The Gulf Between Patch and The Mainland, 12 Years Ago
The ship creaked ominously around them as the waves could be heard against the hull. Two young children, filthy as they could be and huddled up into a small nook amidst the cargo of the ship, shivered from hunger as they waited for night to fall. One orange haired and turquoise eyed, the other black with magenta, they had gone through this routine several times now between the village that they had barely escaped alive and here, to this ship. When they had sneaked aboard and found a place to hide, they'd wait out the sailors and passengers as they fell asleep where she would have then sneaked through the ship to get them food. He had ensured that they were fine when they traveled on foot, so she had been adamant that she would have taken care of them on the ships.
After all, what kind of friend would Nora be to her bestest buddy Ren Lie if she didn't pull her weight, after everything he had done for her.
The journey from the ruined village had been a long one for the two five year olds. Though Ren's abilities had kept them safe from Grimm while on the road and had given the young child a strength she hadn't known she could have after so many years alone, that hadn't meant they didn't face other hardships. For Nora, she was used to this; unable to have recalled loving parents or anyone to have supported her save herself, she had become used to doing what she could to survive, even if it earned her the familiar taunt of street urchin from the people around her... that she had understood at any rate.
Ren wasn't though. He had a family and grew up in a nice home. He lost that, all because of the Grimm. Yet despite his own loss and the fact that he owed her nothing, he still saved her and stuck by her side. When she had tried to move onto some other city in Mistral, it had been Ren who guided her away towards the coast. It had been Ren who had signaled that they should sneak aboard a ship and it was Ren who had given them their destination.
Vale.
It was all done in single words though: Nora had been no closer to understanding Ren than when they had first met, and she was sure it was the same for Ren. They had gotten each other's names and Ren had said 'Vale', but that was about the extent of their ability to communicate.
It should've been lonelier for the two children. The isolation, the lack of understanding, it should have crippled their resolve.
Yet...
"We're almost there Ren." Nora smiled softly as she looked over at her best friend, the black haired boy tiredly turned his attention over to her. "What do you think Vale's gonna be like? I've never been there… at least, I don't think I have. Do you think they have a bunch of kids like us there too? I hope they do, because then we could have even more friends. Oooh! Or better, maybe they'll have some good food there. These sailors have all the disgusting stuff on board, fish and dried meat, bleh. Nothing sweet at all!" As Nora babbled on, she caught it out of the corner of her eye: each chirp, each peak in her voice caused a smile to grow on Ren's lips. Each little gesture she threw around had caused his eyes to light up and, every now and then when she made a funny face or some extravagant gesture, he'd laugh.
Maybe she and Ren couldn't communicate, but if her talking had made her best friend smile like this, then Nora would have babbled away forever, even if she had only been talking to herself.
The interplay between the two went on for sometime, Ren just sat there and listened while Nora went on and on. It was how they passed the time, how they made each other more comfortable despite the circumstances. However, as Nora was about to round off into another little rant about the food on these ships, the sound of the cargo bay door being opened immediately alerted them both.
"Nora, shhh." His voice was soft, as ever, as he placed his finger to his lips to shush her. It wasn't a reprimand, but a warning for his own friend. The two huddled closer together as they heard the feet of the sailor approach. They had picked a good hiding place, as weeks if not months of experience had guided them. They had done this again and again, and they had successfully lucked their way into staying out of sight aboard most of the ships they had stowed away on.
Yet this time, it seemed, their luck ran out; the sailor walked some distance into the cargo bay, counting up the supplies, until he stood in such a way that his back had directly faced Nora and Ren, their little eyes widened in fear as they both realized that all this sailor would have to do to see them would be to turn around.
Nora frowned as she turned to Ren, the boy's magenta eyes shifted to her.
"Find another place to hide Ren!" She silently implored her friend, gesturing off to some other box as the sailor slowly turned around. Whatever the man of the sea had expected to check when he turned around, he instead found a very short but surprisingly strong five year old girl as she threw herself into his gut with a punch.
"Gah! What the Hell?!" The sailor grimaced again as another punch was thrown into his gut, as he looked down to see a mop of dirty orange hair just beneath him. "Damn, looks like we got ourselves a little stowaway, eh?" The man reached down to try and grab Nora by the back of her shirt to lift her up, only to be violently surprised when Nora's head snapped around and bit him hard on the hand.
"Agh! You little shit!" Nora kept her teeth sank in firmly to the guy's hand, not letting go as she hoped her distraction would give Ren time to hide. When the sailor swung his arm around to slam Nora into a nearby crate, however, that hope was dashed.
"Nora!" Immediately, the sailor was tackled from behind as Ren threw himself into his back, the sailor forcibly drawn onto the floor as Nora gave Ren a worried look.
"Ren, I said to go find some place to hide!" Nora tried to say with her teeth still sunk into the man's hand, which had ended up garbling her speech. Nonetheless, Ren just shook his head as he pounded his fists into the back of the sailor, who just quickly forced himself back up as he slapped Nora, forcing her off of him, and went to grab both children by the backs of their shirts.
"Alright you damn stowaways. Let's get you up top and see what the captain says we should do with ye'." The sailor said gruffly as he roughly handled the two kids, taking his opportunity for a little bit of petty revenge as he allowed the two of them to bang up against doorways and walls every few steps of their journey.
"HEY! YOU CAN'T JUST DO THIS! LET HIM GO! I SWEAR, I'LL BEAT YOU ALL UP IF YOU DON'T STOP CARRYING HIM AROUND LIKE THAT!"
"Hey, hey! I thought we all agreed there'd be no additional passengers aboard?"
As the pair's eyes adjusted to the sunlight, they were treated to the sight of the Stardust Crusaders, a group of five men of varying size and dress who just stared at the two young stowaways with various looks of interest, ranging from some big, scary looking guy's disinterest to the look of worry and curiosity from the old man who'd just addressed the sailor who carried the two of them.
"I'm sorry sir, we tried our best to keep the ship clear of anyone else, but it seems like we've had some stowaways." The sailor kept his grip firm on the two of them as Nora continued to do her best to struggle.
"If you don't let the two of us go, I'll break your legs! I can totally do it too, tell 'em Ren!" Nora tried to reach her hands back to scratch at the sailor's, but her flailing did little more than annoy the sailor as he shook her about.
"Wow, a pair of kids that young managing to stow aboard your ship. You all must've kept a terrible watch." Polnareff said casually as he leaned back against the deck, a cheeky grin on his face as Avdol scratched his chin lightly, his eyes keenly looking Ren's manner of dress over.
"Yes sir, sorry sir, we promise we'll get this settled as soon as we get back into port. We'll get these two handed over to the port authority as soon as we can." The sailor sneered as he brought Nora up. "You hear that you violent little shit, once we hit land you'll be handed over to the police. Look forward to that while we keep ya in the hold."
"T-The police?" Nora froze up a bit as the man said this, Ren's own gaze becoming concerned as he saw the worry that struck Nora's features. Ren didn't do anything wrong, as far as Nora was concerned; they just needed to get to Vale to… well, she didn't know. But it was Ren's idea and if it was half as good as his idea to keep them safe from the Grimm, then it must've been a great idea! She couldn't let him get caught up like that when he had been so close to getting to Vale.
"Hey, hey now, they're just a couple of children, surely we don't need to bring the port authority into th-" Before Joseph Joestar could finish his sentence, Nora kicked into action.
Literally: she swung her leg and landed a direct kick into the sailor's family gems. Everyone on board winced as the sailor heaved out all the air in his lungs in one swoop, gasping for breath as he shakily dropped Ren, even as his grip remained on Nora.
"Run away and hide Ren! Do your trick!" Nora used the sailor's loosened grip to turn herself around and once again bite the sailor on the arm. The sailor screamed in pain as, on reflex, he threw his arm out and away from him to try to get this little she-devil as far away from him as possible.
Unfortunately, due to his loosened grip and the fact that Nora herself only had a hold on him by her teeth, Nora slipped out and away from him and far overboard, the tiny girl hit the water in a great splash shortly after.
"OOOOH NOOOO!"
"NORA!"
"S-SHIT! I DIDN'T MEAN TO, SHIT!"
The immediate reaction from those on board was to run over to the side of the deck, where their gazes fell upon the mop of filthy orange hair as it struggled against the currents of the open waters, as Nora sputtered and struggled against the current.
