AshenOne: Stands and Quirks are connected, they're basically...distant cousins. Having a quirk allows you to see and interact with stands, but stands are really the only supernatural thing that quirk users can see, although an ascending soul might be an exception.
Izuku could punch a stand because he was using his quirk. If he tried it without OFA, it wouldn't work. Kyoka can only hit stands with her earphone jacks, and Momo can't really do all that much, since the object she makes aren't her quirk, just a result of it.
As for the new cover art, I can't take all the credit for it. A close friend of mine was a MAJOR help in refining my earlier design, so they deserve some recognition too!
Spaghetti sauce: Yes, Johnny is flipping the bird.
nanaiomoyeah: Great idea! I'm really glad you enjoy my story!
Bearticguy7: Heh, Wall Eyes...I MEAN NO! I DEFINITELY DON'T HAVE PLANS FOR THOSE! All in all, great stand idea, and a truly bizarre stand user!
TheSBRdude: Just when I thought the predictions were over...you strike again. Now the question is, who?
ThatRandomWriter02: I'm glad you like the story! I love Polnareff too! Unfortunately, while I could find a way to bring him back to life, I don't see how he could still have Silver Chariot, since the Requiem version was destroyed in Part 5. However, if I see an opportunity to include him I would be more than happy to!
"What is it Jolyne?" Gyro said, eyebrows raised.
"I don't think Santana is...gone. I think he's still here, and since he's after YOU...well I'm taking you somewhere safe."
"WHAT?! How do you...?"
"After he made that impromptu appearance, I've been on the lookout...and I swear I keep seeing some weird shit. So I'm making an executive decision, and I'm moving you to a safer place."
"Where?!"
Jolyne turned to Gyro and pressed her lips together. "Have you met our Uncle Polnareff?"
"Once or twice, why?"
"Giorno had him flown in a few weeks ago to help our dad with the Egypt unit, and he's currently staying at this hotel down the way. I'm putting you in that turtle, and-"
"But...what about everyone else? You, Johnny...you're Joestars. Who's to say he won't attack you guys too?"
Jolyne sighed and put her hands on Gyro's shoulders. "Look Gyro, you are one of the most important people in our lives, in my brother's life. I could never forgive myself if something happened to you...both because you're my brother's friend, and that you are mine. The Joestars are willing to die for you, never take that for granted."
"That goes both ways Jolyne!"
"I know...look, he's only after you right now. Maybe...if he can't find you...he'll leave. Then again, he might have actually left and I'm just being paranoid...but...I'm not just doing this for YOUR safety, understand?"
"Yeah...alright, let's just get this over with."
"Don't worry, Uncle Polnareff might be caught between life and death, but he's vigilant as fuck. He'll let us know if anything goes wrong, he's the best hacker the Speedwagon Foundation has..." Jolyne raised her head, looking concerned.
"You hear it too?"
"...Yeah, it sounds like-"
Jolyne whipped around and launched Stone Free's arm down the hallway, punching Anasui right in the face. "OW! JOLYNE WHY?!"
"We are in a desperate situation Anasui! You shouldn't sneak up on me like that! You're lucky I pulled my punch or I would've caved your skull in!"
"I was...just coming to make sure you were okay..." Anasui said, wiping blood from his nose. "God you're lucky you're cute."
"You know what Gyro? Maybe there is some time to waste...I want to hit him again."
A loud clanking sound broke Jolyne's train of thought, and all three of them looked up. "So...Mr. Joestar said that Pillar Men can contort their bodies..."
"He's in the vents."
"Yep."
Jolyne sighed. "Yare yare dawa...we're taking a shortcut."
Without a second thought, Jolyne summoned Stone Free and smashed clean through the wall, falling several stories before landing on her feet with her stand's legs integrated with her own.
"That was hot." Anasui remarked. "I wish I was that sidewalk right now."
"...you have issues."
Gyro lept down and pressed a steel ball into the side of the building and slid down, while Anasui jumped down after him. Jolyne gestured towards her destroyed car, and she pulled out her phone to dial up her brother.
"What is it Jolyne?"
