[STAND NAME]: Killer Queen
[STAND MASTER]: Yoshikage Kira
[ABILITY]: Anything that it touches turns into a bomb. Additively, it can launch a special ability from its hand named Sheer Hear Attack. It is a tiny explosive vehicle that follows heat. After it was pierced by the arrow, Killer Queen unlocked a third ability: Bites the dust. To put it in simple words, it is able to protect the user's identity by picking a target and "blowing up" time back to an hour prior.


Chapter 25: Dynamite with a laser beam

"You have beautiful hands, did you know that?"

Shizuka turned her head to see something that would haunt her for the years to come. A zombie with its face split in half. It was as if this man's face was removed and was slowly growing back. One side was a pretty David Bowie-like figure, while the other was pure rotten and undead flesh mixed with cracked bones. Usually, she would instinctively use hamon to burn what was left of his head, but something about him called her attention. Different from the other dead minions, he talked.

"My soul was trapped in a never-ending nightmare. I was denied a quiet life. I wasn't allowed to rest, forever moving in that dark abyss of the afterlife. However…it seems that the torture inflicted upon me was not without its rewards. Luck has given me a second chance! I can feel it…my Bites The Dust is now boundless! Without these restrictions I will finally be able to live as I always wanted. Nobody will bother my quiet life ever again!"

"Relax…I'll kick your ass back to hell if that's what you want!"

Shizuka brought out her Achtung Baby, ready to happily beat him down before using Hamon to melt his entire body. She, however, stopped when she caught a glimpse of what seemed like a cat-like humanoid stand.

"That fierce attitude…it makes it all much more exciting. There's something about untamable, reckless and mean women that just makes the process much more satisfying. The shape of one's hand is defined by their attitude, and yours is the prettiest kind. My name is Yoshikage Kira, and I have killed over 48 women for their hands. You'll be the only one to know my secret!"

"Alright, I've had enough of this! OVERDRIVE!"

This sick speech was enough to knock Shizuka back to her senses and make her take an actually rational decision. Despite the fact that he can talk and has a stand of his own, it was way too dangerous to keep such a psychopath alive. He, however, was one step ahead of her.

While she lit her hand with Hamon energy, Yoshikage used his stand, Killer Queen, to chop off his right hand. The very hand that was holding Shizuka's arm. He didn't even flinch in pain. She was obviously surprised that he'd take such a desperate move. It didn't matter though, for her stand was going to beat him down to oblivion before he could pull a move.

"Yoshikage Kira, huh? Let's see how you'll like my hand once I stick it inside your head!"

"Too late. Bites the Dust is already in effect."

"Bites the wha-"

Two steps. She was two steps too late. If she had a single second more, she would've been able to hit Kira. He, however, managed to activate something with his left hand. The trigger to his third and most powerful ability: Bites the Dust.

Shizuka was dragged to a psychedelic world as she heard the sound of an explosion. Kira not only disappeared from her sight, as all the environment around her did so. What her eyes were seeing was something straight from a Kubrick movie or a HP Lovecraft book. The Joestar girl could see and touch the atoms, which were re-arranging themselves.

After a few seconds of such sights, she dropped back to the ordinary view of Morioh. Shizuka, however, wasn't in the same alley she previously was, but somewhere else. It was as if she were living through a Deja Vú. The truth only came to her when she looked at her phone.

"N-No way…the clock's gotta be wrong. It can't be 20:33!"

It didn't make any sense, but everything added up. This was exactly the same spot she was standing at 20 minutes ago. She even remembered the faces of the zombies she killed right before getting to that alley. Did time just rewind or is Kira's stand playing a prank on her.

The only thing she thought about doing, however, was warning her officer. If the time on his watch is the same as that of her phone, then it means that time truly did rewind. She was ready to be scolded by the sergeant for not following his orders, but maybe if she explained it all carefully he'd be more lenient on his punishment.

"Hayato, sir! Can you do me a favor?"

"Shizuka?! What are you doing here?! Didn't I tell you to handle the undead that got further away?"

After at least 15 minutes running and facing zombies to get where both Hayato and Emporio were at, Shizuka finally gave herself a break by almost sitting on the asphalt. She pointed her index finger towards the sergeant's arm and continued to speak.

"W-What hours is it right now?"

"Uhm, it's 20:45, why? Wait, what's going on? You better have a good reason to be here."

"N-No way. It truly did rewind!"

