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"KILLER QUEEN! BITES THE DUST!"
The wind howled in Josuke Higashikata's ears as he trudged slowly through the knee-high snow. His thoughts were muddled and he couldn't remember how he had gotten here. It was supposed to be the end of summer, what had happened? He was bleeding, how had he gotten hurt? (What was that?What had Kira done?)
His thoughts were interrupted as his left leg gave out from under him. He was saved from face planting in the snow by his stand, its grip firm yet hesitant, as if trying not to aggravate his wounds, and honestly he felt kind of thankful as to that, because right now his everything hurt and the cold was not helping.
He got back onto his feet, and just as he did his stand faded into nothingness. It wasn't like he didn't want to see Crazy Diamond, but its presence just meant that he would be feeling the freezing cold from two bodies, and he was barely handling it as it was right now.
He peered through the flurry of stark white flakes, squinting in a futile attempt to see further than 3 feet ahead of himself, trying to find some indication of civilisation that he could head to. Preferably before he became a Jo-sicle. Was he even in Morioh anymore? In Japan? (What had Kira done?)
He kept moving forward, shivering as he tried to draw himself deeper into his gakuran. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foo-
The ice below his feet slid out from underneath him, and he tumbled to the side, spinning down a slope that he would have seen had it not been for this goddamn snow. Tumbling head over heels, he cried out as he slid down the perfect white hillside.
He found himself lying on his back, whole body filled with a dull ache that was slowly fading as the pain was gradually replaced by numbness. He was pretty sure that was a bad thing though, so he would prefer the pain. Josuke just lay there for a few seconds, blinking up at the dark night sky, watching the flurry of snow come screaming down from the heavens.
He knew he had to get up.
He was so tired.
(He couldn't let it end here.)
Crazy Diamond manifested at his side yet again, a look of... concern? On its face. His stand hoisted him up, and a pained yelp left him as a sharp stabbing pain shot through his shoulder and down his arm. Damn, he thought to himself, broken, probably.
A small shining light caught his eye, only for a brief split-second. It was enough.
He craned his neck to peer through the layer of trees separating him from his possible salvation. He suddenly felt frantic, what was the cause? A car, or something else? His best hope, whatever it was.
He ignored the burning numbness worming itself deeper inside his body and began the arduous process of moving forwards. A small niggling voice at the back of his head was warning him that something was wrong, and it was loud enough that it almost drowned out the even smaller voice that was telling him something was familiar about this whole thing.
Josuke breached the treeline to find himself on a snow logged road. His limbs felt as if they were made of lead, his breathing was coming out in harsh pants and his thoughts were sluggish as they passed through his head.
He blinked the snow out of his watering eyes, looking towards the green-grey blur that was the sole car on the highway. Wait.
He had to be hallucinating.
He knew that car. He knew this scene.
He had to be hallucinating.
Josuke watched, uncomprehending, as the Tomoko Higashikata of twelve years prior slammed her hands onto the edges of her steering wheel in frustration, forehead pressed firmly against it. Anger and distress warred in her eyes as she turned her head towards the passenger seat, looking at someone he couldn't see from this angle, but knew intimately.
This wasn't possible. Or was it? Jotaro could stop time with his stand, and Kira could rewind it. (Kira kira kira hurry) But this wasn't like anything he had seen nor heard of before, so what exactly...?
There was a flash of movement in the distance. Far away enough that he shouldn't have caught it, but he did anyway. All of a sudden his heart was pounding lightning fast in his chest, his head was filled with static and the small warning voice from earlier had upgraded from a whisper to a shriek. He barely realised that he had stumbled forward from where he had been standing in the shadows at the side of the road until his legs began to scream at him in agony.
He found himself staring into the wing mirror of the small green car, looking directly into the eyes of his mother.
The harried-looking Tomoko whipped her head back around to look at him. Was this really happening?
"Who are you?" She called out, stress clear in her voice, "Go away!"
