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achtung-attitude · 5 months

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CHAPTER 85: Throw Your Arms Around the World

A chilly wind blows through the muggy, smog-choked sky over Los Angeles, painted gray by thick silver clouds rolling in. Fall is coming.

Shizuka leans against a tree in Calvary Cemetery, a few yards away from a headstone that reads: ‘KILO STAPLES. Beloved Friend. A good man.’ A few rows down, stands the stone reading ‘MOYA PEZZENTE. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’

Six days have passed since the fight on Mulholland Drive. T’onga awaits her trial in a small penitentiary. Shizuka has not gone to visit her, due to the contents of the letter smuggled into her blazer when she was being ‘held hostage’. While under medical care, she read the letter countless times. Now, against the tree in Calvary Cemetery, she reads it again.

This is the way it must be. The police could not know they were related. For all they knew, T’onga was no more than knife-wielding maniac, and Shizuka the innocent hostage she had threatened. This is what T’onga herself wanted. Shziuka knows this, but still hates it. For the hundredth time, she reads her mother’s small writing.

A̶e̶-̶j̶e̶o̶n̶g̶

M̶y̶ ̶d̶e̶a̶r̶e̶s̶t̶ ̶A̶e̶-̶j̶e̶o̶n̶

D̶e̶a̶r̶ ̶A̶e̶

Shizuka

First off, sorry for springing this on you. I already know. ae-jeong is just the name i gave you. doesn’t mean it's the one you want. If you don’t want it, discard it. live how you want.

While I'm at it, sore REALLY SORRY about what i’m about to do. holding you hostage, I mean. it has to look real for the cops, so can’t tell you (should have apologized for that first. sorry)

As for why, i already told you i don't want you to live the same way i did. thats why All-kill had to die. That's why i have to do what I'm gonna do. without this show, the two of us will be nothing but a pair of creeps looting the ruins. But with this, you’re just an innocent bystander. This way, you can still have a future. I wont take that away from you.

But again, I already know what this will seem like. Another abandonment. for real this time. no excuses.

This’ll sound like a bad joke, but I have faith in the justice system. They can’t prove I killed anyone, but can pin me with threatening with a deadly weapon. That’s a life sentence. But with a decent lawyer and some money I have saved up, I can bump that down to at least 14 years.

I'll serve that time quietly. Eventually they’ll let me out. early, if I'm very well behaved. Then if you’ll have me, I will come back to you.

I want to see Upstate. the Finger Lakes.

This is NOT goodbye.

Your loving mother,

Kim T’onga

PS. i almost forgot. Kim is spelled 김, but if you prefer, you can go with Yeoh: 영. Your choice.

At the final line, Shizuka softly smiles. She folds the paper until it's small enough to once again be stowed away in her blazer, alongside the silver disc. The disc of LONELY BOY and SATURN BARZ, and whatever else came before. Sensing someone approach, she looks to see Jerome approaching her.

“You OK, girl?” he asks.

“I’m fine,” is her answer as she stands. “What about you?”

“Me? Ay, don’t worry ‘bout me…” The rapper looks sombrely towards the graves. “It’s good. He woulda liked it this way. Buried next to Moya… He never woulda let on, but I think they was best friends…”

With a frown, Shizuka exclaims, “Eh?”

Jerome responds in kind. “Eh?”

“...What do you mean?”

“...What you mean ‘what do I mean?’”

The girl cocks her head, fixing the rapper with her gaze. “You were Kilo’s best friend. Duh.”

“Me…?” Jerome exclaims. “Me, huh…? Nah… I don’t think so. But fuck it… I was close enough. That’s good enough for me.” He smiles at her, and she smiles back at him. “You got your ticket?”

Producing a plane ticket from her blazer pocket, Shizuka answers, “All booked. It’s time I went home. Vacations are lots of fun, but… they have to end sometime.”

Nodding, the rapper offers, “Sure you don’t want a ride or nothin’? I can hook you up. Shit, I’d take you myself.”

“Jerome, you’ve already done so much for me. I feel so lucky to have met you. You don’t need to do anything more, the Speedwagon Foundation is sending someone to pick me up.”

“Pleasure was all mine! Oh… Uh, speaking of the Speedwagon Foundation… Would you mind keepin’ a secret for me? Thing is, I… I been keepin’ a record of’ all this. Like, in journals and stuff…”

Shizuka is surprised. “Oh, wow. Really?”

