A Glitch In Time
Me: Does anyone else love the JoJo game Eyes of Heaven? I loved it; though my favorite bit was the part that wasn't explored as much as I'd hoped it would be - the interactions between the different generations of the Joestar family. So while I was watching it on youtube and pondering what I would have liked to have seen...this idea burst into my brain more - or - less fully formed. So...enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
Chapter 1
Generally speaking, the town of Morioh didn't receive a lot of traffic other than people just passing through. Warm and welcoming it's atmosphere may be, it wasn't anywhere particularly special – at least, on the surface – and happened to be situated near some roads that went everywhere special. So when someone passing through stopped to stay for a while, they tended to be a source of local curiosity, if only briefly.
Josuke Higaskata knew better than most people, however.
The teenager ran along the familiar road to the hotel on the other side of town from his school; he doubted that their visitor would be staying anywhere else, even though if he'd asked, there was a room for him in Tomoko's house. Sure enough, he only had to burst through the glass double doors to find his nephew Jotaro Kujo, file boxes tucked under one arm, blinking at him in surprise.
"Jotaro! You're back!" Josuke cheered, darting across the floor and wrapping the older man in a tight one-armed hug.
Jotaro let out a surprised grunt and nearly lost his balance; he narrowly managed to re-grab the box he'd been carrying after righting himself under the sudden new weight. Josuke quickly let him go and bounced back a step, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.
"Sorry 'bout that. I wasn't told you were coming back until yesterday!"
Jotaro set the box on the ground – possibly on guard for another unexpected hug – and regarded him with a look that, for him, denoted mild puzzlement. "And I didn't expect you to show up here," He remarked.
Josuke grinned at him in response, clapping a hand on his shoulder; the gesture was a little awkward thanks to how tall Jotaro was, but the spirit shone through in his warm tone. "C'mon, how could I miss the chance to welcome my favorite nephew back to Morioh?"
"I'm your only nephew," Jotaro said. His voice was dry and level as always, but a faint flash of a smile crossed his face; Josuke was tempted to whoop in surprised delight at that. Everyone, from his family to casual acquaintances, knew that the solemn Doctor Kujo rarely smiled; even the glimpse of one should be greatly appreciated. "So you don't have any ulterior motives?"
"No!" Josuke said, puffing up his chest. Jotaro arched an eyebrow at him; a couple of seconds later, the teen blew out a breath and his shoulders slumped slightly. "...Okay, maybe I was hoping we could go to Tonio's together. Y'know, hang out, catch up a bit? Before you go and bury yourself in that..." He examined the size of the bulging case Jotaro had been carrying and blanched slightly. "...literal mountain of paperwork you just put down?" He tried not to look too hopeful as he waited for a response.
Jotaro pondered that for a moment...then glanced at the ceiling. "I could go for that," he said. "I eat a lot better there than anywhere else."
Josuke's face lit up. He'd honestly expected Jotaro to brush him off, insist that he was busy. He'd been pretty reserved during his previous visit, neither inviting anyone to spend what little leisure time he allowed himself with him nor responding to many of the invitations of others. According to his father and Jotaro's grandfather, he was always like that to certain degrees.
Therefore, this easy acceptance was startling and made him very happy. "Alright!" The teenager cheered, pumping his fist. "Let's get a reservation!"
Jotaro nodded. He looked a little taken aback at the enthusiasm, but not irritated at all as Josuke ran off to the nearest public phone to get them a table. "Yare Yare..." He murmured to himself, feeling his lip twitch upward. "Where does he find all that energy?"
He had missed Josuke after leaving Morioh the first time; he was glad to see him still upbeat and cheerful in spite of his encounters with evil Stand users. Jotaro himself hadn't been quite so lucky; thinking that he'd been able to somewhat shield his young uncle from the horrors he himself had experienced at his age gave him a great sense of relief.
It couldn't hurt to spend a little time with him before taking a deep dive on the books.
Roughly an hour later, the two of them were enjoying dinner at Tonio's. The chef was a good friend; while his restaurant was always busy, their family could count on him finding a place for them. Josuke gladly chowed down on the pasta he'd picked out, feeling a little embarrassed at the memory of the first time he'd been a patron here. Thinking that he might have gotten banned from this amazing place thanks to paranoia was upsetting to say the least!
He glanced at Jotaro, who was eating at a more sedate pace and looking like he was killing something in his mind, though he was trying to hide it. "So, what's going on? If there's a new threat to Morioh, I can help," he said.
Jotaro blinked at him, then shook his head. "It's not a threat...at least, not an active one."
"Yet," Josuke guessed as he continued to eat.
"You're learning," Jotaro mused. "To be perfectly honest, no one really knows what it is or what's causing it. To put it simply, the Speedwagon Foundation has been documenting strange incidents involving distortions of light, air and space...they've asked me to do some investigating."
