Capitolo Secondo: Ambizione (4)

The stop at Hartford was uneventful. Much to my relief, I was correct in assuming no attacks had been planned when we had to wait for the workers to be done with the final fixing of the train’s engine, thus sparing us another encounter this soon. Still, as we resumed our journey for our last stop, New York City, I was besieged by a particular request coming from the young Valentine.

“You want to learn how to fight?” I questioned with a fascinated tone. Bloody nodded back at me as he tried to convince me of this matter with a few compelling arguments.

“Until now I had to rely either on you or Zephy, now there is also Mr. Horse-”

“Derek is fine, boyo,” The cowboy rebuked with a sigh. “But continue, don’t let me stop ya.”

The young blond nodded. “I don’t want to be a burden and a deadweight. I wish to… be able to defend myself.”

“And you think I can give you something that can have you in fighting conditions?”

“I believe you have. Either something weak but still capable of making the difference… or even that thing, I think you called it-”

“Stand,” Zephy helped with a calm hum. “But I believe that isn’t up to Dio to ‘give’.”

“As I’ve mentioned, Stands are unlocked through the understanding of your own soul. While I was aided in the process of gaining mine, most of the procedure has to come from you. You first have to be ready to use one before trying to call it out to aid you.”

“So… no Stands?”

“Not until you’re ready to call it forth by yourself,” I confirmed. “As Zephy said, this is well-beyond my capacities right now.” ‘For now’.

“But what else? Surely there is something I can try to use and give my support in fights?”

Just as he said that, Derek huffed at the question, his attention still aimed at the nearest window as he looked at the fast-moving ground with a bored look.

“Bah, as far as I’m concerned, I would have been more than happy to teach you how to use a gun,” The man pointed out. “But right now I have none on me beyond my ‘Stand’. Also, we’re in a restricted place, not much I can work in this circumstance.”

Bloody kept on deflating at the stacking refusals, and I decided to give a legitimate thought on the matter since I found his points genuinely correct for the most part. While it was clear he was just growing upset with the fact his capacity to provide assistance was close to zero when it came to fighting any threats, their roster of options was incredibly limited. The only one I could think up of was… ironic. But I worried that it could literally explode in his face if I didn’t give him enough lessons on the basics.

The basics were the most important considering how deadly of a tool the Spin is.

Still, I decided to concede that, despite my worries, there was going to come a point where the young man would need to make his own display of truthfulness and… that moment was going to require some power to back him beyond his capacity to speak up his heart and soul. The more I struggled about it, the more it became evident to me that it was the best choice right now.

“I believe I have something that you might be able to use,” I admitted with a careful voice, gaining the fellow blond’s attention. “But I want you to promise me that you are going to listen attentively to my words. Because this ability isn’t one that a user can utilize without some serious commitment to it.”

The boy nodded, and soon enough I showed him the main element he was going to work with. He stared at the object I had gotten out of my jacket’s pouch and I was now holding out for him to reach on my open palm.

A small steel ball that I had commissioned from a specialized blacksmith. The man was confused at first by the precise requirements behind the object itself, but he seemed more than happy to do little hard work in creating thousands of those at a high price. I could tell the man at the time was curious of why a young man would’ve wanted this kind of thing, but he seemed to mind his own business when I said it wasn’t open for discussion.

I had way more than I would ever need during my stay here in the states, but I saw it fit to come here even more prepared than usual to avoid any odd escalations. Pucci’s words just… had me nervously tip-toeing with how fate was handling my current presence. Hopefully it was just paranoia speaking, but I knew that this entire ordeal I was busy with was just the beginning of something… bad.

“What is… that?”

“A steel ball,” I curtly replied, getting an amused snort from Derek and a sigh out of Zephy. Bloody instead frowned as my answer did little to solve his confusion, so I started explaining some more.

“This is what you will be working on during this training. It’s expendable since I’ve an endless amount of those on me, but I would prefer that for this first step you make sure to not break it,” I commented with a calm voice. “Your first task shall be to try and active the power… and understand how to turn it off.”

“What kind of… power?”

“It’s one I had yet to use against our enemies since I tackled all threats in a direct way, but I believe it will work well since you’re not planning to take on any opponent in close quarters,” I answered with a nod, pulling out another steel ball for an introduction. “It’s called ‘The Spin’, and the basis behind it is… well, a spin.”

