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Everything has remained the same up to this point. But luck falls on their side and while Abdul loses most of one of his arms in the fight against Vanilla Ice, he lives. Iggy too, and between the three of them they manage to trap Vanilla Ice in the remaining daylight and he crumbles to dust.
Although two out of three are severely injured they press on, and run across Dio himself.
He offers to save Abdul and Iggy if Polnareff will simply join him again but the Frenchman refuses vehemently. Instead he makes to attack Dio, to give Abdul and Iggy a chance to flee and perhaps find the others.
They have their first encounter with the World, and if it weren't for the fact that the other three Crusaders turn up, they might have ended up losing their lives anyways then and there.
But Jotaro starts figuring out things a little sooner than he had in another life, another universe.
Abdul and Iggy are both severely injured and everyone agrees Jotaro should go with them to find the SPW fleet that is on its way because he stands the best chance of protecting them alongside Polnareff.
So they go.
Kakyoin and Joseph cover their backs, working to create elaborate distractions to delay Dio until Polnareff and Jotaro return, because they’re the ones best suited to it.
Car chases, rooftop races
but Jotaro comes dashing back almost immediately
on a motorbike.
Polnareff tried to insist on coming but Jotaro told him he needed to stay there and protect Abdul and Iggy in case anything….happened.
But while on their way to find the SPW he asked Polnareff about his encounter with Dio.
After talking to him about what happened on the staircase he’s pieced together more and more about Dio’s Stand.
He arrives right before the incident with Kakyoin. Dio is targeting his Gramps, and he knows now that Dio’s Stand has something to do with time
something something something
he hasn’t quite got it and it’s terrifying him.
But he sees the situation in its entirety when Kakyoin pulls his move with the Emerald Web and sees Dio’s lips curl into a smile and he knows the target is no longer his grandfather.
He’s got no time, he’s got no time
no time
time stop
It clicks and with the help of Star Platinum he moves across the rooftops in leaps and bounds while Kakyoin is talking to Dio and Dio is entertaining him for the moment, not entirely aware of the other teenager moving along the edge of his peripheral vision because he’s too focused on the little traitor trying to intimidate him,
and Jotaro can see the murderous intent in Dio’s eyes and he knows.
So he hurtles up and up and leaps right in front of Kakyoin.
Kakyoin was about to yell his final move but his voice catches in his throat and he freezes, confused, because suddenly there’s the back of the navy coat and hat he was so familiar with blocking his vision what is he doing-
“Jotaro, what-"
Time stops, and Jotaro hangs suspended in the air, staring Dio dead in the eye, and it alarms the vampire but he’s too confident to even consider the possibility that Jotaro would somehow know the World’s powers.
And even if he did, so what?
There’s nothing he can do, all he’s done is maybe buy Kakyoin some time before Dio kills him too like he originally planned to.
So he drifts through the emerald web slashing parts of it as he goes, watching the two teenagers with glee in his eyes as he gets closer and closer.
“Since you’re so eager I’ll kill you first, Jotaro. Although it’s not like you can hear me right now. You won’t even realise you’re dead.”
The World draws its fist back and throws a rib-shattering punch
but what Dio didn’t see was the finger twitches only milliseconds before, and the force of the World’s impact allows Jotaro to call on Star Platinum one more time to throw one last punch through the stopped time riding the momentum of the force ripping through him, and it sends Dio flying right back into the trajectory of Kakyoin’s attack as time resumes...
Emerald light rips through the vampire’s body and Jotaro goes flying into a water tower perched on one of the buildings closer to the ground and Kakyoin’s still frozen because he’s not sure what just happened.
Joseph isn’t sure either.
What he does manage to register is a blur of navy and a flash of green and suddenly Dio has been ripped to shreds and it’s quiet.
Silence hangs heavily in the air like the world is holding its breath.
Kakyoin’s hands are shaking but he can’t move he can’t turn his head he doesn’t think he wants to see what happened.
Jotaro is trapped in a tangled mess of metal with water rushing past him and it’s cold, so very cold, and the noise of the water is comforting but it’s really hard to breathe
and he can see the last of the green light fading and shreds of yellow fabric floating down to the streets and despite the fact he’s so tired, he can barely move, he manages to smile.
“I knew you’d…get him…”
The sound of the water fills his ears and he can see Kakyoin coming this way along with his Gramps and they’re fine, they’re both ok, thank God, thank God.
The last thing he sees is green eyes and the last thing he hears is his Gramps whispering his name and the last thing he feels is two hands, one on each shoulder and he knows Star Platinum is ok with this.
The water keeps rushing even though he can no longer hear it.
The cold air of January hangs heavy under the light of the moon and the water hasn’t stopped dripping from the tower onto the roof.
Kakyoin is staring and staring because he can’t quite believe it but Joseph is already gritting his teeth, tears quivering at the edge of his eyes.
