Chapter Text
It probably ended differently in another time and in another universe. The world wouldn’t be able to correct itself. Generations of passion would go unnoticed, sinking to the bottom with forgotten masks wedged between red stones and skewered swords.
This was not that ending.
It started with a request, and here they both were, shuffling down the sidewalk with throbbing red noses. The few centimeters of snow from last Friday had melted back down into the sewer drains, but it was still cold as hell. The November weather wasn’t always kind in Morioh.
Josuke tried burying his face deeper into the warmth of his uniform’s collar, but gave up with a sigh as the tips of his ears were still stinging and raw to the touch. Besides, they were almost inside anyways. The entrance to the Morioh Grand Hotel was only a block away. He wished Okuyasu would just teleport them to the glass doors. Instead, his friend blew puffs of his hot breath into the air, watching the tiny clouds dissipate into the atmosphere.
Was it weird bringing your pal with you to meet your half-sister for the first time? There really wasn’t a help book about this sort of topic. Then again, he probably wouldn’t have read it, anyhow. Don’t get it wrong, he was flattered she wanted to meet him. Better late than never, right? Still, this was Jotaro’s mom. She was going to be intense. Probably wore leather. She’d have a permanent scowl, give him a punch on the shoulder and call him ‘squirt’. Maybe even ‘mamma’s boy’.
He invited Okuyasu for extra support, on the condition he would keep his comments about Holly’s appearance to himself. That, and the draft in his friend’s house this time of year was insane. Saving the power in the generator for air conditioning in the summer had some drawbacks. He could’ve asked Okuyasu to steal candy from a child with terminal meningitis for some time in a warm home. That and ice cream, or really any food. Wow, it was really easy to bribe-
Baap!
“Ahh! Mother- shit!” Okuyasu stumbled backwards, covering his forehead that had just made direct contact with the swinging door. Josuke ignored this. His attention was on his nephew stepping outside.
Josuke rubbed the back of his neck. “Hey, Jotaro!”
“You’re late.”
“Oh. Uh, sorry about that.” He watched Jotaro for any reaction to the apology. All he got was a frown and a dead pane stare. Damn, the guy hardly even blinked. “It took a while to convince Mom I was spending the night at Koichi’s.”
“Cab.”
“H-huh, come again?”
“Why didn’t you take a cab?”
“Oh. Just trying to save a yen or two here or there. University isn’t going to pay for itself, ya know?”
Actually, he had been eyeing a pair of gold trimmed cuff links for the past week now. Jotaro didn’t question his intentions. In fact, he seemed uninterested in the conversation at all. He just sighed, pulling his hat over his eyes while mumbling, “Good grief,” under his breath.
The three made their way to the rental vehicle. There wasn’t an objection to Okuyasu getting into the back seat. Josuke may or may not have announced his friend’s addition to the dinner. At worst he got was a glare from the driver. Or maybe the stern lines etched on the biologist’s face were accentuated by the flash of car lights whizzing by.
There was a smell of past owners in the car from the ashtray. Years of multiple cigarette brands perfumed the tan nylon seats. It took two good turns of the key before the engine growled, shaking the hood ever slightly.
“Good Evening Morioh!” The radio blared, recapping the news before the weak signal turned to static.
—-
Stepping outside, the chilled little particles in the air seemed to stab extra hard at the new swollen orb on Okuyasu’s forehead. He squinted, grimacing from leaving the confines of the warm carbon dioxide enveloping the car.
“Ohm...” Was his first response at looking at the place. The house was fairly big. Single story, but it was probably bigger than his first glance gave him. The foliage disguised the connected rooms that travelled further back into the weeds.
He heard Jotaro say, “Sorry,” before opening the door. It was only until Jotaro pointed to his forehead that he got the memo.
“S’ fine.” Okuyasu slipped off his shoes inside. He felt a finger tap above where his scars crossed, therefore crossing his eyes to make out Crazy Diamond coming and going in an instant. He felt much better now.
It only took seconds for Jotaro to state, “She’s not here,” with deadly accuracy.
Josuke stopped placing his shoes on the floor. “Should we wait outside-?”
“Warm up in here. I’ll be back”
“Wait, what-“
The sliding door locked.
The walls were beige and the floors were another shade of brown. Boring . The minimalist design left Okuyasu’s mind to wander. Really the only decorations of interest were a few framed photos scattered across the shelves. “Oi, Josuke. Whose that?”
Josuke peered over his shoulder. “I think that’s Mr. Joestar.”
“Why is he wearing a crop-top?”
“Guess that was the style in the forties.”
“Huh… whose that?”
“Bro, that’s Jotaro.”
“What a fucking edgelord.”
“Dude-”
“Whose that?”
Josuke pulled the picture of the shelf, pulling it close to his face. “I think that could be my grandmother. Could be wrong.”
“Whose that?”
Josuke shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Oh. Then who's that?”