Josuke cocked his head to the side. "Distortions and warped space...sort of like the Superfly?" He asked, remembering his encounter with the autonomous Stand that trapped him inside a tower.
"No." Jotaro drew out a couple pictures from his pocket and put them in the middle of the table. Leaning over, Josuke examined one with a furrowed brow. Hovering a foot above the ground at a beach was what looked like a strange disk, big enough for a person to walk through, that looked like a tangle of gold, silver and black light. "The first time an appearance of one was documented was in 1939 in Switzerland, though the Foundation has rumors of them popping up as far back as 1890. They don't move or expand judging by current observations, but anyone who gets too close to them vanishes without a trace – they seem to be physically pulled into it."
"Like a tractor beam, from Star Wars?"
"I suppose that's an apt comparison, from how I've heard it described to me."
Josuke picked up another photo and looked it over. This distortion was inside what looked like an old church that had bomb explode inside it. "Is it aliens?" He asked nonchalantly. "'Cause if it is, that would definitely explain something about Mikitaka."
Jotaro arched an eyebrow at the reminder of the odd teenager(?) the boys had befriended back during the Kira case. He wasn't really convinced by the notion, but he didn't dismiss it out of hand. "The Foundation believes it's a Stand user...the distortions disappear after arbitrary lengths of time, but never without at least one mysterious disappearance near one. The worst had up to twenty."
Josuke, his plate now empty, leaned forward on his elbows, eyes wide. "Up to twenty? What's the official count of the amount of missing people?"
"260, going back to 1939...and that's an estimation. Whoever vanishes into the distortion has never reappeared." Jotaro said grimly.
"Never? They just...disappear, like they never existed in the first place?" The younger Stand user shivered slightly. The existential images that description created in his mind were spine tingling, to say the least.
"As far as we can tell. The problem recently is the timing," Jotaro turned his hand up. "It used to be that there were years between appearances of the distortions. Over the past few months...several dozen have been spotted, sometimes only days apart. The Foundation thinks that whatever or whoever has been creating them is on the move."
Josuke frowned. "You think the person causing this is gonna come to Morioh."
"There's not much of a pattern – there never has been – but I think it's likely. The last few appearances were successively closer and closer to the town." Jotaro responded with a rock-solid calm that Josuke deeply envied.
"You really think it's a Stand user?" He asked uneasily.
Jotaro gave him a mild look. "You have another theory?"
"Well, I mean it makes sense; Stands can be really weird. But you said that the first one we know about appeared in 1939, and some people say that they were popping up in 1890. If it was a Stand user, they'd be super old. Could any human live that long?"
"If they were a Hamon user, maybe." Jotaro mused. "That is something that's been bothering me about this. I can't think of anything else that could be triggering them."
Josuke swallowed minutely, then snorted. "Well, I'll keep my eyes open and call if I see one pop up. We can investigate together. From a safe distance." He grinned. "I'll even bring the binoculars this time."
Jotaro's lips twitched upward at the reminder of their hunt for the Stand-wielding rats; it wasn't quite a smile, but it was close. "Right." He knew there wasn't any point in trying to dissuade Josuke from helping him; the boy was easily as stubborn as his father. "If you're going to get involved, you might as well warn your friends what to look out for as well."
Morioh was unique in the sheer number of Stand users who lived close together in a small town; even moreso for the fact that they lived in a comfortable semi-underground society. Information would spread quickly and easily between them.
"Yeah, I'll let them know." Josuke grinned. "They'd be pretty bummed to know I left them out of something like this."
...I think that you and your friends should be happy to take an excuse to not get involved in more Stand Battles, Jotaro thought but didn't say. Instead he changed the subject, asking Josuke what had happened in the town since he'd last been there. Josuke happily took the offer and began regaling him with his life and prodding his nephew for details of his own for another hour before the dinner ended.
The night sky was rent with screeches, cursing and the crashing of twisted metal. The run down town, which should have been quiet as a crypt with its inhabitants hidden away in their homes, was the center of a violent and chaotic battle. The town square was a mess, a ragtag group being swarmed by a massive number of human yet inhuman figures.
One of the people a young man with brown hair and bright green eyes slugs one of the figures in the face, his hands crackling with golden energy; upon impact, the man's head dissolved into dust, quickly followed by the rest of his body. "Where are all these bastards coming from?!" He yelled angrily.
His partner cusses inventively in Italian, bringing down another vampire that had been trying to leap at the brunette's back. The young, green eyed blond was splattered with blood, mostly not his own. "How could he have created this many with a single stone mask?! Damn it – Joestar, behind you!"
The brunette whipped around with an alarmed cry; his attention immediately swung to a tall, muscular blue-haired young man who was preoccupied with the enemies in front of him to notice the three lunging for his exposed back. Before he could try and do anything, however, a series of purple, thorny vines wrapped themselves around the vampires, wrapping them up and pinning them together. A moment later, the vines lit up with golden energy, dusting them; an older man with silver hair landed roughly on the ground, whipping around as though looking for someone.
