The heavy sound of the door closing made Maehara Naoto's heart sink. Remembering his [companion's] advice, he immediately turned and rushed towards the iron door.
"Hey, who allowed you to close the door! With you public servants here, what's the difference if this broken door is 'half-open' or 'ajar'! But why did you have to close it?"
"What if someone has an attack due to 'claustrophobia', how will you take responsibility?!"
"You even locked it?! You f*cking—"
Just as Maehara Naoto was shouting and banging on the door, twisting the tightly locked round doorknob, the peephole on the door suddenly slid open, revealing a pair of scrutinizing eyes.
"Let me tell you, Maehara-san, we didn't deliberately lock you in any confined space, and claustrophobia is even more of a baseless claim."
The young Police Officer's voice revealed displeasure; it seemed he wasn't seeing such a difficult person for the first time.
"Look, there's a window to your left. We didn't deliberately close it, you know. If your eyesight is good, you can even see the train model at the other end of the park."
"And I don't think the other citizens have any 'phobias'; they are all very cooperative."
"Hmph, as for you, if you really feel short of breath from being locked up by us, you can break the window and escape at any time. However, afterwards, you will not only be officially arrested but also fully compensate for the park's losses."
Inside and outside the iron window, four eyes confronted each other in silence.
"Tch, go report to your boss. Locking up a bunch of innocent citizens is quite an achievement."
Finally, Maehara Naoto gave in, helplessly sitting next to the old man who was watching TV, grabbing the remote control to change channels.
"Hmph, hmph, thanks for your cooperation."
The young Police Officer showed a satisfied smile, turned, and sat into the police car parked by the roadside. He picked up the walkie-talkie, tuned it to a special frequency, and reported the situation to someone.
And he didn't notice at all that the walkie-talkie in his hand was much heavier than usual.
"Officer, Officer, do you copy—"
Bang!
The whistling sound of a bullet piercing through pulled a bloody line in the gunsmoke. The young Police Officer's skull and the rear car window glass shattered simultaneously.
In the moment before his consciousness dissipated, he saw a dark muzzle [grow] out of the walkie-talkie in his hand at some unknown point.
The dark gun body seemed to be soldered, forcibly 'melted' into the walkie-talkie, and the gun itself was his service pistol, which he always carried.
As the Police Officer's brain was completely destroyed, a bizarre Disc popped out of his head, disintegrating in mid-air.
At this moment in the waiting room, several old men had just finished their crusade against Maehara Naoto, successfully snatched back the remote control, and quickly lowered the TV volume.
That brat had just tuned to a movie channel showing a gunfight, and the volume was at maximum, almost deafening them.
The [defeated] Maehara Naoto immediately retreated to a corner, sitting next to the girl who was still playing with stones.
Naoto's actions naturally caught the girl's attention. She realized it was the man who had been fierce to her not long ago, and subconsciously shrank into the corner.
"Hey, Little... Little girl, don't be nervous. I just wanted to thank you for your band-aid. Thanks to you, my wound has healed, see?" Maehara Naoto tried to show kindness to this roly-poly girl as gently as possible, deliberately showing the back of his hand covered in band-aids.
Yes, he had accepted those band-aids at the time. Although he felt his behavior was inexplicable then, these band-aids now became an opportunity for him to communicate with her.
He was sure he hadn't seen wrong; the stone that appeared in this girl's hand just now was definitely a meteorite fragment, and it was bigger than any he had ever seen!
"Eh... all covered."
The girl exclaimed softly. It was her first time seeing someone cover themselves with band-aids like that.
"I'm very grateful to you, and I hope to be friends with a kind person like you."
"My name is Maehara Naoto, you can just call me Naoto."
Seemingly overwhelmed by the sudden praise and friend request, the girl's face flushed, and her small hand, clutching the stone, had nowhere to rest.
"Takamatsu Tomori... that's my name."
"Then I'll call you Tomori-chan... Speaking of which, I'm also very interested in these stones in your hand. Could you tell me about them?"
Naoto leaned closer, his gaze openly fixed on the girl's hand.
============
Naoto had heard about meteorite fragments from his team's Leader.
On that night two years ago, a small number of people around the world observed that mysterious meteor shower.
