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Higashikata Josuke is a bastard child.
Oh, he is loved, but that doesn't change the fact that he wasn't wanted. No matter how much his mother, Tomoko, smiled and hugged him, he realized this at a very young age. Because Josuke is smart, you know? People tend to forget this, because all they see is his bulky stature and his obviously foreign blood.
So little Josuke heard it, heard his grandmother's quiet sneers about hāfu and bastard child, heard his grandfather's angry retorts and his mother's cold answers. He noticed it all, because he may be young and a child but that didn't mean he was stupid.
When he was four, during a snowy storm, Josuke felt something in him break and couldn't stand upright no matter how hard he tried -and how did he try, because Josuke hated seeing his mother's worried eyes when he wasn't feeling well- but he just couldn't, his vision blurried and he blacked out because he was just a child.
A kind high schooler with a pompadour helped them and Josuke watched him with his blurry eyes and thought this is the kind of person I want to be. The sort of people who helped because they could, who were kind because they wanted to be. It's the kind of people that are pretty rare and hard to be, but Josuke has always been determined. It was in his blood.
When he finally arrived at the hospital, they tried and failed to help him because they didn't understand what was happening to him. It was something beyond them, something far away (something about a monster hiding in Egypt and men walking to their death to defeat him and a cursed bloodline, but you already know that, don't you?) but little Josuke didn't know this yet, so he stayed in his bed with his fever and his mother's worried eyes.
When he was four, Josuke felt his life slip away from him and woke up with a strange spirit guarding his bed, trying and failing to appease his pain.
He died, you know? He died a little, and came back, that strong, kind child.
He died, but he got up, because that's what he always did.
He didn't understand what was happening, this boy who barely avoided death, but the spirit was kind and so was Josuke, and they got along well. And for this little boy, it was enough.
He went home and breathed deeply his mother's flowers scent, determined to forget how hot and cold and so near death felt. He tried to pretend he didn't avoid a terrible fate, and almost believed it. His new friend, Crazy Diamond, he'll whisper later, stayed by his side.
His mother, nice and strict Tomoko, couldn't see him, couldn't see this invisible guardian and friend. She smiled when Josuke talked about this spirit, but her son heard her talking to her father about imaginary friend and trauma and coping mechanism. He never talked about it again.
It hurt, it hurt so much to hear someone who was supposed to understand him in every way, his own mother, dismiss his words like that. He'll understand later, will even be grateful for this disbelief, but he was still a four years old boy and it hurt.
Tomoko's parents divorced when he was five and he never saw his grandmother again. He cried, not because he was sad but because his mother and grandfather were and Josuke wanted to make her pain go away but couldn't, because he was just a boy.
He grew up, this little boy, but he didn't make friends. He didn't talk to these people who whispered mean words under their breath, who repeated mindlessly their parents's cruel judgment. He didn't want friends like this, and didn't need them.
He grew up with his mother's loud and loving voice, and his grandfather's calm words. He grew up with broken objects being magically fixed, with muffled laughter and shared glances between a boy and his invisible friend.
Josuke didn't know about Stands and arrows, wouldn't for a long time. He didn't know about those people who looked at these creatures and thought weapons instead of beings. He didn't know about his too-old nephew who thought evil spirit when looking at his protector, didn't know about these things buried deep behind anger and grief. He only knew Crazy Diamond's kind gestures, when he tried to play video games with Josuke and broke the controllers with his clumsy fingers.
(Kujo Jotaro looked at Star Platinum and thought evil and dangerous. Higashikata Josuke looked at Crazy Diamond and thought kind and friend.)
He grew up, built himself with his family's love and his saviour's kindness, with his friend's help and his classemates's insults.
When Jotaro came to Morioh, after learning about an illegitimate son and fleeing his grandmother's rage, he expected to find a child acting like a young Joseph. What he found was a boy with a too big heart and a kind power.
He explained everything to this unexpected relative, watched with surprise when the child -because he was a child in Jotaro's eyes- bow and say I don't want to cause trouble, and wondered how someone like Joseph Joestar managed to have such a kind and polite son.
(Because it all comes down to this, right? Kindness.)
Your power is kinder than anything else in this world, Jotaro had said, eyes fixed on his too-young uncle, and Josuke had wanted to laugh, had wanted to scream because he wasn't kind, he was selfish. After all, if he had truly been kind, he wouldn't worry his mother so much, he could have saved his grandfather.
(Here's the thing : Crazy Diamond's power didn't come from Josuke's kindness. It came from nights listening to his mother's crying when she thought he couldn't hear her. It came from thinking, again and again, I wish I could heal her pain, make it disappear.)
(Jotaro, and many others later on, will call Crazy Diamond's power kind. Josuke will call it selfish, for it came from his desire to stop his mother's cries.)
He took on the role of Morioh's protector after his grandfather's death, because who else could ? Jotaro will not be here forever, didn't want to be here in the first place, and Josuke knew it.
He fought and fought against Stands and made friends -nice, small and curious Koichi, energetic and cheerful Okayasu, even that stupid mangaka Rohan- and it helped, like Crazy Diamond helped years ago.
He met Joseph Joestar, this father who caused so much harm, but still Josuke tried to be kind, to be a good son to the father who was never there. It was a rocky relationship, one still awkward, but they managed.
When Shigechi died, leaving nothing behind, not even ashes and no body to bury, Josuke wondered if he would be enough, if kindness would be enough to stop the monster walking in Morioh. It had to be.
Kira Yoshikage was a monster in human's skin, and what Josuke feared (because he was afraid, because he was sixteen, a child against a monster) what Josuke feared wasn't his cold eyes and his terrifying stand, what he feared was his suit, what made him sick was how normal Kira was.
Kira and Josuke grew up in Morioh. How many times, Josuke wondered, holding his bleeding stomach, did this monster walk behind me? How many times did we cross pass? Morioh wasn't a really big city, and they didn't live that far away. How many times did his mother, his friends, see this murderer without noticing anything?
(How many people like Kira are there, hiding behind a smile and a formal suit?)
Once Kira was gone, Josuke stayed in the hospital until his injuries healed and tried to ignore his mother's worried eyes. Afterwards, he went to see Hayato -poor, young Hayato, who didn't deserve to live something like this- and they talked for hours until the boy broke down crying in his arms. Josuke tried not to cry.
Jotaro and Joseph left, and Josuke knew it was coming but it still hurt, it hurt how he didn't know them beyond stands and murderers. He wondered if Jotaro missed his daughter, Jolyne -Joseph was the one to have told him of her existence, and it hurt to know that his nephew didn't trust him with this information- if his father reconciled with his wife.
It hurt, but Crazy Diamond was here, and so were his friends, so he smiled and waved. He played a prank, a bit of a revenge, but it didn't really change anything.
Kindness has always been what mattered most to Josuke -justice, fairness, those were important too, of course, but kindness was what made his heart grow and his power shines.
Kindness was important, because this was what Josuke chose to be. Because it was a choice, one he had taken a long time ago and one he never regretted.
It was a complicated one, but it was a good one.