“Yeah… But, like, not for anything bad! I ain’t tryin’ get no one in trouble, I just… Just, can you imagine the type o’ music I can with this kind of material?! It’ll be off the chain! A secret supernatural war in the heart of LA! Shiet, it’ll be my best ever! Like, fuck Platinum, I bet I could reach Diamond! 10 million units! It… It’d be a bummer to have it seized, you know…”

Shizuka laughs, wearing a mischievous grin. “Hahaha~! I’ll consider it… but you gotta make me a promise: the MOMENT the album’s finished, I want a copy. I wanna be the first girl in America to hear it.”

C-King’s gold teeth flash. “Was gonna do that anyway. Anything for my number one fan.”

A shiny black car pulls up on the nearby path as the pair embrace. “Don’t forget about me when you get back home,” whispers Jerome.

Shizuka answers, “I’ll never forget you. I’ll never forget any of this.”

Two men in suits emerge from the car and approach them. They present cards bearing the stamp of the Speedwagon Foundation, at which Shizuka nods and follows them to their car. Leaning out of the door frame, she beams a gleaming smile at Jerome and waves eagerly. He waves right back, with as much vigor. They continue waving even as the car pulls away, Shizuka leaning out of the backseat window until she finally loses sight of him.

Slipping back inside the vehicle, she places her hand over heart, feeling the outline of T’onga’s letter in her inner pocket with a small smile. Grinning deeper, she then touches the spot where the Stand disc is not.

In the cemetery, Jerome Adetokunbo, known to the world as C-King, abruptly notices the feeling of something round and flat in his front hoodie pouch. Reaching inside, he grins to discover the silver Stand disc in his hand. “When’d she do it?” he wonders. “When we was huggin’...? Damn…”

Glancing around, he stows the disc back away and strolls toward the cemetery exit. Back to LA. His city. He hums under his breath, and there’s a spring in his step. Autumn wind brings blessed relief to the sun-baked town.

The Speedwagon agents’ car bypasses the constant traffic on the main highway, instead rolling smoothly down the streets of East LA. On its way, they pass by a dilapidated old building, graffiti covering the sign over the double doors that reads “Juarez Boxing and Fitness.”

Leaving East LA, they pass into Lynwood, whereupon they’re stopped by a collision on the freeway, and the delays it causes. Typical Los Angeles. From Lynwood, if you were to look south down Long Beach Blvd. and squint, you can see as far as East Compton.

In the end, it takes them 57 minutes to reach LAX, thanks to further delays at the toll road, up there on the tall suspended freeway writhing over the city streets like giant snakes. From up there, Venice Beach can be seen in the northwest, and Santa Monica beyond that. Head east, you soon find yourself in Beverly Hills. Continue east, and the Hollywood sign shows its face.

In these hills, a general blissful ignorance lives among the people, attempting to fill their days with as much excitement and purpose as possible. Every so often, they look downward to see the sweepings of the street, and every so often, they leave behind a token of charity. A single dollar for an old man. If only for the sake of soothing a guilty conscience. Yet a dollar is a dollar.

It takes another thirty minutes before Shizuka is finally on a plane. The captain mumbles some incoherent message, and the aircraft rumbles up the runway. Soon, it soars into the air and banks left. Shizuka gazes out of the window and sees the metropolis laid out before her. Her gaze lingers on the great, dirty city, until she smiles and settles into her seat.

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #achtung attitude #shizuka joestar #kilo staples #t'onga kim #moya pezzente #c-king #trish una #ch85

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achtung-attitude · 5 months

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The Patriarch

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #joseph joestar #hermit purple

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achtung-attitude · 6 months

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A middle-aged man in black looks around himself and sees that he is alone. “What is… What is this place…?” Looking down, he finds in place of a right hand there is only a stump, from which a haze of black smoke emanates. “What… Who am I?” he mutters. “What amI doing here?”

He looks around again, more frantically now. Nothing of use is in sight, so he begins to walk through his strange surroundings. Huge silver fronds, like plant stems without blossoms, sprout from the otherwise flat ground. The ground too is a dull, reflective silver, as if coated in chrome paint.

The fronds together form a towering forest the man in black must wander blindly through. He cries out, but his voice is smothered by the ‘trees’. It’s clear that no one is around to answer anyway. There is no wind. No sound, other than what the lone inhabitant makes.

Finally, the man in black comes upon an enormous semi-circular mound, its zenith almost as tall as the fronds. “If I can climb that… I can see where I’m going…!” he resolves. His first attempt to scale the mound fails, as the surface is sheer and smooth. His second attempt, featuring a running jump, also fails, resulting in him falling on his backside.

