Chapter Text
As the final cigarette burns out, the welcomed warmth fills Jotaro’s lungs, making him feel like hes burning from the inside out. The smoke grips at the walls of his slowly rotting lungs, the tar sticking on the formerly pink walls. He holds it there for a few seconds.
1.
2.
3.
He finally puffs out the grey smoke with a depleted sense of living. The blanket of the haze wraps the face of Jotaro in its grip, letting Jotaro know where to find comfort if he’ll ever need it again. Jotaro blearily closes his eyes and the scene of his friends’ deaths play in his mind. For what was once an unbreakable man, the husk of his former shell lives on in his stead.
Though, being a shell of the former, the current is easily spotted as an imposter of what he used to be. The sickly grey complexion was a stark contrast against Jotaro’s black, greasy, hair. To add on, the formerly huge muscles have loss their definition and mass due to the lack of use, while Jotaro’s face has become sunk in and eyebags have started to form. Worn out and dirty, his clothes have kept the stench of death on him since Jotaro has arrived home from Egypt. His condition of which he is now is not the Jotaro we once knew.
It seems like he died that day, along with them. A group of crusaders, who once lived together, died as one. Its almost fitting. Funny even.
A group, bounded by their destiny as one and intertwining into one unified unit, dies even as one still stands left. Their experiences, hardships, and losses are documented, only for their eyes. The secret of what happened to the crusaders can only be shared through the mutual experience, for no one else will understand; due to this, the tarot of the Star faces his grief alone in a room filled with the whispers of the memories replaying. This should’ve been the only comfort given to the pain of the man, which is his mind.
But it is not the case.
For Jotaro is currently in Hell, drowning in his own thoughts and voices in his head. In stead of memories of good times, behind his eyelids are murals of DIO and the end of his friends. Any moment of peace is ruined by the banging of thoughts through his head.
The dried tears that ran across Jotaro’s face started to get wet once more. Formerly melancholy breathing turned rapid and sent Jotaro spiraling. His face became flushed with sweat while he cuddling into his coat. Tremors shook his body with seismic waves.
Sensing the pain of it’s user, the spirit of Jotaro came out; Star Platinum.
Star Platinum emerged with tired eyes, once full of galaxies and planets, are now devoid of life, having to deal with this time and time again. Jotaro, not noticing Star being summoned, screwed his eyes tighter, worried of he’ll see once he woke up, scared of not being able to see his friends at all, even if they’re dying.
Star Platinum sighs a quick “ora” and places a large, now boney, hand onto Jotaro’s back. Jotaro, noticing a presence behind him to his left, opened his eyes and turned his head slightly behind him, tears now freely storming from his face. The silence between the beings of the same life force stare each other in the eyes, with mutual understanding of the situation they’re in, unable to escape. They then spend the next couple seconds in this position.
Jotaro is the first to break the stare between them, opting to look back and precariously lift himself up onto his right elbow. As he gets up to a sitting position, he looks at his doorframe behind him, seeing the terrified face of his mother.