MAGO - Stardust Crusaders X OC

Chapter Eighteen: Sunday, December 18

Sana glanced around at the city of Karachi with tired eyes. They'd been travelling for the past thirty hours in this carriage, and her legs had long since fallen asleep. Still, Karachi seemed nice enough to Sana. She could smell food on the breeze, and there was no shortage of people to watch as Mr Joestar guided the horses through the city. It was interesting enough, she supposed, but she wasn't really in the mood for much amusement because she'd been up half the night.

That was the problem with uneven roads and a carriage, Sana supposed: every jolt would send you flying into the person next to you, and after a quick apology, you'd just get thrown again. Sana wondered how many bruises she, Noriaki and Polnareff would've gotten overnight. She didn't really want to think about it.

"Hey, a doner kebab joint!" Mr Joestar said. He was alright. He had been in the front with only Jotaro sharing the seat, and there was plenty of space between the two of them. "Let's stop and get something to eat." Sana liked the idea of that. Maybe some food was just what she needed, but ideally, it'd be sleep.

Sana glanced back as Mr Joestar stopped the cart. Enyaba was still unconscious or asleep in the back of the carriage, taking up three seats even with her small frame. They'd just loaded her back there and hoped she wouldn't fall out or anything, and, for once, things had gone smoothly, and she hadn't. She also hadn't woken up, which made life a little easier.

Still, despite its flaws, the carriage was still better than walking for ninety hours in the dusty air. At night, it got cold fast, but in the day, it would've been unbearable. So no matter how little sleep she'd gotten, Sana was grateful they'd found the thing, and Mr Joestar had bartered for it and secured the deal.

Even now he was making use of his newfound bartering skills, trying to get the kebabs for the lowest possible price. Sana had no idea how successful he'd be, but she didn't really care. Instead, she just laid her head back, closed her eyes, and felt the sun on her face. This was the closest thing to rest she'd get, Sana thought, as her mind gently floated on the waves of sound emanating from the street around her. She managed to filter all of it out and just have it as a general hum that could easily lull her to sleep-

"Holy crap! Turn around! The old lady's awake!"

Sana's eyes snapped open as she whipped her head around, almost smacking Noriaki in the face with her hair. Mr Joestar had been right, she was awake, and her already-large eyes were wide with pure and utter terror.

She was sweating, and stammering, and repeating same stock phrases over and over again about how loyal she was to DIO and how he was everything to her and why would she tell them anything because she was so loyal and-

"I- I promised you-" she said, voice high with raw fear. "I haven't said anything to them, I swear-! Why are you here? What could- you possibly want with me? Did you think I would actually tell you the secrets of lord DIO's Stand? I am and shall always be his loyal servant!"

But that didn't make sense, who was she talking to? Sana shuffled her sleep-deprived brain into order as she tried to follow Enyaba's eyes to see the source of her terror, and Sana's gaze came to rest on the kebab seller. There was no way that he was one of DIO's assassins, right..?

But he casually removed his glasses and hood, and grinned at them. Behind Sana, Enyaba started choking, an awful, gurgling noise coming from her throat. Sana turned back around, and-

What the hell was happening? Enyaba's eyes were replaced by worms, or tentacles, or something, reddish-brownish-purple and writhing around as she screeched and choked and bled all over the carriage and their luggage.

Polnareff leapt out of the carriage. Sana didn't, morbidly intrigued by this, unable to tear her eyes away. Was this what Hol Horse had meant by the terrifying power of DIO? What the hell was it, anyway? Some kind of Stand, or- or what? This wasn't like anything she'd seen before, except maybe the fl-