#ch58

Do I really need to spell out which one was more impactful? 

Aria was genuinely the most underwhelming of the Element 4 in the anime and though his scene was similarly short in the manga, at the very least, it was great for what it was. They were epic, beautiful, and often closed off the chapter on a high note. 

Most Erza fights are underwhelming in the anime-- Aria and Ikaruga especially in the early show, mostly because these two had long buildups with fights and emphasis on how strong they were before Erza came in. They genuinely made me say ‘wait, that’s it?’ and that is not how you want to make your coolest female character look cool. It just made Aria and Ikaruga, and by extension, Natsu and Sho in their scenes, look like a joke. 

is that. Is that literally a straight road through? is there a gap between the wind? is she just running forward and only swung that sword once? Aria just shouts ‘impossible, you’ve cut through my airspace!’ oh is that what’s happening? It looks so damn easy, what was Natsu even shounen speeching about just now again, are you really a threat? 

CHAPTER 58: Queens of the Stone Age - Part 4

All around the battered Sunmi, The QUEENS drones dissipate, the infected puppets staring in vacant shock as their mistress collapses. Blood bursts out of her, splattering their faces. The cheap metal locket falls at Moya’s feet, standing over Sunmi.

Some of the quicker witted lunatics move to attack her, but are too slow. Moya is ready for them, unleashing her Stand. “POPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOP!!!” it roars, its oil flying into the faces of the afflicted. They retch as the oil purges the evil from their systems, then are knocked out with swift blows to their necks. In an instant, all of Sunmi’s thralls are cured and out cold.

“Oh my God…” T’onga murmurs, looking down at the men who restrained her, now unconscious and harmless. “Holy shit!! I can’t believe that fucking worked!”

Moya bristles and stares at her, incredulous. “You can’t believe- Wasn’t this your plan?”

“My plan was to shut the window and get her from outside! I…! I didn’t think she’d see through me! That thing with the spider and HOUSE OF PAIN in the locket was a total gamble!” The Asian woman sweeps her hair back off her face, showing her terrified eyes in full. “I-If she had waited a second longer to open the locket, HOUSE OF PAIN would have deactivated and returned! I… I need to sit down…”

“Oh yeah? Here,” Moya says, walking towards her, “lemme help you.”

The detective punches her in the mouth, knocking her into the nearby armchair. T’onga collides with it, limbs splayed out in shock. She grimaces, rising from the seat in anger, then pausing when she sees Moya looking down at her. In the detective’s hand is the locket. 

“Agh… Fine…” T’onga says, relaxing before standing. “Had it coming…” She takes her locket from Moya and quickly places it back into her jacket.

Sunmi splutters, her body wracked and battered. The pair recoil as she reaches a shaking hand at them. “Augh… Ghh…!” the shaven-headed woman chokes, glaring at her enemies. A single drone begins to manifest over her hand.

“Damn it…!” Moya spits, raising WITCH MOUNTAIN to defend. “One more time to finish her-!”

“Wait…!” T’onga says, pulling her back. Sunmi’s drone nearly manifests, then she coughs violently, a gout of blood spilling from her mouth. The drone vanishes and the mad woman lies still, staring blankly at nothing.

T’onga sighs. “She’s done for. Between HOUSE OF PAIN and you working her over, she won’t last another minute. Still, we should bounce, right now. Get back to our people before the cops show and make this even more complicated.” Wiping her bruised lips, she exits the living room and heads down the stairs, without waiting for Moya.

The detective stares at Sunmi’s unmoving body for a moment longer, before following her companion. “It’s our people now, is it?” she calls down the stairs.

The assassin pauses at the bottom, turning back to look up at her. “Huh?”

“I was just thinking…” Moya says, walking down the steps. “You made it pretty clear to everybody where your interests lay, back at the Theatre. Now, it seems, you’ve changed your tune. So what now? Do you want to be Shizuka’s mother, or no?”

She reaches the first floor and eyes T’onga. She goes on, “I told you before, that I wouldn’t let you abandon her again. But… after all this, it makes sense. Opening the door at Anaheim, fighting All-Kill at Mulholland, and just now. You’re willing to hurt yourself to keep Shizuka safe… Why aren’t you able to be there for her now?”

