A Devil with an Angel's Heart

Chapter 26, Part 1

||Polnareff

He walked behind Jotaro and Kate, who had rejoined them, looking for Mr. Joestar and Avdol. Something in the window of a nearby bookshop seemed to catch Kate's interest as she suddenly looked through the window, then entered the shop. The French suddenly got the feeling they were being followed. He turned around and his eyes fell upon a suspicious man. The man was dressed in white pants, and a black t-shirt underneath a purple vest. His hairstyle was rather peculiar, his hair stood up to the left and right, decorated with little bells. The man froze up, when Polnareff looked at him, then suddenly started acting as if he dropped some coins, "Oh, dear, that's not good. I dropped my change. Now, where'd it go, not over here...I'd lose my own head if it weren't attached to my shoulders." Polnareff didn't fall for that pathetic excuse of a performance, "Hey, what do you think you're doing? I can tell you're following us. I can already see the evil in your eyes, so don't try to lie, got it?" Polnareff declared and approached the man. The man looked around, then said, "I'm so sorry, my good man, were you talking to me? I'm not sure I understand what you meant by evil eyes...My loving, non-evil parents gave me these baby blue eyes." Polnareff reached the man. "Oh, what do you know?! It's the change I lost." the man stated. "Is that so?" Polnareff asked, "Then prove it!" The French summoned his Stand, "It'll be easy to prove that you're not a Stand user unless you really are one." Silver Chariot swung his sword when suddenly the man's shadow got eyes. They opened and the shadow extended. Polnareff jumped into the air and away, just in time. "So, I was right, and you are a Stand user!" declared the French.. The man stared at Polnareff, then turned around and ran. Polnareff immediately started this pursuit. "Hey, Jotaro, it's the enemy. I'm hot on his trail!" "Polnareff where'd you go?" Polnareff could still hear the teen while running after the enemy. "Over here, Jotaro!" he answered without stopping his pursuit. "Come back here, damn you!" he exclaimed, while running after the man. The enemy turned into a nearby ally and Polnareff followed suit though he was falling behind. "What the hell, he's quick! How can he be so fast?! And he's already so far ahead." Polnareff panted, while running, following the man through the back alleys when he noticed his voice wasn't as deep as it used to be. In fact it was pretty high-pitched. "That's strange...what happened to my voice?" he wondered as he rounded a corner, finally leaving the alleys and bumping straight into a man. He fell down and when he opened his eyes again, the next thing he wondered about were his shoes, they were enormous on his feet. "Hey, watch were you're going." warned the man he bumped into, "Don't you know running in the streets like that can get you hurt or worse. You're lucky I wasn't some out of control car." Polnareff looked up at the man, "Shut up, idiot! Why don't you go and lecture someone else with that big mouth of yours. Now, outta my way! I'm in the middle of chasing someone." he retorted. The man grabbed him by the collar, lifting the French. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?! let go of me! What it's really high up here!" Polnareff noted, his feet swinging in the air. "He's lifting me up with one arm, just how tall is this guy?" wondered the French, "His face and hands are huge! He's a giant." "Now listen here, you pint-sized pissant. I'm gonna teach you, going around and shooting your little mouth to adults that way." the man hit him and he flew back, and landed on the ground, "You think you're a big man just because you're playing dress-up in adult clothes? Annoying good-for-nothing brat...." the man said before walking off. A dog appeared and licked his face, then jumped away as a bicycle bell rang, the biker telling him, "Move it, kid. Outta the way!" Polnareff rolled out of the way, confused. "Wait a minute, what's going on here? Why does everyone look like giants?" he then spotted his shadow on an extremely dirty shop window. "What?" he wondered, seeing that his shadow was extremely small. He did a few movements and indeed the shadow followed his exact movements. He approached the window and cleaned it. What he saw was extremely shocking. "Why am I a kid?!" he exclaimed. His reflection showed a little boy, with buck teeth, dressed in his big shirt and pants, way too big for the little boy in the reflection. He pulled faces and pressed up against the glass to confirm that it was indeed him. "Is