Chapter Text
Jolyne watches as they pass by various types of trees, admiring the beauty of it.
She assumes they have been driving for around 40 minutes, as the slight traffic holds them up a little from going to Morioh. But she really didn’t care about that, since the excitement of seeing a new place outweighed her frustration from the traffic.
She could tell that Dad was getting mad about it from how tightly he clenched his fist, a scowl appearing on his face.
“You know, I named a Pokemon after you,” Jolyne told him, trying to make Dad feel better.
It caught Dad’s attention as he turned toward her, brow raised.
“Really?”
Jolyne nodded as she bent down to get her game boy at. Dad’s brow was raised even higher. She scooted herself closer to him as she booted up the device, waiting for the screen to ask her to continue her adventure. She clicked on it, getting to her Pokémon team quickly, Dad watched her curiously. Once she clicked on the one she was looking for and shoved it into his face.
“It’s a Starime! It reminded me of what you are writing about and I thought you might like it!”
Dad chuckled slightly as he gave her a side-hug.
“Thanks, Jojo,” Dad told her as he looked back on the screen, grabbing onto the gaming device. “That might be one of the coolest Pokemon I have ever seen.”
Jolyne giggled, taking it back from him.
“You are only saying that because it looks like a starfish!”
“Sea stars,” he corrects her as a small smirk appears on his face. “Maybe.”
Though, after trying to teach him how to play, it didn’t take long for them to get onto the road. She tried to play a little more with him, until he finally decided it was too much for him and began looking at the window. It didn’t take long for her to join him and they have been in a comfortable silence ever since.
That is until Dad starts speaking to the taxi driver after he apologizes about the radio static and asking him this question: “is this your first time in Morioh, sir?”
“Yeah,” he answers and crosses his arms, “what kind of place is it?”
“Morioh? Hmm…,” he starts to explain, looking in the rear mirror, thinking slightly. His face brightens up when he has thought of something. “Oh! The beef tongue cooked in miso is good.”
“We should get that when we get there, Dad!” Jolyne tells him as she shakes onto his sleeve, hoping to get a reaction out of him. He nods as he says to her “alright,” and she lets out a little “yay!” The taxi driver smiles from the interaction.
“What a lovely family you two are,” he comments, smile becoming wider.
Dad pulls down on his hat, but everybody can see the smile on his face. Jolyne gives the man a huge smile.
“Thank you, sir!”
“You’re welcome, little miss.”
Though, Dad quickly changes the conversation back to what it was originally about.
“Anything strange about it? Any incidents?”
Jolyne throws him a confused look as to why he might ask that question. Their eyes meet as he blinks, staring at her intently. Finally, a lightbulb goes off her head as she mouths, “stand users?”
He nods as he looks back at the driver, her que to not say anything meow.
“No idea,” the guy answers honestly, a weird smile on his face. He lifts one of his hands off from the wheel to rub his neck. “Sorry, I actually don’t know that much about it. Oh, where was I supposed to drop you off again?”
“In front of the station is fine.”
“Understood,” the taxi driver replies.
Dad shifts himself to where his legs were crossed and he shoves his hand into his white coat, shuffling around for something she was sure about. Jolyne squints curiously at Dad’s actions, waiting for the moment when he finally finds the thing he is looking for. He draws out a stack of photos in his hand, looking at them quickly. Jolyne lifts herself to see them, only getting a glimpse, before he gently pushes her down, shaking his head no, telling her not to look at them.
She grumbles to herself as she sits herself back down, arms crossed like Dad’s. She knows they are the pictures of the stand user Dad is looking for because she got to see a tiny look at it, since he left it open on his desk, before he swiftly took it off of it, closing it shut. Jolyne pouted when he did this.
“Why can’t I see?”
Dad instantly shook his head no and for once, she even saw a hint of fear of them as his hand tightened on the folder.
(It scared her.)
“Too graphic for you,” he answered slowly, his chest rising a little faster than it usually does.
Based on the way Dad reacted, the pictures affected him a lot more than she thought and if she saw it, well…things weren’t going to be good .
She went up to hug his leg, giving him the comfort he wanted as she buried her face into the fabric.
“Okay, I won’t.”
“Thank you,” he whispered out, voice small that only made her hug him tighter.
Jolyne knew she wasn’t supposed to see them, but the curiosity got the better of her this time, but thanks to Dad’s height she wasn’t able to see them.
He puts them away after staring at them for a quick second, making them secure in his coat. He takes a deep breath as he looks out the wind again, a neutral expression on his face, which quickly turned into a small frown,
“Good grief, I just hope nothing annoying happens.”
