"Tenmei-kun, drink this and then go to bed," he said, making his way over to where his new assistant was sitting, a mug of warm broth in his hands, reaching down to close the book that Heaven's Door had revealed for him as Tenmei-kun took it from him.
"Yes, boss."
Putting the notebook he'd been filling out on his desk, so that he would be able to reach it while he continued working, Rohan turned to watch for a moment as Tenmei-kun left the room, then made his way back to the room Rohan had given him to stay in. Turning back to his work as he heard Tenmei-kun's door closing, Rohan turned his own attention back to his work. Even with Tenmei-kun working for him, there were still things that only he could do…
=DiU=
When he woke up, Josuke found that Nijimura-san's words were still sticking in his mind. He couldn't help but wonder about who in the hell those Blackwatch guys actually were. Sure, protecting society from the shadows sounded all well and good, but anyone could say that they did that kind of thing.
What mattered what someone actually did.
When he'd made his way back to school, Josuke found Nijimura-san waiting for him; there was a look on his face that suggested there was some bad shit going on.
"What is it?" he asked, making his way over to Nijimura-san so that the pair of them would be able to have a private conversation.
"I've gotten word that one of our fellow students was attacked in his home," Nijimura-san growled, narrowing his eyes in what seemed like a disgusted sort of way. "Toshikazu Hazamada has clearly been using the Stand I gave him in careless and destructive ways."
"Wait, you can give people Stands?" he asked, frowning.
He'd had a long discussion about those kinds of things – not to mention how many of his family members had them, which had been a whole weird thing in and of itself – with Jotaro-san and Kakyoin-san when the both of them had settled down in the guest room that Mom had offered to them and their kids. It was all really weird to think about, but when he'd seen both Jotaro-san and Kakyoin-san had showed him their Stands, he'd had to accept what they were saying.
He still kind of wondered if he'd ever really get the chance to see what Star Platinum and Hierophant Green were capable of; it had to be something interesting, given how confident the both of them seemed to be.
"Dad did some work for Dio Brando," Nijimura-san said, then frowned. "Though he never mentioned to me what the hell it actually was. Still, Dio gave Dad a bow and arrow, and I found out about its capabilities through my own experiments."
"Wait, you're the one who gave him his Stand? And, do you mean that there are more like him out there?" he demanded, narrowing his eyes.
For a moment, Josuke could almost feel Crazy Diamond inside him, echoing with his own desire to punch some sense into Nijimura-san.
"I've been searching for someone to look after Okuyasu for longer than the pair of us have been acquainted with each other, Higashikata-san," Nijimura-san said, sounding unimpressed and more than a bit annoyed. "I'd been hoping that I could trust him, if not to look after Okuyasu, then at least to aid in my operation to join up with Blackwatch. However, it seems as though he's been misusing the power he was granted."
"Are we going to have to deal with any more of these Stand users of yours?" he demanded, feeling more than a little annoyed, himself.
"It's possible," Nijimura-san said, narrowing his eyes as he seemed to consider Josuke's question.
Josuke at least hoped he was considering it, since it'd be annoying to have to beat the information out of him.
"All right, so how many Stand users did you create with that bow and arrow of yours?" he demanded, folding his arms and glaring at Nijimura-san.
"Five," Nijimura-san said, folding his own arms and narrowing his eyes as he seemed to fall into himself in thought. "Wait; there might have been six."
"Well, which was it? Five or six?"
=DiU=
Following the path that Tenmei-nii had taken, Jolyne pulled Ichigo along as the dummy started to seem like he was going to stop.
"Come on, ya dummy," she said, looking back at Ichigo as she kept pulling him along. "We're going to visit Tenmei-nii, wherever he's working."
"But, you don't know how Tenmei-nii gets when he's working, Jojo-nee," Ichigo, the dummy, said. "He really doesn't like to be interrupted when he's working."
"Yeah, but he likes us," she said, firmly tugging the dummy along again.
