Author Notes: This chapter starts off with a lot of exposition that explains a lot of the backstory of Part 8 and the possible direction that the story might take. By the way, the Rock Human King is Flashback Man's true identity.
This chapter mainly exists to reintroduce the Generation Girls into the story as their matured Generation Ladies selves and a means for Joan Joestar to become a fighter again. It also concludes the Overture arc of the series, heading into the Intro arc.
The song by Pink Floyd that inspired the chapter- is about the homecoming of a soldier who needs understanding but receives adulation, which does him no good. Waters was very much antiwar, as he saw the trauma inflicted on the returning soldiers. He says that the character in this song is the teacher portrayed in the 1979 Pink Floyd album The Wall - a person with considerable demons whose only job prospect is in the school system. At the end of this song, we learn that our hero is haunted by hearing his war comrade's dying voice over an intercom.
Chapter 10- Overture-10- The Hero's Return
A Few Days before the Stonehenge Events...
Joan was on her lunch break when she was confronted by Erean, her boss, looking down at her with contempt.
"I've heard rumors that you're secretly bypassing the system to help the meager and the unfortunate.," she said snidely.
I no longer have my Stand so fighting back is pointless. Better humor her, she's just a twat that's bloody delusional about her perceived grandeur., thought the woman.
She then beckoned her to come to her office, a gaudy display of overly detailed and tasteless art over practical things for a business.
"You need to be put in your place. It's better to explain how low you are.," said Erean as she sat down in her oversized chair.
"Go right ahead.," Joan said with false politeness.
"This is soundproofed, so no one is going to hear what I'm about to say.," said the beehive-haired woman with an uncharacteristic tone of professionalism.
Erean then took a deep breath as she began to speak.
"Fortune for one person is balanced out by misfortune for others- it is reality. Those who deny this truth try to bury it out of sight to live out the fantasy of equality. However, even then, some understand the fundamental truth, only to flack out at the last second. It was said that Norisuke's daughter married the Joestar that stole the Holy Corpse to heal his lover of the disease. The disease originated from their hubris to take the land from its rightful owners for the last few centuries since their arrival in Japan from the East. The use of the Holy Corpse caused the land to become sacred and defiled, leading to calamity to punish him for averting fate by punishing his son with the disease. In desperation, he sacrificed himself, but not before allowing exchanges in the ground itself- something that would benefit others in the long run.," she monologued.
Probably learned through Zap's connections on the Higashikata family., thought Joan.
"However, the Holy Corpse has a darker nature. It could make fate favorable to itself while making things worse for others- making them hurt themselves instead of the user- contradictory to its written selflessness. Consequences are negated and others suffer instead by seeming coincidence. Even on the right path, a saint walking free of error cannot avoid evil. This is what we call a calamity. Calamities cause misfortune to a target. Pursuing against the flow of existence is to be caught in calamity. A series of harmful coincidences that are more damaging than normal. Even if its form is temporally disposed of from existence and its owner is slain, it will return. For calamity is the Grim Reaper. The Angel of Demise. One of the Five Horsemen. The Shinigami. Death. Perhaps its user was brought forth and conceptualized to be its host to ensure calamity.," the beehive-haired woman continued.
"Excuse me, but what are you babbling about?" Joan asked with faux-curiosity.
"The King of the Rock Humans, Fujikkita Hotaka, using his Stand Rewrite The Stars, would curse the Higashikata for taking away the land from them and anyone who helped them. He couldn't be there all the time, so he used his son, Tooru Hotaka as a vessel for the Shinigami, Wonder of U to enact this curse. Had it been its Act 5 Go Beyond form potentially, it would've been able to defeat Wonder of U, but calamity is fortunate to evil. In one universe, Gravity defines everything where everything is influenced by its connection- the sun making the path of the planet movements and how humanity will be destined to follow. In another, it is the Flow that can be used to rotate into infinity. In another, it is the Grand Design, etc. Legends say this universe was born due to a Gravity-born Stand called Whole World creating this Flow universe through the plan of the man, DIO.," said Erean.
"You're reading too many fantasy stories.," Joan replied with a forced laugh.