“Now it will,” Jolyne teases him, with a smirk on her face.
He throws her a deadpanned look.
“Don’t jinx it.”
“You just did, Dad.”
Dad sighs as he leans against the cushion of the car, sinking deeply into it. Jolyne giggles from his reaction, but throws her arms around his waist, grinning up at him widely.
“Don’t worry, if anything annoying does happen, I’ll take care of it!”
“You better,” Dad smirks as he places his hand onto her back, bringing her closer to him.
Jolyne brings up her pinky to him. “I promise.”
Dad grips onto her’s with his much larger and rougher pinky, his smirk becomes even wider.
“Good, so that means you will also finish my thesis, right?”
Jolyne gasps loudly.
“No I will not! That’s your responsibility!”
Dad laughs softly as he rubs her back, turning his attention back to the window. She does the same, enjoying the peace between the two.
It is the most relaxing drive Jolyne’s ever experienced.
__________________
After waving goodbye to the taxi driver, Dad and Jolyne were standing in the town of Morioh, where she was jumping up and down with excitement.
“Come on!” Jolyne tugs on Dad’s sleeve as if she were at Disney again. “Let’s go explore!”
“We can’t, Jolyne,” Dad explains to her, as he pats her head. She whines slightly as she pouts her lip out. She can see the way he softens, before his resolve comes back, looking at the map once more. “Remember, we have to find Josuke.”
Her sadness quickly melts away as soon as she hears this, quickly tugging on his sleeve again, the excitement of meeting her new relative being the only thing on her mind.
“What are we waiting for, let’s go find him!”
“I’m trying,” he says, never looking up at her, letting out a frustrated noise. “If I can ever figure out how the roads work here.”
“It can’t be that hard, Dad.”
Dad bends down to her level, bringing the map right in front of her. She sees the greens, blues, and yellows of the maps and the many, many roads of the place and the amount of words explaining the hottest spot of the town, it gave her a headache.
“It isn’t that hard, right, Jojo?”
“Shush,” Jolyne tells him, as she moves away in his left arm, not even having to see the smug expression on his face. He lifts himself up, careful with the way she is positioned.
Dad starts walking away from the station, stepping onto the sidewalks. Jolyne follows happily in tow, where she immediately brings her hand up towards him. He lets go of the paper and grabs onto, bringing her closer to him. Jolyne hums a little tune as she takes in the scenery around her.
It was a pleasant walk until she felt as if she was being thrown back, l last losing her balance.
Dad tightens his grip around her and lifts her up, helping to find her balance again. She lets go of his larger hand and instead decides to grab onto his pants, her head peeking out behind it. She hears a boy let out a loud “eep!”, as he begins to fall down, slamming into the sidewalk, making her cringe slightly, knowing the pain they might feel. Jolyne also saw the way the boy's briefcase spilled out his pencils, bookers, rulers, and erasers on the sidewalk. Star Platinum comes out and swiftly puts everything back into the bag and helps the kid stand up, brushing away any dirt that got on him from that fall. Before he went back to Dad, he gave her a little pat and she giggled, happy from the attention the stand gave her. The boy looks around confused, shocked by everything that happened. Jolyne has to suppress a laugh, pressing her face up against the fabric.
He can’t see stands, huh?
“What?” The boy squeaks out as he looks around him, eyes becoming as wide as saucers. “Ah! Whoa!”
The boy continues to look around him at such a fast rate, it almost made Jolyne dizzy.
“What the..? I’d swear I just ran into you and fell down. I thought I saw everything go flying out of my bag….what just happened?”
Both her and the boy turn to Dad when he starts speaking, looking down at the boy.
“Sorry. I had my eyes on this map. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking,” Dad apologizes sincerely, dropping the map to the side. Jolyne pipes up with her giggles, both of them giving her a curious look.
“What’s so funny?”
“You should have given me the map!”
“If I had given you the map, we would have ended up lost.”
“But we are now!”
“The aquarium,” Dad answers simply, rebutting her point.
Jolyne wilts instantly, looking away from him.
One time at the aquarium, Jolyne ran away from Dad because she wanted to see the penguins and when getting squished by the crowd, she didn’t realize that she had lost sight of Dad. So, when the crowd finally dispersed, she was absolutely terrified to learn that Dad wasn’t there. She ran all around the place, trying to find him and even found one of the staff members and told her about what happened and how she wanted to find her video. It didn’t take long after an announcement made by one of the people working there for Dad to come and get her as they both gave each other a big hug, Jolyne desperately trying to fight back her tears. He gave her a long kiss on her forehead as he explained to her how he was trying to look for her everywhere and was scared that something bad would happen to her. Jolyne had let out a wet laugh as she explained she was doing the same thing. They both chuckled at that as he put her on the ground, both holding each other’s hands tight and never let it go.