"This is bad, these waters are notoriously shark infested!" The sailor gripped his head in his hands, panic overtook him as Polnareff just slapped the back of the man's head.
"Way to go dumbass! Quick, someone throw the kid a lifebuoy!"
"It's too late, look!"
Indeed, a great shadow hung just beneath the ocean's surface, a grey fin breaching the surf as the shark had been drawn to Nora's persistent struggle against the waves.
"Someone, get down in there and… where'd Jotaro-"
"ORA ORA ORA!"
Nora's and Ren's first sight of a Stand wouldn't be as harrowing as Team RWBY's and it wouldn't be of the sort of bizarre and terrifying powers that Jaune and Pyrrha witnessed from The Hand.
However, watching as a giant of a blue and purple man wearing golden shoulder armor and a metallic headband burst forth from the water and launched several punches into a great white shark would have been no less impactful on their young minds. Nora stopped her struggles and merely gaped on, her jaw hanging limp and only slight gasps of surprise being choked out from her throat as she watched this massive, hulk of a being rear its fists back, even while the shark hung back in the air from its initial assault.
"ORA! ORA! ORA! ORAORAORAORAORAORAORA- ORAAAA!"
It just continued on from there: this randomly appearing giant pummeled the great white shark as it hung in mid air, a few solid punches swinging it about in mid-air until, finally, the being finished the shark off with a great rush of punches, the last of which sent it flying dozens of feet away from Nora. The young girl remained baffled, completely and utterly stunned, which left her unprepared for when someone grabbed her shoulder from behind and turned her, somewhat roughly, to face them.
It was the scary looking young man from before, she noticed, a stern look on his face as he stared down at her. Nora, utterly bewildered by the experience, could only stare up at the young man so many years her senior who had, somehow, just saved her life.
"Yare yare daze, you damn brat…"
That sense of wonder and bewilderment was utterly broken at that very moment as the man started to drag her through the water back to the ship. Nora, back to her senses, did her best to struggle against the young man. Her harrowing experience and the exertion she had already put her hunger-strapped body through, however, had already exhausted her.
"H-Hey! Let me go! I didn't ask for your help! I had this under control! I was totally gonna punch that shark in the nose and everything!"
"That right?" Jotaro didn't say much more than that as he just continued to swim for the lifebuoy thrown for the two of them. Between Nora's insistent struggles and screams, the two failed to notice when she shark that had been so easily dispatched had suddenly burst forth in a shower of gore and blood, its chunks floating on the surface of the water as another shadow lurked just beneath the surface of the water.
The two heard the shouts from the ship and, as they turned their heads to look back at the commotion, their eyes widened as they saw the new threat rushing for them. Immediately Jotaro pulled Nora roughly and onto his back.
"If you want to live, shut up and hang on, you brat." This time, Nora offered no qualms as she wrapped her arms around the stranger's neck, Jotaro immediately breaking into a hasty swim as he rushed for the lifebuoy. As Nora no longer struggled against him and was better positioned, Jotaro had been able to make a better pace. Still, it seemed that the creature that chased them from beneath the water's surface was able to swim much faster than the two of them and, just as they reached the lifebuoy, the monstrous being was upon them.
"At this range, I can handle it from here: [Hierophant Green]!"
Suddenly, the red headed boy dressed in the green uniform too manifested one of these strange men, this one far and away stranger than the blue and purple giant Nora and Ren had already witnessed. Looking more like a container of green, viscous liquid in white armor, with golden, bug-like eyes and a rebreather mask on its face, the being apparently named Hierophant Green extended its arm out suddenly and rapidly, forming it into a long, thin tentacle that reached out for Jotaro. The young man grabbed onto it and, with Nora secure on his back, the two were quickly hoisted up onto the deck with little issue, while the lifebuoy they had reached for was suddenly destroyed by whatever it had been underneath the water's surface.
Once on board, Nora threw herself onto the deck as she gasped for air, the adrenaline rush of the past several minutes having left her, largely, breathless. Immediately after she got on deck, Ren was at her side, babbling as he often did when he was worried as he checked her over.
"The beast disappeared… it was a Stand." Polnareff whispered under his breath as he looked at the two children, while Avdol nodded his ascent.
"Yes, an aquatic one at that. Even in all my years of travel I haven't come across one." Avdol stroked his chin lightly as the five Stardust Crusaders looked on at the children.
"You don't think that one of them is the Stand's User, do you? That they made it out so that JoJo would go into the water after them?" Kakyoin asked, though his tone was hardly accusatory, as Joseph just chortled slightly.
"I think we can assume that the five year old isn't some great tactician who knew that if she kicked a sailor in the balls that he'd accidentally throw her overboard into water she couldn't swim in." The other Crusaders nodded in agreement, as Polnareff just scratched the back of his head.
"Still, it's a little odd don't you think? We had the other ten men aboard thoroughly checked over. These two are the only people we don't know for certain about." Avdol nodded in agreement with the white-haired young man, as he stepped forward and knelt down so that he was eye level with the two children.
"How is Dio doing, you two?"
Avdol's question brought the two children's attention back to the five strangers. Ren, not knowing what it was that Avdol said, only could tilt his head to the side, unsure of how to react to the people who had, essentially, saved his best friend's life. Nora, on the other hand, immediately jumped to her feet and reached into her pocket.
"You all stay away from us! We're so close to Vale, I'm not going to let anyone lay a hand on Ren before we get there!" Immediately, the five Crusaders tensed up, immediately ready to retaliate if Nora did prove herself to be the Stand User after all. Seeing these grown men tense at the sight of her reaching for her weapon, Nora gave her best' scary face' as she'd taken to calling it when she practiced it in one reflection or another, and pulled out Magnhild.
The Stardust Crusaders practically fell over at the sight of the wooden, toy hammer that Nora pulled out from her pants pocket.
"That's right, you jerks! You aren't so big and tough when you're about to get booped, are ya!" Nora swung her tiny wooden hammer around a few times in what was supposed to look like a threatening gesture, which only drew disbelieving blinks from each of the Stand Users. "Magnhild here hasn't seen battle in days, and it hungers for the dust from your bones! So I dare you all to try anything against Ren and I!" Nora tried her best to pose with the hammer, as Ren just stared on at the scene, a slightly embarrassed flush on his cheeks as he, even without understanding what Nora was saying, started to grasp the nature of the situation.
After a moment, Kakyoin finally broke the quiet amongst the Crusaders, the red haired youth barely contained a laugh as he raised a hand to his mouth. Nora, frustrated that she hadn't been taken seriously, decided at that moment to bring out the worst, harshest insult her five-year old mind could muster.
"W-What do you think is so funny, ya butt?!"
At that, Kakyoin couldn't help himself; a full, hearty laugh bubbled forth from the normally composed teen's chest before he reigned himself back in.
"You know, I really don't think it's her." A nod from Joseph accompanied this, as did a small smile that came to the old man's face as a nostalgic glint passed through his eyes.
"Maybe, but still, that leaves us with a problem either way. Either the boy's the Stand User, or there's someone on board this ship who we didn't check thoroughly enough." Avdol stroked his chin as he continued to look on at the two children; Nora, who looked increasingly frustrated at being ignored by the Crusaders and Ren, who seemed to not understand one word of what anyone was saying.
"Hmmm… perhaps…" Avdol pointed to Ren, which drew the young boy and girl's attention to the traveling fortune teller. "Tell me boy, you have the look and dress of someone from Mistral. Where are you from?" The children's eyes immediately went wide as they heard Avdol speak Ren's language so fluidly.
"You can understand me!?"
"You can understand Ren!?"
Avdol nodded his head, satisfied, as he turned back to his fellow Crusaders. "I don't think its this boy either. He's genuinely ignorant of the Post-War tongue, and I doubt Dio would allow for one of his minions to be able to communicate with the rest of his organization." The Vacuoan born man stood up to his full height, as Jotaro pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
"But… if these two aren't the Stand User, than who is?" Joseph remarked with increasing concern as, suddenly, a shadow loomed over both Ren and Nora.
"So, these two are our stowaways, eh?"
On Open Waters, That Evening
"Well, between… all of that, I don't think we got the opportunity to actually properly introduce everyone."
