Blossoming Bond 2 (Patreon)

Blossoming Bond 2 - or ‘A Nice Gift Changes Everything’ (PPG Doujinshi, OC!Brother to Mandy)

After school hours are quite boring.

It’s nothing new, and I don’t get anything from thinking this so much but it’s still a pain. I wouldn’t even say that I am the kind of guy that likes to be a whine but…

My name is Arthur Endswell, I am one of the Grim Reaper’s three ‘masters’ and I am currently devoid of anything to do at the moment. I am a year older to my sister Mandy and most of these ‘important’ people at school.

Just a few hours ago I found one of the PPGs crying and shaking in one of the halls during the meal break, and I gave her some chocolate. It wasn’t much of a random gesture of kindness but… it really unnerved me to see people going through the stuff I went through due to some adventures I shared with my sister, that dumb idiot Billy and Grim.

Getting scared a lot tended to give me some headstarts on what to do to not be utterly horrified. Mandy may have some inhuman resilience to the supernatural and Billy was Billy, but I needed a bit of a boost in the form of chocolate or anything that helped cheer up my body through sweetness.

At this point, I had just finished with homework for today, and Grim was busy with something in regard to Billy. Mandy had decided to go out about half-an-hour ago since she had to buy a few things for a school project and…

I am bored to death.

Picking a chair and sitting by the front door was not a way to waste some time, but I wanted to read some stuff outdoors without being bothered by my parents while also keeping an eye on Saliva. The little mutt had gotten so close to getting yeeted to an early grave due to a speeding car passing near our old home and the dog just failed to learn from its mistakes.

“Bark!”

“No, we’re not going to play fetch because I don’t want to see you killed by your stupidity,” I replied with some irritation. The dog whined a bit, but I didn’t budge as I just sat down, opened some comics and sipped from my soda bottle. “No means no, Saliva.”

The whine ended, but not because the dog understood- rather it just started to… bolt left and right. Shaking my head, I just tried to distract myself with the few X-Men comics I had yet to catch up to, unaware that this is where attention would have prevented some… issues.

I was engrossed on a few pages about Wolverine having his umpteenth life-changing decision to leave the X-Men and seek exile for himself. Nothing new, but it was about his son or something like that. Still, I failed to notice that one of the vehicles passing by the road, a truck, somehow ended up dropping something out which Saliva had noticed.

Now, if there is one thing this stupid dog was rather giddy to do was to snatch the first bone on sight. And the thing that fell out of that speeding truck was indeed that. I wasn’t exactly paying attention to its destination, but I kept an eye on the dog and I actually saw it put an effort in looking left and right… before shifting to the side and hitting the lamp post beside him.

Progress. I called it… progress.

Another shake of head, seeing the dog managing to get what it had found back on the sidewalk before moving to me with it. Rolling my eyes, I gave the dog a flat look, but was soon frowning about what he brought to my attention. It was a bone alright, but it was a full on arm bone at that.

I gave it a cursory look, confused by the sight as I thought it was one of those situations where Grim got his body ‘smashed into pieces’ and this was his right arm or something. No, this was actually a whole different arm due to the size and the hole it had on its palm.

Odd. I also felt compelled to reach out and it kind of proved to be a mistake. Sorta.

Right as I touched it with my fingers, I felt my entire right arm burning as yellow lights emerged from my limb and the bone. It wasn’t painful, but it felt like I was getting cooked or something.

A full minute passes, with Saliva just sitting there to see this unfold and soon I found myself looking at the limb right as the light ceased to be. I thought that something had changed about it but… nope. It was fine and normal.

After a solid few seconds of nothing, I just shrugged and went back to read the comics. It wasn’t a situation bound to be a descent into normalcy as I would soon learn, starting with a large hole suddenly opening right on the street bit in front of home.

From the depths of hell, I saw a certain entity that Grim hated the guts of manifesting together with his son. Nergal and Nergal Junior. Junior was a lovable friend despite a few bumpy first circumstances, and we had been tight buddies for a while.

It got to the point where he and his father would butt heads over the fact he wanted to join us at Megaville Elementary now that I wasn’t enrolled in Endsville Elementary anymore.

They chatted for a moment before his father went back in the hole and closed it. Junior approached, looking a bit miffed but lightening up in his face as I waved at him.

“Artie! It’s been a week.”

“A long week for sure, J. How are you?”

“Good, how is the new school? I heard from Mandy it’s bigger than the one in Endsville.”

I chuckled. “Bigger, but there’s insane crises everyday. It’s even worse than how it was in Endsville.”

“Really? But you got the Powerpuff Girls and other heroes to help,” Junior pointed out.

“Yeah, but they bring their own villains to the list,” I added with a nod. “So, wanna go to the arcade? I am paying.”

“I have money too,” He offered, pouting a bit at having me pay for his tickets too.

“Well, we can split,” I negotiated, with the boy smiling and nodding but not before pointing something else out.

“Also, Artie, what’s with the plushie?”

Junior’s question had me pause and frown back at him.

“Plushie?”

What Plushie?

He blinked, aiming a finger at something sitting on my… shoulder?

Right as I turned, I was greeted by the sight of a tiny bunny plushie-like entity that turned its head to greet me back. Its body was purely black with a circular white line around its head and a small white ‘scar’ over its heart, with eyes, nose and mouth together with the internal bit of its ears a bright red.

“Hello, boss-cha!”

“...I am your boss?” I asked and the bunny nodded fluidly.

“Yup, you are my boss-cha. I am ｢Second Chance: ACT 1｣, your own Stand-cha!”

“His ‘what’?” The bespectacled boy asked.

The bunny turned to look at Junior. “I am Boss’ Spirit of Combat manifested. I am the embodiment of his interest to fight-cha.”

