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“Come on, dude...does your uncle really need us to go instead of him?”
Okuyasu kicked at an empty pop can left on the sidewalk, hands in his pockets. Josuke and Koichi trailed alongside him. Josuke rolled his eyes as his friend spat onto the boulevard beside them.
“He’s actually my nephew, dumbass. And yeah, he does, considering he’s busy doing some stupid shit with the old man.”
“Stand business?” Oku raised an eyebrow. Josuke shrugged. He didn’t seem to care all that much, but he supposed there was no harm in asking.
“I think he said something about catching a rogue stand user running loose in Morioh. He said it was probably just a citizen really confused about their new stand ability or something like that. Don’t know why he didn’t ask us to help, though.”
“He probably just made that shit up just so he wouldn’t have to go do whatever we’re doing himself,” Okuyasu snickered, watching Josuke’s bored expression turn mischievous. Koichi frowned.
“Josuke, you literally just got out of the hospital...do you really think they're going to let you battle another stand user right after what happened with Kira?” he asked in concern, trying to ignore the way Josuke quickly smoothed out the sides of his shirt and tried his best to cover up his newly fixed-up side with the bulk of his arm, “Plus, Mr. Joestar and Jotaro are your family. Maybe you shouldn’t speak that way about them...” he nervously played with one of the hoodie strings hanging from his sweater. He knew Joestar business was a touchy subject for him still. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought it up at all.
Josuke looked unimpressed.
“Some family,” he scoffed, “Don’t recall Joestar ever giving my mom an ounce of child support.”
They dropped the subject pretty quickly after that. A tense silence hung through the air, but Josuke didn’t seem angry. He shoved his hands in his pockets and Okuyasu huffed loudly, hanging his head back.
“Did he have to get us up so early on a Saturday, though? My goddamn eyes keep trying to close.”
“It’s noon,” Koichi intercepted, “And he trusted us with this job. We should at least take it a bit seriously.”
“Speaking of…” Josuke yawned and tried stretching his arms out above his neck, “Remind me why we’re going to that madman’s house again?”
Okuyasu looked up eagerly and Koichi restrained himself from pummeling them both into the ground.
“Didn’t Jotaro call the two of you about today, too?”
“Well yeah, duh,” Josuke replied absentmindedly, “But Cowboy Bebop was on and it’s never on so I was kinda watching that at the same time and…you know...my mind might’ve wandered a bit by the time he hung up the phone.”
Koichi glared at Okuyasu, who nodded alongside him.
“You, too? Really?” he asked in disbelief. Oku nodded slowly as he and Josuke started talking excitedly about what happened in last night’s episode. He sighed deeply. He didn’t understand why Jotaro had so much faith in these idiots.
“Well, since both of you somehow forgot, he told us to go pick up the last of Kira’s info from Rohan. All the pictures and stuff?” His glare got deeper and deeper and they looked at him cluelessly, “Do you seriously not remember!?”
Josuke shrugged. “Yeah, yeah...that kinda rings a bell. Maybe we can mess with Rohan a bit while we’re there, too…”
Oku smirked. “I still don’t think he recovered from that dice game...maybe we can take all his art supplies and shit this time. He’d totally freak out,” he turned to Koichi, clasping his hands together menacingly, “He likes you. When we get there, keep him distracted while we take everything, yeah?”
The boy’s face paled at the mention of messing with the older man. “Rohan isn’t even that bad! Okay...he’s a bit self-centred and all but he’s not horrible!”
“Dude, he kidnapped you and that black-haired kid and then insulted my hair.” He rolled his eyes when Koichi’s expression didn’t change. “And I rescued him from Highway Star and he still refuses to thank me for it.”
“And he glares at me and stuff, sometimes!” Okuyasu added on, “And uhh...you also said he licked a spider one time. Don’t think we’ve forgotten about that!”
Josuke and Oku continued conversing, trying their best to out-do each other with a weirder thing about their green-haired acquaintance. Koichi just sighed, taking out the leather file folder that Jotaro had given him the night prior. SPW was written in shimmering golden paint. He turned to the two of them and halted their conversation.
“He might be a bit strange, but he did virtually all of the research in finding out who Kira was. He’s the one who found out who Hayato was and took all those pictures, remember? That has to mean something.”
The pair just looked at each other in response and shrugged in disinterest. Koichi suppressed his anger. That probably wouldn’t backfire later.
“I don’t think he cares about anyone but you, dude,” Josuke deadpanned, searching his pockets and pulling out a couple coins, “Why can’t someone from the Speedwagon Foundation just come and do it? They sent you that stupid folder, why can’t they just do it themselves instead of making us walk all the way over?”
“HEY! You still owe me from that time I bought us both lunch!” Okuyasu interrupted, trying to snatch the money out of Josuke’s hand. The teen retaliated, almost bumping into Koichi in the process.
“Do you really think Rohan is going to let some stranger into his house?” Koichi asked blankly, holding the folder close to his chest, “Besides, this stuff is supposed to be confidential, remember? They can’t just let some random worker pick it up.”
“Ok, but what’s the difference between them and us?” Josuke asked, holding the money in the air, Okuyasu trying and failing to grab it out of his grasp. When he saw the defeated look on his friend’s face, his expression softened.
“Look, dude. I’ll buy us both drinks or something, how ‘bout that?”
A grin set on Oku’s face and Koichi sighed, deciding not to even bother answering any more questions.
Even if Rohan didn’t act like it, he still knew deep down somewhere that whatever happened with Reimi all those years ago must have taken a toll on him. Kira’s hunt down was personal to him the moment they met Reimi again in the alleyway. He knew he wouldn’t pass off this information to just anybody…
“He only agreed to give the information directly to me or you. He doesn’t trust an exchange between a regular delivery worker, and frankly, I don’t either, so I’m entrusting this task to you, Koichi. I’ll send Josuke and Okuyasu as backup in case you encounter the stand user that we’re trying to find. A special storage folder for the papers and photos should be in a package at your door by now,” Jotaro had said to him over the phone.
He remembered holding the phone close to his ear to make sure his mother didn’t hear them discussing the recent events of Morioh’s newly-dead serial killer and wondered if he was the one who should really be doing this.
Then again, Rohan hadn’t exactly left his house much since what happened with Kira. He claimed he always got that way whenever he was working through a significant part of his manga, but it would probably still be good to check up on him. Even if he would probably murder Josuke at the sight of the pompadoured teen entering his house again.
“Oi, Koichi! I got extra change. You want a drink, too? It’s way too hot outside for what you’re wearing, anyway.”
The short teen was shaken out of his thoughts as they neared the convenience store and he realized he had fallen behind. Okuyasu was already booking it into the store and Josuke held the door open, shaking a handful of coins in his hand.
He nodded. Maybe he had overdressed just a little bit.
Cans of cheap corner store drinks mostly gone, they neared Rohan’s house ten minutes later, just as Okuyasu’s blood-sugar started to skyrocket. Josuke laughed and joked that he was like a dog getting excited to go for a walk, and Okuyasu responded by taking the rest of Josuke’s drink, earning him a light punch in the stomach.
They rounded the corner and the trio could see Rohan’s house in near sight, though the lights weren’t on and the curtains were drawn. Koichi wasn’t worried, though. Rohan was Rohan. He hated people. He probably hated sunlight too, knowing him. He gripped the folder in his free hand as the three of them walked up the man’s porch steps. As Koichi knocked on the door and received no immediate answer, he wondered if Rohan was still somehow asleep.
