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The sun was shining down upon the earth outside and poured in through the room window. Birds flew overhead and the tree’s leaves rustled in the light breeze. It was a peaceful morning, save for what was currently taking place in a room at a certain hotel.
Akarui was rudely awoken from her dream about returning the purse of a princess who worked in a grocery store by Polnaref, who was serenading her about how she should get up so they could eat while shaking her. She shot out a fist and punched him in the stomach, muttering a soft “don’t touch me” before sitting up. Polnaref held his sore stomach. “Well, good morning to you too, princess.” He snarked as she made her way to the bathroom to get changed.
The room arrangements had been decided the day before. Joseph and Avdol, being the oldest, decided to share a room. Kakyoin had spoken for the both of them when he suggested that he and Jotaro share a room ‘because they were both students’, as he had put it. Yes, that was why. This left Akarui, Dashingu, Anne, and Ponaref. Both Anne and Dashingu absolutely refused to share a room with Polnaref. Normally, the difference in age and gender would be an issue with the 17 year old Japanese school girl and 23 year old French man, but given the circumstances it was both necessary and more cost effective to throw them in a room together so Anne and Dashingu could room together as well. Which leads us to our current situation.
Eventually, Akarui left the bathroom, fully dressed. Polnaref beamed and hopped up from his bed. “Oh good! Now, you can join me for breakfast, mademoiselle!” The navy-haired girl glanced up at him, expression as cold with him as always. “Not hungry.” She muttered as she made her way to the door. “Wait, what? Not hungry? Hey, where are you going now, Akarui??” He asked her as she entered the hall. “To find my sister.” She answered. A groan rose from the eccentric man. “Now who’ll go with me?” He complained. Akarui smiled and rolled her eyes. He could be charming, in a ‘you-remind-me-of-my-friend-Saidai’ kind of way.
Akarui did manage to catch up to her sister, but with Anne, Jotaro and Kakyoin all in tow. Dashingu happily waved her sister over. Akarui nodded at the group as she approached. “‘Morning.” She greeted simply. “Good morning.” Anne and Dashingu spoke in unison. Dashingu secretly shot the other girl a dirty look. Jotaro simply nodded back in response. Kakyoin stepped over to her, slipping an arm around her waist, pulling her close and placing a hand under her chin. “Good morning, beautiful.” He greeted, voice dripping with honey. This took the rest of the group by surprise. Dashingu was ready to choke him with a worm on a string if he tried to kiss her older sister. Anne didn’t think he was capable of doing anything like this. Jotaro scowled a little deeper. Something was off, that was for sure. This was incredibly out of the ordinary for Kakyoin.
The navy-haired girl gently pushed him away from her, eyeing him. What the hell caused that? Kakyoin typically never did anything like that. She took him for the kind of guy who wasn’t bold enough to hold a girl’s hand without blushing while asking permission. She wasn’t sure she liked this attention from the red-head. “You feeling alright, Kak?” She asked him, raising a brow. He smiled down at her. “Of course. Even better now that you’re here.” He practically hummed. Akarui internally shuddered. “Ok…” She glanced back to the rest of the group. “Anyways, where are you all going?” She asked. “To get train or bus tickets to India.” Jotaro responded, eyes still on the oddly behaving Kakyoin. Akarui nodded. “I’ll come with you then.”
On the way, Anne stopped in front of a stand and asked for a popsicle. The man running the stand pulled a coconut into view. “Little girl,” he started, “Popsicles are good, but this is even better! Want some cool, refreshing coconut?” He offered. Anne scowled. “$4 is too expensive! You’re trying to gouge me!”, she told him, pointing to the price marker, “I’ll give you $2.” The man pulled out a knife and pointed to the coconuts with it. “This is 100% natural fruit juice. Just harvested.” He cut off the top of the coconut. “Take a look.” He urged, leaning the coconut towards Anne to show her the contents. “This is nice looking juice...full of tropical flavours! It tastes great and is refreshing. You can even eat the fruit. I’ll give you a spoon for it.” He explained. The three teenagers and Dashingu stepped over then. “Then give us five.” Kakyoin told the stand owner. The man looked over at the red head and smiled brightly. “All right! That’ll be 20 bucks!” He told Kakyoin as he handed over the already cut coconut to Anne. “Hey! That should be 10!” Anne huffed.
