[five]

By the time we passed through the gates of the Kujo residence, Kakyoin had grown more and more ill. Fever rippled through his body. Sweat beaded at his temples. His lips were pale, though a strange blue shade darkened the corners.

Jotaro was not gentle with him.

He dropped him onto the tatami floor of the room we entered and told me to wait there while he found his Grandfather and Avdol. Then he grumbled about the house, and its size, slinking off on his own.

There were sounds filtering from the garden, gentle titters from birds and the faint tinkle of water plopping in a fountain.

In the room, though, there was only the hard, rattling wheeze that came from Kakyoin's chest, a wet noise, bubbling up from his lungs.

It made me prickle with nerves, antsily shifting from one knee to another as I waited on the ground.

Soon voices carried from outside; low, masculine voices passing back and forth. As the three men entered, I stood up.

Jotaro remained nearest to the door, his arms crossed.

"This is Janvier Juniper," he stated gruffly. "Juniper, this is Muhammad Avdol and my grandfather, Joseph Joestar."

Even without his introductions, I would have been able to tell that the tall gentleman with a mane of white hair was his grandfather. His features were identical to Jotaro, and both stood tall and broad.

Avdol was also tall. While he wore loose clothes, the fine muscles of his frame were nevertheless apparent. He radiated strength, in his stance and his eyes, which assessed me in mere seconds.

His attention then shifted to Kakyoin.

Still, I bowed politely to both of the older men.

"It's nice to meet you. Please, call me Juno."

"Juno," Joseph Joestar repeated. "I would be quite happy to tell you all that I have told Jotaro about our…abilities. But first we must focus on young Noriaki Kakyoin."

Avdol examined Kakyoin first. Then Mr Joestar copied his movements, both murmuring to one another. Finally, Mr Joestar nodded. Avdol stepped back.

Mr Joestar crouched over Kakyoin and looked directly at Jotaro.

"We can't save him," he stated. "It's too late. I give him a few days."

Tension filled the room; my eyes flashed to Jotaro, and I saw that he had not expected his grandfather to utter such a dark and ominous phrase either.

Was that guilt in his eyes? Had he truly beat Kakyoin so badly that he would die?

I thought of the alleyway. I remembered the crunch of bone and the copper tang of blood.

Jotaro hid from me beneath the rim of his hat. But I caught the bob of his throat.

"Jotaro, it's not your fault," Mr Joestar continued. "Look. Do you know why he chose to obey Dio, even to kill?"

Jotaro's face was a cold, blank mask. His eyes were hard and followed his grandfather's hand, which swept aside the hair over Kakyoin's temple.

"The culprit," he said, "is here!"

There, resting at the middle of Kakyoin's hairline, was an odd reddish bump. I leaned forward. Nausea bubbled in my stomach at the sight of this bump up close, twitching like a little bug, red and bulbous and pulsating.

A gasp slipped out of me at its horrid appearance, at how alien it appeared.

Jotaro reeled. I had never seen such disgust in his expression.

He said, "That wriggling piece of flesh looks like a spider. So that's why he became Dio's minion?"

"It is a flesh bud, made of his Dio's own cells," his grandfather answered.

Jotaro, and his grandfather, had sworn to explain what was happening. So I did not question the identity of Dio, who they had mentioned so many times already.

Perhaps I also remained silent because a part of me did not want to know more about Dio. His name brought out a weird discomfort, especially as Avdol described the bud's penetration into Kakyoin's skull to control him, like a fungus sprouting over his brain to swallow it whole and use him like a puppet.

"This boy idolised Dio and swore his loyalty to him in the process," Mr Joestar added. "Dio uses his charisma, his intoxicating charm, to overwhelm and control. It's how he ordered Kakyoin to kill us."

"So slice him open and pull it out," Jotaro said.

"The brain is too delicate," Mr Joestar told him. "If he so much as flinches, we'll cause irreparable damage."

"Jojo, Juno," Avdol said slowly, "you must listen to me now. About four months ago, in Cairo, I too met Dio!"

With that, Avdol told us of the night he returned to his shop and found Dio waiting for him. Even though I had no knowledge of Dio, no understanding of what he meant in the tapestry of the Joestar family, it was dawning on me that he was not some criminal.

