Shiho Sunfast had learned two things about her grandmother today. One, she was still nimble on her feet in her old age, keeping ahead of her, even though she was still only seventeen years old, and two, she was as clumsy as a baboon in a swimming pool.
Shiho had lost count of how many garbage cans Sunset had run into and each time, she would fall over and curse before getting herself back up to carry on, only to crash into another set further down the street.
“Son of a coven of witches!” Sunset Shimmer yelled and pushed the next garbage can aside.
Shiho sighed and followed along, keeping to the center of the road to avoid the cans. It was a mystery to her why her grandmother didn’t do that.
“No. It’s not a mystery.” Shiho shook her head. “She’s just a dense old hag.”
Ban Kai’s house finally came into view and Shiho could see that fire had already spread to the other two houses next to hers. Another explosion rang out from inside the compound and that made Shiho push herself harder, catching up to her grandmother.
“Can’t you reset the fire or something?” Shiho asked as they watched the fire jump to a pine tree in Ban’s compound.
“It’s too big.” Sunset balled a fist. “My powers aren’t what they used to be. We need to get in there and save who we can find.”
“They’re armed inside,” Shiho explained. “This is my friend Ban Kai’s house. She said there were masked people before she lost contact.”
“More unnecessary violence.” Sunset lifted her fist to the air as she placed her other hand on top of her hat. “Let’s teach them a lesson then. With… Stando Powah!”
“Why are you suddenly trying to sound Japanese?” Shiho groaned. “Good grief.”
As the two women reached the destroyed front gates, they could see people with blue masks inside, carrying rifles as a drone followed them around, scanning its surroundings.
“They’re still looking for survivors. So they mustn’t have killed everyone yet,” Sunset deduced. “There’s still a chance for them to get out alive. Let’s go. Alicorn Fantasy!”
Sunset jumped over a burning piece of debris as she summoned her golden-clad Stand. It gave its wings a mighty flap, soaring towards the gunmen as they caught wind of Sunset and Shiho at the gates.
They mustn’t have been Stand users because Alicorn Fantasy clubbed them all in the face without them even seeing it, and they all fell to the ground, bleeding from their faces as Sunset’s Stand grabbed the drone, crushing it between both hands.
“I’ve got an idea.” Shiho walked up to the ruined machine.
Her Stand, Curtain Call, lifted a cloth and draped it over the drone.
“Can’t you make it into a fire extinguisher or something?” Sunset asked, watching the cloth settle against the drone. “We can use it to put out the fires.”
“Curtain Call can only change an object into a singular entity. I could make a fire extinguisher, but it would not have the vapor inside. I had something else in mind.”
Pulling the cloth off, the drone was no longer there. Instead, there was a roll of what looked like a sack of rice or wheat, but a really big one.
“Fire blanket,” Shiho held it up and wrapped it around herself. “I can use it to get through the fire and find Ban Kai.”
“What about me? Don’t I get one?” Sunset asked, stretching a hand out with her palm facing up.
“Sorry, granny. Curtain Call only replaces an object with another.” Shiho faced the house, its garden ablaze, standing between her and her friend. “Just run through and reset yourself or something.”
“Gah. Fine.” Sunset grumbled to herself. “You know what, I’ll deal with the other masked perpetrators outside before I risk burning myself.”
Shiho rolled her eyes and clutched the blanket tightly around herself as she ran through the blazing garden. She hopped on top of flat stone steps leading to a side door on a wooden patio that was also on fire. Thankfully, most of the building was sturdy and concrete, meaning the fire would take a while to wear down the building.
Sending Curtain Call ahead of her, Shiho had her Stand through its cloth over a portion of the wall and when it was removed, the concrete had become paper, allowing her to jump right through it as she entered the house.
Almost immediately, she had been welcomed by the throw of a fist, aimed right for her throat. Shiho bent back, dropping her upper body before leaning to the left and lashing a kick up at a masked man’s head. Her foot slammed into the side of his head and he was thrown over her, back out into the burning patio where he began writhing in pain.
