Chapter 18: This Was My True Plan All Along!
Jonas-kun and Alessi now faced each other in a tense standoff.
But Alessi didn't want this to end so quickly. He reached into his coat and produced a menacing hand-axe, its blade gleaming. The word "AXE" was brazenly engraved on its side.
"I've changed my mind!" Alessi shrieked, his voice cracking with sadistic glee. "A gun is too fast! Hacking you to pieces, inch by inch, with this axe... that will finally satisfy my rage! You've really pushed your luck, making me this angry!"
At the same instant, his Stand, [Sethan], shot out from his feet. And in its shadowy hand, it brandished a perfect, spectral replica of Alessi's axe. [Sethan] detached itself from the ground, leaping into the air and bringing its shadowy axe down on Jonas-kun in a vicious arc.
"Good grief... what kind of scum uses an axe on a seven-year-old?" Jonas-kun thought, his small face grim.
He countered, swinging his own rolling pin. The moment wood met spectral steel, an immense, jarring force shot up his arm, nearly tearing the weapon from his small hands. Jonas-kun leaped back, planting his feet. He brought the rolling pin behind his head and, with all his might, hurled it like a javelin—not at the Stand, but at the user!
If I can't beat the Stand, I'll take out the master!
Alessi, startled, instinctively swung his own axe, deflecting the rolling pin and sending it clattering to the floor. As he prepared to order [Sethan] to attack, another bag of flour came sailing through the air.
"USELESS! Do you really think the same trick will work twice?!" he roared. "DON'T YOU DARE LOOK DOWN ON AN ADULT!"
He swung his axe again, cleaving the bag in two in mid-air. A cloud of... something... burst out. But Alessi's triumph died in his throat. It wasn't flour. It was a fine, red powder.
Jonas-kun's face split into a wide, malicious grin. "You fell for it, you moron! That's not flour... IT'S CAYENNE PEPPER!"
"YOU CUNNING LITTLE BASTARD!"
Alessi tried to shield his face, but it was too late. The cloud of red dust washed over him. Searing, agonizing pain exploded in his eyes and nose. It was like breathing fire.
"GYAAAAAAHHHH!" Alessi shrieked, tears and mucus erupting from his face as he clawed at his eyes.
While the assassin was blinded, Jonas-kun snatched the rolling pin from the floor, leaped forward, and brought it down on Alessi's skull with another vicious crack.
THWACK!
Alessi saw stars, the whole room tilting violently. But he roared, fighting through the pain, and began swinging his axe wildly in front of him. His Stand, [Sethan], did the same, creating a whirlwind of steel that forced Jonas-kun to leap back.
Damn! Jonas-kun thought. I thought that would finish him, but he's still standing!
Alessi had created a 'danger zone' around himself. Between his axe and his Stand's, it was impossible to approach. After a few moments, the tears and snot finally washed the worst of the pepper away. Alessi blinked, his vision clearing.
He looked around the bakery... and saw nothing.
"He's... HE'S GONE!"
Alessi's mind raced. He'd had the brat cornered! He'd made himself look like a fool! And the kid just... disappeared?
He forced himself to calm down, to think. He carefully scanned the room.
"I've been guarding the only exit this whole time. And with my axe and [Sethan]'s, there's no way he slipped past me. He didn't go back into the alley! And the whole room is covered in dust... flour and pepper... including the doorknob leading to the shop's front end!"
His eyes darted to the door... and there, on the flour-dusted knob, was a perfect, small handprint!
"Of course! While I was blinded, he must have run through here!"
His confidence restored, Alessi strode to the door, ready to continue the hunt. But just as his fingers were about to touch the metal, the knob began to turn... all by itself.
With a creeeeeak, the door swung open. Alessi tensed, axe raised, ready to strike whatever was on the other side.
"Filthy thief! Get out of my bakery!"
A massive, powerful-looking baker's rolling pin appeared, slamming directly into his chest.
"GUH-AH!" Alessi wheezed, the force of the blow nearly making him vomit. He was sent flying. As he looked up, he saw a huge, burly man with a thick beard and a flour-covered apron—the owner of the shop.
The baker had been hearing scuffling noises from the back, and then a scream. After serving his last customer, he'd grabbed his trusty rolling pin to investigate. And what did he find? This... creature, covered in flour and pepper, holding an axe, standing in his ruined bakery. A surge of pure, professional rage filled his heart, and he attacked without hesitation.
As the baker moved to grab Alessi and throw him out, a strange sensation washed over him. The room suddenly seemed enormous. No... the room wasn't bigger. He was getting smaller! If he had been a Stand user, he would have seen the shadowy form of [Sethan] coiling around his feet. He shrank, and as his body regressed, so did his mind, until he was nothing but a helpless, confused infant, his adult memories gone.
Alessi clutched his aching chest, coughing. "That... really... hurt! You bastard!"
He stalked over to the babbling baker-infant, raising his boot, ready to punt the creature and vent his frustration. But just as he was about to strike, a puff of flour... drifted down from above. Drifting... down?
That's wrong! Alessi froze. The flour bags were on the floor, against the wall. How could it be falling from above him?
An unbelievable, terrifying thought struck him.
He never left. He was in this room the entire time, hiding, waiting... waiting to land the finishing blow!
He looked up.
And there, clinging to the rafters, was Jonas-kun, clutching an entire, fifty-pound bag of flour. He let go, falling straight down toward him. A fifty-pound bag of flour, plus the weight of a seven-year-old boy, dropping from the ceiling... Alessi's rudimentary knowledge of physics was enough to know the result.
It would be enough to crush him.
Jonas-kun, riding the bag down like a bomb, let out a triumphant roar:
"THIS WAS MY TRUE PLAN ALL ALONG! NOW BE CRUSHED, YOU FILTHY WORM!"