Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion Chapter 37

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The former Slayer has had enough and escalates the fight.
Word Count: 1,168
Rating: K
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS.  READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

 

            The thing’s silent as it swoops, dark and swift like a bird of prey despite its massive size.  Somehow it avoids the green strands as it claws through Buffy’s arm bandage, knocking her on her back.  Instantly she’s covered in a suffocating beast, both physically and with smell.  However human this Slayer might have been, she is no longer.  Buffy fights through the haze of pain.

            There’s a roar of anger, and something else heavy barrels into the monster on her.  The weight largely lifts, but there’s also a grunt of pain that is, well, very concerning.  Buffy glances up only to see the stingray-like tail stuck in the man’s torso, reddish liquid seeping out from the sides.  The eyes are pained but still strangely clear, and with effort the Tarzan appears again with a whispered, “Star Platinum,” and begins hitting at the tail.  It’s definitely not as strong as before.

            The yelled incantation Buffy recognizes.  Well, not the incantation so much, as magic isn’t her thing.  It’s Willow’s voice, though, and suddenly the monster is being slammed back and then held stationary in the air, just like the man (who looks ready to collapse.  The green eyes are a little pained and maybe even panicked, as the man tries to lift his hand and can’t, but Buffy shakes her head.

            The eyes widen slightly as the wound starts healing seemingly all of its own, but the Slayer heard the second spell and knows its source.  It’s only when the spell finishes that both the man and the monster are let go, and it falls with a loud crash.

            There’s a loud whoop, and Buffy instantly recognizes it.  It’s Josephine.  “Wow, cous!  I knew you’d bring a party!”

            She glances over to see that the Joestar standing alongside a distressed Willow, and somehow manages a smile and a thumbs-up.  Despite her words, Josephine looks relieved that the guy who’d just been impaled was moving again.

            “I thought I told you to stop calling me that,” her rescuer mutters under his breath.  Somehow Josephine hears him, or, more realistically, it’s an argument they’ve had for forever.  “Well, it’s the correct term.  You’re just mad that you’re Dad’s nephew, aren’t you?”  It’s teasing.  Buffy remembers doing the same to Dawn, or, more often, the other way around.  Still, these two look about the same age, but then, nobody’d properly explained the ‘I’m actually forty years old’ thing yet, so maybe there was a big age difference, after all.

            The man only pulls a hat lower over his eyes.  “Yare yare.”  He ignores the stain on the front of his shirt, though the man with…bright pink hair over there looks a little concerned.

            “How are we going to beat this monster?”

            With lumbering, painful movements, the monster rises and flaps into the air, the awful sound of creaking bones and ripping flesh filling the air.  It’s hurt, yes, but it’s impossible to guess how much longer it’ll last without collapsing, and, well, if it’s a fight of endurance and it can beat them they had better change those circumstances quick.

            “Usually, Giles is the one that researches a new Big Bad so we know how to beat it up.  It's pretty fast for a really, really heavy thing, though, and I don’t think it’ll let us get away fast enough to come back later when we’re actually ready to fight it.”  To her annoyance, she’s still a little breathless.  Going by Slayer healing, she was just about ready to take the sling off, and then the giant bat thing had to go and mess it up again.  She just can’t catch a break.

            This time, she’s not the only one to catch the small glimpse of pride in the man’s eyes, and the guy with the pink hair (that has to be a dye job…doesn’t it?) gives the rescuer with a hat an odd look.

            Josephine stretches, unconcerned, easily standing in a position that has to hurt.  Well.  Buffy assumes that the body isn’t actually supposed to work like that.  It looks like it would hurt, and even if Josephine is as strong as a Slayer is if not more so, it still looks painful.  “You guys remember the extraction of Mercia, in Russia?”

            “Of course,” the pink-haired guy breathes out quietly, a smile appearing on his face that does not bode well for the thing they’re facing.  Buffy hopes.  “My Stand is particularly suited to that purpose.”  He turns to She Who Slays the Vampires, who’s currently confused, and explains, “A Stand is the power I used.  I assume you’ll awaken to yours shortly.” 

            (Nobody had mentioned anything about that, but then again, no one had mentioned that ages and ages ago a cabal of powerful men stuffed the power of a demon into the soul of a girl, forced that part to be reborn and reborn again, and left the fate of scared girls who had no idea that one day their entire world would completely be turned on its head in the hands of yet another jerkish cabal of powerful men.  Somehow, the important facts of life often went unsaid.  Buffy would raise some kind of picket march but since that sort of protest was yet another fact of life, it probably should remain unsaid, too.)  The sudden, slight frown on the taller man’s face tells her that something is wrong with the explanation, but Mr. Green-Eyed Stoic doesn’t seem the type to talk much, so he doesn’t.

            “In any case, I don’t believe we can count on reinforcements from the Foundation, especially as a certain someone got bored waiting in the hotel room for another call and decided that taking a stroll in dangerous areas was a good idea.”

            “Yare yare daze,” was the man’s only response.

            “My Stand is particularly suited to ranged combat, especially when trying to follow through with Josephine’s plan.  I will be vulnerable during this time, so it would be useful if the three of you would help defend me.  Jotaro I know, but I’m afraid I didn’t catch the names of you ladies.”  There’s a glare from Jotaro, but it’s hard to tell whether that’s a fairly normal state of things or whether it’s new.

            Willow’s still trembling a little, which Buffy’s going to have to address before they can pull this off.  In the meantime, though, it would be rude to leave the man hanging, flirtatious though he might be.  “I’m Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.  That’s Willow.”

            “H-hi.  I don’t have a really cool sounding title,” Willow mumbles, and brightens up slightly.  “That doesn’t mean Andrew and I aren’t working on one.  I’m a witch.”  The way she says that, there’s no fear or doubt, which Buffy can say from experience is a good one.  Fearing your powers isn’t any better than getting arrogant with them.

            “I can say I’ve never met a witch or a vampire slayer before,” the man states with a smile.  “I’m Kakyoin.  Now, shall we?”