Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Good morning! You are listening to Morioh-cho Radio!” a lively voice shouted from a radio speaker inside one of many houses around town tuning into the station, allowing them to listen both the cheerfulness and charisma the radio’s host owned “Today, you are once again meeting your guide and neighbor, Kai Harada!”

“Ah~, such a refreshing morning…” the host sighed in relief to quickly comment on the weather, changing his tone to portrait a playful one as he added, not wasting the chance to play a theme song fitting for the subject “I just have the perfect song to start this day! Here is the first song of today’s morning!”

As it was cued, a lively melody started to play while the host went quiet, filling the silence of the air of a certain kitchen with its upbeat tune while the muted sound of the TV playing the news’ report echoed on the living room as the married woman cooked breakfast for her spouse and herself, enjoying the domesticity of her home and her routine.

However, not everything was what it seemed because, as she placed a plate full of two slices of bacon and a starry egg for her spouse after serving a glass of fresh orange juice for him to eat, the “woman” placed her severed pale hand above the dining table while a stream of her fresh blood poured out from the grotesque wound to the table and then towards the floor, allowing the pool of her blood on the floor to get bigger and bigger as more and more blood dripped from the source.

.

♡

.

At the outskirts of the town, a taxi could be seeing driving across the long road towards the small town’s heart with the goal of dropping the newcomer seated on the back of the car, who had remained quiet for most part of the journey and had done as little as he could of small talking with the man driving the vehicle.

“Oh, now’s fixed” the man behind the wheel commented to fill the silence as the radio that was previously malfunctioning came back to life, dropping his eyes for a second to throw a quick look to it before nodding his head towards the giant tower antenna they were passing bay as he spoke “Reception improves as you pass that tower”

At the lack of response from his passenger, the man quickly braced himself and decided that it was all or nothing since the awkward silence was killing him, dropping the question as nicely as he could with his best tone of voice to avoid pissing off the intimidating man on the back of the car “Is this your first time visiting Morioh-cho, sir?”

“Yes” the man dryly replied without any sing of annoyance on his voice, seemingly not bothered by the question and somewhat glad that it was him the one who initiated the small talk since that gave the chance to ask about the town he was traveling to “What is it like?”

“Morioh-cho?” the driver asked in disbelief, surprised to hear the attempt of starting a conversation from the other man’s part, hesitating a bit as he tried to find the right words to explain what a little town like Morioh was like for a foreign “Well… They prepare an excellent beef tongue in miso in here”

“Nothing strange has happened lately?”

“I don’t know” the driver replied with honesty, weirded out for the bizarre question but decided to awkwardly laugh it off as he quickly added “I apologize… I don’t know much of it”

Before he made things way more awkward than he already did and to avoid digging his grave any further, he quickly changed the topic to ask “Excuse me, sir, but where do I drop you?”

“At the station”

“As you wish, sir”

.

♡

.

Meanwhile, the mysterious man that has come to town shifted on the backseat to make himself comfortable on the seat before he crossed one of his long legs above the other as he shoved a couple of photographs he had been analyzing inside the inner pockets of his white trench coat, sighing in defeat and fatigue as he pushed aside the intrusive and painful thoughts he had been trying to ignore for a while.

“Give me a break…” he mumbled under his breath as felt his body sag with fatigue as he slumped against the back of the seat and looked out of the taxi’s window to stare at the passing landscape, allowing his piercing teal-blue eyed stare to narrow slightly as his agitation and apprehension grew more and more the closer he got to the town “I just hope that no further problems arise…”

.

♡

.

“In April 1999, on my first day of high school, I ran into two strange men”

Close to the center of the town, right where most frequented business stood, a young boy with grey hair, blue eyes, fair skin, below average height and average built wearing a green gakuran with brown shoes walked through the streets with a nervous smile on his face as he made his way towards school, seemingly anxious for how important the day seemed to be for him.

“I start high school today” the boy excitedly but nervously thought to himself, trying his best to ease his nerves as he took his time to walk to his new school, taking steady yet short steps to move due to his height “I wonder what type of people will be there…”

“My name is Hirose Koichi, though I guess it is not that important” the boy, whose name was Koichi, quickly added in a dismissing way, doing his best to dodge and not get in the way of the people rushing past him to reach their respective jobs or schools as he continued to make his way to his own destination “I was very nervous before my first day of school…”

Since he was a little busy with cheering himself to give himself some confidence and ease his anxieties, Koichi realized a little too late that he was about to crash with a pair of legs and, when he finally did, all he could do as he collided with some knees was choke and groan in pain due to how sturdy and insanely strong the legs were.

As he mentally prepared himself for the pain he would likely experience once he met the ground since the collision had thrown him off his feet, the small teen squeezed his eyes close and let go of his bag as he fell but, when no pain came, his eyes shot open in surprise before said surprise morphed into shock. Quickly, Koichi checked every inch of his body to find any wound that the fall could have caused, feeling both lost and confused as he found no wound on his body and realized that he was back on his feet when he could have sworn that he had been falling down just a few seconds ago.

What Koichi had failed to notice through his fall, however, were the two set of muscular cyan and light purple arms with white gloved hands that had shot out from behind the giant map of Morioh-cho the man Koichi had collided with had been trying to make sense of long before the crash, coming out in the right second to catch both the teen’s supplies that spilled out of his bag and the teen himself to prevent him from hurting himself further.

“Weird…” the grey haired teen mumbled as he lifted his left arm to check it before doing the exact same thing with his right one to check the bag he was carrying with himself, still confused beyond belief as his brain tried to make sense out of the situation “I could have sworn we collided and my stuff went flying…”

“It was my fault. I was distracted”

As the tall man spoke and his deep voice reached his ears, Koichi couldn’t help but jump back and squeak a little as he was pulled out from his thought and forced to look upwards to face the man that had thrown him out of his feet, finding him already looking down at him with a frown on his handsome, young features and narrowed teal-blue eyes.

The man in question was tall, way taller than any average man, and seemed to be around his late 20s, had tanned skin and appeared to be well-built even if his clothed and muscular arms weren’t enough indication of this; a fact that slightly intimidated the shorter teen for obvious reasons.

He also noticed that the man happened to be wearing purple dress shoes with black around its laces, white baggy trousers, two sets of multicolored belts with triangular patterns on them, a long white trench coat that reached his calves and had the same pattern of the belts on the sleeves close to the wrists, a small and golden heart pin on the right flap of the trench coat, a purple sweater over what looked to be a pastel yellow dress shirt and a white hat that seemed to blend with his jet black hair due to it being torn on the back and held two golden pins, one in the shape of a “J” and the other in the shape of a heart that held the open palm of a hand right in the middle.

In better circumstances, Koichi would have been weirded out for such strange choice of clothing but, admittedly, he knew he had seen worse. Besides, he was too busy panicking over the fact that he had crashed with a man way taller and stronger than him to bother to question his bizarre sense of fashion.

“He is huge!” Koichi couldn’t help but cry out loud as he craned his neck in a painful angle to be able to look at the man’s face, fascinated and slightly disturbed by the height difference between the two “Must be six feet tall!”

“Can I ask you something?” the man said in a calm manner to break Koichi out of his messy musings and cut the chase to save himself further headaches, unbothered by what the teen had just shouted “Do you happened to know any Higashikata in this town?”

“Higashikata?” Koichi mumbled to himself, quietly repeating the name the strange man had asked about as he went through the list of the acquaintances on his mind to try and find said name to give an answer but, once he came hands empty, he honestly replied with a sorry tone of voice “Sorry, but I don’t…”

“What about this address?” the other asked to try and get more information, swiftly pulling out a small black notebook from his trousers with his unoccupied right hand to read what he had previously written down prior to his arrival to Morioh to prevent him from forgetting it “Number 8, Johzenji Street 1…”

However, as the man (or rather Kujo Jotaro since Koichi found his name written down on the front of the small notebook’s cover) continued to read out loud the address he was given, the teen unconsciously tuned himself out of the conversation as his blue eyes sparkled with wonder and curiosity for the mysterious man in front of him, coming to understand a lot better why said man stood out like a sore thumb in Morioh.

He was a newcomer.

“Kujo Jotaro…”

.

♡

.

“Bus number 3 can take you to Johzenji” the grey haired teen informed him to try to help him with his quest as much as he could with what he knew, pointing at the small plaza that stood in the middle of an intersection of four different street were most buses made their stops to pick up their passengers “It should not take long to arrive”

“Thank you” Jotaro thanked the teen with a curt and imperceptible nod of the head to further demonstrate his thanks, grateful of his aid before turning around to start walking towards where the boy had pointed at to continue with his quest.

.

♡

.

“The first one was this man, Kujo Jotaro” Koichi said to himself, remembering the face of the first outsider that had come to town that crazy summer back in 1999 “Later on, I found out he was 28 years old and a marine biologist. His research still is prestigious in the scientific world”

.

♡

.

“He is a bit rough but smart… He is so cool!”

As Koichi watched Jotaro walk away from him, he couldn’t help but stare at the older male with a look full of wonder, admiration and curiosity for the impression he had left through their small encounter since, for what little he had gathered on the short-lived exchange, Jotaro seemed to leave a lasting effect on those he met.

However, the teen was forcibly brought out of his reverie when a nasal voice spoke behind his back, scaring him in the process for how far into his head he had gotten.

“Oi! Are you part of the new ones?” the owner of the voice, an ugly teen with blond hair styled in an uglier hairstyle and a bully, asked him with an arched eyebrow, prompting Koichi to quickly turn around to face him and his gang after letting out a terrified squeak “You have to greet us accordingly”

“Yes!” Koichi cried out with urgency, agreeing to do what the older teen had just said to him in order to avoid conflict and become a bullying target on his new school “My name is Hirose Koichi and I just joined the school!”

As he introduced himself, he deeply bowed to them before one of gang member did the same but without the depth of his bow, just doing the minimum to mimic the action “Good morning, senpai!”

“Good” a black-haired bully said from his spot close to the leader, clearly satisfied to see Koichi quavering below them as a response to their intimidation “That’s how we like it”

With all that was needed to say said, the group of bullies walked away from the shorter teen with an air of satisfaction surrounding them all, leaving him all by himself with Jotaro, who had stopped his walking when he noticed the bullies approaching the boy just in case.

“S-Scary…” Koichi mumbled in fear, feeling his heart beating erratically against his ribcage for the intimidating situation he had managed to escape from as he turned to look back at the older male, doing his best to reassure him that everything was fine in a whisper while pretending to be calm and collected so he could be the only one who heard him “Don’t worry, they will take another bus”

Before Jotaro could argue something to either brush his worries or reassure the teen that he would be find and he could take them, the nasal voice from before was heard once again across the little plaza, forcing both man and teen to look at the direction of where it came from, finding the same ugly teen from before messing with another student in order to intimidate them just as he had done with Koichi while one of his lackeys backed him up and the rest growled menacingly.

“What do you think you are doing, you bastard?!”

“Who do you think you are?!”

“What am I doing?” the teen, a young man sporting a well-maintained pompadour with two small, curved spikes on the back, asked puzzled at the group of bullies that loomed above him, blinking owlishly for a second before looking to the side to look at a turtle that was laying above the edge of the little pond inside the small plaza where the teen had squatted down to be close to the turtle and at its level “It seems that the pond turtle has awakened from hibernation”

With a small grimace on his face and slightly shaky fingers, he moved his hand towards the turtle’s shell to try to touch it, letting the tips of his fingers hover above it on a safe distance since he seemed to be too terrified to move them down any further.

“Since I've never been good at dealing with turtles, I'm afraid to touch it” he confessed with a panicked edge on his voice, trying his best to conceal the shivers and trembles that ran down his spine as he forced himself to keep moving his hand towards the harmless reptile “I figured it was time for me to face my fears”

“I didn’t ask you that!” the leader of the gang shouted in outrage, the blond, offended by the teen’s reply and his dismissive attitude.

“Get up, asshole!” the second in command, the black-haired teen, barked the order out rudely, forcing the young boy to stop what he was doing and do as he was told due to the loud tone of voice the older teen had used to spit out the command.

As he got up from his squatted position beside the pond, Jotaro, Koichi and the group of bullies were the first ones to bear witness of the teen’s height now that he had stood up in front of them on his full height after discarding his squatted position beside the pond and the turtle he had been trying to touch since earlier that morning.

The teen in question, besides being tall for his age, was fair skinned, had black hair with navy highlights and seemed to be of average built. Additionally, he wore a personalized version of an average gakuran because, instead of being of average green like most school uniforms in the area, his was of a rich navy color and was decorated with different golden accessories that made him stand out like a sore thumb for how extravagant and out of place he looked.

