Jotaro stood at the gates of UA, having just been dropped off by the cheerful but confused police officer who'd seen him to his cell last night. The detective and 'hero' had decided to have him take some entrance exams as soon as possible, since there were only a few weeks left of summer before the new year started. Jotaro saw no point in contesting that decision, although it irked him that they hadn't even offered him the opportunity to read brochures for the schools they were having him apply to. He was taken out of his irritated musings by feeling someone bump lightly into him.

"S-Sorry!" Jotaro turned around, and saw that the culprit was a shaking, green haired boy. Jotaro said nothing, not seeing why he was so scared, and the boy stiffened. "I didn't mean to bump into you, really!"

"Good grief." Jotaro said, giving him a mildly confused look. "Aren't you going inside?"

"Ah!" The shaking boy's expression shifted from nerves to an almost excited anticipatory look, "I'll be late! Sorry!"

The boy stepped around Jotaro, and half jogged to the entrance. The tall teen followed at a more sedate pace, not nearly as bothered by the time. Inside, after being directed through a few doors by helpful signs posted around, he found himself in a huge, dark theatre. There must have been a seating capacity of at least two thousand, at a guess, by how many segments of seating there was. He wondered briefly if this was a large, public school or simply a very, very, rich private high school, before shaking the thoughts out of his head.

Peering at his ticket, Jotaro navigated his way through the pathways to his designated seat, observing the other people in the seats and aisles along his way. He'd thought, although it seemed unlikely, that the cat headed police officer had perhaps been wearing a very realistic mask. It seemed that people in this time- or dimension, as was seeming increasingly likely- looked more like organic stands than people for the most part. One person sported drills for shoulders, another had an impossible wide smile and shark teeth, another had purple skin- the differences and variety between people was absurd. At least he wouldn't have to remember faces with this much to distinguish people.

After a short wait, a tall blonde man in an over the top leather jacket ensemble came on to the stage, causing the crowd's mindless muttering to grind sharply to a halt. When he started talking, they must have had a microphone hidden somewhere in his clothes because the man was audible and clear at a good volume, even from the back row Jotaro had found himself seated in. "Alright, for all you examinees just tuning in, welcome to my live show!" He paused, and then, at a much louder volume. "Everybody say HEY!"

To Jotaro's utter lack of surprise, the crowd remained silent. Returning to a more suitable volume, the loud man gave an exaggerated shrug. "What a refined response. I'll get right to explaining, then!"

"ARE YOU READY?" Jotaro was beginning to see a pattern, when the crowd was equally quiet in response to the second shouted question. "Yeahhhhh!" Continued the man, undeterred by the lack of response.

"As it says in the applications, you listeners will be conducting 10 minute mock urban battles!" Jotaro stiffened. Mock battles? He thought this was a school, not a combat trial! He was confident in his abilities, but this was unexpected. Was this a normal feature of schools in the future, or had he just been sent to the only insane one?

"You can bring whatever you want with you. After this, you'll head to the location specified on your ticket, OKAY?!" Jotaro looked down at the ticket he'd been given, seeing B. He'd figured it was a grouping for seating, but apparently not.

The big screen behind him changed from a simple looking presentation, to something like what Terrance D'arby had him play. It looked more like a video of someone walking around than a game, unlike 'Oh, that's a Baseball.', where he'd tried to play baseball using the most awkward controls.

"Your goal, dear listeners, is to use your quirk to immobilise as many robots as possible!" Present Mic gestured to the screen, and continued explaining the point system and battles in his loud, over the top voice. Jotaro didn't care much for the explanation after he got the memo of 'destroy robots, get points'. The only notable thing was some prep school looking kid calling out an odd discrepancy in the handout, and insulting the green haired kid who'd walked into Jotaro earlier. Someone to avoid, or maybe beat some manners into… Depending how he acted in future.

Jotaro wished he could say he was surprised when he reached the designated battle center and both the green haired small kid, and the prep school kid were in the same area. He watched them with mild curiousity. He was prepared to go and make the arrogant seeming prep school kid regret being so uptight about rules when they approached the green kid, but Jotaro's annoyance faded when he heard what was being said.

