Following a few days after their run-in with an unexpected battle, the gang managed to spend some time relaxing from their unfortunately shortened break.
Early in the morning, walking down the street in a horribly slumped manner was Johanne and Noboru dressed in overalls and white t-shirts that were completely dirtied up with oil and mud and carrying tools.
"Alright, son. Well done. We worked our asses off for three days straight and got the rent money. Tonight we celebrate. Recommendations?" Noboru turned to his son who was frantically toying with his hair and brushing some dirt out of it.
"I don't know. A shower sounds pretty great right about now. My body is killing me and my hair is a mess. And People wonder why I go around kicking ass. So I can get a damn education instead of working at ungodly hours of the night." Johanne turned his head and spat out of frustration, hanging his shovel over his shoulder but froze feeling Noboru's hand on his head.
"I'm sorry son I can't give you the life you want, I don't want your mother thinking I can't handle these things either." Noboru let out a soft sigh seeing their home approach but felt Johanne punch him in the arm.
"Don't beat yourself up, old man. I chose this life, Bodou is our little home. And I'm out to protect it. Besides, I like our nice quiet-"
Without a second wasted Johanne's sentence was cut off by some loud crashing noises and a very vicious scream coming from his backyard, "GAAAAH! GOD DAMNIT!" Noboru and Johanne didn't hesitate to make a dash for the noise.
Kicking in the gateway as soon as they arrived, a chair was flying towards them. Noboru covered and tried to duck it but Johanne dispatched the chair with a swift jab from M.C.R. "What the hell is going on!?"
"Don't you fuckin' run away! You think you can keep runnin' from all your problems!?" A voice neither of them had heard before was screaming from the direction the chair came from and saw Jotaro rolling into a crouched stance.
"Yare yare... Why don't you relax for a damn minute and we can-" Jotaro's sentence was cut off abruptly by another chair being flung towards him which he dodged easily.
Johanne cut further into the backyard to investigate, only to see another boy around his age. He was somewhat bigger than Johanne but had a rather built frame to him. A black sleeveless cut off shirt, some brown cargo shorts, and combat boots, a tattered skull bandana around his neck. His hair and face had a familiarity to them, a skin cut hairstyle with green highlights, Chartreuse eyes with two rings printed into the brow. "What is with that kid...? Do I know him? Whatever! Hey! Asshole!"
The boy that was causing the turmoil in his yard turned to him with his chest pounding and glare piercing, another familiar trait that put Johanne off slightly but he didn't phase due to his frustration of his property being damaged, "The fuck business do I have with you!? Kick rocks!" And completely ignored Johanne making a slow steady strut over to Jotaro.
Johanne rose his shovel up and made his way a lot faster over to the boy and swung the shovel, "Don't you ignore me jackass!"
"Holy shit! Son what are you doing!?" Noboru tried to rush over to stop his son from making a fatal mistake but noticed that Johanne's shovel was stopped in midair by something.
Jotaro and Johanne stared directly at the boy and knew what it was, there was an arm extended from his back with a long blade blocking the shovel. "So you're a Stand user... I don't have to hold back then." M.C.R sprung from behind Johanne and delivered a swift blow to the boy's jaw slumping him over some and stumbling.
"Grr! Shouldn't have done that...!" Fixing his posture so his body leaned forward and the same arm that held the blade expanded into a full-bodied Stand from a slow vortex of sand, a muscular crocodile-humanoid creature with skirted Egyptian armor and sandals holding a reversed bat'leth. The Stand let out a vicious roar while its owner called its name, "Freak on a Leash! I'll tear you to shreds!"
The two of them ran at one another rapidly exchanging blows, Johanne carefully planning the barrage of punches that met the blade of the boy's stand so that the small dagger ornaments on M.C.R's gloves collided with it. Johanne's punches were connecting more than he was getting nicked by the blade. "Giving up yet!? You bastards got some nerve coming to my house of all places to attack us!"
The boy's vicious breathing and growling intensified with a beastly shake of his body while radiating a blood red aura that grew larger with each passing exchange. Johanne noticed the change in attack pattern, the strikes got heavier and he was taking more small gashes around his arms and broke into a sweat, 'What the hell is this Stand!? He's swinging so wildly, he was barely keeping up with M.C.R a minute ago and now- He not even concentrating. He's so angry it's like his Stand is acting on its own! I have to stop this!' With a swift lunge forward Johanne dropped down using the lack of focus in his opponent to send a kick to his gut to momentarily knock the wind out of him due to both of them having such short ranges on their Stands and using M.C.R to defend the blows, a perfectly executed strike.
The boy stumbled back with a louder scream, his hair had risen up to a spikier shape that reflected his rage and the attack to come with the very same roar coming from his Stand. Johanne followed through with another attack from M.C.R that sent him flying over towards Jotaro, seeming to add his own frustration to the attack.