Josuke whispered some joke about spider-licking to Okuyasu and Koichi knocked on the door again, still getting no answer. He wondered if Jotaro had even phoned Rohan and told him about the info exchange in the first place. Why wouldn’t he? Jotaro wasn’t the type of person to forget something as important as that.
Neither was Rohan.
He froze, almost dropping the folder. Was he attacked by the stand user? The one that Jotaro was talking about? Josuke seemed to notice his distress and raised an eyebrow.
“Not answering?”
Koichi nodded nervously and Josuke grinned. “More fun for me, anyway.”
The teen proceeded to bang loudly on the door with both his fists, much to Koichi’s incessant protest.
“OOOOI!!!! ROHAN!!!” he bellowed, “OPEN UP!!”
A woman walking her dog passing by on the sidewalk stopped in confusion at the volume, as did some of the neighbours out taking care of their gardens. Koichi felt the tips of his ears turn red with embarrassment.
“Stop it!” he whispered harshly, “Everyone’s looking at us!”
Okuyasu’s calmness dissipated into a fit of giggles as he, too, joined Josuke in making small dents in the man’s front door. Koichi would have scolded them again for not taking this “mission” seriously, but he had other worries in mind. Like the fact that Rohan had yet to come outside and use Heaven’s Door to beat the ever-loving shit out of them.
“Man...I really thought that would work…” Josuke huffed, backing away from the door, out of breath. Okuyasu nodded tiredly, not missing the concerned look on Koichi’s face.
“You think this is a stand thing?” he questioned out loud, acting surprisingly observant. Josuke’s face sobered up, but it quickly turned into a small grin.
“Only one way to find out.”
In the blink of an eye, Crazy Diamond was out and Josuke punched blindly at Rohan’s front door until it was in absolute shambles. Okuyasu had no problem jumping over the pile of wood and metal and Koichi just gaped, praying to god that no one was going to call the police on them.
“After you,” the teen said, as if he didn’t just break someone else’s door down. Koichi sighed and cautiously stepped over the pile of broken materials, watching as Josuke mended it back as if nothing had happened.
Entering Rohan’s front hall, they all narrowed their eyes to adjust to how shockingly dark it was. The lights were all shut off and the curtains and blinds were all drawn closed.
“You think he’s upstairs or something?” Josuke whispered, almost tripping over the carpet that sat in Rohan’s entryway. Okuyasu shrugged.
“We should check downstairs, first. It could be the stand user Jotaro was talking about yesterday, so it's better to stick together.” Koichi proposed. The trio nodded and started tip-toeing towards the living room.
“Where’s the light switch in here?” Josuke whispered as they neared the corner of the room. Koichi tried to wrack his brain for any memory of coming into Rohan’s house and seeing a switch somewhere. His eyes lit up as he finally remembered.
“I think it's next to the doorway, across from the couch,” he whispered back, preparing to creep his way over there, “When I turn it on, be prepared to attack if we need to.”
The pair nodded curtly at their short comrade and Koichi made his way across the room, pressing his back up against the wall as much as he could. He called Act 3 to his side in case he needed to trap anyone to the ground, and let his stand transport silent words to his two friends across the room.
‘On three,’ it echoed, ‘One...two…’
As his stand called out three, Koichi quickly flicked the lightswitch up, expecting either an empty room or a menacing stand user.
What they found, surprisingly enough, was neither.
Crumpled up paper lay scattered around the dark green couch, as were handfuls of pens and art supplies. It looked like a tornado had ripped through the room and spared only the furniture and the things hanging on the walls. A cup of tea now long gone cold sat on the floor. A packet of instant Ramen lay unopened on the coffee table, and in the centre of it all lay Rohan Kishibe himself.
Too shocked to say anything, the trio just stood there in awe, watching as the mangaka lay there curled up on the couch surrounded by absolute disenchantment. Okuyasu was finally the one to speak up first as he noticed something else sitting amongst the chaos.
“Guys...is that…?”
Koichi’s eyes widened as he finally saw what his friend was referring to. Sitting lithely on the edge of the couch, right by Rohan’s feet, was-
“-Is that Heaven’s Door?” Josuke took the words right out of Koichi’s mouth before he could even open it. He had only seen Rohan’s stand in flashes, as the man used it at lightning speed to open up someone like a living book, but sure was him alright.
But did he always look that small? Koichi supposed it was a new stand, after all. Act 3 was pretty tiny before he evolved, as well. Maybe Heaven’s Door wasn’t meant to grow bigger.
“Why does he look so...sad?” Okuyasu asked hesitantly. He was right, Koichi noticed. The tiny stand sat with its legs dangling on the edges of the couch, his tophat pulled down to his ears. He kicked his legs slightly, as if he were moping just like a person would. The miserable look on his face made it all even sadder to look at. He looked almost...melancholic. He didn’t even register the three faces staring down at him, as if he were in his own little sad world.
“Why is he out in the first place?” Koichi found himself asking. The pair shrugged and Josuke made his way over to Rohan.
“I mean, Crazy Dee has done stuff while I’m asleep, so maybe it’s like that,” he guessed, “I’m just surprised he hasn’t woken up yet.”
Okuyasu raised an eyebrow as Josuke snapped his fingers in front of the mangaka. “Hey. Wake up. Dipshit. Asshole. Rohan. Wake up.”
“Deep sleeper, huh?” Oku joked, leaning over to shake the man’s shoulder, “C’mon, me an’ Josuke are gonna go dump all your art stuff in the trash…” he teased, his mischievous expression turning to blank confusion as the man rolled over, seemingly unaffected by anything they were doing.
Josuke laughed nervously.
“...Really deep sleeper, maybe…?”
Koichi frowned. “This is all too weird. The fact that Heaven’s Door is out and that Rohan won’t wake up is a pretty weird coincidence, don’t you think?”
Josuke nodded suspiciously. “So you think this is stand business after all?”
Koichi didn’t know. None of them really knew what was going on. They could phone Jotaro, maybe Mr. Joestar or someone from the Speedwagon Foundation to help them. But Koichi already had a feeling that this wasn’t just something that could be easily fixed.
“Hey, guys. Check this out.”
Okuyasu’s raspy voice knocked him out of his thoughts, and he crept away from Rohan’s sulking stand and over to the mangaka himself. Oku pointed to a spot on Rohan’s wrist, where a piece of skin stuck up from it, almost as if it were made of paper.
Curiously, Josuke carefully peeled it back, revealing a page underneath his with small writing scribbled on it.
“What does it say?” they both asked curiously. Josuke narrowed his eyes and moved in closer to read the small print. His face scrunched up in confusion as he did so. The other two leaned in to read exactly what Josuke was looking at, only to find themselves also frowning.
ROHAN KISHIBE MUST REMAIN ASLEEP FOR THE NEXT ELEVEN HOURS.
“What?” Koichi thought out loud, “What is that supposed to mean?”
They pondered in thought for the next few seconds before they all came to the same realization, turning to Rohan’s stand at the other end of the couch.
“You,” Josuke pointed at him, then back at Rohan, “Did you write that?”