He’s gripping his grandson’s shoulder and muttering “Wake up” over and over again until he finally cracks, voice breaking as he cries “Wake up already damn it! Holly will be so cross with you if you don’t…get up…”
He sinks to his knees and sobs and that’s when it finally gets through to Kakyoin that this isn’t a dream
and he stumbles forward, Hierophant Green flickering in and out of sight behind him.
“No…no, damn it! Jotaro! Wake up, open your eyes, this isn’t…you can’t…”
and he’s gripping the collar of Jotaro’s coat in both hands but the other teenager’s eyes are closed and even in the dark it’s easy to see the crimson that mixes with the murky blue of the water rushing past his feet.
Tears spring to his eyes just like when he’d thought Abdul had died but this time there wasn’t going to be a surprise miracle because Hierophant Green can’t feel any trace of Star Platinum and he lets his hands drop and he slumps but Joseph’s sobs are echoing in his ears and he reaches out to touch the old man’s shoulder
and it’s like an electric shock because the second his fingers brush Joseph’s shoulder the old man engulfs him into an embrace, sobbing noisily into the teenager’s coat, soaking it with saltwater and Kakyoin is frozen in place he doesn’t know what to do but his lip trembles and soon he’s wrapped his arms around Joseph, pearly little tears of his own running down his face.
Spirits often tend to linger when they haven’t gotten to say everything they want to say before they go, and Jotaro’s is no different. But he’s angry, mostly at himself, for leaving them behind like that.
For making them suffer like that.
He didn’t want them to get hurt because of him but it’s happening anyway.
He didn’t want Kakyoin to die for his mother.
He wanted to save him from being hurt, but here he is crying his eyes out into Jotaro’s grandfather’s shoulder.
He’s just standing nearby, behind his grandpa, watching, anger flickering in his eyes.
This isn’t what he wanted but it saved Kakyoin and his mother so he knew it was worth it.
But within a few moments Kakyoin has looked up and sees him, breath hitching in his throat.
Joseph feels him tensing up but he’s still shaking and crying until Kakyoin whispers, “Mr Joestar I really think you should…turn around…”
and he lets go but it takes him a moment to turn but he does
and it’s when both of them are looking at him that Jotaro smiles.
It’s a sad smile, but it reaches his eyes, and it’s the first time either of them have seen him without a burden on his shoulders.
He looks taller, proud, like an Olympian hero
but he still has his hands shoved in his pockets.
Joseph about manages to choke out “J-Jotaro…you…”
And his grandson blows air through his nose in some kind of muffled laugh
“Tell Mom…tell her I’m sorry, ok?”
and it sends the tears streaming down Joseph’s face again but he sniffs and manages to reply in an unsteady voice
“I will. She’ll be so…s-so proud of you, you know. I’m—I’m p-proud of you too, Jotaro I’m so—“ and he can’t finish the sentence because he’s choking up so bad.
Kakyoin’s been looking at him this whole time with a quivering lip and tears hovering at the edges of his eyes, and when Jotaro looks directly at him it’s like a punch to the gut but there’s so much warmth and friendship in the way he looks at him that Kakyoin almost breaks down again right then and there.
He holds out long enough to splutter “I’m sorry, this is my fault, this is m—“
“Shut it.”
And Kakyoin goes wide-eyed, but he makes to say something again.
“Shut up. I made my own choice, don’t go beating yourself up over it.”
Kakyoin’s eyes crinkle up and he knows he’s going to start crying again so he drags the back of his hand across his face to wipe away the tears.
His voice is steady when he says “Thank you. For everything.”
Jotaro snorts at him. “Just make sure to visit Mom for me alright. And try and stop Polnareff running into any more trouble, you know what he’s like.”
At that both Joseph and Kakyoin manage a smile.
He purses his lips for a moment. “And make sure Abdul and Iggy get looked after, too.”
His grandfather nods at him with a watery grin.
“Of course.”
Jotaro tugs on the peak of his cap, a familiar gesture, and they know he cannot linger for much longer.
He turns his head to look up and they follow his gaze to where the sun has started to poke its head up on the horizon.
They meet his eyes one more time and he flashes them a grin before disappearing into the clouds as the sun soars into the sky and destroys what was left of Dio Brando, and the legacy of the Joestars comes to an end then and there.
When Polnareff and Jotaro were taking Abdul and Iggy to find the SPW the situation had begun to turn into more and more of an emergency as time went on. Abdul and Iggy were both losing a lot of blood; they hadn't been able to do much to stop it flowing from such large, heavy wounds.
Thankfully the ambulances had reached midtown Cairo at that point so they ran into SPW pretty quickly and the SPW employees were able to stop the bleeding and start planning all the repair surgery that was going to have to happen for both Abdul and Iggy, and in the meantime bandaged them up etc. while they waited for other units in the team to arrive.
Polnareff needed stitches but one of the paramedics was able to do that on the spot.
