Bianca and Jotaro meet for the first time. It does not go well.
She had no idea why, but she couldn't seem to stop thinking about that guy. They only had one class together and were barely in proximity to each other any other time, but he still managed to invade her thoughts, clinging to her brain like some kind of gremlin hanging onto the wing of a plane. And it wasn't because he was attractive.
Well, he was, but that was obvious to anyone with eyes. Tall, muscular, a chiseled jaw, and that intense glare would make anyone a bit weak in the knees, but her interest was wholly separate from any simple physical desires. What she wanted was to find out who, exactly, this dude was.
No matter who she asked, they all seemed to have an opinion on this Kujo character. Some said he was a punk who forced his way into the school by threatening the staff or a politician (doubtful). Others said he was some kind of lab experiment on growing the perfect living specimen (for real?). Still others claimed – and this seemed most likely to her – that he was just a smart, quiet guy with a rich family.
One thing was for sure, his intelligence certainly wasn't in question. Despite barely seeming to be there in class, hanging out in the back of the room and rarely participating, he was consistently a top scorer on tests. Most strange of all were his frequent absences, some of them even weeks long, but neither his grades nor his standing with the school ever seemed to suffer as a result.
Above all else, though, a single question burned bright inside Bianca's mind: Why the hell did he wear a high school uniform as a university student? It would be a lie to say he didn't make it work, but who would do such a thing? He obviously had money, so why not just buy new clothes? What sort of attachment did he have to that ratty black coat, that gold chain, and that torn hat?
Well, whatever. She wasn't attending this expense ass school to obsess over a weirdo she'd never even spoken to; she was going to be a biochemist. As curious as she was about his true nature, she'd file it away as just another mystery that would never be solved, kind of like what Vienna sausages are actually made of.
It was pouring down rain by the time her final class of the day let out. Pulling her arm through her coat, she prepared to leave the building only to halt a few centimeters from the door, the painful realization that she had no umbrella washing over her. Oh, good grief…
She looked around, finding no one. Her chance of sharing someone's umbrella just fell to zero. She looked towards the sky, a crack of thunder signaling that the rain had no intention of stopping at any point in the near future. She grabbed fistfuls of brown hair on either side of her hair, pulling at it and grunting like some kind of distressed gorilla, realizing a moment too late someone had approached her from behind.
Standing almost at attention, she slowly turned around to face the person she'd been pondering just a few minutes earlier. Repressing any of the shame and embarrassment she felt, she tried to fake a smile towards the towering stranger. His expression remained stoic, eyes hidden beneath the brim of his hat. Was he mocking her? Trying not to laugh? ...Checking her out?
His arm moved forward, an umbrella held in his hand. Was he offering it to her? Hesitant at first, Bianca couldn't afford to look this gift horse in the mouth, timidly taking hold of the simple clear umbrella. She bowed to him out of courtesy, though before she could actually say her thanks, he'd already opened the door and walked into the downpour.
"Hey, wait!" she called out. Even more surprising, he actually did, looking over his shoulder after a few seconds to see what she wanted. "You gave me...I mean, you're going to-" Upon closer inspection, Kujo didn't seemed to be wet at all. Despite standing motionless in the pouring rain, not a single drop of water had touched him yet.
"What?" he finally said, irritation clear in his voice.
"Well, I mean..." She cleared her throat, having to pry every memory of learning Japanese from her flustered brain in order to communicate clearly. "We should go together. So I can give you this back when I get to my home."
"Keep it," he said curtly and beginning to walk away. She couldn't just leave things like this. Not only had she managed to get him to speak to her, he actually gave her a gift. Unsolvable mystery or not, her scientific instincts told her to investigate this matter as far as she could while the opportunity presented itself.
Quickly deploying the umbrella, she jogged after the stranger to catch up to him. "Thank you," she said, receiving nothing in response. "So, uh, Kujo..." Still nothing. "I mean, that's your name, right? I'm Moskowitz, or just Bianca if you prefer. I know people can have a hard time pronouncing my last name."
His silence somehow managed to say more than any words he could have spoken to her at this point. Speaking to this guy was like trying to navigate an endless minefield with a blindfold and earplugs. One wrong move and it felt like she could actually die, but even a right move didn't seem to make any progress.
Trying her hardest not to sigh in exasperation, she pulled out a cigarette case, popping one of the sticks between her lips. She peered inside the case, unable to find her lighter. As she began to pat her pockets, she could hear a spark from off to her side. Before she even had time to think, the end of her cigarette already glowed red, waiting for her to take a drag.
Was Kujo helping her again? There was no other explanation for it even if she couldn't see him do it. As a gesture of good will, she extended the case towards him, forehead vein popping as he took a pack from his own pocket to retrieve his own. Where hers not good enough for him?
She just couldn't figure this guy out. He ignored her presence (not to mention virtually everyone else she'd ever seen near him) but gave her his umbrella. He wouldn't even acknowledge her as she walked beside him but still lit a cigarette for her. What was going on here?