The stand looked up, large green eyes staring sadly into theirs, but didn’t respond. Instead, he looked back down at the ground, crossing his little arms over his chest in dismay. Josuke would normally be teasing the absolute shit out of Rohan for his stand acting so rogue, but now…
Rogue…
Rogue.
“Holy shit, did his stand go rogue or something?” Josuke suddenly asked. It would make sense, the way it was sitting here without being summoned. And Heaven’s Door was the only one who could write anything using his stand ability besides Rohan himself, so maybe…
“It could be the work of a stand user,” Okuyasu chimed in, sobering up and plopping down next to the tiny stand, “Did you go rogue, little dude? Did you write that into Rohan?”
Again, Heaven’s Door merely stared up at all of them sadly and then back to Rohan, who remained asleep.
“I don’t think he can speak,” Koichi concluded, “But that hand-writing didn’t look like Rohan’s. If he really did write that command into Rohan...why?”
“Maybe the enemy stand’s ability makes their user unable to control their stand in some way?” Josuke pondered, watching as Rohan unconsciously adjusted his position.
“Well, whatever he’s able to do now, he sure doesn’t look that happy about it,” Okuyasu replied, staring sympathetically at the little green man sitting next to him, “Bro...this is kinda weird to say, but why is Rohan’s stand so adorable?”
They all didn’t want to admit it, but Okuyasu was right. Even its little clothes were adorable to see. Josuke wondered if the reason Rohan didn’t bring out his stand was because of how much they would all probably tease him for how tiny and cute he was.
A sudden thought occurred to Koichi.
“Do you think Heaven is just trying to take care of him?”
An airy silence came over them as they watched as Heaven’s Door lifted his head up from his sad side of the couch and placed a tender hand on his user’s leg, the emotion in his eyes only increasing.
“That’s cute, but also really depressing. What the hell?” Josuke whined, sitting on the other side of the stand so that the little man was in between the pair, “I really wanna tease him or something but this is actually kinda bittersweet.”
Koichi nodded in agreement. “I’m going to call Jotaro. The stand user might still be in the area, depending on how long ago this happened.”
The pair nodded as their friend walked out of the living room and over to the telephone, hearing the telltale noise of numbers being dialed. They stared back down at Heaven’s Door.
“So, like...are you...Rohan? Cause you’re being nicer than him, but maybe that’s cause you’re just sad right now,” Okuyasu observed, sighing as the stand showed no sign of responding.
“When do you think he wrote that into Rohan?” Josuke asked, “How are we supposed to know when the 11 hours will be up?”
Oku shrugged. “Guess we should hang out with his stand until he wakes up.” his eyes lit up as he thought of an idea, “What if we try to cheer him up or something? Poor little dude looks so depressed.”
A quiet sigh came from the stand as they both looked down at him again. Josuke looked like he was trying his hardest not to grab the stand by the shoulders and squish him as hard as he could. He did look like a little living doll, after all.
“Agreed,” was all the teen said, trying not to laugh at the fact that Rohan’s stand is the smallest thing he’d ever seen, “What do stands even do to make themselves happy?”
Okuyasu shrugged and Koichi walked back in, looking uneasy.
“I’m going to go upstairs and grab the stuff for this folder,” he said, “He said they were in the middle of tracking the user down and there was evidence that the they passed through Rohan’s neighbourhood, so we should probably stay with him until they catch them.”
“How could we possibly leave when this little dude is so sad, bro?” Okuyasu pointed to Heaven’s door again. Koichi’s eyes softened a bit at the sight, but promptly turned around and made his way upstairs.
Josuke turned to his friend, “What are we supposed to do? You think he’s hungry or something?”
Okuyasu shrugged, leveling with the small stand beside him. “Does Rohan feed you or whatever?”
No response.
“Why did you make Rohan sleep for so long?” Josuke demanded. Still no response. He turned to Oku in defeat. “He doesn’t look hostile, but maybe that’s a part of the stand effect. Just waiting for the right moment to strike or something.”
“Dude, I think he’s just chilling,” his friend replied, “he was sitting here when we got in here, and he's still just kinda...doing nothing.”
Josuke looked skeptical, but he didn’t exactly have any proof stating otherwise. His stand did seem pretty out of character for a user that’s usually so pretentious.
Rohan rolled over again in his sleep, and Heaven’s Door’s large green gaze quickly locked into his user. He looked...angry? Some form of bitterness was in his gaze, at the least.
“Maybe he’s just cold?” Okuyasu proposed, “It’s freezing in here, bro. Let’s put a blanket over him or something.”
Josuke nodded and grabbed one of the couch blankets, draping it over the stand. He looked absolutely unaffected, still keeping his eyes locked into Rohan’s closed ones.
“Ugh...come on, little guy. Don’t make me do this,” Josuke groaned, sighing in defeat when the stand’s gaze didn’t leave its place.
“Fine,” he scoffed, throwing a blanket on top of Rohan, “Better?”
He still looked unsatisfied, but his eyes drifted over to the two of them. He still had that sad expression on his face, but it started to loosen just a little bit. Okuyasu craned his head towards the kitchen.
“Tonio always makes me spaghetti when I’m sad. Let’s make him spaghetti,” he proposed, a legitimately serious expression painting his face.
“Yeah, if he even has stuff for pasta,” Josuke joked, getting up and following his friend, who had already made his way into the kitchen, “We’ll be right back, little dude.”
They rummaged through his kitchen cupboards, only to find most of them bare.
“Shit, dude, does he live off ramen or something?” Josuke muttered to himself. He supposed Rohan was only 20, but you would think that someone living alone would know how to cook for themselves.
“What the hell is ‘Uncle Ben’s minute rice?’” Okuasyu asked aloud, pulling out an instant packet of...something.
“Looks American. I think it expired 2 years ago, though,” Josuke said, tossing the packet to the side, “Tea, salt, pepper flakes...dude! I found pasta!”
Josuke triumphantly pulled out a packet of spaghetti, slamming it down on the table. Oku lit the stove and sloppily filled a pot with water, waiting for it to boil.
As the pot started to simmer, Josuke dumped in the noodles, opening Rohan’s fridge.
“Dude, why the hell is there like...nothing in his fridge?”
“Is there tomato sauce?” Okuyasu asked in response. Josuke nodded and pulled out something from the back of the fridge.
“Doesn’t expire yet, but you should see some of the shit in here.”
Okuyasu laughed and stirred the pot. Koichi came into the kitchen soon after, setting the SPW folder on the counter.
“How’s Little Dude?” Okuyasu asked.
“Is that what we’re really calling him now?” Koichi rolled his eyes as the pair nodded enthusiastically, “He’s still just sitting there...wait, what are you guys even doing?”
“...making him spaghetti?”
“I don’t think stands eat.”
“How do we know, though?”
Steam filled the kitchen and Koichi left to go clean up whatever chaotic mess lay in the living room. He put the ramen and the cold mug of tea on the kitchen counter as Josuke strained the pasta.
“Hey, dude? Aren’t we supposed to heat up the sauce, too?” Josuke asked as the teen slathered tomato sauce onto the steaming hot plate. He froze for a moment.
“Don’t tell Tonio.”
Mediocre spaghetti in hand, they passed by Koichi holding a small garbage bag and set the plate down in front of Heaven’s Door.
“Come on, little dude. Eat it, little dude,” they chanted quietly, growing more disappointed each second the stand overlooked the plate.
