Chapter 2: A Momentary Lapse of Reason

That night after Okuyasu got buried, Josuke and Koichi spoke to Jotaro at his hotel room about current situation. They brought Keicho along to meet the Marine Biologist so they could talk about what happened and to discuss their next move. Keicho eventually asked if he could speak to Jotaro alone, which was reluctantly granted by Josuke.

After a lengthy discussion alone, Keicho stepped out of the room and told the two that he needed to go home so he left first. Josuke, in fear for Jotaro's life, sprinted back to the room thinking he did something to his nephew, but to his surprise, everything was neat and tidy more so than usual, and Jotaro was sitting down on the chair reading over the files he had.

Josuke then asked, "Mr. Jotaro! What did he say?"

Jotaro paused, He knew that he's supposed to say the truth. But…. "Josuke, Keicho got the Bow and Arrow to find a Stand User that could kill their father. In his own twisted logic, he thought if there was someone who could and have done it, that their lives can live normally again…" He paused again choosing his words. "He felt a great responsibility and burden even when he was a child, that as the eldest brother, he should be able to take care of this situation and find a way to fix it…. But…"

"But… that was…"

"It was lost along the way." Jotaro continued, "He became obsessed in his search that he ended up meeting the worst kind of people…"

"That's how he got the Bow and Arrow right?"

"But now he lost it. Not only those but also his brother…." Jotaro remained firm, "Poss-" then he shook his head, "No… The only reason why he did everything in the first place…"

"Okuyasu…" Koichi could still remember that moment clearly…

"But Mr. Jotaro!" Josuke was not convinced, "I'm not even sure if we can trust this guy! What if he gets the Bow and Arrow back! He could keep using it to make more Stand Users!"

"I don't think he would… At this point I would give him some space, Josuke…"

"But…" Josuke tried to continue but found it futile, to continue further with his older nephew. So he shook his head and changed his question. "So… what did he tell you about Red Hot Chilli Pepper and the User?"

Jotaro mainly shook his head, "Nothing…"

"WHAT?!" Josuke stood up from the sofa in shock and now more angry at Keicho, "What the hell do you mean he said nothing?!"

Knowing that this would be Josuke's reaction, Jotaro then spoke calmly, "I asked him if he knew anything about Red Hot Chilli Pepper and it's user. And…"

"And…?"

"He claims to know nothing about it."

"That's BS…." Josuke quickly concluded, and the other two silently agreed with him. "You didn't press him for it?" He asked wondering why Jotaro seemed so calm about this…

"No… I didn't."

Josuke couldn't believe hearing that straight from Kujo Jotaro's mouth. But he did… He's not sure if he should speak up about it...

"Mr. Jotaro…" Koichi spoke up, "Why wouldn't he say anything?

"I'm not sure." Jotaro replied which was shocking to the two, "But I do have a theory." He stood up placing down his files into the table.

"What is it?" Josuke asked

"Exacting revenge." Jotaro answered, "He's probably thinking of a way to drag him out in the open, away from electricity so he could kill him, by himself. Right now, he's just finding a way to do it."

"H-How?"

"He's waiting for the right moment." Jotaro concluded, and then turned to Josuke, speaking in a firmer tone, "But remember Josuke, our first priority is the Bow and Arrow. You can't just stop Keicho from getting his revenge, you know that. All we need him to do is to hold it off until we get what we needed. So this is where you two come in." Jotaro walked in closer to his younger uncle and his small friend and told of his plan, "You two have to stick by him and watch for anything that happens. Report to me, but try not to use any electronics. And..." Jotaro turned around, not looking at the two teenagers, facing back at them, and picked up a picture from his drawer, looking at it with a solemn look unbeknownst to Josuke and Koichi, "Who knows... he might change his mind..."

And then everything went silent. The clock ticking, and Jotaro putting down the picture frame were the only sounds they could hear. Josuke didn't know what to say.

Koichi, whom was silent for most of the time, then decided to take action and stood up as well and patted Josuke at the back despite the height difference, "Mr. Jotaro is right Josuke..." Koichi reassured him, "I mean... it would be better if he didn't go for his revenge. But... I can try to give Keicho a chance to change. If it's not for himself, then maybe for his brother..."

There were many lapses of reasoning, was what Josuke thought but the gesture was good nonetheless.

"Yeah… I guess so…"

And so that was why he and Keicho began walking to school together. Since he was now Keicho's unofficial best friend, it was also because they live near each other. But even with that, he was still undoubtedly uncomfortable with everything. After all Keicho nearly killed him and Koichi and abused his brother and father. But he had to follow Jotaro's orders. He kept thinking of what Koichi said to him.