The top of the gakuran, like many, consisted of a buttoned up jacket that extended to the middle of his thighs but he kept open and pinned at both sides of his chest’s level with the aid of two pins that were shaped after a golden peace sing that rested on the right and a heart on the left, revealing a light undershirt with zippers at each side of the chest while, at the bottom, the trousers he wore were wide-legged. Additionally, on the left side of the collar of his uniform, an anchor pin could be seeing standing proudly while, at the right side of the collar, a row of two small hearts mirrored the anchor.

Meanwhile, on his feet, the teen wore a pair of purple shoes that seemed to be both expensive and elegant, with a golden chain in the middle of each as an accessory. And when it came to accessories outside his clothes, all those scrutinizing the teen also noticed, as they looked down at his wrist, that the boy was wearing twin golden bands on each wrist over the sleeves of his jacket and, as they looked up at his scolding expression, they managed to catch sight of the small studs he wore on each ear.

“You are too tall for a freshman” the blonde bully scolded with disdain as he took into the teen’s appearance, leaning a little forwards as he snarled “But when you dare to dress like this…”

“Bastard!” the black-haired bully snarled in the background, backing up the leader with a frown on his face and a barely concealed air of superiority wrapped all over him “Who gave you permission to dress up like that?!”

“You have to ask us first!” the leader yelled, moving forwards to roughly snatch the turtle from its spot on the pond to push it right in front of the black-haired boy’s face, using it as a weapon against him since the younger teen had unconsciously revealed a weakness of his to them, and they would be damned if they didn’t weaponized it against.

“Hey… I’m not very fond of reptiles” the teen with the pompadour reminded the other with a nervous smile on his face as cold sweat slid down on his forehead from the nerves, placing his hands in front of himself in a defensive gesture to protect himself when the older teen tried to shove the turtle in his face “I’m afraid of them”

Before he could say anything else to convince the other to put the turtle away, he was forced to stop his rambling due to the harsh slap the bully in front of him delivered to his face, abruptly cutting him short and shutting him up as his head was forced to the side as a result of the brutal force behind the blow.

Meanwhile, the older teen stared at him with outrage, showcasing how annoyed and feed up he had gotten due to the teen’s attitude and lack of submission to him and his lackeys.

“Why the hell are you smiling?!”

As he was yelled at once again, a little stream of blood came sliding down from the corner of the black-haired teen’s mouth, showing them that he had, unfortunately, bitten down on his tongue when he had been slapped hard on the face since he had been in the process of talking his way out of the tense situation and, for how sudden the blow had been, he failed to keep protect himself.

Seeing this, Koichi couldn’t help but let out a terrified gasp at sight of blood since he hoped, foolishly, that the other teen could have gotten unscratched from the situation after talking his way out of it; meanwhile, beside the shorter teen, Jotaro remained quiet as he kept a keen eye on the scene ahead of him, waiting patiently to see what course of action the teen would take now that the confrontation had reached a point of no return.

However, and for unknown reasons to them, both teen and adult couldn’t help it but feel disappointed when they saw him bowing down to the bullies in front of him.

.

♡

.

“I’m sorry” the teen with the pompadour said with a strained tone of voice, surprising them all as they watched him apologizing and bowing down to the bullies in front of him to show how sorry he was for his actions and the attitude he had put up, even if it was clear that he didn’t feel like it for the way his lips stretched in a thin, fake and forced smile “I didn’t know, senpai”

“There are many who have ended up in the hospital after saying the exact same thing you have just told me now” the blond male casually commented as if he were talking about the weather, showing his real intent of threatening the younger teen to see him quavering on his present so he could crush him like a bug under his shoe.

As a cruel idea popped into his mind to keep antagonizing the younger teen, he decided to follow through his plan and made a certain movement with his arm that allowed him to bring the poor turtle closer to his body before he cruelly threw it away towards the base of a lamppost nearby with all his might, smirking and relishing in the sick crack that could be heard once the poor animal crashed into the lamppost “Do you want to end up just like that turtle?!”

Heartlessly and almost sadistically, the bully pointed out at the poor reptile that was now laying on its back on the floor close to the debris that had fallen around its body due to the force it had tossed with at the lamppost’s base on the ground, forcing the black-haired teen to watch in time as its little legs helplessly kicked around and shook from the pain it was experiencing since it could be seen profusely bleeding out from the left side of its body where a huge chunk of its shell happened to be missing.

.

♡

.

“They are the absolute worst” Koichi spat out in anger as he witnessed the cruel scene with a scowl on his face, feeling his fist shake and his knuckles turning white for how hard he was clenching his hand due to the rage washing over him for what the bully had done to the turtle and for antagonizing the other teen.

Meanwhile, Jotaro continued to remain quiet as he kept his eyes glued to the scene unfolding a few steps away from him, scowling for the cruel action against the poor turtle that had been nothing but an unfortunate bystander in the heated confrontation between the asshole and the freshman.

.

♡

.

“We will forgive you this time” the blond bully relented with a smirk on his face as he continued to antagonize the black-haired teen, who had remained quiet as he continued to bow to the older teen and his lackeys despite throwing a quick look towards the agonizing turtle on the ground to check on it, finding it still shaking from the pain as it bled.

“Take those pins off and give them to me” he demanded, relishing in satisfaction for managing to force another teenager to fear him and bullying him into doing as he was told, showing that he took great joy into putting himself above others through intimidation and sadistic actions.

“And your money!”

“Alright” the taller teen agreed to do as he was told without putting up a fight, seemingly accepting of what he had to do to get the bullies off his back even if it was at the stake of his pride and morals “I’m very sorry”

.

♡

.

“If he isn’t the type of person to look for trouble, he shouldn’t dress like that” Jotaro spat out with disappointment and disgust, voicing out his irritation through his voice as he declared to himself that he had seen enough of the lame confrontation between the teenagers, ignoring the startled glare Koichi sent his way for his words “The worst part is that the turtle paid for it and he did nothing”

With no words left to be said and having no business in it, Jotaro decided that had wasted enough time watching the teens and started to resume his walking away since he realized, with bitter disappointment, that the slight resemblance of a certain someone he had spotted in the black-haired teen earlier on when Koichi and himself stumbled across the scene was nothing but a stupid coincidence because Jotaro knew that the person he was looking for wouldn’t, due to the blood running on their veins and the tendency of doing the right thing, accept such humiliation without putting up a fight first and would, most likely, hot-headedly lash out before bending down to the will of an asshole, especially after hurting an innocent being.

However, before he could step further away from the scene to continue with his quest, he managed to hear something that caught his attention and changed everything for him.

“Hey, you coward! What is your name?!”

“My name is Higashikata Josuke from class 1-B”

Upon hearing that name slipping past the teen’s lips, Jotaro felt as if a bucket of cold water had been dropped on him and soaked him completely, freezing him on the spot he was standing due to the shock that had taken over him for a short second before he quickly turned around to face the scene once more to try and catch a glimpse of the teen’s face once again.

“What?!” he cried out still in disbelief since he couldn’t believe what he had heard, feeling astonishment slowly taking over the role of freezing him on the spot he stood in as his brain tried to overcome the initial shock since he couldn’t quite believe what was happening “Higashikata Josuke?!”

.

♡

.

“Two kanjis for “Jo”, huh?” one of the bullies, the one holding Josuke’s student ID, commented out loud the rest of his gang to hear about his discovery as his eyes roamed around the information about Josuke on his ID since, due to their insistence, the younger teen had given them everything he had and what they had asked for, allowing them to know more about himself than what he would have liked.

“Josuke, we will start calling you Jojo!”

“Alright…” Josuke, the black-haired teen with the pompadour, quietly mumbled as he stared at the teen who had spoken with a blank expression on his face, making sure to school his features to avoid aggravating them further as he continued to bow to them “Thank you for the nickname”

And just like that, as Josuke thanked them for the nickname assigned to him, the bus that all the students on Morioh used to reach the local school arrived at the scene, prompting the leader of the gang to press Josuke harder to get him to take his accessories off as he had told him to do earlier on.

“Come on, take that off” the blond teen spat out impatiently, motioning for the pins he had demanded the freshman to take off a few minutes prior, eying them greedily “The bus has arrived”

Seeing no point into resisting nor prolonging the whole deal, Josuke started to take off the uniform’s jacket in complete silence by unbuttoning the first golden button on it like an obedient child that just had been scolded, taking his time to slightly piss of the other in a small act of rebelliousness; however, he managed to undo only two of the buttons before all his movements came to a stop and he froze when he heard a certain group of words coming out of the ugly teen’s mouth.

“If you don't hurry up, I'll also take that Astro Boy hairdo off of you!” the said teen snapped at Josuke due to his impatient, scowling and arching an eyebrow in annoyance when he noticed the lack of movement from the other’s part “What’s wrong?! Just hurry up!”

“Oi, senpai…” Josuke called out for the older teen with a thicker tone of voice and an edge of stiffness that did nothing to conceal nor hide the fury that brightly shone in his blue eyes as he dangerously glared at the blond bully, flashing him a pissed off “smile” that only added fuel to the fire “What did you just say about my hair?!”

As the last syllable slipped past his lips on his outraged shout, a menacing purple aura that resembled fire quickly surrounded every inch of Josuke’s body while the bully, Koichi and Jotaro stared at the black-haired teen in astonishment for the sudden change of his attitude that had gone from 0 to 100 in a blink of the eye.

However, between the three, Jotaro was the only one who managed to catch sight of a baby pink arm covered in a baby blue armor that shot out from Josuke’s right side and moved towards the blond teenager to give, what the older man assumed, was the beating of his life.

.

♡

.

“What?!” Jotaro cried out in disbelief to himself since he believe what he was seeing, feeling a knot of dread dropping in his gut and slightly dizzy “A Stand?!”

.

♡

.

Just as he had planned, Josuke punched the blond teen that had into his nerves right across the face with a firm, strong and single punch to the mouth through his Stand, ripping one of the teen’s front teeth and breaking his nose in the process a second before he was thrown off his feet and sent backwards to his lackeys, resulting in his body slamming against them and bringing some of them down with him due to the strength behind the powerful punch both Josuke and his Stand had thrown his way.

“My nose! My nose!” the bully wailed in pain once he hit the ground and the shock faded, covering his injured mouth and nose with one hand as Josuke looked down at him with a pissed off expression on his face.

“I don’t care who does it, but nothing pisses me off more than having people talk crap about my hair!” Josuke hissed out in outrage as he approached the fallen bully with heavy steps while the purple fire surrounding him remained on place, looking down at him with his pissed off expression from before still on place “You said I have Sazae-san’s hair, didn’t you?!”

“W-What?!” the blond teen cried out in fear with a muffled voice since he continued to cover his broken nose and bleeding mouth, trying to desperately escape the situation he had placed himself in by insulting the younger teen’s hairstyle as he tried to excuse himself “I never said-“

“I heard you, asshole!” Josuke cut him off before he could said anything else by shouting out in outrage as he lifted his right foot above the agonizing bully’s head a second before he quickly brought it down to step on his head so he could slam his face against the hard and cold ground, using more strength than needed to let out his anger.

.

♡

.

“What has just happened?” Koichi asked out loud to no one in particular in disbelief as he blinked owlishly and his mind worked hard to make sense of why the tables had turned so quickly and now Josuke had the upper hand, feeling like he had missed something big that could explain such a sudden turn of events “The bully just went flying!”

Beside him, Jotaro remained silent, analyzing the scene he had witness over and over again inside his head, frame by frame to take into account every single detail that could have slipped past him and might be relevant to decipher the mystery behind the sudden appearance of a Stand under Josuke’s control, feeling an old sense of familiarity washing over him as he did his best to catch anything that could be telling of the Stand’s powers while memories of a decade ago tried to take a hold of him but he shoved aside for his own mental sake.

.

♡

.

“A certain type of Stand appeared right behind him” the black-haired man pointed out as he watched every single move Josuke made as he kicked the bully harshly one last time and went to retrieve the bleeding turtle at the base of the lamppost, squatting down next to it to gently grab it between his hands and place it back to where it belong.

.

♡

.

“What?” the grey haired teen murmured in disbelief as he watched Josuke walking towards the pond with the turtle inside his gentle hold, feeling even more at lost when he spot the lack of an injury on the reptile “The turtle’s wounds…”

.

♡

.

As he stood beside the pond and deemed that the distance between the water and the turtle safe enough to let go of it, Josuke let the turtle slip out from his grasp and watched it swim deeper into the pond as he listened to the pained grunts the leader of the gang was letting out as said teen lifted his face from the ground when he felt a weird tingle sparking on his face, allowing his lackeys to witness in horror the transformation that went off on his broken nose and uneven teeth, watching as the fallen teeth went back to place and his nose fixed itself and straightened despite the stream of blood that had fallen out from his nostrils due to the initial punch and the kicks Josuke had given to his head.

“What the fuck?!”

“His face is turning back to normal!”

“He is already healed!”

“But don’t you think he looks strange?!”

