Chapter Text
It was bittersweet honestly. Kakyoin never thought he would feel attached to a place before. He wasn’t all that attached to Tokyo, though a lot kept him in the city. Mostly work and his family and a sense of familiarity, but he had to admit, Morioh really grew on him. The weird bus system, the variety of cafes, the people who lived here, even the morning radio station with the catchy jingle he sometimes listened to.
But without an Arrow or a threat of a powerful User, he didn’t have a reason to stay at the moment. He stayed longer than expected to help Jotaro finish his thesis work on local starfish. Jotaro and Joseph had headed out on the latter’s yacht several days ago, leaving Kakyoin to work with the Speedwagon Foundation to attempt to retrieve the missing Arrow.
He sat on the bench outside the Morioh Grand Hotel with a singular duffle bag filled with research and things he’d gathered during his stay here in Morioh. He left the Foundation members to do a final lap around town while he said his farewells. He sipped his tea from the cherry-print travel mug he got at Owson recently. He flipped open the academic journal he still hadn’t finished, finding the earmarked page that kept his place.
He barely got through two articles before he heard running towards him. He looked up finding the Morioh trio nearly out of breath as they held their school bags. “You’re running like I’m suddenly going to disappear forever.”
“We didn’t want to miss you before you left,” Josuke wheezed, catching his breath.
“You think I’d just leave before saying goodbye?” Kakyoin scoffed. He flipped the journal shut, earmarking his page before shoving it into his shoulder bag. “After all we’ve been through?” He cracked a bit of a smile. He was teasing them. He moved his duffle bag so they could sit down. “Besides, I would make the Foundation wait if they arrived first. Or raided your house. Whichever was easier.”
Josuke laughed. “I’m sure my mom wouldn’t let you leave. She was already sad enough when Jotaro left. Here, this is for you from her.” He dug a small bag from his school bag, handing it to Kakyoin. “She refused to let me leave the house this morning without it.”
Kakyoin took the bag, peering inside. “The tea she always brews, that really good local brand. That’s really thoughtful of her.”
“And we brought you some cherry snacks,” Koichi handed Kakyoin another bag. “It’s not much but it’s good for the road trip home.”
Kakyoin smiled. “Thanks.” They were incredibly thoughtful and honestly he wasn’t used to this sort of treatment. Jotaro would bring him things once in a while on visits, but he saw his friend every so often. This time it was Kakyoin himself leaving. “You really are making it seem like I’ll just disappear right now.” He dug into his pocket, pulling out a folded piece of paper. “Here. It’s my address at the Foundation. It’s the easiest way to reach me since I’m rarely elsewhere. Just because I’m heading back to Tokyo to research the Arrow we have doesn’t mean I’m cutting ties, you know.”
Josuke took the paper, unfolding it. Kakyoin’s handwriting was neat and very legible, listing an address and box number in Tokyo. “We’ll keep this safe so we can write letters.”
“About anything,” Kakyoin added. “It doesn’t always have to be about Stands.”
Josuke nodded. “Speaking of that, what happened to the Arrow? The one that photo grandpa had?”
Kakyoin sighed, shaking his head. “Nothing, and we’ve been nothing if not thorough in trying to find it. I spoke to Hayato and he let me into his house to search when his mother wasn’t there. We found fletching in the bathroom but no Arrow, not even where he’d kept Stray Cat hidden in the attic.”
“He kept the poor cat in the attic?!” Okuyasu exclaimed.
“That’s not the important part, you idiot!” Josuke fussed. “It’s the missing Arrow!”
“I don’t think we’ll be seeing it honestly,” Kakyoin admitted.
“Why’s that?” Koichi questioned.
Kakyoin leaned back on the bench, tapping a finger on his cherry travel mug. “I have a theory, and I mean that loosely. I’ve been researching Arrows for a while now, though the first one I’d seen in person was the one you retrieved from Akira Otoishi. We know the Arrow can call forth a Stand, but we have no idea what would happen if an Arrow touches a User.”
“Call forth?” Koichi questioned. “Don’t you mean, create? Like what happened to me?”
Kakyoin shook his head. “A Stand is a representation of a person, unique as their personality and their soul. A Stand can awaken for various reasons, and most are awoken as far as research can tell, though there are a few documented cases where someone is born with one like me. That being said, I don’t think the Arrow is capable of actually creating a Stand, just awakening something dormant that’s already there.”
“So when someone is pricked, it awakens a Stand, but people can’t have two Stands,” Josuke said. “So what does happen?”
