Who the hell would be visiting my hotel room?

I opened the door.

I didn't recognize him at first. Hair spilled down the front of his face, destroyed by the rain. He glared up at me with a sadness I hadn't seen in him before.

I took a step back and held the door open for him, bidding him to come in.

He was so drenched with rain that the water audibly dripped on the carpet.

After the main door closed, I stepped into the bathroom to grab towels.

I draped one over his shoulders, and handed him the rest. Still, he barely moved, rigid, shoulders slumped.

Finally, I spoke, softly, "... Did you walk here, Josuke?"

And then it happened.

I heard his breath coughing out. His shoulders shook. I saw his mouth curled in a grimace of emotional agony.

Then a strained, wheezing inhale. And he cried harder.

Slowly, I stepped closer to him, and put my arms around him.

He let his forehead fall into my chest, and sobbed.


"I'm gonna let you in on something personal. Because it's important that you know exactly what you're in for with that Stand of yours."

"Alright," Josuke muttered.

"...My family, my wife and my kid, they aren't Stand users. Nor do they know what Stands are. Until the call from the Speedwagon Foundation that brought me to Morioh, I was happy with the choices I'd made. I'd never been so happy in my life. I was finally content for the first time. I was deep in love. I'd fulfilled my dream of finding my family; of having a child; something I'd wanted since long before I knew how to make one. So many people never get close to their dreams, or even happiness or contentment."

"And it was... well... It was like fate, or magic. Like it was meant to be. My wife and my child... their colors glow into the air around them. Just like my mom. Like all the people I love. I look at them, and the sun radiates behind them. Another thing you might already know about our bloodline is that many things in our lives seem to happen under strange, even impossible, circumstances. Everything about how I met my family was strange, from how I met my wife, how we found out we were having a baby, and how our kid was born. It was like our child knew they needed to be born, and they chose the two of us to be their parents."

"But I had made these choices; of starting a relationship, of getting married, and the incredibly committing and permanent decision of creating a human being; because I'd thought it was all over after Dio died. That the fighting with Stands was all over. Things were quiet between then and when I met Vanessa, between then and when we got married, and then until our baby was six years old. Until now, I'd thought I would never, ever have to be apart from them. I didn't care about my Stand or what amazing things I could do with it. My family is my life. I don't care about anything else."

"But now... Ever since I got that call to come to Morioh to find Angelo... I don't know if I'm ever going to see them again. I don't know if they'll ever be safe near me again. What happened yesterday, to your grandfather, Josuke... I'm afraid it's only the beginning."

"Should you decide to have a family one day... No matter what family you choose; a dog, romantic partners, children, another kind of found family... You have to steel yourself to the fact that they may end up hating you. And you won't be able to tell them why you had to leave. You may need to abandon them to save them, without a word. Without saying goodbye. Because you'll do anything for them. But that means something different when you have a Stand. It means you may need to break them and devastate them and ruin their lives in order to keep them safe. And it's going to hurt like hell. For both of you. It's going to rip your hearts into pieces."

"And... While you need to know this and what your life may look like from now on... I'm sorry for dumping all of this on you. I feel like I'm just being a mess in front of you, when I'm your senior and I'm supposed to be the one listening to your problems, not the other way around."

Josuke was quiet for a long time. For several blocks as we walked.

Finally, he smirked and said, "I thought you only lost your cool like that in situations where your family is threatened. Lucky them."

"Josuke," I stood in front of him and looked him right in the eyes. "You are my family."

Just as his eyes were turning red again as if he might cry, I turned around and kept walking. He continued with me a few seconds later.

"I won't let anything happen to you," I swore. "Not ever."