Evil itself seemed not to capture what he was. With each word that Avdol spoke, that was becoming more and more clear to me.

It was almost as if the tatami shifted, ever so slightly, and an unpleasant, serpentine entity emerged to climb up my spine and coil around my throat, its scales damp, its forked tongue lashing against my ear - and that entity was Dio, who, in reaching out to Avdol that night, seemed to reach out to me in this room as well.

That was the power of his presence.

Even a retelling of it caused me to break out in a sweat, trembling as Avdol finished his tale by explaining how he had escaped through a window, fleeing into the night.

Dio had not followed.

Yet he lingered somehow, even in this room, where he had never been. I almost felt his eyes on me. I felt his hot huffing breath on my nape. His hands were around my throat. I thought soon he might squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze.

I looked at Kakyoin.

How had he ever stood in front of a being like that and found him charming? But whatever had caused Kakyoin to admire Dio was irrelevant to me in that moment as he whimpered and trembled.

l had an instinct in me, that need to heal and make better what was broken or infected.

Kakyoin had an infection. I had to think of it like that.

I asked, "Can I help him?"

Mr Joestar crossed his arms as he studied me.

"Your healing requires physical contact, I believe," he said. "Is that correct?"

"Yes, sir."

His gaze slid to his companion. "Avdol?"

Avdol shook his head.

"I do not think it wise. This is no ordinary illness. I am certain you could detach the bud, Juno, but I believe it would latch onto you. You would not be fast enough to remove it before it takes root. You would thus become a minion of Dio."

Horror cricked my neck and scrunched my hands tight. The mere suggestion of being dangled around like a puppet on strings made matters worse. But Kakyoin needed help.

"There must be something we can do," I insisted.

"I'm afraid not. You've heard what power Dio wields," Mr Joestar said. "If Avdol had not escaped that night, he'd have been like this boy here, and died in a few years, his brain devoured."

Jotaro spoke up, surprising us all.

"Died? Not so fast. Kakyoin's still alive! I'll pull that thing out with my Stand!"

Jotaro summoned the purple-coloured phantom, which was now so familiar to me. It stood more starkly than ever at his side, its face resembling him so strongly, its eyes pinpointing the bud which stood so prominently from Kakyoin's forehead. It was so visible that I thought I could touch it, in a way that had never been possible before. It was like Jotaro's sheer determination had made this figure powerful, made it real.

"Wait, Jotaro!" Mr Joestar shouted, leaping to his feet.

"Back off, old man," Jotaro snapped back. "I'll pull it out fast, with no damage to the brain. My Stand has the speed and accuracy to grab a bullet mid-flight."

"Don't! That flesh bud is alive!" Mr Joestar said. "There's a reason why part of it is outside the skin. The same reason why a skilled surgeon can't remove it, and why Juno can't heal it -... shit!"

Jotaro ignored the two other men, like I had known that he would, for he wore that expression I recognised as easily as I recognised his Stand. He was determined. Even if Dio himself stood in this room with us, I doubted he could do anything to deter Jotaro in that moment as his Stand took the bud between its fingers and pinched, only for a tentacle to lash out and embed itself into Jotaro's skin.

It was like a tree root, growing as it moved up his arm, to his collarbone.

"Curses," Avdol swore. "Let go of it, Jojo!"

Jotaro's Stand only gripped harder.

Kakyoin's eyes opened dazedly. "You…"

"Stay still, Kakyoin," Jotaro told him. "One mistake, and you're a dead man."

The root had spread to Jotaro's throat. It crept further and further up through his skin, shifting, seeking out his brain. I wanted desperately to protect him from it, and I reached out, certain that I could at least slow its progress.

With his gaze still concentrated on Kakyoin, Jotaro spat out, "Don't touch me, Juniper! Stay where you are!"

I reeled. How had he known I was moving toward him?

The bud lifted. Its tentacles lashed and whipped, fighting against Jotaro's Stand. Now the tentacle that had burrowed into Jotaro rose to his cheek, standing stark against his skin.

Avdol ordered, "Let go now, Jojo! It's reached your face!"