Kakyoin took out his wallet and started to root around for the money. A man suddenly came by and snatched it out of his hands, running off and laughing to himself. Kakyoin stared after the man, his expression cold and hard to read. Akarui watched him closely. Something was very off about him today, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Something in her was telling her that he wasn’t trustworthy. Kakyoin summoned Hierophant Green, making it slither over the ground to grab the thief’s leg in order to trip him. The thief quickly scrambled to his knees and looked behind him. He saw Kakyoin standing behind him, a menacing expression on his face. “What the..?” The man questioned. “You thought you could steal my wallet, you worthless piece of shit?” Kakyoin practically growled. Akarui shifted her body to face that direction. This didn’t look good.
“What’s going on?” Anne asked, letting her straw slip out of her mouth as she looked over at Kakyoin and the thief. The red head grabbed the thief by the hair and slammed his face into his knee. “Take this!” Akarui started slowly making her way over. Rushing would only aggravate the situation. “Kakyoin!” She heard Jotaro’s voice call out from behind her. Kakyoin, still holding onto the thief’s hair, held him out at arms length. “You..scum who crawled from the gutters, used your dirty hands to steal my wallet!” With that, Kakyoin picked the man up, laying his back across his shoulders and pulling down on each end of his body. “You son of a bitch!” He cried as he grabbed the thief’s throat and pulled even harder, earning a series of pops and cracks from the man’s spine. “I’m sorry! Sorry!! GYAAAAH!!!” The thief cried out in agony. “HEEEELLP MEEEEEE!!!” He begged no one in particular. “Kakyoin, what are you doing? He’s dying, stop it.” Jotaro told him, to no avail. Akarui finally stepped over and put a hand on Kakyoin’s arm. “That’s enough. He’s only a lowly pickpocket.” She spoke with the same calmness as usual, but there was an intensity in her gaze.
The red head seemed reluctant to let him go but did so anyways, throwing him to the ground, where he coughed and sputtered up blood before scrambling to his feet and rushing off, turning his head and mouthing a “thank you” to Akarui. She nodded to the thief before looking back to Kakyoin. Jotaro stepped over. “You could have killed him. What’s wrong with you?” He asked. Kakyoin’s lavender eyes trailed over him. “That asshole tried to steal my wallet. He’s a bad man, that’s why I was punishing him.”, he turned his body to face Jotaro now, “Isn’t that right, Jotaro?” He asked, taking a coconut and lifting the straw to his lips. Jotaro’s brows furrowed a little deeper. “You…” He muttered. “Why are you staring at me? You look angry, Jotaro. Are you going to get mad at me just because I punished that thief?” Kakyoin asked. The three girls shuddered as the tension seemed to be steadily rising. “Look! Stag beetle!” A boy behind them cried out. “What? Where? Where??” Chimed the voices of his friends. “Up there! There’s four of them!” He pointed out.
Kakyoin chuckled softly. “You’re making too big a deal out of this, JoJo. I just feel a little more impatient today. I’m a little tired from the flight, you get like this too, y’know? I guess it is true I was a little too rough on that guy.” Kakyoin spoke nonchalantly, his body language relaxing completely. Akarui eyed him and moved the two younger girls behind her. Something was very off today. Kakyoin didn’t seem himself at all. It wasn’t possible, was it? “Tired? You said you were fine earlier.” Jotaro pointed out. Kakyoin’s smile fell. “The feeling comes and goes.” he answered simply. Jotaro glared at him a moment more before turning away. He started walking off. “Gramps and Avdol plan to take the train to India. We leave tomorrow. Let’s go get those tickets.” He sounded pissed off.