this really me?! How'd I turn into a kid?! How is something like this happening to me?!" he exclaimed. He stood there, in front of his reflection in the window, staring at it in utter disbelief, "C-Could this... really be happening to me? There's no way this kid could really be...me?!" He then panicked again, "Oh my god, this is really me?! I turned into a little kid!" Polnareff laughed, almost losing his mind. He slapped his hands to his cheeks, repeatedly screaming, "No way!" Polnareff forced himself to collect his thoughts. "It must be his Stand's power. That creep must have found a way to put a curse on me during our fight earlier. I have a sneaking suspicion it happened when his shadow Stand launched at me." he pondered. Then asked himself, "How did I let him do this to me? This is bad, this is really bad, what am I gonna do?!" In that moment a big, young man, dressed in black walked past the window behind him. He ran after the man. He knew him! "Jo..." he started, he was certain that's how his name started. "Jo-uh...uh" he stuttered. The man looked down at him, his blue eyes sharp and menacing, yet not unkind. "J-Jo, uh no, Jay, Jackie, J--uh..." he stammered, trying to get the name right. "What was his name? I can't remember the name?! I know this guy, he can help me! So, why can't I remember it? Why can't I remember his name?!" Polnareff thought, panicking. Then the man started speaking, "Hey there, little boy. You, uh, didn't happen to see a French guy come through here, did ya? This guy's about yea tall, and he's got the exact same haircut as you do." "Yeah, you're talking about me! It's me, it's me." Polnareff pointed to himself. "Oh, good grief. Asking a kid was an awful idea." the guy hummed, then turned and left. Polnareff was about to run after the man, "Wait, hold on!" but someone blocked his way. It was the enemy! The guy, named Alessi, chuckled, "I take it, you've realised that your body's been changed into a little kid's. Both your mind and your body have regressed. And soon you'll lose all your memories, that you've built up since entering adulthood." Polnareff looked up at the enemy, "He can't seriously be able to erase everything I knew as an adult!" he thought, then tried remembering some stuff, "It's true. It's all becoming a blur." he thought as he couldn't quiet remember much. Meanwhile the man from before kept walking away, the distance growing bigger. "Guess it's about time, huh?" the enemy said, "I love picking on the weak!" he confessed, "So amusing! Attaboy, Alessi, attaboy!" Polnareff tried running towards the young man, but Alessi stopped him, "Uh-uh, you're not getting away, you brat." Polnareff knew he was in serious trouble. Alessi crouched down before him, "I can't say this too loudly, but picking on the weak really gets me going, maybe too much. " Alessi chuckled again, "I may be a bit sick in the head, but hey, c'est la vie, am I right? It's like everyone say, if you think you're a little loony upstairs, then there's a god chance you're probably not. It's my confirmation that I'm totally sane. And you can't imagine how it feels to know that I'll never lose to some kid." Alessi preyed upon the little Polnareff. The French called out to the young man, "Mister, whatever your name is-" Alessi kicked the boy interrupting him midsentence. The man turned around, but the young Polnareff and Alessi had already disappeared from the street. Polnareff was hanging from a small pipe by his t-shirt, while the rest of his body was stuck inside a wooden ceiling. "As you probably know, my mission is to wipe you and your good-for-nothing cohorts from the face of the planet. Unfortunately I don't have time to savour the fun." Alessi spoke as he pulled out a gun from inside his vest, installing a silencer. Alessi pointed the barrel at the little boy, that Polnareff currently was. He fired several shots at Polnareff. Silver Chariot appeared and deflected the bullets. "What have we here? Silver Chariot, ay....I suppose I should have expected as much." muttered Alessi, "Seems you were able to summon your Stand as a little kid. But..." Polnareff looked at his Stand. He too, had turned into a younger version of himself, his rapier bent from deflecting the bullets. "How strong is this damn Stand user? Even Silver Chariot is a kid!" Polnareff realised. "And he's just as weak as I am. His sword is bent from blocking those bullets." he thought. "My Stand, Set, reverted you back to your childhood state. Which means that all your mental abilities were reverted along with you, which means, your Stand has gone back to a child Stand, to the form