"We're going to get overwhelmed at this rate!" The older man yelled in warning. "It's still hours to sunrise!" His gaze settled on a camper van off to the side of their defensive circle with a partially open driver's door. Multiple vampires were trying to get into it, but they were either grabbed and flung away by emerald green vines or thoroughly impaled by massive icicles. The falcon responsible for the latter was circling overhead, screeching defiantly. "Any day now, Richter!"
"Yes, we're in trouble! I NOTICED, oddly enough!" A young female voice shouted from inside, both frustrated and intensely focused. "I just need a few more minutes!"
The older man groaned in frustration; lashing out with his Stand again to snare and destroy another vampire. "My kingdom for Jotaro and Star Platinum right about now," He said unhappily.
The well-built young man with blue hair hammered away at a number of zombies, making his way toward the brunette and blonde while still defending a red haired boy who's in control of the green vines. "Are you alright, Jonathan?" The redhead asked worriedly.
"I'll manage!" The blue-haired boy gasped out; he was worn down, but still fighting with great determination. "Just help Christine find that Stand user!"
"It's still hard to imagine she can do that while wiring that van." The redhead said half to himself, looking through his Stand's eyes as he scanned one building, then the other. "Ugh...I'm not used to doing reconnaissance and fighting at the same time."
"Hey, where the hell is her Stand?! This extra defense or whatever the fuck's making these bastards so durable is pissing me off!" The brunette shouted indignantly.
Before anyone could respond to that, an almighty crash cut his complaints off; a second later, a figure was flung from a third story window and crashed down to the ground with a sickening thud. A red and silver humanoid figure dropped down to hover above the van, a blazing aura flickering off of it.
"That helps," The brunette said blankly as his rope, which he'd caught two vampires in, immediately incinerated them.
"There it is. JoJo, on your left!"
"Goddamn-" The brunette broke off with a panicked curse when a knife came down at his back shoulder. Fortunately, before it could ram right through his shoulder, his enemy was grabbed and flung away by the green vine stand. "Kakyoin you're amazing!"
The redhead nodded distractedly in acknowledgment before spinning his stand around and firing a storm of emerald gems at the zombies lunging at the older man's back.
A second later, the camper van roared to life, its headlights cutting through the darkness. Its wheels ground up the gravel below them as it surged forward, doing a whirling spin around the time square before slowing behind them as the side doors swung open.
"Get in!" The girl in the driver's seat shouted. The falcon swooped down and flew in through an open window.
The redhead fired a larger emerald splash to cover for them into the group of vampires in front of them, forcing them back. He was the last one to retreat, keeping up the pressure as his tired and injured companions before firing one final attack before spinning around and scrambling inside; Jonathan pulled him in and the old man slammed the door shut behind him.
The girl floored the accelerator; the van shot down the road, grinding zombies under its wheels. As vampires tried to jump on or simply stop the vehicle in its tracks by standing in front of it, blazing circles of gold and silver light either cut them in half or swallowed them whole. "Buckle up; When Your Gone is getting ready to open the time gate to 2000. It's going to be a bumpy ride!"
Her passengers paled dramatically and scrambled to do just that. On the roof of the car, the red and silver figure turned both its hands over, the numbers etched into its skin glowing; a moment later, a portal glowing with gold and silver light appeared on the road just long enough to swallow up the van before vanishing, leaving the remaining monsters in its dust.
Josuke's next week at school was completely peaceful...right up until it wasn't.
His classes were dull as usual, though they felt particularly slow and painful knowing that something was possibly going on in his home town – again. Having Koichi and Okuyasu around was a relief, but Josuke still felt like he was going crazy before the day was even half over. Any attempt to concentrate on school work was interrupted by the information Jotaro had given him replaying itself on an endless loop; he couldn't think about anything else.
It didn't take long for either of his friends to notice, of course. Koichi brought it up at lunch, and Josuke didn't waste a second filling them in. He couldn't imagine trying to deal with a new threat without them.
"So...they're mystery portals?" Okuyasu asked tentatively.
"That's one way of putting it. They just appear out of nowhere, disappear at random, and whenever anyone gets too close, they vanish and aren't seen again," Josuke said, rubbing his forehead.
"That's really spooky...like something out of Mr Rohan's manga." Koichi murmured, subdued.
"What kinda Stand user could do something like that?" Okuyasu asked, glancing down at his food as though he'd suddenly lost his appetite.
"I have no idea...and neither does Jotaro." That was not a confidence-boosting thing to say; Josuke knew that Jotaro was hardly omniscient, but the older Stand user was so strong and confident that having him admittedly on the back foot was not encouraging. "But they'd have to be pretty damn powerful...and old."
"Like Dracula?!"
Koichi choked on his milk and gave Okuyasu a baffled look. "W-Where'd you get Dracula from?"