Speaking of Koichi...

"Say Josuke!" Keicho nudged his new friend, on his side then pointed at the familiar face nearby, "Isn't that Koichi over there?"

"Yeah you're right, that's him!" Josuke turned to see Koichi talking to an older gruff looking man who's just as tall as he is. It was obvious to both of them that he was trying to con Koichi for money "He's pretty good in making friends and all that. But..." He looks at the older man, putting his arm across Koichi's shoulder in a "friendly" manner "You know how he tends to befriend the sketchiest of dudes."

The delinquent looking man smirked, realizing who Koichi is talking to, "Heh, looks like he's having fun though."

"Go barefoot!" The man told Koichi as he pocketed the 7000 yen from Koichi's wallet.

"Hey!" Josuke stepped in, "You there..."

Koichi looked to see that his two friends had come in to his rescue. He started to tear up in joy, "Josuke! Keicho!"

"Huh?" The older man looked to see the two suspicious looking teenagers staring at him. "Did you just say?" When he realized who one of them was, "Ni-ni-Nijimura Keicho?!"

"Ah!" Keicho was slightly glad to hear that the man recognised him, "So you do remember me?" But he did forget his name, "Hmmm... what was your name again?"

"Its Kobayashi Tamami!" He felt offended that Keicho had forgotten his name "How the hell did you forget about me?" He tried to keep it up to hide his fear, "You... you're the guy who gave me this ability! Nearly killed me too! Hey! Don't ignore me!"

Keicho completely ignored him anyway and walked towards Koichi observing the lock Stand that was embedded at his friend's chest. "Hmmm... so this is his Stand huh?" He flicked at it, which caused poor Koichi to stumble and fall flat on the floor. "A Bound Type too. And It's completely stuck in Koichi's chest."

Josuke on the other hand glared at Tamami, "you see, we would normally just ignore something like this, but at this case we ain't letting you use such a lame ass Stand to swindle our friend here!"

"W-wait?" Tamami was shocked, "You two can see it too? Just how many are you there?"

"Dunno..." Josuke shrugged, "But that can wait. Just take that off him already..."

Tamami got ticked off. He felt incredibly insulted by what Josuke said to him, ranting about the rules of society and what not. It was in one ear and out at the other for Keicho. But instead of helping Koichi stand back up, looked at the Stand attached to his friend. "This looks like it's an Automatic Kind too" He said looking at Koichi, "So what did he do to you to get that?"

"I..." Koichi panted, "I... don't know... I... just... ran over... that cat... over there." The two teens looked up to see that nearby them was a bag with red liquid that came out of it.

"Huh?" Josuke wondered, "You mean that thing?" He then walked towards the bag.

When the smaller man saw this, he tried to stop Josuke and yelled at him, "Hey! I told you kids aren't supposed to get involved in an adult's business!" He started to chase after Josuke.

Keicho, who seems to have deduced of what's going on, casually moved his leg to trip over Tamami. Causing the latter to wobble in his step then continued to do the same action, moved "carelessly" towards the metal hand rails. Then allowed his face hit the rails hard. The impact was powerful enough to break his nose and knock one of his front teeth out.

"Gaaaaaaaahhhh!" Tamami cried loudly as his face and mouth became bloody mess. "L-look what you did to me!" He kept on sobbing, "You made me lose my balance and broke my tooth!" He pointed at Keicho as the culprit. "You even made me broke my nose! How cruel can you get?!"

The older teen mainly stared at him unamused. Silence remained as Tamami became very shocked and confused at the lack of reaction from next intended victim, "Huh? Wh-why didn't my lock attach to you?!"

"Cause I don't feel 'guilty' about it..." Keicho smiled as his theory was correct, "That's how your Stand works doesn't it?" Scared that it didn't work on him, Tamami backed away, "You make the victim feel even a small shred of guilt to activate your ability. Am I right?" He looked at Tamami with an evil grin. "I bet that 'cat' is just some decoy too."

"He's right." Josuke replied as if on cue approached the two revealing that the "bloody bag" was indeed just a cat doll filled with ketchup.

"It was… a doll?!" Koichi was both surprised and relieved at the same time.

Then Josuke walked to Tamami with his broken tooth in hand, and spoke to him with a condescending tone, "You broke your tooth right? Here, I'll fix it right up." Then by instant the lost blood and tooth were magically fixed back as if nothing had happened.

The Lock Stand then unlocked itself from Koichi's body and it disappeared.

"It's gone!" Koichi stood up and felt incredibly relieved "My chest feels so light now!"

"And now..." Josuke and Keicho turned and stood before Tamami towering over the small man, glaring at him.