Since then, they would occasionally see some unfamiliar 'scenes', and the events in these scenes would inevitably happen in the near future.
Initially, this 'future prediction' ability was called a 'blessing' by some, because many had glimpsed the noble figure riding a white horse and spreading gospel in that 'torrent', believing it was God's grace, guiding their way forward.
But people gradually realized that their ability was only to 'predict', not to 'change'.
Fate, from the moment they foresaw it, was already fixed.
One person foresaw a car accident and chose to stay home but ultimately slipped on his son's toy car, falling and suffering serious injuries.
Another person foresaw a bridge collapse with heavy casualties. He informed various media in advance, even going so far as to lie on the bridge with a bomb to intercept traffic. However, this only attracted a large crowd of onlookers, and the bomb on him inexplicably detonated, causing the bridge to collapse prematurely. Although he miraculously survived, he was permanently paralyzed and scorned for life as the 'culprit'.
People began to fear this power and wanted to abandon it. But this ability was completely beyond human control, and as time passed, prophecies appeared more frequently, and the scenes became of the incredibly distant future.
A month later, a year later, ten years later... until one day, people saw through their entire lives.
This 'blessing' at this moment transformed into a 'curse'.
However, among these cursed individuals, there were also some special existences.
Their spiritual power was refined by the 'curse', sublimating to an ethereal form and acquiring extraordinary abilities.
People, by common accord, called this power—'Stand'.
And those who possess a Stand can temporarily extract the 'curse' existing in the spiritual dark side, transforming it into a meteorite fragment.
It is rumored that by collecting enough fragments, a Stand can achieve further sublimation.
At that time, predetermined fate will truly be rewritten.
============
"This one... its shape is like a penguin, and it feels smooth..."
"This one looks like a seashell; I found it under the tallest tree in the park."
"And this one..."
Listening to the girl's explanation, Maehara Naoto, surprisingly, felt a bit sleepy.
As he looked at the pile of stones the girl had laid out and then at the unresponsive detector in his hand, he suddenly felt deceived.
'Was I mistaken before?'
'No, meteorite fragments are extremely special existences. Just like Earth's gravity on humans, that fragment instinctively attracts Stand Users to acquire it. The feeling just now was exactly the same as when I first obtained a fragment.'
"Hey, Tomori-chan, all the stones you've shown are great, but personally, I like the kind of crystal-clear, transparent stones the most."
"I think I saw you holding one before; could I see it if possible?"
Maehara Naoto awkwardly interrupted the girl's introduction, self-importantly steering the conversation towards that crystal.
"Crystal..." The girl was visibly startled, her expression once again becoming downcast.
"Of course, if that's your treasure, I won't insist. I just hope to admire it as a 'friend'."
"Hey, Tomori-chan, you won't refuse me, will you?"
"No, of course not, Naoto is a friend!" The young man's words seemed to hit the girl's soft spot, making her instantly flustered.
"It's just that stone... was borrowed by that old man over there, just when you arrived at the door."
Following the girl's gaze, Naoto found that an old man on the other side of the room, who was watching TV, was rubbing something in his hand.
On closer inspection, what he held were spherical meteorite fragments, and there were two of them!
Two? How did it become two, and the shape also changed!
"Hey! Old man, stop that! Do you know what you're doing? That's not a walnut sold at a street stall!"
Without thinking further, Naoto rushed to the old man in three steps, fiercely grabbing his wrist.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch! My hand's going to break!"
The old man cried out in pain, and the two crystals in his hand slipped into Naoto's grasp.
However, the moment the two crystals touched Naoto's palm, they seemed to pass through smoke, falling directly to the ground and rolling towards the iron door.
"How is that possible!"
'A meteorite fragment actually passed through my body? I've never heard of such a thing!'
Suddenly, a sense of incongruity enveloped Naoto's increasingly tired mind, setting off alarm bells in his heart.
"Something's wrong, something's not right!"
"Since entering this waiting room, since I saw that meteorite fragment, everything has been unnatural!"
"Why has the so-called 'interrogation' not started after so long here? Why have these people been so well-behaved, without a hint of dissatisfaction, after staying here for so long?"
"Also, that Takamatsu Tomori has been quietly playing with stones in the corner; how could she suddenly lend the crystal to the old man at this end of the room!"
