*Ring ring ring*

 

Class ended and most of the other kids left the room. Only me, Josuke and Koichi remained seated. 

 

We finished packing everything up, but Kakyoin-Sensei needed to spend a few extra minutes organizing his papers, so there was a momentary lull. 

 

The nearly empty classroom was silent, and with nothing else to do, we began to feel a little restless. Josuke pulled out a gameboy and started playing. Me and Koichi leaned in to have a peek. I couldn't see much of the screen, since it had no backlight, but from what little I saw, it looked like he was playing Pokemon. 

 

*Zz….zzz*

 

I heard a hiss or a sizzle. Or maybe I didn't? I wasn't sure. I looked around the room. Nothing stood out to me. No one else seemed to have heard the noise either. Sensei was working on some paper, the boys were still engrossed in the game.

 

I had a sudden tingling feeling in the back of my neck. 

 

'This feeling… it's as if I'm being watched.'

 

I looked at Kakyoin, Josuke, and Koichi, but again, none of them seemed to have noticed anything. 

 

I fell into thought. 'Am I missing something?'

 

*Snap*

 

There was a loud snap as Kakyoin-Sensei closed a thick binder, and put it in his bag. Apparently he was done with work. The sound brought me out of my daze.

 

After wrapping everything up, the Redheaded man looked up at us from his desk and smiled. "Alright you three. Let's have a little chat."

 

We nodded at him. 

 

…

 

'Wait a second…'

 

Something occurred to me. In the manga, the Stand, Chilli Pepper, had been stalking Josuke, and his motley crew of stand users, ever since it was first introduced into the story. It would use its ability to travel through electricity to follow them to their homes, hide in their electrical outlets, and even listen in on all of their phone conversations. 

 

In the manga, it did this for two main reasons. One, to learn everything about those it considered its enemies, and Two, to prevent them from learning the identity of its stand user. 

 

For one, Stands in Jojo's have wildly varied abilities. Therefore it's incredibly important to learn as much as possible about an enemy. Depending on the situation, the smallest gaps in knowledge can directly lead to a person's death.

 

For two, it would simply listen in on any progress on the investigation and remove any traces it left behind.

 

I have no idea how often it did this. It didn't really appear 'on-screen' when it 'checked in' on the group. But at a critical point in the plot, it revealed itself to, and threatened Josuke, with the knowledge it had gained from its observations of him and his crew. With that in mind, I just have to assume it's always there. 

 

'Shit! What if it hears everything we say here?'

 

Kakyoin-sensei was about to speak, but I interrupted him with a frantic shout. "Hold on, we can't talk here!" In perfect English, I said. "The walls have ears. We need to go somewhere with no electricity for at least 20 meters!" Kakyoin quickly nodded at me, and began to lead us outside as a group. "Time for some extracurricular activities. You 3, follow me outside." He said.

 

Koichi and Josuke were understandably bewildered both by my sudden outburst, and Sensei's response, but they still followed along without interruption in the end.

 

Koichi turned to me with an upturned eyebrow."Your English is really good Yasuko. Did you learn it on your own?"

 

I smiled at him in response, nodded vaguely, and kept walking forward in silence.

 

We followed Kakyoin sensei out onto the school's sports field. A wide open space filled with fake green grass marked with white paint. It had a red clay running track surrounding it. We walked right into the middle of it all, and sat down on the grass in a circle. Thankfully, it was empty for the moment, so I felt a little more comfortable talking here. 

 

Kakyoin-sensei started off the conversation with a sigh. "Where do we begin? I heard from Josuke that you guys got yourselves into some trouble. In the process, you became stand users. If it's alright with you, can you show them to me? In exchange, I'll show you mine."

 

As he said this, a green masculine humanoid ghost-like figure appeared by his side. Its thin, muscular, green body was strategically covered in strange silver armor. 

 

The majority of its skin was exposed, especially in the upper torso area, to me It almost resembled bikini armor, the type you'd see in some western fantasy RPG's, even the way that its legs were covered in it from about the thigh down. A large part of its head and the lower part of Its face was covered by the armor in a fashion that almost resembled a gas mask, but its robotic yellow eyes were still clearly visible. Despite what I said about the bikini armor, the thing looked imposing, and somehow, vaguely artificial. 

 

The figure floated around Kakyoin-Sensei and observed us. Its face, from what little I saw of it, showed no expression. 

 

"Let me introduce you guys, this is Hierophant Green." He said with a smile.

 

This was a test. A show of trust, if you will. Stands in general tended to follow certain patterns. Based on a stand's physical appearance, an experienced stand user would more or less be able to determine certain things about it's abilities, weaknesses, and range. Not only that, but a stand's appearance can show off the user's personality, emotional state, even their current physical condition. 

 

To show your stand to another stand user, was to reveal your weakness. To bare your very soul to someone else. At least that's what it meant, when you weren't in the midst of a fight with them. 

 

Though as you would expect, in a series with a long and varied history like Jojo's there are many outliers. Kakyoin-sensei's very own stand, Hierophant Green, at first glance, appeared to be a close range brawler type, though in actuality, it was one of the very first long range stands shown in the whole series, back when it was first introduced. 