None of them were allowed to move much once the SPW employees had them all sitting in one of the ambulances. Polnareff starts getting really antsy because he doesn’t like not knowing what was happening, he was always scared of not getting closure, and he knows he’s been in too many near-death situations already and his injuries are pretty severe but he can’t help it he wants to go find the others and make sure they’re ok.
But he sees how pale Abdul is as one of the paramedics inserts a drip into his good arm and starts working on bandaging the stump that was his other arm again, and how Iggy lies on the cold metal bench quivering and whimpering with his blood leaking onto the floor as the animal specialist assesses all the damage before taking the next steps to help heal him,
and Jotaro’s words echo in his head again.
“You need to stay here and look after them. The SPW employees won’t be able to do anything if Dio or any other Stand user comes looking for you guys. I’ll make sure Kakyoin and Gramps are fine. You do the same for Abdul and Iggy.”
So Polnareff shakes his head and cracks his knuckles and watches the SPW employees move around with a hawk’s eyes and he waits.
And waits.
And waits.
The water rushing out of the tower is white noise now to Kakyoin’s ears.
It’s only been moments since the sun’s golden beams breached the horizon but it feels like an age.
Joseph is still sniffling under his breath and staring up at the spot where he last saw his grandson, part of him still unable to accept that he’s gone.
And although they both refuse to look back at the water tower they know that they will need to move him…his body, at some point, sooner or later.
Neither wanted to move. The lower halves of their trousers are soaked and the water sent a chill creeping up their legs but neither shivered. Neither can move. He was there, and then he was gone. Just like that, in the space of a few minutes.
What a hollow victory.
The chopping of helicopter blades begins to draw near and Kakyoin just about glimpses the large SPW logo on the side of the tail before he’s blinded by a spotlight. He throws an arm up to shield his eyes but the damage is done and white spots pop every time he blinks and it’s almost like he can’t see anything again.
Joseph had shielded his eyes sooner and didn’t bear the scars that Kakyoin did, so when an SPW employee gestures to him he knows exactly what they want him to do and catches the rope tossed to him.
As the helicopter draws closer, using the rope as a guide, the wind whipped up by its blades sends ripples through the water still pouring from the rooftop and Kak raises both arms to shield his eyes because they were starting to sting.
He turns away and then it hits him.
They’re here for us.
He lowers his arms and watches as two SPW employees lower themselves down from the helicopter down to the roof, a stretcher on a winch between them.
Their voices are muffled as they speak quickly with Joseph and he watches one gesture behind them to where Jotaro was, and then he sees their shoulders noticeably slump.
“It’s too late.”
Joseph spits it out like he has only seconds to say it, and one of the SPW employees gently places a hand on his shoulder, and the old man covers his face with both hands, trembling again.
“We’ll make sure he gets home, Mr. Joestar.”
Joseph lets out a hiccupy sob as the two of them walk past the survivors, Kakyoin staring straight ahead, his gaze fixated on a building across the street because he can’t bear to turn around again.
But he watches Joseph’s hands fall to his side and curl into fists and he calls out “Wait.”
It’s broken and barely audible so the old man has to clear his throat and say it again.
“Wait. Please. Let me…let me…”
The two SPW workers understand and backtrack a few steps, eventually going back to bring the stretcher closer.
Kakyoin watches Joseph inhale quietly, and when he breathes out again he turns to face the water tower and Kakyoin follows him with his eyes, little white specks still flickering in his vision, hands shaking.
Joseph can feel his insides turning to ice again and so he breathes in, and out, and tries to ignore the lump rising in his throat.
He reaches down and picks up his grandson with the carefullest of movements, drawing him out from the water tower’s jaws, and he’s reminded of all those times when Jotaro was small and he demanded his grandpa lift him up and take him on piggyback rides around the house.
A tear rolls off his cheek and lands on Jotaro’s collarbone and he grits his teeth and carries his grandson to where the two SPW employees are waiting with the stretcher.
But a gust of air from the helicopter’s blades knocks the hat from Jotaro’s head and Joseph’s heart almost stops but it’s hovering midair in the ghostly hands of Hierophant Green. Joseph turns to look and Kakyoin is wide-eyed, a stray tear trailing down his face, but he looks at Joseph and they share a moment that neither can quite explain with words.
Hierophant Green hands the hat to Kakyoin who clutches it tight for fear it might fly away again.
Joseph crouches and gently lets his grandson down onto the stretcher, hesitates, and then smooths back the teenager’s hair off his face. He gets to his feet, wiping the back of his hand across his face with a sniff and nodding to the two SPW employees who return the nod sombrely, and then one waves to where others wait up on the helicopter.
As the stretcher is lifted up to the helicopter he turns to where Kakyoin is still standing ankle-deep in water staring at the hat in his hands and Hierophant Green hovering around him and walks over, placing a hand on Kakyoin’s shoulder. The teenager is startled out of his daze, his Stand vanishing in an instant, and Joseph squeezes his shoulder.
