#step one: cover jolyne in blood

[menacingfag]

[drnogender]

Oh don't even get me fucking STARTED on how many Crossovers I have for Sailor Moon and JJBA. I like to cover allll my bases ok?

Not sure how Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency would work, but time travel/displacement aus and timeline changes exist, so I'll come up with something eventually.

I have one that's Usagi and Josuke as Siblings. One with Makoto as Jotaro's sister and the school just fucked up her name (from "Kujo" to "Kino") with how many times she's changed schools. Jolyne and Usagi being best fucking friends.

And of course, Jotaro and Usagi Childhood Friends AU.

They meet as kids, both of them are about 7 years old, and they get along like a house on fire. Practically inseparable. Usagi is a born Stand User, like Kakyoin, but that doesn't stop her from making friends. She and Jotaro are friends mostly because they're both half Japanese. Having blond hair or being incredibly tall isn't exactly normal in Japan and the Japanese are known for some pretty bad xenophobia. Because of this, they're both bullied for their differences.

Usagi takes it in stride and tries to not let it get to her, but after an incident after getting the rest of the scouts together (unrelated), she decides "no, fuck it, I'm not letting this shit slide anymore," and decides to do something about it. She stops wearing the full girls uniform and wears the boys trousers instead, wears her sweater around her waist, and pops the collar of her blouse. She changes so drastically that it kinda scares the other students, but she's still the same bubbly and sweet person and she owns it.

The only thing that really changes is that before if you mess with her, you would have a crybaby pushover on your hands and having to deal with both pissed off scouts and a livid Jotaro. Now if you mess with her, the scouts and Jotaro are the last of your worries. Needless to say, it's become an unspoken rule that if you fuck with this Usagi, it's on your head. Outside of school, she still likes wearing dresses and skirts, but her style is more preppy Gyaru or Yankee now. A precursor to what Jotaro will eventually become, though his transformation is admittedly more drastic.

Usagi was always preppy and lively with a loud, emotional, and bombastic personality, so her transformation from student to delinquent isn't really as jarring because her personality is still the same. Jotaro's transformation from model student to delinquent is much more jarring because he was this sweet, quiet, and mild mannered kid that's soft-spoken, kind, and has a soft spot for animals that suddenly turns into a crude, rude punk that beats the shit out of anyone that even looks at him funny. It's like two completely different people. Where as you can still recognize Usagi as Usagi even as a delinquent, Jotaro becomes completely unrecognizable outside of physical appearance.

(Also I can't help but ship these two so Mamoru has become Naru's boyfriend instead. Naru deserves nice things, ok?)

Thing is, Usagi has Jotaro wrapped around her little finger and can see right through his delinquent act. She is the only woman that can make him cave. Anyone else and he'd be a complete jackass. Usagi? Lovesick Puppy-dog. Goes right back to a well behaved gentleman, and Usagi eats that right shit up. I'm sorry Top!Jotaro fans, but I love the "big strong character is topped by their smaller partner" trope, ok??

So once the Crusade starts, Jotaro is pretty much the same except when Usagi is involved. With anyone else he still act the same as canon, but will flip on a dime when directly interacting with Usagi. It can be a little funny to watch during a fight, him cussing out an enemy one minute then being soft and loving with Usagi the next. I can just imagine Usagi walking in with a skip in her step and the other Crusaders commenting on how she must have slept well then Jotaro trailing in behind her blissed the fuck out and limping. Or, he's in an argument with someone or just being himself (the whole "don't FUCKING touch me" thing like a moody cat) then the moment Usagi walks in, he's a big cuddle bug demanding attention.

He really is just a big cat. He doesn't like other people and will try to scratch them if they get too close except for Usagi, but if you manage to win his trust, he's gonna be softer and gentler with you. Maybe even go out of his way to seek you out, like being smoking buddies with Polnareff or hanging out with Kakyoin. Usagi doesn't just have one cat here, she's got two. Luna and Jotaro.

FUCK that got long. Sorry for the info dump, I don't get to talk about my crossovers often.

OH I LOVE ALL OF THIS!! I would love to hear more from you omg, my messages on here are open for you or hell discord if you felt like it! I love crossovers and the fact you have so many ideas for one of my favs and one I'm getting into, I have died and gone to whatever paradise there is in death. Amazing, immaculate, show stopping ideas coming from you my friend!

[duhragonball]

Battle Tendency Liveblog JJBA Ch.48-52

This is the “Joseph vs. Straizo” arc, so I’ll just lead off with one of my favorite moments from the entire JoJo franchise, when Joseph furiously declares war on Straizo with tears in his eyes.   In the anime, voice actor Tomokazu Sugita delivered this with such intensity that it actually overshadowed the machine gun.

None of the dubs or translations can do it justice, including this panel from the JoJo’s Colored Adventure scanlation project.   This is a faithful translation of Joseph’s line, as far as I can tell, except they always leave off the last part: “宣戦布告だぜ!!”  In romanji, that’s: “Sensen fukokuda ze!!”    And it means  “This is war!!”  

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Last time, we saw the Joestars treating their new friend Smokey Brown, to dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant.   Some mafia jerk caused trouble, Joseph whooped his ass, and then a second mafia guy apologized and shared a rumor he recently heard: Robert Speedwagon was found dead in a Mexican riverbed, apparently killed by a Tibetan monk.  

From there, we see that Joseph immediately realizes that this must have been Straizo, and Erina suspects that it must have something to do with the Stone Masks and the battle with Dio fifty years ago.   Smokey warns Joseph to consider the source, but Joseph is pretty sure it’s credible information, since mafia guys are all about money.   I’m not sure what that has to do with whether he’s telling the truth, though.   Either way, Joseph slugs the guy for just blurting out such terrible news in front of Granny Erina.  

Now, at this point, Joseph and Erina are making all these Phantom Blood references, and Smokey has no idea what they’re talking about.   And I think seeing this panel helped me understand Smokey’s role as a viewpoint character.  When the Part began, it seemed like Smokey was sort of the narrator for the thing, which works because he’s a good viewpoint character, and he seemed to be settling in as a sidekick like Speedwagon and Poco in Part 1.   But shortly after this he just vanishes from Battle Tendency altogether, and then he shows up at the end like it’s no big deal.   I never quite understood that, and I think this is the sort of thing that fuels the “Araki forgot” memes, but it actually makes a lot of sense.  

See, Smokey’s primary function is to be the viewpoint character, specifically for the readers who missed out on Phantom Blood.    BT is a direct continuation of the previous part, in a way that none of the other JoJo parts are.   Most of the main BT cast was deeply affected by what happened in Part 1.   A few of them lived through it, and the ones that didn’t have personal connections to it.    So they constantly talk about Stone Masks and Dio without really stopping to explain any of it.   Well, if you don’t know what they’re talking about, you can take heart in the fact that Smokey doesn’t know either.   So as long as he can keep up with the story, so can the uninitiated readers.  For now, all that matters is that he’s impressed by the Joestars’ great kindness, and he’s intrigued and disturbed by these hints of a tragic past in their family.  

And eventually, Smokey learns just what happened to the Joestar Family, or at least everything that the reader needs to know to follow Part 2.   But that doesn’t happen until near the end, which is why he shows up to hear the secrets revealed.   But for most of the story, he steps aside, because that’s mostly about Joseph dealing with events in the here and now, so Joseph can act as his own viewpoint character.  

But is Speedwagon truly dead?   The story flashes back to the previous night, after Straizo killed his own disciples and clobbered Speedwagon.   They’re in this temple where Speedwagon discovered more Stone Masks, like the one Dio used, but Speedwagon also discovered an immortal man petrified in a stone column.    Straizo was enlisted to destroy this “Pillar Man” with his Hamon power, but instead he wants to use one of the Stone Masks to turn himself into a vampire.  

Before he does this, he reads Speedy’s translations of the writing on the walls of the temple.    The ancient Aztec cultists who built it said that the Pillar Man was immortal and had many powers, but he was vulnerable to the sun, just like the vampires from Part 1.   But the writings warn that the Pillar Man created the Stone Masks because of this weakness, and one day, “when he befriends the sun, the world will be his.”  That doesn’t seem to follow, since the only thing the Stone Masks seem to be able to do is make new vampires, who are just as vulnerable to sunlight as the Pillar Man.   

Anyway, Straizo doesn’t seem to care.   He just doesn’t want to die of old age, and he’s become disillusioned with the Hamon power he has, so he’s turning heel and going full goth on us.   To avoid Dio’s mistakes, he plans to eliminate any witnesses, including Joseph and Erina.  Then he’ll go into hiding and figure out a long term plan, with the rest of the world unaware of his existence. 

You know, now that I write that out, I’m amazed by how similar that plan is to what Dio ends up doing in Part 3.   In Part 1, he set about turning a whole town into zombies, and planning to unleash them on the world without any real agenda.    But in Part 3 he eventually holed up in a swank mansion in Cairo and took great pains to stay hidden while he acquired more power.   Parts 5 and 8 carry that same idea even further, with villains who go to great lengths to cover up their very existence.   

At any rate, we only see Speedwagon pass out in this scene, so it’s unclear whether he actually dies or not.   Really, using Speedwagon in this way is a pretty smart play.   He’s an old man, and he was never going to survive another 50-year time-skip into the next part, so it’s safe to assume that Part 2 is his swan song.   But how will he die, and when?   It could be at the very start, or maybe somewhere in the middle.  

Anyway, Straizo just walks up to a cafe in New York to confront Joseph, and Joseph whips out a machine gun and shoots his ass.   This whole time, Straizo had assumed that the untrained grandson of Jonathan Joestar would be easy pickings, but Joseph’s a lot more skilled with Hamon than he expected, and he’s tricky too. 

As Joseph fires on Straizo, he recalls how worried Erina was about all this.   The story kind of glosses over it, but Joseph seems to have worked out Straizo’s entire plan.   I guess that’s not much of a stretch.   He and Speedwagon were together with a temple full of Stone Masks, and then Straizo turned on Speedwagon.    Why else would he do that, unless he used the Stone Mask to turn into a vampire like Dio did?   And once you arrive at that conclusion, it isn’t hard to figure out what Straizo’s next move would be.    And that’s how Joseph was so prepared for this.    After the shooting stops, Smokey freaks out about Joseph murdering a dude, but Joseph was expecting a vampire the whole time. 

I also like Joseph’s line in the flashback.   Erina isn’t worried for herself, but for Joseph, because it looks like he’s being pulled into this same tragic fate as the rest of the family.   But Joseph resolves to face this head on.    “If this is my fate, then I accept it.”  Pretty sure Will Zeppeli said the same thing when he discovered that he would die saving Jonathan.  

There’s similar “call-to-adventure” moments in the other parts.   Jonathan has his when he accepts Zeppeli’s offer to train him to battle Dio again.  Jotaro has his when he defeats and saves Kakyoin, then learns what’ll happen to his mother if he doesn’t go.   Josuke has his when Angelo shows up and he has to avenge his grandfather.   Giorno kind of always had a hankering to take on Passione, but I think things got serious once he had a choice between killing or sparing Bruno.  There could be no turning back from that point.  For Jolyne, it was the moment she had a clear path to escape the prison but decided to go back in because that was where her enemy was.    For Johnny, it was that one battle where he chose to crawl towards the danger to save Gyro instead of withdrawing to safety.   For Gappy... I’d have to study that a bit.   

But for Joseph Joestar, it’s this moment.  Erina never sent Joseph to learn the Ripple from the Hamon monastary, and she seems to have taken great pains to keep him out of trouble, but now trouble has come to them, and Joseph isn’t about to back down.   

So yeah, bullets don’t actually kill vampires, but Joseph was hoping to destroy his head with some of those shots, or at least slow Straizo down long enough to finish him off.   Instead Straizo reveals that he has the power to shoot high pressure fluid from his eyes, the same move Dio used to kill Jonathan at the end of Part 1.   He calls this “Space Ripper Stingy Eyes” which is either stupid or brilliant depending on your mood, I guess.   He used it to protect his head from the machine gun fire, and then he uses it again to shoot Joseph... except he hits Joseph’s reflection in a nearby mirror, and I guess he didn’t notice the real thing standing behind him.

What makes this fight so awesome is that these two are determined to kill each other, and they each have extremely simple moves to defeat one another, but they have all these tricks and schemes to protect themselves.   Joseph manages to hit Straizo with Hamon, but it does nothing... because Straizo was a Hamon master before turning into a vampire.   He can’t use the Ripple without destroying himself now, but he still knows how to defend against it.   For instance, he’s got this scarf woven from dead bugs, because it conducts Hamon energy far more effectively than his own body.    So it just absorbs Joseph’s attacks and disperses the energy harmlessly away.   

Does it really have to be made of dead bugs?   I feel like Tonpetti just told him that as a prank.   “No, really (snort!) the only thing that works is dead bugs.  (tee-hee!)   It smells awful but you have to wear it (ha!).”

But Joseph has his own tricks, like... putting a dozen grenades on his opponent’s back when he isn’t looking!  Seriously, there was zero opportunity for him to do this.    One moment he steps over Straizo’s body to see if he’s still alive, and the next moment he supposedly planted all these things on his scarf.   I get that he could pull a string connected to the pin without being noticed, but that’s the only part that makes sense about this.   It’s still awesome, though.   If Jonathan had access to explosives, Part 1 would have been a lot shorter.  

I really think this was the battle that set the tone for Stand Battles in later Parts.   Araki loves these off-panel tricks in combat, and they’re a lot easier to explain when all of your characters have magic super powers.   If Joseph had Hermit Purple in this fight, there’d be no problem at all.   He could just use Hermit Purple to snake through the ventilation shafts and hook up all the grenades.   In fact, it’s tempting to suggest that Joseph was unconsciously using Hermit Purple throughout Part 2, but I don’t want to get into that right now.

Anyway, explosions don’t stop vampires any more than machine gun fire.   Straizo’s body is in pieces, but the pieces just slither back together and regenerate.   Wait, wouldn’t his head have been vaporized in that blast?   Also, Straizo spends the rest of this battle in the nude, so we know that stupid scarf is out of the equation.   Why didn’t Joseph just go back in the cafe and finish Straizo off while he was still in pieces?

Again, it’s easy to say “lol Araki forgot”, but I think it’s a lot more sensible to suggest that Joseph forgot.   As clever as he is, he went in with the Ripple, a machine gun, and a dozen grenades, and Straizo had an answer to all three.   He doesn’t want to press the attack because he’s out of tricks.   All he’s got left is another Hamon attack, which means Straizo will see it coming.   Or he’s still worried about the scarf, and hasn’t realized that it’s gone now.    In any event, he’s running away, creating some distance before Straizo can make his next move.

Also, there’s a lot of bystanders gathering around, so it makes sense to take the fight elsewhere.   Some guy named “Bruty” tries to stop Joseph to impress his girlfriend, but that backfires spectacularly.  Was Bruty in the anime?  I feel like he wasn’t, but I don’t want to check. 

The one I do remember is this girl photographer.   Spider-Man hadn’t been invented yet, so in those days photographers just sort of wandered around with their camera, waiting for Spidey to debut.   This exploding vampire diner is the best she could do in 1938.  

I just really like this lady.   There’s a spark in her eye and I just assumed she would end up being Joseph’s love interest by the end of the story.    Well, we’ll get to that.  

Instead, she’s a hostage.  Joseph and Smokey run to the Brooklyn Bridge?   I guess?   It’s a bridge, I’m sure of that much.   Anyway, Straizo catches this lady and takes her with him to intercept them.   He threatens to kill her unless Joseph faces him again.   But Straizo offers to spare Joseph and never trouble him again if Joseph runs away.   This is because Straizo figures that if Joseph chickens out now, then he’ll never be a threat to Straizo in the future, no matter how powerful his Hamon abilities become. 

Joseph tries to call his bluff, but then Straizo rips out one of the girl’s teeth to prove he means business, and Joseph gets furious all over again.  I don’t think he was ever planning to abandon this fight, but he was probably hoping to get Straizo to give up his hostage at least.   Now he’s just pissed, and Straizo is impressed.  Joseph tries to act cool, but he just can’t hide his passionate feelings.    This is in stark contrast to Jotaro, who wagered his own soul in a poker game and bluffed his way to victory. 

So Straizo tries again with the Space Ripper Stingy Eyes, but this time Joseph blocks it with two shot glasses charged with Hamon power, and then he lands the decisive blow.   But before Straizo dies, Joseph demands to know why Straizo dumped Speedwagon and the others in the river.   Not only does Joseph want to give him a proper burial, but he doesn’t understand why Straizo would have dumped them in the river, since that was how Joseph knew to expect him.  

Wait, I thought Straizo wanted Joseph to know he was coming.   Oh well.

Anyway, Straizo explains that he had to do it, because the Pillar Man was absorbing the blood from his victims.   Straizo was worried that the Pillar Man might awaken, so he put them in the river instead to be safe.    Nevertheless, he suspects that the Pillar Man will reawaken eventually anyway, and Straizo now realizes that it will be Joseph’s destiny to face him some day.    Then Straizo just uses the Ripple one last time, and self-destructs. 