More confusion washed over his face, but before the boy had the chance to ask what I was saying, his eyes lowered down as I began spinning the sphere. Surprise and then shock replaced uncertainty, with his jaws dropping low at the absolutely incredible phenomenon unfolding before his eyes.

“Holy… Jesus,” A certain cowboy muttered in pure surprise, his wide eyes now aimed attentively at the incredible sight. I had to lessen down the light created by the spin so that it wouldn’t have drawn any attention from anyone nearby, but the result still got the duo to gawk at the result… while Zephy just-

“That’s- That’s impressive.”

I frowned at that reaction, really confused by the fact the critter was baffled by what I had just done. Until now he had kept a degree of calm over the oddity that were my unique skills, yet now he was having such a different reaction before the Spin. Really interesting, but I decided to inquire about this now since I had to keep utmost caution while handling the Spin with a new user.

“The Spin is a long-lost technique that was invented by a family in Italy. It’s functions are… both offensive and defensive in nature,” I began explaining. “I learned it when I was around your age through an old book in my family’s library.”

“How does it… work?” Bloody asked with child-like wonder exuding from his voice, a degree of awe dripping from his words.

“It’s a battery. A battery for a kind of energy nobody has yet to find an end to and… that it can’t be described beyond ‘Spinning Energy’. The main focus of this technique is to control said energy and use it either to attack enemies or to heal wounded people.”

“Sounds… like a lot. Does it have a limit or something?” Derek pressed with a concerned look.

“It does… at least for those that have started using it,” I confirmed with a nod. “You see, there are three known states a User can bring the Spin in, starting from a base one, which is the one that comes when it's used the first few times.”

“But what does it do?”

I sighed at the impatience of the young Valentine, but, then again, I knew I had introduced to him what was going to be pretty much his personal line of defense against any threats. So I prepared to deliver a big explanation and… I went into detail.

The boy was listening, raptly so, but so were the other two members of our group. It was mostly Bloody that asked about the extent of the steps, the phases, and the limitations of such ability. The only moment I decided to be rather curt was around the final take of the Spin, being rather unsure if telling him right now about the full might of the Gold Spin was a good idea. A goodhearted person he might sound right now, but there was a strong tendency for the members of the Valentine family to grow greedy of unlocking their full potential. Akin to the original Dio, but instead of selfishness driving that pursuit, it was a sense of absolute devotion to the country.

I spared a few looks at Zephy, the creature deciding against speaking during the lecture and the follow up attempts of the young blond to get through the first bumps of getting the Spin happening. The Cowboy sitting beside the boy was also quiet, but would mutter some exclamation at the incredibly insane situation unfolding before his eyes. While I was certain he wasn’t superstitious, I didn’t rule out the chances of him growing distrustful over the mysterious sight unfolding more than once.

“I don’t remember you ever mentioning that you had a fiance back home,” Bloody pointed out and I blinked in surprise when I realized I really didn’t.

I was lost in the conversation when Hannah came up in the conversation, and I distractedly brought her up a lot when explaining how to adapt the spinning move to optimal levels since she was the one that laid down the foundation of that improvement.

“I suppose I didn’t see a reason to bring this up. Apologies if that comes as a surprise.”

“Never thought of you as a lad that had already settled, Mr. Joestar,” Derek teased. “I suppose the lady got you really hooked to have you planning to give her a ring.”

I frowned as I didn’t recall ever bringing up that to the conversation.

“How do you-”

“I can tell when someone is planning the wedding with a fine gal,” The cheeky cowboy interrupted. “I still remember when my lovely wife had me bewitched with her looks and mannerism. It was some damn strong magic, and, in the end, I never came to regret asking her parents for her hand.”

“So you just know when someone is going to marry because… you are already married?” I asked confused, the emotion mirrored by Bloody as we failed to make sense of that reasoning.

“Well, it’s more of a hunch. I just can tell when someone is speaking about a soon-to-be bride or groom by the way they address them. I can relate to them sometimes, so it’s particularly easy for me to pick some attitudes on the spot.”

…

“I guess that’s a skill to be wary about, Mr. Horse.”

“Eh Eh! Don’t you get too formal with me, Dio.” He giddily rebuked. “There is no need to be shy- if you need any advice, you can ask me!”

I was certainly not going to ask any advice to someone that planned to poke fun at my love life. Still, the curious change of subject didn’t stop there as I was thrown some questions from Bloody. Of course this wasn’t anything that went beyond the simple and non-teasing interest of the boy, like asking how Hannah looked like, and how strong she was compared to me.

