Chapter Text
JUNE
To say things were starting to get strange in Morioh was an understatement. A huge understatement.
Sure, the sudden influx of stand users were strange, but that was because of the stupid stand arrow. The oddest thing was that this entire situation wasn't even stand-user-related.
At least Kakyoin was amused with what Jotaro told him.
"You said the girl who Koichi met with was named Reimi?" Kakyoin asked Jotaro.
"Mhm. Reimi Sugimoto. She's been dead for at least 15 years."
"A ghost? That boy always meets the strangest people, doesn't he?"
Jotaro huffed, relaxing into his chair. "Tell me about it. At least they're useful allies."
"Mhm, that's true. I remember you telling me about that mangaka... Kishibe Rohan, right?"
"Yeah. Kishibe's an asshole, but I'd rather have him as a friend than an enemy. I think you'd get along with him."
"Hm? Why's that?"
"You're both artists. You could probably learn some stuff from him."
"Oh! That's true. It'd be nice to brush up on my painting. I could even paint you something once we get to see each other!"
"That'd be nice," Jotaro said, softly smiling to himself. It's been a few weeks since he had the chance to actually talk to Kakyoin for more than 3 minutes. But he can't get too disappointed about it. There's probably a lot of things he has to take care of.
"Yes, it would... Hey, JoJo. This is kind of an off-topic question, but have you heard from Polnareff or Mr. Abdul lately?"
"No. The last thing I got from Abdul was a letter from a few weeks ago."
"A letter? What was it about?"
Jotaro stayed silent for a few seconds. Well, obviously he's not going to tell Kakyoin the letter was mainly about... you know... weddings and marriage.
"Not much. But Abdul did mention something about a gang. Why do you ask?"
"Well, I'm actually in Italy right now. It's only for a few days, but I thought I could visit them."
"And they're not home?"
"Nope. I didn't see Polnareff, Mr. Abdul, or Iggy anywhere. Their house was completely abandoned."
That's... not good. Although Jotaro had thankfully never had a run-in with any type of gang, he knew that getting involved with them in any way doesn't end up good. At least, that's what the movies he watches tell him.
"Do you think they're in danger?" Kakyoin questioned after a few seconds of silence, concern laced in his voice.
"They've been through hell and back. I'm sure they're all safe."
"You're right. As long as Mr. Abdul, Polnareff, and Iggy are together, they should be fine." Kakyoin took a deep breath, reassuring himself.
There was a sudden knock on the door before Joseph and Josuke poked their heads in. Great timing. Good thing Star had already talked to Kakyoin.
"What is it," Jotaro asked them, covering the telephone. This was apparently an invitation for them to come into his room because they did just that. Josuke made a straight beeline to the bed while Joseph sat next to Jotaro, a sleeping Shizuka in hand.
"Are you talking to Kakyoin? Tell him I said hi." Joseph said.
"Me too! Tell him that I said hi, too!" Josuke interjected.
"Good grief." Jotaro sighed, uncovering the phone. "The old man and Josuke say hi."
"Oh, how nice! Tell them I said hi back."
"Ask him when he's coming over to help us!" again, Josuke said.
"Ask him yourself."
"Okay, give me the phone."
"I'm in the middle of a conversation."
"Come on, I wanna talk to the guy that you like so much!"
"Is that Josuke talking?" Kakyoin asked. "You must be busy, JoJo. I'll call before you go to bed, alright? Love you."
Of course. Time moves on, and he would have to hang up. A shame, once again. Jotaro wished he could talk to Kakyoin a bit longer. At least he had something to look forward to tonight.
"Fine. Talk to you later."
Jotaro hung up, only to be met with the disappointed eyes of Josuke Higashikata.
"Don't start with me."
"I didn't say anything." Josuke rolled his eyes, stretching on Jotaro's bed. "I'm just thinking about how long you and Mr. Kakyoin have been together. Since high school, right? That has to be more than a decade. And you never said that you loved him back..."
"How old do you think I am?"
"People express their love in different ways," Joseph spoke up. Huh. Oddly meaningful from someone like him.
"But I have to admit, Jotaro's not the best at being a loving person." he continued. And there it is. Wait, didn't they have an entire moment with him wanting to propose to Kakyoin?
"Yeah, it seems like people from your family don't know how to be good partners," Josuke commented. Harsh.
"Why are you two even here?"