All of that. A succinct way to have described the shitstorm that had just blown over the Crusader's journey. While Kakyoin and Polnareff had been stepping stones of their own, the Stand Dark Blue Moon and its master, the imposter captain, had cost the Crusaders their ride and most of their day in travel. The imposter captain had set an almost perfect trap: either he'd be successful in his ambush of the Stardust Crusaders, summarily kill them and dump their bodies into open waters or, should he fail, the explosives he had placed all over the ship would see to it that they'd either die or be stranded on open waters.
With the Crusaders, and two children, stuffed onto one lifeship while the rest of the crew split up two others, this left the group with little to do but wait for help to arrive, hopefully having spotted the signals that the ships had sent off. Until then, the five grown men would use their Stands in order to help ensure the survival of the various castaways.
Nora and Ren turned their head to Joseph, to see that the old man had a very kindly look on his face as he pointed to himself.
"My name's Joseph. This here is Avdol, Polnareff, Kakyoin and my grandson, Jotaro." Each Crusader acknowledged the two children in time with Joseph's introduction of them, though Jotaro only offered a slight 'hn' to the two on his own turn. "I'm guessing you two are Ren and Nora, right? Screamed it out often enough." Nora flushed in frustration at the old man's teasing, while Ren merely tilted his head to the side. A quick translation from Avdol and soon Ren merely looked sheepish.
"What exactly are two kids doing out in the middle of nowhere like this anyway?" Polnareff asked, as Avdol once again translated. Before Nora could speak up, Ren offered up their tale to Avdol, giving the men who had saved his and Nora's lives multiple times now in this entire affair as much information as he could. Avdol nodded as slowly but surely a small, sad frown crept up onto his face.
"I feared as much. This boy is… was from Kuroyuri. About a month ago I heard news that the village had been attacked by a large swarm of the Grimm, utterly destroyed and massacred down to the last man, woman and child. There were supposed to be no survivors. However, this boy managed to get away. He somehow unlocked his semblance during the attack and used it to save both himself and this girl Nora. They've been traveling together, boarding ships and trying to get to Vale ever since." The Crusaders, for the most part, showed some sympathy to the two children, all too familiar with the Grimm and the toll they could take on a community.
"I don't understand though. Why go through all the trouble of sneaking aboard ships and potentially getting caught as stowaways if they were on the same continent as Mistral? Wouldn't it have just been easier to just go there, or to some other neighboring village?" Kakyoin asked, his head tilted to the side, as Avdol translated. Before Ren could speak up, Nora stood up.
"Hey, Ren's kept us safe this entire time! If it's his idea, then it's a good one! I don't want to hear some butt going around and-"
"Nora." The orange haired young girl stopped and turned to Ren, who had been privy to his best friend's words for the first time ever thanks to Avdol. As he spoke, Avdol quickly got to work.
"He says he appreciates it Nora, but he has this." The fortune-teller smiled as Nora flushed in slight embarrassment, the girl nodded her head as she sat back down. As Ren continued, Avdol eyes widened slightly as he smiled. "A very good pair of parents this boy must've had, they raised a smart one." Avdol turned to the rest of the Crusaders. "The boy's mother had warned him away from the rest of Mistral should anything happen. The family's plan was that, should anything occur that might force them away from Kuroyuri, that they'd set their course for Vale instead of anywhere else in Mistral; the risk of being caught up with one of the various crime syndicates in Mistral was too great."
"I've heard that crime in Mistral is horrible Avdol, but is it really so bad as to force families or, Hell, two children to seek refuge in an entirely different country?" Polnareff was bewildered as he asked this, the silver-haired young man grew more disconcerted as Avdol merely nodded.
"Sadly, it is. While the rich never have to worry about much of anything in Mistral, content to just absorb the art, literature and commerce of the land, for the poor, Mistral might as well be a living Hell. Either you stay poor and suffer from day to day in Mistral or you join up with one of the various crime syndicates in hopes that you'll earn enough money and wealth in order to make it to the upper classes. Sometimes, it isn't even a choice you get to make; if you're vulnerable enough, someone who could be easily missed, the crime syndicates will come for you themselves. If these two had gone anywhere else in Mistral, it's very likely that they would've been forcibly taken in by one of the myriad organizations that run the country's underworld."
"See, I told you it was a good idea." Nora sat back, a childishly smug look on her face as, while she barely understood the full ramifications of what Avdol had explained, she understood that it basically vindicated Ren.
"You poor kids. Barely even out of your infancy and this sort of catastrophe has been forced upon you both." Joseph sighed as he shook his head; Joseph very rarely felt as old as he was, a trait he had been thankful for inheriting, in part, from his mother's own Stand. However, in this very moment, hearing the plight of others, Joseph Joestar felt very old indeed. Even in the Four Kingdoms, the lands he, Speedwagon and his grandfather had spent their days trying to get back to, these sorts of tragedies were still commonplace.
"It's not so bad." The orange-haired girl shocked everyone when she said this, Ren's own eyes wide as he looked disbelievingly at Nora after Avdol translated. "Before all this, I was completely alone. I don't remember much of anything really, everything from before is just kind of a blur." Nora smiled as she looked over at Ren, a sparkle in her turquoise eyes. "But now I've got Ren, my best friend in the whole wide world. We can take care of each other, and we'll get past all this and do… something! Don't know what yet, but it'll be the best something anyone's ever seen!"
"Yare yare…" Jotaro tilted his hat down, a scoff on his lips as the rest of the Crusaders just grinned as the girl's positive energy just spilled off of her. Ren, for his part, smiled back as Avdol gave him the gist, and nodded his head along with Nora's. Things could've been better, as far as Ren was concerned. His family could've been alive and Kuroyuri could've still been standing. But, if he couldn't have what he wanted, then at least he had Nora with him. The road to Vale would've been far, far worse without her there to keep him up and keep his mind far from home.
"Why don't you two accompany us?" Polnareff suddenly spoke up, which drew everyone's attention to him. "I mean, we'd be some shitty huntsmen if we just left a couple of kids out alone on the road when they'd suffered through an attack from the Grimm. Plus, well, it just so happens that we're on our way to Vale too. You two seem like you've had it pretty rough already; stick with us and we'd be able to see you safely the rest of the way to Vale." Nora, and then Ren, brightened up at the silver-haired Stand Users' offer, before Kakyoin coughed into his fist.
"Polnareff, while I appreciate why you're making this offer, we have to remember that we're on a mission and that mission has a time limit. If we bring these two with us, we'll have to slow down for their own pace and ensure their safety. Do remember that what we'll be facing is far more dangerous than any Grimm, especially if the boy's semblance works as he describes it. We might just want to get them safely to shore and then let them make their way to Vale on their own. The two have gotten this far on their own, I think we can trust they'd be able to make the final stage of their journey." Kakyoin spoke softly, no harsh recriminations or tone to his voice, as he laid this all out.
"What? Come on Kakyoin, you can't be serious. Sure we might run into a bit more trouble, but we'll be able to handle them. As for the time, it'd probably only take a few more days at most. What's the harm?" Polnareff tried to wave off Kakyoin's concerns, as the red haired teen just narrowed his gaze slightly.
"The harm might come to Ms. Holly and… the Higashikata boy" The silver-haired young man flinched slightly at the reminder, as Kakyoin shook his head. "I want to help them, truly I do. They're innocent children who've been forced to stick it out on their own due to the forces of the Grimm... any hunter worth their salt who wouldn't want to help them should be ashamed. However, we've already sworn ourselves to saving Ms. Holly and Higashikata Josuke from their fate. Even a few days might be the difference between life and death for them. We can't just risk her life when we don't have to."
"But, Kakyoin-"
"Kakyoin is right, Polnareff." Avdol spoke up, which drew the focus of the conversation to him. "Ms. Holly and Josuke's lives are in the balance, and every day we waste is a day that they draw closer to death. The choice to put additional pressure on that risk isn't one we should take lightly, even if we have to leave Nora and Ren to their own devices." Nora swallowed somewhat nervously as the conversation went on, Ren left out of the dark as the conversation went by around him. "However, where you're wrong Kakyoin is in assuming that this is a group decision that's already been made, or that we shall have a voice in. In the end, there are only two men on board here who can make the decision as to whether or not risking a few more days is worth it." With that, three of the five Crusaders turned to face Jotaro and Joseph, the two Joestar descendants sat with their arms crossed as the debate played out around them, Jotaro's hat tipped down over his eyes as a slight scowl tugged at the corner of his lips.