"The Higashikata parents would offer themselves to allow their children to live in paying their respects to this Joestar, using the holy land's properties. They would rename the oldest male of the family into Norisuke. And the name of Jo to honor Jonathan. The family would research the prototype of Eden's Fruit and the Forbidden Legume, one of which is the Locacaca, which causes one part of the body to become stone to heal the afflicted part. Something that the Rock Humans were intrigued by as well. The initial protection of the Fruit of the Rock Humans was thwarted by Yoshikage Joestar-Kira's ancestor, Joseph Joestar of the Flow Universe, causing the attempts to reclaim it to be more difficult. It is rumored he also cheated with a woman to give birth to eventually another descendant called Josefumi. The two fought the Rock Humans to protect Holly Joestar-Kira from being experimented on to learn how to advance the Locacaca, but lost their lives, which activated the initial properties of the next evolution of the holy land, Wall Eyes, born from the 2011 earthquakes. The Wall Eyes could merge things, cause Stands to grow, and prevent more Rock Humans from approaching the land of Morioh conventionally. This merger caused Yoshikage and Josefumi Kujoh to become Josuke of the Flow Universe, nicknamed Gappy, later rechristened as Jose Joestar. Also, Kei was born of Holly. It seems in this universe, the Joestars can have siblings instead of being only children.," Erean remarked.
"With the Higashitaka family, Jobin was spared the loss of his mother due to Kaato's quick thinking of using another, a bullying brat as a scapegoat. This ruthless would cause the family to be divided eventually. The Calamity would mark a victim in Rai Mamazaku's parents, leading him to become the Higashikata botanist and aid to Josuke. Tooru would create two groups of Rock Humans- one for smuggling in the fruit and the other to pass it off as a medical cure to gain wealth enough to buy off the land from humanity to have Rock Humans be the owners of Japan once more. Jobin would come into contact with the Rock Humans, working with them to cure his son, Tsurugi. The Spin with its vibrations reaching into the divine would surpass the Ripple of the Gravity universe. The Spin would increase with each generation.," she added.
After a brief pause, her unusual professional demeanor gave way to her usual hysterics.
"Calamity is the logical conclusion! Calamity causes tragedy, which births the greatest villains! Calamity is what ends life! How could've it been thwarted? It is through the power of the Flow Joestars, Go Beyond. Go Beyond can bypass Calamity, which killed Tooru after the two groups of Rock Humans were defeated! Josuke's desire to destroy the origins of the Locacaca while also secretly hoping to use it to heal Holly as a last resort! This wish was answered by the Wall Eyes that merged all of the Isles of Japan with New Guinea to make the destination closer to reach, the new land called JoJolands. Josuke and the Higashikata survivors would encounter ancestors of the current Floyd lineages who were attempting to learn to harvest the plant's secrets, hoping to replicate the process onto their native plant to understand how to heal their curse. The Floyd'smies, the Adam Ants, would join forces with the Rock Human King, Fujikiktita Hotaka to stop both families, with the King wanting to avenge Tooru and the Queen wanting the Locacaca to add to her collection. While initially victorious against the forces, the Adam Ant Queen and Rock Human King slaughter the majority of the two families while Josuke is unable to prevent even the deaths of Tsurugi and the boy's mother! To defeat Fujikikta, Josuke was helped by Jobin's Speed King Go Beyond from the afterlife, who used an advanced use of his heat powers to make the stars Rewrite The Stars controls to be lessened. The anger of the deaths causes Soft And Wet Go Beyond to mature into Purple Rain Go Beyond, whose power over nothingness can bypass Rewrcanars and the Adam Ant Queen's Stand, Meant To Be's abilities over fate itself. The additional powers cause the Locacaca to evolve into Eden's Fruit, whose process is then replicated by the Floyds to make the Forbidden Legume! The lowlife felt torn between destroying the damn plant and keeping it around to honor his family's sacrifice! So he ditched the Higashikata family to become Jose Joestar, your ancestor, and Joshu, a twit that surprisingly managed to clean up his act, became Norisuke the V, the founder of the Higashikata Eden Fruit business.," she dramatically declared.
"And this has something to do with you...how?" Joan asked.
Suddenly, Erean sprouted some spikes on her body that retreated just as quickly.
"A Rock Human? I thought you all went extinct.," Joan said with more seriousness. Right in front of her, was an annoyance from her family's past. And she was currently powerless to her annoyance.
Erean bit into a Forbidden Legume, but then spat it out to Joan's surprise.
"Honestly I can't stand the Legume. I secretly did the Fruit as it allowed me to adapt and be more accessible in society without my traits alarming others. As for why I really don't like you...It's revenge I want on your family. Not out of sentimentality, but pride of the superior. Therefore, removing your clan is my goal as the superior species. For defying your betters.," replied Erean.
"Your cheekiness just got me thinking of having a bloke named D-Flag to attack your sonny. He's not as good as my boys, but killing him early would prevent a threat to me.," she added.
Joan became much tenser when Joshua was implied with a threat.
"You're a loving mother aren't you?" Joan noted.
"They're a reflection of me. Anything that makes me look bad is unforgivable. That reminds me...I was one of Tooru's fling bastard child descendants. I noticed that Eden's Fruit, the one that was already corrupted from our Locacaca, was going to be corrupted again by Nilly's mother's Strange Fruit experiment. So I nipped the bud and had her killed before she could ruin it further. Getting into the family through adoption and then marrying into the Floyds set me up for life. Sure Nilly was traumatized, but as long as I'm getting what I wanted, I don't give a shit if she's sobbing every night.," said the beehive-haired woman, callously.
