Chapter Text
The sun shone down on the landscape; it was mid-afternoon, and the first train running after lunch was over halfway through its journey. Though it was only January it felt extremely hot, even with the train's air conditioning, the heat still seeped into the compartments.
A particularly interesting looking 17 year old sat in a nearly empty compartment, resting her arm close to the window she was seated by. She was cautious of going near it, having learned her lesson an hour and a half before, when she had sat down and leaned against the glass.
She stared at the uninspiring land that passed by, her eyes tracing the horizon as they moved along. The girl quickly glanced around the compartment she was seated in at the rest of the occupants, though there weren't many.
She sighed and returned her gaze to the world outside the window. A bag near her feet was filled with miscellaneous items, journals, pens, books, a few empty packages, an mp3 player, and other items of sorts were placed in there neatly. A patch inside was delicately stitched to the front, barely legible print reading,
If found, please return to Joella Joestar
Joella Joestar was her name, though most of her social circle referred to her as JoJo, a simple nickname that was easy to get off the tongue. She hadn't a clue why her parents gave her a first name that shared a prefix with her last-- alliteration must've been the simple answer.
Her reason for being on the train was to spend some time at a distant relative's estate halfway across Brazil. It wasn't the ideal plan for the beginning of her year, but it was better than having to stay back in her town where there were plenty of people who made her want to scream.
Having forgotten the name of the town the relative lived in, she couldn’t place where she was headed. The name had been brought up in conversation no more than twice and it frankly slipped her mind. She supposed she would find out the name in a short while once the train stopped and she moved to the next one.
Joella had been on and off trains for two days, taking a night and an afternoon off for some well deserved relaxation after having to sit on the not so comfortable seats of multiple different trains over the day. She was two thirds the way to her destination, her starting point being Juazeiro do Norte, the journey so far taking around 34 hours.
She slouched down in her seat-- there was nothing to do. Sure, she could write something, or mindlessly doodle, but she had been doing that for the past few days. She'd also listen to music she had already downloaded onto her mp3, but it had unfortunately died in the early stages of the day. The quiet music playing over the train’s speakers wasn’t the greatest thing either.
Joella glanced at the clock placed above the exit. Time had passed fairly quickly; there was only a short amount of time left on this train, then it would be time for the homeward stretch, finally. She groaned and sat up straight, securing everything in her bag and propping it up in the seat next to her.
Five minutes later the train screeched to a halt. Joella stood up and grabbed her bag before stepping off the train onto the platform, then walked over to the nearest ticket booth to obtain her tickets for her next ride. The line wasn’t too long, just a few people-- a couple, an elderly woman, and a family with two kids. When she got to the front of the line, the employee waved, gesturing for her to come closer.
"Tickets for Caxias do Sul? Give me a quick second to pull up the screen: name?" The lady behind the glass maneuvered her mouse and clicked it a few times, getting the correct screens open to confirm that the tickets were going to the correct owner.
"Joella Joestar." She replied, looking at the counter her tickets would soon take up, "Need any other info?" Her hands rested on the sides of the counter, fingers tapping a soft melody-- it was a song she’d heard the week prior and it was stuck in her head for some odd reason. The song was Bury Me With It or something close to that. It was a good song though; she had to admit that.
The lady shook her head, "No, that's it... And it looks like you do have tickets under your name... Give me a second to put in everything and... There." She printed out a ticket and slid it through the glass to Joella, "Have a great day!"
"You too ma'am." She replied with a nod, taking the ticket and assuring its safety, tucked away into her back pocket. She turned around and walked to a bench to wait fifteen minutes for her new train to arrive.
As she walked to the bench, a male seated nearby, no more than 19, seemingly disappeared into thin air. She stared at the spot. Did her mind just make up the guy’s existence? No, that seemed too odd-- whatever.
Joella shook her head and sat down, she glanced back at the spot where the mystery man had been. He was back, "Wh-" She cut herself off quickly, covering her mouth, not wanting to draw attention to herself.
The man looked over towards her, a smirk pulling at his lips. But as soon as she blinked, the man was focused on the Kerrang! magazine he held. Joella narrowed her eyes, something about him seemed odd, but she couldn't fathom what made him seem that way. She continued to stare at him, not really caring about the fact that he could see her doing so; this mystery was perplexing and she wanted to figure it out.
A voice brought her out of her thoughts, someone on the intercom, "Last train leaving for Caxias do Sul! Everyone get on board! Last call for Caxias do Sul!" The intercom crackled as the words were said, but it was clear enough.
As she stood up, the mystery man was nowhere in sight, she frowned and walked towards the line waiting to board. Joella was about to take a spot in the line when the man suddenly appeared from behind a column and took a spot in a different line. She slightly gaped at the man suddenly appearing once again. She swiftly went to refocus her eyes on the person in front of her; it was almost time for her to board.
She stepped onto the train and walked down the aisle before opening the door to the next compartment. Joella picked a seat and set her bag down, sliding it under the bench. With a sigh, she slumped down into the seat and attempted to think of something to cure her inevitable boredom for the rest of her last train trip for a while.