“Bro, I have no damn clue.” Most of what he knew of his family was the words of his father and nephew. The photos were almost stock images, total strangers. “Where are you going?”
Okuyasu had gotten bored of quizzing Josuke on his family knowledge. Now there was absolutely nothing interesting in the room. Forgetting the cold he was trying to escape an hour earlier, he stepped out onto the outdoor walkway toward the other rooms. “Exploring.”
“Okuyasu! Get back inside, man.” Josuke jogged up to his friend peeking through the translucent paper panels of the rooms. “This is like peeping-Tom levels of rude.”
“I’m not spying on chicks in the bathroom, idiot.” He slid open a panel to sneak a look, then put it back in place. “As guests, we should be given a tour of the place. A self-guided tour is better than none.”
“You don’t just snoop around in someone else’s house. You wouldn’t do that- you haven’t done this when I’ve invited you over, right?”
He ignored his friend’s question. One: he was invested in his new quest. Second: the answer was not what Josuke wanted to hear. The knowledge where Tomoko stored the extra supply of bubble bath would surely come in handy someday.
“Okuyasu…”
“SEA MONKEYS!”
Okuyasu ran past the shoji and ignored all of the other tanks in the office for the tiny bowl labeled ‘Sea Monkeys’ in the desk. He turned on the lamp to see the little creatures swimming in sporadic circles. There were hundreds of them in the bowl. This did not stop him from trying to give them all names. So far there was Aki, Hana, Takadoshikuto, Eggroll, and Gorilla. Eggroll was the immediate favorite.
“Guess he moved his whole freakin’ zoo here while visiting.” Josuke flicked on the lights. The Morioh Grand Hotel wouldn’t allow aquatic guests to check in. Jotaro has renovated his childhood room into his research lab. Saltwater starfish and giant slugs clung lazily to the sides of the aquariums. An oranda goldfish here. Moon jellies floating upwards in a cylinder tank there. Okuyasu was right. This was a much more interesting space.
“Okay, we saw more stuff.” Josuke tugged on his friend’s collar. “Now we should get going before Jotaro comes back.”
“Have you read any of his journals before?” Okuyasu stayed in place. He was watching a sea monkey hatch. Or maybe it was pooping. Either way, he giggled in fascination.
“No. No I haven’t.”
“I don’t get that science shit. Too many big words, ya’ know?”
Josuke flipped through the scattered notebooks on the desk. There were a lot of big words. Turritopsis dohrnii. Pyloric stomachs. Dropsy disease. It was like his biology textbook, and he gagged on reflex. He understood a sketch of sea floor elevation around the coast. He noticed his eye was taken away from the words and now towards the loose sketches. Most of them were renditions of different fish bones. There was the ribs of a bottlenose dolphin, and the spikes of a lionfish. One skull had the shape of a cow, and another fish resembled an arrow-
Wait.
Amongst the piles of marine anatomy charts, Josuke pulled out a diagram of the stand arrow. It was the same shape as the one tucked away in Kira’s house, and the other that have plunged in self into Koichi’s two years ago. The hairs on his neck stood up.
The date in the corner was November 12, 2001.
That was two days ago. The sketch outlining the delicate details of the weapon had been finished after Jotaro had came back to Morioh. Josuke was led to the obvious conclusion the referenced item in question…
He opened the drawer under the desk. He tried closing it nonchalantly.
Okuyasu’s neck snapped away from Eggroll. “Oh shit, is that a stand arrow?”
Damn. Before he could close it, Okuyasu snatched up the arrow with ease.
“Dude! Put that back!” Josuke jumped to grab the arrow, but Okuyasu went higher than he could reach. The Hand has erased a tiny amount of air above his user’s head.
“Chill out. I lived with one of these bad ma’ama jammas for years. I know how to hold these things.”
This did not comfort Josuke.
“I thought you said he gave this to the Speedwagon Foundation?”
“He did. At least, that’s what he told us.”
Okuyasu felt the warmth of arrow’s handle in his palm. The faint pulse made him stiffen. “Do you think this is another one?”
“Possibly.” Josuke took a step forward. Okuyasu took a step back. “What pisses me off is him bringing one back so close to Morioh. It’s a little too soon.”
“Yeah. I guess so.”
“Let’s put it back and just stay in the living room.”
“I guess you’re right.” He looked down at the arrow in his hand. It’s tip reflected the waves the tiny filters made in the tanks.
…
“Okuyasu.”
“Hmm?”
“Put it back in the drawer.”
Okuyasu did not move.
“Whatever you’re thinking… no.”
---
“Okay, but you can only throw it once. Once. And you can only throw it at that tree.” Josuke let Crazy Diamond float over to the black skeleton of the plum blossom tree meters outside of Jotaro’s office. “It’s already dead. A tree stand is not needed in this world and never will be.”
“Hell yeah.” Keicho had never let Okuyasu ever use their bow and arrow. It was probably for good reason, but he had matured. Last week he got a seventy-five on his math test. Clearly, there was a tangible sign of growth. Forget graduation, this would be the defining ceremony of his adulthood.
