Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion Chapter 172

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The cavalry arrives.
Word Count: 1317
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS

          From Shizuka’s gasp, Buffy guesses that it means something to her, but the revelation is just noise to the Slayer.  She’d spent the most time with Jotaro, who’s certainly not the most talkative one of the family, so even if he’d known who this was, she wouldn’t have heard about it.
          “You’re lying now.  Caesar died,” Shizuka accuses, very carefully not going near even as he goes into a painful sounding hacking fit, blood spattering the concrete like twisted paint.
          “And there’s another example of Joseph Joestar’s stellar friendship.  Great-great uncle Caesar might not have been proud of all of his past, but he would have mentioned his younger siblings, I’m sure.  The Zeppeli line didn’t end with his death.  Maybe Joestar couldn’t face the death of a friend, but how do you think his brothers felt?”  Another coughing fit interrupts his monologue, which, okay, she can give him a few points for doing that after the fight unlike all the other villains.  And she’s carefully ignoring the fact she can vaguely feel on the edge of her consciousness something that feels very much like a flame flicker.  “A second betrayal, as far as they could tell, abandoned by their brother just like their father before him.  You see yourself as a hero, but the Joestar destiny is to bring about the end of the Zeppeli.”
          “You’re exaggerating, Zeppeli-san, because this Joestar is going to save your life,” a voice she vaguely recognizes interrupts the conversation, and—oh, here comes the pompadour guy.  It’ll be interesting to interact with him, assuming he doesn’t get them all killed.
          “Don’t touch him.  We nearly died trying to get to this point,” Buffy warns him, and he drops, squatting next to Severin’s body, flame flickering further, body slowly going limp, and—what is he even wearing?  That definitely doesn’t look like the police uniform he’d been wearing.  Is that his idea of a civilian outfit?
          Severin smirks and starts choking on his own blood.
          “Josuke, if you think this guy can be redeemed, you’re being naïve.  There’s nothing worse than a guy who thinks he’s right.  You can’t fix his personality,” Shizuka adds her voice, but Xander’s grandpa doesn’t seem like he’s going to listen.
          “See, something about this guy feels weird,” he points a finger at Severin.  “You’re Buffy, right?  Will you at least hear me out, at least?”
          Shizuka’s panicking a little, but then, it’s entirely earned.  “He’ll absorb your power and kill us all.  So, really, hands off,” she insists, and Josuke shows her his empty hands, even as he summons his Stand.  This is not the time to be a smartass.
          Severin chuckles weakly.  His breath sounds wet and uneven.
          “Dad knows what he’s doing.”  Josephine waves from where she’s propped herself up against some crates, while the guy traveling with Grandpa Pompadour looks like he’s trying to figure out who needs to be punched.
          Buffy nods at Josuke, crossing her arms to show him he’s going to have to be pretty convincing.
          “Great.  So, I’m a police officer.  I deal with all kinds of people, especially given, well, Josie’s mentioned some stuff about Sunnydale and how she felt right at home.  Morioh’s home to a bunch of weirdness, too.”  Maybe Old Buffy could think about retiring there.  Some places just know how to make a gal feel welcome.  To be fair, she has no idea what this has to do with Severin.  “I’ve dealt with real scum of the earth types, ones who’ll hurt other people and never feel bad about it.  Some people would never do anything bad, while others just get trapped by their circumstances or can’t think of another way out.  Some people are scared of the consequences, but don’t think about morality, so they’ll act if they think they won’t get caught.  Some people do bad things thinking they’re doing good.  With my years of experience, I’ve gotten pretty good at reading at least a little bit of who’s who.”  He shrugs.  “It’s not like it’s a power I’ve got or anything.  But I’m pretty sure he’s not the first type of offender.  He seems off, kind of like how Josie felt when I found her.  It’s not the same, but he doesn’t seem like his normal self either.  So I was wondering if you had the same impression.”  He sighs.  “I’d be lying if I didn’t add that I didn’t want to see anyone die for no reason.”
          Buffy thinks about it, all the inconsistencies she’d seen.  It’s not like she’s not up against a deadline here, either, in the fullest sense of the word, so she can’t really deliberate on this for as long as she’d like.  If she takes too long, Severin’s going to be dead, and while the Siphon is no loss, she’s curious about Josuke’s instincts and her own.  That coughing fit did not sound good, and the fact that he’s going quiet also probably isn’t a good sign.  She glances over at the guy with the scarred face she’d seen fighting with Josuke.  She’d noticed him during the whole fight with the Georgia-demons, or whatever they were.  She’s not sure exactly how his Stand works, but she saw him erase parts of the demon.  And concrete.  And the fence.  It might just be enough to deal with Severin, even powered up.  “If he tries anything, you’re on it, right?”
          The guy looks relieved that she’s given him a straightforward plan to follow.  “Long as he’s not faster I can scrape him outta here, one piece at a time.  So just let the dumbass try to attack us.”
          Josuke smiles, wide and proud, and summons his rather pink Stand, who kneels and holds a hand over Severin’s chest.
          Tiger-pants (bold choice) with a gun holstered in his pants (bolder choice, if maybe stupid) speaks up from where he’s watching.  “I can fill him with lead.  From what you’re saying that’s not probably going to take care of him, but it’ll at least slow the bastard down, right?”  She’d been trying not to think about it, but one of the visions she’d seen had a gun be useful, so maybe.  And bees.  A bee-loaded gun.  That wasn’t in the vision.  She’s going to try to ignore the choice of weaponry given that he’s part of the cavalry and is sounding and trying to be (ha) helpful, even though guns never get anyone anywhere good. 
          “Shizuka, you’ve still got the sword,” she instructs her still-invisible and probably still-panicking new ally as she pulls the crossbow out of her bag and calmly loads it.  Given that his regeneration speed had slowed, sheer damage could get him running on empty, and numbers could help as long as they don’t all get within grabbing range.  She’s pretty sure that’s how the ISWC kept dying, in her nightmares.  In her visions.  Getting too close.  “If it starts hurting like he’s draining your power, get away from him.”  She hesitates for a second, but quickly decides there’s no good way to refer to him.  She can’t pronounce his last name, just calling him Josuke is weird, and Mr. Josuke makes her feel like a kid.  Wait, no, Officer Josuke.  Actual adults use that kind of address, right?  Next time.  “It’ll be pretty obvious, because it’ll be the worst pain you’ve ever felt.  If you look like you’re in pain but don’t look like you’re able to get away, I’ll pull you off and, uh—” oh, yeah, his name is actually kind of easy, because it kind of sounds like okay yes—“Okuyasu?  You’ll just use your Stand.”
          The others nod, and she allows herself to be tentatively hopeful about her leadership track record when Severin stirs, and—huh.  His hair is changing to blond.  That’s a twist she didn’t see coming.  Hopefully whatever else is in store won’t catch them by surprise.