It taught her a good lesson about being and promised herself to never get as lost like that again.
She knows why Dad brought it up, but it still stung nonetheless.
“It was just one time,” Jolyne grumbles quietly into his pants as he pats her head, trying to bring her comfort.
“I know and I just don’t want to happen again, Jolyne,” Dad tells her honestly. She whines but pats his hand, showing her thankfulness for his honesty. Dad turns back to his boy, his attention falling on him now as Jolyne gets a better look at him, staring at him with a sort of surprised expression.
He’s a short boy, one where she believes that she is almost the height of his chest. He has a round face with blue eyes that were almost a similar color to Dad’s. He has grey pointy hair that looks like they are in the shape of a big cone. The boy is wearing what looks almost like one of the school uniforms Dad used to wear when he was younger, except it is green that is adorned with yellow buttons and two square buttons on the collar of his outfit.
From the instance she got a better look at him, she knows she wants to be his friend.
Just as she is about to open her mouth to introduce herself, Dad clears his throat and begins speaking once more.
“Excuse me for dismissing you so easily, it’s just my daughter can be a wander sometimes and I don’t want her to get lost.”
This time before Dad starts speaking again, she hops out from where she was hiding and gets in front of the boy, hand out to greet him
“I’m Jolyne Kujo! The wandering daughter!” Jolyne introduces herself with a big smile. She could hear the way Dad sighs slightly, but that only makes her giggle and smile bigger.
The boy gives her a kind smile in return and shakes her hand.
“I’m Koichi Hirose. Nice to meet you, Jolyne. And to you sir, I understand your reasoning”
“You too!” Jolyne exclaims to him brightly before she lets go of his hand. As Koichi removes his hand from hers, that's when a question suddenly appears in her head.
“Are you around here?”
“Yeah,” Koichi answers as he rubs his neck, closing his eyes slightly. “I actually just walked from my home to get to my new school.”
“Oh, cool! What’s your new school called because I am going to a new school too!” Jolyne asks, completely forgetting about why she asked the boy in the first place about if he is around here.
Before Koichi is able to answer her question, Dad enters back into the conversation.
“Actually, maybe you can actually help us out. Do you know anyone in the town with the last name Higashikata? I’m looking to pay them a visit.”
“Higashikata?”
“Dad’s actually looking for his uncle,” Jolyne cheekily adds, a smirk on her face.
“Jolyne.”
“Sorry! It’s just too funny to not say,” Jolyne laughs, as much as she left out the fact that he was 16. She gets back to Dad’s side, leaning her head onto his leg, an apology from her.
He huffs before he looks back at Koichi, who has their brow raised and shrugging their shoulders.
“Erm..I don’t think I know your uncle. It’s not a big town, but there’s still over 53,000 people living here.”
“I see,” Dad replies as he fishes out his small little notebook, squinting down at something he wrote. “I have an address—Jozenji 1-6. Know where that is?”
Koichi nods as he points his arm out to the street, they both follow it as they land onto a little corner that has a sign with a white bus on it.
“Oh well, sure,” he starts as he looks at the bus sign with them. “See that bus stop? The number 3 bus will take you to that neighborhood. You’d be waiting a while for a taxi this time of day.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you, Koichi!”
Koichi smiles at both of them, glad that he was able to help,
“You’re welcome and I hope you can find your uncle!”
They both nod as they stand next to Koichi, Dad still looking at the map. After taking one last glance at it, he folds it up neatly into a tiny rectangular and shoves it into his pocket. He takes a peek off to the side, Star going out, to look at the time the buses come. She wasn’t really paying attention too much to that and instead started playing with the fabric of her pants, opting to quell the boredom that was slowly growing inside her. Jolyne begins zoning out until four loud voices snaps her back to reality.
“Hey, new kid!” Yelled the one with the black pompadour and school uniform. Jolyne stares at him with narrowed eyes, wondering what was the guy's problem. “Didja forget how to bow to your elders?”
Oh, he was demanding respect that shouldn’t be given to him.
(She always felt annoyed when people did that, saying since they are much older than you, they deserve and should be given respect.
It’s not, if you treat everyone like trash and dirt, you don’t deserve respect. It must be earned and if you show Jolyne that you are someone that is kind, treating others as they should and never diss anyone, no matter the age, she will give you the respect everyone wants.)
“S-sorry,” Koici squeaks out, bowing to them. “Have a good day, sir!”
Jolyne rolls her eyes, annoyed by the teenager’s actions and Koichi giving in.