The dummy sighed, but he didn't try to pull away again, so at least he seemed to be trying to listen to her. As the both of them continued on their way down the path that Tenmei-nii had taken to get to wherever it was that he and that manga-ka he'd talked about were working, Jolyne chewed her lower lip as she found herself wondering just which house the both of them were staying in.
Tenmei-nii hadn't told them exactly where he was going to be staying, but that just meant that she and the dummy would get to have the fun of finding him!
=DiU=
Holding the safety pin that he had taken such great care to disinfect, Rohan pulled down Tenmei-kun's left earlobe.
"Bear with me for a bit longer, Tenmei-kun," he said, holding Tenmei-kun's earlobe steady as he drove the pin through the flesh, dabbing away the welling blood with a rag soaked in boiled water.
"Yes, boss," Tenmei-kun said, standing obediently still as Rohan thoroughly cleaned his ear, then pushed the post of one of the earrings from his own collection into his assistant's waiting earlobe.
Standing up again, Rohan reached down to carefully adjust the vest that he'd ordered for Tenmei-kun while he'd ordered the larger drawing desk that would allow Tenmei-kun to use both of his arms. Tilting Tenmei-kun's chin up so that he could get a better look at his assistant, Rohan smiled as he clasped the center of the vest closed with one of his own pins.
"I've finished setting up your room for you, Tenmei-kun," he said, guiding his assistant back to the room that he'd given him to work out of. "Once you've gotten settled in, come back out and meet me. I need some more of your reality."
"Yes, boss."
Smiling as Tenmei-kun made his way back into the office that he'd set up for him, Rohan paced him up the stairs, before splitting off to make his way to his own office. He'd gotten so many interesting things from Tenmei-kun already, he could only look forward to what else he was going to be able to discover in the pages of his assistant's memories. Chuckling softly as Tenmei-kun made his way into his office, Rohan stood up and made his way over to the door.
"Come on, Tenmei-kun," he said, smiling as he guided his assistant to the small sofa that he'd brought in just for the sort of work he was going to be doing. "Now, show me more of your reality."
Tenmei-kun's chest, face, and arms popped open, displaying the pages that Heaven's Door had unveiled for him to read. Raising an eyebrow at the sight of a thought that Tenmei-kun had had sometime during the last two days, Rohan smiled.
"You remind me so much of myself, Tenmei-kun," he said, chuckling softly as he reached down for his helpful assistant's right wrist, pressing his open hand to his chest as Tenmei-kun continued breathing softly. "I don't really know, myself, just why the pages in your chest aren't warm the way the rest of your body is, but that's the way Heaven's Door seems to work," he said, pausing for a long moment as he had a thought, himself. "We'll start seeing what that Stand of yours is capable of, once I finish my work for today."
"Yes, boss."
=DiU=
"So, you shot four people with this Stand-granting bow and arrow of yours, and you also shot a rat and a cat?" Josuke demanded, feeling more and more annoyed at how outright dumb someone so meticulous could be. "And then, like that wasn't bad enough, you lost track of them?"
"I wasn't as experienced with using the bow and arrow, when I created those two," Nijimura-san said, as though that was any kind of defense for how much he'd fucked everything up; or maybe not everything, but it was still one hell of a fuckup.
"Right, so you're helping me find this bastard, and then you're going to come back to my house so you can have a talk with Jotaro-san," he growled, shoving Nijimura-san to get him moving.
"I suppose there's no helping it," Nijimura-san said, and he actually had the nerve to sound annoyed.
Seriously, after all the shit he'd pulled…
"Come on," he snapped, determinedly dragging Nijimura-san into the school building once again.
Classes had at least ended, so there was less of a chance that any of their fellow students would run across them while they were trying to deal with Hazamada and whatever the hell he was trying to do.
"So, do you at least know what Hazamada's Stand is capable of, or are we going to be heading into this blind?" he demanded, as the pair of them continued on their way into the school building.