It always seemed strange to me that Straizo saw the danger of the Pillar Man and just left things the way they were.   Maybe he planned to deal with him later, or maybe he just didn’t know or care about it until Joseph defeated him, and he felt a moral obligation to warn someone. 

I guess he could have destroyed the Pillar Man like Speedwagon wanted him to do in the first place, but it seems like Straizo didn’t realize that blood would wake him up until after he was already a vampire, and unable to use the Ripple.  For that matter, it remains to be seen if Hamon will work on Pillar Men.   

Anyway, what else is going on?   Oh, yeah, Europe is getting closer and closer to World War II.   The official start of the war is usually considered to be September 1, 1939, but Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, and Japan invaded China in 1937, and Germany annexed Austria and conquered Czechoslovakia in 1938, the year Battle Tendency is set.  So we’re in this weird time period where there’s Nazis in the story, and the British-American protagonist doesn’t care for them, but isn’t trying to kill them on sight.   I’ll be coming back to this topic later on. 

I think the main reason for including Nazi Germany in this story was to draw parallels between their goals and those of the fictional villains.    The Nazis believed themselves to be the “Master Race”, the most “evolved” people, and this made them worthy to rule the world.   Araki notes that they turned to all sorts of sci-fi/occult/fantasy stuff in their war.   Similarly, you have villains like Dio and Straizo turning to mysterious Stone Masks for spooky powers, and then you have the Pillar Man himself, who apparently sought the means to “befriend the sun” and rule over the world.    So the Nazis fit into this theme of trying to claim some sort of supremacy over other beings.  

But what’s their role in this story?   Well, the Germans have an “information base” in Mexico, run by a guy named Stroheim.   He makes pretty ladies shave him with a straight razor, and if he gets a nick he makes them lick the blood off, and then he threatens to cut off their tongues.   Also, he trained his dog to not eat treats until given permission. He’s a sick fuck, is my point. 

Wait, no, my point was that his staff discovered the bodies that Straizo dumped in the river, including Speedwagon, who’s still alive, somehow.      I guess Straizo was going to finish him off but he got in a hurry when he saw the Pillar Man absorbing the blood from the others.  Not sure how Speedwagon survived that ordeal, but Stroheim’s men have been taking care of him this whole time, and he was unconscious until recently, so it might have been touch-and-go for a while. 

            Back in New York, Joseph doesn’t know what this is all about, but he decides to go to Mexico himself to get to the bottom of it...

[star-birthmark]

Ah, I read through your blog a little more, I saw an old rules post and completely panicked because I saw it after I sent the ask ^^;;; Thank you for clarifying!! If it's okay, please could I request just something small with Jolyne where the reader has recently realised she's gay, completely fell for Jolyne and whilst they're dating really completely spoils her (with money or affection etc) because she realises how much she truely loves her? Thank you ever so much and happy holidays!!! 💙💙

Yay! First post of 2020! Thanks to everyone that's requested something from me so far! Also,  I know you said something small, but I kind of fell in love with this ask so it ended up being kind of long, sorry not sorry! 

Also note: The dress I’m taking about in the story is this one from the Gucci one-shot!

Alright, without further ado: First Real Love: Jolyne x Fem Reader (3.6k words)

It was two in the morning, and you were coming back from spending time with her. She was the reason you were staying out so late, why you were spending less time studying, why you were finally living life. Oh god… you loved her so much.

It all started three months ago.

Your friends had finally convinced you to leave your room and come with them to a party, your first of that whole year after months of doing work. Forcing yourself into a sparkly dress and heels, you leave the dorm building towards the large house with the flashing lights and blaring music. The moment you stepped in there, you knew you weren’t to like it there. Trying to back away, you feel your friend’s hand on your shoulder dragging you further into the party. 

“Hey! Perla! Nice seeing you!” 

You snap your head forward as someone calls out to your friend and roommate, and they quickly leave you alone in the center of the house party. Rolling your eyes at the betrayal, you turn to leave but remain blocks by the crowd of drunken teens your age. Looking for the exit, all you accomplished was getting nudged by the dancing strangers around you. You were getting tired of this, being pushed and shoved around by everyone, the music was too loud, the alcohol was too much, you just wanted to go to bed. A couple nearby make a sharp turn on the floor and you get pushed again, your side hitting against something soft yet sturdy, or should you say, someone. You turn to look before your breath catches in your throat. The girl you had bumped into turned to make eye contact, giving you a passing look before returning to talk to her friends, but you found yourself unable to look away. In a matter of seconds, you managed to take all of her in. She was gorgeous in a way you’d never experienced before. She had these shining green eyes, jet black hair except for bleached yellow bangs and buns atop her head. Her clothing was all ripped, covered in web patterns, and skin-tight to her figure. The friend that she had arrived with, complete with neon green hair and overalls, looked down at you with a quirk of her eyebrow, and you knew that you had immediately overstayed your standing spot. Noticing her friend’s gaze, the object of your staring turned to lock eyes with you for the second time. A daring smirk came over her dark painted lips. 

“Can I help you with something?” You quickly shake your head, nervous.

“Oh n-no I was just looking for my friend, and I sort of spaced out…”

The girl’s eyes squinted in adoration towards you, noticing your darkened cheeks and quickened breathing. Looking around the house, she dramatically sighed. 

“Well, you’re not going to find them staring into my eyes. Though I can see all the stars in the sky staring into yours…” Your breath hitches in your throat, and you watch the girl’s friend roll her eyes at the cheesy pick-up line. Your new pal chuckles again.

“My name’s Jolyne.  A pleasure to meet you um…” She brings her drink to her lips, waiting for you to answer. 

“Oh um… I’m uh... um…” 

Jolyne leans in closer to you, and you bite your lip, feeling a strange ache come to your chest. 

“Are you always this articulate?”

“(y/n)! Um… my name is (y/n)!”

“Well hello (y/n), join us over here if you don’t want to be alone.” 

You join this new group of friends, still nervous about where your friend had gone, and about the beautiful woman you were speaking to and oh my god why won’t your heart just calm down? When will this long ache in your chest cease? Hours pass at the party, both you and Jolyne knocking back a few drinks each. You found yourself drowned in her aura and the atmosphere that she and her friends had created. When you both became bored at the party, you found yourself walking out with this beautiful stranger, no longer worried about where your friend was. 

“Where are you taking us?” 

Jolyne smirked at you, taking in your naive innocence with a lovesick gaze on her face. She knew she shouldn’t fall this easily, she knew the warnings her mother gave her late at night whenever she told her about yet another woman. But you were different, even if you didn’t yet know why. There was a part of you that you hadn’t yet realized, but she could tell it was there, and she was determined to cultivate it from deep within your soul.

“I don’t know about you. But I’m starved. We’re getting some food.” 

You giggled sweetly. “What? Like a date?”

Jolyne raised an eyebrow, and you rush to correct yourself. “A friend date. Duh.”

“Yeah sure… you keep telling yourself that.” 

“Hey! You know that’s what I really meant!” 

“Sure I do…”

Her smile caused another rush of blood to come to your cheeks, and you stared down at the ground. When you arrive at a cheap diner a few blocks away from the house party, you find yourself becoming more and more embarrassed in your drunken state. Where were these butterflies in your stomach coming from?

“So… we might as well talk to each other. I haven’t seen you around at school at all before this…”

Jolyne shrugged at your statement. “I recently transferred here. My father’s been wanting me to get more of an education than I have been.”

“Where did you go before?” 

Jolyne eyed you up and down before shaking her head, still cloudy from drinking. “Doesn’t matter.” 

“Alright… I won’t ask. What should we talk about then? I think we should be friends.”

You watched Jolyne break out into laughter at your statement, her form leaning back into her side of the booth, wiping away fake tears. You couldn’t help but feel hurt at her exaggerated reaction. 

“What? You don’t want to be friends?” 

Jolyne calmed her laughter, looking up at your hurt face with a flirtatious, confident grin. She leaned in over the table to you, her body smelling of vanilla and beer. Bringing your faces closer, your partner for that night opens her mouth to whisper.

“You’re so naive (y/n), to think we’ll be ‘just friends’ by the end of tonight.” 

You watch her with a shy shock, but you couldn’t ignore the way your chest soared at such words and the way you pressed your legs together shamefully.

The two of you stayed at that diner for hours, just talking to each other, about the school, about the past, about experiences of parents, about dating, until the conversation devolved into explosive bouts of laughter. You clutched your sides in jubilation, howling at the joke your new gorgeous friend had said at top volume. You were both obnoxious, both loud, but neither of you cared. You didn’t care when you were forced to pay the bill and were kicked out of the diner. Stumbling down the street from the diner, both of you still drunk, neither of you could stop laughing, even if you forgot the joke said.

Finally stopping at a nearby street corner, Jolyne looked down at you letting out your last few giggles, both of you breathing heavily. Ever the bold woman, Jolyne gulped down her nerves before leaning down to you, taking your chin in her hand, and planting a slow, soft kiss onto your lips. You froze, both of your judgments still cloudly, but your hands come to her shoulders and you shyly kiss back just as Jolyne lets you both go. 

“I-I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have done that…” She stuttered, her eyes wide as she realized what she had done.  

“N-no it’s um… uh… um…” You rushed to clear your head. 

Jolyne chuckled nervously. “Are you always this articulate?” 

You smile nervously a little before putting your hand to your forehead, just wanting to calm down from the alien thoughts of Jolyne that you were having. 

“I should head back to my room…” 

 “Yeah… let’s go.”

And so the walk back went on until the two of you were finally in front of your dorm. Jolyne watched you look through your bag for your keys. 

“You can stay at my place if you can’t find them.” You glanced up at the soft smile on her face.

Oblivious to the true meaning of her statement, you shook your head and finally fished out your keys. 

“This was fun Jolyne… We should do this again.”

“What? Go to a party? I’ve been going to those.”

“No no… just the… two of us.”

Now it was Jolyne’s turn to feel nervous. She had just been joking around with you but did you actually pick up on her flirting? Did you kiss back not because you were both drunk? Were you…?”

“Um… Jolyne?” She snapped awake at your voice. 

“Yeah… I’d like that. I really would.” 

You watched her walk down the hallway, your heart pounding in your chest, your entire body filled to the brim with happiness. You shakily close your door, take a breath, and squeal from sheer excitement. Your roommate, who had long since gone to bed, shot up awake at your sudden noise and rushed to turn the lights on. 

“What’s wrong? Do you know what time it is it-ah!”

“Oh, Perla Pucci have I got a story for you! It was amazing, I had such a fun time. I can’t wait for tomorrow!”

Your roommate blinked confused, rubbing her face tiredly. “Alright, what happened?” 

“I met someone at the party and I’ve been out all night!”

“...Cute?”

“Gorgeous!”

“Nice?”

“Oh my god- Amazing.”

Your roommate eyed your lovesick expression and wolf-whistled in the impending silence of your dorm room. 

“Well then… what’s his name? Do I know him?”

Your face winced at the implication of her question. You tense, quickly shaking your head. It wasn’t like that. You think.

“No no, it’s not like that. She’s just a friend.”

“Oh. She? Then I must know her? What’s her name?” 

A smile comes to your face just at the thought of her lovely name. It spoke of power, of confidence. Of everything that you weren’t. 

“Jolyne Kujo. Ugh, she’s even got a cool name.” 

“Jolyne?” Your friend’s look of interest soon turned into one of confusion. “You’re seriously gonna become friends with Jolyne Kujo? How naive can you be?”

You furrowed your brow, confused. “What do you mean?” 

“Well, I mean… she doesn’t really run with our group of friends (y/n). Some say she’s had some run-ins with the law. Others say she’s just some plain kind of weirdo.”

You sighed, you had heard those exact rumors. She’d told you that night at the diner about her comings and goings, about the troubles she’d had. But that only made her the more enticing to you. You wanted to learn everything about her. Some higher power at given you the gift of her attention and you weren’t about to let it slip out of your fingers. Perhaps it was your drunken state talking, but you’ve never felt closer to another person in your life.

“No Perla I know that but have you ever even spoken to her? She’s so much more that. I’ve spent the whole damn night with her because you left me alone at the party. Oh my god… She has such a rich intellect that you wouldn’t expect from her appearance. She’s witty, so funny, and so willing to just be herself...”

Your eyes widened from the high that fills your brain simply by thinking of her. You run your hands through your hair, your jittery feet pacing along the carpet as you bit your lip, holding back another squeal of joy. Perla leaned forward, watching your chest fall up and down so heavily. She reached out to touch your shoulder to get you out of your daze.

“(y/n)... are you alrigh-”

“I’m fine, but oh Perla please understand me. She’s got these eyes of determination and fire that light up when she’s talking about something she loves, that darken when someone comes nearby. She puts her hand on your waist to protect you when crossing the street, she tells you that you have kind, innocent eyes whenever you laugh.”

You shut your eyes tightly, beginning to giggle as you think back on the night you just had, your companion still confused, surprised, concerned, disgusted.

“And she speaks with such confidence that you can feel the air shatter around her words. The way she holds herself high and proud is so exhilarating. She’s so… powerful. And yet so… human at the same time? And she’s the first person who’s truly listened to me. You’re always talking to someone else. My parents don’t listen. She stares into your eyes while you speak as if she’s learning the very depths of your soul… All night, she’s managed to calm me down from anything. She knows what it’s like to speak to silence, so she listens, and hangs on every damn word I say. It was like she knew what I was thinking. I felt like my true self near her… I don’t know…”

You hold your hands out in front of you, looking at your fingers shake with your pent up excitement. You bring them up to your chest and press down to stabilize your beating heart. You were sobering up more and more by the minute. Perla nodded slowly, calmly sitting down on her bed, watching you with a quizzical and annoyed eye. 

“Well… if you’re this in love with her, then your “true self” must be gay.” 

Your head snapped over to her with a small frown, trying to forget all the questionable acts that you and your latest female obsession did earlier that night. 

“But I’m not gay…”

Your roommate raised an eyebrow. “Come on (y/n)...I’ve never heard you talk about a man like that before…”

You rolled your eyes. “It’s not like that. I’m not gay, we’re just friends…”

“(y/n), you’re totally smitten by this girl! And I see how you react when the whole group talks about men...” You watch your roommate scoff at you.

“...What do you mean?” 

She sneered at you. “I can tell… I’ve never seen you this worked up over anyone before. You see us all gossip and squeak over a man and you remain silent as a mouse. I’ve joked to the others that I didn’t think you were capable of being attracted to anyone. I guess I’m wrong then huh?” 

“...Oh my god… Am I gay?” 

“You might be. I’m not a betting woman, but if you keep talking about your precious Jolyne like that, then I’ll put my money on it.”

“Well… so what if I am? I know my parents won’t mind! And y-you’re right! She’s the first person that I’ve felt totally happy about! So what? Is that a problem?”

Perla rolled her eyes at your jitteriness before getting up from her bed. You watched your roommate walk out of the room to head down the hallway, the two of you nudging shoulders, leaving you in silence. 

And the rest was history, and three months later, you and Jolyne could not be more in love. When you went to that same diner as before, you would huddle together on one of the benches. When you went back to parties, you made sure to never let go of each other’s hand. Kisses were no longer drunken and confused, instead, they were sweet and passionate, both of you lovesick and helplessly enamored by the other. You both had developed your little ticks to make the other feel loved. Whenever Jolyne was angry, all you had to do was wrap your arms around her and brush your fingers through her hair, and she’d be melted and humming. Whenever you were upset, she would hold you in her arms and rub along your arms. You had never felt this way about anyone in your life. Whenever the back of her fingers entangled into yours, you got your high of finally being romantically understood by another person. No one had ever cared for you in this way, to treat you as an equal, beautiful creature, to roar that those in this world that didn’t understand your love. 

Jolyne Kujo knew how much you loved her, and it made her feel all the more special. There were so many things she had to teach you about being comfortable with who you were and with being gay, but she was honored that she was the one to do it. And, apart from the playfully arrogant confidence boost that came with being the one to make you realize you liked girls, she just loved you, your equal obsession with her as she was with you. Her whole life, everything had been a chase. A chase against the law, a chase for her parents’ attention, a chase to live a good life. But with you… she didn’t need to try so hard to please, you were right there. Right in front of her. 

Your mantra was, “I love you.” 

Hers was, “I know”, complete with a signature cocky smirk and chuckle.

The last time you had heard her say it, you were in her childhood bedroom during winter break from school. A shy smile came to your lips as she teased you, and you leaned in to give her a loving kiss, your arms immediately falling to her sides, pushing her back on the bed. Jolyne’s brow furrowed, surprised you were being so forward. The kiss broke, both women not wanting to break the silence until Jolyne let out a giant laugh seemingly at your expense. You pout, standing up from the bed. 

“What is it? Why’re you laughing?” You asked, expecting the worst. 

“No, it’s just… I just can’t believe this is real… You.” 

You gulped back your nerves and you give your precious girlfriend a sweet peck on the lips, your arm wrapping her neck affectionately to stroke her jaw with your thumb. Jolyne looked up at you with a bitten lip, her bright green irises still sending chills down your spine. Your own eyes widened with excitement as you remembered your gift. 

“Wait can I show you? I got you something from my Italy trip.” 