"I'm moving Gyro to Uncle Polnareff...I have reason to believe Santana may have never left the school..."
"WHAT?! KYOKA WE-"
"Yeah, get Kyoka in on this. We need someone to cover our escape, make sure that Santana isn't following us, and...oh my God..."
"What? WHAT?! Is everyone okay, is-"
"He's on the ROOF. I'll call you back once we're in the car."
"Jo-"
Jolyne threw herself into the driver's seat, while Anasui pushed Gyro out of the way and hopped into shotgun. Jolyne rolled her eyes, and threw the car into reverse just as Santana disappeared from the rooftop in a cloud of smoke. Jolyne watched as the smoke entered the building.
"Johnny, He's COMING!"
Momo froze as soon as she heard footsteps...coming from HER room.
Quickly, she pulled out her phone and checked her camera, and to her horror her room was completely trashed. Something was in there...
Where is everyone else?!
"Hel-" Momo squeaked as a hand went over her mouth. Quickly, the hand pulled her into a broom closet and shut the door. Momo turned to see a broken and somewhat droopy stand holding a finger to where it's lips would be.
That stand...it matches the description Gyro gave me of Valentine's D4C...why is he doing this? I guess even if I can't see the ghost, the stand is still visible...
D4C pointed towards the door, which was slightly open, and Momo brought her eye to the crack in order to see what the stand was hinting at. What she saw made her blood run cold.
Santana was trudging into the common room, his bloody hammer dragging behind him as he scanned the room, his icy blue eyes almost hungrily looking for his next kill. Oh my God...he...did he...?
"I know you're hiding somewhere...Kujo. You Joestar trash! You and the girl can't hide from me forever! *cough* TELL ME! What was that power you demonstrated before I crushed your leg? It was almost like Hamon...but more powerful. TELL ME! OR I WILL TAKE HER OTHER EAR!"
JoJo and Jiro...they're both hurt! She lost an ear...she NEEDS those! And JoJo just got his legs back! I need to do something!
BANG!
Santana stumbled back as a nail bullet slammed into his stomach, and Momo watched as his chrome armor cracked and hot glowing blood poured from it. "DAMN YOU!"
"I told you that you would die for that Santana." Johnny's voice came out raspy, hurt, yet full of venom.
"WHERE ARE YOU HIDING?! HOW CAN YOU HARM ME?!" Santana looked furious, before his head suddenly turned towards the broom closet. "You shot me when I was in mist form...that shouldn't be possible..." His heavy footsteps came closer and closer, and Momo created a flashbang from her hand, getting ready to throw it and flee. Her heart was beating harder and harder as a shadow blocked the light that the crack was shedding. Just as Santana opened the door...
"DOJIYAAA~~~N!"
"What in the-"
Two napkins blew up right in Santana's face as D4C struck him in the abdomen. Momo could only stare in shock as the broken stand launched into a beatdown. It did absolutely nothing, clearly the stand was not nearly as powerful as it was before, but it was the attempt that mattered.
He's trying to SAVE me...I'm not sure how I feel about this, but...
Momo threw the flashbang and created her bo staff, smacking Santana across the face. The staff broke upon contact, but Santana was still blinded. He swung the hammer based on sound, but Tusk Act 4 appeared from the wormhole it was hiding in and responded with a much heavier punch, sending Santana sliding into the wall and out the window.
Santana attempted to climb back into the room, but something outside caught his attention. "Zeppeli is escaping...you got lucky." And with that, Santana jumped off and started to pursue a car which was undoubtedly Jolyne's.
Johnny crawled out of the wormhole, and his leg was indeed crushed, Momo almost vomited upon seeing a bone sticking out. Kyoka came out of a kitchen cupboard and fell to the floor, blood leaking from the side of her head. She also had a finger missing.
Momo rushed over and began creating a splint for Johnny, while Kyoka remained quiet, Momo noticed that she was shaking. "She's in shock..." Johnny explained. "She tried her best, we actually hurt him...but...he just pulled her jack right off...and I froze. He...bashed my leg with that stupid hammer...he couldn't eat her for some reason, isn't that weird? I..."