All in all, I was relieved that it didn’t go in a weird direction as I had expected. Or at least in most of the queries I had to handle. There was one that got me pausing as I narrowed my eyes in surprise at Zephy, the critter giving quite the curious question.

“From my understanding, she is older than you. Does that mean that you are… attracted to older women?”

I opened my mouth, but I had to pause at the awkwardness of that sudden turn of events. I had never pondered too much about the matter, always blaming any hints of attraction for ‘older women’ being tied to the fact my mind-soul was as old as Hannah by the end of the day. It was just a problem with the… younger body that made for quite the uneasy circumstances when the age difference was brought up in conversations.

“I would say that… I don’t really mind if a woman I like or love is younger or older than me. Still, I strongly believe in the fact I would never approach a woman that is younger than eighteen.”

“Fair enough,” He commented with a nod, a strange smile lingering on his face for some time.

After a while I had grown particularly hopeful that for now we were spared by any attacks from anyone. But the very moment I thought of this, I was forced to sigh tiredly when I heard a woman scream coming from the wagon after ours. Soon after, the screams started to pile up, and my annoyance turned in worry as I could tell there was something horrible unfolding nearby. People started to grow nervous as they murmured all over what was going on. I stood up, confused that none of the workers in the train had rushed to see what was going on.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I will check what is going on,” I muttered to the rest of the group. “Derek, keep an eye out for anything suspicious happening in the wagon.”

The cowboy tipped his hat and nodded, his hand already grasping at the newly-materialized ｢Emperor｣. I began making my way towards the closed door. Some of the men and women still sitting spared me fascinated looks as I took the initiative to go and see what was happening and what was causing this many screams to come from the other wagons behind ours.

I felt pressure building up, and while I knew the staring was partly influencing this, I could tell something wrong was happening in there and… that I needed to be careful. My Stand was already close to materializing as I reached for the handle and, as I pushed the door aside, I stepped outside.

A surprise waited just for me.

-----------d-d-d-------------d-d-d-d----------

The moment I opened the door and stepped out of the wagon’s indoors, I felt the pressure that had been building up until that moment vanish right as I noticed there was no one in there to ‘trouble’ me into feeling in danger. While this was good news in a normal circumstance, I knew well enough that this was nothing to be happy about.

The build up had felt way too real for it to vanish so suddenly in such a natural fashion. Unless this change wasn’t caused by natural means. So I looked around, pumping Hamon through my body to try and heighten my senses to perceive anything I was missing in the immediate check and… I felt it. Or rather, I didn’t.

There was no life I could feel beyond our wagon. In fact, I could see a couple drained corpses being illuminated by the small lights from the light bulbs spread all inside the wagon. Confusion roused as I knew that there was only a creature I knew capable of this kind of thing and… it couldn’t be. At first I ruled this out as an absurd thought since it was daytime, but only now I realized that there was something missing in that moment. No sunlight, the sun was clouded by some dark clouds that suggested some heavy raining to happen quite soon.

I had been so distracted with the previous conversation that I hadn’t noticed this detail. But there was something I still noticed as I looked some more. I felt strange unnatural gusts of air coming towards me from both my left and right side. While I took care of one, ｢ACT 2｣ swiftly caught the rest of the projectiles trying to hit me.

I managed to use the Ripple to increase my skin’s durability, deflecting the sharp blades in time and… taking a moment to understand that these small things weren’t normal daggers. Kunais, my Stand revealed that it had caught some shurikens- those were common weapons for a Ninja.

…

What?

Instead of lingering too long, I tilted the blades and allowed my Stand’s power to have them return to the sender with extra speed. I saw the trajectory and I decided to follow up the path back to the one that dared to ambush me. I jumped up to the rooftop and… he was there.

The attacker backed away in surprise as I advanced towards him. Wearing a full black attire that was common for ninjas, instead of removing the blades still stuck on his flesh, the individual merely took his tanto out from its wooden sheath. Looking back at the horrible scene I had just witnessed and seeing the minimal reaction to the pain I had inflicted to the shinobi.

A vampire. A vampire ninja at that.

…

I really wanted to make a joke about the insanity of this sudden slap on the cheek, but I was more frustrated by the fact that if those were here… then someone had to have uncovered one of the Stone Masks that were hidden together with Santana.

But how and why? Could this be tied to the unknown element mentioned by Pucci?

“Gomenasai, Joestar-san,” The man muttered quietly. “But the child has to die.”

