Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Maybe it was how you had woken up, simply feeling a bit off. Or maybe, subconsciously, you didn’t want to be in your home any longer than necessary when you got out of bed and put on your school uniform; which consisted of a deep purple typical school sailor uniform and a skirt, to rush through the kitchen and grab a small packet of sweet bread. Without a word, you exited the empty house as your parents had, as usual, left home early to get to work. 

Mindlessly walking, the odd feeling surrounded you and subconsciously led you to bring out the friendly ghost that had been haunting you for as long as you could remember. It looked around, as if feeling what you felt two-fold but as you kept walking towards a familiar building that brought you immense serenity and a sense of peace, the entity had no choice but to follow, floating a few centimetres off of the ground.

The being had been attached to you even when you were a child and it had grown with you as well so back then, the ghost was the same size as you and even had a child-like appearance, too. Initially, your parents believed that you were just, well, a child being a child and making up an imaginary friend because of your poor ability to socialise with other kids your age.

But with your stubborn insistence that the ghost was real and that you weren’t imagining it, along with your parents continued rebuttals to your proclamations, it had merely brought you to the conclusion that you were the only one that could see this being that was stuck to you. 

Especially when you had told the kids at the playground and at elementary school about it only to shortly play it off as a joke and dismiss it when you really had confirmed that literally nobody except for you could see it.

The ghost appeared solid as it was to the touch, too, only for you. It was a humanoid figure, though it lacked any clear body features that gave of its gender, and the androgynous being lacked a whole face. Its bottom half of its face lacked a nose and mouth and only had two small, onyx eyes that, as you had seen from studying it, only appeared either half-lidded and bored or wide and surprised or anxious.

It also had a very simple colour palette consisting of the left top quarter of its face being a violet colour and the bottom half being dark periwinkle blue, while the top right side of its face was a light cream colour and the bottom right half was a dark, almost blood-like red. The same colours covered its body while the colours were divided by a dull golden line on its body and the same dull golden line made the clear shape of a heart with a small cross inside it on its forehead.

It had a slim and lean build, not entirely strong as its ability leaned more towards trickery and stalling. And it didn’t speak either, which simply meant awkwardly long and silent stares like a child would stare at an object while believing that they had some sort of telekinetic power.

The anxious feeling in your gut only managed to get worse in the time that you had been walking mindlessly and you had been brought back from your daydream only to realise where you had ended up. 

Staring at the huge estate, you no longer felt that awe that you had felt when you had first come here and walked to the entrance, though you were a bit surprised by the eerie silence that seemed to emanate from it. Normally the building seemed so warm and welcoming, but it almost seemed like it was void of life and you didn’t like it one bit. 

Especially when you thought about the woman who lived here.

Instead of waltzing in like you so clearly wanted as the ghost being had gone a little bit ahead of you. You clicked your tongue and brought the being back in so it faded into your body and disappeared, waiting for a short while, as you grew slightly worried at the lack of person that you knew would be expecting you.

One minute turned to five, and then you looked at the time on your phone to see that you would probably be late for school if you didn’t head out now but something just didn’t sit right and you couldn’t turn your back now. After you had been standing around near the entrance for almost twenty minutes, you finally decided to step in and slide the door open.

Murmuring a small, “Pardon the intrusion,” you slipped off your shoes cautiously and made your way through the traditional Japanese-style home, glad that your socks were silent against the wooden floor boards as you made your way deep through the home. Somehow, you felt both alone and not, like someone was in the building while you were quietly walking through to find Holly but it was entirely too quiet to be sure.

That is, until you heard a male voice scream, as if in agony and you startled. The voice sounded pained and desperate and the place that it came from was close, you recognised it as the kitchen while you stuck close to the walls and approached it, catching a glimpse of a two tall men, one of them young - probably your age by the black gakuran he wore - and in front of him was an elder man in light blue pyjamas. You couldn’t get any closer, fearing that you’d be noticed and kicked out.

Sure, you probably deserved it but you wanted to see Holly because this feeling of dread still hadn’t left you.

Luckily for you, the men hadn’t been too cautious of their surroundings when you made sure to stay by the wooden walls instead of the translucent sheets on the doors.