“It’s time for us to go.”
Kakyoin’s lower lip trembles but he nods and wipes his nose on his sleeve and hugs the hat to his chest as they walk back over to where one of the SPW employees has come back down to help them alight the helicopter.
They each sit with their own thoughts, but there’s an unspoken mutual agreement that Jotaro looks like he’s just sleeping, and there aren’t enough words to describe how badly they wish that were the case in that moment.
Polnareff was lacing and unlacing his hands over and over again. He’d made to get up several times but Abdul had given him a look from where he lay propped up on the bed in the ambulance, a raised eyebrow, each time, and so he’d sit back down again.
Vanilla Ice had taken a chunk out of his foot and another from his thigh, not to mention two fingers. He needed to stay put and not pace around; he was under enough strain as it was, and if he put himself under more pressure by getting worked up and moving lots he could very well do even more damage to himself.
But he couldn’t help fretting, he hated waiting, he hated not knowing what was happening or what may have already happened—
The ambulance radio crackled into life, the voice unintelligible to Polnareff from where he was sitting, but the look on the SPW employee’s face said it all.
He leapt to his feet, wincing, but before he could open his mouth and ask anything Abdul sat up and said sternly, “Polnareff. Sit down. If it’s important they’ll repeat it to us.”
Polnareff held his gaze for a moment and gritted his teeth, but begrudgingly began to sit down once more.
That was the moment they both heard what was very clearly someone saying “We have retrieved the others and will be flying to meet you at the rendezvous point as planned. Repeat: we have retrieved the others and will be meeting you shortly at the rendezvous point.”
The SPW employee on this end barely had time to say “Understood.” before Polnareff accosted them.
“They’ve found the others? Are they alright?”
“Sir we’ve only just received their message and we haven’t—”
“Then ask them! What are you waiting for, ask them if they’re alright!”
“Sir I think it would be best for you to wait back there again until we get the full story and…”
“Bullshit! You think I’m going to wait any longer? Ask them already!”
The paramedic who had warned him to take it easy began to approach since it was easy to tell that this situation was about to get out of control.
“Sir, you need to calm down and step away from him.” she said with a warning tone, hands raised.
Polnareff swore violently and turned to her with a pointed finger. “Stay out of this! I need to know!”
He promptly snatched the radio from the other employee.
“This is Polnareff and I want you to tell me right now if Mr Joestar and the others are alright!”
“Sir—”
But the SPW employee fell silent and the paramedic backed away when they saw how badly Polnareff was trembling and the way he was gritting his teeth. The workers on the other end of the line were silent for but a moment and then a voice crackled into life again.
“Mr. Polnareff I know you want an update but I think it would be best if you waited until we have the six of you reunited—”
“Just tell me if they’re alive damn it stop dancing around the question.” Polnareff snarled into the radio and there was the sound of scuffling and muffled voices and then another moment of silence.
His heart was thudding rapidly against his ribcage and he thought he was going to have to repeat himself when a new voice began to speak to him through the radio.
Joseph’s voice.
“Polnareff, you need to calm down alright? They’re just trying to look after you, you’ve been through a lot of trauma and your injuries—”
“Enough about my injuries Mr. Joestar! Are you and Kakyoin and Jotaro alright?” Polnareff asked frantically. In his head he thanked God that Joseph was alive, they must have defeated Dio, they must have, they were all fine right?
“Polnareff, I…”
When Joseph trailed off Polnareff’s heart began to sink, and his gut twisted horribly. No, no, no, no, no….
“I’m fine, and so is Kakyoin, but Jotaro, he…he…”
A cold weight settled in Polnareff’s chest when Joseph’s voice cracked and he had to clear his throat before finishing his sentence.
“He didn’t make it.”
Something sucked all the warmth out of him and the radio made small noises of protest at being slowly crushed in Polnareff’s grip but Polnareff didn’t hear them.
“That’s not funny Mr. Joestar.” he said, a strained smile tugging at his mouth.
The two SPW employees shared a look of sad confusion.
“Polnareff…”
“Don’t kid around old man, now’s not the time. You got me once before wasn’t that enough? C’mon stop joking—”
“I wish I was joking, Polnareff.”
The Frenchman gritted his teeth in what looked like an attempt to keep smiling but was more like a grimace, and the laugh that sputtered from his lips was hollow.
“Ok I get it, you’re really going for it this time but you don’t have to pretend Mr. Joestar, please stop pretending, it’s really not funny man—”
His voice wavered and tears pricked his eyes.
“Polnareff, please…I’m sorry, but I’m not…I…he’s…”
“Stop it! Stop it already! He’s not gone, he can’t be gone, Mr Joestar please…please he can’t…he CAN’T!”
Polnareff’s tone began to become completely hysterical. He started pleading incessantly with Joseph to drop the act, every word encased in denial to try and block the truth seeping into his skin as Joseph tried again and again to reason with him.