 

For Kakyoin to so bravely show it off to us, meant that he had plenty of confidence in its ability to protect him, in the event that we were enemies, but also to show trust in us, that we wouldn't brazenly attack him.

 

The original Kakyoin was someone I knew well from the manga. He wasn't necessarily amiable, but he was a righteous person who fought on the side of justice. So I was inclined to trust him more. I knew that he probably wouldn't use this as an opportunity to attack me. So I manifested The Hand and showed it off to him. 

 

Josuke manifested his Crazy Diamond in a strongman pose. He had known Kakyoin-sensei for years now, so he probably had no qualms about showing off his stand in front of him. 

 

Koichi easily brought his Echoes out. Even though, as I said earlier, it was practically taboo to show your power level to strangers, but with how ignorant he was, I couldn't blame the boy for not knowing. 

 

Kakyoin nodded after taking a good look at the both of them. "Yup, those are definitely stands…" 

 

He took a second to think. Then he continued. "Alright, It sounds like I'm a little out of the loop. Can you fill me in on everything?" 

 

"Out of all of us, I think Yasuko can explain it best." Josuke said.

 

I hesitated for a second. Perhaps out of sympathy, Josuke turned to me and nodded reassuringly. 

 

'Kakyoin was a good guy in the original story, right? He'll help us out…right?

 

Finally, I began by telling him about me and my brother Keicho. I explained our past connection to Dio. Talked about how we came across the arrow, everything we'd done with it, our confrontation with Josuke and Koichi, and how we decided to work together afterwards. I told him about the stand, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, even the sudden genderswap. All of it. 

 

Kakyoin silently listened to the whole story without interruption. His expression was tense at the start of the story, but he showed some relief when I got to the middle. 

 

When I finished telling him everything, he smiled with a hint of irony. "Sounds like you got yourselves in some trouble. But here's what I don't understand, Why do you think you're being followed?" 

 

At this question, both boys turned to me with question marks on their faces.

 

'Hm…how do I talk about this without revealing that I'd read it all in some manga.'

 

"When we encountered it for the first time, Chili Pepper said a lot of things, but from our conversation, I gathered that he'd been watching us for some time, waiting patiently for his chance to strike. He knew our names, abilities, even knew enough to mock me for being an idiot." I clumsily explained.  

 

Kakyoin-sensei chuckled. 

 

I smiled ruefully and continued with my explanation. "With his ability to travel through electricity, and virtually limitless range, he can observe anyone so long as they're within range of an electrical outlet. I know it sounds a little paranoid, but I wanted to make sure he wouldn't listen in on our conversation. I suspect he's still watching us even now." 

 

Kakyoin-sensei interrupted me. "Why would you think that? He got the arrow. What more could he want from you? Wait, let's put that aside for now. Is he really that strong? What's so scary about him?" 

 

I wasn't sure how to answer the first part of his question. I could answer how, but I couldn't necessarily answer why. Not without exposing how much I knew. 

 

The motivations of this first major villain were actually really childish in the original manga. The stand user used his abilities to steal from stores and houses all over the city to fund his burgeoning career in music. He wanted to be famous, he wanted power, and he wanted money.

 

The reason he stole the arrow to begin with, was simply to stop Keicho from creating more stand users. He wanted to stand at the top of everything and he wanted to make sure no one else could possibly even compete with him. 

 

Although he thought his ability was the strongest, he still felt threatened by Josuke and his group of stand users. These people had abilities similar to himself, and deep down he feared they might be able to hurt him.

 

This fear brought about a kind of paranoia in him. He didn't want to be found, he didn't want the good times to stop, and he didn't want to be held accountable for everything he'd done. (Which in the original story included murder by the way.) 

 

He may have had an amazing power, but on the inside, he was someone with a weak and cowardly character. That's why he stalked them. Because they were the only people with the ability to do something about him. Regular people couldn't even see his stand, but they could.

 

'I think he might have been based on that twilight episode about the town under the control of a psychic child….

 

and yet…my brother died to him…'

 

"It's not just that he's strong and fast. As long as he has a source of electricity, he is invincible. My brother shot him with enough ammunition to kill a small army, but it just tanked it, and used up the surrounding electricity to restore itself completely." I frowned. "In terms of physical strength in speed I was no match. Josuke's Crazy Diamond might be able to compete with it temporarily, but he can't fight on forever. We can't win as long as there's running power. Not unless we kill it before it can recover, or we isolate it from all sources of electricity." I explained.

 

"Alright the stand itself may be invincible, but the user certainly won't be. Do you have any idea who it is? Where can we find him?" Kakyoin sensei asked me.

 

I sighed. "I have a few ideas. But if he knows we're getting on to him, the consequences could be deadly. He very nearly killed both me and my brother yesterday. If you're going to investigate him, you have to keep in mind that he has no regard for human life. And plenty of power to take it as he wills."

 

Kakyoin rested his hand on his chin and looked off into the distance.