AN: Part 3-centric. With a few neat things. There'll be some language.
Enjoy.
…
Enjoy.
…
A beautiful man looked at me from atop a long staircase. I’ll never forget his eyes, deep like the night and piercing like the stars. His hair, a beautiful shade of yellow, reminds me of the sun cutting past the mountains, a thought that makes me feel ashamed for some reason. I cannot stop looking at him, as he speaks to me, to us…
“Akatsuka, was it? Have you ever thought… about what humans live for?”
A young woman gasped in the middle of her sleep, nearly falling out of bed as she tumbled her sheets out. “W-what…? What was that all about?” she mumbled, barely remembering the dream itself. “Who was that man…?”
As she tried to think about it, she subconsciously moved one of her hands to brush away her hair, only to realize something was off. “Aw, man! My hair’s all frazzled! I thought I was past the age of bed hair!”
With a grumble, she got off the bed and headed to the bathroom, figuring it was better to deal with this sooner than later. It took her a shower and fifteen minutes more to fix it to the point where Akatsuka considered it acceptable for public view, according to her watch. “Too bad my dye’s starting to run out...” she muttered, dumping a bottle in the trash bin. “Guess I’ll go shopping for some more today.”
It was a necessary sacrifice, however; she kept her hair tied in two neat, long buns on the sides of her head, which were then paired with dyed bangs and a braid of the same color to contrast and give her a ‘cool’ look. Red and black weren’t exactly the most compatible of colors, but she thought it was a nice style, to be honest. Besides, with a name like hers, it was only fitting.
As she went back into her room, she saw the computer was turned on, much to her surprise. “Huh? I thought I had turned that thing off…” she muttered, letting out a huff that pushed the a loose red bang back in place. “Whatever. I’ll just turn it off now.”
She was just about to press the button when a crackling noise came from the speaker. “Sorry to say, but ‘I can’t let you do that’.”
Akatsuka took one step back, surprised by the male voice coming out of her computer. It wasn’t running any programs yet! “Whoa, what the hell?! Who are you?”
“The time to introduce myself has most likely passed… But nonetheless, call me Steel.”
“Is that even a real name? You’re just lying to me, aren’t you?”
“I am not. However, things are more complicated than I had expected… for now, what you need to know is that there’s no need to be afraid. I’ve been searching for someone like you… a courageous youth who desires a ‘special power’.”
Akatsuka glared at the screen. “...do you really expect me to believe that?”
“If you don’t believe me, then you just have to call out for your Stand. It will manifest before your very eyes.”
“…my ‘Stand’? What are you talking about?”
“Deep inside, you know already. You don’t need me to tell you… you just have to call for its name, and it will answer.”
That was no answer, and she knew it. “…if you don’t show yourself, I’ll have no choice but to call the police.”
“I promise everything will make itself clear if you just give it a try. Go on.”
Despite the voice’s attempts at relieving her, Akatsuka only felt more frustrated. What did that voice expect of her? And why did this whole thing feel so off-putting? Was she still half-asleep?
Even as these thoughts were twisting in her mind, however, she remembered the dream. Aside from the beautiful man, she remembered another, one who stood by her side. The words came out before she even realized what she was saying.
“‘Red Garland’!” Akatsuka called out, raising a hand in front of her while posing. A few seconds passed, before she scowled. “Nothing. Are you satisfied?” she asked, ignoring the red aura forming around her.
“Toro!”
The red-and-black-haired girl nearly jumped out of her towel, as she heard the loud grunt right by her ear. Turning around, she saw the second man from her dream, some kind of tall, bulky soldier clad in red armor that resembled a Roman soldier’s, including the helmet, but lacking the intricate details of those. His helmet had a burning flame at the very top, and both the golden scarf and combat skirt he wore were also on fire as well, but she couldn’t feel the heat despite being so near him nor smell its burning scent. The only detailing in his armor belonged to the golden gauntlets he wore, marked with a sign of flames, and the buckle of his belt area, despite seemingly lacking one.
“W-who...” Akatsuka stammered, before realizing it. “Y-you’re… Red Garland?”
The warrior didn’t answer, but as her shock quieted down, she realized that she could see through him, to some degree; if she tried really hard, it was like his body disappeared from sight. However, she also had a strange feeling, as they both looked at each other – it was as if she could see through his eyes as well.
“You can see it, I presume? That is your Stand…” Steel spoke at that point, reminding her of his presence. “In layman’s terms, it’s a superpower. The apparition standing in front of you is an extension of your body, so to speak. Generally, each Stand has one unique special ability. These abilities can flout the laws of physics and defy the imagination… Your Stand will surely become an indispensable ally.”