"Are you okay, Shizuka?" Emporio intervened, curious to see what the fuss between the two is all about.

The undead are slowly closing in the trio, making the sergeant even more anxious to know what the Joestar girl is trying to say or do. Even as tired as she was, her eyes were wide open as if she had just seen a ghost. Her breathing immediately stopped as he said the hours and she checked her phone.

"What the hell happened, Pvt. Joestar? Seriously, we don't have much time!"

"Time…time just rewound."

"Huh?!"

While Emporio was confused, Hayato was already slowly picking up the pieces. His mind, however, just denied that such a coincidence happened. It wasn't impossible, but his head just didn't want to believe that what it's thinking is what happened.

"I should've paid more attention. I should've killed him when he grabbed my hand. Hayato…I just met an undead stand user that can rewind time. I came here to confirm if that was actually what happened or if I was just going crazy. I believe his name was Yoshikage Kira or something like that."

"W-What…t-that name…."

"Yoshikage Kira? Do you know this guy, sergeant?"

Emporio's innocent question was met with utter silence. Even the zombies seemed to mute themselves over that reveal. Hayato tried to speak, but those words turned into unintelligible moans. For a second, he almost passed out, which got the blondie even more worried about his sergeant. Weren't for the young agent's arms, the redhead would already be sleeping on the ground.

"What the- are you alright, sir?"

After moaning for a few more seconds, something coherent finally came out of Hayato's mouth. A scream. A deep and long scream as those memories flooded his head. A trauma from the past coming back to haunt him. This wasn't the only thing that had him screaming though.

A few seconds after she revealed the killer's name, he saw the stand in a smaller version. It was inside his eyes now, just like 20 years before. With that, a massive explosion followed. Both Hayato and Emporio had exploded. The blondie immediately turned into ashes, while the redhead remained alive to suffer for some time.

Shizuka immediately stood up as all the heavy breathing and tiredness disappeared. Seeing one her teammates turn into dust just like that was too much for her head. She herself didn't scream, but tears quickly streamed down from her face as she desperately tried to pick up the ashes on the ground.

"No, no, no, NO! This can't be happening, this can't be happening!"

"S-Shizuka…"

She turned her head to look at an almost dead Hayato. He looked no different than the undead that surrounded the two. There were new open cuts bleeding everywhere, even on his head. She was just as speechless as he was prior to this scene.

"L-Listen to me…you can still undo this. His stand…Killer Queen…it's able to turn everything it touches into a bomb. His ability, Bites the Dust, allows him to do so with time. Everything will now rewind…you can't tell anyone his identity or else they'll end up like this…you have to face him alone or…get him to tell someone else."

As soon as Hayato finished saying that, the sound of a trigger could be heard once again. An explosion took out whatever was left of the redhead, turning him into dust just like Emporio. Before she could reach out her hand to him, Shizuka was dragged back to that same psychedelic place she was before. This time, it happened much faster.

Having returned to the same spot she was 20 minutes before, she looked at her phone to see her worst fears confirmed. It was 20:33 once again. It also gave her a tiny amount of hope though. If Hayato's words were true, then she had no time to waste. Shizuka wiped her tears out and moved forward, brutally using her Hamon to melt any nearby zombies. Her eyes were dead set on a target…and she had little time to reach him.

Morioh, April 23rd, 20:55

"You've endured so much, Jotaro Kujo, yet you stand? I have to commend you for your fighting spirit. I would've loved to have you as a bodyguard under different circumstances. It's a shame that this is how our paths crossed."

After a few minutes of battle, it was clear that the marine biologist was heavily outmatched. Jotaro stood tall with multiple bleeding holes on his body due to the Space Ripper Stingy eyes attack. The unpredictability of The Unforgiven's attacks was also a major factor on the defeat of Star Platinum's user.

"Y-Yaro…"

Jotaro even tried to summon his stand and throw a punch towards the vampire, but he was far too weak to make any considerable damage. Not even time stop could save him now.

"It's weird that I'm doing all of this only to regain the possession of my body…yet I have grown fond of these powers. I will surely miss this strength that was given to me. Well, I suppose you don't want to hear me rambling about my abilities. I promise I'll make your death as quick and painless as possible. Goodbye, Jotaro Kujo."

The vampire raises his hand, ready to strike down the marine biologist's shoulder. Something, however, makes his heightened senses tingle. Frank Harrison jumps to the side as some sort of projectile tries to hit him from behind. It's not a simple projectile, but a bubble filled with Hamon. It almost got the villain, hadn't he dodged so quickly.