Like I had done, Avdol moved to grab hold of Jotaro. But Mr Joestar prevented him. His expression had morphed into one of admiration, a knowingness shining in his eyes.

"This is my grandson we're talking about here," he said. "His body may be under siege, but he'll remain cool as a cucumber. He and his Stand are solid as a rock. He's more powerful and precise than a machine."

The bud was loosening its hold on Kakyoin, forced out by Jotaro's Stand. There was a revolting squelch as its tentacles were ripped out, dripping blood and fluids onto Kakyoin's skin.

Dark pits remained in his flesh. A sharp needle-like appendage burst out from Kakyoin's brain, its one last tentacle also torn from Jotaro as his Stand reared back.

The bud was stretched between its hands, cast aside before it could do any more damage.

Mr Joestar shocked the bud with a wild spark of golden light in his hands.

He shouted, "Overdrive!"

It looked like the light that I used. It was barbed, and the hum of its power echoed through the room as the bud shrivelled and burst into nothingness.

While Mr Joestar and Avdol focused on Jotaro, I shifted to sit at Kakyoin's feet. I held his ankle. It was pale, terribly white and clammy. I sensed pain; intense, radiating agony at his core.

The bud was gone, but its effects remained, in his temple and somewhere so much deeper within him. I thought it was something more than pain, at least the standard physical kind of pain.

Kakyoin sat up.

Weakly, he asked Jotaro, "Why? Why did you risk your own life to save me?"

Jotaro stood at the threshold. His eyes narrowed at Kakyoin.

He said, "Well… Can't really say I know why myself."

Kakyoin's eyes watered. He saw that I touched his ankle, and felt the healing, too, as I wrapped him in the first little touch of golden light, warming that cold hollow spot from which his pain emanated.

What I offered him was not much. The well ran so deep that I needed to concentrate heavily, focusing on this pain. Once I finished, Kakyoin smiled at me, though it was half-hearted.

"Thank you," he said sincerely. "But you should have let me suffer."

His words startled me. So too did the intensity of his gaze.

Mr Joestar stepped forward.

"Juno," he called. "Now that you have healed Kakyoin, I must ask you something very important."

The seriousness of his expression gave me pause. I felt as if I had done something wrong, and it embarrassed me that I could not figure out what it was.

"Y-Yes, sir. Please, ask."

"Do you prefer tea or coffee?"

"...Sir?"

x

The gentle scent of sweetened tea wafted around the room. It turned out that Mr Joestar was passionate about American coffee, but Avdol and I both preferred the soft comfort of tea.

So it was brewed, and shared in three cups, for us to drink while the brutal truth of the Joestar family was shared with me.

Mr Joestar began with the story of his great-grandfather and Dio, before he continued to his own life. In turn, I had told them about what I could do.

But even as I spoke, Dio lingered at the edge of my thoughts. I marvelled that a being I had never met could make me so uneasy.

"Your Stand is rather remarkable," Avdol said. "Hamon, the gift that Mr Joestar has described to you, has similar healing properties. But I believe you to possess something even more profound, young Juno."

Hope flared in my chest. "Do you really think so?"

"I do. You simply lack training and knowledge."

I blurted out, "Could you teach me?"

Mr Joestar and Avdol chuckled. Like always, a blush crept over my cheeks with its usual ease.

"Sorry," I added. "That was impolite."

"No need for apologies," Avdol said. "For as long as we remain in Japan, I would be honoured to guide you."

"Thank you."

Then I remembered what my father had decided, and my excitement fizzled out like a flame blown out by a sudden and spiteful wind.

Mr Joestar eyed me. "Juno? Is something wrong?"

"She's leaving."

All three of us looked to the doorway. Jotaro leaned on it, his arms folded over his chest. He was turned away from us. Had he been eavesdropping the whole time?

"Leaving?" Mr Joestar repeated.

It comforted me to hold the teacup in my hands. It was almost like an anchor, something steady to pin me in place lest I drifted off in a cloud of sadness.

"My father wants me to change schools," I explained. "There won't be time to learn with you."

"That is a terrible shame," Avdol murmured. "You would make a most dedicated student, I am sure."

