Work Text:
It was simple, really. Get information on his schedule, find when he was alone, and then strike the next day. Drug him, use the stand, and it was complete.
It was a little too easy though. He went down without a fight. Though, it doesn’t matter, he’s going to tear his family apart, and with them gone, no one can stop the resurrection of DIO. Even if it’s his son taking that spot.
“Hey Josuke! How was your morning?”
“Terrible.” Quickly, Josuke covers his mouth.
“Oh, I’m sorry, did you have bad dreams?” Tomoko puts down the dish she’s cleaning and walks over to her teen.
“Well- yeah, I guess. I’ve been having them for a while so I’ve gotten used to it, even if they still hurt every night.”
Tomoko freezes. “And you… never told me?”
“I didn’t want you to worry. I’m not worth worrying over.”
“Where did this come from! Josuke?!”
“Look- mom-“
“What happened???”
“I’m useless so there’s no point in worrying over me.”
“Josuke?!?!?!” Tomoko is mortified. How long has Josuke been thinking like this? And why did he just now spill it all? This came out of nowhere!
“I'm going to school.”
“What- no! You’re going to explain what’s going on with you!”
“No I’m not.” And with that, Josuke rushes out of the house.
WHAT THE HELL??? WHY DID I JUST SAY ALL OF THAT??? WHY DID I TREAT HER LIKE THAT??
Josuke is running down the street, not bothering to go with Koichi or Okuyasu to school today. His hand covers his mouth and tears run down his face.
Why’d it all have to be true-
Josuke runs into a tree and stops to gather his surroundings, though it’s hard with his eyes blurring so much.
But it certainly isn’t the way to school.
“Josuke Higashikata! Well, that worked quicker than I thought!”
Josuke whips his head around, and spots a man walking towards him. Two? He can’t tell, even if the tears are drying up.
“Welcome to your new life.” Out of nowhere, the man is right in front of Josuke and lifts up the teen’s chin. “You’re under a truth serum drug! And my buddy’s stand here,” ah, so there is a second person, “Makes it so one part of his victim will never change. He’s made it so the drug never leaves your system.”
“Wh-what-“
“That's right Josuke! For the rest of your life your will tell the truth and only the truth!”
The second man, probably the stand user that's keeping this drug in him, pushes Josuke and suddenly, he's just a street light away from school.
“What the hell…”
Josuke's scared. He's not going to school. No way is he going to school.
This is a stand thing right? Jotaro and Joseph haven't left, right? Maybe they can help him…
Josuke heads in the direction of the Grand Morioh Hotel. He can't be stuck like this forever.
Right?
It didn’t take long for his thoughts to start becoming more prominent. Turns out, if you already have issues and you have a permanent drug in you that makes you tell the truth, you start to hear those. A lot.
You’re stupid.
You’re the worst.
If people just knew then they’d leave you.
You don’t deserve your friends.
Your family hates you.
You don’t deserve any love.
You’re weak.
You're just a tool, but you can't even be a good one at that.
You spend your time messing everything up.
You deserve this.
You deserve to suffer.
Turn around, don't bother fixing this.
If it gets you what you deserve, then why try to “fix” it?
You're a terrible person.
Lock yourself up, stop talking.
It's not like anyone would notice.
“stop it stop it stop it stop it stopitstopitstOPITSTOPIT GET OUT MY HEAD!”
You can only say the truth.
“SHUT UP!”
Luckily, no one seems to be around.
Josuke finds a nearby wall and slides down it, crying again.
“stop it- stop it stop jt- please… stop it-“ Josuke hiccups while punching his cheeks. It doesn’t do much. He’s weak.
The boy looks up, barely able to see anything through his own personal clouds. However, he knows that the hotel his close. He can end this, if he can just make it there-
You don’t want to make it.
“STOP IT!”
Why didn’t you go to Okuyasu or Koichi? Admit it, they hate you. They want nothing to do with you. You’ve done nothing for them. You know Jotaro & Joseph are the same, you just want to think differently because they’re blood family. But they haven’t even known you for more than a couple of months. Your own father didn’t even know you existed!