“If you want respect, then don’t be such a rude person,” Jolyne whispers quietly to herself. She hears the way Dad let out a tiny snort, one that wasn't loud enough for the other people to hear. His mouth twitches up slightly, one that made Jolyne smile.
Though the microscope smile quickly disappears when the group of boys walks up next to them, the boy with a blond pompadour being the closest to him. Dad’s eyes shift toward them, giving them an icy glare, a message to not mess with him. He quickly turns away, trying their best to avoid their graze. From, the corner of Jolyne’s eye she can see the way Koichi comes up behind Dad, grabbing onto his coat slightly,
“Don’t worry about them, mister. They’re taking the number 6 bus headed a different way.”
She snorts to herself when she hears this.
It’s too funny to her whenever someone calls Dad “sir,” or “mister,” because she knows how much he dreads someone calling him that. It’s always fine when they use his last name but anything else makes his eye twitch a little bit, not noticeable to others, but to her it was. He used to tell her how much he hates authority and didn’t believe in it, but that seemed to change when he got older and became an authority figure.
So, she can’t help but to laugh whenever someone calls Dad one of those things.
Dad nods at him, before glancing back at his watch. She can tell his patience was running thin with the deep frown on his face after seeing what the time was. By the time he put his hand back at his side, it seemed that the boys had a new person to bother, evident by their shouting again.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
“And what’s your problem?!”
Jolyne turns her head towards the commotion, her eyes catching the person the teenagers were talking to.
It was a boy in a crouched position by a large fountain, looking up at the boys with a curious look. He had a purple pompadour that was longer than the others and quite a stylish purple uniform that reminded her of Dad’s old high school uniform. It was adorned with golden hearts and a “J”, as well as it being a little bit open, revealing the yellow shirt underneath it the purple thing. The boy definitely stood out, but Jolyne couldn’t help taking an instant liking to him. Just like Koichi, she wants to be his friend.
The thing that caught her eye the most was the little turtle that was crawling around.
Jolyne immediately let go of Dad’s hand and ran towards the fountain, ignoring his calls to her running right past the boys, disregarding what the kid was saying to the older boys. She steps in front of it, hoping to not frighten it when seeing her and her hand. It doesn’t and gently puts her fingers on the middle-top of the reptile’s head. She remembers Dad telling her that they aren’t the most affectionate creatures and might even defend themselves if they see someone doing this, so seeing that the turtle didn’t seem to be upset by it, made Jolyne happy.
Funnily enough, her actions even seem to have caught the boy’s attention.
“What am I doing? Well, I found this turtle that must have just woken up after hibernating in the pond. The thing is, turtles kinda creep me out—What?” They boy exclaims, his head snapping towards hers, eyes as big as baseballs. “How are you touching that turtle with ease?!”
Jolyne giggles as she begins to massage the turtle’s neck, gaining its trust. She smiles widely at him.
“Not all turtles actually like this,” Jolyne starts remembering the words Dad’s told her, looking down at the green reptile. “They are actually not that affectionate and might even attack you, if they feel threatened by you. So, you have to be careful with them and make sure you are able to build some sort of trust with them.”
She turns her attention back towards the book, hope in her eyes as well as a big smile.
“Would you like to try?”
He blinks and hesitantly brings his hand towards the turtles, face cringing more and more the closer it gets to the turtle’s head. His hand freezes in mid-air as the boys start shouting again.
“You think we care about this?!”
“Stand up, piss for brains! And you as well, little girl!”
The turtle-fearing boy throws him a hard glare when he talks to her like that, but nonetheless stands up, while Jolyne doesn’t, never looking up at them and instead the turtle.
(She didn’t even need super-hearing like Star Platinum to know that Dad let out a low growl, upset by what they said.
Jolyne really didn’t care, she knew they were mean people anyways, so they don’t really need her attention.)
They were shocked by the boy’s side, but they quickly turned their focus away from him to her, nasty scowls on her face.
“Hey! What did we say! Get up, little girl!”
Jolyne stares up at them with a stoic face that can rival Dad’s and eyes as icy as his. She can see the way they flinch slightly from them, but their scowls only become deeper.
“No,” she answers simply, once again going back to her turtle friend once more.
The teenagers yelp loudly as the purple pompadour boy lets a small snort, impressed by what she had done. The one with the orange-hairdo gets closer to her face, almost touching her nose.
“What did you just say to me?”
“No, I won’t stand up for you.”
He grits his teeth harshly as Jolyne mouth forms into a microscope smirk. It doesn’t matter how mad he gets, she won’t do what she wants. Dad always taught her to stand up for what she believes in, no matter what anybody says. She’s not going to back down to some rude boy.