More masked men approached her, but Shiho had Curtain Call throw its cloth over one of them before giving him a punch straight to his jaw, knocking him back. The other two must’ve seen him fly back for no apparent reason, because they suddenly backed away, looking all over the room.
Shiho smiled. That was fine by her. Curtain Call kicked off the ground, delivering a powerful knee into one of the masked men’s gut, launching him across the room and into an ancient vase, shattering it. Swerving around, Curtain Call picked up a chair along the way, then smashed it into the next man, knocking him down and out cold.
“That takes care of these fools. Good grief, they had to pick my friend’s house to burn down…” Shiho rubbed her forehead. “But I need to find Ban Kai. I need to make sure she’s alright.”
She was about to run for the staircase leading up to the bedrooms when an explosion rocked the air in front of her. Shiho only had enough time to bring up her arms as it sent her flying back into the dining table, splitting it in two as one chair went flying out the window.
She groaned and pushed herself up, her ears still ringing. She gave one side a pat as she gritted her teeth together to stave off the pain. Eventually, her hearing resumed, and that’s when she heard the inklings of a maniacal laughter coming from somewhere ahead, followed by slow clapping sounds. A pudgy man whose face looked like it was eating his facial features walked out from behind the kitchen wall, slapping his beat meaty hands together. He had on a gray buttoned up shirt and pants, and he had a long braided ponytail going down the back of his head from the very top and he had a thin moustache curving around his mouth before dangling down his front.
“I applaud you for taking out the rest of my friends,” he said, his accent thick and phlegmy. “I did not expect to see another Stand user coming here to stop us. That was my mistake. A mistake I would not make again.”
“Yeah? Just who the hell are you supposed to be, anyway?” Shiho challenged, dusting soot and ash from her clothing. “Did the circus leave you behind, freak?”
“Leave it to rich people to insult us with meager quips.” He stuck his lips out. “I am Hu Hur Dur, with Die Die Riches. Surely you’ve heard of us!”
Shiho had indeed heard of them. “You’re with those terrorist guys who want some stupid communism world order. That seems bit complex for a clown like you, Hurrderrderr, or whatever the hell your name is.”
The man’s pale skin turned red in anger. “It’s Hu Hur Dur! And we, the less fortunate, we’ve been living in suffering, suffering more and more with each economical downfall, with the latest being the Digitalcurrency Crash. We’ve been sucked dry by the rich, but oh no, this ends now. Die Die Riches has risen up to do what no other activist group is willing to do. The annihilation of the rich! And now with the power to do so, we will destroy the divide between the rich and poor and life for all will become better once more.”
Shiho stared at the man with one eye squinted. “That,” she said. “Has to be the biggest crock of bullcrap I’ve ever heard, and I go to a public school with moron teachers. Destroy the economy? The only thing you’re destroying is your circulatory system, fatso!”
“You rich people have it so easy and still you’re not satisfied with the way you live, instead opting to take what little we have.” Hu took one step to the left, then placed one hand on his belly, before stretching one arm behind his head. It looked like it took a lot of effort to put his arm behind his head. “I’ve had to live off the streets of Mongolia, scraping what I can from the drains just to live. I could never afford education. You don’t know what it’s like!”
“Oh, so you’re actually Mongolian?” Shiho was unimpressed. “Is that your accent, or is it just the lard clogging your windpipe? Don’t you have better things to do than blow up people’s houses? Like go to the freaking gym or take a shower?”
“That’s it. I’m done talking to a child who knows nothing of the world!” Hu bent forward and clutched one arm with one hand. “My Stand is going to take care of you like it did with the family living in this house.”
“Yeah?” Shiho growled. “Unfortunately for you, I’m in a bad mood, and I don’t see anyone else here to take it out on but you, buster. So bring it on!”
Curtain Call reappeared before her, raising both arms as it opened its mouth in a silent growl. Hu, to his credit, was not fazed. Instead, he put both arms behind his back and took one more step back and did nothing.