Okuyasu aimed for the center of the trunk. Crazy Diamond vanished as he raised his elbow back. “Take this- bitch!”
The arrow speared it’s way toward the tree, spinning in a clockwise motion. It did not hit the trunk, but rather smashed into the spiderweb of top branches. Twigs and branches flew in every direction. Splitters rained down like a light snowfall. The plum blossom skeleton looked bald, or got a friar’s haircut.
“Dammit!” Okuyasu stomped on walkway. The Hand swiped the arrow back into his user’s grasp. “I was so close!”
Josuke stepped down to the shattered remains. His sister would surely notice half of the tree lying around on the ground. Sure, it was dead, but it wasn’t a good impression breaking something in someone else’s house. The warm glow of Crazy Diamond reaching out for the broken limbs helped deflect the chill in the air.
Just a little lower, Okuyasu thought. That’s it? Damn! He had been practicing his aim at swiping away air with The Hand for a while now, and he would say he had gotten pretty good at it. It really busted his balls how he couldn’t chuck a stupid arrow where he wanted. The arrow seemed to feel the sentiment. It’s tip slowly pointed upward to the trunk once more.
Just a little lower…
SnnaaAHP!
“Oh SHIT!” Okuyasu darted to the tree. Even if he said it felt like the arrow had changed trajectory on its own, that didn’t change the fact it had gone straight through Crazy Diamond’s hand mid-restoration. “Josuke! I-I’m so sorry dude! Hold on.” He grabbed the handle and pulled. The visible pieces of Crazy Diamond’s arm shattered. Bright flashing lights illuminated from the cracks.
“What?” Okuyasu shouted, stumbling back. He turned his head away from the breaking stand. He found Josuke crumbling into the ground. His throat made a gurgling sound as foam trickled down the corners of his mouth. The whites of his eyes pushed his pupils up into his skull.
“Josuke!” He slapped his friend on the back, but he stayed unresponsive on the freezing grass.
If piercing a person without a stand gave you the power, would impaling a stand do the opposite? Did he just break Crazy Diamond?
Did he just kill Josuke?
“Shit! Shit! SHIT!” he grabbed Josuke’s prone form under the arms and heaved. Piss and mist, why was he so heavy? He only got a few meters before his friend’s body became impossible to move. He’d have to use The Hand to drag Crazy Diamond.
More cracks ravaged the frozen stand as The Hand tried pulling it by the arm.
“Dammit! Why did it have to be me?” He tried taking in a calming breath, but the cold stung his lungs. “Okay. Okay. Gentle.”
As delicately as a reality ripping spirit could, The Hand picked up Crazy D. by the waist, both stand and user inching back into the front room.
What do you do when someone’s choking? It took Okuyasu a few moments to remember before laying Josuke on his side. He placed the arrow inside his coat before getting down on both knees. He listened for- something. Breathing. A Heartbeat. Josuke calling him a dumbass. Anything. Too bad he couldn’t hear anything over his own erratic heartbeat.
“Come on man.” Okuyasu shook Josuke’s shoulder. “Yur’ being a real dick right now. C-come on, say something!”
Josuke continued to shake on the floor. His stand stayed frozen in time, like the weather had finally took hold of it.
Okuyasu heard something scrape across the carpet. He whipped around. There, around the door, vines began slipping between the frame.
An enemy stand user? Now? Okuyasu rose to his feet. He pushed Josuke under the shelves. No one was allowed to hurt his best pal. Well, no one except himself, apparently.
He shook his head around to focus. He rested his weight on his back leg. The vines wrapped around the door’s lock. The Hand appeared with its right arm at the ready. He winced as the sound of Josuke struggling to breath stopped. Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead.
Alright ya’ punk slab of meat. Okuyasu thought. Once you open that door, your heads comin’ right off!
The door opened.
The Hand vanished.
“Oi, Jotaro! And uh- you. Hehe. I don’t think we’ve met before.”
The woman held out her hand covered in vines expecting an American handshake. The other arm carried bags of groceries. “You can call me Holly. You must be Okuyasu. Jotaro said you’d be joining us tonight!”
“Oh. Y-yes Ma’am.” He took her hand and awkwardly shook it up and down a few times.
“And where’s our man of the hour?”
“Uh-”
“Right here.”
Okuyasu looked over his shoulder to see Josuke standing behind him. Upright. Completely fine. Not dying in the corner.
“Josuke!” Holly embraced her brother in quick hug. The vines kept the grocery bags from falling. “It’s so nice to finally meet you! Jotaro, could you please put the cake and tempura on the table?”
Jotaro grunted, making his way past the other to the set table. Okuyasu watched Josuke’s face for an explanation, or maybe a confirmation that he was alright. All he got was an empty stare before Holly let go of him.
She clapped her hands together, the vines vanishing. “Let’s eat!”