The Leviathan: A Polnareff x Reader

Chapter 5: Jealousy

Chapter 5: Jealousy

The woman's stand poured from her fingers, outnumbering you by a staggering margin. You narrowed your eyes.

"Are you... who they call the Leviathan?" Tension hung thick in the air as you awaited her answer.

"I not big fish. Leviathan is big fish. This Iron Maiden. See?" The tiny people paused and held up their irons. It was at this moment that she looked up from her work and noticed your stand. "Ah! You have spirit helper too?!" The genuine elation in her voice and lack of aggression in her visage startled you out of your intense battle planning.

"Huh?!" Your gaze traveled from the countertop to her face. She was beaming in awe at your stand.

"Ooh! You have BIG spirit helper! Mine so little!" She gestured to her own illuminated entities and it took you a moment to process that they were not closing in on you. The tiny facets of her stand were manipulating the garment, growing fabric where there was none, pressing out the wrinkles, spawning new seams.

"This... ability that you have..."

"Yes." She seemed to know what you were asking and was eager to share. "Objects go back. Way they once were."

"I see..." It appeared that she used her stand, not to fix things, but to invert their lifespan and restore their original form. "Mine... makes fire." You thought that was vague enough to not give away your abilities. Suddenly her stand vanished and she smiled. "...So..." You took a step back when she held out the finished shirt, which honestly looked better than you'd ever seen it. "...you're really not going to attack me?"

"Why would I attack paying customer?"

"..." Pharoah's Serpant investigated the top without touching it, but no matter how thoroughly you inspected it- right down to the very fibers- you couldn't seem to find anything wrong with it.

"Have nice day!" She waved you out the door. You backed out slowly, still on moderate alert, until you were met by the noisy street.

'A power like that... I bet it could probably revert the cells of someone's body to an immature and functionless state... or maybe even hark back the tectonic plates below our feet to what they were eons ago... That kind of ability could be incredibly dangerous! Unless maybe it only applies to inanimate objects? Even so... is she really not our enemy? Could she seriously just be doing this to make an honest living?' You held the black pristine shirt at arms length, pinched between two fingers so it was touching as little skin as possible. 'I suppose I can have Joseph take a picture of this later... just in case.' You placed it into your backpack and moved to cross the road. "Now to find Kakyoin..." It had only been a few minutes since you entered the shop so he likely wasn't finished with his errand. You waited outside, as promised.

The ten minutes passed, so you waited longer, assuming Kakyoin must've gotten caught in a haggling match with the merchant. When time stretched out even longer you began to get fidgety. Instead of standing around being useless you decided to go inside to investigate, only to find, after bustling around multiple shelves of goods and a small crowd of people, that he was nowhere to be found.

'Maybe he didn't find what he was looking for at this shop...' But your gut told you he would have come and consulted you first. Kakyoin was a cautious, stick-to-the-plan type of guy. You began to worry, and started searching all the shops you could in the relative vicinity, pace becoming increasingly frantic the more shops you encountered without finding him. 'Maybe he went to look for me to and we just missed each other somehow...' Down the whole strip you searched, not noticing the meet up time with the others had came and went until you saw the sky changing colors. Once you realized your situation was hopeless you ran towards the rallying point. You should have kept track of the time and recruited their help sooner! 'He must have discovered something too urgent and important that he didn't have time to tell me. Yeah, that's what must've happened...' Internally pleading and out of breath you finally made it to the edge of the village, the steep hilltop that overlooked your crew. A wave of relief and exasperation crashed over you when you spotted Kakyoin's bright red hair among them.