“My… My worst fear has come true.” The elder man groaned while holding the other boy by the collar. He continued, “M-My girl, she has a Stand…”

Raising a brow at this, you wondered what and who he had been speaking about when he said Stand, whatever that may be. Was this man related to Holly? He seemed too old to be romantically involved with her and you knew that her husband was currently touring internationally with his band.

You were torn between making yourself known and asking where your dear friend was but also not wanting to intrude when they looked and sounded to be in such distress.

“I knew she didn’t have the power to resist.” You had to strain your hearing and relax your breathing to ensure you heard him right.

“I knew she didn’t have the strength to deny DIO’s soul.” 

DIO? DIO’s soul? What the hell was happening?

A new voice spoke up, you guessed from the other boy that was being held by the older man by his collar but you didn’t want to peek and find out, risking your snooping being exposed. You hated to admit that you really were snooping after technically sneaking into the home without permission but your concern for the kind and gentle woman overpowered following a socially constructed set of moral codes.

“Tell me! What can we do?”

Just like the older male, this person sounded troubled and desperate. 

“There’s one thing… We must find DIO!” You couldn’t help leaning closer, finding that the sudden hatred in his voice was very prominent. It made you wary, stepping back a little and cringing when you heard a squeak from the floorboard below your heel just as the man finished his next sentence.

“We must kill DIO and break the curse, that’s our only opt-”

The sudden silence brought more fear over you than you could even fathom. First these men were really tall and their voices sounded extremely intimidating, ranging from fear and despair to anger and then he said they had to kill someone?! There was no way you could possibly reveal yourself and now your fear was for nought because it simply made you waste precious time when the door was suddenly slid open by a powerful force, crashing into the framing beside you when the younger males hardened, turquoise eyes landed right on you.

A pathetic “Eep!” tumbled from your mouth when you hurried to get away and the floor that you had previously been grateful for was now being cursed in your mind when your socks slid across the surface and made you slower than you really were.

“Oi!” The man growled and a hard grip caught your arm, above your elbow when you hurried, shaking in his grip and fearing for your life when all you could hear was how they wanted to kill someone. 

Were they murderers?! God, the thought made your stomach drop, was Holly okay!?

“St-Stop!” You helplessly cried, being pulled back to the man as another watched, his eyes wide and glaring, “You! Stop fighting and give up!” 

Feeling the inside of your mouth become dry as you huffed while adrenaline pumped through your vines, you barely even heard your voice when you hurriedly, and brokenly yelled out, “S-Simple Minds!” The ghost broke away from you and you screeched again, trying and failing to get away as the man who’d been watching suddenly yelled, “Jotaro! She’s a Stand user!” 

This, for some reason, caused the boy to hesitate and loosen his grip on you while Simple Minds watched with its back slightly hunched over, arms raised and ready to defend. With some more wriggling, you had managed to fall to the floor and spoke again, “Spirited Away.” 

The two men watched in awe and caution when the ghost behind you suddenly phased through you as you hopped back to your feet and started running while another version of you stood and faced the men with a serious expression, hunched over just like your ghost had been only seconds before.

“Shit!” Jotaro yelled when he attempted to hurry after you when you barely heard the older man telling him to stop. Thin, purple thorn-covered vines sprouted from the man's arm as he held it out towards you with fingers out and wide when something thin and spiky wrapped around your ankle just as you were about to rush around the corner and try and escape. 

Instead, you tripped and fell to the ground yet again, scurrying to get away when you turned to see the purple vines around your foot and you swallowed thickly, seeing that it had appeared from the man's bare arm.

Simple Minds was still in a position as if it were ready to fight but you resigned yourself and murmured, “O-Okay… you got me.”

They stared down at you while you carefully held your leg in the air so as to ensure the thorns didn’t prick you, you glanced at the man, seeing that his gaze was still hardened on you, “I can’t trust that you’ll stay put if I release you so you’ll have to answer some questions for us.”

“U-Uhm..”

“Do you work for DIO?”

Furrowing your brows, you shook your head, “What? Who is that?”

That barely managed to quell their anger, “What is going on?!” Another man revealed himself and now all three of them were watching you, the new man looked like a foreigner from somewhere in the middle east, possibly - not that you had any time to think about it.