“It seems that your parents never taught you matters.”
Jolyne rolls her eyes at that, of course that was going to be the insult that would come out of his mouth.
“Dad actually did,” Jolyne answers, unfazed.
The teenager’s eyes twitch, getting more upset by the minute.
“I guess he must have done a bad job with the way you're acting.”
Jolyne’s face morphs into a deep frown, hands baling up into fists when she removes the one from the turtle.
Now, that was crossing a line.
Just as she was about to open her mouth, she saw Dad’s big figure behind him, eyes glistening with anger.
“What did you say to my daughter?” Dad asks, voice low and deadly, something she knows he does to keep himself from yelling.
The orange pompadour guy eyes become as big as the turtle-fearing one instantly turning around as he sweat appears on his face, giving Dad a weird smile. He backs away from him, fearing the way Dad looks at him, one that can almost get everyone to be silent and quiet in place.
“I didn’t mean what I said, sir. It’s just—”
“Respect your elders, right?” Dad finishes for him, clearly not amused with his attempts to pander to him. He absolutely hates whenever someone does that to him and it only causes his anger to grow. “I hate people like you that think everyone needs to bow down to them because of being older. They don’t and I wouldn’t from how you are acting. The only thing I see is you never learning your manners.”
The boy gulps as he backs away from him further, shrinking into herself.
“I—”
“Want respect? Act better.”
“Yes sir,” the boy stumbles out. He almost knocks back into his friend, cheeks turning red from embarrassment. He turns his head away from Dad, one that has her smirking.
It’s nice to have Dad on her side.
She turns towards Dad, continuing to massage the turtle’s neck.
“Can I continue petting the turtle?”
“Sure,” he answers, probably already getting the hint based on her not moving from her spot. “But, I will stay with you.”
“Okay!”
He sits down next to her watching the boy, very carefully. The boy continues to avoid his watchful gaze and instead turns towards Josuke, fear instantly lost as anger overtakes him, quickly disregarding everything Dad just told him.
The purple pompadour boy was still smirking like her.
The other teenager walks up to him and smacks him harshly across the face, a little blood spilling out of his mouth, while saying “wipe thatdumb smirk off your face!” Jolyne stares at him mortified, while Dad growls, quietly mumbling “fucking asshole.”
They both seem to ignore him as the boy that was just smacked, bows down to him.
“Forgive me, sir!” The boy explains to him. “I didn’t know how things were done.”
“Funny you stay that. I’ve put a lot of guys in the hospital after they said the same thing. Maybe I oughta bring you there too.”
“It’s a wonder how you haven’t been there yet,” Dad whispers to himself, making Jolyne laugh.
“But, didn’t you do the same thing when you were they’re age, Dad?”
Dad goes silent, doing very well that he did. It only made Jolyne laugh a little louder, amused by this.
The boy bowing goes quiet, a little fear in his eyes.
“Those jerks…,” Koichi says, surprising both of them how close he was to them. She ponders quickly how and when did he exactly get here, but she agreed with him, they were jerks.
Though just as quickly as the orange-pompadoured kid was angry, it quickly changed into him laughing gleefully, proud of making the other kid afraid.
“Ha! Lucky for you I’m feeling merciful. But, you’d better learn your manners..and get out of our sight. But leave that jacket and those baggy pants—”
“And your money, too,” another one of his friend’s adds, smiling wide.
“Yes, sirs! I’m very sorry!” Josuke yells, bowing even further than he was before.”
But, they still weren’t done with him.
“Hey! How about you tell me your name?”
The boy doesn’t even get up when answering, instead looking at the ground.
“Of course. I’m in class 1-B, and my name is Josuke. Josuke Higashikata.”
Dad jolts up, brows furrows and eyes as wide as Jolyne’s. Out of everything that has happened today, she certainly wasn’t prepared to hear or see any of that. She swiftly turns to Dad, mouth open wide, the words burning on her tongue.
“Dad, is that—”
“ He’s Josuke Higashikata?!”
“That’s your uncle?!” Koichi yells, mind going a hundred miles an hour as he just learns this information, he being in disbelief about the reality of their family situation.
Josuke now turns to them, brows furrowed as he stares at them with confusion.
“Who’s uncle?” Josuke asks, obviously curious about what Koichi says.
Jolyne looks back towards him, a smirk on her face once more as she points towards Dad.
“Your—”
“Is that the ‘jo’ that’s kind of written like ‘tough?” One of the boys asks, Josuke’s attention turns back towards them, bowing a little more, but doesn’t say anything. Instead, let them continue to speak.
“And ‘suke’ like to ‘to help?”
