Okuyasu Nijimura Wants An Exciting Life

[Solomon Grundy]

"Mori, mori, mori, mori, Morioh Cho Raaadioooo~"

The radio sang as the host came on with his usual flair, filling the dim house with more noise than the usual empty creaking and dirt shuffles that usually echoed inside since the late teenager had been left alone. Sure, he still had friends around Morioh, but they were all growing up and moving on to different things.

His spoon clinked in the cereal bowl as Okuyasu shuffled through a stack of papers on the kitchen table. He'd taken to using it as a workspace as he finished the last year of his schooling, but was finding that he spent less and less time in his room and more down here. Easier to run out the door if he was late, which was almost always.

crrrk

The old house settled again, but Okuyasu ignored it. He was too busy trying to finish his cereal and read something in the newspaper. Reaching out his fingers without looking, he felt around for a pencil and grunted when he couldn't find one. Turning in his chair, Okuyasu spotted the ceramic cup fill with writing implements halfway across the room.

Too lazy to get up, yet too amped on sugar to tear himself away from the paper, Okuyasu held up his right hand. A corona of green energy began to form around it, and he made a swiping motion towards the cup.

"The Hand!"

BVVVMMM

The cup suddenly jerked towards him at high speed, a couple pencils jiggling loose into the air as he caught it in his left hand. Okuyasu grinned to himself, thinking it was too bad no one had been here to see how cool that was. And then the flying pencils stabbed him in the forehead.

CCccrrkkkk

"Hey, hey, hey!" He shouted all of a sudden, dropping the pen cup and instinctively putting his hands up. "An enemy stand user? In my damn house?" He exclaimed angrily, getting up with a jolt and suddenly swiping through the air. "You can't take me by surprise, I'll-"
He tripped over his backpack lying next to the table, just before the negative space void sucked him forward...crashing headfirst into the wall.

"Oiii, what the hell?!? This is even more confusing than that Radio Tower guy!" The hotheaded youth picked himself up and crouched by the wall to examine the drywall and the massive hole his head had made going into it. Turning around on his heel, he listened intently. "Hmm...musta scared them off." Heading back to the table, he grabbed his bag and sucked down the rest of the cereal before triumphantly stepping towards the door to another day in Morioh Town, Arcadia, The Crossroads.

CRUNCH

And as his foot came down, the floor collapsed underneath him in a cloud of dust and wood and structural damage. "Oh yeah, that's right..." He thought to himself as his vision went dark from the pain. "Keicho never paid those contractors..."

 

[Solomon Grundy]

"Yeah. Your entire foundation is cracked, from like, I dunno, 15 years of water table seepage? Not to mention the load bearing supports are almost eaten through. The house is falling apart." Okuyasu tightened his fist and had to bite back his anger at the simple remark. If he punched THIS contractor, then no one would fix the house, and he'd really have a problem.

"I don't care what's wrong with it, ya just gotta fix it! Alright?! Whatever it costs." Through gritted teeth came his answer, the youth stalking away to rummage through old stacks of mail to find any sort of account statement he'd missed. The quote from the construction company was going to be very expensive, and his share of the 5 million yen had run out a while ago. "Great! Just great. What am I gonna do, go get a job like a normal guy? I thought I'd be a millionaire by now!"

--------------------------------------------------

His mood foul, The Hand manifested over him like a sullen giant. His Stand was basically an extension of himself, but Okuyasu could swear it had its own tendencies. No one on the bus reacted, since normal people couldn't see Stands. Sure, there was always the risk, but Stand Users would always find each other somehow.

He'd used a good part of his remaining savings to purchase a bus ticket to the big city, out of Morioh. Morioh was a small town, and Okuyasu was a known troublemaker and delinquent. No one local would hire him or give him money. He thought wistfully of Shigechi and wiped some dust from the corner of his eye. It seemed his opportunity would lie in Arcadia, the biggest city on the planet. He'd been there once or twice playing hooky from school, but this felt different. This felt new, like it was the first time he'd ever been there.

