Coco Jumbo: Welcome back!
PhantomKnightPercival: I don't know, maybe the holder figure is more powerful than we think...
Euphoria: Don't worry, Anasui is going to be FAR from a joke character.
CoolK: I have no idea, that's a good question.
AshenOne: I love Diver Down, frankly, I'm not sure why I haven't included Anasui in the story sooner.
"Holy shit..." Hol Horse said, slowly sliding down the cliff side as Gyro lept down with a thud. "Holy shit is right, douchebag. Aizawa was our mentor, our teacher...and you hurt him."
"This is the part where we're going to beat the everloving hell out of you." Johnny called down as Tusk manifested behind him, slamming it's fists together. A nail bullet was already spinning around his finger, ready to fire at any moment.
"Why are we just standing around?" Bakugo said, small explosions popping from his palms as a sadistic grin made it's way onto his face. "Let's just kill them already!"
"Don't be an idiot, Dr. Kujo told us about Hol Horse, but we have no idea what the other guy is capable of." Kyoka said, her eyes trained on the hooded villain. At this moment, she had the eyes of a war veteran. "There has to be a reason he's hiding his face..."
"He shoots acid like Racoon Eyes!"
"He gives me a bad feeling." Johnny responded. "I...I feel the Hamon in my body bristling...almost as if...I should use it."
"Do you think he's undead?" Izuku said. "If so...a vampire with an acid quirkcouldbeaseriousproblembut Iwouldalsowanttoknowhowthatworksmaybeweshoul-"
"SHUT UP! FUCKING DEKU!" Bakugo shouted, and Izuku instinctively recoiled. "Kaachan, I'm only trying to understand what this guy is!"
"Knock it off Bakugo." Jolyne said, glaring at the explosive blonde. "You don't have to be an annoying little shit 24/7."
"Don't tell me what to do, you fuc-"
"Don't you DARE finish that sentence, or I will kill you right now." Anasui said, getting uncomfortably close to Bakugo's face. "No one insults Jolyne while I-"
"WE'RE GETTING OFF TOPIC!" Gyro yelled from below, before turning to look Hol Horse dead in the eye. The tension between the two became apparent as Gyro stared him down. "I let you get away once cowboy...and Aizawa, a man I looked up to, paid for it. I'm not making that mistake again, you're facing justice this time. Now...things don't have to get bloody, come quietly and you and your partner won't get hurt."
"Listen kid, I've been at this for a long time...and truthfully, I just want to go home and retire. I didn't mean to hurt your teacher, I'm only after One For All. So I'm going to make you an offer: just tell me which one of your friends has the quirk, and I won't even shoot 'em. I'll just leave, and never come back."
"But you would tell Santana." Gyro countered. "You serve DIO, even after all these years, we know they are working together. You would just bring a bigger threat on us."
"Not if I say I killed them."
"You would...LIE to Lord Santana...?". The hooded figure said, turning his head to Hol Horse. "You would BETRAY the Massster?!"
"Not necessarily. I would be ensuring that One For All, and by extension the Joestars, wouldn't be a threat. I'm trying to resolve the situation in a way that no one has to die, negotiating."
"No...you're worried about brreaking yourr sssstupid CODE! You're a TRAITORR! THAT'S IT, I'M TIRED OF BEING HUNGRRY! I'LL EAT YOU ALLL!"
The man ripped off his hood, and Johnny's eyes widened.
"H-he looks like Ashido! But...I get it now...he's a relative."
"A relative?!" Momo said. "B-but his face is coming off! He's..."
"He's a zombie, someone that was killed and drained by a vampire, and turned into their slave upon receiving their vampire essence. One of Ashido's relatives...he's been killed and turned into this thing." Johnny explained, his face grim.
"Dr. Kujo didn't give us a lesson on these things yet." Izuku noted.
"They're basically lesser vampires, except they have limited brain capacity, they aren't capable of human thought. They're beasts, twisted shells of their former selves. There hasn't been a zombie in years though...I have no idea what zombification does to quirks..."
"How about I SHOW YOU?!" The zombie shrieked, his dead yellow eyes fixated on the humans he wanted to devour. "Get ready to feel the wrath of the ACID KING!"
Acid King, which was apparently what he called himself, began to swell up like a balloon, causing Hol Horse and the heroes to slowly back up. Within a clear membrane located where his stomach should be, a foul green liquid was slowly building up.
"JoJo, Gyro, now would be a good time to kill that thing." Momo said, brandishing her bo staff.
"No go. It's filling up with acid...we pop it, it goes all over US...is it still growing?"
"How big is it going to get?!"