The boy rose to his feet, ignoring the pain he felt from the attack entirely and prepared another rush until he was conked on the head by Jotaro's fist and Jotaro himself stepping between the two, "Gah! What the hell Dad!?"
Johanne and Noboru paused entirely with their faces twisting to an utterly shocking state at the comment with their jaws dropped in confusion, "Did this dude just say... Dad?"
Jotaro dropped his hat over his eyes with a deep sigh and walked a little further out, "Sorry to drop this on the table all of a sudden. He's my son. Jesse Kujo. His mother needed a break from... his temper and some personal business with me."
With a very similar sigh, the boy who was addressed as Jotaro's son walked up brushing his hair back with expression turning much calmer, much more relaxed as he stood away from Jotaro but glared at him lazily, "Jesse Joestar. I refuse to carry that name until you act like a father. Calling spending time with your kids isn't business. Sheesh, how dare you come out here on vacation while your daughter, Jolyne, is back in Florida struggling?"
Johanne was trying to take this news in strides but was failing every step of the way until he took a few more steps forward, "Let me get this right. You have two? How come you've never brought this up before!? I was this close to spinning this guy's jaw."
The calm demeanor that was painted on Jesse's face slowly contorted to the previous angry one, with his hair frilling up some and stepping forward holding a fist out, "Don't get too fuckin' cocky! I let my guard down but I'll turn you to mincemeat retard!"
Johanne's temper was tested immediately and the side of him that tried to suppress the thuggish behavior from his upbringing failed, getting close to Jesse and glaring fiendishly with a vicious tone and fury, "You're in my yard asshole! I'll kick your ass up and down the street if I so, please! So go ahead and try bastard!"
As another furious exchange of words was about to fly, Johanne's phone seemed to ring loudly in his pocket. Quickly flipping it open, his expression changed entirely and the sweetest, most innocent change in tone came as he answered the call, "Mama! How are you doing?"
Noboru, Jotaro, and Jesse all stood there in confusion, the shift in behavior and mood was night and day with Johanne. They all sighed and moved on while Johanne strolled to the other side of the yard conversing with his mother.
"Oi! Jesse. Start cleaning this place up. You can't just show up somewhere and wreck other people's home. I know you were brought out here for a reason but don't forget your manners." Jotaro tipped his hat forward and moved around collecting pieces of the damaged lawn furniture.
Jesse was back to his previous state of mind, calm once again, as he let out a soft sigh and began to reorganize the stuff he'd thrown, "Don't go around barking orders Dad. I'm still upset with you. We need to talk sometime about all this traveling."
The time rolled on into the afternoon until almost the entire group made their way back to Johanne's house and met in the living room with Jotaro and Jesse in the middle of the crowd.
Avelessi was softly sipping a cola in his palm with the scratch of his head, "This is rather sudden... I don't usually expect so many new faces one after another. Regardless it's a pleasure to meet you, Mr- Erm?"
"Jesse. Jesse Joestar. Nice to meet you all too. I'm uh sorry about that mess. Things got a little heated when I saw my old man after almost 2 years." Jesse turned his head to Jotaro and nudged his arm which was quickly dismissed.
Kaito leaned against the wall staring over at them both, his silence usually spoke for itself on his general interest but Kaito couldn't get a beat on him. "You're very peculiar. Not in a bad way of course. I can't sense any actual malicious intent. But that look in your eyes. Might that be from your relation to that cold man? Nevertheless I won't pester in others business. If Johanne sees you as alright, so be it."
Johanne came out of the back with a towel around his head, drying his long blonde and silver hair that no one often saw out of the ponytail with a groan, "That's Kaito. He's not very social. Took almost a month for him to get settled in here."
Kiba pushed his way past Johanne laughing at one of Johanne's mangas, "The guy is a stick in the mud. From what I can see, you've got an interesting look going on there. You're American too, luckily you've come to the right place or people in Japan would be tearing you apart with their eyes. Names Misogi Kiba."
Jesse calmly stared at Kiba with a few scratches of his head and nodded, "Thanks, dude. I guess? It's normal to look like this in America where I hang around. I'm still waiting for my motorcycle to come in. I'd like to ride around and see the town."
Avelessi jumped up finishing his beverage, "Ah! You're a motorcycle enthusiast as well!? So is Johanne. I'm sure you two will have a lot to talk about. As for sightseeing, why don't we take him into town guys!?" His bright and exciting mood seemed infectious to everyone but Jotaro and Kaito who immediately declined for work purposes.
"Ah, why the hell not? Wouldn't hurt. After a long day's work, I could use some ice cream. I hope you took those notes for me Kiba." Johanne leads the stride out the door motioning Jesse to follow him.
"Uhh yeah! Totally... Notes..." Kiba cleared this throat, throwing up the peace sign to Kaito and Jotaro on his way out.