“Hmph!”
“That one can be real like ‘jo’ too. So, how about we call you ‘jojo’ from now on?”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” Josuke replies to them kindly.
Even with the kindness given to him, the orange-haired boy starts yelling again.
“Hurry up and take off those clothes! Our bus is here, you idiot! Keep stalling and I’ll shove off those butt-ugly cowlicks too!”
It was like the world froze in the moment, everything stopping as Josuke’s hands stills on his yellow button.
Josuke began to breathe heavily, something Jolyne only recognizes when Dad is pissed , seconds away from blowing up. She felt the way it seemed his aura changed, one that was calming to complete anger, it coming off of him in waves. It felt as if she was suffocating from it, choking her down to where she can’t breathe. His twisted smile is what did it for her as she moved closer to Dad, gripping onto his hand tightly. He wraps her up in a side hug, paying attention to make sure nothing bad happens.
It’s the little laugh that comes out of Josuke’s mouth that tells her that things were about to go off the rails.
“Hey, mister,” he whispers to them angrily, finally rising up his head as he gives them an icy glare. “ What did you say about my hair?! ”
All the boys look at him with a perplexed face and then…
A blue and pink arm comes out, one that was plated with armor and planed a nice, hard punch to the orange-haired face, causing his nose to break, a couple teeth to fly out and blood comes out.
Another surprise she (actually, both of them) didn’t expect to happen.
She turns to Dad, ready to confirm what she saw, but stops in her tracks as she looks the way he looks.
His skin has become a shade lighter, clenching his teeth harshly as his eyes hold an ounce of fear in them. She only now just realizes that his grip has tightened, almost to where it hurts. She gives him a cornered look.
“Dad, are you okay?”
Dad snaps out, staring at her for a long moment until he swallows, shaking his head slightly and taking a deep breath.
“I’m fine,” he tells her, as if it hurt him to say that. He keeps taking slow, fast breaths as if he were trying to calm himself down. Jolyne removes her hand from the turtle’s neck as she goes up and wraps her arms around his neck, leaning on his shoulder slightly.
“If there is something wrong, you can tell me.”
Dad musters up a half smile as he rubs her back, gratefulness in his eyes.
“I’m fine, but thank you butterfly.”
“It was a stand, right?” Jolyne asks because she needs to know and it only takes her a moment to realize that this is the thing bothering Dad, the stand .
He hessians before he answers her.
“Yeah, it was just a flash, but I saw it. It was some kind of stand coming from behind him.”
“Thought so.”
Jolyne watches as the now broken nose boy falls to the ground, hitting the sidewalk rather hard as his friends scream in confusion.
“My nose! My nose!!”
Josuke walks up to the boy, staring down at him with all the hate in the world he can muster up, face harder than anything she has seen before in this day.
“I don’t let anyone— anyone —badmouth my hair,” Josuke growls out as he raises his foot up in the air. “So, you think my hair belongs on a horse’s ass, do you?”
“N-nobody said—”
“I know what I heard!” Josuke shouts as he slams his foot harshly onto his face, smashing the guy’s face more into the pavement. The guy lets out a muffled scream.
Koichi yelps slightly before drawing closer to them, a little bit afraid by everything he sees. Eventually though, Josuke hops off of him and walks over to them, a smile on his face as he bends down to Jolyne.
“Those guys didn’t offend you, right?”
Jolyne giggles as she leans towards him, a smile matching his.
“Nah, they were just mean jerks. No need to lose my mind over it,” Jolyne tells him, using the new word she just learned from Koichi.
“Jolyne.”
“It’s not that much of a bad word, Dad! You’ve said worse!”
Dad huffs as he rolls his eyes, knowing very well he has been caught in his own hypocrisy. Josuke laughs softly from their interaction.
“Glad they didn’t,” the teenager answers honestly, before looking at them, eyes going back and forth, a perplexed expression on his face. “You know, you both kind of look like me.”
Jolyne has to suppress a laugh as Dad stiffened like a statue, almost causing her to break her resolve to not laugh.
“Yeah,” she tells him, voice strained. “Isn’t that funny?”
“It is!”
He turns back towards the boy, his anger slowly rising back up, it sparkling back in his eyes.
“I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Okay!” Jolyne yells, going back to the turtle she once abandoned, going through the process to gain its trust again.
Once Josuke rose to his full height, that’s when a loud crack was made, the horrible sound of bones forming back together. Her, Dad, and Koichi watched as the boy’s nose fixed itself, the blood going back in it as it made the terrible noise of becoming straight again. His teeth even go back into his gums, sitting comfortably on them.
His friends let out stunned noises.