Jolyne watched you leave her side again to fish through your large travel bag, pulling out a large luxurious box. You set it right in front of your love, fidgety with excitement, hoping she’d like it. Oh, what if it was too girly? Not her style? You shook your head of such thoughts and watched as she opened the box. When Jolyne finally pulled out the white coat, covered in embroidered flowers and golden buttons, your heart soared as you watched her face brighten in glee. 

“(y/n)... I couldn’t…”

You shake your head. “But you have to! I saw how much you liked it online…”

“But I didn’t even tell you to get it!”

“Come on try it try it!”

You watched with adoration as your gorgeous lover rushed to try on the beautiful garment, your eyes wandering over her lithe body as she carefully pulled the expensive coat over her head, then as she smoothed out her hair. Jolyne looked at herself in the mirror, giving her usual cocky grin, posing for both you and her reflection. 

“I love it! It’s so pretty, and I was nervous that it’d be too much but it isn’t. Damn, I look good… Well (y/n)? What do you think?” You attempt to respond, in awe at your girlfriend’s sheer beauty and grace, not even hearing the childish glee in her voice.

“Uh… um… I uh… like it.” 

Your heart was beating fast, and your palms with sweaty and your voice caught in your throat, and your eyes glance at the beautiful curves of her toned legs in such a short dress. Jolyne grinned, turning back to you and snapping in your face to wake you up. 

“Are you always this articulate?” You giggled, your whole body growing hot as that same lustful, floaty feeling overtook you the more you looked at her.

Jolyne rolled her eyes and giggled as well. Grabbing your hand, she lifted you up from your spot on the bed and aimed to give you a small peck, only for you to bring it further into a deep kiss, your hand clinging to the back of her neck, drinking in her love for you and her beauty like they were your life force. You held her as close as possible, naively scared that if you let go, she’d disappear, as if it were all a dream from the start. You finally let go to break for air, and Jolyne shook her head in disbelief. 

“Damn (y/n), it’s not like I’m going anywhere. And it’s not you haven’t seen my body before…”

You shrug, looking at her dreamily. “I don’t know I just… I love you so much.”

“I know… I love you too.”

The two of you continue your evening together, spoiling each other with affection until the clocked showed two in the morning, and you had to leave. When your parents later asked where you had been with a huff, you say you were coming back from spending time with her. She was the reason you were staying out so late, why you were spending less time studying and more time being in love, why you were finally living life. You lay back in your bed, your head swimming in bliss at the heady feeling of finally being able to be your true self with the right person. You smile a little. You’ve found the right person. Your first real love.

[subrosc]

some one word prompts    /      meme     /     still accepting.

@ofstring​​         ;          gone 4 joot  gone : my muse stays by your muses side while they take their last breath.

this  is  the  first  time  that  jotaro  can  openly  admit  that  he  is  afraid.   other situations that would usually call for such an emotion,   he is able to completely disregard unless it was someone close to him.   for his own daughter to be the one laying on the pavement after she’d been the one to cut multiple of their mutual foes life short,  was one thing he never expected to imagine,   let alone see.  after all the time that passed with him having not seen her and then now this?    it’s like  cairo  all over again,   all he can see is  her  and all he can hear is white noise,    everyone elses calls for help and for jotaro to   snap out of it   completely in the background.    her eyes are closed as far as he can see and his feet seem to move before his mind does,   and as he approaches his daughter,    there’s of course hands gripping at him to hold him back,   but he doesn’t.

perhaps he pulls his arm from the grips a little too harshly,   but he doesn’t care     ----    not when it comes to jolyne.    he can’t be losing someone else close to him,   he absolutely cannot be.   jotaro’s almost convinced he’ll go over to her and she’ll just laugh at his reaction,   tell him that he’s overreacting but the second he’s a mere few steps away and she hasn’t already done that,   he knows that she won’t.    this isn’t a joke,   and it’s clear to see that there’s far too much blood for this to be considered a joke.   his gaze locks onto her,   and as she opens her eyes to look back at him,   jotaro feels like everything weighs him down all at once,    knees hitting the ground with far too much force as he reaches out for her,   to pull her closer to himself.   there’s too much blood coming from everywhere but not once can jotaro observe where the open wounds are     (     there’s too many,    too many for him to see,    to comprehend     )      and his hand doesn’t know where to press.    in the end,   he sets it against her jaw,   just to keep her looking at him.

when she does open her eyes after a short while,    jotaro’s initially thankful.    usually it’s a good sign that someone is still able to stay awake,   and though he knows he’s probably fooling himself that she’ll be fine,   at least this means there’s a chance that she’ll last until someone can get here that actually knows how to help her,    not someone that just about understands the importance of comfort and reassurance in situations like these.   but jolyne’s breathing harsher than usual,   and there’s too many gaps,   too much that he knows what’s coming.   no matter how much denial he goes into,   no matter how much he pleads and wishes for a miracle,    jotaro isn’t stupid.

so all he can do is hold her tight,   his hands shaking as he tries to keep some kind of closeness to his daughter.    for his whole life,   he’d wanted to spend more time with her,   but not like this.   again,   another death will be on his hands and he can’t even apologise about it,   he doesn’t know how to speak to someone that’s actively dying in his arms,   and he hates to admit that it’s not until he notices she’s mere moments away from closing her eyes again that everything comes out,   every apology that he could’ve possibly owed her in his life,   every single moment that had been sweet and gentle in her youth when he hadn’t the necessity to leave,   everything hits him all at once and it’s impossible to keep in.    but the crying doesn’t start,   not at the moment,    not when it’s not the last thing he wants her to see.   

he pulls her closer,   resting her head against his shoulder and his chin against her head,    his hand that previously did not know where to set itself now holding her hand tightly,    the sadness making itself known in his tone.    and he’s hiding his face from her to keep her blissfully unaware of the crying that jotaro knows will start if he looks at her for a moment longer.    ❝   please forgive me.   for all the times i wasn’t there for you.   i understand if you can’t,   but     ...     just know i did it to keep you and your mother safe.   please forgive me for any pain i caused you when i wasn’t there.     ❞

jotaro knows there isn’t much use in keeping his gaze away from her,    not when she probably needs the comfort far more than he does.   though it takes a lot to convince himself,   he eases up his grip so he can ease her into a more comfortable position,   his arms still cradling her to keep her in an upright position so he can see her and she can see him,    but it’s clear that even staying conscious was becoming impossible for her.   jotaro tries to hold himself back,   but before he knows it,   there’s something hot falling from his eyes and he knows that it’s tears,    knows that there’s no point in hiding it anymore.   his teeth grit,   jaw set as he tries to hold back any sobs,   anything that she can hear.    jotaro’s been in this position before,   knows how vision fades before everything else,    and all she needs is words.   false promises will do no good here,   he’s sure she’s aware that she’s dying.   the last thing she needs is false hope.

❝   it’s okay.    ❞    he forces out,   looking down at her.     ❝   if you’re too tired,  it’s okay.   you did well,  okay?   everything that you did,   you did a great job,  jolyne.    i never said this enough when you were younger,   it was always easier to tell you what was wrong and right,   rather than praising you.   but i want you to know i’m proud of you.   i always was,   no matter how much it seemed i wasn’t.   just   -----    ❞     his voice cracks a little,   and he looks away for a moment just to catch his breath,   to calm himself down.   ❝   please don’t leave me.    ❞

there’s too much silence.    more than before,   anyway,    and everyone that he heard speaking just moments ago still trying to get help to jolyne was silent,   too.   it’s embarrassing to some extent but jotaro can’t care about it,    not when his hands are covered in blood,   jolyne’s blood,   and he’s holding her tight but compared to moments ago when he could feel her chest rise and fall with laboured breaths,   now he can feel nothing.   it doesn’t register at first,   but he looks down at her panicked after a few seconds,   his own breathing hitching in response.   she isn’t breathing,   nor is she looking at him,   her eyes are firmly closed and he doesn’t know when this happened,    whether it was while he was talking or whether it was before,   but he knows that he’s moments,   seconds away from breaking.   his breathing is harsh,    cairo comes to mind again and now jolyne is gone and it’s all his fault. 

there’s no one to take his anger out on.   he’s already dead and jolyne’s dead as well,   and again it’s always him left behind.   a broken sob falls from his lips,    and he pulls her limp body closer to himself,   holding her tight.    he wants to scream,    he wants to kill someone,   he’s proud of her yet he’s alone again,   alone without anyone to be by his side     ----     his own daughter was in his arms and yet she was gone.   

there’s many things jotaro wants.    but most of all,   he just wants his daughter back. 

[achtung-attitude]

CHAPTER 26: Abraxas - Part 4

While ACHTUNG BABY does what it can to defend its master from the onslaught of fists and blows, Shizuka can’t help but feel a pain not only on her body, but within herself as well. 

“I can’t do this… I’m not strong enough… I’m not like them… I never will be…”

“Well, of course not. How could you be?”

In an office surrounded by bookshelves and starfish in display cases, a large man in a dark coat inspects the contents of an aquarium on his desk. His hat is pulled low over his brow, as he diligently takes notes. Behind him is a pale young girl, with dark hair, standing against the wall, with sunglasses positioned on her head. The office sways slightly, rocking gently to and fro.

“So you agree… I’m not strong enough.” the girl asks, staring at his back.

“That’s not what I said. I meant, of course you’re not like us. You’re your own person.”

“Yeah, maybe I am... but that doesn’t mean I’m good enough. Even if I’m my own person, it’s not like I’m really… a part of you all. We’re not really family…

“I know why I’m here, Jotaro. I’m not stupid. You took me out on this trip because you felt sorry for me. But it’s OK. I don’t feel sad anymore… I don’t feel anything.”

The man says nothing, taking his notes on a clipboard.

“I clung to Daddy and Mamma for everything. Everything. They were my foundation. Every person needs something to build themselves on. But mine was built on sand. I’ll never know who my real parents were, who my own family is. All I have is Mamma to cling on to. And when she’s gone, I’ll disappear completely. I’ll just be… empty.”

There is silence in the room for a while. Then, Jotaro calls out, “Shizuka, come over and look at this.”

Shizuka does, after a moment of confusion. “What?”

“Look at this,” the man says, pointing at a rock in the aquarium, “see that, encrusted on the rock? Look there, it’s opening its shell to release its legs.”

Shizuka looks, and what she thought was some sort of stone opens up to extend an appendage similar to a feather duster. “What is that?” she asks as Jotaro rolls up his sleeve and dips his hand into the aquarium, picking up the rock the thing is attached to. He presents the rock, water dripping all over the floor.

“An acorn barnacle. Those feathery things are modified legs, left over from their larval stage. Most species of barnacle attach themselves to substrate, but many others cling to animals. These, for example, like to latch onto to humpback whales. At first glance, they resemble bivalve molluscs like clams or mussels, but in fact they’re crustaceans, closer to crabs.”

“Ohh, ok… Does it have anything to do with what we were talking about?”

“No. It just fascinates me.”

“...Ok.”

“Come outside with me for a second.”

Jotaro gets up from his seat abruptly and steps out of the lab. Shizuka follows him outside, bewildered. On the deck of the research vessel, she can see land in the distance. Gulls cry overhead. Jotaro stares straight ahead. The name painted on the side of the vessel is OCEAN MAN.

“2 years ago, the world nearly came to an end.” 

Shizuka blinks. “What?”

“A man named Enrico Pucci, a follower of an old enemy of mine, set in motion a plan which would give him the power to end the world and remake it in his image. Jolyne and I tried to stop him, and we failed. STAR PLATINUM couldn’t touch him. I couldn’t touch him.”

“... Well, it couldn’t have been that bad, considering we’re all still here.”

“Yes. We have Giorno Giovanna to thank for that.”

“Who?”

“Giorno Giovanna. The son of that old enemy of mine, the very one Pucci lived for. He appeared out of nowhere, drawn by fate to Cape Canaveral, just like we were. He saved our lives, stopped Pucci with the most terrifying ability I’ve ever seen. But with his death came something I can’t explain; things were different. The world seemed different. Maybe the nature of Pucci’s ability was that it would affect the world in spite of his death. I don’t know. But in spite of everything, I was still alive. Jolyne was still alive. We all were still alive.”

Shizuka grimaces, looking down. “But then Daddy died six months later anyway! So you got upstaged, what difference does it make!?”

“It makes a difference. I was afraid. I still am.”

“... You are…?”

“I’m afraid that the world we’re in is the wrong one. I’m afraid of Giorno Giovanna’s power, however much he seems to intend to use it for good. In that moment when Death stared me straight in the face, I truly felt powerless. I feared that I would die, unable to do anything to protect the ones I love. 

“I was afraid of losing my family. But I didn’t. I still have my daughter, and all of you.”

“But... we’re not family. I’m… not your family.”

“Yes you are. We might not share any blood, but that’s not what families are made from. Connections don’t start with the blood, but the Will. The old man chose you, made you his daughter. You dishonor his memory by denying that connection.”

“But Daddy isn’t here anymore…!”

“He lives in you. He left behind a legacy of adventure and justice, and spent his final years raising you. As long as we live with pride, he’s always with us.”

Too busy stifling tears to pull away from Jotaro’s gentle embrace, Shizuka buries her face into her nephew’s shirt. “What-- What do I even do?”

“I don’t know. You have to decide, but whatever you do, you’ll be fine. You are Joseph Joestar’s daughter.”

Shizuka sniffs, and dribbles snot into the fabric of Jotaro’s coat. Shaking his head, he says “Good grief…”

                                                            ---

“My own way of doing things?” Shizuka murmurs, staring in the mirror. “What is my way of doing things? Who am I, even?” She has returned home, standing in the bathroom of her parents’ New York apartment, where she has lived her whole life. 

Once again, she places the sunglasses over her eyes, casting a reddish veneer over her vision. She raises her hand, and concentrates. Before her eyes, the hand turns invisible. “This power… That I’ve always used to hide away… To disappear… I don’t want that! I don’t want to disappear! I want to be real!!”

She began with practicing smiles in the mirror, her face so unused to it. A spirit gripped her, a new determination she had never before known. Having mastered smiling, she began further preparations. 

Sunbathing herself beet red, experimenting with all manner of make-up, nearly bleaching the hair right off her scalp. Every misstep only fuelled her determination, to take the next step in her transformation. 

She would no longer be someone who hid, who disappeared. She would draw attention, burn herself into people’s memories. Like a star, shining light in the dark. 

She would be Shizuka Joestar.

                                                         ---

Back in the present, Phantasma swings a heavy fist at her. She jumps back, losing her footing and stumbling backwards into the ropes. Her ears are ringing and there is a whirlpool in skull. Beneath her feet, shards of shattered glass crunch. Leaning back over the ropes, Shizuka sees the broken skylight above her. The shaft of light that illuminate the dim place.

“Phantasma…” she murmurs.

The masked woman listens, her eyes till covered by the makeshift blindfold. “Hmm?”

“Do you know… about whale barnacles?”

“... Excuse me?”

“Whale barnacles. Like the barnacles that you find stuck to piers or rocks in tide pools, only these ones attach themselves to live whales, especially humpbacks. My nephew told me about them.”

“... I seem to have struck you so hard you can’t think straight. You were doing so well before, and now you’re making a fool of yourself, once again.”

Shizuka gasps, gulping air into her harried lungs before speaking again. “The thing with barnacles is, they live their whole adult lives cemented to a single object, but they are not part of it. They are wholly independent.

“In extreme cases, a lot of barnacles can provide a humpback whale with armor, protecting it from rivals or predators. But it might also cause extra drag, slowing it down. But only in extreme cases, and even then, the barnacles do not serve the whale at all. They are completely, independent beings. Phantasma… I’m sure you think you’ve already won, yes?”

Phantasma cocks her head to one side. “I don’t follow what you’re saying. You are right, of course, I look forward to your final moments. I expect them to be glorious. But what do barnacles have to do with anything?”

“It’s just the first… the first thing you need to understand.” She says, pulling herself, facing forward. Her vision is unfocused, as she stares straight past Phantasma, at the gap in the ropes where Moya fell through.

“The first? What, then, is the second?”

“The second thing is my name,” she stands, no longer leaning on the ropes. “You heard it before, but I don’t think you were paying attention, so I’ll tell you again. My name is Shizuka Joestar. That name is why you’re going to lose.”

“Oh? How so? Will your family’s lawyers litigate me to death? It’s worth a try, I suppose,” the masked woman sneers.

“It’s not about money, it’s about tradition,” Shizuka says, her smile weakly returning. “Within the Joestar family, there’s a technique that’s been passed down through the generations. A surefire move that not even Moya knows about.”

“A secret technique?” Phantasma asks, her grin becoming genuine.

“That’s right. You told me to fight until my last breath… well, if all my other options are through, then I have no choice… I hope you’re ready for this…!”

“I am ready. Show me, Shizuka Joestar!” ABRAXAS emerges, banging its chest before readying itself behind Phantasma. “Show me what your blood is worth!”

[sonicasura]

Ninja Stars

Hey everyone. If you don't know, some of the things I do in my spare time is writing stories mainly crossovers. Just the idea of taking two completely different franchises and fusing it together just entice me. I decided to show you one of my latest works.