Anger surfaces within him, and with it comes power. Instinctively, he raises his hand and senses the particles pinballing between his fingertips. He exerts his will and the particles freeze in place. An invisible disc of solid air forms. Cautiously, he climbs onto the platform and finds it as sturdy as solid ground. In this way, he reaches the top of the mound, ascending a staircase of platforms.

Another person sits atop the mound. A dark-skinned young man in a crop shirt and baggy jeans. A wreath of white smoke rises from his right side. He sits cross-legged, facing away from the man in black. At his approach, the smoking man turns. “So you finally made it,” he remarks.

“You…! I know you!” exclaims the man in black, “I’ve seen you… somewhere before!”

“Don’t try to force it. It’ll come back eventually,” the smoking man says, then gestures to himself. “While we here, we might as well introduce ourselves. I’m Saturn. And you?”

“I… I don’t…” the man in black stammers, but he pauses, his demeanor relaxing somewhat. “...L-Lonely Boy. My name is… Lonely Boy.”

Saturn grins. “I guess it would be… OK. Now that’s out of the way, let’s get started.” The smoking man stands, and as he rises, a monster rises with him. A monster in skeletal armor that strides over to Lonely Boy, who stands in shock, and shoves him off the edge of the mound. The man in black’s shock is so great, he doesn’t even scream as he plummets to the ground.

He hits the ground with a harsh thud, groaning from the pain, but Lonely Boy can tell he’s somehow undamaged. Rolling to his hands and knees, he senses a light tremor and looks to see Saturn has leapt off the mound to ground level before him. “Wh-Why did you do that?!” Lonely Boy demands, outraged.

Saturn responds, “You wouldn’t be asking if you had your memories back.” With a swipe of its clawed hand, Saturn’s monster hurls a wave of white steam, roaring “URAAAH!!!”

Lonely Boy leaps away before the steam envelopes him, but the monster pursues, forcing him to dive out of the way. Its talons sail over his head and tears gashes in the trunk of a nearby stem. The man in black stares as the thick leaf melts away, causing it to collapse to the ground. Again, Lonely Boy rushes to evade, but though he avoids being crushed, the shockwave of its impact sends him reeling. He has little time to recover before Saturn melts his way through the fallen trunk and presses his assault.

Lonely Boy defends with his own power, and holds his own, as if tapping into decades of experience. But his thoughts are in discord. “Why is this happening…?!” he thinks, just as Saturn’s monster deliberately melts through another giant stem. There is no time to evade. In terror, Lonely Boy thinks, “I’m going to be crushed! I’m going to be killed again!!” He shudders. “Killed… Again?”

Emotion rushes through the man in black. His hand lifts, and another hand lifts with it. One not his own, but also entirely his own. Just before the frond falls on top of him, it freezes in place, as if paused by a TV remote. Lonely Boy turns slowly, a monster of his own at his back.

“There you are, finally…” Saturn says, watching the man in black step out to face him.

“I remember now… I remember being killed by that Joestar brat. If that’s how it is, then this can only be Hell. But still… I remember who I am now!! I am All-Kill!!! And you… You’re Kilo Staples! I remember you too! The one who killed Sang-ok!”

The man called Saturn stares at him for a beat. “...That’s not exactly right.”

Lonely Boy frowns. “What do you mean?”

“You’re not All-Kill. He’s dead,” the smoking man declares, his arms crossed. “And I’m not really Kilo Staples either. He’s dead too. Both of those men have departed to wherever. You and I are what’s left of ‘em on Earth.”

“I don’t get what you’re saying…”

“When Kilo got the Stand disc, the energy in that disc became SATURN BARZ. When he died and All-Kill took the disc for himself, the power changed into LONELY BOY. Basically… the power in the disc manifested differently according to each user. And… when it did so, fragments of each man’s souls were recorded on the disc itself. In other words… you and I are the scraps of two dead men’s souls.”

The man in black scowls. “So, then…”

“So-” Saturn interrupts, “If there is an afterlife, like a Hell or a Heaven, that’s where the real Kilo Staples and All-Kill are.”

“I don’t accept that…” Lonely Boy asserts. “Even if I did, if I’m all that’s left, then that just means I inherit the original’s will. I am Ganmyeol Seo! I am All-Kill!

With a shrug, Saturn sighs. “Whatever you want, man. It’s just a crack theory. But if I’m right, we got a long eternity ahead of us.”