“Well, that was a great waste of time,” Josuke groaned, picking the plate up to bring it back to the kitchen and ignoring Koichi’s I told you so coming from the corner, “I guess we should just put in the fridge.”
Okuyasu sat there and prodded Rohan’s stand as Koichi looked through the piles of crumpled up drawings. By the time Josuke re-entered the living room, it was eerily silent.
“What are you looking at?” He asked, watching as his two friends straightened out a few pieces of paper.
“I just found some weird drawings…” Koichi said uneasily. Josuke sat down next to them and stared at the drawing in his friend’s hand.
“Hey, is that Reimi?” He asked. Koichi nodded and Oku frowned, taking the drawing from him.
“Why’d he draw her like that? Why’s there so much blood?”
Josuke felt something tug uneasily at his chest. There were a few more like that; gorey, messy, so unlike the sweet spirit girl they had all said goodbye to a few weeks prior.
They kept flipping through different seemingly failed drawings judging by the way they were crumpled up, until one particular one made them freeze.
“Who’s grabbing at her in that one?” Okuyasu asked nervously. As they flipped to the other side of the paper, the culprit became evident.
Kira.
Josuke felt something drop in the pit of his stomach. “Why the hell would he be drawing stuff like that? What’s wrong with him?”
Koichi shakily grabbed another crumpled up paper. This one was even more bone-chilling.
“God, that’s creepy,” Okuyasu whispered. It was a closeup of Kira’s face. Those piercing eyes and perfectly-set face looked almost exactly like him. As if he could jump right out of the pages.
“What’s this one? Why would he—?” Koichi grabbed another paper, this one split into four panels. Through the wrinkles and creases, they could make out that the person in the panels was Rohan himself. Exploding. Over and over again. Josuke thought he could see a perfectly manicured hand poke out of the side of the drawing; one he had grown to remember all too well.
Something just didn’t feel right about it. Like they had all seen it before somewhere, but it hadn't actually happened...right? Nothing terrible ever happened to Rohan during the Kira fight.
Right?
No one could think of any words to say, but it seemed like they didn’t need to as a harsh voice pierced their silence.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?”
Their heads snapped up towards the couch and they spotted Rohan, now sitting upright and glaring at them. “Why the hell are you looking through my stuff?! GET OUT!”
Koichi jumped back with his hands up, “We didn’t mean to, we swear! You didn’t answer the door and we thought there was a stand user and you wouldn’t wake up so Jotaro told us to stay here! We were just cleaning up a bit, we promise!”
Rohan growled, “You’re supposed to come tomorrow. I knew Josuke and Okuyasu were a bit slow, but I didn’t expect you to be such an idiot, Koichi.”
The trio stared at him blankly. Rohan suddenly had a feeling that something wasn’t exactly right.
“Jotaro called us yesterday,” Josuke finally said. Rohan’s frowned deepened.
“I think Heaven’s Door made you sleep for like, 12 hours or something,” Okuyasu said matter-of-factly, “we saw a command on your wrist.”
The man glanced down at his arm before turning to his stand, absolutely livid.
“YOU.” he growled, pointing a finger at him in frustration, “What the hell is wrong with you? Why won’t you take my orders? You dare defy me!?”
To their surprise, the stand glared back before turning his head away from his user and crossing his arms. He looked like a child being scolded by their parent. Josuke almost laughed, if not for the bizarre circumstances. This was all too weird.
“Is he ignoring you?” Koichi suddenly asked. Rohan turned to them, looking outraged that he could even think of such a thing. Koichi winced and braced for the man’s harrowing rage, but instead, it came out as a rather neutral tone.
“Heaven’s Door hasn’t been able to follow my orders since yesterday evening. He wrote several commands on me of his own accord. I am unable to use my stand ability or control my stand.”
They all blinked in surprise. That certainly wasn’t what they were expecting him to say. And it certainly wasn’t what Rohan expected himself to say, either. He sat up abruptly and tried to make a grab for his stand, who quickly dissipated and re-emerged at the top of the couch.
“That—wasn’t what I meant to say,” he growled, pointing to the door, “Get the information about Kira and get out of my house.”
It seemed like no one was listening, though.
“Wait, he wrote other commands in you?” Josuke asked, ignoring his protests, “What did he write?”
He again, expected Rohan to roundhouse kick his fine ass out of his house, but instead that stupid neutral tone was back. “I don’t know.”
They all turned to Heaven’s Door, who was still sitting on the top of the couch, looking displeased with his livingroom company.
“Show us,” Koichi said to the stand, “Please. Rohan can’t control your ability right now, so at least show us what you did.”
There was an uncomfortable silence, but the stand finally nodded slowly, not bothering to look any of them in the eyes.
“Hey, at least we know he can understand us,” Okuyasu said as Heaven’s Door floated closer to Rohan hesitantly, “When we tried to feed him earlier it was like we didn’t even exist.”
“You tried to what?”
It sounded like the man wanted to say something else, but the stand had already flipped his face open like a book and his eyes fluttered shut.
“What does it say?” Koichi asked, leaning in. They could see the full commands from his forehead. The words were messily scribbled on his forehead, all bolded and underlined as much as they could be:
ROHAN KISHIBE MUST REMAIN ASLEEP FOR THE NEXT ELEVEN HOURS.
ROHAN KISHIBE CANNOT BE SATISFIED WITH ANYTHING HE DRAWS.
ROHAN KISHIBE CANNOT USE HIS STAND POWER.
IF ASKED, ROHAN KISHIBE MUST ONLY ANSWER IN THE COMPLETE TRUTH.
Heaven’s Door closed up his face again in an instant and backed away, sitting in his usual spot on the couch. Rohan’s eyes fluttered open and the man blinked in confusion as if waiting for some kind of answer. He raised an eyebrow at Koichi.
“Well?”
“He stopped you from using your stand ability, drawing anything that will satisfy you, and…” Koichi paused as if what he was about to say was something he could be blamed for.
“-he says you can only answer a question truthfully,” Josuke replied with a smirk, “Oh...oh this is gonna be fun.”
Rohan’s glare hardened as he stared at his stand in disgust. “Why the hell would you DO this?”
Heaven’s door didn't answer. He still looked angry. Rohan sighed. “Look, I don’t even know what the hell I did to make you so pissy last night, but you’d better stop acting like a rebellious child and do what I say.”
The stand did nothing but give another disapproving glare in the man’s general direction, causing Rohan to clench his fists beside him and sigh through closed teeth. Turning to the trio of teens, he pointed again to the door.
“Get out.”
“Jotaro said we should probably stay here until they can find out how to reverse the effects of the stand user on the loose...if you even got hit by a stand in the first place, that is,” Koichi replied, narrowing his eyes, “Did you run into anyone suspicious last night?”
Rohan shook his head and pointed aggressively to the door again, but the words that slipped out of his mouth were far from hostile.
“I bumped into a woman who looked like she was in a hurry yesterday evening. I didn’t take much notice of the stand floating next to her, but as soon as the two of us parted, my stand activated without permission.”
Josuke almost laughed at the brute honesty. A frustrated growl was heard right after that admittance. “Why the hell did I say that? What’s the goddamn point of writing stuff without my permission, huh? What the hell are you getting out of this?”
