Kairi Maki

Stand Name: Champions (inspired from "We Are the Champions" by Queen)

Abilities: Victor's Prize. The winner of a challenge between the user and the target(s) can steal something from the loser as long as it can be shared. In this condition, it can be anything: object, information, etc. Draws do not warrant the use of this ability.

Destructive Power: E

Speed: A

Range: A

Durability: C

Precision: D

Development Potential: B

Stand User: (Unknown)

Stand Name: Toxicity (by System of a Down)

Nature: Automatic Stand

Abilities: Corrosive Mud. When the target(s) gets closer to the user from its last effect or from the moment of the trigger, mud can appear before the target which can melt their flesh and bone.

Destructive Power: A

Speed: B

Range: C

Durability: A

Precision: D

Development Potential: E

A/N: My first draft of this story was not very good. It had the content of Susumu's infiltration, and a super-simplified version of the final battle. Toxicity was initially named Breaking Wave after the U2 song, but then I thought that I'd give U2 a bit more justice than giving its song to a further unmentioned character. But then, I watched a couple writing videos to brush up on my knowledge and I realised how bad that version was. I then added the whole segment at the top where the six came together to banter, which I think makes this chapter even better. It may not fit in theme, but part of this story is about the relationships between these characters. As such, I felt that the initial segment was far to valuable to simply leave out of the final edit.

I made each person sound a little different. Rather, I put a little more effort into it. I have no idea how to write an American accent, so please forgive me if I'm butchering Hoshi Eguchi way too much.

Also, if it wasn't obvious, I'm way too lazy to design Stands. I can give them abilities, but artwork is a little beyond my capabilities.

Speaking of artwork, I did mention in the last chapter that I'd make AI art of the characters. Didn't get much support for it, but I still want to make those images. Problem is, I'm still struggling with AI art. It's hard for a newbie to know exactly what words need to be added and what degree they need to be scaled to. Also, there's a lot of randomness involved because of seeds and the like, which is terrifying for a coder like me. In short, it will take some more time.

The new arc is kicking off! This arc is honestly a favorite of mine, but I'd probably say that for any of the upcoming ones. While this one is awesome, I will have a bit of trouble with the setting. I sure did struggle with that here, but I think I got it well in the end. Part of what's going to make this awesome is the number of Stands that will come up. I haven't even formed all the Stands for the enemies yet. Toxicity itself was something that I came up with on the fly. This was supposed to be a fight against that Ant Stand that Susumu encountered, but I decided against it once I got to that point. That Stand can't really do much in this situation, so it made more sense for another Stand User to be there for defense. Also other things, but that's to be discovered later.

My new gym trainer is making me use machines on low speeds but on high resistances or elevation, so I end up writing as I do so. As such, faster upload rate incoming! I don't know if this pattern will last, but let's see how it turns out.

I would have the next chapter be fore Hero and the Wimp, but I'm slowly coming to hate the interaction between Ghost and Bell. It's just annoying to write two personas talking in one head while things go on outside as well. So, I'll update Re: Teyvat next.

I'm really not getting enough reviews, so please let me know what you think! Express your interest in the story by telling me what you thought. Did you like the new Stands? Was Blood in the Water as terrifying as I hoped it would be? Super OP Stands are always awesome, and Nyoko's fits that category way too well. Susumu being an android must have been surprising, and tell me what you think of Kenta Itawari being a traitor. That will be the basis of this arc, after all. I wish I was able to show off these Stands a little more, but I have the whole arc, nay, the whole story to show them off.

I'll see you next chapter!