Butterfly Effect
Hello there. In this chapter we'll see Joseph's advanced training come to fruition. I can't wait to write the fight scene. Without further ado, let's get into it. Enjoy the chapter!
I do not own JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Chapter 3: Handling the heat
When Joseph Joestar went to his training ground before dusk he didn't expect to find the bloody hat of Instructor Loggins lying on the ground. He looked around, finding two figures on top of a statue.
'Is that Instructor Loggins?' the Joestar wondered, squinting his eyes for a better look. 'No, this isn't right! There are two people there! Wait, this is unnatural!' The young Joestar noticed a disturbing detail. 'One of them is holding the other one up with his leg!'
He edged closer, coming to a regretful realization upon closer inspection. "Instructor Loggins! He's… dead!"
The murderer revealed himself, showing his face.
"Esidisi!" Joseph observed, wide-eyed and sweating. The Pillar Men had just killed another person, the opposite of good news.
"Hmph!" Esidisi grunted, kicking Loggins' corpse off his foot. "This island… doesn't seem like a place for people to live. Although it would make an interesting arena… Which means, the woman holding the red stone of Aja lives on the neighboring island."
Esidisi mumbled to himself as he observed the training island. At the center of it was a circular field with countless long and spiky spikes. "Kars and Wamuu seem not to have realized the red stone is here."
Instructor Loggins' dead body landed in front of the Joestar's feet. His instructor had an extremely wide gaping hole in his chest. The sight of it was terrifying.
"He gouged out his lungs… The lungs are a Hamon user's vital point. This looks like the only wound so it took one swift kick to take him out…" the young Joestar noted, kneeling beside the corpse. "I was supposed to face him in the final trial but Esidisi came after the red stone and got here first. The domineering Loggins… It was three weeks of hell listening to you. I really hated you, you were so awful."
Joseph's eyes narrowed in sadness. "And I was going to get you back for all of that…!"
He jumped onto his feet, challenging the murderer with a furious glare. "Well, instructor… watch from up there. You can see the results of all you've put me through."
The fighters took their duel to the arena of spikes. The human imbued his feet with Hamon to protect his feet, the Pillar Man made holes into his feet to avoid injuries from standing on the spikes.
"Okay, Esidisi! You've got 6 more days but I'll be taking it now." the Joestar declared, pointing at the murderer's face. "That antidote in the ring you've got stuck in your nose!"
Esidisi ignoring him again made the young Joestar yet the more angry. "Hey! Quit ignoring me! You're supposed to be surprised to see me here! Are you doing this on purpose?!"
To the Pillar Man the foolish human's babbling was merely an annoyance. "Out of my way! I do not have the time to face you!" he ordered, earning defiance from the human.
"Time?! You've got way more time than I've got!"
He noticed how Joseph's gaze was much more intense than his own. "Hmm, that gaze of yours has become piercing." the ancient creature remarked, stroking his chin. "But men with a look like that in their eyes… die quickly when they run into me."
Joseph made some movements with his body, getting into a fighting stance. He was by all means determined.
"I will say it once more, out of my way! If you lay a hand on me you'll be without at least half your body." Esidisi warned, growing impatient but not enraged.
"Make me move!" the Joestar challenged, signalizing he was there to stay.
The Pillar Man intended to stoically strike the human away with a palm strike, but both the attack and expression were broken as the human blocked his palm with one finger.
"W-what is this?" the ancient creature questioned, surprised about the young Joestar's great physical strength and powerful Hamon.
"What are you so startled about? What's wrong? Make me move." Joseph taunted, his eyes narrow and serious. "I only get out the way if I'm about to step on poop."
Increasing the pressure on the murderer's hand the Joestar pierced through it. Esidisi gritted his teeth in pain and disbelief. "Wha… His Hamon pierced my skin and is flowing into me! He was able to learn this much in 3 weeks?!"
That pain soaring through the Pillar Man's hand only increased with time, forcing him to pull away his hand. It would've melted otherwise.
