Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion Chapter 201

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Navigation is difficult.
Word Count: 1042
Rating: Teen (Buffy|Jojo's level violence)
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS

         It goes better if Jojo closes his eye, even if it probably looks stupid and he runs into a few fences, posts, and….well, it stops when he feels a hand on his arm, carefully guiding him.  Letting him wander ahead until just before he’d walk into something and then gently steer him around it.  Maybe Fitz would claim he’d just let Xander run into things, but a lot of that’s bluster.  The most honest he’d been was the brief moment they’d talked about love lost.  He hadn’t been honest with himself or his feelings, let alone out loud, because it was too painful.  Covering it up with British snark instead.
         It might be a little dangerous, to be fair.  He’s basically walking blind through a zombie-infested area, and by doing this, the blond’s having to fight them one-handed, if he’s fighting them at all.  He probably has to be, right?  They’d ticked off Miss Murder, who as far as the one-eyed man could see had practically ordered them dead.  Sure, they’d lost the first crowd somewhere along the way, before Johan had come to an unorthodox solution to the problem of how difficult it was to navigate the present with memories from the past.  Running around at random is pretty good at losing pursuit, but also gets them hopelessly lost, and running around at random is the best he can do with an eye open, staring at the world as it has become.  But others had to have noticed them and attacked, right?  It’s not like they’re completely invisible or anything, and even the zombies a little too dead to talk aren’t completely oblivious.  It’s hard to tell, because he can sense Speedwagon and vaguely sense all the other civilians and can’t sense any of the zombies.  Sure, he’s got Pretender out to smack any that get too close, and Fitz has his water gun, though he has to be getting low.  He’ll hear something sometimes, a shout of Tora! or what sounds like a spray of water, but concentrating on the sense that vaguely tells him he’s going the right way is particularly difficult even when he’s not getting distracted by intrusive thoughts or the sounds of battle…
         “Careful on the stairs,” Fitz says quietly.  The first thing he’s said since their conversation about the plan.  At least, as far as Johan knows.  Maybe he’d been babbling like Willow, as out of character as that would be, the whole time, and Xander wouldn’t have noticed because he’s tuning out the modern world.
         “You haven’t asked me why I’m doing this or lectured me about how dangerous this is or anything.”  Buffy would’ve gone along with it, but she definitely would have some words to say.  …No, that’s actually wrong.  She’d hand him over to Willow, for a combined lecture and Resolve Face.  Somewhere along the way, she seemed to have realized that he considered Best Friend Since Kindergarten more intimidating than Slayer Prime, because his brain is wired weird.
         “You would’ve done it anyway.”  The blond’s resigned, amused, fond.  “I could waste my breath questioning you, and you wouldn’t even have responded this time.  If I can’t stop you from your reckless plans, at least I can stop the hero from braining himself while navigating.”
         The surprise makes him open his eyes, just in time to see Pretender punch another zombie with—hang on, is that Hamon?  His Stand turns around and raises an eyebrow before diving back into the fray.
         “I think my Stand has you covered on the sassy front, anyway.”  He’d learned some of Sendo from his Stand, so it makes sense Pretender would be able to use it too.  Kind of.  To be fair, the last things they’d been fighting like this were statues unaffected by Hamon, or Pretender would probably have pulled that party trick out earlier.
         “Were you getting a headache?” Fitz asks, and that’s actually curiosity in his tone—but then, it’s not like he’d been feigning his interest in books or history.  In fact, it was probably the only thing he’d really had any enthusiasm about at all for years.
         “Yeah.  It was fine just looking at the town as new, but when I tried to see how it used to look on top of it…”  The weird thing was that it kinda worked.  He’d seen kind of a ghostly overlay with different building outlines and everything, but concentrating on that too much made him essentially as blind to the modern day fences as just closing his eye, and he couldn’t take it for too long because it hurt.  It’s not like he’s a stranger to pain, but he’d also been listening to his instincts (though honestly that might’ve just been Pretender, all this time) to keep himself mostly in one piece in Sunnydale, and they’d screamed at him to stop.
         “Like pushing yourself to turn into some kind of eldritch abomination?”  This probably isn’t the best place to rest, but taking a moment to concentrate on his breathing isn’t a bad idea.  Though, honestly, he might not get all that much rest, if they’re getting into that now.
         “That headache was worse,” he admits, and, again, has he mentioned his life is weird?  Because it is.  “But yeah, it feels similar, now that you mention it.  Like it’s more metaphysical than physical.”
         “You really like to conceal the fact you have a larger vocabulary, don’t you?”  Yeah, fine, neither of them are living their most authentic selves.  He’ll work on it.  Maybe.
         “Hey, just because I’ve read them doesn’t mean I need to use them!  I get my point across just fine!”  And this really isn’t the time to be arguing about that, huh?  He’s just sounding defensive anyway.    So some powers are a stretch for him to use, even with Pretender, and it’s not just the Lovecraftian connection.  Still, he can focus on what he can do with his powers, rather than the limitations.  He closes his eye, concentrates, and—there’s the feeling he’d been following, stronger now that he’s concentrating on his breathing. “We’re getting close.”
         And then, there’s a scream.  Because of course there is.  He exchanges a glance with the blond before they’re both running in that direction.