Acid King had swelled to the size of a small house...scratch that, a BIG house. "How much of that stuff is inside him?!" Kyoka said, backing up as a shadow covered the whole group. "I-Is he going to spit all of that out?!"
"Oh my God...he's swelling up faster...he's GOING TO FLOOD THE WHOLE USJ!" Izuku yelled as he deduced the zombie's true intentions.
"EVERYONE GET TO HIGHER GROUND, NOW!" Johnny yelled as Acid King opened his mouth, and a massive tsunami of foul liquid bore down on them.
Jotaro woke up to alarms blaring, almost falling off his desk as his instincts kicked in, summoning Star Platinum.
Toshinori burst into his office, fear plastered on his skeletal face. "Jotaro, the USJ!"
"The...the kids were watching it tonight...TOSHI WHAT THE FU-"
"LOOK!" Toshinori pointed towards the window, and Jotaro could only stare in horror as the glass wall of the USJ revealed that the entire building was swimming with the same acid that had blinded Aizawa.
"Are they okay? Is anyone hurt?"
"I'm not sure, but you would've felt something if either one of your kids were hurt, right?"
"I'm also worried about the others. How soon can we send a team over there?"
"The place is brimming with acid, we can't get in there until it is drained...can we establish contact with them?"
"We could...but dammit, I don't want to ask him for help, out of all people..."
"Who?"
Jotaro grimaced, but turned towards the flooded building and pressed his lips together. "I have to rely on the man who tried to kill my son...in order to save him. I need Funny Valentine."
...
Johnny clung onto his sister's hand as they both struggled to get on top of the cliffside, followed by Anasui and Bakugo. Jolyne huffed as she reached the top, before staring at the rushing river of gunk below. "We could've been in there..."
"I would gladly take an acid bath to save you Jol-"
"SHUT up." Johnny commanded as he worriedly observed the horizon. His face quickly became one of relief when Izuku and Kyoka popped up on another rock about 100 yards away. "HEY, ARE YOU TWO OKAY?"
"YEAH!" Izuku hollered back. "I CAN SEE GYRO, HE'S A LITTLE BIT BELOW US, BUT HE'S FINE!"
"Yare yare daze...that was too close for comfort." Johnny said, sitting down. Jolyne patted her brother on the back, while Bakugo paced around in circles, stewing. "Now what? We're fucking stranded."
"We wait for the zombie to make his move...something tells me that he wouldn't have flooded the whole building if he wasn't acid-proof." Jolyne noted. Across the acid sea, Kyoka made a noise that indicated that she was startled by something.
"KYOKA! ARE YOU OKAY?!"
"HE'S SWIMMING AROUND DOWN THERE! I HEARD HIM!"
Shit...he's fighting like Jaws...swimming around and picking us off one by one with sudden ambushes. "BE PREPARED FOR WHEN HE LEAPS OUT! REMEMBER, ZOMBIES ARE STRONGER AND FASTER THAN NORMAL HUMANS!"
Bakugo growled and fired an explosion straight into the murky depths of the acid. "I'm not gonna wait for this bastard, I'll take him now!"
"BAKUGO, NO!"
BOOM!
Acid flew everywhere from the impact, and Anasui quickly grabbed the siblings and threw them to the side as the acid sprayed all over the rock they were standing on. Bakugo recoiled as acid splashed onto his left arm, causing a nasty rash. While he was retreating from his mistake, Acid King leapt from the foam and slashed at Bakugo's right leg with his claws, leaving a deep gash as the zombie descended back into the water.
"Katsuki you fucking IDIOT!" Johnny yelled as he shot several nail bullets after Acid King, one of them piercing through the zombie's foot. However, it wasn't enough to stop him, and Acid King retreated back into the deep.
"DON'T JUDGE ME!" Bakugo yelled, both in fury and in pain as blood poured from his wounded leg.
Kyoka gritted her teeth and stuck her earphone jacks into the rock, listening intently to pinpoint the zombie's location. Suddenly, she perked up.
"Midoriya, 12 o'clock!"
Izuku whipped around and swung his leg just as Acid King was coming out of the gunk. His iron-sole shoe caught the zombie in the jaw, earning a shriek from the undead monstrosity.
"MANCHESTER SMASH!"
CRACK! Acid King was sent flying back into the depths as dark black blood flew everywhere.
"Thanks for the heads up Jiro!"
"No problem!"
Good teamwork you two. Johnny thought to himself. Now...how is Gyro doing?
Gyro jumped across the acid onto another rock, while Momo was above him, making a rope ladder with some difficulty.