Okuyasu's shoulders hunched up a bit defensively. "They said they might've been popping up since 18something, right? Nobody could live that long 'cept a vampire."
"Vampires don't exist, Okuyasu." Josuke said a little dryly. His best friend pouted at him in response, which...honestly was cuter than it had the right to be.
"What do we do if there isn't a user, or anything we can pin the distortions to?" Koichi asked uncertainly.
"I dunno," Josuke admitted. "Hopefully the Foundation'll have a plan."
Neither of his friends looked particularly enthused at that. Not that he blamed them.
A few agonizing hours later, they were finally released by the last bell. The three of them left the school building together, and as soon as they entered the front yard something odd was immediately apparent.
A large number of their classmates were clustered around the front gate, pushing and shoving to get a better view of the road. "What do you think's going on?" Okuyasu asked. Josuke shrugged uncertainly; curious, they made their way over to the scene.
Upon reaching the other students, the 'what' was instantly apparent. Their classmates and upperclassmen were pointing and staring at a large, glowing disk of light in the middle of the street. The gold, silver and black light emanating from it twisted and curved around in on itself, hissing. Cars were stopped haphazardly on the road, like they'd swerved to avoid its sudden appearance; a few other pedestrians were hovering around it in confusion.
Josuke narrowed his eyes at the sight, pulling out a copy of the picture Jotaro showed him the other day. His eyes grew wide when the image in the photo and the glowing disk in front of him appear to be identical. It's one of the distortions!
"Josuke?" Koichi vocalized nervously.
"Well, that was fast," Josuke hissed through gritted teeth. He shoved the picture back in his pocket and hurried toward the gates.
"Is that one of the distortion things you were talking about?" Okuyasu asked hurridly as he and Koichi scrambled after him.
"Yeah," Josuke said, shoving the front gates open. "I'm going to jam the gates; I don't want anyone getting too close to it. Damn it, where's the nearest payphone?"
"Out on the corner over there," Koichi said, pointing to the phone booth at the far end of the street. "Do you want me to call Mr Jotaro?"
Josuke nodded sharply. "Please hurry." Once his best friends had slipped through the school gates, he slammed them shut and summoned Crazy Diamond. A flurry of punches later, the gates were a warped mess of metal, trapping the massive crowd of students safely inside.
Koichi nodded and bolted down the sidewalk. Okuyasu glanced warily between the distortion and Josuke. "What should we do now? Just watch it?"
"I don't know," Josuke admitted. "Though I think we should start-"
He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. The distortion shuddered violently, causing everyone to jump and back away nervously. Balls of light flew out of it and burst like fireworks, the lights increasing to the point of almost being blinding...and all of a sudden a large beige camper van burst out of the distortion at 110 miles per hour, breaks screeching as it spun around and around, flinging multiple people off of its hood and back. Josuke and Okuyasu both jerked backward; that hadn't been expected at all-
"What the fuck?!" Okuyasu burst out as the various people, several of whom had landed alarmingly close to them, staggered back to their feet.
Three of them stood up; they were humans, by all appearances...but as he watched them stand, Josuke felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Their eyes were blank and void of any personality; their bodies bore scars and breaks that should have left them screaming and cursing with pain, yet they didn't even acknowledge them as their attention settled on the two boys. They swayed in place, their attention sharpening as very wide and very unsettling smiles crossed their faces.
"Are...are you okay?" Josuke asked, even as he pulled up Crazy Diamond again.
One of them – he thought it might be a young-ish girl – let out a very scratchy, very unhinged sounding laugh before lunging at him with a machete. Her movement triggered the other two – as if they were pack animals – to bolt toward them as well with clear and visible murder on their minds.
However, before they could reach the boys, the van roared to life again. A window opened, and green vines shot out through it to grab their attackers around the neck, yanking them off the feet and holding them in the air for Josuke and Okuyasu to deal with.
"Dorarararara!" Crazy Diamond unleashed a blinding flurry of blows on the would-be killers, breaking down and reassembling their bodies back to their original state – only with their weapons fused into them.
The van's engine gunned, barreling straight at the mass of attackers that had started to rush it. Large icicles flew out of the van, the green vines flowing after it to skewer, strangle and toss the rabid humans under the wheels even as they tried to climb the hood and bash through the windshield. Josuke heard students and bystanders alike scream and run for cover as the van spun around the back of the portal, clearly aiming to take out the few that had staggered out of the distortion.
"Okay, I know I'm not the smartest guy around, but I'm pretty sure those vines and that ice are from Stands," Okuyasu said as he summoned the Hand.
Sure enough, no sooner had he said that but a red and silver humanoid figure snapped into existence on the van's roof. The distortion shuddered, a number of figures still trying to emerge from it; the Stand raised its arms up, twisting its palms so they were facing the portal. Its hands flashed with a bright blaze of light that flew out, struck the portal, and caused it to shudder shrink and then blink out of existence. Those that had been stepping out vanished along with it, their screams and shrieks cutting off abruptly.
