The End Part 3 (Chapter 12)

While Mitsuha walked through Morioh to make it back to the Higashikata residence, she heard someone shout her name. When she turned around, she saw Tessie and Sayaka, who ran towards her. Tessie says "Mitsuha! How've ya been?" Sayaka runs over and gives her a hug, and says "It's nice to see you again!" Mitsuha looks surprised, and asks "What're you guys doing in Morioh?"

Tessie and Sayaka explain that they wanted to visit her, so they took a train to Morioh in the morning. After that explanation, Tessie says "What are you up to?" Mitsuha replies, saying "Oh, I went over to Tokyo this morning!" Tessie raises one of her eyebrows, wraps his arm around Mitsuha, and nudges her, while saying "Oh… Have ya gotten a boyfriend…?"

Mitsuha immediately pushes Tessie away, as Sayaka lightly smacks him a few times on his back, and then Mitsuha says "What? No! No, no, no! I'm not thinking of boys at all right now!" Sayaka glares at Tessie, before smiling at Mitsuha and saying "Don't listen to that idiot… So what'd you do? Sightsee?" Mitsuha taps her chin as her expression grows more puzzled, until she finally says, with a grin "Can't remember!"

Tessie and Sayaka were both dumbfounded by her response, but they don't question her further, in case this was her way of dealing with the comet's aftermath. Then Sayaka says "Hey Mitsuha, you and your family have been staying at Josuke's place, right?" Mitsuha nods and says "Yep! Ms. Tomoko, Josuke's mom, is really cool! But she's also a bit scary…" They spent the rest of the walk towards the Higashikata residence chatting casually, until they reach the house.

Josuke and Okuyasu were drinking some soda and sitting on the lawn, and when Okuyasu sees the three walking their way, he yells "Yo guys! What's up?" The five of them start to chat, until Jotaro steps outside, and motions to Josuke and says "Hey Josuke! Is that the Mitsuha girl?" Josuke nods, and the three new comers look Jotaro's way, and they become dumbfounded when they actually see him.

Mitsuha's and Sayaka's eyes widen, as Mitsuha mumbles "He's… huge…" and Sayaka mumbles "He's… hot…" Tessie looks at them both in shock, as Jotaro faces Mitsuha and dryly says "You're Mitsuha, correct?" Mitsuha quietly nods, and Jotaro continues, saying "My pops, you know him as Mr. Joestar, asked me to interview you. I've got a desk set up inside. Come with me."

Mitsuha follows Jotaro inside, as Tessie and Sayaka look on completely confused. Josuke notices, and says "Mr. Jotaro is Mr. Joestar's grandson. He's a family friend of ours, although I guess technically he's my nephew…" Jotaro ushers Mitsuha to sit at the desk, and he sits down in front of her, and then takes out a pen and notebook.

Jotaro then says "Let me introduce myself. My name is Jotaro Kujo, and I'm Joseph Joestar's grandson. He asked me to look into what happened with the comet at Itomori. I might need to ask you some challenging questions. Will you be okay?" Mitsuha nods and says "If you're trying to help us out, then I'll do whatever I can too!" Jotaro clicks his pen and says "Good. Let's start simple. How have you been? Have you adjusted well to staying in Morioh so far?"

Mitsuha smiles and says "Yeah! Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi have all been really friendly to me! And Ms. Tomoko is really cool, if a bit scary…" Jotaro nods and says "They're good kids. And Ms. Tomoko is a strong woman. They'll treat you well." Mitsuha laughs and says, "I'm glad! I didn't have many friends back home, because my dad was the mayor. I hope I can stay here in Morioh…" Jotaro pauses from writing, and says "Well, I'm glad things are looking up. It's not easy being your age."

Mitsuha looks up at Jotaro with a surprised expression. She says "No way! You seem so tough and cool Mr. Jotaro…" Jotaro lightly chuckles, and says "When I was your age, I put up a pretty big tough guy act. Girls thought I was cool and guys thought I was manly. But even though I seemed to be somewhat popular, I never made any meaningful connections. But then I got lucky, and I made a few close friends, and things changed for the better. It was a formative time for me, and I'm sure it'll be a formative time for you as well, Mitsuha."