Well, things couldn't get any worse, so she might as well try the direct approach. "This is all an act, right? Trying to seem all tough and not talk to anyone? You're probably just some nerd who doesn't know how to socialize, so you want to seem cool and unapproachable so no one bothers you. And I bet you wear that uniform because you're afraid of change like some kind of baby."
All that Colombo really paid off, since she managed to profile him based on almost no clues. Jotaro refused to show any outward signs of distress as normal, though, simply walking away from her and hoping she wouldn't follow him. It didn't matter that this was the exact opposite way he needed to go, since he could just circle back after he'd lost her.
Of course, this whole plan came tumbling down after it turned out this was the direction she was headed the whole time. Lowering his head slightly, he held back one of his trademark exclamations in the hopes that ignoring her more would mean she'd take the hint. She did not, however.
"What? Are you mad? Upset? Going to cry? Not going to tell me if I hurt your feelings?" She was starting to feel kind of bad for acting this way, trying to push his buttons and get him to acknowledge her. Her logical mind was telling her to just let the poor guy be, but her jackass mind was telling her to keep right on trucking.
To both of their surprise and bewilderment, he did a sharp 180 on the sidewalk and began walking back the other way. This was the way he should have been traveling to begin with, yes, but it made no sense for him to reverse course now. In truth, he was starting to panic, rationality becoming a rarer commodity with each passing second.
She continued to follow him after this, not even a second, third, and fourth course change managing to shake her conviction. "Did you...get lost?" she finally asked, Jotaro's aimless wandering having led them to a completely different area of the city away from either of their residencies. Instinctively pulling the brim of his cap further down over his eyes, her suspicion was confirmed.
With a regretful sigh, she finally apologized. "Sorry, I'm just stressing you out now and I don't even know why. Here, the place we came from is..." She paused to retrace their steps, drawing on the last few months of navigating the area around campus and waving her hands theatrically to help jog her memory. "Yeah, just go that way, then take a left, then go straight until you see the road. I could lead you back, but you're probably sick of me by now, so I'll just get out of here."
As she turned to leave, Jotaro finally spoke. "It's comfortable." He paused for a moment, turning to the side to avoid facing her. "My uniform. It's comfortable. There's no sense in throwing out good clothes just because they're out of style. So don't go getting any ideas in your head about me."
"Oh. Uh, sure. It looks good. I mean, right, it looks comfortable. I'm going to leave. Thanks for this." She nearly held out the umbrella to specify the "this" in question but thought better of it consider it was still raining.
After she was thoroughly out of earshot, Jotaro let out a long sigh and the inevitable, "Good freakin' grief," he'd been holding in for the better part of half an hour. That woman was trouble, though it was almost refreshing given what his normal definition of trouble was these days. At least this one wasn't a Stand user.
There's depressingly few stories where Jotaro's wife is the focus. Kind of not surprising considering Araki cared so little about her he couldn't even bother to give her a creative design, but it's still unfortunate.
It was hard coming up with a name, but I eventually came onto Bianca Mosca, one of the greatest British fashion designers who also happened to be born in Italy. I did some thinking, listened to Prince, and decided Araki would want this (he wouldn't since he didn't really want anything for her, but I think he would if someone forced him to make her into a real character).
In typical house style, the story itself is named after a Marvin Gaye album. If you know the story behind how it came to be, it's kind of thematically appropriate given this is only a couple years after all of Jotaro's friends got killed in Egypt. The Speedwagon Foundation is still asking for his help all the time, too, since Joseph is starting to show signs of senility around this point and they've only got so many Stand users on the payroll, so that's not helping his trauma and depression. He's not really in a good place right now and just trying to make it through and do something he feels might make a satisfying life for himself by attending school.
I figured UTokyo would be a good place for them to go. Jotaro's smart as hell, but his family is also super rich, plus he's probably got a full ride to wherever he wants via Speedwagon Foundation grants and scholarships. And in 1997/1998, there's really no better way to show a character is exceptional than to have them attending a prestigious foreign university (even now it would still be pretty noteworthy to get accepted here as a random American).
I've always hated how so many people take all of Jotaro's characterization at face value and assume he really is this badass tough guy who doesn't care about anything. He's not. Whether it was intentional or not, it's pretty clear by reading between the lines that he's just this weird autistic nerd who's been bullied for most of his life and just wants to be left alone. A big part of this is going to be coaxing him out of his shell a bit and mellowing out into the guy we see in DiU.
He's pulling a J. Geil here to keep himself dry. The only way I could ever see the actual powers of Hanged Man meshing with the initial description we get would be sending it into puddles ahead of where he's walking so that his Stand could shield him from everything from the reflection. That's basically Star Platinum now, and it's a handy way to confirm Bianca can't see Stands.
Nothing else to say here. No clue how many chapters this is going to be, but I doubt it'll make 10. Just going to be something short and kind of light in between other stuff I'm doing. Thanks for reading. Always remember to bring a backup umbrella.