The Opening Solo

Jonah entered the Grandarium and there was a long line to enter the main theatre doors. The people were dressed up nicely, with men wearing stylish suits and women wearing stylish dresses. Jonah couldn't help but pause and glance at his own clothing, which looked like rags. He realized he had severely underdressed for this event.

From the look on Clara's face, she also felt uncomfortable. Neither of them had enough time to change into something or clear themselves up, so they stuck out from the crowd of people.

"Ahem!"

A balding man coughed to attract their attention. He wore a theatre attendant uniform and was very clearly there to help guests.

"Sir-" the man gave a very obviously dissatisfied scan of Jonah's clothing by looking him up and down, while just barely glancing at Clara behind him.

"This is a suit and tie event. I will have to ask you to leave and change before coming back." the attendant explained while motioning towards the door's exit.

*Slap* "OH DAMN!" Jonah slapped his forehead loudly, before running out of the Grandarium. Clara followed after him, confused, but she felt herself smiling at the situation.

5 Minutes later, Jonah and Clara returned wearing puffy and old fashion suit and dress, which obviously didn't fit them. Clara's dress was a bit too tight and Jonah's frilly suit was clearly a size too big. Outside the Grandarium, the previous owners of the filly suit and dress were unconscious. They were a pair of rude rich people, and Jonah had no problem with 'borrowing' their formal clothing. On their bodies, laid a neatly drawn I.O.U with Jonah's signature and a small smiley face.

Jonah and Clara joined the shortened line after they adjusted their new formal attire in the bathroom mirrors. The line had shrunk and it was only another 5 minutes wait until it was Jonah and Clara's turn to enter the Grandarium and get their seats for the performance. The seats they were placed in were on the second-floor balcony with plenty of good views of the stage.

On the stage was a large and beautiful obsidian black piano where the performance would no doubt be. There were also rows of similar vases placed around the stage with tulips inside them. They circled the lone piano on the stage, giving the illusion of a pentagram drawn with the piano at the center out of flower vases. The surrounding audience was whispering excitedly about the upcoming performance.

"Why are there so many tulips?" Clara asked, confused.

"Do you feel there's anything dangerous about them?" Jonah whispered back.

"No, it's just something I don't understand," Clara just shook her head.

Jonah took out a small pamphlet from the front entrance. It was an information pamphlet that contained descriptions and an index of the show to be performed. He opened it to the first page and skimmed it, until finding the description about the tulips. He pointed to the description and handed the pamphlet to Clara, not bothering to explain it himself.

Clara took it and found the reason for the tulips. A requiem is a mass or song for the dead, and the tulips here represented a blooming song in death, placed in a circle representing the circle of life. She continued reading about it, with interest. She tried to strike up a few conversations about it with Jonah, but he seemed disinterested so she could only set the pamphlet aside and wait for the start of the show.

Finally, the lights dimmed and an announcer came out on the center stage. He had a neatly trimmed beard and wore the attendant attire.

"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I am happy to announce the opening of the Requiem Artisty. Presented by The Grandarium of Doli City. Thank you for your patronage of the arts." The announcer bowed after the short introduction, followed by soft applause from the audience.

The announcer left the stage and a man walked onto it shortly after. He faced the crowd, bowed once, and waved, before sitting at the piano. However, Clara felt a different reaction to seeing the man, she felt her danger senses flare up. She immediately told Jonah.

"It's him! I can feel he will bring great danger." Clara whispered to Jonah.

Jonah nodded and closed his eyes. He called out Boldly Go once again and sent it to float over to the piano. He wanted to find out what exactly this man was going to do, if there was a supernatural power of some kind that would happen when he played music, or if he had some scheme. But Boldly Go couldn't find any evidence of the man being aware of what he was doing, he looked too calm and composed. He seemed to be a normal performer.

Just as he thought there was nothing wrong with this man, and perhaps Clara had made a mistake, he caught a dangling pendant on his wrist. It had a beautiful emerald green skull on it, which had engravings of some strange symbols. If there was one thing Jonah had learned during the Battle of the Pinnacles, never trust strange symbols or ancient artifacts! So without hesitation, Jonah commanded Boldly Go to steal the pendant remotely.