"Jotaro…" Joseph looked to his grandson, the grey old man's eyes locked on him as he waited to hear what he would say. Joseph had made up his own mind, he knew what he would want to do. However, in this instance alone, he refused to use his seniority to overturn whatever decision Jotaro would make. Holly was his daughter, and Joseph loved her with all his heart, but she was also Jotaro's mother, his parent. He couldn't tear this decision away from his daughter's only son, especially when the boy and his father were so distant. Sure, there was the matter of Josuke but, well, he had given up any right to hold him to any sort of importance a long time ago. He wasn't going to force Jotaro into one decision or another, especially if said decision would bring Jotaro's ire against the two youngsters who shared their boat.
After a few moments of deep thought, Kujo Jotaro released a deep sigh as he readjusted his hat, his calm, neutral expression on his face as he looked across the other occupants of the ship.
"Yare yare daze… so long as they don't get in the way, they can come to Vale with us. I don't really give a damn either way." With that, Jotaro tilted his hat down to guard his eyes from the moonlight as he crossed his arms across his chest. "Now everyone be quiet, I want to get some rest. That imposter was a pain in the ass to deal with." Nora blew a slight raspberry at Jotaro as he threw all this out, the delinquent teen scoffed as he shook his head. "I'm already regretting this…"
Despite all this, the four other members of the Stardust Crusade smiled at the young man. While Nora gave Jotaro himself the stink eye, Ren quickly went about thanking everyone onboard for their generosity, gratitude which was very much appreciated by all but, seemingly, Jotaro. Soon, they all got ready and settled themselves for some rest as well. It had been a long day.
"Well, hope you two are ready. There are going to be a lot more… semblances like you saw earlier on our way to Vale, I imagine. It's going to be a bit of a trip." With a tried yawn, Nora just waved off Joseph's warning.
"Whatever old guy, after today, I don't think we'll be surprised by any weirdness that comes our way…"
Aboard Strength, The Next Day
"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA- ORAAAA!"
Jotaro and Nora watched as Forever, an orangutan who favored a captain's uniform, a pipe filled with tobacco, puzzles and porno, was launched through one of the metal doors of his Stand,a freighter ship called Strength, after one of Star Platinum's punch rushes. The delinquent and the orange-haired girl just stared at the ape, now dead or very nearly so after Star Platinum's assault, Jotaro with a heavily annoyed and frustrated scowl on his face and Nora with wide, twitching eyes.
"We're never speaking of this to anyone ever, is that clear?"
"Crystal."
Room 1514 of The Horse and Carriage, A Coastal Village of Vale, A Few Days Later
"Alright Ren, we'll move onto some of the basic building blocks of the Post-War tongue Repeat after me and be careful with your enunciation, alright?"
After the incident aboard the Stand Strength, the Stardust Crusaders and guests had managed to arrive at the shore of the Kingdom of Vale in, relatively, short order. A passing fishing ship had caught one of their signals and had managed to pick them up a few hours after Strength itself had been reduced to little more than a rowboat, with Forever nowhere in sight.
In the ensuing time, the Crusaders had taken to their own little pet projects while waiting to arrive in Vale: Avdol had taken it upon himself to teach Ren how to speak the common parlance of Remnant in the Post-War world, the spiritual teacher having sought to impart some practical wisdom for the group's charge before they left. Finding that Nora was about as energetic as a five year old could get, he instead sought to focus his efforts on Ren and brushing him up. Joseph, Jotaro and Kakyoin had set themselves to assisting the fishermen in exchange for their help while Polnareff set to filling Nora's head with stories of his own travels across Remnant, the flamboyant, lilting Stand User captured the imagination of the young, orange-haired girl.
Finally, they hit shore and saw just how rough of a journey lay ahead of them. Vale was a country of deep forests and high, far-reaching mountain ranges and beaches far and few between compared to sheer cliffs that had stood against the ocean's current. The natural geography of the kingdom itself had seemed ready to prove itself a harsh obstacle on their path to the capital itself. The Crusaders sought to stock up on supplies, good maps and information while they could. In the meantime, it had been decided that the younger of their group would be allowed to go off and play tourist, it having been their first times having had set foot on Vale. So it was that Kakyoin, Jotaro and, surprisingly, Nora departed to tour the coastal village while Joseph, Avdol and Ren stayed at one of the port's hotels; the old man organized the group's needs according to his own previous travels across Remnant and Avdol continued his lessons.
Polnareff had gotten his own room and had promptly been attacked by the Ebony Devil and his master, Devo the Cursed. This passed beneath the notice of the others in the hotel, as Ren had been absorbed in his lessons with Avdol and Joseph had been busy fiddling with a nearby, old-fashioned television.
"So, you're sure I'll be able to understand Nora with all this, right?" Ren's eyes glanced back up from his book as he looked to Avdol, the fortune-teller grinned slightly as he shrugged his shoulders.
"You'll be able to understand what she's saying… but whether you'll be able to understand her is another matter entirely, I'm afraid." A good-natured chuckle accompanied this bit of wisdom, as Ren merely nodded his head in determination as he returned to the exercises Avdol had laid out for him, the guru satisfied with the young boy's drive as he turned his attention over to the senior Joestar. "Are you almost ready, Mr. Joestar?"
"Actually, I think I'm ready now, Avdol." Joseph grinned as he stepped back from the tv, all the while Hermit Purple manifested itself around his right arm. "I'd like to know whether or not any of Dio's minions are hot on our heels right now. I'd rather not end up getting hit by another surprise like with that damn ape or Dark Blue Moon." Avdol nodded in agreement with Joseph, as Ren turned his head away from his exercises to watch the strange, to his mind, semblance in action. "Hermit Purple!"
As he placed his hands on either side of the television and called out his Stand, Hermit Purple launched forth from Joseph's arm and penetrated the television on various levels, leaving yet no physical damage on the electronic device. Despite being unplugged from the wall or any sort of connection to the broader world, the television suddenly turned on and began displaying a myriad of channels.
"Your semblances are very strange, Avdol. My father never described any such feats of magic and power from any other huntsman or huntress he's ever seen." Avdol nodded slightly at Ren's take on their Stands. While it had been easy enough to convince Nora of the idea that their Stands were little more than funky semblances, Ren's father having had been a huntsman gave Ren some inside knowledge into how exactly a semblance normally appeared and functioned. Hell, the boy had a semblance of his own that had been nothing like any of their Stands.
"The longer you travel through Remnant, the more you begin to realize just how peculiar this world of ours truly is, Ren." The boy, though clearly not entirely satisfied, nodded at Avdol's words, as they both focused on the images and, slowly but surely, the message that Hermit Purple's Stand ability was manifesting on the television screen.
"There-is-a-trai-tor-among-us-Ka-kyo-in-beware-of-him-Di-o's-ser-vant!"
"W-What? Kakyoin is Dio's servant?!" Joseph and Avdol were shocked as the television flickered across several images in its attempt to stitch together words into a facsimile of a sentence. Ren watched on, his magenta eyes wide as he took in the utterly bizarre display.
Then it happened.
The television's screen gave way to grey static as, slowly but surely, the crisp images and sounds from before fell away. Soon enough, the static itself began to form into a new shape altogether and, in time, this shape had become clear.
A man stood, his back to them, large, strong and intimidating on the screen. On his upper left shoulder was a purple star-shaped mark that stood out all the more on the man's deathly-white pallor. His hair also heavily contrasted itself with his near pure-white skin, a shock of long, blond hair that reached down to the nape of his neck and flared out in many directions. At the end of his hair, Ren noticed that in a ring around his neck were horrible, disgusting scars.
Then the man turned around, and Ren could feel it, deep in his bones. As red irises contrasted against black sclerae stared out at the three of them, even Ren, child that he was, knew what it was, what… thing, what horrible thing it was that had instilled this terror into him.
Evil. Pure evil.
"Joseph Joestar… you're watching me, aren't you?" The man, the monster, pointed to them and, in an instant, the television's screen cracked.
"DIO!"
As Joseph himself roared back at the screen, the television finally exploded in a gout of smoke and flame, which launched Joseph against the opposite wall, the older man landed on the ground with a thud and a groan as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Mr. Joestar!"
"Joseph!"
Immediately, Ren and Avdol were upon Joseph, each helped the older man back up to his feet as the grey bearded huntsman winced a bit from his trip across the room.
"I'm alright you two, jeez. I'm not that old yet." The leader of the Frontier shook his head as he sought to clear it of any lingering dizziness, as a serious expression came over his face. "More to the point, you heard the message my spirit photography gave us; Kakyoin is one of Dio's agents."