"There's some medium he uses to control the bodies of anyone who falls under his Stand's sway," Nijimura-san said, narrowing his eyes in the way that Josuke was starting to see that he tended to do when he was thinking really hard about something or other.
Josuke only hoped that he was actually thinking about what abilities Hazamada's Stand had, so they wouldn't end up getting into more shit than they could really deal with.
=DiU=
Taking a deep breath as he finished the last of his work for the coming week, Rohan made his way back to the room he'd set Tenmei-kun up in while he worked.
"Tenmei-kun, come down to my office," he said, opening the door to his loyal assistant's office and looking for a moment at the larger, wider desk that he'd had delivered just today.
"Yes, boss," Tenmei-kun said, rising without hesitation and following him back as Rohan made for his office again.
Once the both of them had made their way back, Rohan sat down with his drawing pad and notebook, while directing Tenmei-kun to wait in the middle of his office, far enough away from anything breakable in his office.
"All right, Tenmei-kun, let's see if we can determine the capabilities of your Stand."
"Yes, boss."
=DiU=
Once the pair of them had managed to corner Hazamada, though he had to admit that most of that was because of Nijimura's Bad Company surrounding him with mini-copters and tanks, all of them looking ready to fire on him the second he did something, Josuke allowed himself to relax. Sure, it wasn't like they'd beaten him yet or anything, but there weren't that many things that Hazamada could do to get himself out of this.
"All right, you bastard," he said, still more than a little annoyed that he'd ended up having to take time out of his day to deal with this kind of shit. "We've caught you. You didn't have to do this kind of shit, but if you don't want us to kick your ass, you'll knock it off and stop fucking around with people."
Hazamada's eyes flicked almost convulsively between the pair of them for a long moment, before he actually seemed to just how fucked he would have been if he'd tried to start shit with the pair of them and actually managed to settle down before he and Nijimura-san were forced to beat the living shit out of him. Not having to get his hands dirty in that kind of way was nice, at least, but there was still the problem of Nijimura and all the shit he'd already pulled.
So, even though he didn't have to get his hands dirty yet, it didn't mean that he wasn't going to end up having to kick someone's ass before this day was over.
"All right, Nijimura," he said, turning his attention to the bastard who'd already caused so much trouble for all of them. "You're coming with me."
"Understood," Nijimura said, as the pair of them turned away from the cowed form of Hazamada so that they could begin making their way back to his house.
So that they could have their discussion with Jotaro-san, and he could finally get some of the shit he'd been forced to deal with on this particularly stupid day off of his chest.
=DiU=
Once he'd given the order for Tenmei-kun to bring out his Stand once more, Rohan stood up as he found said Stand standing neatly beside Tenmei-kun.
"So, Tenmei-kun, your father named his Stand Hierophant Green," he said, turning away from his examination of the Stand he'd given Tenmei-kun as a present when he'd taken into his service.
"Actually, I think it was a friend of the family who named his and Mom's Stands, boss," Tenmei-kun said, sitting down in the chair that Rohan had directed him to.
"Oh?" he asked, making his way over to where Tenmei-kun was sitting, opening the book that Heaven's Door had created for him; flipping through the pages that had been revealed, Rohan eventually managed to track down the memory of a conversation that Tenmei-kun had had with his father, when the subject of Stands had come up the latest time that the pair of them had spoke on the subject. "Ah, it seems that a fellow Stand user by the name of Muhammad Avdol granted the names to your father's and mother's Stands." Pausing for a moment, both to read up on anything Tenmei-kun might know about Avdol-san, and to determine if there had been anything concrete that Tenmei-kun's father had told him about his Stand, Rohan eventually found that there wasn't really anything else that would help.