"JoJo, rest." Momo instructed. "You guys bought time for your sister to escape, that's what matters. Jiro is strong, I know she can pull through this."
Johnny didn't listen however, and dragged himself over to Kyoka, taking her in his arms and shifting her body into his lap. Momo noticed that as soon as Johnny touched her, Kyoka started to slowly regain her composure. Finally, Kyoka turned towards Momo and held out her hand, and Momo took it.
"He transforms YaoMomo...but the Spin can hurt him no matter what he is. Tell Gyro...you need to tell Gyro..."
"I will Jiro..."
Kyoka held up her other hand, which was missing it's pointer finger, and her face became somber. "I...I might never play guitar the same way again...and now I only have half a quirk..."
"I'm sorry Kyoka..." Johnny sounded equally as heartbroken.
Momo turned to D4C. "I still don't like you...but thanks. How much of your power do you still have?"
The stand could only shrug.
"Darn it. I'm going after them, do you know anyone who can drive?"
"Not at the moment."
"Fine...time to experiment then."
Momo turned away and walked outside, and as she did she heard Kyoka say one last thing:
"I...I think something terrible is happening...JoJo...are we going to lose?"
Izuku almost keeled over, but Hol Horse held him steady.
"Easy Midoriya, we're almost there."
"I won't let him hurt them...I can't...I'll stop him." Izuku was muttering to himself, just trying to keep himself awake. Hol Horse was no medic, he may have stopped the bleeding in the outside, but for all he knew one of the arrows had pierced something important.
It was clear that Izuku Midoriya was in no shape to fight, not anymore. He needed medical attention, and an encounter with a Pillar Man is basically suicide.
But how could he stop Santana and get Izuku to safety at the same time?
More importantly, would they even accept his help? Sure, Izuku seemed to forgive him, but the others? Gyro?
It didn't matter if they accepted it or not, he needed to atone for his cowardice.
That's when a car pulled up beside him, and Gyro came out of the back seat with a stone cold glare on his face. "You're supposed to be dead, and what the FUCK are you doing with Midoriya?!"
"He's hurt, he needs help. Listen...you were right Zeppeli, I've been letting the big dogs control my life for a while...but not anymore, I'm gonna take control for once! I know who Midoriya is, and his power...if you're running from Santana, take him!"
Gyro's mouth opened, and then closed. The two rivals stared at each other for a moment, before Gyro smiled.
"Guess you've got some balls after all...alright Hol Horse, if you're serious about wanting to redeem yourself...we could use a good gunman on our side since Johnny isn't here...if you're up for it."
Hol Horse nodded, but Izuku grabbed his shirt. "My friends...he's still...at the school...we can't leave them!"
"Midoriya you got impaled."
"WHAT?!" Jolyne stuck her head out the window. "GET HIM IN THE CAR, NOW!"
"I'M...NOT...LE-"
"Midoriya...he's only after ME. The others should be fine, he isn't one for senseless murder. Just...come with us, I'm a doctor, I can treat you."
Izuku looked at Gyro with a mixture of anger and annoyance, before eventually giving in. Struggling into the car as Hol Horse and Gyro helped him in. The two former rivals shared a glance, and Gyro gave a nod.
Their feud was over.
Jolyne stepped in the gas, and the car flew down the street, while Gyro checked up on Izuku's wound. Gyro pressed his lips together. "You should make it...as long as you don't exert yourself anymore. That arrow barely missed your kidney."
That was when the roof of Jolyne's car caved in, and began to peel away with an awful squealing noise, and next thing they knew they were driving a convertible with an angry Pillar Man on the hood. Santana's eyes caught Hol Horse, and there was a brief moment of what appeared to be...sadness, but he quickly grew even more furious.
"I trusted you, Hol Horse. I took you in, I treated you with respect, I even showed you my secrets, and THIS is how you repay me?! Helping my target?!"
Hol Horse was shaking in his seat, but he slowly raised Emperor and pointed it at Santana. "I'm done letting people walk all over me! I never asked to be a part of your army, but I was too afraid to say no! Not anymore!"
"...DIE."