Growing up, one of the cartoons I loved watching from my childhood was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles specifically the 2003 incarnation. The characters, story, humor, adventures and even the times when things went dark never took the smile off my face watching it.

So I decided to take this wonderful incarnation and mix it with something I got into last year...

Yep. I mixed it with Jojo's Bizarre Adventure of all things. Am I crazy? Yes. Do I regret writing this? No. The big star for this particular fic is none other than our favorite toilet licking wielder of the Chariot card...Jean Pierre Polnareff!

Without further ado, I present to you guys... Ninja Stars!

He didn't know what he unintentionally signed up for when deciding to live in New York with his friends in the Joestar Family. Jean Pierre Polnareff was a Noble Frenchman who owned a nice estate in his home country of France after his father passed away. He used to have two younger siblings that he loved dearly. His sister Sherry Polnareff and the youngest sister Fleur Marie De Polnareff. Sadly his sisters' fates weren't as good as his.

Sherry was defiled and murdered when he was preparing a meal once she got out of school. For Fleur, she vanished when a terrible storm had hit the land by their estate and she disappeared with it before even turning a year old. Fleur was declared dead since her body was never found and Sherry never got the chance to be a big sister since it was robbed before she turned 5. Tragedy always liked to mess with his family while distrust amongst parents harassed the Joestar Family.

He felt sympathy for his friends Jotaro and Joseph along with their siblings. Their father George having an affair with multiple women before his wife died and said women having children being Giorno, Josuke, Johnny, Josefumi or Gappy and Jolyne. George didn't even know about them until he caught word of multiple teens having their family's birthmark! Giorno's mother and stepfather were abusive, Jolyne's foster parents neglectful and untrusting, Johnny's foster father was abusive and Jotaro's foster father never being there for him. The only ones who honestly had a good parent were the twins Josuke and Gappy though it was hard for Tomoko to care for their needs and herself at times.

George was even harder on Jonathan and Joseph often cruel enforcing manners through starvation or hitting them at times! Even their step siblings Dio and Diego Brando who have shaky relationships with the Joestar siblings at best didn't have much faith in George, and their father was worse than him! It didn't take long for George to be declared not capable to care for his children and was lawfully removed from caring for them. He lost his title to the estate and fortune which went to the siblings so they could live and get the things they needed to live off of.

They were placed in William Zeppeli's care alongside his two sons Caesar and Gyro. Anyway… Joseph figuring France was just digging up old wounds had offered Polnareff to stay at their home in New York until he felt ready to move on. Kakyoin, Avdol and Iggy were also going to be living there so it wasn't going to be that bad. Who was he kidding? When were things ever easy or normal?

The plane from France had finally landed in New York's National Airport. A tall and buff Frenchmen with tall silver hair that reached seven inches high wearing a black one strap shirt, beige pants, broken heart earrings and black expensive Italian boots had walked through the crowded airport with luggage in hand. "Now, where are they? Joseph did say they were here 30 minutes before my plane landed." The Frenchman asked to himself as he looked around the building.

His eyes then landed on a sign that read Jean Pierre Polnareff, his name, in the arms of buff and tall young man with messy brown hair, green eyes and light peach skin wearing a green crop top, fingerless gloves, a scarf, blue jeans and brown boots around his height which was 6'5. Next to him was a teen who despite being around the brunette's height was a bit younger and looked to have some Japanese blood from the narrowed aquamarine eyes and slightly darker skin. He wore a black modified gakuran with a gold chain, black hat torn in the back with two gold pins, purple shirt, expensive black slacks and black boots.

"Over here Polnareff!" The brunette shouted as Polnareff ran over to them. "Hey Joseph! Good to see you too Jotaro. You didn't have to swing that sign like you were advertising a restaurant Joseph." Polnareff teased as Joseph merely chuckled. "I wanted to make sure you don't lose yourself in the crowd. Things have been a bit crazy in New York as of late." Joseph explained as Polnareff raised his eyebrow.

"What do you mean by that? Is something going on in the city?" The Frenchman questioned earning a nod from Jotaro. "Purple Dragons?" Polnareff questioned his two friends. They had taken Joseph's car after leaving the airport and the two brothers took the opportunity to fill Polnareff in on current events. "Yeah. They're a street gang that has been causing trouble around the city. Muggings, threatening people, burning down stores, break ins and a whole mess of trouble. A bunch of annoying pissants but dangerous ones at that." Jotaro spoke blowing smoke from his lit cigarette.

"Johnathan's friend Speedwagon and his gang, the Street Ogres, have been trying to get rid of them but these dragon bastards are relentless." Joseph explained making a hard turn through the city. "You told me about the Street Ogres on the phone. That they were powerful just as they were dangerous since the gang used to be based in Europe's own Ogre Street, a personal grave for intruders. Until Johnathan defeated their leader and they followed him here to serve as his protectors. The fact these Purple Dragons can match one of Europe's most dangerous gangs is just terrifying." Polnareff said.

"There is also a new rumor going about. People are saying ninjas had been spotted in New York. Good grief." Jotaro spoke with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Eh?! Ninjas? Since when?!" Honestly this trip was getting weirder by the second. "A few days ago, a bunch of Purple Dragons were found hanging from a street lamp by their waists. Near the scene were shurikens, a Japanese throwing star and one of the tools a ninja uses. It was embedded into the brick wall and some in the concrete floor!" Joseph exclaimed surprising the Frenchman.

"Damn. Things really have been crazy here. I bet Dio and Diego aren't exactly happy with this nonsense." The silverette questioned as Jotaro let out an amused snort. "Considering Josuke took home one of the shurikens and his recent binge watching on ninja related shows, Dio nearly had the World strangle the dumbass and Diego almost using Scary Monsters just to chew up all his DVDs. Jolyne even chased him around the house with Gappy's pet turtle Joshuu just to get him to shut up." Jotaro spoke sounding smug from his tone.

"I bet Johnathan wasn't happy with that and Johnny locked himself in his room watching his spaghetti westerns to avoid the mayhem. What about Giorno and Gappy?" He questioned as Joseph raised an eyebrow. "I forgot how brotherly you could be. Giorno is keeping an eye out for any trouble reaching home while Gappy isn't really bothered about the mayhem like the Zeppelis. Kakyoin, Iggy and Avdol are already at the estate and were filled in about the stuff as well." Joseph explained. Clearly satisfied with his answer, Polnareff remained quiet for the remainder of the drive.

The Joestar Estate was huge rivalling the size of an actual town hall though considering who previously owned it being a holder of a massive amount of riches it was too be expected. "Can I just say your dad was too crazy with his money spending?" Polnareff said as both brothers shrugged. "Stay away from my hair Iggy!" Shouted a young rowdy male voice as a purple pompadour wearing young teenage male ran past Polnareff with a little black and white Boston Terrier following close behind. "Ahahaha! Looks like the little rascal found a new victim! Looks like Iggy hasn't changed a bit. Is he still giving the dog catchers hell?" Polnareff chuckled patting his hair.

"Yep. They even have $100 dollar bet going on about who will catch Iggy first. Tried getting Johnathan to take the bet but you know him and dogs." Joseph stated. "That's right. He's working as a part-time veterinarian since his archaeology research hit rock bottom when that cave in came out of nowhere. I still think it was a Stand related incident since the ground was guaranteed to be fully stable, diagnostics and all." Polnareff exclaimed remembering the particular incident.

A lot of people got hurt during the incident and Johnathan was nearly decapitated from collapsing debris on surface that had no pockets of any kind inside of it done naturally or not. "There is also that creep who came in a bit earlier. A guy named Baxter Stockman had an appointment with old man Zeppeli about a project to take care of New York's rat problem." Jotaro stated as they sat down on the couch and the delinquent pulled up the tape.

The video showed a large empty rat maze and an African American scientist with almost a buzz cut style dark hair, rimmed glasses and hints of madness deep within those brown orbs he called eyes. He had to agree with Jotaro that despite the man not saying a word, the madness is this eyes screamed bad news. The man Baxter Stockman soon unveiled an object that was covered in sheet just as the video began.

It revealed to be some kind of robot that screamed raptor to the Frenchman on how it's design nearly matched the prehistoric predator if this one wasn't made of metal, had huge jaws, and a single light to serve as an eye. The inventor's assistant, a young woman with crimson hair and the kindest eyes Polnareff ever seen unlike her boss named April O' Neil, had released a bunch of rats into the maze. Then Stockman let loose his invention which he named Mouser. And what happened next after the Mouser found a rat…

Polnareff was glad he hadn't eaten any food or his friends would see what he had earlier. "Holy shit. This guy really offered these as a solution to a rat problem?! A killer robot that can eat through walls?! Sure, I don't want a rat in my house but at least I have a humane trap to use than that!" The Frenchman exclaimed. "That's what I was thinking! Even that April chick looked like she didn't want to be there! Everyone on the house agreed to turn this guy down including Dio! And Dio is the type of guy to practically fry up live rodents and laugh while watching them burn before feeding them to his pet bird!" Joseph shouted as Jotaro smacked him.

"Shut up! I'm sitting right next to you, dumbass! Don't need to yell in my ear. Anyway… Gappy is looking into Stockman's background since something about that Mouser seemed off. The robot bastard also somehow seemed to creep Johnathan out too and the man has been around all types of machinery considering Gappy's profession. From what's been happening in New York as of late, this an omen for an absolute shit storm." Jotaro said before walking away. They couldn't agree more.

Later… Polnareff had finished unpacking all his stuff into his room. William was kind enough to give the man a nice large room with its own bathroom, closet and a small fridge that easily reminded the Frenchman of a 3 star hotel suite. He didn't pack any extra stuff that wasn't clothes or necessities like health products but there were some things he couldn't part with. His practice rapier, the portable toilet he bought considering the bathroom mishaps from that one road trip involving him, Jotaro, Joseph, Iggy, Avdol and Kakyoin and a few photos including the one of him, his sister Sherry and their newborn sister Fleur.

He looked sorrowfully at the picture of a young boy, a red haired girl and a small baby girl with a tuft of silver hair and a slash like birthmark on her neck with all three smiling or happy in Fleur's case. Polnareff rubbed his eyes so no tears would fall down. It felt wrong for a grown man to cry even for something as sad and important as this. He heard someone knocking on his door. "Come in!" Polnareff called as the door opened to reveal two people were at the door.

One was Jotaro and the other was a young man just as tall and as Jotaro but a bit older with soft blue eyes, wild blue hair and wore a purple sleeveless shirt, gray jeans, brown shoes, black fingerless gloves and what looked like a cast around his ankle. "Hey Jotaro and same to you Johnathan. I guess your leg isn't fully healed yet. I'm surprised you haven't let Josuke or Giorno heal you." Polnareff spoke as the blue Man Johnathan let out a soft chuckle.

"I don't want to rely on them all the time. Plus it's just a simple sprain so I figured to let time and my Hamon heal it instead. Anyway, I was wondering if you want to go to the store with me? I forgot to pick up a few things and also want to do a bit of grocery shopping while I'm at it." Johnathan asked while Polnareff turned to Jotaro. "I'm coming with him so he doesn't get himself hurt again. Plus I need to pick up some more cigarettes." Jotaro said as Polnareff merely shrugged and decided to join along. What was the worst that could happen?

Apparently the worst could happen was the street caving in from underneath your feet. Around halfway to the store, the ground beneath them had suddenly gave way dropping the trio of men down into the sewers below. Jotaro and Johnathan landed on the walkway while Polnareff fell into the sewer water. "Eww!!!" Polnareff shouted spitting the dirty water out of his mouth and getting to the walkway. "This is fucking ridiculous. How the hell can a street just fall apart like that?!" Jotaro hissed dusting himself off.

"It's just like the dig all over again. Now I believe it was no mere accident. Look at the walls." Johnathan said pointing to a wall of pipes behind him. They had been torn to create a large tunnel and the way the tunnel was made being all too familiar. "Are those...bite marks? The only thing that can do this…" Polnareff said only for Jotaro to finish his sentence. "Mousers. Stockman's little rat project tried to kill us!" The delinquent growled clenching his fists in rage.

The sound of clanking metal had grabbed their attention quickly as what appeared to be a squadron of Mousers heading their way. It was more terrifying seeing blood on some of their jaws knowing the poor rodents they must had devoured or an unlucky sap who ran into them. "I ain't taking this shit lying down! Silver Chariot!!" The Frenchman cried out as something came out of his body. It was a knight in a heavy silver suit of armor, a silver helm covering the head except for yellow eyes with blue iris, spiked shoulder pads and wielded a rapier as it gently hovered in the air.

"Pierce them Chariot!" He called as the silver knight let loose a barrage of sword swipes faster than the eye could see. The Mousers took multiple slashes with resistance but when the first was decapitated and went offline, Silver Chariot used it to his advantage. Soon a pile of Mouser heads and parts laid before their feet. "Good job Chariot. We should find a way out. Who knows how many of those menaces are down here?" Polnareff stated.

A loud feminine scream echoed through the sewers. "I recognize that scream. That's Stockman's assistant April! Come on! It came from down here." Johnathan called as the group took off deeper into the sewers. They ran as the sounds of fighting could be heard around them and grew louder the closer they were. It soon quieted as the three men turned the corner to find an unbelievable scene. Tons of Mousers destroyed and scattered across the ground, April unconscious in the hands of a man sized humanoid green turtle.

That's right. A man sized turtle wearing an orange bandanna, brown arm and leg straps, belt and orange wrapped nunchucks. To make it weirder, there were three more of them with one having a purple bandanna and held a Bo staff, blue bandanna and twin swords and red bandanna with twin sai. A clicking sound of a gun made everyone froze. "Hold still. Move and Showdown Bandit Aeon will put a hole right through blue haired pretty boy's head." A cold feminine voice spoke from behind Polnareff and Jotaro.

The voice sounded young around Jotaro's age maybe a year younger. The 4 turtles turned to see the group and looked nervous at the female holding Johnathan, Jotaro and Polnareff hostage. "Oh… Hehe. Hey big sister, lovely night for a stroll in the sewers and not hunting Mousers." The turtle in orange spoke only to get slapped on the back of his head by the turtle in red. 'My Lord! They can talk too! Fascinating.' Johnathan thought despite the clear hostage situation.

"Michelango, Leonardo, Donatello and Raphael, what did father Splinter say about running off? Not only did you disobey his orders but also got discovered by more humans. You know he's going to punish you four." The voice spoke as all four looked nervous. 'Seriously? A family dispute in a goddamn sewer? Good grief.' Jotaro thought with irritation. It was becoming awkward for the Frenchman and his two friends from how the situation was turning out. "Sorry big sister Fleur." All 4 spoke as Polnareff's eyes widened greatly.

It couldn't be… Could it? He slowly turned his head around to look at their captor. It was a young woman around Jotaro's age with wild silver hair and sharp blue eyes, she wore a headband with demon horns, a green bandanna, a red and black traditional ninja suit, purple shoulder pads, orange hakamaki sash, blue boots, an accessory silver tail with a gold hoop, two short katanas on her back, fingerless brown gloves and a gold hilted blue blade katana on the small of her back sideways but what grabbed him was the familiar mark on her neck and the red streaks under her eyes.

The spirit or Stand beside her had the appearance of a demonic grey skinned cowboy, a single red eye amongst the shadow of his red horned cowboy hat while the other covered by his purple bangs, a bandanna shaped like an opened fanged mouth on his face, peculiar red ribbons near the neck, a black outlined gold poncho over a gold shirt and brown vest, brown gun belt with red fabric by the empty gun holsters, a black tail with 5 hooks at the end ranging from orange to red, yellow jeans and on them were gray leg straps with red blades, brown and orange cowboy boots with large blades spurs, white arms with the right pointing an orange, black and gold gun at Johnathan's head and the other a giant black, orange, and red gauntlet with golden blades for fingers and three orange nozzles on the center fingers.

"Little Fleur… You're alive." Polnareff spoke with a shaky voice. "You speak as if your familiar with me when I never met you before in my life. Who are you?" Fleur questioned. "You are Fleur Marie De Polnareff, third child of Jaune Reyn Polnareff and Charlotte Maria. Mother named you Fleur because you were as beautiful as a field of blossoming flowers when you were born." Polnareff spoke as he looked at the little sister he lost.

"Wait a minute. How do you know so much about her?" The turtle in red questioned angrily. "Because she is my long lost little sister. My name is Jean Pierre Polnareff, her older brother." He spoke taking out the picture of him and his siblings when they were younger. The gasps in the room from seeing the photo was enough for Fleur to have a look for herself. Her eyes widened upon seeing the familiar mark on the baby's neck in the exact shape and place as hers. "We're taking them back to the lair. Father needs to hear about this." Fleur spoke walking off while her Stand followed.

The walk through the sewers was silent as no human or turtle decides to talk. It was too uncomfortable and awkward for everybody. Fleur led them to a wall with a strange blue pattern on it. The wall pulled apart revealing it to be a secret entrance and the inside blew all three men's minds. It was a secret lair with tons of room, wall of TV's, couch, workbenches, pinball machines and basically all kinds of stuff perfect for a comfortable living. "Incredible. All of this has been under New York for this whole time. Despite all the technology and items here, the walls and layout are much much older." Johnathan spoke practically breath taken.