In front of the destroyed front door there she was…Sofia Zeppeli. She had a smug smile on her face while multiple "menacing kanji" surrounded her. The bubble she fired was merely a warning strike, she didn't really mean to hit the man.

"Hmpf…wait here, Jotaro, I'll soon come back to you."

With a single touch, the vampire froze the biologist's body, with the exception of everything from his neck upwards. His blood vessels had drastically changed their temperatures. Had Dio been smarter using his vampiric abilities, maybe he would've won with relative ease. Frank, however, wanted Jotaro to watch as his possibly last hopes is defeated as well.

"Sofia Zeppeli, right? They filled me in on who you are. I know your strong points and your weaknesses. I do wonder how you manage to see stands if you don't have one. Is it some sort of trickery from your Hamon training? No…you just haven't unlocked it yet. Your stand is still hiding underneath your body, waiting for the right moment to show up!"

"You don't have the faintest idea of who I am or what I'm capable of, you sickening vampire."

"That's where you're wrong. I know everything about you. Sofia Bianchi Zeppeli, the 'Cacciatrice'. I know you've been outcast from your family…"

Sofia didn't have any personal grudge against the vampire when she got there, but hearing him say that was enough to change her mood completely. How the hell does he know about that?! Her first reaction was a gasp, but then her eyebrows slowly relaxed as she accepted that information.

"…it's a terrible feeling, isn't it? To be denied of your own identity. I share a similar feeling. Allow me to properly introduce myself: my name is Frank Harrison. This body you see does not belong to me. A filthy archaeologist stole not only my corpse, but my identity as well. I was promised power and I was given months in an empty cave, away from my family and feasting on innocent men and women. At first, I tried to fight against that bestial feeling that was growing within me, but soon I realized that the only way for me to reconquer who I am was to reject my humanity. That's why I won't stop at nothing to achieve my goals."

"Yeah…maybe we do have something in common. However, different from you, I will never stop being who I am. They can change my body, the blood running on my veins may not be of my family, they may outcast me, but my soul…it will forever be that of a Zeppeli. It's the ones that came before me that give me strength to carry on. I'll make them proud. It was my family that started the curse of this wretched mask and it shall be me, Sofia Bianchi Zeppeli, that will put an end to it. The cycle has come full circle."

Despite putting her heart out on those words, the only response she got from the vampire was a slowly rising and creepy laughter. What could it be in her speech that was so funny? Maybe he was trying to mock her, but her expression didn't change at all. Her look was that of a soldier ready to step into a no man's land with no prospect of survival yet tightly holding to his gun, hoping to reach the other side without a mere scratch.

"You know, I used to be the CEO of a big law firm. One thing that the corporate world teaches you is how to prey on psychological weaknesses and use them for your own interests. Like using a friend's anger issues to stir up a fight and then work with the victim to sue your buddy. My ability of hypnosis works the same way. It is only by finding a weak spot in your mind that it can work. I knew from the get-go that you'd cause me trouble…after all, we're pretty much the same. We both won't stop at nothing to reach our goals. However, I did find a weakness. You felt it…even if only a tiny bit, you felt some sort of sympathy towards my story, didn't you?"

Sofia's breathing stopped as her head was infected with this supernatural ability. She had gone completely numb, not feeling her skin, her muscles nor her bones. It was as if she had split in two: her body and her soul. The latter was dragged down into a void within her mind, distancing herself from her eyes like she were some sort of bystander. In a moment, all that the Zeppeli girl could perceive was darkness.

"Alright, my first command to you is lighting up that hand with Hamon and punching it across your own face. Now, I'll get back to Jotaro."

The hypnotized Sofia complied with the first part of his order. She refueled her lungs and lit up her right hand. This soulless version of herself stared at her own hand for a few seconds before making the move. However, she stopped right before it hit her own head. The vampire turned around to check if the job was done, only to be met with a sight he didn't expect.

"S-She…is she resisting?!"

Inside her head, Sofia was no longer in her adult form. She was in an endless void as a twelve-year-old version of herself. Within that limbo, a faint light began to grow. A dark silhouette appeared in that light, taking a more common human form as it approached.

"C-Caesar?"

The child Sofia hugged her hat tightly, first appearing to be afraid, but quickly changing her mood as he noticed that the figure that came was her older brother. Caesar Bianchi Zeppeli, the private detective.