“Check if she has a flesh bud.” The new man demanded and the boy leaned forward, barely flinching when your ghost swung at him. It was stopped by a bigger, humanoid ghost that was extremely built by the look of the being’s upper body as half of it drifted from the boy who had gotten closer to you. You barely felt the boy lifting your hair that sat along your hairline as you stared at the purple-blue being with wide eyes, mouth agape. It was colourful and extremely fast from the way it easily defended itself and the boy with his huge forearm. It had long flowing hair, that seemed to defy gravity and your ghost backed off, equally frightened and in awe.

“Wh-what is..”

“She doesn’t have one.” The boy answered quickly, straightening back up when the purple thorns then vanished as if they were never there, “Are you sure? Then who is she?”

“Hell if I know.” The boy spoke in a gravelly voice but you could still hear the unease in his tone, his eyes raking down to your clothes and then back to your face, his own looking even more irritated than before “Who the hell are you?” 

“I-I..” Nervous under the glare of the three of them, you allowed your ghost to stand by you just in case when the elder man suddenly had enough, “Jotaro, you deal with her, I’m going to help Holly.”

Eyes snapping to the man at the sound of that name, you almost lurched forward if not for the boy glaring at you like you had beat up his puppy, “Holly-san! What’s wrong with her, is she okay!?”

“Eh? You know my Holly?” The man faltered and you held your fingers together in front of your stomach, still feeling that tight, uncomfortable feeling in your stomach, “She’s my friend, I was coming to see her but I-I… overheard you.. I’m sorry.”

“Oi, woman, you still didn’t answer my damn question.”

“I’m [Lastname] [Name]! I’ve been coming to visit Holly-san for a while now… I-I’m really confused, I mean, I’m sorry I was listening in but usually Holly-san comes to greet me or she’ll invite me in but I had a bad feeling so I came in and-”

The boy growled, “Shut up, you’re annoying!” The boy barely gave you another glance when he stormed back into his home and hence leaving you to stare at the third man who watched you with calculating eyes and you grew warm all over, nervous and confused.

“Um… Can I ask you wh-what… a stand is?”

The man seemed to relax a little and even stepped further into the room and gestured for you to follow, “A stand is the visual manifestation of a person's life energy. Because they stand beside us, they’re called Stands.” The man explained shortly, “they come in all sorts of forms, as you saw Mr. Joestar’s Hermit Purple and Jotaro’s Stand, too.”

Nodding slowly, you whispered, “so that makes me a-”

“Yes, that makes you a Stand user.”

“Thanks..” Turning slightly to look further into the room, you saw that the men had disappeared and you walked through the side of the kitchen to come to the living room where The two men had Holly laid and tucked in a futon, “Holly-san!”

Hurriedly, rushing to her side, you knelt down and felt her forehead with the back of your hand. The men watched you, still cautious but but as much as before, especially when you started asking her about her condition and what had caused it, “Can you not see it? She’s just acquired a Stand but she doesn’t have a fighting spirit… My Holly is so gentle and sweet, she couldn’t possibly hurt anyone, and now she’s suffering for it, because of DIO’s curse.”

The man, who told you his name was Joseph Joestar, revealed himself as Holly’s father and Jotaro’s grandfather. He told you briefly about how a man named Dio had been terrorising the people of the Joestar bloodline and he was finally awakened somewhere on the globe and his awakening had caused Joseph, Jotaro and Holly to gain a Stand. Joseph was very knowledgeable on the subject because of his good friend Muhammad Avdol who was from Egypt.

They asked about your relationship with Holly which led you to telling them that you had gone out for a walk when you noticed her struggling with her groceries so you took the initiative to help her and walk her home. She offered you tea and some snacks which simply turned into a regular thing as your friendship with her grew much like the one of a mother and a daughter. Her selfless kindness was hard to ignore and the lack of those qualities in your own home only made you subconsciously yearn for it more.

Soon after, as expected, Avdol asked you about your Stand which allowed you to bring it out as they looked at the humanoid figure while you explained that you had named it Simple Minds as an ironic joke that simply stuck because of its rather annoying inability to let you choose what kind of personality came out when you created a clone of yourself with it.

You were just lucky that the clone you made earlier so you could get away wasn’t as… flamboyant as most of the others were. You also revealed that you could make clones of other people too though they were always, predictably, weaker than the real person.

