Chapter 7 - The Sports Festival: 4
Josefumi dodged to the left, avoiding a pounce attack from the enemy Stand, rolling on his left shoulder as the wolf-like Stand snarled after failing to land a successful attack on the first attempt. Honestly, he hated being a Stand user some days. Especially when he had to deal with crap like this.
At least he knew he wasn't going to die seeing as there were literally hundreds of heroes watching, but that still didn't change the fact that he was already wounded, and that he now had to fight an Automatic Stand that would probably not let up even if he asked politely.
The fact of the matter was that if he was limiting himself, and he was doing so with the pretense that he knew he could beat this foe with only his Steel Ball. And while he had a good idea of how to beat it, the enemy wasn't really giving him much wiggle room to put it into action. The Spin allowed those without Stands to hit Stands by a proxy attack using an object of their choosing, so long as it met four points of criteria:
One, the object the person was using had to be a round or spherical object. Two, it was completely smooth, and anything that was etched into it was flush with the object in question. Three, it was made out of some sort of metal, be it bronze or titanium, or if the person is desperate, stone. And finally, four, the object must mean something to the person. If it does not mean something, or hold some sort of sentimental value, activating The Spin through it would be nearly impossible. There were cases in the past where that wasn't the case, but those cases were often people who were already Spin Masters and could circumvent the contrivance.
Although, even with that knowledge, The Spin still didn't allow those without Stands to see Stands. It didn't matter how good you were with The Spin, if you didn't have a Stand, or didn't unlock one by mastering The Spin, then the person without a Stand wouldn't be able to see any Stand no matter how hard they tried.
The only reason why Gyro Zeppeli, his mentor, could see Stands during the Steel Ball Run V.2 and before unlocking Ball Breaker was that he had passed through a devil's palm in Arizona during the race with Jouta. Because of that, and because he came into contact with the Saints Corpse, more famously known as The Corpse of Jesus Christ, he was given the ability to see Stands despite not having his own.
And while that story in and of itself was inspiring, it wasn't going to help him much with his current predicament.
Leading The Pack approached the downed Josefumi, who gripped his Steel Ball, searching for something to see The Golden Ratio in. Once again, he targeted the window as his muse and prepared to shoot his Steel Ball at the Stand. He arched his arm and wrist back, and with an arching toss, the ball made its way to the Stand's lanky neck.
Leading The Pack raised its head upward, miscalculating where the ball was being thrown, allowing The Steel Ball to hit its target, knocking Leading The Pack to the ground. The Stand made an audible gasp and choking sound as it got hit, and while it was stunned, Josefumi was able to get to his feet, his left injured side stinging as he moved it far faster than his body would've liked him to.
"Something tells me that's going to be a problem," Josefumi thought, collecting the Steel Ball from his opponent, who laid still, unmoving. Josefumi was weary of his opponent, kicking its head to try and garner a reaction. However, the enemy Stand didn't get up, and even after waiting for a second or two, even then it didn't budge. "Don't tell me… I defeated it already?"
Josefumi took a step back and prepared himself with an ounce of trepidation in his eyes as The Stand didn't budge. There was something wrong with this scenario, and he knew it. A Stand didn't go down this easily. It was clear it was playing a trick on him. It had to have been.
And his trepidation was rewarded as The Stand began to spasm. Its limbs jutted out and shook as if it was having a seizure, and then, the head began to split apart, a black gooey substance separating the new head and old one. Two new paws jutted out from its back, and in the blink of an eye, a new Leading The Pack showed up, digging its way out of the old one.
Except, it wasn't alone, as another one came out of its former as well, both with deep red visors staring at him. Both wolves growled as the teen took a step back.
"WHOA! WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT?! IT WOULD SEEM THAT THERE'S MORE TO UTSAGI'S QUIRK THAN WE THOUGHT! IT CAN DUPLICATE! HOW DID SHE NOT GET INTO THE HERO COURSE?!"
"A Stand that can duplicate itself through division? And from the looks of it, it duplicates depending on how much damage it takes. Which means… I have to find the user before this gets out of hand!" Josefumi thought, his Steel Ball spinning with sparkling energy, taunting the wolves to come after him. And come after him they did, the pair charging him, though noticeably faster than the first.
