JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Thin Air

Chapter Forty-Eight: A Second Chance

Stand User: Shizuka Joestar

Age: 48

Stand Name: Achtung Baby: Light My Fire

Power: A

Speed: A

Range: B

Stamina: A

Precision: A

Development Potential: C

June 11, 20??

Much had changed throughout the world in the years Clapton had missed due to his battle with Clapton. Perhaps most notable was that the existence of Stands had become public knowledge. The Speedwagon Foundation, the most informed organization regarding these phenomena, had essentially become the regulator of discourse concerning them. Organizations, governments and militaries had been scouting for Stand Users and needed the best intel on them and knowledge on how to let them live up to their full potential. Due to this, a new branch of the Foundation had to be created: the Division of Stand Research.

Shizuka's full Stand form had begun to manifest by then, and was determined to join this division as a way to help discover more about herself and her Stand. This would also allow her to keep tabs and intel on the potential whereabouts of Clapton, who she began to regard as her savior. Thinking back to their interactions with each other and the sacrifice he made, she knew that were not meant to be simple friends; they were much greater than that. This boy who she'd known for only a month yet risked his own safety to make sure she was alright was in love with her. After much rumination, she too came to the realization that she also had feelings for him. She acquired a house in the now-abandoned Vittonza and used it as her own base, both to keep an eye out for Clapton and to commit to her work without the fear of hostile Stand Users interfering with her. Her Foundation superiors had deemed Clapton a lost cause, but there was no way she would give up on finding him, not unless his body was discovered. As well, it was more convenient for her to live in the village since it was reasonably close to her sensei, Carmen. She spent thirty years of her life preparing for the absolute worst and just like that, it had come to pass.

Swimming back to the mainland, she only had to walk a short distance to return to the only place that made sense for her to go back to, her small house in Vittonza. She entered the house, taking her heels off and went straight to the bathroom without turning the lights on. She tore her dress off, wearing only a two-piece set of undergarments and sat in her bathtub. She hugged her knees to her chest and rested her face on them. She didn't move, nor did she make a noise. 

She should have been happy. The man that stopped her from living a normal life, the one who ordered the death of her father; took the life of her ally Bryson; traumatized her closest friend Monica; and wiped the floor with... well, she wasn't quite sure of what to call him, but his name was Clapton... the man who did all those terrible things was gone. He was dead, lying at the bottom of the Gulf of Venice, never to bother her or her loved ones again. He would never attempt to harm her after that, because she was the one who stopped him. All should've been well. She had nothing to worry about and the peaceful life she was yearning for was now open to her. But she just could not feel happy, nor could she feel remorse for having had to kill another human being, especially one who wasn't as evil as she initially presumed, and was probably more like her than a true malicious person. 

She just felt... numb. It was like that fight took away her capacity to feel. She felt like a shell of a person, not too different from who she became 31 years prior after that fateful day, when she was 17. Now at 48 years old, it was like she was back at square one. She sat still and silently for quite a bit, perhaps even hours, although for her, time did not seem to pass. The passage of time didn't seem to matter to her anymore, so when she began to hear voices outside suddenly, she didn't expect them, but she didn't react.