Josuke gets up, trying to push past the tears.
Your friends hate you. You have no friends. They all pity you. There’s nothing else to it. You ruin everything. You’re not funny. Stop reaching out to them, they don’t want to interact with you.
Josuke walks.
They don’t love you.
Another step.
They hate you.
Another step.
You’re worthless to them.
Another step.
They hate you.
Another step
They hate you.
Another step.
They hate you.
Another step.
T̷̩̣̻̯̬̗͖̐̊̄̀͐̅̋̎̌̋̚h̷̡̩̎̐̄̚͝͝e̶͇̤͕̦̝̻̪͎͈̥̳̤̫͊̈́͒̾̑̃ͅÿ̴̺́̾̏̄͒̄̾̊̂̿͂̍̊̊̈́ ̵̨̢̟͈̞̪͕̤̩͕̤̮̭̗̫͛ͅh̷̠͖̝̻̽̔ͅä̵̧̰͈͔̹́̎̆̎́͂̽̃͋̔̏̋̕t̶̢̧̧͈͇̩͎͙͖̤̹̺̗͇͍͖̓̓̊̈́̓́̅̔̍̕͝͝͝ȩ̴͕͎͖̙͎͇̘̯̠͇̹͎̬̘̋ ̵̢̧̟̬̪̱͉̺̯̙͕̋͌̚͠ÿ̸̧̨̳̮̩͉͔͉̗̳̫͙̖͙̠̜̈́͐͜o̶͉̟̗̞̘̰̪̣͇̪̮̒̑͑͛̑́̓̎̓̕ů̵̜̟̼͔͂.
Josuke doesn’t even bother knocking. He can fix things, anyways. He just wants it to end.
The sudden crash makes Jotaro stand up quickly. When he looks for the source of the sound, he sees a stumbling, crying, Josuke in front of a broken door getting fixed by Crazy Diamond.
“Josuke???” Jotaro hurries over to the teen. “What the hell happened??”
“It won’t stop… it won’t leave me alone.. make it stop-“ Jotaro gets Josuke to the couch quickly.
“Is this a Stand Attack?”
“Y-yeah, I was drugged-“
“Drugged?”
“T-truth serum… stand makes it permanent… make it stop…”
“What do you mean make it stop?”
“The thoughts in- they won't stop- my mind-“
“Your mind…?” Jotaro’s hesitant to ask this question. This is a stand attack that’s dealing with a truth serum, but if it’s hurting his mind…
“My thoughts… they’re so loud- make it stop-“
He’s not going to help you. After all, why help someone like you?
“p…please…” Josuke stops talking. He has a blank stare on his face. Like he’s in deep trance.
“Josuke?”
No response.
“Josuke!”
The teen looks up suddenly.
“What.”
“What do you mean ‘what’?”
“What do you want with me?”
“Josuke.” Jotaro narrows his eyes. Something happened to the teen just now.
“Would you stop calling me that? It’s Higashikata.”
“Josuke.”
“I said stop calling me that!” Josuke stands up. “You really need to learn to respect others, Kujo!”
“Josuke.”
“Shut up! Why can’t you follow simple requests!”
“What the hell got into you.”
“Me?? Me???? As if I’m the one acting strange here! You’re the one who acts like everything is fine! At least I can show fucking emotion!”
“Josuke!” Where the hell did that come from??
“At least- at least I don’t kill my friends, and if they are dying, at least I show emotion towards them!”
Jotaro reels a bit inside. He doesn’t know what happened to Josuke, but that’s way too fucking far.
“And yet, you seem to think you can come into my town and ruin everything! My grandfather would be alive if you didn’t come here! Nobody could ever love you after you’ve killed all the ones you consider close to you! What’s even worse is that it’s one sided! No one’s ever loved you! Not me, not Holly, not dad, no one! You worthless piece of trash !”
“JOSUKE!”