He dodged to the left, and out of reflex, he had Soft & Wet hit the one that was going to punish him for misstepping in the chest, knocking the wolf into the side of the building.
"So that sensation in my head was right… you ARE a Stand User!" The conscious wolf of Leading The Pack said, its visor flashing with a bright red light, mimicking a glare. The wolf that was smashed into the wall duplicated once again, splitting into another two wolves, both growling at him.
"They get faster the more they split… I'll have to also assume they get stronger too… which means I have to dodge them rather than attack them unless absolutely necessary…. Shit!" Josefumi thought, glancing behind him as the wolf that spoke prepared to lunge at him, while the other two were blocking him from advancing.
He was, once again, cornered, injured, and in no condition to continue a fight like this. In other words, he was stuck in a rather unwanted situation. But then again, being a Stand User led to that happening rather often. He'd just rather not have it be during a school festival.
"I have to think of something! I can't just get mauled by a bunch of fake wolves!" Josefumi's thoughts raced with panic as he frowned. He kinda hoped he'd be able to continue not using his Stand, but it would seem as if he had no real choice in the matter. As the wolf behind him pounced, Josefumi summoned Soft & Wet to his side, and shot a bubble at the wolf, removing its gravity as it began to float upward.
"HUH?!"
"Soft & Wet removed your gravity," Josefumi explained, looking over at the other two wolves, both of which growled and began to howl. "Well, it's been fun, but I got more important things to do. You know, like find your user?" Josefumi said as he began to run away from Leading The Pack, leaving it to float above the ground.
All he had to do was outrun or at the very least juke the wolves that were no doubt going to hunt him down. He knew that if he hit them they would just duplicate and get faster, as well as stronger, so knocking the last two out was a no-go.
In other words, he had to play his own scuffed version of subway surfer.
However, as he ran, the two other wolves dashed after him, just as he expected. But unlike what he had expected, He hadn't been expecting just how fast they were. He at most assumed they would be slightly faster than the previous wolf that he knocked to the ground, but these were at least triple the speed of the original.
The two wolves were now by his sides, both on his left and on his right. Josefumi's eyes widened, not anticipating them to be as fast as they were. And just as he summoned Soft & Wet to his side, the wolf to his right swiped at his right leg, tripping him as he faceplanted into the concrete, his nose smashing flat against the ground as blood shot out of his face; a sickening cracking sound reverberating throughout the streets as Josefumi tumbled for a few more feet, laying on the ground facing the sky.
His head hurt like hell, but then again whose head wouldn't after it got introduced to the concrete? But this was worse, namely because he had already had a headache from Bakugo's explosions. This only made it worse.
Blood trailed down from his nose, including its bridge, as well as his now busted lip. He could taste the coppery liquid, and as soon as it entered his mouth, he felt like he wanted to gag. He watched in the distance as medical bots took away Bakugo's unconscious form on a stretcher. If he didn't figure his shit out in the next few seconds, that was going to be him soon.
The two wolves began to circle around him, both growling, and both ready to make a move if he so much as flinched the wrong way. He was boxed in completely and had no way out. Not to mention breathing through his nose was becoming an issue, namely because he was just now realizing that it was broken. "They broke my nose! Assholes!" Josefumi thought, a tic forming on his forehead.
Even if he got past these two, he wouldn't be allowed to continue on to the next round due to the injuries he had accumulated. A broken nose, a no doubt dislocated shoulder, probably a few broken or bruised ribs along with a broken kneecap. He was defeated, and there was no way around it. Had this been a fight to the death, it would've been a hell of a lot different. But it wasn't and therefore he couldn't do much of anything.
"IT SEEMS THAT KUJO JOSEFUMI GOT KNOCKED TO THE GROUND! IS GONNA GET UP, OR IS HE DONE FOR!?" Present Mic announced as Josefumi groaned. He hated to admit defeat, but at the same time, he knew when he had been defeated. And so, with a sigh, he tapped the floor, a universal sign of surrender. The two wolves stopped prowling around him, and the one to his right looked down at him, growling.