The paramedic brushed a hand against his arm and began to say “Sir, please, I know it’s hard but please try to stay calm you’re going to hurt yourse—”
“Get off of me!” he snapped, shrugging off her hand. “I don’t care, I’m not going to calm down, not until the old man stops pretending! Mr Joestar! Let me talk to Jotaro already I know he’s not gone let me talk to him, please!”
“Jean.”
Polnareff freezes when he feels a hand on his shoulder, warm to the touch, fingers callused from years of plucking the strings of a qanun. He turns his head and is met with weary amber eyes under a heavy brow, bullet-scar peeking out from under the white material wrapped around Abdul’s head. A reminder that stings even with the passing of time.
“That’s enough. This is probably hard enough on Mr. Joestar without making him repeat himself. Please, Jean, enough.”
Polnareff’s face scrunches up and a sob slips from between his clenched teeth and he doesn’t resist when Abdul prises the handheld part of the radio from his hand.
“Mr Joestar…Joseph. I’m sorry. I…” his voice, too, wavers as he finishes his sentence. “I am…glad, that you and Kakyoin are alright. We will…we will see you all soon.”
Polnareff is shaking like a leaf and staring with unseeing eyes when Abdul hands the radio back to the SPW employee, who takes it with a nod and begins murmuring into it.
Again.
“I’m off now. I’ll see you later!”
It had happened again.
“I’ll make sure Kakyoin and Gramps are fine.”
Didn’t that mean you were supposed to survive too?
Another hiccupy sob bubbles up in his throat, barely audible, but Abdul hears it and reaches towards Polnareff again, slightly unsteady on his feet.
At his touch Polnareff finally crumbles and he engulfs Abdul in a hug, sobbing uncontrollably into the other man’s shoulder. Abdul finds tears of his own streaming down his face as he wraps his arm around Polnareff, unsettled that he can no longer hold him with two hands, and he wonders if he’ll ever get used to it.
But it’s a thought that passes, shattered by the Frenchman’s howls of sorrow.
Too young, he was too young.
Towards the back, still lying on a cold metal table, Iggy begins to whine, and it’s the first time anyone has heard him make a noise that sounded so pitiful.
Within the hour the Crusaders are reunited but it is not a cause for celebration for any of them.
The first thing Polnareff does is pull Kakyoin into a bone-crushing hug, but Kakyoin does not complain and instead frees his arms so that he could wrap them around Polnareff’s torso, the hat still clutched in his left hand. He whimpers and Polnareff holds him just a little tighter.
Joseph holds his own for maybe a minute until he meets Abdul’s eyes and then he sinks to his knees, puts his head in his hands again and heaves. Abdul walks over, dragging the IV pole with him, and sits beside Joseph, his good arm wrapped around the old man’s shoulders, and no words pass between them.
There’s a yowling from the ambulance that Polnareff and Abdul had travelled in and Polnareff immediately runs to get Iggy after a nod from Abdul.
The dog is weak and bandaged in several places and looks small in Polnareff’s arms, but he manages to wag his tail feebly when he sees Joseph and Kakyoin. Little sad smiles tug at their lips and Joseph reaches out to pet him when Polnareff crouches down beside them. Kakyoin shortly joins them on the ground, and the five of them huddle together, the closest physical proximity they’d been in since the beginning.
Eventually Polnareff asks if he can see him.
Kakyoin opens his mouth to say he’s not sure that’s a good idea but Joseph cuts him off.
“If you’re absolutely sure you want to, I won’t stop you. But…think it over first. It mightn’t be the way you want to remember him.”
Kakyoin bites his lip and his hands start to shake again.
Iggy makes a face as he’s passed to Joseph but doesn’t complain, merely huffs, blowing air through his nose.
As Polnareff gets to his feet Abdul stretches out his hand. Upon receiving a quizzical look he quietly says, “I want to see him as well.”
He’d been there at the start of the journey, and it seemed only right that he saw it through to the end too. But it still left a bitter taste in his mouth to think that the teenager he’d met in that jail had come so far and fought so many battles and won, only to fall at the final hurdle. Except he had no doubt in his mind that if it hadn’t been for whatever action Jotaro had taken in that final battle, none of them would be sitting here right now.
Joseph calls an SPW employee over to help Abdul move the IV pole.
The first kick to his gut is the bloodstained sheet that barely hides the gaping wound in Jotaro’s torso.
The second is Polnareff’s strangled cry at the sight of his best friend lying prone on a stretcher.
The Frenchman stumbles over to the teenager, tears falling from his cheeks to the floor, and Abdul can’t tell if he winces because the saltwater stings the cuts on his face or because the emotional pain has sliced through the numbness he must have been clinging to before.
His own chest has been aching since Joseph said the words “He didn’t make it.”
The aches only become more pronounced when Polnareff starts mumbling in French. While he can’t catch everything Polnareff says, he catches enough to know that he is talking to Jotaro as if he can still hear him. The way his voice violently shakes though, it’s easy to tell that he knows the teenager can’t.