"You don't really think-"
"I don't, Avdol." Joseph cut the fortune-teller off with a shake of his head, as carefully cradled his chin in thought. "I'd trust Kakyoin with my life, however, the message couldn't have been more clear. For now, we have to assume that Kakyoin is a sleeper agent that could try and kill us all at a moment's notice. We need to be careful…"
"Indeed. We need to get out into the city and inform Jotaro and Nora as soon as-" The door opened suddenly and Ren gasped in shock, as Polnareff stumbled into the room, wounded and heavily bleeding as he stumbled into the three's hotel room.
"Polnareff! What happened?!"
"I'm… tired…"
With that, Polnareff collapsed onto the hotel room floor, and any hope that Jotaro and Nora had of getting help at that moment was, for the moment, lost.
Not that Nora would've thought to have needed it. If anything, today had all the earmarks of being a great day! As soon as they had settled into the hotel and gotten themselves their first showers in forever as far as Nora had been concerned, she and her best friend had decided their plans, Ren had chosen to stick with Avdol and the old man to pick up on more of the fortune-teller's lessons. Now, Nora adored her best friend, but she couldn't see herself sticking around for those super boring talks of theirs, so she decided she'd join Jotaro and Kakyoin as they toured the city.
Imagine her surprise when Jotaro didn't even raise a peep about her coming with them! Even more so when the day they were having had turned out to be awesome! The five year old couldn't remember if she had ever stepped foot on Vale, so this was as much a first impression of her new home kingdom as it was of Jotaro and Kakyoin's, apparent, first time on the continent.
That Jotaro had first treated her and Kakyoin to some chilled coconut milk and then ice cream was great! She hadn't even known what this stuff was before, but now, she loved it and couldn't have imagined life without it! It was weird; by all accounts, Jotaro was a stand-offish jerk who shouted at her whenever she'd talk for a little while (a little while to her being around ten to fifteen minutes at a time) and was generally just the biggest butt around, but he had still done all this nice stuff for her. It'd been like this ever since he saved her from-
'NO NORA, BURY THOSE MEMORIES UNDER THE ICE CREAM!' The orange-haired five year old immediately took a huge mouthful of ice cream in at once as she sought to push away the memories of their encounter with the ape that definitely never happened and they weren't ever going to talk about ever again.
As Nora sought to ignore that, she smiled slightly as he swung a bit off of Jotaro's arm; the tall delinquent had allowed her to hold his hand through the day and though he'd shout for her to get off anytime she tried to actually swing on his arm, she'd find that he'd relent in allowing her to hold his hand again shortly thereafter.
Nora had by this point decided that adults were weird…
Not that today had given her a dearth of reasons to believe that.
Nora chanced a glance behind her at Kakyoin, who stared intently after Jotaro. The three had been touring the city for a while now and had stopped at some guardrails on an ocean-side cliff that gave a great view of the sea. Kakyoin had been… weird. Very weird, in fact. Nora couldn't quite put her finger on what it was exactly. Maybe it was the overly aggressive way he had handled the mugger. Maybe it was the creepy looks he had given both her and Jotaro all day.
Maybe it was that bug he had eaten…
Now that Nora thought about it, maybe she could have put her finger there and called it a day.
"Ah, Jotaro~, are you going to eat that cherry?" Nora and Jotaro's attention had been drawn back to Kakyoin, who had pointed to the little cherry that sat atop Jotaro's own partially eaten ice cream cone. "I'm positively famished, so I'd appreciate it." Without even another word, the red-headed teen just plucked the cherry off the top of Jotaro's ice cream.
Before he promptly shoved Jotaro over the guardrail.
"JOTARO!"
"Oops, you should be careful there, Jotaro~."
Jotaro cursed as he found himself hanging precariously over the edge of the cliff, his only saving grace being his grip and Nora's intertwined just over the guardrails. The older teen grimaced as he got ready to summon Star Platinum, knowing that a child as young as Nora couldn't-
Couldn't pull him up and over the guardrail like she just did without having even broken a sweat.
'How in the hell…' Jotaro's mind flashed to Ren, as the delinquent calmed his breathing after the near-fatal fall. 'Of course, I should've figured as much; however Ren unlocked his Aura and semblance, he must've found a way to unlock hers too…' Thoughts of Nora on the ship days before, partially starved and filthy flashed through the seventeen year old's mind afterward as he grimaced. 'The only reason we didn't notice earlier was because the two of them were in such a rough state.'
"Oh Jotaro~, thank goodness. I had only meant to poke fun. I didn't want anything to actually happen to you, Jotaro~." With that, and Nora and Jotaro's frustrated gazes fixed on him, Kakyoin popped the cherry into his mouth.
"RERORERORERORERORERORERORERORERORERORERORERORERORERO-."
As one of the city's horse and carriages pulled up to the cliff side to drop off more sightseers, Jotaro stood up straight as he tightened his hand into a fist.
"Alright Kakyoin… we're going for a ride back to the hotel. You're clearly possessed or some shit… so we're just going to take a nice, quiet ride back to the geezer and the others to get your head examined." The delinquent raised his fist in challenge. "Here's your ticket…"
Kakyoin merely laughed as he picked his cherry up from the ground and popped it back into his mouth. "Now really Jotaro~, are you going to do something so rash in front of an impressionable-GAAAH!"
Kakyoin nearly spat out his cherry when, out of the blue, Nora ran forward and , having had drawn Magnhild, shoved the tiny, wooden hammer into Kakyoin's gut. Having surprised the older teen. Jotaro followed up soon thereafter, as he threw a solid right hook across Kakyoin's jaw, which sent the young man flying towards the cabin. Jotaro took a moment and glanced over at Nora, the young girl's breathing sharp and erratic as she looked back up at Jotaro.
"What!? He was creeping me out!"
"Yare yare…" Jotaro readjusted his cap as he looked back to Kakyoin. "Well at least he's…" Jotaro's eyes went wide, as did Nora's, as Kakyoin slowly stood up. By all means, Kakyoin acted like the punch had no effect on him. The only sign it did, the sign that caused many of those sightseers at the cliff side to panic and run, was the one that also deeply disturbed both Nora and Jotaro.
Kakyoin's jaw had broken loose of his face, hanging only by a loose strand of his skin as blood poured from his mouth. His eyes were crossed and glazed, as if half-dead already, as a gurgling laugh left the redhead's throat.
"It'd be wrong to say I'm possessed, Jotaro~. RERO RERO RERO RERO…"
"Jotaro, why does all this creepy stuff keep happening to us?"
"Beats the Hell out of me." Jotaro grumbled as he summoned forth Star Platinum. "Nora, go back to the hotel and get the others. Find the real Kakyoin if you can. This can only be another enemy like before." Before Nora could even think to argue, Jotaro snapped his head towards her. "Hurry up dammit, we don't have all day!" Nora squeaked as she nodded her head and immediately bolted.
The orange-haired girl only cast a glance over her shoulder once as she watched Star Platinum engage in battle with some kind of amorphous, yellow blob.
"Talk about creepy; a Stand that perfectly replicated myself."
Several miles up the road from the coastal village, the Stardust Crusaders and their guests had trudged along. With a small wagon and mule procured using lien traded for with the sale of old Frontier relics and loaded with supplies the seven would need in their journey they marched on, heading up the coastal lowlands towards the next village on their destination, the one that sat between themselves and the City of Vale itself.
"Yeah, you should've seen it. That was the creepiest things I've seen this entire trip now. Totally." Nora coughed into her fist unconvincingly as the five year old did her best to bluff, though Kakyoin and the others allowed it to pass by seemingly unnoticed as Jotaro nodded.
"Apparently it transformed into you sometime after we left the hotel and took your spot during a moment where we were separated. We didn't even notice until it tried to push me into the ocean." Jotaro groused as he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, all the while Kakyoin smiled.
"Well, I'm glad nothing ill came of any of it at any rate." Kakyoin walked over towards the cart and motioned to Ren and Avdol, the pair of which sat amidst the supplies while they continued their ad hoc lessons. "Avdol, did you and Mr. Joestar happen to pick up any cherries like I asked?"
The fortune teller nodded with a small smile, as he reached into one of the bags on the wagon. "We did; Mr. Joestar made it a point that we'd all have something to tide us over on the trip. Morale is just as important here as it is in Morioh." As he produced a fistful of cherries, Kakyoin's eyes lit up as he gratefully took the offered fruit.