“What are you saying?”

The smoking man thinks before speaking again. “I don’t really believe in Hell… but if you’re right and this is it, then I figure we’re here together for a reason. Let’s be real: bringing monsters like SATURN BARZ and LONELY BOY into the world isn’t something virtuous men do. So here’s what I think…” A malicious grin spreads across Saturn’s face. “I think, maybe… if we’re stuck here forever, we’re supposed to be each other’s punishment and tear each other apart. What do you think?”

Lonely Boy stares. His monster hovers behind him. “What do I think…?” he says, shifting his stance. “I think if you wanna give it a try, you’re welcome to.”

Saturn’s grin widens as steam builds in his monster’s hands. If viewed through a powerful microscope, perhaps they could be seen, two half-men battling in a freak landscape: the surface of the Stand disc itself.

END of CHAPTER 84

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #achtung attitude #kilo staples #all-kill #saturn barz #lonely boy #ch84

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achtung-attitude · 6 months

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The Heart of Morioh

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #achtung attitude #josuke higashikata #crazy diamond

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achtung-attitude · 6 months

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T’onga’s hand clamps roughly over her mouth and she holds the blade of the pearl-handled knife to Shizuka’s throat. “NOBODY FUCKING MOVE!!!” she screeches with such ferocity that it stops the cops in their tracks. “Don’t come here or I’ll cut this little bitch open!!”

The policemen exchange startled glances, maintaining a safe distance with their guns trained on their unhinged target. One of them, a sergeant, raises a hand. “Hey! Just calm down! Don’t do anything crazy!” he chides.

“SHUT UP!!! FUCK YOU!!! GET AWAY FROM ME!!” T’onga roars, “I’m walking out of here or I swear to God, you’ll live with this girl’s BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS!!!”

The sergeant orders his officers to keep their distance, then turns his attention to T’onga again. “C’mon, just listen to me! We’re here to help!! We got calls about a house collapsing, we just wanna know if you’re OK!!!”

Shizuka’s mother waves her knife erratically in the sergeant’s direction. “I don’t give a SHIT!! I'm just here to loot the place!! Now back up, you fucking pig bastard, or she gets it!!”

Things go back and forth in this way for a while. Shizuka’s eyes dart around in every direction, between the policemen slowly but surely surrounding them, to the hand over her mouth, to the wildly swinging knife. To the sideways glimpse of her mother’s desperate face, just beyond the crook of the elbow holding her head in place.

Everyone is shouting. It becomes a dull ringing in her ears. Her heart pounds hard enough to hurt.

Suddenly, a car backfired and she jumped out of her skin. Shizuka then notices smoke emanating from one of the firearms trained on them, then further notices that nothing is gripping her face anymore. She turns to see her mother collapsing with a dull clatter into the rubble. A bullet hole is in her shoulder. Flecks of blood speckle Shizuka’s face. She dabs at it absently.

T’onga groans, still alive. Relief swells in Shizuka, but then the cops descend upon them. One pulls her away, the rest converge on T’onga and slap handcuffs on her.

Someone was talking to her. Telling her everything would be alright now. She’s safe now. She didn’t listen. She watched her mother being hauled away by the police, literally carrying by her wrists and ankles out of the ruined mansion towards their squad cars.

She would live. In spite of her injuries, T’onga was strong enough to survive. Long enough to be placed on trial, be found guilty, and be sent to jail for a very long time. Which is exactly what she’d been counting on. Through her seizing panic, Shizuka soberly realized her mother’s intentions.

Shizuka tried to fight. To struggle against the cop’s protective hold. Shouting and screaming wordless cries of anguish. But the battle with All-Kill had taken too much out of her. There was nothing she could do. Nothing at all.

Later, in the back of the ambulance that arrived after the police, its sirens blaring as it tore down Mulholland, the only comfort she can find was the circular outline of the object in her jacket pocket. Even as the EMTs treat her injuries, she reaches to pull it out and gaze at it.

To gaze at Kilo’s Stand disc.

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #achtung attitude #shizuka joestar #t'onga kim #ch84

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achtung-attitude · 6 months

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The Singer and her Stand

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #vento aureo #trish una #spice girl

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achtung-attitude · 6 months

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CHAPTER 84: Achtung Attitude - Part 2

T’onga gasps. The pressure in her bleeding side suddenly lifts and she collapses to her knees. At last released from LONELY BOY’s power, she murmurs, “Ae-jeong… she…” Still clutching her lacerated side, she tries to stem the flow of her blood. Having already lost so much blood, her head is muddled. She stumbles her way through the mansion’s shattered ruin in search of something to help her. As she goes, someone approaches.

