Chapter 1 – Introducing JoJo and JoJo

It was as they were leaving the hat shop, on their way to his apartment, that Yasuho finally asked Josuke what his Quirk was.

"I… well, I'm not sure. Because of the amnesia."

"But you could use your Stand right away, couldn't you? How'd you know to do that if you don't know about your Quirk?" She knew he must have a Stand, since he'd blinded Joshu without seeming to do anything, and managed to predict (or somehow cause) the policewoman's actions back at the hospital. But she had yet to see him display any of the more typical superhuman abilities the vast majority of mankind possessed these days.

"That's different. Your Stand is your soul; using it is almost innate. Quirks are physical."

"Maybe it's like riding a bike. You know, muscle memory? Just like, I dunno, do what feels natural?"

He seemed to take that seriously, or at least seriously enough to give it a try, alternatively pointing and flailing his hands about in an attempt to blast fire or make random things float.

"Oh, I think I've got it! No, no, false alarm, sorry. Wait! Is it like… no, guess not. Come on, come… yes! Here! It's totally… oh actually, uh, maybe not."

Funny as his antics were, she had to stop him when they finally reached their destination. The apartment belonging to Kira Yoshikage (though she still wanted to call him Josuke, like her dog- he looked nothing like a 'Yoshikage'!)

They entered the building (the key was in an obvious hiding place on top of the door frame, much to Josuke's disbelief) and set to work. The living room had, oddly enough, sculptures of a man's hands, and a huge replica of the Mona Lisa. Like, seriously huge. Yasuho had seen on the internet that the Mona Lisa was actually quite a small painting, but the copy here dominated an entire wall. The kitchen was even more unusual; cabinets filled to the brim with the exact same brand and flavour of canned food.

But bizarre artistic and actual taste turned out to be the least shocking aspect of the domicile once they reached the bathroom. Yasuho felt she could be forgiven for storming out once they saw the grotesque picture album, all the damned booby traps littering the place, and the naked woman in the tub. Seriously though, who'd have thought he was that sort of guy? Certainly not her, she'd believed him cute and harmless.

But, that place spoke for itself. Nails in slippers, photos of women being tortured, some lady acting like she'd been taken prisoner. It didn't seem unreasonable to her that she ghost a guy upon finding out his apartment was straight out of a horror movie.

What did seem unreasonable was returning. That was some 'stupid teenager in a horror movie' behaviour. Just 'cause he reminded her of her dog... Yasuho felt stupid as she was doing it.

The scene she returned to was Josuke throwing himself through a sliding glass door (and damn, if he wasn't careful, he'd be cut to ribbons!) From her vantage point, she could already see a new trap he'd walked into, in the form of the snakes now surrounding him out on the veranda. While his dodging was decent, something was already clearly wrong. He only seemed to be dodging with one foot, while the other one and his arms just hung limp.

Nearby was the woman from the bathroom, seemingly cheering for Josuke to win against… some unknown assailant they both seemed aware of. Was that the person who'd trapped the apartment? But then why was Josuke in those photos?

His desperate flailing reached a peak when one of the snakes came within striking distance of his working leg. Seemingly reacting without thinking, he dropped to both knees and twisted his upper body so that his limp arm smacked the snake.

And, maybe it was just her eyes playing tricks on her, but the reptile seemed to disappear. Was that his Quirk or his Stand? Either way, it was effective.

No time for celebration though; as his attention was elsewhere, one of the other snakes bit him on his exposed foot. At some point in his flailing, it had circled around and gotten behind him. Yasuho still wasn't sure she wanted to trust him after seeing this place, but... what if these snakes were venomous?

She decided to deal with… whatever his past was after they'd gotten the hell out of this house. Taking aim with her hands, she blasted out a high-pressure jet of water, cutting all of the snakes attacking Josuke to pieces.

"Hey, are you alright? Those- they weren't venomous were they?"

"Yes."

"Yes you're alright, or yes they were venomous?"

"Oh, sorry. Yes, they were venomous. I've been poisoned. Or wait… envenomed? Is that a word? I feel like it's a word."

Yasuho went across the living room to him, careful to avoid the glass on the ground once she made it to the door he'd shattered.

"Can your Stand get the venom out? Like how it made that policewoman leak all that water?"

"Oh no, my Stand won't work on my own body. But I do feel… something. Yeah, there's definitely something I can do… I just have to… breathe right."

True to his words, his breathing began to slow. She wasn't sure how that would help him, but she wasn't sure of a lot right now, so she figured she'd just go with it. And hey, Quirks can be pretty weird. As she watched, a golden glow began to surround his bite wound, and… some dark liquid- presumably the venom- leaked out, before the hole closed itself up.

"This is it."

"What?"

"My Quirk. This, and the shrinking earlier, when I hit that snake. This must be it! I can heal people and shrink things!" The grin on his face was almost enough to make her forget about the photo album.

"That's all one Quirk? How does it work? From your breathing?"