"Hurry up Momo! I can hear the zombie attacking the others!"
"I'm...making...this as fast...as I can!" Momo grunted out. She was sweating buckets.
"You're doing great! Just a little more... " Gyro said, reaching for the first rung.
BANG!
Gyro fell back as a bullet pierced his shoulder. "GAH!"
Hol Horse appeared from a crevice and grabbed Gyro by the throat, and proceeded to slam Gyro onto the ground. Gyro's signature hat flew off his head and into the acid.
"NO!" Momo screamed as she watched the two men begin to wrestle on the ground.
"I...tried...to be...NICE!" Hol Horse said, punching Gyro across the face, splattering the rocks with blood. "Now that my partner has gone off the rails, I'm guess I'm gonna have to do this the QUICK way!"
Gyro's knee drove itself into Hol Horse's groin, and Gyro threw the old cowboy off of him. "I don't need you to be nice! I need you to go behind bars! I'll kill you if I have to!"
Gyro got to his feet just as Hol Horse summoned Emperor again, but before the cowboy could fire a shot, Ball Breaker appeared behind him and pulled on his hair, flinging him back to the ground.
Hol Horse performed a snap roll and landed on his knees with his gun pointing out, only to find Gyro ready with his steel ball spinning in his hand.
"What do you think is faster? A steel ball or a bullet?"
"These bullets could dodge Silver Chariot's swings, kid...I won't miss from this distance."
"Neither will I."
The two faced each other for a few seconds, before Hol Horse finally said something.
"I finally know why you bother me so much Zeppeli...you're just like ME when I was younger. Bright eyed, sociable, a weird sense of humor, a strong sense of justice...we're very similar. Hell, we even dress alike."
"Not as similar as you think, Hol Horse...I would never bow down to pompous douchebags like DIO and Santana. Strong sense of justice my ass!"
"Use common sense kid, my stand is a gun. I don't have something like The World or Genesis, I can't fight people like them, even if I want to. I know goddamn well that I'm working for the bad guys, and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't bothered by that...but I'm always going to be number two, so I can look out for number one."
"Then you aren't evil...you're a COWARD. Instead of taking a stand and doing what's right, you choose to hide behind guys that are bigger than you."
"I am NOT a coward..."
"You're a follower, never the followed. You aren't a leader, that's the difference between us Hol Horse, I'm always number one in everything I do."
"You never take the backseat? Are you suicidal or something?"
"No, I love my life...but I would rather DIE having done something to make the world a better place, rather than living with having done nothing."
Hol Horse's jaw tightened, and his gun hand began to lightly shake. Just then, he was assaulted by a blinding white light, and he staggered back rubbing his eyes. Momo had created a flashbang and chucked it into the battle while there was a break in the fighting. Quickly, she heaved the rope ladder over to Gyro. "Hurry! While he's stunned!"
Gyro grabbed onto the rope over and began to climb as briskly as he could, ignoring the blood that was currently running down his arm from his wounded shoulder. A bullet hammered into the rocks besides Gyro's face just as he was about to reach the top, and he lost his grip, only for Momo to grab onto his shirt.
The bullet came out of the cliff and severed the ropes, leaving Gyro dangling above the acid, the girl he fancied being the only thing keeping him from taking a fatal plunge.
"HOLD ON!" Momo yelled, before she looked down and her heart skipped a beat. Hol Horse was pointing the gun at her.
"ANASUI, 4 O'CLOCK!" Kyoka bellowed out as Anasui turned and punched Acid King away with Diver Down. "Thank you Weird Ears Girl!"
Kyoka grumbled to herself as she continued to listen for their attacker. Old Kyoka would've taken a comment like that personally, but now more than ever she had faith in her jacks. Suddenly an object clattered onto the ground at her feet, and she slowly picked it up.
It was a phone, and for a brief second she saw a very familiar blonde man standing in her reflection. Kyoka whipped her head around, but of course no one was there. Kyoka shuddered as she put the phone to her ear.
I HATE ghosts...especially that one.
"Hello?"
"Young Jiro, it's good to hear your voice!"
"All Might?!"
"All Might?!" Izuku whipped around at the mention of his mentor.
"We can see the USJ from over here, we know what's happening. Is everyone okay?"
"Well, Bakugo is hurt...JOJO ON YOUR SIX!"
"Are you under attack?!"
"Yeah, the villain is swimming around in all that gunk, trying to catch us off gu- oh no..."
"WHAT?!"
"He's after ME, hold on..."