T’onga turns at once, weakly manifesting HOUSE OF PAIN to confront them. But rather than a would-be murderer, she lays eyes on Jerome with his hands in the air. “Whoa, whoa, it’s me! Relax!” he exclaims.

The former assassin blinks. “Wha-? C-King?! What the h- What are you doing here?”

“What am I-? I… I came to help. A-after the house came down, I didn’t know what was going on! I saw that All-Kill dude walkin’ on air n’ shit, and… and-!”

“Hey…” T’onga says.

Jerome continues. “W-When I saw him, I… I aimed my piece at him, but he didn’t…! I wasn’t even worth killing, so…!”

“Hey, listen-”

“But I got him in the end, God damn it!! HA!! I hit that motherfucker with a car!!!”

“C-King!!”

The rapper shudders. “W-what? I… I’m sorry, I don’t-”

“It’s cool,” T’onga says, “I’m actually glad to see you.”

“Y-You are…?”

“Yes,” she grunts, sinking painfully down to sit amidst the rubble. “I need you to give me a hand. I’m hurt pretty bad…” she gestures to her wound. “Actually, I’m bleeding out…”

“Oh…” Jerome utters, noticing the blood for the first time, “Oh, yeah, yeah, right! Anything! You name it!”

Shizuka’s mother raises one finger over her head and waves it in a general direction behind her. “All-Kill kept a first-aid kit in a utility room in that-ish area which should still be intact. It has bandages and iodine. Get it for me. And be fast, please, I am dying.”

Jerome goes pale for an instant, but then his features firm with resolve. “You got it!” With that, he runs off.

T’onga releases a deep sigh. Light-headed from blood loss, she busies herself with picking fragments of dust and drywall out of her hair. Abruptly, she feels something cold nip at her nose and looks sharply to the sky. “What the hell…?”

Pale snowflakes fall from the sky, landing on the rubble and dissolving on contact, covering the ruin in glistening dew. With such a strange and beautiful sight, T’onga forgets her pain for a moment.

But only for a moment. It soon returns, a low, rhythmic throbbing accompanying her brooding thoughts. “So little time… So much still to be done…” she thinks. “The only way I can be free of All-Kill’s power is if All-Kill is dead. My daughter must have won. We’re both… free… That should make me happy… but it doesn’t. All that’s left now… is what has to come next.”

Jerome makes his return right then, carrying the first-aid box under his arm. “That was fast,” T’onga remarks.

“I’m quick when I wanna be,” the rapper answers, laying the kit on the ground and handing her a dark brown bottle out of it. Shizuka’s mother grins at the comment, then hisses in pain as she pours the iodine over her wound. Jerome sits next to her, staring at the ground. “I let Kilo die…” he mutters.

“No you didn’t,” says T’onga. “Bandages.”

He hands them to her and continues as she wraps them around herself. “Yeah, I did. I failed him. I failed Shizuka. And Moya. I couldn’t do anything…”

“You broke us out of Sang-ok’s ability. You hit All-Kill with a car. You got me this stuff. You’ve done plenty.”

“Anybody coulda done that shit… The wolf, he took it. He took that disc outta Kilo’s head. Cause o’ that, that All-Kill dude got wack-ass new powers… I ain’t got a Stand o’ my own, but I can put two and two together… When it mattered, I failed…”

T’onga ties the bandages in a knot, winces, then raises her head to look at the rapper. They sit in silence for some time. “...You need to go,” she says. Jerome’s shoulders immediately sink, his chin touching his chest. “Wait, shit, no. Not like that, I mean… Fuck.” Pulling at her face, she explains, “Listen… We have maybe ten minutes before the cops are all over this place. You can’t be here when that happens. Ae-j- I mean, fuckin’ Shizuka would feel bad if you got in trouble over our mess.”

“But… I-”

“I know, I know. What happened to Kilo was awful, but it’s not up to you to take responsibility for. You’ve already helped so much when you didn’t need to. Let me be clear…” Leaning forward, she eyes him severely. “I wouldn’t have done this in your place. I would have stayed home.” Beginning to shakily stand, she concludes, “You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

The former assassin stumbles as she rises, only to be caught by Jerome. He helps her to her feet. “Thanks…”

“Yeah…”

Awkwardly, Jerome steps back. “So, uh… guess I’d better get outta here… Ey, could you pass on a message to Shizuka?”