Santana reached into the car, ignoring Gyro and going straight for Hol Horse, but Ball Breaker smashed his hand aside and punched Santana right in the face. The Pillar Man snarled and turned to water right before their eyes.
"Jolyne, would you marry me?"
"WHAT THE FUCK?! YOU. HAVE. THE. WORST. TIMING!"
"We might die, I just wanted to know..."
"Anasui, I'm not marrying you!"
Santana was staring at the two with confusion written all over his face.
"Right now?"
"EVER! I'm never going to fucking marry you Anasui, so get that drilled into your head before I take it off!"
"You do realize I'm trying to assassinate your friend here, right?" Santana was unamused.
Anasui stared at Jolyne for a moment, before sighing. "Fine...I knew it was too much to ask, I guess I was just hoping that you loved me as much as I love you...because I DO love you Jolyne, more than you will ever know."
"Anasui...what are you about to do?"
Diver Down proceeded to dive straight into Santana's water form, causing it to splash everywhere. Santana screamed and reformed, turning towards Anasui with rage. Diver Down attempted to dive again, but Santana caught it's wrist and flung both stand and user out of the car and onto the back. Stone Free attempted to grab Santana's leg, but the Pillar Man closed the distance between himself and Anasui, and proceeded to punch straight through Anasui's chest and out the other side.
"NO!" Jolyne screamed. "ANASUI!"
Santana flung Anasui's body off the car and onto the road, shaking the blood off of his fist before turning to the others. "Now...I be-"
Diver Down was still inside Santana though, Anasui had never taken it out. The fading stand's arm came out of Santana's back and grabbed onto a street lamp, wrenching Santana off the car and sent him tumbling to the street below.
The rest of the group drove away in silence, and Gyro noticed that Jolyne was sniffling. "Are...you going to be okay?"
"The last thing I ever said to him...was basically that I couldn't stand him. I...I..." Jolyne put her head to the steering wheel. "I didn't really mean half of that..."
Izuku was barely responsive, and Gyro knew Anasui's sacrifice was probably eating away at him.
Then a hammer was thrown into their back wheel, and the car skidded to a stop. Jolyne frantically tried to start it, to no avail. Santana began to slowly approach their car, his heavy footsteps echoing across the street that people evacuated a long time ago, picking up his hammer and brushing it off, before pointing it at the heroes.
"I believe this chase is over...your lives have come to an END."
"What HAPPENED in here?!" Iida exclaimed as he surveyed the wreckage.
"I don't know, we were doing training exercises, it had to be one of those stand users that keep attacking the school." Kaminari said.
Kyoka, meanwhile, had recovered from the initial shock, and was now helping her boyfriend limp away. She quickly opened the door to her dorm room and helped him in, and slammed the door shut. Johnny fell back against her bed and grimaced, while Kyoka examined the hole in the side of her head.
"My whole head feels like it's on fire..."
"He ripped off your fucking ear."
"...how's your leg?"
"Smashed."
"Fair enough...how come we can just casually talk about shit like this? These are life-changing injuries for crying out loud."
"We've been through more than most."
"What if we can't recover from this? Ow...what if we can't reattach my ear, and my PARENTS see this? Their daughter coming home with only one ear? Maybe a robot finger? I...I don't want to hurt them like that..."
"We'll find your ear, and..."
"JoJo, we are in some real tough shit. Someone could DIE, someone might already BE dead. Even if we somehow beat Santana...they could shut down the school, our whole fucking future just gone in the wind. What if this is the end, JoJo? What if people find out what's really going on, and..."
"And we lose everything..." Johnny finished. He grunted as he shifted his weight to face her. "Kyoka, please...I don't want to think about that right now."
Kyoka sat down next to him and rested her head against his shoulder, before being painfully reminded that she currently had a hole in the side of her head. "GAAAOOOD FUCKING DAMMIT!"
Kyoka turned the other way in both frustration and pain. Johnny reached up and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Get on my other side."
"What's the point? We lost JoJo...not just our fight with Santana, but probably the whole thing. What's to stop my parents from banning me from seeing you? After all, the only reason I got hurt is because Santana wants to kill Joestars, and..."