Josuke freezes. He has the same blank stare as he did before he started talking shit about Jotaro. As soon as Josuke comes to, however, his look completely changes.
It's not anger, resent, or anything like that. It’s one of sheer horror. And tears..
“I- I-“ Josuke has a hand over his mouth again. He slowly backs up.
It’s silent between the two of them. That is, until Josuke runs to the door.
Jotaro tries to stop Josuke from leaving, but he’s too late.
He knows that whatever stand Josuke is being affected by made him say that, but fuck.
It stung.
Way too close to home.
Though, he can't think about that right now. There is no way Josuke will be able to get out of his situation, especially with the state he’s suffering in now.
Fuck.
The teen sounded so hurt.
By his own mind, too.
“You activated the reversal?”
“Yeah. Now, Josuke shouldn’t be facing anyone anymore. He’ll be too scared to even try to talk to his friends, he doesn’t want to talk about this with his mom, an' Jotaro shouldn’t even want to talk to Josuke, but even if he does, Josuke will avoid him.”
“Great! We’ve almost broken up all the Joestars, and now it’s just DIO’S child that will help us finish the job.” The man exclaims. “You’ve got the mask right?”
“Yeah. But, there’s a problem…”
“Why? Just send it to Italy and have the team there take care of things.”
“Well about that…”
He steps aside and pushes someone forward.
“WHY IS HE HERE???”
“They… well…”
“Spit it out.”
“The Italy team got caught so they sent him over for us to take care of it.”
The other man rolls his eyes. “Alright, Giorno Giovanna, you’re going to fulfill your father’s legacy.
“What are you-“
“Shut it! Grab the mask.”
He grabs a stone-looking mask and goes to put it on Giorno’s face.
The boy struggles, this isn’t what he wanted when he asked to learn about his father.
“Stop!!!”
The man almost gets the mask on Giorno’s face, but he’s not giving up.
“Damnit, how is this brat so strong??”
“That doesn’t matter! Get the blood, activate the mask!”
The other man draws some of his own blood before quickly smearing it on the mask.
It reacts.
“YES!” The man putting on Giorno’s mask lifts his hands in the air. “WELCOME BACK, DIO!”
“U-uh-“
“What?” The man looks down before seeing a perfectly normal Giorno. But a not so normal-looking yellow ghost next to him. He brings his hands down and finds an activated mask in them.
“I thought he didn’t have a stand…”
“Fuck.”
Giorno runs. He doesn’t know what just happened, but he’s alive.
Josuke doesn’t know where to go. He can’t go home. He can’t go to school. He can’t go back to the Hotel.
You failure.
You bastard.
Why would you say that?
What is wrong with you?
“I- I didn’t-“
You’re the worst.
No wonder no one loves you.
“No- Not again- I'm begging you-“
You know something else? Everything you stand for. Everything you love. It’s all wrong. Terrible. No sane, good person would think like you. Support what you do.
Josuke doesn’t speak anymore. It hurts too much. Running hurts. Standing hurts. Sitting hurts. It all hurts.
You’ve never been loved.
You’ll never be loved.
You’re not loved.
Tears. That’s the only thing he can do. Cry.
You should have died with Kira.
“Mister?”
Josuke looks up. It’s a child.
Why does… He look like him?
“You’re crying.”
Josuke looks surprised. Why is there a child trying to help him? He needs to go. Josuke tries to get up and run, but something grabs his hand. He turns around, and…
It's a stand.
Josuke freezes after he turns around. The stand moves its hand up to Josuke's face. He needs to summon Crazy Diamond.
But, this kid…
He feels safe around him.
The stand touches one of Josuke's tears, but when it pulls back, there sits a ladybug on its hand.
Josuke slowly starts to stop crying, but some of the tears on his face also start to disapear. The kid in front of him has flowers in the palms of his hands.
“I don’t know why you were crying, or why I have this," the kid says while motioning to his stand, "but I don’t want you to cry.”
You don’t deserve this.
Josuke looks at the kid. “What’s your name…?”