Joan then got up.
"Your plans aren't succeeding and you're going down. Down to Hell that is when everything is done.," said the raven-haired woman to Erean's irritation.
Present
Erean in frustration taps her hand to access the current update of the embedded phone tech placed in the upper classes' bodies to be able to call others without worry.
"Oi, Syd, Bar, and Rett. Get your half-sister to aid you. You're all gonna take down Joan's brat.," she angrily whispered.
The muted conversation hinted of hesitation and bafflement before Erean gave a passive-aggressive threat-
"Are you upsetting Mother? What kinds of sons are you? I'm so saddened."
She proceeded to release false tears to make the sons comply inaudibly.
"Don't fail...Or else, you might be placed into an orphanage.," she concluded before canceling the call.
I cancel any bonuses she gets, leave her out of company parties, and I make her do menial tasks. She's not like Nilly. Nilly the Wimpy. She's definitely working with this intruder. It'll give me an excuse to kill her off. And hopefully, Justiz can do something about Lennon so it doesn't affect me., she thought as she turned the corner.
The inconspicuous man follows Erean with the latter unaware of his existence.
The Third Floor
Joan went down a floor and noticed a rather generic-looking woman, wearing a standard dress, and overall not standing out. The floor was empty, in fact aside from the top floor, no one worked there. Erean was stingy on paying others so she had the minimum workforce to run the business.
"You said something audacious. You're clearly not from around here. Who are you? Or is it that you're someone from my past?," asked the woman.
The generic-looking woman peeled off what looked like a thumbprint sticker and transformed into a buxom woman with light brown odango hair with a braided ponytail that reached her thighs, a modified Chinese dress to reveal her midriff, armbands, leg bands, fingerless gloves, and dark-colored simple shoes. The clothing was dulled gold with yellow trimmings.
Her brass iris eyes looked at Joan and jumped to hug her.
"JoJo! It's been ages comrades of a decade hence our last meeting!" she cried as she caressed her tightly. She then moved her hands up and down the other's legs, thigh, buttocks, waist, bosom, and lastly face.
"You've matured nicely, as have I.," said the woman as she had Joan's hands move around her own legs, thigh, buttocks, waist, bosom, and lastly face as well.
Her elocution's improved. I remember her. It's the brattish tag-along that was a part of our opposite number, the Generation Girls. Stephanie Be. thought Joan.
She then noticed Stephanie's Stand, a humanoid that looked similar to its owner, but lacking a visible mouth, pink eyes, and covered in purple thumbprint markings.
"Real Sugar Baby has changed since I last saw it." Joan remarked.
"It's The Real Me now. I've broadened my definition of identity. Where's Imagine All?" asked Stephanie as she stepped away from Joan.
Joan looked ashamed as she turned away.
"Shall I tell you, you damn spy? You must be from the government to see if we're running things properly? Or maybe you're working with one of our competitors? Or maybe you have a grudge against us for the countless riffraff we deny service to?," asked Erean's voice as she came down the elevator.
"Soft Sell Conclusion. In any case, you will be at the mercy of my Stand-," said the beehive-haired woman before suddenly noticing The Real Me about to strike her.
Quickly, the tomato-like Stand used its pistons to propel itself out of the elevator, but The Real Me was far swifter, landing a kick that sent it and its user to the side of the wall outside of the elevator.
"Beep. All wrong...Why are you letting this plebian order you around?" asked Stephanie as she refocused on Joan.
"At the tournament, I lost my ability to summon my Stand. And I had to take care of Joshua soon after. And the others are...," Joan replied before trailing off.
Stephanie gave a look of concern before slapping Joan on the back.
"Has he met Felixa yet? She's a bit shy, but she's my girl. I mean she's our girl. You know what I mean.," Stephanie said awkwardly.
"You have a girl. That's nice.," Joan replied before noticing Erean getting up and kicking her Stand.
"You didn't move fast enough. Stupid thing!," Erean shouted as she continued to kick the Tomato-like Stand, oblivious to how its damage would reflect back on her.
"You're not only stupid, but you look uglier. What kind of surgery is that? Who in their right mind think that's beautiful?," asked Stephanie towards Erean.
Erean's eye twitched as Soft Sell Conclusion got up and began to release its toxins.
"This Red Pepper Stand releases a virus that will make you one of my brainless legions once it's fully administered, but you're quick enough to dodge my Stand. But, can you dodge...them?" asked the woman with the long noise a door on the right side of the wall opened to reveal employees of the company.