"Oh boy! Oh goodness! I can't wait to tell Jesse all about my discoveries! I wonder if he's an extraterrestrial believer as well. I should ask him! Maybe he can offer some tips they use in America." Avelessi quickly closed the door behind him catching up with the rest.
Kaito and Jotaro met eyes in the room quickly until a nod was exchanged, "Jotaro. Things are getting a lot worse than it seems."
"So our suspicions were correct? They still have the arrow here. They aren't planning on letting it leave the city with me intact." Jotaro pulled up a chair, pulling out a small black book of notes scribbled down about Dio's connection to the Mayor of this town.
"Take a look at this." Kaito walked over to Jotaro and held up his phone that was playing a video. The imagery was shocking to Jotaro as it panned around to several bodies laying on the ground dead with the same puncture wound in the throat and some of them being Speedwagon Foundation workers. "They're getting desperate. Trying to build an army to distract us. He's furthering his plan. He wants to control this city with an army of Stand Users dictated by force. He's murdering those who he once gave work to and those he's capturing..."
Jotaro closed his eyes in thought and shut the book in his palm, thoughts rolled in his head of all his travels, especially in Egypt. Turning to Kaito with his finger raised, Jotaro spoke firmly, "We need to speed things up. No telling who might be lurking around this place. I'll break things down to Johanne. This man isn't any regular Dio worshipper."
Cutting back to our gang walking down the street, Avelessi was spouting his mouth out by the second about little green men, being watched wherever you go and so on. Jesse seemed to space in and out of that side of the conversation, watching their surroundings.
Buildings fractured and broken as far as the eye could see, several boarded up windows in some of the blocks they cut through on the way to Upper Bodou, it was a depressing sight to see so much graffiti and people balled around the streets, "What's the deal with this town? Why is it so... different?"
Johanne dropped his arms from the back of his head. He and Kiba both seemed to slow down but kept their lead in the front, Avelessi noticed this and stopped talking. After a few brief moments, Johanne spoke up "This is a town of stolen hope and lies. People are told they have a chance and can make it somewhere. But, we don't. Our only option is to starve and die or take the scraps."
Jesse silently listened to his words as they were passing the section that separated the two sides there was a group of homeless families wrapped in blankets with rusted metal pans. Johanne stopped to pull out his wallet and slip some yen into the pan, Kiba did the same. They were thanked by a man with a child in his lap who smiled at them.
"That was awfully generous of you. Usually, it's not done so easily back home. A lot of people just walk past bums in the street." Jesse said joining them back with the same walking pace.
Kiba spoke up this time, "Because it's a dog eat dog world over here. No one has anything here and if they're lucky it's not stolen from them by the people or the officials. It's bullshit man. That's why ever since Johanne and I were kids we swore to never be that type of trash. To take everything and give nothing back."
Jesse scratched his head and nodded once again, "I don't mean to be that guy. But, Johanne. You have a choice to not live that life, right? The woman you were on the phone with, I spoke to her before my flight. She's one of the top researchers in the R&D department. She should be paid well. Why aren't you living up here?" Referring to some of the nicer buildings as they were now strolling through Upper Bodou.
Johanne grits his teeth for a moment and lets out a sigh, "It's a lot more complicated than that. I could easily live a nice cozy life here with my Dad. Ignore all the issues going on around me, have a nice following of women, fancy clothes. But that won't satisfy me."
"Satisfy you?" Jesse leaned forward to look at Johanne's expression to see it was stern and solid, filled with deep-seated meaning. Avelessi understood where this was going and silently listened to the message could pass and tugged Jesses' sleeve to motion him to listen close.
"From a young age, my actual father was a scumbag. I don't like to talk about him much, but I gained no fatherly traits from him. But, my current one. He taught me something that I'll never forget. That being handed everything is boring, you don't grow that way. He could have banked off my mother's money, the same as me. But we won't be satisfied as men. So we work our fingers to the bone and enjoy it every step of the way. According to Dad, that's what made my mother fall for him. Funny right?" Johanne turned to Jesse with a smile this time, the story made him at ease every time he thought of it.
Jesse was shocked by this tale and only stared at Johanne with respect for him compared to the raging guy he saw before. Kiba chimed in by stopping the group, "Alright! Enough sappy stuff for the moment. Time for the best-frozen treat you'll ever have." Leaning the group into Megumi's shop.
The group entered the ice cream parlor with business as booming as ever but a loud noise behind the counter, "By the Queen please have some mercy woman!"
"No! You look so cute out of that old stuff! You didn't say anything last night! Pleeeease!" These were two very familiar voices that came from behind the counter, Johanne and Kiba's faces grew blank and lifeless at the comments.
"Dude they're at it again..." Kiba mentioned leaning into Johanne's ear with a soft whisper. In which was quickly received with a nod and his rolling his finger around.