Acid King leapt out front the depths and clean over Kyoka's head, grabbing her by the wrist and flinging her clean off the platform. She could hear Johnny screaming her name as she quickly inserted her earphone jacks into her boots, where there were two new speakers located in the bottom of her feet, and she pointed them towards the rapidly approaching acid.
"HEARTBEAT BOUNCE!"
Kyoka fired a sound attack from the bottom of her feet and propelled herself back into the air. She crashed into the side of a cliff and rolled onto a small ledge, groaning.
"Probably...should work on...sticking the landing..." Kyoka said into the phone as she slowly got up, blood running down the side of her face.
"Young Jiro, are you okay?! What the hell was that?!" Toshinori's voice sounded panicked.
"The villain threw me...oh yeah, that's definitely a sprained ankle." Kyoka grunted as she tested her leg. "I had to use my new boot upgrade to avoid falling into the goo...but it appears to need some work."
Suddenly, a flash of green filled her eyes, and Izuku Midoriya landed right beside her. "JoJo said that if you scare him like that again, he's going to turn all of your socks inside out."
"Noted."
"Are you okay? You're limping."
"I'm not used to big jumps like that...it was a risky move."
"Here." Izuku got down on his knees. "Hop on my back, I'll be your legs."
"Thanks Midoriya." Kyoka grunted as Izuku heaved her into a piggyback. "We need to go support the others...without my earphone jacks listening in...they're fighting blind."
"Alright, let's go!"
With that, Izuku channeled One For All into his jump and sailed over the acid, just as Acid King took a swipe at him.
Hol Horse's gun hand twitched as he stared at the teenaged girl who was desperately trying to pull up the wounded Italian, all the while staring at him with a panicked expression.
All he had to do was shoot her, and his problem would be solved. Gyro would plummet death, and One For All would be easier to find...
She was terrified...
Dammit Hol Horse! Get your act together! This is your chance to put an end to this stupid rivalry once and for all! This...this is wrong...
Hol Horse's gun hand began to shake as his finger edged away from the trigger. Just then, Funny Valentine's face filled his vision.
"Boo."
"M-M-MR. PRESIDENT?!"
POOF!
While Momo couldn't see Valentine, Hol Horse's exclamation had let her know that the former president had done something, and had used Hol Horse's moment of confusion to throw a smoke bomb down at the cowboy.
Hol Horse coughed and stumbled back, pointing Emperor in every direction. "You...you're the President of the United States, the one that went missing! What the fuck are you doing here?!"
"He's a ghost...unlike me." Gyro said from behind him. Hol Horse groaned and turned to face the Italian.
"You've got one shot Hol Horse...make it count, because I've got only one too. We're back to where we started, back to the inevitable...unless you want to run away again, like the COWARD you are."
Hol Horse raised Emperor at Gyro. "Why the hell couldn't you have just TOLD me?! It would've been so much easier, and no one would've gotten hurt. I don't want to kill you...but now I don't have a choice."
Gyro raised a steel ball in response. "There's always a choice...you're just too weak-willed to see it. Now...TAKE. YOUR. SHOT...and I'll take mine. This ends tonight."
The two stood there, waiting for the other to make their move...
BANG!
WHOOSH!
Both of them moved at the same time, and a steel ball caught Hol Horse in the chest, knocking him over the edge towards the acid below. Hol Horse's bullet went through Gyro's leg, and the Italian fell to his knees, breathing heavily.
"GYRO!"
Momo created a fan and blew the smoke away, and rushed to his side, placing a protective arm around his back. "You're hurt..."
"No kidding, the bastard shot me twice...but I've lived through worse. Thanks...Momo, for all your help."
"It's nothing..."
Gyro tilted his head up, and sure enough Valentine had stuck around. It could have been Gyro's imagination, but the former president actually looked a bit concerned. "Valentine...I'm still not sure whether you're friend or foe...but...I can't say I'm not grateful."
"We...we are no longer enemies, Gyro Zeppeli. I..." Valentine looked at his hands, before disappearing.
"That was odd..."
"What did he say?"
"He...almost looked like he...felt bad."
Johnny wasn't having a very good time.
Without Kyoka being there to pinpoint Acid King's location, the heroes were really struggling to fend off the zombie's sneak attacks.
Bakugo was already down. Not only was he suffering from a nasty wound on his leg, but Acid King had caught him off guard, and had taken the explosive teen out with a one hit KO. Bet that's going to check his ego...
"I have an idea." Anasui said.
"Well? What is it?" Johnny asked, annoyed. "Making another move on my sister?" Jolyne leapt to her friend's defense. "Look Johnny, Anasui may be an asshole, but he's also very good at this shit. If he has an idea, you should take it seriously."