“His face looks very different!”

“It can’t be!” the blond bully cried out in puzzlement as he tried to make sense of what his terrified lackeys were babbling about, sounding more like a terrified teenager than an asshole now that fear was washing over him due their reactions “How do I look?! Hey!”

However, as he shouted to put his terrified lackeys’ attention back onto him so they could tell him what was wrong with his face, the leader shivered and let out a distressed yell when he heard Josuke’s shoes against the pavement approaching, finding him looking down at him with a grim expression on his face.

“I had to touch the turtle even though I didn't want to, all because of you” Josuke growled with an icy yet calm tone of voice that sent shivers running down the older teens’ backs as he lifted his left arm at his chest level to show them the way he clenched and unclenched his hand menacingly “What are you gonna do about it, huh?!”

At the cold fury coating Josuke’s words and the murderous aura surrounding him, the other bullies couldn’t trip over each other faster as they picked up their stuff to flee from the scene to avoid ending up like their leader, squeaking in terrified voices as the fallen teen on the floor struggle to get back to his feet and run after his lackeys.

“Wait!” the leader cried out in a futile attempt to make his gang wait for him as he ran behind them, fleeing the scene as well to get away from the young teen “My nose! What’s wrong with it?!”

.

♡

.

Meanwhile, from the sidelines, Koichi let out a small, high-pitched and confused sound as he watched the bullies running away to get away from Josuke as fast as they could, withdrawing from the scene in a way that resembled dogs fleeing from a conflict with their tails tucked between their legs after meeting another dog that was able to beat them without much effort.

As he also watched the bullies running away, Jotaro let out a tired sigh as he realized, with some reluctance, that he had stumbled across who he had come to Morioh for and, with a lot of dread, he also realized that he was dealing with the exact same type of teen that would likely make his life ten times harder than he needed it to be for how volatile and short-tempered Josuke seemed to be and that will, most likely, take some years off from his own lifespan.

“Give me a break…” the raven-haired man mumbled to himself before taking a deep breath, accepting his fate and coming to terms with it as he started to approach the teen “This guy…”

.

♡

.

At the sound of steps approaching, Josuke quickly turned around in time to see a tall, intimidating and unknown man approaching him with steady and measured steps as if he were approaching a snarling cat that would attack him if wronged, confusing him in the process since he was clueless of why the man seemed so alert and ready to fight him when he had done nothing to him.

As that particular thought appeared on his mind, the teen let his blue eyes narrow as he kept his stare glued on the man and his movements, forcing both teal-blue and blue to clash in a heated staring match when their gazes met as Josuke made sure to show his determination of not backing away from a fight even if his rival happened to be taller and stronger than himself in case the black-haired man came looking for a fight with him.

However, the heated and tense atmosphere between the two males was broken when Josuke’s whole body went stiff as a splash was heard coming from the pond behind him, letting him know that the turtle had emerged back to the surface to get back to the edge of the pond so it could relax and rest in there just like it had been doing before it had been interrupted and snatched from its home.

“Ah! Scary!” the black-haired cried out in terror while his body shook due to the cold shivers running down his spine, forcing himself to brace himself a second before he abruptly turned to face the thing that had produced the noise behind his back, only to find the harmless reptile he had saved a few minutes prior resting on the edge of the pond where he had initially found it before the whole fiasco with the bullies went down.

Feeling a little silly for acting like a scary cat in front of two strangers, Josuke let out a nervous laughter as he also nervously smiled, allowing his body to go completely lax as he watched the turtle mind its own business “Oh… It’s just the turtle…”

.

♡

.

Koichi, who had decided to approach the scene after some debate with himself since he didn’t want to get in trouble, approached the other teen until he was standing beside Jotaro, staring intensely at the turtle to give it a good scrutinization before he focused on Josuke, who seemed to have sort of apprehension to approach the pond, still seemingly terrified to be so close to the turtle, who continued to mind its own business as if nothing had happened.

“I knew it…” he told himself with a mix of confusion and pure wonder on his features when he returned his gaze back to the turtle and found no trace of a deadly injury in it, confusing him further and leaving him slightly speechless “The turtle is unharmed!”

.

♡

.

“Higashikata Josuke…” Jotaro called out for the younger teen to get his attention and get him to focus on him, successfully achieving his goal right after since Josuke, upon hearing his full name being uttered, turned his head in his direction to face him better, prompting the 28-year-old man to take a deep breath before reciting what he knew about the teen as he grabbed the brim of his hat to shield his teal-blue gaze from the other “You were born in 1983 and your mother’s name is Higashikata Tomoko”

From under the safety of his hat, Jotaro watched Josuke’s back straightening and his whole body growing tense as he slowly rose from his squatted position beside the pond to stand back on his full height at the mention of his mother, staring back at him with a guarded mask of indifference while an unspoken challenge shone inside his blue eyes that told him to mind his words, making him realize he had successfully struck a nerve just like he had expected to do to get his full attention by mentioning his mother at the first chance he got.

“She had you at twenty-one when she was attending university in Tokyo and you have lived here your whole life” he continued to recite to the silent teen a few steps away from him, keeping his eyes focused on Josuke’s face to catch any change or twitch on his blank expression “Back in 1987, when you were eight years old, you experienced an unexplainable fever for fifty days, making everyone around you believe that you wouldn’t make”

As he reminded him of this traumatizing event of his life, Jotaro caught sight of the slightly clench of the teen’s jaw and, the closer he got to reveal a more sensitive kind of information that was life changing and would definitely strike another nerve on the teen, he braced himself since he still didn’t know how to properly deal with an overly emotional teen and he was dead sure he didn’t want to start trying “Your father’s name is-”

.

♡

.

“Give me a break” Jotaro sighed to himself in exasperation when he found himself unable to continue speaking for the awkwardness he felt at the possibility of revealing something so sensitive as touching the topic about Josuke’s father since, for what he knew about him, Josuke had been raised by a single mother since his birth and he wouldn’t be surprised if he cursed the name of his father without even hearing it “This is way harder than what I had expected…”

However, since he had promised his grandmother to soothe the tense situation all of them had found themselves in to prevent Josuke from getting overwhelmed, Jotaro braced himself and decided to just go straight to the point and say what he had to say bluntly, speaking what was on his mind without sparring a thought to other people’s feelings.

Unfortunately, as he reminded himself of this to get himself to speak, the memories of a beautiful redhead with vertical scars upon her stunning amethyst eyes and a stunning smile that stretched natural red lips took over his mind, forcing him to wipe his mind to escape the torturous yet treasured images of his beloved to concentrate in what he was doing instead of wallowing in his misery, guilt and pain because the matter at hand was far more important than dealing with his emotions and the miserable situation he had placed himself in.

Yet, Jotaro couldn’t fool his heart no matter how much he wanted to because, just like the heart of any men who had ever loved just one person their whole life, his shattered inside his chest at the glimpse of her face in the memories of her he stored on his mind as his heart painfully throbbed against his chest, yearning for the woman who stole his heart and who he missed so much.

Because his heart, like any men’s heart, was a simple one.

It was soft. It was small. It was made of flesh. And it was made of blood.

However, all his own heart loved was a single woman.

A single woman was all it loved.

Because his heart yearned for her and would always do as long as he lives.

And because Jotaro’s heart wanted that redhead woman who changed his life that fateful day in November of 1988 and who shone like the brightest star up in the sky against the burning yet warm rays of the Sun in the vast Egyptian desert.

.

♡

.

“Your father’s name is Julius Joestar!” Jotaro finally managed to spit out, not even bothering to soften the blow he had delivered to Josuke, who looked at him with a startled expression on his face, telling the black-haired man enough to know that the teen had been completely unaware of his father’s identity.

However, it was already too late to backtrack so, as per usual, Jotaro continued with his task of informing the teen everything he knew about his father since said person happened to be one of his uncle, his favorite at that “He is 48 years old and the middle child of the Joestar-Zeppeli line; he is currently on a break from his position as the director of a prestigious school in Italy and, for the last few months, has dedicated to travel the world alongside his younger brother”

.

♡

.

“I have heard of him!” Koichi thought to himself as he remember a conversation between his parents about the middle golden child of the Joestar-Zeppeli line, who happened to be one of the three heirs of the Joestar fortune that rightfully belonged to him and his siblings as the second child of Joseph Joestar, the head of the family and a prominent U.S. real estate tycoon, and his wife, Caesia Anthonia Joestar-Zeppeli, a remarkable lady and the head of a secret and powerful organization according to some rumors “Mom and Dad say he seems distant and cold; therefore, he isn’t known to be a ladies’ man… At least, not like his younger brother…”

.

♡

.

“He isn’t dead so that’s not the reason of why I came here to find you” Jotaro rushed to clarify rather bluntly, making disinterested hand gestures to ease the rising tension between them as he continued to explain the situation with apathy “However, my grandfather managed to find out about you due to a photo he found and we connected the dots… As you can imagine, after he confessed his affair with your mother, it was pretty clear that you were his child”

“None of us knew, of course” he added with a bit of amusement, going off the rails of the topic at hand as the corners of his lips twitched against his will for how hilarious the memory he was currently remembering was “We all expected something like that from uncle Harry’s part, not from him… Also, don’t worry about punishing him for his absence, granny Caesia already covered that”

.

♡

.

A few months ago, back when the news about Julius Joestar having an illegitimate child were broken out for both family and close friends, saying that Caesia Anthonia Joestar-Zeppeli wasn’t pleased at all would have been an understatement.

Due to her own experience as a child who was abandoned by her father and was forced to grow up fatherless for most part of her childhood and adolescence (even if she had already forgiven her own father for doing so a long time ago), she understood how hard and painful it was to go through it and fully empathized with the little child her son had, no matter how clueless the father had been about the whole ordeal, abandoned with only his mother to be the one to raise and look after him.

And her fury was justified since she had been the one who installed in all her children’s brains that, under no circumstances, they couldn’t abandon their own children to their luck no matter what because, just as many ancestors of the family had shown it, family will always come first and foremost before anything else.

That’s why, when she got a hold of the news about Josuke’s existence, Caesia took her husband, their children and grandson to Air Supplena Island, the same island herself and Joseph had trained under Lisa Lisa’s guidance so many decades ago and the very island Lisa Lisa herself had left to Caesia as part of the inheritance she had set aside for her daughter-in-law, to carry out the punishment she had planned for her son.

Once in the place, she had allowed Harry to place and secure a familiar mask around the lower part of Julius’ face so it could cover both his nose and mouth as an essential part of the punishment. Needless to say, Harry was far too happy about the whole ordeal because, for the first time in his life, he wasn’t the one who had fucked up so badly and, because of this and the huge grin he wore from ear to ear, he earned a couple of punches from his older brother’s part, who scowled at him as best as he could with the mask that concealed half of his face.

With a final sigh of resignation, Julius accepted his destiny and followed the instructions his mother had given him, getting inside the tall building to stand in front of one of the most tiring parts of the Hamon training: the Hell’s Climbing Pillar.

Taking a deep breath, the blond looked upwards to where he knew his mother, his father, his annoying younger brother and nephew stood at the top of the pillar, listening closely to the extra instructions Caesia gave him as a last warning before she allowed him to proceed with her punishment.

“I’m aware that it is not completely your fault not knowing about the child, Julius” she had said, looking down at him with a expression that reminded Julius of the one she wore whenever she scolded him and his siblings for misbehaving or fooling around too much to the point of endangering themselves or others in the process “And I know that you have already mastered this but, as a punishment for leaving your child and your child’s mother all by themselves for so long, you will have to climb this pillar 10 times without complains nor breaks”

Contrary to what he had expected, Julius was pleasantly surprised for the lightness of the punishment since he had expected his mother to raise the stick and force him to climb the pillar, at least, 50 times without breaks. However, this didn’t erase the sense of dread that remained in both his mind and body for how tiring the whole process was when doing it completely alone but, as he went through his limited options, he decided to accept his destiny with his chin held high.

“Va tutto bene, mamma”

Right after he replied back to his mother to show her that he accepted her terms, the blond Joestar took a deep breath before he launched himself forwards to hold onto the slimy pilar so he could start to climb it, careful to not put more strength and energy than needed to avoid straining his muscles and tiring himself out sooner than desired since that would make the whole ordeal way more painful and troublesome than needed. However, as he started to gain more ground to climb, he stopped when he heard his brother’s annoying and smug voice from above, forcing him to look upwards once more only to come face to face with a smirking brunet above him whose green eyes sparkled with mischief, clearly overjoyed to see Julius in such predicament.

“Jojo, don’t you think your uncle Julius is an idiot for not realizing that he was a father sooner?” Harry asked their nephew with an irritating sing-sang voice and a huge grin that briefly reminded Julius and Jotaro of the Cheshire Cat as he playfully teased his older brother, pleased to see him in such a messy situation and sticky punishment.