Akatsuka had to admit that she liked the sound of that, but there was something about it she didn’t like. It didn’t help that she had a bad feeling regarding that dream of hers, given how she didn’t remember having any control over Red Garland before now – yet he stood by her then like an old friend.
“...okay. So what gives? Why did you give me this power?”
“I… I’m simply the remnant of a man who was killed by one of these ‘Stands’. Think of me like how you would a prerecorded message.” Those words made her eyes widen, but it somehow wasn’t as much of a punch to the gut as she expected it to be, right after.
“Then what do you want with me?”
“…I want to change this world’s future. Something has to be done, and you’re one of those who would become involved in such events… all I did was ensure you had your Stand available by then.” Akatsuka looked at the screen, frowning a little. Was that really what she had heard? “What you must do is take out a certain person… That insidious vampire, DIO!”
“D-DIO?!” she stammered. “Did you just say ‘DIO’?”
“Yes, I have. A vampire who has recently returned from the depths of the world, a monster who feeds on humans and has caused much sorrow in his path… if anyone is true ‘Evil’ in this world, then it would be DIO!”
“But you’re asking me to kill a man! Even if he’s a vampire, isn’t that just as evil?”
“You aren’t aware of all he has done, so I don’t blame you for being skeptical at this point… still, the warning stands. Now that your Stand has awakened, DIO and his many assassins will not remain ignorant of you for long… they will eventually find out about you, and you will be considered a threat to their power.”
“Thought so...” Akatsuka muttered, glaring at the screen. “I can’t believe this… being asked to kill a guy I never met because that’ll improve the future. You’re crazy, you know that?”
“Haven’t you heard, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’?” She rolled her eyes upon hearing that. “This is simply a consequence of the thing you yourself wished for. The Stand you have is a power you desired, one that was granted to you. I’m simply the one who came to you and informed you of that. There are those who would be threatened by your power, and would seek to end you, due to that…”
“…you’re lucky you’re dead, you hear that?” the red-and-black-haired girl said, really wishing he wasn’t right now. “You’re getting on my nerves with all this talk. Killing people is wrong, you know.”
“Yes. But those who come to join DIO are creatures of lower moral than you or I, and will kill you without regret if it comes to that. If you left DIO to his own devices, your friends and family would be at risk. Even if you weren’t aware of it, you knew you needed a ‘protector’…” She ‘tsk’ed at that, not amused at the idea. She hardly needed protecting, after all. “One more thing. Those who oppose DIO are more numerous than I expected… your journey will be full of danger, but you may not need to fight alone, after all.”
“Great. Like this guy isn’t enough company as it is.”
“This is your destiny. I’m only helping to move it along. Now… Head to school. Just like you would any other day.”
With that last warning, the computer turned off.
…
Akatsuka had only just made it out of her house, now dressed in her school uniform, when a new sight caught her eyes; a small doll was lying on the ground, by the end of the sidewalk.
“Huh? Now what’s that thing?” she wondered, coming closer. The doll resembled those of Russian make, the kinds that one placed inside another, but this one didn’t seem to have any lines on the sides that could be opened. She had just about picked it up to observe when she noticed a small, faint aura forming around it. “…huh?”
A second later, she felt a sharp pain in her chest, as the doll suddenly slammed itself against her body, dragging her own hand along. “T-the hell?!” she let out, falling to her knees for a moment. “What’s with this… stupid doll?!”
With a sudden jerk, the Russian-style doll slipped out of her hand, before trying to slam itself on her head. Akatsuka was already trying to grab it again with her other hand, but it managed to slip away. “Toro!” The only thing that kept her from getting pounded by a full pound of ceramic at full speed was a pair of gauntlets forming up in front of her, even as the rest of Red Garland emerged from her body.
“S-so this is what it’s like to fight with this guy…!” she muttered, letting him stand in front of her while she focused on the floating doll trying to kill her. “So what the hell are you, anyway?!”
The only answer she got was a nasty laugh, one that chilled her spine from hearing it. The otherworldly nature of the laugh also made her feel like this was connected to the recent events for certain. “Don’t tell me… you’re a Stand too, aren’t you?”
The doll was still able to float in its own way, and she could almost believe that it nodded in a very condescending way. “Thought so… don’t you act smart with me, you piece of junk!” she declared, having Red Garland throw it at the ground to smash it.