"We should probably come back later... I'm sure we can find something at the convenient store down the street..." The boys grabbed Jesse who curiously stared behind the counter until on his way out they popped from behind the counter with Megumi trying to force a long pink apron onto Edward while he furiously struggled to get away.
Both of the leading boys were brought to a shutter as they strolled down the street. Jesse moved back up to them and kept his eyes wandering, "This town is something else. It's remarkable how people are bouncing around English and Japanese here."
"Well, if you hadn't noticed. There is a large abundance of Japanese people here, but I'm part Danish, Avelessi's Italian, and our friend back there was British. You'll meet him later. Bodou is famous for being a huge ethnic playground. So English became a stronger central language being taught in our schools." Johanne led the group into the store and noticed they hadn't gotten a greeting. Only glares.
The group split off and grabbed their snacks and what not. Many things were unfamiliar to Jesse, so he grabbed some chips and moved with the rest. Johanne walked to the counter "Hey, I'd like to buy a couple ice creams, please." While placing the money on the counter.
The man at the counter rolled a toothpick in his mouth and groan, reaching into the freezer in the back grabbing a couple wrapped cones and tossed them onto the counter. "Pay for the rest and scram."
This behavior didn't sit right with Jesse and he stepped forward to retaliate but Johanne held an arm out, "Thank you very much. Have a nice day."
As they all calmly gathered their things in bags the man put for them, they turned to leave and heard him mutter. "Hmph. Nice day my ass, filthy foreigners."
The rattle of Jesse's chains on his clothes and boots stopped as he turned his head with his hair flaring up again, "What did you just say?"
"I said get out of my store. Ya trash!" the clerk commented again crossing his arms and locking glares with Jesse.
"Don't test me you judgmental pri-!" Jesse's shoulder was grabbed by Johanne and tightly gripped with a slow shake of his head as if he was silently telling him not to pick this fight.
Jesse's fist tightened in anger from being held back once again and let loose as he knocked over an entire row of candy and rushed out the door. Kiba sighed and spoke up, "Go handle the guy. We got it." He and Avelessi turned to the man to apologize immediately after and knelt to retrieve the candy.
Johanne quickly turned on his heel and hurried out the door to see Jesse turned away. Johanne rushed up to him and shoved him to the wall, "What the fuck is your problem!?"
"What's my problem? Did you not hear what he said to us!? You talk about satisfaction but can you honestly be okay sitting around and taking that?" Jesse grabbed Johanne's arm quickly trying to pull him off.
"Are you kidding me? I'm trying to build something better here! Not make enemies. We're just proving them right if we fly off the handle at shit like that! I don't know how things work in the States but I can't have that kind of crap going on here!" Johanne jerked him back against the wall.
Jesse shoved Johanne off him and watched as his flaring hair changed once again, his expression seemed a lot more intense. They continued their stares in heated silence, "Step off..." Jesse muttered under his breath, there was a festering rage in the boy's voice.
Johanne took a moment to shut his eyes and take a very deep breath, turning his back to Jesse, "Do me a favor and don't move. I'm going to take a small walk. Let Avelessi and Kiba know as well."
The two didn't speak any further as Johanne walked down the street in the opposite direction and cut the corner. After a short distance, Johanne heard a whimper coming around a corner, "What the hell is that?" Slowly approaching the noise, he heard it get louder and much more familiar, "A dog?"
When finally finding the origin of the noise there was a small staircase into what looked like a lower pocket of the street and saw a tail slowly wagging, "Ah. It might be stuck down there. I suppose you don't deserve that huh little guy?"
Johanne tucking his hands into the pockets, making his way down the stairs to the whimpering as it got louder. Reaching a few steps before the tail, there was a loud scream from the dog then silence. His face swapped to one of slight hesitation and stopped, "H-hey? You okay down there little guy...?"
Taking another couple steps down, Johanne's entire being froze in panic as some trickles of dark liquid pooled around the now motionless tail and from the shadows around the corner, the head of a small Boston terrier rolled out with its eyes slashed open, leaking a gruesome amount of blood. "N-no way... You gotta be kidding me..."
Johanne quickly tried to turn around to run back up the stairs but felt a swift clench on his ankle. Turning to look at it cautiously, there was a long, boney, inky black twitching hand with monstrously sharp fingers that dug into Johanne's leg. Panic ensued him as M.C.R quickly emerged to attack it but the arm seemed to only slightly splash onto the ground as if made of some form of liquid but didn't let go of Johanne's leg. "S-shit! I'm trapped!"
Before he could think of any other means of escape, Johanne's body flung to the ground and was viciously pulled down the stairs. He used every bit of might he could muster with himself and his stand, but the grip broke the stone portion of old stairs and was drug even further down the stairs. Johanne screamed at the top of his lungs for help as his body sank into pitch black darkness.