"Thank you." With that, Kakyoin popped one of the fruits into his mouth. "Rerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorerorero~."
Unseen by Kakyoin, who was absorbed in his little game with his cherries Jotaro tensed up, his fists tightening into a ball while Nora looked about ready to cry while Magnhild had been held at the ready.
"Yare yare daze..."
The Dining Hall of The Grand Vale Hotel, A Coastal Village of Vale, A Week and a Half Later
"Nora, what are, you, doing now, there?"
It was a great relief to the Stardust Crusaders when they had not been accosted by another Stand User in their time traveling the roads of the Kingdom of Vale. The week had passed by in relative peace and silence, which had allowed the seven travelers to make up for time lost thanks to Forever and the imposter captain. Though their pace had to be managed to ensure the two children wouldn't be run ragged, the presence of the cart had allowed them to keep a generally good pace every day while Nora and Ren rested on the cart, though as Nora seemed to be an infinite fountain spring of youthful energy, this place was most often taken up by Ren.
The days passed by as ever: Nora, energetic and rambunctious, would seek to mess around with or play with most of the members of the Crusade, though her attentions would most often fall on Ren or Jotaro, to the former's resigned pleasure and the latter's seeming annoyance. Ren, when Nora hadn't been looking to get him off the cart to play some game or another, continued to show his diligence in his studies under Avdol, the fortune-teller doing what he could to prepare the young boy for the City of Vale before their expected arrival in the next two weeks.
The Crusaders were treated to a sign of Ren's progress when, out of the blue while they sat around eating breakfast, save for Polnareff who had excused himself to use the restroom, Ren suddenly spoke to Nora in a broken, but otherwise functional, use of the Post-War tongue.
"Oh, you know Ren, just trying to figure out how I like this crazy food!" Nora energetically waved her hands towards a stack of fluffed up pancakes before her, having ordered the dish on a whim when the group had stopped to eat at the hotel. "Plain is fine, but there's this stuff the menu calls syrup which is just great too! Then there's this white stuff, butter, it's so tasty!" For the long orphaned Nora, one of the best parts of traveling with the Stardust Crusaders was just all the different kinds of food she had been allowed to partake in as part of this journey. Having scrounged for bread and crumbs before and then having to steal dried meat and fish for herself and Ren during their own personal journey to Patch, the sweet tastes she had indulged in was, in her five year old mind, to die for.
So great was her excitement for the breakfast dish that she hadn't even noticed that it had been Ren who had spoken to her, much to the amusement of the other Stardust Crusaders. Soon enough, Nora's turquoise eyes blinked once, twice in surprise before she immediately swung over towards her best friend in the world and grasped him by the shoulders.
"OHMYGOSH, REN, DID YOU JUST TALK?! WITH WORDS?! THAT I COULD UNDERSTAND?!"
"Uuuh, yes? Yes!" The magenta eyed boy's gaze lost some of its own excitement as he saw the dawning look of pure awe and excitement overcome his best friend's expression, the girl practically vibrated in her seat as her smile stretched across her face.
"Oh Ren! This is the best day ever! From now on we can talk about anything and everything! Oh there's so many things I wanted to ask you but I couldn't understand you and you couldn't understand me but now that isn't a problem because we can actually talk with each other and oh we'll just talk about everything won't we Ren, we'll talk about food and how awesome its been traveling together, even the really crummy parts like the Atlesian ships or walking all the way from the village to the coast back in Mistral, but it wasn't crummy because I didn't enjoy your company because even though I didn't-" This run on sentence continued for a solid five minutes as Nora babbled on and on, the girl's pitch increasing in squeakiness and volume as she just talked and talked and talked, her excitement clear. Ren had long since lost the script and failed to keep up with Nora's ramblings with his very much novice understanding of the language, while the other Crusaders just laughed at the two's antics. Save for Jotaro, who-
"NORA, HE CAN'T UNDERSTAND YOU WHEN YOU TALK LIKE THAT, SO SHUT UP AND STOP BEING ANNOYING!"
Nora, rather than pay Jotaro much of any mind, just turned to blow a raspberry towards the older teen. Though Nora had come to find that Jotaro was… weird and not so much of a jerk as first thought, especially after he had helped save her and the others three times now, the five year old still hadn't appreciated his jerkish tendencies. Meanwhile, Nora just smiled and giggled in excitement as she kept a grip on Ren's shoulders, though she had stopped with her babbling, which earned Jotaro an appreciative nod from Ren.
"Ren has made some very good progress so far, but he still has a long way to go. Thankfully he's quite bright and still very young, so he should be able to pick up the tongue rather easily from here on." Avdol said this slowly, his intention for Ren to understand him as well clear as the young boy nodded in appreciation, while Nora nodded far more vigorously.
"Thank you Avdol!"
"Thank you."
Avdol merely shook his head and waved the two children off as he smiled. "I'm a teacher through and through. It pleases me to be able to pass on wisdom to others, even if this wisdom is more practical than spiritual." The Vacuoan born man smiled at the two children as they nodded, while the rest of the Crusaders just continued to eat their breakfast.
Despite the gravity of their mission and the dangers they still had yet to face, the Crusaders were, in that moment, very much at peace. They had overcome numerous challenges, bested a good handful of Dio's assailants and had managed to impart some wisdom and safety to two children that, when all were being honest, had grown on the group of men. Nora and Ren, who had each either lost everything they'd ever known or had never known anything to lose, found that in each other's company and in the company of the five strange men whose boat they had stowed away on, they could put some of that horrible past behind them.
It was with this mind that Ren, after Nora had let him go, turned to the four men before him and genuinely, warmly smiled.
"Thank you, everyone. I, we, Nora and me, are thankful." The gesture was backed up by a warm, incredibly giddy smile from Nora as, for a moment, everything for the Stardust Crusaders seemed at peace.
This peace had not been made to last, however, as Polnareff stormed into the dining hall from the bathroom, a look of murder in his eyes.
The Next Day
The truth was, they had all been worried about Polnareff.
Even after all he'd said, even after the way he had just up and abandoned the six of them, they couldn't help but worry after their flamboyant companion. While the silver-haired young man was a more distant friend to Ren than Avdol or Joseph had proven, Nora had taken a shine to his stories. To say nothing of the other Crusaders whom had been traveling with the lilting man ever since they had left the Outskirts. The mood at the table for dinner that night was reserved and quiet, a dour, dark atmosphere having settled over the band of Stand Users and their guests.
On the morning of the next day, they had decided they were all going to split up and go look for Polnareff before he could get himself killed by J. Geil and his Stand. Jotaro and Nora, Joseph, Kakyoin and Avdol and Ren would all go off in their own directions in search of Polnareff and whoever found him first would try to talk some sense into him before the others arrived to, if necessary, bring their wayward friend back into the group however they needed to.
When Jotaro, Nora and Joseph had arrived on the scene where the murmurs of crowds had told them many of their compatriots had gathered, they had hoped for a lot of things and, given the description of a man called Hol Horse and his mysterious gun, expected a fight.
None had dared to prepare themselves for the sight of Avdol's corpse.
A stunned silence had overtaken the three of them as Nora's turquoise eyes went wide, her hands placed over her mouth as tears threatened to stream down her face, all the while Jotaro and Joseph just stared on, their expressions unreadable and their eyes shadowed over.
"Joseph... Jotaro… Nora…" The three's head snapped over to one of the side alleys as, to their surprise, Ren stumbled out, tears pricked at the corners of his eyes as well as the three rushed to meet the young boy. Despite the state he was in and despite his inexperience with the language, Ren was able to communicate the basics of what he had seen: how Avdol had stowed him away when he had seen the presence of the enemy Stand Users, how he'd rushed in to save Polnareff from a lethal shot from a Stand called 'The Emperor'.
How Avdol had been stabbed in the back before Hol Horse's bullet had struck him in the head.
Kakyoin had already been here and ran off with Polnareff, which drew The Hanged Man and Hol Horse after them as well. All that was left was Ren and Avdol and the young boy had decided, then and there, that'd he'd wait for the others to ensure Avdol wouldn't be taken away.
The four gathered around Avdol's corpse and Nora, unable to even look at the… at one of the men who had helped save her and Ren, turned her gaze up to Jotaro.