"You are very observant young man. My sons and daughter, may I have an explanation on how we ended up with 4 guests?" An aged and soft male voice spoke as they turned to see a human sized anthropomorphic gray rat with brown eyes, a small goatee, white bushy eyebrows and leaning on a brown wooden cane wearing an orange and dark brown kimono. "Good grief. Things gotten really bizarre." Jotaro sighed at the weirdness they found themselves in.

One explanation from Polnareff later… The group were sitting down and gathered at the front while April who had woken up earlier after fainting again joined in. "So that explains it. Fleur was separated from you because that terrible storm had washed her away. It makes sense for her not to recognize you since she was a baby before disappearing." The turtle in purple spoke. "Though my question is, who or what are you guys? How did you even find her without being caught on the surface?" April questioned.

"That is a very long story. We weren't always like this. We used to be what you once called normal. I used to be an ordinary pet rat whose owner was a kind martial artist named Hamato Yoshi. On a trip to France, my master and I had came across Fleur crying by the edge of a river. The only clue to her name was a flower tied in her hair. A few years later, the home of my master was caught in a nasty blaze. I was able to get out with Fleur through my Master's sacrifice.

I hid Fleur in a safe place within the sewers and scavenge for food to keep her alive. On one of those scavenging days, I saw the beginning of an accident. A child had walked out of the pet store carrying four baby turtles. *That was us! From the orange bandanna turtle* Don't interrupt Michelangelo. Where was I? An elderly blind man was walking the street unaware of a massive truck heading straight towards him. A man near the child lunged to shove the elder out of harm's way yet accidentally sending the tank holding the four turtles near the sewer were they were gently swept down below.

The truck had flung open wide enough for a mysterious canister to jump out and went down the sewer bursting open and covering the four turtles in a glowing green ooze. I followed them down and took pity on them. I gathered all four and safely put them in an empty coffee can though one decided to shake himself and got the ooze on me too. I took them back to my den where Fleur laid sleeping.

The next morning, I woke up. All four had doubled in size and I was changed too. The ooze had affected us in many peculiar ways from enhancing our intelligence and strength along with affecting our growth. Then one day, one of the young turtles had spoken my name. Fleur manifested her own peculiarity in the form of a spirit that same day. I knew then that it was my duty to protect and raise them as my own.

To each I taught them the ways of Ninjutsu and to harness their new form and power. Fleur named her spirit Showdown Bandit Aeon after one of the tarot cards, the Aeon Arcana. For the four turtles, using a book on the Italian Renaissance Arts, I gave them their names. Leonardo(blue), Donatello(purple), Raphael(red) and Michelangelo(orange). That is our story." Splinter told finishing his tale.

"Yep! We're unbelievable!" Shouted Michelango who they could clearly tell was the goofball of the four. "Where's your off switch?" Raphael questioned as Jotaro snorted amused. "Been asking the same thing myself about our little brother Josuke." Jotaro said. "It's still incredible that you have a Stand Fleur combined with the fact that your family could see them." Polnareff said as that got the makeshift family's attention. It was enough for Aeon to manifest with a curious glint in his eyes. "Speak of the cowboy, hey Aeon." Michelangelo said as April looked confused.

"Stand? I don't see anything." April spoke clueless. "Only Stand Users can see Stands. Stands are the manifestation of a person's fighting Spirit with their own set of abilities based on their user. They are called Stands because they always stand beside you." Jotaro explained. "Maybe not for long. I came up with something that I've been dying to try out." Donatello said heading to a cabinet and took something out.

He came back with a pair of glasses with green half lenses. "I made this when I found out Fleur had a Stand. Using a bullet Aeon supplied me with, I created these beauties. The Spirit Lens. I didn't know if one day we would lose the ability to see or hear Aeon so I made these just in case. Aeon is considered the fifth brother of the bunch since we played and trained with each other from childhood. Try the Spirit Lens on, April." Donatello explained surprising the male trio.

'Glasses that can see Stands!?' Went through their heads as April put on the glasses before turning to suddenly scream. "Oh my gosh! There's a demon cowboy right in my face! Is this Aeon???" April questioned nervously as Jotaro, Polnareff and Johnathan's eyes widened. "Yeeehaw!!!! Looks like your little doodad was a success Donnie! The lassie can see me!" A young raspy and wild male voice came out from Aeon as he twirled his hat. Donatello chuckled at the Stand's obvious happiness.

"Oh. It's rude to leave a family member out of a reunion. Jotaro, Johnathan and I are also Stand Users. Come out Silver Chariot!" Polnareff called as Silver Chariot manifested. "Wow! An actual knight in shining armor! And that rapier looks fantastic!" Leonardo stated as he couldn't help but admire the craftsmanship of Silver Chariot's blade. "The elder Knight and young bandit. Very interesting. The Chariot is the tarot card for conquest and absolute victory. Quite fitting for a knight or crusader." Splinter spoke as both Stands approached each other.

"Aw shucks. Thanks. I had Silver Chariot with me since birth and both of us keep each other in fighting shape." Polnareff said scratching his head sheepishly. Both of the Stands eyed each other before Aeon decided to just give Chariot a big hug as his tail wagged wildly like a happy dog. "Aww. They look so cute! Someone take a picture!" Michelangelo said. "Wish I brought my camera." Johnathan mumbled.

"Let's get back to business. April, why were those Mousers chasing you?" Fleur questioned getting everyone back on topic. "I decided to spy on my former boss since it was too suspicious to build so many of something like the Mousers for a city rat problem. I discovered that he was using the Mousers to rob banks and jewelry stores of their valuables. One of the test runs even brought down an archaeological dig!" April explained as Johnathan's breath hitched.

"Dear god. Those things were the reason nearly everyone at my digsite was almost killed. To think the same man who pitched those awful things to us were responsible for the pain of so many." Johnathan spoke clenching his fists angrily. "Now I recognize you! You are Johnathan Joestar, the eldest son of George Joestar and heir to the Joestar and Zeppeli Corporation! Oh shell! I read a few of your books on ancient civilizations and they were really excellent. To meet one of my favorite authors is astounding!" Donatello explained as Johnathan couldn't help but smile.

"Well it's nice to meet a fan of my work. I would love to discuss about it later but I think it's best if we deal with Stockman first. He caused too much pain for a lot of people and must be stopped before he could do further harm." Johnathan said. "Yeah. That jerk destroyed our old home and those pieces of scrap metal try to make a meal out of our Sensei!" Raphael stated taking out his sai.

 "I agree. My sons and my daughter, I ask of you to assist April in stopping Stockman before he could do even further harm. Jotaro and Jean, I ask of you to accompany them on this mission. I know my sons and daughter can protect themselves but it'll be good to have someone capable of protecting Miss O' Neil. Though Johnathan, I ask of you to stay here. The injury on your ankle needs to be checked and wounds like that on a battlefield can put you and others in grave danger." Splinter explained.

No one objected the elder rat's words for it obviously made sense. Even Jotaro silently agreed despite being known to be against any type of authority. "It's not going to be easy. Stocktronics has the latest top of the line security system. It'll be tough to get in without being spotted." April spoke only for Fleur to giggle. "We've got that problem already handled." The kunoichi said.

"May I present you our technologic master turtle, Donatello!" Michaelango said pointing at Donatello. "You're too kind." Donatello chuckled. "Can we go already? Please!" Shouted Raphael.  "Follow us. We know these sewers like the back of our hand." Fleur spoke walking off. The group of 8 quietly walked through New York's Sewer system. April had stopped them to point a small security system.

"Seriously? Security systems in the sewer? This Stockman guy is really paranoid." Michaelango whispered only to be smacked by Jotaro. "Thanks big guy." Raphael silently chuckled. "Get a room you two." Michaelango spoke only to get shushed by Donatello. "Be quiet. April and I are busy! This is delicate work!" Donatello whispered annoyed as he dismantled the system. "*sigh* Little brothers…" Fleur muttered.

The system was soon broken allowing the group to travel to the building through the ducts. Using his sai, Raphael had opened the vent after the guards left. "Alright. The terminal is over there. If I can access it, I can make blank spots in the security for you guys to travel undetected." April whispered. "Let me do it. Star Platinum." Jotaro spoke manifesting his Stand.

It looked like a big purple Aztec warrior just as tall as Jotaro but buffer, had long black flowing hair, sharp teal eyes, gold wavy lines going down his body and wore gold shoulder pads with spirals, red scarf, gold circlet headband, black fingerless gloves with gold studs, black knee boots and a long white loin cloth. April had to hide her blush. "Oh shell. He's huge. Looks like you got a fellow purple lover." Raphael joked as Donatello rolled his eyes.

"Star Finger." Jotaro whispered as Star Platinum's middle and index finger thin and lengthen before using it to pick the lock open. Jotaro called Star back as the group got out of the duct and followed April into terminal room. "Nice lock picking Jotaro. When did you learn to do that?" Leonardo questioned the raven. "Jotaro has a crazy fanclub that follows him everyday at school. He picks the roof door lock to escape since students aren't allowed up there." Polnareff answered the blue mask turtle.

"Alright. I'm blanking the cameras in 10 second intervals. You guys have to keep moving and don't stop if you don't want to get caught." April warned. "Got it. We'll be back." Fleur spoke as the 5 ninjas disappeared without a sound to three clueless people until the Frenchman turned around. "They're gone! That Splinter can teach!" Polnareff stated as he couldn't help but feel proud at his little sister and a bit for her brothers.

The kunoichi and her four shelled siblings outran the cameras as they raced through the halls. Walking into a completely dark room, all 5 siblings were on guard. "It's quiet, too quiet." Leonardo warned pulling out his weapons like the others. Fleur kept her third blade on her back as she kept an eye out for danger. "Guys, my turtle sense is tingling." Michelangelo joked nervously. Suddenly the lights flashed on to reveal Stockman high above in a control room and there were manufacturing guns found above in high-tech factories, the type that fire beams of extreme heat.

"You really think I would be so lax in thinking to not anticipate intruders! Did you come here for my secrets because it wouldn't matter. None of you are leaving out alive." Stockman threatened looking at the thermal images of the 5 shinobi only to be disturbed by 4 non human shaped blurs. "What are you? I guess I have to dissect you to find out." Stockman spoke as the ceiling guns shifted to face the group before the ninja found themselves under fire.

It didn't take them a second to take cover behind the pillars. "Showdown Bandit Aeon!" Fleur cried out summoning her Stand. "This is quite a shootout but these pieces of scrap can't outshot me!" The devilish cowboy laughed aiming his gun and began firing bullets. Each bullet sniped into each barrel causing each laser gun to explode from its own blast. "Donnie!" Leonardo called as the turtle in purple came over. Donatello tossed Leonardo into the air so he could slice the guns in half with his katana blades.

Donatello using his staff, pole vaulted to one of the guns before turning it to shoot at the others and then finished by sabotaging it to explode. "Mikey! Hammer throw!" Raphael called Michelangelo ran over to the turtle in red. Michaelango jumped over Raphael as the red masked turtle kicked out his feet to launch his fellow turtle to the control room glass and break open an entry to Stockman's terror.

Fleur and the others quickly followed up there blocking Stockman as their friends walked in from the other side. "April! You're alive." Stockman said shocked. "And kicking. My friends here helped me out and get me to you. It's over Stockman, I have enough evidence to land you in jail for a very long time." April spoke only for Stockman to laugh and pull out a remote with a single button. He pressed it before Michaelango could grab him.

"It's too late! I called back all my Mousers. They'll be here to rip you to shreds!" Stockman chuckled as the group could see the beginnings of a swarm of the malicious robots surround them. Stockman had used their distraction to escape. "Guys! Stockman got away!" Michelangelo shouted. "We have bigger problems. We have thousands of things heading our way! Stockman must have made even more before robbing those banks earlier!" Donatello panicked as both him and April got to the control panel before trying to hack it.

Mousers began to come in the room from all around them as Jotaro, Polnareff and Fleur got their stands ready. Suddenly all the small killer robots stopped as their single eye began blinking. "April, what did you do?" Fleur questioned as Michelangelo picked up one of the Mousers. "I couldn't shut them down so I had to reroute their programming to overload." April warned as the orange masked turtle dropped the Mouser in panic. "Let's get the shell out of here! This place is going to blow!" Fleur cried as it didn't take a single second for all of them to scramble out of the building and down into the sewers.

Back at the lair… the news played the burning scene of the Stocktronics building as the group watched. "What are you going to do now April? I'm pretty sure you're out of a job." Splinter questioned. "We can help her get back on her feet. She did help us stop Stockman." Fleur offered as Polnareff couldn't help but smile. "Splinter, I want to thank you and your master for caring for my little sister. She has turned into a wonderful woman with your guidance." Polnareff spoke.

"It was an honor. Though it'll take time for Fleur to adjust knowing she has a living relative. You and your friends are welcomed back here. The boys still need some guidance that I can't provide." Splinter spoke as Polnareff smiled. "Wait, if Polnareff is Fleur's older brother and Splinter adopted Fleur, doesn't that make Polnareff our big brother in some way?" Michelangelo questioned as everyone looked at the Frenchman.

"I believe it does since Splinter is her parental guardian. Looks like Polnareff has gotten another chance at being a big brother again." Johnathan chuckled as the Frenchman looked ready to cry. Today was just an insane day for Jean Pierre Polnareff. Moving to New York for a new start had gotten him into a crazy adventure. Now not only did he have his little sister Fleur back but also has 4 teenage mutant ninja turtles to guide like a big brother should. It was going to be strange but he wouldn't trade it for the world. And this time he was going to protect them!

That's it folks. I honestly thought Polnareff deserved another chance at the big brother role because it just suits him perfectly in my opinion. Here is a drawing of Fleur and her Stand Aeon though his name on the picture is different since I drew it before writing this.

[blasphemings]

ah sacré papa, dis-moi où es-tu caché?

où est ton papa ? dis-moi où est ton papa? sans même devoir lui parler il sait ce qui ne va pas

//

where is your father? tell me, where is your father? without needing to talk to him, he knows something is wrong

[stone ocean/ireneverse, kakyoin is stone free via stand resurrection, ~9.3k words, ao3 link]

I.

dites-moi d’où il vient

enfin je saurais où je vais

Jotaro Kujo was no stranger to being too late.

He had thought of this as his daughter snarled at him from across the table; how he had been too late to be her father, or really, to be a part of her at all. There isn’t a speck of you in my heart anymore, Jolyne spat.

That was a good thing. Probably. At the very least, it made sense. First person to be smart about that shit in a long time. She was taking care of herself. She would survive.

At least, she would have, if he hadn’t gone and let her get shot.

Too late, he thought in a daze during the too-long instant it took for time to grind to a halt, his eyes on the thick stream of blood flying from the hole in Jolyne’s chest. His heart plummeted like a chunk of ice.

Such a lazy excuse, to say things happened too fast, particularly given his circumstances. If he hadn’t been distracted—

Because of love?

—if he had been focused.

She hung in midair, one arm thrown forward in surprise, the other behind her to break a fall caught in place. Her face barely registered surprise. She hadn’t had time to be surprised. It was his responsibility to catch threats in time. How could she have known?

Unless…

Jotaro narrowed his eyes. There wasn’t nearly enough blood. Not for a direct hit to the chest. He moved closer, fists still clenched at his sides, until he could see that it hadn’t been a direct hit at all.

Seeing the impossible up close like that was almost enough to convince him he really was dreaming.

The time stop gave him only seconds, but despite his best efforts Jotaro remained himself, and Star remained a force of nature, beyond fast enough to catch all the details, even those he might have preferred to remain ignorant of. He stared at the hand-shaped barrier that had caught the bullet before it could pierce Jolyne’s chest, and he knew that he had seen it before.

“It can’t be,” he breathed.

Thirty years. Nearly thirty years since the web of shimmering green strands had snapped, gleaming against the darkness, defiant to the last. He had only seen Hierophant’s barrier once.

This time the unbroken web held the bullet still. It appeared to be made of some sort of string, a different material and a different color, but the familiar pattern held steady.

Jolyne’s Stand stood at her side, arm thrown out in front of her where its hand had stopped the shot from landing. Frozen completely but still it seemed to stare straight at him, its face tilted in his direction with what almost looked like a smile. The Stand was blue and far more humanoid than Hierophant had been, and fiercer, tougher, from the look of it. But there was something about the planes of the face, the eyes behind the green—sunglasses?

He would almost have laughed, had he had the time.

“You made a net out of the strings,” Jotaro murmured. “And dispersed the power of the bullet. Just like a bulletproof vest…all in an instant.”

Star flicked the bullet away as time snatched itself away from him. It clattered to the floor forlornly, and Jolyne was thrown backwards by the force of a shot that had never landed, coughing and enormously confused. He had been right. She hadn’t had time to protect herself consciously at all. That was what Stands were for.

Jotaro stared at it, already beginning to dissipate.

It’s you.

It inclined its head slightly, a motion reminiscent of old mockeries.

Of course it’s me.