Although there was a very satisfying ‘crunch’ noise from the impact, however, she was displeased to see that her enemy was only slightly cracked, and did not seem to be seriously damaged. And of course, now that it was free, the puppet had decided to keep its distance from now, judging her.
Akatsuka considered her situation. Running away was one thing, but the doll was able to actually fly in the air, and that meant it could come after her from any angle, including ones she wasn’t aware of. Then, there was the fact that if one doll could move on its own, probably due to a Stand, so could others. It wasn’t a good idea to just dismiss that as a one-off unless she found the user… if, indeed, there was one.
At least this way, she had a little more understanding on how Red Garland worked. There wasn’t an issue with her using her hands to control his hands; he was more like an extension of her body, with general contact but she didn’t even need to think that much to govern his actions. Just a casual ‘punch it’ worked, rather than focusing on how she wanted the punch.
However, it not being necessary didn’t mean it didn’t sound useful.
“Get it!” she declared, moving forward along with the Stand, shortening the distance between them and the puppet. She focused on how she wanted the punch to go, visualizing it in her mind.
Red Garland’s fist flew faster than before, barely missing a dead-on strike; however, the impact was enough to make it break the doll’s front somewhat. Her instinctive drive to defeat the enemy meant the second fist came just as she thought of it, forcing it to spin out unable to escape.
Even she couldn’t miss this chance.
“Toro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro!” her Stand grunted as it punched repeatedly, so fast she could barely see the fists, the doll breaking apart from the impact. A slight grin formed on her lips as she realized his strength was the real deal, a power that was perhaps above any other Stand’s in terms of sheer strength.
“…you know, if that’s your real power, I think we’re going to do just fine, big guy,” she said, before noticing the smoke forming from the broken doll pieces. It burned up in seconds, disappearing like it was never there to begin with. “…and I suppose this is helpful. If another one of these shows up, I’ll know that it won’t leave a mark.”
As she turned around, however, she saw the crack on the pavement. “…though I have to learn to not leave marks myself, I guess.”
The walk to school gave Akatsuka enough time to experiment with her Stand, primarily the part about keeping it active. She was glad to see nobody seemed to notice it, even if she revealed a finger or two at a time, though she refused to show off the warrior as a whole unless she was sure nobody was looking. Thankfully, he seemed to be a moron, unable to speak outside those weird grunts and only when it punched something.
At one time, when she passed by a clear window with him out, she realized an aura of energy had formed around her. For a moment she almost thought the reflection was showing her Stand, but when she noticed that another person was looking at the window and completely ignoring her, she realized that even this aura was invisible to normal people. Perhaps it was only something Stand users could see or notice.
Red Garland itself seemed to be rather limited, though. She couldn’t get it to do more than stand before her, definitely not far enough to take more than a couple steps ahead or behind her, and his arms were only able to reach as much as her own. On one hand, this was disappointing, since all she seemed able to do with him was punching.
On the other hand, though, he punched very well. The doll from before was a good example, as he was able to literally punch it apart faster than she could blink, the speed and strength clearly on display. She wasn’t sure how physical he was, but it was easy to assume that if something actually hit her Stand, it would take the blow better than she would.
One thing, however, did nag at her nonetheless.
She was just one block away from school when she saw a group of punks from another school. She had heard of them before; the kind of jerks who went around making trouble with other schools, probably trying to ‘take them over’ or whatever. She hadn’t taken those rumors too seriously, but considering they were clearly picking on someone from her school, as she saw it, it was worth taking into consideration.
She looked at them for a moment, frowning. She could sort of see auras similar to her own, if different, and not simply in tone. It was a strange, black-like color that seemed very weak, and gave her an unpleasant shiver.
“Hey, excuse me,” Akatsuka interrupted them, the red-haired girl crossing her arms. “What are you guys doing?”
The punks didn’t quite respond to her, simply turning to look at her. It was strange to see their glossy, blank eyes, like they weren’t all there. They didn’t even seem to be talking, they were just standing around, one of them still holding her schoolmate.
“Thought so.” She adjusted her hair a little, before pointing at them. “I don’t care what’s going on your heads, but drop him. I want to try something out.”
One of the thugs started to run towards her, just letting out a random battle cry of some sort. Before he could even try to swing at her, however, Akatsuka was ready, letting Red Garland’s fist intercept him in the gut.
Compared to before, the punch was weak, not even enough to knock him out. Her control over it seemed to be good, as she wanted to get the punks to advance on her as a whole, not just one of them.
