JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Thin Air

Chapter Forty-Three: Secrets Unfold

Nicholson stood in a spot equidistant to Monica and Bryson. He gave them looks lasting up to three seconds each, then addressed them both at the same time.

"Which one of you dealt those blows onto my servant?" he asked, his voice as emotionless as the expression on his face.

Monica looked at the man with fear in her eyes, her breathing almost normal but still labored. She couldn't calm herself as much as she needed. Not that she could fight him head-on, anyway. Bryson smiled arbitrarily, even though it wasn't the right time at all to be doing so.

After realizing that neither of them would speak, Nicholson quietly walked up to the pile of rubble and looked up at Monica.

"Well, it certainly couldn't have been you, now. Even then, I still think you can help me out here."

"No, no... I'm not going to help you..." Monica yelled at the doctor, defying him as much as she could despite her state.

"Oh, you will, and that's because you're a Hamon User. No one else would have the guts to battle my servant alone, except perhaps... a vampire. But you're not one." he said, walking up the mountain and until he crouched in front of Monica. She gritted her teeth, trying to hide her fear while putting up a tough front, all while being horrendously injured internally.

"Get away from me!" she said, trying to push the scientist away. He simply rebalanced himself and grabbed her wrist. He then put up his other hand in front of her, which was covered in a steampunk-esque gauntlet made from various leather and metal pieces.

"This is a little gift I gave myself from back when I was working at the Foundation. It's called the Hamon Amplifying Device," he said, completely ignoring the the girl's pleas. "1940s tech, but still very usable. As you might be able to guess, it can take Hamon and let anyone use it freely until it's spent. All it needs is a source from a Hamon User. That's where I'd like you to help me."

He forced Monica's hand onto a metal slot on the back of the gauntlet, automatically squeezing the precious Hamon she worked so hard to get out into it. Monica immediately became lightheaded and despite struggling to keep herself conscious, eventually fainted.

"You look like you're about to die anyway. Might as well get something useful out of you before that happens." Nicholson said, finally making a little smirk.

A tear fell from Bryson's eye, but his smile did not falter, because he remembering memories. Ones that were important to him. He remembered his mother's encouraging voice, telling him to push forward in the face of adversity. Growing up in West Virginia as a child of mixed-race, he had less good experiences than those of his peers. Even when his mother fled to her hometown of Nashville from her manipulative ex-boyfriend, unable to bring Bryson with her, he was happy, because he knew that he too would get a break one day, and that came when Josuke Higashikata and his young companions happened to drive through his tiny rural town. The least he could do for his mother was bring back some money, because he knew it would make her proud. Bryson wanted to go home to her and tell her about all the adventures he had, and see how she was doing as she was pregnant with his younger half-sibling, the child of a man who was much kinder than his true father. These memories and these intentions were what kept Bryson from letting the vampiric essence completely take over him, which would've resulted in Monica's death.

"You're a vampire, aren't ya?" Nicholson asked Bryson, as he stepped towards him. "You'd be a nice test subject, but after seeing the damage you caused, you'd be more of a hindrance than an advantage. I'll allow you to rest. It'd be cruel of me to continue letting you exist."

"Guess I ain't seeing you soon, Ma." Bryson said in his final moments, as Nicholson's gauntlet-clad fist plunged through his stomach. A massive spark of Hamon briefly illuminated his body, and a second later, Bryson West was little more than a pile of clothes on top of white ashes.