Josuke stepped forward and stared down at the young girl who had just been attacking him. She now looked completely normal now...and completely dead, a bleeding gap in her forehead and skull dripping down her still body.
She was dead. She'd...maybe she'd always been dead, and so were the other two; why else would Crazy Diamond's restoration do that? "What the fuck?" he asked shakily.
The van gunned its engine again, and shot down the road and around the corner.
"...We should get Mr Jotaro," Okuyasu said shakily.
"Yeah." Josuke agreed flatly.
They ran all the way back to Josuke's house at Jotaro's direction, not stopping for anything. They hadn't seen any more of those feral, maybe-undead humans along the way, but that wasn't necessarily comforting. They were so rattled by what they'd seen that they all almost slammed into Jotaro, only avoiding that at the last second.
"Mr Jotaro! We've got zombies on our hands!" Okuyasu yelled frantically.
"They're not zombies; they're flesh bud puppets," Jotaro corrected with the same flatness he'd used when he was discussing Shigetchi's murder and their one link to his murderer. "Just a few days from dropping dead, I'll bet. The ones I ran into couldn't speak so coherently."
"Please tell me you know what's going on," Josuke said faintly, wondering what the hell a 'flesh bud' was supposed to be. It sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn't remember which story it was attached to.
"...Maybe." Jotaro muttered. "Ten years ago I fought someone capable of something like this. I killed him, and I haven't seen his like since." Somehow his expression grew even darker. "But supposedly the source of that powerset still exists scattered across the world."
"I really don't like the sound of that," Josuke groaned.
Jotaro started to say something, but he was cut off by the screeching of car tires. They all spun around to see the mysterious vehicle turn onto their street.
The camper van skidded wildly – Josuke was pretty sure vehicles that size were not generally supposed to turn so hard half their wheels lifted off the pavement – and twisted around the corner light as a snake, righting itself and hurtling down the road like an arrow. Instinctively he pulled up Crazy Diamond again, ready to disintegrate and remake the car if it moved to run them down as well; out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jotaro drop his bag as Star Platinum appeared behind him as well. "Here it comes!" Koichi yelled frantically.
Yet even as his friend said that, the van started to slow down – for a second Josuke thought it would flip over with how hard the driver must have been hitting the breaks. The wheels skidded on the pavement as the van de-accelerated, drifting to the side as its crazy momentum was bled away until it finally rocked to a halt almost right in front of the house next to his.
"They stopped..." Koichi said breathlessly, staring wide-eyed at the vehicle. "I – I guess maybe they're allies after all?"
"It's early to be assuming that," Jotaro warned as the headlights cut out.
"B-But...they ran down those zombie-like things," Okuyasu offered awkwardly. "Nailed one that was coming at me when passing by the school. I didn't know if it was on purpose then, but-"
The van rattled a bit, then the side doors swung open with a bang. Several people – all young men, from the looks of things – spilled out one after another with all the grace of someone who'd just gotten off the meanest roller coaster in existence. The first one out, a tall guy with brown hair, bright green eyes and a naggingly familiar face – Josuke wasn't sure where that thought came from – that was completely green at the gills, stared at them for a second without seeing them before shouting, "Oh my god, other people!" He yelled in a distractedly British voice caught somewhere between relief, terror and desperate pleading. "Please, you have to save us from this maniac!" He flailed at the driver's door, possibly intending to storm over to it and give the guy a piece of his mind, but his thoroughly murdered coordination left him tripping over his own feet and nearly faceplanting on the sidewalk.
"Grk..." The second guy, a blue haired giant with a physique straight out of one of Rohan's mangas, only managed to make it five feet from the van before collapsing on his hands and knees, vomiting painfully. He was shaking like a leaf; Josuke couldn't help but wince in sympathy for him without even seeing his face. His clothes looked kinda funny, though – weren't they pretty old fashioned? "The world...keeps shaking..."
"Urk..." The blonde who stumbled out after him didn't look much better; he didn't bother trying to move far, instead leaning against the side of the van and gripping the sides like a life preserver. He was also tall and muscular like the other two. "I thought I was going to die..." He said in bewilderment. There was a nice, smooth accent to his words, though Josuke couldn't place it. "If this wasn't my fate, what could possibly surpass it?"
"What the hell...?" Jotaro breathed out, stepping up to Josuke's side. At another moment he might have made a crack about his nephew sounding shocked; usually he was stoic to the point of intimidation even in mundane moments. However, right now that was leaving the situation with a completely different complexion – what about this situation had shocked Jotaro, when he kept a straight face when his grandfather was targeted by an assassin and his flesh was literally rotting thanks to Stand-wielding rats?
"Do you know those guys, Jotaro-san?" Koichi asked, looking between him and the strangers. His short friend looked like he wanted to go check on the guy who was throwing up, but wasn't sure if it was wise to approach.