Nora had thought she'd seen Jotaro so angry before, to the point of fury. Whenever she did something to annoy him, to make him mad, he'd shout at her, roar in that overwhelming voice of his, and berate her. It made him come off as such a jerk, even when at other times he'd let her hold his hand or shadow his moves. For the five year old, it had been a mystery as to how someone who you made so angry and act like such a jerk could still treat you with some kindness. Though Nora, still, hadn't found it in her young mind to completely fathom it, at that moment the sight of Jotaro had sparked some manner of understanding in her mind.
Jotaro may have been annoyed before and he may have lashed out, but he was never actually angry with her.
This Jotaro, however? This Jotaro was beyond angry or mad. He was furious. The delinquent had bent down and gingerly picked up Avdol's blood-soaked headband and, with a growl that rumbled deep in his chest, tightened his fist around it.
This Jotaro wouldn't be content to just shout and then go back to his usual, quiet demeanor. This was a Jotaro who was out for blood.
And, as she looked down at Avdol, one of the men who had so helped her and her best friend, even the young Nora felt like she could understand that.
As she dared to take a chance, Nora reached up and wrapped a tiny hand around Jotaro's. The delinquent flinched for a moment, his sharp gaze turned on her and made her shrink back slightly, though she hadn't pulled away. However, in the end the teen had allowed it as he turned his gaze back to their fallen comrade.
Eventually, Joseph Joestar suddenly quirked an eyebrow as he narrowed his gaze. He bent down onto a knee and pressed his right hand to Avdol's neck. The old man's eyes went wide as he immediately pressed his ear to Avdol's chest.
"Oh my God! Avdol's still alive!"
Immediately, the three younger travelers were upon Avdol and Joseph, three pairs of eyes wide in surprise as they took a closer look at the fallen fortune-teller's body. Indeed, when they got right up on him, they had been able to make it out, if barely; the slight movements under his eyelids, the erratic, short motions of his chest. Jotaro, in disbelief, reached forward with Avdol's headband and, gently, dabbed at the wound on his forehead.
Before blood once again covered the spot, the four were treated to an unexpected sight. Rather than the hole they had expected to see from Ren's attempted retelling, they found a groove that had run vertically up Avdol's forehead.
"Holy shit… Avdol must've ducked back at the last minute. The bullet only grazed him rather than punching straight through." Joseph looked over to Jotaro with an urgent expression on his face. "He's lost a lot of blood! We need to get him to a hospital as quickly as possible, but also carefully to keep him from losing more. Jotaro, grab his legs, I'll grab his shoulders. Nora, Ren, held keep his body steady, okay?"
Without even a moment's hesitation, the three had nodded and moved right to their posts: Nora and Ren on either side of Avdol's body as they kept it steady, Jotaro carefully placed Avdol's legs underneath his arms while Jotaro carefully cradled the Vacuoan man's shoulder and back wound as he lifted him up.
Many five year olds would've been freaked out by the mere sight of a close friend's blood, much less being expected to be covered in it while you helped carry him to a hospital. However, for the pair who had witnessed the destruction of Kuroyuri, whom had suffered through a solid month of hard journeying on their own and whom had been exposed to all the strange, bizarre and horrible specters of the Crusaders' journey, they were resolute. They could help save Avdol if they were brave and stuck to it.
As the four slowly trundled off to a nearby hospital, with the assistance of passersby and good samaritans, that's exactly what they accomplished.
"Avdol's gonna be okay! Avdol's gonna be okay! Avdol's gonna be-"
"NORA, WE HEARD YOU THE FIRST SEVERAL DOZEN TIMES, ENOUGH!"
Joseph shook his head as did Ren, the pair having looked relieved, if drained, as they watched Nora excitedly dance about while Jotaro trudged along after them. After they had seen to it that Avdol would be taken care of Nora had been going on in such a manner for several minutes, the girl's mirth and excitement over the turn of events had bubbled over. Though the four had still felt some shock at the close call, the fact that the situation had worked out, that the Stardust Crusaders had once again pulled through such a harrowing scenario without a loss, left them in a far better place than before.
One that had allowed for Jotaro to withdraw back into his more stoic, if annoyed, attitude. The orange haired girl whirled around and stared after Jotaro, her eyebrows knit together in focus as her lips curled into a slight frown. Jotaro flinched slightly, the young man having had expected Nora's usual, childish antics.
"Hmmm… Okay!" Instead, turquoise eyes lit up as the girl just continued to dance about, though this time without the incessant shouting that had grated on Jotaro's nerves. The teen scoffed slightly as he tucked his hat down. "Oh, I can't wait… Polnareff and Kakyoin are going to be so relieved when they hear that Avdol's okay!" Nora chirped as they continued on, to which Jotaro and Ren offered a nod of agreement. Their pace stopped when they noticed that Joseph himself had ceased moving, the elder Joestar carefully cradled his chin in his right hand as he scratched at his beard.
"What's wrong now, old man?" Joseph hummed to himself at Jotaro's question, as the old man just looked up to his grandson.
"Kakyoin's a smart kid, and even under stressful situations he's always had a clear head. Even if he had thought that Avdol had been killed by the enemy, I doubt he'd miss the signs that Avdol was still alive if they were right in front of him." Jotaro flinched slightly at Joseph's words as Nora and Ren tilted their heads to the side, curious. The older Joestar scratched the back of his head as he looked off into the distance. "I have to wonder if Kakyoin actually thought Avdol was dead at that moment."
Confused looks were abound as Joseph said this as Ren, even with his still novice understanding, had been able to string enough of the sentences together to get a basic idea.
"What exactly are you saying, you geezer?" It was clear that Jotaro was agitated by this line of thought, so Joseph, as ever, paid the teen's attitude little mind as he continued.
"Polnareff's reckless actions, his pride and bravado had nearly cost Avdol his life at that moment. To be kind, Polnareff seems like the sort who needs a rather… hard kick to the head if he's ever going to learn anything. I think that's something we can all agree on, right?" There was a slight hesitation among the three, before they relented and nodded in agreement. Polnareff was a good man and pleasant company, but Brothers above, the man could be stubborn to a fault, something he had demonstrated the day before in spades.
"If I know Kakyoin half as well as I think I do, I think he may have kept Avdol's survival away from Polnareff."
"What, why?" This time, it had been Nora who had fired off against Joseph, as the old man raised his hands to placate the young girl.
"Polnareff needed to learn a lesson about how abandoning his partners in favor of running off on his own could endanger not just his life, but ours. Kakyoin may have figured that doing so, while perhaps cruel in the short term, would be enough of a shock to get through to Polnareff and make him see reason." Nora and the others flinched as Joseph laid this out, unable to challenge him even as he continued. "In addition, think of this: Avdol is very vulnerable right now. He's going to be laid up for a little while now, even with all the advantages of modern medicine at his disposal. We can't afford to wait for him to recover so after we deal with J. Geil and Hol Horse, we'll need to get on a move on."
"So what, we just leave Avdol here and just keep going to Vacuo, you shitty old man?" Jotaro had walked up to Joseph and jabbed a finger in his grandfather's chest, clearly displeased with the idea, even as Joseph sighed.
"I know, I know. It doesn't sound pleasant and I don't like it much more than you do. However, do keep in mind that Avdol knows these lands far better than we ever will and has his own networks of contacts that he can take advantage of to catch up with us. We don't have the luxury of time to wait; lives are at stake, Jotaro." His grandson flinched as Joseph threw this back in his face, as Nora just frowned after the two of them.
"But, if Avdol's left on his own, wouldn't he be in danger, old guy?" Joseph smiled slightly at Nora as he pointed to his head.
"I think that's the other reason Kakyoin didn't say anything about Avdol in front of Polnareff or Hol Horse; as far as anyone connected to our enemies may be concerned, Avdol is dead. The one man among us who might most easily blab about this thinks he's dead too, on top of that. For right now, I can trade for Avdol to be treated at the hospital to ensure a speedy recovery, while we continue on our way to Vale." Joseph grinned slightly as he tapped the side of his head. "When we were planning this trip out, Avdol had pointed out that the island he grew up on was just off the coast of Vacuo proper, and that should we lose track of anyone or get separated, that it'd be a natural meeting up point. We can look to meet him there and then continue on in full force from there."