The assassin glares at her. Irritated, she hisses, “I don’t know her. I don’t know anyone called Shizuka Joestar.”

Moya frowns and begins to say more. Then, T’onga’s eyes bug out of her skull and she chokes, clutching her neck. “T’onga…?” Moya says, reaching to support her, then recoils in fright when the Korean woman hunches over. 

A QUEENS drone pierces the back of her neck with its stinger, injecting the red substance into T’onga. “No…!” the detective gasps, turning pale at the sound of a low raspy chuckling.

“eEHEhEHEh…” Sunmi laughs, shambling out of the living room. Battered and bloody, scarcely able to stand, let alone walk, it seems impossible that she should be alive, but Moya sees one of Sunmi’s own drones retract its stinger from her neck. “AHeHEHAHaAaAaA!!! QuEEEEEEEnS OF thE stOnE Age!!!”

Moya prepares to leap up the stairs to finish the madwoman once and for all, but T’onga blocks her path. Her eyes are bloodshot but her expression is cold and focused. Filled with an assassin’s intent to murder. She says nothing, even as Moya throws her off and raises WITCH MOUNTAIN to cure her.

But then Sunmi releases her entire swarm. Over a hundred drones, the entirety of QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, their buzzing drowning out all other sound. Moya pales, then grimaces.

Leaving T’onga for now, she flees, bursting out of a glass window and rolling into the alley outside the butchery. The swarm follows her, and she prepares to swat as many as she can with her Stand. But the swarm ignores her, instead ascending over the buildings.

“What…?” Moya says, confused, until she notices the drones spreading over the neighborhood, flying inside buildings through open doors and cracked windows. “No…” she gasps, but there’s nothing she can do to stop it.

A howl goes up across Little Armenia. Ordinary people, who hid in their homes and businesses to avoid the carnage outside, now burst onto the street, clutching knives or guns, eager to begin slaughtering whoever they find. Another howl goes up, as the first of the innocent victims are fallen upon, their panicked screaming echoing through the neighborhood.

“Dios mio…” Moya mutters.

                                                       ***

MEANWHILE, IN HOLLYWOOD HEIGHTS…

“Fuckin’ hell…” Kilo curses. 

He, Jerome and Shizuka gather around the rapper’s phone, watching the events in Little Armenia unfold on a social media livestream. All around them are equally appalled civilians, glued to their screens. As the gory details are broadcasted live all over the world, Shizuka suddenly breaks away from the crowd, looking ill. Kilo and Jerome rush after her.

“Shizuka…” Kilo calls.

“We have to go,” she says, frantic.

“Shizuka, hold up…!”

“We have to go, they need our help!”

“I get it, but listen. Even if we get there in time, the cops have set up a barrier around the whole neighborhood. What you gonna do when they turn you away, huh? Attack ‘em with your Stand?”

“But they’re there! Moya and Mom, they’re there, they’re in danger! We have to help them!”

“Shizuka, girl, Kilo’s right!” Jerome says. “Just this once, maybe we outta sit this out…!”

“I can’t sit it out!!! Not while those people are getting torn apart! How can you say that, Jerome?”

“I-I just mean… What can we even do right now?”

“I CAN DO MORE THAN YOU, AT LEAST!!” she roars, shocking her friends, and herself, as she staggers away, mumbling. “I-I mean… I have powers… And you don’t, so… I… I’m sorry…” she hangs her head.

“Is cool… I know, you know? I don’t know shit about Stands. I don’t know why y’all even keep me ‘round, but long as I’m here, I wanna do what I can. To help, you know…”

“But we can’t help. Not this time,” Kilo declares. "All we can do is have faith."

Shizuka sniffs. “…Faith?”

“Faith,” Kilo asserts. “None of us has any way of stopping this. Even if we did, we’re too far away to do anything. So we just gotta trust in Moya.”

“Why her?” Jerome asks.

“Because whatever sort of mind control shit that buzzcut bitch is using, she made a mistake. She went and picked a fight with the perfect counter to her ability. If anybody can fix this, it’s Moya.”