Josuke spent most of the next day trying to figure out the logistics of how he was going to get Kaori to visit Rohan. He figured they probably earned a little trust the previous day by being understanding and stuff, but it was going to need to be stretched impossibly thin in order to pull off this plan. For starters, how was he going to convince her to follow three shady-looking dudes she barely knew to Rohan's creepy mansion? That alone would set off red flags in any sane woman's mind. Beyond that, he'd have to explain stands, which barely made sense even to him, and finally, he'd have to convince her that no, really, letting this socially inept shut-in turn you into a book will help you. Fucking hell. Maybe he could convince Rohan to meet them out in the park or something.

Kaori had come to school in her boy's uniform, and Josuke could see that she was intensely uncomfortable. He imagined that being embarrassed in front of the class like that probably made whatever she was feeling internally worse.

When classes ended, he approached her again and tapped the back of her chair. She slumped over playfully and looked up at him. "Hey." she said, a bit listlessly.

"Hey," he replied, "so uh, my buddies and I were talking during detention yesterday, and we think we might have a way to help. Uh, but it's gonna sound pretty bizarre."

"Honestly, I dunno if anything can phase me at this point," Kaori said, "I had some stuff happen on the way home yesterday that you wouldn't believe if I told you."

"Oh yeah?" Josuke asked, intrigued, "Try me. Everyone's seen at least one unbelievable thing in Morioh."

Kaori took a deep breath. "Okay, I guess. So, my house is kinda near the marsh, right? There's this street I've been taking to and from school that cuts straight through it. There's like, really dense brush on both sides, and it's kind of spooky."

Josuke interrupted. "I think I know where you're talking about. Man, you live way out in the boonies, huh?"

"Yeah, it's pretty quiet out there. Anyway, this huge deer walked out of the brush, looking straight up the whole time. It looked like it must've been at least two meters tall. There's a ton of deer around where I used to live, and none of them ever got that big."

Deerhoof, Josuke thought to himself. The name filled him with a wash of dread.

Kaori continued. "It turned to face me kinda -like it was looking up and stuff still- and then it like, pushed this arrow thing out of its mouth like a sword eater, ducked its head, and charged at me. I guess it must've hit me pretty hard, cuz the next thing I remember is waking up on the pavement and it being dark out. It freaked me the fuck out, but I'm mostly okay, I think? Like I got bruised a bit, and there's this weird hole where it gored me, but I'm not bleeding or pain or anything, so I dunno what to think."

"Kaori," Josuke leaned in close and projected Crazy Diamond into the space next to him. "This might be a long shot, but can you see a pink and blue spirit hovering near us?"

She nodded. "I saw that Okuyasu had something like that too earlier when you two were passing notes. Nobody else was acknowledging it so I didn't want to make a scene by wigging out about it," she said, ending on a nervous laugh, "uh, so what is it? It's kinda freaking me out, honestly."

Josuke sheepishly dissipated the stand. "Er, sorry. Well, It's called a 'stand.' It's like," he paused to think of a suitably cool way to describe the burly technicolor fightboys, "they're a manifestation of a person's inner fighting spirit, I guess? A bunch of people around here have stands, but most people can't see them, so we just don't talk about it around normal people much. Anyway, Okuyasu and Koichi have one, that freaky deer you ran into in the woods has one, and from what it sounds like, you probably have one now, too."

"Really? How do you know?"

"That arrow the deer stabbed you with has the power to give people stands. If you concentrate really hard, you could probably summon it. But hey! All that makes what I was gonna talk to you about a lot easier. Wanna walk home with us?" Josuke gestured towards Okuyasu and Koichi. "I think Okuyasu and I live on the way to your place. Also this is gonna get really personal probably, so I don't want to embarass you in school, y'know?"

"Yeah, okay," Kaori replied, "Honestly I was gonna ask if one of you guys could walk me home anyway. I don't wanna run into that deer again alone."

"Okay, so," Josuke began, as the four of them left the campus, "One of the things with stands is that most of them have their own special power. Like for instance, mine can repair broken stuff and heal wounds, Okuyasu's can remove stuff from the world, and Koichi's can- what does echoes act three do, exactly?"

Koichi shrugged. "It rhymes things? Like it rhymes something with 'three' and then it does it, I guess. Honestly I haven't played around with it much."

"Is that what it does? I only ever remember you weighing stuff down or whatever. I guess it's not too important right now. Anyway, there's a guy we're sorta friends with, I guess," Josuke said the word 'friends' with quite a bit of venom, "who can turn people into books and then write stuff in them that comes true. So we were thinking that if you wanted to, we could ask him to write 'Is a girl' or whatever in you, and then you wouldn't have to deal with being a dude and being miserable." *

"Oh. Huh." Kaori was visibly caught off-guard. "That's wild. Do you think it would work?"

"Well, he knows his stand better than we do, so we'd have to bring it up with him first and all," Josuke explained, "But yeah. Do you think that's something you'd be interested in?"

"It's kind of sudden," She said, "I'm definitely interested, but I'll have to think about it more before I could tell you if I'd want you guys to do that, I guess."

"That's fair. I'll talk with Rohan -that's the book guy- in the meantime and see if it's something that could actually work and stuff. We can keep each other posted." Josuke absolutely did not like the prospect of asking Rohan for a favor, but it had to be done.

Okuyasu spoke up for the first time in a while. "That's it? You were practically in tears about this yesterday, but now you have to think about it? Make up your mind, man!"

"Hey, calm down, dude." Koichi interjected, "If she has to think about it, she has to think about it."

"Whatever dude," Okuyasu said, "I don't get that at all. Like if I met someone who could turn my dad back to normal, I'd agree to it in a heartbeat. Hell, I'd fuckin make them do it. None of this pussy thinking shit!"

"Lay off it, man," Josuke said, as he placed a hand on Okuyasu's shoulder.

"No, I mean, I get where you're coming from," Kaori said, "It's just like, it's such a huge change all at once, y'know? And I wanna make sure I'm mentally prepared for it. Plus, I mean, I'll have to explain stuff to my folks, and idk what the school's gonna do... it's a big commitment. I know that I want to do it, but I need some time to process and stuff."

Okuyasu sighed. "I guess I understand. It's not how I do things, but fuck it. Whatever."

Notes:

* There's obviously a lot to say about whether or not Kaori could be said to have ever been a guy, but Josuke's just some well-meaning jock in the 90's so I'm not gonna sweat the semantics.