Cross-posted from AO3
The first thing he noticed when he opened his eyes was the snow. Morioh was blanketed in a sheet of pearly white snow. Thick snowflakes kept falling, threatening to bury anything that stayed still for too long. The last thing Josuke remembered was Kira shouting "Bites the Dust" and now...
It was quiet; the snow muffled all sound. Josuke tensed, peering into the dark snowy night, waiting for an attack that never came. Kira was nowhere to be found. For a second Josuke entertained the notion that he had failed, Kira had won and Josuke was currently in some sort of limbo. He quickly dispelled that notion, though when one particularly wrong step caused his leg to seize in pain, bruised muscles and bones protesting their continued abuse.
Josuke swore under his breath, and wished, not for the first time, that Crazy Diamond would work on him too.
The snow kept falling.
Blood slowly trickled down Josuke's face.
Kira was still nowhere to be found.
Josuke kept walking.
Jotaro had once told him "Stands are the physical manifestation of their user's spirit, so if the user's spirit changes, so will their stand."
At the time it was one of the longest things his nephew had ever said to him outside of giving him battle tips or instructions and Josuke hadn't quite understood what he meant, but he thinks he might now. He wonders how desperate Kira felt, and if desperation is enough to change your stand.
Okuyasu and him had been walking to meet up with the other stand users. They were late, because Okuyasu had complained loudly about not getting any ice cream that morning and Josuke had decided to humor him.
Okuyasu...
Crazy Diamond can heal almost anything. But it can't bring back the dead.
Before the two of them managed to reach the rest of the group, a kid ran into them. He had been crying so hard his vision was blurry and his eyes were red. Okuyasu had stared down at the kid, taken aback. In front of them countless explosions went off and blinded them in a dazzle of fireworks.
When it ended, the group of stand users were no more, and the kid was desperately trying to stab a man with a knife. For all his self deprecating talk of being dumb, Okuyasu put two and two together faster than Josuke. The Hand was out in a blink of an eye and fast, faster than Killer Queen could block, The Hand swung it's right arm down. Kira had jumped back, but it was useless. Where his left leg had been, was now a gaping hole. If Josuke wasn't used to seeing horrifying injuries as the result of stand fights, he might've blanched.
Even mortally wounded and bleeding out, Kira was still a man to be reckoned with. One of the weaknesses about having a stand that erases space is that if you attack blindly without thinking, it will pull you into a space you don't want to be in.
All it took was one touch and... Okuyasu...
Kira was still nowhere to be found.
Despite the snow and blood obscuring his vision, Josuke felt strangely calm. In the distance he could see lights of a car making it's way through the snow covered streets.
Josuke frowned to himself
This felt almost familiar
Maybe it was just déjà vu?
The car stalled and he knew.
Wordlessly he approached the car. He couldn't look at the driver.
Setting his coat down for the tires he moved around to push the back of the car. Ignoring the apprehensive look the driver gave him, he started pushing the car. He looked down at the baby in the car seat. It's a strange feeling, looking into your own eyes. His muscles ache and his lungs threaten to seize up on him, rebelling against the cold air being sucked in, but still he persists.
The feverish baby in the back seat looks up at his savior and Josuke wonders again why his stand can heal everything except himself. Finally, finally the car is freed from it's snowy confines.
Tomoko Higashikata speeds off without looking back. Desperate to save her son, oblivious to the identity of the teenager she left behind.
It's so so incredibly cold.
The car kicks up snow as it speeds off and with the car gone Josuke sees it. The pureness of the snow is tainted not only by car exhaust but also by blood. Josuke follows, until it becomes a deeper shade and Josuke can hear the labored breathing of lungs struggling to inhale.
Josuke wonders what will happen to him when Kira finally bleeds out.
Will he be stuck here? Displaced in time?
Kira is too dangerous to be left alive, he'll just continue killing innocents. Making his choice Josuke calls his stand and runs towards the figure laying there. He counts down the steps until he's finally within range.
The moment Crazy Diamond's fist connects with Kira's face, he knows something's wrong.
Desperation,
Kira has already shown that he will never give up, going so far as to cut off his hand and change his face last time they caught him.
Killer Queen has the ability to turn anything into a bomb.
Faintly he can hear Kira say something about only wanting to live a normal life.
Josuke wants to tell him that normal people aren't serial killers, but his tongue isn't fast enough.
Kira lunges forward and in the next instant both Kira and himself are enveloped in flame and explosion.
A decade later, Josuke wakes up to his mom telling him he has a phone call from Jotaro. He pushes his hair out of his face and goes to take the call.
Across town, Hayato Kawajiri wakes up in a cold sweat and begins plotting a new way to stop the man who killed his father.
and so the cycle repeats.