“Don’t call me that” the youngest Joestar male barked out in response to Harry’s teasing, annoyed by the little nickname that still haunted him to the present “And don’t get your hopes that high, you still are the idiot of this family”

“Aww, come on!” the brunet Joestar whined as he pouted due to the insult his nephew had thrown him, pretending to be offended and hurt by his harsh words and his lack of support “Aren’t you happy for your uncle Harry then?”

“Why on Earth should I be happy for you?”

“Because, contrary to what all of you expected…” the brunet started to say, dramatically pausing for bit to pointedly glare at their parents and nephew with narrowed green eyes and a pout so he could showcase how offended he was with their assumptions about him “It wasn’t me who had an illegitimate child! It was dear July!”

“Shut the hell up, Harry!” Julius spat out at his brother from bellow with burning red cheeks due to anger and embarrassment as his little brother continued to rub all over his face the fact that he had an illegitimate child he didn’t have a clue about and had gotten a hold of only a couple of days ago when his father took a spiritual photo with Hermit Purple and a picture of the said child had come from it, rendering all of them speechless and throwing the whole Joestar state into complete chaos when they spotted the peculiar Joestar birthmark standing proudly close to the teen’s nape.

“Oh, come on! Don’t be a killjoy!” Harry shouted back with amusement and mischief, almost falling out from the edge above the slimy pillar due to how pleased he was to prove his family wrong about their assumptions of his affairs and how eager he was to keep pestering his older brother with his slip “Papa, back me up in this!”

As everyone’s attention shifted towards him when his youngest child threw him under the bus, Joseph simply limited himself to raise his arms in a sign of surrender so he could avoid facing the wrath of both his wife and middle child instead of making the mistake of siding with Harry, who continued to enjoy his brother’s misfortune more than he should if the annoyed look Caesia on her face and her angry frowned weren’t enough warning for him to lay back.

And it seemed that Joseph was right and made the right choice because, as Harry continued to rub into their faces that they had been wrong with their assumptions about him and Julius threatened to punch him if he didn’t shut up, Caesia finally had enough and, when she cleared her throat, everything went airy quiet around them, allowing her to speak loud and clear without interruptions.

“Harry, dear…” the blonde woman called for her child with fake sweetness, making the brunet’s body go completely still as he slowly turned around to face his mother and her evident wrath, paling at the sight of the ferocious smile she was giving him as she sweetly added “If you know what’s good for you, you will stop teasing your brother and shut up before I make you go down there and climb that pillar ten times the number I gave your brother”

At the silent threat of what would happened to him if he didn’t do as he was told, Harry let out a tiny but terrified squeak before he nodded his head too many times to the point where he gave himself a little headache in his desperate attempt to escape his mother’s wrath for teasing his brother beyond what she could tolerate.

“Yes, mamma! I will shut up right now!” the brunet cried out in frighten, sending a puppy look to her way and doing his best to pour his obedience on his voice so he could convince Caesia that he was going to behave; meanwhile, Julius sent a muffled “thank you” to his mother for stopping the teasing, resuming his climbing with more ease than before now that his brother had been held back.

As he silently watched the exchange between his uncles and grandmother go down, Jotaro couldn’t help but smile at how hilarious everything had been since the very beginning so, from his place against the railing on the edge of the outer walls of the building they were in, Jotaro leaned against it and crossed his arms around his chest as he continued to watch his uncle Julius fulfill his punishment while his uncle Harry tried to behave so he wouldn’t end up like his older brother and his grandfather tried to suppress his laughter, earning himself a glare from his grandmother that spoke volumes about how she wouldn’t hesitate to climb the pillar as well if he dared to say something stupid.

“Idiots…” Jotaro mumbled with a small smile on his face that he gave up fighting against, thoroughly entertained by the silliness going on between his relatives.

 .

♡

.

“Ah, sorry… I got distracted and spoke too much” Jotaro quickly apologized to the teen as he realized he had gotten lost inside the fond memory, forcing himself to return to the present to introduce himself to his newfound relative “I’m Kujo Jotaro and we are, strictly speaking, cousins”

“Cousins?” Josuke asked in disbelief with a high-pitched edge on his voice, looking a little lost and pale for the amount of overwhelming information that had been dropped on him like a bomb out of nowhere, catching himself in time to clear his throat and compose himself so he could properly greet his newfound cousin “Sure… Nice to meet you”

With a nod of the head to acknowledge the greeting he was given, Jotaro moved his arm to look down at his wristwatch to check the time, frowning a bit as he realized how much time they had wasted through the whole exchange with the bullies and the huge identity reveal he had dropped to the boy with the well-kept pompadour, frustrating him a bit since he would have preferred to have more time to discuss the situation with his cousin a little bit better.

Tsking his tongue in annoyance, the older black-haired male let his arm drop to the side before he looked back at his cousin, making sure to lock gazes with him so the younger could notice his urgency without putting a but in the middle.

“Let’s talk along the way”

.

♡

.

At first, things had been a bit tense as Jotaro, Josuke and Koichi walked towards the boys’ high school but, little by little, the air surrounding them started to become less awkward so the older male of the trio took advantage of it to speak to them through the walk to inform Josuke about what his exact involvement with the Joestar was and everything the young teen needed to know now that Julius Joestar-Zeppeli had acknowledged the fact that he had a son and wanted to legally recognize Josuke as one more child of the Joestar family.

At the moment, Jotaro wouldn’t admit it but, as they crossed over a little bridge that connected to another street, he was significantly more grateful now that the air around them was less tense and less uncomfortable than at the beginning now even if he had moved towards slightly more sensitive topics.

“Therefore, in case something happens to the old man, you are entitled to one third of the inheritance since he has made sure to leave something to his grandchildren as well” the eldest of the two Joestar finished to say, locking gazes with Josuke as he spoke to let him know how serious he was with the whole affair “I came to inform you that so you don’t freak out about a mysterious increase on your bank account”

“Mysterious?”

“Your sudden appearance on the family line threw the Joestar family into chaos” he informed the teen with a humorous yet small grin on his face, amused by the memories of the faces every single Joestar in the family made in their panic when the news broke out at one of their traditional family dinners.

“Chaos?!” Josuke cried out with a panicked expression on his own face at the news, feeling a tiny bit guilty for wreaking havoc in a family out of the sudden for the newfound status he had gained with his discovery even if it hadn’t been his fault.

“Yeah” Jotaro confirmed without further ado, doing close to nothing to calm the panicked and distressed teen in front of him as he continued to recall how everyone reacted when the bomb was dropped, fighting hard to stop the silly chuckles that wanted to escape him “I have never seen my grandmother, Caesia Anthonia Joestar-Zeppeli, as pissed off as she looked back then… And I have known her for most part of my life”

But that was a blatant lie since Jotaro had seen her getting mad at his idiotic grandfather and way more idiotic uncle Harry for a fair share of times since both his grandfather and uncle were dumb enough to do stupid shit that always backfire; however, his point remained since he had never seen her get that mad at Julius until that fateful day when it was revealed that he had fathered a child.

But Josuke didn’t need to know that so Jotaro decided to keep it to himself… For now.

“I-I’m sorry!” Josuke cried out as he aggressively bowed in front of his cousin to express how deeply sorry and ashamed he was with his actions, still slightly distressed for what he had just learned since he didn’t want to become the family’s bone of contention and bring further chaos into the family “It is all my fault!”

“Hey, none of that” Jotaro exclaimed as he looked down at his cousin with a frown on his face, not understanding his need to apologize for what he had just told him when it was clear that none of them blamed him “Why are you even apologizing?”

“Well… You see… Throwing havoc into your family isn’t good at all” the Higashikata teen started to say in order to explain what his reasoning behind his apology was, struggling to find the right words to say without dropping his bowing position “My mom told me she was in love and wanted to have me, so that is fine with me”

At that, a small bit of silence fell between since none of them knew how to proceed after that for how personal the revelation had felt, yet Josuke decided to brace himself and take a deep gulp of breath to say the following “So, could you tell my father, Joestar-san, that he doesn’t have to worry about us? Because we are fine”

.

♡

.

“What’s wrong with him?” Jotaro couldn’t help it but ask himself in utter disbelief as he stared down at the apologizing teen with narrowed teal-blue eyes and a bit of underlaying annoyance in his voice “I came here ready to take the punches uncle Julius deserves until he gets his shit together to do it himself, but he is the one apologizing instead…”

Before he could say anything to get his cousin to stop bowing and get him to look at him straight to his face since he saw no point in lamenting what has been done, the words he wanted to say died on his throat when a new set of shrill voices broke the silence that had fallen between the trio, ripping out an annoyed groan from Jotaro as he experienced a sense of déjà vu he had never wanted to experience ever again in his life.

“Not again!”

.

♡

.

“Ah, it is Josuke!”

“You are right!”

“Josuke-kun!”

“What a coincidence!”

“How are you?”

As it was cued, a trio of high school girls came running towards Josuke with big grins on their faces and flirtatious fluttering of their eyelashes the closer and closer they got to the teen with the pompadour, eager to monopolize his time and snatch him from the adult and the smaller teen beside him.

“Let’s go to school together!” one of them said, smiling brightly as she leaned towards Josuke’s personal space and her brunette companion tried to cuddle his left arm as she praised him with the same flirty tone her friend used.

“Your hair looks great as usual!”

“You look great!” the final girl of the trio said as she came to a stop before the young Higashikata, smiling at him brightly as she blocked him from Jotaro’s sight, unknowingly increasing the older man’s annoyance with them.

“You are nothing like the other guys”

“You see… I’m in the middle of an important conversation right now…” Josuke awkwardly told them to try to escape their demands for his attention as he carefully stepped aside to get away from the cuddly girl on his left, nervously smiling as he tried to not offend them nor hurt their feelings by gently turning them down.

“Eh? What do you mean?”

“If you don’t hurry, you are going to be late!”

“You can talk later!”

As he listened to the girls whine for not getting away with what they wanted, Jotaro tried to count to ten to calm himself down as he gritted his teeth to try to release some of his annoyance; however, he quickly got fed up with their behavior and gave up on his attempts to keep calm and collected, prompting him to interfere before the brats continued to whine in their annoying shrill voices and irritate him further.

“Oi, Josuke” he loudly called out for the teen to get his attention, achieving his goal in seconds since the said teen sharply turned his head to his way to look back at him from above his shoulder, earning himself a pleading gaze from the teen that clearly asked him to give him time to get rid of the whining girls as gently as he could, but Jotaro wasn’t having it “I haven’t finished speaking to you so get rid of them”

“What is wrong with him?!”

“Save your ridiculous hair talk for later”

As the last syllables slipped out of Jotaro’s mouth, a sharp intake of air from Josuke’s part could be heard right after the words registered on Josuke’s brain and the air around them turned hostile as his body went rigid before the same menacing purple aura from before surrounded the teen. Meanwhile, the trio of persisting girls gasped in shock and quickly took several steps back to avoid getting caught in the fire since they knew what it was about to come.

“H-He really said that!”

“He spoke ill of his hairstyle!”

At their words and the sudden straightening of Josuke’s posture, Jotaro arched an eyebrow and put his sole focus on his cousin as he tried to find what had been so offensive of everything he had said to prompt a change on Josuke’s attitude and posture.

“Bastard…” Josuke spat under his breath with fury before sharply turning around to face his cousin, showing him his pissed off frown and downturned mouth that took Jotaro off guard and forced him to take a small step back due to the hostility radiating from the teen’s part “What did you say about my hair?!”

“Oh oh, you are in trouble”

“Don’t blame us!”

“What Josuke hates the most is when people talk illy about his hairstyle” one of the clingy girls explained from the sidelines as Josuke slowly approached Jotaro like a hunter does to with its prey, silently promising him a Hell of pain for having spoken ill of his hair.

“This is exactly what happened earlier!” Koichi cried out for the first time through the exchange as he went from looking to one man to the other with worry reflected on his blue eyes, scared of the outcome of a fight breaking between them since the memories of what had happened earlier in the morning back at the small plaza were still fresh on his mind.

“Hold up, Josuke” Jotaro warned the teen with firmness to try to get him out his stupor, keeping his hands inside the pockets of his trousers, narrowing his eyes to catch sight of any weird movement from his cousin’s part “I didn’t insult-“

Unfortunately for him, Jotaro had to cut himself off as he caught sight of Josuke moving in an odd angle, forcing him realize that reasoning with the teen to calm him down was off the chart since Josuke clearly wasn’t thinking straight and he was more than ready to throw a couple of punches to defend his hairstyle even if Jotaro hadn’t insulted it.

.

♡

.

“Damn it!” Jotaro cursed between gritted teeth as he watched the same baby pink and armored baby blue arm shooting out from one of Josuke’s sides towards him with the sole goal of attacking him, forcing him to act as fast as he could to avoid the punch that was getting dangerously close to his body “Here it comes!”

