Airspace over the Indian Ocean, 1988
"And then, both me and Kars began to slide down the icy slope, grasping as hard as we could for the Red Stone…"
"Oh, oh! Did you use your scarf to grab it from right under the Pillar guy's grasp?"
"More like we both flew off the cliff, and I used my super Hamon powers to create a ladder out of ice."
"And the Pillar guy?"
"Oh, well, he just fell off, he was kind of a loser, if I say so myself."
"Wow…Then what happened?"
"Well…" Joseph eyes narrow as his face scrunches with a distant pain. His hand freezes in the middle of tightening down a bolt in his other hand, and he exhales deeply to calm himself. "My dear friend Caesar decided to rush in and take down the Pillarmen on his own."
"You didn't go with him?"
"I…" Joseph grips his metal hand tight, "I should have. Yes."
"But why-"
"He fought very well. I only got there with my mentor after the fight and…" A long silence drowns the room. Joseph shuffles his feet a bit, eyes cast down at his knees. "And Caesar was hurt, bad. He had managed to get the antidote during his fight, and gave it to me."
"Did he-"
"Patience, little girl." The humor that was usually in Joseph's eyes has disappeared, only a dull glaze remaining. "He's still hurt to this day."
"Wait, even after 50 years?"
"Yes. Now excuse me, I have to use the little Hamon Master's room." His eyes regain their sparkle a bit, and he stands to run off to the restroom. Scooting past Jotaro, he jostles him a bit, waking the black-clad teenager.
"Jotaro." Jotaro glances over at Anne, before resting his eyes closed again. "Jotaro, he's your grandpa, right?"
"Yeah."
"Did he tell you these stories as a kid?"
"I didn't see Gramps until I was 15."
"But did he tell you-"
"Caesar retired in Venice. Settled down and found a wife, but they haven't seen each other for a while due to a disagreement. That's all he'll ever say." Jotaro pushes his hat down over his eyes, and Anne turns to her left to look out of the side window.
Joseph lingers behind the bathroom door, wiping his eyes with his scarf. He pounds the metal sink with his fist, a small whisper escaping his lips. "Damn it. Why couldn't I be sent back in time…"
Time passes…
"So the German soldier guy blasted a million lights at the dying Kars to finish him of-"
"Wait so the Nazi's were actually on your side?"
"I mean, in a way…"
Even longer…
"So I launched my arm off at Kars as he flew above me, grabbing his neck long enough to get launched into space by the volcano below me!" Anne's previously admiring gaze had long since faded into a critical look of concern. Joseph's storytelling had only gotten more bombastic as he went on. Jotaro twists a bit in his seat on the other side of Joseph, stretching himself awake.
"Anyway I went to my own funeral, got married, and ended up here."
"What? You didn't explain the time travel part at all! You said the whole story before this was essential to understanding how you got here!"
"Yeah yeah, but that's for another time." Joseph flashed a big grin at Anne, and teasingly flicked her nose. "You should be content with just being around me and my greatness."
The pilot in the front of the plane could hear the slap as if it was in the cockpit.
"You're such a-"
"A great Hamon warrior?"
"No! A fool! An idiot!"
"Yeah, yeah…I've been called that before." His joking tone evaporates once more. Jotaro suddenly gets up, and strides to the bathroom. He turns slightly back at the two in their seats as he gets to the doorway.
"Gramps, don't blow up the plane while I'm gone."
"What?! What makes you think I'll blow this thing up?"
"Anne, you've just heard his whole story. How likely is it that this idiot explodes this plane?"
"Pretty high, I mean you've been in two more plane crashes than most people." Anne blows a raspberry and punches Joseph's shoulder.
"Well, just last week Gramps piloted another one straight into the ocean." Jotaro waves his hand behind him as he closes the bathroom door.
"Well that's probably because the older me is just so decrepit-"
"He actually looks pretty good for being almost 70."
"What, you little pipsqueak, you got a thing for old, wrinkly men?"
"No way. I like my men to be strong, and heroic, and fearless, and –"
"Hey, I'm married y'know."
"Not you, you clown." Anne's eyes almost sparkle as she casts her gaze outside the plane window. "I like my men dependable."
"Well wait 'til you're out of elementary school."
"I'm in high school, asshole!"
"Jeez, touchy aren't you? " Anne huffs in her seat and, seeing the tension, Joseph snaps his fingers on his now repaired hand. The girl doesn't turn, but seems to still be paying attention.
"Now has Jotaro told you where his journey's going?" With almost superhuman speed, Anne spins around and grabs Joseph's left arm.
"No! Please tell me!"
"Alright, but we're going to have to go back to the beginning-"
"JUST TELL ME YOU LONG WINDED IDIOT."
"Fine! They're after another vampire in Egypt, and this one stole my own grandfather's body, granting us all superpowers."
"Oh, like how Jotaro beat up a shark with his mind?"
"Uh, something like that."
"Well, what's the vampire's name?"
"It used to be Dio Brando, from the stories my granny told me. But it seems like he goes by DIO nowadays. But yeah, that's the story."
"C'mon, tell me more! Like, what does he look like?"
"Oh, now you want me to say all the details." Anne stares at Joseph with puppy eyes, and after only a few seconds he relents. "Fine. I don't really know actually. Never met him. My grandfather died a long time ago, all because of DIO, so I never really pushed Granny Erina to sketch him for me."
Anne crosses her arms and presses her lips together in frustration. "Well, at least tell me about your powers."
"Well, Jotaro's is a big purple guy with abs."
"What?"