Joella reached into her bag and took out a journal-- she had some notes written down from the previous day and she needed to add on to them. It was a timeline, except more of a loose string of events that had occurred during her travels: insignificant things like what she did or the lunch she decided to get. A few of those notes also included her spending and just money in general as well as quite a few mentions of people she came across. She was sure someone would enjoy hearing about her trip, even if she didn't.
Joella spent some time writing down all the events of the day. Nothing much had happened besides the whole disappearing act that one guy did, but she didn't bother to write about that, no one would be interested in it anyways... besides her at least, she did find an interest in interesting people like him.
After a few more minutes of mindless writing, she returned the notebook back to the bag and dug around in it for something else to occupy her. Hoping her mp3 player still had some battery left, Joella pulled the device from her bag, just to see if she could get just a fraction of music to listen to, even if it was just for a minute... she really did want to listen to some of the songs she had downloaded.
She held down the power button, staring at the screen in anticipation, rather than a white screen of confirmation, she got a red, blinking battery. Joella grumbled and leaned towards her bag to put the mp3 away. Rufus Wainwright would have to wait another day.
Before she could secure it and assure her safety, a sudden shouting from multiple people in the compartments in front of her. Startled, Joella dropped the mp3. Quickly, she stood up and opened the door to reach the next compartment. Walking through the aisle, she reached the spot where most of the commotion was occurring. The nearest person she could spot was a man with a receding hairline, she tapped his shoulder-- trying to grab his attention.
"What's going on?" She asked while crossing her arms, wondering what could get this many people so rowdy. While Joella waited for the man to process her question, she used her own skills of observation to survey the scene. People were crowded by a set of seats, air was blowing through the compartment and that was caused by the broken window everyone was standing by.
Finally, the man turned towards her with wide eyes, he quickly began to explain, words hard to make out, “There was a boy sitting there, and he just broke the window and jumped out!”
“What?” She mumbled in slight disbelief, who would jump out of a train while it was still moving? Joella calmly moved in the direction of the window, the train had slowed significantly-- word of the boy who’d jumped out must’ve reached the conductor already. Getting closer to the broken window, she stuck part of her head out and caught sight of the boy who had jumped.
To her surprise, that person was the mystery man she’d been mulling over since she first caught sight of his disappearing act. He simply just stood there and stared at the train as it moved along. It seemed he spotted Joella sticking her head out from the window, he moved his hands, attempting to do some sort of gesture before he simply just waved. Her best guess was that it meant she needed to meet with him or something along those lines. She tucked a strand of hair that had been caught by the wind back behind her ear and took a few steps back. Guess she had to postpone her trip to her relatives.
Joella sighed, turned to the door, and went to grab her backpack. She returned to the compartment and made sure both the straps were over her shoulders. Taking a deep breath, and lining herself up with the broken window-- she jumped through. Screaming and yelling and the works accompanied her actions, but that wasn’t her main focus at the current moment. Joella was worried about landing safely and living through it.
She stretched out both arms and braced for impact, her left forearm scraped the ground, and everything else followed, friction slowing her down until she came to a complete stop. After a second to assess that everything was still in one piece, she slowly got up from off the dirt. Joella winced as she realized that her arm got a pretty nasty cut, but she could fix that later, she had a mystery man to find.
Shielding her eyes with her hand-- protecting them from the glaring sun --her eyes swept the area, looking for the guy. Eventually, Joella saw him no more than 20 meters away. She began to walk towards him... after all, she still had a mystery she needed to solve.
It seemed as she moved along, growing closer to where he was, the man moved as well. Eventually, the two stopped, stared at each other, and attempted to determine the best way to continue the encounter. For a few minutes, it was quiet, just the two inspecting the other. Then, the mystery man held out his hand to her.
"I'm Bo En," He said, a half grin spread across his features. He had an interesting outfit choice-- a long sleeved shirt and knee length shorts. Considering the weather, the long sleeves were a strange decision. In the heat? What was going on in his head to make him choose that outfit out of all possible combinations?
She glared at Bo En, extending her own arm to warily shake his hand, "Why are you introducing yourself? No one asked you to." Joella pointed out, frowning as she continued to study his mannerisms and him overall.
"It's common courtesy." He explained with a sly grin, crossing his arms as he took a step away from her.
“Common courtesy?” She said, slightly incredulous, “You expect me to be courteous to some guy that wanted me to jump off a train?”
“Well... you did choose to jump, but no matter, you’re wasting our time y’know.” Bo En said with a slight laugh.
“Wasting what time?” Joella asked, “It was wasted when I decided to jump out, I only had a few more hours until I’d reach my next destination.”
“You’re wasting the time we have to fight! I need to see something and clearly you’re the only person fit for this challenge of strength and strategy.” He replied, saying it as if it were obvious the entire time.
What he said took a few moments to register, but when it hit-- it hit hard . "Fight? Do you mean-" Joella began to ask, but Bo En quickly cut her off.