Kyoka then realized what she was implying when she saw the look on Johnny's face, and quickly retracted her statement. "I wasn't saying that it's your fault Johnny, not at all, so wipe that look off your face. I CHOSE this, I chose you. If anything, I was asking for it, and unless circumstances suggest otherwise..." Kyoka leaned over and kissed his cheek. "I'm not going anywhere."
"Yare yare, you can read my mind now apparently."
"Lover's intuition. It's just...I'm worried. We could've been the last line of defense for all we know...and we almost HAD HIM!"
Kyoka was frustrated again. "We were doing so good! That glowy stuff that was spinning around you, you were about to hit him with the Infinite Rotation right?"
"Yeah..."
"The Spin can hurt him! You would've solved all our problems right then and there, but I had to be stupid and got close-"
"Kyoka don't blame yourself."
Knock Knock Knock!
"Hello? Jiro? Are you in there? Someone trashed the common room and we wanted to make sure you were alright. When Dr. Kujo said he was giving you all a break from class, I got really nervous." Uraraka's concerned voice came from the other side.
"We're fine! No need to worry!" Kyoka called out, and turned to see Johnny staring at her.
"What?"
"You...you said 'WE' you idiot!"
Kyoka went pale, as Uraraka remained silent from the other side of the door. "Oh...oh no. What if she comes in and sees us like this?!" She hissed, and Johnny could only stare.
"Is someone in there with you? What's on the floo-"
She heard Uraraka gasp. Johnny's eyes bugged out of his head. "Did we make sure we didn't leave a blood trail?"
"JIRO, I'M COMING IN!"
"NO, NO IT'S FINE! I JUST CUT MY FINGER THAT'S ALL!" Well, that wasn't exactly a lie, was it? But Uraraka began to jiggle the doorknob, and next thing they knew Uraraka was standing in the middle of the room.
"Jiro, there's been an attack! You can't blame me from getting nervous."
Kyoka, wearing a hoodie and stuffing a hand into her pocket, turned and nervously grinned. "S-sorry Uraraka, I'm...I'm just a little busy."
"...why are you wearing your hood up?"
"I was cold. Listen Uraraka, I appreciate your concern, but I'm fine, okay?"
"Jiro..."
"What?"
"...there's blood on your hoodie..."
Kyoka's ear hole had indeed bled through the hood. Kyoka's face fell. "Uraraka I can explain-"
BONK!
Johnny emerged from a wormhole behind Uraraka and casually knocked her out. Kyoka looked down at Uraraka, and then at Johnny. "Dude."
"We'll tell her it was her imagination."
"I'm still missing an ear and a finger JoJo, and your leg is still...perfectly...fine? "
That's when a hand was placed on her shoulder, and her ear suddenly returned to her, jack and all. Her hand was completely intact, and the agonizing pain was reduced to just a sore.
"That's because I'm here Kyoka."
"M-Mr. Josuke!"
Kyoka threw her arms around her mentor, and he returned the hug just as fierce. "And I won't ever let you down again...I'm sorry I was such a bum."
"I-It's okay, you really saved our asses. God, I was so scared..."
Then Kyoka's expression turned fierce. "That means we have a second chance!"
Johnny nodded and joined the hug, which had turned into a bit of a huddle, followed by Okuyasu. "We've got some friends to save, and a Pillar Man to disintegrate."
Okuyasu pumped his fist into the air. "Alright! The Motion Agency is back in action! Now all we need is Koichi and-"
"Koichi is in Italy."
"Dammit."
"One more thing...Uncle Josuke, why aren't you wearing pants?"
While some of our heroes have gotten a second wind, others remain in mortal peril! Is it really the end for Anasui? Is Gyro going to bite off more than he can chew? Will Momo make it in time? Is Izuku really done fighting? Or will he do something risky? Will Josuke just put on some pants already?
Am I going to stop asking questions to sound more dramatic? Yes.
I would just like to take a moment to thank all of you for sticking with me this far. I am still absolutely floored by the support the story has been getting, and the creativity that you guys bring to it. So, thank you, seriously.
And have a nice day!