Unfortunately, something happened right at the moment he took action. The pianist pressed the first key on the piano, causing a small gust of wind to sweep out from him, almost unnoticeable. Boldly Go felt that it had hit a barrier when it attempted to steal the pendant. Not only that but there was a recoil and Jonah felt his wrist ache in pain as if it had hit a scalding hot iron.

"Jo-Jonah, I'm afraid it's gotten worse," Clara's eyes widened, staring at the pianist. Her hands were clenched white and she was unconsciously shaking.

"Ding* Ding* Ding* Dinng*" The piano echoed in the room as the song started. The audience fell into a trance-like state, enjoying the sound of the piano.

Jonah didn't feel much of anything and stood up directly from his seat. He couldn't let this go on any longer, he had confirmed there was something wrong with the pianist. He glanced at Clara, who now was struggling between lucid thinking and empty trance-like eyes. He took a deep breath and channeled ripple into his hands, pressing them on the sides of Clara's head. He transferred a small amount of ripple to her, to keep herself somewhat safe from the trance-like state.

Jonah watched as a ghost-like person started to condense on the stage, it had beautiful emperor's robes, but the face was a rotting skeleton. It was standing with its arms raised while looking at the audience, floating above the piano at the center of the tulips.

"Finally, someone I can punch." Jonah smiled and used ripple to help him channel and enhance his legs, letting him leap down from the second floor and onto the stage handsomely.

He posed back to back with his stand Boldy Go and pointed at the floating thing arrogantly.

"You have nowhere to run, give up skeleton!"

"Ureeeaaaaaa~ Ahuey Mees" The rotting skeleton hissed out some unknown words, but it looked like it was clearly amused. The pianist continued to play his solo as if he couldn't tell about any of this happening around him.

*Clap*

The rotting skeleton clapped its hands, causing the audience members to stand up one by one and look at Jonah, while in a trance. The skeleton then lay in the air, as if watching a show and enjoying popcorn while floating above the piano.

Jonah threw a punch enhanced with Hammon, but the barrier around the piano protected both the pianist and the strange skeleton creature.

"Jonah! Help!" Clara had woken up from the trance and was surrounded by the audience members.

"Boldly Go! Reverse Self!" Without any hesitation, Jonah used Boldly Go's ability, targeting himself.

Boldly Go dove inside Jonah's head and disappeared, before it reemerged looking like the opposite of Jonah. It had black skin, red eyes, white hair, and pretty much everything else was reversed. It looked around the room and glanced at Jonah with contempt.

"What troublesome thing, I just want to nap." It said with annoyance.

"You can nap later. Go help Clara, Honaj" Jonah demanded with a stern expression.

"Whatever," Honaj replied with a lazy expression. He climbed up to the second floor again and stood next to Clara.

Clara's eyes were wide and confused.

"Y-you are Jonah? You're black!" She stuttered out.

"Yeah? And? And don't compare me with that idiot. I'm Honaj." Honaj replied, before knocking out an audience member with a ripple attack.

"This would be so much easier if that idiot let me kill them," Honaj muttered to himself.

...

Meanwhile, Jonah was currently fighting against the swarm of zombie-like audience members on the bottom floor. The most troublesome of which, was actually the theatre attendants that remained inside the theatre during the performance. They were well-trained in fighting and Jonah noticed that one, in particular, was abnormally strong. His punches would crack the walls and ground when he hit them. Jonah knew he would die if he was hit once by this man's punch.

"Hehehaha~~" The rotting skeleton creature was enjoying the show quite happily.

As the pianist progressed in his performance, the audience members seemed to be aging ever so slightly, while the skeleton was looking more and more alive. Jonah was first to notice this and needed to figure out a way to break through the shield protecting the piano before it was too late.

"I am Jonah Joestar and I never lose!" Jonah shouted loudly with a bright smile on his face.

Despite the overwhelming odds, Jonah was laughing happily. Yes, this was him. This is what he lived for, this is his element and this skeleton creature made a big mistake. Never give Jonah Joestar an adventure worth smiling about.

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Author's Note:

Here is a cliffhanger, sorry not sorry.

Find out what happens next time tomorrow on JoJo Bizarre Hunter.