"Hey, hissy sissy…how are you holding up?"

"I-I missed you."

"I know. I missed you too. It sure gets lonely on the other side…but I wouldn't ever want you to be there."

The young girl rose both her hands towards her deceased elder brother, asking him to lift her up like he used to in the old times. If not that, at least help her get on her feet.

"Oh, no…I can't help you this time. You gotta stand up on your own."

"Huh?"

"You have to leave my shadow, little one. Of course, you must embrace the curses and the victories of our family, but you can't lose yourself in the process. You, like your brothers, are bound to the chains of the past. The only ones who can find the light, though, are those that make meaning of it, rather than just make it another shackle that'll push them down."

In a blink of an eye, that small kid was no more. Sofia returned to her original form, but still on that endless void next to her deceased brother. The mere sight of someone she cared about was enough to get a tear out of her. Not of sadness, nor of joy. Just a tear.

"You were loved by everyone. The whole family knew you were supposed to be the next in the honored line. If I don't be like you, they'll never accept me back in the family. They'll keep calling me a traitor, like they always have."

"That's not remotely true."

A different voice came out of the shadows, getting a gasp out of the girl's mouth. The elder brother had a smirk on his face, but no actual surprise. The figure that appeared before them was the original Caesar Zeppeli, the one that died on the hands of the Pillar Man Wamuu. He was as young as when he died.

"Before I became this hero you all worship so much, I was nothing but a delinquent. My father was never there for me, but back then I didn't understand why. So I became a criminal, breaking pretty much all the existing laws with the exception of murder and some others. When he died trying to save me was when I realized…I had been stuck under my father's shadow for so long that I didn't even stop to think through what his goals were. It was, however, too late for me to do that. All I could was inherit the duty of our bloodline and make those before me proud."

"With all due respect…but I don't think I understood what you're trying to say."

"Then allow me to explain…"

If the original Caesar wasn't enough, a third figure decided to show up from within the light. He had a cup of wine on his hands, one that didn't end no matter how much he drank. This man was no other than Baron Zeppeli, the first man to ever face against the curse of the Stone Mask.

"…what Caesar here is saying is that you can't let your fear dominate you. The fear of rejection, the fear of not being good enough, the fear of failing your ancestors. This is what he means with stepping out of the shadow. Losing your breath is fear! But when you control your fear, you breathe regularly. Hamon is the result of bravery. You will never achieve the greatness of your power if you stay in the shadow of your brother. It doesn't matter if they outcast you, the blood that runs on your veins will forever be that of a Zeppeli. Inherit the duty of your ancestors, embrace it, but most of all…find yourself. Only then you'll be welcomed by the light."

As the Baron spoke, the semblant on Sofia's face drastically changed. Her eyes were as fierce as that of a lion ready to catch its prey. The light grew stronger, beginning to expel the darkness and cover the girl entirely. Of course, the three men began to fade away, as expected as soon as she understood the message they were trying to convey.

"W-Wait! I have one more question!"

Even as they turned around to look at her, their bodies didn't stop fading away. She had little to ask, so the answer needed to be worth it.

"Do I have a stand inside me?"

"I once met a man who was dead set on curing his girlfriend. He was just a regular chef. That, however, didn't stop him from pursuing his goal. He mastered his cooking techniques and learned more about the human body than most people do. Only then…only then he developed a stand."

Those were the last words of Sofia's elder brother as he became nothing but a golden cloud. She wanted to hear a 'yes' or 'no', but perhaps things were more complicated than that. Maybe it's for the best that she doesn't know the truth. The next step was closing her eyes and hoping to be back to Morioh.

When she opened her eyes, the glowing hand was right in front of her. It was like the light covering her before was nothing more than the Hamon she didn't remember lighting up.

"B-Bakana! How did you resist my ability?!"

"Oh, it's pretty simple. I'm the one that's usually hypnotizing men with my looks, not the other way around, darling."

Frank's eyebrows aggressively came close to one another and his lips were slightly twitching. His eyes, however, were kept open for a special treat. His pupils opened outwards, letting a compressed purple fluid come out from inside like a laser beam. Weren't for Sofia's great reflexes, she would've probably been cut in half. She jumped to her right, quickly rolling and standing up once more.