“That’s where the theory comes in, and I must emphasize this is a loose one.” Kakyoin pulled his notebook from his bag, flipping a few pages in to find scribbled notes and sketches as he worked out his ideas. “The change in Deadly Queen’s abilities got me thinking. Time-based abilities are especially rare and are difficult to control. JoJo once let me try to research his ability, The World. Problem is, no matter how much I tried to research it, because time had legitimately stopped for everyone but JoJo, I couldn’t gather any data. I could see the result of his movements, I could feel that something had changed, but other than that? Nothing. It makes very powerful abilities difficult to fully research and understand.”
“But Jotaro wasn’t pierced with the Arrow, was he?” Josuke asked.
Kakyoin shook his head. “We didn’t even know Arrows existed at the time. It was his own ability that he learned to use by watching DIO use it. He figured it out in about 5 minutes.”
“Seriously?!” Koichi exclaimed.
Kakyoin laughed. “JoJo’s not your typical Stand User. And Kira, no matter what kind of power he gained or how much he boasted, I don’t believe for a moment he’s capable of that kind of mental fortitude to learn to control a time-based ability in a short amount of time. But we do know that Yoshihiro Kira had the Arrow and at some point, the two met. Since the Arrow can awaken a Stand, my theory is that it could cause a Stand to technically evolve and gain new power. Not something I’d recommend testing out, though. The risk is far too high and likely would result in death the majority of the time, if I’m being generous.”
“That sounds way too risky, not that we should really be waving the Arrow around senselessly anyway,” Josuke said. “So that leaves the question of where the Arrow went then.”
“Inside him,” Kakyoin said. “That’s the theory anyway. These Arrows don’t just disappear after so many uses. They’ve been around for centuries. But if it entered his skin and got absorbed instead of piercing through the other side, then it would disappear and never be found again. And since we haven’t been able to find it for weeks, it’s safe to assume that Arrow is gone, whether in Kira’s body or by other means.”
“Well that’s good,” Josuke said hopefully. “I’d rather not deal with another Kira if I can help it. But if we do, we’ll be there to stop them.”
“You can count on that!” Okuyasu chimed in.
Kakyoin had to question if Morioh would stay quiet and for how long. With this high of a concentration of Stand Users in one singular town, trouble was likely to come by. Users were inevitably drawn to each other through the threads of fate and drawn into battle. However, with such a dedicated group of Users willing to protect the town, he didn’t need to worry about Morioh’s future.
“Speaking of Stands and Users,” Kakyoin changed the subject slightly. “How is Stray Cat adjusting?”
“It’s doing good!” Okuyasu replied. “Dad’s taking a liking to it, and it’s really happy where it is. Never thought I’d end up with a Stand pet before. Wasn’t expecting something so destructive like that to actually be friendly either.”
Kakyoin still had to marvel at how different Stands were now than they were in battles ten years ago. Even a bound Stand like Stray Cat found its place among the city. When removed from Kira, it was actually pretty docile, acting like an immobile cat when Okuyasu first took hold of it. It just wanted attention, as any pet would, and Kira locked it up in the attic to use as a weapon. It was better in Okuyasu’s hands.
“I’m sure glad it ended up that way,” Koichi said. “After all the destructive animal Stands we’d faced thanks to the Arrow, I’m happy not all of them are bad.”
Honestly being in Morioh had changed Kakyoin’s perspective a lot about Stands. He had seen them as destructive and often showed no mercy when fighting against them. And while he heard about how different things were in Morioh from Jotaro, it took experiencing it to really leave an impression on him.
“Sniper rats, deadly frogs, everything in between. Man, it’s been crazy,” Josuke admitted. “You gonna miss it, Kakyoin?”
“I don’t think I’ll miss divebombing missile birds or poison-spitting frogs, but Morioh has admittedly grown on me,” Kakyoin confessed. “I think I will miss the small-town charm this place has and the strange oddities that have me curious about their history.” Tokyo was drastically different than the sprawling hills of Morioh, but he knew he couldn’t stay in Morioh for the time being. He had responsibilities and research waiting for him back in Tokyo. “Like the ghost alleyway or the talking rock or the painting in the corner cafe.”
“There’s a lot more than that, you know,” Josuke informed him. “You should just stay and research them.”
Kakyoin laughed. “Perhaps in the future. Though for now, I fully plan on finishing my writing for the academic journal to tell the story of Reimi and the ghost alleyway. Searching for the missing Arrow interrupted my work, not that I minded honestly, but I’ll make sure to finish it before the deadline.”