Dashingu and Anne began to follow after him. Akarui watched them a moment before looking back over at Kakyoin. He had his back to her and seemed to be eating something. “Kakyoin, everyone is walking away.” She pointed out. “I’ll...be right there.” he muttered back. Akarui watched him curiously. “You should hurry, I don’t want you getting left behind.” She told him. Her eyes scanned over him. What the hell was he eating that crunched so much? He wasn’t trying to eat the coconut shell was he? He spat something out. Akarui’s eye caught it. It looked like...part of an insect’s leg??? Her eyes darted to the tree where the four stag beetles had previously been. All four were missing. She froze. No, that couldn’t be right. They had simply left of their own accord. There was no way that…
Kakyoin faced her with a smile that made her uncomfortable. He slipped an arm around her waist and kissed her cheek. “Of course, darling.” He chuckled to her. Akarui pushed him away from her. What the hell was with him today? Was this supposed to be some kind of joke? If so, it wasn’t funny. He chuckled at her action. “What? Are you mad at me today?” He joked. Akarui stared at him a moment, scowling. He was so different. If this is who the real Kakyoin was, she knew for a fact that she didn’t like him. However, a certain thought kept nagging at the back of her head. She turned away. “C’mon. Let’s go before they leave us behind.”
***
“Let’s take the cable car up.” Jotaro told the others, pointing up. “Hey, JoJo, are you going to eat that cherry?”, Kakyoin asked, pointing to the candied cherry on top of Jotaro’s ice cream, “If not, can I eat it? I’m starving.” Jotaro gave no objection, so Kakyoin took the cherry without waiting for a verbal response and pushed him over to the half wall standing between them and a deadly drop. “Be careful Jotaro!” He spoke in an overly playful tone. Jotaro stumbled and started to go over the side, but Akarui attached The Chain to the golden one on Jotaro’s uniform and pulled him back upright. “I’m just joking around! Hahaha! I’m just kidding with you, Jotaro!” Kakyoin laughed before tugging Akarui over towards him, once again slipping his arm around her waist. “You better just stay close to me, cutie, so you don’t almost fall like Jotaro.” He chuckled before placing the cherry in his mouth and rolling it around on his tongue, repeating a “rero rero” sound. Akarui scowled over at him. He continued this strange cherry licking process until the fruit slipped and fell to the ground. Dashingu shot death threatening eyes at him. Not only was he touching her sister again, but he just wasted perfectly good food.
“Come on! Why are you staring at me like that, Jotaro? I told you I was kidding. Is your head so hard that you can’t take a joke?” He asked, a teasing lilt in his voice. He stooped down to pick up the cherry and popped it in his mouth. He turned to Akarui after swallowing, studying her annoyed face. “Oh, come now, not you too, darling.” He purred, nuzzling the side of her head. Akarui growled and shoved away from him. “By the way, sweetums, I’ve been meaning to tell you something.” She told him. Kakyoin raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Do tell.” He pressed. Akarui looked him dead in the eyes, her stare cold and thinking. “I don’t think you’re really Kakyoin.” She stated bluntly. Anne gasped, Dashingu ‘ooo’ed. Jotaro glanced between the two of them as he caught on to what Akarui was saying. Kakyoin only laughed. “Whatever do you mean? Of course I’m really me. Why wouldn’t I be?” He asked, stepping closer to her. “You’ve been acting different for one, and there’s something I think you’d remember to use in case someone thought you were a fake.”
The red head seemed intrigued. “Oh? And what’s that?” He asked. “When did we first kiss?” She asked him. Kakyoin seemed a bit taken aback by the question. He closed his eyes and smiled, humming in an amused way. “That’s easy. Last week, in the hotel, obviously.” He answered. Akarui eyed him for a moment before smiling as the two younger girls stood with their mouths wide open. Their first kiss?? Kiss??? Akarui and Kakyoin?????
Akarui looked back over at the red head. “That settles it then.” She said, stepping over to Kakyoin. He smiled and opened his arms. He was promptly met with a punch to the nose. He stumbled back, holding his nose, eyes watering. “W-WHAT WAS THAT FOR??” He screeched. Akarui pointed at him. “You’re not really Kakyoin. If you had been him, you would have remembered one vital detail.” She tsked. ‘Kakyoin’ looked up at her, anger and shock coursing through him. “And what is that?” He asked her. Akarui stepped closer. “We’ve never kissed.”