With his left arm, the vampire threw a crossed punch in the air. She was quite confused, but there wasn't much time to think. Much like Usain Bolt when a race has just started, Sofia sprinted towards the vampire with full speed. She didn't expect, however, to be interrupted by a ghost-like fist that came out of nowhere.

She fell flat on the ground as soon as the cold, almost invisible hand hit her with enough strength to tear a whole house apart. It was only mere luck that her jaw wasn't completely obliterated. She did lose one of her teeth though, and it was bleeding a lot. She spat some blood on the roses of the garden, trying to figure out what might have happened.

"Heh. You should've sticked with the painless death by hypnosis. Even if my vampiric powers aren't enough, the strength of The Unforgiven will do the job. My stand bends the laws of time to strike down my opponents. It knows when and how to act. All I have to do is set a movement in the past, or in a near future, and it shall happen. I'm not a big fan of bragging about myself, but…my stand is virtually unbeatable. Why don't give up already? Why are you still trying to stand up? Is this all for your pathetically-murdered brother?"

"No…this is for myself!"

Even with blood all over her mouth, Sofia stood up and sprinted once again. Her lungs emptied out as he yelled for her life. The vampire thought about sighing, but he instead chose to enjoy with this situation.

"Tch! Very well…now the fun begins then!"

From inside his overcoat, Frank got five kitchen knives. He grabbed those 'just in case' inside the Higashikata house. As she ran, he threw all the five of them towards the Zeppeli girl. She didn't have much trouble dodging, but that's exactly what he wanted her to do.

From behind her back, the knives reappeared as ghost-like projections. The Unforgiven could not only affect its own and Frank's movements, but of any object he touches as well. It's truly an ability to be envious of. She was a bit too late to evade this attack, so they all hit her one way or another. Three only grazed through the skin of her arms, but the other two hit her back and her shoulder respectively. Given that the objects faded away right after, the wound wasn't so deep.

"Shit! Hamon Cutter Gliding!"

Her wounded shoulder didn't stop Sofia from firing her family's signature move. The hamon cutter had three variations throughout history. The first one, performed by Baron Zeppeli, consisted of a hardened spit. The other two, performed first by Caesar Zeppeli, used bubbles to strike their target. The gliding version, however, was quite special.

The vampire effortlessly dodged the bubbles fired by the lady. They weren't even nearly as fast as the other iterations of the hamon cutter. Sofia's failure got a chuckle out of Frank, before he started bragging about himself once again.

"Are you serious that this is the best you have? Just like Jotaro…your fighting spirit is nothing compared to mine. I wanna see my family, you know. I'm not just a heartless bastard, even if it may seem like I am. My daughter hasn't seen her real father in months now, and I would do anything to see her smile with my comeback. It's not gonna be you, it's not gonna be Jotaro, it's not gonna be anybody that will stop me from seeing her. I will triumph over you and reclaim my identity!"

Just as he finished his speech, the two bubbles that Sofia had fired before came like a boomerang. The vampire only noticed when it was too late. Both his arms were chopped off instantly as a small deal of Hamon entered his body. The chopped off members melted instantly when they touched the ground. Frank's scream of pain was enough to send chills down anyone's spine. Hamon Cutter Gliding sacrifices quantity to value effectiveness. Not only that, but it had a smaller quantity of Hamon, yet it moved like a guided missile.

"Listen, vamps, don't come at me with that 'daughter' bullshit. Are you trying to get me to sympathize or feel pity for you? You're the worst kind of person. You're the type of guy that likes to screw people and sit on the highest throne on the palace, but always keep playing the victim card to get what he wants with no objections. I bet you were an asshole way before you got those powers. Also, I just wanna point out that the only reason I didn't go for your neck is because I want to punch you in the face!"

All that sprinting finally paid off as Sofia jumped towards Frank Harrison with her fist closed entirely. He almost broke her jaw before, now it was her turn to break his. She didn't say the word, but it was clearly a Zoom Punch. Her right arm began to stretch, though it wasn't necessary.

The vampire, however, still had one card up his sleeve. One that was a bit obvious, yet effective. His stand, The Unforgiven, popped out behind his back and punched the girl in the nose. It packed enough strength to send her flying away to the other side of the garden. After being insulted like that, Frank didn't even have the will to laugh over such a pathetic attempt.

"And I hate ladies like you. You think you're so entitled, don't you? You may not have a family to come back to, but I do."