Kakyoin had used Hierophant to protect him, on one of the rare occasions on which Jotaro allowed himself to be caught off guard. The memory had proven stronger than others somehow, Kakyoin calm and vindictive, the way he had held himself with his arm thrown out in front of Jotaro to say let me handle it for once.

He had always been like that when he stood between the others and danger, his expression reading you don’t know what you’re in for but I’m about to show you, fierce and satisfied and so much more sure of himself when he was fighting for others rather than watching his own back. Jotaro had hated it, hated what Kakyoin was willing to step so casually into in his name. He had feared what might happen the day it finally proved too much for him.

II.

où est ton papa?

dis-moi où est ton papa?

Seems like you may be a little closer than you were a moment ago.

Amazing how much lighter he felt, he thought dazedly. Wasn’t this exactly what he had wanted, once? To be free of that impossibly heavy star?

That why I can see you now?

Unfortunately.

Inconveniently, however, whatever had been done to remove this particular Star did appear to also be killing him.

Jotaro tugged his coat closed in a useless attempt to hide his bloodied chest from Jolyne as her expression shifted from confusion to shock to horror. He glanced at the face that flickered into view at her side, the face that was and wasn’t Stone Free.

It doesn’t matter, he wanted to say. I was never going to make it out of here. It doesn’t matter.

She saw straight through him. His bluffs, lethal against so many, somehow had never had much effect when it came to Jolyne. She knew he would look her straight in the eyes and tell her exactly what he imagined she needed to hear. I’ll be home in a few weeks. I’ll catch up soon.

“You’re lying,” she kept repeating. “You’re lying.”

Get her out of here, he thought wildly, watching the young man who now appeared to him, half-corporeal and superimposed over the Stand that hovered beside his daughter. Isn’t that what you do? Protect her?

He had, for an instant, appeared to twitch in Jotaro’s direction at the moment the bullets were fired. They had met each others’ eyes for a split second, no stopped time to give them the moment they needed, but he shook his head as he was struck regardless, his eyes flashing bright with don’t you dare. He almost looked alive again.

It was possible that he was still protecting Jotaro as he had always tried to do, every time he stood between Jolyne and danger. It was possible that was what he had meant to do all along.

He leaned back against the cold stone in an attempt to catch the breath that still pulled shallow. She was in shock. She needed to move. It was only twenty meters. Why wouldn’t she move?

Would you?

Jotaro gazed blankly at Stone Free as Jolyne stared at the pendant he had pressed into her hand.

Would you leave a fight unfinished with a dying man as your rear guard? Let alone family.

He closed his eyes. This isn’t about me.

Isn’t it?

“But…I just…” Don’t cry, don’t cry. “You can’t.”

Last chance.

“I always…” Jotaro swallowed painfully. “I always cared about you.”

Jolyne stared at him as though he had slapped her.

“You’re lying,” she repeated hoarsely. “You covered me just now, and—and the other enemy stole something from you. That’s why you couldn’t…”

Her eyes, round and unblinking as a child’s, were focused on his chest.

“…dodge the…bullet.”

Shit.

Jotaro blinked rapidly, fighting the fuzziness that threatened the edges of his vision. It had been a long time since he had seen this much of his own blood, on his shoes, his coat, dripping to the floor, smeared on the wall. He noted distantly that the bullet appeared to have made a clean exit, wondering whether it would matter that it would likely be left embedded in the wall behind him. Unlikely that their attacker would care enough to track it down—he already had what he wanted. The bullet would stay behind, a monument either to sacrifice or to failure, depending on whether or not Jolyne would just move already—

“I’m…just bleeding a little,” he said softly. “I’ll catch up in…a b—”

“Your chest,” she hissed, ignoring him. “You—”

Stone Free shifted, glancing towards the end of the hallway. Strings unspooled from the tips of its fingers and the ghost’s face closed in on itself in a familiar look of concentration.

“Go—Jolyne—!”

“No. No, no, no, no, no.” Jolyne pointed at him shakily. “You…it can’t—be…”

“JOLYNE!”

Two voices shouted for her, but Jolyne seemed to hear neither as she froze in place. Her expression emptied out and the bullets’ trajectories twisted away, sending them flying harmlessly into the far wall.

Something hard and cold had replaced the devastation in her eyes. The bullets slid inches from her face and she stood unflinching, waiting for them to pass. The gunman stared at the strings hanging from his barrel, unable to comprehend the nature of the sabotage.

I do have one question.

What’s that?

For how long did you intend to keep underestimating her?

I’m sorry?

She’s your daughter. Did you think she was so unlike you?

More string wound towards his ankles as he angrily shook the first round from his gun, brushing it aside like a mess of cobwebs. Jolyne had hardly moved, still staring at her father.

I wanted to believe she could be.

“Shut up,” she said flatly. She almost looked bored.

Distractions that passed for defense or offense on their own merit had always been the most effective. Whether a fly with a taste for human tongues or a sniper, once they took the bait long enough to get pinned, they had already lost. The fly had torn apart like tissue paper, he remembered. For a moment he expected the strings to shoot straight through the man’s body and rip him into pieces.

“Right now,” Jolyne continued, “we’re going to escape out that window. And go to the beach.”

Jotaro couldn’t find the breath to argue. He hoped she would at least have the sense to drop him once his heart gave out. There was no possible benefit to dragging around a corpse that might slow down pursuers in any case, if she was smart enough about where she left it. Sentimentality had cost her enough time.

“Stay out of our way, alright?”

An hour ago he would have thought to warn her about Manhattan Transfer and the obvious lie of the man’s promise to drop his weapon. It no longer felt necessary.

Jolyne broke eye contact with her father to look at the skull she had just bashed in with vague disdain. “I didn’t say a single word about dropping it,” she said sharply. “Was just looking to see what the best angle for pounding you would be.”

She had, it appeared, inherited Jotaro’s preference for finishing the job with his fists.

“I think my favorite was when your chin was aiming a little more to the right.”

Kakyoin hadn’t been much given to that sort of thing. It was strange to see, and stranger to hear.

Using my line?

Not yours. Not mine, either.

His fingertips had gone cold, but watching Jolyne rip into the assassin with natural ferocity left him smiling slightly.

It’s hers.

Their rage was synchronized and deadly, the sound of cracking bones familiar as ever, and the way she moved as though she had never known any other way to be both broke his heart and filled him with impossible hope.

If Jolyne’s mind is this strong…then I’m sure she’ll survive.

III.

sans même devoir lui parler

il sait ce qui ne va pas

“Think I probably fucked up.”

Jolyne leaned back against the damp stone, trying to ignore the feeling that the cell’s walls were seeping into her skin. She barely knew why it was she was trying to talk to the thing. It had never talked back before. Why would it think to answer now, when she needed it so desperately?

When had anything ever been that easy?

They stared at one another silently. That was the threat inherent in solitary confinement, as it turned out. Not just being alone, but being alone with yourself in a way that only unconditional silence could guarantee. She doubted the gnawing feeling in her chest would have been half as strong had she been able to at least hear evidence of other prisoners. Footsteps, or sobbing, or a sneeze once every couple of hours. Even snoring would have been okay, she thought; annoyance was better than nothing. But nothing was what Jolyne had.

Stone Free gazed at her still, impassive behind the strange glasses she had never seen it without. Maybe there was nothing underneath them at all. She imagined reaching for them and taking them off, only to find blank smooth space where eyes should have been.

It probably wouldn’t stop her. Then again, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

Jolyne hugged her knees to her chest. A memory flashed, unwelcome, to the front of her mind: her father, half curled up in his office chair, one long leg folded against his chest, the other underneath him. It was strange, she had thought, to see someone so large trying to make himself so small. Stranger still that he so easily fell asleep in front of a glowing screen like that, though it wasn’t exactly uncommon for him.

She had been young, seven or eight, but she still knew drying tears when she saw them, and how to recognize when she had been part of a moment that was meant to leave no witnesses. It was possible that he figured out who threw the blanket clumsily over his shoulders when his cramped legs finally woke him sometime before dawn, but if Jotaro knew, he had kept as quiet about it as she had.

“Something happened.”

She swallowed. Was she really talking to her own Stand? Was she talking to herself? Her father? Who was it she hoped was listening? Did she want anyone to hear her at all?

“Something happened,” Jolyne repeated softly. “It’s—something’s gone wrong, you know, and I think it’s—I think it’s my fault, that it’s all wrong. And, and I don’t know, I don’t know if I can do it. This. And I don’t know what’ll…I don’t know what happens if I can’t.”

She laughed angrily. “Like, this isn’t just, I don’t know, ‘oh, I’m so worried, I don’t know what happens next’ and then I’m about to get up and, and go save the day after I have my shitty little moment. I really feel like I might be fucked and if I’m fucked they’re fucked and he’s fucked and—and…”

I just got you back. You can’t leave now.

The sickly yellow light flickered overhead, threatening to fail altogether. Jolyne glanced up at it fearfully. Stone Free continued to stare at her until the moment passed, the glow reflecting green where it struck the pale blue surface.

“And I wish my dad were here,” Jolyne blurted. She made a convulsive motion as if to cover her mouth.

Not like there’s anyone here to hide it from. Her hands fell limply to her lap and she stared down at them in defeat. “I hate that I wish he were here. I hate it because I…God, I miss hating him, you know? I miss it when I hated him almost as much as I lo—as much as I cared about him. And I, I miss when I couldn’t even tell the two apart because I never needed to.” She shook her head. “I miss not needing to know the difference.”

It made her a little bit ill, to think of her father needing her. To think that Jotaro was even capable of something so soft as needing anyone at all. She preferred to think of him watching her, alert and strong as ever, from somewhere far away. It would almost be easier to think of this all as a cruel sort of test; it would have been easier to accept his nature being a callous one, rather than come to terms with the impossible presence of the warmth she had always craved, knowing it might now be lost to her.

Stone Free sat, cross-legged, still watching her closely, still silent.

“Right. You probably can’t even hear me. You never say anything.”

Jolyne paused.

“You remind me of him.”

She wondered if her father had ever wished his stand would just hit him for once. Fighting it would be easier than sitting here with it just looking at her and looking at her and saying fuck all.

“Just that stupid fucking ora ora shit,” she mumbled, wiping at her eyes. “That’s all you know how to do, isn’t it?”

If she was going to cry, she had to do it quietly. There was a reason for the oppressive silence of the solitary ward, and it didn’t just have to do with punishment by isolation. If any of the surrounding cells’ occupants heard her, even the faintest sob through the thick stone that separated them—I’m dead.

Dead faster than she already expected to be, in any case.

Jolyne buried her face in her arms, trying to crush the tears back down. Just like Hermes had said, right? I don’t think I have time to cry right now.

She wished Hermes were here. Hermes would get her sorry ass off the ground. Or Foo Fighters. Or her father, hell, even her mother, even her shitty ex-boyfriend might be able to piss her off badly enough to push her out of inaction—but Jolyne knew she was alone, more ultimately and completely than she had ever felt herself to be.

At first she barely noticed the hand on her shoulder. Only once the remarkable heat of its touch grew to be too much to ignore did she raise her head and look up at it with blurry eyes.

Stone Free gripped her arm. It peered down at her, and its expression, fixed as it was, seemed to soften.

The second presence, however, was harder to pin down. She didn’t quite see it so much as feel that there was someone else in that cell with her; the face seemed to flicker half into view only when she looked away, fading when she tried to focus on the features as though she were trying to catch the details of a sunspot. A face vaguely remembered from the faded photograph Jotaro used to keep on his desk, or a relic of childhood dreams she never seemed to remember in the morning.

Who are you?

Stone leaned forward, almost hesitantly, and touched its forehead to hers.

If an ordinary guard had passed by then, they would have seen only Jolyne, leaning into what appeared to be empty space with her eyes closed. If they were the right sort of person, or if they hadn’t slept for a day or so, or even if they simply turned away fast enough, they might have seen a young man with pale red hair and cherry-shaped earrings, holding her steady.

IV.

ah sacré papa

dis-moi où es-tu caché?

You should have dragged her out of there.

Kakyoin was silent as he watched Jotaro’s body disappear into the UUV. It was all too familiar, he thought.

I know you hear me. He knew the nature of bullets that refused to land far too well.

Isn’t it your job to protect—isn’t that what Stands do? Protect the user even when they damn well didn’t ask?

It’s my will that’s bound to her. Kakyoin shook his head slightly. It’s not my soul. Her Stand, her spirit.

She should have left me.

Kakyoin shook himself slightly, Stone Free dematerializing as Jolyne raised her hands above her head with a grim expression. Strange, the mannerisms that carried over in the absence of a body. Even Kakyoin, who had been without his now for longer than he’d been alive with it in the first place.

She should have left me, Jotaro repeated. I was already gone.

Kakyoin looked at him sharply. You’re not dead yet.

No? Then what do you call this?

There’s more to do. You’re the only one who can.

Well. He watched the shrinking horizon bitterly. Isn’t that how it always goes?

Whatever happens, happens. Kakyoin laid a hand on his shoulder. You won’t be going on alone.

A feeling he knew, although not one he had needed to remember in a long time. Lying on the gravel in Cairo, staring up at the stars, knowing the heaviness pinning his soul to his stopped heart belonged to someone else, someone whose own crushed body hadn’t yet gone cold on the rooftops above. It hadn’t been fair then and it wasn’t fair now.

Jotaro glanced at him. You always did know how to hold me down.

There is a limit to what I can do for you, I’m sure. But I will fight until the day I reach it. For both of you, Kakyoin added, looking towards Green Dolphin, dwindling rapidly now as the UUV sped away from it.

Why did she stay? Why wouldn’t she just go?

As I said. You completely underestimated her.

You don’t—

You underestimated how far she is willing to go for you. You underestimated how much like you she is and you underestimated how badly she needed what you couldn’t give to her until the very end.

She could have left me.

She was never going to do that.

Dusk turned to night turned to dawn around them. The sense of his body, somewhere far below.

She doesn’t want to lose you before she had the chance to have you in her life knowing that you care. So I don’t know what happens next. You have a lot of lost time to make up for.

I know. Jotaro looked at him, his shape still recognizable despite being so far away from anything it had been to him in life. I miss you.

I’m sorry for how things turned out, but you can’t stop yet. You owe Jolyne more than that.

V.

un jour ou l’autre on sera tous papa

et d’un jour à l’autre on aura disparu

Two steps.

His eyes in pieces, the world gone white-hot and dark.

You were late by two steps.

Had to be a mistake. They had done everything right.

Too late.

Jolyne had been brave—he had been proud—pulled him free from death, it couldn’t come again now—not yet—

Jotaro Kujo…

She understood. She had understood him. He had seen it in her eyes. There hadn’t been enough time. He needed to tell her—to tell her…

…your daughter is your weakness.

Had it all led to this? A weakness to be exploited?

All he had done could fall to nothing, and he accepted that, it was a risk he knew he took every time he stepped between bullet and target, but Jolyne was different. Her hope still blazed, searing, far more than enough to blind any of them. There was no justice in that strong heart suffering such a hopeless fate.

Jolyne.

The last of Dio’s cruelty hadn’t been dodged at all. It had only been flung through time. A strike meant for him thirty years ago, finally landed in the way of a nightmare; the knife was lodged in Jolyne’s side. She still had yet to see him fall.

You’re what matters.

As Jotaro’s vision darkened for the last time, his daughter remained until the end, bright as a dying star.

You always will be.

VI.

serons-nous détestables?

He could not remember landing, only falling, plummeting through an impossibly dark sky towards an ocean with no horizon. He touched down clumsily, the hand that caught him by the arm mid-stumble all that kept him from falling through the water.

“Jolyne—?”

Not Jolyne. Kakyoin blinked up at him with unfocused eyes.

“Your face,” he breathed, reaching for the thick line of light that stretched from forehead to jaw. He pulled his hand back as though he expected Jotaro’s wound to burn him.

“You’re still—?”

He shook his head. “I can’t—I don’t—”

Some distance away, Hermés and Anasui slowly got to their feet, feeling for the bright patches through which death had reached them moments earlier. Hermés paused, her arms folded, before looking up sharply to see a tall young woman with light hair racing towards her. When the woman flung her arms around her, she held her fiercely, cheeks glittering with tears.

Kakyoin staggered back with a gasp, his distant expression collapsing in horror. His form flickered once, then held strong.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I—I’m sorry, I couldn’t—she’s—”

“Hey. Hey.”

He looked down at Jotaro’s hands on his shoulders, unable to meet his eyes.

“I couldn’t save her,” Kakyoin murmured. “I failed y—”

“Don’t you ever fucking say that.”

Jotaro gripped him tighter until he glanced up reluctantly.

“Don’t ever,” he hissed, “say that to me.”

Unfamiliar lights twisted into place overhead, something close to stars but not quite in line with any memories of life. Kakyoin narrowed his eyes.

“Is it usually like that?”

He shook his head slowly. “I’ve never—”

She slammed into her landing too quickly for any attempt to catch her, throwing up curtains of black water that left no stain, rolling back onto her heels with the force of it as though she still expected to run from some unseen danger.

“Emporio—!”