Okuyasu Nijimura was going to get....a normal job. Ugh. But if he wanted to fix his house, he'd do it, which was why he already had an interview scheduled at a waste removal service. Some mindless job taking heavy loads and garbage away from people who produced it. It was almost humiliating, but the pay and benefits he'd seen posted in the paper sounded worth it. Besides, he could just use The Hand to get rid of the really digusting stuff with no one noticing!

 

[Solomon Grundy]

The garbage truck rumbled onwards through Arcadia, going up and across and all over to collect the city's refuse. Okuyasu hung on to the back of the truck, wearing a bright yellow hard hat every time he went out on the route, as well as a matching vest that displayed the company name on the back in black lettering. It was easy, really. Most people in Arcadia were alarmingly polite about their trash.

They hardly ever had to pick up anything truly nasty, which Okuyasu was supremely grateful for. This felt like it was an okay job, and one he could slack off on if he wasn't feeling it. No one else rode on the back with him, and as long as the trash was gone, no one complained. It was easy enough to erase the bigger bags and manually load the small ones into the garbage truck. In his lunch breaks, the young adult had idle dreams of maybe taking over the business in a couple years with his special ability. Now that'd be the best case scenario. His stand had always presented itself in line with his...let's say, thriftiness and not greed, and if it made him money as well, hey that was great!


BBBVVVMMMTTT

The Hand erased another large pile of trash with it's power, then picked up the remaining two bags up and threw them in the truck while Okuyasu hung off the back of it menacingly and picked his nails. More people than not could see his stand, so cleary weird powers weren't that strange in Arcadia. But no one batted an eye at him using it for such mundane purposes. This was great. He didn't even have to touch the bags!

The truck rumbled to a stop and the driver got out. "Hey kid, lunch break." Okuyasu nodded and hopped off, kicking a rock off the side of a building as he went down a side street. "Mmm....something smells good!" The youth exclaimed, following his nose down a couple side streets.

 

[Solomon Grundy]

Purple tentacles as long as a man's arm were coiled in a pot suspended over a massive fire, which were then beaten until they stopped thrashing and then filleted into squishy, aromatic chunks that dripped with the sauce they were boiled in. Pure white buns topped in sesame seeds with burned stamps of the bakery on them, offered on a tray held by a cute elf girl. Okuyasu jangled his wallet, mindful of how lighy it was, and decided to linger a bit to absorb the scents of the market. Really whet his appetite before he spent the last of his money.

Okuyasu stopped for a moment at a stall where they were grilling some sort of chop, except the meat was brought green. Basilisk chops, the sign read. They smelled alright, but green meat was weird. Luckily, the next booth was serving some kind of thick spicy soup. That sounded like a great opener. He paid a few coins for a cup and sipped it, breathing and huffing steam from his nose as the soup burned his throat. "Hot hot hot!"

It lasted him past a stall selling juicy blue fruit on a stick, coated in a glassy white substance. Then, another bakery type stall, packed with spiral loafs of buns and sticky rolls and small dainty cupcakes topped with spun sugar. He bought a simple cream bun and ate it in two bites, looking morosely at his last few coins. Ah well. Today was payday. Now that he knew where this food market was, he could come back later and get one of those giant chops.

Then finally he saw the grail. The perfect finisher to his light lunch. A grilled corn waffle wrapped in a cone, filled with small fried balls of meat, drizzled with a dark sticky syrup. He had to dig in his coinbag to be able to afford it, but it was glorious. Okuyasu held it up to his eye level and took one single meat ball from the pile to taste. "It's...like a ball of fried electricity! The sauce is sweet and zesty, with a kick of citrus!" He doubled over, tears streaming from his eyes as The Hand appeared and took the cone from it's master so it wouldn't spill during his theatrics in the middle of the market street.

 

[The Future Warrior]

Emergency translocation successful.

Damage levels at critical stages; entering minimal power state for repairs.

Set proximity warning for potential hostiles? Y/N

"Y-Yes..."

Acknowledged.

Estimated time to full repair: 71 hours, 31 minutes, 47 seconds...

46 seconds...

45 seconds...

Hibernating...

The light in her eye slowly flickered out, going from a clear luminescent shine to a dull, nightlight-level glow. In anything but pitch blackness, it would have been naught but blue-tinted glass with no hint of activity behind it.