"How unexpected… I'm surprised at how much you've grown…" the ancient creature lowly hissed, now narrowing his eyes in rage. "HOWEVER, IT IS STILL TOO SOON FOR YOU TO HAVE THE RIGHT TO FIGHT ME! TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO IDEVOURED SO MANY HAMON USERS LIKE YOU THAT I GOT SICK OF!"
"I will twist your arms into knots before you have a chance to send more of your Hamon into me! Then I will absorb your arm whole!" the Pillar Man roared, attempting to get cruel with the human he deemed annoying. "TAKE THIS!"
Joseph used the attacking motion of the ancient creature to his own advantage, leaping into the air and tying a string around his arm.
"Wah!" Esidisi let out in surprise.
"You finally realized, huh? There's some string tied around your arm. That string was dipped into vegetable oil to make it easy for the Hamon to flow through it." the Joestar explained, still mid air. "I was going to tie it around your neck but unfortunately you didn't leave me an opening."
"What?!" The Pillar Man couldn't believe it. "When did you tie this string?! I should've seen you doing something like that!"
Looking around, the ancient creature found the origin point of that string. It was tied around the arm of the Hamon instructor he'd murdered earlier.
"Hmmm? No way! He attached it to the corpse's hand and unwound it?!" the murderer exclaimed in shock, not having seen through that plan at all.
That mistake caused him great pain. The string tightened and cut off a portion of his left arm due to the Hamon flowing. He growled out in pain.
"It's a bit of a cruel plan coming from me, but I believe I'm the one, with the help of my instructor, to strike the first point, Esidisi!" the young Joestar spoke, then turning his head towards the corpse again. "I owe this one to you, Instructor. Grazie, Loggins…"
Esidisi's seperated arm section landed on top of a spike, pierced at the top.
"I skipped class a lot, but I remember all the history Granny Erina told me. 2500 years ago there was a guy named Sun Tzu who wrote the chinese Art of War and said this: "Victory is decided before the battle is fought"." Joseph told in a serious tone. "So let me say it out for you Esidisi…"
"It means that I set up a lot of strategies without my enemy noticing!" And the serious tone was replaced with a taunting one. "You may have lived a long time but you're not nearly as me when it comes to coming up with plans. Gahahahahahaha!"
The Joestar then kicked out at the separated piece of the Pillar Man's arm. "You bastard!"
Due to infusing his leg with Hamon the young Joestar's kick only left behind bones. The ancient creature couldn't use this forearm anymore, much to his annoyance. "Gah! You… you little…!"
"Oh! Esidisi, you mad? Are you gonna come raging at me for evaporating your arm with Hamon?" Joseph ridiculed his enemy, waiting for him to completely lose his composure. "Get angry! I'm absolutely furious! I haven't been able to sleep well at all these past 3 weeks thinking about the poison ring you put in my throat!"
Esidisi reacted, though not the way the Joestar expected.
"Wahh… wahh… this is too much! HIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! This is too much! Wahh! Wahh!" the Pillar Man cried, tears streaming out of his eyes like waterfalls. It looked like he had a mental breakdown.
"What the… What in the world? He's crying?" the young Joestar muttered to himself in disbelief, sweatdropping. "I thought he'd go mad from rage but… this is a surprise! It's… it's actually kinda creepy! He's throwing a temper tantrum!"
"AHYYY! AHYYY! AHY! My poor aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarm! Wooooooooooohh!" the ancient creature continued crying, lamenting his forever lost forearm.
"I suppose… This creepiness is preferable to him gatting angry. Better hurry up finish him off!" Joseph decided, still sweatdropping out of second hand embarrassment.
He intended to move over to his opponent's position but said opponent abruptly recovered from his mental state.
"Phew! I feel better." Esidisi stated, now bearing a calm smirk. "My personality… is a bit wilder than Kars or Wamuu, you see. When I lose my temper too much and get flustered I start bawling in order to cool my head."