"Well, not the shrinking thing. But the healing, that light! That needs me to breathe right."

"How much can you shrink stuff? I didn't even realise you'd shrunk the snake, I thought it just disappeared!"

"I don't really know? Not yet at least, I still don't quite understand. But I just have to experiment with it! Figure out how it works! Like this." The glow surrounding his foot shifted, traveling up to his arms, closing the wounds she could see there, and then it went down to his limp leg, presumably to heal yet again.

Finally he stood tall, wounds gone, and pointed upwards.

"The man upstairs, in the room above us. He's a Stand user. If a part of you gets wounded and he's above you, he can take control of that part. That's what he did with my limbs. That's why the place is trapped – he's the one who trapped it." Josuke paused, looking up at the balcony the attacker was situated on. "But now that I'm healed..."

He leapt, outstretched hand catching the balcony edge, and reached out to grab the unknown assailant. With a quick movement, the man was pulled down onto the veranda they were situated on.

On the other side of the world, while they interrogated the man; two women, two men, a child, and a sentient colony of plankton escaped a high-security prison.

To say Jolyne was frustrated would be an understatement. Between Annasui and FF's constant bickering, Annasui's constant flirtation, Hermes' constant ribbing, and the fucking constant threat of the police finally hunting them down, her stress levels were through the roof.

Hell, they couldn't even find a damn airplane or boat with which to track their quarry, because, surprise surprise, it's fucking impossible for fugitives to get on any form of public transportation.

"Hey, guys! I've got an idea!"

"Oh, great. The bugs are pretending they can think. Wonderful."

"Shut it Annasui. What's up, Foo?"

"Well, we need to get across the ocean right?"

"Your grasp of the obvious is stunning."

"Annasui. I won't tell you again. But Foo, seriously, where are you going with this?"

"Well, if it's across the ocean… and I'm oceanic… why bother with a boat? Everyone can ride me!"

Emporio made some sort of choking sound while Annasui scoffed. Hermes just giggled. Looked like explaining this one was on Jolyne.

"Foo… that's adorable. Really it is. But you can't support all of our weight. And I think you might be underestimating the distance involved."

"Plus, I'm pretty sure that's not the way JoJo really wants to ride you."

"Wow, Hermes. That's real classy. Thanks." Jolyne was content to leave it as a joke, but Annasui had… different plans.

"She's not even a person! Just a bunch of worms! No way she's good enough for my Jolyne!"

"Pssh, shows what you know! I'm not worms at all! I think. Hey, Jolyne, do you think I'm worms?"

"No?"

"Hey, don't take her side!"

Really. They had gone through so much effort, tracking down Whitesnake's- or should she say Pucci's- movements. The destinations of the goons he'd ordered around, the recipients of his phone calls, hell, they (or rather, Emporio- honestly, what would they do without that kid) even hacked into bank accounts in order to follow the slippery bastard's money trail.

And you know what? It had worked! Except for the part where it all lead to fucking Japan. Like, how the hell were they supposed to get there, again? Plus, their mysterious benefactor they'd been working with (who went by the name Soft and Wet; sending Jolyne and Hermes into a fit of giggles, and causing Foo to keep asking what was so funny) had recently stopped responding to them as well, right when they could have used them the most.

So now they were just moving from hideout to hideout, wandering the west coast, banging their heads against a wall trying to figure out a route to their foe. If they could find just one crooked captain, a bribe could see them straight to their destination. But no one was willing to risk a criminal jaunt to Japan, for fear of the Symbol of Peace.

All Might wasn't just the number one hero in Japan, he was ranked first globally. Jolyne could understand the fear of him that permeated the criminal underbelly of the Pacific, but come the fuck on. He was one man, it's not like he was out checking every damn boat in every damn harbour.

As the leader of their merry bunch of misfit murderers, Jolyne had taken a page out of the book of every other would-be 'leader of men': delegate. To that end, she'd started sending out Annasui to try and secure transport across the ocean. With any luck, he wouldn't come back!

No, no, she should stop thinking like that. For all that the man was an arrogant, argumentative ass, he was a very capable Stand user. They'd need him for the fights to come. The situation was making her too irritable. She had to remember that this… delaying, this running around in circles would eventually come to an end.

Her patience was rewarded two days later, when Annasui returned, with a captain willing to look the other way 'til they reached Kyushu. It wasn't perfect, but hell, at least they weren't stranded in fucking California anymore.

There were three rooms onboard for the six (or several thousand, depending on how you viewed FF) of them, and Annasui had, to no one's surprise, attempted to arrange the rooms so that he was with Jolyne. She stuck him with Weather instead.

"Jolyne! Jolyne! Am I rooming with you or Hermes? Or wait, Emporio? That's kinda boring-"

"Rude."

"Plus he's a boy, so it's weird."

"Foo. You are literally plankton. It couldn't be any weirder than it already is."

"Come on! You said you weren't gonna hang out with An-ass-ui-"

"It's pronounced Annasui, as well you know, you bunch of fucking maggots."

