6 Emerald Skull Soloist
Pariston Hill was not having a good day. He had spent a good deal of time and energy to make the Emerald Skull lose its way from being transported to V5 headquarters. He thought he could finally have a lot of fun since the Nomar family collapsed and revealed this treasure. He fought hard to get the duty of overseeing its transport, confused the working team so that the bracelet could go missing from under their noses in a plausibly deniable fashion, and finally had a person deliver the bracelet to the latest performer in the Grandarium to trigger the necessary conditions to use it.
Pariston felt he was an honest and simple man, isn't it fun to watch things fall apart? He never felt any connection with this world, until President Netero taught him what he truly wanted: chaos. Beautiful, organized collapsing chaos. He hoped to cause a lot of trouble to Netero after the being in the bracelet resurrected, but now here he was standing with a smile on his face while facing a 16-year-old who stopped his plans.
You might think, is Pariston mad? His work had gone completely after this teenager appeared. No, he wasn't mad. Instead, he felt a kind of growing anticipation in meeting the boy. Bringing chaos to the world is only fun when there is someone to stop you. Someone to watch you. Even if the world ends, the greatest joy for Pariston is seeing the despair on his opponent's face when the chaos arrives. However, Pariston is very picky about who his opponents are. Perhaps, this kid could fit his criteria.
"Hello, My name is Pariston Hill. I'm with Hunter's association and need a moment of your time." Pariston said, extending his hand to Jonah.
"Jonah, he feels dangerous," Clara whispered to Jonah, but Pariston could hear it clearly. But he didn't care, his attention was entirely focused on Jonah.
"Hello, I'm Jonah Joestar. What do you need?" Jonah smiled and shook his hand, despite the dangerous feeling Clara mentioned.
"Thank you for recovering the Emerald Skull. We need to take it off your hands. Originally, we were transporting it and it had gotten stolen in the process. I am deeply sorry for any trouble it caused here at the Grandarium." Pariston bowed slightly, but Jonah felt like he said it in a mocking manner.
"Are you a hunter?" Jonah asked, without moving to hand over the Emerald Skull.
"Yes, I am." Pariston flashed his hunter's license, with a dim smile.
"This is the second time I've met a hunter from the hunter's association. Can you tell me a bit about what a hunter does?" Jonah asked curiously.
"You should be able to read about what hunters are online," Pariston answered.
"No, I want an answer directly from a source." Jonah smiled.
"Hmm, For me, A Hunter is inside all of us. It is when a person has enough desire to chase a dream, he will be a qualified hunter. No matter how strange a dream might be, a person comes true to who they are when they embrace becoming a hunter because they are hunting the dream in their heart." Pariston explained everything with his signature fake smile.
His eyes didn't light up when talking about dreams or ambitions, nor during any other part of the explanation. It was like he was reading a script he prepared for questions from the press.
"Hmm," Jonah thought silently for a few seconds.
"How does a person become a hunter? Where would I go to sign up for the hunter exam?"
Jonah asked casually, he finally handed over the Emerald Skull to Pariston because he felt that the hunter association would really have a process to handle these crazy artifacts. He didn't suspect Pariston's involvement. Pariston stared dumbly at the Emerald Skull in his hand, he felt like this kid trusted him too much. He just handed it over without a fight? What an honest kid!? He could be quite fun to play with.
Pariston smile genuinely for the first time, but it looked like a rat who found a cupboard of aged cheese: off-putting and greedy.
"Well then, Jonah Joestar it was good to meet you. I'll keep an eye out for you during the next Hunter Exam. Here is the location information of the next exam directly." Pariston handed Jonah a slip of paper with the details of the 285th Hunter exam location.
Jonah read over the paper silently. It mentioned the signup date was January 7th of next year, which was in another 4 months' time.
"Well then, see you, Jonah" Pariston left with a small team of sweepers from V5.
...
Time passed and before Jonah could realize it, the sun was setting on the horizon. He took a deep satisfied breath, thinking about the adventure he had today. He took out a pocket notebook that was gifted from the couple he beat up in the ally earlier. Originally, the couple was very mad that they suffered the beating, but when they learned about what happened to all the attendees having aged another 5 years, their anger turned into gratitude for him. They gifted him a beautiful, leather-bound green handheld journal.
On the cover, Jonah wrote the title: The Bizarre Adventures of a Joestar. He was going to record all his adventures in this journal. When he feels bored, he can flip through the book and remember all his greatest victories. Right now, he was finishing his writing of the adventure: Emerald Skull Soloist, while watching the sunset at an open cafe.
"Jonah, what will you do now?" Clara walked up to his table and sat across from him.
"Of course, look for trouble" Jonah smiled as he looked up from his writing.
The sunset gleamed on his face, giving his eyes an ethereal and mysterious quality, like a heroic challenger who never gives. Clara avoided his eyes and blushed.
"O-oh, well okay" She responded.
Jonah finished writing the journal tale of the Emerald Skull Soloist, closed the book neatly, and stood up to leave. He had bought himself a set of nicer clothes after the older couple rewarded him with 5 million jennies. He now had a slick black leather jacket, blue jeans, and his same torn green shirt underneath. He stepped over the patio gate on the edge of the open cafe and walked over to his newly bought motorcycle. It was customized by him to look so much different than the originally bought model. It had boxes attached to the side of the seat to carry his clothing, luggage, and anything else. He added neon red highlights around the frame so that it glowed to outline at night, replaced the headlights with high-powered ones, added a nitro booster, and a few other gadgets he found fun.
Clara followed after him while fidgeting. She felt confused as to why she was so anxious for Jonah to get on his motorbike and leave. She wanted to go with him! She didn't want him to leave and she didn't know how to express this. Obviously, she couldn't keep him here. He was a free-spirited man and she could only go with him if she wanted to remain by his side. But she couldn't. She had to remain here and take care of her mother.
Jonah slid the silver and black helmet over his head, turned the bike's key, and electrically started the engine.
"Click* Click* Click* Clivrrrmmm*"
"Jonah, will you come by to visit me?" Clara asked, sadly.
"Maybe. " Jonah shrugged.
"It depends if I am still alive." He smiled like it was nothing.
"And you can call me Jojo, my friends call me that."
"Take care, Clara!" Jonah shouted one last time over the roar of the motorcycle engine, spurring it off into the distance of the mostly deserted street.
"We will meet again," Clara whispered under her breath while clenching her fist.
She fell into a trance while watching the sunlight disappear completely beyond the horizon. This day was a day unlike any other that she had experienced in her life. Within one day she faced bizarre things, helped save people with her weird ability, and met a crazy boy her age named Jojo.
She shook away those thoughts and walked her way back home. She needed to take care of her mother.
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Author's Note:
Alright, the first minor adventure is done. It wasn't supposed to be a bit plot, just something for everyone to get a feel of Jojo and to make a few connections for later.
Next Jojo will encounter a few more adventures I'll leave it to you guys to help me decide the direction of the story here:
Should he encounter a larger adventure on his way to the 285th hunter exam, delaying his entry for 2 years so that he meets Gon and the others?
Or Should he arrive at the hunter exam and encounter the larger adventure after passing the exam and learning to unlock nen?
Just reply to either question above with your vote, thanks.