Rather than some demoralising bullshit like in the test centre, it was a genuine, calm reprimand for being about to distract another candidate. Jotaro frowned, putting his hands back in his pockets. Looks like he wasn't entirely bad. Lucky for him. He didn't have much time to ponder, before Present Mic's voice carried over the area, a command just as abrasive as the whole Speech was, telling them to go in and fight the robots.

He breathed in, out, and then charged through with the crowd. Star Platinum shifted through to reality, ready and willing to fight. It didn't take long for him to find a robot- a 1 pointer- and it took even less time for Star to pummel it. This was it? The test for a school in the future was destroying robots? He supposed he should be thankful- it was a simple task for him. Simpler than English or History tests would be, at the least.

Jotaro let himself zone out to the sound of crunching metal, only putting thought into where to go and who to avoid. There were so many different powers around him, and only the knowledge that it was a directed free for all kept the urge to directly protect himself from them at bay. It was hard. Punch, avoid tripping over some shortie, punch, punch, avoid a robot attack, yell a warning, punch. It was almost rhythmatic. This battle would be okay. He was well suited to this. It wasn't even a real battle, it was just a mock up of one.

Then, suddenly, like a veil lifting, he clearly heard a loud, shrill cry. It was different to the aggressive tone most shouts had. Jotaro looked over to where he heard the shout, one of many looking that direction now, and saw an absolute behemoth, barely 2 city blocks away from where he was. It stood nearly as tall as some of the buildings, and was crunching through a building wall with one massive arm, carving an indomitable path for it.

For a moment, he stood still, just trying to comprehend the size of the thing. And then he saw, with sharp clarity at the base, two people- that green haired short kid who'd bumped into him earlier, and some brown haired girl trapped under rubble. He tried to get closer to them, realising the behemoth was going to crush them any second with the way it was advancing forwards- and Jotaro knew he wouldn't be fast enough to prevent that. Time was running out.

But… Time didn't have to matter, if only for a few seconds. He focused, trying for the 'new' power he'd found in the fight- freezing time as he continued his charge forwards- only for it to snap back to normal with him barely having finished two steps forwards. Air rushed into his lungs as if he'd forgotten how to breathe. What just happened. What the hell just happened.

The boy leaps up, and- keeps leaping. There isn't even a faint glow of a stand around his legs- this is their raw power?! The shock soon fades as the legs seem to melt in on themselves, becoming nothing more than paper streamers in the wind. The kid winds back his fist and drives it forwards, blowing the robot to pieces and his arm joins his legs in uselessness.

Jotaro is still running forwards, trying to reach him, and the girl reaches out to tap the falling kid, nearly at her height and make him fall slower. Jotaro reaches him just in time, grabbing him with Star and lowering him gently onto the rubble. A voice is ringing out, some compliments or something over a loudspeaker system, but Jotaro isn't paying attention to that. This kid's limbs are absolutely shredded from whatever that jump did. (He tries hard not to think of the image of Kakyoin on the water tower, stomach in shreds from the force of a single blow) Is this what powers in this time- this world, rather- are like? Not powered by stands but by the body alone?

Jotaro doesn't realise the noise levels have gone down until he feels a small, cold hand on his shoulder. His head snaps round, not sure what to expect but still running on the memories of not long ago and adrenaline.

A smiling old lady in what looks like a medical outfit, nearly half his height standing even though he's knelt low to the ground, is holding out some sweets with one hand. "Gummy?" Jotaro stares blankly at her. 'Gummy'? She wanted to give him… Sweets. When there was a person, clearly injured, right there?

Gently, she picked up one of his hands and made him palm the sweets, "Don't worry, they're safe," She said with that same smile, then turned to the injured kid who just nearly fell to his death. With no hesitation, she extends her entire lip section and kisses Green Hair on the injured limbs. Like magic, they twist and flip and reform like new.

Green Hair straightens up, pushing himself off the ground with a look of wide eyed surprise. Surprise that he lived? Surprise about what the old lady's lips had done? Jotaro couldn't really guess, but he knew one thing. It was pretty awkward to just be knelt over some random kid he barely knew. He stood back up, looking the other direction, and followed the milling crowds at a reasonable pace. Green Hair could catch up to him if he wanted, Jotaro wanted to have a look around. Oh, that was the plain faced guy, Tsukauchi-? waving him over. Well, it's not like he had much else to do...

