Time: Sunset begins
"All right then, what do we know so far? We haven't found much, but I think Jotaro was right, I bet if we look, we can start seeing some connections in here."
Koichi and Josuke sat in the hotel suite with several snacks and drinks strewn about them, and a collection of hastily made notes and sketches tossed about between them. In the few hours since they'd come back from the movie, they had been recalling what they knew about everyone they had met that had anything to do with stands or SC-1989. The end result was a sheaf of papers, a few photographs from the Speedwagon case file, the descriptions of the four test subjects, though their names had been redacted except for the presumed thief, and a few rough sketches of the stands and maps for locations of conflict. Kane had made contact with Chris again in hopes of meeting with him when his sister wasn't around. He had left to go meet Chris in the main town. Joseph wanted to watch the races at a race track in a nearby town, so Jotaro had taken him. Janos, of course, had gone to the nearby cemetery to reconnoiter and see if Spooky Skeletons was the one behind everything.
Koichi looked over his note sheet in front of him. "All right, first we have known stand users in the area." He gave a short sigh, "There aren't too many here…"
"I'm sure we'll have more than we want soon enough. Who have got on the list?"
"First, there's SC-1989-3, also known as Steve Bennet. Last known address was in Maryland, but according to the records, he hasn't been there since the robbery. A police tip-off indicated he was in this area, but there are no confirmed sightings. What have you got on him?"
"Well, we know that the guy who attacked the old man and Janos had a similar stand power as the one descried by Dr. Warburton. He's probably in the town somewhere, but where exactly we don't seem to have any solid evidence yet. Who's next?"
"Next we have Dr. Nesmith. Therapist with a specialization in victims of abuse. He also likes to abuse the abusers on occasion."
"Seriously. Anyway, his stand is called Paint It Black, and seems to be able to make regret surface in its victim's psyches. However, it appears that it only affects people that don't accept their regrets."
Koichi gave a short shudder and continued. "An unknown stand user with the cat-like stand called Spooky Skeletons. We don't have much on him do we?"
"Not really, just that he can bring skeletons to life in some way, though his limits are anyone's guess."
"The only other stand users we know of are the string quartet. First off is Chris Blanc. Oh, and I suppose we know his sister has a stand, as of today. All we know about his sister is that she has a small skeleton named Memento Mori. Chris has Autumn, a tattoo that can steal energy from others, but only if Chris consumes something that gives him energy."
Josuke continued down the list, "Kyle Norman is the owner of that seed stand, Spring. We don't even know what its weakness is, or how to get rid of those seeds. The only reason Jotaro doesn't have one is because Chris convinced Kyle to remove it as they dragged him away. Wendy has that blanket, Summer. But so far we have no indication of what it can do. Maybe Kane can ask Chris that, I'll text him."
As Josuke texted Kane, Koichi finished the list, "The last one on here is the leader of the group, Ulrich. His stand stole your energy somehow. But it doesn't seem to be much of a fighting stand. Also, he and Wendy seem to have received help from some mysterious benefactor. If Kane and Chris can figure out anything tonight, that might help start linking together different people so we can see who is and isn't part of the theft ring."
"Why ring?"
"It's what Jotaro said on his way out. He thinks that Bennet and the strange man are two different people. But he also thinks that it is too much of a coincidence for two people who hate your family to be in the same town. Bennet hates you guys because Mr. Joestar helped fund the SC-1988 studies. And whoever the strange man is, he doesn't seem to like us very much either. Have we forgotten…"
Josuke's phone began to buzz. "Oh! It's Kane, I wonder what he needs." He answered the call, "Moshi moshi…" He realized he was still speaking Japanese. "Oh, sorry, hello…"
"Josuke! It's urgent! Just listen!" Kane was speaking very quickly.
"All right, just slow down so I can understand, my English isn't that…"
"The bellboy!"
"What?"
"The man who helps take people's luggage! The one that works in the evenings! It's Bennet! I'm dead certain. That's why the photo looks familiar. It's because we see him almost every night!"
Josuke took a moment to let it settle in. "WHAT?! Are you sure?"
"Positive! Oh, Ulrich is on the move, I have to go!" The phone went to the dial tone as the call ended.
Breathlessly, and in their native tongue again, Josuke related the essentials of Kane's call. The two quickly ran to the door and ran to the elevator, but saw a crowd of people standing in front of it. The stairs were not too far away, so the duo rushed over and opened the door. But they only made it halfway down the first flight when the door to the next level opened and a throng of people entered. Suddenly, the door to the floor they had been on opened again, and the throng from the elevator crowded in.
"Hello boys," spoke the closest person, a man dressed in what was clearly pajamas. "I've been waiting for you two to come out for a few hours now, I didn't want to risk it with Jotaro, but you two shouldn't cause me much trouble. I won't kill you, don't worry. I'm just going to borrow your bodies for awhile. Just until I can kill Jotaro and Joseph. Then I can kill you and you won't have to worry about being hunted anymore. Now, don't go away, my friends here don't want to be left alone."
Josuke and Koichi looked at each other with apprehension. This wasn't at all how they had seen the evening going.