Josuke shrugged. "We thought you wanted some company."
Company... He was satisfied with being alone and talking to Kakyoin over the phone. "Aren't you supposed to be avenging someone's spirit right now?"
"Not technically avenging. Just making sure whoever killed Reimi doesn't kill any more people. But there's not really anything we can do about it right now..."
If Kakyoin were here... Then maybe he'd know what to do.
But he isn't here. And he's not coming, so it looks like this is a dead end. "That's a shame."
"Don't you have someone that could help us? Like a Speedwagon Foundation worker?"
"The Speedwagon Foundation doesn't do things that aren't stand user related. So unless whoever killed that girl is a stand user, there's nothing we can do. Sorry."
"Man... Well, I should be heading home. I got dinner in half an hour." Josuke said, rolling off Jotaro's bed. "Too bad about Reimi, though. Koichi and Rohan really wanted to help her."
"You could do your own investigation. Maybe you'll find some clues."
"Oh! That's true! I should tell Okuyasu and Koichi."
Joseph also got up, Shizuka had started fussing. "Aw, are you hungry? Let's get something to eat." he cooed, gently patting her back.
"Jotaro, do you want to feed Shizuka again?"
"Maybe later. I'm still working." Jotaro declined Joseph's offer, nodding to the computer on his desk.
"Ooh! I wanna feed her!" Josuke happily volunteered. Joseph, happy to have a chance to bond even more with his... son, led Josuke out of Jotaro's room, which he was thankful for.
Watching the door close behind them, Jotaro quickly dug through the mail that sat on the table next to him, the postcard Abdul sent him being buried under the dozens of unrelated envelopes that Jotaro had received.
He skimmed through what Abdul wrote, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. A gang was mentioned briefly, but Jotaro had assumed that it was only a small issue.
Could it be bad enough for them to leave their house? The house they loved so much and had lived in for years?
... He can't think about this. Not now.
Days had passed since Jotaro last spoke to Kakyoin. Or Polnareff. Or Abdul.
Kakyoin, of course, was busy, and while Jotaro tried his best to find out where Polnareff, Abdul, and Iggy were, there was no trace of them. Not even a sighting! It was almost as if they just stopped existing.
He hadn't told Joseph about the trio's disappearance, and Jotaro wasn't inclined to let him find out. The old man's having a hard time already with being old and dealing with Josuke, Suzie, and Shizuka. Adding in the fact that his closest companions that he hasn't seen in years had possibly been taken out by the Italian mob would be devastating.
Besides, there wasn't anything Jotaro could do. Telling Joseph would just bring unnecessary pain.
There was a knock on his hotel room door. "Jotaro, I'm taking Shizuka out for a walk, do you wanna come?" speak of the devil, it was Joseph. He's gotten way too attached to her. (But Jotaro won't deny that he had some affection for the child, either.)
"Why don't you ask Josuke?"
"Do you not see the time? He's in school right now."
Time? Jotaro checked the date on his computer. Oh, that's a bit embarrassing. It's still 11 AM.
"Spending all of that time in front of a computer isn't good for you! Come on, going outside will do wonders for you."
... It wouldn't hurt to take a small break from writing his report for the SPW Foundation. "Fine. Let me get my hat."
And in a few minutes, Jotaro and Joseph were walking down the streets on Morioh, pushing Shizuka in a (covered) stroller.
"So, anything new lately?" Joseph asked.
"I wanna go see that starfish from last time," Jotaro said, not knowing what to tell him.
"Oh? Do you know who else would like to see the starfish? Kakyoin! He does that art thing, right? Like that Kishibe fellow!"
"Kakyoin isn't a mangaka."
"Yes, that's true... Do you think I could get him to sign my copy of Pink Dark Boy ?"
"He signed Koichi and that Hazamada guy's book, so I don't see why not."
Joseph smiled giddily to himself. "Great! Ah, but back to the main topic. How's it going with Kakyoin?"
Jotaro didn't answer.
"You know, the thing you want to do with Kakyoin. Starting with an 'M' and ending in a 'Y'."
Jotaro still didn't answer.
"You found a ring, right? I thought you'd find one by now."
"... I already have a ring."
"That's great! When are you going to propose?"
Once again, Jotaro didn't answer. Joseph pressed for more answers.
"Jotaro? What's the matter? You were way more excited about this back in New York."
"... I'm not marrying Kakyoin."