“What the hell, man? I was going to show you around…around France, remember? Do the scuba thing but with…without the danger. Find those starfish I told you about, you know the ones.”
He’s resting his head on his overlapping wrists and fixes the collar of Jotaro’s coat while he keeps talking.
“You were g-going to…introduce me to your m-mother…”
His voice cracks and he buries his face into his arms, sobbing once more.
Abdul gently tugs the IV pole over and rests his hand on Polnareff’s shoulder. The younger man scrabbles for it and holds it tightly as he continues to heave sobs into his arms. A few stray tears make their way down Abdul’s face and he lets them.
It’s the first time he sees Jotaro without a frown ghosting his face, without little traces of worry etched at the corners of his eyes or his mouth, and it breaks his heart that this is what it took for it to be so.
“The Star…” he murmurs under his breath in his mother tongue. “It was always going to be a perfect match, wasn’t it. May you go in the same peace that you have now brought to this world, Jotaro.”
It takes Polnareff ten minutes to build up the strength to say “À la prochaine, Jotaro. Je ne t'oublierai jamais; je crois que tu es mon meilleur ami.”
Until the next time, Jotaro. I will never forget you; I think you’re my best friend.
The five of them all fly back to Japan, thanks to the help of the SPW Foundation. There was still a lot to be done in terms of recovery from their injuries, particularly Abdul’s and Iggy’s, but the temporary measures were enough, for now.
There was no way to prepare Holly and Suzie for the news.
The smile Holly wore as she greeted them from the entrance of the Kujo house died on her face the moment she caught her father’s eye.
Suzie arrived at the door the very second Holly’s hands flew to her face and she sunk to the floor with a muffled sob.
“What’s—” the elderly woman began to ask, but she saw the tears pricking her husband’s eyes and she knew. She’d seen that look once before, when they were so much younger, and it was one she’d hoped never to see again.
But she too, had become versed in the Joestars’ history, even if Joseph hadn’t been all that keen on it. And it seemed that not even a grandson who bore a different surname could escape the tragedy that all too often befell this family.
She knelt down beside her daughter, old age making her limbs a little stiff, and gently drew her to her chest in an embrace. The grief won out over the shock and Holly dissolved into tears, sobs wracking her body.
After a moment Suzie stretched out her hand to Joseph with big pearly tears leaking from her eyes, and he took it in his and knelt down and held his daughter alongside her, a lump rising in his throat as he listened to her cry.
The other three and Iggy looked on, every sob that Holly made a knife to their hearts.
After a few minutes Kakyoin began to approach the huddled Joestars, hesitantly, biting his lip, and his hands trembled, the hat clutched in his elegant fingers.
Joseph heard his footsteps on the stones and looked up. Kakyoin froze, but Joseph almost immediately spotted what he held and nodded.
“Miss Holly?”
The woman inhaled sharply and looked up at him, her eyes already red and puffy from crying. The sorrow in her expression threatened to cleave his heart in two, but he braced himself and knelt down so he was at eye level with her.
“We…w-we almost lost this but I..I’ve been holding on to it the whole way back here to keep…keep it safe.” He swallowed thickly and held the hat out towards her.
“Here.”
She stared at the hat wide-eyed and slowly, delicately took it from his hands.
Nothing more was said at first.
Then she threw her arms around him and managed to choke out “Thank you…”
Kakyoin was frozen in place and didn’t know what to do. But eventually, tentatively, he reciprocated her hug.
She let him go and sat back, sniffing, staring at the hat in her hands.
He began to get up, and turned to walk back to where the others were standing when she croaked “Wait.”
Kakyoin stopped mid-step and turned to look at her. She gestured to Joseph to help her up and walked towards the teenager on unsteady legs.
With her left hand she took his and lifted it up, and with her right she placed the hat into his grasp once again.
He lifted his right hand to hold onto the hat and stared down at his hands, and then up at Holly with a puzzled expression.
“I don’t understand.”
And to everyone’s surprise Holly managed a watery smile.
“He would want you to have it.”
“But Miss Holly—”
“I have many things to remember my son by, Kakyoin. You do not.”
Her words slammed into him like a mallet. His breath hitched in his throat and it didn’t even matter because he had no response to what she had just said whatsoever.
“I would find it very hard to believe that having spent the best part of two months in each other’s company you two would not have become good friends. He would want you to have something to remember your adventure by. So please, keep it.”
His lip began to quiver and he gripped the hat in his hands and drew it towards him.
“Thank—” he choked up, and tears began to pour down his face, but he inhaled and looked up at Holly with all the gratitude in the world. “Thank you, Miss Holly.”
“There’s no need for the ‘Miss’, Kakyoin.” she said gently.
