Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion Chapter 59

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The aftermath of the attack continues...
Word Count: 1203
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS.

            It’s a lot easier to notice when he wakes up.  The slapping on his face tells him that he’s alive, and someone’s worried about it.  Fitz, probably.

            He coughs a little water out and sits up.  Surprisingly, he hasn’t inhaled the entire tank when he was down there.

            Fitz doesn’t have a hat on.  It’s weird.  He’s also the most relieved Xander has ever seen him.

            The girl also looks happy. 

            They’re all sopping wet.  He blinks, trying to reorient himself again to a world where up and down aren’t directions to move, to the world outside of the water.  And he looks around, trying to work out what happened.

            It’s a little shocking when he notices that there are four or five reddish blobs at the bottom of the tanks.  The other sharks look a bit agitated.  Wary, which is weird.  But not completely so, because sharks have shown the ability to learn and react to the environment, figuring out what’s dangerous and what’s not, and display curiosity and…okay, just when did he get these facts in his head?  He doesn’t really pay attention during Shark Week, it’s really just sort of a tradition.

            “They got too excited,” the girl explains sheepishly.

            He looks at Fitz.  “Luckily, I was able to get to you before you breathed in too much water.”  That doesn’t really explain how Fitz was able to keep both of them from getting brain damage.

            A loud noise startles him, and he looks over just in time to see Lotus Juice, which has a somewhat pleased look on its face if he’s not mistaken, blow out a lot of air into the water and go shooting across the tank.  “My Stand inhaled a lot of air and also stored some in its shell, and we dove down to get you.  Lotus Juice then acted like an oxygen tank.  It wasn’t the best, but it worked fairly well as improvisation goes, and we didn’t really have time to do more than improvise.”

            Fitz got him, while Violent Whispers held off the sharks.  And then Fitz healed him with Lotus Juice.

            “Thanks, both of you.”  He takes a moment to just breathe and appreciate how nice it is.  But they really have to start figuring out what’s going on.  “So…who speared me?”

            The blond frowns darkly.  “Given that the scientist disappeared before I dove into the water, I’ll guess he’s the one.”

            “Marine biologist,” Xander corrects absently.  “I think you’re probably right.  Question is, is your friend okay?  Because that guy probably lied about a lot of things.  He might not even work here.”

            “He knows the building pretty well for not working here,” the girl points out.

            “We should probably find him,” Fitz agrees, green eyes again flashing with worry.

 

            The research area is probably the first place to look.  It’s half an hour before the locker finally swings open after a lot of gentle prodding, and Xander stifles his response.  “I—I found your friend,” he manages eventually.  The tone even almost doesn’t sound horrified, which is pretty impressive.  “I’m sorry.”

            Nobody deserved this, practically filleted and then stuck into a locker.  The blood was oozing.  He swallows and manages to keep down the sausage he’d eaten back in the little zoo café.

            “I-it’s not your fault, Jojo.”  He’s pretty sure the hand now on his shoulder is meant to steady Fitz more than himself.  “We probably shouldn’t stay here too long, o-or touch too much, but notes on the Stands are probably important to find.  If that murderer hasn’t taken them, of course.”  He turns to the girl.  “Keep an eye out.”

            She rolls her eyes.  “Thief,” she reminds them.  “But it’s probably better that all of us don’t get our fingerprints on everything.”

            Xander winces.  “Whoops.  To be fair, the Sunnydale police were useless, so we didn’t really have to worry about that.”  He pulls his hand away a little.  As if that’ll really help anything.  “W-what should we do?”