“No,” is her blunt reply, looking around at the rubble.

“Huh-?!”

“You’ll see her soon enough. Tell her then.”

“Oh, yeah… Right, I guess…” The rapper pauses suddenly, turning to T’onga’s face. “Wait a minute… I gotta split to avoid the cops, but what about you? What’re you gonna do?”

“I’ll think of something. Stop wasting time and-”

“… you gonna abandon Shizuka again?”

The former assassin turns a glowering gaze the rapper’s way, but he doesn’t flinch. He meets her eyes with firm resolve. “No…” she replies. “Never. Never again.”

Jerome stares at her for a long beat, then swiftly turns to leave. “I’ll tell you now, I ain’t gonna forgive you if you make that girl cry again.” He looks back at her, showing his gold teeth in a grin. “You thought yo’ boss was scary? He ain’t got shit on me!”

T’onga’s eyes go wide, almost bulging from their sockets. After several seconds, she releases a dumbfounded “What…?!” The C-King responds with a two-fingered salute, then trots away before she can say anything further. Once he’s gone, she can’t help herself. Despite the pain in her side, T’onga laughs.

***

A little time passes. On the wind, the sirens approach. Quiet now, but before long, they’ll be upon the mansion and T’onga. The former assassin sits and struggles to write on a sheet of paper. She retrieved it from All-Kill’s hard wood desk in his study, still intact despite having a ceiling dropped on it. Every nearby surface is too rough to effectively write on, so she has to write with the sheet in her hand. Her daughter’s voice cries out and she winces.

“Mom! Mom, where are you?!!”

“Over here…!” T’onga calls, standing and waving. Shizuka scrambles over the rubble, nearly tripping and landing on her face before reaching her.

“Mom! Mom, I did it! I beat him! I… I almost… B-But it’s fine now! I’m OK-!”

“OK, OK, good,” her mother says waving her down, “I can tell you won. Looks like things are just about finished…”

Shizuka blinks, cocking her head in confusion. “Uh… Y-Yeah, I guess they are. So, um… the police are coming… Should we do something about that?”

“Probably…”

“Right…” Neither of the women move. The approaching sirens become louder. “Why aren’t we doing anything?”

“I’m too weak to run, is why. It’s taking all the strength I have just to stand.”

Amongst the rubble of the Mulholland mansion, reality sets in. “...Oh,” says Shizuka. “What do we do now…?”

“You should run. Alone,” her mother advises, “Let me work things out with the boys in blue.”

“No,” retorts the girl, sounding almost offended.

“Yeah, I didn’t think you would…” T’onga smirks, a hand on her hip. “You’re stubborn. Just like your dad. And me too, I guess… Turn around for a second.”

Shizuka looks askance at her mother, suspiciously. “Why?”

T’onga gestures with the sheets of paper in her hand. “I’m trying to write, but I can’t without a surface. Lemme use your back.”

“O…Kay…” the girl relents, turning around and moving her hair out of the way. T’onga presses the papers to her back and writes. After a minute, the pressure from the pencil lifts and Shizuka turns to see her mother folding up the paper. On the folded up sheet, she quickly scribbles a set of blocky Asian characters, then hands it to Shizuka.

“There, done!” the former assassin says, seeming satisfied.

“What is-” Shizuka begins, but gets cut off.

“Oh, one more thing: Moya mentioned something about loaning you a knife. You still have it? Give it to me, please.”

Her frown deeper than ever, the girl fishes for the weapon in her jacket and hands it to her mother, then turns her attention back to the letter. Specifically, the Asian characters on the back.

“What the fuck? Is this a pearl handle?!” complains T’onga, inspecting the knife. “Moya, that bitch! She always had nicer things than me!”

“What is this…?” Shizuka asks, bemusedly gesturing to the folded up paper.

The former assassin looks up. “Oh, that. That’s a letter. Read it later. That-” she taps the blocky characters on the back, “Is Korean. It says ae-jeong. It’s a little presumptuous, but it is technically your mother tongue.”

“My mother t- What does this have to do with anything?” Nearby, the sounds of tires rolling over gravel appear. Red and blue lights flash, and soon, figures approach through the rubble.

“Ae-jeong is you.” T’onga declares, extending her hand to poke Shizuka’s forehead. “It’s the name I gave you.”

All sound vanishes. Nothing exists apart from the two of them. The girl’s eyes bulge. “...What?”