It seemed as though Tenmei-kun's father had elected to wait until Tenmei-kun either further developed his sight, or else developed a Stand of his own to tell him more about what Hierophant Green could do. Still, there was at least one thing that he could do, in this case. Taking the pen that he always kept with his notepad, Rohan quickly wrote another set of instructions on the newest page that Heaven's Door had revealed to him: I will instinctively understand the workings of the Stand that the manga-ka Rohan Kishibe gave me.
"All right," he said, standing back up and closing the book that Heaven's Door had revealed to him. "You should be able to show me what your Stand is capable of now, Tenmei-kun."
"Yes, boss," Tenmei-kun nodded, half-closing his eyes as he began to move the arms and legs of his Stand, almost as though he was testing its limits.
It was a good habit to form, since even with the instinctive knowledge that Rohan had written into him, there were limits to the kinds of things that instinct could cover. Settling more comfortably into his chair, Rohan opened the notebook he'd brought with him once again. This would be a good chance for the both of them to truly discover what Tenmei-kun's Stand was capable of.
=DiU=
Once the both of them had made their way back home, where Jotaro-san and the rest of the people he'd come to Japan – or at least to Morio, since it was pretty obvious that he'd lived in Japan for at least most of his life – with, Josuke found himself wondering again just what in the hell Nijimura-san had been getting at, when he'd talked about joining up with some kind of secret organization. Still, it was possible that Jotaro-san knew more than he did about that kind of thing, considering that Josuke himself hadn't actually heard of the Speedwagon Foundation before Jotaro-san and his family had come back into their lives. He'd at least make a point of asking, since the worst that Jotaro-san could do was blow him off.
Even though Jotaro-san could be pretty scary when he put his mind to it.
When the pair of them made their way back into his house, pausing to take off their shoes, Josuke grabbed Nijimura-san's arm, dragging him into the living room so that he could find Jotaro-san. Or else find out from Kakyoin-san where Jotaro-san had ended up. However, all he actually managed to find were Ichigo-chan and Jolyne-chan.
"Hey, kids," he said, calling their attention to him as he made his way over to where the pair of them were sitting. "Do you guys know where your parents are?"
"Dad said that he was going to see how many Stand users he could find," Jolyne-chan said, speaking first the way she always seemed to do.
Really, both she and Ichigo-chan both seemed to take after their respective parents more than a little; it was kind of funny.
"Did they tell you when they were going to be back?" he asked, turning slightly as he caught sight of Nijimura-san making his own way over to where Jolyne-chan and Ichigo-chan were both sitting.
=DiU=
"Your parents are both Stand users?" Keicho found himself asking, as he looked down at the two children Higashikata-san had brought him out to meet.
"Yeah," the little girl said, standing up and seeming as though she was trying to size him up; it was more than a little interesting to see, on someone her age. "Dad and Uncle Nori work for the Speedwagon Foundation, and they came out here to see what was up with all of the Stand users who'd been reported coming from this place. Why're you asking?"
The Speedwagon Foundation, Keicho mused, finding his interest in meeting Kujo-san growing slightly. The Speedwagon Foundation was, after all, one of the more public organizations that Blackwatch seemed to have ties to. Of course, there was also Treadstone and Blackwater, both of which seemed to fall under the vast umbrella of Brando International in the capacity of Treadstone Corporate Security, and Blackwater Dynamics, respectively.
It was the kind of setup that could only be deliberate, and such a thing naturally made him all the more eager to have the chance to meet Alicia Brando; she was, after all, the current, living descendant of the company's founder, and would more than likely have been entrusted with the secrets that Alice Brando had been keeping.
"Have either of your parents informed you that Stand users are drawn to each other?" he asked, admiring the shrewd expression on Jolyne-chan's face; if she truly did take after her father, Jotaro Kujo sounded like just the kind of person that Keicho would be most interested in meeting.
Aside from Alicia Brando, of course.
"Does that mean you're a Stand user, too?" Ichigo-chan asked, drawing his attention for the first time since he and Higashikata had made their way into his home.