it had before the two of you were fully attuned to each other." Alessi explained, then chuckled, "Do you get it now?" Polnareff froze at the question. He had to get out of here. Someone had to help him. Suddenly the face of a girl came to his mind. He didn't remember her name, but her face, especially her eyes were something that could not be forgotten easily. Those green, predatory eyes with a playful twinkle, that could see right into your soul, yet hid a loneliness that could not be cured. Eyes that were kind, yet could show you the pits of hell. Yes, she was the one he needed. But he'd have to find her first. "It seems you do understand." Alessi ripped the boy out of his thoughts, revealing an axe, "But as your Stand is still at your disposal, I shall use my Stand for your execution." The shadow Stand stretched out, axe in hand, slowly closing in on poor, little Polnareff. "Time to die, Polnareff! You're mine!" Alessi declared and the Stand swung the axe. "Jeez, where did they go off to?" a woman's voice reached the boy's ears. "How dare they leave me behind like that?! I walked into that bookstore and when I came out, both of them were gone. Seriously, what am I gonna do with these two?!" the woman grumbled. Polnareff knew that voice, it belonged to the woman with green eyes! He had to find her. Alessi had frozen mid-swing. "Damn, not her!" he cursed, as the woman came into view. "Help!" Polnareff screamed gaining the woman's attention. Alessi quickly disappeared. "He's gone. So, that guy runs for the hills as soon as there's another adult around." Polnareff thought. "Oh, my, how'd you get stuck up there, little one?" she asked, her voice friendly. She freed the boy from the ceiling and pipe. She didn't set him down, instead she kept him right in her arms. "Are you ok? Where are your parents?" she asked. "Uh-uhm." Polnareff stuttered. "It's all right, my friends ditched me too. What's your name, boy?" the woman's voice was soothing and her eyes drew him in, so much that he almost forgot to answer, "It's Jean." Polnareff told her his first name. "Jean? How funny, my friend has the same name." The woman smiled kindly, then introduced herself as Kate and asked whether he saw a man come through and described him as tall, handsome, with ocean blue eyes, dressed in black and wearing a hat. Polnareff nodded, pointing into the direction the man from before had gone into. "All right, let's go and look for your parents while we're at it." Kate declared and walked off, carrying young Polnareff in her arms. It was a nice feeling of security. She was soft and her scent enveloped him, as he buried his face in her neck. She smelled like the sun and something else, there was a hint of something that smelled like the ocean. It fit well together, but it wasn't her natural scent and it wasn't some sort of perfume either. "Suddenly she set him down, and Polnareff found himself protesting, already missing the warmth and softness of her skin. Kate chuckled, "Don't worry. I'll be right back. You're hurt, so I'll get something to patch you up and then we can go and eat some ice cream or so, if you want to. Though we should probably give you a bath, as well." Kate patted his head, then disappeared into the pharmacy. He decided to sit down at a nearby bench but stumbled on his way. It was then that another woman disappeared. "Little boy, are you all right?? she asked. Polnareff ignored her, getting up and continued going to that bench. "Little boy, don't run off. You're hurt, what happened?" the woman asked him. She was beautiful, her purple eyes showed a kindness, that was different than Kates. Polnareff stuttered, "Uh-uhm, well...the things is- uh" "What are you mumbling about? Those wounds need to be treated." the woman took Polnareff by the hand, "Why don't you come with me to my house and I'll fix you up, ok?" And thus the woman pulled him along and away from Kate. "Should I go?" he wondered, "If I don't defeat that Stand user, I won't turn back into an adult. I'll be safe if I'm with Kate. But this he's probably gonna attack her, too. I don't want to endanger her! He won't attack me with this lady around, she's an adult! I can use this time to think of a plan" But it didn't matter, the woman pulled him along anyway. The woman then crouched down, saying he was hurt, so he should climb onto her back and hold on tight. Caught of guard, he did as told and the woman stood up, resuming to walk. Polnareff did feel sorry about leaving Kate like that, surely she'd be worried after he disappeared like that, but he couldn't change that now, plus she'd be safe from Alessi.