Separate Ways/Worlds Apart (JJBA: Battle Tendency)

Chapter 6: Can Do

Straizo assumed that coming to New York to dispose of those who may take offense both to the death of Speedwagon, and his newfound immortality would be child's play. Eliminating a spoiled boy barely out of schooling? Simple. Killing an elderly woman with no defenses? Simpler. Yet here he was, staring at one of the humans he had not yet deemed a threat; with holes in both his neck and forehead, simply standing there with a knowing smirk on his face. He had made a severe miscalculation and now he was paying for it with pure irritation from the insects that now saw fit to challenge him.

"Your next words will be, how can he live with a hole in his head? Go!" the young Joestar predicted.

"H-how can he live with a hole in his head?" Straizo muttered to himself, only for his eyes to go wide in realization.

"Take a look at the face of the clock," Joseph announced, raising an arm to point at a clock above him.

"A mirror?" The vampire's irritation skyrocketed, realizing that the wretches had been such a distraction that he had not noticed mirror trick.

"Nice of you to notice, Straiz-oaf," the enemy taunted. Straizo turned around to prepare to receive or give an attack but was too late. The former monk was met with a war cry of: "I'll knock you out of the park!" and the butt of a gun to his face, sending him flying across the room. As if the yell of "Shoot!" was not humiliating enough, he heard a muffled laugh from outside, the blond brat from before had a hand over her mouth and a glint in her eyes.

Straizo hid his smirk, and within the split second before he would be decimated by a hamon-fueled blow, he grasped his scarf and pulled it over his head. Although the action still forced his head back against the wall behind him, but that would heal quite easily now, and he was relatively unharmed as the Joestar brute barreled towards him, seeming rather pleased with his futile maneuver. He feigned defeat, letting his body go limp as a small cheer came from outside the Shoppe.

"Now, I hear hamon can melt vampire faces," Joseph mumbled at first, only to loudly proclaim, "Let's see my results!"

Straizo allowed him to grab ahold of his scarf, removing it from his face. His foe froze just long enough for a surprise attack. The onyx-haired monk felt the building of energy behind his eyes until a bolt of plasma shot from his pupils right at the Joestar brat. The awestruck look on his face was priceless as he dashed back, bending his body in an attempt to dodge the attack, but Straizo's stingy ripper eyes were much too fast, and a satisfying gush of blood spurted from Joseph's neck.

A female voice from outside yelped out in worry and drew his attention to her position. She leaned to see what had happened, the bulky Joestar having blocked her way. The vampire's smirk grew wider as her eyes gleamed with terror, her body going rigid at what had happened. She unfroze for a moment as her gaze caught sight of his scarf and her fear turned into an almost awed fascination, the girl knew more than she let on it seemed.

"He, He's completely fine," his attacker stuttered out, "Like nothing happened." He stared back at the young punk's blond companion as if she could give him an explanation. Straizo guessed that she could have benefited the Joestar in this battle whether with information or directly in battle, but she was too much of a coward to do anything. At least if it came down to it, she wouldn't attempt any heroics to stop him.

The vampire was quickly growing bored as he was interrupted by the Joestar's not so inner musings concerning his grandmother. It was time to end this. With little effort he stretched his limbs and spoke:

"You would become a deadly foe if left alive any longer. A secret before you die," he raised the cloth to draw the fool's attention to it, "While perhaps the white-livered harlot behind you could reveal this herself, I doubt you will live long enough for the explanation so I will make this simple enough even for you to understand. There is an insect in Southeast Asia, known as the Satiporoja beetle. Over 30,000 of their tiny stomachs were dried and woven into this scarf. It conducts hamon better than the human body and disperses it like an electrical ground." he clicked his tongue, making a show of flipping the scarf back over his shoulder, "You underestimate a former hamon master." with his last words he returned his crimson-eyed gaze to the one called Sharena, gauging her reaction to the revelation.