“What the hell?!”
“His face— It’s putting itself back together! ”
“The punch busted his nose! There was blood everywhere—”
“And now he’s all better!” One of the boys finishes, voice getting higher at the end.
(So, that’s what the stand does, Jolyne realizes.
It fixes things.
Very cool .)
The boys crawl away from Josuke further, almost reaching the street. One of the boy’s faces was drawn up in pure fear.
“Is it just me, or did his face heal up kinda weird? Something’s different now.”
The orange-haired kid’s nose was no longer the kinda straight noise they once saw, it was instead round and almost shaped like a pig’s snout.
It almost got a snort out of her.
Josuke gives them a meanicly look, a snarl on his face.
“You were dicks to that girl. So, how are you going to make that up to her? Huh?”
They ran away from him quickly, their legs going as fast as they could. One of them yelled, “Hey. What was that about my nose? What happened to my nose. Guys? Guys?”
As soon as the boy crosses the streets, that’s when Dad starts speaking again.
“Good grief..,” he sighs, as he gets up from his spot, looking him right in the eye. “So..this is the kid. Hard to believe he’s related to the old man.”
Josuke looks back at him with a confused expression, his anger slowly leaving his face. As soon as opens his mouth, Jolyne hops off from her spot on the fountain and gets up to Josuke, being careful to not startle the turtle when handling it (cause she also knows not all of them like being picked up) and goes up to him, putting it in his view.
“Want to try petting the turtle again?” Jolyne asks, wanting to go back to the task they were doing before being rudely interrupted by those boys. She is excited to help get Josuke over his fear of turtles and honesty, she really wanted to show how cool they were.
Though, he jumps slightly, fear written over his face.
“Gah! Holy crap! It’s so close!”
Jolyne gives her a deadpanned look.
“Yeah, I brought it to your face.”
Josuke gives her a weird smile as he rubs the back of his neck, desperately trying to avoid the reptile’s eyes.
“I’m not used to being so close to them like this, I’m usually like 50 feet away from them,” he explains as he grows closer to it, smile becomes less weird. “But, it’s kinda cute.”
Jolyne laughs as she sits on the sidewalk, gently putting the turtle back down. She removes one of her hands from underneath it and pats the empty spot next to her, her smile bright.
“They are, even Dad had them as a pet once! So, if you want to overcome your fear like you said so, come sit with me and we’re going to back you pet one!”
Josuke chuckles as he brings himself down, crossing his legs as he gives her a smile just as bright.
“You’re demanding.”
“She is,” Dad adds fondly, a small smile on his face.
“Hey! I am not!”
“Hmmm, I think these past couple of days proved otherwise.”
“And what you just told me,” Josuke brings up teasingly, a smirk on her face.
She crosses her arms as she lets out an angry huff, looking off to the side.
“You guys are mean .”
“Someone doesn’t like the truth, huh?” Dad tells her as he walks up to him. A smug expression on his face, one similar to the time she told him about the map.
She blows raspberries at him for a good long second before turning back to Josuke, rolling her eyes.
“Ignore him, he can be mean like that.”
“Didn’t you just call me mean?” Josuke asks her once again, a teasing hint in his voice.
She sighs dramatically as she shrugs.
“Well I changed my mind, you can be better than Dad.”
“Hey,” Dad says.
She laughs once more, relishing in the tiny amount of chaos she has caused. Even with Dad rolling his eyes, he pats her head, a serious expression on his face.
“Even with conquering his fears, we are also here for another thing.”
Jolyne blinks before it finally clicks in her brain.
Oh right .
“Yeah, tell him,” she says as she goes back to petting the turtle.
“Tell me what?” Josuke asks curiously.
Dad turns his attention fully to him while adjusting his hat.
“You are Josuke Higashikata, born in 1983. Your mother’s name is Tomoko. Back then she was 21–a college student in Tokyo.
Josuke has a shocked expression on his face, blinking rapidly.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Dad continues, even with his uncle’s little comment.
“You’ve lived in this town your whole life. In 1987, when you were four years old, you came down with a mysterious fever. For 50 days, you teetered on the brink of death. Your father’s name…,” Dad explains and then pauses suddenly as he lets out a sigh. Jolyne starts at him curiously. “Good grief. I can’t believe I had to come all the way here for this.”
“How odd, I remember you saying you were ready to meet the kid to Jiji,” Jolyne exclaims to him, staring at him with a raised brow.
Jot stops to look at her with a perplexed face.
“I was ready, but I didn’t think I would be the one doing all his work.”
Jolyne ponders this before shrugs.
“Fair enough.”
