Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: A New Universe
Chapter 113: Watch Your Back
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With all the Stand powers that had been going around recently, Rohan decided it was a good idea to renovate his house in order to avoid further damage. In the meantime, he was checking the photos he took. He then noticed one of them had a boy holding a camcorder, and realized it had to be Riku, whom Kosaku's son had mentioned. He decided to contact him later. Just then he heard his doorbell. He looked out the window and saw a man standing there, leaning against the post of his front porch.
'I've never seen him before,' he thought. Rohan put the pictures aside and looked out the peephole of his front door. "Who is it?" The man leaned over but didn't leave his spot. "Hi, we talked on the phone earlier. I'm Masazo Kinoto, the realtor?" Rohan remembered that name. He was the one who was to come over to give an estimate on the remodeling. "Right, I nearly forgot that appointment was today," he said as he opened the door, "If you don't mind, I need to see a business card or ID first."
"Uh, yeah sure," Kinoto said as he dug through his pockets. As he did, Rohan activated Heaven's Door to take a peek at this man. "Sorry about this, but it's become a habit with all the enemies my allies and I have." He read through the pages. "Hmm... Well he is who is says he is. Job's legit, age is about right." He chuckled. "Trying to cheat me out of money, huh? Nice try. Wait, what's this?" One of the pages noted that Kinoto had an aversion to people seeing his back. "Well that explains his odd posture. People have the weirdest phobias these days."
He leafed through until the pages got blank, showing there were no more memories deeper in. "Well, he's not a Stand user. Or at least he doesn't know what a Stand is. Just in case I'll write down that he can't hurt me or any of my allies." He returned Kinoto to normal and headed back for the door. "Alright, c'mon in." Kinoto looked confused. "Um... I thought you needed my ID." "Nah, it's fine," Rohan said. "Oh," Kinoto replied, "Um, would you mind going in first and I'll just follow you?"
Rohan shrugged. "Sure." He entered the house, and noticed Kinoto was following in such a way that his back was kept to the wall. 'Oh my god, he really is afraid of people seeing his back.' Kinoto closed the door. "Okay, after you." Rohan noticed he was standing near the mirror with his back to it. Kinoto must have also realized it, because he quickly sidled over to the other side of the door. "Is there," Rohan said, "Something wrong with your back?" "No, no," Kinoto insisted, "I just prefer having something solid behind me."
'Golgo 13 anyone?,' Rohan thought to himself, 'Well, if he's not an enemy I don't care what weird habits he has. I mean, I'm certainly in no position to question them.' As they ran over the numbers, Rohan wound up dropping his pen near Kinoto, who literally flattened himself face-up on the floor to retrieve it. "So, if there's nothing wrong with you," Rohan said, "Then what's wrong with showing your back?" Kinoto shrugged. "Dunno... I've just never done it before." Now Rohan's curiosity was peaked.
Pinkie soon arrived at the house after Rohan called her. "So what's up?" "Under attack," Rohan said, his back in a corner and his ears covered, "New Stand. It's..." "It's a Stand that attaches to your back and was technically the Stand of the architect you contacted who had no idea and thought its whisperings were some sort of phobia and if anyone sees your back then it'll kill you and latch onto that person and now it's trying to get you to burn all your photos and will likely try to kill you once you've given in." She grinned.
Rohan blinked, his jaw having dropped. "And its name is Cheap Trick. How did you figure the rest out?" "Just a hunch," Pinkie said with a grin, "So where's the last guy's corpse?" "His name was Masazo Kinoto," Rohan said, "What's left of him should be on the third floor." Pinkie walked up and gasped. "Rohan you should see this guy! His back's open like a compartment and he's shrunk down to the size of a fetus! And no I am not even kidding!" "Personally I'm more surprised that she's even able to believe you," Cheap Trick said behind Rohan back. Rohan smirked. "I've long learned not to question Pinkie Pie." Pinkie proved his point by plugging his ears with some ACME Industrial Mufflers.
"So if this Stand wants you to burn the photos, then clearly there's something important in them... It must work for Yoshihiro!" She popped out her eyes with Smile's power. "Okay, I got an idea. I'm technically blind now so you can turn around." Rohan grinned. "I knew I could count on you, Pinkie." "Oh you gotta be kidding me!," Cheap Trick called out, "There's no way her Stand can-- What's that?" Pinkie had produced a special cartoon blanket that was designed to muffle and cover anything. She moved her eye across Rohan's back with no effect. "Is... Is she looking at me?," Cheap Trick asked, "I feel like she's looking at me but I can't see for certain."
He then got the sensation that they were moving. 'Now where are we going?,' Cheap Trick thought, 'They couldn't be taking me to Jotaro, could they? Well they're about to get a hard lesson. Since I'm hanging onto Rohan with my ability, anything they try will just rip Rohan's back right off. Even a Stand as powerful as Pinkie's couldn't do it.' "We're here," Pinkie said as she removed the blanket. Cheap Trick chuckled as he was looking right at her. "Well now you've slipped up. Taking off the blanket before you got Jotaro. Even if the blanket was invisible to everyone, it could still let them see Rohan's back without issue because I couldn't see who was looking. But now you've looked."
"And you need to look where you are," Pinkie said. Cheap Trick looked around. "Wait a minute... This is nowhere near the Grand Hotel." Rohan chuckled. "Exactly. And you just turned around. You see, in this alley, turning around spells doom." Pinkie grinned as a dark hole appeared behind Cheap Trick and Rohan. Ghostly hands phased through her, grabbing Cheap Trick and pulling him away harmlessly from Rohan. "This is the Ghost Alley," Rohan explained, "Those who look behind them when leaving have their soul removed. You may have latched onto me to make me your new user, but those hands can remove you without harming me. And since I still have Heaven's Door, I lose nothing."
"No! Let me go!," Cheap Trick pleaded, "Where are you trying to take me!?" "Hmm...," Pinkie wondered, "Was it Heaven or Hell?" "Personally I couldn't say if either exist," Rohan admitted as Heaven's Door appeared in front of Cheap Trick, "But let's do this just in case." Heaven's Door wrote that Cheap Trick would be sent to Hell. The diabolical Stand wailed in agony as it was pulled inside the dark hole. Once Rohan and Pinkie were safely out of the alley, they breathed a sigh of relief.
"What's going on here?," Reimi said as she approached, "When I heard the ghosts appear I feared the worst, but you two seem alright." "We made use of the alley to remove a troublesome foe," Rohan explained, "Someone that could only be defeated using the unique properties of the Ghost Alley." Reimi looked at the photos Rohan had. "This boy... There's a person in the picture with the same family name who meets the parameters you set. Takashi Yamashita." "Looks like it all fits," Rohan said, "The evidence is mounting. I think it's only a matter of time before Kira is dealt with once and for all."
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