.

♡

.

Before Josuke could deliver his punch to get his revenge, he stumbled backwards when he noticed a golden aura similar to his surrounding Jotaro’s whole self and a powerful cyan and light purple arm with white gloved hands shot out from Jotaro’s front to punch the teen straight to the chest with enough strength to stop his advances but not enough to kill him nor fatally wound him, just enough to push him back and keep him at bay so neither of them engaged in a deadly punching match.

However, Jotaro’s plan of punching with enough strength to make Josuke stop seemed to have done the opposite because, as Josuke stumbled backwards, the teen spat some blood out of his mouth as a result of the physical attack, dropping to his knees in front of Jotaro as his body shook from the pain that was quickly spreading all over his chest and made it difficult to breath since the punch he received in there had been far more powerful than he had expected.

“Josuke!”

“He is bleeding!”

“Did you see it, Josuke?” Jotaro asked the teen with a demanding edge on his voice, ignoring the terrified girls a few steps away from them since it was far more important for him to find out if his suspicions and theories about Josuke were right.

“It is called Stand and it is a physical manifestation of our souls” he explained when he received no answer from the teen on the ground, testing if it would spark something on him that could give him away and truly reveal himself “Julius Joestar also has one…”

It was a low blow, bringing his uncle to the conversation out of the sudden and Jotaro knew it, but he also knew he needed to say it for context before he allowed his Stand, Star Platinum, to manifest right behind him to let his cousin see that they were the same and he knew what he was talking about.

At first, it didn’t seem that he had gotten his attention, but, surprisingly, Josuke lifting his head to look at him with curious blue eyes that darted to look at the cyan-light purple Stand when Jotaro mentioned the strange yet cheesy name Joseph Joestar had labeled them with ten years ago back when Jotaro awoke his own, taking in the sight of it “Only Stand users can see them”

Just as Jotaro finished his explanation, Josuke brought one of the hands he was using to keep himself steady on his kneeled position on the ground to wipe the stream of blood that had slid out of his mouth and clung to his full lower lip after he had spat most of it right when Jotaro punched him on the chest, keeping his voice even as he finally spoke.

“My blood boils when someone speaks ill of my amazing hair” the teen nonchalantly explained to justify his behavior, slowly raising from the ground to get back to his feet to properly face his cousin as the purple aura from before surrounded him once again and took a fighting stance, frowning as he shouted “I can’t help it!”

With that said, Josuke finally summoned his humanoid Stand and allowed it to fully manifest in front of him as he let it move forwards to keep fighting Jotaro and get to punch him for what he had said about his hair. Meanwhile, as he tried to avoid getting hit, Jotaro managed to take a proper look of the Stand and made some mental notes about it.

Josuke’s Stand seemed to be slightly taller than the teen himself and slightly more muscular than him. It was clad in baby blue circular, oval, cylindrical, and heart-shaped armor plates that cover most of its body as if to protect and shield its body from any attack sent its way.

On the top of its head, the baby pink Stand wore a tall helmet that was shaped like a heart on the very top and had heart motifs strapped on the top of its helm, its chin, shoulders, upper abdomen, belt, and knees. Additionally, the humanoid Stand seemed to be wearing short spikes protruding from its shoulders, ankles and head to interconnect all parts of itself.

“Is that his Stand?” Jotaro wondered out loud as he kept his eyes glued to the incoming fist that Josuke had thrown his way before commanding Star Platinum to block the incoming punches with his arms when he realized what was Josuke’s plan.

“DORA!” the Stand cried out, throwing multiple punches repeatedly that collided with Star Platinum’s crossed arms to protect both himself and his user’s chests before he was forced to lift both of his arms upwards to block the incoming arm that Josuke’s Stand had moved upwards to disarm Star Platinum so it could have an opening to deliver a deadly blow on any part of Jotaro’s body, ripping a startled gasp from Jotaro’s part as he struggled to keep up with the speed and power the Stand held.

“This power-!”

“Your face is open!” Josuke cockily sing-sang as he smirked for the taste of victory he was about to taste, pleased with himself for being able to turn the tables back to his favor as he commanded his Stand to throw the final punch towards Jotaro’s unprotected face.

.

♡

.

“Bastard!” Jotaro spat back in anger as he saw the baby pink-baby blue Stand’s punch get dangerously close to Star Platinum’s face, forcing him to activate the power he had bowed himself to never use again no matter what after that fateful night on Egypt.

.

♡

.

If anyone asked him what had just happened, Josuke would have sworn that his Stand managed to punch Star Platinum somewhere in the face since he had felt the exact moment when they made contact; however, as he blinked and found no trace of his older cousin bending over in pain in front of him from the punch he had just delivered, Josuke thought he might have gone insane, especially when, as he turned his head to look at the left upon feeling a presence in there, he was met with his cousin, finding him surrounded by his murderous golden aura from before, unscratched and with a pissed off expression on his face.

“What?!” he cried out in shock, unable to believe what he was seeing as his gaze darted to the warped hat at the top of his cousin’s head that had been the victim of the attack and had suffered the consequences of being punched by Josuke’s Stand.

“When did he-?”

“What has just happened?”

“Hey!” Josuke cried out once again as he jumped back to put some distance between himself and the older male to protect himself just in case, ignoring the three girls on the sidelines and their mumbling “When did you-?!”

Whatever Josuke wanted to ask died right there on his throat when he watched Jotaro throwing his right arm backwards before sending it forwards without giving him time to react, punching him across the face by his own accord, cutting and shutting up the teen in the process as he dropped like dead weight to the ground for the amount of strength the adult had put on his fist to stop him and as a payback for what the other had tried to do.

“Josuke-kun!”

“No!”

“Josuke-kun!”

Feeling another nerve breaking inside of him for the high-pitched screams the trio of girls let out at Josuke’s expense, Jotaro turned to face them so look at them dead in the eye, holding his pissed off expression completely intact on his face before shouting at the top of his longs as his mind flashed back to those annoying teenage girls that used to stalk him back in his high school days, getting angrier in the process.

“Shut up!” he snapped at them with anger, not caring one bit on how badly it would look for him if another adult found him snapping at three teenage girls because he wouldn’t hesitate to punch said hypothetical adult in the process since he was far too pissed off to even care about the consequences “I hate noisy bitches! Get lost!”

However, if Jotaro was trying to brace himself to deal with more whines from the girls for what he had just said, he ended up both disappointed and slightly frightened when he noticed the light blushes that dusted the teens’ faces, evidently flustered for getting screamed at by him, making him groan internally as he was, once more, reminded of the annoying girls that used to chase after him when he was a teenager since they used to have the same reaction as them (albeit a little bit more scandalous) and that just made him question even more what was wrong with women like them.

“Okay…” they said in simultaneously with a dreamy edge on their voices before they turned to give him their back, whispering among themselves before walking away from the scene, giggling like the teenagers they were.

“It seems like they know each other”

“He is scary too!”

“Although… He is very handsome too”

As they left, Jotaro couldn’t help but cringe internally for a split of a second at their attitude before turning around to focus back on his fallen relative to keep an eye on him just in case he tried to pull another stupid and dirty trick from under his sleeve because the black-haired man wouldn’t hesitate to throw another punch if needed.

He was too pissed off at this point to even care.

.

♡

.

“I don’t get it!” Koichi cried out to himself with shock written all over his face as he stood completely still in the exact same spot he had been standing since the beginning of the heated exchange between the relatives, trying to make sense of what he had just seen because everything his brain came with seemed too impossible to be acceptable “I don’t what is going on! But something is definitely wrong!”

.

♡

.

“It’s been ten years since the last time I did it…” Jotaro quietly told himself as he continued to stare at his cousin with an unreadable expression on his face, doing his best to push aside, towards the darkest corners of his mind, the painful and traumatic memories that wanted to resurface as he recalled how the fight between them had gone like after he had allowed Star Platinum to use their secret weapon “But I was able to stop time for half a second”

Despite going over a decade and a little more without using the cursed power that brought more bad memories than good, the black-haired man was a little bit pleased with himself to find out he hadn’t lost his touch when it came to stopping time; however, he couldn’t help but feel disappointment sinking on his belly as he realized that he had lost control over the seconds he had managed to master a decade ago and that, in case something went terribly wrong and he needed to buy himself time, made him realize that he wouldn’t be able to save himself anymore.

With an imperceptible shake of the head, Jotaro forced those intrusive thoughts aside since he found no point in having that illogical fear deep within him because he hadn’t found himself in situations that required him to fight for his life nor his safety like he had been forced to do back in the days where both his friends and family were forced to fight for their lives to escape Death to continue their deadly journey towards Egypt to reach their goal.

“None of us would have died” Jotaro reassured himself as he continued to stare at Josuke’s back since the teen had moved to his knees to press his hands flat on the ground to properly recover from the punch he had been at the receiving end of and get some air back to his lungs, thinking of the possible outcomes of the fight he had barely stopped “But one of the two would have ended in bad shape if I didn’t stop him”

It was obvious that Josuke’s Stand, even if it could deliver quick and deadly punches, was more prone to warping things and fixing them as soon as a fist of its came in contact with anything it touched than causing real harm, yet Jotaro wasn’t going to take any chances after witnessing what it was capable of doing to a person and for what it did to his hat.

.

♡

.

“On your feet, Josuke” Jotaro said as he moved closer to gently grab his cousin and help him to turn around when he saw him trying to do so like a silent apology for punching him across the face, even if he knew that he deserved it “Let me help”

“I’m fine” Josuke snapped back at his cousin, slapping away the hand that held him by the elbow to get it off of him before letting himself fall back to the ground on his ass, bitter and furious for the punch “Don’t worry about it”

“Got it” the oldest Joestar mumbled as he got the memo to let the sulking teenager be, stepping back to give him enough space without averting his gaze away from him, deciding that it was time to reveal his second hidden agenda to be in town.

“I also came for another reason…” he started to say as he used his right hand to search for what he was looking for in the hidden pockets of his trench coat, snatching it away the second his fingers took hold of the paper to present it to the teen on the floor so he could see it “And that reason is in this photo”

The picture itself was both disturbing and unsettling at best.

It was dark, as if the person taking it had taken the picture didn’t care in the slightest about the unflattering lighting because the whole scenario was a mixture of greys and blacks that made it difficult for Josuke to point out what stood in the background besides the tall building complex that seemed to be the only thing standing all over it, making it even harder for him to identify where it was.

However, what stood out to Josuke the most (and what he presumed to be the thing that Jotaro wanted him to really look at) was the ugly and disturbing face of a man taking shape in the middle of the fog at the very front of the picture, prompting him to take hold of the piece of paper from his cousin’s hand so he could take a proper look of it to analyze it and see if he recognized who it was.

“Something or someone is hiding in it” Jotaro stated with strong conviction to leave no room up to discussion, letting go of the picture he had offered to Josuke so he could take a better look in hopes of finding what or who it was “And something extremely dangerous is approaching”

Right after he said that, he went back to retrieve a couple of more unsettling pictures from the same place he had gotten the first one to prove his point, letting them fall to the ground at Josuke’s feet so he could believe him and realize how serious he was being “When old man Joseph tried to take a spiritual picture of you to help uncle Julius in his research, this is what came out…”

Taking a moment to analyze the two extra pictures the older man had dropped to his feet, Josuke made a grimace of disgust as he came face to face with the disturbing man he had barely managed to catch sight of on the first picture, feeling shivers running down his spine for how uncomfortable he felt just by staring at his face; however, he pushed the feeling aside to try to identify the disturbing man in the photos.

With a frown of concentration held high on his features, he went ahead and pulled the photos from the ground and brought them closer to his face to take a better look at them, squinting his eyes to try to catch something else that he might have missed on the first picture he had been shown.

“We don’t know how or why, but he might be a Stand user” Jotaro added to the conversation as he pointed at the pictures with a frown on his own face, letting the teen come to his own conclusions without disturbing neither his train of thoughts nor concentration as Koichi approached the crouched teen to take a look of his own, curious to see what they were talking about and take a look of his own “It has nothing to do with you, but I wanted you to take a look as a warning”

Without further ado, he slightly leaned forwards to snatch the photos from Josuke’s grasp as he deemed it enough since he didn’t want to disturb the teens any further by letting them stare at the set of picture longer than needed, putting them back where they belong inside his trench coat before standing on his full height to send a proper look to the grey-haired teen that had been involved in the whole mess by accident.