"The superpowers all look like something, or so Jotaro says."
"And Jotaro's looks like a hunky guy, is it supposed to be like your true self?"
"Nah, mine's just some purple vines. I don't think I'm part plant."
"Well, yours is pretty lame, just like you."
"Hey! I can see the future a bit with it, and apparently view far away people."
"Like anyone?"
"Well, Jotaro told me my old crusty self was using it to spy on DIO."
"So what you're saying is you can just see what DIO looks like using your superpowers, and you haven't even looked at him yet?"
"You have a point…I do kind of need to know what he looks like just in case he ambushes us…" Joseph rubs his chin a bit, and then stands up with a grin on his face. He digs in his bag and takes out the battered radio, pointing to it excitedly. "If there was a projector or one of those fancy future TVs, I could show you, but I guess his voice is the next best thing!"
"You really don't know, huh. Every plane these days has a projector or something, they usually play movies."
"Wait, really? I wonder if they made any Superman movies yet."
"Yeah, I just saw number four. It sucked."
"Four? Do they have films on these little cassettes too?"
"No, but you could probably find it on Laserdisc…Hey just grab the projector already! I wanna see the bad guy Jotaro's gonna take down!"
After a few seconds of Anne pointing in vain to the device above the center seats, Joseph finally stands on some seats and grabs the projector. The purple vines extend from his wrists and into the projector, and Joseph focuses with his eyes closed.
DIO…DIO…show me DIO.
The projector whirs to life, and strobes light onto the lowered screen at the front of the cabin. The light flashes pure white to jet black back and forth, until the colors start to meld into a uniform gray.
"Woah…" Anne leans forward onto the seat in front of her, eyes set on the screen. A blackened silhouette of a large muscular man appears in the image, his back turned. The vision seems to zoom closer to the back of the mystery man's head, revealing mid length blond hair, a pink star-shaped birthmark on the back of the shoulder, and a nasty scar line around the neck.
So this is who you're fighting, Jotaro. The man who killed my grandfather…Granny Erina's dear Jonathan.
Suddenly, the beaten radio in the seat beside Anne begins to blare static. The white noise begins to fade into breathing as the silhouette turns his head slightly towards the reaching Joseph.
"ANOTHER JOESTAR….ARE YOU WATCHING ME, TOO"
The lights in the cabin begin to flicker wildly, and the projector catches fire in Joseph's hands. The plane shakes in turbulence, and Jotaro kicks off the door from within the bathroom. He steps out in a hurry, only to see Anne beating Joseph's smoking scarf with her hat while his red-hot metal hand is keeping its distance from anything else flammable.
"Yare yare daze…"
Somewhere in India, I can't read the damn signs…
The evening breeze brushes its way through Hol Horse's hair. His steed below him impatiently stamps it feet as he waits for the local to respond. The guy looks like a damn idiot, but by far the smartest guy here.
Why can't everybody here just speak English. I knew I should've stuck to the big cities.
"Uh, sir, if you follow the road east past Sanjarwas you'll get to New Delhi in a few hours. I'm sure you can take a bus to Calcutta, or a plane."
"Thank ya kindly."
Good god, this place ain't nothing like home.
Hol Horse had been to some poor towns back in America, but this Indian village seems like an entirely alien form of poor to him. The people sit in the streets with their animals, the buildings weathered from the climate. Street vendors wait patiently, even after the sun has set, hoping to make their livings. Men and women alike suffer on the dirt streets.
I hope I never have to come back to this dirty town. When I'm filthy rich, I'll be taking a plane everywhere without a nice trail. DIO better follow through with that cash, or I might have to see how well he takes a bullet from Emperor.
He grabs the reins tight, and urges his horse forwards with a slight kick to the side. The breeze shifts into wind as he rushes along. Enyaba's son was waiting for him, and sure enough it was either himself or some other loser rushing to go protect her little boy first. Why she favored Hol Horse was beyond him. He hums to himself as he rides.
I'm just glad I took the first offer they made. The rest of the mercs he's got with him are all flesh budded up. Suckers tried to haggle before they took the offer.
After only about fifteen minutes, he arrives in what is supposedly Sanjarwas. He sees a radio tower looming over it, and takes out the mobile phone that was provided to him. It rings for only a second before it picks up.
"This is Hol Horse. I'm a few hours outside of New Delhi."
"Hol Horse…our lord DIO has a different assignment for you."
"What? So I rode all this way fer nuthin'?
"No, you just happen to be closer." The hag's voice on the other end chuckles ominously.
"Alright, alright. Where to, then?"
"You've got another Joestar to meet in New Delhi. They'll be landing by the time you get there. There's another assassin who will meet you there."
"And what about yer son?"
"Oh, ZZ will be joining him shortly. He'll be…catching a ride."
Ugh, ZZ? That guy smells like a horse's ass. Probably from sweating his ass of in that damned car of his.
"Fine. Kill the Joestar and get my money. Got it."
"I'm sure you two can handle it. My son should be able to handle that ancient Joseph Joestar with no issue either. Anything for Lord DIO."
"Yeah yeah, anything for Lord DIO. Bye." Hol Horse clicks a button on his phone. He doesn't have long to get there and prepare, and he quietly hopes that other assassin actually shows up.
I ain't no good without a partner. I'm just glad I don't have to work with that creep son of hers. One blessing today.
Hol Horse puts the brick of a mobile phone away in his saddle pack and spurs his horse forward. The stars twinkle above him, the lights of the city far away reflect off of flecks of cloud above.
END OF CHAPTER 6