At least it had stopped the constant sputtering of sparks from her severed arm, and most of the leaking mess of fluids from all of the...everything else. The fact that much of the emergency-speed repairs had been focused there had also been a boon. She was certain there would be no permanent damage, assuming her self-repair functions were as efficient as they were supposed to be, at any rate.

In her current low-powered state, she could scarcely tell anything about her surroundings. There was...a distinct smell in the air, an almost overpowering one that she didn't have the energy or processing power to decipher the origin of. She was sprawled out in the fashion of one who had simply been walking and had their legs give out; slumped back against what felt like a wall, her three remaining arms hanging limply down her sides and her head slumped forward so her chin hung just shy of resting on her chest.

There was the dim sound of activity, somewhere. Whether it was as nearby as just around the corner, or as distant as many blocks away, she had no idea. It was all a hazy and distorted rumble in her low-powered state. If anything approached within more than a few feet, she would be alerted enough to properly awaken she was sure, but...

...why did it feel distinctly like there was something incredibly bizarre just lazily existing nearby?

 

[Solomon Grundy]

The hustle and bustle of the alley faded behind him as he licked his fingers clean of the sauce, Okuyasu erasing the wrapper with a quick motion of his hand. It was what he did with most of his refuse. He liked to think it was his own way of being a good person, making sure he didn't leave a mess. Or at least, he didn't leave a mess too long. Problems were like messes, and he liked to run right smack into the-

CLANG

"Yeeeooow-ow-ow!" Okuyasu hopped up and down clutching his foot as he looks around on the ground for what he'd tripped on. "Uh...wait, is that..." A leg protruded from a side alley, sticking out just far enough to trip him. Looking closer, he could see an indistinct fogure slumped against a dumpster. The Hand materialized as a precaution, and Okuyasu used his Stand to look closer into the darkness. A woman?

He leaned in close, the expression on his face curious as he took a step closer. Ah, she twitched. She was alive. Good.

His mouth opened and he took a deep breath, perhaps out of relief or concern, or empathy for his fellow being in dire straits.

"WHADDYA THINK YOU'RE DOING SLEEPING ON THE STREET, I COULDA RIPPED MY CLOTHES TRIPPIN OVER YOU!?!"

Guess not.

 

[The Future Warrior]

Proximity trigger warning. Entity approaching.

Her battered frame lightly twitched and stirred, power slowly re-routing itself to restore fuller awareness to her. The dull, barely-present glow in her large eye slowly brightened, and she blinked once. Thankfully, the gunshot of the spectral captain had missed her eye directly. It took her a moment to fully register her surroundings, during which she had the unexpected misfortune of someone...shouting at her?

She shifted forward slightly, slowly dragging herself fully upright and off of the dumpster she had wound up slumped against. Ugh...that would explain the smell. And she looked down, scanning the area for anything out of place, and registered...

...two?

Her original warnings had only detected one. There was another, though; hazy and indistinct, hovering near at hand to the unexpectedly angry one. "M-My...a-a-a-appppologies." Her own words sounded unsteady, and filled with static in her head, with an unnatural echo. Not surprising, given the two extra holes she had suddenly grown to sport in her head. She paused for a moment, running a quick scan to direct more of her healing routines there before continuing. "It-It-It was...n-not-t my intention-tion to collapse here-ere."

She pauses, peering more carefully. "....s-sir, are you....aware-are you se-eem to be...ha-ha-haunted?"

 

[Solomon Grundy]

Okuyasu blinked as he focused on the source of the voice, and realized that it wasn't a dumpster they were leaning against; they -were- the dumpster. Even The Hand disappeared from the spectacle. "Wait, I've seen this movie before...like, you're really a superweapon sent from space and I have to teach ya about friendship?"

He kicked at the dirt gruffly. "Man, I don't have time for a heartwarming adventure! I got a job now!" He looked back at the large figure. She looked.. vaguely feminine and heavily damaged. "Oh, that's just The Hand. He's my Stand. Are ya a Stand user? I don't think I've ever met anyone as big as ya." He crouched down on his heels to really take in the full view of the giant. "I'm Okuyasu Nijimura, and I guess I could help ya like, find a mechanic or something. Here, lemme help ya get up."