Jolyne leaped to her feet, looking around wildly. Her eyes settled first on Hermés, in the distance, and finally, on her father. Her hand rested unconsciously on the patch of light shining from her side, marking the place where the knife had struck her. A single butterfly that had arrived with her fluttered away, drifting towards Hermés and her sister.

“Dad,” she whispered. “Dad…?”

He had her in his arms before he realized he had moved towards her at all, and she stiffened for only an instant before collapsing back into him. She shook with what felt like a sob, but when he looked down at her face, her eyes were open and dry, almost angry.

“Jolyne,” Jotaro mumbled. “Oh, Jolyne.”

“I’m s…I tried to—I think I—something’s going to…”

She stared up at the sky, at the lights that had appeared with her.

“Emporio,” she said softly. “I gave him…I did everything I—”

“You did beautifully.”

Jolyne flinched, looking back at him with wide eyes.

“I am so proud.” He shook his head with a smile she had never seen before. “I am so proud of you.”

“Oh, shut up,” Jolyne croaked. “Don’t make me—you’re such an asshole.”

She wiped her eyes on his coat and froze when she heard Kakyoin’s muffled giggle. He watched the two of them carefully, still keeping his distance, whether out of respect or hesitancy it remained unclear.

When she met his eyes, she could think only of the old framed photograph from her childhood that had rested on Jotaro’s desk like a tombstone. Jolyne had resented the picture for a long time, the way it took her father away from her. He would pause, put down what he was reading or look away from the screen, easily distracted from his work in a way he never seemed to be when it was Jolyne who wanted his attention. Jotaro went somewhere distant when he looked at that picture. He would still answer, when she called for him, but his eyes were glazed over, far away.

Still she had always wanted to be as close to him as possible, and she had spent enough time in that office to have the faces memorized, enough to recognize the young man standing before her. And yet she felt that she knew him in a closer sense; she not only recognized him, but remembered him.

“I know you, don’t I.”

Jolyne felt like a child again, peering over her father’s arm at that stranger who wasn’t a stranger at all. He blinked at her slowly, almost catlike, and his was a familiar silence.

Gently she pulled herself away from Jotaro, who was clinging to her uncharacteristically tightly, as though he feared she might dissipate if he let go. She squeezed his arm, a reassurance foreign to give, even more foreign to receive.

Facing him she imagined she saw two faces at once, her Stand flickering in and out much the way his face had seemed to that day when their places were reversed. It would have been surprising had she not turned to him already knowing the answer to the question she had barely needed to ask, though she had no words to give either of them that would explain why it was she knew it was true.

He smiled sadly. “Hello, Jolyne.”

Jolyne stared at him, dumbfounded, as he placed his hands on her shoulders. Standing next to her father had dwarfed him, but he was not a short man by any means, and she had to lean back in order to get a good look at his face. He was young, she thought. Too young.

He hesitated, then leaned forward and touched his forehead lightly to hers, and Jolyne knew exactly who he was.

“I wish we could have met,” Kakyoin said quietly, “under better circumstances.”

“Yeah,” she muttered. “Me too.”

“I’m sorry that I—I couldn’t—”

“Don’t.” Jolyne pushed him back slightly, and when she met his eyes this time she saw the bottomless guilt and grief that rested behind them.

“Don’t,” she repeated. “You…you did…so much. For me—us.”

“I tried to,” Kakyoin murmured. “I tried to—oh!”

He watched Jotaro stifle his smile over the top of Jolyne’s head, eyes growing round. Eternally the teenager far too surprised by affection, but he had known her well for the short time they had together, and he hugged her back after a brief pause.

“You did,” Jolyne said. “You did.”

“At first I thought it was just Jotaro.” Kakyoin glanced at him carefully. “That brought me to you. I was there, and he clearly wanted something to protect you, our wills had—we have been tied to one another for a long time. I assumed…that was all it was. Because it was what he would want.”

The newly born stars circled overhead, moving quickly enough now to leave streaks in the sky as day and night flashed into one another too rapidly to tell apart.

“You were always pretty good at taking care of yourself,” he said, addressing Jotaro directly. “But—I didn’t want you getting proved right again, about what happens to the people you love.”

“Yeah, well.” Jolyne pulled away, watching her reflection in the inky water. “That worked out, didn’t it?”

“Jolyne,” Jotaro said sharply. “That’s not funny.”

“Wasn’t meant to be.”

Kakyoin chuckled. “There’s something about you.”

“Me?”

“Yes.” He spun in place absently, watching the ripples move away, towards Jotaro and Jolyne and then beyond them, to Hermés and Anasui, Weather and F.F. Hermés watched Jolyne, conscious of the moment she needed, but her face glowed with worry, nearly as brightly as the still-fading lines of light that served to echo the wounds on her arms.

“I’m glad it was you,” he said. “I’m proud of you. Whether I—whether it’s my place to be or not…I am.”

VII.

serons-nous admirables?

“Did we…fail?”

The strange black sun that had appeared only moments before began to dissolve as Jotaro watched. “I’m not sure,” he said slowly.

“What was the point?” Jolyne murmured. “Dad, what was the point?”

“I…”

He wanted to give her a better answer. He wanted to tell her about a different ending, one where something underneath the myriad of ways in which he had failed her gave all of it meaning, if not an undercurrent of hope.

“I don’t know.”

Hope had never been Jotaro’s strong point.

“Look at you.” Kakyoin shook his head, almost smiling. “Look at you. Look at both of you.”

Curiously he held his hand against the light and watched as pieces of his form tore away, somehow leaving him no less complete, but not quite solid either.

“All that love. You…you really think it was all for nothing,” he said. “You can’t believe that.”

“Then what…” Jolyne hugged her father harder, her voice muffled now by nature of her face being buried in his coat. “Then—what was it?”

“He’s your father,” Kakyoin said simply. “He’ll be your father again.”

“Noriaki—”

“Next time,” he continued, ignoring Jotaro, “next time, I think, you’ll find each other faster. You may not remember what you—what you did. For one another. You won’t. It won’t be real for you there. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen at all. What you’ve…your lives, whatever they may become, they will have to be a testament to the way you fought. For each other. That’s all I can say with any certainty, but I know it. As well as I can know anything.”

“And what if he leaves again?”

Jotaro stiffened. He closed his eyes, resting his chin on the top of his daughter’s head. It won’t come to that ever again.

Times like this he wished he were a better liar. He never could bluff against Jolyne, after all.

“If I leave.”

Kakyoin watched him with a strange expression that could almost have passed for pride.

“If I leave,” he repeated slowly, “no matter how many times I leave, there will be…I want to believe there could…if there are this many answers…”

Stars tugged gently but insistently at the edges of his form, but he held tight to Jolyne. Last chance to say it, to say any of it, no matter what he allowed himself to believe.

“If there are this many futures,” Jotaro said, “I have to believe—hope…that in at least one of them I worked out how to stay.”

“Do you promise?”

“Jolyne—”

“Dad.” She twisted free from his arms and glared up at him. Jolyne hadn’t cried in front of him like this since she was a child, since she broke her arm falling out of the apricot tree, since the day he left her there in the driveway. She had clung to her mother’s skirt then, hiding her face, but this time it was her father’s sleeve she clutched at, and she looked at him, unhesitating and defiant, as though she were daring him to confront the depth of the love with which she had lived and never had anywhere to put down.

“I’m asking you—” Jolyne swallowed angrily. “You promise me. You promise you’ll catch me when I get there.”

“I can’t…” Jotaro took a deep breath, unable to meet her eyes. “I don’t know—”

“No. Not—look at me.”

Green eyes. He had never thought to remember the last person to make a habit of asking him for impossible things when he looked at her. If he allowed himself to feel his memories whenever they surfaced he would never have been able to move at all.

Kakyoin smiled to himself, unnoticed by father or daughter.

“I will come,” Jotaro said slowly. “I’ll be there.”

“Promise.”

“I…promise.”

Surprising to find it barely felt like a lie. Jolyne smiled at him, and for a moment, he saw not a young woman, but a little girl, waving at him from the far end of the beach as she shouted at him to hurry up.

I don’t want to go in the water without you.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll see you there.”

She looked over his shoulder at Kakyoin and mouthed thank you. Kakyoin winked.

“Good luck,” he called.

“Wait—” Jotaro spun towards her. “Jolyne—!”

She didn’t jump so much as fall; she didn’t fall so much as allow the light to take her. Jotaro may have had an intimate knowledge of being too late, but it was Jolyne who knew when she had locked eyes with a lost cause.

Her smile lingered after her form faded, as though he had looked for too long at a star shining far too brightly for the world in which it had been permitted to exist.

“I’ll see you there,” he whispered. “I’ll come.”

When Kakyoin wrapped his hand around Jotaro’s, he looked down to see an old school coat, his own frame somehow both lighter and heavier. It made sense that Kakyoin would remember him as a teenager, that he might be momentarily defined here by such a thing. Maybe it answered more to his own memories of what they had been to each other. Laws he had no comprehension of and would not have time to come to understand.

“Kind of thought you’d forget how to get scared after being dead this long.” He glanced at Kakyoin, who clung to him in a way that might have cut off circulation if he’d still had it. “You hang on too tight when you get like this.”

Present tense, he realized. Maybe he really had sunk into the past, here at the death of the future.

“I’m not scared to go,” Kakyoin said slowly, his eyes straight ahead. “Wherever it is we’re…wherever we’re going next. I’m not scared to go there.”

“Then what—”

“I’m afraid I won’t…know you there.”

Jotaro stared at him. “You didn’t seem too worried about that when it was Jolyne you were trying to talk down.”

“I was trying to talk you down too.” He chuckled sadly. “She’s your daughter. You’re her father. I think that’s different, I don’t…I—”

“We don’t have time for talking in circles."

The roaring in their ears grew ever louder as the storm’s eye shrank around them.

“We just as easily might have not met at all, Jotaro, you know that?” He shuddered again. “I might have just—one wrong step—or I guess, right step? Might have never, Dio might never have—at all. None of it. Would have just lived and not ever known you.”

“Most people don’t sound so bitter about the concept of not dying before they were out of their teens.”

“Most people aren’t choosing between living and knowing you.”

“I—Jesus Christ, Noriaki.” Jotaro laughed, amazed. “You can’t just say that shit.”

“You asked.”

“Guess so.”

“I…say I get a life back. Sure. Fine. I jump down there, and, and I’m me again, and I get a life back, but it’s not mine, it—it won’t be mine because I, because you won’t be in it. I’ll never even—never even know what’s missing. Just live the whole thing with a hole in my heart.”

“I’ll find you.”

He looked up at Jotaro, startled by the sudden intensity in his voice.

“I’ll find you,” he repeated. “Doesn’t matter if I don’t remember you. I’ll know you. I’ll always know you. And I swear that I’ll find you again.”

Kakyoin stood very still as their universe tore to pieces at his back, staring at Jotaro as he held tightly to his hands.

“Do you believe me?”

He paused and found himself confronted with flashes of lives both past and future, fated and impossible, infinite realities cracking open before him. There must be at least one where we were happy, he thought.

“Yeah,” he said softly. “Yeah, I’ll meet you there.”

VIII.

ca doit faire au moins mille fois que j’ai compté mes doigts

“Oh—I’m sorr—”

Their heads smacked together with a sharp crack. He had meant to reach for the pencils the other student had dropped when they first collided; the boy, it seemed, had had the same idea. He shook his head, trying to chase the stars from his eyes.

You had this look in your eyes, like you had just realized that nothing would be okay ever again. And you tried to smile, you tried to smile at me so that I wouldn’t be afraid, but you were staring at the sky and your hands were shaking and I had no idea what to say to you. I had always been the one to tell you that things would be all right. You got so angry when I tried to tell you that, but I meant it. Every time, I meant it, which was why I couldn’t say it then. No matter how badly I wanted to take your pain away, I couldn’t lie to you.

I felt like I was watching a meteor coming towards the earth, bigger and bigger until it swallowed up the sky, and there was nothing I could do about it. I wanted to tell you that I was afraid for you, and I was afraid for me. Were those things I was even allowed to feel? Am I allowed to be afraid for myself even now? Is my life my own to fear for?

The boy laughed nervously. “Should’ve watched where I was…sorry.”

“Not a big deal. Been hit harder by stray footballs.”

He smiled.

All I ever wanted was to keep you safe.

All I ever wanted was to keep you safe.

“Here.” He handed over a drawing pad, careful to keep it face down. “You an artist?”

“When I want to be.” The boy took it and blew loose red hair out of his face, looking at him curiously.

“What?”

“I—well, most people try to look. At it.”

“Well.” He shrugged. “Figured that’s your business.”

Is it selfish of me, to be glad that it’s me who’s going first? Is it cruel to feel relief? I don’t want to leave you alone. But I don’t want to be alone, either.

We should have had more time. I should have been able to give us more time, I should have been able to give you more time. You were supposed to come home with me on that train. I wasn’t supposed to have to do this alone. Not after knowing what it’s like not to be.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you before,” he said.

“Probably not. I just transferred.”

“Oh.” He offered his hand. The red-haired boy hesitated, then allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. When he saw his face, it took everything he had not to recoil.

The light of dead stars won’t falter when their lives flicker out. As long as there’s someone to see it, that starlight will always find them, as I will always find you. When the stars reach for you from a million miles away you will remember how it felt to be home.

I never wanted to have to learn how to remember you. I always had a shit memory for faces. This isn’t right. It isn’t fair.

“Are you—?” The boy’s face fell, sensing his distress. “Are you okay?”

What could he say? I think I’ve dreamed about you? That he knew his face from nightmares? That he had seen him with his guts punched out, seen him smiling and laughing and dying, with clarity that belonged more to a memory than a dream?

He looked down at their hands, still wound together.

It was never going to be fair.

You lying bastard. You promised.

“Yeah,” he said, forcing a smile until it felt real. “Sorry. Tired. I’m Jotaro. Kujo.”

The boy smiled back with a familiar gentleness.

“My name’s Noriaki,” he said. “Noriaki Kakyoin.”

It was not recognition, when they looked at one another, but the feeling of an echo, the answer to a promise made in another lifetime. They stared at each other curiously, each struck by the sense that this, the first time, was not the first time at all; that this moment had come a million times before and would come a million times again.

You will never be alone. You will never be alone. You will never be alone.

They knew exactly what to expect, and at the same time, knew nothing at all.

IX.

où t’es papa où t’es? où t’es où t’es où papa, où t’es?

Irene stared at the ceiling and waited for her heartbeat to slow. A cool breeze reached her through the open window, and she shivered a little when the goosebumps rose on her shoulders, unwilling to pull the sheets she had kicked off in her sleep back up lest she disturb the notoriously light sleeper at her side. Irene had asked her to close the windows before bed, but she found it difficult to be irritated in any sort of meaningful way.

“Mmmmh.”

“Sorry,” Irene said. “Tried t—”

“Not your fault,” Hermés mumbled, rolling over. She looked blearily up at Irene. “Had the dream again?”

“You can tell.”

“Pulse’s going nuts.”

“So?”

“So it—you know, that’s what woke me up.” She leaned back on her elbows and rolled her neck. “You okay?”

“Sure. Fine.”

“Don’t be a dumbass—hey!”

Irene giggled as Hermés tried and failed to block the pillow with her wrist mid-swing. She wasn’t above banking on things such as morning slowness.

“You’re annoying,” Hermés declared, sinking back down to pull the blankets over her head.

“You love it.”

“I tolerate it.”

“Yeah.” Irene stretched, wincing when her shoulders popped. “Are you gonna want coffee?”

“That shit makes me crazy.”

“You—like, you do understand, you say that every morning and then come over and drink mine anyway.”

The blankets muffled her snort. “What was that you just said about loving it?”

“Oh, fuck yourself.”

“Isn’t that your j—don’t hit me with that thing again!”

Irene laughed and dropped her pillow. “You’re the worst.”

“Yep,” Hermés said proudly. “Don’t ever forget it.”

“Like I—like you’d let me.” The hardwood floor was cold against her feet, still bare despite her father’s repeated stating that if it bothered her so much she should be wearing slippers. On paper Irene was holding out for carpet. If she was honest with herself she knew he was right about cold floors helping her wake up faster, but she certainly wouldn’t have dreamed of saying that to his face.

She leaned over her discarded pillow to kiss Hermés on the cheek.

“Love you,” mumbled Hermés. “Whatever.”

Her smile lingered as she stepped into the quiet hallway, careful to avoid the creaky floorboards just outside her door that had betrayed her so often as a teenager before she learned to sneak back in through the window if she wanted to avoid both her fathers and the consequences of being caught. These days she avoided them out of habit as much as consideration for the others.

She ran her hand absently over the photographs that lined the wall as she passed, stopping to straighten the frames she found crooked. Hermés had made it up there a little over a month ago, represented by a half-stained Polaroid that was treated with the same reverence as the wedding photos that hung above it. She grinned out at Irene, her arms around a disgruntled and very sandy Emporio, though he had only allowed the corner of his face into the picture.

Emporio and F.F. weren’t much for photos, but at least they didn’t make an effort to duck out of frame like Weather did. It certainly wasn’t enough to dissuade her stepfather in any case.

Why’re you so into pictures? she had asked him once, waving a developing photograph gently in front of her face.