Anasui's face turned pink. "Marry me..."
"Yare yare dawa, I JUST defended you!"
"No, that wasn't the idea, just a statement. Now..."
"DIEEEE!" Acid King had finally made his move, leaping up from the acid and shooting more of his filthy liquid at the rocks above them. The boulders quickly tumbled down...
Right towards the unconscious Katsuki Bakugo.
At that moment, Acid King also revealed what he had been doing underneath them, as the platform they were standing on began to tilt downwards. Johnny summoned Tusk, and the stand caught the massive boulder that was about to drop on his former friend turned rival. Bakugo's body began to slide towards the edge, and Johnny quickly caught his hand.
Jolyne rushed over to help, only for the rock under her to crack, and she soon found herself dangling over the edge by a few of Stone Free's strings. Acid King swatted Anasui aside and charged Johnny, slashing him across the chest with his powerful claws.
"NO!...wait..."
Johnny was fine, much to his confusion, and Anasui dropped to his knees as blood began to soak through his fishnet shirt. "I put...Diver Down inside of you. That was my plan...so that way I could get in close!"
Diver Down emerged from Johnny and went right into Acid King, and the zombie began to shriek as the stand began to mercilessly pummel him from the inside. Acid King attempted to run back to the depths, but Izuku and Kyoka landed right in front of him, blocking his path.
"I will protect these people...because Jolyne cares for them. Now, I believe they mentioned that you blinded their teacher?"
POP!
Acid King's eyes were suddenly replaced by Diver Down's fingers. As it's yellow eyeballs fell to the ground, the zombie howled in pain as it blindly swung it's arms, desperately trying to hit his attackers.
Then a steel ball burst through Acid King's chest, and the zombie began to melt into a disgusting puddle, the liquid slowly draining into the lake of acid. Gyro stood behind it, Momo supporting him as they made their way to the others.
The second USJ incident was over.
Jotaro and Toshinori both sighed in relief as their students all emerged from the building.
Johnny handed Bakugo over to his father. "Get him to Recovery Girl, he's already lost a lot of blood..."
"Alright...anyone else need to take a trip?"
"Gyro does." Momo said, and Gyro opened his mouth to protest. "No, I don't care if you've been shot before, a bullet wound is still a bullet wound. It needs to be treated."
"I'm...technically a doctor, I could treat it myself."
"You're going to Recovery Girl."
Gyro sighed. "Fine..."
Izuku lept to help Momo as they escorted Gyro away.
Kyoka limped towards Johnny and took his hand. "You okay JoJo?"
"Yeah...are you?"
"Well, I've decided that I should probably figure out how to land before I try to use Heartbeat Bounce again. It's just a sprain though...I'm fine."
Johnny reached over and wiped away some blood from Kyoka's cheek. "Good...when did you think about using sound to jump?"
"When a certain psychopath with a vendetta against her own son threw me off of a building."
"Ah...I see." Johnny wrapped her in a hug. "Well, I for one am glad that you come up with such genius ideas."
"Mmm." Kyoka rested her head on Johnny's shoulder and smiled. "You give good hugs...especially post-battle hugs, I love post-battle hugs."
"Why post-battle in particular?"
"Because you're all clingy and affectionate, it's adorable."
"...I'm going to walk away now."
"No...no I don't want to let go." Kyoka yawned.
"You're going to have to eventually...Kyoka?"
"Zzzzzzzzzzz."
"Yare yare daze..."
Jolyne felt her eyes begin to tear up, and she quickly wiped them away. Anasui leaned in next to her. "So...I take it they're dating."
"Yeah...Johnny's been through so much Anasui, to see him like this..."
"That could be us Jolyne."
"...you're ruining my proud big sister moment, you know that right?"
"I'm just saying, that could be us! I would love and cherish you for all-"
"I'm leaving."
"NO! Jolyne, WAIT! I saved your brother though, doesn't that at least earn me a kiss?!"
Anasui chased after her as Johnny held his sleeping girlfriend in his arms, watching the scene unfold with a blank expression.
He slowly turned his lips upwards when he saw his sister's smile. Maybe having Anasui wasn't such a bad thing after all.
One of the doors to the USJ was flung open, and Hol Horse stumbled into the night. He had barely managed to grab onto the side of the cliff, and he had hung there until all of the acid was drained from the building.
But that wasn't the issue...the issue was that Gyro was right.
I'm a coward...I don't stand up for myself at all. I just let the big guys like DIO and Santana walk all over me, get me to do bad things, all because I'm too afraid of them. I...I need some time to think about all this...
Hol Horse limped away, pulling his hat over his eyes in shame.