Jojo's : A Bizarre Journey

A/N: Happy New Year to everyone, I wanted this chapter to come out earlier, but then I wouldn't have a chapter ready for the new year. I hope that everyone can spend at least a short moment with their loved ones.

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I lied.

The train station wasn't interesting. I only went there to see if a train could take us to Guiza, so I'm thinking about it the next day since I'm bored.

The three most popular pyramids are in Guiza, so I thought it would be a good place to start looking for the stand arrows.

In Egypt's culture, the deceased were buried with treasures that they could use once they got to the other side. This also applies to the pharaoh. In other words, the most valuable and important treasures will be buried with the body of the ruler of Egypt.

One of those treasures could perfectly be one of the stand arrows.

I need to secure them.

After that, I'll just have to wrap things quickly in here.

And once I'm finished, I'll have to find an excuse to go to Italy. I already have the Aja stone, I just need the special mask that Kars had.

Of course, I won't awaken him, I'll just steal his mask.

I planned to suggest George visit Italy during Christmas, but now I'll need to forward my plans. This is due to most of my problems, none of which have anything to do with canon.

That duel with Atelia could have been light work if I had been the Ultimate Life Form.

Although...

I don't remember if the pillarmen were awakened by the Nazis meddling with them, or if they sensed them the moment they got inside.

If it's the former, then good. I'll make sure to not touch even an inch of their bodies.

If it's the latter, then bad. I'm nowhere close to the level of fighting prowess any of the pillarmen have.

Nothing and no one would be able to beat the pillarmen if they got out. Our only hope would be the people with stands that can fight, but even then, I wouldn't give them too much chance.

Less than a 10% chance of winning against one of them. And nonexistent once we kill one of them and they figure out that we can wield an unknown power.

"Grah!"

Oh, the reason why I'm bored just choked herself with nothing.

"Cough, Cough!"

"Did you just audibly say that?"

"Dude, I need your attention over here"

"For what? You seem to be doing nice"

Atelia groans, takes a deep breath, and if you squint your eyes...

You still wouldn't see even a spark of Hamon around her

"I can't do this!"

"Yes, you can" I tell her with incredible amounts of emotion emanating from my voice.

"Alright. Dude. There's gotta be a way of going around all of that ¨Feel the nature around you¨ bullcrap"

If you still haven't figured it out, then let me tell you what is going on.

Atelia is following my directions in the best way that she can. Unfortunately, it's not enough, as after two hours of training, she still can't produce one spark of Hamon.

"Well, there is something. I've never used it, but it could work to give you a feeling of how Hamon works"

"Alright, let's do that!"

"It will hurt a bit"

"That's fine, I expected it"

I walk over to her.

"Alright, do me a favor and grab your diaphragm with both of your hands"

"You mean like this?" She puts her fingers under the said organ and lets her hands rest on her chest.

She's not wearing exactly the same clothing as she did when I first met her, but something similar. No cloak and her clothes cover more space, but it's mostly the same.

So I get access directly to her abdomen, a little below the diaphragm.

 "Yes, like that"

I'm not thinking about this moment in any inappropriate way, as I'm 13 in this body, but it makes me wonder if she trusts me that much, or just doesn't think about me that way.

"What now?" She asks.

"Relax the abdomen and prepare for the pain"

At the end of the day, the result doesn't change. She's not looking at this scene in a sexual way, so it's easier for me if I don't wonder about it too much.

She relaxes her abdomen but tenses her arms in preparation. 

I take a deep breath, charging up a little bit of Hamon into my arm. Focusing it in the hand.

More specifically, the pinky finger.

"You can move after I hit you"

I extend it in front of her abdomen.

"Here it comes" I warn.

And hit her.

The effects are immediate as she loses her breath, and some sparks of Hamon run across her body, making it shine It shines brighter in certain places, such as the legs, knees, and elbows.

She's gasping for air and flaunting her arms around, but it worked.

