Chapter 18: The Soul remembers Jay, the Blue Ninja

Katara jumped up and started shaking Jotaro back and forth.

"ARE. YOU. OK? Did Kakyoin's Jedi mind tricks kill you, Jotaro? I mean, I know you're moving now, but like I said before, Mercury is in retrograde! Weird stuff happens!"

"I'm fine! Stop shaking me! It drives me crazy when girls grab me and shake me around!" he said irritably, pushing Katara away from himself. Looking around for his straw hat, Jotaro saw that JET MURPHY was crying into it (about his diamond bro). Good grief… looks like I'm not getting that back.

"Well, do you remember anything? About Jay?" Kakyoin asked cautiously. "You don't have any, say, lasting brain damage?" He smiled nervously, thinking about the various ways he could reverse brain damage, none of which Kakyoin had learned very well.

Rubbing his head, Jotaro responded:

"No, I don't have brain damage. No thanks to you, either; never do that again! That was horrible… It was like my brain was raptured into my knees… My dear Papa always told me I should avoid the Rapture at all costs!"

"Yes, yes, you always remember what you're Dad told you you should do, but do you remember anything else? About your brothers?" Jotaro frowned, thinking hard.

"I could think better if I had a hat…"

"Well you don't have one, so just GET TO THE POINT. DO YOU REMEMBER?" asked Kakyoin with obvious frustration. Jotaro smiled sadistically.

"Welllll…. I don't know. Maybe I'll think some more-" Noticing that Kakyoin was beginning to mutter more magic-sounding words and move his hand towards Jotaro's head, Jotaro panicked.

"Fine! Yes, I remember!" he stopped smiling, preparing to tell his friends about his very dramatic past.

"I had a freakin' brother; Jay. We were boon companions, as close as two brothers could be. Mainly because our house was 5 feet by 10 feet, we were always close together. My Papa didn't believe in buying houses; he insisted on building them by hand, with no one's help, in the middle of abandoned fields. Anyways, Jay and I would always go crawling over the fields nearby, exploring the deep leech-rat pools, and the highest peaks where the womp-womps live. We lived in peace and harmony with our surroundings, always getting home before 9:27, which was when the womp-womps grew their horrible legs and ran across the countryside." Jotaro smiled out into the night, fondly remembering his times with Jay. Sitting beside him, shaking with fear, was Kakyoin.

"Womp-womps? Your parents let you go outside with those around?!" he asked, shocked.

Jotaro shrugged.

"I mean, my dear Papa always said that my Mom could handle any threat, and was 'more powerful than I could ever comprehend, with our puny mortal brain', so I was never too worried."

Kakyoin screamed with anguish and admiration and flopped over onto the ground. He then sat up; entirely dignified, and very politely said, "Do continue, O friend."

Taken aback by this sudden screaming, Jotaro inched away from his friend.

"...Sure, I'll continue." Suddenly, his face was filled with infinite sadness and despair, almost as much as wild rats when you look them in the eye, and challenge them to a duel.

"Everything changed when Jay decided that, for some weird reason, he didn't want to live in a shack in the middle of nowhere." Jotaro trailed off, his slightly western-leaning voice getting quieter and quieter, as he entered the horrific realm of memory.

"But Papa! Master Woooooooo says I have the potential to become a great Ninja!" Jay cried, crouched in the cupboard in the corner of their shack.

It was an incredibly clean shack, with the distinct smell of womp-womps permeating the air. At the stove was Jotaro and Jay's dear Papa, cooking a healthy meal of stewed eyeballs. Who's, I will never know. Peering quietly through the window, the 7 year old Jotaro held his breath, not wanting to make any noise. How can Jay question Papa's judgement? I thought Papa was very wise! And who is Master Wooooooooo, and why does Jay want to become a Ninja? How could he ever want to leave our lovely home, in this damn idyllic field?

"Listen, son. The Man is always trying to trample the little guy! No one is littler than our family; we are all incredibly small!"

Jay stomped his tiny foot with rage; intent on annihilating his father (verbally, in the argument. He didn't actually want to kill him). With that, Jay unleashed his final weapon:

"No, Papa! You are the short one! You're what, 3 feet tall? Me and Brother Jojo are only 7, and we're already both taller than you!"

Their Papa gasped with rage.

"Son! I told you, you must never call your brother Jojo! Just as you must never be referred to as Jayjay!" his expression turned dark, as the dear Papa put on his 12-inch heels, rather than his 6-inch ones. He always put these on when he was about to reveal a dark secret.