Once you finished explaining, you had left briefly to the kitchen to grab a small towel and a small bowl of water, bringing them over beside your friend who was sweating slightly across her forehead. You wet the towel and wrung it out, dabbing Holly’s face and ignoring the eyes that watched you.

After a few seconds, a loud sigh sounded and you looked up to see Joseph watching you, “[Name], I have to apologise for the three of us for what he did outside, it was inexcusable but Jotaro had only recently had a run in with someone who was possessed and working under Dio to try and kill him, we have to be careful no-”

“There’s no need to apologise!” Cracking a small, reassuring smile, you shrugged as if to say everything was fine, “I shouldn’t have been sneaking around like that and you were all clearly panicked with more important things,” you drawled off, folding the towel so you could place in flat on Holly’s forehead as her breathing appeared more relaxed, even if she was still pale it was still an improvement, “I would’ve done the same.” 

Joseph smiled, graciously and hummed, “Thank you, and thank you for being such a good friend to my daughter.”

“Please,” you shook your head bashfully, “I just wish I could do so much more for her.”

Silence ensued soon after, there really wasn’t much else you could do for the woman other than let her rest and you were perfectly content sitting by her side, Jotaro standing and watching as Avdol turned to his friend when Joseph called his name, “Back to the matter at hand, I can’t get a clear picture of Dio nor his whereabouts… he’s always obscured by darkness.” He took out some pictures from his pocket and laid them out on the floor, allowing you to see the muscular back of a blond man, “the background is dark in every spirit photo I take.”

“Spirit photos..” Murmuring, you took one and looked at it carefully, seeing Avdol take one too, “By using an object like a camera or a tv, I can display any information I want to see. But this is all I can get when trying to locate Dio.” Joseph explained as Jotaro had taken the photo from Avdol to also take a closer look at it.

“We’ve used different ways to analyse them, but the darkness has caused them all to fail.” Avdol spoke, his voice grave. Your eyes scanned the picture, trying to see anything but the man in the photo was bare, nothing to really speak of unless you counted the star-shaped mark on the junction of his shoulder and neck. Jotaro continued looking, this time doing so with his Stand too, “Hey, you should have said that sooner.”

The huge greek god-like figure held the photo, staring in silence and Jotaro moved to a cupboard to open a drawer and grab out a pencil and paper, “What do you see behind Dio?” He questioned his Stand and you watched in slight awe when he kept speaking, “My Stand is so accurate, it could remove a flesh bud from someone's brain, and move with enough precision to catch a bullet. I’ll make a sketch.”

Looking back down to the photos quickly, you wondered what the Stand could possibly see in the grainy darkness that the camera had captured. You supposed it was to be expected when the man in the picture was an ancient vampire that couldn’t roam in the sunlight but you didn’t get to think about that for too long when you heard the rapid sound of pencil lead moving on paper.

You didn’t get to see what it drew as you didn’t particularly feel comfortable letting yourself get too close or too comfortable with them. They were clearly more familiar and closer to each other but a few seconds later, you found out that the Stand had drawn a fly.

“A fly?” You questioned aloud. Jotaro didn’t spare you a glance yet Joseph seemed to agree with you, “I don’t know what we’ll get with a fly…”

“Wait!” Avdol piped up, looking at the paper closely, “I know this fly! Jojo, do you have an encyclopedia?”

“We’ve got a library.” Jotaro answered and you mentally acknowledged the nickname, finding it quite amusing to be attached to such an intimidating and physically gifted man who honestly looked as if he could kill you with a single punch.

Avdol grabbed the paper from Jotaro and stepped out of the room to head towards the library - and wow they have a whole library?! - only to leave you sitting by an unconscious woman with her son and father. 

You really didn’t know what to do, but you knew that the sickening feeling in your stomach had subsided which allowed you to comfortably stay by her side when her eyes suddenly, yet slowly, opened. 

You noticed first and called her name gently, smiling as well, prompting Joseph and Jotaro to look down and see her too.

“Holly!” Joseph called out to her and he already looked visibly less stressed out when she spoke to him, “Papa, I…”

“Just take it easy…” He stopped her gently, “Jotaro, get some water.” 