A few weeks later, Jotaro was somewhat settled in his 'cell'. All he really went in there for was to sleep and change clothes, he spent most of the time wandering the station parts he was allowed in or doing work packets and the occasional bit of paperwork the detectives dredged up for his school files. He'd really forgotten how to do alot of schoolwork when all he'd needed to think about for nigh on two months was how to survive a fight and get to the next town.

The only real issue was that everyone was so fussy about smoking and Jotaro refused to quit cold turkey. Stalking around the neighbourhoods around the station probably wasn't the best idea, but it was a way to pass time and he'd found two vending machines. That had run out of beer and were nearly out of cigarettes. He'd take what he could get at this point.

It was during one of his cigarette hunts that he realised something. Star Platinum really didn't like being bored. For the first few days it was fine, but then, when he had no need to use him to fight, the stand grew restless. Not much, just enough to be irritating. So the walks helped cool him down, he'd crunch random rubbish he found with Star to keep the stand well, and occasionally find cigarette vending machines in the back streets.

It didn't take long for him to have a good idea of the neighbourhood, and to have gotten in a few small fights. Really, just showing Star's strength was enough for most of them to back off. Exploring the alleyways every day eventually lead him down a winding path to a beach. It was pretty, but it had small mountains of literal trash everywhere, carefully piled up. Occasional passerbys came near, but for the most part, it was quiet. Which made it perfect. He could pass whole hours, just sat on the sand watching the grey blue waves reflect the dying sunlight as he smoked a cigarette. It was his spot.

And then, one morning when he'd slipped past the sleepy officers in front to spend the first sunlight hours here, he heard a familiar voice from the beach. He hesitated, was he hearing things? But the voice kept talking, saying stuff like 'young boy' and talking to someone, who was replying to quietly for him to hear without using Star. And he knew exactly who it should belong to. Avdol. He knew that deep voice anywhere, even if it was missing the distinctly Arabic accent he remembered and was speaking Japanese rather than English- it was the same voice. Exactly the same. Could he have survived what happened to him in the mansion by coming here?

He stepped into the light and looked to where they were coming from, and the voices went quiet. It was Green Hair Kid, and some really tall- taller than him what the hell- blonde skinny guy. No large, dark skinned, kind faced Egyptian to be seen. Where the hell had he hidden?

Jotaro stalked over to the duo, hands stuffed in his pockets. Damn, looks like he'd have to talk to some bloody passerbys for once. "Oi. You two seen a dark skinned guy, probably with a red robe, hanging around here?"

The blonde and Green Hair Kid exchanged looks, and then the gaunt looking giant opened his mouth, a hesitant offer spilling out "No, sorry. I can keep an eye out for them if you're meeting them…?"

Jotaro blanched. This man had the exact same voice as Avdol. How the hell did that work out. He doesn't say anything for a long moment, then mumbles, "I think I was mistaken" and speed walks away, walking through the trash hills until he feels sufficiently hidden.

Almost on Autopilot, he calls Star out and starts crushing the various machine parts in the heap. The almost physical contact is enough to keep the irritated, confused anger at bay. The sound of the waves, muffled voices, and crunch of metal all melted into one for some time.

By the time he went back to the station, hands in pockets and stood tall in that half threat swagger he'd practiced so much in his home neighbourhood, the sky was orange again. He slipped into his cell easily, still shaken by the encounter but not looking it at all. He was just about ready to sleep, when a knock on the door happened. He opened it up, and saw the damn scarf guy- Eraserhead, was he called?- holding a letter with a half smirk. "Congrats. You got into UA."

Jotaro gave him an odd look, and accepted the letter. "Thanks." He said, not sure why the man seemed so smug about it. He'd read it in the morning.

-
AN:
So when I first started this I thought 'd make it a monthly thing... hahah. that worked out well, didn't it? ^^; I'm going to promise at least once every 6 months. It's got a plan, I'm just slow. This is cross posted on AO3 with more proper warnings at the start so if you prefer reading over there, that format's available to you.