Jotaro's response was cut off by the driver's side door swinging open with a bang. Emerging from within was a tall, skinny girl dressed in old black leather, ripped blue jeans and scruffed-up iron-toed boots. Shoulder length, dirty red hair was tied back in a low braid tied off with a faded ribbon, framing her tanned skinned shoulders and heart-shaped face. She didn't look like she was older than him, and her jade-green eyes were flashing with exasperation and some concern as she regarded her passengers.
"Give me a break!" This girl scoffed; she also had an accent Josuke couldn't quite place. "You fought the Ultimate Lifeforms and a vampire with a god complex, this was nothing."
None of them seemed to have noticed the group at the end of the street; at least, not yet. Josuke glanced at his friends, silently asking if they should try approaching this group of weirdos or just wait and see what they spilled while bickering among themselves. Okuyasu shrugged helplessly, his eyes still glued to the scene. Not that Josuke blamed him; there was something oddly mesmerizing about watching strangers bickering like a mismatched sports team.
The van rumbled again; as if summoned by the remark, an older man staggered out onto the pavement and pointed a shaky but determined finger at the mysterious redhead. "Nothing? Nothing?! You call that nothing?!" The silver-haired, muscular grandfather turned and stared into the van, his jaw dropping slightly. "...Is that bloody bird of yours asleep?! How could anything sleep through that insanity?"
The girl snorted. "Horus isn't a drama queen," she deadpanned.
"I was in car that was shoved off the side of a cliff..." A new voice groaned; a red-haired boy dressed in green tripped out of the car. He looked like he would faceplant on the asphalt until he was suddenly grabbed by a glittering green-silver Stand that wrapped him in its ropelike limbs and steadied him, allowing him to regain his bearings. "And that was nothing compared to this." Shaking his head, he turned to the guy who was still coughing and shivering on his hands and knees. "Mr Joestar...are you alright?"
Josuke heard a sharp intake of breath from behind him; just barely, considering all the other noise in the field in front of him, but it rang like a gunshot when he turned around and saw the person who had let it out. Jotaro – stern, composed, confident Jotaro Kujo – was pale as a ghost, his mouth fallen open as he stared at the two new arrivals.
Jotaro knew that the teens were staring at him – he couldn't help it. This had to be the work of an enemy stand user. What he was seeing wasn't possible. And yet, no matter how many times he blinked, the sight in front of him refused to be dismissed. His grandfather, once again standing with a straight back and confident tenor; indignant and vocal and just like he'd been when they'd went to Egypt. And then...then there was the redhead.
He knew that face. He knew that hair, those caring, concerned violet eyes, the jade green clothes and red earrings. It was like he'd been yanked back ten years; "I have a plan," he said with that same smile. "Go catch up with Polnareff." It was him; he couldn't confuse him for someone else if he it couldn't be him. That person died ten years ago, and with him had died part of Jotaro's own heart.
"What. The. Hell."
Josuke flinched back from Jotaro, while Koichi yelped and Okuyasu let out a distinctly unmanly sounding squeak. Whatever; Josuke refused to be teased over it. Anyone who joked about being afraid of Jotaro Kujo's temper had never seen him angry.
Oblivious to this, the redhaired girl hit her hand against her forehead. A second later, there was a squawk, and an elegant falcon flew out of the car and landed on her shoulder; she reached up and lightly scratched its feathers. "Hey, I count on you being one of the sane voices here, don't join the choir." She trotted over to the guy kneeling on the pavement and put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay, Mr Joestar? Do you need some water? ...Or just want some water, really. We've still got plenty."
The blue-haired bodybuilder shook his head; a moment later, he straightened up and wobbled to his feet, reeling a bit as he got up too fast. The brunette teenager all but warped to his side, slinging one of the guy's arms over his shoulder to help him regain his balance. "Thank you," The blue-haired guy said with a warm smile.
He then bowed politely, as much as he was able, to the girl. It struck Josuke as a very old fashioned gesture; something his grandfather might have done. "No need to worry about me, Miss Richter. I just...need a moment to regain my bearings." He let out a shaky, disbelieving chuckle. "I didn't know anything built by man c-could move that fast!"
"Yeah, neither did I," The brunette groaned. He waggled a free finger at the girl. "I am never getting in a car with you again!"
"Oh, suck it up, will you? My god," The girl said unsympathetically, shaking her head. Then she looked from side to side, as if searching for something or someone. "This is the place my Stand saw in the temporal distortions; I don't suppose any of you know someone named Higashikata?"
Josuke felt his heart practically jump up into his throat at the question; oh shit oh shit oh shit running through his mind wildly. He was so distracted he didn't notice the old man stiffen like he'd been electrocuted. "Ooooh, wait a minute wait a minute, whhhy does this random pretty girl know my name?" In literally any other situation, he'd have been cautiously optimistic about a pretty girl knowing who he was, even if she was a loony driver; but his day had resulted in fighting monsters and undead and she had mentioned Stands in the same breath. That rarely amounted to anything good in Morioh!