The Pillar Man was much more confident, the Joestar's confidence took a slight blow. "You'd brought up Sun Tzu earlier, correct? I know him as well, you see. I journeyed to China long ago. "All warfare is based on deception." "To fight is to deceive." "If you anger your enemy and get inside his head, you can create an opening to attack."." the ancient creature recited, having seen through the human's strategy. "That is what you're trying to do, correct? I shall not fall for it again."
Changing his direction, Esidisi walked elsewhere. "One called JoJo, I am surprised at how much you've grown. Let me praise your Hamon." he said. "It has been a long time since I've had a worthy opponent."
Esidisi stomped on the fallen instructor Loggins' arm, causing the forearm to seperate, much to the young Joestar's shock. The Pillar Man then placed it on his own forearm's stump, uniting with it. He had a new functioning arm.
"You… you'd take an arm from a corpse?" Joseph spat in disgust, disgusted at how the monster disrespected the dead.
"Hmph! It's a little slimmer, but it'll thicken up to be like my original one over time." the ancient creature casually spoke, fiddling with his new arm.
'Guh! What's with this guy?' The Joestar was taken aback. 'First he's angry, then he's crying, now he's pretending nothing happened!'
"Hey JoJo! Looks like I've frightened you. Are you afraid of me right now?" Esidisi questioned, having noticed his opponent's drop in confidence.
Taken aback yet again the young Joestar had to monologue inwardly. 'Guh! I can't get a read on him! I've always fought by reading my opponent and using his mind against him! But his mind works differently! Maybe I'm the one who's getting read here…'
Suddenly Joseph had to worry about something else. Steam was exiting Loggins' dead body. The corpse itself was getting smaller and dryer, strange wounds began appearing on it.
"Instructor Loggins' corpse! It's- ACK!" A thin stream of steam touched Joseph's arm, making him exclaim in pain. "It's hot! Instructor Loggins' corpse is boiling!"
"When animals move or fight illnesses their body temperature increases. I can raise my blood's temperature to 500°C and release it. I sent my boiling blood into him when I took his arm." Esidisi explained, posing. "Wamuu can control the wind with his Divine Sandstorm but I am a master of heat. Heat is my domain!"
"It's truly astounding that you can thoroughly obliterate a human corpse like that." the Joestar spoke up, pulling out his clackers. "But I can see you're just trying to scare me by doing it! Take this, Clacker Volley!"
The Pillar Man didn't budge, instead extending his arm towards the flying clackers. His face didn't express any fear of the human's attack.
"My Hamon is different than it was a month ago! And these clackers have vegetable oil rubbed all over them so the Hamon will conduct perfectly!" the young Joestar called, sounding very confident about hitting his target.
However that confidence was for naught, the ancient creature vertically split his hand in two between his middle finger and ring finger, letting the clackers pass safely through the gap.
Joseph was surprised. He didn't expect a miss. His body flinched with hesitation.
"You were afraid… Your mind was clouded and caused you to hesitate." Esidisi told, calmly looking into the Joestar's eyes with a sense of superiority. "Your emotions caused you to attack recklessly and too soon, JoJo."
A disturbing transformation then unfolded. The Pillar Man's fingernails folded, allowing his superhuman Pillar Man veins to come outside. "I'll stab these veins into your face and send my boiling blood into your body, turning your face into stew!"
"This is why I'm called the Erratic Blaze King!" the ancient creature vigorously exclaimed, commencing his attack.
Thankfully for the young Joestar his metal masked blocked the deadly attack, Esidisi's insanely long veins didn't manage to torch Joseph's skin.
"Tch! Clever way to block it!" Esidisi spat, ready to attack anew.
Then all of a sudden Joseph's breathing mask burst in flames. Before his facial skin suffered any damage he managed to remove it.
"Damn you! You're lucky my sexy lips aren't burnt!" the Joestar hissed, showing his animosity with his bare clenched teeth.