Jotaro looks back down and adds a few more notes, and Mitsuha smiles and says "Thanks a lot, Mr. Jotaro!" Then Jotaro stops and says "Okay, let's move on to another topic. The night of the comet, you were convinced that it would strike the town, correct? What made you so convinced in the first place?"

Mitsuha scratches her head, and eventually says "I… I don't know. I can't even remember… I don't think anyone told me or anything… But I feel like I was forgetting something really important that night…" Jotaro writes everything down, finding her explanation concerning, and then he adds "Are there any other gaps in your memory, while leading up to the comet? Anything, even if it happened months ago, could be helpful."

Mitsuha thinks deeply for a few minutes, as Jotaro wonders what in the world she could be searching for, until she lights up and says "Oh yeah! A few weeks ago, something weird happened." Jotaro readies his pen, and says "Okay, go on…" Mitsuha continues, saying "Well, a lot of the other kids in school bullied me because of my dad, but then they suddenly stopped one day! When I asked Tessie and Sayaka what happened, they said I did something crazy, but I don't remember doing it at all! And when I think about it, I can't remember anything from the day they talked about."

Jotaro gasps and says "What?" Mitsuha grins and says "I know! They said that I apparently knocked over a desk, but I'd never do something so vulgar…" Jotaro records it all down, and says "This will be helpful. Now, for the next question: where did you do this morning? When I asked for you, everyone said you went out, but no one knew where you went."

Mitsuha sighs and says "Oh, sorry… I went to Tokyo." Jotaro replies, and says "Alright. Where did you do in Tokyo. I heard you have never been there before…" Mitsuha raises her hand and says "I've actually been there once before, but I can't really recall why I went. I think I was trying to meet somebody, but they never showed…" Jotaro writes that down as well, since even though it wasn't a recent event, it could still be relevant. Then Mitsuha adds, saying "But… I can't really remember what I did this time either…"

She rubs her hair frantically, until she says "Yeah… My mind's a huge blank on this morning… Weird…" She laughs nervously to herself, and Jotaro realizes that this could be a lead, so he questions her further, asking "Well, did you meet someone? Go somewhere unique?" Mitsuha thinks some more, and she eventually says "I think so… I can't remember his name, but I think he rambled about 'reality' or something… Yeah! He definitely did!"

Jotaro's eyes widened for a moment, but he quickly hid his reaction before Mitsuha noticed. He understood instantly that she ran into Rohan Kishibe this morning, but he couldn't understand how he played into all of this. But affecting a person's memory was well within his capabilities, and Jotaro made a mental note to contact him next.

Then, Jotaro said "You've been a big help Mitsuha. But I do have one final question…" Mitsuha looked up, and she said "You're welcome! And I'm ready!" In the next moment, Jotaro materialized his stand, and hovered Star Platinum a bit behind him. Then, he asked "Mitsuha, do you see anything strange right now?"

Mitsuha blinks a few times, before yelling "Woah! What's that think behind you? It looks cool!" Jotaro's eyes widen, as he wondered just how Mitsuha could see his stand. He thought about how Mitsuha, and the rest of her family, never exhibited signs of possessing stands or reacting to them. Jotaro remained silent, before finally saying "I need to gather your family up, Mitsuha. Meet me in the living room." Jotaro then quickly walked away, leaving Mitsuha to wonder what the heck was going on.

←To Be Continued

Notes:

Sorry for the wait! I've been distracted with other things, mainly Fire Emblem Echoes and setting up my other writing project.

There will probably be a few more chapters until this first part is finished. The next main part will probably be a bit shorter (I think!).

I hope you guys enjoy Jotaro acting like a bit of a mentor to Mitsuha. That's one reason why I like Part 4 Jotaro.