CHAPTER 6
Zooming past civilians and tourists, my wallet suddenly took a sharp turn to the right. I did the same with the help of ⌈Silver Bullet⌋, and groaned in annoyance.
"Oh, for fuck's sake."
In front of me was a cluttered alleyway that looked like a maze, leading into Sector 9, which was known for its labyrinth-like structures and roads that could basically lead you anywhere but your intended location.
To a normal person like me, I would have no idea where every individual road takes me, but to someone that is accustomed to the alleyway, they would know it like the back of their hand. And I can guess that the man knows this place very well.
Eyeing the wallet, I used ⌈Silver Bullet⌋'s sub-Ability, and muttered another curse at the speed it was travelling.
'13 miles an hour... Just a little faster... Damn it, it's too slow for ⌈Silver Bullet⌋'s Ability to activate!'
⌈Silver Bullet⌋'s Ability allows it to control the trajectory and speed of an object for 10 seconds. But it also has an sub-Ability to determine an object's speed and trajectory. The ability is pretty useful, as it gives me a mental arc or projection of the trajectory along with the mental number of the speed an object was travelling in. Makes it useful when playing baseball with the Rose Xiao-Long family.
Like ⌈King Crimson⌋'s Time Skip needing its sub-Stand, ⌈Epitaph⌋, to determine the Fated actions of any object before Time Skipping, ⌈Silver Bullet⌋ needs to use this sub-Ability beforehand to be able to use its main Ability effectively.
(A/N: Still don't have names for its ability, so recommendations are appreciated!)
Its main Ability, while seemingly powerful on its own, has a drawback. An object has to reach a minimum speed of 15 miles an hour before the ability can take control of the object.
Well, at least my Stand should have these limitations and abilities. After 3 years, this was all I ever came up with through testing and theory-crafting. I alone know of my Stand's abilities, well except for Hazel, not even my family members.
My wallet was moving at a speed of 17 miles an hour, thus its requirement is not met, so I can't control the damn wallet —
OK, stop monologuing! Wallet is getting away!
Watching it move towards one of the many fork roads of the alleyway, I was about to command ⌈Silver Bullet⌋ to drag me once more towards it when suddenly the sound of glass shattered behind me.
*SHATTER!*
Reacting instantly, ⌈Silver Bullet⌋'s arms shot out from my back to intercept the object moving fast towards my skull.
Metal clashed against metal as ⌈Silver Bullet⌋ deflected the long, sharp object that was heading towards my head and threw out a few jabs towards the culprit with a way cry.
"MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!"
The jabs did not connect, though, as the figure vanished into the air. With no one close by using ⌈Silver Bullet⌋'s senses, I took a split second to understand what just happened.
Someone tried to kill me... A rapier kind of weapon? Yeah, that kind of shape and length is more to a rapier than a thin sword. That power, speed, and precision was a little horrifying to say the least, if ⌈Silver Bullet⌋ didn't reach a single millisecond earlier, my head would have been pierced and gouged.
The question is, how? How did this assailant even get close to me without ⌈Silver Bullet⌋ noticing? I replayed what ⌈Silver Bullet⌋ saw in my mind. It couldn't get a good look at my assailant, but I now know what to look out for.
A rapier as thin as a toothpick that was more than half my height. The handle of the blade wasn't the typical type, as it was in the shape of an umbrella handle. That meant that my assailant was using some kind of cane sword in the shape of an umbrella.
And the shattering of the space into mirror fragments, that was either a Stand Ability or a Semblance. I was leaning towards a Semblance due to the fact that Semblances have some sort of universal rule.
An example would be Summer's and Tai's Semblance. They've changed their Semblance's names after I told them that their names for their abilities sucked, and so they strived to one-up me. And damn, were they good.
Summer's Semblance, Rose Phasing, and Tai's Semblance, Fire Augmentation, have something in common, they leave some kind of residue made of Aura behind. Summer leaves behind white rose petals, Tai with embers particles, and now this assassin with glass shards.
So I was facing against a Stand User with an unknown ability and an Aura User with the ability to teleport as quickly as ⌈Silver Bullet⌋? This was going to be difficult —
Wait, where's my wallet?
...
Fuck.
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??? ??? POV
He pants slightly in exhaustion and took a handkerchief with his remaining arm to wipe the sweat off his face. Do you know how long it takes to do his makeup? He even had a meeting later tonight with the Judicators, so his appearance must be preserved!
Looking at his missing left wrist, his eyebrow twitched slightly with the urge to smoke arises.
He doesn't even flinch when the space beside him shatters into fragments of glass, revealing a shadow silhouette due to the lighting of his apartment. Damn landlord must have cut his power off again, damn it. Fucking prick is stingy as hell, especially when tonight was the due date for his rent bills.
"Neo, good job in distracting him. I'll bring you out on an ice cream run tomorrow."
The silhouette doesn't reply verbally and simply gives him two excited thumbs ups before taking a seat on the couch in the living room. He smirks at the thought, the formidable assassin in his turf was addicted to ice cream. The image of a cold killer with an ice cream spoon in hand gave him a good chuckle before he thought back to the brat that made him lose quite a lot of daylight.
"Still, I didn't expect a Stand User to be in my section of Vale... Is he a natural-born Stand User, or does he have a similar situation as I do?"