Joseph's expression became serious as he looked at the three of them, his gaze hardened. "However, all of this rests on the four of us being able to keep up with Kakyoin's act. If any of us spills the beans on this or otherwise blabs, then Avdol will be at risk." Joseph smiled apologetically to Jotaro, Nora and Ren. "It's a lot to ask, but you three are going to need to keep Polnareff in the dark on this and keep quiet about this entire affair. Do you understand?"
Jotaro and Ren took relatively little time between the two of them. The young boy, respectful of his elders and somewhat wise beyond his own years already, merely nodded his ascent. Jotaro, on the other hand, seemed deeply conflicted about the entire affair before he finally relented with a scowl and a kick to the dirt. The affair hadn't sat well with him, but he'd seen the reason in it.
Nora, with a frown on her face, looked up to the old man with a slightly hurt expression to her face.
"It just seems really mean though… Polnareff's gonna be really hurt. It doesn't seem right to just leave him like that." Nora said with as mall shake of her head, as Joseph just sighed and, with an old, tired smile, knelt down to Nora's level.
"Trust me on this one Nora: men like Polnareff, men who're proud and stubborn to the point where they can't see past their own egos… sometimes, it takes a shock like this to put things into perspective for them. This is something important that Polnareff needs to handle; he needs to realize that he can, and should, rely on us instead of storming off by himself and letting his foolish pride dictate his actions. Believe me, this might seem cruel, but considering everything will turn out right by the end, it'll be for the best. Some men aren't so lucky when they're learning this lesson." A deeply regretful look passed over Joseph's face as he said this. "Brothers above know that I wish I had this sort of good fortune a long time ago." The sheer sadness that had filled Joseph's voice caused Nora to flinch, before she frowned even more as she shook her head.
"That's dumb though. That should be something people should know already! Ren and I-"
"You two are very special kids." Joseph smiled as he rubbed Nora's head, which caused a frustrated flush to come to her cheeks. "Went through some sh… stuff together and you all suffered through it long enough to trudge across most of Remnant and run into us. I understand that you two probably get this point more than a lot of people, but… not everyone learns this lesson quite so young, and people should hope they shouldn't have to." Joseph smiled as he stood up and dusted himself off. "Think of it like this; by the end of this, Polnareff will be able to rely on us just as well as you and Ren rely on each other. Don't you think that'd be worth it?" A wily grin crossed Joseph's face as Nora thought for a moment. The orange haired girl turned her head back to face Ren, the magenta eyed boy smiled warmly at her as he just nodded his head after her. After a brief moment, Nora sighed and turned to face Joseph, a smile on her little face.
"I guess I'll try my best…" Once again, Joseph's big old hand came down and ruffled her mop of orange hair.
"Atta girl. Let's go see if we can find Kakyoin and Polnareff then. Hopefully they've already cleaned up the trash." Joseph walked ahead and reached down to pat Ren by the shoulder and lead the young boy on. "Now, I'm not nearly the polyglot Avdol is, but I'm sure I can manage to pick up where he left off. If he knew I'd let you fall through on getting you ready to hit Vale, he'd probably curse me from his hospital bed." The old man gave a wry laugh as he trudged forward, his spirits renewed by the good turn of fortune the group of five had been granted.
Indeed, even as Nora and Jotaro shared a brief look, one that had shown their misgivings, they nodded and followed after. The Stardust Crusaders and their charges had suffered through much these past two days: two of their friends and allies had nearly either died or run off, yet now, it seemed that there was path forward for them all, for things to return, if not exactly to how they were before, to at least some even ground.
It was this day among so many of the days that Ren and Nora had spent with the Crusaders that had instilled in them the values of partnership and trust, one that had been forged in fire between Nora and Ren in Kuroyuri, between the Crusaders themselves throughout their journey and now, between the five Stand Users and the two children.
Yet, their journey was still not yet complete. Many dangers still awaited the group, even reforged as they were in their trials. The path to Vale was open, but fraught with peril and it seemed unlikely that the city itself would offer much safe haven from Dio and his minions.
Yet, together again, the group of Stand Users and their charges would march forward, ready to meet these challenges and more head on.
With a short stop for Joseph Joestar to handle The Empress, of course.
-To Be Continued- Great School Days (Act 4)
A/N: So, before we get into today's topic itself, a quick note on the chapter. As you might've gathered from the last A/N, this little snippet of the story's background, character development and lore wasn't originally part of the Great School Days Arc, as I outlined it. In fact, it didn't exist up until Volume 4 opened up the possibilities for me to explore it, Nora's, Ren's and Jotaro's characters at this point. So I didn't get the time to really super hard-core outline just how long this was going to be. As you can judge from the ending of this chapter, the next chapter is going to pick up roughly where this left off, with another skip. It's funny: originally, Great School Days was going to be the first 2 Act Arc, to break from the previous 3 Act arcs that had been the norm so far. Now, thanks to Vol. 4, it's going to end up being the 1st 4+ Act arc, which I hadn't expected to hit up until The Breach. Funny how things work out.
Oh and before any reviews about the battles: they happen mostly as they did in canon as Ren and Nora, being so young and inexperienced, don't really change anything. I'd be bored writing them again because I'd be treading over old ground, you'd be bored reading them because they'd be treading over old ground and they'd be a waste of space.
Seriously, one of my little annoyances is when authors just completely reuse canon material without changing it. It's why I ended up skipping most of the giant robot encounter during the end of Welcome to Vale. I don't want to use old ground to just pad out the chapter.
That being said, that doesn't mean there won't be a fight (or fights) in these. Just that they'll have been non-canon to the original Stardust Crusaders.
Now then: I love the JoJos. All of them. They're a great set of characters with each of their own strengths and weaknesses and I think they're all pretty great. I might have my favorites, but in the end, I can't bring myself to dislike any of them. Even Jonathan, as simple as he is, is too much of a pure cinnamon bun for me to dislike.
All of this includes the sometimes maligned Kujo Jotaro, who can be given a hard time by the fandom because most people find him to just be this simple, stoic badass who has very little character and doesn't really emote much. Well, all I can say is get on my level. Jotaro might not have the most flashy or flamboyant personalities of the JoJos or even wear his emotions on his sleeves (often) but the guy does have his own complexities as a character. Despite being a self-declared punk and delinquent, the guy has a strong sense of justice and even has a rather soft side to him that peaks through here and there. One of the things I actually like about the runaway girl, up until she become some random fawning girl for Jotaro, was how Jotaro interacted with her in the episodes and chapters after Strength and the encounter with Forever.
The behavior ends up stacking up with other ways in which Jotaro acts through the series: the guy can be surprisingly gentle when you aren't bugging the ever loving shit out of him. Let's his mom kiss his cheek, asks after her health, buys a little kid some sweets and lets her hold his hand in Singapore, doesn't immediately shove Josuke's mom off of him when she's pulling off the grieving, lonely woman episode (one of my favorite comedic moments in Diamond is Not Crash), is actually a pretty legit mentor for Koichi and honestly, in his own Jotaro-ish way, seems torn up that his relationship with his daughter ended up the way it did because of how he was trying to protect her and his wife from his life as a Joestar descendant. Even when Jotaro calls him mom a bitch or yells at girls, that's hardly the angriest we've ever seen this particular JoJo.
And when we see him that angry, it's hardly the roaring, annoyed, shouting Kujo Jotaro. This is just pure, angry, I'm going to kill you Kujo Jotaro. He's put upon in the other cases, sure, but he's never, seemingly, legit pissed off.
All this occurs consistently enough that it seems pretty clear that Araki was trying to give us this identity of a guy who tried to act big and tough for whatever reason (hey, it was the 80s, rebellion was big at the time) but that, at heart, he was a good guy with a pretty solid sense of justice who just happened to be pretty rough around the edges. Hell, the more time he spends with the other Crusaders, the more we see this dynamic take place. Over time we see him refer to Joseph less and less insultingly (i.e., geezer or some variant) and more as just 'old man', which he'd carry on into his adult years.
This, along with Nora's and Ren's backstory in this fic and Iggy's place in the universe now that the Speedwagon Foundation isn't a thing in RBA, are things, characterizations and themes I wanted to explore. For Jotaro, I think it's key for establishing that the Jotaro who might seem overly soft compared to his canon counterpart is merely just given 'better' circumstances and that we can see shadows of this characterization throughout the series. We'll continue to see how the Crusaders impacted Ren and Nora next chapter and we'll also delve into everyone's rapidly art-style shifting dog as well.
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you all in five days.