“Gangak insisted I come up with it. I just said the first thing that came to mind. It literally means heart, but in context, it means something more like emotion or feeling. I know it’s sudden, so just keep it on you until you get used to it.”

“I… I don’t understa-” Shizuka begins, but again, she’s cut off. T’onga steps closer and strokes her face with her hand.

With a gentle and deeply sad smile, she murmurs, “No matter what happens, never forget that I’m your mother, and I love you more than anything in the world.”

The girl stares, bewildered. Tears spring to her eyes, blurring her vision so she almost doesn't notice the approach of several boot-clad footsteps. Someone shouts at them to not make any sudden moves and she turns to look in surprise. In that momentary distraction, she sees her mother move, but she’s too slow to react.

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #achtung attitude #t'onga kim #c-king #ch84

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achtung-attitude · 6 months

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The Rapper

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #achtung attitude #c-king

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achtung-attitude · 6 months

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With great sadness, Shizuka watches the Stand disc slip out of All-Kill’s skull. Then, in her peripheral vision, something small and white floats down to the ground. More appear around her, and she looks around in amazement.

The following morning, meteorologists at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Oxnard would report a thin blanket of snow that fell over much of the western Los Angeles area, despite it being the middle of August. At the conclusion of their investigations, they would find no explanation for such a bizarre occurrence…

END of CHAPTER 83

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #achtung attitude #shizuka joestar #all-kill #ch83

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achtung-attitude · 6 months

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The Assassin and her Stand

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achtung-attitude · 6 months

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Staggering backward, the girl smiles at the Stand that was once SATURN BARZ. “Goodbye…” she says, then turns and walks away.

“Don't... DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME!!!” All-Kill howls. “YOU LITTLE SHIT!! DON'T YOU FUCKING LEAVE ME HERE!!!! GET BACK HERE!!!! GET BACK HERE SO I CAN KILL YOU!!!! You... YOU... YOU LITTLE BRAT!!!”

Shizuka doesn’t turn around, but tunes out his desperate screams. “I SAID GET BACK HERE, SHIZUKA!!! GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!!! DON'T YOU LEAVE ME HERE!!!!!! GGGGRRRRRAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!”

He screams until there’s no more scream left in him. Gagging on the blood bursting from his throat, he squints through the redness in his eyes and lifts his hand. All-Kill summons all the life he has left to will BLACK KEYS into his hand. For what purpose, even he’s unsure. To somehow kill Shizuka, or to end his own agony.

Like static, BLACK KEYS fades in and out of being in his palm. But, finally, it’s too late. All-Kill feels his heart rupture. He goes limp. Abandoned by even his own Stand, all that remains of Ganmyeol Seo is a burbling death rattle. LONELY BOY fades away, allowing the body to drop.

Away from the cliff, Shizuka stands at the foot of the slope before finally turning back. She does so in time to see what remains of LONELY BOY drifting upwards on the wind. All-Kill lies lifelessly in a pool of blood.

GANMYEOL SEO (ALL-KILL)

STAND: BLACK KEYS: DEAD

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #achtung attitude #all-kill #lonely boy #ch83

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achtung-attitude · 6 months

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The Officer and her Stand

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #achtung attitude #moya pezzente #witch mountain

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achtung-attitude · 6 months

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Not ten minutes had passed since Shizuka and T’onga laid hidden amidst the wreckage of All-Kill’s mansion. Shizuka’s spirits had fallen lower than they had ever been. Her friend was gone, his memory desecrated and corrupted by the man who had stolen his Stand, and was using it to tear the place apart in search of them.

It was then T’onga revealed the truth.

“You and All-Kill were born with your Stands. And you probably know better than I do, a Stand isn’t just some ghost, but a physical manifestation of a person’s will.

“That’s the difference between me and you. Your Stand is yours, since the moment of your birth. But me? And Kilo, and Moya, and the rest? We had to make our Stands our own. Dust gave us the Stands of evil people with powerful wills we had to overcome, otherwise they’d destroy us.

“All-Kill got desperate. That’s where he slipped up. He thinks he can just take SATURN BARZ and make it his own? Hell no. You can’t just take another person’s soul without a fight. It takes time and effort. He’s like an untrained genius swimmer going up against a champion Olympian with years of experience. He might have the talent, but if you put him under pressure, the fool will sink. That’s how we can win. If my plan doesn’t work, that’s the only way we can win. Put him under pressure. Annoy the bastard to death. Shake his resolve to the point his own Stand rejects him.”