He was hoping to offend her with that statement and make her act recklessly. Sofia, however, slowly started giggling like an idiot. That giggle soon turned into laughter, the kind that makes the person roll around on the floor. The vampire, albeit confused, wasn't gonna let his guard down, and even checked the environment to see if there were any traps laying around.

"I figured it out…" Sofia pointed her finger towards Frank, like a judge accusing someone of a crime.

"Huh?!"

"Your stand…I figured out the secret of your stand."

Morioh, April 23rd, 21:00

"You just came back from the dead and you're that eager to die again?! Fine by me."

Hurting Boingo must've been one of the worst decisions taken by the undead Keicho. Regina's excited smile refused to fade out with her incoming anger, so her face turned into an almost sociopathic mixture. She only took two steps forward, nothing more. The Stroheim lady extended her hand, as if she were proposing a handshake. Obviously, it was far from just being that.

Her entire arm opened up, revealing her completely mechanic hand. It disassembled, making way for a perfectly-rounded barrel. To make things even more over the top, her "veins" glowed blue. The latter was purely an esthetic choice.

"You think this is all, dead brain? It isn't. My arm also can change calibers as it damn well pleases. I'll let you guess: which caliber will I use to absolutely obliterate you?"

"There's only one thing I'm certain of right now, and that is that your death will result in my freedom. You may even be able to destroy my body, but that will not release my soul. Only he who brought me back can take me out. I won't become the monster my dad became…I will kill you all and reclaim my place in the afterlife!"

"Wrong! The answer was .12 Gauge, dumbass!"

With that last sentence, the battle between Regina and Keicho became a western duel. It was all about who could draw their guns faster. Was it gonna be Bad Company? Or was it gonna be Stroheim's weaponized arm?

A single and extremely loud blast could be heard. An immense hole opened up on Keicho's chest, on the region where his heart is supposed to be. Regina's arm had smoke coming from inside the barrel, indicating that she had won the duel. She may have won the battle, but the war was far from over.

The blast packed enough of a punch for the zombie to walk a few steps back, but it wasn't enough to make his eyes flinch. If anything, he let out a sigh of relief afterwards. It didn't threaten Regina, but it did threaten Hol Horse, who was too busy holding off the incoming undead and checking Boingo's wound.

"See? You shattered my heart completely, yet I barely feel any difference. That's what I am…a heartless monster. My turn. BAD COMPANY!"

In a split second, bullets were flying in the air, coming from everywhere. She didn't have the option to flee. Thankfully, she did have the option to protect herself. Iron Maiden immediately stood in front of Regina, taking all the bullets without a single scratch. Being made out of steel did help sometimes.

"Is that all you got, brain dead?"

"R-Regina! Behind you!"

Despite all the gunfire coming in front of her, her ears still perceived two shots coming from behind her. She wasn't able to check out what Hol Horse was yelling about before the damage was done. The back of both her knees was blasted with tiny holes. The pain was enough to make her fall on the ground, but not enough to have her stand stop being a wall to the gunfire.

Before the tiny soldiers standing behind Regina could finish her off, they were obliterated by Hol Horse's Emperor. That, however, left an opening for one zombie to latch itself onto the cowboy's arm. The old man was now wrestling for his life while the remaining undead gathered around him. This might as well be the end for the three.

"You see, I'm a very methodical man. Albeit this curse makes me act irrationally sometimes, I will always try to be one step ahead. With you knees like that, you won't be able to fight back against me without getting yourself killed. In the end, Bad Company still wins."

Regina never ever puffed so hard like she's puffing now. She's always been known for exploring a stand's ability to its core. This situation is certainly putting her reputation at risk though.

C'mon, what would dad think of you if he saw you like this? You can't give up! You can't die in a place like this! You gotta fight…to the last breath! Think, Regina, you need a pla-

Suddenly, the German girl had an epiphany like she never had before. The solution to all of her problems right now was behind her. She turned her head around to see her ex-boyfriend struggling to maintain the undead away from him while injured on the asphalt.

"Boingo! I need your manga! You gotta tell me what's showing inside!"

The bookworm had two options now: trusting her and putting himself at risk or focusing on keeping himself alive for now. He looked deep into her eyes, trying to find the answer to this question. Thankfully for him, he didn't need to look much further to find it. A faint smile grew on his face as everything around seemed to ease up and the silence seemed to take over. Yeah, the answer was as clear as day.

He let go of his pistol and jumped on top of the manga, opening right away and skimming it through the pages to find the most recent one. He yelled to the top of his lungs, as if it were the last thing he could yell.