Rohan glared at Heaven’s Door, who was still seemingly ignoring him. Josuke snorted. “He has the same sense of humor as me, I guess, cause I’m finding this fucking hilarious.”
“I hate you, Higashikata.”
Josuke pretend-pouted, lulling his head to the side. “Aww, do you really? I’m so hurt.”
The curt, “No, I don’t.” that came afterward made him rethink what he just asked him.
“What?”
“I said, get out of my goddamn house before I kill you.”
Okuyasu and Koichi stood there awkwardly as Josuke slowly brought out Crazy Diamond, a grin evident on his face. He was going to have fun with this. They all knew it.
“Look here, dickwad. You’ve done a whole lotta stupid, humiliating shit to me since we’ve met, so I think it’s high time you get a taste of your own medicine…”
He could tell the mangaka was instinctively ready to call out Heaven’s Door before it all dawned on him that his stand was not only already out in front of him, but also flat-out ignoring him. Although he would never admit it, he was utterly defeated.
He knew Josuke wouldn’t hesitate to pummel him if he tried anything. And judging by the menacing looks on both Josuke and Okuyasu’s faces, it didn’t look like his sorry ass was getting a get-out-of-jail-free card anytime soon.
He sighed. How did he get stuck with such a bitch of a stand? The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
“I don’t condone to this in any way,” he growled, but the teen wasn’t listening.
“Perfect,” Josuke clasped his hands together, “Now that we’re on the same page, I think it would be great to ask some questions.”
They could see Rohan’s nails digging into the fabric of the couch in irritation, but he didn’t open his mouth. Josuke and Okuyasu plopped down on the ground across from the couch eagerly and Koichi stood there nervously.
“Guys, maybe we shouldn’t take advantage of something like this. It wouldn’t be good to hear something that wasn’t meant to be said…”
But, of course, no one was listening, so Koichi found himself on the ground next to them, idly watching Heaven’s Door as he sat there in silence not too far from Rohan.
“Alright, let’s start with the basics,” Josuke rubbed his hands together, trying to think of something to say, ignoring Rohan’s piercing glare. “Is your hair naturally green?”
“Of course,” came the aggravated reply, “For fuck’s sake, why would I dye it and lie about it?”
Josuke shrugged, clearly expecting a different response. His eyes suddenly lit up. “Wait, why the hell did your voice stay the same? It was all monotone and stuff earlier.”
Without missing a beat, Rohan blankly answered, “The answers sound more forced when I’m trying not to tell the truth.” he clamped a hand over his mouth in disgust, “For fuck’s sake! God, this is so goddamn annoying.”
“Better get used to it,” Okuyasu inched forward and hummed in thought. “Is it true that you ONLY eat those shitty instant ramen things?”
Rohan rolled his eyes. “I eat other things, obviously,” the first part of his sentence sounded normal, although the second half sounded forced as if it were foreign slipping off his tongue, “Though it's usually ramen or nothing.”
Okuyasu stifled a laugh. “Man, Tonio would hate you, dude.”
“That seems a bit unhealthy…” Koichi said worriedly tugging on his sweater again, “are you sure we should even be doing this? It doesn't exactly seem right…”
“That’s because it isn’t!” Rohan snapped, “And when Jotaro finds out that you spent all afternoon torturing me, you’ll really be in for it. Especially when I gain control of him sitting over there.”
Koichi paled, but Josuke placed a hand on his shoulder. “Dude, relax. This shit is harmless,” he turned back to Rohan and smirked, “What’s with the weird headband that you always wear?”
Rohan rolled his eyes once more before answering. “I just like the way it looks,” he paused when Josuke looked far too disappointed with the answer, “Well, what the hell did you expect me to say?”
“I dunno...something tied to a tragic memory from your past or something...for someone who’s so weird, you sure are boring as hell.”
Rohan scoffed. “Well, sorry my sad life isn’t interesting enough for you. God, you could have just asked me all these stupid questions under normal circumstances, you know. Considering they’re all stupid and worthless.”
“Yeah, as if you would ever let me in your house under normal circumstances,” Josuke replied wittily. Rohan sniffed awkwardly.
“Whatever.”
Okuyasu took this moment to chime in. “What’s your favourite food?!”
“Pasta,” he growled, “Jesus, Christ, these questions keep getting even more stupid by the second.”
Oku’s eyes lit up, ignoring the man’s rather rude remark, “Aww, really? Pasta? I guess we were smart enough to make some for Heaven’s Door!”
“My stand doesn’t eat, dumbass. Even if I like pasta, Heaven’s Door does not.”
“Oh, shut up,” Josuke teased, “You’re probably just pissed that we know you so well, aren't you?”
“Most definitely not,” Rohan spat, “I’m pissed that you’re practically interrogating me over stupid, mindless questions like my favourite food.”
“Aw, damn. Really thought we’d reached the depths of your mind,” Josuke deadpanned.
“You definitely have not.”
A few more questions were thrown around, like what his favourite sport was (baseball, surprisingly,) how cool he thought Jotaro was on a scale of one to ten (it was embarrassingly a 9.5,) what he thought Josuke’s hair really looked like (the answer was seared steak and Crazy D had to be coaxed back in) until Okuyasu interrupted the line of boring questions with an excited expression.
“I’ve got a good one,” he rubbed his hands together, “What do you hate the most about Josuke?”
There was a longer pause that time, and Okuyasu expected it to be something about his hair, which was always funny because of how worked-up Josuke could get about it, but his expression changed as soon as the man opened his mouth.
“I don’t hate Josuke. I admire him,” the words slipped forcefully out of his mouth and they all watched as a grimace came over his face, “He’s selfless and he always puts others above himself, which is something I can’t do.”
The room was filled with a tense silence before both Josuke and Okuyasu burst out laughing and Rohan’s face turned a million shades redder. The man turned away hotly as Josuke wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, still catching his breath.
“Aww, do you seriously feel that way dude? How cute,” he managed to say as Oku led him into another fit of giggles.
“Fuck off!” he spat, trying to quell the heavy blush spreading across his face. Koichi still remained serious, crossing his arms when the laughter finally ceased again.
“Don’t be such a little prude, Koichi,” Okuyasu teased, “You’ve gotta admit, this is kinda fun. Why don’t you just ask one question? Just one, dude?”
Rohan’s glare made the shorter teen feel twice as uneasy and he shook his head in response.
“Fine,” Josuke smirked, “I’ll ask one for you. What’s the most embarrassing thing you know about Koichi?”
Koichi felt dread fill his stomach the moment Josuke uttered that out. “Josuke don’t—”
Rohan took no time thinking about his answer, laughing dryly, “Well that’s easy. The most embarrassing thing I know is that—”
The teen flew up from where he was sitting, eyes blazing. His voice sounded normal. It wasn’t forced. Rohan was having fun with this. Rohan was about to speak again before Koichi bounded over and pressed both hands against the man’s mouth.
“Josuke, I swear to GOD—”
The boy was cut off as Rohan broke free, shoving him half off him as he continued.
“-No, no. I’m sure Josuke will love this one—”
Rohan halted again as Koichi tackled him, trying to hold his mouth shut again. He turned back to his two friends, his face looking equally angry as it did terrified.
“This isn’t fucking funny.”
Okuyasu broke the glare with a soft chuckle, “Come on bro. It can’t be that bad~”
Koichi still looked absolutely livid as Rohan broke free from him again, this time winding him to the ground as he was pushed off the couch.
