Stardust Soul

13

"So..." Ren spoke from outside the door, "Since we're all in this avenging game, where do we start looking for that Masked Man?"

Oh dear. I never really thought of that. The Masked Man just made his escape by a helicopter going who knows where? Even I don't know where to start... what was I thinking?

Ren started to barge in my room, making his way to my bed and sat down. I arched my brow, "Who told you that you can just come in my room?"

"That's just unfair!" Ren pouted, "Jotaro just barged here a while ago!"

"At least he knocked first," Tekuto snickered, "May I come in?"

"Whatever. You guys are still coming in anyways," I grunted as Tekuto walked in and sat by the bed. I never had anyone come in my room... it's a little embarrassing right now since it's a huge wreck after my emotional tantrum.

Jotaro eventually stated, "My grandfather has a lot of resources. We can ask for help."

I blurted out, "Joseph Joestar?"

He nodded in response.

"I don't know... isn't it too much trouble? I mean, he's back in New York-"

"Are those...pictures of Jotaro behind the door?" Tekuto interrupted, seemingly looking intently at the pictures behind my bedroom door.

I felt my cheeks turn red as a tomato, immediately turning my attention towards it. Damn, I don't think I didn't throw anything towards the door except for pillows, containing my collection of stolen pictures of you-know-who. They hold great value and I don't dare to ruin a single photo, otherwise I'll go haywire. "No..." I countered, trying my best to sound natural even though I was caught red-handed, "It's a picture of... all my friends."

"Oh yeah?" he raised his dark brown eyebrows, absolutely not buying what I said, "Why is it mostly Jotaro's portraits, and some of them with you?"

"You guys are in there too!" I pointed at the bottom part of the collage, where there were a few photos of the four of us back in Iga when we had our field trip. Tekuto does still not believe me, but he chose to remain silent, leaving everyone else to be the judge. Next time, I'll remind myself to hide them somewhere else where no one knows where.

Jotaro then clears his throat, "He comes here much often nowadays to check on me and my mom; I bet he'll be back here by tomorrow-"

Before he could finish his sentence, a huge explosion was heard from ahead. All of us scrambled to the window, looking for the source of the blast. Luckily, it wasn't anywhere near here. A huge cloud of smoke was seen from the distance, around the area where the huge houses stand.

"That's near my house!" Ren cried out, "Oh shit, Franz!"

"I was about to say that the Masked Man might not be done with his plans yet," Jotaro added as he pulled his hat over his eyes, "Yare yare, I didn't expect him to make his move so soon."

I gulped. This might be his work again. That explosion was way too similar to the ones in Heiwana. All of us then looked at each other, waiting for someone to say a word, but all of us knew what we were going to do. The next thing I knew was that all of us bolted for the door to rush to Ren's abode.

Who is the Masked Man, and what is he up to?

~*~

Just as I feared, the explosion came from Ren's house itself.

"Dammit!" Ren shouted as he placed his head in his hands, panicking, "FRANZ!"

"Calm down, Ren!" Tekuto placed a hand on his back, "We're going to find Franz, whoever he is. He's going to be okay."