I scowled. “Petty words for a dead man. You should have known better than challenging me on my own.”

“While you are considered our target, the Renkai Clan’s priority still lies on ending Valentine-kun.”

‘Our’. There were more than just one of them around. And from the looks of it, the bastard was trying to delay me from assisting the others in the wagon.

“First, if you are going to use Engrish in this fight, be respectful and keep silent. It just… irks me how someone wants to add this much Japanese when I can tell you’re versed in normal English,” I lamented dryly. “Second, you underestimated me, and I shall have you heavily pay for killing so many innocents.”

His guard was up and ready for any assault of mine. Sadly for the man, his life was over the moment he allowed me to have a clear sight on himself. One moment he was standing to make a last stand, the other his body forcibly ‘went back in time’ and jumped right where I was and… where my Hamon-infused punch was ready to strike. His unpreparation was what screwed with him in the end, and I didn’t indulge in extra commentary as I pumped his undead body with the Ripple. The energy tore through him, shredding him out of existence. The sound of gunshots drew my attention back on the seriousness of the situation.

The vampirized Shinobis had already infiltrated the wagon, and I had just little time to move and get back inside before the situation turned ugly. While I trusted Derek to make some good defense with ｢Emperor｣, I knew well enough that his Stand was meant to fight in enclosed spaces like the one he was currently confined in. The screams coming from the unexpected witnesses of this fight were prompting me to be hasty with my re-entry. I bolted down the rooftop and back from the entrance of the wagon I had left from.

The sight I was presented when I stepped back inside was quite nerve-wracking. Zephy was finally showing an interesting ability as his tail turned in a sharp round blade that decapitated the closest shinobi and, close behind, the cowboy that had until that moment held well against the first assault was clutching his now bleeding arm, his good hand paralyzed from being able to operate his Stand.

Two other Shinobis were approaching from the side the opposite of mine, and I rushed to intercept them as the decapitated one tried to stand up and use the surprise of his ‘rise’ to attack the critter. Bloody was stunned by the suddenness of everything, but he seemed to recover from his panic when he saw me punching the closest ninja away and slamming a foot on the detached head of the vampirized shinobi still on the ground.

The remaining survivor, a kunoichi, backed away and pulled one of the women nearby as her hostage. I sighed at the situation and made a step towards her despite the fact she was holding her tanto close to her terrified lady’s throat. Sadly for her, I had a plan already cooked for the occasion.

“Your next line shall be: “I wish to apologize for being such a foolish individual, and I will let go of this poor innocent maiden.”

“...What?” She asked in return, confused by what I had just said. While I knew I didn’t have it in myself to pull a Joseph in that situation, I had the capacity to still use this ‘failure’ for a distraction nonetheless. So with her mind taken away from the seriousness of the situation, I allowed ｢ACT 2｣ to deliver a powerful hamon-coated karate chop through the head of the kunoichi. The female vampire didn’t have enough to say that she was destroyed by the instantaneous effects of the Ripple.

The young woman screamed as she fell on her knees, now released from her captor. Breathing irregularly as she tried to calm down, she seemed tense when I calmly approached her and crouched down. I didn’t say anything, merely offering her a hand as I led her up back to her seat.

I stood up, looking around as I saw everyone was staring back at me. They expected answers to the madness they were subjected to, and while this would’ve made me particularly worried a few years ago, I had the upper ground when it came with excuses. Especially after years of sharpening my capacity of being a good liar.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m sorry that you have been forced to see this macabre scene unfold before your own eyes, and I wish to extend my humble apologies,” I started to mutter, acting really remorseful in that moment. “My name is Abraham van Hellsing, I’m a Dutch Doctor that is specialized in hunting horrible creatures that have tried to cross the pond in an effort to find fertile hunting grounds here in the new continent. My presence here was dictated by a holy mission to defeat all monstrous beings that hail Hell and shun God’s own creatures.”

The murmuring increased, and I could see that my act was working from the understanding I could spot on everyone’s face at my words. Still, I wasn’t done yet since my objective wasn’t just to excuse myself of what had just happened with a fake identity.

“Right now, I have to sadly request you all to solemnly swear that you will never mention what happened here today. The reason why this sadden me so much considering that everyone would be more than happy to forget of this dreadful day is that people have died today because of vampires hailing from a coven that aimed to hurt the good American people.”