Without wasting a beat, Shiho sent her Stand forward to punch him in his big face, but before she could land any punches on him, three smaller explosions bloomed in front of her Stand’s face. She would’ve certainly gotten her face blown off if not for Curtain Call’s fast reflexes. Shiho’s Stand dropped backwards, then did a roll before pushing up with both hands, throwing itself in the air before it landed back on its feet a meter away.
“Would you like to try again?” Hu grinned widely, still making no attempt to move.
Shiho kept her eyes on him. This was definitely the work of an enemy Stand, but as of yet, she had not seen anything. The explosions seemed to appear from thin air. But that couldn’t be it. There was something she was missing, and rushing in blindly was just going to get her blown up. She had to figure out just how this man was using his Stand.
“You’re a real piece of work, Durrhurr,” Shiho called. “But don’t think that just ‘cause you can blow things up means I won’t beat your face in.”
“Just you watch. My Stand, Dschinghis Khan will annihilate every cell in your body!” He pointed a chubby finger at Shiho.
This time, through the eyes of her Stand, Shiho saw it. If she were to blink, she would’ve missed it, but close to Hu, a small organism floated past his nose, then through the air between both of them, two tiny legs scuttling in the air as it propelled itself. That was all Shiho got to see before it flipped its abdomen towards her and an explosion followed.
“Oh shi-!” Shiho dived to her left, rolling once to avoid the blast. There was another ringing in her ears from being so close to the explosions but she shook it off. There would be time to worry about her hearing later.
The enemy Stand pointed its abdomen forward again and Shiho had Curtain Call throw a chair at it just as the first explosion went off. The wooden piece of furniture blew into bits, sending wood shards across the space. Shiho did a roll and had Curtain Call throw its cloth over another chair, turning it into a metal shield which she used to protect herself. Hu squeaked and dived behind the wall, his fat frame sending tremors through the house’s floor.
When the wood had finished impaling itself all around the living room, Shiho peeked past her shield to eye to the enemy Stand. It created its explosions through its abdomen and each time, a faint gas would first leak out from the left side of its abdomen before the air looked like it was getting sucked in from the right.
“It uses gasses in the air to create its explosions,” Shiho surmised. “But there are too many gasses in our air to narrow out which one just yet. There must be a way to find out how to stop it from producing these explosions…”
As she watched, Hu’s tiny Stand skittered closer, then pointed its abdomen at her again. But this time, Shiho knew how to interact with it quickly. Curtain Call reached a hand out, catching the enemy Stand between two fingers, with its thumb keeping the Stand’s abdomen pointed towards Hu’s direction.
“Now what do we have here?” Shiho took a closer look at it.
The Stand was insectoid in nature, with only two legs close to its head. Its feelers were long and squirmy like two worms and it had a wicked pair of mandibles that looked like tiny garden shears; they were plenty capable of cutting a finger off if it got close enough to her.
“Unhand Dschinghis Khan!” Hu swiped a hand to his right. “Unhand it or I’ll knock you off your feet!”
“No. You won’t.” Shiho’s eyes narrowed as she raised a hand under her chin. “I’ve been watching you each time your Stand has attacked. You always keep a good distance away from it and its explosions never get within three feet of you. I would assume that you’re not protected from your Stand’s powers. And I know it uses natural elements of the air to create its explosions. I admit, I do not know which ones, as the air has too many compounds, such as nitrogen and oxygen. But in the end, it matters not. I have your Stand in the grasp of my hand and if you want to detonate the air, by all means, do it. I am ready for the consequences, but are you?”
Hu looked at her, then at the abdomen of his Stand as a bead of sweat rolled down his face. His Stand was capable of combining hydrogen molecules with oxygen and with a little spark from within itself, it could merge all this into explosions. He had marveled that such a tiny Stand could create such destruction, but now Curtain Call had it in its fingers, holding it down firmly as it pointed Dschinghis Khan’s dangerous abdomen towards him.
No, he wasn’t going to let it end just like that. As he wiped a pudgy hand across his forehead, he smirked at the thought of one last trick he could pull. A trick that could turn the tables.
Get ready, girl and watch me, one of the greatest Stand masters in Die Die Riches, destroy you before you even know what happened.