"What does that supposed to mean?" The wolf snapped as Josefumi rolled his eyes.
"It means I surrender, jackass." At that response, the wolf smirked, revealing its many rows of dagger-like teeth.
The two wolves howled, and when they did, the user of the Stand withdrew them, the wolves dematerializing. "IT WOULD SEEM AS IF KUJO JOSEFUMI HAS BEEN DEFEATED! MAKING TATAMI UTSAGI 3RD PLACE! HER BOUNTY IS NOW AT 550,600! ALSO, A WARNING TO ALL CONTESTANTS! 4 MINUTES REMAIN ON THE CLOCK! GET THOSE LAST POINTS IN BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!"
Not even five seconds later, two more recovery bots came out from the alleyways of the street and put him on a stretcher. He felt embarrassed, seeing as he lost n the second event. Not that he could've done anything about it. Even if he did come out on top in that fight, it would've had no point. He just hoped his father was all too disappointed in him. He knew he was in the stadium, and he also knew that Gyro and Gio were watching him, which only added to his embarrassment.
If he could facepalm without it hurting, he would have.
xxXXxxXXxx
If there was one thing that Izuku hadn't been expecting, it was for Josefumi to be eliminated before the third round. He was a capable fighter, and for him to be eliminated by someone before he could advance… he had to know what happened. Over in the distance, he could feel a cold breeze. That had to have meant that Todoroki had just taken someone out, and over to his right, he knew he previously heard a round of explosions, maybe a minute prior.
Bakugo was eliminated by Josefumi, so that was pretty obvious to know that over there was the person who defeated Josefumi. So that meant that Josefumi was over there. He wondered who Todoroki defeated? And while he liked to speculate, right now, he had other things to worry about.
And that was thinking about how to beat the person currently giving him grief.
Izuku dodged and ducked between punches sent at him by one Shoji Mezou and his Quirk, Dupli-arms. His classmate seemed to be determined to take him out with if the determined glare in his eyes wasn't proof enough of that. From what he knew, Shoji had 400 points, meaning he either took out 4 separate people, or 2 people once the timer hit half.
Whatever the case might have been, Shoji had defeated a couple of people, which made the boy feel a little nervous. Normally he'd be a bit confident against someone like Shoji—he knew One For All was powerful, and he had decent control over it—but that wasn't why he was nervous. He was hampered because of his wounds, and they were starting to get to him.
His head injury was starting to get to him, and it was affecting his fighting. However, he needed to continue, and if he was going to give anything credit as to how he was continuing this round, it was his determination. He needed to take down the Stand User that puppeteered Uraraka and rendered her nothing more than an object.
After all, if there was one thing you didn't do, it was mess with Izuku's friends, no matter how close they might have been to him.
Now, how did he know it was a Stand User? Well, a lot of reasons, key of which being the fact that she sustained injuries that seemed to come from nowhere, which was a telltale of a Stand being at play.
It wasn't Yoshihara's Killer Queen, namely because its ability wasn't puppeteering for obvious reasons. It also wasn't Josefumi's Soft & Wet, doubly so for the latter seeing as he was JUST taken out of the competition. That meant there was another Stand User within U.A. completely unaccounted for.
And as much as he would've loved to continue his little spat with Shoji, he had important things to tend to.
Using 5% of One For All in his right arm, he landed a devastating blow to Shoji's ribs, making the teen double over in pain. Then, Izuku hit him again in the face, knocking him to the ground. Izuku's head pounded as he gripped his forehead. He might have had a concussion, which would be pretty bad all things considered.
Another 200 points were added to his bounty. He looked up at the timer and the number of people. There were 3 minutes and 50 seconds left on the clock, and with every second he stood there, the timer continued to go down. There were 22 people left in the competition, and if he had to guess that most of them have 600 points.
He had two timers over his head. One of them being the literal timer, and the other was the timer in terms of people left.