“Koichi-kun…” Jotaro called out for the shorter teen to force him to pay close attention to what he was about to say, getting Koichi’s attention right away, prompting him to turn way more serious than needed to make him understand the magnitude of what he was about to say “If you get to see him, don’t go near him. And calling the police will be useless so you better run”

“Josuke…” he called out next for Josuke after he gave his advice to the shorter teen, ignoring the shock on his face as he turned his face around to look back at his cousin and make eye contact once he was back to his feet “Do not lose your temper if you come across him because, if you do, you’ll get hurt just like you did right now”

Offended by what the other had insinuated, Josuke growled at his cousin with annoyance written all over his features and narrowed blue eyes as he changed his stance into a defensive one, daring Jotaro to continue talking ill about his temper and himself with his heated and angry glare.

However, things didn’t get the chance of going that far since the shocked gasp that slipped past Koichi’s lips was enough to break Josuke out of his angry bubble and make him break eye contact with his relative in order to look at him with confusion.

“Ah! The entrance ceremony!” Koichi cried out in urgency as his mind reminded him that there was a reason of why he had tried to get to school earlier than needed, ripping a startled gasp from Josuke in the process, who frantically checked the time on his wristwatch in panic.

“Look at the time!” Josuke cried out in frighten before frantically looking around the area from side to side to find his bag with his stuff, growing desperate the more he failed to find it “Damn it! I don’t want to find out what my mother would do to me if I’m late on my first day!”

Fortunately for him, he found his bag near the curb where he had once stood before trying to fight his cousin for what he had said about his hair, running to it to pick it up as fast as he could, hugging it tightly to his side as he looked back at Jotaro with apparent urgency and eagerness to leave to avoid his mother’s wrath.

“Look, I will listen to everything you got to say after class” he firmly stated, leaving no room up for discussion since he wasn’t going to have that, stressing out the “after” for a bit before looking back at the shorter teen that had been accompanying them since the beginning “Your name is Koichi, right? Let’s go!”

“Eh?!”

“Hurry!”

“O-Okay!”

With that, both teens took off, leaving Jotaro behind and all by himself as they tried to run as fast as their legs would allow them to so they could arrive in time, trying their best to make it to school in time to be part of the ceremony.

.

♡

.

“The other strange man I encountered that day was Higashikata Josuke” Koichi said to himself as he tried to keep up with the taller teen’s long strides, running across the streets that lead to their school as fast as they could, dogging the people they came across as they went “He is unpredictable and can go from meek to angry in a second”

“And his family situation is complicated” he added with a smile and let out a little giggle as he thought about the whole chaos the sudden acknowledgement of Josuke’s existence had brought to a whole family line, finding it a bit little hilarious even if he knew he shouldn’t “And we have just met…”

.

♡

.

“Higashikata Josuke… What a strange guy” Jotaro quietly thought to himself as he watched the teenagers leave, frowning as he recalled the events that had taken place in the short period of time he had shared with his cousin to review the information he had discovered about him and built his own conclusions “His Stand though…”

As he went to grab the brim of his hat like he always did, he stopped and moved his gaze upwards to take a look to the damage it has been done to it after Josuke had slightly touched it through his Stand, finding it back on its former state before it had been warped “My hat… reattached?”

“Could it be that his Stand is able to fix the things that it has destroyed?” he wondered with genuine curiosity, going over the facts he had gathered and the way certain events had played out after the involvement of the baby pink-baby blue Stand in them “If it had touched my face or head…”

“It is something to be afraid of” Jotaro declared solemnly as his mind made it its job to flash him a glimpse of the determined expression his cousin had worn and the familiar spark that shone on his eyes when he faced him between all the anger he had held “But if I have to see him as a potential ally, he could be someone trustworthy… Only if I manage to ignore his personality, of course”

Once the teens disappeared from his sight, the black-haired man turned around and started to walk away from where he stood using the same path he had walked when he was with the teens so he could go back from where he came from and try to get used to the town; however, as the unsettling sensation from earlier returned and a knot settled on his gut, he pulled out the set of photographs he had shown to both Josuke and Koichi from his trench coat to try to find any clue that could reveal the identity of the disturbing man on each of them.

“I just hope this has nothing to do with Josuke…”

.

♡

.

[STAND NAME] Crazy Diamond

Power: A - Speed: A

Range: D - Durability: B

Precision: B - Growth Potential: C

[STAND MASTER] Higashikata Josuke

.

♡

.

Later on the day, in another part of Morioh, a beautiful and attractive woman with straight chin-length black hair and purple highlights, fair skin, brown eyes, of average height, slim to medium build and around her late 30s made her way through the familiar streets of her town to get to her home, minding her own business after a long day at work.

The woman in question wore a light blue dress with dark blue spread over certain parts of its length such as the cleavage area, pairing it with a black belt wrapped her waist that helped to accentuate her hips, light gray stocking, blue formal shoes and a red coat thrown over her dress to conceal part of her figure to keep it both modest and appropriate for her job as a teacher. Additionally, on the top of her head, she wore a white headband that helped her to hold back some of the most rebellious strands of her hair on place to prevent them from falling and covering her face, adding more formality to her outfit.

“Hey there, cutie!”

Despite the sound of an annoying voice catcalling her from a nearby car moving on the street at her left, the black-haired woman continued to make her way on the sidewalk as she ignored the owner of the voice, too used to having jerks catcalling her whenever she went.

“Are you going somewhere? I can give you a lift” the pestering man insisted, throwing a “tempting” offer in the mix to get her to stop her walking so she could give the time of the day, slowing down the speed of his car so he could move alongside her despite being on the street “Come on, don’t be cold! Hey! Hey!”

Having enough of the man’s insistence, the black-haired woman stopped and turned around to face the young man with a blank expression on her beautiful face, finding him ogling at her whole body right after she had acknowledge him, trying her best to conceal the disgusted grimace that made the corners of her full lips twitch so she could properly deal with the jerk and get rid of him quickly.

“V-Very pretty!”

“Will you go wherever I want?” she asked him with a somewhat sweet voice as she ignored his comment, letting her gaze shift from his bleached blond hair that had been combed in a weird hairstyle to the expensive looking wristwatch and clothes he wore, and then to the car he drove, taking into account every single one of the details around him to guest what type of jerk he was and how to deal with him.

“That’s right!” the young man sing-sang with a huge grin on his face, showing to her that he was, in fact, as dumb as she had imagined “Wherever you want!”

“Then you can go straight to Hell!” she snapped back at him as she scowled, changing her whole demeanor to show how pissed off and feed up she was with his disgusting attitude towards her.

The black-haired woman, after letting out the outburst she had been saving for the right time, leaned forwards to grab a hold of the jerk’s ridiculous hairstyle and, once she had a good hold of his head after tangling her thin fingers on the blond strands, she pulled his head downwards until she could properly slam his face against the rolled down window of his car without any signs of hesitation nor remorse for her actions.

Satisfied with what she had done, she roughly let go of his hair and resumed her walking as if nothing had happened, leaving the blond man all by himself on his car, smirking a bit at the sound of pained wails and the curses he through her way.

.

♡

.

Just as the black-haired woman walked away from the scene, a senior police officer came into said scene riding his bike to get home and came to a stop beside the writhing blond man from before to check on him, having witness what had happened.

“Are you okay, son?”

“Officer! Please, save me from that bitch!” the man cried out in relief as he realized who had stopped beside him, prompting him to slide closer to the door to get the older man to hear him better and explain what had happened since his voice had come out muffled at best due to the hand he held in front of his broken nose and bleeding mouth to shield his wounds and protect his dignity, using his free hand to point at the woman as he spat with anger “She attacked me! She is a criminal!”

“I’m sorry, son” the officer softly replied, flashing the younger man a small and thin smile “But I’m afraid I cannot do that”

“What?!” the blond man cried out in outrage at the refusal, pulling out the hand covering the lower part of his face aside in shock, allowing the senior cop to see the damage the woman had done to his face “Why not?!”

“Because she is my daughter!” the man revealed as his smile went from small and thin to fake and sweet, putting up the act of being the nice cop to hide how he angry he was with the man for what he had done to his daughter “And if harassing my daughter wasn’t enough for you, you even dared to call her a bitch…”

The senior officer, upon noticing the man staring at him with wide and fearful eyes, he allowed his fake smile to widen, overjoyed to see him bleeding from the broken nose he had earned himself for harassing his daughter.

“I’ll let you go this time” the gray-haired man started to say earnestly, doing his best to fight the real smile that was threatening to break out on his face upon seeing the blond man squirming under his gaze, adding with a silent threat hidden between his words “But be more careful in the future”

With nothing left to say, the officer put an end to the conversation by parking his bike on the same he had stopped to speak with the idiotic man, hopping off of it to help the small elderly lady that had crouched on the sidewalk beside the car to coughed out all the thick and polluted smoke the car had released and that had gotten into her system on her desperate attempt to clear her lungs so she could get them to work and properly breathe.

“Are you alright, Miss Murakami?” he softly asked her in concern, crouching down beside her to place a gentle hand on the back of the small and frail woman to comfort her, smiling softly at her as he grabbed the bag she had dropped to offer it back to her “Here you go…”

Smiling in gratitude for the gesture and concern, Miss Murakami slowly moved to get back to her feet with his help, taking her bag from his hands once she was stable on her feet before resuming her walking.

“Thank you so much for your help, Ryohei-san” she said with a blinding smile on her face as she looked up to speak properly to his face to show him her gratitude “I don’t want to imagine what Morioh-cho would be like with you…”

“Neither do I, Miss Murakami” the senior officer, Higashikata Ryohei, replied back as he returned the smile the elderly lady gave, grabbing her gently by the arm to help her to walk a couple steps before letting her go so she could continue by her own “Neither do I…”

.

♡

.

Lost on her thoughts, the woman with black hair and purple highlights continued to walk on the sideway for a couple of extra step before she forced herself to stop when she heard the familiar ring of a bike behind her, prompting her to turn around to look out for the source of the sound just as the senior officer from before came to a stop beside her.

“Hey, Tomoko!”

“Dad!” the woman, Higashikata Tomoko, exclaimed in surprise upon hearing her father’s voice, turning around to properly greet him since she had turned her head to the wrong side in her search of the bike, smiling at him in the process to return the smile he sent her.

“Are you going home?”

“Yeah” Tomoko replied, watching her father hop off from his bike to stand beside her without letting go of it, dragging it alongside him so he could walk alongside his daughter.

“Let’s go back together then” Ryohei offered with a smile that only grew bigger when she nodded, starting to walk side by side towards their house in a small bubble of silence before he broke it when he remembered something.

“How is Josuke, by the way? Today was his entrance ceremony, wasn’t it?” he asked Tomoko as his easy-going grin turned into one of mischief, sending her a knowing glare since he knew that she knew what he meant “I just hope he doesn’t cause too much trouble…”

“What do you think?” Tomoko huffed in annoyance and scowled at the possibility of her son getting himself into as little trouble as possible since she knew how idiotic her child could get whenever someone managed to piss him off “That idiot gets angry for nothing… Sometimes I wonder who he takes after”

You, my dear child, was what Ryohei wanted to say but wisely kept quiet so she could continue to vent her annoyance and frustration with his grandson and his attitude since he knew the teen could be difficult to deal with and a handful, knowing it better than anyone else since he had been there from the very beginning.

“Come on…” he said instead as softly as he could, stopping her before she started speaking ill of Josuke since he knew that she could get as heated up as the teen whenever she went off the rails in a conversation regarding him and his attitude problem.

“But…” the black-haired woman cut herself before continuing her rant, sparkling her father’s interest for how abrupt the change on her attitude had been, especially when he notice a proud smile blooming on her face “I know he is a nice guy at heart, so I’m not worried”

“I know!” Ryohei exclaimed as an idea popped inside his head upon hearing the soft words his daughter used to talk about his grandson, returning her smile with eagerness and excitement “Why don’t we celebrate his entry to high school?”

“Sure, why not? I was planning to do that anyway” she confessed as they continued to walk towards their house, keeping strides steady to match her father’s slightly wider ones “But I wonder if he’ll come home early… He won’t come without detouring, that’s for sure”

“I wouldn’t even doubt that if I were you”

.

♡

.

Across the street, on the opposite sidewalk from where the father-daughter duo walked to get to their home, a couple came out from the opposite side Ryohei and Tomoko went, approaching the center of the town so they could get closer to the most expensive and affluent area of it at the woman’s request, strolling around town side by side as part of their afternoon date.

“I want to go to Kameyu” the woman whined to her date as she hugged his arm, fluttering her eyelashes flirtatiously to get away with what she wanted as she cuddled against him in the process to get closer to him, snuggling into him.

“Why?” the man asked her in return with an edge of annoyance on his voice, throwing his head back to properly look down at her without getting out of her hold no matter how annoyed her proposition made him feel “We already went there the other day and I bought you an expensive bag”

“Today I want to look out for clothes!”

Before the man could say anything to try to get her to change her mind and deter her from buying more expensive items than she needed since he knew how greedy his girlfriend could get, his words died down on his throat when both of them collided full front with a man.