Which is a bit awkward considering it's a tiny talking bunny. Then again, I am not much of a fighter if I am not pushed into it. And the ‘ACT 1’ left me curious.

“So, the more I become a fighter, the more you evolve?”

“Yup, yup! I will evolve together with Boss’ maturity in handling combat situations-cha!”

“That’s so cool!” Junior beamed. “What can you do ｢Second Chance｣?”

“Not much, but Boss can now use a special ability in case he needs help to fend off trouble-cha,” The bunny explained, turning to look at me. “Boss, focus energy on your right hand as if you are channeling a ki blast or something like that within it-cha.”

I blinked at the instruction, but nodded as I complied. As I held my right palm open upward, I noticed that something started to rotate within my palm as air compressed itself into an orb. I didn’t feel any major stress from my body, but it wasn’t over yet.

“Now, take aim as if you were doing a ‘hand’ gun, and ‘BANG’-cha!”

I did as the Stand said, turning my hand into a fake handgun and then ‘shot’ the strange air projectile to a nearby garden gnome. I expected it to explode, but it caused a brief push that broke its nose. I tilted my head at the lacking power behind the shot, but realized it was effectively something I could use without ‘draining’ myself over it.

“Long-range tactics-cha! What do you think, boss?”

“It’s cool. I was expecting it to be a bit stronger.”

“You can make it bigger and stronger-cha,” The bunny assured. “But it will take time to make it happen.”

I nodded at this and… I got an idea. I turned to Junior with giddy eyes.

“How about we do some cowboy play before we go to the arcade?”

The boy’s eyes widened and he smiled widely. “That would be so cool! Let’s rescue Ma- I mean, the princess.”

“Mandy is out for her own chores, J. She’s not around to save.”

He deflated a bit, the fact he was crushing on Mandy was both amusing and saddening for the mere fact it was Mandy we were talking about. Still, without any further delay, we left for the arcade after I dropped the comics on the chair and promised myself to deal with both later on.

Saliva merely saw us leaving and decided to go pee on the broken gnome. One could actually see a tear go down the inanimate object’s left eye.

But while Junior and I were interested by the potential of this power, someone else was troubled by a rather incomplete skeleton they had received to study.

—--------d-d-d-d—----

Back home, Blossom thought that the matter relating to the nice boy giving her that chocolate bar would have been put aside.

She was greeted by a deep sense of annoyance that had persisted even after the end of the school day. Then again, the girl knew that her moral sense would demand her to return the favor by thanking the boy herself rather than just drop it. It was something she had been taught by her father, so it was fair for her to just… not let go of it.

In fact, as she mentioned this to Professor Utonium (without telling her sisters about it to avoid unwarranted teasing as it was just a nice thing done without it being romantic), the man mentioned that chocolate was indeed a good way to deal with that sort of stress but to not eat it too excessively.

Moderation was not something Blossom was unfamiliar with, so she took that comment at heart while also studying the Professor’s thought on trying to find the boy and thank him. He called it a nice thing to do but to not ‘push too much about it’.

Another nod-worthy advice, but the girl could also tell that her father was busy with something else. He had been preparing his lab for something important, and that important thing came to be around the time she was finishing her homework.

She saw a truck parked by the garage, six men, four of which researchers, came out of it and carried inside what looked to be a rectangular box that was made of glass. Blossom couldn’t see its content during this occasion, merely focusing on the logo on the truck and finding it an odd name for a ‘secret organization for research’.

Speedwagon Foundation

Curious name, but even more curiouser the fact that the men were chided by Professor Utonium about something being missing from ‘the full list’. Blossom merely listened, deciding to check on what was going on once the men left their house. Humming to herself, she entered the laboratory and found the Professor musing over the glass container.

The man noticed her arrival and offered a tiny smile. “Blossom, are you done with your homework?”

“Yes, Professor. What is… oh?” The girl floated up and saw the item contained within the glass box.

It was what looked to be a skeleton of sorts. It looked like one of those mummified ones at that as it had suffered through the passing of time. And the girl also noticed what was ‘missing’ from it. Its right arm was not there.

“This is called the ‘Saints’ Corpse’. It’s a national treasure that had been found and preserved in the 40s by a group of researchers that I am familiar with,” the man started to calmly explain. “I was tasked to study its composition due to its supernatural effects.”

“Why is it called that?” Blossom inquired, having always had a bit of an interest in this kind of scientific findings.

“Well, the one that found it, Robert E.O. Speedwagon thought that its holy powers were akin to a saint. In truth, many suspect that this is actually the skeleton of Jesus Christ.”

Blossom’s interest skyrocketed at that as she snapped her gaze back to her father.

“Is it?”

“Well, we can’t say for sure until we have a full analysis. Still, the missing arm is an anomaly to not ignore. We can still study it, but each part of this corpse can be used to grant people around powers that can be either good or… very bad.”

“We could find it,” Blossom assured, knowing that her sisters would more than happily tag along with this but-

“Not today. It’s too early to find out where it is and I don’t have the means to detect the bones just yet. Maybe tomorrow.”

The bow-wearing girl nodded, a bit miffed from missing this chance but… deciding it was for the best to just drop it for today. And…

She was back to thinking on how to approach that nice boy. After all, he was at school so it shouldn’t be that difficult to find out where his class is… Right?

—--------d-d-d-d—---------

AN

Blossom really wants to thank a mostly unaware Artie.

Also yes, it’s time for some Stand Stats!

｢Second Chance: Act 1｣
Leitmotiv: Second Chance - Glamour of the Kill
Destructive Power: D/C
Speed: C
Range: D
Stamina: B
Precision: D
Developmental Potential: A

Abilities:
1) Spinning Air;