“Oh, seems like your friend just slipped,” she said, looking at the others. “Why don’t you come over and help him, morons?”
That seemed to get to them, as they started to come at her like a group. Akatsuka refused to let her worries show on her face, as her red aura flared up, a second before the armored warrior emerged before her.
“TORO!” he yelled, when the first punch landed. This was followed by a series of rapid-fired punches at full speed, which she tried to aim at as many of the punks as possible. “Toro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro-ro!” The last few punches were enough to send each one flying, at which point Red Garland let out his final battle cry. “STRONZO! {SON OF A-}”
Akatsuka stared at the scene in awe, a second before realizing she was out of breath. Somehow, the amount of focus she had spent on that series of punches was enough to tire her out, and she needed a little time to recover.
Thankfully, as violent as she had been, she had managed to remain careful, and the punks were still alive and breathing. She could tell that just from looking, no need for a detailed exam. She also couldn’t see the black aura around them anymore, though she wasn’t sure at what point it faded away.
What did bother her, though, was that she had been trying to pay as close attention to where Red Garland was punching. His reach was good, enough that she didn’t have to worry about missing any of them due to distance, and she figured that as long as she wasn’t completely surrounded she could at least hit an entire group if she went all out.
But she had counted the blows that hit, better than she had the first time against the doll. And now that she could compare them to the apparent injuries, the ruffled clothes, and everything, it bothered her to realize that he had, in fact, missed more than half of the punches he had thrown. Attempts to punch at the center of their bodies dead-on ended up aimed a little far away, while those punches that were closer to their arms or belly would outright miss them entirely.
Perhaps she could compensate for it properly, but as she forced Red Garland to look at her, she realized that his eyes weren’t exactly clear, but somewhat dull in fact. This meant that she would have to be careful with how she fought, if she didn’t want to keep missing that much.
Her thoughts were broken by the realization that her schoolmate was stirring now. “Hey, brat!” she said, taking note of his short height. “Those punks were bothering you just now, weren’t they?”
“Y-yeah…” he muttered, shaking his head in the process. He didn’t seem to expect her to offer a hand, not that she bothered to do it. “I heard there’s a lot of friction between our school and theirs, but this is ridiculous… I don’t even know why they started picking on me, they said nothing.”
“Thought so. Well, that’s these thugs for you. They don’t care much what others think, they just hurt people.” She sniffed a little, before going back on her path. “Anyway, I have to go. See you some other time, I guess.”
“Uh… see you?” he said, uncertain. “Just in case, what’s your name?”
“Name?” She glanced towards him, unexpectedly. “Just call me Akatsuka, brat.”
“O-okay… jeez, sorry to bother.” With those words, he adjusted his own clothes, before heading towards the school with her.
…
At first glance, nothing seemed to be out of place when they arrived at the school grounds. Akatsuka didn’t even notice the short boy she had helped before run off, probably headed to his own classes. However, she still felt that unusual chill in her spine, an odd feeling that something was off. It was stronger than when she encountered the doll and the thugs from before.
She tried to ignore it up until the moment when she heard a melody start playing in her classroom during the first class, as if due to the PA system; however, the strange thing was that, at first glance, nobody seemed to be listening to it. The melody seemed to be like a lullaby, somehow.
The chill increased when she saw one of the students slip over their desk, face meeting the desk. She could’ve still considered that a completely unrelated event, if it wasn’t for two other students falling asleep as well.
“What the sh-” she let out, moments before feeling her eyes start to lower, a strange sleepy sensation flowing into her. “C-crap-!” With that gasp, her body fell limp on the desk, similar to the other students. Soon enough, everyone in class was asleep, even the teacher.
The door opened quietly for a moment, before being closed just as quietly.
“Mmm-hmm, interesting!” said a blonde girl, as she walked towards the teacher’s desk. “Now look at them sleep! I should’ve done this ages ago if I knew it would be this easy!”
The girl took the teacher’s bag, opening it so she could look inside. “Now, let’s see, where’s the answers to our next exam…”
“Hey!” a sharp voice suddenly spoke, much to her surprise. The girl looked towards it, her eyes widening as she saw Akatsuka was getting up. “What do you think you’re doing, bitch?”
“Hm. So you woke up already. Interesting…” the blonde said, placing the bag down. “I thought my lullaby was good enough to knock you out.”
“So that was you, wasn’t it.” Akatsuka growled, stifling her emotions. She couldn’t show her full aggression yet. “You made a song that makes people sleep?”