Hu fell on his back, clutching at his chest as he began sputtering and muttering. “A-Ah, my heart! My heart!”
Shiho watched him with zero surprise, dropping the shield by her feet. “All that lard finally caught up to you, huh? What I’m surprised about is your size. You keep complaining that you lived on the streets, yet you look like you’ve never missed a meal in your life.”
Curtain Call lowered the hand that was holding on to Dschinghis Khan and in that moment, Hu shot his head back up, grinning madly. “You fool, you’ve made the gravest mistake thinking this was the end for me, but it was actually the end for you! With your guard down, Dschinghis Khan is going to ignite the air around you and it’ll blow your Stand to bits, and by extension, you!”
To his shock, Shiho didn’t look one bit impressed. Instead, she looked as though she had just been told pigs could float.
In the moment of his Stand fueling up the air around its abdomen, Curtain Call tucked its hand back and with its other arm, draped the cloth around the shield once again. It spun on a foot, grabbing the cloth and throwing the enemy Stand towards its master before Shiho picked up the item that was once a shield.
It was a pair of bellows, something Shiho had only seen in the history books, but she had figured out how the enemy Stand’s attack worked and seeing as Curtain Call couldn’t create working machinery, this would have to do.
“Your Stand ignites the air around it, but what if the air is blowing in a different direction?” Shiho said before giving the bellows a powerful pump.
As the air ignited around Dschinghis Khan’s abdomen, an explosion started to spring to life, following the path of oxygen, only for it follow the path the bellows had blown it to, straight towards its own master.
“W-What? No! No!” Hu raised his hands as the explosion changed paths, engulfing him in orange and yellow as the wall behind him crumbled from the blast.
When the blast faded, all that was left of the man was a darkened skeleton with bits of flesh scattered close by.
Shiho looked at her handiwork and spat in the skeleton’s general direction. “Now that is a diet I call death.”
With that done, she raced up the stairs to Ban Kai’s room, looking for her friend, but when she threw the doors open, her hand shook with shock and fury. Ban Kai lay in front of her bed, half her body burnt, her eyes glassy.
“I was too late. I was too late from the beginning…” Shiho remembered the explosion that cut their conversation on the phone.
She pounded the wall beside her as shadows slinked over her eyes.
“Shiho. Shiho!” Sunset’s voice was heard before she appeared at the door. Her sleeve was on fire and she was busy trying to pat it out. “The fire was a real pain. I couldn’t reset everything- Oh. Oh no.”
“Could you reset her, grandmother?” Shiho asked. She wanted to plead, she wanted to beg, but that was unbecoming of her. No matter how much she cared for her friend, that was not who she was anymore.
“Shiho, I’m sorry,” Sunset sighed. “Death is not something I can reset, even when Alicorn Fantasy was at its full power. There’s nothing more I can do.”
Shiho snarled and punched the wall again. “These people. Die Die Riches. They aim to kill the rich to make the world better for everyone. Or so they claim. I’m going to find them and I’m going to kill every last one of them. They’ll pay for what they’ve done to Ban Kai.”
“Shiho…” Sunset put an arm around her granddaughter’s shoulder, only to have it shrugged off. “Come on. It’s not safe here.”
Shiho said nothing, but stalked out of the collapsing building just in time to see the fire trucks arrive on the scene. Curtain Call turned the wall in the back into cardboard and she and Sunset sneaked out the back before anyone could see them.
It was here that Shiho made a vow to herself. She was going to stop at nothing until she wiped out every last member of Die Die Riches. She was going to find out where they operated out of and she was going to end them permanently.
As Shiho and Sunset ran down the streets, away from the burning house, they failed to see a female figure standing on top of the roof of a nearby temple, watching them go through a pair of binoculars.
She placed them back in her backpocket as she ran a hand along a metallic shaft at her side. It was a retractable whip, able to appear when she needed to use it.
“It seems we’ve got more Stand users out here…” she said. “I’ll follow them to see where they’re headed.”
She flicked the whip out from its retractable grip, then wrapped it around a dragon statue’s head before swinging out into the sunset after the two fleeting figures.