“Watch out, asshole!” the man snarled with a scowl on his face as he turned his head to face the man they had collided with, making sure to pull his date closer to his body to shield her from the other when he noticed how creepy and disturbing the man looked, pushing his girlfriend to resume their walking so they could put some distance between them and the man “And get out of my way!”

“Such a nasty guy…”

“Is he really not going to even apologize after crashing into us?”

“Forget about him” the woman told her grumpy partner and smirked as both of them continued to walk away from the scene, unaware of the fact that the man had turned towards them and was now stalking them “About what I told you earlier…”

“I know, I know” he tiredly interrupted her, sighing in defeat due to her persistency “You want to go to Kameyu…”

Out of nowhere, as the couple tried to continue with their lives after the incident, the creepy man from earlier went forwards and grabbed the buff man by the shoulder, gripping it tight as he inserted himself back in their path and interrupted their conversation once again to show them that his business with them wasn’t over.

Before the man could bark, snap or even insult him again to shake his grip off from his shoulder, his eyes slowly went wide in horror for what he was seeing, letting out terrified whimpers that only grew in volume the more he was forced to stare at the man holding him tight since he found himself unable to avert his gaze from such horrendous sight.

.

♡

.

The creepy man in question was no one else but Katagiri Anjuro, alias Angelo, the man that Joseph Joestar had managed to catch in one of his spiritual pictures when he had tried to take one of Josuke to help his son to have an idea to who he should look for and the very man Kujo Jotaro had warned both Koichi and Josuke about.

For what it was known of him, Angelo had been born in Morioh in 1964 and had an IQ of 160. At the age of twelve, he committed his first crimes of theft and rape; however, before he wreaked more havoc and terrorized the town further, he had been quickly sent to the reformatory once he had been caught by the police.

After committing his first crime, he quickly became the worst criminal of all time in the history of Japan. And the man lived up to that reputation because he spent most of his youth in prison for the crimes he committed, spending twenty years behind the bars by the time he turned 34.

His last crime, however, was the worst he committed so far and he was arrested and sentenced to death for it. Yet, for some reason, the day he was meant to be executed, they couldn’t kill him and, soon after, he escaped from prison.

Jotaro suspected that, due the uncomfortable feeling that had sank on his gut right after seeing Angelo’s spiritual pictures for the first time, the serial killer must have become a Stand user at some point before his execution, but he was clueless about how that had happened. However, he knew very well that the man was hiding behind the shadows that Morioh-cho’s calm façade casted on the daily basis.

He could feel it.

And he knew that he had to be ready.

He had to, before things went terribly wrong.

.

♡

.

Josuke honestly didn’t know how they made it but, somehow, the both of them managed to make it in time for the entrance ceremony without further ado. Unfortunately, both teens had to split at some point and were unable to speak to each other which made it harder for them to properly get to know each other better after sharing such a bizarre morning on their first day of high school.

That was why, as the teen with the pompadour stepped out of the school’s grounds at the end of the day and found Koichi leaning against one of the walls of the school’s gates, he didn’t think it twice before calling out for the smaller teen to get his attention.

“Koichi” he said his name in a friendly matter, making sure to smile at the grey-haired teen in an attempt to not let the tiny bits of his awkwardness he still felt take a hold of him as he remember that the other teen had been present when Jotaro had broken the news about his complicated family situation “Going home already?”

“Er… Yeah” Koichi replied with a nervous and a little bit awkward smile of his own as he removed himself from his place on the gates to approach and get closer to the taller teen “That’s right”

“We are in the same class” Josuke pointed out with his friendly smile still in place as he tried to keep the conversation afloat, coming to a stop beside the other as he mentally sighed in relief and patted himself on the back for having made a friend so soon and having said friend on the same class as himself even if they had met in the most unconventional way.

“Yeah, what a coincidence” the grey-haired teen offered as a small comment as well, wearing a brighter and more sincere smile on his face as he also seemed to be relieved to have made a friend and have said friend on the same class.

“Well… See you tomorrow” Josuke said to bid goodbye to his new friend as he felt the dangerous edge of falling into awkwardness approaching, stepping a bit aside to resume his walking as his friendly smile turned into a shy one “Bye”

“H-Hey, Josuke-kun!”

“Huh?”

.

♡

.

“You want to hear what Jotaro has to say?” Josuke asked Koichi in surprise as they walked together through the streets of Morioh per request of the shorter teen, who had shyly asked him if he could tag along and accompany him to meet with his cousin.

“I want to know more about it” Koichi confessed with honesty, feeling less shy about voicing and sharing his thoughts with the other despite the lingering surprise on his friend’s face and tone of voice “It involves the town”

“You are amazing” he praised him with an edge of pleasant surprise on his tone, not expecting to see a spark of Koichi’s bravery so suddenly; however, his mood changed when he thought about facing his cousin once more “But I’ll have to pass”

“Why?”

As he was asked that, Josuke couldn’t help but hesitate for a bit as he struggled to find the right words that could help him in explaining how he felt about the whole ordeal without giving himself away too much since, deep down, he was still struggling the process the bomb of new information that Jotaro had callously dropped over him that morning as if it was nothing big or life changing.

“I do feel curious about it…” he started to say, trying his best to make Koichi understand that he did want to know more about it because it involved him as a citizen of Morioh-cho; however, he also had his reason for not doing so and he tried to express it without looking at his friend straight into the eyes “But after thinking things over, I don’t think it is a good idea for me to get involved with them as an illegitimate child”

It was a lie and he knew because he hasn’t discarded the idea of helping his cousin with finding the man from the pictures; however, Josuke truly didn’t want to get his mother, his grandfather nor himself involved with the mess he had unintentionally unleashed among his father’s family by his sudden appearance in their lives and the acknowledgement said appearance brought to his persona.

After parting ways and being left by himself and his thoughts, his label as an illegitimate child was all Josuke could think of through the day and, after some intense debate with himself, he had come to the same conclusion each time he put into display all his options: do not get involved.

Even if his father had shown himself as an understanding man that regretted abandoning him and his mother, deciding to rectify his wrongdoings by making it known that he was more than willing to recognize him as his child and make room for him in the official family line.

It just didn’t sit right with him.

“Why?!” Koichi asked in disbelief, not believing what he was hearing “I thought your father had plans of claiming you as his child!”

“How do I explain it…” Josuke said as he winced a bit at the sudden increase on his friend’s tone of voice, doing his best to keep his voice neutral even if the tiredness on his tone gave away how he really felt about the whole affair “My life is fine just as it is”

Once again, Josuke knew that what he was saying was a blatant lie.

He knew, deep down, that he still held onto that childish hope of being acknowledge by his father and getting to know the man after countless of sleepless nights wondering how his father looked like and if he had inherited any traits from the man. However, now that he was older, he wasn’t going make thing easier for his father and let the man walk into his life without putting up a fight first to show his displeasure.

Besides, he didn’t have a clue about how his mother could feel about all of that and he didn’t want to give her false hopes when the man that was his father hadn’t even come in person to tell him as much, sending Jotaro instead to do the dirty work.

“I see…” was all Koichi could say when he caught what Josuke was trying to tell him without saying it, choosing to wisely shut up to not upset his new friend further by talking about such a sensitive and awkward topic he clearly wanted to avoid.

For a couple of extra steps, Josuke and Koichi walked in complete silence, each of them lost on their own thoughts until the sound of police sirens broke their mutual silence, forcing them to stop on their tracks in time to watch as two police cars quickly drove past them down the street, rushing to be somewhere.

“What happened?”

“A car crash or something?” Josuke offered as an answer to Koichi’s question as they both stood in the same spots they had stopped their walking, letting his gaze linger on the vehicles and the path they had taken for more than needed before looking back at his friend eagerly “Should we check?”

“Definitively”

With the vocal agreement to do what they both icked to do upon hearing the sirens, both Josuke and Koichi started to run after the police cars as fast as they could so they wouldn’t lose them from their sight in the chase in order to find out what had caused such a commotion and see it all go down with their own eyes.

.

♡

.

Unbeknown to them, as they left the area to run after the police, both teenagers failed to notice the corpse of a young woman laying down on the ground a few steps away from where they had stopped walking, showing clear signs of being raped before being brutally murdered due to her ripped dress, torn stockings and missing underwear, and whose killer had thrown her in said place to hide her between the bushes and the shadows of the trees around the area in hopes of someone finding her just as he left her to install fear in the town now that he was a free man.

.

♡

.

“Are they shooting a dorama?”

“It is too dangerous! Step back!” one of the two police officers in the scene ordered the curious mob that had stopped and approached the scene to get a glimpse of what was going on, ignoring their whispers and speculations of what could be happening inside the convenience store across the streets since their priority was keeping them safe before they also became victims of what was happening “Step back!”

“So noisy!” Koichi exclaimed once Josuke and himself arrived at the scene, standing behind the mob of curious citizens to avoid getting into trouble with the stressed cops that were trying their best to prevent them from moving closer to where they stood.

It seemed that their presence and sudden arrival didn’t go unnoticed because one elderly woman that stood beside them, who turned around to face them so she could give them an update of the situation upon hearing the grey-haired teen’s exclamation.

“The man who raided that convenience store has taken the cashier as his hostage” she informed them, weirdly cheerful, wearing an unsettling smile on her face that turned creepier when she started to giggle.

As they watched her body shake due to her creepy giggles, both teenagers let out startled gasps of their own with horrified expressions on their features upon hearing her, disturbed by both the woman’s apparent joy and what was going on a few feet away from them, completely speechless.

“Look! They are coming out!”

As if cued, Josuke and Koichi (alongside everyone else) turned their heads towards the convenience store’s automatic doors in time to see a sturdy man coming out of it and manhandling a distressed young woman with short hair, holding her wrists behind her back with only one of his big hands as he used the other to hold a knife to her neck to his advantage to keep the cops at bay.

“Stop!” one of the cops ordered sharply, turning around to face the man alongside his partner in an attempt to force him to stay where he stood before he put everyone else in danger “Drop the knife!”

However, the cop’s efforts to get the other to stop his approaching weren’t enough to deter him since the man smirked upon hearing the little threat thrown to him, amused by it, as he shoved the pointy tip of the knife dangerously close to the woman’s delicate neck, ripping a distressed cry out of her throat upon feeling the cold blade touching her flushed and sweaty skin.

“Let her go!”

“Shut up!” the man snapped back at the cops as he took a few steps forwards with a crazed look on his face, moving the knife away from the woman’s neck to point it towards the officers as a warning “Step back!”

As they moved around to stand behind a car that had stopped at the scene to get a better look of the situation, Koichi gasped in shock when he recognized who the poor young woman held hostage was, forcing Josuke to look away from the tense scene to look down at his friend when he heard him gasp, confused of why his friend would gasp as if he had had an epiphany.

“I know her!” he exclaimed with worry, pointing at the frightened woman with a shaky finger of his own “That girl has helped me before!”

“I don’t like his stare” Josuke spoke out with wariness written all over his face, focusing his gaze back to the scene ahead of him to keep an eye out in case things escalated further, putting special attention to the man holding the young woman hostage to catch any change on his demeanor and mannerism “He could kill her if he loses his temper…”

As if he had heard what Josuke had just said, the man abruptly turned towards where Koichi, Josuke and others stood behind the car they used to shield themselves from him, violently waving his weapon around before he pointed it towards them, startling most of them for how sudden his focus had shifted and had fallen onto them.

“Move!” he barked out his order for them, dangerously waving his weapon around to make it known that he wasn’t joking about it “Step away from that car! That’s mine!”

“This is bad, Josuke-kun!” Koichi cried out in panic, feeling cold sweat sliding down his back as he finally realized how dangerous the situation had turned and how it would end for both of them if they lingered around for longer “We have to leave! Now!”

“A-Alright” Josuke said with a surprised expression on his face, completely caught off guard by Koichi’s sudden outburst for a brief moment before he turned his face to the right side to politely ask the man on said side to move so they get out of the mob and leave “Sorry, we have to lea-“

“Hey, you! The one with the ugly hairstyle!”

For Koichi, time seemed to have frozen around him as his brain fully register the insult the criminal had thrown around against Josuke’s hairstyle, who stood frozen on his spot beside him while his breath hitched, letting out an outraged growl when he himself registered what had been said about his beloved hairstyle, making the shorter teen go into a state of full-blown panic when he felt his friend going completely still on his spot.

“I said get away from the car!” the man snapped again at Josuke, forcing his hostage to painfully bend backwards as he frantically waved the knife towards the teens and other people around them with an agitated expression on his face, sign that he was growing restless and it would be a matter of minutes before he lost his temper “I will kill you all!”

“I have a-” the shorter teen started to say with a high-pitched edge on his voice that he adopted the further into panic he went, gulping down the knot that had made its way on his throat for the sheer strength of Josuke’s murderous aura beside him, forcing himself to look at the other teen to check on him as he cold-sweated and his eyes widened in terror “Very bad feeling about this!”