These people looked with dead and vacant eyes, stumbling around like zombies.
"They're the end results of Soft Sell Conclusion. Can you dodge them all...?," asked Erean before noticing that Stephanie was attacking anyway.
"How heartless...Eh?," Erean before she noticed that thumbprints appeared on the areas struck.
"Each person that has these uniquely. Thumbprints, Retina, Facial Recognition, etc are different from person to person. This creates a barcode that identifies the individual. These can then be used to securely look at areas of importance like banks, data files, etc. Unfortunately, we live in an era where that can be replicated through mutilating that part of yourself to get access or use surgery to have identical prints to bypass security. Or simply use left the print from an exposed area to duplicate. This is why police do not expose their hands, wearing gloves to not leave prints behind that would disrupt the clues of a crime.," Stephanie explained.
"What are you babbling about?" asked Erean as the people got up with the thumbprints on their bodies flashing before fading away.
"Where am I?" asked one man as he got to his feet to Erean's surprise.
He shouldn't be able to speak. Let alone utter sounds. What's going on?!, thought the beehive-haired woman.
Erean then noticed the people weren't braindead, but now conscious for some reason.
"Get out of here! This place is dangerous.," Stephanie suggested to the people, who complied. Even if they didn't know the exact situation, the tension was enough to warrant a retreat from the haphazardous scenario. They then went down the door leading to the emergency stairs.
"You made them no longer identify even on the subconscious level to be affected by my Stand.," Erean said.
"Correct. And you're already affected.," Stephanie replied as a thumbprint appeared on Soft Sell Conclusion.
It then proceeded to look at Erean and began to remove its gas mask. Erean's eye soon turned to dread.
"Wait!? You're going to put me in danger if you remove it! Don't do it!," shouted the woman.
"You don't get it. It no longer identifies you as its user. You must be a basic Stand user to not be able to adapt your Stand semantically. Powers are defined solely by the wording, and thus capable of a great deal of stretching what it is capable of. A weapon or power that overtly tests the creativity of the wielder and their ability to think outside the box. You're dying today because you lacked the imagination and creativity to advance your power. You're still the same as when you first got your Stand I bet.," said Stephanie.
"Wait! I have three sons! Spare me for their sake! I'll give you insurance to any orphanage or slum you want! I'll have my husband pay you!," shouted Erean as she slowly pulled out a Nobody's Listening device from behind her back.
Stephanie then did the unexpected, she went to Joan, laid her on the floor back first, and straddled on top of her.
"You viewed us as just friendly rivals to just occasionally remember. It was painful to watch you suffer under his thumb. So hopefully this can make for not helping in your hour of need.," Stephanie explained as a thumbprint marking appeared on her tongue and kissed Joan.
A bright flash of light illuminated the room before sending Stephanie to the other side of the wall.
Joan stood in confidence, with a slowly visible Stand behind her. But, she didn't feel satisfied.
The inconspicuous man gets out of the elevator with a dark shadow with glowing pink eyes flashing.
Next Chapter: Overture-Finale-Rebirth
Stand of the Week
Stand: The Real Me- named after the song by the band, The Who
Stand User: Stephanie Be- named after the voice actor, Stephanie Beard.
Ability: Identity Manipulation- By hitting, looking at, or being aware of a target, a thumbprint appears on the target, allowing it to manipulate the identity of the target. Applications include able to modify and/or change a person's identity, including personality, preferences, race, sex, and other various aspects like age, appearance, ethnicity, genetics, eye, hair and/or skin color, gender, height, memory, race, voice, weight. Additionally, it can add more to their identities and make them believe something they didn't before. It could turn somebody into a completely different person altogether. If that person has a superpower, then The Real Me could either take it away from them or enhance it. It can also create alter egos/split personalities within a target, manipulate the outward appearance perception from the target's perspective, replace the life/existence/identity of someone or something, to make them believe they are all/everyone's identity/being/people in a single individual in order to confuse them, and causing them to forget who they are. Personal applications on themselves include being mimic/replicating the essence/soul/spirits of others to avoid detection and mimic/replicate everything from others, having total control over any living being who knows the user's true name/identity, stealing the identity of another person, and manipulate biological relationships with others.
Destructive Power: Omega Tier- Far above a top-tier Stand in terms of raw strength.
Speed: Omega Tier- Far above a top-tier Stand in terms of raw agility.
Range: Infinite- Has indefinite range.
Precision: Omega Tier- Accurately manipulates the concept of identity.
Persistence: Omega Tier- Ability perpetuates until Stephanie allows it to stop.
Development Potential: Complete- Stand has reached maximum potential.
Stand User Rank: Omega Tier- A powerful martial arts Stand user with a Stand that has a versatile application of its power that can change the course of conflict via the control of identity.