"If you would be so kind to return Koichi's wallet to him" Josuke began.

"Then no one will get hurt..." Keicho finished still carrying that scary grin, "... Probably only you..."

"Eeeeeehhh!" Tamami shrieked and immediately shuffled away from the two scary looking delinquents and pulled out the wallet from his pocket, "All right! All right! All right! You... y-y-y-you can have it!" he waved the wallet and pulled out the 7000 yen from the pockets "See! See! He-here's the 7-7000 yen!"

Keicho was impressed but not convinced yet, "Good." he said like a commanding officer, pointing at the ground, "Leave it. Now! Or else..." His soldiers formed around him, pointing his guns at Tamami.

Tamami squealed in fear as he placed down the wallet to where Keicho pointing at and then he ran away, "AAAAAHHH!"

"Geez Keicho, you didn't have to be that scary." Josuke jokingly commented on it, "Didn't need to threaten the guy."

Koichi though didn't take it that well, "Keicho! Josuke's right, you didn't need to threaten him at all!"

"Huh?" Keicho was baffled by this, "What do you mean Koichi? He was conning you for money."

"Y-yeah..." Koichi agreed on that but he shook his head and steeled his reasoning, "But... we could have just discussed it or something instead!"

"Discuss?!" Keicho looked at him like he was insane. "Koichi, bro. People like that, talking will be the last thing in their little heads!" He then patted his friend at the back, "You gotta be more assertive!" He advised Koichi, "I mean you have a Stand right? Make use of it!"

Josuke decided to take some action and grasped Keicho's shoulder, "Hey! Don't scold him like a little kid Keicho. He just got his stand, so he doesn't even know how to use it yet." He patted Koichi in the head trying to reassure him. "Not our fault he's such a doormat though."

'Gee thanks Josuke...' Koichi looked at him disappointed from the lack of good support from his friend. In the end he sighed in relief that the incident is over and went to pick up his wallet. It was when he picked up the bills where he realized that.. "Waah! Josuke! Keicho! The... The bills!"

He pulled the notes to reveal that only the corner of the bills with the numbers on it were left. The rest of the bills were gone. "He took most of it so he could just exchange it in the bank!"

"That little..." Keicho, now already angry, summoned his Stand and was ready to chase after Tamami, "I'm gonna get that-!"

But Koichi grabbed a hold of Keicho before he could stand up, "Wait! Wait! Don't go after him Keicho! We don't need to chase after the guy!"

"But Koichi! He took your money!"

"I know that! But it's just money!" Koichi struggled to keep his friend down, "Josuke help!"

Josuke came into the picture now holding Keicho, "Jeez Keicho don't need to go berserk over someone else's money."

"It's just fine Keicho!" Koichi assured him, "I can always say I lost the money. It's just for my gym shoes, I can always use my old ones in the meantime!"

"Koichi..." Keicho looked disappointed at Koichi, "C'mon, you're letting people walk all over you!"

Then Josuke had a great idea, "Hey Keicho! I think were gonna be Late for class!"

Hearing those last three words made the older stand user stop in his tracks, he looked at his wristwatch, and Josuke was right! "Shit! We gotta go! I can't be late for class!"

The methodical Nijimura Keicho then ran as fast as he could (faster that what Josuke has ever seen him run) while Koichi was still holding on to him, now for his dear life. Josuke grabbed their bags and followed them running and laughing at himself knowing that this trick actually worked.

Meanwhile Tamami who was already far away from the three, grumbled to himself, "Damn... Those kids are dangerous. Especially that Nijimura Keicho. He was thinking of actually going kill me!" Then he brought out the stolen 7000 yen from his pocket and smirked with pride, "Heh, at least I still got these. Too bad I couldn't get any more. But that brat's name, Hirose Koichi..." He then thought of a plan, "You're not gonna get away from me kid. I just gotta get you away from those two."

It was when Kobayashi Tamami was forced to eat his words when he did face Koichi at his home. It resulted in an unexpected turn of events that even Koichi himself was surprised that it happened. But in the end he managed to awakened his Stand and defeated Tamami with it. So the next day to Josuke and Keicho's surprise, Tanami ended up holding Koichi's school bag like a loyal butler, singing praises of the teen's greatness.

"H-hey... Are you seeing this right now Keicho?!" Josuke was very spooked at this scene. While Keicho himself was too shocked to say anything.

"Let me carry your bag for you, Lord Koichi!" Tamami held the bag with such care as if he was holding an expensive gem stone. "So there will be no burden for you at your walk to school!"

"Ah.. well..." Koichi didn't know if he was supposed to be humbled or worried, "You really shouldn't have... I don't have trouble carrying it"

"But I do!"