            “Try to wipe down everything you’ve touched.  Especially here and back in the pool.  Touch nothing else with your bare hands.  There’s nothing you can do about all the blood you got into the pool, but at least it’ll make you look more like a victim, not a suspect.  The police will still be looking for you, and want to ask questions you can’t answer, but being the suspect isn’t good.”  It’s shocking, the change that comes over her.  She might really not deal too well with violence, preferring to distract witnesses with Violent Whispers and make a run for it, but when it comes to breaking the law in non-violent ways she’s suddenly in her element, calm and collected.  “Whisper can see heat.  I’ll try to wipe down anything that’s been touched recently, so that should cover everything we’ve touched in this room and maybe during our search, but everything else has probably cooled down too much for me to see it.  I’ll try to go from memory, too, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

            When she’s finished with the room, Fitz mutters, “I’m glad she’s on our side.”

            “So, what are we supposed to use to make sure our dirty mitts don’t get all over…”  As usual, Jojo gets a strange look from the Englishman for his word choice, but it doesn’t invoke comment for once.

            “I think I might have a pair of gloves in…aha!”  He pulls out the gloves—white leather—with a flourish that reminds Xander of a magician.  He starts clapping quietly in response.

            Fitz flushes.  “This is a dress jacket, and I work in a bookshop.  Do you know how common paper cuts are when you’re working with certain volumes?”

            “I’d think white wouldn’t be your color of choice, but…”  The reply is finished with a shrug.

            “I’d lend them to you, but you look like you have the hands of a giant.  And you’ve already got your DNA at the scene, even though I’m not sure how easy it would be for them to extract it.”  He searches his pockets once more.

            “Do you have a sonic screwdriver in there by any chance?” Xander asks curiously.  It’s clear that Fitz is flattered by the comment, but doesn’t exactly know how to respond, so just hands the handkerchief he produces over.

            “I’m not exactly comfortable with my blood just lying around for anyone to do anything with.  It’s the easiest stuff to use a spell on, for one thing,” Xander comments as they get back to work.

            “If you want to go back down there with the sharks, be my guest,” Fitz gestures, irritated at the interruption.

            “I wasn’t complaining, it was just…a comment.”  He pauses, then grins.  “If anyone starts using anything that looks like blood control on me, you’ll step in and save me, won’t you?”

            “How would I tell?  You’re always acting strange.”  The blond sounds annoyed, but Jojo knows better.  He’s slightly amused, which means he’s starting to relax.  “And of course I would.  I’ve risked my arse enough for you before now.”

            Well.  That hadn’t been exactly the response Xander had been expecting.  Fitz was usually pretty proper about things.  But it meant that he was starting to relax, to see him as something more than just a Joestar, which was of the good.

            They work in silence for a little longer before Fitz speaks up again.  “You know, Jojo, if I’m remembering the stories correctly…the Ripple carries underwater.”

            Xander stops completely and thinks about that.  He’d basically been operating off of instinct.  He wasn’t sure how much breath he’d had left by the time the sharks attacked, but still, he probably could’ve mustered up something.  “Uh.  Right.  Yeah, it does that.”  He tries not to sound as embarrassed as he is.

            “I’m glad you didn’t consider it, though.”  He doesn’t mean to look up, but the Englishman isn’t complaining about how thick he is sometimes.  And, yes, he’s pretty sure he’s not hallucinating from having nearly drowned or anything, that’s a hatless grinning Fitz in its natural habitat.  Whatever that means.  “I’m not sure what it would have done to Darling or I.”

            “I’m glad I didn’t accidentally fry you.  Or harpoon you.”  Fitz actually does frown at this, and he’s probably about to ask about the Feeding Frenzy Plan, which is not of the good, so he quickly busies himself to have an excuse to look away.  He goes back to looking for…whatever they’re looking for, absent-minded, and then realizes he’s pretty sure he’s been staring at what they’ve been looking for a while and not processing it.  “A blood-stained bunch of papers with Stand as a heading on one of them wouldn’t happen to be why we were meeting this guy, would it?”

            “Well, not directly, no.”  Fitz is frowning.  “It looks like there are pages missing, but it’s not like we really have the time.”

            As if on cue, Darling pokes her head around the corner.  “We need to go.”

            “Leaving,” Jojo agrees.