Blossoming Bond 4 (Patreon)

Blossoming Bond 4 - or ‘A Nice Gift Changes Everything’ (PPG Doujinshi, OC!Brother to Mandy)

A limousine was parked in front of Megaville Elementary. Some students paused to look at it, but couldn’t see who was inside as the windows were all obscured. Beyond the driver, there were only two passengers.

One was an old man that would have preferred for this situation to be left in the hands of proper adults as the chance of some bad people being involved in the missing right arm of the Saints’ Corpse was problematic if not high due to recent discoveries leading the Speedwagon Foundation to know that a certain vampire’s group of followers was still active.

Still, this also felt like an opportunity to give the other passenger, a young girl of 12, to make new friends while also growing accustomed to travel around and help against bad people once she was old enough to join their active agents.

“Remember-” He started to say.

“To be a good girl,” The hatted girl huffed before beaming back at the old man. “I will not disappoint you, nonno Jojo.”

A loud sigh came from the old man known as Joseph Joestar as he regarded the little girl he saw as another grandchild who smiled readily at him. He had been entrusted with the promise of keeping a close eye on her- not just for the demand of the girl’s real grandfather but for a promise he personally made by the tomb of the child’s granduncle many decades ago. No one was going to die in any adventure, not from this family.

Not… anymore.

“Just don’t mess things up, Julia. Others are investigating too.”

A smile manifested as the girl nodded. “I will not be a bother, nonno.”

—------d-d-d-d—---------

The first day back to school was meant to be a calm day. And it was not for a simple reason.

There was a development that left most of the class I was in. Our Maths Teacher told us that we were going to have a new classmate today. Normally the forewarning for this kind of stuff would come a few days before the student was put in the classroom as it happened when my sister and I were enrolled in this school.

Still, we were soon introduced to a girl with short blonde hair and green eyes. She wasn’t wearing the school uniform as she had been justified for ‘not having it just yet’. Once again, the ‘grace period’ of roughly a week was to allow the new student to have the uniform of the school to wear when starting at Megaville Elementary.

But what really perplexed me was not the suddenness of the event, but the girl herself.

“Buongiorno! I am Julia Zeppeli and I hope to make tons of friends here!”

Boisterous and loud, the ‘greeting’ had a foreign word. French? Italian? I couldn’t tell on the spot and I decided against investigating further on the matter. Not when I could see a tiny head protruding from her shoulder. Its full body was green, with purple dots stretching into lines that trailed from its head down to the rest of its body; as if the tiny humanoid was wearing a circuit-like full-body costume or something.

That’s a Stand User-cha. Be careful, boss.

I held back a nod at ｢Second Chance｣, knowing that this girl was… actually looking around, as if searching for someone- and something. Could it be that she was tied to the guys carrying that arm? ｢Second Chance｣ was still unable to remember much of what had happened to the arm before it woke up within me, but he mentioned one thing that left me a bit tense.

That Stand is also odd. Something about its energy is… different-cha!

What does that even mean?

I can’t say for sure-cha. Just… keep your guard up around her, boss.

Julia was instructed to take a seat by one of the available desks, none of which were close to me. Despite that, I still felt her gaze briefly graze me as she was trying to study everyone around her. It was difficult for me to ignore, as if she was gloating me into behaving like this.

Still, I managed to outlast the pressure, and ultimately didn’t have any trouble from her through the other few hours of lessons. She was behaving in a way that got girls commenting on her as an ‘elegant lady’ or something like that. The boys were willing to ignore the ‘prissy lady’ thing as we had exams to go through and some were already doing badly with their grades.

All in all, no issue came up through the regular lessons and it was soon time to hit the cafeteria. I felt relieved when the girl was called to stay behind for the teacher to give her some directions on how to move around the school.

I could leave for the cafeteria without behaving as if I was a spy or something. So, I sat down at my usual spot, bringing my lunch box on the table, releasing the sandwich I had prepared for today and-

“Arthur?”

My peace was disrupted by a certain bow-wearing superhero. I turned to the source of the nervous greeting and I blinked.

“Blossom.”

She squirmed a bit, hesitating to speak up again.

“Can I… Can we talk?”

I paused for a moment, confused about what was going on. After all, the little kind gesture I made a while back was not meant to see the following as I had just done a nice thing and left.

Actually, how does she know my name?

“Sure?”

She sat down on the other bench of the table.

“Sorry for- for coming up so strong, I just wanted to… thank you. For helping me with the chocolate.”

“You are… welcome?” I tilted my head mid-response. “Is there a reason why you wanted to thank me or-”

“W-Well, it was a nice thing to do.”

“Yeah but… isn’t it a bit of a warranted gesture considering you and your sisters are heroes?”

“I… wait, what?” Blossom sobered up at the question, appearing surprised by my words. “We are doing it without wanting anything in return.”

“Yeah, that’s what all heroes say but, truth be told, shouldn’t this be like a mutual relationship? There are many instances in the comics where heroes end up hitting some bumps and need to be helped back. Isn’t it fair to say that bystanders should be that sort of respectful?”

Her mouth opened, and then it closed. “I never thought of it that way. But still- it was a nice thing.”

“It was yes. And that’s all.”

“Yes…” Blossom continued, her unease manifesting again and then she suddenly stared at someone on the side, I could feel a strange unease as I glanced to try and find the source of her surprised redirection and-

I felt a pair of lips pressing against my cheek.

“Chuuuuu~”

I jumped in surprise at the sudden kiss, cheeks flaring as I saw the very girl I had been dodging since earlier this morning, now smiling smugly while holding a hand near her puckered lips.

“Fuh~!”

“W-Why did you do that?” I snapped loudly, causing the blonde to giggle.

“Why, to properly greet you… new Stand Amico.”

I blinked, as the last bit was whispered. Blossom was still recoiling at the sight. I noticed Mandy looking at the situation with a frown from her table and Julia’s Stand was staring straight at ｢Second Chance｣.

“So, how about we get to know each other some more, amico~?”

—---------d-d-d-d—-------

AN

Julia Zeppeli enters the battlefield! Great-niece to Caesar Zeppeli through Caesar’s little brother, Gregorio, her grandfather had taught her his own skill to combat supernatural entities. Her Stand Name? Next time!

Also, a few notes on the Italian used by Julia as I will try to explain by the ANs what some words used mean:

-Nonno: Grandpa;
-Buongiorno: Good Morning;
-A kiss on the cheek is actually a form of greeting among close friends (guys just press cheeks while the kiss bit is mostly done by girls- not always, but most of the time);

-Amico: Friend.