Tak. Tak. Tak.
Footsteps, the crisp claps of hardened leather soles echoed off stone walls and paths.
Tak. Tak. Tak.
Students stood frozen where they were as they were walking to classes, dorms, libraries and recreational activities, every last one, as they stared at the man walking among them. Like deer watching a wolf.
Or mice watching a bear.
Tak. Tak. Tak.
Normally, the sound would have been drowned in the chatter of students, the rustling of clothes, the clamoring of their own feet. Not now. Every one stood silent as the graves they feared they would soon be entering. And so the gentle sounds of a walking man boomed like the final seconds of the clock before the guillotine fell.
Tak. Tak. Tak.
The footsteps, and the man, stopped. He looked to his right.
The students there, several girls and a few boys, physically recoiled. One girl tripped over her own feet as she tried to get away from the monster in their midst. Several let out quick yelps of terror and panic before their own fear brought them back to stillness.
He looked to his left. These students also pulled back fearfully, but not as much as the first group.
"What you will say," the man began to say, "Is, 'Are you really Joseph Joestar?"'
"A-are you really Joseph J-Joestar?" one of the boys said. After a moment, his eyes widened in surprise, then horror.
The man smirked, one side of his mouth tugging towards his eyes. Despite his heavy, well-groomed grey beard and hair, he almost seemed to lose twenty years. "Yup."
A wave of mutterings rolled over the crowd, as it took several steps back as one. Several students turned and ran.
"He can read minds-"
"I don't want to die-"
"It'shimit'shimit'shim-"
...Maybe this wasn't a good idea, Joseph thought to himself, remembering his conversation with his grandson about how terrified the students were of him, and how insistent he was on checking up on the boy's Ripple was coming along. Apparently beating three Pillar Men gets you a reputation among monsters, who would have thought? If only it carried over to New York real estate, it would have made construction of the Joestar Tower much easier...
Tak. Tak. Tak.
Joseph blinked, and looked down at his feet. Yup, he was standing still. Where was that-?
Tak. Tak. Tak.
Oh, someone was walking towards him. Duh. Wait, towards him?
The figure was wearing a white hood, and robe, reminiscent of a monk. Joseph could see long, flowing hair beneath the hood, and tattoos on his fa-
Pillar Man, his mind and adrenaline raced despite the steady flow of his breath as he began Hamon breathing, how did one survive, I thought they were all dead! Did Kars have another servant in hiding?
For the first time in years, ripples of sunlit energy began to course around Joseph's muscular form. The few students who hadn't ran away finally lost their nerve, fleeing to hide behind walls, pillars, or leaving the area altogether as the energy that killed an SSS class monster- nearly a God- flowed through the air.
"I thought Kars killed all of you," Joseph said to the Pillar Man. He let the sentence hang in the air unfinished. And I killed him.
But they didn't know Joseph hadn't practiced his Hamon at all in years. He was nowhere near as strong or skilled as he was as a young man; if this Pillar Man was anywhere near the level of Wammu, he might be in trouble.
But they didn't know that.
"Yes," the Pillar Man said. "He did. Eisidisi burned my wife in front of my eyes. Kars blades ended the lives of my children, and my father. His blades slew them as we ran. For a thousand years I heard their screams, and I wished I could rejoin them in death. My family, friends, everyone I ever loved, everything I ever knew, I lost to Kars."
Joseph wavered. Was this a trick to catch him off guard? Some of the students who were hiding close enough to hear cautiously looked around their hiding places, a mix of emotions, from clinging looks of terror at Joseph, to concern and sympathy towards their principal.
"And you slew Kars and the monsters that followed him. You avenged my people, Joseph Joestar."
Joseph's eyes widened. The Pillar Man pulled back his hood. In the sunlight, his skin sizzled and cracked, but his expression was joyous. The trail of his tears down his face glittered like jewels in the light.
"I no longer hear their screams at night, or feel the boiling razors of Eisidisi's blood at my back or the ripping agony of Kars' knives. I remember my daughter's laughing face, my wife's smile that I lost for so long under her blood."
He fell to his knees.
"I owe you a debt that could never be repayed, Joseph Joestar. You have freed me, as you have freed those still dead."
Joseph Joestar had seen many things in his life.
This was the first to which he could find no words.