Koichi collected his nerve and looked up at a slightly trembling Jotaro, who was staring right ahead. "Um, M-Mr Jotaro? They're calling one of those men Mr Joestar. Do – do you recognize any of them? Are they distant relatives or something?"
For a second, Josuke thought that Jotaro hadn't heard them – or was ignoring them. But then his nephew spoke in an unnervingly level voice. "Yes." He said succinctly. "Those two – both of them -" He pointed first at the old man, then at the brunette. "-are the same person. My grandfather, Joseph Joestar. I'd be damned if I could tell you how that's possible, but I would never mistake that face."
Josuke swore he heard a loud screeching noise followed by a car crash inside the confines of his mind. His father was standing in front of him? His father? A version of his father who wasn't an old man feeling his years?
"I don't know for sure, but I think that man-" Jotaro pointed at the blue haired man. "-might be his grandfather. Jonathan Joestar. I've only seen one or two pictures of him, but I'm not sure who else he could be." He touched the brim of his hat. "I don't recognize the blonde or the redhaired girl, however."
"W-Wait, what?" Josuke exploded. He was vaguely aware of Koichi and Okuyasu babbling out questions of their own, but it was background static. His eyes had locked onto the silver-haired older man, a hot bubbling feeling that he'd suppressed from time to time roaring up with a vengeance.
He couldn't get mad at the Joesph he knew. How could he? He seemed so frail. So gentle. Getting angry at him felt like kicking a puppy who'd come up to you, wanting to go for a walk and spend time with you. He couldn't get any catharsis out of getting angry at the man who'd never been there for him before, even if he hadn't done it on purpose; that Joseph was too fragile for it. He didn't hate his father – no, of course not. But was he angry at him?
Oh, you better believe it.
Seeing a younger version of his father – not the teen Joseph, that particular paradox wasn't something Josuke could wrap his head around yet – allowed the world to snap back into clarity. Whatever the hell was going on could wait for at least a few minutes. He stalked forward, ignoring Koichi and Okuyasu's worried and confused murmurs; he knew without looking that Jotaro was following after him.
The blonde teen noticed him first; he jolted on his heels and spun around, raising his arms defensively. Josuke faintly thought that he had some sort of combat training given how easily he slid into a combat stance, but he filed that away for later questions. "Looking for me?" He asked sarcastically. The two redheads turned around, visibly surprised; the brunette teen jolted while the blue-haired bodybuilder hastily cleaned up his face and stepped aside so he was standing on his own two feet, confusion and alarm in his expression.
"Jotaro?" The redhaired guy said. Josuke might have been surprised – had Jotaro mentioned his name? "Is...is that you?"
The girl shifted from one foot to the other, staring uncertainly at them. "Er, is one of you named Higahskata? There's a situation we're here to..." she trailed off as Josuke stopped a few arms lengths away from the old man.
From Joseph Joestar. Who was staring at him, looking for all the world like a deer caught in the headlights of an eighteen-wheeler.
Jotaro didn't acknowledge either redhead's remarks in favor of giving his grandfather – one of them, at least – a dirty look. "You've been found out, old man," He said dryly, crossing his arms. "This is exactly what and who you think it is."
Josuke cracked his knuckles. Unbidden, he remembered a night when he was seven, coming down to get a late night snack and finding his mother crying in the kitchen, sadly asking for her great love to come back to her.
"Huh?" The girl said, her expression going blank. Clearly she hadn't expected that; which was fair, though frankly it was easier to focus on the events and feelings he could comprehend first.
"Jotaro?" The redhead repeated, taking a step forward with one hand partly raised toward Jotaro. He also looked confused as all hell. Well, at least it's not just us!
The blonde must have read something in Josuke's expression; he slowly pivoted and stared at both versions of Joseph Joestar, brow furrowed. "JoJo...what did you do?" He asked uncertainly.
"Why are you asking me?! I haven't done anything! I've never set foot in Japan!" The teen Joseph protested defensively, his eyes jumping between Josuke and Jotaro like he was looking for an explanation.
"I wonder," Josuke started in a low voice, linking his fingers together as he stared at his father, who was starting to sweat. "Should I jump you now, or wait for mom to get back so she can have a crack at you? Did she know you were married, or did you not think that was worth mentioning before you left, giving her no way of contacting you?"
"W-Wait," older Joseph protested anxiously, a hint of confusion on top of a dozen other emotions swimming in his eyes. "M...Mom? Wait...w-who...are you?"
"Joseph Joestar, don't tell me you-" The blue-haired man started, having clearly put the pieces together and not liking them one bit.