“—You wouldn’t believe this. I read it in his memories once. He had an enormous crush on Josuke when they first met. He got over it after a few weeks of course,” he scoffed, “I couldn’t imagine someone ever actually liking Josuke legitimately.”
There was a short, tense silence that hung over them before Josuke looked up at him. “Dude-”
Koichi was already off the floor, his face flushed red with embarrassment as the corners of his eyes started welling up with tears. He held his hands defensively in the air as he tried to frantically explain himself.
“I just—I thought you were really cool—I don’t feel that way anymore, okay!?” he yelled defensively, his voice starting to break, “I didn’t think it was—it wasn’t like that—I don’t—”
Tears continued to fill up in the teen’s wide eyes and Josuke and Okuyasu still sat there silently. Josuke didn’t look angry. He didn’t even look phased, but Koichi didn’t care.
“It was dumb! It was stupid, I would never—”
Josuke just shook his head slowly, all the laughter from just a few minutes ago gone.
“Dude, it’s fine, I…”
He tried placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder, but he was already aggressively shrugging it off, wiping the angry, unshed tears out of his eyes. He turned to Rohan, eyes blazing.
“You think this is funny, huh? Fucking with people?” Rohan still had a rather amused expression on his face, but it was watered down at the sight of how betrayed Koichi looked, “I guess it’s my turn to ask a question, isn’t it!?”
His voice was filled with so much raw anger as he pushed past Josuke’s grip and Okuyasu’s gaze and gripped Rohan’s shoulders as hard as he could, voice clouded with fury.
“Why are you such a narcissistic asshole, Rohan? You push everyone away unless they’re useful to you and get rid of them once they aren’t. Do you just think you’re the centre of everything, is that it?! Or are you just so selfish and careless that you lack any empathy? What is it, Rohan?! Because I can’t think of a single person that you’ve ever been close with your entire LIFE!”
The teen breathed heavily through bared teeth and no one dared speak up. Rohan seemed shocked into silence, the snarky grin on his face from earlier quickly dissipating along with any colour in his face.
“I push people away because I’m scared.” The blank voice was back. He shifted awkwardly in his seat, not bothering to add on some annoyed or snarky remark like he did with every other question.
He wasn’t having fun anymore. This wasn’t fun.
“What are you so scared of then, huh?!” Koichi shouted, bitterness leaking out of his voice. He leaped forward again before Josuke could restrain him, but it didn’t look like Rohan was planning to fight back anyway.
“Hey, hey...calm down bro,” he pulled him into an awkward half-hug as he glanced at Okuyasu, who was still stunned into silence, “It’s fine, don’t get so worked up.”
Oku nodded and inched a bit closer as Koichi let out something akin to a sob and Okuyasu tried to get him to stop prying himself out of Josuke’s grasp. “We shouldn’t have done this, dude. You were right. This is stupid.”
“Yeah, yeah. This was really dumb. We should-”
“-I’m scared of so many things.” Josuke was cut off as Rohan spoke up from where he was sitting, staring down at his hands. Josuke had almost forgotten he was there for a moment due to how deathly silent he was being. Okuyasu looked up in surprise and tried to silence him.
“You don’t have to-”
“I’m scared if I show the people around me that I care, it’ll just hurt me if something happens to them. I can barely handle what happened to Reimi—what would I do if someone else got hurt?” he paused, blank voice opening him up like a book for all to read, “I’m scared I won’t be good enough. If I act confident enough, people will believe it. They’ll think I don’t care, they’ll think I believe I’m the best. I don’t think I’m the centre of everything...but it still feels like everyone sees every little mistake, everyone knows everything I could have done—to save Reimi, to stop Kira—”
Rohan stopped, and it slowly dawned on them that the blank, forceful voice hadn’t been there for a while now.
Koichi was crying now, he was sitting in Rohan’s living room with tears streaming down his face and there was nothing but the whirring of the air conditioning and Koichi’s constant sniffling that pierced the air. He didn’t look angry and Rohan tried to identify the emotion swarming in the boy’s eyes. Pity? Sadness?
Empathy. It was empathy.
There was a long, terrible, winding silence between the four of them. Heaven’s Door remained unmoved as if he expected this to happen all along. Koichi opened his mouth again, but Rohan stopped him before anything came out.
“Don’t make me say it again,” he snarled, turning to his silent stand, “You disgust me. Undo this immediately, before I-”
“-Is that what those drawings were about?” Josuke blurted out. Okuyasu’s expression hardened as he grabbed Josuke by the shoulder, shaking his head nervously.
“...I don’t think you should-”
“—The ones with Kira and Reimi, is that what they’re about?”
They heard a shuddering sigh come from the man as he was forced to answer, his voice surprisingly steady.
“Nothing I ever do is perfect—it’s just good enough, but never perfect.” They knew he could stop there. He wanted to stop there, but he didn’t. It was almost like he couldn’t at this point, words spilling out of him like vomit, all emotion brought back into his voice. “I keep having nightmares. They were so much vaguer before I remembered Reimi, but now they’re so clear—blood everywhere—him and Reimi—blood, Reimi’s blood—I can’t take it at this rate.”
He paused for a second, his hands forming tight fists. He tried to ignore the fact that they were shaking—that he was shaking. This was humiliating, but it was like he couldn’t keep his mouth shut no matter how hard he tried.
“I tried drawing it, but it's never right. It never shows the same terror as the dream. I’ve memorized the lines of their faces, but it never looks right. It's never perfect.”
The room suddenly felt too cold and Josuke felt ice fill his chest. Koichi and Okuyasu held their breath beside him and swallowed the small lump in his throat that had constricted him from speaking until now. He needed to ask one more question.
“Are...you okay?”
And he felt like laughing because he knew—they all knew the answer even before the question was accompanied by a quiet “No.”
Heaven’s Door, who had been silently watching this entire affair, finally sat up and floated over to his user, wrapping himself silently around one of Rohan’s arms. The man didn’t reject it, but they all watched as he tried to shrink in on himself the moment his stand made contact with him.
“What—so you think you can come over here and do this after all the shit you just put me through?” he laughed, letting his head fall in the crook of his arm. His voice sounded watery, but his eyes weren’t even close to tearing up when he lifted his head back up to face the trio still sitting quietly in his living room. Instead, he looked exhausted, the look on his face now mirroring the one his stand had been wearing the entire afternoon.
“Satisfied?” he said tiredly, trying to push away the fact that Heaven’s Door still had his face pressed up against arm, hugging it tightly to his chest, “You’ve got your fucking revenge. You finally have enough dirt on my pathetic self that you could absolutely ruin my reputation. How does it feel?”
He sounded cynical, but they all knew by now that he really was just afraid. That’s all he’s ever really been; afraid. Rohan Kishibe was a coward, and no one knew that better than Rohan himself. They wouldn’t say that the silence was awkward this time, though it was guilt-ridden all the same. Josuke felt the back of his neck heat up with regret.
“We—we shouldn’t have done that,” he finally said, “Sure, you’re insufferable most of the time, but we didn’t deserve to know all that stuff. We should've just gone home when you told us to.”
“We’re sorry,” Oku added quietly. Rohan scoffed and looked away again, burying his hands in his armpits to stop them from shaking. From the cold—or really something else—they didn’t want to know. They didn’t want to ask any more questions.
