Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: A New Universe
Chapter 57: The Tower
Previous Chapter Next ChapterThe Tower
Luckily for Jotaro, his Stand was fast enough to clamp down on the beetle's proboscis with its teeth, keeping it from tearing into his tongue. "It's just like I thought!," Avdol said, "This is the Stand called Tower of Gray! This card represents calamity, and the interruption of a journey! To think he would be working with DIO! Gray Fly, the Stand's user, works in secret, committing mass murder by causing what appear to be vehicular accidents on commercial transportation, like the plane crash in England last year that killed three hundred people!"
"That doesn't help us get it off Jotaro!," Fluttershy noted, "Music in the Trees!" Her Stand created a large flower that fired off several barbs. Tower of Gray immediately let go of Jotaro to escape the attack, faster than Fluttershy could blink. "No way!," Fluttershy said, shocked, "Those barbs were firing out at speeds equal to any modern handgun!" Tower of Gray started laughing. "Even if you fired ten guns from only a centimeter in front of me, none of them could touch my Stand! Not that ordinary guns could hurt a Stand..."
"It's talking?," Jotaro asked. "No, it's Gray Fly talking," Avdol clarified, "Most Stand users can talk through their Stands in a manner similar to ventriloquism or telepathy. Gray Fly wants to make sure we can't find him, since doing so would ensure we wouldn't have to worry about his Stand." "I doubt its range is limitless," Jonathan said, "Which means Gray Fly must be one of the passengers on the plane." "But which one is it?," Joseph asked, "We can't afford to just knock heads randomly."
Just then, Tower of Gray dipped back into the shadows. "That's not good!," Fluttershy said, "It disappeared again!" As they looked for where it might have disappeared, they saw it again, hovering behind a row of passengers. "Uh oh...," Jonathan muttered. Sure enough, Tower of Gray flew right through the seats, and the heads of four of the passengers, killing them instantly. It cackled as it hovered overhead, the tongues of the people is just killed hanging from its proboscis.
"Ugh," Jotaro said, "You weren't kidding Avdol. This guy has a major hard-on for tongue gouging." "It's what's truly terrible about him," Avdol noted, "All the accidents he's created were for money. But this... This is his way of having fun while he works." "Got their tongues!," Tower of Gray said gleefully, "And now my goal is..." It flew over to the front of the plane and started using the tongues' blood to write on it. When it was finished, the word it spelled was "massacre".
"Damn it!," Avdol said, "If it's come to this, then I'll just have Magician's Red scorch it completely!" "Wait Avdol," Kakyoin said, "We can't just--" But Kakyoin was interrupted as an elderly gentleman yawned and got up. "What's going on here? Can't a man take a nap in piece? I can't sleep with all this noise." Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. 'I realize he's likely as old as Mister Joestar, but even so, all our shouting should have woken him up much earlier. Either he's an incredibly heavy sleeper or he's the Stand user.'
The old man got up. "I might as well use the bathroom while I'm awake." He casually walked over to where the bloody writing was and placed his hand on it. "Huh...? What's with this wetness." He sniffed his hand, now wet with blood, and freaked out as his dentures nearly popped out. "It's b-b-blood!" But before he could freak out further, Kakyoin had knocked him out with a quick strike to the back of his neck. "There's something off about him," Fluttershy noted, "Avdol, can a Stand still be active if its user is unconscious or sleeping?"
"Sometimes," Avdol noted, "It depends on the nature of the Stand. Are you suggesting the old man might be Gray Fly?" "He complained about the noise even though it had been going on for a few minutes," Fluttershy noted, "And his reaction to Tower of Gray's writing was far too exaggerated." "Well, we can't risk taking him out," Kakyoin said, "If you happen to be wrong, then we've just killed an innocent man. And we can't have a panic either. But we need to be careful what powers we use. Magician's Red is no good for this since it could incinerate the passengers. At the very least it would cause the plane to explode. Our best chance is a long-range silent attack, and that's my specialty."
Tower of Gray cackled. "Noriaki Kakyoin, right? I was told all about you by DIO. Don't bother fighting, your attacks will never hit me no matter how many times you try. I'm far too fast for you to even scratch me." Kakyoin smirked. "We'll see about that. Hierophant Green, Emerald Splash!" Hierophant Green launched its barrage of emeralds, but Tower of Gray seemed to dodge them all. "No good!," Avdol said, "He's too fast!" "Take another look at the fight," Jonathan said, "Look around the area rather than just at the combatants."
Avdol looked and realized what Kakyoin was planning. Meanwhile Tower of Gray had hit Hierophant Green's mouth guard, ripping it off and exposing its mouth underneath. "So you thought to overwhelm me with a massive barrage?," it said, "Well too bad! I'm just too fast! At my speeds not even machinegun fire could hit me!" Kakyoin fired off another Emerald Splash while Tower of Gray moved in closer, dodging the attacks as it did. "Soon your Stand will go mad from the pain as I tear out its tongue!," Tower of Gray announced.
Kakyoin smirked. "Mad? Maybe... But not from the pain!" Tower of Gray suddenly stopped as it was pierced from numerous angles by Hierophant Green's tendrils. "What...?," the insect said weakly. "What my Hierophant Green will go mad from," Kakyoin said, "Is joy, as it rips you to pieces. You were so focused on my Emerald Splash, you never stopped to consider that it might be able to attack more directly. While I had you distracted, Hierophant Green extended itself under and through the seats, ready to strike when you were tunnel focused directly at me and my mouth. Your own obsession has just become your undoing."
And with that, Tower of Gray was ripped apart. The old man suddenly woke up in pain as his tongue came hanging out, a beetle symbol tattooed on it. "So it was the old man after all," Kakyoin noted, "A repulsive user for a repulsive Stand." As he spoke, the old man now identified as Gray Fly screamed as his tongue ripped in two vertically and his head seemed to split apart. "How ironic," Fluttershy said, "He spent his entire career gouging out tongues, and now his own has been torn asunder." The others nodded as Gray Fly collapsed in pain from the destruction of his Stand.
Next Chapter: The Chariot Estimated time remaining: 24 Hours, 25 Minutes Return to Story Description