In a park with Jotaro, like, why the hell is Joseph late?
Anne kicks her feet at some untrimmed grass, trying to alleviate her boredom. Jotaro certainly isn't helping, as he stands and looks at nothing in the treeline.
"Didn't he say "Meet at that park near the hotel at noon"?"
"Yeah."
"So where the hell is he, Jotaro? It's almost one."
"No idea."
"That's all you have to say?"
"Yeah."
"Ugh." Anne huffs and leans against the statue looming over them both. Some old Russian guy. Joseph had insisted all night that both Jotaro and her learn some more Hamon before they meet up with the old geezer version of him. And he's late. "Jotaro, why do you let him wander around on his own?"
"He's not my kid."
"Yeah, yeah, you're his grandkid, I get it. Reverse Back to the Future. But that's even worse, he probably doesn't know what a car is!"
"Cars…have existed for a while, Anne."
"Or movies!"
"Anne…"
"Oh man! He probably hasn't even read a comic book or manga!" Jotaro just sighs and grips the brim of his hat, eyes glazing over. Without missing a beat, Anne breathes in deeply; however, she only feels a slight tingle instead of the crackling electricity from last night. Frustrated, she huffs in deeper and quicker, only to be met with a slight light-headedness.
"Stop that, you'll just pass out again."
"I want to get better as fast as I can, Jotaro! You don't get it. You have this Stand thing and all I can do…" Anne proceeds to talk at length about her proclivity to pull knives on people, and the merits of the switchblade and, all the while, Jotaro does his best to tune her out. If she was watching his eyes, she would've noticed the slight flickers as he stares at a set of rustles in the treeline.
Three feet deep in a bush, a few thorns in my ass. The sign said Nehru Park, I don't know.
Gritting his teeth, Hol Horse twists out a cigarette into the dirt below his foot.
Damn that Jotaro. The old lady was right about his eyesight with Star Platinum. Bastard saw me move half an inch and the little bit of smoke from my cigarette from…what, about 100 yards? I was hoping to sneak up on him before Joseph got here, but it looks like I'll have to wait 'til Cameo distracts one of 'em.
He stands out of his squat and readjusts his belt. A nearby couple gives him a hard stare as the odd Caucasian man stands up out of a random bush in the trees.
"What? Ain't like I'm pissing in the street? Buzz off."
The couple looks at each other, then hurriedly walks away, leaving Hol Horse with a dissatisfied expression on his face.
Goddamnit, I ain't cut out for this one. Why couldn't they send me after the old one? Hell, from what I hear about Polnareff, he'd have been the easy one. Cocky bastards are easy to play dirty. But this Jotaro kid, he ain't stopped looking since he got out of the hotel. I doubt he's got a good look at my face, but he knows someone's watching him. This ain't the right time, gotta be more patient.
Retreating into the foliage behind him, he pulls out a slightly worn walkie talkie, and presses the talk button.
"Cameo, come in, Cameo."
"Damnit, Hol Horse. I'm hiding. What do you want?"
"Where's Joseph? He ain't here yet."
"He's buying something in a shop. I'll try and nab him when I get the chance, give you an opening."
"Alright then." Hol Horse puts the walkie talkie on mute and goes to lean against a tree, hand fumbling in his pocket for his cigarettes.
Nothin' to do but wait. No clue where that bastard is, but he always overdoes it with his hiding spots. Downside of a Close-Range Stand that ain't a gun, huh?
New Delhi, 1988
"Okay, so, mister." Joseph stood in a music store, sweaty and exasperated. He had been searching the city for an hour or two trying to figure out how it was all laid out, just so he could get a reward for today's Hamon lesson.
"Yeah?" The young clerk, about in his mid 20s, leans back in his chair more, legs propped up on the counter. Rows of cassettes and vinyls line the store, which is mostly empty. Joseph's arms slam down on the counter in a panic.
"I need help."
"Yeah?" The clerk takes off one headphone and pauses his cassette, a mostly disinterested look on his face.
"Okay, so, I need two cassettes."
"Yeah?"
"One for a relative, he wears a lot of black and has some chains on and always looks like he's going to choke you to death. The other is for a little girl from some Asian country. She's always hyper and excited about things." The clerk almost seems to look past him, then sets his legs and chair flat. He gets up without ceremony, and slowly walks the store.
"Uh, hello? I was talking to you, jackass!" Before he can say anything else, the clerk returns with two cassettes and sets them on the counter.
"Master of Puppets, Metallica, 1986. Variety, Mariya Takeuchi, 1984. Total is 450 rupees. Cash or card."
"Uh, this thing." Joseph slides a card from his pocket.
Good thing Jotaro lent me this "credit card" thing. Something about magnets on the end means it has money inside of it.
"Diner's Club, huh. Okay." The clerk swipes the card on his cash register, and before long, Joseph leaves the record shop with two little bags.
"Heh. They're gonna love these." As he heads to the park, a man from the pulsing New Delhi crowd bumps into Joseph's shoulder. "Hey, watch it, jerk!" The man doesn't even turn, simply fading back into the crowd.
That's odd, that felt like he was made out of a bunch of rocks or something. Probably whatever cheap suit he was wearing…
New Delhi, 38 Days Remaining
Out of the corner of his eye, Jotaro spots Joseph walking off the street and into the park entrance. While the scarf wearing Hamon master is still a bit too far off for Anne to see, Jotaro can make out most of the details from this distance. He had been using Star Platinum to scope out the area before, only to find a weird blonde foreigner squatting in a bush and yelling at people.