He pushes the thought down as his prize arrived through the window, floating into his apartment.
"And there it is, the source of our current problem..."
The silhouette's hands moved in quick succession, doing multiple gestures as in a flash of white, his missing arm returns to its original position with a "poof", the wallet in hand. He looked at the gestures that his partner was gesturing before he nodded.
"Hmm... So he even reacted to your attack? His Stand is for sure faster in terms of physical speed... And we have no idea what his Stand's Ability is, too. What a problem we just encountered, at least we have an idea that this Stand can't beat ⌈Smooth Criminal⌋'s Ability range of 10 meters..."
The man sighed before taking a cigar out of the tray inside his coat and lit it up with the help of Neo. Taking a good breath in and enjoying the taste of Atlesian-brand tobacco, he exhales the cigar smoke out the window, since Neo doesn't really like the smell of it. Her loss, to be honest.
Opening the wallet, he whistled at the amount inside. 400 Lien in a single wallet was a lot, after all. The rest of the contents weren't that important, an ID card, some stickers, and perfume samples to make the wallet smelling fresh, but information was still information. Maybe he'll sell it to Junior tomorrow, an ID could get him a few dozen Lien at least?
A sudden thought occurred to him, causing him to frown slightly. Neo, who was sitting on a couch next to him, gestured rapidly after seeing his mood change as he replied.
"... It is the universal rule, that Stand Users attract other Stand Users, Neo. I have this feeling that we'll meet him again soon enough, that's what my gut was telling me."
And said gut has a track record of saving his behind multiple times now. Hell, the reason why he even had a Stand was because of his gut screaming to accept the risks. Even if said risk caused him to be hospitalized for a few days because of the gaping hole in his chest.
Keeping the Lien away and throwing the wallet to the mountain of wallets and purses they've collected over the few weeks, he got up from his seat and sat on the window where one could see the whole alleyway for its crime and theft. It wasn't beautiful, but it was home.
Not enough, he mentally did the math in his head. He doesn't have enough Lien and influence yet. He needed more money, time, and experience. Roman Torchwick was reborn because of that incident, and he will not waste this silver platter of a gift.
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Summer Rose POV
"What about this?"
Her cute baby girl asked as Ruby pointed at the black and white cake through the display panel.
"Ruby, black forest again? But you had one on your birthday this year!"
Her little fire dragon said with a pout before pointing at the vibrant yellow cheesecake.
"I bet Jojo would like this more!"
"But didn't you also get a cheesecake for your birthday, Yang?"
"Ugh."
She held back a giggle as she saw her two children giving their own suggestions on Jordan's birthday that was happening soon, but she already had a very nice cake that suited the gentle boy.
Just thinking about Jordan makes her sigh in nostalgia. It's been almost 3 years already, hasn't it? Time flies by when you are enjoying yourself. She remembered when Jordan spent the first night in the house, he was almost awake the whole time, feeling too awkward in the children's room.
She smirked slightly at the thought of the photo album she had started to collect ever since she adopted Jordan. Her good friend online told her about the dozen album books of her sweet kitten, Blake, with so much passion that she definitely had to try out!
"Alright, girls, thank you for your contribution, but I think this chocolate royale cake here will be Jordan's favourite out of the choices."
Especially since the boy just loves his chocolate. Chocolate milk, chocolate treats, chocolate ice-cream, really a no-brainer when one takes time to analyze their own children... Is this how Ozpin always feels like, psycoanalyzing everything? Cause this feels really powerful in her hands —
[RING~ RING~]
Taking her scroll out, her smile widens at the contact. Jordan was calling her, that was a rare thing. He must be thinking about her! She knew that this boy was a sweet kind one!
"Hello? Summer speaking."
Uh huh... Stand User... Wallet missing... Almost died... Without any money for the ferry fare. He sure did went on a journey today.
...
"YOU WHAT?!"
◀——–– To Be Continued
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Stand Profile
Stand User: Roman Torchwick (Updated!)
Stand Name: ⌈Smooth Criminal⌋ – Composer: Michael Jackson
Stand Ability: ???
Stand Parameters
Power: B
(Strength and ability to cause destruction)
Speed: B
(Agility and reflexes as well as performance speed)
Range: C
(Range of manifestation, ability influence, and spatial mobility)
Stamina: B
(Duration of how long an ability will last)
Precision: A
(Accuracy of their abilities to specified targets)
Developmental Potential: ?
(Possible functions, utilization, and capacity to improve its capabilities)
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A/N 2: I also changed some of Silver Bullet's stats a little. Here's the updated stats of the Stand.
Stand Profile
Stand User: Jordan Joestar (Updated!)
Stand Name: ⌈Silver Bullet⌋ – Composer: Casey Edwards
Stand Ability: Can control the direction of trajectory and speed of a moving object; must be moving at a speed of 15 miles an hour or higher to control.
Stand Parameters
Power: B
(Strength and ability to cause destruction)
Speed: B
(Agility and reflexes as well as performance speed)
Range: D
(Range of manifestation, ability influence, and spatial mobility)
Stamina: D
(Duration of how long an ability will last)
Precision: A
(Accuracy of their abilities to specified targets)
Developmental Potential: B
(Possible functions, utilization, and capacity to improve its capabilities)
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A/N 3: Yeah, so I have no idea how to proceed to the next few chapters, so give me a few days to think this out.
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