“That’s the idea!” she replied, grinning. “I don’t really wanna get in trouble, you know? So I thought, if everyone’s asleep or otherwise unaware, I can get away with all sorts of things!” She then raised an eyebrow. “So, how did you wake up, redhead?”
“That’s for me to know and you to find out…” she growled, before running towards her. “After I’m done cleaning your clock, blondie!”
She barely had time to see the aura form around the girl, a greenish tone of some sort, before a sharp noise cut through the air. Almost immediately after, Akatsuka fell to her knees, gasping for air.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t think you’ll be cleaning anything right now,” the blonde said, with a nasty smirk on her face, “unless you mean you’ll be using your face on the ground!”
The lullaby music started again, making her shoulders feel heavy and her eyelids start to close. Biting a lip, Akatsuka advanced nonetheless, getting off the ground and using all her strength to keep on going. Another sharp noise came, stopping the lullaby for long enough that Akatsuka could feel awake again, but to little avail as she felt another strike out of nowhere, right on her face.
“You know, you should be thanking me. I mean, with this workout we’re doing, I’m sure I can fix that nose of yours back into shape,” the blonde said, mocking her.
“Very funny...” Akatsuka muttered, rubbing her lips. “Who are you, bitch? And where did you get that power?”
“Heh. Otomine’s my name, redhead. And my power… well, that’s a secret. Not that you can tell what I’m doing, right?” The blonde let her aura build up again, the music about to begin. “Not that you’ll remember much after I knock you out too and-”
A sharp pain on her throat made her stop talking, the girl gagging for a moment as the sensation became clear; something had just struck her at high velocity. A look down, and she saw a small piece of rubber that had been taken out of some table, very fast.
“Damn it, I was aiming for her skull…” Akatsuka couldn’t help but admit, as she noticed Otomine was definitely not knocked out by that. “Still, since your little number is done for now… how about we get a reality check, huh?”
“Toro!” Red Garland yelled as he was fully manifested, hands moving towards the blonde’s arms.
Otomine managed to move back, but her body was stuck in place shortly after, as the red warrior’s grip tightened around something. “D-damn it! Let me go, Reddy!”
“Oh, so you can see him?” Akatsuka asked, raising an eyebrow; Otomine’s expression changed into one of shock. “Seems to me like we’ve both got the same type of ‘power’ then.”
“What do you care?!” the blonde asked, seconds before Red Garland managed to pull something out.
If Otomine was just a normal high school student like Akatsuka, with a slightly brown type of natural blonde hair and dressed in the same uniform as her, then the creature Red Garland was currently holding was not quite like him. It was some strange, slim pale man, much thinner and less bulky, with thick and wild green spiked hair and clad in an unusual type of armor. Some of its skin was actually green properly as well, on the areas of its elbows and forearms, and its right eye was covered with a strange patch of some sort.
Most unusual, however, was that it held a guitar; an electric one by all means, but in the same colors as its body and, most importantly, completely disconnected from any devices that it could plug into. There wasn’t even any cables sticking out, in fact.
“Thought so. You’ve got a Stand too, don’t you?” Akatsuka asked her. “No wonder I’ve been hearing this stupid song, that’s your power!”
“I’ll have you know that my power is not stupid songs!” Otomine retorted, glaring at the large red Stand in front of her. “What about you? You’ve got a stupid gorilla!”
“What did you say about my Red Garland?!”
The argument would’ve proceeded, but the door to the classroom opened at that moment.
“What’s with the yelling?” a teacher from the room next door asked, as he walked in. That question was enough to break their concentration for one moment. Otomine reacted faster to that, managing to pull away from Red Garland’s grip just enough that she could move, her Stand floating along her as well.
“Just passing by!” she said, her Stand quickly playing the start of the lullaby right in front of the teacher, who fell unconscious from the direct exposure. Akatsuka managed to cover her ears in time, but that meant she couldn’t follow her out of the room until after the blonde managed to get a good lead.
“Damn it…” she growled, running after the distant form. “Is she one of those assassins Steel warned me of? I know she was just fiddling with the teacher’s bag, but… that could just be a cover!”
The chase went up the stairs to a higher floor, with the melody playing along. On one hand, Akatsuka disliked hearing it more and more, since she was worried about falling asleep or worse. On the other hand, however, hearing it still meant she could follow Otomine wherever she was going to.
“Well, it doesn’t matter,” she decided. “Whether you’re just some punk messing with me or one of DIO’s assassins, I’m not going to lose to you!”