What I did just now was the technique that Zeppeli wanted to use on Speedwagon, it was something about hitting the abdomen and reaching the diaphragm so that the affected could produce Hamon momentarily.

I remembered this when Atelia dragged me out of my room into a secluded corner of the garden to learn about Hamon (How was she allowed in here?), so I had to reconstruct it from the result.

And it worked out just fine.

"Cough Cough"

"Seriously, stop saying that"

"That was Hamon?"

"What else could it be?"

...

..

...

"You know when you said that you would be teaching me your martial arts, I expected a lot of things, but this wasn't one of them" I said, correcting my jumping posture.

It's now her turn, now that I instructed her in the basics of Hamon, she's instructing me in the basics of her nameless martial art.

"It's a pretty basic thing" She said while looking at me from the stone I sat at while I was the teacher. 

I think I should doubt her.

But unfortunately, I'm beginning to see the energy in my body.

She's not wrong, actually. This is a pretty basic thing.

I'm doing acrobatics, anything that has to do with spins.

Small 180° spins, 360° spins, somersaults, souls-like rolls, ballet...

As much as I can in this environment without any materials.

She corrects my form occasionally, saying that I need to spin this way instead of the other. She also says that I need to follow a path to spin so that my spins work in the way that I want them to, so that I can feel the energy. I don't even know what that means.

What is this energy? No one knows. What is this path? No one knows.

"When I was learning this, I always got told to ¨Feel¨ the path, young me thought that was dumb, but really, it's just about feeling the path" She said when I asked her about it.

"How did you feel it for the first time?"

"Well, I was getting attacked by a bear, so I did it by instinct"

Oh god, not this situation.

Awakening your hidden power in an ¨All or nothing¨ situation is a trope that I really don't like. Not to be confused with ¨Using a power to the maximum and facing consequences after the fight ends¨ situation.

"I would prefer not to be in such a situation anytime soon, so you got any other advice"

"Hmmmm..." She thought about this for a little, putting her knuckles under her chin and stopping her practice of Hamon.

"Focus on the instinct part" Was the conclusion she arrived at.

"Explain"

"From the little that I've seen about you, I would say that one of your best aspects is the incredible amount and quality of instinct that you use when fighting, mixed in with the thoughts that you have in the fight"

She took a small breath and continued.

"Your fighting style works as a mix of great instinct and great planning, so you should put aside that logical part of your brain and use your instinct to feel the path"

She complements her explanation with her hands.

"The instinct is something more accurate than knowledge, more reliable than luck, and more fast than effort"

"It's got you this far, trust it a little."

...

"...faster"

"What?"

That was cool, but I don't want her to feel too cool.

"You said ¨More fast¨, the correct word is ¨Faster¨"

"..."

She threw me a rock.

Even as I looked away from her, I could perfectly imagine the expression on her face.

...

..

...

I have the feeling this will be a relaxed day.

Nothing to do and the little things that I have to do will be done in a short time with low effort.

Unfortunately, those feelings were mercilessly crushed by the arrival of Aethel at the breakfast table.

"The princess has given new orders" The devil said not a second after sitting down at the table that I was sharing with the only 2 other people around my age that I know.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Oh"

"Ok"

Ignoring our incredibly enthusiastic reactions, he took a small book from the bag hanging around his body and started reading.

"There may be a chance that someone related to the opposite faction of the prince arrives by the end of September, so in around a week, we need to be prepared for anything that may come up"

The trip by ship and train was a combined total of three days, so it's the fifth day of the third week of September.

We still didn't show much of a reaction, he didn't mind and started serving himself breakfast.

"By the way, I have zero knowledge of the royal relations and zero knowledge of the politics of the high powers of the kingdom in general, do you mind if I shoot some questions at you?"

He glanced briefly at me.

"Actually, I would also like a little resume of the situation we are in" Apolonia chipped in.

He looked at Apolonia.

"Me too" Atelia also helped.

He looked at Atelia and sighed.

"Alright, start with the questions"

I already have what questions to say in my mind.

