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Polnareff recognises the girl that is with the group after the tall, brooding teenager (Jojo? Japanese names are odd) has freed him of that disgusting thing Dio put in his brain. He has seen her before, only briefly, but at Dio’s side. She looked very different then, dressed in a much too revealing evening robe for a girl her age (she looked like she was not much older than his sister when she died, maybe sixteen?) and clearly used by Dio in a shameful way Polnareff does not want to think about. The flesh bud prevents that soon enough. But now, she is here, dressed in something like a school uniform and looking quite well and spruce.
He is a bit concerned about bringing teenagers along on this trip too kill a megalomaniac vampire, or, in his case, a stand using serial killer and rapist. He must admit that their stands are extremely powerful and in the girl’s case - Kakyoin, that’s her name - really versatile, too.
He is worried when she rooms with Jotaro. She has clearly been abused by Dio, and now she is sharing a room with a hormonal seventeen year old hunk? Even if it was her idea and Jotaro just seems to follow her lead, it does not sit well with him. He has read on how sexual abuse can fuck you up, and he fears for Kakyoin.
Of course, he has no time to think about it as he is almost immediately attacked by yet another pesky stand user and barely survives it.
Still, the next time he gets Kakyoin alone, he talks to her.
”You don’t remember me, do you?”
Her eyes are guarded when she answers, “No?”
“I saw you when I met Dio,” he explains. Her face does not change, she stays calm and composed.
“So?” She sounds defiant, and he has no idea what’s going on behind her polite façade.
“Are you okay?”
“Of course.”
He knows he maybe shouldn’t be prying, but she is so young. And he has to be sure.
“Do you remember being with him? For me, everything that happened while I had the flesh bud is very hazy.”
“I remember enough.” Her words are clipped, her voice void of emotion. Tentatively, Polnareff goes on.
“He did… things to you.” It is not a question. Her pretty violet eyes are like ice.
“What’s it to you.” Also not a question. He sighs.
“I am… concerned. About you. About what you had to go through. About what goes on with Jotaro.”
This, oddly, gets him a smirk.
“Nothing goes on with Jotaro. He is just a good room-mate. Opposed to some loud and meddlesome people I could name.”
He believes her. He has known them all for only some days, but he knows they are good people. And he trusts them. It must have shown in his traitorous face, because Kakyoin’s expression softens considerably.
“I appreciate your concern,” she says, “I do not remember much of my time with Dio. It’s not even hazy. It’s just… blank with the feeling I desperately need a shower when I think about it. Maybe better that way, huh?”
He is not sure, but nods. “You can always talk to me, p’tite soeur.” He uses the endearment without thinking, but Kakyoin stares at him, seemingly understanding the French phrase. Then, she grins at him, wickedly and full of mirth, “Are you sure you want to be mon frère?”
Her French has an accent, but nevertheless, it feels like home. Polnareff hasn’t been so sure about anything since he started his trip to avenge his sister.
“Very much so,” he answers, and just like that, Kakyoin enters his life and never leaves it until the very end.
He dotes on her, looks after her, and she teases him like a good little sister should, with the help of her not-yet boyfriend. (Polnareff can see Jotaro’s crush from a mile away, and can understand the poor boy. Kakyoin really is something, and even a formidable young man like Jotaro is hardly able to hold a candle to her. But he can also see that Kakyoin is not ready yet.)
Also, she saves his life. Everybody’s lives. Several times. Kakyoin is one of the strongest people Polnareff has ever met. Also, she is practically a genius. She picks up more French from him in a week than he was able to learn in English in a whole school year.
He is more than surprised when one evening, Kakyoin seems to completely lose it. A baby cannot possible be a stand user, right? And those cuts on her arm are very concerning. She even tries to fight him in earnest, so he has no choice but to knock her out as gently as possible.
Come morning, everything seems alright again. Even the injuries on Kakyoin’s arm are completely gone, which is odd. Nobody mentions it again, although Kakyoin is a bit harsher than usual with everybody, including Jotaro who rarely gets on her bad side.
Later, he sees the two teenagers huddled together, talking intensely. After that, Kakyoin graces Jotaro with her brilliant smile again while Polnareff is still mostly ignored.
He is glad when she teases him again, and after some days, he seems to be forgiven.
When she gets injured because he was too stubborn and too stupid to listen to her, he is devastated. At least, he still functions while Jotaro, after kicking the stand user’s butt, just holds an unconscious Kakyoin in his lap and hides his face so nobody sees his tears.
When Kakyoin joins them again in Cairo, he couldn’t have been happier. Sometimes, he is just so stupid. It would have been better if she had stayed in hospital some more days. But if she hadn’t discovered the secret of Dio’s stand… Well, Polnareff does not want to think about that. Maybe their injuries aren’t that bad compared to what could have happened.
At least, they are alive.
He returns home and misses Kakyoin terribly. He calls her regularly, spending more on his phone bills than on his food. They exchange letters, and when Kakyoin comes to study in Europe, they meet in almost every holiday. They even celebrate Christmas together.
Polnareff is not sure what happened with Jotaro, because Kakyoin never hears from him after he started studying in Florida.
When he is on the phone with Joseph one day, he almost drops dead when the old geezer casually mentions that Jotaro married last weekend. For a second, he thinks Kakyoin kept it from him, until he realises that the dim bulb unexpectedly and secretly married someone called Michelle and told his family only after they eloped. Polnareff can’t believe it. What the bloody fuck happened in the year they were in Japan? Whenever he called then, it was like ‘Jotaro and me got on the roof of that cool building, and than somebody saw us and called the coppers,’ or ’We went to the arcade and I beat Jotaro a zillion times,’, and, not to forget, ‘I got drunk with Jotaro, and than I barfed and Jojo was really nice about it.’
And after all that, radio silence, and two years later the buffoon marries somebody else? It is beyond Polnareff. He saw the dim bulb last summer, when they were trying to find out something about the strange arrows Enya used while Kakyoin was visiting her parents. Jotaro did not mention anything, but he had sheepishly asked how Kakyoin was doing. Polnareff is confused. Nevertheless, he calls Kakyoin, who does not know anything about the unexpected marriage. He can hear the indignation in her voice, but thankfully, she does not sound heartbroken.
He does not hear anything from Jotaro as he focuses on his own private investigation company instead of working for the Speedwagon Foundation. Kakyoin is still a regular visitor until she leaves Europe to work for the Speedwagon Foundation in Japan in 1997.
They go back to letters, or rather emails, and long distance calls every now and then. He is preparing for an investigation in Italy when Kakyoin calls him and tells him the latest gossip – Joseph, cet enculé, has an illegitimate sixteen-year-old son with a stand and Kakyoin is sent out to protect him. As an aside, she tells him Jotaro is also there. He wonders what will happen. He still writes emails to her, even when he is undercover. He is perfectly able to make himself untraceable.
In July 1999, shortly after Kakyoin’s birthday, he receives an email from Joseph with an attachment. The text is a bit mysterious as it only says, ‘My grouchy grandson’s finally worked it out’. He opens the attached file and finds a photo of Kakyoin and Jotaro, posing for the camera a bit awkwardly. Kakyoin smiles at the person behind the camera - presumably Joseph. Her eyes are sparkling and she looks bally happy. Jotaro, an arm around Kakyoin's shoulders, a tiny, lopsided smile on his lips, looks at her as if she has hung the moon and the stars - the exact smitten expression he always tried to hide as a teenager.
Polnareff feels himself grin like an idiot. At last.
When he goes back to the task at hand (trying not to be killed by the Italian Mafia), his heart is a lot lighter now he knows that his little sister is truly happy.