And just as he was about to go out in search of the person who did what they did to Uraraka, he felt a disturbance in the air, specifically to his left. Though it felt different compared to how a Stand's presence was, that didn't matter. An attack was an attack, and he still had to dodge. And so, he did just that and dodged to the right. When he got out of the way of the attack, and when the air felt normal, Izuku got into a defensive stance. "They're here!" Izuku thought, a wave of nervousness washing over him. He had almost been grabbed by the Stand, and had it not been for what his mother taught him, he would've been caught.
He could see the faintest hint of purple hair in the corner of the window. His eyes narrowed and charged up full cowling. Without thinking, he dashed forward, and as soon as he did, he prepared to kick down the wall, only to be met with an earphone jack to the stomach, and for a massive pulsating feeling filling his body.
Izuku's eyes widened as the pain shook throughout his body, and for a wad of spit mixed with blood to come out of his mouth, the blood coming from his head wound that had entered his mouth. "These are Jirou-san's jacks! Is it really her or…?" As Izuku thought that, he was shot back by a punch to his gut, knocking him back.
As he tumbled to the ground, his back hitting the wall of another building being the only thing stopping his rolling, he looked up to see both Jirou and another boy with a lighter shade of purple hair standing side-by-side, only for Jirou's eyes to be wide in what appeared to fear as the other person—a boy—smirked.
"Well, well, well. Look who it is?" The boy began as he used a wooden puppet to have Jirou launch toward him, holding him up by a neck as Izuku cringed at the sensation of being choked. He felt his body press up against the wall, small fissure cracks forming from the force with which Jirou's puppeteered body had slammed him.
"WHOA! LOOK AT THAT EVERYONE! FIRST-PLACE STUDENT MIDORIYA IZUKU IS IN A BIT OF A BIND! AND ITS THANKS TO NONE OTHER THAN HITOSHI SHINSO FROM GENERAL STUDIOS! WHO WOULDA THUNK IT!" Present Mic announced as Midoriya choked out a gasp, Jirou's grip lightening up so he could breathe, but still keeping him a decent enough grip to prevent him from doing anything major.
"If it isn't Midoriya Izuku. A.k.a., the first place contender in this little event. I gotta wonder, how much fun did you have pummelling my last puppet?" Hitoshi asked, tilting his head over to his right with a taunt of sorts.
Izuku's eyes practically turned feral at that. And to make things worse, it seemed to make the teen's smirk turn into a smile. "That must really grind your gears, doesn't it? To be fair, it would grind my gears too. I apologize, but it's what my Everybody Loves Me does. I can't change what my Stand can do. Besides, I'm here to win, not make friends, right? If it means I have to use people as my proverbial meat shields, I will."
"Keep calm, Izuku. He's trying to aggravate you. Don't let him get the better of you," Izuku thought, taking in a deep breath to calm himself down. "You're the one who declared war on our class… You want to be a hero, and yet… you use people as weapons and shields to protect yourself… that's awful. Do you even hear yourself right now?" Izuku said, readying himself to get up and attack.
It was then that his smirk turned to a frown. "Jeez… that did sound ominous, didn't it?" Hitoshi said, shrugging. "Oh well, I'm not gonna be the one to complain. Not like I choose my power, didn't I? Either way, my Stand increases the physical strength of whoever becomes my puppet in return for their bodies, It's a fair trade-off, don't you think?" the purple-haired teen continued as he cracked his neck from side to side. "Oh well, I caught you now. You wouldn't want to break your friend, would you? You're cornered, which means, I win."
And just as he said, he motioned his wooden puppet to make Jirou's grip increase, making Izuku falter. Jirou felt apologetic but knew she couldn't do anything to stop… well, herself. She should've knocked the guy out before she could do whatever he did to her, which was rendering her nothing more than a doll for him to use. What made matters worse was that she was taken down, meaning she lost the chance to be in the third round.
And then, it got worse as one of her jacks plugged into Midoriya's gut again, reverberating a wave of sound out through his body, something made Jirou's eyes widen.