"The way that you and the princess have mentioned him, we only need to worry for Prince Albert to go against Jane, not any of the other royals" 

What's with that? Are they already taken care of?

"They were already taken care of"

Wait, I was right?

"Explain"

I have a feeling he wanted to sigh again but refrained himself from doing so.

"The five other princesses are already out of the succession race. And out of the five princes, three are out. There only remains Prince Albert and Prince Eduard, who is being targeted by Prince Albert and will soon "

"What do you mean by ¨Out of the race¨?" It was Apolonia's turn to ask.

"When they surrender against one of the other contenders, in any way, shape, or form"

"Are they dead or something?" Atelia's turn.

"No, two princesses gave up from the start, one prince and one princess gave up in the middle after seeing the full responsibilities of the throne, the others were forced into submission by the participants"

My turn; "How dangerous is Prince Albert?"

"Very dangerous, he is characterized by his manipulation tactics and ruthless methods of attack. He will stop at nothing on his way to the throne."

If I were to put it in fictional terms, then he is the evil prince who has good reasons to aim for the throne, but he does it in a cruel and bad way so we can't root for him. Then he dies not before leaving a grand speech about his motives or way of living about how he had an objective and he doesn't regret doing all of his sins for said objective or something.

"Do you think he will attack us or our families?" Apolonia asks, with concern on her face.

This has already happened to her, and now that I think about it. I haven't told her that the princess said that the prince was targeting her.

"Definitely, his influence spans across most of the world, especially in places where the United Kingdom has more power. And I don't think I need to answer the latter part, as you already experienced it"

"So it was him..."

Her face is completely devoid of emotion, but that only makes her scarier.

Trying to ignore it, Atelia asks, "What is the opinion of the princess towards the prince?"

Atelia's question makes him stop eating, he pauses for a moment before putting his elbow on the armrest of his chair and supporting his chin between his index and middle finger, while placing his thumb under the index.

"That's...something inconsequential to us. I understand you're worried about the case in which she wins the race and makes a lackluster decision about his fate, but she has already taken care of other contendants, such as..."

He kept talking and talking a lot, overwhelming Atelia, even Apolonia snapped from her dark moment to look at him weirdly.

"...then by comparing the events that resulted in Princess Beatrice forfeiting, in the situation of our eventual victory, it's sure that she will make a decisive move against the prince, something to ensure that he never goes against her again"

"...ok" Atelia nodded absentmindedly.

If my understanding of Aethel's character is correct, then he's talking a lot because Atelia asked a question that concerned him, so he's trying to convince himself with the information that he currently has.

Let me ignore this, though. It's my turn to ask.

"Who are the people that are related to the prince? And which one is coming in a week?"

"While we don't know about the exact persons, we know that he has a guard that he keeps close to him at all times. Tall, broad, dark-skinned, and middle age. He isn't registered in any kind of organization and always wears something to cover his face. That and some other reasons is why the other contestants called him ¨The Knight of Shadows¨"

Humm, I don't really like that nickname, seems a little edgy. Using ¨Knight¨ was cool, but using ¨Shadow¨ is pushing it too far into the theme.

"As a side note, the prince is sometimes called ¨The Shadow of the Kingdom¨"

Never mind, it's really cool.

It uses the nickname of his master in his own!

That's amazing.

Atelia also agrees with me if her nods are anything to go by.

While Apolonia doesn't want to show it, I know that she also thinks it's cool.

"And about the ones coming here, we don't know anything about them, just that they are four, three men and one woman. We do know, however, that they are focusing on getting something that appears to be some type of relic from ancient Egypt"

He searched in his bag for a moment before taking a picture.

I looked at the picture. 

And froze where I sat at.

"We speculate that he's targeting this thing to offer it to someone with big financial power..."

He explained the purpose and reasons why they may want this artifact, but I wasn't listening.

In the picture was some sort of casket or container. Blue and with intricate designs that even with one look you could decipher as Egyptian.

But I wasn't focused on the casket.

I was focused on what appeared at the side of the picture.