Maehara Naoto felt a sudden twitch in his heart, and the scene in his vision became chaotic, like the after-effects of staying up for several nights in a row.
He made a decisive move, summoning a faint blue light that pierced his palm.
Intense pain shot to the top of his head, instantly tearing away a corner of the mist covering his eyes.
What came into view was the familiar waiting room, but the room was now covered in some pale purple 'slime'. Most of the people brought by the Police Officer were already covered in the slime, deeply asleep as if their spirits had been devoured.
He had already fallen into a trap!
"Damn it, this is a Stand attack!"
"Someone set an ambush in this waiting room, and everything I saw and heard just now was an illusion!"
Maehara Naoto could clearly feel that his spiritual power had been largely eroded; he could only struggle to prop himself up and move towards the slowly closing iron door.
'The opponent didn't attack while I was hallucinating, presumably because this ability has some kind of limitation...'
'Or, he became wary of my ability after realizing I was also a Stand User!'
'I can't easily expose my Stand; that would put me at a disadvantage.'
"As long as I can leave this room, as long as I can get there—"
Just as Maehara Naoto was two steps away from escaping, a rapid sound of footsteps suddenly came from outside.
With a clang, the tightly closed iron door was suddenly pulled open, and three dark muzzles pointed at the young man still crawling on the ground.
"Put your hands flat on the ground and don't move! I'll only say this once!"
"You bastard, how dare you assault a Police Officer in broad daylight!"
"Police Officer Takagi's service pistol is missing! It must be on him!"
Maehara Naoto looked up. Three Police Officers were angrily pointing their guns at him, clearly mistaking him for the perpetrator who had murdered their colleague.
Although that was indeed the case, they guessed it too accurately.
Just as Naoto's gaze met that of the Police Officer who was coming forward to handcuff him, he noticed that the Police Officer's eyes were filled with murky purple slime.
'Oh no, they're also under mind control!'
"Ride the Lighting!"
"Fire!!!"
Flashing blue light burst from Maehara Naoto's body, and a violent current transformed into a withered, gigantic hand that slammed forward with a "boom."
In an instant, several bullets that shot out were melted in mid-air. As the giant hand swept out, it gripped the three Police Officers and the iron door that had imprisoned him.
A few breaths later, a charred [sphere] made of steel, bricks, and flesh rolled onto the flagstones outside the house, rhythmically inhaling and exhaling.
Looking at this [creature] he had created with his own hands, Naoto ignored his nausea. He struggled to walk outside, pulled out his phone, and prepared to contact his companions.
Just then, a familiar voice sounded from behind him.
"Hey, Naoto-kun, who are you calling?"
Maehara Naoto suddenly turned around. The girl who had just been lying in the slime had appeared behind him at some point, smiling sweetly at him.
"Hey~ Naoto-kun, do you have other good friends besides me?"
"Hehehe, I really want to meet them. Naoto's friends must be easy to get along with, right~"
At this moment, Takamatsu Tomori seemed like a different person. Her voice became sweet and lively, and she exuded a seductive aura.
The young man, gently called by the girl, felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave. His already weakened spirit finally completely collapsed.
'This is not reality...'
'From beginning to end, in the waiting room... there was only me...'
Looking at the once again chaotic scene before him, Maehara Naoto's consciousness paused at this moment.
"A misstep, Maehara Naoto."
In the empty waiting room, the young man's body was finally completely swallowed by the pale purple slime.
A tall, slender figure bent down and easily extracted two Discs from his head.
"Got them, Fuuki."
"First attempt, and a tangible result."
That figure was Togawa Fuuki's Stand, White Snake. At this moment, he had already grown.
The most significant aspect was that he had transformed from a phantom wrapped in bandages into a humanoid figure clad in leather and bandages, with a dark crown on his head. His ability to invade minds had been enhanced, and he also possessed a degree of self-awareness.
"stand disc and memory disc, retrieval complete."
"What should we do next, Fuuki?" the Stand asked its Main unit, who was hiding in the distance, with interest.
'You're talking too much, White Snake.'
'A body without a soul will slowly die, no need to pay attention to it. As for the others?'
'Leave them be!'
After giving the last instruction, Togawa Fuuki was finally overcome by drowsiness, collapsing unconscious on a park bench.
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