"I haven't done anything!" The brunette pleaded, glancing anxiously at the other guy. Distantly Josuke thought Jotaro might have been right, and that was Jonathan Joestar – their mutual ancestor. There was a weird thought left sitting on his head. "C'mon, I would never-"
"Meet your son, old man," Jotaro cut his younger grandfather off rather pitilessly, sparing Josuke from having to shout the words in his face.
The brunette sputtered, paling in shock. "W-W-...what?!"
"Son?" The older Joseph repeated, paling. "Oh my god!" He sounded shocked. Like he didn't know. It checked out with what he'd been told...yet somehow it didn't calm Josuke down one bit.
"Son?" The redhaired boy asked blankly. He glanced over at the old Joseph. "But he's not nearly as old as Miss Holly. How is that?"
"He cheated on Grandma Suzie while on a business trip. About seven years before our trip to Egypt." Jotaro responded flatly, crossing his arms. Wait, so he does know the red-haired guy? He didn't mention him by name.
Both the blonde and the blue haired guy whipped around to stare at the older Joseph; the blonde looked completely poleaxed with shock, while the blue-haired guy looked both horrified and righteously indignant. The brunette just looked stunned, his expression going blank.
Josuke wasn't really paying too much attention that, though. Not when he could finally slug Joseph Joestar in the face without risking seriously hurting him.
The impact sent a shudder through his arm, and knocked the older Joseph flat on his back. In the very back of his mind, Josuke noted that a guy who'd been in as many fights as his father could have at least tried to block or dodge, but he hadn't. Josuke took a step back, breathing out a bit...and grinned.
"You know?" He said conversationally. "I think I finally feel a bit better having done that."
"Look, I don't know what's happened but can someone explain what's going on, please?!" Koichi begged, having finally reached the end of his rope from being ignored and having revelation bombs dropped on him. Josuke hadn't heard his voice shoot up that high since the first time Yukako first confessed and asked him out.
"As much as I hate to interrupt a righteous asskicking," the redhaired girl said, the bird on her shoulder cawing loudly as if to help center attention on her. "I'm going to have to ask you to put it on hold. This town is going to be up to its neck in vampires and zombies in less than two hours."
Dousing him in ice water couldn't have gotten more of a shock out of him. His brain screeching to a halt for a second time, Josuke pivoted to better stare at her. Okuyasu wasn't quite so muted, however. "W-Whatja say?!" He squawked.
The girl pinched the bridge of her nose. "Vampires. And their zombie minions. Will be appearing in droves through a temporal distortion. Here. In just under two hours." Her expression darkened. "As the work of a certain man."
Jotaro rolled those words over in his mind for a minute...then jerked a step forward as his body tried to react in so many different ways at once. There was one man he associated with vampires and distortions in time. Just one. He still haunted his nightmares ten years after his death. It couldn't be; let it be someone else-! "He's dead," He snarled almost desperately, almost praying that she would contradict him. "Dio Brando is ten years dead."
The girl just blinked a few times at him. "You're fast on the draw," she said in surprise. No, no, no, no!
"Vampires and zombies...more of them? And they're all coming here?!" Okuyasu panicked.
"B-But Mr Jotaro, you said Dio was dead!" Koichi pleaded. All the kids had heard a few stories about the Joestar's old enemy...even with just a handful of details, they knew enough to be afraid. "You killed him! People...people can't come back from the dead, even him!"
"It isn't a matter of coming back." The girl sighed, and snapped her fingers.
Josuke took a wary step backward as a Stand materialized from her body. It looked like a human girl to an extent, red and silver and gold with the symbols from old calender's and clocks crisscrossing her body. It was fairly normal by their standards...except for its head, which had an arrowhead symbol above its eyes.
"My name is Christine Richter." The girl introduced herself at long last, a solemn look on her face. "This is my Stand, When You're Gone Requiem. I was five years old in 1987 when Dio Brando began his takeover of the world. I'm here to help you...and to keep you from suffering because of my time."
She uncrossed her arms; her eyes flickered with emotions so heavy they seemed to age her several decades all at once. "It's not your Dio who's threatening all of time right now. It's mine. The Dio that won because there were no Joestars to oppose him."
Before either Josuke or Jotaro could even try to say something in response to that – the fact that all the people with her just looked grim stopped anyone from laughing at the sheer insanity of what she'd just said with a straight face – one more unexpected thing happened.
Her Stand spoke.
"Two different timelines are meant to flow independent of each other." When You're Gone said evenly. There was an intense reverb to its voice, which otherwise sounded like a young woman. "There are few ways to create bridges between them. I am one. Dio Brando is discovering another. Testing it. Bringing out its full potential."
"I'm sorry," Christine said quietly in the face of their dumbfounded stares. "There's a lot to explain and not a lot of time. Can we come into your house for a bit?"
End Chapter
Big shout outs to my best friend, DanaCardinal, without whom I would be languishing in depression and writer's block and not doing much of anything. She helped me with the dialogue and the pacing.
Read and Review please!