"Hey, Aethel, who took this picture? Or who gave it to you?" I inquired, trying to keep my voice as calm as possible.

"I don't know who took this picture, but the princess gave it to me so that we didn't blindly charge to obtain a ¨Blue Egyptian container¨" Thankfully, he didn't care or notice my nervousness.

"What about the objects that appear at the side of the picture? What are they?"

"Oh, those are collection items"

"What do you mean?"

"Actually, this is something that is related to the motive why he wants this"

Everyone focuses on his words, more than we were doing before.

"I don't know who took this picture, but I know where this is, I have been there before. It's at the ¨Vault¨ of one of the many collectors that like to recover antiques"

He searches in his bag before taking a small notebook and showing it.

"These are the many artifacts that said collector has recovered and is currently keeping them as far from risk as possible"

I'm trying to be as nonchalant as possible, but this is making it hard.

Because I just got hit with many questions and worries, all of them coming from what I saw at the sides of the picture and the drawings Aethel just showed me.

What did you see? I hear you ask.

I saw a stone mask right next to our mission objective.

What does this even mean to my objective of examining the pyramids?

Shit.

...

..

...

Breakfast ended shortly after that, with Aethel explaining to us our new objective.

This one is rather simple, It's not about ¨Showing results¨ anymore.

We just have to obtain the casket.

I have a personal theory that goes about our objective is this one from the start, but told us to show results as a means to see if we were prepared or something like that.

I also have no proof for this, so ignore me.

Anyway, that's the reason why we are currently in the auction house, examining every corner and Aethel is investigating what will be auctioned.

I think that those things aren't done here, but this auction house is big, more than a theater, and those things are really big in this era. My point is that I don't know anything about this and Aethel seems to be the expert, so I'll just do my job.

Apolonia is using her stand to see through walls and check in places where Atelia and I can't, while we both are constantly looking around to see if we catch someone eyeing us suspiciously.

If we do, we will nicely ask him or her to come with us to chat about not telling anyone about our business.

She didn't find anything out of normal, so we returned to Aethel, who got the information we needed and was waiting outside.

"They will be auctioning the casket by the end of the first week of October, so we have time to make a plan" He told us as we started walking back to 

"And so will they" Added Apolonia, the ever so optimistical one.

"We just need to make a plan that takes that into consideration" Apparently Aethel already had a lot of experience dealing with the machinations of the prince, which isn't surprising as he is trusted by the princess, at least enough to have him as a guard when she met me.

Wait..., why is he with a bunch of newbies then?

"Hey, I'm just gonna throw this out there, but why does the princess want the casket in the first place? Does she know something about it?"

He looked reluctant to answer, probably because he wanted to say ¨That doesn't matter to us¨ but respecting that we were all, as I said, newbies; he answered at the end.

"She probably does, but even if she doesn't. She would know that it's not good when Albert's plans come to fruition"

"Well, then"

She didn't chase the question too much and Aethel seized the opportunity to change the theme.

"We will be provided with funds to win the auction for the casket. In case we don't win, we will need to steal it"

Typical auction hall plot.

Apolonia looked slightly uncomfortable with the notion of stealing something so blatantly, but Atelia didn't show any reaction besides a small nod.

"Can we assume that those four will also do so?" I asked.

"Yes we can, that's why we will steal it as silently and stealthy as possible. Who out of you three is confident in his stealth skills?" He addressed us, stopping his walk and turning to us three.

"I can do a bit of stealth, my skillset relies on precise movement after all" Atelia raised her hand like a child answering the question of a teacher.

"I have some proficiency in it" I also raised my hand.

"I have no experience" Apolonia said, slightly tightening her hand.

"Alright then, that means you two will steal the casket, while Apolonia and I will act as supports"

""Sure/Ok"" We answered.

Everyone remained silent after that until we arrived at the hotel and we had to dress up for lunch. 

Not before Atelia disappeared into the distance, as she realized she wasn't allowed to go into the Hotel.

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