The Ludicrous Escapade Pt.2

Plenty of Internal Screaming

The next morning you stood in front of the mangaka's house, confused. You barely remembered waking up and yet somehow you had managed to walk all the way there. The front door was open, though. Your feet seemed to move on their own, bringing you inside the home against your better judgement. Even though your instincts seemed to scream at you to run away, you found yourself climbing up the staircase and eventually you arrived in his studio.

You saw Rohan hunched over his desk under the light of a single candle and a small lamp. He was scribbling away frantically, as if he were afraid his thoughts could leave at any moment. He came to a sudden stop at the creaking of the floorboards under your feet. He smiled and turned to face you, "I'm glad you came. You're right on time."

You tilted your head to the side, still not entirely sure what was going on, "Did you ask me to come back yesterday or something?"

"No, no. But could I ask you to wait a little while? Two more pages and I'll be done with the manuscript for next week. I think I'll be finished in about twenty minutes." He set the two pieces of paper in front of him on the desk as he dipped his pen into the inkwell.

You thought for sure that you had misheard him. Especially since you had just read the manuscript for this week yesterday. To already be almost done with the one for next week, it just seemed impossible. His pen etched quickly across the page, each movement precise and calculated, "Y-You're not going to use pencil first?!" He didn't seem to care much for your question as he lifted the pen off the paper and angled it before firing the ink out like bullets. Was this what the skill of a true mangaka was like? In only two minutes he had already finished the beta of the first big panel.

Rohan let out a breathy laugh as he turned out to face you. Some slight perspiration seemed to have formed from just how much he was working, "It's all thanks to you, (Y/N). The urge to work keeps welling within me. I want to draw so bad, I can't help it! I just want to draw!" He started pulling out brushes, glancing at them as he spoke to you, "This is the first time I've been able to draw nineteen pages in one night! I'm drawing a masterpiece right now! Your experiences are amazing! And there are just so many of them! It's because I'm using your experience as the source of my story, (Y/N)!" He took the brushes and held them all in one hand to create streaks along the background in one fluid motion. He held up a piece of paper that seemed to resemble the shape of your own face, "Hurry! I want your next reality! Let me see your next page! The more pages I take, the more weight you'll lose, but you don't care, right? You're going to live forever anyway and I know how much you respect me, don't you feel honored to also be able to live forever within the masterpiece I'm making?"

You took a step back, "Wait, I don't... what...?" Then your face started to peel open again. All at once, the memories of everything that happened yesterday came flooding back. "No, Heaven's Door! You're a Stand user!"

He closed in on you and ripped out another page, "Hey now... I've managed to make a book from a single panel rather than an entire work! This is amazing! I'm growing as a manga artist and as a Stand user! I'm going to read this now, (Y/N). You can just sit on that chair over there while you wait. I'm certain that I'll want more." You still stood frozen in place, "There's no need to be shy. I'd say we already have quite the intimate connection already. I know things about you that you don't even want to admit to yourself, much less those little friends of yours."

He greedily read the words printed along his new page as he continued with his work. You had eventually taken him up on his offer of the chair as you managed to get out of your dazed state. When the aforementioned twenty minutes had passed, Rohan leaned back into his own chair. His chest rose and fell as he calmed down from his exhilaration.

"It's done!" He straightened up the small stack of papers on his desk. He stood up and stretched his arms, his back popping a few times as he gave a satisfied sigh. His eyes fell back on you, "As you know, I always thought that an assistant would simply get in the way. Although, I feel like all my energy needs to be focused on writing while I have all this inspiration, so obviously I'll need someone to prepare meals, clean the house, et cetera."

You gave a nervous sort of laugh, "W-Wait, you aren't saying that you want me to-"

He cut you off, "You'll bring any essentials tomorrow and take up the spare bedroom. It's more efficient to have you closer, anyway. Plus it lowers the risk of someone ever figuring out what's going on."

"N-No! I'm not going to stay here with you!"

"I don't recall giving you a choice in this matter. By the time you leave this house you'll have forgotten all about this conversation and simply carry out my orders as I've written them. And you won't run away." And you didn't, you couldn't. For the next several hours that he spent pouring over every word etched across your papers, you couldn't manage to make yourself budge a single muscle. Then the doorbell rang.

Rohan pulled back from you to peak through the blinds of his studio. The sun had already set so the only light that peaked in was from his porch lamps, "Oh? Star Platinum's Jotaro, Crazy Diamond's Josuke, and The Fool's Iggy. How curious. My guess is that the dog tracked you here." He glanced back over to you, "Well, what are you waiting for? Go tell them that everything's fine."

So you stood up and walked slowly down the stairs and then approached the front door swinging it open to the three of them with a smile, "Hey, guys! What's up?"

"Santana called." Grumbled Jotaro. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, sorry about that. Rohan-Sensei has just been showing me his process for making manga. It's very interesting." You crouched down in front of Iggy, "I'm sorry for worrying you and your buddy. But really, everything's fine right now. I'll be home in maybe another hour."

Josuke nodded along, "Oh, he's the author of the manga that you like, huh? Well, sorry for bothering you."

They seemed to buy the lie as you were mentally screaming at yourself while you shut the door behind him and just walked straight back up the steps. You felt somewhat shaky, still despising the feeling of not being in control of your own body. You walked back into the study where Rohan was waiting with a rather obvious smirk on his face as you took your seat again on the chair next to his desk.

But the smirk soon faded, "Someone's coming into this mansion! What did you do downstairs just now, (Y/N)?"

"I didn't do anything! You know that!"

A flurry of sand spilled in through the window crack and pushed it open, Iggy jumping inside. You weren't sure whether or not to be elated or terrified, at first. As much as you wanted to cry out for him to shut his eyes, you couldn't say anything that would put Rohan at a disadvantage.

"Oh, it's just your little mutt. I have no interest in it, but now I guess I have no choice but to make it into material, too." Iggy leaped for the manga artist, only for his arm to dash out at incredible speed for his finished manuscript, placing it in view of the dog. Iggy unraveled in spirals, entirely immobilized. Rohan looked over at the doorway, "Josuke and Jotaro. You're there, aren't you?" There was no movement, but you didn't doubt that he was right. He nudged Iggy aside with his foot, "Answer this for me, (Y/N). Why do you think they're both hiding behind that door there?"

"Because they don't want to see your manga..."

He gave you a rather mocking pat on the head, "That's right, I'd expect nothing less from you. I was able to trick Iggy because he didn't know about Heaven's Door. Unfortunately, that led the others to know about who I really am. On that point, I feel I'm seriously, no, without a doubt, put at a very big disadvantage. Not only are there two of them, but one can stop time, even if only for a second." He let out a sigh and leaned into the palm of his hand, "I'm sure the two of them will try and come up with some sort of plan to take me down together. I'll just need to disrupt that. I think I recall reading something about that Josuke fellow. Let's see..."