She knew damn well that doing that was practically fatal. She knew this because of something his mother told her about their shared Quirk. It could be deadly if used in the right way, and she warned Jirou to NEVER use her Quirk on someone's chest or waist region. Izuku was lucky the first time, but his luck wouldn't protect him forever. So, watching the guy that started to somehow puppeteer her magically without activating a Quirk do that, it made her fear for her classmate…. She tried to stop it, but she had no control over her body.
"No, no! Stop! You don't know what you're doing!" Jirou thought, her eyes widening as she tried to open her mouth, but found that doing so was impossible.
And then, pain exploded out into her body as Midoriya broke her hand with an electrically charged grip and a scowl on his face. "I'm sorry, Jirou, but I can't go down like this, and I can't let him continue doing this to you… not like what he did to Uraraka-san!" Midoriya stated as she had no choice but to let go. Then, he dashed forward, using his arm to snag Jirou by her waist and throw her into the purple-haired boy into a wall, whose eyes widened and gasped in pain as he was slammed violently and suddenly.
Once the two collided and crashed into the wall, Izuku grabbed the wooden doll out of the boy's hand. The boy's eyes widened, and as soon as he took it, he slammed the wooden doll against the wall with all the force his body would allow, shattering it to pieces. At that moment, pain erupted from Jirou's body, like all of the bones in her body had just been broken, even though they weren't. The pain felt real, even though it wasn't.
The boy with purple hair eye's widened, his mouth agape. "YOU IDIOT!" Hitoshi shouted, genuine anger on his face. "THAT COULDA KILLED HER!" He yelled, anger in his movements as he rushed towards Izuku in a desperate attempt to take him out.
Hitoshi knew that without Everybody Loves Me's puppets, he stood no real chance. However, he still had to try. He wanted to make his dream a reality, and he would be able to pull it off if he didn't take down Izuku Midoriya right here, and right now! And just as he closed the distance, only a few inches away from socking Izuku in the face, his reward for making it that close to him was a solid punch to the face courtesy of Izuku and of 5% of One For All in his fist. Shinso went flying, tumbling across the ground as he felt unconscious, his Stand's ability lifting off of Jirou, as a wave of rejuvenation washed over her.
"WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT FOLKS! IN A STRANGE TURN OF EVENTS, SHINSO HITOSHI FROM GENERAL STUDIES HAS BEEN ELIMINATED, ALONG WITH HIS INCREDIBLY BIZARRE PUPPETEER QUIRK! SEEMS LIKE MIDORIYA IZUKU WILL CONTINUE TO HOLD ON TO HIS FIRST PLACE TITLE AFTER ALL!"
"I knew what I was doing. A Stand's ability goes away once the Stand is deactivated, forcefully or otherwise," Izuku stated, though namely to himself. "That means whatever pain Jirou-san would've felt thanks to your Stand and its proxy would fade once you went unconscious." As Izuku said that, Jirou groggily sat up, looking warily at Midoriya, who shot a glance at her.
"W-What the hell was that all about?" Jirou questioned, earning a troubled sigh from the boy. He walked over to her and sat next to the purplette, his body shaking from the pain he had been in from the back-to-back fights.
"That… was something you weren't supposed to learn about. But, considering you were put under the influence of his Stand, you ought to be filled in on what I know…"
xxXXxxXXxx
Yoshihara had to admit one thing, her opponent was clever. Not smart, but definitely clever. Kira had deduced that the Stand's ability had something to do with emotional and sensation manipulation. It wasn't one or the other based on what happened earlier with her "fight" with Ibara and the unnatural rage she had felt towards her. To what degree she wasn't so sure. What she was sure of was just how debilitating it could be.
Right now, Kira felt like she was seconds away from fainting. Her only help with this matter was the fact that she refused to go down this easily. She was able to push through it before, but it seemed as if the closer she got to her enemy's location, the worse it was going to get.
Her pours felt like they were on fire, her skin hummed with a burning sensation that matched that of a sunburn; except unlike a sunburn, the pain was never the same as it fluctuated from a peaceful hum to a violent burn. Sweat had cumulated around her forehead and under her armpits. She felt like she was being baked alive, and the worst part about it was that she knew why it was happening, and she knew how it was happening, too.
