Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion Chapter 384

[madimpossibledreamer]

We have reached another cowritten section of the story.

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: This bookstore is a whole hell of a lot more ominous than the last one.  The war god doesn't help.
Word Count: 1253
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS

        Johan doesn’t know everything about his mom, especially not from the outside. What he does know is stolen moments granted to him through Pretender and his dreams, letting him have some of her memories like they’re his to have. But what he does know is that she’s not a liar. And she wouldn’t deliberately cover up the truth, either. When she runs off and tries to do stuff on her own, she owns up to it. She doesn’t just deny it’s happening. But Darling wouldn’t lie about this, either, and he gets the feeling that if he asked Buluc Chabtan and the god was inclined to answer his question, never mind answering it honestly, he’d back Darling up. Those two arrived together, which, separately, is weird, because he can’t think of anyone that would have let the teenager go with the war god that, sure, respects her, but in the way that ‘respect’ demands further fights until someone’s dead. He might have postponed that, but he’s long-lived and can afford to wait. Josephine didn’t arrive with them, but she remembers it like she had. Whether the man behind the counter had any involvement with Sarde and Rush had been an open question, but Xander knows the answer now. They’re in danger.
        He starts taking out his cell phone surreptitiously to try to text Willow and ask her how the coordination for all of this went, whether Josie had been sent with the other two, but the man interrupts his...it’d be generous to call it a conversation, with Buluc Chabtan. “No cell phones in this establishment, sir. If you want to make a call, I’ll have to ask you to make it outside.” 
        That’s...unnerving, too. He hadn’t even been looking, so his peripheral vision has to be pretty good, and the feeling of danger is definitely intensifying, but Johan can tell, from the way Jotaro is looking so casual and wanders over to one of the bookshelves, that he’s not the only one who caught on that something is wrong. Kakyoin is acting just as casual, wandering over to the chess set in the back to take over from Darling, and that’s just as planned, too. He’s using being behind the man as an excuse to try to surreptitiously use Hierophant to probe for traps, as well as checking whether Josie’s okay. It’s probably be completely fine to step outside, but it feels like a trap, like it’s what the owner wants him to do. Whatever happened to Josie happened when she was on her own, so splitting up is exactly the wrong thing to do.
        Instead, he wanders to the back, grabbing a chair to sit in by the chess match. He sits in it backwards, because if the bloke really does have eyes in the back of his head, that’s just the sort of move that would get further scolding unless he’s trying not to give the entire game away. He also ignores his mum playfully complaining about the extra audience messing with her concentration, because his being here is just an excuse, anyway, though he does kinda wish she wouldn’t draw attention to it. There’s no help for it, though. They haven’t worked out a complicated series of hand gestures to communicate his intention nonverbally.
        At this point, the owner would have to have noticed that this was mainly just chosen to have somewhere behind the man to look at him and maybe eavesdrop on his conversation with the Xibalban, but he’s too focused on the giant looming over him—and to be fair, Johan would want to keep an eye on the unhinged god of war constantly seeking a better fight, too. That kinda stuff has generally not proven itself to be good for business.
        The man adjusts his glasses, his blue eyes a bit unsteady behind the round spectacles as he looks at Buluc Chabtan. “I have nothing to tell you on the whereabouts of previous customers, no matter how you threaten me! Your approach might work on others, but some of us work on principles.” The straightening of the old monitor identical to Miss Calendar’s computer lab equipment is probably supposed to emphasize that, somehow, but it also draws attention to the cash register. And of course none of it fazes the god, anyway. He’d probably take it as some kind of insult, the implication that anything but violence and intimidation could possibly be used to fix a problem.
        Johan’s eye meets Jotaro’s gaze. That’s the sort of language that calls for a bribe, and no doubt Jotaro caught that, too. But then, by the way Jotaro abruptly closes the book, jamming it back into the shelves in a move that looks a lot more forceful and angry than it is and adjusts the hat, he wants to discuss something with someone, something that Johan could only have caught because he’s been in Jotaro’s head. Well, no, maybe Kakyoin had a chance from long acquaintanceship, but he’s too busy with his own investigation. Johan had just gotten here, but sure, the situation has him feeling kinda restless. This time, both Buluc Chabtan and the owner purposefully ignore him when he obnoxiously scrapes the chair across the floor as he stands up and puts it back.
        “He and I ran together, you understand. We had some fun.” Buluc Chabtan leans over the table, staring intently at the man. “You’re going to tell me sooner or later.”
        He’s apparently not pressing the issue at the moment, though. He smirks in Darling’s direction, to which she carefully doesn’t react, which is...okay, Xander doesn’t have the experience to tell if that’s the right or exactly wrong reaction. Him losing interest could mean leaving her alone forever or just trying to offhandedly kill her off when he bores her. Xander’s met enough big bads over the years that that could go either way. He does seem the type to think the strong travel in flocks, though, so by virtue of being her friends, even the ones he hasn’t met are possibly interesting fights, which is why he just generally turns his smirk on all of them. And sure, just because Johan could probably make it through the encounter without just dying, he really doesn’t feel like it, hence the involuntary grimace. Fights for no reason are, as the words would indicate, pointless, and plus they’ve already got too many problems to go around without adding another.
        Buluc Chabtan shoves his way past Johan, glancing at Jotaro and nodding before he heads out. And Johan shuffles his way a little closer to Jotaro, realizing only at the searching glance that he’s acting like his grandfather, huh.
        “He, uh. Maybe it’s a good thing he’s gone. I don’t think we were getting answers with him around, right?” Johan suggests quietly.
        Jotaro’s expression doesn’t change, which is the point at which Xander knows he’s screwed up, and swallows. Okay, yeah, so Jotaro’s not angry at him, which is if anything worse. “He could have been useful if things go wrong.” Maybe like his slightly baffled attitude toward Rohan. And...Johan hadn’t even thought about the fact that their names are a letter apart. This is gonna bug him now, isn’t it? “I’m more worried about the bookseller.” And if Jotaro is worried...yikes. Johan had been hoping his mind had been a little hyperactive with the worry, even knowing that that’s more a Sunnydale Syndrome kind of thought and there’s no way whatever happened with Josie was normal.