It had been a long time since any teacher, potential or not, had spoken to me with such kindness, and such fiery certainty in their voice I was more grateful to Avdol in that moment than I could have explained in words.

I felt an awful spike of pain in my stomach, a pain for what could have been if my father had not decided to send me away, and if I had only been better-behaved, and less trouble, because then perhaps he might -...

I pressed down the rising tide of pain. It faded.

Avdol was watching me closely. Yet he took a sip of his tea and said nothing.

Mrs Kujo appeared. "It's getting late, Juno. Jotaro can walk you home!"

"Get bent," Jotaro snapped. "I'm not doing shit."

"Jotaro!" Mr Joestar roared. "I told you not to talk to your mother like that!"

"I'll do whatever I damn well want," Jotaro retorted.

"It's fine," I said. "I'll be fine."

"It's starting to rain," Mrs Kujo said. "I'll find you an umbrella."

"Thank you, Mrs Kujo."

"Juno," Avdol called to me. "Though I understand you are preparing to leave Japan, perhaps you can still find time to return here tomorrow. We can discuss what may help you with your abilities, regardless of your new location."

"Thank you, sir. I'd like that."

He smiled. "Avdol is fine."

Mrs. Kujo found one of her old raincoats, a sunny yellow shade that buttoned right to my chin. She squeaked at the cuteness, so she called it, and handed me a matching star-patterned umbrella. She pecked my cheeks, and wished me a wonderful night.

In my ear, she whispered, "It mightn't seem like it, but Jotaro has a soft heart, you know."

She tapped her nose, winking at me.

I smiled. "I'll take your word for it, Mrs. Kujo. Thank you again."

"Be safe! Be sure to change your clothes as soon as you're home, or you'll catch a cold!"

I could heal colds. But her concern was touching, and I found myself warmed by it even in the thundering lash of rain which peppered the grey stone path leading out of the Kujo residence.

x

Rain sloshed along the sidewalk. Even though I was only a block from the Kujos, I was already soaked clean through and glad I had taken up Mrs Kujo's offer on a raincoat after all.

The puddles blossomed quickly. I heard the smack of my own shoes against the wetness and then another pair, falling into place beside mine.

Jotaro had caught up with me.

His face was locked in its usual scowl, mouth pinched, eyes narrowed at nothing in particular.

"You don't have to walk with me," I said. "I meant it. I'll be fine."

"Shut up."

Droplets dribbled from his hat.

To mess with him a little, I asked, "Do you want to share the umbrella at least?"

"Shut up."

I smiled to myself. But the rain soon washed away that fuzzy comfort brought by Jotaro walking beside me. I had begun to think about the night Avdol met Dio. I thought about what I would have done if it had been me. Would I have reacted like Avdol or found myself charmed by Dio, like Kakyoin had been?

"Quit thinking about Dio," Jotaro said.

Rain clicked against the umbrella as I peeked up at him.

"How'd you know I was thinking about him?"

"You're not making my ears bleed like you usually do."

"Asshole." I hesitated, then added, "It just -...What Dio can do freaks me out. Being controlled by his cells, doing things you wouldn't do otherwise. Don't you find that disturbing?"

Jotaro didn't answer. He was drenched. It made the black colour of his uniform shine slickly, his gold chain flashing against the headlights of oncoming cars.

"You should be careful walking back," I said. "Wearing black like that makes it hard for cars to see you."

Again, he said, "Shut up."

I shrugged it off.

A moment later, he added, "I'd remove it for you."

"Huh?"

His scowl was stronger than ever. "The flesh bud," he said lowly. "I'd remove it like I did for Kakyoin. So don't waste time worrying about it."

It would have been fun to tease him for showing the slightest bit of care for me, but I was unsettled by what I had learned about Dio. For that reason, I found myself touched by what Jotaro had said, and only lightly bumped his arm as a gesture of gratitude. He was like a brick wall; no movement, no sign that he even felt it.

But I glanced up at him, a smile still etched on my lips, and thought one thing:

Soft heart.

x

a/n: heheh it is absolutely not raining at the end of this episode, in fact it looks super sunny and nice but i had to add rain because i'm ✨dramatic✨...i hope you enjoyed, if you did please consider letting me know 😊 have a nice week!