The imposter’s face fell into one of panic, his eyes widening and his lips parting as though words were trapped behind his teeth as he stared up at the navy-haired girl. Her eyes were cold as she looked back down at him. “By the way,” her hazel eyes flickered to his lavender ones, “you’re a terrible actor. Really, I can only imagine the pathetic little man you’re hiding underneath that disguise.” Her words were cruel and calculated. She watched with quiet pride as his face shifted into a snarl. “What did you say, you little bitch?” The imposter practically growled. Akarui shrugged and turned away from him. “I called you pathetic. I should probably also mention that you appear to have the mental capacity of a guppy.” She replied casually. The imposter was fuming by now. He stood and the image of Kakyoin’s face seemed to melt off his features, revealing a high cheek boned man with long, raven hair. “There, now you can see how handsome I really am! I should kiss you whether you like it or not just to prove how not pathetic I really am!” He grabbed her arms and pulled her close.
Any plans he may have had of violating Akarui’s lips were quickly forgotten for a moments time as he felt something slither around his body and squeeze. He found his arms were trapped and his legs were pulled together. Looking down, he noticed a chain constricting his body. He growled as he tried to wriggle free, only for the chain to pull tighter around him. “Looks like you’ve fallen victim to The Chain. Isn’t this embarrassing for you? You’re being beaten by a girl.” Akarui taunted. The man in front of her wasn’t sure what made him more angry, the fact that he had been so easily fooled or the jaded way she slung her taunts and insults. The Chain squeezed even tighter, making it now difficult to breathe. Akarui stepped to the side. “Alright, Jotaro, now that I’ve got him all tied up at the moment, why don’t you take it from here?” She offered. She very well could have finished the job herself, but she knew that with what he had been put through that day, Jotaro would be itching for a chance to fight. “With pleasure.” He responded, stepping forward and cracking his knuckles. “You fools! My stand has no weakness! I’ll devour both your stands!” Their adversary cried out, his voice shaking. “Not if I beat you before you can react.” Jotaro growled, Star Platinum appearing by his side. In a flurry of fists and “Ora”s, the once Kakyoin-look-alike, was back on his ass, his face busted up and bloodied. Akarui crouched down so that she was directly above him. “Now, you’re gonna tell us a little about the other stand users.”
***
“We’re finally going to India.”, Polnaref thought aloud as he glanced out the train window, “By the way, whatever happened to that girl?” He asked the group. “I’m right here.” Dashingu laughed. Polnaref waved her off with a smile. “No, no, the other one.” He clarified. “She was still in Singapore when we left.” Joseph pointed out. “She must have gone to see her dad. She did say she was going to meet him in Singapore.” Avdol reasoned. “She was probably lying about meeting her father. She must be an orphan.”, Polnaref looked over at Jotaro, “It’s a bit lonely without her eh, JoJo?” He asked. Jotaro simply stared at him in annoyed silence.
“Anyways, the stand user in Singapore, I can’t believe he disguised himself as me!” Kakyoin chuckled. “Was he any good at it?” He asked. Akarui shook her head. “Terrible.” She answered. “I was ready to strangle him with a worm on a string.” Dashingu added in, holding up a blue magic wiggle by its string. Kakyoin raised his brows. Ok, sure, he had actually seen the 10 year old girl strangle an enemy stand user to death with a magic wiggle, but what had this guy done to make her want to strangle him while she thought it was him? “Why? What did he do?” He asked, concern in his voice. Akarui shifted uncomfortably beside him. Dashingu gripped her magic wiggle and scowled at the memory. “He kept touching my sister.” She hissed. Kakyoin looked more concerned now as he looked over at Akarui. Touched her? How? Had it been...sexual?
He turned his head forward again, eyes still trained on Akarui. “May I ask in what way?” He seemed hesitant to ask his question. Akarui cleared her throat, but kept her gaze on the table. “He would put his arm around my waist and seemed to be trying to kiss me repeatedly.” She answered. Kakyoin’s face took on a hue similar to his hair. How strange and embarrassing it must have been having someone take his likeness and treat Akarui like that. “Anyways, I’m just glad to be around the real you again, Kak.” Akarui looked over at him with a small smile. He smiled back.
Joseph turned towards them. “By the way, where exactly were you for all of that, Kakyoin?” He asked the red head. Kakyoin smiled brightly at him. “Oh, I was sunbathing.” He answered. Joseph looked him over and remembered how Kakyoin had come straight to him and Avdol’s room after disappearing for several hours. “In your uniform?” He questioned. Kakyoin looked down at the green uniform wrapped around his form. “Yes? Why not?” He asked. Joseph eyed him a moment, confusion clearly written across his face, before he shook his head. “I don’t even want to ask.”