He hesitated. He faintly remembered this moment back from when he was a kid, but..
He caught another sharp movement from the far distance, closer this time. His heart rate spiked without him knowing why, and words tumbled out of his mouth.
(GET THEM AWAY)
"That kid is sick, right? I'll push your car for you." Josuke mentally patted himself on the back for managing to sound way more put together than he was currently feeling right about now.
Another flash, closer yet again. A sense of urgency pressed up against him, and he yanked off his gakuran, placing it under the wheels of the vehicle.
"Hurry up and step on the gas," he urged, as Crazy Diamond manifested beside him, ready to do most of the hard work in pushing the car, because he really fucking couldn't right about now.
He could see movement out of the corner of his eye at this point. Whatever it was, it was coming this in direction. Shit.
"Once you get moving," he said, eyes shadowed by his hair, openly roaming the side of the road for any threat, "don't stop. Just keep going- " Because you're in danger, he wants to say. "Or your tires will get stuck in the snow again." Is what comes out of his mouth. (Don't want to lose you again--)
His mom, (fuck, he's going to miss her. What?) smart woman that she is, nods her head firmly in acceptance, lips pressed into a thin line, the only sign of worry she feels for this stranger, bleeding in the snow, shown by the way her brow creases as she looks in the wing mirror. And then she floors it. Josuke uses Crazy Diamond to push the car, gritting his teeth at the effort it takes to keep his stand manifested.
There's a snap noise from the side of the road, and Josuke pushes harder.
The car comes unstuck with a jolt, and goes flying off into the night. Far faster than he would be able to keep up with. Far faster that Kira can keep up with.
Josuke stands there, watching the small lights on the vehicle fade away into darkness. His breath is coming out in ragged, uneven bursts and try as he might he just can't seem to stop himself from shivering violently. Crazy Diamond is standing by his side, glaring at, at, well, he's not actually quite sure what the thing standing on the side of the road is anymore, but-
It's his enemy, and that's what counts.
The thing that used to be both Yoshikage Kira and his stand Killer Queen steps forward, body hunched in on itself, -or maybe that's just what it looks like normally now?-. A slightly hysterical part of Josuke's mind that along with the rest of him hasn't quite remembered how he got here, notes that the Kira-Queen has three arms, two pink ones on each side, and one made of flesh that was almost as pale white as the snow surrounding them.
The creature snarls at him, stand-human hybridization of a face twisting into something ugly, something that looks so, so alien yet so familiar. Hate paints every inch of its expression, and it raises one of its pink hands, the only one on its left side, as if reaching out to grab him.
His mind is moving as fast as it can, but with the internal temperatures he's currently running at that's not really saying much, it's enough to make him recall the memories that have been eluding him, remembering, finally, how he got here, and while he should be angry, should be more enraged than when someone insults his hair, all he feels is cold and tired and sad.
He just wishes he said more to his mom, seeing her (a version of her) again so soon after losing her.
Kira-Queen breaks the tension by launching itself towards him, the human muscles on its legs -that weren't obscured by a ripped purple suit- tensing oddly around the areas where stand met flesh.
Crazy Diamond tenses in front of him, pulling an arm far back, ready to strike as soon as the murderer stepped into range.
Kira-Queen manoeuvres around Crazy Diamond, contorting itself, all of itself, (human body parts should not move like that, fused to a stand or no,) around his stand in a graceful manner that no creature should be able to possess, and lunges towards him.
He throws himself backwards, landing on his side, and shutting his eyes he screams, because it's the side with the broken shoulder and the pain is somehow made worse by the probable-frostbite, he scrambles to his feet as Crazy Diamond steps toward Kira-Queen but the snow in front of it explodes upwards with a wave of heat that has Josuke physically recoiling, despite only feeling a ghost sensation of heat from his stand.
Fuck, he thinks, because there isn't really anything else to say. It can detonate the snow it's touched somehow, and this fight has just gotten that much harder.