"The flowers, Regina! The flowers are the key!"

The Stroheim lady looked to her right to see exactly what Boingo was talking about. Red roses standing next to the crosswalk. They were about to dry out, but they still had some life in them. Enough for Regina to take advantage of.

A zombie jumped on top of the bookworm to make matters worse. It clenched its fingernails on the man's chest, not spilling a lot of blood, but making the man squeal like a pig. If nothing wad done, the monster would go deeper and deeper, until the heart is wide open for everyone to see.

Her stand, Iron Maiden, rapidly grabbed those two roses and turned them into two knives. It wasn't clear to Keicho what she was trying to do yet, so he laughed it off like a Saturday morning cartoon villain would.

"You blasted an enormous hole in my chest and you think knives will do the job?!"

"No…but they can blind you!"

Iron Maiden threw the knives like a professional baseball players throws the ball. Despite the wall of bullets blocking her vision, the weapon landed perfectly where they were supposed to. Keicho's eyes were completely pierced by Regina's constructs. After their job was done, they turned back into roses.

Without his sight, Bad Company didn't have the means to hit their targets. All the sudden, they seemed to become soldiers unaware of their surroundings and with no proper gun training. They were firing in all directions, and missing all moving targets, including the agents.

This was the perfect opportunity for Regina to play the hero with the two damsels in distress. She used her gun cannon to blast the undead away from the cowboy, and she personally used Iron Maiden to beat the crap out of the zombie that dared to attack Boingo. A barrage of punches was enough to demonstrate how she felt about this situation.

Regina looks down to the bookworm lying on the ground with his left hand on his chest wound. Despite everything that was happening around her, she decided to first offer her hand to help the guy stand up.

"…but I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time. Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time."

"Are you seriously singing a Taylor Swift song in a situation like this?!"

"Yeah, I thought you'd like it. Also, take my hand, we don't have much time."

"Heh. You're right…I did like it."

The two exchanged a look between them that they haven't shared in a long while. He didn't hesitate to grab her hand and stand up. Even if that aggravated the pain on his leg, it was all worth it. Funnily enough, both had serious wounds on their legs. That, however, didn't stop them from standing tall as if they had already been crowned champions.

That wasn't the case though. The three of them heard a loud scream, almost a shriek of sorts, coming from Keicho's mouth. It wasn't physical pain, it was something much deeper than that. Two tiny choppers began to fly just above the undead man's shoulder.

"You think this is over?! I still have one last card up my sleeve! I may not be able to see, but I don't need to. My soldiers may not be able to fire their weapons, but that doesn't apply to the helicopters of my army! They have heat-guided missiles! And I'm damn sure that your bodies are warmer than that of any zombie around here!"

Before anyone could do anything about it, the missiles were already on the air, flying to the warmest person in there. Hol Horse, however, wasn't gonna sit around and do nothing this time around. He fired his Emperor's bullet towards one of the two missiles.

The cowboy's stand created enough heat to turn him into the main target. It also made it easier for him to blow one of the rockets to smithereens. He was almost celebrating victory, when the other missile decided to come right through the smoke of the first one's explosion. This time Hol Horse wasn't going to have the time to fire another shot. He was at the mercy of fate.

And fate was there for him. As the old man closed his eyes, accepting his demise, a loud noise and some wind made him realize he was still alive. When his eyelids opened, he noticed that not only the rocket hit a random zombie, but he was in a different position than he previously was. Someone or something had moved the cowboy to protect him. It was only when he looked to his right that he figured it out.

"Here's the cavalry."

There stood three gentleman. Okuyasu Nijimura, Koichi Hirose and Rohan Kishibe. Hol Horse was saved by the first's stand, The Hand, who erased the space between them. Keicho's eyes were still regenerating, but he now had the sight to fire once more. He didn't even notice his brother among the saviors.

Okuyasu still rocked that same hairstyle, but with a dark braided goatee that made him look like a Viking of sorts. Koichi's hair was slicked back with the same pomade that Josuke used in the early 2000s. Rohan was pretty much the same, his skin looking even softer than in the 90s.

"Koichi?! Huh, so you were the undercover agent all this time? I thought you retired!" Hol Horse had a big smile on his face, but he just had to ask this before his mind completely erased that question.

"Eh? I'm still retired you know."

"Wait, then who's the undercover agent in Morioh?"