“I’m sure Reimi would like that,” Koichi said. “She did want her story told.”
“And a ghost’s story sure could shake up the academic world, wouldn’t it?” Josuke added.
“A bit, yeah,” Kakyoin said. “Though most who research folklore have never actually seen a ghost, we’ll know the truth. A strange benefit of being a Stand User.” He looked up as the car with the Speedwagon Foundation logo pulled up next to the curb. “Well, that’s my ride. But before I head out. I have a request for you all. I want a photo of us together.”
They all squished together as a Foundation member helped take the photo.
And shortly after that, Kakyoin was off on his way back to Tokyo with the other Foundation members.
Josuke sighed. “I’m honestly gonna miss them. Him and Jotaro.”
“Me too, man,” Okuyasu said.
“We’ll just have to write each other a lot,” Koichi said hopefully. “We have his address, so we can always keep in touch. He can probably get us information for Mr. Jotaro too if we asked.”
“Somehow I don’t see Jotaro as the letter enthusiast,” Josuke admitted. “But not like we can’t try.”
Two months later….
“I got a huge envelope from Mr. Kakyoin!” Koichi pulled the large manila envelope from his school bag. It was the size of a notebook and had some thickness to it as well.
“Holy shit, that’s bigger than the usual letters!” Josuke exclaimed. “Open it! Open it!”
Koichi stuck a finger in the flap, prying the envelope open and turning it upside down. A small letter-size envelope fell out along with an academic journal, a handwritten letter, and a few travel brochures and small pamphlets.
“Nice! He got the brochures for our school project!” Josuke picked up the pamphlets from the Imperial Palace. “There’s so many of them.”
Koichi looked over pamphlets from the palace. “Look, even one on historical buildings and one about historical artifacts and art from the palace museum. This is more than what we need for our school projects. We’ll have to write him a thank you letter.”
Josuke picked up the handwritten letter and read it through. It wasn’t very long but it was only a few weeks since his last letter had arrived. “Alright, lessee. So he’s still researching the Arrow. Nothing conclusive yet though. Besides that though, he liked the excuse to go to the Imperial Gardens. Apparently, he hadn’t gone since high school.”
“Glad we could give him a good excuse,” Koichi smiled, picking up the academic journal. Japan Folklore Monthly . It was a different one that Kakyoin had in his stack of journals before, though Koichi couldn’t recall all the titles he’d seen at the restaurant when they were rudely interrupted by the paint Stand.
“He also included the journal that published the article on Reimi,” Josuke continued to read. “Apparently this is the only submission that got accepted, which was good in the end. It’s the biggest journal he’s ever written for, nationally recognized for its research.”
“Whoa, that sounds important!” Okuyasu marveled. He wasn’t really interested in academic journals, but Kakyoin sounded happy about it, and that was enough for him.
Koichi flipped open the journal, skimming the contents list and finding the featured guest article. He flipped the pages over to the article, finding the hand-drawn sketches of the alleyway, Reimi with her dog, and the mysterious ghostly hands. The article was rather sizeable, though it had a lot of kanji Koichi didn’t immediately recognize as he was skimming the page. Academic writing had a lot more than he knew, so he’d look them up later.
“Wonder what Miss Reimi would think of her story being in a national journal,” Koichi wondered. “Probably happy about it. She wanted her story told so she could rest.” He flipped through the pages, wondering how much Kakyoin talked about the murderer that caused Reimi’s death. He wasn’t sure how much anyone would believe it, but this was folklore so it probably didn’t need to be believed. As Kakyoin said, they knew the truth, even if most did not.
“There’s one more thing,” Josuke set the letter down, picking up the envelope. He slipped his finger under the flap, pulling it open easily. Inside were three copies of the photo they all took together on the bench before he left for Tokyo. “Our photo together.” He spread them out on the table.
He wasn’t sure when they’d see Kakyoin again, but he hoped they actually would. With promises of legends and Stand research, perhaps he could be convinced. Or perhaps they could coerce him with promises of fresh cherries in the spring to come and visit.
For Josuke, it wasn’t a matter of ‘if’ as opposed to ‘when’, and hopefully when ‘when’ arrived, it wouldn’t involve finding a murderer in the underbelly of Morioh and being lead on a town-wide battle against Stand Users out to get them. Perhaps it could be something simple.
He nearly laughed at his own thoughts. Stand Users and simple didn’t get along all that well. Yet the threads of fate could bring them together again in the future. It would be nice honestly.