"Son… I'm sorry to tell you that my good-for-nothing father-in-law, Joseph Joestar, is a filthy tool of the Man! And HIS nickname, when he was younger, was Jojo! I don't want any son of mine associated with that! Joseph literally worked with Nazis! And my filthy good-for-nothing brother, Jason, was nicknamed Jajay by his sister, who was not my sister; she was only Jayjay-I MEAN JASON-'s half sister!" he sighed, sorrow showing on his weird, short face. Jay almost reached out a hand, to comfort his poor, short father, but he resisted. He had big dreams of becoming the Blue Ninja, and he wasn't about to let his Dear Papa stand in the way!

"Listen, Papa. I know you were trying to get to some point about our family history, and Jojo and Jayjay, but I simply don't give a damn!" Jay cried out. "I'm going to learn Spinjitzu from Master Wooooooooooooooooooooooooo, and you can't stop me!" Jay ran, kicking down the door to the shack.

"Bye, son! Have fun!" Called Holly Kujo, Jay and Jotaro's mother. She had been hanging out in the back of the shack, unworried by the conflict.

Jay ran as he had never ran before, away from his dear Papa, his Dear Brother, and his Mom. Jotaro ran after Jay, calling and calling,

"Wait! Jay! Please, don't go yet! I have to tell you something!" but Jay went farther and farther into the distance. Try as he might, Jotaro couldn't catch up. Eventually he stopped running, and sat under the Rat-Tree to rest.

"Jay… why would he leave? Our Papa is wonderful, and definitely not crazy! This is awful… I have to go home and ask Dear Papa to come with me to get Jay back!"

When the 7-year-old-Jotaro reached home, he found his Papa in the tallest hat and tallest heels he had ever seen him wear. He towered over Jotaro, an imposing figure silhouetted by the one light of their shack.

"Listen, son… We're disowning you're brother, ok? Unless, of course, he comes back. After all, he may yet do that." Ruffling his son's hair good naturedly, he smiled a menacing smile.

"After all, Jotaro my lad, you always came back! Even though we pretend you're a different person, a different son, every time you return. Ah, Motaro, Yotaro, and Kotaro. All those brothers of yours who've run off… Anyways, come sit on my knee, son! I have to tell you about how all the birds are actually government drones."

That was how the next year passed. Every morning, when Jotaro got up, he would always hope that Jay had come back. But he never did.

More time passed, and as the family never mentioned Jay, soon Jotaro began to forget him. Not only that; but he forgot other things too, such as how to count. It was as if Jay had sadistically taken the numbers with him out of pure spite and Aangish, leaving Jotaro only the false memories of Motaro, Yotaro, and Kotaro in his stead. They were an inadequate replacement.

The fire had now burnt down entirely; the night seemed colder and darker then before. The group was silent; shocked by Jotaro's dramatically revealed past. Katara blinked back tears.

"Like, oh my God Jotaro. If Mercury were not in retrograde, I would be way sadder. Honestly, some delusional part of my twisted psyche is telling me that you aren't even doing this for attention; that you're not just saying this because you want me back. Like, I almost believe what you're saying."

Kakyoin put some of the ash from the fire into his mouth, and chewed it thoughtfully.

"So, what you're saying, Jotaro, is that Yotaro, Motaro, and Kotaro never even existed? They were just fake memories? And Jay left at age 7 to become a ninja, and you haven't seen him since." He paused, then smiled. "Wow, that memory spell worked way better than I thought it would!'

Jotaro didn't respond. The night was silent again, except for Zuko's quiet sobs (even though he was through his ZINKO phase, Zuko was still very emotional, as always).

"Guys, I know this is really important rap shesh! But we all need to sleep if we want to cleanse our auras! Trauma bonding can be really helpful, if combined with enough sleep! Nighty night Jotaro! I hope you feel better soon!" Katara gushed.

Our lovely protagonists fell into a deep sleep. All of them 6 feet away from each other. Not because of social distancing, but they didn't want to run the risk of catching a disease.

Author's Note:

Hello my dudes :) If you've read this far, you are a legend. I hope you're enjoying this fanfiction. If you've got any suggestions for what you think should happen, leave a review. Me and my sister always read reviews, and we actually really love getting them. Also, we could really use more ideas for character conflict, and character development. We've got the antagonist-protagonist conflict planned, but less so the other stuff. Also, any suggestions for how they should finally defeat Robert in the end? Because there's literally no planning regarding that at the moment, so now is the time to jump in. That being said, the final battle won't happen for a while, cause we've gotta power up the protagonists somehow. Cause they aren't even close to Robert's power level. Bye for now :)