Koichi was tempted to ask him if he really meant everything that he said earlier, but he knew that doing that was pointless. It was impossible for him to lie; he didn’t know if that made him feel better or worse. So instead, he tried his best to dry his eyes and stood up silently, walking over to the edge of the couch.
“Can I sit?” he sniffled, usually gleaming eyes still downcast to the side. Rohan didn’t bother looking at him, trying to move his insufferable stand out of the way, who was now stuck to him like glue.
“You haven’t had a problem doing whatever you want in my house already,” he muttered. Koichi just nodded guiltily and sat down beside him, leaving a large space between them on the cushions.
“No one blames you for any of that stuff,” he said hesitantly. Rohan looked up at him, his eyes fixated into a frown. “With Reimi, I mean. You didn’t have any control over it, no one would ever blame you for something like that.”
He knew his words were true—he was only four when the events went down, after all. But that didn’t stop him from wondering how Reimi could still look him in the eyes after it all happened. How she was able to say goodbye to him so sweetly at the end of it all. He cursed under his breath as he felt a lump start to form in his throat.
“You don’t have to answer,” the teen chuckled quietly, “You’ve already answered too many questions today.”
Rohan stayed silent. He didn’t even feel humiliated, just mentally drained. It was like something had grabbed hold of his tongue and was forcing him to spew out everything he wanted to keep hidden. Now that it was all out in the open, he couldn’t even tell if he felt better or worse.
“I shouldn’t have asked that question. I’m sorry. I was so angry that I just-”
“-God, don’t apologize,” he growled, “I was...I was being an asshole about it and...I hurt you, so don’t apologize, idiot.”
Koichi took that as Rohan’s weird way of apologizing without saying it and laughed. He knew he could ask him if he was sorry and get a flat-out answer, but he had a feeling he already knew what the man would say.
“I...get nightmares, too, by the way,” Josuke murmured, a hand over his mouth nervously, “Not that you’d really care, but I get them all the time. I think we all kinda do, to an extent. About Kira and stuff.”
Okuyasu nodded along with Koichi. Josuke never really thought that Rohan actually got nightmares like him. Ones filled with blood and regrets and things he wished he could do differently.
“You know you can talk to us about stuff. We won’t make fun of you when it comes to that,” Josuke started honestly, being cut off immediately by Rohan as the teen tried to continue.
“Yeah, there’s absolutely no way I’m dumping my shit problems on a group of children. I’m not that irresponsible, you know.”
Koichi looked up at him, his worried gaze catching him off guard. “But, you know you can...right?”
Rohan turned away, cheeks tinted pink. “...yes.”
Koichi smiled brightly and the man looked like he was going to say something again, but he was swiftly interrupted as Heaven’s Door tugged on his sleeve and floated up to meet with him face to face. He looked happier than when the trio found him initially sitting on the couch. There was a rather satisfied look on his face. Rohan sneered.
“And who’s side are you on, you traitor?”
He said nothing, per usual, but the sound of a book opening caused them all to look up as the stand tenderly, pen in hand as he quickly crossed out every command. The book closed and Rohan sat there, looking confused.
“Ask me a question,” he stated simply.
“Is your name Rohan?” Koichi asked. A small smirk grew quickly across his face as he sighed deeply.
“No.”
They all relaxed instantly at that. It seemed like whatever nightmare they had been living through this last hour or so was finally over. Awkwardness still lingered not too far away, but Rohan quickly glared at Heaven’s Door, who disappeared in front of them. This time he didn’t come back.
Rohan stood up and crossed his arms snidely. “Great. This has been a great time and all, but this is the last time I’m telling you to get out of my-”
He was interrupted by the telephone ringing from the other room. Koichi, without a second thought, bounded into the other room mentioning something about Jotaro.
Curiously, the rest of them followed suit and entered Rohan’s front hall just as Koichi picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
Someone spoke on the other side of the phone, clearly Jotaro, judging by how nervous Koichi looked. He muttered something about “the stand user” and “bring Rohan.”
“Alright! Now?”
A clear “yes” came from the other side of the call, and a few more sentence fragments that could be heard from the other side—something akin to “not far...” and “as soon as possible...”
“We’ll be over as soon as we can!”
Koichi hung up the phone and put it back in its place, pointing to the door.
“They said they found the stand user—they’ve been contained and they aren’t far from here. He’d like us to stop by and bring the information on Kira with us.” He smiled. “Y’know, killing two birds with one stone.”
Josuke laughed because “killing two birds with one stone” didn’t sound like something Jotaro would ever say. Then again, the man barely spoke anyway.
“I’ll grab the folder!” Oku ran back in the direction of the living room where Koichi had somewhere left the folder. Rohan rolled his eyes as the gaggle of teens bounded out the door and down the block, the older man following closely behind.
They walked down the next couple blocks and stopped at the sight of two white vans cornered on a part of the road. Workers in blue and white uniforms rushed around the scene, and Jotaro waved to them as he conversed with another worker who was escorting a terrified young woman into one of the vehicles.
“I’m sorry! I have no idea how to fix this!” she stuttered, “It just started happening—I didn’t know what to do—I didn’t mean to cause any trouble!”
Mr. Joestar stood next to her, interrogating her suspiciously, though a glimmer in his eyes made Josuke wonder if the old man was just completely bullshitting her.
“How’s my favourite nephew doing?” Josuke teased, grinning widely as they neared the taller man. Jotaro gave them a curt nod in greeting and took the folder out of Koichi’s hands.
“Finally found the user?” Okuyasu questioned, pointing to the hysterical woman. He nodded.
“She seems harmless, but we’d like to talk with her so she’s able to fully understand her stand power and abilities from now on.”
They all nodded, but Josuke raised an eyebrow. “And what exactly is that ability?”
Jotaro pulled down his hat and cleared his throat. “We believe it’s a power only able to affect stand users. The stand can take effect on a user by giving their stand the ability to act out their user’s deepest desires, whether it be something physical or emotional.”
They all nodded stiffly. No one was saying it, but everyone was thinking it. If Heaven’s Door was acting on Rohan’s desires, did that mean Rohan really wanted to tell the truth all along?
“I see,” Rohan nodded, “That sounds about right. I believe I’ve been hit by it as well. I ran into that woman yesterday evening.”
“One of our workers got hit by her yesterday morning and he was fine today. It should wear off 24 hours after you got hit, so it should only be a couple more hours,” the older man replied, “I trust nothing bad happened while I was gone?”
They all looked at Rohan, who looked ready to brace some kind of brute force before realizing that he was no longer bound to complete truth.
“Everything’s been fine, Kujo.”
The man answered with a hum of approval and the four of them looked just about ready to leave before a flash of purple appeared in front of them. Jotaro gave his stand an annoyed glance, but it didn’t summon back inside of him.
“Uhh...what’s he doin’?” Okuyasu asked aloud. They noticed the man’s stand was holding something in its grasp. It looked like a picture frame of some sort.
“Who’s that?” Josuke asked, pointing to whatever the man was holding. Jotaro sighed and adjusted his hat again.
“My daughter.”
As his stand held the picture with determination, they all got a quick glance of what looked like a little girl with green and black hair tied up in two little buns on top of her head. Star Platinum gripped the picture frame like it was his life force and they thought they could see the redness in Jotaro’s expression before he looked away again.