He took a few steps back and swiped at the air in front of Ashe-0, his hand glowing green for a moment, before space -ripped- down the middle like cutting into a jello mold and an unearthly, bass buzz echoed for a second.

BBMMMMMMMMM

A rush of air sounded past Ashe-0's head, and they could feel an immense force sucking them forward and upward, like they were being pulled. It'd definitely help them stand, if they were capable of supporting their own weight.

 

[The Future Warrior]

It was difficult for her to give off the impression of blinking in confusion, which she could still register as being a very human response to such an odd statement. Movie? A superweapon from space? "I....believe I am fr-f-f-frooooom another world, y-yessss."

She merely took the moment to process and try to at least get rid of the increasingly irritating stutter in her words. "Your...S-Stand?" That one....was completely and utterly lost on her. What in the world was a Stand? Or a Stand User, for that matter. Was it something that was native to this world? Or some other kind of supernatural phenomana. That odd ghost-like entity she had registered just a moment ago? It did seem to have disappeared quite suddenly.

"Okuyasu...Nijimura." A strange name. Foreign, to the ones she remembered of her creators. Possibly of Asian origin? "I....am called Ashe-0. A mechanic-ic...y-yes, that would....be appreciated." She was prepared to try and get up herself, not expecting that what appeared to be a normal human could really be any help at all...but she suddenly found herself helped up anyway. The sudden rush of air preceded by the strange force was enough to lift her from her slumped over state and upright in the space of a second. She staggered heavily, needing to catch herself with one working arm against a nearby wall.

"....th-thank....you." She would just...wisely decide not to even try and process how that had happened.

 

[Solomon Grundy]

The walk back through the streets of Arcadia took a while, but eventually Okuyasu and the giant golem arrived at the sanitation department's motor pool. It was a rather large and squarish green building, with a garage and huge airplane doors built to fit the trucks in for maitenance. The Stand user gestured to Ashe-0, and called into the garage at a tall figure in red overalls. "Oi, Sosuke! This lady droid needs some mechanical repairs!" Okuyasu motioned for Ashe-0 to follow him inside as the mechanic turned around to reveal a red haired elven youth with grease on his face. "Give 'er what she needs and I'll buy ya lunch tomorrow."

The elf nodded, and turned to look at the golem while Okuyasu headed to the main office to go pick up his paycheck. The bundle of credits was wrapped in a rubber band, and he grinned at the sheer delight of stuffing a stack into his pocket. Heading to the locker room, he took off his uniform and stowed his PPE inside his personal stall. Then, he undressed and headed towards the showers to rinse off after the day's work.

After a shower and a slap of hair gel he was back in his usual clothes, his custom school uniform comfortable and loose fitting, the golden charms still glinting even in the dull glow of the locker room bulbs. Maybe after he made sure that huge lady was alright he'd pick up a movie on the way back to the workman's bunkhouse where he stayed in the meantime. Morioh was too far away to commute, and he figured he could just live in the city until he made enough money to pay for the repairs.

As he passed the three new trucks on his way out of the garage and back towards where Sosuke was most likely cataloguing every inch of the giant's insides, he decided he'd try to help the next shift so next day's work would be even easier. The trucks were still idling with the keys in the engine, and he was sure he'd learned enough to get the thing backed up to the compact unloader. The engine rumbled up and started beeping as he backed it out of the space and across the garage floor towards the unloader....

 

[The Future Warrior]

Ashe slowly lumbered her way along after Okuyasu. Where they were headed she wasn't sure, but with the prospect of a mechanic on the line she was also not exactly of a mind to question just yet. The structure they eventually arrived at was one which stood out rather odd to her, with is distinct...almost comically square shape and green coloration. Judging by the huge doors on it, she could puzzle out just what it was without great difficulty. Especially as the odd human gestured her way and called out to someone inside, which it took only a cursory scan for Ashe to properly identify as likely being the mechanic in question.

Red was not typically the color she had associated with their attire,, but the look of it and the spattering of grease on his face was unmistakable.

She slowly took a few more steps into the building through the huge doors and then promptly proceeded to all but collapse down to a sitting posture, with an impact strong enough to lightly shake the entire building. It also produced a fresh round of sparking and spattering of the kaleidoscope of her internal fluids from the numerous wounds in her body.