"So we can hang out instead, right? Right?"

Jolyne sighed. "Yeah, sure. We'll room together."

"Wait, why do I have to room with Emporio?" Hermes butted in.

"Again, rude!"

"Why the fuck does she get to room with you, Jolyne?" Annasui butted in as well.

Jolyne sighed again. Just another fucking day in her war crime of a social group.

It just didn't make sense. Oh sure, the man who trapped the apartment (Yasuho had already forgotten his name) gave a clear explanation. She wasn't foggy on that part. Blah blah blah, grudge against Kira Yoshikage, whatever.

But Kira wasn't Kira. Or, rather the amnesiac she'd been hanging out with wasn't Kira. That part was fine too, they'd just made a mistake assuming. She was on the level regarding all that.

But what about the disk she'd found along with Josuke? It had been strange and rubbery, and there was an image of some sort of robot on it, with an anchor symbol in its chest. And though he'd been breathing, Josuke hadn't been responsive up until… well, up until she'd accidentally dropped the disk onto him. It had to be some sort of Quirk or Stand business, because it was absorbed straight into him. And then he'd stood up and started talking.

But that wasn't it! His Quirk, for instance, just made no sense. There were two completely unrelated aspects to it. The breathy-healy stuff, and the shrinking stuff, which Not Kira had been more than happy to demonstrate once he got the hang of it. It was as though he had two Quirks, ridiculous as it sounded.

They made their way back to the hospital empty handed, so to speak. A bit demoralised. They'd been out all day, followed what Yasuho had thought was a surefire lead, and wound up in some sort of carnival house of horrors.

She knew Josuke hadn't done the things in the photo album, all that having been doctored by the Stand user from the apartment, but why had Josuke been wearing Kira's hat, next to a pile of Kira's clothes? Why did he look so much like Kira? And the two Quirks, was that related to… well. He just seemed to have extra stuff, in a lot of respects. When she'd first found him, he'd been naked. She wasn't sure she wanted to think about it too much, but what she'd seen… that just wasn't normal. What kind of guy has four?

The hospital hadn't had anything in the way of answers when they'd left (all the standard tests were inconclusive, and no one matching Josuke's description had been reported missing) but when they returned, a doctor frantically stopped them, and marched them into an examination room. He hadn't wanted to allow Yasuho, but Josuke had been adamant that she be present.

Apparently, after the typical tests had shown a whole lot of nothing, they'd begun testing the samples they'd taken from Josuke with their Quirks.

"This is… unprecedented, and it must be the work of a Quirk, or perhaps even a Stand, given the sheer abnormality of it. But our results are certain. You may wish to be sitting down for this part, both of you."

Something in the doctor's tone and manner made them obey. Whatever was going on, it seemed serious, and they both really needed some clue of what was happening.

"Your DNA, and most of your organs, come from two different sources. That is to say, those organs belonged to two different people. They've been merged together almost seamlessly, in a way that really shouldn't be possible, but the examination was clear."

"That… what are you saying? I'm me. I'm definitely me, so I can't be anyone else… that just isn't possible."

"I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. But it's the truth. You are two separate men spliced together. What's more, we've been able to isolate the DNA of the two people whom you... consist of. And both sets of DNA are already on file."

Wide-eyed and open-mouthed; Josuke just stared at the doctor. Nearly twenty seconds passed, and it was clear he wouldn't be able to handle speaking at the moment. Yasuho was feeling the shock pretty hard herself. But they needed to know the rest of the information, so she steeled herself and asked the obvious question.

"Kira Yoshikage, and Kujo Josefumi." The doctor replied. "They both still have family: Kira has- had- a sister named Kyo, and his mother is in this very hospital, being treated for an odd illness which is causing her brain to deteriorate. Kira's mother had, in the past, been married to Kujo's father, so the two share a half-brother, the Stand-wielding hero known as Star Platinum. If you're following the news, however, you'll know-"

"Yeah." Yasuho responded. "He's still in a coma, right? So Josuke, or… uh."

"Josuke's fine, I guess. It's… it's not like I can use both names."

"Alright. What you're saying is Josuke, at this point, only really has a sister left. That Kyo you mentioned."

"That's the unfortunate reality. Actually, his grandfather, Hermit Purple is still alive, I think. But he'd have to be in his eighties or nineties at this point."

They thanked the doctor for his time, and when it became clear Josuke wanted to be left alone with his thoughts, she left him in the hospital.

She couldn't blame him, of course. Truth be told, it was shocking news, and she wasn't even the one affected by it. Was that why he had two Quirks? It made sense, she guessed. Along with his four… actually, forget about that part.

What did this all mean for him? Where would he live, and what would he do? And what kind of power could do that to a person?

She wandered as she wondered. It wasn't as though she had any reason to return home, she already knew what her mother would be getting up to and didn't have any desire to deal with that.

Later, she'd reflect that it must have been fate which led the sludge villain to run straight into her as she turned the corner, the arrow in his hand sinking into her collar bone.