"JoJo, right now I bet you are thinking of a plan while you stand there, spouting your mouth off." the Pillar Man figured, grinning calmly and confidently. He knew there were going to be changes from that point on.
Judging from the young Joestar's worried expression the ancient creature sneered deviously. "Oh, you look pale, JoJo! Was I right on the money? It looks like I got it right, didn't I?!"
Calming his senses, Joseph devised another plan in his mind. Calming himself was a hard task though, Esidisi's overly calm and confident grin didn't boost his morale. 'That grin's giving me the creeps… He couldn't have seen through my plan, right? No, there's no way! He'll definitely fall into my trap, so long as I set up my "String Barrier" without him noticing!'
Esidisi then began laughing, allowing his body to be impaled by the arena's spikes. "Hehehe, hehehe!" He literally sunk into the spikes like water before undoing the sinking and launching himself in the air. The gaps where the spikes penetrated through his body turned out to be real wounds, shooting out blood and veins.
"Erratic Blaze King's Giant Cartwheel Prison!"
By spinning in the air, the moving hot blood and dangerous veins were even deadlier than usual. Though the physical training designed by Will A. Zeppeli made Joseph easily avoid them.
The Pillar Man still didn't lose confidence, believing he'd tire out the human eventually. "How long can you run from my attacks?" the ancient creature asked with a grin that promptly disappeared after he noticed a detail. The human's hat was gradually becoming smaller.
"It seems you've finally noticed… why my hat is getting smaller, that is." the Joestar said, smirking about his working plan. "You've stepped inside my barrier!"
Looking down at his feet, Esidisi saw a long purple string tied in an irregular pattern around the spikes below his feet. The pattern was irregular but effective in preventing the Pillar Man from taking another step.
"My hat is 100% wool. It conducts Hamon great!" the Joestar added, assured of victory.
"Oh yeah~?"
This wasn't the tone and expression of a trapped man. "W-what are you laughing at?! You can laugh at a time like this?!" the young Joestar demanded, startled and nervous. In the end his plan worked out, so why was his opponent not intimidated?
"Your next line is "I'll wipe that smile off your face!"." the ancient creature spoke, imitating the human's famous phrase.
"I'll wipe that smile off your face!" Joseph proclaimed, sweating and widening his eyes in shock immediately after. "What?! You stole the thing I always do!"
"JoJo… 'barrier' you say? Look veeeery carefully, I'm the one who set the barrier!" Esidisi informed, getting the cockiest he's got for a very long time. Veins shooting out from underneath his toenails severed the string barrier set up by the Joestar. "I figured out your plan!"
"Heh heh heh… Hah hah hah!" the Pillar Man laughed out loud in an extremely cocky and boastful manner. "JoJo… You said something like this earlier, right? "Victory is decided before the battle is fought."." the ancient creature quoted the young Joestar, horizontally raising his muscular arms. "Right? Right? Riiiiiiiiiiight?"
"Right! You were so, so~ right! But victory decided to smile upon my strategy over yours!" Esidisi declared, almost losing his composure out of 'victorious' ecstasy. He dripped boiling blood out of his veins on the human, though the human's Hamon not only protected his skin but also his shirt.
Seeing how Joseph and his clothes were unharmed Esidisi's expression rapidly changed. That wasn't something the Pillar Man predicted. "Hey… Why are you unharmed?! How come you haven't received any damage?!" he exclaimed in disbelief, then tightly narrowing his eyes in realization. "Im-impossible! Your Hamon…"
"You should've gotten the idea when I told you my lips were unharmed." the Joestar reminded, wiping that smile off his opponent's face as he promised. That instance his Hamon covered his face and prevented any injury from the heat. And flames are hotter than 500°C.
The young Joestar gathered some blood currently running down his body in his hands, heating them up. Following that he rubbed them together, creating fire. His hands were protected from the fire's scorching heat thanks to his vastly improved Hamon.
"ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME?!" the ancient creature uttered in disbelief, his options narrowing down.
"Better prepare yourself Esidisi! This is gonna hurt!" Joseph announced, taking out his clackers again, transferring both Hamon and fire onto the metal balls. "Fireclacker Volley!"
Burning steel balls spun around, snapping the loose veins coming from Esidisi's 20 nails and other spots they shouldn't come from. The Pillar Man was near petrified, for the first time afraid of losing to a human.
"This isn't over yet! Sunlight Yellow Overdrive!" the Joestar shouted, emulating his grandfather. He'd seriously turned the tides this time, the ancient creature could no longer claim to be superior to him.
Esidisi jumped backwards in order to avoid the Hamon-powered fist barrage. The young Joestar's Hamon capable of carrying fire turned out to be overly dangerous to him, but that version of Hamon was the human's by far most powerful Hamon, deadlier to him than the sun's rays. When the Pillar Man landed from his jump he landed the same strings he believed he'd cut.
"But… I cut those…?" The ancient creature couldn't believe it. That human was an enigma, an entity he couldn't figure out to save his life.
Joseph pulled the string, effectively binding Esidisi. He'd stopped his fist attack for this. "My magic string worked. I set up my barrier using a trick that would work even if the string got cut!" the Joestar explained, his opponent's life firmly within his grasp.
"You… YOU…" the Pillar Man growled, his eyes twitching like crazy. He was absolutely fuming. In those situations he'd cry to calm down, though in his exact situation it was useless. Crying wouldn't help him get out of that trap.
"I was gonna punch you to death, I really was, but now that you can die by the string I'll save my fists for Wamuu." the Joestar decided, looking at the ancient creature with contempt. "Take this! Hamon Overdrive!"
Hamon of the same potency as Sunlight Yellow Overdrive flowed through the string restraining Esidisi. Pain stronger than any other pain the 92000-year-old creature experienced before soared through his body as it was being annihilated. The Pillar Man lost all hope, cursing the human. "I-I-I-I've been… b-beaten by A MERE HUMAN!" the ancient creature screamed with a stammering voice, his volume rising like his agony did over time. "I-I… AM A GREAT BEING! FOR ME TO BE DEFEATED… HOW DARE… YOU DO THIS TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Save for his clothes and jewelry Esidisi's entire body was erased from existence, not even his brain remained. Among the items dropping on the ground was a golden ring containing a certain other ring's antidote.
"Santana lived on in a petrified state after I beat him. Yet Esidisi integrated down to his bones… Is it only because of how far my Hamon has come?" the young Joestar mumbled in thought, picking up the antidote ring. "Anyway, he's dead and I've got the antidote for the poison throat ring."
Joseph opened the ring, letting the antidote gel reluctantly drop into his mouth. "Maybe it's because he had this ring on his nose, but I can't help but think of snot as I drink this." he remarked, drinking with disgust. "Oh, well."
The next moment the Joestar felt discomfort on his throat disappear. "All right! The antidote worked!"
Cracking his neck, the young Joestar turned it around, looking at the island before leaving. "I guess I'll have to train otherwise…"
XXXXXXXXXX
"JoJo!" Caesar greeted his friend as he returned to Air Supplena island. "I've watched your fight against Esidisi through binoculars. Thank god you survived!"
"Yeah, thanks for your concern." Joseph thanked him with a brief hug. "But now that Esidisi is dead the other two will come here for revenge."
Not exactly the ideal scenario. "But… with Master Lisa Lisa, my dad and Instructor Messina on our side I'm sure we can face them."
"Right." the Joestar agreed, slapping the Zeppeli a high five. "Let's find out when we fight together."
This is the end of this chapter. Joseph finished off Esidisi for good, using both his intelligence and his strengthened Hamon. Hooray for Suzy Q, she won't get possessed by a brain. There's also no need to go to Switzerland, possessed Suzy Q can't send the red stone away. How will Kars deal with this? Find out next chapter!
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