"Wow. You really are in pretty rough shape, ain'tcha?" the mechanic, Sosuke apparently, spoke up. "What in the world happened to you?"

"I...ran afoul of an angry undead buccaneer," Ashe stated.

The mechanic could only stare blankly in response to that for several seconds. "I'm...hopin' that's some kinda euphemism or metaphor or something."

"It is not. He stated his name was Captain Ordine." She struggled to recall the details, but...that did sound right. "He was particularly irate about the fact I damaged his vessel, and took his vengeance with alarming brutality."

"Ooookay then, well..." Sosuke quickly brushed that aside with a shake of his head. "Regardless of what got you banged up, lemme see what the extent of the damage is so I know what I can even do for ya." He turned and scurried away. "Think we got a couple of universal connectors around here for the damage check computers or something..."

He was busy for perhaps a minute or two before returning. "Okay. So...android or whatever, assuming you have some kind of...interface port? For like whoever made or built you or whatever to connect to for diagnostics and such?"

"Correct. It is..." She reached up, brushing aside her hair to reveal the blurred remains of her barcode and identifier. The synthetic skin near to it shifted and pulled away, revealing the mechanical port just beneath the surface. "...here."

"Super. Could ya just, uh..." He held up the cable. "Liiittle bit outta my reach." He watched curiously as she did so, and when it was connected he hopped over to a nearby computer. "Normally we just use this thing to check where the trucks go and any damage the onboard computer registers, so not sure it's advanced enough for this but here goes nothin'."

The next several minutes were spent in relative silence, save for the light clicking and clacking of keys, punctuated by a brief 'wow' or 'holy shit' from the mechanic, or just general exhalations of surprise or shock. Eventually he stepped back, hands on his hips. "Well...this is a real mess. You got plenty of damage in there...way outta my league to really help much with. Buuut...looks like you got some self-repair gizmos or something in there that'll get you patched up just like a living person. Long as you got the power or excess material to break down and work with. Your power core's a little banged up but still in one piece. I can take a crack at patchin' that up, and fork over some extra scrap and stuff for extra parts."

"That would be appreciated." Ashe nodded lightly. Under normal circumstances, letting anyone but her designated handlers have such access to her inner workings would be...unacceptable in the absolute lightest of terms. But given the situation at hand...needs must.

And so Sosuke set to work, scurrying off to fetch his tools and other necessary equipment. The building was soon filled with the sound of power tools and the sound of shearing metal and other industrial white noise as he set to work.

The background was punctuated with far more comical (and worrying) sounds. Distantly, there was a loud CRASH. It was followed by the sound of glass breaking, a very disjointed yelling of several colorful phrases, a rumbling BBBMMMMM noise, and then yet more crashing and inarticulate yelling. A noise like someone crumpling an old metal garbage can, another of the odd rumbling noises.

"This place is extremely active," Ashe quietly noted at one point.

"You got noooo idea, lady," Sosuke muttered. "Hang on, think I see the problem..."

Far more frantic yelling, a noise which seemed eerily reminiscent of a yowling cat, and more crashing sounds. Another of the deep, rumbling BBBMMMMM noises, the sound of a wooden board through a window. Further crashing, and increasingly colorful and angry yelling and shouting.

"Your co-worker is very energetic," Ashe spoke up again some time later.

"Yeah. Energetic is a good word, alright," he muses. "Think...that's it."

 

[Solomon Grundy]

A set of metal doors flew open right neat the area Sosuke was working in, and a team of very muscular individuals wielding pipes running outside towards the commotion. The shouting got louder, now accompanied by high pitched whistles.

The same set of doors flew open, and a squat goblin in a bright yellow suit walked out, smoking a cigar. Okuyasu reappeared, running into the garage and screeching to a stop in front of the goblin. "Oh, shit! Boss!"

The goblin tapped his cigar and smiled a horribly wide smile. "Kid, I don't know what you did to Number 8 to cause such a fuss, but this is the best traffic induced street brawl I've seen in years." He puffed on it, blowing the smoke above his head and flicking his large green ears. "You're fired. Now scram, before I feed ya to the mob."