Shizuka stared, her eyes adjusting to the darkness of their hiding spot. “There’s… no way to be sure that would work.”

T’onga frowned. Beads of sweat bud on her forehead. “Maybe. Maybe not. But…” Shizuka’s mother paused, unsure of what to say. She glanced out of their hiding spot and saw All-Kill looming overhead, still scouring the wreckage for them. “We owe it to your friend…” she quietly says. “He isn’t gone. He’s up there.”

She jerks her chin up at the madman above. “He took him. All that was left of him and warped him into an ugly parody… For all the wrong that I've done, even I know… evil like that can’t be allowed to pass.”

She turned to her daughter then, forcing an encouraging smile. “You can do this. You can free yourself from that man the way I never could. Do it for Moya, and Kilo. But most of all… For yourself…”

***

These words inspired her, even in her moment of weakness over Kilo’s remains. Every ounce of pain and torment, desperate planning and hasty preparations, all to keep a single step ahead of All-Kill. “You can already do so much awesome stuff with your powers! You can make it rain! Sure, it’s deadly scalding acid, but still. I’m sure you can make it snow!”

“It’s not… It ain’t that simple. I can’t just…” Kilo searched for the words, but ultimately gave up “Ugh, whatever. Yeah, maybe. One day…”

And in the end, her efforts at last bear fruit. Her determination blossoms and she stands to full height. By blood, she is T’onga Kim’s child! By commitment, she is the child of Joseph Joestar! She is Shizuka Joestar! “Hah… hah… Now you’ll say…” she gasps, “Ah, screw it! I’ll just cut to the chase! This whole thing, All-Kill… All of this was part of my plan!”

“You… You damn…!” All-Kill chokes out as Shizuka strikes a triumphant pose, in spite of the radiation sickness wracking her body still.

“I stacked the whole deck!!” she declares.

The man in black rages, doing what he can to pry LONELY BOY’s hand off of his neck. But the Stand does nothing but stare with the blank slate where its eyes should have been. As he squirms, the flesh of his neck begins to bubble. “Ahhhhh… AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!” he howls. Steam the color of flesh emerges from beneath LONELY BOY’s hand, as though the upper layer of All-Kill’s neck was being turned to mist.

“Kilo…” Shizuka mutters, dropping her victory pose.

It only gets worse for All-Kill. His eyes bulge as he feels a rumbling in his body. A dense shuddering that rapidly escalates until his insides as a whole vibrate. Even more blood seeps from his mouth, as well as his eyes, nose and ears. He recognizes the sensation and gags. “GAAAAAAHHH!!! This… This can’t be…! LONELY BOY… It’s… It’s canceling out my… my order… Grraaaghh… H…HOUSE OF PAIN…!!”

Shizuka watches in awe at the culmination of her own plan. Even she had not expected this; betrayed by his own Stand aside, LONELY BOY had further doomed All-Kill by setting loose her mother’s Stand, still active in his body, but made dormant by the shut-down power.

Shizuka watches and her cocky smile slowly fades as All-Kill’s doom is confirmed. The terrifying, unstoppable enemy she faced is no longer here. All that remains is a middle-aged man choking on his own blood. Her hand balls into a shaking fist.

But nothing else follows. She merely exhales, relaxing her hands. With a snap of her fingers, the laser lights disappear. There is no longer anything more to do. She limps past All-Kill towards the destroyed forest.

“What… Where do you… think you’re going?!” he shouts as she passes, but prompts no reaction from her. LONELY BOY’s attention also turns to Shizuka as she moves weakly past. Strands of hair from her head. “You… You’re not going ANYWHERE!!” the man in black shrieks.

LONELY BOY’s free hand blurs, swiping at Shizuka. Both she and All-Kill gasp in surprise at its movement. Shizuka tries to duck away, but it’s too late. It’s hand has taken her arm. She feels BLACK KEYS sliding through her sleeve and penetrating her skin. The shock melts from All-Kill’s face, replaced by a vindictive scowl. LONELY BOY turns its wrist.

CLICK!

A huge gasp escapes from Shizuka, but… It’s not her last. Rather than meeting death, her body is reinvigorated. LONELY BOY regards her solemnly as she inspects herself, her hands, body and hair. All-Kill stares, aghast. Only one answer is possible.

“The… The radiation…” Shizuka softly exclaims.

The man in black writhes in the Stand’s grasp. “No… NOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #achtung attitude #shizuka joestar #t'onga kim #achtung baby

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