Josuke doesn’t say anything, too confused about what is going on. Dad looks back at him again.
“Joseph Joestar.”
“My great-grandfather,” Jolyne adds on like it was nothing, not even looking up at him.
“YOUR GREAT-GRANDFATHER?!” Josuke shouts, staring at the both of them like they had three heads and eyes wide as saucers. “YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME?!”
“Jolyne,” Dad tells her sternly.
“Sorry, continue, Dad.”
“SO, IT’S TRUE?!”
Dad clears his throat.
“Joseph is 79 now. He’s still alive and kicking, but we were looking into his will…and we discovered that he has a son in Japan—that’s you kid. The old man had no idea. All this time, the dirty bastard has talked like he’s a saint—‘my wife is the one and only love of my life,’ he’d say. Then he cheats on her halfway through his sixties and produces a son unknown to him.”
“That’s a bit much, Dad,” Jolyne says, surprised by his rant.
Dad shakes his head, trying to get rid of his anger.
“Sorry, just…I don’t like how he disrespected Nonna.”
“Oh okay,” Jolyne says as she turns back towards him, seeing the guilt written all over the boy’s face, knowing why he looks like that. “Though, it’s not your fault, Josuke. It’s my dumb great-grandfather’s fault.”
Josuke’s taken back by her statement, blinking rapidly. His face softens as he lets the words settle in, giving her a sincere smile.
“Thank you.”
Jolyne nods. Dad turns away from her to look at Josuke again.
“But now I found you,” Dad says as his eyes widen slightly and tries to muster up a small smile. “I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Jotaro Kujo. Technically, I guess I’m your nephew. As bizarre as that feels…”
Jolyne perks up at that, reaching out her hand towards him.
“And I’m Jolyne Kujo! Your great-niece, I think,” Jolyne laughs at the end, not sure how their weird family tree works. Josuke brow raises once more, but nonetheless shakes her hand.
“You guys are my nephew and great-niece? Well, uh..nice to meet you, guys!” He tells them, pulling up an awkward smile and letting go of her hand.
“Okay, so with all of this done, want to try with the turtle again?”
“Yeah, why not,” Josuke tells her as he lets out a tired sigh, Jolyne bounces in her spot excitedly. She instantly jumps up and grabs his hand, easing it towards the reptile’s face. Josuke squirms slightly, like he did before when getting close to it before. Though, before she goes on to explain the next steps, she turns to Dad, moving her head to the spot on the other side.
“Come on, you're the turtle expert, you can help with this.”
“Jolyne, we have to get things done and you seem to be doing fine without me.”
“Please, Dad?” She asks, using her signature puppy eyes that makes him fold like a card. His face softens.
“Okay, butterfly,” he responds to her, as he brings himself down, mimicking the position his uncle was in. She sits right behind her, observing everything carefully. Josuke chuckles from the scene.
“You have him wrapped around your finger, huh?”
“Yep!” She answers as she hears Dad say, “you do not,” knowing completely that was a lie. She quickly brings the hand lower to the turtle.
“So, like I said before, you have to stand in front of the turtle to make sure they aren’t startled by your presence, it seems to be perfectly fine since it doesn’t seem to try to get defensive. Now, the first thing you can do is rub the middle-top of its head, so let's put it there.”
Josuke continues to cringe as his hand covers over the spot, almost yelling as it is about to touch the top of the reptile's head. He closes his eyes harshly.
“I can’t do this!”
“Josuke, you're already touching it.”
His eyes open immediately staring at the way his hand is on top of the turtle. As much as Jolyne expected, she was surprised that he didn’t scream or run away when seeing this. Instead he starts rubbing it, his face actually glowing.
“It’s so scaley!”
“I know!”
“It’s so cool!”
“See, I told you it wasn’t that bad!”
They both laugh at that as Jolyne brings his hand to start massaging the turtle’s head. As Josuke starts to ask questions about them, Dad begins rattling off facts about them, listening intently. As she watches the scene unfold she couldn’t help but think one thing.
Jolyne’s happy to be here.
__________________
His uncle is not that bad he realizes, happy that he was interested in turtles.
He smiles as he looks at the way Jolyne is able to help conquer the boy’s fear, knowing she was the only one to be able to do that.
She helped him do that, not having to live in the fear of Egypt.
(It still amazes Jotaro how much she teaches him everyday and how much she has made him a better person, he doesn’t even know how he would be if she wasn’t here.)
He also knew these two would be friends because, just like Polnareff, she can be friends with anyone and who wouldn’t love her?
As he stares at the two of them, he couldn’t help but think of one thing.
Taking Jolyne to Morioh was probably one of the best ideas he has had in a long time.