JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Thin Air

Chapter Forty-Seven: Light My Fire

'That was way too easy....' Shizuka thought to herself. 'There's no way I got him to come with me that easily. It was either I talk him out of his plan, or I fight him. I don't want to fight him. I'm sick of fighting... but if he decides to, I'm more than ready to snuff him out. I've spent thirty years preparing for this. I will not fail.'

As the boat cruised over the small, barely noticeable waves in the Gulf of Venice, under the gloomy Italian sky, Nicholson spoke quietly.

"Shizuka... you're the Head of Stand Research at the Foundation, aren't you? Back when I was there, that Division didn't even exist. Stand Users' weren't permitted to work there due to the non-Stand User employers being put at risk. Times have changed, huh?"

Shizuka stayed quiet, but she studied his choice of words. Change. Nicholson was hinting at change.

"I thought that since you came here by yourself, you were some kind of pacifist who uses words instead of actions. I'm glad you didn't choose to fight me as soon as you saw me. But it really is a shame, you know... I thought you understood me. I guess we aren't alike after all,"

"Just as I thought. He lied. Gotta brace myself for his next move," Shizuka thought with urgency as her figure remained unmoving, continuing to look out towards her destination.

"One punch is enough, I'll take your corpse and extract the cure from it! I never needed your cooperation, even though it was much more preferable than having to kill you. I'm sorry Shizuka. This is goodbye. Your sacrifice will be remembered!"

It was at this point where Shizuka physically reacted, turning around just as Third Eye Blind manifested and immediately sent a punch straight at her head. But instead of obliterating her skull, Third Eye Blind's arm phased right through her, as if she was thin air. TEB's fist smashed through the structure of the boat, splintering it into dozens of fragments. Nicholson took a dive into the water, baffled. Warm flesh and hard bone should've been splattered all over TEB, but it hadn't. TEB reached into the water, picking up a struggling Nicholson, before dropping him onto a floating plank.

"Shizuka... what kind of preposterous ability was that? It seems that not only your position in society has gone up, but your techniques as well..." he said, scanning the vicinity for his enemy. "Chamber of Reflection, activate! I will not lose here. Your blood is mine!"

'So this is what you saw, Clapton... Keith, I mean,' Shizuka thought, though her exact location was unclear. 'This Chamber of Reflection, it makes everything in its range just slightly distorted. Well, in that case, I'll need to give Nicholson a handicap of his own.'

At that moment, a pair of arms shot out of the water from where the back of the boat once was, their hands planting themselves on the surface of the water like it was a solid surface. The arms pulled the rest of their body out, revealing the real Shizuka. She stood on the surface of the water like it was solid ground.

"30 years of hard work led me here. This isn't talent. I had to work for this, so I wouldn't become a tool for you. This day will be your last, Doctor."

"So you can create clones of yourself now, eh? I don't know how you evolved your Stand to that state, but rest assured, they will not make me falter." Nicholson said,

Shizuka made herself invisible, making herself undetectable to Nicholson. Then, from somewhere, her voice called out.

"Achtung Baby: Light My Fire!"

In Nicholson's vision, a new figure appeared. It had skin as light as the night moon. All of its garments were made of one material: green wire that had LED lights evenly placed around its length. This wire wrapped around its entire torso and most of its thighs, forming a dress of sorts. This same wire extended down both of its arms and ended at orange bike reflectors on the back of both wrists, while a tubular CFL-form bulb jutted out from each shoulder. In the same fashion as with the arms, the wire ran down its legs but ended in the shape of boots, enclosing the feet. On top of its head were wires displayed in the form of double Dutch braids, and it had a normal person's face excluding a nose. Its eyes were a gradient color, beginning with a bright orange at the top and ending with a yellow like the sun's. This figure was the complete form of Shizuka's Stand, which went by the moniker Achtung Baby: Light My Fire.