Unfortunately for Koichi, he was proven right.

Josuke was frowning, but not in a normal way, he was scowling in a way that told Koichi enough to know that the insult had royalty pissed him off for how crude it had been and how close to home it had hit; additionally, his lips were downturned in a grimace that was terrifying to say the least and his aura as a whole was both intimidating and murderous just like how Koichi had expected it to, far stronger than how it had been back then when Jotaro himself had made the mistake of insulting his hairstyle by accident.

.

♡

.

“I knew it!” Koichi cried out in distress to himself as he watched Josuke step aside to start approaching the man that had just insulted him, ignoring all the shouts the cops threw his way to get him to stop “Damn it! It has already begun!”

.

♡

.

“Right here?! Right now?!” the grey-haired teen continued to shout due to the panic and stress he was experiencing at the moment, slapping both of his hands at each side of his face since he didn’t know what else he could do besides panicking “But Jotaro warned him against it!”

“Who’s that?”

“Hey, stop!” one of the cops yelled at the black-haired teen when he saw him approaching, desperately trying to stop him before he put himself and the others in danger, but said teen simply ignored him since he was far more focused into approaching the man that had plainly disrespected him.

Unaffected by everything going on around him, Josuke continued his walking until he was standing a few steps away from the man in a safe distance, not even bothered one bit by the furious growl the man let out as a warning to step back nor the knife he held against the girl’s neck nor the girl’s terrified expression on her face since he had only one thought occupying his mind at the very moment.

“What the hell the did you say, bastard?!” Josuke snarled back at the man with anger, daring him to repeat what he had said a few minutes ago as he sent him a look that promised absolute pain if he dared to repeat himself.

“W-Who are you?” the man stuttered as he fought back against the shivers that threatened to run down his back for the sheer murderous aura the teen in front of him was releasing, forcing himself to fight back against his fear as he sweat before changing his hold on his hostage to press the blade under her jaw with insistency to get the teen to back away “Don’t come near me! Don’t you even care about what happens to her?!”

As she felt the blade pressing harder against her skin, the brunette couldn’t but scream bloody murder as more tears fell from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks, stressing the cops a few steps away even more since neither of them dared to step forwards to put an end to all the madness going on around, terrified of making the wrong move that could compromise the woman’s safety any further.

“Get out of there!”

“What will you do if loses his mind?!”

“I told you to step back!” the dangerous man snapped once more, showing the first signs of distress for getting pressured due to the teen’s presence so close to him and the cops’ screams “Damn it! You are making me angry!”

However, those first signs of distress were enough to make him lose it because, suddenly, he drew his arm backwards to win strength so he could brutally stab the young woman in cold blood before slamming it down, growling and screaming as he did “Fine! I will do it! I will stab her!”

“Is that so?” Josuke asked the man with amusement and a wicked smirk on his face, keeping his temper in check as he watched the man moving his knife closer and closer to the young woman’s chest to stab her for a couple of extra seconds before calling out for his Stand, letting him take care of the situation.

Following his user’s commands, Crazy Diamond threw himself forwards until he cut enough distance to properly thrust his right arm forwards to punch both the woman and the man in the stomach so he could pierce them through and disarm the man to stop him in time before he harmed the young woman.

However, the baby blue-baby pink Stand didn’t stop there since he took advantage of the situation to pierce the man through the chest and his back to make him pay for both insulting him and threaten an innocent woman.

“There is a hole in their bodies!” Koichi cried out in distress, disturbed by the sight in front of him since he was unable to see Crazy Diamond’s arm in the middle of the hole that held them together and one he had made to stop the criminal.

“I made you angry?” Josuke mockingly asked the man as he made his Stand pull his arm back from both of their bodies with a pissed off expression on his face, grabbing the young woman by the wrist before roughly yanking her towards him so he could get her away from the man’s grip and get her to safety as he continued to scowl “It should be me saying that to you!”

Confused and frightened for what had just happened, the brunette looked down at her stomach to check herself and search for the hole she could have sworn she had felt forming on her belly after receiving a punch she didn’t see coming; however, she ended up more confused than frightened when she was unable to find anything there.

“Eh?!” she cried out as she frantically roamed her hands all over her chest and belly to try to feel any trace of the hole but came empty-handed, and its absence frightened her as much as it relieved her “I’m fine!”

“She went back to normal…” Koichi mumbled in shock and confusion as he tried to take a good look of the woman’s back and front from where he stood to try and find any trace of the hole he had seen forming on her and the dangerous man but, just like her, he also came empty-handed since he found no trace of it on neither of her sides “It happened again…”

Before the shorter teen could say something else, he was interrupted by the pained yet terrified scream coming from the criminal’s mouth, forcing him to focus his gaze back on him only to find him looking down at his chest with horrified and frightened eyes since the knife he had been using to threaten all of them and tried to use to stab the cashier could be seen standing out grotesquely under the his skin, allowing them to see every single detail of the knife since it had been placed only a few layers below the outer skin.

“My knife! It is on my chest!” the man wailed, completely terrified of the sight in front of him as he panicked, frantically shifting his gaze from his chest to Josuke’s face, finding him glaring at them in irritation since his screams had started to irritate him “W-Why?!”

“Have it removed by a surgeon at the prison’s hospital” Josuke told the man nonchalantly, watching him twitch and shiver all over before he watched him go down to his knees and drop to ground, knocked out due to the extreme shock he experienced for what Josuke had done to him.

“A-Arrest him!”

“W-What the hell is happening?”

“Josuke-kun!” Koichi called for his friend as he finally stepped around the car and ran towards him once the threat was reduced by the cops, only stopping his running when he was standing beside the taller teen, who moved his gaze from the arrest going on in front of him to look at him with a happier expression on his face.

“What’s up, Koichi?”

“Are you alright?!” the grey-haired teen frantically asked him as he tried to look all over him to find any type of injury, feeling a bit paranoid for what he had just witnessed “Just now-“

Unfortunately, Koichi was unable to question his further since he was interrupted by the choking sounds the criminal started to make, forcing both teens to look away from each other so they could pay close attention to the man on the ground just in time to see a hand and an arm full of eyes making its way out of his mouth, allowing Josuke to see the body of what seemed to be a liquid Stand inch by inch the further it moved to get out of the man’s body.

“What?!” Josuke shouted in disbelief as he watched, disturbed by how far the Stand’s body was stretching the man’s mouth the further it shoved its body out “Why is he opening his mouth like that?!”

“Look at that! Who would have thought that I would find another Stand user around here…” the Stand finally spoke once it was fully out of the man’s body humorless, presenting itself fully to Josuke so he could properly see it before his snarky tone changed and an unsettling aura started to surround it “I was having so much fun after possessing that man's body.... How dare you interfere?!”

“It is the man from those pictures!” Josuke exclaimed in shock as a flash of its face came crashing into his mind and he realized who he was talking with when he noticed the face the liquid Stand adopted when it reshaped into its former state, prompting him to chase after it when he saw it quickly sliding across the sidewalk to reach the nearest sewer.

“I will start watching you very closely” the Stand threatened him once it had inserted most of its body on the sewer as a precaution, cockily smirking at the teen as he showed him its razor teeth as it spoke “I will watch your every move…”

“What did you say, bastard?!” the black-haired teen snarled at the Stand as his response to the threat he had been given, feeling a sense of dread pooling on his belly as he was unable to give the Stand a piece of his mind and all he could do was watch as it disappeared from sight by moving deeper into the sewer until it was nowhere to be seen.

“Josuke-kun!”

Upon Koichi calling out for him, Josuke did his best to pull himself together to not show his friend how badly it had affected him what the serial killer had said to him through his Stand, ready to ask his friend what was wrong as he turned on his heels to face him so they could speak properly; however, once he did, whatever he had prepared to say died down on his throat when he saw two cops rushing towards him.

“You idiot!”

“Hold him!”

“Officers! Wait!” Josuke cried out in desperation as he froze on his spot, startled by the sight for a second before he was knocked out of his feet when both men came barreling into him, body slamming him to bring him down to the floor so they could neutralize him, knocking the air on his lungs in the process and leaving him wheezing.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

“Koichi!” he cried out for his friend, struggling against the cops to try to get away from them, squirming with all his might to get out of their hold while they tried to hold him down and into place so they could arrest him as well for doing something so stupid and risking the life of an innocent woman “Help!”

Wisely, Koichi chose to play dumb so he wouldn’t get in trouble by helping his friend because, technically speaking, he earned that himself for losing his temper when Jotaro had warned him against it and told him not to, laughing it off by letting out a goofy laughter as he took a hold of the straps of his bag and walked away from the scene, approaching the mob of people that had witnessed the whole exchange and were now whispering among each other.

.

♡

.

“Jotaro-san was right” Koichi quietly thought to himself as he stepped on the street beside the sewer where the liquid Stand had escaped through and disappeared from sight, briefly throwing a quick look to it in the same way Josuke had done before he had been knocked down by the cops, feeling something sinister calling out for him from its depths “There is something going on in this town…”

“Let me go, damn it!” Josuke continued to whine on the background as he kicked his legs around with his arms held behind the back by one of the cops to reduce his squirming, refusing to go down quietly when he had done nothing wrong “I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“I can feel the presence of something unknown” Koichi continued to say to himself as he ignored his friend’s frantic cries, more focused in understanding the dreadful sensation that had washed over his whole body now that he realized what Jotaro had meant when he spoke of a dangerous presence looming, crawling and stalking around the town from the shadows “Something terrible is happening in Morioh-cho…”

.

♡

.

The next day after the incident at the convenience store, the ringing of a phone broke the silence in the Higashikata household as someone tried to reach one of the three inhabitants of the house, forcing Tomoko to call out for her son so he could pick it up since she was busy searching for something on the garage and couldn’t reach it herself.

“Hey, Josuke! Pick up the phone!” she shouted out to her son as she made a mad rush towards the front door when she heard no reply from his part, prompting her to abruptly open said door to get in as she grew annoyed with him for the lack of response “Josuke! The phone!”

“Yes, yes, I’m going” Josuke lazily grumbled as he came out from the restroom across the kitchen, holding on one hand the comb he had been using to perfectionate his signature pompadour as he approached the dining table where the phone rested in, picking it up to answer the call before bringing it towards his right ear to hear the other end without even checking the caller ID “Yes?”

“It’s Jotaro”

“Oh, hi” the teen said with less enthusiasm than before as he heard the deep and rough voice of his grumpy cousin from the other end of the line, making him internally sigh for what he knew the call would be about.

“We couldn’t chat properly yesterday” Jotaro said from the other end, going straight to the point as he tried to explain the reason behind his call to his cousin by trying to not sound so blunt this early in the morning without losing the edge of urgency he had to solve the issue at hand “I must tell you about the guy who is hiding in this town”

“I also must talk to you about-“ Josuke started to say before cutting himself as his blue eyes narrowed significantly when the sensation of being watched washed over him “Jotaro-san, where are you staying at?”

.

♡

.

“At Morioh’s Grand Hotel” Jotaro replied from his spot close to the phone that the suite brought with itself as his own teal-blue eyes narrowed at the sudden change of attitude he perceived from his cousin’s side of the line “Did something happen?”

“Well… You see…” he heard the teen started to say from the other end, struggling to find the words to explain himself, making the black-haired man frown with worry.

.

♡

.

“Damn it! Where is it?” Tomoko cursed as she rummaged one of the many boxes the Higashikatas stored on their garage, frowning and huffing in annoyance when she came empty-handed once again “Where the fuck did I put the shovel?”

Meanwhile, as Tomoko continued her search to find the missing shovel, a familiar yet creepy man wearing a milkman’s uniform stopped the bike he rode in front of the Higashikata household on the street across it, close to the recreational and green area that surrounded many parts of that section of the town, so he could hop off of it and come face to face with the beautiful building that stood in front of him.

“That brat… Has a cozy home and a nice family” the man started to say, smirking in an unsettling manner as he took a good look of the tall house and the woman inside its garage, putting special attention on said woman to fully and shamelessly check her out “Not to mention his young and beautiful mother… I’m truly jealous…”

Just as he said this, the man’s hand started to twitch uncontrollably as his murderous impulses started to pump into him alongside the blood thirst and the desire to get his revenge, forcing him to snap his fingers to ease his twitches before enclosing them into a fist as a cruel and creepy smile started to slowly take place on his face.

“Higashikata Josuke, don’t get too cocky” the man darkly snarled as a warning for the teen he had hunting since yesterday’s afternoon, gritting his teeth without whipping away the cruel and creepy smile on his face as his Stand manifested and hugged the right side of his face after he had summoned it to kick his plan into motion “I will crush your soul, I will end your life and I will erase you from existence!”