Joseph stopped walking, staring wide-eyed at Jotaro. He couldn't quite believe himself, either. After all this time and planning, he just ended up not going through with it.
But he has a good reason. He always thought that Abdul and Polnareff were happy together. Happy and safe together. But ever since they left, Jotaro's fears were only reaffirmed.
With the number of dangerous stand users, bizarre occurrences, and life-threatening situations that Jotaro's somehow never failed to get involved in, he had to simply face the truth: The more involved Kakyoin became in his life, the greater the risks of something terrible happening to him.
As much as he hated going back on his own words, Jotaro couldn't marry Kakyoin. His health was already shaky enough, anyway. Jotaro would only make it worse by staying with him.
"Why?"
"Because I don't want to." Jotaro retorted back, ignoring the immense guilt he felt. He wanted to marry Kakyoin. He wanted to stay with him. But he can't.
"Did you two get into a fight?"
"No."
"You don't love him anymore?"
Jotaro looked back to Joseph, offended that he would even suggest that he stopped loving Kakyoin. He's doing all of this because he loved him so much.
Joseph shook his head. "I just don't know what's going through your head..."
"I'm not doing it." Jotaro fully expected Joseph to not understand his thought process. But this is for the better. He can't think about himself or his wishes. This is all to keep Kakyoin safe...
"You're really sure about this? I thought that..."
"I'm positive." Jotaro lied through his teeth.
Joseph shook his head in disappointment, and to Jotaro’s relief, dropped the subject. "Well, I guess we should be going back to the hotel."
"Yeah."
"Things are quite peaceful right now, though. It's been a while since we've fought a stand-user." Joseph hummed.
"Yeah..."
"And did you meet Josuke's new friend? He's making a lot nowadays."
"The middle schooler? I've seen him hanging around Josuke and Okuyasu. He has a useful stand."
"Right? I've spoken to him once, nice kid."
"I guess," Jotaro said, not paying attention to the conversation anymore. Joseph noticed, and they walked back to the Morioh Grand Hotel in silence.
Unfortunately, a few hours later, Josuke would urgently call them, saying that there was an emergency and they had to meet near the convenience store for some reason. So there they were, with a bunch of other stand users that Josuke had befriended, and the ghost of a teenage girl.
"Guys, look at this..." Josuke pulled out a singular button. It looked like one from a coat, and while it was a nice looking button, it was just that. A button.
"What? A stupid button?" Yukako asked, sharing Jotaro's thoughts.
"A very important button! Shigechi's Harvest brought it to me. And then it disappeared! And I haven't seen him ever since his stand gave this to me."
The entire crowd started to tense up. A disappearing stand... That's not good.
"So that means..."
"Yes." Reimi, who had kept to herself ever since everyone got there, spoke up. "Shigechi was killed. I saw his spirit in the sky earlier today. That murderer killed him!"
"There's no way a normal person could've killed Shigechi. Not even Josuke and I could beat him!" Okuyasu explained. "So Reimi's killer is now a stand user!"
Oh shit. That's... not good. Not at all. Considering that Shigechi gave Okuyasu and Josuke a hard time with his stand, that would only mean that this serial killer's stand is powerful. Extremely powerful.
"Josuke. Let me see that button." Jotaro requested. Josuke complied, giving it to him. Joseph leaned in, observing the button with Jotaro.
"I think we're going to have to get involved, old man." he sighed. "This button's a pretty good clue, so I'm keeping it for later."
"That's good! Everyone else, keep a lookout for anything suspicious. He could be anywhere, doing anything." Josuke told the rest of the stand users. They all mumbled among each other, shocked by the news given to them.
"I think that's all we have for now. Just be careful, alright? We're gonna get this guy no matter what."
"Josuke's right!" Koichi smiled. "Thanks to Shigechi, we're one step closer to stopping the murderer."
On that high note, everyone said their goodbyes and disbanded, going back to their daily activities.
"I'll have to contact the Foundation. Maybe they can send someone over to help." Jotaro mumbled to himself as he walked with Joseph. "After that, I'll have to investigate more about that button..."
"Sounds like you have a lot on your plate. Why don't you leave the contacting someone part to me?" Joseph suggested. That would give Jotaro more time to figure out who the button belonged to.
"Fine. Have Josuke help you, I don't want you to forget."
"Come on! You know that Suzie's the one that forgets things!"
"Whatever. You're both old either way."