Too blatant and unsubtle for an assassin. Probably just a tourist.
Focusing in on Joseph, he sees the man tucking two bags behind his back and gleefully walking towards them. On his face, Joseph has his characteristic stupid grin on his face.
Ugh. Why can't he take this seriously? Despite how much he cares about stupid things, at least my actual grandfather takes all of this as more than an extended vacation.
"Jotaro, were you listening to me?" Anne tugs at Jotaro's sleeve, having just finished talking at length about the pros and cons of boot mounted knives.
"No." Jotaro shakes her grip off and walks down the main path to the park entrance.
"Hey, what gives?"
"Hello, my young Hamon disciples!" Joseph shouts down the path, hands still behind his back.
"Oh. It's Joseph." Anne walks up with no expression on her face to meet Joseph. As he draws close, she reels back and kicks him in the shin with all her weight. "WHY ARE YOU SO GOD DAMN LATE?"
"Ow, damn it you little hell witch! That hurt!" Joseph hops on one foot, gritting his teeth as he jumps around with his hands still behind his back.
"Anne, he was probably about to explain it."
"Yeah, but I wanted to get him while he couldn't block, he's obviously hiding something."
"Well!" Joseph exclaims after reclaiming his footing, "About your training, I WAS going to give you two a present for completing it today, but I guess only Jotaro gets his."
"Hey!" Anne puts her hands at her sides and huffs, but Jotaro puts his hand on her hand in support.
"It's okay, Anne."
"Aw, thanks Jota-"
"I don't want mine either, it's a waste of time."
"Hey, I wanted the pres-"
"Okay, fine, no presents, Jotaro." Joseph kind of sinks his shoulders, and holds the bags to his sides.
…Why do you have to be so pitiful?
"No sulking, Jojo. Just hurry up with the lesson so I can call the more responsible version of you and check in."
"Ugh." Joseph moans in disappointment, but straightens up. "Alright. First lesson."
"Uh huh, uh huh!" Anne shakes in excitement, while Jotaro just stands there.
"Sit in a spot of your choice and just breathe deeply for about…two hours? Yeah that's a good start."
"Sit…and breathe?" As she puzzles it, Anne's face scrunches up with impatience. "I wanted to learn martial arts, not some dumb health course!"
"Oh, Anne. You must not have listened hard at the part where I explained my thirty days of training." Joseph gently sets down the two bags in his hands onto the ground. "I'm going to hold my breath, and jump."
"…Okay?" She sits on the ground, curious about the demonstration about to unfold. Joseph blows out all of the air in his lungs, then jumps. From Jotaro's count, probably only about a foot or two off the the ground.
"Alright, so this is the power of proper breathing." Joseph lands on one foot, then breathes in deep. Even Anne can see the electricity crackle across Joseph's body as he closes his eyes, absolutely still in posture. Then, in a flash, he bends his knee and jumps, rocketing up into the air at least fifteen feet, probably more if Jotaro wasn't shaking his head at Joseph's show-off display.
"Yare yare daze."
"Wow! Do it again!" Anne clambers to her feet and shakes Joseph, who had just landed. He picks her up and shakes her back.
"No, you little demon girl! You have to learn to do it yourself, so stop beating me up!"
"Fine, I'll breathe, okay? Jotaro, come with me, I don't wanna get bored."
"Ugh…" Jotaro instead trudges off into the park, towards the treeline.
Better investigate while doing this pointless breathing exercise.
"I'll be back in two hours! Enjoy yourselves!" Joseph smiles and waves as Anne runs off to trail Jotaro, and just as they get out of sight he scoops up the bags and walks over to a nearby park bench.
New Delhi, 1988
"Ah…" Joseph basks in the midday sun as he sprawls out on the bench. He kicks his feet up on the arm rest and sets his head on his palms as he puts his arms up.
Damn. Wasted my time getting a useless set of cassettes.
The birds chirp around him, landing on the nearby statue. In all honesty, he had barely thought about the lessons he was going to teach the both of them. He had just been so excited to teach a family member that he was going to wing it.
Family, huh?
Joseph never really had much for family. Except Speedwagon. Poor guy probably had a heart attack at this point. But besides the latest additions of Lisa Lisa and Suzi Q, he never really had family.
Was that it, huh? Never had one, so I got one? Lame choice, old me. This kind of excitement suits me more.
He removes one hand from behind his head and puts it between his eyes and sun above him. The light dances between his fingers, gleaming this way and that.
Beautiful sunbeams…
Suddenly, Joseph bolts up and smacks himself on the forehead.
"Ugh! I've been slacking so much on my OWN training. I was supposed to figure out how to do those damn bubbles by now. Stupid Caesar making things look so easy. He always picked the most show-off ways to use Hamon." As he racked his brain in thought, something caught his ear that made him freeze in place.
A familiar voice.
"What, Jojo? Didn't think I could see you copy the Zeppeli's signature jump? And you get on me about showing off." Joseph's eyes locked onto the source. He could hardly believe his eyes. In truth, his heart made him believe.
A man he admired and a man he wanted to deck in the face every moment he knew him.
Caesar Zeppeli, in his garish outfit and feathered headband, leaning against the statue in the middle of the park.
"Did you miss me, Jojo?"
END of CHAPTER 17