"Yes, a fight! Now, if you’d please... introduce yourself, miss..." Bo En said, kicking up a small clump of grass as he trailed off, waiting for her to fill in the blank of his sentence.
Joella didn't like where this was headed. After all, this complete stranger not only jumped off a moving train, but also coerced her into following him and was also trying to convince her to fight him. Though, she assumed that this would be the best time to use her trump card. To use the thing that might help her end this completely bizarre situation that seemed like it’d come straight from one’s imagination... yes, this was a good idea, she'd only used this ability a few times in the past, and she wasn't even sure it was suitable for fights like this.
With a sigh, she traded her name with him, "My name is Joella Joestar, Bo En. Though I don't find it much of a pleasure to be meeting you." She said sharply.
"Fantastic!" Bo En cheered, clapping his hands together with obvious excitement. "Now we can begin, Miss Joella Joestar! If you wouldn't mind, could you please take five steps back for me? Then we'll be all set."
Joella sighed and walked backwards; she didn't turn, she just stared at him the whole time she moved back, making sure he didn't do anything that’d make the situation worse than it already was.
"You have a mean stare,” Bo En commented, “I'm just wondering; what did I do to you?" He frowned, genuinely considering the thought as if he wasn’t challenging her to a fight.
She groaned, wasn’t he saying something about wasting time not too long ago? "Can we get on with this already?” Joella asked, “I already jumped off the train for you, now I'll have to find another station to get another ticket.”
"My apologies,” Bo En said, “ it wasn’t my intention to hold us up, you wish to begin now ?" He asked, a sly grin sneaking onto his face. When Joella nodded, he simply replied, "Well... let's begin." As he finished his sentence, a faint, purple glow surrounded him before he disappeared completely.
Joella was stunned, she didn’t move for a few moments before she began to look around the area for him. Could he teleport? She wondered, thinking back to what happened at the station earlier. No, it couldn't be that... unless...
A hand on her shoulder startled her, she turned right as Bo En's voice came from behind her, "Here I am! Did you miss me?" He asked with an innocent grin, when Joella didn’t respond he took it upon himself to answer the question she had inside her mind, "Haha! You're wondering how I disappeared aren't you?” -- yes, she was -- “Well, I guess I'll share with you my dear, it's only fair after all... considering you were the only one who could see me vanish!" He declared.
"What? She asked, taking a step away from him, was he going to say what she was thinking..?
"Well, Joella, you see... I-- and you too --have abilities called Stands. Only certain people can see them; those certain people also happen to have them, whether they know about them or not. That means average people unlike you and me could still see me the whole time! You just happened to be in the range of my Stand, so I disappeared as you walked by! That's what my stand can do." He exclaimed gleefully, a big grin on his face.
Joella was taken aback by his enthusiasm, so these Stands were a normal factor in people’s lives? It left her frazzled on the entire matter... considering her own Stand... the one she hadn’t called for in years was just an average thing to some people. "I don't... I don't think- I don't follow." Joella stammered, taking yet another step back.
Ignoring her obvious confusion on the current matter, he continued on his spiel about Stands. "My Stand is named Pale Machine! Charming little fellow, he lets me appear invisible to people within my range. Now, Joella... don’t think I’ve forgotten about our little fight..." he said and disappeared once again.
Joella shut her eyes and focused. She needed to call on her Stand, it was a life or death situation and she needed to call for it. All she needed to do was remember what it’s name was... "Come on come on come on..." She murmured, recalling all her memories from the past, all the times she’d used it and called for it.
And then suddenly...
It hit her.
And just like that, she had it, "Speaking in Tongues!" A humanoid figure appeared behind her, it was a combination of all kinds of colors. Orange, blue, silver, and pink decorated the mouthless and unyieldingly stoic Stand. From what Joella could tell, it had a pair of tongues sticking out of its palms-- one to each hand. They moved on their own accord as the Stand itself waited for Joella to direct it.
"Can you find Bo En?" She asked her Stand, looking around for any signs of the illusive man. He hadn't shown up again unfortunately; was he waiting to attack her once her back was turned?
Speaking in Tongues stayed still, slowly taking in the area around it, tongues lapping at the air and attempting to find the target. Though, before her Stand could find anything, pain shot through her stomach and she recoiled. She'd been punched.. by Bo En? She hadn't felt the impact, only the result though... which was a peculiar thing to happen.
She glanced towards her Stand and that told her everything she needed to know; something stood by her stand, its mechanical looking arm stretched out. It had hit Speaking in Tongues rather than her, explaining why she could only feel the lingering pain rather than the initial hit.
"That must be Pale Machine...” She noted to herself, taking in the small robot’s appearance, “that’s Bo En's stand!" She finally realized. "But how will I find him..? I can't see him at all...” Ideas flowed through her head like an endless stream, but eventually one caught and ceased the flow, “what if I were to just follow his Stand?" She suggested to no one but herself. Joella looked at the Stand before the worst possible thing happened.
Pale Machine disappeared just like his user, becoming one less thing that she could use to end this.
"How will I figure this out now?”