Separate Ways/Worlds Apart (JJBA: Battle Tendency)

Chapter 5: Somethin' To Hide

Stretching her arms up over her head, Sharena let out a groan as her joints popped rather pleasantly. She had been at the corner café for near three hours now and the sun had long since set. Smokey having joined their party not long after they arrived was plopped down on a pulled-up chair, where he and her companion were now flipping through a catalogue. The blonde could only assume it was full of scams considering the only one the boys had shown her reminded her of an infomercial product, and so she sat there peacefully, just enjoying the calmness of the café, her mind adrift. This was of course until she began to notice two pairs of eyes on her. Moving her gaze to the two males she soon realized she could not meet their gaze, because it was on her chest. Her face burned crimson at the realization and their eyes kept moving from the magazine to her bosom. Joseph's eyebrows furrowed as he took another glance back at the catalogue and again at her.

Suddenly realizing her confusion and the increasing redness of her face, the young man flipped around the catalogue and pointed at an ad for bra pads. "Is this what women use to make them so perky and raised?" He asked with an almost innocent curiosity.

A loud screech rang through the cafe as Sharena's chair skidded back. She stood and glared at Joseph, face still red and opened her mouth to speak: "I honestly expected better from you, especially in public," she fumed. "Mrs. Erina would have a fit if she was here." Before anyone else could react the blonde was headed towards the door to leave.

The young man in question jumped up soon after, about to demand to know why his question caused such a problem — inevitably to admit defeat and beg her not to tell his grandmother— but just as he crossed the floor he suddenly stopped. His gaze shifted to the large street-facing window and his eyes narrowed. Without another world he pushed passed Sharena and through the door.

The blonde's eyes immediately met Smokey's, all animosity now replaced with utter confusion. Their gazes drawn to the window where they could just barely make out Joseph circling an onyx-haired male.

Outside Jojo had confronted the former monk known as Straizo, who was now rejuvenated in both body and mind by some dark power. The young Joestar had a feeling he knew what was going on now. Straizo's presence confirmed the story he had pieced together about Speedwagon's disappearance and, or death.

"Don't play dumb with me, bastard." He growled, his previous words doing nothing more than giving the other man a fang-filled smirk. Barely holding back tears at the sight of the one who caused his paternal figure's demise, Joseph was ready to go all out on him, but was interrupted.

"I don't care if we're in the city, Jojo. I will take your life before you awaken your abilities." The monster let out a gruff chuckle to accompany his words.

"Is that so?" Joseph replied. Unbeknownst to Straizo and the patrons in the cafe, the young brunette reached behind him for a weapon he had taken from one of the gangsters from earlier that day. Without another word he pulled a military-grade machine gun from behind his back and fired with no sense of what he was aiming at other than Straizo. Bullets tore through flesh with ease, decimating the cafe's open-faced window and inner furniture. The impact pushed the black-haired man back into the cafè where a dozen shocked civilians were now running around and screaming.

Sharena had bolted behind the bar when firing first began, at some point several other women had also joined her, one of them grabbing onto her as if her life depended on it. The blonde supposed that her shock-induced silence made the other young woman assume she would get her out alive, or they saw her sitting with the crazy man who had just destroyed most of the bistro and assumed she could grant them some sort of refuge when the rampaging Joestar continued his attack.