"I am," he said, studying Ichigo-chan for a long moment.
The redhead seemed to be more of a follower, someone who would attach themselves to a person with more charisma – in this case, clearly Jolyne-chan – and devote himself to them. In that way, he reminded Keicho more than a little of Okuyasu, though Ichigo-chan did seem to be a great deal more intelligent than Okuyasu, which was rather pleasing to see.
"All right, that's enough," Higashikata said, grabbing his arm so he could pull him along. "We just need to know when your dads are going to be back, Jolyne-chan, Ichigo-chan. Did they tell you that or not?"
=DiU=
Smiling as he wrote down the information that he and Tenmei-kun had been able to gather from their experiments with the Stand that he had granted to his helpful assistant, Rohan Kishibe closed the notebook and set it aside once again. Learning about the Stand that he had granted to Tenmei-kun, and by extension the Stand that Tenmei-kun's father possessed, did have to come second to the work that he still had to do on Pink Dark Boy. Of course, the knowledge that he was gaining about the members of Tenmei-kun's family and their Stands – as well as the two vampires who seemed to have become a part of their family in the early days of the Joestars and the people they had gathered around them – provided him with ample amounts of both plots and characters that he could add to Pink Dark Boy, creating a manga that would be beloved by the world.
A manga that would enrich the lives of those who read it, and bring them happiness, as well.
=DiU=
After finding out that Jotaro-san and Kakyoin-san would be returning in a short time, Josuke led Nijimura-san to the living room so that the pair of them could wait the few minutes that it would take for the both of them to get home – well, back to his home, anyway – and he'd be able to speak with the both of them about the stupid shit that Nijimura-san had done with that bow and arrow that gave people Stands. Once the pair of them did make it back, Josuke quickly pulled Nijimura-san into the main room.
"Hey, Jotaro-san!" he called, as soon as the four of them had just about converged in the main room of the house where he, Mom, and Gramps all stayed together.
"Who's that with you, Josuke-san?" Noriaki-san asked, as both he and Jotaro-san looked over at him and Nijimura-san as he dragged his fellow student into the room with them.
"And why the hell are you dragging him?" Jotaro-san asked.
"He's been screwing around with some kind of bow and arrow that gives people Stands," he said, making his way over to where Jotaro-san and Noriaki-san were standing.
That got Jotaro-san's attention, and as Josuke dragged Nijimura-san along in his wake, he told his nephew – he still wasn't quite over just how weird that kind of thing was, but that was just because Old Man Joestar couldn't keep it in his pants the last time he was in Japan, so he wasn't going to take it out on Jotaro-san or anything stupid like that – all about the stupid, bone-headed shit that Nijimura-san had been getting up to.
"You were actually stupid enough to go around creating Stand users, just so you could find someone to look after your little brother?" Jotaro-san demanded, narrowing his eyes as he stared down at Nijimura-san.
"There are certain matters that I wish to have taken care of," Nijimura-san said, folding his arms and actually glaring at Jotaro-san. "Matters that Okuyasu would only prove a hindrance to, and so I needed someone to act as a companion and to look after him."
"He said that he wants to join up with some kind of organization called Blackwatch," he said, folding his own arms and glaring at Nijimura-san, himself.
"You want to join up with Blackwatch?" Jotaro-san asked, his attention settling back on Nijimura-san.
"Wait, you know about that?" Josuke found himself demanding, feeling more than a little strange.
If there was one thing he hadn't been expecting, it was finding out that Jotaro-san actually knew about Blackwatch.
"You're aware of the organization?" Nijimura-san asked, turning to Jotaro-san with an expression of the most subdued kind of interest that Josuke had ever seen on anyone's face.
"We can talk about that later," Jotaro-san said, narrowing his eyes as he sat down on the couch. "First, we need to know the names of all the people you shot with the Stand Arrow."
Settling down in a nearby chair, Josuke found himself wondering just how many of those Stand users would end up being dangerous.