He's seeing the abomination through his stand's eyes, Crazy Diamond keeping an unblinking glare set on it, but when he opens his own a wave of nausea surges up. This is literally the worst time to get a headache from stand-sight conflicting with his own.
The monster goes stock still, and then bends over on itself.
(no)
A sickly green glow comes from its midsection, casting out an ominous light onto the snow surrounding it. The flurry of snowflakes seems to intensify, highlighted by the green light the raging blizzard looks like it's filled with demons trying to claw their way out of hell.
(NOT AGAIN)
He can't let what's going to happen, happen.
He lunges.
.....
..........
.....
Josuke first realises something is wrong when he lays his hand on the doorknob.
He's alone, he knows that. He had waved goodbye to Koichi a few streets back, wishing the guy good luck on his date with Yukako, and honestly sometimes he pitied the guy for gaining the attention of such an.... intense woman.
It's too quiet all of a sudden, it was fairly peaceful but this seems unnatural. Had mom gone out?
He takes his hand off the doorknob and what little sound he had been previously hearing rushes back. The sound of someone's TV being played way too loud, some kids laughing at the end of the street, birds chirping at each other from rooftops.
Hand back on the handle, and its like he's put industrial-strength earmuffs on. All is silent.
Crazy Diamond is by his side immediately as he opens the door, as slowly and as quietly as he can. Just because he can't seem to hear any background noise doesn't mean that whatever is causing this (an unknown stand user, surely,) can't.
He spies blood on the floor and all thoughts of stealth abandon him as he sprints down to the kitchen, down to where the blood trail leads to, and- oh god- mom-
The interior of the kitchen was darker than it had any right to be, the only light in coming not from the windows, but instead from a figure hunched in the middle of the room. Josuke's breath caught in his throat as he saw the body that the person was hunched over, the body that was missing its arms from the elbows downwards. "Mom," he gasped out, tears budding in his eyes as he took in this- this impossibility.
The crouched figure turns towards him, and all Josuke could think was 'No. You can't be-' before the green light shining from the- the creature started to burn and he lost consciousness.
.....
..........
.....
Kira-Queen tries to jump away from him, to buy time for an attack that, if the stand-human could name it, would probably ruin yet another Queen song for him. But that's neither here nor there, as Josuke is enraged.
Crazy Diamond rushes to appear by his side, fists already swinging and a roaring cry of 'DORA!' rushing from its mouth. Kira-Queen jerks as the punches come flying, it frantically reaches towards him, fingertips on it's mismatched hands glowing burning white. Crazy Diamond doesn't let it have the chance, and with a scream of rage, rips its two functioning arms off of its mutated body.
The final arm, the pink one on the right side of its body, the one that has remained stationary until this point, lashes out at him, and he's not sure if he imagines a slight brush on the inside of his wrist.
Crazy Diamond roars out one final cry, and the abomination is sent flying several meters away from Josuke. He feels sick to his stomach and falls to his knees as the life feels like its been sucked out of him. His stand demanifests as the numbness comes back, bringing with it muscles that shiver so badly they're starting to seize up.
Which is probably a bad sign for his continued health, he thinks, as he sluggishly blinks at Kira-Queen, his brain falling off of the adrenaline rush and crashing far harder than it had been before.
The Abomination is dying, its whole body is fading away into small motes of darkness, which dissipate before they can even float more than a few feet away.
He's so tired.
He sees it look him in the eyes, gaze containing just as much rage as he had been feeling just prior, seemingly endless hatred pooling in its mismatched glare.
Its hand twitches. Its thumb rises.
Josuke Higashikata feels so, so cold.
It takes all the effort he can muster to say "I'm sorry guys," as he thinks of his friends. The human-stand abomination lets out something that may generously be called a wheezing laugh, before its head starts to disintegrate, and its thumb falls.
Josuke Higashikata is exhausted, and all he wants to do is sleep.
Click.