"Well, that was enlightening." Madoka laughed shakily and rubbed her forehead. "I wasn't paying attention the whole way through, but… now we know a lot more, right?"

"Right." He watched the water splashing down in the water fountain in front of them. It was getting dark, but… "Who's Caesar?"

He saw her blush suddenly out of the corner of his eye. She put her hands down on the bench and kicked her feet. "Umm… I got a lot of memories from a long time ago. They're not connected to…" She gestured with her head. "This."

He crossed his arms. "It must be important. You got really… emotional."

"Yeah, I guess I did, huh?" She sighed, a small waver creeping into her voice. "It was… something in my codename personality's life. Back when he… when I was young and energetic."

"You're young and energetic now."

"Not like that." She turned away. "This was – I guess it was my other body, if you want to put it like that." Her fingers stroked the base of her neck absentmindedly. "That's something to think about, right? I might have another body somewhere? Anyway, Caesar was my… friend." There was a small, choking cough. "Just my friend."

"Oh." There wasn't much else to say. "You know… Did you hear what I said about Mami?"

"Yeah." Her voice cleared and levelled a little. "Her codename. 'Kakyoin Noriaki', right? It sounds familiar, but how did you know the 'Noriaki' part?"

"I just knew." The brim of his hat felt solid and comforting in his hands; he turned his head away from her. "He was a friend, too. I remember that."

"Ah." A small hmm. "So you want to get him back?"

"Yeah, somehow." He frowned. "Dunno if we can get yours back though if it's such a long time ago."

She sighed. "No, we can't. He's dead in the real world, somewhere outside this Stand, probably worm food by now." Her laugh was small, sad, sarcastic. "Just my luck. I have feelings for someone, and it turns out the feelings aren't mine, the body that felt them isn't mine, and the guy's dead in the real world." Another laugh. "You know, I – that is, Madoka - I've never had feelings for a boy before. I… I thought Homura was cute, before she turned homicidal. Weird, right?"

He couldn't agree more.

"So… you want to do something about the big witch?"

She considered this, briefly. "There's not a lot I can do, but… yeah. You never know, we might get all our memories back and be able to defeat this Stand user somehow."

The city bustled around them in the distance. Water splashed in the fountain. He nodded, and turned back towards her so that they were facing the same direction once more.

"Yeah." A quiet moment while he organised his thoughts, and then: "I don't think even Star Platinum can fight an entire city, but…" He shrugged. "Guess we'll think of something."


They didn't.

The next morning was a Sunday. Junko – Madoka's mother, at least in this world – seemed hungover, and Jotaro wondered whether that was somehow part of the Stand. Whether she was part of the Stand. She seemed real enough.

"Mama…" Madoka put an arm on her shoulder. "Can you… find somewhere safe to go? You and Papa and Tatsuya? Just for a few days?"

"Why? What's going on?" She looked at her daughter seriously, then glanced accusingly at Jotaro. "You aren't in any trouble, are you?"

"No, Mama, it's just…" She looked conflicted. "Something really dangerous is coming. Don't ask me how I know, but… you all need to stay safe, okay?"

Junko creased her forehead into a frown. "Madoka…"

"I know, Mama. Please, trust me. I'm a good daughter to you, aren't I? I've never lied to you, or done anything wrong. I'm not a delinquent, and… neither is Jotaro-kun, not really, even though he looks it sometimes."

"Hey…"

But the older woman was nodding. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"I… I hope so too, Mama. I love you." She turned away. "Let's go, Jotaro-kun."

"Yeah."


They didn't know, exactly, where they were going: somewhere high up, perhaps, to see where the witch's barrier appeared. How long would it take, he wondered? And… Who would come out the other side?

"Madoka-chan?"

"Yeah?"

"Why'd you try to save them? They might not even be your real family."

Madoka sighed, and stroked the base of her neck. "No, they really are Kaname Madoka's family. Her real mother, her father and brother. That I'm certain of. I don't know how, but… it's important. They mean a lot to me."

"Oh." He considered this, "They're trapped here as well? They're not… magical people?"

"No, they're not." Madoka gave a light laugh. "None of them have Stand potential, so… it just feels like normal life to them, I think. They don't even realise there could be any other way."

"I'm sorry." Was that the right thing to say? He could never tell with things like this.

"Well, it's fine." She shrugged. "Maybe if we defeat this Stand user, we can all go back to the real world together. After all, if there's hope for 'Joseph Joestar'…" Her head shook from side to side. "He doesn't have a mama or papa, so he really wanted me to, you know, protect them."

"Oh. Yeah."

They walked on in silence for a moment.

"Wait." Madoka stopped suddenly, freezing to her spot and staring out into space. "Oh, no…"

"What is it? A Stand?"

She put her hands up to her face. "Ah, I was wrong! Joseph Joestar has a mama and she's hot!" Her face turned pinker than her hair. "Oh no…"

"Wait, which one of you thinks she's hot?"

"Both!" She cringed. "Ah, these memories are so lewd! I don't wanna see that…"

"Come on, Madoka-chan, snap out of it…" He turned away and kept walking. "Good grief."

"Ah, wait! Ugh, I really don't like this alternate personality…"


They ended up on the bench by the fountain again, waiting for Madoka to try and understand her thoughts – apparently, sorting her memories from those of 'Joseph Joestar' was beginning to get intense. Every now and again, she'd twitch, and say out of context nonsense like "Santana!" and "Speedwagon!", before lapsing back into a confused and heavy silence.

Jotaro tried to ignore her, and occupied his time by summoning his soul gem. It was definitely darker than before, although he could still see a lot of areas of clear purple light. He estimated it would take him two or three more transformations for him to remember most of the important stuff about his life. One, if he spent a lot of time fighting.

(He wondered whether Star Platinum's fighting style would be different from his own.)

And then - something changed in the air, suddenly, the world suddenly feeling… compressed, somehow. As if…

Madoka looked up, all her uncertainty forgotten, focusing her face into a serious frown. Well, at least she wasn't too far gone. "Do you feel that?"

"Mm. Magic."

She looked at his soul gem, which had begun to pulse slowly. "I guess this is it, huh?"

"Yeah. Guess it is."

She smiled, and put a delicate hand on his arm. "Well… good luck, I guess. I'll be there for you, okay? In case anything goes wrong."

"Thanks."

"And… about the others." She gave his bicep a squeeze (she had been holding him for too long, but he couldn't say anything, not now). "'Kakyoin', 'Avdol', 'Polnareff'. We'll see them again." She smiled brighter, trying to make him feel batter. It wasn't doing a whole lot, but he appreciated the effort. "Let me give you a little life advice."

"Life advice?" He raised his eyebrows and shoved her shoulder gently. "I don't need life advice from someone younger than me."

"Hey! I'm an old man on the inside… I think…." She laughed, and gave him a gentle pat. "Well, I'll give you it anyway. A piece of sisterly, grandfatherly advice. Listen up." She held up a finger seriously. "True love is when you and the love of your life save your future spouse from the undead brain of a vampire."

"The fuck?"

"Uhm… never mind." She dropped her hand. "What I mean is, um… saving somebody from an awful fate is a good way to, you know, get them to like you."

"Oh." That seemed a lot more sensible than whatever that other advice had been. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I have absolutely no idea."

Well, at least she was honest.