Earlier, when she was at the entrance of the building she saw the Stand User in, she had felt like death warmed over, only for a few seconds later for that intensity to die down. It continued to die down every passing second, and when she began her climb, it felt like a soft gust of heated wind was on her skin. But now it felt like a mix of the two, and it sucked big time.
Which led her to conclude the obvious. Her opponent had a Stand that could use its ability from a distance, which only meant one thing…
"A range-based Stand… and with an ability like this, it could be deadly once in close quarters, which limits my options. Though with an ability like this, it probably has weak physical strength. Or maybe not, I won't know till I encounter it…" Yoshihara thought, biting down on her lower lip as she took a step or two back.
The sensation seemed to weaken, but only a small amount. She had to get out of this thing's range, or at the very least get away from it enough to where she didn't feel like she knocking on death's door. She walked down the stairs, a silence to her steps so that her opponent would not hear her walking down the steps.
After all, she didn't want to take away her one true advantage.
Upon making it to the first floor, and upon ducking into the alleyway, the burning sensation started to fade. It wasn't back to the safe humming feeling, more as if the sun was gently hitting her with an average amount of heat. Like a summer afternoon day. While it was still hot, it beat feeling like being in the Sahara Desert.
She had two minutes left until the timer ran out. The last thing she was going to do was allow herself to go down like this. If Yoshihara knew which floor she was on, she could've probably fished her out with one of Killer Queen's bubble bombs. However, as it stood, she didn't. Therefore, she had to try something else.
Summoning Killer Queen to her side, Yoshihara glanced over to its left hand as the skull icon on the glove had its eyes flash, and out of it came a small tank, that being Sheer Heart Attack. The small tank rolled off of Killer Queen's hand, knowing its command instinctively.
Knock out the enemy Stand user within the building to her right. Collateral damage be damned. A slow, very small facsimile of a smile made itself present on Yoshihara's face as she wiped the sweat off her forehead.
"You want to play the range game? Be my guest. I'll beat you at your own game, and then some."
xxXXxxXXxx
Heimei Kishibe felt a wave of smugness rage through her body. She was able to tag that murderous fiend once she turned her back and seeing as her Stand, Sweet Child O' Mine could extend its limbs, it wasn't difficult at all to activate her ability.
Sweet Child O' Mine was a humanoid Stand that sat around the same height as Heimei herself. Its whole body was a bright white with golden lines going across its face, while the rest of its body stayed bright white. It wears a black mouthguard that covers up where its nose and mouth would be, and over its eyes are a pair of golden radiator sunglasses. Sweet Child O' Mine's limbs are disjointed and do not connect to themselves, rather floating in the air as if they were in anti-gravity 24/7. This extends to the fingers. On its head is a black top hat, accompanying it is a black cape that is constantly blowing in the wind.
Overall, she had to say that her Stand looked rather cool and WAY better than a pink cat humanoid. Then again, that could've been her ego talking, but she felt as if that Sweet Child O' Mine was a far better Stand than Killer Queen.
Then again, everyone who had a Stand probably thought they had the best Stand in all of the universe, but that was clearly not true. That title belonged to her, period.
But as much as she wanted to stroke her own ego, Heimei had more pressing things to worry about. Namely, her opponent. Yoshihara Kira. To say she had been a bit disappointed that she didn't fall for the trap she laid, she knew she could get over it. Truth be told, she didn't think that increasing her anger would've worked in the first place, but she still had to try.
After all, she was supposed to get her taken out by humiliating her. And while her first plan seemed to fall flat on its face, the second one seemed like it had been working, and that was all she needed to know.
While it would've made her ego that much more inflated, she knew when she was outmatched, and thus, decided that a game of cat and mouse was in order.
Heimei wasn't stupid. Killer Queen, no matter the user, was a Stand that could easily destroy Sweet Child O' Mine. All it really needed to do was touch her once and she'd be nothing more than dust in the wind. Henceforth why she was "putting on the pressure" so to speak, with the burning sensation she had inflicted on to Kira.
'Course, the further she got away, the weaker the feeling became. Same went with the added-on emotions, however, she could only inflict one at once. Meaning that even if she wanted to inflict her with soul-crushing sadness, she would have to remove the effect, and before she did that, Sweet Child O' Mine would have to touch her again.