“Y-You mean that we shouldn’t say anything about dead people? How- How could we-”

“Only that you are unaware of the natural causes of their death. I understand the horror of this request, but mine isn’t a request built on stupidity, but one born from concern of the panic this would cause to the rest of the American people. The monsters fester in the fears of humans, and by fueling the fright, you would give them the chance to kill even more,” I replied with a committed tone, nodding at the furious man that had tried to rebuke my previous comments. “Which is why I can promise you all here and now, in my good name, that the foul monster behind this attack shall be destroyed at once the moment I shall find it!”

More murmuring, but I saw some nods… and then everyone was nodding. I felt my breath caught up by how tense the entire situation was. While I had some experience in convincing people through some half-lies, I was really pulling a massive stretch with that move. Despite that, I was relieved when I saw general acceptance of my request and soon my group was mostly left alone.

“So… You’re now this ‘Van Hellsing’?”

“It’s a character I’ve heard about from an Irish writer I had the chance of meeting last year,” I explained to Zephy and the others. “He is going to have an important role in one of his upcoming works and… I believe I should heal your wounds, Derek.”

“What? No… it’s not like I’m dying here.”

I sighed. “I’m sorry I ignored the problem for that long, but I had to come up with an excuse for us to not be hounded by the police and reporters.”

“Heh, fair but… fix me up now!”

I leaned towards him, grasping his arm and allowing my Hamon to increase his recovery rate. The injuries weren’t even as grave as he was trying to make those appear and the healing process was over after just a single minute. He checked through the holes in his shirt, sighing in relief as there wasn’t even a visible scar for him to notice from his previous wounds.

“Call me ‘lucky’, but I believe you spared me losing a limb about it.”

“You’re exaggerating by a fair lot, Mr. Horse.”

The cowboy groaned. “Can you stop with the formal stuff?!”

Before I could say something about it, I found myself cut by someone else speaking.

“D-Dio,” Bloody finally spoke up, drawing my attention as I realized that he had been trying to talk to me since I sat down by the table.

“Yes, young Valentine?”

“W-What just happened? Who were these people and… how did you do that?”

“I believe I should be the one answering the first two questions,” Zephy quipped quietly, his calm lessened by the topic he was trying to convey some words about. “We were attacked by people that are enemies of mine and Kate. The Renkai Clan was… a dreadful group that had for centuries tried to steal the Shin-Aki from Kate’s clan. And… from the looks of it, they had given up their souls to something malicious from the way they acted.”

“I’m fairly certain that they were turned into vampires, my act wasn’t completely wrong about that,” I intervened with a serious tone. “And while this might not sound much considering the presence of malicious beings, the problem is that the only way right now to become a vampire right now shouldn’t be known to anyone but two people.”

“And who these fellas are?” Derek asked the big question and I sighed.

“I am one of them. The other one is… an ally of mine, but I strongly doubt he is behind all of this. I knew he had retired to live in Italy with his family after the final events about the Stone Mask,” I answered with a sigh. For a moment, my mind brought up when I received a letter from Will himself, the man having decided to stop waging a war for revenge after making sure that all known Stone Masks had been destroyed, leaving the task to other Ripple Users as his burden as a father that was going to become a grandfather began turning bigger than he wanted to risk his life for.

I accepted his decision, and I was surprised he actually ‘thanked’ me for having dealt with the Mask on my own. He also apologized about what happened years ago with Hannah, but I would’ve preferred for him to turn the apology to the woman herself instead of me. And despite this memory further cementing the fact he wasn’t tied to all of this… I was floored by the fact I couldn’t think of anyone knowing of where the Stone Masks were in the American continent.

There was no way they were discovered by accident. The traps in the resting ground were meant to kill anything human with ease, sparing none from their fierce brutality. Even large quantities of explorers would have perished against the first few traps in there.

“So you know how it could be possible… but not who is behind this situation?”

“I know that they were hired to kill Bloody. And I know they are enemies to you and your owner,” I answered truthfully. “But right now… I don’t know who could be behind this all.”

The troublesome development had us enjoying the few peaceful hours remaining before our arrival to our destination. We were tense, now worried that another attack could happen and for the chances of this one actually being stronger than before. But much to my relief, we finally reached the Big Apple without having to be subjected to any other ambushes.

We stepped off the train with a quiet but confident posture, swiftly dodging the people that were rushing to either check the train or board it, and we barely heard the screams of those that found out what happened to a few wagons once full of innocents.

I knew at this point, that the stakes were much higher than I had expected. And I knew that this Senator Philips had somehow gained control of the Stone Mask…

But who would be so insane to do this? Who?