He sniffed noticeably, wiping his eyes and quietly replied, “Th-then there is no need to call me by…b-by my family name. Tenmei will be…perfectly fine…”
He managed to look at her and found her smiling and it was as much of a comfort as Polnareff’s hug back when they’d reunited after the fight with Dio.
Abdul and Polnareff both saw it too even from where they were standing, and Polnareff understood immediately what had drawn this unlikely group of people together to save this woman’s life.
Part of him still wept that her son was not here to introduce them to each other, but part of him was glad to meet her nonetheless.
He saw in her a kindness that had manifested itself in Jotaro in more subtle ways, but it was one and the same.
Sadao Kujo had cancelled his tour and flown home as soon as had been possible after Holly had called him on the phone. Suzie had held her hand the whole time, giving it a little squeeze whenever she struggled to get out her words.
Joseph may or may not have had a hand in making sure the man got the next possible flight home.
They had to explain it away as an accident, a freak accident, but it didn’t take much to make him believe it was true.
The Crusaders had stayed at the Kujo household the whole time over the days following their arrival in the leadup to the funeral. The garden made for a peaceful place to sit and talk, or to just sit. Sometimes one of them would find another weeping, and there would be a comforting hand offered or a hug, or a sitting down and nudging with a shoulder.
One of the days they sat together with Joseph, Suzie and Holly, and shared stories from their adventure: the funny ones, and the happy ones of course. There was laughter, and a few tears shed, but all in all their spirits were lifted, if for a little while.
Suzie, Holly and Abdul all found the story of Joseph trying to ride a camel particularly amusing, and Polnareff and Kakyoin commended his attempt in a teasing way, to which Joseph responded with a grumble and a muttered “Damn kids…”
Abdul couldn’t help but smile at the thought of Jotaro responding to his grandfather with a smart comment about telling them to ‘get off his lawn’ then.
The funeral was a quiet affair in some ways, and in some ways it wasn’t.
Holly had felt they should inform the school about it and so several classmates turned up on the day of the event to pay their respects. They all whispered curiously to one another about the young men who sat up by the family, one missing half of one of his arms, another clearly a foreigner from the West, and a teenager with red hair who looked strangely familiar to some of the girls.
The ceremony was simple, subdued. Somewhat of a hybrid of cultures.
More comforting to those who had not known him as well, for everything that could have been said about Jotaro was not said, and although it was understandable it still left those closest to him with a slightly hollow feeling in their chests.
Sadao Kujo had an arm around his wife’s shoulders the entire time, rubbing his thumb over her left shoulder in a circular motion over and over again. Holly held up until the middle of the ceremony and then she wept, and continued to do so for the rest of it, quiet little sobs that only those sitting closest to her could hear.
Suzie Q regularly dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief held in elderly but steady hands, and she handed Joseph a tissue whenever he began to sniff profusely.
Polnareff sat between Kakyoin and Abdul. One of his hands was interlaced with Abdul’s, and the other occasionally patted Kakyoin’s arm whenever he started to shake. Eventually he just left his hand resting there, and at one point Kakyoin grabbed it with his other hand, not looking at Polnareff and trembling violently. Polnareff glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and saw stray tears leaking from Kakyoin’s eyes, but he simply squeezed his friend’s arm and said nothing.
It was the cremation that was the hardest part for the Frenchman.
Abdul had told him a little bit about funeral customs in Japan but it still rattled him.
However, he did manage to leave a pack of cigarettes they had shared on the platform beside the casket. Moreso as a token of their friendship than anything else.
Within two hours all that was left was ash and bone.
After the cremation and the ceremony that followed the eight of them headed out to the graveyard, Holly cradling the urn in her arms. Jotaro’s father held a smaller urn in his hands, one that would be brought back to their home, the ashes eventually to be scattered by the sea.
They were all emotionally exhausted, the tears no longer forthcoming as quickly as before, if at all. No one spoke the whole way there. They went in two separate cars, one following the other until they were all together again at the graveyard.
Joseph felt his breath catch in his throat when he saw the family headstone. Someone had already been called out to carve Jotaro’s name into it, and seeing it made him feel weak at the knees. He’d never thought he would see his daughter’s name on a headstone, never mind his grandson’s.
Seeing the kanji was a knock to the chest for Kakyoin as well, and for a moment he stopped breathing. A sudden flood of memories came rushing back and he thought his throat might close up—
He almost leapt out of his skin when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and when he turned to look, Abdul glanced at him with a brief reassuring smile and then returned his gaze to where Holly and Sadao were placing the urn into the grave.
Kakyoin swallowed the lump in his throat, and inhaled quietly.
Each of them took their turn to say goodbye, some more tearful than others. The Kujos and Joestars went walking together across the graveyard, having unspoken conversations.
Polnareff picked Iggy up after the dog had gently nudged the urn with his nose and turned to look at Kakyoin, along with Abdul.
The teenager couldn’t string together his words at first but eventually he managed a “Please go on ahead without me.”