Though, seeing as the blonde-haired menace wasn't following her, she should've been fine.
Keyword being: Should've been.
"LOOK OVER HERE!" The metallic-sounding voice of Sheer Heart Attack rang throughout the building that Heimei hid in. She hadn't forgotten about Sheer Heart Attack, per se, but what she had forgotten was that Kira technically had no real rules attached to her seeing as her ability was invisible to everyone but them.
And it was with that added advantage that Heimei dreaded facing her one on one. Sweet Child O' Mine was prepared to bat away the explosive tank on wheels if it got too close. She knew that Sheer Heart Attack had a range of over 100 meters or more thanks to her Great Grandfathers notes on Yoshikage Kira. That meant that Yoshihara Kira was still facing the effects of the burning sensation, and feeling it pretty badly, on top of that.
However, worrying about that was the least of her concerns. Sheer Heart Attack was what was on the forefront of her mind. If she didn't deal with it now, she would have to deal with it for the remainder of the round.
She could hear the Stand's tank treads clang and clack overtop the tile floor, alerting her to where it was. However, no matter how far it travelled, it never left the room. It knew she was in here, and that meant that it would only find her eventually. As the sound got closer, and as she brought Sweet Child O' Mine closer to her person in order to protect herself, the tank treads stopped moving against the concrete.
"Why'd it stop? Did she… fall unconscious?" Heimei thought, quickly looking around the surrounding area. Her eyes landed on the small tank that was sitting just a few feet away from her left, and as their eyes met, the Sub-Stands skull mouth closed, and when it did, Heimei didn't even have a second to react or send her Stand to bat the small tank away as a massive explosion raged throughout the room, knocking Heimei back and through several walls, all which ended up with her slumped up against the last wall stopping her from falling out of the building.
She had crashed through two different walls, both of which were concrete. How she survived the blast, she had no idea. What she did have an idea of, however, was the pain she was in.
Blood streamed down her arms, face, and the rest of her body as she tried to desperately get up. Her legs felt like Jello, her chest hurt and breathing had become difficult. The outer wounds were superficial, that much she knew, but the pain wasn't.
As the dust and smoke cleared, and as a few tiles from the upper floors came crashing down and shattering on the floor they were on, Sweet Child O' Mine came out to protect its user as Sheer Heart Attack inched its way closer to her. Its fiery purple eyes stared at her with a soulless determination.
"Do you surrender?" The Stand asked, looking at her with an emotionless, robotic glare. All Heimei could respond with was a haphazard glare. "I shall repeat. Do you Surrender?" At that, the Stand inched itself closer to her, and when it did that, Sweet Child O' Mine closed the distance between itself and the small tank.
But that didn't matter, as the tank exploded all the same. The pressure from the blast was enough to send Heimei out of the building and plummet to her death. Pain erupted all over her body, and just as she was seconds away from making a connection with the ground she closed her eyes knowing damn well that if she died, Kira would take the fall, and it would prove to those watching that she was a heartless monster—not that media hadn't done that already, but that was beside the point.
But then, something caught her, and when she opened her eyes to see who or what it was, she was met with the cold eyes of Killer Queen staring her down. To her left was Yoshihara, who was giving her a death glare. "Deactivate your Stand, Kishibe, you lost."
And as much as she wanted to send a deadly punch into the blonde's head, she couldn't, namely because…
"AND THAT'S A WRAP, FOLKS! ALL OUT WAR IS OVER!"
Her chance to do so was lost. And with only 400 points to her name, even if she was healed, she wouldn't have made it to the final round anyway. And so, she deactivated Sweet Child O' Mine, then, passed out from the pain she had felt all throughout her body. All the while Yoshihara smirked. Medic bots came out of the woodworks and took them both away as they all made their way back to the stadium.
The third and final round was coming up, and she needed to be ready for that. Whatever The Sports Festival was willing to throw at her, she'd beat it.
After all, luck was on her side today, and there was nothing short of her being killed that'd stop her from winning this.