He shrugged, smiling. I like to make copies of my memories. You never know how much time you’ve got.

Kinda grim.

I don’t think of it that way. I think we should be proud of living so much that’s worth remembering.

“You’re up early.”

She glanced at the kitchen clock, still persistently running six minutes too fast. Jesus. “Didn’t realize.” Silently she thanked Hermés for not being more ornery about the six a.m. wake up call. “Where’s Noriaki?”

“Still asleep.” Jotaro glanced up from his book. “Water’s already warm.”

“You’re great,” she mumbled. “He got back okay?”

“Mm. Just a little later than he expected.”

“How’re they?”

He paused. “Apparently they might actually…get married. Legally, I mean.”

Irene nearly dropped the mug she was holding. “Are you fucking with me?”

Jotaro chuckled at her expression and shook his head.

“No,” he said. “Mohammed said they’ve been talking, but. Likely means it’ll be years before they’re ready to make a decision, you know—forget acting on it.”

“Christ,” she muttered. “I’m gonna lose the bet.”

“The…?” He laughed again. “You made a bet?”

“I thought—well, I thought it wouldn’t happen at all. I mean, we were all, it was crazy enough when they admitted they were together.”

“I remember.”

“They were living together for, like, how long? Before that?”

“Five years. Give or take.”

“You see—!”

Jotaro closed his book carefully. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” he said. “Just remember what I told you about making bets. Never—”

“Never bet something you aren’t ready to lose.” Irene rolled her eyes. “Pretty standard advice, you know.”

“For good reason.”

The smell of cut grass wafted through the open window, accompanied by the early morning chill. It wouldn’t be burned away by the sun for another few hours at the very least. Irene moved to close it, but the salty ocean air stopped her, coaxing her into accepting a little cold in order to let it through.

“You’re still tired,” Jotaro said, watching her out of the corner of his eye.

Irene shrugged. “Fucked up dreams.”

He nodded. “Remember any of them?”

“Not really,” she lied, shaking out the coffee grinder with more than necessary force. “Just didn’t sleep great.”

“Hermés still here?”

“It’s just for another night,” she said quickly. She shifted uncomfortably. “She had, like…she didn’t really tell me. I think probably some, a fight with her sister or—”

“Irene.” Jotaro shook his head, smiling. “She can stay as long as she needs. Just wanted to know.”

“Right. Yeah.”

She glanced at the long, thin birthmark that stretched from her father’s forehead to his chin.

“You ever heard of that shit that’s like—you know, that’s like your birthmarks are how you died in the, in a past life?”

He rested his chin on one hand, eyes on her back. “I’ve heard of it.”

“Kind of fucked up, right?”

“I guess the….”

Irene turned to face him.

“…it would depend on the birthmark,” Jotaro said, scratching unconsciously at his forehead. “You’d have something serious to account for, I think.”

She snorted. “And you wouldn’t?”

“I don’t exactly…put stock in it, I suppose. In things like that.”

“Not enough cited sources, huh?”

“Something like that.” His smirk faded. “I think—well, I…it’s not important.”

“I’ve been having dreams about it,” Irene said quickly, before she could lose her nerve. “Like, seeing shit happen to all of us. With the birthmarks.”

She gestured vaguely in his direction. “Your face. Getting. I…yeah.”

Jotaro narrowed his eyes. “Nightmares?”

“I guess.”

Childish to say that they felt more like memories than dreams, or that she often woke up feeling cold and sad, dissatisfied in a way she couldn’t quite explain. Staring at her side in the mirror, at the patchy blotch of a birthmark she’d had since childhood, trying to shake off the phantom feeling of a knife. Recently, but less frequently, she had found herself watching her father more closely than usual just to be sure that his face was still in one piece.

The chair creaked when she dropped heavily into it and she froze for a moment, waiting for the telltale sounds of feet on the hardwood.

“You know,” Jotaro said slowly. “I used to have those.”

Irene blinked. “You mean nightmares?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “Was about your age. A little younger, I guess.”

“They’re a pain in the ass,” she muttered.

“Used to dream I was seeing Noriaki get punched clean through.”

She paused, hand frozen mid-nervous tap on the table. “…Really.”

“Mhm.”

The star-shaped discoloration that took up the better part of Kakyoin’s torso that had fascinated Irene ever since she was a child. She held on to old memories of Jotaro half-heartedly telling her not to stare and Kakyoin laughing brightly when she poked at his stomach.

“Did you ever…tell him?”

“Not at the time.” He shook his head. “We had just met. Would have been a little strange to tell my new friend ‘hey, I’ve been dreaming about your disembowelment’.”

Irene laughed. “If there’s anyone who would take that in stride—”

“—it would be him, I know. Which is—I did tell him. Much later.”

“Tell him what?”

“Dreams.” Jotaro allowed Kakyoin to lean on his shoulders, wincing slightly when elbows dug into his back. “I told you not to sneak up on me.”

“Not my fault you don’t hear me coming,” Kakyoin said. “We aren’t all huge and loud.”

“I’m not loud.”

Kakyoin raised his eyebrows at Irene over the top of her father’s head. She looked away to hide her smile.

“I thought you didn’t buy into that dream reading stuff.” He squinted at the mug in his hands, unable to make out the text. Irritating to need glasses for that sort of thing, but he often expressed that he knew things could be worse. “Jotaro, which one is this?”

“Aquarium. And I don’t,” he added. “Doesn’t mean I can’t talk about it.”

“Sounded like you were talking about your old ones.”

Irene glanced at him and Jotaro shrugged.

“They were…well, you know.”

Kakyoin nodded and yawned. A bird wailed outside, song too shrill to make out a melody.

“You ever think about birthmark reincarnations, Noriaki?”

He blinked. “The—the what?”

“Birthmarks are how you died in a past life.” Irene took a sip of coffee and grimaced. She had been too distracted to remember sugar. “That’s what I’ve heard, I mean.”

“Oh, God, no.” He shuddered. “I mean—I hope not. Look at your dad’s face.”

“Me?” Jotaro stared at him. “What about you?”

“Well…I guess.”

Kakyoin fell silent, watching cream spread like a cloud through the dark liquid. It drove Jotaro crazy, usually, that he rarely bothered with stirring it at all.

“I just don’t like,” he said slowly, “the idea of it all having happened before.”

“I don’t really mind it,” Kakyoin mused. “Second chances are nice.”

Jotaro smiled, shaking his head. “You would look at it like that.”

“And what—what does that mean?”

“Nothing bad—Noriaki!”

Kakyoin grinned and ducked out of the way, winking at Irene. Little surprise that she had developed a fondness for throwing pillows at Hermés, after learning how to be in love by growing up with the two of them.

Jotaro shook his ruffled hair like a large and disgruntled dog.

“I’ll be outside,” Kakyoin told them, pulling his coat from a crowded rack near the door.

“Aren’t you—” Jotaro glanced at the glittering frost only just beginning to melt away from the windowsill. “Isn’t it cold?”

“Well, of course.” He stopped, hand on the doorframe. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“‘There’ll be time to be comfortable when I’m dead’,” Irene said.

“That was…” Jotaro groaned, getting to his feet. “That was about something different.”

He did take up an amazing amount of space, Irene thought. She had always found it comforting.

“Dad,” she said. “Thank you.”

Jotaro set his half-empty mug on the counter. “For?”

“Just—I don’t know. Thank you.”

He paused, turning to watch her with a strange expression that slowly became a smile.

“You’re what matters,” Jotaro said. “You always will be.”

[omgstandcatsoulmateme]

9 Lives of Jotaro Kujo and Star Platinum

Prologue. First live passed.

The soul of man after death have to reborn in another body. And what about stand users, because the stand shares with its master one body, mind and soul? This is true, and therefore, stands accompany their masters and after death. And now, you will read how it happens.

- Jotaro... - a soft voice came from the forest, surrounded by darkness.

- Who's here?! -Jotaro asked the darknees with fighty tone while slowly looked around in search of potential enemy. Though the answer was not forthcoming, the young man who tempered in battles, looking for the catch. Just looking at the master, Star stood in a fighting stance, but he understood, Jotaro is safe.

- You have nothing to fear - the voice answered, it was quiet, affectionate and gentle.

- Yare Yare Daze, it's weird, but we're used to it. What do you think they want from us?

"I don't know, but I want to know," Star replied and turned to the voice. "Who are you and what do you want?"

- I'm just the one who started the starlight. I can't tell you who I am, but you can guess.

"Uh, piano in the bushes?"

- Hehehe, you are friendlier than your master.

- One who hides himself, hides his intentions, so show yourself! - Jotaro growled menacingly.

"And because you can't express your emotions," Star teased.

"Shut up" guy grumbled angerlessly, mentally agreeing with his stand.

- Hehe, so be it - from the darkness came a ghost that took form of a tall man with black hair and sparkling like stars in his dark blue eyes.

- Your face does look familiar, I didn't beat it earlier? - with suspicion and asked, Jotaro.

- No, you weren't born when I was alive. I can't say my name yet, but in the next life, we'll talk more.

- So, what do you want from us? - Jotaro asked.

- I want that Star lead you to your next life - spirit answered - And I'll lead you from this woods. You are agree?

"What do we lose?" Star asked, following the spirit of the past.

"Life" grumbles Jotaro.

"You cannot lose what you don't have" the spirit led them through the black forest of the dead, ruled by darkness and blood. He was clearly uncomfortable with the view of this place. The border between the living and the dead forest was already visible, illuminated by the pale light of the moon.

- Is that too far?

- No, it remains to cross the river and and another forest. We're almost there, you'll see. - spirit replied as he stepped on the rocks in the river. They were already in the forest at night, in the river behind them floated a huge gold-red fish - dragons.

"This place is very... Peaceful, don't you think?" Star asked, glancing at Jotaro.

"Yeah, very," short and dry answer came from youth's mouth. Jotaro, though not admitting it, remembered the cherries that grew behind the school. During breaks he liked to watch the blossoms, and on ordinary days he and Star lay on a branch of one of the cherry trees and looked at the sky. The woods behind the school and the house were their territory. After passing through the forest and coming to the mansion, they stopped.

- This is where we part, my friends. Good luck and see you - the spirit flapping his wings, disappeared, leaving behind two flight feathers.

"Who do you think he was?" Star asked softly, looking at the place where their guide had just been.

"No idea, and this is doesn't matters, we are here" Star rolled his eyes from dryness of his master, which he didn't like. Entering the mansion, Jotaro watched the rich decoration, the stand noted the symmetry that indicated the English stiffness, showing all the greatness of the former owner. The air in the room was somewhat compressed, from which they became not on itself, and the surrounding darkness made it clear that there is no life, no death, only the oppressive emptiness.

"I don't like it here, but we have no way back," Star whispered.

"The spirit said you should take me to new life and such nonsense."

"It's true, I feel like I'm changing, becoming a different being. But don't worry, it won't affect you."

"Wait!" Jotaro grabbed his arm, which became a huge front paw. "And what will happen to you?! You're a part of me, can't you come with me?" fear crept in boy's voice. Star was his loyal friend, the quiet protector. But the smile on the cat's face erased his worry.

"I'll always be with you, Jotaro, we need to talk" before the boy stood a huge winged cat: a cat face was like carved from stone, he was wearing his famous gold headband that kept his bangs, from bangs was fluffiest mane covering his head, neck and part of chest. Mane, stripes and coating the feathers were all covered with stars, all this contrasted with the purple fur on all paws have been modified gloves and boots.

"What do you want to tell me?"

"Just a few things you need to know so you don't have any questions in your next life" they walked around the mansion, the stairs behind the stairs were left behind. They walked together, staying mentally a single entity.

"As you may have noticed, I've become a huge beast, many stands will be reborn as these animals, not cats, but still"

"And what is the reason, it doesn't look like a trick or the attack of enemies,"

"There can be several reasons: firstly, past life, our appearance, as we were stands, the presence of personality, name and so on" "Jolyne's going to be okay?"

"Yes, she and Stone Free will be reborn too, and if you want to ask or say about Pucci, I feel like I'm going to tear him to pieces" they came to the attic, where they climbed. Jotaro was shocked: Star, the most gentle and kind of all stands, wanted to kill someone, or rather get revenge. They opened the door, bright light fell from it, and the two warriors walked to the gate.... Thanks for reading!

[dragoneko]

JJBA part 6 volume 16 reactions

second to last volume!!! shit’s about to go down

- i see we pick up right where i forgot we left off, with Pucci screaming and covered in blood

- Get Punched

- “i’m totally not making excuses for my life, nope, not me right now, don’t fuckin do it i’m just asking politely”

- sudden car crash interrupts murder drama

- it’s Jolyne and Hermes! And they stole holes guy

- shit!!

- Jolyne is here for murder

- YEET

- oh no

- ; ;

- the snails are gone but at what cost

- weather didn’t deserve any of this honestly

- car nap

- Hermes is fuckin Hyped for reptiles!!

- “cameras are allowed but large bass are usually checked” Hey sir, that fish is too big, can you step over here to the metal detector please No, your backpack is fine, we check bass here, not bags

- Pucci is still covered in blood and no one noticed

- there is no such thing as centrifugal force, it’s centripetal force

- oh his eyes went crazy

- do you believe in gravity? here at Cape Canaveral where apparently gravity is weaker and we blast rockets into outer space? Absolutely not

- local priest fucks up physics

- that guy complaining he lost his drink meanwhile “good deeds” man lost a chunk of his cerebellum

- they’re letting Emporio drive that’s a child

- “toss me my map!” “i thought you said printer!” “why would i say printer??”

- “Pucci’s going to hide in the museum for three days straight like a gremlin”

- bunny! :> (what horrible thing is gonna happen to this bunny...)

- oh a screaming couple.... okay...

- murder dust????

- oh fuck that’s lots of dead people??

- Oh and some heavy traffic

- Florida is real flat you really don’t want to fall sideways there

- OH SHIT HERMES

- “because of gravity this earth continues to revolve!” and look what you’ve done to it, you’ve fucked it up. you took a perfectly good gravity and gave it anxiety

- “if she’s not dead she’ll eventually come back! that’s just how she is!” pppfffttt wow okay

- /people screaming for help so they don’t fall to death Jolyne: eh it’s not too bad deal with it

- OH HEY it’s a creepy green fucker!!

- White snake: wrestler form! now with mask and new skirt style

- AH FUCK

- *Hand violence sirens go bezerk, then fuckin fall off the face of the earth sideways*

- this is real fucked up and i don’t appreciate it

- “What the hell?!” Anasui with the mood

- it’s got all sorts of acrobatics now, and arrows pointing in just all directions huh

- hi that force you just described there, the one where everything is pulled toward a gravitational center? that’s centripetal force. the one you keep ignoring in favor of fake things.

- also the ability to turn things inside out is fucked up

- memory + half space = inside out gravity this formula works because you simply take out half of what you remember about what the stands do, something something, ...space. inside out space! and that’s just science

- ah fuck

- *spongebob background guy voice* “my leg!”

- hey that would be neat if that worked but something tells me it won’t, maybe because this is jojo and if it can get more graphic it will

- oh wait i spoke too soon, she did un-reverse her limbs

- Jolyne: i’ll heal myself don’t doubt me C-Moon: /crazy hand movements

- Anasui: Emporio you gotta move faster you’re wasting my kicking-ass-with-Jolyne time!!

- Anasui tries one (1) thing and nearly dies

- Wrangled!

- Jolyne is ready to break so many bones if it means throwing down

- ah the military is here and they can’t do anything about it, surprise surprise

- rip helicopter people

- hey Anasui now is not the time for arm self-sacrifice when your arms are holding you up from death

- /the hand violence sirens are still going at it but only the military guys can hear it at this point

- Oh and look who’s decided to show the fuck up

- “C moon strength: zero” uh excuse you it punched shit too

- The fuck is he doing now

- we already had a reverse gravity stand guy though, and he made everyone piss themselves

- well shit

- this isn’t good folks, how’s there another volume after this

- Pucci: this isn’t a power grab, no definitely not, i definitely am not doing this because i felt powerless to make decisions before this, like about the truth about weather, nope, not me! I’m in it for other people’s happiness! you know like all those people i murdered! :)

- dude your phone’s ringing, you’ve got a call from the boss

- Jotaro’s “some asshole is trying to become immortal, also my daughter is doing something reckless” senses have activated

- Jotaro, hanging sideways off of a building somewhere halfway to the space center, texting in full sentences

- maybe she lived because you don’t know what centripetal force is

- Emporio: where are you going!? Anasui: tch. murder ofc

- my prediction: she used the weather disk to air pressure her organs back together or something

- “our plans are above petty feelings of justice!” you heard it here first, Pucci is here to be gay and do crimes

- “she must be here, i found one of her pants cheese-its”

- Anasui... dude... is not good at dodging punches

- ah fuck jeez...........

- Anasui out here doing bone art i guess??

- now it’s Pucci’s turn to get an indented face

- Oh but he gets to survive squashing his brain, huh?

- threatening face touch

- Pucci sufficiently spooked

- Pucci really out here disrespecting his surroundings real hard

- Grabbed

- welcome back to the wrestling match

- Oh my god mobius strip!! Fantastic

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