“I suppose I’ve possibly been hit by the user, as well,” he muttered quietly, giving his stand a hard glare as he carefully set the picture frame in Jotaro’s hands and quickly made his way over to Josuke, wrapping him in the tightest hug he’d ever received, all while bellowing “ORAAA” in the process.
“Wait a second,” Josuke said breathlessly, practically suffocating from the hug. Jotaro had never looked more out of his element, “Does that mean your deepest desire is—” his eyes lit up. “Seriously? Aww, that’s so sweet!”
Jotaro looked less than impressed but let out a breath of relief as the stand finally let go of Josuke and floated his way over to Mr. Joestar, who couldn’t stop laughing.
“Yare yare...you don’t need to be here anymore, we’ve got everything under control,” he finally said, gesturing away from the SPW vans, “Go get some ice cream or whatever kids are supposed to do.”
Josuke scoffed playfully, “As if you weren’t in high school ten years ago.”
Okuyasu narrowed his eyes as Star Platinum appeared behind Jotaro again, carefully slipping a hand in one of the man’s large coat pockets and pulling out a two thousand yen bill. Before anyone could react, the stand was already placing the money in Josuke’s hand, grinning widely.
“Sick!” he exclaimed, running off down the block before Jotaro could protest, “Thanks, favourite nephew!”
Okuyasu quickly followed him and Jotaro grunted in response, nodding goodbye and turning to Joseph again.
Koichi and Rohan still lingered on the sidewalk and the teen bit his lip nervously as he watched his two friends book it down the street before turning back to Rohan.
“You gonna be okay?”
The man took longer to answer, almost as if he were waiting for something to catch him on some kind of lie before he remembered again. Koichi eyed his friends growing farther and farther away from his sights. The man forced himself to nod.
“Yeah. I’ll be fine.”
Koichi looked like he wanted to say something again, but he didn’t. Instead, he waved a warm goodbye and ran to catch up with his friends.
Finally, Rohan was alone again. Dealing with other people for too long made him exhausted, especially people like Josuke. The events of the day made him almost feel sick to his stomach, thinking about everything Heavens Door must have done while he was asleep. Even worse, the things he said while he was awake.
He despised the idea of opening up. There was no one in the world he truly cared about—besides Koichi, but he would never dump all his trauma on that poor kid. And although he’d never dare to admit it, he cared about Josuke and Okuyasu too. Of course he’d never let out his feelings to them either. At least not by choice.
Rohan missed her— he knew she would listen and care with no judgement. It almost hurt to exist without her now that he could remember her and everything that had happened.
Those few hours felt like so much longer than they had really lasted. Despite sleeping in late and waking up not so long ago, Rohan’s body seemed to drag across the ground as he walked into his home. He wanted to sleep again—he wanted to escape into a world of dreams that couldn’t hurt him like the real world did. Even nightmares seemed better than real life—at least the hurting stops when you wake up then. In life, the hurt just stays. Everlasting, following you no matter where you hide.
Hunger filled his stomach. He definitely had to eat something or he’d probably regret it later.
Rohan pulled open his cabinet, rummaging through it and pulling out a familiar plastic package of instant noodles. Maybe it wouldn’t give him much nutrients (or any, if he was being honest with himself,) but it was something. His eyes glazed over as he read the instructions—he ate so much of it that he had the label memorized.
“Rohaaaaan! You can’t have instant noodles every day, they’re so bad for you!”
“But Reimi, it’s all I know how to cook on my own! An’ it tastes really good, too!”
“There’s no nutritional value in that! You’ll get scurvy!”
“What’s scurvy? Is it bad?!”
“Mhm! It’s what ya’ get when you don’t eat any fruits or veggies! Pirates used to get it while they were out on the ocean.”
“I wanna be like pirates!”
“Nooooo! Scurvy’ll make your teeth fall out!”
“Ew, no! I guess I’ll just be regular then.”
“Come on, I’m sure we can make something else. I’ll always be here to help you, Rohan, so you don’t have to worry ‘bout what you can cook alone!”
Staring down at the package, he felt his chest tighten. Softly, he placed it on the counter and walked over to the fridge.
There wasn’t much inside—jars and sauces, unopened drinks, expired leftovers from weeks ago. He hadn’t bought any type of fruit in weeks, and his body was definitely feeling the effects.
One thing in the fridge stood out, though. A plate of spaghetti, red sauce messily dribbled on top. It definitely hadn’t been there last time he checked.
Josuke and Okuyasu mentioned making something for Heaven’s Door—that had to be it, right?
He lifted the plate of pasta out of the fridge, the ceramic plate cold against his hands. It looked fresh. Not too fresh—at least a few hours old by now—but fresh enough.
He placed the food in his microwave, setting it to cook for 1 minute. Even if that might not heat it up enough, he was too starving to wait any longer.
As the microwave began to hum, Heaven's Door suddenly manifested again. It stared at Rohan with big, sad eyes, like a child begging their parents for a toy. The stand, however, did nothing but look at its master. By the time the microwave beeped, he was gone.
His stomach churned.
The plate was hot as he lifted it up, but still cool enough to hold. As he carried the plate to his table, he grabbed a small fork to eat it with.
Taking the first bite, it was…it wasn’t bad, but the pasta wasn’t very warm at all, the noodles in the middle barely being warmer than before, and the sauce wasn’t much better. Any instant noodles would have tasted ten times better.
But there was just something about it. Something unexplainable. A distant memory, a soft warmth growing in his chest.
“Hey, little Rohan! We’re gonna have pasta again, ‘kay?”
“You always make pasta, Reimi! S’that all you know how to make?”
“Well… yeah, it is! I’ll just keep making pasta, unless you’d rather have green peppers!”
“Ew! No way! I love your pasta anyway, Reimi!”
“Hehe! I’m glad you’re so cooperative, or else I’d have to make green pepper pasta!”
“Nooooo! I’ll eat your pasta forever, promise! As long as there’s no green peppers, yucky!”
“Okay! I’ll make you pasta with no green peppers ‘til I stop babysitting you. Then you can make your own pasta with no green peppers!”
“But that won’t be for a really long time, right? You’ll babysit me ‘til I’m super big!”
“Yeah, totally! Ok, I’m gonna get the water boiling.”
Hot tears began to dribble down his cheeks, falling to the plate below. It was awful pasta. No better than a teenage girl could make.
With a shaky hand, he took another bite. Mouth full, he let out a soft sob. Through his sobs, he ate the whole plate. It was the first pasta he had eaten in so, so long.
It tasted awful. But still, it made him feel warm inside, like a soft hug.
Rohan Kishibe smiled, tears still rolling down his red cheeks.
If it was that bad, Josuke must have made it. Or maybe it was just that no one could ever compare to Reimi’s pasta. Rohan didn’t really know.
He didn’t think he wanted to know, really.
Ignorance is bliss, but fighting through the pain of the past just feels so much better in the end, and once everything was over it would all be worth it. At least that’s what Rohan told himself.
Leaving the dirty plate, tear droplets mixing with the remaining sauce, he didn’t bother cleaning up. He was still so tired.
Falling onto the couch where he had woken not too long ago, Rohan felt himself drift to sleep, blankets hastily and messily thrown around his body.
It was strange, he almost thought he could feel someone tucking him in.