"Hey Keicho! What the hell did you do?!" Josuke glared at his self-proclaimed friend of his.

"I swear I didn't do anything to him!" Keicho waved his arms in front of him proclaiming his innocence to this situation. After all he's just as shocked as Josuke is.

"Jeez Koichi" Keicho was impressed but at the same time was still in a state of disbelief, "When I said assertive, I didn't mean already scaring the hell out of this loser." Tamami sneered at Keicho for that comment.

"Speak for yourself Keicho" Josuke added laughing.

Keicho shot a glare back at his friend for making such a comment. The older teen then asked, "Since you said your Stand Egg had hatched. Mind if we had a look? You called it Echoes right?"

Koichi nodded, "Sure…" and from out of Koichi's body came the green alien snake like creature with wheels as it's hind legs of which was Koichi Hirose's Stand, Echoes.

Josuke watched in fascination never seeing a Stand like it before. "So that's what it looks like! Great!"

Keicho on the other hand as always observed the new Stand. And was uncharacteristically intrigued and overjoyed by the sigh. He the said, "So it seems your Stand is the one that can Evolve."

"Evolve?"

"Yeah!" Keicho began explaining, "Your stand is the type that can change form and gains a different ability after you harnessed more willpower for yourself."

"Change form?" Koichi looked a bit sad, looking at his Stand "Does that mean it will look different again? And I wouldn't be able to use its previous ability?"

"Yes and no…" Keicho was unsure, "I haven't really seen one in action to tell you exactly. But I think in my opinion you can." Echoes flew above them and wrapped itself around Koichi's body, hugged it's master.

"And one more thing…" Josuke remembered to ask, "What does it do exactly? Echoes's ability?"

"Oh that!" Koichi said, "Well it can paste sounds on anything and anyone can hear it. Kinda like if I paste the sound for a smack or a jab on someone and they can hear it as if it happened to them." Koichi scratched his head, "At least I think that's what happened to Mr. Tamami."

Tamami on the other hand was cowering behind Josuke in fear of Echoes.

Keicho grinned and pointed at Tamami, "Say, wanna do it again to him? I'd like to see it in action!" Tamami could only shriek in fear.

"No! Keicho!" Koichi told his friend off, "I think he suffered enough!"

Hearing that his hero had defended him, made the short man tear up in gratefulness, "You're so merciful! Lord Koichi!" He cried while rubbing his face into Josuke's uniform.

"Hey! Quit it this is expensive you know!" Josuke cried out while pulling his uniform away from Tamami's sobbing face.

======TO BE CONTINUED======

Nijimura Keicho

Age: 18

Class: 1-D

Stand: Bad Company

The elder brother of Nijimura Okuyasu. When his abusive father had mutated into an indistinguishable freak of nature from DIO's flesh bud when he was a child, he took it upon himself at first to find a way to fix him. But as the years have passed when he had gained the Bow and Arrow and his Stand, he decided that it was better for everyone to find a Stand User that can kill his father to put an end to his misery. He realized that if his dad was somehow back to normal that he would go back to abusing him and his brother again. He wanted to have his normal happy life back with his brother. To him his younger brother didn't deserve this hell so he took it all upon himself, it is why he kept calling him stupid or an idiot to keep him away from the truth. He wanted to at least give this happy life to his brother. Thanks to his father's accumulated wealth from serving DIO, he and his brother had managed to live in secret and he began to search for the Stand User. Most if not, all were failures. He ended up killing more rather than making stand users. He lured him by shooting his friend, Koichi. He lost in their battle and ended up losing someone more important. One of the Stand users that he made, Red Hot Chilli Pepper had killed Okuyasu and stole the Bow and Arrow from him. Now he swore to find him and kill him personally.

But for now... He tries to befriend Josuke and Koichi, despite his previous record in attempted murder to them. And since the two are his first friends in a long time, he is very protective of them. He would go to lengths to nearly killing people if they hurt the two especially Koichi. He highly respects Jotaro for giving him a chance to live his life.

His methodical nature comes from the fact he wants everything to be perfect and nothing to chance or luck. It frustrates him greatly if it doesn't go his way or if he has no choice but to leave it to luck. He is also meticulous about everything that even a slight mistake or out of order will aggravate him to no end. He hates being late for anything especially school. He has crap luck when it comes to luck based games like gambling.

He desperately wants this happy life.

AN: Hi everyone! so I updated Chapter 1 as well so please have that a read as it is important. And Chapter title is named after a Pink Floyd album and I hope you enjoy! Please read and review :3

More AN: I updated this again, so please have a read... thank you for your time!