Okuyasu bowed ferociously and ran past Sosuke and Ashe-0 as fast as his legs could carry him, taking a few credit sticks out of his pocket and throwing them at the golem. "HEYSORRYGOTTAGOSEEYAAROUNDITWASFUNWORKINGHERE!"

The blue armored ghost manifested and swiped the air, propelling the blue suited youth forward into the air, Okuyasu absconding across the rooftops and shouts of recognition following him.

BMMMMM

BMMMMM

BMMMMMMMM

 

[The Future Warrior]

Ashe and Sosuke both pause, turning to just silently stare at the outgoing procession of musclebound individuals.

"Perhaps there was some sort of plumbing-related incident," Ashe commented.

"Hey. An attempt at humor. Nice." The mechanic only gave a quiet chuckle. "Looks more like a riot about to start than anything, though. Noooot really my problem, though..." He trailed off, leaning in slightly and eliciting a series of sparking pops and crackles of discharged electricity.

A yelp from the elf in time with a particularly loud CRACK heralded a message on her internal readouts of Power core functionality at 100%, which she found particularly curious. She couldn't exactly see what he had done, but wasn't about to question it.

He emerged again, his hair slightly singed and holding a large iron spike in one hand. "Guess you really weren't kidding about the pirate thing...nails like this ain't been used in ages. Almost like..." He trailed off at the sight of the goblin emerging, with only a mumbled "Ah, shit..." to himself.

Okuyasu dashed back in, with a brief and unpleasant exchange with the yellow-suited greenskin, before quickly dashing out again after depositing a few credit sticks her way at a surprising velocity. She only stared blankly as they clinked and bounced off her face, clattering to the floor beside her.

"Ah, yes...farewell, Okuyasu Nijimura." There wasn't exactly an abundance of enthusiasm in her words, as she merely slowly turned her head to keep pace with his egress. At least until that bizarre ghostly figure materialized again and he simply shot off into the air. "....how strange."

"Yeah. Strange is a word, alright," Sosuke agreed. "Think that's about all I can do for ya. I'm just a mechanic, not really cut out for this....super-advanced android work and stuff."

"You have done more than enough. The repairs, while basic, have greatly accelerated my self-repair process." Ashe simply nodded. She could already see nearly a full day had been subtracted from her repair time, with her energy reserves back at optimum levels. It was a change that she suspected wouldn't matter too greatly in the long run, but still an improvement nonetheless.

"Well, uh...glad to have helped then!" The mechanic scratched behind one ear. "Guess I won't be gettin' that lunch tomorrow, though."

"Incorrect." The giant war machine leaned down slightly and as delicately as she could, picked up the scattering of credit sticks thrown her way. Carefully balancing them one one finger, she offered them out to the elf. "I have no need for this, nor am I fully aware of its value. Consider it at least some kind of payment."

"Well, uh...." He seemed momentarily torn before just shrugging and taking it. "Not really standard rates for the job...but hey, It's enough for a good lunch, at least," he admitted. "And that's all I was really expecting."

"Well, now, if we're all done playin' public generosity over here?" A voice suddenly cut in, and both android and mechanic swiveled around to stare at the grim, green, grinning visage of the goblin from before. "Get yer rear back in gear, Sosuke. We got actual work for you to be doing."

"Ah, uh, y-yeah, boss! Gotcha! Right away!" And he dusted himself off and scampered away quickly.

"And you." The employer doing his best impression of an under-ripe banana trying desperately to fit in among its fully ripe brethren turned his eyes up toward Ashe. "Unless you lookin' for a job to replace that kid, scram. This ain't free housing."

"....very well then. I am sorry to have imposed." From her tone, it was hard to judge if she was genuinely sorry or not. She slowly rose up to stand, with a light creaking of metal, and the higher she rose the wider the goblin's eyes bulged. When she was at her full height his cigar tumbled from his fingers, and he swore under his breath.

"You, uh.... Well. Yeah. Get on with ya." And he hastily scooped up his fallen smokestick, turning to scamper off back from whence he came.

"This place is extremely bizarre," Ashe murmured, and then simply obliged the request, turning to lumber on out of the building.