“Giorno. Giorno Giovanna. I don’t know how I got here, I think I was kidnapped.”
“What-“ Josuke’s eyes widen.
“But.. I think that’s ok. Well, getting kidnapped isn’t fun, but,” Giorno pulls down a bit of his shirt revealing the base of his neck. “Something’s been telling me that this is important.”
Josuke’s stunned. He slowly brings down his uniform to show his star birthmark.
“Another Joestar….”
“Joestar?”
“Y-yeah! All Joestars have this birthmark! I should let Jotaro and Mr. Joestar about-“
He pauses.
“oh…”
“Is something wrong….”
“jotaro…”
“Josuke?”
“I… I did some bad things, and I-“
Josuke stops again. Where’s the voice that’s been tormenting him?
Josuke grabs Giorno by the arm and runs with the kid.
Giorno let’s out a small yelp but follows Josuke.
There’s no way anyone else could’ve known about them, let alone take care of them. It has to be him.
“Where are we going?”
“To find Jotaro.”
It was simple, really. Leave the hotel, find two obviously panicking, alone, stand users, and then walk up to them. Ask them if they know anyone by the name “Josuke Higashikata”, and when they react, beat the shit out of them.
It was a little too easy though. They went down without a fight. Though, it doesn’t matter, Josuke shouldn’t be affected anymore with them gone. Somehow, Jotaro feels like this is a kind of karma that goes really deep. Even if it’s just them getting beaten up.
He hopes Josuke will realize that whatever he was drugged with shouldn’t be permanent anymore and come find him.
But still. Even if the teen wasn’t in control of what he said…
It was true, was it?
Trash. He was Trash.
Josuke rushes up the stairs. He’s put Giorno on his back to make it a faster process, and soon enough, he’s at Jotaro’s hotel door.
He hesitates. Can he even face the man after what he said? Even if Jotaro did put a stop to the stand and the drug…
Giorno sighs and knocks for Josuke. The teen freezes for a second while Giorno gets down from Josuke’s back.
A few seconds later, Jotaro opens the door, and as soon as he does, Josuke hugs him.
“I'm so… so sorry… I- I didn’t-“
Jotaro’s surprised at the hug. “It was the stand, you have nothing to apologize for.”
“But all those things I said-!”
“Not you.”
“…..”
Jotaro sighs. “We don’t have to talk about what was going on but you should sit down. I can get you something to drink if you want.”
“That’d be nice…”
“Alright.”
Josuke let’s go and goes to sit down. After Jotaro goes to grab a drink, Giorno comes into the room and Josuke motions for the boy to sit down next to him.
When Jotaro brings out the drink, he spots Giorno and stops. Josuke gives a soft smile and points at the star birthmark.
Jotaro lets out a small “Yare Yare daze, not another.” and goes back to get a second drink.
When Jotaro returns again, Josuke introduces Giorno.
The three Joestars start to talk and get to know each other.
“… and that’s how I’m here.” Giorno says.
“You don’t seem so concerned. Do you not have a family?”
Giorno looks away at that word. But then he looks up, sparkles in his eyes. “I do now!”
Josuke hugs Giorno and Jotaro gives a small smile.
Josuke then turns to Jotaro.
“Y'know… um… It’s… You don’t have to show emotions to care for others… and… uh… you never killed anyone. I don’t think there’s anything I can really say that someone else hasn’t, but you’re not the reason anyone died, besides DIO… and if you didn’t come to Morioh… I’m pretty sure more than my grandfather would have died…”
Jotaro stares at Josuke.
“And… no one hates you!… especially not dad.. or Holly… me...,,, you're also not trash…”
Jotaro doesn’t respond.
“I know you know that I wasn’t being myself but.. I also know words can hurt, truthful or not… so I wanted to tell you the real truth this time…”
No response.
Josuke goes to hug his nephew. Jotaro likes it.
Josuke may have a lot to explain to his mom and talk to his friends about why he wasn’t at school today, but he found family today, and that’s all that matters.