The two other men nodded in understanding, Polnareff looking concerned but simply adjusting his hold on Iggy and walking away with Abdul by his side. They’d both seen the hat in Kakyoin’s left hand and knew that he wanted to be alone.
The teenager watched them walk away, trying to ignore the pang in his chest.
He was alone, again.
Exhaling shakily he crouched down beside the graveside, and crossed his legs. He dusted off the hat and set it on his knee, one finger tracing the palm shape on one of the pins.
He peered up at the kanji carved on the stone once more from under his eyelashes, blinking away the droplets that still clung to them.
“You were meant to come back with us, but not like this, you know.” he murmured, plucking the little weeds poking out of the ground half-heartedly. “I was actually looking forward to going back to school now that I had someone I could…”
He gritted his teeth and forced the words out. “Now that I had someone I could call ‘friend’. But you…”
A sob bubbled up in his throat again and he choked on it, fingers curling around the hat perched on his knee.
“You had to go and be a damn hero didn’t you?!” he snapped, tears springing to his eyes again.
“You had to go and…and s-save me again didn’t y-you?!”
He sniffed loudly and wiped his nose on his sleeve. “Damn it…”
For a little while he sat there, the only sounds the whistle of the breeze blowing through the graveyard and the distant rustle of leaves. The others were far away now, nowhere within earshot of him.
But all the things he felt were foaming and boiling beneath his skin, threatening to spill out all at once.
“I mean Polnareff and Abdul and Iggy and Mr. Joestar aren’t going to stay here! They’re all going to leave Japan and then I’m…I’m going to be alone again. Don’t you remember what I told you? All those years…and then I had you! All of you! How am I…how am I going to go back to the way things were before when I knew…this. When I know what it’s like to have people like you around. You heard your mother didn’t you? We are…we were friends, weren’t…w-weren’t we?”
The tears began to spill hot and fast from his eyes once more, the scars twinging but he didn’t care anymore.
“So why did…why did you have to go and do that?! Why did you…have to…d—”
He screwed his eyes shut and sobbed, his tears making little tapping noises on the top of the hat. Thp thp thp.
Thp.
“It should’ve been me…” he whispered.
But then he remembered what Jotaro had said to him, when his spirit had lingered, and it felt like his chest was burning.
“You wouldn’t want me to…th-think like this huh…”
He rubbed at his eyes, drawing in shaky breaths.
“You know I’m gonna keep coming back here to visit you, right? It’s not that far out and I wouldn’t…wouldn’t want you to get lonely. And I’ll make sure to keep in touch with Miss Holly…Holly, like you asked. I think Polnareff will be fine, I have my suspicions that he and Abdul will stick together.”
He snorted under his breath. “But you’d had them pinned since day one, didn’t you? Even though you didn’t say it out loud…”
His breath clouded in front of him and he realised how cold he’d gotten sitting there on the ground. He rubbed his shoulders and watched the sky for just a moment.
How long had he been there?
He looked around and couldn’t see the others anywhere, at least not from where he sat on the ground.
It was with a twist in his gut that he realised he probably didn’t have much more time here, at least not today.
And he’d yet to say—
Well, a lot of things, really.
He huffed, picking the hat up off his knee.
“You’d probably laugh at me for doing so much talking, wouldn’t you? Like that time I talked about the constellations in the desert. I went on for hours about stars…”
The smile that had tugged at his lips soon vanished.
He gazed up at the sky once more, the hat held loosely in his hands.
“You did so much for me and I still feel like I’ll never be able to thank you enough for it.”
His eyebrows knitted together and his eyes began to well up. “You gave me a chance to start again, a chance to redeem myself, and you never…never lost faith in me. And now I’m here and I don’t even know what to do with that…anymore…”
He gritted his teeth and dragged his sleeve across his eyes.
Keep living.
That’s what he’d say.
Keep living and don’t give up this chance. Go make a life for yourself. Don’t waste your time on guilt.
Kakyoin inhaled deeply in an attempt to regulate his unsettled breathing.
“Right.”
He picked up the hat, unsteadily getting to his feet and dusting down his trousers.
“Even if I’m by myself here in Japan for now, I know I’m not alone. If people like us could find each other, then I’ll probably run into more eventually, right?
And when my time’s up you better be waiting for me, Jotaro Kujo. We’ll play video games just…just like we planned. And you can teach me how to play poker, and the five of us can try to outwit your grandfather at gambling.”
A smile twitched on his lips. “Yes, even the damn dog. Don’t tell me after this journey you think Iggy couldn’t play poker and win.”
He could swear he heard a laugh carrying on the breeze.
“But I suppose…”
His hand curled into a fist while the other one gripped the hat a little harder, and though he started to shake, his voice remained steady.
“I suppose this is goodbye, Jotaro. Thank you…for everything, again. I…I look forward to seeing you again. Whenever that may be.”
He bit back the tears and said finally, in what was almost a whisper,
“You were one of the b-best friends I ever had.”