You almost offered to do it instead when you paused at the sight of Jotaro already straightening up and walking away wordlessly, you almost thought you a small smile along the boys lips as he left but you couldn't be sure.

“Oh, [Name]-chan,” Her eyes glowed at the sight of you and you smiled back bashfully, “here I was coming for some breakfast and now you’ve gotten yourself sick, Holly-san.” You jokingly scolded her and she giggled, “Kya~ Sorry to worry you, I have no idea what happened,” Even as her body was being attacked, slowly as it was sapping at her strength, she still managed to smile at you, your smile crumbled a little as Jotaro came back and handed her the glass of water,

“And you’re always telling me to take care of myself…” The shakiness in your voice made her pause, holding the glass to her lips as you knew just how detrimental this Stand was on her, and yet she had no idea. You masked the sadness with a strained smile, “But it’s fine, you just worry about getting better, okay?”

“Of course! I can’t believe I got a fever and passed out!”

Joseph kept the playful air going and grinned at his daughter, “you gave me quite the scare, Holly!” Standing, you stepped back a little to give the two some space and time for themselves. You watched silently, amazed at the way Mr. Joestar brushed Holly’s teeth and then wiped her face, moving on to brush her long, thick blonde hair and then he cut her nails too. He cut up an apple next and fed it to her and you were left in awe, wondering if this was what fathers actually did with their daughters. 

It felt too personally for you to look but you also couldn’t seem to look away, and Holly took it all like it was nothing as she changed the subject and tried to move the blankets off of her from her futon, asking Jotaro what he wanted for dinner.

“Hey-”

“Don't move! Just stay in bed!” He overpowered your voice when you tried to ease her back to rest and you realised that while he had seemed okay with how things were going so far, you could see the panic in his eyes when he didn’t hesitate to yell at his mother to rest and not overwork herself. He seemed to realise it too and pulled down the brim of his hat when Holly looked startled, “Y-You shouldn’t do anything until your fever is down..”

Turning away to face the garden outside, you felt at ease by Jotaro’s words, “Just shut up and get better.”

“You’ve all been so kind to me since I got sick.” She laid back in the futon and allowed Mr. Joestar to tuck her in, “Sometimes having a cold isn’t so bad.” Looking down, you just felt troubled and wondered what you could do, just as Joseph spoke somberly, “she just lost consciousness again..”

He trembled but you refused to see it, “She was acting so cheerful when she’s actually burning up. The way she’s been acting confirms it!” You glanced over your shoulder to see, just as Jotaro had been watching too, the two of them becoming increasingly stressed and restless, while you just felt so sad and lost, “although she hasn’t said anything, my daughter knows she has a Stand! … She didn’t want us to worry.”

Avdol walked by just in time with a thick encyclopedia held between his side and his arm as he confirmed that he had found the fly and that said fly could only be found on the Egyptian Nile River Basin. 

“That’s.. amazing that you found it, Avdol-san..” you had to commend him and he simply nodded as a welcome, humming shortly while he continued, “we’ve narrowed the location down to the city of Aswan.”

“You’re going to Egypt, huh?”

Another male who you hadn’t even known was present, arrived in his dark green gakuran and he had a bandage around his head which lead you to believe that he was the one who had been under Dio’s control, who had a flesh bud inside his brain and had tried to kill Jotaro. He had a kind look in his eyes, though he also looked determined while you all looked at him.

“Kakyoin, what do you mean?” Joseph questioned.

“That flesh bud was implanted in my brain three months ago.” Kakyoin explained that he and his family had been in Egypt on vacation when he met Dio there. And soon after, the boy asked when the group would because he wanted to accompany them.

You jolted in your spot and looked between the four of them, unsure of yourself but knowing that you wanted to help too. You couldn’t just sit around when someone like Holly was slowly being killed with only one way to stop it.

Jotaro’s voice cut through your frantic thoughts, and your wide eyes snapped to him, “Go with us? Why would you?”

Kakyoin smiled hopelessly and answered that he wasn’t entirely sure but he knew that he just wanted to go along with them. Seeing how easily he could say it made you stand a little straighter while staring right at Joseph, then to Jotaro with eyes blazing, “I’d like to go as well.”

Inspiration of Simple Minds appearance