"I am."

Okuyasu intervened in their conversation and, without further ado, erased the space between the entire group and Keicho. It was pretty obvious to everyone that the guy wasn't really up to be joking around when the enemy is his deceased brother.

"You brought me closer to you?! Are you dense or something?! This just made it much easier for me to kill you all! FI-"

The zombie pointed his finger at them, ordering his soldiers to open fire on them. Before he could finish his sentence, however, he felt a great weight on his hand. Suddenly it became so heavy that he was forced to stand on his knees and hold his own hand as if it were some sort of training equipment.

"ECHOES: ACT 3! THREE FREEZE! S-H-I-T!"

"Argh! You rotten pieces of shit!"

"HEAVEN'S DOOR!"

The pale skin of Keicho's face opened up like the page of a book. Pretty much his entire life was written there, but there was an extra piece of words that explained most of this situation. Even though his sight and mind were somewhat still the same, the effect of Frank's hypnosis were blinding him entirely. He couldn't express what he truly felt, or even see anything that could restore his memory. Rohan, of course, erased that effect.

Koichi and the mangaka, with the UV-light shoulder cannons, began to clear the area of the remaining undead. Regina, now free to think calmly, actually thought of something that could've ended this fight from the get-go. She went all the way to some fern standing close to a house and turned its leaves into glasses for their broken UV-light shoulder cannons.

Okuyasu chose to take matters onto his own hand and be the first person that his undead brother sees. Keicho closed his eyes and slowly re-opened them again, seeing the world with different lenses. He looked up to see a much older version of his young little bro. The Nijimuras, after so long, were once again reunited.

"O-Okuyasu…didn't I tell you to stop getting yourself into unnecessary danger?!"

"Yeah, you did. I can't be helped though. Maybe if I were a bit smarter I wouldn't."

"Shut up…"

Even if that exchange of words seemed aggressive to the others, this was the only way these two could communicate. Keicho, on his shoulders, let out a big smile. Something that Okuyasu hardly saw coming from his brother in life. It could only be in death that the two would get some closure.

"Brother, you need to kill me."

"What?! No we can…I have to tell you something. Dad's still alive. I never found a way to kill him, but because I never had to. That's where we were wrong! Deep down that disease, he was still and will always be our father. You're not a monster, Keicho! You can still come with me and live with us!"

"Okuyasu…I don't belong on this world. I've already crossed the bridge…I wasn't even supposed to come back like this."

"But bro-"

"Okuyasu! You have to let me go. Remember when we met at the bridge?"

"I do. You asked me where I was going, right?"

Everyone took their time to look at these two brothers speaking to one another after a long time. Koichi, being the only one who saw Keicho die there besides Okuyasu, was the single person who understood the meaning behind that talk. They looked to one another with, at the same time, a smile and a teary eye.

The roses around them were slowly dying. The corpses of the undead around them turned into ashes that vanished in the wind. Even with none of his organs working, Keicho still managed to shed a single tear. One that also was gone with the wind. The two brothers were on their knees, each one with a hand on their nape. Their foreheads lightly touched, the warmth of Okuyasu transferring to his older brother and the cold feeling of Keicho transferring to his younger brother.

"That's right. And you, being the idiot you were, said that you were going to follow me. I didn't want to order you around, so I had you make the choice for yourself. Look where it got you…just by looking at your eyes I already know that you've become a better man that I could ever be."

"Don't say that…you're gonna make me feel embarrassed."

"You've grown so much, Okuyasu. I'm proud of you."

That last sentence sent chills down the spine of the younger brother. He had never expected to hear this from Keicho. However, this made it all much clearer for the undercover agent that there's only one right path. A painful one, but the right one, nonetheless.

With a trembling hand, Okuyasu turned on his shoulder cannon. The UV-lights slowly bathed Keicho's body completely. His body, piece by piece, was turning into ashes. He finally achieved the freedom he wanted so much. From his legs to his head, it all turned into dust.

There were no goodbyes. There was no need for one. A simple, small and warm smile was all that it took for the message to be conveyed. Tears streamed down Okuyasu's face as he looked on the face of his brother for one last time before he disappeared.

Even if none of them saw it, Keicho's soul ascended to the skies with the birds. He was set free from the curse that is being brought back to life. He will forever look down to his brother, like a guarding angel.

pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris.

From dust you came, and to dust you shall return.

TO BE CONTINUED…